“Be honest,” Tendou says, scratching his nails lightly on the wooden floor beneath him. “Aoba Johsai, Karasuno, and, uh, Inarizaki.”
Ushijima collects a volleyball that had scattered across the gym. When he doesn't answer, Tendou repeats himself, louder.
Ushijima looks back at him lying on his side on the floor.
“You are not helping me.”
“I am! I’m giving you emotional support,” Tendou exclaims, propping himself up on an elbow. He flutters his lashes at Ushijima.
“I do not need emotional support.”
“Tell that to your counsellor.”
“I have. She gave me a feelings wheel to colour in.”
Tendou snorts, a smile stretching across his face.
Ushijima walks across the gym to put the stray volleyball away, his echoing footsteps the only sound. Tendou adds to it by chipping at the wood beneath him as he watches. Ushijima was bringing out two mops.
He grimaces. Time for a last attempt at rescue.
“C’mon. Out of those three, who would you pick?”
Ushijima walks over to him, unbothered by the questioning.
Tendou rolls his eyes. Ushijima wasn’t even remotely interested in entertaining him. “Yes, for my game.”
Ushijima stops in front of him and shuffles the two mops into one hand before stretching out his free one to Tendou. Tendou pouts a little but grabs it, warmth spreading up his arm as Ushijima pulls him to his feet.
“The captains from each team?” Ushijima asks, passing Tendou a mop.
Tendou pouts further, hoping puppy dog eyes might save him from his fate. Ushijima doesn’t even blink.
Ushijima points to a side of the gym, and Tendou trudges over there, mop in hand but dragging behind him. He turns his head back to see Ushijima make his way to the other side of the gym.
Tendou grumbles to himself as he cleans, lamenting having to do it after practice. He mops harder than he needs to, digging into the floor. He hears Ushijima mopping, too, with no reply yet to his question. Either he was ignoring it or he was thinking deeply about it, Tendou guesses. Either way, Tendou had failed to distract Ushijima enough to keep him from noticing that he wasn’t cleaning.
Tendou hits the floor with the mop again, a little harder.
When the gym gleams under the lights and finally passes Ushijima's inspection, Tendou chucks his mop back into the storeroom, relishing its clash. He considers sticking his tongue out at the mop, too, but footsteps approach behind him.
Tendou quickly presses his face into a wall. He groans extra loudly as Ushijima passes by him into the room.
When no response comes, he turns his head to see what Ushijima is doing.
Both mops in hand, he's focused on balancing them carefully in their usual position against the wall. His face is pinched tightly in concentration, placing them just as he had found them, though Tendou knew it didn’t matter. Everyone else just dashed them in.
But not Ushijima. He cared to get things right.
Tendou takes the troublesome mops and carefully pops them into place, hooked just right on the wall. Ushijima hums, which Tendou knows is positive.
They lock the storeroom before heading out, closing the gym behind them. In the cold air, Tendou’s teeth chatter and he pulls his jacket tighter around him as he waits for Ushijima to lock the door.
His eyes flicker around them, catching the few students milling around the grounds in the last hour before curfew. Tendou sniffles, nose turning red in the cold. As he buries his chin into his jacket, he feels a warm arm wrap around his shoulder and pull him against an even warmer body.
He smiles when Ushijima kisses the side of his head.
“Oh, so I get my doting boyfriend back now that practice is done, huh?” Tendou teases, braving the cold as he moves his hand out of his pocket to jab Ushijima’s abdomen.
Ushijima plays along, letting out a small groan that Tendou laughs at. He kisses his nose next, and Tendou hopes he can blame the redness spreading to his cheeks on winter. He jabs Ushijima again.
“I’m just responding to your game,” Ushijima murmurs, moving his arm to catch Tendou’s offending hand. He intertwines their fingers and pulls Tendou even closer towards him.
Tendou furrows his brows whilst examining Ushijima’s face. “Eh?”
“Your game,” Ushijima says again, as if that's enough of an answer. When Tendou pointedly raises his eyebrows, he continues, “I would kill the others. Though not in reality. Because it is a game.”
Tendou laughs and nods. “Yeah, you’ve got it, bud. But you have to choose who else to kiss and marry. That’s the point, you can’t just kill all three of them.”
“I know,” Ushijima says matter-of-factly. Before Tendou can state Ushijima absolutely didn't know if he chose to kill the three people offered in the game, Ushijima adds, “I chose you.”
Tendou almost crumbles with adoration. He shakes his head.
“That’s sweet, ‘Toshi, but again. Not how the game works.”
To that, Ushijima doesn’t say anything. He kisses Tendou on the forehead and walks off, waiting for the other to catch up with him.
Tendou smiles and rolls his eyes, digging his hands into his pockets. He knew Ushijima wouldn’t care about that game, wouldn’t play it properly, but he thought it would at least distract Ushijima from forcing him to clean. But no. Of course Ushijima would just kill three captains and kiss him instead and -
“Wait, wait, you'd marry me? Wakatoshi! Did you just say you’d marry me?” Tendou calls out to Ushijima’s back, wind whipping his jacket around.
Ushijima doesn’t say anything, doesn’t turn around, but it doesn’t matter. He extends his hand, and it feeds the butterflies in Tendou's stomach.
He laughs despite himself, half in shock, half in love; the sound carried across the cold air. Ushijima glances back once, and it's enough.
Tendou grins and chases after him.
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