Work Text:
The blazing sun and an over packed crowd meant another normal day on the beach. Children screaming, dogs running everywhere, sunburnt people, sandcastles and neck-breaking pits, dogs pooping everywhere. Everyone thinks it’s heaven on earth, everyone but Tsukishima. For Tsukishima it was hell.
“Your iced tea.” He announced as he placed down the beverage on the couple’s table. They thanked him and Tsukishima was fast to turn around and immediately walk back inside, into the only place that wasn’t a hellhole.
The cool air of the air conditioning welcomed him. Fewer people were present inside the beach restaurant compared to the terrace outside. From the outside the place looks bigger than it actually is. The reason why is probably because of all the big useless interior that is dropped in every nook and granny.
The boss was responsible for this poor of an excuse room decoration. Tsukishima was surprised at first when he had met her. She radiated a strict and composed aura but apparently she had a knack for collecting random items. So far the stuff that the boss had brought into this place are the following: a giant bear statue, diverse cuckoo clocks, lava lamps, oh god the lava lamps, and last but not least; a led advertising board.
It was weird for a beach restaurant to have a led advertiser circled around the building, but judging the profit that was made after installing the device you could say that it had attracted people like moths towards light. The text the device displayed was simple, standardized salesman talk. Once or twice a week it is changed into something else.
The one responsible for the usage of the led advertiser was none other than Tsukishima, his boss claiming that he would be perfectly fit for it. Being in charge of the machine wasn’t a bad thing. The controls were easy, at least in Tsukishima’s case they were, and the control panel is situated in the storage room, a sacred place with silence, in comparison with the break room that is.
“Oh Tsukishima! Good timing.” Ennoshita, Tsukishima’s co worker, beckoned him. The man held the position of bartender and you could say that Tsukishima was jealous about that. Bartenders don’t have to interact with as many people as waiters do and they get to stand inside where it’s cool. All that aside, Ennoshita was as person kind and supportive; he was one of the few people who has Tsukishima’s respect.
“I just received the new text for today’s alteration.” Ennoshita said as he held out the small card. With a soft thank you Tsukishima took it out of his grasp. The text made Tsukishima facepalm mentally but he placed it in his front pocket of his shirt anyway.
At that moment Tanaka walked in with a hurried pace.
“Ennoshita! Two beer, three cola and one vanilla ice cream.”
“Roger!”
While Ennoshita prepared the order, Tanaka took place next to Tsukishima. He shoved his hands in his back pockets and hunched over a bit, taking on a strong yet relaxing position before barking towards Tsukishima.
“And what are you dilly-dallying around for, Tsukishima.” Said person was expecting the comment, however it turned out Tanaka’s word choice made him snort.
“Dilly-dallying.” Tsukishima repeated under his breath while covering his grin with his hand.
Tanaka leaned more towards Tsukishima, trying to come over as intimidating.
“Huh!? What, you wanna go, you-”
“Order ready.” Ennoshita interrupted. Tanaka was quick to let Tsukishima’s behaviour slide and took the tray outside in the same hurried speed as he had entered with.
“How can he walk around in this heat without breaking a sweat?”
“Maybe hotheaded people are immune to it?” Ennoshita added before shooing Tsukishima back to work. He complied with a disgruntled sigh.
Tsukishima loosened his bowtie and opened his collar a bit. ‘Screw formalities’ He thought. The warm air surrounded him as he stepped outside. He wished the day would be over soon.
The sun started to settle down on the horizon. Altostratus clouds took over parts of the sky and a soft summer breeze carried them forward.
Tsukishima exited the storage room and threw away the paper note in the nearest trash bin. The led advertiser is on and going and he resumed his work as usual.
However, this time something was bound to happen. An aerial advertiser steadily grazed the evening sky. It wasn’t unusual for the small airplane to tuff above the coast however today’s message seemed to be very different from usual.
‘You light up the whole place, want to come over and light up mine?’ was what the banner said that was spun behind the vehicle.
Various people on the terrace started to laugh and took pictures of the object of their interest. Tsukishima only thought of it as some cheap line someone actually paid for to get it up in the sky.
He’d better think again.
From that day on, around the same time, the airplane flew by with more sappy messages. Some were even kind of flattering, not that Tsukishima would admit that out loud.
The messages weren’t as weird as Tanaka questioning Tsukishima’s opinion on the messages all the time.
