An Open Book

by Lunzera

Kei was very skilled at reading people. He was especially proud of his ability to push other people's buttons. He knew exactly what he needed say to get a certain reaction from someone and when he needed to say it. This ability made him feel in control and superior to others, but to his surprise, he noticed that one of his favourite "books" had some pages hidden up his sleeve.

Author Note:

Hey! It's your friendly neighbourhood writer that shows up once a season with a new story. I know that some of you are looking forward to updates on my older stories and I would like to make it happen, but life works in unexpected ways and I was always better at starting things than actually finishing them (though I can say that more chapters in some of my stories is a possibility). Anyways, on the topic of this story, well, fuck me, I have no clue what happened. I had this story planned out in my head from start to finish, there was a lot of romantic action involved, but then something happened, simply one sentence that derailed the entire story. After that, everything just wrote itself and I honestly can't explain how or why this happened, I had to scrap my ending entirely, because it no longer fits the way this story has turned. So if you're looking for sex, I have to disappoint you, but you'll have to suffer through 5000 words of feelings. I honestly blame my writing classes for what happened, they made me a serious writer. Anyways, there will be some action later on in this story, but for now, this will have to do, until I write more. Enjoy.

Kei was always very skilled at reading people. He was especially proud of his ability to push other people's buttons. He knew exactly what he needed to say to get a certain reaction from someone and when he needed to say it. He liked seeing people at their most vulnerable. This activity was especially fun when he used his skills on easy targets. Seeing how pissed off people would get, the anger in their eyes only because of something that he said was one of his favourite things to do and how he usually passed his time. His witty remarks left him feeling superior and in control. One might think that Tsukishima saw people as puppets and it wouldn't be that far away from the truth, because he enjoyed manipulating people into certain situations disregarding their feelings. It was also a very handy skill on the volleyball court, but as much as it was fun to fuck around with the minds of the opposition, he got the biggest satisfaction from terrorising people that were closer to him, for example, some of his teammates. Of course, the third years wouldn't give into his bullshit, nor was it wise to mess with them, but, boy, was it easy to rile up their Libero, Tanaka, Shoyo. Although, his most favourite play thing was without a doubt – Tobio. The way he riles up every single time when Tsuki calls him "king of the court", how his cheeks get swollen red from anger, the way he shouts at him or when he gives him a death glare. Yeah, a pissed off Kageyama was a very cute Kageyama and boy was it easy to mess with him. It was like he was inviting Kei to taunt him. The blond especially enjoyed taunting him in the locker-rooms as Tobio would often forget to put a shirt on in the midst of rage whilst pressing him into a nearby locker. Then the setter would realise his awkward predicament as he felt the skin contact, then he'd blush and move far away to finish changing. Tsuki believed that if he'd continue pushing Kageyama, he would receive more of that skin on skin contact from the talented junior. Behind his cruel demeanour, Tsuki actually thought that Kageyama was hot as hell, especially when he got angry, which was another good reason for him to mess with the man. He often imagined what would it feel like to bring such temperament to bed, but it seemed that the only balls that Kageyama had ever touched were from volleyball and his innocence was sometimes frustrating him. On the flipside, he would still continue tormenting the boy just out of sheer fun and look him directly in the eyes every time his remark hit home. That was the only moment when he'd see something in Kageyama's eyes that wasn't his next practice routine, his next pass or receive. May it be anger, hate or pain, it was still a much better improvement than his dull expression that he carried on his face 24/7.

It was just one of those days, there was no tournament close in the horizon, but Kageyama still breathed volleyball. It seemed that Tsuki was a little bit jealous that the setter had eyes only for his passion. Of course, he felt like he was a part of his life every time he teased him, but that was only brief minutes of attention. Kei sent a smirk or two his way after every time he successfully blocked Tobio's organised plays that were returned with more glares. It seemed that Kei approached it with a playful attitude, but got only resentment from Tobio in return. No one would deny he deserved it though and as much as everyone in the team tried to avoid it, after a couple of months they really stopped caring about it, disregarding it as simple smack talk. That's when the slip ups started to happen, slip ups such as leaving Kei and Tobio in charge of cleaning up after their recent practice. Alone. Tobio, too tired to make a scene about it, decided to not comment upon it, because he naively thought that he would just ignore the blond, clean up and go home. Over-confidence was his undoing, knowing that Tsuki managed to push his buttons every day, it would not be a challenge this evening either. The practice itself was not too harsh these couple of weeks, as there were no tournaments in sight to prepare for, they just tried out different tactics, practiced serving, receiving and they also kept their physical form in shape.

