THIRD PERSON

"you guys did really well today! keep it up." aiko cheers with her eyes sparkling, her right hand on the left side of her torso, making the blonde male sigh. she's not feeling better yet. he thought.

"thank you, aiko-san! i'll be heading to the others for a few more serves. rest well!" yamaguchi says before waving his hand goodbye.

as soon as yamaguchu disappeared from their sight, aiko and kei started to continue their walk back to their shelter to catch some sleep, not until tsukishima heard a very familiar phrase from behind.

"tsukki! hey, hey, tsukki!"

the blonde froze on his spot, shivering because of the voice he just heard.

oh boy. here goes chaos. he thought to himself and sweatdropped.

"tsukki? isn't yamaguchi-kun the only one who calls you that? that voice doesn't sound like him. I wonder who it is." aiko, who's in front of him, says as she tries to look back, yet tsukishima stopped her from doing so by holding onto her shoulders and making her face forward.

"i'll appreciate it if you run away as of now. i don't want you to experience this mess." he whispers onto her ear, pushing her away lightly, trying hard not to hurt her.

"eh? but why? who are–"

"too late, tsukki!" a familiar voice from a cat yells as his arm snaked onto the blonde's shoulder.

"good evening." akaashi greets, nodding his head.

and by then, bokuto and kuroo started to chat with tsukishima, though he really didn't understand what they're saying because they're too loud to begin with.

"please refrain on raising your voice at this time around, bokuto-san. you too, pain-in-the-ass kuroo-san." akaashi says with his usual monotonous tone, causing kei to chuckle under his breath.

"don't mind, don't mind! let's do things we aren't able to do in the day." the cat says with a smile before giggling, yet he stopped from doing so.

on the other hand, as the group continued on chatting with each other, the female tried to sneak her way out of the scene. however, he got caught by the sharp eyes of the senior owl.

"brought a friend tonight, too, tsukki?" bokuto asks as he stares at aiko who was at least a few centimeters away from the group.

"good evening." aiko greets calmly, bowing towards the seniors to give respect.

"bandages?" akaashi asks in confusion.

"she got into a fight last night and that's the result." tsukishima sighs, shaking his head from side-to-side.

"hey, hey, pipsqueak! you shouldn't get yourself included in physical fights. you might worry megane-kun too much." bokuto says, pointing towards the blonde.

though displaying a very calm face, tsukishima felt his blood rush towards his cheeks, causing him to look down to hide his face.

"bokuto-san, it's rude to address a girl from another school that way. where are your manners?" akaashi asks his senior with his left eyebrow raised.

"akaashi, i'm not belittling her or anything! it simply means fragile and cute!" the owl defends, making the female blush lightly.

"it literally means small, you know?" kuroo asks before sighing.

as the seniors continue to chat with each other, tsukishima snuck out of their circle and rushed towards aiko's direction.

"we're heading out. excuse us." tsukishima says and bows before walking away from the group with aiko by his side.

"tsukki! free practice tomorrow!" bokuto yells, intensely waving his hand goodbye.

as the crows were out of their sight, kuroo cracked a small smile.

"our tsukki is all grown up. i think i'm gonna cry out of joy." he says, sighing.

"he hid his face earlier, too. too bad i have a great eye for these stuff." bokuto giggles and clung onto akaashi's arm.

akaashi cracked into a small smile as well as a thought came to his mind.

"uh, not to predict the future, but they might actually work out."