Heeello, idk if u take requests but i hope u do!!
i want a tsukishima kei × fem!reader, i want his reaction on the reader hugging him suddenly without saying anything and the reader doesn't pull away from the hug (aka gives him a long hug)[It’s like the reader wants a “healing hug” bc she’s going through something so she needs a hug]
How will tsukki react and how will he comfort her?
Please NO TIMESKIP
Genre: hurt/comfort, fluff
✩★✩ a/n: yes!! i've never done a request before so please bear with me, but I had a lot of fun writing this and hope this lived up to your expectations!
p.s. it was not supposed to be this long, but i'm a fiend for context and backstory—and i may have gotten a little carried away, so... sorry lol
ੈ✩‧₊˚ 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗨𝗚 ★
wc: 1.7k
you and tsukishima were undeniably academic rivals. it was nothing too serious, but there was definitely some gloating and teasing in your relationship.
you guys spent the first year of high school competing against each other, trying to see who could get the higher test score or answer the most in-class questions correctly. even though you two didn’t talk much outside of school, you had personally grown fond of whatever relationship it was that you and he developed over the year.
of course, you knew that feeling was one-sided because tsukishima was exactly the kind of person to take the whole “rivalry” thing very seriously. to him, his pride was on the line. plus, the tsukishima kei would never deign to see you as anything more than a step on his climb to the top. to him, you were just competition.
for you, on the other hand, his opposition was just motivation to excel in school and be petty towards him. to boot, it was an acceptable distraction from all the shit you had to deal with at home—when the school day was over, and you had to go back to your parents who could never seem to stop arguing long enough to realize you existed.
after starting your second year and being upgraded to class 2-5, only to find tsukishima there again, you could feel yourself getting more serious about it. the more your home situation got worse, the more incentive you had to take it out on schoolwork—and tsukishima.
some days you'd be so cold to him that he could do nothing more than just stare at your retreating figure as he desperately tried to shove away the voice inside his head telling him to go after you. telling him that you didn't mean the harsh words you just spit out and that you actually want him around. his mind was in a constant tug of war, his resolve on one side and that stupid little voice on the other. nine times out of ten, his resolve won. until it didn't.
you had been unusually quiet all day; super distant and spaced out. on a usual bad day, you'd take out all your frustrations on your schoolwork, finishing the work in half the amount of time you were supposed to take before tackling the homework for that day and several other things. but when you walked into class that day, tsukishima knew it wasn't just a 'usual bad day.'
you had your head down on your desk the entire class, your closed eyes painting the entire world black. you didn't even bother looking at the work for that day, let alone doing it. you even ignored all the weird stares and the few people that tried asking if you were okay.
and when the lunch bell rang, you immediately walked out of class, leaving everything behind.
that was the day that the little voice in tsukishima's voice won the tug of war.
he glanced over at your desk and sighed, mentally slapping himself for what he was about to do next.
he walked over and picked up your bookbag and lunchbox before going on a manhunt for you all around school. he searched like a madman, asking everybody he knew if they'd seen you. it wasn't until the last few minutes of lunch that he finally found you on the roof of the auditorium.
tsukishima let the heavy iron doors close shut behind him while he approached you slowly. he could only see your back, your uniform skirt swaying in the chilly fall breeze as you perked up at the sound and tucked your head between your shoulders. he watched you raptly. you were shivering.
"yn?" his voice carried through the howling wind and the darkening clouds up ahead.
your breath left you sharply at the sound of the familiar voice. against your better judgment, you turned around to find tsukishima standing before you. he made sure to stay several feet away, just to give you space.
you swallowed down the tears even after seeing him with all your stuff, an uncharacteristically concerned look on his face. even after seeing the way his hair stuck to his forehead and his chest rose and fell with the effort of breathing after running up at least six flights of stairs—you kept it all together.
until the forbidden words came out: “are you okay?”
you stared at him with trembling lips, realizing only then that tsukishima was the only person who ever actually saw you. you always thought you were going crazy when you noticed him easing up his teasing the tiniest bit on the days he could tell that you were holding on by a single thread. or when you could feel his stare from across the classroom, trying to fight off the goosebumps that his calculating gaze brought to your skin.
