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liillyliilly · 3 months

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Run Club

suna rintarou x reader words; 4679 synopsis; she's the best runner at inarizaki, he wants to spend more time with her- so the natural conclusion? offering to make a run club with her

It was practically 1,000 degrees outside and Suna was melting in the heat. The rest of the volleyball team was excited to finally be outside for once, the gym was beginning to grow old. Kita, in his ever intelligent wisdom, decided he wanted to do some more intensive cross training. Suna was covering his eyes with his hand, not even hooded eyes could deflect a boiling sun.

And there she was.

“Kita, who is that?” Atsumu got to the jump before Suna did, but Suna listened just a little more carefully to Kita’s words in response to Atsumu’s words.

“That’s L/N. She’s in my class. She’s the track captain, she’s also the one who’s going to help us with cross training today.”

In front of a group of other runners, including guys, was her. She was wearing a black sports bra and quite possibly the shortest shorts Suna had ever seen on a girl. She seemed to be leagues ahead of the other runners, yet she still was yelling at the kids to keep running. Keep pushing forward without thinking about the pain.

Suna thought she was crazy. Beautiful and crazy.

Eventually, she came up to the volleyball team, leaving her team of runners lying on the track practically crying and downing entire water bottles. She messed around on what appeared to be a fitness watch, frowned a little but then tapped around before finally walking over to Kita. Suna was thinking that she was going to kill the volleyball team with the same workout she must have just done with the track team.

Kita gave her a high five, an actual high five, and she mimicked a volleyball spike, laughing at Kita’s eye roll.

“Okay listen up, I’m going to put y’all through some actual training. Not any of this jumping around and diving bullcrap, but actual intensive running to build stamina and power.”

They ran. And then they ran again. They drank a little water, and then they ran again. Eventually even the Miya twins and Aran were sitting down on a grass patch picking strands out of the field and sweating so much that they could’ve produced enough liquid for a hydroelectric dam.

She was just stretching, preparing for one more lap. Kita thanked her for the help, and told the team to head back to the gym so they could go over a few plays. All the boys were leaning on each other and dragging their feet as they meandered back to their hideout. Suna wanted to stay though. So he asked Kita if he would just run one more time, and he could get the plays from Atsumu or Osamu the next day. Kita let him, on the condition that Suna wouldn’t try to outrun L/N.

“I’ve tried, it’s not something I can realistically say is possible for me. But I’m all for a good run, make sure you eat a good dinner when you get back to your dorm.” Kita waved him off and Suna snuck his way over to her.

He leaned his head over her shoulder, inspecting what exactly was on her watch, but she turned around before he could see anything.

“Ever heard of hello?” She poked him in the chest lightly. Suna shrugs. She continues speaking when he doesn’t make a move to leave her be, “This is my long run for today, 8 miles. Think you can stay on my pace? I’m not slowing down for you.”

“I’ll manage.”

So they ran, Suna got winded earlier than he thought, around the third mile. So he had to run slightly behind her, still trying to keep up and not get left behind. She talked to him, easily and without losing much steam. She talked mostly about running, Suna listened. At the end of the fourth mile, she paused.

She said something about stretching for a minute or two and then finishing the run and getting back to Inarizaki. He swallowed the gel tube she had offered him, letting the instant energy soak into his body. She did little hops and jumps, lunges and toe touches, Suna just sat down and tried to reset his energy.

He liked her shoulders, her legs, the way she did her hair, he especially liked the way she sweat. It wasn’t a waterfall like Atsumu and Osamu, it was a sheen on her body. The film of sweat coated her, and it made her shine, her face was flushed from the run, but she was still just smiling. Suna could finally care less about the single sun’s brutality, because she was worth a thousand vibrant suns in his eyes.

Screw Vitamin D, he needed Vitamin Her.

He kept up with her on the way back to Inarizaki, though he suspects that she slowed down slightly so he could keep in time and pace with her. Despite him being taller, and having longer legs, with the way she ran it was clear he was no match for her instinctive athleticism when it came to running.

