Hiii,
Yo congrats on your 400 followers, you awesome bean!! You really make my day with the fics you write so thank you!!
I'd like to request a tsukishima x fem!reader in a Soulmate Au where tsukishima doesn't really believe in soulmates and being 'forced to' fall in love by fate. The reader feels insecure about this when she finds out they're soulmates. But he eventually falls in love with the reader, or already has.
You can change things up to whatever flows better but I'd like it to be a angst to fluff and it ends with a confession kiss because of love
Hehe happy writing!!
Prompts: Confessing kiss, soulmate AU
A/N: I love the way your brain works Anon. This is great! Also, I have never been called a 'bean' before (I'm not exactly the right size for it) and I have found that I'm not completely opposed to it. Also, this totally got away from me, so I apologize for the length, but I hope you like it! I'm so sorry that this took so long!
TW: cursing, little bit of angst (ends in fluff).
As always, if I missed something, please tell me!
Tsukishima hated the soulmate system. He hated the very idea of soulmates.
If- and inevitably when- one of his classmates asked about it, that was his answer. He was also known for calling it 'cosmic bullshit' and 'life-long mental and emotional manipulation'.
Tsukishima was known for being someone who didn't take kindly to being told what to do, so being told who to care for?
Forget about it.
He wouldn't even consider a platonic relationship with his soulmate.
There were, as there was in everything, skeptics of the soulmate system. But Tsukishima wasn't skeptical of the soulmate system, he hated it with everything he was. He despised and abhorred the mark that was stark against his complexion.
Tsukishima normally considered himself a man of science, so the marks that seemed to defy the basic laws of physics and reality aggravated him beyond belief.
The marks changed depending on who was looking at them.
Tsukishima, when he looked at his mark, saw a pair of headphones and a book with a small cup of something he assumed was tea or coffee.
Tadashi, however, when he looked at the mark, the only things he saw were something that looked like a tear drop, a pen, and something vaguely feline.
His mother saw something completely different as well, and it irritated Tsukishima. He didn't understand why there was such a discrepancy in the shapes! It shouldn't have been possible.
What was even more impossible, was that supposedly, there was someone out there with a mark that was completely different from his, but when they lined their wrists up it was the same picture.
But it also shouldn't have been possible for him to be such good friends with you, someone who believed wholeheartedly that your soulmate was going to be the perfect person for you. It was something that he was so solidified on, that it shouldn't have been possible for him to be such good friends with someone who was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, but here he was.
But you were also an enigma, a paradox to him.
You believed in the system wholeheartedly, fiercely protective of your belief, and yet you covered your mark up.
Tsukishima had never seen you without the thick leather band that wrapped around your left wrist.
At first he had thought it meant something to you, thought that there was a possibility it was a gift from someone important to you, but whenever he asked, you gave him a vague answer and steered him towards something he was more interested in. It infuriated him that he fell for it every time more than anything else.
For someone who believed in the system as much as you did, it was confusing and contradictory that you would cover your mark up.
There was also some dark emotion in your eyes whenever the topic of soulmates was brought up. You got really quiet and introspective, looking at your mark like it was both a blessing and a curse. You would also wince whenever Tsukishima mentioned his own stance on the system.
"We've been conditioned to think that the system is perfect and it's not," Tsukishima said. "Because of these marks, issues tend to be brushed under the carpet in relationships with the mentality of 'we're soulmates, we're perfect for each other, this isn't anything of consequence'. It's not even something we understand. Where do they come from? How do we know they aren't tattooed on as babies?"
"I know they aren't tattoos," you murmured. "I tried covering my mark up with concealer and it appeared on my wrist again like it was bleeding through paper. Some things just can't be explained by science, Tsukishima. There are a lot of other phenomena in the world, why don't those bother you?"
"Because those don't effect me. I don't like being told that there's a perfect person out there for me. Perfect doesn't exist. It's a social construct."
