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“Hey, Keishin?”
Keishin looked up to see Shouyou staring at him with nervous eyes as he held a right gripe on his phone.
“Uh. Yeah? What’s up?”
Keishin was starting to get nervous.
“Okay, so. You remember the Nekoma team?”
He blinked in surprise. This was not what Keishin was expecting.
“Yeah, of course.”
“So, their setter. His name is Kenma. The very, very first practice match we had with them, I don’t know if you remember, but I got lost during our jogs. And that’s how I met Kenma, and we exchanged numbers before the match even began! And, like, we’ve been texting ever since. Because we’re friends.”
“Okay…” Keishin nodded slowly.
“Yea! So, like, as friends, we used to visit each other a lot. It, uh, it stopped for a little while. You know. With things. But now he’s asking if he can come visit me for a weekend like he used to do, because Kuroo is giving them Friday off from practice because he has to visit his aunt, and there’s a train that leaves right after school which means he can get here earlier than he usually does, which is cool. But uh.”
“So you’re asking if your friend can stay for the weekend?” Keishin asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I-uh. Yea. That’s what I’m asking.”
“Yes.” Shouyou blinked in surprise. “Of course you’re allowed to invite a friend for the weekend.”
A wide grin covered Shouyou’s face, causing a contagious one to spread across Keishin’s as well. Shouyou bounced quickly and gave his father-figure a quick embrace before leaving and dialing his friend for confirmation.
Keishin was nervous. How were you supposed to act when your child brought a friend over? Casual, right? He could do casual. He’s always casual. Easy. But what about when the friend was from an opposite team who you intimidated before? No, no. He’ll continue casual. It didn’t matter.
Shouyou stood in front of Keishin, a single drop of sweat dripping down his forehead from the malfunctioning air conditioner in spring. Keishin crossed his arms and looked him in the eye.
“Friday me and Natsu will be here. But Saturday, she asked me to take her to mall so she can meet some of her friends there, and I don’t want to leave her alone. So you’re not going to like, trash the apartment in a sugar high or anything while we’re gone. I trust you obviously, but I just got to give you the, you know, talk.”
Shouyou paled. “You have to give me the talk?!”
“No! Not that kind of talk. Unless— do I have to give you the talk?”
“No, no, no. I- no.”
“Okay.” Keishin let out an air of relief. “Tomorrow I’m driving you to the train station to pick Kenma up, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
“Kenma!” Hinata pounced onto his friend despite the fact they stood in the middle of a crowded train station. Kenma stumbled dropped the handle of his bag before picking it up again.
“Shouyou.” Kenma smiled softly.
“Kenma! I missed you so much! I love it when we hang out in person!” Shouyou eagerly took his friend’s bags and lead them away. “Oh! Heads up: Keishin is parked like a block away. Natsu is also in the car.”
Kenma smiled at the warning of social interaction. He liked it when Shouyou gave him his heads up.
The walk to the car was short and sweet. Shouyou rattled on about how much he missed Kenma, how their skype calls paled to the real thing, and Kenma simply smiled and nodded. It took him a while to adjust to suddenly interacting with someone, but Shouyou never minded.
Shouyou placed his bag in the trunk then opened the door for Kenma. Natsu sat next to him, a wide smile on her face, and Shouyou entered the front seat.
“Kenma-chan!” Natsu cried as she gave two big thumb ups.
“Natsu-chan.” Kenma forced himself to make eye contact for a few seconds and smile before looking at his fingers again. He tried to avoid using his phone, despite the safety of it, so as to not look rude.
“We’ve met before. Nice to see you again, Kozume-kun.” Keishin nodded as he looked into the back mirror.
“Oh. Uh. You can just call me Kenma.”
“Okay. You can call me Keishin.”
Shouyou took the ending of introductions as an invitation to begin talking. He began telling Keishin of things they’ve done during past sleepover and visits, leaving room for Kenma to input his own small comments. Keishin nodded and asked follow-up questions at the appropriate times.
Kenma was surprised to see the new house Shouyou was living in. It was different than his old one, which had been more traditional and country-styled. This house was more modern and made for suburban living. Shouyou grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the house ahead of Keishin and Natsu and immediately led him to his room to drop off his bags.
Shouyou quickly gave Kenma a tour of the new house, and pulled out the extra futon and set it up for later. By the time all of that finished, Keishin was calling them for dinner.
To say Kenma felt awkward was an understatement.
Kenma was a world renowned introvert, and meeting new people was a difficult thing. But somehow, meeting old people in a new light was worse. It was just so awkward.
“So.” Keishin said as he put his glass of water down after a long sip. The four of them sat on the small, square table, and it was difficult for Kenma to avoid eye contact with everyone. “How’s your team?”
“Good, I guess.” Kenma scratched his arm awkwardly. “We’re going to nationals too.”
“We better face each other on the center stage!” Shouyou exclaimed. The table shook with his excitement.
