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Never did the interiors of a convenience store seem too overwhelming until now. Never did the air bite colder at his skin than usual, hairs on his arms standing up as he swallows a lump in his dried throat.
Hinata didn't have much to drink but he could feel the nausea making his head throb, feet feeling like jelly as he stood at the entrance. He can count himself lucky that it was freaking three in the morning, just two more hours before the break of dawn.
Because he can't just blurt a 'Hey, so uhh, I want a pack of condoms, please'. And no, just because they're so plainly displayed beside the chocolate treats on the counter— interesting shelving choice really— doesn't mean they were words that would simply roll off the tongue without calling on attention, in his case the cashier.
Can this be any more difficult for him?
The short answer? Yes. A standing, more like looming, male right behind that counter dressed up as the cashier (the final boss) would make it so just in the half hour he'd make a tour of the racks and racks of assorted consumables as an alibi.
And boy did he humiliate him good, without breaking a sweat. As if it was his second nature.
"Excuse me, sir. But this isn't a racing track. Please run your laps elsewhere." His empty politeness jabbed at Hinata even from such a distance.
The clerk wasn't done, "Well to your credit, you've got the stamina to linger around walking like that. If you're planning on shoplifting though, don't even think about it." He drums his fingers on the white counter, impatience clearly showing on his features as he scrolled through his phone.
Too bad, he had quite an allure to him, and that was when he didn't speak. At all.
Hinata, with much words he had wanted to hurl at this rude young man, bit his tongue from adding fuel to the fire. If it weren't for the fact that he'd be paying him for the bulk of items he now clutched between in his arms, he definitely wouldn't mind biting back at his invitation to a dog fight.
Shouyou, holding back is key.
Just buy the damn thing, and then get out of here. He repeats it in his head like some mantra, drawing in small amounts of air through his nostrils.
Once he was satisfied with the random packets of chips and whatnot, he stomped his way to the fire-spitting cashier and like a mechanical crane he dropped his items onto the counter. They exchanged glances for a second, one pair gleaming with pride for bringing the other on his knees and the other seething before he had crouched down to retrieve the fallen items.
Hinata's grin dropped just as quick as it had appeared the moment the taller blonde spoke.
"So? What did you really want to buy?"
Hinata's temple throbs. "Do you always ask this to your every customer?"
Thin brows raised over irate golden eyes behind thick rimmed glasses made him look even scarier but wow was he really good looking—what, that last one wasn't from Hinata, he swears—up close. Dirty cream hair that gave off a tousled appearance but strangely didn't look out of place, curling into split bangs on the plane of his forehead. He was a tower over Hinata, his head a ruler's length from the ceiling.
But how can he fully admire the sight when he was too preoccupied with how to secure that pack now just a grabbing distance from his twitching fingers?
"Ugh, okay I have a huge appetite, the type who can't sit still without having anything inside his mouth for more than a minute. Happy?" That wasn't a lie.
The cashier's face assumes a mock fascination, and although it still held nothing akin to a yielding disposition, Hinata would take what he could get.
"Yeah, right. Like I'd believe that."
"I'm not lying!!" Hinata's sneer only got a roll of eyes. Hinata wanted to choke him, so bad.
Interacting with him never helped with his throbbing headache.
The cashier held all the items loose in his hand like they're gonna fall any minute, that Hinata just wanted to snatch the machine away and do the work for him.
The demon was surely dragging this on, like he was silently waiting for more that Hinata was not telling him, biting his lip in annoyance.
If that's how he wants to play, then he'll give him exactly what he wants. Indulge this demon's demons.
"Uhh..." Hinata almost hesitates, but pulls through with it. "Can I have your number?"
From the wide-eyed stare to the slender fingers readjusting the sides of his displaced specs, Hinata saw it all. Sounds halted in the blonde's stupor and it showed when he almost dropped what he was holding.
