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Kentarou and Shigeru were doing their homework on the side of the court. They weren’t allowed to play until they got everything done because their grades were dropping. It was a bizarre punishment for their captain to give out, but it was motivating as hell.
Biology was the only class they shared, so they finished that work first. Shigeru had to copy off Kentarou for most of it, but last semester, Kentarou copied Shigeru’s literature homework every other day.
Every time either of them was caught watching practice instead of doing work, Tooru chewed them out with the ferocity of a mother scolding her child. It was very effective. Neither of them liked getting told off (though Shigeru thought Kentarou sometimes stared so intently at Tooru just to see how long it would take him to notice).
This time, Kentarou said, “Twenty seconds tops.” He was leaning forward toward Tooru, who was helping Kunimi with a serve.
Shigeru was staring at Kentarou stare at Tooru. He had been staring a lot at Kentarou lately, strangely fascinated by him. His face was always guarded. The line between his eyebrows never went away. Shigeru wanted to smooth it out, feel the skin under his fingers.
“Both of you, back to work!” Tooru finally yelled. Kentarou looked back at Shigeru, wide smile on his face, and then paused.
He frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” Shigeru asked. He thought he had just been looking.
“Like you’re… whatever. Stop looking at me, fuckface.” He turned back to his work with a scowl.
So Shigeru turned back to his own work and tried his hardest not to let his eyes wander.
-
“Do you always look like that?” Shirgeru asked Kentarou, who was sitting next to him on the sofa at Tooru’s house. They were having a team bonding sleepover, and Kentarou was glaring at the floor as some Pokémon movie played on the TV.
Kentarou looked over slowly, angrier than before. “What the fuck is your problem?” he said in a low voice so none of the upper years would hear them swearing at each other.
“What?” Shigeru asked, confused. “You’re always glaring. Why?”
“Stop insulting me and maybe I’ll stop glaring.” He looked away from Shigeru and resumed his glaring at the floor. The wrinkle was still there, between his brows.
“I didn’t insult you, you idiot.”
“Fuck off. Watch the movie.” His eyes didn’t move from the carpet.
“I want to talk to you. I don’t want to watch Ash catch ‘em all.” Shigeru nudged Kentarou, hoping he would laugh at his joke, but he just got shoved back.
“I don’t want to talk to you. Leave me alone or I’m going home.”
“You can’t go home, Oikawa won’t let you.”
“For fuck’s sake, shut up, will you?”
Shigeru managed to stay quiet for about ten minutes. He wasn’t watching the movie, playing with his fingers, and neither was Kentarou. After Ash declared war on another innocent Pokemon, Shigeru turned to Kentarou again.
Kentarou faced him, murderous. “I’m going to kill you if you don’t leave me alone.”
“How did you learn to do your eyeliner?”
“I put it on. That’s how, moron.”
“Can you do mine?”
“I don’t have it with me. And no, anyways.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re annoying.” Kentarou was having trouble keeping his voice down, and he was clenching his jeans with tight fists.
Shigeru noticed this and lifted his hand to lay it on Kentarou’s fist, but at that moment, Issei shushed them from the other couch. The sound must’ve startled Kentarou because he jumped up from the couch and went down the hall toward the bathroom. Shigeru almost followed him, but Hajime, who was sitting beside him, grabbed his wrist as he stood. “I’ll get him. You stay here,” Hajime said.
Shigeru wondered why Kentarou was so feisty.
-
The line showed up in class a lot. Biology was hard, but Kentarou was second in the class. He was always attentive when the teacher spoke, and he never fell victim to Shigeru’s attempts to distract him.
This time, Shigeru was passing notes. Hey loser , one said. He threw them to the desk next to his, but Kentarou wouldn’t open them. He didn’t really have anything to say, he just wanted to talk to him.
When the teacher’s back was turned to write on the blackboard, Shigeru reached over and took a notebook off Kentarou’s desk. Immediately, it was snatched back, but Shigeru took another one.
“Fuck off,” Kentarou hissed, trying to get the other notebook, but Shigeru held it out of reach. He opened it and took his pencil to it (he was too nice to use pen) and drew a dick on a random page. He gave it back to a red-faced Kentarou.
Kentarou furiously flipped through the pages and Shigeru thought he was going to rip some of them. He found the vandalized page and erased the drawing with such force that he ripped a hole in it. Kentarou, fuming, lifted his head until he was looking at the board and did not look back at Shigeru for the rest of the period.
-
At practice, Shigeru couldn’t stop thinking about Kentarou. He was playing a three on three and Kentarou was across the gym, spiking on an empty court. He was sent off by Hajime for nearly fistfighting Takahiro. It was rare for him to pick a fight with Takahiro or Issei because he seemed to respect them, or he hated them to the point that he didn’t want to interact with them at all.
After cleaning the gym for the night, Shigeru sought out Tooru instead of annoying Kentarou as he usually did.
The moment he mentioned Kentarou to Tooru, he was on Shigeru.
“Are you in love with him?” Tooru asked, face even and questioning.
“What?”
“Me and Hajime were like that before we got together. Always fought, but I was doing it on purpose—”
“You and Iwaizumi are together?”
Tooru looked stunned and then bent in half, laughing hard enough to bring Iwaizumi out of the change room, shirtless and still in his volleyball shorts. “What’s so funny, Crappykawa?”
“Ah, little Yahaba didn’t know we were together… ah! So funny,” he said, wiping at his eyes. He had a wide smile on his face, but Shigeru’s mind was blown.
