Isn't It Obvious? (Tsukkiyama)

Hands

They had whipped up the plan haphazardly after practice on Monday, and although they had both agreed on committing to it, Tadashi couldn't help but feel nervous. He wasn't scared of the team per se, but they were going for PDA, so it wouldn't be too far out there to assume that others not in the club might catch on. Not that Tadashi much minded people knowing Tsukishima and him were in a relationship, but the potential wrath of all the girls who fawned over Kei scared him more than he cared to admit. They'd have to be strategic about this: obvious enough that the team could figure it out, but subtle enough that Kei's horde of spurned would-be lovers didn't catch their scent. Seriously, those girls were feral.

So, they decided to start small, with hand-holding. This wouldn't be the first time they held hands on school grounds, Tadashi supposed. After all, it wasn't uncommon to see Tadashi dragging Tsukishima by the hand to the courtyard to eat, or for Kei to drag Tadashi away in a hurry so he could avoid bothersome confessions. But those situations were different, this was affection, not a rushed getaway.

Taking Tsukishima's hand in his own, he grinned up at the taller boy. "Day one is a go! How long do you think it'll take for the team to figure it out, Tsukki?"

"With that band of idiots? They'll never catch on," Kei scoffed. After years of constant companionship, Tadashi knew Kei well enough to understand what he really meant was, 'I don't know how long it'll take, it's always a toss-up with these guys'. "Actually, my money is on Kiyoko and Yachi. Those two spend enough time monitoring the team that I wouldn't be surprised if they already knew."

Tadashi hummed noncommittally, it was true that their managers kept a close eye on the team, but something told him they hadn't caught on yet either. After all, if Yachi knew she would have surely congratulated them already. With a gentle hand squeeze and a heavy sigh, Tsukishima silently signaled he didn't feel like talking much more. It was too early, and neither of them were really morning people.

The school gates were close now, and with the thrum of students coming in for the morning clubs, Tsukishima pulled on his headphones. Hand in hand, the two made their way to the clubrooms, and although Tadashi was keeping an eye out for suspicious gazes, none of the other students milling about seemed to pay mind to the two boys.

By the time they arrived, the rest of the team was already in the clubroom, except for Kageyama and Hinata of course, they had probably been in the gym since dawn. While Suga did glance at their conjoined hands, he didn't say anything, and no one else seemed to notice. Changed, in uniform, and ready to practice, Tsukishima grabbed Tadashi's hand again, and the two left for the gym.

During practice, of course, holding hands was a no-go. Even so, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi found ways to be more tactile than usual. Tsukishima's hands lingered on Tadashi for longer than they usually did while stretching, and while no one seemed to pay mind to the prolonged contact, Tadashi sure got red. What did raise eyebrows though, was when Tsukishima willingly offered and accepted high fives from Yamaguchi. He still refused the gestures from the rest of the team, dodging their attempt at congratulatory contact, to which Yamaguchi found himself giggling at the increasingly aggressive attempts at kinship.

The rest of the day continued on without a hitch. During lunch with the other first-years, Tsukishima traced mindless patterns into the freckles dotting Yamaguchi's arms, sending pleasant shivers up the olive haired boy's spine and leaving a warm feeling in his chest. Hinata and Kageyama didn't notice, too busy arguing about volleyball and trying to convince Kei and Tadashi to join their ungodly-houred pre-morning morning practices. Yachi, however, glanced curiously at the show of affection, looking back and forth between the blonde and Yamaguchi before shaking her head and reminding Hinata that not everyone could, or even wanted to, play volleyball at 4 am. Before he knew it, lunch was over, and they ambled back to class.

Afternoon classes seemed to take ages, and, for the first time, Tadashi found himself wishing for class to hurry up so he could practice already. When classes finally, finally, ended, Tsukishima was, as usual, approached by the pretty girl of the week. This particular one was persistent, she had been confessing to Kei every day for what seemed like weeks. Obviously annoyed, he didn't even try to avoid her and just cut her off before she could even speak.

"No, for the last time, I'm not interested in dating you, take your confessions somewhere else and stop wasting my time."

Yamaguchi had to suppress a quiet snicker as Kei shot the girl down, honestly, how many times would it take before she gave up? He felt a little sorry that she had to be so brutally turned away, but only a little. That was, after all, his man she was trying to date. Plus, her confessions always made them late for practice or lunch, and it was seriously getting annoying. Tadashi did, however, finally burst into muffled giggles as the girl stormed off in a huff, muttering about "boys not appreciating real beauty". She hadn't even noticed that the two had been holding hands throughout her confession.

The two employed the same touchy-feely tactic during after school practice as they had during morning practice. Aside from that though, things went on as usual: Tanaka took his shirt off too many times, Hinata and Kageyama fought over something stupid, Noya tried to get Kinoshita and Narita to backflip in sync with him with Suga egging them on, to the result of a bloody nose and a very concerned Asahi and Yachi. The standard club chaos, really. Yamaguchi got some more good serves in, and Tsukishima finally managed to consistently touch the duo's freak quick, much to the delight of the seniors and the absolute dismay of Hinata and Kageyama. As it was, no one seemed to notice Tsukishima's overly tactile nature. Even Suga and Yachi, who seemed a bit suspicious after morning practice, seemed to have written off the touchiness. A shame, really, Akiteru had bet that Suga would be the first to figure it out.

After a quick stop at Coach Ukai's store, someone, finally someone, kicked up a fuss about the couple's new clinginess.

"Hey!! How come Stingyshima holds Yamaguchi's hand? You're usually all like Beh! You don't even shake my hand after practice matches! What gives?" Hinata's indignant shriek caused the rest of the team to look over at the pair, to whom Hinata was accusingly pointing.

"Boke, Hinata! Of course he didn't shake your hand, who would want to say that they were on the same level as such a shitty receiver?" And, just like that, Kageyama and Hinata were bickering again, Tsukishima and Tadashi now erased from their volleyball filled minds. The other troublemakers of the team were a little harder to shake.

Tanaka and Nishinoya, of course, jumped on the opportunity to heckle Tsukishima.

"Hey, yeah! Yamaguchi always gets special treatment, why can't you be that nice to your senpais huh bastard?" Of course, leave it to Tanaka to turn this into a lecture about respecting seniors.

"It's because they've been bros for forever isn't it? Admit it Saltyshima! Yamaguchi is your bestest friend! You have a favourite! Saltyshima, more like Softyshima hah!" Noya egged sing-songingly, extending the vowels for extra annoyingness.

Tsukishima simply scoffed and walked in the direction of home, Yamaguchi in tow. Once they were out of earshot and eyesight of the rest of the team, Tadashi burst into a cackling fit, and Tsukishima started snickering.

"I cah-can't believe they think hand holding is a symbol of best friend status ohmygod!" Yamaguchi could barely wheeze out the words between his gasps for air.

"I told you didn't I? Oblivious idiots. Best friends, my ass," Tsukishima chuckled at Yamaguchi's amusement. "We're clearly just bros," he stated, mocking Noya's assessment of their relationship.

"Did you just friendzone me? Me, your boyfriend?" Yamaguchi was still trying to catch his breath as he spat out the sentence with mock astonishment.

"I don't know what you mean. You're like... my closest guy friend."

"Oh my God! Stop! You're giving me flashbacks to my pining days!"

"Hah, shut up, Yamaguchi."

"Sorry, Tsukki!"

And thus ended the first day of the experiment, it left a few suspicious at the most, but the correct connections were not made. Tadashi and Kei would have to kick it up a notch it seems. Onto day 2.