A Table For One~Kagehina

I Need Relationship Advice

"Shouyou!" Tobio called from across the Karasuno main hallway. Some kids looked over at him with a scowl due to his outburst at seeing the ginger, but most kept their eyes to their phones and ignored him. Shouyou took a moment to look around before his eyes locked on Tobio.

"Oh, hey!" Shouyou responded, walking over to Tobio with a wave, "I havnt seen you in a hot minute."

"Well I keep trying to talk to you after class, but you're gone the second it ends. You're like a ghost here."

Shouyou just shrugged.

"So... Wanna have lunch together?" Tobio finally proposed after a few short moments. "I learned a new card game."

"Ah, you know you can't bribe me with a card game. It's impossible for me to decline," Shouyou laughed as he followed Tobio to a secluded part of the school yard.

The two sat down and began eating. Tobio did a truly terrible job of half shuffling and half eating the sandwich he packed for himself.

Shouyou didn't provide much help, he was too focused on laughing at Tobio's struggle.

"So, what game are we going to play anyway?" Shouyou asked, finally calming himself down and taking the cards from Tobio so he could instead shuffle.

"Do you know Spit?"

"Do I? I love Spit!" Shouyou's' eyes immediately lit up with excitement. "I used to play it all the time when I was- er- all the time with my sister but she would always whine to our mom about not having fast reflexes and long story short it was banned from the household," Shouyou rambled for minute while he mindlessly shuffled the cards.

"Damn. I need to find a card game you don't know."

"If that's what you were going for, Spit is hardly the game you should've come up with."

"Well I've never heard of it until yesterday."

"That's just 'cause you live under a rock."

"Whatever, you done shuffling?"

Shouyou nodded and began to deal half the deck to Tobio. His movements were perfect, calculated. Shouyous card skills always reaked of confidence.

"Just a reminder, I am a volleyball player. My reflexes are impeccable."

"Bring it on, big guy."

"Hah, faggots."

Shouyou whipped his head around to the unfamiliar noise, not having noticed the two boys passing by him and Tobio.

Tobio was just as shocked, if not more than Shouyou.

"Excuse me?" Tobio was the first to talk after what felt like hours but was really just a matter of seconds.

The two boys laid their eyes on Tobio then to Shouyou.

"I said you're a fag," one of them responded, but directed it toward Shouyou. He was tall. His hair was brown and it just reached above his shoulders. His uniform was disgusting. It looked like he had tried to tie-dye the white shirt of their schools uniform but miserably failed. If Tobio could describe him as anything in that moment it would've been as some crossover between an emo and a hippie.

Shouyou winced.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. What felt like a nice lunch with his friend quickly turned into a shitshow with two people he didn't know.

Shouyou quickly turned away from them and began placing his cards down in front of himself. This time, however, his hands were shaking, his jaw was clenched, and his chest was heaving.

"Do you know these guys, Shouyou?" Tobio asked after a beat.

"Know him? Hinata over here is our best pal. Ain't that right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Wachu guys playin' anyway?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"Hey, we just wanted to see what was happenin' over here," the other guy finally spoke. He was blond and an average height. But he looked over the two boys as if they were the easiest prey he has come across in years.

"Yeah, well quite the impression you made doing so," Tobio put on his signature scowl and glared at the boy.

"Aw c'mon, it's all in good fun. What're you two playing? Let us join you in the fun!" The taller spoke again, so innocently but still so menacing, like a villain from a children's movie. He was really quite a cliché.

"It's a two person game. No room for assholes to join," Tobio looked back at the cards Shouyou had given him, his eyes were still trained on them.

"Sorry, would you like to repeat that?" The blond asked, his temper running short.

"It's just a two person game, Yui. I'll meet up with you after school and we can, er-" Shouyou took a breath, "play something else then."

"Alright. If you say so. See you after school, on the track field." The two boys walked away, laughing.

"What the hell was that? How do you know those duchebags?"

"They're just old friends from Junior High."

"Really?" Tobio raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't they be? You ready to play?"

"I- yeah, I guess." Tobio and Shouyou both flipped their cards over and began playing.

"But Shouyou, if they're- I mean, if they're not really friends. You can tell me, y'know. I never really took you as someone to hang around those types of people anyway."

"No, yeah. I just... everyone from my Junior High likes to catch up every once in a while a while, that's all. We were a tightly knit group, class of 100 students. Everyone knew everyone, so..."

Tobio lifted his eyes to study Shouyou's face. His eyes were scrunched in concentration, but whether it was because of his explanation or the game- or both -was beyond him.

Tobio was taken out of his trance by Shouyou slapping one of the card decks.

"Dammit."

"Gotta stay focused," Shouyou teased. But it lacked its usual genuine sense. It lacked the spark Shouyou usually had when playing cards.

Shouyou began placing his cards down again and Tobio took out his phone. He sent a quick text, and continued on.

From: Tobio
To: Daichi

I need relationship advice

~

A/N: oh my god I am so sorry for being inactive. I literally have no excuse other than 'school' and 'theatre'. That and the fact this chapter was deleted like five times before I was able to finish it. Anyways, I'd like to take a quick moment to thank anyone who has ever supported this fic. I honestly never thought it would get to be this long or liked as it is right now. Waking up in the mornings and seeing notifications of comments and votes has been such a highlight of these past few months and I'm so excited to say that now that I'm on winter break, I'll hopefully be able to post a lot more. Thank you all again, ilysm <3.