A/N: Okay guys, here we go again. Some notes for planning: this is eventually going to go on a Tuesday update schedule so that I can keep things steady once school starts up again. I also plan on putting up a list of OCs for this story in my profile eventually because I know that it will probably get confusing once everyone is introduced. I'm planning on keeping the OCs to the Rakuzan volleyball team for the most part, but I'm not restricting myself to anything (because, you know, Seirin, but that's spoiler-y so I won't say anymore).
Love and good coffee to everyone who favorited, followed, or reviewed. You guys are beautiful.
Warnings remain constant: OOC Seijuurou (and other people, I suppose), copious amounts of OCs and language.
Not mine.
Seijuurou's plan to put the volleyball club and all of its members, as well as that unintentionally humiliating experience, out of his head, goes quite perfectly. It goes so perfectly – he's even crossed out that little mark he's made in his head about the other Mayuzumi – that if he weren't Akashi Seijuurou, he would almost be worried.
Everything falls apart once the clubs fair arrives.
It's tradition at Rakuzan to host the clubs fair after school during the second week, in order to host sign-ups for the different clubs and to expose the first-years and new students to all of the extracurricular activities that the school has to offer.
Seijuurou has no need for such a thing. He's known all along, of course, that he will never join a club other than the basketball club (which practically belonged to him already, come on), but he has never been averse to the idea of scouting out some of the school's other offerings.
As he has done with the volleyball club.
Yes.
Totally.
So, obviously, the first thing he does when the individual maps of the campus grounds and the various club booths were distributed in class is locate two different places: one, the basketball club's booth – go here, take over – and two, the volleyball club's booth – avoid at all costs if you value your pride.
Seijuurou circles the two booths in red pen, noting with dismay that all of the sports club booths are in one area of the school clustered around the gym, and the only thing between the basketball club and the volleyball club booths is the baseball club's booth, which seems like far too little of a barrier between his perfect school life and total chaos.
He's not worried, though. Everything always seems to work itself out in the end, whether it's through his own complex machinations or through some other twist of very good luck.
"Hey, Kurosawa."
Seijuurou glances over at the boy who sits next to him, a boy with reddish brown hair who is calling the boy who sits behind him in what is probably supposed to be a whisper.
"Heeeey. Kurosawa."
The boy in question, Kurosawa, looks up, annoyed. "What do you want, Isobe?" he snaps.
Isobe tips his chair back, leans over and peers down at Kurosawa's map of the school. "Have you found the volleyball club yet?"
Seijuurou stiffens and turns his attention back to the map, forcing himself to be intensely interested in the whereabouts of the mountain climbing club.
To his dismay (but not really to his surprise), his plan fails.
"Akashi knows where it is," Kurosawa sighs. "Ask him."
Seijuurou prepares his best glare, but Isobe doesn't even bother asking him. He just grins at Seijuurou and snatches the map off of Seijuurou's desk, quickly finding the two locations circled in red and copying one of them onto his own map.
"Thanks," he says in that same not-whisper, sliding the piece of paper back onto Seijuurou's desk.
Seijuurou twitches.
At this point, Hatakeyama-sensei, their homeroom teacher, who is a very short, very stereotypically Japanese woman with short black hair and small black eyes, dismisses them, and Seijuurou grabs his bag and the map and is out of the room in a flash. The halls fill quickly with excited first years, but only a few people find themselves forced to their knees by an irate redhead as he makes his way through the crowd.
Luckily, outside is better. There are a couple of people behind every booth, and some walking throughout the crowd, waving around fliers and doing their best to advertise for their club. Seijuurou watches it all with mild interest as he makes his way towards the gymnasiums.
There are two people sitting at the basketball club's booth, and a couple of people in line to put their name on the sign-up sheet, and from the sound of it, there's at least one very loud, very childish individual out in the crowd trying to drag in more newcomers.
Seijuurou skips the line and walks straight up to the front of the booth, all protests silenced by his distinct hair as well as the not unnoticeable aura of irritation he's exuding.
