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“Well... this is the terminal, right?” Tadashi asked as he looked at a paper in his hand.
“Yeah,” Hinata confirmed, looking at the sign above them and then at the paper in his friend’s hand. He suddenly turned to his other friends, smiling excitedly with just a bit of uncertainty. “This is it!”
“You have everything this time? You didn’t leave your passport in the car again, right?” Tsukishima teased.
“No!” Hinata denied, but then immediately started searching for said passport erratically.
Yamaguchi handed the passport to Hinata with a smile.
“Agh... Brazil is so far!” Yachi whined, her eyes already starting to water.
Kageyama, who had been mostly quiet since they entered the airport, said, “Twenty hours by plane.”
“I’m not gonna be sitting in a plane for the full twenty hours, obviously! There’s gonna be stops and stuff,” Hinata assured when Yachi’s frown deepened at how large the distance is.
“I don’t think that’s what she's upset about,” Kei commented.
“Shoyo!” Yachi wailed, hugging Hinata with tears spilling from her eyes. Hinata just laughed and hugged her back.
“I’m gonna miss you too, Yacchan.”
“I’ll never forget you, okay?” She promised, sniffling. “I swear I won’t!”
“You make it sound like he’s dying,” Kei said with a smirk.
Yachi hugged Hinata for a moment longer before pulling away and rubbing her eyes and cheeks.
Next, Tadashi trapped Hinata in a big bear hug. “Don’t be a stranger, alright?”
“I know, I know!” Hinata said, hugging him back.
“If you do, I’ll have Tsukki beat your ass,” he jokingly threatened as he pulled away from the hug.
Kei smirked. “I’d do that regardless of if you keep in contact with us or not.”
“Shut up, Shittyshima!”
Tadashi laughed. “That’s Tsukki-language for ‘I’m gonna miss you,’ by the way,” Yamaguchi said.
Kei’s eyebrows furrowed stubbornly. “It’s definitely not.”
Yamaguchi pulled Tsukishima close so that he could hug both him and Hinata at the same time. “See? He’s hugging you.”
Tsukishima groaned loudly. “Both of you get away from me.”
Hinata and Yachi laughed at his expense, and then Hinata put an arm around Tsukishima, which made him react dramatically, huffing and pretending to be disgusted.
After the hug was over, Yachi, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima all stepped off to the side to give Hinata and Kageyama some privacy. They watched the pair with sad, understanding eyes.
Without a word, the two hugged each other tightly.
Tsukishima noticed how Yamaguchi couldn’t help but watch the duo hug and whisper to each other, occasionally blinking down at the floor to avoid crying.
He... somewhat understood.
Don’t get it twisted, Kei thinks they’re both idiots. They’re taking a break from each other for three years? As if a relationship on a ‘break’ can last that long. They may as well break up.
It already took a lot of explaining and endless patience from Yamaguchi to explain the difference between breaking up, and taking a break.
“Taking a break is suuuuuper different,” he insisted while eating some sugary cereal straight out of the bag. “It’s just like... so different!”
After half an hour and a half a bag of cereal, Tsukishima got it. So then why are they getting sad now? It was their stupid decision to take a stupid break instead of having an equally stupid break up.
Except it wasn’t that stupid anymore, because Yamaguchi was getting a little emotional watching them, and unfortunately, so was he.
There was still another thing he didn’t fully get, though.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay, Kageyama?” Yamaguchi asked for the millionth time that night since they dropped Hinata off at the airport.
“I guess,” Kageyama muttered. They all knew he was going to be fine, just not as good as he could be. It was strange to see Kageyama actually show some kind of emotion besides confused or angry.
Yamaguchi smiled sadly at him. “It’s hard for Hinata too, you know.”
“Yeah,” Tsukishima piped in. As much as he claimed to not care about the freak duo, they were still his friends. “He’ll probably be calling you every few minutes. He’s too dumb to hide his feelings.”
Yamaguchi and Kageyama chuckled at that.
“Yeah,” Kageyama agreed. “Hey, thanks for the ride.”
“Of course. Call us if you need anything,” Yamaguchi assured.
Kageyama nodded. “Bye, guys.”
“Bye, King,” Kei said. He got a frown from Yamaguchi, but Kageyama didn’t seem to care. He just closed the car door and walked to the apartment entrance.
Yamaguchi didn’t pull out of the parking lot until Kageyama was inside, and once he did, he sighed.
“I feel so bad for him. He was quiet the whole ride back. He looked like a kicked puppy, you know?”
Kei shrugged. “Neither of them could do long distance.”
“I wouldn’t be able to either,” Yamaguchi agreed. “I don’t know how Yachi does it with Kanako-chan.”
“Two hours by train and twenty two hours by plane are really different.”
“Yeah, but...” Yamaguchi sighed sadly again, putting his right hand in the cupholder to mess with the mess of coins and straw wrappers in it, thinking. “I don’t know. I’m just glad we decided to go to the same college.”
Kei looked at him to search for whatever emotions he might have been feeling when he said that. He was briefly distracted by the way the streetlights would, after every 2 seconds, he counted, light up his face and make his long eyelashes shine. He took Tadashi’s left hand with his right, weaving their fingers together, and held the back of it to his lips briefly. A silent agreement.
“We’re smart like that,” he joked once he moved their hands away from his face.
Yamaguchi chuckled. “They’re smart, just going different ways. Nothing wrong with that.”
“Smart?” Tsukishima repeated, raising his eyebrows dubiously.
Yamaguchi laughed now. “Okay, smart in their own way.”
“And what way would that be, Tadashi?”
“Like in the volleyball and friendship way!”
“Oh, undoubtedly,” Tsukishima agreed. “They’re definitely lacking smarts in the academic and relationship department though.”
