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Kyoutani knew everything had gone terrible wrong when he looked from the locked door to the door handle in his very own hand, felt the rain getting into the room through the broken windows, and heard Yahaba behind him threatening to kill him, but maybe this wasn't the right way to tell the story. Also, there was still this racoon somewhere here.
It had all started last week. No, actually it had started two months, 3 weeks, and 4 days ago (not that he was counting, that would be stupid, stupid people did that and he was not- beside the point.) when he had caught himself staring at Yahaba – his captain and the setter of their team – while they all had been in the locker room after practice. And while he was doing that – the staring – Kyoutani had wondered what that supple skin would feel like beneath his hand, what sounds Yahaba would do if he bit him into the shoulder, and lastly he wondered what he would smell like, rubbing against him. Of course he reacted like any normal person would by slamming his locker shut with so much force that the door just sprung back and hit him square in the face. Now that he had the attention of the entire team, he could angrily storm of and shove Yahaba away while he was at it. Yes, good, like a normal person. He did not act like an elementary student who suddenly realized that other people weren't so icky after all and was terrified by that. Not at all.
Of course Yahaba wasn't one to let himself be shoved around so Kyoutani had to run extra laps the next day and he just took it so he wouldn't have to look at Yahaba for too long. Which was just a dumb thing to even think considering that they were teammates and Yahaba was his captain and Kyoutani the ace of the team.
Well, summarized: Everything was shit.
Of course Kyoutani decided to take drastic measures. He would just forget about this thing – whatever it was, it was not a crush and he did not think back to the time during the match against Karasuno when Yahaba had pushed him against the wall. Nope, not on his mind at all. Anyway, it was not a crush! He would forget about it and just try to fill his head with other thoughts as soon as the other man started to invade it again, making him imagine things and feel stuff.
Of course that didn't work out all that well. So instead he tried to get angry because he was good at that. But that was even worse because he already clashed enough with Yahaba and they had been doing so well lately and now it was as if they were reversing back.
“Kyoutani what is with you lately? Get your head out of your ass!” was what Yahaba told him after one really bad practice and Kyoutani knew that he was right, of course, but all of this really wasn't easy.
But then last week happened.
“We should go on a trip together,” Watari suddenly announced while they were in the changing room. “Just us regulars! Summer break is starting in two days, right! Let's go to the beach! My parents have a beach house, we could totally crash there.”
“Your family owns a beach house?” Kunimi stopped changing for a second and turned to Watari in surprise who blushed and scratched his neck.
“Ah, yeah, it belonged to my grandparents originally. C'mon guys, it would be really cool! We could play volleyball, have a barbeque, a camp fire... oh, exchange ghost stories!” Kyoutani was just going to say that he would not attend this, but Yahaba was faster than him, smiling brightly at Watari.
“That's a really great idea. Maybe we can check our schedules and find a weekend. That's really nice of your parents to let us stay there.” Suddenly, Kyoutani thought that the idea of a trip with all of them wasn't the worst thing that could happen to them. Well, it was certainly not the best thing ever, but... it could be worse. Yeah, definitely.
So yes, they found a date and eight days later they all took the train to the beach and to where the house was, all in high spirits and full bags, including Kyoutani who – of all people – had a seat next to Yahaba.
“I'm glad you also decided to join,” was what he suddenly said to him and all he could do was to tell him to shut up, blush and turn around, pretending to sleep. He didn't see the little smile Yahaba gave him, before turning around and starting a conversation with Kindaichi.
The house was pretty big and right next to the beach – hence the name beach house – and the boys quickly ran in and called dips on sleeping arrangements. Kyoutani thought was just stupid and also Yahaba and Kunimi stayed back, but soon they found out that it had been a mistake.
Well, Kunimi was lucky because Kindaichi had saved him a spot in one of the guest rooms. The problem now was that Yahaba and Kyoutani were the only ones left and – what great fucking coincidence – exactly one room was free and of course there was just one bed. Of course.
The both of them stood inside the room, staring wordlessly at the bed and definitely not at each other, just throwing their bags on the bed and walking out, crashing into each other as they tried to leave the room at the same time and thus getting stuck in the door way.
“Back off, idiot!”
“You back off, what is wrong with you?”
“Just go already!”
“Fine!”
“Great!”
“Yeah!”
“Um, guys...” Their head turned, both of them still in the door way, trying to get out like some cartoon characters and they found Watari looking at them with an amused look on his face. Yahaba cleared his throat, stepping back and almost causing Kyoutani to fall at the sudden loss of a body pressing him into the door frame.