"That's not what the system is, Tsukishima. It's a common misconception. The system is simply a guide. Marks change as people do. My mark changed when my parents split. Different events in our lives change us. After you find each other, it's a matter of making it work. It's like making friends, but it's more permanent and things get a little more complicated. Like you and I.
"Technically speaking, we shouldn't be able to be friends, but we make it work because we accept that the other person has a different viewpoint. That's the way it should be with soulmates, but the misconception spread so people aren't willing to make compromises anymore."
"I still think it's bullshit," he grumbled, leaning back into his pillows.
You had been studying together, but something had sparked a debate about the system.
Again.
"I know," you whispered, turning your attention back to your literature homework.
There was tone in your voice that had Tsukishima frowning, but he knew that pushing you wouldn't work, and you might end up in tears.
It had happened more than once over the years, him pushing on the subject of soulmates and you ending up in tears out of sheer frustration, frustration and something that had him wrapping his arms around you.
Whatever it was, it had you sobbing so hard that your entire body shuddered and was wracked with shaky breaths.
Tsukishima had never asked why you always reacted that way, he had been meaning to, but he always felt so guilty by pushing you to tears that he never asked. And you never told.
It was frustrating, but it was also something he had to treat delicately.
"You really should talk with her about it," Tadashi had been telling him for years.
"I can't."
"You can, you just don't want to," he argued. "Because you care about her, and you don't like seeing her upset."
Tsukishima had told him to shut up, but his friend had been right. He hated seeing you upset almost as much as he hated the soulmate system, and both were touchy subjects.
Tsukishima being around when you cried was always awkward, for many reasons.
The main being that you hated being seen crying by anyone other than Tadashi, and you hated it even more when it was Tsukishima.
Despite your friendship and the years that had been put into it, you showing your emotions through tears was something neither of you knew how to deal with yet because it happened so rarely. You were a lot like Tsukishima in that respect. You bottled everything up until it exploded, and he tended to be the one to ignite it.
He got under your skin in a way that no one else seemed capable of, and he pushed until he got some kind of reaction. But it was a two way street. When he pushed, you sent something right back at him. It had been the start of your friendship, back and forth banter that somehow shifted into something else.
Luckily, with so much banter under your belts, he knew what to avoid and what was safe to say when things got heated. The opposite was true as well. You had learned about each other's insecurities through trial and error, and Tsukishima had figured out how to apologize to you in the most effective way, and you him.
Sometimes in public though, you and him both forgot that not everyone understood your relationship with each other.
"Dude, you really shouldn't talk to your girlfriend like that. I heard you arguing with her when we came in."
Tsukishima looked up from his fingers to see a spiker from the other team standing near him, looking disapproving.
"She seems like the kind of girl that deserves better than that," the player continued, crossing his arms. "I can't believe she puts up with it."
Tsukishima didn't respond, trying to tap his fingers, and failing.
"Tsukishima, let me do that," you said, appearing from handing the boys their water bottles.
Yachi hadn't been able to make it to the practice game- she was visiting Kiyoko- so she had asked you to take over her managerial duties for a little while.
You tended to be like a manager anyway. The team had gotten you a team jacket and everything, despite the fact that you weren't an official member of the team.
You took his hand in yours, balling up the tape he had mutilated and restarting, wrapping his fingers methodically. Normally he wouldn't have any problems doing it himself, but this training camp had been rough on his hands, and he only had a few fingers that weren't hurt.
"Thanks," he said, watching you work with interest.
You were always gentle with injuries, and you winced whenever the guys winced, but you always seemed to be especially careful with Tsukishima and his hands. It had been odd to him at first, but then he had realized that you just cared more about him than the other guys because you were so close with each other.
He wasn't even sure if you were aware of it.
"You need to get better at asking for help," you chided.
"Hypocrite," Tsukishima teased.
"Jerk," you replied, smiling softly.
"Shorty."
"Overly salted French fry," you retorted.
"That's just rude," he groaned, but he couldn't help the smile that spread out over his face.
Tsukishima realized, rather belatedly, that the player from earlier was still there, watching the interaction with a baffled gaze.
