Chapter Text
“Ah...shit.”
Yahaba wearily reaches his arm across the bed and pats the bedside table in search of his phone. The sun is just rising, and he can’t find the energy to open his eyes just yet.
He feels the familiar shape of a phone, picking it up and bringing it to his face. When he opens one eye he’s met with a screen displaying a photo of a dog, leaning over the camera and looking curiously at it. It seems as if the photographer had been knocked to the ground by the animal, explaining the angle.
Obscuring it, a few notifications, mostly messages. The one on top reads
Akane
HOW WAS LAST NIGHT!! DID YOU MEET NEW PEOPLE? HAVE YOU FINALLY TALKED TO YOUR TEAMMATES? WHAT ABOUT THE ONE YOU HATE ^^? Or is that all of them???
(5:59 am)
It takes the entire message for Yahabas early-morning brain to process that he knows no one named Akane, he always talks to his teammates, and he’s also never seen that dog in his life.
He makes a small noise at the realization, quickly setting the phone back on the nightstand face down and grabbing his own from right beside it.
The startle also makes him aware of the arm holding onto him loosely and the legs intertwined with his own under the covers. He stops all movement, waits for Kyoutani to say something.
All he gets in response though is the slow rise and fall of a chest against his back and he breathes a sigh of relief, turning on his phone and beginning to scroll through it. Instead of a dog, he’s met with the lock screen of a boy, looking away from the camera and out upon a rainy, grey city. He smiles at the image, opening his messages.
Separate from the usual ongoings of previous conversations, he has a single notification from Oikawa, asking how the night went. It was sent only shortly after he had fallen asleep.
Knowing he doesn’t have the mental willpower to come up with a clever, believable long-winded not-technically-untruthful story as he usually does with the captain, he simply types out a
Yahaba
It was fun. Hung out with my group and saw the fireworks. Rode the Ferris wheel too. You should become an event organizer!
(8:01 am)
and leaves it at that.
He moves to check the rest of his alerts when his other eye opens in surprise and he quickly goes back to the message he had sent, looking over it again.
8:01 am.
“Damnit,” he mutters, reluctantly setting his phone back down. They leave the hotel at 9:30 am.
He carefully turns his body to face the other boy in hopes of not disturbing him. Not that the cautiousness does much, them being pushed together no matter which way they face.
He eventually is able to sink into the mattress comfortably again, this time face to face with a sleeping Kyoutani.
He brings his hand up, tapping the boy's nose once.
It warrants no reaction, so he does it again, with sound effects.
“Beep beep beep,” he says in tandem with the three boops of a nose.
Kyoutanis face scrunches just a bit at that, but he doesn't stir much after.
Yahaba weaves his arm out from underneath him and softly presses two fingers to both of Kyoutani’s eyelids. He can feel the eyelashes brushing his fingers as he murmurs a “booop”.
Kyoutani moves his head this time, away from Yahabas touch and into the pillow. He grunts, not awake enough yet to process anything happening.
“Mrn.”
Yahaba pinches his cheek.
“Squee.”
“What the fuck are you doing…” Kyoutani forces out, sinking into his shoulders in an attempt to make Yahaba stop.
“What’s the code to make you wake up? Wake up.”
He touches Kyoutanis forehead, poking it several times in different places, mimicking the motion of punching in a passcode.
“Leave me alone..”
“We have to leave in an hour,” Yahaba says, then immediately reaches up to pat Kyoutanis head.
“Bomp Bomp Bomp.”
Kyoutani groans, shuffling his whole body away and curling in on himself. Yahaba only frowns slightly at the loss of an arm around his torso.
He sits up in the bed, rolling his neck until he hears a crack he can be satisfied with.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the one to wake up early?”
“Emotionally worn out,” Kyoutani replies, muffled by the pillow.
Yahaba looks down at him, and finds Kyoutani had already been watching. He smirks.
“Wonder who could have caused that.”
Kyoutani smiles back, then closes his eyes, turning to hide his face.
“Your hairs a mess.”
Yahaba pats his head and then hops out of the bed, stretching his limbs.
“Cmon, we gotta pack.”
--☆--
“Last two again! Not looking good, Yahaba-chan.” Oikawa says, holding onto a bag slung around his shoulder. Iwaizumi stands behind him, multiple duffle bags and suitcases decorating his person as if he were a Christmas tree.
