Work Text:
I
“Yamaguchi keep an eye out so I can put the note in Hinata’s lunchbox.”
“Okay Tsuki! Hurry up though I can see they’re almost done picking up the balls and putting away the net.”
“OKAY OKAY, I’m going as fast as I can. His lunchbox is messy and I need to put it somewhere he can see it. So right as he opens it he reads it.”
“Done I taped it to his drink. There’s no way he won’t see it.”
Tsukishima had been nervous all day. He was jumpy and looked irritated, but if you knew him you’d know he was anxious. He didn’t know if Hinata was going to freak out if he found out it was him. Maybe Hinata would think it’s a joke and cry. Tsukishima was going crazy with all the possible outcomes when Hinata came to the club room after practice. After school, he rushed to the gym. The third years thought there was something wrong with him, to be honest. Tsukishima was never this eager to start practice. Hinata and Kageyama were usually the first ones to get there after the third years. It’s not like they weren’t happy to see Tsukishima so engaged with volleyball it was just a tad bit odd coming from him.
“Hey Tsukishima, whatcha doing here so early?”
“What I’m not early Dachi?? I’m pretty sure I’m on time.”
“Well that’s what I mean you’re almost never here on time… I’m not saying that’s a bad thing we were just curious that’s all.”
“Ummmm okay…”
Yamaguchi comes not even 5 minutes after Tsukishima. “Dude you ran so fast to get here. I’m so out of breath trying to catch up to you, fuck.”
“No one told you to follow me or try to keep up. That was your own choice.”
They fall into banter while the rest of the team trickle in. It was quite surprising that Hinata and Kageyama weren’t in the gym yet. Completely out of character for both of them. Once they walk in they look flush and out of breath.
“Where were you guys? It was so weird to not see you guys waiting for us to open the gym?”
“Sorry captain, we were trying to get a drink from the vending machine. Our drinks kept getting stuck…Actually, they’re still stuck. We never got them.”
“OMFG you guys are stupid!! How much money did you put in the vending machine?”
“10 bucks…”
“OMG, you guys are actual idiots!”
“Why are you being so mean Tsukishima!”
“No guys, I agree with Tsukishima on this one. Why didn’t you stop after the second one got stuck.”
“Not you too Suga!”
The team continues to tease the duo and the fact that they never got their drinks. Practice goes relatively well. The only thing is Tsukishima is getting more anxious the closer practice comes to an end. By the time practice is over it seems like he’s sweating more now than when he was practicing.
“Dude calm down, I'm sure he’ll be here. Stop worrying so much, you’re making me nervous.”
“I am calm. What about me is not calm?!”
“You’re quite literally shaking right now…”
“Shut up Yamaguchi.”
The first ten minutes they’re in the club room they both chalk it up as Hinata taking too long getting dressed after showering. Then 20 minutes pass… They say it’s him arguing with Kageyama. Then 30 minutes pass and Yamaguchi leaves. Finally, 45 minutes pass, and Tsukishima gives up on seeing Hinata. He comes out of the practice room dejected. He walks home with an angry look on his face.
He thinks ‘why wouldn’t he just come to the club room and tell him he didn’t like him? Why did he just leave him hanging like that?’. Once he gets home he showers and as he’s about to sit down and eat he notices that his phone is dead. He goes to plug it in while he eats. Once his phone turns back on it explodes with texts from the volleyball group chat and Yamaguchi.
“Do you guys know who this note is from? I found it on my water bottle when I got home. I didn’t eat lunch so I just saw it. ”
“Nope! No idea little dude.”
“Same here.”
And about 10 other messages saying the exact same thing, saying no. He goes to Yamaguchi’s messages after. He can already feel the headache coming.
“YOU DIDN’T PUT YOUR NAME ON THE NOTE!”
“YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!”
“YOU CAN’T BE DEJECTED NOW, IDIOT…HE DIDN’T EVEN EAT LUNCH.”
And a series of other messages calling him an idiot and giving him ideas to try and ask him out again. He just groans and turns off his phone, he can’t deal with this right now. Well, it’s great to know that he didn’t just ditch him.
II
“Okay does the note look fine?”
“Yes, Tsuki for the 5th time it looks fine! Now hurry and tape it to one of the volleyballs before he comes.”
“Okay Okay it’s done now we wait for him to show up and we get my answer.”
He knew his plan was over when he saw Suga was the first one to the gym other than them. He was even more horrified when he picked up the volleyball meant for Hinata. He turned red in the face once he saw Suga cackling when he read the note attached to the volleyball.
“Tsukishima, where are you?? I know you’re around here somewhere you have to be. Do you know how risky it was to do that?”