"Oh, you're still here," Tsukishima mused, his tone telling everyone how much he didn't care about the presence of the other player.
"What were the two of you talking about?" you asked as you let go of Tsukishima's hand.
"Nothing of any importance," he assured you.
You gave him an odd look, but shrugged, moving to yell to Hinata about being too close to the cooler before he tripped over it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, Tsukkipoo!"
Tsukishima groaned as he heard that stupid nickname from his first year of high school.
He turned to see Kuroo and Bokuto striding towards him, hands in the air.
"Hello Bokuto-san, Kuroo-san," he said, stepping away from you to meet them head on.
He had just wanted to go shopping in Tokyo with you. There was a book shop you had been wanted to check out, and he had wanted to get out of the house for the day.
But, of course, despite the number of people who lived in Tokyo, he ran into the two people he hadn't wanted to spot.
"'-san'?" Kuroo mocked. "You can drop the honorific Tsukki."
"Hello morons," he said.
"There he is!" Bokuto yelled, laughing as he dragged Tsukishima down by the neck.
Tsukishima grunted and glared while you giggled softly behind him.
"Oh? Who's the pretty little lady?" Kuroo asked, sly grin appearing as he spotted you.
"I'm (Y/N). I'm his friend from school," you said, moving so they could see you better.
"Tsukki, you didn't tell us you had a girlfriend," Bokuto said, releasing Tsukishima's neck.
"Because I don't," he grumbled. "She's my friend. (Y/L/N), the idiot that looks like an owl is Bokuto, and Kuroo is the smirky bastard with the bedhead."
"Nice to meet you both. I've heard a lot about you," you said, smiling.
"Oh, I'm sure you have," Kuroo said, glancing at Tsukishima.
"Where were you guys headed when we ran into you?" Bokuto asked.
"Bookstore," you replied. "I need new reading material, and Tsukishima had a few things he needed to do in the area, so he was nice enough to keep me company."
"Tsukishima and nice in the same sentence, that's not something I would've imagined happening," Kuroo mused.
Tsukishima glared at him, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"Aw, don't want to look bad in front of your girlfriend?" Bokuto teased.
"She's not my girlfriend," Tsukishima repeated.
"And I'm fully aware that Tsukishima has a really shitty personality," you chimed in. "I'm not immune to the comments."
Kuroo laughed, and Bokuto was looking back and forth between Tsukishima and you with a curious gaze.
"Well, we'll let you guys get back to your date," Kuroo said, grinning when Tsukishima's gaze sharpened more. "We just wanted to say hi. Maybe we'll drop by the next training camp you guys have so we can catch up or something."
"Maybe," Tsukishima relented, hoping it would get them away faster.
"See you guys later, it was very nice to meet you," Bokuto said.
"You too Bokuto-san," you replied, smiling at him. "Well they seemed nice," you said as they walked away.
"They drain me," Tsukishima muttered. "Come on, the book store is this way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tsukishima knew that people were curious about your mark. It was a natural response that people wanted to see it since you always covered it up, but he hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until shit started to hit the fan.
He had been late leaving practice because Hinata had somehow managed to get himself caught in a net, something he hadn't done since first year.
You had stayed late to walk home with him, so that's how he found you crowded against a wall, with three girls trying to tear off the leather band that blocked your mark from view.
"Just let it go Meiko," you were saying. "It's absolutely none of your business what my mark is."
"We deserve to know," the other girl said. "What if you're soulmates with a friend of ours? What if you're soulmates with someone on a sports' team?"
"You aren't friends with my soulmate, Meiko, I can assure you of that. And it doesn't matter whether they're on a sports' team or not. This has nothing to do with you and your weird inferiority complex when it comes to me. Just back off."
"Tsukishima is mine," the girl, Meiko, snarled.
Tsukishima felt his eyebrows raise into his hairline at the statement. He had spoken maybe five words to that girl all year, and it was to tell her to go away.
"Kei isn't some limited edition vending machine item, Meiko, he's a human being with feelings and emotions. He doesn't belong to you. His name isn't tattooed on your wrist."
