Chapter Text
Where is Tadashi’s happy ending?
This is a thought that often circulates his mind when at home with his mother.
Tadashi’s team had just won the second round of the Interhigh Prelims. When he got home, still ecstatic from the victory - even if he didn’t play - he came back to his mother in an incredibly bad mood.
From what he had gathered, she had a stressful day at work and when she came home, she watched a recording of the match and saw that he didn’t play at all. This apparently frustrated her quite a lot.
“I have put so much into your little hobby, just for you to not even play it?? I mean what even goes through your brain sometimes..” She pauses, inhaling deeply, “You’re insane if you think this will ever take you anywhere if you refuse to even play in official matches because of your own laziness. I mean you clearly aren’t even trying at this point” She says slightly calmer than before, gesturing in the air wildly.
Tadashi wants to explain that he doesn’t choose what the starting set is and that he is trying. In fact, he’s trying harder than he ever has before.
He holds his tongue (metaphorically) however, knowing when she’s in this kind of state, it’s best not to say anything.
“Look, you know I only tell you this because I love you, right?” She calms down, sitting next to him on the couch. “I want the best for you and for that, you need to put in some effort. Can you do that for me? Your mother?” She asks, smiling comfortingly.
He nods, not too sure what answer she’s looking for.
“Thank you sweetheart, I love you, you know that right?” She puts her arms around him and pulls him into a hug, resting her chin on his hair.
He nods again.
“You can’t even tell your own mother you love her after she gives you advice?” She pulls away slightly, looking at his face but keeping him close.
To a normal person, she sounds lovely. She sounds as sweet as the sickly, fruit scented perfume she has on. But to Tadashi, he can hear the slight tint of suspicion she has in her voice. As if she’s just waiting for him to say something that would give her an excuse to yell at him again.
“No Mother, I love you very much.” He replies in an even tone, as if the words he said were rehearsed; at this point, they basically were.
“There’s my sweet boy.” She pulls him in again, kissing his hair before standing up. “Would you like some tea?” She asks.
Tadashi nods.
If he is being honest with himself, he doesn’t want tea. He doesn’t even really like it all that much but he also knows better by now than to refuse something from his mother.
“I’m going to get changed first however, if that's okay?” He stands up as well, facing his mother who was walking towards the kitchen.
“Yes yes, of course, why do you even need to tell me that?” She says as if she hasn’t yelled at him for not telling her in the past.
He nods, leaving the room in favour of going upstairs to his room.
It doesn’t take long before he walks down again, now in fresher clothes, and goes straight to the kitchen to receive his tea.
His mother watches him as he begins to sip at it. Tadashi assumes this is so she can tell if he likes it or not, probably to snap at him if she doesn’t think his reaction was good enough.
He smiles at her before saying, “It’s lovely, Mother, thank you.”
To be fair to her, he thinks, it’s a lot better than usual. Normally it tastes bland, the sugar doing essentially nothing to the flavour. However this time, it tastes a lot sweeter, almost like a hot chocolate but not quite.
She nods before turning away and drinking her own.
Her mug is a muted pink colour with a cartoon daisy pattern, the middle part of each flower having a different colour.
Tadashi remembers once when he was younger that she had said she has had that mug since she was 16. Apparently her boyfriend at the time was very good with clay and made her the mug as a birthday gift. Daisies are favourite flowers and pink is her favourite colour so it was a very sweet gift. At least that’s what he recalls her saying.
She said that even though they broke up a month after that, she still uses it. It has her favourite things on it after all and besides, the boyfriend never asked for it back.
Tadashi looks back at his own mug before drinking the sweet mixture in it.
His mug is bright blue with a picture of spiderman on it, his favourite superhero growing up. It still is to this day, he just refuses to admit that he still likes silly, little childish things like superheroes.
“Right, it’s getting late.” His mother starts. Tadashi glances at the clock sitting on top of the fridge, it reads ‘8:43’. “And you have another game tomorrow so I want you to get a good, long sleep.” She watches him drink the last sip of his tea.
