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1. Kawanishi Taichi, Yamagata Hayato, Yuushou Sagae
Ushijima Wakatoshi and Tendou Satori are not dating.
It seems like such an obvious statement. Sure, they’re best friends and yeah, they spend basically all their waking moments together, but they’re both still very different people. Ushijima likes volleyball and drawing and volleyball and reading and did he already mention volleyball?
Tendou likes…
Well, Tendou likes volleyball, too. And reading manga, and playing video games.
Mostly he just likes Ushijima.
The two of them make an odd pair, in Kawanishi’s expert opinion. Ushijima has his pick of pretty much any girl in school and yet he chooses to spend all his time with their team’s resident smug, guess blocking weirdo.
He’d asked Semi about it once, back when he was still a first year and not yet used to seeing the way Ushijima allows Tendou to hang all over him all day and night. Semi had just grimaced and told him it was best to ignore it.
As if it really were that easy.
“Hey…” Kawanishi sighs, staring across the lunch table at the pair in question. Tendou withdraws his chopsticks from Ushijima’s mouth and glances sideways at him, unsettling red-brown eyes wide with innocence before they return to looking at their stone faced captain.
Tendou uses a napkin to wipe at a smear of sauce he’d gotten on Ushijima’s chin and then grins, fingertips lingering against the curve of his jaw. His expression is soft in the mushy, gross way it always is when he’s looking at Ushijima, and Kawanishi does not understand how the brunette still doesn’t notice something so painfully obvious to literally everyone else around them.
“You know we’re still here, right?” Yamagata interjects, clearly as unimpressed with this display as Kawanishi is. Two heads swivel towards them and Tendou’s dang hands are still on Ushijima’s face when he has the audacity to respond like he has no clue what they mean.
“Yes? Why do you ask?”
Tendou sounds faintly annoyed by the question, as if they are the ones being disruptive during lunch. Kawanishi holds that intense stare for several long seconds before he rolls his eyes and looks back down at his meal.
“Nevermind.”
Tendou returns to the task at hand which, it seems, is to get Ushijima to try every single part of the meal he had brought today. To be honest, Kawanishi is mildly jealous. Not about the feeding, god no.
But Tendou is an excellent cook and his lunches are always way better than the stuff the school makes for them. Sagae seems to agree because he leans across the table towards Tendou with his mouth open, silently begging to have a bite as well. Poor, innocent Sagae, who still hasn’t figured out the pecking order when it comes to Tendou Satori.
Tendou is more than happy to remind him though when he grins and acts like he’s about to give him one of his tidy egg roll ups, only to pop it into his own mouth with a teasing snicker.
“Sorry, Yuushou-kun. Only brought enough for myself,” he chirps, smiling the entire time he’s feeding Ushijima yet another bite of pickled radish. Sagae looks like he’s about to protest the injustice but Kawanishi puts a hand on his leg and just shakes his head in silent warning.
Complain about it and he’ll never get a single bite ever again. He can ask poor Shibata how well that’s been going for him.
Ushijima Wakatoshi is the only exception to Tendou’s rules and it’s up to Sagae to learn his place if he ever wants to taste his senpai’s cooking ever again.
It isn’t until the duo have packed up and left that Sagae finally poses the question all first years always get around to asking eventually.
“Are Tendou-san and Ushijima-san dating? They seem, um… close.”
Yamagata groans and buries his face in his hands, matching the grimace on Kawanishi’s own face when they turn to look at their poor, young kouhai.
“If only we were so lucky,” Yamagata sighs, and Kawanishi can’t agree more.
“They’d probably be less handsy if they were actually dating.”
Kawanishi snorts, crumpling his napkin up and dropping it on his now empty tray. He privately thinks they’d absolutely find a way to be even more disgusting.
“Why aren’t they dating though?” Sagae protests, slinging his bag over his shoulders and standing up with them to discard his tray.
That makes Kawanishi and Yamagata laugh in unison and the middle blocker shrugs, looking tiredly down at the first year. He’ll figure it out eventually.
