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At the ripe age of 25, Yamaguchi Tadashi was dealing with a massive first crush.
Amidst Miyagi National Hospital’s strong smell of antiseptic, bad lighting, and long hours was a man that made a white doctor’s coat look especially good—a man who added a bit of sparkle to every frantic day of Yamaguchi’s hospital residency: Tsukishima-sensei.
Tsukishima was tall and blonde, with thin black glasses and, usually, a quiet disposition. He was five years older than Yamaguchi, well liked despite his harsh, snarky humor, and a remarkably talented Neurologist. An all-around catch: that’s what the nurses would say when ogling him and whispering to each other.
But those things weren’t what caused Yamaguchi’s crush, well, they were part of it, but the true catalyst was the piling up of short, trivial events.
In the beginning of his residency, every so often when Yamaguchi was in the break room trying to eat his lunch, or mentally beating himself up for some stupid minor mistake he made twenty minutes prior, Tsukishima would walk in to pour himself some coffee. And when he’d turn to walk out with his full mug, their eyes would meet, Yamaguchi would give him a shy smile, and Tsukishima would briefly nod. Yamaguchi was surprised at first, expecting Tsukishima to brush off a useless gesture from a trainee, but instead Tsukishima acknowledged him.
And he continued to do so—not only in the break room, but whenever they’d pass each other in the halls or had joint department meetings. The polite nods turned to quiet greetings, and soon to small conversations.
The conversations were of varied topics and a tad bit one-sided, with Yamaguchi talking about the weather, asking Tsukishima what he’d done during his time off on the weekend, or, more often than not, telling him about some silly blunder he may have made since they last talked. Tsukishima mostly nodded along, eyes watching him carefully and offering short responses, but sometimes, if he got lucky, Tsukishima would laugh at his expense—a teasing, beautiful smile gracing his face.
But Tsukishima was extremely busy and was always called away before they got far into their conversation. He’d apologize, his eyebrows furrowing just a bit, and leave Yamaguchi with the lingering feeling that if they only had a few more minutes to themselves…maybe something would progress.
“Yoshida-sensei was looking for you. She said she tried to beep you,” one of the nurses said as she approached Yamaguchi near the water dispenser. Yamaguchi finished filling his plastic cup and took a sip before responding.
“Really?” He looked down at his pager, pressing the on button. “Oh, shoot. It was off. Thanks, I’ll go meet her now.”
“No problem.” She waved goodbye and continued down the hallway.
Yamaguchi unclipped his pager and walked towards the Rehabilitation Ward as he read through the messages he’d gotten while it was off. But he was so focused on reading that he didn’t notice Tsukishima walking out of a patient’s room and ran right into him, dropping his pager on the floor, and splashing what was left of his cup of cold water back at his face.
“S-Sorry!” he squeaked, eyes growing wide when he realized it was Tsukishima.
“I’m fine, I also wasn’t looking. Are you okay?”
Yamaguchi nodded, face wet and hot with embarrassment. He kneeled down to grab his pager while trying to wipe his face dry with the sleeve of his black undershirt. When he got back up, Tsukishima began gently patting his face with a hand towel.
“H-Huh?”
“I haven’t used it today, so it’s clean.”
“Oh…” Yamaguchi’s face grew even warmer and he closed his eyes to avoid making eye contact with Tsukishima at such a close distance. “…Thank you.”
“You’re quite clumsy for a trainee,” Tsukishima teased, his lips curling up into the tiniest of grins.
Yamaguchi pouted. “Well, it’s good that I’m not planning to work in your department, Mr. Steady Hands.”
“So they still call me that,” Tsukishima scoffed as he pulled his hands away, folding the towel and returning it to his back pocket. “Your two-year training period is almost up, isn’t it? What department do you think you’ll work for?”
“I want to stay with the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department,” Yamaguchi stated a bit sheepishly and tucked a few strands of hair behind his ear. “I’m enjoying the work I’m doing now, and helping all kinds of people get their mobility back is really rewarding.”
