Daiki had just gotten nice and snug in his bed, ready to sleep the whole night and day away - or at least twelve hours, because why not? It was summer break and he had a couple days until basketball practice - but, of course, his phone rang. Why wouldn't it? It always seemed like someone or other was trying to ruin his sleep.
He made a loud noise of annoyance and rolled over to grab the offending object. "What?" he rudely answered.
"...Hello, Aomine-kun."
Of course it was Tetsu. Feeling a bit of déjà vu and guilt, he decided to be a bit nicer than he usually would to someone who'd disturbed his rest. "Ah, Tetsu. Why are you always waking me up?"
"You were sleeping? I apologise. I can hang up if you want..."
Daiki almost, almost took him up on his offer, but there was something about the way he was talking. It was like he was upset about something. It didn't actually seem like that big of a deal to Daiki, Tetsu was easily upset, but not wanting to lose his friend again, he decided to at least see what Tetsu wanted.
"It's fine. What's up?"
There was a bit of a pause and Daiki thought that Tetsu might have already hung up, but right before he was about to hang up himself, he heard, "Can I stay at your house tonight?"
Are you seriously inviting yourself to someone else's house? Daiki thought, but didn't say. "Sure," he actually replied. "I bet my mom would be happy to see you."
"Thank you, Aomine-kun." And then the called ended.
"Geez," Daiki mumbled, setting his phone back on his bedside table. He debated just staying in bed and letting his friend let himself in, but he should probably clean his room up a bit. Not like Tetsu hadn't seen his messy room before, but it was only common courtesy to shove all possible cum-stained articles of clothing deep into the laundry basket.
He only had a few minutes to do that though, because the next thing he knew, there was a knock at the door. Tetsu must have already been on his way before even asking Daiki, because there was no way he could have travelled that fast without flying or something. He didn't even get a chance to tell his mother. Not that she would mind.
He trudged out of his room, through the hall, and to the front door. He opened it wide to let his friend in and was met - with nothing. There was no one. Maybe he'd mistook something else for the door knock? With a quiet "Huh," Daiki shut the door and started to turn to go back to his room, but of course, standing way too close to him was the boy he was just looking for.
"Damn it, Tetsu, when the hell did you get here?" He definitely should have been used to it by now.
"You just let me in a moment ago," Tetsu replied, like he'd heard it a million times before. Which he probably had.
"Really." Daiki was about to offer him something to eat or drink when he noticed something that seemed a bit strange. "Um, why the hell are you wet? It's not raining." He turned and peeked out the window just in case. No rain.
"It was raining a while ago," Tetsu clarified. "I just haven't dried off yet."
That just brought up more questions. What was Tetsu doing out in the rain without a chance to go home and change into something dry? While Daiki thought it over, he noticed something else off. "You didn't bring anything with you."
"Ah, yes. I forgot." Daiki noticed that Tetsu almost averted his eyes but realised his mistake and instead looked directly into Daiki's own. Tetsu's were a bit red and slightly swollen looking. Like he had bad allergies. Or like he'd been crying.
"Oi, what's wrong?"
Before Tetsu even had a chance to reply, a woman came flying across the room and glomped both boys. "Tetsu-chan! I had no idea you were coming over! I haven't seen you in so long!"
"It's nice to see you again, Aomine-san."
"Geez, Mom," Daiki complained, struggling to get out of her grasp. "If you want to hug Tetsu, then hug Tetsu. Leave me out of it!"
"Aw, you're no fun." Daiki's mom pouted, but she released the arm around him. "It's been so long I was beginning to think you two weren't friends anymore."
Daiki didn't really want to admit to that, so instead he spat out, "You act so much like Satsuki it's disgusting."
"But Tetsu-chan likes Satsuki-chan, right?" She winked at the boy still clutched in her embrace.
"Ah...that's..." Tetsu stuttered.
Daiki decided to rescue the poor boy by grabbing his arm and tugging him out of the crazy woman's grip. "You don't have to answer that," he told him, tugging him away from her and into the safety of his bedroom.
"Don't stay up too late, you two!" she called after them.
Daiki closed his door and sighed loudly and flopped down on his bed. "Sorry you had to go through that."
"I don't particularly mind," the other boy reassured him, standing awkwardly near the door. "I wasn't able to take my shoes off by the entrance."
"Who cares about that? Just take them off now." Daiki couldn't see how Tetsu could manage to always be so polite, even in a house that's not very strict with rules. "Want to watch a movie?" He didn't have a television in his room, but his laptop worked just as well.
"I'm still wet," Tetsu pointed out, slipping his shoes off, but not leaving the entrance of Daiki's room.
"Oh yeah." He willed himself up and opened his closet. "I bet I still have some old stuff you can fit into." He gave Tetsu's small frame a glance. "Maybe."
He eventually found some stuff that was suitable for Tetsu and sent him off to take a shower. He laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes. What movie should he put on? What would Tetsu want to watch? He knew Tetsu didn't like super fake movies with a lot of cliches, but that was about it. As for what kind of movie he would actually want to watch, Daiki was clueless. As he was thinking it over, he ended up falling asleep. But for once it really was an accident.
A short while later he awoke to Tetsu's voice. He was too groggy to understand the words, but Daiki didn't care. He was too busy choosing whether to say 'Sorry for falling asleep' or 'Shut the hell up'. In the midst of his decision-making, he heard Tetsu say, "...safe. I'm with a friend...If you were so worried, you shouldn't have made me leave in the first place."