“Because they’re both stupid, Sagae-kun. Super volleyball idiots. Just don’t get involved for the sake of your own sanity, yeah?” And his own safety, but Kawanishi doesn’t say that part out loud. Yunohama had made the mistake once.
Kawanishi’s never seen Tendou make someone cry quite that much before, not even the opposing teams he’s psychologically tortured out on the court.
Sagae looks like he’s about to object to that but something about the look on Kawanishi’s face seems to resonate with him because he closes his mouth with a snap and nods wordlessly.
Maybe one day their friends will get their heads on straight but for now? Kawanishi is gonna stay far, far away.
He wants to taste Tendou’s brownies again sometime in the next century, after all.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
2. Goshiki Tsutomu
Goshiki is lucky to have senpais as cool as Ushijima and Tendou.
He’d taken a nasty spill at practice when he accidentally collided with Tendou while trying to receive an incoming spike. It was fine, honestly. He only has a small bruise on his hip and a scrape on his knee that should heal up fine, but Tendou had insisted on taking him out for ice cream after practice by way of apologizing for injuring him.
It’d been Goshiki’s own fault for being careless and he’s about to turn him down when Ushijima comes up behind Tendou and asks if he’s ready to go. And, well. Who is Goshiki to refuse such a kind offer from his seniors?
It’s a chilly day for ice cream but Goshiki accepts the fudge bar when it’s handed to him regardless, licking it enthusiastically while Tendou and Ushijima unwrap their own ice creams.
“Ahh, thank you again for inviting me, Tendou-san!” he says, a half step behind the other pair as they meander their way back towards the school. It’s not a terribly long walk back to the dorms, but none of them are in any particular rush to get back. Besides, Goshiki is happy for any excuse to spend time with his older teammates.
Tendou laughs and looks over his shoulder at Goshiki, offering him a toothy grin.
“Anytime, Tsutomu-chan,” he teases, and Goshiki is about to shoot back a protest about the -chan when Tendou’s toe catches on a loose bit of stone in the sidewalk and he goes falling forward.
Ushijima manages to catch Tendou before he hits the ground, but the redhead’s ice cream isn’t so lucky and it hits the pavement with a sad little splat. Tendou groans and straightens himself back up, and Goshiki watches the way Ushijima’s arm lingers around his slender waist, fingers brushing over the fabric of his sweatshirt.
“Thanks, Wakatoshi-kun!” Tendou chirrups, then grimaces when he realizes he’s lost his ice cream.
Goshiki looks down at his fudge pop, already half eaten and probably not of any interest to the redhead.
“I can go back-”
His offer to buy Tendou a new one is cut off by Ushijima, who has already extended his own ice cream cone towards the other.
“You can have some of mine, Satori.”
And Goshiki gawks as Tendou grins and accepts it from him before taking a big, messy lick right through where Ushijima’s own tongue had been only moments before. Something about it feels so scandalous to Goshiki and he can’t do anything more than stare, open mouthed and wide eyed.
Ushijima’s arm finally withdraws from around Tendou’s waist and, my god, has he been holding him this entire time?
He knows better than to ask. Semi had warned him his first week on the team to never comment on the intense closeness between their number one and their number five, but it’s moments like these that make him believe it really isn’t all that necessary to ask.
It’s fairly obvious how Ushijima and Tendou feel for one another.
At least, it’s fairly obvious to everyone except Ushijima and Tendou. The jury is still out on whether either one of them has the faintest clue.
So Goshiki says nothing and continues to follow behind them when they finally start walking again. They trade the ice cream cone back and forth like it’s easy, and Goshiki wonders if he should drop his own cream so he can share with Ushijima too.
Something tells him he wouldn’t get the same offer, though. He can already picture Ushijima’s blank expression as he tells Goshiki it’s too bad he dropped his ice cream, right before he gives his own to Tendou again.
They’re about halfway back to the dorms when a breeze blows by and Tendou makes a dramatic show of shivering, turning his head so he can pout at Ushijima.
