Needle and Thread - Oumasai

Never stop working

After all of his classes, Saihara made his way to the detention room. He felt extremely uneasy as he took a seat in one of the desks. The student decided to rest his head down to catch up on sleep since he wasn't allowed to do work at the moment.

He did his best to block out his stress.

His best friend was in the hospital.

His uncle's future reaction to him being in detention.

How his soulmate looked at him with a face of horror...

He had an hour to wait until he was able to make his way home. At least this way, he could finally get some sleep.

~~

Shuichi raised his head off of the desk as he was awakened to the sound of chairs scraping across the floor, people getting up from their desks. He let out a quiet yawn before picking up his bag and shuffling out of the room, adjusting his hat to make sure he still had it.

He quickly ran to the bus station, desperate to get home before his uncle arrived home from work, knowing the school had already notified him.

Shuichi opened the door to his uncle's house as quietly as he possibly could and stepped inside, instantly going up to his room. He closed the door behind him, not wasting any time to see whether his uncle was home or not.

Saihara began to pace back and forth in his room, too nervous, tired, and stressed to even think about studying. He held his breath as he heard the front door to his house open and slam shut.

He quickly turned his light off, making his uncle think that he might not be at home yet. Shuichi's entire body tensed up as he heard the stairs creak; He knew that there were exactly 12 steps to get up to the first floor, where his room was.

He noticed footsteps get louder then slowly fade away. He heard his pulse rate decrease as he heard the door to the office shut. Shuichi slumped back down against his door, putting his head into his hands and taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down.

Although his moments of relief were short lived as he heard a knock on his door.

"Shuichi? Are you in there?"

Saihara remained silent, not daring to say a word.

"I've just received an email, care to explain what happened?"

"...."

"I know you're in there, Shuichi. I can see you under the door," his uncle grabbed the knob of the door and slowly opened it, "...what are you doing?"

The blue-haired male stood off of the ground and forced himself to make eye contact with him, "I-I...fell asleep.... a-against the door. S-sorry..." From the look on his uncle's face, he knew he wasn't buying it. He was a famous detective after all.

"I'll repeat myself: I've just received an email, care to elaborate?"

Shuichi gulped and took a deep breath before stuttering, "I-I was...late to class..t-twice."

"A high rank got detention....for being late? Why were you late?"

"I was studying."

The uncle let out a sigh, "I thought I made it extensively clear to what would happen if you got a detention."

"It won't happen again, I-I promise!"

His uncle narrowed his eyes at him, "Why do you keep glancing at your hand?"

"I'm not! I.. I.. I just got a paper cut, that's all.."

The uncle stared for a few more seconds before relaxing, "I'll excuse it this time, just don't let being late affect your rank. Nothing is more important than that."