Chapter Text
A cool breeze was flowing when he crossed the exit gate of the restaurant where the dinner party was held. Judging by the closed signs hanging from the doors of some nearby bars and nearly empty street save for some drunk teenagers still coming out of the restaurant, Atsumu realized that it was pretty late in the night.
He glanced at his phone’s lock screen and the time-3:32 am stared back. He sighed and sagged his shoulders realizing that he was pretty beat at this point and will be late for tomorrow’s practice, AGAIN. In the back of his mind, the words that were spoken quietly by a certain blueberry in the hustle-bustle of the restaurant were ringing clear as a day ”The day my sister told me and my grandpa that she was quitting volleyball to continue her studies further was the day I felt that I lost something for some reason”.
He shook his head to get himself out of his thoughts. The cool breeze was gratefully doing a little help in making him feel a bit more okay. He was starting to feel more sober and alert by each passing second although he did not even have a drop of alcohol this evening because he promised his brother that he will not get shit-faced (He keeps his promises, he is nice like that).
He huffed out a humorless laugh by thinking about his stupid twin brother. He desperately wanted to talk to someone regarding the events of the night and that someone is generally Osamu. But considering the time of the night he found himself reluctant to place a call as his brother must have fallen asleep after working all day. He switched on his phone only to see a text from his brother, which he realized was sent to him sometime this night as a reminder to not repeat his drinking shenanigans.
From: Doodyhead Bro (11:45 p.m.)
“Don’t drink and die in a ditch shithead! Reach home at a reasonable hour WITHOUT making that sm1 swim in yer barf, peabrain.”
Leave it to Samu to passive aggressively care for someone. "Idiot" he thought fondly. Without replying to the previous text, he started typing a new message.
To: Doodyhead Bro (3:44 a.m.)
“Samu, I think I fucked up this time again. Will call ya later.”
He waited some seconds for a texting bubble to appear in case his brother was awake. But after checking the time again (shit! 3:45 a.m.) it was painfully obvious that Samu was in deep sleep. He sighed deeply again and an annoying voice in his little head supplied that he is doing this a lot lately (& why does this voice sound like his shithead of a brother suddenly).
He got up from the pavement he found himself sitting on while having this earth-shattering conversation with himself. He was about to call a taxi to return to the MSBY dorms when he saw two of his teammates trickling out from the restaurant. Bokuto had his hand wrapped around the shoulders of Shouyo for some balance as they both were clearly very shit-faced.
As soon as they made eye contact with Atsumu, both of them beamed and made their way towards him. Bokuto started shouting his name “Tsum-Tsum! There you are! Where did you go all of a sudden? I was starting to feel like I have not seen you in 20 years” while Shouyo was speaking over the other “Atsumu-san! We thought you left the party and headed dorms without us."
Atsumu felt his lips forming a little smile without even intending to. “At least I have this,” he thought to himself. He nodded his head enthusiastically to engage his friends in their blabbering while also signaling the driver of a parked taxi there. He enveloped Bokuto's right hand around his own left shoulder to share his weight with an exhausted looking HInata and made a beeline for their taxi.
When they reached their dorms, Atsumu who was sitting beside the door and indirectly shouldering the weight of his two sleeping teammates decided to jostle them to wake them up from their slumber while paying for their ride. Until they reached their assigned rooms Bokuto kept babbling something about his previous setter Akaashi not skyping him in two days due to work. Good grief! Is he crying? And on his other side it looked like it was painful for Hinata to even keep his eyes open.
After settling them in their own rooms, Atsumu clicked the door of his room shut, took off his shirt while leaving on his jeans, turned on the A.C., and unceremoniously plopped on the bed with a thud. Closing his eyes at that moment was not a choice but an involuntary action of his own body. But the moment of relaxation existed for some mere seconds before a face, a beautiful face framed with middle parted black bangs, saddened blueberry eyes, stoic features, and a frowned mouth appeared behind his eyes. And if Atsumu kept sighing and repeating the events of the evening shared with that certain someone in his head for a long time before sleep came then that is none of anybody’s business, now is it?