PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT
this isn't really an x reader fic, but if you just replace the description stuff with your own features it could be. there's not much of that though so it should be pretty easy
ok thanks for reading that onto the story yeet
You're a second year at Nekoma High, a school in Tokyo. Realizing that you didn't do any clubs last year, you decide you really should join one. You're not crazy about doing sports, but you decide that managing a sports team could be interesting.
So you weigh your options, passing by practices to watch all the teams play. The last sport you go to visit is volleyball. You stroll by the gym's open doors, stealing a glance of the team. They're in the middle of a set playing against each other. You find yourself mesmerized by the subdued tap of the ball against the player's hands, they way they move strategically to outsmart the ones on the other side of the net, the way the ball is almost attracted to spikers hand before it hits the ground.
You make up your mind immediately. You'll manage this team so hard they'll be begging for work to do.
Suddenly the coach, who is a couple centimeters taller than you are, blocks your view. "Can I help you?" he said, sounding respectful but plainly confused as to why she was just standing there.
Your face turns several shades of pink, flustered. "Um, uh, yeah, well, um, I'm sorry!"
He chuckles. "It's fine. You can watch if you'd like."
You regain your composure before speaking in the most confident voice you can muster. "Um, actually, sir, I would like to be this team's manager!"
He stood there, thinking of what to say to that. "I have good grades, study hard, can help your players get good grades and study so they can go to more games, I'm very hardworking and I'll do my best to serve this team as manager!"
He chuckled again, but you don't understand what's so funny. "What's your name, miss?"
"Risako Hiroyuki, but please call me Rei."
"Well then, Rei, welcome to Nekoma's volleyball team."
Your eyes lit up, and you bow. "Thank you so much!"
He smiled and turned to lead you into the gym. The set was over at this point, and all the boys were stopping for the day. They turned and stared in silence when they saw you walk in with the coach.
"Boys, this is your new manager. Be nice." The coach gestured for you to introduce yourself.
"Um, hi! Uh, my name's Risako Hiroyuki, but please call me Rei." You shuffle and back up a little, obviously anxious of what they will think of you. "I'll try my best to be a good manager!" Your eyes are squeezed shut at this point.
You hear footsteps coming towards you, as well as the scent of sweat and stale cologne. A large hand rests on your shoulder and you open your eyes to look at the owner, when you find yourself looking at his chest. Your eyes go to his face, which is almost fifty centimeters away. He has black spiky hair that hangs over one eye. He looks really cool and intimidating, I wonder who he is? You wonder.
"I'm Kuroo Tetsurou, the captain of this team. We're all honored to have someone as our manager, so thank you." He nodded and smiled. He smiles like the cheshire cat!
"Uh, nice to meet you! Um, just out of curiosity, how tall are you?"
"187 centimeters."
You gasp. "What?! I, uh, I've never seen someone that tall."
"I'm not the tallest here, ha!"
"W-what?"
"Lev over there, he's almost two meters."
The silver haired spiker jumped up, full of energy, and held is hand out to shake yours, but everything happens so fast, and you feel like he's looming over you, and now there's another tall person, and now there are three tall-as-hell men standing over you and-
You fall to the floor, having passed out. Kuroo immediately kneels down to see if you're okay, before realizing what happened.
"Lev, you scared her."
"I'm sorry! I just got overexcited."
"Yeah, well, now you're going to carry her to your house and look after her until she wakes up."
"Fine."
Lev easily picks you up and puts you on his back. He begins to walk out, not bothering to say goodbye to the team. Along the way, you wake up. Startled to find yourself on someone's back and farther away from the floor than you have ever been, you let out a small squeak. Hearing this, Lev speaks quietly.
"Hi. My name's Haiba Lev. I was too hyper upon meeting you, and you passed out. Kuroo, the tall one with the spiky hair, told me to bring you to my house and take care of you for the night. We are on Shinzen road, walking north. It is about nine o'clock at night, the sun set about ten minutes ago."
You enjoyed his rambling, the constant noise calming you down. You relax against his back, feeling his muscles tense as you wrap your arms around his neck, leaning your head on his shoulder. "Thanks," you say tiredly. "You're really nice."
Lev blushes at this, but you don't see it. Your eyes are closed and you have fallen asleep. Lev just keeps walking, smiling to himself.
