Chapter Text
It was Friday evening. The sun was settled comfortably amongst the huge mountains locate around Miyagi, creating a soft glow that covered the place. The noise of chatter and the sickeningly sweet aroma of candy had filled Tsukishima’s senses and he coughed them out of remove it. The air was not as cold as you would expect during mid-November, but was chilly enough for Tsukishima to wear a jacket over his work clothes.
It’s especially busy tonight, a tsunami of people piling towards the entrance and exit of the amusement park’s entrance. Tsukishima eyes the elderly couple fiddling with the booth’s equipment who were trying to get some prizes, failing, and then wandering off to another booth.
Tsukishima sighed, removing his glasses to rub his eyes, letting out a tiny yawn as he did so. The day seemed to drag on for longer than he liked, it being nearly five hours until his shift ended. He groaned after remembering that he had to go home and finish a report for his palaeontology course (which is worth more than 60% of his final grade, mind you) that he so carelessly left till last minute. And now, he has to pay the consequences of being high on too-large-to-be-considered-healthy doses of caffeine and being completely sleep-deprived.
He sighed once more, leaning against his booth’s prop, arms crossed over his chest as he contemplates his life choices for the fifth time that day. The amusement park where he works isn’t that big, but big enough for you and whomever to roam around for one whole day without repeating each thing twice.
He likes his job, honestly. And despite what his teammates at college might think, Tsukishima does not actually mind working in a booth; where he’s forced to communicate with people all the time. And no, that was not sarcasm. When you think about it, this job does not require that much talking in the first place. Usually all those who come by to this booth are love-sicken couples, loud children and the occasional old grandparents that pay no attention to Tsukishima anyway, except for him to deliver the self-explanatory instructions.
You might be thinking that the booth Tsukishima works in is a pretty cool one, like the hammer striker or a huge crane machine filled with ridiculously expensive prizes like a new phone or tablet. That was what he was expecting at first, when he applied for this job. But when Tsukishima asks about it on his first day, both were unfortunately taken by two horribly loud guys that Tsukishima does not trust handling huge machinery, at all.
Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san were the rowdy duo that loved to harass him whenever they could by meddling with his stuff and misplacing them in absurd places like the bathroom or the top of the ferris wheel. It once took him an entire day to find where they had placed his headphones to find it situated under the cotton candy stand. They had both messed with him in an attempt to persuade him to go to the local bar with them that weekend. He had refused.
But other than that, they were alright. You know, as far as idiots go.
Tsukishima was mad though, at first, when he learnt that he had to monitor the ring toss. You heard it here first, folks. Tsukishima Kei; tallest member of the volleyball team, self-proclaimed no emotions, hard-headed, cold-eyed blocking master is in charge of the fucking ring toss. He had to spend his entire shift watching endless of people toss circular rings into many different poles endlessly. How mundane.
Despite everything, the ring toss was actually quite difficult, in an odd way. It was designed with the sole intention of making the player have an incredibly low chance for them to win a lot of points. Even those small prizes that were worth ten easy points seemed so hard to get. And even though it was quite cheap, it made people not even bother to have a second go.
Which is why Tsukishima is a little perplexed about this one person.
He is eyeing said person who was positioned all over the bench that separated the inside of the booth to the out. Trailing his eyes across the stranger’s body he could see his teeth gnawing on his bottom lip, eyes narrow with concentration with an out stretched arm reaching over to give himself an advantage. His nose was scrunched up to a point where it furrowed his eyebrows, an array of freckles were dusted (cutely) around his face as he continued to do so. Long dark hair was tied up in a low pony-tail, stray hairs messily framing his tan face, highlighting the glint of his eyes and—
Tsukishima spluttered.
He quickly tried to compose himself by adverting his eyes away from the epitome of actual light. Tsukishima was adamant to not pay any attention to his both regal and soft features that he knew were both adjectives that juxtaposed each other. Tsukishima silently groaned, when did he start making up weird analogies to strangers he hadn’t even spoken a word to? He had been spending too much time with Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san, it had seemed. Tsukishima tried to make sense of this thoughts, rubbing his temples before wrapping himself closer inside his jacket.
You normally don’t see types like him in this region, you know, Earth?
Ahem.
