A/N: Hello everyone!! Happy New Year!! I'm so sorry that it took so long to update again! I feel like it's been forever! I've just been dealing with the end of a trimester for school so i had late work and finals and things.
Obviously this is the next chapter, but would anyone be interested if I were to rewrite chapter five from Saiko's POV?? Cause there was a LOT that happened but it was all from Tsukki... sooo, anyone??
ALSO when you see:
***
Play "The Night We Met" by Lord Huron. It'll make it even better.
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Tsukki POV
Saiko popped up and quickly walked out of her room, going downstairs. I followed, hesitantly, and watched about mid-way down the stairs as she hugged an older man. He was probably in his late thirties/early forties, but he looked very fit.
"Hi dad," she said and he tossed his keys into a bowl.
He hugged her tightly with one arm as he set down his backpack and taking an arm out of his jacket. He kissed her on the forehead before letting go to finish pulling off the coat, hanging it up on the rack on the wall.
"Hi sweetheart," he called her. "How was your day?"
She backed up and sat on one of the lower steps. "It was alright, Tsukki and I just worked on our school project."
He looked up at me then, "Oh, hello there!" He waved friendlily to me.
I came down the rest of the stairs and bowed to him. "Hello, Sugawara-san."
"Please, call me Haru, most everyone does." He said as I stood back up.
He held out his hand, and I took it, returning the firm grip I found waiting there. "Tsukishima Kei," I said, introducing myself. "Call me whatever you like, I don't particularly mind anything."
"Well, Tsukki," he said, smiling, calling me the nickname that Saiko had dropped a few moments before, still gripping my hand. "I hope your project is going well."
My heartbeat picked up a little as he spoke.
"Dad," Saiko stepped in. "Let him go before you cut off the circulation to his hand."
"Oh, right." He let go then. I resisted the urge to shake out my hand. He had a firm grip. "Is your mother in the kitchen?" he asked her.
"Uh-huh." She nodded.
"Well," he said, taking off his large work boots, and pulling off a neon orange work vest, hanging it next to his discarded jacket. "Shall we go see about some dinner?"
She hopped up, nodding. "Mm-hmm!"
He walked down the hall followed by Saiko. I trailed behind them as well.
As we entered the kitchen, Ms. Sugawara greeted her husband warmly. The jars on the table had been cleared, some boxes were scattered around and they had the jars inside them.
Saiko helped set up for dinner, getting out plates and forks and cups. The forks and cups she brought to the table, but the plates she left on a counter near the stove where her mom was finishing up the last of the hamburger patties. There was a salad and a pitcher of lemonade on the table.
I offered to help, but Saiko wouldn't let me.
Her dad picked me up into a conversation instead:
"So, Tsuki," He seemed to drawl on the name, enjoying the teasing moment. "Do you do anything outside of school?"
"Yes sir, I'm a middle blocker on the Boy's Volleyball team."
"Oh yes! That's right, I remember seeing you in the nurses office when Saiko got knocked out! So you know Kōshi?"
"Yes sir, he's my upperclassman by two years. Saiko and I are in the same grade."
"Really?" He laughed a little. "You're so tall I thought you were a lot older!"
"I get that a lot."
"You know..." He tapped his chin with his finger. "I think I do remember seeing you there in the nurses office last week..."
I nodded in confirmation. "I was there."
"You looked like you were about to leave with that other boy though..."
"Yamaguchi and I were concerned, of course, but we figured she was in good hands, Sugawara-senpai was there and so was the rest of the team and Kiyoko-san."
"PFFFFT!!" I heard Saiko spit. "He's not telling you the whole story." She gave me a smug look.
"Don't-" I started.
"What's the 'whole story'?" Her dad became rather excited at the thought of whatever gossip was about to be spilled. Much like Saiko...
I see where she gets it...
I rolled my eyes as Saiko shoved the rest of the story out. I had purposefully tried to avoid what she was about to tell because I was sure that father loved drama as much as she did.
"I can't believe he didn't tell you, though he didn't tell me for a few days either, he was the one who carried me to the nurses office! You know, after we bickered all day and made fun of me all day."
"OH!!" I couldn't hold back anymore. "You're one to talk, pipsqueak! As I recall you were about to..." I tapped my chin thinking for the words that she had used that day. "'rumble' and you said, 'This diplodocus-lookin-ass is about to get it'"
"Saiko!" Her mother said. "You used that language?"
