"Have fun! I'll be waiting out here doing some work, okay?" My mother calls out from the car.
"Okay, thank you." Tsukishima turns to her, bowing before grabbing my hand and walking into the gym once again.
"AKAASHI! OUR TSUKKI IS HERE!" Bokuto immediately points at the boy next to me.
This guy...he still scares me.
"Bokuto-San...how many times do I have to tell you?" Akaashi sighs.
"Tsukki! Glad you made it." Kuroo waves, and I spot Hinata as well as Kageyama.
"What are the two freaks doing here?" Tsukishima scrunches up his face in disgust, and I look up at him with a frown.
"Don't be mean." I whisper, nudging his arm.
"Whatever." He rolls his eyes.
"KENMA, GET YOUR ASS UP!"
"There's already two setters. I'm going to sit out for a while. I'm tired." The blonde haired boy stays sitting against the wall, waving his arm out at Kuroo.
"Let me take your bag." I turn to Tsukishima, beginning to take the bag off his shoulder but he holds it in place.
"I'll carry it. Let's go." He mumbles, walking off. I follow closely behind him and he sets his bag down against the wall. "I brought a blanket for you to sit on this time. You sure you'll be fine?" He asks and I nod, sitting down and putting my own bag in front of me.
"Mm, I brought homework." I say and he squats in front of me, ruffling my hair much to my dismay.
"You're adorable ." He mumbles, kissing my forehead. "We won't be long today, alright? If you get lonely you can try to talk to Kenma." He says and I shake my head.
"He's scary." I mumble and Tsukishima laughs.
"You're taller than him. There's nothing to be afraid of." He says and then stands up. "Alright, I'm going." He waves, walking off onto the court.
I fix my hair and see that almost immediately he's arguing with his teammates.
I pull out my homework, as well as the sweater Tsukishima gave to me. I drape the sweater over the front of my body, a habit I've gotten used to in hopes to cover myself. Crossing my legs and propping the homework on my backpack, I begin working on the problems.
After a while, I decide to take a break, feeling mentally drained from the work. I stuff it back into my backpack and quietly watch the practice.
"Um...hello." I hear a small voice. I jump, not expecting it and see that the person who spoke jumps too.
"H-Hello." I respond, looking at his shoulder instead of his face.
"Is is okay if I sit with you?" He asks timidly.
Maybe he wants the blanket.
"O-Oh! You can take this." I point to the blanket and he goes silent for a moment.
"No, that's not really what I...uh. Last time Tsukishima was saying how you don't really get along well with other people. I'm not good at making friends either. You seemed bored so I just thought I could come over..." The boy shifts his weight between his feet, holding his hands behind his back.
"Oh..." I take a breath, scooting over and offering a majority of the blanket for him to sit on. "S-Sure."
Any time now, he should be calling me Debu.
It's quiet between us for a few minutes before he puts a small gaming device on his lap.
"Do you like games?" He asks.
I didn't really think his voice matched him at all when I heard him the first time I came with Tsukishima to a practice with them. His voice is deep, or maybe it's just because he talks low, and it's very calm. It sounds like he'd be good at reading bedtime stories. It's sort of soothing?
"U-Um, I used to play mobile games a lot." I respond, fiddling with my fingers in my lap.
"Should we take turns then?" He asks, placing the device in my lap and I bite the insides of my cheeks, picking it up.
"I think I'll probably suck at it...I don't want to ruin your scores or anything." I mumble, looking down at my hands. They're a bit shaky. This guy makes me nervous. He's scary.
"It's okay, I made a new account for you to play. Just press that button to start." He says and points to one of them.
"Thank you." I mumble, pressing the button. The character that comes onto screen is a default character, with bright orange hair. "Looks like Hinata-Kun." I mutter to myself.
"Hinata Shōyō? You know him too?" Kenma asks, and I look him in the eyes for the first time. They're a bit brighter, and he looks intrigued.
"Oh, yes. He's nice." I mumble, turning back to the game to see that I already died.
"Shōyō." Kenma repeats the name, and I look at him out of the side of my eyes and see that a small smile rests on his face. "Yeah, he is nice."
I pass back the game but he just presses restart and hands it back to me.
"How did you meet him?" He asks as I desperately try to run away from the monsters in the game.
"U-Um-" I flinch as I get killed, handing the game back. "I think I'll just watch you play instead." I say quietly.
"You sure?" He asks and I nod.
"I go to Karasuno too. Well, right now I'm kind of home schooled? But I'm doing the work from there, so technically I still go there? But yeah, he and Kageyama took care of me one time when something bad happened. Hinata made sure I got treated by their manager." I bite my lip. "How did you meet him?"
"Hinata is such a nice guy." He sighs, slaying the monsters in the game with ease. "I met him when we both got lost. And then met him again the next day for our practice game against each other. I really like watching him play volleyball, I'm hoping our teams can play against each other at nationals. We go over to each other's houses sometimes, he gives good relationship advice too. Sometimes."
"That's funny, you two met each other before you were supposed to meet each other." I smile slightly. "Relationship advice? Does he have a girlfriend? Kozume-Senpai, you have a girlfriend too?" I tilt my head. His cheeks flush red and he bites his lip.
"Um, well-"
"Hello, girlfriend here." I hear and suddenly Kuroo is sitting in front of us.
"O-Oh, hello." I bow my head to him, looking away. I think about his words for a minute and when they register in my head, my eyes widen. "K-Kozume's girlfriend is Kuroo-Senpai...Kozume-Senpai is gay, Kuroo-Senpai is gay..."
