"I want to get something for Hinata."

Yamaguchi was practically vibrating as he walked. He kept straying from Tsukishima's side for moments at a time to stare into shop windows or gaze into the distance. Tsukishima kept walking, never varying his pace, and eventually Yamaguchi would drift back to walk beside him. His hand clenched and unclenched around the strap of his school bag, holding it to his chest. And still he kept looking around, and fidgeting, and Tsukishima could all but hear him worrying. It was starting to get annoying.

Tsukishima sighed. "He doesn't need anything. Lots of people gave him presents, and none of them were useful. I'm sure they're just piled up in his room now, a nuisance and bother that he and his parents have to deal with. There's no need for you to add to the pile."

"They weren't all useless," Yamaguchi said. He was walking at Tsukishima's side again, for the moment, but his head kept swiveling around. "I'm sure he enjoyed the book you gave him. And we know he likes Stego-chan."

"Shut up about Stego-chan," Tsukishima muttered. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, but fortunately Yamaguchi hadn't seemed to notice, yet. This time.

"Sorry, Tsukki." The familiar words were soft and absent-minded. Yamaguchi was staring away again, this time at a sweets shop across the street. "But Hinata's coming back to school tomorrow, and I want to do something for him..."

"You don't need to," Tsukishima said again, even though he knew that Yamaguchi wasn't listening. Even though he knew that the words would mean nothing to him. Yamaguchi never listened when Tsukishima tried to warn him against wasting his energy and resources on useless things.

Thus it was now. Yamaguchi paused for a moment to look at Tsukishima. His eyes were big and his face was solemn, that stupid, stupid sincerity of his glowing in his expression, that openness, that honesty, that...that vulnerability of his that always made Tsukishima want to growl and snarl and push Yamaguchi into a corner where he couldn't be touched, where he couldn't be hurt, where no one would ever be able to reach him with the harsh cruelty of the world and take all of that earnest innocence away.

"I know I don't need to." Yamaguchi's voice was reasonable, almost flat. He was doing his best to respond to Tsukishima on his own terms, to make him see his point of view through a calm stating of facts. As if that would ever work, as if there was a logical argument to be made for desires and ambitions that were based entirely on emotion. "I want to. That's how giving someone a present works."

Tsukishima did growl a bit at this, but it was light and half-hearted, his lips pulling back from his teeth in more of a grimace than a snarl. "Fine. Buy Hinata a present, if that's what you want to do. I'm not going to stop you."

Yamaguchi beamed at this, as if he had won something. As if he had ever needed Tsukishima's approval for anything he wanted to do. "Okay!" He pointed to the sweets shop he'd been looking at earlier. "I'm going to buy a piece of cake to give him for his first lunch back at school. That will be nice, won't it? I'm sure he'll like it, and it won't clutter up his room at all."

Tsukishima sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Sure. That would be a fine present, if a present you must give."

Yamaguchi wrinkled his nose in pleasure at this, then looked both ways to make no cars were coming and hustled across the street. He looked surprised when Tsukishima followed him. "Oh! You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to."

"We're walking home together, aren't we? It's just a quick stop."

Yamaguchi nodded. He was already studying the slices of cake in the window, all but pressing his nose to the glass like an eager child. "Uwaah, they have a lot of different flavors. Look, there's strawberry! We should come back here sometime when you feel like having cake."

"Sure." Tsukishima hefted his bag up on his shoulder. He didn't feel like it today. He wondered, for a second, how Yamaguchi had known that without asking. Yamaguchi always seemed to know, and it had never before occurred to him to wonder how.

"What flavor do you think Hinata would like?" Yamaguchi's eyes were still scanning over the rows of cake.

"Chocolate." The response came instantly, no thought required.

Yamaguchi turned to blink at him. "You really think so?"

"He almost always picks chocolate when the senpai buy him ice cream."

Yamaguchi nodded slowly, then turned back to the window to beam at the chosen slice of cake. "You're really observant, Tsukki. I didn't realize you paid attention to that."

"I pay attention to lots of things. Not all of them are useful, I guess."

Yamaguchi laughed, bright and happy, and trotted into the shop. Tsukishima hurried along behind him, pulled in his wake like a balloon on a string. A slice of cake was a good present, really. It suited Yamaguchi, and it would please Hinata.

The diversion from their walk home was a little annoying, yeah. But it wasn't that bad.