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The sound of rain dancing on the roof always calmed Tsukishima; it even usually helped him to sleep, but that night’s thunderstorm did little to calm his boyfriend.
“Come on baby, come lay down,” Tsukishima goaded his boyfriend to come lay down in his bed. He even opened his arms and patted the spot between them, indicating that Kageyama’s favorite place to sleep was available and happy to take him in.
“Keiiii, I don’t want to sleep! I mean, I can’t sleep yet, I-I haven’t finished my homework yet,” Kageyama corrected badly, Tsukishima’s perceptive mind quickly catching the mistake and odd tone that gave his boyfriend away. Tsukishima quirked his eyebrow.
“That’s a lie. What’s perturbing you, babe?” At Kageyama’s confused look, Tsukishima rolled his eyes and amended his sentence to his boyfriend’s level. “What’s bothering you?”
An alarmed look flashed briefly in Kageyama’s eyes, before the somewhat dense boy managed to hide it and tried to appear unaware of what his observant boyfriend spoke of. “I don’t know what you mean. I just need to do my homework. Do you want me to fail, dumbass?” Kageyama shot back after collecting himself.
Another roll of his eyes accompanied his explanation, “Okay first of all, you’re terrible at hiding your emotions. Also, as well as I know you, I think I should be able to tell when something is wrong. And honestly? You wanting to do homework is a little unbelievable, especially in place of sleep.” Kageyama sat dumbfounded, as per usual. “Come on, love, you can tell me what’s wrong.”
After another moment of hesitance, Kageyama finally opened up, “I really don’t like thunderstorms. They’re so loud and unpredictable. The noise always reminds me of my mom and when she would get mad and scream at me. I would never know when the blows were coming and it was always loud, so loud. Just like a thunderstorm. Each crack of thunder is like a hit and I jump every time. I really don’t like thunderstorms.” Tsukishima didn’t have a snarky reply for that. He wasn’t sure he had any sort of reply to that.
He opened his mouth a few times, attempts at comforting his boyfriend coming to mind, only to be quickly shot down when he reconsidered them. A simple apology for something that was not his fault, nor something he could have prevented, was all that came to mind. “I’m sorry, love.” He walked over to the smaller boy and wrapped him in the tightest hug he had ever given.
They stayed like that for a long time, arms encircled around each other, swaying slightly. Tsukishima ran one hand through Kageyama’s hair while he whispered soft “I love you”s and “I’m here now”s into the shorter’s ear. When both of them no longer shook with fear or anger, Tsukishima pulled away from the embrace and took Kageyama’s cheeks in his hands and stroked his fingers over the sharp cheekbones.
“Come lay with me and I’ll teach you the rain can be calming,” Tsukishima whispered softly, pulling them to the bed. He laid down first and pulled Kageyama on top of him, wrapping his arms around him again. The rain was picking up, coming down in sheets.
Kageyama did learn that rain could be calming. Instead of his mother’s screams, the rain drops reminded him of Tsukishima’s fingers running through his hair. Instead of his mother’s blows, the thunder was reminiscent of the tight hugs and squeezes from his boyfriend. Instead of a miserable experience, thunderstorms became a time of cuddling and love.