Chapter Text
Pulling on his shirt for afternoon practice, Yaku hears the door to the clubroom open and he looks over to see Kuroo walking in, giving him a wave.
“Hey,” Yaku says with a nod, sitting down on the floor to put his shoes on.
“Hey,” Kuroo simply responds, ruffling Kenma's hair lightly as he passes by him who only grumbles. Yaku chuckles as he watches the two of them interact.
“So how many first years are we getting this year, Kuroo? Anybody you've heard about or know?” Yaku then asks, curious as to what they've got to work with. It's certainly not like they're short on the players they need, they have a good amount of people in the club already, but if Kuroo's updates throughout the day have been anything to go by, the club's garnered a decent amount of interest and at least a couple first years will be joining them for afternoon practice. Being a third year now, he along with Kuroo and Kai are going to be the main people helping them get accustomed to things and showing them the ropes, though he knows a couple of the second years will help where they can.
Kuroo moves over to grab something from his bag, handing Yaku a small stack of papers. “Five, just got one more handed to me on my way over actually.”
“Holy shit, you're kidding,” Yaku looks down at the papers wide-eyed, and sure enough, there are five of them in his hands, each one properly filled out.
“The team's starting to garner some interest, that's good,” Kai adds in with a nod to which Kuroo hums back in agreement.
“Yep, and to answer the second question, no, nobody I recognize personally. One of 'em's a libero though~” Kuroo laughs at Yaku subconsciously perking up as he hears the last part, and Yaku glares over at him. “Someone's interested it seems! Don't worry, I know how excited you are to teach a young kouhai all that you know, no shame in it!” he teases, undeterred even with Yaku doubling down on the glare.
Rolling his eyes, Yaku looks back down at the papers and reads through the names. “I don't recognize any of them either,” he says, stopping on the one at the bottom of the pile. “Huh.”
“What's up?”
“I haven't heard of any of them but listen to this: 'Haiba Lev',” Yaku sounds out the name slowly, raising an eyebrow.
Kuroo comes over and picks up the paper, taking a look at it. “Huh,” he echoes Yaku's earlier statement. “Well that's certainly not a name you see every day.”
“Wonder who he is.”
Yaku heads down first, starting to get things out for practice, Kai joining him soon after. Various second and third years come from the clubroom when they've gotten changed and everyone moves to get things set up.
“Uh, hello..!” a soft voice says from the gym door and Yaku as well as some other teammates look over, seeing a boy with black hair peeking his head in the doorway shyly.
“Oh, hey!” Kuroo calls out, walking over to him. “What's up?”
“Is this the volleyba-”
“Is this the volleyball club!?” a loud voice interrupts, someone nearly knocking the boy at the door over. A boy with spiky brown hair catches him by the shoulders and the two turn to each other, the one that just yelled lighting up a bit as they do for a split second, but he turns back to Kuroo. “Sorry, this is the volleyball club though, yeah?”
Kuroo chuckles and motions them into the gym. “Yeah it is, I take it you two are some of our new first years?”
“Inuoka Sou!” the brown-haired boy responds with a nod, following after Kuroo. He turns back to wave the boy still at the doorway in and Yaku watches as he ends up doing so. The timid boy's eyes meet Yaku's as he glances around the room. With a smile, Yaku gives him a friendly wave, feeling very accomplished as the boy shyly waves back at him, not quite smiling but looking just the slightest bit less terrified to be there. Being an upperclassman is already going to his head, isn't it?
“And you?” Kuroo asks the other boy, startling him a little as he looks over at the captain.
“Oh, I'm uh.. Shibayama Yuuki, it's nice to meet you,” he gets out with a small bow, turning to the rest of team and bowing again. “To meet all of you.”
“I'm Kuroo, your captain, but I'll save our introductions for when everyone gets here, we've got three more first years joining too so feel free to just hang out for a bit.”
“Yes sir!” Inuoka says with a nod, taking everything in excitedly. Shibayama does the same, staying by Inuoka's side as much as possible while they wait.
Two of the other first years arrive a few minutes later as they finally get things ready, and they introduce themselves too, Kuroo telling them the same thing he said to Inuoka and Shibayama.
Another minute passes and Kuroo takes a look at the clock. The Haiba kid has yet to show up. “Now would be the time we usually start but we're still waiting on someone so we'll give it a few more minutes.”
Another five goes by, Yaku letting out a sigh as Kuroo finally glances at the clock again, frowning.
“Alright, it's been five minutes so I guess we should get things started!” Kuroo exclaims with a clap of his hands, the second and third years gathering up behind him and Kai. “We'll start off with introductions then, I'm Kuroo Tetsurou, your captain-” he starts to say only to hear a loud voice shouting goodbyes to people, footsteps getting louder as they get closer to the gym. Yaku blinks, watching as a tall boy—holy fuck what Yaku would do to have even a little of his height—finally runs in through the gym doors.
“Hi, uh, sorry!” he says out of breath, grinning boyishly.
“It's fine, volleyball?” Kuroo asks him calmly.
“Yeah!” The boy who Yaku can only assume is Haiba Lev nods enthusiastically.
“Come in, we were just about to start introductions.”
Yaku's eyes narrow a bit as he watches the boy hurry over to join the other first years, without a care in the world at all that he's five minutes late on the very first day. He would've gone over to chew him out just now but Kuroo's annoying little voice from this morning had reminded him to “make sure to stay cool even if any of the first years do something.” When he'd asked for clarification on what “something” even meant, Kuroo had answered with “Something.” Super helpful. Yaku huffs as Kuroo gives him a look before starting over with his introduction.
Kuroo, Kai, and Yaku all clean up the gym after the first day of practice in order to discuss the new first years and make a plan for where they need to start these first few weeks.
“God, can you believe the nerve that that Lev kid has coming to practice late? On the first day?" Yaku finally exclaims at some point, Kuroo and Kai looking over to him. “And what's with that bullshit excuse he gave us after introductions!? Being swarmed because his classmates wanted to meet the 'new foreign student' my ass! He just-! Urghhhh!!” Yaku clenches and shakes his fists in front of him, glaring at the ground in agitation.
