Chapter Text
Atsumu watched as Hinata flew through the air. The ball dropped into the palm of his hand as he managed to bypass Bokuto’s block and make a clean line shot with a sickening slap. Bokuto cheered, flashing a thumbs up to the setter—who was very much not Atsumu. “That was a great set, Natsu-chan!” Bo’s loud voice carried throughout MSBY’s expansive practice gym.
Hinata’s younger sister glowed under the praise. “Thanks! I do have the best setter in Division 1 volleyball as my mentor.”
Now that caught Atsumu’s full attention. “I didn’t realize ya thought so highly of me, Natsu-chan.” Since Hinata joined the team, his sister had been stopping by every couple weeks to watch their practices. Sometimes they’d stay late and practice with her, showing off how the professionals play. They being Hinata, Bokuto, and himself. And then occasionally Sakusa if Natsu really pleaded with him, flashing brown puppy eyes. Just like with her brother, it was hard to say no to her.
Atsumu liked the days when Sakusa stayed too. There was just something about getting under his prickly exterior that satisfied Atsumu like nothing had before. It wasn’t like when he annoyed Samu. But he couldn’t quite tell what the difference was yet.
Maybe it was… more thrilling? Like when he really got Sakusa to glare at him, shivers would break across his skin. Or when he said something so goddamn stupid that Sakusa actually huffed a laugh under his mask. The man’s reactions were minimal, but meaningful—at least to Atsumu. Enough to where he kept a mental note of every reaction he’d ever gotten out of him. This included, but was not limited to, eyerolls, rude hand gestures, glares, smug laughter, snorts, and the one time he’d actually managed to make Sakusa blush.
Natsu raised a single brow. “When did I ever say you were my mentor? Obviously I’m talking about Tobio-kun.”
Atsumu’s thoughts were torn away from the memory of Sakusa’s pink flushed cheeks at the sound of Natsu’s haughty insult. “Yer not sayin Tobio-kun is a better setter than me!” Atsumu exclaimed indignantly. “If anythin’, we’re equals.”
“And who was on Japan’s national team in 2016? At the Olympics,” she emphasized. Natsu waited with a smug smile. “That’s right. It was Kageyama Tobio.”
“That’s cold, Natsu-chan. Ya don’t hafta bring up a man’s past like that. Next time I’ll be right there next’ta Tobio-kun wearin’ red for Japan.”
“Yeah, right there on the bench,” she laughed. If it was anyone else, that comment might have bothered him a bit. But over the past few months he’d gotten to know Hinata’s sister and throughout that process they’d started a somewhat antagonistic relationship. But it was all lighthearted and, in all honesty, they got along pretty well. Natsu might seem sweet on the outside, but there was a mischievous menace brewing beneath that Atsumu appreciated. A kindred spirit, so to speak.
Of course, she did remind him frequently that Tobio would forever be her favorite setter and her favorite friend of Shouyou’s.
“Whatever. I’m yer favorite of Sho-kun’s friends, ya?” Atsumu teased, knowing the answer already.
Natsu threw the volleyball at his head and he quickly lifted his hands to set the ball back at her with lightning speed. She copied his movements (albeit a lot sloppier) and they began setting back and forth as Hinata and Bokuto practiced their serves on the other side of the court.
“You’re not even my favorite of Shou’s teammates,” she said slyly. A twinkle lit up her eye that made Atsumu wary with apprehension. “Sakusa is my favorite.” Without warning, she spiked the ball at him.
After digging the ball high into the air, Atsumu glanced at her. An unreadable expression graced her flushed face. “Omi? How’s he yer favorite? Seriously, have ya even spoken more than five sentences to ‘em?”
“Duh. Tobio, Sakusa, and I literally have a group message together.” Natsu spiked the ball again and this time it slammed into Atsumu’s chest.
“WHAT?” Atsumu shouted, eyes bulging in shock, barely even feeling the sting from where the ball bounced off his sternum.
