hq boys and their first encounter with you! | pt 2
featuring: tetsuro kuroo, osamu miya and shinsuke kita!
a/n: sorry it’s been awhile! i’ve been going less on social media, as one of my classes has been a bit difficult. and it’s just ironic since it’s my fav subject and never had to stress about not having success in the course and yet i’m somehow doing terrible this time around..but it is improving bit by bit! i will try my best to post more consistently. anyways, here is part two!
note: gender neutral reader! all of them are pretty lengthy like the last part..anyways. reader plays basketball and is suggested to be shorter than him in kuroo’s part, onigiri is probably mentioned 194843782 times in osamu’s part + atsumu mentioned. reader is inarizaki’s manager in kita’s part + aran mentioned!
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you were a third year transferring to nekoma from another school since you moved, and it did not take long for you to make a known presence within the school. through your looks? sure, that’s one, but mainly because of your courageous, confident personality. that energy radiated off of you in the most positive of ways. never backing down and refusing to let any negativity bother you.
although you were confident, it was never in the boastful way, and therefore you were best suited to become captain of the basketball team - all while being a top student, quite the nerd despite the fact you were athletic. an athletic nerd, huh..what a contrasting combo.
many students in nekoma found it funny and interesting - two third years who are athletic, coincidentally being captains in volleyball and basketball respectively, both of which who are also nerds that happened to have been put into the same class. the presence of one another.
you’d unknowingly piqued kuroo’s interest when he noticed that he wasn’t the only one who would often participate in class and answer questions - you partially took a role that he grew accustomed to having to himself, some feeling inside of him that sparked enough urgency to feel the necessity to fight for the position, even though you simply enjoyed partaking in class discussions.
you didn’t think much of it until tests came, and often it was either you or kuroo who’d score the highest when you were accustomed to having the role of best grade in the class to yourself, too. the two of you had indirectly sparked competition for being the best in these types of roles to the point where tension was undeniably present - eventually spreading around to the school somehow, most definitely through your guys’ classmates.
the tension would remain, even as this rivalry was established between you and kuroo. and maybe, just maybe it was all because he once provoked you with a snarky comment directed to you - his tone filled with provocation and pride since you did not achieve the highest grade in the class on a recent test that he did the best on.
“aww, looks like someone lost their highest test score streak, guess i outsmarted them this time. as i should, though.” he says with a smug grin on his face, glancing at your direction, your classmates turning to face you, too.
not paying attention at first though suddenly noticing the shift in the atmosphere, in return, you gave in to the provocation from that comment, and although initially thought of being polite had backfired as you barked at him in response, your underlying attitude from your strong personality and specifically happening only with him sparking the guy’s interest and irritation at the same time. how could someone shorter than him have this much attitude? and only to him? no way did you think you could get away with that.
“talk when you get the best grade for the second time in a row.”
“yikes, that was very threatening coming from someone like you.”
“why are you talking again? you haven’t even gotten the highest score on our next test. pipe down.”
“sooo much attitude for our first time conversing, wow. didn’t expect that. but whatever you say, i guess!”
and so, it soon led to you having to deal with his relentless teasing and pranks - and none of which were funny, all of them being a waste of your time and energy while he simply thrived off of the annoyance etched onto your face every time which only encouraged him to continue, seeing how his snarky words and plans had always been executed efficiently.
though slowly but surely, a friendly rivalry connection with one another had been established, and just maybe that led to the two of you starting to see one another in a different light..
being the child of your parents that had a restaurant established and running, the love for food and eating had grown into you naturally, especially for onigiri. although your family had difficulty making a living years beforehand, your idea of selling onigiri had helped so much to the point where your parents firmly believed that without that little thought, you guys wouldn’t have been where you were currently at today.
a popular restaurant for having excellent customer service while also having a variety of traditional dishes - all of which were tasty and beyond customers’ expectations were definitely amazing in itself, but the popularity all came from the onigiri menu. having a takeout option too? perfect for many.
it was after practice once when their coach had ordered takeout from your family’s restaurant, a small bag of a variety of the onigiri - all individually wrapped nicely, a treat for the team as their reward for their hard work.
“since you all have been working hard lately, here’s a small reward. keep it up.” coach says, each of them having one.
a label of “(l/n) onigiri” on the top that kept its wrapping in place wasn’t noticed by the twins at all as they immediately unwrapped it and dug in, their mouths watering for more as it only took two bites for them to finish, wishing they could have more. it only then clicked when the twins had later left and were on the way home that they realized they didn’t check where it was from.
“it’s your fault, ‘tsumu! your big back couldn’t wait and check the label first! now we both don’t have a clue where it came from.” osamu says.
“why are you blaming me? we were both hungry and plus you’re the onigiri lover here ‘samu, calling me the big back? watch what you say!” atsumu says in return, the two getting into an argument like the usual as osamu simply sighed, deciding to drop the topic but hoping that he could atleast figure it out someday.
while you attended inarizaki, you weren’t aware of the volleyball team and their players at all and vice versa for them, specifically osamu. both of you attended the same school yet never actually met one another, but that soon changed as the miya twins soon came across your family’s restaurant while taking a different route on the way home, osamu easily swayed by the variety of onigiri in the preview menu outside.