“Hey, give him a break, Yaku, I can believe it,” Kuroo tells him, raising an eyebrow as Yaku glares at him instead.
“You definitely don't see people like him every day,” Kai adds, unbothered as he continues to clean. “It would make sense for people to be curious about him, a lot of them have probably never really seen him around. If they have, people wouldn't be noticing as much.”
“Right,” Kuroo points to Kai in agreement. “Look Yaku, chill out a little, you hardly know the kid. Just give it a bit, I'm sure you're just working yourself up for no reason.”
Yaku huffs, shaking his head as he gets back to cleaning too. “Fine, but I bet you he'll be a piece of work, I just know it.”
“Mhm, whatever you say, Yaku-paisen,” Kuroo says simply.
“Oh be quiet, Kuroo!!”
Yaku would like to go on the record and say that he was right, becase Lev is most definitely an absolute piece of work from the get-go. He's not only not skilled in receives, he's new to volleyball as a whole and he still can do useful things purely because of how tall he is, the nerve! Yaku doesn't get any of that, it's irritating! What's even worse is that as the libero, Yaku's the one in charge of training him in receives and Lev is very adamant that he not learn how to do one of the most fundamental skills of the game, constantly complaining about how tiring it is and how much he's getting bruised up by throwing himself at the ground. He's hardly going to get any better by doing nothing though and no matter how many times Yaku reminds him of this, Lev still seems set in making extra practice with him as annoying as humanly possible.
“Yaku-san, everything hurtssssss!”
“Well if you actually listened to me, then you'd learn how to make it not hurt!”
“That's what you always say though!”
“And that's because you're not listening!”
On top of just what Yaku got from him in practice, Lev was young, brash, and cocky. The first few months are basically hell for Yaku but luckily it was slightly easier after several weeks. Not by much, mind you, but slightly. Yaku was going to take it for the sake of his own sanity, no matter how much Kuroo claimed he was being dramatic! He wasn't the one having to wrangle Lev in!
Still, the months do go by all the same.
Yaku finds himself opening his eyes to white rather than his bedroom, so he can only begin to guess that this is the dreamscape and he's meeting his soulmate tonight. Not what he had expected, but he guesses it's happening whether he did or not.
Turning around, he sees nothing.
“What...?” Yaku looks back around in case he somehow missed something but he's right, there really isn't anything there. There's no other person here.
It doesn't seem like he's going to be waking up anytime soon though so he starts to walk around, looking at the absolute nothingness he's been dropped into with the nonexistent soulmate he apparently has. It's not as if people don't not have soulmates, but whenever that happens, they simply don't wake up in a dreamscape at any point in their life. Some people bond later than most soulmates generally do, some have trouble with overlapping sleep schedules. Yaku's never even heard of anything like this though.
He wakes up, blinking at the ceiling.
“What the heck?”
As soon as he finishes processing everything, he's turning his computer on and staring at the search bar for a second before typing in the first thing he can think of.
Seeing no one in the dreamscape
He's greeted with several forums, no sort of academic sources though. Clicking on one of the links, he reads through the conversation.
Hello, I have a question if anyone can answer! Has anyone woken up in the dreamscape but no one else is there with you? I bonded with my soulmate(?) last night and I'm really confused, I don't know if something's wrong!!I've had it happen to me, you don't need to worry about it honestly
Yeah, that happened with me and my soulmate! Nothing's wrong with you or them, and you will get to meet them, don't worry!
I actually woke up alone a month ago, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one. Haven't met them yet but this helped me feel better about it.
Yaku frowns, scrolling through a few more questions and responses people have asked and that's all he really gets with each one. So it's happened to other people before and it isn't just him but it's not nearly frequent enough that people even research it. Or explain it apparently. Not a single person actually said what it means, just that he doesn't need to worry about it. It's hardly a comforting thought.
Getting to morning practice the next day, he immediately walks over to Kuroo as soon as he gets changed, and Kuroo looks at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh god, you've got the look today,” Kuroo says and Yaku blinks at him.
“What look?”
“The 'What the actual fuck, what just happened, why is my life like this' look. You make this face whenever you-”
“Ok ok, yes!!” Yaku interrupts, causing Kuroo to jump a little. “Sorry, it's just that when I-”
“Is everything ok over here?” Kai's voice interrupts and Yaku turns to him, waving him over quickly to stand next to Kuroo. He does so with a confused look but complies, he and Kuroo now looking at Yaku intently.
“I got dropped in the dreamscape two nights ago!” Yaku finally tells them.
With a laugh, Kuroo crosses his arms, his posture relaxing. “Oh, it's just that?” he asks as if it's not as terrible as he was thinking and that this is a perfectly normal circumstance but it's most definitely not.
“No, it's not 'just that!' This is actually a problem!”
“Yaku, it's alright, you just met your soulmate,” Kai says with an easy smile.
“I didn't though!”
The two of them go silent.
Kuroo shakes his head. “What do you mean you didn't? You woke up in the dreamscape.”
“I didn't. Meet. My soulmate,” Yaku emphasizes slowly.
After a few seconds of the two still looking at him in utter confusion, Kuroo sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “Sorry, I'm still not following, how did you not meet your soulmate?”
“I woke up in the dreamscape and when I turned around, I was by myself,” Yaku explains, frowning.
“So your soulmate wasn't there with you?” Kai asks.
“Yes,” Yaku answers quickly, nodding. “That's what I'm saying, I bonded but I didn't bond with anyone because nobody was there with me!”
Kuroo looks at the floor, eyebrows furrowing. “I see the problem now,” he mutters before thinking some more about what Yaku's just told them.
“Why the fuck do these kinds of things happen to me?” Yaku asks himself. Burying his face in his hands, he lets out a long, frustrated groan.
