Chapter Text
It was the end of another long and exhausting day for the Nekoma team. They had been practicing receives today - especially diving ones - trying to make their defensive skills even better than they already were. After all of the squatting and diving, the team members’ legs were killing them. Though, there was one team member who was still as lively as ever.
“Kenma! Kenma! Don’t you wanna toss me a few more balls?” Lev was bouncing around excitedly, disturbing the poor blonde who was trying desperately to ignore him. Kenma glared at him and mumbled something about needing to clean up before he shuffled off.
The other boys were busy actually cleaning up the gym after the day’s practice. Inuoka and Shibayama were washing the floors and Yamamoto was putting away the net. Off to the side, Kuroo and Yaku were chatting together while cleaning up some of the water bottles that were lying around. The rest of the team had gone off to the club room to get changed.
“Honestly, having to practice diving receives is so taxing,” Kuroo whined, rubbing one of his sore shoulders.
Yaku rolled his eyes, “It’s important to learn, though. Plus, you’re good at them, it’s a piece of cake for you.”
“That’s my point, though,” Kuroo took a sip of water, “I’m good at diving receives already, so why should I have to practice if it’s the rest of the team that needs to practice? I could be doing better things with my time. Like practicing spikes.”
“You sound so full of yourself right now, Kuroo. Besides, the ‘rest of the team that needs practice’ likes looking to you for guidance.”
“He also likes looking to you,” Kuroo smirked down at Yaku, “I’d say you’re just as.. Influential as I am.”
Yaku glared at Kuroo and whacked him on the arm, “Stop teasing me about that, will you? It’s not my fault that Lev chose to follow me around like a puppydog. He knows he needs to work on receives and obviously he realized that I was the best, so he chose me to be his teacher. However, when I accepted the role, I didn’t realize he would be glued to my hip every time that we’re near each other.”
“So.. Because you’re good at receives and because you were naive enough to say yes to him, he now follows you around. And it’s not your fault?”
The taller boy only laughed when Yaku hit him again, “You’re a tool, you know that?”
Kuroo shrugged and took another quick sip of water, “Hey, speaking of your lapdog, here comes Lassie now.”
Yaku groaned quietly and turned towards where Lev was running over, a grin spread across his face. Kuroo chuckled softly beside him at Lev’s abundant eagerness. The boy really did have an endless stamina.
“Hey, Yaku! I was thinking maybe today we could practice receives a little extra and then go out for some udon afterwards. What do you think?”
The upperclassmen sighed, “Lev, I’ve told you before, I don’t want to do extra practice after regular practice. Besides, didn’t you get enough receiving practice today?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe we could just go out for udon together.”
Yaku didn’t even need to look at Kuroo to see his trademark smirk. God, this was embarrassing.
“Ah, I’m a little busy tonight, Lev. I have a lot of homework and stuff to do. You know how it is.”
Lev pouted, “But you always have homework and stuff to do.”
“Aww,” Kuroo moved to stand beside Lev, reaching a hand up to pull him down a bit and squish his cheeks together, “Look at this adorable face, Yaku. How could anyone say no to this face?” Lev deepened his pout, trying to enhance the effect.
“I’m not saying no. I’m just saying not today. Maybe some other time when I’m not so busy.”
Lev wiggled free of Kuroo’s grip and brushed himself off, “Okay. I’ll ask some other time when you’re not so busy.” The taller boy waved and left the gym to go get changed in the club room.
Kuroo turned to Yaku with his hands on his hips, staring down at him. The smaller male bristled and looked away, “Don’t start with me, Kuroo. You may be captain of our volleyball team, but that doesn’t make you my dad.”
“I just don’t understand why you can’t get some udon with him. He idolizes you, bro, just let him hang out with his idol for a bit.”
“Lev doesn’t idolize me; he idolizes some embodiment of the perfect ace. All he wants from me is extra receiving practice.”
“You don’t get udon with someone you just want volleyball tips from.”
“Well, I’m also older than him. He probably thinks I’m some sort of cool senpai.”
Kuroo scoffed and started heading towards the club room, “I don’t know where he would get that idea.”
“Hey, Kuroo,” Yaku followed after his friend, deciding to ignore the previous comment, “You don’t think he’s, like, gay , do you?”
The captain stopped in his tracks and looked over at Yaku, raising a brow, “And if he was?”
“I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant.. Well.. You don’t think he has some kind of a crush on me, do you?”
