Work Text:
“Hey, um…” Oda glances out the window with a slight flush; he’ll probably burst into flames if he actually has to look Aoki in the eyes right now. “Thanks for everything.”
Geez, even after knowing each other for such a long time (or perhaps because of it), the thought of saying these things to Aoki’s face is still far too embarrassing.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see Aoki turning around with an exasperated look on his face. “You think too highly of me,” he says in the faintly mocking tone he uses for most people, though Oda’s not quite sure who's the target of that mockery right now. “I’m basically driven by my ulterior motives, after all.”
Huh? “Ulterior motives?” He turns around, trying to get a read on Aoki’s expression. What is he talking about…
Aoki just shakes his head at him before turning his attention back towards the forms strewn across the desk. “Never mind.”
“You can be so cryptic sometimes.” Oda rolls his eyes. From time to time Aoki just gets like that for no real reason and, judging from past experiences, he’s not going to get a straight answer out of him this time either. Oh well. “Hey, are you coming to the celebratory dinner? The first and second years did a good job today, we should thank them.”
“I’ll have to pass.” He still can’t see Aoki’s expression, but he’s pretty sure he just made a face. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I lost sleep organizing this tournament, and there’s still all this stuff to file.” He nods at the desk. “You go have fun though, and I’ll split the money with you.”
Oda frowns, coming over to sit beside him. “You sure? I can stay behind.” He starts gathering the paperwork, “We’ll just reschedule with the others.”
“Nah, you go ahead.” Aoki waves his concern away, stifling a yawn. “They worked hard today, especially Kanno. They deserve a treat.”
“So do you, you worked the hardest,” Oda says automatically, attention on the forms in his hands.
Most of them contain the scores across different matches—geez, the Team A members assigned to softball are really quite terrible, and Team D dominated in the futsal matches—though there are a few event sign-up sheets filled with Aoki’s detailed notes mixed with the records. Seriously, shouldn’t the perp work paperwork be put away properly before the actual tournament? Aoki’s mind is a steel trap and he takes meticulous notes, but he sure can be kind of sloppy with record-keeping sometimes.
He separates the sign-up sheets from the rest of the pile. “Hey, where should I put these—huh?” When he looks up he finds Aoki staring at him. “You okay?”
“Are you serious about rescheduling the team dinner?” There’s an uncharacteristic intensity to his voice.
Oda blinks at him. “Yeah. It’s not that big of a deal, I’ll send them a message.” He puts the papers down, digging his phone out from his pocket to do just that. “Besides, we can have a proper celebration once Haijima joins the team.” He continues, leaving his phone on the table in case he has to field any replies—apparently he “texts like an old man” according to Aoki, though he doesn’t see anything wrong with keeping his messages short and to the point.
Kanno gives his OK in the chat soon enough, quickly followed by crying emojis from Kuroba and Uchimura, pouting about how they’ve been looking forward to diner food all week—he does feel a brief flash of guilt at that—while Hokao just posts a thumbs up sticker to acknowledge the message.
(Nagato is conspicuously silent.)
“Oh of course, the wonderkid.” Aoki pulls another face, settling back into his relaxed attitude.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Aoki shakes his head again, with the usual thin smile on his lips. “Let’s get this done, I’m sick of looking at this mess.”
Oda scoffs, gesturing at the spread in front of them. “And whose fault is it? Seriously, you should’ve gotten the other committee members to put this away earlier.” He glances around the room. “Where are they, anyway?”
“I told them to go home after they cleaned up all the courts.” Aoki stifles another yawn and reaches over to take the sign-up sheets from Oda’s side of the table.
Oda shakes his head with a little snort of laughter, sorting through the other records. “Bet you regret it now, huh?”
“No, I don’t mind.” Aoki’s voice is placid as ever, the curve of his lips hinting at some private joke that only he knows.
“Sure you don’t.” He shakes his head again. “But seriously, good work today. And I’m not saying that just because of Haijima, y’know.” He nudges Aoki’s side gently with his shoulder.
Aoki nudges back, scanning the table for other misplaced sign-up sheets. “I’m doing all this because I want to, so you don’t need to thank me for it.”
“I know.” Oda hums. “Still, I want you to know I appreciate it.” He rests his head against Aoki’s upper arm. It feels a little selfish that he’s the one doing the resting, when Aoki worked so hard for so long—not just for his part today, but for all these years playing together. Sorry, but it looks like you'll have to go along with my selfish whims a little longer…
Aoki goes still under the touch. “Shin…” He murmurs, dazed and wide-eyed. It’s kind of funny that Aoki is so surprised by such a simple touch—sure, neither of them have a taste for PDA, and they are obligated to remain professional in front of the others as the captain and vice captain of the team, but there’s literally no one left in the classroom. He doesn’t really get how Aoki can talk circles around everyone without losing his cool, but become so flustered when it’s just the two of them.
