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1.
With Hinata, there’s a lot Tsukishima doesn’t know.
Sure, they’ve been playing on the same team for three years now, but he still trips over his own words sometimes trying to answer questions about the jumping ball of sunshine. Maybe it’s his nerves, or maybe it’s just to see Hinata pout and whine about him not knowing what his favorite color was (it’s yellow, Tsukki thought to himself right as one of their first years asked, how fitting for the sun to like its own color). Either way, all he knows is that he’s been way too comfortable with having such a wide domain of unknowns and it’s all because of Hinata.
But this-- this was something he wasn’t so comfortable with.
If you asked anyone else, they’d say there was nothing wrong with Hinata getting head pats from Goshiki. They’ve gotten closer ever since the whole ball boy incident, and with time, their bickering became more and more affectionate, ranging from nose pinches to playful noogies. Now, Tsukishima has seen Goshiki be this close with others, but it’s never bothered him as much as when he sees him around Hinata. Heck, anyone around Hinata has him clenching his fists and furrowing his brows, facial expression rivaling Kageyama’s when he tries to sleep on their way home from a game. And it only bothers him more that he doesn’t know why he’s so irritated about Hinata getting some attention. Or rather, he just didn’t want to admit that he knew why.
He didn’t know when his thoughts began to drift from calling Hinata annoying to a tiny gruff of, I wanna ruffle his hair, too, whenever he looked at the redhead. Didn’t know when he started to feel more selfish, wanting Hinata to direct ten smiles at him for every one smile he gives to someone else. Didn’t know when he ached to be the one to receive Hinata’s affections, to give Hinata just as much, if not more, affection.
“Your jumps just keep improving, Hinata! Thoughtful jumps always make for a good middle blocker!” He hears Goshiki tell Hinata, who soaks it up like a sponge and tries to his smugness, but completely ruins it with his bright smile and sparkly eyes (look at me, tTukishima begs from his spot a few feet away).
“You’re complimenting me?? Your spikes got so much better from the last time we had a practice match- my heart goes NYOOM every time I have to receive a spike from you! So cool!”
Compliment me too, Tsukishima thinks, which isn’t necessary considering how much Hinata compliments him during their practices. But when there’s another team there with them- and even with their own teammates sometimes- he can’t help but crave for the attention and the praise. He wants to be the one Hinata shows off to other people so he can smirk at them to let them know Hinata was off-limits. Mine. He’s mine.
Even more irritated now, Tsukishima tears his eyes away from the sight as if it physically hurt to see Hinata smiling at anyone else but him. And of course he had to be met with coach Ukai’s questioning stare as soon as he turns his head, who gives him a smile he could only describe as the parent-about-to-embarrass-their-child smile. It sends chills down his spine once he realizes that Ukai probably knows now- which isn’t all that surprising, Ukai was a perceptive coach after all. It’s the power that he holds over him now that scares him.
Luckily enough, coach doesn’t try anything. Just gives him a few slaps to the back, maintaining that same annoying smile as earlier.
“Don’t worry, I ain’t telling anyone. Just make sure to keep the PDA to a minimum and don’t let your relationship shit affect club activities and we’re good, yeah?”
“What,” Tsukishima mutters with a red face and wide eyes, feeling conflicted with how encouraging yet discouraging his coach’s words were. Ukai’s words make it sound like the two were already a couple and not just Tsukki being a pining mess. But that meant that they looked like a couple.did it seem that way to the others, then? Before he could blush over the thought, he turns his head away, scowling, “There’s nothing between us. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
When Tsukki glances to his left, Ukai still has that shit-eating grin on, though his gaze seems softer. It’s the kind of gaze he shows the team after a particularly difficult game. His scowl deepens, finding that the aura Ukai was radiating right now felt much too similar to his brother’s.
“You want there to be something, though, right?”
As if caught in a lie, Tsukishima’s ears burn. eyes glued to the floor, the middle blocker prayed that his lack of a response would’ve been enough of a sign that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, but when has he ever gotten what he wanted? It’s even more unfortunate that Ukai catches the way his eyes immediately find Hinata when he hears the ball of energy laugh at some joke Goshiki said.
