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It starts off, like so many things in Tobio’s life seem to, with a ball.
Technically there were two balls involved , the part of Tobio’s brain that sounds a lot like Hitoka says. He sometimes wonders when his inner thoughts started having her voice and not Oikawa’s. He usually wonders more about how he didn’t notice the drastic change in tone.
Or the fact that his Hitoka-conscience swears a lot more than his Oikawa-conscience ever did. You would think it would be the other way around. But apparently not. He doesn’t even know if he’s ever heard Hitoka swear in real life and not just in his own head. Oikawa? Yes. Hitoka? Not so much.
He shakes his head.
Back to the balls at hand. Or, rather, ball. The ball of paper Yasu had thrown at his head. Because apparently that is the method of communication for tonight.
You know. No one ever told him raising a child was going to be easy but he never expected ‘doesn’t want to use words’ was going to be a box he would be marking off quite so often on his single parent bingo card. At least not with his twelve-year-old daughter. Though when he looks back to himself at that age he supposes that it could be worse.
“What’s this?” He starts to uncrumple the ball and sighs when he sees the all too familiar sight of his daughter’s teacher’s handwriting. “Yasu?”
Yasu shakes her head and huffs at him before looking out the window.
So whatever happened is, in her mind anyway, not her fault. He skims over the note, which tells him nothing about what happened, and signs it before sticking it in her book bag to return to her teacher in the morning.
“I’ll find out one way or another,” he tells her as he makes his way to the kitchen. “If you want me to hear your part first you have until you leave tomorrow to tell me.”
Yasu huffs angrily at him and stomps to her room, though she doesn’t slam the door like he expects her to. Which he counts as a win. He’s a single dad. He’ll take whatever wins he can get. Especially when he has to visit his daughter’s school tomorrow and deal with yet another parent or guardian or teacher giving him a pitying look like raising his daughter alone is the most pathetic thing they can think of.
Though maybe to them he is pathetic.
He shrugs and starts making supper. It wouldn’t be the first time complete strangers had thought that about him.
Supper is a quiet thing. Most meals with just the two of them are. Tobio is lost in his thoughts about why he’s being called to the school and mentally rearranging his schedule to finish all his errands before he has to meet with Yasu’s teacher while Yasu powers through her meal with the single-minded determination she seems to apply to everything she does. A single-minded determination that always seems to amuse Kei because it reminds him of Tobio back in high school. Something he makes a point of mentioning every time it happens around him.
Yasu huffs loudly and Tobio glances at her curiously. She huffs again and stares at him.
He looks down at her cleared plate and says, “No.”
Yasu gasps, eyes going wide.
“Yasu,” he says patiently. “You brought home a note from your teacher because you got into a fight at school today. You don’t get dessert.”
“But.” She squirms in her seat. “You know.”
He waits for a few minutes and when it’s clear she isn’t going to say anything else he shakes his head.
“No, I don’t,” he says as he starts clearing the table. After a moment she sighs and gets up to help. “Unless you explain to me what happened I don’t know what happened. All I know is you got in a lot of trouble and we have to meet with your teacher tomorrow.”
Yasu sighs deeper than any twelve-year-old has a right to as she turns the water on to start washing the dishes.
—
Tobio knocks on the door and gives a little wave to the man inside before he heads down the hallway. It’s been a long day and it’s barely noon. Yasu had been a little brat that morning, more than she has been in a long time, and between that and the two hour phone call with his lawyer Tobio is ready to crash into bed and sleep until sometime tomorrow. Maybe after this meeting he can convince someone to look after Yasu for him for a couple days. Just so he can sleep.
She has been wanting to visit her uncles after all.
Then again if this meeting turns into as much of a disaster as he’s afraid it will, she'll be grounded and visiting her uncles for a fun weekend is out of the question for at least another week. Honestly that’s as much of a punishment for him as it is for her some days.
Yasu’s teacher waves him into the empty office when he peeks inside.
“I’m glad you could make it,” Tachibana says as Tobio slips inside.
“I didn’t think it was optional,” Tobio mutters before he can stop himself. “Sorry,” he mutters when Tachibana looks at him.
“It’s alright. At least I know where Yasu gets it from.” Thankfully Tachibana looks more amused than upset. “I am glad you’re here a little early, though. I was hoping I could talk to you before the others get here. I know that Yasu has had some difficulties this year, more than she has the last few years. Don’t look so surprised,” Tachibana laughs gently. “Tsukishima and I talk. Or, well, more like he demanded I listen to him when Yasu was placed in my class this year.”
