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It was a Friday, and afternoon practice had ended half an hour ago. The gym was cleaned up and Daichi had given Tanaka the keys to lock up after the stragglers before heading out, followed by the rest of the third years and most of the others.
What they didn't know was that today was the date of a crucial plan. The sanity of the team hinged on its success.
The entire team was sick and tired of seeing one fiery redhead and one tall blonde desperately try to out-pine each other; it was ridiculous. So: a plan was formed between Tanaka, Noya, and Yamaguchi. They had to get them together.
Tanaka and Noya, being geniuses (read: idiots), came up with the idea to trap Hinata and Tsukishima in the supply closet together after practice. And so far, the plan was working perfectly.
Everyone had dressed and were heading out, finally, when Yamaguchi went to the supply closet and called out for help with some equipment that hadn't been properly put away. Tsukishima and Hinata, being the juniors, went over to help.
"Yamaguchi, are you sure it can't just be taken care of tomorrow morning? I want to go home," Tsukishima mumbled to his friend. Yamaguchi shook his head with a gomen, Tsukki. Hinata tumbled into the room seconds later and joined the two in putting away the minor pieces of equipment that had been left out.
They were almost done when suddenly, Yamaguchi ran out of the supply closet and slammed the door shut. The two first years inside heard the loud "snikt" of the door being locked from the outside. Immediately, Hinata bangs on the door, "Huh? What the hell Yamaguchi! Let us out of here!"
From outside the door they heard their teammates laugh, "Tsukishima-kun, Hinata-kun, you're officially in timeout!" Tanaka snickered, then in a high pitched voice, "Talk about your feelings~" Before all three of them audibly walked away, Nishinoya shouting about being back in an hour.
An hour!?
The thought rings through Tsukishima's head as he backed up into the corner of the supply room, heavily sitting down and immediately wringing his hands and shaking his head, trying to stave off the inevitable. He looked around the room frantically, mind racing, was it always so small in here? Why is the air so hard to breathe!?
Hinata shouts a bit more as their teammates walk away, but then gives up, having heard Noya just as well as Tsukki did. He finally turns around and sees Tsukishima, quietly sobbing, hyperventilating, and frantically stimming behind him in the corner. He gasped and dropped to his knees in front of Tsukki,
"Tsukishima!"
Tsukki's head shot up towards him but quickly turned away, not wanting to show vulnerability to his teammate. As Hinata reached out a hand towards him, an anguished sound ripped itself out of his throat as he bounced his leg and twisted his hand around. He hung his head with an angrier sound, a purposeful one this time, shoving himself repeatedly away from Hinata as much as he could into the wall behind him, feet shoving uselessly against the ground.
Hinata froze and snatched his hand back, oh shit oh shit oh shit-
Quickly he took a deap breath and scooted far back as Tsukki continued to try and twist away from him.
"Fuck, sorry Tsukishima. Sorry." He wrung his hands for a second, "I'm not really sure what's happening but if I can do something just say it and I'll do it."
Internally, Tsukishima scoffed. Say it? What a joke. At this rate he wouldn't be able to speak properly for at least the rest of the day, if not the whole weekend.
Phone, phone, I need my phone, his mind tumbled over itself in his thoughts. Shakily, he shoved out a hand, mimicking the symbol for 'phone'. C'mon Hinata, my phone!
Hinata jumped when he saw Kei shove his hand out from his body in the shape of a reciever. "Uh, your phone? Yeah, your phone!" He whipped around towards the door, and thank god, his and Tsukishima's bags were just by the door. He shot over to it and fumbled for his phone before sliding it to Kei, being careful not to touch him.
Kei scrabbled his fingers trying to grip it and get it off the ground, finally closing his fingers around it. Embarrassingly enough, he hiccuped into a sob, clenching his hand around his phone. His other hand curled into a fist and slammed the soft part of his palm onto the concrete floor. Get control of yourself, dammit. The thought made the tears go harder. Just another way the Shrimp will always be ahead of me. So disgustingly normal, how fortunate.