"Hey, I'm gonna pay for that! Don't damage the goods!" Hinata snorts, suppressing a big urge to burst into laughter. Had he done it, there were no more straws at convincing this man. Not like Hinata already got a headstart, anyway.
But his reaction was uncalculated for, and that made his grin stay.
"Hah?" Amber eyes glinted dangerously. "Care to repeat that first part?"
"Your number, please."
"Where is this coming from?"
"I need to tell you something, hurry up." His whine sounded like a kid needing to go to the bathroom, nearly at his limit. And he was. When all this was done and through, he'd laugh in the faces of his roommates for undermining him.
Hinata can bring home the condoms.
"Or you can just tell me right now. Are you blind? Nobody's listening in."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Confidential? Y-Yeah, that's it. It's confidential. For your ears only!" Hinata slaps his hands in front of him as if to pray, desperate. "Pretty please...?"
The blonde sighs after some dead air, "... Give it. Before I change my mind." He beckons with his hand.
That lit up Hinata's eyes. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, unlocks it, only to find some messages from his roommates asking where he was, 'hah told you he'd take long' , 'no i'm telling you i heard that the night shift's cashier is rlly attractive lol maybe hinata's taking all his time to drink in the sight-'
Hinata feels his cheeks burn, swiping out the embarrassing message without a second thought. O-Out of sight, out of mind.
"Yamaguchi..." Hinata hisses under his breath, "You're getting it later."
"What?"
"Nothing!"
After making sure all his... questionable chatboxes won't pop out out of nowhere, he places it over an an open palm. Without as much as a blink, he was holding it again.
"'Tsukishima.'" Hinata says, the syllables rolling off his tongue.
He didn't have to type in a name.
Then this Tsukishima person harrumphs in turn, all finished with the items on the counter. "Yes, weirdo?"
Hinata's expression sours. Why did he have to sound so damn irritating when he opens his mouth?
"Is this your real name?"
"Does that even matter? Just send me the message."
Hinata blinks and the flush returned to his cheeks in realization. Almost got him off track. Hinata glares at him, before typing haphazardly with his fidgeting fingers.
It wasn't long before Tsukishima felt a buzz in his jeans pocket. He only needed to read it once.
'I ned a box of condoms.
Pleas3?? //'
Tsukishima erupted into a laughing mess, and when his eyes shifted from his screen to its sender, it had his shoulders shaking even harder. Why were there typos?
His response left Hinata's blush grow even redder all the way to his neck, immediately averting his eyes away from him while his fingers now nervously fiddled on the hem of his white shirt, folding with sudden shyness.
Tsukishima knew: it was the redhead's first time buying the stuff. He'd been in the 'condom dealership' long enough that he dubbed himself, nobody needs to know, the 'guardian of the condoms', handing them to those 'worthy'. Well, at the end of the day he had no right to take from these strangers who only wanted to satiate their carnal needs. Yet as the cashier, the guardian, he had the privilege of enjoying the funny expressions he took pride in causing while they lasted.
Tsukishima was about to size him up like his previous customers who had bought The Box™. But he proved to be a different case, as nobody came this close to startling him and amazing him and entertaining him by trying on almost all tricks to buying the prized goods.
All remarkably failed with such defiance and valiance.
In his head, he's lauding him. Outside, he indulges in his misery.
"You sure we should've just sent him off like that?" Yamaguchi groans at his sore neck, his spent face exposed to the ceiling light that was a little too blinding for his intoxicated state.
"Aw c'monnn." Kageyama drags it out of his hoarse throat, before knocking down the rest of his chaser. "Graaah, it's not like it's that far away. He's literally two floors below us."
"Kageyama, it's three in the morning. I really think this is a bad idea. We should get-"
"Cut it out, you're starting to sound like Sugawara-san. We did this not in his memory. We did this to purge him out of our memory."
