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Tooru peeked across the First Years’ Welcoming Ceremony, trying to find the familiar head of jet-black hair. Even though he knew that Tobio-chan would be here somewhere, he could not help but overthink that the younger boy might have changed his mind at the last moment.
The last few weeks had been… enlightening, to be honest. He never expected Tobio-chan to be this demanding. His distaste for geniuses had been due to Ushikawa’s complete and utter disregard for his abilities as a setter and his adamant refusal to even consider the slightest possibility of losing against them.
This fact alone had seared a hatred inside of him for those so-called prodigies. He had admittedly and wrongfully taken it out on Tobio-chan. After the disastrous match, Kitagawa Tooru had sort of tried to make amends. Tried to reach out as the Senpai of the other boy.
Tobio had soaked up the attention as a sponge. Tobio had not been able to stay away from a sharp-tongued, venom-spouting Tooru; now faced with an approachable one, he was a well of endless demands. After the initial phase of disbelief and suspicion had been absolved, all bets were off.
*“Oikawa-senpai, help me with the English homework.”*
*“Oikawa-senpai, teach me your serve.”*
*“Oikawa-senpai, are you coming to my graduation?”*
*“Oikawa-senpai, I am bored, let's play volleyball”*
‘Oikawa-senpai’ this, ‘Oikawa-senpai’ that, Tooru had felt that at some point he seemed to have created a little monster. It was as if Tobio wanted his attention; all the time. Sometimes in his more absurd and, to be honest, hopeful flights of fancy, he liked to think that it wasn’t only about volleyball anymore, or even being a Senpai. He felt it might be about him as a person. His inner Iwa-chan always and ruthlessly stepped on that notion.
‘Ah, there was that dark head.’
Tooru spied Tobio-chan standing towards the end of one of the lines of the incoming fresh-faced chubby little First Years. The boy stood there with an almost bored look in his grey eyes, yawning as the Principal welcomed them to Aoba Josai. Probably thinking about volleyball. Most definitely thinking about volleyball.
The club ceremony was going to be done pretty soon. There would soon be the time for the welcome booths for the clubs. The new school year always began with a festive atmosphere of new club recruits and fresh beginnings. All introductions and inductions, shuffled classes, new class loads, new duties.
Tooru was once again going to step up as the Captain. Once again going to venture into the tournaments with him at the helm. Their team had lost in the finals the last two years. Always against Shiratorizawa. Again, the same old argument of pure, raw talent against hard work. Tooru will not let it happen this time. Not this time.
Glancing at Tobio-chan, Tooru felt his heart warm a bit.
Anyways, they had their share of genius contributions sorted this time, anyways.