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Teru impatiently drums his fingers against the booth he sits at, nested in the corner of the cafe, and spares another glance at his phone. Is this place really so hard to find? Sure, it’s a little out of the way, but even through all the cream and cinnamon (which is sure to come back to bite him later) he’s managed to get halfway through his drink waiting for the rest of the Awakening Lab kids to get here. He feels his phone buzz and quickly swipes to accept the call.
“Hi Teru-san!” Rei Kurosaki’s voice sounds through the speaker, a little rougher than he’s used to. “Uh, which building was the cafe again?”
“Oh, okay, so you have to go into the alley outside the hairdresser-”
“Uh huh.”
“And then you climb the staircase to the plant shop on the balcony-”
“Right.”
“And then once you go inside you enter the door to go to the bathrooms and go down the hallway!”
“...Right. Uh, am I in the right place?”
He receives a text: An image of the other four kids standing on the rooftop overlooking the park. Teru stands up and walks towards the window, phone still held to his ear, and sees the five of them milling about glancing at their own phones.
“Kurosaki-chan?”
“Yeah?”
“Turn around.”
He sees her look up and makes eye contact with him through the window and gives her a wave.
“Is there. Uh. A way in from out here?”
---
“I’m so sorry about getting us lost,” Kurosaki dips her head as she walks over, hot chocolate gently clutched in hand. “I know you probably chose this place to test me but my powers have been acting up all week—”
“Haha no, it’s fine, don’t worry about it, we all make mistakes.” Test?
“I’m just glad we came here now and not back when you recommended it in January,” Hoshino mutters, “It was already cold enough with the breeze up there…”
“I felt fine,” Asahi says smugly, taking a sip of chai latte that looks piping hot.
“Shut up Asahi.” Hoshino elbows him, spilling a bit of his caramel frappe onto his shirt and looking down at the stain like a grieving widow learning his husband died at sea. The Shiratoris observe them quietly, taking sips of their vanilla milks with unreadable expressions.
“Are we still on for Friday at the lab?” Hoshino asks, “I might be able to steal my brother’s PS3 and hook it up to the TV in there.”
“Mitsuura is out of town visiting his parents though,” Kaito points out, whipped cream from his decidedly boring drink sticking to his upper lip as he puts his cup down.
“We could break in?” Hoshino suggests, elbowing him with a grin. Kaito doesn’t humor him with a response. Hoshino slumps back in his seat. “Aw, boo, you’re no fun.”
The sentence stirs a thought in Teru’s head. It’s the first time in a while he’s had a Friday completely off, normally if he’s not doing something with the Awakening Lab kids he’s either neck deep in homework or kicking around Reigen’s office waiting for free dinner. He knows Fridays are usually Kageyama’s free days as well– at least from his experience the chance of a surprise encounter with his… rival? Increases dramatically on Fridays. Maybe…
“What about your place, Kurosaki?” Asahi suggests, “Your living room is the only one that has enough space to accommodate all of us.”
Teru stares at her, silently praying for some sort of cosmic intervention to ruin their plans.
“Let me check if that’s an option…” she stares down at her drink, expression going slack, and looks up, eyes still wide. “I have mono.”
“What?” Asahi quirks an eyebrow.
“I should go,” she tries to climb over Teru to get out of the booth.
“If you don’t want to hang out with us you can just say so!” Hoshino grumbles.
“Does this have something to do with that boy on your instagram?” Asahi says with a smirk. Kurosaki looks him dead in the eye, licks her hand, and slaps his exposed forearm.
“Ow, what the hell?”
“Report back to me in a month.”
He has to suppress a smile. Of course, the chance of running into Kageyama still isn’t 100%, he might spend all afternoon wandering his regular route and not even catch a glimpse of him, but so far everything else has gone in favor of this plan. This has to be the universe nudging him in the right direction. He’s been to Salt Middle School a couple times before, picking him up on the way to Spirits and Such or just going on a jog with Kageyama’s club. How far is it from there to downtown? About a mile, right? He can walk a mile in about 20 minutes, but Kageyama’s still a little shorter than him so it might take him a bit longer. His school gets out at about 3:30 but he’s pretty sure his club goes until-
“What about you Teru-san?” Hoshino looks across the table at him, “You have a place all to yourself, right?”
“Oh, what? Huh? Nothing. What are we talking about?” Teru stammers, pulled from his thoughts. They’re all giving him weird looks. He thinks he can see Kurosaki smiling a bit.