It's twenty minutes more of walking before you both arrive at a quaint house, the shingles painted a warm gray. Lev kicks off his sneakers, walking to the living room. There is a blue couch and gray carpet on the bright wooden floors, as well as a small table behind the couch. Lev carefully places you on the couch, treating you as if you are made of porcelain that would break if he set you down too roughly. He gently slips off your shoes and puts them next to his at the door. Glancing at your sleeping form to see if you're okay, which you are, he walks to his bedroom and changes into sweatpants and a white t-shirt that says "2 meters of greatness". He goes to the bathroom to take out his contacts, and puts on a pair of turquoise glasses, the same color as his eyes. He run his long fingers through his hair, brushing it back. (A/N: i can't describe it copy and paste this into a different tab for the hairstyle: search?biw=1366&bih=694&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=tEycW_WLG-Og_Qbfs5e4Dw&q=silver+haircuts+man&oq=silver+haircuts+man&gs_l=img.3...9039.12197..12431...3.0...1...1..gws-wiz-img... 1Q#imgrc=myRvz9HUH4A7vM: ) Lev grabs a book and walks back into the living room, seeing you splayed out on the couch, having moved in your slumber. He settles on the floor next to you, and begins to read.
Almost an hour later, Lev is still reading and you wake up. You stretch, still lying down, which Lev notices. He looks at you. "Hey."
"Um, hi, you're Lev, right?" You look at him and sit up, admiring him. He looks good in glasses. His hair's different, I like it. He's actually really cute, I didn't get a good look at him before I passed out like an idiot in front of everyone. Wait, where the hell am I?
"Yeah, that's me. You're in my house, by the way. I took you here after you passed out."
Oh, right. His back was so strong, he was so warm- no, stop. You can't like him. Stop. "Oh. Thank you."
"My pleasure."
Agh! He's so charming! You find yourself unable to look him in the eyes, knowing that you would blush if you did, and he would think you liked him. Which you don't. You don't. "What'cha reading?"
His eyes lit up in childlike excitement as he held up his book. "It's called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Basically, this guy, Arthur, is kind of just in his house, then some dude with authority says 'I want to tear your house down so we can build a bypass' but that's not really important. Arthur has this friend named Ford who comes over and tells him the world's gonna end, but then-wait, have you ever read this?"
"No." You lean your chin on your hands, elbows on your knees. You smile, liking the sound of his voice.
"Are you planning on ever reading it?"
"I dunno. Maybe."
"Would you care if I spoiled a bit of it for you?"
"No."
"Okay! So Ford, Arthur's friend, tells Arthur that the world's gonna end, but then plot twist! Even though the plot's still being developed! Ford's an alien! So Ford knows the world's gonna end because he's seeing things from outside it! Like looking into a snow globe, but the snow globe's the world!"
He's such a nerd! I would have never guessed. He's so cute when he's in his own world like this. You giggle at your own thoughts, and he stops his rambling.
"You're cute when you laugh! You should do it more often!" He smiles brightly, his eyes closing. You blush intensely, unable to keep it in.
"Thanks, yours is really nice too."
He smiles even wider. "I'm hungry. Are you? What do you like to eat? I like rice. Do you? Where are you from?"
"I can't answer all those at once!" You laugh. "But yeah, I'm hungry too. I like rice, but my favorite is pork buns. They're so good! I'm from Japan, all of my family is. What about you?"
"I'm half Russian and half Japanese! A lot of people think I speak Russian, but I don't. The only connection I have is my dad, and he's not coming back, so I've basically got no real connections, but the food's good! Have you ever tried Russian food?"
"No, what's it like?"
"It's so good! I went to Russia a couple years ago to see my grandparents, and, and, I don't know! I can't describe it, it's just great!"
You laugh.
"Should we make dinner? I can cook." He can cook too! He's perfect!
"You can? I'm kind of bad at it, but I can do basic things."
Lev gets up, leaving his book on the couch. He stretches, showing just how incredibly tall he is. His legs are so long! His sweatpants only reach his mid-calf! He bends over like a prince asking for a dance, holding out his hand for you to take it. "Shall we?" he says in an exaggerated tone, bettering the imitation.
You take his hand in the same manner, getting off the couch. "We shall!" The two of you prance, laughing, to the kitchen. The kitchen is really just a corner of the living room, with a sink, a countertop, a stove, an oven, a microwave, a small refrigerator and freezer and cabinets all compacted into a meter and a half of space.
"So, what do you want to eat? I'm kind of craving curry."
"Sounds good to me!"
"Great! I defrosted chicken, is that okay?"
"Yeah, what can I help with?"
