#qtkou

___________________________________________________________________

There are few things Yachi regrets about joining the Karasuno Volleyball team as their manager. One of them is choosing Hinata of all people to be her romantic confidant. Another is letting Hinata freeload caffeine and cake off of her under the guise of Romantic Advisory Sessions (though his own love-life left much to be desired).

And Hinata is not being a good friend. His stupidly loud laughter is drawing them both disgruntled looks from the other patrons of the cafe and Yachi wants to go and hide under a rock. A large one. A boulder maybe.

Maybe also murder Hinata and bury him under said boulder. But she can’t because, you know, abiding with the law like a good citizen and all that.

“So,” Hinata gasps out, his laughter dying down with a few coughs. Oh good, he’s finally decided to stop embarrassing her in a public place and signing his own death warrant. 

Being good friends with Kiyoko-san, she had been taught quite a few things about dealing with annoying friends and their annoying antics.

“So, I need you to help me think of something so I can ask Tsukishima-kun out on a platonic date with future romantic intentions,” Yachi sighs, taking a sip of her coffee. Hinata is not being a good friend and romantic confidant, but he is dependable. Mostly. Some of the time.

“You guys aren’t going to the same university, right? So bring him to a souvenir shop or something and get him something. A memento to remember you by. Give him a bracelet engraved with ‘I love you, Tsukishima-kun’. Get him a ring, declare your love and devotion. Give him…” 

As Hinata continues to rattle on, Yachi looks out of the window of the cafe and across the street, seeing a shop teeming with kids and their parents and decorated in bright colours and flashing lights. 

Following Hinata’s line of thought (which is probably not a very good idea, but desperate times call for desperate measures), an idea slowly begins to form.

Now she knows what she was going to do on her Totally Platonic Not-Date with Tsukishima.

•• A few days later ••

Yachi is not prepared for this at all.

She’s waiting near at the street corner for Tsukishima to arrive before they both go to their intended destination. The call to invite Tsukishima out had gone surprisingly well — The conversation was short and he had agreed easily.

"Um… Tsukishima-kun… I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk around the mall and then some cake this Friday? I mean, it was —"

"Okay."

"— just a suggestion — wait, ‘okay’ ?”

"Yeah, I’m free on Friday. Besides, I owe you for helping me with tutoring the idiots we call teammates so yes. Okay."

And that had been that. They had talked about the time and place they were meeting and that was it. She had been prepared for a rejection and convincing (read: whining and begging) him to ‘hang out’ with her. 

She had not, however, been prepared for him to actually say yes so amiably for their Totally Platonic Not-Date. This is totally gonna be the worst plan in the history of plans.

This is all Hinata’s fault. 

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? If you’re going through hell, keep walking. If — Oh God, Tsukishima is here. He looks terrifying and gorgeous and terrifyingly gorgeous, as usual. Oh God he’s here.

Sometimes it’s like Tsukishima was a crazy acrobat from another life. He’s so stupidly graceful he won’t walk normally if he can glide over. That’s what he’s doing now, just sauntering over to her with his casual grace. “Ready to go? You had plans, right?”

"Plans? Oh yes, plans. Plans that I have been planning for a while. Let’s go! We have plans to fulfil." Yachi then bounds off — she is a determined woman on a mission— with Tsukishima following her calmly to their location. 

A location which happens to be —

"Build-A-Bear?! What are we, five?"

"Just follow me, Tsukishima-kun. I told you, we have plans.” Yachi smiles sweetly and starts to drag him inside the store, stopping in front of the fluff-less bears on display.

•••••

Tsukishima is sent off to choose a bear to represent himself (“It’s poetic justice, Tsukishima-kun!” “What? For what? What did I — You know what? I don’t even want to know.”) while Yachi has skipped away to presumably do the same for herself. 

He sighs and looks around, the only adults he sees being the parents who are trying hard to keep track of their respective runaway screaming children and the employees. They’re the only teenagers there (not that he’s surprised about that).