“You got it real bad, don’tcha,” Ukai chuckles, reaching over to roughly ruffle Tsukishima’s hair, leaving the third year grumbling. “Cut back on the moping, kid. Tsutomu isn't the teammate Hinata returns to, now, is he?”
Hmph, what a dumb reason to get him to stop moping. And yet Tsukishima finds himself shaking his head despite his efforts to not respond. He feels the corners of his lips twitching, threatening to pull up into a smile. It’s ridiculous how that one question manages to affect him so much. He feels one last pat on his head before Ukai’s attention is redirected towards the second years lazing around.
“Just talk to him. It’s Hinata, he could never say or think anything badly of you.”
Definitely easier said than done, the blonde thinks as he wipes his face with his towel, letting himself glance over at Hinata once more. Sure, they’ve gotten closer. Way, way closer. Maybe too close, because Tsukki thinks he’d rather forever remain the close friend rather than have his heart broken. Sighing, he averts his gaze, which doesn’t work out too well considering he meets Goshiki’s eyes instead.
Tsukki feels his eye twitch at how oblivious he looks while wooing (not really) Tsukishima’s teammate. It’s a coincidence that he makes eye contact with Goshiki, the poor guy. The Shiratorizawa captain tries to give him a smile and wave, but Tsukishima is relentless with his ominous glare and scowl. Perhaps it’s a bit much, especially since he knows for a fact that there isn’t anything between the two- Goshiki spoke of still having a crush on one of the alumni not too long ago, so the jealousy he felt was truly illogical. Sucks that he still feels it anyways.
Goshiki’s the first to break eye contact, looking away with a gaze resembling Hinata’s whenever he got pre-game jitters. It’s only then that Tsukishima smirks, childishly proud over his assertion of dominance. That’s right, he thinks, as if he’d just owned Goshiki in some pretend argument. I'm the one he comes back to. He realizes that it was absolutely dumb to be creating all these scenarios in his head, but the false comfort and pride it provides feels too good not to. He manages to catch Hinata’s eye in the midst of his interal congratulatory speech to himself, so he imagines that the clueless look on his face was actually one of admiration and awe, for the sake of science, before leaving to fill up his water bottle.
(No, he doesn’t spend the next two weeks cringing and groaning over his behaviour.)
--
2.
You know, Tsukishima always has to wonder why his life is so hard. And in the classic shoujo-manga-protagonist manner, he curses at himself that he wouldn’t be suffering so much if he would just confess to Hinata and gotten things over with. But nooo, because also in the classic shoujo-manga-protagonist manner, he’d rather stay quiet and remain a close friend than confess and potentially ruin their relationship.
Which is exactly why he’s stuck here: quietly sipping on his vanilla shake across from Hinata instead of pressing close to Hinata, which was what Kenma was doing at the moment. The former Nekoma setter held his switch between him and Hinata, the younger’s eyes sparkling as much as a child who’d just received a heap of candy and was told to dig in.
How annoying, Tsukishima thinks, and at this point, he’s stopped fighting his jealousy, instead simply allowing it to continuously build up because he wasn’t going to do anything about it anytime soon, either. What was he gonna do, anyways? Confess?? Fuck right on out of here, Tsukishima would rather eat his own shoe than do that.
He was very much so content with watching his crush be smothered in affection coming from everyone else but him. Yes, that was completely fine with him.
“Tsukishima-kun, if you grip your cup any tighter, I think it’s going to break!” comes Yachi’s voice, the familiar shrill and concerned tone breaking him out of his reverie to realize that yes, he did almost murder an inanimate object with his grip. He turns to look at her, not necessarily offering a smile, but not giving her a cold look either. It probably isn't very comforting to her.
“Sorry, had some things on my mind.”
As he goes back to not-so-subtly glaring at Kenma flexing his gaming skills to Hinata, he misses the way Yachi’s eyes dart back between him and the pair across from him, a knowing smile on her lips. He also misses the way she furiously sends a string of texts to his childhood friend, only giving him her attention when she grabs onto his forearm with the same expression Tanaka and Noya put on upon mentioning their final exams.
