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“Wow, Tsukishima! What are those? Did you get new glasses? They’re so cool!”
Tsukishima finishes adjusting the straps of his new sports glasses and glances down to land on the source of the high-pitched squawking, far too loud for so early in the morning. Sure enough, Hinata is standing in front of him, clutching a volleyball and gawping.
He’s used to Hinata being loud and excited, and he’s used to the shrimpy middle blocker craning his neck to look up at him, something Tsukishima relishes. What he’s not used to is being on the receiving end of Hinata’s infamous compliments, the ones that reduce even their opponents to stammering and stumbling.
“Um. Yeah.”
Hinata is unphased by his tepid response and continues to babble at lightning speed.
“Whoa! Did you get them specially for volleyball? They look strong, what are they made of? Where did you get them? I want some!”
Tsukishima can feel a headache coming on, and it’s only seven am on a Monday morning. He hasn’t even started practice yet. Luckily, Yamaguchi comes to his rescue.
“Morning, Hinata,” he says cheerfully, as he enters the gym and sets down his towel and water bottle.
“Morning, Yamaguchi!” Hinata replies enthusiastically. “Have you seen Tsukishima’s new glasses? Aren’t they the coolest?!”
“They are cool, aren’t they?” Yamaguchi smiles, sparing Tsukishima a sidelong glance. Traitor.
“Ooh, they look very practical,” Sugawara chimes in, making his way over to their little huddle to see what the fuss is about. “I was always worried about what would happen if you ever received a ball to the face, Tsukishima-kun.”
“Thanks,” Tsukishima says, drily. He tries not to think about what would happen if Ushijima was the one spiking. He would need a whole face guard, eye protection alone wouldn’t cut it.
“Yeah, they look so strong, not even Ushiwaka could break them!” Hinata pipes up, as if he can read Tsukishima’s mind. It unnerves him. “Is that why you got them, Tsukishima?”
“His older brother got them for him for his birthday,” Yamaguchi supplies helpfully.
“Shut up, Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima mutters, but the damage is already done. Hinata’s eyes grow round, and Sugawara speaks up.
“Oh! Is it your birthday today, Tsukishima-kun?” His voice carries, and Daichi and Tanaka look over from their side of the gym. Even Kageyama looks up from where he’s bouncing a ball against the wall. Tsukishima tries not to cringe outwardly.
“It was on Thursday,” he mumbles.
“You dummy! Why didn’t you say anything?” Sugawara teases, slapping Tsukishima on the back as the latter curls in on himself a little from all the attention.
“Um.”
It wasn’t really a big deal, turning sixteen. Yamaguchi gave him a CD, his mother gave him a thick hardback book about fossils, with glossy pages filled with interesting illustrations and diagrams, and she took him out shopping on Saturday to buy him some new clothes. He came away with three new shirts with little moon and star motifs, and some new jeans that actually came down to his ankles.
Akiteru travelled down on Sunday and presented him with the sports glasses. He suggested he try them out during adult practice at the public gym. They’d worked pretty well, though he could have done without Akaizawa-san purposefully trying to aim for his face every time they faced off at the net.
Sugawara is joined by Daichi and Tanaka in the jostling and teasing, and Yamaguchi grins while Tsukishima glowers. This is exactly why he didn’t want people to know.
His eyes fall on Hinata, who hasn’t said anything for the past minute. He’s surprised to see Hinata gazing at him with his head slightly tilted, quiet and thoughtful. Again, Tsukishima is unnerved. He doesn’t know what to do with a Hinata that isn’t being noisy and insufferable.
Hinata keeps staring at him throughout the whole of morning practice. Tsukishima will see him across the net, or he’ll look up from picking up stray balls and sense his eyes before he sees them, burning in his direction.
It’s distracting. Tsukishima can feel him watching as he jumps for a block and misses; Tanaka spikes past him and celebrates obnoxiously.
He thinks it’s because Hinata is admiring his glasses, and wants to snap at him to stop staring, because it’s not like Hinata needs sports glasses. After all, Hinata’s eyes are annoyingly perfect.
He grits his teeth and wills himself to concentrate.
The next day at lunchtime, when Yamaguchi happens to be in the bathroom, Hinata visits Class 1-4. Tsukishima notices Hinata approaching his desk and raises a quizzical eyebrow. Usually when Hinata’s visiting his classroom, he expects to see the other half of the idiot duo in tow, armed with textbooks and a frown, but this time he’s alone.
Hinata meets his eyes, and as if to answer his silent question, he lightly drops a box onto the desk in front of Tsukishima.
