Better Left Unsaid

Warning for depictions of violence and abuse near the end.

-----

Golden Week passed by rather quickly and the volleyball club already found themselves on the fourth day of their practices. They had been training non-stop, day and night, to make sure they were ready for the match tomorrow.

As per usual, the boys were jogging on their morning run. They passed by the familiar landmarks they had learned to recognize over the week, the scenery generally quiet and peaceful.

There was a small flower shop they went by that was always full of bright and colorful plants which emitted a sweet scent. Usually there was no one there, but today a girl was outside, watering the flowers. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing a hat shielding her face from the harsh sunlight. She knelt down and began checking the plants carefully.

"Good morning!" Sugawara called out pleasantly as the team ran by.

"Ah, good morning," the girl replied, tilting her head up slightly to look at them.

The boys immediately skid to a stop and turned around slowly. The girl was now frozen in place, her hands gripping her watering can rather tightly. She stood up stiffly before booking it into the small shop, slamming the door behind her.

"Was that...?"

"I'm pretty sure it was..."

The door opened once more and a large, friendly looking woman came out with the girl trailing behind her with a sour expression.

"Ne, Resu, aren't they the volleyball club you're always talking about? You should be happy to see them!" The woman said loudly, beaming at them.

"Please don't repeat what I say in private conversations Saito-san," Resu huffed, glaring at Nishinoya and Tanaka as they struggled not to break down laughing.

"What are you boys doing around here anyways? I've seen you running by for the past couple days," Saito-san asked curiously.

"We're staying in an inn nearby for Golden Week," Daichi explained with a smile.

"Oooh, that sounds fun! Why aren't you staying with them, Resu?"

"I'm not exactly in their club," Resu replied quietly.

"Hmm, but I do remember us inviting you to stay, but you said you had to visit your sick uncle all week," Ennoshita pointed out, feigning innocence as Resu hissed at him.

Saito-san looked confused. "But Resu doesn't have any family members besides her siblings..." She paused before gasping and hitting Resu in the arm, at which the girl flinched. "Resu! Did you lie to them?"

Resu hung her head with a grunted "yes" and Saito-san looked at her, clearly disappointed.

"Well, I'm ordering you to go stay with them. You can have the rest of the day and tomorrow off so you can enjoy yourself for once."

Resu opened her mouth to argue, but instead she smirked slyly.

"Oh, but I don't have any extra clothes with me. What a shame," she sighed, pretending to wipe away a fake tear.

"I know you always bring an extra change of clothes with you for after work. Plus, I think you still have some here from when you stay over. I'll go get them!" Saito-san said triumphantly before hurrying to the house next to the shop, leaving Resu with an arm outstretched so as to stop her. She turned to the boys with a blank gaze.

"If one of you ends up dead in that inn I will gladly admit I am the murderer."

"Why do you always make such a big deal out of things?" Tsukishima questioned with Yamaguchi snickering at her by his side. Resu was about to snap out a reply but was interrupted as Saito-san returned, handing her a pink bag with cats all over it.

"Go have fun, okay?" Saito-san grinned and waved at her before retreating back into the shop.

The team resumed their jog with Resu running beside them. It wasn't long before she opened her mouth to complain.

"Why are we going so slow?" She grumbled, hunching her shoulders with displeasure.

"We have to pace ourselves," Daichi replied sternly while looking at her suspiciously.

"Screw that," Resu said with a half grin, taking off at a fast sprint.

"You don't even know where the inn is!" The captain called out after her. "Hinata! Kageyama! THIS ISN'T A RACE!"

The two first years sped after her, closely followed by Nishinoya and Tanaka. Daichi watched them disappear out of sight with a frustrated sigh while Sugawara and Asahi smiled faintly.

-----

Resu dashed along the road, every now and then turning down a side street to make it more challenging. She turned her head back to send a mocking smile to the boys only to realize with a start that they were closer than she had expected. Scoffing, she lengthened her strides, hearing yells of annoyance behind her. Resu snickered with delight as her feet pounded across the dirt, sending dust flying up in her wake.

Did she have any idea where she was going?

No, she didn't.

She slid to a stop suddenly, clicking her tongue in amusement as Nishinoya and Hinata skidded past her, nearly falling over as they tried to stop themselves.

