Third Time Lucky?

Chapter 3: Home

"So, let me get this straight." Kei was sitting on a sofa in Koushi's flat; it wasn't a very big flat. There were four and a half rooms in the whole thing: the bathroom, Koushi's room, his roommate's room and the kitchen/ living room combo. None of the rooms were all that big either, if he were to reach behind him Kei would be able to touch the sink in the kitchen half of the room- the different halves were made clear by the change from stained lino to equally stained carpet.

"Is it possible for anything to be 'straight' when there's only us two in the room? Neither of us will ever be straight."

"Kei, I don't need your sass at such an important time, thank you very much. That sass wasn't even very witty or original which means that you're just trying to distract me and avoid the topic. I know you, remember?" Koushi pointed at Kei from the armchair with the brush of the silvery-blue nail varnish he was applying to his toes and Kei tried not to laugh because it was impossible to take him seriously with the mint green face mask he was wearing. "So, let me get this gay. You got lost and ran into our least favourite stray cat-"

"Who's our favourite?"

"Yaku." Koushi didn't even hesitate. "With Kai and Kenma as close seconds."

"Why's Yaku our favourite? I didn't know that you talked to him all that often. Did he end up at Waseda too? Is that why?"

"Well, yes and no." Suga went back to painting his toenails, his duck toe spacers making it much easier for him to gossip and paint at the same time. "He does go to Waseda with Oikawa-kun and I but I talked to him a lot before that."

"How come?"

"The mom squad." He blew on his left toes. "When I first met him at camp, I realised that he was the mother of his team, though he does have very different parenting methods to myself. Come to think of it, his mothering technique is very similar to that of Iwaizumi-san. Violent but caring, y'know?"

"Who else is in this volleyball mom squad of yours?"

"Well of course there's me, the founder and only member with a reliable team dad, and Yaku, my first ally. Then there's Ennoshita, still adjusting to being a full-time mom with a team dad that's more like one of the kids. Akaashi from Fukurodani, I think you're friends with him already. His job has gotten so much easier now that he no longer has to look after Bokuto, but now he has nothing to complain about on the group chat."

"There's a group chat?"

"What do you take me for Kei? Of course, there's a group chat! I'm also in a pretty setter squad and that has a group chat too. The mom squad is mostly tired people complaining and the pretty setter squad is basically Seijou vs. Shiratorizawa while everyone else laughs at them, eggs them on or is just done with them."

"I'm glad that I'm a middle blocker and a problem child; I don't have to deal with that."

"They're fun people and I love 'em but yeah, there are days when I'm just like 'Can everyone just not?', y'know?"

"I can only relate to the second half of that statement."

"I'm sure that Kenma would agree with you. I find it funny that he probably spends the most time on the internet and he's always lurking in the back of the group chat but he contributes so little that I keep forgetting he's in the chat."

"That was me in the Karasuno group chat."

"I know. I was in that one as well, believe it or not."

"Ha ha. So who else is in your mom squad?"

"Iwaizumi-san, he's a very reluctant member, but, considering how high-key the entirety of Seijou is and the fact that none of them have died yet, I think that he's the most deserving of the title of 'Team Mom'. And, most recent but no less welcome, Moniwa from Date Tech. I love Moniwa; he's just so pure and beautiful as a person. It's a welcome change because all our friends are assholes."