Chapter Text
For as long as he could remember, Tsukishima Kei was always surrounded by blood, gore, and death. But of course that would happen when being born into a family of assassins, well, more like a community of assassins. One would say that having a family of "heartless, cold, murderous people" would be unfortunate, but that's not what Tsukishima was led to think. The blonde boy believed that being an assassin was thrilling! When he was a little boy, his father, who was both an assassin and head of the Law Enforcement, taught him how to sneak, hide, and stealth around. He was home schooled for the first few years of his school life, because they didn't want the child to accidentally reveal the secret community who got aid from the Law Enforcement. Then, when he was a preteen, his dear father died in an assassination mission. Thus leaving the eldest brother, Akiteru Tsukishima, to continue teaching young Tsukishima about the ways of the family. Kei was attending a public school now, now that he knew to keep it all a secret. He was also taught how to act, and not seem suspicious, just in case if the topic of the secret killers was ever brought up.
He never had friends when growing up as a kid. Unless the only other kid who was born into the assassin family counted. This over excitable, annoying, hyper, loud and obnoxious kid was part of the Hinata family. His name was Hinata Shoyo. Even though the ginger boy grew up with Tsukishima, he never considered him a friend. But once Tsukishima joined a public school, he met new people of all kinds. In Kei's opinion, all the people he met were they same, all of them were pathetic. None of them were worth his time, so he just ended up ignoring everyone. Until that one, fine, sunny after noon, when he just happened to come across a scrawny, skinny, wimpy boy getting harassed in an alleyway.
Kei was walking down the street one day, on his way to the corner store for some snacks. He had his silver, Sony headphones placed over his ears, listening to his music, he then took them off when he heard a loud crashing sound, like metal trash bins falling over. He looked over at the dark, grudgey, narrow alley. There the blonde saw three guys towering over the scared half to death male who had fallen on the ground.
"Oi Yama, Yama, Yama," the guy in the middle said. He looked like an average, middle school school boy, and he wore the same uniform as Tsukishima.
"I heard you were talking to my girl after classes, huh? Are you trying to pick a fight?"
"N-n-no! I w-wasn't, well I m-mean I was but I'm not trying to d-do anything!" The boy with black hair stuttered crazily. For some odd reason, Tsukishima just stood there and watched, instead of walking off and leaving it be.
"Oh so you admit to it, huh!" he growled, and lifted his foot up to stomp back down on the boy on the ground.
Kei leaned his side up against one of the brick walls of the surrounding buildings, and scoffed at the guy's stupidity.
"Psh, idiot," Tsukishima said lowly.
"Huuuuhh?" the three guys turned around, and glared at the tall blonde. For a moment, they were struck with fear. Tsukishima was an intimidating guy, with his tall, sturdy build, his harsh glare that he makes with his piercing golden eyes, and the scowl he had spread across his face. Not to mention the shadow that covered his face, that made his eyes glow, and his glasses slightly shine. But when they realized that it was just the guy known for not caring anyone else's problems, they relaxed a bit. Hoping that he wouldn't get involved.
"This has nothing to do with you, get lost Tsukishima," the guy on the right said.
"You're right, this does have nothing to do with me," he peered down at the helpless boy, he saw how terrified he was through his weird looking eyes. Does he think I'm gonna hurt him too? Tsukishima pondered. The guys hummed, then turned back around to the freckled boy, turning their backs to Tsukishima.
"People like you really piss me off y'know," Tsukishima tilted his head to the side, and stopped leaning on the wall."Thinking they own the place," they looked back at him and balled their fists. "Pathetic," he spat.
"What did you say?!" the three yelled, then charged at Tsukishima ready to fight him. But unfortunately, for them, Tsukishima was too fast.
Kei slipped his hands into his pockets, and stepped out of the way. He backed out of the alley, and tripped the men at the entrance. They went face first into the cement ground. They groaned with pain, and had skin scrapes on their foreheads. One of the three stooges came swinging a wooden bat at Kei. The tall blonde dodged easily, and at the same time kicked the male's hand, forcing him to drop the bat. He could have broke the other's hand if he wanted to, be he didn't care enough to. The bat fell to the ground, the sound of wood hitting the cement echoed throughout the small alley.
