Chapter Three: Silence

Ren pulls her blankets over her blushing face.

After attempting to hide from her thoughts, she gives up, pokes her head out, and snags her phone to check the time. 6:58 am, just a few minutes before her alarm would go off.

How she actually managed to sleep, she has no idea. Tsukki must have short-circuited her brain by... doing that.

"I have all the strawberries I need riiiight here."

Ren squeaks and pulls her blankets back up over her head. That was embarrassing. And how much did she actually tell Tadashi last night? She consults her phone.

Tadashi: So what did he say?

Her: He just said I wasn't as annoying as other people.

Tadashi: Oh.

Tadashi: Did he say anything else?

Her: He said I was gross.

Tadashi: He said that?

Her: Yeah! And he had the nerve to say that after he...

Tadashi: What did he do?

Her: ... He licked my neck.

Tadashi: TSUKISHIMA KEI DID WHAT?

Her: I know. He's the gross one.

Tadashi: Of course.

Her: I'll see you tomorrow. Get some rest, Tadashi.

Tadashi: Alright. Goodnight, Ren.

Thank the gods she didn't say anything else embarrassing. And even if she did, Tadashi wouldn't tease her. Though he might accidentally let something slip to Tsukki.

Tsukki...

She clasps her hands together and sends out a silent prayer. Please, kamisama, let me have the courage to face him today. She shuts her eyes tight, adding on an afterthought. And please, kamisama, never let him know that I... she winces. Never let Tsukishima Kei know that I might have liked the distraction.

Her alarm sounds, and she rapidly shuts it off, moving to fold up her futon. Once it's out of the way, she heads for her room, opening the squeaky door and making a beeline for her bathroom. Flicking on the light, she looks in the mirror.

She's still wearing Tsukki's sweater. "Eeehh!"

The slightly offensive object is relocated to a hanger outside her bathroom as she changes into her uniform. After washing her face and brushing her teeth and hair, she steps out into her room. And looks straight at the highly offensive die.

Ren is stuck for a moment, a shiver running through her before she points at the characters. "Not today," she says, voice only slightly shaky. "I have other things to worry about." She locates a scarf in her closet and tries to not run out of the room.


She's in the middle of making breakfast when Tsukki emerges from his room. "Morning," he says lazily.

"Morning," Ren replies, wincing as it comes out more curtly than she intended.

Tsukki looks at her, raising an eyebrow. "You sleep alright?" he asks, taking one of the plates of toast she prepared.

"Yep," she answers casually, trying to counterbalance her earlier response. "No thanks to you."

After crunching through a bite of toast, he responds. "You're welcome?" He heads for the fridge.

Ren rolls her eyes. "I already got you a glass of juice."

"I was going for my lunch," Tsukki says.

"Your bento is on the counter by the door," Ren says, a little confused. "Like it usually is."

Tsukki reverses his course, snagging his other slice of toast and munching on it. Ren sips her coffee as Tsukki gulps down his glass of juice. He's rinsing off his dishes when she takes her first bite of toast.

He heads for the door. Really? He's going to leave without her again?

Oh no he doesn't.

She inhales the rest of her toast, downs the rest of her coffee, and hikes up her knee high socks. The door clicks shut as she slides into her coat and tucks in her scarf. She shoves her bento into her school bag, slinging it over one shoulder and her aikido bag over the other, snags her keys and slips into her shoes, and she's out the door, falling face first into a smug Tsukki. "Eep!"

He stumbles backward, somehow managing to keep his balance, and brings his hands up to her shoulders to steady her. "Didn't see that coming, did you?"

His hands are warm.

Flushing, Ren shrugs out of his hold and turns to lock the door. "You didn't come from anywhere! You were just standing there, waiting for me to fall on you!" She puts her keys in her pocket, throwing her hands up in surrender and starts walking. "Who does that?"

"You didn't answer my question."