As the practice was coming to an end and most of the team went to hit the showers, Tobio was having a word with coach Ukai, something having to do with his passing, so Kei simply wiped off some sweat with his towel, deciding against showering right now with his team. Soon, nearly everyone had said their farewells and after a hundred nods and questions even Ukai had it enough of Kageyama as he said that he needed to leave. Then, there was only the two of them standing on different sides of the court. Kageyama, without saying anything, turned to the direction of the showers.

"What's the point in cleaning up only to get dirty all over again?" Kei asked Tobio.

Tobio stopped as if trying to ponder over what the blocker had said.

"We can wash up after we get this shit done" he continued.

"Sure" was the response from Tobio, but it was good enough for now.

"So, what were you talking about with Ukai all that time?"

"Volleyball."

"No shit, duh."

"About how I should work around some other teammates more, because my playstyle is becoming predictable."

"Yeah, you rarely work around me, for example."

No answer.

"Come on, admit it, you don't pass to me as often as you do to the other blokes" Tsukishima insisted.

"I pass where I see an opening."

"You want me to be more open with you?" Tsukishima teased.

Again, no answer.

"Gosh, it's impossible to even keep a conversation with you" Kei scuffed.

"Can we just clean up?"

"But we don't know when you'll get the privilege to spend more time with me."

Kageyama snickered. That's the first reaction.

"Don't laugh, you know you enjoy my company."

"As if."

"Could have fooled me, seeing as you have a history of being very close" Kei smirked.

"What the fuck are you on about?" Tobio answered tensing up.

"Oh, you know, the way you tend to press your body onto mine, not very aristocratic behaviour from a king, falling for a commoner like me" Kei said with a hint of spite in his voice.

"Bastard!" Kageyama then picked up a ball and threw it at Kei, quickly realising his mistake.

Tsuki then saw a ball being thrown in the direction of his face, but he remained still. There was no collision.

"You know, that's very cute how'd you thought you'd hit me, but I have to remind you that we haven't yet taken down the net. King of the court is not fully aware of his surroundings."

"You piece of shit!"

"Tsk, tsk. You should be collecting the balls, not throwing them around everywhere. I know that manual labour must be difficult for you to comprehend, but sheesh."

"What is your fucking problem?"

"I'm sorry, did I offend, your Majesty?"

"Asshole."

"Spoiled brat."

"Jerk."

"Pretentious prick."

"Four eyes."

With every single insult, they were walking closer towards each other.

"King of the court."

"Middle blocker that can't block."

"Oikawa 1.2."

"That's it, I'm fucking done!"

"I knew you couldn't handle his serves, didn't think you wouldn't handle his name drop either. He's like Voldemort to you."

"Why, why can't you ever shut up?" Tobio sounded defeated.

"Because I love it when you're feisty."

"So, you're a creep as well?"

"No, I just rather like pushing you to places where you wouldn't go by yourself."

"So, am I some sort of game to you?"

"You're more entertaining than any game I've played."

"You're twisted."

"But you enjoy when I twist you."

"You torment me every single day, I couldn't care less about you."

"Seeing how passionate you get during every argument does not imply that you don't care."

"So I should just let you stomp over me?"

"No, of course not, I enjoy a challenge."

"What do you want from me?"

"That's a very good question, Tobio, but alas, you're not yet ready for an answer."

"What the fuck, that's like the first time you've addressed me with my name."

"I am full of surprises."

"Still, you're fucked up on the inside."

"Behind that act of perfection, you're fucked up on the inside as well, but no one brought it out from you yet."

"I don't want to hear any more of this philosophical bullshit."

"Okay, your Highness."

For a moment, it looked like Tobio was getting ready to say something in return as he took a breath of air, but then he exhaled, his eyes went to the floor and he turned around starting to pick up the balls across the court. Kei was just about to say something degrading to him as well and he wanted to gloat, but seeing the lifelessness behind Tobio's movements just didn't seem like a victory at all. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up.

"Look, I," he was cut off by Tobio's voice.

"Don't."

"Maybe I went," he tried to intercept again.

"Talk."

Tsukishima couldn't understand. Their arguments have gotten progressively worse time and time again, but it never ended like this. This wasn't even as bad as some of their previous bouts. Sure, Tobio looked mad, sure, he looked angry every single time, but this defeated attitude, it was something unseen in his teammates' behaviour.

"I often wondered why" Kageyama started.

