Chapter Text
When Tsukishima came in to the store he was soaked. I had not been raining that hard when he'd left, and after checking the forecast which called the drizzling to stop by mid afternoon, had decided not to take his umbrella with him. And that had been his mistake.
Thankfully, he was the opener today, meaning no one else would be there to see the consequences of his lapse in judgment and, if he wanted to, could remain in the semi-darkness of the closed store until it was time to open – or perhaps even later, when customers might actually begin to show up.
Tsukishima dropped his bag on the stool behind the counter, the only thing not half-soaked through since he'd been trying to shelter it from the rain with every fiber of his being; the books he'd borrowed a few weeks ago among it's contents that he didn't need ruined as he planned on returning them before they were missed. He then headed to the back to find the paper towels among the few cleaning supplies that were provided, and proceeded to wipe the water from his face and glasses once he did.
He picked at his damp clothes, heaving an inaudible sigh. They would dry, of course, but he doubted fully until he threw them into the dryer at home.
Tsukishima then gathered his most prized possessions, his headphones and music player, from his bag along with the books he was returning, and went to work replacing them on their proper shelves, the music there to drown out the drizzling of the rain.
As Tsukishima had thought, there were no customers in the morning. And there most likely wouldn't be any customers at all for the rest of his shift.
In his one month of working at this small bookstore, Tsukishima had sold a total of three books, and those three books had been split among two customers. People did come in and out from time to time but it was few and far between, and most of them came in under the pretense that they were “just looking” and left a few minutes later.
But that was fine with Tsukishima. He wasn't much for the whole 'human interaction' thing anyway; he preferred things like this, the shop to himself, the quiet and calm of solitude, and the requirement of minimal effort. Not to say that he did nothing. He still placed the sporadic shipments the store received on the shelves, organized and mapped out where the different genres and categories of books were located, and even had helped put up a new shelf in his first week.
Most of his time spent working, however, were days like these. It felt slow but comfortable. Tsukishima could wear his headphones without reprimand. He could even play the music out loud if he wanted to, though he didn't.
Above all it was peaceful, a place where Tsukishima could just lose hours in the day, waste time not thinking about his looming college assignment deadlines or how much of his paycheck he'd have to sacrifice this week to help his brother pay rent.
It was peaceful, and he liked that.
Tsukishima had thought his shift would go by without incident, until incident came through the door.
Tsukishima hadn't even noticed him until he was standing right in front of the counter, nearly making him jolt. He looked up and made eye contact with a short ginger in a black track suit, twisting the strap of a gym bag at his shoulder, both of which were damp from the rain that was still falling.
He was also dripping on the floor. Ugh, Tsukishima thought, knowing that when this guy left he was going to have to clean that up.
“Do you have textbooks here?” the customer in front of the counter asked, smashing Tsukishima's misconception that the person in front of his was some grade school-er who had wondered in here because of the rain, considering his height.
“In the back,” Tsukishima said, voice neutral, and went back to reading his book.
The redhead looked behind his shoulder at the bookshelves lining the wall, looking confused. Tsukishima didn't even have to look up to know.
“What do you mean by in the back?” he then asked, followed by slightly pursed lips.
Tsukishima inhales and lets it out in an inaudible sigh. “The bookcase at the back-end of the room, in the right hand corner, second to top shelf.”
There's more fidgeting and shifting from the other before he walks away, following Tsukishima's instructions. There's a few moments of silence before Tsukishima hears a small frustrated groan and then a thump and dull clattering of hardcover books against carpet.
Ugh, Tsukishima couldn't help but think again.
When the customer did finally vacate the premises, he left Tsukishima with a new total of five books sold, multiple equally energetic and annoying apologies, a mess on the floor, and an irritating feeling that he had seen him before.
Tsukishima didn't live alone.
He was working at a small, very under the radar bookstore so it definitely made sense that he couldn't afford to live in a place by himself. He had been staying with his brother ever since starting college and was the main reason he had a job in the first place in order to pay his portion of the rent. Though he hadn't wanted to burden his parents nor his brother with his presence when he felt he was old enough to be able to take care of himself, once everything was set up there was really nothing he could complain about. He had his own room and his brother was kind enough to keep his pestering to a minimum. Mostly, Tsukishima was left alone and he was okay with that.
By now he was used to balancing his classes with hours spent at work that – only broken with Exams – he never let the stress bother him. When he had started working, the lack of customers and silence was a God-send and an opportunity to finish any assignments he hadn't at home.
“You forgot your umbrella today.” was the first thing Akiteru said to him as soon as he stepped in the door.
