Boyfriend!Tsukishima who is always uncomfortable on your bed ><
He’s too tall for your bed, so his feet dangle off the edge of the bed when he lays down flat. But Tsukishima never manages to do so, anyway.
It’s because the mountain of stuffed toys and plushies that stack together like building blocks, restricting him from ever getting comfortable.
You got penguins, octopi, sheep, chickens, all of the animals his big brain can think of. And most of them are unfortunately bought by him, making his situation worse because he can’t just throw them away!
“Your toys are basically pushing me off the bed.”
He says in disdain, his eyes searching for yours over the barrier of stuffed animals.
He looks over with his mouth open ready to say something about his lack of comfort on his side of your bed, only to find you fast asleep. Chest slowly rising and falling.
How could he disrupt this sight? He thinks in his head.
So through all the discomfort of your plushies against his back and limbs, he stays silent and forces himself to get comfortable because he knows this is exactly how you like it.
Smothered in stuffed animals, him by your side, cool breeze of your ceiling fan.
Bully!Tsukishima refusing to admit he has a soft spot
There was no defining moment when Tsukishima Kei became part of your daily routine.
No dramatic first meeting. No argument that spiraled into a rivalry. If anyone had asked how the two of you ended up like this, neither of you would have had an answer.
It had simply just happened.
At some point during your first year at Karasuno, his quiet observations had become directed almost exclusively at you. They were harmless enough on their own. A dry comment about forgotten homework, an unimpressed glance when you answered a question incorrectly, a remark about how loudly you laughed with Nishinoya during lunch.
None of it was particularly cruel, and yet none of it was pleasant either. Over time, those small moments piled on top of one another until they became impossible to ignore.
The strange part was that Tsukishima wasn’t like this with anyone else.
He teased Hinata and Tanaka from time to time, but everyone knew they gave as good as they got. With everyone else, he mostly kept to himself. If someone irritated him, he didn’t waste his breath pointing it out. He ignored them. That was simply who he was.
Which made it all the more confusing that he seemed determined to involve himself in your life.
Not in any meaningful way.
Just enough to be annoying.
It became so predictable that even your classmates noticed.
“You’ll never believe this,” Tanaka announced one afternoon as everyone settled into their seats after lunch. “Tsukishima hasn’t said anything to them today.”
Nishinoya glanced toward the back of the classroom, where Tsukishima was flipping through a textbook with his usual bored expression.
“…Give it a minute.”
Sure enough, less than thirty seconds later, Tsukishima looked up from his book.
“Your bag’s open.”
Instinctively, you looked down. The zipper had come undone just enough for a notebook to peek through.
“Oh.”
You zipped it closed without much thought.
“Thanks.”
He gave a short nod and returned to reading.
Across the room, Nishinoya let out an exaggerated groan.
“I told you.”
You frowned slightly.
“Told him what?”
“Nothing.”
Tanaka bit back a laugh, but he failed to cover up his snorts.
Neither of them explained, and Tsukishima acted as though the conversation had never happened.
You didn’t think much of it.
At least, not then.
⋆⭒˚.⋆
The first few times he’d pointed things out, you’d assumed he was simply being observant.
Tsukishima noticed details most people overlooked. Teachers appreciated it whenever he caught mistakes on worksheets before they were handed in. During practice, he seemed capable of predicting where the ball would land before anyone else moved. It wasn’t unreasonable to think he simply applied that same attention to everything around him.
The problem was that his observations gradually became more personal.
He remembered which vending machine drink you always bought after practice.
He noticed when you switched to a different brand of mechanical pencil.
Once, after you absentmindedly mentioned having a history quiz the following week, he reminded you about it three days later when you admitted you’d forgotten to study.
“You’ll probably still pass,” he’d said while sliding past your desk to reach his own. “But barely.”
You had laughed, more amused than offended.
“I usually score higher than you in history.”
He clicked his tongue, muttering something under his breath before sitting down.
That should have been the end of it.
Instead, you found yourself wondering why he’d remembered the quiz at all.
⋆⭒˚.⋆
Yamaguchi noticed long before anyone else.
He noticed because he had spent years watching Tsukishima insist he didn’t care about things that clearly occupied his mind far more than they should.
Volleyball had been one of those things.
His older brother had been another.
Now it seemed you had somehow joined that very short list.
It wasn’t obvious unless someone knew where to look.
Tsukishima never stared. If anything, he made a conscious effort not to. But he always seemed aware of where you were. If the classroom door slid open, his eyes lifted for the briefest moment before returning to whatever he had been reading. If you were absent, he noticed before attendance had even begun.
He never asked where you were.
He didn’t have to.
The empty desk was enough.
Yamaguchi had caught him looking at it more than once.
⋆⭒˚.⋆
The final confirmation came during a rainy afternoon after practice.
Most of the team had crowded near the entrance while waiting for the downpour to ease. Someone complained about forgetting an umbrella, another offered to share, and the conversation quickly dissolved into the usual chaos that followed every practice.
In the middle of it all, you frowned toward the row of shoe lockers.
“I think I left mine in the classroom.”
Before anyone could respond, Tsukishima spoke without looking up from his phone.
“No, you didn’t.”
You blinked. Who does this guy think he is??
“What?”
“You left it outside the gym.” He said, not meeting your eyes since his were glued to his phone.
There was no hesitation in his answer.
