Goodnight, Tadashi

Chapter 4

The teasing continued over the next few weeks, though Kuroo did lose a bit of steam when Bokuto started coming to Tsukishima’s defense.

“I have a body pillow too!” Bokuto had bellowed one night, the outburst seemingly out of nowhere. “Are you gonna make fun of me, too?”

“Well, I mean,” Kuroo tried to find the words to explain his logic. “You’re the type of person who would have a body pillow, so it’s not surprising that you do.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s not supposed to mean anything about you!” Kuroo was getting exasperated. Tsukishima was enjoying the show. “It’s just that Tsukki doesn’t seem like that type of person, so it’s funny that he does!”

“Well I don’t think it’s funny,” Bokuto insisted, crossing his arms over his chest.

After that, Kuroo’s teasing dropped to only when it was just the two of them, and Tsukishima had never been more thankful to Bokuto in his life.

Truth be told, Kuroo’s pestering really wasn’t too much to endure now that Tsukishima was sleeping fairly regularly. Though he still felt his cheeks heat up sometimes when he was on the phone with Yamaguchi, listening to his best friend rambling about how his work day had been, and all he could think about was how he had pressed his face into his pillow and murmured, “Goodnight, Tadashi,” before he fell asleep the previous night.

But if there was one thing that Tsukishima Kei was good at, it was playing it cool. All he had to do was continue to play it cool, and nobody would ever need to know that when he draped himself over his body pillow at night, it was his best friend that he was imagining folding himself in on.

Right?

Tsukishima awoke one morning to pounding at his bedroom door. He groaned, burying his face in what he imagined was the crook of Yamaguchi’s neck, tightening his arms around the width of what he wished was Yamaguchi’s abdomen.

“Tsukki!” the door opened, and Kuroo’s head was in his room. Tsukishima rolled slightly toward the door, peering at the shape of Kuroo through one cracked eye. “Don’t you work at 8 today?”

Tsukishima was quiet for a moment, trying to wake up enough to remember what day it was. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

“It’s 7:45.”

“Fuck,” Tsukishima announced in response, followed quickly by, “I’m up.” He rolled back into his pillow, making no effort to get up.

When he heard the door close, Tsukishima sighed mournfully into the body pillow. “Morning, Tadashi,” he said, words that had become his typical greeting to each new day, lips brushing the pillow’s surface before he sat up.

What wasn’t typical about this greeting was the scoff of laughter he heard in response. Tsukishima froze.

“Oh my god, you named it!” Kuroo was cackling, and Tsukishima threw one of his regular pillows at the other man.

“What are you still doing here?” Tsukishima demanded, face heating up instantly. He couldn’t believe he’d let Kuroo hear that. He couldn’t believe he’d let Kuroo see that.

“I just wanted to make sure you got to work!” Kuroo answered defensively, ducking out of the way of the cushy projectile. “But oh man, did I get more than I bargained for!”

“Get out!” Tsukishima grabbed his glasses off his bedside table, donning them before throwing his other head pillow at his laughing intruder. This one hit its mark.

“What was his name?” Kuroo, unfazed even by a direct hit, continued on, holding his hand up to his ear. “Tadashi, did you say?”

“I said, get out!” At this point Tsukishima vaulted out of his bed, crossing the room to where Kuroo stood in two long strides. He grabbed Kuroo by the shoulders, spun him around, and started shoving him toward the door.

“I can’t leave yet, Tsukki,” Kuroo cried mournfully, dragging his feet the whole way. “You haven’t properly introduced Tadashi and I yet!”

The struggle continued until Tsukishima was finally able to wrestle his door open, shove Kuroo out into the hall, and slam the door shut behind him, locking it as quickly as he could manage. Kuroo turned the knob against the lock, whining when he couldn’t get back in.

“Aw, Tsukki, don’t be like that!” Kuroo called through the door. “I just wanted to meet your new boyfriend.”

“Stop calling me that. You’ve lost privileges!” Tsukishima hollered back. “Leave me alone, I need to get ready for work.”

It was quiet for a few moments before Kuroo acquiesced. “You’ll get more later, though, Tsukki,” he warned teasingly, before Tsukishima heard his footsteps retreating down the hallway.

He sighed in relief, but turned back to his bed with a frown. Approaching the bed, he laid one hand on the body pillow.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake, Tadashi.”