Work Text:
Tsukishima Kei should not have agreed to take a position in his childhood friend’s flower shop. He really shouldn’t have.
Unfortunately, despite his harsh exterior, he’s a little bit weak to Yamaguchi’s puppy dog eyes. “It’s only for a few weeks,” Yamaguchi had pleaded. “We’re running low on staff at the moment because Yachi’s on vacation, and Akaashi’s on sick leave, and Bokuto keeps taking time off for his - well, whatever he does.” Tsukishima had looked down, very determinedly not meeting Yamaguchi's gaze in fear that he'd end up giving in, and then Yamaguchi had said in the world’s most guilt-inducing tone, “I’ll pay you extra?”
“God, no,” Tsukishima had said. “You don’t have to do that.” Yamaguchi’s already struggling, he knows - in the down periods where there aren’t many major holidays, Yamaguchi has to do a lot of promotion and extra work just to stay afloat. “I’ll work for you.” He almost argues that he’ll work for free, but he knows that would mean Yamaguchi would probably refuse and go desperately attempt to track someone else down.
And so he’d ended up working in Yamaguchi’s shop full-time, for the time being at least: 40 hours a week, 5 days out of his week. Honestly, it’s usually not that bad. The regulars are friendly, but not to the point of getting on Tsukishima’s nerves; the work itself is mundane but not difficult, and he’s heard enough about flowers through being best friends with Yamaguchi that he typically knows what he’s talking about.
There’s only one thing about the shop that really bothers him. And that one thing comes in the form of one of Yamaguchi’s other full-time workers, a guy that goes by the name of Kozume Kenma.
The thing about Kenma is that Kenma wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t so goddamn lazy. He has the type of personality that Tsukishima generally appreciates: not loud or overbearing, and he makes remarks sometimes under his breath that Tsukishima can’t help but chuckle at. But Tsukishima’s come into the back storage room at least fifteen times now to find Kenma sitting on the ground with his phone in his hands, poking away at a mobile game. And the dude doesn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. No, he keeps playing and doesn’t look up at Tsukishima.
Most of the time, Tsukishima just leaves it and goes to complain to Yamaguchi, who beams and says he’ll take care of it. But today, Tsukishima stares flatly at Kenma, crossing his arms across his chest. “We could use you out front,” Tsukishima says.
“Why?” Kenma mumbles. “Bokuto’s here today. He’s better at talking to the customers anyways.”
God, he’s so irritating. Tsukishima reminds himself that emotionally destroying your fellow co-workers is frowned upon and, instead, digs his fingers into the palm of his hand to stabilize himself. “Do you work here or not?”
“I guess I’d have to answer yes to that,” Kenma says, still not looking up from the stupid game.
“Then why don’t you get out there,” Tsukishima says, “and actually do some work for once.”
Finally, Kenma looks up from the phone screen, a look of challenge in his eyes. “I’m surprised you care so much,” he says. “You don’t like working here either.”
Tsukishima pauses. He doesn’t recall voicing anything to that effect aloud, and if he has, he’s certainly never done so to Kenma of all people. He raises an eyebrow. “What makes you think that?”
“It’s obvious,” Kenma says. He pushes himself up to his feet, though, and tucks his phone away into his pocket, giving Tsukishima a tiny smirk. “It’s your friend that owns the place, right?”
Tsukishima suddenly feels very uncomfortable being engaged in this conversation. There’s something that Kenma’s hinting at, and he doesn’t want to know what it is. On the other hand, he knows that it’ll bother him if he doesn’t know, so he asks, “What exactly are you getting at?”
“You’re not as much of a hardass as you seem, I guess,” Kenma says, his tone still low and even - unbothered. He brushes past Tsukishima on his way out the door. “But if it means that much to you, I’ll get back to work.”
Tsukishima grits his teeth. Don’t let him get to you, he reminds himself. He’s just saying all this to get under your skin. And then, hey, wait - shouldn’t it be Tsukishima that’s the one getting under his skin? That’s the way it is with everyone else, at least. He’s the one sneering at them, offering up subtle taunts to make them lunge at him like dogs.
But with fucking Kozume Kenma, of all people, suddenly he completely loses his mind and can’t think of any come backs at all. With Kozume Kenma, he constantly finds that he’s one step behind.
