#theyre just soft kiddos i love them so muc
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Title: Rest
Summary: Sometimes you just need a break.
(Queerplatonic KageHina, soft kiddos, cuddling, future fic, living together, late-night comfort and warmth)
Read on AO3
Tobio doesn’t know what woke him up. Or when he fell asleep.
He sits up straight, ignoring the awful crick in his neck. There’s a piece of paper stuck to the side of his face, damp and crinkled with sweat, and even the dim light of desk lamp is enough to make his eyes water. Drawn curtains shield a dark, cloudy outside.
Tobio blinks out into space until his eyes adjust. His textbooks are spread on the desk in front of him, along with a plethora of scattered pages and pencils and highlighters. Stifling a yawn, he reaches for his phone and checks the time. Before he gets the chance, he’s distracted by a message just below it.
[Dumbass ❤] [Yesterday - 11:31pm]
gonna be home late again, sorry
you dont have to wait up for me, i have my key
The digital clock reads 1:04am.
Tobio bites the inside of his cheek, hard. Shouyou’s been working godforsaken hours lately and always comes home exhausted; Tobio always does his best to be up when he gets home, so they can eat dinner together or doze on the couch watching a movie. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep.
He leans back in the chair, more awake now, and sends a response.
[Kageyama Tobio] [1:05am]
Are you still at work?
How late are they keeping you?
He keeps refreshing the screen, trying not to worry. His foot taps at the carpet anyway.
[Dumbass ❤] [1:06am]
jyst got home. on the cough
couch
m gonna go to sleep
Tobio swings himself to his feet, flicks off the desk lamp and shuffles from the bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room.
Their apartment is a small one, fit to accommodate a single person, but it’s never given them any issues. A good portion of the furnishings came from their Karasuno team, who were so ecstatic for them that they went against their wishes and bought them a whole amalgamation of furniture and supplies. They even helped paint the fixer-upper.
The hall light is on. Shouyou’s shoes are tossed by the genkan, but it seems more or less like he flung them there as an afterthought. His bag, employee visor and set of keys are on the coffee table, also thrown haphazardly, and Shouyou has wrapped himself into a fetal position on the couch, still in his coffee shop uniform, with a blanket half-drawn over his legs like he’d given up midway.
Quiet as he tried, Shouyou must have heard his footsteps, because he stirs. “Tobio?”
“Yeah.” Tobio keeps his voice low. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“S’okay,” Shouyou murmurs without opening his eyes. “Good to see you…”
Tobio smiles—something he hadn’t done a lot of before he met Shouyou—and settles on the couch by Shouyou’s head, careful not to jostle him. Shouyou responds by rolling over and digging his forehead into Tobio’s thigh.
“Long day?”
Shouyou nods. “Customer service sucks.”
“Yeah. I don’t know how you do it, honestly.” He used to hesitate when touching Shouyou, but now he runs a hand through his hair and it’s the easiest thing in the world. “I grabbed takeout earlier, I could reheat some for you if you want.”
“No, s’okay. I’d probably fall asleep in it. Thank you.” Tobio hums softly. “How’ws your day?”
“Pretty alright. Dropped a plate. Chef was pissed, you should’ve seen him, he had smoke coming out of his ears.”
Shouyou giggles, and it’s enough to make Tobio smile again. “But he didn’t fire you?”
“Nah. He apologized later, actually. It was pretty stressful in the kitchen today. One of the chefs was off their game, kept making the sauces wrong. I’m glad I’m just a dishwasher because the waiting staff was pretty stressed.”
“Oh nooo.”
“Yeah. It’s alright, though, everyone’s alright. We made it through the day without a lot of hassle. Tomorrow’ll be better.”
“That’s good.”
“Mm.” Tobio keeps stroking his hair. “How about your day?”
Shouyou makes a small noise of discomfort and burrows closer. “It was… it sucked a lot, not gonna lie. No one seemed like they knew what was going on, there was a new trainee so I was helping him, the manager never showed up, so Tamiko tried taking over but he didn’t know what he was doing a-and…” He stops himself there, curling his fists into the couch and sighing hard. “I’m just. G-Glad it’s over.”
“God, yeah, that sounds shitty.”
“It was.”
“Are you going in tomorrow?”