"Why'd you stop?!" Kageyama demanded, wiping the sweat off his forehead rather angrily.

"I don't know where we are," Resu said simply.

There was a pause of silence before the boys looked around, inspecting their surroundings. It was true, they hadn't been to this side of town before, and they had no idea how to get back where they were. It didn't help that this part of town seemed rather shady either...

"Daichi's gonna kill us," Tanaka muttered in defeat.

"N-Not if we get killed here first," Hinata whispered nervously, his eyes darting around as if he was trying to spot a figure emerging from the shadows.

Resu walked around a bit while Nishinoya boasted that he'd be able to single handedly take care of anyone that came at them. She rolled her eyes while Tanaka and Hinata gushed over him, peering out from the end of the alley they were in.

"This is all your fault," Kageyama said bluntly while pointing at her. She shrugged.

"Yeah, I can't really argue with that."

"They'll never find us and we'll never play volleyball again and we'll have to eat from dumpsters and eventually we'll starve to death..." Hinata rocked himself back and forth while mumbling wide-eyed to himself.

Resu cast him a slightly concerned look before gesturing for them to follow her.

"Are you sure we should be following you when you're the one that got us lost in the first place?" Nishinoya questioned sharply, tilting his head with a narrowed gaze.

She was about to retort but she stopped dead in her tracks, her visible eye locked on something behind them. Slowly, the four others turned around, only to see a dark figure coming towards them.

"Ah, I finally found you..."

As if on cue, the five of them let out uncharacteristically high screams.

"Guys, r-relax! It's just me! IT'S ASAHI!"

-----

Needless to say, half the team was late to practice and looked rather ragged. Ukai turned to them, clearly annoyed, and ordered them to go get changed. He looked at Resu who halfheartedly returned his glare.

"Why's she here?"

"We found her on the side of the road," Tsukishima answered, pushing up his glasses as he walked by.

Resu shook her fist at him but was too tired to respond otherwise. The practice seemed to drag on forever and she found herself feeling hungry and rather exhausted. A bit before it was over, she followed Shimizu back to the inn to help prepare dinner. She was strangely focused on peeling the vegetables, making sure she got every bit of skin off.

"You've never seen them play a real match, right?" Shimizu asked as she stirred the broth and started cooking the rice.

"Nah. Are they as obnoxious on the court as they are usually?" Resu joked, raising an eyebrow with a smirk.

"You'd be surprised at their change in personality," Shimizu chuckled.

Dinner was served an hour or so later, the large group of them sitting around the tables.

"Itadakimasu!"

Resu ate her food uneasily. Generally it was only her alone at dinner, or on occasion, with Kenta and Hitomi. Being surrounded by fifteen people was a new experience for her, not to mention the fact that she was basically going to be having a sleepover with them. She chewed on the end of her chopstick anxiously.

"Oh, Resu."

Said girl glanced at Sugawara, plucking the chopstick out of her mouth and setting it down.

"I meant to ask you, how do you know Saito-san?"

"...For a while when I was younger, my siblings and I stayed at her house until my brother could support us financially," Resu explained slowly. "She's basically like our aunt."

"What about your parents?" Hinata asked naively.

He immediately regretted his words, however, once Resu snapped her head towards him. Hinata had seen Resu angry before, but the intense stare she wore made him more frightened than he had ever been.

"I don't like to talk about my parents," she answered lowly.

There was a moment of heavy silence before it was broken by the sound of Resu standing, her plate in her hands.

"Excuse me. I'm feeling rather tired," Resu said blankly, scraping the rest of her food into the garbage and placing her plate near the sink.

The moment she left the room, Kageyama hit Hinata on the arm.

"Nice going, dumbass!"

"I-I didn't mean anything by it!"

-----

Resu first heard her brother cry out in pain. Then she heard footsteps scrambling past her door. She was confused, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Why was everyone awake this late at night? What was going on?

Curiosity taking over her young mind, she cracked open her bedroom door. To her horror, Kenta lay in a crumpled heap a few feet away, blood flowing steadily into a pool around his head. Her mother was desperately trying to pick him up, but once she saw Resu looking out into the hall, she hurried over to her daughter and quietly shut the door behind her.

Her mother was shaking as she knelt down in front of Resu and held her shoulders.

