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To Tsukishima, Kuroo was very annoying senpai. Annoying, but admittedly very smart.
Kuroo was extremely calm under pressure and performed exceptionally because of that. He also made a point of hiding his true intentions behind a mischievous smile and witty banter, making it difficult for opponents to really get a read on him.
Those qualities made him a competent captain, a successful defensive strategist, and a good volleyball mentor.
Off court, however, Tsukishima was a bit better at reading people.
He knew right off the bat that Tanaka was a lot softer than the delinquent façade he portrayed.
And he knew that among the three Karasuno third-years, it was Sugawara that you should not under any circumstance piss off.
So it was no surprise that he had read Kuroo’s face correctly in that moment, introducing himself to their new volleyball manager Yachi.
He was attracted to her.
Tsukishima doubted that the young man had even registered it in his mind yet. But it was the little actions that gave him away.
The slight straightening of his back.
The movement of his Adam’s apple as he gulped in nervousness.
And his hands, that held onto hers in a handshake that lasted a few seconds longer than was necessary.
Kuroo was smart, alright.
But high IQ did not always equate to high EQ.
--
Tsukishima sat down in the cafeteria, sighing in exhaustion from the morning of volleyball drills they’d just completed. Yamaguchi took his usual spot next to him, chuckling to himself.
“I was worried for a bit there, Tsukki, but you’re really getting serious with practice now, aren’t you?” he prodded, digging into his lunch.
“Shut up, Yamaguchi… It’s no big deal,” he stated quietly.
It was the second half of their joint training camp with the Tokyo volleyball teams, and he was spending a lot of it practicing (sometimes unwillingly) with the third-year duo from Fukurodani and Kuroo. He was already dreading Kuroo’s spartan-style training on read-blocking tonight.
Tsukishima looked up from his food tray and saw the dark-haired captain enter the room, Kenma following him with a game console in hand.
“Captain! Saved you a spot here!” his teammates called out excitedly from a table nearby.
Kuroo grinned, walking slowly towards them as he scanned the room. His eyes landed on the table where the two Karasuno managers were sitting, and he quickly turned his body towards their direction.
Kenma looked up from his screen in surprise, glancing at him and back at the Nekoma table.
“Kuroo, where are you going?” he asked.
“Ah, we see their faces all day long. We could use some peace and quiet, now and again,” Kuroo told him, sitting down at the table directly behind the Karasuno girls.
From his seat, he had a good view of Yachi, now laughing heartily at a comment made by her senpai.
Tsukishima watched the two tables from afar, a knowing smile creeping on his face.
Kuroo was engaging Kenma in his usual friendly banter, but he could see that Kuroo’s eyes were darting continuously to Yachi.
Kuroo then leaned closer towards Kenma across the table, explaining loudly that he was speaking too softly for him to hear.
But Tsukishima knew better.
Kuroo had known the young man for years, and had probably already accustomed his ears to his quiet replies. No, to Tsukishima, Kuroo was most likely trying to catch a bit of the discussion going on behind him…and putting up a lot of bravado to do it.
“How lame…” Tsukishima mumbled, turning his attention back to his meal.
“Did you say something, Tsukki?” his freckled friend asked.
“Nothing… Just eat, Yamaguchi.”
--
Tsukishima spotted Kuroo with Yachi again, during their 15-minute break between practice matches.
Kuroo was taking a water bottle from the cooler box by the benches, and spotted the young woman sitting only a few meters away, her face buried in a notebook. He chuckled to himself, approaching her slowly.
Tsukishima was also sitting nearby, but he didn’t think either of them really noticed him yet. He simply sipped on his own water bottle, watching the pair silently.
“Whatcha looking at there, Yachi-san?” Kuroo asked playfully, pressing his water bottle lightly on her cheek.
She jumped up at the sensation, turning her head towards him.
“AH! Kuroo-san! Oh, um… nothing much… I’m just looking over some notes for school,” she answered, showing him her notebook.
“Woah, those notes look amazing! You used so many colors too!” Kuroo said, clearly impressed.
She gave him a weak grin. “Thanks! Unfortunately, I think I focused more on the note-taking than the actual content… I have a chemistry quiz right when we get back to school, and I’m not feeling particularly confident with it,” she confessed.
Yachi’s eyes suddenly widened, as if just realizing what she was saying.
“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to bore you with something so trivial!”
