Thread by @unicornflowerss

#sakuatsu fluff | siblings

where kiyoomi’s siblings love atsumu.

they love him with an insane devotion that kiyoomi has never seen them love with when it comes to someone outside the family. they love him just as kiyoomi had hoped they would love him. +

and it’s really quite a strange happening, because the sakusa household is not one based on love and tender affection. in fact, kiyoomi can’t remember the last time his father gave him anything more than a handshake.

throughout his whole childhood, kiyoomi had +

postulated that the only avenues through which his family could love were backhanded compliments. so when kiyoomi walks into his sister’s apartment with atsumu on his arm, faced with his three siblings, the last thing he expects is for matching, bright smiles to +

bloom across their lips.

“you must be atsumu-san,” kinana says, grin effervescent in a way that had been absent from such family gatherings he’d attended as a child. and then, contrary to what kiyoomi was expecting, kinana embraces them both, twining her long, +

thin arms around both of their shoulders and pulling them close.

he can’t help the way he stiffens - this is never how they were. kiyoomi has never had a /bad/ relationship with his siblings…but being the baby of the family by at least six years, he’d never +

been particularly close with them either. and hell, he can’t remember the last time any of them had ever /hugged/ him.

her hair smells like peaches. which is a strange thing to notice, but a thought that occurs to him nonetheless, if only because the whole situation +

is so far out of the realm of normal that he most focus on /something/ lest he attempt to squirm back to a reality he knows.

once the out of place hug is finally over, kiyoomi clears his throat, “um, tsumu, this is kinana, chiyo, and ren.”

and atsumu being atsumu, +

he grins and dives in for his own round of hugs - if kiyoomi weren’t stuck stock still to the spot in the wake of his shock, he would warn atsumu not to get to close. his siblings aren’t mean, but they are by no means the kind to spare pleasantries. +

but the strangeness only continues.

each one of his siblings leans into atsumu’s embrace without a second thought. even ren, a more prickly and by far less affectionate person than kiyoomi, gives atsumu a genial pat on the back before they head off to kinana’s +

dining room for dinner.

the entire evening goes like that. kinana smiles and laughs, letting go of her tightly held facade of superiority in ways she never used to do. chiyo chatters more and longer than kiyoomi thinks he’s ever seen her talk before. +

even ren danes to engage in conversation with the man kiyoomi’s parents had once referred to as “a low-life, good for nothing, dead end.”

they are warm, and kind. they are nothing like what kiyoomi had feared they would be - nothing like how they used to be. +

but he doesn’t mind it.

part of him feels as though he should be upset, jealous, even, that atsumu is getting to see the kindness in them that kiyoomi was never privy to.

but mostly…mostly he feels happy.

the past doesn’t seem to matter as much if +

he has a future full of this to look forward to.

-

it’s later that night when he gets a call from kinana, his phone ringing off the hook against the backdrop of atsumu’s shower signing eminating from the bathroom.

absently, he picks up, “kinana?” +

“kiyoomi,” she says, voice crackling tentatively through the speaker as if she’s treading on glass - his stomach sinks, and before he can stop himself, he’s wondering if she’s about to tell him that it was all an act. that they were putting on a show for atsumu’s benefit. +

he sits up, stiff as a board.

“yeah, what’s up?”

“i um…” a heavy pause sits on a the line like a mourning dove and then, “i just wanted to say that i’m sorry.”

what?

kiyoomi doesn’t understand, “sorry for what?” he shakes his head as if it will knock +

some sense into his brain.

kinana sighs, “for…everything. for not being there. for leaving you all alone with mom and dad. we’re all sorry.”

and oh. oh now he gets it.

but it’s not their fault. it’s nobody’s fault, really.

they’re years apart - by the time +

kiyoomi was old enough to be hurt by the frigidity of his parents distant forms of love, his siblings were graduating highschool, college, getting out of their damning family and out into the world, just as kiyoomi had done.

it’s not their fault for running - +

anyone would’ve done the same.

besides, it all worked out in the end - in the end, kiyoomi got his dream job with his dream team. in the end, kiyoomi stopped having to hide himself away in the shadows. in the end, kiyoomi met atsumu.

“you don’t have to be sorry.” +

he says it and he means it. “you got out. so did i, eventually.”

kinana sniffles on the other end of the line, tugging kiyoomi’s heartstrings with it, “i know. but…but you needed us and we weren’t there. we should’ve been there for you.”

kiyoomi purses his lips, +

willing himself not to cry. in time with his deep inhale, kinana takes one of her own.

“but it’s going to be different now.” she says it resolute. “we’re going to be here. for you. and atsumu.”

and all kiyoomi can do is wipe at his eyes, his sisters sparse words +

meaning more than a novel could ever hope to contain. none of the sakusa siblings have ever been ones for words, but the sentiment rests heavy on his heart, warm like a weighted blanket.

“thank you.” is all he can manage, throat feeling pleasantly swollen. +

there’s nothing more that needs to be said - instead, they sit in silence for a few, content moments, before kinana says,

“and by the way, we love atsumu. in case you didn’t notice.”

kiyoomi surprises them both with a laugh, the bubble of joy burgeoning under +

his sternum finally bursting as his two worlds collide - one that is his past, however cold and lonely it may have been, and one that is his future, the man he loves most in the world.

“yeah.” he grins, uncaring of how sappy it must make him look. “yeah i could tell.”

fin.

my brain cells trying to write this thread