Sugawara was their next door neighbor who happened to study in the same college as them, two years their senior. And even after befriending him, somehow they weren't sure whether he was actually lying about being a student, because if they were to describe Sugawara-san, a toned down version of an overbearing mother who constantly checked on them would be a fitting description. To their favor, Sugawara was out for that night, leaving no one to coax them into behaving like responsible adults.
Naturally, the news of his absence played like a song in their ears.
And naturally, the trio thrashed themselves out in celebration of their shortlived freedom, braving the rest of the night until the very first signs of hangover the next day.
Initiation rites. Shot. Play. Shot.
Truth or Dare. Shot. King's Game. Shot. Shot.
Shot.
The very idea of sober got thrown out the window the moment they got immersed in their first game.
Each one of them took a shot for every loss, Hinata falling behind on the win counts. Out of the three he'd been treated the kindest however, being spared from the usual liquor to chaser ratio.
Hinata had the lowest tolerance after all.
"His shot glass was always half empty, okay? I made sure of that. Hell, I might've even drank the excess when it came out full." Yamaguchi snorts, pulling a punch on his arm. "Surely he can't be that wasted."
Kageyama had no idea.
"That... that was confidential? G-Give me a minute." Tsukishima asks with an arm pressed on his stomach, getting himself together. In a swift motion, he snags a box from the mini-shelf and one final beep played.
On an uneventful night shift as a part-time store employee, a flippy customer sprang forth from the entrance doors. Said customer dilly dallied to the aisles, rousing Tsukishima's usually disinterested gaze.
It wasn't an unusual sight during his nightly shifts, really. He's been throught worse, really. Clerks are unsung heroes, more people should be aware of that.
Furthermore, the stranger's appearance didn't give off the impression that he had come from far away, not at all when that was exactly what he'd half-heartedly put on whenever he made short trips from his own apartment.
The hazy boy sported a funky hair color that Tsukishima almost took it for a wig, those curly clumps of tangerine hair sticking out in different directions and passing for a neglected bedhead if he were to be asked.
"But since you've been a plentiful laughing stock for me, I'm giving this to you entirely for free."
Hinata either ignored his insult or just didn't mind it entirely. "T-Thank you."
"This isn't for you, is it?" Hinata's hair ruffles as he shook his head, eyes only on his targeted box, unable to meet Tsukishima's.
"Are you their errand boy, then? How sa-"
"A dare, it was a dare!" Without looking up, the gingerhead took off to the exit with bags in hand, the box hidden well within.
"I had a nice night, sir. Come agai-"
Thud.
Tsukishima winces at the sudden bone and floor contact.
"Ugh..." Hinata had collapsed on the floor.
Not knowing what to do between having another go at his misery and actually helping him, Tsukishima actually opted for the latter. An ounce of manners surprisingly flowed in his veins and maybe that was how he wasn't fired yet. With his customer 'friendliness' alone, he'd have lost the job just as soon as he got it.
"... You alright?"
Tsukishima hops over the counter---how he didn't knock things over in his path he didn't know---and assists Hinata to the nearest table while ignoring small bouts of protests. After making sure he won't fall from a weird angle, Tsukishima nods to himself like wow he actually cared.
He was actually concerned.
Hinata was shivering.
"Wait here... sir," he regards Hinata with one last glance before disappearing into the employee room. Seconds later a jacket hung from his right arm and a little more later it was finally draped over Hinata's shoulders. And Tsukishima did it with such care he never knew he had in him.
The cottony piece of fabric wrapped around the entirety of Hinata's upper back, the forest green bringing out his bright orange hair more. He notices Hinata shrinking within it, his instinct to huddle for greater warmth.
With his job spanning from late night into the early hours of dawn, Tsukishima had to be prepared for possible frostbite. Unlike this idiot about to take a nap right in front of him. Tsukishima fills the space beside Hinata, exhaling a breath he realized he'd been holding in.
Then Hinata murmurs something that was so low he had to lean in closer to understand, "It hurts... Stupid dare..." His breath was warm against Tsukishima's ear.