With the stories she told about her failures in a bunch of other sports, and how she came to running in the first place, Suna was surprised. He hid it well, just nodding and trying to keep his breathing deep and long so that he wouldn’t croak like a fool in front of her. She liked to run because it was the only sport where she didn’t need to be good at anything besides breathing.

Her biology teacher, when she was in first year, said that the only thing needed for life is the ability to cellular respirate. To convert energy from sugars and food into ATP, the chemical reaction utilized breathing. Breathing allows the process to flow. Breathing to facilitate the conversion of sugar to ATP. Or something like that, Suna was getting distracted by the way her arm would occasionally brush his as she strode forward.

Getting back to Inarizaki was disappointing for Suna, he wanted to run with her for longer. Just to be with her for longer. Maybe that’s why he asked if she wanted to be in a run club with him. What he had meant to ask was if she wanted to run with him more often, but a run club comment came out before he caught it.

“Run club sounds like a great idea! It would be perfect for intra-athletic cross training, like volleyball did today at the track. I’ll talk to a few more of the other captains, I can be in charge and if you want, you can be second in command?”

“Yeah. I can do that.” He could not do it.

To call it a running club was a tortuous attempt at trying to tone down the reality of what it was. It was a group of boys who liked to watch her run. She knew that, and Suna knew that. She still beat them in every single race. The basketball captain, the tennis captain, even the swim captain came around and tried to beat her. She reigned on top of Inarkizaki’s holy track field. She was who they came to see. She was the shrine that the foxes would pray at.

The coaches saw her outstanding dedication to helping all the kids at Inarizaki, she won a coaches’ award for Most Dedicated Student Athlete. Suna thought it was extremely well earned for her.

Run club died down, and eventually it was just Suna and L/N again, the other boys got tired of just running all the time. Albeit, the sports teams were objectively just a little bit better that year. Running had shaped the teams into stamina beasts, Inarizaki could outlast any other team for the most part.

Suna had begun asking Kita more and more frequently to do running as an alternative to other conditioning routines. Kita agreed every single time. Suna supposed that Kita knew the real reason why he took breaks from training with the team, it was so he could spend more time with her.

Freaking track kids. Always freaking running around thinking they owned the place. Especially Ito Yuuta, freaking Ito always running with freaking Y/N. Even going as far to be freaking duo partners in all the freaking track competitions.

“If you sulk anymore I think your face will stay like that.” Aran then took a picture of Suna sitting on the bleaches with his shoulders hunched into himself and a disgusting scowl on his face.

“I just don’t know why we, as the volleyball team, have to watch the track competition.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re just mad because Ito gets to run with L/N instead of you running with her.” Osamu could suck an egg for all Suna cared.

Atsumu wanted to play a little game with Suna, just to see his reaction. Atsumu was also glad that Kita was with all the other sports captains cheering the runners on.

“I heard from a very reliable source that Ito copped a feel of her thigh before one of the races yesterday, and that he got a kiss from her when he won in his category.” Atsumu told Omimi just loud enough for Suna to hear.

The way Suna spun his head around was almost enough to have Atsumu falling to the ground in delight. Suna stood up and went right down to the field, folding his arms and shifting his weight from side to side.

She came barreling down the track from her race, giving high fives to her friends and hugs to her even closer friends. She had just won another first place prize, which made Suna unbelievably happy, but also he was seething.

Kita had finally caught wind of what was about to occur, and he tried to get down to the track to get Suna away from the track. But one of the adults had stopped him from going down, so Kita and the rest of the team just had to sit back and watch as the horror was about to unfurl.

Ito Yuuta also had just finished his race, giving Y/N a hug and twirling her around, which made her laugh.

Suna snapped.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Ito held up a hand in shock, clearly not understanding what was going on. “Celebrating a win?”

“Bet you’re thinking you’re going to celebrate with more than just a hug.”

She caught on faster than Ito did. She began to tell Suna to get back to the stands.

“So, you’re hiding stuff from me too? Is it because he’s a runner? What does he have that I don’t? I have like four inches on this guy.”

Suna was miserable now, completely distraught. He was only moderately calm when she pulled him away and sat him down on a bench reserved for the track kids.

