Work Text:
I was waiting for you.
Scrawled across the inside of his arm, in neat, dark writing. Tendou runs his fingers over the words habitually, as a nervous habit. A reminder, maybe, that someone, somewhere was waiting for him. It meant he had to survive. The mockery, the bullies, everything.
There was someone out in the universe waiting for him, either to meet him tomorrow or ten years from now.
Middle school is hell - he’s pretty sure it’s hell for everyone - but he holds onto that thought. Someone is waiting for him.
He lays awake at night and runs his fingers over the words, reads them again, even though they’re burned into his memory, even though he can see them when he closes his eyes. Sure, maybe, this could mean anything. Maybe waiting is literal, maybe waiting is inconsequential. Maybe this person wasn’t waiting for Tendou-the-Soulmate so much as Tendou-the-Person, but either way, somewhere, there was someone who was built for him, someone who would love him, regardless of all the rest of it.
Bullies tug on his clothes and push him around, he hears the names they call him, but they can’t take this away from him. They cannot deny him the truth that there is someone out there waiting for him.
He’s fairly certain it saves his life. He likes to think he’d be strong enough to manage even if he was one of the fraction of the population that didn’t have anything written on them. But he doesn’t have to imagine himself strong enough like that, because he doesn’t have to be.
He’s not a gifted kid, he’s just clever. A sports scholarship to a boarding school is an escape tactic to avoid the pushy, evil kids he grew up with, something that, should he not have earned, he would have pivoted to finding elsewhere. A sports scholarship here will be just as good as an academic one elsewhere. As long as it got him out of his home town.
As long as it got him somewhere nobody knew him.
A part of him knows the dorm situation could be a true nightmare. If the kid he gets paired with turns out to be a bully, or a nightmare, he’d have nowhere to run. His mother is two hours by plane away, he doesn’t know his way around this city, if anything goes wrong he’s truly on his own.
And his track record of things going wrong was very high.
But as worn down from it all as he was, he was not a coward, and his hopes were pinned on a fresh start. Don’t be a monster this time, don’t be a freak. Wear cool clothes, say cool things, keep his head down and nobody will even notice him. Besides, the volleyball team here was very good . And being a top athlete was supposed to make you cool, right?
The school is big, and during the week before the academic school year started meant move-in days for the incoming students, Tendou included.
He packs, he unpacks, he drags his stuff up the stairs of the big school because the elevator was busy and he didn’t have all that much anyway. He bumps into people, he excuses himself, he keeps his head down and he finds his assigned dorm only after receiving help from three student council advisors guiding new students around.
His to-be roommate speaks first, before Tendou can say anything: “Hey, welcome. Tendou Satori, right?”
Tendou smiles. “That’s right,” he chirps, taking a look over the kid. He’s tallish, with sandy-grey hair, and a classically handsome face. The kind of guy that people gave attention to.
“Semi Eita,” he replies, before waving a hand at the mid-unpacking mess. “Sorry, I only got here an hour ago.”
“No worries, no worries,” Tendou sings, moving around to set his stuff down in the available room. The room was tiny, bunk beds set up to which Semi has clearly already claimed the lower one, a couple of desks, crammed together with a garbage can between them. Semi has, also, already claimed the one closer to the window. There’s a closet at the end of the bed, but based on the narrowness of the door, Tendou doesn’t think it’ll hold much.
The walls are pale and boring, the window overlooks the inner courtyard of the school. It’s… nice.
Semi doesn’t immediately start making demands, and after a second Tendou realizes he has one earbud in, head bobbing along as he works to unpack, doing his own thing.
Okay.
Well.
Okay.
He decides to just let it be for a moment, feeling nervous and sick over the possibility of scaring off his roommate, or making him an enemy, mere moments after meeting him. But his tongue wants to work, the silence is killing him.
So eventually he looks over his shoulder and says: “So, have you lived in dorms before?”
“No.”
