Chapter Text
Nishinoya dressed the children into the new pajama sets the two had bought just before receiving them into their home. Sure, it was totally an impulse buy, but the looks on their faces when they revealed them earned Asahi a smug ‘I told you so’ look from the other.
One PJ set wasn’t a-too-loud-or-proud colored light blue, and sported five different dinosaurs on them. Each dinosaur represented a Zord from the newest Power Rangers release of the time, and all roared fiercely on the soft cotton. The fit, unfortunately, was on the shorter side. Truth be told: it may not fit him for very much longer.
The other: completely opposite. A strong, dark green splashed the fleece pants, accompanying the scattered white volleyballs. The black long sleeve piece set to match, had one singular volleyball in the middle of the chest and the number ten printed on the back, just like the tiny giant. It’d fit perfectly, too. There was even room to grow.
Tadashi’s smile refused to leave his face, and he hardly felt like sleeping. His pajamas were so cool! He’d never received anything so awesome in his life! These people were so nice and kind. Wow, weren’t he and Kei so lucky.
It seemed the latter was happy as well. His pajamas fit his personality like a charm and, well, he couldn’t say that he didn’t like dinosaurs. Because, oh boy, he did. The color was also really nice. Not too...bright.
Not too...much like Tadashi’s smile, that was. Besides, his smile was so infectious that even Asahi and Nishinoya were given new energy and life after the exhausting day. If his pajamas’ blue matched the brightness of that grin, he’d catch the eye of everyone within the whatever-Miyagi-Prefecture’s-mile-radius-was and wouldn’t let go of said attention ever.
“Alright, we’re really happy you both love your pajamas, but it’s time to rest now,” Asahi said after brushing their teeth and administering medications as needed. He and ‘Noya corraled both of them into their room—which was chock-full of awesome toys and cool posters and painted with a hand-picked solid light-green—and helped them into bed.
They’d built the bunk themselves. With the help of Daichi and Suga, who were veterans to the whole foster and adoption system, of course. Each piece of wood and even the desk that was built into the side was all handmade. Even the repaired door frame of their room was redone with care, however only after ‘Noya had taken a giant baseboard piece off while charging in with a piece of the bed.
“Go to sleep now, we’ve got a big day tomorrow!” Noya grinned and flicked off the light after each respective child climbed into their bed and was properly tucked in. Head ruffles and warm smiles later, the door clicked shut and their own sigh of relief escaped each of their lips.
“Kids are so exhausting, wow,” Asahi whispered, rubbing the back of his neck. When his eyes shut as he grinned, it was then Nishinoya finally noticed the usual anxiety dark circles. The shadows that plagued his partner's eyes were more clear, looking more like heavy baggage than anything else.
“Asahi, have you been able to sleep normally lately?” He broke the silence when Asahi got the uncomfortable vibe that ‘Noya was on to him, and strode to do the dishes. There were hardly any left, but it would pry his eyes away from his significant others’ piercing glare.
Geez, why did he have to know so flipping much just from looking at him? Why did he have to be so easy to read all the time? He was supposed to be the strong one! Even if he wasn’t an ace anymore, he still needed to step up.
“Not exactly, but you don’t need to worry anything about that. I’ve just been—”
“Anxious? About the kids?”
“Yeah. You know I’ve been worrying.”
“Of course I know you’ve been worrying. You have all the nerves for both of us all worried-up. Just relax, Azumane,” He said quietly, smiling, and then burying his face in his back, between his shoulder blades, “It’s okay.”
Although competitive volleyball no longer remained on the forefront of the former ace’s mind, staying in shape was. He worked out every morning, or during the night, whichever time his brain disallowed him to find peaceful rest. So, although volleyball muscle was somewhat different, Nishinoya found Asahi’s strength comforting, just like he did back when they played for Karasuno together.
Wrapping his arms around his torso, ‘Noya gave a reassuring squeeze and huffed out a breath into his shirt, “Everything will be okay, Azumane. They’re great kids and did you see the way they were smiling like maniacs at those pajamas? They loved them. They love us and we’re going to do our best to make these the best years of their lives. You can’t lose sleep forever, you know. Just rest. I’m still guarding your back, you know. I didn’t let the ball touch the floor when I was the libero for Karasuno, and I won’t allow everything to shatter to pieces here. Have a little faith in yourself and us.”
“You’re right, Yuu. Thank you,” He flicked the steaming water off, dried his hands, and turned. Holding ‘Noya’s arms in place as he did so, he leaned forward slightly. A hug engulfed the shorter of the two, and a top-of-the-head-kiss was given, “We got this. We can do this. Together.”
Right on. Nishinoya grinned, grabbed his hand, and squeezed it tight, “Let’s get some rest, now. You need sleep, too. No working out in the middle of the night tonight.”
