Chapter Text
How had he gotten here?
Kei was lying on an unfamiliar floor with his jumper nowhere in sight. He sat up slowly, clutching at his head as pain stabbed through it. He had paper streamers stuck in his hair (he pulled them out as soon as he noticed), his socks had gone missing along with his jumper and his white shirt had a stain on it that looked suspiciously like red wine. His feet were cold. He wanted his socks back. He liked those socks. They had purple stripes on them. Shit, was he still drunk?
The world was somehow blurrier than it should have been, so Kei tried to push up his glasses, poking himself in the eye when he found than they weren’t there. Oh no. What had happened last night? Did he leave his glasses somewhere? A thought came unbidden into Kei’s aching mind: had they gotten broken? No, of course they hadn’t. Oh god, he hadn’t brought any spares with him. He never let his glasses off his face if he could help it, they’d be fine. He had been drunk, who knew what could have happened. They were probably on a side somewhere in Oikawa’s apartment. His mom was going to kill him. Maybe someone had just taken them as a joke. They were gone forever-
“Looking for these?” A voice that sounded like Koushi’s cut through his increasingly more panicked thoughts and Kei squinted up at a figure standing off to his right with something in its hand, held less than a foot away from Kei’s nose. He squinted at them, realised that they were his glasses and pushed them onto his face. The world came into relieving focus.
“Thanks.” The figure, who was most definitely Koushi (no one else would look that refreshed after drinking an entire bottle of vodka and half a bottle of wine to himself the night before), sat down.
“No problem. I saw them on the table and knew you’d be freaking out if you woke up without them.”
“You’re not wrong about that.”
“So… what can you remember about last night?”
“I remember getting to Oikawa-san’s apartment and Iwaizumi being annoyed at Oikawa for skiving off of the preparations for a party that he’d insisted on having. And Hanamaki-san and Matsukawa-san making out in the middle of the kitchen, stopping to jump into the conversation so that they could mock Oikawa-san and then going back to making out before he could even squawk at them. I remember Tendou-san arriving with Ushiwaka and Oikawa-san flipping out about it. Then I had a few shots of your mom’s vodka, more people arrived - who were they? - and… then it gets fuzzy. Care to fill in the gaps?”
Koushi had obviously been waiting for him to ask that last question. Kei shuffled so that they were directly facing one another and he could see Koushi’s gleeful face in all its glory, accompanied by erratic hand gestures that actually made the story a lot clearer than Koushi ever could with words alone. Words were a lot harder for Kei’s sleep and alcohol addled brain to handle than waving arms, but the arms were just a touch on the loud side.
“Okay so, Semi-san was the first one to come in after the miracle couple- did you know that people keep calling him the goth version of me? - anyway, there I was, standing in Oikawa’s kitchen, with a glass of coke with a splash of my mom’s vodka in my hand, minding my own business [Kei snorted at this] when…”
~(^-^)~*
Suga was sitting on one of the work surfaces in Tooru’s kitchen, with a perfect view of the entrance to the apartment, sipping from a pint glass of his mom’s blueberry vodka with a splash of coke in it, when Semi first came in. He didn’t look happy to be there. He looked like he’d been forced to come. He probably had been (Tendou was annoying enough to get anyone to do anything if he pestered them enough). As soon as the miracle couple took their eyes off of him, he tried to make a break for the door but was stopped by a look from Iwaizumi that clearly said ‘Don’t leave me alone with them.’ so he stayed. He sighed, going to stand by Suga in the kitchen.
“Got any tequila?”
“Nah.” Semi tsked and looked bitterly over at Iwaizumi, who already had a drunk Tooru draped over him and looked secretly happy about it. “But we have got four different flavours of vodka, Oikawa’s sister’s wine and a lot of beer. And someone else will probably bring tequila with them.”
“…How expensive is his sister’s wine?”
“I’m not much of a wine guy. You’re probably better off asking Oikawa…”
“Look at him.” Tooru was singing loudly to a song that was completely different from both the song that was playing and the one that it was actually supposed to be. “Would you want to ask him anything at the moment?”