"Yes." She stated matter-of-factly. "Do you even know what that is, Tsukishima??"
I was now looking down at her. "What? A 'diplodocus'?"
"Mhm!"
"You mean the 'diplodocid sauropod'? One of the longer necked dinosaurs? Which has double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of their tails, which were considered unique at the time of their discovery in 1877?"
Her jaw dropped and her parents snickered in the background.
I smirked. "Close your mouth before you let the flies in." I pushed up my glasses and backed up to where her dad was standing at the wall.
He was still laughing behind his hand.
"How did you know all that?" Saiko asked, astonished.
"Truly," her father chimed in. "Do you want to be an archeologist one day?"
"No," I replied. "It's just more of a hobby. They've always interested me. I know a lot of useless facts about them."
"Well, then what do you want to do?" Her father asked. "I gather that if you're in the same class as Saiko, then you're in College Prep?"
Her mother said that we could come get a plate and make our hamburgers.
Picking up a plate of the counter, I said. "I'm not really sure. I'm hoping that I can continue volleyball after high school, but I don't really know what'll happen. I haven't decided yet."
"Well, that's alright," Ms. Sugawara said. "You've still got two years to think about it."
I nodded.
We chatted on until we sat down. Ms. Sugawara was religious so we said a prayer to give thanks and then we began eating.
It was one of the best things I had ever had.
I couldn't even explain it. The hamburger meat was savory and almost a little tangy, salty but not too salty. I had two tomato halves on my bun and mayonnaise and ketchup on the bun.
"How is it?" Saiko arrogantly asked.
I looked up across the table at her, giving her a look. "It's very good."
"I'm sorry," her mom said. "Is this like an... inside joke or something? Because this seems to be a thing between the two of you."
I was gonna explain but just as I opened my mouth, Saiko started speaking first.
"It's nothing mom, you're right, it's an inside joke, we'll stop."
"Thank you, it's quite rude to use inside jokes around people who don't understand."
"Gomen, mamma."
I looked at Saiko, giving her a look saying, Why didn't you say anything?
She looked back, eyes a little wide, shaking her head a little, Don't ask me about it.
I'm asking you later, I told her.
She rolled her eyes.
"Sooo..." Her dad said, breaking up our silent communication. "Tsukishima Kei, that's an interesting name. What characters do you use to spell that?"
Saiko POV
I watched him swallow his bite before returning to my own food. This wasn't an uncommon question. For anyone in Japan. We often asked what characters people used for their names.
That wasn't what got me though.
"Well, for 'Tsukishima' we use 'moon' and 'island', and for 'Kei', my parents use the character for 'firefly'."
What got me didn't even register for a moment.
'Moon', why did that feel like it should have meaning to me?
.
.
.
I don't know.
I stayed lost in thought, trying to place why I felt that that should be important, for a while. Until Tsukki lightly kicked me under the table.
I looked up at him, and he glanced over at my dad, almost saying, He asked you something.
I looked at my dad, "What did you say, papa?"
"I asked if you were gonna finish this project after dinner or tomorrow."
"Oh, um, we're almost done right now, so we'll probably just finish it tonight."
"Okay, well just try to finish up soon so Tsukishima can go home before it gets too dark."
"Okay," we both said.
We all talked for the rest of dinner, but for some reason I couldn't get the fact that his name partially meant 'moon' out of my head.
My parents said that we could just go back upstairs to finish working, and that they would clean up. We bowed and ran back upstairs.
Well.. I ran but Tsukki just walked... curse his fucking long legs.
"You know," he said when we got up there. "I don't have to stay, I could just go home. You're almost done and I don't need to stay."
"I thought we already went over this? I'm perfectly fine with you staying till I finish, besides, I don't need you gaping at my amazing work when we get back to school with the rest of the class over how great my artwork is."
"But I've already seen how good you can do." He sat back down on the edge of my bed while I sat on the floor with the poster. "But everyone else hasn't, so they'll be surprised, but I won't be gaping. Besides... when have you ever known me to 'gape' at something?"
I laughed breathily through my nose. "No, I suppose you don't do that. You only have three moods, so you couldn't do that anyways."
He sputtered a little, "Oh yeah? What are they then?"
