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Jealousy wasn't a feeling Tsukishima Kei was very familiar with.
Irritation? Check. Happiness? Check. Frustration? Check.
But jealousy? No.
There were few to none instances in which jealousy was even an option. In his opinion there was no need to be jealous of someone else's height, skill, success or intelligence for him. So he had simply figured he was -in a way- incapable of feeling jealousy. Other people's business wasn't his to get involved with physically or emotionally after all.
The only time he might have been jealous was that one time his brother was allowed to go see the new Jurassic Park movie, while Kei himself had simply been too young to be allowed inside.
But besides that, he couldn't think of any situation he might have been seriously jealous.
So it was no surprise that he was taken off guard by the the heavy wave of jealousy that washed over him as his eyes caught sight of Tadashi speaking to Yachi at the other end of the gym.
He had been under the impression that the freckled teen was right next to him as always and had only realized he wasn't, when his mean comment about the tension between Hinata and Kageyama hadn't triggered a reaction. Usually Tadashi would try to hide his laughter, additionally let a small cute snort pass, whenever Kei made a sarcastic remark about anything. So when he was met with silence instead of the normal laugh, the tall teen had noticed he was in fact standing alone.
Admittedly, it was his own fault for not noticing that Tadashi had slipped away and that he had been talking to himself like an idiot.
The original embarrassment -because again: talking to himself like an idiot - had quickly been replaced by the unfamiliar feeling of jealousy as his eyes caught sight of Tadashi talking and laughing with Yachi about god knows what.
Kei knew there was no reason to feel that way. Not only was Yachi in no way interested in Tadashi, but said boy had every right to talk to his friends whenever and how often he wanted to and normally it didn't bother him. Yet he couldn't stop the displeased huff that left his nose.
Tadashi could be standing next to
him
and laughing with
him
about
his
joke, instead of talking to Yachi.
Kei immediately regretted that thought. Yachi was probably the last person that deserved to have a grudge against her, especially over something as silly as inappropriate jealousy.
With a sigh, Kei decided to ignore it and file his jealousy under emotional slip ups. He had better things to do than to deal with his feeling, especially feelings that were short lived and wouldn't bother him anymore once training was over and he and Tadashi would walk home together.
Sadly luck wasn't on his side.
Normally, they would leave immediately when they changed back into their uniforms to be at Kei's house as quickly as possible.
This time however Tadashi did not leave with him.
The shorter had given him an apologetic look while buttoning up his shirt.
"I'm so sorry, Kei.", he had said, laughing a little at his own forgetfulness. "I'm going home with Hinata today. I totally forgot to tell you."
That was the second instance that day Kei had felt downright jealous that day, however, this time with much less remorse.
Yachi, Kei could understand. He liked Yachi too. She was nice, not a bother and he considered her a good friend at this point.
Hinata on the other hand, Kei could not. Sure. He got along with the shrimp much better than originally, but he did not understand what Tadashi saw in him to be this close friends with him.
Or more specifically: to prefer a weekend with Hinata over a weekend with Kei.
You could probably summarize Kei's dilemma with a simple statement: He simply wasn't used to Tadashi having other friends.
As harsh as that my sound: when they had been younger it had always been the two of them.
There weren't a lot of people willing to hang out with them, one half too afraid of Kei's height and sarcasm and the other half labeling Tadashi and him as 'too uncool' to hang out with.
It had never bothered either of them, because they knew they could count on each other.
Frankly, Kei wasn't used to Tadashi paying attention to someone other than him.
Therefore hearing that Tadashi say he was going to spend the weekend with Hinata, ticked him off in a way he didn't like.
Getting jealous of something as normal as that was pathetic and Kei was quite aware of that.
Yet, he couldn't help it.
He had looked forward to sitting on his bed, Tadashi in his lap, while watching bad horror movies, both of them pointing out plot errors and bad acting or special effects; had looked forward to Tadashi convincing his mother to order fast food; had looked forward to staying up all night and enjoying the big smile on Tadashi's face whenever he pushed his phone into his face to show him a particularly funny picture he found.
And maybe he had looked forward to kissing, making out with Tadashi and the cuddling afterwards as well.
But Hinata just had to ruin his perfect plan for his weekend with Tadashi, which left Kei walking home alone and spending his entire free time watching movies by himself; answering the occasional, rare text the freckled teen sent him and eating much healthier than intended.
In the end he was actually looking forward to monday, when usually he wished weekends would last just a day or two longer. Though, this time it was only separating him from Tadashi and caused him a sour mood.
When he left his house on monday morning and came closer to the spot they met up at, his mood seemed to lift itself and he couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his lips as he saw the familiar face of Tadashi. The smaller teen was leaning against a wall, eyes glued to his phone screen, furiously tapping away as he waited for Kei. He looked highly concentrated on whatever he was writing, the tip of his tongue sticking out and his brows furrowed in a rather cute way and Kei took the time to notice that -if you asked him at least- the sun had brought out more of the freckles scattered across his face.