“True. I think I saw a merlot with a fancy looking label. Want to drink our way through it and maybe a few of the other bottles?”
“Haven’t you got your glass of vodka to work through?”
“I’ll come back to it.” Suga waved off Semi’s concerned look with a grin.
“I’ll help you with the merlot but I’ll see where we are before I agree to start another bottle.”
“Let’s do it. Wait a sec though.” Pulling open drawers until he seemed to find what he’d looking for, Suga grabbed a pack of post-it notes, a pen and a roll of sticky tape. He quickly scribbled ‘Property of Koushi’ and a passive aggressive smiley face on the post-it before sticking it to the glass and taping down the sides the note. “So the note doesn’t fall off. Now let’s go!”
They didn’t need to say anything else as Semi started laughing. They picked up a couple of glasses and the wine bottle and went to sit on the sofa to laugh at Tooru from a place with an optimum view. No one else was dancing except Tooru but he didn’t seem to mind as he had Tendou cheering him on and his precious ‘Haji-chan’ almost dancing beside him. Iwaizumi was trying his utmost to hide how pleased he was to hear his boyfriend call him by his first name, shrugging off Tooru’s drunken kisses to his cheeks with a poorly hidden blush and a small smile.
Hanamaki was sitting in Matsukawa’s lap like a king would sit in a throne and, from their spot on the floor, both were hooting at their old teammates, making Iwaizumi blush more and hit Tooru over the head, then storming off to the kitchen get something to drink. Hanamaki insisted that he was actually going to the bathroom so that he could ‘wash off the cooties’, but shook his head, saying that it could never work because he had checked their bathroom cabinet and knew for a fact that they didn’t have any ‘anti-cootirial hand sanitiser’. Matsukawa laughed at his boyfriend’s nonsense and kissed the back of his neck. For this gesture, he was rewarded with an exasperated sigh and a rant about how it had literally just been said that there were no cootie-ridding substances in the flat and how dare he pass on such a deadly disease with the knowledge that there was no getting rid of it. He smiled through the rant, burying his grin in Hanamaki’s shoulder.
Kei, who was sitting next to them in sleepy, giggly, drunken mess, wrinkled his eyebrows and scooted away from the ridiculousness of the couple. He spotted Suga and stood up, wobbling his way over to him, before plonking himself back down in front of the sofa Suga was sitting on and resting his head on Suga’s lap. Semi peered curiously at him but went back to watching Tooru and sipping at his glass of wine in the half-interested way that most people watch soaps.
The door crashed against the wall as it swung open and Kamasaki burst into the room, his loud voice easily heard over both the loud music and Tooru’s singing. The back of his collar was held onto tightly by Moniwa, who looked tired and a little more than just about done with his old teammate.
“Hey! Sorry we’re late. This idiot wouldn’t get off the phone with his boyfriend so we missed our train.”
“Futakuchi is not my boyfriend! He’s nothing but an annoying kouhai, who you decided would be a good choice as captain.”
“You agreed with me! Sasaya agreed with me and he would defend me in saying that you were there when the decision was made and you were the most in favour of Futakuchi becoming captain.”
“Like I’d ever want that idiot to be captain! And Sasaya isn’t here for you to gang up on me with so, ha!”
“…I could call him.”
“No! um… I mean, why would you waste money on calling him? He’s probably busy now anyway, so we wouldn’t want to disturb him. He’s probably making friends with the other people in his dorm and he might with them and… yeah, we wouldn’t want to disturb him…”
“Uh huh. Okay, so where’s the booze? We brought tequila with us because this knuckle head likes it but I wanna know where the beer’s at.”
Semi stood up. The speed of his standing jostled the sleepy Kei, who was sitting near his feet and made an indignant huff that turned into a yawn, and earned a startled noise from Suga, who’s end of the sofa had sunk a little as Semi stood. He paid no attention to either of them, choosing instead to focus on the carrier bag in Moniwa’s grasp. He covered the distance between himself and said carrier bag in three strides, wobbling a little as he came to a stop and the wine that he’d been drinking came into effect, making him dizzy.
