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Calendar Event This Afternoon at 2: 17 p.m.: Solar Eclipse with Tsukki!!
“Yamaguchi!”
“Ahh, one moment, Tsukki!”
He ran down the stairs, grabbing his practice bag from where it was sitting next to the door before rushing out to meet his friend. “See, I’m here! Let’s go, we can’t be late for practice!”
“I know that, Yamaguchi, that’s why I was telling you to hurry up.”
“Ah, yeah, well, at least we won’t be late now…Hey! Are you excited for this afternoon? I can’t believe we’re in the right place to see it!”
“Remind me why you’re so excited about this again?”
“Oikawa said this was supposed to be the best eclipse Miyagi has gotten in something like 20 years!”
“I still find it incredible that you’re actually friends with that guy, Yamaguchi.”
“Never struck you as the type to hold up interschool rivalries, Tsukki.”
“You know I don’t care about that; I just didn’t think you’d be friends with such an asshole.”
“Well, yeah, but he’s helping me with my serves!”
“Your serves are already fine on their own, they helped us win against Shiratorizawa last year, why do you want his help? I didn’t think he did float serves anyway, what is he even helping you with?”
“Well he…maybe…is...teaching…me…howtodojumpserveslikehedoes?” Yamaguchi looked away at this, deciding the trees off to his left were far more interesting than his friend to his right.
“Tch.”
The pause that followed was agonizing, Yamaguchi knew he wasn’t happy about it, but he had no idea what this it was. Did he really dislike Oikawa that much? Did he not care about his serves? Did he not think it was worth putting in the effort? No, Yamaguchi knew he had gradually gotten over that since last year. Did he not think Yamaguchi was worth putting in the effort? This made Yamaguchi’s breath seize. But before he could do anything to relieve the building pressure in his chest, Tsukishima replied.
“Well, as long as you don’t hurt yourself.” Yamaguchi sighed, letting out the pain that had started to make his heart race.
The rest of the walk to practice was normal, maybe a little quieter than normal, but not filled with any sort of strange, building tension.
God, Yamaguchi just wanted to take a nap. He had gotten back from the store, taken a shower, and immediately collapsed onto his bed as he thought about what he had told Oikawa last week during their practice.
“I just don’t get it, Tada-chan, why do you want to watch this with him so badly? I’m hosting a watch party at my apartment that day, why don’t you just come there and hang with all the cool university kids? He’s already said he doesn’t really care about this, so why force him?”
“Sure, he said he doesn’t really care, but that doesn’t mean he won’t like it,” Yamaguchi argued back. “And, and, besides! He called the moon ugly yesterday! I can’t let that slide!”
“He said what? How could he? That is the most beautiful lady in the whole universe he’s talking about there!”
“I know!!”
“So, you want to show him the eclipse so he can see how pretty the moon is?”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
“No, no, no, that’s cute, Tada-chan. Glasses-kun will definitely appreciate that.”
“You really think so?”
“Absolutely! I speak only from experience, Tada-chan!”
“Oh, so how’s Iwaizumi-san doing?”
How was he supposed to do this? Just confess out of fuck-all-nowhere? Could he really do it? Could he really tell Tsukki that he thought his face was as pretty as the moon? ‘That his hair makes it seem like he is constantly lit by moonbeams? That the way his glasses reflect light blind me almost as much as the light side of the moon? That his smiles seem as forbidden to me as the moon’s dark side? That even though he lights up our nights, and has since we were kids, I still look for him in the day, to see if he’s still there by me? That—’
Yeah, it sounds pretty stupid to Yamaguchi even just thinking about it.
After another several minutes of lying facedown into his pillow, wondering if he should just bail already, he heard the doorbell ring and before he knew it, he was out of bed, down the hall, down the stairs, and opening the door. “Hey, Tsukki! You ready for the eclipse?”
“Of course I am, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. We’re going up to the roof, right?”
