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Kenma watches the fireworks exploding in the night sky with a smile on his face. His soulmate sits beside him, huddled nicely into his body. They fit perfectly, as soulmates do.
“The colors are so beautiful, aren’t they?” Kenma says aloud, though it registers as merely a whisper in his soulmate’s ear. His soulmate nods.
The day was approaching midnight, but the two had no intention to give up on watching the July 14th fireworks and go to sleep. They were caught up in their love for one another and the beautiful colors that swirled in the world around them.
“Remember when we first met?” His soulmate whispers, poking Kenma in the stomach with a grin on his face. “That was… amazing.”
Kenma nods, his soulmate's grin infectiously spreading to his own lips. “I can’t believe it took me until I was in high school to see you though. You would think, since we both played volleyball…”
His soulmate shrugs. “Do you regret quitting?”
“No.” Kenma shakes his head, a soft smile making its way upon his lips. “Do you?”
“Sometimes… But you know, Paris is so beautiful. I think I would rather be here than on a court.”
“You would rather be here than on the court we played at the spring tournament?”
Tendou laughs. He traces circles on Kenma’s cheeks with his pointer fingers and whispers, “I think that was the best moment of my life, Kenma.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Don’t you agree?”
Kenma’s eyes widen, his soulmate is right. He moves Tendou out of his side so that they sit face to face on his porch swing, blankets between them and a shared glass of wine in Kenma’s hand.
“Yeah, I remember it really well. That day is so clear in my mind…”
It was cold as Kenma stepped off the bus with his teammates. Kuroo stood behind him, arm slouched over his shoulder as he chatted in his ear. But it all washed out, Kenma was too busy thinking.
The sky was gray and the grass was gray and Kuroo was gray and the building was gray and the phone in his hand was gray. His eyes were sleepy, and the lack of color in his life wasn’t helping whatsoever. He was so bored, even as he walked into the gymnasium to smell the rich scent of air salonpas. He scrunched his nose.
“Ah, Kenma, aren’t you excited? We get to play a powerhouse school! We’re going to crush them to the ground!” Kuroo chortled, elbowing Kenma in the side as he laughed. Kenma shook his head.
“I’m not in the mood.”
Kuroo sighed. “You never are anymore.”
“Volleyball isn’t interesting anymore.”
“You’re only in your first year, Kenma,” Kuroo whined in reply, sighing once more to prove to Kenma how dumb he thought his statement was. Kenma rolled his eyes, he didn’t really care what Kuroo thought about his distaste for volleyball.
“And?” Kenma said, sharp as a knife. He turned out of Kuroo’s arm slouching over his shoulder still and looked ahead at the colosseum of courts before him, all posed in a row. A few teams played on the left, but the right side was empty. The third court—that was where he was going to play.
Kenma would have been lying if he didn’t say that he was afraid. He was kind of terrified, actually. Shiratorizawa was a powerhouse school, Kuroo was absolutely right about that. Plus, he wasn’t sure that he had the brain power to toy with them today—if they would even take to his tricks. He knew about Ushijima Wakatoshi and his strength and it scared him. Pure, raw muscle power beats technique and strategy any day. Kenma didn’t have the strength to rely on like Ushiwaka did.
As his team approached the court, he saw the dark gray of Shiratorizawa’s jerseys approaching as well. He looked down at the floor, wondering what color their jerseys actually were.
Kuroo had told him that theirs were red. A rich, beautiful, royal red. Kenma didn’t know how to reply to that, he didn’t know what red was. He hadn’t met his soulmate yet. So he just shrugged it off with a small, “Okay.”
Kuroo had met his soulmate in his first year of high school. He played Karasuno pretty early on for a practice match, and the moment he stepped into the room and set eyes onto Sawamura Daichi, his world ‘exploded in colors so fierce and gorgeous, I was unresponsive for multiple minutes while I took it all in.’ That's what Kuroo had told Kenma, at least.
Kenma didn’t believe him. He didn’t think color was a big deal. Of course he didn’t, he had never seen it before. He hadn’t met his soulmate yet. But Kuroo tried to convince him that it was the best thing he would ever see in his entire life. He said, “Watch closely as the colors spread out around you, webbing the world with their light. It’s instantly brighter, and it’s instantly beautiful. You’ll see the fabric of your jersey in a light that you have never seen before. And it will be so beautiful, you won’t ever want to take it off.”