“This… this bag has the tequila in it?” Semi’s face was way too close to Moniwa’s for either of them to be comfortable, but Semi was tipsy enough to not give a shit and Moniwa was too shocked to say anything. Instead he gave a jerky nod.
Semi took the bag from Moniwa’s hand (surprisingly gently considering how assertively he’d inquired about its contents) and was gone, disappearing off into the kitchen. Kamasaki followed after him, yelling that he was a thief and that he should at least share the bottle. Iwaizumi passed them on his way out of the kitchen. He pointed at Semi with an eyebrow raised.
“Should I be concerned about that?”
Moniwa shrugged, “The only other person who would want to drink that stuff is this idiot, so no harm done.”
“Hey!”
“Moniwa-kun!” Suga waved over at the two still standing in the entrance, his wine glass held lazily in one hand and Kei’s head still lying on his lap. “Come sit next to me! Semi-san just abandoned me in favour of a lesser beverage, so you need to finish this fancy wine with me in his place.”
“Hello, Suga-san. I’m gonna get myself a beer first and then I’ll sit with you.”
“Beer’s such a dad drink though! You should drink wine like a real mom! Or at least something like vodka. We could be vodka aunts together! Could you get me my glass if you’re going to the kitchen anyway?”
“Sure, which one is it?”
“It’s obvious when you see it. Don’t you worry.” Suga smiled pleasantly at him, stroking Kei’s hair as though he were a small child or a Bond villain’s cat (which made his statement seem a lot more threatening than it really was).
“Okay… Suga-san, are you drunk already?”
“Me?” He laughed. Kei chuckled and wriggled closer to Suga’s legs. “Of course not! I’m a bit hyper, though. I mean, I’m at my first party of university, with a load of old opponents, a boy who used to be my least favourite kouhai but is now one of my best friends and few mom squad friends. And I get to watch as the trash can, whose serve nearly destroyed my volleyball husband’s arms, tries to slut drop. Speaking of that!” Suga looked down at Kei. “Kei, honey, I think you need to show Tooru how it’s really done. I know you’re tired. You’ve had a long day and you always get tired when you drink, but you can still kick his flat ass!”
Smirking, Kei lifted his head off of his makeshift pillow and stood up, stifling a yawn, before walking to stand in front of Tooru. He then did a perfect body roll. Everyone in the room, who had previously been watching to laugh at Tooru, was gob-smacked, to think that someone so tall and awkwardly long limbed could control his body so fluidly. Everyone except Suga, that is, who was looking around at the others in the room with the look of a parent showing off their child’s talents and watching the reactions to them with immense pride. Moniwa decided to wait a bit before going to get his beer.
“You seeing this, Mattsun?” Hanamaki turned face his boyfriend/ throne.
“I most certainly am, Makki!” Taking his arms from around the other boy’s waist, Matsukawa brought his hand his chin and nodded sagely. “It would appear that we have a dance off on our hands.”
“Whatever shall we do?”
“The only thing we can.” He pointedly looked at Tooru and Kei. “Decide the winner.”
“Oh Mattsun! You’re so wise!” Hanamaki threw his arms around Matsukawa’s neck. “What would we have done without your infinite wisdom and sexy eyebrows.”
“I do not know, my love. But it is not something that I would like to imagine and it’s certainly not anything that you should worry your pretty little head about.”
“You think I’m pretty? Mattsun, you charmer!”
“As if you didn’t already know how pretty you are.”
They then proceeded to start making out, unashamedly and loudly. Someone (probably Tendou) whistled and told them to get a room. Matsukawa broke off the kiss briefly - causing Hanamaki to start kissing his lover’s neck instead, trailing kisses over his Adam’s apple, sucking marks onto his pulse point, nudging the collar of his shirt - to agree with the speaker and stood up, lifting in Hanamaki in his arms, and walked across the room and into Tooru and Iwaizumi’s bedroom. So much for them judging the dance off.
