on our way to twenty-seven // kuroo x daichi

13 - ZACK IS GAY

There are two new boys in town, and they have eyes like his.

Tetsurou meets them at tryouts for the volleyball team on his very first day of high school. Timothy is there too, but Tetsurou isn't afraid of him anymore. No, Tetsurou is tall now, towering over most of the boys at tryouts, including the new ones. One has swooshy silver hair and looks kind of skinny, like he might break if a volleyball came within ten feet of him, and the other is a little shorter, with neat dark hair. The one with silver hair is named Koushi Sugawara, but he likes to be called Suga, and the other one is Daichi Sawamura.

Tetsurou can't begin to describe the giddiness he feels when he hears names like his own.

"And you?" The captain stands in front of Tetsurou, sizing him up, with the vice captain trailing behind him. "What's your name, and have you played volleyball before?"

"Yeah, I've been playing with a junior team since I was nine, and I was captain of the volleyball team in middle school." Tetsurou swallows, the weight of everyone staring at him making his mouth dry and his voice stifled.

"That's good." The vice captain makes some notes. "Sorry, what was your name again?"

Tetsurou opens his mouth to say his American name, but he catches Daichi and Suga looking at him, and he swallows it down. "My name is Tetsurou. Tetsurou Kuroo."

"I thought you wanted people to call you Tyler," Timothy says.

Tetsurou shoots him a glare and says it again, feeling his confidence start to grow. "My name is Tetsurou Kuroo. Tetsu is fine, too, but I don't go by Tyler anymore."

The vice captain pauses with his pencil hovering over the clipboard. "How do you spell Tetsurou?"

Tryouts go about as well as Tetsurou expect them to. Suga turns out to be a surprisingly sharp setter, and Daichi is brilliant with receives. Tetsurou himself does a pretty decent job of blocking the captain's spikes, and even blocks most of Timothy's, which gives him a fierce stab of pride, so he thinks he'll make the team. At least he feels pretty good when he steps into the locker room and starts stripping down to shower.

He's in the middle of toweling off his hair when Daichi walks up to him in a pair of athletic shorts and nothing else. Oh, man, Daichi is fit. Daichi is really fit. His shoulders are broad, abs lightly defined. And his thighs, holy shit. Tetsurou's gotta ask what he does to get thighs like that. And despite all of that he's sort of...cute, too, with his big brown eyes and nice smile.

These are all normal things to think about your potential future teammate, right? It doesn't mean anything. Nothing at all, he tells himself as he watches Daichi's wet hair drip onto his shoulders, the droplets sliding down his bare chest.

"Tetsurou?" Daichi says again, and Tetsurou realizes he's completely tuned him out this whole time to stare.

"Hmm, sorry? I was thinking about, uh, the bio homework," he lies.

"Oh, that's okay. I was wondering if...well, my family just moved, and I wanted to know if you could show me around town today? Like, if you have time?"

Tetsurou smiles. "Yeah."

"Suga?" Daichi calls across the locker room. "Tetsu's gonna show us around town!"

"I can't, I have to watch my sisters tonight," Suga says with a frown. "But I call dibs on Tetsurou tomorrow!"

"You can't call dibs on a person!"

"Just watch me, Daichi!" Suga singsongs with a little grin.

Timothy snorts as he grabs his gym bag and hoists it over his shoulder. "Gay," he mutters on his way out.