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"What the fuck?"
One may believe these are words that often fall from the lips of someone who swears as much as Tsukishima does. And they wouldn't be wrong. However, this time it was a situation that was new, even for him. Surprisingly this is something he started to say less and less since he got himself tangled up in the mess consisting of him and three idiots of which two stood in front of his window and held a bright flashlight down into his cellar room. And with this also right in his face.
He didn't know what shone brighter the flashlight or their faces of mischief.
"Open up.", Kuroo mouthed while pointing the torch to the handle of his window, freeing him from the threat of losing his vision.
There was rustling behind the other two bringing Akaashi into sight.
He blinked stupidly: "You too? Really?", And here he thought Akaashi was the most sane person in their quartet.
Since this very Akaashi was currently crouched with Kuroo and Bokuto in front of his window at nearly midnight he started to reconsider.
Akaashi just gave him an apologetic smile but didn't say anything further.
Tsukishima sighed and opened the window. Before he could even comprehend what was happening the two sport junkies each grabbed an armful of him and dragged him out of his room.
"What are you doing?", He asked.
Bokuto pointed at the car behind them: "We're going to the beach."
"Hi, Tsukishima!"
"Hiya~"
"Hey."
Indeed. His nightmare had become reality right in front of his eyes. Their friends squished together in a car. More specifically it's Kuroo's car. The very car that had already broken down countless times. Coincidentally it was also the car in which Tsukishima suffered through all of his near-death experiences.
"And you're coming with us!", Bokuto beamed at him.
"No, thank you."
He tried to crawl back inside through his window but was stopped when someone grabbed his waist and pulled him back.
"Yes, thank you.", Kuroo gave him a sharp grin but before he could slap it off his smug face someone took his arm and a head of silver and black coloured hair came into his view.
"Rude, you can't leave us hanging. Look the whole gang is here!"
"Shouldn't that be enough for your little trip?"
"It's not the same without you!", Mai called from the car while Kiyoko desperately tried to save her before she could tumble out the open window.
"I have a test tomorrow."
"That's wonderful." When Kuroo didn't let him go and when Tsukishima just stared confusedly he continued, "I bet it'd go just fine if you actually had one.", With these words Kuroo started dragging him towards the car. He just rolled his eyes begrudgingly.
Being placed in the passenger seat he spied through the rear mirror at the chaos in the back.
On the left there were Kiyoko and Mai squeezed under one seatbelt, Akaashi sat in the middle making himself as small as possible while also sipping on some suspicious-looking bottle and on the right sat Bokuto having his arms wrapped around Yachi as a makeshift seatbelt.
"We'll all die."
That was his final verdict for this situation.
"Eventually. But certainly not today.", the driver winked in good nature while putting on his seatbelt that was hanging on by a thread.
"It's a miracle your car hasn't exploded from sheer social pressure yet."
"She's a strong one. She won't crumble under your insults.", Kuroo said confidentially and slapped the dashboard which made one of the needles spin furiously.
Tsukishima grabbed the assist handle above his head.
It took five restarts to get the engine rolling and Kuroo steered them back on the street.
"Five! My lucky number!", Exclaimed Mai from the back and met the high-five of Kuroo, nearly strangling Kiyoko in the process.
"I thought your lucky number was 25?", Yachi questioned.
"Close enough."
"Hey!"
There was high-pitched laughter and he felt Akaashi poking his arm with the head of the bottle, an obvious question in the gesture.
He wasn't sure what would be worse: to die while throwing up through the combination of being drunk and experiencing Kuroo's driving style or to die being sober.
Easy decision.
Tsukishima accepted the bottle and took a huge swig.
"Does your driving corpse of a car play music?", Bokuto threw in from the back making Yachi laugh: "Driving corpse!"
"Of course. Listen, babe, this bad girl is the full package!"
The next thirty minutes of Tsukishima's life consisted of bad 70s pop song covers with a particularly dangerous rendition of Killer Queen by Kuroo whose car chose that particular moment to have a severe case of flickering headlights.
