Hinata Shouyou never imagined he would end up meeting his soulmate on the very same day he met his first and greatest rival. Kageyama Tobio and him had become soul-bonded to each other from the moment they first laid eyes on the other at the middle school volleyball tournament without realizing it.

When Shouyou had been heavily devastated by the loss of his first real game he challenged Kageyama that he would beat him someday.

Tobio in turn wasn’t fazed by this if anything he accepted the boy’s challenge and they departed ways, figuring they would never see each other until high school on different courts.

But as the hours passed both boys grew very sick and needed to be rushed to the hospital that night. The two were shocked to see each other in the waiting room but what was even weirder was that they suddenly felt better the moment they got close to the other!

Even Shouyou’s mother and Tobio’s older sister had noticed the change quickly and had told the nurse as such with the boys having the same symptoms just moments before.

The nurse rushed to get a doctor and he said, “My congratulations, you’ve been soul-bonded.”

“WHAT?!” both fourteen-year-olds yelled in horror and pointed accusingly, “I’M STUCK WITH HIM?!”

Miwa scolded, “Tobio! That’s very rude!”

Hinata-san nodded in agreement, “Yes, Shouyou, do not be horrible to your soulmate.”

“B-b-but he’s the reason I lost the match today!”

His mother countered, “Whatever differences you two have can be solved accordingly over time as you get to know each other better.”

“That’s right,” Miwa agreed before turning to the older woman and bowed, “Please forgive my brother’s outburst.”

“Oh no, it’s fine as long as you can forgive my own son’s rudeness. I’m Hinata Riko.”

“Kageyama Miwa and I can already tell there is much we’ll need to discuss regarding this new development.”

“I quite agreed.”

Eventually the four left the hospital and went to a diner to eat dinner though the boys begrudgingly refused to make eye-contact with the other as their guardians made special arrangements for them since there’s a rule on soul-bonds that they cannot be apart for more than six hours in a day unless the bond gets sealed through a kiss. At least they didn’t have to worry about changing schools because this. However they would need to sleep over at each other’s houses on certain days.

And so that was how Shouyou was force to spend the night at the Kageyamas for the rest of the week. Thankfully he was able to stay in the guest room and could avoid the grumpy bear across the hallway. At least Miwa-san was pleasant to be around and she was very pretty to look at, if only Tobio-san didn’t have that harsh personality than his beauty could shine though like his sister’s.

Yes there’s no denying that the setter was attractive but that was the only thing he had for Shouyou to tolerate the fact that they were soulmates and thus fated to be together forever.

The universe made a huge mistake, there’s no way I could fall for such an emotionally constipated person like him!

Meanwhile Tobio was all ready for bed and laid in it face up with the lights off having his own thoughts about his newfound soulmate with his grandfather’s parting words echoing in his head.

Is this what you meant, grandpa? Of me finding someone else that I would deeply rely on as I had you?

He found this hard to believe but he cannot deny how impress he was of his soulmate’s jumping power at their match if only that potential hadn’t gone to waste! With a scowl he knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep until he received answers and got up to knock on the guest room door.

Shouyou opened it with a frown, “What do you want?”

“Remember what I asked after the tournament?”

“You’re bringing that up now?!” the ginger shouted, tempting to shut the door in the other’s face.

“Yeah, because any other player I have gone against didn’t have those kinds of reflexes like you do, you were an ideal threat to face but you didn’t have the proper training and team to back it up. The whole thing was so disappointing.”

Shouyou didn’t know if he was being praised or insulted, he hoped it was the former and retorted back, “Hey! That wasn’t their fault! I asked them to help me create a volleyball team with me so that I could finally play in a real game! My middle school didn’t have a boys’ team until I made it this year!”

That surprised Tobio greatly. His soulmate made an entire volleyball team all on his own?! Well that definitely explained a lot.

“We got a lot of ground to cover then.” he stated.

“Huh?!” Shouyou’s eyes were blown.

“Obviously we’re stuck together with this bond so might as well make use of it. And I don’t know what else to do with you.”

“You mean…?”

“We’ll train together.”

Shouyou’s face lit up so brightly like sunlight even though it was clearly nighttime that Tobio had to turn away, saying, “Stop that you moron!”

The shorter stuck his tongue out in defiance making the taller bear-claw his head.

...----------------...