“Something on your mind?” Asahi asks.
“Or someone?” Kurosaki murmurs with a smirk, sipping her hot chocolate. Teru feels heat rush to his cheeks.
“W-what? Huh? I- No I was just trying to think of plans for Friday I, uh,” Why does he feel so nervous saying this? “You’ve met Kageyama-kun right? Not Ritsu the other-”
“You say this like he’s not the subject of like, fifty percent of our conversations,” Hoshino murmurs.
“I- is he?” Oh God he is definitely blushing. The Shiratori brothers exchange a look.
“Yeah man, like, pretty much every story you tell starts with ‘So me and Kageyama-kun’ or ‘I ran into Kageyama-kun’ or ‘Kageyama-kun once told me’-”
ANYWAY,” Teru clears his throat. “He, uh, we haven’t gotten to hang out in a while so I was hoping I would maybe be able to run into him on Friday. Or something.”
“...Run into him?” Kurosaki says cautiously.
“Yeah! I mean, we don’t live super far apart and our routes home from school intersect-”
“Why don’t you just call him?” Asahi says suspiciously through a sip of his latte.
“I- I don’t know, it would feel…” Teru steeples his fingers, “...weird I guess?”
“You nervous?” Hoshino says with a smirk.
“What do you mean?” Teru narrows his eyes at him.
“Nothing,” Hoshino says, averting his gaze.
“I get it,” Kurosaki says gently, “Reaching out to people you feel that strongly about can be really scary.”
“Haha, what?” Teru can feel his heart rate increasing, “You’re making it sound like I’m in love with him or something.”
“Teru…” Daichi starts.
“...You probably should have thought twice about saying that to someone with a built in lie detector.” Kaito finishes the thought.
If they couldn’t tell he was blushing before they definitely can now.
“OOOOOO…” Asahi and Hoshino croon.
“No, stop, it’s not like that, I…” Is it? Is this not normal? He doesn’t feel this way about any of his other friends, but that makes sense, right? There was something special about Kageyama, there always was.
No, there wasn’t, he was average. They both were.
And even when he realized it…
That feeling…
“I have to go home, bye guys!” Teru tries to shove his way out of the booth.
“No, come on!” Kurosaki protests, “You’re gonna go home and, what, just sit around waiting for him to come to you?”
“Yeah man, you gotta put yourself out there!” Hoshino grabs his shoulder, giving him a shake.
“I, no, I can’t…” Teru mutters.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see him like this,” Daichi mutters.
“Even Teru-san has to be scared of something,” Kaito smirks.
“I mean, if you can’t call, at least text him or something!” Kurosaki says.
“What would I say?” Teru opens his phone, scrolling to his messages with Kageyama.
“When was the last time you hung out again?” Asahi asks.
“About a month ago?” Teru guesses.
“Okay, start with an apology about how long it’s been,” Asahi says.
“But don’t make it too apologetic!” Kurosaki cuts in, “You don’t want it to sound like you’re fishing for sympathy or anything.”
“Okay…” Teru started texting.
“Then just ask if he’s free-” Daichi started.
“No, hold on, that might sound too dismissive,” Hoshino said, “You like him, right? So you should reaffirm how much he means to you.”
“Reaffirmation…” Teru’s hands are shaking.
“Oh, you should add in something about how long you’ve known each other!” Kurosaki suggests, “Get across how much his friendship means to you.”
“How much he means to me…”
“But don’t make it too sappy,” Asahi warns, “You don’t want to give away your game in the beginning.”
“Right…” Teru hits send. “Wait, I forgot to actually ask him to hang out.” Teru types a quick message and hits send again. His heart jumps when he gets an almost immediate response.
Kageyama-kun
Hello! Sorry it’s been so long since we
last saw each other, you know how busy
life can be LOL. You’re my best friend
and I don’t think I say that enough. God,
can you believe it’s been over a year
since we met? Can’t believe I’ve had
you in my life that long, pal. Wishing
you the best,
☆*: .｡. Teru .｡.:*☆
(Sent 4:45 pm)
Oh also wanna hang out Friday
☆*: .｡. Teru .｡.:*☆
(Sent 4:45 pm)
Okay
(Sent 4:46 pm)
“You did it man!” Asahi cheers, shaking him. Teru feels a grin growing on his face.
“No…” he looks around the table at his friends, holding out his hand for a high five, “We did it.”
