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Suga sighed, exhausted. He had lugged all of his possessions up several staircases all alone. His parents had been unable to accompany him to help him move in, and they had profusely apologized about it. He hadn’t been upset. He knew they were busy people, and they wouldn’t have missed this unless there was an unavoidable conflict.
He stood outside of the dorm that had the same room number as the little tag on his key. He glanced between the numbers on the plaque next to the door and the tag on the key chain, double and triple checking that he had the right number. Once he had finally calmed the paranoia crawling up his throat, he took a few deep breaths, and knocked on the door as a warning in case his roommate was already there, then opened the door.
He heard a small yelp and a thump. He blinked, startled, and his eyes zeroed in on the twisted mess of lanky limbs on the floor. He saw the person frantically try to disentangle themself from the blanket that had fallen on top of them.
They threw the blanket back on the back on the bed Suga assumed that they had fallen off of. He was faced with the back of a head that had artistically messy brown hair. The stranger pulled out a pair of electrically blue ear buds before turning around to get a look at Suga and…
That wasn’t a stranger at all.
“Oikawa san?”
Oikawa’s jaw dropped open, and he lifted a stiff arm to point right between Suga’s eyes, and all was able to say was:
“Karasuno!?”
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Daichi’s phone buzzed, and he rolled over in his bed to see what it was. He was slightly irked by the rude awakening, but he’d been in bed far too long this morning, and it was probably time for him to get up.
The intense light of his phone screen forced him to squeeze his eyes shut, and he groaned at the painful sting behind his eyes. Once he felt ready, he opened his eyes again, and immediately turned his brightness down.
He forced his eyes to focus on the too small letters of the notification lighting up his screen, and was surprised to see it was from the Karasuno group chat. From last year.
His face scrunched in confusion, and he didn’t even bother to read the rest of the preview of the message, and just unlocked his phone. The message was from Suga.
Suga: You’ll never guess who my roommate is
That made Daichi raise his eyebrows. Suga’s roommate could be anyone. They knew so many people in their year from volleyball, and Suga was attending a popular university in Tokyo. Maybe it was someone from Nekoma or Fukurodani who had decided they wanted to stay in Tokyo.
Daichi took a moment to think about which members of each team had been third years last year. It could be Kuroo, Bokuto, Yaku… There were definitely more, but Daichi couldn’t think of their names this early.
If he had been religious, he would’ve started praying right then and there that it wasn’t Kuroo or Bokuto. He didn’t hate them, but he also didn’t want to be stuck with them whenever he visited Suga.
He glanced back at his phone, hoping Suga had already spilled who it was, but knew that Suga liked playing games, and they wouldn’t get the answer without a few people asking about it first.
He was surprised to see three little dots at the bottom of the screen. Hinata was typing. He glanced up to check the time. It was almost the end of the team's morning practice.
It felt strange to not be there. He imagined his team sans Asahi and Suga messing around in the gym with an exasperated Ennoshita on the verge of giving up. They would have new first years too. The year had barely even started, so all of them would still be petrified by their upperclassman.
He was brought back to reality by his phone buzzing yet again, but this time it was Hinata.
Hinata: I want to know who it is, Suga senpai!
Suga began typing again, and Daichi held his breath, hoping Suga would just say it, but of course, he didn’t.
Suga: You’ve got to guess~
Hinata: But you said we wouldn’t be able to guess…
Nishinoya: Yeah, Suga san! That’s unfair
Ennoshita: Could you give us a clue?
Suga: ...Fine
Suga: They play volleyball
Daichi rolled his eyes, and quickly typed out a response.
Daichi: That’s completely unhelpful, Suga. I’d already assumed that
Suga: Boo! You’re no fun :(
Hinata: Is it Bokuto san?
Suga: Nope
Ennoshita: Kuroo san?
Suga: No again
Daichi rolled his eyes at his best friend's petulance. It wasn’t ill willed, he loved Suga, but he could be a stubborn and infuriating idiot sometimes. He was, however, very glad it wasn’t Kuroo or Bokuto.
Daichi: Is it Yaku? Nekoma’s libero?