“Hey, hey, hey. What’s all the yelling for?” Bokuto asked as he and Hinata walked towards them, both covered in sweat. “Did Natsu-chan hurt your feelings, Tsum-tsum?”
Atsumu whipped around. “Shouyou-kun! Did ya know about this?”
Hinata tilted his head to the side. “Know about what?”
“Atsumu is freaking out because I have a group chat with Tobio and Sakusa.” Natsu picked up the volleyball at Atsumu’s feet and threw it into a basket. “It’s really not a big deal.”
“Wait, WHAT?” Shouyou yelled at his sister, nearly jumping in the air. “You text Kageyama?!”
“Are you dumb, Shou? Tobio and I literally talk all the time. You know that I’m his setter protege! He started teaching me a few months after you left for Brazil. Did you think we only ever talk about volleyball?” Natsu rolled her eyes. “On my class trip to Tokyo next week, I’m going to visit him.”
Shouyou still looked rather shocked by this whole conversation. And while Atsumu was curious about her friendship with Tobio-kun, he really wanted to know what the hell she and Sakusa talked about. Hinata pointed at his sister with offense. “But I haven’t even seen him since coming back!”
“Just because you both refuse to see each other before your super special fated reunion on the court in a few months, doesn’t mean I can’t hang out with him. I don’t understand why you can’t just meet up in person since you guys literally talk on the phone all the time anyway.”
“You wouldn't understand!” He shifted on his feet. “It’s just important. To both of us.”
Hinata’s voice had started off loud and passionate, but by the end of his words, it had softened into something else. Still passionate, but there was a deeper emotion there too. Atsumu’s thoughts flickered back to Sakusa for some reason.
To break the silence, Atsumu pulled the conversation back to the most important matter at hand. “Enough talk about just Tobio-kun. I wanna know what ya and Omi-Omi have been chattin’ about? How’d ya even start talkin’ to him?”
Natsu’s eyes lit up. “Well, you see, it’s kind of a long story. But basically last month I was in Tokyo visiting one of my friends. Obviously, I texted Tobio letting him know I was in town. He invited me to join him at Ushijima-san’s apartment. He and Tendou-san were hosting a cross-stitching and chocolate-making party.”
Atsumu could barely contain himself. And apparently, neither could Shouyou because he was screaming again. “You went to Ushiwaka’s house?”
Bokuto slapped Hinata’s back with a hard thump. “Can you let her tell the story? I wanna hear about the cross-stitching party! ‘Kaashi loves cross-stitching and he taught me how to do it too. Natsu-chan, please see if you can score Keiji and me an invite next time.”
Natsu pulled out a yellow iphone—complete with a clear case and a sticker of Armin Arlert holding a seashell on the back. “Do you want Ushijima-san’s number? I have his too. Well actually, let me just forward it to Akaashi-san since I already have his contact.”
This time it was Bokuto’s turn to scream in shock and Atsumu flinched away from the sound. “WHAT? Why do you have my boyfriend’s number?”
Natsu groaned. “Ugh how many things am I going to have to explain to you guys?” She clapped her hands together and took a deep breath. “Alright no more interruptions. I have Akaashi-san’s number because Sakusa gave it to me. He thought I might be interested in joining Akaashi-san’s book club. There’s a lot of people in it that you guys would know. Like Ojiro-san, Kuroo-san, and even Yachi is in it with her girlfriend.”
Atsumu opened his mouth—to complain about how Aran was in this exclusive book club with Omi and didn’t even tell him—but Natsu sent him a searing glare that had him snapping his jaw shut.
“To finish the cross-stitching story,” she took a deep breath. “Tobio-kun and I went to Ushijima-san’s apartment and that’s where I got to know Sakusa because he was there too. He and Tobio hadn’t really seen each other since high school, so the three of us were chatting for a while. It turns out that the two of them get along really well now that they’re older.” She eyed Hinata when she said that, then turned her sharp gaze towards Atsumu.
