Chapter 2

Bokuto

Saturday night were both the bane of Daichis existence, and what sometimes felt like his only reason for living. Saturday after practice he and his dormmates would all return to their apartment, fight over what they should have for dinner (whether they should order take out or have Daichi make something), and then fight about what movie they should watch.

Daichi, in between all the arguing could usually catch up on whatever homework he'd neglected, and after the movie could skype Suga without worrying about the other losing sleep to talk to him.

Suga had been accepted to his dream school in Kyoto for architecture and was played volleyball on a recreational team. He'd been ecstatic when he'd received his letter and had quickly called Daichi as soon as he'd received it. Daichi, while happy for his friend (and maybe someday boyfriend) couldn't help but be just a tad bit sad.

Daichi had wished move their relationship to the next level in college. Daichi had thought maybe, without worrying about/taking care of the volleyball team and cram school and regular schoolwork, they would have had more time for each other.

But they'd both agreed that with Suga so far away and neither of them generating a whole lot of money to afford seeing each other very often they'd simply wait and see what happened. If, even after being separated from each other for extended periods of time and only speaking irregularly at best, they still liked each other. They'd give a long-distance relationship a try.

So after only a few weeks into the semester Daichi could confidently say that he would like to try and work around the long distance. But Daichi also knew Suga wanted more time to settle into college life and Daichi refused to make Suga do something before he was ready.

Daichi was drawn from his thoughts when the timer went off on their stove. He walked over from the table where'd he'd been sitting trying to get through his math homework (and thinking about his future with Suga). He stirred the pasta in the behemoth seized pan before carefully lifting it off the stove to and carrying it towards the sink to drain the water.

The rest of the food was already finished, sitting on their rickety little table ready to be eaten. Daichi quickly finished the rest of the prep before wiping his hands on a dish towel and walking into the living area.

Their dorm was rather unusual. The building itself used to be an apartment complex but when the university had expanded it had been bought to try and help house the many students attending. The university, instead of using the usual two to a dorm method, had decided to leave the rooms as they were. So some rooms had a more traditional college two person to a room while others (like theirs) had separate rooms all connected to a living room/kitchen area. Daichi stepped into the living room. He stood there for a moment as he watched Kuroo scream in Oikawas face about betrayal and swearing vengeance while Oikawa cackle like the little shit he was as he once again, beat Kuroo at the rainbow bridge in Mario Cart.

"I believe you'll need a different strategy Kuroo. Simply hitting the excel button and hoping for the best doesn't appear to be working." Ushijima said calmly from one side of the couch as he looked over his English assignment.

"Dude, my strategy is fine! The alien cheats!" Kuroo replied, giving Oikawa a dirty look.

"I play against my nephew on this level all the time Kuroo-kun, you just need to accept the fact that I'm simply better at this than you." Oikawa said flippantly, stretching his arms above his head and smirking at the still sulking blocker.

"Whenever you guys are done acting like children, dinner's ready." Daichi said, leaning up against the wall and gesturing with his head to the table.

"Sawamura, I don't care what Oikawa says about you behind your back. You're a wonderful person." Kuroo said, leaping off the couch and passing Daichi.

"There isn't anything I said about Mura-chan behind his back that I haven't already said to his face Kuroo-kun." Oikawa retorted chasing after the other boy.

"Thank you for making dinner again Sawamura. I fear what would happen to us if you hadn't been placed in our dorm." Ushijima said seriously, patting Daichi on the shoulder as he walked by.

Daichi snorted before replying, "I'm sure the mad scientist Kuroo and his sidekick Bokuto would have found a way to make the carpet edible… Or you'd be surviving off baked goods, take out, and whatever care packages get sent to you. But speaking of Bokuto," Daichi said frowning.

"Where is he? He's usually in the kitchen eating before the foods even done."

"He said he wasn't feeling very good after practice." Kuroo said looking at his and Bokutos closed bedroom door also frowning.

"He said something about taking a nap and seeing if that helped."

Daichi glanced at the closed door. "I'm going to check up on him. He might need some medicine or something." The other boys made noises of agreement while they piled food onto their plates.

Daichi walked over to the closed door before knocking quietly. No response. So, Daichi slowly opened the door before peering inside. Bokuto and Kuroos room, while not exactly messy, was clearly lived in. Knickknacks and school work littered the desks, while their gym bags lay in the middle of the floor and their dirty cloths had been tossed in the general direction of their cloths hamper.