After that fateful day, the two started playing volleyball in the park to get a feel of the other’s skills, even though Shouyou always had to lecture Tobio to be nicer while practicing. They steadily got into a routine that worked for them like taking morning runs when staying nights at the Kageyamas or biking down the mountain when staying at the Hinatas.

“There! That’s the high school I want to go to next year!” Shouyou pointed out.

“Karasuno?”

“Yeah! The Tiny Giant went there and I want to be just like him!”

“They do have a strict coach that’s coming out of retirement, one of my former sempais got private lessons from him so I want to have the same teachings as he did. But my first choice is Shiratorizawa Academy; they’re the champions of the whole prefecture.”

And they can beat Oikawa… he thought on the side.

“Whoa!”

“Exactly, that’s why I’m hoping to pass their entrance exam this winter.”

The ginger pffted, “Good luck with that, Yama, I’ve seen your grades so not sure if it’ll work.”

“Shut it you little turd! Like you’re one to talk!”

Hinata just released a bubbly laugh and biked away with Kageyama racing right after him.

...----------------...

It was the finals of the middle school tournament and although it pained him, Shouyou was watching for the sake of his soulmate nearly winning it all and that he needed the closure of Kageyama’s team beating out his team in that very first round.

You better win, Yama, for my sake too. He clutched to the railing.

Sitting on the bench, Tobio looked up to see his soulmate watching from above and from that serious stare he knew what he was thinking and nodded.

Kindaichi and Kumi had noticed this exchange, thinking, Kageyama has friends outside of school?!

Soon the finals were underway and Tobio was gradually losing patience with his team that they weren’t any close to winning like he wanted to.

Shouyou was noticing a dark aura beginning to surround the Kitagawa team and knew something was wrong right off the bat and rushed down to get to Kageyama.

Tobio was going on a spiral in his head on how to win this set when a voice cried,

“Yama!”

The raven-head turned to see Hinata signaling him to meet him in the hallway.

Tobio quickly excused himself to the coach and met the ginger with a glare, demanding, “Make this quick, I need to get back out there soon.”

“You need to calm down!”

“I am calm!”

“No you’re not! Your team is getting frustrated with you ordering them around like that! You need to change your attitude and fast!”

“I don’t know if I can! We’ll lose this set if they don’t do as I say!”

Shouyou rapidly cupped his cheeks, shocking the taller boy.

“Close your eyes.”

Tobio hesitantly obeyed, shutting his eyes.

“Take a deep breath.”

He took a deep breath through his nose.

“Now exhale.”

Doing just that through his mouth.

“Better?”

Strangely enough, he was feeling a lot calmer than before and opened his blue eyes, replying, “Yeah… I think so.”

“Good, now go back and apologize to them before things take a turn for the worst.”

He sighed, “Fine…” making his way back to the bench and faced his teammates, “Hey… I-I’m sorry that I’ve been losing my cool, I’m willing to try again if you’ll let me.”

Needless to say the entire team was shell-shocked by their co-captain’s words, never thought they would hear him say something like that!

The coach gave them the go-ahead and while things went a little better, they still couldn’t make the final score to win.

Kageyama kept it together as much as he could till the tournament was over and once he was out of the locker room, Hinata was already waiting for him with arms wide open in support.

Without thinking he went into those arms and cried in that ginger hair. Shouyou was crying too in the taller boy’s chest feeling his soulmate’s pain.

...----------------...

The days went on with them playing one-on-one volleyball to get better. Then the seasons started changing and with it their high school entrance exams were fast approaching.

“I decided I’m going to try for Karasuno first.” Kageyama admitted one night as they were working on their separate homework assignments at the Hinata household.

“Really? Why?” Shouyou blinked in surprise.

“My advisor warned me of how hard the Shiratorizawa exam will be and with my current grades it didn’t look promising. Besides… with this soul-bond we might as well just stay close by to each other.”

But Hinata wasn’t fooled, he knows that was Kageyama talk for: ‘You’re the only friend I have and I don’t want to feel lonely in school again’. But he’ll give the other boy a pass for trying, putting a soft smile on his lips.

...----------------...

“What do you mean it was a toupee?!” Tobio gasped as the pair walked to the Karasuno gym in their freshman gym uniforms.

“How did you not notice?! It was plain to see at the entrance ceremony!” Shouyou laughed, “It kept slipping around on his head!”

