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It's with a knot in his stomach that Kiyoomi parks his car in the gym’s parking lot this morning. Every year he hopes that something will be different, and every year he ends up disappointed yet again.
Although this time his team has a good excuse, he guesses. He’s only been with the Black Jackals for a few months so it only makes sense that none of them would know that today is his birthday.
That's okay. He should be used to it by now. He should be used to it because, with the exception of Motoya, no one ever wishes him happy birthday. Not even his dad.
He and Motoya made a pinky promise when they were kids to always call the other on the morning of their birthdays so that they’d be the first ones to say it — “And it has to be a call otherwise it doesn’t count!” Motoya had said then. Kiyoomi smiles at the memory. They made this promise fifteen years ago and they have yet to break it (not that Kiyoomi ever intends to).
Motoya did call him first thing in the morning and it made Kiyoomi happy — as always, even though he doesn’t voice it. Motoya can always read through him anyway so the latter definitely knows.
Just like every year, he doesn’t have any messages from his dad though, nor from anyone from high school or college. That's fine. He's used to it. He’s never really been good at making friends anyway.
He had some in high school but they were more acquaintances than friends, considering that they hung out with him mostly because he was always with Motoya and the latter just has a way of attracting people to him. This has been proven right when Kiyoomi didn’t manage to make any close friends when going to college.
Being without Motoya for the first time has been harder than he ever anticipated, not that he ever told anyone that. He also blames himself for that, considering that he did not really try that much to make friends in the first place. He isn’t even sure he knows how .
This changed when he joined the Black Jackals though. Well, he did not change and still didn’t know how to make friends, but it’s his teammates that are different this time. As opposed to his high school teammates, or his classmates from university, the Jackals seem to be particularly tenacious — in the sense that they apparently do not know when to stop.
Kiyoomi has been his same blunt and introverted self ever since he joined the team, but none of his teammates seem particularly put off by it. He never let it show on his face, but it made Kiyoomi genuinely happy to see that they weren’t just giving up on him from the first stop sign.
Kiyoomi has to admit that it is extremely hard to stay stoic and disinterested when the person across from you is Hinata Shoyo, sunshine incarnate. The same thing happened with Bokuto Koutarou, who also has a very bubbly personality, albeit different from Hinata’s. He’s been on his guard at first though, because the two men seem to particularly love physical touch, something that Kiyoomi has never been a fan of — even Motoya still always asks beforehand.
His other teammates have also been nice to him from the very beginning, neither of them put off by his attitude either. The team captain, Meian Shuugo, almost even looks like a dad most of the time. He has a sort of authoritarian and protective aura over his teammates that Kiyoomi finds comforting — that is probably due to the fact that his own dad has never been present in his life, but he’s not about to unpack that now.
The worst (read: best) of them all is his setter, Miya Atsumu. Kiyoomi remembered Miya Atsumu from his high school training camp, but they had never really talked to each other back then apart from the basic interactions that a setter and his spiker has during a game. Although he does remember that he wasn’t a huge fan of the guy. He did admire him for his impressive setter abilities as well as the fact that the blonde wasn’t afraid to say what he had to say, no matter how hurtful it could be — Kiyoomi has always preferred when his teammates directly tell him what’s wrong. He remembers that they worked well together, and he's thrilled to realize that they work even better together now that they’ve grown up and work in the same professional team.
Miya has been, by far, the most tenacious teammate Kiyoomi has ever had to face. The blonde simply never backed down, no matter what Kiyoomi would tell him. Even on Kiyoomi’s worst days when he felt annoyed by the slightest thing, Miya was still here and talking to him. And the most surprising fact of them all is that Miya never tried to touch him.
Kiyoomi didn’t understand because he’s watched Miya interacting with others, and he definitely touches them. But not him. He asked him about it once, and was found completely dumbfounded when Miya simply said “Ya said at training camp that ya don’t like people touchin’ ya,” and shrugged as if that was the most normal thing to say. As if it was normal to remember something that a high schooler from a different school from yours that you met twice in your life said randomly once .
In a strange but fond way, Miya reminds Kiyoomi of Motoya. Before knowing Miya, Motoya was the only person who would keep talking normally to Kiyoomi, no matter how the latter would feel or act — but still never being annoying. Because yes, Kiyoomi did notice that Miya seems to be able to differentiate the times when Kiyoomi acts annoyed to the ones when he’s genuinely annoyed.
Kiyoomi thinks they’re friends…at least he hopes so. He truly enjoys Miya’s company and hopes it’s the same for the other man. Miya seems to not put effort in things he doesn’t care about though, so the way he pursued Kiyoomi ever since he joined the team surely must mean something. Right?
Kiyoomi also thinks that Hinata and Bokuto are his friends. At least, he definitely feels closer to them than any of the other teammates he’s ever had. Although Kiyoomi knows that the way he feels around Miya is different from the way he feels around any of his other teammates.
He hasn’t told Motoya that yet, though. He’s not sure he’s ready to. He’d like to keep this a secret for now, and he’d like to figure it out on his own. He doesn’t really understand what he feels — if those are simply intense friendship because he’s never had a close friend before, or if it’s more than that — but he’d like to navigate those feelings by himself.