“Yep! Here are the glasses we need—and yes, before you ask, I got the ones that go over your regular glasses, don’t worry—and the blanket to sit on, so let’s head on up!” Yamaguchi grabbed Tsukishima’s arm and pulled him into his room, which had a window onto the roof where they could watch the eclipse. It was already noticeably darker now than it had been even two minutes ago when Tsukishima had walked over, but especially than it was a couple of hours before, walking home from practice.
They set out their blanket and sat down, setting the glasses down beside them. “Yamaguchi.” Yamaguchi looked up at him. “Why are you actually excited about this eclipse? I know you said it’s the biggest one in a long time, but that doesn’t explain why you were interested before Oikawa told you that.”
Yamaguchi blinked up at him, taking a moment to think about how to explain it without going into his whole rant that he had thought out earlier. “It’s really cool because everything just happens to be lined up perfectly on this day at this time for our small part of the world to see! And even though the moon itself isn’t lit up, since the sun’s light is reflected away from us, you can still see it move across the sky which seems like it should be contradictory, but it’s actually really neat. And then when its shadow sweeps across everything, I’ve heard it feels like the sun is just gone!”
“And this is all because of the moon?”
“And this is all because of the moon!”
“Huh. Interesting.” Tsukki looked thoughtful. “What about these stars? These aren’t the ones we saw last night when we were out here.”
“Nope! That’s another cool thing about eclipses: you’re seeing the daytime stars! Since it’s summer now, the ‘winter’ stars are visible during the day, except the sun makes it impossible to see them. But now that the sun is getting covered up, they’re around again! See, there’s Orion, so now we can see Betelgeuse, oh and there’s Sirius!”
“Sirius is the super bright one, right? And then is Betelgeuse that blue one near Orion’s legs?”
“Nope, I think that’s…Rigel, maybe? Betelgeuse is the red one in his armpit! That’s actually where it gets its name! It’s from Greek or Arabic or something.”
Yamaguchi glanced over to his side, deciding to just gaze at the slight smirk that was making itself present on Tsukishima’s face at his story. Suddenly, a rush of darkness overtook the sky and everything surrounding them. Even though he was expecting it, Yamaguchi couldn’t help but gasp. Sure, he knew the sun wasn’t actually retreating into her cave or getting eaten by a dragon, but it sure felt like the sun was never going to reappear. Tsukishima turned his head and looked back at Yamaguchi. “It’s almost time for the peak, right?”
“Oh! Yes! Here, we better put the glasses on now, before we blind ourselves!” Yamaguchi shoved the protected glasses onto his face, watching Tsukishima do the same, taking in the new orange, and very dark, environment around them. The moon was now covering all but a sliver of the sun.
There were so many stars around, he might’ve forgotten how to breathe for a minute. They were so beautiful. With so many visible now, even the faintest ones that normally require a telescope to see through the moon’s glare, were shining bright and proud. And they were so clustered together they looked like, well, freckles.
And then suddenly, right before the last amount of orange sun disappeared behind the dark span of the moon, Tsukishima tapped his shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Hey…?”
“I…have something to tell you.”
“Yeah…?” He looked towards him in mild confusion, but also immense relief. Maybe Yamaguchi wasn’t going to have to this by himself after all! He could see it now: walking into practice holding hands, making fun of Kageyama for being stuck in his will-they-wont-they situation with Hinata. Yamaguchi calling Oikawa to make fun of him for failing to confess to Iwaizumi, even with all the advice he’s given. Telling their parents; telling their siblings. He would get so much shit from Aki-nii and his sisters for this but it would all be worth it, getting to call Tsukki his boyfriend. And then later—graduation, college, getting an apartment together, and everything that comes with it.
“I’m dating Hinata.”
Oh.
Shit.
“Well, congratulations, Tsukki.” If Tsukishima heard the lack of genuine happiness in his voice, he didn’t mention it. “But why did you tell me this now, quick, look back up, you don’t want to miss it!”
He turned Tsukishima’s head with his hands to see the final peak of the eclipse. He turned his own face up towards the sky, hoping his tears would wait to fall until after it was over. But looking at the sun, its corona visible now, highlighted by the moon covering it, only managed to drown out any stars that happened to get too close to it, until all he could see were the moon and the sun, none of their celestial friends present.