Boys, Bruises, and Babystting (kagehina)

Playmates, Parties, and Princesses

Kageyama shifted a bit uncomfortably, his palms were clammy and the wrapped box began to slip out of his hands. He balanced the brightly colored box between his hip and his arm before knocking on the door.

"Hello, Kageyama-kun." Natsu's mother greeted with a smile. "Please come in." She opened the door wider and stepped aside for him.

"Pardon the intrusion."

"I can take that," the woman said as she received the present. "The kids are in the family room." With that, she whisked it off to some other room.

The first-year wiped his palms off on his pants and made his way to the family room that was all decorated with streamers and banners of crudely drawn, but cute crow doodles.

There were four children (and Shouyou) seated in a circle on the middle of the floor.

"Duck." Nastu tapped a child on the head. "Duck," she moved to the next person. "Duck..."

She looked up at Kageyama and yelled "Goose!" before launching herself into his arms. Fortunately, this had become reflex and he caught her easily.

"Happy birthday, Natsu-chan." The boy chuckled as he swung her around in circles.

"Hinata, that's not how you play duck, duck, goose!" A young boy whined, standing up from his place on the floor

"Ah, Kageyama!" Shouyou whipped his head around.

The high schooler set his surrogate sister on the ground and smiled at his boyfriend. "You seem awfully happy today," Shouyou commented, leading him to the kitchen, just out of view of the children.

"Yeah I started smiling but now my face is cramping." Kageyama massaged his jaw.

"Idiot," Shouyou giggled, "you need to loosen up."

The shorter boy went up on his tiptoes and pecked a kiss dangerously close to the corner of his boyfriend's mouth.

" They're only children."

"Maybe it's different for you because you resemble them so much," Kageyama smirked, pushing back the hair off of Shouyou's forehead and planting a kiss.

"Don't say something so mean and then kiss me!" Shouyou whined in protest, the tops of his ears were pink. "Idiot!" Still, the smaller boy made no attempts to wriggle away.

They just stood there, leaning against the kitchen cabinets wrapped up together, listening to children laughing and running about in the other room.

"Ehem." Someone interrupted. The two broke apart and looked over to the origin of the disturbance. Shouyou's mother stood with a small, deflated vinyl pool and a pump.

"Shouyou," she asked, "would you please fill up the pool to chill the watermelon?"

Shouyou, understandably, was embarrassed and stuttered a 'yes' before snatching the pool and pump from his mother.

Left alone, but standing up perfectly straight in front of the kitchen cabinets, was Kageyama. Shouyou's mother made her way to the refrigerator with no facial expression whatsoever. "Kageyama-kun," she began, "could you get the cutting board out of the drawer for me?"

"Uh..." He was taken back a bit. "Yes." He spun around and rummaged around in pursuit of the drawers before finding the drawer with the cutting board in it.

The mother waited patiently, drying off strawberries and plucking off the leaves. She thanked him and began carving a circle around the stem to remove it. "I have never heard Shouyou quiet like that before" she commented, handing Kageyama a knife and placing the strawberries on the cutting board. "Something about him changes when you're around."

She put a handful of strawberries on the cutting board before turning to him once more. "Please take care of him."

"Yes." He responded. He continued to slice the strawberries.

"Kage-nii-chan!" Natsu called, feet thundering after her also crying out 'nii-chan'.

The children flocked around him as if he were mother goose. "Let's play!" Natsu cheered.

Soon enough, all of them were outside in the yard, running around playing tag. After a while, a few of the boys decided it was unfair that Kageyama could run so fast, so they ran after him in packs of two or three at a time.

"I am tired of this," declared one of the little boys, putting his hands on his hips.
"What should we play next?" another asked.

Everyone looked to Natsu. "Let's play dragons and princesses!" The children squealed in delight.

"You," said the little boy, pointing at Kageyama, "are going to be the dragon!" He pointed to himself now "I am going to be the prince!"

Kageyama had no idea what this game entailed, but if he had known earlier, he would have adamantly refused. "On me," called the boy playing as the prince, "charge!" He gestured with a stick and all of the other boys and some of the brave and knightly girls ran and tackled Kageyama. A few of them had short twigs that they were smacking him in the calves.

At first, he didn't fall, but the poor guy had four elementary schoolers swinging off his limbs and pulling at his hair. There was nothing for him to do but lay there in defeat.

"No, no, no!" the prince exclaimed. "You're supposed to be a dragon, you're supposed to be really hard to defeat!" The other little boys paused for a moment and stopped tugging on his arms and hair to listen. "You're supposed to growl and shoot fire!"

Kageyama didn't see how that was the least bit realistic. The little kids crawled off of him and Kageyama was, once again, on his feet. He hunched his back, brought in his arms, and vocalized an unsure "Grr".

"Oh," the prince said, waving his stick nonchalantly before crossing his arms, "that will do, I guess." He turned to his friends who had already moved on and started playing tag. "You suck at being a dragon, but I still defeated you, so Hinata-san is mine!"

Kageyama stood straight up and looked down at the aggressive elementary schooler. He was about to respond to the child when Hinata's mother called out that it was time for cake.

The rest of the day was overall more mellow. After the children sang Happy Birthday and finished their cake and fresh watermelon, they ran around the backyard and amused themselves by splashing each other in the watermelon chilling pool while they waited for their parents to pick them up. Shouyou and Kageyama sat on the back porch and supervised the kids while they talked.

"That one boy seems really close to Natsu-chan," Kageyama observed.

"Yeah," Shouyou mused, " he might have a crush on her."

Kageyama contemplated this for a second before he slid his hand closer to Shouyou's.