Chapter Text
“I think Kageyama is sick.”
“Whaaat?” Kourai says. He's trying to figure out why the remote stopped working and isn't really paying attention. “No, Tobio doesn't get sick.”
“Kageyama is sick,” Wakatoshi repeats.
Kourai looks back at Wakatoshi in disbelief. “When was the last time Tobio got sick?”
“…Last summer?”
Kourai makes a face. “Fine, I guess you're right. Where is he?” Kourai doesn't wait for Wakatoshi's answer. Instead he drops the remote on the couch and barges into Tobio's room. “Hello, Ushiwaka says you're sick.” Tobio is buried under blankets and facing the other way. “You're not sick.”
“I'm sick,” Tobio says in despair. He doesn't move. “What do I do?”
They were supposed to go out with some of the guys from the other teams today. “Don't do anything,” Kourai says. “I'll just invite some of 'em over instead. You just drink orange juice and… stay in your zone.”
“My zone,” Tobio repeats.
“Your zone. Don't wander around.” Kourai shuts the door. “Ushiwaka, I said we're inviting some people over!” Wakatoshi is patiently waiting on the couch. He nods when he sees Kourai, who takes a chair from the dining table to sit and face him. “How do we decide who comes? There's not a lot of space here.”
“Why are we inviting people?”
“Because Tobio's sick and we need to make him feel better.”
“So we should invite people who are his friends.”
“Smart,” Kourai says, opening the notes app on his phone. “Okay so, Kiyoomi and Atsumu. Motoya, Eikichi. Hinata. Who else?”
“Bokuto Koutarou.”
“We're not just gonna invite a bunch of Division 1 players, Ushiwaka. Who're Tobio's friends? Like close friends.”
“You listed people from Division 1,” Wakatoshi says in confusion. Kourai appears defeated. “Possibly others from his high school.”
“Oh, that blond guy! What's his name? He's in the Sendai Frogs, right? Damn it, I don't remember his name! Ushiwaka, do you—”
“Tsukishima Kei.”
“Tsu-ki-shi-ma,” Kourai says as he types it in. Then in brackets he adds ‘ask Hinata’.
“Oikawa Tooru was Kageyama's senpai.”
“That guy's in Argentina, Ushiwaka. Work with me.”
“Isn't six people enough?”
“Yeah, true. Okay, you call Hinata and Tsukishima and I'll text the others.”
Kourai's text: [youth camp friends :)] ditch the others
Kourai's second text: tobios sick hes more important
Kourai’s third and final text: reminder no shoes
The replies are three ‘ok’s and one ‘do i have to’.
Meanwhile, Wakatoshi took Kourai saying call as literally calling, which went something like: “Hello.”
“Hi, Ushijima-san! What's up?”
“Kageyama is sick. Come visit him. Tsukishima Kei is also invited.”
“Ah—Okay! We'll be there in a few hours!”
“Goodbye.”
“See you, Ushijima-san!”
Meanwhile, Tobio is cocooning himself tighter. He feels sick and it's the worst. The only thing that makes this even slightly okay is that they don't have practice today anyway. If they did he'd—he isn't sure, actually, but he'd be pissed. And tired. And, well, sick. But mostly pissed.
Kourai's voice is so loud in his ears it's insane, and Tobio really just wants to sleep. His eyes are heavy, and his nose is runny—where's the goddamn tissue box, it's always on this table, why isn't it here right now?—and his head feels foggy, and he can't think. It's too hot under the blanket but it's too cold outside of it. Tobio wants to throw up.
Lying in bed like this is miserable. Tobio sits up, shoving the blanket down to his legs, deciding he'll bear the cold for a minute if it means making it to the other room. It's too cold. Blood rushes to his head from sitting up too fast and his vision goes spotty. Tobio slams himself back down and pulls up the blanket again. Maybe he can convince Kourai to bring his laptop here so he can watch something.
He'd rather be playing volleyball. There's always someone down to play with him on days off, but Tobio restrains himself to sulking. If he takes care of himself he'll get better faster, and trying to play will keep him sick longer and that will be against the point. Sound words from Takeda-sensei, then reiterated to their kouhai at Karasuno by Hinata, and then once sent in the youth camp group chat when Kiyoomi-san had been feeling particularly expressive. Tobio hates that this is how immune systems work.
“Do you want something?” Kourai asks. Tobio doesn't see him because he's facing the other way. He knows if he talks it'll just come out in a series of grunts, so he takes a minute to breathe and not feel like shit. Kourai waits.
