Chapter Text
The first time Lev Haiba laid eyes on Yaku Morisuke, the first thing he thought was how much he wanted to make the other boy his boyfriend; Yaku did not share these sentiments.
“Kuroo, is the new person coming or not?” Yaku demanded, tapping his foot on the floor. Several weeks had already passed, tournaments were coming up, and Nekoma, in his opinion, did not have time to spend training complete newbies who couldn’t even show up on time. He also didn’t feel like taking time out of his busy schedule to train another first-year in receives (because he always got that job), but that was beside the point.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll call him now,” Kuroo assured Yaku. In any other circumstance he would’ve fought with Yaku about how it wasn’t his fault, but unfortunately, he had vouched for the new guy. As he went to get his phone from his bag he shot a dark look at Inuoka and Shibayama, the two who had recruited this new “Lev.”
Just as practice was starting, and Kuroo was wincing and going to call Lev, someone burst through the gym doors and exclaimed, “I’M SORRY I’M LATE!!!” Everyone turned to stare at the giant of a man, taller than Kuroo even, as he began running over to them. Kuroo and Nekomata exchanged glances and went over to talk to Lev, meanwhile Yaku frowned at him from the back of the court as he and Kai started some warm-up drills.
Who does this guy think he is? What, he thinks he’s above all the rules because he’s so darn tall? Yaku sullenly wondered. He tried to ignore the other, who was trying to explain his tardiness to the captain and coaches. The only part Yaku caught was “–got my arm stuck in a vending machine–” causing Yaku to snort and go back to correcting Inuoka’s platform.
They did stations that practice, allowing Lev to work one-on-one with Kuroo, who had gotten stuck training him for the time being. It made Yaku very happy watching his teammate struggle to explain things to the over-enthusiastic first-year.
Unfortunately, because they were doing the stations, they did rotate eventually which left Lev alone with Yaku. Yaku sighed and prayed for patience as he walked over to Lev, kind of back in the corner, who was taking a sip of water as he approached.
He already hated Lev, who looked to be almost 200 cm. Yaku hated tall people, and he would never admit it, but it made him feel so insecure about himself and his own height. Not that that was Lev or anyone else’s fault, but still.
“Lev-kun,” Yaku said, clearing his throat and setting his own water bottle down. Lev immediately set his stuff down and turned to Yaku with the biggest grin that made him step back almost. Another thing he noticed just then? Lev was annoyingly handsome, and he couldn’t decide if he was more angry that the first-year was so tall or so good-looking.
Yaku shook his head slightly in an attempt to clear his thoughts before saying, “I’m Yaku, the team’s libero, so, I’ll be working on receives with you now, and probably more in the future.” He grumbled the last bit under his breath.
“Aww Yaku-san is so cute!!” Lev exclaimed, looking down at the libero with a terrifyingly excited gaze. It took Yaku a moment to process the words, still kind of distracted by Lev’s startling green eyes, but as soon as he did his eye twitched, and a moment later he was roundhouse kicking him to the floor.
“Say that again, I dare you,” Yaku muttered, cracking his knuckles, fully prepared to beat Lev’s ridiculously tall self, who looked up at him from the floor in surprise. No one called him cute.
“Wow, Yaku-san’s really strong too!” He said naïvely. Poor Lev was just taken aback by how adorable the other player was with his big brown eyes and strawberry blonde hair and short stature, he hadn’t been watching what he was saying at all.
“You little–” Yaku seethed, moving forward to further tackle Lev, when Kuroo ran over to him and put himself between the two.
“Yaku, please don’t kill our new recruit, I’m sure he’s very sorry for whatever he did,” Kuroo begged, highly regretting he hadn’t warned Lev about Yaku in private earlier and making a mental note to do it as soon as they were away from the fiery libero. He could only imagine what Lev had said to set him off.
Yaku glared at Kuroo and crossed his arms, his mouth fixed in a thin line. Kuroo sighed and turned to Lev and requested, “Can you please apologize to Yaku so we can get on with practice?” feeling very much like a preschool teacher.