“Yeah, I've never heard of anything like this, what about you Kai?” Kuroo asks.
The vice-captain shakes his head. “No, doesn't sound like anything I've heard about. Did you look into it? See if anyone else has had this problem?”
“I did but the only things that even came up were just people asking about it on forums, I couldn't find any articles. And people just kept saying that there's nothing to worry about and that I'd meet them eventually.”
“So it still means you have a soulmate.” As Yaku nods, Kuroo hums in thought. “Yeah, that's really weird.”
“What do you think I should do?”
Kuroo shrugs and looks at him again. “Honestly? I'd say do what other people have been saying. Try not to worry about it and let things pan out. It has to work out eventually if everyone says they've gotten to meet their soulmates. And who knows? Maybe it's a fluke or something, maybe they'll be there next time and this was just some weird hiccup in the universe.”
That wasn't the answer Yaku was hoping for but maybe Kuroo's right and it was just a weird one-time occurrence. That was probably it. He doesn't need to freak out about it.
As it turns out, it isn't a weird one-time occurrence, because he wakes up 3 times in the next week only to still be alone with just his thoughts. Of course he complains to Kuroo and Kai every time it happens, because it's frustrating to no end not knowing where to go from here. By the end of the second week with 2 more nights by himself, it doesn't seem like it's going to change and that's when he figures out what he should be doing. Final exams before summer break, training Lev, regular practice on top, the possibility of Spring Nationals, and even further than that, graduation, it's enough to deal with, so worrying about his soulmate isn't going to be added to everything he has to focus on. It really isn't worth it.
With the Tokyo summer training camp coming up, Yaku decides that he's just going to focus on training for the time being.
Yaku lets out a heavy sigh of relief as he finally gets back to the room the Nekoma team is set up in, seeing Kenma already here as expected, though he's the only one. Going over to his bag, Yaku grabs a change of clothes so he can change out of a very sweaty t-shirt, Kenma continuing to play his game as Yaku leaves. He doesn't miss the subtle glance that Kenma gives him as he walks past but he doesn't hear Kenma say anything as he heads to the showers.
When he gets back, Kenma's still the only one in the room, still in the same spot with his game console. It doesn't surprise him as Kenma says something without even looking up from the screen. “You don't usually get here so early, I thought you'd be training with Lev right now.”
Yaku looks over at him and chuckles, rubbing at his arms and wrists to work out some of the stiffness from the day's training. “I would've been but I actually took Kuroo up on an offer.”
“Is it to train with him instead so that you can actually relax for once?” Kenma asks him bluntly.
“You say this like I'm running myself into the ground,” Yaku muses, raising an eyebrow at him.
“You are.”
Yaku blinks at him at that response, giving him a questioning look. Kenma glances up once, before subtly patting the spot next to him and Yaku moves over to the second year, making sure to still keep a mindful distance between them. “I'm not running myself into the ground, really,” Yaku tells him.
“Kuro says you've been freaking out lately. Probably due to exams and training,” Kenma says with a shrug. “Especially because part of that is with Lev.”
“You know how difficult he can be to work with but I have to whip him into shape if he's going to be able to help us make it to Nationals this year. He still really sucks at receiving, it would go a lot faster if he actually listened to me for once.” Yaku lets out a sigh, shaking his head. The first year still has a really long way to go, Yaku's not even sure if he's going to be able to be the one to get him there, even though he's the libero and receiving is the entire job. Admittedly, he is the upperclassman that lets Lev get away with the least and is on his ass as much as possible, so he probably is. Which only makes the progress he's made so far... Disheartening.
“It's not on you if he doesn't though, that's his own choice,” Kenma comments after a moment of silence.
Realistically, Yaku knows that but... “Even still, if I can't do it, I don't know if anyone will be able to,” he admits. “He was determined to work with you when you were trying to figure out his timing, but with me... Sometimes it feels like he doesn't want to do it because it's me specifically. If it is, that isn't something I can fix..”
“Mm,” Kenma hums out.
“Yeah, I wouldn't know what to say to that either,” Yaku just jokes dryly, frowning glumly at the ground as he leans his cheek on his knee.
“You're the only one who'd be able to do this and if you can't, it's not on you,” Kenma just reminds him, words simple and straightforward as always.
That's likely true, so Yaku nods, sitting back as he watches Kenma play his game, trying not to think about it too much. He can ultimately only do so much in the end, so all he can do is just try his best and see what happens.
When Kuroo gets back to the room a couple hours later, he walks over to Yaku. “Remind me to buy you lunch or something sometime,” he mutters, running a hand through his hair as he lets out an exhausted breath. Yaku looks at him a bit confused before he sees Kenma catch his eye and raise a knowing eyebrow at him. Yaku just rolls his eyes, unwilling to admit that the setter's right about this.
After training camp has ended, practice still goes on as normal, with Lev seemingly a tad less whiny whenever he has to do receive training with Yaku, but that could be a misinterpretation on Yaku’s part as he’s just generally less stressed, what with the exams and camp which he’d been worrying about now past them. For all he knows, it might just be that he has more patience to deal with it. With summer break wrapping up in a little more than a week, Kuroo's announced that they're going to spend a couple days as a team just hanging out. Team bonding, essentially. Mandatory team bonding. Kuroo may not have said that they had to show up but he essentially implied it when telling everyone what was going to happen. No one actually had an issue with it, Yaku just thinks the captain's an absolute pain in the ass, somehow worse than Lev was being at the moment. He didn't even think that would've been possible but look at that, life never ceases to surprise him!
Yaku spots the fountain in the park that they'd all agreed to meet up at a few days ago, already spotting a few people here already. Kai was hardly a surprise, ever the put-together one, and Shibayama didn't really strike him as odd either. The one who he didn't exactly expect was Inuoka but as he talks animatedly with Shibayama, that mystery's quickly solved.
“Hey guys,” he calls out as he walks over to them, putting his hand up in a wave. Kai waves back at him.
