Tsukishima is, without a doubt, the most annoying girl Kageyama has ever known. Well, annoying is not exactly the word. . . . Infuriating is a better portrayal.
"Oh, King," she says in the sing-song voice of hers she reserves for the sole purpose of making someone want to punch her glasses in. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
Nope, nope, nope, Kageyama Tobio is not hiding from anyone; and he certainly is not hiding from his girlfriend.
"Your Hiiiighness, I know you're here."
There is no way Kageyama is afraid of glasses-chan. Even if she has an admittedly terrifying aura that makes you want to run and hide.
Oh, wait . . .
"Your Majesty, stop acting like such a child. Or else I'll be really mad."
Okay, Kageyama is officially terrified of his girlfriend.
He pokes his head around the corner . . .
. . . only to come face-to-face with the smirking blonde herself.
Smug little -
"Why, King-chan," she purrs (yes, literally purrs), "one would almost think that you're actually trying to avoid me."
"Um . . ." Kageyama has days when he hates that Tsukishima is both smarter and taller than him. This is one of them. Really, is it even possible for a slim, pretty girl like her to be able to switch into a monster so easily and effortlessly?
"Wow. 'Um.' Inarticulate and unoriginal. Nice combination. But what other excellency is to be expected from the 'King of the Court'?"
"Stop calling me that," Kageyama snaps, mostly out of reflex than anything.
Tsukishima just snickers.
"Whatever you say, My Liege." Riiiight . . . obviously not. "So you going to tell me why you're hiding from a sweet, innocent girl like me?"
Sweet. Innocent. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Those words mean nothing to Tsukishima, and Kageyama has at least twenty public occasions and fifteen private that prove it.
Tsukishima takes no prisoners. Tsukishima crafts insults and jabs like they're an art. Tsukishima doesn't care about thoughts, feelings, nothing: she bulldozes her way in like no one's business (although with delicate grace that belies her black heart).
"Well, King?"
Suddenly her long, slender fingers are sliding into his hair, and Kageyama barely suppresses a yelp. Golden eyes meet blue, a playful smirk playing on the former's lips.
"Oh, please don't tell me you're afraid of me."
Kageyama can't trust himself to open his mouth, let alone speak - not with her standing so close, her fingers sliding through his soft black strands, her breath fanning across his face.
"Tch. How pathetic," she breathes.
"Uh . . . if I agree to being pathetic and whatever else you feel like flinging at me, will you step away from me and let me go to volleyball club?" is at the tip of his tongue, but he forces it away.
"Shut up. I need to go to volleyball practice," he says instead.
Something flickers in her eyes at the mention of volleyball, but she releases his hair. Kageyama is able to breathe again.
"It's just a club."
The words are so soft, so un-Tsukishima-like, that Kageyama wonders if he imagined it. But she repeats it, louder and stronger: "It's just a club."
Just a . . .
"Sometimes," Kageyama says flatly, "I really wonder why we ever started dating."
"Yeah. I'll remember that one when you're looking for lip action later."
Kageyama is nearly spluttering at this, but it's sadly true. Tsukishima initiates all the . . . intimate aspects of their relationship.
TRANSLATION: When Tsukishima is in a bad mood or Kageyama does something that inevitably pisses her off, she gives him the cold shoulder. It takes Kageyama begging or Kageyama performing an elaborate apology for her to stop acting like he has a despicable, contagious disease.
"I have to go," he mumbles (he can practically see his teammates' grins at the usual quick temper diminished by the fact that Tsukishima might as well have devil horns sprouting from her hair). "I'll see you later."
He all but dashes away.
Kageyama does not have to look behind him to know that the smug, I'm-better-than-you-and-I-know-it grin is still on her face. Is it permanently glued there? Is she able to make any other face? Or did she make it too many times and it just got stuck?
Volleyball. You're going to go practice volleyball.
Kageyama hates how nonchalantly Tsukishima manages to shake his focus.
...
Triumph in her face, in her posture, in the very way she's gripping Kageyama's chin and grasping his shoulder.
"You really are a pushover, King, you know that?"
"Shut up," he grumbles, because A) she called him 'King' and B) she has him trapped against the wall.
"Oh, admit it. You're having fun."
Unfortunately (of fortunately?) for him, Tsukishima is an excellent kisser.
...
Smack. Thud. Bam.
Kageyama tosses and serves and receives.
I wish she would come to my games. Or practices. Something. Anything.
The ball smacks Hinata in the chin, and the short ginger-haired boy gives a roar of indignation.
"Oi! Pay attention, Bakageyama!"
What. The. Heck. No. No way. The stupid glasses-chan isn't going to affect volleyball, too!
"Oi, Kageyama, is that your girlfriend?" Tanaka suddenly yells.
The ball smacks Kageyama in the face this time. Because yes, she is there, one hand on the hip, and a scowl on her face.
Kageyama tries (and fails) to ignore how wisps of blond hair escape from her braid.
"Tsukishima?!"
"No, the Queen of England. Tch. Do you need to get your eyes checked, Highness?"
Why why why why why why why why -
"You have a girlfriend?" squawks Nishinoya.