But that wasn’t the case. What had actually caught his eye was the fact that the ‘Freckled angel,’ as Tsukishima had ‘forcefully’ nicknamed him in his head, had just arrived and was already on his third go at the ring toss; having only scored a whopping four points. He had come into a hurry in front of Tsukishima’s booth, slamming his, also freckled, arm onto the bench with money and leaned in closer to Tsukishima that he could almost count those freckles as the stranger said,
“Hit me up.”
Yes, Tsukishima was quite puzzled.
Now, listen. Tsukishima wasn’t the type to get flustered over some person but it was different this time. He can’t put his finger on why this stranger seemed to break his whole rules but he can't say he's complaining.
The tall blocker had snapped out of his daze and his eyes followed the stranger once more. He was now complaining into his arms as another ring fell into a place no where near the pole. Tsukishima could feel the corners of his lips turn up a little, watching this whole scene in bemusement.
It really was a very amusing scene to behold, and with a few more minutes of the so-called-angel paying for more turns and failing, Tsukishima wonders if they would ever exchange another word. His question is answered as the stranger looks him straight in the eye and says something. However, Tsukishima does not hear those words and instead focuses on how his lips pout and form with every word—
“Sorry, what?”
It takes a moment for him to realise that the stranger was talking to him. Tsukishima tries to open his mouth to say something but he’s pretty sure that his brain is completely fried. It takes him all the strength in him to not say something about his freckles, or something.
The stranger looks at him with big brown eyes that fucks Tsukishima over and then laughs (fuck, even his laugh is cute, can laughs even be cute?) slightly before replying, “Have you got any tips for beating this stupid game?” He props his arm against the bench, looking Tsukishima straight in the eyes. “I really want that prize over there!”
He points to the largest-sized prize on the rows of toys, a rather too-bright pink coloured teddy bear wearing a fake moustache. It's so hideous, and it's not even Tsukishima being his snarky self. It’s got two beady little eyes that seemingly mock Tsukishima, mocking him because the only guy that he's interested in, is only interested in getting some stupid prize.
Tsukishima raises an eyebrow and walks towards the front of the booth. The bear was, for some absurd reason, the largest prize that was worth the highest points. Don’t ask how, Tsukishima himself does not even know. Its eyes aren’t even the same size and its mouth is lopsided and despite this bear being actually the most revolting thing Tsukishima has ever seen, it’s currently getting more attention that himself. And Tsukishima feels some sort of jealousy churn within him, and he knows it’s foolish to be jealous of some prize but he can’t help it, alright.
He knows he’s suppose to say something now, it had nearly been two minutes that had gone by without him saying anything.
It baffles Tsukishima once more but he ends up saying, “You just have to keep trying, I suppose.” He shrugs nonchalantly, a complete 180 from his actual thoughts.
Completely unaware of Tsukishima’s dilemma, the stranger replies with, “As if I hadn’t been doing that for the past ten hours!” He wails his arms to emphasise on his hyperbole, before sheepishly smiling at Tsukishima. When done, he looks at Tsukishima and pouts his lips childishly.
Tsukishima looks on before asking, “Why are you trying so hard anyway? You could probably buy these prizes at some corner shop, or something.”
The stranger huffs, the frosty air leaving his lips as he looks at Tsukishima as if he had personally offended him. “Yeah, I could. But that’s not fun at all.” He rolls his eyes, “I prefer to work for my achievements instead of cheating my way into victory.” He concludes, crosses his arms and looking at Tsukishima as if to challenge that he had said.
It’s somehow endearingly adorable to Tsukishima but he would never utter that out loud. Instead he deadpans, "Uh, that one? For real?"
“What’s that suppose to imply?” The stranger bellows, “it’s so cute!” He squeals and Tsukishima knows that there's no way he could find that adorable but he's so whipped, you don't even know.
Tsukishima is not even sure how he could reply with that and instead is thinking about whether or not he’ll get the name of this cute stranger.
Before Tsukishima could (bravely) ask, the stranger adds, “Oh, I haven’t introduced myself,” the stranger chuckled, nose crunching from the wide smile on his face, “Yamaguchi Tadashi, nice to meet you!”
Tsukishima thanks every holy being out there for blessing him for the second time that day.
“Tsukishima Kei,” he replies, going that extra mile to appear as cool and aloof as possible. The stranger, Yamaguchi, he’ll now call him, is still smiling that blinding smile but then stops and looks as if he has remembered something. Patting his pockets, he says, “Ah, I’ve run out of tokens! I’ll be right back, Tsukki. I need to go get some more!” He doesn’t wait for Tsukishima to say anything and turns on his heel and jogs his way to the token station that was just opposite the booth.