Kuroo shrugged and continued his walk to the club room, “He asks to hang out a lot, but I don’t think that necessarily means he likes you. I think Lev just needs to make some friends and, considering you two spend a lot of time together during practice, he probably considers you to be a friend. I get that he can be a bit much to handle at times, but at least he’s friendly. You should give him a chance.”
Yaku nodded and walked into the now-deserted club room, “We’ll see.”
---
“Lyovochka! I came to pick you up from practice today!” A young woman ran into the gym, breezing past players as they made their way to the club room to change. She headed straight for Lev and threw her arms around him in a warm embrace, “Aren’t you excited to see me?”
Lev blushed, a bit embarrassed at the fact that his sister just charged into the gym and was calling him by his nickname in front of his teammates, “Yes, very happy, neesan. Can you wait for me to finish cleaning up the gym and give me time to change, though?”
The girl pulled away, apologizing, before going back to the entrance of the gym to wait for her brother. She sat on the steps, completely unaware of the multiple sets of eyes that were on her. Almost the entire team was transfixed by the Russian goddess who had just graced them with her presence.
Even Yaku.
Especially Yaku.
“You’ll catch bugs with your mouth open like that,” Kuroo teased, stepping back to dodge the libero’s hand when it came swinging at him.
“Shut up, okay? Girls don’t usually come here during practice, so I was just shocked. Plus, did you see her? She’s gorgeous.”
“I thought you liked girls with short hair.”
Yaku waved him off, “They don’t have to have short hair, it’s just a plus. Unlike some people, I have very open standards.”
Kuroo scoffed and nodded, “Right, sure you do. By the way, Yaku, did you see who that girl is related to?”
“Yes, I was watching as she ran in to hug Lev. It was pretty funny to see him get so red like that. Why do you ask, though?”
“Well, think of it like this,” Kuroo pulled Yaku closer and outstretched his arm, showing off his vision, “You think Lev’s sister is hot. And the person who can get you closer to Lev’s sister is Lev. So if you can convince Lev to let you hang out this weekend, you can end up hanging out with his sister.”
The smaller boy frowned, “Don’t you think it’s wrong to use Lev like that?”
“I told you to give him a chance. If these are the means necessary to get you to spend at least five minutes with him outside of practice, then so be it. I just want to see all of my kittens get along.”
After that comment, Yaku shoved the captain off, “You’re a creep, but I’ll do it. I’m sure Lev won’t mind, right? He’s been begging me to hang out with him for months now anyways.”
Kuroo nodded and patted Yaku on the back, “Go talk to him before he leaves.”
Yaku took a deep breath and jogged over to Lev, catching him before he walked out to the clubroom, “Hey, Lev, what’s up?”
Lev smiled down at him, “I’m just about to go change, what’s up with you?”
The libero cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his neck, trying to think of a way to phrase what he was going to say, “Well, uh, I don’t have any homework or stuff to do this weekend, so I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out? With me? As long as it’s not a problem, I know this is kind of last minute considering it’s Thursday, but I--”
“Yes! It’s no problem!” Wide eyes were staring down at Yaku with excitement, “You can come over tomorrow after practice and spend the night.”
“Actually, I was just thinking about coming over on Sat--”
“This will be so much fun, Yaku! We can hang out and play video games and watch movies-- Ooh! Have you seen that new action movie with the cars and the guns? I’ve heard it’s really good. We should rent it tomorrow.”
“I don’t really like action movies and--”
“That’s okay! We can watch a different movie. I have a huge collection of different movies that we can watch; I’m sure there’ll be one that you like. We can watch whatever you want and make popcorn and eat a lot of candy. What kind of candy do you like, Yaku? I can go out and buy it today, so we’re prepared for tomorrow.”
It was very hard to get a word in during Lev’s rambling and Yaku was quickly getting roped into a sticky situation. His original plan was to just go over to the other boy’s house on Saturday for a few hours and watch a movie with him and his sister, but Lev had other ideas. The kid wanted a full-on slumber party and - no matter what Yaku said - he was getting a full-on slumber party.
Yaku silently cursed for letting himself get stuck like this, “I like anything sweet and sour. Like those sour gummy worms.”
Lev chuckled to himself and Yaku immediately asked what was so funny, “Nothing, nothing, it’s just.. They’re kind of like you, don’t you think? Really sour, but still sweet?”
The older boy could feel his face redden and he looked away before Lev could notice, “I’m not like those stupid worms! I just like to eat them.”
“If you say so,” Lev shrugged, “Friday, though, right? We can walk back to my place together and you can spend the night. My parents are out of town, so my sister is here to babysit. I hope that’s alright with you.”
