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kuroo heard the sound of yelling and feets pounding on the floor even before he opened the gym door. it was familiar to him, something that he could think back to when he was at his worst. it always calmed him down, strangely enough.
his hands twitched when a large WHABAM resounded from inside the karasuno gymnasium. he itched to hold a volleyball like he was supposed to right now.
normally, on a saturday like this, kuroo would’ve been at practice, barking orders to poor lev who couldn’t get his posture right while blocking a spike; kenma would’ve been trying to sneak in a quick round of a game on his nintendo switch before getting caught by his best friend; yamamoto would’ve been screaming after an admittedly impressive spike. but today, the gym was under repair after an electrical malfunction came up.
actually, kuroo had suggested lighting some candles or leaving out flashlights so they could keep practicing, but coach nekomata had ignored his absolutely brilliant suggestion and went to fetch the vice principal. the vice principal had checked on the electrical panel connected to the gym and immediately called the janitor, who called up a maintenance electrician.
so here he was, five hours later—thirty minutes of which were spent moping around and tossing a volleyball up in the air—in front of his boyfriend’s school’s gym. said boyfriend had no idea about his visit, which was an idea on yamamoto’s part.
“you should surprise him! surprising your partner with a visit is romantic, isn’t it?” he’d suggested.
kuroo opened the door just in time to witness daichi high in the air, shirt flying up to reveal his abs , and hand spiking down on a volleyball. suga cheered when it landed just inside of the line and gave daichi a high five. kuroo stayed planted at the entrance of the gym with a fond look on his face.
he managed to notice that he somehow went undiscovered. everyone else was entirely focused on the divided practice game between both karasuno volleyball clubs. the managers—yachi and kiyoko? he recalled—were keeping track of the score and the coaches were watching closely and shouting every now and then.
kuroo himself felt immensely immersed in the game, especially with how similar the two teams felt. being so distracted, he didn’t see yachi turn her head only slightly and then proceed to freak out. her short squawk caught the attention of kiyoko and the coaches, who all promptly turned in the direction yachi was staring at.
“nekoma’s captain?” the blond headband guy asked in surprise.
apparently he spoke too loud because hinata instinctively craned his neck to look at the gym door, which would’ve been fine if he wasn’t five feet up in the air with a volleyball heading straight for his head.
“hinata? shit!”
the scrambling scene in front of him would’ve been funny if kuroo wasn’t partly at fault for the shorty’s injury. he winced and rushed over to make sure hinata was fine.
“holy shit, hinata, are you okay?” sugawara panicked, holding his underclassman upright and inspecting his head. “kiyoko, can you get the- oh, thank you.”
“language, suga,” daichi chided as he took the ice pack off of kiyoko’s hands and placed it on hinata’s head. “hinata, can you see how many fingers i’m holding up?”
“ahh i’m fine, captain! i’m sorry, i wasn’t paying attention-”
“that ball would’ve hit you either way,” daichi said softly, patting hinata’s arm. “but after we get you checked up, you should sit out, okay? just for this set.”
hinata’s shoulders slumped, and the hand that held his ice pack in place slipped a little, allowing for the condensation on the plastic to drip onto his face. suga quickly wiped it with a cloth that kiyoko had also hurriedly brought over.
while takeda ran a quick check-up to make sure hinata hadn’t suffered a brain injury, the game resumed, albeit slowly. everyone was entirely distracted, either by kuroo’s appearance or hinata’s accident. their eyes were focused everywhere except at the ball.
“ what are you doing here, tetsu?” daichi asked. his eyes peered into kuroo’s half-lidded ones and he reached his hand up to brush some hair out of his boyfriend’s vision. and if he leaned a little closer—a distance he hoped no one would pay attention to—then it wasn’t anyone’s business but his.
kuroo snickered quietly, swatting daichi’s hand away from his face and held it gently instead. “can’t one visit his boyfriend?”
“i- no! yes! i don’t know!” daichi stuttered, blushing furiously. “why didn’t you tell me you were coming? don’t you have practice today?” he gasped. “kuroo, did you skip practice to see me?”
kuroo’s startled, losing his cocky composure. “what? no! our gym had a weird power outage and it was cancelled.”
his face softened immediately. “are you mad that i came here?”
daichi’s eyes flew open, possibly even wider than before. they were the warmest shade of brown and made kuroo’s heart beat a little faster—a little louder. he was sure daichi could hear him, but if he did, he didn’t show it.
“no, i’m not mad. i’m sorry, tetsu, i guess i’m just surprised,” he said softly. he rested his body into kuroo’s, allowing them to hug loosely. “did you really drive all the way here or did you take the train?”
“drove,” kuroo whispered fondly, clasping their fingers together behind again daichi’s back.
daichi hummed. “down bad, aren’t you?”
kuroo just laughed. “sure, dai. for you.”
someone coughed from behind the two, causing them to jump apart and turn around.
“sorry to interrupt you… lovebirds,” ukai drawled, giving them a look, “but sawamura here has to return to the game, or we’ll be one short of a captain.”
daichi flushed at the teasing and bowed his head slightly. “sorry coach, i’ll be right there.”
“mhm,” ukai hummed, raising an eyebrow and spinning around to return to where the rest of the coaches were watching the game intensely. (apparently, the girls’ coach had gotten them back on track while daichi and kuroo were… distracted.)
“go win that practice match for me, yeah love?” kuroo murmured, pressing a firm kiss to the top of daichi’s head.
“kuroo! not here!” daichi hissed, glaring up at him.
kuroo only smiled cheekily, taking his hands and kissing them some more.
“for good luck.”
—
“… seem a lot like naoi and—oh, has kei been working on his receives? that’s nice—like naoi and keishin-”
“who are like naoi and me?” ukai asked, butting into the conversation.
sumi raised an eyebrow at him, then returned to watching the game. one of her players fumbled with the ball and she winced, tugging on a lock of her hair.
“sumi-”
“we were only comparing the similarities between the nekoma captain and daichi with you and naoi,” takeda offered when he realized sumi wouldn’t answer.
“is that so?” ukai pondered, glancing at the pair who were already bickering again. he understood where sumi was coming from, with the whole crow and cat rivalry thing.
he and naoi were always on different sides of the net. there was an air of competitiveness between the two of them, one they carried through adulthood. he liked to think that was the basis of their relationship—an old rivalry. it was comforting and nostalgic, bringing back memories of high school and staring at each other from the benches that were on opposite sides of the court. he briefly wondered what it would’ve been like to see naoi directly through the net.
“you’re both… competitive,” sumi said finally. ukai jumped a little when his friend (?) voiced his exact thoughts. a little creepy if you ask me.
“uh, yeah- wait, how do you know what naoi and i are like? you’ve never met him before!”
sumi turned to him, rolling her eyes. “you call him a lot. i can hear the conversation on both sides. you should really lower your volume or you’ll go deaf—and not just because of your old age.”
ukai sputtered, growing slightly pink. “old-!? i am not old.”
“hah, you’re older than i am! by the laws of physics that means you’re old.”
“that doesn’t even make a drop of sense, what the f-”
“coach! there are children here!”
“ah, sorry specs. sumi, shut up.”