He marches out behind Kenma and decides that he’s going to complain to Yamaguchi again. God, Yamaguchi can’t even keep his employees under control while Tsukishima’s working here - and letting his employee bully his best and oldest friend…
Though Yamaguchi will probably say it’s not bullying, since Kenma's participating in doing the same thing that Tsukishima does to everyone else. Which is fair enough, but also incredibly annoying.
He rolls his eyes and bangs his head against the door. It’s going to be a long few weeks. Hopefully - he prays - Akaashi will get fucking better already and then he can deal with Kenma’s lazy ass.
.
The next day, once Tsukishima arrives, he finds Kenma in the back room again. He contemplates screaming. Instead, he says, “You can’t be serious.”
Kenma sighs, getting to his feet. “What are you doing back here?”
“I had a feeling this is where you’d be,” Tsukishima says.
“I just needed a minute,” Kenma replies. “Just…” he inhales. “Give me five minutes, actually. I’ll be back on the floor after that.”
Tsukishima doesn’t fully believe him. Still, it’s not like he’s in any actual position of power over Kenma to make Kenma do anything, so he just lifts a shoulder and says, “Well, your funeral, I guess.”
He heads back out to the floor, where a man immediately approaches him and asks him about the best kind of flowers to buy to make something up to his wife - a question that, unfortunately, Tsukishima hears far more often than he should. He’s in the midst of a (mostly one-sided conversation) with the man when he sees the back door slip open, and Kenma walk out. He keeps his head down as he walks, like he’s trying desperately not to draw attention, and Tsukishima’s eyes follow him. He makes it over to a shelf of plants and begins wiping it down.
Hm. Well, he had been true to his word, at least. But he just doesn’t understand what's going in that head of Kenma's. He can’t quite get a read on Kenma the way he wants to.
“You’re just upset because you want to throw him into a box labeled lazy and unmotivated and slam the lid shut,” Yamaguchi says when Tsukishima complains to him again later in the day. “But every human has more complexity than that. Also, to the untrained eye, you’d probably come off that way too.”
Sometimes Tsukishima questions why in the world he’d picked Yamaguchi to be his best friend, of all people. Tsukishima’s words are blunt and occasionally hurtful, sure, but Yamaguchi’s are positively devastating. “I’m not lazy and unmotivated, though,” he says.
“I’m not saying that you are,” Yamaguchi retorts. “Just saying it’s possible that you could come off that way to people that don’t know you. I’ve had years of dealing with you, though.”
“Dealing with me?”
“Sorry, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says, not sounding that sorry at all. “But I just think you’re judging him too quickly, that’s all.”
Tsukishima doesn’t know how else to do things, though. His reflex is to judge people upon meeting them, to file them into boxes. Loud and obnoxious - the box Bokuto had found himself in upon day 1 of meeting him. Tolerable - that’s where Yamaguchi had started off, but proximity and time had molded that into something like lovable, though he’d never say anything of the sort out loud, especially directly to Yamaguchi. Mysterious but interesting - that’s how he’d filed Akaashi. And Kenma’s box had seemed obvious as well. “How else am I supposed to do it?” Tsukishima asks, half a complaint but also half a genuine question.
“I don’t know, maybe actually get to know people before you assign them labels or whatever,” Yamaguchi says, which is positively ridiculous. “I mean, you like games, don’t you? Why don’t you ask Kenma about the games he’s playing?”
This idea, Tsukishima thinks, is also ridiculous. But the look on Yamaguchi’s face makes it clear that Tsukishima should probably give it a try.
.
“Hi,” Tsukishima says, after walking into the storage room to find Kenma playing on his damn game again. “Uh. What are you playing?”
Kenma glances up at him. “You actually want to know?” he says, in a way that implies that he absolutely does not think that Tsukishima does.
Tsukishima groans. “What does it matter if I do or don’t? Just answer the question already.”
“It’s just a stupid game I play to waste time,” Kenma replies, or at least that’s what Tsukishima thinks he says - it’s so mumbled that it’s hard to hear the words correctly.
“Well, what games do you play that are serious then?” Tsukishima asks.
“Are you asking me for my favorite games?” Kenma says, and then when Tsukishima kind of shrugs and nods in response, he tilts his head back like he’s in pain. “At least pick a genre! It’s impossible to choose otherwise.”