Bokuto gasped. “Are you saying that Sakusa and Kageyama are into each other? Do they, like, flirt and stuff?”
An uneasy feeling twisted in his gut. There was absolutely no way that Omi was romantically interested in Tobio. No, no, no way. A platonic friendship? Sure. Volleyball pals? Yeah. Two dark-haired kinda grumpy and emotionally constipated men bonding over their shared social issues? Makes sense.
Romantic attraction? The thought of Omi holding hands with a shy and blushing Tobio crossed Atsumu’s mind without his consent. Ew.
Horror flooded through Atsumu’s system as an even worse thought occurred to him. What about sexual attraction? Tobio and Omi in bed together. Black eyes meeting blue as their bodies intertwined under the sheets. Tobio kissing Omi’s forehead. Right over the twin moles that decorated his perfectly proportioned face. Omi’s freaky wrists reaching down down down until Tobio is gasping into the crux of Omi’s broad shoulders. Would Omi fuck him—
Holy shit, stop it right now. Atsumu commanded his imagination to chill the fuck out.
God, that image was even more unbearable than the hand-holding. Atsumu wanted to vomit right there on the gym floor. A glance at Hinata revealed the redhead seemed to be going through a similar internal crisis. It was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that Hinata had been in love with his high school setter since, well, high school. But that didn’t explain why Atsumu was feeling this way. He might like Tobio, perhaps even consider him a friend of sorts. But he definitely wasn’t in love with him. So that only left….
No. Nope. Nah. That can’t be it.
Atsumu wracked his brain, trying to think if he had been slowly developing a crush on his cold-hearted teammate over the past few months.
Sure, Sakusa was a good looking man. He knew that. Everyone knew that. He was built like a god and had the face of one too. Did Atsumu sometimes daydream about twirling his fingers in Omi’s curls? Yes. Was that not normal?
Did his onyx eyes send shivers down Atsumu’s spine? Well, yeah, but in a totally non-sexual way! (Atsumu definitely did not jerk off once in the shower, imagining Omi watching him with that intense black gaze of his, because he just had this intuition that Omi was the type that likes to stare a lot in bed.)
Then there was that one time when Atsumu made Sakusa blush….
“Hey, Omi-Omi.” Atsumu asked into the darkness of their shared hotel room. He heard Sakusa shift around from the other bed and took that as his cue to continue. “Forgot my airpods and I can’t sleep without listenin’ to a podcast or music or somethin’.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do about that?”
Sighing, Atsumu flicked on the lamp and warm light cast shadows throughout the room. Omi stared at him unimpressed, squinting against the sudden intrusion of light.
“I don’t know, Omi! Maybe lend me yer headphones?” Atsumu asked in exasperation, rubbing at his sleepy eyes. “That’s wha’a normal person would do.”
His lip curled in slight disgust. “No.”
Atsumu whined pitifully. Tired Atsumu was even more petulant and irritating—at least according to his mom and Samu—than he normally was.
“Pleeease, Omi-kun. Do it for the team. We have a game tomorrow. Do ya really want yer setter t’have a terrible night’s rest? I’m gonna report yer cruelty and selfishness to Meian. Maybe he’ll force ya to do team bondin’ activities?”
Sakusa groaned in contempt. “Please, shut up. Just shut up.” He grabbed a pillow from his bed and chucked it at Atsumu’s head.
He ducked it with ease. “Bad aim, Omi-Omi. Losin’ yer touch?”
“No, I’m just tired. Usually I unwind before bed by reading.” He sat up and leaned against the bed frame, glaring at Atsumu. “But someone interrupted that tonight because you just had to listen to your dumbass show out loud like a four-year-old with an iPad. So not only did you ruin your own nighttime routine by forgetting your headphones, but you also ruined mine. So fuck you.”
