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“Uwahhhh… Here at last!” Ittetsu groaned with relief as soon as the soles of his tennis shoes hit the ground. He immediately fell into a squat, his muscles tingling at the pleasant stretch after hours of being cooped up in transit. He stretched his arms out in front of him, too, and his fingertips kissed the water-slicked concrete of the sidewalk. A fine misty rain sprinkled over Tokyo, refracting the light of the golden streetlamps and the silvery sheen of the stars. It seemed like bits of silver and gold were raining down upon the Karasuno volleyball team as they filed out of the bus. The thought made Ittetsu smile in delight; it was no less than his little champions-to-be deserved!
“Ugh. I agree,” Keishin huffed, sinking into a squat beside Ittetsu no sooner than he’d stepped off the bus. He clenched his teeth as one of his knees cracked loudly. When a few of the players looked at him with devious grins, he barked, “If I hear one crack about me bein’ old from the lot of ya, I’m makin’ ya run laps around the hotel, got it?”
“You’re the one who said it, coach, not me,” Ryūnosuke quipped. Chikara gave him a high-five, and snickers rippled through the group of teenagers.
Keishin just rolled his eyes and stuck a cigarette between his teeth. He flicked open his lighter, and the flame ignited his face in an orange hue as he held it to the end of the cigarette. Once it began to smolder and burn, he snapped the lighter shut and took a deep drag of the smoke. He breathed it out through his nose, and Ittetsu wrinkled his own as the acrid scent of burning tobacco wafted into his face.
“Buncha brats…” Yet his soft tone and the endeared smile on Keishin’s lips betrayed his affection for them. Ittetsu had really lucked out, landing a partner like Keishin. He never would have been able to get the boys this far on his own. He must have been admiring Keishin with some dreamy, starry-eyed gaze because the man peered at him out of the corners of his eyes. “Eh? What’s that look for?”
“Mmm, just thinking about how far our little team has come,” Ittetsu chuckled.
Keishin snorted and took another drag of the cigarette.
“These brats still have a long way to go. Don’t get complacent.”
“Never!” Ittetsu asserted with a firm shake of his head. Like his beloved pupils, he would ever strive for greater and greater heights! There was no mountain that he could not summit.
That is, except for his crush on one Keishin Ukai.
Ittetsu blushed when the motion of Keishin pulling the cigarette from his mouth again made their shoulders brush. Though it was just the slightest of touches, barely more than a rub of the fabric of their shirts, it sent electricity zinging through his nerves. He turned his face away, not trusting the pale gloom to hide the blush rising to his cheeks. Oh, how had it come to this? It had crept up on him so slowly, so insidiously, and now there was nothing for it. Ittetsu was down bad for Keishin.
He was a grown man! Not some bungling teenager! He could just be upfront and honest about his feelings. But every time he did, his tongue would become heavy in his mouth, like tightly-woven cotton saturated to the point of immobility. And worse, he’d never hear the end of it once the students found out! He could imagine all the teasing already. And just like that, so easily, Ittetsu would talk himself right out of doing anything about his feelings. He just sat there, tongue heavy and heart aching, trying to content himself with just stolen glances and heart palpitations and warm fuzziness flooding through him from his head to his toes.
And Keishin would keep on smoking his cigarette, totally unaware that he was being totally and helplessly pined over.
After the two of them had worked the kinks out of their stiff muscles, they followed their gaggle of boys into the hotel. The teens were milling about the lobby, chatting idly as they awaited their coaches. Ittetsu paid for their stay, secured the room keys, and then passed them out. They would report for their practice session first thing in the morning, but for now, the boys had the evening to enjoy as they wished.
“I’m puttin' tape and pencil lead in all yer doors!” Keishin warned with a stern point at the teenagers. “So don’t even think about sneakin’ out tonight!”
“Come on, they would never do something like that!” Ittetsu laughed. “They’re all good kids.”
“You must have been a boring nerd in school,” Keishin gruffed, but his smirk was playful. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants as he walked alongside Ittetsu down the hall. “I was always sneakin’ out in the middle of the night to get up to trouble!”
“I could only imagine what sort of trouble you got into,” Ittetsu chuckled. He was sure that teenage Keishin was even rougher around the edges than he was now. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but you’re right. I was a goody-two-shoes as a kid. I never got into any sort of trouble.”