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi walk out from behind the side of the gym. Yamaguchi is silently laughing at Tsukishima's second failed plan.
“You know I’m never letting you live that down right?”
“Yeah, I know…”
He knew Suga joked and fucked with people, but he had never been on the receiving end of it. In actuality, he would always fuck with people along with Suga.
“Do you guys know why this volleyball has tape on it?”
“What?”
“Tsukishima, do you know why? You were here pretty early today…even earlier than me! Got any guesses??”
This went on all throughout both morning and afternoon practices.
“He’s never gonna let me live this down huh Yamaguchi?”
“Yeah, never… this is gonna be his blackmail material forever. You’re never gonna escape this.”
“Thanks, Yamaguchi, I really needed that.”
III
This is his chance. Study dates never go wrong, and he knows that Hinata is failing his English class. What a perfect opportunity for him, it’s like the gods are on his side. Turns out he was wrong in every single way possible.
“Remember if you don’t pass your exams then you won’t be able to go to the training camp with Nekoma during the break!!”
“GOT IT, CAPTAIN!!”
Suga and Daichi are staring straight at Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Nishinoya as he said those words. You can see the four of them physically recoil from his heated glare.
“Kageyama, I have a terrible grade in English… there’s no way I’m gonna pass if I don’t get help.”
“Don’t worry Hinta, I'm literally failing math and English. We need help if we want to pass to go to the training camp.
Tuskishima couldn’t help to hear Hinata’s and Kageyama’s conversation after Daichi’s little speech. He figures this is the best time to offer his help to Hinata and ask him on a study date. This way he can make sure Hinata goes to the training camp and they have a date. A win-win situation for both of them.
“I’m gonna do it, Yamaguchi. I’m gonna ask him on a study date. This is the perfect opportunity for me. There's no way this is going to fail.
“GOOD LUCK TSUKI.”
When he finally gets the courage to ask him once Kageyama leaves his side.
“I heard you need help with English to pass your exam.”
"Yep, if I don't pass this exam I won't be able to go. And I really want to play against Kenma!"
"I'll help you if you want."
“Wait you’re not fucking with me right???”
“Why would I… I’m literally offering my help, but if you don’t want to go to the training camp then I guess you’re on your own.”
“WAIT!! Yes, please help me study English. I really want to go to the training camp.”
Finally, Tsukishima thinks. I finally got him, a cute little study date.
“You’re gonna help Hinata?”
Tsukishima jumps out of surprise. He didn’t even notice that Kageyama was standing behind him while talking to Hinata. He can see Yamaguchi snickering across the gym.
“Yeah, I am. Why?”
“Help me too. I’m not doing so great in math and English.”
“Yes, let Kageyama come too!! We both need a lot of help. Please Tsukishima!”
He can feel his face fall. He doesn’t want to help Kageyama. Fuck Kageyama why did he have to get in the way of his plan. Yamaguchi across the gym looks like he wants to piss his pants from laughing so hard.
“No. Why would I help you?”
“Because you’re helping Hinata. Anyways, you were just going to study with Yamaguchi. What's one more person gonna do?”
“Come on Tsukishima, just let him join us! Yachi can come too, it can be a first-year study group!! That would be so much fun.”
“No, why would I want that many people in my house? Stop being annoying Kageyama, you can’t come study at my house.”
“Whatever…”
He can see Hinata’s face fall a bit after he said that Kageyama couldn’t come. He has an internal dilemma going on in his head. Make Hinata sad by not letting his best friend come and ruin the surprise study date, or make Hinata happy by letting the rest of the first-years come and study at his house. He can’t believe that he’s about to let this happen.
“Fine, you can come over this weekend to study.”
He can see Hinata’s face beam when he says that. He also sees Hinata run to Yachi to relay the information to her. He’s about to have one of the best and worst weekends ever.
“This is what…your 3rd time trying to ask him out? I can’t believe how bad you are at this.”
“Shut the fuck up, Yamaguchi.”
“This is literally the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Why can’t you just grow some balls and ask him out, it's not that hard.”
“If it’s not that hard how come you haven’t asked Kageyama out yet huh?”
Yamaguchi just blushes and walks away from Tsukishima for saying that. If Yamaguchi kept teasing him about his crush then he was going to tease him as well.
The rest of the week is uneventful, though the only thing on Tsukishima’s mind was Hinata coming over to his house. He was not going to be put-off that the rest of the first years are going. This is a step in the right direction, he just knows it.
He spent the whole morning cleaning the house and cleaning his room. He put away all the embarrassing things in his room or the house in general. He just can’t bear to put away his dinosaurs though. They're his pride and joy, he’s been collecting them since 5 there’s no way he was going to be embarrassed by them… He ends up putting them away 10 minutes before Hinata comes.
