Tsukishima stared out the window in boredom, lightly tapping his foot against the ground. He looked forward and watched as the teacher paced back and forth, droning on about history. His hand found the red string tied to his pinky figure, as it always did when he was bored. He fiddled with it, running it through his hands, curling it in loops before letting it fall slack again.
He looked at his string and followed it through the pile of other red strings on the floor to where it, and most of the other strings, slipped under the door. He knew that if he got up to see where it led it would go down the hallway, out the entrance of the school, and much further down the road. When he was younger, he would explore it and follow it all the way to the edge of town where it trailed out of sight on the long winding road, though he had never been able to follow it further.
He flexed his pinky, watching the minute shifts send shivers down the string. He looked at where it was tied in a perfect, small bow at the base of his finger. A bow which would not come untied no matter how much he tugged and pulled at it. The string could not be cut either, though he had only tried with scissors a few times.
Nobody else could see the strings. The strings attached to one person on one end and another person on the other end. As far as Tsukishima knew, he was the only one who could see them. He had looked. Looked for others who fiddled with them absentmindedly like he did. Looked for eyes that trailed the ground, following the different strings. Looked for people who glanced down at their pinky with a small smile because they knew what it meant.
So far, he had yet to find someone that showed even the slightest hint of awareness.
He had been able to see them as long as he could remember. He remembered people always being confused when he talked about them. When he was old enough to understand that other people couldn't see the strings, he stopped talking about them.
It wasn't until he was 10 that he discovered what they meant. He overheard some of his classmates talking about the 'red string of fate," which would tie together soulmates.
After that, things had started making more sense. He understood why his parents shared a string, and he started to think about where his string led.
Naturally he wondered what type of person they would be. Someone like him? A bit mean and aloof? Maybe someone more like Yamaguchi, very different from but complementary to Tsukishima. He was excited. Excited to meet them and fall in love and spend the rest of his life with his soulmate.
Of course, this innocent way of thinking didn't last very long.
After understanding what the red strings were, he started being more observant. He watched as people who were connected walked right by each other on the street, with their partners and children in tow, their string growing longer and longer the farther they walked away. He watched one night, unbeknownst to his parents, as his aunt got drunk in their kitchen after her divorce proceedings had been finalized, though her string had been connected to his uncle. He saw a man pass right by a cemetary, his string leading to one of the graves, completely unaware that his soulmate had passed.
Tsukishima grew up not really sure what to think about soulmates. It seemed like one could be perfectly happy without one, and in some cases better off, but then, sometimes, he looked at his parents and thought he wanted what they had. He also reasoned that if other people could see the strings, maybe they would try harder to find their soulmate. They couldn't be blamed for not searching when they probably weren't even aware they had a soulmate, but Tsukishima was aware so maybe that meant he should try.
Maybe. Maybe someday.
The bell chimed, signaling the end of the school day. Tsukishima rose to his feet and shuffled all his books into his bag. He met Yamaguchi at the door and they walked together to the club room.
"Good practice, everybody," Daichi shouted. "We have the training camp this week, so everyone make sure to be here on time."
After the equipment was put away, everybody started filing towards the club room.
"Aren't you excited for the training camp, Tsukki?" Yamaguchi asked, eyes twinkling.
Tsukishima sneered. "I couldn't think of anything worse than being stuck in the same building as this lot for a week."
"Oi, Tsukishima! You need to fix your attitude!" Tanaka shouted back at him.
Suga smacked the back of his head. "Lay off, Tanaka," he reprimanded, which only caused Tanaka to lecture about the importance of attitude the rest of the way to the club room.
Nekoma stood across from them outside the gym. He could see the determination on the faces of all his teammates and the opposing team, but Tsukishima regarded them with boredom.
He felt his hand reach down towards his string, but stopped himself. He had learned after receiving stares for playing with what looked like thin air to others.
He looked down at his string, and at everybody else's. Saw the strings that went out the school entrance and down the road. The surprising number of strings that connected his own teammates together. It wasn't often he saw so many soulmate pairs in one place but he could count five. No, six. He noticed the string from the Nekoma captain didn't leave the area between them like the rest of the team's did.
He tracked it through the pile between the two teams but lost it when the teams broke formation to walk to the gym. As the strings spread out he could see the captain's more clearly. It lead to—
He stopped, Yamaguchi crashing into him. "Ah, sorry, Tsukki, are you okay?"
It led to him.
"Tsukki?"
Nekoma's captain's string led to Tsukishima's hand.
"Tsukki!"
Yamaguchi's shout startled him back to attention. "What?"
His friend's concerned face filled his vision. "Are you alright? You were spacing out."
"I'm fine," he said, waving off Yamaguchi's concern and walking forward, eyes on the back of Nekoma's captain's head.
He couldn't focus. He couldn't focus on the game at all with his soulmate standing right in front of him. His string was a mere ten feet long, the shortest he had ever seen it.
They were only about halfway through the first game when he jumped a second too late for a block that he should have been able to do.
"Oi, Tsukishima! Focus on the game!" Ukai shouted from the bench.
Right. Focus, he thought to himself. They'll be time later.
After the first match finished, the team was gathered on the sidelines drinking water and talking strategy. Normally, Tsukishima would've at least tried to pay attention, but all he could think about was Nekoma's captain. Kuroo was his name.
He was currently talking to the setter with a big smile on his face, before yelling at one of his teammates. He was a good captain from what Tsukishima could tell. He was a good player and his team seemed to respect him.
