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Painting nails was really hard. That was the one thing Yamaguchi could take from this experience. He attempted to move the brush over his thumbnail in a nice even stroke, but it just ended up covering only half of his nail and a lot of his skin. He sighed and wiped it off, re-dipping the brush to try again.
He had always wanted to paint his nails so they could look pretty like those of the girls at his school. There was only one problem, every time he ever said anything about it he was immediately shot down. Everyone would tell him it was for girls or call him gay. Though he disagreed with the first point he couldn't really argue with the second, I mean they weren't wrong, but he wasn't sure how liking dick corresponded with wanting to have nice nails.
He was just about to try again to paint his thumb when his door was opened and Tsukishima walked in. "Tsukki!" Yamaguchi yelled, surprised, attempting to hide the nail polish behind his back. "I didn't hear you come in."
Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who invited me over, did you lose track of time?"
The other boy laughed "Yeah, must have."
"So what's behind your back?"
"What?"
"Your back, you're hiding something behind it."
"Oh, it's nothing, it's uh, a surprise! Yeah a surprise." He replied, thinking quickly.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Sure it is." He took Yamaguchi's forearms and pulled his arms and hands in front of him. He studied his nails for a few seconds before looking at Yamaguchi's face. The other wore an embarrassed expression.
"I'm sorry Tsukki, I know this is bad and-"
Tsukishima cut him off. "You're right, it's really bad, I mean this nail looks like you just dumped a whole bottle of polish on it." He said, pointing to his ring finger. He sighed and took the bottle from Yamaguchi's slender fingers.
"Tsukki, what are you doing?" Yamaguchi asked, confused.
"I'm painting them for you." He replied as if it were obvious.
"But isn't that for girls?"
Tsukishima scoffed. "If you believed that then you wouldn't have tried to paint them in the first place."
Yamaguchi stayed silent and let his boyfriend paint his nails.
"Wow, you're really good at this." He said after a little while.
Tsukishima shrugged. "My mom has made me do hers sometime so I have practice."
Once he finished he closed the bottle and put it on the shelf. "How do they look?" He asked the freckled boy who was still sitting on the floor.
Yamaguchi was marveling at his fingernails. "They look so pretty!" He exclaimed. "Thank you Tsukki!"
"No problem." He replied, sitting back in front of his partner. Yamaguchi smiled at him and kissed him lightly. Tsukishima looked down as if the floor had suddenly gotten extremely interesting. Yamaguchi just laughed and pressed his forehead against his. "It really means a lot, Tsukki." He told him.
"Yeah, yeah." Tsukishima mumbled in response.
~The next day~
Yamaguchi walked happily into school, in step with Tsukishima who looked extremely tired, or extremely bored, it was hard to tell. As they walked through the halls a few people noticed Yamaguchi's nails and began to whisper and giggle. Yamaguchi frowned. "Tsukki, are they laughing at me?" He asked the taller boy.
Tsukishima nodded. "Yeah, it's pathetic, just block them out."
Yamaguchi tried his best to do what Tsukishima told him but it was proving to be harder and harder each time someone laughed at him. But the tipping point was at the end of the day, while the boys were walking to volleyball practice an uperclassmen cut them off and looked at Yamaguchi. "Hey, nice nails, fag." He taunted. Yamaguchi looked down, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. Tsukishima took a step towards the boy. "You wanna say that again?" He said, the question sounding more like a threat. The guy shrunk back into himself. "Uh, no man, I'm good,"
"Then I suggest you leave."
"Yeah, I was just about to do that." He replied, quickly walking past them.
"Thank you Tsukki." Yamaguchi piped up.
Tsukishima began to reply but what cut off by a blur of orange suddenly appearing in front of them.
"Tsukishima I saw you talking to that guy! It was so scary! Like Kageyama level scary!" He exclaimed.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Don't compare me to the king."
Suddenly Kageyama appeared from what Tsukishima assumed was hella fucking nowhere.
"What did you just call me?" He demanded.
"Where did he come from?" Yamaguchi whispered to Hinata.
"I have no idea." Hinata whispered back.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Seize fire, I was just using your unofficial title."
"Well let's keep it unofficial." He replied.
"Anyway why were you yelling at that guy?" Hinata asked, changing the subject. "Did he insult Jurassic Park? Oh or maybe the new one.... Oh! Or did he-"
Yamaguchi cut him off. "It doesn't matter." He mumbled in reply.
"Yamaguchi painted his nails and the guy was being a dick about it." Tsukishima told him.
"Tsukki!" Yamaguchi replied, clearly irked.
"You painted your nails?" Hinata asked. "How come?"
"I just thought it would look nice." The freckled boy told him, looking down.
Kageyama interjected "What color?"
Yamaguchi looked up "What?"
"Your nails, what color did you paint them?"
"Uh, orange so they'd match the uniforms, I know it's stupid but I just-"
"Cool, it'll look good with the uniforms." Kageyama commented before Yamaguchi could finish.
Hinata nodded. "Yeah, and if someone makes fun of them again we'll fight them!"
"Or, we could not fight anyone." Yamaguchi suggested.
The door to the volleyball court opened and the upperclassmen stepped out.
"What are you guys doing?" Suga asked. "We're about to warm up."
"We're fighting people!" Hinata announced.
"What? Who are you fighting? Why are you fighting?" Asahi asked worriedly.
"Because people are making fun of Yamaguchi's nails." Tsukishima replied.
"What's wrong with them?" Nishinoya asked. "I mean sure they're a bit chipped but that's not a reason to insult them."