Kuroo shook his head to stop her apologies and took the notebook from her hands, humming to himself as he looked it over for a few seconds.
“You know… I don’t look it, but I’m pretty book-smart, especially for stuff like this. If you want… I can tutor you after practice ends?” he offered.
Yachi stood up quickly from her seat, an absolutely mortified expression on her face.
“I can’t p-possibly ask you to t-tutor me! How can I…What a bother for y-you! I can’t…”
Before Kuroo could even argue, Yachi turned her head and finally noticed her tall club member nearby. Tsukishima barely averted his gaze on time.
“TSUKISHIMA-KUN! I… I can ask Tsukishima-kun! Yes, him! H-he’s also really smart!” she blurted out.
Tsukishima stole another glance at the two, and watched as Yachi tugged her notebook out of Kuroo’s hands. She brought it to her chest, hugging it tightly.
“T-thank you for the offer though, Kuroo-san. But… it’s really… I’m really fine,” she said, giving him an embarrassed smile.
A brief frown came across Kuroo’s face, but he quickly recovered with his trademark smirk.
“Nah, don’t sweat it! You’re right… Asking Tsukki makes way more sense! He’s in your grade and you’re way closer to him, after all…Ha…ha…”
They shared a couple more uncomfortable laughs, before Kuroo excused himself to go to the apparently audible call of his coach.
At his leaving, Yachi let out a huge sigh, before melting down onto her seat. She moaned in frustration, muttering incoherently to herself.
Tsukishima finally stood up and went over to sit next to her. He tugged lightly on her jacket to catch her attention.
She turned, pouting sadly at him.
“Yachi-san, you asked me about tutoring already… I told you that I wasn’t too familiar with this topic either. You should’ve taken his offer,” he stated.
Her eyes started tearing up at the reminder.
“I know! But Kuroo-san was too close to my face, and I panicked and just blurted out the first thing I thought of! He was so nice about it too, so now I feel awful!”
“Yachi-san, I think it’s f-…”
“You’re right, Tsukishima-kun! He probably thinks I’m such a rude and ungrateful kohai, when he just wanted to help me study! He hates me now! He HATES me!” she agonized, tears now streaming down her face.
Tsukishima froze.
He was good at reading people, but he was not at all fit for comforting crying women.
“Er… I’ll go get Suga-san. Wait here.”
--
Tsukishima entered the 3rd gymnasium later than usual that evening, and found the usual crowd there, already stretching in preparation. Fukurodani’s boisterous captain spotted him at the door and greeted him happily.
“Yo, Tsukki! Why so late?” Bokuto asked.
Before he could say anything, his orange-haired teammate piped up from beside him.
“Oh, didn’t you see, Bokuto-san? Tsukishima was getting chewed out by Suga-san for making Yachi-san cry!” Hinata relayed.
Tsukishima scowled.
Bokuto looked at him, shocked. “TSUKKI! You can’t make girls cry! That’s totally uncool, man!”
“Yeah, Tsukki!” Hinata goaded.
Tsukishima was about grab at the annoying boy, when he heard his name being called from across the room. He turned to see Kuroo standing behind the net, a sly smile on his face.
“Took you long enough! Ready to get your butt kicked, Tsukki?”
Tonight’s 3 vs. 3 match was a bit different than normal. Tsukishima was on one team with Bokuto and Lev, while Kuroo was on the other team with Akaashi and Hinata.
Kuroo announced that he wanted to “switch things up” in order to test out Tsukishima’s blocking skills himself. But Tsukishima suspected that the man really just wanted to mess with him a little; especially after his rejection by Yachi that afternoon.
Tsukishima was panting hard now, wiping the sweat on his face with his shirt. He glanced quickly at the current scoreboard. 11-20, it read.
He clicked his tongue, turning to glare at the smirking blocker in front of him.
“Tsukki, don’t slack off! Keep those arms straight and out in front of you!” Kuroo scolded.
He rolled his eyes.
‘I’m trying, but you’re not really making it easy with your stupidly aggressive spikes!’ Tsukishima wanted to shout back.
Bokuto quickly brought their attention back to the game, sending an incredibly fast jump serve over the net. Luckily, Hinata had somehow gotten the dig on it, raising the ball up towards the attack line. Akaashi quickly took his place under the ball, hands already positioned to set it.
“Kuroo, send it over!” he shouted.
Kuroo smirked, starting his approach. “You got it, chief!”