She recalls that he did ask her a question, looks up at his annoyingly endearing smirk- wait, endearing? She flushes some more and looks away before answering, "F=MA. I saw you too late to adjust my momentum, and gravity took care of the rest." When she doesn't get a reply, she glances at him and notices he's put on his headphones.

He wasn't listening.

The thought stings. Like a slap, but somehow... worse. Stuffing her earbuds in her ears, she starts up her new music and stares straight ahead. Fine. Don't listen to me.


Just as the bass is about to drop, one of her earbuds is yanked out of her ear. She turns to Tsukki open-mouthed, ready to shout an expletive, but he says, "Trade."

That stops her short. She nods, hastily stuffing her earbud back in her ear, and rewinds the song a little to catch the bass drop in full. She'd come up with the idea shortly after Tsukki moved in, discovering they had similar taste in music.

Whenever both of them were listening to music, if either of them got curious about what the other was listening to, they just said, "trade." After the song finished, she would unplug her earbuds from her phone, replace them with Tsukki's headphone jack, and replay the song. Tsukki would plug her earbuds into his phone and restart the song he was just listening to. If they were in the apartment, the trade usually led to a few minutes of silence followed by a rapid exchange of CDs with Tsukki asking her why she was hiding the CD from him.

As the electronic melody fades out, she tugs her earbuds out of the jack and hands them over to Tsukki, dragging the play bar back to the beginning of the song. He hands her his headphone jack and she plugs it into her phone. She ups the volume slightly, knowing he likes it louder, and presses play before thinking she shouldn't care so much about what he likes.


Kei could taste trouble (in the form of no strawberries) the instant after he pulled Ren's earbud out. As she's about to curse at him, he says the one thing that might distract her. "Trade."

He isn't sure if he was expecting her to agree or not, and he doesn't realize he held his breath even after she nods.

Putting his objective of distraction aside, he is interested in her new music. He hands her his headphone jack, wondering what kind of music made her look like she wanted to fight something.


Five minutes later, Kei wonders what the hell he just listened to, because it was interesting, and he's stuck not knowing what it is because Ren won't talk to him.

She doesn't say a word, not when they meet up with Tadashi. Not a word when they get to school. Not during class, not during lunch, not even after school.

Kei never thought a silence could be... intimidating. Ren's muteness was annoying.

Why did 'annoying' not feel like the right word?


"Tsukki, is Ren okay? She hasn't said a thing all day," Tadashi asks Kei on their way to practice.

Kei grumbles in response.

"Did you do something else weird to her?"

"No."

"So... what's going on?"

"... I don't know," Kei mumbles.

"What?"

Kei finally looks Tadashi square in the eye. "I. Don't. Know."

Tadashi blinks, dumbfounded. (He didn't think Tsukki would admit to it.)

Kei looks away. "She's being annoying."

"No, she's not." Tadashi pauses. "Tsukki, you're worried."

Worried?

Kei didn't really get worried, as far as life was concerned. Sure, he was occasionally apprehensive before games, but he wasn't all that concerned about the outcomes. Of course, his knowledge of his skills and careful analysis of his opponents are mostly the reasons for that.

He'd never seen Ren all that worried either, until last night. Her aptitudes for learning and remembering material weren't things she should worry or feel guilty about. So people don't like that she's smart, someone tells her to die...

"Tsukki, you're worried. Let it out in practice. Then go home and do something nice for her."

"... tch."

"I'm serious!" Tadashi says earnestly. "You are worried about her. And the easiest way to stop being worried about her is to help her be herself again."

Kei considers this. Tadashi's telling him to cheer her up. Tch. That means doing something she likes. Aihara likes music. She likes aikido. She likes books and... food.

Aha.

After he tells Tadashi his idea, his friend looks absolutely gleeful. "Okay, I'll let you slip out of practice a little early. Let me know how it goes!"

"Tch."


