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The first day of his first year of highschool Futakuchi Keinji ran into the gym only to see him, the intimidating, eyebrow-less, middle blocker, with the same scary look on his face. They were the only ones in the gym, “No escaping this one.” Futakuchi thought to himself rolling his eyes at the thought of having to talk to him when he can’t even talk.
Futakuchi slammed the door behind him sprinting to the changing room hoping that he didn’t see him, once in the room he turned to the locker placing his stuff down, turning around to see him staring right into his soul, “Agh,” Futakuchi flinched, “You can’t do that.” The boy looked confused, making a concerned face. “You can’t just sneak up on people like that, it scares people.” The boy once again looked confused. “Listen I don’t know if you know me Aone, I’m Futakuchi, we went to the same middle school. To be didn't interact much but you were that weird kid sitting in the corner petting a turtle.” Looking at Aone’s face he immediately knew he screwed up, “Hey look I didn’t mean to insult you that’s just how the others saw you, there were a lot of rumors going around not only in the gym but in the entire school, it’s fine that’s in the past now let’s just go back to the gym.”
The two walked back with Futakuchi having his hands on the back of his head, while Aone was holding a plush turtle, “So I’m assuming that you like turtles, is that the same one sense middle school?” Futakuchi asked, looking at the some-what beat up plush. The tall boy with the turtle silently nodded adding on one word, “Elementary.” The swoopy haired boy was shocked by the fact that was the first words that ever came out of his mouth or even just sound. “Does this one have any significance, or do you just like it?” After the one word the silence came back into play responding with just a single nod.
After a few moments Futakuchi noticed that he still had his bag on him, he sighed while dropping a little, the boy with no eyebrows dawned a new face of concern, “It’s not a big deal I want to the club room to drop off my bag I’m flat dumb sometimes,” The new first year pulled out a bag of gummies, offering them to Aone ultimately just handing him the entire bag, while Futakuchi took the turtle, “Thank you.” Aone almost whispered. Futakuchi was onced again shocked by the words coming out of his mouth, “Yeah, anytime.”
Once Aone and Futakuchi entered the court, and no one was there. Aone went to grab a ball while Futakuchi put down his bag and the turtle. Serving up the ball, Futakuchi’s reflexes made him receive it, moving up to a better point on the court making the ball transfer over to the other side of the court, soon turning into a full rally with the ball falling on Futakuchi’s side, “Good one.” he scoffed while Aone looking very proud of himself with a smile.
Soon both of them noticing three second years walking in by the scene, “We have some interesting first years.” Moniwa commented with Kamasaki and Sasaya nodding, still shocked by the sight. Futakuchi started waving picking up Aone’s to do the same, letting go of his hand to make a snarky remark, “Well doesn’t interesting, make things more fun.” He sneered, smirking at his new senpais. Aone smacked the future captain, “Aone, that hurted, you need to learn how to control your strength, that serve felt like it was going to rip my arms off.”
Kamasaki pointed at Aone, “So that one’s Aone, and you are?” He asked while staring at the brown haired boy. “Futakuchi,” He replied, slightly rolling his eyes. The two started going at each other going up into eachothers faces, soon looking like they were going to knock each other out the other two second years looked flustered, only with Aone walking up to them punching them apart once again slapping Futakuchi.
“Why are you slapping me?” Futakuchi sounded pissed while asking. A few silent gestures came from the white-haired boy along with an annoyed face, “What he gave me bad vibes.” The two continued to have a “conversation” with Aone making body gestures and facial expressions.
Their new upperclassman looked at each other dumbfounded at how they could possibly be having a conversation like that Sasaya leaned over to whisper into Moniwa’s ear, “Can Futakuchi understand him?”
Moniwa nodded, “I think so?” He said while looking just as concerned as the others.
Kamasaki leaned down to whisper into Moniwa’s other ear, “But how?”
“I think if we just let them continue it’ll make sense later.” Moniwa answered, still looking extremely confused. “First years!” Kamasaki yelled, “Are we going to argue the entire time, or are we actually gonna play?” He said while throwing a ball at them, with Aone doing an overhead receive, then Futakuchi followed up as the others went to the other side of the court. The five went into a full out game mode, if a game was two on three, with both sides being pretty equally matched, considering the fact that one of the sides had more people than others. With Aone doing all the blocking and Futakuchi doing the spiking making a perfect combo.
Soon everyone else on the team filed in and the normal practice started, with Aone only talking to Futakuchi barley at that, but they felt comfortable around each other, at bare minimum there was one person who could not only understand Aone but also Futakuchi.
-
Over the course of the next few months sure they might have lost a lot more than they won but the bonds were formed. Not only between the middle blocker and wing spiker, but with the entire team.
Just another Wednesday evening after practice Date Tech’s new weapon walking home beside each other on their way to the stocky blocker’s home, “I know we have games coming up, you need to stop interrogating the ace.” He glanced over at him to see what his face was saying, “Don’t give me that face, I know you don’t mean it your just sort of an intimidating dude, I know you just want to get better by being around the best players and defeating them but you can’t do all these brain games, if it happens I’ll just start covering your face.” Once again glancing over at him, “You act like you didn’t slap me on the first day, kinda weird that we became friends when you really think about it,” The turtle loving giant looked very deflated, like a balloon, “It’s not like I don’t like being your friend, it’s just that we never talked before and we knew each other for three years prior.”