"How do you know my mark doesn't match his, hm? Do you have the matching mark?" Meiko asked.
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying that you're objectifying him. And trust me, even if you were soulmates, it wouldn't change anything. He still wouldn't acknowledge the bond. Kei hates the soulmate system with every atom and molecule of his being. He tolerates you at present moment, but he wouldn't even do that if you were soulmates. Be glad for the attention he does give you."
The use of his first name caught Tsukishima by surprise. He could count on one hand the number of times you had called him his first name, and most of them had been because you were mad at him or introducing him to someone.
And the way you said his name made his chest clench with something he wasn't entirely sure how to explain.
You said it like it was the only thing you wanted to call him.
Tsukishima had never really given much thought to how people had said his name in the past, but now he only wanted to hear you call him Kei. He would have to figure out a way to get you to call him by his first name without it being obvious that he wanted you to say his first name more.
"Got it!" one of the other two girls called, holding up the bracelet.
"What?" you gasped as they retreated, giggling.
You brought your wrist up and your eyes widened at the bare skin. You glanced around frantically, covering your wrist with your hand.
Tsukishima knew that you wouldn't be able to see him from his spot, and he wasn't sure whether you would want him to step in or not.
"I know for a fact that you aren't my soulmate," Tsukishima said, moving before he had even made a concrete decision. "Because one of the things my mark looks like is a book, and I'm 99% sure that you can't read."
"Tsukishima," you breathed, and heard the note of relief in your voice when you saw him. But you also looked panicked by his presence.
Your hand was still clamped firmly over your wrist, but he caught sight of a splotch of black.
"You okay?" he asked.
You nodded, glancing away from him, and he frowned. He turned his attention back to the girls that were looking to their leader to tell them how to react. They clearly hadn't expected him to be there.
"Give her the bracelet back," he ordered. "And don't talk to either of us again."
"But Kei-"
"There are only four people allowed to call me that, and you're not any of them," he interrupted, turning a sharp glare on the girl that had spoken. "Get your crony to give her the bracelet back and go home. You know the school's policy on bullying, right?"
All the girls paled, and you were given your bracelet back.
You turned around to put it back on, and you relaxed at having back on your wrist.
"Tsukishima, come on, they aren't worth it," you murmured, placing your hand on his wrist lightly. "It's not that bad."
"I don't take kindly to people I care about being harassed," he quipped. "Best to keep that in mind."
He turns his attention to you, checking you over, before he takes your hand in his, leading you down the hallway.
"Are you really okay?" he asks when you get far enough away to be out of earshot.
"They saw," you whispered.
"What?"
"They saw," you repeated, a little louder this time. "One of the girls had her phone out. They have a video or something, they're going to see the mark."
"What's so bad about that?" Tsukishima asked. "I've never asked because you seem upset by the question, but why do you always cover it up?"
You paused for a moment, slumping against the wall, sliding down to wrap your arms around yourself.
"I guess you do deserve to know," you whispered. "My soulmate doesn't want me."
"You know who it is?" Tsukishima asked, moving to sit next to you, slightly surprised.
This was news to him. You had never really brought it up, but he had just assumed that you didn't know who it was.
You nodded, burying your head in your arms.
"Yeah, I've known since first year. I still haven't told them though. I was building up the courage, and I heard a conversation they were having with a friend of theirs. They said that they hated their mark and that they never wanted to meet their soulmate. So I started covering it up. Most people think this bracelet is something important to me- and it is- just . . . not for the reason that they think.
"It allows me to know my soulmate, to be close with them without them knowing the completely selfish reason I have for sticking around. It allows me a semblance of what the soulmate system could've granted me. It allows me to play the smallest part in their life possible."
"And you're okay with that?" Tsukishima couldn't help but ask. "You love the soulmate system almost as much as I hate it."
