Chapter Text
Maybe it was the frustration of the loss. Everyone was fragile and prickly from the disappointment, but there was no doubt that Aoba Johsai’s win over Karasuno was a particular weight on the setter’s shoulders.
Not that it mattered. Kageyama had always been an asshole.
Normally, Tsuki could bear extending a little charity for the sake of getting through practice. Kageyama’s social skills being what they weren’t, if Tsuki didn’t back down, no one would, and Tsuki didn’t care enough to actually get into anything Kageyama had to say.
Since the loss, however, every chance that his majesty got to bicker with Tsuki, he would push it past a snip or a grouse into an argument. Worse, he would take it from an argument to an attack on Tsuki's character, whether mid-practice, in public afterward, or even in front of people who weren’t on the team if they got so unlucky to be passing by.
Tsuki knew why Kageyama was on edge to the extent that he was. The socially simple setter could try to hide it, but Tsuki knew that Kageyama took… Oikawa personally. Whether Kageyama would believe it or not– whether Kageyama himself even understood it– Tsuki understood that when Kageyama lost against the Aoba Johsai, it meant more than losing the game, or even not winning the game. For Kageyama, to whom volleyball meant his whole life, that game back in middle school was more like his subjects had turned on him mid-battle and left him bleeding out, publicly. So to meet them again, Tsuki knew, and for them to be led by none other than Kageyama’s own previous general… and to lose against them, Tsuki knew that in his mind, Kageyama’s ‘redemption’ had been halted, humiliated, and wounded on the battlefield once again.
Tsuki understood that.
But he wasn't going to act as whipping boy just because the genius king had been made to kneel.
And since Tsuki was nearing his limit for Kageyama’s lashings already, when, in a regular training game with zero stakes, Kageyama cracked, so did Tsuki.
Distracted and tense, the two of them jumped for the same shot and collided midair.
It hurt and it pissed Tsuki off, but he could’ve shaken off the accident, the fall, and the argument that was bound to follow if that had been all.
Instead, before they’d hit the ground, Tsuki’s world went red-purple, and his teeth clicked together, followed by pain like thunder.
It disabled his ability to land on his feet, and it was a few seconds after he’d fallen on his back, as his teammates’ voices and hands checked him for injury, that he realized what had happened.
His bleeding nose and aching jaw proved only that he’d been hit, but as he and Kageyama were helped to their feet, one catch of Kageyama's black fox eyes removed any doubt from Tsuki’s mind that the king, completely separate from the collision, had thrown an elbow.
Tsuki said nothing on the way to the nurse, adding to his own injury by clenching his jaw.
Judging by the third years’ reaction, or lack thereof, and even Yamaguchi’s nervous-sympathetic clucking rather than hand-waving and shrill accusations, no one had seen Kageyama’s assault, so when Tsuki returned, with no broken bones and minimal swelling under his eye, he accepted the setter’s apology for the collision no more sincerely than Kageyama had been forced to give it, and didn't argue when he was sent home.
He'd wait for his chance. He didn’t care how long it took or if Kageyama had gotten over what was prompting this shitty behavior by then. Kageyama was an asshole, and Tsuki was going to make his majesty regret it.
++++
The first time Tsuki sensed his chance, he wasn't sure he was right about what he was seeing.
By then, the team's morale had stopped limping from the loss against Seijoh, and they were mostly back to their jovial, obnoxious normal.
Spearheading that obnoxiousness as usual, despite the fact that everyone was changing in the cramped space of the clubhouse, Hinata was jumping around like an idiot.
Predictably, his spastic need to take up more space than could ever be necessary caused him to violate another's, and he bumped into Tsuki so hard that he brought him and a small, mostly empty shelf toppling over on top of him, shirtless chest to shirtless chest.
By now, Tsuki only had a soft, purple bruise on his eye and cheekbone left from the collision, but panic drove Hinata to stay under Tsuki rather than hurt him. “Sorry, Tsuki! Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
Tsuki rolled his eyes and shoved the shelf off with the help of his nearest teammates, and unpinned the redhead. “A cicada could fly into me and it would do more damage.”
Despite Sugawara and Tanaka having helping well covered, Kageyama jumped on the tangle at full speed then– and not to straighten the situation up, but to remove Hinata rather bodily from Tsuki’s proximity.
More awkwardly, the setter failed to berate Hinata for his clumsiness even once separated, and the clubhouse went unusually quiet as it came to the first years, who were left wondering for different reasons what had just happened.
Sugawara inadvertently broke the tension, teasing Hinata, “Your position isn’t so precarious that you have to take out the other middle blockers, Hinata!”
Nishinoya clasped a valiant fist. “At least give him a chance to heal and fight you like a man!”
“ I was the one in danger!” Hinata defended.
Tsuki had resumed dressing, and Hinata jumped to stopped the blond putting on his shirt at the point his arms crossed over his chest.
Presenting his evidence, Hinata said, “He’s not as twiggy as he looks!”
“Idiot!” Tsuki growled, struggling from Hinata’s hold.
The redhead got an impish quirk in the corner of his grin, said, “Mr Secret Muscles here almost crushed me!" and, t oo damn pleased with himself, he slapped Tsuki’s abs, leaving a pink handprint that seemed worth Tsuki’s swift kick to his fleeing butt.
"Not to be confused with me--” Tanaka removed his shirt, which had been on him no more than two minutes. “--Mr Muscles For All to Enjoy!" He flexed and ignored the booing.
Tsuki didn't notice the rest of the interaction between his teammates, though, as something had caught his eye.
The severe setter had turned a talkative shade of red at some point during Hinata’s teasing touches, watching Hinata’s every move as if the redhead was playing for another’s team’s setter.
Tsuki smirked internally--or maybe externally. He wasn't always aware of it.
It wasn’t a suspicion completely without existing proof--those two had always been…weird. But he couldn’t really be sure without testing it.
Now was the moment, though; if his observations were misplaced, probing would only come across as Tsuki being hard to get a read on, for which he knew he had a reputation anyway. And if he was right...
"Hinata, don't compliment someone just to play at modesty.”
"Modesty?" Hinata echoed dumbly.
Tsuki rolled his eyes and turned around to face the smaller boy. “Don’t act like you don’t want us to notice how much your physique has improved recently.” He hooked a finger under Hinata’s shirt and pulled up, as if peeking under the cover of a new muscle car before its debut. He grinned almost ruefully at the redhead. “Modest or not, you’re hard to ignore, Hinata.”
He looked at Kageyama and cocked a grin toward Hinata as if asking if the setter would like to see, too. “Don’t you think, Kageyama?”
Hinata snatched his shirt back down, speechless for once.
“That’s quite a compliment!” Yamaguchi laughed, shouldering his bag.
Sugawara agreed, jabbing Hinata as he, Nishinoya, and Tanaka passed him toward the door. "You must have knocked Tsuki over pretty hard!"
"That's just how strong I am!" Hinata laughed.
Tsuki wordlessly joined Yamaguchi in their departure home, but he smirked at Kageyama as he passed, pleased as sin with the molten iron glare the setter gave him in return.
And as he descended the stairs outside of the clubhouse, Tsuki almost laughed aloud. Kageyama's clenched fists and flush-on-pale face had confirmed it. And it was so easy!
All he needed now was to figure out how specifically to attack his majesty's secret, carrot-topped weak spot and make sure that this time, when Kageyama’s crown was knocked off his head, he was left kneeling for good.