The two people sitting behind the booth could not be more different. One of them is a boy with chin-length black hair and kind eyes and a sense of disgust directed quite obviously towards the boy beside him, a tall, dark-skinned figure with short black hair who's stuffing his mouth with some kind of snack.
Seijuurou is intensely grateful that Atsushi at least had semi-passable manners.
The long-haired boy looks at him interestedly. "Akashi Seijuurou, right? My name is Mibuchi-"
"Reo," Seijuurou interrupts. "And Nebuya Eikichi."
Mibuchi Reo smiles up at him. "I suppose you'd be interesting in joining our basketball club, then, right?"
Seijuurou smiles back, if it could even be called a smile. "Yes, I believe I would be."
"Reo-kun, have you seen my brother?" a voice asks from behind Seijuurou.
Reo shakes his head, and Seijuurou futilely wishes that the owner of that voice doesn't recognize him.
Chisaki groans. "Ugh, he has my planner. If you see him, could you tell me? Thanks!"
She runs off towards the cafeteria.
Seijuurou can't believe his luck.
Despite that, it seems that the universe is still conspiring to force Seijuurou and the volleyball club together, and Seijuurou will deny that he briefly contemplates calling up Shintarou and inquiring about lucky items when two boys with volleyball team jackets draped over their shoulders and thick stacks of fliers in their hands approach him.
"Hello," says the first one, who is an average-looking boy with brown hair and gray eyes. "My name is Kajiyama Kaito."
"My name is Maeno Hidekazu," says the second one, who is a rather feminine boy with wavy pale blond hair and watery blue eyes.
"Join the volleyball team," they say together, almost (almost) intimidating in their intensity and the almost animalistic gaze in the blond one's eyes.
Seijuurou stares at them for a second. "No."
He turns to leave, telling himself quite firmly that this situation is definitely something that he can Deal With and it is in no way something Beyond His Control.
Because nothing is, of course.
Seijuurou has almost made it out safely when a shout interrupts him.
"Ah! It's Teikou boy!"
Seijuurou is not personally one for swearing. Daiki's a bit of a hopeless case, and even Tetsuya used to have his moments of intense profanity, but Seijuurou considers himself above that kind of thing.
The only word that comes to mind is Fuck.
He pushes the grimace off of his face, however – keep up appearances, Seijuurou, you have to stay calm – and turns around to see Mayuzumi Chisaki walking towards him, dragging someone completely forgettable behind her.
He's so forgettable, in fact, that even Seijuurou has to look twice to even register that he's there, and when he takes in the exceptionally blank gaze fixated on the light novel the boy is reading, Seijuurou has to remind himself that this is not Tetsuya, Tetsuya is gone now and this is not Teikou, this is Rakuzan.
This is not Tetsuya.
"This is Chihiro, my little brother," Chisaki announces proudly, tugging the boy, who has gray hair and gray eyes to stand beside her.
It's a curious thing, to see how to people that are so obviously twins can be so different. Their face shape is identical, as is their coloring – pale, with hair and eyes in the exact same gray – but Chihiro's eyes don't have the same spark as his sister's.
He meets Seijuurou's gaze evenly. It's like staring into a void, and Seijuurou is uncharacteristically disoriented.
"Akashi Seijuurou," Seijuurou eventually says.
Chihiro hums in response, his gaze flicking back to his novel. "Nice to meet you," he says dismissively.
Chisaki rolls her eyes. "Chihiro, don't be a dick," she says mildly, reaching over and plucking the book out of his hands.
He makes a small noise of protest, but gives in quick enough and crosses his arms sullenly. "Mayuzumi Chihiro," he finally introduces.
Chisaki grins wildly. "Fantastic!" she proclaims loudly. "Then you two play nice for a little while, okay? And Chihiro, what did you do with my planner?"
"Planner?"
"Yeah, my planner. Blue cover, it's got literally everything that is important to me inside of it. Didn't you take it this morning?"
Chihiro shrugs, but looks into the bag slung over his shoulder anyway. He pulls out three different books with blue covers and holds them out to Chisaki, who takes one of them and flashes Chihiro a brilliant smile.
He scratches the side of his nose in a display of pleased embarrassment. "It's no big deal," he mumbles.