“Bah, there’s nothing wrong with that,” his companion said. They came to their room, and he unlocked the door before pushing it open. “If I’d paid more attention to my studies instead of sneakin’ out, I probably wouldn’t be mannin’ a convenience store.”
“But then you wouldn’t have met m—” Ittetsu’s words were cut off with a choked gasp. Keishin looked at him in confusion as he just gaped at the room, eyes nearly bugging through the lens of his glasses. Keishin raised an eyebrow, and then he turned to see what Ittetsu was so flummoxed about.
His jaw nearly hit the floor, too, when he realized that their hotel room only had one bed.
“This… This has to be a mistake, right?” Ittetsu laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck. Be cool, be cool, he told himself even as his heart was doing his best to explode out of his chest. One bed! One bed! Oh, it was too easy to imagine himself curled up next to Keishin under a too-small blanket, the two of them creeping together bit by bit as their unconscious bodies chased the warmth that the other provided. Maybe Keishin was a rough sleeper, too, and his arm would fall over Ittetsu in the middle of the night—
It took everything within Ittetsu not to scream aloud at the mental image. He had to clamp his lips together tight to keep from letting it out. No, no, he had to pretend like nothing was wrong! A normal guy who totally wasn’t crushing on his colleague wouldn’t get overwhelmed by something as simple as a hotel room booking error! Nope, nope, nope !
“I’m terribly sorry,” the hostess apologized with fervent bows of her head when the two walked back downstairs to raise the issue. “There was indeed a booking error, but I’m afraid we’re all filled up! We don’t have any other rooms available. Please accept our sincerest apologies!”
“Tch. I figured it was about time something went wrong,” Keishin gruffed while tapping his fingers angrily against the wood of the reception desk. His nervous tic only made the poor receptionist girl fret more. The poor thing looked like she was about to burst into tears.
“Look, it’s not that big of a deal!” Ittetsu interjected, plastering a big fake smile on his face. Oh, it was most certainly a big deal, but even the idea of sleeping in the same bed as the man he was hopelessly crushing on wasn’t enough to make him berate a poor customer service worker who probably didn’t even make the mistake. “It’s just one night. Tomorrow we can go out and buy an air mattress or something.”
“You sure?” Keishin asked him with a raised eyebrow. Ittetsu hoped that he wasn’t blushing as hard as it felt like; his cheeks were literally on fire right now.
“Yep!” he chirped. Was his voice as squeaky as it sounded in his own ears? He prayed not. “After all, the school paid for the rooms, not me.” His lame attempt at a joke just made Keishin sniff. But he didn’t argue, just pushed away from the reception desk to march back upstairs. The employee released a wheedling whine as she sank down into her chair, looking hopelessly frazzled.
Ittetsu put a few extra yen bills in her tip jar to make up for giving her such a fright.
“All right, well, how do you want to do this?” Keishin asked Ittetsu when he walked into the room. The blond was standing at the edge of the futon, his eyebrows pinched as he regarded it doubtfully. Ooof, it looked even smaller up close, Ittetsu realized in dismay. He almost debated just telling Keishin to keep it for himself while he slept on the floor, but then the air conditioner kicked on and flooded the room with a chill. He shivered that thought away almost immediately.
“We’ll just have to make do,” Ittetsu said with a wan smile. He walked to the nearby closet, hoping beyond hope that there would be a spare futon in there. No such luck—just spare pillows and blankets. He grabbed them anyway and carried them over to the center of the room. He used the blankets to extend the futon as much as he could without making it to where he would be able to feel the hardwood floor through the fabric. “It’ll be a tight fit, but this should be a bit… more… comfortable…”
His words died in his throat because when he looked up, Keishin was pulling off his tee-shirt.
Ittetsu opened his mouth, shut it, then let it fall open again. Of course he knew that Keishin would be fit, given his years of playing volleyball—but understanding and seeing were two totally different things. Ittetsu couldn’t help but let his eyes rove over the planes of Keishin’s chest, admiring the rigid muscles cushioned by a soft layer of plush from years of retirement.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Keishin said, and Ittetsu hastily dropped his gaze down to the futon before his face could do something stupid. “I sleep hot. If I slept with that shirt on, I’d sweat myself into dehydration.”