“I’m rooting for you, Tsukishima-kun,” is all she says, voice low and a little intimidating, if he was honest. He leans back with a confused expression, looking around awkwardly in an attempt to not make eye contact with the team’s manager. What did she mean by she was rooting for him? Did they have a practice match coming up soon that he wasn’t aware of? If so, why wasn’t she telling the entire team that she was rooting for them? Why wasn’t anyone else seeing this? Still intimidated, he gives a stiff chuckle,
“..Thanks?”
The interaction manages to take his mind off of the fact that Hnata was still leaning in so close to Kenma- but only for a moment. Because the two were still across from him, after all, so it wasn’t long until he heard Hinata’s voice praising Kenma about his ‘cool gaming skills’, his face quickly reflecting his distaste for the Nekoma graduate.
This was one of those moments where he genuinely wished for Kageyama to have more than one functioning brain cell- or at least have the ability to put his singular brain cell to use outside of volleyball (not that they’d be able to hold a conversation anyways, but at least the insults would be more tasteful).
--
3.
Does he only attract tall people or something? Tsukishima scowls to himself when Hinata calls out for Kindaichi and Kunimi, the redhead spotting them walking into the coffee shop they were vacanting at. Tsukishima’s question seems valid for a second because the two seem fairly happy to come over a greet him and his jumpy teammate but then he remembers that almost everyone was taller than Hinata- so it’d be a nightmare for him if that statement proved to be true.
His scowl only deepens when Hinata invites the two to sit over at their table once they got their drinks- but it’s not like he could tell them no, or even worse, tell Hinata no, so he grits his teeth and gives a tight-lipped smile to the two Aoba Johsai students.
It’s amazing how well Hinata fit in with Kageyama’s friends, despite having only really gotten close to them in the past two years and through all the trouble of waiting for Kageyama to reconcile with his past teammates. As sentimental as their growing bond was, Tsukishima could care less for that in this moment, as he watched Hinata marvel over Kindaichi.
“Wah! You look like a college student already!” Hinata exclaims, eyes sparkling as he takes in Kindaichi’s outfit, admiring his new sense of fashion and his new hairstyle that no longer made him look like a Vegeta cosplayer. Tsukishima feels his left eye twitch and he has to resist the urge to click his tongue at the sight. It was understandable to see a sudden change in style considering it’s been a few months since they’d last seen each other, but to look this smitten? Tsukishima glared at his half-empty cup of coffee with the sad understanding that Hinata’s rambles weren’t aimed towards him. It’s almost five minutes into the interaction that Tsukishima feels a tug on his sleeve, causing him to look down to where Kunimi held his phone for him to look at from under the table.
control your boyfriend, said the text Kunimi sent to him just a minute ago. Actually clicking his tongue this time, he hastily pulls out his own phone to text back, Not my boyfriend.
sure looks like it w how u’ve been glaring at kindaichi.
It’s fine. Everything is fine. Tsukki definitely doesn’t feel like popping a blood vessel. And neither is he half a second away from having a stroke. He hears Kunimi let out a little chuckle next to him, and it only annoys him more because despite his apparent obviousness, Hinata was still hung up about Kindaichi’s style, completely unaware of the blonde’s sulking. He wasn't saying that he wanted hinata to notice and pay attention to him instead, but that's exactly what he's saying.
He contemplates saying something at first, which once again doesn’t go unnoticed by Kunimi (the perceptive bastard), and promptly regrets ever getting close to the people at the mock training camp.
“Hey, Hinata,” he hears Kunimi call out to the small middle blocker. “Hasn’t Tsukishima’s style changed a bit, too?”
It only takes a second for Hinata to switch his attention over to him, but for some reason, he just wants to sink into the ground because he can’t handle it. Hinata’s eyes are glued onto him and he’s suddenly letting out an impressed ‘ooh’ as if he didn’t witness Tsukishima’s change in style within the past few months.