“Yeah, so beach right?” he said while walking past him absolutely ignoring him.
“Actually~ we're all hungry so first lunch, then beach!”
The group set off and got food at a local ramen place, talking excitedly about the plans they had made for today. Of course volleyball was on top of that list and some of them wanted to get into the water, too.
Kyoutani was sitting next to Kunimi who was honestly one of the few he could easily handle, seeing as none of them were particularly talkative.
It was that moment when things started to fall apart. When Kyoutani raised his bowl to drink the rest of his soup and then saw it. The thing that bothered him more than anything ever did in his entire life and it was there and it was dangerous and really surprising like a slap to the face.
It was one of the new first years that managed to make first string right away from some nice and nifty school and save himself a spot as a winger spiker. To be absolutely honest, Kyoutani hasn't payed too much attention to the newest members of their team. Most of them didn't talk to him anyway, seeing as they were afraid. But he did know that all of them thought Yahaba was some kind of beast tamer or whatever, just because he had the balls and the know-how to deal with Kyoutani. It wasn't like he was going around punching people or anything, so he really didn't get why people were so afraid of him. Yeah, he got that he wasn't the chippiest thing around town, but Kyoutani believed – with everything in his heart – that Yahaba was ten times scarier than him. How other didn't see it, he would never now. In fact, Yahaba was the scariest thing Kyoutani had ever encountered in his life.
Anyway, that little pipsqueak (he really wasn't that little, but he was shorter than him, so) was talking to their captain excitedly, a bright smile on his face as he was telling him God knew what and – that was the worst thing – Yahaba was smiling back, totally zoning in on what that guy was talking about. Then this dude – his name was Chitose if he remembered right – started to put his hand on Yahaba's arm and there were lines you didn't cross.
Kyoutani stared at the spot the two boys had made contact as if a disgusting insect had just made his home there and felt how his mood descended into the bottomless pit of hell. This was ridiculous, he couldn't let some shrimp ruin his mood, but at the same time he wanted to chop off the kid's hand like they used to do it to thieves. (He probably – no absolutely – should keep these thoughts to himself.)
It got a bit better after that when they got back, changed and started the first few rounds of beach volleyball where Kyoutani was on the same team as Yahaba and playing against Chitose and he just put all his frustrations and anger (at Chitose, but mainly himself and maybe a bit towards Yahaba because he had that stupid pretty face of his) into his attacks which were more than the first year could handle.
“Jeez, you are on fire today,”Yahaba said, looking at him with an amused look on that said stupid pretty face and Kyoutani just shrugged. Luckily he didn't hear Kunimi behind him mumbling, “more like marking his territory...”
They played for some more and went for a short swim before getting ready for the campfire. Once the sun was down, the air got a bit chillier so the fire felt good enough and they were sitting together, laughing and eating snacks until Watari stood up and cleared his throat.
“My good fellows it is time for a tradition most important to our kin that meets upon the fire at night. You could call it an instinct, something deeply rooted in our brains so that we have to give in to it, we have to-”
“Get to point, Watari,” Yahaba called, interrupting Watari's pompous speech.
“Fine, I was just setting the mood. It's time for some scary stories.” Kyoutani froze at those words and even more when he noticed how others seemed to be absolutely pumped by that idea. It wasn't like he was afraid or anything. Pff, as if. No, he just... scary stories were just really unnecessary, that was it. He was kind of relieved that he was not the only one thinking that after all.
“Do we have to?” Kindaichi looked around with a worried face and Kunimi next to him smirked.
“Absolutely, in fact, Watari and I even prepared some.”
Oh God.
Watari sat down again and grabbed a flashlight pointing it up his face like in a bad movie. And Kyoutani's hand were not sweaty. Nope.
“This story is about a little boy Kai and his brother Takao.” Watari made a dramatic break and they heard Kindaichi whimper “oh no, not kids, they are the worst in these things.” Kyoutani looked over and saw how Kindaichi was hiding his face in Kunimi's shoulder who was patting his leg in return and Kyoutani unwillingly glanced at Yahaba next to him who was paying attention to the story. For a short moment he imagined how it would be like to able to bury his face in that shoulder, but immediately felt stupid for even considering something like that.
“Kai hated it when his brother Takao had to go away. His parents constantly tried to explain to him how sick he was. That he was lucky for having a brain where all the chemicals flow properly to their destinations like undammed rivers. When he complained about how bored he was without a little brother to play with, they tried to make him feel bad by pointing out that his brother's boredom likely far surpassed Kai's, considering his confine to a dark room in an institution.”