"I get to be in their life, I get to be a small moon that orbits them," you whispered. "It's more than I thought I would get to begin with. I'm not okay with it in the slightest, but I've accepted the fact that I'll have to watch them fall for someone else. I don't really have much of a chance with them anyway, whether they know that I'm their soulmate or not. So, in the end, it was inevitable that it would end up this way. I just didn't think that there would be people that would go this far to get me to reveal what the mark is."
Tsukishima let silence settle over the little pocket of time you had made together, for the moment, digesting the information you had given him.
He had thought he was the only one in the school who hated the system, though there were others that were more quietly skeptical about the system.
"How do you know that they wouldn't want you, if they knew?" Tsukishima asked.
He didn't like the idea that you thought so little of yourself. It left a queasy feeling in his chest that you thought you weren't worth wanting by anyone.
"I know my role in their life, Tsukishima," you murmured, pulling your head out of your arms so you could look him in the eyes. "And I've accepted that I'll never be anything more than that."
"I don't accept that," Tsukishima decided, mirroring your position. "What moron wouldn't want you in their life?"
You let out a wet chuckle, and Tsukishima realized- rather belatedly, everything considered- that you were trying not to cry.
"Tsukishima," you whispered, shaking your head. "Please, just let it go. You won't like the answers you'll find if you dig."
Maybe it was because you were alone, or because he was tired of trying to keep you at arms' length, but Tsukishima reached out and tucked your hair behind your ear, keeping eye contact with you.
"You're my friend, (Y/F/N), and I want you to be happy. If that means I have to do recon on every person that goes to this school, I will."
"Please don't," you pleaded. "I don't want you to do that. It won't end well for anyone. Just . . . please, if you care about me at all, just let it go."
Like hell he was letting go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shit hit the fan completely the day after the hallway incident.
One of the girls had posted a picture of your mark on every social media platform and sent it out to everyone.
You hadn't shown up to school- you had said something about being sick to Tadashi- so you hadn't had to deal with it, but Tsukishima knew that you would know by the end of the day.
A video was posted an hour after the picture, with no sound, so the only people that knew what happened were the people that had been there.
"Tsukki, have you seen it?" Tadashi asked, shoving his phone in Tsukishima's face.
"Seen what?" Tsukishima asked, taking his friend's phone.
His breath stopped short in his chest when he saw the picture.
There was a series of pictures of you and the situation in the hallway, but then they zoomed in on your wrist.
There, black as anything, was the mark that matched Tsukishima's.
The mark on you looked like a volleyball, a dinosaur, and a pair of headphones, but when Tsukishima moved his wrist to compare, they looked like the same thing.
For once, Tsukishima wasn't infuriated by the laws of physics that were broken by the marks, he wasn't irritated by the mark on his wrist.
He was irritated with himself.
He should have known.
He should have known.
He should've known that you were his soulmate. The book, the raindrop, the cup, he should've known that you were who the universe or fate or whoever the fuck was in charge of these things would've chosen for him.
It also explained the tears and the pleading to just let it go.
"Oh god," he whispered. "She meant me."
Realization was dawning on him as recalled every conversation you had ever had with him about this topic.
"Oh god, I fucked this up," he decided, "I fucked this up so bad and I didn't even know it. Is she at home?"
"I don't know, I've tried calling and texting her but she isn't answering. The others are trying too, her friends have been blowing up my phone and hers."
"Shit, can you get me out of trouble here? I'm going to go find her," Tsukishima said, slightly frantic. "I have to-"
"Just go!" Tadashi hissed, shoving him.
"Yeah, right," he said, running for the doors.
He ran through a list of places you would go.
Library, Tadashi's house, your favorite coffee shop, maybe even his house.
All of them were empty.
There was no sign that you had been to any of them.
So he did the only thing he could think of.
He called Kuroo.
"Tsukki? What's up?"
"Shit's hit the fan," he explained, panicked. In as few words as possible Tsukishima explained what had happened up until that point. "And now I can't find her and I have no idea what else to do. You guys haven't seen her have you?"
You had accompanied the team to a training camp and had befriended most of the people there.
