Work Text:
Sawamura was having a Bad Day. The kind that starts off by waking up in terror because he accidentally set his alarm to PM instead of AM and missed one of his morning lectures and ends up with him getting yelled at by a customer for five minutes and then having to sit through a demeaning conversation with his manager. Actually no, if the day had ended like that Sawamura would have been happy because he could have just gone back to his dorm, curled up in bed promised himself that tomorrow would be better.
Except for the fact that it was Halloween Weekend and his entire dorm floor was having a massive party. There was no peace to be had and Sawamura, knowing his roommates the way he did, knew his dorm would not be a safe place to stay.
So Sawamura had walked thirty minutes because of course, of course he forgot his bus pass in his room and he had already walked ten minutes to the bus before realizing it and had to endure the disappointed and disgusted looks of the bus driver and passengers when he had to slouch his way back off the bus. Sawamura continued on foot, in the rain because did he mention it was downpouring? It was only naturally storming when he had a twenty minute walk away from campus.
Sometimes Sawamura regretted moving to Tokyo. The city was constantly noisy and crowded, the heat and humidity seemed to stick to him and keep him down for days on end and the winters weren’t any better. He was hours away from his family, who he loved and always knew how to make his days better, and most of his friends had gone to school elsewhere. He had to get a job in a fastfood restaurant where he was continually degraded on a daily basis and he had to nearly quit the volleyball team because his school work was suffering.
University was not all it was cracked up to be. He, along with most of the student body, were on near-constant breakdowns from too much coursework and not nearly enough sleep. Or food. Sawamura had not managed to eat anything all day and his body was suffering for it.
It seemed like Tokyo was rejecting him and Sawamura, the guy who never gave up, was ready to call it quits.
Which led Sawamura to a dingy looking apartment thirty minutes away from his own dorm, staring at a door with no numbers. There was a little hook where the numbers had been but they were long gone. Stolen or broken.
Sawamura was dripping on the tiled floor of the hallway as he stared at the unmarked door, thinking about turning around and maybe camping out at the library. He had done it before, more times than he was willing to admit to, and he really didn’t feel like pushing his bad mood onto anyone else. Especially not the two people that seemed like Tokyo’s only saving grace at that moment.
The door was pulled open before Sawamura could make the decision to walk away or stay and a body came into view. Bokuto looked surprised to see Sawamura, but that surprise quickly gave way to elation as he grinned widely at him.
“Daichi!” Bokuto hopped happily over to him before hugging him with no care to the fact he was getting wet. “I thought you were pizza, but you’re much better than pizza.” Sawamura was dragged inside the apartment.
“Was it pizza?” Kuroo called out from the living room.
“No it’s Daichi!” Bokuto shouted back.
“Oh, I couldn’t tell with you hollering out in the hall.” Kuroo snickered, something sounded like it was dying on the tv.
“You cheater, I paused the game!” Bokuto pulled Sawamura towards the living room.
“Bo, I’m going to get the floor wet.” Sawamura complained though he didn’t try to pull back.
“That’s fine, he can clean up the water when he goes to clean up the soda he dripped all over the floor and still hasn’t cleaned up.” Kuroo said without glancing up as he killed a video game character on the screen. By Bokuto’s anguished yell Sawamura could guess it was Bokuto’s character.
“Why are you walking out in the rain?” Bokuto asked, getting over his character's death quickly.
“Obviously he’s come to make a dramatic love confession to us, does he have a boombox or flowers?” Kuroo asked, turning around and looking over Sawamura before tossing the controller onto the old couch and getting up. He disappeared down the hall before anyone could answer him as Bokuto helped, or more like manhandled, Sawamura out of his backpack and coat.
Kuroo walked back out to the living room with a smile.
“Towel and clothes are in the bathroom, you can even use all our hot water to take a shower if you want.” Kuroo offered. Considering their ancient pipes only gave about five minutes of hot water that offer was equal parts generous and not. Sawamura nodded and made his way to the bathroom silently.
Sawamura told himself he would tell them they didn’t have to stay with him. They were clearly heading out, considering they were both dressed in costume. Well, as much as a costume broke college students could afford. They were wearing teenage mutant ninja turtle shell shirts with matching masks over their eyes, Bokuto’s in orange while Kuroo’s was purple. It was Halloween weekend, there was a party every five steps.
The sweatpants were Bokuto’s, a little baggy with a tear in the knee and a permanent reddish brown stain on the thigh but soft and comfortable. The shirt was one of Kuroo’s from work. He worked at a store that made customizable tshirts, it was mostly for tourists but it was also run by a bunch of college kids so they continually making their own, usually with dirty English sayings on them.
Sawamura hung his wet clothes over the shower door before walking out, he could hear Bokuto and Kuroo arguing about what the proper use of a cheater was.
