Archive of Our Own

In a world were soulmates were real, how far would you go to meet yours?
Well, that question was Nishinoya Yuu’s reality, and he had no idea of how to even start to answer.
He lived in a word where whenever you closed your eyes you saw the world through your soulmate’s eyes but where, to make it all a bit more difficult, you couldn’t see your soulmate’s face no matter how hard you tried. If you were to catch a glance of your soulmate face anywhere, you would just see your own staring back at you.

He was well aware soulmates weren’t inherently a romantic bond but that could also be platonic or a familial bond.
Hell, even his own household was a prime example of that fact. His mothers weren’t soulmates, his mom’s soulmate bond being a familial one with his little brother, and his mama’s a platonic one with her childhood best friend. The four of them being parents to Noya even if he called the soulmates “Uncle” and “Auntie”.

Noya just wanted to meet his own to know who the lucky person was just because.
Because he was never one for patience and staying still and just let destiny play with him as if he was a shogi piece.
He just had a lot of energy to use and a one track mind. Or ADHD. Whatever you wanted to call it.

The first time Nishinoya saw through his soulmate’s eyes, or at least the first time he remembered, he was six years old. And he remembered because one second he was hit with a football ball in his face and the next he was in a room drawing a dragon or a dinosaur, he didn’t know, crayons scattered all around the floor. Then, before he could even process anything, he was back in his school’s playground and people were surrounding him and asking if he was okay, which he was, and telling him he had been laying in the floor without opening his eyes for a almost half a minute.

That same day when he was back home, he couldn’t wait until his mothers were back home and he just ran and told the first person he saw, which turned out to be his Auntie. The woman smiled when he heard the story as she picked Nishinoya up and told him that that was a special moment but didn’t tell him what the moment exactly was, no matter how many times the kid asked, because she wanted his mother’s to be there to explain it to him.
And when dinner came around and all the family around the table, Auntie announced that Noya had something to tell all of them and so Noya retold the weird experience he had lived that morning addinga lot of exclamations and hand movements to express everything his words couldn’t.

Once he finished speaking, his mom was raising an eyebrow and looked at her wife, who was just smiling softly at their kid, so she was the one to explain what that meant.

- Oh honey… how do I start?-his mom said-You know about soultimes, right? And how you can see through their eyes?- she asked to which Noya nodded as an answer.
- Okay, then. So… what happened today is that you saw through your soulmate’s eyes for the first time. A first you won’t be able to control this and not every time you close your eyes will see through theirs but with time you will. -she explained, always making sure Noya understood everything as well as answering all of Noya’s question, the other adults there to assist her when she needed it.

From that night on, when Nishinoya went to bed he asked on of his parents to explain how they realized who their soulmates were and also asked his mothers to explain how they met and how they got together.
He also, started making plans to contact his soulmate and know who they were.

Terushima Yuuji was just a kid from the perfect couple, high school sweethearts who started dating even before realizing they were soulmates with a romantic bond. Married not long after they finished university, getting rather well paid jobs that allowed them to have a decent living and being blessed with a healthy kid two years into their marriage.
Terushima knew they story, all the ins and outs, it was his favourite. And so when he first saw through his soulmate eyes he knew what had happened and when he told his parents, they were both very happy for him.

He still couldn’t control when he saw through the other’s eyes, he was still six, but still he always saw strange stuff when he did so.
Like the time he saw his soulmate had weird drawings all over their arms in markers and pen and some papers scattered around them with some of the designs he had in the arms or some written lines he didn’t know what they meant.

And all during that first year of being able to see through his soulmate’s eyes and learning how to control it he had also seen questions written in the other’s arms.
Or that one time he saw his soulmate had bruised knees and instead of going to clean them like a normal person would have, they just circled the bruises and wrote the had fallen from “that one tree”. Other times they were “fighting my classmate bruise” or “being punched by that one mean senpai in second grade”.
Terushima really was worried that his soulmate seemed to get in so many fights and the only time he wrote in his own arms to ask why, was the time the other stopped writing names on the bruises, even when they kept appearing even if less and less every time, which calmed Terushima’s nerves a bit.

