Tsukishima x Female!Reader: Difficult

Tsukishima Kei x Kageyama Tobio’s Sister! Reader

... Kageyama Tobio, also known as the King of the Court and your brother.

You quietly opened the door to be greeted with the sight of a ball rapidly flying sideways as Hinata failed to receive it. You noted that despite all the practice and his improvements, receives were still a part of his weakness.

"Bend your legs more!" your brother barked. Judging from his tone and the extremely pronounced scowl on his countenance, you deduced that they had been at this for a while. However, you doubted that at this particular practice they had worked on this skill for hours, the amount of time your had spent while waiting for your brother.

The unfamiliar sound of your luggage wheels hitting the wooden floor echoed in the gym and gained everyone's attention. Everyone was shocked to see you as you were supposed to be far away, yet there you were, strolling to the benches and taking a seat in the middle of practice as if it were the most normal thing. You nodded towards the Ukai, the Takeda-sensei, along with Yachi and Kiyoko.

"I'm waiting for Tobio to finish practice," you explained in response to their wide eyes and slacked jaws.

"What happened? I though you were flying back today," Yachi exclaimed as she went to your side.

"I did. Tobio was supposed to pick me up," you confirmed, pausing before adding, "But you know where he's actually been." Your tone held no form of malice or irritation, nevertheless if one looked close enough, they would see that your lips were pressed together tighter than usual.


The setter's acute sharpness displayed on the court was rarely seen outside of it, but you were the exception to this. Though people complained that your neutral expression was difficult to read, your emotions were blatant to your brother. This was due to an amalgamation of things that were currently paying off as Tobio noticed your annoyance and fatigue despite your emotionless face.


"I'm sorry (Name)," he stated sincerely. The setter had a vague memory of your mother reminding him of your return, but his mind was volleyball driven and the upcoming tournaments and skills to perfect were what occupied his mind.


"It's fine, I expected this," you said calmly as your words spoke for themselves. They bit into your brother, but they rung with truth, so he had no words to defend himself. You gave him a single nod and he went back to practice.


"The stupid King forgot the princess," Tsukishima remarked. The blond was aware of the onyx-haired volleyball player's idiocy, yet this took the cake. This irked the middle blocker and caused venomous statements to linger on his tongue, to be released at a moment's notice. Said sentences were voiced throughout practice and the heat of the flames surrounding the two was noticed by everyone.


Practice couldn't end soon enough, and it seemed miraculous that your brother hadn't exploded like a volcano, though there was the occasional flare. The first year setter held back a guttural growl as he headed towards you, still leering at Tsukishima.

"Let's go," you stated and he responded with a grunt. On the way home a thick air hung between you two, but at least Tobio was now carrying your luggage. Your brother struggled to fabricate the proper words to say to you and finally decided upon them once you had arrived at home.


"I'll make it up to you," Tobio promised as he met your steely gaze with his determined one.

"Just stay on the court, that's enough." Your eyes softened as his blueberry orbs gleamed with understanding and relief. Despite this incident, you couldn't maintain your irritation, something your sentence conveyed.

Seeing your brother grow into the proud setter he is today, you knew how much the sport meant to him. Now he was at Karasuno, the team which was the best for him, proven by how the scars of middle school began to fade and his amelioration. All in all, you were content for him and wanted him to continue to be in his second home, the court.

Tried from the travel, you went from one motion to the other automatically in order to lie in bed as soon as possible. Once you could, you fell onto your bed and succumbed to your fatigue. Your slumber was undisturbed, ensured by your exhaustion.


The next day you entered class to see Tsukishima saying an overly blunt statement to a fellow classmate, a usual occurrence. Given their nature, the student reacted in anger and left in a huff. You had discovered, first hand and through your brother, that the middle blocker didn't get along well with those who had short tempers and got fired up too easily, resulting in his slew of insults and actions to convey his disdain.