“I’m cold, Wakatoshi-kun,” he whines plaintively, and Ushijima doesn’t hesitate to reach out and take Tendou’s hand in his own. Goshiki nearly leaps out of his own skin at the sudden gesture of affection, slapping a hand over his mouth to muffle the strangled noise attempting to tear itself from his throat.
“Is this better?” Ushijima asks, and Goshiki wants to answer that of course it isn’t, how could holding someone’s hand warm them up, but Tendou beats him to the punch with a soft smile at their stoic captain.
“Much!” the middle blocker replies cheerily, lacing his fingers with Ushijima’s. “I’m very warm now, thank you Wakatoshi.”
Goshiki clamps his palm tighter over his mouth, desperate to scream, and then just… lets it go. He hangs his head and takes a deep, steadying breath before finally releasing the death grip he has on his own face. Semi’s voice rings out clear as a bell in his mind.
It’s not our place to tell them what their relationship is, Goshiki.
He doesn’t say a word for the rest of the evening and when Shirabu enters his room later to drop off a game he’d borrowed, he doesn’t even have to ask why Goshiki is lying face down on his bed while Semi pets his head sympathetically.
“Ushijima and Tendou?” Shirabu snorts, and Semi offers an amused, if slightly tired grin.
“Ushijima and Tendou.”
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
3. Ohira Reon
He should have known better than to take Tendou up on his offer to do prep work together for their upcoming exams. In hindsight it’s obvious that Ushijima would also be there, and it’s on him for not realizing that until far too late.
It isn’t that he doesn’t like spending time with them. For all of Tendou’s eccentricities, he’s actually a good friend and a solid teammate, and his weird behavior makes him fun to hang out with. And while Ushijima never says a lot, he’s dependable and tends to have a calming influence on their rambunctious group of first years.
Combining the two, though.
“So are we done studying, then?” he asks in a frustrated bark, glaring at the two currently engrossed in one of Tendou’s Shounen Jump magazines. He wouldn’t care if that was all they were doing, but it’s never that easy with Tendou and Ushijima, no.
Tendou is seated on the floor between Ushijima’s spread thighs and Ushijima has his arms draped comfortably around Tendou’s slim waist, chin resting on his shoulder to read the advertisements while Tendou inhales the latest chapter of One Piece.
“No, no. We’re just taking a break,” Tendou says absently, waving a hand in Reon’s direction before he turns the page.
Right.
Because the manga is the problem with this situation, clearly.
Tendou reaches up to absently stroke his fingers through Ushijima’s hair and Reon watches as Ushijima’s eyelids start to droop, like he’s some giant dog getting his ear scratched.
Gross. Reon does not need front row seats to the weird dating but not dating thing they have going on. He already sees way too much of Semi and Shirabu without adding these two to the mix.
To be honest though, when he first joined the team he didn’t even realize Ushijima knew how to mellow out like this. He seemed so intense all the time and it’s still weird to watch him all but melt under Tendou’s touch. Weird and also way, way too much given that they have an audience. Not that it ever seems to bother them.
Reon’s sure they believe their behavior comes off as totally platonic. As if it’s normal for two “just friends” to sit that closely.
“I think I’m just gonna go bother Semi,” he says slowly and starts to gather his notes together. Semi isn’t in the same class as them but at this point Reon is convinced he’ll be more helpful than Ushijima or Tendou.
“Are you sure?”
Tendou doesn’t even look up at him when he asks, still too focused on petting a half asleep Ushijima to bother with Reon. Ushijima’s eyes have closed entirely now and he’s turned his head so his face is hidden in the delicate arch of Tendou’s neck, chest pressed against the length of Tendou’s back.
And Reon has to wonder, how is it that the rest of the world can cease to exist when they’re with one another, and yet they still can’t see what’s right in front of their faces? Tendou is supposed to be some kind of guess monster and yet he’s missing the most obvious thing in the universe.
Absurd.
“Yeah, I’m sure Shirabu won’t mind me interrupting their seventeenth makeout session of the day,” he responds dryly.
