Hello readers!
I'm ScherzoVivace and I am totally new to the Haikyuu! fandom.
Without further ado, enjoy the story! (And don't forget to subscribe and review! ;-; your love is my strength)

Normal speech

Thoughts, non-speech, text, flashback

Chapter 1: Prologue

The spring was in the air in Tokyo; the warm, gentle breeze made thick green leaves of a once barren tree dance gently, the baby birds chirped busily, and butterflies fluttered around. Panning over to Nekoma High School, in the back of class 3-5, a boy with rather unruly black hair sat with his head down on top of his desk, his broad chest completely covering the wooden furniture.

'It's so boring…' He thought as he yawned, not particularly fighting the tear welling up in the corner of his eyes. He turned to face out the opened window which was letting in a gentle breeze. 'Just two more periods and I can play volleyball. I should get Yamamoto to do some back attacks today.'

"Alright. That's all the material we're covering for today." The teacher said as she put his chalk down on the edge of the board. "Before we wrap up, we have a transfer student."

Everyone broke out into murmurs at the teacher's announcement. High school third years making a transfer wasn't very common—usually, third year transfer students were delinquents who were expelled from another school. Then a knock came from the door.

"Come in." The teacher said. The door slid open and everyone's attention pinned on the doorway. "The transfer student is here. Come in."

The figure walked in and soon enough the girls began squealing and whispering to each other—the transfer student, although not very tall for a boy, was what the girls considered "cute" and "good-looking," judging by the words they slipped while whispering among themselves. He was around 170 centimeters tall, slender built with slightly long black hair and black eyes.

"Would you mind writing your name on the board?"

The student, without much change in his expression, grabbed the chalk and wrote down a character after another.

"Hey Kuroo. His name's similar to yours." A guy sitting in front of him turned around and said. Kuroo perked up his head and read the white writing on the board: Kurobana Teru.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kurobana Teru. Thank you in advance." The boy introduced himself calmly and curtly, bowing a bit.

'What a girly voice. And a girly face. Did he not hit puberty yet?' Kuroo wondered as he now sat up and examined the new student in front of the classroom with his arms crossed.

"You can sit behind Kuroo-kun in the back row. Kuroo-kun, raise your hand please."

Kuroo raised his hand. The transfer student walked over to his new seat; as he passed down the aisle the girls turned back, all with enamored looks on their faces.

"Yo." Kuroo greeted.

"Hi." He replied and sat down. The bell rang a couple seconds after and the teacher left the classroom; Kuroo turned around in hope to befriend the newcomer.

"I'm Kuroo Tetsurou. Your name's really similar to mine." He introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you Kuroo." The boy replied.

"So, which club are you going to join?" Kuroo asked.

"I don't know yet."

"I'm in the volleyball club. You play any sports?"

"No." He answered, his brows furrowing very faintly. Being a keen observer, Kuroo noticed that the subject of sports didn't serve his new classmate well. Thankfully they were able to avoid the awkward silence as more of their classmates crowded around him. Kuroo observed the new guy as he replied to people's questions one after another. 'Not really the expressive type, huh?' Kuroo concluded as he couldn't catch the new guy cracking even a faint smile. 'This guy's like Kenma.'

Short, 10-minute recess passed by and the class was back in session for the last period of the day.

'Hm. I wonder if I can get Inuoka to do a back attack. But he's still not consistent in receiving… maybe a serve? No one in our team can become a pinch server yet.' Kuroo thought as his mind once again wandered off, cancelling out the monotonous voice of the teacher. 'If only we had an aggressive hitter… Yamamoto certainly has power but he's the only one in the team. Hopefully he can manage to hit like that Azumane of Karasuno.'

The bell finally rang and everyone excitedly packed up and left the classroom, each going on about to participate in club activities. Kuroo, as he stood up and headed over to the door, saw the transfer student leaving as well—until he was surrounded by other clubs' manager, all asking him to join their clubs.

"Sorry, I'm not joining any." Was all he said with a flat voice; he brushed past them with a bored and indifferent look on his face.

'Yup. He's definitely a Kenma type.' Kuroo smirked.

Kuroo opened up the door to the club room and found his long friend Kozume Kenma changing into his training clothes.

"Chi-su." The other members all greeted their captain as they changed.

"Sup." Kuroo greeted as well and began changing. "Yo, Kenma. There's an interesting transfer student in my class."

"Huh."

"He's just like you."

"Hn."

It was during P.E. for class 3-5 the next day; they were all playing volleyball much to Kuroo's excitement. It was a normal six against six setup; the girls perfectly split up into two teams while some guys had to sit on the sideline and wait for their turns to switch in.

"Hey, you." The P.E. teacher walked up to bleachers, where the new transfer student, Teru, and a few others were sitting down. "Transfer student."

