Chapter Text
In a way, Kei and Tadashi’s relationship was indescribable. They both knew that quite well.
Perhaps it had all started when they had joined the Karasuno volleyball team as freshmen— perhaps it was when they were pushed to nationals, or maybe it was when they had high-fived each other during the match with Nekoma? Either way, every day was changing, at least it was from Tadashi’s perspective.
Every day was something about Kei. And it was the same for the latter. Did Tadashi hate it? Of course not.
But it just felt like he was running in place.
So, they were third years in the summer heat, beads of sweat drying on his forehead and sticking his dark green hair to his skin, he and Kei worked diligently on a project they were handed to do over the summer. They knelt at a table, a large paper splayed over the entire surface as pens and markers cluttered around their knees. Kei’s house was quite comfortable, Tadashi had been here many times— yet the temperatures unfortunately stayed the same.
“It feels so hot,” Tadashi panted, eyes fluttering closed, “Am I going to die?”
Kei walked into his room barefoot, holding two carbonated milky drinks and placing them down at their work area. He blinked, “You won’t… it is summer, anyway.”
“That— that is true…” Tadashi murmured, and he picked up an orange marker— the color humorously reminded him of Shoyo, the bright tangerine that liked to jump and run around. Then, he eyed a dark blue marker. This one was definitely Tobio. “Hey, do you know why Hinata and Kageyama aren’t doing this part of the project?”
“Apparently Hinata’s giving Tobio some work.” Kei murmured, “Although I’m sure that was just an excuse so that they could practice in the gym rather than sit down and color.”
“And… Yachi-kun?”
“She’s actually busy.” The blonde responded, “Helping with promotion of the team.”
Tadashi sighed, “She’s always been so awe-inspiring.”
Kei clicked open his can of carbonation and took a quick swig. His eyes were distracted on the can for a moment, and Tadashi took this as a chance. He saw the way Kei pushed up his glasses slightly, so that the rim of the drink wouldn't hit the bottoms of his frames. He saw how Kei’s eyes would crease whenever he drank something. Tadashi felt that this was quite unsettling to be noticing all of it— but it was as if his mind was impatient, because they both knew something was going on between them and neither one of them was going to make the first move. So, instinctively, Tadashi’s mind turned greedy and stared at the… hotter parts of Kei instead. He flushed, as if he wasn’t red from the heat already, and swept his gaze down back to his paper.
“Is it really hot? I could fix the temperature of the air conditioning.” Kei mumbled as he scribbled. Tadashi blinked rapidly and shot his head up with a tense smile.
“W—well! It’s a little hot, but you don’t need to worry…”
“Mm.”
Tadashi swallowed. The tension was so thick and syrupy— but why did it seem like he was the only one noticing it? He popped open his drink and took a sip.
The poster, showcasing all of the things that he, Kei, and a couple of others got to do in a colorful manner, was due the first few days of summer break. Tadashi decided it would be reasonable if all of them did at least five things, and when they got back from break, they could all sign it on the big poster. Just this morning, they all made a groupchat to update everyone on what they were doing so that they wouldn’t have duplicates. “Tsukki, do you have an idea of where you wanna go?” He asked.
“Not sure,” Kei’s voice was unusually soft, “I’m sure we’re all going to the festival at the end of summer though.”
“That’s for sure.” Tadashi laughed quietly as he finished the bottom right end of the poster’s borders. “I’m in the mood for a caramel apple.”
Kei turned deadly quiet for a second before calling out, “Yamaguchi.”
“Hm?”
“…Did the project say anything about doing summer activities with another person?”
Tadashi glanced up at that, and hopefully his widening eyes weren't noticeable enough to spark awkwardness, “N—now that I think about it, the assignment didn’t specify anything like that… Why? Are you planning to go out with everyone else?” He curiously asked.
”Not with everyone.” Kei’s gaze fell onto the paper, and he reached for another marker when he looked back up at Tadashi and said, “Just us.”
“Ah…”
Tadashi pushed the frantic beating of his heart that was starting to arise back into his chest, and a wider smile grew across his face, until he laughed slightly and said, “That’d be great! I—I mean, the rules didn’t say anything against writing down activities you did with someone else, so…”
It was as if the summer heat that had once seared over them had chilled, and it didn’t seem to matter anymore to Tadashi. His heart fluttered, and his mind raced to the different activities they could do over the summer. Suddenly, his fingertips felt especially tingly. Kei nodded, his face on the surface showing indifference, “We should go somewhere.”
“Have you thought of something, then?”
Kei pursed his lips, and now it was his turn to act shy, “No… I just wanted to do something without Hinata and Kageyama.”
“I see…” Tadashi was ninety-eight percent sure that the last part was just a cover-up so he didn’t have to say I just wanted to do something with you— “Well, summer’s just started, so maybe something with water?”
“Water?” Kei questioned.
”Right! Like an aquarium!” Tadashi’s eyes lit up in excitement, and he almost banged his markers onto the table, “You’re smart, so maybe we could… identify the different types of fish in the tank!”
“Well, we learned just a couple species, but that doesn’t mean I wanna—“
“This is gonna be great, Tsukki!”
At the sight of Tadashi’s smile, Kei had no choice but to melt sweetly.
For some strange reason, Kei’s body felt like it was floating off the ground when he reached the doors of the aquarium.
He peered inside— it was hard to see the contents, as the inside of the building was dim for the fish to shine— but at least he knew he had gotten here first. If Tadashi was already here, he’d be bolting to him in an instant.
