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it first comes up one night when they’re drunk at a bar and reminiscing about stories from back when they were kids.
atsumu’s in the middle of a story (and shouyou’s only half listening, because atsumu’s always in the middle of a story) when he mentions something that he doesn’t realize is gonna change his life.
“—and then he said ‘what, fox got yer tongue ?’ and—i don’t even know why this is what i was thinkin’ about, but he said the thing , so i had to tell him—i—”
“—wait, wait, wait,” shouyou interrupts, “what do you mean, ‘he said the thing’ ? why’d you have to tell him something?”
atsumu fixes him with a wounded-puppy look. “shouyou-kun... ya weren’t listening, were ya.”
shouyou’s face goes a little pinker. “sorry, i was just… thinking, i guess.”
“and see, this’d be the perfect time for a fox-gotcher-tongue, that’s just what i was sayin’!”
“a what?”
atsumu inhales deeply, obviously ready to repeat himself. (“i can’t listen to this again,” sakusa grumbles, sliding out of his seat and cracking his neck. “anybody else need another drink?” )
“this stupid magic word thing me’n’samu made up when we were little. it’s just a thing we used to say, and if somebody said it, you had to stop and—”
“sounds like a safe word,” shouyou chuckles.
“no, it’s not like a safe word,” atsumu scoffs, rolling his eyes. “a fox-got-yer-tongue, shouyou-kun, was a magic word that made you tell the other whatever it was you were thinkin’ about right then, no matter what.”
“no matter what?” shouyou echoes doubtfully. “you could just say it anytime, no matter where or when, and the other had to tell the truth?”
atsumu rolls his eyes. “i mean, we had to make some rules by about day three, because we just wanted to use it all the time. we’re twins—we could damn near read each others’ minds from the beginning, but once we had a way to actually check?
we even had to come up with different magic words every once in a while, too, just because it got old, using the same one all the time, but fox-gotcher-tongue was the original.”
shouyou lets out a low whistle as atsumu continues: “so basically, yeah. we made a promise that we wouldn’t ever lie if the other used it, even if it meant admitting something really embarrassing. and half the time it would turn into a dare, like, oooh, you thought about it, now you’ve gotta do it… but then we’d usually wind up doing whatever it was together, anyway.” he shakes his head, chuckling.
“i wanna try it,” shouyou says abruptly.
“what? with natsu?”
“no, with you!”
atsumu’s nose scrunches. “no, c’mon, why?”
“because i trust you to really, actually do it! you will, won’t you, atsumu-san?”
shouyou’s eyes glitter mischievously in the bar light, and for some reason, atsumu can’t bring himself to say no.
it’s not even an hour later before shouyou makes him regret it. atsumu had gotten edgy, and he kept glancing periodically in a particular direction, periodically brightening to brush off any questions. shouyou sees his opening and swoops in.
“you’ve gotten awfully quiet,” he says innocently. “… fox got your tongue?”
atsumu, who had just been in the process of fixing his face into something resembling his normal grin, lets it fall sour again. “you little bastard,” he sighs. “just saw an awkward ex, is all. basically.”
shouyou blinks, gesturing for him to continue.
atsumu pulls a face. “ugh, fine—so we went on two dates and then i ghosted her because i was young’n’stupid and also not, at that point, super into girls. she’s over there, in blue.”
“oh?” shouyou frowns over his pint glass. the girl is pretty in a pinched, irritable sort of way, and she keeps glancing over at atsumu and tossing her long, sleek hair like it’s going to lure him in.
atsumu settles again, but then shouyou goes in for the kill. “thanks for telling me! although—correct me if i’m wrong, but—none of that is what you were thinking, right, ‘tsumu-san?”
atsumu rubs his face and stares down at the table, avoiding shouyou’s eyes. “i was thinking about how if we just pretend we were on a date, we could give her something to actually stare at,” he mumble-blurts in a rush, just so he can say he told the truth. a moment later, he finally glances at shouyou’s face, sees his eyes widen in comprehension, and throws up in his mouth a little.
meanwhile shouyou leans in conspiratorially, fighting to keep from cracking into a grin. “we can be on a pretend date if you want to,” he says seriously, sliding his arm around atsumu’s shoulder, something that’s much more possible than usual, since they’re both sitting down and atsumu is also slowly sinking lower like he wants to disappear under the table.
