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Tsukishima, dressed in his pajamas, stayed firmly seated on the couch while Hinata and Kageyama bustled around his house.
“Next time, do you think you could warn me before you commandeer my house for scary movie night?” he asked.
Hinata dumped a thick blanket, swiped from Tsukishima’s bed, onto his lap.
“It’s not like you mind,” he said, turning away to rummage through his backpack. After a second, he called in the direction of the kitchen, “Kageyama, isn’t the popcorn done yet?”
“You’re supposed to wait until there are two or three seconds between pops to minimize the amount of unpopped kernels without burning the popcorn!” Kageyama yelled back.
“You can’t be serious,” Tsukishima said.
He didn’t think Kageyama could hear him from the kitchen, but he shouted, “I’m being perfectly serious!” and Tsukishima lifted his eyes to the ceiling.
“This is going to be a long night.”
“Yep!” Hinata agreed. “We brought three movies!” And he held them up for Tsukishima to see.
The covers of them were all grotesque and black and white, some of them with splatters of red bloodstains and titles in what he supposed were meant to be scary fonts.
“Great,” he said. “Three equally generic scary movies.”
Hinata was undeterred by his obvious lack of enthusiasm. “Which one do you want to watch first? You get to pick, since we did crash your house without warning.”
“So you admit it,” Tsukishima said. Hinata didn’t reply, waving the movies insistently in his face, so Tsukishima pointed at one at random. “Ugh, fine. That one.”
He watched as Hinata knelt to put the movie into the DVD player.
“You do realize it’s Thursday night, right?” he asked as Kageyama entered the room with a bowl of buttered popcorn, which he set on the coffee table before turning to face Tsukishima.
“Duh. Hinata’s taking Natsu trick-or-treating tomorrow, and it doesn’t make sense to watch scary movies after Halloween.”
“Oh, yeah, you should come along tomorrow, too!” Hinata said.
“You need to tell me these things in advance,” Tsukishima said, exasperated.
“I am! It’s not tomorrow yet.”
“Anyway,” Kageyama interrupted. “We finished our homework, and we brought our bags so we can go right to school from here tomorrow.”
“And your mom said it’s fine!” Hinata added, hopping to his feet and turning around. “So there shouldn’t be a problem!”
Tsukishima scowled. They’d covered everything: He couldn’t pester them about being good students, or worry about them having to go home late at night or waking up extra early tomorrow so they could go home and get their stuff. He couldn’t even use his mom as an excuse, although there was no way his mom would say no to Kageyama, who was almost unbelievably polite to adults; or sweet Hinata, whom adults just couldn’t seem to help but love.
“You planned all this out, and yet you didn’t think to ask me how I felt about it,” Tsukishima said.
“You can stop acting mean, Tsukishima,” Hinata said, rolling his eyes. “We know you’re actually a teddy bear inside.”
Before Tsukishima could come up with a good response that wasn’t ‘shut up,’ Hinata grinned and jumped onto the couch beside him. “I want to sit in the middle!”
“No fair!” Kageyama protested, trying to push Hinata out of the way. “Why do you get to be in the middle?”
“’Cause I called it, and I got here first!”
“Nuh-uh.” Kageyama squeezed himself between them, and Hinata immediately tried to crawl over him to reclaim his spot.
Tsukishima just sighed as shoulders and elbows bumped into him repeatedly.
“But I want to sit next to both of you!” Hinata whined, pushing in between them again.
“Dumbass, don’t you think I want that, too?!” Kageyama retaliated, trying to push him away with his knee.
“Tsukishima!” Hinata yelped.
“Who do you want to sit in the middle?” Kageyama demanded, turning to him.
“From the bottom of my heart,” Tsukishima said, “I could not care less.”
“You’re so mean!” Hinata said, pushing him.
Tsukishima sighed and leaned forward, giving them each a quick kiss on the cheek. Both of them froze, blushing. The sudden silence was like a blessing.
“I’m glad you wanted to spend time with me tonight,” Tsukishima said. “I just wish you would calm down.”
Kageyama and Hinata glanced at each other.
“Tsukishima should sit in the middle,” Kageyama muttered.
“Yeah!” Hinata agreed, crawling over Tsukishima’s lap and plopping down on the other side of him.
After settling that argument, they were able to proceed much more calmly. Since he was in the middle, Tsukishima took the popcorn bowl to hold in his lap. Hinata grabbed the remote control, and Kageyama draped the blanket over their shoulders. As soon as the movie started, Hinata and Kageyama snuggled up to Tsukishima. Tsukishima looked at them both, then let out a slow breath, thinking that this was actually pretty nice.
He did not think that for long. Less than five minutes into the movie, Hinata was already whimpering as he agitatedly crammed popcorn into his mouth handfuls at a time. Kageyama was clutching Tsukishima’s arm so tight Tsukishima worried that he might start to lose circulation soon.
It wasn’t like the suspense wasn’t getting to him at all, but he thought Kageyama and Hinata were overreacting. They were way too hyped up.
“Oh, my God!” Hinata screeched at the first jump scare, elbowing Tsukishima painfully in the side in the process.