Tobio simply nods and listens as Tachibana explains some of the steps he’s been taking with Yasu and some of the observations he’s made. They’re very similar to Tobio’s own thoughts and actions and he’s more than a little surprised that anyone else outside of their little family has taken the time with Yasu. It, sadly, hasn’t happened a lot in their lives.
“So you can see why I was so surprised that she got into such a heated argument with Kaito and Shin,” Tachibana says. “She’s been one of my best behaved students — other than constantly losing her homework — and Kaito and Shin have only been here a couple weeks and have been nothing but kind and polite the whole time.”
“I understand. I tried talking to her about it last night but she pretty much shut down and refused to tell me anything. All I got out of her is that she doesn’t seem to get why she’s in trouble.” He sighs. “Or, at least, she doesn’t seem to think that it’s her fault.”
“Not her fault? Your little terror of a child had my son in tears.”
Tachibana stands and gestures towards the door. “Now, now,” he starts.
Tobio doesn’t hear the rest of what Tachibana is saying because he recognizes that voice. It’s older than he remembers, naturally. The last time he heard it he was still a teenager. But it’s still his voice. It’s still the same tone, still has the same familiar rise and fall to it, still makes him feel like an ant when it gets that particular pitch to it.
Tobio stands with a shaky breath and turns around to face his biggest fear.
Oh. Make that fears. Both of them. Plural. Kunimi and Kindaichi. Standing just inside the doorway, side-by-side and against him. Again.
Lucky him.
Kunimi blinks a couple times and looks more startled to see Tobio than anything else.
Kindaichi, on the other hand, looks half a step away from murderous.
Which, if he stops to think about it, is how they’ve looked almost every time they’ve bumped into each other unexpectedly since middle school. But he doesn’t stop to think about it. He just mutters something vaguely apologetic and does his best to slip past the two guardians of his past and scurry down the hallway.
“What do you want, King?”
Tobio shuts the door behind himself and sits down on the floor in the corner, back against the wall.
“Kageyama?” He doesn’t startle at the shadow that covers him. It’s been a long time since he’s felt unsafe in the darkness when Kei is there. A warm hand settles on his knee. “Tobio?”
Tobio sucks in a deep breath and smacks the back of his head against the wall.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Kindaichi and Kunimi.”
“What?”
“Kindaichi and Kunimi,” he grits out. “They have sons in Yasu’s class? They just moved here apparently? Did you know?”
“If I knew, don't you think I would have told you? The last thing I need on my plate is a surly, tyrannical King.” Kei squeezes his knee. “I’m pretty sure I managed to help break you out of that in high school. I’m not too keen on him making a comeback.”
Logically he knows that’s true. Whatever issues he and Kei had back in high school there’s no one he trusts more these days than Kei. Other than maybe Shouyou or Koushi.
Unfortunately he’s not really running on logic right now. He’s running on that moment just before sheer panic. The teetering precipice right before he free falls into complete and utter chaos and does something wildly dramatic like disappear for seventeen months before showing up on his former teammate’s doorstep with a baby in his arms and no idea where his life is going.
“He called Yasu a little terror. I don’t think he’s ever even met her,” Tobio mumbles.
“Well I have met her. And, just like her father, she can be a right little terror sometimes. But usually only when she’s being egged on in some way. Or overwhelmed. Or bull headed and stubborn.”
“Rude.”
Tobio finally opens his eyes and takes a deep breath when he meets Kei’s gaze.
“That’s me.” He stands and drags an unwilling Tobio with him. “You good now?”
“Probably. Maybe. I don’t know.”
Kei opens his mouth to reply but is cut off by the door opening.
“Can I help you?” he asks tersely.
“Um, yes. We were looking for Kageyama.” Tobio’s fingers twitch but he refuses to let his fingers tangle in Kei’s shirt sleeve. It’s bad enough he’s hiding in his friend’s classroom right now. “We’re supposed to be meeting with him and the teacher about an incident with our kids.”
It’s just like Kunimi to play the peacemaker. To try to be the closest thing to neutral ground Tobio and Kindaichi have ever had.
“Tobio?” He frowns when Kei looks at him. Kei frowns back at him and raises his eyebrows. Tobio huffs and looks past Kei towards the windows. “I can’t just throw them out,” Kei says once he realizes what Tobio is thinking. “We’re not in university anymore.”