“Me neither! I’m excited, but a bit worried, being away from home. I’ve never even been to this city before, y’know? Did you grow up around here?”
“Yeah.”
“Not very chatty, are you?”
“No, but clearly you are,” Semi mutters, and it’s not even really said in an intentionally mean way, but Tendou shuts his mouth and looks away.
Overall the total unpacking process doesn’t take him very long, and he tries not to look at Semi’s stuff too much, though he is curious. The rest of the day goes by uneventfully, and he realizes he’s on his own for dinner.
That’s weird. He’s never really had to just feed and keep himself alive alone before, so he invites Semi out to try and find the school cafeteria, since they had a dinner card program they could use. Semi refuses him, and Tendou leaves alone.
---
Considering he had been recruited to come here, he doesn’t exactly have to “try out” for the volleyball team, despite it being so competitive. He does, however, still have to show up for tryouts to compete for an actual spot on the team, rather than the bench. Immediately upon arriving at the gym, he’s told to dampen his hopes. Washijo had a habit of scouting far more than necessary for his team, and even those on a sports scholarship like him might be stuck in the reserves until at least their second year. He was advised to set his sights on his third year, and work hard.
This, of course, all comes from the current team captain, a man that seemed overwhelmingly heroic. There was something about him that screamed “knight in shining armour,” from his broad shoulders to his kind eyes. A real leader type. He’s not saying this to be mean, he’s saying this because there can only be so many players on a team, and only six on the court.
He says all this, about expectations and setting realistic goals for yourself and working hard and trying not to focus on jersey numbers or anything of the sort, before immediately laughing and pulling someone over that Tendou had noticed, but his eyes had previously glazed over.
“Well, of course, I guess that applied to everyone except Wakatoshi here,” the captain says, ruffling the hair of the kid he had pulled over, even though he only seemed an inch or so shorter than him. “Wakatoshi was the star on the Shiratorizawa middle school team, and Washijo wanted him in the starting line up. Pending any serious injury or death-” Wakatoshi lifts his head to look at the captain with genuine alarm here “-he’s gonna be your ace and captain when you’re playing your third year, so all you fresh blooded first years have to start learning to play with him now. Washijo always tracks his aces early, so don’t worry about making a splash and playing with the third and second years, you won’t make the cut to the team. Practice with him, practice with your fellow first years, focus on each other, and the rapport you can build to do right by the Shiratorizawa mantle when it’s passed to you.”
Tendou nods slightly, glancing to his left, where he could see his roommate, Semi, nodding firmly, and beside him another young kid Tendou had been quickly introduced to, Leon. There are others, too, people he hasn’t yet met the name of, but…
Well, he’ll learn them.
He likes this, even if it’s unconventional. It’s like being assigned friends, they have to work with him, because Washijo scouted him special for the team and if they didn’t, they wouldn’t fit the team build.
Would he mesh with Wakatoshi? Tendou supposed that would be the most important thing. If He couldn’t get along with this to-be-ace, they’d definitely cut Tendou long before they cut him.
The captain lets go of Wakatoshi, and pushes him off to join the lineup. He’s an odd fellow, just slightly shorter than Tendou was, though big looking, the kind of person that obviously was all-in on the sports career, even at this age. He’s cute, but not really looking at anyone, or doing anything. A neutral expression, a neutral posture. He settles beside Tendou wordlessly, turning his attention to where Tendou had no doubt the captain was getting ready to disperse them to various tryout tasks, though he was currently distracted looking at a clipboard.
Yes, Tendou decides. If Wakatoshi and him could play well together, then that would secure him a position in the lineup. Hell, it might even get him on the court in his second year, if Wakatoshi had already secured a spot.
Okay, operation “stay on the Shiratorizawa team” has commenced.
Step one: do something he’d never successfully done before and make a friend.
Tendou elbows Wakatoshi in the ribs.
This certainly does get his attention, and Tendou is looking at him with a wide-eyed expression, trying to look “friendly” and “approachable” and whether it works or not, it does not show on Wakatoshi’s face.