They made it to the empty gym and Hinata looked around in awe, uttering, “It’s really happening…”

“It’s just another gym, no big deal.”

But the glare Hinata gave him said otherwise.

“Right sorry, I forgot this is your first time on an actual volleyball team.” putting his hand on the orange locks.

They were an unusual pair of soulmates to say the least, they have known each other for almost a year now and were comfortable in each other’s presence but they have yet to seal their bond and receive soulmarks mainly because Tobio doesn’t understand the concept of romance whereas Shouyou does but was inexperienced to properly make a first move and being scared that his soulmate would react poorly to his advances.

For now they were staying good friends and just wanted to play volleyball.

Suddenly they heard voices coming their way.

“The first setter from Kitagawa is on our team?”

“Bet the guy’s totally cocky.”

“Don’t try and intimidate him, Tanaka.”

“I-I wouldn’t do something like that!”

Shouyou gasped, “Do you think that’s our upperclassmen?”

“Of course it is, dumbass.”

“Should we tell them we’re soul-bonded?”

“It’s nobody’s business but our own.”

“So we pretend we’ve never met until now?”

“That should work.”

Shouyou sighed, figuring this was a bad idea.

By then three older Karasuno students walked in, spotting the first years.

Tanaka makes an intimidating face, “Hey, hey, hey! Who said you guys could-“

Daichi, the team captain inquires, “You’re Kageyama?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Glad you’re here.”

Sugawara motioned, “You’re quite tall.”

“He needs an initiation, Suga-san! Let’s give him a reason to be intimidated by the third-years!”

Daichi rolled his eyes, “You’re a second-year, Tanaka and stop with that face.”

Hinata noticed an interesting mark on the back of the captain and Sugawara’s hands, the mark had a smiling sun with a rain cloud at the bottom.

He gasps out loud, pointing, “You guys are soulmates!”

The three seniors turned his way in surprise with Tanaka motioning, “Oh hey! It’s Shorty Number One!”

A tangent went on of the three knowing who Hinata was when they were impressed by his reflexes on the court last year.

“But to answer your question, Hinata,” Suga started, “Yes, Captain Sawamura and I are soulmates.” exchanging a knowing look with said captain.

Kageyama raised his brow, “And you’re okay with people knowing that?”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” the older setter mentions.

“I mean we can’t exactly hide it while we’re practicing on the court.” Daichi points out.

Shouyou and Tobio exchanged quick side-glances which did not escape Suga’s notice.

Interesting… the silver-haired teen hummed.

Tanaka voiced, “Plus you guys aren’t the only soulmate pair on the team.”

“True that.” Suga chuckled.

Hinata was nearly bursting with joy when hearing that. More soulmates! Just like him and Kageyama!

Tobio questions, “They’ve sealed their bond too?”

“Oh yes, ever since they’ve met last year, whereas Daichi and I have known each other for two years now.”

By then the vice principal came in for a visit and while the three older students were paying attention to him, Shouyou lowkey motioned to Tobio about the wig and the two slightly sniggered.

Sugawara looked back to them suspiciously, causing the duo to stiffen up at their senior’s gaze.

The vice principal bide them farewell and Daichi let out a sigh of relief, turning back to the first years.

“Now then, let’s evaluate what you got, we may have seen a little of it during the junior high tournament but a lot can happen in a year. So Kageyama let’s start with you.”

When the evaluations were done, Daichi and Suga compared notes on the new first years while Tanaka was doing some exercises with them.

“There’s room for improvement for the both of them.” Daichi states, “Kageyama has the talent and Hinata has raw potential but Kageyama is too controlling and barely works with a team while Hinata can be a team player but needs more practice on his receives and serves. But if we put these two together, we might see combination attacks that could take the court by storm. Question is would they be willing to work together given their past adversity?”

“Daichi, don’t tell me you don’t see it.”

“See what?”

“They may act aloof with each other, but the truth is that they already know the other’s strengths and weaknesses on an intimate level.”

“Wait… are you saying they’re…?” his caramel eyes widen.

“Yup, I’m not sure why they’re hiding it but if that’s their wish then we shouldn’t push for details.”

“You think they may have worked together already?”

“Hm, not in the way you’re suggesting, I think they’ve done one-on-one practices many times before but they haven’t discovered the potential of doing a combo.”