The written in arms disappeared over the of their second grade but were just replaced with messages written in post-its and papers in places Terushima thought were places his soulmate used to look at regularly, or so he guessed until one day when he closed his eyes to see what his weird soulmate was up to and he saw a paper with a message written inside the socks drawer where his soulmate had just opened.

Closing his eyes to see what his rather special and creative soulmate was up to and what ideas had they come up with this time became a little hobby of his. Terushima always wondered what the soulmate wanted to get from doing all this but either way he enjoyed the little moments.
Like that one time, he was in his dad’s car to go to school during third grade and he closed his eyes to rest a bit and he just found himself walking around some streets and just singing some song he recognized was the new opening from an anime airing on TV, an anime Terushima was very much into too. And when he opened his eyes again, he found himself singing the song too, only realizing he had started singing and laughing when his father shushed him.
Or when his soulmate was playing as if they were in Star Wars with sticks as lightsabers and his soulmate was asking why they couldn’t be a jedi knight too and when they were told no without more explaining than “you know why” the soulmate just said they were just afraid they would beat all their asses “to fucking hell and back”, Terushima liked how colorful his soulmate vocabulary was. He learnt most his curse words from them and he silently thanked them for that.

Terushima kept doing this until fourth grade.
It was at that time that he saw what the loss of a soulmate meant for a person.
He saw what losing her husband meant for his mother, how she couldn’t bare to close her eyes and just see darkness. How to cope with that she just poured all of her self and might to work and more work and activities outside of it, anything to keep her active and so she didn’t have reasons to rest or ever close her eyes again.

Terushima hated feeling so happy when he “visited” his own soulmate when he saw his parents suffer and so he promised himself he would stop closing his eyes to see what the other was doing at every given opportunity.
That promise didn’t last very long because even if he only “visited” his soulmate when he went to bed, he started doing so more. And while he enjoyed not being in his own body for some seconds or minutes at a time, he hated doing so knowing how not having one would feel and he hated himself for not being able to stop checking on his soulmate, he hated himself for always wanting the blissful experience not being in his body made him feel.

Years had gone by since his first plans and there had only been two times times his soulmate had actually replied.
Once when they asked why he fought so much. And the other when the other when his soulmate sang the same song as he just had. The latter made Noya realize his soulmate had great taste in animes if they too knew the lyrics to the new opening already. And that made Noya like them a bit more already.

And to answer the first question, Noya just kind of stop writing messages altogether. Not the brightest idea, but still, he was seven at the time.
He didn’t know why, he just didn’t like the stuff people called him and he had to prove them wrong. He just didn’t understand why they insisted on calling him a girl when he had told them he was not one. And when he told his family that he hated being called a girl, they just agreed to change schools to one where their kid was accepted.
Noya also stopped fighting every time someone insulted him, he knew who he was and people would have to fucking get used to it sooner or later.
He even joined the boy’s volleyball team in his new school to spite all those assholes and to show them he could play as good as them.

And damn right he did.
Last year of elementary school and he was offered a scholarship to attend Chidoriyama Junior High, a motherfucking powerhouse, while no one else in his team did. He laughed in the faces of the ones who thought he wouldn’t be able to play.

But not even with his volleyball trainings did he stop coming up with new ideas to make his soulmate recognize him more easily, like making his hair stand up in spikes (which had the pluss to make him appear taller, which was just a plus), or how during his first year of junior high he kept doing a weird pose and greeted his friends in special ways so if his soulmate heard him they’d knew it was him.
Or how he made sure his soulmate knew they played volleyball by wearing his volleyball uniform in his room, writing down in post-its when he had his matches and hoping his soulmate would go see him play.
He also never hided he was trans to his soulmate. Risky? yes. Did he gave a fuck? Not a single one. The soulmate would have to learn to deal with that or they could go fuck themself.

