Chapter Text
Yamaguchi Tadashi does not think he is taken to flights of fancy. He is a happy man, yes, but a hard worker and not necessarily that imaginative. His art is an expression of who he is more than an expression of imagination. Which is why he’s surprised when he spends Friday night staring at the blank wall attempting to imagine every possible way that the Saturday date can go.
Every possible way the date can go includes some scenarios that make him turn pink and scold himself violently for letting himself imagine someone he’s only just met in such a way. For the most part, however, he spends the night turning pink over the thought of holding Tsukishima’s hand or going back to his dorm and watching movies.
Saturday morning dawns brightly. Yamaguchi knows this because he hasn’t slept at all. He turns over and pulls the covers over his face. He has no class on Saturday because the only class he’d wanted to take was full so instead of worry about getting up, he tries to convince himself that another ten minutes in bed will mean he actually falls asleep.
It does not. He spends several hours fading in and out of a restless sleep and eventually tosses himself out of bed at nine thirty. He takes a very long, hot shower. He scrubs himself more than perhaps necessary and ends up staring at the tiles, relishing the feeling of water on his skin.
Yamaguchi’s skin is a little pink when he finally gets out of the shower twenty minutes later – from the entirely unnecessarily violent scrubbing, he supposes. He rubs his hands through his hair and walks back to his dorm. He takes a moment to be proud of himself and his ability to walk around without a shirt without having a panic attack anymore. His pride is slightly wounded when he gets back to his dorm room and decides that he has nothing to wear for a date.
Yamaguchi ends up pulling everything out of his dresser and putting it on the bed. This is how it comes about that he is standing in nothing but his underwear at exactly 09:57 when his dorm mate, Hinata Shouyo, bustles in. He is not, exactly, uncomfortable with the redhead. Yamaguchi likes him even, though he’s a bit overwhelming at times. It’s just that, today, Hinata brings with him Kageyama Tobio.
This is how it comes about that at exactly 09:59 Kageyama Tobio, who had been expecting to wait for his maybe boyfriend and always workout buddy to get dressed, is instead shoved out of the dorm and told “tomorrow!” in a yell through the door. After having seen more of Hinata’s quiet room mate than he had ever expected too, Kageyama is entirely too confused and flustered to argue.
“Hinata! You startled me!” Yamaguchi screeches from the floor, having nearly fallen over his bed in his attempt to cover himself and get away from the door at the same time. Hinata just grins and waltzes over, glancing at Yamaguchi’s overturned sheets and clothes.
“You’re very intent on what clothes to wear today. Usually you spend Saturdays in paint clothes,” Hinata says, squatting down beside Yamaguchi.
“You’re observant,” Yamaguchi grumbles, pushing himself up into a sitting position. Hinata just grins at him. “If you must know, I’m going out today at noon.”
“Out?” Hinata asks, managing to put an unnerving emphasis on the word. He stands and offers his hand to Yamaguchi, who takes it and brushes himself off in huff, despite not having anything to brush off, really.
“Yes, out. And I’m trying to find something to wear because most of my clothes are, well, not made to impress.”
“Dress to impress, eh?” Hinata asks, wiggling his eyebrows and laughing when Yamaguchi rubs his forehead, biting down on a smile.
“I set myself up for that one. Yes, okay. Yes. Just,” Yamaguchi makes a face and glances down at his clothes, “help me find something to wear,” he finishes, hating himself for sounding whiney.
“I’ll get you date ready in no time!” Hinata promises. “Just let me call a friend.”
“No! No more people!”
“Don’t worry. She’s dating someone.”
“That does not make it better!”
This is how it comes about that at 10:09, Hinata is letting Yachi Hitoka into their dorm room. Yamaguchi has put on sweats, at least, and is attempting not to look like he’s pouting, despite his crossed arms and sour expression.
Yachi is a little shorter than Hinata and Yamaguchi wonders if that was part of the reason he had befriended her then dismisses it out of hand; Hinata wasn’t cunning enough or mean enough for that. She’s cute, in a way, and Yamaguchi is suddenly all the more uncomfortable. He’d seen this girl coming and going at the college radio. Not that he’d been watching the place or anything, just, noticing it when he passes by. He passes by a lot.
“Yachi Hitoka,” she introduces herself to Yamaguchi. He stares at her like a deer in the headlights for a moment before doing the same. She nods and looks over his clothing. She hums softly, thoughtfully.