Looking up suddenly at his voice, Shibayama perks up a bit, eyes seeming to light up as he spots Yaku and an overwhelming sense of pride overtakes Yaku's chest at the reaction from his kouhai. “Hi Senpai, how are you today?” he asks kindly with a smile.
“Hey Yaku-san!” Inuoka exclaims enthusiastically, grinning too.
As Yaku stops next to Shibayama, he smirks slightly, ruffling his hair which earns him a small laugh. “I'm doing ok, thank you. You guys been here long?”
“Not much, only like, 5 minutes!” Inuoka responds.
“Been here for 10,” Kai answers too. “I didn't want any of the first years to have to be here by themselves.” Despite Yaku's eyebrow raise, the vice captain is unfazed, shrugging. They'd have been doomed a long time ago if it weren't for him and they all know it.
“Yo, what's up!” Yamamoto's voice shouts out and everyone turns to him as he runs over.
Fukunaga arrives from the other direction at the same moment. “I guess I have good timing then. Comedic timing,” he says just loud enough for everyone to catch with a little smile to himself, Yamamoto barking out a laugh when he hears it.
It's another 10 before Kuroo and Kenma get there, everyone just talking in the meantime.
“Sorry for the delay, trains were running a little late!” Kuroo apologizes as he jogs over, hand holding on to Kenma's sleeve so he keeps up, the setter grumbly about it as he tries to stay focused on the current level of his game.
“I can walk myself, Kuro,” Kenma mutters as sounds from the handheld signal that he's lost.
“Yeah, and then you'd get over here 10 minutes after I did as you try concentrating more on the level than getting here in a reasonable amount of time.”
Kenma rolls his eyes, looking up at everyone with a small wave as everyone greets him enthusiastically. Despite his eyes going back down to his game immediately after, Yaku can tell that he's happy being here with everyone.
“Lev not here yet?” Kuroo asks after taking a survey of who's already arrived.
“Nope, are we really surprised?” Yamamoto laughs out, crossing his arms.
“Well, we're not supposed to be meeting up for a couple more minutes, so he's technically not late,” Shibayama offers. “We're just early.”
It's not like he's wrong so Yaku shrugs. “That's true I guess,” he concedes, though he knows even with Shibayama defending the middle blocker, Lev will likely still prove that benefit of the doubt unnecessary.
“I mean, no one has anything else for today that they need to do after this, do they?” Kuroo looks around at them all, seeing everyone shaking their heads. “We've got time to wait then, it'll be fine.”
With that, they wait. They're still waiting after 10 minutes.
“You know, you wouldn't have even needed to worry if you'd taken 10 minutes,” Kuroo mutters to Kenma, causing the setter to snort a little.
“Anybody hear from him yet?” Yaku asks, frowning as he taps his foot, arms crossed over his chest. He looks down at his phone but nothing new has come up since he last checked it 30 seconds ago. No one is able to give an affirmative. “He always does this, I swear!” he huffs loudly, looking around for Lev to appear anywhere but of course, he doesn't.
“Alright well, I think we can get going then, he probably wasn't able to make it,” Kuroo says with a shrug after another minute, everyone getting up and starting to head over to the shopping district. Yaku does one more look around but sees nothing so he just shakes his head as he starts to follow everyone, letting out a sigh. It should've been expected but even still, it's slightly annoying. Well, maybe not annoying, that didn't feel quite right. Disappointing maybe. Possibly...
“Hey guys!!!” Lev suddenly shouts from behind them, and they all turn around to see him running to catch up with them, nearly knocking Yaku over when he comes to a stop, out of breath. He manages to grip firmly at Yaku's arm to catch him, Yaku reaching up in a blind panic to grab a hold of Lev's shirt before steadying himself, shrugging Lev's hand off of his arm.
“Where the hell were you?” Yaku glares up at him.
Lev looks down at him with extremely wide, green eyes, an apology in them before he actually gets the words themselves out, causing Yaku's glare to falter as he's stunned by the gaze so close to him even when Lev looks away to the rest of the team. “Sorry, I accidentally missed my stop and had to make my way back here!” the first year explains.
“You could've messaged us at the very least.”
Grinning sheepishly, Lev runs a hand through his hair as he looks back down at Yaku. “I didn't have any service, sorry Yaku-san,” he apologizes in an actually genuine voice. Yaku suddenly takes notice that the two of them are for some reason very close.
“It's all good, Lev, let's get going then, yeah?” Kuroo poses rhetorically, turning back to start walking again.
“Yeah, let's do this!” Yamamoto exclaims as everyone follows after Kuroo and Kenma.
“Yes sir!” Lev answers back too, grinning brightly. Yaku just huffs, grabbing a hold of his wrist and dragging him along quickly. There's no way he'll ever get used to someone as strange as Haiba Lev, not by a long shot. How anyone could was beyond him.
He doesn't realize he's still holding on to Lev's wrist until the first year brings it up. “Uh Yaku-san? You're still holding my hand.”
Yaku's eyes widen as he feels himself blush a little before he glares slightly at Lev, but he can't seem to put much heat behind it like usual. “I'm holding your wrist, not your hand, you skyscraper,” he huffs.
“Well it's connected to my hand so you know, it's not that far off, right?” Lev chuckles out lightly.
Yaku huffs again, rolling his eyes. “You already got lost, idiot,” he says, and it's a poor, poor excuse and he knows it, knowing that Lev can follow them just fine without Yaku dragging him along. Even still, Yaku doesn't let go of his wrist, grip tightening just a bit more on Lev. He will never tell anyone that the warmth of Lev's wrist calms him down a bit.
