20th Year of December

Regret

It's cold out here.

And yet Tobio didn't want to go home.

The bruises and scratches on his arm still hurt and throbbing. He was afraid of what could have happened if he returns home now. Surely the monster would still be there.

'That was a monster. It's not mom,'

Even as he tried to convince himself, he couldn't forget the look on his mother's eyes as she dragged him by the wrist hard enough to bruise.

"What are you doing here?"

The person in front of him is smiling and it calmed Tobio down to see that it wasn't his mother. He flinched when the person took his hand in their gloved ones but calmed down as his hand grew warm.

But something is wrong here.

"Tobio!"

The person flinched and released his hand while Tobio stiffened upon seeing his mother move closer to him. Upon seeing her up close, however, Tobio realises that this is his mother. Not the monster.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry Tobio..."

"Let's go home,"

Tobio forgave her because it wasn't his mother who hurt him.

It was the monster inside her.

***

Tooru has lost count of how many times he had yawned now as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. The exhaustion from the lack of sleep as well as the constant anxiousness has finally creeped out on him and now, he wants nothing more than to just drop down and slept on the gym's floor. Reputation be damned, he's so tired right now.

"Oi, Oikawa. Kageyama told me that you went to his house at four in the morning? Did you set your alarm wrong or something?"

Tooru tried to smile reassuringly at Iwaizumi but even smiling is making his eyes even more droopy, "Hmm I couldn't sleep well because of a nightmare so I just decided to meet Tobio-chan as fast as I could,"

Iwaizumi sighs, "Seriously? Even after I let you and Kageyama go home earlier yesterday? Well, you've always been a weirdo but this is definitely in Top 5 of your weird moments,"

"Urgh, I'm not even awake enough to fight you on this, Iwa-chan... I must look like Kunimi-chan right now... But thanks for yesterday..."

"Yeah, no problem. But seriously, even Kunimi looked even more alive than you right now. Go take a break for today or else Ebihara-sensei would chew you out if you fell asleep during class,"

Tooru was about to refuse before another yawn was released, earning a raised eyebrow from Iwaizumi, "Yeah, yeah, I'll go take a break. Tell coach that I'll be using the storage room, yeah? It's way too cold to be sleeping anywhere else,"

"Yeah, yeah, go take a nap now. I'll wake you up once practice ends,"

Tooru nods and moves to the storage room before he felt a hand tugged on his jacket. He looked at Tobio who's handing him the red scarf he gave to Tobio before. Standing on his tiptoes, Tobio wraps the scarf around Tooru's neck.

"It'll be cold in the storage room. Please use this, Tooru-san,"

Tooru feels warm as he smiles at Tobio and ruffled his hair, "Thanks, Tobio-chan. Well then, I'll be resting now~ Practice well, yeah?"

"Yes!"

The scarf smells like Tobio and Tooru smiles as he enters the storage room. It was pretty common for people to slept on the mattress in the storage room given that there weren't a lot of people coming here. Most of the time the door was locked during class time anyway. As he laid on the mattress, his fatigue quickly took over and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.