Archive of Our Own

At first Satori had been excited for the tournament. They got to go to a different school, avoid their teachers, play against other schools, and watch Wakatoshi kick ass. What else could he ask for? Sure, their coach had told them they wouldn’t be able to get any official matches, but surely that wouldn’t stop them from finding someone to play quidditch against.

But then the opening ceremony had been a bit of a mess, and they had to run to their rooms when someone during the Beauxbatons performance messed up a charm. Then had to stay there for the next full day while they cleared out the glitter from the charm, glitter that had honestly seemed pretty non threatening at the time.

Then they had to try and set everything up again,  and by that point Satori was kind of over the tournament aspect of this trip and just wanted to get it over with. He hadn’t even seen the pitch and he was tired.

By the end of the week, things were better, Wakatoshi had been chosen as their champion (to no one’s surprise) and now they were mostly free to mess around until the first task started. In other words it was time for them to try and get some unofficial quidditch matches going to entertain themselves.

It had been easier than Satori had expected. The official house teams had turned them down for now, pointing out they’d get caught too quickly if it was the teams themselves.

“Think of it this way,” one of them, (Iwai? Iwa?) had said, “Who do you think they currently have under watch for suspicious quidditch related activity?”

Satori had conceded to that, and they agreed to wait the Hogwarts staff out before asking official house teams again. There were plenty of opportunities to play against other people, and Beauxbatons entire quidditch team was there too. While random kids from other schools didn’t really hold up to the same standard as an actual quidditch team, it was better than nothing! Satori was sure the actual quidditch teams would break soon, and until then it was always interesting playing against Beauxbaton.

At least that’s what Satori had thought. Two weeks later and he was already bored of it. They easily kicked the ass of any Hogwarts kids that tried to form a team to play them, and they could only play Beauxbatons so much before they both got tired of each other. Switching up their team members had seemed a promising idea until they had actually started playing.

Satori had some basic knowledge on Beauxbatons team, and it had been enough for him to be unsurprised when their play styles ended up being mostly incompatible. Their seeker was way pushier than Shirabu, probably even pushier than Semi, and if Satori had heard one more criticism of his play style he would have knocked him out of the air himself. New team or no. Beauxbatons’s on-pitch captain had been placed on Wakatoshi’s team, which was honestly a mistake on their part considering both were used to being the team’s lead point scorers. There were enough near collisions and quaffle drops from the two of them that even Satori had begun to feel a little embarrassed by it.

This wasn’t even taking into account the fact that Kawanishi was barely enthused enough to defend their team from getting hit on a good day, and that he barely cared about defending anyone not from Durmstrang during the game. His new opposite beater (Suma? Suna??) had seemed to take it personally, and instead of defending the team they had ended up trying to see who could hit the other more.

Needless to say they had agreed not to try and switch up their teams anymore, and instead try and bully official house teams into playing.

It seemed all they'd been missing was team work, because almost every captain ended up crumbling when both Durmstrang and Beaxbatons went to ask for a game. Satori had almost laughed at how quickly they agreed, the quidditch withdrawal had finally gotten to them.

Their games had started small and unassuming, mostly to try and keep up the facade that they weren’t actually playing. Quidditch was still supposed to be canceled after all. This worked for a few days until one of the professors had caught them trying to sneak their Quidditch gear to the pitch. Satori had been worried, but the professor just asked them when the next game was, and how to keep a better eye out so they wouldn’t get caught. Satori really had laughed then, maybe the quidditch shortage was getting to everyone.

This unofficial staff blessing had led them to being a lot less careful, only to be continuously rewarded for it. Any time they had gotten caught the professor or staff had admitted they had missed watching the matches, and students who saw them heading to the pitch would just follow along. By the end of the month they had mostly given up on the secrecy, and had a dedicated audience coming to their unofficial matches.

Which is where Satori finds himself now, waiting for one of the professors to throw the quaffle.

They had been building up to this match for a while, Gryffindor had been the only house to not immediately agree to a game after they had asked again (much to the apparent dismay of the Gryffindor team). But now that matches were being watched by a ref, several professors, and had an announcer again, they had admitted there was no point in waiting and agreed to play.

This was very exciting, considering that Satori was pretty sure his team was already getting tired of throwing their weight around with the other 3 houses. Hogwarts had some amazing players, but it wasn’t enough to carry a team. Gryffindor was the school’s current dark horse, with their team being different enough each year that no one knew whether they’d be the best team on campus, or the worst.

Satori is very excited to find out, and once the quaffle is thrown, he immediately races off after the nearest bludger.

Satori chases after a bludger to hit at the opposing team and the announcer yells something about Wakatoshi getting the quaffle. He races past a Gryffindor beater, some tall blonde with glasses that looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.

“Your edgy act is probably great off the field,” Satori yells as he reaches the bludger, “but it won’t keep your team safe!” He finishes, spinning his broom and hitting the bludger, sending it hurtling towards Gryffindor’s captain (Satori was absolutely sure his name was Daichi Something).

