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Tsukishima Kei was 5 years old when he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
It was the year 2001 and it was late october. Kei was in a psychiatrist's office with his mother and older brother, Kei was looking out the window while holding his beloved dinosaur plush.
“I'm worried about him, he's 5 years old and still hasn't talked!” Yukie Tsukishima said worriedly.
“Well he could have autism spectrum disorder.” The doctor said, both Yukie and Akiteru gasped.
“Are you sure?!” Akiteru questioned as he held his mothers hand tightly looking back at Kei.
The doctor nods and continues talking.
On the way home, Kei refused to hold his mothers and brother's hand. Kei then saw someone with a Jurassic Park t-shirt and gasped. He ran towards the person and yelled, “Dinosaur skulls had large holes or “windows” that made their skulls lighter. Some of the largest skulls were as long as a car!” The person looked confused but laughed, “You like dinosaurs?” Kei nods. “This is from Jurassic park, you should watch it”
Kei walks away and looks up at his mom saying, “Mommy, I want to watch that movie.”
Yukie burst into tears.
“Kei you talked! Oh Akiteru he talked.” Yukie sobs.
They get back to their house and Kei goes to play with his dinosaurs.
“Where did you learn that Kei?” Akiteru questions, when Kei doesn't reply Akiteru glances at the big dinosaur book and gasps.
“Mom Kei read this whole book!” Akiteru shows his mother.
“My boy’s a genius!”
Tsukishima Kei was 5 years old when he spoke his first words and declared a genius.
Tsukishima Kei was 10 years old when he saw a boy with dark green hair getting made fun of by 3 boys. He hesitates but walks towards them.
“What do you want?!” One of the boys says not even looking at Kei.
“You guys are totally lame.” Kei says bluntly.
The 3 boys look at Kei furious but then realize how tall he is and gasped in fear and ran away.
The green haired boy sniffles and he stops crying, “Thank you”
“It’s so no problem.” Kei says awkwardly, “Uh my name is Tsukishima Kei”
“Yamaguchi Tadashi”, The green haired boy smiles.
As some time went by and the two have gotten somewhat close to Kei’s standards. It was the day of Kei’s brother’s match and he was on his way to Yamaguchi.
“Uhm, since you like volleyball my brother's team in karasuno has a game today and I was wondering if you wanted to come?” Kei says fidgeting with his hands slightly.
“Sure!” Yamaguchi says, smiling in excitement.
“Karasuno? My brothers in that team too, what’s your brother's name?” A random boy speaks up.
“Akiteru Tsukishima..”, Kei mumbles.
“Tsukishima, I haven’t heard of him. Are you sure?” The boy says, raising his brow.
“Yes! I’ll show you!” Kei shouts and then walks away.
The 3 boys are at the game and Kei is looking for his brother when the game starts. He knows that his brother never allowed him to come to his games and always said he didn’t want Kei to get overstimulated. But Kei is with a friend and he couldn’t help the urge of wanting to go to his big brother's game.
That’s when he saw his brother standing at the bleachers cheering on and a wave of shock and embarrassment. They make eye contact and Akiteru stops cheering, his eyes widening.
“See I told you!” The other boy laughs.
“Shut up don’t you see he didn’t know!” Yamaguchi says defending the taller boy.
Kei runs out the gym with the memories of his brother crying in his room, now finally putting the pieces together. He sits on the ground outside grabbing at his arm. He rocks back and forth while covering his ears. He repeats “Akiteru lied!”
Yamaguchi runs over to him and finds him on the ground.
“Tsukishima, are you okay?” Yamaguchi says worriedly.
Kei continued having his meltdown. Yamaguchi was smart enough to figure out what may be going on.
“Uh Tsuki do you have headphones?”Kei nods hesitantly.
Yamaguchi reaches for his headphones and puts them on the blonde's head. Kei stills for a second and then relaxes once his headphones are on. He waits until Kei calms down.
“Soo are you autistic? My cousin has autism too and I’ve seen her meltdowns before.” Yamaguchi says.
Kei nods, fiddling with his hands, “Cool! I’m guessing you like dinosaurs then?” Looking at the many pins and keychains of dinosaurs.
Kei nods and flaps his hands happily as he starts talking about dinosaurs, “Nigersaurus. Unusually small sauropod with a unique head and jaw shape not seen in any other animal. All its 500 teeth are at the end of its jaw at the front of the mouth, making its head look like the attachment to a vacuum cleaner.”
“You’re so smart Tsuki!!” Yamaguchi praises.
“Tsuki?” Kei questions.
“Sorry, do you not like it?!”
“No, it’s fine. I like it” Kei smiles softly.
“Can I call you Tadashi then?”
“Sure!”
Tsukishima Kei was 10 years old when he met his first friend.
Tsushima Kei was 15 years old when he joined the volleyball club.