“climbing under the table is a pretty bold move, atsumu-san, but if you think it’ll make her jealous…” shouyou shrugs, playfully reaching to unzip his pants as atsumu swats at his hands, hissing to shut him up.
shouyou’s arm returns to atsumu’s shoulder, skritching into the hair at the back of his neck to bring his ear closer. “what, don’t you wanna put on a little show for your ex?” he murmurs. and when atsumu nods, squeezing his eyes shut in embarrassment, shouyou presses a lingering, possessive kiss against his jawline and it’s like some kind of floodgate opens.
presumably atsumu’s kind-of-ex gets jealous and leaves at some point—by the time they remember to look around and see whether she’s watching their public displays of affection, she’s long gone… which is a shame, because what’s the point of pretend make-outs on a pretend-date without an audience?
they don’t ever really talk about their fake date at the bar, or the conversation that preceded it. in fact, it feels like such a long time before any of it comes up in conversation again that atsumu starts to think shouyou must have blacked out and forgotten the whole thing. and they might have forgotten all about their “fox got your tongue” promise, too... if it weren’t for a stupid prank war.
actually, “prank” might be a little overly generous for what happened. some of the team was horrifyingly clever and sophisticated—atsumu had already caught two different people so far trying to tamper with his hair products, and inunaki literally just had to throw away an entire pair of unsalvageable shoes—but as far as anybody could tell, bokuto’s big prank idea seemed to be to trick people into going into the supply closet and then locking them in just long enough to piss them off.
sure, it may have been uninspired, but it was basically harmless, too—at least, until the door jammed. they couldn’t be 100% sure, what with being on the wrong side of the locked door and all, but it had even sounded like bokuto cried?
“take a nap or something,” sakusa said through the door eventually. “or don’t—just try, try not do anything weird in there.”
so now here they sit, lying back side by side in a pile of nets, trying to spin volleyballs on their fingertips in the dark and occasionally dropping them on one another’s faces with a yelp.
“could be a lot worse, honestly,” shouyou says quietly, once their eyes have adjusted and they’ve gotten tired of their balance challenges. he nudges atsumu’s shoulder with his own, and receives a hum of agreement and a nudge back.
“yeah, could be omi-kun in here with ya,” atsumu winces, turning his head to find shouyou’s face already looking back at him.
“nah, omi-san and i get along just fine— you’re the one he’d kill and eat before bokuto busted you out,” shouyou says, sticking his tongue out.
“that’s my face,” atsumu grumbles, sticking his own tongue out, too.
shouyou snorts and it makes them both giggle, looking back toward the ceiling. their faces are way too close together to look at each other like that, and it’s almost quiet enough to hear their hearts pounding.
atsumu swallows audibly and rolls onto his side to face shouyou. “fox got yer tongue, shouyou-kun?”
shouyou sucks in a deep breath, but doesn’t say anything. just tugs at his own hair, still looking straight up.
“c’mon, didja forget how this works already? yer the one who wanted to—”
“of course i didn’t forget,” shouyou interrupts, finally turning his head. atsumu shuts up. “it’s just that what i was thinking, atsumu-san, is. um.” shouyou sighs, his warm breath puffing over atsumu’s face, which is so near. “i was just. thinking about how bad i wanna kiss you right now.”
“oh,” atsumu says.
“y’know, you can, if you—” he starts to say, while shouyou is stammering “forget it, i’m sorry—”
they stare at each other, pupils enormous in the dim light.