“Wow, Tsuki, I've never seen your room this clean before. I wonder why that is…”
“Whatever, just don’t say anything embarrassing when Hinata gets here!”
“Okay, I’ll try my best!!”
The moment Yamaguchi said that he knew today was not going to go the way he wanted.
All is going well until Kageyama shows up. See the thing is Tsukishima doesn’t have a problem with Kageyama. He really doesn’t. He just doesn’t understand why Hinata likes him so much and why they hang out so much. And why Hinata talks about him all the time. Okay, you got him, he's jealous of Kageyama.
Everyone was studying and going over their flashcards, and it really seemed like Hinata was actually understanding the things he needed to know. Then all hell broke loose the moment Kageyama stepped foot into his house. He tried being polite. He did all the things a polite host would do, offer water and a place to sit, but let’s just say Kageyama’s presence just annoyed him.
Annoyed him to his entire core. He couldn’t say a single word to Hinata without Kageyama butting in and saying something to Hinata.
Everytime he would try to help Hinata when he asked a question Kaygeyama would butt in. It would be either a comment that he didn’t ask for, or a question right when Hinata asked. It was slowly starting to make him angry, but he knew he couldn’t explode on him. He had to keep it in. He couldn’t be mean to his crush's best friend.
“Tsukishima, what does this mean?” Hinata was pointing at something on his page from the last exam he had.
“It-” As Tsukishima was about to start explaining what it meant Kageyama butted in again.
“Dumbass he went over that already! Aren’t you listening?”
“GET OUT! Everyone get out of my house right now.” Tsukishima couldn’t do it anymore. If he had to hear Kageyama's butt in one more time he was going to explode more than what he just did. If he’s being completely honest he's surprised how long he lasted without exploding at him.
He didn’t notice when everyone was looking at him with shock. As they were all packing up their things Tsukishima could see out of the corner of his eyes Hinata and Kageyama whispering.
“Why did you do that?” Hinata whispered yelled at Kageyama, while putting his books in his bag. Well more like shoving them to get out as fast as possible.
“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything. All I did was tell you he went over that already. If anything he should be grateful that I said something to you.” Kageyama whispered back. Also while shoving his books and papers in his bag.
As they all slowly made their way to the front of the door he was walking sluggish behind them. Upset over the fact that he failed once again. First to leave wasKageyama he started to make his way to the bus immediately after he got all of his stuff packed. Next, was Yachi. She wanted to leave immediately to not face Tsukishima's wrath any longer than she needed. Hinata and Yamagchi were the last ones at Tsukishima's house. Hinata was waiting for his mom, since she didn’t want him biking home.
He was sitting in the living room unusually quiet. Tapping his feet and twiddling his fingers. He didn’t want to say a peep to make sure that Tsukishima didn’t yell at him again. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were sitting on opposite ends of the living room, also not saying a word. But Tsukishima could see Yamaguchi staring at him then looking at Hinata.
Yamaguchi slowly gets up from his seat to leave the two of them alone, but right before he could, Hinata's phone rang. His moms contact photo popped up as he picked up. He immediately go up and answered.
“You’re here? Omg thank you mom!” He hurriedly put on his shoes and ran out the door. He threw out a goodbye before slamming the door shut.
“So much for that plan huh. I thought you might have actually done it this time. Better luck next time.” You could hear the smugness in Yamaguchi's voice as he was talking. He looks at Tsukishima just staring at the floor.
“I just couldn’t take it anymore. If I had to hear Kageyama’s voice one more time I think I would have killed him. Or at least punched him. And didn’t I tell everyone to leave… Why are you still here?” He glared at Yamaguchi while saying this. Honestly he could have saved this entire plan if Yamaguchi manned up and talked to Kageyama during the studying, but no he had to be shy and only talk to Yachi.
“You know this is all your fault. If you would have been man enough to talk to Kageyama this wouldn’t have happened.” He said with a smirk on his face. He’s had enough of Yamaguchi teasing him for his crush. Might as well do it back full force.
“This isn’t about me. This is about you not being able to ask Hinata out like a ‘man’! Just ask him out, it literally cannot be that hard. ” Yamaguchi throws back at him.
“Well, it obviously isn’t if I’ve failed 3 times.” He walks Yamaguchi to the door to see Hinata waiting at the gate for his mom.
“Why are you still here, I thought your mom was here?” Tsukishima yells across his yard. Hinata whips his head around looking like a deer caught in headlights. He starts to stutter out a response when a small car pulls up. Hinata lets out a sigh of relief as he gets in the car. Once again he throws out a goodbye and a thank you.