Mai pointed out that it even flickers within rhythm!
Kiyoko disagreed.
Once they arrived Tsukishima was the first to plant his feet on the street. Never intend to leave solid ground again.
Next to him, the door opened and his friends tumbled out one after another.
"Zombie!", Bokuto shrieked and started running for his life.
Not a second later a redhead was zooming after him and the complaint of Mai rang through the air: "That's foul play!"
Kiyoko helped Yachi walk so she wouldn't wander off while Kuroo seemed to search for something in the trunk of the car.
Quietly Akaashi grabbed Tsukishima's hand and mumbled: "I don't know where they get the energy from."
He shrugged and laced their fingers together before tugging him in the direction of the beach: "The many effects of alcohol."
"I don't think that's it..."
In the distance, he saw Mai jumping on Bokuto's back. A sneak attack that ended in both of them having their faces dunk into the sand.
"Did they also drag you out of your room?" Tsukishima looked down at the owner of the messy curls that pressed against his arm.
He laughed softly: "No. Kuroo had the courtesy to pick me up after my night class."
"And you just said yes?"
"You just said no?", Akaashi smiled up to him.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes but briefly nuzzled his hair with his nose, tightening the hold on his hand: "I forget you're just as crazy. You simply hide it better."
They decided to all sit down a few metres from the water in a small circle of tangled-up limbs. There was an abandoned fireplace in the middle of them which was giving off a weak glow. Kuroo presented several cans and cups of liquor and soda to the point where Tsukishima truly questioned how all of this fit into the small backpack in the first place.
Next to him, he heard a lighter click and a few seconds later Kiyoko passed her joint to him.
"You may have been a saint in your previous life.", He took a hit and exhaled the smoke into the night air before passing it on.
"If so, I wonder what sin I've committed that god had me end up with you." She grinned.
He snorted.
"Hey! What are you talking about? Tsukishima is a delight to have around.", Bokuto protested a bit too loud, clearly tipsy. He leaned heavily on Tsukishima to look at his offender.
"Absolutely. His frown makes a good addition to his constant words of motivation and positivity.", she answered pleased with herself which only left Bokuto to gasp.
Akaashi gave his arm a pat in sympathy.
"How do you do this?"
Tsukishima turned his head to a confused Yachi who was holding the joint in between her fingers. Usually, she doesn't want to take whatever goes around. Kuroo said: "You sure you want to try it? You don't have to do it."
Her already flushed face reddened a bit more at that: "I want to though."
He shrugged his shoulders and scooted closer to explain how it works. Cautiously she raised it to her lips and took a drag. From the start, he could tell that she didn't know where to put the air she just breathed in. There was laughing coming out of Mai's direction as soon as the coughing started.
"Was that wrong?", Yachi asked concerned, blinking rampantly.
Kuroo shook his head with a quiet chuckle: "No, no it's quite normal to cough at the beginning."
Everyone seemed to slowly slip into a comfortable space of mind, daring each other to do stupid things and having more chases in the sand. Gladly neither Mai nor Kuroo broke an ankle doing so. There was soft music playing from the music box Kiyoko brought. She hummed along and slowly the other voices faded away. He just concentrated on that relaxing tune.
The peace ended as fast as it had begun when Akaashi suddenly dragged him into a standing position and everything was spinning.
He made a sound of confusion but all he heard was someone yelling that money was involved which was never a good thing when it came to these guys.
This time it ended in an apologetic kiss to his cheek before he took a midnight bath in the ocean.
The cold chased away a part of the fog that nestled around his brain and Akaashi's laughing face came into view. Tsukishima frowned, confused about how the sea could be so icy cold and his insides still felt like they were boiling. Getting lost too quickly in the moonlight and the emotion that resembled the end of a long long search. A long journey that was too important to be lost in drugs and alcohol. So he wrapped his arms around the other and dragged him underwater.
