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An endless stream of insults. A backpack thrown at his face. Tears running down his freckled cheeks as his tormentors laughed.
These were things Yamaguchi had come to expect from an average day trying to blend in and make a few friends at school. What he had never expected, however, was to hear a quiet voice fill his brain, blocking out the laughter of his bullies.
Lame.
What?
Who said that?
Yamaguchi looked past the three kids who had thrown their bags at him and knocked him down, and saw a tall blonde boy surveying him and assessing the situation he was in with glittering yellow eyes. The bullies noticed there he was staring past them and turned around.
"What're YOU looking at?"
"Hey, isn't he a sixth grader?"
"Nah, he's just from class three."
"...Lame."
The same voice, only the first time he'd heard it the bullies hadn't reacted, like they hadn't heard him. Had Yamaguchi even heard him?
Now one of the bullies had run up to the mysterious blonde kid and was yelling at him, only to find that the blonde was a lot taller than him.
"Y-you're lame four-eyes!"
But the tall boy just laughed and walked away.
So cool.
Yamaguchi watched him leave as the bullies grabbed their bags and ran to class.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Yamaguchi-kun? Is something wrong?"
"Hmm? No sensei."
Yamaguchi looked at his teacher in slight confusion. He had been spacing out, sure, but why had his teacher asked that?
"Ah, you were tapping your fingers, I thought you might be distracted by something."
Yamaguchi blinked, had he been?
"Sorry sensei."
As class continued, Yamaguchi glanced at Tsukishima, silently asking him, "was I really tapping my fingers Tsukki?"
"Yes." Came the deadpan answer.
"I didn't even notice."
"Really? You do it all the time."
"Haa? I do?"
"Yes, you do."
Well, that was news. But Tsukishima noticing something about him that he himself never noticed wasn't new. The blonde had learned to read Yamaguchi like a book ever since the first day Yamaguchi had shown up at their elementary's volleyball club and run into Tsukishima for the second time. When they'd become fast friends, Yamaguchi found out that reading Tsukishima's mind when he was focused on something wasn't a one time deal.They both possessed the ability to read minds, which meant a lot of silent talking during boring classes, which was most of them, due to the boys' shared ability to pick up most subjects quite easily, and with each other there to help them study, school had never been terribly hard. Their telepathy also had an impact on their friendship. They quickly learned to read each other, and since they were usually silently communicating and spending all their free time together anyway, they came to know each other as well as they knew themselves.
"Your mind is wandering."
"You know whose mind is wandering? The girl in the back who is fantasizing about you. Her mind is wandering."
"So I am perfectly aware."
"And mildly uncomfortable?"
"Are you not?"
"I am, actually, she's really loud, and clearly she knows nothing about you beyond the fact that you're hot."
"...You think I'm hot?"
"C'mon, you know I'm bi."
"That's fair, I guess."
Class finished out with them mocking the girl brutally, and silently yelling in disgust as her fantasy continued. As they headed to volleyball, they heard a familiar voice silently yelling "NOT TODAY BAKAGEYAMA"
"Are they racing again?" Asked Tsukishima out loud.
"Honestly, when do Hinata and Kageyama NOT race each other to practice?" Said Yamaguchi, shaking his head slightly at the orange-haired first year's apparently infinite stamina.
"That's true, actually."
As they fell silent again on their way up to the clubroom, Yamaguchi found himself absently humming. Why was he doing that? The melody simply filled his head to the point of distraction. It was just like when Tsukki- Oh.
"I know why I keep tapping my fingers in class." Announced Yamaguchi as Hinata and Kageyama raced each other out the door towards the gym.
"And why is that?"
"It's because even when you don't have your headphones on, you're always thinking your music. Like you've a song stuck in your head or something. You get so focused on it that your brain is like a speaker to me."
"Oh."
"I realized it because on our way up here, i was humming a song I don't think I've even heard before."
"I see"
Yamaguchi glance at his friend as they finished changing. Tsukishima's face was mildly distracted, and his thoughts were buzzing.
"Tsukki? Are you okay?" Yamaguchi asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. We should go, though. Daichi will yell at us if we're late."
All through practice Yamaguchi noted that Tsukishima was distracted. His mind appeared to be running in several different directions at once and- Thump.
"Nice serve, Yamaguchi!" Called Nishinoya from the other side of the gym, his usual wide grin plastered on his face.
Damn. He'd been so focused on what Tsukishima had been thinking about that he'd served directly to the libero. Why did he always serve right to the libero? Not that it mattered, even if he was more careful, Nishinoya usually returned his serves anyway. He was simply an exceptional player. Turning his mind back to Tsukishima, its usual destination, really, he found that Tsukishima was now covering up his hectic mind by singing something from one of his playlists loudly in his brain. That made nice background noise for the rest of practice.
As they began their normal walk towards home, (Yamaguchi's house today, as it was a Friday, and one of them usually slept over on Friday nights), Tsukishima's mind had finally settled down. Why'd it been so messy earlier?
"Tsukki."
"Yes?"
"Is something wrong?"
Crap.
It had been a while since Tsukishima's thoughts had been so loud and blatant.
"No, nothing is wrong, Yamaguchi."
"You know for a fact that lying doesn't work on me."
At this, Tsukishima mind began whirling again. Yamaguchi focused for a moment, and manage to pick out a couple phrases from the jumble of things Tsukishima was thinking.
He knows.
I didn't know my thoughts were easy to read.
"He knows what?"
"Nothing."
Was Tsukishima blushing?
"I am not!"
"You so are."
"OHHHHH"
"SHUT UP" Yamaguchi grinned. It was never easy to hide a crush from a telepath.
He instinctively reached out and grabbed Tsukishima's hand.
"You know, I was only referring to music earlier, I never really tried reading your thoughts beyond what you were broadcasting to me."
"Yeah, yeah."
But he didn't let go of Yamaguchi's hand the whole way home.
That night over whatever movie they were watching, (Tsukishima trusted Yamaguchi's movie collection enough to pick something random out of it),Yamaguchi found himself drumming his fingers to a song he'd shown Tsukishima a while ago. He'd never been so happy to find himself performing his unconscious tic.
He could almost feel Tsukishima smirking.
"You did that on purpose."
"Of course I didn't."
Tsukishima twisted his head to the side slightly and pressed a quick kiss to Yamaguchi's hair just above his ear.
"I did THAT on purpose."
"I know."
Yamaguchi smiled quietly and pulled him down for a proper kiss.