“It’s fine,” Ittetsu rasped. He dared not look up, lest he catch sight of Keishin again. He kept his eyes trained on the blankets while he slapped around to his left with his hand, blindly fumbling for his bag. He finally found it and dragged it over so he could fish out his water bottle. He drained the entire thing to its dregs, yet his mouth still felt as dry as sandpaper when he finished.
Oh, this was going to be a long night.
He and Keishin slept back-to-back. Ittetsu thought it would make him be able to forget that he was even there and nod off to sleep. However, Keishin was right—he did sleep hot. Heat rolled off of Keishin in waves, trapping itself in the thin strip of space between them. It made Ittetsu’s shirt stick to his back with sweat. Not like he wasn’t already sweating bullets from the constant affirmation that he was sharing a bed with Keishin.
It could have been five hours, or it could have been five minutes; time seemed endless at this point. But eventually, Ittetsu slowly turned his head to peer over his shoulder at Keishin. His heart nearly jumped into his throat when he saw not the back of Keishin’s head, but his face, framed by the moonlight streaming in through the window. When had he turned around? Ittetsu had felt him shift now and then, but he hadn’t expected the guy to have rolled over!
Breath caught in his throat, Ittetsu just stared. He wouldn’t think he would ever use the world beautiful to describe Keishin Ukai, but it was the only work coming to mind. The moonlight danced over his face, which was softened with sleep; all the ridges and lines that Ittetsu was so used to were gone, replaced by the gentle curves of peace. Ittetsu found himself fascinated rather than unsettled. It was so entrancing, this new side of Keishin that he’d never seen, that he found himself rolling over to face him.
Keishin was dead asleep, he told himself as he reached out a trembling hand. Just one touch. Just one touch and I’ll be satisfied.
As soon as the pads of Ittetsu’s fingers grazed the softness of the skin just at the corner of his mouth, Keishin’s eye cracked open.
Ittetsu froze. He didn’t even have the sense to snatch his hand back and pretend like he was doing something innocuous. He just stared, caught red-handed but unable to relinquish the divine feeling of smooth skin under his fingers. Keishin’s eye glittered in the moonlight, hazy with sleep yet frighteningly lucid at the same time.
“You’re not very good at it, you know,” Keishin finally said. It was a rumbling purr, a low voice dripping with sleep. It finally snapped Ittetsu out of his trance, and he looked at him quizzically.
“Wh-what?”
“Hiding it,” Keishin explained. His lips were curling up into a smirk, and Ittetsu could feel the muscles moving under his touch. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice you blushing like a schoolgirl all the time? Or you nearly fainting at the idea of sharing a bed with me? Give me some credit here.”
Well, Keishin certainly couldn’t miss the way Ittetsu was blushing now. The moonlight illuminated the red spreading across his face, like red ink spreading across pale fabric. While Ittetsu continued to stare at him in a mixture of horror and expectation, Keishin let out a long hum and turned his face so that the edge of his nose bumped Ittetsu’s fingertips. Electricity sparked up the length of Ittetsu’s arm, jump-starting his brain enough to be able to get his tongue to voice the one thought that was present in his mind.
“Why?”
“Can’t help it. You’re cute when you’re flustered,” Keishin answered simply. The blankets shifted as Keishin snaked his arm out from underneath them. He caught Ittetsu’s hand and turned it over so he could begin idly tracing patterns into his palm, which made Ittetsu’s heart jump in his chest. “I suppose that was a little mean of me, but you wouldn’t have it other way, would you?” Keishin turned those glittering eyes on him, and Ittetsu melted.
“No,” he admitted in a breathy giggle.
“Good. Then come here.”
Ittetsu wasted no time. He obliterated the space between them, throwing his arms around Keishin’s sturdy body so he could press as close as he could. He couldn’t help but let out a pleased hum as he pressed his nose into his sternum. He smelled like cinnamon and cigarette smoke; the scent clouded his mind, lulling him finally into that sleepy twilight of half-sleep.
“So… Does this mean no air mattress?” Ittetsu asked him, followed by a tiny yawn. Keishin’s chest rocked with his laugh, bouncing Ittetsu’s head a little.
“Only if you can avoid dying of hyperthermia,” the other man answered. As Keishin held him close, tucking his chin atop Ittetsu’s head to envelop him completely in his warmth, Ittetsu figured that wouldn’t be a bad way to go at all.