Work Text:
To: Tsukki ☾
7:05am
Tsukki!! Did you see that it snowed?
To: Tsukki ☾
7:05am
Come over later and we can make snowmen of each other!!
To: Tsukki
7:07am
!!! We can make it a competition!! Winner buys the other lunch!!!
From: Tsukki ☾
10:17am
That’s so stupid.
From: Tsukki ☾
10:19am
I’ll be there at noon.
***
“Hey, should I use twigs or leaves for his glasses?”
Tsukishima made a face. “ Leaves ? How would that even work?”
“I don’t know. I could use the stems or something.” Yamaguchi leaned back from his snowman, frowning. “It’s not exactly easy to make a Snow Tsukki, alright?”
Tsukishima spoke from behind his own snowman. “As if Snow Yamaguchi is any easier. Do you have any idea how hard it is to put freckles on a snowman?”
“Oh, it can’t be that hard,” he laughed. “Just use dirt or something.”
He leaned back and gazed thoughtfully at Snow Tsukki. He was - there was no way to put it nicely - hideous. The eyes didn’t quite match in colour, and they weren’t level, but he had had so much trouble getting them to stick in the first place that he’d decided just to leave it. He had also attempted to make Tsukishima’s trademark smirk out of a conveniently curved twig he’d found, but he’d placed it just too lopsided and he looked disfigured rather than smug.
At least he’d gotten the headphones right - but since he’d stolen them right from around Tsukishima’s neck, he didn’t think he could give himself too much credit for his creative genius.
Yamaguchi peered around Snow Tsukki to get a look at Real Tsukki for comparison. He was leaning back from Snow Yamaguchi, studying him critically the way he might look at a challenging math problem. He squinted, tilted his head to the side, widened his eyes, squinted again. He looked so focused , as if this were something of monumental importance and not just some dumb competition with his boyfriend. It was cute.
His gaze flickered up, over Snow Yamaguchi’s head, and he met Real Yamaguchi’s eyes. He raised a stupidly pretty eyebrow (seriously, how could eyebrows be that pretty?) and Yamaguchi felt the blood rush to his face.
“You’re staring at me,” Tsukishima said.
“Am I?”
“Yamaguchi.”
Yamaguchi laughed. “Sorry, Tsukki.” He frowned again at Snow Tsukki, and then picked up a long stemmed leaf from the ground beside him, twisting it into an approximation of glasses. “Is Snow Yamaguchi almost done? I think Snow Tsukki is as good as he’s going to get.”
“Mmm, almost.” He was still frowning. “Something’s missing.”
“Can I see?”
“No.”
“But maybe I can help -”
“Not until it’s finished.”
Yamaguchi sat back, pouting. He smoothed out a lump on Snow Tsukki’s cheek. Straightened his twig arm. Glanced up at Real Tsukki, who didn’t seem to have moved. Turned back to Snow Tsukki and realized he’d smoothed the lump too thoroughly and it had become more of a divot. Added more snow, knocked the entire head loose, caught it before it could fall to the ground.
“I’ve got it,” Tsukishima said suddenly. He knelt on the ground, digging around in the snow and the recently revealed dirt and finally emerging with a leaf. He stuck it into the top of Snow Yamaguchi’s head, looked at Real Yamaguchi, looked back at Snow Yamaguchi. He frowned, adjusted the leaf, and took three steps back to examine it in full. After a moment, he nodded.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s done.”
Yamaguchi bounded to his feet, grinning. “Nice, Tsukki!”
He settled himself next to Tsukishima to view his creation.
Snow Yamaguchi was… good . Really good. Infuriatingly good. The leaf sticking out of his head matched Real Yamaguchi’s cowlick perfectly in height and in placement. He was smiling, a huge, bright smile, and winking. The closed eye was made of a small, curved twig; the other was a pebble the exact shade of hazel as Yamaguchi’s own eyes.
“I couldn’t find two rocks that matched your eyes,” said Tsukishima. “So I made him winking. Even though I know you don’t know how to wink.”
“I do so know how! I’m just not very good at it.” To prove it, he squeezed his left eye closed, keeping the right one open as wide as he could manage. Which, unfortunately, was not very wide at all.
“That’s not a wink, Yamaguchi. You’re blinking.”
“I am not! I can see you, so it means my eye is at least a little bit open.”
“You’re blinking, and your mouth is all twisted up.” He was smiling. “Just accept that you can’t wink and move on.”
Yamaguchi stuck out his tongue, but opened his eyes. He looked back at Snow Yamaguchi, tilting his head.
“The freckles,” he said. “Are those made of-”
“Coffee grounds,” Tsukishima said. Yamaguchi noted the pride in his voice. “Dirt would have just sunk into the snow and turned his whole face brown.”
“Where did you even get coffee grounds?”
“I brought them from home this morning,” he said. “I knew when you texted me that I would need them.”
Yamaguchi shook his head. “Of course you would think about that, Tsukki,” he said fondly. “You’re always so prepared.”
Tsukishima’s cheeks turned faintly pink. Cute . “Of course I am. I play to win. Let’s see what Snow Me looks like.”
Yamaguchi made a face. “Or we could not.”
“He can’t be that bad,” said Tsukishima, stepping around Snow Yamaguchi.
The three steps around to Snow Tsukki were the longest, most excruciating steps of his life. After seeing how well Tsukishima had done, Yamaguchi almost didn't want to show his work.
Looking at him now, with Real Tsukishima beside him, Snow Tsukishima, impossibly, looked even worse . Yamaguchi hadn’t quite managed to fix his head back on properly; it was slightly lopsided, and there was a dent in the side where he’d had to catch it from toppling to the ground. The leaf glasses had come unstuck on one side, and were hanging half off his face.
“Wow,” said Real Tsukishima after a moment.
“Yeah,” said Yamaguchi.
“He’s…”
“Beautiful?”
Tsukishima snorted. “Certainly. A perfect likeness.”
“It’s basically a photograph.”
“He could pass as my long lost identical twin.”
“If we sent him out to live your daily life, nobody would notice until he started to melt.”
“Or until his arms got blown off by a volleyball.”
Yamaguchi imagined that for a second - Snow Tsukishima on the volleyball court, stick arms up above his head, being blasted across the gymnasium by Asahi’s spike. He laughed. “Okay, okay. He’s ugly and yours is way better. Happy?”
“Not especially. I’m wounded that you think I look like this.”
“Oh my god,” Yamaguchi laughed. “You know I’m no good at art.”
“You’re the one that suggested this. I don’t know how you ever thought you would win.” He reached out to adjust Snow Tsukki’s glasses; they stuck, but only barely. “There,” he said. “Now he’s not as bad.”
Yamaguchi grinned. “Does that mean I win?”
Tsukishima snorted. “Obviously not. He’s still really bad.” He put his hands in the pockets of his coat, rocking back on his heels. “I think I want ramen for lunch. From that place downtown.”
Yamaguchi sighed and bumped Tsukishima's shoulder with his own. “Fine. But you’re buying me hot chocolate on the way home.”
He almost smiled. “Deal.”