When they emerged again both of them spit out a mouthful of saltwater before Tsukishima found himself again and smirked: "Now that that's settled, how much did we make?"
The other giggled and pressed a bit closer, clearly shivering: "I don't know. The bets were still running when I went for it."
Tsukishimas grin softened around the edges: "Come.", He tucked him into his side.
Beside them, he heard more collisions with the water and he turned.
Wild laughter erupted from Yachi who was suddenly on the shoulders of Kiyoko engaging in a fight against Bokuto and Kuroo. Both of the latter grinned mischievously.
Though whatever they had planned went awry when Kuroo shrieked and fell backwards making them both plump into the water.
"Idiots.", He rolled his eyes decidedly ignoring the smile that crept on his face when he saw them laughing so hard they doubled over on themselves.
"Mai?", Akaashi tilted his head to the only one of the group still standing at the edge of the waves. She giggled nervously.
"Are you alright?"
The laughter quietened and the attention of the others shifted, causing her to square her shoulders.
She waved a hand: "I don't want to ruin the mood, everyone."
Yachi frowned as if it was a personal offence: "You're not ruining anything. Why are you not coming inside? Are you cold?"
There was a glimmer of fondness in Mai's eyes before she blinked: "No, that's not it. Erm...", She stopped awkwardly.
The blonde came a few steps closer to take her hand and when Mai met her eyes it seemed as if she was steeling herself. Lending the armour from the girl in front of her. It's familiar, Tsukishima thought but it also felt like an intrusion to keep looking.
Mai breathed in.
"The sea scares me because it's scary in general. You know there's crazy research about it and somehow we are still like in the dark about it. Even though most of Earth's life is somewhere down there. That's insane. It's just so gigantic. But who am I telling this? You're the smartest people I know and probably know it anyway...I also can't swim..."
Mai was shuffling her feet but staring right at all of them. Akaashi cut in before anyone else could: "Me neither."
"What?", It came simultaneously from Mai and Tsukishima.
"I can't swim.", The smaller boy shrugged and looked at him, "Is that a problem?"
Tsukishima panicked and shook head: "No, what? Of course not. It's just- I'm not sure, I probably would've been more careful, I suppose?"
The other smiled but Tsukishima felt a softly stuttered breath of relief that left his body against himself.
Mai stared at Akaashi, mulling the new information over in her head.
"But how do you just...you know? Jump into the sea?"
The man next to him turned back to her: "Mai, I can still stand. I'd have to go farther in to actually have to swim. Also, how do you hold speeches in front of hundreds without breaking a sweat or how do you run into an ongoing game of basketball announcing you're now part of the team just for a challenge?"
"Oh, he's right!", Yachi seemed to have escaped her own world of contemplation, "You'd be correct– the sea is quite the fearsome place. And someone as brave as you? Being scared of it? Now that makes it actually even scarier... But it also makes you kinda sorta a human being. You know there's so much scary stuff you already do. It's just fair that there's also something that gives you the creeps.", She nodded to herself, satisfied with her answer.
The tension that had its grip on Mai left a bit when she laughed at Yachi's words.
Bokuto cleared his throat: "I'd be up to help my favourite opponent to swim any day.", A kind smile spread across his lips.
"If that doesn't sound like a hidden threat I don't know what does."
Kuroo yelped when Bokuto hit him over the head.
"Thanks guys."
There was an earnestness in her voice that made Tsukishima question how much this really took out of her.
"Oww come here!", Yachi's attempt to hug Mai concluded with the latter crying out in shock: "Cold!"
The others chuckled. Tsukishima however was still hanging onto the way Mai and Akaashi looked. One brave yet reaching into the dark for a hand, the other seemingly fearless yet only gaining strength through another's pain.
Suddenly he felt very grateful for having these people on his side. Because if they weren't his day would've ended in a monotone colourless Thursday night instead of a picture drawn with bravery and weightlessness.