Hi!

Here's another Black Clover fic for you all to enjoy. It's a bit different than what I normally write, but I hope you all enjoy it. The story came about when I got a very earnest message from IDEKWhatToCallMyselfLOL (on Ao3) making the request. Normally, I don't take requests because I have too many of my own ideas (cue me staring at the increasing pile of Black Clover fanfic ideas with apprehension), but I was moved to know that someone had been inspired by my writing.

This is a YunoAsu Modern AU, featuring basketball and a selective mute Asta. I thought it was an interesting premise to have the character known for being loud and take his voice away. Since I headcanoned that Red (from Pokemon) was selective mute, I thought I'd give it a shot with Asta.

What I wanted to clarify:
Asta's selective mutism doesn't mean that he chooses when he speaks or not; alongside it, Asta also has social anxiety disorder. Asta doesn't speak at school at all and won't speak to the service workers at stores, etc either. At home with Vanessa, Gauche, Marie, Asta is fully capable of limited speech. What throws people off is that Asta smiles all the time, he's very kind and has a strong sense of right and wrong, but he doesn't express himself in the best ways either. He does get into fights often. He has ADHD on top of the anxiety and selective mutism, which makes school difficult for him. Asta IS NOT on the autistic spectrum.

Keep in mind that this an AU so things are different than canon.


Chapter 1: Asta

Yawning, Asta sat in his assigned seat. Having an 8:30AM Literature class was rough. Though, he should be used to having the toughest class first thing in the morning since this was the third year in the row that it happened. Considering that Mr. Fuegoleon Vermillion was the best teacher, Asta figured that it was worth breaking his brain first thing.

What he wouldn't give to have an early morning gym class? His classmates were milling about the room and waiting for their teacher. The conversations he overheard were usually about what they did over summer break or some new thing on Twitter. There were times when he thought about joining in the conversations, but he usually kept to himself, unless it was close friends.

"Sit down in your seats, folks," said Mr. Vermillion. The tall orange-haired man was the epitome of cool. He was a great teacher and very knowledgeable. And never once did he make Asta feel stupid. Everyone like Mr. Vermillion, but the students of Clover Imperial Escalator Academy knew that he wasn't beyond handing out detentions or worse, community service. "Today, we're discussing the Junior Year Assignment, which will be the biggest assignment for this class. I will partner you up." He pulled out packets from one of his folders. He walked around the room to pass them to each row leader.

It was already the first week of junior year and Asta was already done, as he stared at the packet headline and requirements:

LITERATURE III
Junior Year Major Assignment
(Worth 20% of Your Final Grade)

OVERVIEW:
Requirements:
Pairs (or trios, depending on the class size) will EACH submit:
-1 (One) 7-10 page paper on the theme/metaphor/character of your choice from the book of your choice
-1 (One) 5-7 page synopsis of the book of your choice
-1 (One) 2-3 opinion paper of the book of your choice

Pairs (or trios, depending on the class size) will TOGETHER submit:
-1 (One) Shared Journal
-1 (One) 7-10 minute PowerPoint presentation which will be presented to class


Asta wanted to cry, as he skimmed through the packet. The papers were one thing, but a presentation? This was gonna suck, unless…

"Leo, you'll be paired with Asta," said Mr. Vermillion. He rattled off the other pairs of students. And then said, "I'll give you ten minutes to discuss when you're gonna meet to work on the assignment. And then we have to discuss the homework's readings."

Letting out a sigh of relief, he was glad that Mr. Vermillion was sensitive to Asta's issues. Leopold Vermillion was Mr. Vermillion's younger brother and when there was a presentation, Leo was often paired with Asta. Not only was Leo super nice, but he didn't mind that Asta couldn't communicate well.

"Awesome," said Leo, coming over to Asta from his seat across the room. "Are you free this afternoon? We can meet at the library and figure out what book we're doing and our general plan."

Asta nodded.

"Great! You can meet me at the gym. I still have basketball practice," said Leo, grinning. He was always very cheerful and helpful. He and Leo weren't exactly friends, but they were friendly acquaintances.

Asta just nodded again and gave him a thumbs up.

Leo laughed. "Yeah, I mean, it's gonna take us months to get this all done, so better sooner rather than later. Oh! Practice might run later, so you can just sit on the bleachers until I'm done yeah?" Leo chatted some more, already having ideas for what book they might want to cover for the assignment until Mr. Vermillion called them to attention to be the day's lesson properly.

With his afternoon booked due to the big literature assignment, Asta thought about nothing else all day. Asta either hyper-focused on one thing or worse, his mind flitted through many things that made it hard to concentrate. He couldn't win either way.

At lunch, his friends and his foster brother sat at their usual table, and Secre, his best friend, noticed that Asta was thinking about something. Secre had been his friends since middle school. She was dressed in the uniform but she dyed her hair black and kept her tongue-ring in, despite it being against school rules. Secre was very sarcastic but in a quiet way.