Iwaizumi groaned, “I’m going to have to wash the sheets, aren’t I?” No one answered him but they all sent him pitying grimaces. “We have a spare room! Why the hell couldn’t they have gone in there? They were planning to spend the night in it anyway.” He sat down heavily on the seat next to Suga and took a swig from the bottle in his hand. Suga patted his arm comfortingly.
“You could get Tooru to do it?” He tried.
He was answered with a snort of laughter. “As if I’d be able to get that princess to do any of the housework! Nah, it’s fine; I’m used to it.” He looked fondly over at his boyfriend, who was trying out-manoeuvre Kei with some impressive high kicks and a vague sense of rhythm.
Suga followed Iwaizumi’s gaze and watched two of his best friends strip off their socks so as to get a better grip on the floor. Kei seemed to have woken up a bit, but still looked thoroughly bored (although Suga could see the ghost of a smile underneath his condescending smirk) and a bit uncomfortable at being the centre of attention.
On the other hand, Tooru seemed so excited - almost smug - about the number of eyes on him as his hips swayed and he threw his shirt at Iwaizumi, leaving his alien t-shirt in full view. It was strange how he managed to look so sensual and appealing despite his lame choice of clothes and the strange throwing of limbs that was just slightly behind the beat. His skin shone in the low light and he may as well as have been one of the aliens that he so desperately believed in because he did seem almost other-worldly. So far away from the music but also matching it effortlessly.
But he had nothing on Kei.
Kei’s body seemed to be completely part of the music, as though each song had been written with him and his dancing in mind. If Tooru was other-worldly, Kei was so entirely of this world that it seemed to come into focus around him and because of him. As he danced longer and the song changed from classic pop-y party music to alternative to classic rock, he didn’t falter. Instead he fell further into the music and becoming more oblivious to those around him and smiling wider and throwing off his jumper and dancing and dancing and dancing.
[“You’re exaggerating. I would never do any such thing.”
“You did! I was there and I saw it and I want to see it again. I’m sure someone filmed it. I promise you that will find that video and show it to you.”
“…I’d rather you didn’t.”]
Long after Tooru had collapsed on Iwaizumi’s lap, Kei was still dancing. He had been joined by Suga (glass of wine in hand), Misaki from Johzenji (the only girl there), Moniwa (who had given up on getting a beer and was awkwardly flirting with Misaki instead), a very enthusiastic Tendou (who’d dragged a far less enthusiastic Ushiwaka up with him) and a rather dishevelled but very smug Matsukawa and Hanamaki. The last two insisting on either headbanging to the music regardless of what it was or doing a surprisingly decent tango, with a single chopstick between Hanamaki’s teeth (they were very disappointed when they couldn’t find a rose, or any other flower for that matter), to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’.
Tendou was trying to twerk. ‘Trying’ being the operative word. His shoulders were moving more than his ass; only Ushijima was impressed (because he didn’t know what twerking was supposed to be) and everyone else was either groaning in frustration at Tendou’s persistence or laughing at him shamelessly. Tendou didn’t seem to notice (or at least he didn’t seem to care).
Moniwa and Misaki seemed to actually be hitting it off, despite Moniwa’s terrible attempts at flirting. Koushi looked away from them for a moment to say something to Kei and when he next looked back they were passionately kissing. Misaki seemed to have copied one of Matsukawa’s moves and dipped Moniwa and, to his credit, Moniwa didn’t seem to mind in the slightest that she’d taken the lead.
Suga was dancing with Kei. Able to keep up and more. Someone had put a bottle of beer in Kei’s hand, which he was taking the occasional swig from, but he hadn’t slowed his dancing. At some point, he and Koushi had started a sappily slow waltz, the kind that mothers and grandmothers usually do with small children. Twirling the younger, who was giggling and wobbling a little but still moving with all the grace that he’d had when he’d been dancing solo, Suga stumbled over an outstretched leg, spilling some of his wine on Kei’s white shirt. Oops.
Kei didn’t notice. He just kept spinning and laughing, tipping over a little but Suga was able to catch him. Kei buried his face and the continuing giggles in Suga’s shoulder, mumbled something about being tired and fell asleep.
