Rating:

Teen

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Haikyuu!!

Relationship:

Oikawa/Sugawara

Series:

Part of the sweetest setting series

Tags:

canon divergent, future fic, pre-slash

Stats:

Posted on:

2014-09-18

Words:

5,784

Tooru kicks open the door, grateful that it’s half open. Iwaizumi comments drily, “There’s a doorknob.”

“Yeah, and my hands are full.”

“You could’ve asked me to open the door,” says Iwaizumi, following him inside.

Tooru grumbles, “You wouldn’t help me grab my things. How was I supposed to know that you’d help me opening the door?”

“It’s your shit, not mine,” says Iwaizumi. “The door doesn’t really belong to anyone – ”

“Technically it belongs to me now, since it’s my dorm – ”

Tooru cuts himself off when he sees that there’s already someone in here, scribbling in a notebook by dim desk light. What a weirdo. He could just turn on the overhead light. The rest of the room is pretty dark as it is, with the blinds closed.

The person looks up, and smiles. He gives off a refreshing aura. Tooru doesn’t know if he likes this person yet.

It’s probably standard for most people to not figure out if they like someone upon first impressions. It’s not standard for Tooru.

“Hi, you must be my roommate! I’m Sugawara Koushi.”

“Hi,” Tooru says warily. He sets down his boxes on the spare bed, because the other already has very clean, very plain sheets and blankets on it. “Oikawa Tooru.”

“Nice to meet you.” Sugawara is still smiling at him. He stands up and sticks out his hand

Is it nice to meet him? Tooru takes the offered hand.

“Well,” he says. “Iwa-chan and I better head back out to the car and get the rest of my stuff.”

“Okay.” Sugawara sits back down. “I’ll be working on my schedule, but you don’t need to worry about bothering me. I’m pretty good at working without getting distracted.”

Tooru nods warily, and he and Iwaizumi head back to the door. Before they leave, Tooru turns around.

“I’m going to turn the light on,” he says. “Is that okay?”

Sugawara stares at him, and then shrugs. “Sure.” So Tooru switches on the light.

It illuminates the room, and Tooru can see Sugawara better. He has silvery hair, and his round smallish face blinking in surprise looks innocent under the white light.

He and Iwaizumi head out. As they make their way down the hall, Iwaizumi asks quietly, “What’d you think?”

Tooru doesn’t know what to think.

“I don’t like him,” he says, because it’s best to be safe.

Iwaizumi tsks. “Honestly,” he says, “you have the worst personality.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Iwaizumi doesn’t answer. Tooru continues pestering him, but Iwaizumi just huffs and helps him with his boxes this round and they go back to Tooru’s (and Sugawara’s) dorm.

After they set the last of Tooru’s stuff down, Iwaizumi goes over to Sugawara.

“Please take care of Oikawa-san!”

He bows ninety degrees, shoots Tooru a dirty look, and then flees.

Sugawara’s mouth has dropped open. Tooru sighs.

“Honestly,” he says. “Saying that, like I’m some sort of child who needs to be looked after, or something.”

Sugawara blinks out of his daze. He smiles questioningly at Tooru. Really, is smiling his only mouth function? Other than talking. What is he thinking about? A normal person doesn’t smile that much.

“I’m sure you can handle yourself,” Sugawara says to him, which is even more suspicious.

*

Sugawara, as it turns out, goes by a rigid schedule where every day looks practically the same. Tooru’s pretty sure he has a problem, but it’s not like he can talk. At least Sugawara goes to sleep at a decent time every night, while Tooru rewatches clips from various years’ volleyball national championship games, trying to find the best moves to emulate.

But Sugawara goes to sleep at eleven o’clock, every night, and wakes up at seven o’clock, every fucking morning. Classes haven’t even started yet, and the kid spends too much time hunched over his desk, doing god knows what.

