"Hey, what happened yesterday?"

You had him at last. By a long row of lockers, waylaid into an alcove like a cornered rat. Propping your hands on your hips, you fixed him with a steely look.

"W-what do you mean?" He stuttered, diffident under your intense glare.

"You know what I mean. Yesterday, when you suddenly ran off," you reminded him, shifting your weight. "I just want to know if I said something wrong. I had no intention of upsetting you."

He squinted down at his feet, rubbing his face as if his freckles were granules of pepper that were itching his skin. "N-not at all. You didn't upset me."

"You're a bad liar," you said with a sigh, loosening your posture. "Look, whatever I said... please can we just talk about it?"

Yamaguchi wrinkled his nose. "Uhm, I'm going to be late for class," he said, evading your question. "I'll talk to you later." You moved aside as he scurried past, eyes lingering on his receding form with a pout.

"Don't worry, he'll come round."

"Hm?" You swivelled on your heel, heart fluttering as you snagged honey-glazed eyes. "Oh, Tsukishima-San. Hi."

Honey-glazed, but still sharp, like the point of a knife, watching you warily like a hunter does its prey. "Whatever you said probably wasn't that bad. He tends to let petty things get to him," he informed you with a nonchalant shrug, already edging away. "Anyway, we're gonna be late."

You jogged after him. "Hey, uhm-"

"Don't talk to me."

"O-okay."

You took your seats as the final bell barely grazed the silence, narrowly avoiding a late note.

Tsukishima didn't object to you sitting next to him again, but he didn't openly engage with you either. And the boy next door gave you a funny look again.

"You got glasses yet?"

You were confused by what he meant, before you suddenly remembered the excuse you'd blurted the first time you sat at the front. "Oh, uh, no," you mumbled, ignoring Kei's pointed glare.

"You need glasses?" He tsked as the boy lost interest.

You looked at him slightly helplessly. "Uh, not really."

And at that moment, your head filled with a sudden airiness. Because Tsukishima's lips had twitched - just for a second - and a smile had ghosted over his face. And he was looking at you while it did.

________

"Hey, you ready to tell me what's bothering you?"

Yamaguchi shrugged you away, sucking in his cheeks as you walked out of the lunch hall. "Nothing's bothering me. Please can we just drop it?"

You tugged frustratedly at your hair. "I'm not blind, Yamaguchi. You've been avoiding me all day," you whined, your patience like a piece of thread that was slowly wearing thin.

The boy suddenly deflated, letting out a heavy sigh, the colour in his cheeks draining. He stopped and nudged open the door to an empty classroom, ushering you inside. "Fine. But don't... don't think I'm stupid for saying this, okay?" He urged, hiding his face behind a loose cowlick. "It's just that, well, you're always going on about how you see Tsukki as a sort of puzzle. I think you called him an enigma once or something. But, while he seems all interesting and exciting, well, I... I just feel a bit boring. Like I'm not... good enough for you."

You choked on the words tangled in your throat, unable to move your tongue in accordance with your thoughts.

"Y-you... Yama... What?! Boring?" You echoed, voice laced with incredulity. "Yamaguchi, you are not boring."

The freckled boy grimaced. "I-"

"You," you accentuated, "have made my last year of high school well worth anticipating. I actually look forward to coming to school now, because I finally have someone I can talk to, someone I actually enjoy spending time with. Listen, you're not at all like Tsukishima, but you're certainly not boring either. You're, well, you're you. You're Yamaguchi Tadashi. And you're my friend."

The boy's eyes glazed over, his smile turning watery, freckles buried beneath a meadow of pink and red. "[Y/Y-N]..."

You turned to him with a goofy grin. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

"Wh-hey!" He cried, knocking your shoulder playfully. "Don't call me an idiot."

You shrugged. "You kind of are, for thinking like that. Don't ever think anyone's more interesting, or better than you in any way, okay? We're all different. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. If you were exactly like Tsukishima, there would be no Yamaguchi. You are what makes you, you."

His face scrunched up as he tried to follow your lecture, freckles bunching up together like those flocks of birds that flew as different shapes when they migrated. "Uhm, okay?" He muttered with a lilting tone.

"You're unique, Yamaguchi. And that's never a bad thing."

________

"Hey, you were right," you called out, jogging to catch up with Tsukishima half-way up the street. He adjusted his headphones away from his ears and subconsciously tugged at his collar. "About Yamaguchi coming round. He really needs to stop feeling so insecure about who he is."

The blond just nodded, keeping his eyes forward and shadowed beneath furrowed brows.

"You seem to know him quite well, Tsukishima. Were you two close before?"

He sighed through his nose. "Hasn't he already told you all that?"

You shook your head with a dry smile. "He said you used to be friends, that's all."

"Then that's all you need to know," he told you, reaching up to brush a stray hair out of his face. His knuckles were purple and raw from the wind.

Biting the inside of your cheek, you slipped off your gloves and held them out to him. "Your hands look cold. Take these."

"Huh?"

You waved the gloves impatiently, your own knuckles blanching from the sudden exposure. With a conflicted frown, he took them from you and pulled them over his trembling fingers. "Thanks," he muttered, the slightest colour appearing on his cheeks.

"No problem," you grinned. "Hey, it'll be Christmas soon. Are you doing anything nice?"

You regretted asking the moment the sentence left your tongue, Yamaguchi's words like a punch to the gut. Nothing good ever happens in the Tsukishima household, that's for sure.

"We don't celebrate," he said simply, though there was no mistaking the underlying grittiness to his voice. The same bitterness that tore at your heart every time.

"Oh, I see," you mumbled, slowing your descent as you approached Kei's house. "Well, have a nice weekend Tsukishima-kun. I guess I'll see you Monday."

"Bye," he mumbled, jogging up his porch and nudging open the door. Before he'd fully disappeared inside, he turned back to you with a withering look, as if not convinced of his own actions. "And... thanks for walking with me."

________

yah this chapter's a little all over the place.
i just really wanted to update. i've been so bogged down with college and life lately just ughh~
i feel like my writing's seriously declining tho, so i'm sorry if the chapter was a bit crap.
but thanks for sticking with me :)