“Koushi, are you really sure about this? It’s not too late to cancel, you know.”
It was exactly one week ago that Koushi had formulated his genius plan. Coincidentally, it was also exactly one week ago that he had moved into his first home- well, his first actual house as an adult. It was no mansion, but it was home.
Not only that, but he was now officially living in (what he was sure would be) domestic bliss with the love of his life. The apartment they had left behind was nice, but they were well past due for somewhere they could begin the next stage of their life. Koushi was more than ready to settle down.
“Come on, Daichi. What’s the worst that could happen?” He answered without looking away from his last-minute tidying.
He truly had no idea what they were in for.
The genius plan?
A housewarming party with their old Karasuno team.
And they were due to arrive any minute now.
Although Koushi had tried to keep his husband calm, Daichi was terrified of the whirlwind he was sure was to come. He was assured that the most rambunctious of their friends had matured, but that did little to quell his fears. He didn’t want their brand-new home to be destroyed so soon after moving in.
Koushi was sure that Daichi still held the power to intimidate them into behaving, but he was secretly nervous as well. He held in his fears, though, too excited to reunite with people he loved and proud to show off their home.
A moment later, the couple was startled at the silence being broken by the doorbell.
They both took a deep breath before answering the door.
Koushi slowly opened the door, with Daichi right behind him.
A loud whooping noise was all Koushi could process as he was tackled backward, tripping over the step of the genkan and creating a domino effect taking both him and Daichi to the floor.
Three loud “oof”s followed shortly, one after the other.
“Yuu! Suga! Daichi!” Worried cries came from Asahi standing in the doorway, who couldn’t decide whether to go and pull his partner off of their friends or freeze in place.
“Hello Noya, hello Asahi,” Koushi chuckled.
“Hi,” Daichi mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.
“Sorry guys,” Noya chuckled sheepishly.
“Are you all okay?” Asahi was still very visibly worried.
“I’m fine, Daichi broke my fall,” Koushi said matter-of-factly as he got to his feet.
“You’re welcome,” Daichi grumbled, getting up himself.
Asahi gave him a sympathetic look.
“Anyways,” Koushi clapped his hands, “come on in! We’ll give you the grand tour!”
Asahi and Yuu took off their shoes and followed behind the other couple. Asahi wrapped an arm around the shorter man, mostly in an attempt to keep him from running ahead into the house.
“This is the living room,” Koushi made a sweeping gesture to the room ahead of himself.
Before he could say much more, however, the doorbell rang again.
“You go get it, Kou. I’ll stay here,” Daichi said with a pleading look in his eyes. He didn’t want to get trampled more than once in one day.
“Okay, okay! Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone!” Koushi laughed, but anything could happen with someone like Yuu in the building.
The doorbell rang again, twice in quick succession.
“Coming!” Koushi hollered, jogging to the door.
The doorbell rang again. And kept ringing. It didn’t stop ringing when Koushi opened the door.
“Okay, okay, I’m here!”
“Ryuu, stop,” Chikara hissed through his teeth, trying to pry the other’s hand away from the button.
“But Chikaaaa, we don’t have a doorbell! It’s fun!” Ryuu whined in response.
“And annoying,” Chikara rolled his eyes. “Hello, Suga. Nice to see you.”
“Hey guys,” Koushi chuckled. “Come on in.”
“Is that Ryuu and Chikara?” Yuu yelled from the other room.
“Yuu!!!!” Ryuu ran in, almost tripping in his haste to pull off his shoes.
“I’m so sorry about him,” Chikara sighed.
“Oh, it’s alright. He wouldn’t be Tanaka if he did anything else,” Koushi smiled.
“I guess that’s true,” Chikara smiled back. “Couldn’t change him if I tried.”
Koushi just laughed. He knew Chikara wouldn’t want anything different.
Just before Koushi shut the door, two others walked up to join the group.
“Kiyoko, Yachi! So good to see you both!”
“Pardon the intrusion!” Hitoka called.
Kiyoko passed a plastic-wrapped tray of cookies into Koushi’s hands. “Thank you for having us.”
“Of course, of course,” Koushi waved one of his hands. “And thank you! Let me set this in the kitchen and we can meet the others in the living room.”
“…and suddenly we had this little kitten we weren’t prepared for,” Asahi’s voice came into range as Koushi rejoined the group.
“It was so cute! If we didn’t find the owner, we totally would’ve kept it!” Yuu pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.
“Just go adopt one of your own!” Ryuu was happy to support his bro in just about any endeavor, kitten procuring included.
“Maybe if he can convince me he can be responsible,” Asahi chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’m sure he’ll convince you somehow,” Koushi winked.
