Chapter Nine: Kenma III
Kenma really had to pee, really, really had to pee, but unlike yesterday, Shoyo was a constant weight on his stomach when he woke up. "Shoyo." He grunted, a warning as the other boy snuggled closer into his stomach like a deranged house cat. Shoyo didn't move at all, which made the pressure on his stomach even worse, "Shoyo, I have to piss." Shoyo groaned, then yawned loudly, too loud to have been natural, his lips smacked and eventually said, "No, you don't." Then pushed his head further into his stomach, "And don't use that word." Which word? "Shoyo, I might pee in your sheets." Shoyo hummed for a moment, vibrating his insides, making the situation even worse. "I have more." Kenma sighed.
"Well, isn't this nice." Another voice cooed from the door, and Shoyo sat up suddenly, Thank God, and Kenma looked at the door. A woman, who was not Sato-san, was standing in the doorway and was now fast approaching them. "Shoyo, who's your friend?" He wondered if everyone used Shoyo's given name, more importantly, wondered who this woman was. She was tall, like Sato-san but with lighter hair, almost brown, but not quite. Then her eyes fell into his gaze, Shoyo's mother. It was weird, seeing Shoyo's eyes on someone not Shoyo, even though she probably had them first. Warm, warm brown, with wrinkles where Shoyo had smooth skin. She was tan and lithe and Kenma was left confused.
Tan means outside work, but she has an assistant so... Shoyo interrupted his thoughts with an outburst, "Mom!" the blankets were thrown off of them both, a shock of morning chill settled over his skin as he stood up as well. Shoyo was much slower walking up to his mother than he was exposing them to the cold, Shoyo's face flashed with conflict before he gave his mother a hug. Interesting. He bowed as much as he could with a stomach full of piss, "Thank you for having me, Hinata-san." Then stood up quickly, trying not to piss himself. Shoyo giggled, smiling over at him, "This is Kenma, he's my rival." He said as if that gave more answers than questions, Shoyo's mother looked confused for a moment, "I thought that Kageyama boy was your rival?" then Kenma wanted to laugh, the Karasuno coach had said the same thing. Shoyo didn't say anything before his mother started talking again, "Are you on the baseball team, too?" She asked, looking at him curiously. Baseball?
"I play volleyball, mom." Shoyo said, eyes not looking at either of them, Shoyo's mother laughed awkwardly, "Right, right, sorry." She rubbed her eyes, a yawn, a fake one, Kenma noted, emitting from her mouth as she gave her son a warm smile, "I must be more tired than I thought." Shoyo's face was blank for a moment before he smiled, not quite looking at her, "You should get sleep then, Natsu won't be up for a while." Shoyo's eyes were on him as he talked to his mother.
Shoyo's mother looked at him suddenly, her eyes serious despite her tiredness, "Will you be staying for dinner, Kenma?" He wasn't sure why her tone was serious over such a trivial topic, then realized it might be a passive-aggressive threat, A threat for what? He wasn't sure. He swallowed the lump in his throat, "No, ma'am, I'll probably go to church, then head home." That was the plan after all, but the way both of the Hinatas said, "Church?" In varying degrees of interest filled him with guilt. "Why don't you take Shoyo with you?" She patted her son on the head, obviously not aware of the way Shoyo flinched from the contact. She smiled at him, a small unsettling quirk of the lips, "I'll make you guys breakfast before you go."
Shoyo looked like he was going to say something but a sharp look from his mother cut him off. "You really don't have to do that, Hinata-san." He said on Shoyo's behalf, and that look was on him, only for a second before it softened. "Oh I insist, can't skip a meal if you want to be strong, right?" He nodded, uncomfortable for some reason he could not name. "Then I'll get started, Shoyo can you set the table?" The boy in question nodded silently, then they all left the room, Kenma almost forgot how badly he had to pee.
The table was set by the time he left the bathroom, "Hope you boys like omelettes." Shoyo's mother said before Kenma could question the weird face Shoyo had on. There was rice and eggs set in three places, and Kenma couldn't help but wonder if Shoyo's rice would still taste like chalk without Sato-san present. The look on Shoyo's mother's face gave the answer away before Shoyo's could. Interesting. "Kenma-kun, your food is going to get cold." Her voice was light, but strange and that intense gaze was on him, instead of Shoyo. "Thank you for the food." He mumbled, cutting the eggs up and shoving some into his mouth. Where Natsu's were too salty, Hinata-san's were too bland, and almost runny.
"It's very good." He lied, shoveling the rest of the eggs into his mouth and swallowing them before he could gag. A spoonful of rice was almost a mercy on his tongue, it was the same as usual, sweet and moist. Rice. Shoyo's rice. He glanced over at the boy, who was eating his rice with a shaky hand. The meal passed slowly, nobody moving until Shoyo had completely finished. "Not so bad for an old lady, right, Kenma-kun?" Old lady? Shoyo's mother didn't look old, even with the wrinkles around her eyes. "It was very good, thank you, Hinata-san." He lied again. Wondering if it would become a bad habit around the Hinatas.
"I think there's a church around the corner from that shop, you know the one, Shoyo, with the meat buns?" He wondered if there would be more meat buns today for Shoyo, another weird look from Karasuno's coach. Shoyo nodded, at his mother's question, and she smiled, "Make sure you dress nice." She said finally, then left into the kitchen, arms full of dishes. Shoyo was gone right after that, Kenma found him in his room, digging through clothes.
