solid | tsukishima kei

fourteen.

Tsukishima couldn't fall asleep. His mind kept drifting in and out of a half-conscious state before it would be jolted back into reality. He groaned and rolled onto his side, wishing and hoping that sleep would soon take him away but as the night stretched on, it became evident to him that he wouldn't be getting even an hour of sleep.

He heard his bedroom door creek open and then the sound of someone pulling over the chair at his desk. Tsukishima remained still in bed, trying to pretend to be asleep. There was a long awkward silence while Tsukishima waited for the person to leave but they never did.

Tsukishima felt someone's hand gently touch his head, pushing back his messy hair. They patted his head and pushed back his hair, not saying anything. What am I? A dog? Tsukishima thought to himself and finally opened his eyes. He shifted and turned to tell the person off but stopped when the shadow of the person didn't match his mother.

"Sorry," Takahashi said, "I didn't mean to wake you up,"

"It's fine," Tsukishima said sitting up in bed, "I was awake anyways. I was just pretending, hoping that whoever was patting my head would go away,"

The dark made it hard for Tsukishima to see Takahashi's face. She stood up and pushed Tsukishima's chair back to his desk before pointing at the door.

"I can leave then," she said.

"That's not what I meant," Tsukishima replied quickly to stop Takahashi from leaving. She paused and gave him a curious look. Tsukishima reached for the light on his nightstand and flicked it on. The light only temporarily blinded him before his eyes adjusted to the light.

He turned to look back at Takahashi and found that she was blurry all around the edges. Tsukishima turned back to his nightstand and started to put his glasses on when he felt the weight on his bed sink to one side.

With his glasses halfway on, Tsukishima quickly turned around to see Takahashi sitting on his bed. Her hands held his, taking the glasses from him. The blurry image of her face caused Tsukishima to squint at her. As he tried to focus on her face a bit more, he could see the beginning of a smile on her face as she slipped his glasses on.

"You're pretty cute without your glasses," she said. The words came easily off of her tongue as if she's said them multiple times before. Takahashi looked around the room in a daze, "Your eyesight really sucks,"

Tsukishima sighed and reached for his glasses. His bad eyesight, however, also affected his depth perception and he nearly poked Takahashi in the eye. She swerved out of the way and removed his glasses, placing them crooked on his face on purpose. With another sigh, Tsukishima fixed his glasses and gave Takahashi a long look.

"What is it?" Takahashi asked.

"You're smiling," Tsukishima said, "But you're faking it,"

Takahashi flinched and looked at her feet, "You really are blunt, aren't you?" she said with a shake of her head, "It's easier to pretend I'm alright than to admit that something is wrong. I'm sorry you had to see me like that,"

Tsukishima gritted his teeth, "Stop saying sorry. You haven't done anything wrong, so why are you always apologizing?" he asked her. Takahashi wouldn't meet his eyes and didn't reply. Tsukishima made a scoffing sound before grabbing Takahashi's face with both of his hands so that she looked up at him, "You did nothing wrong," he said.

Takahashi's eyes still didn't look at Tsukishima even if her face faced his.

"Look at me," Tsukishima said.

It looked as though Takahashi had to force her eyes to look at Tsukishima. When he saw her eyes, he felt what little energy he had slip away from him. Her golden eyes were so defeated, he wasn't even sure what to do. He sighed and gently scooted over so Takahashi could lie down on the bed.