‘Do you think that these things would actually win someone over?’
‘That’s a good one, right?’
‘Say Tsukishima, what would you do if someone was sending you these kind of messages to you?’
He should’ve seen it coming.
‘Heaven is a place on earth; it’s called “in your arms”’
Tsukishima shook his head and started to talk before Tanaka could ask his daily question.
“It’s strange.” He said as he looked at the vehicle make an U-turn right after it had passed the beach restaurant, to make it’s way back to where it came from.
“It is like the messages are meant for someone at this beach restaurant.”
“I knew you were smart, Tsukishima, but for you to catch on that quick!” Tanaka exclaimed.
“Why don’t you give a reply?” He nudged him suggestively. It took the blond a second to let it sink in and in result he stared at the latter with the look of utter shock and disgust.
“...What?”
The next moment Tsukishima is being pushed to the storage room by Tanaka.
“I can imagine you’ve never been picked up on before, so all I’m doing is pushing you into the right direction. I mean, I’m Yuu’s wingman afterall.” The older one gave him a last push into the storage room’s direction and turned away.
“I pity anyone for having you as their wingman.” He yelled at Tanaka’s retreating back.
Despite all the confusion, Tsukishima entered the storeroom. If they had planned on letting him answer to these messages, he might as well make the best out of it. Besides, he’s already happy that it wasn’t Tanaka who was behind these messages. Even though it is Tanaka’s friend, it’s not like he will treat him any different.
‘I’m sure it’s called ‘in your dreams’’ ’ was what Tsukishima answered through the led advertiser. He had let the message stay for a full minute before changing it back to what originally was displayed.
As soon as he walked back onto the terrace he was met by a laughing Tanaka. Apparently the pilot happened to be Tanaka’s friend, who happened to have interest in Tsukishima. Instead of confronting Tsukishima head on the pilot decided to take a different approach that would blow him away, at least according to Tanaka.
“Can’t wait to see how you will handle tomorrow’s message.” Tanaka commented as cheeky as possible.
“Don’t get used to it.” Tsukishima ended the conversation and shoved past the other, hoping he had made his point clear about the messages.
How wrong he was.
Day after day, the pilot visited the beach restaurant from above, flying with messages printed on banners that gracefully fluttered behind the airplane. Tsukishima would be down on earth, reading the messages with a certain eagerness and answered in a way that could be called teasing. His messages would blink from the led advertiser, sometimes with a nice color if he felt like it, and once the pilot got his reply he turned the vehicle around to make way back home.
“You two sure are having a lot of fun.” Ennoshita commented once Tsukishima returned back inside after looking at the small airplane disappear with the setting sun behind the horizon.
Tsukishima scoffed.
“There’s not much to it. It’s only me commenting on someone’s messages and not some sort of conversation. Besides, I don’t even know what he looks like. Tanaka refuses to show a picture of him because it would “ruin” the fun.”
“If you’re curious then you should meet him. Maybe he will be here after closing time.”
After closing time didn’t sound pleasant in Tsukishima’s ears. His shift finishes way before closing time and the times that he had to stay until late weren’t very good experiences. One time he had to kick out lost drunk partygoers, which resulted in one of them puking on him. Last time an elementary school student in costume kept on pleading for ice cream, not caring if it was after closing time or not.
Tsukishima didn’t stay after closing time. Home was where he went, away from all the happenings. It was like he was running away, away from the truth. Running from who the pilot really was. From how he looked like to how his voice sounded like. Of course Tsukishima was curious. Who wouldn’t when there is someone out there dedicating their time to you?
But there was something holding him back.
Even if he ended up meeting him, who says that things are going to change? Nothing might happen. The next day they could go their own way, as if the whole exchange hadn’t happened at all. This is what Tsukishima kept telling himself so he could stop having high expectations with this situation.
But as a new day passed by Tsukishima was met with a message he should’ve seen coming by now.
‘I want to meet you’
For the first time Tsukishima didn’t know how to respond to the message.
“Does this mean it’s time for the end battle?” Tanaka said as Tsukishima started to move away.
“Shut up. I’m putting an end to this.” Tsukishima walked back inside, lost in his thoughts. Too lost that he was in the storage room before he knew it. The decision was in his hands. Was he going to agree, or run away like last time?
No, he was going to keep his word.
‘Be here after closing time.’
He was going to put an end to this.