Tonight. But what about tomorrow night?
Tomorrow’ll worry about itself, Azumane.
Asahi nodded and followed him to their room, changing into their own pajamas as well.
‘Noya in his usual fleece pants and shirtless style, while Asahi went with the usual: boxers and a hoodie.
No socks. For either of them.
Sleeping in socks was the equivalent of admitting to exist as a serial killer.
Alas, neither of them did. And, furthermore were pleased to know that the two new additions to their family didn’t either.
After planting a kiss on Nishinoya’s forehead, Asahi flipped off his overhead lamp and flopped underneath the covers. Closing his eyes, he gave in to the fatigue. But, the familiar nervousness and anxiety-induced self awareness gnawed at him.
Azumane had never been a good, sound sleeper. Yuu knew that much. All of that anxiety and nervousness combined with his rampantly running mind. It never really worked. Therefore, he generally fell asleep with their hands interlocked, taking comfort in the gentle calluses plaguing the libero’s hands.
Lulling the smaller of them to sleep each night helped him sleep, too. His thumb ruffling right over each knuckle put him at ease. Since he and ‘Noya had met, he had found sleeping to be easier, but not much better quality. Not to mention Nishinoya was a flopper, and likened to a dying fish most nights.
Didn’t bother, though. He’d pay his life or all of the money in the world just to keep his best friend and partner around. No matter how annoying he could be. No matter how many times he’d kick him awake or startle him or completely roll on top of him, he’d still love him to pieces. He’d still love him more than all the stars in the sky. No sun could ever love the galaxies as much as he, Asahi Azumane, loved Yuu Nishinoya.
Or, as of extremely recently: Yuu Azumane. But really, that was the more formality of it. Most of the time, they’d call each other by their birth, reversed last names or first names interchangeably. It was more formality verses an actual, y’know, change. Especially because they argued incessantly over whose name would be taken after the wedding. So, they stuck with both and slapped Asahi’s on the official papers, or whatever.
Where were those papers, anyway? Who knows.
Not long after the libero’s breathing evened out, Asahi followed in a lighter...daze sort-of-thing. Not exactly sleeping but not exactly thinking either. Just resting, he supposed.
Moments...or possibly minutes, or hours, passed. All within the smaller house was quiet. None stirred. Right up until a certain someone couldn’t sleep and refused to be able to.
Looking back, the two found it peculiar. How could he trust them after just a few hours of getting acquaintanced? Sure, the stars in his the other’s eyes betrayed the two children. Even in the sense of the adoration Yama’ had accumulated in the recent minutes, it still remained somewhat confusing.
But not suprising, however. Daichi and Suga told them that the first few days were super-duper important to the relationship between the kids and themselves. Because of their age, only nine, and backgrounds, they’d form relationships and trust extremely rapidly. And even yet, it made little-to-zero sense how he merely trusted them after only hours.
Nonetheless, there was the young blonde, standing against the nightlight plugged into the wall, a silhouette against the hard pitch. He drug along with him a single blanket and a small stuffed stegosaurus; and his eyes: big and wet tears. Tsukki admitted that he was afraid. In a stressed whisper, he whispered Nishinoya’s name a few times.
He stirred when a small, cold hand brushed his sleeve. Only lightly, he tapped on the arm, “Please don’t hurt me, Nishinoya. I’m sorry I’m waking you—”
Not exactly waking him, however. Asahi, instead was stirred by the quiet whispering. Barely awoken, due to his lighter-sleeping nature, he rolled over to face ‘Noya’s side of the bed. Then, sent a quick punch his way. The hand opposite his side went flailing, right at the blonde merely trying to ask him something.
Barely missing Kei’s face and cowering body, Nishinoya shot up. Kei jumped. Reaching close to ten feet high, his fight or flight picked a deadly fight within his skull. The choice between throwing a punch...or narrowly missing one.
Maybe these two were just like the others.
He ran. Turned heels, dropping his blanket although convinced he wouldn’t get it back anytime soon, and ran as fast as his feet would take him. Surely this house had hiding places, no? All of them did. None of them were different. And not just in that way.
A place he could find that wouldn’t be within reach by neither Asahi nor Nishinoya. But Tadashi...he didn’t have an appointed place to hide. They’d been so distracted by the kindness? The kindness that had been shown to them. And the pajamas, of course.
So, he sprinted as quickly as possible and slammed the door shut. Tadashi shot up quicker than Tsukki had run, and turned his head to the side, “What is it, Kei? Why are you running around and slamming doors?”
Without reply, he climbed on the ladder leading up to ‘Yama’s position and froze there, staring holes into the door. He fully intended to kill them before they got to him.
“Um, what the heck just happened?!” Asahi gaped. Pajama pants wrestled over his feet after shooting out of the covers.