Nishinoya: Good guess, Daichi san!
Suga: All of you are wrong!
Daichi had sighed far too much today for only having been conscious for about ten minutes. He could feel the smugness radiating from Suga’s latest message.
Ennoshita: Ok, well which guess would you say is the closest?
Suga: hmmmmm
Suga: None of them really? But maybe both Kuroo and Bokuto are the closest?
Daichi pondered what could possibly be a common factor of both Bokuto and Kuroo other than the training camp. How were those two the closest guesses? What did that even mean?
Hinata: How can two people be the closest guess?
Tsukishima: Well obviously it’s because they are both captains.
Daichi was surprised Tsukishima had decided to chime in. He usually completely ignored the group chat and got the important information from Yamaguchi, but apparently an opportunity to display his intelligence was enough to get him to reply.
Suga: ….
Yamaguchi: So it’s a captain?
Tanaka: Seems like it. Suga san is being suspicious…
Suga: I’m not going to comment
Ennoshita: Ok, so it’s definitely a captain
Daichi thought for a moment, trying to fish out all the captains they knew out of the oceans of his brain. It could be Ushijima, Kita, not Terushima, he was a second year, or it could be…
Oh no.
Daichi: It better not be Oikawa
Suga’s three dots kept appearing and disappearing at the bottom of his screen. So it was definitely him then. The rest of the chat had seemingly silently decided to not comment until Suga responded. They all waited with baited breath as Suga stopped typing yet again.
He didn’t attempt to respond again until a minute or two later. To his surprise, Daichi watched as a picture popped up in the chat. He clicked on it as fast as it could, before he could even get a look at it. His eyes widened in utter shock.
Staring back at him were both Suga and Oikawa giving cheshire cat grins to the camera. Suga was holding the camera, extending his arm above his head slightly, so that Oikawa was visible just over his left shoulder. Oikawa seemed to be sitting on one bed, and Suga seemed to be on the other which was in front of Oikawa’s.
The absolute smugness of Oikawa’s face infuriated Daichi for no reason he could think of, but he would’ve been able to handle it if he had not been holding up a cheeky little peace sign. When he was a captain, he held back his dislike for Oikawa, but now that he didn’t need to perform respectfulness for a referee, so he was free to deteste Oikawa as much as he wanted.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Suga had already cozied up to him.
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“Karasuno!?” Oikawa said, flabbergasted.
He had not been expecting to see Mr. Refreshing today. If he had, he would’ve taken more time to make himself presentable. The completely effortlessly flawless nature of Mr. Refreshing pissed him off, but it also gave him strange butterflies he didn’t want to think too hard about.
Across the room, Suga felt dread curdle in his stomach. It felt like the lining of his esophagus was tightening to restrict the flow of air into his lungs. He was not ready for this. Not a bit.
“I heard you were going to go to Argentina to play volleyball?” was what he came up with first to break the tense silence. It was not the right thing to say.
Oikawa’s face twisted into something bitter and unpleasant. He turned his eyes away to glare at the ground. Suga was paralyzed. What could possibly be so wrong that the overly confident captain he knew of would be unable to make eye contact?
“Well, that didn’t go as planned” Oikawa said resentfully, shuffling around on the ground awkwardly until his right leg was in full view. It was encased in a bulky brace.
“Oh” Suga’s eyes widened. He knew that Oikawa had been injured, but he didn’t think it was that severe. The brace seemed stiff and had four bands wrapping around his leg. Two were on his thigh, and two were on his calf. It also had two straight supports on either side that had a joint at the knee so it could bend.
Suga pulled his eyes away from where they had been glued onto the monstrosity of a brace, and took in his overall position on the floor. He inhaled sharply, and kneeled in front of him, his hand hovering over Oikawa worriedly.
“Do you need any help?” He asked.
Oikawa shook his head sharply, not saying anything, but a gloomy stormcloud seemed to settle over his features. He attempted to shuffle around so he could stand up without putting pressure on his right leg, but gave up, and started reaching for a pair of abandoned crutches on the ground that Suga had just noticed.
He debated taking pity on Oikawa and just handing him the crutches, but decided against it.