“Let’s just take a deep breath Rintarou. Look, it's easy.” She inhaled deeply and then let out a breath.

“It’s not fair.” He whined. Suna didn’t think he was capable of whining. He also didn’t think he was capable of being so blindsided by his own jealousy. He dragged his hands down his face and realized he had fallen for bait given to him by Atsumu. He had fallen for a trap set up by a notorious jokester.

Only when Suna saw Ito kissing his boyfriend did Suna really get embarrassed. “I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not, you just acted like one for a few minutes.” She was rubbing his back and he felt even worse, he had acted like a complete child and there he was getting soothed by the same girl he had wanted to fight for.

“Just forget I said anything, I did anything, just forget I even exist please.”

“But you had at least four inches on that guy?” Suna groaned and ducked his head down even further. “That one was actually kinda funny, Rintarou.” She ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it.

She wanted to get one more kick out of the whole situation, “I think you have some kind of teenage hormonal rage going on, but based on Ito’s reactions, I fully believe you won. So, are you gonna celebrate with more than just a hug?”

“Y/N!”

Atsumu had to do 100 diving laps per Kita’s instruction as punishment for causing an embarrassment out of the volleyball team and for pushing Suna to his mental limits.

Suna always liked to lurk around her, even when she was tired of him. Getting asked how you were doing multiple times a day by the same person could in fact grow slightly old. When he got a hold of her number, he had made her number his personal journal.

Everything from complaints to worries were sent to her. One time, in class, she had her headphones in and was solving some problems. Kita, her seatmate, was getting slightly annoyed by all the buzzing from her phone that he just had to check and see what was going on. Kita did not expect to see twenty messages from Suna. So that's what he was doing on his phone during practice.

She did like having him around though, despite his clingy nature. Sometimes he wouldn’t even talk to her, he just wanted to be where she was. She could be in the library doing some research for a class, and he would ask if he could come and work on homework with her. She would be in her dorm folding clothes and he would be sitting at her desk trying to bask in the smell of her room without seeming like a creep.

They were sitting on the field, and the sun had just gone down. She used a flashlight to keep some light around so they wouldn’t be stuck in the dark. She was reading a book, for fun, which made Suna more intrigued. She had a small booklight, attached to the novel, lighting the pages in yellow. She would ask when it was good for her to flip a page, so Suna could read along. He was a slower reader than she was, he remembered that she shared classes with Kita, so obviously she would be smart.

It was a book about a younger guy meeting an older girl, and he was hopelessly in love. How ironic Suna thought. Fate was truly ironic, it loved to play little games on Suna like this. All the time, any chance it got, attempting to make Suna play along with the games at hand.

A few pages of reading together passed before Suna decided to stick her bookmark back into the book, taking it from her before she could complain. He set it aside, using his arm to push it far enough away so that she couldn’t just grab it back.

Sweat was still on their bodies from the run they had finished. But this was far more heart-rate inducing than any run they had ever gone on.

“I think I like you.” Suna used a hand to hold her face, looking right at her.

“That’s nice.” Suna shoved her shoulder, making her fall on her back as she started laughing and slightly rolling from side to side. Suna scoffed, rolling his eyes and falling onto his own back.

“That was and is going to be my only attempt at romance ever. I hope you know that. You’ve crushed any other chance for me being any sort of cute.” Suna mourned the fatality that had just occurred.

She pressed his shoulders down, and leaned over him. Then, she kissed him and ran.

Suna took chase quite quickly, stumbling a little at the shock, but he was racing for more than just training for volleyball. He had to win this race. Suna knew she let him catch up to her. She was spoon-feeding him all the right chances and opportunities, and he ate it all up.

“I need water.” He was holding her over his shoulder, and he was exhausted after running. He walked to the water cooler by the field bleachers.

“Let me down from here, I belong on the ground.” She kicked her feet a little, but he just clicked his tongue, shaking his head.

“You’d be on the ground if you didn’t make my heart sink into my stomach at your response to my confession.”

“I’d really truly not call that a confession. You just said you liked me, which is true for an awful lot of people. I think even Kita-”

He put her back on the ground and covered her mouth with his hand. He raised his eyebrows, just asking her to try that one more time. She raised her hands in surrender.