“Food.”
Later, Kourai helps Tobio carry his blanket and pillow to the living room. He settles on one couch. Wakatoshi is on the other one, staring at the TV remote. “I don't understand,” Wakatoshi says. Kourai looks ready to die.
“We're volleyball players, not engineers. You don't have to understand how this damned thing works,” Kourai says, taking the remote from Wakatoshi's hands. He definitely wants to throw it at the wall as hard as he can. He places it gently on the table. “No TV,” he tells Tobio. “I don't know how to connect the phone or laptop.”
“I will look it up.”
“Okay Ushiwaka, you do that. Tobio, you look like you need these.” Kourai throws him a tissue box. It hits him in the head and then falls to the floor. So much for being good at setting. “If you say anything about my setting,” Kourai threatens. “That was—that was not even close to a set, it was more like a pitch! I'm not a baseball player!”
Tobio frowns and with great effort leans down to get the tissue box.
“I'm finding medicine,” Kourai says, marching back to the kitchen. “Tobio, try to not infect us.”
Tobio grunts.
x
Kiyoomi arrives first, and he clearly doesn't want to be there. He doesn't take off his mask when he steps inside. He stays at the opposite end of the room, by the door, leaning against the wall. “Would it kill you to be nice?” Kourai asks. Wakatoshi's gone to get the remote fixed, get a new one, or something else that he didn't specify.
“I don't want to get sick too,” Kiyoomi says, put off. “Sorry, Tobio.”
“No, I get it. I don't know why Kourai called people over.”
“ 'Cause you'd be left out!” Kourai says. “If we just maintain our distance everything'll be fine and no one else will get sick.”
“I have some of our games on this if you want to watch,” Kiyoomi says, taking out a USB. “Ushijima-san called and said to bring entertainment. Didn't know what else you'd want to watch.”
“Tobio's probably seen them already,” Kourai says.
Kiyoomi blinks, jaded and judgemental. “There's also an owl documentary.”
Kourai shifts. Tobio has closed his eyes.
“Can't you find something on your computer?” Kiyoomi asks as he takes a chair from the dining table and places it where he's been standing since he came in.
“Tobio's watched your last match with EJP Raijin four times already because the Wi-Fi broke and that's the only thing he has downloaded.”
Kiyoomi stares at Kourai again, disgusted. “How do you break everything you own?”
Shouyou busts through the door at that moment as if he lives there. Atsumu trails in behind him, looking winded. Kourai pays this no mind. Kiyoomi is offended by the fact that no one had bothered to lock the door and then further offended when Atsumu doesn't do it either. He locks it himself.
“Yo, Yamayama-kun! I got you snacks! Hello, Hoshiumi-san, Omi-san—Omi-san? When did you get here!? I never saw you leave the building! Wow, you walk fast, Atsumu-san and I ran all the way here!” That speaks for both of their questionable decision-making skills, considering they both are wearing flip-flops.
Kiyoomi looks like he wants to drown.
“What the hell, Shouyou,” Tobio says. He sounds drowsy. “Why are there so many people here?”
“Uh, heh.” Kourai actually regrets his decision. “Why did you run here?”
“It was a race!” Shouyou says, dropping the food on the coffee table and then dragging the whole table over to Tobio. Kourai stares at him. Shouyou is going to destroy the apartment. “What are you watching?”
MSBY Black Jackals versus EJP Raijin is playing for the fifth time on Tobio's laptop on his lap, about ten minutes in. Shouyou watches a few seconds. It's muted, and Tobio isn't even watching. “Is this you from last season?” he asks, addressing Atsumu and Kiyoomi. Kiyoomi just grunts.
Tobio is miserable and tired. Watching volleyball reminds him that he can't play volleyball. He's tired because he's sick but he doesn't actually feel like sleeping. Kiyoomi hands the USB to Kourai. “Put on the documentary.”
Kourai stares at the USB in his hands, conflicted, and then says, “We don't have a remote.”
“Then put it on the laptop.”
Right.
“You don' need the remote,” Atsumu says. What.
“What?”
“There's an input button on the TV.”
“What?”
“Kourai-kun, please.”
“Wha—How do you know?”
“It says ‘input’? You guys have the same TV as us.” Atsumu checks the back of the TV for the buttons, but the sticker that labels them has faded. “Oh. Well, it's the one under the volume buttons. Gimme that.”