“That’s right! Outside of class, Tsukishima’s been looking like one of those good-looking rich kids! He wears trench coats and button ups and nice looking dress pants--”
Tsukishima tries to drown out the rest of what Hinata boasts about him, but he only manages to focus even more on the rambling, which results in him burying his face into his hands and praying for some sort of god to wipe him out on the spot.
“Fuck you,” he hisses under his breath to Kunimi, who looks smug now that both Hinata and Kindaichi were now complimenting his attire. “I hate you so much.”
Kunimi, full on smirking now, has the audacity to egg Hinata on with a, “He looks more attractive now with his new glasses, too, doesn’t he?” before he texts love u too to Tsukki followed by an array of hearts and other emojis Tsukki never thought he’d ever see Kunimi using.
Tsukishima blocks his number for a week.
--
4.
This is stupid, Tsukishima decides. This is really, really stupid. How on earth is he actually jealous over their previous captain paying them a visit?? He was their team dad, their illegitimate father, and yet Tsukki couldn’t help but feel his eye twitch and the corners of his lips curl into a frown as he watches Daichi pull Hinata to his side in a friendly side hug. Nothing out of the ordinary- Daichi hugged everyone earlier, including the new players who, despite not personally knowing him, looked up to them. And that wasn’t a problem at all! So why now?
Maybe it’s because Hinata looked so comfortable in Daichi’s arms, or how he seemed to melt into the affection like a kitten, or maybe it was because he wanted to be the one to hold Hinata close and kiss his stupid face and nuzzle his stupid hair--
“Tsukki?”
“What?” he turned to their current captain and his childhood friend who looked a tad bit too concerned. He rested a firm, but warm hand on the middle blocker’s shoulder in the true captain manner, leaving Tsukki to wonder about his intentions.
“What’s wrong? Did you hurt yourself? You’ve just been sitting in back here with the Kageyama frown,” Yamaguchi chuckled, the both of them ignoring the offended ‘What’d you say?!’ from Kageyama as soon as he said that.
“I’m fine. Just tired,” is the blonde’s response, gently shrugging off Yamaguchi’s hand before taking another drink from his water bottle, conscious not to glance back to where he heard the redhead gleefully going into detail about the recent practice matches they had with Aoba Johsai. Unluckily for him, though, his attention towards Hinata was the one thing he couldn’t be subtle about, so Yamaguchi sees through him anyways.
“Hmm, if you’re sure about that, then alright. I'll let you get your rest.”
Tsukki watches as Yamaguchi walks off after giving him yet another shoulder pat, his expression going from one of apathy to one of disbelief when Yamaguchi gives him a smirk before pouncing on Hinata, pressing a sloppy and loud kiss to his cheek, the redhead laughing it off as he usually does with their teammates.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
‘You coward' Yamaguchi mouths to Tsukishima, still latched onto their decoy.
‘Fuck you’ Tsukishima mouths back, distraught that Yamaguchi had caught onto him and his dumb feelings, making sure Yamaguchi got a glimpse of his favorite finger every time he turned around.
--
+1
“Stingy-shima, did someone really confess to you earlier??”
Tsukishima looked over his shoulder from where he was changing back into his uniform, spotting Hinata doing the same a few feet away from him, but with an expression he couldn’t quite read. Buttoning up his shirt, he turns around to give a nod and a sneer.
“What, are you jealous?” God knows how hard he’s worked to keep his domineering tone there, because without it, it would’ve been embarrassingly clear that he was secretly hoping for Hinata’s answer to be yes. Thankfully, he’s perfected the expression and tone since youth.
“N-no?!”
Hinata’s cheeks are pink when he responds, which makes the blonde’s heart twist and light up with the tiniest tinge of hope that maybe, just maybe Hinata feels the same. He hopes his expression isn’t too obvious when he turns away, praying that his ears aren’t as red as he thinks they are.
“Dumbass. don’t get so flustered, yeah? People might start making rumors about you, for all you know,” he tousles his hair with a sigh, “Anyways, I’m hungry. You wanna go grab meat buns?”
