AN: I write this when I'm meant to be asleep, so that's probably why the story is such an odd one. I accidentally deleted what I had originally wrote, so somehow this chapter took a very different turn to what should have happened... sorry? Originally, the plan actually worked, but because I don't really plan beforehand, but just write, I can't recreate what I wrote, as the characters really do seem to have their own minds...
Hey, guest, I can't reply to your review, so I'll just tell you here. You caught me. I've had this chapter finished for quite a while, I just haven't been able to upload it, I don't even know why.
Where: Karasuno's broom closet. When: practice on Monday afternoon. Who: the first people to find them. How: go missing. Why: because Kiyoko and Yachi were found in a closet by Tanaka.
Tanaka was a little apprehensive about this. There was no romantic attachment between the two of them, yet they had to do incredibly private things, and get caught doing it. His partner had assured him he was fine with it, and hey, wouldn't it funny if they accidentally fell in love thanks to this (oh, but it wasn't funny, not at all). Tanaka had laughed that off, still determined that he was going to get a girlfriend. His partner had laughed too. They were just too different. It just wasn't possible.
Come Monday, and a very frustrated Tanaka was tapping his foot against the curb, waiting for a bus that probably wouldn't come. His very smart partner had gotten the bus timetables wrong, and gotten on a bus heading in the opposite direction of Karasuno. Practice was starting in ten minutes, and his partner was still trying to find his way back to his starting point.
He frowned, and a little girl nearby dropped her icecream on the ground. He'd have to go ahead to practice. Oh well. They could just do it tomorrow instead. There wasn't that big of a rush to do it.
With nothing better to do, Tanaka headed back to the gym to get ready for practice.
After last weeks incident, both Noya and Asahi, and Kiyoko and Yachi had announced they were dating, and Tanaka had not walked in on anyone (he was glad for that, oh so glad. He was sick of seeing that. He was sick of seeing blow jobs. If he was gonna be seeing a blow job, he wanted to be a part of it.). Suga had not said anything to Daichi about what had happened at Aoba Jousei, though he did give Daichi a good nudge with his elbow when he saw Tanaka enter the gym that day. But, as Suga had been giving Daichi big nudges for the past week, it was ignored.
A three on three was called, with Hinata and Kageyama on opposite teams, to see how well they work when they don't have the other to rely on. Tanaka was put on Kageyama's team, and told to ask for as many spikes as possible. This, of course, lead to a new bout of shirt throwing, as Tanaka had quite missed it, and he couldn't be bothered not doing it anymore. His abs were to be shown (and stared at, he guessed), not hidden. He'd given up on that front. Also, when it came to his abs, his ego was as big as the world, although he would never say it out loud (no, instead he'd just use every chance he could get to show them off, hence why he liked the beach so much).
BANG! The gym door flew open, and there was a few muttered "not again"s throughout the interupted practice session. Much to everyone's surprise, including Tanakas, it was Bokuto.
"Kuroo didn't put you up to this, did he?" Tsukishima grumbled, while Yamaguchi snicked at his plight.
Bokuto frowned. "Why would I do that?" He looked around the gym, clearly on a search for something. "I'm just here to help out~" He gave an award winning grin to top it off.
"Help?" Tsukishima questioned.
"Yup!" another grin. "To help my darling Tanaka!" He leaped forwards into the gym, and dragged Tanaka out from where he'd been hiding behind his shirt. The shirt dropped to the ground, abandoned by its wearer. Clearly, if one was Tanaka and wanted to hide his face, one should first make sure one has a shirt on, so one is not automatically deemed Tanaka for stripping. Tanaka did not seem to realise that.
Bokuto drew him into a warm hug, and Tanaka couldn't help but return the favour (really, his arms were forced upwards, so why not just hug back?).
Suga blinked. "Oh fuck no."
Daichi had no words. If the usually mild mannered Suga was swearing, something was wrong.
"He wouldn't..." but as Suga spoke those words, Bokuto's hand slid down Tanakas back. Down and down. Down until he reached Tanaka's shorts.
Tanaka, who was already shifting uncomfortably from the long hug and the hand down his backside, gave a huge yelp when Bokuto slid his hand into Tanaka's shorts, and squeezed. He jumped back, face already a tomato, stuttering like mad.
Tsukishima burst into laughter, back into tease the hopeless morons mode. Yamaguchi followed suit.
Bokuto cocked his head to the side. "Why'd you jump away? I couldn't get a good feel." It was a whine. A whine that Bokuto couldn't cop a good feel out of an unsuspecting Tanaka.
Tanaka, the adorable red blushing moron he was, couldn't get a word out.
Bokuto pouted. "Don't tell me you're embarrassed. What, are you still a virgin or something?" He gave a silly, nah, it can't possibly be true laugh.
Tanakas response was to deny it all. "I-I-I'm not a virgin! It just shocked me, that's all! Yeah, I just wasn't expecting it, that's all." It almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself into believing what he was saying.
Bokuto laughed, and gave Tanaka a mighty slap on the back. "Just kidding. I'm a virgin myself, so I wouldn't know much."
The entire gym went silent, save for Tsukishimas ongoing snorts of laughter. "They're just-" He resumed his laughter, twice as hard as before, when Bokuto grabbed Tanaka, pulled him close, and gave him a big kiss on the forehead. The poor thing fainted. Tsukishima had to sit down he was laughing so much.
Bokuto caught Tanaka before his head could hit the ground thankfully, and carefully arranged Tanaka so he was leaning against Bokuto, and wouldn't fall over.