He also kept on checking how his soulmate was, and though some days he felt like he discovered nothing, others he observed little details that made him feel like what he was doing was slowly working. Most of the times it was little details like music they listened to, shows or books the enjoyed.
Other times, he discovered things that kept on shaping the image of his soulmate he had in his mind.
Like when Noya kept on not understanding what the teacher was going on about and so he began daydreaming in class. But when he realized, he wasn’t in his class anymore but in an advanced math class and even if he didn’t get a single word he was hearing, Noya continued on listening about graphs and equations and…
And nothing else, because in that moment the teacher from the class he was actually attending called him out on sleeping on class, it didn’t matter when he said he wasn’t, and his classmates laughed a bit about him being called out on his misbehaving. He just shrugged all that because he just realized his soulmate was, if not a straight up genius, very intelligent to be able to understand all that math talk that was like a foreign language for him.

One day during his last year of Junior High, Noya was going back home from a match they had lost, and he felt bad because it was his fault for not saving every ball that came his way. Not even the easy ones he would usually save. And to calm down during the ride back he just put on his headphones and used his mp4 to listen to some music so he wouldn’t be able to listen to his thoughts and hoped that he could just have a properly working brain for once.
And without even realizing he had closed his eyes and he wasn’t in the team’s bus anymore but in a teachers office explaining why they wished to switch teams and start playing in the masculine team instead of the feminine one, even if had done so for the two years of Junior High.
Noya thought he was just reliving his own experience until he heard Junior High and realized what he was actually seeing through his soulmate’s eyes.
Next second, Nishinoya Yuu was back at the Chidoriyama bus and the libero just hoped his soulmate felt he was sending them -or him too -Noya reminded himself- all his own strength and courage and that he hoped everything went perfectly.
That little scene also helped Noya’s mood to grow and he went from being irritated and overall crappy to cheerful with a side of chaotic hyperactivity.
He didn’t only get to know the gender of his soulmate but also he got to know the other was also trans, just like him.
Yes, with time Nishinoya realized he was genderfluid and that they/them felt as good as he/him, even better some days, but that didn’t erase the fact he was still trans as well, and he wore blue or white bracelets so people didn’t mess up the pronouns.

And so Noya , as soon as he got home, he wrote a note and hoped his soulmate would see him either write it or read it one of the many times he already knew he’d read it.
A note that said:

First of all, let me start by saying that I’m sorry i intruded in the moment but that I am so happy you were able to take that step to ask to play with the team you deserve to be playing with. You are pretty fucking brave just to be doing so and standing up for your rights.
By the way, I opened my eyes as soon as I realized I wasn’t reliving my own memory, even if I should have known because you handled it way more professionally than I did.
Like when I asked to play in the boys team all my parents were there fighting for me because I was just starting Junior High and 1)scared and 2)had already threatened to fight anyone who wouldn’t let me join.
Also, DON’T YOU DARE STOP PLAYING VOLLEYBALL BEFORE WE EVER FACE EACH OTHER!!!!

I’m so glad to know we have something else aside some music and stuff in common, even if it’s something like being trans. I mean, I’m actually genderfluid but still.
It’ll make it easier for when we meet, because of fucking course we will, because we won’t need to come out and all that stuff.
Also, it’s very sexy of us to be fucking trans and that’s just the t.
#sorrynotsorry for the pun, I had to get it out my chest.

Okay NOW I am really stopping with the puns, i just had to use the opportunity because hell yeah, you never know when will be the next time you’ll be able, y’know?

Back to the matter at hand, I’m really happy for you and i hope all your transition goes swiftly and, I know you probably didn’t, but I hope you somehow knew i was there with you giving all my support and courage. Not that this will ever stop, you’re stuck with me like it or not. Tough luck, I guess.
Who am i kidding? I’m a fucking delight to have around!

Oh yeah, before i forget and write whatever nonsense again!!
I’m letting you know I’m joining Karasuno High School because they let me join the masc. vb team no questions asked, which was very cool of them.
Also the boy’s uniforms were cool as fuck, and the girl’s were like super cute. No one will be safe from the huge bisexual disaster I am (more like I will be in a constant bi panic state, but let’s ignore that fact).

