Shortcake(K. Tsukishima)

Part 3

It had been a week since your study session with the boys. Neither you nor Tsukishima had acknowledged what he said before he left, to the point that you debated whether or not it actually happened. And yet every time you saw him, all you could think of was that moment. Part of you wished it meant he liked you, part of you knew better than to get your hopes up for that. After all; you barely knew each other. As a matter of fact, you knew next to nothing about him. 

You tied your (h/c) hair back into a half up half down style before heading down where Suga was already waiting for you. You had woken up too late for breakfast again, but thought nothing of it as you headed out the door. Before long, you were walking into the gym. You headed to the bench and greeted Kiyoko. Since starting as manager, you had developed an effective routine between the two of you on how to divide up responsibilities. So you began to help set up the net, just as you had done every morning for the past week.

As you tied the net up, your stomach rumbled.

Damn I should have grabbed some fruit or something  you thought, finally realizing your hunger.

"Wow I knew you weren't the brightest, but I figured you could at least feed yourself, shorty," said a voice behind you. You quickly turned around, finding Tsukishima standing uncomfortably close. 

"I-I just woke up a little late," you said, embarrassed at your stutter. But he was just standing so damn close. You had to crane your neck up uncomfortably to look in his eyes.

Without a word, he walked away, and you let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding in. You didn't know what it was about him, but his presence always put you on edge. Maybe its because he was a prick.  You finished tying up the net, and he was beside you once again.

"Here," he said, handing you a granola bar. 

"What is this?" you asked, surprised at his sudden kindness.

"Wow you really are dumb, pipsqueak," he said with a chuckle, "its a granola bar."

"But why?" you asked.

He rolled his eyes, ignoring your question. He unwrapped the bar, "here, eat up," he said.

You tried grabbing the bar from him, but he moved your hand away.

"What are you doing," you whined, confused by his behavior.

"Well you obviously can't feed yourself, so let me lend a hand," he said with a smirk, "open up, pipsqueak." You looked at him, confusion muddling any thoughts or comebacks you could think of. Eventually, hunger taking over, you just quietly opened your mouth, letting him feed you the granola bar. 

"That's more like it, pipsqueak," he said, ruffling your hair. Soon the granola bar was gone and he walked away without another word, again. 

Little did you know the rest of the team had been watching the interaction with the utmost of curiosity. 

"What's going on with those two?" Daichi asked Suga.

"I- I have no idea," he replied, as confused as the rest of them. Everyone quickly moved on as coach walked in and practice started, the odd events of the morning falling by the wayside. Well, except for you, who couldn't help but replay the actions in your head over and over again.

~TimeSkip~ClassTime~

You sat in your usual seat by the window, zoning out completely from the lesson at hand, the events of the morning playing over in your head. You cringed every time you thought about your reaction to Tsukishima. 

"(L/N), is whatever is outside that window more interesting than my lecture?" the teacher asked, snapping you out from your thoughts.

"Oh, of course not sir," you replied, turning your attention back to him. 

"Well then, I hope you heard the instructions for this upcoming project, as it will make up 20% of your final grade." Unfortunately, you had not heard his instructions. As a matter of fact, you didn't even know you had a project coming up. "You will be working in pairs for this one." At this statement, the whole class brightened up, many whispering to their friends in preparation. "Pairs that will be assigned by me." he finished with an almost sinister grin. As expected, this was met by groans of protest from the entire class.

After a solid couple minutes of arguments, the teacher finally began reading out the pairs for the project. "... and finally, (L/N) and Tsukishima. Alright, get together with your partners to talk about your projects." 

"Well, I guess we should talk about our project," you said to Tsukishima, turning to him.

"Right," he said, "do you even know what we're supposed to do?" he said with a smirk.

You rolled your eyes, "Sorry, but honestly, I don't. And don't call me dumb. Intelligence has no correlation to attention span." you finished, preparing yourself for another round of teasing. You had let your anxiety take over you interaction with him this morning, but you wouldn't let it happen again. 

"Well, basically, we have to bake something and then remove an ingredient to see its effects on the final product," he explained. He could obviously see the surprise on your face from the lack of an insult, so he quickly added on, "I'm sure even someone as dumb as you can understand those simple instructions." 

"Well what do you wanna bake, if you're such a genius?" you asked with a laugh. His constant teasing was a little annoying, but at this point you were used to it and it was mostly just funny. You knew he meant no real harm.

"Strawberry Shortcake," he said without a second thought.

"Isn't that what you got last week at the convenience store?" you asked, "is it your favorite?"

"Oh, um, yeah," he mumbled. He seemed caught off guard by the fact that you remembered that.

"Well, then sure, lets make that," you replied, "you can come over on Saturday, if that works for you. I would suggest after practice, but I'm not sure if we'd have time." 

"Sounds good," he replied nonchalantly. You looked over at him as he started playing music on his headphones. This stupid boy... how could he be so confusing? Earlier he was feeding you a fucking granola bar and now he was brushing you off like it was nothing. 

One thing was for sure. It would be an interesting Saturday.