He soon returns with a normal brown bear — because he’s boring like that — while Yachi carries back a pink one a while later. They both go to stand in line behind a kid and his parent queueing in front of a brightly coloured machine making sounds and flashes of light while filling the unstuffed toys with cotton. It’s manned by a teenager who is probably the same age as them, her arms gesticulating wildly as she talks to the kid with a bright smile on her face. She looks so excited and jittery to be there that it’s as if the toys are for her. 

Actually, when Tsukishima looks around, the only people who seemed to genuinely want to be there are the kids, the employees and Yachi. In fact, a few of the smaller children are looking at him and Yachi with something that looks weirdly like awe and wonder on their faces. He’s starting to feel self-conscious when Yachi suddenly elbows him hard in the ribs. 

"Hi! I’m Akane! Oh man, you guys are cute together!” Yachi flushes at the comment and looks away as Tsukishima clears his throat. 

"Okay, so who’s going first? We’re going to make those cute and fluffy so they’ll be comfortable huggers and cuddlers." Akane says, looking between the both of them.

"Tsukishima-kun, you go first." Yachi pushes him forward and he sighs, suddenly dreading the next few minutes. Akane extends her hand towards him and waits for him to surrender the bear to her. "You need to tell me when you think he’s stuffed enough, okay?"

He nods resignedly as he watches Akane put the toy in position and switch the machine on. Beside him, he feels rather than sees Yachi jump at the sudden flash of colour and sound when the machine whirred to life, the colourful lights illuminating the cotton inside.

He watches the machine stuff the toy with cotton and instructs Akane to stop when the toy seemed adequately stuffed. Akane cheerfully forces him to squish the bear to see if it’s filled enough for him and then turns him to a box full of red hearts. 

"Go on and grab a heart from there. It’s time for the fun part now," Akane says. He picks out a heart from the box and turns back, only to see Yachi biting back laughter from beside him. She’s looking way too chipper for some reason and he’s starting to regret coming (not) when Akane claps her hands together to get his attention.

"Now, listen carefully," she whispers, leaning forward lightly as if sharing a secret, "You need to rub the little heart against your head so your bear will be just as smart as you." Tsukishima’s eyes widen in disbelief as Yachi starts to snicker. He rubs the heart against his hair for a few seconds before snatching it away from there as if it were on fire. 

He can feel a headache coming and why had he agreed to come here with Yachi? Well, okay, he knows why, she has him wrapped around her little finger and she doesn’t even know. Damn it.

•••••

"Now, rub it against your arms so that he’ll be just as strong and brave as you." Tsukishima starts to frown as Yachi’s snickering turns into uncontrollable giggles. He does as said, though not without a lot of scowling and hesitation. 

Akane seems to be having a lot of fun forcing him to rub the little heart on various parts of his body (the stomach and heart are the ones where he looked like he’d rather drop his wallet in the drain than do them again the most). 

Frankly, Yachi is also enjoying this way too much, but can you really blame her? The usually indifferent and sarcastic Tsukishima is being treated like a child at a toy shop! He looks visibly uneasy and yet he’s refraining from saying any of his usual snarky remarks because of all the kids around though he’s not really one to pull his punches.

Her crush is so damn adorable sometimes.

Yachi is pulled back from her daydreaming when Akane says, “Okay then, there’s one final thing left to do!” Tsukishima’s face is like a Study in Man-Pain. It’s hilarious. Oh God, she was terrible.

"Give the heart a big kiss before we give your bear his heart!” Wait, no, Akane was the terrible one. They should totally exchange numbers and become friends. 

Tsukishima’s face gets a tired look and he looks resigned and defeated. He presses the heart to his lips roughly before thrusting it in Akane’s direction. She collects the heart delicately and stuffs it in the bear before stitching it up, her practiced fingers moving in quick and familiar motions. 

Yachi tries to stifle her laughter at Tsukishima’s ordeal, but she’s obviously failed when he turns to regard her with a mild glare, “What.”