Yahaba waddles out of the elevator, Kyoutani following closely behind. Yahaba bows slightly.
“Sorry. I woke up late.”
“No need for excuses Yahaba-chan, as long as you’re here right? With Maddog, too! He looks less blood-thirsty, what have you done?!”
Yahaba glances behind him and is immediately two inches away from the glaring eyes of Kyoutani. He quickly turns back.
“Looks just as angry as usual to me,” he says.
“Oh well, the bus is arriving in a few minutes, everyone gathers your things!” Oikawa turns away, shouting to the rest of the team.
“What’s going on here?”
Yahaba nearly jumps out of his skin at the voice, and is knocked back at the same time by Kyoutani behind him, who had presumably done the same thing. He turns around, met with Matsukawa holding onto a suitcase. He stands straight up, casual, as if he hadn’t just teleported behind the two boys.
“Shit. What...?” Yahaba breaths out, inching his own bag up his back. Kyoutani makes a lackluster attempt at regaining his bearings beside him.
Matsukawa smiles, slouching in on himself as he shoves his hands into his jean pockets.
“You two. You’re painfully obvious,” he says, as if commenting on the weather.
“We’re-”
“-Let me guess,” Matsukawa interrupts, smiling.
“You two hated eachother, but there’s always been that sort of heavy tension you’ve never been able to break. You come to this mandatory trip, which if you read the fine print on the form, you’d know wasn’t actually mandatory-”
“--hold on, what--”
“--Only to find out that you’ve been roomed with the guy you’ve had unmistakable tension with forever. And there’s one bed, to top it off. You try to fix it, you can’t. So you convince yourself it’s going to be a miserable trip, only to slowly come to the realization that it isn’t that bad. You keep hanging out with said guy willingly and give up on the running from the tension. And by doing this, form feelings for him which are reciprocated. You keep it on the down-low in fear of embarrassment, but it’s futile, because everyone knows.”
Yahaba can only stare wide-eyed at the boy in front of him. Kyoutani shifts uncomfortably next to him.
“How…”
Yahaba watches as Matsukawa takes a step closer to them. Kyoutani takes a cautious leap back, but Yahaba stays put, intent on holding onto what’s left of his dignity at this point.
“Because,” Matsukawa leans down the slightest bit, now level to Yahaba, “that’s what happened to everyone.”
“...What??”
Matsukawa straightens out, and then nods his head in a gesture to the rest of the lobby.
Watari and Shido sit on one side of the couch, Watari leaned into Shido’s shoulder, yawning. On the other side, Kunimi and Kindaich reside, knees touching as they both lean over a phone to watch something.
Sawauchi and Yuda are leaning against the far wall, discussing whatever, probably video games, if Yahaba had to guess.
Iwaizumi, Oikawa, and Hanamaki are huddled in a group, Oikawa gestures wildly as he talks to them.
It’s only then that it dawns on Yahaba.
“Oh my god.”
“It’s funny of you to think that Oikawa wouldn’t take one of his last chances at pairing everyone up before he has to leave,” Matsukawa says. “And I think it’s even more hilarious you believed the whole ‘randomized’ thing. It wasn’t ‘The Odds’ of you and Maddog being roomies. It was intentional. Everything was intentional.
...besides the one-bed thing. That was just you guys.”
Yahaba turns back around to Matsukawa.
“You knew this whole time?”
“No. Only Iwaizumi. They tried to do the same thing to me and Hanamaki. It was kind of pointless though since we were already dating.”
Kyoutani perks up at that.
“You guys are already dating?!”
“Yeah. Oikawa was pretty pissed at that too.” Matsukawa smiles, a fond look overtaking his features.
“Us two figured it out almost immediately when we recognized who was getting off with who where on the elevator. It was kind of fun watching everyone go through their own little love stories.”
“Wow…shit.” Yahaba exhales, looking around the room helplessly. Everyone is paired with, what he can only assume now are, their significant others.
He meets Kyoutanis gaze, the boy he hasn’t officially labeled as anything yet.
“Oikawa definitely knows something is up with you two now, but he doesn’t know that you guys are dating yet,” Matsukawa says.
“...Dating, yeah.”