The blonde kid scowls, but takes the bait and turns around to race after it, bat in hand. Satori laughs, that kid sure was moody, but he’d be lying if it didn’t remind him a bit of Taichi in his first or second year. He looks across the pitch to where Kawanishi was hitting the second bludger straight at Gryffindor’s other beater, a short kid with orange hair who managed to look even scrawnier than the blonde one. Still, he was obviously Wakatoshi’s mark, if the way he was trying to stick next to him no matter what said anything. Satori snorts as the bludger makes direct contact, and Wakatoshi flies away, while the kid and his broom fly back a few feet from the force of impact. Gryffindor made some weird player choices.

He throws a thumbs up at Kawanishi then turns around to chase after Wakatoshi.

He’s a little too late to help this time, but still cheers as Wakatoshi throws the quaffle and scores. The Gryffindor keeper, another short kid but this time with some actual muscle on him, seems kind of shocked that he hadn’t been able to block it. Satori sighs, if they weren’t even ready for Wakatoshi’s left then he might start losing faith in them.

He flies up to Wakatoshi as they go back to center pitch.

“That was a great shot!” He calls over the wind.

Wakatoshi nods in thanks, “I do not believe their keeper has practiced much against a left handed chaser, even if he gets his broom on the ball I will still most likely score.”

Satori nods in agreement, letting Wakatoshi’s voice wash over him. He wasn’t really sure how he never failed to hear Wakatoshi’s voice during a game, Wakatoshi didn’t really yell, or even raise his voice much, but Satori always heard him. Reon had agreed with him when he talked about it, and said he always assumed it was some sort of charm. But if it was, Satori had never been able to track it down, or find anything about it in the rules.

He wasn’t going to complain about how nice Wakatoshi’s voice sounded during a match though.

Then a bludger soars by again and Satori has to focus on the game and he smiles at Wakatoshi before chasing after it.

“I won’t let you keep the spotlight forever Wakatoshi!” He calls over his shoulder before he’s out of earshot.

He’s pretty sure Wakatoshi smiles back at him, but he’s too far away now to really be sure.

“Our very own Azumane Asahi has the ball now! He’s one of our top point scorers and taking him away from quidditch this season was a tragedy of the sport!” The announcer yells, and Satori has to stifle a snort as he goes to fly under Asahi.

“Can they stop saying stuff like that?” Asahi mumbles from above him, “Even just saying my full name at this point is embarrassing…”

Satori sees a bludger in the corner of his eye and smiles, if he was right then it would head right toward him soon, and that would make for a very nice opportunity to regain possession.

“Isn’t it!” Satori replies as he flies up next to Asahi, obviously startling him. “I feel like every time they say my full name I age ten years! I’m basically a high schooler! Not 30 years old!”

“Wh-” Asahi starts, but Satori doesn’t let him finish as the bludger zooms towards them.

“I’ll be taking that now!” Satori says as he spins once again and uses the end of his broom to hit the bludger directly into Asahi’s stomach.

“Yikes!” The announcer calls, and Satori has to agree as Asahi lets out a yelp and drops the quaffle, and a few feet. “Asahi is down for now! And the quaffle is up for grabs again!”

Satori races after it, and hits it back up towards Reon, who heads directly for Gryffindor’s goal.

Satori looks around the pitch again, and sees Kawanishi hovering a few feet in the air over Shirabu in the corner. He heads over to them.

“Are you genuinely trying to protect your boyfriend, or are you just tired of chasing around Gryffindor’s blondie?” Satori asks lightheartedly, getting an eye roll from Kawanishi and a glare from Shirabu.

“Please go play the game, I’m actually trying to protect him right now,” Kawanishi responds.

“He’s just playing fetch,” Shirabu chimes in.

Satori raises an eyebrow at them as Kawanishi protests the idea that he’s ‘playing fetch.’

“So are you going to explain what that means or…” Satori interrupts.

“Just watch,” Shirabu sighs, “Here it comes.”

Sure enough Satori sees the orange haired beater zoom towards them and hit a bludger at Shirabu with his bat. It’s honestly kind of impressive that he can do it at all, Satori was sure he'd use his broom because of how small he was. Satori goes to intercept it, but Shirabu shakes his head.

Instead, Kawanishi flies in front of Shirabu and knocks the bludger straight up into the air before it can hit. Satori raises an eyebrow to question this, but before he can the orange haired beater immediately flies after it, not sparing them a second thought.

“Ohhhh,” Satori says as he watches the kid fly into the sky after it. “So he just brings it back to you guys every time?”

“Yes,” Kawanishi replies at the same time Shirabu repeats,

“It’s fetch.”

Kawanishi sighs, but doesn’t keep arguing against it.

“They’re targeting Shirabu, but we’re not sure why they stopped the orange kid from marking Ushijima,” Kawanishi explains, “He might go back to it, but for now we’re here and I’ll keep Shirabu safe until he finds the snitch.”

Satori nods, “Then I’ll just go back and do both our jobs at once! No sweat!” Shirabu smirks as Kawanishi sends him a Look.

“This is part of the job, I am defending our teammate.”

“Please come back to the game Tendou!” Goshiki calls from somewhere on the pitch, and Satori turns around right in time to watch him take a bludger to the shoulder.

Satori winces and flies back into the match, “That one’s my bad!” He yells.

“We know!” Reon and Wakatoshi call back, and Satori sticks his tongue out at the both of them as he hits the bludger away.

“That was a direct hit from our very own Tsukishima Kei!” The announcer calls as Goshiki takes possession, “He’s been largely ignored by the Durmstrang team so far, but it looks like he won’t take that sitting down!”