“Are you guys going to practice volleyball tomorrow?”
“Eugh.” Kenma couldn’t help the groan leave his mouth. “I hope not.”
Keishin blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well, uh, what’re you guys gonna do then?”
“Well I’m probably going to make Kenma set to me at least a little.” Shouyou bumped elbows with him. “But Kenma brought his Nintendo Switch. So we’re going to probably play a ton of his games. He’s probably going to beat me, because he’s really good. Oh! And we’re going to watch a movie, because we have this list of really bad horror movies that we’ve been working through since like our second sleepover.”
Shouyou began to ramble on, pausing only to catch his breath or shove another mouthful of food into his mouth. Kenma nodded along, unsure of what to add. Keishin looked mildly shocked but masked it well. Shouyou hadn’t mentioned his friendship with Kenma in detail to him before, so the closeness of it was slightly surprising.
Dinner was finished after another twenty minutes, and together Shouyou and Kenma did the dishes before heading back to his room. Shouyou watched as Kenma worked on a storymode game made by some indie company Kenma talked about before actually starting the game. He had just started and played for only about an hour before now, but he gave Shouyou a quick recap before he started. The two stayed like that for about two hours before heading to sleep.
Shouyou woke up first. It seemed him and Kenma had slept in, and when he checked his phone for the time he also saw a message from Keishin stating that he and Natsu had already left. It was 11:17 AM.
Kenma woke up fifteen minutes after Shouyou, who totally hadn’t been staring at him while he slept. When the other boy did awake, he turned on his side so he was facing Shouyou.
“So,” Shouyou started. “We have the house to ourselves for the day.”
Kenma nodded. “You told me this would happen yesterday.”
“I know, I was just saying it out loud to remind myself that my boyfriend and I will have a few hours of alone time.”
Keishin was a bit put out after having to spend the day watching Natsu and her equality energetic friends roam the stores he led them too, but not roam too far, because he had unknowingly become the chaperone for all the children. When he told the other parents he planned on staying, they all quickly thanked him and made their own leave.
After shopping, Natsu had begged for ice cream, and Keishin gave in. He tended to fold under Natsu’s pleads quickly. Ice cream turned into ramen and onigiri to go since Natsu was craving it but he still wanted to go home and make sure Shouyou and Kenma actually fed themselves the whole day.
The house was empty by the time he and Natsu arrived. It was just past sunset, so the house was lit with the groggy gray that came right after. Natsu had began to finally wear herself out, and had no problem sitting at the table and eating quietly and he went to go find Shouyou and Kenma.
Keishin knocked on the bedroom door. No answer. He turned the doorknob and entered.
Shouyou was laying on his bed, his head pressed gently into Kenma’s chest while the older boy had an arm wrapped around his son. Their legs were intertwined, and the blanket that must have been covering that once upon a time was now a tangled mess at their feet. A Nintendo switch laid forgotten on Shouyou’s chest.
Keishin would have smiled at the image and thought nothing of it if it weren’t for one other key observation.
Shouyou’s t-shirt had sunk low in his entangled unconsciousness. All across his lower neck were purple bruises that Keishin knew weren’t ordinary bruises.
Keishin bit his lip as he tried deciding what to do. Maybe this conversation would be better one on one, another day.
Closing the door softly, Keishin went back to the kitchen and ate with Natsu. He left a text for Shouyou whenever he woke up about the food.
Sunday afternoon, after a trip to the park Natsu begged her older brother and his friend to take her on, Keishin drove Kenma back to the train station.
The house was quiet when they returned.
“Shouyou, can we talk?” Keishin asked after Natsu ran to her room to complete last minute homework. Shouyou startled and nodded.
The two of them sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and a pack of Pocky between them.
“I-uh. So.” Keishin took a deep breath and gave Shouyou a stern look. “I saw you and Kenma yesterday.”
“Uh? What do you mean? Oh! When we fell asleep? We were just playing this indie game, where you play as this little girl who wakes up with amnesia, and-”
“Shouyou.” Keishin stopped him. “Just. I saw them.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“The hickies.” Keishin deadpanned.
Sweat dribbled down Shouyou’s forehead. His eyes widened more before he looked down. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not mad. Just. What… are you guys dating? I just want to know.”
“Yeah-uh. Not too long ago. It happened during our week long training camp, one of the nights there. We both snuck out during the night and walked around Tokyo a bit as our first date.” Shouyou fidgeted with his hands.
“That’s cute.” Keishin nodded.
The conversation died for a bit, the two of the sitting in the overwhelming silence. Both had zero clue on how to continue this necessary, but terribly awkward, conversation.
“Listen. I had my fair share of girlfriends, and boyfriends.” Keishin paused as Shouyou looked up in surprised. “And, as your legal guardian, I think it is my moral duty to do this. I think we need to have the talk.”
A look of mortification crossed Shouyou’s face. “Oh no-”
Keishin nodded gravely, biting back a smirk. “Oh yes.”