People who have issues socializing were not novelty to you. Your brother was the dictating king, Kageyama Tobio. His smile sent shivers down people's spine, and that's if he even decided to smile. Compliments did not easily fall from his lips and a scowl could constantly be found on the setter's visage. His personality provided many difficulties, his middle school volleyball team could attest to that fact. Even though it had improved once he joined Karasuno, the boy was still awkward.

However, being his sister, you had accepted this and grown accustomed to it. His quirks became normal, and his awkwardness wasn't difficult to overcome. He wasn't the easiest to socialize with, but he was hardly the most difficult either, similar to a student who constantly wore headphones that you were acquainted with.


You were surprised when Tobio started hanging out with Hinata, an energetic ball of sunshine, but discovered that their love of volleyball was the glue in their friendship. They had traits of which starkly contrasted, yet their friendship worked. This reminded you of a duo that in your college preparation class, Yamaguchi Tadashi and Tsukishima Kei.


Yamaguchi had his insecurities whereas Tsukishima was bold and confident enough to criticize others. Nevertheless, they were friends, and some argued that Yamaguchi was Tsukishima's only friend, besides you. Not many were able to withstand the blond's sharp tongue, but you logically analyzed and took his words into account. Your brother didn't explain his emotions clearly most of the time, so you had grown accustomed to not taking every word as an insult and looking for the true meaning behind them.

The day you first met Tsukishima was still easy to recall. Being first years, it was only a matter of time before partner work was assigned even if this was the college preparation class.


"Tsukishima Kei and Kageyama (Name)," the teacher listed. Your head shifted to look at your partner who had clicked his teeth. As your eyes met his narrow liquid pools of gold and saw the contortions of his facial features, you knew he wasn't pleased with match. This did not surprise you as you were aware of his relationship with your brother.


An awkward silence ensued as you moved to his desk. Tsukishima glared at you, which you returned with a poker face. The air felt uncomfortably heavy and made you nervous. The condescending expression never left his visage as he analyszed you.


"Do you have issues being my partner?" you inquired, no longer wishing to avoid the subject. The partnership would only last the duration of this class but he still seemed peeved.

"I don't want to spend time with you, you're probably just like the King," the blond said with disgust evident in his voice. You paused for a second as your lips twitched but then remained in a neutral position.

"Why?" you asked.


"What?" the blond questioned.


"What makes you think I'm exactly like my sibling?" you clarified.


"Both of you have an unfriendly face," Tsukishima pointed out.


"Is that all?" you asked in an even tone, seemingly unaffected by his comment.


"You're both ugly," he added, disliking your lack of reaction. You hadn't broken eye contact, showing that you heard his insult but didn't dignify it with a response.


"We have differences," you countered quietly. More feelings swirled within you, yet your mouth refused to convey them, so that short sentence would have to do.


"Tch," he scoffed as the blond. Unlike your brother, Tsukishima's words weren't enough to rile you. Much to his surprise, you didn't seem to contain an ounce of Tobio's short-fuse, but the middle blocker was definitely going to confirm if this was true or not.

As the assignment went on, another undeniable difference between the Kageyama siblings popped up, level of intellect. You had no issues following Tsukishima's pace while contributing a fair amount of work and being unfazed by the complex vocabulary. If he ever questioned your ideas, you were able to defend them with logic and reason or civilly concede and drop them, all while ignoring his rude words.

The work was eventually finished, but the blond wasn't done with you. The two of you continually talked, sometimes about mutual interests, class, and such. Despite the common topics, your conversations were filled with cruel comments, riling statements, and snide remarks from Tsukishima, but they were always met with your cold responses. Not a single sentence managed to actually upset you no matter how hard the middle blocker tried. Once you found out the poisonous words were simply to elicit a reaction, through asking Yamamguchi, learning more about Tsukishima, and rationalizing his actions, they had even less of an effect.