“Hey hey hey Daichi! The pizza just arrived.” Bokuto said with excitement and they both looked like they were waiting for Sawamura to appear before eating. Sawamura sat down in between the two. “We saved a creamsicle flavor just for you.” Bokuto presented the neon orange soda to Sawamura with flair, he couldn’t help but smile a little at that.
“Thank you,” Sawamura said, which seemed to be the cue for them all to start digging into the pizza boxes. “You two don’t have to stay in for me, I think I’m going to head to bed right after I eat.”
“What made you think we’re going out?” Kuroo asked as Bokuto piled two slices of pizza on top of each other before taking a large bite out of both.
“You’re in costume?” Sawamura glanced at both of them. Kuroo and Bokuto shared a look before Kuroo grinned.
“We always dress up for each other.” Kuroo said as Bokuto nodded.
“We like to look good.” Sawamura gave them a confused look. “It’s date night! We can go out any other night but all three of us haven’t been able to get together in a while.” Bokuto complained, dropping his head on Sawamura’s shoulder.
“We missed you.” Kuroo shrugged like he wasn’t blushing at the admission. He turned towards the tv, using the controller to push play on a movie they had queued up on netflix. Sawamura noted that it was one of the movies he had expressed interest in before.
Sawamura swallowed the sudden lump in his throat down as he slowly started to eat, letting himself relax into his boyfriends. Ever-restless Bokuto continually bumped his leg against Sawamura’s as he quickly devoured an entire pizza by himself. Sawamura pressed his leg against Bokuto’s, watched as the other man almost immediately calmed down.
Sawamura had been surprised at how easy a relationship was between the three of them. He had come to Tokyo with an aching heart. Yui and him hadn’t broken up on bad terms but they both knew their lives were heading in different directions and it would only be difficult for both of them separated by so many miles. It had been an easy friendship, the one he shared with Bokuto and Kuroo. Surprisingly easy considering how Sawamura once thought the only thing they all shared in common was volleyball. It was a strong enough connection to get them through the first few stages of friendship until Sawamura found himself at Kuroo and Bokuto’s shared apartment more often than his own dorm.
Once they were all done eating Kuroo stood up and walked down the short hall to a bedroom before coming back with his arms full of blankets. Bokuto had laid down, his head propped up on Sawamura’s thigh and his long legs hitched over the arm of the couch. Kuroo spread a blanket over Bokuto before making him lift his head so he could put a second one over Sawamura. Kuroo then curled up under the blanket with Sawamura, leaching warmth from Sawamura who pressed a lingering kiss to his temple in thanks.
Sawamura carefully ran his fingers through Bokuto’s hair. Between classes, volleyball, and a part time job Bokuto hardly ever had time to see to his hair. He had long since deviated from the spiked horns and for special occasions, or what Bokuto considered special occasions, he did it in a sort of messy pompadour style. Kuroo’s own hair had grown longer throughout the years. It was long enough now to put in a small ponytail at the nap of his neck, though after months of dealing with it falling in his face constantly Kuroo would go have it all cut off.
They had all grown in their own ways over the years. Sawamura and Kuroo wore glasses more often, the latter often times “losing” them after all nighters only to discover they were on top of his head. Bokuto had actually grown taller and they all had bulked out more as they went from growing awkward teenage bodies into adulthood.
“Feeling better?” Kuroo asked as they went onto their third movie of the night. He was absentmindedly tracing the muscles and veins in Sawamura’s hand, carefully running the pads of his fingers over the swollen knuckles on Sawamura’s middle and ring finger.
Sawamura nuzzled Kuroo’s hair in answer, complete contentment making him feel more relaxed than he had in days, perhaps weeks. He knew his previous doubts mostly came from sleep deprivation and hunger. They all had bad days but Sawamura had gotten so used to trudging through his own bad days that he forgot that he had two very willing boyfriends who were more than happy to spend a night in with him. To order pizza from his favorite place even though it’s more expensive and to save him the last orange drink and watch period movies where the subtitles sometimes don’t even make sense. They were willing to do that the same way Sawamura was willing to put off papers to let Bokuto curl up against him in bed, with the blinds closed tight and soft rock music playing from his phone just because Bokuto had a bad day and all he really needs after one is some physical contact. The same way Sawamura ignores Kuroo’s biting remarks when he’s on his third all nighter trying to finish a project that four people were suppose to work on but they all left everything for Kuroo to do. Sawamura would carefully extract Kuroo from his open laptop and multiple books and notes to push him gently towards the bathroom before saving his work. Kuroo would come out almost forty minutes later, looking ashamed and like a wet kitten before Sawamura would help him dry his hair, letting him know silently that it was alright.
Everyone had their bad days.
Sawamura sighed in contentment, letting his heavy eyelids close and thinking about how it wasn’t that bad of a day after all.