Bokuto lay on his bed, closest to shuttered window with his back to Daichi. "Bokuto?"

I distinct sniffling sound could be heard and Bokuto, while not crying, looked like he was about to at any given moment.

"Oh…Bokuto…" Before Daichi could properly process what, he was doing, he'd already crossed the room and sat himself down on the other boy's bed. Daichi carefully reached out and gently placed his hand onto Bokutos shoulder. "Bokuto, what's wrong? Are you alright?"

"Sawamura I… I don't know." Bokuto said miserably, curling up even further into himself.

"…Do you want to talk about it?" Bokuto shook his head firmly.

"Do you want me to call someone for you?" He shook his head.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Another shake.

Daichi frowned down at his teammate. Daichi vaguely remembered Akaashi mentioning something about Bokuto having mood swings when he'd come to help his boyfriend move in, but Daichi knew he couldn't handle them like Akaashi did.

Daichi tried to think about the situation logically. Bokuto probably hadn't had a very good day for whatever reason. Practice today had been admittedly rough on all accounts, and Bokuto probably hadn't re-hydrated himself properly since practice and he was more than likely starving.

'Well,' Daichi thought, 'I may not be able to sort through…whatever this is. But I can get some food and water into him.' Daichi snorted to himself, he sounded like his Grandmother.

"People feel bad because they don't eat!" She'd say to Daichi when he was younger. Daichi always loved the way his grandmother spoke. She was outgoing sort of person, always ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and couldn't care less if you didn't. And any and all problems, could be solved with good food, and good company.

"They go rushing about so busy with their lives they forget it's not just their body that needs food! The spirit does too. Nothing like a good homecooked meal and some good company to make a day seem a bit brighter eh Dai-chan?" Then she'd wink and tickle his cheek before sneaking him a cookie before his mother could say anything.

Daichi's grandmother never wrong at any point that Daichi could remember, and who was he to question that aged smiling women now?

"Alright, come on Bokuto. You've had some alone time and you haven't started feeling better yet. We're going to get up, get some food and water into. Sit on our too small couch with the other morons, and watch some shit movie you'll love and I'll hate, and then we'll see if you feel up to talking okay?"

Bokuto stared incredulously at the other boy for a second. As if waiting for Daichi to turn tail and leave him to his wallowing, or waiting for Daichi to try and make him talk about his feelings. But Daichi wasn't like that. Daichi was a strong believer that sometimes the only way to get a person to feel emotionally comfortable was to take care of their physical comforts first.

"…Okay Sawamura, we'll do it your way." Bokuto said at last and let Daichi pull him to his feet. Daichi grabbed the others boy arm and gently dragged him out of them room.

When they entered the kitchen, Daichi almost physically pushed Bokuto into his assigned chair next to Kuroo and then made a plate of food for Bokuto and himself.

The table was built to sit four people comfortably so usually someone had to awkwardly eat at one of the corners and the others would try not to elbow each other. But today Daichi gladly claimed the corner near Bokutos left and Oikawa's right. He'd have to keep an eye on the silver haired boy to make sure he ate an appropriate portion of his meal.

Luckily for Daichi the other boys in the room had quickly picked up that something was amiss with their spike-y haired roommate. Kuroo, as soon as Bokuto had been seated, had quickly scooted his chair until their seats met with a small 'thump' and then proceeded to throw his arm that wasn't feeding him, over his friend's shoulder and gently stroked his hair.

Oikawa and Ushijima didn't get into their usual highly amusing but very loud and disruptive argument. Well, Oikawa didn't start and argument and Ushijima kept any comments about Shiratorizawa to himself.

Honestly Daichi was pretty sure Ushijima just brought Shiratorizawa up to get arise out of the other boy. Ushijima could be surprisingly manipulative and rather…puny if one paid attention.

Bokuto picked at his food at first, not seeming to be very hungry. But after a few minutes and a few small bites he started to eat with some of his regular gusto, he even started poking fun at Oikawa who retorted in kind.

It was a bit more sedated than their usual Saturday night dinners, but Daichi thought it was a good kind of sedated. The kind that was when everyone was tired and lethargic and just wanted to eat and enjoy each other's company with some smattered conversation thrown in.

After dinner Daichi herded everyone into the living room, choosing to forget about the dishes in the sink in favor of choosing a horrible movie two thirds of the room would enjoy, and he and Ushijima would sit through to keep their roommate's happy.

