Archive of Our Own ^beta

Switch has practice today.

New dimension was to perform together in two weeks, so the units decided to do practice on their own for a week before practising together for the second. For some odd reason, Tsumugi had decided that he’d like to practise at eight in the morning.

Natsume mentally groaned as he headed down at seven for breakfast. Why did Tsumugi decide to have practice so early? Why did Natsume even let him? Didn’t Tsumugi just get out of school? Doesn’t he stay up till past twelve at night to work? So many questions spun around Natsume’s head as he tried to not yawn in the kitchen. At least he’ll get to see Sora.

Slightly annoyed after having not gotten much sleep last night, Natsume got a cup and poured in some milk. A quick cup of coffee and, as a treat, his favourite chocolate and caramel cereal. Considering he would be having coffee, he decided to use less milk. It tastes better when it's not soggy to him anyway.

While the milk for his coffee was heating up, he looked at the shelves for the box of cereal, but couldn’t find it. Natsume opened one of the cupboards to see a bunch of containers stacked upon one another. There was a sticky note next to them which read, ‘Please pour cereal in containers for future use.’

With his mind still vaguely fuzzy, Natsume ended up staring at it for a good ten seconds before the microwave beeping woke him up. He decided to finish making his coffee and then help out this poor soul who wrote the note. It’s not like it’d be that hard anyway.

Thankfully, the coffee and sugar was where it had been yesterday, unlike his cereal. After getting it ready, he set his cup aside to scour the rest of the cupboards for the box of his cereal. After a few minutes of frustratedly searching, he finally found it inside the first one he checked. Maybe he was sleepier than he thought.

He set the box and the containers on the table. First step to filling one (ES had many brands of cereal, which would lead one to believe the containers were for different brands) would be to separate the containers from one another.

Despite how much effort Natsume was putting into this menial task, the containers were stuck. It was as if they were glued together. Just as Natsume was about to give up, he heard a voice. A very familiar, (not) annoying voice.

“Good morning Natsume-kun!” After looking up for a brief moment, Natsume looked back down at the containers. “What are you doing?” Tsumugi asked, choosing to ignore the fact that Natsume was ignoring him.

“Trying to separate these containERS.” came the sharp response.

“Do you need any help?”

“No. Mind your own businESS.”

That was that. Normally, Tsumugi would’ve pressed more, but he needed to drink water and make his own breakfast. So, in what felt like awkward silence to Natsume, but was probably just normal silence to that dimwit, the two of them carried on with their work : Natsume with his inability to separate these containers and Tsumugi with whatever he was doing. Natsume didn’t care enough to look back and see what he was doing. (Natsume did, and Tsumugi was making a few pancakes.)

After a few more minutes of that, Natsume, swallowing his pride, spoke.

“SenPAI. Help mE.”

He still had his regular barbed tongue, but clearly that didn’t seem to bother Tsumugi who happily plated his pancakes and bounced over to Natsume.

“You need me to separate these containers, right?” Tsumugi said, pointing at them.

“What else would I need help wITH?”

Natsume handed over the containers and to both of their dismay, Tsumugi failed to separate them. He stared at Tsumugi with his hands on his hips and eyes narrowed.

“Forget iT. I shouldn’t have asked yOU.” Natsume sighed as a ray of sunshine bounced down the stairs.

“Good morning Shisho~! Good morning Senpai!”

“Ah, good morning SoRA.”
“Good morning Sora!”

The two responses somehow made Sora even more bright, something that is probably impossible to everyone else at this hour. Sora stared inquisitively at the containers Tsumugi was holding. Natsume, noticing this, said, “Senpai and I cannot separate these containERS.”

“Ohh~ can Sora try?” Tsumugi handed them over to Sora, but, just like his seniors, Sora simply couldn’t. After a few seconds, Natsume sighed and suggested they eat their food and if they have spare time, try something else to open it.

Tsumugi’s breakfast was already ready, so he took a seat and started eating, earning a glare from Natsume. Natsume and Sora made their cereal and started eating too. To Natsume’s disappointment, his coffee had gone cold. So, he got up to reheat the coffee when Sora piped up.

“Shisho~ try putting the containers in the freezer. That might help!”

Natsume did as Sora suggested before putting his coffee in the microwave. Within twenty seconds, it was back to a drink-able temperature. He headed back to the table and slowly drank it while waiting for his unitmates to finish eating.

Tsumugi finished second, a mild surprise, considering he did start eating first. Then Sora, and as the youngest took the last sip of the milk from his bowl, Natsume took the last sip of his coffee.

The two headed over to the washrooms to wash their mouths together before heading out. Clearly Sora had a lot of energy, seeing as he was bouncing around next to Tsumugi. Natsume looked at the clock to find they still had twenty minutes till their practice session, so he checked the fridge.

It was cold to the touch, but he had touched test tubes and flasks colder. Just as Natsume was about to attempt to pry them apart, Sora bounced over and kindly requested to try and open it himself. Of course, Natsume could never say no to Sora, not that he’d need to for something as trivial as this.

With a couple attempts, the top-most container was out. Then the second one. Then the third, and along with it, the last one.

From behind them, Tsumugi clapped while Natsume ruffled Sora’s hair just the tiniest bit.
“Thank you SoRA.” Sora giggled a little while Tsumugi filled up the first container with Natsume’s favourite brand.

Then the three headed off to practise together, lighthearted banter following them.