That was absolutely fine with Yaku. Nothing getting in between him and the older Haiba - except for Lev, of course. Everything was going somewhat according to plan. He would have to spend more time with Lev than he had originally bargained for, but there would also be a lot of time with Lev’s sister. Maybe some alone time if he was lucky.
So it was agreed upon. Yaku would be going to Lev’s house after practice tomorrow and spending the night. Everything would go exactly like Yaku had planned; nothing bad would happen. Nothing bad could happen.
---
Yaku was on his way out of the clubroom to meet Lev outside. Everyone else had already left and he was the last one out because he and Kuroo had to stay a little later to get a volleyball down from the roof (some outdoor practice had gotten out of hand). He had his bag packed for the night at Lev’s and he was ready to finally get some rest, when Kuroo stopped him at the door.
“Hey, you gonna be good for tonight?” Kuroo looked a bit concerned, though Yaku didn’t really understand why.
“I’ll be fine, why wouldn’t I be?”
“I just want to make sure you aren’t about to do anything stupid. I know you’re going over to get some babe, but make sure you don’t hurt Lev’s feelings in the process, okay? His sister may be hot, but she’s not the only person who lives there.”
“Who do you think I am, Kuroo? I’m not gonna treat Lev like shit just because his sister is gonna be there. We’re still going to watch movies and whatnot, I’ll just try to get a few minutes alone with his sister.”
Kuroo nodded, “Alright, alright. I’ll text you later to see how things are going, okay? Text me if you need anything and text me goodnight, so I don’t worry. You know how much I care about my sweet lil’ libero.”
Yaku shoved him out of the way and started walking off to Lev, “My goodnight message will be the middle finger emoji, Kuroo. I hope you enjoy it.”
The captain laughed and began to walk off towards the bus station, waving the two other boys goodbye. Lev waved back while Yaku just rolled his eyes.
“Should we get going, Yaku? Do you have everything?”
“Yes. I have everything. My school bag, my volleyball bag, and my bag of stuff for your house.”
Lev frowned, “Do you really need all of those bags? Don’t they weigh a lot?”
“I like to stay organized, so I don’t care if they’re heavy or not. You should probably worry about your own massive bag,” Yaku motioned to the backpack Lev was shouldering. It worked as a school bag and gym bag for the taller boy, but it was over half the size of Yaku himself.
The taller boy shrugged and - before he could stop him - Lev was grabbing the volleyball bag out of Yaku’s hand, “I don’t mind it. I can handle carrying your bag as well, so that we’re even. Two bags each.”
“I told you I didn’t care, I can carry my own bags, Lev. You should just hold your own.”
Lev shook his head in response and started walking, “They would slow you down and it’s a long walk.”
Sighing, Yaku decided to accept the nice gesture and began walking alongside Lev. The bags actually were heavy, so he was at least a little grateful that the other boy was willing to carry one of them. It was a really sweet thing of Lev to do; nobody else had ever carried Yaku’s bag for him. Maybe the sleepover wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.
The two boys walked quietly down the sidewalk, which was a bit shocking to Yaku. He had expected Lev to be talking non-stop and bouncing around, but the boy was silent. Yaku dared a glance over to him and was surprised to see that Lev looked extremely nervous.
He was staring down at the ground, his brows furrowed in concentration. Across his cheeks was a light blush that seemed to be spreading further across his face. His teeth were worrying away at his bottom lip and Yaku had to stop himself from staring too long at that sight. Lev appeared to be deep in thought, something was obviously worrying him, but Yaku didn’t know what. Maybe something had happened at school?
Yaku cleared his throat to get the boy’s attention, deciding that he should try and talk to help Lev forget about whatever was worrying him, “Uh, you had some nice receives today.”
Lev’s eyes widened and he looked over to Yaku, “Really?”
“Yeah, really. You picked up one of Kuroo’s spikes and that was pretty impressive. I think you’re really improving.”
The blush on Lev’s face darkened and he looked back down again, “Thanks. I’m working really hard.”
Seeing Lev blush at his words made Yaku blush a bit as well and he quickly looked across the street so Lev wouldn’t see. What was he doing? Getting all worked up over someone else getting worked up. He couldn’t help it though; thinking of Lev’s reddening cheeks only caused his to redden as well.
An awkward silence settled back over the boys. Yaku was trying to clear his head, annoyed at his lack of self-control. Lev was trying to prepare himself for the long night ahead of him. The air between them was tense and Yaku was grateful when they finally reached the Haiba household.
“You can bring your stuff to my room first and then we can get a snack or something,” Lev opened the door and walked inside, leaving his shoes by the entrance.
