Work Text:
Title: Tsukishima’s Debatably Peaceful Weekends
Prompts: DAY 6 – Time skip | College | Sendai Frog
Tsukishima had this foreboding feeling since he'd woken up in the morning. Something in the air told him that today would not be peaceful. It’d started with a simple text that Yamaguchi had sent into the first year group chat, a name that hadn’t been changed even after they graduated and went to college, yesterday afternoon.
[Yamaguchi: Anyone wants to go hang out with me tomorrow morning?]
Simple as that. Tsukishima had thought why not and was about to reply when his eyes caught the last word that jumped at him like a hyena. Morning.
Contrary to what most people thought and assumed from his classes that were all cramped before noon, Tsukishima wasn’t a morning person. He couldn’t be called a person until he got at least a decent cup of coffee. The keyword is decent, because if the coffee Tsukishima got was crappy, he was going try his best to be a walking nightmare for his professors and classmates.
So Tsukishima typed.
[Tsukishima: Can’t. Have a paper due midnight tonight. Probably not going to wake up for it.]
It wasn’t a lie. As much as he hated waking up early during the weekends, he wouldn’t mind getting a strong caffeine drink to refresh himself during the day for his friends. But he had a paper to submit, and it is twenty percent of his GPA. It would be foolish not to spend every single minute he had to stay up and get it done.
[Hinata: I can go! Morning when? Where?!]
[Hinata: Oi, Stingy-shima! I’m not stupid! Paper due midnight means you are free in the morning! Are you afraid to see me grow taller than you?]
Tsukishima snorted at the empty mockery. Like that would ever happen. People couldn’t just gain 20 centimeters in a span of two months.
[Yamaguchi: Aw, bummer. But it’s fine. Is it for that grade-hogger professor you talked about?]
[Yamaguchi: At Sendai Station! At nine maybe?]
[Hinata: Okie Dokie!]
[Tsukishima: Yes, him.]
[Yamaguchi: Slap him with your perfect paper and rip an A out of him Tsukki!]
[Yachi: To think that there comes a day I get to see Yamaguchi-kun talk like this...]
Tsukishima nodded. The members in his year had gotten closer along the way, but Yamaguchi had a side of him that didn’t come out too often, and that was when he said something that made Tsukishima questioned his ears like this one.
[Hinata: Hello Yachi-san! Are you coming with us?]
[Yachi: How long will you stay at the station? I have an errand to run, so I’ll get there around ten.]
[Yamaguchi: Until eleven? Can you stay until then, Hinata?]
[Hinata: Sure! We can go get lunch after that too if you want.]
[Yachi: Sounds great! I’ll join you at ten then.]
Tsukishima put his phone down and turned his attention back to his laptop, where he had several tabs of past research archives opened. He almost finished the paper, the final draft was done, and all he needed to do was proofreading, making sure that the wordings sounded natural and formal enough, and checking the citations. It’s seven at night now, and he should be done at around eleven. He could have microwave food for dinner after that.
He set to work and submitted his paper at eleven thirty after rereading the whole thing for the fourth time. He grabbed his phone and went into the kitchen for dinner to sooth his growling stomach. Checking his messages and emails while waiting for the food to heat, he saw that Kageyama had replied to the chat about an hour ago. He was probably done with the day’s practice and was back at his apartment.
[Kageyama: They force me to take a break...so no practice this weekend.]
[Kageyama: I’ll go.]
And that was the reason why Tsukishima felt wary all morning. He just knew something he didn’t like was going to happen. There was a possibility that his friends were just going to have a harmless outing, having fun and enjoying themselves, but Tsukishima trusted his instinct, even if he refused to utilize it on the court.
The digital clock in Tsukishima’s living room showed 12:30 when he heard his doorbell rang. He was nursing a cup of warm cocoa, an addition to his morning coffee, when the sound confirmed his suspicion. He knew who was at the door before he got up from the couch.
Considering his resolve to lounge around and be lazy for the day, Tsukishima was tempted to leave the group waiting in front of his door until they decided that he wasn’t home and left. But a second ring came, and Tsukishima recalled that Yachi was with them too. He couldn’t do that to the kind Yachi, so he dragged himself up.
Opening the door, Tsukishima was met with two familiar faces. Kageyama and Yamaguchi. He blinked, “I thought Hinata and Yachi are with you?”
Something orange bounced up in front of the two ex-teammates and Tsukishima’s ears were attacked by a loud screech, “Rude! I’m here you bastard. I’m not even that short anymore.”
Tsukishima took a step back and saw Hinata and Yachi who were at the front of the group. “You’re already at the edge of my line of sight as it is, don’t stand too close to me. Do you want to disappear?”
