10 Stages of Me and You [Tsukishima Kei x Reader]

Stage 1: Her

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"Alright! Time to pack up!" Daichi said as training time came to a halt.

Everyone started helping in packing up the equipment, some faster than the others once the captain announced that he'd treat everyone to a pork bun. [Name] stared at them, laughing to herself as she watched the two shortest of the team getting hyped by the food promised to them. It's only been a week or so when both the libero and ace returned to the team, but it seemed like they, especially Yu, got along well with the new members. Well, most of the new members.

While closing the gym, the said duo earlier started sprinting to the store their coach worked in. They both were soon followed by a running Tobio who was shouting Shoyo's name along with the word, boke.

The other members of the team, who were tired from training, walked instead, letting the three take the lead.

"Even if they got their first, they still won't be able to get it anyways since Daichi is the one paying," Koushi said, laughing lightly at the antics of his kouhais.

The others shared some lighthearted laughs as well, with Ryunosuke being the loudest and [Name] being the softest. Kei, who wasn't laughing with the team, glanced instead at the girl who was beside him. [Name], who's intuition is most of the time accurate, felt someone looking at her. She immediately looked up to see golden-brown eyes staring at her.

"Hey, hey, bigfoot. Thinking I'm cute, huh?"

[Name] never failed to tease once an opportunity comes up. Although it wasn't a surprise anymore, the comment still caught Kei off guard-- mostly because of his own realization earlier. The blond scoffed at her before looking straight ahead, ignoring the girl rather than teasing back.

[Name] felt a bit concerned with the reaction of the tall first year. Had she said something wrong? Oh no, did she cross a line?

She softly slapped both of her cheeks while shaking her head.

'I don't want to think about this for now.'

When the team finally reached the store, the captain was quick to hand out the pork buns he promised to give to the team. Soon, everyone part ways and went in groups to head home. One of the groups often seen walking home was the trio [Name], Kei, and Tadashi. When it was still just the two, it was often a silent trip home. But now that the [h/c] girl joined them, she and Tadashi often talked a lot to each other.

Their topics range from comparing their subjects to just plain complaining about them. Although their class only had one number difference, the differences were still noticeable. [Name] would often praise the two for their intelligence to which Tadashi would reply with how she is an intelligent one herself. The girl would agree at times and say that if she had only studied harder, she would've been in the same class as them.

"Still though, it would be nice to be your classmates. Then at least, I'd have Yamaguchi to always accompany me."

It wasn't hard to spot that [Name] was closer with the green-haired cutie than the blond french fry. She, however, couldn't deny that she felt more drawn to the tall middle blocker of the team.

As they reached one of the intersections, Tadashi waved goodbye, parting ways with the two. The sudden silence felt weird to [Name] especially since the boy she was with as of the moment was the one she has been trying to get off her mind.

She could never really tell when it started but she knew something was different. She was still the same but something in her started yearning more for Kei's attention. [Name] couldn't properly put it into words but, not seeing Kei in the morning felt like a big let down all of a sudden. She tried so hard to convince herself that these thoughts were merely brought by the fact that she didn't want to spend a morning without teasing the blond. Turns out she was right, at some parts. In the end, she realized that she just didn't want to spend a morning without the blond.

The moment she let this sink in, more thoughts came to her which led her to a downward spiral of never-ending questions. One of those being, did she like Tsukishima?

When she asked herself that the night before, she spent an hour convincing herself that she didn't. She couldn't possibly have started to like that guy who made it his goal to tease her until the sun ceased to exist. The mere thought of liking someone already left her a blushing mess. Having the thought of liking Tsukishima was a whole new world of denial and disbelief.

She even went to the point of questioning her own stance against liking the boy. This messy train of thoughts she had that night led to the slip-up she had with the alarms that made her late earlier.

The most annoying part for her was how the first thing she thought of when she woke up was how she must've let down Tsukishima when she didn't show up for her daily teasing. For some reason, this triggered the thoughts she had the night before leading her to become a mess while she walked on her way to school.

'Why did I even buy those lollipops earlier? It's not as if I'm required to be there to tease him during the morning. But then again, I felt so sorry for missing the teasing time we often had.'

[Name] was completely lost in her thoughts and the possibility that she might indeed have started harboring some feelings for the person she was walking with right now.

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing-- liking Tsukishima. She didn't just want to admit that she might really be into someone without fully being sure of the situation. Maybe she was confusing the feeling with something else? But what? Surely there must be a word for it right?

A word that fully encapsulates how you want to be with that person everyday and have fun with them.

That sounds close to wanting to be friends, right? But they're already friends so why would she even want that again. Besides the friendship bracket didn't seem to include fast heartbeats and sweaty palms while you're alone with and near that person.

"Hey munchkin, you've been spacing out. I know your head must be full of nothing but don't do that while you're out walking."

Tsukishima Kei annoyed her. But still, he made her heart beat faster with those words. She couldn't even form a response because of how preoccupied her brain was. Did he really annoy her?

[Name] felt bad to even say that he annoyed her. But then, what does he do to her?

He makes her heart feel light. He makes her want to smile till she can't anymore. He makes her mad. Not in an angry way. More of the, 'I don't know what to do with you' way. He makes her feel confused.

"You're awfully quiet," Kei said, grabbing the attention of the [h/c] haired girl.

"No nicknames? My my Tsukishima, I might start thinking you're concerned with me."

"Shut up dumbass. I just pulled you out of your headspace, seeing how it seems to be full of nonsense right now."

It was, wasn't it? All her thoughts were nothing so why dwell on it. Besides, it's only been a month at most. She couldn't have possibly fallen for someone that fast, right?

"Well, it's still not past midnight. Wanna get some ice cream, gremlin?"

Or maybe she could've. Maybe one month was more than enough for a certain emotion to take root in her heart.

[Name] laughed and said, "As long as you pay for it, beanstalk."

Kei scoffed, rolling his eyes, before proceeding to let out a small chuckle.

"Fine, beansprout."

Maybe it wasn't so bad after all-- liking him.

[Name] dismissed all her denial and disbelief left in her brain as she walked alongside Kei who had his eyes set on the small ice cream stand they were going to pass soon. At this point, it was worthless to even deny what she was feeling.

"So what would you like?" Kei asked.

You. Not that she'd say that out loud.

Although she knew he was asking about her preference for ice cream flavor, her mind still gave that as an answer. After all, she did finally accept it.

'I like you, Tsukishima Kei. I like you very much.'

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