“I’m on a broomstick,” Satori hears the blonde kid (Tsuki-something) mumble as he flies over, “I literally have to be sitting down.”

“Says who!” Satori responds as he watches the bludger fly toward them, “You can do whatever you want!” With that, he stands on his broom and jumps over blondie as he takes out his bat and slams the bludger straight at Gryffindor’s main chaser.

He lets out a grunt as he grabs onto his broom right before he starts to really fall, and swings back on top of it. “The point of the game is to have fun!”

“A rare use of the bat from Beater Tendou Satori!” The announcer yells, “I wouldn’t try that move he just pulled off at home folks! He and Tsukishima are both at least 150 feet up. I can’t imagine anyone could look down during that jump and be able to sleep at night!”

The glasses blondie, Tsukishima, sighs as he goes to fly back down to his team, “I’m not really sure we agree on what ‘fun’ means, but sure.”

Satori hums in thought as Tsukishima flies back down, well if it was going to be like that then Satori should probably just focus on the game.

“Here they go!” The announcers yells, grabbing Satori’s attention, “Gryffindor’s famous attack from last year that had every keeper on campus tearing their hair out!”

Satori flies towards it to watch, and maybe mess it up if he can. He’d heard about this, but hadn’t gotten the opportunity to watch it yet.

“Gryffindor is the only team on campus that takes advantage of the lack of rules regarding who can touch the quaffle, by using every member of their team to attack, including their seeker! There they go now, and while only one chaser will end up trying to score, figuring out who it’s going to be is the bane of every keeper’s existence during the season!”

Satori whistles as the entire gryffindor team falls into formation on the pitch, flying directly toward the goalposts. Yamagata looks rightfully confused, and maybe a bit apprehensive as they approach, and Satori takes the opportunity to try and see if he can take one of the Gryffindor members out.

He hums as he glances around, trying to find an open bludger. It seems the short kid abandoned Kawanishi and Shirabu to go join the rest of his team in scoring, but he wasn’t sure where the bludger had gone. Satori sighs, then body checks it was.

He flies over to where Goshiki is trying to slam into one of Gryffindor’s chasers, with her barely avoiding him at the last second. Goshiki was starting to look frustrated and Satori whistles to get his attention. Goshiki looks up at him and Satori points down, then up, and spins his finger in a circle. Goshiki brightens up and nods, immediately diving down away from the chaser.

“What?” She lets out, as he flies away, and Satori flies up to her.

“I wouldn’t worry about that all too much!” He calls, “He’ll be back before you know it!”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” She responds, and Satori laughs.

“Well you can figure it out now!” He responds as Goshiki pops up on her other side and they slam into her on both sides, then force themselves into a spin, breaking her out of the formation. They pull up right before they lose control along with her, and Satori waves as she falls towards the sand.

“Yui!” The Gryffindor captain calls as she spins out, and Satori takes a second to feel a little bad.

Then he pats Goshiki on the head in congratulations and flies up to where he sees a bludger dropping. He immediately hits it to the orange haired kid on the other side of the form, trying to see if this would be enough to take him out.

Surprisingly, the kid avoids it easily and continues flying. Satori hums, the kid was fast wasn’t he?

Satori flies up to him, they had reached the goalpost, but he’s sure the rest of his team could handle two chasers. The kid sends him a wary look, which is probably justified considering Satori had just helped take one of his teammates out of the game for the next few minutes. Satori catches a bludger curving in the corner of his vision and smiles.

“You’re fast!” Satori yells over the wind.

“Thank you!” The kid yells back immediately, looking conflicted at either talking to him or watching his seeker mess with the quaffle.

Satori wants to laugh, but doesn’t. It’s nice seeing someone actually take one of his compliments for once.

The bludger finally starts getting closer, and Satori knows it’s arc will bring it to him. He starts his spin in preparation, and sees the kid tense. He smiles, this was going to work out great.

Sure enough, right as he’s about to hit the ball the kid instinctively dodges, right in time to see Satori stop his momentum and the ball stay right in place.

The kid barely has time to let out a “what-” before Satori finishes his spin and slams it right into the kid’s chest, taking him out of the formation.

“Maybe a little too fast, yeah?” Satori calls out to him as he flies back from the impact. He turns back to Yamagata, “I’m sure you can handle this right?” He yells.

Yamagata rolls his eyes, but he looks more confident than he had earlier, so Satori takes it as a yes.

He waits as Gryffindor’s seeker tosses the Quaffle up before hitting it somewhere to his right. Satori squints at that, weren’t both his chasers to his le-

Then Satori sees the orange kid he’s sure he just took out fly up to the ball and slam it straight at their captain, who had snuck into the scoring zone before any of them had noticed. Their captain punches it straight into the lowest hoop, and Yamagata misses it by an inch.

Satori is aware his mouth is hanging open, but boy was that one of the best plays he’s seen in a while. If not all kinds of weird.

Then he sees the shorter beater cheering and yelling, and can’t help but laugh. Which he’s sure he’ll get shit for later considering they just got scored on, but he can’t help it.

“There it is! Kageyama is once again able to use Hinata’s ridiculous speed to his advantage to confuse the opposing team and score!” The announcer yells, and it doesn’t help Satori’s laughter as his entire team bristles at the comment.

