sunrise drives - sakuatsu

one

atsumu miya was a mess.

the twenty-three year old seemed to be stuck in a constant haze, his appearance beginning to reflect his lack of self care. dark circles were prominent under his eyes, both from lack of sleep and stress; his bleached-blonde hair had roughly a centimetre of dark, root growth, and his hair parted in multiple places.
atsumu's surroundings weren't much better: empty food packaging laid, strewn around his room, joining the multiple, small, mounds of clothing already present on his floor.

his team was concerned: what could possibly be causing all of this? atsumu was never one to skip training or practice, but he had begun doing it frequently as of recently. no one knew what to do, since there was no obvious cause for the setter's behaviour that anyone could see, and no one wanted to pry too far into his personal life for fear of being snapped at.

but, it was the fifth day in a row without atsumu showing up to practice, with no prior notice or excuses. the team needed to find out what was wrong, and quick. the stress of the unknown cause of atsumu's absence was causing the members to perform worse. the mood without the loud, obnoxious, blonde was quite bland and left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth's; even bokuto and hinata weren't acting like their usual, bubbly selves.

everyone wanted to approach atsumu, but they were so hesitant to. he barely opened up about himself, apart from the bare minimum under normal circumstances, and had a habit of getting mad at anyone who tried to pry too far. one person, however, was more than fed-up with atsumu's lack of presence at practice. sakusa kiyoomi wasn't one to trust anybody, and that same rule applied to the court. if sakusa didn't like or trust the toss, he wouldn't spike it. an exception to this, though, was atsumu miya. whenever sakusa was sent one of atsumu's sets, he immediately went to spike it, as if his body was moving off of impulse. every time the fake-blonde sent the ball his way, he trusted it. so when that certain, fake-blonde decided to coop himself up in his dorm and not attend practice, sakusa was irritated.

it was nearly seven o'clock at night when sakusa found himself trudging down the hallways of the dorms, towards atsumu's room. sakusa rarely ventured too far out of him own dorm, not wanting to expose himself to the billions of germs outside his safe space, so anyone could be sure that this was quite an important issue for him. he stopped outside the door labeled '28'. he sighed before easing his hand and knocking the white, door; "miya?" there was no response. sakusa huffed i'm frustration: "i'm coming in," he said, punching the code for the door into the metal keypad (after wiping it down with an anti-bacterial wipe, of course). atsumu had told sakusa the code to his dorm, and he had surprisingly never forgotten it.

when sakusa stepped into atsumu's living quarters, he crinkled his nose in disgust. there was nothing too disgusting lying around, but it was very obviously unkept, with various items thrown around lazily. sakusa wasn't going to turn away now, though: "miya?" he called again, to no response. he started walking towards the bedroom, "atsumu?" he says, louder this time. he hears a bang from the other side of the bedroom door, presumably from atsumu falling off his bed.

"ow," is what follows the sound. good, he's alive.

"oi, can i come in?" sakusa asks, knowing that he was going to enter regardless.

"you probably don't want to come in, omi," atsumu says from inside the room, "it's messy and dirty." this statement makes sakusa roll his eyes.

"i don't care," is all he says before opening the door and letting himself in. he sees atsumu lying on his back and facing the ceiling. he looked exhausted and unkept.

"jesus christ."

"hi," atsumu holds up peace sign without looking at his teammate.

"what the fuck happened to you?" sakusa walks over and looks down at atsumu, "you look like shit."

"why, thank you," the man on the floor says, heaving himself up into a sitting position, "so i see you have decided to visit me. what for?" he tilts his head to make eye contact.

"you haven't shown up to practice for five days, and you haven't given any reason either. bokuto thought you died," sakusa glared down into atsumu's eyes. the man on the floor raised his eyebrows in a lazily, shocked way.

"five days? well shit," he chuckled.

"you haven't been keeping track?" sakusa was bewildered.

"time is an illusion."

"don't get philosophical, it doesn't suit you."

"are you saying i'm not smart enough?" atsumu pouts.

"yes."

"so mean!" atsumu pretends to sound overly offended, "but fair enough," he adds quickly after, his tone now normal.

sakusa was a little confused by the sudden change, but decided to ignore it and instead take in the mess that was atsumu's room. it was about what he expected. he sighed sharply, before looking back at atsumu, asking: "how long has it been since you left your room?" atsumu scrunched his eyebrows together, in an effort to remember.

"last friday?" he says after a few seconds of thought collection.

"that's a whole week."

"what can i say, i'm good at quarantine," he shrugs, holding his arms out and pulling a face.

the statement makes sakusa huff; he knew full well that atsumu was using that as an excuse (for obvious reason) and it ticked him off. where was the usual, energetic, slightly snarky, atsumu miya that sakusa was used to seeing? the one that would constantly pester him, running up to him and yelling 'omi omi!', before trying to show or tell him something stupid. sakusa despised this version of atsumu. so, without putting much though into it, he looks at atsumu again, telling him: "get up, go shower," the way he worded it didn't give any room for argument, but atsumu still questioned it, nonetheless.

"huh," is all he says at first, followed by: "why?"

"because you stink," sakusa answers bluntly, "but also because you need to get out of here, so i'll force you outside myself," he adds on a few moments later.

okay, no atsumu was really confused. he knew damn well that sakusa kiyoomi was the one person in the world he wouldn't be caught dead taking someone outside, into a vast world of germs, without a proper reason. "omi, are you okay?" he asks sakusa, with concern laced in his voice.

"yes, unlike you," he deadpans.

"omi, you wound me!" atsumu gasps dramatically.

"shut up and do what i said." sakusa turns around to leave.

"wait, you're serious?"

"uh, yeah?" he says as if it's the most obvious thing, "now hurry the fuck up," he closes the bedroom door, leaving atsumu alone.

"i think i'm high as balls," he blinks twice, then pinches himself, "ow, no. apparently not."