You walked outside to check. Obviously this guy is joking. But to your surprise—
The umbrella was exactly where he’d said it would be.
When you returned, slightly bewildered, he was already walking toward the gate as though the exchange had never happened.
Yamaguchi stared after him.
He hadn’t even realized you’d brought an umbrella.
How had Tsukishima know?
⋆⭒˚.⋆
For you, however, none of those moments felt particularly meaningful.
If anything, they made the situation more confusing.
He remembered things about you that your own friends occasionally forgot, only to follow them with a comment that erased any warmth the gesture might have carried.
He’d remind you about forgotten assignments before teachers could notice, then casually mention that watching you panic would have been entertaining.
He’d pick up the notebook you accidentally dropped in the hallway, only to hold it just high enough that you had to reach for it.
He wasn’t trying to be cruel.
At least, you didn’t think he was.
But he certainly wasn’t trying to be kind.
The uncertainty was exhausting.
It left you constantly wondering where you stood with him. Trying to make sense of it was like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing.
So eventually, you stopped looking for an answer. If Tsukishima wanted to be difficult, then that was simply who he was.
There wasn’t much else to it.
Or so you thought.
⋆⭒˚.⋆
Tsukishima, meanwhile, had never once questioned why he sought you out. That would have required acknowledging that he sought you out in the first place.
In his mind, the interactions happened naturally. If he noticed your bag had been left unzipped, he mentioned it. If your notes contained an obvious mistake, he pointed it out. If you forgot something, he happened to remember. It looked completely normal.
“You know,” he said as they packed up after practice one evening, “most people don’t memorize someone else’s schedule.”
Tsukishima looked up from stuffing his kneepads into his bag.
“I don’t.”
“You knew they had library duty today.”
“I overheard them. Don’t look too much into it, Yamaguchi.”
Yamaguchi gave him a long, knowing look.
“You really expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t particularly care what you believe.”
He said while he slung his bag over one shoulder.
Yamaguchi watched him leave the clubroom before quietly shaking his head.
The frustrating part wasn’t that Tsukishima was lying. It was that he genuinely seemed convinced he wasn’t.
• He doesn’t mean to, but he strains your neck because you constantly have to look up to see his face.
• He claims he doesn’t like pet names, especially in public. But when you’re alone together, he throws in a few “baby”s and “sweets”s when he’s most comfortable.
• When you visit the volleyball gym and all of his teammates see you, they start yelling at Tsukishima for “hiding” such a precious thing like you.
—He scrambles away with you, cheeks pink and head low. “I’m sorry about them, they can be such pains.”
• Only lets you touch his stuff. His headphones, his notebooks, his ridiculous collector comics. Everything.
• He hate seeing you cry. Even when he goes stiff and stays silent while you start to tear up with your lip wobbling and sniffing nose. He doesn’t react immediately, but when he does, he pulls you into the warmest hug ever.
• He’s dry in both text and in real life. But you don’t mind since you’re always talking his ear off anyway.
• When you guys go on dates, he’s usually the one that pays for both of you but when you sneakily pay for your own food, he gets annoyed and buys you another thing to make up for it despite your insistence.
• He LOVES it when you scratch his head. He doesn’t ask for it because he thinks if he asks for it first, he’s going soft. So he lets you do it first. And fortunately for him, you always initiate it.
• Not much of a big eater but will try and finish your food if ever you order too much for yourself.
• His favorite spots to kiss you are on the crown of your head or the back of your hand.
• When you get into arguments, his first instinct is to distance himself away. But not because he doesn’t wanna see you, he’s just thinking of what he might have done wrong and how he can fix it.
• Doesn’t look at other girls. He thinks of cheating as “insane” and “pathetic.” Which is good! C:
• (If you’re sort of a himbo) He would tutor you if you’re falling behind and teach it to you how you would understand it. But his patience thins ever so slightly when you tell him “I forgot what that is.”
• He loves you so sooo much even if he doesn’t act like it or outwardly show affection. But he really does.
an: Hi again !! I thought that the previous work was too short so I made some hcs to make up for it hehe. Pls forgive me 🥲🤍
Tsukishima Kei always manages to make you fun of every single detail about yourself. Whether it’s your clothes (which is stupid because you guys have the same uniform), the way you styled your hair hoping that it wouldn’t get blown away or ruined by the wind, even your mismatched socks that were meant for two left feet. But you were rushing, okay?
Every day, you hear the same obnoxious chuckle coming from a person you had to look up just to meet him in the eyes.
“You look stupid.”
“Another bad hair day, I see?”
It irritated you.
In fact, it irritated you so much that it made you stop wearing cute hairstyles and bows that made him recognize you from two miles away. You stopped wearing the bright colored bracelets, the shaped hairclips, the keychains of your favorite anime characters. All just to stop the comments.
But did they stop? No they did not.
“Your uniform looks wrinkled.”
“That sweater makes you look homeless.”
“You should get a boyfriend. That way you would actually try and look good.”
Is he offering, or something? In reality, he is!
He’s been dropping hints everywhere, not very obvious ones, but hints at least!
He stopped bothering at lunch and instead ate quietly with his friends. Hd let you catch a glimpse of his notes even though he told everyone to back off and go “find their own.” He even said “thanks…” when you picked up his dropped pen.
These are hints, right? At least to him they are.
an: OMG my first fic in here! Hope u like it. This is a bit short…my apologies. I might be doing a part two so heads up! 🤍
