Under the Stars

Chapter #19: There's a Glow of Light

At the beginning of October, the volleyball team had ramped things up in order to prepare for nationals. Saturday practices had started, and they even went to a few weekend training camps in Tokyo with the same teams from the Shinzen training camp. This time, however, Tsukishima accepted Bokuto's and Kuroo's offers to practice blocking. To be honest, he had fun. Though he didn't partake in them himself, he didn't feel as though he was tolerating their antics. Everyone on the team seemed to be proud of him. It was a little embarrassing, if he were being honest.

The team had gone to the Spring High Preliminaries but unfortunately, they lost to Aoba Johsai in the third round. The loss was hard on the team, but everyone picked themselves back up, even Tadashi. While he was much more prone to crumbling than the rest, he seemed to be riding the high of Tsukishima confessing to him and had no issue with moving on from the failure.

Coach Ukai and Takeda Sensei had encouraged the team to go watch the finals, but only the third years, Hinata and Kageyama ended up going. To everyone's surprise, Aoba Johsai  triumphed over Shiratorizawa. The Monday after the tournament, those who watched told stories about the match. Most were about a rather peculiar middle blocker from Shiratorizawa  named Tendou Satori, who has been dubbed the "Guess Monster" by the crowd. Apparently, he was incredibly observant, and could tell where the ball was going based purely on intuition and observing the patterns of the opposing team.

Even though they had lost and there would be no more tournaments for them to attend, they continued to practice but only three days a week instead of five. The third years had stuck around too, playing volleyball solely out of enjoyment, but it didn't feel the same. Without a large goal like going to nationals driving them forward, the team felt lost, even with Hinata encouraging the other first and second years to improve for next year's tournaments.

A couple weeks after the prelims, the most unexpected thing happened to Tsukishima. He was invited to a volleyball training camp for first years that would take place during the first week of December at Shiratorizawa Academy. He wasn't interested in going, especially since they had lost at the prelims and he didn't want to miss school, but Daichi convinced him to sign up. Yamaguchi told him that he wished that he was invited to the camp as well, and Tsukishima suggested that he sneak in as a joke, knowing that he'd never do something like that.

A week after their confession, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had a conversation regarding their relationship, and the two had decided to make their relationship official. Turns out, Yamaguchi had been harbouring feelings for quite some time as well. Tsukishima has been over the moon since.
   
The two haven't done much outside of hanging out as they did before, but it felt different. There was a certain energy that wasn't there previously, like sparks flying. Before, Tsukishima would only hold or cuddle Yamaguchi if he was upset, but now, he doesn't need that excuse, and he thinks it's safe to say that both of them are happy about that.

About a week into their relationship, both of them individually told their moms about it. Tsukishima had been fairly nervous about telling his mom, but it went over smoothly. She had always liked Tadashi and his mother, and was pleased to see Tsukishima in a relationship with somebody she trusted, paying no mind to the fact that he was in a relationship with another boy, and Ms. Yamaguchi was just as delighted.
   
Tsukishima had also told his brother, who gave him some aggressive applause over the phone before pulling it back to his ear to say, "Don't get him pregnant," making Tsukki double over from laughing, before calming down and retorting with "I'll try not to." The two of them have started to joke around more, getting more comfortable with each other as the days go on.
   
This evening, Kei and Tadashi lay in the latter's backyard, gazing up at the night sky. They're both wearing sweatpants and hoodies to battle the cold November air, since they were too stubborn to give up on seeing the meteor shower that's supposed to occur. Thankfully, it wasn't windy, which tends to be half the battle when the temperature drops.

The two lay there side by side holding hands, as they watch a meteor or two shoot across the dark sky every minute. Occasionally, Tsukishima glances over to look at Tadashi, whose eyes reflect the stars as they shine in the night. He watches as his eyes study the sky, searching for where the next meteor will be visible. Every time one goes by, they point to it in excitement and look at each other, smiles painting their faces.

Tsukishima brought his iPod shuffle, which sits plugged into a small speaker. Just as he had promised Tadashi, he had introduced him to Green Day, and just like Tsukishima, he fell in love. Almost every time they'd listen to music, he'd ask for him to skip to a Green Day song. His favourites ended up being "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."
   
For the past few weeks, Tsukishima has felt incredibly happy with Yamaguchi, but tonight he feels the happiest yet. Despite the overwhelming urge to tell Tadashi that he loves him, he hasn't. Even though they've had these mutual feelings for a long time and they'd known each other even longer, he wants to wait until the moment is right.
   
Tsukishima isn't sure how much time passes when the meteors finally come to a stop. He shifts his gaze over to Yamaguchi, who looks up at the sky with a blank expression. His eyes are no longer searching for anything, and instead stare off into an arbitrary point in space (quite literally). Tsukki waves a hand over his face, grabbing his attention, and he looks over at his boyfriend with the same expression.
   
"Hey, you doing alright?" he asks.
   
"Yeah. Sorry, I'm kinda tired," Tadashi responds.
   
"Oh, okay," but for some reason Tsukishima feels like there's something more to it. Going against his instinct, he accepts the answer and decides not to press.

They lay there for a few more minutes, enjoying each other's company until Tsukki breaks the silence again. "I think I'm gonna head home."

"Okay, I'll see you at school on Monday then?" Tadashi phrases it as a question, like he's unsure if it'll actually happen.

"Yeah, see you later," he gives his boyfriend a smile as he enters the house, bids Ms. Yamaguchi farewell, and heads to the bus stop.

For some reason, he still feels like something was off. It wasn't anything that Yamaguchi said or did, he just had that feeling. That feeling that something was going to go wrong. You're being silly, he tells himself. Nothing bad is going to happen.

Nothing bad is going to happen.