Not So Typical

Ch. 1

Kuroo was not a typical omega, he was too tall, too strong, too loud.  He radiated confidence, and had the skills to back it up, and his team was better for having him as captain.  The more bigoted people he encountered would say 'stay in your lane, breeder!' or 'you're another sympathy case for diversity points,' and to that Kuroo was mostly unfazed.  He simply worked harder, and won more.  Tetsurou Kuroo brought the cats who had lost their claws back to nationals, he was accepted into one of the the most prestigious universities in Tokyo, and made it onto their championship volleyball team as a freshman.  He made sure he was not a typical omega.

So why did his heart clinch when hecklers from across the net sneered and told him how he must have whored his way into success, why did it sting to hear the jeers about how his build made him undesirable.  "No alpha would want an omega that's bigger than them!"  They taunted, "Did you fuck the coach to take you off the bench, Breeder?" the middle blocker in front of him whispered with a cruel smirk before the whistle blew.  The comment floored him.  It was the sort of bigotry that could get a fowl called on a team if blatant enough, but in the world of sports, a world full of alphas crawling, scratching, and biting their way to the top, it was the sort of bigotry that was overlooked if whispered from behind a net, out of earshot from the benches.

They won that game, 2:0, but Kuroo wasn't in the mood to celebrate with his teammates.  He made sure to keep a lighthearted smile on his face, and crack his typical jokes in the locker room to avoid suspicion, but when invited out for drinks with the team, he wracked his brain for any excuse, eventually landing on studyig for a test he had tomorrow.  Not a complete lie, he did have a test, but he didn't really need to study, he just didn't have the energy to be surrounded by anymore hyper-instincted up alphas, they always got a little too rowdy for Kuroo's comfort after games. 

In middle school and high school, omegas in sports was fairly common, but each division became more competitive, and slowly, the omegas were filtered out almost entirely by the time you got to professional players.  Kuroo could only name two omega on any of the leading teams, and they were both liberos, and while he didn't really plan on playing professional volleyball, the knowledge that simply being an omega could have ended his career single-handedly, if that had been his dream, was not instilling him with a love for the industry.  

He slung his bag over his shoulder, having been one of the first to change, and waved goodbye to his teammates with a smile and little cheer, though the facade dropped once he was hit with the warm summer wind outside.  He sighed, and let his shoulders slump with his expression.  He had learned long ago that letting your emotions show, as an omega, only invited trouble.  He remembered sobbing in middle school once, after loosing a ball that he should have been able to  receive, and the coach had called him over with a grimace and a sigh, if he was about to go into heat.  Kuroo at the time had no idea what that was, but he did know that the coach sent him to the bench for the rest of the game for crying.  Later, after the team meeting, the coach had told him to keep a check on his emotion, told him that if he looked around, he never saw the beta or alpha kids cry over something so silly, said that he had skill natural skill rarely found in his kind, but if he wanted to do anything with it, he'd have to 'check that omega attitude at the door'.  His cheeks had flushed and his eyes had filled with tears, but he took it to heart.

Kuroo winced at the memory, partly loathsome that the only reason for his success was his nearly complete abandonment of his second gender, yet partly thankful he was able to overcome the expectations of those around him, and flourish in a world that told him he couldn't.  With a shake of his head he shook the strange thoughts from his mind and began his walk to him dorm, though he only got a few meters before his name being called stopped him. 

He spun around, the first genuine smile on his face since the taunts from the other team, as he laid eyes on Akaashi's ever stoic form.  "Akaashi!"  He cheered, hopping over to the shorter alpha to wrap him in a hug, which was hesitantly, and surprisingly, returned.  He pulled back, beaming at his old friend.  "You came to a game!"  A small smile graced the alpha's features as he nodded.  "I would have come to more but volleyball season is picking up, and we just finished exams, so this is my first weekend free in a while."  Kuroo smiled and waved off the apology.  "No worries no worries!  How'd exams go?  I heard you guys did really well at regionals!"  Akaashi nodded, and went into a short explanation of his latest semester.