He smashed the ball over the net with a strong spike, and it bounced off the shaky block of his fellow Nekoma teammate.
“Ow, Kuroo-senpai! Not so hard, this isn’t a serious game!” Lev yelled.
Bokuto slid behind him to dig the ball, scrambling back to his feet when he raised it up in the air.
“Tsukki! Last one, spike it!” he yelled.
Tsukishima ran quickly to the net, already feeling Kuroo’s movement to follow him. He jumped up as high as he could to spike the incoming ball, but Kuroo’s hands were already raised up for the block. His expression told him that he was ready to shut him out again.
Thinking quickly, Tsukishima turned his head exaggeratedly toward the gym door.
“Is that Yachi-san?”
At the name, Kuroo’s hands twitched and his eyes moved to the door. It may have only been for a fraction of a second, but it was enough of a distraction for Tsukishima. His spiked ball brushed against Kuroo’s fingers, and the ball switched trajectory, landing just past the white boundary line of Kuroo’s side of the court.
“Nice block-out, Tsukki! That was awesome!” Bokuto shouted, shaking him excitedly on the shoulder.
Hinata ran to the gym door, looking around outside.
“Tsukishima, you liar! I don’t see Yachi-san anywhere!” he yelled, sticking his tongue out at him.
Tsukishima gave him a smug smile in return.
“Whoops… Must’ve seen wrong then,” he reported, peeking over at the raven-haired middle blocker.
Kuroo was also looking at Hinata, clearly disappointed at his news. He cursed under his breath, walking back towards the net.
“Send the ball to me again, Akaashi!”
--
By the end of their training camp, Tsukishima and the rest of the Karasuno team were utterly exhausted, and in desperate need of dinner and some well-earned sleep. The team was in the middle of loading up their bus back home, when they were suddenly ambushed by the Nekoma team for a final round of farewells.
Tsukishima was quickly escaping for the bus, to avoid their attempts at a hug or high-five. On his way, however, he passed by the team’s captain. To his surprise, Kuroo hadn’t pounced at him like usual. In fact, the man had yet to acknowledge his presence beside him.
Kuroo was simply standing there, smiling as he waved at the occupants of the Karasuno bus.
Tsukishima stopped in his tracks and followed the direction of his gaze. He then realized that the man was watching Yachi, waving happily at the Nekoma team.
Tsukishima snorted at the rather wholesome scene, finally catching the attention of the man.
“Oh, Tsukki, there you are. See you at the Spring Tournament, and keep working on the blocks, you hear me?” Kuroo reminded him, placing his hands on his hips.
Tsukishima grumbled, starting to walk forward again. “Yeah, yeah…”
“Hey… uh… Before you go, though… Quick question for you,” Kuroo called to him.
Tsukishima turned his head to meet Kuroo’s now blushing face.
“What is it?”
“I… I hear that only one team manager’s allowed on the court during official games… We’ve never had one, so I didn’t really look into it before…” he trailed on.
“Yeah, so?” Tsukishima asked again.
“SO….”
Kuroo cleared his throat, apparently struggling to get the right words out. His brows furrowed and he bit his bottom lip in frustration. Tsukishima briefly wondered if he was about to have a conniption.
“Is…Is everyone on the team coming… if you guys grab a spot to Tokyo?”
It took Tsukishima only a few seconds to read between the lines.
He gave the older man a haughty smile in reply.
“Yes, Yachi-san’s coming too, if that’s what you’re so desperately trying to get at.”
Kuroo’s eyes narrowed, a smirk tugging on his lips.
“So you already found out, huh?”
Tsukishima shrugged, turning his back to him.
“Get better at hiding your feelings, senpai.”
He walked to the bus door.
“Although… If it’ll get us another point or two during a game, I’ll just keep using those feelings of yours for our benefit,” Tsukishima called behind him, entering the bus now.
“Tsukki, you bastard! I knew it!” he heard the captain holler, as the bus doors closed on him.
Tsukishima chuckled, making his way to the back of the bus.
As he walked down the aisle, he passed by Yachi’s seat and noticed that she was staring dreamily out of her window. Her face was flushed, and she giggled shyly to herself.
He turned to follow her gaze, only to see that she was looking at the retreating back of…
Oh.
It’s mutual.
Pretending not to have noticed, Tsukishima looked forward and continued down the aisle to find his seat.
Kuroo was smart, he thought.
He’d leave it to his annoying senpai to figure out.