Work Text:
“It's probably almost over now...” I sighed to myself. Today had been I day that I'd been looking forward to for a long time and guess where I'm stuck instead? A hospital. Just my luck, huh? It's not like it was something I did or even a sickness that got out of hand... it was just something that happened because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“You're alone? Where's your girlfriend?” the nurse asked nicely. She was a kind lady and we'd gotten to know each other pretty well during the few days I'd been here. But in all that time, this was the only time I didn't have anyone else by my side when she'd come to check on me.
I looked down at my hands which were clenched tightly into fists. This wasn't where I was supposed to be. “She's not really my girlfriend,” I admitted. “She's just a friend, but I really like her. I was going to ask her to go with me today, but I can't leave here until tomorrow.”
The nurse gave a sad smile. “You were really looking forward to the festival today, weren't you?” I nodded. The winter festival was always one of my favorites and now I had to miss it. “I'll bet you were planning to tell her how you felt about her.” Once more I nodded. “I'm surprised she actually left you by yourself.”
I didn't know it, but when I'd first been brought in, the girl I'd had a crush on for a while had stuck by my side at all times. During that time I'd been unconscious, but I heard all about it from Tsukki later on. Apparently, she'd been too worried to leave me and even Tsukki had been pretty worried too.
“She went to the festival with Tsukki.” I'd wanted them to stay here with me, but I didn't have the heart to ask them to when she looked so eager to go. Tsukki never had any interest in that kind of thing, but because she went, he went too, claiming that she shouldn't be by herself. “I think I’ll just get some sleep...”
I don't know how much time had passed between the time I fell asleep and the time I woke up. But as I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Tsukki sitting by my bed with a video camera in his hands.
“About time,” he said in that annoyed-sounding tone he always used. Even if he sounded uncaring, I knew that he did care. Tsukki handed the camera to me and briefly explained how to how work it. I didn't think they'd actually do it when they told me they would record the festival so that I could still see it even though I had to miss it. “Make sure you see it through to the end.”
Tsukki didn't explain why and stood up to leave. He couldn't see, but as I opened my mouth to ask, he was already answering my question. “She's with the rest of the volleyball club,” he said, glancing back at me. “She'll come back to you soon, but make sure you watch that first.”
As he left the room, I looked down at the camera in my hands. Guess I better do as he said.
“Hey Yamaguchi,” her familiar voice said sweetly as soon as I pressed the play button. All I could see was Tsukki though, so I assumed she was the one holding the camera. “You say hi too, Tsukki.”
“Why? It's pointless.”
Just like Tsukki... A small smile made its way onto my face as I watched the two argue about it a moment before her face came into view on the little screen. “Well, Tsukki's being a jerk like usual,” she said playfully. She always had such a cute smile. “We're sorry you can't be here right now. We really tried to get you out of there and if your family wasn't away, you could have been here with us.”
She went through a lot of trouble for me, all because she chose to. “So since you can't come see it yourself, me and Tsukki are going to do everything and go every place that you wanted to go and we're going to record it for you. Then you can watch and it'll be like you were here with us!”
The rest of it went on and they really did everything. Sometimes they'd do something funny and I wouldn't be able to keep from laughing. They came across the other members of the volleyball club and for a while, the video consisted of each of them wishing me well and other cheerful sentiments. Even from Shimizu and Yachi, which made me feel so loved I thought I was tearing up a little.
Sometime around then, my adorable crush passed the camera off to Tsukki, who shortly after passed it off to Daichi when he had to go rescue her from some guys. At that moment I was glad that he'd gone with her. But after that, watching the rest seemed to only make me feel sad.
Seeing the two of them together, I began to notice how good they looked together. Just like a couple. And Tsukki, I noticed, looked like he was really enjoying himself. I guess I’d always known that she'd like him more than me. It was too much for me right now. But just as I was about to stop the video, Tsukki's voice popped into my head.
Make sure you see it through to the end. He'd known I'd want to stop when it was this far. Did he know how I felt about her? Maybe it didn't matter. Regardless though, I had to see this to the end.
The rest passed about the same until I saw something I wished I hadn't. Since Daichi was still holding the camera, he moved it around and stopped it where Tsukki stood. When I saw him lean over and kiss the girl I loved, I could hear my own heart breaking.
