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Tadashi came out to his mother over the summer before he began at Karasuno. He didn't expect her to accept it; he simply knew there was no way to hide any longer: all the baggy hoodies, the short haircuts, the way his teachers "mistook" him for a boy.
Well, okay, sure. He may not have expected her to be great about everything, but he didn't expect it to go so badly that he ended up alone on the street outside his house at two in the morning. Yet here he stood, stranded at the curb as a warm rain drizzled down, feeling suffocated by the humid Sendai air.
Though he felt numb to his core, his fingers fumbled for his phone, instinctively dialling the one number he had memorized. The phone rang only once before a groggy voice reached his ears.
"Yamaguchi? There'd better be a good reason you're calling at this ungodly hour."
Tadashi sighed in relief despite his friend's disgruntled tone. "Tsukki. Thank god. I'm so sorry - I'm so sorry..." he babbled.
"What are you talking about?" Tadashi could picture Kei's brows furrowing as he asked, and the image oddly provided him with some much-needed comfort.
"I'm really sorry. I just - I'm in a bad state, and I need somewhere to go right now. It-it's my mom. Please, Tsukki." Tadashi winced at how pathetic he sounded, but the other boy responded nonetheless.
"Fine, but are you okay?"
He nodded his head in gratitude, ignoring the question. "I'm on my way."
-----
Tadashi had never biked harder in his life, reaching his best friend's house in record time. Climbing through the back window, gasping for air, he found himself crumpled onto Kei Tsukishima's floor. "Gomen, Tsukki-" was all he managed to get out before the tears came. T he blond's expression cycled rapidly through initial annoyance at the crash of his shutters, to shock at the spectacle of his friend's materialization, before finally settling on concern.
"Yamaguchi?" he whispered, rubbing his sleep-filled eyes to verify what he was seeing.
Adjusting his eyes to the darkness, Yamaguchi was in fact silently weeping at the foot of his bed. Sudden realization of what must have happened dawned upon Tsukishima, and he slid off his mattress to join the other boy. Comforting others may not have been his strongest suit, but he'd be damned if he didn't try.
“Hey. You’re okay. You’re here now,” he whispered, reaching out a hesitant arm and cursing himself for how helpless he felt. Here was his only friend, crying with nowhere else to turn, and he still couldn’t help being so fucking awkward. Mercifully, Tadashi turned to face him. Looking into Tadashi’s pooling eyes, Kei couldn’t resist wrapping his arm around the other boy’s slim shoulders.
“Thank you,” the brunette whispered, nuzzling his head into the crook of the taller boy’s neck.
Kei felt a sudden wave of foreign emotion wash over him. In that moment, he promised himself that come hell or high water, he would always take care of Tadashi. He never wanted to see his best friend like this again. Tentatively and oh so slowly, Kei ran his slender fingers through the other boy’s hair.
Tadashi felt a tingle of warmth go down his spine, letting out a deep exhale he hadn’t even realized he had been holding in for an eternity. And just like that, with Kei’s fingers combing through his tousled hair, he drifted off to a pleasant, dreamless sleep.
Kei sighed slowly. “I’ll always be here for you. Always. I- I promise.” He cringed at his own words, but when he turned to look at Tadashi, he was already unconscious, his chest gently rising and deflating with each breath. Kei placed a pillow under the sleeping boy’s head.
As he gazed at Tadashi, attempting to memorize the beauty of the lucid, unburdened expression on his face, he couldn’t help but whisper: “Damn it, Tadashi. You’re going to be the death of me, but I... I love you.”
Too tired to be embarrassed by his confession, Kei closed his eyes. He knew Tadashi wouldn’t have any recollection of this admission in the morning, but he didn’t care. He swore he would spend every day of the rest of their lives making sure his best friend knew how he felt.