The blond was dumbfounded for once. Tobio immediately reacted to his comments, whether with begrudging acceptance or spewing rage, whereas Tsukishima had difficulty causing any major changes in your facial features or any significant emotions to leak into your tone. He received the occasional slight rise in your eyebrow, pauses while you processed his statement, or subtle sighs, but nothing as nearly ardent, borderline belligerent at times, responses he got from your sibling.

Eventually when you talked to each other, Tsukishima's sole purpose was no longer to see your countenance filled with emotion. An acceptance and liking for one another had formed along with a friendship, to the bewilderment of many. Time passed yet no one suspected that there was a possibility for your relationship to morph into something else, but your silent blossoming attraction that proved them wrong. Tobio noted your more pleasant attitude but didn't comment on it.

Why would you fall for Tsukishima? Everyone knew Tobio had great game sense and a mind constantly thinking about the game, yet Tsukishima shared the same trait even if it wasn't praised as much. His amber orbs caught the movements on the court and his skills were displayed in his numerous successful blocks. This was just one more thing that added to your liking of him. However, even you weren't immune to his toxic tongue.

Stapled pieces of paper were returned to the students, a recent test. You tensed as each one was placed onto the desk; it was as if you were waiting for the court to decide its verdict. You stare at the diminishing pile of paper as the teacher comes closer. Winces, sighs of relief, bitter smiles, and sincere grins, all of them told about how the student felt, but you worried what expression would fit you once you saw your mark.

Most of the time, you were confident in your skills not because you were a genius, but because you put genuine hard work into them. However, this subject had caused you to struggle like no other. The meaning behind lessons became garbled in your head.  You reviewed the material constantly, but you couldn't help but feel behind everyone. During the test, some questions had definitely stumped you and there were answers you weren't confident in.

Once the papers which held the sum of you knowledge were dropped onto your desk, your heart rate sky rocketed, especially when you saw the blur of red. Gingerly, you flipped over the test and looked at the mark. Your shoulders slumped and your teeth clenched as you struggled to contain your disappointment. You poured all that time and effort, yet all it resulted in was a mark you'd like to hide. Glaring rose red ink marred your test, even though they technically pointed out how to improve, they practically taunted you as they displayed all of your errors.

You became absorbed by negative thoughts as forlorn wrapped around your circulatory organ. The people around you began to fade away and even the ringing bell became nothing but background noise. Your awareness of your surroundings disappeared as you were overwhelmed by the results. When your test was snatched away, your head immediately whipped to see who it was. You ripped the paper out of his hands, but it was already too late.


"Looks like some idiot that doesn't belong in this class failed the test," Tsukishima remarked snidely. Your eyes widened. The words of which fell so easily and effortlessly from his tongue pierced through you. His comment was met with silence as you struggled to gather the words necessary to express yourself. Rather than acknowledging his insult with words, you ran away.


The devastation swirling in your eyes and your curled fists that trembled slightly informed the middle blocker that he had finally accomplished visibly upsetting you, the ice princess. Instead of feeling victories, a ping of guilt spread through his body. Nevertheless, he left you alone to wherever you had darted of too.

Tears welled in your eyes, but you forced them to balk at least until you reached the bathroom. It felt so pointless to cry over a test; nevertheless Tsukishima's jab had hurt you. You continuously wiped droplets of salty water off your face, yet they would quickly be replaced. You attempted taking breaths in order to calm yourself.


"Tsukishima-kun always insults people," you reasoned, "This isn't anything new."


"H-he does it to everyone," you added.


"I-I... I'll do better next time!" you said to try to convince yourself, but the crack in your voice broke the façade.


You had studied so hard for it, but it came back with numerous scarlet correction marks. Of course, you couldn't master the subject in one go and you would learn for next time, but the agony was still coursing in your veins. His sentence doused your wounds in salt. It wasn't just his words, but that they came from the blond, someone who you respected and began to grow feelings for.