Shouyou shakes his head, the movement small but sure. “I… I can’t. M’not feeling well. I have a lot of sick days I didn’t use s-so… it—it’ll be okay.”
He says it like he’s trying to convince himself, or justify it in his head. Admittedly, Tobio is surprised, because there have been times when he’s had to physically keep Shouyou from going into work when he was sick or overworked. This is a huge step for him, taking care of himself, but it’s also an uncertain step for him judging by the tone of his voice. And Tobio can hear it; the unasked question that he’s desperate for an answer to. Shouyou doesn’t need to ask it for Tobio to know.
“Good, yeah, stay home,” Tobio says, nodding. He settles his arm around Shouyou’s shoulders and pulls him closer into his side. “If you don’t take time for yourself now, you’re gonna have to take twice as much time to recover later. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Shouyou nods, curling closer. “Yeah. Thanks.”
Tobio hums, Shouyou goes quiet, and Tobio takes this time to properly examine Shouyou’s features. It’s tricky in the dim lighting, but those dark circles around his eyes aren’t hard to miss. He looks simultaneously older and younger than he is. His hair has the knots and disarray of someone who’s been wearing a hat all day, and he still smells like coffee and plastic, so chances are he hadn’t showered when he came in. And he’s still in his uniform, too, sleeves bunched at the elbows and collar buttons undone. He’s still got his nametag on, actually, which Tobio removes carefully and sets on the coffee table.
Their work schedules are simple ones: Tobio’s shift down at the American-style grill ends around three in the afternoon (it only serves lunch); Shouyou’s usual shift ends somewhere around nine o’clock at night. It’s as simple as that.
But it’s past 1am now. For the third time this week—and probably the tenth time this month.
Tobio lets his hand drift from his hair to his shoulder and tries not to sigh. “You need to stop covering for your coworkers so much, Shou.”
“S’not always laziness,” Shouyou murmurs, a little disheveled now. He’s always so resolute about this, every time they have this conversation. It’s in his heart to be kind and helpful, to the point where sometimes it takes a long time for him to realize he’s being used. But that’s okay; Tobio can help with that. “S-Sometimes they just can’t make it…”
“If they can’t make it, then they can’t make it,” Tobio responds, letting his thumb swipe Shouyou’s hair off his temple. He feels a bit warmer than he should. “But if you keep coming in early and staying up late for them, they’re never going to learn. They’ll just use you as a doormat.”
Shouyou doesn’t reply, which usually means he can’t argue. Tobio sighs and squeezes his shoulder.
“I know you don’t like feeling like you’re letting anyone down,” he says, “but they aren’t your responsibility. Besides, they’re the ones letting you down in this situation. Don’t cover for them anymore, ‘kay?”
“Wh-What if they hate me? What if they really, really need help one day, and—”
“This isn’t a ‘one day’ thing, Shou. And if you think they genuinely need help, then you can make that call. I’ll help you. But you can’t keep doing this, you’re just hurting yourself.”
“B-But, I—”
“Look at yourself. You’re exhausted, Shouyou, you’ve been exhausted all month and it isn’t healthy. If your coworkers really hate you for not doing their job for them, they’ve got another thing coming. It’ll be okay.”
Shouyou takes his time thinking about it. Tobio has never been exactly patient, but he can be patient with Shouyou. Especially when he’s this out of it.
“... You’re right. I-I’ll try not to.”
Chances are it isn’t as easy as that, but Tobio will take it. “Good.”
Shouyou falls silent again, and Tobio gets more comfortable on the couch, leaning into the arm of it and maneuvering Shouyou until his head is settled on his chest and they can put their arms around each other. Shouyou’s breath stutters on the way in and out, and his heartbeat is just a little faster than normal. His weight is warm and familiar but limp and still. ‘Still’ should never describe Shouyou.
Tobio tugs him closer and draws a deep breath. He really is exhausted, huh…
“Hey,” Tobio murmurs into his hair. “You still with me?”
“Mmnn.”
“We should go to bed.”
“Mmmnnn.” A pause, so long that Tobio thinks he might’ve just up and fallen asleep. “H… Have you studied for the English exam…?”
“Not yet.” Tobio smooths back his hair. “We can work on it tomorrow.”
“I was gonna do some of it tonight…”
“You’ll be able to focus better after you’ve slept, it’s alright. Come on.”