“Excuse me, Tsukishima-kun!” Yachi said loudly and pushed her way through a small gap between Tsukishima and the door frame to get into the apartment. The blonde was about to say something when he saw the look on the other three’s face. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
“You planned this, didn’t you.” They, or probably Yamaguchi, knew that he wouldn’t let them into his home without a verbal jab here and there, so Yachi was tasked with barreling through the first and only line of defense.
Yamaguchi smiled sheepishly, a dead giveaway that he was indeed the mastermind. “Gomen, Tsukki, we didn’t want to leave you out!”
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. His best friend hadn't gotten out of his apologizing habit yet.
Hinata grinned and asked with the same loudness that Tsukishima was sure his voice could be heard from the elevator at the end of the hallway. “Aren’t you gonna let us in?”
“Will you go away if I don’t?” He shot back, vaguely knew the answer. Despite their flashy volleyball styles, these people were as predictable as a textbook.
“Nah,” Kageyama replied and walked in without an invitation, followed by Hinata and Yamaguchi. Tsukishima could only sighed and closed the door behind them, but not before checking the outside for any neighbors that might be annoyed by Hinata’s decibel and for paparazzi who seemed to follow Kageyama everywhere these day.
“Have you eaten, Tsukishima-kun?” Yachi asked when they walked into the kitchen. There were five boxes of something that looked like rice and meat, along with a container for soup, on Tsukishima’s previously empty kitchen island. “We bought Gyutan from Date no Gyutan!”
“Hn,” Tsukishima hummed, disinterested. He hadn’t had any form of food yet today, but a cup of coffee usually filled him until one in the afternoon. He had coffee and cocoa, so that should last him until around three or four. He would just lumped all his meal together at dinner.
“We have strawberry shortcake too,” Kageyama added.
“Hn?” Tsukishima knew it was his loss when he whipped his head around and saw Kageyama grinning.
“But food first.”
The blonde tsked. Since when did he stoop so low that even the dumb King could manipulate him? But he made his way to the island where Yachi and the rest were eagerly opening their boxes. He didn’t share the apartment with anyone, so his dining table was the size that could only fit three people at most. Yachi, Hinata, and Yamaguchi took the chair, so Kageyama and he had to stand. Tsukishima resisted the urge to taunt Hinata that he seemed even shorter sitting when Tsukishima was standing.
Yachi handed him his opened lunch box and he thanked her quietly, before holding up his hand to refuse the wooden chopsticks that were handed to him. He was at his own home, where he had plenty of reusable chopsticks. No need to add more waste to the already huge pile of garbage.
He ate the beef tongues while eyeing the strawberry shortcake that was left an arm length away. It’d been a while since he last had any kind of dessert.
“We also brought our laptop to play some games!” Hinata suddenly announced with his mouth full. Tsukishima made a face at him when a piece of rice fell from his mouth. “Yamaguchi said you’ve been wanting to play it, so we figure why don’t we play together!”
“Me?” Raising his eyebrows, Tsukishima tried to rack his brain to find where Yamaguchi got that information from. Sure, he has some games that he was interested in and didn’t get to play because of assignments and quizzes, but he didn’t remember telling anyone about it. Oh wait, there was one game that he had tap a like to mark for later on his private Twitter. “Yamaguchi, please tell me it’s not the one I’m thinking of right now. There’s no way we can pass the first level with these two idiots here.”
Yamaguchi smiled easily. “Human: Fall Flat?” He said, and Tsukishima's knees almost gave out.
“Can we play something else? Kageyama and Hinata don’t have enough brain cells to play this.”
Yamaguchi’s “But I’ve already bought it” was drowned out by Hinata's loud protest.
“Hah?! What is that supposed to mean? Just you watch, Stingy-shima, I’m gonna beat your ass so bad!”
Tsukishima stared at Hinata with blank eyes. “We are game teammates.”
☾☾☾
I’m going to beat your ass so bad, Tsukishima recalled Hinata’s words and watched as the orange hair avatar fell down the cliff for the fifth time since they had started playing ten minutes ago.
“Ahhh! I died again! Why is my avatar so hard to control?” Hinata screamed in frustration when his character stumbled off the edge of the waterfall. A few seconds later, he was dropped from the sky onto the stage again. Luckily, the game allowed all avatars to respawn with no limits, so they didn't have to worry about dying too many times.
“Uh, Hinata, that’s kind of the game’s concept,” Yachi explained while she made her avatar carry a long wooden pole to the clearing near the stream, where Tsukishima was surveying for other items to use.
“Oi, Boke! Stop grabbing my hair. If you’re gonna die, then die alone,” Kageyama yelled and conveyed his point across by kicking Hinata’s ankle. His avatar’s hair was in Hinata’s sticky hand, and he was being pulled closer to the waterfall while tripping on his feet.
