Feelings (1)

Tsukishima was not the type to fall in love easily, heck, not even the type to make a lot of friends, it took him 1 year to finally get comfortable with Hinata, Kageyama, and Yachi being his friends.

So for Yamayguchi finding out that Tsukishima might or might not have a crush, it was BIG news. Well, it wasn't like Tsukishima had told him, he kinda just pieced it together during his third wheel days.

-

It was the start of their second year and Tsukishima was bummed out that Yamaguchi was not in his class anymore, but at least he had Yachi. Yachi was their girl manager in the volleyball club, she had yellow blonde hair with her signature blue star's hair tie. She wore a nice determined smile, a habit she got out of Hinata, he wondered just how much confidence the girl had grown to be in the club. They sat beside each other, it was a mutual agreement from both of them since they knew no one else.

"I-Is there something wrong with me Tsukishima-kun?" Yachi snapped him out of his thoughts, he silently shook his head. Yachi played with her hands, looking nervous "Then why are you staring at me?"

Tsukishima didn't know just how long he was staring at the girl, he assumed long enough to make her uncomfortable, he apologized. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking of how nice you look on the first day of school, Yachi-san."

Yachi stuttered on her words, it was rare for Tsukishima to talk without his salty comments, and even complimenting? Were pigs flying somewhere? "Thank you Tsukishima-kun! Y-you, don't look too bad yourself!" She squeaked, Tsukishima nodded and stared at the front. He thought that Yachi being beside him won't be that bad, she was smart and can even help him during English lessons. It's not a bad start to his second year.

-

"Yachi and Tsukishima, you have the cleaning duty today, class dismissed" The teacher called out, both Tsukishima and Yachi starred, wide-eyed. They quickly ran to the front of the class board, to their horror, their names were written there. Yachi panicked.

"Wednesdays!? We have club activities- we would barely have enough time to get there. What if we get kicked out for being late!? Worse! You won't get to go to competitions and Shimizu-senpai would be disappointed at me for not doing my duties properly AGH! We-"

"Calm down, Yachi-san. We can just tell the teacher." Tsukishima cut the girls rambling, although he panicked a little, he was the calm one out of the both of them. Yachi stopped and focused on her breathing.

"Let's just text our teammates for today and clean up, then we can go to our teacher to see if she can change our cleaning day," Tsukishima said, taking out his phone to send a quick message to Yamaguchi. Yachi nodded.

"I-I'll go get the cleaning supplies then," Yachi said, walking to the back of the class and opened the small storage cupboard. Tsukishima followed her a bit later.

So there they were, silently cleaning the desks and whiteboard, he obviously cleaned the whiteboard while she wiped the desks. Yachi still had her mind running around and coming up with situations like getting kicked out of the team or getting scolded by the teacher or even Tsukishima scolding her.

"You don't have to worry, Yachi-san." Yachi felt a poke on her cheek, she turned to Tsukishima who was now beside her. She dropped the towel and slapped her cheeks, startling Tsukishima.

"But I can't help it Tsukishima-kun! I need to have backup plans if something goes wrong- what if I go out, unprepared!? You might scold me, or even the team- or our teacher and-" He stopped by pinching her cheek. Yachi yelped at the sudden action, Tsukishima frowned and she flinched, thinking he was going to hit her or scold her.

"You just need to calm down and not panic. Like... preparing yourself for anything but also being strong if it goes wrong, instead of panicking..." Tsukishima tried to explain it to her, he scratched the back of his head and let out a frustrated grumble.

"Like... Guessing a spike, you have to choose between blocking straight away or wait because it might be a delayed attack... You have to know either one will come but you shouldn't panic and focus on what will happen in the moment... not in the future." Tsukishima said, Yachi stared back at the male in awe. Tsukishima was not good at calming down people but having an anxious manager is pushing him out of his comfort zone, heck starting high school he had to be pushed out of his comfort zone, it wasn't necessarily bad and he enjoyed it at times.

