A/N: Yeah okay the writing block was not over and I was super busy with school and responsibilities I've been pushing back so sorry this is really late haha…

Thank you for your criticism and suggestions! It's kinda hard for me to spot choppy parts out of my own writing as I'm more focused on content and conventions, so I actually appreciate that a lot! As for the KT/OH/OT dynamic, that's for this chapter. :)

I'll be editing previous chapters more in the next week (since we have a bunch of days off from school) and updating the next chapter in like two weeks or something? I don't know. Sorry lol. Anyway thanks for reading!

"Ha! Take that, Tobio!" I yelled as I crossed the finish line for the thirty-second time in a row. Tobio groaned in defeat, rubbing his eyes and sinking down into the couch to my chorus of laughter.

"It's because of your stupid blue shells! If you didn't throw them, I would've won half the races!" Ah, excuses, excuses.

"Yeah, and if you were faster than me, you could beat me in a race. If you could untie my shoelaces in a split second, you could totally trip less than me. If you-" Tobio's hand covered my mouth. I laughed through his fingers and tasered him to make him let go, then quickly held my stance, ready for any counter-attacks.

Abrupt thuds from the front doorsteps interrupted my reign of victory. Tobio stiffened, gathering himself from the mess he was two seconds ago and making it look like he was at least somewhat presentable, although his hair was still mussed from whining on the couch.

The door swung open, followed by footsteps and sounds of bags hitting the tile floor.

"Hika-chan~! I'm home!" A familiar annoying voice yelled into the house. Tobio's eyes immediately widened, as did mine. Hurriedly, I did my best to run to greet the garbage.

"Nii-san! How was practice?" Shoot, I forgot to tell him about my recent injury. I braced at the wall tentatively as Tooru took off his shoes and moved over to ruffle my hair.

"Great! Makki lost a bet and had to buy us all milk bread! How was your day, Hika-chan?" His arm slung over my shoulders, he moved to what I was assuming the kitchen, causing a sudden jolt in my ankle. Shit. A sharp gasp escaped my lungs, triggering a worried Tooru. "Hika-chan?!" I held up my hands defensively, sinking down against the wall to get a hold of myself and the tears that were about to fall.

"Y-yeah, I sprained my ankle during practice this morning," I groaned. Tooru furrowed his brows and stared at me incredulously, almost like he was mad or something.

"Wh-what? Why didn't you text me? Call me? Shouldn't we get you to a doctor? What about your tournament? Hikaru?!" I shook my head. Too... too many questions. The pain from my ankle was crawling up my throat and robbing my ability to speak or care to speak, for that matter. Tooru left my side and made towards the kitchen, adjacent to the open living room. "I'm getting you an ice-pack, Hika-chan." I swung at his arm to stop him, but it was too late.

"...Oikawa-san," a quiet voice greeted.

"Tobio-chan!? Why are you here!? You kidnapped my sister, didn't you!? Hikaru!-" Tooru came running back to me, sans ice. Whoops, guess I also forgot to tell him about our visitor. I somewhat pulled myself from the ground and forced a sheepish smile at my brother, who kept staring and pouting with his stupid face.

"Oh yeah, and Tobio came over," I answered none of the questions he asked, although this didn't stop him from raising new inquiries.

"How come you never tell me anything? What else are you hiding from me? What did he do to you? Hikaru! You're on a date, aren't you? And why is both of your hair messy? He didn't-" Tooru lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned closer to me, eyes wide and accusing. "You two-"

I shut him up with a hand, struggling to restrain the blush that was heating my cheeks. I really did not want him to confirm what I thought he was implying. "Tooru! We just played Mariokart!" Tooru backed up from my face and crossed his arms, scrutinising me with squinted eyes. This was easily his scariest habit, at least in my opinion. Having a 6-foot tall guy with an annoying-looking face trying to figure out who-knows-what was always a scary experience, even if the guy was my own brother.

Thankfully, the door opened once again. Tobio had made his way to the front entrance where we were, by now, and looked slightly surprised at the new entry.

"Tooru! Hikaru!" Mom called. She moved over to ruffle our hair but stopped in her tracks, eyes glimmering. Much to Tooru's disgust, this was because she had seen Tobio.

"Hello, Oikawa-san. Sorry, I stayed too long. I'll be on my way home," Tobio bowed. Tooru smirked in approval, but my mother completely ignored my brother's obvious affirmative opinions.