---
The day finally arrives and Teru waits outside Salt Middle School, occasionally dabbing at his forehead with his jacket sleeve. He’s sweating like crazy, which is surprising given the rather mild weather. Maybe he’s just more nervous than he thought? He really needs to pull it together; Kageyama should be coming out here any second now and he doesn’t want to look like a complete loser waiting for hi—
“Hanazawa-kun?” Teru’s head whips in the direction of Kageyama’s soft, melodic voice that manages to make Teru’s head spin with even the simplest of phrases. In the two weeks since they’d last seen each other, Teru had nearly forgotten how it sounded. Teru flounders for a moment, caught between wanting to compliment the dulcet tones of Kageyama’s voice and needing to appear like a functional human.
“Wh—Hey, Kageyama-kun!” Teru replies, voice cracking with how high in his register it reaches. “What are you doing here?” Kageyama stares at him strangely for a moment, giving Teru a second to gaze deeply into his dark brown eyes.
“Um. I go to school here?” Kageyama says, which is the precise moment Teru realizes he fucked up.
“R-Right! Of course you do! I—That was a really stupid thing for me to say, sorry—“ Teru cuts himself off with a forced laugh, trying his best to smooth over this bump so they can move past it. Kageyama smiles, letting out his own little chuckle, which makes Teru’s laugh taper off into nothing as he just stares.
“Do we wanna…?” Kageyama asks after a moment, tilting his head in the direction of the street. It takes a second for Teru to respond, but when he does it’s with a fervent nod. With that, the pair make their way out of the courtyard and down the street towards Kageyama’s house.
On the way there, Kageyama puts a thoughtful finger to his chin.
“You know,” he says, “I just realized I don’t think you’ve ever actually been over to my place before.”
“Oh haha wow, really?” Teru clears his throat. God, why has it been so rough today? “I uh- wow! I never even thought about that!”
“What can I say?” Kageyama murmurs, “Your apartment is just a lot more convenient for skirting bed times and noise complaints.”
He should tell that to my neighbors.
Last time he’d had the Kageyama brothers over for an innocent game of Mario Party, his landlord had trapped him in a 45 minute long talk about how some people were adults with responsibilities who didn’t want to be kept up by teenagers screaming about bonus stars.
“It probably won’t be as fun, since Ritsu is spending the weekend at Suzuki-kun’s.” Kageyama says, breaking Teru’s train of thought. “And my parents aren’t going to be home until late.”
“Darn,” Teru replies, silently sending a thank you prayer to the heavens for securing him a night alone with Kageyama. “Well, we can have our own fun, right?” Kageyama looks at him with a smile.
“Yeah, we can,” he says, his tone so soft it nearly sends Teru into cardiac arrest. “Anyways, we’re here.”
The Kageyama residence is, as expected, remarkably simple. There’s no lawn decorations or quirky mailboxes to be seen. It’s just simply…a house. And, upon entering said house (and placing his shoes right next to Kageyama’s), Teru finds that the inside is much the same. Though there are a few knickknacks and family photos scattered about. Teru almost wants to ask about them—about the life that Kageyama led before they met—but he keeps it to himself and instead follows him into the living room. Teru takes his time looking at his surroundings while Kageyama pads over to the TV stand, crouching in front of it.
“What do you want to play first?” Kageyama asks, pulling a small stack of games from the drawer. “We don’t have as many games as you, but we’ve got a decent selection.” Teru makes his way over to Kageyama and takes the stack of games from his hand, going through and appraising each one. He’s not really drawn to anything in particular until he finds—
“Guitar Hero 3?” Teru wonders aloud. “Man, I love Guitar Hero 3!”
“You’ve played it before?” Kageyama tilts his head.
“Played it? I’ve beaten it like, what, five times now?” Was it five? It was definitely more than three but less than six. He’s sticking with five, it’s the more impressive number in that range.
“Really?” Kageyama’s eyes widen.
“On expert.”
“Woah…” Kageyama blinks, “I’ve never even beat it once! Do you think you could help me with one of the songs? I’ve been stuck on it for years now.”
“Oh, definitely!” Teru puffs out his chest. Sure, it’s been a while since he picked it up, but he imagines it shouldn’t be hard to get back into the groove of it. Like riding a bike or waterboarding terrorists! “Let’s boot it up and you can show me which song you’ve been having trouble with.”