"Mommy, what's going on?" Resu asked, her eyes stinging with tears as she looked at the fearful expression on her mother's face.

"It's okay, Resu, it's okay..." She whispered, attempting to calm her youngest child down. "Hitomi got away to call the police, it's going it be okay..."

The door slammed open, practically torn off its hinges. Her mother gasped and shielded Resu with her body, screaming at whoever had entered the room.

"If it's me you want, I'll go with you! Leave my children alone!"

A dark chuckle filled the room, sending shivers down Resu's spine.

"They're my children too, you know. Now, get out of the way!"

Resu watched, helpless, as a crowbar was slammed down onto her mother's skull. Slowly, her mother's grip on her loosened and she fell to the side, her eyes lifeless. Resu looked up, whimpering, at her father who now stood over her.

"You're disgusting, you know that? Stop crying, you piece of shit!"

Resu let out a shrill scream as the crowbar connected with the left part of her face, knocking her backwards. She wailed for what seemed like ages as her father continued beating her until she started to fall unconscious. The last thing she heard was the far cry of sirens approaching her house...

The girl awoke in the present in a cold sweat, her left eye aching and a foul taste in her mouth. She clamped her hand over her mouth and threw off her blankets before scurrying to the bathroom. Resu knelt next to the toilet, holding her hair back and vomiting the contents of her stomach out.

Once she finished, she was breathing heavily and struggling to stand. She managed to make her way over to the sink, gripping the porcelain edges and attempting to clean her mouth out. Resu gazed at her reflection, pushing her bangs out of the way.

Her left eye was glazed over, left a disgusting milky white thanks to the actions of her father. While the doctors had managed to save her face and the eye itself, she had been blind in that eye ever since. Before she grew her hair out, it was the main cause of children picking on her. She had been tempted many times to dig the eye out of its socket herself, but her brother or sister caught her before she managed to.

She briefly remembered the sickening feeling that struck her when she found out her mother was dead and her father had committed suicide before they could convict him. Resu dragged her hands down her face with a shaky sigh. She hadn't had that bad of a nightmare in a while, but she supposed Hinata's careless words had triggered it, not that he meant anything by it.

I should apologize for snapping at him tomorrow...

She washed her mouth out one more time before stepping out of the bathroom. Resu hoped she didn't wake anyone up as she crept back towards the room, only to be shocked as her eyes adjusted to the dark, focusing on a figure standing near the door.

"Asahi?"

The boy nearly jumped out of his skin; he hadn't seen her come back. He placed a hand over his heart and tried to return his breathing back to normal.

"You s-scared me."

"I can see that." Resu resisted rolling her eyes, although she realized that he could barely see her anyways. "What are you doing up?"

"Um, well, I couldn't sleep and then I saw you wake up and run out of the room. When you didn't come back after a while I got kind of nervous and decided to wait for you. Are you okay?"

Resu's mouth twitched uncomfortably. He was concerned about her? She wasn't sure how to feel about that. Was that how friends were?

"I'm...fine. My stomach was just a little upset, that's all."

Unfortunately for her, Asahi noticed the hesitation and forcefulness in her voice.

"Are you sure? I can get Takeda-sensei if you're really not feeling well..."

"I'm positive. You should really get to sleep though. Don't you have that practice match tomorrow?"

Asahi rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. "That's mainly the reason why I can't sleep."

Resu patted his shoulder roughly and he flinched as she yawned widely.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. If I'm going to sleep, you're going to sleep. Go."

She pushed him into the room, causing him to nearly trip in the process. He spun around to whisper-yell at her actions, but found her lying face-down on her futon, completely out cold. Asahi frowned, wishing he could fall asleep that quickly, before getting comfortable in his own futon.

Once she knew Asahi had settled down, Resu turned onto her side to face the wall.

I don't get this whole friends thing. It's too confusing.

-----

hiiiiiii! sorry this is a little late otl i've been working on some other things.

but while i'm here i wanted to thank you guys for 6k+ views!!! that truly amazes me, thank you all so much. y'all are the best.

alsooooo, if you noticed the link, i made a playlist for resu so go ahead and give it a listen if you'd like! i'll be posting it on her about page as well but i'd figured i'd put it here first for easier access lol.

i think that's it for now. later gators~ :^)