Tooru figures out pretty quickly that he eats all his meals at almost the same time, too. Eight o’clock breakfast, because that’s when the cafeteria opens; twelve-thirty lunch; and then six o’clock dinner. Usually Tooru skips breakfast, puts off leaving his dorm after he wakes up until about two in the afternoon to eat, and then grumbles during his seven-thirty dinner, because that’s right before the cafeteria closes, and he’s not very hungry from eating too much lunch. But he knows that if he doesn’t eat, he’ll end up whining about starvation a few hours later, which is a dumb thing to put himself through.

Sugawara also showers every day, eight forty in the evening (on the fucking dot), and doesn’t come back until nine twenty. At least he uses the restroom like a normal person, though.

And with having pinpointed these key parts of Sugawara’s schedule, Tooru can time when he can jerk off without any interruptions. So that’s also good.

When classes start, Tooru has to wake up at eight thirty. Sometimes he’s being woken up by Sugawara. It turns into most of the time.

“Hey – hey!” Tooru says, as Sugawara pokes him in the arm. “I don’t understand why you do that.”

“So you can make it to your nine o’clock class.”

Sugawara points at their bulletin board, where he’s pinned up his and Tooru’s schedules. A few days after getting here, Sugawara had asked him for his class list, and then transformed it into this color-coded chart, now hanging on their wall.

Tooru gets out of bed. He grumbles, “I’m not your responsibility…”

“Your Iwa-chan told me to take care of you.” Sugawara is grinning as Tooru rifles through his drawer for a clean shirt.

Tooru doesn’t reply to this; Iwaizumi’s been texting and instant messaging him since he got here, making sure he hasn’t been too much trouble for Sugawara. Tooru likes to think he hasn’t been, because other than his late night volleyball game screenings, he hasn’t been doing anything he would particularly constitute as otherwise annoying or a burden.

He gets invited to his first party after the first week of school. He comes home drunk and announcing that he’d made out with a guy with nice shoulders. Sugawara tells him congratulations.

“Don’t you want to say something?” Tooru taunts, walking over to Sugawara’s desk. Honestly, how does he sit there all day? His back must get hurt or something.

“Don’t trip on your way to your bed.”

Sugawara’s smile is blinding. Tooru tells him this.

“Th… anks?” Sugawara shrugs. “By the way, the volleyball team tryouts moved. It’s going to be Tuesday at the same time, not Thursday.”

“Thaaaaaaaaank you.”

Tooru flops onto the nearby bed. It doesn’t smell like his.

He hears Sugawara sigh. “I’ll make a note for you, since I’m pretty sure you’ll forget in the morning.”

“I don’t understand you, Refreshing-kun.”

Sugawara stops from where he’s about to write on Tooru’s calendar. “What did you just call me?”

Tooru’s still flopped face down on the bed that’s probably not his. It’s very pale. Pastel white, Tooru thinks, and giggles.

“Like,” he says, to the pastel white sheets, “what are you getting out of this?”

“Out of what?” When Tooru turns around, he sees that Sugawara’s small eyebrows are furrowed. Tooru pushes back another giggle. Sugawara’s eyebrows are so small.

“We’re roommates, Oikawa-kun.”

“So?”

Sugawara’s eyebrows grow even tighter. It’s too bad that they’re not very close, or else it would look like Sugawara’s sporting a unibrow right now. “Why would I need to get anything out of this? How can you say that you don’t understand me when you’re the weird one?”

“You’re plenty weird too!” Tooru gestures around their room, but it doesn’t really say much. Sugawara keeps to himself and has occupied probably less than half the space. It’s not like Tooru takes up much room either; the only thing indicative of Sugawara being out of the ordinary is his color-coded schedules.

“Oikawa – ” Sugawara stops himself. “I think you’re just drunk. Maybe you need sleep.”

“You need sleep! It’s – ” Tooru glances at his clock. “It’s nine thirty!”

This is pathetic. He’s drunk and making an embarrassment of himself at nine thirty.

Sugawara opens up his mouth, but Tooru just has to keep going and say, “Why do you even sleep at eleven every night? And you’re always smiling! And doing homework! I don’t trust you!”