Kei wanted to say something, but decided to remain silent.

"But I see now that you simply get off while walking over others".

"This is just banter" Kei defended.

"It's ironic how suddenly you're the one on the defense".

That caught Kei off guard, he was so used to always being the one in control, this side of Tobio, that he hasn't seen, was a thorn in his plan, a setback that he did not expect. Perhaps Kageyama was not as easy as Kei at first thought.

"What do you want from me?" the dark-haired boy continued.

Again, that question like a dagger sinking into Kei and this time he feels even less prepared to give him an answer.

"There has to be a reason why you treat me like shit, even more than you do with others."

"You seem pretty oblivious in that regard" Kei finally muttered something.

"You threw everything and the kitchen sink at me already, I think I can handle the answer."

In truth, Kei was not particularly sure that he himself was ready to answer, so instead he was looking for a way out.

"You're so one-dimensional, I just want to get more out of you than that single blank expression. Like, the ability of expressing emotions is why we're human, yet you confide within your inner world and you only see one single goal in front of you, ignoring everything (and everyone) around you."

Tobio looked at him throughout his monologue, then he turned around and walked to the side room that was filled with all sorts of equipment. He came back out of the room with a mop, some sort of detergent and a bucket.

"Unhook the net" he said in a cold voice.

Tsukishima looked in his direction and then proceeded to do as he was told. In the meantime, Tobio went to a different room where he filled up the bucket with water and then he started mopping the floor. Seeing as Kei was done with his simple task, he then took another mop out of the room and started cleaning the other side of the court. A good 15 minutes later their mops met in the middle of the court and that pretty much meant that they were done for the day. Kei looked outside, it was fairly late, perhaps it's because they finished their practice quite late, perhaps it was the time Tobio spent chatting with Ukai, perhaps it was because of their heated argument and the awkward silence that felt like the time stopped around them, even though it wasn't the case as the moon was already visible through the window. They brought the equipment back to the supply room and locked it, then they went towards the lockers. You could cut the tension with a knife as Tobio wasn't exactly comfortable with peeling off his clothes in front of the other boy after what just happened. Tsukishima, on the other hand, didn't really find undressing a problem and from the corner of his eye, he was feeding himself images of a shirtless Kageyama. Then the shorts came off and revealed dark blue boxer briefs. It was easy to catch sneak peaks, because Tobio's glance was fixated on the wall in front of him. With the final garment left, Kei couldn't comprehend how he was feeling. The atmosphere and the lighting, it all felt so artistic, surreal even. Kageyama was the centre of attention, he had the spotlight on him. But everything faded as quickly as it began when Kageyama started putting on a pair of pants without removing his underwear and he hurried to take a shirt out of his bag as well.

"Are you not planning to shower?" Kei asked in a confused tone.

"No amount of water would make me feel clean right now."

As he said that, he put on a fresh shirt and then he took out a jumper that he put on as well, afterwards he started moving towards the exit, Kei still standing there in nothing but his underwear. Everything was happening too fast for him, but he managed to get out of his daze.

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Ehm, you can't lock me in, you've got the key on you."

"Oh, right, here" Tobio said as he threw the keys to Kei.

Then he continued to move towards the exit and Kei chased after him in his boxers. Tobio reacted to the sound of someone behind him and he got a good look at the stomach of his teammate, since Kei was fairly taller than him, when Tobio turned around he was first met with a body, but then he quickly averted his eyes to look at his face.

"Wait, give me a minute to dress, just a minute" Kei said in a rushed tone as he ran back to the locker room and swiftly found a clean shirt, jacket and pair of pants.

He dressed up as quickly as he could and left the locker rooms, Kageyama had actually waited for him.

"And what's your reason for not showering?"

"Meh, I'm not even hot anymore" he responded.

"Were you ever hot?"

Kei chuckled, this was the first positive sign he got from Tobio for the past couple of hours.

"You checked out my stomach, you tell me."

"Accident!"

"A fortunate one you might add?"

"Don't push your luck."

"Don't mean to be a drag, but it seems that morning practice will come sooner than we lock up."

"First time today you're right."

The boys then went to the main door and locked it. They planned to leave the key at the guard's booth, but it seemed that it was so late, even the school had locked up and since they didn't feel like bothering the old man, Kei simply gave back Tobio the keys. It was not a big problem, as the members of the team took the key home from time to time when familiar situations occurred.

"It's late" Kageyama mentioned rubbing his palms together.

"It sure is" Kei replied.

