How to fly with clipped wings (English ver.) HAIKYUU!! FAN FICTION

Chapter 28: The Dispute

It was her tenth night (in total, not in a row) at the Tsukishima's when Mikaela finally worked up the nerve to ask Tsukishima what she'd been thinking. "Hey, Tsukishima," she called from her spot on the couch as he passed by the living room. He paused and glared at her. "Are we friends?"

"No," he called back with a scowl on his face, heading into the kitchen. There was a brief shuffling of objects before he returned to the living room, adjusting his glasses. "No, we're most certainly not," he confirmed.

"Can we be?" Mikaela asked, cocking her head. "Friends, I mean."

He scoffed. "We know nothing about each other."

"Actually, you know more about me than almost anyone else," she contradicted.

"I mean, simple things."

"Then why don't you ask?"

Tsukishima paused, glaring at her, before his glare softened and he sat down in the chair across from her. "What do you propose?" he said tiredly.

Her eyes lit up. "Seriously? You're up for being friends?"

"Well, otherwise you'd pester me all night and that'd just be annoying, so I'm getting it over with now."

Mikaela rolled her eyes at the typical Tsukishima response. "How about twenty questions?" she asked, and Tsukishima waved his hand to show he didn't care. "Fine. Favourite food?"

He paused. "That's your first question?"

"Yep."

"...Strawberries," he muttered, and Mikaela had to fight the grin trying to appear on her face. "What's your favourite colour?"

She laughed. "That's your first question?"

"Shut up. I'll go to bed-"

"No, wait." Mikaela sighed, sinking into the couch. "I'd say black, but I'm not sure if you're the type that'll chew me out because 'black isn't a colour, it's a shade'." He rolled his eyes. Her voice softened. "Green," she said quietly, "like a dark forest green. How about you?"

Tsukishima didn't answer right away, holding her gaze for a while before lacing his fingers and tearing his gaze away. "Blue," he replied quietly. "Dark blue."

Their banter continued for a while, jumping through questions like favourite books or movies, favourite desserts or subjects, before Mikaela realized how tired she was and admitted that she should probably get to sleep. Tsukishima made sure to point out that she had used eleven questions out of twenty and he had used ten, and Mikaela didn't bother complaining because at least he was opening up to her, bit by bit.

She never even realized that his favourite colour had been the colour of her eyes.

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They were so close. It was October 10th, just a little over two weeks from the playoffs, and Mikaela was just as excited as the rest of the team to finally play the team they were up against, Johzenji. Her guess was just that the team wanted to play another game for real- their last training camp with Nekoma, Fukurodani, and the surrounding teams was just over a week ago and she was itching for an official game.

Mikaela fidgeted anxiously at her desk, trying to pay attention to the English lesson but to no avail. They were going over synchronized attacks in practice tonight and she was super excited to help coordinate positions.

"Shoot," her teacher muttered suddenly. "I forgot to photocopy the homework." The class cheered, but she shook her head. "I'll go do that now. I'll take someone to help me out- how about you, Tsukishima. Review the lesson while I'm gone."