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There are moments where Tadashi is grateful that Kei has the key to his home - when he’s too sad to get up, when he needs someone to cook for him and Terushima isn’t home, when he’s sick. However, after a night out with his boyfriend is not one of those times. Right now, Yamaguchi was ready to strip Yuuji out of his dumb club clothes and get down to business, but when he walks into his apartment, he is greeted with the smell of baked goods and haphazardly placed slippers. Yamaguchi frowns, pushing away Terushima’s pouting face and peeking in his kitchen.
“...Tsukki?” He asks cautiously. “Not that I don’t love having you over but...uh…”
“How much shit did you bake ?” Terushima seems mildly awed and very concerned. That’s a valid response. On Tadashi’s counter, there were plates and plates of cookies and cakes and bread. This must be bad then. Tsukki stood in the middle of it, in an apron covered in flour, eyes unfocused as he measured out something else. Was he making more?
“Nope,” Tadashi started, stalking over to him. “Nope, nothing else, absolutely not. No more.”
“But-” Tsukki started to say. Had he been crying?
“Go shower,” Yamaguchi commanded, taking the spoon away and pointing towards his bathroom. “Terushima will bring you spare clothes, and I will clean up... this .”
“I will?” Terushima asks. Tadashi glares at him. “I will! Yes! I’m on it!” Tsukki frowns, but he moves towards the bathroom regardless, and Terushima bounds towards Tadashi’s room. Yamaguchi sighs, long and low, and begins to package up macarons, chocolate chip cookies, a loaf of white bread, a red velvet cake, scones, and a batch of strawberry cupcakes. Yamaguchi threw out the batter Kei was working on, and cleaned off the counter, and considered going to Tsukki’s shared apartment with his three idiots so he could beat them up for whatever they inevitably did.
Terushima met him back in the kitchen, scowl deep set on Yamaguchi’s face. “Babe? You’re being kinda scary? What happened?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out,” Yamaguchi hisses. “I am going to murder them, Yuuji.”
“We don’t know the whole story yet,” Terushima wraps his arms around Yamaguchi’s waist, nuzzling into the back of his neck. “We’ll figure it out, sugar.”
“When we figure it out and fix it, I’ll make up for tonight,” Tadashi promises, laughing as Terushima presses soft kisses on to the side of his neck. “C’mon. We have a relationship to fix.”
---
When Tsukki got out of the shower, Yamaguchi was waiting for him in the guest room, scowling. “You look unhappy,” Tsukki deadpans. He seems much more present than he was before. Yamaguchi waits. “Where’s tongue piercing?”
“Kei,” Yamaguchi warns.
“I just...well...I messed up...and we um...had a fight or whatever. It’s fine.” Tsukki looks at the carpet, picking at the dead skin on his fingernails. “It’s fine. They probably...we’ll probably just break up and I’ll move out and-”
“Wait, wait, wait-” Yamaguchi interrupts, eyes widening. “They broke up with you? Because of one fight ?” Tsukki didn’t answer, biting the inside of his lip.
“Did you throw out my new batter because I was going to-” Tsukki starts to say, ignoring him.
“No more baking,” Yamaguchi pinches the bridge of his nose. “Explain to me what happened.”
“No,” Tsukki blinked at Tadashi.
“Kei, if you don’t think I’ll call them and ask, I will,” Kei winces at that. Yamaguchi can and will harass them over the phone, even worse, he’ll insist they talk it out. Which is simply not what Kei is capable of right now.
“I was mean...and I pushed it too far. Then Tetsu...er...Kuroo yelled at me, and then I started...I just got really overwhelmed so I lashed out again so I just...am going to die here!” Tsukki fell back on the guest bed.
“You’re so dramatic, Blondie,” Terushima notes. “It’ll probably work out. You just had a fight, ya know?” Yamaguchi nodded, making grabby hands at his boyfriend until he leaned his arms against Yamaguchi’s head.
“...I’ve...I’ve never had a fight before? Every time I have a disagreement with someone, I just get anxious and don’t want to deal with it so I cut off whoever it is. Except for Yamaguchi because he is stubborn,” Terushima’s mouth is hanging open and Tadashi holds his head in his hands.