“I noticed.” Tsukishima said while taking off his shoes. He could still hear the rush of rain drops against cement outside and feel the damp sticking to his hair and clothes.
“How was work?”
“S'fine.” Tsukishima shrugged, not that his brother could see as he moved from the entrance of their shared place to his own room. He set his bag down on the floor and took out two books he'd borrowed from the bookstore to replace the ones he'd put back as well as his music player and headphones.
“Uh oh, what's with that face? Did something happen?” his brother questioned, now in the doorway of his room.
Tsukishima hadn't even realized he'd been making a 'face', but in light of the mess he'd cleaned up before he got off his shift, it made sense. “Nothing. Just some idiot knocked over a whole row of textbooks and couldn't even bother to clean it up himself.”
“An idiot, huh?” Akiteru quirked his eyebrow, “Sounds rough.” Tsukishima hummed in brief affirmation. “Well, I don't feel like cooking tonight. Is take-out okay?”
“That's fine.”
It continues to rain the entire rest of the week. Tsukishima spends most of it either in his classes or at home on his bed. He barely sees Akiteru as the other has his own job to work at and works significantly longer hours than Tsukishima himself.
But, when Tsukishima does find himself back at the book store, he was unfortunate enough to be greeted with a familiar sight.
“Gwah!” He bursts through the door with almost as much force as the storm outside, still having that gym bag slung on his shoulders that brings another – perhaps even stronger than before – wave of feeling that he has seen this guy somewhere before. And it annoys the hell out of him.
Tsukishima feels the sigh building in his chest, but simply shrugs it off. He just continues placing the armful of books onto their place on the shelf. He's entertaining thoughts that, perhaps, if he simply ignores the other he will go away, but the gym-bag guy says, “Wow, it's raining so much!” more or less to himself and Tsukishima rolls his eyes.
“Don't you have an umbrella?” he finds himself snapping. Gym-bag looks at him with wide brown eyes as if he was just now registering Tsukishima's presence, and when it's obvious that he's not going to Tsukishima continues, “You're dripping water all over the floor.”
“Wha-?” Gym-bag looks down to where tracks of water are left from just his shoes. “Oh! Sorry about that.” he says and rubs the back of his neck, grin seeming more shy than embarrassed.
He then goes on, “I didn't think it would still be raining today. It seemed pretty sunny before,” even though Tsukishima did not ask.
“Next time check the weather report.” Tsukishima responds tersely and makes his way back behind the counter.
And for a few minutes there's nothing but the hiss of pattering rain outside and the sound of pen on paper as Tsukishima writes. He would have almost thought Gym-bag went home if it weren't for the fact that he hadn't heard the other leave.
“Um...” Gymn-bag then asks, still in the same spot as when he entered, “Can I stay here even... even like this?”
Not if I can help it. “You can do whatever you want.” Tsukishima assured him without removing his pen from the paper, but at this point he's only pretending to be busy so he won't be bothered and has taken to making swirls in the corner of the paper. At least the answer seems to satisfy Gym-bag, and he walks straight passed the counter, passed Tsukishima and to the back. Tsukishima hopes he's not thinking about looking at anymore textbooks.
He stays for over an hour.
Tsukishima finds this more surprising than he thinks he should because, by this point he's sure Gym-bag has some sort of ulterior motive for coming to the store. Perhaps it's shelter from the rain, perhaps it is really the books, but Tsukishima feels there has to be more for someone as seemingly energetic as him to spend hours in a quiet, little bookstore.
And it also bothers Tsukishima more than it should. Tsukishima tells himself that it's because he's used to being alone. With the other here, he constantly feels as though he should be occupying himself with work and if he's not, the other will take notice and judge him for it. Not that Tsukishima cares particularly what he thinks, but he's not fond of the feeling that he's being observed.
Gym-bag also doesn't buy anything this time. By the sound of turning pages coming from the small table tucked in the only bit of empty space in the store, Tsukishima assumed he was reading a book. Apparently it hadn't been good enough to buy.
He also hesitates at the door and Tsukishima pretends he doesn't notice. The sun is shining though the few scattered rain clouds continue to pour their contents out on the pavement and Gym-bag grimaced before he sprinted out across the parking lot.
Despite himself, Tsukishima smirked.
Tsukishima happened to be off three days the following week.
It's not that uncommon for him, but it is rather boring. Although, he'd much rather spend blissful solitude alone in his room than at his job, especially given recent occurrences.
Perhaps it's the effect of too much time on his hands, but he finds himself searching through his mind for where he had seen Gym-bag before. It's been a subtle tug in the back of his mind whenever he saw the other and it was beginning to annoy him.
