Once the setup for the last experiment is done, Kei takes off his white coat and hangs it on the hook behind the lab door. The clock on the wall ticks loudly, announcing that is almost one in the morning. He just groans and rubs his tired eyes with more force than needed, colorful dots shining in his vision afterward, the stress of the impending finals finally getting to him.
Kei keeps his head low while walking with long strides to his dorm, headphones and loud music in his ears. His mind is so far off that he misses entirely the door of the dorms opening, and bodily collides with the person behind it. He lands heavily on the stairs with an Ooff!, his glasses skidding away on the concrete steps.
"Oh! I'm sorry! A-are you ok?" A soft voice filled with worry asked from somewhere above him.
"Yes…" Tsukishima tries to get up, but he is tired, and his blurry sight does little to help him keep his balance.
Ah! Let me–" The distinct sound of glass breaking interrupts him, and both movement and words freeze for an awkward moment.
"-help you?"
"Those were my glasses, right?"
The stranger voice wavers. "I-I'm so sorry! I'll pay for them!"
A big sigh. "No need. I have a spare pair."
"But…"
"No need." Tsukishima gets on his feet and tries to open the door of his building, but his hand is way off where the handle actually is. He sighs again, putting all the frustration he feels into the breathy sound.
"Ah, Maybe I can help you?"
"How."
"You know, to get you to your room?"
Kei rubs his eyes again, the effort of trying to focus his eyesight adding to an impending headache he feels soon to come. "Do I have other option?"
Kei can hear the smile in the light voice of the man. "Not really."
He can't see the other guy clearly, but guessing just for the hands that help him stay steady on his feet and the brief touches on the shoulder, he can guess he's fairly tall, only some centimeters shorter than him, all bony shoulders and hands that paint a picture of a slim guy in Kei's mind.
The Stranger helps him with the stairs and the door key, and when he finally closes the dorm door after an awkward "Goodnight", he realizes that he didn't even ask for the man's name.
Two days later and Tsukishima is back in the university labs along with his research group, reviewing the data of their latest experiments. Or at least he was in the lab, until the leader of his group, some guy (some pretty guy, he has to admit) called Akaashi, put him on coffee duty.
And now Kei, in front of the coffee vending machine, ponders how to successfully carry five cups of hot coffee back to the lab.
"Excuse me." A soft voice takes him out of his musings, a voice he recognizes from the other night. Kei takes a step to the side of the vending machine and slowly turns towards the stranger.
He is tall, at least for the normal standards, and looks slim, a bit lanky even. He's wearing a white coat like himself, his hair and ears covered with a white surgical cap.
And he has freckles. All over the bridge of his nose, going down the sides of his face and scattering on his neck. This makes Kei wonder if there are more tiny dots elsewhere in his body.
The man seems to feel his stare, returning anxious glimpses back until recognition lit his face.
"Ah! You are the glasses guy!"
"And you are the stranger who broke them." At least the guy has the decency to blush to the accusation.
"Yeah, about that… I still owe you." the man said while pushing the buttons of his selection on the machine.
"And I said that it doesn't matter."
The Stranger's latte was ready, the paper cup steaming in his hands. "But let me at least… invite you to dinner?"
Kei must have done a weird face because now the Stranger squeezes his cup dangerously tight with both hands, "O-or maybe just a coffee? And, it's OK if you don't wanna.. if is not your thing…"
Is he trying to flirt?
The guy looks more uncomfortable by the second, like he is fighting the urge to leave, but standing stubbornly in place waiting for an answer.
Well, why not?
"We are already having coffee, aren't we?" says Kei, pointing with his chin at the green paper cups in his hands.
The guy looks up surprised, a little smile forming on his lips as he takes a sip of his latte. "Well, If you call this mud water coffee…"
It seemed like he didn't want to say that out loud, and takes a big gulp of the so-called hot mud water, trying to cover up his slip. His eyes go wide while looking at Kei, and it's so ridiculous that he cannot help the snort that falls from his lips. The guy was witty and funny, in an awkward, weird way.
And he has a piercing in his tongue. A silver ball that shines under the artificial lights of the hallway when he tries to soothe the coffee burn.
Huh. Interesting.
Still blushing, the stranger tries to change the subject. "Need some help carrying those coffees back to your lab?"
They agree to meet by the fountain outside their campus after the afternoon classes. The Stranger insisted on going together to a nearby café where the cakes and pastries were awesome -his words- and who is Kei to deny himself some good cake, really.
Closing his dorm door, he tries to get a glimpse of his face on the shining metal plaque engraved with a number 11, trying to subdue some of the blond curls with his hands and only achieving to make them rise higher on his head.
Is he too overdressed? Maybe, maybe not. He always uses shirts and jeans, is not that much of a change from a normal day, right?
Maybe if he weren't wearing one of his best shirts -buttoned up all the way- and the cleanest slim jeans he has, he would believe it.
Fuck it. As he slides his headphones in his head -a last attempt to tame his hair- he starts a brisk walk to their meeting point.
As usual for him, Kei arrives early, the only person waiting by the fountain a tall guy in a leather jacket. He is about to sit down on one of the benches next to the fountain when the man turns, his profile now in Kei's sight.
This stranger is The Stranger. And even more, now that he looks like some punk band member with the studded leather jacket, the black ripped jeans, and all the piercings in his ears that he wasn't wearing the other day (probably because of lab policies).
As he finally sits on the bench, the guy turns his head towards Kei, a surprised look on his face. "Hey, Glasses Guy."
"Hey, Stranger. You look… different. Without the lab coat."
It's like meeting the man a second time all over. He doesn't match the image on his head at all -gentle voice, careful hands, awkward and shy- and in a way, he is happy that they first met when he was nearly blind because a punk-ish looking guy wouldn't be his company of preference, to be honest.
"Well, you look sharp, ah-I mean, nice!" The Stranger brushed this hair back with his fingers, revealing an undercut under his shoulder-length hair. "I like your shirt. Are those tiny dinosaurs?"
The blush on Kei's face is violent and quick, even his ears colored in pink, but he manages to ask in a monotone voice. "Is that weird?"
"No, no! I think is… cute." The guy fiddles with the end of his band t-shirt, looking straight at the fountain, his freckles now bright in his flushed face.
Oh. Second impressions be damned. He is gentle and careful and shy.
His thoughts are interrupted by a light cough. "Maybe we should, ah… introduce ourselves? I don't want to keep calling you "the glasses guy"
"I'm Tsukishima."
"Nice to finally meet you." The guy smiles, small and shy in a way that contrasts dearly with his tough look and makes Kei's blush reappear.
"I'm Yamaguchi."