Suga sighed and laid him the sofa next to Tooru and Iwaizumi, before retreating into the kitchen, where Semi was daintily standing on a table, dangling the bottle of tequila above Kamasaki’s head, just out of his reach, then taking a swig straight from the bottle and then dangling it again. Grinning evilly the whole time. Sighing again, grabbed his glass (and the rest of the vodka bottle for good measure), which still had his post-it note on, and found a seat on the floor of the living room.
Moniwa and Misaki had moved into a corner of the room, in the time he’d been gone, and had taken a bottle of wine with them, that they were taking turns at having a gulp from. They seemed to be having an animated conversation about their kouhais from their respective high schools, complaining and boasting about them in equal measure.
Tendou had finally stopped twerking. [“I’m serious, Kei! You just don’t remember how traumatic it was to watch! I’ll be having nightmares for years to come.”] Instead choosing to drag Ushiwaka into a bouncy square dance, because, for some reason, ‘Hoe Down Throw Down’ was on Tooru’s party playlist. (Though Suga did suspect that it actually wasn’t his and Hanamaki had long since hijacked the music- Tooru would never have put the entirety of the Shrek soundtrack, as well as various Disney songs and 90’s rave music, on any of his playlists. Tooru had never been into western music.) Ushiwaka seemed completely indifferent to being pulled around the makeshift dancefloor, if not a little confused, but Suga was sure that he saw a ghost of a smile in that stoic expression.
Matsukawa had produced a bag of party poppers from somewhere; he and Hanamaki had taken a break from their intensive headbanging to harass anyone who wasn’t paying attention by popping them and putting the paper streamers from them in the unfortunate victims’ hair. Kei was the first to get this treatment, followed by Misaki and Moniwa, who were too wrapped up their conversation to notice immediately, and they tried to put some in Tooru’s but were quickly scared off by a glare from Iwaizumi. It was a shame; Tooru would have had the most amusing reaction when he woke up.
Speak of the devil. Tooru seemed to have stirred from his drunken slumber, happy to find himself in his beloved boyfriend’s lap, but annoyed to find Kei so close. To the half-asleep and fully drunk Tooru, Kei was interloping and, because of this, he literally kicked him of off the sofa. Then he snuggled further into Iwaizumi’s chest and fell back to sleep. Luckily (or worryingly, depending on how you chose to look at it), Kei didn’t even stir and managed to fall in such a way that he narrowly avoided hitting his head off of a side table.
Suga tip-toed over and removed Kei’s glasses, placing them on said side table, out of harm’s way. He then retreated back to his vodka and watched as the rest of his company kept drinking and talking and dropping off one by one. Iwaizumi had carried Tooru to their room and hadn’t come back. Tendou had tripped over Ushiwaka’s foot, pulling them both down, and hadn’t gotten back up. Suga had walked over to check they weren’t dead, only to find them curled into each other’s arms and out cold. Misaki and Moniwa had just been talking slower and slower until they just slumped into each other and they filled the intervals between songs with their soft snores. Matsukawa and Hanamaki had just disappeared, but Suga knew that, despite the fact he definitely wasn’t innocent, he wouldn’t want to ruin what little innocence he had left by finding those two. Semi and Kamasaki were still in the kitchen; a quick look around the door frame revealed a Semi who’d fallen asleep on the table, arms and legs spread so that he resembled a star, and a Kawasaki who seemed to have finally stolen back his tequila bottle, drunk the remaining contents and collapsed, leaning against the table leg. By this point, Suga was the only one still awake and he only an inch left in his bottle. He did one last sweep of the room, turning off the speaker that was still playing ‘Holding Out for a Hero’, and then left Tooru’s flat to go and sleep in his own bed. He’d come and check on everyone in the morning.
~(^-^)~*
“Okay… so I fell asleep drunk and you abandoned me on the floor of a flat that I’ve never been to before with a load of people older than me, many of which I’ve never spoken to in my life?”