"Let's get out of here. There's no point anymore," the guy, who was previously harassing the pathetic boy, said. He wiped the blood that was trickling from his nose away with the back of his sleeve, and the group stomped away. Tsukishima turned back to the boy on the ground. Relief washed over the freckled face, and he peered up at the looming blonde. Quickly, he jumped back up onto his feet, and brushed the rocks and grime off the back of his black pants. He too wore the same school uniform as Tsukishima. I've never seen this guy before, probably because I don't pay attention to weaklings. Kei took his hand out of his pockets to slip his head phones, that were hanging around his neck, back over his ears.
"Thank you, Tsukki!" the freckled boy exclaimed before Tsukishima was able to turn his music on.
"Don't call me 'Tsukki' like you're my friend," Tsukishima growled, he begun to walk out of the alley, The male right behind him.
"Sorry, Tsukishima!" he apologized with a bright smile. Tsukishima forced a scowl. Which turned out to be more of a pout. Why is that guy smiling like that?! Kei cursed inside.
"Tch, whatever."
"I'm Yamaguchi Tadashi," Yamaguchi stated, he stuck a hand out to Tsukishima, for a hand shake.
The blonde glanced down at the hand presented to him, he plainly replied, "Tsukishima Kei." But he never reached his hand out to finish the gesture, Kei just kept his large hands stuffed down in his pant pockets.
Nervously, Tadashi chuckled, and put his hand down. "Do you like strawberry shortcake, Tsukki-SHIMA?" Yamaguchi slipped up, and tried to save it. Tsukishima cocked an eyebrow at the question Yamaguchi was asking.
"Huh, why are you asking me that?" he said with a slightly annoyed tone. Why am I even answering this guy? I could just leave now, Tsukishima debated whether he should just ignore this guy and get on with his life, or answer his questions.
"Oh," Yamaguchi giggled, "no reason, no reason at all! Anyway, thank you for helping me, again," Yamaguchi said, and bowed his head in thanks. "I-I have to go now, so- uh, bye!"
"Bye," Tsukishima said, and Tadashi walked off at a fast pace. Kei got his snacks, and went home at a leisurely pace. When nearing his home, the blonde started to think about the freckled boy. Kei didn't feel angry when he was talking to Tadashi, unlike every other student that has ever talk to him. At the very most, you could say Tsukishima enjoyed his short chat with the weaker male. The voice of Tadashi didn't make Tsukishima want to blare his music to the point of making his ear bleed. No. The blonde decided that he could stand his voice. Tsukishima sighed heavily. He felt slight regret, regret knowing that he'd have to ignore Yamaguchi from now on. He had done a good job not socializing with people up until now, and he could keep it up. Kei went to sleep, with Yamaguchi on his mind
The next day, Tsukishima hadn't forgotten about the previous day's events. He had hoped with a good nights rest that he would have just ignored everyone again. A part of him didn't want Yamaguchi to talk to him, at all, and the other part of him didn't care at all. Tsukishima sighed for the hundredth time that morning, and opened the door to his house to leave for school. He had his traditional silver, Sony headphones over his ears, blaring out the any surrounding sound with his loud music. The walk to school was quick and speedy. The first half of school seemed to drag on, but when it came to lunch, Kei was sitting at his desk eating his lunch. He was interrupted by someone standing in front of his desk. The blonde glanced up, and met a pair of brown eyes. "Yamaguchi?" Tsukishima questioned, and took out his iPod to turn off his music. The freckled face was shining brightly. A wide smile spread across his lips. His eye's looked like they were sparkling, and there was a light pink color dusting his cheeks.
"I-I wanted to thank you again, for helping me," he bowed and shoved a reusable plastic container near Kei's face. It had some sort of food in it, but he couldn't tell what it was.
"I think you've done enough thanking," Tsukishima said with an annoyed tone. He carefully retrieved the container from Yamaguchi's hands. He popped off the blue lid, and it revealed a slice of a nicely decorated, strawberry short cake. The aroma of sweet icing and fresh strawberries came rushing out of the container. His mouth started to water, in want for the sweet dessert.
"Please a-accept this as a g-gift of my g-gratitude!" Yamaguchi rushed his words, hoping that he wouldn't attract too much attention. Tadashi, about to crack under the pressure of embarrassment, left the classroom in a snap. Leaving Tsukishima speechless. He looked back down at the plastic box in his hands, and sighed with annoyance, then setting it down on the desk's flat surface.