He will mind, quite a lot. But if they want privacy then they shouldn’t be getting busy in the dorm room Semi shares with Reon.
Tendou clearly hasn’t heard a single word he’s said though because he doesn’t answer this time, doesn’t even seem to realize he’s still there at all. Reon catches him looking sideways at the dozing Ushijima before he shuts the door, and the raw, unfiltered softness on Tendou’s face stays with him even as he makes his way back towards his own room.
Tendou only lets his guard down like that when he’s with Ushijima and Reon isn’t sure whether he should feel honored or freaked out to witness it for himself first hand. He really does not need to know about his teammates’ love lives.
He’s so distracted by what he’s just seen that he forgets to knock on the door before he enters his dorm room, and well.
Shirabu definitely minds.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
4. Semi Eita and Shirabu Kenjirou
“I can’t believe you invited them on our date,” Shirabu grouses, scowling at Semi as they wait for their turn to get on the ride. Ushijima and Tendou had managed to squeeze on the roller coaster car before theirs, leaving them blessedly alone for a few minutes before the next one arrives.
“Listen it isn’t my fault if they’re too stupid to figure out they’re also supposed to be on a date,” Semi snaps, folding his arms across his chest in a petulant display of frustration. He had assumed the pair would go off and do their own thing once they all arrived, meaning he would have his boyfriend all to himself for the day.
Instead, he and Shirabu have treated themselves to a non stop marathon of their idiot friends putting their hands and eyes all over one another. How was Semi supposed to know they’d still be so hopelessly clueless? The amusement park had been running a whole special event today just for couples, and Semi figures this time they’ll have to take the hint.
The employee had taken one look at Ushijima and Tendou holding hands in line and hadn’t even questioned them before ringing them up for the discounted couple’s ticket. Meanwhile Semi had to ask for the discount for himself and Shirabu.
He and Shirabu are the ones actually dating. It’s beyond frustrating, and he can feel Shirabu getting more and more annoyed with how disgustingly lovey dovey Ushijima and Tendou are.
It’s not that Semi isn’t affectionate. He loves his boyfriend and he shows him it in his own way, but how exactly is he supposed to compete with the goddamn PDA Kings of Shiratorizawa Academy?
“I promise I’ll ask Tendou about giving us some alone time once we get off the ride.”
Shirabu softens a bit and Semi steals a quick kiss before the attendant waves them over for their turn on the coaster.
It turns out he doesn’t have to do anything, though. Neither of them are anywhere to be seen once they get out of the ride and when Semi checks his phone he has an unread message from Tendou saying he and Ushijima are gonna go play a few of the prize games by themselves so he can hang out with Shirabu without them quote ‘killing the mood’.
Sometimes Tendou is okay, he supposes.
And it’s nice, getting to goof off with his boyfriend and not having to worry about the other two watching. He can hold his hand, and share a hotdog, and hide in a bathroom stall to make out for a bit, all without Tendou’s teasing ringing in his ears.
They see neither hair nor hide of their teammates for the rest of the day and Semi would definitely say it’s been a lot more fun that way. It’s inevitable that they’ll run across them again eventually, but it isn’t until after the sky has gotten dark that they encounter them again, and honestly?
Semi isn’t sure what else he should have expected.
Ushijima is seated comfortably on a bench with his phone in his hand, probably watching a volleyball game if Semi were a betting man. Tendou is sprawled on his side on the bench and his head is pillowed on Ushijima’s thigh, an ugly stuffed dragon clutched tightly to his chest and covering his face. The brunette has a hand under Tendou’s shirt and appears to be rubbing absent minded circles against his stomach, like that’s just a normal thing friends do?
“So…” Semi begins, trying to hide his amusement. Had he actually been successful in getting them to admit their feelings with this whole dumb idea? Ushijima pauses and looks up from his phone, seeming almost… surprised to see them there. For once, Semi isn’t all that mad about being forgotten.