Kageyama nods and turns back to the TV stand, turning on the family Wii just as Teru turns on the TV. The startup screen for Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock blasts the pair just as Kageyama locates both a Wiimote and the Wii guitar. Once everything is set up, Teru takes the guitar from Kageyama’s hands, navigating to an abandoned save titled “Mob” and bringing up the difficulty menu.
“Which do you play on?” Teru asks.
“Um, I was playing this save on Medium.” Kageyama replies, looking a little bashful at that admittance. Teru smiles warmly at his friend.
“Medium can be tricky to get used to! The blue button adds a lot.” Piece of fucking cake . Teru selects Medium and the game switches over to the song menu. “Wait, you’re only on the second level?” Kageyama looks away, cheeks flushing.
“I’m not the best at rhythm games…” Kageyama mutters, rubbing the back of his silky black bowl cut.
“Oh, come on, don’t be shy!” Teru says, leaning over to playfully push Kageyama’s shoulder. “I’m your b—your friend; I’m not gonna judge you over how far you got on Guitar Hero 3.”
“No, I know,” Kageyama replies, turning back towards Teru. “You’re a good friend like that, Hanazawa-kun.” He smiles at that; a smile that has Teru feeling suddenly extremely lightheaded. Or is it the overhead lights? They should really turn those off, Teru can feel himself starting to get a headache. Teru directs his attention away from his head and instead focuses on the game.
“So which song has been giving you the most trouble?” Teru asks.
“Uh, Mississippi Queen .” Kageyama replies, pointing to the song at the top of the list. Teru nods, handing the guitar off to Kageyama. “Wh—I thought you were going to help?”
“I am!” Teru assures, “I just want to see how you play it, first. I can’t really give you advice if I don’t know how you’re playing.” Kageyama looks unsure but he puts the guitar strap on anyway, clicking select on the song and readying himself to play.
Right off the bat, Teru can tell the way he has his hands lined up to hit the buttons is all wrong. And his strumming is slightly off from his finger presses, meaning he’s missing some notes simply because he’s off-rhythm. He doesn’t even get a quarter of the way through the song before it ends, the simulated crowd booing at him as the game over screen pops up. Kageyama looks a bit disappointed, almost as if he was hoping for better, as he turns to look at Teru.
“Hey, come on, that was a good first attempt!” Teru says, doing his best to encourage his friend. “You almost had it! You just gotta align your strumming with your key pressing a bit better.”
“I don’t know how to do that.” Kageyama replies, sounding dejected.
“Here,” Without thinking, Teru places his hands on Kageyama’s, gently guiding his fingers to the proper placement on the controller. “You want to—” He looks up, making eye contact with Kageyama, who’s staring dumbfounded at him. Teru feels heat flash through his cheeks and looks away. “I— you— that should be good I think...” He stammers, coughing awkwardly into his fist. Kageyama luckily doesn’t comment on the exchange and simply presses “Retry” on the screen, bringing the song back up. Teru shifts his focus back to the game and tries to offer as best advice as he can as Kageyama plays. But no matter what he tries to tell him, the result is the same: bitter, crushing loss.
“I don’t think this is working,” Kageyama says, defeated. Somehow he managed to do even worse on this try, and Teru’s starting to get sick of hearing the forty-eight seconds of Mississippi Queen .
“Aw, don’t give up now!” Teru tries his best to sound encouraging, determined to raise Kageyama’s spirits and beat this song. “Here, why don’t I try playing it, so you can see how it’s done? Then maybe my advice will start making sense.” Kageyama considers this for a moment before nodding and handing over the guitar to Teru.
Teru puts the strap on and adjusts it to exactly where he needs it to be, feeling rather confident in his abilities as he hits “Retry” and pulls up the song again. He beat this game on expert , which means he’s definitely more than qualified to get through this one song on--
He misses the first note.
“Um.” Teru blurts out, feeling his face grow hot. “Th--Hold on, I wasn’t ready.” He hits the pause button and restarts the song. Okay, now he’s ready to--
He misses the fourth note.
“Haha, um, my hands are a little sweaty!” Now that he mentions it, his whole body is really sweaty. Why hasn’t he stopped sweating yet? He restarts the song again, determination set in his jaw.
Miss.
Miss.
Miss.
Missed combo.
Missed note.
Miss.
