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It was when they were still small that Yamaguchi found Tsukishima's docile side.
They had become accustomed to walking home together (they realized their homes were close after multiple embarrassing cases of Tsukishima thinking Yamaguchi was stalking him after him not-rescuing the other boy from a group of bullies). Tsukishima had his headphones over his ears, loud music pounding through the speakers, completely keeping the world out. Yamaguchi had carried a bakery's pamphlet around all day in hopes of getting enough courage to invite the taller boy along with him.
"Tsukki." His voice was quiet, mumbled while looking down at the asphalt. Even without the loud music pounding into his ears, Tsukishima probably wouldn't have heard him anyways.
He tried his name again, swallowing hard from nerves, then tried a third time. They were quickly approaching the turn off for their houses, and Yamaguchi finally found an inch of courage to pull on. Just as he mentally pulled on the string of courage, his hand found the edge of Tsukishima's jacket and pulled.
"Tsukki!"
The other boy's face shifted to confusion, which really meant one eyebrow lifted higher than the other and his lips tilted slightly different than when he was satisfied. Yamaguchi had begun to learn the small tilts of Tsukishima's face and what they meant. All of his facial expressions were so similar.
Tsukishima slid the large headphones to rest around his neck, but otherwise didn't say anything.
"I- Uh," He felt a heat rise up to where his horrible freckles dotted his upper cheeks. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to a bakery with me tomorrow. I have a pamphlet that has a buy one get one half off coupon."
The two boys just stared at each other for a long moment before Tsukishima's eyes shifted down to where Yamaguchi's fingers still clutched at the bottom of his jacket.
"Sorry Tsukki." His fingers released the material and he took a step back.
There was a long silence before Tsukishima quietly answered, "If you're paying."
"I'm paying."
"Then I'll go."
The next day the two sat across from each other in a small booth inside a small bakery. Tsukishima merely stared out the window while Yamaguchi fiddled with his hands, not sure how to approach a conversation.
"Here you go," a waitress said as she distributed two strawberry shortcakes. It was two layers of shortcake, cream, and cut strawberries. On the side was a modest scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Yamaguchi looked from the shortcake to Tsukishima's face to see if there was any sign of what he thought on his face. There was indeed! Tsukishima's eyes were lit up and sparkling, a light redness colored his cheeks, and his mouth was open in awe. Tsukishima looked younger somehow.
When their eyes met, Tsukishima quickly converted back to his constant of composure. Yamaguchi didn't cover how star-struck he was.
"That face is really pissing me off," Tsukishima said, looking more irate now than composed or the younger version of himself, awestruck.
"Ah-." Yamaguchi looked down at his shortcake and slowly melting ice cream. He cut a small sections of the cake and ate it together with the ice cream. When he took a glance up to Tsukishima, he was met with a face close to disgust. "What is it?"
"How can you delude strawberry shortcake with ice cream?"
When Yamaguchi looked at the other boy's plate, it was true that Tsukishima had pushed the ice cream further away from his shortcake and had started to eat the ice cream alone. He's probably saving the strawberry shortcake for last, Yamaguchi thought.
"The ice cream was melting," he decided to say. He continued to eat the way he always had and ignored Tsukishima's scrunched brows and frown.
He could almost feel his distaste for it, and was near used to it until the air shifted and lightened. When Yamaguchi looked up this time, Tsukishima was back to having a light blush and an incredibly satisfied smile. One bite was missing from the cake across the table. Yamaguchi could only imagine what a drooling mess Tsukishima might become by time he ate all of it (it was an interesting image, one that didn't exactly feel right, but none-the-less amused the brunet).
Yamaguchi really couldn't help his lips stretching upwards. To experience his friend enjoy something so much, it was a rare delight.
The obviously pleased look was still on Tsukishima's face, though he was stubbornly trying to morph it into something less, as he said, "That goofy look is what got you bullied."
There was a silence, in which both boys were able to weigh the words that were now placed between them. It wasn't enough to cause a fight, but there was still scars from younger times that neither boy liked to prod at. When they had first started to hang out, Tsukishima had thought Yamaguchi was just clinging onto him because he was tall and intimidating, which tended to make bullies weary. He was right of course. They got closer and became friends in a short time. But then, something changed drastically in Tsukishima after they had sneakily gone to one of his brothers games.
Tsukishima didn't say he was sorry, Yamaguchi let the silence linger on as he composed himself and convinced himself that the days he was bullied relentlessly was over and that the scars didn't sting anymore.