Then again, Aoki wouldn’t be Aoki if he’s the straightforward sort.
He sits back up after one last nuzzle into Aoki’s bicep. Break's over, time to get back to work. “Anyway, since I already kinda told my mom I’d be having dinner outside…” He says, gathering the records scattered around and passing them over to Aoki, who still has a stunned expression on that normally calm face. It’s kinda cute, but also, what the heck. “You wanna grab something to eat on the way home?”
“Of course.” Aoki says immediately, a rare show of determination in his voice as he quickly sorts through the paperwork, separating them by teams and events.
“Are you sure? I thought you were tired…” He looks carefully at Aoki, trying to see if the other is hiding his exhaustion to go along with his whims. “We’ll just grab something quick so you can go rest.”
“No, I’m good. Let’s make a night of it.” Aoki gives him another warm, indulgent glance. “Where do you want to go?”
Geez, this guy… “You pick, it’ll be my treat.” It’s Aoki’s reward after all, though he feels a little sorry for the underclassmen. “But we really gotta make it up to the others next time.”
Aoki only laughs. “Alright, fine. Have them put it to a vote once we’ve decided on a date. This includes Haijima as well,” he sighs, “It’d be such a pain if we have to celebrate twice, after all.”
Oda nudges him again, less affectionately this time. “Man, you sure are practical.”
“Hey now, efficiency makes the world go round.” Aoki smirks down at him. “Speaking of which, let’s get this done and go get dinner. I’m starving.” Judging by the glance he gives Oda, he’s hungry for more than just food.
“Oi,” and now it’s his turn to fight off a blush. He still doesn’t understand how Aoki could be flustered by what is technically a (very gentle) headbutt to the arm, then turn around to flirt so blatantly without batting an eye. “You still haven’t told me where you wanna go.”
He’s pretty sure he has enough cash to treat Aoki; Aoki would probably fight him when it’s time to pay, but he really wants to do this for him tonight. He did work very hard, especially during these past few weeks… He wants to indulge Aoki once in a while too.
And yet—“Anywhere’s fine,” Aoki says lightly, scratching some final notes onto the records of today’s overall score.
Ugh, seriously? “That’s not actually helpful, you know.”
Aoki just shrugs, an amused smirk at his lips. “It’s the truth. I’m good wherever, so you pick.”
“Fine then. Let’s just go to the FamilyMart down the street.” Oda rolls his eyes. “Or you can actually pick somewhere to go.”
“Okay okay, don’t be mad,” Aoki laughs again, holding his hands up for mercy. “Since you asked… You up for coming over to my place?”
“Huh?!” Geez, Aoki really is bold tonight. Not that he minds. “You know I'd love to, but I don’t want to bother your folks…”
“Nah, it’s fine.” Ah, he wishes he was half as unflappable as Aoki (unspecified embarrassment at affectionate gestures aside). “They’ll be out late, and there’s no school tomorrow anyway.”
Ah, right. It’s the weekend tomorrow, and it’s been a while since the last time they spent more than maybe 20 minutes with just each other, let alone in a private environment. So yeah, Aoki’s offer is… Tempting. Very tempting. “Uh, okay then.”
He’s blushing a little but he doesn’t care about that, grinning at Aoki who—surprise, surprise—also has a flush on his face. Those audacious things he said finally caught up with him, huh.
“We should definitely stop by FamilyMart first,” Aoki says, a little sheepish. “Need to pick up some things.”
… Oh! Oh right! It’d be good if they had all the, uh, necessary equipment… “Um, okay! We should definitely get the thing and maybe, um, that too?” He coughs; forget blushing a little—his face feels like it’s on fire right now. “It was uh really good last time, and you seem to like it too, so um. Yeah.”
Aoki arches a brow at him. “Well, of course we can, but I was actually talking about food. I’m not sure what we have in the pantry, honestly.” He angles a smirk at Oda despite looking a little flustered himself, already snickering. “Still, I’m glad you’re up for—”
“Har har, very funny. Anyway!” Geez, he will self-combust if this conversation continues, and the ghost of his dignity would have to deal with Aoki laughing himself sick. “Let’s get this paperwork filed properly and get outta here! For dinner!”
Aoki, of course, continues to laugh. Like he wasn't thinking about it too, jerk. “Dinner, huh.”
“Dinner.” Oda replies firmly with the most solemn expression in his arsenal on his face, though he's pretty sure it's ruined by the blush and the twitch of his lips. He gives Aoki another nudge. “Get back to work, geez.”
(And they do manage to pick up everything they need, after they’ve finally put everything in the classroom away in the right place and leaves for the Aoki household…
But, as neither of them are the type to kiss and tell, the details to that night will forever remain a mystery.)