He opens his mouth, and all sensible thought has gone out the window. Shit, how did people make friends? What should he do? What did he say? Make a joke about volleyball? Elbow him again? Punch him? Bite him?
He’s suddenly struck by elementary school memories, and before he can stop himself, he ends up saying:
“Do you wanna be my friend?”
And, okay, here’s the thing. Tendou has tried to make friends before and it’s almost always met with vicious mockery and disdain. The last time he asked this question so childishly, he was seven, and the girl he’d asked ran screaming to their teacher.
So when Wakatoshi does nothing except stare at him, eyes widening, Tendou assumes this is another rejection. But then he starts to grow more concerned, because a rejection usually comes with the word “no,” and this kid is straight up just staring at him.
“Uhm… it’s okay if you don’t want to,” Tendou adds, awkwardly, drumming his fingers together. “Just… you know, since we’re both in first year, and… gonna have to play together, it would be nice to be… friends.”
Wakatoshi’s eyes are just… slowly getting wider.
Frankly, it’s terrifying. He’s a big guy, and he’s looking at Tendou as if Tendou was a shadow monster in his sleep paralysis nightmare, it’s a rather disconcerting way to be looked at.
“Okay, nevermind,” Tendou says, coughing slightly as his face heats up, wishing he had gone for the ‘bite him’ technique. “Whatever.”
Wakatoshi is still looking at him, but that’s only slightly deeply unnerving. Tendou has never in his life been the normal part of a weird interaction, so this is actually a little bit refreshing. And thankfully, their captain starts ordering them to partner up to do some passing drills so they can get some preliminary skill assessment done. Tendou is briefly afraid he’s going to have to be partnered with this terrifyingly quiet kid, but thankfully the teacher pairs them up with numbers and there’s an odd split that puts him with Semi on his left.
Thank god. Okay.
Tendou wanders off, glancing over his shoulder and nearly jumping out of his skin when he sees that, despite being across the room, Wakatoshi was still looking at him.
He looks back to his passing partner.
“So is Wakatoshi, uh…” Tendou waves a hand. “Okay?”
Semi shrugged. “What do you mean?”
“I tried to talk to him and he stared at me like I was a demon.”
Semi seems to ponder this for a moment, before saying: “I’ve never met the guy, actually. So. Maybe that’s just what he’s like.”
“I hope not,” Tendou huffs. “We have to be on the same team as him, I’d like him to not stare at me like that all the time.”
Semi shrugs. “I’m sure he’ll warm up to you.”
“I don’t have a great track record with friend making. This is only moderately better than Ito Mizumi running away from me in first grade.”
“Huh.”
---
It’s a pretty rough first day, all things considered. Tendou knew the school had high standards, but damn, these kids knew how to play volleyball. Even all the other first years seemed leagues above anything Tendou had seen in a school club before, and it was rather intimidating.
Although he hadn’t ended up directly partnering with him for anything, Tendou had managed to notice Wakatoshi too. He was… good. Very good. And he seemed to like volleyball a lot, or at least, seemed to have fun playing it. He was left handed too, which made him interesting to play with, and Tendou was hoping, really hoping, that today was just a weird hiccup that would smooth itself out, and they’d get to play together. He looked fun to play with.
Tendou’s eyes are drawn to him uncontrollably. Perhaps partially still worried he’d been rejected so fast, maybe just mesmerized by the kid’s perfect form despite still having so many years to grow and develop. The way he jumped, the way he swung his arm, the neutral, passive look to his expression as if his own excellence wasn’t even noteworthy.
No wonder Tendou’s “wanna be friends,” statement had gone over badly. This kid was probably used to the best of the best in all things, and his clumsy, awkward self would have been a scary deviation.
Whatever.
The practice wraps up, and Tendou loses track of Wakatoshi as everyone drags themselves off to clean up. It’s a generally good atmosphere, people laughing and nudging each other, calling a good job. The older kids seem impressed, and cheery. It’s good. It’s not scary, it’s good.