Hinata answers with a jerky nod, and so the two head out together. Tsukishima sees Yamaguchi hold Kageyama back from following them in his peripheral, the setter looking mighty confused at their captain’s efforts to keep him from interrupting their two middle blockers. God, he really only had one functioning brain cell, didn’t he? It wasn’t like they were on a date though (but boy, did Tsukishima wish they were), so what was the point of holding Kageyama back?
The blonde only registers how quiet the other was once he managed to stop himself from overthinking Yamaguchi’s gesture. slowly, he steals a glance, spotting Hinata’s lips curled into a small pout and his eyebrows pinched together. Did something happen? He tries to think back to practice today and no, nothing came to mind. Practice went as well as ever, so why..?
Tsukishima’s stress levels stay constant even as they purchase their meat buns and stand outside in the cold to eat them together, leaning against the bike stand out front. It’s still quiet, much to his dismay, leaving his thoughts to manifest in his head as he tries to figure out what on earth was going on with the ball of sunshine next to him. Though, he doesn’t gather his thoughts fast enough because they’ve both finished their buns by now, which meant that going home was what should follow.
Desperate now, Tsukishima parts his lips to say something- anything to keep Hinata from leaving. But before he could get anything out, the redhead speaks up, voice small and demure,
“Did you say yes to her?”
It was almost too soft to catch, like the wind would carry the question away had Hinata asked any softer. But in that moment, Hinata’s voice rung louder to Tsukishima than ever before. His brain short-circuits and he has to physically shake his head to gather himself together again.
“What?”
“That girl that confessed to you,” Hinata says, hands playing with the hem of his jacket, “did you say yes to her?”
No, now is not the time to get your hopes up, Tsukishima reprimands himself, his heart beating faster than ever. Was Hinata actually jealous? Why was he asking? Or maybe he just wants girl advice? The blonde sighs, eventually scowling because of course he manages to get jealous at the hypothetical thought that Hinata might want girl advice. So, sulkily, he answers,
“..What’s it to you?”
It’s quiet for a moment after he says that, making him wonder if he’d fucked up by asking that. But when he turns to look at Hinata, the other was already looking back at him. It catches him off guard and has his cheeks heating up (which he really, really hopes Hinata couldn’t see).
“..Hinata?”
“I saw her earlier. She looked around my height, y’know? Small,” Hinata starts, effectively confusing the shit out of Tsukishima, whose heart was just about ready to beat right out of his chest. Where was he going with this? Hinata suddenly frowns and turns away, eyes starting to brim with tears that Ysukishima yearned to wipe away even before they could fall.
“I don’t know why but the image of you hugging her stayed in my mind the entire time we practiced. She could rest her head on your chest, and you could rest your chin on top of her head.” The more hinata spoke, the more watery his voice sounded. “And then I realized that I was so angry at that thought because I want to be the one you hug like that.”
Tsukishima’s heart stopped.
“I couldn’t help but be so jealous!” Hinata’s hiccuping now, furiously rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket, “Every time I looked at you, I saw you and her being happy together and-- and I hated it! I didn’t wanna see you with her!!”
The tall middle blocker is still trying to process what Hinata said when said redhead turns to him with a suddenly very determined look, eyes still teary and lips still wobbly. Hinata takes in a shaky breath, before standing up from where he was leaning to crowd into Tsukishima’s personal space.
“Stingy-- ack, Tsukishima, choose me!” he abruptly declares, “I-I can give you better hugs! and I’m the same height as her so you can still rest your chin on my head! And I can play volleyball with you! And- and I can buy you all the meat buns you want! And I’ll start listening to you more when you tutor me!”
Tsukishima’s brain was still in shambles as Hinata continued listing off reasons to choose him. The other stops to sniffle and grab ahold onto the hem of his jacket once again, seemingly shy after his little outburst there. Seriously, how fast was this guy able to shift his mood?
Still in shock, the blonde blinks once. Twice.
He thinks back to all the times he was jealous over someone fawning over Hinata- thinking his feelings were unrequited. Damn, it feels good now that he knows Hinata felt the same. So he composes himself, kicks out gay-panic-Tsukishima for his usual asshole-y self.
