Giyuu is in the middle of a spin when the BEEEEEEEP of a horn cuts through his music. There are only a couple seconds left in the routine and he is fully committed to ignoring the horn but feels Shinobu begin to bail next to him. Scowling, he uncurls and steps out of the spin with her.
"Session is over! Get off the ice!"
Giyuu glares at the Zamboni driver. He looks to where the driver points, at the large clock reading 4:01. Giyuu rolls his eyes and intentionally takes his time gliding back to where his jacket and water bottle rest on the wall.
BEEEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEP! Now that is just unecessary.
"Sorry to take one minute away from your habit of missing spots on an ice cut, Shinazugawa," Giyuu says over his shoulder.
"If you kept track of time, I could do my job and we wouldn't have that problem! Now move it, Tomioka!" Sanemi Shinazugawa, alternate captain of the hockey team and Zamboni driver of questionable quality, is annoyingly loud even when he is all the way across the ice.
"Maybe if you-"
"-Giyuu," Shinobu hisses, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the exit. "Why do you always have to do this?"
"He always rushes me. He never rushes you."
"Because I get off the ice as soon as he says so."
"We were at the end of our routine, we could have finished it if he wasn't impatient," Giyuu mutters as he and Shinobu step off the ice and walk to their skating bags.
"We already ran our routines all the way through multiple times." Shinobu gives him a flat look. "Pick better battles."
Giyuu kicks his skates off and dries them before arranging them in his bag. Next to him, Shinobu does the same before zipping hers shut. Her little butterfly keychain, made by the same person who did Giyuu's curling wave keychain, glints in the light. They had gotten them after five years of being pairs partners. Now, here they were, partners for seven years, desperately scrounging for all the ice-time they could get before classes at Kimetsu University started.
They need it, jumping from the junior level to the senior level for pair skating had been a challenge. Going from medaling in the junior category to having their asses handed to them in the senior circuit was rough. The first season, they had looked like fumbling amateurs compared to pair team Hinatsuru and Tengen Uzui.
This is their year though, Shinobu says she can feel it. Experience and all their hard work has been paying off. They are stronger, more technically competent, and performing at a whole new level. Shinobu is certain they can crack the top six at nationals and get back on the world stage. After that, the possibilities were endless: invitationals, world championships, grand prix, the Olympics.
Giyuu himself isn't so sure, but he has long since learned to just trust Shinobu's intuition as opposed to his own. He follows her lead, agrees to her ideas, and tries to stay out of his own head. Sometimes he finds himself stuck in the though-spiral of what would have happened of if Sabito had ended up being her partner instead of him. But he keeps those thoughts to himself.
"Do you want to meet up for dinner at the dining hall?" Shinobu asks as they walk out of the frigid rink and into the blistering late-summer sun.
"Sure, if I finish unpacking," Giyuu says.
"Did you forget?" Shinobu asks, stoping short and fixing him with a look.
"I'm waiting for the crowds to die down." Move in day is always pure chaos, Shinobu had been smart to move into her dorm a few days prior. Giyuu had not and after several hours of skating, was rethinking his decision.
Shinobu gives a small laugh that suggests she doesn't believe him and she has a good reason not to, Giyuu had completely flaked on submitting the paperwork for on-campus housing. He had gotten a dorm by pure luck (and Shinobu reminding him). Was it one of the last ones? Yes. Was it in one of the crappiest buildings? Also yes. But at least he had one.
When they reach Giyuu's tiny car, they are confronted with the fact that it is still jam-packed will all his dorm stuff.
"I'll walk," Shinobu decides. "If I don't hear about dinner plans, I am eating with Mitsuri."
"Okay," Giyuu says, shoving his skate bag into the one place it fits in the trunk.
He drives a couple blocks and parks in front of an old brick with a roof bowing from age. A few other families mingle about, last minute pieces of furniture being toted to the front doors. For a second, Giyuu wishes he had accepted Tsutako's offer to help him move in. Too late now. He hauls two bags over his shoulders and begins the arduous chore.
By the time his car is unloaded, Giyuu is very, very grateful his room is only on the second floor. The oppressive August heat and lack of elevator has him sweating through his shirt. He lays back on the unmade bed, staring at the ceiling and wishing he was back in the cool rink.