"So, well, uhm, see you tomorrow?" it sounded more like a question than a goodbye.

"Let me walk you home."

"What?"

"I want to walk you home."

"It's late, it's cold, you live elsewhere, I can go back on my own" Tobio was spatting out many different reasons like crazy in order to avoid this.

"We don't have all day, your family must be worried and you need to show me the way" Kei said as he started walking in the direction where Tobio always walked after practice.

Kageyama was shocked to say the least.

"Tease me, insult me, berate me, mock me and then walk me home?" he thought to himself.

Nonetheless he took a deep breath and caught up with his teammate.

"If you're going to walk with me there has to be some ground rules. First, you don't make fun of me. Second, no one from the team knows about this. Third, your feet are bigger than mine, I don't need another workout, so you have to walk slower, cause I can't keep up."

"Deal" Kei said as he laughed at the ridiculousness of the demands.

"Why do you even want to walk ME home?"

"Well, you don't know what sort of dangers lurk in this neighbourhood, wouldn't want anything to happen to my favourite subject."

"You'll have to walk back all this way alone" Tobio decided to let the last comment slide.

"Yeah, but as you mentioned, I'm a big, tall, scary monster with big feet, no one's gonna fuck with me."

"Having troubles getting laid because of your size?"

"I didn't expect a petty sex joke from you out of all people."

"You think I can't be fun?"

"Well, it just doesn't seem like it suits you."

"Oh, so in your head I'm so high up the social ladder, that I can't even joke about sex?"

"It's just that you don't usually fool around with the guys and honestly I'd never even think you knew that sex existed since it's only volleyball with you."

"Again, I commend you on your word choice."

Kei smacked himself on the forehead as he recalled how his previous sentence had started.

"So, anyways, what got you into volleyball?" Tobio broke the ice.

"My brother, you?"

"Well, it seems like I always had enjoyed it, there was no event in particular that influenced this decision, I guess I'm just competitive and it was a sport that I discovered from a young age."

"Is there anything else you're fond of?"

"Right."

"That's not an answer."

"We have to turn right."

"Oh, back to the question" Kei said as he turned right.

"Ehm, music, perhaps."

"What kind of music?"

"Calm music."

"Any artists?"

"Gemma Hayes, London Grammar, Paper Aeroplanes."

"Ooh, I'll check them out."

"What kind of music do you listen to?"

"Well, I'm more of a fan of something heavier, but I'll still give it a listen, perhaps it'll help me to understand your soul."

"Why does he want to devote time to understanding me, let alone why is he walking with me?" were the questions going on inside of Kageyama's head.

"This is going fairly smooth, good thing I'm persistent, he's even starting to open up to me" thought Kei.

A couple more minutes of small talk and Tobio pointed a finger towards a door.

"That's my house" he said.

"I won't believe you until I see you walk in" Kei smiled.

"Yes, a twenty-minute walk and then I decide to turn on you."

"Well, you are full of surprises today, so one can only guess, perhaps you don't even have a house, which was the reason why you didn't want me to walk you home."

"Ha, ha, suit yourself, waste more time if you want to."

They then walked towards the door and Tobio fumbled his pocket for the keys. He got them quickly enough and was about to start unlocking the door then he remembered.

"Oh, yeah, thank you for the walk."

"My pleasure."

"See ya tomorrow."

"Bye."

They parted ways with a handshake, which was a pretty uncommon thing for their "friendship". As Tobio finally opened the front door of his home, he saw his mother standing in the hallway, looking directly at him.

"It's late" a brief moment of silence.

"Where's your friend?"

"What friend?"

"I was worried where'd you been, so I kept glancing through the window and saw you both approach the door."

"He went home."

"In this darkness? Oh no, no, no" she said as she walked past her son outside and saw Kei walking away in the distance.

"Hey, Tobio's friend!" she shouted.

Kei turned around when he understood that the woman's voice was addressing him.

"Yes?" he answered as he covered some distance back to the house that they wouldn't need to shout during the conversation.

"You can't be thinking of going home alone, it's a couple minutes past midnight."

Quickly understanding where all of this was heading he started shaking his head.

"Oh no, it's fine, it's not a problem, trust me."

"It is perfectly fine if you stay the night, if something happened to you, as a parent I will not allow it, you should definitely stay the night."

By that moment he even noticed the scared expression on Tobio's face as he was watching the scene unfold from his doorstep.

"It's definitely not a problem, I live close, like really close" he started scratching the backside of his head."

"You know what mothers are good for? They can tell when someone's lying" she said as she took him by the wrist.