“No way you scared him that bad to where he didn’t want to sit in your house to wait for his mom. That’s actually insane.” Yamaguchi is giggling while saying this to a very shocked Tsukishima.
He couldn’t believe it. Hinata would rather wait outside his house than sit in the same room as him. What all because he told everyone to get out. Hinata should have known he wasn’t talking about him.
“Well casanova. What’s your next plan?” Still giggling, Yamaguchi asks.
“Leave right now. I never want to see you again. Ever. Never say I’m your best friend. I no longer know you.”
IV
“Are you sure you want to try this again? It didn’t work the first time. What makes you think it’s going to work this time?”
“Listen it’s all I can think of instead of outright asking him. I mean it’s kind of a good idea right? Asking him out with something he likes.”
“You know for being so smart you’re actually pretty dumb. It already failed once. What are you changing to make it work this time?”
“Well for starters I'm going to write the note on the ball instead of taping it to the ball. That way it doesn’t fly away. Now go be on the lookout for Hinata so I know when to place the ball down in his path.”
“Got it!”
Tsukishima carefully writes out the note on the volleyball to meet him at the club room after afternoon practice. He leaves his name this time so Hinata would know that it was him and not some weird stalker that's out to get him. He carefully crafts his message out on the ball and to where you can see it on one side of the ball.
“He’s coming. Hurry Tsukishima! He’s running this way!”
Tsukishima hurriedly puts the ball down in his path. The message is perfectly placed on the path that Hinata is currently coming down. He runs to hide where Yamaguchi is at, a perfect place to spy on Hinata. What Tsukishima doesn’t notice is that the ball moved from where he placed it. The message moved! It’s upside down now, fuck he’s not going to see the message immediately.
Hinata stops in his tracks when he sees a ball outside the gym. He looks a bit puzzled on why it might be out there. He could have sworn he helped the managers pick up all the balls, maybe one made it out without them knowing. Who knows? He picks it up to take it into the gym, when he feels the bottom is a bit wet. He turns over the ball and sees there's ink smudged all over it.
“What the fuck is on this?” he mutters to himself as he takes it back inside.
On the other side he doesn’t notice Tsukishima and Yamguchi staring at him. Both not saying a word to confirm that this was another failed attempt. Yamaguchi slowly pats Tsukishima on the back. Trying to comfort him, but also to mock him. There’s no way that after 3 failed attempts he would fail a fourth time. He feels statistically it couldn’t be possible.
They slowly gather their things to make it to morning practice. As they make it into the gym half of the team is there. They can see Hinata talking to the ones in the gym with the ball in his hand. Most likely asking about the ball. He can see that Suga has a smug look on his face. The same look he gave Tsukishima the first time he tried this method.
From afar Suga calls out to both of them. “Hey! Do you guys know why there is ink on this ball? I could have sworn that Hinata, Yachi, and Kioyko put them all away yesterday.”
“Yeah, no idea Suga.” Tsukishima says slightly muffled.
“Nope! I have no idea Suga!” Yamaguchi says with a smile.
“Well, I hope whoever did it will fess up one day, just like whoever put the tape on the ball 2 weeks ago. Let's start practicing!” Suga yells at the team.
V
This is his last straw, he has to do it. He has to ask Hinata out in person. Just thinking that is almost breaking him out in hives. He doesn’t want to do it in front of people. He can’t do it, but he has to do it if he wants to date him. He decided that he would start today. He would find the best time to ask Hinata out. There’s no way he could mess this up.
He starts after morning practice. He tries to follow Hinata to his classroom, but being in different classrooms. He doesn’t want to be late to his class, so he gives up on following him to his class. The next step in his plan is to find him during lunch. He was going to sprint all the way to Hinata's class and pull him to the rooftop so he could confess.
That being said, did it happen? No, not at all. Not only did he fall while sprinting to the class, he had Yamaguchi recording him from behind and he caught him falling. But Hinata wasn’t even in his class. Apparently he ran out of class to go practice volleyball. So, he ran down to the gym to see if he could spot him. Only he wasn’t there alone. See if it was only Kageyama with Hinata he would have dragged him to a quiet place and left Yamaguchi there with Kageyama, but no that wasn't the case. ‘He had a fan club?!?!’ Is exactly what he thought when he saw how many people were watching Hinata and Kageyama practicing.
There’s no way this many people would like either of them. Did they ever hear them talk? Hear that all they talk about is volleyball? Well it’s not like he can really say anything. He fell for the worse of the two.