After finishing his food, Tsukishima had wolfed down the strawberry shortcake and sighed happily when the sweetness melted on his tongue. He was pretty sure he heard a soft snap of the phone camera but decided to ignore it for now. They had bought him his dessert, he would let them get away this time.
They had now evacuated to Tsukishima’s bedroom where they could lie down comfortably. Kageyama and Hinata hogged the space on his bed, kicking and rolling on top of each other while punching furiously on the laptop keyboards in front of them, while Yamaguchi sat on Tsukishima’s chair at the desk and rested the heel of his feet on the edge of the bed. Yachi was currently being drowned into Tsukishima’s bean bag sofa and Tsukishima, the owner of this apartment, sat on the floor with his back against the wooden frame on the side of the bed.
“I’m falling, I’m falling! Help!” Hinata screeched when his avatar stumbled too far to the right and fell. Now he had two hands grabbing onto the rock at the side of the first stage and emptiness under his feet.
“Get off of me, idiot! Don’t-Urgh! No, Yamaguchi, help!” Kageyama’s avatar, whose hair was in Hinata's grip, was unfortunately dragged down along with Hinata and was now having one hand clinging to the grass and another hand clutching Hinata’s leg for his dear life.
Tsukishima watched the mess from afar, not knowing if he should be amused or annoyed. The game avatar was designed to be wobbly, like they had not a single bone in their body, and that made them hard to control and even harder to complete the stage’s mission. Step too far forward and they would fall, swing their arms recklessly and the hands would stick to whatever surface they touched. If that surface they touched happened to be their teammate’s head, then they dragged that head with them.
“I’m coming, Kageyama! Hinata!” Yamaguchi, blessed him, rushed in and held out his arms for them both to hold onto, then he pulled. Normally, Yamaguchi would have successfully saved the idiots, but Hinata jerked his hand too hard while trying to climb back onto the land. Yamaguchi flew off and ended up dangling with them at the edge. "Oh no…"
Yachi was positioning the pole onto both sides of the river when she heard the flustered stuttering that came from three of her teammates. She narrowed her eyes at her screen and stared at a struggling pile of unidentified characters hanging halfway down the cliff close to the waterfall. “Tsukishima-kun, what is happening over there?” She asked.
“I don’t know, but it seems interesting. Why don’t we watch a little longer?” Tsukishima replied and smirked when Kageyama sent him an accusing glare.
“Tsukishima, you bastard!”
Yachi hurriedly put the pole down in its designated place so that she could go and help her friends. Turning around to swing the pole across the narrow water way and form a makeshift bridge, she miscalculated the distance between the end of the pole and the pile that consisted of her friends. The long wooden pole smacked into Hinata, who was the closest to the land, sending him flying, along with Kageyama and Yamaguchi who were holding onto Hinata.
Yachi screeched an apology at the unexpected turn of events while Tsukishima laughed out loud at the sight.
“Nice homerun, Yachi,” he said.
Yachi raised both her hands up from the keyboard in a surrender gesture and stuttered, not wanting to disregard Tsukishima’s compliment, but at the same time also not wanting to make the three dead friends feel bad. “A-Ah, uh...” She hesitated on what to say and settled with an audibly long sigh.
Three avatars were thrown down from the sky and respawned. This was Hinata’s sixth, Kageyama’s third, and Yamaguchi’s first.
Tsukishima went to help Yachi set up the bridge. They went slow and carefully swung the wood across the water. Hinata saw what they were doing and perked up.
“We’re going to the other side? The side with the castle? I’ll help.” He ran to the two avatars who were working and grabbed a hold of the pole too. His control seemed better this time, so Tsukishima sighed in relief and directed him on what to do.
“Slowly,” he instructed, “Our hands stick to it, so don’t worry about dropping it. Just go slow.”
“Slowly...slowly...” Hinata whispered to himself and licked his lower lip, a habit when he concentrated. His eyes tracked every movement his avatar made. Tsukishima felt an overwhelming sense of relief washing over him when he saw that Hinata had gone into his zone. They were finally going to finish the first half of stage one.
“Actually,” Kageyama piped up, and the danger alarm in Tsukishima’s head blared loudly, “the water isn’t that wide. Can’t we just jump to the other side?”
The avatar with long black hair raised his hands above his head, a starting pose for running, and ran to the edge with full speed. Kageyama jumped and swung his arms to catch the edge of the land on the other side. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough momentum, his hands didn’t quite reach the holding, and he fell into the void.
Tsukishima blinked. “Nice try.”
“Are you stupid, Bakayama? Even I know you won’t be able to do it!” Hinata taunted and Kageyama kicked his waist hard enough for the shorter friend to roll away.
