first steps (Reo, Riko)

Reo is not late for his first practice with Seirin. It's something of an unintended consequence of the overwhelming series of events over the past few days; he would have been a few minutes late if he had had to take the train from Kirisaki Daiichi, but his parents didn't even consider sending him back to school until the transfer is complete, so he took an earlier train than necessary. The commute from home to Seirin is shorter than the one from home to Kirisaki Daiichi would have been if he hadn't stayed in the dorm there, which is good, because his parents also aren't considering allowing him to stay anywhere except home for the foreseeable future.

(It's meant not as a punishment, but as a reassurance for all of them: for his parents that he's close under their watchful gaze, and for him that. Well. That they still want him around. After what he did.)

(The dorm room was Mako-chan's idea, anyway.)

He half-expects to be yelled at as he enters the gym, or possibly just laughed at, to find out that the whole thing was some kind of hallucination or joke. Neither of those things happens, of course. Reo is earlier than he thought he'd be, and the gym is mostly empty.

Aida Riko is there, though, and Reo grabs on to the obvious protocol with some relief - of course it's appropriate for him to present himself to his new coach.

"Aida-san," he says, bowing as he reaches her.