He thought about that as he walked to the court with Kuroo by his side. He was chatting with Yaku now, both of them were excited for the game. Kenma couldn’t help but feel a knot in his stomach—he knew something big was going to happen. But he didn’t know what, and that terrified him deeply.
“Kenma! Come on! We have to greet the team!” Kuroo called out, and Kenma nodded.
He kept his head down the entire time.
Kuroo had said that it wasn’t until you made eye contact with your soulmate that you saw color, so that their eyes were the first color you would ever see. He thought it was so romantic, but Kenma thought it was stupid. He had asked, “What if their eyes are an ugly color?”
Kuroo had shrugged. “Then I guess you’re fucked.”
Kenma felt fucked right about then, but not because of that. The knot in his stomach was growing by the second, and he was starting to feel nauseous as well. He and his team lined up and greeted the other team, Kenma kept his head down the entire time. He knew that he should have told Kuroo that he was feeling sick, but he knew that Kuroo would have made it into a big deal. So he shut it up inside of his head and continued on with the game.
They started and Shiratorizawa earned a point right off the bat with Ushijima’s insane southpaw spike. It irritated Kenma, enough to look up and make severe eye contact with Ushiwaka. Of course, his world remained in gray. He didn’t think it would change, he just wanted to be a bitch and let Ushiwaka know exactly how he was feeling.
“Kenma, keep your head up!” Kai had called out as a member of Shiratorizawa took his turn to serve. Kenma watched him as he sent a ball over, but he thanked the volleyball gods that it was a somewhat normal serve that Yaku was able to dig with no difficulty whatsoever.
Kenma put his wrists up and quickly glanced behind him. Not because he was going to set that way, but because he wanted the other team to think that he was going to. A few blockers scattered over to that side of the net, but he didn’t watch them. He set the ball in the opposite direction for Inuoka to jump at.
He was surprised when instead of hearing the ball hit the ground, he heard it smack against the palm of a blocker’s hands.
Kenma spun around and snapped his head up, his mouth open wide. His trick always caught blockers the first time he did it. He looked up to scan for who it didn’t affect.
His jaw dropped to the floor as his eyes glazed over the muscular frame of Tendou Satori—otherwise known as the boy who was falling from the sky where he had blocked the fuck out of Kenma’s left side hitter.
Tendou looked up to smirk at Kenma, but his poised expression fell away quickly to a mouth agape as the two of them locked eyes for the very first time. Kenma heard the volleyball hit the ground behind him, but it was merely background noise to the explosion that took place in front of him.
And Kenma, well, his first thought was that wow. His eyes are really, really ugly. I guess I am fucked.
But then, the color spread to Tendou’s cheeks. And his jersey—and his hair. Kenma was taken aback completely by the brightness of his hair, he couldn’t look down. And Tendou couldn't look away from his brightly bleached haircut either.
Tendou managed to croak out, “You…” but Kenma didn’t listen, nor did he reply. His eyes sat stagnant on the gorgeous ribbing of Tendou’s jersey.
He spun around and the world flew around him in reds and oranges and whites. He searched the universe for Kuroo, who stood on the sideline, and blinked a few times at him.
“Kuro, what color is their jersey?” Kenma asked, ignoring the Shiratorizawa member who was preparing to serve. Kenma pointed a finger straight at Tendou, watching as Kuroo’s eyes widened and a bright smile bloomed upon his lips.
“That’s purple, Kenma.”
Kenma nodded, and assuredly replied, “Purple is my favorite color.”
His team looked around, eyes pulling wide like Kuroo’s. A few of them had open mouths searching for an answer, but the majority of them just smiled. Their underclassman had found his soulmate, there was reason to be happy for him.
Kenma walked in small circles, peering at the world around him in complete color. Kuroo was right—his surroundings were much brighter now. It hurt his head a little bit, but the sight dissipated the knot in his stomach completely.
Without even realizing, Kenma sat down on the floor to continue examining the large gymnasium full of light. The server on the other team must have guessed what was going on, for Tendou’s eyes sat on Kenma and they would not look away. Ushijima tried to stir Tendou from his stare, but Tendou smacked his arm away and said, “No, don’t.”
Kuroo noticed Tendou as he watched Kenma with interested, somewhat loving eyes. A soft grin sat on his lips as he gazed at Kenma who looked into the bright ceiling lights, his face expressionless.
“He’s really cute,” Tendou murmured, though it wasn’t for anyone else to hear. Kenma heard it, and he felt his heart set ablaze as Tendou said it. He didn’t look away from the ceiling, afraid of what might come next.