"You should take a picture, it'll last longer." Tsukishima jumped a little, looking over to Yamaguchi standing next to him with a grin.
"I-I wasn't…"
"I'm not judging. He's certainly not ugly." Tsukishima sputtered. Yamaguchi only laughed at his friend's embarrassment. "Just don't let it distract you from volleyball too much."
"He's not distracting," Tsukishima said, trying to defend himself, but Yamaguchi only smiled.
Tsukishima was going to say more, but then the next game was starting.
After the games finished and everybody was cleaning up, Tsukishima stared at Hinata talking with one of the members from Nekoma. They were both jumping in the air and yelling random sounds at each other.
"What the heck are they talking about?" he murmured to himself.
"They don't sound like high schoolers," a voice said from behind him. He turned to see Kuroo standing behind him with a smirk. "But you on the other hand, maybe you should go a little crazy, like a high schooler."
Tsukishima regarded his statement with distaste. Before he could think it through he said, "I'm not good at that sort of thing."
With that great first impression, Tsukishima walked away.
The fuck was that? Why are you walking away? The entire afternoon he had been thinking of a way to talk to him and then that happened. That anticlimactic interaction.
Honestly, he didn't really know what to think about Kuroo. He didn't seem like that type Tsukishima felt he could spend the rest of his life with. On the other, they had only been together a few hours, only acknowledging each other during that brief interaction. It was probably too early to draw conclusions.
"Did you embarrass yourself in front of your crush?" Yamaguchi teased.
Tsukishima wrinkled his nose. "I do not have a crush on Nekoma's captain."
"You've been staring at him from the moment they got here."
"Shut up, Yamaguchi."
"Sorry, Tsukki."
He didn't look very sorry.
Nekoma was leaving and Tsukishima didn't know what to do. He had decided that he wanted to at least try with Kuroo, they were soulmates for a reason after all. But it wasn't like he could just go up and ask for his phone number, not when they had barely spoken and the one time they did speak he had been, admittedly, quite rude to a stranger and a senpai.
So Tsukishima watched as Nekoma boarded the bus, saying goodbye to Karasuno. He watched his string get shut between the bus doors. He watched the bus drive off and his string get longer and longer the further the bus got, until it was out of sight and he saw the familiar scene of his string going through the school entrance and turning down the road.
Tokyo. My string leads to Tokyo.
"W-We're going, right?" Takeda shouted, from where he had fallen on the floor in the rush to get to the gym.
"Where?" Hinata asked.
"Tokyo," he replied, a glint in his eyes.
Tokyo?
"Tokyo? Tokyo? You mean…"
That means…
"Nekoma?!"
Nekoma.
And Nekoma means Kuroo.
Everybody gathered around Takeda and sat in a circle to hear more.
"As for our series of away games in Tokyo, for the time being, it's planned next month," Takeda started, but Tsukishima didn't listen to the rest.
Tsukishima was busy thinking about seeing Kuroo again. It wasn't like he thought that practice game was going to be the last time he ever saw Kuroo, they had obviously made friends with Nekoma and would probably meet up at some point.
But thinking about meeting at "some point" is different than knowing they're going to meet in a month.
A whole month to think and stress about meeting his soulmate again.
Beside him Yamaguchi was grinning at him.
"Shut up, Yamaguchi."
"I didn't say a thing."
Riding on the bus to Tokyo was a stressful experience for Tsukishima. The entire time he watched his string on the road ahead get shorter and shorter. Not that he could actually see it getting shorter, but he was getting close to his soulmate so he knew it must be getting shorter.
There was a small knot of anxiety in his stomach the whole way there and when Yamaguchi had asked if he was alright, he said he was fine but he knew that wasn't quite true.
When they finally arrived, Nekoma was waiting for them outside, Kuroo front and center. Tsukishima subtly watched him as they got off the bus and he and Daichi greeted each other. He trailed behind them into the gym with Yamaguchi beside him, but didn't pay much attention to anything but Kuroo.
Kuroo was tall, even for a volleyball player, though a bit shorter than himself, Tsukishima noted with a small hint of satisfaction. He had weird hair. He was a bit loud, but not obnoxiously so, like some of his teammates.
His team seemed to like him. And even through all their joking and teasing, it was clear they respected him. Tsukishima had only seen him play in the one game a while ago, but he does remember that Kuroo was a pretty decent volleyball player.
Of course I just had to meet my soulmate through volleyball, he thought, somewhat bitterly.
Once the games actually got started, he was too busy to watch Kuroo, so Tsukishima let him and the whole situation float to the back of his mind while he concentrated on volleyball. By the end of the day, he was exhausted, and as much as he hated the idiot duo, he was glad to have finally won a game and not be subjected to another penalty lap.
And I'm gonna have to do this all over again tomorrow.
Tsukishima suppressed a groan.
And then again in two weeks.
He kind of wanted to watch Kuroo play, but mostly he wanted to take a bath and go to sleep.
By the end of the next day he still hadn't interacted with Kuroo beyond the matches they played together, but given how tired he felt he couldn't bring himself to care very much.
I'll see him again in two weeks, Tsukishima thought, watching Kuroo and the other teams grow smaller as their bus drove away.
He still hadn't decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
A/N: Thank you for reading, comments are much appreciated :)
Okay, so there is more to this and I have some written, but I haven't worked on this story in quite a while but I decided to publish the first part which kind of works as a stand alone. I don't want to post the rest of it unless I'm actually able to finish it, so there may or may not be more to this at some point.
Hope you enjoyed!
Come talk to me on my tumblr (same username)
