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When Ushijima made perfect jumps into brutal spikes, there were two things Tendou knew for certain.
Wakatoshi Ushijima was an enigma, and Tendou was hopelessly in love with his self-proclaimed best friend.
If Tendou had to pinpoint the exact moment he knew he loved Ushijima, he’d choose the incident in the locker room.
1.
That fateful day practice had finished with an outstanding spike from Ushijima. Shirabu had set backwards to Ushijima who had risen to the task, slamming the ball down so hard it ricocheted into the bleachers on the other side of the gym.
Tendou had stood there replaying Ushijima’s form in his head for at least a minute before Semi had slapped him on the back and asked if he was alright.
Tendou had stuttered out excuses to a questioning Semi before stumbling away to the locker room.
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
Tendou’s foot slipped, on a leftover puddle from someone’s shower.
He had plummeted backwards, a small cry escaping his lips.
Panic had surfaced in him, causing him to attempt to brace for an impact that never came.
Instead, hands gripped under Tendou’s armpits and brown eyes gazed down at him.
They really were beautiful eyes, and Tendou really was weak.
Before, he could get too lost in them, Ushijima was helping him up.
“Are you okay,” Ushijima had deadpanned to him.
Tendou hadn’t been able to answer directly; he was embarrassed.
“Trust fall!”
The words were the first thing that came to Tendou’s muddled head.
Tendou distinctly remembered the way Ushijima’s head had turned slightly to the side in curiosity, like a puppy dog.
Tendou’s heart could have burst.
Fuck, he was in love.
2.
“I doubt that Ushijima could be that fast off the court. He has to rest some time,” Semi argued to Goshiki.
“That man is not human, I doubt he has to do anything,” Kawanishi commented, he was half-heartedly paying attention to the conversation.
Tendou had to agree with Kawanishi.
He was lounging on the wall near them, not having started his usual teasing. He always waited for a good moment.
The four volleyball players were waiting for afternoon practice to get started. They had arrived early, having classes semi-close to the gym.
“Nonsense! Everyone has to rest,” Semi kept insisting, luckily the man they were discussing rounded the corner right then.
Tendou made up his mind in a split second.
He flew past Semi, Kawanishi, and Goshiki. He sprinted at top speed toward Ushijima who hadn’t noticed him.
“WAKATOSHI-KUN!” The person in question whirled toward the noise, just in time to see Tendou spin around, allowing himself to fall backwards.
Sure enough, hands grabbed him, bracing him safely.
“Satori.”
Tendou blinked up in happiness, and he allowed himself to be straightened out.
“See we’re the best of friends,” Tendou exclaimed before practically skipping back towards the group who was staring at him with baffled expressions.
“His reflexes are still good off the court.”
It was confirmed.
3.
After a particularly brutal match with Aoba Johsai, Ushijima had crawled off as he always did to find Oikawa and pout.
Tendou had to agree that Oikawa was an outstanding setter, but that didn’t mean that he was following him around.
Oikawa got under Tendou’s skin. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that Ushijima was in love with the setter.
Tendou knew that in all likelihood Ushijima followed him around for the exact reason he said he did; Oikawa would have made Shiratorizawa stronger.
However, that didn’t stop Tendou from following Ushijima to drag him away from the pretty brunet.
As Tendou approached, he heard the normal conversation.
“Oh, really,” Tendou heard Oikawa scoff. He looked incredibly displeased with the conversation, and Aoba Johsai’s ace, Iwaizumi, looked like he was about to deck Ushijima in the face.
Tendou had heard Oikawa and Iwaizumi arguing with each other several times, but it seemed that their dislike for Ushijima was the one thing that could unite them.
Tendou knew he needed to defuse the situation and perhaps even mark his territory. Not that Ushijima was his, but if he could let Oikawa and Iwaizumi know that Ushijima had friends, maybe they’d be even more discouraged, and Tendou reveled in that idea.
Tendou broke into a sprint straight at Ushijima.
“WAKATOSHI-KUN!” Ushijima spun, this time he was ready for it.
Tendou threw himself into a trust fall, full force.
Ushijima caught him easily, securing Tendou in his arms.
Tendou laughed, beaming up at the stoic man.
“Satori,” Ushijima commented, with a slight incline of his head.
Pleasure ran through Tendou at Ushijima using his first name, especially, since it was done right in front of Tendou’s biggest competition.
Ushijima pulled Tendou up to his feet, happening to place the lanky boy slightly in between him and their competitors.
Tendou turned to Oikawa and Iwaizumi.
He surveyed them. Oikawa stared at him with a dumbfounded expression on his face, and Iwaizumi looked equally bewildered at the redhead’s appearance.
Tendou turned innocently to Ushijima and flashed him a big smile.
“I see you're making friends, Toshi… but the bus won’t wait for us forever.”
Ushijima nodded in understanding before turning to their competitors.
“Oikawa… Iwaizumi,” Ushijima said in a form of goodbye before walking off, leaving Tendou to trail him.
Once Ushijima was around the corner, Tendou glanced once more over the pair.
As much as he despised the thought of Oikawa liking Ushijima, he felt bad that his friend was misunderstood.
“He doesn’t realize what he’s saying. He just means that you're a good setter, and he’d like to play with you.”
Oikawa stared at Tendou in surprise, his mouth fell open slightly.
“He thinks that your team is good. He knows that you’re our biggest rival.”
Tendou took a moment to let those words sink in, watching their expressions morph before Tendou found himself admitting, “He’s complimented some of Iwaizumi’s hits before… but he can’t play on a team with another ace.”
The ace in question looked startled, but Tendou merely smiled at them before striding off, waving backwards at them.
“It doesn’t matter what Toshi thinks. We’ll still crush you at finals.”
4.
Some days were harder than others.
Some days everyone was kind.
