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The library is silent, except for the occasional coughs and sniffles here and there from students shivering under the blasting air conditioning. Tendou sighs loudly, attracting the glare of a few of the upperclassmen that are fully wrapped in blankets, appearing, for all intents and purposes, to live between the Latin and Literature stacks.
“Psst, Wakatoshi,” Tendou hisses, kicking his leg at Ushijima’s chair. He receives only a soft hum in return as Ushijima focuses on turning the next page of his notes. “Wakatoshi. I’m bored,” he whines again, this time loud enough that there’s a resounding, “Shh!” thrown at him from all sides.
Making a face, he flips them off without looking, instead pulling the notebook out of Ushijima’s hands.
“These aren’t even real notes,” Tendou laughs, taking in the terrible doodles drawn across the page. If he squints, the curly mess of hair and the two moles identify the figure as Sakusa, one of their less present hallmates. To a random passerby, however, Ushijima’s drawing skills leave much to be desired. Unless his intent was to draw a rotten broccoli.
Ushijima just sighs and plants his cheek against the table with a sigh. “Stupid algebra.”
Tendou snaps his fingers in Ushijima’s direction as he stands up, tugging on his arm. “Exactly. Stupid algebra. Forget this, let’s go out.”
At that, Ushijima perks up immediately. “Out?”
Sticking out his pinky and thumb, Tendou winks as he pretends to knock back imaginary shot glasses. “Out.”
Ushijima frowns, answering, “Nothing that’s going to lose us our sports scholarships.” But it doesn’t do much to stop him from sliding all of his belongings into his duffel bag regardless.
Tendou winces as he watches – he’s pretty sure there’s an open, half-full bottle of Gatorade hidden in there somewhere. RIP Broccoli Sakusa.
–
Somewhere between forcing eyeliner onto Ushijima and trying to pull on the tightest pants he owns, Tendou’s phone lights up with a text message.
From Iwaizumi Hajime: Don’t forget to finish your part of the presentation by tomorrow morning so we can go over it before class.
Rolling his eyes, Tendou types out a hasty reply before flinging his phone over into a corner of his unmade bed.
From Tendou Satori: aye aye cap’n dont worry i got this
Sitting on the floor to tug on his socks, Tendou realizes that he does not, in fact, got this. But it’s fine, he can finish it later tonight.
Assignments are more fun when you’re piss drunk anyway, right?
–
Assignments fly immediately out of his head as soon as Tendou steps into the club, body moving to the beat as he snakes his way through the crowd. “Shots. Whatever’s cheapest!” he shouts to the bartender, waving for Ushijima to follow him.
His throat burns as he knocks them back, but he isn’t one to complain about the quality when he’s not sure just how many shots he is from his card getting declined. Ushijima doesn’t even grimace as he pours all of his into a beer glass, chugging it down like water.
“Remind me to get some Pedialyte after this,” Tendou says.
He doesn’t get a response as Ushijima’s too busy shouldering his way into the crowd, pausing as people reach out to touch his pecs and shoulders. Honestly, Tendou doesn’t blame them. Who wouldn’t?
As the alcohol begins to kick through their body, Tendou throws his head back, swaying to the music as he feels the bass kick through his eardrums. At some point, he loses Ushijima in the crowd but it’s fine as he lets himself be carried this way and that until he’s spit back out closer to the bar.
Stumbling, he pulls himself up onto a chair and presses his face against the counter. It’s sticky, and not nearly as cool and refreshing as he hoped it would be. A glass of ice water lands next to his face, and Tendou chugs it down before holding it to his forehead, turning to thank the bartender only to pause, blinking up at him.
“What?” the bartender asks with a snort.
“You weren’t here before,” Tendou says incredulously.
“Yeah it’s called switching shifts, dumbass.”
Squinting, Tendou mutters, “That was rude,” as he pulls out his phone.
To Iwaizumi Hajime: tberres zombody than look jus st like u here
Before his eyes, the bartender pulls out his phone and rolls his eyes, leaning over the counter to rap his knuckles on Tendou’s forehead.
“How much have you had to drink.”
Pouting, Tendou goes back to his phone.
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
he totlyysa aclts lik u too
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
rudge
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
but lik syuper tho
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
tho
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
oht
To Iwaizumi Hajime:
hot
In front of him, the bartender quirks an eyebrow.
“It took you four tries to spell a three letter word?”
That’s when it finally clicks in Tendou’s vodka slush brain.
“ You’re Iwaji– Iwajime?”
“Iwaizumi.”
“Iwa zoomy.”