Tendou cleans up, and already turns his attention to the idea of getting food. Lunch wasn't provided on non-school days, but there was a sort of communal kitchen that had stuff for the students…
His mind wanders, and he looks down at his arm, lifting a hand up to run his thumb across the dark writing.
I was waiting for you.
Someone, somewhere. Even if this didn’t work out, even if people kept running away from him, trying to make friends. Someone somewhere was waiting for him.
So he grabs his bag and heads out without looking back. He heads into the Shiratorizawa hall, hearing the door swing shut behind him and turning his feet down towards the dormitories, almost immediately getting surprised by the sight of Wakatoshi scrambling up off the ground. He must have been sitting on the floor, against the wall, but leapt up now as if Tendou had shouted him to attention.
Reflexively Tendou steps to the side, narrowing his eyes slightly. He’s still… just… looking at him.
Wakatoshi runs his hands together, and when Tendou glares back at him, he doesn’t seem to be able to maintain eye contact, looking down to his feet.
“You’re a bit of a weirdo, you know,” Tendou says, slowly starting to walk around him, passing him to head down the hall. “Sitting around in the hall like that, what are you doing out here?”
“I was waiting for you.”
Tendou freezes, feeling like the earth was suddenly a glue trap, whole body alight with panic of all emotions.
There’s no way, right?
Contextually, it could be a coincidence. Similar things had happened, with slightly-off sentences… It was possible for someone to say your soulmate’s phrase the first time they met you without it being your soulmate. It was common, for people with “Hey” and “Hello” and “Good morning.”
Tendou turned to look at him.
“What did you say?”
Wakatoshi blinks back at him, before looking away again, fingers tracing together nervously.
“I was waiting for you.”
Tendou slowly lifts up his arm, tugging up the sleeve of his hoodie, revealing the same words scrawled across his arm.
Wakatoshi nods. “I know,” he says, before adjusting his bag over his shoulder and doing much the same, pulling his sleeve up to show off words that Tendou hadn’t noticed before - words in similar dark script across his skin: Do you wanna be my friend?
Tendou puts a hand over his mouth.
“Oh-”
It’s funny, since he’d been told this would happen. That you could prepare or plan or think your way through every first conversation, and still, somehow, still, that person, your soulmate, would sneak up on you when you weren’t paying attention.
“It’s you,” Tendou says, when he can, a note of wonder reaching his voice. He takes a few steps forward. And then he gets confused, tilting his head. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Wakatoshi swallows, still avoiding looking directly at him.
“I… wasn’t expecting it,” he admits, softly. “Nobody has ever wanted to be my friend before. I had started to believe that you weren’t real. Or that I had missed you in a passing moment in daycare, and would never find you again.”
“...oh,” Tendou says, glancing down at the writing on his arm. He supposed he was lucky, that his words there gave him the impression of the future, of waiting. But Tendou’s childish choice of words would have easily been misconstrued as something that was likely to occur young. The longer they had gone without meeting, the less likely it would have felt. “I’m sorry.”
Wakatoshi nods a little bit, his face still neutral, but Tendou was beginning to realize that that was a feature of this kid, not an odd choice. Just who he was, not how he was actually feeling. He decides, quickly, to memorize every microscopic expression he has, and learn them as soon as possible. He’d learn his expressions.
“It’s okay,” Wakatoshi says. “I… apologize for freezing. Sometimes, when… I am overwhelmed, I…” and Wakatoshi just waves a hand. “Can’t talk.”
“Probably for the best,” Tendou laughed, though he’s getting a little bit emotional, unsure how to close the natural distance of strangers. This was his soulmate, someone who’s words had been printed on his skin since birth, someone who had been waiting for him. Wanting him. Hoping for him.
Tendou hasn’t even introduced himself yet.
He sticks a hand out. “Tendou Satori, by the way, if you didn’t catch it in practice.”