Not only that, Tsukishima caught the sharp metallic scent of what he can only assume as... liquor. "Were you drinking or something?"
Eyes darted open at his discreet musing, like he hit a nerve. Hinata's skin looked pale, lips not having it any better. Bags under those hazel eyes became more pronounced.
Hinata looked more tired than back at the counter. "... I was."
Tipsy to the brim, Hinata's blank eyes stared into an empty road through the glass window, flinching when Tsukishima's hand fiddled across his shoulders. "W-What are you-"
"My jacket's gonna fall off."
"Oh." Whether out of duty or not, Hinata considered his shift in attitude a massive improvement. "So Tsukishima can be a nice person too." Tsukishima scoffs but the corners of Hinata's mouth curled into a gentle smile, enough of a 'thank you' to whom it was directed at. Tsukishima's heart skips an odd beat.
Hinata worded out his gratitude anyway, before easing into a chatter with Tsukishima about the dare he got himself into. Every now and then he paused to massage his temples for his nausea, but his surroundings never stopped spiraling into a blur.
.
.
.
"Hoh," the blonde teases with a quirk to his mouth, "so you have no idea how condoms work." Tsukishima tried not to snicker again.
"You know whaat... I take it back about you being nice. I was sharing about a wholesome college party experience, and all you got out of it was that?" Hinata pouts and why did that look cute? "And God if you're gonna laugh just do it already... You look so ugly right now."
Tsukishima does as he say, but his volume was lower this time. "As if that's going to work on me now."
"I'm so parched... If I knew this was going to be like this I wouldn't have drunk." So it wasn't just his first time to buy the condoms, but to also drink. Tsukishima gives himself a mental slap for taking a note of that.
Hinata took a sip from the water bottle Tsukishima had provided him. Some drip off one corner of his lips, with Tsukishima reaching to wipe it off with his thumb before he knew it.
Both were startled at his gesture.
"What was that?"
"It's common knowledge, you know. Contraceptives?" Did Tsukishima just sweep his question under the rug? The nerve.
Hinata sneers instead. "Why forgive me if I have no idea... I'm hella singleeeee and that's the last thing I care about."
"The more you know."
"Oh yeah?"
Then something out of the blue happened, had Hinata been sober he'd be just as awestruck.
Tsukishima felt something soft press against his lips, it was damn sloppy, but it left him a petrified mess in his seat anyway.
Hinata was kissing him.
On a strange note, Tsukishima didn't feel the need to pull away, remarking how chapped Hinata's lips were even after getting damp from the water he just drank. On an even stranger note, Tsukishima even manages to return the kiss, before the redhead broke contact. It didn't deepen and it was brief. And that was a good thing, Tsukishima convinces himself.
Hinata let a small whimper when they parted, and Tsukishima somehow wanted to close that gap again, despite himself. There was something so magnetic about this gingerhead and he scolds himself for wanting more.
A faint taste of what Hinata had been drinking somewhat lingered. "Tsukishima..." Tsukishima hated how that made him feel weird all over, how it was now his turn to blush at the sound of his name.
"You know, you're not so bad. Just don't speak a lot." Hinata was grinning like a cheshire cat, his finger burning circles on Tsukishima's chest. Tsukishima struggles to relax, breath hitching.
Why was Hinata having his way with him and why was he, the master of his emotions, fretting and allowing it? This was ridiculous.
He feels something coil in the depths of his stomach.
Tsukishima couldn't stop paying attention to Hinata like a switch that can't be turned off. The air between them was so inviting, but with the haze clouding Hinata's eyesight and throughts, Hinata was marked as officially thrashed, especially with the way he searched in Tsukishima's sober ones.
His brain racked itself in trying to take stock of the situation, then Hinata kicked Tsukishima's thinking process towards the edge of his sound reason.
"Teach me how to use them?"
Jolts of electricity went through his spine in a matter of seconds, did this man realize what he was saying?