The group was silent for a second before Yuu and Ryuu busted out into loud laughter.
Then the group was interrupted by the doorbell once again.
“Your turn to get it, Dai!”
“Fine, you handle the zoo,” Daichi teased, followed by two shouts of offense.
“I’m sure they’ll be even more of a zoo in just a second,” Koushi said under his breath. He turned back to the growing group in the living room. “So, what did I miss?”
“Nothing really,” Asahi started.
“Well now that we’re here, the party can start!” Ryuu cut the other man off.
Kiyoko hid a small laugh behind her hand at the all-too-familiar antics.
“Incoming!” Daichi’s voice boomed from the entryway.
The word had hardly left his mouth and two figures came barreling into the room in a blur of black and orange. Half of the blur stopped just short of the growing crowd, but the other half plowed right into Koushi.
“Oof!” Luckily Koushi stayed on his feet this time.
“Oh, hello Suga-san!” Shouyou greeted with a smile as he peeled himself away.
Hitoka and Asahi looked pale as they took in the scene.
“I just got the strangest sense of deja-vu,” Koushi laughed. “Hello Shoyou, hello Tobio.”
Hitoka and Asahi breathed a collective sigh of relief and Yuu looked a little sheepish again at the reminder of his own behavior.
“I totally won,” Shouyou turned back to his partner.
“No, I won, dumbass,” Tobio argued.
“I got in first!”
“You ran into Suga-san, that’s a penalty!”
“Nu-uh, it means I got closer!”
Daichi cleared his throat, silencing the bickering.
“Good to see that the idiot duo is the same as ever,” Kei said, entering the room behind Daichi.
“Kei, be nice,” Tadashi chastised the other but was still trying not to laugh.
“Just missing one couple, then?” Koushi asked.
“We’re here,” Hisashi waved, Kazuhito following close behind.
“All here then!” Koushi clapped once.
“Aww, are Coach and Sensei not coming?” Shouyou asked with a slight pout.
“No, their son has a volleyball game,” Daichi answered.
“And they probably didn’t want him to be in a closed space with all of us at once,” Koushi teased.
“I still can’t believe they adopted a kid!” Tadashi exclaimed. “They make the cutest family.”
“We should go to one of his games sometime!” Shouyou chirped.
“That’s a great idea!” Yuu pumped a fist in the air.
“That’s probably not a great idea,” Chikara said what the majority of the group was thinking.
“At least he would have the loudest cheering squad,” Kazuhito laughed.
“He’s got a point,” Koushi said, laughing as well. “Well, now that we’re all here, who wants a tour?”
This got the group nice and excited, more than they already were. As much as they wanted to keep catching up, they wanted to see the house first and foremost. They could continue chatting afterward.
First, the group was led up to the second floor. The stairs led to a short hallway with one door on the end to the left, one door on the end to the right, and one door situated just between the two in the center.
Starting in the center was a bathroom. It was pretty typical in terms of contents and layout, on one side there was a toilet and a sink, and on the other side, there was a showering area and-
“Wow! That bathtub is awesome!” Tadashi said in awe. “It’s so big!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty nice!” Koushi grinned. It truly was one of his favorite features of the house. Perfect for soothing aching muscles and relaxing after a taxing day.
“I wanna see it too!” Yuu shouted. He weaved through the group until he was in the room, elbowing a few of the others on his way.
“There will be plenty of time for everyone to take a look,” Koushi assured. “Let’s keep moving.”
The next stop was the guest bedroom. It wasn’t huge but big enough to hold a double bed and a small dresser. The room was decorated in calm, neutral colors, with a fluffy blanket and a few throw pillows on the bed.
“You actually have a double bed in a guest room,” Kazuhito commented.
“We got a new bed for the master room but figured we might as well keep this one too,” Daichi answered.
“That must be really helpful, not having to worry about pulling out futons when you have guests,” Chikara noted with a slight hint of wistfulness.
“Absolutely,” Koushi sighed. “So we better have visitors over!”
Chikara chuckled fondly at the slightly demanded invitation. “Of course, of course.”
Koushi then led the group to the last room on the second floor. “And this,” he opened the door as if showing it off for a television crew, “is the master bedroom.”
Several “oohs’’ and “ahhs” came from the group.
“This is lovely,” Hitoka started but wasn’t able to say anything more.
“UWAHHH THIS BED IS HUGE!” Shouyou yelled, running and jumping on the bed, landing with a belly flop.
“This isn’t your home, dumbass!” Tobio grabbed the flailing redhead by the ankles and pulled.
Koushi was grateful that the bed was at least made nice and neatly for the group to see before the blankets and pillows all ended on the floor.