Lev gets a wooden cutting board, which is leaning against the wall on the counter, and puts it in front of you before (rather aggressively) putting a slab of chicken breast on it. He then opens a cabinet full of cutlery and takes out a long sharp knife. "Can you cut that into chunks? We'll cook it after."
"Yeah, sure!" You ignite with determination to do your job right, taking the knife and beginning to cut the slab into rows, then columns, making neat, two-centimeter-wide cubes. When you're finished, you tell Lev, who has rice in boiling water in one pot on the stove and is stirring a brown soupy substance that looks like barbecue sauce in another. He's impressed with your precision, and you beam with pride.
Lev opens the drawer he got the pots from and takes out a pan. "Hold on a second, I just need to quickly prepare this." He turns on another flame on the stove, the third of four, and puts the pan on it. He takes the olive oil, which was on the counter near him, and pours it generously on the heating pan. He opens the fridge and gets some garlic, which he takes a little bit of and cuts it into smaller pieces. He puts the tiny pieces of garlic on the pan with the olive oil and goes back to stirring. You watch him, mesmerized, just as you were when you first saw the volleyball team play, but this time you were also looking on in admiration.
Lev turns to you. "Do you want to change? You're still in your uniform."
You look at yourself, realizing how uncomfortable your clothes are. "I didn't bring a change of clothes though." You look at your feet. He took my shoes off. That's nice of him.
"You can borrow some of mine to sleep in. You are sleeping here, right? It's late, and I don't want you to get hurt by being out past dark."
He's so thoughtful! But wait, I'm literally three quarters of his height. All of his clothes will be too big by a wide margin. "Sure, but won't they be too big on me?"
"Yeah, but usually I find that bigger clothes are comfortable. It's okay if you don't want to change."
"No, it's okay. Big clothes are comfy."
"Okay, follow me." He turns off the stove for a moment, letting the rice settle. He leads you to his room, which he has to duck through the door to get to. His room is very… cute. His bed has cats printed on the sheets, the walls and ceiling have glow-in-the-dark stars. Everything is light and childish, and you love it.
He goes into his closet, getting a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and comes back out. He gives you the clothing, you thank him, and he leaves to give you privacy and continue cooking. You take off your uniform jacket and polo, and lay them on his bed. You also take off your bra. You hate sleeping in one, it's uncomfortable and tight and restricting. You take off your skirt and tights, and wonder how easy it must be for boys to not have so many pieces of clothing to wear. You lay all your clothes on his bed, now being only in underwear, and put on his black sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. The sweatpants are very baggy, but somehow they don't go past your feet. The sweatshirt is also very baggy, and goes to your mid-thigh. Being in his clothes, you can really smell him. You bring a handful of the fabric from the sweatshirt to your nose to smell it. It smells like soap and new sneakers and burning hickory wood. It smells great. You wonder what it would be like to have his arms around you, to be sitting on a couch and enjoying each other's company. You wonder what it would be like to have his lips on yours, or his shirtless form embrace you as he bites your neck. No, stop thinking about that. You don't think about that. Nope. Never. But it would be nice to hug him. You take your hair out of the ponytail it's in, letting it down. You never really liked your hair, even though a lot of people say it's pretty. You have olive brown hair, with some lighter streaks. It's wavy, but you wish it was straight, because every pretty person you know has straight hair.
You return to the living room with your clothes, putting them in your backpack. Lev, somehow, has already finished cooking dinner, and is putting it in two bowls. "Ready?" he asks.
"Yeah, thanks for cooking."
"No problem. Plus, you helped."
"Not really."
"You helped plenty." He walks over to the small table behind the couch and takes a seat. The table seems too small for Lev's long self, but it also fits him perfectly at the same time. You sit down across from him, smelling the heaven that's in your bowl. It's curry stew over rice, and it looks amazing. When you taste it, you're not disappointed. Flavors explode in your mouth, the warm and simple taste of sticky rice mixing wonderfully with the sharper, more spicy(but not too spicy) flavor of the curry. Apparently it's obvious your taste buds are in heaven, because Lev looks at you and chuckles. "You like it?"
"Oh my gob, itf amayshing!" You say through a mouthful of food. He laughs more. You swallow. "It's amazing."