Kuroo heard it too. He smiled even bigger, his teeth were ravenous as they devoured his face. “His name is Kenma. Kozume Kenma,” he said aloud, moving from his spot on the side of the court to greet Tendou. “I’m his best friend, Kuroo.”
Tendou shook hands with Kuroo and smiled so wide his eyes became crescents. “I already love him,” Tendou said aloud. It shook Kenma to his core, enough to snap him from his colorful daydream. He looked at Tendou and felt his heart jump as Tendou smiled at him.
Kenma giggled—he couldn’t stop it from erupting in his chest. He giggled, then it grew into joyful laughter. He still sat on the ground, but he looked at Tendou and he laughed happily. He pointed to Tendou and said, “Your hair is so ugly.”
Tendou scoffed, curling his fingers in the net’s webbing. “My friend wanted to dye it.”
Kenma laughed harder.
In the background, coach Nekomata spoke with Tendou’s coach. They whispered hushedly, but Kenma didn’t care to listen and neither did Tendou. Their eyes were locked, and they weren’t going to leave one another anytime soon.
Kenma felt as if he was floating. “What’s your name?”
“Satori. Tendou Satori.”
Kenma nodded. “That’s a nice name.”
“You have a nice name too,” Tendou replied, taking his hand away from the net to itch the back of his neck. A blush took over his cheeks as he asked, “Do… do you maybe want to go watch another school with me after our game?”
Kenma gasped quietly, his heart beating quicker by the second. He replied quickly with, “Yes, I would love to.”
After that, his coach came to help him off the ground and ask him how he was doing to make sure that he was in a stable condition to continue the rest of the game.
He had told his coach, “I couldn’t be better. Let me finish playing.”
It shocked Kuroo to hear Kenma say that he wanted to play volleyball, because from what he had heard earlier, Kenma didn’t want to play today. Kuroo was pleasantly surprised. He wanted to play volleyball now that he had his soulmate to impress? It sounded like something Kenma would do to him, and he laughed as Kenma continued to do it.
Kenma played the rest of the game well. Nekoma didn’t end up beating Shiratorizawa, but Kenma knew they weren’t going to. He was just happy to be able to play his soulmate, making eye contact with him whether his plays succeeded or failed. He liked the faces Tendou made a lot. He thought that they were so cute. When he scrunched his nose and eyes up after guess-blocking wrong, or when he smirked at Kenma after he had guessed right.
Kenma found it kind of hot when Tendou would succeed, his body falling like a Greek God as the ball hit the ground on Kenma’s side of the net. He wore that smirk and his eyes squinted at Kenma—and it made Kenma’s heart run laps in his stomach to the point where he didn’t know if he would be able to make it for the entire game without gunning it to Tendou’s side of the net and stopping him. Maybe by punching him, maybe by making out with him. Kenma’s feelings were very mixed about his soulmate.
After the game, Kenma was sweating profusely. He had played hard, and his legs were so close to giving out on him. He laid on the gymnasium floor and panted, waiting for his breath to return back to normal before he walked away to the locker room to shower so he could go watch Fukurodani play with his new soulmate.
Soulmate . He loved that word.
Kuroo helped Kenma off the ground, though his legs were unsteady and he was almost completely out of energy. His stamina was pretty low, Kuroo knew it well from all of the games they had played together. But he had never seen Kenma play like this before, and it made him so happy to see Kenma finally enjoy volleyball.
“Are you tired?” Kuroo asked, though he knew the answer. Kenma just laughed.
“I’m so tired.”
Kuroo smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“Amazing,” Kenma breathed in response, closing his eyes to think about when he first looked at Tendou, “So amazing.”
“I didn’t think you would meet your soulmate on the court. Did you?” Kuroo asked, putting Kenma’s arm over his shoulder to help him steady himself.
“No,” Kenma replied, shaking his head. “But I’m really glad I did. I had so much fun playing him, Kuroo.”
Kuroo nodded. “I know, Kenma.”
“Where did he go? We were going to go watch a game together.”
“He went with Shiratorizawa to shower and change, Kenma. He’ll be back. Remember, he told you he would meet you here after you cleaned up.”
“I don’t remember him telling me that.”
“Yeah, well you were on the ground half alive. I told him I would make sure you got here.”
Kenma giggled. “Thanks, Kuroo. You’re a really great friend.”
“Of course. I’m really happy for you.”