The outing starts out normal enough as they all grab food to eat while they walk around the district. They’re all semi-divided up into their own little groups, Kuroo and Kenma leading the group at a fairly leisurely pace, Kai drifting slightly behind them with Shibayama and Inuoka as Inuoka shares a story with them about a crazy thing he saw a few days ago. Behind them, Yamamoto and Fukunaga are busy comparing which area in Tokyo has the best yakisoba, which is apparently getting pretty controversial if the look of disbelief on Yamamoto’s face is anything to go off of. In the very back is him and Lev, Yaku still holding on to his wrist, and he unconsciously moves his other hand to join the first, trying to stick close as people keep stepping out in front of and pushing past him. Surprisingly, standing a bit closer to the giant first year seems to be limiting that, though Yaku can hardly blame the strangers around him. Being right in front of him always makes Yaku feel even smaller than he usually does.
They all go through a few smaller stores together but suddenly Kuroo and Kenma trail behind them.
“Hey, you guys go on ahead, Kenma and I are gonna check out what new games they got today,” Kuroo calls out to the team, pointing a finger at the store they’ve stopped in front of.
“Don’t bleed Kuroo dry, Kenma, he’s still gotta pay for the food!” Yamamoto laughs out, only doubling over as Kenma gives him an affirmative thumbs up rather than defend Kuroo in any way.
“I would’ve expected my soulmate to at least attempt to back me up,” Kuroo says without any actual accusation, though he still plays up the dramatics.
“I’m not known to do anything I don’t want to,” Kenma simply tells him with a shrug.
As Kuroo lets out an offended noise, starting to argue about how this was the biggest betrayal of his life, Yaku laughs and everyone else continues walking.
They don't get very far at all when Inuoka spots something, though no one else really saw what it was, as he suddenly shouts, “Yuuki, check it out!!” and drags a willing Shibayama off in the direction of whatever’s caught his attention.
With a chuckle, Kai shakes his head. “Well, I think you guys will be fine on your own, I’ll be here if anyone needs me.” He points to the bookstore they’re currently in front of. “We’ll meet up in a few hours for lunch.”
“We planned to meet back up at 2 for lunch, right?” Yaku asks.
“Yeah.” Kai gives him a nod.
“Alright, have fun,” Yaku tells him before the four of them left continue on. And that doesn’t last long at all either, as Yamamoto gets distracted by a street vendor selling yakisoba, Fukunaga staying behind with him.
“We’re gonna be here a while, go ahead!” Yamamoto tells Yaku when he turns around to see what caused the two of them to stop, waving him and Lev off. Impending disaster is the only outcome as he and Fukunaga start to discuss how they’re going to taste-test every single yakisoba place they can possibly find in the shopping district.
“You’re going to ruin your appetite for when we meet back up!” Yaku warns.
“Worth it!!”
With a snort, Yaku continues on his way, still staying close to Lev. A weird sort of silence settles in between them, Yaku not really sure where they should go or what they should be talking about. It's not like the two of them have really spent time together as just the two of them outside of volleyball after all. Luckily, Lev saves him from having to deliberate on it any longer when he perks up and turns to look at him. “Hey Yaku-san, there’s a store I wanted to check out, it’s not far from here! Can we go?”
“I don’t have anywhere else in mind so I guess so,” Yaku agrees with a shrug, before letting out a yelp as Lev beams and quickly grabs on to his hand for real, weaving through the crowd with Yaku trying desperately to keep up. “Lev, slow down!!”
Lev ignores him of course, leading to him being out of breath by the time they get to where Lev was taking them. He doubles over, resting his hands on his knees as he tries to calm his breathing down.
“How are you out of breath from that, Yaku-san?” Lev asks bluntly and Yaku glares up at him to the best of his ability through the heavy breaths.
“Why the hell—“ Yaku coughs—“do you think?”
“But you’re our libero, you run around and make cool receives all the time during games!”
“I have shorter legs than you, you behemoth!”
Lev smiles a little teasingly at him. “There’s nothing wrong with being-“ Suddenly Lev stops, blinking for a moment, before he nods. “That’s ok, Yaku-san, sorry for dragging you like that.”
Did Lev just… pass up a short joke…?
And did Lev just-
“Wait, you think my receives are cool?” Yaku asks, all sorts of confusion taking over his body as it tries to process the contradictions that have just been revealed to everything he’s ever known about Haiba Lev.
“Yeah! Really cool! I’m not all that great at receives, it’s hard, but you always make it look like it’s the easiest thing in the world to you!” Lev tells him enthusiastically.
Yaku feels his cheeks heating up a bit. “Oh, well…” he mumbles out before clearing his throat. “Thank you.. Lev. That’s good to hear.”
Lev beams at him, not commenting on the fact that Yaku’s cheeks are undoubtedly turning pink and just nods his head towards the store entrance, walking in.
For some reason, the fact that Lev wanted to check out a clothing store was a surprise to him considering how plain Lev dressed when he didn’t have to wear his uniform or practice clothes, because that’s where Yaku found himself, looking around at a place that was far more fashionable and cool than anywhere he'd ever gone.
Without a word, he and Lev start looking around, and as they move through various sections in silence, Yaku decides to look up from where he's flipping through a stack of shirts, watching as Lev sort of just wanders about, not really stopping to look at anything up close. As Lev glances over towards him, he looks down quickly, hoping he hadn't been caught staring. The thought is forgotten though as he finds the shirt he's looking at in his size and pulls it out carefully from the pile, holding it in his hands for a second.
After a moment, he just lets out a quiet sigh as he puts it back on top, about to walk over to another aisle before Lev speaks up. “Yaku-san, is something wrong?”
Yaku blinks up at him for a moment. “Huh?”
“Well you were looking at that shirt for a few minutes but you put it back,” Lev explains to him, tilting his head to the side before walking over to it. “Is it too expensive?” he asks, picking it up to find the price tag.
It's a bit strange that Lev had even been paying attention enough to notice it and even stranger that he felt the need to check in with him when it was just clothes. Yaku shakes his head to the question with a slight laugh, crossing his arms and looking at the shirt in Lev's hands. “No, it's not that, I could buy it if I wanted to.”
“Do you want it?” Lev asks, looking up at him.
“I shouldn't, it would be kind of pointless for me to get it,” Yaku tells him with a shrug.
“Why? You want it so you should get it.”
