Kunimi’s Self-Worth

by orphan_account

Summary:

Kunimi comes out, Kindaichi can’t handle it

Chapter 1: Discovery

It was ever since their last year of Junior High that Kunimi came to terms that they weren’t cisgender. They hated the way “guy clothes” looked on them, they hated the way “girls clothes” looked.

Why couldn’t anyone just wear whatever they wanted without it having to be classified as a gender.

Kunimi had felt this way ever since their second year of junior high, they were too scared to come out in a fear that their family or friends wouldn’t accept them.

These thoughts clouded their mind as Kunimi was pretending to be asleep in class just to avoid listening to the boring drag of a science lecture.

“Why...” Kunimi started to question if they were actually Non Binary, they really hated the fact that they needed to come out. The thoughts drowned out the lecture as Kunimi started feeling their nose get stuffy and eyes get teary.

They tried to stay quiet but they swore that they heard the entire class grow even quieter, which made it even worse. They bit their lip, trying to muffle the sniffles.

Kunimi didn’t know how long they were there, but they suddenly felt a gentle hand on their arm. Tensing up, Kunimi peeked out of their arm, relieved that it was only Kindaichi, Kunimi sighed as they got up reluctantly.

“Kunimi? Are you ok? Were you crying?” Kindaichi trotted up to his friend as Kunimi started to leave almost immediately.

“Yes, I’m fine...” Kunimi mumbled, wiping the remains of their tears away, Kindaichi looked mildly concerned because Kunimi wasn’t one to cry easily.

Kindaichi had only seen them cry whenever they got a bad score on a test, or had an extremely terrible day.

“What happened?” Kindaichi tried to ask his friend, but Kunimi kept on denying that nothing ever happened. “It’s...nothing, let’s just get to practice.”

Pushing open the door to the Volleyball Club room, the pair were immediately greeted with the faces of their Senpais.

“Hello.” “Yo!” “Kunimi! Kindaichi-kun!”

Kunimi walked over to a locker as they placed their things inside, getting undressed, they felt a pair of arms reaching onto their shoulders, slightly flinching at the touch, Kunimi turned and was relieved to see that it was just Oikawa.

“My dearest Kouhai! How are you doing~!” Oikawa excitingly said into Kunimi’s ear. Kunimi moved away from Oikawa’s touch as they slipped on a T-shirt. “Fine.” They mumbled.

Kindaichi slipped away as he didn’t wanna be fussed about too, he loved being the center of attention, just not at certain times.

Kunimi just wished this was a normal day.

Oh they really wished it was.

Chapter 2: Closeted

Summary:

Kunimi accidentally comes out

Notes:

Æ

After getting fussed about by Oikawa, Kunimi’s mood got even worse as they were thinking about their gender identity.

“Why am I even here then?” They mumbled, feeling tensed up.

Walking out of the club room, they walked up to Kindaichi, “it’s been a rough day.” They sniffled.

Kindaichi looked down at his friend, he knew that Kunimi reacted to having bad days differently than most people, so he gave Kunimi a quick hug and told them to suck it up.

Kunimi felt even worse, however, they were distracted from their thoughts as the Coaches called for the team’s attention.

“We want you to fill out this sheet about yourselves, since nobody knows you better than yourselves!” The coaches grinned.

“Who does he think we are? 7?” Kunimi overheard Yahaba whisper under his breath as he reluctantly took the clipboards, and handed them out to the team.

Kunimi took their clipboard and pencil and started to fill out the sheet of paper.

“Name:Kunimi Akira”

That was easy...at least.

Age: 15

Kunimi was quite contempt when they scratched out all the details on the paper, but there was a box that he left blank.

Preffered Pronouns:

Kunimi gripped the pencil as they silently hovered over the question.

It was a easy one...right? All they had to do was write “they/them” on it.

So why were they hesitating?!

Peering around the gym, they watched as more and more people handed in their clipboards.

“Why haven’t you finished yours yet?” Watari asked, Kunimi flinched as they were too busy thinking about the question they were most scared of.

“Ooh! Sorry did I scare you?” Watari said. “N-no you didn’t” Kunimi mumbles, scribbling out the final box.

Handing in their clipboard, Kunimi felt a wave of terror pan through their own body.

“You good man?” Kindaichi asked. Kunimi nodded as they walked away to the club room.

“Practice isn’t over yet!” Mattsun yelled, Kunimi quickly nodded as they walked directly into the club room.