At some point, Kageyama’s hand had found Tsukishima’s, and now he squeezed, hard.
Tsukishima thought that he might not survive to the end of the movie, and it wouldn’t be because he got scared.
“I don’t want to watch anymore,” Hinata whispered.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared?” Kageyama whispered back, as if he wasn’t clutching Tsukishima’s hand like a lifeline.
“Shut up,” Hinata shot back, and turned to the movie again.
Tsukishima tried to ignore them so he could actually follow what was going on in the movie, although he already missed pretty much the entire basic situation exposition. Whatever—it was just another shitty horror movie with a shitty plot, anyway.
Hinata snatched up Tsukishima’s hand, even though the only thing that happened was a door slamming.
How did these two think they could watch three horror movies when they were already scared out of their minds fifteen minutes into the first?
The supposed ‘scary’ parts of horror movies never really bothered Tsukishima too much, but he never liked the gory parts, and he turned away with a grimace when a bloody, beheaded body was shown. Hinata actually jumped, knocking the popcorn bowl from Tsukishima’s lap—good thing Hinata and Kageyama had already devoured it all within the first ten minutes, seriously, Tsukishima hadn’t had more than a few pieces—and jumping again when the bowl clattered to the floor.
The movie continued, Hinata and Kageyama clinging onto Tsukishima and trembling, and Tsukishima trying to ignore them and pay attention to what was happening. He actually started to get caught up in the suspense at some point, and was glad Hinata and Kageyama were squeezing his hands so hard, so they couldn’t tell he was squeezing back.
The next jump scare got him, too.
“Fuck,” he hissed, wanting to put a hand over his pounding heart, but that would mean letting go of one of Hinata or Kageyama.
But then Hinata dropped his hand and clambered onto his lap, and Tsukishima wrapped his arm around his waist to anchor him there. From his new position, Hinata could lean over and cling to Kageyama, who hugged Hinata with one hand, still holding Tsukishima’s hand with his other hand.
They got through the rest of the movie huddled together like that, Hinata burying his face in Kageyama’s shoulder whenever he got scared, Kageyama breathing heavily through his nose and squeezing the life out of Tsukishima’s hand. Tsukishima closed his eyes at the bloody parts, and if he pulled Hinata a little closer to himself and scooted a little closer to Kageyama, well, they were probably both too distracted to notice, anyway.
Tsukishima was surprised that they hadn’t stopped breathing by the time the credits rolled.
“Maybe let’s not watch the other two,” Hinata suggested, still on Tsukishima’s lap with his arms wrapped around Kageyama.
“It is late,” Kageyama said. “We don’t want to be tired during morning practice tomorrow.”
“Definitely not!” Hinata said, nodding. “That’d be really bad.”
“You two are so full of shit,” Tsukishima said.
Hinata stuck his tongue out at him. “Shut up.”
“Anyway, we should go to bed before it gets later,” Tsukishima said. “You and Kageyama will be taking the couches as usual?”
In his lap, Hinata tensed. “N-no way! I don’t want to sleep in the living room! Can we share the bed with you this time?”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous,” Tsukishima said. “Two of us could fit on the bed, but definitely not three.” He looked at Kageyama, who still had one arm wrapped tight around Hinata. “You and Kageyama can take the bed, then. I’ll sleep out here.”
“Dumbass, we’re not leaving you out here by yourself,” Kageyama said, glancing around nervously.
“Yeah, don’t even pretend you weren’t scared,” Hinata said, finally leaning away from Kageyama so he could poke Tsukishima. “I could feel your heartbeat against me.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t fall asleep out here.”
Hinata grabbed Tsukishima’s shoulders, leaning in so that their noses were almost touching. “I’m not abandoning you.”
“You are being way too serious about this,” Tsukishima said.
Hinata kissed him, pressing his lips firmly against Tsukishima’s.
“If we all die tonight, I don’t want to regret not kissing you one last time,” Hinata declared, and kissed him again.
Kageyama shoved him out of the way. “Quit hogging. You’re not the only one who gets to die with no regrets.”
Kageyama was a gentler kisser than Hinata, but Tsukishima’s lips still tingled when he pulled away.
“While I’m flattered that you guys don’t want to regret not kissing me—oh, and now you’re kissing each other. Alright,” he said. “Anyway, I’m flattered, but you guys are taking this way too seriously.”
“Not really?” Hinata said, pulling away from Kageyama. “If we really wanted to have no regrets, we’d also have to play volleyball one last time.”
“I brought my ball,” Kageyama said.
Hinata turned to him. “Me too!”
“Ah—what if the murderer is waiting outside, though?”
“I’ll spike a volleyball in his face and Tsukishima can grab him.”
“How can Tsukishima grab him if he has to cover me while I toss?”
“No, he grabs the guy after he gets hit by the spike, so he can still cover you.”
“Oh, I guess that would work.”
“I’ll share the bed with you, alright?” Tsukishima said loudly. “So let’s go to sleep already.”
“I kinda want to play volleyball now,” Hinata said.
Tsukishima stood up, forcing Hinata and Kageyama to move out of his way.