“What’s this?” Tsukishima asks suspiciously.
“Just open it,” Hinata says.
Tsukishima looks down at the box. It’s flimsy, made of white cardboard, and until seeing it up close he didn’t notice the purple sticker on the lid. It reads “Kuromame Patisserie”, immediately piquing his interest. He opens the box. Inside is a slice of cake, with white icing and a strawberry on top.
For a few moments, Tsukishima doesn’t say anything. He can’t; his mouth has suddenly gone very dry. He has to clear his throat before he attempts to speak.
“Is this—”
“Strawberry shortcake? Yep! I asked Yamaguchi what you liked and he said this was your favourite. Happy Birthday! Or, er, belated birthday,” Hinata says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
Tsukishima falls silent again. He stares at the cake in front of him, the pieces from yesterday suddenly clicking together. Was this why Hinata had been staring at him? Thinking about something as inconsequential as giving him a gift?
Some kind of undecipherable feeling is tightening in his chest. He suddenly feels… shy.
“You…” he starts, and has to clear his throat again. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“It’s okay! I wanted to,” Hinata beams at him. “I like doing something for people’s birthdays. I wasn’t sure what to get you, so I hope this is okay. I have to say, I didn’t expect you to like sweets, Tsukishima! Oh,” he adds, as if just remembering something. He produces a little plastic fork and paper towel that he managed to keep concealed behind his back this whole time, and balances them on the open lid of the box.
There’s another small silence as neither of them quite know what to say. In the end, it’s Hinata who breaks it.
“Um! Well, anyway, I hope you like it. Later, Tsukishima!”
He turns on his heel and practically flees.
Tsukishima watches him go, then turns to look back down at the cake in front of him. The strawberry is glistening at him temptingly. Tsukishima’s insides twist, though he’s not sure if it’s from hunger or from something else.
He’s still staring when Yamaguchi comes back from the bathroom. He must be giving off some kind of aura, because Yamaguchi suddenly slows to a cautious step when he approaches.
“Tsukki?”
Tsukishima gestures vaguely at the cake in front of him, still unable to articulate. “Hinata…” he starts.
“Ah,” Yamaguchi nods in understanding, and pulls up a seat. “He seemed really eager to get you something, I was surprised. Though I guess I shouldn’t have been, you guys definitely seem to get on a lot better these days.”
“We… we do?” Tsukishima asks faintly.
“Yeah, don’t you think?” Yamaguchi says, as he takes a prepared bento out of his bag and starts to unwrap it. “Especially since the training camp in Shinzen, when you both learned from those guys at Nekoma and Fukurodani. Plus, Hinata’s always talking about how he wishes he had what you had, like game sense and strategy, y’know? I think he really admires you.”
Yamaguchi is too busy digging into his first bite of lunch to notice Tsukishima’s face. Good thing, too – he can feel his mouth twisting of its own accord, almost certainly giving him away.
He desperately tries to school his features into something neutral, but he can feel heat creeping up the back of his neck to the tips of his ears.
“Is that so,” he says slowly, attempting to sound nonchalant. He’s not sure how well he succeeds.
Tsukishima removes the little plastic fork from its wrapper, cuts into a corner of the cake and gingerly places it between his lips. After taking a moment to let it dissolve on his tongue, he hums in approval. It’s pretty good. He’ll have to remember to ask his mother to buy more sweets from that patisserie.
Yamaguchi glances at Tsukishima as he digs into the rest of his cake. To the untrained eye, his expression is carefully blank, but Yamaguchi knows him too well, and he can see tell-tale traces of pink on the high points of his friend’s cheeks. He smiles.
The cake is gone far too quickly.
Tsukishima privately decides he doesn’t mind attention on his birthday.
He retracts that statement four hours later, when he receives a massive A2-sized card from the volleyball team.
It has Happy Birthday! Hope you have a (volley) ball! printed on the front, with ‘volley’ scrawled in felt-tip pen. The card is filled with messages and doodles from all their teammates, as well as from the coaches and managers. Tanaka, Nishinoya and someone else (he suspects Sugawara) leave the worst messages.
Happy birthday, Salty-shima!
Eat your greens, you bespectacled bastard!
We’re counting on you, Tsukishima. Also, let’s hope this year you grow sideways as well as lengthways! (doodle of Tsukishima with rippling muscles bursting out of his uniform)
And when he opens the card, pink glitter and confetti fall out onto the clubroom floor.
Never mind. He hopes everyone forgets his birthday next year.