“You know if what you say is true then they wouldn’t be the only first year soulmate pair on the team.”

Suga’s eyes went wide, “Seriously?!”

“Yup, the recruits I met have a soulmark in the palm of their hands so like us they can’t exactly hide it.”

“So far that makes four pairs together with soulmarks while there’s an unsealed bond for those two.” tilting his head toward to the newbies as Tanaka was introducing them to Ennoshita, Kinoshita, and Narita that showed up during the evaluations and began new exercises with them.

Then Kiyoko showed up and they updated her on how the new first years were looking to be promising players for the team.

Tanaka made eye-contact with her from across the gym and Kiyoko slightly smiled back, tapping on her clothed shoulder blade near her collarbone. Tanaka beamed and tapped his shoulder blade too.

A literal love tap, Sugawara couldn’t help but think, as it was adorable whenever Kiyoko shows her emotional side every now and then especially toward her own soulmate who eats it up like candy given to a child.

With her reclusive nature no one could guess that one of the prettiest girls in the school has already obtained a soulmate and that only the club’s third years plus one other person knew about this.

Her and Tanaka’s soulmark was a cut diamond which is fitting for the two of them as the term ‘hard as a rock’ came to Suga’s mind.

The soulmark belonging to him and Daichi was also very fitting for them, since their dispositions were reflections to the weather with Daichi having a thunderous personality and him being the shining sun to lift people’s moods when they need it.

It made him wonder what Kageyama and Hinata’s soulmark will look like.

Guess time will tell…

...----------------...

While it wasn’t the best of first impressions amongst the first years, Tsukishima in particular wasn’t friendly to the short ginger and raven-head since they rubbed him the wrong way.

The blonde mentioned to Kageyama during Saturday practice which had been a match between the first years to test their skills against each other and Shouyou and Tobio discovered their first combo attack this, “I heard how in your last middle school game you were on the verge of losing it on your team but seemed to have a change of heart at the last second.” he eyed Hinata dubiously causing the boy to blanch, “Any reason why?”

It was clear that the tall boy was on to them and really they should have realized it with him being half of a soulmate pair and a smart *** so he was bound to connect the dots.

Tobio grunted lowly so their upperclassmen couldn’t hear, “Just keep quiet about it and we won’t have any problems.”

Kei tsked, “Fine, it doesn’t matter to me anyway, I rather not be around when you two do seal your bond.”

The duo looked away feeling flustered.

...----------------...

“He’s a jerk but his and Yamaguchi’s mark is really awesome!” Hinata admitted while drying his hair from the bath he took in Tobio’s bathroom, already dressed in his sleepwear and taking a seat on the futon in his soulmate’s bedroom.

Kageyama was bouncing the volleyball while in his bed, being distracted, “I guess…”

“They’re shooting stars! It doesn’t get cooler than that!”

“Hmm…”

“I wonder what ours will look like or where it would be at.”

“Hm-mm…”

“Will you quit doing that?! I know you’re not listening to me!” he stomped over and grabbed the ball mid-air.

“Hey!” Tobio shouts angrily.

“Not until you tell me what’s troubling you!”

“I’m- I’m not troubled okay?!” trying to take the ball back but Shouyou kept dodging away.

“Something has been clearly bugging you since sensei said we have a practice game against Seijoh!”

“Like you’re one to talk! You been over nervous since the announcement!”

Suddenly Shouyou went green and his stomach churned, “Did you have to say that?! I was trying to keep it off my mind!” making a mad dash to the bathroom to throw up.

Tobio sighed, hearing the other’s heaving.

After a few minutes the ginger came back and went to lay on the futon with a groan.

Tobio shook his head, feeling strangely remorseful and began to gently lift the smaller boy in his arms like a princess carry.

“W-what are you doing?” Shouyou was shocked by this.

“If you’re too nervous about tomorrow you won’t be able to sleep right.” setting him onto his bed, “Miwa did this for me whenever I had nightmares.”

Shouyou felt a blush rushing to his cheeks, “W-We’re sleeping together?!”

“It’ll help settle your nerves if you have someone by you.”

The implications, Yama! The implications! Can’t you understand that?!

Apparently not as the ginger found himself squished against the taller boy in bed after Tobio turned off the lights.

How is this supposed to help me sleep?! Shouyou bemoaned in his head, before turning to find the other already fast asleep while softly breathing.