“wait, ‘tsumu! look!” he says, his brother stopping in his tracks.
“hold on, that one looks like the one i tried the other day!” atsumu recognized, pointing to it and staring at the sign in front of them before the two glanced over at one another, nodding.
“..this is it.” they both concluded after a few seconds. it had to be, but the only way to confirm it would be by trying, wouldn’t it? and so, they went in, being seated and handed the menus as you helped them out, your apron on, a pen and a small notepad ready - noting their inarizaki volleyball tracksuits for the first time, though refraining from asking them.
“hi! welcome to (l/n) onigiri! would you like any water or tea while looking over the menu?” you say, locking eyes with the grey haired twin, a small but radiant smile on your face before you locked eyes with the other.
“water would be appreciated, thank you. and actually, we already know what we’re going to order.” osamu says, and so you wrote their order down, smiling again.
“okay, just checking, half to stay and half for takeout?” you ask as they nod in confirmation. “okay! thank you. i’ll be back with the water!”
and so, you came back with the water before going on to other tables and taking other customers’ orders too, unaware of osamu’s eyes wandering over to your every direction.
“‘samu, you’re staring an awful lot at the server. got a love at first sight kinda crush on her or something?” atsumu teases.
“am not.” osamu simply replies, though he was staring, and he knew that in himself something about your first conversation with him felt unique.
and it piqued his interest even more when he later found out you were also a student at inarizaki who was actually the child of the owners of the popular restaurant. since then, he often visited there for the good food, of course - but now it was also because of you.
maybe if you were perchance not busy with that much customers, then just maybe he’ll convince you to sit with him and keep him company for awhile.
as other volleyball teams had a manager or two like karasuno and fukurodani did, other schools did not feel the necessity to have one or simply could not find anyone truly willing to take on an important role as such.
with a manager meant upholding many duties, responsibility crucial in achieving success for yourself as a manager and for the team, too. it was also important to consider the pressure that the role consisted of sometimes - which was possibly why inarizaki could not find anyone fit for the manager role and used to managing without having one.
you were a student who did greater than the average student in class, striving to do even better and make it to be the top of your class, but also known for your dedication to your duties, all the while keeping yourself taken care of and being able to consistently maintain balance in the many tasks of one’s daily life, just like kita.
a captain of the volleyball team, his life and even him as a person in general had been highly accustomed to an orderly, tidy way of living - from cleaning, taking care of himself, volleyball, the simple greetings before eating meals..that all mattered.
and similar to you, though differing in the perspective that he’s achieved a goal that you’ve been striving to reach and accomplish yourself as he was a top student, you had been in multiple clubs in school, but none of them made you feel the enjoyment you were looking for. it lacked the sense of urgency, responsibility and pressure that you felt would help you become even more productive and organized - that was until you came across inarizaki’s boys volleyball team.
showing the determination and proving your dedication with little effort, you were soon officially a manager for inarizaki’s volleyball team, eventually being introduced to the team - meeting the captain for the first time. it was awkward, a simple greeting hanging in the air from both of you but leaving it at that.
kita wasn’t the only one now who would be performing his usual tasks as you helped him out, also accustomed to the kind of way of living that was rubbing him off in a way that couldn’t be put into words - causing him be a bit more closed off around you. not in the bad way though while you thought it was.
with time that had passed, you were pretty comfortable with most of them except kita. it was kind of hard in a way, as you felt like conversing with him whenever you had the chance to or just in general wasn’t the same way that you felt with the rest of the team, though you still tried your best to work through it.
aran, who kita’s closest to, noticed this after seeing the interactions between the two of you, deciding to talk to you about it when the two of you happened to be apart from the team.
“it seems hard to get him out of his shell, but kita is a very good person at heart. i guess he’s just been so used to being in full charge of those kinds of things that having a manager who’s always helping with that now throws him off. i don’t think it’s in a bad way, though. don’t worry.” he tells you as you nodded and thanked him in response, keeping that in mind for the next time.
and so, two more weeks passed by, and the two of you were left alone after practice, cleaning around and checking everything, making sure nothing was in the wrong place or missed. as you expected pure, awkward silence throughout it all, he suddenly spoke, catching you off guard.
“do you ever just..feel tired sometimes? tired of always doing the same things for most days of the week, even though it feels nice to accomplish them afterwards.” he asks you as you respond.
“uhm, sometimes, i’d say. but regardless if i’m tired or not, i know that i’ll still end up doing what i need to.” you say, a brief silence in the air - bringing you back to the very first time you ever encountered him, the very first time you actually met him.
just as you thought that would be it and would deal with the silence all over again, he instead laughed, humming in agreement soon after.
“it’s nice to know i’m not the only one who thought the same thing.” he replies, this conversation a lot more different than interactions with him for the past month now.
maybe you really did take it the wrong way this entire time.