Sitting down, Kunimi didn’t know if they felt happy or scared, after all they had just ran away from their team.

But the peace was disturbed by Oikawa bursting into the club room with great force as he nearly screamed it out loud.

“KUNIMI YOURE NON BINARY?!!!!”

Kunimi jumped, “w-what!”

Everything started to happen at once as Kunimi felt their self going down down down, and everyone around them call out in surprise and shock.

Not this...why this? Kunimi sighed, feeling everything go black.

Chapter 3: Out

Summary:

It goes better than they had anticipated

Rubbing their head, and sitting up, Kunimi anxiously looked around the room that they were in. "Ugh...where am I..." Kunimi muttered, feeling confused and bedazzled why they were in a nurse's office. Surrounded by their teammates, Makki and Mattsun gave each other a look before waving at the teen. "You passed out, and then Mattsun carried you to the nurse's office!" Kunimi felt nervous. "W-what?"

Makki gave a slight grin as he looked over at the teen, Mattsun told me while you were still sleeping that you didn't weigh that much. Almost immediately, Mattsun playfully slapped Makki's shoulder as Kunimi looked at the entrance to the nurse's office, where was Kindaichi? Didn't he usually accompany me? Kunimi thought. "You're finally awake, how do you feel?" The nurse asked. "I feel fine, I can go back to practice now..." Kunimi muttered, as they got up and started walking out.

Makki and Mattsun immediately got up and said their goodbyes to the school nurse as they started walking out along with Kunimi. "Are you sure you feel alright? Because the look on your face says that you're about to throw up." Kunimi glared at the two 3rd years as they rolled their eyes. "I said I'm fine, let's just go back to practice and hope the day doesn't go as bad as it did a few moments ago..."

Stepping back into the gym, Watari immediately greeted the trio with a big smile. "Oh?! Welcome back senpais, and Kunimi-kun!" Kunimi gave a brief hello before they looked around the gym, there was Oikawa, tissue in his nose, followed by a pissed off Iwaizumi. "Shittykawa needed to be taught another lesson again." Iwaizumi grumbled. Oikawa swung his head back at Iwaizumi "It really hurt!" Oikawa shouted.

Spotting Kunimi, Iwaizumi started to push Oikawa over to Kunimi as Oikawa looked at the younger teen. "I'm sorry for outing you in front of the whole team, I've learned my lesson and it won't happen again." Kunimi was just overwhelmed now. "It's no bother, it's totally fine." Kunimi tried to force a neutral tone as they started to get a little anxious.

"By the way...where's Kindaichi?" Oikawa looked back up in shock. "Uh, well about that...I actually do not know where he went...sorry Kunimi-chan." Sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, Oikawa quickly looked around for another answer. Suddenly there was the sound of a door slamming. Yahaba.

"I just saw Kindaichi running past me at the park, I tried asking him why he left practice early today, but he didn't answer me."

Kunimi's eyes widened, had Kindaichi really ditched them?! Pulling out their phone, Kunimi opened their contacts to the one labeled "Onion Head"

Quickly tapping in a message, they prayed that he would answer back, after all that's what friends do right?

"Where did you go onion?"

"...read at 6:24 pm"

Chapter 4: Where?

Summary:

Kindaichi runs away from practice

Notes:

Happy New Year

Kindaichi felt his phone buzz as he ran from Aoba Josai, he couldn't process what had just happened

Had he just ran away from practice without telling the captain? After all he had watched his dearest friend Kunimi get taken to the nurse's office, and Oikawa get screamed at by an extremely pissed Iwaizumi.

Pausing in his tracks, he took out his phone..."one new message from Sleepyhead," the phone buzzed. Kindaichi read the text message, but he didn't respond. "Kunimi...you honestly need to stop bothering me so much, it's kind of annoying." Kindaichi sneered, he hoped no one heard him, but then he saw Yahaba running, why was he running in the first place?

"Kin-Kindaichi-kun…" Yahaba panted, nearly out of breath. "Why are you running?" Kindaichi asked the creampuff haired boy. "I could ask, the same for you." Yahaba muttered, finally catching his breath. Kindaichi looked nervous and uncomfortable, "Don't worry about it, goodbye." Kindaichi muttered, running past the boy, leaving him confused and bewildered. "Weird..." Yahaba muttered under his breath. Running all the way to his neighborhood, he noticed a girl, she had long black hair with a nice side part of bangs, a vape rested on her hand, and she had Aoba Josai's girl's school uniform on. Inhaling a puff of the vape, she blew it towards his direction "You skip school too?" She muttered, taking another puff of the vape.