“That was great!” Satori yells at the shorty as they fly back to center pitch. “You guys are hilarious! Way more interesting than glasses over there!”

Before the kid can respond Wakatoshi flies over to Satori and pulls him away.

“It’s good you’re having fun,” Wakatoshi starts, “But we will still prove we’re stronger.”

Satori nods, “We sure will!”

“And it would most likely be easier to do that, if you were at your best,” Wakatoshi finishes, sending him a pointed look.

“Awe! You don’t have to worry about me! I could pull off ten more jumps like the one I did earlier! I’m at 120% today!” Satori reassures, it wasn’t even a lie, that last play had really hyped him up.

Wakatoshi smiles, and Satori has to grip onto his broom tight to make sure he doesn’t fall off it from the sight. He knows Wakatoshi was probably just trying to stop him from getting distracted, but he’s pretty sure Wakatoshi’s the biggest distraction on the pitch. He smiles back, and tries his best to make sure he doesn’t look like a preteen with the world’s biggest crush. Whether or not he’s successful is up for debate, but then the quaffle is up again and they have to worry about the game.

The game continues more or less in that same pattern. The short orange kid, Hinata, keeps to either Wakatoshi or Shirabu. Doing his best to give the both of them a hard time.

This leaves Satori with quite a bit of time to do his best to piss off blondie and the rest of the Gryffindor team. Tsukishima seems to be getting increasingly tired of him, and his face when Satori manages to hit both bludgers straight at him at once is priceless in a way few things are.

Satori does also manage to get his time to shine, when he’s on one of his breaks from Tsukishima and instead flying around the pitch trying to help his team score and not just defend them.

“There he goes!” The announcer calls as Satori races past, trying to throw himself into the fray ahead. “Tendou Satori has been only gracing our pitch for about a month but it has been enough for him to make himself known as one of the best beaters here!” Satori smiles at that, announcers could be so kind.

“He has an almost uncanny ability to guess where the bludgers are going to be, and always pops up where you least expect him! Unlike other beaters he doesn’t worry about working directly with his fellow beater but instead manages to balance doing his own thing, and defending the team!” The announcer continues.

Satori flips his broom as a bludger flies over to him, and uses the end of it to slam the bludger straight at the gryffindor captain's back.

It hits, but not before Daichi’s able to hit Reon hard enough he drops the quaffle.

Satori sighs, and dives down, spinning at an angle right as the second bludger flies his way. He hits it at Michimiya, who was trying to grab the quaffle as it fell. It hits hard enough to stun her for a second and Satori grabs the quaffle and throws it at Goshiki, who flies towards Gryffindor’s goalposts.

“There it is! Tendou is known for being able to defend from both bludgers, and handle the quaffle at the same time! Making him not just vital to the team's defense, but also an active part of their offense!”

Satori laughs and waves at the cheering Durmstrang spectators as he passes, following Goshiki towards the goalposts. He loves this sport so much.

Then, he takes a bludger to the chest and lets out a wheeze. Okay, he loves this sport a reasonable amount, but maybe not too much.

He coughs as the bludger drops into his lap, before gently tossing it up and hitting it straight at Gryffindor’s keeper with his broom. The keeper dodges it, barely, but it keeps him out of the way enough for Goshiki to score.

Satori laughs, still a little winded, but flies up to ruffle Goshiki’s hair in congratulations.

“Now most of you have probably noticed by this point, but Tendou is one of the only scholastic beaters that almost never uses his bat!” The announcer yells over the pitch, and Satori hits the quaffle over to Reon with the end of his broom to prove it. “He’s been repeatedly asked about it, but his main response has always been ‘it just feels better to hit it like that!’ Tendou has gone through so many brooms because of this play style, that eventually his school just made a custom broom for him with the back reinforced! A combination of a stronger broom, stronger hits due to his momentum, and deadly aim, have put him high on the list of scholastic beaters in our region!”

Reon scores again, and Satori cheers along with the crowd as Reon flies over them. The blonde beater is starting to look even more annoyed, the current score probably not helping. Satori quirks a brow as he notices it, even the announcer had noticed his mood, no longer bringing him up as much over the speakers. Satori hums as he makes a wide arc to try and subtly reach Tsukishima. Taking someone out physically wasn’t always an option, but Satori was a firm believer in taking people out emotionally. Being 100% in a game meant playing every aspect of it, physical, mental, and emotional, and Satori wasn’t letting this chance pass him by.

He’s knocked out of his thoughts, almost literally, by a passing bludger, and has to quickly duck to avoid getting hit. It whistles from how fast it’s going as it passes over him, and Satori quickly drops down to hit it up before it can reach his team. His entire broom shakes from the force of it as he makes impact, and he winces at the thought of how much it would’ve hurt to get hit by it.

Had one of gryffindor’s scrawny beaters really hit that? He turns to look, but is surprised to find no one there. In fact, there wasn’t anyone in the area at all, all the players focused on the other half of the pitch now. Satori squints, but lets it go for now. He brushes off the back of his broom, and gets back to it.