The two of you just sit in comfortable silence as you eat, occasionally looking at each other. Eventually, still in silence, you get caught in each other's gaze. You just look at each other, almost dreamily, examining the other's features. You notice how Lev's facial features are soft, but are sharper at some points, making him seem like he could be a CEO somewhere. His glasses make him look intelligent, which he is, but they make him look intelligent. His green eyes looked like the waters at a resort, bright bluish green and joyful yet calm at the same time. He has small wrinkles at the sides of his eyes from smiling so much, and you think it's cute.
"You know, your eyes are really something." he says, leaning his head on a light fist to his cheek. You blush.
"Thanks. Yours are really pretty too." He smiles gently, like he's consoling a child. You see something else in his eyes. It looks a lot like admiration, but that's not what it is. You can't figure it out.
"They're like… olives, with a warmer hue towards the middle. They're really pretty. Do you care if I look at them?"
"Not at all. Yours are like the water at beachy resorts, kind of greenish blueish, with flecks of lighter tones. I really like them."
"Thank you!"
You finish your dinners in more comfortable silence, just looking at each other's eyes.
"I like you. You're really nice. Wanna be friends?"
You look at him, his smiling face. "Yeah. For some reason I feel like I've known you for so much longer than a day. Let's be friends."
He smiles his trademark smile, and you return the gesture. After that, he puts the dishes in the sink, not bothering to clean them, and sets up a futon for you in the living room. You thank him for everything before going to sleep.
After that night, you guys talk more often, about volleyball and other things, but it's very light conversation. You take every opportunity you have to look at him without him noticing, to listen to him talk, but you mostly find moments to breathe in his scent.
About two months after you stayed at his house, you've developed a huge crush on him, to the point that you can't even talk to him. You've made friends with Kuroo, realizing how nice and easy to talk to he was. You told him about your crush on Lev, and he tells you about his relationship with Kenma. You soon become best friends, and he almost replaces Lev. Almost.
You still couldn't stop thinking about him, his casual aura, how cute he was, his eyes and how they sparkled when he talked about things he was interested in.
One day, after a week or so of being unable to talk to you, he comes and talks to you at the end of practice. You're sitting on a bench, writing possible outcomes to different plays.
"Hi," he says.
"Hey," you say, not looking up from what you're doing.
"How are you?"
"Good." The two of you stay in silence for a small while. He watches your analysis in wonder. Please go away. Please go away. If I look at you you'll know. Go away.
"Is there a reason you're avoiding me?"
Your head snaps up at him in surprise and almost anger, and his normally happy eyes are filled with sadness. The sight of those eyes erases every wisp of anger you harbored. "W-What?"
"You've been avoiding me, not looking at me, going out of your way to make as little contact with me as possible, why is that?"
"It's because, well…" you look at your knees, not wanting to say the truth.
"Is it because you don't like me?"
You look at him again, taken aback. "What, no! It's just-"
"You keep avoiding me. I don't know why. If you hate me, just say it."
You fall silent. You're unable to say anything, unable to form words that would aid the situation you're in. You know your mouth is opening and closing like an idiot but no words are coming out. Eventually you look back at your knees, giving up on trying to form logical thought, or anything that would tell him what you wanted without breaking your secret. He takes your silence as an answer, hurt flashing across his eyes and he straightens, about to walk away. "I see. You don't want to be my friend, so I'll stop trying." He walks away, not saying goodbye to anyone. A couple of the team members who were still packing up watched him go, but you couldn't. Once he reaches the door he turns back to you. "If I did something wrong, I'm sorry."
He leaves, and you feel tears welling up in your eyes. Not wanting the remaining members of the team see you cry, you go into the locker room, which you assume is empty. You find a bench in the very back, the farthest from anyone who walks in. Plopping yourself onto the bench, you bury your face in the collar of your sweater and cry. At first it's quiet, but soon it's evolved into thick sobs.
Mumbling Lev's name, you sob harder, just wallowing in your own self hatred. Why did I do that? Why didn't I just answer him? Anything would have worked! Anything! Now he hates me because he thinks I hate him. This is horrible. And now I have to look at him for every practice to come, watching him from afar. I hate myself. How could I be so stupid? You don't notice when the door to the locker room opens, you're still sobbing loudly.
There's more than one person walking in, multiple rhythms of footsteps gracing the interrupted silence of the locker room. You let out a particularly loud sob, and the footsteps stop.
"Rei?" It's Kuroo's voice. He sounds worried, and you hold your breath, hoping he won't come over. You just want to suffer alone in peace.
"Are you okay?" That was Inuoka.
