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Day 3 - First Meeting
Lev was sure he’d become the ace of the volleyball team. He’d talked to the team captain already, a third-year named Kuroo Tetsurou, and he’d said he had potential.
So I’ve just gotta work hard, learn, and get strong! Then I’ll be the ace!
So he enthusiastically made his way to his very first team practice. Well, technically, it wasn’t the first official team practice. It was arranged by the clubs returning members so everyone could get a feel for each other before the first practice with the coaches. Lev didn’t mind. He was thrilled to get started and meet the other club members.
Practically skipping, he arrived at the gym's front door and swung it open, stepping inside.
To make a good first impression, be the earliest first year here!
Lev had been lectured on this by his parents the night before, so he’d arrived almost half an hour early. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, he strode onto the planks of the court, looking around.
To his surprise, he wasn’t the first soul to arrive, especially this early in the morning. Instead, sitting on the bench near the net posts was a short omegian boy with auburn hair, already wearing a practice uniform of black tee shirt and red shorts, idly clicking through his phone.
He glanced up when Lev walked in, then gave a mild smile. “Oh, wow, an early bird. I’m impressed.”
Lev walked up to him. “Good morning! Yeah, being early makes a good first impression, but I guess you beat me here!”
The auburn-haired boy cocked his head to the side. “First impressions on who?”
“The upperclassmen, of course! What class are you in? I didn’t see you at the entrance ceremony. Or the club scouting!”
Lev’s cheer didn’t fade even as the short boy narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms firmly. “So…why exactly are you guessing I’m a first-year?”
“Well, I dunno, Shibayama was kinda short, and he was an omega too, so….”
“Yaku Morisuke. Class 5, year 3.”
Lev felt the cheerful smile that had been stretched upon his face freeze up and swallowed.
“I, uh…I am so sorry, Yaku-senpai!”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Yaku-san then! Sorry! Really, I’m so, so sorry! You’re just kinda small, so I guess I assumed, and I just….”
At that point, he found a finger pointed about two inches from his nose.
“I’d suggest you stop right now before I kick in your knees.” He snapped, and then he seized his bag and stalked off.
Lev tried to give chase, but he saw Yaku vanishing into the omega’s side of the team locker room and knew he’d probably get a black eye if he tried to follow.
He spent the next few minutes sitting on the bench by the net post in a funk. Hunched over, feeling rather idiotic.
I can’t…I can’t believe I insulted a 3rd year like that! I just assumed because he was so early! Why is he this early? I don’t understand!
He tossed his head back, grasping at his hair, and, when he did so, he found the back of his head smacking into something rather solid and knocking it back.
“You…really want to make me angry, huh?” A voice muttered darkly.
Apparently, Yaku had made a reappearance from the locker room, silent as a stalking cat, and had been leaning over Lev, wondering if he were alright. He’d been just about to say something, considering forgiving him for the earlier misunderstanding due to him being new, but now he’d just been nailed square under the chin by the back of the new guy's head.
“I AM SO SORRY!”
A few more minutes saw Yaku sitting on the bench next to Lev, heaving a sigh. “So, are you always this much of a train wreck?”
Lev stared down at Morisuke for a few moments dumbly because he hadn’t gotten a very good look at him during the misunderstanding earlier.
He had brown eyes flecked with amber, a few cute little freckles on his nose, and fine, slight features. For an omega, he lacked some curves, but Lev didn’t find much issue in that.
Lev had just had a chance encounter with the first omega whom he ever found deeply attractive.
So he should be excused that it took him a couple seconds to spit out a response.
“N-No, I swear I’m not, I just...I just got a little nervous, I guess.”
Yaku hummed, leaning back against the bench and tilting his head to the side.
“It’s fine. It is the first day, after all. Just never call me short again, and we can pretend this didn’t happen. Deal?” He turned his eyes back to Lev, head leaned slightly back, and Lev felt several wildly clashing feelings that he’d never experienced before.
Can I call you pretty?
He almost blurted it out but thankfully stopped himself by realizing that was probably the worst thing he could possibly say.
Haiba Lev was fifteen, and he’d just met Yaku Morisuke, who was seventeen.
