Chapter Text
Tsukishima came back the next night. He woke Yamaguchi with a nudge to his shoulder in order for the freckled boy to make him a late night snack. Sleepily Yamaguchi made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the taller boy, smiling all the while. After taking a bit Tsukishima commented on how there was too much jelly. Yamaguchi apologized, promising to make it right next time. Tsukishima huffed but Yamaguchi smiled noticing that Tsukishima did not deny that there would be a next time. They sat and Yamaguchi talked about his day throwing in questions that Tsukishima never answered until eventually the smaller boy gave a big yawn.
“Go to bed.” Tsukishima ordered.
“But I’m not tired Tsukki.” Yamaguchi whined, letting lose another large yawn.
“I need to go home anyway.”
“Where do you even live?” Yamaguchi asked, hoping to prolong their time together.
Tsukishima paused. “If I tell you will you go to sleep?” Yamaguchi was torn between wanting to stay up with Tsukki and wanting to know.
“… Fine.”
“We can either live on earth or what you humans have called heaven. I live up in the heavens with my family, which is really just another dimension that connects to earth, or at least that’s what my brother says.” Tsukki explained. Yamaguchi nodded as though he understood even though the talk of alternate dimensions just went over his head. “Now go to bed.” Tsukishima commanded. Yamaguchi let loose a wordless whine. “I will visit again, don’t be so clingy.” Tsukishima continued, looking off to the side.
Yamaguchi replied in an affirmative looking at the ground. When he looked back up Tsukki was gone. He drug himself to his room, curling up in the blankets. Slowly, sleep overcame him.
Two days passed before Tsukishima visited Yamaguchi again. This time, he didn't appear in the middle of the night but as the sun was just about to begin setting. He appeared just as Yamaguchi was dumping out a bucket of dirty water he had used to clean the shrine floors with. His sudden appearance made Yamaguchi jump and slosh dirty water on his shoes.
"Ah Tsukki! You scared me." The shorter boy said, setting his bucket down. The blond only hummed and followed the stone walkway to the back yard.
"Hey, wait for me Tsukki." Yamaguchi scrambled to follow after the god, bucket forgotten in the grass. The porch of the shrine led out to a small grass area with cherry blossom trees that led into a forest. A small pond sat midway of the grassy area. The pond was surrounded by stones and flowers that his grandmother took care of. Tsukishima crouched near the pond, his silk blue robes sprawled around him. Tsukishima looked down into the pond with an annoyed expression. Yamaguchi sat down next to him, keeping quite unless Tsukishima turned that expression on him. But Yamaguchi wasn't very good at sitting still so he fidgeted, glancing between the grass and Tsukki.
Tsukishima sighed, "You might as well start your questions. I didn't show up only to be bored."
"I can ask?" Yamaguchi grinned.
"That's what I said." Tsukishima replied.
Yamaguchi opened his mouth to as the questions that had been festering him for what had felt like ages but nothing came out. With horror his mind drew blank. He grasped at thoughts. He looked up at the sky trying to think. That was when he saw the faint outline of the moon in the darkening orange sky.
"Hurry up, I haven't got all night." Tsukki huffed.
“What do moon gods do? What does the moon do?” He blurted out.
“We control the tilt of the earth, push and pull the tides,
Looking up at the sky a question came into the freckled boys mind, "How do you raise the moon?"
Tsukki remained silent for a second. "A team does it. We have several different duties. We raise the moon, manage the tides, and so on but we can't do it alone. Other spirits help out, some of them are very low spirits that need something to do with their endless lives and some spirits just work for it. There are spirits like me who are in a higher command, they run the entire thing, schedule things, make sure everything runs smoothly, but more importantly, they do the frame work, the magic behind it. They have to be strong enough to power the moon.” Tsukishima held up his hand as a small moon appeared in it. “Sometimes members of the moon family don’t have enough power to lift it into the sky so other powerful gods have to make up for their slack.” Tsukki closed his hand the moon vanishing in silver dust that fell down the sides of his palm.
“But your brother can lift the moon up, right?” Yamaguchi asked. Tsukishima glared at him, irritated. “Of course.”
“How does it look? Is he really good at it?” Yamaguchi edged closer. The blonde boy leaned back. “Of course he’s good. He is the best. Don’t ask stupid questions.” Yamaguchi smiled letting loose a quiet “Sorry Tsukki!”
“I will get to see my raise the moon soon. He never lets me go with him to watch, says I make him nervous. You can come along if you want?”
“What does your brother do to help raise the moon? My brother helps out too.” Came a voice making Yamaguchi jump. A tiny striped bird hops up onto the stone before his body began to waver from view. The bird’s body became clear once more but in the form of a boy. He had short hair, parted to clearly show his forehead, baby fat still keeping him chubby. His eyebrows were thick and his lips sat in a bored frown. He wore a striped shirt.
Tsukishima leaned forward his face taking on the same expression. “He runs everything, he is a Tsukishima.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Then he doesn’t do much. But I suppose it’s whatever, even gods from powerful families end up weak.”
Yamaguchi blinked his eyes at the boy, no he must be a spirit, Yamaguchi thinks absent mindedly. “Tsukki’s brother does everything though?” Yamaguchi said uncertainly, making the sentence come out in the form of a question.
“Uh, not possible. I went to watch my brother the other night, I didn’t see a single Tsukishima helping out?”
Tsukki’s eyes widened slightly. “You must be mistaken. Besides, he tells me every night about how the ceremonies go.” The spirit begins looking irritated and Yamaguchi begins sweating at the tension between the two.
“Go up and see!” He shouts. Tsukishima sneers, “We will.” Both beings stand, Tsukishima holding his hand out to pull Yamaguchi up. The freckled boy grabs it, pulling himself up unsteadily.
“Where are we going?” Yamaguchi whispers.
“To the heavens obviously.” He huffs. Yamaguchi clutched Tsukki’s hand tighter having forgotten to let go. Nervousness stirred in his stomach. He had a bad feeling about this.
“I have to tell my grandma.” He says. Tsukishima looks at him. “She saw you with me earlier, no lets go.”
“Are we going to go or just wait here all night?” The boy interrupts. Tsukishima glares in reply. “Hold on tight.” Tsukishima says before the world around him blurs from his sight.