“your turn,” shouyou breathes. he’s probably about to make atsumu admit what’s on his mind, but atsumu opts not to wait, closing the gap between them. first with one light kiss, and then with more, until shouyou finally rolls on top of him...
which is exactly how their teammates find them, when the door pops back open, and nobody has ever seen sakusa look quite so disappointed and unsurprised.
after that, the next few times they say it are all in bed. it turns out to be a terrifyingly straightforward method of finding out a new partner’s tastes, preferences, curiosities and proclivities.
fox-got-your-tongues and the mutual revelations thereof are responsible for some of the best (and some of the… least best...) sex either of them have ever had, but even so, the answers aren’t always sultry or romantic, either.
“okay, don’t yell,” shouyou says, lying on atsumu’s chest one lazy afternoon on a rare day off, “but i’m kinda… thinking about your brother?”
“what the fuck ,” atsumu yells anyway, jostling shouyou out of his hold.
shouyou whines, rolling back into place and smooshing his face into atsumu’s pectorals. “i said don’t yell! i’m just really hungry, and i was thinking about onigiri, and then i was thinking about osamu-san just for a second but that’s exactly when you asked and i couldn’t lie!”
atsumu lets out a dramatic sigh and squeezes him close. “onigiri or no onigiri, i’m gonna go ahead and pretend ya didn’t just tell me you were thinkin’ about ‘samu in bed.”
“fair enough,” shouyou squeaks. “but i really do want onigiri for dinner.”
they’re in a similar state of post-coital afterglow when shouyou catches atsumu gazing at him so softly it makes him squirm.
“fox got your tongue, baby?” he murmurs sweetly and atsumu blushes. they haven’t been together long, not together together, but they’ve definitely been making their time count.
atsumu glances away, squeezing his eyes shut. “i’m thinking about how... i might already be in love with you. but please forget i said that.”
“said what?” shouyou teases, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “no, it’s okay if you’re not ready to say it yet. if you think it feels like it’s too early.”
“mm,” atsumu agrees, but his eyes are already saying it all the time, whether he’s given them permission to or not.
he’s just about to fall asleep later when he hears shouyou whisper, “i love you, too, atsumu-san.”
by the time they’re ready to get married, a few years later, they’re about out of secrets, and it’s not very often that they have to resort to tricks to make one another own up to what’s on their mind. but that doesn’t stop the occasional reappearance of those magic words, if only for old time’s sake, to really capitalize on a perfect moment, or just to wreak havoc.
now, standing together in their wedding finery, in the loving company of their friends and family, and surrounded by teammates new, old, and very old, shouyou has a certain wicked glee in his eyes when he asks, “has the fox got your tongue today, dear husband?”
atsumu gives him a lopsided grin, surveying the guests mingling, chatting and dancing around them. he spots his brother standing over by sakusa and lifts his chin in greeting, despite the matching looks of judgement on their faces. kita and aran seem to be holding court with all the mothers and grandmothers in attendance, and kageyama is doing his awkward, stoic best as natsu’s reluctant dance partner. adorable.
“now that you mention it,” atsumu says with a flourish, and with as much going on as there is, shouyou genuinely isn’t sure what he’s about to hear. (it’s good to be able to keep surprising each other, after all.) “i was just thinkin’ about how, honestly, as much as i love all these people to death, i’d still rather skip the whole damn party, and just go straight back to the hotel instead. just us.”
shouyou reaches up to gently touch his face, cooing. “aw, tsumu! are you feeling overwhelmed? do we need to sneak out for our own private party? a romantic evening, just the two of us?”
atsumu snorts. “that’s sweet, but who said anything about romantic? i’m more interested in finally getting to rip that handsome suit right off ya and—” shouyou shuts him up with a kiss, both their faces pink and happy. it goes on long enough that the guests around them cheer.
“really should have seen that coming,” shouyou says, shaking his head and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“i’m sure we’ll be readin’ each other’s minds for real in no time,” atsumu says, combing his fingers through the hair at the nape of shouyou’s neck. “just gotta keep bein’ honest, right? and maybe trying to catch each other off guard every now’n’then, too.”
he pulls shouyou’s face back to his one more time for another one of those married kisses. it’s the same, but a little different, too. they might be his new favorite kind. just a little something else to think about.