Sanada found himself sharing with Fuji Syuusuke for the Invitational Training Camp in his second year of high school. It wasn’t ideal - he didn’t like Fuji’s sense of humour in the least - but it could have been a lot worse. After all, they could have put him with Atobe or Sengoku again.

Although he’d never admit it, it was partly to avoid his roommate that he was walking outside that evening. Everyone else had either turned in already, was talking in the common room or was part of the raucous drinking game going on in Sengoku’s room. As a result, he almost walked past the boy sitting on the floor in the corner of one of the courts, knees pulled tight to his chest.

It only took a moment to place him: Sanada had noted Ibu-kun a while back, back when Rikkai had played Fudomine in junior high. Their victory had been overwhelming but he knew a promising player when he saw one and their Nationals performance later that year had confirmed it. What had thrown him for a moment was that Ibu was, for once, completely silent.

Sanada paused. Despite what people though, he wasn’t completely oblivious and even he could tell that there must be something wrong for Ibu to be sitting outside in the dark.

“Ibu-kun?”

At that, he raised his face and Sanada though he saw tear streaks down his face, though it was hard to tell in the dark. He sat down beside him, putting a hand uncomfortably on his shoulder and wondered that he found the silence disconcerting.

“Do you want to tell me what’s up?”

That seemed to do it.

“I don’t know why I’m here and Kamio isn’t. Really it was very inconsiderate of Tachibana-san to move away after junior high because it means that I’m here on my own and I don’t really know anyone except Momoshiro and there’s no way I’m going to talk to him because he’s too loud and if I go back to my room he’ll be there and I don’t want to talk to him right now.”

“Who are you rooming with then?”

Maybe he could do this comfort thing after all - at least Ibu was giving him plenty of information about what was wrong. Ibu gave him a flat look.

“Mizuki from Saint Rudolph.”

Sanada winced inwardly: even if Ibu did have teammates here, that would be sufficient justification to be hiding outside. Even Sengoku had to be better than that. Still, he did wonder exactly what Mizuki had done to spook his roommate this much.

“I roomed with Atobe last year,” he said, looking carefully straight ahead. “After playing doubles with him, I suppose they thought we’d get on. The idiot gets up at 5 every morning to moisturise and do his hair and everything. I have Fuji this year, which isn’t so bad.”

“Which one? Yuuta’s nice: he plays at the street courts sometimes when he gets sick of Mizuki. I kind of pity him for having to put up with Mizuki all the time but he doesn’t seem to mind.”

“I have the older one. Syuusuke.”

“He‘s a bit strange sometimes but he‘s quite nice really and I want to play him in singles sometimes because doubles is quite different….”

“Do you want to come inside now?” Sanada asked, cutting him off in a way that didn’t seem to surprise or offend Ibu. Perhaps he was so used to it now that it had stopped bothering him.

Ibu cocked his head slightly and got up, allowing Sanada to lead him back into the building without protest.

Sanada brought them back to the common room. He hesitated to send Ibu up to Mizuki already and would in no way encourage him to join Sengoku. Yukimura raised an eyebrow when he saw them come in, Ibu practically leaning into Sanada’s side. Not that he could talk, the way he was sprawled halfway across Tezuka, who was reading with remarkable composure, given the chaos in other parts of the room. Sanada assessed the other members of the room - apparently most of the Seigaku members had vanished upstairs already and he had a feeling that they were who Ibu would feel most comfortable being left with.

“Will you be okay sitting with Yukimura and Tezuka for a bit?” he asked, carefully moderating his voice. “I need to talk to Fuji quickly and then I’ll be over.” At least if he was with those two no one would dare bother him. Besides, those two were former captains: they were more than capable of dealing with a skittish player.

With a glance to make sure that Yukimura had realised the state Ibu was in, he headed across the room to where Fuji was playing Hyotei’s Oshitari at cards.

“Fuji, a word please.”

Fuji looked up and smiled, following him with a nod of apology to Oshitari.

“What’s up? If you want to go to bed, I promise I’ll be quiet when I come in.”

“I’d appreciate it if you kept this private but I found Ibu-kun from Fudomine outside looking upset.”

Fuji looked worried. He’d forgotten that Fuji was friends with Tachibana, so presumably felt somewhat protective of Fudomine.

“Anything I can help with?”

“He’s not dealing well with being the only Fudomine player here. On top of that he’s rooming with Mizuki,” Sanada said plainly. A hard look came into Fuji’s eyes. “Would you switch rooms with him tonight?”

“Share a room with Mizuki?” Fuji said and Sanada was reminded of all the rumours about Fuji which he’d never quite believed before. “On the condition that you give me free reign, I can guarantee he won’t do anything to Shinji-kun again.”

Sanada bowed a thank you, collected Ibu and took him upstairs. Handing him a spare pair of pyjamas, he pointed him towards the bathroom and impulsively reached out to ruffle his hair. Ibu leaned into his hand slightly like a cat. Watching him go, Sanada couldn’t help but think that, for someone Akaya’s age, he was surprisingly cute.