“Well do something,” Tobio grumbles. “Or we’re not coming over for dinner next weekend.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“Just do it.”
“Oh I’m going to do something. But you’re not going to like it.”
Tobio really hates it when Kei is right. He also hates being marched back to Tachibana’s room like he’s the middle schooler. Though it does soothe the irritation a little when Kei glares at Kindaichi in the hallway and sends him slinking back to Tachibana’s room with nothing more than a look.
—
“Yasu.”
“No.”
“Yasu.”
“No.”
Tobio takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a second.
“Yasu,” he tries for the third time.
“No,” she replies. “I don’t want to.”
“We were lucky enough to get the chance to settle this without you getting into any more trouble at school.”
“Nothing to settle,” Yasu declares as she plops down on the park bench. “I said he couldn’t join us because he doesn’t know the rules. Not my fault he started crying like a baby about it.”
“Yasu,” he scolds. “Crying isn’t just for babies. Anyone can cry.”
“Babies cry because they can’t communicate. He wouldn’t say why he was upset. So he’s a baby.”
Tobio doesn’t even get the chance to begin to explain the flaw in her logic — a flaw that he can recognize from himself at that age thanks to years of talking about it with various people — when someone clears their throat. He glances over his shoulder and gives Kunimi an awkward wave.
“This is my son, Kunimi Shin,” Kunimi says quietly. “Shin, this is Yasu’s dad Kageyama Tobio.” He nudges his son gently and the boy bows politely.
Tobio stands and pulls Yasu to her feet.
“This is my daughter, Kageyama Yasu.” Yasu pouts but gives a little nod towards the other two. “Yasu, this is Kunimi Akira.”
“Do you like bears?” Shin asks softly. Yasu gives him a suspicious look. “You had bear stickers last week,” he explains. “And you have a bear on your shirt.”
Yasu squints at him before glancing up at Tobio in question.
“Go on,” he says gently. “You know how far you can go.”
Yasu immediately grabs Shin’s hand and hurries away. Tobio hears her start talking about polar bears before they get out of earshot.
“The key to being her friend is bears?”
It’s an olive branch, he knows this. Just like he knows that he and Kunimi and Kindaichi are all adults now. That the fights and arguments in their past have no reason to leave their past. But it’s hard. Hard to reach out and grab that branch. Hard to remember that he does things like pay his own bills and make doctor’s appointments for his daughter.
“Polar bears are the true key,” he manages to get out eventually. “But bears in general are a good start.”
Kunimi sits on the bench and gestures for Tobio to join him. After one last glance towards the kids he does.
“Did she ever tell you what happened?”
Kunimi seems to understand the snort Tobio lets out for the resounding no that it is because he chuckles and shakes his head.
“Yeah it took Yuutarou and I quite a while to get the boys to spill. From what we could figure out, Kaito wanted to play whatever game Yasu was playing with their classmates but didn’t know the rules so she said no. Which upset him and then Shin got involved and, well, we couldn’t get the next part out of them no matter what but apparently they got into a pretty heated fight about it all until Tachibana broke them up.”
“We’re still working on some things,” Tobio says, immediately defensive. He knows that Yasu doesn’t always understand things, and doesn't get why the way she says things isn’t exactly the best way to say them. It isn’t always easy to explain to her and he’s found most adults are quick to judge them both. He doesn’t anticipate it getting any better. Bluntness is a Kageyama trait after all.
“Hey I get it,” Kunimi replies. “I’m the single father of a twelve-year-old too. I’m sure you know just as well as I do that no one seems to know how to raise a child better than some ‘well-meaning’ stranger who doesn’t even have children.”
Tobio glances at Kunimi. He probably does understand. Tobio has no idea what Kunimi’s story is these days, not that he ever really did, but he gets the feeling it’s not that far off from Tobio’s own somehow. But even with knowing that Tobio has no idea how to respond, what to say. He knows he should say something but small talk, like so many things in life, has never been one of his strong suits.
So he just sits on the bench next to Kunimi and watches Yasu and Shin play.
He’s not entirely sure how but when he and Yasu leave the park a couple hours later he has Kunimi and Kindaichi’s numbers in his phone and the promise to meet Kindaichi and Kaito at the park tomorrow weighing heavy on his chest.
