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“Oh, hello Kuroo-kun. I saved you a seat.”
“Thank you, Tsukishima big brother, but I bring along some friends since this is a big match. Hope you don’t mind.”
“Oh, of course! I’m so nervous for him.”
“I bet you do. We all do. Though perhaps more excited than nervous.”
--
Kuroo was always there on Tsukishima’s important matches (and not so important ones like the friendly matches with Nekoma during the training camp). For the first few, he had been across the court with him. Soon after, he was on the sidelines, mostly making unnecessary remarks. That had also been how he had gotten acquainted with a certain Tsukishima Akiteru.
It was a match against Shiratorizawa, third set, a few more points and Karasuno could go to Tokyo for the interhigh. They had to go if they were to meet Nekoma. They had done it the year before, while Kuroo had been on the other side of the net. They should be able to do it this year too.
He were making commentaries about Tsukishima’s blocks when he heard somebody next to him complaining.
“Hey, my brother has worked hard for this, you know? It’s not like he let the spiker spike the ball past his defences.”
“Your brother…? You are Tsukki’s big brother?”
“Huh? Tsukki? Who are you?”
“I’m Kuroo, nice to meet you. Tsukki and I practiced blocking together. Ah, I was Nekoma’s captain last year. I’m here to make sure that Karasuno gets to go against my team in the interhigh.”
Well, Akiteru thought, despite that annoying grin, at least their goals were sort of aligned.
--
The next time was the spring tournament of Tsukishima’s second year. Some of the third years had resigned from the club, leaving the unruly duo of Tanaka and Nishinoya. Akiteru introduced Tanaka’s sister to Kuroo and her comment was just “what a wild hairstyle you have there. I wonder if I could pull it off.”
After a few conversations with her, Kuroo was almost sure that she could.
Tsukishima was made the captain soon after the tournament. The third years graduated and new members joined. It was also about that timing when Tsukishima started coming to Tokyo for his study sessions with Akaashi, with Akiteru occasionally driving him to Sendai train station.
--
After that was, again, the interhigh. Kuroo had come to Miyagi when he heard about the regional preliminary finals lineup, Karasuno and Aobajohsai. He sat with the rest of Karasuno cheer squad through all five sets, Tsukishima’s eyes occasionally meeting his. Or was he looking at his brother? Kuroo just wished that his encouragement reached Tsukishima and the team.
In the end, Karasuno lost. Coach Ukai made them eat a lot before sending each of them home. That night, Tsukishima locked himself in his room despite his brother’s insistence on a consolation session. The only person Akiteru could think of to talk about this was Kuroo, and he did.
“Kei—My brother is a hard worker even if it doesn’t show.”
“I know he is.”
“He’s a good kid and he’s smart. I just wish that he’d allow himself to see that sometimes.”
“I know someone who used to be like that. I guess what he needs is time. For now.”
The next day, Kuroo managed to talk Tsukishima out of his room. Tsukishima wasn’t sure if he was thankful to Kuroo for trying to cheer him up or if he wanted to accidentally serve a ball to his face for making him feel so emotionally exposed.
--
Karasuno managed to go all the way to the finals on the following spring tournament. They would be facing their fated rival soon and Kuroo took his time to talk to coach Nekomata and the new captain, Lev before the match started. Most of his friends were there too. Yaku was especially agitated because of Lev’s persistent habit of reminding him of his height (“Wow, Yaku-san is still so tiny even after going to university!”). Kozume was already on his seat with his handheld console. He also caught sight of Sugawara trying to stop Tanaka (that’s his name right?) from making a scene with Yamamoto. Ugh. Maybe he should go up there and stop him because Kozume most certainly wouldn’t.
Kuroo went looking for Bokuto before he even had the chance to find a seat because Akaashi had texted him, saying that he had lost sight of Bokuto. He eventually noticed his friend ruffling Hinata’s hair and probably giving last minute tips and encouragement. Should he come and talk to Tsukishima too? They had had a long talk the night before. His eyes met Tsukishima’s for an instance and Kuroo decided to give him a flying kiss instead. Tsukishima sent him a look that read “Really, Kuroo-san?” before proceeding to brief his team, effectively driving Bokuto away.
While walking to their seats, Bokuto talked endlessly about how HInata had grown and so had Tsukishima and that they were so going to beat Nekoma’s ass on his behalf. Kuroo retaliated, saying that it’s Nekoma that’s going to beat Karasuno this time round.
“Aren’t you too disgustingly confident? AH! I knew it! You must have leaked Karasuno’s info to Nekoma! I saw! Hey, that’s unfair!”
“Heh. Even if I did, there’s no guarantee that Lev could understand anyway.”
Besides, Kuroo thought as he greeted Akiteru when he got to his seat, it’s not like Tsukishima wouldn’t be able to overcome anything thrown at him and his team.