Jerk… how can he be so relaxed with this?

Eventually he started to calm down, focusing on shutting his eyes and his own breathing before slowly drifting off into slumber, unintentionally cuddling up to his soulmate while the other unknowingly wrapped his arms around him like a teddy bear.

...----------------...

Hinata and Kageyama sat in separate seats on the club’s bus feeling embarrassed from what happened this morning when they found themselves in an intimate position of being in each other’s arms.

It wasn’t a bad feeling… it was… kind-of nice… Tobio thought to himself and was too distracted to notice of what was happening at the back of bus until Tanaka let out a horrified scream.

Tobio looked back and saw the awful sight that was Tanaka’s puke covered pants.

Crap! I thought we took care of that last night!

Eventually they made it to Aobajohsai while Hinata profoundly apologized to Tanaka as the second-year tried to reassure him it was an accident.

Tobio tsked and grabbed the back of Shouyou’s jacket, “Come on, dummy.”

“Wha- Kageyama! Where are we going?!”

“Don’t rough him up!” Suga called out, hoping his words were heard.

The duo found the restrooms in the school.

“If you’re going puke make sure you do it in there.”

“I won’t!” but his nerves and stomach was telling him otherwise and he rushed in.

“Moron…”

“So you came after all.” said a voice.

Tobio turned to find Kindaichi with another guy that was obviously his new teammate at Seijoh.

“Of course I did, that was part of the condition wasn’t it? That I had to be the head setter?”

“That was the coach’s idea. I’m sure that pissed off your upperclassmen and I don’t blame them.”

“They were graceful about it actually but I didn’t like it either way, I should be earning my spot on the team.”

“Gee, you think so.” Kindaichi rolled his eyes, “But I guess that can’t be helped with you being called a protégé all throughout middle school. Never sat right with me on how you always got the attention. But I still can’t believe you changed your tune by that last game, you almost came down on us to the point we were about to stop playing altogether.”

The other’s eyes widen in horror from that revealing.

Shit! Had that actually happened… Had Shouyou not… He didn’t want to think about it.

“And even when we graduated you seemed to be different then and it’s the same now. What the hell happened?”

Kageyama wasn’t sure how to respond to that, a lot of things happened, but all of them had involved his soulmate one way or another. Speaking of… the ginger came out still looking a little green and clutching his stomach.

“I hate this so much!” he whined.

“Hey… wait…” Kindaichi uttered before pointing, “You’re that carrot-top from the tournament!”

“Turnip-head!” Hinata motioned.

Tobio and the other Seijoh player had to turn around to stifle their laughter at the food-based nicknames.

“And that’s another thing!” Kindaichi accused at the taller boy, “You never had a sense of humor before!”

By then Tanaka had found them before anything else could be said.

...----------------...

“I’m still nervous…” Hinata whimpered.

Tobio sighed deeply and took him off to the side by the gym doors so no one could see them and cupped the smaller’s cheeks.

The other was going bright red, stammering, “Y-Yama! W-what are you doing?!”

“Just shut up, okay! You did this for me now let me do this for you.”

Shouyou’s cheeks were still flushed but he caught on to what his soulmate was doing making him feel touched.

“Close your eyes and take a deep breath.”

He listened and did as he was told.

“Now exhale.”

Shouyou let out his breath, feeling so much better.

“Yama… thank you.” his caramel eyes shining straight into deep blue.

The taller dryly gulped at the sight, He’s so…

He was unable to finish that thought as Daichi called for them to get ready.

The practice match against Aobajohsai was actually going swimmingly for Karasuno much to the opposite’s side frustrations. Kindaichi eyed how well the short ginger was working with Kageyama and could actually hit the setter’s sets! ,

Iwaizumi Hajime was noticing this too, remembering the boy as a starry-eyed loner back when they were in middle school and Kindaichi and Kumi had told him that Kageyama’s heart had harden shortly after that but now… while he was still prickly he clearly had soften with this team they’re playing with especially with that red-headed number five.

Kumi voiced, “We’ve seen him before at the middle school tournament in the first round where we won against them hard.”

Kindaichi added in, “That’s what I don’t get; I thought for sure the shorty would hate being Kageyama’s teammate because of that but the guy actually changed his sets for him!”