"Smart ass, dickhead, and indifferent." I didn't even look up as I said it, knowing that my teasing was evident. "And if it's not one of those directly, then it's a mix of two or all three."
"Alright, that's fair of my emotions in public," he said. "But that's all they are, public emotions. I don't think other people need to know what I'm thinking all the time. It's unnecessary."
"I don't care what people think of my emotions. I just want to be able to be free with my emotions. I want to be able to say and do whatever I please. I don't want to be held down by societies expectations. Or at least... that how I try to be..."
-Timeskip-
I eventually finished the poster and rolled it up and put it in a safe spot so it didn't get ruined before Monday.
Tsukki helped me clean up the supplies since I had made quite a mess of all of it when I was drawing. I helped him get his other things together as well.
"Do you want to take this?" I held out the book I had been reading earlier to him.
"Um, are you okay with that?" He asked, shouldering his bag.
"Yeah, I don't mind. I might be a book hoarder but that doesn't mean I can't share!"
He smiled a little at my joke. "Thanks." He opened up his bag a put it in carefully.
We went downstairs, and I called to my parents, "Mom! Dad! I'm gonna walk Tsukki home! I'll be back in a bit!"
"Okay, be quick! Do you have your phone on you?" My mom's voice came from upstairs.
"Yeah!" I called back while slipping on some walking shoes.
I pulled on a sweatshirt and grabbed my set of keys from the bowl. They were on a lanyard that also had a small bottle of pepper spray on them. You know... for safety. The usual.
I flipped my hair out of the line of the lanyard and opened the door. It wasn't until I looked back at Tsuki, waiting for him to walk out (and he wasn't), that I realized that he was staring at me with a rather awkward, dumbfounded look on his face.
"What?" I asked. "Do I have something on me? Is there something in my hair?"
He seemed to shake himself out of his stupor. "You don't have to come with me, you know."
"Yeah. And? What's your point? It's polite."
He pursed his lips. "I guess."
"Okay," I shrugged. "You gonna go out the door or what?"
He made a "tch" noise and went out. I smiled a little and followed him out.
We walked in a mix of comfortable and awkward silence. Neither of us had anything to say.
Occasionally I would lean and bump him with my arm, and he'd stumble and then bump me back.
It felt like too soon when he said, "Well, this is my house..."
I looked around, it felt very familiar. Which seemed like a stupid thing to think, but I felt that I had walked down this street before, and not after coming back to the area.
"Wait, isn't there a park somewhere near here?" I asked him. "Like, a park, on a hill..."
He paused for a moment. "Uh, yeah, just down that way," he pointed further down the direction we had been heading before we stopped. "It's Shibiyawa Park."
"Wait, really?! I used to go there all the time when I was little!" I exclaimed. It was my favorite park. The structures allowed you to look over the hill and see houses down below. On a clear day, you could see for miles.
Without thinking, I started to run there. I hadn't been there in so long, I just wanted to see it for nostalgia's sake.
I could hear Tsukishima sputter for words behind me. "Uh- Saiko wait! Don't just run off! It's not safe to do that at night!"
I knew that, but I just wanted to see it again. I always thought the view was beautiful.
"I'll just be a minute! I promise, I won't stay long!"
I kept running, taking turns and crossing the street, starting to remember where it was. My mom used to take me and Kōshi there all the time. We would play there for hours. We'd climb and use the slides and the swings. We'd pretend we were pirates, and we'd pretend that I was a warrior princess and he was my knight. We'd pretend we were characters from movies and shows we'd seen or stories we heard.
When I finally got there, I slowed down to a walk and eventually stopped.
I looked around.
It had hardly changed. Even while I was out of breathe, I couldn't help smiling to myself.
Everything was dark from the night, but the moon had plenty of light to see by. I ducked under the slide and walked to the edge of the hill.
In reality it was more of a cliff, but not a very big one. It was sloped enough that you could roll down it if you wanted too. Though it wasn't that comfortable to do so.
"You can't just run off at night, you idiot," Tsukki said on my left, startling the ever-loving shit out of me.
"Oh my god! Tsukishima!" I hit his arm, reflexively.
"What?!"
"You can't just sneak up on people like that!" I yelled at him.
"It's not my fault your as deaf as an old person."
I scoffed. "Am not!"
"Yes, you are."