Sugawara’s smile looks strained this time. Tooru wants to shout and point it out, but when he stands up, he almost falls back down.

“Go to sleep,” Sugawara says gently; and when Tooru struggles to pick himself up, he hears Sugawara sigh, and then there’s a hand on his arm. Tooru walks easily to his bed, then. The hand disappears once he’s collapsed on his pillow.

He falls asleep almost immediately. This is the first time since getting to university he’s slept before midnight.

*

In the morning, Tooru wakes up with a raging headache and absurdly dry mouth. “What the fuck,” is the first thing he says, and despite sounding normal, his throat is hoarse.

“Finally,” says a voice. Tooru lifts up his sore head to see that Sugawara’s watching him from his desk, and comes over to Tooru with a cup.

“What, have you just been sitting there and watching me all night?”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself in the morning.” Sugawara hands him the cup. “Drink,” he instructs.

Tooru does. The water hits the back of his mouth, and he can feel it run down his throat and through his body.

“Did you poison this?” he asks suspiciously.

“Oikawa-kun,” Sugawara says, actually placing a hand on Tooru’s knee. Tooru’s too stunned by the motion to shake him off. “I promise that I don’t have ulterior intentions. With anything. Or anyone. Especially you. You don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to me.”

Tooru narrows his eyes.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

Sugawara sighs. “I didn’t poison your drink.”

“Thank you,” Tooru says, before taking another sip. It doesn’t quite cure his headache, but at least his mouth feels better.

“I’m going to go play volleyball,” he says, getting up from his bed. “Might make me feel better.”

“Does volleyball do that?”

“Yeah,” says Tooru, looking through his clothes for his old high school uniform. “I mean, why do you think I’m in a good mood all the time?” He pauses from his drawer and throws up a cheesy peace sign at Sugawara.

Sugawara blinks. “Oh, is that where you’ve been going?”

“Duh.” Tooru resumes digging through his drawer. “What did you think I’ve been doing all first week? And when I’m not at class?”

“You didn’t say,” Sugawara points out. “And last night when you came back from that party, I assumed that was your regular thing…”

Tooru watches him carefully. Sugawara’s eyes are big. Honestly, Tooru doesn’t know why for one moment he thought Sugawara was omnipotent.

“It’s not a regular thing,” he says to Sugawara. “Volleyball’s a regular thing.” Then: “Do you play?”

“No.” Sugawara shakes his head. “My friends are on the team, though.”

“Then you must’ve played at least a little bit.”

Sugawara shrugs. “I guess.”

“How are you?”

“I don’t know. I think I’m okay,” Sugawara replies. “I stopped playing competitively, though. I was going to try out for my high school team, but then I saw that so many other players were more skilled and talented than me, so…” He trails off, like it’s nothing.

Tooru finds his old Aoba Jousai jersey and shorts. “Then why did you say you were okay?”

“I – ” Sugawara looks flustered.

“I didn’t think that I was that good, either,” says Tooru, taking his shirt off and putting his jersey on. “At least, when I was in middle school – there was this two years my junior who was a fucking genius. And then we played him several times in high school. But we beat them a few times, and I also got a ‘Best Setter’ award, and he didn’t, so.”

Sugawara watches him. “You don’t hold anything back, do you, Oikawa-kun?”

“What’s to hold back?”

There’s a pause as Tooru gets his socks on. Then Sugawara’s going back to his desk, and comes back to Tooru.

“You should give me your phone number,” he says cheerfully.

To Tooru, it honestly comes out of nowhere. “Why?” he asks suspiciously.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. Just in case you go to another party again and need someone to pick you up. Or. Whatever.”

Tooru’s still hesitant, but gives Sugawara his number anyway. Sugawara thanks him, and pockets his phone.

“I’m going to have you know,” says Tooru, “that if I need help, you’re probably not going to be the first person I call.”

“That’s okay.” Sugawara grins. “You can still make me an option.”

Tooru starts heading out. When he turns to close the door, he sees that Sugawara’s still standing there, watching him leave.