“Okay,” Tsukishima says. “Uh, favorite first person shooter, I guess. We’ll start there.”
“A bit stereotypical,” Kenma mutters, but he launches into his analysis anyways. It’s the most engaged Tsukishima’s ever seen him, he thinks, as Kenma even puts his arms into it as he compares the merits of various different games. And his takes aren’t even that bad. Tsukishima finds that he agrees with the majority of Kenma’s analyses, but can’t help jumping in at points to add in his own opinions.
The first time he does it, Kenma tilts his head at him. “You know about games, huh?”
Tsukishima shrugs. “I guess. I play sometimes when I get the time. Not as often as you do, though, most likely.”
“Games are life,” Kenma says dryly before he launches back into his analysis.
They keep at it for a little bit, Tsukishima asking about different genres and Kenma giving his opinion on each one. He brings up games that Tsukishima’s never heard of, and once, Tsukishima even asks him about a game that took Tsukishima over a month to beat. “God, that game was so annoying. It took me fucking forever. Actually… how long did it take you to beat it?” Tsukishima asks.
Kenma’s mouth tilts down like he’s considering. “Uh, probably about 30 hours? So… three or four days?”
Tsukishima’s eyes widen. “Three or four days? What, did you speedrun it?”
“No,” Kenma says. He glances up at Tsukishima, his golden eyes glinting with something like glee as he says, “The gameplay was pretty simple. I’m surprised it took you that long to catch on, honestly.”
Tsukishima’s hand balls up into a fist automatically. God, leave it to Kenma to find a way to get under his skin even when they’re having a civil conversation. But he won’t let Kenma get under his skin. He won’t.
They’re in the midst of discussing the merits of simulation games when the door creaks open. “Uh,” Yamaguchi says upon discovering that they’re in the midst of a conversation. “I mean, I’m glad you two are getting along, but we could use some help out front…”
“Yeah,” Tsukishima says, getting to his feet. “Got a little caught up, I guess.”
He heads out and gets caught up in another boring conversation with a customer about the merits of red vs white roses in a wedding, which admittedly he doesn’t pay that much attention to. His mind is still unfortunately on his stupid conversation with that lazy ass from the back room. Why does he care so much about that conversation, anyways? In fact: why does he care at all?
.
But the next day when he gets a Yamaguchi-approved break, he finds himself taking his 7-11 lunch to the back room and plopping down beside Kenma, who glances over at him. “Bokuto is in today, right?” Kenma asks.
“Yeah,” Tsukishima says. “I’d go out there in a few minutes, though, if I were you.”
Why do you spend all this time in the back room, anyways? Tsukishima wants to ask. He gets the feeling that it’s something beyond usual laziness. He feels, though, that he doesn’t know Kenma well enough to ask just yet. He might be an asshole, but he’s not ignorant of social norms. So, instead, he asks something about a game that’s coming out soon and lets Kenma talk. It’s weird, but there’s something about the soft tones of Kenma’s voice that’s almost soothing.
He finds himself almost disappointed when Kenma takes a long, deep breath and then says, “I should probably get back to work before Yamaguchi comes for both of us.” He doesn’t let himself question why. If he thinks about it too hard, he’s afraid it’ll say more about him than he wants to be revealed.
The next day, though, during his break, he goes back to the storage room, sits down next to Kenma, and this time goes onto his own rant. It’s not too long winded, just complaints about customers that he feels bad ranting about to Yamaguchi lest Yamaguchi think he’s not enjoying the job and try to make him leave. But Kenma doesn’t interrupt him either. He listens attentively - or as attentively as someone like Kenma ever could, since half his attention is on the idle game on his phone screen. It’s kind of nice, though, to have someone there to listen, someone he knows won’t freak out or judge him. He even waits for Tsukishima to be done before he heads back to work, and Tsukishima eats his sandwich with a weird feeling in his stomach.
Feelings, Tsukishima thinks bitterly. God, fuck feelings. His life would be so much easier if he were a robot.