“What’s all this then?” Shirabu asks impatiently, gesturing at the pair of them. Ushijima blinks, then turns his intense olive gaze to the man lying beside him.
“He ate too much cotton candy and the last roller coaster we went on made him nauseous. So we’re taking a break until his stomach settles.”
He says it like it’s obvious and they’re the morons. Semi has never wanted to smack someone so much.
“Right,” he snorts, shaking his head. So much for that, then. Ushijima rummages in the pocket of his sweatshirt and withdraws a small, keychain looking thing and offers it to Semi. When he takes it he can see it’s a charm, bestowing eternal love on whatever couple happens to have it.
“It came with the dragon I won for him, but neither of us have any use for it,” he explains, and now Semi really wants to slap the life out of him. Semi scowls at the charm, then back at Ushijima, and he can feel Shirabu shaking with silent laughter from where they’re still holding hands.
“You’re an idiot, Ushijima Wakatoshi,” he snaps and tosses the charm back in his face before he spins on his heel and marches away with Shirabu. This is the last time he gives his stupid friends a chance to get their heads out of their asses because it is clearly a waste of his time. They’ll either figure their shit out or they won’t but Semi is washing his hands of it.
He wins his boyfriend his own plush animal, thank you very much. A cheaply made fox with lopsided ears and floppy paws. The love charm that comes with it signals marriage is in their future, and Shirabu’s ears are red when Semi kisses him sweetly.
All in all a very good day, at least for Semi Eita.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
5. Soekawa Jin
Soekawa doesn’t really know his teammates that well, in all seriousness. He doesn’t have a lot in common with most of them other than volleyball, and his academic course load keeps him extremely busy when he’s not at practice or sleeping.
Despite this, he does notice things. A lot of things, really.
He’s not very talkative and that gives him the opportunity to just… watch. And listen.
Soekawa realizes Semi is crushing on Shirabu before the silver haired boy figures it out himself. He bears witness to a thousand awkward interactions between Tendou and each year’s new batch of recruits until they eventually get used to his energetic strangeness and learn to respect his skill on the court. He catches Yamagata kissing a second year girl outside of the locker room before a game in their second year, and stumbles upon Goshiki putting purple butterfly hair clips in his hair in their communal bathroom one night.
The point is, Soekawa Jin doesn’t really know his teammates that well, but he does know a lot about them. They’re a good bunch and he knows they’ll do well after he’s graduated.
Ushijima and Tendou, though. They’re simultaneously a total mystery and open books to Soekawa. He’s seen them in any number of emotionally compromising situations and yet, at least as far as he can tell, they are not romantically involved.
It’s odd. Or perhaps odd isn’t the right word for it.
Their coach’s eyebrows are odd. People who say natto is their favorite food are odd. Rain on an otherwise sunny day is odd.
Ushijima and Tendou are… baffling.
How many times has Ushijima loaned Tendou his sweatshirt after the redhead spilled something on his uniform? How many times have they napped on long bus rides, leaning against one another and sharing a single pair of earbuds hooked up to Tendou’s cellphone? How many times have the pair stayed late after practice because Ushijima’s arms were sore from spiking and serving drills and Tendou would help wash the sweat from his hair?
An endless cycle of giving and taking between the two of them that seems to spin on and on with no discernable end.
They’re contradictory and, really, they shouldn’t make any sense.
And yet they come together as naturally as breathing, like opposing powers of a magnet drawn inexorably towards one another without necessarily understanding why.
Ushijima Wakatoshi and Tendou Satori just… fit.
So perhaps it isn’t all that surprising to Soekawa when he discovers them embracing in the changing room outside of the bathroom. The rest of the team has long since gone to bed, desperate to sleep off the exhaustion of their crushing loss against Karasuno in the final round of the playoffs. He’d gone back to get his shirt, which he hadn’t noticed missing until he’d gotten all the way to his dorm room. Clearly neither Ushijima or Tendou expected to be discovered and Soekawa freezes in place, afraid of disturbing the fragile moment if he made so much as a sound.