“He always begged for them to give him one last chance. Of course, they did at first. Takao had been back home several times, each shorter in duration than the last. Every time without fail, it all started again. The neighborhood cats with gouged out eyes showing up in his toy chest, their dad's razors found dropped on the baby slide in the park across the street, mom's vitamins replaced by bits of dishwasher tablets. Their parents were hesitant now, using "last chances" sparingly. They said his disorder made him charming, made it easy for him to fake normalcy, and to trick the doctors who cared for him into thinking he was ready for rehabilitation. Kai just had to put up with his boredom if it meant staying safe from him.”
Watari took another break after talking for some time. No one was saying anything and Kyoutani felt uncomfortable, knew that something would change in the story now and he already didn't like any of this.
“Kai hated it when Takao had to go away. It made him have to pretend to be good until he was back.”
“Oh no,” Kindaichi whimpered and Kyoutani tried to turn his face so no one could see into his face. Just a stupid story, no big deal. He was not scared.
“Yo, Kyoutani-” Yahaba suddenly put a hand on his shoulder and he had not been prepared for that, he jumped with an (embarrassing) shriek, turning around in surprise.
“Woah sorry, I- wait... Were you scared? By that story?” On Yahaba's face that dumb smirk appeared which he genuinely couldn't stand and made him want to run against a wall and what the hell anyway, he was not afraid!
“What? No of course not, shut up. This is stupid anyway, I'm going to bed.” Kyoutani ignored the laughter behind him, they had no idea anyway and walked into the house. However, when the door shut behind him he realized how dark it was in here. Kyoutani slowly walked further inside the house and looked for the light switch. His phone was dead already so he couldn't even use that so he had so rely on his hand that was searching the walls.
“Hey Kyoutani-” the sudden voice right behind him set off all the alarms in him and he darted off, not even bothering to be quiet until a hand closed around his wrist and it got really bright really sudden. His eyes needed a few seconds to adjust and he then realize that it was Yahaba who was there, trying to hold in his laughter.
“Jeez, look at you go.”
“Wha- you- what is wrong with you?!”
“I'm sorry, I didn't think you would freak out so much.”
Kyoutani's face felt hot and he was glad that at least the rest of the team wasn't here to have seen that. Though, Yahaba, his cru- his captain (not crush, nope) having witnessed him like this
“I didn't freak out, I just... you surprised me is all.”
“Sure,” Yahaba replied and only now let go of his wrist and walked past him to their room. “I'm going to sleep now, too. I woke up really early today and the others still intend to stay up really late.” Kyoutani followed him and first didn't really think about the new information given to him, until he closed the door behind him and both of them were left to stare at this double bed again. Just the two of them. In a closed room.
“You know... I can... just sleep on the floor or something,” Kyoutani eventually said and started to take some stuff off the bed, when Yahaba stopped him.
“What, no you don't have to do that... I mean... this is a big bed, we can... just sleep in there, right?” Kyoutani hid his face by looking into his bag and pulling out his sleep wear. “Sure, whatever,” was what he said and his heart was threatening to burst out.
They both got ready for sleep, not really talking, going to the bathroom separately and eventually Kyoutani came back into the room, closing the door again and found Yahaba lying in bed already.
This was fine, no big deal. A bit awkward probably, but that was it. Yeah. Exactly.
Kyoutani slipped into the bed and tried to put as much space between them as possible, turning his back to the other man and not thinking how they even had to share a blanket because there was only one freaking thing on this bed, why God? Kyoutani felt warm and slipped his feet out of the blanket like he always did and while he lay there, his heart thumping, he knew that this really wasn't a crush, no.
He fucking liked him. He liked sleeping in this bed and he wanted to turn around so he could see Yahaba and he wanted to touch him, Jesus, he was thinking of when Yahaba had grabbed his wrist just before. He had held it for a while, probably not on purpose. But he liked all those things and he was fucked.
He felt Yahaba move and turned his head, finding him asleep already, now facing him and Kyoutani stared at his face, relaxed in his slumber and it looked really fucking pretty, damn.
When Kyoutani woke up he felt incredibly warm. Well, he usually was anyway, which was why he always slept with all his limps sticking out of the blanket, but now he was really, really hot.
He slowly creaked open his eyes and was startled to find hair right in front of his hair. Wait what??
Kyoutani was awake at once and he realized that he was hugging something- no someone. Yahaba Shigeru was sleeping in his very arms, both his arms around him, his head buried in his neck and oh God, oh God, oh God, what should he do? What did a person do in such a situation usually?!