Overall though, Kiyoomi feels at ease with the entirety of the MSBY team. He finds himself blushing when he thinks of the day he told exactly that to Motoya and the latter cooed , acting like a proud mom.
But even with all that, Kiyoomi joined MSBY less than a year ago, which means that his previous birthday was already passed. He can’t be mad at them for not knowing, and he isn't. He isn’t mad because he hasn’t told them, and obviously none of them can guess it.
But that’s okay, he repeats to himself once again. He’ll just tell them later on. He feels uncomfortable with telling them on the D-day, it feels as if he’s forcing them to wish him happy birthday just because he told them.
It’s okay. He should be used to it, but for some reason he just can’t. There’s still an —albeit very small— part of him that still keeps hope .
He doesn’t even really know what he wants. He hates parties so he definitely doesn’t want people to organize him a surprise birthday party. He also definitely doesn’t want someone to make a public grand gesture as he’s seen in some movies because he’s pretty sure he would die from embarrassment — he definitely got second-hand embarrassment in front of his TV screen. He doesn’t even specifically want a gift.
It’s with sheer horror and embarrassment that Kiyoomi comes to the realization that what he wants is simply for people to care . For people to wish him happy birthday because they remembered , and not out of obligation.
He gets out of his car and starts making his way to the gym only to stop dead in his tracks when he notices Miya standing next to the front door, seemingly waiting for him as he saw the blonde put his phone in his pocket as soon as he took note of Kiyoomi’s arrival.
Kiyoomi frowns in confusion and resumes his walking. The closer Kiyoomi gets to Miya, the bigger the latter’s smile becomes. Kiyoomi feels his hands sweating and his heart beating really fast at the sight. By the time Kiyoomi reaches him, miya is grinning .
“Um–” Kiyoomi clears his throat. “Good morning, Miya. Why are you here? Were you waiting for me?” He asks, genuinely confused and intrigued. Miya has never waited for him in the mornings before.
“Mornin’ Omi!” The blonde beams. “Yes, I was waitin’ for ya ‘cause I wanted ta be the first person from the team ta wish ya happy birthday!” He exclaims, and proceeds to send Kiyoomi’s brain into a complete shut down.
He what?
“So, happy birthday Omi!” The setter then adds, still smiling widely. His voice sounds somehow more fond than Kiyoomi’s ever heard and it does bad things to his heart.
Kiyoomi feels his cheeks heating up at the sudden attention. How did he know?
“I– How–” Kiyoomi stumbles upon his words embarrassingly. “How did you know?”
Miya tilts his head to the side like a lost puppy and Kiyoomi refrains himself from telling the latter how cute he looks right now. “I heard ya and yer cousin talk about it during training camp but since I don’t have yer number I’ve never been able ta wish it ta ya. So I had ta be the first one ta do it today ya know!” He exclaims proudly.
Kiyoomi’s mind goes blank. What the hell? The training camp… again .
How the fuck does Miya remember things from this far? Things that are so… insignificant to him. Does he even realize that he’s just told Kiyoomi how he thought about him every year on his birthday but just didn’t have any way of contacting him?
Does that mean that someone did care…? For all these years?
Suddenly feeling overwhelmed by a thousand emotions that he’s unable to name, Kiyoomi averts his gaze to the side. “Thank you,” he whispers sheepishly.
Miya doesn’t say anything about his attitude and simply smiles. “I’ll give ya yer gift after practice, c’mon.” He says before starting to turn around to enter the gym.
“I have a gift?!” Kiyoomi blurts out, surprised.
Miya turns around. “Duh? ‘Course ya do.” He replies, as if that was the most obvious thing and he doesn’t understand how Kiyoomi can even ask that. “Though Samu helped me ta choose it ‘cause I had too many ideas, so if ya don’t like it then blame him, ‘kay?” He adds jokingly.
He had too many ideas?! Before he even has the time to realize it, Kiyoomi starts laughing. He doesn’t really understand why his body is reacting like that, but he can’t help it. He feels overwhelmed but in the best way possible. He just feels so, so happy that he can’t express it in any other way.
He does immediately stop when he notices Miya staring at him, though. He feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment under the intense gaze of the blonde. Miya’s eyes are wide-open and his cheeks seem redder than just a moment ago — although that can be due to the sunrays, Kiyoomi doesn’t know.
They stay like that for a few seconds, awkwardly staring at each other while Kiyoomi wishes for the ground below his feet to open up and swallow him whole.
Then, Miya finally breaks the silence. “I’ve never seen ya laugh before.” He whispers but it looks more like he’s talking to himself rather than to Kiyoomi.
“I-” Kiyoomi starts, not really knowing what to say.
“Yer pretty.” Miya blurts out.
Kiyoomi’s eyes widen at that and he feels his face heat up yet again, but this time for an entirely different reason.
Oh. It’s definitely more than friendship, he thinks to himself as he watches the blonde’s face turn scarlet when he realizes what he just said.