Tooru considers for a moment, before asking, “Do you want to come practice with me?”

“Nah.” Sugawara sheepishly scratches behind his head. “Some other time maybe, when you’re not training to be on the school team.”

“Whatever you say.” Tooru shuts the door behind him.

*

Tooru calls Iwaizumi in the middle of the next week. “Iwa-chaaaaan,” he sings into his phone. “How are you?”

“Why are you awake so damn early?” comes Iwaizumi’s grumpy voice.

Tooru’s not going to admit it, but Sugawara’s continuing habit of waking him early in the mornings and requesting for utter darkness before midnight might have gotten Tooru into a routine, too. Of following Sugawara’s schedule. The kid’s contagious.

“Good habits,” he calls into the phone. He crosses his legs on his bed. Sugawara’s out at breakfast, but Tooru doesn’t get hungry until around ten thirty, so he’d denied the offer to accompany him.

Iwaizumi scoffs. “Yeah right,” he says. “All you are is bad habits.”

“Hush,” says Tooru. “Don’t you want to know how I’ve been?”

“The fact that a) you had the sense to call me, and b) still seem to have your head on your body, says enough.”

“That hurts,” says Tooru, and pouts before he remembers that Iwaizumi can’t see. “But I guess that’s true. I mean, I am flourishing quite well here.”

“How’s the volleyball?”

“Amazing,” Tooru answers, because it is. It’s the reason he’d chosen this university in the first place. “Tryouts were fucking incredible, and I totally destroyed them.”

“‘Course you did,” says Iwaizumi, but he sounds fond. “And Sugawara-san?”

“Oh, he’s…” Tooru waves his hand, and then remembers again that Iwaizumi still can’t see him. “You know, Sugawara-san.”

“What does that even mean?”

“He’s alright,” says Tooru.

He can practically see Iwaizumi narrowing his eyes on the other end. “I thought you didn’t like him.”

“Well I did, and then he told me that there’s nothing to suspect him of, and then he gave me water when I had a hangover! So I don’t hate him anymore.”

Sugawara apparently chooses this time to enter their dorm, and practically glowers when he sees Tooru on his bed.

“Why are you not ready for class yet?”

“Shit,” says Tooru, and hears Iwaizumi make a noise of confusion. “Talk to you later, bye!” He hangs up on him. Sugawara has his arms folded.

“Really, Refreshing-kun,” Tooru says as he clambers out of bed and heads towards his underwear drawer. “That is a new look on you.”

“If you can practice volleyball every day, you can make it to class every day, too.”

“Class isn’t volleyball,” Tooru mutters as he shucks his underwear off. At least doing that has the power to get Sugawara to blush and turn away.

*

One of his Friday classes is canceled, so Tooru’s day ends at ten thirty. He sighs happily as he sets his backpack down, and then decides to take a shower. Most people on their floor are out around this time, so he can bathe and sing without fear of embarrassment or interruption.

Despite not needing to rush, his shower takes him fifteen minutes anyway. He walks back to their dorm with a towel around his waist, humming some American song. He wonders what he should do with his day. Maybe jerk off and then practice volleyball. Or practice volleyball and then jerk off. It doesn’t really make a difference, since Sugawara won’t be home until two in the afternoon.

As he ponders this while hunting for clothes in his laundry basket, there’s a knock on their door. Tooru frowns at it. Maybe Sugawara had forgotten his dorm key?

But when he opens it, towel still around his waist, he comes face-to-face with three vaguely familiar faces he can’t quite put names to.

One of them squeals at the sight of half-naked Tooru. A shorter one smacks that guy, while the third, wide-eyed and seeming to try to focus on Tooru’s face, says, “Um, hello.”

“May I help you?” Tooru asks politely.

The short guy says, “We’re looking for Sugawara-san!” He grins.

“He’s not in right now.”

“Don’t I know you?” asks the guy who’d initially greeted him, still particularly focused on Tooru’s eyes.

Tooru shrugs. “I don’t know.”