From the rapid-fire introductions as he lugged everything up, Giyuu has gathered his floor consists of mostly freshmen, unlucky in the hall assignments, and sophomores, who also forgot about signups.
The walls are thin enough he can hear the chatter coming from the room to his left and, a few minutes later, the owner of the room on his right opening their door and loudly kicking their shoes off after stepping inside. Giyuu sighs. Being the oldest will have its perks, the underclassmen may find him intimidating and therefore leave him alone.
He doesn't realize he's dozed off until two things happen: first, someone knocks on his door cheerily yelling "dorm floor meeting!" Second, the smell of pizza wafts into his room.
Looking at his phone, he sees several hours have passed since he left the rink and Shinobu texted twice before leaving him to sort dinner on his own. Giyuu rolls off his bed, slips his shoes back on, and, like many college students, flocks towards the signs of free pizza.
The hallway is bright and crowded. His chatty neighbor waves and goes skipping down the hall with everyone else towards the common room at the end. The door behind him, belonging to the shoe-kicker, opens and-
"-oh my fucking god."
Giyuu whips around to find himself face to face with a scowling Sanemi Shinazugawa.
~•~
Giyuu Tomioka is his neighbor. Goddammit. Giyuu Tomioka, who skates late and probably has a million morning alarms on his phone that will blare through the thin walls. Who acts both stuck up and like he has a stick up his ass. Mr. I'm-not-like-you, himself, is his neighbor.
"Oh." Giyuu says.
"'Oh,'" Sanemi parrots. "Why the hell are you here?"
"It's my dorm."
"You think I'm stupid?" Sanemi spits, "I mean why this dorm?"
"I almost forgot about the applications. This was the last building available." Giyuu shrugs. He turns on his heel and begins walking to the common room, asking over his shoulder, "why are you here?"
For the exact same reason. But Sanemi refuses to admit that.
"Mind your own business," he says instead as he follows Giyuu.
"And yet you won't mind yours." Giyuu's sigh is the one that he always pairs with an eye-roll, Sanemi has been on the receiving end of it enough times to know.
"Shut up," Sanemi clenches his fists and wonders if it's too soon to request a change in living quarters.
Giyuu says nothing more, retreating back into his own empty head.
Giyuu Tomioka has been a pain ever since freshman year. They had met at the rink where Sanemi had made the mistake of asking if he was trying out for the hockey team, an honest question that Giyuu had taken as a grave insult.
From that point on, Giyuu treated Sanemi like a brick wall, ignoring everything he said. He remained aloof and silent until Sanemi let his guard down and then Giyuu would strike him with a quip or comment that had him wanting to grab Giyuu's messy ponytail and throw him across a room.
If dealing with each other at the rink was bad enough, the fact that their majors were related was even worse. Sanemi was majoring in math, Giyuu in kinesiology, both of them with the focus to one day be teachers. They had gotten in trouble for 'antagonizing' each other in the rare shared class. The head of the department for future educators knew them both by name at this point.
His dorm was supposed to be the last haven away from Tomioka and now they were neighbors. This year was going to be a dumpster fire.
The common room is a cramped half-kitchen-half-living room type space. Everyone filters in and makes a loose circle around a central table piled with pizza boxes. Sanemi and Giyuu are last to arrive and aggravatingly have to stand next to each other as a result.
"Hello all!" Their resident assistant, wearing a tie-dye shirt and a bunch of lanyards waves. "Welcome to Wisteria Hall, your home away from home for the school year! Let's get to know each other!"
Round the circle they go, saying names, majors, clubs. Sanemi eats through three slices of pizza as he listens to every Brittany, Brock, Chuck, and Chelsea to get through their introductions. Communications majors, business majors, basketball team, swim team, hiking club, astronomy club.
He swallows his bit of crust when it's finally his turn.
"I'm Shinazugawa, math major, junior, alternate captain of the hockey team." There, short and sweet, let him leave before Tomioka says something that makes the veins in his forehead pop.
"I have on my sheet your first name is San-emi," the assistant says looking at their clipboard.