“Where are you going?” Yachi asks. Yamaguchi shrugs.
“He said something about a new café,” he says, then immediately regrets it when Yachi and Hinata both look at him. Yachi just seems to be surveying him and his clothes again, nodding vaguely, having gotten what she needed. Hinata doesn’t seem surprised necessarily and anything but judgmental, rather he seems to be revaluating Yamaguchi.
“Do you know what café?”
“I didn’t ask,” he says, rubbing his neck. “There wasn’t really, um, an opportunity.” Yachi looks at him, surprised and mildly concerned and he hurries to continue. “It just all happened so suddenly. He was just there while I was painting, and honestly I had to get going anyway, but he just showed up and I thought he was going to kiss me for a moment there then he left!”
“And you agreed to go out with this guy?” Yachi asks, bemused.
“Well, at least he’s never called me a moron,” Yamaguchi mumbles, glancing at Hinata. Yachi laughs while Hinata gasps, clapping a hand to his chest in exaggerated hurt.
“And he’s so tall,” Yamaguchi adds, sounding wistful. Hinata stops and raises his eyebrows, grinning. “I’m allowed to be a little shallow! Besides, I like his taste in music,” he finishes lamely, trailing off. Yachi is focused on his clothes again, discarding all his painting clothes – old and paint stained to a one – out of hand, leaving only about half of his wardrobe, excluding his two pyjama pants.
“You do?” Yachi asks vaguely, seeming more like she’s continuing the conversation than as if she’s actually heard.
“He,” Yamaguchi glances at her and can’t help but blush, burying his face in his hands. “He works the night shift at the radio,” he says, muffled through his hands. Yachi freezes with her hands on a plain green shirt. Hinata frowns in confusion, left out of the loop. Hinata bounces on his toes, whining like a puppy.
“You’re going on a date with Tsukishima Kei?” Yachi asks, barely over a whisper. Yamaguchi nods, trying to stop blushing. He’s not sure why he’s embarrassed, maybe it’s because he’s practically in his underwear and he’s admitting to someone he’s just met that he’s going on a date with her co-worker – her male co-worker – but here he is, blushing into his hands and not watching the look of supressed joy filtering across Yachi’s face.
“So you’re why he’s been distracted!” She crows, laughing. Yamaguchi looks up at her, startled, and she quiets immediately, apologising. “I’m so sorry! I’ve just been worried about him but he’s not very talkative and I’ve been too shy to ask him what’s wrong really. I thought it was because he was dating someone and I didn’t know it and he was worried about their relationship, but really he was just worrying about getting you to go out with him! That’s much happier!
Now let’s get you dressed!”
The sudden change of topic confuses Yamaguchi for a moment too long. Before he knows what’s happening, he’s been stuffed into the plain green shirt in Yachi’s hands and is being pulled out of his dorm by both Hinata and Yachi with barely enough time to mumble about needing socks. This is how it happens that at 10:36 Yamaguchi Tadashi is taken clothes shopping for his date that day at noon by his roommate and a girl he’s just met.
Yachi takes him to several stores and picks through everything, forcing him to try on at least four outfits and at every store. Hinata adds his comments but mostly seems to enjoy the time out and about with the two of them. Despite the hustle and bustle of it, Yamaguchi has to admit it is kind of nice to do things that aren’t college or even personal art once in a while. Not nice enough that he’d want to do it again anytime particularly soon, but nice all the same.
Yachi decides on three outfits.
A black tee-shirt on it with big blocky English on it that she assures him says FIGHT ME, when he’s not entirely sure in his somewhat tenuous grasp of English. He’s not sure why he would want it, but she insists that it goes well with the dark blue jeans she had also picked out that honestly he thinks he has basically the same pair at home but when he suggests it she stares at him as if she’s just been told that the sky is green, so he drops it.
A black sweater that has a white collar and the end of a white shirt sewn to the inside to make it look as if he’s wearing a collared white shirt under without actually wearing one. Yamaguchi thinks this is incredibly pretentious, but it’s surprisingly comfortable so he says nothing. She’d wanted to buy black pleather pants to go with it but he had refused to even put them on so she settled for black, straight leg jeans. Why so much black?