Tsukki quickly unlocked his phone and played white noise. It was pulsing at the frequency of a cat purr, Cats purr at frequencies from 25 to 100 Hz, lower frequencies promote bone growth and healing. People with cats have a 40% lower chance of having a heart attack. Facts and statistics about cats flew through his head, along with about a billion other half-baked thoughts of random things to try and calm himself down.
Trying to ignore his teammate for the time being, Kei laid down on the ground and shoved the phone onto the center of his chest at full volume, before tearing off his glasses, squeezing his eyes shut, and clamping his hands around his ears and some of his face. After a beat, Tsukishima felt a whoosh of air beside his head and he snapped his eyes open. Hinata had dug his headphones out of his bag and placed them next to him. They locked eyes for a second before Kei grimaced and quickly snatched the headphones up and put them on, quickly getting them connected to his phone.
The low frequency now played in his ears, the odd, fuzzy beat immediately making his shoulders loosen as he heaved a huge breath and sighed into an exhale, breath hitching a few times. He squeezed his eyes back shut, and slowly but surely his stimming slowed down to an actually helpful rate as the debilitating wave of feelings finally started to pass.
Eventually, with a sigh, he sat back up and paused the white noise and shoved his glasses back on. He looked towards Hinata, but kept his gaze firmly locked on Shouyou's shirt, far enough down that Tsukki couldn't see the other's eyes in his peripheral. Hinata was sat on his knees with his arms crossed tightly, bodily facing Tsukishima. From what Kei could see, Shouyou's mouth was clenched into a grimace. Tsukki couldn't decide if it meant disgust or worry. He also couldn't decide which was worse.
He sighed heavily once again before opening his mouth to speak. Immediately, his mind screamed at him, and nothing came out of his mouth before he quickly snapped it shut, teeth clacking uncomfortably in his mouth. Kei retrieved his phone and sent a one-word text to Hinata:
thanks
Shouyou's phone, which he had been unsuccessfully trying to call his teammates with, buzzed from his hand and he looked down to see Tsukishima's name scroll across the screen. He cleared his throat, "Sure thing, Tsukishima-kun."
Kei grimaced, his episode must have looked really awful for Shouyou to pull out the "-kun." Kei could count the number of times Hinata'd used honorifics towards him on one hand, and they'd all happened in front of some important adult or another.
Shouyou huffed out a small laugh upon seeing Kei's response to his timid politeness. His phone buzzed again, another message from Tsukishima:
It's Kei, shrimp.
Hinata's breath hitched, "Okay... Kei. You can call me Shouyou."
Kei nodded in response. He could tell he was going to be non-verbal for a while longer, but he was mostly calmed down.
Shouyou could see Kei visibly hesitate with a displeased look on his face, thumb twitching over the 'send' button. Shouyou wasn't in any mood to rush him, so they sat in silence for a few moments.
A buzz sounded from Hinata's phone:
sorry
Hinata snapped his gaze up to Tsukki, who resolutely avoided eye contact. Hinata didn't try to force him to meet his eyes.
"I... have the feeling that I should be the one apologizing. I kind of got us into all this in the first place," he said, with a self-conscious grimace that Tsukishima couldn't help but think was entirely unsuited to his face.
As Tsukishima's thoughts caught up with him, how could Shouyou have caused this?
He gave Hinata a quizzical glance, which the shorter definitely caught as he sighed, curling in on himself more than a little. "I- Ya- Somehow, Yamaguchi figured out that I, um, mightlikeyou."
Tsukki tensed imperceptibly but Hinata continued, staring at the ground now, "So he probably thought he was doing me a favor by locking is in here. I don't know why he thought you'd accept or- or that you might- I don't know-"
Hinata's phone buzzed in his hand.
Shouyou, stop, it's ok
Shouyou looked up to see Tsukishima's face pointed away from him and set in a scowl, blush creeping down his neck, and leg bouncing furiously. "Oh."
He shuffled closer to Tsukki, "Can I touch you, Kei?" Tsukishima startled at his given name, but slowly nodded, making an effort to turn his head towards the other boy, even if eye-contact wasn't really on the table for the time being. Shouyou grabbed one of Kei's hands in both of his own. "Kei, I really do like you, a lot."
Kei inhaled sharply and forced himself to make eye-contact, only for a second, and whispered, "Me too."