Your annoying soulmate who doesn’t know when to stop
Nishinoya Yuu

Was the note a tad too long? Yes. Did his ADHD take the control halfway through it? Absolutely. Did most of it make sense? Probably not but Noya had done his best.
He had also dared to write his name, which he debated on doing for like five minutes before thinking “fuck it, we’ve come so far, we might as well write it”

It wasn’t until three weeks later that Terushima actually saw the note his soulmate had written specifically for him.
It all happened because Terushima wasn’t really feeling well in class one day, but instead of going to the school’s infirmary like someone normal he decided to not disrupt the class and just rest there. And so, Terushima read and reread the note and reread it again to remember every single word of it, just in case he didn’t see it ever again. He found it so sweet and nice from his soulmate to take the time to write all that and explain everything as well and also joke about the thing they shared it common, Like, his soulmate straight up wrote “i’m genderfluid” with such ease and so unashamedly that made Terushima want to cry from happiness because Terushima was genderfluid as well, even if he told the school he was transmasculine so it was easier for them to accept. But his soulmate saying it like just a passing comment, a clarification of sorts, making it feel something normal and not something to hide which made Terushima feel incredibly light for a couple moments.
He probably laughed a bit and made his classmates and teachers concerned about his attitude, but he couldn’t care less in that moment.

Also, his soulmate wasn’t straight either? He was actually bisexual? He was pansexual himself, and so he totally understand the feeling of not having a damn clue and being in a constant panic whenever he was around hot people. Yes, he masked it with being the biggest flirt and with having a bit of a reputation of a fuckboy but in reality he didn’t have a damn clue of what he was doing when it came to attractive people, and even less when it came to love.
And he felt he had the right to celebrate the fact they were huge messes when it came to hot people.

But what surprised Terushima the most was the fact that his soulmate had signed the note with his name. Nishinoya Yuu.
Yuuji had to admit he did like how it sound and how it felt when he mumbled it just for himself.

Finally getting to know his soulmate’s name and that the person his soul was bound to wasn’t straight either, Terushima could have just started crying right there and then out of pure joy while wanting to yell the loudest “HELL YEAH!” in all his life.
And if he didn’t do so, it wasn’t because he had any kind of self restraint, because god knows he’s never had none of that, but because when people asked what the hell was all that about he would had to explain and he wasn’t ready to admit whatever that meant. He didn’t have the time to deal with that right then.

And so, his last year of Junior High came to an end and he spent the time just trying to prepare for high school as well as going one step further in his social transition by cutting his hair in the most fuckboy like style he could think off, and so he got an undercut and bleached his hair, and by god herself, didn’t that to make him look even hotter if he was allowed to say so himself.
He also got a tongue piercing and several ear piercings. He also started wearing black studs for when he wanted people to use masculine pronouns, golden ones when he wanted neutral ones, and one of each if it was a day where he didn’t care -yes, Teru took inspiration from the bracelets Noya wore because it was a system that seemed to work-, and this way and with time and once people got what the colors meant, people wouldn’t misgender him in accident.

And without Terushima actually realizing, spring came by again and with it the start of his high school experience.
People in Johzenji were amazing, everyone seemed to be very open minded and accepting and the color coded studs meanings was actually very quickly ingrained in everyone in Terushima’s friend circle, volleyball team obviously included.
Actually, it was with the volleyball team that Terushima felt he could be more himself and not be judged. Not only because Terushima already had better relationships with the teammates in that club than in any other team Teru had played before.

This realization had hit him due to two experiences he had gone through the first year of high school.
The first experience was when he had been wearing only black studs for a while now and he had a little accident and no one in the team made a big deal out of it, letting the managers take care of it. The girls being the most sensible people Teru had ever encountered so far and telling him to not be embarrassed to come to them for sanitary products or to tell them when he was in his period because the girls would always help him and give him any spare painkiller or sanitary product he needed. Terushima still didn’t know how he didn’t broke down crying right then because he was so embarrassed for what had happened but also so surprised the way his teammates handled it and grateful for the best managers he could have ever asked for.

