Coddling
A Haikyuu! oneshot
by mew-tsubaki
Note: The Haikyuu! characters belong to Furudate Haruichi-sensei, not to me. For the prompt "first." XD Read, review, and enjoy! *Done for ennotana week on tumblr.*
- ^-^3
Being led to the couch did little to alleviate his annoyances. He ached, and a change of venue wasn't going to do much to fix that, either.
Tanaka gave Ennoshita's hand a light squeeze. "Hey, you okay?"
…some of his grievances melted away, seeing a wrinkle form between Tanaka's eyebrows from worry. Ennoshita didn't bother fighting his small smile. "I am."
Tanaka frowned and nudged him to sit on the couch in Akiteru-san's living room. "Ennoshita…"
He sighed. "I will be," he amended, and he nearly swatted Tanaka's hands away as the other boy draped a lavender knitted blanket around his shoulders. But he changed his mind as Tanaka deftly gathered his ankles to swing Ennoshita's legs up on the cushions. "You do realize I slept fine last night? And me lazing about on the couch like this is just gonna make me nod off again?" He quirked an eyebrow for good measure.
"It's the weekend! That's not the worst thing in the world," Tanaka said with a laugh as he left the room—hopefully to put a shirt on. It was a wonder if he'd ever learn to leave it on…
Since the remote control was within reach on the glass coffee table, Ennoshita turned the TV on and flicked through the channels, although nothing held his attention. His mind, after all, had wandered back to the bedroom with his boyfriend.
Ennoshita pursed his lips, but it did little to tame his smile as he thought on last night. It hadn't been perfect, but whose first time ever was? Despite having dated since the end of the previous school year and maintaining a great relationship in addition to being the team's new captain and vice-captain…and despite having started to prepare for this since his own birthday three months ago… Ennoshita was still rather shocked at how things had turned out. There'd been a mess and a lot of clumsiness and a ton of pain, a shit-ton of pain…
…but those things were easier to forget than he thought, when he dwelled on how gently Tanaka—rough, brash Tanaka Ryuunosuke—had held him.
The phrase "made love" twirled and pirouetted in his head, and Ennoshita groaned and tried focusing on a weathering report instead of on those mawkish words. Even if he completely believed in the truth of them.
"What kind of tea did you want?" Tanaka asked from the kitchen.
"What the—?!" Ennoshita emerged partially from his blanket cocoon, craning his neck over the couch arm to spy Tanaka rummaging through the cupboards. "When did you get there?!"
Tanaka (t-shirt on, Ennoshita noted sadly) glanced at him. "A minute ago. You zone out?"
"…no…"
"Ennoshita."
"…maybe." He grumped and faced the TV again, trying to find a comfortable position on the couch. The couch looked and felt brand-new, even though Akiteru-san had said all his stuff was "beat-up and well-loved." Then again, Tsukishima money probably could buy the kind of high-quality stuff that would seem new for at least five years…
Tanaka held a glass of ice water in front of his face. "You didn't have an opinion on tea, so I thought this was a safe bet."
Ennoshita took the drink and sipped it. "Thanks."
"You really sure you're going to be okay?"
"I'm just. Sore. Achy. And…" He grimaced and scrunched up his nose.
Beside the couch, Tanaka dropped to his haunches, and he rested his arm on the armrest, hand out for Ennoshita to take. "Are you feeling sick? I thought we got everything out in the shower last night."
Ennoshita reddened, embarrassed at how Tanaka could say that with such an innocent expression. He huffed and averted his eyes. "We did. And thanks for letting me go to sleep with my hair still wet—this will look cartoony well into tomorrow and probably Tuesday, too," he bitched, swatting the hair on the right side of his face out of the way yet again. It had dried in his eyes and hadn't behaved with a splash of water earlier this morning when he'd gotten up to pee.
Tanaka clearly wanted to laugh—he was worse at hiding his smile than Ennoshita was—but instead he reached up and brushed his fingers through that hair, along Ennoshita's cheekbone, two, three times until it calmed in the slightest. "Eh. You were exhausted. Better that you slept." He got to his feet. "Did you want to do anything today?"
"Sit right here and binge-watch movies and TV," Ennoshita grouched.
This time, his boyfriend guffawed. But he did take his volume down a notch with a quick glare.