Tsukishima’s brain is currently going on over-drive. He can't even remember the last time his brain had ever been functioning properly. He once again groans, and places both his hands on the bench, looking down at the scratches that have formed on the wood from many years.
“Oh, ho, ho ho?”
He knew that underneath all those blessings laid a horrific curse.
Tsukishima tilts his head upwards to come into face with what he ranks as, ‘the two most irritating faces’ known to man-kind. He narrows his eyes and he could feel his eyebrow scrunching as he frowns at the people in front of him. These faces belong to Bokuto and Kuroo, who are both looking at him mischievously; Kuroo wearing his trademark smirk and Bokuto’s smiling as always.
“You know, Tsukishima, if you keep furrowing your eyebrows like that,” Kuroo says, shoving his finger in-between his eyebrows. “You’re gonna ruin that pretty face of yours.”
“Yeah, yeah, Tsukishima. You don’t wanna’ go ruining that face!” Bokuto echoes in his other ear. They both start laughing once again and starts belting out weird puns that are utterly awful.
This successfully irritates Tsukishima so Kuroo and Bokuto turn to each other, fist-pumping each other. Tsukishima doesn’t time for this, you know. Well, logically speaking, yes he does. He’s got loads of time until his shift ends and its not like his booth is the, be-all-end-all of booths, so literally no one shows up. But, you don’t understand; he’s too busy trying to figure out whether Yamaguchi had just stood him up. And this wasn’t even a date.
Tsukishima shoves Kuroo’s finger away from his face, frowning and tells them to both piss off.
“Eh, why’re you getting rid of us?” Bokuto wails, placing his arm around Tsukishima’s shoulders. “It’s not like you’re doing anything!”
“Oh, he’s quite busy, Bokuto,” Kuroo states and then narrows his eyes in a way that gives Tsukishima’s the chills because he knows that what he says next is definitely not going to be good. “Our cute little Tsukki,” he pauses, smirking, “is too busy - being in love.” Kuroo coos, cradling Tsukishima in his arms.
“Wait what, no!” Tsukishima denies while Bokuto fanboys by letting out a horrifying screech that the sound dissolves into the crowd as no one seems to notice.
“Hush, hush, young one.” Kuroo places a finger on Tsukishima’s lips, looping his arm on the other side of his neck.
“Do not resist our aid, young traveller.” Bokuto echoes once more, “Us wise mentors are only training our baby successor to be the very best!”
“Huh, what are you talking about? I’m only two years younger than you!”
Kuroo sighs dramatically, “Oh, how hard it must be to still be in diapers.”
Indeed, a curse under a blessing.
After they have left, Yamaguchi comes back and shoves a few tokens onto the bench in front of Tsukishima and cheekily says, “Let me have another go! I need to get that teddy bear.”
Tsukishima takes the money and walks over to pick up the several rings that was scattered all over the floor and then places them in front of Yamaguchi, for him to pick it up and have his next tries. Tsukishima is watching all of this again, from the sidelines, contemplating whether Yamaguchi would actually spend his whole night wasting his money on his stall.
Watching him like this is both wonderful and extremely painful at the same time. Seeing him endearingly attempt to figure out how the fuck he was going to win is cute in his own way. But watching him means that Tsukishima has to bear his time to see him horribly fail countless of times.
It’s honestly astonishing in its own way, having tried for so many times and managing to score only three points. Tsukishima doesn’t know what has gotten into him but he can’t help but feel a tender softness in his heart which he knows is totally weird to feel from someone who he had just met that day but does anyone really care?
Yamaguchi throws his last ring that goes flying into some other dimension, no where near the pole and slumps onto the bench, arms sprawled out in front of him, moaning.
Don’t get him wrong but Tsukishima is totally smitten with the fact that Yamaguchi is still at his booth, but he feels bad as well. Yamaguchi is wasting his money when he could have gone to some other booth much cooler and more fun than Tsukishima’s.
So, he decides quickly that he’s going to make it up to Yamaguchi.
Tsukishima strides over to that beady-eyed horribly bright pink bear Yamaguchi was motioning to before, unties it from the string and (quite forcefully) places it in front of Yamaguchi.