The second one was a day they wore their golden studs again, and it was one of those days where if they were called anything but by they/them, Teru felt like shit. Still, they took a deep breath and prepared for a day for some people accidentally slipping, but hey it happens sometimes, so they just accepted it.
But somehow, even if Terushima said nothing about it, their teammates seemed to know they were having a dysphoric day but with enby feelings instead. And without even questioning it, the Johzenji volleyball team just started practice always using the correct pronouns, slipping a total of zero times, which made Terushima regain their usual energy way faster that it normally happened in days like this.
It also helped that the team weren’t only just Teru’s new friends but some kind of a second family too and always made sure Terushima was comfortable, that they didn’t train in a binder and that they took breaks and stretched and telling them “take care of yourself, you dumbass” when they didn’t.

And the teammates he shared year with were also the first people to whom Terushima explained everything about his soulmate, trying not to go into many detail and failing completely. His new friends calling him out on the huge crush he had been harboring on Noya, and teasing him when Terushima denied having one and just said he was more the flirting with everyone kinda guy and that he absolutely did not have crushes.

- Do I think Noya is a very sweet person and also fucking feral? Yes. Would I probably not know how to act if we met? Also yes. Have I daydreamed of how kissing them would feel? Yes. Do I like the boy? Yes.- Terushima started - But do I have a crush on him? Absolutely not.-Terushima concluded, his friends just rolling his eyes to let the wing spiker know how much they believed his words.

Still, despite the teasing, Terushima kept on keeping them updated on some of the things he saw when he looked through Nishinoya’s eyes throughout their time in school. And they even convinced him to tell Noya his name too.

During Nishinoya’s first year at Karasuno he had enough with his own stuff and everything that happened with the volleyball team and keeping up with his studies that he didn’t have enough time to keep up with his usual crazy shenanigans.

He still did so sometimes, when he needed to get out of his own mind. He closed his eyes and just saw through his soulmate’s eyes for a couple minutes, this way also knowing what the other was doing. Even getting to know the other boy’s name by seeing it written in black ink on his forearm.
So his mysterious soulmate name was Terushima Yuuji. Nishinoya literally squealed in happiness when he found out. That mean receiving a ball in the face but if that was the price to pay, it was totally worth it.
Noya was also so glad Terushima seemed to be with a team who accepted him and his gender 100% and who always made sure he was okay, taking a weight out of the libero’s shoulders.
And, of course, first thing he did after getting his soulmate’s name was not only scream at full volume but go tell the his four year mates in the volleyball team, disrupting their “study” session, even if they didn’t even had started studying yet. Tanaka being the first to react and start yelling too and telling him that it’d be cool if he did met his soulmate too, that this way there would be one more soulmate pairing.
Noya just resisted the urge to roll his eyes and just said that at least he wouldn’t be as bad as their senpais who took almost the whole year to realize the three of them were soulmates and even more to sort their feelings and start dating. To which Kinoshita just reassured him by saying he was already way worse, making the rest of the then still first years laugh while Noya fought a blush creeping up his neck.

Still Noya took no more steps further to discover more about Terushima and focused on volleyball, and by doing this his first year of high school was already gone by.
And while he felt stuck in the past and how bad they lost to Date Tech, on top of that not being able to partake in any club activities for a month.
Practicing on his own and hardening his innate skills and perfecting the hard edges some of his moves still had. Barely keeping updated with what was going in the team thanks to Tanaka and the others.

He got to know that there were four new additions and that two of them had already caused a huge ruckus the first day, which made Nishinoya forget about his own troubles as he listened to his friends talking.
Apparently, those two “problematic” first years were also soulmates but that it was strictly platonic. Tanaka explained that they had met during a junior high official volleyball match, and that the two boys realized after the match and that they already knew it would never be romantic.
The other two, more of a mystery since no one could really know what was going between them, just knowing they were childhood friends, but aside that they were good players.
All this made Noya even more anxious to re-join the team even if he wouldn’t play if Asahi wasn’t there but time didn’t seem to be on Noya’s side.

