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“Come on, Yamaguchi. Use your feet.”
“But, Tsukki! It’s hard when you’re holding on to my hands like this!”
“Do you want me to let go?”
“No, please, Tsukki!”
Tsukishima gave a smirk down at the freckled boy in the water. Yamaguchi looked ridiculous. He had two bright orange swim rings around his biceps with tiny blue fish on them and another striped yellow and red ring around his waist. Karasuno had taken a team vacation to the beach for spring break and as much as Tsukishima didn’t like hanging around Hinata and Kageyama, he did enjoy seeing Yamaguchi looking so stupid. The freckles sprawled across Yamaguchi’s face were scrunched up and pulled toward his nose as he kicked his feet behind him in the water.
Yamaguchi couldn’t swim. He’d never been to the ocean nor had he gone to any pools when he was younger. Tsukishima couldn’t say he had been in a large body of water many times himself, but his older brother had taken him to the pool for swimming lessons before he had met Yamaguchi.
At any rate, having Yamaguchi put all his trust into Tsukishima was… cute. His dark coal eyes were frantic, looking from the water beneath him to both sets of intertwined fingers that connected him to Tsukishima to Tsukishima’s amused face. Every time their eyes met, Tsukishima had to refrain from saying something embarrassing, and there was so much he had the urge to say.
‘You’re so cute, Yamaguchi.’
‘You don’t have to hold my hands so tightly, Yamaguchi.’
‘Hey, Yamaguchi. Kiss me, will you?’
His mind was plagued with ridiculous thoughts and even though the two had been dating (albeit in top secret) for the past few months, the middle blocker could never bring himself to speak any of them. Would Yamaguchi enjoy the dumb things he thought about? Maybe. Did Yamaguchi deserve to be showered with affectionate words? Most definitely. Was Tsukishima comfortable enough with himself to be able to say the things he thought? Absolutely not.
It was sad, depressing, even, and Tsukishima thought about it every day. He had no clue how to express himself in a proper manner and Yamaguchi didn’t deserve to be stuck with someone who didn’t treat him like a the prince that he was. And yet, Tsukishima was too selfish to let him free. He knew the saying, “If you love someone let them go,” all too well, but he was positive he’d never be okay with seeing Yamaguchi being so devoted to anyone but himself. The thought of Yamaguchi being close with another, of giving his heart to someone else, made Tsukishima sick. There were times when Yamaguchi showed signs of such devotion to their tiny team manager Yachi. Tsukishima didn’t like Yachi, but he wasn’t going to upset anyone by being rude to her. Moreover, he didn’t want Yamaguchi getting upset with him for being rude to Yachi.
Tsukishima hated when he upset Yamaguchi, and yet it was as if he couldn’t help it. His spite and laziness dominated his common sense. Tsukishima wanted to be nicer, but he didn’t know how.
“T-Tsukki!”
The blond looked down to see Yamaguchi flailing to reach for Tsukishima’s hands. He must have slipped while Tsukishima had been thinking.
“Hm.” It was the only response Tsukishima gave, but in his mind he was apologizing over and over again for letting down his boyfriend yet again.
“It’s okay, Tsukki!” Yamaguchi said with a smile.
God, he didn’t deserve this angel.
“Yamaguchi, I’m getting hungry. I’m going to get out of the water for a while, okay?”
“Okay,” Yamaguchi nodded, standing in the water and removing the rings from his arms.
Of course he would follow. Yamaguchi always followed.
“Yamaguchi! Hey, Yamaguchi!”
Hinata’s voice was as loud as it was annoying and Tsukishima had to refrain from rolling his eyes.
“Stop yelling in my ear, dumbass Hinata!”
And, of course, the king was on the same level as the shrimp.
“You can stay and chat if you want, Yamaguchi. I’m just going to get a snack and I’ll be back,” Tsukishima said, glancing over his shoulder to give an expressionless look to his boyfriend.
Yamaguchi paused, looking between the middle blocker and the other two first years, and then gave Tsukishima a bright smile that made the giant blond’s heart ache.
“Okay. I’ll wait for you here, Tsukki!”
