Chapter Text
One time, he ripped his friend's lip with his braces.
They yanked away from each other, the two of them wiping the blood from their mouth. The shorter one laughed and laughed, while the taller one scowled and mumbled away. They agreed to save kissing for later. Even if it would be a painful wait.
Every time someone brought up the busted lip his entire face would go red from the top of his ears down to his neck and shoulders. Even after years have passed, he'd bring it up, whenever the other got too close.
"Hey, back up, I might wreck your mouth again." The freckled boy pushed back at the other's chest, going back to his book.
"Yamaguchi," He pressed forward again, "You don't even have braces anymore."
Yamaguchi just hummed long and low. He didn't look up from what he was reading and turned slightly in the other direction. Tsukishima rolled his eyes and faced away from him to the wall. After a long stretch of nothing, he remarked,
"Train-tracks teeth."
Yamaguchi looked up with his eyebrows furrowed and his nose scrunched.
"Four-eyes."
Tsukishima took off his glasses and transferred them onto Yamaguchi.
"Mm, six-eyes, you contact-wearing cheater."
Yamaguchi smiled at this and pulled at Tsukishima's hair until their mouths touched. They stared into each other's eyes until the corners of Yamaguchi's mouth quirked mischievously. "Is your mouth bleeding?"
Tsukishima snatched his glasses away and vacated to the other side of the couch with his face steaming in embarrassment. Yamaguchi cackled when he sat up straighter. "Tsukki, you look like those red hot candies. Yeah, I could go for some of those right now"
Still embarrassed, Tsukishima replied, "You could have me then,"
"No way. You're probably bland. Saltine cracker lookin' ass."
Tsukishima snorted and covered his mouth with the back of his hand, "Looks can be deceiving. You should give me a try."
"Gosh Tsukki, It's like you learned to flirt through wiki-how." Yamaguchi laughed, while mimicking Tsukishima's action by covering his own face with the insides of his elbows. Tsukishima tugged at the other's arms and gave him a peck on the nose in a fruitless attempt to avert the topic to something else.
When Yamaguchi smiled, his nose would scrunch up and fan out towards his closed eyes. When Yamaguchi smiled, you could just barely make out a dimple on his right cheek. When Yamaguchi smiled, you could see how one of his canine teeth would sit a little higher in his mouth and point outwards.
It was no different this time. Tsukishima thought it was funny how that one little canine was crooked after three and a half years of being a metal mouth, just because Yamaguchi was too stubborn to wear his retainer.