tsukishima scenarios!

♢ volleyball ♢

Volleyball practice was suddenly cancelled, opening up Tsukishima's after school time. It was a chill day for the two of you, minimal homework and minimal stress. Plus, it was a Friday. You could spend the rest of your time today screwing around, which happened to be playing volleyball. Normally you would walk Tsukishima to the gym before walking home by yourself, but he informed you minutes before that practice had been cancelled. Daichi didn't seem to have given the boys a reason, but none of them asked for an explanation.

Instead of sharpening his own skills, you had asked if he could teach you volleyball instead, just for the fun of it. Given your short stature, it was quite obvious why you didn't play any sports where height played a huge factor. Not that you did any physical exercise in the first place, but still. You weren't asking to do anything special, just basic volleys and sets. You were curious to see how things would turn up, maybe you'd be bouncing balls across nets in no time.

You didn't want to risk going into the gym in case they were prohibited from entering but since the weather was nice, you suggested to do the lesson outside. Tsukishima found a spare ball lying around in the clubroom and on you went with the lesson. "Alright, I've seen you do underhand serves before during gym class so we can just focus on sets," Tsukishima said thoughtfully, spinning the ball around in his hands. With that, he set the ball on the ground and walked behind you. He brought your arms in front of you, angling your hands and fingers into a proper position. "When setting, your hands should be facing inwards, sort of making a triangular shape," he traced the shape out in between your fingers.

He then picked the ball back up again and threw the ball up into the air, using his hands to lightly tap it over his head. "Your hands should be light and bouncy, loose and not tense," he caught the ball and then handed it over to you, who was looking at him with awe. "Wow, you're really good. And you're not even a setter!" He scoffed, "This isn't anything special, were you expecting something like Kageyama's sets?" You let out a squeak, "Oh my god I completely forgot! Lil Kags' sets are godly!"

He frowned at your comment, he slightly wanted you to compliment his abilities too.

Maybe something along the lines of "Tsukishima you are the best player on the team! I have never seen a middle blocker as amazing, handsome, and talented as you!"

But no matter, he'd get you to say it eventually.

"Let's practice setting the ball to each other."

"Cool cool, not too hard though please. I don't want it to fall onto my face."

"No promises, tiny tot."

Tsukishima threw the ball up into the air again and lightly tapped it in your direction, which you hit it back to him in an awkward manner. It didn't feel wrong, but you didn't feel as if you were doing it right either. "Am I doing alright?" you asked after a few more shots, once you felt that you had gotten the swing of things. "Not bad," he replied, hitting the ball a little higher this time.

Pretty soon, you were exhausted from all the overthinking and foreign body movements.

"Bruh I don't know how you guys can do this for hours on end, I have newfound respect for y'all. Especially Kags what the heckity heck."

"Oh? We haven't even done blocks or spikes, that involves a lot more energy than setting you know."

"Yeah yeah, you're fricken jacked I get it."

Tsukishima's forehead creased slightly when you didn't give him the answer that you wanted. He wasn't one to fish for compliments, but he liked it when you were the one to say it. Your opinion was one of the few that he actually considered, and it made him feel all fuzzy inside when you said something uplifting about him. Probably because you weren't one to dish out compliments unless you absolutely meant it, so that made them extra special to him. He sighed and scratched the back of his neck tiredly, "Let's take a break for now. We still need to walk home afterwards." You nodded and seated yourself down on the bench, letting out a relaxed breath as you melted against the seat.

"That was pretty lit, even though all we did was set the ball."

"Mmm."

"Hey, maybe I could ask Kags to give me pointers or something. My friends always asked me to play volleyball with them, I could see myself being a setter when playing."

"But what about me?"

"Being a middle blocker is out of the question, I'm too short. I'd actually be useless haha!"

"Why don't you ask me for tips?"

"Oh that's what you meant. Yeah I could ask you for tips too."

"The King isn't as good as you think, you shouldn't idolize him so much."

"I'm just tryna support my best bro, ya know?"

Tsukishima grunted in response and you tittered at his subtle hints, you didn't expect to see him so worked up about something so trivial. You leaned onto his arm and poked his cheek, which he swatted away and turned his face away from yours. "Now now, no need to be so butthurt," you started. Although he was still evading eye contact with you, you could tell that he was listening to you.

"But I think you're the best player. Trust."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah man! You're so tall and calculating. Real slick."

He let out a short breath and flicked your forehead before getting up from the bench and walking towards the school gates.

"Wait for me! Bro why you walkin' even faster! I'm gonna punt your ass to the moon once I catch you, you ungrateful hoe!"