Hello hello! I hope you all had a successful holiday season! Something magical happened over the weekend and I had to share the first part of a (hopefully) small story that whacked me in the face without warning. For those wondering, yes, it was conceived due to the song by Incubus. I had just finished catching up with "Run To Me" (a KuroKen real world AU fic) on Ao3 and gone to sleep when I was awakened with the very specific urge to listen to this song. The end result is this. Rated T for suggestive subject matter for now. Here's the link to the song so you all can set some mood like a boss: https/youtu.be/3k0-sGqxIiQ I do not own Haikyuu!! Or any of its characters.

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Chapter 1

A Place of Rest

At the river's edge, it's never silent. Even after the light of day has gone, there is an abundance of life surrounding the blood of the Earth. Crickets and amorous frogs sing out into the darkness, creating a gentle melody that surrounds the senses.

But that night was not dark. No, the light of the moon reflected so brightly in the rushing water the evening he decided in a fit of sleeplessness that he'd fish to tire himself. The eddy Kuroo Tetsurou waded into was cool, and he reveled in the bite contrasting with the sweltering heat of summer.

Adjusting his fundoshi, he strode further into the water until he found a rock of suitable depth he could sit on. It had been a rough day of work in the field, but it eased from his mind in the calm of night. This place was magical even by day, but with the starlight bright enough to shine back from the water, it was as if he were bathing in the night sky itself.

Such romantic ideas weren't uncommon for him. He'd always been a dreamer, impossibly so by his family's standards. As far as they were concerned, he was now running on too short of time to produce a son, let alone find a useful woman that hadn't already been coerced into marriage or spread her legs for coin. Every last arrangement had been utterly refused on his part, not for lack of a pretty face or a strong back to be sure; Kuroo simply wasn't interested in things being decided for him. While most parents would have had him married with a dagger digging into his back by now, his mother had softened his father's hand.

So he sat here, alone on a summer evening in his late twenties, enjoying solitude and the gentle pull of the blanket of stars. Kuroo glanced at his discarded clothing crumpled beside his fishing equipment; it didn't seem right to disturb these waters with even himself, let alone a pole. Still, he couldn't help but marvel in the emanating magic of this moment, the ebb and flow of his breathing the only disturbance to be seen in ripples.

It felt like a holy place of rest, and taking pause here seemed to renew his spirit in a way he hadn't known he'd needed.

Closing his dark eyes, he inhaled the scent of wild hanashobu and moist earth. The intoxicating summer air would give way to the fall in the next few weeks, and this place would be changed. For once he took the opportunity to appreciate the season, his heart feeling full and body at peace.

A curious sensation washed over him, a captivating rush that opened his weary eyes. There before him was a sight he'd never before seen, and could not be described for fear of sounding incredible. A lone figure, blindingly white floated with the leisurely current. Kuroo blinked, disrupting the water the scrub at his eyes that clearly deceived him at this moment. When the fog cleared from his vision, still the image glid in front of him, a single toe connecting its body to the water and taking no notice of him in passing.

"Hey!" He called out to it, feeling particularly foolish. Somehow his legs managed to stand without his permission, carrying the rest of him to the bank noisily. Oddly the splendor of the supernatural remained despite his disturbance. Now he was running through the thick overgrowth practically bare, not taking his eyes off the bright light in front of him. At one point he'd made it to an outcrop the river bent around and became swift, the figure escaping quickly before he'd been able to catch up. Fireflies flared up around him from the bush he'd jostled, framing his vision in more magic and mystery.

The clothing it wore was strange, and ethereal. A stark white yukata glowing like a second moon against black patches on the back of its sleeves. Similarly, its shoulder length flowing hair was as white blond as its robes, save for an odd more natural colored crown. Kuroo stood there, gaping after it until the light disappeared, swallowed by the trees in the distance.

The walk back to his quaint home was long, and full of fantastical thought. The dirt road clung to his wet feet and shins, but he paid it no mind. There was something cathartic about the experience that weighed heavily on his mind even after he'd cleaned himself and settled in for the night.

What exactly had he witnessed?

Sleep came in waves, his mind waking now and then to assure himself it hadn't all been a dream. Doubt rolled over him in the groggy way deep rest can make one forget the details. In the end, he succumbed to a rocking slumber, caressed by soft moonlight.

Some refs that you might need to know!

fundoshi- that underwear situation used for bathing in old world japan. the most practical present day example i can give is the thing the yakuza wear when taking pictures od their tattoos. Its like a thong if it were made of a cloth kitchen towel.

hanashobu- hydrangeas

yukata- a casual summer kimono that has less layers.