And he’d just figured out what a first crush was like.
“Got it. Never again.”
Not even ten minutes later, he’d asked Morisuke how he reached the top of the net and had been very snippily instructed on the existence of liberos.
Then he’d spent the entire meet-and-greet trying to stay away from Yaku because he couldn’t bear being near him for fear they might lock eyes again.
By the end of the practice, Lev had thoroughly embarrassed himself attempting to receive several balls and failed miserably. He hadn’t really thought much about what went on before he got to spike anything, so it hadn’t been pretty.
He’d still had a grand time, and when he heard that the team was getting steamed buns from the local shop after showering, he was more than happy to agree to come along. So he made his way to the showers. However, between being a 1st year and the team being more upper secondary than lower secondary, it seemed he’d have to wait his turn.
Meanwhile, Morisuke, being both omega and a 3rd year, got out pretty quickly and was joined in short order by Tetsurou, who was yanking down the back of his school uniform skirt.
“Forgot to pack sweats too?” Morisuke asked, for he was wearing the same thing.
“Too damn hot for that, besides we gotta at least pretend to be good upperclassman for like, the first five minutes. Uniforms are supposedly encouraged after club activities or something like that.” Kuroo replied, waving his hand at Morisuke without much concern.
The Nekoma volleyball team seemed to be a magnet for atypical omegas. Between Kuroo as a captain, Morisuke filling the obligatory Team Mom position, and Kenma serving as the brain of the squad, they had an impressive amount of lowers around.
“So, whatcha think of the fresh meat?” Kuroo asked, leaning back against the cement brick walls just outside the gym. The two of them had stepped outside to have a quick chat about things before the underclassmen finished up.
“They’re alright. The short libero kid could be pretty good.”
“He’s not much smaller than you, Yakkun.”
“Shut. Up.”
Kuroo chuckled, and Morisuke continued. “As for the behemoth…well, we got off on the wrong foot earlier, but I think he’ll be alright. He’s not very good right now, but he seems decently athletic, and he’s huge, so that’s always a plus.”
Tetsurou furrowed his brow. “What got you two off so badly?” He asked.
Yaku then proceeded to recount the disaster that had been the first twenty minutes he’d spent with Haiba Lev, and by the end of it, Kuroo was cackling.
“Oh my god, the guys a walking train wreck. To think he managed to call you short twice that fast, he’s got a death wish.” After his laughter subsided, this was the opinion Tetsurou delivered, lips still quivering with a grin.
“Yeah, and then he kept looking at me funny all practice. I think he’s either scared of me or maybe scared I’ll say something to you or Coach Nekomata.”
Tetsurou snorted. “Yeah. That’s it.”
“I sense sarcasm.” Morisuke shot a look up to Kuroo.
Tetsurou’s slate gray eyes remained mirthful as he just shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it too much.”
“Well, why else would he be staring?”
“Why else indeed.”
“Kuroo.”
“What?”
“Tetsurou.”
“Easy, easy, don’t maim me. I’m just saying I’ve never seen an alpha who’s scared he pissed someone off blush like that.”
Yaku gave a bark of laughter. “You think he was checking me out? Are we talking about the same person?”
Kuroo just gave a soft hum. “I’m just saying it’s not impossible.”
“No. It’s impossible, all right. Why would an alpha like that be looking at me?”
“Don’t self-deprecate.”
“I’m just being realistic.” Yaku grumbled before glancing back over his shoulder to see that the gym doors were still firmly closed, no one else having emerged from the showers yet.
“A hot as hell first year like him eyeing up a flat little omega like me? You saw him, right? Tall, handsome, athletic? Like someone chiseled him out of a block of marble? He’s basically a perfect alpha, if he could get the oblivious comments under control. And me? That’s what dreams are made of”
Kuroo rolled his eyes. “You really are a glass-half-empty person, aren’t you?”
“I’m a realist!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
So their conversation continued, and if Yaku never found out that Lev had been eavesdropping from behind the gym doors till four years later when they were mated and moved in together, then that was probably just as fate would have it stay.
For now, for both of them, it was nothing more than a crush.