It had been a long day for Yamaguchi; Tsukishima could tell. The teen's shoulders slumped more than usual, and he walked a step behind Tsukishima. He didn't try to speak very much, and his eyes started down at the ground, as if he were absolutely unable to look up. The blond had watched his friend during class, to check up on him every so often, and he was almost always looking out the window, his chin in his palm. When the teacher's voice would announce that he needed someone to answer a question, the brunette visibly tensed and turned his head to appear to be paying attention.

When it was time for lunch, Tsukishima could see Yamaguchi relax a bit, and it was almost like he had exhaled all of his worries. However, when he turned around, the taller boy could see that his friend was still troubled. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly, and his eyes were dull; he could see light bags underneath his eyes.

Yamaguchi offered Tsukishima a smile, and it was so painfully fake that all he got in response was a scowl and a soft 'stop that'. Letting hisshoulders droop, he bit his lip and followed the other boy.

"Sorry, Tsukki." he mumbled, his voice wavering.

Tsukishima sped up, walking a little faster towards their usual lunch spot-an isolated bench on the roof of the scool. When they arrived, he satdown and watched as Yamaguchi trudged along to sit down beside him. There wasabout two more inches of space between them than there usually was, and itpissed Tsukishima off. He hated this-he hated seeing his best friend in such an awful shape, and he wished that he were better with words and actions andthat he could help his friend with whatever it was he was going through.

He glanced away to clear his throat and began to speak, "What's up with you? There's obviously something wrong; you've been really dull all day."Yamaguchi's eyes widened slightly in surprise and he stared at Tsukishima, mouth open and unsure of how to respond. He knew that he didn't look like his normal self-he had been too tired to hide it-but he was shocked that Tsukishima had said something so straight-forward. His gaze wandered off, back to the gray concrete of the roof, and he let out a small sigh.

"My parents are working really hard, and I was trying to help them out, but it's just really...hard..." the brunette trailed off, biting his lip softly as he stole a glance back at Tsukishima.

The blond looked over at Yamaguchi and their eyes met. He held their gaze and slowly nodded his head, not breaking eye-contact with his friend yet. And then he saw it-the small quiver of the lip; the ever-so-slight scrunch of the nose, and the tears swelling up in his eyes. Tsukishima opened his arms up, albeit a bit awkwardly, and let Yamaguchi slide over and press his face into his chest and just cry. He cried silently, and he whispered to Tsukishima, explaining the entire situation; his lunch left forgotten on the other side of the bench.

While Yamaguchi cried, Tsukishima hugged him close, nodding his head slowly to indicate that he was truly listening. This went on for about five minutes, and then the freckled teen's cries died down, and it didn't take Tsukishima long to realize that his friend had fallen asleep. It didn'tsurprise him, really, with how tired he had seemed earlier that day.

Tsukishima gently moved them so that Yamaguchi's head was just on his shoulder so that he could eat his own lunch. The sound of a few voices became louder and louder, until the blond saw a small group of kids walking past them. One glanced over and paused upon seeing Tsukishima and Yamaguchi. He then pointed and laughed softly, getting the other students' attention and drawing it to the pair.

Tsukishima's face grew red and he looked away, feeling somewhat embarassed at being caught. However, when he heard one of his peers talking about Yamaguchi, his gaze became cold and cruel and his head whipped up quickly. He made eye contact with the boy and the boy froze, suddenly feeling nervous. After that, the group left them pretty quickly, and Tsukishima finished his lunch.

The bell rang, which woke Yamaguchi. He bolted upright and looked around, remembering everything that had happened. His gaze found tsukishima'sgaze and his face heated up slightly. "Ah, sorry, Tsukki, I-"

"'s fine, don't worry." The blond mumbled quietly and stood up. "You didn't eat your lunch though, so eat it before practice."

Yamaguchi smiled brightly and nodded his head, "Of course!" He stood and started to follow his friend back to clas, his eyes bright.

"You seem better than before. It's good. I don't like seeing you so down." Tsukishima's voice was quiet; shy.

A bright, happy grin broke out onto Yamaguchi's face. "Ah, so you really care about me, Tsukki?" His tone was teasing and he laughed.

Tsukishima clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever. Shut up, Yamaguchi."

"Sorry, Tsukki!"

ew this is gross im sorry i made it in like 15 minutes and i dont like it