The water, icy and then cool as the ice melted, did help. It also didn't hurt that Tanaka made breakfast for himself and bacon for both of them; the aromas made Ennoshita feel as if his hunger mattered more than his back and backside. Plus, when Tanaka returned to Ennoshita's end of the couch and sat on the floor, he shared his plate and even let Ennoshita take a bite of his egg on toast…and another. And a few more, until Tanaka realized he'd have to cook himself another breakfast.
Ennoshita remained hunkered down on the couch throughout the late morning. He switched between movies and the usual weekend daytime fare often but without really watching it. Mostly he found it much more fascinating to watch Tanaka in—frankly, in another of his elements.
Between feeding the two of them and gathering laundry and picking up after them, Tanaka would appear at Ennoshita's side in a flash if the volleyball captain made a request or even a noise of discomfort.
Out of water? "Here you go," Tanaka would answer, fresh glass in hand.
Leg cramped up? "Just point me where!" he would exclaim as he slapped his hands together to warm them up for a quick massage.
He would even adjust the sweatshirt of his Ennoshita had borrowed when it rode up or fix the blanket around Ennoshita's shoulders if it fell off while Ennoshita dozed on and off through the afternoon. "Ah, sorry," Tanaka said each time Ennoshita stirred. "Didn't mean to wake you."
And each action, Ennoshita willing, was punctuated with a peck to the top of his head or to his forehead.
It was why, despite a naughty dream or two of Tanaka being inside him last night (or four of his fingers, and holy crap, how would he be able to walk at school tomorrow, how could he continue to supervise Captain-elect Yamaguchi and the other kouhai, how could he keep Kinoshita and Narita and Nishinoya from wearing those knowing grins), Ennoshita had a hard time being waited on so completely hand and foot. Sure, they'd decided about two months ago to make this their weekend, but it was still Tanaka's weekend, and here they were, Tanaka being a sweetie and Ennoshita being a grouch.
The next time Tanaka came and sat down, the place cleaned and his stomach grumbling for a real lunch beside snacks, Ennoshita held his hand out, and he shook it until Tanaka weaved their fingers together.
"What's up, babe?" he asked, his grin small and soft.
Ennoshita blinked and tried moving past the new endearment ("babe" "babe!" "babe!"). "It's your eighteenth birthday, Tanaka. Stop pampering me," he managed, though he could barely hear his own words over his heart hammering in his chest.
But Tanaka shook his head and changed the channel while his boyfriend got to admire his handsome profile. "Nope. It's my responsibility and my pleasure to make sure you're safe and happy, Ennoshita." It almost didn't sound like Tanaka…but then he grinned, wide and toothy, and Ennoshita knew this really was the Tanaka he'd known all these years, really was the Tanaka who'd bumbled through what the ace had thought was only an odd crush on his friend and new captain, really was the Tanaka who'd been his boyfriend for a year now.
He was almost too cute, too gentlemanly to be real, dammit. "…fuck."
"Sorry?"
But Ennoshita shook his head. "Akiteru-san and Saeko-san are returning from their couples' weekend soon, right?"
"Yeah… But I'm sure Nee-san can drive us home later if you need to stay put longer, babe."
"I'll be fine…but you could help speed along the process, Tanaka." And he scooted to one end of the couch to make room for his boyfriend. He winced a time or two, but he said with a pointed look, "Cuddle only."
Tanaka chuckled. "Understood!" And he settled in to Ennoshita's side, tucking him under his arm and the blanket around them. He pecked Ennoshita's left temple this time.
So maybe it hadn't been a perfect night…but it was a perfect weekend after all.
- ^-^3
Cute! Since going through all of my Harry Potter fics to edit and cross-post to tumblr and to AO3, I've found that I miss writing shorter stories (mostly drabbles, so under 1,000 words), but it's rly hard for me to do that lately, esp in HQ! and RLY for Ennotana. But this is the first Ennotana I've written that was under 3,000 words and wasn't for an ask meme! So yay! :D *LOL* But I also love fluff, and I like to write about fluffy things that can get overlooked, such as a ship's morning after as you read here. Tanaka rly is a sweetie, and he would definitely take care of Ennoshita in this manner. And Ennoshita…prolly will have to get used to being spoiled. XD
Thanks for reading, and please review! I have many more HQ! fics where this came from, including lots of Ennotana (y'all need to read Birds of a Feather if you haven't by now)! AND I draw Ennotana as well as loads of other ships (mainly rarepairs) on tumblr (le-amewzing)—so come by, check out some art, read some fics, and hit me up for requests or just asks in general!
-mew-tsubaki :3c