Kourai throws him the USB. It hits his head and falls to the floor.
“So much for good settin’.”
“That wasn't a set, it was a pitch, and I don't play baseball!”
“Then stop tryna pitch. Just toss it.”
“How am I supposed to toss that tiny thing?”
“You got ten fingers.”
Kourai also looks like he wants to drown. “Kourai-san?” Kourai looks at Tobio. “Who else is coming?”
“Eikichi, Motoya, and the guy called Tsukishima.”
Tobio is disgusted and his entire expression gives the impression of a question mark. “Actually,” Shouyou butts in, “Tsukishima's not coming. He said he doesn't want to see Tobio's miserable face.”
“Asshole.”
“And I figured Tobio wouldn't want to see him when he's suffering like this.”
“I think Tobio wants to sleep.” Everyone turns to Kiyoomi, except Atsumu, who is trying to put on the owl documentary. “Tobio, go to sleep.”
“I don't want to move,” Tobio says, sinking down into his blanket.
“Sleep there,” Kiyoomi says. “Kourai, this was a bad idea. I'm leaving.”
“…Everyone's not even here yet.”
“Tobio's sick. The last thing he needs is this. Look at him. I'm telling Motoya not to come.”
“Fine.” Kourai is very close to pouting. “Are you guys leaving, too?”
“I'll stay,” Atsumu says, patting the TV where the owl documentary is open and loading. “I didn' do all this work for nothin’, and only the gods know what you and Ushijima-san will do to Tobio if you couldn' even figure this out.”
“You're the last person who should be acting smart.”
“I wouldn' say last. That'd be Hinata-kun.”
“That is fair,” Shouyou says. “I think I'm gonna go, too. Yamayama-kun's asleep anyway.”
“How rude is this,” Atsumu says. “Kourai-kun, you'll keep me company, right?”
“I live here.”
Kiyoomi's already gone when Shouyou says goodbye to everyone individually before stepping out. Atsumu mutes the TV and sits on the couch to watch it. Kourai texts Eikichi to check if he's still coming and then heads to the kitchen.
Kourai's halfway through a YouTube tutorial on how to make soup when Atsumu comes in. “I got bored,” he says, quiet enough to respect the sleeping person in the room but not a whisper. “What are you doin’?”
“You're supposed to make soup when someone gets sick.”
“I don' think we should try cookin’ right now.”
There is no Wi-Fi, and Kourai will not allow his used mobile data to go to waste like this. “I'm gonna do it.”
Atsumu has no knowledge of cooking, and he thinks that Kourai is even worse despite having a YouTube tutorial. He has to stop this.
“Your brother can cook, right?”
Atsumu nods slowly. He doesn't like where this is going.
“Where is he?”
“Hyogo.”
“Call him.”
“Why?”
“To supervise.”
“I can supervise,” Atsumu says, carefully keeping his voice level. “We should just wait 'til Ushijima-san gets back. He can cook, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“He can supervise.”
Kourai makes a face and goes to his bedroom to call Wakatoshi. Atsumu meanders back to the couch and watches the documentary while he waits. Kourai comes back eventually, goes to the kitchen, opens the fridge, closes the fridge, and finally comes to sit on the floor and watch. His eyes are trained on the screen when he talks. “We have no ingredients. Ushiwaka's gonna pick something up on the way back.”
Atsumu snorts. He promptly gets a pillow tossed into his head.
Thirty minutes pass. Neither of them are learning anything. The most exciting thing that's happened is an owl killing a mouse. There's a knock at the door, and Kourai slips trying to run and open it before it wakes up Tobio. Atsumu doubts he'd wake up either way.
“Hey,” Eikichi says. Kourai urgently puts a finger over his lips, pointing to Tobio sleeping on the couch. “You didn't say he was asleep,” he whispers.
Kourai sticks out his tongue and shuts the door. The coffee table is still out of place, and there are wrappers from the food Shouyou brought littered in front of where Kourai'd been sitting on the floor.
“What are you watching?” Eikichi asks. He's still whispering. He sits down after Kourai because Atsumu's taking up the whole other couch and he didn't know where on the floor was free.
“Kiyoomi brought it over,” Kourai says. They're all whispering.
“Why the hell does Kiyoomi have this?”
“Bokkun,” Atsumu says.
“Ah.”
Kourai glances between them, unbelievably confused, but he keeps it private. He thinks it's better for him to not know.