Kenma giggled some more as Kuroo walked him to the locker room. Kuroo listened as he went on about Tendou and how good of a volleyball player he was, and how pretty he was, and how his hair was so ugly and his eyes were an ugly color too but he loved them so much and wanted to look into them forever. Kuroo said, “You’re so in love, Kenma. I’m surprised that you fell this quickly.”
It was backhanded, but Kenma didn’t care. He laughed and said, “I don’t know, Kuro. I feel so amazing right now, I don’t even care.”
He met Tendou by the court they played on, just as he had said he would. They stood before one another and Kenma was multiple inches shorter, enough so that Tendou’s lips could meet Kenma’s forehead easily. He didn’t kiss him, but Kenma wished that he would have.
“Are you ready?” Tendou asked, looking at Kenma with his loving brown eyes. He gazed into Kenma’s beautiful amber ones, and smiled. “You have such gorgeous eyes, Kenma.”
Kenma snorted. “Yours are kind of ugly, I won’t lie.”
Tendou frowned. “You really think so?”
Kenma nodded. “They are. But I love them.”
And the two of them set off to go sit down and watch as Fukurodani played Itachiyama. Kenma found himself comfortable with Tendou almost immediately. He broke out of his shell and made comments and even jokes, and Tendou did the same. He was surprised by how relaxed he felt around his soulmate, but then he remembered duh. It’s my soulmate, of course I feel relaxed around him.
Kenma felt like himself, and from then on he promised to never let Tendou go.
He holds him close now, and he doesn’t plan to let go anytime soon.
He sits before Tendou still, their fingers intertwined as Kenma recalls the day that they met and their world turned around.
“Did you think it was weird that I was a boy?” Tendou asks, moving on the porch swing to lie his head down in Kenma’s lap. Kenma is quick to place his hands on his soulmates head, rubbing his soft buzzed hair with his fingertips.
“No, that was the last thing on my mind when we first met,” Kenma replies. He looks into the sky as another firework explodes. This one is purple, his favorite color still to this day. He smiles. “But when we were dating for awhile I started to feel self-conscious because there aren’t a lot of people who have soulmates of the same gender.”
“Your friend Kuroo does, doesn’t he?”
Kenma nods. “Yeah, he does. And that helped me feel kind of normal, but I was pretty insecure throughout high school.”
“Yeah, me too,” Tendou replies. “Ushijima didn’t get it, and when I told him that I was gay before I met you I don’t think he believed me.”
“He’s more understanding now, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he's a good friend now. But it’s kind of late, don’t you think? I’m not insecure anymore about being gay. I couldn’t give less a shit if someone thinks we’re wrong. I love you too much to care what others think.”
Kenma smiles wide, and Tendou smiles right back at him. He closes his eyes while Kenma drops his head to place a short kiss on his lips. He lifts his head back up, but not for long; Tendou takes his hands and intertwines them in Kenma’s hair, then pulls him back down and presses a long, deep kiss to Kenma’s lips. Tendou wraps his arms around Kenma’s head to keep his lips against his, hands now tangled deeply in Kenma’s mess of brunet hair. They kiss again, then again, and again to the sound of loud fireworks blessing Bastille day.
“I love you, I love you so much,” Kenma breathes, panting as his lips separate from Tendou’s. He connects them again.
“I love you more. I’m so glad to be with you,” Tendou replies, kissing Kenma again. “I’m going to marry you, Kenma.”
Kenma’s eyes pop, alongside his heart. “Oh? You are?”
Their faces sit only a few inches apart, Tendou looking up at Kenma who gazes down at him lovingly with a smirk.
“Yes. I’m going to marry you on a nice day with a lot of people there to see me kiss you and give you your wedding ring and then we’ll be married forever.”
Kenma giggles. “Is this a proposal?”
“I'm not proposing. I am telling you what’s going to happen. I’m not giving you an option,” Tendou replies, a sly grimace crossing his face. He scrunches up his nose and Kenma kisses it.
“Well, do you at least have a ring for me?”
Tendou nods. “Yes. But it’s inside. I wasn’t planning on declaring our engagement right here. But the night felt too good to pass up.”
Kenma snorts and puts his forehead to Tendou’s, giggling the entire way. “You’re so crazy. I love you, Satori.”
Tendou pulls Kenma’s hair to guide his lips back on his. “I love you more, my beautiful soulmate.”
The fireworks pulse in the night sky as the two lie together on their porch swing, showering one another with kisses and love until the sun begins to rise and the colors die out.