Two facts that leave Kei breathless with laughter when Tobio confusedly tells him that night over dinner.
—
Every time he hears someone approach the park bench Tobio tenses and mentally braces himself for the confrontation to come. Because he knows it will be a confrontation. He and Kindaichi are both hot-headed, and hard-headed, enough that he can’t see it going any other way. Especially with their past and the way they left things between them all those years ago.
“Hey, Kageyama.”
Tobio glances over his shoulder. “Oh. Hello, Kunimi.” He glances past Kunimi in confusion as he stands. “Where’s Kindaichi?”
Kunimi laughs. “Yuutarou got called into work so I’m on kid-duty today,” he says as Shin comes running past him and practically falls onto the bench on the other side of Yasu and immediately starts talking to her. Kunimi shakes his head fondly and then reaches behind himself. “Come on,” he says softly.
After a moment a dark haired head pokes around Kunimi’s side.
“Kageyama, this is Kindaichi Kaito. Kaito. This is Yasu’s dad, Kageyama Tobio.” Kaito stares up at him with wide eyes that get even wider when Kunimi gently pulls Kaito in front of him and Tobio squats down so that he’s the one looking up.
“Hello, Kaito. Nice to meet you.”
Kaito takes a deep breath and quietly greets Tobio.
It’s a little hard to believe that this soft-spoken boy is even related to Kindaichi let alone his child. Though Tobio may be a little biased considering his daughter is practically a clone of himself so that’s what he’s used to.
“Yasu,” he says. “Come over here.”
Kaito tries to hide again but Kunimi holds him in place as Yasu comes and stands beside Tobio.
“It’s time to apologize,” Tobio says.
“But I didn’t say—”
“Yasu. Do you remember what Uncle Shouyou always tells you? About words?”
Yasu scrunches her face while she thinks about it. Tobio does his best to give Kaito a reassuring look, though he doesn’t know how well it works. Some days he still doesn’t think his face is made for ‘reassuring’ no matter what Koushi tells him.
“That sometimes how I say words matters more than the truth of them.”
Tobio hums in agreement. “Get it?” he asks after a moment.
Yasu gives him a confused look and then clarity washes over her face.
“Oh,” she breathes out. “Oh, okay.” She looks at Kaito. “I'm sorry.” She takes a deep breath and he figures that’s the end of it. In her mind the apology is over and done with and now it’s time for more fun things. So he’s more than a little shocked when she starts talking again. “I didn’t mean to make you mad. We just didn’t have time to explain the rules to you. I can try explaining now and then maybe when we play again you can play too?”
A slow smile slips onto Kaito’s face. “Shin too?” he asks hopefully, gaze darting to the boy still on the bench.
“I’ll learn the rules,” Shin says as he hops to his feet. “But that doesn’t mean you get to drag me into the game.”
The kids run off across the park and Tobio stares after them as he stands, not entirely sure what just happened. Kunimi nudges him until he collapses onto the bench and stares blankly towards the kids. Kunimi settles down next to him and pulls out his phone, seemingly content to poke around on it until Tobio manages to gather his thoughts. It takes longer than he’d like but eventually he licks his lips and shifts. Kunimi locks his phone and sticks it in his pocket as soon as Tobio turns towards him, giving Tobio his full attention.
“Yasu, well.” Tobio sighs. “Well, you know, she’s my child. She does the whole talking things through with other people about as well as I did at twelve.” Kunimi gives him a sad smile, both of them remembering the less than stellar job they all did at that age. Sometimes Tobio wonders if any of the adults in their lives at that point even noticed or if they all just simply felt like it wasn’t their concern, wasn’t their place, wasn’t their problem.
“You’re not alone in that, you know? We were all pretty shitty at that age.”
“Yeah. Anyway. It just surprised me. Yasu doesn’t, you know, explain? She’ll apologize once she understands why she’s supposed to, what she’s done wrong. And let me tell you that’s taken a lot of time. But explaining? Not so much. She doesn’t really understand why she should explain herself. As far as I can tell in her mind she said the thing and that’s the end of it. If someone doesn’t understand her? That’s their problem not hers and she’s not going to make an effort to change that.”
“So her taking the time to explain to Kaito why she had said he couldn’t play the game with him?”
“I wasn’t expecting it, that's for sure.”
“Kids can be pretty unexpected things.” Kunimi smiles at him and bumps their shoulders together.