Yaku followed after him and looked around. It was a pretty nice house, similar to the Morisuke household. There were a lot of paintings on the walls and plenty of decorative pieces on shelves about the house. Everything was very neat and Yaku wondered if it was always like this or if they had just tidied up for him.
Lev walked past the living room and the kitchen, heading down the hallway to his own room. His bedroom was the second door on the left and Yaku assumed that his sister slept next door and his parents were across the hall. At the end of the hall was the bathroom.
“You can put your stuff in that corner over there, by the closet,” Lev motioned to the area he was talking about as he set Yaku’s volleyball bag down and tossed his own bag by his desk.
Yaku set his bags down gently and brought his volleyball bag over from where Lev had dropped it. He looked around the surprisingly clean room and took a deep breath. Lev had two beds set up side by side - which took up most of the space - and a desk on the opposite wall. There were a few bookshelves holding a large variety of items here and there and a shelf above the desk that held some trophies. It was much more plain than Yaku had expected.
“What do you think? Is it as cool as you expected?” The taller boy looked at him with eager eyes.
He wanted to say no, because it was a very simple room, but for some reason he couldn’t bear the thought of hurting Lev’s feelings. Especially because Lev looked so proud, “It looks pretty cool. You have some nice trophies.”
Lev swelled with pride and walked over to the trophy shelf, “Yeah, they’re mostly from races or other small competitions from middle school. I don’t have any volleyball ones yet, but I’m hoping to get some soon. I want to have an entire shelf dedicated to them.”
Yaku couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face, “If you keep practicing, you’ll need a whole wall dedicated to the trophies you’re going to get.”
The tips of Lev’s ears turned a dark shade of red and he coughed, “Do you wanna get a snack or something? We can start watching a movie, too.”
There wasn’t time left for an answer, because Lev was headed towards the kitchen anyways. Yaku quickly followed after him; he’d been hungry ever since practice ended. Though, he was a bit confused at the sudden change of topic.
In the kitchen, Lev’s sister was texting on her phone. She smiled as Lev walked in with Yaku, “Hello, baby brother and friend! How was your practice? Did you hit spikes?”
Lev nodded and opened the pantry, digging around, “I hit a few spikes, it was pretty cool. Yaku said I did good on receives, so I think I’m improving.”
“I’m very proud, Lyovochka,” she turned to look at Yaku and he felt himself start to freeze up, “Are you Yaku, then? The receiving one?”
“Uh, yes. I’m the receives guy,” Lev looked over at him and raised a brow. Yaku chose to ignore him.
His sister laughed, “I have heard a lot about you, Yaku. Lev thinks you are very good at volleyball. Right, Lev?”
The boy in question buried his head back in the pantry, blushing brightly. Yaku felt himself blush a bit as well. Lev talked about him? And with high praise?
Yaku cleared his throat, “I’ve played volleyball for a long time, so I have a lot of experience.”
“Ah, a man with experience . No wonder Lev thinks you’re so good,” she winked and smiled at Yaku as his blush darkened.
“Neesan!” They both jumped as Lev glared over at her, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
She sighed, “As a matter of fact, I do, but I like spending time with you too. Your friend’s face looks funny when it’s all red.”
The siblings shared a small moment of nonverbal communication and Yaku was forced to wait awkwardly. Lev was sending his sister cold daggers and his sister was returning a coy smile. She looked like the cat that caught the canary to Yaku. It was a bit unsettling.
Finally, she pocketed her phone and fixed her hair, “Well, I hope you two are fine alone, because I’m going out. Mom and dad said you need a responsible babysitter, but I think your older friend will do just fine, right?”
Yaku nodded vacantly, “I can babysit Lev if you need me to.”
She laughed again, “Have fun, then. I should be home some time tomorrow, Lyovochka, text me if you have an emergency.”
Lev nodded and waved her off, “Okay, have fun with your friends. You can text me if there’s an emergency.”
His sister walked over and kissed his cheek before walking out, “Goodbye!”
It was only after Lev’s sister had left that Yaku realized what just happened. His entire plan had gone down the drain in a matter of minutes. The goddess he had come to woo was walking out the door and would not be returning until he had left. Which meant he was left alone with--
“Okay, I got sour gummy worms, pretzels, and some microwaveable popcorn. We can order a pizza after the first movie or something. Speaking of movies, which one do you want to watch first? I know you don’t like action, so I set up a pile of other movies in the living room. You can pick the first one if you want.”
“Right, okay,” Yaku sighed and walked with Lev into the living room. This was going to be the longest night of his life.