Teru doesn’t even make it a quarter of the way through the song before it abruptly ends, displaying the game over screen. Frustrated, Teru restarts the song again. By this point, he has gotten to his feet. “I got it. Let me just--it’s been a couple years, okay?” Teru’s voice borders on desperate as he plays Mississippi Queen over…
And over…
And over…
And over…
Each time, the result is the same. And each time, Teru can feel his frustration creep higher and higher. By now, he isn’t even doing this for Kageyama. He’s trying to win to prove to this damn game that he can do it. The obnoxious crooning of Mississippi Queen becomes a battle cry to Teru as he fights the Wiimote guitar, each time being offered a bitter, crushing loss.
“Hanazawa-kun, it’s okay, we don’t need to keep--”
“ No ! No, it’s fine! I’m fine! I just need to--to warm up!? Okay!?” Teru pants, feeling his head throb. God, when did it get so hot in here? And why does his head hurt so bad? No matter, he needs to do this. He needs to conquer the mountaintop known as Mississippi Queen and prove to Kageyama that he’s a capable, cool person who is worth spending time with. He just needs to--
He misses the first note.
“GOD DAMNIT --” Teru yells, before everything goes white.
---
There’s a distinct ringing in Teru’s ears as the world slowly comes into view once more. Through the mess of lights and colors, he begins to make out the shape of a face hovering inches from his own. He struggles to identify the face for a few long, laboring moments as the world shifts more and more into view. Slowly but surely, life comes back to Teru and he is able to make out a voice.
“...zawa-kun? Hana…awa-k…? Hanzawa-kun!” Teru’s eyes shoot open at the sound of Kageyama’s voice, and he nearly sits up in fright before realizing it’s Kageyama who is hovering a mere couple of inches away from his face. So close and yet so far from inevitability, if Teru could only move a little--
“Hanazawa-kun, are you okay?” Kageyama’s voice cuts off his spiraling train of thought (and thank God for that; Teru almost did something very stupid), worry set deep in his features as he gazes down on his friend. Teru laughs weakly before letting out a wet cough.
“I’m--I’m fine, Kageyama-kun.” He’s not fine, but that is also fine. He can already tell what this is; with his senses returned to him, Teru can already feel the signs. Flushed, sweaty skin. Hot and cold flashes. A pounding migraine. The kind of achy restless that only comes from when you can’t get yourself to settle quite right. Yep, without a doubt, Teru knows what this is.
A failure fever.
Teru fucked up so hard on fucking Guitar Hero 3 that he got a failure fever for the first time in over a year.
“Are you sure? You look really sweaty.” Kageyama points out as Teru starts to slowly sit up on the couch.
“I’m sure,” Teru replies, sounding very much like the opposite. Leave it to him to get a completely avoidable ailment during the one and only hangout session he’s had with Kageyama in weeks. Over Guitar Hero . God, if Teru wasn’t more of a gentleman he would get up and smash that stupid Wii disc to smithereens. And then burn it. And then spit on it, just for extra measure. Kageyama doesn’t look entirely convinced of Teru’s assurances, meaning he’ll have to come up with an explanation for why he just passed out in the middle of his living room.
Which is the precise moment Teru realizes he has never told his dear friend Kageyama about his failure fevers, and the precise moment this small annoyance becomes a very big issue.
Panicked, Teru wracks his brain for explanations. He can’t just tell Kageyama about the failure fevers now --they sound like absolute bullshit and also it would mean admitting that losing at Guitar Hero 3 is enough to do him in! Then how is he supposed to look like the cool, calm, dependable friend he’s been trying to present himself as this entire time! No, he needs a different explanation. Something that is kind of obscure but believable. A regular old fever won’t do.
Think, Teru, think! What sorts of illnesses do people even get?!
He thinks back through the last few weeks of his life, desperate for an answer.
Then, suddenly, he finds it.
“Let me check if that’s an option…” she stares down at her drink, expression going slack, and looks up, eyes still wide. “I have mono.”
“I, um. I think I have mono…?” Teru says, slightly unsure. There’s a beat of silence where all Kageyama does is stare.
“Oh. Okay.” He says at last, Teru very nearly letting out a sigh of relief. “What’s mono?”
“It’s like a really bad flu,” Teru explains, though he isn’t sure he’s got that quite right. Well, whatever. It’s just one tiny white lie; Teru is certain this won’t spiral into something out of his control!
Kageyama nods before pulling out his phone and dialing a number. Teru quirks a brow.
“Who’re you calling?”