But once the month was over, first thing he did was run towards the gym and even if he knew no one would be there yet. That’s why he didn’t expect two first years to be there, still he reacted quickly and received the jump serve a dark haired boy did, surprising both him and a cute guy with fluffy orange hair, and he used the chance to feel a teeny bit smug about how cool he looked just then. Or so he did, until the shortest one, named Hinata he would later learn, opened his mouth to ask him about his height.
Yeah, without any doubt, this two were the two problematic first years Tanaka had mentioned to him.

Rough first meetings aside, he hit it swiftly with these two, loving how Hinata looked up at him, which allowed him to be do whatever and be seen as cool, as well as he understood Kageyama’s words when he spoke about setting and doing it naturally because he was the same but with his libero skills.
And with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi? He loved teasing the hell out of the salty bean pole and joking and helping the other one when he did his floating serves.

He did love this year’s team and he thought that, while having several holes in their defence, they were a pretty powerful team, if he could say so himself.
And his intuition proved him right again when the Interhigh came around, even though they had lost to Seijoh.
Even knowing that they had beaten them fair and square, Noya still believed that they lost to Aoba Johsai because no one could lose to Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s soulmate bond on a day where those two seemed to communicate via some weird mind reading power or something. Call him a sore loser, he just needed the excuse to feel a tad better about the whole ordeal and not go down a spiral like the previous year after losing to the Iron Wall.

Still, losing against Seijoh just made everyone in the team even more determined to train more and to try new things. His new thing was copying what he saw Watari do and learn to set the ball.
It did help they had they were invited to Fukurodani’s training camp again, since they would be able to have practice matches against powerhouses and have enough time to train every single new thing the team wanted to add to their repertoire.
The training camp also served the purpose for Hinata and Kenma to finally start dating after dancing around the other for months now. It also helped Yamaguchi to finally snap and call Tsukishima on all the bullshit he always carried with him, as well as Yamaguchi making Tsukki see that while, yes they were soulmates, they both also had been harboring feelings for a certain emotionally constipated setter, to which every single Karasuno let out a collective sigh because they wouldn’t need to put up with the endless pining these three always meant.

And whether they wanted or not, the training camp came to an end and Karasuno, once again, would have the chance to have their revenge towards Aoba Johsai in the Spring Interhigh Qualifiers.
But first they had to go through the Preliminaries.But since they had lost in the round before the quarter-finals in the previous tournament, their first match would be in the second round, and they ended up playing against a team called Ohgiminami High. Match the won two-nil in term of sets
Then they played against a team called Kakugawa High who posed quite a threat because they had a first year that was two meters tall. And despite how high Hinata jumped, the giant always found him with ease.
But in the end, Hinata was able to win the aerial battle and Karasuno got his ticket to play in the Spring Qualifiers.
And before they went back home from the matches, some hot guy and his team waved them goodbye after that handsome asshole tried to hit on Kiyoko.

And Nishinoya was quite excited to play that official match already because he wanted to make that smile disappear from that hot boy’s face. And when he got to know that pretty boy was from Johzenji, and that he would be able to play against him even sooner, he grinned, forgetting completely that Johzenji was also Terushima’s team until Ennoshita pointed it out to the second years that day when they were walking back home.
And that excitement grew tenfold, and it would grow even bigger if the pretty asshole turned out to be his soulmate because he had been right there too and he didn’t even look at him. And like hell he would allow that from happening again.

Luckily for him, the Qualifiers came by soon enough.
When Karasuno entered the gym, Johzenji was already there with his team stretching and getting prepared. And luckily for Nishinoya, Terushima was the hot asshole, which made his nerves go away and was replaced with a slight need to show off and to make the other notice him in and out of the game.
That match became one of the weirdest ones he had ever played due to Johzenji’s carefree and wild nature. Johzenji just played to have fun and that reflected on how they played, taking some bizarre choices but also some very good ones made to stop certain players and also doing some in-the-moment and unexpected attacks, like the back spike Terushima did while turning, just to mention one. But not for nothing was Nishinoya one of Karasuno’s unpredictable players, and so he had his own chances to show off his skills, stamina and flexibility.
Still, even though they were a wild team, they knew how to get serious when the situation required it and how to break it and turn the flow to their favour.