—
He’s just overreacting, right? Kindaichi is an adult with a job where he gets called to work at strange times and sometimes those times are when he and Tobio are supposed to meet up. It’s just a series of stupid coincidences. Right? Kaito getting sick the morning he and Kindaichi were supposed to meet for breakfast — their fifth attempt at breakfast and seventeenth attempt in general to meet since the fight almost two months ago — was just an unlucky thing.
There’s no way Kindaichi is intentionally avoiding him.
Right?
He sighs and buries his head deeper into the pile of blankets on the couch, ignoring the snickers coming from the other side of the room. He makes a vaguely rude gesture towards the noise. Which only makes the snickers grow louder.
“I hate you all,” Tobio mutters into the blankets.
“What was that?” Weight hits his legs and he grunts and tries to wiggle around enough that Shouyou is tucked between his legs and not directly on them. “You’re a bit muffled.”
“Yeah,” Koushi adds as he sits on Tobio’s lower back and then slides until his butt is wedged between Tobio’s hip and the back of the couch. “You sound kind of stuffed up. You feeling alright?”
Tobio pulls his head out of the blankets and repeats, “I hate you all,” before burying his head again. Which doesn’t work because Kei chooses that moment to yank the blankets off the couch and throw them in the chair in the corner.
“So. Yasu is hanging out with Nishinoya and Kenma for the weekend. You are child-free for the first time in, what? Four months? So. Tell me, my King. Why are you trying to become one with my couch?”
“Because my couch still smells like the milk bread that Shouyou stuffed in it last month?”
“I told you I dropped it!”
“It was smushed under the center cushion!”
“Stop it,” Koushi warns. “We’re not here to fight about the milk bread. We’re here to figure out what’s got Tobio’s boxers in a twist.”
“My boxers are not in a twist.”
He’s not even remotely surprised when someone — Koushi he assumes — grabs his butt.
“I stand corrected,” Koushi says. “The boxers appear to be flat against the buttcheeks.”
Kei settles down on the floor and twists so he can prop his bony elbows on top of Tobio’s arm and lean forward to stare at Tobio until he turns his head so they’re nose to nose.
Sometimes he really hates his friends in the best kind of way.
“Seriously, King. Spill.”
Tobio sighs. “I think he’s avoiding me.”
“Kindaichi?” Tobio nods. “Why do you even care? You’ve gone like fourteen years without seeing him. Why does it matter now?”
“You know,” Tobio says softly.
“Oh I definitely know. I’m the one who picked your ass up thirteen years ago when you showed up outside my door with a crying baby who had, and still has, your ridiculous blue eyes. I want you to say it, though.”
He knows that Shouyou and Koushi are listening, even if they are quietly bickering from their places on top of him. But he also knows that he’s safe here. With them. With his friends. With Kei.
“Pretty sure I like him,” he admits.
“Pretty sure you never stopped,” Kei replies immediately.
“Pretty sure you’re a dick.”
“Pretty sure you’ve known that since we were fifteen.”
“Pretty sure I hate you right now.”
“Pretty sure you haven’t just liked Kindaichi all this time, you’ve been in love with him and that’s why you’re terrified. You’re terrified that he’s avoiding you on purpose because he doesn’t like you in the same way and you’re too wrapped up in your past self’s insecurities and self-hatred to realize that if for some reason he doesn’t feel the same way it’s not going to cause your world to come crashing to a halt. Because we won’t let it. I won’t let it.”
Tobio stares into Kei’s eyes and lets his words settle over him. He’s still not sure why Kei was the person he went to when he came back. Why it was Kei and not Shouyou. Sure they had been roommates for the short time they were in university together. But they hadn’t been particularly close even then.
It doesn’t really matter though. All that matters is that he did go to Kei back then and it was one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
“Holy shit,” Shouyou whispers loudly. “Tsukishima has, like, real feelings.”
Kei holds Tobio’s gaze for a couple more seconds before he pushes himself to his feet without a word and a moment later the weight against Tobio’s legs is gone and Shouyou is yelling incoherently. Koushi shifts until he’s laying on top of Tobio and he props his chin on Tobio’s shoulder and tucks his face down next to Tobio’s.
“He’s right, you know,” Koushi says. “You’re not in this alone and we won’t let it turn bad.”
“I know.”
That scares him almost as much as the just idea of telling Kindaichi does.