The coach mentioned, “Indeed, number five is clearly an expectation for Kageyama’s play style, making it quite the deadly combination especially when number five has complete trust in Kageyama.”

The assistant coach pointed, “We tried to recruit Kageyama to come here but we were flat-out rejected when he told us he had his heart set on Karasuno no matter what.”

Kindaichi gapped, “Huh?! But I recalled he was going try for Shiratorizawa! When the frick did he change his mind?!”

“I think it was during the fall, when we had our advisor meetings.” Kumi mentioned, “He must have figured he couldn’t pass the exam even if he tried.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true, his grades were always terrible.”

“Now is that anyway to talk about a former teammate?”

The two first years turned in surprise to find their sempai and captain was back from sick leave.

...----------------...

Tanaka was pissed off by the fangirls in the overhead balcony this a-hole was attracting and Suga sighed in exasperation, uttering lowly, “You already have a soulmate, Tanaka.”

“Yeah but it’s the principle of the thing! There are a lot of lonely hearts out there whom will never get to experience that kind of fawning in their life!”

Suga sighed again and face-palmed before it was time to play again.

Karasuno soon learned what an adversity Oikawa Tooru was and had barely won the practice match and as they were leaving, Seijoh’s captain confronted them then after directly challenging Kageyama he tilted toward Hinata.

“You know you and the Chibi really surprised us today, I was watching you two closely and noticed how unusually close you were in working together for people that have become new teammates recently.” he eyed him dubiously.

Tsukishima voiced, “They’re just freaks like that, nothing more.”

Tanaka added in, “Yeah they’re totally volleyball heads that love the game way too much!”

Sugawara smirked, muttering to his soulmate, “That’s part of it.”

Daichi smirked back.

Oikawa hummed, “Well whatever the case, we’re going to beat you next time. Ciao!” he waved with his fingers and went back inside the school.

...----------------...

“So why did you choose our school, Kageyama?” Tanaka questioned after the team left the general store that evening, “Shiratorizawa is the best in the whole prefecture, why didn’t you go there?”

“Oh, um…” side-eying Hinata before saying, “I was going to but my grades weren’t good enough so I forfeited taking the exam. Besides I heard Coach Ukai was coming out of retirement and hoped I could learn from him, it wasn’t until later I found out he couldn’t come back due to back problems.” exchanging a nod with Suga.

Shouyou felt disappointed he didn’t tell them the whole reason why he picked Karasuno.

I wish he would just tell them we’re soulmates and we planned on going to Karasuno together after he changed his mind about Shiratorizawa. Stingyshima and Yamaguchi already know and I’m pretty sure Sugawara-san is on to us. Is he really that scared of letting people know I’m his other half? Am I… just a burden to him?

He clutched on to his bag strap in worry.

Tanaka and the third years went on explaining who Coach Ukai was and Daichi brought up Karasuno’s Guardian giving Hinata a brief distraction from his woes.

Meeting Nishinoya Yuu was quite surprising to say the least since the guy was a little shorter than Shouyou and began helping him with his receives even though he said he won’t return to the club unless their ace, Azumane Asahi did.

Nishinoya promised him ice-cream after practice and when they got them, Shouyou questioned under the street light, “Why won’t you come back to the club unless the ace does?”

“Lots of reasons but the main one is that I want is for us to work together again to redeem for the loss we encountered three months ago and he…” he inhaled through his nose with pink tainting his cheeks, rolling up his sleeve showing a thorny rose soulmark on his forearm.

Hinata let out a soft gasp, realizing this was the other soulmate pair Suga had mentioned before. Then he voiced in confusion, “But the way you acted with Kiyoko-san earlier…?”

“All an act my man!” he chortled, “Sure she’s gorgeous and I still like girls of course but Asahi… the big dummy… he’s special… he’s ruggedly handsome, sweet, and badass with a serve!”

“But then why be a horny tornado…?”

Noya shook his head and held his finger to his mouth, “Trade secret, sorry.”

“Oh. Okay then.” still feeling very confused but took his sempai’s word for it.

Meanwhile just down the street at the general store, Takeda Ittetsu was trying hard to convince a certain manager to come help coach the volleyball club but to no avail and was forced to go…

Six hours later however at the hospital…

Keishin groaned in the waiting room and put his hands on his face.

Takeda was fretting while waving his hands, saying, “I swear! I never thought this would happen! I was only trying to get you to be the coach!”