"No, Tobio, you should stay over for dinner!" she placed a soft hand on Tobio's shoulder. Tobio smiled and accepted her offer, oblivious to the faces of disgust Tooru was making behind him. Mom chuckled and moved past us.

Tobio bowed in thanks, receiving deadly glares from Tooru. Tooru made his weird irked face and moved forward to spit some straight fire at Tobio, but thankfully my mom called us all over before something could happen.

"Tobio, why don't you join Hikaru and Tooru and help us make dinner tonight?"

I quickly pulled onto Tobio's arm not only to break the annoying glare Tooru was giving him but to help my balance as I stumbled down the hall. Mom was already gathering ingredients as she tossed aprons to Tobio and me and immediately directed us to tasks. Tooru was left with a fitting pastel pink floral apron.

"With four people helping, we'll be done in no time!" Mom smiled extra sweetly to Tobio. Tooru stuck his tongue out behind Tobio, who turned around and shot a glare back. Nervous laughter echoed as I tried to pull one away from the other and prevent a verbal showdown, all behind my oblivious mothers back. I could only do my best to ensure that Tobio and Tooru were on opposite sides of the kitchen and pray that we would avoid casualties this afternoon.

After an hour of hard work keeping the two separated, dinner was prepared and set on the table just as Dad arrived home. Both Tooru and I greeted him sweetly as usual, but it was really Tobio who got his attention.

"Hello, Oikawa-san," he bowed. Dad's eyes sparkled - again, to Tooru's disgust.

"Hey, Kageyama! You're here for dinner, right?" He bellowed, giving Tobio a hearty smack on the shoulder, to which my friend reacted with a small stumble. Poor guy, if my dad high fived a wall, he'd leave a handprint - don't trust me, trust the wall next to Tooru's room. Dad and Tobio exchanged a few words while Tooru squinted his eyes and left the scene out of disgust.

Famished, we moved to the dinner table where our afternoon's of labour lay in its most appetizing beauty. All the food was laid out perfectly in such a delectable manner that it practically pulled at me to hurry and eat! I lunged towards a seat next to one Tobio was taking, but a small shove intervened my thoughts and made me rub my shoulder.

"Ow, what the hell, Tooru?" He'd pushed me one seat over, taking the place I meant to sit.

"Yeah, no," he sat in the seat now separating Tobio and me. After settling down, we said our prayers and began eating.

"So, what happened at school today? Kageyama?" Dad asked, separating a piece of fish with his chopsticks. He flashed a smile at Tobio.

"I sprained my ankle at practice," I dead-panned. Both of my parents' hands stopped moving.

"What? Why didn't you tell us?" My mom exclaimed. I mean, I thought they would've seen my staggering limp by now, but maybe they were too distracted by the presence of my brother's favourite kouhai.

I waved it off, "It's okay, the nurse said it's only minor and I'll be better by the tournament anyway, probably." I chewed on a bit of broccoli, mumbling the last bit. Please, redirect the conversation. I didn't really want to hear about how this injury could mess up my entire life and leave me on the streets or something. Thankfully, Tooru came to the rescue.

"On a side note, I failed my science test!" he chirped, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. We waited for Tooru to finish chewing and continue his profound story. I was half waiting for him to send a peace sign and "just kidding, I scored 110%!" but I also wanted to hear how the Grand King had failed.

"I'm not kidding. I filled in the first answer twice and shifted all my answers! I only got eight out of 33 correct! The teacher let me fix the sheet after, though, so I scored 103% because I answered the bonus question number 34 right as well," he laughed. I watched through my peripheral as both my parents let out a sigh of relief and Tobio chewed somewhat extra aggressively. I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted to see the rare sight of Tooru failing school.

My father redirected his attention to Tobio. "So, son, how's it going? Any events coming up for you?" he beamed. Tobio paused.

"Well, there's a volleyball tournament coming up soon as well," he said, twirling a vegetable in his chopsticks. Immediately, Tooru stiffened and smirked. Oh shit. He couldn't have said something about upcoming tests? A book he was reading? Strawberry milk? Literally anything but volleyball?

Before Tooru could say anything, I tried my best to kick his leg under the table, but pain shot through my stiff ankle and prevented me from delivering. My brother leaned back from his plate, staring amusedly at a fixed point in front of him but not looking at his kouhai.