Finally, he said in a quiet voice that could only be heard between the two, "Why are you so ashamed of liking something so much that you can't help but show it?"
It was Tsukishima's turn to be quiet for a long moment as he picked at and ate his strawberry shortcake. Yamaguchi had already finished his, and was playing with the remnants of melted ice cream and red drippings from the strawberries with his fork.
"- pathetic," was the only word Yamaguchi caught when Tsukishima finally responded.
He quickly looked up, but his eyes were not met as the other boy angrily looked down at the one last bite of shortcake. "What was that?"
"It's pathetic," Tsukishima repeated, growling the words out from between his teeth.
"Hmm." As Tsukishima took his final bite of strawberry shortcake, unable to hide how his lips curled and his cheeks reddened, how his eyes sparkled and when they closed from smiling too largely (he looked like a please fox who had successfully swindled someone out of riches and pride), Yamaguchi thought of how, exactly, this was pathetic. "I don't think it's pathetic at all," he finally decided on. "How can liking something be pathetic? Why not just enjoy it?"
As Tsukishima finished chewing, he examined his friend from behind his glasses. He really didn't have an answer to that. He just remembered his brothers love for volleyball and how that turned out. When you like something, when you really enjoy something, it can all slip away in an instance and leave you with no ground to stand on.
He might not be able to apply what Yamaguchi said to volleyball (there will always be someone bigger, badder, and stronger, so why bother?), but when it came to strawberry shortcake, Tsukishima thought he would be able to get used to the fact that this was something that would never go away. Something he'd be able to enjoy to his hearts content.
"Practice is done for the day, once the gym is cleaned up you're free to go." Daichi's voice was loud as he called out for everyone to hear in the high ceiling gymnasium. You had to be loud if you wanted to be heard over Tanaka and Nishinoya's loud voices, over the king's lectures to the shorty, over balls being spiked over the net and colliding heavily on the ground.
"Tsukki!" Yamaguchi called out to his friend, running up with two sweeper brooms in hand. "I have another coupon to that bakery. Want to go after this?"
"If you're paying."
"I'm paying," the shorter boy replied, smiling widely.
"Then I'll go." Tsukishima took one of the sweeper brooms and lazily started to run it across the polished wood floors.
"A sweets shop?" Hinata enthusiastically jumped at them. "I want to go, I want to go too!"
"Impossible," Yamaguchi said, though looked a bit uncertain about it himself. "I don't have enough coupons for you too."
"Oh, what's this? A date?" Tanaka teased, looking thoroughly scandalized.
"Stop it you two," Suga said, backed up by Daichi's, "Get back to cleaning."
Tanaka and Hinata were just turning to leave the two boys be and get the net down when Tsukishima replied. "Yes."
Three boys turned to him quickly, all with similar looks of shock.
"Tsukki?" Yamaguchi could feel sweat threatening to break out across his forehead.
"Yes. It's a date." Tsukishima looked to the upperclassmen and shorty and imagined himself fierce as he added, "So don't get in the way."
"Eh? EHH?" Loud voices filled the gym, easily attracting attention.
"What is it now?" Daichi said, stalking closer with Suga hot on his tail with a smile that said, can't help it this time.
"Tsu-Tsu," Hinata attempted, but found himself too tongue tied.
"Da-Da," Tanaka tried to finish, but found himself too shocked and red in the face.
Yamaguchi was looking lost and adorned a deep blush that colored him down to the collar of his shirt.
"I have no idea," Tsukishima said, looking quite annoyed, "They just started yelling for no reason." With a smug tilt to his lips and an antagonizing look in his eyes, he ended with, "Only idiots scream for no reason." He turned his back on the group and continued pushing the sweeper broom.
"Eh- Uh- Tsu-Tsukki," Yamaguchi muttered, unable to find the strength in him to call out. Giving up, he quickly pushed the sweeper broom to catch up with Tsukishima. "Why did you say it was a date?" he finally was able to ask when they were alone enough (in a gymnasium filled with boys, one is never alone).
"No way am I sharing my strawberry shortcake with idiots like them."
Later that evening, two boys found themselves sitting across from each other, two strawberry shortcakes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side in front of them. As they ate, Yamaguchi eating the ice cream and shortcake together while Tsukishima ate ice cream first and shortcake last, Yamaguchi understood Tsukishima's reluctance to share his shortcake with their other teammates. He didn't particularly want to share this docile side of Tsukishima with them either; this blushing, pleased Tsukishima that only he really knew about (apart from his family, of course).