“You never had a fight...so you ran away and came here and then used all our food to bake…” Terushima slowly tries to recount. “Have you checked your phone?”
“Oh, it died ages ago,” Tsukki shrugs.
“You dumbass ! Plug it in! They probably think you’re dead! Oh my god,” Yamaguchi scrambled to plug Kei’s phone into the wall. “Ok, Tsukki. Kei. I love you, you’re my best friend in the whole world. I’d die for you...but what the fuck?”
“I don’t know! I panicked!” Tsukki squeaked, closing his eyes tightly. “I didn’t...I didn’t know that it wasn’t over! I just...didn’t know what to do?”
“Dude, when you panic, you’re supposed to talk it out, take a break and come back to it...ya feel me?” Terushima sits down on the bed next to him, and for once, Tsukki doesn’t look like he’s going to square up with him.
“They called you like 40 times! Jeez, Kei!” Yamaguchi sighs, “I’m surprised they aren’t here right now.” As if summoning the devil, the doorbell wrong. Kei and Tadashi made eye contact before they raced towards the door. “Stop being emotionally constipated!”
“I don’t want to talk about it yet!” Kei yelled back, as Terushima walked around them wrestling on the ground. Tadashi had Kei pinned in a headlock as Tsukki scrambled against him. “Stop it! Tadashi get off me !”
“Stop being a baby!” Yamaguchi hisses, grabbing at Kei’s hair. “Yuuji. Open the door.” Yamaguchi’s voice is in that dangerous zone where Yuuji either did something really right or really, terribly wrong.
“Don’t even LOOK at the door, Terushima!” Tsukki shouts at him, trying to throw Yamaguchi off of him.
“Uh…” Terushima clears his throat, considering his options. One: Yamaguchi was hot and his boyfriend and he should listen to him or he would be in the dog house for like...ages. Two: He doesn’t know why but he’s pretty sure Tsukishima could and would get access to his social security number and spread it on the black market.
“If you wait one second longer -” Yamaguchi begins to say. That sells it for him, and he rushes to open the door. “Ow! Stop biting !”
“You deserve it for being a jerk!” Kei’s attention is back on Yamaguchi as they continue to fight for dominance on the ground like children.
“You’re the one being a little bitch, Kei!” Yamaguchi shoots back. “Don’t make me spill all your secrets right here, right now!”
“I could do the same thing to you, asshole!” Tsukki ignores the door opening and tries to run away from the fight on the ground (probably to lock himself in a room). Yamaguchi grabs at his leg, forcing him to fall back on the ground as the three of them walk in.
“Tsukki-babe! I’m really sorry we snapped at you...please...uh…?” Bokuto trailed off, cocking his head to the side. “...what are they doing?”
“I dunno,” Terushima answered honestly. “They just started arguing? I really didn’t follow what the original fight was about and now they’re uh...doing whatever that is…” Terushima gestured vaguely to the pile on the ground.
“You wet the bed until you were 11!” Tsukki snarls, yelping when Yamaguchi shoves his head into the ground.
“You cried at Planet of the Apes so hard you threw up!” Yamaguchi shoots back, falling backward onto the carpet and scratching at Tsukki’s head angrily. “You had a crush on Minecraft Steve!”
“Tadashi! That was private !” Tsukki’s eyes widened, pausing in his wrestling to be offended.
“Yeah? So was my bedwetting, you dick!” Yamaguchi took advantage of the pause to throw an elbow, missing the shoulder he aimed for and sending the joint full force into his best friend’s nose. There was a crack and resounding silence. Kei let go of Yamaguchi, falling backward and grabbing at his face. No one was able to move for a hot second. “Oh my god.” Yamaguchi covered his mouth in shock.
“Oh shit,” Terushima supplied. Kei blinked, tears spilling out of his eyes from the impact and blood dripping onto the carpet.
“Did you just break my nose ?” Tsukki whispered, either in awe or terror.
“Babe...it was pretty loud, we all heard that. Maybe we should go to the emergency room?” Kuroo supplied, trying to draw them away from each other.