Lev makes it sound so simple but Yaku can only shake his head. “I couldn't pull something like that off. I wouldn't be able to pull off anything here honestly and I expected that. I’m not here to buy anything.”
Lev just blinks at him then down at the shirt then back up at him again and as he does so, not saying anything, Yaku rolls his eyes, crossing his arms as he pops a hip. “What is it, Lev? I can’t read your mind.”
Lev shakes his head before finally looking back up at him again, tilting his head to the side once more. “You can totally pull this off, Yaku-san, what are you talking about?” Before Yaku can protest to this, Lev beams all of the sudden, going back through the way they’d meandered around, picking up all of the things that Yaku had looked at for a more sustained amount of time than others, like Lev had actually taken note of it.
“Lev, what are you-?” he asks before his wrist is being clasped, and Lev once again drags him along to the changing rooms, shoving the clothes in his arms with little finesse to speak of as he grins and pushes the door closed.
“Go ahead, I’ll just be waiting out here!” Lev’s voice says as innocently and direct as ever, Yaku hearing as Lev takes a seat on one of the chairs outside the stalls.
Yaku looks down at the clothes in his hands, blinking strangely at them, but he finally locks the door and sets them down, picking up the last shirt that he’d been pondering, the one that set this whole thing off. “I don’t need this, Lev, I’m fine,” he sighs out even as he takes off his t-shirt, throwing it to the side and eying the one in his hands.
“Try them on, Yaku-san, I wanna see!” Lev just says, not acknowledging his protests.
“Ok but when I inevitably look like I’m trying way too hard, I’m blaming you for it.”
“Mhm, whatever you say, Yaku-san!”
Yaku only huffs out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief as he slips the shirt on, looking over himself in the mirror for a moment before grabbing at a pair of ripped black jeans that he’d also looked at earlier and put them on too. It’s certainly a lot… different from how he’s used to seeing himself, as he usually doesn’t even bother with doing anything like this. It doesn’t look bad per se but he doesn’t know if it really suits him either. He can already tell though that the amount of current enthusiasm Lev has shown means he’s not going to leave Yaku alone until he sees what he’d grabbed for him, so he grimaces to himself, rolling his eyes tiredly as he unlocks the door, pushing it open only to allow Lev to see it and placate whatever this weird urge is to really remind Yaku of how truly unsuited he is for these types of things.
“There,” Yaku sighs out, crossing his arms as he leans against the doorway. “Are you happy now? Can I change and put everything back?”
It isn’t unnoticed the speed at which Lev looked up as soon as he hears the door open, and he’s staring a bit wide-eyed at Yaku, looking him up and down. Not really in a creepy way, he just looks surprised. “Wow,” Lev merely says, tilting his head as he continues to take it in.
Yaku snorts and grimaces, shoulders slumping as he tucks in on himself and looks away. “Yeah yeah, I know, I look ridiculous, can I please change already?” he mumbles, glancing over just a little at Lev.
Lev’s head snaps back up so they meet eyes and he starts shaking it fiercely, bouncing a little on the edge of his seat.
“No, don’t, you look so cool, Yaku-san!!” he exclaims, a grin overtaking his face in an instant. Lev continues staring in disbelief, still smiling so much as he frantically gestures at just… Well, everything, he’s gesturing to Yaku in his entirety. “I don’t know what you’re even talking about, it looks amazing! Please try on more, Yaku-san, please please please!!” he then begs, dropping his head in a bow as he clasps his hands together and the action causes Yaku’s cheeks to heat up out of embarrassment.
“Lev, I really can’t pull this off,” Yaku tries to argue but he’s being hit with puppy dog eyes and Lev’s puppy dog eyes have never ever worked on him before but now, now he’s blinking and nodding, taking a step back into the changing stall and locking the door after he pulls it shut.
He’s still wondering what the hell is happening as he tries on a different shirt, this one not quite as good as the one before it but it still looks relatively decent. On him anyways, it would probably look better on somebody else.
When he opens up the door again, he gets much of the same reaction from Lev, the first year complimenting how good it looks on him and he doesn’t have to try nearly as hard to convince Yaku to try on the next shirt, nor the next, nor any of the clothing in that pile.
Looking at himself in the mirror for the last outfit, Yaku can't help himself from standing a little taller as he smooths over a few creases in the shirt, tilting his head to the side in silent admiration. It's the best one yet for sure, he knows it, so he definitely knows Lev will say it looks good if he’s thought the same for everything else. With a small smirk, he turns to the door again, unlocking it and crossing his arms, leaning against the doorframe as Lev meets his eyes.
“Well, what do you think?” Yaku asks.
Lev just looks at the outfit for a moment, squinting a bit in thought and Yaku’s expression falters. He’d thought for sure that this one looked ok, Lev hadn’t thought he looked bad in anything else after all, but the contemplation meant he was actually having to think about this one. Yaku casts his eyes down, frowning a bit as his shoulders dropped a little.
“That bad, huh..?” he barely mutters out as Lev suddenly snaps his fingers and stands up quickly, making him jump a little.
“I got it, I’ll be right back, Yaku-san!!” Lev hadn’t even heard Yaku it seems as he says it before bolting off back into the store.
Letting out a sigh, Yaku shakes his head as he stares in the direction Lev had run off, not sure what he’s up to now. ‘Morisuke, when do you ever know what he’s up to?’ his mind helpfully supplies and he agrees to that, Lev is something Yaku will never be able to figure out in his lifetime. Not sure if he should change or not, Yaku just stands by the door awkwardly, taking out his phone and looking to see if he’s gotten any messages. The Nekoma group chat is active it seems, everyone’s little groups giving updates on what they’ve been able to find.
Kitty Cat Group Chat
Captain Bedhead
How's it going everyone?
Kill ‘em with Kai-ndness
I can't say much for the others, us staying in a group did not last long
I found a new book I'm thinking of getting though
Captain Bedhead
Somehow, I don't have a very hard time believing that
What's it on?