“There you go.” He states.
Yamaguchi lifts his head up and looks confusingly at him, “Huh? Are you—” He pauses, voice going a tad softer and lower than it was previously, “Are you actually giving it to me?” Yamaguchi cocks his head to the side and in a way, he kind of resembles a puppy; and it's driving Tsukishima crazy.
Tsukishima huffs, “Yeah, just take it. I can’t bare to see you fail any moment longer.” His calm tone don’t match his cheeks as they betray him; warming up his face and he’s pretty sure he looks like a tomato. But he’s not looking at Yamaguchi, but looking at the beat-down bench in front of him.
He hears a laugh and it sound so cheerful, so soft, so happy and it baffles Tsukishima once more. He lifts his eyes up from the bench to see Yamaguchi hugging the bear, pressing it against his cheeks. He sounds so happy for something Tsukishima deems so mellow, so insignificant.
“Thank you, Tsukki. I love it!” Yamaguchi cheers, and he giggles for a bit before he calms down. This isn’t good for Tsukishima’s heart, you know, because Yamaguchi is looking at him as if the sun comes out of his ass or like he’s Santa Claus granting his wish on Christmas Day. It’s so sweet and innocent and Tsukishima doesn’t know what to do and he feel awkward just standing there so he intertwines his own fingers together, fiddling with his nails and casts his eyes down to watch himself do that, refusing to look up at Yamaguchi.
He can feel Yamaguchi’s eyes on him and finally gives into the urge of looking up at Yamaguchi to find him looking at him so fondly as he says, “Hey, Tsukki. Do you always give away free gifts to people?”
“Hm, what? No.” Tsukishima props his elbows on the bench and leans in, having gained a little of confidence. “Just the ones I like."
Yamaguchi smiles and its the first time Tsukishima’s noticed his dimples, how could he be so blind? “Oh, and how many people are they?”
Tsukishima pretends to think, because he can. And it's slightly amusing to see Yamaguchi becoming all red and flustered waiting for his answer. So he fake thinks for a moment before saying, “I don’t like lots of people.”
“Yeah, but if you had to say a number?”
“Just one.”
Now, listen.
Yamaguchi’s never done something like this, you know. Trying to chat someone up, or whatever people call it these days. But he can’t help himself, alright? He’s got it so bad, you don’t even understand.
It all had started when Shouyou had dragged him to the amusement park with his ‘not-boyfriend’ Kageyama earlier that day, and had totally ditched him to go on the ferris wheel the moment Yamaguchi had turned around.
But, listen.
He had been making his way across the millions of people swarming every inch of this amusement park and he tries to not get dragged away by the crowd. Yamaguchi moves his legs as quick and powerfully as he could manage until they stop suddenly in their tracks.
Across the amusement park, Yamaguchi can see him. Tall, blond, and totally his type, really. He’s wearing an employee’s uniform with a black bomber jacket to, presumably, warm himself up from the cold. The fluorescent lights above the booth he’s working in is obnoxiously bright, shining an ugly yellow that should be unflattering to anyone but somehow makes this guy look heavenly.
It’s totally unfair too, Yamaguchi thinks, because there's no way that there is a human out there who looks that good in harsh, bright lighting.
That’s aside from the point, though. What does matter is the fact that Yamaguchi had walked to and from this booth for about twenty times and he still doesn’t know how to approach this guy. And it takes a bit of snooping about from two guys with absurd hair for Yamaguchi to figure out what his name was.
Tsukishima Kei. Gosh, Yamaguchi is so fucked. Even his name was hot.
He's not looking at him though. He's not looking at him because all of a sudden, he sees it. He sees it h anging up above the booth looking like the lion king in such a beautiful form that leaves Yamaguchi breathless. And he has to have it.
So he forces his way in front of that booth.
When he walks home that night, he gazes at the mountains in the distance. The air is cold so Yamaguchi tries to warm himself up by wrapping himself closer in his jacket and recalls the events of that night. He still hadn’t forgiven Shouyou for forcing him to leave his house when he had to finish his report for tomorrow.
But he can’t, you know. And he knows how important doing homework is and such but he can't, I tell you! Especially since he’s managed to score a date in the morning with the world’s cutest amusement park employee.
All because he wanted a too-brightly coloured teddy bear.
How fitting.