Apparently he must have moved so much in his panic that it woke up the other boy who seemed a bit disoriented at first, but eventually looked up and both of them just stared each other for a while, without saying anything before simultaneously letting go of each other, pretty much jumping apart.
Yahaba's head was bright red and he grabbed some stuff out of his bag and ran out of the room, probably towards the bathroom. Kyoutani stayed behind and contemplated his life choices.
None of them spoke about it, but it was awkward enough already.
The second day of their trip started off just like their first. They made breakfast together and went to the beach, playing, lazing and swimming. Kyoutani and Yahaba made sure to keep their distance and at first Kyoutani thought that this was perfectly fine until he realized the big fault in this plan.
Chitose was practically glued Yahaba and it drove Kyoutani absolutely crazy.
Yeah, okay, he now knew and admitted to himself that he actually liked Yahaba. Great and dandy. So yes, it bothered him that some brat was pissing on his tree. Okay, no, that was very wrong. Yahaba wasn't his at all and the entire metaphor was disgusting he needed to think of better ones.
He just didn't like it and was all there was to it.
In the afternoon they decided to explore the area and went into the forest around. That was actually pretty fun, Kyoutani had to admit. (Well, the trip was, as a whole not bad at all, he was just going through a crisis that threw a dark shadow over things.) He liked nature and especially forests and he was a big fan of hiking in general, so he was enjoying this.
“This is pretty good work out for our legs,” Yahaba said at one point and Watari next to him lightly punched his arm.
“We are on vacation, stop talking about practice.”
“I am just saying- Woah, what's that?”
They had walked for a while and now they stood in front of an old and abandoned building. It probably had been a place where people had lived in, but those days were long gone and it was a stark contrast to all the summery and chipper nature around it.
“Woah, creeeppy,” Watari mumbled and slowly approached it. Kyoutani found himself next to Kindaichi at the end of the road and both of their faces practically screamed “NOPE!”
Watari apparently caught up on that and a dangerous look passed his face.
“What's up, Kyoutani? Are you scared of some old house?”
Kyoutani felt how the world was betraying him, turning on him at every possible moment and moreover, Kindaichi was pissing his pants, too!
“What? No, I don't care about this thing,” he replied, schooling his voice to sound nonchalant.
“Oh really,” Yahaba suddenly tuned in and it had been pretty much the first time he had directly spoken to him today.
“So you wouldn't mind to, I don't know, go inside?”
“Yeah, no problem at all.” This was getting dangerous. Abort. Abort now.
“Well, I don't mean now. How about, hmmm, at night?”
Kyoutani started and, God, just the thought gave him nightmares. But of course he couldn't say that.
“Yeah sure.”
“We could make a dare out of it! Could be fun.” It was Chitose that had chimed in and Kyoutani stared at the guy with several questions marks written all over his face. Yeah, let's go into an abandoned old building as a dare at night, GREAT idea, really. What was wrong with this people?
“I don't know guys...” Kindaichi eventually intervened and Kyoutani felt like kissing him.
“We could make pairs so it can be easier and see who can hold on longer,” Chitose swiftly replied as a compromise. Okay, just a second there. This kid, Kyoutani knew exactly what he was trying to do. He wanted to have Yahaba as his partner. Well in his fucking wet dreams.
“Alright. Pretty boy, let's do this,” he addressed Yahaba. Kyoutani enjoyed Chitose's startled face to the fullest, especially when Yahaba seemed to go along.
“To hold your hand?”
“Shut up.”
“Great come back, did you prepare it beforehand?”
The two of them glared at each other before nodding at the same time and this is it, finally the moment that was the nail to his coffin.
So here they were now. Locked inside of the room and having ripped off the handle of the door, with raining pouring inside and Yahaba pissed. Oh right, and the racoon.
So this was what happened.
They really went inside of this goddamn house during the night and at first Kyotani had managed to stay cool, but after Yahaba had stumbled into something pretty early into their little journey that caused some kind of loud and unnatural sound, he couldn't do it. He grabbed Yahaba's arm and pulled him close, breathing heavily.
“Calm down, that was me.” Kyoutani had expected for Yahaba to laugh at him, but his voice was calm and assuring and he was actually comforting him. Kyoutani calmed down after a bit and slowly pulled away, embarrassed.
“You are actually scared aren't you?” They had stopped and Yahaba had pulled him towards a window where the moon shone inside and provided them with some light. Yahaba also pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight in it which did help.
“Whatever,” he mumbled in response which was a yes, pretty much and Yahaba knew it.