“You hit me and then startled me, Asahi! He probably thought I was gonna hit him—” He gaped at his own admission and could say no more.
“Do you mean you think he thought he was going to get hit?”
“Yes, Azumane! The way he looked. The flash in his eyes, even though all it was was in the light of our alarm clock, terrified me. It was as if he expected to get hurt! We need to go make it right! I don’t want them to be scared!” He exclaimed, wrestling his ‘Way of The Libero’ t-shirt he had discarded after professional practice (about a week ago, so yeah, it smelled) over his droopy hair.
“See, they aren’t good at all. We can already hear them yelling and they’re probably coming this way. I knew this was a mistake,” Kei said. His signature confidence and wall of sarcasm softened by the nervousness that bled through. Maybe it really was all about to happen again. All. Over. Again. He’d be powerless to stop it.
If they left Tadashi alone, he’d be happy.
“Wait!” His lightning fast reflexes still hadn’t lost their touch, “We can’t just charge in there.”
Asahi’s conscientiousness of his tone and volume hitched as the children’s door came into sight. They could probably hear their yelling and were even more terrified.
The two parents needed to be more mindful of their actions, especially when trust was a lot of ground to cover. A lot-a lot. Thousands of miles seemed to have been crossed in the first few hours.
However, they could lose millions more if they weren’t careful. The miles seeping through their fingertips, Asahi lowered his voice purposely, although otherwise made it audible intentionally.
“You didn’t mean to almost hit Kei, did you?” And with a wink, his point: therefore conveyed.
“Of course I didn’t. It was an accident. You startled me awake.”
“That’s probably why he was upset. He was afraid you tried to do it on purpose.”
“I didn’t. I just naturally jump when I’m startled.”
Tsukki’s jaw hit the floor from the fourth step of the black-painted ladder. ‘Yama reached out and picked it up off of the floor and patted the other’s head gently, “Sounds like whatever you thought happened wasn’t intentional, Tsukki. I think you should go talk to them.”
“No way in he—”
“Tsukki! You know what Miss Lucy said about saying that! Now go and open the door and talk to them. They’re afraid they hurt you.”
Truth be told: he was afraid they’d hurt him, too.
Yamaguchi didn’t quite get it. He’d been removed from his home by Child Protective Services because of neglect. By financial instability. He’d been forced to attend school, was sick, and couldn’t receive proper care because his parents didn’t have enough money for a doctor.
The school alerted the CPS and they took him away to protect him from poverty. His parents still loved him, cared for him, called him. They still had contact with him. They still desired that.
He’d known that there wasn’t something quite right when he and Yama’ would sit together at lunch and be the only ones without lunch or the money to buy any. Besides, it was way more fun to play hop-scotch instead of eating. Who needed that anyway? If they didn’t want to eat, they didn’t have to. Just like the others could choose not to eat if they didn’t want to.
Turns out, as per their CPS worker, Miss Lucy: that wasn’t normal. To take it a step further, she mentioned some radical idea that they were supposed to have three meals a day and medical care and such.
Apparently it was more normal to have parents that couldn’t afford those things, but tried their best. The Yamaguchi’s tried their best and every once in a blue moon, he’d have a bit of food to share with his taller friend. Those days were pretty golden, he had to admit.
Per their CPS representative, it was not normal for his family to throw hundreds of dollars at the liquor store rather than working. It was not normal to have glasses broken in more than one place. It was not normal for furious bruises to peek around his sleeve hems and short cuffs.
For him, it was. Yamaguchi didn’t get that, but he tried to.
Even though he wasn’t blood, Tadashi seemed to be the only family he’d accumulated, That actually cared at all.
“They’re not going to hurt you, Tsukki. They’re our family and they love us. They’d never hurt us,” and with a gentle push, Tadashi gave a shove. Just enough to force him to jump down, but not too much as to knock him over, “Go. Here, I’ll even go with you,” He began to climb down after him.
“No, don’t climb down Tadashi.”
“It’s okay, Tsukki. They’re not going to hurt us,” His eyes flicked up.
Readying to completely break, he turned around to face the other, shorter, green-haired boy, his hands balled up, “And how would you know that? Huh?”
“Because they’re standing in the doorway already and don’t look like they could hurt anything but an opposing volleyball team’s feelings.”
Kei nearly jumped out of his skin and dinosaur pajamas, but couldn’t bring himself to turn to face them. The two leaned on the doorframe sweetly, their faces soft and sincere. Asahi stood behind, his hands on ‘Noya’s muscular shoulders.
“There’s nothing to be scared of, Kei. Nishinoya and I, here, promise not to hurt you. We don’t know what you’ve been through in your past, but promise to protect you from anything and everything that could ever hurt you. We promise.”