"What's up with you," Secre asked him.

Asta takes out his tablet, which he was allowed to carry since he needed it to communicate. He opened up the notebook app and wrote down his response. He told her that he and Leo were meeting up for the literature assignment after Leo got out of basketball practice. Secre made a face. She wasn't the biggest fan of the basketball team. In other schools, soccer/football were the favored sport, but the basketball teams (both boys and girls) were the best in the Clover Kingdom. Many players who played here tended to go off to the NBA or the WNBA.

It made some of the basketball players have big egos, especially many were already from rich and successful families.

"Leo's nice," said Secre, diplomatically. Asta liked to give everyone the benefit of the doubt but Secre was much more cynical. Asta supposed it was one of the reasons they were good friends, they needed each other's points of view to stay centered. "Be careful. Text me, if you need me."

Asta wrote, "Always."

After school, Asta took his time at his locker as he texted Miss Vanessa (his foster mom) that Gauche (his foster brother) was picking up Marie (Gauche's little sister and Asta's foster sister) from the elementary campus of their Clover Imperial Escalator Academy. Gauche hadn't been too happy that he had to leave Asta behind. Despite Asta's foster brother's terrible personality and bad attitude to anyone but Marie, Gauche did care about Asta's well-being and worries. Asta wasn't helpless. He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

Once he received a reply from Miss Vanessa, he went to the on-campus coffee shop to sit and wait until he went to pick up Leo from practice. Everyone in the school knew that the sports' practices were closed, so he didn't want to interrupt them until it was close to the practice's ending time.

About an hour and a half later, Asta left the coffee shop, and headed to the gym. When he entered the gym and quietly sat on the bleachers, the three boys' teams (freshman, Junior Varsity and Varsity) were still practicing, meaning that the practice was going a bit long that afternoon.

Asta enjoyed basketball. He played with his friends sometimes if they were in the mood to keep up with Asta's boundless energy. Asta did work out to keep in shape and it made people rethink bullying him since he was built for a sixteen-year-old. Though he loved basketball, he never got a chance to play on a proper team. Asta had tried joining the basketball team in middle school but due to his selective mutism, social anxiety and ADHD prevented him from even getting a spot. While he was short in addition, it didn't mean that he was at a disadvantage. Volleyball players Hinata Shouyou and Hoshiumi Korai proved the world wrong at the Summer Olympics, after all.

He watched the JV team score on the freshman team and noticed that the star player for the JV team, Yuno Vangeance, wasn't out there. Yuno was a great small forward, easily able to perform all the positions on the team. Hailed as a prodigy, Yuno was a sure choice for Varsity this year when the senior members retired to focus on their studies.

"Practice is closed."

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, he remembered Father Orsi saying this once or twice. Yuno was sitting next to him with a blank stare on his face. While they had been in high school together, Asta never had any classes with Yuno, who was in the super advanced track. Yuno was still staring at Asta, as if waiting for an explanation.

Asta fumbled with his backpack as he needed his tablet, but Yuno didn't make a comment or huff in annoyance. He waited until Asta got ready.

"Waiting for Leo. He's my lit assignment partner."

"This is the last game and then there's the cool down exercises, so it's gonna be another ten minutes," said Yuno, pulling out a book. It was then that Asta noticed that Yuno had a cast on his wrist.

It made sense not to be playing with a broken or sprained wrist, but Yuno must have still had to show up for conditioning training. Yuno didn't say anything more and just read his book.

Yuno was attractive, especially up close. He had messy wind-swept black hair and pretty golden eyes. He was tall and well-dressed. It was kind of irritating that he was a basketball prodigy, super intelligent and handsome. But Yuno was just so cool.

Asta must have been staring at Yuno for far too long because it was Leo's voice that broke him out of his focusing.

"Asta! Thanks for waiting," said Leo, waving up at him. He was dressed back in his school uniform and his red hair was wet from a quick shower. He climbed the bleachers. "Yuno, hope you weren't bothering Asta!"

"Shut up. I wasn't," said Yuno, scoffing.

Leo shook his head, amused. "I know you, Yuno. You're rude! Like all the time."

"Politeness is a lie," retorted Yuno.

"You just don't want a fan club," said Leo, laughing. "Hey, Asta, ready? Later, Yuno, we got a ton of work." Yuno rolled his eyes and scoffed again.

Asta saw the easy banter and friendship between Yuno and Leo. It seemed like they had a good friendship. Asta waved at Yuno, out of habit of Asta being polite. He hoped he wasn't blushing.

"Later," said Yuno, nodding in acknowledgement of Asta.

With that, Leo grabbed Asta's arm and pulled him. "C'mon!"

Asta followed Leo's lead, because homework.

Ugh, homework.

~to be continued


Let me know what you think. I'm gonna try to update twice a month!