"I don't think I've been to church before." Shoyo mumbled, maybe to himself but loud enough for Kenma to hear. "I guess shorts would be too casual." Kenma sighed, then moved the smaller boy out of the way, digging through his dresser for something appropriate. Shoyo had a lot of shorts, and only one school uniform. "Looks like you're wearing this." He mumbled, handing Shoyo his school uniform, "Maybe without the jacket." He added after a moment, pulling the garment from the pile. "You have to dress nice for church?" Shoyo asked, looking up at him seriously. Kenma blinked, then nodded. Shoyo nodded along, "That's pretty cool, I guess." There was a smile and Shoyo was out of the room, presumably into the bathroom.
He took Shoyo's absence as a time to change into his own clothes, a white button up and khakis, he hated the khakis but the shirt was surprisingly comfortable despite the formal look. He pulled out his toothbrush and packed the rest of his things into his bags.
Shoyo returned after a long moment, his messy hair contrasting the sharp look of his uniform. Shoyo looked odd in formal clothes, he didn't think it would be a sight he could get used to. "You should comb your hair." He said after a moment of Shoyo standing in front of him. The other boy laughed quietly, a color rushing into his cheeks, "Yeah, I probably should." But didn't move to do so, Kenma got up, brushed his teeth, then returned with a comb.
Shoyo was on his bed, staring down at his bare feet, his toes wiggling, Kenma took this opportunity to take on the orange monster that Shoyo called hair, pulling it through a thick mass. Interesting. He always thought that Shoyo's hair would be knotted and hard to manage, but it was surprisingly easy to run a comb through. Unfortunately, the comb-job only made Shoyo's hair even messier, something he didn't think was possible. He sighed, pulled away, and set the comb on Shoyo's bed. He'd know more about his hair than Kenma would.
"I made it worse." He admitted as Shoyo looked up at him, color still present in his cheeks. Shoyo's hands found their way into his hair, laughed again, "It felt nice, though, so I guess I can forgive you." Kenma didn't want to know how Shoyo could find having a piece of sharp plastic ran through his hair a pleasant experience, but didn't question it. Shoyo grabbed the comb from the bed and started at it again, "You know," he said, as he brought his hair back to its original messiness, "I really like your hair." The flat mess with roots showing? "Why?" Spilled out his mouth before he could formulate a different response.
Shoyo shrugged, "I like the color, it's like Noya-senpai's, I wish I had a cool hair color." He shrugged again, then smiled up at him, the fake one. Bleach and roots are cool but orange isn't? He sighed, Shoyo is a weird one. "You could dye it." He offered, instead of commenting his thoughts on Shoyo's natural color. The other boy hummed for a moment, the comb wiggling between his fingers, "I dunno how." He said after a long moment as if it were a big secret.
"Kuroo's mom runs a salon." He said, helpfully but so, so awkward. Did he even remember Kuroo? "He's the uh-" Shoyo brought his hands into his hair, pulling a surprisingly accurate depiction of Kuroo's messy hair, "The one that reads your phone, right?" Kenma nodded, a smile playing at his lips. "How much is it?" Kenma shrugged, he hadn't been in months, his hair proof of that. "Not that much." He answered instead of a number, he'd cover for Shoyo if he didn't have enough, if need be.
"That'd be really cool." Shoyo said a moment later, standing and giving him a different smile, "Good thing I'll be in Tokyo next week, huh?" Kenma nodded, then Shoyo led them from his room, shouldering one of Kenma's bags and handing him the other. Shoyo was silent as they left his home, stayed silent as they walked down the road and towards the church Shoyo's mother had told them about.
Shoyo, Kenma realized, hadn't said anything in almost an hour. They were doing a group reading as he realized that, and looked over at the boy next to him, Shoyo looked like he was about to fall asleep, his eyes lidded in near listlessness. He elbowed Shoyo in the side, not wanting him to fall asleep during an, admittedly boring, sermon. "Shoyo." He hissed, the other boy's head shifted slowly, then looked up at him with the same listless expression. "Sorry." He said slowly. This is odd. Shoyo had never been to a church, which might cause some nervousness, but he didn't think Shoyo would be ready to fall asleep.
The sermon ended soon after Kenma's realization, he gave his thanks, then led Shoyo out of the church, expecting him to start jumping after being released from a such a quiet environment. He did no such thing. "Shoyo?" He asked, sometime later as they were walking towards the station. The other boy took a long moment to reply, did so with a drawn out hum, "Are you okay?" He asked, voice even despite the unsure panic in his head. Shoyo hummed again, "Mmmmyeah." He said, voice wispy and light. His eyes were still lidded over, and Kenma wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.
"'m tired." Shoyo said as they were nearing the train station. Now that, is weird. Shoyo always had energy to spare, Kenma was still recovering from the three consecutive remakes with Karasuno, he looked down at Shoyo. "Do you need to sit down?" He asked, wondered when he got so accommodating of others. Shoyo shook his head slowly, "I'll be fine." He mumbled, almost tripping over his own feet.
"Make sure you rest when you get home." Kenma advised, taking his bag from Shoyo's lap, they'd been at the train station for fifteen minutes and Shoyo had almost fallen asleep twice. "Yes, Kenma-senpai." There was a giggle, and Shoyo saluted at him. He blinked. "Don't call me that." He said after a long moment, then stepped onto the train. "Be careful." He said after another moment, then the doors closed and Kenma sat down.
He had a lot to think about.