BOOMERS ⋆ ushijima wakatoshi ✔︎

𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺-𝘵𝘸𝘰

friday 11:55 pm

yanking tani's arm, a very drunk tooru dragged his sister toward the elevators as the large group of boys—and 1 girl—decided to head to the pool.

it was quite a funny sight, 11 boys running around a hotel in only their swimsuits like a bunch of children. well, 10, plus ushijima, who'd only had a couple shots and wasn't drunk off his ass. tani laughed to herself at the situation.

it was one of the most fun nights she'd had in all of high school, and it was only midnight.

she'd only had about three shots, but as a lightweight, she was pretty tipsy—definitely not her usual composed and motherly self, but still fully aware of everything she said and did.

meanwhile, kuroo and bokuto decided to compete and were going on 12 shots each.

the group made it to the empty pool, and despite the fact that she was pretty tipsy, tani got worried about her wasted friends' safety and decided to sit in the hot tub instead with ushijima so that she could keep an eye on them all.

"god, they're insane," she laughed, watching amusedly at tendou, bokuto, kuroo, and lev chicken fighting in the pool. tendou and bokuto sat on top of lev and kuroo's shoulders, respectively, trying to knock one another down.

on the other side of the pool, yaku, tooru, iwaizumi, and konoha were having a cannonball contest to see who could make the biggest splash while kenma and akaashi, who were usually pretty quiet, laughed uncontrollably at something.

"i feel like i'm their parent," ushijima joked, "having to watch over them so they don't literally die."

tani chuckled at his comment. "i'm not sure about you, but my mom would NOT allow this- if she knew this was going on, tooru and i would be in deep shit. like, never being able to leave the house again until we die, deep shit."

ushijima smiled a closed-lipped smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners, which tani loved the sight of. "no, same," he said, before adding, "you know, it's really quite funny when you swear."

tani turned back to him with a bashful look on her face. "why?" she chuckled.

he shrugged. "i don't know, my first impression of you was that you're more soft and caring. like... a mom, i guess. and i mean you definitely are, but there's more sides to you." he broke eye contact to look behind her before returning his eyes back to her own. "i like that about you."

tani's heart skipped a beat, and she felt her face heat up. for a second, she almost thought he was going to say that he liked her.

"well, i mean, when you have to deal with tooru and iwa for your entire life, you kind of become a mother to everyone," she laughed. "but i like it. it's fulfilling. but when i'm with my girl cousins, who have always been like my best friends, and i don't have to deal with a bunch of boys who always seem to need my help, i think i'm more, like, bubbly and carefree, i guess."

"do you get to see them often?"

"no, only once or twice a year, if that. they moved to america a while back- their dad is a really amazing chef. so i guess that's why tonight has been so much fun," she smiled, watching bokuto push tendou off of lev's shoulders resulting in accusations of cheating from the losers.

"do you drink much?" ushijima asked curiously. he noticed she seemed to know her limit when they were doing shots earlier as she denied any more after she hit three.

"um, not much anymore. but last winter tooru, iwa and i had a couple of friends who always wanted to when we went over so that's how i found out that any more than 7 shots in the span of an hour leads to projectile vomiting," she cringed, recalling the memory of the night she found her limit. "but we're not friends with
them anymore really. how about you? have you had much experience drinking?"

ushijima shook his head. "no, i've done shots once before at a dorm party. it was my first and only time being drunk, because we got busted and now they have a security guard monitoring the cameras at all times," he shook his head, rolling his eyes with a small smile.

tani laughed at his story. "you got busted? how bad were you in trouble?"

"well i didn't actually get caught myself- i had stumbled back to my own dorm to grab another bottle of alcohol because my teammate had asked me to keep it in my room so that no one would drink it since it was supposedly 'the good stuff.' but then i saw, i kid you not, a stampede of drunk people running away from the dorms where everyone was hanging out. so i figured we got caught and went back to my dorm. the people whose dorms the alcohol was found in got expelled and some of the drunk people who got caught got expelled too."

"oh my god how lucky!" tani laughed at his story.
"actually, i've always wondered what it's like living in the dorms for high school. how's it work?"

he scratched the back of his neck, thinking how to word his response. "well, it's kind of how you would imagine college, i guess, but with much less freedom. our floor monitors are so strict, especially after the dorm party incident during first year. but i guess it could be somewhat
compared to university. i like it but sometimes i miss home."

"that sounds really fun actually. i'd love to be surrounded by my friends all the time. i guess that's why i can't wait to go to university after this year," tani remarked.

"where are you planning to go?"

"probably the university of tokyo. i hear their education program is really good, and in all honesty i think that's what i should pursue. how about you? plans after high school?"

ushijima shrugged, trying to seem humble as he said, "i think i'm going to play volleyball professionally. i have some offers for teams already."

tani's eyes lit up. "really? wow, that's amazing! i am so proud of you!"

ushijima's heart skipped a beat. he never knew how she could manage to make him feel this way, but just her simple, honest words and knowing that she felt proud of him was enough to make his heart rate quicken and to cause butterflies to swarm in his stomach.

"thank you, tani. maybe i'll choose a team based in tokyo and we can see each other all the time," he suggested, and a warm feeling began to spread through her chest.

"well, don't choose just because of that, but i would love that!" she grinned.

ushijima opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by iwaizumi, who approached the two.

"tani, can i talk to you for a second?"

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a/n: listen i know hotel pools usually close at night but for the sake of the story just go along with it 😔😔😔

edited 9/18/23