Being an assassin, Tsukishima knew all the little tricks for killing somebody without being noticed. One of those tricks was poisoning something. Not only did he know how to poison, but he also recognize something that was poisoned. He got another whiff of the delicious looking cake. It doesn't smell off, anyway, Tsukishima noted. He looked at the coloring of the vanilla cake, it looked normal. Even the creamy, white, glorious icing looked perfect. The cake looked perfect. Well, because it looked like an average strawberry short cake.
Some students were staring at the blonde in utter confusion. He too was shocked by Yamaguchi bolting out of the room. Tsukishima found nothing wrong with the cake, so he decided to eat it. And he didn't regret a single thing. The cake was absolutely delicious! He enjoyed every single bite of the dessert. The strawberries were just right, and ripe. It wasn't too sweet, but sweet enough. After school, Tsukishima was walking down the pathway home. He then saw a mop of dark, swampy like hair, moving away from him. He knew that it was Yamaguchi, but he didn't care to talk to him. To the tall blonde just shrugged his shoulders and carried on his way. Tadashi turned around, as if knowing that Kei was behind him.
"Hi, Tsukki!" Yamaguchi spoke casually.
"I told you not to call me 'Tsukki,'" he growled.
"Sorry," he apologized, "so, how was the cake?"
"It was good, where did you buy it?" Tsukishima questioned the freckled boy. Yamaguchi shifted nervously under the piercing, eyes of Tsukki.
"Actually, I- uh, I-I made it," Yamaguchi spoke quietly. "I'm glad you thought it was good!"
Tsukishima scowled, I just complimented someone! Him to be exact, now he'll never leave me alone! But did he truly want this boy to leave him alone? The blonde didn't really know what he wanted when it came to the freckled male.
"Huh," is all Kei said, before fishing into his back pack the retrieve the container. He handed it to Yamaguchi, and walked around him so he could go home.
"Wait, are you walking this way?" Tadashi asked. Kei halted for a split second, but then kept walking, not wanting to be bothered by him anymore. "Well since we're walking the same way, do you mind if I tag along with you?"
No, leave me alone, he wanted to respond with.
"I don't care," is what he said instead. The freckled boy ran to catch up with Tsukishima, and had to walk at a brisk pace in order to match Kei's long strides. Silently, the two walked together. Tsukishima had his head phones on, and was playing his music, which could be heard by Tadashi's ears. Tsukishima would send the smaller male glances, and stare at him for a little while, before looking straightforward again. Yamaguchi then suddenly halted in his tracks. This didn't go unnoticed by Kei. He too stopped, and looked down at him.
"This is where I part," Yamaguchi spoke. His face shone with a bright smile. "See ya' tomorrow, Tsukishima!" He lifted his hand up, and waved to Tsukishima.
"Okay, bye," Kei just raised his hand, in a attempted wave. Before Tsukishima walked away, Yamaguchi called out to him once more.
"Hey, is it alright if we walk home together again tomorrow?" He asked. 'Why is this guy doing this to me?
Why does he want to hang out with me so much? Tsukishima shrugged his shoulders lazily, "I don't care." He kept walking on ward toward his home, not bothering to return Yamaguchi's 'goodnight!' Why can't I hate him like I do everybody else? It's so much easier that way, Kei then looked down at his phone, which had vibrated in his pocket. He turned on the screen, and flinched back a little bit at the sudden brightness in the dark night. He received a text message from his big brother, Akiteru.
Akiteru
little bro, where are you? get home, we have chores to do
Tsukishima mumbled curse words under his breath, clearly forgetting about his 'chores', then typed a quick response to his brother.
Kei
Okay.
He hurried home, and threw his school bag by the door, slipping his shows off, then hurrying down the hallway to the door that lead to their basement. He climbed down the solid stairs, and locked eyes with his brother.
"It took you long enough, Kei."
"Sorry," he responded, and looked over at a bulletin board with pictures of people, and information posted on a map. "Akiteru, explain the mission again, please."
"There is a murderer in the next town over. The police thinks that he is on his way here. Our job is to track him down, but not to kill him. We take him back with us and hand him over to the police," the blonde said, while placing spare throwing knives into his side pockets. Kei nodded in response, and begun to put on different clothes that were easier to move around in. He strapped on weapon pouches, and that's when Akiteru called him up, so they could begin their trek.
The two males got back home at 4 a.m. After completing their mission, Tsukishima collapsed onto his bed in exhaustion. He didn't bother to change out of his clothes, or take a shower, or eat dinner. The blonde just took a well earned rest. He wasn't looking forward to the next day, hoping that he could skip school in order to catch up on some sleep.