“This furniture looks super nice, guys,” Ryuu said as he started opening a dresser drawer.
“Wait! Don’t look in-“ Koushi was too late.
Ryuu shoved the drawer shut hard. He turned around stiffly, his face bright red. “How about we go see the rest of the first floor?”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Koushi started pushing everyone out the door, his face also red.
“Sounds like they’ve been breaking in the new house,” Kei whispered to Tadashi.
“Kei, don’t be rude,” he attempted to scold while chuckling.
Daichi brought up the rear of the group, making sure that no one was left behind for further snooping.
Once back downstairs, the group was herded toward the kitchen.
“There’s the other bathroom,” Koushi mentioned as they passed a door on their way. “Not very exciting, but there it is.”
Then they were standing in the kitchen. There were modern appliances, stone countertops, and an island in the middle, which the group naturally circled.
“This kitchen is gorgeous. Have you two cooked much yet?” Asahi asked.
“We haven’t really had time to yet, but I’m hoping that someone will make me something nice soon,” Koushi nudged Daichi playfully.
“Your fridge looks naked!” Hisashi blurted out. “You need magnets and pictures!”
“We have magnets somewhere,” Daichi responded. “We just haven’t unpacked the box they’re in yet.”
“I don’t even know what box they ended up in,” Koushi added.
Hitoka gasped. “We should take a group picture to hang on the fridge!”
“That’s a great idea!” Koushi agreed. “But while we’re in the kitchen, let’s open the cookies that Kiyoko brought!”
A chorus of cheers and agreement erupted from the hungry group. Kiyoko always knew just how to reach everyone’s hearts. She was slightly bashful, but couldn’t hide the small smile that grew from the big reaction she got from such a simple gesture.
Koushi unwrapped the tray and set it on the island. It had hardly left his hands before the cookies were descended upon like the room was full of starving vultures.
The volume of the group dropped significantly as everyone started munching.
Grabbing one for himself, Koushi glanced at Daichi as he took a bite of his own. However, the face that Daichi was making almost had Koushi putting his back. It looked like he was struggling to force himself to swallow.
“Mmm. These are… so good,” Ryuu said, though his voice was strained.
“Very unique,” Tadashi added.
“I added some cinnamon and a little lemon to balance the flavor of the chocolate and raisins,” Kiyoko explained.
“That makes sense,” Koushi forced a smile.
Tobio looked like he was blinking back tears, but made himself finish the cookie in his hand. Shouyou rubbed his back sympathetically.
Yuu tried to slip his partially eaten cookie into Asahi’s hand, but Asahi turned away, pretending not to notice.
“You know, I think this house would be perfect if you two got a dog,” Kazuhito said. What he really meant was that he wished there was a dog there who he could feed his cookie to.
All but two of the others knew exactly what he was saying. The cookies were terrible, but they couldn’t just throw them away.
Koushi and Daichi shared a look, pretending to think it over.
“Maybe we should,” Koushi agreed and went back to taking the tiniest nibbles he possibly could.
“We should probably save the rest of the cookies for later. We don’t want to spoil our appetites if we want to order delivery for dinner,” Daichi announced. “Let’s go back to the living room and decide what we want.”
Everyone agreed immediately.
As the group made their way to the other room, Koushi held his husband back. “That was genius.”
“Thanks. I just couldn’t watch everyone suffer anymore. I know we all want to show our appreciation for Kiyoko, but that was tough.”
“I’m amazed by Yachi. She seemed like she genuinely enjoyed them.”
“Yeah, really. Maybe she’s used to it,” Daichi shrugged.
“Maybe. Oh, just for the record, dogs can’t have raisins.”
Koushi and Daichi laughed as they rejoined the group, hand in hand.
The remainder of the evening went by smoother than expected. There was only one food spill, one clogged toilet, and -to everyone’s amazement- nothing broken.
The sun had long since gone down when the guests all started leaving. Many hugs were shared and promises to get together again soon were made, then the homeowners were alone at last.
“I am exhausted,” Daichi hugged his husband from behind, nuzzling his head onto his neck.
“Me too. But it was a good day.”
“Our house wasn’t burnt down, so I agree.”
Koushi laughed and turned around in the other’s arms. “Let’s go enjoy our not-burnt bed and get some rest.”
“Yes, please.”
As he got ready for bed, Koushi couldn’t help but smile thinking about how lucky he was. He had a husband, a home, and the best friends anyone could ask for. They were a wild bunch, but he loved them and was so glad they still all enjoyed getting together. He wondered what the next crazy get-together would be. Whatever it was, he looked forward to it.