The morning of their departure Atsumu walked over to his apartment to meet him there and come up with a story. The ace was already anxiously waiting, finding himself hoping he wouldn't come equally as much as he awaited his arrival.

This was a stupid idea. A stupid idea and a stupid plan.

 

The knock at the door startled him and he was quick to open it, failing to compose himself beforehand in his haste.

 

He was greeted by the admittedly very good-looking blonde, who wore a comfortable yet stylish outfit that suited him better than expected. Did he always look this attractive and Sakusa had just failed to pay attention until now or did he dress provocatively on purpose?

 

"Omi?"

 

"What...?" he replied dumbly.

 

"I said good morning," Atsumu smirked and quirked an eyebrow. "You look... a mess.".

 

Sakusa's expression darkened. He did. He knew he did. Despite getting up early he got little to no preparation done except for showering and finishing packing his stuff from which three-quarters had already been packed for almost a week. Still...

He scowled at him.

 

"Hey, it looks cute." Miya continued digging his own grave. "I usually only see you in sports attire during practice or some uptight suites for formal events. I didn't think you owned anything else like sweatpants. I like it." he winked.

 

"Save the compliments for later. No flirting yet," Sakusa deadpanned.

 

The setter's smirk widened and he leaned closer intentionally.

"Oh, you will know when I start flirting."

 

Sakusa met his teasing gaze with an ice-cold stare not giving him the satisfaction of any kind of reaction yet he dreaded what was about to come. If this was just Miya teasing, he didn't really want to know what his flirting would be like. Guess he would find out regardless.

 

"So what's the story?" The blonde strolled inside and put down his bag. "How long have we been together? Any plans for the future? Perhaps moving in together once we're financially stable enough to afford a bigger apartment and–"

 

The dark-haired sighed and turned around to make them coffee. He desperately needed caffeine in his system.

"I doubt that that'll be necessary. If my parents acknowledge you at all then as a hindrance."

 

"That bad, huh?"

 

Oh, he had no idea. Sakusa ignored his comment and continued: "They won't ask too many details about 'us' but..."

 

"But?" Atsumu asked.

The setter leaned over the counter watching him intrigued.

 

"They will try and nitpick everything about you, make you look bad in front of me to convince me that you are not a good choice..." he elaborated.

 

"Which won't matter because this is all fake and you don't like me anyway because I'm annoying, got ya."

He clicked his tongue. For some reason, it irritated him.

 

"Yes," Sakusa replied slowly.

Something about the way he said it annoyed him immensely. Not because he was annoying himself even though Sakusa grew rarely tired of claiming just that and more often than not it wasn't far from the truth. Perhaps it was Atsumu's willingness to immediately assume the label and put himself down in the process.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this. It's not too late yet to back out."

 

"What? Why?"

Atsumu appeared to be almost shocked and maybe even a bit offended. Like Sakusa had betrayed him.

 

"They will lay into you. It isn't worth it. I can lie about having a partner, I did that before."

 

Not very successfully, but he didn't need to know that.

 

"Omi that's nonsense. I can handle some idiots."

 

"You shouldn't have to. I will still say we are friends so don't worry about the bet," he replied rather harshly. His nerves were getting to him and why couldn't Miya for once just listen? He was trying to do him a favour.

 

"I'm not worried about that! How shallow do ya take me for?" Atsumu snapped back.

 

The ace didn't reply and just stared down at his cup. Something about his words made the image of him being verbally harassed by his parents and belittled so much more unbearable. He suddenly couldn't imagine him there anymore. Atsumu, warm as he was, didn't fit into that cold house.

 

"Omi, it's fine. This is gonna make it easier for ya, right?"

 

He thought about it and almost surprised himself when he found: yes, it would.

There was the added level of showing off his uality undeniably in front of his family but that wasn't it. Atsumu was warm and one of the few, who — against his expectations — respected his boundaries almost immediately without asking further questions.

 

He was content with the explanation that Sakusa simply didn't like things like being touched and that was that. He didn't seek for the reason or made him feel like he was wrong for preferring things that way. As though it was completely normal to him.

 

Something even his family did not manage, aside from Komori that is. His sister at least tried.