"No, I haven't seen her at least. I'll reach out to some people and see what they have to say. Keep me in the loop, yeah?"
"I will, thank you."
Tsukishima was out of ideas.
You weren't anywhere he had checked, you weren't at school, he highly doubted that you were at your house, so where the hell were you?
"Hey, idiot, I know. Call me, will you? I need to know that you're okay," he pleaded when he got sent to voicemail for the hundredth time in an hour.
And then he remembered that you were friends with most of their rival schools.
"Pick up," Tsukishima pleaded. "Pick up."
"Tsukishima? What's wrong?" Kyoutani asked.
"Has (Y/F/N) come by recently? I don't have Kindaichi's number or Kunimi's and I'm out of options."
"Yeah, she just showed up to the gym in tears. What's going on?"
"I'll explain if she doesn't. I'm on my way, just keep her there no matter what."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tsukishima was pleading with every deity and god he could think of that you were still in the Seijoh gym.
He knew that you were because he could hear the sobbing.
"You fucking idiot," he declared when he stepped through the doors. Your sobbing stopped abruptly as you whipped around to look at him in surprise. "Do you realize how fucking worried we all were? How worried I was? You disappeared off the face of the earth! Why the fuck didn't you answer anyone? Are you hurt?"
"You called him?" you demanded of Kyoutani, who- to his credit- barely flinched under the wrath of your gaze.
"He was really worried about you and I didn't know what was going on. And he called me."
"You fucking moron," Tsukishima repeated, practically tackling you in a hug. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
You pushed him away gently, tears streaming down your face in rivers.
"Because you didn't want me. You didn't want any of it. I wasn't going to push that on you, push . . . well, me on you." You shuddered and suppressed another sob, forcing the words out. "I didn't want to be that person. And you were happy with the way things were."
"Woah, Tsukishima is your soulmate?" someone asked quietly.
"You knew for three fucking years, when were you going to tell me?"
"When we graduated and we had moved away from each other, when the pull wasn't as strong, when you got married to someone. Maybe never."
"You fucking moron," he repeated, taking your face in his hands, despite the way you tried half-heartedly to push away his hands. "So what, you get to know who your soulmate is, but screw me because I was being an idiot? Did you ever think that, despite my denial, I would want to know who you were? Jesus Christ, I can't believe you spent this long thinking that I saw you as a side character to my life. You're one of my best friends, what did you think? That I wasn't going to find out at some point?"
"I knew you would find out, I was just hoping that you wouldn't ask."
"Do you want to be with me?" he asked. He wasn't getting anywhere near the root of the problem and he needed to know the answer to this question before he went any further.
You looked panicked by his question, he could see it in your eyes as you answered. "I won't force that on-"
"Just answer the question, (Y/F/N), do you want to be with me?"
"Yes," you whispered, so quietly that he could barely hear you. "I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing for that?" Tsukishima asked. "Why are you apologizing for something that you want?"
"Because you don't!" you exclaimed. "Because I can't be what you want. I can't be what you need! Because you hate the entire system, and extension everything I represent."
You tried to form another argument, but the tears took over and started to spill once again, which ended in you blubbering and hiccupping out a mess that Tsukishima couldn't understand.
"Hey. Hey hey hey," he murmured, hating the fact that you were this distraught over something that should have been so simple.
He really was an idiot, Tsukishima decided. He should have known that nothing he would say now was going to change the way you thought about the situation.
"Idiot," he murmured affectionately, cradling your face in his hands, laying his forehead against yours. "I can't believe you can see through everything else, but not this. I love you, why can't you see that? So, will you let me make it up to you?"
"There's nothing to make up, Tsukishima. I get it, you don't want this, and it's fine but-"
Tsukishima couldn't take it anymore, he realized. He wasn't going to let you keep talking like you understood what he was thinking. He wasn't going to let you keep thinking that he was going to just leave you behind when the time came.
He cut you off mid-sentence when he pressed his lips to yours.