A laugh erupts from Kuroo and my cheeks go red before I quickly bow on the floor to the both of them.
"I-I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I-I didn't k-know!" I quickly say, and within the next second, I'm being pulled up back to my knees by Tsukishima.
"What happened? Why are you bowing to them? Kuroo you're just laughing, and Kenma looks embarrassed as hell. Explain. Now." He demands, looking at the two boys. I stand up, clinging to Tsukishima's side and burying my face in his shoulder.
"I-It's my fault. Kozume-Senpai and I w-were playing games and we started t-talking about Hinata-Kun, and somehow relationships got brought up and I asked if Kozume-Senpai had a girlfriend and his girlfriend is Kuroo! I didn't know, I feel so bad." I say into his shirt, it comes out muffled but still able to be heard.
"We are homosexuals. Sorry Yuna-Chan." Kuroo says before laughing again.
"Y-You don't have to apologize. It's okay. And you don't have to call me senpai either." Kenma's voice comes after.
Tsukishima let's out a heavy sigh, bringing me to the front of his body and wrapping his arms around me.
"Have I embarrassed you? I'm sorry." I whisper quietly, wrapping my arms around him as well and letting my hands rest on his back.
"It's okay, you haven't. You just didn't know, it's fine." He whispers so that only I can hear. "I'm done, so we can go back home now. I don't want to make your mother wait too long in the car, or you here."
I nod solemnly, untangling myself from his arms. We both grab our things, and I carry the blanket as well as sweater in my arms.
"Goodbye. I'm sorry for mistaking your boyfriend for your girlfriend." I bow to Kenma and Kuroo.
"See you." Tsukishima waves before pulling me out of the gym.
"Oh, that was pretty short!" My mother says once we get into the car. "Am I taking you home, Tsukishima?" My mother asks.
"Yes please." He responds and we quickly slide our seatbelts on before my mother takes off.
"Nationals isn't for a while, but practices are going to start getting longer so we can prepare. Which means I probably won't be able to come over as much anymore." Tsukishima takes my hand, and I look over to him.
"I understand. I'm excited for you, I know you'll do well." I smile and he gives a small one in return.
"I know I just look like a big, emotionless guy all the time- well, when I'm not with you- but I'm nervous. I don't want to lose. There's going to be a lot of teams there that have way more experience playing at a national level. I'm not that skilled yet, but I don't want to let my teammates down." He says, and I rub our intertwined hands with my free one.
"You're very skilled, Tsukishima-Kun. You're getting better and better at blocking, so I doubt you'd let your teammates down. Even if you can't block directly, you can block by narrowing the path of their spike, right? It's normal to feel nervous, but I think you'll do well."
He's quiet for a moment before a light chuckle comes from his lips.
"You've picked up a lot of volleyball lately, haven't you?" He asks and I nod excitedly.
"I did some more research on it after I watched your game."
The rest of the ride we talked quietly in the back seat, holding hands. When we arrive at his house though, his mother is waiting outside.
"Are you in trouble?" I mumble and he frowns, letting go of my hand and clicking off his seatbelt.
"I don't think so. Want to meet her?" He asks and my eyes widen.
"O-Oh, s-sure." I say, slowly getting out of the car.
"I would like to say hi as well." My mother gets out.
"It's nice to meet you." My mother and I say in unison, bowing to her.
"The pleasure is mine." The woman smiles, bowing as well. "You must be Yuna-Chan. My son speaks very highly of you." She looks at me, and her gaze feels like it's piercing through my body.
"Y-Yes, that's me." I give a weak smile.
"Do you mind if I speak with your mother privately? I'm glad she's here, you kids can go inside. It won't be long."
"We'll be in my room then." Tsukishima grabs my hand.
"Door open! Introduce her to your brother as well!" His mother calls as we enter his house, slipping off our shoes.
He sighs, leading me up the stairs and knocking on a door.
"Come in." Comes a muffled voice from the room. Tsukishima pushes the door open and walks in. "Oh, you brought...?" The boy sits up from his bed and looks at me, surprised.
"Her name is Yuna Mei." Tsukishima says and I bow to the older guy.
"Hello, nice to meet you." I say before standing up.
"You look very different than what I imagined. It's nice to meet you as well." He tilts his head, smiling.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry." I pull my hand away from Tsukishima's out of embarrassment and clasp my hands behind my back.
"Why would you say that?" Tsukishima scoffs.
"I didn't mean it in a mean way! She has a very cute face-"
Tsukishima drags me out the room, closing the door. He grumbles something under his breath in annoyance before leading me into a different room.
"I-I'm sorry Tsukishima-Kun." I say quietly, rubbing my elbow once he lets go of me.
"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything." He sighs, sitting on the bed.
"I'm sure you're embarrassed that I'm not what people picture when you say you're dating someone..." I look down and the blonde boy takes a deep breath before letting it out.
"Come here." He pats the spot next to him. I sit down and he laces his fingers with mine.
"I'm never embarrassed of you. I took you to my practice and you met some of the guys I went to the camp with. If I were embarrassed of you I wouldn't have invited you." He says, using his other hand to play with my fingers.
"I'm sure it's still frustrating to hear comments like that though. But I'm losing weight, so that's good right? No one will have to say I'm not what they expected anymore." At this, he stops playing with my hand and looks down at me.
"I don't care about the comments. It's only frustrating because people don't think before they speak. And...you're doing it in a healthy way, right?" He asks, worry lacing his tone. I smile up at him, nodding.
"Of course." I lie through my teeth.