after years, your best friend's older brother makes an earth shattering appearance back into your life. and suddenly, a shared secret not only turns your lives upside down but forces you two to be closer together than ever.
est. may 2023
IT WAS THE DEAD OF NIGHT WHEN YOU HEARD IT. you sat up in bed, looking at the clock that stood idle on the bedside table. it wasn't unusual for you to be up at witching hours because the devil they called insomnia loved to keep you on your toes.
but what was unusual were the shuffling sounds coming from downstairs of your best friend's house at 4:26 am; while you were house-sitting so amaya could go on a month-long vacation with her fiancé; while you were alone and vulnerable.
you reached over to pause the video playing on your laptop screen. maybe it wasn't the best idea to watch true crime at such notorious hours of the night, but you've been watching them as long as you've known, so it wasn't like they affected you anymore.
maybe you were only trying to convince yourself that you were stronger than you really were because even as you got out of bed and made your way to the door, your heart still threatened to beat out of your chest. you crept down the stairs, stepping only in spots you knew wouldn't creak. when you reached the bottom, you were thankful to find the bat that belonged to your best friend's fiance. it was the bat that she was constantly nagging him to move, but suddenly you were thankful he never listened.
it was hard to see in the dark, but turning on a light would be a dead giveaway. if whatever or whoever was in the house was violent, things could take a turn for the worst. so instead, you continued to creep closer and closer to the quiet, shallow sound of labored breaths.
you froze as if someone manually glued your feet to the ground. because it was only then, as your gaze caught on the focus of the moonlight, that you realized what was making that sound. no, who. it was only then that you recognized the figure splayed out on amaya's couch.
it was tsukishima kei—your best friend's older brother.
you dropped the bat in your hand, seeing him jolt at the sharp sound. he seemed more alert now, his body language showing he was on edge. more on edge than he already was.
"kei?" you called out to him, your legs bringing you to the edge of the couch in less than a second. the gasp that left your lips could make anyone's veins freeze over and turn to frost. "oh my god, what the—what the fuck happened??"
another shallow intake of breath, as if he was struggling to bring air into his lungs. "who..." he rasped, barely able to keep his eyes open. when you kneeled before him, the moonlight washing over your skin, tsukishima's eyes widened.
he sat up so quickly he seemed to have forgotten he was injured. a choked cry escaped him as he keeled over in pain, forcing you to catch him. "stop moving; you're clearly hurt!" you cried desperately as you leaned him back against the couch.
tsukishima looked utterly spooked. his eyes darted in panic, and he couldn't calm down. "you need to leave. you can't—" his next breath sounded more like a wheeze "—you can't be here."
"what the hell are you talking about?!" you were panicking too. and when your gaze caught on the blood gushing from his side, you nearly lost your vision.
so, so much blood.
"fuck! i need—" you sighed, frantically looking around you to find something—anything—that could stop the bleeding. you gritted your teeth in frustration when you realized there would be nothing around because your best friend was a neat freak who never left anything out of place.
tsukishima—fading in and out of consciousness—only caught a glimpse of the resigned, determined look on your face before he could no longer handle the stabbing pain at his side. he groaned and let his head fall back against the couch, his eyes fluttering shut.
"no!" you felt terrible as you slapped his cheeks repeatedly, "you need to stay awake, okay? i know you're tired, and you're losing a lot of blood but don't give in."
when he forced his eyes back open, your shirt was off, and you were moving his hand to the side to press the fabric onto his wound. he gasped at the sudden pressure, sharply sucking in air between his teeth as blearing pain nearly overtook his body.
"you need... hah, you have to go. now. if they followed me here, you could—god, fuck—you could be in danger!"
"are you insane? i can't leave you like this!" you exclaimed. "i need to call..." you reached into your back pocket, cursing when you realized you had left your phone upstairs. without a word, you began to pat your hands on the pockets of his jeans and bit back a happy cry when you found his phone. "i'm gonna get you help, okay?"
"what do you mean you're gonna...?" you started to type in the emergency number. "no!"tsukishima yelled. just as you were about to press the call button, tsukishima smacked the phone out of your hand. you gasped, watching the device crash into the wall and shatter.
"tsukishima, what the fuck?!" you retorted, forced to rip your attention away from the ruined phone to the blood-soaked shirt that was now gushing red under your fingertips. you were breathing heavily, feeling overwhelmed at the sight of so much blood. you glared up at him, "what'd you do that for? how am i supposed to keep you alive without help?"
"are you an idiot or what? you can't call the fuckin cops," he scolded, his breathing growing more labored with every word. "they'll... start asking questions about... shit that's none of their goddamn—"
"okay, okay! just shut up; stop talking," you said irritably, interrupting him when you noticed more blood gushing out from the wound because he tried to speak.
the shirt on his wound was so soaked through with blood that it was no longer usable. "wait here and don't die," you warned as you got up to go get the first aid kit. "i'll be damned if you make me go through all this just to kick the bucket."
you sped to the utility closet in the hallway, pushing the doors open. you didn't care that you were getting bloody handprints everywhere, and you didn't care that you were walking around in your bra. you just needed to save him.
despite the ache in your heart, you pushed on. it was never easy to see someone you cared for in pain.
you had known tsukishima for... as long as you can remember, really. since you were a second year and you started hanging out with the intimidating girl in your class.
she was the girl nobody liked to approach because her brother was tsukishima kei, the scary tall third year that ran track and played volleyball. her attitude pretty much mirrored the snarky blonde's, but that only drew you to her. it was easy to become friends with her because everybody knew that kind of attitude always made you laugh. you weren't scared to get close to anyone.
so when you guys started going everywhere and doing everything together, nobody was shocked. when you were at her house every other day; when her household of four became your second family; and when your friendship blossomed into something never seen before, it wasn't weird that you had become fond of tsukishima, too.
tsukishima, the middle child who rolled his eyes at everything and never failed to have a cheeky comeback. tsukishima, the one who constantly bullied you and even his own sister because you were "short." tsukishima, the boy who always kept people at two arm lengths because he didn't want to admit that he was an emotional wreck.
tsukishima, who dropped everything the second he graduated and became something nobody would've ever guessed he would become.