The guy who’d apparently been afraid of Tooru’s chest – honestly, it’s not terrible to look at, he doesn’t know why two out of these three guys are trying not to look at him – says suddenly, “Isn’t he Oikawa Tooru, from Aoba Jousai?”

Tooru says cheerfully, “You got it!”

“I’m Daichi Sawamura,” says the first guy, and then gestures to the others, “Nishinoya Yuu, and Asahi Azumane. We’re from Karasuno – ”

“Used to,” mutters the one called Asahi.

” – and played you several times.” Daichi cocks his head. “You don’t remember us?”

“Karasuno!” cries Tooru, smiling widely. “You were on Tobio-kun’s team! That’s right.”

Daichi seems to halt. Tooru’s grinning still, remembering how well Karasuno had defeated them during the Spring Highs. How well Tobio-kun and his freak boyfriend shrimp-kun had a monster set of combos based both on skill and talent.

Tooru’s mouth hurts from smiling.

Sugawara appears then, running down the hall and then stopping when he sees the crowd at the door.

“Oikawa-kun!” he shrieks, actually looking at all of Tooru instead of just his eyes or what the hell ever. “What are you doing? Put on some clothes!”

“Sorry,” Tooru says sweetly. “Your friends came by and I gave them a warm welcome. You didn’t tell me you were from Karasuno High.”

“You didn’t ask!”

Sugawara looks mildly distressed, so Tooru puts away the Karasuno thing for now and goes back into their dorm so Sugawara will stop freaking out.

His friends follow them inside. “What are you doing back, anyway?” Tooru asks. “Shouldn’t you be – ” He checks his clock. It’s twelve twenty-five. ” – getting lunch?”

“I forgot a book for my next class so I came by to get it.” Sugawara’s at his desk, rifling through his stuff. He glances back to his friends. “Sawamura, Yuu, Azumane, hi, how are you?”

“Good,” answers Daichi, watching him. “You’re busy? Sorry we dropped by unannounced.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Asahi puts in.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” says Sugawara. He’s found his book, apparently, and puts it in his bag. Tooru watches as he puts his clothes on. He’s pretty sure the short guy glances at his ass when Tooru drops his towel.

“How long are you guys staying?”

“However long you want us to stay!” says Nishinoya.

Sugawara smiles fondly at him. Tooru can’t quite remember if Sugawara’s sent that sort of smile his way before. “You’re not skipping, are you?”

“Shut up.” Nishinoya shoves him playfully. “You know I have a holiday today.”

“Well I’ve got class until – ” Sugawara leans over to read the bulletin board.

“Two,” Tooru provides from his closet.

“Two,” Sugawara confirms. “You think you can wait for me until then? You can hang out here.”

“Got it,” says Daichi.

Tooru turns around at this. “Hold on,” he says. “My afternoon class was canceled, so I’m probably going to be here too – or – ”

“That’s cool, you guys can share volleyball secrets or something.” Sugawara’s smile at this doesn’t seem very convincing. “Or even practice together! I’ve got to go, though.”

He hurries out of the room, closes the door behind him. Tooru watches him go, wearing a t-shirt and underwear and no pants.

“Honestly,” says Nishinoya. “Why does it take you forever to put on clothes?”

“I’m sorry,” Tooru says sweetly. “I was just so interested in your conversation that I’ve been going at a slower pace. I’m not used to having three strangers being in the same room as me while I change.”

Nishinoya looks like he’s about to retort, but Asahi goes, “Noya,” and he falls silent.

As Tooru rucks on a pair of shorts – maybe he’ll just practice volleyball to get away from these freaks (and Sugawara, that traitor, why didn’t he let him know?) – Daichi lets out a resigned sigh. “I don’t know why he made that volleyball comment,” he says. “I thought he was going to play this year.”

Tooru swivels around.

“What?”

“He tried out, didn’t he?” When Tooru doesn’t answer, Daichi continues, “He picked this school for the volleyball program. Obviously he had good enough grades to get in, academically, but he said that he really wanted to do volleyball again.”