but even after realizing that, you still tried to push him away, scrunching up your face and biting out a brusque "what do you care?"
tsukishima sighed, giving in to the urge to roll his eyes. "i wouldn't be here if i didn't, yn."
you clenched your jaw at his words, your resolve crumbling down on you like an avalanche.
before you knew it, your legs were moving on their own, closing the distance between you and the boy in front of you in a matter of seconds. it all happened so fast, he didn't even see it coming. when you crashed into his broad chest and your arms wrapped themselves around his waist, tsukishima stopped breathing.
he froze in place, his body tensing and his limbs seizing with the shock of your warm body suddenly colliding with his. he stood there uncomfortably, still with your lunchbox in one hand and your bag in the other. tsukishima didn’t know what to do—didn’t know what to say. he didn’t know the first thing about comforting a person, but when the sound of your soft sniffles reached his ears, his entire wall came crashing down.
he acted on instinct.
dropping both bags, he hesitantly brought a single arm around your shoulders. at first, it was just an awkward pat on your back; but upon noticing the way you cried even harder at his reciprocation, he slid his hand lower, letting it settle onto the small of your back.
the best he could do was pull you closer to him and wrap his other arm around you, his hand moving to caress the back of your head gently. tsukishima didn’t move a single step until you pulled away first, rather abruptly as if you came to your senses and realized what you were doing.
you let out a shaky breath, cringing, “i—im sorry, i didn’t mean—“
"don’t say you didn’t mean to do it," he cut you off, donning a slightly pained expression.
before you could even say anything else, tsukishima took off his jacket and wrapped it around your shoulders. it was cold, and like the dumbass you are, (his words) you didn’t have one on. of course, he made sure to let you know that, scolding you for being careless and putting yourself at risk of catching a cold. and for not eating properly and not confiding in anybody about your problems. it was as if you didn't just have your face buried in his neck, staining his porcelain skin with your tears.
you let yourself crack a smile, feeling the tension in your shoulders, neck, and back slowly ease its way out of your body at his nagging. you tugged his warm jacket closer, leaving him there to go and take a seat with your back against the railing.
you only had to look up at him for him to get the message; without a word, tsukishima came and sat beside you. he didn't ask any questions, didn't badger you for answers, or tease you for being vulnerable like you thought he would. maybe he would use this against you later, but the most you could do was savor the moment.
so you closed your eyes and leaned your head against his shoulder. as expected, he tensed up from the action, so much so that you had to shuffle a little closer to whisper in his ear. “relax, i don’t bite.”
not only did he loosen up, but he even dared to let out a small chuckle at your words.
after sitting on the roof for a while and watching the newly transformed orange and red cherry blossom petals flake from the trees, tsukishima offered—though he didn’t give you much of a choice—to walk you home.
after a humble round of "you don't have to"—"but i want to," you finally accepted his offer. the two of you ended up skipping the rest of the school day together, which was the last thing you ever expected to be doing considering the way you feel both about your grades and tsukishima.
as if things couldn't get any weirder, tsukishima took you to a convenience store on the way to your house, insisting that you get whatever you need. he ended up buying you a drink and new, “more tasty than whatever shit you had in your lunchbox” food to eat. he even sat you down at one of the tables outside the store and forced you to eat right then and there because he didn't trust that you would do it when you got home like you kept promising you would.
he was a surprisingly funny guy, making jokes the entire way home. while his dry humor wasn't for everyone, it made you laugh and forget about your crappy day. as you were walking up to your house, you kept trying to give him his jacket back but to no avail because the bastard kept telling you to keep it and not rush it back to him.
“wow. the great tsukki kei is actually a great big softy.”
“shut up, no i’m not,” he scowled. “and don’t call me that!”
when he finally got you home and bid you goodnight, you did something else that shocked you.
you leaned up on your tippy toes and kissed tsukishima (on the cheek). you thanked him for everything before running into your house and locking the door behind you, not even waiting to see his reaction.
your rival stood in front of the gate to your house, dumbfounded, and confused, yet blushing furiously and grinning like an idiot because he simply couldn't help it. on the other side of the door, your were grinning too despite your racing heart.