“Ritsu,” Kageyama replies. “I don’t know what to do about someone with mono, so I figured he’d probabl--Oh, hi, Ritsu.” He smiles as he greets his brother, something that leaves Teru feeling warm and fuzzy inside. And maybe a little queasy, now that he thinks about it. “Yeah, I’m fine. Do you mind if I put you on speaker?” After receiving some sort of response, he puts the phone on speaker.
“Hi, Little Brother! Hi, Shou-kun!” Teru chirps through the phone before a loud, wet cough rips through his throat. Kageyama holds the phone away from him while he hacks.
“Is he okay?” Ritsu immediately asks, voice sounding a little tinny through the phone’s shitty speakers but otherwise concerned. In the background, Teru can hear Shou let out a laugh.
“Yeah, he sounds like shit!” Shou pipes in, to which Teru pouts.
“That’s what I wanted to call about, actually.” Kageyama says, “Hanazawa-kun has mono, so I was wondering if you knew any--”
“WHAT?” Ritsu’s scream cuts Kageyama off, causing the boy to flinch. Teru shrinks away from the phone, guilty.
“Well, we were playing some games and then Hanazawa-kun passed out, and when he woke up he told me he might have mono.” Kageyama explains, voice tinged with worry. “Is…Is that bad?” There’s a moment of silence where Teru swears he can see Ritsu pinching the bridge of his nose in his mind’s eye before a long, labored sigh makes its way through the phone’s speakers, just before raucous laughter can be heard in the background.
“ Yes , Nii-san, that’s bad.” Ritsu says, pained. “Very bad! He needs to be quarantined immediately and you need to disinfect everything and anything he’s touched in the meanwhile.”
“Mono?! Seriously, dude?!” Shou bellows between laughs. “Man, why’d you even go over if you thought you had mono!”
“I-I didn’t--” Teru has nothing to say because there is nothing to say. He doesn’t have mono, he just has this stupid failure fever. But now, apparently, he’s being ushered upstairs to Kageyama’s room to quarantine at Ritsu’s instruction because he chose the worst possible illness to lie about. He stands awkwardly inside Kageyama’s room as Kageyama shuts the door, the rest of the conversation now muffled and fading as he walks back downstairs. Eventually, Teru starts to feel light-headed again so he opts to sit down on the floor, trying his best to wrap his head around the hole he’s just dug himself. If he confesses to it being a lie now, not only will Kageyama lose trust in him but it still won’t explain why he passed out earlier. Meaning Teru will still have to fess up to his failure fevers and look like even more of an asshat than he already is. But if he says nothing and lets this ruse continue, then eventually he’s going to feel better anyway and none of this will have made any sense!
With a groan, Teru leans back until he’s laying on the cool hardwood floor, staring at the overhead light above him. Fatigue very quickly sneaks up on him and he finds himself dozing in and out until eventually, at some point, the door in front of him starts to slowly open. Teru, dazed, looks up to see Kageyama decked out in household cleaning gloves and two face masks holding a bowl of something steaming in his hands.
“Are you okay?” Kageyama asks, approaching him just as Teru starts to sit up. “Why did you fall asleep on the floor? My futon’s right there.”
“It--I prefer the floor, actually.” Teru quickly lies. “What’s that you got there?”
“Soup,” Kageyama presents the bowl to Teru, who gently takes it from his begloved hands. Their fingers brush for just a moment and, had this been any other moment, Teru would have blushed. But the vibe is kind of killed by the thick rubber gloves, so nothing comes of it. Teru places the bowl into his lap and stares down at it, admiring the, uh…Well…
It’s certainly soup!
“Wow,” Teru breathes, “This looks amazing, Kageyama-kun. I didn’t know you could cook!” Kageyama scratches the back of his head bashfully.
“Well, this is just instant miso, but I tried to replicate how my mom makes it for me when I’m sick.” Wow, this is instant and it still looks this bad? The tofu cubes look like mush floating in a bowl of hot dishwater. Still, Kageyama made this for him…
He knocks back the entire bowl in one go.
“Wow! That was so delicious!” Teru sing-songs before immediately gagging. Kageyama kneels down in front of him, looking concerned. “I’m fine, I’m fine! Just--Nausea, you know how it is when you’re sick.”
“You shouldn’t have eaten it so quickly,” Kageyama chastises gently before getting to his feet. “Anyway, we’re out of cough medicine and, like. Medicine in general. So I’m going to run to the pharmacy. Please use my futon if you’re going to go back to sleep, Hanazawa-kun.” Teru offers Kageyama a weak smile and a thumbs up and then, as quickly as that, he’s left alone again.