“Yeah Specs I get that, cool your jets…” putting his head back to the wall.

Ittetsu nervously scratched his cheek while blushing; he never thought this was how he would meet his soulmate.

“If nothing else I do like a man with tenacity even if it’s freaking annoying.” the blonde admitted.

Takeda laughed anxiously, “I swear that’s not the only thing about me.”

“So coffee then? And maybe stay at a bed and breakfast for the rest of the night, seeing how we can’t be separated for more than six hours? As pain-in-the-*** that is.” Ukai scoffed.

“That sounds perfect.” Ittetsu beamed.

“Just don’t bring up the subject of coaching, okay?” the other man got up and held his hand.

“Right.” the teacher nodded, thinking; Besides I got another plan in the works anyway… and took the strong hand, grasping it.

...----------------...

Yuu stared at his cell phone, since his suspension he was forbidden to contact his friends as punishment for getting in trouble with the vice-principal and now that it was over he wanted to reach out to Asahi and yell at him for letting his insecurities get the better of him and missing club activities while he was gone.

“We’re partners for life you idiot,” tears started building in his eyes, “don’t you see that you’re just hurting yourself by doing this?” holding the phone to his forehead.

But deep down he knew this was his soulmate’s hurdle to overcome and he already made the decision to drop the club should it come to that as he told Daichi earlier that afternoon. Without Asahi on the team, it wouldn’t be the same for him especially when volleyball was the reason they met and fell in love with each other.

He touched his soulmark on his arm not realizing the man he loved was doing the same thing in his own bedroom at that moment being in deep in thought of what he should do next.

Asahi loved Yuu with all his heart and staying away from the club hurts like hell but without that feeling of being able to see the view on the other side again he can’t come back…

...----------------...

“You little bastard…” Ukai uttered, “This was your plan all along wasn’t it?!” he accused after hearing about the Nekoma practice game from his soulmate.

Takeda pushed his glasses up with a knowing look, “I cannot confirm or deny the truth of that statement.”

A flush ran across the other’s face, “You’re dangerous…” then a surge of confidence ran through him and pressed his hand against the vending machine above Ittetsu’s head making the other freeze in place, “You’re lucky I’m into that…” he tipped his chin up making the teacher gapped and dryly swallow, his own cheeks flushing from the closeness.

Ukai moved back, saying, “I need to make few calls.” getting out his phone leaving poor Takeda stunned.

...----------------...

“So what’s the story on those two? Did they meet in middle school or elementary school?” Ukai questioned when seeing how well Hinata and Kageyama’s teamwork was on the court.

“Oh, no as far as I know they’ve only met recently.” Takeda responded.

“Really? It just seems they’ve known each other for longer than that. And from the looks of things a lot of these kids already have a soulmate as crazy as that is.”

“That’s true, Sawamura and Sugawara have a matching soulmark same for Tsukishima and Yamaguchi and I think I spotted Nishinoya and Azumane having a matching mark too.”

“Sheesh, either I’m just too old to understand young love now or the fates just love to mess around with us humans.”

“I know, the fact that we didn’t find each other until now is surreal compared to the students here.”

“And that’s why I’m thinking the genius and the ginger are soulmates too.”

“Really?! You think so?”

“Not sure but they definitely have something special with that quick attack of theirs and that boundless trust they have for each other… honestly there’s no other explanation for it.”

They went back to watch the game just in time to see a jump float serve being put into action.

The game was finally done for the night, the team said their thank yous to the Neighborhood Association, did their stretches, and are now finally doing clean-up duty.

When everyone else was distracted, Noya pulled Asahi into the storage room and yanked his shirt down to kiss the gentle giant right on the mouth.

Y-Yuu!” Asahi stuttered, his face going red when he pulled back.

“Took you long enough, you big dummy.” putting his hands on the taller’s chest, “But just so you know even if you hadn’t come back, I would have quit the team too.”

“Wha…?” Asahi was shocked.

“It wouldn’t have been right without you and I would have missed you way too much. Volleyball is our sport for a reason Asahi… It’s what helped us get this marks on our arms… We belong anywhere we go, Asahi…”

Asahi was utterly speechless before crouching down to kiss Yuu this time, the other wrapping his short arms around his thick neck as he was being dipped.

Suga was passing by the room and ended up witnessing the sweet scene giving off a warm smile.