teruyama: pet shop

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The door chimed, alerting Yamaguchi. There hadn't been any customers so far today, and after an hour of waiting, he was happy someone had decided to enter the store.

"Hi, do you need anything specific today?" he politely asked the boy who'd just walked in.

He looked to be about a year older than Yamaguchi. His hair was dyed a blonde shade, and he had an undercut that showed his natural hair color. In all honesty, Yamaguchi thought he was very hot.

"Uhh, yeah," the teenager responded, tongue piercing showing every time his mouth opened.

Yamaguchi looked at him expectantly, noticing that he wasn't very well put together and didn't seem to have the name of exactly what he needed.

"Oh, sorry dude- I need... food," he said. "Yeah, food."

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, "For your pet?" he asked, hoping that was correct, because they didn't sell human food, and the stranger must've read the sign wrong somehow.

"Yeah, yeah," he nodded. "For my snake."

That sparked his interest, "You have a snake?" he questioned.

"Dude, you like snakes or something?" the other boy asked, suddenly becoming more interested in the freckled boy.

"Not really... I just find it interesting when people have them as pets," Yamaguchi replied.

He grinned, "Well, yeah, I have a snake," he confirmed. "Her name's Doku."

"That's so cool," Yamaguchi said, his eyes practically lighting up, before he realized how impolite he was probably being. "Oh- sorry... I just think that's nice."

"Nah, it's fine," the boy smirked a little. "You're pretty cute, you know? By the way, my name's Terushima."

Yamaguchi felt his face heat up. Is he hitting on me? he wondered, embarrassed. "Uh, yeah! Snake food- follow me!" he quickly changed the subject.

It wasn't that the other teenager flirting a bit made him uncomfortable- he didn't really mind it. And it wasn't that he was unattractive. Yamaguchi just didn't know how to talk to people like that.

He didn't how to flirt.

"Doku had some mice before but-"

"Mice?" Yamaguchi interrupted, coming to hard stop.

Terushima halted, making sure not to bump into the shorter boy, "Uh, yeah? Snakes are carnivores," he pointed out.

"Oh," Yamaguchi flushed. "Right, I knew that."

"Mice don't sound tasty to you?" Terushima joked, following him as he continued walking.

He felt his cheeks grow warm again, "Well, no," he responded. "I also don't know if we sell mice because they're- Oh, never mind, here they are."

Terushima let out a laugh, "Yeah, they sell 'em dead and frozen for the snakes," he told him. "Last time I went to buy them, the lady thought I was looking for a pet mouse. An alive one."

"I'm sure they don't taste too different," Yamaguchi joked.

Holy shit, he thought. I just made a joke... in a playful conversation. Does that count as flirting?

Much to Yamaguchi's delight, Terushima laughed again, "Doku's getting a little lazy," he said. "She wouldn't even bother trying to catch a living mouse to eat, when I could just hand her a dead one."

Yamaguchi giggled at that. He giggled.

Terushima looked at him like he was the most endearing person in the world, "Um- I know I'm just here to pick up some food-" he gestured to the bag of frozen mice that Yamaguchi was handing him. "-but can I... have your number or something?"

Yamaguchi froze, "Mine?" he asked, unsure why the other boy would want to talk to him ever again.

"Uh, yeah," he responded, scratching the back of his neck, a light pink on his cheeks. "When I said you were cute. I wasn't lying."

"Oh," Yamaguchi blushed. "Sure... I guess."

"Really?" Terushima perked up.

He nodded, face still warm, "Yeah," he said, handing Terushima the package of snake food and pulling out his phone. "Here."

Terushima put his number in, then saved himself as "snake boy from the pet store."

"You could've just put your name," Yamaguchi told him as he sent a quick emoji, so Terushima could save his number as well. "I'm not gonna forget it."

Terushima smirked, "Oh, really?" he asked, suggestively. "I'm not such an easy face to forget, now, am I?"

Yamaguchi wished his face would stop heating up and embarrassing him, "I mean, I guess," he said quietly. "But it's not like I talk to a lot of people."

Terushima sighed, "Well, now you got me to talk to, 'kay?" he asked.

"Yeah, okay," Yamaguchi smiled at him.

They went back to the front, so Terushima could pay for his snake food.

- - -

A few weeks had gone by, and Terushima had been texting him regularly.

They'd talked about his snake some more, how she was liking her new food, and they talked about Yamaguchi's life too.

Terushima now knew about his best friend, Tsukishima, his school volleyball team, and how he doubted himself very often. Terushima told him that he played volleyball too, and that his team was the most energetic one around.

He then told him that he shouldn't doubt himself, and he should focus on his strengths and ways to build new ones. That made Yamaguchi begin to fall for him.

In the second week of messaging Terushima, Yamaguchi had discovered that the other boy had saved his contact name as "cute boy from the pet store." He'd said it was so that they matched.

Yamaguchi found himself blushing at that, and falling even harder.

- - -

A/N: Kind of short but it's cute :)

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