Having seen that he won’t be getting Hinata’s time during lunch he left to be able to eat his lunch, and not be starving during afternoon practice. While walking back with Yamaguchi he was thinking of how to stop him when they were going to afternoon practice.
“Do you think if I ask to leave early the teacher will let me?”
“What do you think Tsuki? Obviously not. Why would he?” Laughing at his friend's misfortune is probably the best thing this crush on Hinata could have brought. Never in his life did he think he would ever see Tsukishima this way over someone.
They go back to class to devise a plan. Long story short it didn’t work. Why did he stop at the bathroom for 20 minutes? Why did he have to shit for so long? Doesn’t he want a boyfriend?
Tsukishima finally makes it to practice, barely making it on time trying to wait for Hinata. Yamaguchi left promptly after 5 minutes saying it was weird to wait for someone outside of the bathroom if they were shitting, and he wasn’t going to be there when he walked out. ‘Fair enough’ Tsukshima thought.
And after 20 minutes, which is already embarrassing and he regrets spending so much time there, but he was just a teen in love. What can you say?
His last and final plan of the day. Get Hinata to not stay after practice with the managers. Now this plan out of all of them seems the most unlikely to happen. Yachi and Kioyko don’t mind when Hinata stays extra to practice more, so long as he helps clean up everything else. Hinata will agree to anything if he gets to play longer.
So his plan starts as they finish up their practice. He’s going to call him over to talk about if he needs any help in class. ‘Classic’ sees if he needs any help with school work.
“Hinata, did you figure out what you needed help with when we were studying?”
“Nope! Yachi has been helping me since the last time we studied! Thanks for asking.” He ran to help Yachi after answering him.
‘Fuck’ another plan ruined by other people. Why are people ruining everything for him? He just wants a boyfriend! It’s okay. He can just try again tomorrow. There is always the next day. It can’t possibly be like this everyday.
There is a way. It’s like this everyday he followed him around with a few differences. But not enough for him to swoop in and get his chance to ask Hinata out. He could be this popular? Like it’s an unnatural amount of popularity.
He’s going to try one more day and if it doesn’t work he will shoot someone. Maybe all the people are keeping him from asking Hinata out, but he will be committing a crime.
Today is the day. He Is going to ask Hinata out. There’s no way that 4 days in a row he couldn’t catch Hinata alone. He’s going to make it happen today. Well that was the plan at least. It’s worse today than it had been in the past. He literally doesn’t see him alone at all. Every single time Hinata passes him or he passes Hinata he has someone or multiple people beside him.
He thinks that it’s finally time to give up this plan. A lot of wasted time, and nothing to show for it. If anything he's worse off than what he was in the beginning. He’s fed up. He has to think of another plan and fast. This is getting embarrassing, but to be honest Yamaguchi would have said it was embarrassing from the first try.
I
Alright he’s over it. He’s going to make Hinata his boyfriend even if it’s the last thing he does. It has been almost a month since the first time he tried to ask Hinata out with the note in his lunch box. Trying and repeatedly failing to ask out this annoying person that he unfortunately likes.
The training camp is next week and Hinata needs to be his before that. He can’t let all these other volleyball dweebs swoon Hinata when all they talk about is volleyball like him. He can’t let it happen.
So when it happens it’s no surprise to Suga or Yamaguchi. Seeing Tsukishima fail so many times, it was only a matter of time when and where he was going to explode. So, when it happens at morning practice the week after following (stalking) Hinata, Yamaguchi is dying on the floor laughing. All the other members looked in shock. And the main two boys involved blushing to the point where heat is radiating off of their cheeks.
So, here's how it went down. Morning practice is going normally as usual. The duo is extremely loud so early in the morning. The captains are trying to get them to calm down so they can start their drills. Then they start practice. Again, all is going smoothly until the end of practice.
Kageyama is leaning down to touch Hinata. He’s only going in to fix something on his shirt. That’s it. But when Tsukishima sees this out of the corner of his eye he freezes. No way the person he had to worry about was Kageyama, no one else. When out of nowhere there's yelling. He doesn’t realize it’s him.
“STOP!”
“Who are you talking to Tsukishima?” asked Daichi.
Obviously not hearing Daichi, he continued with what he was saying “HINATA WILL YOU GO ON A DATE WITH ME TOMORROW?”
Gasps are heard throughout the gym minus Yamaguchi and Suga laughing at Tsukishima. One Tsukishima realizes what he just did, he starts to stammer out something, but before he could say anything Hinata responds.
“Yes.” He responds back.
Once Hinata responds, pats on the back were given to Tsukishima for manning up and asking his crush out. If only they knew about his past attempts, but it doesn't matter anymore. He’s finally going on a date with Hinata.