“That's good.” Tsukishima said with a soft gaze. “…Yamaguchi, I was wondering…”
“Yeah?” Yamaguchi replied a touch too excitedly, quickly biting his lip and tugging at the stethoscope around his neck to calm himself down.
Tsukishima cleared his throat. “If you were free—
“Tsukishima-sensei!”
They both turned to look toward the voice calling out to Tsukishima. It was one of the nurses for the Neurology Department that assisted Tsukishima with his patients. “Your next patient, Mie-san, is ready for you.”
“I’ll be right there.” Tsukishima turned to Yamaguchi with that hard to read expression that always left Yamaguchi at a loss, and whispered a quiet, “See you.”
Yamaguchi watched him walk away and once he was out of sight, pressed his forehead to the nearest wall to let out an exasperated sigh. After a few moments of trying to let the weird mix of disappointment, annoyance, and a bit of sadness leave his body through his breathing, he pushed himself off the wall and continued on his way to the Rehabilitation Ward.
Yamaguchi sullenly walked to the cafeteria. Even though he had a great time assisting Yoshida-sensei with her patient, the moment he left the Rehabilitation Ward, his mind was filled with thoughts of Tsukishima and what had happened earlier. He didn’t want to get his hopes up for nothing, but Tsukishima seemed like he wanted to ask him something. And if he could only get him alone, somewhere away from people freaking interrupting them, then maybe he could finally confirm whether or not all of this was just in his head. But how?
“Tsukishima, want to eat together?!”
Yamaguchi’s head snapped towards the voice coming from behind him—it was Ono-sensei, from the Cardiovascular Department. He was waving at Tsukishima who was a few feet in front of Yamaguchi. It was in that moment that some valiant and crazed spirit overtook Yamaguchi and he rushed to Tsukishima, grabbing him by the wrist. He yelled to Ono, “I’m borrowing him”, and pulled Tsukishima away from the cafeteria.
They walked for a minute or two until Yamaguchi spotted a supply closet, which he gently pushed Tsukishima into, and locked the door behind them. He took a few moments to catch his breath, and with his back leaning against the door, finally looked up to take in Tsukishima’s expression.
He was surprised more than anything, but just meeting his eyes made Yamaguchi’s cheeks burn red. He covered his face with his hands and mumbled, “I’m sorry…that was so stupidly childish of me. It’s just that we never can have a peaceful conversation and I got impatient.”
Tsukishima took a step closer. “I’m glad you whisked me away.”
“Stop teasing,” Yamaguchi whined quietly.
“I’m not,” Tsukishima reassured him, voice low and steady. “If you didn’t have your face buried in your hands you’d be able to tell that.”
Yamaguchi dropped his hands to his sides and slowly looked up to meet Tsukishima’s warm gaze. To his surprise, the top of Tsukishima’s ears had turned a shade of bright pink. “Oh.”
“I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner this Saturday night, at seven?”
Yamaguchi’s eyes turned glossy and he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. He took his weight off the door and took a half step toward Tsukishima. “…As a friend?” he asked reluctantly.
Tsukishima placed a warm hand on Yamaguchi’s cheek, index finger tracing the shape of his ear. “Of course not.”
“Good,” Yamaguchi murmured with a cheesy, wide smile.
Tsukishima drew his hand away, stuffing it into his doctor’s coat, and cleared his throat. “We should probably get out of this closet before someone finds us.”
“Yeah, true.” Yamaguchi unlocked the door and they both stepped outside. They started walking side by side to the cafeteria but Yamaguchi stopped abruptly, turning to Tsukishima with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Wait, how’d you know I was off this Saturday night?”
Tsukishima pushed his glasses up, “…That’s a secret,” and he continued walking.
“Hey!” Yamaguchi yelled after him, his blissful laughter filling the air around them.