“Ah.. are you confessing to me?” Tsukishima can see the way the blush rises from the base of Hinata’s neck up to the tip of his ears. Cute. “I can’t respond if you don’t tell me clearly how you feel, y’know?”
Okay, maybe he was being a little too much of an asshole- but it wasn’t as if Hinata didn’t know what he was getting into, right? So the blonde watches the way Hinata recoils with a smirk. Watches how he shows the oh so obvious internal monologue he was having through his little head shakes and careful glances. Then watches as he straightens his back and inhales sharply, yet still responds with the quietest,
“I-I like you.”
Figuring it’s fine to tease Hinata, considering the amount of times Tsukishima’s felt like pulling his own hair out, he cups a hand to his ear, tilting his head towards the redhead.
“Sorry? That was really quiet, could you repeat that again?”
“I.. I like you!”
Tsukishima smiles. That was loud enough. But c’mon now, how could he maintain his role of team asshole if he didn’t push Hinata a bit further.
“One more time? My ears aren’t working very well today.”
“I like you, Stingy-shima! Accept my confession already!!”
And said Stingy-shima was about to give a verbal response when he turned his head to look at Hinata and saw him flushed red with his eyes screwed shut. It’s like he’s waiting for a kiss, Tsukishima thinks, glancing down to look at his shaking, clenched fists. Shrugging, Tsukishima leans down to press a soft kiss to Hinata’s lips, feeling how the other jolted at the unexpected affection.
Hinata’s even more red when Tsukishima pulls away, but this time, he had his eyes wide open. The taller middle blocker was still leaned in close enough that he could count the faint freckles spread across Hinata’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose.
“I like you too, you dummy. I like you with all your ‘bwah’ and ‘gwah’ bullshit. And I like you so much, that I feel ten times as jealous as what you felt earlier.” Tsukishima slowly pulled Hinata closer by his waist, letting his hands linger there. “So you better not let anyone else give you more affection than I do, got it?”
Hinata’s so red that it’s a wonder how he hasn’t fainted yet. Tsukishima watches as he slowly nods, spotting the smaller glancing at his lips (he’s terrible at subtlety). So he leans in for another kiss. It’s a quick kiss- a small one, just enough to keep them both satisfied, but they’re both professional tomato imitators when they part. Hinata’s dazed eyes clear up once they do, and he offers Tsukishima the brightest fucking smile he’s ever seen- God knows how he hasn’t completely gone blind through the years.
“Are we dating now?” Hinata asks, jumpy with energy as if he’d just been told there was more volleyball practice, and Tsukishima raises a brow at him, seemingly unimpressed with the question.
“No, I just casually kiss people who confess to me.”
And maybe he feels bad for saying that when he sees Hinata’s face drop, but it’s fine. Because when he swoops in to steal another kiss, he feels that warm smile bloom right against his own lips. He'll never admit that he found himself smiling, too.
--
The following week is one filled with an abundance of emotions and headaches- the emotions coming from Hinata and the rest of the volleyball community they’ve (unfortunately) surrounded themselves with throughout the past few years. And the headaches coming from poor, poor Tsukki.
Hinata absolutely sucked at keeping their relationship secret, so it only took until the end of their first week together for someone to catch on. Tsukishima had a theory that Yamaguchi and Yachi knew something beforehand, though, those pests. He loved them and all, but they were no help when it came down to trying to keep Hinata’s mouth shut. God, he knew his boyfriend was dumb and gullible, but not this dumb and gullible! All it took was for them to catch him off guard, and boom- suddenly everyone knows that they’re dating.
(“Hinata, the weather’s gotten warmer, hasn’t it?” Yamaguchi’s position as captain has given him too much experience in slowly exposing his teammates- but usually it only worked on the first-years. Luckily for him, Hinata had the same amount of functioning brain cells as he did in first year, so this was gonna be easy.
“Mm, yeah, it has!”
“Perfect weather for going out on dates, isn’t it, Hinata-kun?” Yachi’s gotten sneakier too, what a legend. She’s gotten close enough to Hinata that he’s unsuspecting of her. The redhead pauses for a moment before offering a smile and a nod.