It was the first day of their 1st year for Kei and Tadashi. Kei has his headphones on, he was a little nervous about the changes for their high school life but he spent time preparing so nothing bad will happen.
He goes to bite his nails but Tadashi stops him and gives him a smile, "Don't worry Tsuki."
Tadashi knows how to stop Kei from his bad habits and often lets Kei hold his hand to prevent him from biting.
Everything seemed to go well but then they met the two other first years of the team.
Hinata Shoyo and Kageyama Tobio.
They were both loud, obnoxious, dumb and very annoying. All the things Kei hates.
Most people on the team were very loud, which Kei hated. So he always wore his headphones. The coach and captain knew about his autism as well as the principal so he has special permission to wear them.
The training camp they were in, the people there were also really loud and the Nekoma and Fukurodani wouldn't stop calling him Tsuki which irked him.
The nickname Tsuki was only for Tadashi, Tadashi was the only one who can call him that.
Kei never tried really hard in volleyball, he thought that since someone will always be better there was no point.
As he left the gym he heard someone chasing after him. It was Tadashi and it had a strange look on his face.
He grabbed Kei's shirt and yelled in his face, "You're being so lame Tsuki!"
Kei's eyes widened as Tadashi went on a rant about him not trying his best. Kei got angry and yelled back "What's the point! Someone will always be better than you! There's no point in wasting time if you won't succeed anyways!" Kei breathes heavily thinking of his older brother's failed performance on his own team.
"What about our pride! Who cares about everyone else, As long as you try, who cares about someone else!" Tadashi shouts in his face.
Kei seemed silenced until he spoke, "Woah, when did you become cool"
Tadashi turns red and laughs.
Tsukishima Kei was 15 years old when he promised he would start trying his best.
Tsukishima Kei was 16 years old when he felt weird.
Kei has been feeling weird lately around his best friend. He got nauseous but not in the way when he tried a bad taste in food, His face got hot, and he couldn't talk but not in the way when gets nonverbal.
Kei was sitting in his favorite coffee shop thinking to himself about these weird feelings.
"Hey Tsuki!" He hears a familiar annoying voice.
Kei sighs and hopes he doesn't hear who he thinks he does.
"Don't ignore me!"
Kei sighs again and looks up seeing a familar rooster head and his boyfriend.
Kuroo was holding hands with his boyfriend Kenma. Kenma had his red headphones on and a cat bag.
Kei liked Kenma, he was quiet, and also had autism which meant he understood Kei. However Kei doesn't understand how Kenma ended up with someone like Kuroo."
"You look confused. " Kenma says quietly.
"Oh? Is something up Tsuki bro. "
"Shut up." Kei says, irritated.
He turns to Kenma, "I'm having weird feelings. "
"What kind of weird feelings?" Kenma says, taking off his headphones.
"I feel nauseous but not bad food nauseous and hot around Tadashi. "
Kenma hums, "Do you feel like you want to touch him and keep him for yourself?" Kenma questions.
Kei thinks about it for a second then nods.
"You're in love with him. "
Kei tilts his head and then gasps.
"I am? I am!"
"Woah Tsuki you're in love, that's adorable" Kuroo teases. Kei glares at him and then gets up to leave.
"Where are you going? " Kuroo asks.
"To tell Tadashi what I've learned. "
"What! You can't just-" Kuroo gets caught off when Kenma hushes him and shakes his head.
"Good luck. " Kenma says. Kei nods and walks away.
Kei makes his way to Tadashi's house, he greets his parents and goes into his room.
"Tsuki, what are you doing here?" Tadashi questions.
"Tadashi, I learned something new," Kei says, fidgeting with his fingers.
Tadashi raises a brow, "I'm in love with you." Kei says bluntly.
Tadashi gasps, "What!,Huh? Are you sure?!" Kei nods and sits on his bed.
"Do you love me too?" Kei says nervously.
"Yes!" Tadashi shouts and then sees Kei wince, "I mean yes" He says softly.
"We're now in a romantic relationship," Kei says in his usual monotone voice.
Tadashi nods happily.
Tsuki looks at his face and then lips, "Can I kiss you?" Tadashi nods his face red. They kiss quickly and softly. Kei smiles and they lay down side by side holding each other's hand.
Tsukishima Kei was 16 years old when he got his first boyfriend.
Tsukishima Kei is 22 years old when he is working in a museum.
"A T-rex bite was more than twice as powerful as a lion's bite" Kei says to the kids as they gasp in amazement.
Kei loved working in the museum, he could talk about his favorite things
all day.
After talking about Dinosaurs all day he went home and came back to his Boyfriend and soon to be husband.
He puts on his comfy clothes and eats dinner, then he eats his favorite thing in the whole world. Strawberry shortcake.
Tadashi always gives him strawberry shortcake after dinner. They watch a dinosaur documentary together and fall asleep in each other's arms.
Tsukishima Kei was 22 years old when his life was just right.