Finding Sanctuary

Chapter 29

Note: I don't own Haikyuu and stuff.

Shohei lets his teachers and coach know he isn't going to be present for certain days (the 23rd is a holiday and the weekends of course don't matter to them much which gives him extra time), getting out of it excused with a note he gets his father to sign. Granted, Touma thinks it's for a college related thing and would sign just about anything to get rid of his son Shohei's sure (that's why he said it was for college) but it's pretty risky. If he finds out Sho lied, he'll be in serious trouble and probably in for another hospital visit or maybe his first and only morgue trip.

It's fine though, he doesn't normally lie about anything but this is worth it. He just has to work extra hard to get all the work done he's given in advance (Nekomata is working him harder than usual with extra practice too) so he'll only have a little when he gets back and won't be killing himself like that first visit for college.

He definitely learned his lesson on that one, not willing to make that mistake again.

There's a stack of homework, one of schoolwork, one of lessons in packets he'll be missing, and a big pile of textbooks for reference he's chipping away at. The teachers are good about it and take the time to answer his questions if he brings it to them, but he tends to ask Yaku or Kuroo first. He spends all of the 15th working on it despite being a day off, putting every minute he can into it. He only takes breaks for a few minutes to talk to the owl so he won't catch on, but sometimes he'll still try to work while they talk. He's been skipping a lot of meals and even missing a good bit of his limited sleep just to make sure it's done. He doesn't have much time to really focus on Kotaro lately (generally doing his current and future work or falling asleep while they talk from overworking or trying to continue working only to pass out, Bokuto says he's cute when asleep and teased several times because of it which is embarrassing), but it's about to pay off big time.

He's on the train, pulling into the station to meet up with Yaku who's been helping him every step of the way and supportive of the friendship. It's September 20th, Kotaro's birthday. The man has a busy day today with practice first thing in the morning, classes the rest of the morning to early afternoon, Kuro and Yaku meeting up with him right after, Kuro treating him to lunch that Yaku has to take off during after giving him a birthday treat (he needs to go to the train station secretly to get Fukunaga and help with directions), a birthday call from the Fukurodani team, then a shift at work before heading home to finally relax and enjoy himself.

Fukunaga wished the man a happy 19th birthday at midnight (wanting to be first and barely beating the boy's own mother, he found that pretty funny) and calls him to wake him up for practice with another happy birthday (getting up that early almost kills him with how exhausted he is, he takes a nap as soon as they hang up), finishing some more work before grabbing his prepacked bag and heading out.

Bokuto has no idea the younger's coming and he hopes to keep it that way until he gets home. He enlisted plenty of help for distractions and Kuro talking to Kotaro's boss to ensure he leaves right on time without being asked to stay late and keeping Bokuto busy with lunch, Yaku collecting Fukunaga and helping with directions, he even got ahold of Akaashi to plan when the Fukurodani call could be done so Bokuto would be free when he got home that night for Shohei to monopolize his time then.

The others are amazed Fukunaga's going so far out of his way over anything to do with socializing with anyone, happy he's made such a good friend and encouraging it.

Inside knowledge between the four (five if you include Akaashi's timed call though the man only learns Fuku will be visiting) of them have them easily manipulating Bo's day to their will for the most part without the gullible two-tone being any wiser.