“You should be more careful, Satori,” Ushijima murmurs, withdrawing from Tendou and looking down between their bodies. He’s cradling Tendou’s hands in his own and even from this distance Soekawa can see the deep redness and the dark, angry bruises that are starting to take shape. Tendou’s smiling wryly at Ushijima, his expression tired but so, so soft.
Like it always is when he’s realizing once again that he’s in love with the boy before him.
“I’m not sure it much matters anymore, Wakatoshi-kun,” he teases, totally unresisting when Ushijima spreads their hands out until their palms are pressed together, then laces their fingers as easily as Soekawa’s heart beats in his chest.
“Satori… Our loss isn’t your fault.”
Ushijima guides Tendou’s hands up and presses his lips to a particularly nasty bruise on the delicate skin between Tendou’s thumb and pointer. Tendou’s next breath is harsh, and there’s a biting edge to his words that Soekawa knows all too well. It’s easy to blame yourself when your team faces a loss this devastating.
He’d heard the same thing in the voices of their other teammates, who all consider themselves at fault when their opponents had simply been stronger this time. Tendou always puts on a good show of being full of himself, but Soekawa knows he takes their defeats harder than anyone else.
“It’s my job to stop them from getting points. So how is it not my fault that they scored enough to win?” Tendou scoffs, tugging his hands back from Ushijima and turning away from him. Soekawa wonders if they can hear him struggling over whether he can safely flee the room without them noticing. It’s a miracle they’re so wrapped up in one another they haven’t already caught him gawking at them from between the gap in the walls of shiny metal lockers.
And then Ushijima curls his arms around Tendou’s waist from behind and is pressing his forehead into the back of Tendou’s neck, clutching his skinny frame to his chest like his life depends upon it and Soekawa decides it’s time to go. He doesn’t even like that shirt all that much anyways.
The last thing he hears is Ushijima’s name, exhaled softly from Tendou like a prayer, and then he hightails it the hell out of there.
Soekawa Jin knows a lot about his teammates, but sometimes a lot is just too much.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
+1. Ushijima Wakatoshi and Tendou Satori
“Please, I hope my letter finds you well, Ushijima-san!”
She’s cute, in a normal kind of way Tendou thinks. Hanamori is her name, or maybe Hanamari? A second year in the cheerleading club that comes to all their games.
Ushijima stares blankly at her and then reaches out to accept the flowery purple envelope she’s offering to him, bowing his head politely at her.
“I promise I will read it.”
She beams at him and jogs off to join her friends who are tittering behind their hands nearby, clearly here to support her in case Ushijima flat out rejects her.
It’s unnecessary, really. Ushijima would never embarrass her like that in such a crowded, public space. Certainly not without at least reading her letter first. That’s just the kind of guy he is.
“Doesn’t that bother you?” Semi asks pointedly, elbowing Tendou in the side as they watch Ushijima storing the letter away in his bag. The three of them had been on their way to lunch when the girl had pulled Ushijima aside, and Tendou had stayed back with Semi.
Tendou forces a winning smile on his face and turns to look at Semi, and he knows it must look horrifying by the way Semi grimaces back at him.
“No? Why would it?” he lies, like the lying liar he is. Of course it bothers him. It bothers him a lot. But it’s not his place to feel bothered.
Ushijima Wakatoshi doesn’t belong to him.
Semi gracefully doesn’t respond to that and Tendou is eternally grateful for his tact this time. He’s really not in the mood for banter.
He thinks about the letter for the rest of the day, though. How would Ushijima react if Tendou gave him a love letter of his own? Probably not well. Tendou doesn’t even know if Ushijima is attracted to guys in that way.
They’ve barely even talked about girls.
“Are you coming over, Wakatoshi-kun?” he asks once their final class of the day has let out, and Tendou doesn’t like the way Ushijima pauses before answering.
“I’ll come over a little later. I was going to meet Hanamori-san right now,” the brunette responds, and the bottom plummets out from Tendou’s stomach. He’s going to meet her already? It’s only been a few hours, when had Ushijima gotten the chance to read her letter?