A new voice vibrated through the room. Tanaka seemed to be the one responding to the voice and it all became clear that the pilot was here. Tsukishima exhaled, grabbed his possessions and stepped out of the break room.
The voices became more clear. From the corner of his eye he could see them standing in front of the bar. Ennoshita laughed at Tanaka who gave a relatively short guy a noogie.
Tsukishima laid his eyes upon the short guy, clad in pilot uniform, with the bomber jacket and goggles. His cheeks and nose were red from being sunburnt and the outline of the goggles were still visible on his skin. A bit of dirt was smudged on his forehead, but was mostly covered by a tuft of hair.
It is him without a doubt.
Tsukishima dared to step into the room, finally catching the pilot’s attention. The little antic between Tanaka and the other came to a stop. The pilot quickly straightened his back.
“I’m Nishinoya Yuu, nice to meet you.”
“Why do you have to go so far?” Tsukishima went straight to the point.
“What?” Nishinoya replied confused. The bystanders took this as a sign to leave the two of them alone and retreated to the break room.
“Making those banners must have cost a lot of money and time. Why would you spend all that on someone you don’t know, stand alone even met yet?”
“Well, I’ve seen you quite a few times!” The pilot exclaimed. “The last time I saw you I was trying to get an ice cream, but you wouldn’t give me one because it was after closing time.”
Tsukishima racked his brain to find the event Nishinoya was talking about and….. oh. The elementary school student in costume who kept on pleading for ice cream after closing time.
“Yet you still give up precious time to deliver sappy lines by a plane?” Tsukishima questioned further.
“I just wanted to try something out before meeting y-”
“Then why didn’t you just walk up to me and start a conversation? How was I supposed to get to know you when you’re high up in the sky all the time?”
“Maybe I was afraid!” Nishinoya returned as fiercely as the other. He then continued in softer tone.
“You didn’t even look at me the first time we met! And then Ryuu started to describe what kind of person you were, and the only thing I could conclude about it was that you would flat out reject me. All I wanted was to at least have a chance to interact with you without being ignored. Maybe messages from a distance was the best option I could think of.”
After that both looked at the ground, walls, doors, as long as it wasn’t at each other. No one dared to continue the conversation onward, which means all that remained was silence. Not awkward, Tsukishima realized, instead it was more ...calming. It made him able to clear his thoughts and think about how stupid he’s been acting towards Nishinoya. He was in the wrong, not Nishinoya.
“How about we start over? I will listen to what you have to say, so give me your best shot.” It was the best that Tsukishima could think of as now. Nishinoya was quick to agree. It was then that Tsukishima realised he could have made a mistake.
“Kiss me if I’m wrong but dinosaurs still exist, right?” Nishinoya said with a cheeky grin.
Tsukishima went on autopilot and walked out of the building. The other’s grin fell and ran after him.
“Wait! Come on, you can say anything but please don’t walk away.” Nishinoya’s words stilled Tsukishima’s movements. He looked over his shoulder. Both their eyes made contact. It was quiet, but Tsukishima broke the silence as he sighed exhausted while pushing the brim of his glasses up.
“If I had a drink for every awful pick-up line that came from you, I would be drunk and you would look better.” He broke eye contact, knowing that the smaller one’s reaction would be offended or disappointed. In the corner of his eyes he caught Nishinoya smiling instead. A smile where his teeth were showing, his eyes closed and his nose scrunching up a little bit.
“Please don’t smile like that.”
This time Nishinoya did react offended.
“Why not?”
“It’s irritating me.”
‘’Irritating you? Why would-’’
“It’s irritating me that I am actually falling for you.” Tsukishima murmured. With that he left. Nishinoya didn’t follow him.
The next day when Tsukishima walked outside of the beach restaurant, he noticed how noisy it was. Everyone was pointing towards the sky. The sound of a motor chugging in the air confirmed his suspicions. Tsukishima dared to look up, but soon after he wished he had not.
‘Light of my life, wanna go on a date with me? - Yuu’
“I’m leaving.” Tsukishima stated and made his way back inside.
“But your shift isn’t over yet.” Ennoshita called from behind the bar with a knowing smile on his face.
“I don’t care, I’m done.” He said, retreating to the break room.
Although he had said that, he did stay.
That evening Nishinoya appeared again. This time with two feet on the ground, right in front of Tsukishima, awaiting his answer. It took him a couple of minutes to give his final answer. It definitely wasn’t a no.