Inevitable || tsukiyama au

CHAPTER 18.

And so, they went to the firework festival. With all the students staring at Tsukishima, Kento's worries weren't exactly appeased. 

- "You do seem quite popular with the ladies..." he said, like it was proving his point.

Tsukishima didn't respond and instead discreetly glanced at Tadashi before staring at the floor. He was chewing on his bottom lip, obviously nervous. Yamaguchi couldn't tell why exactly, but they still frowned accusingly at their brother. Kento shrugged, confused, and looked at Tsukishima again. The blonde turned to him, and he took a step back. 

- "You-you're very tall." he mumbled.

- "Yes." 

- "With those looks, you can't deny you must have get a lot of attention."

- "I never did."

The atmosphere was overall very tense, with Kento nervously talking too much, and Tsukishima nervousy not talking enough. Yamaguchi, almost as nervous, just pretended to look around at the different stalls of the festival. 

- "There ! A shooting range ! Let's try that."

Out of all the activities, how did they manage to choose the one involving a rifle was uncertain. Such a great idea to ease up the tension.

- "You've been to the one back home with mom, right Kento? The prizes are pretty cool, there's even that PS4 game you wanted last Christmas."

- "Really? I'll get it, just sit back and witness my power !"

They were both very, very, wrong. 

- "How did he do that ?!"

- "I think I won something."

It turned out Tsukishima had some kind of secret shooting gift. Of course he did.

Next to him, Kento hadn't won any prize. He was mortified. Even the stall owner looked like he was about to cry. The tension wasn't exactly eased up.

Though Tsukishima could've technically gotten the entire store, he only asked for one thing. A PS4 game. He handed it to Kento, looking down. The brunette feigned disinterest, but as soon as the blonde wasn't looking, he inspected the package with extreme care.

At some point, Tadashi left the two alone after spotting Moe somewhere between stalls. As soon as they were gone, Kento started scolding their roommate again.

- "You know you can't just buy me off, right?"

No answers. Tsukishima looked around, as if not listening.

- "Hey ! Is that how you manipulated my sibling into liking you? By buying them things?"

Still nothing.

- "Will you listen to-"

Kento stopped talking when Tsukishima finally looked back at them. His expression was so sincere, so hurt, he couldn't get any more words out. 

- "Look. I'm not a liar. I didn't manipulate them. At least, I'm trying not to. I'm not used to... this." He move his hands, like it could explian what he was trying to say, what excatly he meant by 'this'.

Kento didn't know what to say. What to do. Such simple words, but they still meant something. He looked away and when he glanced back, Tsukishima was smiling. 

- "What?"

- "You care a lot about Tadashi, don't you?"

Kento stayed silent for a minute, forgetting what role he was supposed to play here. Then :