“When did you even get here?” Tsukki spun around to look at them in horror. They had seen that whole thing, hadn’t they?
“Oh my god,” Yamaguchi repeated frantically. “I didn’t mean to do that.” He didn’t know where to put his hands so he held them on both of Tsukki’s cheeks in concern.
“It’s fine, Tadashi,” Tsukki muttered. “Can I have a tissue and some ice?”
“You can, but we still have to go to the hospital,” Kuroo noted. Akaashi nodded respectively. Why weren’t they shocked? What the fuck was even happening?
“I’ll go get the ice,” Yuuji quipped, clearing his throat. “And tissues.”
It was quiet again when he left, Yamaguchi tripping over himself to join Yuuji as he cried about his ‘stupid elbow’ and his ‘dumb anger issues’. “So...that happened,” Kuroo stared at Tsukki who was still on the ground.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Wanna uh...talk about it?” Bokuto pursed his lips before making eye contact with Kuroo and bursting into uncontrollable laughter. Kuroo started snickering too, eyes filling with tears as Tsukki’s face lit up red.
“I’m sorry...I really am...babe it’s just…oh god. Minecraft Steve?” Kuroo wheezed. Akaashi rolled his eyes, leaning next to Tsukki on the ground and helping him sit up.
“Shut up!” Tsukki hissed, voice nasally from holding his nose. “My nose is broken! Can’t you be nice?”
“You got your nose broken over Minecraft Steve,” Bokuto laughed, clinging onto Kuroo desperately, still laughing. Akaashi sighed, but he was definitely smiling to himself. Asshole. Kei humphed, pouting and turning away.
“It’s not that funny,” he muttered.
“It’s very funny,” Akaashi admits. Tsukki groans, and leans his head into Akaashi’s shoulder, ignoring the drip of blood onto the floor. “Did you get our calls?”
“My phone ran out of battery while I was baking,” Kei murmurs. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright, love,” Akaashi promises. “Next time, stay home. Alright? We can talk these sort of things out.” He rubs gentle circles into Kei’s back, trying to comfort him the best he could. “I know it’s scary to get into arguments, but it happens to people all the time. We were all stressed out, so it’s understandable.”
“Can we talk about this when I’m not bleeding profusely…?” Kei asks weakly.
“You wouldn’t be bleeding profusely if you hadn’t run away,” Kuroo noted, plopping himself down next to Tsukki ungracefully and holding a tissue to his nose.
“Yeah, babe! Even though I had no idea you could run that fast...I was kinda impressed!” Bokuto added in. “Yamaguchi gave me the ice, so we can load you into the car and take you to the hospital.”
“If I don’t tell Tadashi it was fine, he’s going to freak out for like 2 hours,” Tsukki shoos them away. “I am sorry for running away...I’m just not the best at this? I...uh…” Kei sighed, swallowed his pride, tried not to blush. “IjustreallylikeyouandIdon’twanttomessitup-okay! Have to talk to Yamaguchi! I’ll see you in the car!”
“AWWW BABY!” Bokuto squealed, following after Kei as he tried to get to the kitchen. “My beautiful moonshine, my little snugglemuffin, my precious-”
“ Kou stop, ” Tsukki hissed, shoving him away. “Bokuto! Put me down! Keiji , tell him to let go of me!” Akaashi laughed quietly, ignoring the pleas. “I have to talk to Yamaguchi, and you can’t come.” Kei tried his best to reason with Bokuto, who finally relented and let Tsukki move towards the kitchen.
“Tsukki! I’m so sorry! I didn’t think I’d break your nose...are you eating enough calcium? It shouldn’t have broken that easily! I’m so so-” Kei covered Yamaguchi’s mouth with his hand.
“It’s fine, Yama,” Kei promised him. “Sorry for uh...using all your flour. And fighting you on your carpet. And being dumb.” Yamaguchi gave him a hug, ignoring the scowl and patting him on the head.
“Now, use those injured brownie points to make up with your boyfriends and have some amazing makeup sex-”
“Gross! Goodbye, Tadashi! Please keep your elbows to yourself from now on!”