“Oh.”
Ushijima regards him quizzically and Tendou realizes he’s being weird, so he aims a dazzling grin at his best friend and slaps him playfully on the shoulder.
“You sly dog! Hurry up then, it’s rude to keep a pretty girl waiting,” he warns, ushering Ushijima towards the classroom door. “No rush to come over, really. We can always hang out tomorrow if you want to spend more time with her.”
Tendou doesn’t stick around to hear whatever he might have to say in response to that.
And he doesn’t really expect Ushijima to still come over later either, but there’s a knock on his door about an hour later and when he opens the door it’s Ushijima standing on the other side of it. He must have stopped by his room first because he’s already changed from his school uniform and into a soft looking pair of sweatpants.
The shirt he’s wearing is straining across his broad shoulders and Tendou realizes with an amused snort that it’s actually one of his, probably left in Ushijima’s room one of the times he stayed over and accidentally incorporated into Ushijima’s wardrobe.
“You know your own clothes might fit you better?” he teases, stepping back so Ushijima can come inside the room and kick off the slippers he’s wearing. Ushijima looks down at the faded anime logo on the front and then back up at Tendou, olive eyes characteristically serious.
“I like wearing your shirt, Satori.”
It’s a miracle Tendou doesn’t trip over his own feet on his way back to bed. He had to hand it to Ushijima, that was a good joke. Actually wearing Tendou’s shirt is a little overkill though.
“Sit wherever you want, I guess. Reon-kun went home to visit his family this weekend so Shirabu isn’t gonna leave Semi’s room until Monday morning, which means we have the place to ourselves,” he says, gesturing vaguely to the neatly made bed against the far wall before he sinks down into his own.
Unsurprisingly, Ushijima joins Tendou on the bed and slides up behind him, waiting for Tendou to roll onto his side before he presses up against his back. Is it weird to spoon your best friend? Surely it isn’t. He and Ushijima do it all the time, so one can read or watch tv while the other looks over his shoulder.
“Do you want me to restart it?” he asks, pulling up the anime episode he’d been watching on his tablet before Ushijima had arrived. Ushijima shakes his head and drapes an arm around Tendou’s waist, pulling him backwards into his chest. Tendou tries not to notice all the places their bodies are touching and taps the play button, feeling his heart doing a mad dash against his rib cage when Ushijima’s hand slides over his chest.
Ushijima just likes skinship, that’s all. He trusts Tendou not to be weird about it.
Trying to slow his breathing so Ushijima hopefully won’t notice his nervousness, Tendou attempts to start a conversation.
“So… Where are you taking Hanamori-san on your first date?” he asks awkwardly, gnawing at the inside of his cheek when Ushijima huffs into the crook of his neck.
“Nowhere. I turned her down and returned the letter to her.”
Tendou pretends not to be as relieved as he feels. Still, this isn’t the first girl that’s confessed to Ushijima and gotten rejected like this, and he’s starting to wonder why. It isn’t like there’s anything wrong with them, but Ushijima has never even so much as glanced at a single one. Ushijima’s arm slips under his head and wraps around his upper body, fingers curling gently into Tendou’s bicep. Tendou feels like he’s losing his entire mind.
“Why’d you turn her down? She seemed nice and clearly she doesn’t mind the fact that your first love is always gonna be volleyball,” he attempts to laugh, stifling a flinch when the hand on his chest presses down. There’s no way Ushijima can’t feel how his heart is doing its best to hammer a hole right through the bone and muscle.
“I turned her down because I have feelings for someone else,” Ushijima says flatly, and the words vibrate down Tendou’s spine like an earthquake and bloom as panic in the pit of his stomach. Ushijima’s so close and Tendou can’t tell where his body ends and the other’s begins.
“Oh? And who is that? Anyone I know?” His voice is faint and he regrets it the instant the words leave his mouth. He doesn’t want to know, he absolutely does not want to know because if it is someone he knows how on earth is he supposed to look at them ever again knowing they get to have what he’s always wanted?