By then Kei saw that Tobio was no longer watching what was going on. The grip on his hand was not strong, something he could easily escape from, but he didn't have any more plans on how to object to this happening now as he was dragged into the hallway and the door was closed behind him, sealing his fate.

"Firstly, call your mother ASAP, tell her that you're fine and that you're staying the night, she must be worried sick."

"I can call for them to pick me up" he tried a final attempt.

"I think you've caused them enough trouble for one day, wouldn't want for them to start the car in the middle of the night, wouldn't that be ridiculous, especially when you live, how did you say it, like really close?"

She got him, she got him good. Kei knew that he was defeated as he opened his backpack and took out his phone, then dialed the number.

"Hey, mom, I just wanted to tell you that I'll be staying at a friend's house and that you don't need to worry. Mhm, yes, yes, I'll be back tomorrow, mommm, yes, goodnight."

"There, now was it that hard?"

He then was about to put his phone back when she started talking again.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to come off as rude, but I tend to pry my son for details and even though he is not always very talkative when it comes to his personal life, I'm still familiar with most of his teammates, but I don't really know your name" she said with a genuine smile.

"My name is Kei" he replied.

"Oh, yeah, that's right!" she said smiling.

Even though she was good at detecting when others lied, she was lousy at lying herself. Seeing her body language, Kei was absolutely convinced that she had no idea who he was and he couldn't understand if he was hurt by that or offended.

"Do you want something to drink, Kei? We have juice, water, tea."

"No thanks, really, I don't want to be a bother, it's pretty late."

"Oh, it's not a problem" she said as she went to turn on the light in the kitchen.

"Trust me, it's not necessary, I shouldn't even be here."

"Don't say that, Tobio's friends are always welcome."

"He'll have tea" Kageyama said walking down the stairs.

"And will you want some snacks, boys?"

"Mom, it's the middle of the night."

"I guess you have a point" she answered.

Everyone in the room could see that she was frazzled as she was probably staying up till midnight from worry that her son's not home yet and he hadn't called.

"Go to sleep, I'll take it from here" Tobio said.

"You sure you don't need anything?"

"We'll be fine."

"You know where to look for the extra sheets and."

"Yes, I live here."

"Alright, well, goodnight, boys."

She then rushed over to Tobio to give him a peck on the cheek.

"Mooom, don't embarrass me" he whined.

"Goodnight, Mrs. Kageyama" Kei mentioned.

"Night" Tobio added.

Another minute had passed and the water had boiled.

"Man, I forgot to ask what kind of tea you wanted, will green be fine?"

"Yeah, sure, green's fine" he answered.

"Sugar?"

"One."

He then finished with pouring the hot water in the mugs and handed one to Kei.

"Alright, up the stairs we go" he said showing the way.

As Kei walked up the stairs, he was guided down the hall by Tobio to the far door on the left. He then was told to open the door, he took a couple of seconds groping the wall looking for the light switch, but once he found it, he was greeted with a fairly spacious room. The room was so much like Tobio, very pedantic, every little thing organised on the shelf, there were no clothes lying around on the floor, it wasn't very colourfully decorated either, because Tobio wasn't known for liking in your face colours. Other than that, it was pretty common as any other room, as it had a bed, a sofa that could be stretched into a bed, a desk with a computer on it and a reading lamp, a wardrobe, a bookshelf, quite a few balls were lying around in the corner, a couple of posters of some well-known volleyball players.

"Pretty cool room" Kei said.

"Thanks" Tobio replied as he waited for Kei to walk in and closed the door behind them.

He then let out an audible sigh and turned to face Kei. Both of them made eye contact and said.

"Sorry."

"For what?" again they said at the same time.

"You first" Tobio said.

"Well, I'm sorry for getting you into this mess, I should have made my lie more believable, then I would have just gone home."

"Oh, don't be silly, it's fine."

"What are you sorry for?"

"I overheard you two talking, I guess it wasn't nice of me to leave you out of every story, she had no clue who you were, except of course the part that you're my teammate, she knew that."

"Oh, honestly, if you'd told her stories, she probably wouldn't have let me in through the door" Kei said laughing as quietly as possible.

Tobio then averted his gaze towards his cup of tea.

"Look, it's not like I was doing it to hurt you" Kei said noticing that it was becoming a bit awkward for the other teen.

"Whatever you say" he answered whilst sipping some of his tea.

Tobio then fumbled his bag and took out his phone. After swiping it, he noticed four missed calls.

