Meeting Him

The first time I really experienced a blooming was terrifying.

I was maybe ten and still didn't truly know the meaning of the blooms. They just happened. Kuroo—my best friend since kindergarten—kept explaining to me that everytime my "soulmate" was physically hurt, a flower would bloom out of the spot they were hurt. I still didn't understand it. I had only really had red roses pop out of my knees and elbows. Kuroo was obsessed with colour and meaning and size and amount, all things that I didn't get. I understood what was happening, I just didn't understand why.

I could never see myself loving anyone. I never even liked anyone truly. Except maybe Kuroo, but he can be a bit much. I saw how my parents acted around each other and I just never saw myself as one of them.

Nevertheless, flowers kept blooming.

We were walking to the park, Kuroo and I that is, when I couldn't handle the sweat pooling down my back. The thick, humid air had gotten unbearable.

"Kuro, don't you think it's too hot to play volleyball right now?" I knew that I sounded whiny and I hated it. But at that point I didn't care. Heat makes you do crazy things.

"Kenmmaaa! It's not that hot! Here, toss me the ball." I threw that volleyball that I was carrying up in the air. Kuroo received it and I put my hands above my head in a setting position.

I felt something sprout out of my leg.

At first I thought it might be a bug. I was always kind of fascinated by bugs, that was why I just calmly bent down to inspect my leg. The volleyball hit me on the back of my head and I heard Kuroo's high pitched laugh. I ignored it as I saw bright orange flowers pouring out of my leg. They were big and ruffled, though I could never tell you what kind of flower it was.

As an immediate reaction, I back away. It was silly, I thought. How could I run away from my own leg? In a panic I just started shaking my leg fiercely. I didn't want this sign of someone being hurt on me. I didn't want to imagine what pain my future lover might be in.

"Kuroo! How do I make it stop?" I asked him. He saw the dismay on my face and walked over.

"Hm. Marigolds."

"What does that mean??"

"Broken bone probably. It'll stop in a couple seconds…I think."

"You think?! Ugh I should—" I was going to say something unnecessarily violent, but just then the flood of flowers, Marigolds, stopped. I sighed a breath of relief and my shoulders slumped back down. That didn't stop me from shooting Kuroo a dirty look.

"What?! It's not my fault this person got hurt!" I rolled my eyes at Kuroo and picked up the volleyball. I was quite done with both him and the blazing hot weather.

"Hey, wait where are you going?!" Kuroo asked frantically.

"Alaska," I mumbled. Kuroo was "running" towards me but it was more of a half-assed sprint. I just kept my head forward and when I made it home, Kuroo was gone.

~

Now it is my third year. There were rumours going around about a new student coming tomorrow. Normally I wouldn't be interested in anything like that, but I overheard a conversation that piqued my interest. After doing a little more eavesdropping, I found out this guy played volleyball. How exciting. Yamamoto, who was the new captain, would be over the moon. I really don't know why I'm still on the volleyball team.

At lunch, I sat alone at a table and played on my phone. This wasn't anything new of course. I had brought an apple and my mom packed me rice, but I wasn't in the mood for anything filling. Fukunaga came over and sat next to me. I liked him the most out of all our teammates because he didn't take my games and force me to eat when I didn't want to.

"Hey Kenma," he said, taking a seat next to me. I hummed in response while he opened his lunch bag and pulled out a juice. "Have you heard about the new second year? I heard he plays volleyball. Maybe he'll join the team," he spoke softly while looking down into his bottle of juice. I nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that'd be cool. I hope he's a setter so that way I don't have to do as much work."

"Well he'll only replace you if he's smarter than you, and god knows that volleyball dudes are ye little of brains." I chuckled while trying to suppress a smile. Fukunaga just sat there drinking his juice with the same wide-eyed look.

"You're pretty funny Fukunaga," I spoke bluntly and stood up to throw away my apple core. I saw him still wide-eyed and his mouth slightly ajar. I hoped that one day he became a comedian. He was really funny.

~

The next day, I was on my way to morning practice. I was thinking about skipping because of a headache that I didn't have, but Yamamoto would just make me do extra work because he's just that much of a prissy bitch. He loved being the captain and I hated it.

You could say that there are a lot of things that I hate. Mornings are towards the top of the list, along with morning practice. Despite that, this morning was actually pretty nice. The air was still, not creepily still, but just still enough to where you could hear the birds flapping their wings and your own footsteps were like a booming speaker.

I was nearing the entrance of the gym when I heard some yelling.

"AND THAT IS WHY I THINK I SHOULD JOIN THE CLUB. PLEASE- PLEASE ACCEPT ME." He was bowing profusely at Yamamoto who was brushing it off but you could tell he loved every bit of it. This new guy was…small. That was the first thing I noticed at least, and then was his hair. His hair was a blazing orange colour, which corresponded very well with his personality. I stepped into the gym and set my bag down while still watching the whole dispute. I was about to just leave and go change when coach Nekomata walked in.

"Heya kiddies! Grandpapi's here- oya? What's this? New meat?" Coach never ceased to make me smack myself in the forehead from embarrassment.

"Uh this is the new kid, uhhh," Yamamoto began to explain. The shorty finished his sentence for him.

"I'm Hinata! Hinata Shoyo! Please uh– please let me join your team!" This shorty—Hinata—bowed again to the coach. Nekomata gave a loud belly laugh and look at Hinata.

"Well, let's see whatcha got!"

We started with receiving drills. Hinata explained that he was a middle blocker on his old team, but he really wanted to be an outside hitter. We practised our receives by first setting the ball to someone, that someone spiking it, and the person on the other side of the net would receive it. Nekomata, of course, put Hinata up first for receiving.

I won't lie, he sucked. The first time he tried to receive it, the ball went straight to his face. Yamamoto lost his shit. He was laughing his ass off so hard that he had to sit out for the next five minutes. Despite his rather embarrassing "receive", he persisted.

"AGAIN!" he yelled. Nekomata gave another hardy belly laugh and let him try again.

The second time was a lot better. He properly received it and the ball flew to where the setter would be standing. Nekomata gave a proud smile and we moved onto the next person.

Now it was time for spiking. I noticed that Hinata couldn't sit still while waiting for his turn to spike. I was thinking that this kid was just like Kuroo when he was younger. He never seemed deprived of excitement. When it came to be his turn, Hinata jolted up from his seat and made his way onto the court.

The ball way thrown my way and I positioned my hands above my head. I saw Hinata practically charging towards me on his quick little feet and the ball came down. I quickly flashed my eyes back to the celicing and thought about where to set the ball.

Before I could think, the ball was already in my hands and I had launched it across the room. I watched as Hinata soared into the sky with the biggest smile on his face. TIme slowed as I saw the shimer in his eyes and his perfect form before making contact with the ball.

He smacked it onto the other side of the net with a speed that I had never seen before. His feet landed onto the ground and he stared to the other side of the court as the volleyball bounced for a little. Everyone's eyes were on him and I'd bet that they were all in shock, too. I sure was.

From the looks of it, Shoyo Hinata was a volleyball monster.

"Did I do it?! Kenma, Kenma did I do well?!" He shouted as his arms dangled in the air. I looked back at him with my mouth hanging slightly open and my eyes wide. But then, I felt something different.

Hinata was looking straight at me, yes, but he glanced down at his hand. Even from far away I could tell that it was red and probably was stinging a lot.

As he gazed at his hand, a single rose sprouted out of my hand. My right hand.

Hinata Shoyo was a volleyball monster, and also my soulmate.