“Wait, Hinata, get your hands off the keybo--” Tsukishima ordered, but he was too late. Hinata’s hands were all over the keys because of his movement and his avatar reflected it by swaying left and right aimlessly. The group of three lost their ground and fell off along with the pole.
“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi rushed in and tried to grab at least one of them, but he misjudged his speed and fell down along with the rest.
All five of them were deposited into a pile onto the land to resume their progress again. Yamaguchi, who was the last one to be revived and was on the top of the mound, struggling to make his way down from the tangled limbs. Kageyama who was at the bottom tried to pull himself out from under the pile, all the while dragging Hinata who was on top of him along. Tsukishima rolled off and helped Yachi up.
“Now, if we are quite done with dying. I prefer to at least finish the first stage today.”
Yamaguchi laughed sheepishly. “Yes, captain.”
Needless to say, with Hinata who couldn’t stay still and Kageyama who kept running into things, the process didn’t get any easier. They died a few more times. Yachi jumped onto a rolling sphere-shaped rock and fell down the drain. Yamaguchi accidentally got stuck between a cage and a rock wall, before being thrown from the land by Hinata who was trying to help. Kageyama fumbled with his avatar control and miscalculated his steps. Tsukishima was dragged down by Kageyama several times because he unfortunately stood close to the setter’s avatar. All in all, it was a mess.
They managed to finish the first stage when the clock showed 17:24. In front of them was a dark, looming castle and the sky was dark. The setting for Stage Two was nighttime. There was the minimum amount of light from lanterns at the side, making the surrounding difficult to see for people who weren’t used to playing games.
Tsukishima wasn’t sure if they should continue. It was already late, and he didn't think they could finish this stage before night fell. “I don’t think we should play anymore.”
“Why not? I’m starting to get a hang of it,” Hinata whined. Over the time they had been playing, Hinata had moved from Tsukishima’s bed to sitting by the closed door, and Tsukishima had moved to reclaim his rightful place on the bed next to Kageyama. Yachi was lying on her stomach on the bean bag sofa instead of sitting down, and Yamaguchi had somehow fit himself into a fetus position in Tsukishima’s chair.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. “If getting a hang of it means tripping over rubbles and falling to your death, then sure.”
They fell into comfortable silence as they took a break to rest their eyes. Tsukishima took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose, before looking back to his longtime friends. “If we want to finish Stage Two, you all might need to take a ride home. The trains will probably stop by then.”
“That’s fine. We’re planning to crash here,” Kageyama replied evenly like it was the most normal thing in the world and Tsukishima shouldn’t have asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Yamaguchi-kun told us to bring our changing clothes and pajamas!” Yachi said excitedly.
Now that Tsukishima thought of it, the bag that they each carried seemed so stuffed it’s physically bulging out. Tsukishima shot Yamaguchi with a glare, which he got a ‘Gomen, Tsukki’ in return.
“And where are you going to sleep? This is a one person apartment. I don’t have that much room,” Tsukishima said, because really, some of them would have to sleep on the floor. “The bed can fit three small people at most, but if you insist on staying, it’s going to be Yachi’s for the night. And the couch can fit one. I have another futon. That leaves two people.”
“I bring a blanket!” Hinata piped up. “We can lay it down in place of a futon for those two people.”
It seemed like Tsukishima wasn’t going to get out of this as the idiots came prepared. Again, Yamaguchi and Yachi’s plan for sure. Tsukishima relented. “Fine. Hinata or Yamaguchi take the couch. Kageyama and I are too tall for it.”
“Hinata can take it. The couch would still be a tight fit for me,” Yamaguchi offered.
“Then you take the futon. I’ll lay it out after dinner.” That left him and Kageyama on the floor with Hinata’s blanket.
“Thanks, Tsukki!”
Hinata threw a pillow at Tsukishima, who leveled him with an annoyed expression. “Can we start Stage Two already? I want to play!”
“Ah, sou?” He mumbled and put his glasses back on. “Fine.”
It was going to be a long night. There’s no telling when they were going to finish Stage Two. And if Hinata and Kageyama stayed pumped up and continued to play instead of sleeping even after Stage Two? Tsukishima resigned himself to his fate and resumed the game. Quick banters filled the room again along with Yachi’s patient instructions and Yamaguchi’s occasional startled screeches.
Tsukishima was planning to spend his day lazing around and relaxing after his paper was done, but he guessed this wasn’t bad either despite having to deal with more people. The voices in his bedroom are ones that he was used to and had come to find comfort in over the years. They thought of him and didn’t want him to feel left out, so Tsukishima allowed them to do what they wanted once in a while.
They played late into the night and ordered dinner, before going to bed and falling asleep next to each other. Yes, this wasn’t that bad, Tsukishima allowed himself to think while letting sleep lull him.