The doorbell rang. Once, twice… By the sixth time Hyuga had it.

He raced down the stairs and headed for the front door. He peered through the small hole and realized who was pestering him so early on a Monday morning. Kyoshi Teppei, the center of Seirin, one of his teammates, one of his friends… Someone who he really didn't want to see yet…

Hyuga thought of turning around, and going back to his room where he spent most of time now. He really couldn't face that bright smile first thing in the morning.

He sighed and went upstairs, ignoring the incessant banging on the door. He slipped inside the still warm covers of his bed and closed his eyes, leaving his broken right wrist out of the covers – just as that wrist had left him out of basketball. Slowly, he drifted off into sleep.

It wasn't until noon that he awoke again.

His stomach growled once and he rolled over to his side, trying to fall asleep again. As his stomach growled the second time, his phone went off. He had a text. Hyuga could only guess who it was from: Riko, Kyoshi, Izuki, Kagami, Koganei, Kuroko… They all definitely had something to say – Hyuga just didn't care to know what.

It rang again but this time it was a phone call. He picked up his glasses from the small bedside table and then checked the screen of his phone: "Kyoshi Teppei calling…" Hyuga hit Ignore.

Too awake now to fall asleep again, he swung his feet off the bed and stood up taking his phone with him. He descended the stairs with no rush whatsoever despite his restless stomach. Once again, his phone rang.

"Goddamn it, Kyoshi. Can't you just leave me alone?" He murmured to himself, pressing the Ignore button again.

Out of nowhere, the doorbell rang.

"Oi, don't tell me…" He whispered thinking of the center.

He went up to that same little hole in the door he'd peered through a few hours earlier and realized he had guessed right. Kyoshi was there, again. Didn't he understand this was a hard time for him? Couldn't he just leave him alone? God, why did he have to meddle in every little thing that happened in his life!?

"Come on, Hyuga! I know you're there! I heard your phone ring!" The center shouted from the street.

Hyuga knew he was going to regret it, but he opened the door anyway "What do you want Kyoshi?"

"I brought lunch!" The brunette grinned in that happy manner of his and tried to enter Hyuga's house.

Hyuga put his palm on the center's chest "Don't come in, Kyoshi. I'm not in the mood today. Leave."

"Don't be like that Hyuga," the center pushed the shorter boy's arm aside and walked in. "Let's eat while it's still warm!"

"Kyoshi!"

"What?" He asked not looking at Hyuga as he took off his shoes.

"Don't just come in other people's houses! I told you I'm not in the food for this today! Get out!" Hyuga yelled at the center whose warm expression remained unfazed.

"I can't. My mom said she wouldn't let me in the house if we didn't eat it all. So you see, you either have lunch with me, or I'll be living here for a while. She made a lot of food. It's enough for us to have lunch and dinner." He laughed.

"You little…" Hyuga was glaring at Kyoshi now, the bad side of his personality about to say things that couldn't really be taken back after they came out.

"Come, come." But the words got stuck in his throat, all of them as the center grabbed Hyuga's left hand and pulled him to his living room. He'd been in Hyuga's house a few times before so he knew the way.

The shorter boy blushed wildly and let himself be pulled along despite not wanting to have lunch with the center.. He knew if the two of them had lunch then Kyoshi would want him to return to school, maybe even to practice… and the way Hyuga was like now, wouldn't be remotely useful for any of those things. It's like the side of his personality that came out when they were in a pinch in games was always his personality now. He didn't remember how to turn it off… he didn't remember how it felt like turned off…

Kyoshi left Hyuga to sit on the couch and ruffled his hair as he went to prepare the food. He covered the small coffee table with a table cloth, set the plates and grabbed the chopsticks, glasses, napkins… Finally he put the food in the plates and sat down cross-legged on the floor.

"Let's eat, Hyuga!" He shot the brunette who'd been quiet for the whole time a wide smile.

Hyuga clutched his pajama pants with his unhurt hand and stared down at his lap, quiet and unmoving, his face still reddish.

"What's wrong, Hyuga," Kyoshi asked "I thought you liked my mom's cooking?"

Hyuga lift his head to look at the center before speaking his mind.

"I told you to leave. I don't want to have lunch. I'm not hungr—." And just as he pronounced the word his stomach betrayed him by growling once more. His face grew redder.

"Why don't you want to have lunch with me, Hyuga? Did I do something to make you mad?" Kyoshi asked with an expression of such worry that Hyuga had to look away, for tears were welling up in his eyes. Hyuga blinked repeatedly trying to make the tears go away but they just kept blurring his vision.

Quickly, he rose to his feet and keeping his gaze down he left the living room, heading off to his room. He was running as he reached the staircase, as the heavy sound of footsteps behind him grew louder and louder until it was all he could hear.

He opened the bedroom door and was about to enter, but the center gripped his arm and kept him there.

"Let go of me Kyoshi!" The shorter boy's chest heaved up and down violently as the tears streaming down his cheeks made small dark spots on is t-shirt.

The center didn't say anything. Instead he grabbed the brunette's waist with his free hand and turned him around, still gripping his arm tightly.

"Let Go!" Hyuga shouted with his eyes closed not wanting to look at the center.

"Junpei," Hyuga's heart skipped a beat at the sound of his first name being said by such a kind voice. "Junpei" Kyoshi repeated.

"Come on, Junpei. Look at me, please." The brunette opened his eyes not able to resist that person's plead.

Kyoshi Teppei was smilling at him. He was always smiling at him, Hyuga noticed. Even when he was in the hospital, Hyuga couldn't remember a time when Kyoshi Teppei wasn't smiling at him.

"Teppei," He murmured and the center grinned as happy as a child on a Christmas morning at him.

"You called me Teppei! I'm so happy, Junpei!" Hyuga's heart skipped a beat again and he was sure he would die if Kyoshi showed him that smile again.

Kyoshi let go of the brunette's arm and pulled him by the waist into his arms. Hyuga hugged him tightly and didn't say anything – rather – couldn't say anything. They just stayed hugging like that; Hyuga couldn't tell if they'd been hugging for minutes or hours.

Hyuga's stomach growled for the fourth or fifth time that day and Kyoshi pushed him away just enough so he could cup the brunette's face with his hands "Do you want to have lunch with me, Junpei?"

"Yeah… I'd like that." Hyuga said and Kyoshi leaned down, his eyes closed and planted a short kiss on the brunette's lips. Hyuga's face flared and he let the center pull him downstairs, their fingers intertwined the whole time.

Neither of them said anything about Hyuga's injury during the whole lunch. Kyoshi wasn't there to convince him to go to school or to face the team. Hell, he was skipping school AND practice so he could have lunch with him. Kyoshi wasn't there to try and make him see there was a future for him even without basketball. Kyoshi was there just for the sake of being there. For him! And that was what Hyuga had always loved about Kyoshi Junpei. He was just so goddamned overwhelmingly kind.