They get tired of owls once the snacks run out, so Kourai suggests moving to the other room and playing Scrabble. It’s the only game they have, and the only other thing they can do since the Wi-Fi is still broken. Atsumu was firmly against watching all of his own matches from last season. Eikichi and Kourai are arguing about whether ‘ew’ is an acceptable Scrabble word when Wakatoshi gets back.
“What took you so long?” Kourai asks. “Was there a long wait for the food or something?”
Wakatoshi’s hands are empty, so Kourai can only hope that he actually got something to eat and already put it in the fridge. “I bought a new remote,” he says. That doesn’t answer Kourai’s question nor does it warrant the three and something hours that Wakatoshi’s been out, but Kourai’s brain power is focused on game so he doesn’t think about it.
“What was wrong with it?”
“A wire was broken,” Wakatoshi says. “I believe that is what the man said.”
“Well, do you want to play with us? You’ll be at a disadvantage for joining late.”
Wakatoshi nods so they make space for him to sit. “I get the points for ‘ew’ because you got distracted and Atsumu already went,” Eikichi says, a smug smile prominent on his face. Kourai scowls. Then they hear the sound of Tobio throwing up in the other rooms.
Kourai thanks the gods that he had the foresight to leave the designated vomit bowl by the couch and stands up. “I’ll go check on him.”
X
“Yer buildin’ fuckin’ sucks,” Atsumu says. “This happens every fuckin’ time. That’s why I wore slippers this time, an’ he stole those too! Ya know I’ve spent like ten thousan’ yen ‘cause of this fuckin’ place? Ya gotta report this! They were inside!”
“I know, I know,” Kourai says, rubbing his temples. Atsumu’s accent gets worse when he’s pissy and it makes the situation that much more stressful. “Maybe… Maybe Tobio saw them, he was here.”
“Tobio-kun!” Atsumu yells, marching to the bedroom that Tobio’s currently occupying. After throwing up a couple of times he’d relocated but Kourai was pretty sure he was on his phone instead of sleeping. “Did ya see the fuckin’ shoe ghost? He got my slippers!”
Seconds tick by. Tobio stares at Atsumu, blank in the face. “Huh?” he asks. Atsumu waits. “Oh, no, it wasn’t a haunt. I threw up on them a bit. They’re drying.” Tobio points at the window. One of Atsumu’s slippers is perched on the drying rack.
“That’s only one of ‘em.”
Tobio looks.
“A crow might’ve taken it?”
Kourai pats Atsumu’s shoulder. “It’s okay, you can borrow my slippers to go home.” His nose scrunches up for a moment before he looks down at his feet, then Atsumu’s. He starts walking down the hall. “Ushiwaka, can Atsumu borrow your slippers!?”
Atsumu's attention goes back to Tobio. “Ya've gotta make 'em do something 'bout that. It ain't a ghost, 'm tellin' ya.” Tobio's eyes are puffy, his nose is red, and he's sniffing again now that he's not at the brink of sleep. Atsumu's gaze trails down to the trash can filled with used tissues by the bed, then to the big bowl beside it. Tobio still hasn't said anything.
“Get better soon,” he says, even though Tobio isn't really listening to any of it anymore. He closes the door as quietly as he can. “Don't let 'im die,” he says when Kourai points him to his temporary slippers.
“Thanks for believing in Tobio's immune system and us.”
x unspecified length of time later
Tobio is fine by the next week. Kourai and Tobio were going to practice with Eikichi and one of his teammates since they still have another week off, but that was cancelled for reasons unspecified.
“I can't believe Eikichi bailed on us,” Kourai says with a pout. He's just passing the ball back and forth with Tobio now. Wakatoshi left them to meet one of his own friends while both of them were in the city. Tatsuto had laughed at Kourai when he called and then hung up.
“I hope he's not sick,” Tobio says.
“He's not sick,” Kourai says. There's no way Eikichi got sick. He didn't tell them why he couldn't come, but it can't be because he got sick.
Kourai catches the ball when it comes to him instead of passing it back and takes out his phone. He texts Kiyoomi to ask Eikichi if he is, possibly, sick. “I'm hungry,” he tells Tobio, tossing the volleyball back to him so he can carry it instead. “What should we get?”
“Anything is fine,” Tobio says as he takes out his wallet. He looks inside and his face scrunches up, which makes Kourai recall that he has maybe a thousand yen on him. “I have enough to get something from a vending machine.”
“I'll ask Ushiwaka to bring home something,” Kourai says. Tobio's stomach growls. “I'll go to the store and get food on the way back.”