Yamaguchi likes the third outfit the best, though he does like the other sweater. A dark green sweater with a neck that seems to Yamaguchi like a collapsed turtle neck but Yachi calls a ‘cowl neckline’. It’s kind of cute, actually, and it’s a very comfortable sweater. Another pair of black straight leg pants – or are these ones skinny jeans? – that are slightly less comfortable than the others but Hinata looks as if he almost has a heart attack when Yamaguchi walks out of the changing room. And shoes. Yachi had informed him in no uncertain terms that he had no suitable shoes for any kind of date while buying him shoes that look like they’re supposed to be formal Docs. Question mark? They do look nice, though, and they’re fairly comfortable.
Yamaguchi protests valiantly when Yachi and Hinata pay but after a long struggle with himself decide that they were the ones who dragged him out of his dorm without the time to grab his wallet. He knows it’s a lot of money, but Yachi had mostly gone to thrift stores, which he’s grateful for, so he assumes she has something to toss about at least or she wouldn’t have insisted.
This is how it happens that at exactly 11:52 Yamaguchi Tadashi is rushing out of his dorm room in brand new clothes and shoes. He stuffs his wallet in his pocket this time at least. He skids to a halt near the quad, breathing hard from running. When had he gotten this out of shape? Never mind. Yamaguchi shakes his head and sighs when his hair falls into his face. He walks into the quad at a normal speed at 11:54 and looks around. He doesn’t see Tsukishima – Yamaguchi supposes he is a little early – so he sits down on a bench to wait.
When a shadow falls over Yamaguchi, he looks up from his phone – technology is amazing and he greatly appreciates having books at his fingertips – to find Tsukishima looking at him. Tsukishima looks amused and incredibly hot and Yamaguchi suddenly understands why Yachi had taken him shopping; Tsukishima appears to understand fashion. When Yamaguchi had seen him before, he looked well-dressed but plain, nice things perhaps but casual. But this was something else entirely.
Yamaguchi wouldn’t imagine a man like Tsukishima – as much as he knows about him anyway – to be easily swayed by fashion trends but to Yamaguchi, who doesn’t keep up on fashion, Tsukishima looks like he just walked out of fashion magazine. His jacket is a soft grey that looks very good on him and contrasts with his dark blue jeans and his white shirt. There’s a black pattern on that shirt, but Yamaguchi can’t tell what it is because of the jacket. Yamaguchi glances down and notices that his shoes look clean and fashionable as well.
I’m going to have to buy her dinner. Or kiss her. Or both. Yamaguchi thinks, tugging vaguely at the sleeve of his sweater. I would never have the confidence to walk around in raggedy jeans and plain shirts with that.
“Afternoon,” Tsukishima says in greeting, offering his hand to Yamaguchi. He stares at it a moment before taking it and getting hauled to his feet a little more forcefully than necessary. When he stumbles into Tsukishima’s chest, two conflicting emotions battle inside of Yamaguchi. One: Tsukishima was very close and smelled very nice. Two: Tsukishima was very close and smelled very nice and we are in the middle of the quad, oh god.
Yamaguchi pushes away slightly, hands still on Tsukishima’s chest but more space between them. He clears his throat nervously, smoothing his hands over what Yamaguchi thinks would be the lapels of Tsukishima’s jacket – hoodie? Yamaguchi makes a note to learn a little more about clothes.
“Afternoon,” Yamaguchi parrots eventually, trying to figure out what the pattern of Tsukishima’s shirt is. An eight, but what are the words above it? Tsukishima seems perfectly willing to let Yamaguchi just stand there with his hands on Tsukishima’s chest until the world stops spinning. The words appear to be in a Latin language he doesn’t know and Yamaguchi gives up, turning his face up the few inches to look up at Tsukishima.
The act of looking up brings into sharp clarity to Yamaguchi that they are still very, very close and he still has his hands on Tsukishima’s chest. This is the second time! He snatches his hands back, embarrassed but thankfully not blushing.
“Are you ready to go?” Tsukishima asks casually, unperturbed. “I’m hoping it won’t be too crowded now it’s been a week since they opened but just in case, we might want to get there just after the lunch crowd, potentially.”
“Right,” Yamaguchi says, still a little distracted by how amazingly attractive Tsukishima is to him. Tsukishima has already started walking so Yamaguchi does too. He resists the urge to shove his hands in his pockets. “Where are we going?”
“Cat’s Eye Café. It’s close,” Tsukishima adds as if for reason why he’d chosen it, though Yamaguchi hadn’t asked.
“That place right next to the gay bar?” Yamaguchi squeaks, stopping. Tsukishima shrugs and pauses, glancing back at him.
“You coming or not?”
Yamaguchi hurries to catch up to Tsukishima.