Daichi quickly turned the camera away, saying something about how I wouldn't want to see that and that they should cut that part of the video out. Had that been what Tsukki had wanted me to see? No, that couldn't be... I was sure he knew how I felt about her, so he'd never do something so cruel...
While I was arguing with myself about why Tsukki would want me to see this, I didn't notice him taking back the camera and going off alone until I heard his voice speaking directly to me. “Yamaguchi, I know you saw what happened,” his voice said as he had the camera turned to show his face. “I know about your feelings for her. Actually, I feel the same way about her that you do. If we were face-to-face right now, I'd never be able to admit that.”
“When I told you about how she stayed with you all that time, I didn't tell you everything.” It wasn't like Tsukki to be so open about his feelings, so I knew this had to have been hard for him. “She called me that evening when they first brought you in. The first few times she tried, I didn't answer. I figured she was just going to ask about homework or something stupid and then when I did finally answer, she was pretty upset with me. But more than anything, she was really scared for you. You worried her so much that I thought she was going to break down and cry.”
Tsukki talked a bit more about what happened. Then after a while, it started to look like it was getting to the end. “And there's one more thing I wanted to tell you about...”
(Reader's POV)
“You know, when she first started talking to you, I thought she was only doing it to get closer to me,” I heard Tsukishima's voice saying. But when I looked over to where Yamaguchi was laying in the bed, all I saw was him holding the video camera. Did Tsukishima record something after I'd run away from him earlier?
“After a while though, I could tell that she really cared for you.” Of course, I cared for Yamaguchi. The reason I'd started talking to him was because I'd had feelings for that freckled dork. It wasn't until later that I'd started to care for Tsukishima too. “But lately it seems like she's gotten closer to me.”
Yamaguchi didn't look like he realized I was there; he was too busy listening to what Tsukishima was saying to him through the camera. So instead of saying anything, I just quietly listened, waiting for the end.
“You probably could see it, but she ran away from me earlier. Right now she's probably really confused, so don't put any pressure on her. But,” Tsukishima stopped talking for a moment. “Whatever happens now is up to her. If she chooses you over me, then I'll respect that and I won't try to take her from you. Knowing you, you're probably thinking the same thing.”
A small smile appeared on Yamaguchi's face. I was glad to see him smiling again. Since he'd been in this hospital, he really hadn't smiled as much as he did when the three of us were together in school.
While I was staring at him, I didn't notice when the video ended. His eyes shifted upwards to land on me. The little smile on his face grew. “You're back.”
Even though I wanted to speak, no words came. All I could do was smile at him. Under my arm was a stuffed snowman that I'd gotten early on in the day and in each hand was a cup of hot cocoa that I'd brought for us.
As I handed one of the cups to him, I sat down next to him. “I'm sorry I had to leave you alone so long.”
Yamaguchi shook his head. “There's no reason you should stay here when there's something special like that going on.”
“But you were lonely, weren't you?” I asked, but I already knew the answer. Of course, he'd been lonely. No one else really visited him besides me and the members of the volleyball club. His parents were away on a trip and didn't know anything about what had happened. The only other family he had didn't live nearby either. That was why he wasn't allowed to leave yet: with him not an adult yet and having no one at home right now, they weren't going to let him out of the hospital unless a family member of his showed up, which wasn't possible until tomorrow.
It was silent a while before either of us spoke again. “Tsukki really likes you,” he said quietly, looking down. “And you seem like you like him too.”
“Yeah, I do like him a lot,” I admitted. Even though it would have been easier to lie and say I didn't feel that way, I couldn't do it.
“Then why did you reject him?”
“Because I knew it would hurt you.” I'd known about Yamaguchi's feelings for a while now, but I had never told him of my own. “Tsukki isn't the only one I have feelings for.”
The freckled boy's eyes snapped up to meet my own. He realized now that I knew how he felt and that I'd chosen to reject his best friend rather than break his heart. What I hadn't known though, were Tsukishima's feelings. Those had certainly come from nowhere.
“I love both of you very much,” I said, gently wrapping my arms around him in a hug. I had to be careful not to hurt his still injured body. “I'd rather die a lonely virgin cat lady than hurt either of you.” In the end, I'd rather stay stuck in the friend zone for the rest of my life than be forced to choose one over the other. The one thing I could never do was hurt the two men I loved most.
Bonus:
“You know, if you don't want to choose between us, there might be a way around that...”