They fall into a routine, though. Each day, they meet up at the same exact location - or rather, Tsukishima goes and finds Kenma with his break food. Sometimes Tsukishima rants; sometimes he asks Kenma questions that he knows will send Kenma into his own rant and Tsukishima’s content to listen. On the sixth straight day, Tsukishima realizes that damn, Yamaguchi had a point, because although he’s still not convinced that Kenma isn’t lazy, he’s also not just lazy. He’s also a good listener and makes funny comments and passionate about things he enjoys and -
And this is so fucking stupid. So fucking stupid. He sounds like a middle schooler with a crush. It’s better, then, to not think about it whatsoever.
So he pushes the thoughts away, pretends it’s not happening, pretends that he’s not starting to feel a little more than simple ‘acquaintanceship’ for the stupid lazy worker that hides out in Yamaguchi’s flower shop’s back room.
.
It’s on the seventh day that Tsukishima gets to the shop early enough to see Kenma retreat to the back room.
When he shows up, he rubs his bleary eyes to see that Kenma’s in the front, for once, engaging with a customer. The customer seems to be asking Kenma questions about flowers, the usual, but once Tsukishima gets close enough he can hear how small and quiet Kenma’s voice is as he talks and the way he doesn’t make anything even resembling eye contact.
And then he hears the anger in the customer’s tone.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” the man says angrily, looming over Kenma in a way that’s almost threatening. “You work in a flower shop. How do you not know about flowers?”
“I don’t know everything about every flower,” Kenma mutters, looking away. “If you just give me a minute, I’ll…”
“Just go get someone that works here and actually knows shit,” the customer demands. Kenma nods, still not looking at the man, turns on his heel, and heads directly towards the back room. Tsukishima sighs. He knows the answer to the man’s question, though, so he walks over to the man and launches into his explanation - an explanation that’s not enthusiastic in the least, but knowledgeable, at least. And then, once he’s done and has rung up the man, he heads to the back room.
“Hi,” he says once he enters, because if there’s one thing Tsukishima Kei isn’t particularly good at, it’s being comforting of all things.
Kenma’s head is, inevitably, buried in his phone. He doesn’t look up from his phone either as he says, “I don’t need your pity.”
“Good, because I wasn’t offering it,” Tsukishima says. “No, I was coming to commiserate. Customers are the absolute worst. The scum of society. And that guy was a complete jackass.”
“Well,” Kenma says, his voice a little more stable and like usual, “you aren’t wrong there. Choosing to work with the public may have been the worst decision I’ve ever made.”
“Why are you here, then?” Tsukishima asks, his gaze narrowing. “There are jobs where you wouldn’t have to work with the public, you know. Stuff like office jobs.”
“Well,” Kenma says, “probably for some of the same reasons you are. My grandmother died a few months ago, and my mother sent me here to pick up some flowers.” He sighs. “I wasn’t planning on talking to anyone, but I guess I caught Yamaguchi’s eye somehow, and he ended up offering me a job. And there was just something about his eyes that made it so I couldn’t say no.”
Tsukishima thinks back to the gaze that Yamaguchi had given him to get him to agree to take the job in the first place, and a shudder runs down his spine. “Agreed,” he says, and then, shifting gears, “But yeah, working with the public fucking sucks. Sorry Yamaguchi suckered you into this.”
There’s something off in Kenma’s eyes as he looks at Tsukishima, and Tsukishima’s breath catches in his throat. Have his eyes always had that much depth? Have they always been so beautiful? He mentally pinches himself as Kenma says, “Well, maybe it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Tsukishima’s brain is yelling at him to run, that this is too close - far too close for comfort. Instead, though, Tsukishima settles in beside Kenma, their arms almost brushing, and revels in the blissful silence for a moment more.
.
“So you have a crush on Kenma,” Yamaguchi says when Tsukishima explains all of this to him.
“What? No, I don’t,” Tsukishima says. “I wanted to run away. God, were you not listening?”
“I am, yeah,” Yamaguchi says. “You wanted to run away because you’re afraid of your own feelings.”
“Since when did you become a fucking psychologist, huh?”
“I don’t need to be a psychologist,” Yamaguchi says tiredly. “I just need to know who you are as a person, and I know you probably better than anyone in the universe. Therefore, I know that you’re afraid of your own feelings. Case closed… sorry, Tsukki.”
“I don’t have a crush on Kenma,” Tsukishima says, and then because he doesn’t even fully believe it himself, “I don’t. ” There. That sounds slightly more convincing.