You know you're not okay, but refuse to admit it. "Yeah, I'm fine." You know your voice comes out groggy and stuffy and tired from crying, but you can't make any effort to try to sound happy. They already heard you cry, they won't believe you.
You get up from your seat, trying to rub some of the post-crying redness from your face, even though it's pointless. Knowing your eyes are red and puffy, the collar of your sweater is suspiciously wet, your face is as red and there's probably snot dripping from your nose, you walk towards the "hall" lined with rows of lockers.
When you enter their line of view, you see the worried faces of Inuoka and Kuroo. "You're a mess." Kuroo said, beginning to walk towards you. "You okay?"
You plaster a fake smile on your face, nodding and looking up at him. You can tell he doesn't believe you. He envelops you in a bear hug. He was kind of slumped over you due to his being so much taller, but you wrap your small hands around him and grab his jacket, holding onto handfuls of it for dear life. You bury your head in his t-shirt, which is surprisingly dry after a full practice, but maybe he changed it. You feel the tears welling up on the sides of your eyes, and then begin to sob heavily. You pull Kuroo closer, almost like you're trying to fuse yourself with him, like that will stop he crying. You feel Inuoka oin the hug, but it's a little awkward because you don't know him that well. You appreciate his support, though.
You sob for a minute or so, when you feel Inuoka back away and Kuroo pick you up. This doesn't stop the tears from flowing, though. You wrap your arms around his neck, secretly wishing he were Lev, and that he would forgive her. You wrap your legs around his waist so he has an easier time picking you up, even though you knew he could easily lift you without your help. "I'm gonna take you home, okay?" he says softly into your ear.
You nod, not wanting him to hear your voice all nasal and disgusting from crying. You don't see it, but Kuroo nods ot Inuoka, telling him that he didn't need to tag along.
Kuroo walks, leaning slightly back to keep his balance with your weight on his front, passing through the gymnasium to grab his bag. He doesn't put you down when he does so. You're still crying quietly, making every other player on the team look over in worry. Kuroo mouths 'she's fine' before slinging the bag over his shoulder and walking out of the building.
You could hear the members chatting about you once you and Kuroo were gone, wondering what happened. You stopped crying about five minutes into the walk home, and Kuroo put you down to walk with him. He held your hand like you were his child, walking you to your house. Before you got there, though, he stopped at at a bakery, dragging you in. You protested a bit, but he bought a red velvet cupcake-he knew it was your favorite-and shoved it into your hands. You thanked him, waiting until you got home to indulge.
The two of you, still in silence, walked to the third floor, where your small apartment was. Your single mother raised you, but she worked late, until the early hours of the morning, so you knew she wouldn't be home for another five-ish hours. Kuroo, having never been to your house before, looked around. The living room had a circular carpet and a small television in front of the small couch, made to seat only two. The walls were painted a warm off-white, and the lights were also off-white. You had no ceiling lights, so the sources of light were lamps placed almost everywhere. There were small tables, with dainty lamps on them, on either side of the brown fabric couch. Two doors on either side of the couch, next to the tables, led to yours and your mom's rooms, and there was a kitchen like Lev's in the corner of the living room away from the door. A tiny square table was in the kitchen area as well, with a lamp in the middle. Kuroo turned on the television, noticing a CD for Toy Story on one of the small tables, and put it into the CD player, which was under the TV. He patted the place next to him on the couch, and you sat. He wrapped his arm around you, and you leaned your head on his shoulder. As the companies who made the movie rolled by, like Pixar, you snuggled closer to him, opening the brown paper bag with your cupcake. "Thank you. For everything," you say quietly, feeling him turn to look at you even though you don't see it. "You're a really good friend."
Kuroo smiled.
"Want some?" You say, about to break the cupcake in half.
"Sure."
You break it, and stuff your half into your face in one bite. Kuroo already knew your eating abilities when you were distressed. He, on the other hand, ate his half by licking off the frosting then dividing the cake into quarters. Maybe I should learn to savor things like he does. Maybe this would have never happened if I just learned to think about things before I do them. Instead of lingering on pointless thoughts, you let the movie lull you to sleep. Kuroo leaves at some point, because you wake up the next morning and he's gone, but he leaves a note, written on a post-it note in his sloppy scrawl.
"Call me if you need anything. (Wʖ ͡°) ← it's me!" You smile at his childish immaturity that never ceases to cheer you up, and get ready for the day.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, I might update in like 2-ish weeks but this took me a while to write so it will probably be a while. leave a review if you have any ideas on where the story should go from here, or anything really
-cactys