“Men… can be together? Romantically?” His eyes were wide; he really didn’t think men could date. That was for one girl and one boy.
Then Tooru’s smile dropped. “You didn’t know that? Didn’t your parents ever give you the birds and the bees talk?”
“No,” Shigeru answered. “How did you two get together?”
“Well, I told him I was gay,” Tooru started, grabbing hold of Hajime’s hand, then backtracked. “Do you know what gay means? Homosexual?”
“I thought that was a bad thing.” Shigeru had only ever heard boys call each other gay in the way they say they’re weird, or stupid. “I know what it means, I think.”
“Gay means a man is in love with a man, or a woman is in love with a woman.” Tooru was rubbing his thumb across the back of Hajime’s hand. “I’m gay, but Hajime is bisexual, which means he can love a man or a woman. But right now, he loves me.” Tooru smiled softly at Hajime.
“Anyways, I told him I was gay, and he was over for dinner the next week, and he asked me to be his boyfriend. He was blushing so much, it was so adorable—”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Hajime interrupted. He was looking fondly down at Tooru, but then he turned to Shigeru. “Are you… are you gay? Or attracted to men? You don’t have to tell us, but just think about it.”
“I’m attracted to Kentarou.”
Hajime made a sound like a choke on laughter, and then he turned so he could cackle without being rude. Tooru was wide-eyed, his mouth opening and closing, before he said, “Kentarou seems to be very annoyed by you.”
“I know.” Shigeru didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing, because everyone seemed to annoy Kentarou. “How can I get him to like me?”
“I think he does like you, at least like a friend. He always sits next to you, and he swears at you the least. After Hajime, of course.” Tooru seemed so sure of himself, and Shigeru wanted to know everything he knew.
“Does he ever talk about me? Do you think he would date me? How do I even ask him out? Can I ask him during morning practice tomorrow?”
Iwaizumi finally calmed down and he turned back to face Shigeru. “You have to ask him out on your own. Of course, there are the standard ways of confessing, like with roses and chocolates, but that’s mostly for heterosexual relationships. I don’t think Kyoutani would like chocolates very much.”
“He doesn’t like chocolate unless it’s seventy percent cocoa, and I can’t bring myself to buy stuff that tastes like dirt.”
Tooru and Hajime shared a look. “You know a lot about him?” Tooru asked.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t tell me anything. I feel like a private investigator. I should carry around a huge camera, like in those movies.”
“I think you’ll do just fine asking him out.”
-
It was morning practice. Shigeru was practically vibrating with the need to talk to Kentarou, but he was late, as usual.
Tooru and Hajime clapped him on the shoulder as they passed, and ten minutes of stretching later, Kentarou entered the gym.
Shigeru jumped up from the floor and walked toward Kentarou. He looked up as he was getting closer and walked backwards into the changeroom, and Shigeru thought maybe it looked like he was angry, with how he was walking straight toward him.
He entered the changeroom and it was only him and Kentarou. He was suddenly nervous.
“What the hell do you want?” Kentarou snarled, in the corner like a scared animal.
Shigeru raised his hands to say I come in peace , and said, “I just wanted to, uh. Do you want to go out with me?” His face was burning and he looked down at the floor, not wanting to see Kentarou’s reaction.
He should’ve been looking up. Kentarou straightened, eyes dazed and mouth slightly open. His arms dropped to his sides and he turned to face Shigeru fully. “What?”
“I like you. Please go out with me.”
He only looked up when Kentarou started walking toward him. He was walking slowly, but he didn’t stop until he could feel Shigeru’s breath on his face. It smelled of his spearmint toothpaste.
“Why are you saying this now?” Kentarou was staring him in the eyes, intensifying Shigeru’s blush.
“I like you, that’s why,” Shigeru said. “I want to date you.”
Kentarou flinched back, turning to the side. “Are you making fun of me?” The wrinkle was back.
“Why would I do that?”
“You’re an asshole, aren’t you? All you do is bother me.”
“You can just say no,” Shigeru said, a little hurt.
“I don’t know why you’re asking me this now.”
“Because Oikawa and Iwaizumi are together.”
“They’ve been together for years,” Kentarou said.
“I didn’t know two boys could date until yesterday.”
“That’s because you’re stupid,” he said with little heat. He looked down. “So you found out yesterday and, as soon as you could, asked me out?”
“Yes,” Shigeru said. It was that simple. “So?”
“Fine.”
“ Fine , or do you actually want to go out with me? Don’t say fine . Makes me insecure.”
“Okay, weirdo. I want to go out with you. I only tolerate you because you’re hot. And maybe a little smart, and cool. But if you repeat those words to anyone I will rip off your dick.”
“I’ve gotta tell Oikawa, at least.” He was smiling wide, his heartbeat still a bit too fast.
Kentarou played with the hem of Shigeru’s shirt, not looking up. “You know Oikawa can’t keep his mouth shut. Tell Iwaizumi.”
“But then Iwaizumi will tell Oikawa,” Shigeru pointed out. “I want to kiss you.”
“Fuck off.” Kentarou was smiling a small smile, but he wouldn’t look up. “Kissing is for girls.”
“Come on, please?”
“I’m not a girl. You might be, though.”
“Pretty please?”
“Fine. Kiss me,” Kentarou said, and looked up.
Shigeru was so red-faced that Kentarou cracked a bigger smile. That did not help Shigeru’s blush. Kentarou put a hand on Shigeru’s face and then he pressed his lips to Shigeru’s.
From then on, Shigeru got to smooth the wrinkle any time he wanted.