—
Six months. It’s been six months of missed outings and canceled plans (he refuses to call them dates no matter what Shouyou says) and excuses that sound like things Yasu would come up with. That. That’s more than just coincidences. It has to be. Tobio knows his life is kind of a joke at this point but it’s not this much of a joke, is it?
“You seem kind of on edge,” Akira says. “Though it’s a little hard to tell for sure when I’m talking to you on the phone and I have two boys shouting in my ear yes I am talking about you two go sit down,” Akira says sternly. The sound of shouting quiets down as the boys most likely go to sit at the table in Akira’s kitchen.
“Did Kindaichi seriously have to take his mother to the dentist today?”
Akira snorts. “Yeah. He did. I do not envy him at all. His mother will talk his ear off and as soon as they get there she’ll be trying to set him up with every person that’s even remotely close to his age.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. Seriously. Why are you asking?”
“Do you realize that he and I have never managed to meet up even once? We’ve barely even been able to send a few texts and have talked on the phone, like, twice.”
Akira hums thoughtfully. “I guess I hadn’t realized that, no.” Tobio growls softly and throws himself on his couch. Yasu gives him a judgmental look from where she’s finishing up her homework at the table but he ignores it. “Is it bothering you that much?”
“Wouldn’t it bother you?”
“I mean, maybe. But it’s hard to say. Pretty sure that I’ve spoken to one or both of you every single day for the last six months. So it’s not like I even really have a point of reference or whatever.” Akira laughs and calls out something to the boys. “But you know… If you really want to talk to him I know he’s going to be back at his apartment in about an hour. I’m supposed to drop Kaito off but if you want I could just let him stay the night and you could go talk to Yuutarou instead. Tell you the truth? I think he could use this conversation as much as you clearly need it.”
He nearly talks himself out of it four times and is almost all the way through a fifth time when he makes it to Kindaichi’s building. He manages to not talk himself out of anything on the way up to Kindaichi’s floor but by the time he’s standing at the door he’s seriously considering making a run for it and pretending that it doesn’t bother him at all. He’s fine. He’s wonderful. He doesn’t need to talk to Kindaichi after all. He can just go home.
Except apparently he already knocked because his fist is lowering from the door and now it’s opening and Kindaichi is staring at him in confusion.
“Hello,” Tobio says.
“Kageyama?” They stare at each other for a minute until Kindaichi shakes his head and waves him inside. “Come in, I guess. I’m assuming this means Akira has all three kids?”
“Um, yeah,” Tobio says as he toes off his shoes. “I was going to see if Kei could watch her but she said she wanted to go over to Shin’s because apparently the three of them have a project or test or something. I didn’t quite get all the details.”
Kindaichi chuckles and gestures towards the closet when Tobio slips out of his jacket and looks around for a place to hang it.
“That sounds about right,” Kindaichi says. “Did you want something to drink? Water? Juice? Are you still obsessed with those milk boxes? Kaito likes them right now so I have a bunch in the fridge.”
“Water is fine.”
Does it mean something that Kindaichi remembers that about him? Or is it just some random fact that happens to follow Tobio’s name in Kindaichi’s mind? Just like the facts that Tobio likes volleyball and has blue eyes.
“So,” Kindaichi finally says once they’re settled on the couch and have been staring at each other for a few minutes.
“So.”
“Always the conversationalist.” Tobio’s face flushes and he turns away, regretting letting Kei’s stupid words about telling Kindaichi how he feels get to him. “Hey, no,” Kindaichi says when Tobio starts to move off the couch. “Sorry. I just. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m not exactly being a better conversationalist or anything.”
“Have you been avoiding me?”
“What?”
“Have you been avoiding me? Like on purpose?”
Kindaichi sighs and buries his face in his hands for a few seconds.
“No.” He looks up at Tobio and then leans back against the couch and stares up at the ceiling. “And yes. It’s not intentional but I haven’t exactly been bending over backwards to get out of most of the stuff that’s been popping up.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Kindaichi sighs. “I guess I just. Part of it is that you kept trying to meet up and part of me wanted to see how long you’d keep it up? Or if you’d just get irritated enough to tell me to fuck off basically? See if your patience has grown over the years.”
“The other parts?”