Tobio doesn’t try to make him walk. He swings his legs off the couch, settles one arm under Shouyou’s knees and the other around his shoulders, and gets to his feet. Shouyou makes a small, almost confused sound, but is too exhausted to do much else. He tucks his head under Tobio’s chin and Tobio holds him close.
The bedroom is barely a five second walk from the living room on a normal day, but it takes about three times as long this time, with Tobio moving slowly to avoid jostling Shouyou. Shouyou had been fairly dead to the world before, but now he’s even more so, teetering on the edge of sleep, bundled and warm and safe in Tobio’s arms, like all is well with the world.
And, Tobio is glad that he feels this safe with him, that he trusts him this much. Shouyou draws in stress as easily as people draw in air; seeing those lines on his face finally smooth out settles the leftover worry in Tobio’s chest.
Shouyou is pretty much asleep by the time Tobio crosses from the hall into the bedroom, and he makes the executive decision not to nag Shouyou about getting out of his work clothes and into something more comfortable. He seems comfortable enough already, and waking him up risks him not being able to fall asleep again. They can wash the sheets tomorrow, anyway, it doesn’t matter.
Tobio lets him down gently, and snorts when Shouyou’s fingers twist into the collar of his shirt. “I’m gonna drop you if you don’t let me go, dumbass,” he murmurs without bite. ‘Dumbass’ has become some sort of weird… term of endearment. He doesn’t know how else to describe it, but there’s no malice behind it. There never was.
Shouyou murmurs under his breath, incoherent, and Tobio rolls his eyes and pries his fingers off carefully.
“I’m coming back,” Tobio huffs, tossing the blankets over him, “I just need to turn out the lights. Gimme a sec.”
Shouyou blinks up at him slowly and dazedly, and Tobio takes a moment to press their foreheads together before heading into the living room.
‘Turning off the lights’ ends up being more than just that. He starts with locking the deadbolt, which Shouyou forgot to do on his way in (it’s a habit of his, which is why Tobio picked up the habit of checking all the doors before bed), and then he makes sure he really did put the takeout in the fridge because it’d be sad to wake up and realize he’d left it out all night (which is his bad habit that Shouyou usually balances out). He finds Shouyou’s phone on the coffee table, unlocks it (his and Tobio’s passwords are the same; the day they went to the Spring Tournament) and silences all Shouyou’s morning alarms.
The earliest one is set for 3:15am.
Tobio sighs heavily, powers down the device, and then he finally turns out the lights and returns to the bedroom.
Shouyou is completely out now, his breaths a gentle lull in the otherwise quiet room. Tobio enters as silently as he can, draping his jacket over the desk chair before settling in beside his best friend. They don’t have a name for what their relationship is yet, but they’ve never needed one. With or without a definition, they know what they have. And what they have is uniquely theirs and so, so precious.
When he’s sure Shouyou is soundly asleep, he envelops him in his arms and pulls him close, ignoring the scent of old coffee and instead relishing in his familiar warmth. Like clockwork, Shouyou’s arms immediately come to wind around Tobio’s waist and he snuggles closer, and Tobio doesn’t know what he did to deserve this. To deserve him.
“T’bi...?”
“Shh. Sorry. I’m back.” He detangles some of the knots in Shouyou’s wild hair and smooths it back gently. “Go back to sleep.”
“Mm.” Shouyou breathes a long sigh of relief, letting his head rest fully against Tobio’s chest. “M’l’v y…”
Tobio snorts, holding him closer. “I love you, too, stupid,” he whispers. It feels like a promise, and his heart is so warm. “Get some rest.”
Shouyou makes a small, incoherent muffle of agreement, and Tobio shuts his eyes and lets the warmth and calm and peace wash over him.
He doesn’t know what to call this special thing of his and Shouyou’s, but he doesn’t need to know. Shouyou’s never cared, and neither has he. All that matters is what they do know, and that is that they have each other, they love each other, and they wouldn’t trade it for the world.
#haikyuu!!#hq#fanfic#fanfiction#kageyama tobio#hinata shouyou#kagehina#qpr kagehina#queerplatonic#fluff#comfort#soft kiddos#cloud writes#hugs#cuddling#theyre just soft kiddos i love them so muc#hhh
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