Your brain raced with thoughts, but slowly things began sorting themselves in your mind. Knowing that no one was coming to console you along with the fact that crying wouldn't solve your problems, you began implementing different calming techniques. Counting to ten, taking deep breaths, closing your eyes, you did whatever it took to quell your tempestuous feelings. Your sniffling ceased and the tears no longer flowed. However, your face, specifically your eyes, showed clear signs that Tsukishima's comment hurt deeply.

You began splashing water into your eyes to reduce the redness while others entered the bathroom. No one said anything, but they paused as they watched your odd actions. Their stares were unnerving, so you quickly darted into a stall and closed your eyes. Once they left, you began splashing water into your eyes again. This process repeated multiple times until you only looked slightly fatigued rather than someone who had just been crying over a close friend's insult.

Your confidence may have been tattered, but no one needed to know that. Even though Tsukishima's words were like vultures that ate at your self-esteem, their injured victim, nobody would see that. The failure was suffocating, yet on the surface you seemed to be breathing fine. You'd get better, for now you just had to survive the day.

You went home the minute the bell allowed you to and finished the day in a robotic manner, keeping your emotions locked up inside as they numbed and froze over. You knew you had to review the material at some point, but today you just couldn't find the strength to do so today. Your resolve would return later, but for the remaining hours you'd wallow in your failure.

You lay on your bed after dinner, lacking any real motivation to do anything. Your bleak stare was met the bland ceiling as thoughts swam in your head. Tobio barged in your room and you immediately sat up.

"You okay?" he questioned bluntly. You blinked a couple of times, and then nodded your head in confirmation. His trademark scowl started to form since he didn't believe you. Nevertheless, your brother wasn't going to push you as he noticed your eyes had become a red they weren't in the morning.

"Thank you though," you said quietly. The setter was about to turn around and leave when you impulsively hugged him. Your arms latched around his torso as you buried your face in his chest. Your brother stiffened from the unusual contact with his cerulean orbs taking the shape of tea cup saucers. He froze for a couple of moments before awkwardly placing his arms around your form in a clumsy attempt to return the hug.

You stayed like that for a while, needing to destroy the pathetic loneliness that surrounded you. You inhaled your brother's familiar scent while gripping onto his clothing tightly. Your brother's presence and touch helped keep you grounded. His steadily beating heart aided to calm your erratic one consumed by disappointment. Once you truly felt calm, you wordlessly let go and met your brother's gaze to reassure him you were fine now. He left to his own room, and you collapsed in bed and soon caved into fatigue.

The next day you went to school, yesterday's odd anomaly forgotten as soon as your peers saw your cool expression. Class went on and the pain you felt yesterday had dulled, yet you didn't speak a word to Tsukishima lest his words open the wound once again. Your avoidance of him didn't last long though, since he approached you directly at the end of class.

"We're studying now," he stated as if this wasn't the first time you'd heard such plans. His past stinging sentence still echoed in your mind and your jaw clenched.

"Why?" You could be failing every single subject but you still didn't expect the blond to ever help you out, even anything that could be remotely considered encouraging was coupled with hurtful adjectives.

"We both saw your mark, you need help," he stated, exasperation lacing his tone.

"So, you're going to help me?" you clarified. As the words left your mouth, the whole idea sounded more ridiculous.

"No wonder you did so poorly on the test, you can't even understand having a tutor," Tsukishima remarked.

"Fine, let's go," you conceded, no longer wanting to have to face his barrage of attacks on your self-esteem. You followed him to a table big enough for the two of you. He cracked open a text book along with his own notes. The content of which you'd gone over so many times yet failed to comprehend looked dreadfully familiar yet foreign in a vexing way.

While you expected a rather useless review, his teaching clicked perfectly in your brain. His concise explanations resonated with you so well that it made you wonder why you had difficulty with the material in the first place. You steadily understood why you had gotten all of those errors on the test and knew you'd avoid them next time.

