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Today must not be very noteworthy for most people. But Tsukishima Kei is having a crisis.
Most students were probably spending time with friends or at home, without any worries or concerns. Eating, doing karaoke or whatever. Kei would rather be any of those students, no matter how idiotic what they're doing is, than continue to be in the situation he's in. He, you see, lost his glasses SOMEWHERE in this house and he's on the edge of freaking out big time. Finals were due on Monday. Today was Sunday and he hasn't gotten much time to study on his own because of the universe just not wanting him to have a good time I guess.
He would fail his classes on account of not finding his glasses and if there was a sentence more infuriating than that then he wouldn't want to know it.
He's not a bad student. On the contrary most people would be surprised if he ever got a failing grade in anything. Most of the time he doesn't have to put a lot of effort in his grades. He just has the capability to remember concepts really well. However this ability does not stretch to everything, like for example the finals happening next week. Sometimes he actually has to work for his grades. It's unfortunate and really dangerous for him right now.
He's looked everywhere in his goddamned house. The living room looks like a warzone from how much he's paced around there. He only has a couple of options left of what to do, and more than half of them would lead to him having to leave the country.
Standing in the hallway, massaging the bridge of his nose in a try to force away an upcoming headache, he solemnly makes a decision. It's what he has to do. Screw his pride, he's desperate right now.
He leans against a wall and dials up a familiar number, his phone is pressed against his head in seconds. It takes just as much time for his friend to answer the call.
"Hello?" Yamaguchi's voice sounds a little far away, Kei's probably on speaker.
"Yamaguchi I need you to come over." That was maybe a little too quick.
"What?" His response sounds just as confused as it is annoyed. This is a bad start. He should trudge more carefully.
"I really need your help right now. It's a crisis."
"What kind of crisis?" There's a creak on the other line that's likely from Yamaguchi's old desk chair, as if he's leaning back on it while answering.
"I...I can't find my glasses."
The groan on the other side is one of pure irritation. Kei has only heard it a few times and he winces automatically, tensing up. Only bad things have come from annoying Yamaguchi. This doesn't seem like the best time to have called him.
"Tsukki. I don't know if you know this but we have FINALS next week. I need all the study time I can get. I'm not some genius like you so I'm sorry but you're going to have to find your glasses or whatever on your o-"
"I know that, Yamaguchi please!"
Kei was sure that Yamaguchi was about to hang up on him, which is why he practically shouted, but the silence stretches. Kei's neck grows warmer the longer no one said anything. God he really sounded desperate didn't he? He isn't very used to asking for help. Ever since his brother...he's been awful at it. It feels embarrassing for him to need to rely on anyone. Like a weakness. But he doesn't have any choice, so he hopes Yamaguchi doesn't tease him for it. The situation is already horrible as it is.
It takes a while for Yamaguchi to speak up, but in the end he does.
"Have you looked everywhere?"
"If I didn't know my house like the back of my hand before, I do know it now from how many times I've walked around it this past hour."
"And you really can't study without your glasses?"
"No."
"No one else can help you?"
"No one is home right now and I don't know anyone who isn't an idiot or who would make fun of me for this."
"You don't have any spares?"
"Yamaguchi I wouldn't be calling you if I didn't have any other choices."
"...Fine. You're probably so stressed that you can't see them on the tip of your nose. I'll be there in five." Yamaguchi's desk chair creaks on the other side again and a faint sound of shuffling can also be heard. The relief that pours over Kei for the fact that Yamaguchi would come over and help him overwhelms him for a second.
"You better make it three," is Kei's last response before the call ends.
Kei sighs and puts his phone away into his pocket. He waits patiently (not really) and stands (he paces back and forth) in front of the door.
Three minutes later, a ding dong rings through the empty house. Kei barely suppresses the animalistic urge to throw open the door. Instead the speed walks to the door and trips on the carpet. He catches himself before falling on his face but the sudden sound is jarring next to the silence from a few seconds ago. His face burns as he unlocks and opens the door.
The two boys make eye contact, and although Kei is practically blind, he sees Yamaguchi's face flash through several emotions at once in a singular second. He looks exhausted in seconds, starring up at Kei's face. What's that all about? Yamaguchi's hands hover in the air before finally settling on covering up his face. What's...going on?!
"Uh...Yamaguchi-"
"Y-you really can't find your glasses." That seems like it should be a question but he says it as a statement. Kei hesitates between asking him if he's okay or answering his not-question. He decides for the latter.
"No. Are you ok-"
"You've looked absolutely everywhere for them."
"Y..yes?"
