Captains: Kuroo Tetsurou × OC

Chapter 12: Confession

Taiji wasn't sure what the boys were made out of, but they still had a whole lot of energy despite only getting a few hours of sleep. Her team on the other hand, was the complete opposite of the boys, having no energy to even eat breakfast.

"Tai-chan," Yuko whined as she put her head against her captain, "How are you not sleepy?"

"I told you guys to not stay up so late, didn't I?" Taiji raised her eyebrows at her sleepy setter.

"But—" Akari leaned on her other shoulder, "It makes no sense how you slept at 1 in the morning and woke up at 5 for a run?"

Tai shrugged the two off her shoulders, "I used to do that all the time,"

Yui, who was also sleeping on the opposite end of the table, saluted Taiji, " Our captain is a deity!"

This earned a flick on the forehead from her captain, "Don't go around saying things like that!"

Yui yelped in pain as Taiji got up from her seat, "If you guys don't hurry up and finish your breakfast, I'll make you wash all the dishes later!"

The rest of her team immediately woke themselves up and ate their breakfast, no longer complaining about being sleepy.

"She really does have some sort of magical power," Yaku laughed as he watched the female captain put her plate away, "Maybe she really is a deity."

Kai glanced over to Kuroo, who was pointlessly poking at the remains of his breakfast, "Maybe, she is."

Kenma raised his head from his game and scoffed at Kuroo, who wasn't paying any attention to the conversation going on with all of his teammates. Kuroo had returned to their room with a glum look on his face last night, and he wouldn't talk about it despite everyone already knowing the reason.

Bokuto dashed over and squeezed himself between Kuroo and Kenma, "Hey hey hey! Where did you go yesterday night, Kuroo? Everyone was asking about you after you left."

"I heard him talking to Taiji-Senpai at the staircase when I went to the toilet," Lev muttered out with his mouth full, which earned him a scolding from Yaku to chew properly.

Everyone gave Kuroo a judgemental look, which caused the Bedhead to look up from his plate. He looked around and realized that all eyes were on him. He put his fork down and sighed.

"What?" Kuroo was completely unaware of the conversation that just happened, "Why are you guys looking at me?"

The group let out a slight chuckle at their captain. He was absolutely love-sick and his teammates had no idea how to help him.

Just at that moment, Taiji made her way towards the boys. Lev was the first to notice the female Captain walking towards them.

"Morning, Tai-senpai!" Lev greeted loudly, which made Kuroo jump out of his skin. Kuroo picked up his plate and ran off to put them away.

The rest of the boys sighed their heads as their captain escaped the awkward conversation. Tai watched as Kuroo avoided her stare, walking right past her.

"What's going on with Rooster-head?" Taiji let out a slight chuckle as she slumped into Kuroo's seat. It was obvious that she was trying to hide her disappointment.

"Kuroo has been acting weird all morning," Yaku tried to comfort Taiji, "Don't think too much about it,"

Taiji let out a defeated smile as her eyes dropped to her fingers, a heavy feeling filled her chest. She quickly shook the feeling away and went to the courts for a quick warm-up. The court was still empty as almost everyone was still in the cafeteria.

Taiji grabbed a ball and started practicing serves, different techniques each time she tried. She got frustrated whenever her jump serves went out of bounds. She bounced the ball again before trying to do a jump serve, but the ball went out of bounds again.

Frustrated, Taiji spiked a ball across the room with full strength. The ball, unfortunately, hit someone who came in, on the face. The poor victim fell backward as the ball smacked on his face and bounced off again.

Taiji's eyes widened in horror as she realized someone got hit. She grabbed a towel and rushed over to their side, not bothering to see who the person was. The boy was covering his face with his hand, most likely because he was having a nosebleed.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry!" Taiji knelt down beside her victim, and at that moment she realized it was none other than Kuroo Tetsurou.

"I'm fine, Taiji," Kuroo assured as he saw her panicked face, "That was a pretty good spike."

The female captain let out a quiet chuckle as she brushed Kuroo's hair away from his face. She dabbed the blood on his face with the towel she was holding, "If I had known it was you, I would have just laughed."

Kuroo scrunched his nose at Taiji, "Don't be an ass, you vile woman!"

The two laughed again as Taiji smacked Kuroo with the towel, "Hold still, you big dork!"

"You're pressing too hard on my face!"

The two went off for another minute as Taiji tended to his nosebleed. Taiji had ended up leaning much closer to Kuroo than she anticipated, and when the two of them realized, their hearts were thumping harder than a sledgehammer.

Taiji was the first to try and pull away. It wasn't that she didn't like Kuroo, she absolutely heads over heels for the bedhead, but rather she was afraid. Kuroo held on to the female captain's arms, not wanting her to leave.

"I need to say something," Kuroo couldn't think about anything else, he could feel his heart beating against his chest. He had been planning to confess to her for a long time, thinking about taking her to see the sunset or perhaps going on a trip somewhere, but at that moment he realized there wasn't going to be a 'perfect moment' for him to confess.

A wave of courage rushed over Kuroo, he was no longer going to wait.

Taiji could feel Kuroo's grip tightened. Kuroo's odd behavior suddenly all made sense, but she felt frozen like a deer in headlights.

Kuroo's didn't feel nervous anymore, "I wanted to say this yesterday night, but when I saw you on the phone with whoever 'Tooru' is, I got scared and I couldn't tell you."

Taiji's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything. Kuroo continued to mumble for a few more seconds before he snapped out of it.

For the first time in 3 years, Kuroo wasn't running from his feelings anymore.

"Taiji," Kuroo's eyes met hers, "I really like you."

~~~

Money was passed around as the teams quietly observed their captains from outside of the court.