“He wasn’t on the team during high school,” says Asahi, “but he’s honestly very good. He watched a lot of our practices, and definitely all of our games. When Kag – our setter – ” he glances at Tooru nervously, but it’s not like Tooru doesn’t know who their setter is ” – was practicing with Hinata-kun, he would help set for me.”

“He told us he’d try out,” says Nishinoya.

*

Sugawara texts Tooru at two I’ll be home in fifteen! and comes back at two fifteen exactly. Tooru doesn’t say much to him except, “Hi,” and, “Don’t be out too late,” when he leaves with his friends. Sugawara laughs at him.

Tooru hadn’t told Sugawara’s friends that he hadn’t tried out for the university volleyball team. Why didn’t Sugawara mention it? He could’ve practiced with him. He could have even gone to tryouts with him.

I saw that so many other players were more skilled and talented than me… But Tooru had felt that way about Tobio-kun. And he still beat him. Then again, middle school and high school volleyball are vastly different.

Did that mean that Sugawara had known whom he was when he first came in, if he’d seen all of Karasuno’s matches? Had knowing that he was going to try out for the volleyball team caused Sugawara to falter? Tooru suddenly burns to play against Sugawara. With Sugawara. He doesn’t care.

He’s a decent setter, Tooru recalls Asahi mentioning. But how decent? What’s his technique? Is he masterful of the ball like Tobio-kun? Reliant on toil like Tooru?

He realizes embarrassingly that he’s gotten hard under his shorts. Forcing himself not to think too much about why, he jerks himself off and then collapses into bed, wishing he had a volleyball to bounce off the ceiling.

When Sugawara comes back, he says goodbye to his friends and closes the door. Tooru sits up.

“Refreshing-kun,” he says.

Sugawara’s starting to instinctively react to the nickname. He turns around.

“Yeah?”

Tooru hesitates.

“How was your afternoon?”

“Oh, it was great.” Sugawara beams.

He then starts going off on what made it so great, and Tooru does his best to focus. It’s easy to get distracted, though, because Sugawara uses hand gestures – not animatedly, mind – but Tooru catches himself more than once staring, wondering what they’re like on a volleyball.

He doesn’t bring it up, though, because if Sugawara were upset about it, earlier or even now, Tooru would’ve noticed, probably. He can’t recall detecting a shift in mood when he’d mentioned volleyball tryouts to Sugawara. There’d never been a hint of resentment. Tooru doesn’t know how sensitive the subject is to him, but decides it best not to bring it up when Sugawara’s been a better than worse influence on him lately, anyway.

He takes up Sugawara’s offer to get a meal together for the first time a few days later, and then that becomes a thing. Tooru reluctantly starts admitting to himself that no longer is he wary of the guy; he’s actually started liking Sugawara. What’s suspicious about it is that Sugawara makes himself easy to like. Tooru would be surprised if there was anyone other than his earlier in the school year self who disliked him.

The next Friday, Tooru’s invited by some classmates to a party. Sugawara could loosen up, he thinks, so when he gets back to their dorm, he invites Sugawara as well.

“Oh, um.” Sugawara looks surprised. “I’m okay? I mean, it’s not really my thing.”

Tooru shrugs. “Suit yourself,” he says, setting his backpack down.

The party is okay: the people are decent, and the booze is better. A couple of people hit on him; at some point, Tooru finds himself making out with some boy in the corner of the room. He’s a little bit distracted, though, because while the kid’s a good kisser, he’s too tall and not as nimble as Tooru would like, and, oh, honestly, why is Tooru thinking about Sugawara’s volleyball thing in the middle of this?

“Sorry,” he says, retracting his mouth from the kid’s. “Not really feeling it right now, y’know?”

He stands off to the side, drinking and staring absently into space. It’s not long before the party becomes boring for him, and he texts Sugawara.

coming home soon. leave the door unlocked.

Are you drunk?

no. maybe a little bit tipsy.