At this point, Tobio seemed to realize his mistake as well.

Tooru laughed. His prior passive-aggressive toleration of Tobio seemed to crumble as his expression fell to that scary demeanour he always has when he's about to annoy someone. "Yeah, I'll see you there, Tobio-chan! Hopefully your team got better since last time, because we did too! I wouldn't want to see you lose before you get to us, that would just be a shame. Plus, wouldn't it be cool for the King to go against his ex-teammates once again in the Spring Tournament? Wow, imagine the look on your face as you lo-"

"That's enough," Dad glared at Tooru, who shrugged and continued eating, still bearing his scary emotion. Seriously? He chooses this time to be a brat? Clearly irritated, Tobio closed his mouth and repressed any conversation he was hoping to have with my brother. I chewed on my lip, hoping that something would come swinging down from the ceiling to hit Tooru's stupid head. Silence cloaked the setting.

After a couple of minutes, Tobio stood up with his empty plate and bowed to my parents.

"Thank you, that was lovely. I should get going now. Have a nice day."

"So soon, Kageyama? All right, have a nice night! Hikaru, why don't you accompany him to the door?" My mom forced a smile. I set down my chopsticks to move up, but Tooru stood up faster.

"Mom, she's injured. I'll escort Tobio-chan instead," he made his way to the door where Tobio was already almost at, ignoring my mom's glare of objection and continuing towards Tobio while wearing his stupid sly expression. I sent my fair shares of glares at Tooru as well, swearing to beat him up if he touched Tobio or said some annoying shit. For now, I could only listen as Tooru exchanged a few words with Tobio, followed by a very annoying "Bye, Tobio-chan!" and a closed door. The dumbass of the night made his way back to meet all three of our unanimous glares.

"Relax, I just told him to have a safe walk home," he showed his palms in defence, his eyes already returning to the food on his plate. While my parents let the matter pass, I stared at him and leaned back at a lost for what to yell at him first. No one said anything, as it always was whenever Tooru was piqued. I'd have to wait for a better time to wipe his stupid smirk off his face.

Dinner concluded quietly so Tooru and I moved to our rooms to start studying. My brother pushed ahead of me, but I lunged at his arm and pulled him back, ignoring the discomfort in my ankle. Sighing, he turned around and held his free hand to his hip, waiting for me to say something.

"What the fuck, Tooru?" I hissed, fingernails digging into his wrist. He tilted his head, mocking me.

"What do you mean, Hika-chan? Please explain," He shot a fake smile. A low rumble evoked deep in my throat.

"I mean, what the hell was that? Jeez, can't you get over the fact that he's your prodigy kouhai, and treat him like you would my other friends?" I spat. Tooru's shoulders stiffened, and he leaned into me.

"Hika-chan, I think you're forgetting the fact that he's a narcissistic brat who only plays for himself. He takes everything for his own use and throws the unwanted onto other people's shoulders like the tyrant king he is. His stupid ass doesn't even know when other people are pissed until they blatantly tell him. Then he gets all defensive and continues to blame them for not meeting his needs. I have every right to taunt him as a rival team member, anyway," Tooru jeered. Seriously? He's still talking about Junior High?

"Get fucked, you're still salty about how he has higher potential than you? God, Tooru, not only is that bullshit a lie but just immature. Tobio's nothing like that!" I whisper-yelled. Tooru's eyes widened in anger, and he leaned back, arms crossed.

"Hikaru, do you have any idea what he's taking from me?" he barely uttered, eyes lidded and vexed. I took no extra time to reply.

"What, your pride?" I hissed. Tooru stared down into my fiery eyes for a few seconds before shaking his head and turning to leave.

"Go study, Hika-chan. You should catch up on school now that you can't participate in track. Don't you have a big test coming up?" He stated bluntly, trying to use a sweet tone that was strangled with frustration and displeasure. He closed the door to his room, leaving me in the hall to my anger. What the hell did he mean? I stormed into my room, ignoring the shooting pains at my joint. Crashing down on my navy blue sheets, I tapped a playlist on my phone, blasting it with my speaker to drown everything out.

When my own brother couldn't come to terms with me, sleep embraced me with open arms.

Word count (excluding bold): 2539

Last updated: Nov. 8, 2017