“Yes mother.” He replies, standing up and washing his mug up.
“I have to go back to work now, however… Stupid Nakamura messed up a prescription again. I swear all these new interns are going to drive me crazy.” She sighs. “She claims that something just went missing but I think that’s an excuse for her unprofessionalism.”
Tadashi’s mother works as a pharmacist. This keeps her away from home often, which he appreciates. However she always seems to be able to get home the moment he does something she doesn’t like.
It’s almost creepy. He asked her about it once when he was thirteen and she was in a good mood. Her only reply was, “A mother has good intuition. She always knows when her child is in trouble or is up to something.” He tried to push for a better answer but she snapped at him, telling him to drop it.
And he did.
“Right, come give your mother a hug before going to bed.” He walks over to her, hugging her waist and she ruffles his hair gently.
“Goodnight sweetheart, I probably won’t be home when you wake up, like I said, these interns are requiring a lot of work right now.” She sighs again, pushing him away and traces his face with her nail carefully. It almost tickles. “At least once they are all trained, I won’t have to work as much and that means we can hang out more.” She smiles.
Tadashi wants anything but that.
Well that’s what he thought at first, before thinking about how rude that is. His mother works so hard for their two person family. It’s not like he has a job or anything.
He takes back what he thought, scolding himself.
“Right, I have to leave now, see you after your match tomorrow, I might even be able to pick you up this time.” She drops her arm, grabs her bag and starts to walk towards the front door.
Tadashi secretly hopes she doesn’t. He can walk most of the way home with Tsuki up until they get to his house and Tadashi has to walk an extra ten minutes to his own.
He loves and appreciates his mother for wanting to pick him up but he also loves and appreciates the fifteen minute walk he has with Tsuki every morning and afternoon.
“It’s okay Mother, I don’t mind walking, you don’t have to worry yourself with picking me up.” He smiles at her, hoping this is enough for her to back off.
“Oh you sweet boy, okay. I suppose I can meet you here.” She blows him a kiss before opening the front door and leaving.
Tadashi exhales in relief, that wasn’t that bad. She may have been in a bad mood when he came in but he managed to sort it out pretty quickly.
He walks up to his room, closing the door behind him and getting into his bed.
Pulling out his phone, he starts typing out a message.
You: Hey Tsuki, wyd? :P
Tsuki: I’m currently lying in bed, I’ve just finished my homework.
You: ooo okay. I still need to do my math hw, im putting it off tho
You: I hate math >:(
Tsuki: I know, Yamaguchi.
You: Ugh my mom wants me to sleep but its so early!!
You: How can I possibly go to sleep when we are playing against Aoba Johsai tomorrow
You: Im going to die of nerves :<
Tsuki: You won’t die, it’ll be fine.
They continued talking for a few hours.
The conversation was bland with no deep topics but it was nice. Tadashi really enjoys talking to Tsuki.
He could talk about the most mind-numbingly boring things and Tadashi would still find it interesting: it’s Tsuki afterall.
It doesn’t matter what he talks about, he doesn’t even have to talk and Tadashi would just enjoy his presence.
Although, he does prefer it when Tsuki talks.
Especially when he talks about one of his special interests like dinosaurs or volleyball.
Tadashi knows when Tsuki is talking about something he really likes. His eyes widen a little bit more and his tone of voice gets a little higher.
Tsuki doesn’t visibly show too much emotion most of the time but Tadashi has known him long enough to know what he’s feeling. Just like Tsuki knows almost exactly what Tadashi is thinking and feeling most of the time.
By the end of their talk, it was about midnight.
Tadashi started to get a really big headache. His brain felt like it was banging against his eyes.
He must have been a lot more tired than he thought.
Tadashi felt slightly dizzy. All he was doing was staring at the ceiling. However, it appeared to be spinning. Which is ridiculous because logically, he knows it’s not.
He’s definitely a lot more tired than he thought.
He closes his eyes, willing himself to sleep despite the throbbing headache splitting through his head.