Sakusa’s mean words lit a light bulb in Atsumu’s head and he met his roommate’s glare with a brilliant smile. Omi narrowed his eyes. “What are you scheming?”
“I know how to fix both of our problems t’night, Omi-Omi.” Atsumu got out of bed, shivering as he left the warmth of the sheets. Sakusa’s serious gaze followed his movements with apprehension. He trekked across the room until he found what he’d been searching for, then hopped back onto his bed with a bounce. With a gentle toss, Sakusa’s previously discarded book landed next to his arm.
Atsumu looked at him expectantly. “Read to me, Omi.”
On rare occasions, Atsumu was able to surprise Sakusa. Small moments where all their bickering faded away and something else was left behind. This seemed to be one of those sacred, special moments that Atsumu cherished.
Omi blinked at him, frown dissipating. “You want me to read to you?”
“Yeah.” Atsumu turned on his side, facing Sakusa. A soft yawn fluttered from between his lips. “You have a nice voice, Omi-kun. Real soothin’. And if ya repeat this to anyone I’ll kill ya, but I think I could listen to ya talk fer hours. So please read me that boring as shit book, then we can both go to sleep.”
Atsumu's gaze never left Sakusa’s face as he spoke, which is how he noticed the light dusting of pink across his pale cheeks. Atsumu’s heart thundered loudly in his chest. Had he really just made Sakusa Kiyoomi blush?
Sakusa cleared his throat and picked up the book. “You get twenty minutes.”
“S’fine, Omi.”
Long fingers flicked through the pages until Sakusa found the chapter he’d been searching for. He began to read, a deep voice filling the empty space, and Atsumu felt like he was floating. His eyes fluttered shut and in no time at all he was dreaming of pale skin, blushing cheeks, and dark curls.
Atsumu was pulled from the memory at the sound of Hinata’s whiny screech, demanding his sister to tell him every detail of Sakusa and Tobio’s recent friendship developments.
“Are they actually dating?!” Hinata seemed on the verge of panic.
Natsu laughed. “No, they’re not dating. They’re just friends. But both Tobio-kun and Sakusa are smart, successful, and super hot. They’ll be snatched up sooner or later.” She flicked her eyes from her brother to Atsumu. “Just something to think about.”
“Nat-chan, why would you scare me like that?” Hinata demanded, following after his sister as she went to grab her bag.
“Why do you care if he has a boyfriend, Shou?” Natsu asked over her shoulder. “You aren’t jealous are you?”
Hinata sputtered at the accusation. Natsu rolled her eyes. “You’re all hopeless.” She grabbed Hinata’s arm and pulled him towards the exit, waving at Bokuto and Atsumu. “We’ll see you guys later. Thanks for the practice. Bokuto-san, I sent Akaashi-san the contact.” The gym doors slammed shut behind them.
“Natsu-chan sure is fun, huh!” Bokuto said. “Who knew she was friends with so many volleyball players? I can’t wait to tell Keiji about that cross-stitching party.”
Bokuto continued babbling as they walked to the locker room, took showers, got dressed, and made their way out of the gym. Atsumu felt like he was in a daze the entire time, still processing his sudden realizations.
“You alright, Tsum-tsum? You’ve been quiet for like the past forty minutes.” Bokuto tilted his head to the side with concern. He poked his shoulder when Atsumu remained silent.
Reverie broken, Atsumu sucked in a chilly breath and exhaled through his nose. “S’orry, yeah, I’m fine. Just tired. Need’ta sleep.”
“Alright, get some rest then. I’ve gotta go meet Keiji for dinner.” Bokuto smiled and walked away with a cheerful wave. He already had his phone out—probably texting his boyfriend that he was on the way.
Atsumu let his head fall back to stare at the night sky and damn him if the neverending blackness didn’t remind him of Sakusa’s eyes.
Shit.
It was official.
Atsumu had a thing for Sakusa Kiyoomi.