If he’s right, then the bludger would head towards one of the forgotten corners right now. Satori’s sure that Tsukishima’s also figured this out, but Satori wasn’t worried about getting the bludger himself. If he was right, then he’d be able to find the right spot to intercept Tsukishima’s next hit and take out another gryffindor member with Tsukishima’s own strike. And if that wasn’t enough to piss him off, then Satori wasn’t sure anything would be. Tsukishima had already gotten a few close calls with teammates, which the announcer conveniently ignored, and going from close calls to actually hitting a teammate would probably shock him. Or at least get to him enough that he’d be basically useless the rest of the game.

Satori caught sight of the ball, his brow lowering as he watched it move. It was heading towards Tsukishima, but Satori was sure that it was going faster than usual. Nobody had hit it recently, so why..? It was following the path Satori had expected it too, but he wasn’t sure why it was throwing him off.

Satori sighs, but brushes it off. They had checked the equipment before the game for charms, and with the towers empty, no one in the audience was close enough to charm the bludger without it being noticeable. He was probably just overthinking it.

That doesn’t stop him from keeping an eye on Tsukishima as he gets in position. He’s not sure if he’s wary for the kid, or of him, but Satori can’t shake the feeling that something's off.

He watches the bludger as it approaches them, and Satori’s sure somethings wrong now because it’s going faster than Satori has ever seen one go.

“Hey!” Satori calls, and Tsukishima turns around with a pout.

“What do you-”

“There’s something wrong with that thing!” Satori points at the bludger that’s getting steadily closer, and shit they’re running out of time. “Make sure it doesn’t hit anything important, and I’ll make sure there’s no one around!”

With that Satori flies off before Tsukishima can respond, looking for anyone that could get hit if Tsukishima messes up. At first he doesn’t see anyone, but then he swears as he sees the other beater flying after something a little ways up. Satori doesn’t see anything there, but he doesn’t have time to worry about it because he has to get that kid out of here.

“Hinata!” Satori yells, flying up after him. Hinata ignores him, too focused on whatever it is he’s chasing. Satori swears again and speeds up.

“Hinata you need to get out of here!” Satori yells again as he catches up, barely keeping up as Hinata makes a sharp turn. “What are you even doing!?”

“The snitch!” Hinata calls back, pointing forward with his bat.

Satori looks forward, and when he squints, he sees it flying in front of them. He gapes at it.

“You can’t even catch that! You’re a beater!”

“That’s what the bat is for!” Hinata explains, holding his bat up.

Satori’s response is cut off by a loud crack resounding through the air, and he looks over to see the bludger flying away from Tsukishima, who is now flying considerably lower. He must have hit it then, and Satori lets out a breath of relief.

Then, the bludger stops in its path, turns around, and starts speeding towards Tsukishima again and damn this thing is totally charmed.

Hinata opens his mouth to ask, having seen the bludger too but Satori really doesn’t want to risk him getting hit twice. So instead of letting him talk Satori backs up and then flies directly into Hinata’s side, body checking him out of the pitch. Satori winces at the force of it, and Hinata yelps and scrambles to keep hold of his broom as he goes tumbling away.

Satori had gotten considerably higher chasing Hinata, but he’s still close enough to see Tsukishima tense as the bludger approaches again.

Tsukishima spins his broom as the bludger gets in range, and that’s when everything goes to shit.

He sees it hit the top of Tsukishima’s broom, taking out a chunk of it, but missing Tsukishima. Then he sees Tsukishima turn, mouth open and eyes wide, looking directly at him, terrified. Because while Satori thought he'd taken everyone out of harm's way, he had forgotten one person.

Himself.

He doesn’t have time to react, and the next thing he knows his broom is snapping under him and he’s forced backwards.

And then he’s plummeting to the ground.

He’s not sure how long he falls before he blacks out, he can’t hear too much over the wind. He’s pretty sure the announcer is screaming something, and he can hear people in the audience screaming too. It’s hard to think through the winding rushing past him as he falls though, much less focus on other noise. He sees half of his broom in his hand as he reaches up towards the sky, and he can see the other half falling from somewhere above him.

Satori takes one breath, and the last thing he sees is Wakatoshi flying towards him at top speed.

Then it’s just black.

When Satori wakes up, the first thing he hears is Semi’s yelling. He tries to let out a laugh at that, but the attempt makes a sharp pain shoot up his side, and he ends up tensing up from pain instead.

He becomes aware of the fact that someone's hands are cradling his head after that because the hands react quickly, tipping his face up towards whoever owned them. Satori realizes that his head is also resting in someone’s lap. Their legs warm under him. He opens his eyes as they run their thumb along his cheekbone, expecting to see Kawanishi, or maybe Shirabu if he was lucky.

Instead, he sees Wakatoshi’s concerned face above him. Satori blinks as Wakatoshi begins smoothing out his hair, and cradling his jaw. Satori’s pretty sure that this is the most physical affection that he’s received from Wakatoshi in the past six years, and that short circuits his brain more than his shiny new concussion. He’s not sure what to say, Wakatoshi seems unconcerned with the fact that he’s sitting on the pitch with Satori’s face in his lap. He doesn’t even seem like he notices the fact that almost 200 kids had formed a circle around them, all whispering and trying to get a look.

Then he realizes that Wakatoshi’s saying something and Satori tunes back into the world before they think he’s lost his hearing too.

“..right? Satori!” Wakatoshi calls again, shaking him a bit, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah!” Satori croaks out, throat feeling sore for some reason. “I’m totally fine!” Wakatoshi raises an eyebrow at that.

