"I'm not angry that you left."

"Really? Because the way you haven't answered any of my calls for the last six months sure makes me think otherwise." Shoyou raised a dark orange eyebrow at his boyfriend, his expression more than a little sarcastic even in its playfulness. He was annoyed, dammit, no matter how good it felt finally being able to talk to his stubborn blond.

Kei seemed to sigh with his whole body, letting silence wash over them. Shoyou could tell he had something difficult to say and so he waited. Kei never left him waiting for long, he just needed a few moments to articulate his thoughts.

"I'd never felt like I came second in your life until you told me you'd decided to leave for Brazil." Shoyou felt his blood run cold. "Volleyball was always your first love, and I never felt like my feelings came second to you while we were sharing the court because, well, we were there, together. But then you decided to leave, all by yourself, and I… at the time, I felt like I'd always be second best for you. Like my feelings for you weren't enough-"

"Kei-"

The blond held up a hand. He needed to get this out.

"I know it's not true, I know, but that's how I felt at the time. I didn't want to discourage you though. As shitty as I felt, I refused to be the reason you couldn't spread your wings and fly. So I kept it to myself, fully expecting you to break up with me the moment you got on that plane. And then you didn't. You kept calling, sending me text messages,

sending pictures of anything and everything. Little by little, it reassured me. It reminded me that doubting you was intensely stupid on my part."

Shoyou laughed breathily and saw Kei's self-deprecating smirk become the soft, sweet smile he'd fallen in love with. "You're right, but you still should have talked to me, Kei. I'd prove my love for you a million times over-"

"How many times did you prove you loved me before I even gave you the time of day?" Kei's voice was as soft as his expression, the blurriness of the video call doing nothing to mute the glow of his eyes. "I was stubborn, and an absolute asshole. Nothing new there, but you insisted so much. To Yamaguchi and Yachi, when they tried to discourage you from pursuing me, deeply afraid I'd break your heart into a thousand pieces. To Akiteru, when he said you didn't know me well enough to love me like that. To me, when I pushed you away because I knew falling for you would be as easy as breathing and-"

"Was it?" Shoyou wished they were face to face now more than ever, desperate to hold Kei's hands in his and kiss him until all his fears evaporated. God, only 6 months since he's moved away and it already felt like he'd spent an eternity without his angel.

"You have to ask?"

They both laughed then, giggled really, as memories of that year overcame them both. Though Kei hadn't accepted Shoyou until late February, by mid-March they were inseparable, attached at the hip in a way that had baffled the whole team. It was rare to see one without the other, to the point that, before Shoyou had announced his plans to go to Brazil, their friends and senpais had a not-so-secret betting pool on which one would propose first.

"I don't, but it's still nice to hear." Kei's response, a full bodied laugh that had him throwing his head back and nearly falling horizontal on his bed, was exactly what Shoyou needed to ease the pain that had been building in his chest since he'd boarded that flight from Japan.

They'd be alright, he was sure of it.