Breathless -- Kuroo Tetsurou

[FOURTEEN] Awoken

Kuroo had been awoken with a start. His eyes flung open but his body remained ridged in place. He didn't dare to move.

An amber gaze snapped to the person in front of him. His forehead glazed over in sweat, he could also feel the dampness of his back from his current ordeal. 'Kiroji' was no more than a few inches from his face. Though that wasn't the main problem.

The main problem was the fact that they were holding hands.

There is no way in hell that Kuroo could explain exactly how or why they were holding hands. All he knows is that he had a particularly spicy dream and the fact that he was holding their hand was NOT helping. He was off the walls freaking out in his brain at the moment.

Boarder-line ripping his hand out of 'Kiroji's' grasp, it didn't rouse the fellow beside him but it did elicit a small groan. Kuroo brought his hand up to his chest, still unsettled.

He stared down at the smaller person laid on the mat beside him. His chest swirling with mixed emotions. Annoyance was certainly one of the largest ones present. What if someone else saw? He'd be pestered for WEEKS about it.

Lighting up his brain with the aspect that another person witnessed the exchange, he whipped his head around in his sitting up state. A few boys were waking up but nobody was paying any attention to him in the way back corner of the room. Quietly sighing in content, he grabbed at his phone besides his pillow.

Tapping the protective saver, it turned onto the lockscreen where he read the time.

6:28 AM.

Great. Two minutes before all of their alarms would be going off. Although he would have loved those extra two minutes of bliss, he silently prayed a thanks to Kami that 'Kiroji' didn't wake alongside him with the rest of the two teams.

-----

Naga stretched her body forwards, reaching and grasping the underside of her feet as she sat on the ground. Her eyes glanced up to the four captains in the middle who were currently leading the start of their daily stretches before practice started.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Four..."

The captains said in unison as they counted up to fifteen for each stretch.

Naga let her mind wander as the mundane actions let her body go into pilot drive.

She found her brain started to focus on a certain Nekoma captain.

Eyes wandering as well but we don't talk about that.

Her breath hitched as eyes that were lazily trailing over the middle-blocker's body connected with his. She quickly escaped his gaze, face heating up but she turned her head into the next stretch to hide it.

Reaching her left hand around her front, she brought it to her right and stretched. Keeping her legs in place while twisting her back carefully.

Naga's heartbeat felt like it was pounding so hard that the boy next to her, Lev, could hear it as well. Though he gave no notion that he could which slightly calmed her nerves. A gasping sign left her lips over the next stretch.

She was definitely flexible but absolutely not some sort of contortionist. So forcing her body flat out in front of her in the splits, pushing it farther than normal to show off made herself strain quite a bit.

She was actively avoiding Kuroo's gaze at this point. She could feel him keeping a steady eye on her. But being subtle about it as to not draw attention at all. It left her with butterflies in her stomach and an uneasy lump in her throat.

"Alright!" Oikawa suddenly called out, snapping her once again from a trance she was in. She inwardly grimaced at the boy but made a point to at least act like she was listening. "We will be getting into partners today for some rotation two on twos. The person currently to your right will be your partner." Oikawa paused for a moment before tsking in a shrill voice. "Iwa-Chan you'll be my partner! So the circle of 'your partner to the right' will end with Yaku-kun."

"Like hell I will!" Iwa snapped out but the retort was already drowned out by Oikawa's shitty voice once more.

"Stand with your partner when your ready. Me and the other captains will go around and pair you with another group of two."

"Aweeee but I wanna be partners with Kenmaaaaaaa." Kuroo pouted out from beside the Seijoh setter, arms crossed.

Although she was currently uncomfy with both captains, she let herself snicker quietly.

"'kaaaashi!" Bokuto was no better alongside the sulking Neko-captain. He was making grabby hands in the air towards the setter who was seated to the left of Tsukishima.

Daichi cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "Why don't we just pick our partners, Oikawa-kun?"

Oikawa scoffed and crossed his arms in a childish fit, making a 'hmph' noise while scrunching his eyes. "Fine. Since nobody can appreciate my ideas apparently."

Naga was a bit unsettled at this revelation. She had no hard feelings about partnering with Lev and in all honesty she was looking forward to it. She turned to look at the tall half-Russian only to see him already grinning across the circle towards Yaku.

So apparently partnering with Lev was out of the question.

Her eyes let themselves trail up towards Daichi's figure but a small part of her brain told her no. That right now wouldn't be the time and that she should allow Suga to take that spot.

A rustling of noise started and consistently grew as the teams started standing up and picking their way towards their friends. Pairing up for many of them was as easy as finding their other half. It made Naga's heart twinge in a way but she pushed it down.

"Hey newbie!" A deep voice sounded from somewhere in front of her. She spotted Asahi timidly show in her line of sight.

She lit up her face with a smile once he stood in front of her. "Wanna kick some ass with me?" She asked.

"I was about to ask the same thing." He chuckled and dropped his hand that was still nervously rubbing his neck. "Honestly I was going to pair with Noya but him and Tanaka already paired up." He glanced off to the side with a slight worried grimace. "They're threatening Yamamoto again." He sighed.

Naga just simply laughed at that and slapped her ace's shoulder in a kindhearted manner. "Don't worry about it Asahi. I'm okay with being a second choice."

A part of her disagreed with that.