In the end, Karasuno won because Terushima’s last spike went out but still they celebrated it because now they were closer to get their revenge against Aoba Johsai.

To be completely honest Terushima didn’t realize the he had been playing against his soulmate until halfway through the match. He had been concentrated to play against the chibi middle blocker who was able to beat the two meters first year boy.
And once he realized, it wasn’t the best moment to go and introduce himself because, for starters, they were in the middle of a volleyball match and Karasuno was beating them, no matter how much spirit Johzenji put into it, or how much fun it all was.
But, without ceasing to focus in the sport, he also used every opportunity he had to study how Karasuno’s libero moved and played.

Terushima had to admit Nishinoya was some kind of a beast when it came to playing. Unpredictable, highly skilled and with high instincts. But also putting every last fiber of his body into reading the opponent and the ball, being able to read most plays thus saving most of the stray balls and spikes.
And that was just if his physical capabilities weren’t mentioned.
Teru also had to admit the libero was attractive, “a sight for sore eyes” as his late father would have said. Not that Terushima was staring unashamedly between sets or time-outs, he was merely observing an opponent to come up with a strategy to beat him, or so that was what he told his teammates when they called him out.

Still, no matter how hard they tried, despite their tactics and several scored points, they also had made several mistakes and Karasuno beat them fair and square, a fair and strong opponent to lose to even if the loss still hurt. That also meant the match was over and that Terushima was able to finally meet his soulmate and actually talk with him.

But destiny didn’t seem to agree with him because Karasuno already marched away to stretch and wait for their next match to start, which meant Nishinoya would be with the rest of the team and he didn’t want to intrude in that moment where they would be celebrating their victory.
Terushima was having an internal fight, because he knew he wouldn’t have a chance like that in god knows how long. And in the end, Terushima Yuuji decided that to hell with everything, Johzenji volleyball team wasn’t known to take very rational decisions under pressure and he was their captain for a reason.
So, without any further ado, Terushima Yuuji went after Nishinoya.
He found the boy goofing off with the rest of the Karasuno team, while they ate something light before their second match of the day but that didn’t stop Terushima from approaching, hoping he didn’t look as desperate as he felt or that, if he did, he made it look cool somehow.

Clearing his throat to make his presence there known, nerves settling in when everyone was looking at him, running a hand through his hair as he thought of what to say that wasn’t a mere and awkward “hello”.

- So…-Terushima started, looking at Nishinoya- I think you know why I’m here. And I’d like, if you want, to talk? -he added, praying his face wasn’t as red as he he felt it because, damn, was saying that hard with fifteen pair of eyes looking at you…

Nishinoya’s answer was to give Terushima a good once over, where he looked at him up and down, for what felt like an eternity, to then stand up and take his hand and taking them both somewhere less crowded so they could talk in private.

- It’s nice to finally meet and see you with my own eyes. -Noya said, his trademark smile in his face already.-And I guess yes, we have a lot to talk yet very little time because my game is starting in not even an hour… so let me give you my number and my email so we can, y’know, actually keep in contact and not rely in crazy shenanigans any longer.
- That’s actually a great idea-Terushima replied, handing the libero his phone so he cold add himself in there-, though I have to say actually enjoyed your different ideas. And, if I’m being honest, I still remember every single word from the note you wrote me back in middle school because it meant so much to me in so many levels…- he admitted, looking away as he spoke, very aware his cheeks would be flushing a dark red, and thus missing the way the libero was looking at him in that moment.

Noya handed Terushima his phone back, so the boy would finally look at him again, before sanding in his tiptoes and kissing him in the corner of his mouth before saying goodbye, leaving the Johzenji captain there standing still looking like an utter fool. When he came back to his senses, Noya was nowhere to be seen, and Teru’s brain just a mess consisting of screams and asking himself what the hell did that kiss mean.

After that short first meeting, the two boys messaged each other every day.
And once Karasuno beat both Seijoh and Shiratorizawa, against what almost everyone believed, the they set a date to meet again, no matches in between to interrupt them.

