To the Moon and Back

Day two

The day passes for both boys as usual, although the lack of sleep is starting to take a toll on Yamaguchi. He'll have to find time tonight to slip in a couple of hours of sleep if he wants to continue functioning.

For some reason, Tsukishima can't seem to get the boy from the library out of his mind. He can't even put a name to the freckled face, and it really bothers him. Although he finished most of his school work in class, he has decided to go to the library to study.

"Yeah, studying, that's the only reason I want to go." Tsukishima assures himself. His affirmations are in vain, because he can't even convince himself that he isn't going to see if the boy from last night is there again.

Around one in the morning, Tsukishima sneaks back in the library. A massive grin crawls across his face when he sees the boy from last night slouching over his laptop.

"Yams?" He calls, walking over to the table. The boy looks up at him and smiles. The table in front of him is covered with open textbooks, papers with notes scribbled across them, and sticky notes.

"And so we meet again." Yamaguchi narrates. "How are you?" He asks. Tsukishima racks his brain for a witty response, but finds none.

"I'm alright, how are you?" He asks Yamaguchi. Form looks alone, Tsukishima thinks that Yamaguchi has had a rough day. The dark circles under his eyes seem to be more prominent than last night, and his posture is certainly worse than it was yesterday.

"Take a guess." Yamaguchi laughs. "I'm fine, just a little tired." He decides on saying. That's an understatement. Yamaguchi hasn't gotten more than three hours of sleep in the past two days. He's on the verge of collapsing.

"Take a nap then." Tsukishima suggests, emptying his backpack. Today he brought extra snacks, two thermoses of coffee, his laptop, and a pair of headphones.

"I wish I could. I have a paper due tomorrow, I need to finish that before I can sleep." Yamaguchi complains.

"I can help?" Tsukishima offers. His heart is in the right place, but truthfully, he is absolutely useless when it comes to writing philosophy papers.

"No you can't." Yamaguchi says simply. "Sorry, that sounded mean. I'm not mad at you, I promise." Yamaguchi apologizes. Tsukishima hadn't interpreted that as rude in the first place, but he still accepts the apology.

"Coffee?" Tsukishima offers, holding out a thermos to the freckled-faced boy. He frowns slightly, and pushes the mug back towards Tsukishima.

"I told you yesterday, the caffeine messes me up." Yamaguchi says. Tsukishima smiles, he was hoping Yams could say this.

"I know, I remember. I made it decaf for you." He says, offering the thermos out again. A grin creeps across Yamaguchi's face, and he wraps his thin fingers around the metal mug.

"You remembered? That's so sweet!" Yamaguchi exclaims. "What's your name again?" Yamaguchi asks. It's not like he forgot it, Tsukishima had just never told him his name.

"You can call me Tsukki." Tsukishima says, with a grin. If Yams asked for his name, then that must mean that he plans on talking to him more. His scheme to become friends with Yams is slowly but surely coming together.

"How long do you think that paper will take you to write?" Tsukishima asks nonchalantly. Despite his tone, he is desperate to know how long he will get to talk to Yams tonight, or rather this morning.

"I should be done writing it in half an hour or so, but then I have to edit and revise. I'm not entirely sure, but hopefully by the time we have to leave." Yamaguchi says.

"So then I can help!" Tsukishima exclaims. "I may not know shit about philosophy, but I know how to edit a paper!" Tsukishima says sappily, glad that he can be of use.

"Are you sure you don't mind? Don't you have work of your own to do?" Yamaguchi asks, not wanting to burden him.

"Nope, I already finished all my school work. I'll edit your paper for you." Tsukishima says excitedly. It's ironic how he always turns his papers in without so much as reading them over simply because he doesn't want to edit it, but he'll help Yams even without an incentive.

"If you don't have school work to do, why did you come here? You're not just trying to spend more time with me, are you?" Yamaguchi teases.

Tsukishima's plans have been scrapped. His goal is no longer to befriend Yams, he's determined that that won't be enough. Tsukishima now aims to make Yamaguchi fall in love with him.

A blush creeps onto Tsukishima's face and crawls across his cheeks. "Do you want me to edit your paper or not?" He replies, turning his head slightly in an attempt to make his blush less obvious.

"Sorry, sorry." Yamaguchi says, putting his hands up in a mock surrender. "Forget I ever said anything." He says, although he has far from forgotten why Tsukishima came to the library tonight.

"So, are you madly in love with me or what?" Yamaguchi teases, completely forgetting about his agreement not to tease Tsukishima.

"What!" Tsukishima explains, the question catching him off guard. After a split second, he understands that Yamaguchi was partially joking, and that he should respond with a joke back.

"No, I just wanted to share the wonders of coffee with you." Tsukishima says, his voice a little shaky. Tsukishima takes a moment to grasp his thermos and take a long sip from it.

"Well, you have delivered the coffee to me, you can go now." Yamaguchi says, turning his attention back to writing his paper.

"Well, I need my thermos back." Tsukishima says quickly, desperate for an excuse to stay with Yams.

"Here you go." Yamaguchi says, handing Tsukishima the empty thermos. "The coffee was good." he compliments.

With no excuse left to stay, Tsukishima asks, "Do you really want me gone?" Yamaguchi looks up from his computer, then frowns.

"Of course not." He says softly. Realizing how romantic that sounded, he adds, "With you gone, who will edit my paper?" then laughs.

The library falls quiet as the two get to work. Although it takes a while, they manage to finish writing, revising, and editing the paper by 2:30 am.

"Nap time!" Yamaguchi cheers, standing up to stretch. He walks a lap around the table then mutters, "Fuck. I forgot we are in the library. There's nowhere to sleep here." The wooden chairs in the library are less than ideal for sleeping on.

"Here." Tsukishima says, pulling off his sweatshirt to reveal a white t-shirt underneath. "You can use it as a pillow and rest against the table." he says, offering the sweatshirt to Yams.

"Really? Thank you. Will you wake me up before five?" He asks Tsukishima. Before even getting an answer, Yamaguchi lies down against Tsukishima's sweatshirt and promptly falls asleep.

"Of course." Tsukishima replies, although Yamaguchi couldn't hear him. While Yamaguchi sleeps, Tsukishima listens to music. He wonders what type of music Yamaguchi listens to, and begins to put together a playlist for him.

Before long, it is time to wake Yamaguchi up. Tsukishima thinks he looks so peaceful sleeping, and that since Yamaguchi probably needs every minute he can get, he should let him sleep for a little while longer.

Tsukishima gathers all of the loose papers into a stack and tucks them inside a textbook. Tsukishima folds up Yamaguchi's laptop and slides it into the sleeping boy's backpack. Once everything is cleaned up, Tsukishima gently shakes Yamaguchi to wake him up.

"Come on, it's almost five." Tsukishima whispers into Yamaguchi's ear. The soft sounds are enough to wake him up, and he stands up from out of his chair.

"I'm up, I'm up." Yamaguchi mumbles, swatting away Tsukishima's hand on his shoulder. "Sorry." He mutters as the two boys sneak out of the library together. Yamaguchi is still clinging to Tsukishima's sweatshirt when they get outside.

"Mhm, here, this belongs to you." Yamaguchi says, handing the navy blue sweatshirt back to its owner. Tsukishima shakes his head, and pushes it back into Yamaguchi's arms.

"Keep it." He says with a smile, then turns and walks away.