Hi muntchkins & tortoises

Sorry, for uploading this late, but I had a lot to do lately - those who read my other story "Perfect Match", know that I recently spend a lot of time in an aeroplane, so I was kind of buys recently. And as a side note, my beta hasn't send me the next chapters back yet, so maybe it'll take a while from now until the next update. Please forgive me and my beta.

Jia ne

It had been one month since Hinata had started his job and he seemed to like it. Tsukishima thought he must because he came home bubblier than ever every day and told him about this and that thing that had happened during his working hours. The blond was glad to see his boyfriend so happy. It was definitely better than before, however, he still put on a sullen expression whenever he noticed that Tsukishima was texting Kuroo-san.

Tsukishima was still on vacation as the spring term had not yet started and he spent most of his time at his part time job or he stayed home preparing for his third year. He also met up with Yamaguchi a couple of times during his vacation. Before one of those occasions he joked to Hinata: "You will certainly not object to me meeting my most trusted friend, right?" The orange haired man had looked hurt but said nothing. Tsukishima was sure that he had gone too far with that comment and felt bad for the rest of the day, wondering how he could make amends.

"Maybe you should apologize?" Yamaguchi suggested, not exactly knowing what had happened between the two lovers but he was certain that it must have been due to something Tsukishima had done. He had learned to read the tall blond middle blocker and knew that he acted differently when he was angry with himself for doing something and when he was angry with somebody else for something they had done. "You could bring him a present."

"Shut up, Yamaguchi", he growled and glowered at his childhood friend. "You don't know what happened – a simple apology might not cut it…"

"Not if you don't mean it." The freckled man was used to being told to shut up.

"Why would I even bother apologizing if I didn't mean it?" retorted Tsukishima angrily. "You don't know what happened, Yamaguchi." He clicked his tongue.

"Honestly." Yamaguchi sighed. "If you don't want to tell me then don't."

"I would tell you if I could be sure that you don't tell Yachi who will then tell god knows who!"

Well, Yamaguchi had not thought he would improve his friend's humour with that little comment, but he had also not thought that he would get such a reaction. "Well… I could try and not tell Hitoka?"

Tsukishima snorted. "Yeah, right." They got up from the table they had been sitting in, at the crêperie, where both of them had had crêpe with strawberries and whipped cream. "Let's just say", he said when they exited the shop "that I said something I shouldn't have out of spite for Hinata's behaviour concerning a certain someone."

Now even Yamaguchi's face became a bit darker. Of course, he had heard about Hinata forbidding Tsukki from entering Kuroo-san's shop. He also knew that the restriction had to do with Hinata being sort of jealous because Tsukki was apparently flirting with Kuroo-san (or the other way around, but Yamaguchi did not trust Tsukki's judgement of the situation completely). So what could Tsukki possibly have said that hurt Hinata? That he would go and see Kuroo-san again? Yamaguchi was at a loss. If that was true then Tsukki was indeed in deep shit.

"Oh, just when we were speaking of the devil" Tsukki suddenly murmured and Yamaguchi looked up, recognizing Kuroo-san's unruly mop of hair on the other side of the street. Yamaguchi looked from the guy on the other side of the street to his friend and back again. Tsukki's facial expression had not really changed; only a faint softness had entered his eyes. He was about to turn and walk away when the black haired man had spotted them and began waving at them – so they had to stop in their tracks and wait for him to cross over to their side.

"Oh my! It has been a while!" Kuroo-san was speaking in a kind of singsong tone. "Yamaguchi, was it? It's been ages!" He smiled at the freckled man. "And Tsukki! It feels like ages even though it really hasn't been that long." He winked at him. "What are the two of you up to?"

"We just had some crêpe there", Yamaguchi pointed to the shop at the end of the street. "They are really good, you should go there once as well."

"How nice!" Kuroo-san was smiling widely at Yamaguchi. However, when he started his next sentence, he turned to Tsukishima, who had been as silent as a rock, and dropped his friendly smile in favour of a more suggestive one. "Why have you never gone with me to such a place?"

The blond's facial expression changed from impassive to glowering. He was not sure if he should say something. He had told Kuroo-san why he did not come to the shop anymore. He had explained to him in great detail that meeting him outside of the shop was not a good idea because he was sure that Hinata had meant to ask him to not meet the black haired former Nekoma captain at all and not just not in the setting of the bar. So meeting him here on the street with Yamaguchi as a witness of his obvious flirting and misrepresentation of the situation could not be a good thing.

Oh yes, he would have loved to go a sweets shop with Kuroo-san! He could probably spend hours eating a piece of cake and staring at the handsome bartender, he was indeed a feast for the eyes. Tall and muscular in the right places as he was... But what was he thinking? He could also spend hours at home at the dining table savouring a piece of strawberry short cake and observing cute Hinata on the other side of the table. How he liked seeing Hinata eat something he liked, because then he smiled like a little kid and made nonsensical conversation. It was just too adorable! Maybe he should buy some cake on his next day off….

"We ought to go, now. Sorry." Yamaguchi's snappy remark pulled him from his thoughts.

So he had not needed to say anything, Tsukishima observed with relief. Yamaguchi said good-bye and Kuroo-san faked being really sorry to see them go while the blond only nodded as a parting gesture.

When they were out of earshot of the tall black haired guy, Yamaguchi suddenly stopped walking. Tsukishima looked down to him and registered an emotion on his friend's face he had not seen in a long time: anger.

"You said you did not meet with him because Hinata disapproves – did you lie to me?"

"No." Tsukishima replied dryly. "I did not lie and I have not met with him since Hinata complained."

"But he was implying that you had!"

Tsukishima inhaled deeply and adjusted his glasses before speaking as calmly as possible: "So what? I say I have not met him and that is the truth. So if you were kind enough not to mention Kuroo-san's nonsense to Hinata I would be very much obliged." He did not wait for Yamaguchi's reply before he started walking again. This was ridiculous.

"So you will not tell him that you ran into Kuroo-san?" Yamaguchi asked wide-eyed.

"Of course I will tell him. But I will only mention it in passing, certainly not in detail." He frowned. Was Yamaguchi always that stupid? "So if he asks you just say we exchanged greetings and went our way – which is exactly what happened."

He heard Yamaguchi gulp before he agreed.

Kuroo: I'm sorry about today. I didn't mean to put you on the spot.

Tsukishima: But you did.

Kuroo: I can't help it! I haven't seen you in so long…

Tsukishima: That is no excuse. If you continue like this, I will not even write to you anymore.

"So you met Kuroo-san today?" As expected, Hinata was anything but amused to hear this.

"We didn't meet, I saw him by accident" Tsukishima corrected, trying to speak in a calm tone of voice.

Hinata seemed not to buy it. "You said you wouldn't meet him anymore" he pouted.

"I did not meet him – ask Yamaguchi if you don't believe me." This was ridiculous and Tsukishima had a hard time not saying it out loud. He hated it that Hinata had become so jealous. Why could he not trust him?

"Now you are making me the bad guy." The orange haired man whined.

Tsukishima wanted to say 'indeed, you are the one making this more difficult than it has to be', be he refrained from it; instead he stood up and put his phone one the table. "Okay, I'm going out, taking a long walk and when I'm back we both will be calm enough to not point fingers at each other."

Hinata watched him leave in silence.

Author's note:

Okay, this was a lot shorter than the other chapters – sorry, but I felt like it should end here. Initially I had planed to make this a 5 chapter story, but talking with my beta I decided that I shall draw the drama out a bit and make the story longer than initially planned, I hope you will keep up.

Jia ne