Aone looked to the stars, “Yeah.” His other half also looked up with a smile, “Why are you smiling?”
He bursted into laughter, “I just like when you talk, it’s surprising to the others but I enjoy it.” The other raised a brow, “I know it’s weird but I can’t really describe it just trust me I swear it’s not a bad thing.”
“Futakuchi, are you tired of dealing with me?”
He looked shocked not only because of the question but also from who it came from and that it was a full sentence, “Hey, is something wrong?” Aone shook his head, “Well no, I’m not dealing with you, I enjoy hanging out with you. You think too much probably because you spend less time talking so you spend too much time thinking.” Futakuchi sighted, “Listen, the fact that you don’t talk much is fine. I don’t mind taking my time to help you, because you're my friend and I care a lot about you, okay.” Aone looked back down, looking back up at the sky with a smile and a nod.
Both of them got onto the train, sitting beside each other, twenty minutes passed, both of them getting pretty antsy, “God this train is taking so long, we should’ve been at your house already.” Futakuchi complained glancing over at Aone noticing that he had a happy expression hugging his bag.
“Thank you, Futakuchi.” Aone almost whispered, he almost jumped back from shock, “Thank you for sitting next to me on the train, thank you for talking to me.”
His eyes opened, his face blushed, “Yeah whatever it’s fine, is something wrong you're talking a lot tonight.” Futakuchi said while covering his face and turning away, he inhaled while turning back to Aone, “Actually I should thank you, I really didn’t have many friends before you, I guess we made each other better.”
With a gentle nod, soft smile, backpack in arms, the middle blocker obsessed with turtles gave a positive nod. The train stopped arriving at their stop, both of them stood up while the spiker turned back, “You’re a good person.”
-
During their next year of high school the third years left, Futakuchi became the new captain and ace, while a new setter came onto the team, the big boned setter Koganegawa, which was a great time for Futakuchi who couldn’t “love him more.”
Going back home from another grueling day of practice Futakuchi walked back home to Futakuchi’s home, a shorter distance so they just decided to walk instead of going to the train. “So what’s you think of the new kid?” Futakuchi asked.
“Hm.” Aone responded
“I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t like him.” Aone gave him a face that only Futakuchi could read, “I know I don’t like most people but that’s not he point, also he’s an entire mess, have you seen his sets,” Aone made another face of his brown haired spiker friend, “I know I can hit them but that doesn't mean they can’t be better, and the iron wall is sort of a mess and we just figured it out was perfect then this bimbo came along. But he has potential, I just have to bring it out.” Aone nodded, “Do you want to go pro someday?” Futakuchi asked, he gave another nod., “Sounds like a plan.”
-
Before another one of their practices, Futakuchi was in the gym without Aone but happily with Koganegawa. The bird looking setter ran up to Futakuchi, who was stretching in the corner.
“Futakuchi-san, can I ask you a question?” He asked while forcing himself next to Futakuchi on the floor.
“You’re going to anyway, so just ask.”
“Well I was wondering how do you talk to Aone?”
“I use my mouth, are you on crack?”
The large setter looked very shocked by the answer, “No I mean how did you two become friends?”
“What, you have trouble making friends?”
“No, I was just wondering, because he doesn’t talk much, and it seems difficult to spend time with him because of it.”
“You should have just said that, well we met in middle school.”
Koganegawa cut Futakuchi off after he finished his sentence, “Oh so you’ve known each other for a long time.”
“Has no one taught you manners? No we became friends last year in high school, he didn’t have friends in middle school neither did I to be fair. I really didn't want to talk to him to be honest I kinda forced myself but then we sorta created this language, and I could sorta just understand him.”
“So how do you understand each other?”
“Facial expressions, hand movements, gestures. It’s not that hard when you get used to it, he can form conversations with just an expression, it’s pretty cool.”
“So you can talk,” The captain nodded, “So why do sometimes you don’t talk when talking to him, you guys use hand gestures and pissed off faces sometimes. I thought you two were just speaking in sign language but I guess not.”
“No I don’t know a lick of sign but it’s weird, I want to understand why but I want to understand what’s in his head so I try to do things like him.” Futakuchi said with a smile under his breath.
“Ohhhh, that makes sense. You really care about him, normally I think you hate everyone.”
Futach’s smile turned into rage, “WHAT THE HELL YOU SAY ANGRY BIRD LOOKING ASS!”
Koganegawa moved a little back, “No, no don’t be mad, help Futakuchi-san is scary.”
An enraged Futakuchi sat back down, “It’s fine, I do really care about him, he’s a good person he just has communication problems which is fine.”
The “Angry Bird” Put on a thinking face, “So when you two talk it’s like you two are halving, a silent conversation.”
“It really is, I like those conversations.”
Koganagawa asked for him to spike some balls, while the setter and spiker stood up. Aone stood behind a wall moving to the other side of the wall to see Futakuchi and Koganagawa get along for once. He gave a smile and turned to them, “A silent conversation.” He whispered to himself.