The heat scorched his skin and he was just about to pull out his phone to text Tadashi a where are you message when a familiar voice shouts out from behind, making him whip his head—
“Tsukki! You’re here!”
Tadashi came rushing over, expression creased in a form of happiness. ”I didn’t expect you to be here early.” He said.
“It was hot in my house.” Kei simply said, focusing on Tadashi’s outfit. Over the years, Tadashi had begun to care about his appearance more, as each time they would go out some new accessory would lay somewhere on his body. Today on this hot summer morning, he wore a simple white, oversized t-shirt that was laid over by a bag. His dark green shorts fell to almost his knees, and multiple bracelets were stacked on his left wrist— Kei recognized them quickly as some of the jewelry Yachi-kun had made for them before break began. Kei swallowed, unsettled by his own self and how scary it was for him to care.
Did he care?
Of course not.
Was he lying to himself?
…
”Let’s head in.” Kei turned his back to Tadashi and began walking.
“Where should we start?”
As they walked in, the atmosphere turned hushed and dim. Surrounding them were long, winding tanks of water, filled with corals and signature Japanese fish species wading around. Kei noticed a brochure at the very front and stopped to pick it up. Tadashi peered over to read it.
”Oh, there’s manta rays.” Tadashi smiled, “We should stop by and take photos!”
“There’s also sculptures.” The blonde noted.
”How about we just circle the entire place?” Tadashi asked, “I can snap pictures of everything if we do!”
Kei nodded understandably, but his head tilted at one part: “Snap?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” His friend quickly rummaged in the pack strapped around his chest and took out a small, portable film camera, which was metal and slightly difficult to see in the lighting, “I bought us a camera so Yachi-kun could stick them onto our poster!”
The blonde blinked. “Right… okay…”
Snap pictures. It’s not like fish were the most exciting thing in the world— they were definitely pretty, Kei was already starting to eye some of them in interest— but wasting film on it…
They began on the left side and proceeded. At one point, after being in the darkness with different colored fish surrounding them, a large shark brushed up against the glass. It startled Kei ever so slightly, which caused Tadashi to say, “I should take a picture of you with the shark.”
“No, I don’t think that’s necessary…” He mumbled, shooting a dirty look to the shark, and it promptly swam away.
As they walked, Kei took some moments to pause and gaze around, feeling the peace around him— but then, he’d glance back to Tadashi and his mess of green hair, and he’d feel something peculiar spark inside of him.
Kei sighed, wiping the heat on his face off.
They reached the outside portion, where a handful of people lined up against the edge of a fenced shallow bath. Inside were unmoving aquatic animals, mainly starfish and sea pickles. “Can we touch them?” Tadashi asked.
“Yeah.” Kei looked down at the animals before extending out his pinky and brushing it against them. Water’s good. Cold, he thought distantly.
He was shocked out of his own thoughts when Tadashi’s shoulder brushed against his as he touched the starfish next to his hand. “Can they feel it?”
Kei snickered, “I hope not. If I were the starfish, I wouldn’t like it.”
Tadashi giggled as they went on. Kei trailed on, feeling the cold water damp his skin as, strangely, all he could do was stare at Tadashi.
Since when was it like this? He tried to recount the steps of their relationship.
It had suddenly occurred to him that what they were doing now could be seen as a date from a certain perspective. His old, first-year self would have adamantly refused with embarrassment showing all over his face. He wouldn’t had even admitted to having a crush on anyone in the first place. Now, he was walking around with his best friend, and he fought with the urge to not lace their hands together while they were looking at fish. Now, his present self didn’t feel like he needed to hide the premise of love.
Would Tadashi be okay with this conclusion?
Kei’s eyes narrowed in thought as they stood in front of a large tank. Tadashi was somewhere behind him, admiring all of the colors peppering in front of him— multiple branches of corals stretched out like thick forest vines, intertwining bushes and bushes of sea anemone together like one big, happy family.
“Tsukki!”
The blonde turned at the sound of his voice. Tadashi stood there with his camera in his hands, “Shift your body to the right a little more.”
“Really…?” The blonde muttered.
”That’s good. Tilt your head a little.”
Are you part of the yearbook club or something, Yamaguchi? He thought dryly, but complied reluctantly.
“Great… Okay.” Tadashi lowered the camera and stared into the lens. Immediately, he laughed and said exasperatedly, “Tsukki! You look so cool!”
“Hm?”
Kei stepped away from the glass full of fish and peered over into the camera. Somehow, Tadashi had taken a picture of him just when a schoolbus of fish had circled into the center of the photo. His head was tilted ever so slightly, so his glasses reflected the water and all of the fish swimming around in it. Kei stared at it in surprise.
After a moment’s silence, Tadashi patted him on the shoulder and murmured, “You look good in this. I knew the camera was a good idea.”
Kei’s mind had evaporated into a silent steam, and he had trouble forming a coherent sentence before Tadashi’s sudden attitude slipped away and was replaced with an awkward, sunny smile, “Right! It’s been so long it’s practically almost evening now. How about we head out to get some street food?”
And hurriedly, Tadashi turned his back and began walking to the exits. Kei stared at his back.
…
The air had seemed to change, in that flash of a moment. Kei’s face felt abnormally hot.
He swallowed down the overwhelmingly warm feelings wanting to pour out of him and followed suit.
Activity 1/5: Aquarium! Completed.