It was a simple process. Tsukishima went to the bathroom and had a snack in the beach house while he listened to his music. But as soon as he emerged from the small building, he felt wrong. He flared his nostrils and furrowed his brows as he looked around the beach. Sugawara and Daichi were sitting together under an umbrella. Kiyoko was close by, watching Yachi build a sandcastle between reading pages of her book. Asahi was sitting in the water while Nishinoya, Tanaka, Ennoshita, Narita and Hisashi played a mock water volleyball game. Hinata and Kageyama were yelling at each other a ways out and Yamaguchi was nowhere to be found. Even Takeda and Ukai had been chatting inside the beach house.
Where was Yamaguchi?
Tsukishima’s heart rate jumped to an unhealthy rate in a second. His eyes flitted around the beach’s scenery, praying that Yamaguchi was sitting somewhere out of his sight. He walked up and down the beach until he dropped his music player in the sand and glared at the other two first years bickering in the water.
“Hey!” Tsukishima shouted, for the first time since his childhood.
He was about to follow it up with a demand for Yamaguchi’s location, since everyone had their eyes on him with a similar surprised expression, but a small dot in the water distracted him. With a curse under his breath, Tsukishima darted into the ocean and once he was deep enough, jumped in and started swimming with all his strength. He’d lost his glasses on the initial dive into the water, but that didn’t matter to him. He’d seen Yamaguchi, but it had only been his head and an arm. Yamaguchi was drowning and no one but Tsukishima had noticed. He would have been livid with rage if he wasn’t terrified.
It hadn’t been a figment of his imagination, either. Tsukishima swam until he reached the spot he’d seen Yamaguchi’s head and, sure enough, Yamaguchi was there, struggling to stay above the water and choking on the salt water with each gasping breath he took when his head was high enough.
“Yamaguchi!” Tsukishima yelled, grabbing his boyfriend by the waist.
It was awkward to swim while holding up another person, and Tsukishima had a moment where he was beside himself with wonder at lifeguards, but he managed to pull them both back into shallower waters until he could stand and carry Yamaguchi in his arms. He glared at Hinata and Kageyama, who had both followed after Tsukishima when he had dove into the water with such uncharacteristic enthusiasm. Hinata was shouting and his eyes were wide with worry and Kageyama was looking shocked, but Tsukishima had cancelled everything else out. The older Karasuno members tried to approach as well, but Tsukishima gave all of them a harsh bark of an order to stay back so Yamaguchi could have some air.
Once they were on land, Tsukishima laid Yamaguchi down in the sand and put his ear to his boyfriend’s chest. It was faint, but there was a pulse beating beneath Yamaguchi’s cold skin. Tsukishima’s mouth was dry and his hands felt stiff as he went through all the safety training he’d been through as a child, but there was no time to hesitate. He put his hands on Yamaguchi’s chest and pressed down three times before pinching Yamaguchi’s nose shut and blowing air into his mouth. He did this three times and each time the level of composure he had over himself was lowered.
“Tadashi,” Tsukishima said, his voice breaking at the last syllable. “Tadashi, you idiot!”
Three more compressions and another gust of air breathed into Yamaguchi’s mouth and Tsukishima could feel himself breaking down.
“Tadashi!”
“Tsukishima—”
“Shut the hell up.” Tsukishima growled under his breath at Kageyama, his eyes never leaving Yamaguchi’s form.
Three more chest compressions. Another breath given to Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi stirred beneath him and Tsukishima thought he would cry. The blessed freckles over Yamaguchi’s face twitched once before he was turning over onto his side and spitting out water and gasping, eyes wide as they tried to focus.
“Tadashi,” Tsukishima whispered, his heart feeling as if it was going to burst out of his chest. “Tadashi…”
Yamaguchi blinked up at Tsukishima, blushing despite almost drowning.
“Kei?” He asked, reaching up to place his hand against the side of Tsukishima’s face. “Where are your glasses?”
Tsukishima gave a bitter laugh and shook his head, not giving a single shit about his dumb glasses. His precious angel was safe.
“Shut up, Tadashi,” he said, though his voice was soft and affectionate as he held his boyfriend’s hand against his cheek.