“You could milk it. Pretend like you hate each other until graduation and make him suffer throughout it.” Matsukawa shakes his head a bit, moving the hair out of his eyes.
“Making Oikawa suffer does sound fun,” Kyoutani says, thoughtfully.
Yahaba glares, elbowing the boy next to him and sighing, looking to the floor.
“I feel like I’ve been lied to.”
“If it’s any consolation, Iwaizumi tried really hard to stop the plan once he found out what Oikawa was doing,” Matsukawa says. Then he glances up, making an ‘o’ shape with his mouth.
“Bus is here,” he says, then places a hand on Yahabas shoulder.
“Don’t feel bad about it. Just another excuse to play pranks on Oikawa and make him miserable. An opportunity.”
“...Yeah,” Yahaba mumbles, then turns around, walking towards the exit.
“Cmon.”
The bus is filled with a soft, yellow light. Yahaba boards behind Kyoutani, setting his bag underneath a seat and sitting down next to him. He sends a smirk Wataris way as he does so, which is returned with an eye-roll and a yawn.
Kyoutani leans his head against the warm glass, closing his eyes when the bus starts to move. The atmosphere is quieter this time around, Yahaba can only assume from the reminiscing of the last couple of days. A moment of reflection.
He takes a deep breath, sinking into the fabric of his hoodie and looking down at the floor.
“Tired?” he asks.
Kyoutani grunts, nodding his head.
Yahaba nods as well, even though he knows Kyoutani cant see him.
He rolls his shoulders, letting himself fall over onto Kyoutanis shoulder. The other boy lets out a small “oof,” at the action, but quickly relaxes at the touch.
Yahaba only sees the face of Mattsun turned around in his seat, smiling, before closing his eyes and dozing off once again, the sound of soft chatter, warm light, and an arm around his waist lulling him to sleep.
--☆--
When Yahaba wakes up it’s to the sound of shuffling feet and blurring chatter. He opens his eyes, slowly, leaning up and stretching his arms above his head. When he looks to his right, he can see the familiar shape of their school, and he almost feels a pit in his stomach at the sudden realization that their team vacation has officially ended.
“You sleep a lot,” Kyoutani says, next to him. He’s looking at the ground; away.
Yahaba knits his eyebrows together, a feeling of dread settling in his chest.
“Yeah.”
Kyoutani sighs, standing up and reaching for his bag. Yahaba follows, throwing his belongings over his shoulder and stepping out into the hallway, leaving room for the other boy to get in front of him.
They don’t say anything to each other as the rest of the team slowly begins to file out of the bus. Yahaba watches as Shido and Watari laugh at nothing when they walk out, close together, and the pit in his stomach only makes itself more prevalent.
They both step down onto the sidewalk, the warmth from the sun more burning now, a reminder that time has passed, and with it changes have been made, even though just a few hours ago the sun's rays had been weaker.
And to think the heat had always given Yahaba comfort-- now he’s unsure.
People jump down beside him, blurring conversations surrounding the bus stop. Everyone lingers at the drop-off, except for one. When Yahaba looks around, Kyoutani is gone already, away from the team. He had become so used to that presence stuck to his side amongst crowds, he suddenly feels lonely.
The simple routine he had followed during his time at Seijoh-- visiting the same school, the same gym, the same friends, and seeing the same sun every day, he finds himself yearning for a change of pace, for something more.
The sound, the environment, fades out of existence, and it’s just him and one other.
He looks up, ahead of him, to unknown opportunities and what lies beyond. Ahead of him, Kyoutani walks away, back turned and hands in his pockets. Heading somewhere away from here, from Seijoh, from normalcy, a place Yahaba has never been, dared to go.
And for the first time, he takes a step forwards into the new, burning light, one that has become too familiar.
And, in the sky, too bright for his eyes.
“Kyoutani!!”
Kyoutani stops, hesitates for a second before twisting his head to look at Yahaba. He wears a pout, a tired expression, from lack of sleep or something else Yahaba doesn’t know. His short hair waves only the slightest bit in the wind, in the heat, and Yahaba knows he wants to touch that skin, that hair, hold that hand, see that pout forever. Kyoutanis chest rises once, a deep inhale.
“What?”
“...Let's go stargazing sometime.”