“You just fell 300 feet.”

“Only?” Satori jokes, trying to laugh it off.

Wakatoshi doesn’t laugh.

“Okay well!” Satori continues, trying not to think about how warm Wakatoshi’s hands are against his jaw, “What are they yelling about over there? Why are we still on the pitch? Shouldn’t I be in like, the infirmary?”

Wakatoshi sighs at that, taking his hands away, much to Satori’s disappointment.

“They’re arguing over the rules, they checked you over a minute ago and we’re just waiting for a staff member to help us carry you and your belongings to the office. They seem pretty sure you’re going to be fine but,” Wakatoshi’s face hardens, “Our team is not very happy with this.”

Satori snorts, if Semi’s yelling was anything to go by ‘not happy’ was quite the understatement.

“That shit was deliberate!” Semi yells from a few feet over, proving his point.

Satori turns to look at him, wincing when the movement jostles him a bit. Yikes, he definitely had some broken bones didn’t he?

Semi was arguing with the gryffindor team captain and their unofficial ref. Satori has no idea what it could be about unless they had figured out who charmed the ball. Even then, it’s just a matter of sending them to the headmaster isn’t it?

“They’re trying to get Tsukishima banned from the pitch,” Wakatoshi explains calmly, and Satori chokes.

“What!?” He yelps, partly out of surprise and partly from pain as he tries to sit up and immediately regrets it.

“Satori he knocked you out of the sky,” Wakatoshi says as he gently pushes Satori back into his lap, which is- it’s a Lot but he can’t think about that right now.

“People get knocked out of the sky in quidditch all the time! It’s literally my job to knock people out of the sky!” Satori insists.

“He snapped your broom in half,” Wakatoshi replies, pointing at the remains of Satori’s broom laying to their side.

And oof, because that broom was not cheap, and he could already hear Washijou yelling his ear off.

“How was he supposed to know the broom would snap!” The gryffindor captain yells, “Isn’t his broom supposed to be specially reinforced?”

“The BACK is reinforced you asshole!” Semi yells back, and Satori tunes them out again.

“Still! The ball was charmed! I’m sure I can prove it, where did it go?”

Wakatoshi grimaces, and turns Satori’s head a bit to the right, showing him a small pile of cloth. It looks slightly burnt and Satori has a feeling he knew what it was. He sighs.

“Semi destroyed it didn’t he.”

Wakatoshi nods.

Satori groans, and then scrunches his face up in pain as the headache hits. The fact that Semi and Gryffindor’s captain were still yelling did not help.

“There’s no way that was an accident!” Semi cries, “He waited until AFTER Hinata was out of the way to knock Tendou out of the sky ‘by accident’? And that’s not even counting the way your team has been brutalizing ours for the whole game!”

“Violence is part of the game! Your guys took out just as many of ours!”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it! You guys were using your orange shrimp over there to purposefully target and hurt our ace and seeker!”

“Hinata did use his broom to hit me at times,” Wakatoshi chimes in, and Satori’s torn between scolding him for getting involved and checking to see if he’s hurt anywhere.

The gryffindor captain sighs at that, sending a harsh look at Hinata. Hinata yelps and dives behind the Gryffindor seeker.

“Hinata’s still a bit new to the game, he messes up his broom handling all the time.”

“If he can’t fly right, he shouldn’t be allowed on the pitch,” Kawanishi shoots from a little ways away and Satori groans.

He knows he’s going to give Kawanishi the talking to of a lifetime for saying that, but he’s still a little proud of how accurately Kawanishi was able to pressure point the other team. The entire Gryffindor team tenses at hearing that, and Satori can tell they’ll spend the rest of the day yelling at each other if no one does anything.

“Hey!” He calls, voice still kind of scratchy, “Is anyone going to ask me about this? Considering I was the one there?”

Both teams turn to look at him, seeming to just realize he’s awake. Semi and Goshiki rush towards him, kneeling next to his side. He cuts them off before either of them can start talking.

“First off, I think you’re all overreacting a little, because I am fine,” Both teams shoot him dubious looks at hearing that, and hey, Satori thinks he deserves a little more credit. “Second, I can confirm that it was an accident, and Tsukishima was just doing what I asked of him. The bludger was charmed by someone, and we were trying to protect everyone else, and if someone hadn’t destroyed it,” Satori shoots Semi a pointed look, while Semi immediately looks away, “We could have proved it.”

Both teams continue staring at him, and Satori can see Tsukishima further away from all of them, arms crossed and looking down. Satori could also see who he assumed was the nurse, trying to make his way through the crowd of kids.

“And if that isn’t enough for all of you, then how about you hear it from the kid himself. Hey Tsukishima?” Satori calls, and Tsukishima looks up at him. “Can you come over here for a sec?” Tsukishima sighs, but walks over, arms staying firmly crossed.

“What is it,” He asks, obviously trying to sound disinterested.

Satori didn’t buy it.

“Can you uncross your arms for a minute?” He asks, trying to push himself into a sitting position while Wakatoshi tries to keep him down. He swats at Wakatoshi’s hands and continues, “I just want to see something.”

Tsukishima tenses for a second, arms crossing tighter, and Satori knows he’s figured him out. Luckily, Tsukishima does relent, uncrossing his arms and holding a hand up, for everyone to see.