“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says, giving his arm a comforting squeeze. “It’s okay if you do, you know. You two have a lot in common. And…” He gives Tsukishima a little wink. “He’s pretty good-looking, you know?”
Is he?
Tsukishima thinks back to sitting beside Kenma in the back room, his hair long, framing his round face, his eyes a sparkling gold, the cute little turn of his nose - and fuck, did he just think cute?
He’s losing his mind. He has to be. That’s the only explanation.
Or maybe fucking Yamaguchi is right and he really does have a crush on Kenma.
He wants to pull his hair out. He wants to scream. He doesn’t know what to do.
“You can do this,” Yamaguchi says, smiling in a way that’s almost smug. “I’m happy for you, Tsukki!”
“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima says. He’s too busy plotting the funeral of his sanity.
.
He avoids going to the back room for a few days. It’s his Plan A of Getting Over Whatever Feelings He Definitely Doesn’t Have for Kozume Kenma. But it doesn’t work, unfortunately. The more he stays away, the more his chest aches, the more gloomy he feels.
And so he goes to Plan B: Pretend Absolutely None of This Is Happening and Go Back to Normal. (And then hopefully the feelings will just fade away with time, you know. At least, well, that’s his hope.)
But then, when he enters the back room, Kenma turns away from him. Annoyance runs hot through his veins in response - more at himself for failing to account for Kenma’s feelings in any of this, somehow. He has to make up for this somehow. But - how?
“Hi,” Tsukishima says. Good going, he thinks. Yeah, definitely the way to get someone to forgive you. He clears his throat. “Uh, how’s it going?”
“Fine,” Kenma says, and then nothing else. Tsukishima feels a little bit helpless. He doesn’t know how the hell to make people feel better, besides, well, taking a page from Yamaguchi’s book and saying…
“Sorry,” he barely chokes out, and Kenma’s head snaps up to look at him. “I didn’t - God. I’m fucking awful at this. And by this I mean… talking about shit. But it wasn’t my intention to upset you or anything. I’m just… God. I don’t wanna say this.”
Kenma blinks up at him, his golden eyes looking innocent for once. “Don’t want to say what?”
“That I was afraid,” Tsukishima snaps without even really thinking, and then clamps his mouth shut.
“Afraid?” Kenma’s expression becomes all the more puzzled. “What are you afraid of?”
“Of… how much I like you…” Tsukishima says, and then quickly turns his gaze away. “God. Never saying that again.”
“Of what?” Kenma says, his tone shifting - more teasing now than anything. “You like me ?”
“Ugh,” Tsukishima groans. “Don’t make me say it again. Yes, I fucking like you. God only knows why.”
Kenma’s mouth twists up into a smirk. “Well, I guess that’s for the best,” he says. “Because…” His tone drops, and now it’s his turn to look away. Tsukishima looks on as a delicious hint of red appears on his cheeks. “Because I like you too. Or whatever.”
“Or whatever?” Tsukishima says.
“Yeah,” Kenma says, finally making eye contact, and god, Tsukishima has no idea what to do now, but it kind of feels like he’s been dipped into lava and now is burning alive because Kenma is looking at him like that and holy shit, he can’t breathe. But then Kenma, thankfully, takes initiative. Kenma leans up on his toes, taking ahold of Tsukishima’s poor work shirt to haul him down, and Tsukishima can’t do anything but let him take the lead.
Their lips collide, and all Tsukishima can think is goddamn it, Yamaguchi was so right, because not only is Kenma not actually that lazy, but he’s also gorgeous and funny and interesting and dedicated and a good fucking kisser. And as his lips move fluidly against Kenma’s, Kenma hauling him down even further to get a better grip, he almost lets himself smile. Almost.
Turns out working at Yamaguchi’s place has some perks, after all. And when Tsukishima walks into the back room the next day and sees Kenma playing his stupid phone game again, this time he tosses a spare red rose at Kenma’s feet - courtesy of a very smug (but also very supportive) Yamaguchi.
“Is this your attempt at romance?” Kenma asks, glancing up at him with a bemused expression.
Tsukishima rolls his eyes. “Take it or leave it,” he says, and the soft kiss Kenma gives him on his cheek in return, Tsukishima assumes, means he’s decided that he’ll take it.