“I’m going to brush my teeth and go to bed. You can do whatever.”
Hinata jumped off the couch. “Don’t leave us alone!”
“Don’t go off alone,” Kageyama added.
“We’ll go with you,” they said together.
“Sure,” Tsukishima sighed, too tired and too used to the way they would sometimes become oddly in sync to even comment on it anymore.
So they went and brushed their teeth, which—well. Hinata was too scared to look in the mirror, and Tsukishima said that the only thing scary in the mirror was Kageyama’s face, so Kageyama shoved Tsukishima, and then a bottle or something fell in the shower—Tsukishima did not jump, no matter what the other two said—and they brushed their teeth in silence after that.
Tsukishima retrieved his blanket from the couch—accompanied by Hinata and Kageyama, who still refused to let any of them go anywhere alone—and they went to Tsukishima’s bedroom together.
Finally, the last obstacle between Tsukishima and sleep: figuring out their positions on the bed.
“The side by the wall is probably safest,” Hinata said nervously, staring at the bed, “but I can take the outside.”
“No way,” Kageyama said. “You stay on the inside."
“God, I’ll take the outside,” Tsukishima said, exasperated. His annoyance for these two was reaching its peak.
Hinata and Kageyama both spun around to face him. “No way!”
This was their ridiculous way of showing that they cared about him, Tsukishima knew. He should be feeling fond or grateful or something.
Well, that was too bad, because Tsukishima was too tired and too cranky for any of that crap.
He took them both by the arms and pulled them to the bed. He shoved Kageyama onto the bed first.
“Kageyama, you sleep by the wall.”
He pushed Hinata down next.
“Hinata, you’re in the middle.”
Tsukishima climbed onto the bed. It was a close squeeze, but if Kageyama spooned Hinata and Tsukishima lied as close as he could, they could manage.
“I hope you don’t kick, Hinata, because I swear, if I wake up on the floor—”
Hinata gulped. “I won’t! I won’t kick.”
“Alright,” Tsukishima said, wrapping an arm around Hinata. “Shut up. Go to sleep.”
“Okay,” Hinata whispered. “I’m not scared when we’re like this.”
“Good,” Tsukishima said. “Now good night.”
“Good night,” Hinata said, then, “Wait.”
He kissed Tsukishima again, then Kageyama, and then of course that meant Kageyama had to lean over so he could kiss Tsukishima, too.
“Okay,” Hinata said, snuggling contentedly in their arms. “I love you. Good night.”
“Good night,” Kageyama murmured, his face buried in Hinata’s hair.
Tsukishima sighed. “Good night.”
Tsukishima didn’t wake up on the floor, which was a plus. Hinata was snoring on him, but Tsukishima wasn’t sure if that was a plus or a minus. Sometime during the night they had moved so that Tsukishima was on his back, Hinata lying half on top of him, and with Kageyama’s arm slung over them both.
It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but—it was nice. Especially when Hinata woke up and the first thing his eyes fixed on was Tsukishima’s face, eliciting a slow smile.
“Good morning,” Hinata said. “We didn’t die last night.”
He turned to nudge Kageyama.
“Hey, Kageyama! We didn’t die last night.”
Kageyama, his face in his pillow, mumbled something that sounded vaguely like, “Nice.”
“I’m glad we can spend more time together,” Hinata said.
Kageyama made another vague noise.
Tsukishima remembered what he thought last night and wondered if, now that he was rested, he might be able to feel fond of his boyfriends’ unusual way of showing they cared.
“We should play volleyball before we have to go to school, ‘cause we didn’t last night.”
Kageyama sat up abruptly. “Yes,” he said, the most articulate he’d been so far that morning.
Tsukishima groaned. Never mind.
“Maybe I’ll love you after breakfast,” he said.
“We can do that!” Hinata said, rolling off Tsukishima—elbowing him in the stomach as he did so—and off the bed. “Come on, Kageyama. We can bring Tsukishima breakfast in bed.”
“And then volleyball,” Kageyama said, climbing over Tsukishima more carefully.
“Duh,” Hinata said.
Hinata started pulling Kageyama out of the bedroom, but he paused at the doorway.
“That was the first time,” he said to Tsukishima.
“What?”
“The first time you said ‘I love you.’”
“I said maybe I’ll love you,” Tsukishima said, pulling his blanket up to hide his blush.
Kageyama smirked. “You still said it.”
“What are you smirking for?” Tsukishima asked. “It’s not like you’ve ever said it.”
Kageyama went red and turned away. Tsukishima snickered.
“You guys are making a pretty big deal out of it,” Hinata said. “I love you, Kageyama. I love you, too, Tsukishima. That’s all there is to it. I mean, I already know.”
Kageyama’s mouth twisted. Tsukishima crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows.
“L-love you,” Kageyama finally stammered between gritted teeth.
“Fine,” Tsukishima said when they turned to look expectantly at him. He could do better than Kageyama, at least, even if his face was probably equally red. “I love both of you. Now stop bothering me.”
But they all just smiled at each other for a moment, and Tsukishima thought that this was fine. This was good.
But then his stomach growled, and he decided it would be even better after breakfast.