Tobio nods. “Alright, see you at home, Kourai-san.” There should be some not-yet-rotten fruits in the apartment, so that can stave off the hunger until Kourai gets back. But Tobio's bored and everyone's gone their separate ways, so he turns on his heel and heads to Shouyou's.
“Hey, Kageyama,” Shion says when he opens the door. He has a game controller in his hand. “Come in, we're playing FIFA.”
“Tobio!” Shouyou yells. He's sitting on the couch. He jumps up and sprints to the kitchen. “I know you're only here 'cause you're hungry!” Tobio hears Shouyou say along with the sound of a fridge opening. He pointedly does not react to that.
“Tobio-kun, we're absolutely obliterating 'Samu, wanna help?” Atsumu had been sitting on the carpet when Tobio had stepped in, but now he's by the door and plucking Shion's controller from his hand. Tobio hasn't seen Osamu anywhere, so this confuses him. Shion's complaining about how Tobio's hijacked his place goes unheard.
“I thought Osamu-san was in Hyogo.”
“Online,” Atsumu says. “ 'Samu got one of his work buddies to play with him. It’s a two-on-two.”
Tobio nods and takes Shion’s now vacant spot on the floor in front of the TV while Shion moves to sit on the couch. It’s only when Atsumu has placed the controller in his hand that he remembers that he doesn’t know how to play the game. “I don’t know how to play,” he says. There’s the sound of something crashing and falling in the kitchen.
“You played this last time you came here,” Atsumu protests.
“Is that Kageyama-kun?” comes a voice from Atsumu’s phone, which is placed face-up in front of them. The screen is black, but there’s a call going on all the same.
“Hello, Osamu-san,” Tobio says, leaning forward a bit.
“Hold on, ‘Samu, Tobio forgot how to play.”
“Take your time, we're getting more food.”
Atsumu, with great patience, goes through the controls with Tobio once, twice, three times before he learns some of them. In that time Shouyou had returned with food, said a bunch of things and got ignored, and is now sitting disgruntled beside Shion.
They start the game. Atsumu passes the ball to Tobio, but he accidentally runs past it. “Do you know if Eikichi-san is okay?” Tobio asks.
Atsumu has a pocky stick in his mouth. He's kept it there to actively keep himself from insulting Tobio every time he screws up. Like just now, where Tobio got the ball back but forgot how to pass, allowing the other team to take the ball from right in front of him.
“He's sick,” Atsumu says around the pocky.
Atsumu sends the ball to Tobio who's on the opposite end of the field. Tobio runs into the goal instead of kicking the ball into it, but still manages to get the point.
“Fuck—Em, shit, don't tell Kourai-kun I told you that. Or Eikichi-kun.”
“Why can't I tell Eikichi-san that he's sick?”
“No, no, he told me not to tell you two.”
Tobio nods. He wants to listen to Atsumu. Really, he does. But he now lives with Kourai, and every instinct tells him to spill his guts as soon as he steps foot back into their apartment.
“Tobio-kun, don't make that face. And don't tell Kourai-kun. I know you want to. Don't.”
x
Later, when Tobio is gone, Shouyou turns to Atsumu. “You know he's still going to tell Hoshiumi-san.”
“No he won't.”
“Yeah he will. He was making that face when he left.” Shouyou flattens his hair with both hands and does a scarily accurate impression of Tobio. “The one that says ‘I'm still going to tell Hoshiumi-san everything’.”
Atsumu blanches.
x
“Kourai-san, Kourai-san, Kourai-san.”
“What?” Kourai asks. They're in the grocery store, damn it, but still there is something that's gotten Tobio's attention. Wakatoshi is getting the other half of the grocery list, and Kourai got saddled with Tobio.
“Look.”
There is a large poster with strawberry milk on it. Drink one bottle—a decently sized bottle, at that, nearly a sickening amount—in one minute, and you take home a box of those bottles in strawberry and chocolate flavor for free. There is a two hundred yen entry fee.
Kourai doesn't really need to think about it. It'll save Tobio a lot of money considering he splurges on milk or yogurt every time he passes a vending machine. “I think you can do it,” Kourai says. It looks easy enough. He couldn't do it, personally, but even Wakatoshi might be able to pull it off.
“I don't have any cash on me.”
Tobio wins the thing in fifty-two seconds. Wakatoshi carries the boxes while Tobio and Kourai get the bags.