“That about sums it up.”
“…”
“Come on! It’s not like you don’t know who they are and you’ve played against all of them before. And you’ve won against all of them. And it wasn’t like I wasn’t planning to come back. And Oikawa was here. And-”
“Oikawa-san was in a worse state than I was! And he’s Oikawa!”
“It’s the thought that counts!”
“Yes! It is. The severe lack of it in this case. Couldn’t you have at least put me in a bed or something instead of leaving me on the floor?”
“But Matsukawa-san and Hanamaki-san were in the spare room!”
“I woke up right next to an empty sofa.”
“You’re bigger than me!”
“You could have at least stuck a blanket over me.”
“…Fair enough. But no one else did either.”
“Speaking of them… Where are they?”
“I think Moniwa-kun and Ushiwaka had classes to get to. Ushiwaka carried Tendou-san off with him and left Semi-san on the kitchen table. Kamasaki is still on the kitchen floor. Misaki left for her part-time job so she left when everyone else was still asleep, but I think I saw her write something on Moniwa-kun’s arm before she left. I haven’t seen the Seijoh lot yet.”
“Who cares about what they’re up to. It’s probably better that we don’t know, to be honest. Anyway, we should be getting back to yours. I want to have a bath and I feel gross and my back hurts. I also left my phone in your room.”
“And your head hurts too, I bet.” Koushi chuckled while Kei glared at him. “Okay, let’s get going. Where’re your shoes, socks and jumper?”
“I’ll come back for them. Your place is only downstairs it’s not like I’m going outside or anything.”
“Kei, this is a building lived in by university students exclusively. Do you really want to walk around it barefoot?”
“…Good point.”
The pair spent the next twenty minutes looking around the flat (not going into either of the bedrooms) and eventually finding one of the socks under the sofa, the other was hanging off of a lampshade, Kei’s jumper was being used by Semi (who was still asleep on the kitchen table) as a pillow and his shoes, which had been carefully thrown into the airing cupboard (probably by Iwaizumi, thinking of them as a trip hazard).
They then quickly left and went down the two flights of stairs at an almost dangerous pace. This pace was set by Kei, who was desperate to have a shower and check his phone (Aki might have texted him and he tended to freak out a bit if Kei didn’t reply, as did their mom, who’d promised to call at some point to check if he was still alive at some point during the weekend). Koushi opened the door and let Kei in.
“There are towels in the bathroom already so feel free to use them. I’m going down to the convenience store on the corner to get something for breakfast. They do a really wide variety of onigiri and the people at the till are always so polite. Do want anything? I mean, I’m going anyway.”
“No. Thanks though.”
“Okay, see you in a bit.” Koushi was out the door before Kei could even open his mouth to ask if it was okay to borrow the shampoo. He assumed that it would be.
~(^-^)~*
Kei stepped into Koushi’s room, rubbing at his hair with a towel, and flopped down on the bed. A buzz came from the bed side table; he sat up and saw his phone flashing. Could it be Koushi? No, he’d only left about twenty minutes ago. Who else could it be? He grabbed his glasses from where he’d left them (next to his phone on the table) and pushed them onto his face, picking up his phone.
Kuroo.
To be honest, he’d completely forgotten that he’d texted Kuroo a couple of days earlier (only to see if he had the right number, not for any other reason, of course not), so this was a surprise. What could Kuroo want?
From: Bedhead Blocker
>> Hi Tsukki!!!
Bo + I were wondering if u wud like 2 join us for a 3rd gym reunion w/ Akaashi. If u’re still in Tokyo anyway. There’s a place that we like. Meet us there a 2pm? See you there!!!
Fave Senpai
There was a location attached to the message and the meeting time was a couple of hours away. He had enough to have lunch with Koushi, ask him for directions and get to the café (at least that’s what it looked like to Kei). He replied, agreeing to meet them. It had been a while since he’d seen Akaashi and the fact that he’d be there too was a bit of a relief. Kei wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle Kuroo and Bokuto alone. Yeah, maybe he was looking forward to this afternoon.