Yachi took a deep breath and smiled at him. Tsukishima wondered why his heart rate beat a little bit faster than before. "Thank you for calming me down Tsukishima-kun! Let's finish and get back to our team and tell them what happened."

Tsukishima nodded, he stared at the girl who walked off and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He muttered something under his breath and walked off to do his own duties.

They managed to finish, they packed their stuff and started walking to their teacher's office. They had a nice comfortable silence as they walked, they didn't need anything else but each other's presence.

"Sensei?" Yachi called out, knocking on the door before opening it. They spotted their teacher and waved to her.

"Ah, Yachi, Tsukishima. What is it?" She asked, and she gestured to them to come to her desk. Yachi walked there, Tsukishima following close behind her.

"A-ah, Sensei... you see..." Yachi started, suddenly feeling anxious. Tsukishima saw the girl panic and took over.

"We have practices during Wednesdays and Fridays... so if we can, could we change our cleaning duty to another day?" Tsukishima said, their teacher nodded and went to her screen.

"I'll tell you guys tomorrow, hopefully, your cleaning duty will be on Mondays or Tuesdays starting next week." their teacher explained, Yachi and Tsukishima said their thanks and goodbyes before leaving for their club.

-

"Yachi-san, your legs are too short." Tsukishima pointed out, stopping for the tenth time to let her catch up with him. Yachi huffed and ran to him.

"I'm sorry! You just have long legs! Why not give me some of your height too?" Yachi whined, Tsukishima snorted. Yachi pouted and crossed her arms. He cleared his throat.

"Fine, I'll walk slower." He said they started walking again, him having to walk like a stroll in a park. Yachi smiled and felt her leg's not dying this time, although it will make them later than they already are, he still waited for the girl.

"Is this how you walk to school? I could never walk this slow."Tsukishima commented, Yachi rolled her eyes and ignored his salt.

"Yes! And I'll have you know, taking the time to enjoy the things around you is very good for a person. Walking as you did there is just too fast! And you'll miss out on so many little things in life." Yachi huffed, she pouted her lips and glared at Tsukishima who just chuckled.

"Whatever, you keep telling yourself that, Chibi-san."

"You are mean, You Brachiosaurus!"

Tsukishima looked at her in surprise. "You know Dinosaurs?"

Yachi stared at him in surprise too "Yeah, why?"

Tsukishima shook his head and started fastening his pace. "It's nothing."

"H-Hey! Don't go faster!"

-

"So... you guys have duty together?" Yamaguchi said, walking beside the blonde male. Tsukishima nodded, not getting why his friend is making it such a big deal, he had told him what had happened throughout the day

"And... You just see her as a friend?" Yamaguchi asked, Tsukishima frowned. Did Yamaguchi have a crush on their manager? He certainly would care or mind... to say the least.

"I won't interfere with your crush with her. I'm not that kind of friend, Yamaguchi." Tsukishima said he coughed awkwardly. Yamaguchi facepalmed, he grumbled at his friend's idiocy.

"I don't like her, maybe think of her as cute, but no feelings whatsoever." Yamaguchi quickly explained the misunderstanding, the last thing he wants to do is ruin the ship he is trying to build. "Besides... I have this girl in my class, we have duty on Thursdays and... she's actually nice..." Yamaguchi blushed.

Tsukishima grinned, his salt sensors signaling off.

"Oh oh~? What's this? Don't tell me you like her? Hmmm~~???" Tsukishima teased, leaning down to see his friend's reaction. Yamaguchi blushed hard.

"S-shut up."

-

"Are you done, Yachi-san?" Tsukishima called out to his blonde manager. Yachi hummed in response. It had been 3 months since school started and Yachi and Tsukishima had just finished their cleaning duties.

"Great-" Tsukishima stopped when he felt his phone buzz. He took it out of his pocket and read the message from Yamaguchi.

"Yachi-san?" He asked, tapping her shoulder. Yachi turned to him and tilted her head, waiting for him to continue. "Are you free today?"