They used to have a sofa and a love seat in their living room, but they'd had to get rid of their love seat because of the 'Flaming Hot Cheeto & Vodka incident' that they all agreed to never speak of again. So now whenever they had a movie night or a video game tournament they were forced to either have two of their group sit on the floor, or shrug their shoulder and say 'No homo, but homo. Just not for you' and squish against each other until they got comfortable.

Oikawa claimed the cushion on the right-hand side, Ushijima claimed the left-hand side, and Kuroo ran to the middle dragging Bokuto behind him and then forcing the other boy to sprawl across his and Oikawas laps. Daichi shrugged before sitting on the ground and leaning up against Ushijimas knees, Xbox controller in hand.

"So," Daichi drawled looking up at his cotenants, "What are we watching tonight?"

A solid forty-five minutes later, and one to many pointless horror movie deaths, had Daichi standing up and walking into the kitchen to make them all popcorn. The dramatic gasp of Kuroo and Bokuto as yet another unfortunate moron bit the dust and Oikawas laughter at the death carried into the kitchen, along with Ushijimas sigh of annoyance at the impracticality of the victims. Daichi shook his head. He really wasn't much of a horror fan, he'd always been more of an Indiana Jones kind of guy.

He was waiting for the popcorn when he heard a shuffling sound behind him, he elbowed the person behind him when he felt arms wrap around his waist and a chin prop itself on his head.

"Thanks, Sawamura…I really needed this." Bokuto said quietly. Daichi rolled his eyes and carefully pried the other boy's arms off him. "Hey, it's no problem, if you ever feel upset or whatever just let me know how I can help and I will. And even if you don't want to talk to me, just tell me and I'll call whoever you need me too."

Bokuto nodded, he looked down at the ground for a moment before saying. "I…haven't felt very useful lately. Like I understand that high school volleyball and college volleyball are on very different levels and that lots of things are going to change. I…just wasn't prepared for how hard it was to connect to some of the guys on the team.

"Like most everyone's cool and all but some of them just look at me like I'm just some fumbling middle schoolers who's never spiked a ball before, ya know? And then if I get shut down or my spike get received they're all like 'oh well he obviously wasn't trying very hard, he'd better start improving soon or he'll never play on the court.' And I just get so irritated at myself and…I feel like I shouldn't even be here. Like, I shouldn't be playing at this college with this team." Bokuto finished, looking thoroughly bereft.

Daichi swallowed thickly. That sounded eerily similar to how he himself felt at times. His entire middle school and high school he'd been fighting to get others to take him seriously. To take his sport seriously, and in college surrounded by people who were much better than him at many things he was having to fight for his to right to play on the team, his right to his scholarship. Bokuto was in a very similar boat it seemed.

"Thank you, for telling me Bokuto. It…really means a lot. And I understand how you feel, I sometimes don't feel like I belong here or am good enough to play for this team either, but then I see you trying so hard and always having fun and just enjoying volleyball, that I remember that I'm here because this school thought I could play for them and make this team better. And that I earned my way here in high school, and I feel better. And, well, if ever that doesn't work, Suga will set me straight." Daichi finished, chuckling at the thought of his friend.

Bokuto laughed along with him, before smiling his signature annoying but very bright smile. "Yea, Akaashi always sets me straight. He calls me and idiot then reminds me about how great I am before ridiculing me for having such a big head later. He's such a contradictory guy…" Bokuto sighed dreamily. Daichi rolled his eyes. He had no idea how those two had managed to get together. It must have taken a lot of persuading on Bokuos part and a lot of compromising on Akaashis. Oh well, if Akaashi could handle the annoying owls screeching and mood swings and still find him attractive power to him.

"Maybe you should give Akaashi a call tomorrow and see if you two can go out. It's been a while since you two last saw each other, hasn't it?" Daichi said smiling.

Bokuto practically hooted with joy at the suggestion, "This is why I need to talk to you more!" He exclaimed. "You always have good sensible ideas. Oi! Kuroo! Why don't we listen to Daichi more often?" Boktuo hollered as he ran into the living room and dived on top of Kuroo and Oikawas laps. Making Kuroo laugh and Oikawa complain about the spiker being too heavy.

Daichi shook his head at their antics. Well, at least Bokuto was back to his normal obnoxious self. 'You were right Grandma, good food and good company really can make a difference.'