“Ushijima Wakatoshi,” is the reply, as he reaches out to take Tendou’s hand. His skin is rough, and well calloused, as if used to work. It’s warm. “And… I would very much like to be your friend. If the offer is on the table.”
“Of course it is,” Tendou says, and he doesn’t want to let go of his hand quite yet, but they have to, because they’re blocking the hall. So they fall into a slow walk, shoulder to shoulder. Tendou can’t take his eyes off him.
Is he what he expected? Of course not. But Tendou hadn’t really expected anything. And there was something endearing, maybe, about someone so ill-equipped for a social interaction his first response to meeting his soulmate was to play possum. There was also something fitting about his soulmate turning out to be a bit of a weirdo.
“You know, I’ve never really had a friend either before,” Tendou says. “I’m glad you didn’t just blurt out a hello when we met, it would have made getting through grade school a lot harder. I liked your message for me.”
Wakatoshi looks up at him, seeming surprised by this for a moment, before his shoulders seem to relax, posture straightening, growing more comfortable.
“I am glad, then. I was worried I had embarrassed myself.”
“You did, but it’s cute.”
“Is embarrassing yourself cute?”
“Yeah, like a cat missing a jump, or a panda sneezing. Cute.”
Wakatoshi has to think about this for a moment, before nodding as if suddenly getting it. Instead of an actual inference, though, he just repeats: “Understood. I am a sneezing panda.”
Tendou laughs. He can’t help it. It’s such a dead serious stupid response. He was so weird.
He was perfect.
And Wakatoshi absolutely lights up.
Well, he certainly adjusts himself, looking over at Tendou with a still neutral expression, but a distinctive glint of excitement in his eyes. Tendou is good with people, good with communication, he’s rapidly calculating Wakatoshi’s demeanour and comes to the conclusion that this is a truly happy expression for him. It looks good on him.
“What’s that look for?” Tendou says, nudging him.
And this makes him look even happier, and he just waves a hand for a moment, seeming to struggle to decide what to say before settling on:
“You laughed.”
“I laughed?”
“Nobody has ever laughed at my jokes. They usually just stare at me, or try to correct me.”
Tendou grins, laughing again and shaking his head. “Well, you’re funny. Weird, but funny. Like me.”
“Like you,” Wakatoshi agrees, and it is a tone filled with fondness, or excitement, or contentment.
And they walk together for a moment in silence, an easy, companionable silence where neither of them are sure exactly how to fill it. Tendou feels like he’s walking on air, a few days into the great boarding school experiment and always having blown his expectations out of the water.
These were going to be a fantastic three years.
Wakatoshi suddenly picks up his step, and Tendou realizes he’s pulling ahead so that he can push open the stairwell door, holding it for him.
“How polite.”
He gets a slight nod as the door is shut behind him.
Well, Tendou figures. They had the rest of their lives to get to know each other, but they may as well start now.
“So, Wakatoshi - ah, I can call you that, right?”
“Yes, it is okay.”
“So, Wakatoshi, you’re like, some kind of volleyball prodigy, yeah?”
“I’m not sure about all that,” he replies, as they head up the stairs together, both of them slowing their steps to drag out the length of time they could spend in the quiet stairwell, to lengthen the time before they had to separate. It occurs to Tendou that he doesn’t actually know where Wakatoshi is leading him. Back to his dorm? To a common space? Ah, whatever. Tendou is fairly certain wherever he’s going, he’ll be happy to follow. “I love the sport, though. So I try my hardest.”
“Talented and humble, is there anything you can’t do?”
“Jump floats, but I’m working on it.”
And Tendou laughs again, leaning into Wakatoshi’s shoulder, pressing his nose against his school jacket.
“You’re funny, I swear!” he’s saying, joyfully, feeling a weight off his shoulder for the first time in a while.
So this is what a soulmate was. (Better than he had even dreamed.)
No, no, scratch that, this is what a friend was.
This was worth the wait.