Okay. I might be showering by the time you get here.

Tooru leaves, hands in his pockets, phone bumping against his thigh as he walks. Maybe it would’ve been better if he told Sugawara that he was drunk; then he could ask about the volleyball thing without any possible repercussions. He could blame his intrusiveness on the alcohol.

Stupidly, he gets hard while thinking about Sugawara and his volleyball thing. Again. And while he’s walking. It’s not like Tooru’s going to stop and jerk off in the middle of the street. He walks a bit quicker, trying to get very not sexy thoughts to dispel his erection. Like losing to Karasuno during the Spring Highs. Tobio-kun’s smug face. Ushijima-chan constantly defeating him during his second year Interhighs.

It doesn’t quite work, but it makes Tooru more angry than horny for the moment. By the time he gets back to his dorm, he’s strategizing how to beat Shiratorizawa even though he’s not in high school anymore.

Sugawara isn’t in when he arrives. Tooru collapses on his bed in relief, kicks off his pants. His mind drifts back to Sugawara, and he curls his fingers around his dick. He’s glad he’d gotten home earlier, or else he might’ve done something at that party he’d end up regretting later. Sugawara isn’t exciting, really, but at least he’s good company.

Tooru absentmindedly toys with his dick, mind a bit fuzzy and distracted from the slight inebriation. It takes him a full five seconds to register and react when Sugawara opens the door and yelps, a towel around his waist and hair.

“Oikawa-kun!” he shouts, and slams the door shut.

“Oh my god.” Tooru yanks the blankets over himself.

“I’m sorry,” Sugawara cries, shielding the side of his face with his hand. “I should’ve knocked, or – ”

“It’s okay.” Tooru struggles to get his underwear back on from under his blankets. “I should’ve been watching the time, really.”

Sugawara’s face is so red. The worst part is, Tooru gets even harder at the sight of the half naked Sugawara with his hair up in a towel and blushing furiously like a teenage girl. He tries to tell himself to calm down, and gets his trousers back on, too. Maybe he can masturbate later when Sugawara’s asleep, or not in the room again, or something.

“Sorry about that,” Sugawara says again, when he’s clothed.

Tooru shakes his head. “Honestly,” he says. “It’s not your fault.”

“I can’t believe I saw – ”

Sugawara’s cheeks turn even redder.

“Don’t worry about it.” Sugawara’s embarrassment is shaking off Tooru’s. He doesn’t know if that’s a good thing or not. “You could’ve seen worse.”

Sugawara doesn’t reply, which could either mean that he thinks the opposite or the same. Tooru decides to be optimistic.

*

When resistance is futile, Tooru finally asks Sugawara, “Do you want to come practice volleyball with me today?” He’s finished tying up his shoes, straightens up and looks at Sugawara expectantly.

Sugawara hesitates. “On your own, or with your team?”

“On our own.” Tooru grins. “How about it?”

Sugawara doesn’t look too sure of himself. “Alright,” he says, still, and closes his laptop, follows Tooru out.

“I know you weren’t on your high school team, but you can’t be that bad, right?” Tooru says casually. After a beat, where Sugawara doesn’t respond, he adds, “Asahi-kun told me that you would help set for him, sometimes.”

“I did,” Sugawara confirms, quietly.

“You know I set, right?”

Sugawara nods. He’s eyeing Tooru cautiously, like he’s trying to figure out what Tooru is thinking. Honestly, if he just mentioned that he almost tried out for the volleyball team, on his own, Tooru wouldn’t have to go about this whole situation weirdly.

“So are you any good at setting?” Tooru asks.

Sugawara shrugs. “I can manage,” he says modestly.

When they get to the court though, Tooru finds that he can do more than manage. Sure, Sugawara’s not as powerful or as quick as him (or first year Tobio-kun, but that’s because Tobio-kun’s a freak.) But he has a sense of persistence and confidence that Tooru hadn’t expected.

They start off with passing and receiving, back and forth from each sides of the court. Then Tooru decides to practice his jump serve, which Sugawara watches with some kind of awe.