“Yeah, I guess so!”
“So, have you and Tsukki gotten any plans to go out on a date anytime soon?”
“Yeah! He said for this weekend, he’d take me to this garden he liked to visit as a kid--” there’s a pause, a heavy gulp, and then, “..oh shit.”
And according to Hinata, the two then crowded him and shot question after question. Unfortunately, Kageyama just happened to pass by when he was being interrogated, leaving the setter to announce their relationship to the public- or well, whoever was still lounging around in the school hallway, in Hinata’s stead with a loud exclamation of,
“You and Tukishima are dating?!”
And as third years, the news spread like butter on toast. Tsukishima couldn’t remember the last time he wanted to go bald so badly when Lev texted him not even a day later about how he never expected Tsukishima to actually be capable of romantic feelings.)
Which leads us to where we are now- the said blonde was once again in a situation he formerly resented so much: watching Hinata be a ball of sunshine, but not at his side. Being kinda adults, they made the effort to discuss Hinata’s incapability to stop attracting people to him and Tsukishima’s inevitable jealousy and came to the conclusion that Hinata could socialize as usual, just with less of the affection. Which sounds easy, right? Wrong.
Hinata’s energy is just too contagious. One look at him and you’re bound to be jumping around the same way he is (the only exception to this is if you’re on the opposite side of the court as him during a game. But even during practice matches where they’re opponents, Tsukishima still feels his lips twitch up into a smile at the sight of his boyfriend spiking. the betrayal). So like before, the less energetic of the two is stuck watching Hinata and Koganegawa talk up a storm about their recent efforts to improve their blocking.
It’s cute for the most part- watching two little (well, one big and one little) cinnamon rolls giving each other advice and encouragement and ultimately bonding over their love for volleyball. Anyone would be able to coo over the sight, with context or not. Unfortunately for Koganegawa, however, Tsukishima’s jealousy has still yet to be tamed even after three months. But this time, instead of quietly seething over Hinata receiving a hug from someone else, he can do something about it. So he does.
He hears Yamaguchi calling after him when he gets up to walk over to where the pair of literal rays of sunshine were, but it wasn’t like he was going to commit murder, so he pays him no mind. He reaches out just in time to grab ahold of the back of Hinata’s collar, pulling him backwards towards his chest where he wraps his arms around the smaller, digging his chin into the top of his head- probably painfully, considering the small ‘ack!’ Hinata lets out.
“Hey, Tsukki!”
“Yah, Stingy-shima! What’s your chin so pointy for?!”
“Hinata, come get drinks with me,” Tsukishima responds, completely ignoring Hinata’s (cute) angry mumbling and Koganegawa’s not-as-cute greeting. Simply pulls the smaller along along like he’s been doing ever since they started dating, away from all of the attention- which he knows isn’t working all that well considering how their kouhai stare at their backs as they leave. Whether that’s out of awe or disbelief, Tsukishima didn’t care. As long as he was able to successfully prevent Hinata from being gobbled up by someone other than him, he was good.
The team looked on as the two left, too, their distraught expressions showing just how confused they were that Hinata was able to find this part of Tsukishima cute- or any part of him, really. Said redhead was all warm and giggly as his tall boyfriend cornered him for a hug and lots and lots of kisses, unaware of their team's apparent disgust towards them. Just soaked up all the affection like he wasn’t just having a conversation with a friend just a few minutes ago, stroking Tsukishima’s hair with a playful coo of ‘so you can be cute, too, huh’ that landed him a bite to the tip of his nose. despite what others think and what they themselves thought, they make things work. Not in the most conventional way, but really, they couldn’t be anywhere close to a conventional couple, even if they tried. And that’s fine. They’re fine.
--
And poor Koganegawa was left wondering why Hinata and Tsukishima were out for so long, only to nearly have a stroke when he passed by and caught Hinata sitting comfortably in Tsukishima’s lap, squishing the blonde’s cheeks and calling him cute. (He refuses to admit that he was the last one to find out about their relationship.)