The rest of the year went by swimmingly (read: runningly). Run club almost every other day, which now featured eating at the dining hall together for the last call meal.

One of his favorite memories from that year was buying running shoes together.

When they went to buy running shoes, it had been a whole day affair. She took her crossbody bag and waited for him at the front of the school gates way too early in the morning. A disastrous nine in the morning meeting time, and on a Saturday too. He was tired only because he had made the unfortunate decision to call Osamu and Atsumu to his dorm that night for both outfit advice and behavior advice.

“I think you should nix the shoe-buying and just make-out the whole day while you’re away from school.” Atsumu ate another chip from the bag that was laying on his stomach, he was lounging on Suna’s bed without a care in the world.

Osamu took the chips and shoved them into the garbage bin. After throwing Atsumu the middle finger, he spoke to Suna, “Just be yourself, you haven’t started calling the pair of you a couple or anything yet, so as far as you know, it’s just a hang-out between friends.”

Suna held up a linen shirt in front of himself, waiting for Osamu’s genuinely constructive assessment. As he did so, Kita walked past the open dorm room and watched as Suna kept switching between the linen shirt and a regular Uniqlo grey shirt.

“She likes boys who wear basic clothes, go with the grey shirt. Linen can be for your first wedding anniversary.” Atsumu howled at Kita’s comment, and Osamu threw a volleyball at Kita through the door, which he caught effortlessly.

The grey shirt was the best decision he made, because their outfits ended up matching. Grey shirts and green cargo pants. She took a photo of them to celebrate a boy actually having fashion taste at their school. She was holding up a peace sign and Suna had his hand on the top of her head.

He didn’t mind that she took her time trying on all the shoes, every new pair she calculated and did little motions in. He just sat on the bench as she kept walking back and forth trying to imagine running in the shoes.

It was either the beige pair or the black and white pair. He was partial to the black and white pair because they looked like his own shoes, both for running and for volleyball. But the beige shoes had an appeal because she looked at them like they were just perfect.

So, he bought her the black and white pair.

They were sitting on the train and he was holding the shoe boxes on his lap, and she was holding her phone in front of the both of them, they were watching a video about volleyball. When he had expressed that his favorite team was EJP Raijin, she picked that as her favorite team too, and they watched all the games together. The video was a highlight reel of some of the best plays done by EJP Raijin.

She was leaning her head on his shoulder, and he thought that this was the best that life could get for him.

The worst was when she and all the third years on his team graduated. He had never been one for goodbyes. Especially since he knew she would still be around the next year going to university in central Hyogo, and she had been talking to her coaches about letting her be an assistant coach for the Inarizaki track and cross country clubs. It was just giving up on his close relationship with her so she could go and do her own thing in college.

Then his birthday rolled around, January 25th. It was cold outside and Suna was throwing his volleyball up into the air as he laid on his back. It had been a year since she had graduated. She visited frequently, but she was always so busy with only doing her job that Suna could only sit aside and pout.

She had never asked him to be her boyfriend, but he supposes that he never asked her to let him be her boyfriend either. He had been in a mood the whole day. He really did just miss being with her. He also missed running. The cold weather had made Atsumu ban everyone from staying outside too long, so no running in the fresh air, only in circles in the gym while Osamu just shouted out things that L/N was probably doing with other boys so Suna wouldn’t stop running from boredom.

Atsumu texted him and told him to come to the track field. So obviously, it had to be some form of a joke. Atsumu never encouraged his players to disobey the rules, especially the ones he made up himself.

Still, Suna put on his heaviest coat and stomped outside.

It was the best birthday present ever.

His favorite person was warming up on the track, stretching out her legs and doing her little hops that drove him crazy. He thinks he never ran faster.

“What are you doing here? Track season doesn’t start for another month?” He held onto her like she would disappear if he let go, playing with her hair and rubbing his freezing nose into her neck.

“It’s your birthday? What kind of friend am I?” She held her hands behind his neck. Somehow her hands were always warm, so the skin on his nape prickled for a second before he realized that he actually wanted her hands all over his exposed face.