"Use my last name," Sanemi says.
"Shin-azu," their resident assistance starts. "It's quite long long name, do you have a nickname?"
Sanemi sighs but before he can respond, Giyuu speaks up.
"You said you were a dance major. If you can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Kachaturian, you can learn Shinazugawa," he says flatly.
The room goes dead silent. Sanemi grits his jaw.
"My apologies, nice to meet you Shina-zuga-wa," the resident assistance says, butchering his name but at least getting all the syllables. "And next?"
"I don't need your help," Sanemi snaps quietly in Japanese. Like always, Giyuu ignores him.
"Tomioka, kinesiology major, junior. I skate."
"On the hockey team too?" Someone pipes up and it takes everything in Sanemi to not burst out laughing at the look that crosses Giyuu's face. It's subtle, a slight pinching of the eyebrows and lips gliding into a quick frown hinting that he is incredibly annoyed and someone else just earned a spot on his always-ignore list.
"Pair skating. Not hockey." Giyuu says in a clipped tone.
"Thanks for letting us know, Tomioka," their resident assistant pipes up, "and after... um..."
The resident assistant stalls and then looks awkwardly at Giyuu who tenses. Sanemi sighs. Who the hell trained this resident assistant?
"He's alright for a figure skater, his partner Shinobu is a freshman and is probably going to be here a lot to bug him." Sanemi says loudly, leaning back against the wall.
The room goes dead silent a second time.
"My apologies Tomioka," the resident assistant says again, "after him we have…"
The introductions pick back up again and the pizza slowly dwindles.
"Hypocrite," Giyuu says quietly, picking at the crust of a piece of pizza. His voice lacks its usual cutting deadpan.
"If you want to deal with everyone fucking up how they address you, be my guest." Sanemi shrugs and picks up a fourth piece of pizza.
"Is that a thank-you?"
"You wish."
"Well, I have manners and am not above showing basic gratitude. Thank you," Giyuu hums and takes a second piece of pizza.
His ponytail has never looked so grab-able.
~•~
The Friday after the first week of classes, Giyuu is finishing getting his room in order when his phone begins to buzz making his entire desk rumble. He glances at the name next to the incoming video call and immediately presses 'accept.'
"Hey! Popcorn ceiling, nice !" Sabito laughs.
Giyuu picks up the phone so Sabito can see his face as opposed to the ugly ceiling.
"Hi," Giyuu says. Sabito sits in a chair in a familiar office. His jacket has a small mountain and the words 'Sagiri Skating' embroidered on it. "Are you at the rink?"
"Yeah, got my evening class in a couple minutes," Sabito says. "Figured I'd call and ask how was your first week went."
"Fine," Giyuu says.
"Just fine?"
"What are you, my dad?" Giyuu snorts.
"Absolutely not ," Sabito says. He looks over his shoulder and shouts: "Rink D ad ! Ask Giyuu how his first week was!"
From the far off Giyuu can barely hear his Coach Urokodaki mumble something.
And then another voice, younger and full of excitement, yells: "Is that Giyuu? Giyuu!"
Tanjirou's face crowds into the frame. "HI!"
"Hi Tanjirou," Giyuu says hopping up onto his bed and leaning against the wall. "What are you doing in the office?"
"Yeah, what are you doing back here?" Sabito asks.
"I was going to see if Haganezuka could sharpen my skates. But now I can say hi to Giyuu!" Tanjirou grins.
"How are you and Nezuko?" Giyuu asks.
"Good!" Tanjirou yells. "We won at a competition last weekend-"
"- demolished," Sabito interrupts, "they crushed it. People cried. Be glad you never have to compete against those two."
Giyuu smiles as Tanjirou tries to play modest and Sabito keeps telling him to be proud of his and Nezuko's work. Like Shinobu and Giyuu, the Kamado siblings are also a team but instead of pair skating, the two chose to do ice dance. Still a team of two, ice dance has more footwork and dance-like elements but no jumps or throws.
Giyuu has shared the ice with the Kamados before and gone with them to competitions. He is also glad he will never have to compete against them. Whereas he and Shinobu might make it to the Olympics, there is something about the Kamado siblings that suggests they could one day actually win.