"Shut up."
"No."
I snorted, looking back at the view.
***
"God, it's so beautiful here," I muttered so softly I doubted he could hear me.
"I think so too," he said back.
I looked up at him in surprise, and he was already looking at me. Smiling softly, I took a deep breath, looking away.
I eventually laid down in the slightly damp grass and looked up at the stars, resting my arms behind my head. He followed but sat on his jacket instead of laying down.
"I've always wondered what it would be like to come here at night," I admitted. "I always thought this place was beautiful but I always wondered what it would look like in the starlight..."
"Why?"
I shrugged, humming an 'i don't know'. "I've always found the night time much better than the day time. During the day, people are bustling about their day, and there are crowds and everyone is always talking. And it's difficult for me to focus; I've always had problems with that. But during the night, the whole world seems to go still. During the night, the sun isn't glaring and everything is quiet. It's never dark though. The moon is there, and even when it's not, the stars are. I love finding the quiet places. I mean... just... listen."
And he stayed quiet. I hoped he was listening.
The trees and grass were rustling in the slight breeze.
I could faintly hear cars down below in the city area but it wasn't overwhelming.
To my left in the bushes I could hear a couple crickets, humming out their tune.
And every so often, I could hear a frog... somewhere.
I could also hear Tsuki's breathing. It wasn't labored anymore from running, but I could hear it.
Though the night sky was beautiful, there were too many lights nearby that you couldn't see as many stars as I had hoped I might, so I closed my eyes, just listening.
After a few moments, there was some rustling of clothing and grass next to me, and when I peaked an eye open, I saw Tsukki stretching out to lay down next to me. I couldn't help the small smile that crept onto my face. His hand that was closest to me was laying on his stomach and the one on the other side was under his head. I supposed he didn't want me to see this... soft(?) side of him so I just closed my eyes again.
It was so calming to just lay there, in the quietness of the night.
And then, and dear god, I haven't the faintest idea of what compelled me to do it, but I reached over with my left hand and took his right hand into mine. Tsukishima let out a small gasp, surprised at my action. I supposed he didn't want me to do that, so I started to take my hand out of his, about to apologize, but he simply tightened his grip.
"Don't." It's was almost a command. And after a few seconds, barely audible, "Please..."
"Okay," I whispered softly, shifting my hand back into a comfortable spot.
Our fingers weren't laced and we simply rested our hands between the sides of our bodies. His fingers curled almost all the way around my hand. His hand felt strong, but not rough. In fact, his hand was very soft.
I closed my eyes again, almost falling asleep while laying there. The thing that kept me awake was the pounding of my heart.
After several minutes, Tsukki whispered, "We should probably go back..."
Taking a deep breath of the crisp night air, I sighed. "Yeah, I know."
We both got up quietly. Even the rustling of our clothes felt too loud.
He picked up his jacket, tying it around his waist. As he walked away, I looked around at everything one last time. The view, the playground, the sky. Sighing, I jogged over to Tsuki, placing my hand in his again.
He sputtered a little.
"Shut up, I don't care. It's nice..." I told him.
What the hell just came out of my mouth?? I-
Oh my god...
He huffed, but didn't try to pull away anymore.
We walked back to his house, but his legs were so long that I was walking rather fast. Plus I was tiered, so I started to lag behind.
"Come on, pipsqueak," he complained, pulling against my hand a little.
"But I'm tiered and you walk so fast," I said, sticking out my bottom lip a little.
"It's not my fault your legs are so short."
"It's not my fault that your legs are so long!"
He sighed, "You know, if you can barely be awake on the way back to my house, how are you gonna get back to yours?"
"I'll run, and then when I get home, I'll just crash into bed."
"Yeah, if you don't fall asleep on the way there."
I stuck my tongue out at him. "Shut up."
"No," he said, but didn't say anything after that.
"Hey, where's your bag?" I just realized that he hadn't had it the whole time we were at the park.
"You're an observant one, aren't you?" He retorted. "I left it in my yard when you ran off like a mad woman."
"Oh."
"How tiered are you?!" He complained. "I just called you a 'mad woman' and you didn't say anything about it."
"I am exhausted. Creativity takes brains you know. And that takes energy! Must be why you're never tiered..."
He scoffed and bumped me gently. "I'm plenty tiered right now, for your information, I'm just able to stay awake while walking, dumbass."