Lev stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry I called you cute Yaku-san, I promise I won’t do it again!” He said brightly, his smile already back on his face. Yaku sighed, muttering something about how it better not, meanwhile Kuroo blanched. Lev had called Yaku cute?!??!? He wondered how the first-year was still alive, reluctantly returning to his station after making sure Yaku and Lev were doing okay.
Practice was nearly over, so they were together for the remainder of it. Lev received far more glances of pity than actual balls as Yaku yelled at him to fix this and that (mostly taking out his frustrations from earlier). When they were dismissed, Kuroo and a few others went up to Lev, giving him a rundown of practice and apologizing for Yaku, assuring him not everyone on their team was like that, and practice wouldn’t always be that hard. He clearly still had a long way to go, but having someone as tall as him on the team for the next few years certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Sometimes everyone walked home together since they all lived in the general vicinity, but that day it was more split up. In a burst of kindness, Kuroo let the first-years go while he and some of the third and second-years discussed upcoming practices and matches, finally leaving some time later.
“So, what’d you guys think of him?” Kuroo asked the others, transitioning from an upcoming practice match with Karasuno to their newest member, who was hopefully staying.
“He’s annoying.” Yamamoto and Kenma said in unison. Kenma was too tired to deal with Lev and didn’t look up from his game. Yamamoto on the other hand went off about how “that little punk” thought he was so great and–Kuroo didn’t hear the rest because he stopped listening, accustomed to how Yamamoto said that about pretty much anyone who joined.
“Yaku?” Kuroo asked, second guessing his decision to ask his fellow third-year, based on how things had gone earlier.
“He’s got a long way to go if he wants to be a regular on this team.” Yaku said sniffing and raising his head. He wasn’t going to go on a whole rampage about how much he hated Lev, something the others were probably expecting. Sure, Lev was annoying, but maybe he’d get there one day. Maybe. And if Kuroo thought he saw him blushing a tiny bit then he would tell him he was crazy and needed to get his eyes checked and it was dark anyway.
Much farther ahead, the first-years were almost to their respective turning points and homes, animatedly filling Lev in about the team, how excited they were to have another first-year and that he was joining, to which Lev told them how hard but still enjoyable practice had been and how he wanted to stay. Lev was a naturally social person and transferring schools so soon after high school started had sucked, but everyone on the volleyball team seemed really cool. Although there was one person in particular he was interested in.
“Ne, Inuoka-kun, do you happen to know if Yaku-san likes boys?” He asked. The others had caught him up on lots of gossip, but that was the real question he was dying to know.
Teshiro and Shibayama sideyed each other before Inuoka spoke, saying. “Hmm, I think Yaku-san likes girls, he said he preferred girls with short hair one time I remember. But, then again, I don’t think he has a girlfriend now, or if he ever had one…” Inuoka stopped talking, realizing he hadn’t known Yaku that long. “Why do you ask?” Teshiro and Shibayama already suspected of course, but Inuoka was a bit slow on the uptake.
“I wanna be Yaku-san’s boyfriend!” Lev declared confidently, causing Inuoka’s mouth to drop. “E-ehhhhh???? You want to date Yaku-senpai??? But–but–he’s so–he’s always so angry and–and harsh and–and–he’s our senpai, and–”
“Yeah but he’s so cute and–oh shoot, I’m not supposed to call him that anymore.” Lev pouted, chewing his lip. Shibayama stared at Lev, wideyed, and questioned, “What do you mean, anymore?”
Lev recounted the story from early, casually admitting how he’d called Yaku cute to his face, causing the other first-years to all gasp collectively and wonder how he was alive, similar to Kuroo. From that point, it also turned into a huge Yaku simping fest as Lev went on and on about every little thing he’d noticed in just one practice, leaving the others too stunned to say anything.
When they finally parted ways, Lev waved excitedly and asked if they wanted to walk to school the next day. The others called back “sure!” and watched his retreating figure. Shibayama, breaking the silence, murmured, “I have a feeling Lev is going to make things very interesting around here.” The other two nodded vigorously before continuing on their way home.