"Can I come visit? When is friends and family weekend? " Tanjirou asks.
"November. But Shinobu and I have our first competition that weekend. We won't be here," Giyuu explains. "And you visited last year."
"And I wanna visit again!"
"You can visit when you and your sister stay in sync on your footwork for once," Sabito says and puts a hand on Tanjirou's forehead, giving a playful shove. "Now shoo and let me talk to Gyiuu. Haganezuka is in the back , get your skates sharpened and then get out there."
"Bye Giyuu!" Tanjirou yells as Sabito pushes him out of the frame. Giyuu smiles and waves.
They spend the next half hour catching up, attempting avoiding talking about skating. Between Sabito's coaching and Giyuu's pair work, they already eat, sleep, and breathe rink-talk.
A new restaurant that opened up in their hometown, Sabito likes it but thinks its too pricy and won't last long. One of Giyuu's professors has a real human skull in their office and they refuse to divulge where they got it. The movie theater got reclining seats that are super comfortable. The convenience store close to campus has an entire isle dedicated to instant noodles. Back and fourth they go until the inevitable happens, they find themselves talking about skating.
Sabito shares what music people were picking for the season, new moves that are being attempted, who was hogging the ice during practice sessions. He gives plenty of updates from people at their home rink and Giyuu is happy to listen.
They never talk much about Giyuu's skating, Sabito doesn't ask and Giyuu never shares more than the occasional, generic update. After all, Giyuu shouldn't be Shinobu's partner, he took that spot from Sabito. For the sake of their friendship, it's best if Sabito leads the conversation when they talk skating, so that the past is never brought up and they stay on neutral topics. As a result, Giyuu knows almost everything about Sabito's coaching and the occasional solo work he does.
"Anyways, back to Zamboni drivers, " Sabito says and Giyuu sighs heavily, "Shinobu told me that your 'arch nemesis' is your neighbor."
"Unfortunately. So far we have managed to stay out of each other's way and we don't have any classes together so that's good." Giyuu pinches the bridge of his nose. "But it's only been the first week."
" Hope it stays that way. How about everyone else in the dorm?"
"They're alright, I don't talk to them much though," Giyuu shrugs.
"What about people in your classes?"
"There are a some familiar faces," Giyuu says trying to recall a few.
"Did you join any clubs this year?"
"No, I don't have time," Giyuu sighs.
"Giyuu," Sabito begins, thinks for a second, and then sighs. "This is going to sound really horrible, but, it's your junior year, do you have any friends besides Shinobu?"
~•~
"...do you have any friends besides Shinobu?"
That is when Sanemi knows he should put some headphones on. No, he is not eavesdropping, he is suffering. Because on top of the walls being paper thin and Tomioka pushing his bed to be against the same wall as Sanemi's and sitting on it while he talks, apparently Tomioka also has his phone on maximum volume.
Arch nemesis? Seriously? Whoever Giyuu is talking to reads too many comic books.
"I'm busy," Sanemi hears Giyuu offer lamely. "And its not exactly easy for me. You've heard Shinobu."
Sanemi jams a pair of headphones on over his ears and starts up a playlist. Junior year at college and Giyuu's friend circle consists only of people known prior to attending? Sanemi can't help but think of the teammates he hangs out with during the off season, fellow math majors who save him a seat and share memes along with study notes, people he met his freshman year that he still texts on occasion. Compared to his, can Giyuu's circle even be called a circle?
And what has Shinobu said in the past? The few times Sanemi has spoken with her she was nice to him but he does know that she also has an intelligent wit that can be more cutting that Giyuu's.
A drum solo makes Sanemi realize how stupid this train of thought is and breaks him out of it. Why the fuck does he care about Tomioka's apparent inability to make friends? He put the walls up himself and they don't seem to bother him. If someone has a problem with the amount of people Tomioka can call 'friend,' that is their problem. It's clearly not Tomioka's and it is definitely not Sanemi's.
Tapping the pencil in beat with the drums between problems, Sanemi breezes through his homework with plenty of time to spare before the hockey team's Friday night dinner.