For everyone to see how hard it’s shaking.

Satori hears a kid gasp out a ‘Tsukki!’ and run over to Tsukishima. Tsukishima crosses his arms again, but Satori’s sure he’s made his point.

“The kid is probably just as shaken as I am Eita,” He says to Semi, as he does his best to sit up against the pain. Could you break your hip? Because if you could Satori’s pretty sure he did. “So cut him some slack okay? It was an accident.”

Semi sighs, but nods, and lets the fight drain out of him.

“Okay now that we’re done with that, come help me up because my ride’s here,” Satori says, pointing at the nurse who was finally free of the crowd and walking towards him. “It’s great you’re here,” Satori says to the nurse, trying to babble his way through the pain as Semi and Wakatoshi try and help him stand, “I really hope that bag is full of painkillers dude. I’ve been playing it strong but I am super not okay and I think I definitely broke a rib.” He hears Goshiki gasp when he says that, and whoops! He had kind of forgotten everyone was still here.

“What are you weirdos doing!” Satori says as he tries to make Wakatoshi let go of him, “Go play the game! I’ll be fine!”

“But-” Kawanishi starts and Satori wags a finger in his face.

“Now don’t think I didn’t hear what you said earlier Mr. Don’t let him on the pitch! What did we say about provoking opponents?”

“Only provoke them during the game,” Kawanishi sighs, backing down.

“Yes! Now I have to go, if you’re all so mad then win in my honor or something- Oh my god Wakatoshi you have to put me down -” and Satori turns to try and get Wakatoshi’s arms off him, and stops as he comes nose to nose with him.

Satori feels his breath catch and he sees Wakatoshi’s face, and for a second, he takes it in. He takes in how concerned he looked when Satori showed pain, and how his face had just softens as he stares at Satori now and for a second he just lets himself bask in it.

Then reality kicks in and they’re too close, too close, too close , and he’s pushing himself away. Trying to get Wakatoshi to let him go because this is too risky and Satori is loopy from pain and what was definitely a concussion of some kind, and could you have multiple concussions? And wait, would he even be able to walk if Wakatoshi does let him go?

As if to answer this question the nurse yelps out a ‘Wait!’ as Satori finally manages to break free of Wakatoshi’s grip, takes one step on the ground, and promptly passes out from the pain.

Satori wakes up sometime later, in an actual bed this time, with his leg, hip and chest killing him. He lets out a whine from the pain, and before he knows it a different nurse is with him and checking him over. Satori’s still kind of loopy, whether from the pain, the concussion, or whatever they had him on at the moment was a toss up, but Satori did know he was probably begging for painkillers. The nurse sighs and pops something into his mouth.

Poison! Satori’s professors yell in the back of his mind, their teachings ever present. Sabotage!!

Chocolate, Satori thinks back, chewing it contentedly, Yummy.

Then the nurse sighs again and rubs something on his face and Satori’s out like a light.

When Satori wakes up for real he can hear the nurse arguing with someone at the door.

“He’s still asleep! Even if he wasn’t I can only let two of you in here max, not the whole team.” The nurse whispers angrily at whoever’s at the door.

“I’m awake!” Satori calls, because he is this time.

The pain isn’t gone but it’s way better than it was earlier, and Satori’s sure he could at the very least hold a conversation. He hears the nurse sigh again, and share some very angry words with his team, before letting one of them into the room. It’s Wakatoshi, which makes Satori smile.

“Hello,” Wakatoshi offers a bit awkwardly, and Satori stifles a giggle.

“Hi, ‘Toshi,” He says, trying to keep the rasp out of his voice as Wakatoshi sits down, “How’d the game go?”

Wakatoshi shifts at that, and looks away, “We lost.”

Satori can’t help but laugh at that because really?

“You guys almost got into a physical fight with the Gryffindor team and you still lost?” He snorts, trying to ignore the way the movement makes his chest ache with pain.

“Yes well, it did not seem worth it to play without you there,” Wakatoshi says, low voice washing over Satori, and making his chest ache in a completely different way. “We fumbled for a bit, before deciding to end the game by agreement.”

“Huh, figures I wouldn’t be there to see our first loss huh?” He jokes, sending a smile at Wakatoshi.

Wakatoshi’s face hardens, and he grabs Satori’s hands. Which- which is wow- hm, and Satori’s trying to be serious because he knows Wakatoshi wants him to be. But today has been a lot of contact, and if he remembers right Wakatoshi was carrying him earlier wasn’t he? What was That about. And now it’s just him and Wakatoshi in this room and really Satori can only be expected to handle so much.

“Satori.”

Satori looks up at him, eyes wide, because that was Wakatoshi’s serious voice. So Satori should definitely be paying attention, and not thinking about how nicely Wakatoshi’s hands fit with his.

“You almost died today.” Wakatoshi states, and wow, Satori had not considered that. “I… I did not like seeing that.”

And yeah Satori’s kind of freaking out from realizing he had almost died but he can’t help but chuckle at that. “Geez, I sure hope you didn’t like seeing that! I’d be worried if you did!”

Wakatoshi’s brow sets and he looks down at their intertwined hands, “That’s not what I-” Wakatoshi sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “Semi’s going to make fun of me for how long this took later.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but we both know Yamagata’s going to be the one teasing you. Semi’s too nice,” Satori offers, sending a smile his way.

