His Warrior Queen: A Haikyuu!! Novel (Tsukishima x OC)

Chapter 11: Just One Kiss

Something was definitely up with Tsukishima.  Nakano hadn't been sure at first.  He still seemed the same most of the time - sassy and generally sort of teasing her a lot.  But sometimes, he'd just kind of shut down and disappear for awhile.  She'd finally decided something really was going on and tried asking him about it.  She basically got told that (1) she was an idiot, (2) nothing was going on, and (3) even if something was going on, it certainly wouldn't have anything to do with her and (4) mind her own business.

It was point three that had her pretty sure that something was on his mind, and she was part of it.  Methinks that Tsukki doth protest too much, she thought.  She'd spent the last couple of days trying desperately to figure out what she might have said or done to make him act so strangely around her.  Nothing came to mind.  It was starting to irritate her, and she really didn't like it.  Today, she thought, I'm going to try to talk to Yams.

Morning practice had been canceled, so Nakano got ready and headed towards Karasuno, timing things so she'd be most likely to run into Tsukki.  Sure enough, she saw him walking ahead of her as she turned off of her street.  She hurried up to him, and noticed his headphones were on.  She moved ahead of him a little to catch his attention.

"Good morning, Tsukki!" She said, trying hard to be cheerful.

He nodded, not looking at her or removing the headphones.  He had the music up so loud she could hear it leaking through.  Okay, she thought, gonna be one of those mornings.  Well, that works for me.  If he keeps the music that loud, I can talk with Yams behind him and he really won't hear a thing.  

She fell back a few paces and let him have some space, putting her own headphones in and trying to enjoy the morning until Yams came into view.

"Morning, Tsukki!  Morning, Nakano!"  Yams said cheerfully as they met up.  Tsukishima just nodded at him as well and kept walking.  Nakano gestured to Yamaguchi with her head and the two fell into step, putting a little more distance between themselves and Tsukki.

"Guess he's not feeling talkative this morning," Yamaguchi said with an apologetic smile.

"Okay, Yams, work with me here."

"Huh?"

"What did I do?"

"What are you talking about?"

Nakano rolled her eyes.  "Come on, Tadashi, I know you've noticed if I have.  He's been getting like this for a while now - every so often he'll just withdraw from me.  What did I do?  I've been wracking my brain and I can't figure out what I might have done to cause this, so I've no idea how to fix it.  He won't talk to me about it at all.  Has he talked to you?"

Yamaguchi rubbed the back of his neck.  Tsukki had talked to him - several times.  His confusion over his feelings about the girl had been getting worse, just as Tadashi had predicted.  He was deep in denial over how he was feeling about Nakano, and every so often he'd get so lost in thinking about it he'd just tune out from the world.  But Yamaguchi knew he couldn't tell Nakano any of that - he'd never break Tsukki's trust in him.  Besides, the two of them were going to have work this out for themselves, in the end.

"Tadashi?  Is it that bad?"  Yamaguchi looked up to see Nakano staring at him with something akin to fear in her bright blue eyes.

"No!  I'm sorry...I got lost in thought.  Look Nakano, I don't think you've done anything wrong."  Yamaguchi tried to find a way to push Nakano in the right direction without saying anything directly about Tsukki's feelings.  He sighed.  "Naka-chan, how do you feel about Tsukki?"

She colored lightly.  "Well...he told me we're friends.  I know he's not one to just say something like that, so it meant a lot to me.  I'm...really glad to be his friend."  She paused, thinking about why he might have asked this question. "Was it like this when you guys became friends?  Did it take him time to adjust to having someone get closer to him?"