"You need to use punctuation properly, Tsukishima-kun." The few years of being the volleyball club’s manager has really done a number on her self-preservation instincts, "Anyway, I’ve never seen someone looks so pained when giving a kiss before.” 

She is still giggling a bit when she notices Tsukishima’s glare soften into an expression she’s never seen on his face before. Her heart starts to race —

— When their ‘moment’ is almost rudely cut short when Akane taps Tsukishima on his shoulder and pretty much forces the (now) stuffed toy into his hands. 

"Okay, lover-boy. You need to leave so I can stuff your girlfriend’s toy without you distracting her. Shoo. Go choose clothes for your little teddy friend," 

Akane chases Tsukishima off to the rows and rows of cute teddy bear clothes on display and Yachi can’t help but notice the red tint to the back of his neck and his ears. 

She clutches the little voice box that she had grabbed earlier in her suddenly clammy hand as her heart starts to beat fast again, though now for an entirely different reason than before.

•••••

Tsukishima walks around the store’s large display of doll clothes looking for something that looked like something he would wear since the bear was supposed to represent him for whatever reason. He still didn’t understand the reasoning behind this trip but he didn’t regret coming here with Yachi. It was an excuse to spend time with her and if he actually enjoyed being time here with Yachi, she didn’t have to know.

He grabs the first pair of pants he sees that look fine to him and gets a hoodie with dinosaurs on it. He’s just idly walking around now that his bear is adequately clothed. 

Loitering around in a toy shop — Must be a Thursday.

He’s leaning against a wall mural of a bunch of bears on little aeroplanes and zoning out when Yachi suddenly pops up in front of him, her bear stuffed and wearing a dress and little ribbons on his pink ears. She just gives him a bright-eyed grin as she says, “You forgot the most important part Tsukishima-kun! Your glasses!”

She leans forward, looking down at the bear he’s holding as she carefully positions the little black pair of glasses on its nose, adjusting it to her liking. He gets an eyeful of bright blonde hair in his face and he tries. 

Really, he does try to resist the temptation to check if the aforementioned locks of hair are just as soft as they look. But, sadly, he can’t. 

Tsukishima reaches out to stroke the hair that’s curtaining her face and hiding it from view, pushing it away from her face and behind her ears. Hey, he was right. They are as soft as they look. 

Suddenly, hair isn’t the only thing he could see when Yachi’s head snaps up so fast he momentarily worries about whiplash.

But all thoughts about whiplash suddenly flies out of his head when he notices the pink staining Yachi’s cheeks, her eyes wide in surprise. There’s still a few inches of space between them, but he can see the specks of colour in her eyes and her long eyelashes fluttering as she blinks. 

Her lips part and he doesn’t know which of them moves (maybe he entertains the thought that it was the both of them but he’ll take that secret to his grave) but suddenly he could feel her breathe hit his cheeks and see her eyes closing slowly. 

Of course, things never go according to plan when they’re only a few hairs’ breadth apart when suddenly someone clears their throat. 

Yachi jumps away from him like she’s been shocked, flushing all the way up to her ears. She squeaks something unintelligible out and runs off to one of the computers near the cashier as he turns around to glare at the parent who had been giving them disapproving looks and had thus interrupted them. 

The mother turns away with a quite hrmph and Tsukishima slowly walks off to where Yachi is sitting in front of the computer. 

Damn it.

•••••

Oh God that was so embarrassing. She’ll never be able to look Tsukishima in the eyes ever again. What a shame. And he has such pretty eyes too. 

"You’re naming your bear Hitoka? How creative,"

"Hitoka is a fine name and you have no right to say that since we’ll be naming your bear Kei,” 

She finds that she can, in fact, still look him in the eyes as she turns around to glare at Tsukishima, who leans down a bit to read what is on the computer. 

He gives her an unimpressed look in response as they fill in the certificates for the two bears, reciting addresses and phone numbers when prompted.

After registering their bears, they make their way to the cashier, only to see Akane standing there, looking far from innocent at being there. Out of the corner of her eye, Yachi can see Tsukishima  glowering at Akane. Guess he’s still a bit pissed off about earlier. Of course.