Kei felt like kissing them all.
This week promised to begin much better than the last one had ended.
With a lazy smile on his lips he approached Tadashi, his hand sneaking around him to rest at his hips, which caused the boy in his arm to make a surprised sound. “Kei!”
“Morning Tadashi.”, he said, giving the smaller teens hip a squeeze before taking his hand back. A pleased feeling filled his chest as Tadashi pushed his phone into his pocket, showing him he was ready to give all his attention to Kei. At this point Kei felt ridiculous at how overjoyed he was over something as small as that and it made him question just how dependent on Tadashi he had become over the years, but not wanting to spoil his mood he pushed that thought aside.
“Morning.”, the shorter of the two said, a bright smile on his face. “You took longer than usual. We should hurry or Daichi is going to be mad that we’re late to morning practice.”
“Sure.”, Kei replied, sounding less bored than he wanted to, but after a whole weekend of lazing around and feeling sorry for himself, he couldn’t quite hide the pleased feelings that Tadashi’s attention gave him. That was until he finally paid attention to what exactly Tadashi’s usual morning ramble was about.
“- So Hinata and I thought we could all go into Jurassic World together! You know, as a kind of team bonding activity you will actually have interest in attending. Do you think we can get everyone to buy tickets till Saturday? I’m not sure if Tanaka-Senpai has money after- Tsukki?”
It had taken the freckled teen some time to realize his boyfriend had stopped walking next to him. He turned around with a confused look, head tilted to the side. “T-tsukki?”
“Yeah, no.”, Kei had said, faster and harsher than intended according to the way Tadashi looked taken aback, but he just couldn’t help it. He was not going to take any of the idiots in their team to the movie he and Tadashi had wanted to watch together - alone - for a month now. If there was one thing he was not going to let anyone take away from him it was that. “We’re not going to do that.”
At that Tadashi’s shoulders slumped and he almost felt bad. Almost.
“Yo- We have met up enough with the others in the last few weeks. I’d prefer if we went alone.”, he said, trying to sound mostly casual about it, but even he could tell he was doing a bad job at hiding how displeased he was about the thought of any of their team members tagging along. “And we had planned this for us only.”, he added more quietly, while trying to avoid meeting the gaze of Tadashi.
Said teen seemed to catch on faster than Kei would have liked. Maybe it was the way he didn’t look him in the eye, or how he had gotten a little more tense, contrasting his usual nonchalant stance, or maybe it was just his general facial expression that gave it away, but the smile that appeared on Tadashi’s lips gave away that he had immediately realized what was going on.
As much as Kei was thankful for his boyfriend knowing him this well; it was also a curse in times like these.
“Kei?”, Tadashi asked, taking a few steps forward until he was standing right in front of Kei, who was still averting his gaze. “Are you jealous?”
Yep. There it was.
He could practically feel his blood rushing into his cheeks at being exposed this easily. Snapping his head to look at Tadashi; his mouth opened immediately, trying to come up with any kind of protest, but the moment he saw the look in the freckled teens eyes he knew it was pointless to even try.
“I-”, he started, stopping as he thought about his words. Kei had never been the best with feelings, especially not when it came to voicing them. It had given him trouble since he had been small and nothing about that had changed. The fact that he had sudden second thoughts about his jealousy and the fact that he was feeling embarrassed right now, didn’t help his situation in any way. “No- Yes. It’s just-”
“Oh god Tsukki, I can’t believe you.”, the laughter coming from his boyfriend surprised him less than it should, but it still didn’t make him feel any less like an idiot.
“What?”, he protested in a last desperate attempt to hide his shame, which worked more than less. Emphasis on the less.
Tadashi managed to calm down after hiding his smile behind his hand and taking a deep breath, so that he was able to look at Kei once again, this time with a gentle and reassuring expresion.
“Kei. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you in time that I’d be spending the weekend with Hinata.”, he said “But that’s not a reason to be jealous.”
The blonde could feel a hand reaching for his and Tadashi’s fingers managed to intertwine with his own longer ones. A simple squeeze was enough to help Kei calm down just a little and it took some of the embarrassment of of him.
“And you’re right. We did plan on going to ‘Jurassic World’ with just the two of us. So how about we do that and go get some cheesecake at the bakery afterwards, before going to my place? We can always just go and play some lasertag with the others.”, Tadashi suggested, pressing his lips to Kei’s cheek.
“Mhhh. Sounds good to me.”, Kei agreed, just to quickly add “As long as you are on my team.”
“Of course I will be. Even though …. Maybe I’d play better if I sided with Kageyama just this once.”, his boyfriend answered, a teasing tone in his voice as he already continued walking.
“Tadashi!”, the offended tone in Kei’s was apparent, yet far from serious.
“What?”, Tadashi said, looking back as Kei caught up with him. “Jealous?”
Oh. He would not let him live this down easily huh.