Daichi strode forwards, having had enough. "Stop hassling Tanaka, Bokuto. Why are you really here?"
Bokuto blinked, and cocked his head, resembling an owl so much it wasn't even funny. "Do I have to have a reason apart from I came to help Tanaka out? All I wanted was to help him."
In his arms, Tanaka was coming to, and he clearly had no clue where he was, as he calmly replied, "Yeah, and it really would have helped if you had told me you were gonna come anyways, after that stupid mistake with the buses."
"Buses?" Daichi questioned, momentarily distracted from the distraction.
Tanaka snorted, oblivious to his predicament. "The idiot got on the bus going in the opposite direction to here. He spent twenty minutes just trying to work his way back to the bus station he was originally at. I don't know how he managed it, when I sent him very clear instructions on how to get here."
Bokuto pouted. "Those were the instructions? I thought that was what not to do, so I did the opposite of what was written, just how I thought you wanted me to."
Tanaka groaned, and tried to face palm. That's when he realised the situation he was in. He quickly pushed himself of Bokuto, and stood on his own.
Bokuto looked as if he might suddenly do a 180 with just his head, and go "hoo", but because he isn't an owl, he didn't.
"Wait a second," Daichi frowned. "Are you trying to tell me you asked Bokuto to come here?"
"No!" Tanaka said, at the same time Bokuto said "Yes!". Tanaka went red, which was unlike him, and Bokuto took the opportunity to slap him on the rear, which only served to make Tanaka even more red.
"Which is it?" Daichi frowned disapprovingly.
"Yes," Tanaka sighed, giving Bokuto a very... interesting look. "I wanted Bokuto to come. I just didn't realise he'd still be coming after the incident with the buses."
Bokuto pouted. "Of course I still came! I couldn't leave you hanging after you specifically asked me to come today!"
Daichi interrupted. "Do you mind? We're trying to practice."
Bokuto's eyes widened. "Oh! Right! I'm sorry!" He gave Tanaka a pat on the head (oh, height differences), and wandered over to the gym door. "I'll wait outside, shall I?"
Daichi smiled. "Yes."
Tanaka whimpered, and Suga gave a smile, while the rest of Karasuno shrugged it off.
As soon as Bokuto had left the room, Daichi turned to Tanaka, arms folded. "Practice will resume! Yamaguchi take over Tanaka's place, and Asahi take mine. You're coming with me Tanaka."
Someone whistled. "You're in trouble~" but when Daichi turned to glare, the game had already resumed.
Tanaka shrugged, and made his way over to the side, following Daichi. It couldn't be that bad, right? Tsukishima didn't get told off too badly when Kuroo crashed practice, so he didn't see why he'd have it any worse...
That was a mistake. It was worse. With Tsukishima, Daichi had kinda just grouched at the two of them, but such was not the case with Tanaka. Instead, Tanaka got the smile, radiating waves of anger.
He shrunk back, but that was a pitiful attempt at trying to escape the angry captains wrath. Once Daichi was angry, there was no escape. Absolutely none. Tanaka had watched from afar while Hinata tried to escape once, and that had not ended well. For either of them.
"Yesss?" he ventured, hoping Daichi wasn't going to rip him to shreds for opening his mouth.
"How come you didn't tell me you were gay?" Daichi looked grumpy, and maybe slightly upset (?). "Everyone else came to me beforehand, and let me know they were in a relationship, or wanted help getting into a relationship with someone."
"Uh," came Tanaka's intelligent reply. "Um."
Daichi sighed, and stared at the on-going practice game. "And here I thought you were actually straight."
Tanaka was straight.
"So Bokuto?" Daichi looked more curious than anything now.
"What?" Tanaka honestly had no clue what was going on.
"How long have you two been a thing?" Daichi asked, and was that an excited look on his face? "He seems pretty comfortable with you. Do you think we could get information on Fukurodani if you went to his practices?"
Tanaka thought he was going red, but as he couldn't see his own face, he had no idea.
"Uh." How was it appropriate to say since last Thursday? "A little while..."
"And how come I never heard about it?" Daichi demanded.
"Um, I'm shy?" Tanaka was running out of things to say. Soon he was gonna start bullshitting, and that was never good because Tanaka always managed to dig himself an inescapable hole in these kinda situations.
Daichi raised an eyebrow. "Well that's news to me."
"Is it?" Tanaka really needed this conversation to end and fast. It was not going well, and Tanaka was starting to get a bit worried, what with all Daichi's probing.
"Well," Daichi said. "I guess you have come out now, so I shouldn't be worrying. Us volleyballers all seem to end up gay."
Tanaka still knew that the irrelevant thing to say right now would be that he's straight, but oh, the temptation. Instead, he made do with an awkward chuckle and a "Yeah, I guess so.".
Daichi seemed pleased with the answer, and the fact that Kageyama's team had won the mini match. "Join up with everyone else."
Tanaka shrugged, and rejoined the group as Hinata began his usual routine of asking for another game, Kageyama sighing, and smiling ever so slightly. They were cute those two, Tanaka would admit that, though probably never aloud.
"Spiking drills now!" Coach yelled. "All into a line please."
Tanaka wandered over to join the line, ignoring the curious glances from a couple of his team mates. It wasn't worth it to try and explain, or come up with a suitable lie. He'd just play it cool.
Next up: The plan works as originally planned, Tsukishima is not happy, Suga wins some money and Tanaka is confused.