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Kei had always known he had a soulmate. Hell, his world was in black and white. Everyone’s vision was in black and white until they locked eyes with their soulmate, that was how someone knew. Their world would explode in color once they met their soulmate’s own vision.
Kei didn’t really care one way or another. He wanted to be a paleontologist when he was younger. Studying dinosaur bones didn’t require color to see, bones were white. He could always see them. He never had to see anything else, no other color, in order for him to live his life. It didn’t mean he didn’t feel lonely, as he played volleyball at his high school. A couple of his classmates had even met their soulmates already. Hinata Shouyou had just met Kozume Kenma, and the orange ball of energy could not shut up about it. Kei wasn’t jealous, not one bit. Who would want to be tied to that firecracker of energy for the rest of their lives? Certainly not Kei.
Karasuno was supposed to be going to a training camp after their exams. That was why he and his best friend, Yamaguchi Tadashi, had been helping Hinata and the other stupid first year, Kageyama Tobio, study. He and Yamaguchi had spent so much time helping them, only for the two to still fail and have to take the makeup tests. Kei had no sympathy for them. He and the rest of Karasuno were almost to Shinzen’s school in Saitama, Kei listening to his music while Yamaguchi sat beside him on the bus.
Nothing was out of the ordinary until after Karasuno had arrived at the gym, a match already started. One of the coaches from Shinzen came to introduce himself to Takeda-sensei as he explained that Fukurodani and Nekoma had already started playing a match, but Ubugawa would be happy to have a match against Karasuno when they were ready.
Kei and the rest of Karasuno went and got changed into their uniforms, and made their way down to the gym to watch the practice match. He was sure they would be soon playing as well, but he figured they would all probably start stretching and getting ready to play.
They got there as the first practice match was ending, but not before Kei witnessed one of the Fukurodani players smash the ball down against two blockers. He was just finishing his own stretches when he locked eyes with one of the players. It felt like his breath had been pulled from him as the black and white of the world suddenly seemed to turn on a bright mode. He could see color? Kei shut his eyes and crouched on the ground as he put his hands to his eyes, groaning a bit. Yamaguchi was asking what was wrong, but Kei already knew his problem. He had just met his soulmate. Who was it? It was obviously that Fukurodani volleyball player, but who was he?
They all heard a loud squawk, and a shrill, “I FOUND YOU.” Kei was embarrassed, it sounded like his soulmate was just as loud as Hinata. Hopefully that was just because of the surprise of finding a soulmate. Kei heard someone call, “Bokuto-san, please wait.”
Kei opened his eyes again as he heard someone running over to where he was. He was squinting still, not used to the different colors, and the gym floor was especially bright. He got a good view of white volleyball shoes, with blue accents, before he raised his head to find the face of his soulmate. Bright eyes met his own, with a head of spiky hair. The boy crouched down to be face to face with Kei, “I’m Bokuto Koutarou, third year at Fukurodani Academy! Who are you?”
Kei appreciated the gesture, “Tsukishima Kei, first year at Karasuno High.”
Bokuto looked positively elated, Kei could feel himself growing a bit happy as well. His parents had said it may take him a long time to find his soulmate. And here he was, finding his own at sixteen years old.
The training camp was definitely going to be annoying, if the amount of punishment laps they’re doing is any indication. They didn’t win one match, even with Hinata and Kageyama eventually making their way to the camp. Kei was exhausted once the teams were dismissed for the night. But before he could crawl to the dorms to sleep, he was pulled away by Bokuto. He wanted to get to know Kei better. Kei learned that Bokuto was actually THE Bokuto that was in the top five aces in Japan. That was impressive.
Kei could tell Bokuto was going to be a pain in his ass. He was loud, crude, said exactly what he was thinking. But Kei could also hardly hold his own tongue. Bokuto learned that Kei had really good music taste, and had already downloaded some songs that Kei had recommended. One of the Shinzen academy players had given the two of them a soulmate color pamphlet, since usually people didn’t actually know what colors were what until after they had met their soulmates. So, the two of them were going through it together and figuring out the different colors.
Kei had learned that Bokuto’s eyes were a bright gold, he found that the gold eyes were very nice to stare at. The training camp was indeed a pain, but Kei came out learning a lot. He and Bokuto had talked a lot and had made plans to spend more time together. Kei didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing for his soulmate to Bokuto Koutarou, but he could definitely tell they would at least get along a little bit. Maybe it would make it easier for Karasuno to plan practice matches with Fukurodani?
They were sitting next to each other eating barbeque that the coaches and sensei’s had thrown them to celebrate the last of the practice matches. Their shoulders were bumping every once and a while as Bokuto subtly tried to sneak more food onto Kei’s plate. Kei thought it was kind of cute. They had exchanged contact information, so they would be communicating that way after they left the school to go home.
Kei had been so sure he would have been fine with never meeting his soulmate. But this didn’t seem so bad. The world was in color now, he could get used to that. It wouldn’t be alone anymore either, an even better outcome.