The most probable answer was school – middle school or high school; Elementary school was too blurry for him to remember that he doubted he could match a face to one he'd seen over six years ago.
He spent perhaps a solid thirty seconds going through faces he can barely put names to before he realizes this was a complete waste of his time and attempted to smother his thoughts within his textbook.
Unfortunately for Tsukishima, his next shift was in the middle of the day rather than opening in the morning as he mostly did, and, even more unfortunately, Gym-bag was at the counter chatting with a female co-worker when he arrived.
Tsukishima couldn't even say he was surprised. By now the only feeling he could really manifest was resignation.
As he walked by, however, neither of the two glanced at him as he slipped in the back to store his bag and damp umbrella as it had just stopped raining before he entered, and it was said to be the last of the rainy days for a while so Tsukishima would be happy when he didn't have to carry his umbrella around anymore.
It wasn't until he made his way just beside the counter that Gym-bag – and in succession, his co-worker – seemed to notice he was there.
“Ah, I'm so sorry, Tsukishima-san. I'll be out of your way in a second.” his co-worker tells him and Tsukishima genuinely feels bad because she remembered his name and, for the life of him, he can't remember her's.
But that doesn't really matter because she's gathering her things in a rush, tucking away her blonde hair and trying to get out of his way before acknowledging the redhead behind the counter. “C'mon, Hinata-kun.” she says to him and they both exit out the door.
Tsukishima just kind of stands behind the counter then, lingering his gaze at the door. And Tsukishima would never admit to watching as the two continued to talk outside , Gym-bag – who he would now have to remember to replace in his memory as Hinata – was animated and his co-worker, who he had always thought of at the shy, quiet type, was practically glowing during their conversation.
A few minutes pass before they're hugging and parting ways, his co-worker across the wet parking lot and Hinata, much as well as less to Tsukishima's surprise, back towards the entrance of the store. Tsukishima quickly ducks his head and pretends to be observing the money in the cash register.
Hinata comes through the door and seems to beeline directly in front of the counter, and Tsukishima looks up just in time for Hinata to ask him, “So you work with Yachi-san?”
Yachi Hitoka, right, Tsukishima thought, remembering her name. And to Hinata's question, he simply shrugs.
“Y'know, I came in here mainly to see her because she told me about text books I could use, but I guess it didn't work out all that well,” Hinata continues, and all Tsukishima can think is, Why are you telling me this? “... but I like it here, so I'll probably come back.”
It doesn't sound like a very good idea to Tsukishima, but he says nothing, keeping his face expressly neutral. Hinata then falls silent, drumming his fingers on the surface of the counter and seems to make a point of trying to focus his eyes everywhere than at Tsukishima.
The awkward silence lingered for longer than Tsukishima was sure either of them wanted until Hinata finally lifted his eyes back up to the blonde. “So... do you have any books you'd recommend?”
Normally, Tsukishima wouldn't mind sharing his book preferences with others, especially given that he worked in a bookstore. But Tsukishima can't seem to help the annoyance Hinata just seems to spark within him, and he doesn't stop his mouth from curling slyly around his response of, “Sorry, but we don't get many children's books here.” or the smirk that results after.
For a moment, Hinata's brown eyes go wide before his brows furrow and his mouth twists into a scowl that Tsukishima finds less satisfying than he thought he would. He also backs away, as if Tsukishima might come out from behind the counter to physically attack him, and quickly disappears behind the bookshelves without another word.
Tsukishima has been waiting for Hinata to leave for hours.
He didn't make a single attempt to interact with the other since his comments from earlier, but now it's nearly five in the evening and Tsukishima has to lock up, and he can't do that with the other still somewhere in the store.
His bag is already packed, his headphones and music player lying next to it on the counter when he decides it's time to intervene.
Tsukishima walks among the shelves and of course it doesn't take long for him to find Hinata passed out at the table. If it weren't for the other's back shifting to rise and fall with his breathing, Tsukishima would have thought the other dead from the way the side of his head rested against the table and the way his arms dangled down underneath him.
For a moment he's also at a loss of what to do and irrational nervousness bubbles inside him as he knows he'll have to wake the other up, but he doesn't dwell on the feelings for long. He reaches a hand for Hinata's shoulder and nudges him once, then twice, and finally a third time as he calls out his name, “Hinata.” And Hinata then jolts awake, looking dazed and disoriented as he looks at Tsukishima.
“I'm closing the store, so if you don't mind...” Tsukishima trails off as Hinata's eyes go wide. He gets up then, uttering a curse that seems inappropriate for someone so small before dashing from the table to the exit with record setting speed.
Tsukishima can't help it, but he finds himself half smiling.