Only a miniscule part of that was a lie. He and Yuu did know. Exactly what happened to both of them: they had full knowledge of, as per their case worker and CPS representative.
Their files were rather extensive and particularly hard to read, but especially Tsukkishima’s. It hurt to read. Asahi’s eyes threatened to betray his level-headed demeanor. How could someone treat their kid this way? He couldn’t comprehend it.
A small hand caressed his own, “Everything will be fine.”
Asahi believed him. Then, and now.
Nishinoya stepped forward. In the dark, he kept his movements intentionally small and held his hands always where they were visible. He raised a hand to Kei’s cheek, prompting a flinch. However, the libero was determined.
With his thumb, he wiped a stray tear that crawled its way down.
The totally-future middle blocker (as per Nishinoya’s excited plans to enroll him and Tadashi in volleyball as soon as possible, if they wanted to, of course) leaned unconsciously into the touch.
“We will never hurt you in an intentional way, and aim to keep you safe from every scrape and bruise that comes your way. We will catch you when you fall, and even if you fall, we’ll be there to help you back up and hold you until it stops hurting, yeah? Nothing to worry about. We’re here to keep you safe and to love you. Nothing less.”
At a loss for words, all that found his lips was a sob. Then another. For the first time, for whatever reason, Kei Tsukishima felt safe. Perhaps those words were exactly what he needed to hear, in the exact tone he needed them said, in the precise way they were delivered, in the perfect order they were chosen.
After years, he felt as though the world wasn’t out to get him. and his worst enemy might be scraped knees from trying to learn to ride a bicycle, instead of a belt or whiskey bottle. Perhaps a super-sour candy could maybe, possibly cause him to cringe in lieu of his natural frown anytime he thought about going home.
He’d have Asahi Azumane and Yuu Nishinoya to protect him from his dad. He would have them to protect Tadashi and all the things he loved. To show him how to fly and grow big and strong. To feed him and keep him healthy so he could someday fly just like the Tiny Giant did, or how Tooru Oikawa served. Or maybe even fly like Nishinoya did when he received with his signature Rolling Thunder.
Rather than protecting his head from a barrage of angered punches, he could protect his side of the court as a blocker. Heck, maybe he’d even be allowed to try soccer or high jumping or distance running or baseball or swimming! What if they’d allow he and Tada’ to go ice skating or sledding? He could giggle while they pelted him with snowballs.
They’d only been there for a few measly hours, and he already loved them as his parents. They were more parents than his father or mother ever were. Sure, he’d have to warm up to them before he fully wanted to call them ‘Dad’ or anything crazy like that, but heck, he loved them and felt SAFE.
Two dad’s were WAY cooler than his measly parents. Two dads that loved him and worked hard and were good role models and lead tickle fights and sang while making dinner in the kitchen were the coolest people in the world.
Tsukishima looked up into ‘Noya’s kind eyes and melted into an embrace, throwing his arms around his neck. Stuck on his tippy toes, he said it quietly enough that even Nishinoya may not be able to hear: “Thank you.”
He received a smile, squeeze, and a long embrace, “Now, I know you came into our room because you needed something. What was it that you needed, hun?”
“I got scared because I couldn’t sleep. It feels like something’s watching us,” he whispered, not wanting Yamaguchi to be scared.
“I get it. You can come in here and sleep in here if you’d like.”
He nodded and immediately left the room, walking right past Asahi. The Glass Heart smiled softly, his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness. Yamaguchi had crawled back up into his bunk and laid down, seemingly done with all of the scary action and yelling and slamming of doors.
He just wanted to sleep. In a warm bed. In the quiet. With his belly and heart full.
“Hey, Tadashi? Are you alright in here or would you like to move into our room as well?”
No response. He pretended to be asleep. Not because he’d wanted to decline the offer. No, it wasn’t that. He didn’t ignore because he wouldn’t be scared of being alone without Tsukishima. He sure would be. For sure. Without a doubt.
Just...too shy to say yes.
“I got it. It’s all good. Come get us if you need anything. Goodnight,” Asahi replied after several beats of silence, and cracked the door slightly as he and his partner left to return to their room.
“You reek, babe,” Asahi broke the silence, fakely holding his nose.
“I know, shut up. This was the first shirt within reach,” He yanked it off and threw it in the dirty clothes bin, swooshing it. A smile reached their faces. Sprawled in the middle of their bed, the young blonde was already dead asleep.
“Figured he was super tired,” Asahi chuckled and made his way around the bed to get underneath the covers. Nishinoya picked up the blanket that was previously discarded. With a flit, it was atop the already-slightly-snoring Tsukishima. Then, he followed suit and wiggled underneath the covers.
Both lost touch with true reality relatively quickly, one because he knew the other would have tons less anxiety and would actually be able to sleep. The other: because he would have tons less anxiety and would actually be able to sleep.