Kill ‘em with Kai-ndness
It’s on self-acceptance and how our value as humans does not stem from what we can provide to the world around us but instead just in being ourselves
Our Only Working Brain Cell
Can I borrow it after?
Kill ‘em with Kai-ndness
I’m not quite sure if you mean this genuinely or not
Our Only Working Brain Cell
I mean, kind of…
Aced It
Hell yeah Kenma, improving your mental health!!!
I’m so proud of you, you’re growing up before my very eyes! 🤧
Captain Bedhead
He just sighed and walked away with a hand over his face lol
(Don’t worry, he’s flattered)
Aced It
LOL I can only imagine!
But also like, damn Kai-san, I was just gonna say I’m here eating my entire weight in yakisoba and now I feel like that’s all inconsequential
Captain Bedhead
Who was the one talking about me paying for food today?
Aced It
Fukunaga’s questioned my taste in food, I can’t just let him slander me!
Our Only Working Brain Cell
You could but you’re not going to
Aced It
See, Kenma gets it!
Mr. Freeze changed Aced It’s nickname to MoTo MoTo
MoTo MoTo
Dude! 😭
Mr. Freeze
Repent.
MoTo MoTo
😳
Our Only Working Brain Cell
That was cold
Mr. Freeze
👈🏻👈🏻
Our Only Working Brain Cell
👉🏻👉🏻
Captain Bedhead
Did Kenma just get the comedy seal of approval from Fukunaga???
Mr. Freeze
😎
Inu
Woah, hi guys!!! I didn’t think I’d miss so much!!!
Captain Bedhead
Was wondering where you were, what got you so distracted?
Inu
I found the coolest thing that I just had to get for Yuuki, look at him!!!
[attached image of a flustered but smiling Shibayama hugging a stuffed animal half his size]
Shiba
You didn’t have to get me it though
Inu
But I wanted to :(
Shiba
His name is Sakura
Captain Bedhead
Ok that is the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen
Inu
Isn’t he though??? 🥰
Shiba
I think he’s talking about Sakura, Sou
Inu
I stick by my previous statement!!!
Captain Bedhead
Speaking of wondering where people are, I’m surprised Lev hasn’t said anything yet
MoTo MoTo
Oh my gosh, did you finally do it Yaku-san? Did you finally murder him!!!??? 😱
I mean, I know he’s a punk but come on, he was such a sweet little dude!!! 😭
Our Only Working Brain Cell
He is anything but little, Tora
MoTo MoTo
😭😭😭
Demon Senpai
Relax would you?
No, I didn’t murder him
Captain Bedhead
Still, unlike him to not say anything
Demon Senpai
He went to find something and told me to stay put
He’s back, gotta go
Yaku puts his phone away as he watches Lev speedwalking towards him, beaming the widest Yaku’s ever seen, triumphantly holding a black jacket out towards him. “I found it!!”
“What is it?” Yaku asks, knowing it sounds more than a little dumb as the words come out of his mouth.
“The final touch your outfit needs, it was missing something!” Lev grins and presses it into his hands again before covering his eyes.
“Lev, what are you doing?”
“I want it to be a surprise!”
Yaku looks at him before sighing, rolling his eyes with a slight smile. “You’re ridiculous,” he laughs out quietly but humors him, slipping the jacket on. “Alright, you can look now.”
Uncovering his eyes, Lev looks over the outfit, taking it all in. It doesn’t take long at all for him to start smiling once more. “You look so cool, Yaku-san!!”
“You really think so?” he only asks, stepping back into the changing stall a bit to look at his reflection. He stands up a little taller, lifting up his chin. Grabbing the ends of the jacket, he turns to see it from different angles.
“Mhm!”
“Well then,” Yaku says with a shrug, turning to Lev again, “I think I might get this then, if you really think so. I admit that it… doesn’t look half bad.”
“I want to buy it for you!”
Yaku blinks a couple times. “Why?”
“Just because! Please?”
Those incredibly captivating green eyes are staring intently at him again, and Yaku finds himself wanting to give in as soon as he sees them. It’s not like it there are any negative drawbacks to allowing it, even if it is a bit out of the ordinary. Though maybe for Lev, this is all too ordinary, Yaku wouldn’t exactly know. Coming to a conclusion, Yaku shrugs, making a hesitant face. “If you really want to, I guess..”
Lev grins, nodding. “So were there any other ones you liked?”
“Most of them, though I still don’t exactly think I look cool.” Yaku walks back over to the small stack of clothes, pulling out a few of them. “These were the only ones I wasn’t really feeling.”
“Alright, well get changed and I’ll go buy everything!”
Nodding, Yaku closes and locks the door, back in a plain t-shirt and shorts again. As he steps out, he feels his phone go off in his pocket and he balances the clothes in his arms for a moment before taking it out.
“Can you grab all of this and put things back? My mom’s calling.” Yaku looks at Lev, who smiles and nods, taking everything from his arm. “Thank you,” he mouths before walking off to a more secluded area of the store.
After getting off the phone, Lev’s walking over to him with a bag in his hand. “Everything ok, Yaku-san?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, she just needed to ask me something.”
“Ok good.” Lev smiles at him, and Yaku notices as this smile is a bit softer, not quite so wide as usual, and it’s cute. In a totally typical senpai-kouhai kind of way. Even when the kouhai being an entire 30 centimeters taller generally makes it difficult for him to necessarily be cute.
“We still have half an hour, do you want to keep looking around?”
With a nod from Lev, Yaku walks back over to the area around where Lev had dragged him from, picking up where they left off.
“I feel like it’s only fair if I get you something,” Yaku says after a few minutes, looking over at the first year.
Lev’s eyes go wide in slight surprise for a moment before he smiles and laughs a little bit. “Don’t worry about me, Yaku-san, I didn’t come here for anything.”
“Why not? You’d probably be able to pull off twice the amount of stuff I can if you think I can make them look good.”