It startled Yachi a bit, she felt her cheeks heat up and she looked on the ground to hide her face. She started fiddling with her fingers. "S-so suddenly? Wha-"

"Yamaguchi invited us for a study. Knowing him, it must be for shrimp and king." Tsukishima explained calmly, tapping on his phone to reply. Yachi stopped her running mind and mentally slapped herself. She doesn't know if she should feel hurt or relieved.

"A-ah! Sure! Our mid-year exams are still far but I'm sure Hinata and Kageyama need all the help they can get." Yachi said, maybe too excited for her own being. Tsukishima glanced at the girl then back to his phone, for a study group, she seemed too excited. He wondered if she had any crushes on their volleyball team-

Wait, why does he care if she does?

Tsukishima frowned, just staring at his screen. Yachi noticed and waved her hand over his face. "Tsukishima-kun?" He flinched and looked at the girl, his glasses sliding down a bit lower.

"You were making this face," Yachi said, imitating him, she placed her index fingers on her eyebrows and pushed them down, making an angry face. Tsukishima didn't know what to feel, the fact that she still looked cute doing that, or that fact that HE JUST SAID SHE WAS CUTE.

Yachi burst out into laughter, Tsukishima stared at her in awe. "Gomen, Gomen- It's just- It's fun to imitate you! No wonder Sugawara-senpai does it a lot." Her giggles were sweet like honey and Tsukishima couldn't help but smile, he snorted.

"Yachi-san, I didn't know you had the ability to tease people," He said, chuckling. Yachi shyly nodded. "It's surprising..." Tsukishima stared at her, like a mystery he just can't seem to solve. Yachi was a weird topic for him.

Firstly, not being a sexist, she is a girl. Not like Tsukishima had never interacted with girls before, Yachi was the first-ever girl -space- friend he ever had. Second, she was different, many girls would crush over him from his looks, which I guess he doesn't look bad? Yamaguchi told him that he actually had nice features which made the male more aware of his appearance from that point onwards. But to Yachi, she looked at him with a spark of determination, her eyes would sparkle when she noticed small things about him, and he noticed that little bit of hope in her eyes whenever he is getting more comfortable with her, oddly enough, she didn't seem to think of him in any way but a friend (He doesn't know if he likes that or not, he'll figure it out later on. For now, he'll just ignore it)

"Let's go, they're in Hinata's classroom." Tsukishima snapped out of his thoughts, he quickly faced away from the girl and fixed his glasses to hide the blush he had.

-

"So... you like her." Tsukishima spit out his drink and coughed. Yamaguchi just stared at his male friend, dying.

"Y-Yamaguchi- you can't just suddenly-"

"But it's true, right?" Yamaguchi stared into his eyes, Tsukishima stopped and for a moment, they shared a brief silence. Yamaguchi saw Tsukishima's cheeks turn bright red. He smiled, knowing he hit right at the target.

"N-no! I don't!" Tsukishima said, stepping back from his friend, he slapped his hand over his face to hide the very noticeable blush. Yamaguchi wasn't blind, in fact, he can be considered smart!

He knew his best friend like the back of his hand. He saw how Tsukishima would glance at her more during practice, or how he always seemed to be around her when they bumped into each other through the halls, he would always be carrying stuff for her or eat lunch with her, even walking home with her at times. So Yamaguchi either had 2 options, she is his new best friend or his crush. He picked the second one because Tsukishima's best friend's title is his.

So he stared at the flustered male who muttered things under his breath, it looks like he doesn't even know what he's feeling. Yamaguchi stopped the laugh wanting to escape his mouth. Instead, he patted the back of his friend's shoulder and gave a knowing sigh.

"I'm here for you, Tsukki." Which caused Tsukishima to look at him, confused. Yamaguchi felt like a great friend, the best even. He laughed proudly at himself and patted his own shoulder. "I'm such a good friend." He left Tsukishima looking confused, flustered, and a mess.