"It's because they're painted." Kageyama filled him in.
"Well maybe instead of fighting people we should find a more peaceful solution." Sugawara proposed.
"We could always paint our nails too." Ennoshita spoke up.
"Yeah! I want a crow on mine!" Hinata said excitedly.
"Orange isn't really my color though..." Asahi said.
"Well it's definitely mine." Nishinoya countered with a grin.
"Wait Yamaguchi who even did your nails?" Daichi spoke up.
"Oh, Tsukki did." He replied.
All eyes turned to Tsukishima who was looking away, clearly not enjoying all the attention.
"Tsukishima as your senpai I demand you do mine!" Nishinoya yelled.
"Then do my crow!" Hinata followed.
"And maybe make mine black instead of orange." Asahi added.
Tsukishima sighed. "Fine..."
The next day the Karasuno team walked down the hall with nails that even the girls in the school were envious of. Hinata had gotten his crow, and Asahi had gotten his black nails, but he did let Tsukishima add a bit of orange to his ring finger. Yamaguchi led the pack, practically glowing. To think that the entire team did this for him. People gave them questioning looks but no one dared to approach them except for one pair of upperclassmen Yamaguchi recognized from the track team. "Well I guess we know who the gayest team in the school is." They joked.
"Hey guys that's not very nice." Asahi said timidly, stepping towards the boys.
"Oh my god I didn't know he was on he team!" The shorter one shout whispered to the other.
"I heard he's in a super dangerous gang." The other whispered back.
"I heard he deals illegal substances."
"I heard he killed a man."
"Wha- I never did any of that." Asahi spoke up.
"Just....just leave us alone man!" The two boys said, backing away then breaking into a run.
"Yeah you better run!" Hinata and Nishinoya yelled after them.
"They weren't running from you two." Daichi laughed. "They were running from Asahi."
"I don't understand, why does this always happen?" Asahi asked.
"There there." Sugawara said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Well we're off to class." Tsukishima spoke up, beginning to walk away, Yamaguchi following shortly behind.
"Bye guys, see you at practice." Suga called after them. "And thanks again for the nails, Tsukishima."
Tsukishima offered a small wave over his shoulder as his version of a 'you're welcome' and walked into his classroom. Yamaguchi walked in after him and sat down at his desk, a grin still plastered on his face. He was convinced it would never leave, he was also convinced that he had the best boyfriend on the planet, he had painted the nails of the entire team, even Kageyama who Yamaguchi was convinced Tsukishima messed up on purpose, all for him. Just looking at his nails caused his heart to flutter, the same way looking at Tsukishima himself did. Yamaguchi turned to look at him across the room and his boyfriend raised an eyebrow at him, probably because Yamaguchi's smile was ear to ear. He was about to mouth something to Tsukishima but the teacher's voice stopped him short. As she began to go over the lesson plan Yamaguchi faced forward and settled back into his seat, but he couldn't resist glancing down at his nails.
At the end of the school day Yamaguchi was practically bouncing with anticipation, all his teachers today had seemed to be too tired to provide them with anything but busy work, Yamaguchi counted twelve different worksheets today. He was about ready to explode when finally, the class ended. Yamaguchi stood up and began to pack his materials into his bag, once he finished he walked over to Tsukishima's desk and smiled at him. "Ready for practice, Tsukki?"
The taller boy simply nodded in response and picked up his own bag, he exited the classroom with Yamaguchi by his side and started walking to the gym. But Yamahuchi noticed he wasn't going his usual route, they ended up in the greenhouse where one student was still working but quickly finished up and left once he saw Tsukishima glaring in his direction.
"Tsukki, why are we in here? Shouldn't we be in the gym?" Yamaguchi questioned.
Tsukishima didn't reply, just took his boyfriend's hand gently, and held it up to examine it. "You were staring at it all day, is there a cut on it? Or did I just mess up on the polish?"
Yamaguchi giggled and wrapped his hand around Tsukishima's tightly. "I was looking because you did an amazing job and it made me really happy." He told him. "Now are you going to tell me why we're in here or not?"
Tsukishima shrugged. "Maybe I just wanted to avoid Kageyama yelling at me for messing up his nails for a bit."
Yamaguchi laughed. "Or maybe there's another reason?" He persisted.
"Okay, there's another reason." Tsukishima admitted. He stepped closer to Yamaguchi and bent his head down slightly to bring his lips to the other boy's. Yamaguchi could feel his whole body relax as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's neck and kissed him back, smiling into his lips as he stood up on his toes to get a closer to the taller boy. But as he did he lost his balance and fell into Tsukishima, sending them both tumbling down to the greenhouse floor. Yamaguchi giggled, noticing some leaves and petals now stuck in Tsukishima's short hair. With the sunlight streaming in through the window panes casting rays of light on his face and the colors in his hair, Tsukishima seemed to blend in with the flowers around them.
"What's so funny?" He demanded.
"Nothing, it's just that you look like a flower." Yamaguchi replied, picking a few petals out of his boyfriend's hair.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "We're going to be late for practice."
Yamaguchi shrugged. "I'd much rather stay here with you."
Tsukishima sighed and brought his hand up to cup Yamaguchi's cheek. "Me too."
Yamaguchi saw a small smile creeping up on his face and he gasped. "Tsukki you're smiling!"
"I smile all the time, thank you very much." He huffed.
Yamaguchi laughed and kissed his boyfriend's cheek. "Thank you Tsukki."
"For what?" The other boy questioned.
"For everything."