“You know, you can’t do everything by yourself”
Oikawa froze and looked at Suga. He attempted to glare, but the words were so unexpected that he only looked astounded.
“I mean, it’s my fault you are on the ground anyways. Sorry for startling you” Suga continued.
Oikawa nodded subconsciously, and let Suga gather up his crutches, and help him stand up by lifting him by the armpits. He had not expected Mr. Refreshing to be that strong. It was a very welcome surprise.
He was placed gently back on the bed, and his crutches were leaned up against the bed frame within his arms reach so he could get up if he wanted to.
“Thank… you” he said begrudgingly.
He got a blinding smile in return. “You’re welcome, Oikawa san. Would it be ok if I asked what happened to your knee?”
Oikawa sighed. Mr. Refreshing was going to be his roommate. He should try to play nice.
“It wasn’t something specific. I had an overuse injury and it just kept getting worse. I had to get surgery” he said apathetically.
Suga just nodded, not saying anything. He didn’t think anything he would say could make Oikawa feel better, so it was best to just keep quiet.
Suga straightened up from where he was leaning against the wall, and began dragging his things into the small room from where they were piled just outside the door. He began surveying the room, mapping out what he wanted to do with his half of the room. Before he could put anything away, Oikawa spoke.
“If you want to try to get a new roommate, I won’t be offended”
Suga blinked. That was not what he expected at all. It seemed Oikawa was very different from the persona he displayed on the court. It could also be that he wasn’t able to play volleyball anymore when it used to be his whole life. It was probably a mix, Suga thought.
“I’m perfectly fine having you as a roommate, Oikawa san. If you don’t want to be my roommate, that’s fine, though.”
“I think I’ll enjoy studying you, Mr. Refreshing” Oikawa purred, all undercurrents of insecurity gone.
Suga raised his eyebrows, and he gave Oikawa a slightly smug smile.
“Really now? I think it might be the other way around”
Oikawa looked stunned for a second before he took up Suga’s implicit challenge.
“I seemed to have miscalculated. I’m going to have so much fun figuring out what makes you tick”
Their intense gazes bored into each other for a few seconds until Suga’s face broke out into a genuine smile. His hazel eyes scrunched up from his wide grin, and a small tinkling laugh made its way out of his parted lips. He stepped up to Oikawa, and offered him a hand to shake, which Oikawa took without pause, giving him the least fake smile he had seen yet.
“Sugawara Koushi. Nice to actually meet you”
“I think we’ll get along splendidly, Suga chan”
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A few minutes later, their room was mostly set up. Suga had helped Oikawa do the tasks that required full use of both legs, much to Oikawa’s indignation, but he stopped his protests once he was faced with Suga’s righteous glare.
They were on their respective beds, lazily scrolling through their phones. Oikawa broke the comfortable silence.
“Your team is not going to be happy about this”
Suga snorted out a laugh. “No offense, but most of them don’t like you, to put it kindly”
“Do you?”
“Why would I dislike you? You haven’t done anything except be annoying”
“Hey!” Oikawa screeched, but Suga was already rolling around on his bed choking on his laughter.
“Wait! I have an idea” a mischievous look was already coming over Suga’s face.
Oikawa sat up, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head to the side.
Suga pulled out his phone, and rapidly typed something out. After that he held his phone out in front of himself, maneuvering it so that Oikawa was in the view of the camera.
“Smile!” he said, and took a few pictures once Oikawa posed for the picture.
“What’s that for?” Oikawa asked once Suga put his phone down.
“I’m sending it to our old team group chat”
“I’m starting to really like you, Suga chan”
“You didn’t before?” Suga asked, trying to look innocent and insecure, but he couldn’t hide the smug look on his face.
“I didn’t have an opinion about you until now,” Oikawa said. It was a complete lie, but he wasn’t going to tell Suga that he actually admired his skills and bond with his team, and maybe stared at him for a bit too long when they had played against each other.
He didn’t need to know.
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Back in Miyagi, Kageyama was having a mental breakdown in the corner of the Karasuno gym. The picture of Suga and Oikawa was displayed on his phone screen lying next to him.