"You have a girlfriend?" Hinata screeches.
"You have a girlfriend," Sugawara states, shock ringing in his tone.
"Kageyama-kun . . . has . . . He has . . . He -" Ennoshita gives up on trying to finish his sentence.
The rest of the volleyball team cannot even put to words the boundless shock they feel at this revelation.
Tsukishima rolls her eyes. "So . . . can I watch? Or do I have to wait for an actual match?"
Kageyama is still frozen in place, his dark blue eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.
Daichi is the first to recover. "Sure! So long as you aren't distracting anyone."
Tsukishima makes herself comfortable, and practice goes back to normal.
"I didn't know that your girlfriend was so cute," Hinata says.
"S-shut up, dumbass!"
...
They kiss for what feels like both the thousandth and the first time, and Kageyama cannot suppress the shiver that spreads up his spine.
Tsukishima notices it, as always.
"Tch. King, your innocence is both adorable and worrying."
"Shut up."
"Make me."
...
How many times has he wished for this? How many times has he asked, pleaded, begged? What makes this any different?
What, why, how? It is all Kageyama seems to be asking nowadays, when it comes to a certain giraffe. Albeit an attractive one.
Her cocky smirk stays in his mind like residue on dirty dishes.
...
"Please?"
"No."
"Why not?" Kageyama asks.
Yes, he is whining. Yes, he is begging. Yes, he wants to scream so, so badly.
Tsukishima just looks at him, that half-lidded stare full of contempt and disgust. Then four words and four words only that drop out of her mouth like chunks of ice: "Because I hate volleyball."
She walks away, curly hair bouncing in its captivity from her ponytail.
...
"You know, you're actually pretty good."
Kageyama blinks.
What.
"Stop looking at me like that," Tsukishima drawls. "It just displays your idiocy for the world to see."
"You're verbally abusive."
"I believe the word you're looking for is vituperative."
...
"King, don't be so tense. It makes a girl think that you don't want to be here."
"Logically -"
"Tch. You wouldn't know logic if it smacked you in the face."
"Shut up!"
Tsukishima grins.
"If I'm the king, then aren't you the queen?"
"No, I'm the mistress." Kageyama chokes on his own saliva. "Hinata is your queen."
"HINATA'S NOT MY QUEEN!"
Tsukishima just laughs.
...
"Kageyama," Sugawara begins, but then hesitates.
"What?"
"We're . . . We're just worried about you. Your girlfriend doesn't seem like the most pleasant type of person to be around, if you understand what I'm trying to say."
It takes a few seconds before it clicks in Kageyama's brain.
"No. No, she's not like that - damn it, no."
Sugawara does not seem to believe him.
No. No, just no, just no no no no -
Sure, Tsukishima can be irritable; she has a sharp tongue; she enjoys banter and making cracks. But they don't know her like Kageyama does. They don't know how she has that soft side, hidden way down deep, underneath that prickly exterior. They don't know how she has this dorky love for dinosaurs. They don't know that a freckled girl became friends with her because Tsukishima stood up against some bullies. They don't know how much she hates abuse, how lame and pathetic she finds those who do it.
She would never.
Tsukishima being the abuser in an abusive relationship is like Hinata being the emo depressed person in a cult. Preposterous. Impossible. Idiotic and -
"Calm down, Kageyama," Suga says, a gentle hand on his shoulder.
Kageyama remembers to breathe.
"I believe you," the ash-haired setter assures. "Just remember . . . you can tell anyone of us if something's going on."
TRANSLATION: Sugawara does not believe him.
But Kageyama nods anyway, because hey, teammates are teammates and there is no way he's going to revert back to middle school's terror.
...
"You were a tyrant king. People hated you, and they probably still do. Get over it, dumbass. Take that mocking title and make it something new."
"You can be nice when you want to be," Kageyama notes.
Tsukishima whacks him with her notebook. "Shut up, King," she sneers.
"You're always going to use that as a mocking thing." It isn't even a question.
"Term! Are you even paying attention? Get a grade that's actually passing, idiot!"
...
Tsukishima is curled up on the couch.
"Get over here," she orders.
"You know, I'm pretty sure you're the dominant role in this relationship."
"Of course I am," Tsukishima says sweetly. "I'm the pretty one, the smart one, and the the one not obsessed with volleyball. So therefore . . ."
Kageyama sighs. He has given up on trying to argue with her on the three points sentiment.
"Also, you're easy to manipulate."
"I hate you," he growls."
"Nope, you love me. Now get. Over. Here."
Kageyama makes a face and slides next to her.
. . . Okay, maybe he is easy to manipulate.
Not that he's ever going to admit it to glasses-chan.
...
A/N: Hm, this was written out of boredom. I apologize how OoC Kags probably is.
Also, the desperate need to break writer's block.
(A reader is glaring at me. I'm sorry, reader-san! I swear, editing is almost done; and then first chapter will be up! Don't kill meeeee! *knife thuds into author-san's back* XP XD)
In any case, please leave feedback!
I accept requests, just note that since I'm uncomfortable writing slash any M/M or F/F pairings will be genderbent to make M/F.
Cheers!