"Rude."
We eventually got to his house, and he picked up his bag off his lawn, and walked up to the door.
"I'll see you Monday?" He asked.
"Yep! See you Monday."
He turned to go inside, but then looked back, "Will you text me when you get home? I just... I just want to know that you got back okay."
I raised my eyebrows in surprise of his concern. "Yeah, okay. I will."
"Okay." And with that, he went inside.
I sighed heavily. My body felt exhausted, though I wasn't really sure why. My comment about using brain power for creativity had obviously been false, and he knew that, but even still, I just wanted to fall into bed and not get up again for a whole day.
And yet...
I didn't want him to worry about me for too long, so I took a deep breath and started into a slow jog.
Getting home without incident, I said hello and good night to my parents and went up to bed.
I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Tsuki:
Me | 8:38 pm
Hey there, beanpole I made
it home in one piece you worry-wart.
Tsukki | 8:39 pm
I wasn't that worried pipsqueak.
Tsukki | 8:40 pm
Thank you for telling me.
I sent him a thumbs up emoji, and plugged in my phone. After changing into pajamas, I crawled into bed. It wasn't even that late, but dear god I could barely keep my eyes open.
I laid in bed looking out the window. The moon was positioned just right... I could look out my window from where I laid in bed and see the whole thing. The light from the city around me made it hard to see many stars, but I didn't mind.
It was still beautiful. It always is.
Unwillingly, I began to think about Tsukishima.
The way his hair stuck up every which way; I bet that it would be curly if he decided to grow it out. His eyes were almost like honey; I found myself having to look away more than once when talking to him or sitting with him, because I knew that I was going to get lost staring into them. Did you know that when he's concentrating on something, his mouth will open slightly? He becomes a mouth breather when he's very concentrated on something. Not loudly, but if it's quiet, you can hear his soft breathing as he studies.
His hands felt-
Wait.
My face began to burn as I realized how I now knew how his hands felt. How they felt to be wrapped around my own hand. How his finger tips were calloused from hard work and training in volleyball, but they still felt soft as if he tried to take care of them. How his fingers were slim and boney but there was still strength in them.
Oh.
My.
God.
I'm gonna fucking die of embarrassment.
Tsukki POV - Time rewind to when he just barely got home
As I opened the door to my home, I restrained the want to look back to watch Saiko as she left. To watch as far as I could to make sure that she was safe. Luckily, I was distracted the moment I walked in the door.
"Tsukki! You're home!" came a familiar voice.
"Ugh, you're here?" I scoffed at my brother. I was actually really happy that he was home, but I didn't need him to know that. "Joy..."
"Tsukki! Don't be so rude!" He complained. He came nearer to try to hug me, but I dodged him as best as I could, scooting around him.
"Whatever, I have homework to do," I lied. "I'm gonna go be in my room."
I left him standing there in the hall. On the way to my room, I said hello to my mother, letting her know that I was home. She asked how it was, but I just shrugged and said that it was alright.
By the time I actually got to my room, I was hardly containing the fact that my hands were shaking. I couldn't stop thinking about her.
Worrying about her.
Imagining her...
Nothing bad! But just the way she smiled with her eyes.
Her boisterous laughter.
How small her hand is. How soft and gentle it is.
I flopped onto my bed, putting the hand that she had insisted on holding, on my chest.
My phone dinged after a few minutes, and I whipped it out at a ridiculous speed.
Come on Kei, get it together. She's just a girl.
Looking at my phone I saw that it was a text from her, telling that she was okay, and a weight seemed to lift off my chest. Just one though. There was still another sitting there that seemed to be shaped like her.
We texted back and forth for a moment, but every time the swoosh of her text coming through, my heart sped up for a moment. When we stopped, I just stared at my ceiling. My face felt slightly heated just thinking about her.
I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes.
She's gonna be the end of me, I know it...
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Thank you all sooo much for reading! I'm sorry that it took so long to update and I'm sorry that this chapter is a little shorter than the last. I mean... 7 thousand words is a little hard to live up to every chapter.
Anyways, I hope you're enjoying the story! 💛💛
I would love it if you could leave a vote! It would mean so much to me 💛
If not, let me know what you think about the story so far! Let me know where you think it's going...
I'll try to update again soon!