“You should have said so. Kindaichi did and he is not going inside here either.”
Well, he couldn't say that Chitose would have snatched Yahaba otherwise. So he just shrugged, not even trying to deny his fear at this point.
“Alright, let's get out of here then.” Yahaba took his hand and started to walk back and there was no pretest coming from Kyoutani because he really wanted out.
They were walking down the hall, almost in the entry way, when Kyoutani definitely heard something, but he was not a dumb movie character. He did not stop, he sped up.
Suddenly he heard a loud shriek, something really really fucking scary, and then he felt something at his legs. The only thing he did not hear was “Oh wow, I think I saw a racoon,” said by Yahaba.
“Holy fucking shit!” He pulled Yahaba with him as he stumbled backwards and in the end started running into a random room. Shutting the door tightly behind them.
“What the hell are you doing? Why did you do that?”
“There was something, it was trying to get my leg, I know it, I felt it!”
“You idiot, did you not hear me? I think racoons live here!”
Kyoutani froze and slowly, the realization of what he had done came to him. He totally overreacted. God.
“Oh... sorry.”
Yahaba opened his mouth to reply, but stopped suddenly, turning his head towards the windows that did not have any glass in them for probably quite some time.
“I think it's starting to rain. We should get out of here.” Just when he finished that sentence a lightning strike illuminated the room and there it went, a down pour right over their heads.
“Right.” Kyoutani turned to the door, grabbing the door handle and pulled. And suddenly flew back, crashing into Yahaba. Oh no.
“Oh shit,” he hissed and quickly scrambled back to the door, trying to put the handle back in, but it kept falling our. “Fuck.”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I can fix this! Just shine some light here, will you?”
“I can't believe you just locked us in here!”
“Just shine the stupid light on here okay?”
Yahaba let out an exhausted sigh and stepped closer, shining his phone towards the door.
Kyoutani started fiddling with the handle, getting more and more frustrated since it was not working at all and their backs were starting to get soaked.
“Hurry up or let me try it if you can't do it.” Yahaba shoved his phone to him and tried it himself, not having any more success, though. “Just why did you even insist on coming into this stupid house? You could have just said no, you know! Unfuckingbelievable.”
Okay this was it. He had enough. He didn't do this on purpose and all he got was being shat at and he had to draw a line into the sand.
“Just, God shut up okay! I did because otherwise that Chitose-kid would have gone with you in here!”
“So what? Why do you care?”
“Because I like you and I didn't want it.”
“Are you stupid? What kind of reason is that?”
“I was jealous okay? There, I said it!”
“Well, that's just ridiculous because I like you, too.”
“Okay, good.”
“Yeah, great.”
It got very quiet all of the sudden and both of them realized what they had just done and stared at each other in terror.
“Wait, what?” While Kyoutani was still confused and embarrassed, Yahaba took a step back and started right out laughing.
“Holy shit, I can't believe we confessed to each other like this.” It was dark, but Kyoutani swore he could see the blush on setter's face and he swallowed down his own smile.
“C'mon let's get out of here.”
He gave back Yahaba's phone who eyed him sceptically now and Kyoutani started to run shoulder first against the door, breaking it open. He should have done that right away. The wood was old and immediately gave in and they could finally leave.
“Let just get the fuck out of here.”
They ran back to the house, in the end soaking wet and quickly went in, glaring at their team mates that had saved themselves when the storm had started. They quickly showered and changed and in the end stood in front of their shared bed again, but this time Kyoutani heart was beating fast for a very different reason.
They slipped under the blanket and at first just stayed on their backs, close to each other, but not quite touching. Until Kyoutani hesitantly reached over and touched Yahaba's arm. Within seconds both of them moved, reaching for each other, both of their faces beef red and they fell asleep the same way they woke up this morning.
“This better worked.” Kunimi said as he watched them go to bed, still a bit pissed at them for leaving them inside the house. Well, Kunimi kind of got it, but they did it for their own good.
“Good work, Chitose-kun,” Watari said and patted the first year's shoulder. “Kyoutani was fuming, you did really well.”
“Honestly, I feared for my life.”
“Ah, those two just needed a little push.”
“I wonder what happened in the house. They were in there for a long time,” Kindaichi wondered out loud. Watari got the answer to that question four days later (seeing that he was Yahaba's best friend and was fed such information) and he was also richer, having won the bet against Oikawa who said that the two of them would not get together before graduating.
Well, all they needed was a little push. And an abandoned building at night. And a storm. And a racoon... and a broken door. Piece of cake.