Lev only laughs again. “They don’t have anything in my size,” he says simply with a shrug, not seeming too put off by the statement, and Yaku pauses.
“Oh.”
“Yep, so I never planned on buying anything.”
“Then why’d you want to come here?”
“They never really make interesting clothes in bigger sizes but I still like looking at everything,” Lev tells him with a hum, eyes going back down as he keeps looking around. And it’s an interesting thing to learn about Lev but it does make sense to Yaku. Not many people are as tall as him and generally speaking, Japan’s population does tend to be on the smaller side. Maybe that’s why this had come as a surprise to him. Still, it was something new about his kouhai that he hadn’t expected to find out today.
He’s not quite sure why this new piece of information makes him feel compelled to but before he can think about it too hard, he’s admitting that, “I never really cared a whole lot about this kind of stuff, even if I’ve wanted to try something new for a while. Figured it wouldn’t end up mattering because I’ve kind of just accepted that I can’t look cool.”
“How come, Yaku-san? I think you look really cool, why wouldn’t stuff like this make you look cooler?”
“It’s not like it’s going to stop people from mistaking me for a girl from behind, so why bother putting in so much effort?”
“People think you look like a girl?” Lev has a weird look on his face as if the very notion baffles him.
“Often. More guys have tried to flirt with me before clamming up when I turn around than I can remember. They must be expecting this demure, innocent girl who's going to absolutely swoon over their every single act of basic human decency and fall all over herself to do anything they could ever want of her but nope, it's me,” Yaku laughs with a slight roll of his eyes.
“Why though? Is it because you’re short?” Lev asks bluntly, and somehow it feels different than the past thousand times Lev has brought up his height before, so much so that Yaku is surprised by his own feelings towards the comment as this time he doesn't feel the need to punch Lev in the arm for it.
He looks over at Lev who is just giving him an expression like he’s waiting for a genuine answer. Still no self-preservation whatsoever, how he does that is beyond Yaku.
“It probably is, it’s why I’ve gotten used to it, you know?”
“That’s dumb though, even if you were a girl. Who looks at a person and makes assumptions based on their height?” Lev contemplates something for a moment before shaking his head. “Anyone can be cool, no matter how tall they are. You’re one of the coolest people I’ve ever met, Yaku-san, I would’ve missed out if I’d been judgmental like that.”
Hearing that, Yaku feels his cheeks growing unbearably hot and he glances away, trying to hide just how much Lev’s affecting him. He’s well aware that Lev likely already saw but if he did, he doesn’t say anything about it.
“Well, it doesn’t matter how tall someone is for them to be a dork either so I guess I see your point,” Yaku finally mumbles out with a smirk, still keeping his eyes cast off to the side as he playfully punches Lev’s arm.
“Yaku-san!” Lev whines, though when Yaku steals a glance, the first year is smiling.
Making their way out of the store to meet up with the others, Yaku takes the bag that Lev had been holding and looks inside it only for his eyes to widen.
“Lev, what the hell!? You were just supposed to get me that one outfit!!”
They do the same thing a couple days later at a different shopping district and Lev actually ends up getting there on time. Yaku sticks close to him, holding on to his wrist so he’s not jostled around by strangers, and everyone ends up splitting off into the same groups once again. Lev doesn’t drag him to the store they check out this time and the two of them meander through, making some relatively easy and comfortable small talk. It’s the longest conversation he’s really had with Lev and even though the first year can be a pain at times, Yaku finds that he likes talking with him, just a little.
From that point on, his interactions with Lev don’t seem entirely tense or frustrating, mostly because he’s not solely focusing on Lev still complaining a decent amount about practicing receives. Some of their interactions are just… Normal. In fact, if he really admits it to himself, he'd actually say that he sort of starts to enjoy them.
He doesn’t really know when things start changing but at some point, Lev starts to walk him home to make sure he gets there safe. At some point, Lev is saying hi to him and asking about how he’s doing if he sees him out in the hallways. At some point, Lev goes to get things set up for receive practice before Yaku even has the chance to ask him.
There was one particular day he remembers that, for some reason or another, things were more stressful than usual and he really tried his best to keep his temper in check, but it was apparent to everyone that his patience was running thin even just by morning practice. He had stopped himself in time from absolutely going off on Lev when the latter had screwed up a receive during a practice game, but it was a close call and he had felt a bit bad at the glare he still ended up giving the first year, but was too tired to think of how he’d apologize. The rest of the day hadn’t helped his mood much either and he had a headache by the time he made his way to the gym for afternoon practice. Lev burst into the clubroom just as Yaku had finished up getting ready, and before he could react, Lev had walked over to him with a soft smile and wordlessly put something in his hand before hurrying to get ready. When he looked down, he saw one of his favorite snacks that he told Lev about a while ago. He looked back up at Lev to process everything and the first year was just going about things as usual, as if this was a normal thing they’d always done. Somehow, even when he has days where he’s able to hide it better, Lev always seems to pick up on it and has something for him by afternoon practice. He never brings any attention to it, he never pesters Yaku about what was wrong, he never insists Yaku needs to let him fix it, it's always just a small, simple gesture, but it means Lev actually cares about how he's feeling, and it means that Lev respects him enough to not push anything any more than just that one wordless acknowledgement, letting him share solely on his own terms if he even wants to. When he asks about it, apparently no one else on the team has been saying anything about if he’s in a bad mood. Lev hasn’t been asking anyone about it, he just starts to know.
That’s not to say the teasing has stopped by any means, he would even say that Lev is teasing and messing with him even more now, and Yaku is still making sure to call Lev out on his shit when need be, but Yaku finds it easy and familiar in a way, like it’s just a natural part of their friendship now, and that they actually are friends. And of course, it’s not like Lev has changed, he’s still cocky and can get full of himself when he does something even remotely impressive during games, he’s still blunt and loud and everything Yaku’s seen him as since the beginning, but it now seems like he’d been working himself up more than he needed to in the first place.
He really hates when Kuroo’s right.