Wakatoshi finally smiles at that, and he squeezes Satori’s hand softly. Satori tries to sit up, to try and maybe gently cup Wakatoshi’s cheek and ask what was wrong. He feels like that was the vibe Wakatoshi was trying to go for here.

But then remembers that he probably has at least four broken ribs and ends up clutching his side in pain. Wakatoshi’s brows furrow again and he helps Satori gently sit up.

“They said that was my fault,” Wakatoshi says, looking angry at the idea that he had been the cause of Satori’s pain, “They said when I caught you, you were still going too fast, and it crushed part of your ribs.” He squeezes Satori’s hand again, “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, who said I was mad? It’s alright,” Then Satori blinks, “Wait you caught me?”

Wakatoshi’s face clears up a bit as he looks at Satori, head tilted in confusion, “I did. Didn’t you know?”

“No!” Satori exclaims, “Wakatoshi I promise you I’d take a few broken ribs from you catching me over whatever the consequences of me hitting the ground from 300 feet up were. So don’t feel bad, okay?” Wakatoshi nods, and Satori smiles when he sees it. “You’re like my knight in shining armor ‘Toshi! You literally saved my life and caught me like Superman! You’ve ruined me for romance from this point forward Wakatoshi! How is anyone supposed to match up to that? Answer for your romance crimes!” And that had to be the painkillers talking because Satori definitely needed to shut up now.

He hopes Wakatoshi doesn’t question it too much, and coughs to hide his red face.

“About that,” Wakatoshi starts, “I-” He stops, then sighs and tries again, “We- I’m-” Wakatoshi groans, and Satori can’t tell if his concussion is just this bad or if Wakatoshi is actually making no sense.

“Go out with me.” Wakatoshi finally says, and Satori stares at him.

“What.”

“I’ve liked you since our third year, please go out with me,” Wakatoshi repeats, gaining confidence.

“Wakatoshi, that is like the least romantic buildup to a confession ever! I didn’t- You’ve liked me since third year? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You were passed out when I was being romantic earlier,” Wakatoshi points out.

“You’ve got me there.” Satori concedes. “But why didn’t you say anything?”

“I… I was going to tell you once I won the Tournament,” Wakatoshi explains, “But seeing you out there today… I no longer want to risk missing the chance to tell you.”

Satori softens when he hears that. He hadn’t considered what it had looked like to everyone else, but if he had almost died then everyone was probably a little messed up.

“Wakatoshi…”

“You do not have to agree,” Wakatoshi interrupts quickly, and what? “If you do not return my feelings, I will not pressure you. I understand if you would rather not acknowledge it and we can return to being friends.”

Satori has to stifle a laugh because that is absolutely not what he meant.

“No! I mean yes! Yes I want to go out with you ‘Toshi, do not even worry about that. I will go out with you anytime, wherever you want to go! That’s not what I meant,” Satori sighs, glancing at their hands, and pretending not to notice Wakatoshi tense in excitement at the affirmation. “I’m sorry for scaring you today.”

Wakatoshi’s face does something weird then, “I was not scared,” Wakatoshi insists, “I was concerned for your safety.”

“Wakatoshi, I was there, you were about to cry.”

“I was not."

“You were!”

“You were passed out the whole time, I don’t think you remember anything.”

“I was not passed out the whole time! And you were so scared you were about to cry like you were five years old! But that’s not my point,” Satori changes topics before they sat there all day bickering, “My point is that I’m sorry, but thank you for catching me.” He squeezes their hands again, and finally lets himself appreciate how perfectly they fit together.

“And you would like to date me?” Wakatoshi asks.

Satori snorts, “And I would like to date you.”

Wakatoshi nods in satisfaction, then glances at their hands again, Satori’s fingers tapping his knuckles.

“I do not like seeing you get hurt,” Wakatoshi admits, “I had gotten used to it due to the nature of the sport. But today…” He trails off.

Satori wishes he could hug him without cracking another rib, but for now he contents himself with cupping Wakatoshi’s jaw with his free hand and moving his head up to face him.

“I can’t promise I’ll never get hurt again ‘Toshi, my job description literally involves getting beat up. It’s in the name.” He brushes his thumb along Wakatoshi’s cheek.

“I know, and I am not asking you to. But,” And here Wakatoshi leans into his hand, and Satori’s pretty sure his heart is about to explode and break some more important bones. “Please don’t go somewhere I can’t follow, so if you ever get hurt I can be there to catch you.”

Satori smiles, and leans in as close as he could, “Okay, you’ve got yourself a promise.” Wakatoshi smiles at him, and Satori doesn’t know how he got this lucky.

“Okay!” He says after another second of staring into each other's eyes, “That’s enough romance! Invite Goshiki in here before one of us has a nervous breakdown about me almost dying.”

Wakatoshi rolls his eyes but gets up and walks to the door. When he opens it, Satori can see the entire team waiting in a line to come in, and he snorts.

“I can’t believe you guys lost!” Satori yells towards the door, “What happened to avenging me!? Winning in my honor!?”

His team immediately reacts, yelling back angrily about how they’d done their best. Satori laughs as they defend themselves, Goshiki rushing into the room. Being hurt sucked, but as long as he had this, he could deal with it a little longer.