“It’s incredible to watch from on the court,” he compliments, after missing the serve.

Tooru bows his head down and laughs. “It’s my special ability,” he says. “Serve it back over?”

Sugawara does, standard from his palm, and Tooru receives it, bounces it, and catches it.

“That’s a foul,” Sugawara calls over teasingly. Tooru twirls the ball in his hand.

“Come over here,” he says. “Set for me.”

Sugawara ducks under the net. “You’re a setter, though,” he says, eyebrows knit in confusion.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t spike,” Tooru says cheerfully. “Besides, you’re a setter too.”

“Not really.” Sugawara catches the ball when Tooru tosses it to him.

“It doesn’t matter. I want to see how well you do.” Tooru bends his knees down, preparing to jump. “So bring it on.”

Sugawara throws the ball, and then sets, in Tooru’s direction. It’s fast but not quite high enough; Tooru spikes it down with ease, anyway. The ball hits the back of the court and then rolls to the side. Sugawara runs over to get it without demand.

As he jogs back, Tooru says lightly, “So I heard you came here for the volleyball program.”

Sugawara instantly turns pink at this. “Yeah?” he says, facing away. He bounces the ball against his fingertips in the setting position, not looking at Tooru.

Tooru shakes his head so he doesn’t get distracted. “If you came here for the volleyball program,” he says, “why didn’t you try out?”

Sugawara shrugs. Then he stops bouncing the ball, shakes his head, and smiles. His eyes are cast down.

“I don’t know,” he says. “It was kind of a stupid decision. I mean, this school’s one of the top in the university league, and they’ve got you, too.” He toys the ball around in his hands. “The last time I played I was in middle school, so.”

“But you like playing, don’t you?”

A couple of months ago, Tooru wouldn’t have thought that liking the sport would’ve constituted a right to actually play. But watching Sugawara be at home on the court, like he enjoys playing even without success in mind, makes Tooru feel like he at least deserves to stay a little longer.

Sugawara shrugs. “It doesn’t matter,” he says. “If there are better players than me, then they should be playing instead of me.”

“Refreshing-kun, that’s not the sort of attitude I expect of you.”

Tooru grabs the volleyball from his hands and bounces it off Sugawara’s shoulder. Sugawara yelps.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“If you don’t think you’re good, then get better, asshole,” Tooru says, even though Sugawara’s not an asshole at all. “Don’t just stand by and let people be better than you. You can defeat them.”

“I’m not sure if defeating them’s the goal I want to have in mind.”

“Make it your goal, then,” says Tooru. “It’s not like I stood by watching Tobio-kun and letting his genius little abilities get the best of me. Nah, I beat that brat to the ground. Some of the time, at least,” he mutters to himself.

Sugawara says, “Volleyball’s about the team, though – ”

“And you’ll have something to offer,” Tooru interrupts, before Sugawara can say something that might suggest otherwise. “Really, Refreshing-kun, if you’re serious about volleyball, you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Sugawara bites his bottom lip.

“I want to be serious about volleyball,” he says, finally.

“Then show me.”

Tooru bounces the ball off his shoulder again. Sugawara cries, “I won’t be able to play if you keep doing that!” but Tooru ignores him.

“Start practicing with me,” he says. “And maybe if you get good enough, you can try out for the team next year and make it.”

“Maybe.”

Sugawara looks like he’s seriously considering it now. After a moment, he shoots a glance at Tooru.

“Maybe if I get good enough, I might be an even better setter than you.”

When Tooru looks at him this time, Sugawara’s smiling, like perhaps he’s joking. But perhaps under that smile, Sugawara means it, like is goal is to defeat Tooru. Like he’s smiling because he’s imagining it, the sweet victory, the feeling of being better than good enough. The hours of practices that might turn into slow competitions, both refusing to be the first to give up. Sugawara telling himself he’ll defeat Tooru, some day, even though Tooru is light years ahead of him in practice. But some day.

The idea spurs Tooru on, too.