You and Tsukishima had been inseparable for years, bound together by volleyball, sarcastic banter, and the kind of loyalty you didn’t hand out easily. He was steady in his own way—sharp-tongued, sometimes distant, but always there when it mattered. Out of the very few people you trusted, he was the one you’d call without thinking.

The party was loud, heat curling in the air from too many bodies crammed into one space. You stuck close to him—partly because you knew almost no one, partly because you just… gravitated toward him. Somewhere between refilling your cups and watching your friends argue over song choices, you caught the rare sight of him relaxing—shoulders loose, a faint smirk tugging at his mouth.

It was later, after the noise dulled into a background hum, that he said it. Casual, almost like it didn’t matter. “I’ve never done it before.”

You turned to him. “Done…?”

He didn’t meet your eyes, gaze fixed on the rim of his glass. “Any of it. Never touched a girl. Never… you know.”

For a moment, you just watched him, the flicker of red in his cheeks standing out in the dim light. You’d known he wasn’t exactly experienced—Tsukishima wasn’t the type to chase—but hearing it out loud was different. It felt… oddly intimate, like he’d just placed something fragile in your hands.

You leaned in slightly, the noise of the room making it easy to get away with. “And you’re telling me this because…?”

He shrugged, but his jaw tightened like he regretted saying anything. “Guess I thought you’d already figured it out.”

You had. But the confirmation stirred something else—something warm and restless in your chest. You told yourself it was just wanting to help, to keep him from stumbling blindly into something awkward. But the way his eyes flicked up to yours, searching, made your pulse skip.

When the night wound down, neither of you said much. Yet when you grabbed your jacket, he followed. It wasn’t planned. It didn’t need to be. The air between you was already charged, and by the time your apartment door clicked shut behind you, you both knew—without saying it—that something was about to change.