The words left a horrible taste in his mouth and his skin started to crawl, but it was worth it to see a breathtaking smile take over Hinata's face. Shouyou giggled and, more alarmingly, sniffled. Tsukki's eyes widened in alarm, grabbing at Shouyou's arm and squeezing briefly. Shouyou giggled some more, "No, no, don't worry, I'm just really happy. And stressed out, because this is the worst time to confess to each other, but that's alright in the end." Shouyou huffed out a smaller laugh and squeezed his eyes shut, still processing the afternoon's events. He slumped forward into Tsukishima's shoulder, who immediately brought his hand up to rub at the shorter's back.
Tsukki rested his chin on Hinata's shoulder, pausing his ministrations to type out a quick text to Yamaguchi:
As it turns out, I'm claustrophobic.
He waited until he saw that Yamaguchi saw his text and immediately started typing, then he sent another:
but thanks
The typing bubble disappeared for a moment as Yamaguchi no doubt erased his message, before a message finally appeared:
omw back w/ the keys, im so sorry
you're welcome, tsukki. sorry
Tsukishima huffed a small laugh out his nose, and Hinata pulled back to investigate. Kei showed him the conversation and he smiled.
After a moment, though, he turned to Kei with a serious face once more. "About what happened... I don't want you to think that you have to tell me or anything. If you're uncomfortable with that, that's fine... but, I really would like to know how to help you better. Sitting there watching you cry was horrible."
Tsukishima hugged his arm around Shouyou and squeezed a little before grabbing his phone:
not right now, but later, i'll tell you. i trust you.
Shouyou read the text before letting go of Kei's arm that he had still held hostage. He launched himself into a full blown hug, arms looped around Kei's neck, with the blond's arms tucked nicely around Shouyou's middle.
They sat like that for a while, waiting, until finally a knock sounded on the door and the key slid into the lock. They pulled apart and were waiting by the door by the time an out-of-breath Yamaguchi had finished opening the door.
"Tsukki! Are you ok? I'm so sorry!" Kei grimaced at the guilty tone in his friend's voice. He took out his phone:
you couldn't have known. it's fine, tadashi.
He flashed the screen at his friend who read it quickly. Tadashi wasn't convinced, but he'd let it go, for Kei's sake. Now that they were out of the supply closest, Yamaguchi allowed himself to gently flop onto the ground, breathing hard but laughing slightly.
"Yamaguchi! Are you ok?" Hinata asked as he looked over worriedly. He made no move to leave Kei's side.
Yamaguchi raised a hand and flapped it around, dismissing Hinata's worry.
"Fine, I just sprinted here from were Tanaka-senpai, Noya-senpai and I had stopped." Both Kei and Shouyou nodded, letting him finish catching his breath.
With the lull in drama, Shouyou felt his eyes droop quite heavily, to the point where he stumbled into Kei, grabbing at his arm and resting his head on it. Kei reached his other hand over to gently ruffle his hair before typing one-handed on his phone. Hinata's phone buzzed and he groaned, opening his eyes. Tsukishima flashed the phone screen towards him so he didn't have to let go to find his phone:
come over?
Hinata squeezed Tsukki's arm, "Please?" He asked with a tired smile. Tsukishima nodded, before tugging Shouyou over to Yamaguchi's prone form, nudging the pinch server with his foot. Yamaguchi startled before sitting up and looking at them. Tsukki waved, and Hinata explained, "We're gonna go, especially before the senpais get here." Kei nodded along.
Yamaguchi sighed, "Yeah, ok. Have a safe walk. Sorry again, Tsukki," he looked at the blonde with that guilty expression once again. Kei huffed, rolling his eyes. Silently, he met Yamaguchi's eyes for a moment and flipped him off with a deadpan expression still on his face.
At Tadashi's indignant squawk, Kei smirked. He waved again, with more finality this time. "Fine! Just abandon me!" He yelled out as the two started to walk away. Tsukki paused, deciding to speak up despite the mental consequences, trying to get the worried expressions off Tadashi and Shouyou's faces. He turned slightly, "Thank you, we will." Hinata snorted beside him and Kei smiled,
worth it.