You began re-doing some of your homework independently, yet still under your new tutor's watchful eye. At first, you fumbled with your answers and were criticized for so, but with each question you improved. The amount you were getting correct greatly outweighed the incorrect ones and the mistakes you made were much more minor. Joy bubbled within you and took form through the shape your lips made.

When he saw your smile, the middle blocker was shocked. The first year setter's grin, which Tsukishima wondered if the monstrosity could even be classified as that, looked like that of an imp's that was dragged out of the depths of hell. The awkward contortions of facial muscles were so horrendous that it resulted in a fit of laughter or visible cringing for anyone who saw the creature. It wasn't even a grimace; Tobio's attempt at a smile was beyond that. His lips curved upwards as if testing to see how far they could go while forcing his eyes into devilish crescents.  

So when Tsukishima saw your angelic smile, he was floored. You were focused on the paper as you avidly wrote down answers, so you didn't notice his widen eyes and how close he was to being slack-jawed. Your lips turned upwards in a graceful manner that displayed your euphoria without squishing your orbs. Your soft grin emitted a serene aura and looked like it belonged in a commercial rather than to the sister of someone's who smile was more demonic than the psychopaths in horror movies.

A strangled noise escaped his throat and your eyes rose to check on your tutor. Your smile began to fade from your visage and the content dancing across your pools was dampened by worry. You had heard various things from Tsukishima, mainly scoffs, but this was one was new.

"Are you okay?" you inquired with concern even if it didn't appear on your countenance.

"Tch, if you finally get the answer right on the first try I will be." You shook your head and continued to work on the questions at hand. While the blond had hurt your feelings, he had solved your problem. This was the kind of push you knew you needed in your life. Sugared words sounded pleasant to the ears but they didn't fix anything. Now you finally understood the subject and the jumbled concepts were as clear as day.

Being friends with Tsukishima was hard, but falling in love with him was even more difficult. Yet, like all things worth while in life, he was a challenge, one you were willing to take on.


Extended Ending


After the successful study session, you headed home. Rather than being greeted with the scent of dinner cooking, your nose was attacked by an acrid smell. Your eyes widened when wisps of gas escaped from the kitchen. You dropped your belongings and immediately went to the source of the disaster.


You had assumed a fire had started in the kitchen, so when you saw your brother, wearing a childish apron and oven mitts, hacking away while holding a pan, you stayed still. Luckily, flames weren't threatening to engulf the house, but the smoke intended to swallow both of you. You covered your mouth and nose with your forearm and turned on the fan.


The whirling blades consumed the awful scent and cleared the kitchen. Unfortunately, the sight didn't look any better. Equipment was scattered across the kitchen, an odd dust covered the table, ingredients were strewn over the counter, and some kind of goo had spilled onto the floor. This place was the epitome of a mess.


"What are you doing?" you inquired with narrowed eyes. It was quite rare for your brother to attempt to create a dish and your brain failed to come up with a reason as to why he'd do so alone.


"It doesn't matter," he grumbled and glared. Tobio set the pan down and muttered a rather colourful assortment of words as he scowled at its contents. The onyx haired boy took off both mitts and threw them at the counter on one of the few spots that was still clean. When you peered at the contents of the pan, the gears in your mind moved quickly.

"Were you trying to make (favourite dish)?" you asked. The ingredients laying haphazardly everywhere were the ones used for that dish, and the substance in the pan vaguely reminded you of the shape. The appearance was kind of similar if you imagined your favourite food burnt to a crisp.

"Yeah," the setter admitted sheepishly as he stared at the ground. He gritted his teeth as not only had he failed to make the dish but had a gigantic amount to clean as well. You exhaled, and for the second time that day, a sincere smile was on your face. The whole idea was endearing and cute. You shook your head slightly and started to clean the counters.

"H-hey!" your brother stammered as he cheeks flared. It almost felt like you were laughing to him, regardless Tobio put back the ingredients with a bit of scowl. However, even his expression couldn't be too bitter when you grinned so brightly.