Daiki concluded that Tetsu was in fact not talking to him, he was on the phone. Daiki knew he should say something, or even cough or something, to let the other boy know he was awake. He knew he should, but he didn't. He was curious about whatever Tetsu was saying.
"You shouldn't let him boss you around then." There was a long pause. When he spoke again, his voice was shaking a tad. "I know...It wasn't my fa...Fine. Goodbye, Mother."
What was going on? Tetsu own mom forced him out of the house? What the hell kind of parent would do that unless the kid was a real piece of shit, and he knew for sure that Tetsu would never do anything on purpose to upset anyone, especially his parents.
Daiki felt the bed dip a bit from Tetsu climbing in next to him, squeezing into the space between Daiki and the wall - the only spot that was open- and under the blanket. His breath was uneven and more rough than normal breathing. Daiki didn't dare turn over to look at him, but he could almost garrentee that Tetsu was crying. Crying because of his own fucking mother. A dark rage filled Daiki at the thought. What the hell was her problem? No matter what Tetsu did, if he did anything wrong in the first place, she had absolutely no right to hurt him. Daiki knew that Tetsu's family wasn't close like his own, but he never thought that Tetsu's would be kicked out.
Hell, Tetsu should just move in with him. Daiki's parents loved him and he wouldn't mind sharing his room. Maybe Tetsu could transfer to Touou and join his basketball team. They could be partners again. The original light and shadow. Not Tetsu and that red-haired moron. Daiki was just dreaming though. No way would Tetsu ever leave his precious team.
He also felt really guilty for not being able to comfort his friend without revealing that he had eavesdropped. And he didn't want to embarrass Tetsu or make him uncomfortable. Maybe girls could have heartfelt conversations about bad families together, but no way would Daiki have a conversation like that.
A small sob torn Daiki from his thoughts and he felt a stab of pain go through his chest. Tetsu was becoming more distraught. Maybe Daiki should do something... But what could he do? Probably nothing that would help, but he could try.
He purposely groaned sleepily and rolled a bit closer to the boy next to him, casually flinging an arm across his back. Daiki kept his eyes closed, but he heard a sharp intake of breath and then a small sniffle. Tetsu snuggled deeper into the bed and into Daiki. At least it seemed like he wasn't crying so bad anymore, which is all Daiki really wanted.
Daiki woke surprisingly early the next morning due to the heat in his room. He groaned loudly and flung his blanket off. At least the summer weather seemed like it was going back to normal. He glanced to his right to see if Tetsu was awake yet. It was too early for any teenage boy to be up, so he wasn't surprised to find his friend still fast asleep, curled up into the wall. How he was sleeping with his blanket pulled up to his chin, Daiki had no idea. Just to make sure Tetsu didn't die of heat stroke or something, he carefully tugged the blanket down a bit, just to expose his neck. Hopefully that would cool him off without waking him up. Daiki wanted to do something before Tetsu woke.
He got out of bed and changed his sweaty shirt and quietly left his room. He wandered into the kitchen to find his mother already up, clanking around with the pans she was going to use to make breakfast.
"Good morning, Daiki-chan!" she exclaimed as she spotted him. "You're up early."
"'Morning," he mumbled in reply. He got the rice out of the cabinet and started up the rice cooker. He might as well help out while he was there. His mother eyed him suspiciously while she started on making the miso soup.
"Do you need something?" she eventually asked after a few minutes of her son quietly watching her cook.
"Yeah, I just have something to ask you," he replied, turning to check the rice. It was still a little too hard for his liking. "Can Tetsu stay longer if he wants?"
Confusion spread out on his mother's face. "Eh? Don't you have practice this week though? And I know Tetsu-chan's own school is quite far from here."
"Yeah, I know, it could be a pain for him, but classes don't start for another few weeks, so it should be okay. So can he if he wants to?" Daiki asked. His mom just gave him another suspicious look, so he attempted to elaborate. "I kind of accidentally eavesdropped on Tetsu's phone call with his mom."
"Daiki," his mom tutted, adding some more spices to the pot. "You shouldn't do that."
"Yeah, I know." He turned the rice cooker off and started splitting the rice into separate bowls. "We having natto or eggs?"
"Whatever you want." She tasted the soup, made a noise of approval and turned the stove off. "But hey! Now that you brought it up, you have to tell me what you overheard!"
Daiki kept his eyes on the opening to the hallway where his bedroom was, just in case Tetsu happened to wake up. "Apparently he's been kicked out of his house or something."
"Eh?!"
"Keep quiet, will you?" he hissed. "I don't know what happened or what his mom said on the phone, but he seemed really upset, so I just want him to know that he can stay here and not feel pressured to confront whatever's going on with that shitty family of his."
"Well I suppose he can, but only until the end of summer," his mother told him. "Ah, I do wonder what- Hey!" Daiki had cut her off by shoving a chunk of rice into his mouth and quickly escaping the kitchen.
"You're not even going to help me set the table, you useless brat?" she called after him.
In Daiki's eyes, his job as Tetsu's friend was complete.
Hello everyone! Sorry for not updating in months. I have two jobs, plus school, so I've been really busy. I'll try to update more now though.
Ah, it's seems as if my English has gotten worse somehow... I'll probably end up rewriting half of this chapter because I'm not really satisfied with it and it seems kind of dumb, but it's almost 3 in the morning and I have to be up at 6:30 for school, so this will have to do for now!
As always, if you see a mistake, please tell me. And don't be afraid to leave a review! Thank you for reading!