Seijuurou smirks – for all of the façade that Chihiro puts up with his aloofness and disdain, it's almost painfully clear that he adores his older sister.
It brings Seijuurou back to Tetsuya, though, and how his former teammate had always been so bluntly courteous to, well, everyone, and for a second those small things inside of him threaten to actually become real, meaningful feelings and – No, Seijuurou, this is not how it goes. This is not how you work, this is not what you feel – when he clears his head and puts all thoughts of Tetsuya (why does this always happen to me, why do I always have to find the exceptional ones?) Chihiro is gone, and Chisaki is staring at him with eyes that are too sharp and too piercing for Seijuurou to be comfortable.
Something about her throws him off of his game, and that is not a feeling that Seijuurou knows or likes.
But what happens next has Seijuurou wondering whether or not his luck is actually good, because what happens next is a very convenient distraction.
A very convenient distraction that appears in the form of a very attractive man, and Seijuurou will freely admit to anyone that asks (because he is, of course, always right, and his sexuality has nothing to do with his absoluteness) that said very attractive man is attractive enough to make even Akashi Seijuurou look twice.
He's obviously not full Japanese, with wavy brown hair and deep golden eyes and he towers over both Chisaki and Seijuurou, probably even tall enough to match Atsushi. His gaze is sharp but his wide smile is warm, and he carries himself with an aura that makes Seijuurou think of Ryouta when the idol wasn't being a total nuisance.
"Chisaki-chan," he says softly, and Chisaki turns around and squeals in delight, wrapping her arms around the man's neck.
"Ezakiya-san!" she exclaims. "I didn't think you were coming today! Why are you here?"
The man, Ezakiya-san, shrugs and returns Chisaki's hug. "Wasn't planning on it, but I had some free time after try-outs finished so I decided to swing by for practice and see who signed up. Who's the redhead?"
"Akashi Seijuurou, I think," Chisaki announces promptly. "Self-explanatory. Akashi-kun, this is Ezakiya Gorou-san, our marvelous and ridiculously attractive coach."
Seijuurou dips his head in a small bow. Ezakiya-san smiles widely, flashing teeth that are way too shiny to be sensible. "Pleasure," he says brightly. "I see Chisaki-chan's thinking of taking on another little project, then."
Chisaki elbows him in the side. "Shut up, Ezakiya-san," she smiles, and Ezakiya-san somehow winces while still keeping that impeccable smile intact. "Anyway, Akashi-kun," she says. "Have you signed up for the basketball club yet?"
"I have," Seijuurou confirms. "I also met Reo and Eikichi earlier."
For some strange reason, he can't keep his eyes from wandering back to Ezakiya-san, whose smile seems to be even brighter than before.
Chisaki hums interestedly. "They're a bit much, aren't they," she remarks lightly, and Seijuurou can't help but agree as he thinks back to the rather loud altercation that had ensued as he had walked away from the basketball club's booth, and the childish boy with the orange-y hair who had almost assaulted him with fliers five minutes ago.
"A bit much," he agrees.
"Chisaki-chan," Ezakiya-san says suddenly, tapping Chisaki's shoulder and directing her attention towards a short boy with bright orange hair who is forcing his way through the crowds. He's wearing a black gakuran and a grayish hoodie, and once he catches sight of Chisaki, he launches himself at her with a tremendous leap that is amazing even to Seijuurou, and Chisaki catches him with one of the biggest smiles that Seijuurou has ever seen (it then occurs to him that he's seen more smiles in the past two weeks than he did during the entire last quarter of a year at Teikou) and a shout.
"Shoyo!"
A/N: Yes, it's true. Chisaki and Chihiro have a very doting sibling relationship in my head. I don't know why. Also, Hinata Shoyo is a beautiful and all-around perfect person and I love him to death.
If you don't watch Haikyuu, you should, because even as sports anime go, it's pretty fucking awesome.
Do whatever you want, I guess, but if you want to leave a review for me, that would be pretty nice.
Next time: Wait, you're a model? And this guy is your delinquent captain? Hold on, why am I even here?
