Haikyuu!! x Reader AUs

Thaw {Sugawara Koushi}

a/n: a soulmate au! 'tis a tad shorter and more open-ended than what I usually write but I hope you enjoy it all the same!

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There's not much you can feel as you stand on the sidewalk, watching the man you once loved turn his back on you and leave. In your numb haze, you're vaguely aware of the tiny flecks of snow finding purchase on your skin before melting away. A breeze that you can only assume is bitterly cold whips through the air, clawing the exposed skin on your face and forcing you to close your eyes as they begin to fill with fresh tears. You're surprised it didn't freeze those already spilling down your cheeks.

Your body feels like it's filled with white noise. The beating of your heart is but a faint and distant sensation, almost as if he's taken it with him and its cadence is destined to subside the further and further he moves away from you until it stops altogether. Your throat constricts, catching a breath of frosty air that your body manages to warm in spite of the iciness that's resided in your bones for as long as you can remember.

"I don't love you anymore."

"I've tried so hard to love you--to act like this whole soulmate thing is a joke, or something that we can fight--but we're not meant to be together, (f/n). I want to find my soulmate. You should find yours too."

As the words that had just ended your relationship replay in your head, you can vaguely feel the tears sliding down your cheeks for an instant before they're kissed away by the wind. In the blurriness they create in your vision, everything looks to be a bleak blend of whites and grays. Wrapping your coat tighter around you, as if doing so will help stave off the cold that you know all too well emanates from within, you drag yourself over to a nearby bench and place your face in your gloved hands.

This permanent chill that's taken up residence within you has been all you've known for far too long. It's part of the cost of life that every person in this world has to endure until they, by some miracle, meet the one the universe had selected to be their soulmate. No matter the season, the time of day, or how many layers of clothes you wore, you could never be warm. Knowing that only the touch and love of your destined soulmate could alleviate your lifelong suffering was truly maddening.

Many times before had you fallen in love, only to realize that, no matter how hard you tried to ignore it, physical warmth was something humans couldn't live without. In this universe, love just wasn't enough to keep two people who weren't soulmates together, since minds wandered, constantly questioning whether the benefits of being loved by someone who wasn't their destined partner truly outweighed the cost of an everlasting numbness. And, usually, the benefits were overruled by the primal desire for warmth and comfort.

Could you blame him for leaving you when you weren't meant to be together? Not really. In some sense, his decision to end what had been a passionate but cold relationship might have saved you from an eternity of iciness. But no matter how often you're reminded of the way things are, and will always be, the truth still hurts.

Over the sound of your own strained breaths and the occasional hiss of a car's tires against the slush-covered asphalt in the streets, you can vaguely hear footsteps trotting along the wet cement. You're not surprised that someone's walking by, given the fact that you are sitting in a public place, but this person's presence is the first since your now ex-boyfriend had left you. In the moments that had passed following his departure, the streets had gone eerily quiet.

The footsteps slow the nearer they get to where you're sitting by yourself, and it's not long before you hear a voice calling out to you. It's that of a man's, clear as day, but there's a softness laced in his tone as he asks, "Hey, are you alright?"