 

He nodded slowly handing a cup of coffee as well, while nibbling at his own.

 

"See? There ya have it, I'll help ya. Look at it like a favour between friends."

 

Friends? He thought maybe he'd like that. It sounded... nice.

 

"So what do I gotta know?"

 

They went over a few general rules and details. Atsumu already that Sakusa had problems with touch and was as such very surprised when the dark-haired did not in fact pose the idea of kisses immediately. Public ones obviously... For show.

Under the condition, as was the rule for any sort of touch, that Atsumu showered daily and brushed his teeth.

 

Stunned the setter looked at him before his brows furrowed slightly.

"Are you familiar with the traffic light system? Like green, yellow, and—"

 

Red. Sakusa's cheeks flushed bright red and he was quick to cut him off.

"What in hell would we need that for?!"

He was very well aware that the typical use for this system of /safewords/ was not at all of an innocent nature and Atsumu must know it too, judging by the pink blush spreading on his cheeks.

 

"No, no, hear me out!

"I just thought, with your parents being fairly conservative and all they probably don't know it."

 

"Definitely not," he bit back.

 

"Right... Exactly. So we could use it to communicate without them noticing the whole ordeal or suspecting anything," Atsumu explained. "If I ever overdo it or go too far or am just barely walking the line just subtly mention yellow and I'll tone it down.

"Red if I should just shut up immediately."

 

"I doubt that'll be the case. You are perfect as you are.

"For this I mean."

He quickly added the second part when he noticed how weird that sounded, still flustered from before.

 

Atsumu chuckled nervously.

"Thanks, I'd still feel more comfortable if we had something like this, just in case."

 

Sakusa nodded slowly. Now that the setter had mentioned it, he would also feel safer if he had a hot more control over the situation instead of walking in blindsided.

"Okay."

 

"Aside from that, do you have anything like a topic or a word you could say if it gets too much?" the blonde asked, making Sakusa frown in confusion.

"I mean not if /I/ get too much. We have the colours for that. But you seem really stressed about this, so anything you can say so that'll know to get you out of the situation or something."

 

He understood what he meant, though he didn't like it. Atsumu seemed to genuinely care or at least he was very good at making it appear that way. And while Sakusa should probably just appreciate that, at the moment the unfamiliarity of it only added to his already tensed nerves.

 

Still, he thought about it. He was tempted to say 'volleyball' as the first association he and Atsumu shared but that would be said too much.

 

"If I want you to get me out... I'll start talking about Ushijima."

 

"What?"

Atsumu looked so confused it was almost comical.

 

"My family knows close to nothing about me or my social life. That's why I can lie to them about us. They know Ushijima also plays volleyball and that we knew each other in high school and that's it." he shrugged his shoulders. "They won't notice anything amiss, the only ones who might are Komori or my sister. They know not to touch on the topic "

 

"Did something happen between the two of you?"

 

Sakusa just raised an eyebrow as if to say 'Are you serious?' but it was less convincing as he averted his gaze.

"Not really."

 

He must have sensed that it wasn't his place to ask because the setter quickly dropped the topic and moved on to lighter subjects.

"Anyway, I got us something. To make the whole thing more convincing and because I wanted to the look on your family's faces."

 

He grinned and reached for the suspiciously heavy bag he brought. Sakusa tried guessing what the blonde came up and clearly, he was still blinded by a false sense of security by his previous attentiveness.

The ace should have known that it was impossible to try to understand Miya's thought process. He was his own flavour of idiotic insanity.

 

Atsumu pulled two matching rainbow-coloured pyjamas from his bag with a tiny embroidered unicorn on the left sight of the chest. Sakusa locked at them, torn between shock and horror.

 

"If we wear these my mother might just get a heart attack and die," he deadpanned.

 

Atsumu laughed, and put them back again. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes, making Sakusa question he he could have forgotten for even a second what a risky gamble this was.

 

"Just wait for the outfits I have packed," he remarked teasingly.

 

Sakusa knew then and there that yes this was a calculated risk... And he was very bad at math.

 

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Podfic/Audiobook/Video version - Chapter 02