"What did you guys name your bears?"

"Hitoka and Kei"

Akane prints out their certificates before gently taking the bears from the both of them, scanning the bears and the clothes they were wearing. She informs them of the price before grabbing two pieces of cardboard from under the counter and making them into houses deftly. 

They have a very brief (but heated) discussion regarding who would pay before compromising that they’ll pay for their own bears. Akane watches them with a raised eyebrow and something an awful lot like amusement as she puts the certificates and the bears into their respective cardboard houses and rings up the money they pay for the bears.

Akane’s waiting for the receipt to come out when Yachi turns towards Tsukishima, box in hand. She bites her lip, suddenly nervous. This was the most important part. She can’t mess up now.

“Ithinkweshouldkeepeachother’sbears!”

"What?"

"I was thinking… since we’re both going to different universities and all, we won’t get to see each other very often anymore and we’ll be busy with coursework and tests. So I was hoping that we keep each other’s bears as a memento of each other!"

Yachi scrunches her eyes close tightly, hoping desperately that he won’t think of her suggestion being too creepy or clingy. Rejection, right now, would suck.

Seriously suck a lot.

"I… Fine. You’re probably the only one I’d actually want to see but can’t. I won’t miss those two morons and all things considered, I’d see Yamaguchi more than enough anyway." 

Yachi’s eyes snap open to see Tsukishima wearing an unreadable expression but he accepted! He didn’t think it was too strange! She gives herself a mental fist-bump in glee at having completed this phase of her final plan.

What? It’s good to celebrate the small victories of life. 

•••••

They exchange the boxes and the bears and turn towards Akane, only to see her scribbling something on one of the receipts. 

Tsukishima watches Yachi collect the one that’s handed to her and turns away to leave when he catches sight of a small note on the bottom of his receipt, She’s a keeper <3. He gives Akane a small smile when she gives two thumbs up, clearly ecstatic at having been able to play matchmaker for a while.

He keeps the receipt in his pocket as he walks out of the shop where Yachi’s waiting for him.

When he catches sight of two familiar heads watching them, he shakes his head and smirks. After all, he’s used to noticing small details after all the time he’s spent on the court doing exactly that.

Old habits die hard, you know.

•• extra ••

“For God’s sake, Suga! I have an essay to outline and tests to study for and I know you aren’t very free too. And I think he’s noticed us!” Daichi doesn’t even bother to keep the exasperation out of his voice after basically spying on Yachi and Tsukishima’s date for the past while. 

Sugawara whips around to eyeball him hard, “I have to make sure nothing too drastic happens! Hinata called to tell me that Yachi might have taken his jokes too seriously, you know how she gets. And I know he saw us! I have eyes!” 

How protective and motherly. Like a mother bear protecting her cubs.

That was a strange thought. I take it back, Daichi thinks to himself as he watches Sugawara turn back to continue watching Tsukishima and Yachi as they step into a cafe nearby. At least those two seem happy.

•••••

Tsukishima is in his room, taking out the pink teddy bear from its little box house, when he notices something hard inside the bear in its belly region. 

He feels around, pressing it until he hears a soft click and someone’s voice sound out from it. 

A voice that he recognises to be Yachi’s.

"Um…I don’t know what you would think of me to tell you in this way, but I don’t think I’m brave enough to say this to you face to face, Tsukishima-kun. I get that you might not feel this way, but I just had to tell you. 

Tsukishima-kun… I like you. I like you as in not in the friend way, not that I don’t not like you in the  friend way but… I like you, in the crush way too. I guess I can only hope that you return my feelings. Thank you, for everything.”

Tsukishima can feel his cheeks heating up, his hand going to cover the bottom half of his face almost by instinct. It only takes a second for him to decide what to do as he reaches for his phone and dials. 

He can feel his heart at his throat as he waits for the call to be answered.

"Hello? Yachi —"

"Me too.”

"Tsukishima-kun?"

"Me too. I like you too."