Ushijima is silent for a long, excruciating moment, and Tendou feels his warm breath against the sensitive skin of his throat when he sighs heavily.
“You.”
Excuse me, what?
Tendou almost bites his lip clean through in surprise at the blunt, straightforward way Ushijima says it. As if he hasn’t just changed the orbit of the planet and everything Tendou has ever known about their relationship.
“Why?” he whispers faintly, coming to terms with the realization that he is well and thoroughly trapped in this situation with Ushijima’s arms holding fast around him.
Ushijima hums absently, turning his face to bury it against the crook of Tendou’s neck and shoulder.
“Because I’m happiest when I’m with you. Because you respect my passion for volleyball. Because you don’t expect me to talk if I don’t want to, and you make me feel like I can just be myself,” he murmurs, and Tendou can feel his face heating up at how he makes it sound so easy, like the reasons are obvious.
“Being with you is more enjoyable to me than playing volleyball.”
Now that makes Tendou squirm and he whines pathetically, planting his hands over his eyes to try and hide from his own embarrassment.
“You can’t just… say stuff like that, Wakatoshi-kun,” he grumbles and Ushijima’s soft chuckle echoes in Tendou’s chest.
The credits are rolling on Tendou’s tablet now and he realizes he hasn’t absorbed a single second of the episode they’d been trying to watch. He doesn’t really care though, not when Ushijima’s mouth is so close to the delicate curve of Tendou’s ear.
He knows Ushijima’s waiting for his response and Tendou musters the last shreds of his courage, still struggling to concentrate with that infuriating hand stroking over his abdomen.
“I like you, too.”
There. He said it.
It’s out in the open now and there’s no going back.
He shivers when he feels Ushijima’s mouth curve into the ghost of a smile against his neck and then Ushijima’s leaning up a little, planting an elbow into the bed and finally moving his hand away from Tendou’s chest so he can curl his fingers around the redhead’s jaw.
Tendou tips his head back and stares up at him, studying the proud arch of his cheekbones and the pretty olive green of his eyes focused completely and entirely on him. Can he have this? Is it really okay for him to have this?
“I wanna kiss you,” he blurts out, reaching out to slide his hand over the front of Ushijima’s- his shirt, and he’s weirdly calmed when he feels the rapid thud of Ushijima’s own heart beneath his palm, as if he’s just as nervous about this as Tendou.
“Then kiss me,” Ushijima challenges, and a small laugh bursts from Tendou in a staccato huff. What an Ushijima thing to say.
He curls his fingers into his shirt and tugs him down to close the gap between them, shuddering when Ushijima’s mouth finally slots against his own. It’s not the best kiss in the world; they’re both clumsy and inexperienced, learning one another and themselves as they go along.
But all in all Tendou thinks it’s pretty damn great.
🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐🍫🏐
++1. Shiratorizawa Academy Boy’s Volleyball Club
“You know how I said they’d probably be less disgusting if they actually started dating?” Yamagata asks, his voice strained and full of dry annoyance.
Semi grunts, and the team watches as one while Tendou curls his arms around Ushijima’s neck and pulls him in for a kiss right in the middle of the gym. One of many they’d been subjected to through the entirety of practice. Washijou had given up on yelling at them for it after the third or fourth one. What’s he going to do, kick them off the team? The third years are only still attending practices now to help the second and first years train before graduation.
“Hey!” Shirabu yells and two pairs of eyes swing over to look at them but Tendou’s grip on Ushijima doesn’t loosen by a fraction.
“You know we’re still here, right?”
Tendou blinks owlishly at them and then shrugs, turning back to grin at his new boyfriend.
“Yes. Why do you ask?” the redhead laughs, grinning when Ushijima leans in to steal another soft, warm kiss. And they look so stupidly happy that none of them can really bring themselves to protest in earnest, not when this has been such a long time coming.
Semi sighs, then drapes an arm around Shirabu and pats a soothing hand between his tense shoulder blades.
“Nevermind.”