Chapter Text
Summer nights were way too warm and muggy. Tsukishima had just narrowly escaped a poker game with his team, claiming to go on a walk. Tsukishima sort of hated the two-week water polo camp. He understood the need to stay sharp, but hated the fact that they used the outdoor pool.
The facility they were at had two pools, and the indoor one wasn’t being used to Tsukishima’s knowledge. He supposed there were problems with the indoor pool. It was smaller and shallower, which could be a problem, seeing as there were so many tall players. There was no way Tsukishima wanted to egg beat in six foot water when he was 6’2”. He could, he just didn’t want to. Still, the outside pool left things to be desired. It was gross and the sun was too bright and there were leaves, and sometimes bugs, basically it was nasty.
So instead of joining poker night (Tsukishima wondered if Daichi was actually going to let them bet), he wandered the grounds aimlessly. Passing the gym, he just noticed the bright lights coming out the window. Was the gym being used? It was too late for dry land, wasn’t it?
He checked the door. Unlocked. Almost immediately, music drifted out. It was some happy upbeat American song Tsukishima couldn’t understand.
Closing the door behind him, he turned his attention to the person in the room. A boy was dancing quickly to match the song, throwing jumps and spins in. He was smiling. As the song changed to a slower, sadder one, the boy changed his movements. There were more slow jumps and big spins, more lingering moments.
“Wow…” he heard himself say. The boy whipped his head around at the sound. Did he have super hearing?
“Who are you?” he asked, still breathless. It was sorta hot. Who was Tsukishima kidding, he’d watched the guy dance for five minutes, it was definitely hot. Now that he had stopped moving, Tsukishima had a better look at him. He had little freckles, covered by red blush. His hair was olive brown and cut just below his ears. One piece of hair stuck up rebelliously.
“U-uh Tsukishima,” this guy had caught him off guard. “Do you dance?”
“Ah no, just for fun really… I’m not that good.” A sudden change of music to some cheesy sounding love song made him blush. “I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi… uh on the swim team.”
“The swim team’s here?”
“Yeah, part of us anyway… we use the indoor pool.”
Oh. So that was why the water polo team couldn’t go inside.
Yamaguchi grinned and turned his back to Tsukishima. With the cheesy love song still going, Yamaguchi started to dance again, sillier this time. He looked back at Tsukishima. That just made Tsukishima want to dance with him.
“Y’know I’d usually be super embarrassed, dancing like this in front of someone, but it feels okay with you Tsukki.” Yamaguchi laughed at his new nickname and it just made Tsukishima fall for him even more. Yamaguchi jumped and spun again, his smile could bring literal angels.
“Last time I checked, swimming didn’t include dancing in the gym.”
“Last time I checked, water polo didn’t either,” Yamaguchi said, grabbing his hand. Tsukishima bit back a smile as Yamaguchi tried to spin him around.
They danced together for who knows how long. Tsukishima learned that Yamaguchi was on a two-week long training for “swimmers that showed potential”. Tsukishima learned that Yamaguchi was running from playing Truth or Dare because his team was trying to find out who his crush was, after he said something on accident. Yamaguchi learned that Tsukishima was hiding from his team’s poker night… and that most of his team was annoying.
“Water polo’s kinda violent, don’t you think?” Yamaguchi smirked as Tsukishima tried to twirl him again. He’d failed at least four times. This time was successful. Yamaguchi spun around, ending his spin right up to Tsukishima. He looked up and blushed… or maybe it was the lights, they were too close.
“No, I don’t really think so.”
When Tsukishima went back to the room he was staying in, he wasn’t surprised to see his teammates still playing. The walk back from the gym had been cooler and shorter than he’d expected. His teammates had taken over Tsukishima and Kageyama’s room (not that he had a choice in roommates). Bokuto was sprawled out on his bed with Daichi next to him.
“Hey hey hey! Tsukki! Where’ve you been? It’s nine-thirty.” Right… these people called him Tsukki too. And it was annoying. It bothered him, unlike when Yamaguchi had done it.
“It’s past curfew,” Daichi said.
“Then why’re you still in my room?”
“You don’t get to ask that if you weren’t even in a room.” Tsukishima didn’t say that he was technically in a room before. Still, dancing and talking was a lot of work. He was tired, he wanted everyone out.
*****
Yamaguchi couldn’t really believe it. He’d just dragged a stranger into his embarrassing excuse for a dance. That was bad. Opening the door to his room, he saw his friends, sitting and laying, around a small table. The team’s curfew was ten, so Yamaguchi wasn’t too surprised. But they were playing Scrabble, not Truth or Dare. It probably had something to do with the fact that everyone had secrets… or they had gotten bored. They opted out for their own “safety”. He realized he could’ve done the same thing. Stupid.
“Yo Yamaguchi, wanna join the game?” Hinata motioned toward the board.
“Hm, it might be hard to join in now, since we’re keeping track of points… I know! You can join my team!” Suga gave his charming, trademark smile. Yamaguchi nodded, hoping the cooler air outside had stopped his blush from earlier.
“He should be on my team then!”
“That’s not really fair, is it”
“We want Yamaguchi to join, right?” Sugawara stopped the complaining quickly.
Yamaguchi joined, looking at Suga’s letters. L, O, I, P, E, F, and a blank tile.
“We’ll add I-P-E to this R to make RIPE,” Suga said. It didn’t really look like Sugawara needed help. Yamaguchi checked the score paper. They were second, behind Yachi who knew lots of big words.
“Hey, hey, what should we do now? Trade a tile?” Yamaguchi automatically shook his head and turned back to the board. They had gone full circle while he was distracted.
“Uh, well there’s an empty E over here…” Yamaguchi pointed to the word Ashi had put down earlier.
“Oh right! Then let’s spell ‘love’, L-O- the blank space is a V- then the E!”
Oh.
Out of all the words Sugawara could’ve thought of for L-O-blank space-E. Blank space could’ve been so many things. Lobe, Lode, Lore. Yamaguchi couldn’t blame him though. Out of all the choices, “love” was the most obvious but the point value wouldn’t change with a blank space.
So why did it make him so uncomfortable that he knew the letters meant to spell “LOVE”?
Yamaguchi sighed. Everyone had left maybe an hour ago. Yamaguchi checked the time. 12:29 am. Two and a half hours. Hinata was sleeping soundly in the other bed, snoring lightly.
Yamaguchi hadn't even known that the water polo team would be here. If anything the thought that Kenma would tell him. Kenma. Yamaguchi found his phone on the bedside table and went to Kenma’s text messages. Was this a good idea? Probably not.
12:31: Why didn’t you tell me the water polo team was here?
12:32: What?
12:32: You never asked and Kuro didn’t say where his camp was
An immediate response. Kenma was probably up gaming, since it was summer. He was Kuroo’s boyfriend and Kuroo was a water polo captain. Kuroo had repeated tried to get Kenma into the sport but the pudding-headed Kenma just wanted to play video games. Eventually, Kenma joined the swim team as a “compromise”. After that, Kuroo jokingly called him a traitor (it was a joke, Kuroo loved Kenma regardless).
Kenma didn’t try hard enough to be “a swimmer with a lot of potential” so he was at home.
12:33: Why? What happened?
12:33: Nothing.
12:33: Just wondering.
12:34: Did you meet one of them?
12:34: Yeah.
12:35: Name?
12:36: Tsukishima? He’s tall, blond, glasses?
12:36: Is that a question?
12:37: I know hm. He’s friends with Kuro. What happened?
Yamaguchi was getting too tired to continue the conversation. He had a lot more training to do tomorrow. He actually felt himself falling asleep. Oh well, he’d deal with it later.