“A small part is the petty part that is like ‘well the kids apologized so it’s good’ and that means I don’t have to apologize for the way I acted towards you that day. But most of it is that you disappeared over fourteen years ago. Fourteen years, Kageyama. And then a couple weeks after I move to this town with my son and my best friend and his son to get a new start for all of us suddenly you’re right there. I walked into that classroom expecting to have a conversation about a stupid fight my son got dragged into and saw you. The one person who has managed to pull me into almost every stupid fight I’ve ever had in my life. A person I fully expected to never see again. Just. Standing there.”
Tobio hops to his feet and starts pacing Kindaichi’s small living room. He will not run this time, no matter how close to that edge he is. Kindaichi tenses on the couch but he doesn’t get up, doesn’t try to keep Tobio from pacing.
“So, what?” Tobio finally spits out. “You’ve been punishing me for something I did fourteen years ago? You’ve been avoiding me because I was a stupid nineteen-year-old who didn’t know how to handle what was going on so I ran away?”
“What was going on? I thought we were okay? Maybe not the best of friends but, yeah. I thought we were at least friends.”
“We were. We were friends.” Tobio sighs.
“Then what? What was going on? What was happening in your life that was so important that it made you just up and vanish? I was worried. Did you know I even talked to Tsukishima? Asked him where you were? He hated me. Pretty sure he still does, actually.”
“What was happening?” Tobio stops and stares down at Kindaichi. “You mean. You didn’t have an idea? At all?”
He can’t do this. If Kindaichi didn’t even have a clue why he ran in the first place there’s no way he can do this. He spins on his heel and marches towards the door. He’ll shove his shoes on and just go home and they can pretend none of this ever happened. It’ll be fine. Right?
“Kageyama!” Kindaichi scrambles to his feet and hurries after Tobio. He’s got one shoe on and is shoving his foot in the other one when Kindaichi grabs his wrist. “Kageyama?”
“I was in love with you!” Apparently he can do this. Oh yay. “I was in love with you,” he repeats softly. “What was happening was I was falling in love with you and it terrified me. Because I looked at you and saw a future that I wanted so badly it scared me to think of what I would be willing to do for it. It scared me, Kindaichi. For so many reasons. Some of them stupid now that I look back at it. But mostly I ran because I looked at you and saw a future but I knew that even if we were starting to be friends you looked at me and saw the past.”
“Of course I saw the past.” Kindaichi’s fingers are tight around his wrist and Tobio has a split-second urge to rip his arm out of that grip and run. Run and never come back. “I looked at you and saw the past because if I didn’t see that past there was no way we could have a future. If I didn’t see that, didn’t acknowledge it, then there would be no way I could ever hope to move forward. There would be no way for us to move forward.”
“What?”
“I might not have been in love with you, Kageyama, but I was damn close.” He rubs his thumb against Tobio’s wrist and sighs. “And I’m pretty sure I still am.”
Tobio’s head jerks up. “What?”
“I might not have actually seen you since that day at the school but I’ve heard a lot about you. Kaito and Shin talk about you a lot.” Kindaichi’s lips twitch. “Akira does too. Pretty sure he’s half in love with you too.”
“Akira?”
“Yeah. If you haven’t figured it out yet he and I are kind of a package deal. Part of the reason we moved.”
“Akira,” Tobio repeats. He stops and thinks about it, thinks about all the time they’ve spent together the last few months, thinks about how Akira has always been that middle ground between Kindaichi and himself, thinks about the way Akira laughs and rolls his eyes and is willing to watch Yasu, does it as easily as if he’s been doing it her whole life.
“Akira,” Kindaichi agrees. “It’s always been better when it’s the three of us.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Of what?”
Tobio twists his wrist and slides his hand so that he can tangle their fingers together.
“The three of us,” he admits softly.
—
Tobio rolls his eyes when his phone goes off for the third time in as many minutes. He had told Kindaichi that this would work. It was a good plan. He had faith in the plan.
Mostly because it was Kei and Koushi’s plan, not his.
They just needed to follow the plan and it would be fine.
Which, of course, is why the plan goes up in flames — not literally thankfully — less than thirty seconds after Kindaichi knocks on the door and Tobio lets them in. Because in those thirty seconds Shin barely makes it to the bathroom before getting sick, Yasu leans against his side and mumbles about not feeling well, and Kei calls to say that he’s currently trying keep his apartment from flooding because of something the person living above him did to the plumbing so he won’t be over to watch the kids.
