AU in which you and Tsukki are competing violinists at a prestigious music academy!
Requested by @fangirlingcabbage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You covered your mouth as it opened wide to release a long and drawn out yawn before reaching for your cup of coffee and taking another sip to help you stay awake through what seemed like an everlasting night. Upon checking the clock, you saw that it was only 1:30am.

Ughhhh... how the hell am I gonna last all night if I'm ready for bed now?! you thought with frustration.

You put your coffee cup down again and picked up your violin, placing it underneath the side of your chin as you flipped through your sheet music  on the stand near you with your other hand. Just as you were about to start practicing your solo again, you were interrupted by the sound of the auditorium door opening followed by gentle footsteps.

Since you were sitting on a stool on the stage in front of an audience of empty chairs, you could clearly see the tall figure that entered. As he neared the stage, you instantly recognized his blonde hair when the light shone on it, as well as the familiar sparkle that emanated from the lenses of his glasses when the light caught them.

Your heart skipped a beat and you lowered your violin slightly as you called, "Tsukki?"

He responded to your call with his familiar, amber-eyed gaze and slight cock of the head, and you could practically hear a reply laced with sass before the word, "What?" left his mouth.

"What brings you here?" you asked as you watched him walk over to the front row and set his backpack and violin case down.

"I'm a student here too."

"I know that, idiot; I'm asking why you are here in this auditorium at 1:30am," you clarified.

He sighed gently and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose slightly as he unpacked his violin and necessary equipment. "Because I knew you'd be here," he stated, making your heart jump and then drop when he continued, "And I needed to tell you that I caught word that one of our fellow classmates is going to perform the same song as you are in—" he paused and checked his watch— "seven hours."

You felt your face burn with anger. "What?! Who is it?!"

"Inuoka. He changed his song choice last minute and our professor, being the asshole he is, let him pick one that had already been selected by none other than you," Tsukki explained.

"Ah, fuck that guy."

"So," Tsukki started again as he set up his stand and walked up onto the stage, "If you want to win the professor over, I highly advise you to either pick a different song—"

"But I chose it first!"

"Or!" Tsukki spoke with irritation, "Absolutely perfect your rendition of this song. If there's gonna be anyone who's competing for real against me, I want it to be you and not him."

His eyes locked with your (e/c) ones for a moment before he resumed getting his things together so that he could practice as well.

You let out a short sigh before looking over your sheet music with dismay. Now, there was an unbelievable amount of pressure on you. Not only did you have the same, unrelenting desire to beat Tsukki, but you had the additional and unwanted task of making your version of this song sound better than that spiky-haired brat's version.

Ever since you and Tsukki had met at Karasuno, the two of you had been best friends after he got over his reluctance to hang around someone new and give friendship with you a chance. While in high school, you'd both learned about each other's passions for playing the violin, which made your friendship a strong, but competitive one at the same time. When you'd both applied for auditions at the same music academy, the competition between the two of you had increased, but, unbeknownst to one another, you'd each secretly willed the other to succeed so you could both go to school together for the next four years.

Once you'd both gotten in, you and Tsukishima found each other constantly competing even more so than you had before, since you were often in the same music classes together and the school loved to pit students against each other in a musical bloodbath. Even though he was technically your rival, you still couldn't get past the fact that you enjoyed every moment you spent with him and that you had started to develop feelings for him. From your perspective, your best friend seemed totally unaware that you harbored any romantic feelings for him, and you constantly reminded yourself that it was better that way.

You snapped out of your thoughts when you heard the familiar echo of Tsukki's voice emanate from nearby. "You can't go brain dead on me here, (f/n), you've got to keep up with your competition."

You nodded slowly and repositioned your violin before taking a deep breath and starting at the beginning of the sheet music for about the thousandth time that night as you prepared to repeat the process a thousand more times.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later on that morning, after taking an hour long nap back at your apartment on campus to let your brain take a rest and being rudely awoken by Tsukki knocking loudly on your door, you found yourself sitting in class next to him. You were sure you'd be struggling to stay awake if it wasn't for the nervous tension and morning coffee that was making you jittery out of your mind.

Your tapping fingers were brought to a halt when a surprisingly warm hand covered yours, making you look over at the owner. "Chill out," Tsukki commented simply before taking his hand off of yours once it was still.

You blushed wildly and you could've sworn that you saw a bit of red dust his cheeks as you both looked away. "Easy for you to say," you muttered. Tsukki was the professor's favorite.

"You'll be fine."

You weren't used to hearing such soothing words from him, so you took what he'd just told you to heart and used it to reassure yourself of your talent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After your mistake-free and absolutely perfect performance, you let out a long sigh of relief and bowed before your class before returning to your seat. As you sat down, you watched Tsukki stand up and walk to the front of the classroom with that dignified and confident stance and stride of his. You were sure he was going to win.

But when he began his performance, you noticed him struggle at some parts of his song. You'd noticed that he'd picked a very complicated song to play because he'd wanted to push himself, and he was doing a brilliant job compared to how most of the other students would've done, but he was still having difficulty none the less. However, Tsukki, being the person he is, forced himself to push through the song and simply shrug off any mistakes he made since that would be more beneficial to him than starting over and sounding choppy.

Once he'd finished, you and your fellow students applauded loudly for him as he bowed and made his way back to his desk.

When it was time for the professor to pick the winner, he called Tsukishima's name and made him stand up so he could give him feedback and explain to everyone why he'd won.

"Professor," Tsukki spoke boldly once the man had finished speaking, "I mean no disrespect to your decision, but I don't think I should be the winner here. I made too many mistakes in that song and I made a stupid decision to choose a song that was too advanced for me at this point in my career."

The professor raised his eyebrows and asked, "If not you, then who?"

Your best friend looked over at you and pointed at you. "(F/n). She worked a lot harder than I did and performed her song without making any mistakes. She honestly did way better than I did."

Everyone's eyes were on you as you stood up tentatively, clasping your hands together tightly as the professor accepted Tsukki's resistance to being crowned the winner and his nomination, and beckoned you to the front of the class to commend you and talk to you privately as the other students in the class filed out of the hall.

After speaking with you, the professor quickly took his leave to rush off to another class, leaving you to pack up your things. You could feel your heart pounding with joy as you thought about what had happened, and you were so full of emotion towards Tsukki that when you saw him standing next to your desk, you grabbed his face and pressed your lips against his.

Once you realized what you were doing, however, you quickly pulled away from him and looked at him with wide eyes as you felt your entire being burn with shock at what you'd just done. "Tsukki, I'm so—"

He cut you off by leaning back down towards you and kissing you again, making your worries melt away as you wrapped your arms around each other and held one another close.

"Thank god you did something. I was getting impatient with you," you heard Tsukki murmur as the two of you broke away and hugged each other tightly.

"Well thank god you told the professor that I was the real winner or else none of this would've happened and I probably would've ignored you for a good week and a half," you replied, chuckling softly when you heard him do the same.

There was a long silence as you enjoyed each other's warmth and comfort before pulling away so that you could pack up your things.

"Thanks for having my back, Tsukki," you said gratefully and gave him a smile that secretly made his heart skip a beat.

He let out that signature scoff of his as he shook his head slightly and looked into your eyes with his attractive, amber gaze:

"Tsk... after all this time you're just now realizing that I've always been rooting for you."