Kei ignores the stares from some of the other shoppers in the supermarket. His height makes him stick out, but it's not like they haven't seen him there before. He consults the list of ingredients on his phone, hoping the person who wrote the recipe knew what he was doing, because he certainly doesn't. Knowing the basics of cooking was one thing, but picking out the correct ingredients for tempura soba was another.

Not to mention cooking itself. That was an entirely different thing.

Finding fresh green onions wasn't that hard. Scanning the shelf of noodles, he picks out the package that looks like the one Ren usually buys, and looks back at the list. He figures that several of the other ingredients, like soy sauce and bonito flakes, are readily available in the apartment. But the shrimp...

There's a separate ingredient list for the tempura, and a separate set of instructions that looks too complex for him to attempt by himself. He can't ask Ren for help if he's... going to cook for her?

Since when did he do that voluntarily?

Kei heads for the frozen section, finding a box of shrimp tempura, and heads back to the front. And... hold on.

Was that a Karasuno Aikido Club jacket he just saw?

He follows the flash of black, discovering that the owner has dark brown hair in a sloppy bun that manages to look... good? She's wearing the uniform skirt instead of the jacket's matching pants, so her long legs are on display.

Long legs? Ren was the tallest girl in the aikido club. But wasn't she wearing longer socks this morning?

He looks at the contents of the shopping basket balanced on her hip. Sponge cake mix, juice, whipped cream, and... were those strawberries?

She glances in his direction and stops dead, her hand frozen in front of a container.

It was Ren.

What the hell happened to her socks?

Shaking off that thought, he strides in her direction. He arrives as her hand slowly closes around a container of... vanilla frosting. "Are you making me strawberry shortcake?" He smirks, gesturing to the contents of her basket.

Her cheeks, already tinged pink, turn darker. She hastily glances at his basket, and her eyes widen. She looks back up at him. "Were you going to make me tempura soba?"

She responded. Kei gives her a cheeky grin. "Nope. It's for me."

"No it's not." She stares at him, a small smile playing on her lips. "We both know you can't cook worth a damn."

"Isn't that why you're making me strawberry shortcake?"

Ren rolls her eyes. "Yes, the shortcake is for you."

"Good."

She hardens her stare. "Only if you help me with the tempura soba."

There's the catch.

"And you can't eat any strawberries while I shower."

Damn. No strawberries, and a mental image of her in the shower.

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yep." Kei nods. That better be one hell of a strawberry shortcake.

As if she could hear him, Ren smirks. "Tsukki, you're not going to know what hit you."

"Surprise me."


a/n:

Song Trade: Ren (Our Demons by The Glitch Mob), Tsukki (Ready to Start by Arcade Fire)

Special thanks to Guest, Mandalorian1207, and CarrieQFD!

To Guest: Glad you're here!

To Mandalorian1207: I know you're supposedly dead from last chapter, but just so you know, your review gave me life!

To CarrieQFD: Thanks for the support!

AND NOW: Omake featuring overzealous Tadashi: The Phone Call


Tadashi figures it's either Tsukki or Ren who's calling him at this hour. He picks up his phone, letting his yawn finish before answering. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tadashi."

"Hey, Ren. What's up?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but you asked me to tell you if it happened."

"EEHHHHHHH?" If Tadashi wasn't awake before, he sure was now. "He complimented you? Wow! Was it about your clothes? Your hair? It was your eyes, wasn't it? Or your food, because your cooking is amazing. What adjective did he use? Pretty? Beautiful? Nice? Cute?"

"Whoa, slow down. This is Tsukki we're talking about."

"You're right, he probably-"

"This is who you were talking to Ren about."

"Oh. Hey Tsukki."

"Did you ask Ren to tell you if I complimented her?"

Tadashi hesitates before answering. "Maybe." After a moment, he blurts, "Tsukki, this is very important!" He's left with the dial tone. "Hello?"

(The next morning)

One new message from Tsukki: She smelled like strawberries.

"AHA!" Tadashi exclaims, sitting bolt upright. "I knew it would take someone really smart to make him this silly."