Yeah, no. He was drunk. Very.
No. Don't take the bait.
Not like this. He may be some stranger you literally met no more than an hour ago, but—
"Hey, saaaay something you Jerkyshima..." Jerkyshima? The hell is that?
Although his pleading hands slowly dug into his shirt, Tsukishima pushes back the immoral thought to the back of his head, where it hopefully disappears into oblivion never to be dug up again, because he was Tsukishima Kei who didn't do such unspeakable things to another stranger out of a whim, out of a... sudden arousal.
No matter how much the devil in his brain screamed at him. He didn't act on it. He can't act on it.
And instead lets the conversation die down. Hands dropped limp from his shirt, and got replaced by a crashing head just inches away from his own mess of a face moments ago. He just became a vertical bed for this fickle weirdo.
God freaking bless the blonde. Tsukishima's complexion was so red he'd rather die than let him catch so much as a glance.
And—
Congratulations. That was a horrible life decision, evaded.
His could hear his heart hammering like a drum, rendered unable to do anything to calm it down when Hinata was pressed against him like that.
He just scoops him up into a bridal carry. He had no other reason, none at all fuck off, he was just far too tall to do that arm support and straining both of them wouldn't help their case at all. Two plastic bags dangled from his hand as he spun around to the doors. He'd lock up the store for a few minutes, throw this mess of a man back wherever he came from, and return to his post like nothing had ever happened. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.
Hinata curled against him like this was more like carrying a baby than an actual bride. "But for your height you sure aren't feather heavy..."
Then color drained from his entire face when his co-worker stepped in all confused. He couldn't blame him. It took the employee about a few blinks before he got a rough idea of what he thought was happening and raises a thumb at his direction with a wink. Tsukishima pities his co-worker's brain, going to work this early and looked like he just short-circuited.
Tsukishima, 'master' of his emotions, managed to keep his cool. He studies Hinata's sleeping face instead, before moving over to his lips.
That was his first kiss.
Well, their.
"Oi. What's your room number?" Hinata stirs against Tsukishima's chest, nudged awake by his longer arm from his drunken nap.
Tsukishima made sure he had asked that suspicious question once they were out of earshot. He had more than enough questions he'd reason his way out of his chatty co-worker later, the odd way he chose to carry Hinata just one from the long list.
"H-Huh...? Oh, it's 204." Hinata manages through his searing headache, making out a blurred nod before he drifted off again. "I'm sorry..."
Don't be, idiot. Second floor it is. With extra caution in his steps, he climbed up the apartment building.
Kageyama grunts, feeling an elbow nudge him. "Kageyama. Kageyama, wake up."
"O-Oww... What time is it?"
"It's nearly four!" Yamaguchi hisses beside him, admonishing.
"Oh, shit. Where's Hinata?" He was only met with a worried expression.
"He's still not back. I think we really went overboard." Kageyama reaches out for this phone and found no new notifications.
They didn't receive any messages from Hinata.
Sighing, Kageyama sprang up from the mat. "Alright, we're gonna get the midget back." Yamaguchi follows suit, dusting off the flakes of chips on his sweatpants.
Tsukishima halts in front of the apartment door that had light seeping through the tiny slit below. It was the only room that remained lit among the other closed doors spanning the deserted hallway terrace.
Behind them was the morning sun making its gradual reappearance in the clear sky, and in its early phase Tsukishima ponders how similar its shade was to Hinata's. Sighing for whatever reason, he raises his hand to knock when the handle turned with a click.
Pacific blue met amber.
"What the f-" Kageyama and Yamaguchi jumped at the sudden presence, with the latter placing a hand on his chest in relief. "T-Tsukki?"
Kageyama on the other hand, assumed a defensive position before it dawned on him. Yamaguchi's question had Kageyama blinking himself into a realization, clearing his throat as he stood upright.
Tsukishima peers at him with a raised brow, huh, just as weird as this baby he was carrying.