"Shit, she must've been worried sick."

"Huh?" Kei reacted after sipping some of his tea.

"My mom called a bunch, shit."

"Well, you're home now, safe and sound, so she'll be fine."

"Just shows how irresponsible I am"

"Irresponsible? You? Bitch, please, you're like the 'uncle Ben' of responsibility."

"What?"

"Figures you wouldn't know the reference, seeing as you're too caught up in volleyball."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"You need to live a little."

"Don't project your lifestyle on me."

"TV Shows, Anime, do you at least watch some of it?"

"Not really, to be honest."

"You've never watched Anime?"

"Nope."

"Ok, you fucking have to watch some "Deathnote" or "Hellsing" with me."

"Are you insisting what I think you're insisting?" Tobio asked surprised.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I've got ahead of myself, didn't I?"

"I don't understand how you bullies work. When taken out of the school environment, you can actually be decent human beings" Tobio said out of the blue.

"I'm not a bully" Kei defended.

"Could've fooled me."

"Okay, perhaps I crossed some lines today, what can I do to make it up to you?"

"Well, for starters, you could go to sleep, because I am tired AF."

Tobio then moved towards the couch where Kei was sitting and motioned for him to move away as he then stretched it to make it into a bed.

"Which bed do you want?" he asked.

"Man, I won't take your bed" Kei answered.

"Meh, I sleep in both of them, so there's no difference for me."

"Look, I'm fine with the couch, thank you."

"Suit yourself" Tobio said as he walked out of the room.

A couple of minutes later he came back with a pillow, a blanket and a bedsheet.

"Here you go, I believe in your capability of making a bed."

Kei just stood there puzzled whilst Tobio handed everything to him and left the room again. He then could hear a faint sound of running water. He made the bed and sat down on it having another look around the room.

"I'm in the house of fucking Tobio Kageyama" he thought to himself.

He started noticing a couple of details in the room that hadn't caught his attention at first glance. Beside some of the posters there were also some sketches, which perhaps implied that Tobio had an artistic side to him as well? There were also some pictures of him and his family on the windowsill. There were also a few pictures with friends, but not a single one with the team, which was pretty much a good indication that he did not get along that well with them on a personal level. In the midst of his thoughts he did not notice the water had stopped and what caught him off guard even more was Tobio walking in the room with nothing on, but a new pair of underwear and socks. Scanning his frame with his eyes he eventually said.

"You sleep with your socks on?"

"Yeah, what's next? You're gonna ask me why I sleep with my underwear on too?'

"Dude, too far."

"If you want to wash up, the bathroom is the door right in front of this room" Tobio said as he threw a towel to Kei.

"Sure, thanks" he said as he caught the towel and left to wash up.

After Tobio was certain that the water had started and that Kei wouldn't overhear, he let out a deep sigh, plopped down onto his bed, rested his head on both of his hands and looked up at the ceiling.

"How did I get myself into this?" he thought to himself "Kei, of all people, in my room, staying the night."

Just as fast as he lied down in bed, his gaze was averted to the door opening and it was Kei, with nothing on, except for a towel around his waist.

"Sorry, forgot" he said as he went to look around in his bag and took out a fresh pair of boxers and then ran back out of the room.

Right now, Tobio was no longer thinking about what Kei was doing in his house, he was wondering why he tracked every single movement of a very shirtless Kei in his room.

"I'm just tired" he shrugged it off.

A few minutes later, Kei came back, carrying his clothes in his hands.

"I left the towel there to dry."

"Ok" Tobio answered him motionlessly.

"So, we're heading to sleep?"

"Yeah? You have any better ideas?"

"Well, I guess you're right, it's late."

Tobio got out of bed, waited for Kei to sort his shit out and turned off the light. Knowing his surroundings pretty well, he didn't have trouble finding his way back to the bed in the dark, plus some of the moonlight that was coming through the window also helped a bit. He then lied down and pulled the covers up to his armpits.

"Night."

"Goodnight, king" Kei replied.

In no less than three seconds he felt a pillow collide with his face.

"Well, thanks, I got to say, I'll be sleeping comfy tonight."

"Oh, shut up, it's nearly 2 A.M. and it's not like we can sleep in tomorrow."

"You're right, sweet dreams" Kei mentioned as he rolled on his side to face the window.

"More like nightmares" Tobio thought to himself as he closed his eyes.

What he didn't know was that throughout the night, Kei sometimes rolled over on his other side to admire the dark-haired boys' sleeping form.