Other days people pointed and laughed at Tendou.
Today was one of those other days where nothing Tendou could do was right. Nobody was laughing with him, they were laughing at him.
Tendou felt cold.
Tendou wanted nothing more than to skip practice, curl into a ball on his bed, and cry his eyes out in the privacy of his room.
Okay, maybe, Tendou wanted a little bit more. A hug would do wonders right now.
A place of security where he was certain that he wasn’t too disgusting to be touched, but none of his friends were overly touchy.
Semi could be persuaded to hug someone, but the situation had to be admittedly dire, and Tendou didn’t want to admit anything.
Goshiki would happily give him a hug, but he’d tense up in shyness and avoid Tendou the rest of the week out of embarrassment.
Ushijima was a completely different story. He was certain that the ace would give him a hug if he asked, but Tendou wouldn’t dare.
A thought occurred to him, perhaps, he didn’t have to.
Ushijima was easy to find. He was exactly where anyone would expect to find him, in the gym, getting ready for practice.
The moment Tendou saw him, he launched himself towards Ushijima who, seeing him coming, dropped the volleyball he was currently holding in favor of catching the overzealous redhead.
Tendou once more spun around and fell into a trust fall, allowing Ushijima to wrap him up in his arms.
“Toshi,” Tendou whispered breathlessly, staring up at intense brown eyes.
“Satori.”
Tendou allowed Ushijima to pull him back to his feet.
“Thanks for catching me,” Tendou said, giving Ushijima a smile much gentler than his normal manic one.
Ushijima studied his face.
Tendou flushed under his gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
Tendou felt like his world exploded. He never expected Ushijima to pick up on what someone else was feeling.
That took a lot of skill or deep knowledge of the person, and Tendou knew that Ushijima didn’t have any skill in reading people, so that meant he knew Tendou well enough to notice.
That thought alone drew Tendou to a heavy blush.
“Just tired,” Tendou automatically responded. He was used to this lie.
Ushijima merely stared at him harder, and Tendou got the feeling that Ushijima didn’t believe him, but before Tendou could defend himself more, Ushijima turned away, leaving Tendou to sort out his emotions.
All of the coldness from earlier was drained from Tendou leaving him a warm mess.
Ushijima knew him.
Wakatoshi knew him.
5.
Ushijima was prepared now.
The moment he saw Tendou, he’d open his arms as an invitation. It didn’t matter where they were.
In the gym, in the hall, in class, Tendou would sprint at Ushijima expecting the stronger boy to catch him and without fail Ushijima would.
Tendou had conditioned him to expect the daily trust falls.
Their teammates had commented to Tendou how odd it was that they did it, but neither he nor Ushijima had bothered to stop.
Tendou would condition them to stop being startled when he did it to Ushijima before he’d stop throwing himself haphazardly at the ace.
Finally, however, there was a moment that Tendou knew something odd had happened between the two of them.
Tendou had sprinted into the gym, running at full speed to locate the giant ace.
He had spotted him talking with Semi and launched himself at full speed towards them.
Tendou opened his mouth to yell a warning at his arrival, but before he could Ushijima whirled around, arms open, prepared to catch him.
Tendou was so surprised he almost forgot to hit the breaks and whirl around, so it was truly a trust fall.
He remembered but at the last second. The position Ushijima and he ended up in was different from previous ones.
Instead of Tendou ending up almost parallel to the ground with Ushijima’s hands holding up.
Tendou ended up pressed against Ushijima’s front with his head cushioned on his shoulder.
“Oops, overshot,” Tendou mumbled, turning completely red.
Ushijima gently helped Tendou get to his feet, but before he could say anything Tendou took off, abandoning practice.
+1
Tendou avoided Ushijima all night. He holed himself up in his dorm and prayed that Ushijima wouldn’t come by.
7pm found a knock on his door.
Tendou panicked before flinging the door open to find Semi.
“SemiSemi,” Tendou started before being cut off.
“Don’t call me that.”
Tendou blinked sheepishly at Semi before letting him in.
“You love him.” It wasn’t a question.
“Semi-kun, please. Don’t say it that casually,” Tendou whined.
Semi raised an eyebrow at Tendou’s antics before shrugging and saying, “You’ve been causally throwing yourself at him the past few weeks.”
“I know,” Tendou continued to whine.
“So what are you going to do about it?”
Tendou thought before an idea finally came to his head.
“Alright, I recognize that look. Good luck,” Semi said before extracting himself from the redhead’s dorm.
The next day found Tendou tracking Ushijima down.
He finally located him out by the gym. Tendou glanced around, checking that they were alone, before he took off running at him.
Ushijima turned and stretched his arms out to catch Tendou, but the redhead didn’t turn or slow down.
Instead, he jumped, winding his legs around Ushijima’s hips and holding himself up.
Ushijima stumbled a little bit with a slight grunt, but he kept the two of them up.
Surprise took over Ushijima’s face, before his arms came to rest on Tendou’s back.
“Satori.”
“Toshi.”
Tendou leaned in slightly, giving Ushijima plenty of time to lean back or drop him, but instead the taller leaned in.
Their lips brushed, timid and barely there.
Tendou’s hands drifted up to encompass the sides of Ushijima’s face.
Steadily, they became more confident.
Their lips met with more vigor and strength.
Ushijima’s hands dug into a tender spot on Tendou’s waist which had the lithe boy moaning in appreciation.
Eventually, they pulled back both flushed a beautiful pink.
Tendou rested his forehead against Ushijima’s.
“Toshi,” Tendou panted.
“Satori.”
“I love you.”
Ushijima claimed Tendou’s lips again. They kissed lazily for a while before finally, they parted once more.
“I enjoy holding you. We should do this more often.”
Tendou laughed.
“Whatever you say, Toshi.”