With a sigh, Teru scoots over to the futon and rolls underneath the covers. At least he can get a bit of shut-eye in this terrible situation…
---
“And he didn’t tell you he was having symptoms earlier?” Ritsu sighs. Mob can vividly picture him pressing his fingers against his temples.
“No,” Mob shakes his head, waiting a couple seconds after the light turns to walk.
“Look, I mean, I know he’s always been bad about not wanting to ‘show weakness’ or whatever,” Ritsu mutters, “But usually it just means getting himself into trouble. If he got you sick…”
“Does it just spread like a cold?” Mob feels goosebumps. The way Ritsu had described mono had made it sound like the end of the world.
“No, no, just through saliva, so you should be fine…” Ritsu mutters, then pauses. “...Right?”
“Oh so, like, sharing food and stuff?”
“Yeah. Among… other things.”
Mob hears Shou shout something in the background which causes Ritsu to groan.
“Sorry, gotta go, Suzuki’s being an idiot,” Ritsu shouts over whatever Shou is yelling, “Talk to you later.”
The door to the pharmacy slides open as the line goes dead.
…Other things?
As he browses the aisles for fever medication he pulls up the google search results for mononucleosis on his flip phone, anxiety growing as the device desperately tries to load the webpage. Maybe he should take Hanazawa’s offer to buy him a new one.
“Mononucleosis, also known as the kissing disease-”
He doesn’t even get to read the rest of the page as realization hits him. Oh. No wonder he had been so cagey about it. He pulls a package of acetaminophen off the shelf, heart in his throat. He knows Hanazawa is popular, he knows he’s had girlfriends before, has kissed people before.
But why does the reminder feel so… wrong?
He stands in line, a handful of goods precariously pressed against his chest. He probably should have had the foresight to grab a basket, but the thought of giving up his place in line 10 minutes from the store closing just to make holding these slightly easier for a couple of minutes didn’t seem particularly appealing at the moment. As the couple in front of him walks away with their bag of five hour energies, Mob feels his gaze linger on their intertwined hands a moment too long.
“Something on your mind, kid?” The woman behind the counter says, a gentle smile crossing her worn and wrinkled face.
“Oh, uh…” he probably shouldn’t bother this random stranger with whatever thoughts are running through his head right now. “No, not really, just…” in his attempt to set his miscellaneous items on the counter he ends up dropping several packages of cough drops and ibuprofen on the floor. He shoots her an apologetic smile and scrambles to pick them up.
“These all for you?” she asks.
“No, ma’am,” he shakes his head, “For a… a friend.”
“A friend?” she raises an eyebrow.
“I… yes.” he nods. As much as I wish it was more…
“Your friend must be very lucky to have you,” she hums, scanning his items, “Someone who’d go all this way just to help him.”
“Well,” he sighs, “I don’t know. I feel like I’m not- we don’t get to see each other so much.”
“Oh?” she freezes mid scan. A customer behind Mob coughs.
“I mean, he always seems so busy,” he sighs, feeling the words tumble out, “I want to see him more but every time we meet up he always talks about how busy he is, so I always feel bad just calling him and asking to hang out. And now I invite him over to my house and he goes out of his way to come over even though he’s sick-” He sighs, hands clenching, “I’ve been trying to get better at doing what I want to do and saying what I want to say but it’s so hard sometimes.”
“Well?” The woman asks. One of the twenty people in line puts their items back on the shelf and walks out the door. “What do you want to do now?”
“I want…” the realization hits him, knocking the air from his lungs, “I want to ask him out.”
“Well,” the woman scans the last of his items and hands him his bag, “What are you waiting for?”
---
Teru’s half-sleep is interrupted by the sound of the front door shutting.
“Wh…” Teru mumbles, rubbing at his eyes as realization slowly begins to dawn on him. Shit. Shit, he slept for too long and now Kageyama is home and he’s going to have to carry on this stupid lie just so he doesn’t look like a complete idiot in front of his crush. He scrambles to sit up but his whole body feels like lead and his arms feel like Jello and, god, wouldn’t it be nice to just lay back down?
“Hanazawa-kun?” Kageyama asks as he peaks open the door. Teru picks his head up from where he’s struggling to sit upright and offers him a weak smile.
“Hi,” he says, voice scratchy and hoarse. Kageyama steps into the room with his little plastic baggie of medication and makes his way over to Teru, kneeling beside the futon so he can present the bag to him. Teru sits up and takes it from him and peeks inside, spotting a bottle of Gatorade along with some various boxes of pills.