"Let me make it up to you," he murmured. "Please. I should have never said any of that shit, I never really believed any of it and you never should have had to think about whether or not I wanted you in any capacity I love you, so please. Let me make it up to you."
You blinked up at him as your brain processed what he had just done.
"What?"
"I want to make it up to you, and I'll keep making it up to you for as long as you let me," he promised.
"But . . . ."
You looked really baffled and Tsukishima couldn't help the small smile that broke through.
"I want to be with you too, alright?" he inquired. "Just trust me."
Tsukishima could see the warring emotions on your face; the hope, the disbelief, the doubt, the wheels of your brain turning.
"Please," he whispered, smoothing his thumb across your cheekbone, forehead pressed against yours. "Just let me make it up to you."
"Okay," you whispered. "I can't say no to that face."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, if you want to, I won't stop you," you told him. "But there really isn't anything you need to make to me for, Tsukishima. I get it that this isn't what you wanted."
"I don't want it if it's not with you," he said. "I was lying to myself and to you when I said I hated the system. I hated the system for not giving me a choice, because I just wanted you. You were the only person I wanted to have as a soulmate. I hated the system for not giving me you. I love you, (Y/F/N). Just let me show you. Please."
"Is that really what you want though?" you asked him quietly, laying your hands over his, not to try and tear them away, just touching them.
"Yes, if you would let me," he murmured.
"Okay, we can try, but if you don't want this, just tell me, it'll be like I never existed."
Tsukishima doubted that this level of self-obliviousness was caused by three years of thinking he didn't want you. There was something else causing this other than him, and he intended to find out what.
"I quite like the fact that you exist, (Y/F/N), so don't ever say something like that, okay?"
He waited until you nodded, and said, "Okay Tsukishima."
"You can call me Kei," he told you.
"Are you sure?"
"I want you to," he murmured. "I heard you call me Kei last night, and I can't get it out of my head. I was trying to figure out a way to tell you."
"Yeah?" you asked, smiling slightly.
He nodded.
"Come on, the others are really worried about you, they need to know that you're alright," he told you.
"Okay."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(A Year Later)
You were standing outside a store with some friends from your psychology class when arms wrapped around your waist.
"Sometimes I regret my choice of friends," Kei murmured, burying his face in your neck.
"Oh no, what did they do this time?" you asked, turning in his arms so you could wrap your arms around his neck.
"Hinata and Kageyama stopped by."
"Oh shit," you whispered. "Please tell me that they aren't coming over."
"No, they're hanging out with Bokuto-san and Kuroo-san tonight, thank god," he murmured.
You blew out a breath of relief and sagged against him.
"Thank fuck," you muttered to yourself. "How bad are they?"
"Think first year Hinata and third year Kageyama," Kei informed you.
You felt the blood drain out of your face at the thought.
"Come on, let's get out of here," you said. "We can watch that new drama you've been meaning to see. I have dinner in a crockpot at home."
"I love you," he whispered into your skin as he kissed your shoulder. "So much."
"I love you too Kei," you told him, threading a hand through his hair.
You waved your friends on under Kei's arm, giving them the go-ahead to leave you behind.
"See you tomorrow (Y/FN)!" they called.
"Bye guys! See you tomorrow!" you replied, turning your attention to your boyfriend. "Bad day?"
He shook his head, leaving small kisses against your neck.
"Draining day. Good day, just draining," he corrected. "I just want to go home and spend the rest of the night with you."
"Alrighty Kei, we can do that," you assured him. "But here's the important question; are you going to make it back to the apartment?"
"Yeah, I just need a few minutes with you."
"Okay," you agreed, tightening your hold on him.
He had done that a lot after you had gotten together. Whenever one of you had a particularly draining day, or a bad day, you would just stand or sit someplace where you could hold each other until it seemed to make it less horrible and you were able to recharge.
"Come on you lazy lump," you cooed, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "We can do this on the couch at home. I think that middle-aged mom might have something to say about our blatant PDA."
Kei glared at the woman you had pointed out, who had started to make her way over.
You just smiled at him and tugged him on the path towards home.