“Hah! Like you’re qualified to talk about relationship-smarts after your confession was to kiss me and then ignore me for a week.”
“But you’re still dating me, so I think I still won that one.”
“Does that mean I lost?”
“You tell me.”
At a red light, Yamaguchi unravelled his hand from Tsukishima’s to use it to cradle the side of his face, leaning in to kiss the side of his mouth. “I think I won that one, too.”
Completely caught off guard, Tsukishima stares at Yamaguchi, and was about to give him a proper kiss on the same lips he haphazardly pressed to his own when his emotions became too much in their second year when a green light shone on his face, and reminded them that they were still on the road.
They both looked ahead pink-cheeked, hands once again interlaced and always in love.
Once they were home, Yamaguchi toed off his shoes and wilted onto their bed, face pressed into the mattress.
Tsukishima by contrast, went to the kitchen and started warming the water to make some tea. “Are you hungry?”
“No,” Yamaguchi answered, his voice snubbed and quiet.
“Do you want tea?”
“Yes. Come here.” He sounded less muffled now.
When Tsukishima exited the kitchen, he could see that Yamaguchi was laying on his side. Yamaguchi held out his hands, and Kei went to them, being put into a sleepy hug.
Kei put his forehead on Tadashi’s chest and closed his eyes. He wasn’t going to sleep, especially since he had some water warming up, but it was nice to rest. Plus, like this, his eyes closed and breathing even, he could hear Yamaguchi’s steady heartbeat louder than anything else around them.
He felt Yamaguchi rub his chin on the top of his head. Any other time he would’ve complained about his hair getting messed up, but right now it didn’t matter.
“Your hair’s getting so long,” Yamaguchi commented, his speech slightly slurred by sleep and his cheek being pressed against a pillow. “Long and soft.”
“Yeah,” Kei said.
“I love it,” he complimented, pressing a kiss to where his chin just was.
When Tsukishima didn’t say anything, Tadashi moved the arm that wasn’t under his boyfriend to be able to run his fingers through his hair. “We’re together forever.”
“That’s a really long time.”
“Mmhm,” Tadashi agreed. “We’re gonna be eighty eight, and we’ll be hugging close just like this, and we’ll die like this. And then in our next life, we’ll find each other too.”
Tsukishima felt his face heat up. He pulled away from the hug to look at Yamaguchi. “You wanna get old with me?”
Yamaguchi was also red in the face, smiling sweetly. “Is there someone else I should wanna grow old with?”
“No,” Kei decided. “Or— I mean, no unless you start to hate me or something. In that case...”
Yamaguchi giggled and led Tsukishima to lay back down. This time, Yamaguchi was on his back, and Tsukishima had his ear to his chest.
“I could never hate you,” Yamaguchi whispered, his eyes fluttering closed. He was very close to falling asleep. Kei wondered if it’d even be possible for him to drink his tea now.
Tsukishima also closed his eyes anyways. He thought about the break Kageyama and Hinata were taking from their relationship. He never, until recently, understood how taking a break was any different from a breakup. Yamaguchi said that they were going to wait for each other, while not necessarily having anything holding them back if they found someone they loved more while away from each other. It was that last part, though, that Tsukishima winced at. He couldn’t imagine loving someone so much that you wait for them even if they realize that they’re starting to fall in love with someone else.
He couldn’t imagine letting go of something you still love, out of love.
He couldn’t imagine it, because if Yamaguchi had decided to go to a different university, and thank God he didn’t, he would move mountains with his bare hands and nothing else to make them still work, despite the inevitable distance.
Tsukishima would even change his life plans entirely to be with Tadashi no matter the circumstances, without thinking twice. If he went to study abroad, Kei would follow. If he went to another school super far, like Tokyo for example, Kei would follow. If he decided to not go to any school or job at all, then you’d better believe Kei would do his absolute best to provide for both of them. It’s admittedly stupid for him to throw his entire purpose onto one man, but he was way past the point of trying to reevaluate that decision. It’s stupid, but he’s accepted that that’s what love has made him. Simply stupid.
He remembered all the times when Yamaguchi has told him that he needs him. Before making their college plans, whenever he was sad, exaggeratedly over the phone when he would hang out with Kageyama and Hinata to try to get him to join them, sometimes in more private and rosy colored times. Whispered or yelled with an audible smile, mumbled or stated with a shy grin, Yamaguchi made sure Kei knew how wanted he was. What scared Kei was how Tadashi didn’t even know the half of how badly he needed him in return. Probably double, or even ten times the need Yamaguchi claimed.
Without him, he wouldn’t be playing for the Sendai Frogs next year, he probably wouldn’t have played for any longer than their first year in high school either. He wouldn’t have ever reconciled with his brother, or get better at talking to at least Non-Tadashi people, and he certainly wouldn’t have worked out his inferiority complex. A scary amount of things in his life that he defines himself with wouldn’t exist without Tadashi. That thought made his head spin just a little, though he was almost immediately grounded by the sound of Yamaguchi’s slow heartbeat.
“Go check the water, baby,” He heard, feeling the small rumble of the silent words from Tadashi’s chest before he processed the request.
He stood and walked to the kitchen, reading the time while he took out the Chamomile tea bags. He took out their cups that said “His” and “Hes” (the ‘r’ that was between the ‘e’ and ‘s’ covered by a Sharpie-drawn box) and poured the water.
For as long as the moon shone into their house every night, their love would shine too, brighter and more hopeful each second, and never staggering as long as Kei could do something about it.
He bit the inside of his cheek bashfully at the thought. Hinata and Kageyama are stupid, but Kei is even stupider. Love made them like that, and no one could judge them for it.