Tobio leaves Kindaichi and Akira in the kitchen to get the kids settled. Shin and Yasu are curled up on her bed and Kaito is sprawled along the foot of it reading to them both when Tobio slips out of the room and heads back.
“No sense in wasting a reservation,” Akira says. “I can just watch the kids and you two can go on your date without a third wheel.”
Kindaichi meets Tobio’s eyes and slowly turns to glare at the back of Akira’s head before meeting Tobio’s eyes again. Then he gestures at Akira and Tobio shakes his head. He can’t believe it either.
“What?” Akira glances between them curiously when he turns around. “What did I miss?”
“The same thing that I missed back then,” Kindaichi says as he steps forward and drapes himself against Akira’s back. Akira takes the weight without hesitation and adjusts his stance as he looks at Tobio.
“And me. I missed it too,” Tobio adds. He holds out his hand and Akira takes it immediately. The two of them shuffle Akira out of the kitchen and to the living room, clearly on the same page.
“What are you two talking about?”
Tobio settles on the couch and Kindaichi nudges at Akira until he drops down next to Tobio and then Kindaichi flops himself on the other end before twisting and dropping his legs across their laps.
“Three’s a good number,” Kindaichi says with a shrug.
“It’s hard for you to be a third wheel when you’re part of the people going on a date,” Tobio says.
“What?”
“We want to date you too,” Kindaichi explains. “If you’re willing, that is.”
Akira stares between the two of them, mouth hanging open, until a ball of paper hits him in the back of the head and they all twist around to see Kaito standing in the hallway.
“Say yes, Uncle Akira,” Kaito says. “Then Shin and I can stop listening to you be all gross and mopey every time Kageyama and Dad do something that makes you wish you were dating them.”
“Kaito!”
“Just saying. Hey, Kageyama? Do you have some milk or something I could have?”
Kageyama waves him towards the fridge while Kindaichi does his best to muffle his laughter and Akira looks like he wants to combust right here on the couch.
He waits until Kaito is back in Yasu’s room before he bumps their shoulders together.
“So. What do you say? Want to get even more involved in this mess?”
“Well, let’s be honest.” Akira looks between them and grins. “You two would crash and burn without me there to balance you out. And, well, in between the two of you is a place I’ve missed being. So. Yeah. Let’s do it. Ask me out.”
“Akira,” Kindaichi says softly. “Will you go out with Tobio and me?”
Tobio sucks in a breath and Akira looks at him. “What he said. Will you go out with Yuutarou and me?”
“I dunno,” Akira answers. “I might have to think about it.”
Tobio huffs and sinks his weight against Akira’s shoulder while Kindaichi. No. Yutuarou. While Yuutarou digs the tv remote out from under the couch and scrolls through to find a movie to watch.
The end credits are rolling and Tobio is half asleep with Akira’s head on his shoulder and the warm weight of Yuutarou spread across their laps like a blanket when Akira sighs softly.
“Yeah. I thought about it. I think I’ll keep you all,” Akira whispers.
—
Tobio stares down at the three sheets of paper in his hand and groans.
“Your fathers are going to kill me,” he says as he signs all three sheets and hands them back to the teens standing in front of him.
Yasu huffs and shoves her paper in her bag before tossing the bag into the corner. Kaito flops down next to Tobio at the table and sticks his paper in a pile of homework he had already been working on when Tobio got home — his first clue that something was up because none of them usually even think about homework until after supper. Shin folds his paper up, sticks it in the front pocket of his bag, and then hops up on the kitchen counter.
“If Akira and Yuutarou kill you does that mean Uncle Kei gets custody of me?” Yasu asks as she tugs open the fridge to look for a sports drink. “Cause he has that cool new gaming system Uncle Kenma bought him and I think he should get custody of me.”
The teens start arguing about who gets custody of who and why and Tobio sends them all to their rooms so he can have some peace and quiet while he starts supper.
This is his life, he thinks when Akira shuffles in and kisses his cheek.
This is what he gets to have every day, he thinks when Yuutarou flicks soapy water at his face while doing dishes and laughs at the look Tobio gives him.
This is his past, he thinks while he tells the kids goodnight and Yasu rolls her eyes at him but hugs him anyway.
This is his future, he reminds himself when he crawls into bed next to Akira and feels Yuutarou reach over for him.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“Love you too,” echoes back to him and he drifts to sleep with a smile.
Another night turns to day on this past he’ll never forget and this future that he’s never going to stop looking forward to.