Work Text:
Tanaka Ryuunosuke usually slammed into the locker room with all the force of a hurricane. So when he very gently opened the door and silently started changing into his practice clothes, everyone on the team was immediately worried.
“What do you think is wrong?” Suga whispered to Kageyama.
Kageyama shrugged, “How should I know. Maybe he’s thinking about his performance in our last practice match?”
A clang came from Tanaka’s locker as the team turned to see him slump his head inside it.
“What’s up Ryuu?” Noya slid down the lockers to sit next to Tanaka.
The locker sighed, “Do you think I’m lovable, Noya-san?”
“Well, obviously. You’re one of my best friends! I love you.”
“…..Thanks” Tanaka slumped further.
Daichi looked up from the plays he was studying with an eyebrow cocked, “Is there someone specific you’re looking for love from?”
“Kioko-san”, Tanaka said at the same time Suga and Enoshita muttered it under their breaths, “She’s so amazing, and I’m, well, I think I’m pretty cool, but not as amazing as Kiyoko-san.”
Tanaka leaned out of his locker with the dramatic flair of a J-drama actor, “like, I think she only sees me as another player on the team. Not as, well, boyfriend material.” He slid down next to Noya.
“I feel you, bro,” Noya punched Tanaka’s shoulder, “girls are amazing. I just wish they’d think I
was amazing.”
Suga knelt in front of the moping pair, “Well, what have you been doing to get her to see you differently?”
“What?”
“I mean, if you want her to look at you a certain way, then you need to behave in the way you want her to see you.”
“Again: what?”
“He means,” Tsukkishima said without looking up from his homework, “don’t be yourself.”
“Hey! No!” Suga stood and whirled to face Tsukkishima, “I mean he should show parts of himself that Kiyoko would like.”
“Yeah, cause those exist,” Tsukkishima snickered.
Noya held an arm out to stop Tanaka from defending himself against the insult, but Tanaka hadn’t even moved. This was serious.
“What brought this on?” Ennoshita asked, “I mean, Kiyoko-san has been rejecting your advances from day one. Why the sudden mopiness?”
“Well…her birthday is coming up, and I have no idea what to get for her! Or do! Or anything! How am I going to convince her I’m boyfriend material if I can’t even figure out a birthday present?”
“Yeah, 'cause you can’t just ask her.” Tsukkishima rolled his eyes.
“Exactly,” Tanaka jumped up, “If I ask her, she’ll know that I’m trying to win her affection with this birthday gift!”
“Isn’t that exactly what you’ve always done?” Yamaguchi piped up.
Tanaka didn’t hear him and bulldozed on, “I need to come up with something to do for her that she’ll love! But I can’t let her know that I’m trying to figure it out! Any ideas?”
“Well, she….likes….volleyball?” Noya started tapping on his knees, “I think? I mean, she is the manager of the team.”
“Doesn’t everyone like volleyball?” Hinata asked.
Kageyama nodded, this seemed like infallible logic to him.
“No, no, just a volleyball gift isn’t enough” Tanaka started pacing the length of the small room, “I need it to be spectacular! Something that says, ‘if you date this guy he’ll make you happy’. Or, something like that.”
“I see one problem with your plan.” Suga sat to tie his shoes.
“And what is that?”
“If you’re getting a gift for Kiyoko,” Suga pulled the knot tight, “shouldn’t you be thinking about Kiyoko?”
“Isn’t that what I’m doing?”
Shoes tied, Suga stood and looked Tanaka in the eye, “You’re so worried about how you look that you’re forgetting the purpose of a birthday gift.”
“To make the gift receiver happy!” Yamaguchi handed a piece of his candy to Tsukki, who took it with a grunt.
“Exactly!” Suga said.
“So… I should focus more on how Kiyoko-san feels than how this makes her see me?” Tanaka sat down in the chair next to Tsukki with a gaze of wonder. His entire worldview had been shifted. He slowly nodded as the idea seeped into his brain. “So what makes Kiyoko-san happy?” Tanaka slowly stood and walked over to Daichi and Suga, who had sat next to the captain, “You, um, you…” he mumbled something that sounded like “tiramisu.”
“What’s up?” Daichi looked up from his notes.
“YouknowKiyoko-sanbetterthanIdosocouldyouhelp!?”
“What?”
“You, I mean, you’re friends with Kiyoko-san, and you know her better than I do, so… could you… maybe….I mean, you know things she’d like better than I do…”
“Oohh,” Suga said teasingly, “You need our help”
“Don’t torture him too much, Suga, he’s actually putting in some effort. Let’s see…well, she loves Tenmusu. I saw her eat like, ten in one sitting,” Daichi said.
“I heard that she ran track a while ago too…” Suga said.
“Track…” Tanaka scratched his head, “maybe I could get her some new running shoes!” Visions of his near-empty piggy bank flashed through his mind, “or maybe not. Tenmusu I could maybe do. But that’s pretty non-specific.”
“Asahi might know more than us, he’s like, the king of birthday gifts,” Suga slung his uniform into his locker.
Conveniently, Asahi swung through the door to the locker room, out of breath, “Sorry I’m late! I just-”
“Asahi-san!” Noya jumped up and pointed at the new arrival, “Do you know anything Kiyoko likes?”
Asahi, taken aback, froze in the doorway, “Uh, I mean, I think she had a pet bird once.”
Tanaka grasped Asahi’s shoulders, “What kind?”
“Uh, a budgie? No, wait, it was a cockatoo! She named it Tempura, of all things…”
“Wonderful!” Tanaka strut back into the room, all his swagger returned, “Now what to do with tempura and birds…”
The conversation spun back around to discussing the new Syncro-attack they had been trying, and Tanaka’s women woes were all but forgotten.
When Kiyoko opened her locker on her birthday to a plate of Tenmusu that looked maybe like a flock of birds, she didn’t understand why the whole team laughed when she showed them, but they made her birthday very happy, nonetheless.