solid | tsukishima kei

eleven.

When the next day came around, Tsukishima still couldn't bring himself to talk to Takahashi. So another day passed, and another. . . and another. . . and another. . . by the time Tsukishima realized it, a week had almost gone by and the anxious feeling he'd been having every time he saw Takahashi hadn't gone away and his trip to Tokyo with the volleyball team was coming up, meaning that he wouldn't see Takahashi for another week after that.

Now. Do it now. His mind shouted at him every time he saw her alone.

But every time he saw her alone, his body wouldn't move.

So as the Tokyo trip grew near, Tsukishima's relationship with Takahashi grew more and more distant as time passed. Midterms came, along with some very unneeded headaches from his resident idiots, Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama. But secretly, Tsukishima was thankful for the headaches his two teammates gave him since it provided a good escape from the unsettling distance between him and Takahashi.

As the last day of midterms rolled around, the teacher called out to the class that the exam time was up and that she would be going around collecting it. Once the papers were collected, Tsukishima turned forward and opened his mouth.

You won't see her for a week. Say something! He thought to himself.

Takahashi pulled her backpack strap over her shoulder and stood up, leaving Tsukishima no time to form the words he wanted to say to her. She made her way to the back, not even sparing Tsukishima the light of day. He sighed and began to pack his own things when there was a loud crash.

He turned around quickly and stood up from his seat the moment he saw Takahashi on the ground. Moving before he could really think of his actions, he made his way over to help her up, taking her arms in his hand and hoisting her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Takahashi stood stunned for a moment before her eyes settled into a glare. "Don't you remember?" she asked, her cold tone matching her glare, "I said let's not talk again," she picked up her bag from the ground and pushed her way past Tsukishima.

"Looks like there's trouble in paradise, huh, Tsukki-poo?" Akita purred.

Takahashi froze in her steps and turned around. Storming back over, she pushed Tsukishima out of her way and grabbed Akita by the collar of her shirt, and yanked her out of her chair in a threatening manner. "It's one thing to trip me for no reason," she hissed, "But don't drag others into this," she hissed, "Leave him out of this,"

Takahashi shoved Akita back, making the other girl start to fall backward back into her seat. Her friends rushed to stop her from falling backward as Takahashi hooked her foot around the leg of the chair and yanked it out from under Akita, causing her to fall.

"You like to bully people?" Takahashi glared at the girl who now sat helpless on the ground, "Then let's see how much you like being bullied back," with that, Takahashi turned around, grabbed her things from her locker in the back, and left the room.

Yamaguchi made his way over to Tsukishima cautiously as the situation defused. "What just happened?" he asked.

Tsukishima gritted his teeth and shook his head, "She's completely different now," he said out loud.

Yamaguchi looked at Tsukishima stunned, "You haven't noticed?" he asked in shock, "You spend so much time staring at her, I thought you'd have noticed,"

Tsukishima frowned at Yamaguchi, "What do you mean?"

"Don't you see?" Yamaguchi shook his head in dismay, "Takahashi's been like that for days now. It's like someone replaced the usual nice Takahashi with a fire-breathing dragon. She's completely different," He fixed Tsukishima with a long look, "You really didn't realize?"