"Uhh...It's kinda a long story..." Kindaichi muttered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "I ditched the tennis team today, so boring, Masai-san is such a drag, always talking to me about Oikawa-san, he's not that interesting." She smirked, looking at the taller boy, Kindaichi noticed that the girl was tall, she was at least 5'8", Kindaichi looked down at her, "I ditched my volleyball team too, it's kinda a long story, my friend uh, passed out and got sent to the nurse, so I decided to deliver some stuff to his place." Kindaichi lied. "Mmhm." The girl said. "It's Saekawa Myzuno, first year." Kindaichi felt himself blushing a little bit. "K-Kindaichi Yuutarou, first year too, uh well, see you around." Myzuno gave a side glance at the boy before seeing him walk off awkwardly.

"Who allowed him to go outside with that haircut?" She thought. Back at the Seijoh gym, Kunimi anxiously waited for a respond from Kindaichi, "read..." they sighed, as they started to get up and head to the clubroom. "I'll be leaving now, goodbye." Kunimi gave a slight wave as they walked out of the gym.

"Dang, this day has been CRAZY" Makki exclaimed once he was sure Kunimi was gone. Kunimi felt very empty not riding the bus without Kindaichi, he wasn't here to talk to them about strange things that happened throughout the day as Kunimi stepped out of the bus as they walked towards their apartment complex.

"I hate this..." Kunimi whispered, unlocking the door to their apartment. "Mom! I'm home!" They yelled out. Kunimi's mother was the first person that they had came out to, she had been quite confused at first, and had misgendered them unintentionally numerous times, but she got used to using Kunimi's pronouns, and everything was fine. "Hello Akira! Did you have a nice day?"

Kunimi cringed, glancing at the tea pot on the stove. "Yeah...it was a good day...thanks." Kunimi's mother glanced at her child, then turned back around to the teapot. "Well, go take a bath, you smell like sweat." She laughed. "Mooom…" Kunimi grumbled, in a sarcastic way. It was just a fun little thing that they did together, they loved to jokingly play around with each other without harming each other.

Stripping off their clothes, Kunimi got into the bath as they sunk into the warm water, it was comforting, yes. "Why did Oikawa-san scream it?" They thought. Childishly blowing bubbles in the water, they started to get a little teary about what had happened with Kindaichi, why did he run away? Where did he go?

Dunking their entire head in the water, Kunimi closed their eyes, they liked the feeling of being underwater, their hair floating around them, finally standing up, they started to wash their hair. "Don't think too much..." Kunimi thought, they were just happy to be home. They could definitely talk to Kindaichi tomorrow, right?

Chapter 5: Confrontation

Summary:

Kunimi tries to confront Kindaichi, it doesn't really go as planned

The next day at practice, Kunimi decided to talk to Kindaichi face to face. Taking a deep breath in at the clubroom, they watched as Kindaichi entered the clubroom for the first time without Kunimi. Kindaichi didn't even spare a glance towards them as they started to undress out of their school uniform. "He ignored me." Kunimi thought, they were a little hurt, but it wouldn't affect their practice right?

Right?

During practice, Watari and Oikawa noticed how Kindaichi was distancing himself from Kunimi as they were standing far apart from each other. Kunimi looked like they wanted to go speak to Kindaichi, and Kindaichi looked like he was trying to distance himself from Kunimi. "Huh? That's just weird." Watari mumbled. Oikawa kept watch as he observed the two, "that's strange, usually Kunimi-chan is the one who doesn't want to talk, but it seems like they want to say something to Kindaichi, have they switched personalities?" Watari looked up at his captain as he pulled him down by his shirt, "No, I think that only happens in the movies." Watari whispered.

Meanwhile, Kunimi was having a crisis, they desperately wanted to go talk to Kindaichi, but they were not a very talkative person and they constantly relied on having him speak for him while he did nothing else. "Is this why he ditched me?" Kunimi thought, gripping onto a volleyball as they watched Kindaichi spike Yahaba's set. "Nice kill." Yahaba muttered, giving Kindaichi a high five.

Yahaba peered over at the two, then back at the libero and their captain, giving them a weird look. "Are you seeing what we are seeing." Oikawa thought, hoping to telepathically speak to the other setter. Yahaba immediately rushed over, looking at both of them funny. "What's with that look, also, Oikawa, can we go out in the hall, I want to talk to you about something, now, it's urgent."

