Tsukishima Kei was surrounded by sentimentals, he was positive about that. What he didn't know was that they could go that far.
"What's that?" he asked looking askance at one of the corners of his brother's bedroom.
"This?" Akiteru said, taking the wood strip with the same care as if it were a puppy. "It's part of the old frame of the kitchen's door. I asked mom to keep it when we changed it a couple of years ago" he held the plank closer to his brother, who backed away as if it burned.
"I know what it is" Kei hissed. "Why on Earth would you keep something like that?"
Akiteru blinked slowly, the smile frozen on his lips, as if he hadn't understood the question. Kei fought the urge to shake him, basically because it wouldn't have worked. He simply glared at the marks that covered the table in irregular intervals.
There were just pairs of measurements in the beginning, but a third one appeared mid-height. 'Tadashi, 10' could be read next to the mark, between others saying 'Kei, 7' and 'Akiteru, 8'.
"Isn't it amazing?" Akiteru said, smiling in a way that his brother found unnerving. "Look, when you were ten Tadashi barely reached your shoulders, but when you turned thirteen he was almost as tall as you" he giggled, pointing to a pair of lines separated by just two centimetres.
"Yeah, well, so?" Kei grumbled, internally praying his brother wouldn't say what he knew he would say.
"Yeah, yeah, now you are too old to care about such a thing" he mockingly emphasized the word 'old', "but back then it pissed you so much you asked mom to measure you every day for months to see if you had grown" he tapped the side of the plank covered in tens of marks so close together they formed a continuous line of several centimetres.
Kei hid his face in his hands, ashamed, hating his brother's smile, which had nothing to envy the Cheshire cat's. He wished he would volatilize too…
"Don't ever tell anyone a thing about this" Kei said, trying to sound threatening, a complicated feat since he was still trying to hide his embarrassment.
"Oh, I don't know," Akiteru narrowed his eyes, "it depends on how well you behave…"
Kei snorted, indignant. And people said he was the mean one! They obviously didn't know what his brother was capable of… although, on second thought, he'd rather die than let anybody know how Akiteru could blackmail him.
"Get rid of that thing!" he warned before leaving the room fuming.
"Come on, Kei, don't you have a heart?" he heard the mournful reproach from his brother.
Kei put on his shoes and coat and left the house. Stupid Akiteru. He always found a way of breaking his schemes and making him feel like that, ashamed and ridiculous. And all with that smile, a mixture of naivety and mischief in equal parts. He huffed. The worst of that face was that it made it impossible for him to appropriately get mad at his brother. Every time Akiteru smiled, no matter how much he annoyed him, he felt a twinge of relief. He had been really harsh to him upon discovering his lies. He was deceived, something broke inside him… but losing his brother's smile had been just as painful.
"Tsukki~"
Kei flinched, startled. He turned and saw Yamaguchi running to meet him.
"Yamaguchi" he spoke when the boy caught up with him.
"I was going to your house, but I saw you from the cross" Yamaguchi's smile faltered. "Is there something wrong, Tsukki?"
"Why do you think that?" he asked in the plainest voice he could muster.
"You rarely wander around without your headphones, especially when it's cold." The blond cursed mentally. Tadashi knew him too much. At least he hoped he would blame his blush on the freezing air and let it slide. "Your face is red, Tsukki." Oh, of course. Yamaguchi would never overlook anything related to him. "Here."
The freckled boy took his scarf and, ignoring his vague reticence, tied it around his neck. Yamaguchi stood on his tiptoes to reach better, which reminded Kei about the conversation with his brother. This, along with the sudden closeness, made him blush harder.
"Better?"
Kei managed to let out a sound that could be translated as an affirmation.
"Let's move" he said.
Yamaguchi followed with a soft smile, unaffected by the sharp tone. Kei looked askance at him. The boy was currently about ten centimetres shorter than him. He had barely grown a centimetre in the last months, and still his presence was overwhelming compared to the beginning of the school year. He wasn't the shy weakling that stuck to him like glue anymore. Now he walked by his side with confidence.
Without giving it much thought, he took his wrist and pulled him closer. Before he could ask a question, he leaned over, closing the centimetres between them to kiss him. At first Yamaguchi shuddered, surprised, since Tsukishima wasn't one for spontaneous displays of affection, but soon he noticed his lips curving into a smile and his arms wrapping around his neck. When they separated he could almost see gleams of joy in his brown eyes.
"Come on, let's go" he said in a softer voice. Tadashi nodded without letting go of his hand.
The height difference didn't really matter. Whether it was thirty or two centimetres, Yamaguchi Tadashi was like tailor-made for him.
-.-.-
"Hey, Tadashi, do you want to see something?"
"Akiteru, no!"
I found an image comparing the height difference between Tsukishima and Yamaguchi when they were kids and now and it said "they both got taller, but percentage-wise, Yamaguchi really got taller. Do you think there was ever a point were Yamaguchi was just growing like a weed and Tsukki was completely terrified that Yamaguchi was going to be taller than him?" It was too funny to just let it go.