The first time they met, Noya gave Terushima the actual note he had written so many years ago now so Teru could keep and actually read it himself instead of just remembering it.
Both of them blushing messes after that, walking in silence, closer than what was strictly necessary, not daring to take the other’s hand every time their fingers fleetly touched.
But that was just was the first time of many dates to come, even if none of them would admit to these meetings to be dates. At least not out loud.
In one of these not-dates, they talked about their families and explained to the other their experiences with soulmates.
Noya being heartbroken when he heard about Terushima’s family, while Terushima was flabbergasted about the amount of love and support that Nishinoya had always had, not only from his two mothers but his Auntie and Uncle too, which sounded like amazing people for what Nishinoya told him about them.
And so they met the other’s parents, Nishinoya’s parents, being as excitable as the libero himself was,happy to finally meet the soulmate they heard oh so much about and that caused Nishinoya to do some “really dumb shit” as Noya’s mom said mainly to embarrass her son.
The next time they met, Terushima did introduce Nishinoya to his mother, this meeting being way more calm and formal, the woman being glad for his son and really happy to see how in love they both were with each other, making both boys blush as they stuttered trying to explain that they weren’t together.

That last meeting making them both realize they had to talk about what the fuck they were and to also sort out their soulmate bond, both knowing the answer but not yet ready to say it out loud.
And so they talked about what they felt. Well, it was more like Terushima admitting he had probably been crushing in him since he saw the note for the first time, while Noya just looked at how Terushima’s lips moved and thought about how soft and kissable they looked.
But of course Noya had to say something to ruin the mood, he blamed his ADHD.

- Oh babe, you’ve been crushing on me for that long? That’s embarrassing.-the meme came out of his lips before he had time to stop himself.
- First of all, we both know our soulmate bond is most probably a romantic one and that we’ve been on several dates now-Terushima retorted- And second, that’s seriously the meme you decide you go with? Come on, we both know you’re better than that.-he added, sticking his tongue out to half-mock Nishinoya.

Noya had several come backs prepared to reply, or so he did until he saw Terushima’s tongue piercing in all its excellence, making his mind go completely blank as he tried not to let his jaw drop as he stared at it.
Terushima not letting the opportunity escape and outright asking if Noya was seeing something he liked. And even though it took Noya half a minute to reboot his brain, he just looked Terushima up and down, checking him out once and again, taking his time before answering.

- You could say there’s several things i like.-he started, inching closer and closer to Terushima- But above all, I want to know how that very distracting tongue piercing of yours feel like, just for science.
- Well, if it’s for science, I guess I have no options…-Terushima said before closing the space that separated them.

That first kiss wasn’t soft. It started slow until Terushima bit on Noya’s lower lip making Nishinoya moan a bit in surprise, allowing Terushima to fully kiss him and giving Nishinoya the answer to his inquiry.
Noya breaking apart few minutes later, feeling lightheaded and needing to catch his breath again, Terushima feeling smug about making the shorter boy feel like this.
Even so, it wasn’t long after that Noya kissed him again with the excuse of needing more data, running his hands through Terushima’s hair while Terushima just had his hands on Noya’s sides before sliding them under Nishinoya’s shirt and traced all his muscles with his fingers, not going above where he felt the start of a binder.
As this went on, both boys lost their shirts at some point, being comfortable enough in the other’s presence to allow the other with just their binders on.

From then on, Nishinoya and Terushima officially became boyfriends, every single person in their surroundings finally able to breathe since they wouldn’t have to deal with their dumb pining for much longer.
And yes, they were that one couple that was so obvious they were together but that wasn’t annoyingly sweet to the point others couldn’t be around them. That didn’t mean they weren’t affectionate with each other, rather the opposite, they were always touching each other one way or another when they were together, let it be cuddling if in private or holding hands or arms around waist or shoulder if in public, and always stealing as many kisses from the other as possible.

And as years went by and they matured both as people and as a couple, they started living together in a little apartment without even realizing.
And in one of their anniversaries, they decided they would get matching tattoos so they would carry a part of the other even when apart. They got the other man’s zodiac sign constellation in their left wrists, thus showing to the entire world how everything they felt for the other had been written in the stars since the very beginning.