Being the end of the first week and therefore no exams or due dates coming up, the campus is going to be alive with parties. Masachika doesn't want the freshmen stumbling into overcrowded basements and instated the tradition that the hockey team has a 'tasteful' party the first weekend. Dinner and mild shenanigans afterwards. The tradition is a time for returning players to catch up and freshmen get their feet wet amongst a closed group. A way to ensure everyone makes it through the first weekend in one piece and nobody has to call Coach Kayaga at three in the morning cause they ran into trouble.
Sanemi meets Obanai and Rengoku at a pizza parlor to pick up an order of pies and those giant cookies that are bigger than his head. There is a line out the door for orders not placed ahead of time and Sanemi briefly wonders if pizza consumption during the first week on campus would be a good subject for his statistics class project.
Before they leave the shopping center, Rengoku convinces them to use the remaining cash to buy a bunch of soda and pop rocks candy. Obanai is unable to make him promise not to use the extra treats for evil and Sanemi makes a mental not to not accept any mystery drinks from him at the party. The negotiations between the center and goalie give Sanemi enough time to sneakily get a birthday card for the team to sign and give to Obanai.
"Welcome to Casa-Kumeno birthday boy!" Masachika cheers as he opens the door, wearing a set of ridiculous glasses and two party hats.
"You're two weeks weeks early!" Obanai cries.
"Pizza place had a deal if we ordered the birthday package and yours is the closest," Masachicka says pulling out a party horn. "Thanks for being born, it allowed us to get the mega cookies for free." Honk!
Rengoku laughs his head off and slaps Masachika's shoulder so loud it echos. Obanai dodges Masachika's attempt to ruffle his hair, Sanemi is unsuccessful.
"Oy, watch it, let me set these down," Sanemi shoves away and carries the boxes to the kitchen.
Inside, Obanai groans when he sees the sign of hand-drawn snakes spelling out 'happy early birthday Iguro.' Some of the snakes look like dicks which is definitely the seniors doing. He accepts a birthday shot and swiftly shuts down the sophomore's attempt to sing 'happy birthday' with snake sounds ("hiss-hiss hiss-hisss hiiss hiss...").
Sanemi takes the second distraction as an opportunity to get the card going around knowing people are just going to fill it with more dick-snakes and hissing.
"I'm going to miss this," Masachika sighs.
"Kumeno, it's the first week, don't get weepy yet," Sanemi says shoving his shoulder.
The house looks even smaller with most of the hockey team mingling about. Returning players dig up old inside jokes, friendships pick up where they left off at the end of the previous year, new players try to shrug off the awkward unfamiliarity and establish themselves as part of the group. It's a boisterous, chaotic, rambunctious group and it puts Sanemi at ease.
New year, same loud voices.
Sanemi still remembers the pizza party from his first year. He and Obanai had stayed close, freshmen in unfamiliar waters until Masachicka, whom they had met at tryouts, came over to talk to them. In his relaxed, friendly manner, he had told them not to be intimidated by the other players and to work hard. Sanemi remembers everyone meeting Obanai's pet snake and how he had to frequently tell people not to try and feed Kaburamaru pepperoni slices.
In a time when Sanemi had been worried about leaving Genya to take care of their mother and siblings but not wanting to waste the opportunity, the team was exactly what he had needed. Strangers becoming teammates becoming close friends.
He glances over the group. The familiar and new faces are smiling and laughing. Mitsuri, the new alternate goalie is talking animatedly with Rengoku, their main goalie. Obanai stands close but keeps silent, Kaburamaru sits on his shoulders and eyes a passing slice of pizza.
Its a good start to a good year, he can feel it. Sanemi turns to Masachicka when he puts a hand on his shoulder
"I'm going to do my best as Captain this year," he promises, eyes shining ever so slightly.
"Of course you are," Sanemi says. "Cry when we make it to the finals."
"You have high hopes for us," Masachika smiles.
"We've got work to do, nothing is going to be handed to us, we're gonna have to fight for it," Sanemi says, "but we can do it. And I'd say it was because we've got a good leader, but tears and pepperoni don't mix."
Masachika laughs. "I knew you were a good pick for alternate."