Oikawa glanced at Iwaizumi who was currently talking to the meme team as he looked back at Yahaba. "Sure, Watari-kun, wanna join us?" Watari gave it a slight thought. "Sure..."

Stepping out in the hallway. Yahaba took a deep breath, "what's with this new tension between Kindaichi and Kunimi-kun." Oikawa and Watari looked at him before speaking. "Yeah, what's with this tension?" "It seems that they have switched personalities." Oikawa muttered, trying to keep it down, fearing that some other groups would overhear them talking about their underclassman.

"It feels like Kunimi is trying to talk to Kindaichi, but Kindaichi doesn't want to talk to him at all." Watari said, placing a hand on his chin, he turned and looked at Yahaba. "Did you see anything strange in Kindaichi when you were giving him some sets today?" Yahaba shook his head.

"No, he seemed normal for the most part." Yahaba muttered weakly. "I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens between them." Oikawa sighed, opening the door to the gym again. "Yeah..." Yahaba muttered, he was nervous, why was he so concerned with business that wasn't even his problem.

Kunimi was feeling very troubled, why were they feeling...so...alone? They wanted a chance to just go up and speak to Kindaichi, they just wanted to sort things out and go back to the way things were before. But why was it...so hard?

"Alright, water break!" Iwaizumi called out, sighing a breath of relief, Kunimi realized that this was their chance to speak to Kindaichi.

Picking up a water bottle and a cold wet towel, they gulped down some of the water before they placed it back into the box. "Kindaichi."

Kindaichi peered over his shoulders, eyes drawing in a line, in annoyance, an expression that he'd never seen directed towards them before. "Make it fast, I don't have time." He muttered, stepping out of the gym, Kunimi followed as they stood directly outside, the humid air hitting their skins like a glass wall. "Um..."

"Why did you run away yesterday." Kunimi muttered. Kindaichi looked shocked, but that was quickly replaced by annoyance. "Why the fuck do you care anyways." He snapped. Shocked at the intense amount of aggression coming from the teen, Kunimi realized this was gonna be harder than they thought.

"Why did you run..." Kunimi tried again, looking at Kindaichi's back, "that's not important at all, so just drop the subject and go, you obviously aren't needed here." He snapped. Kunimi was taken aback, getting upset, they started to argue back. "Why did you leave me in the nurse's office alone, why did you go, I thought we were supposed to be by each other's sides forever." They mumbled.

There was a really long pause in the air as Makki and Mattsun were eavesdropping on the two. "What do you think's gonna happen Makki?" "I dunno."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" Kindaichi screamed, "YOU MAKE EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT YOURSELF AND IT'S GETTING ANNOYING!! Kunimi's eyes widened as they watched as Kindaichi drew back his hand, ready to slap the poor kid.

"Kindaichi!" Makki screeched, running out of the gym as Mattsun rushed close by. But Makki was not fast enough as Kindaichi's hand drew itself across Kunimi's face, making them lose their balance. "Kindaichi! Stop that!" Makki grumbled, taking him by the arm. Kunimi was left on the grass, teary-eyed and miserable, with a red hand print across their face.

When Mattsun and Makki bolted out of the gym, Iwaizumi was the first one to catch their attention as he was the 3rd one to rush out of the gym, trying to stop the conflict.

"Kindaichi! Chill out!" Mattsun yelled, pushing the teen inside the gym. Kunimi stood up, feeling very defeated, had they just got attacked by their best friend, what had they even done to deserve this treatment. "..."

Walking along the halls of the school, Kunimi ducked inside the boy's bathroom, sliding down in a bathroom stall, they buried their chin in their knees as they wallowed in misery at their failed confrontation. "..."

Makki started to walk down the empty halls of the school as he tried to find Kunimi was was nowhere to be seen. "Kunimi? Are you in here?" Makki asked the thin air in the bathroom, there was a faint sniffle in one of the stalls and Makki knocked, waiting for an answer. "Kunimi?"

"What do you want" answered a strangled voice from the other side, they had been crying. "You okay? That was a hard slap." Makki muttered, walking into the stall. "...yeah, it wasn't that bad..." they mumbled. Makki's expression softened. "It's gonna be okay, we're talking to Kindaichi right now, you can go home early." He grinned, leaving the stall.

Kunimi just wanted to go back to a normal life.