“There’s a nasal decongestant, and fever medication, and, um…some other stuff.” Kageyama explains, pointing inside the bag. Teru grabs the boxes of medication and decides to take one of each, just so Kageyama didn’t buy everything for nothing. He pops them all in his mouth and sips the orange Gatorade, thankful for something to soothe his achy throat. When it’s all said and done, Teru smiles at Kageyama thankfully, the boy returning it in kind.
A beat. Tension hangs heavy over the two.
“Um, Kageyama-kun, I--”
“Hanazawa-kun, I have to--”
The two stare at each other, their words tumbling out and over the other. Teru lets out a little laugh.
“Um, you can go first.” He says, gesturing towards him. Kageyama shakes his head.
“No, you can go, it’s fine.”
Teru nods and then steels himself, preparing what he’s going to say next.
“Um, so I kind of maybe sort of possibly…lied. About having mono.” He says, looking away. “I don’t have it. I never did. Sometimes, when I lose at something, I get something I’ve dubbed a ‘failure fever’. They can range from pretty mild to really bad, but ultimately they’re nothing all that serious.” He turns back to Kageyama, offering him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry I lied to you, Kageyama-kun, I just didn’t want you to realize I had gotten this way because of Guitar Hero 3 …” Surprisingly, Kageyama doesn’t look shocked or offended or even the slightest bit mad.
If anything, he looks relieved.
“Oh, is it not contagious then?” Kageyama asks, a hopeful glint in his eye. Teru nods. “So, then I can kiss you?” Teru nods again, looking slightly guilty, before--hey, wait a second. What did he just say?
“Wh--What was that?” Teru’s voice comes out in a terrible squeak. Kageyama smiles.
“I can kiss you if it’s not contagious, right?” He repeats himself. Teru feels all his blood rush into his head as he nods as fervently as he can muster.
“I MEAN YEAH HAHA IF YOU WANT!!!” He almost immediately regrets being that forward just in case this is some sort of joke. “I…I mean just kidding!!! Haha what a funny joke Kageyama-ku--” He’s very immediately shut up by a pair of lips gently pressing to his in a quick, chaste kiss.
When Kageyama moves back, Teru gapes at him in awe.
“What I wanted to say was that I like you,” Kageyama says, still smiling that gentle, warm smile that does terrible things to the rhythm of Teru’s heart. “And I’m glad you don’t have mono.”
“Y-Yeah…Me too…” Teru breathes out. “Can we, uh. Can we do that again?” Kageyama blushes before nodding, leaning back to meet Teru in a lingering kiss. Teru daringly reaches out and cups the side of Kageyama’s face, tilting his head ever-so-slightly. His heart pounds as they break apart once more, a dopey grin definitely plastered on his features as he looks at Kageyama with all the warmth and fondness he can muster.
Then, as if on cue, his phone buzzes.
Teru looks down at it, pulling up the Awakening Lab groupchat that suddenly has several messages.
THE AWAKENED (LOL)
GUY FIERY
hey guys so it turns out rei wasn’t fucking around
GUY FIERY
i have mono
THE GREATEST PSY…
no fucking way bro me too
ROBLOX
i thought it was just me
MINECRAFT
me too
Teru stares up at Kageyama, the beautiful boy that he just kissed twice, and feels like the biggest asshole in the world.
“So, um, about that mono thing…”
---
Teru lifts his head at the sound of the door sliding open to see Ritsu standing in full quarantine garb, goggles borrowed from his chemistry club over two masks, holding a tray with two bowls of soup in his gloved hands.
“Hiiiiiiiii little brother~” Teru sniffles. The Kageyama’s had graciously allowed him to stay at their house while he recovered, and it was giving him plenty of time to spend with his new… well, they were still working on a label for it.
“Ritsu!” Shigeo says with all the enthusiasm his voice can muster, followed by a weak cough. Ritsu sets the bowls on the floor a couple feet away from them and Shigeo floats the tray towards them. As Teru picks up his own bowl he watches out of the corner of his eye as Shigeo takes a sip from his own, then holds it out to Ritsu.
“Oh, it’s so good, you want to try some?” Shigeo says with a smirk. Teru laughs like it’s the funniest joke he has ever heard.
Ritsu stares deadpan at them, stepping back and closing the door.
God those two were stupid.