Two idiots in a day, well hadn't he hit the jackpot? And the room reeks of strong alcohol.
You all had been drinking, alright.
"Yamaguchi?"
"You two know each other?" Kageyama glances back and forth between the two in honest confusion.
Yamaguchi hums and steps in between them. They were both pretty tall, if Hinata was awake he'd be like a lost kid among the three of them. "Kageyama, this is Tsukishima. A former schoolmate. Tsukishima, this is Kageyama, our roommate."
"Osu." Kageyama nods at him in courtesy.
"Mm." He does likewise.
"Tsukki, you... you work part time there?" Yamaguchi takes the bags from his numbing hand, earning a 'thanks' from the blonde.
"Yeah." He curtly replies, "And you're roommates with this short dumbass." Tsukishima deadpans like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Then, t-that means you're that attr..."
Tsukishima furrows his brows, "The what, Yamaguchi?"
"No, uhh, nevermind!"
Tsukishima squints in suspicion until he decides to let it go, the entirety of his arms starting to numb from all the extra weight. "So? Introductions are done and all, hooray." He doesn't make an effort to be more enthusiastic in his fake cheery tone. "Can I come in? This manchild doesn't weigh any lighter than he looks."
"Ah yes, of course! Come in. Excuse the scent and the mess, though." Yamaguchi steps aside to make way, watching him slip off his shoes and head for their deck bed, lopsided. Kageyama catches Tsukishima mutter an intrusion apology on his way.
Tsukishima could've just passed him over to Kageyama. But he didn't.
"If I wasn't in time, he'd have puked all over the place. More work for me." Although he won't really mind anymore if Hinata actually did.
"Thanks for bringing Hinata here." Kageyama's voice croaks, his hangover taking its toll on him. Yamaguchi chuckles internally, wondering if he's next in tow.
"What was that? I didn't quite hear you." So Hinata was his name. In a gentle fashion, he tucks Hinata into the bed, missing on the eye twitch targeted at him.
Then a whisper grows clear against Kageyama's ear, "I'm sorry, Tsukki's just like that, but he really has good intentions."
Kageyama can't diasgree with that, not when he can see how much the blonde seemed to care for their roommate, even though they only just met. He was sitting there a little bit longer than he should, like he watching over Hinata sleep.
"There's that taken care of," Tsukishima stands up, a ghost of a smile on his lips. It was too brief that when the two checked again to confirm it, they were met with a pursed mouth. "So I'll be taking my leave."
"That your jacket?" Kageyama points at it, glaring. "Need it back?"
"Oh, yeah. Tell him he can return it anytime. He knows when to find me. How to contact me, even." Tsukishima sports a humorless smile. "See you around, drunkheads."
"Take care, Tsukki!" The blonde nonchalantly waved his hand before shutting the door on them with a click.
Kageyama and Yamaguchi sagged to the floor on their knees, as if a fleeting spell of temporary energy had been lifted the moment Tsukishima left. Their brains were numb to the core while the pain spread throughout the rest of their bodies.
It was too much that they had completely overlooked one crucial fact: Tsukishima and Hinata were complete strangers to one another, so why on earth was Tsukishima carrying him like that? You don't usually carry a quivering stranger that way unless you did the...
Oh no. Both of them choked in their screams of realization, exchanging glances before snapping at Hinata who peacefully snored in bed.
Only one way to find out.
They scrambled about and rummaged through the bags, exchanging half-baked theories along the way. "Ah, so he did get to buy one. Huh. Haha." Their hearts leapt straight into their throats as they observed the red package. With a hard swallow, Yamaguchi pried open the box with a slippery nail.
The box was still neatly closed. Contents haven't been tampered with either.
"Oh my God." With relief now flooding their pulsing brains, Kageyama and Yamaguchi laid sprawled on the floor, joining their source of worries in a long, exasperated sleep.
Hinata had a lot of questions to answer the next day.