Yamaguchi's shoulders shake. Is he...crying?!
"Um-"
"I feel like I just experienced the five stages of grief in a nanosecond." Kei barely catches what he says by how softly Yamaguchi mutters that under his breath.
Before Kei can get any other words in Yamaguchi's hands lower from his face and he looks straight ahead, walking past Kei into the house with an air of authority that counters Daichi-sans. His aura is overflowing with judgement. The swift change in attitude gives Kei whiplash and he begins to wonder what he did wrong to deserve this.
"C'mon let's check your bathroom." Yamaguchi says already heading in the direction of said room. Kei snaps out of his daze and hurries after him, feeling a lot like a puppy following it's owner. His pride whines like a deflating balloon. How much did he actually avoid by calling Yamaguchi instead of anyone else?!
Yamaguchi stands in front of the open door to the bathroom, his arms crossed over his chest and his foot tapping irregularly on the floor. Kei gulps, unconsciously wringing his hands (a nervous habit of his). His brain tells him that he's about to get lectured, and the possibility definitely isn't farfetched.
"Try looking around in here. You might be able to find it." He says, and his expression turns into something softer, not as stern and "done with the world". More as if he's taking some sort of amusement from this now. Kei doesn't feel any more relaxed. He's still missing something. But he still does as he's told and steps into the bathroom. He looks around sort of aimlessly however. What is he supposed to be seeing?
Kei hears a sigh so he looks over at Yamaguchi again.
"The mirror."
Kei feels his eyebrows raise. The...mirror?
What?
Kei looks into the mirror and he feels the moment that the world falls apart around him. He's frozen on the ground, staring at his reflection. They're on his head. His tired, naked eyes stare back at himself. His blond hair is messy, but that barely distracts from the traitorous pair of glasses that he's seeing on top of his head. His jaw quite literally drops.
Nothing is real. Reality is a lie.
He's a MORON. He might be even worse than Hinata and Kageyama on their best days.
He hears a snicker coming from Yamaguchi, and he sees him lean his head against the wall in his peripheral vision, but he can't seem to tear his eyes away from his reflection. Yamaguchi's shoulders shake with repressed laughter (Kei now realizes that he was also trying not to laugh before and that it wasn't crying).
"Y-you really...you really didn't notice th-that they were on your head?" Yamaguchi questions. His eyes are squeezed shut. The humiliating hilarity seems to be getting to him more and more now that Kei's noticed what he saw from the very beginning. Kei has never felt more embarrassed in his life. He could get the Guinness world record for feeling the highest amount of embarrassment. Yamaguchi must be able to see it too because he's just laughing harder and harder.
Kei really wishes he could justify himself. He wishes he could explain why he didn't notice his glasses but he can't. How do you explain something like this? He was just too stressed to notice something that he should've felt from the beginning.
Yamaguchi sinks to the ground, grinning like an asshole, and uselessly trying to compose himself. He isn't laughing audibly, but Kei can hear how much he's fighting to breath around the silent laughter. The jerk isn't even trying to mask his laughter.
"Ooohh my god. Geeeez. I...I've heard of negative hallucinations...but this is on a whole other level." Yamaguchi struggles to even say that, but he's slowly calming down. Kei doesn't even retort at the comment, he just looks at himself in the mirror. And as if snapping out of a daze his hands fly up to his glasses. He quickly maneuvers his glasses from the top of his head onto the bridge of his nose. The world comes into focus just for him to be able to see all the intricate details of his own mortified expression.
Yamaguchi staggers onto his feet, giggling into the back of his hand, looking up at Kei with an indescribably smug expression. Kei puffs up and he feels his neck grow warm again.
"Well the crisis is averted now you can go back to your desperately needed study session," Kei says quickly and gets behind Yamaguchi, beginning to actually push him to the door. Yamaguchi doesn't put up much of a fight, instead looking back at him.
"You sure feel like an idiot now don't you." Kei has never seen Yamaguchi this confident and at any other moment he would be shocked, right now though he's just flustered.
"Shut up Yamaguchi," he mutters, looking away. Yamaguchi snorts and walks on his own the rest of the way to the door.
"Sorry Tsukki." he chirps and swings open the door for himself. He looks back at Kei and waves, saying a quick "See ya" before closing the door behind him.
Kei slumps against the wall the moment he's alone again. He's never going to be able to live this one down is he?
He breaths out and thinks back at the situation. And he feels himself smile out of his own will. He begins to chuckle and soon he's crouched on the floor giggling about as much as Yamaguchi was before.
God. That was so stupid.