“I would hope you’re not a friend at all, especially considering the things I think at night.”

“You murder me in your dreams?”

“You’re so annoying, I could actually just squish you right now.”

“Squish me?” She laughed and he could feel her whole body shake with joy. “And you said you’d never say anything cute ever again.”

They went for a short jog, and Suna realized she had gotten even better at running. They stopped their run at a small convenience store, and she was picking through the hot drink section. Suna just rested his head on his hands that were resting on the length of a shelf, watching her inspect the different cans.

She bought two green teas and threw one to Suna as they sat outside the store, watching the snow begin to fall and make a frosted world the new normal.

“What did you get me as a birthday present?” Suna pushed his knee against hers. Tilting her head, she held up the green tea. “That does not count as my birthday present.”

“Okay, now that I make somewhat grown up money, what is it that my favorite Sunarin wants for his little birthday?” She made an effort to baby talk as corny as she could.

He started at her jaw, pressing small kisses, giving her an out if she wanted, but she just happily sipped her tea. He pushed the can down so he could finally kiss her the way he wanted to all those times he had chickened out.

When he licked her bottom lip, and tried to open her mouth more, she pushed him away, just slightly.

“Woah there buddy.” Suna bit her ear in response, “At least make me your girlfriend geez.”

“Done.”

He just wouldn’t let her break up with him. He committed so hard to that philosophy that she had a ring on her finger to prove it the very next year. It was just the engagement ring he said, he had another one planned for when they would actually get married.

She got even better at running, but her real passions lied in helping others advance their physical skills, which is why Suna got her the athletic trainer position on his team, EJP Raijin. Half so he could see her everyday, and half so that he could get mandated massages from her.

She still made him run though, and he enjoyed it more everyday.

It was a run club, with just the two of them.

8 YEARS LATER...

“Ryohei! Remi! Slow down!” Suna yelled after the twins. She was busy with a new workout for some of his teammates, so he had to take their sons out for a run. He was still trying to teach them how to pace themselves when it came to the longer runs. They were only 6 but they had the energy of firecrackers, at least for the first ten minutes of the run.

He quickly caught up and his kids were both panting and insulting each other.

“I beat you!” Remi put his hands on his hips.

“No way! I touched the tree years before you did!” Ryohei was close to punching the identical copy of himself.

Suna just rubbed his hands on their heads. Turning them around so they could make their way home. On the way back, they stopped at the bookstore so Suna could buy some of the books he remember Y/N had mentioned a few weeks ago. Ryohei was the bookworm out of the two, so he asked for a new book as well. Remi just poked around until he found the video game section and asked if he could get a new game. Suna was weak to resist.

They were dragging their feet and complaining. Suna could feel his eye twitching slightly, before he remembered what was planned for dinner.

“I think mommy’s got udon waiting for us at home.” That put the right amount of pep in their step to get them running again.

Ryohei and Remi were kicking each other under the kotatsu table until Suna pulled them up so they were standing and told them to go get sleep clothes on. Letting Suna kick Y/N instead.

“Stop it.” Suna nudged his knee against her’s. “I mean it, I’ll make you sleep in their room instead of ours.”

Suna shrugged.

“Did you run today?” Suna ate another bite of his food.

“No, I was too busy dealing with your ragamuffins until you got back from practice.” She rested her head on the table, finally enjoying a moment of peace and silence.

“I know just the right workout to make up for missing a run.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Easy there, I can see where our kids get their energy from. Because we both know it’s not me.”

She raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know about that, there’s a few times where you really let loose and went stir crazy. I recall multiple times when I was in college, oh and that time in high school when you chewed out a gay man because you believed Atsumu’s lies.”

Suna scoffed, asking her to let that one go, because Ito just had to tell that story at their wedding reception and his mom still called him about it for a good laugh.

When Suna and Y/N heard a crash in the upstairs bathroom, where their kids were supposed to be brushing their teeth, and then complete silence. They looked at each other and just laughed.

Maybe a run club of four was just a little bit better than a run club of just two.

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