Sugar || Bokuto Koutaro

III

        "Tetsu, calm down. Haven't you guys played against Fukurodani hundreds of times?" You wack Kuroo with the back of your hand for the fifth time in probably as many minutes. He has been basically vibrating with excitement ever since you told him that there was a practice match set for the end of the week. Now that the day has actually arrived, he's been restless all day. He barely even payed attention during class.

"Yes, but you finally get to meet everyone. And we have Karasuno next week. Kenma won't say it but he's just as excited." "Kenma isn't the one that's been spacing out during class and waiting by the door like a dog when it hears its owner coming home." Everything you say just goes in one ear and out the other, so you leave him at the door and help the others set everything up.

Finally, when Kuroo begins to pace back and forth in front of the gym doors instead of helping set up, the doors open and a couple of very loud voices begin to go back and forth about something you can't keep up with. One of the voices, you assume, is Kuroo's. The other belongs to one of the Fukurodani boys. Kuroo throws his arm around the boy he was yelling with and the two lead the rest of Fukurodani into the gym. Given this, you feel safe guessing that this is one of the guys Kuroo refused to give you any information on.

"(Y/N), this is Bokuto, one of my best friends. Bokuto, this is (Y/N), one of my other best friends." You scoff. Kuroo calls this guy one of his best friends and yet you, one of his self-proclaimed other best friends, have never heard of him until you joined the volleyball team. "Best friend, huh? We've been friends for six years, Tetsu, so why am I only hearing about him after joining the team?" All three of you stop and look over when Kai calls you to help him with the score board. You turn back to the two boys and give Bokuto a warm smile, despite your minor annoyance towards Kuroo. "Well, Bokuto, Tetsu here thinks I'm gonna like you. I think he knows me well enough to be an accurate judge."

The two boys watch as you turn and run over to help Kai. Bokuto stares after you like he just saw an angel on earth, his heart pounding in his chest. "Kuroo, why didn't you tell me she was that cute?" "Eh?"

~*~

"Bokuto-San, you're showing off too much." Fukurodani's second-year setter scolds. Kuroo hasn't told you anything about anyone, instead preferring to leave the first-impressions as free of bias as possible. All you knew before this point was that Bokuto is the captain and ace, and Akaashi is the vice-captain and setter. Beyond that, he left for you to see for yourself.

You don't know what you expected of Bokuto. Kuroo never really gave you anything to base an expectation off of besides being a captain and ace, but you know from dealing with Kuroo that being a captain isn't exactly a measure of maturity.

In the brief time you've been able to watch him, you've figured a few things out. Firstly, he has a habit of showing off. You still don't have a lot of volleyball experience, but it doesn't take an experienced eye to see that Bokuto has a lot of skill, and he likes to show it. Secondly, he's very bubbly.

Kuroo was right, you do like him. It's interesting to watch him, if not for the way he plays volleyball, then for the way he acts. He's good at lifting the mood and you find yourself grinning a few times throughout the match. Him being cute is just an added bonus.

You feel a little bad to be enjoying yourself when even you can tell that your team is losing. It's just hard to feel down with someone like Bokuto around. But, if you look closely enough, you can see that you're not the only one. They may be opposing teams, but push that aside and the boys on both sides are all friends. And Bokuto is maybe a little too good at getting your boys riled up. You're not even playing, but watching them gets your adrenaline pumping.

The energy of the whole gym changes when Fukurodani reach their set point. Subconsciously, your eyes find Bokuto, and your blood runs cold as you watch him. It almost feels like everything has slowed down and you're watching him in slow-motion. But then, at the same time, you don't even see it when the ball hits the ground. You can swear he made eye contact with you when his feet met the ground again, but then the whole gym erupted into cheers and groans so you don't know for sure. What you do know, though, is that it's not the adrenaline making your heart pound anymore. 'Oh. Oh no.'

You make eye contact with Kuroo while you still have that dumbfounded look on your face, and you wouldn't be surprised if there was a little bit more color to your face either. Kuroo knows that look. He doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Once everyone has calmed down a little bit, Kuroo grabs Bokuto and drags him over to you. He can see the unspoken no don't you dare in your eyes, but he smirks and does it anyway. Their setter, however, sees this and recognizes the panic in your eyes and runs after them in an attempt to save you. You'll have to thank this kind soul later.

"See, I told you you'd like him." "What'd you think, (Y/N)? That last spike was super cool, right? Please tell me you think I'm cool." You try to make eye contact with him and exude the confidence you previously had, but you can feel yourself slowly shriveling with the way he's staring at you. A blush blooms across your cheeks, and you know Kuroo is going to taunt you with this for the rest of your life. "It was. I'm still new to volleyball, so I don't know if it was actually anything impressive or not, but I thought it was cool."

You might be seeing things, but you might have just witnessed Akaashi's soul leaving his body. "Please don't puff up his ego too much."