“Iwaizumi.”
“Wa jimmy.”
Iwaizumi sighs. “Drink some more water.”
Tendou sips at the new glass of water as instructed. “Are you sure you’re Ijime?” he asks after a moment of watching him serve drinks to the next crowd of customers. The ease with which Iwaizumi twirls glasses and slides bottles just doesn’t compute in Tendou’s brain.
Iwaizumi just stares at Tendou while wiping down some glasses. “Iwaizumi. And why wouldn’t I be?”
“Aren’t you like,” Tendou pauses, deliberating over his word choice. “A huge nerd or something.”
“I’m not a nerd. I just want to do well in class.” He pauses his cleaning to stare at Tendou. “Do people think I’m a nerd?”
“You wear glasses,” Tendou says, leaning forward to poke Iwaizumi’s nose. “At least in class.”
Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, refilling Tendou’s water when he sees that it’s empty. “Speaking of class, I’m assuming you’re only out here partying because you finished your part of the presentation?”
Suddenly, the puddle of condensation to the side of his water glass seems incredibly fascinating to Tendou. “Wow, would you look at the time? Think I should head home or something?”
“I sincerely hope you don’t plan on working on that presentation drunk,” Iwaizumi answers, setting down the glasses in his hands. “I have no interest in correcting your typos.”
“Ugh,” Tendou sighs, leaning back on his chair. “See, nerd.”
Iwaizumi just pats his head and turns to serve the next customer that comes up, leaving Tendou sitting at the bar. Now that the buzz of alcohol has passed its peak, he starts to feel tired, leaning forward to bury his head in his arms, putting the stickiness of the counter out of his mind for the time being.
The buzz of the bass booming behind him manages to fade somehow as his mind slowly drifts off until a hand on his shoulder is shaking him awake.
“Wha– huh, Zoomy!” Tendou says, blinking up at the guy in front of him. Iwaizumi stands on the other side of the counter now, staring down at him.
“Go home if you’re going to sleep,” Iwaizumi says, smacking Tendou’s face with a rag.
“Ugh,” he says, taking the rag and wiping down his elbows. “Where’s Ushi?”
“The big, serious guy you’re always with? I was him leaving earlier with somebody. Curly hair, pissy face.”
“Ugh, gross,” Tendou groans. There’s no way he’s sleeping back in their room tonight.
Iwaizumi quirks an eyebrow at that. “Sexiled?”
“Unfortunately.”
Looking around for a moment, Iwaizumi tucks his hands in his pockets before letting out a deep sigh. “You can come over to my place.”
“Oh?” Tendou asks, perking up and sliding a hand down Iwaizumi’s chest. “Special plans?”
Iwaizumi easily catches Tendou’s hand, chucking it off with a laugh as he turns to leave. “Yeah. Enforcing your all nighter to work on our presentation.”
“Shit,” Tendou groans, even as he follows.
–
The air is brisk as they walk, waking Tendou up. Iwaizumi doesn’t live too far, as only a few streets later, he’s turning up into an old townhouse and unlocking the creaky door, only to curse as an orange streak bolts out the door under their feet.
“Shit, get that!” he shouts, and Tendou finds himself stumbling over his feet as he leaps for the cat, rolling into a hedge as he goes.
“Caught it,” he says, staring up at Iwaizumi from inside of a bush.
Iwaizumi laughs, leaning down to pick up the cat, scolding it as he does. “Sorry, that’s my roommate’s.”
“It’s cute,” Tendou answers with a laugh. “Not usually how I start my one night stands, though.”
Rolling his eyes, Iwaizumi sets the cat back down inside, turning to invite Tendou in. “I was serious about that presentation.”
“You really think I carry my laptop to clubs?” Tendou asks with a smirk.
Iwaizumi’s face blushes red at that as he stares up at the ceiling with a sigh.
“We’re working on that presentation first thing in the morning,” he finally says, staring back at Tendou.
“Sure, sure,” Tendou answers, tugging Iwaizumi down into bed. “Whatever you say.”
–
The next morning, Tendou wakes up to a cat jumping on his face and Iwaizumi standing next to the bed, laptop in hand.
“Rise and shine!”
“Oh, fuck off,” Tendou groans, burying himself back in his blankets. Curse his stupid hangover and bad decisions.
Iwaizumi reaches down to tug back the blanket so he can whisper in Tendou’s ear. “If we work fast enough, I can think of some other things we could spend the rest of our time doing.”
Tendou sits upright in bed. “Get me some Pedialyte and two Advils. I got shit to do.”