"Yes." He answered and looked up.

"Why aren't you playing?"

"I'm not good at volleyball."

"No one is good at it except the ones in the club. You're not the only one. You have to participate to get credit, so come on, switch in." The teacher gave him a gentle push on the back and he stumbled into the court in the back row, next to Kuroo who was getting ready to serve.

'Not willing to play at all, huh?' Kuroo smiled in defeat as he saw the transfer student standing idly there, without even getting ready to receive the ball. At least he could bend his legs slightly and have his arms out to be in a ready position.

Kuroo served lightly underhanded and began the rally; they played out a couple points and all the transfer student did was just stand there and watch the ball.

"Kurobana! I'll have to dock off points unless you show some effort." The P.E. teacher warned as Teru switched out and waited to get back in again. "You better touch the ball at least three times." Soon he switched in, this time in the opposite side of Kuroo, getting ready to serve.

He just let out a sigh and served underhanded.

'Huh. Not a bad form.' Kuroo raised his eyebrows as Teru casually hit a underhand serve that was perfect in both height and depth into his side of the court. Like the teacher requested him to, he hit the ball three times, all making a pass perfectly to the setter. Although the rally itself wasn't of high caliber, Kuroo definitely noticed that the transfer student was not a mere novice in the sport.

'Hou… interesting.' He thought as Teru completely gave up on trying after he made contact with the ball three times. The class ended and lunch break began; everyone left the gym and Kuroo sighed as he looked at the balls lying around, waiting to be cleaned up. The teacher was nowhere to be seen, and no one seemed like they were going to clean up afterwards.

'I guess I'll have to clean up… but I need to pee first'

He went to the bathroom, took care of his business, and washed his hands. 'Still, that transfer student kinda bothers me.' He traced his memory back to just half an hour ago. 'He definitely knows how to play. I wonder if he's any good. Wait, but he told me he doesn't play any sports… weird.'

Kuroo walked out of the bathroom, wondering about the mysterious athleticism of the transfer student. He made his way into the gymnasium and heard familiar explosive noises the ball made when he practiced volleyball in club. Kuroo then found the transfer student a couple feet behind the baseline, holding a ball in his hand, occasionally bouncing it with his palm. Then the next thing utterly shocked him: the boy tossed the ball up high in the air, made a clean run-up, and met the ball by jumping up at a very high point—he swung his arms rapidly, putting his upper body weight on it, and hit the ball. The ball rocketed over the net with a fast topspin and landed in the right corner.

'That serve!' Kuroo gasped and widened his eyes. He stared at the transfer student in shock; it surely didn't look like a fluke since his form was utterly flawless, even beautiful. The transfer student stood there and stared at the other side—and grabbed another ball beside him, getting ready to serve once again behind the baseline. Kuroo gulped and watched intently. The boy, however, abandoned Kuroo's hopes in seeing another serve as he flopped down onto the floor and lied down with his legs and arms spread apart.

Teru, who was now lying down, was deep in his thoughts as he continuously tossed the ball over his head.

'What am I doing? Why did I even bother touching the ball.' His eyes furrowed as he caught the ball, stopping the consistent movement. He got up, went to the basket, and put the ball back inside.

"Hey."

Teru then heard someone from behind; everyone was supposed to be gone for the lunch break. Teru whipped around and found a ball flying straight at his lower body at a fast speed. Without thinking Teru brought his hands in front of him with his wrists perfectly aligned—the ball, upon contact, ceased to spin and floated up in the air slowly, landing just a couple feet away from Teru.

'A perfect return. And to make that out of the blue…'

Teru then found his tall classmate, the one that was in the volleyball club, grinning (partway smirking) at him and picking up the ball that rolled by his feet. "Not bad. I thought you didn't play volleyball."

Teru just let out a sigh. "I don't play anymore."

"Why? That serve of yours was pretty darn amazing. What school did you come from? Did you play volleyball there? What position? Since you could jump, that height wouldn't really matter too much, huh?" Kuroo asked as he picked up the other balls lying around and put them back in the basket.

"…It doesn't matter anymore." Teru said quietly and started walking towards the exit.

"Wha—wait!" Kuroo yelled, rolling the basket over to the exit after picking up all the balls. "Our club needed a strong server. You seem like you can jump and receive. You know, our team's pretty solid and we're aiming for nationals this year, and—"

"Did you not hear me? I don't play anymore." Teru said without turning around and left without giving Kuroo another look. Kuroo just stood there with a bummed look on his face.

'He can jump high enough to spike and serve... why doesn't he want to play anymore?' Kuroo wondered.

After club practice, Kuroo approached the team coach, Nekomata.

"Nekomata-sensei. I'd like to talk to you." He said.

"What is it, Kuroo?" The old man said and grinned mischievously, finding it interesting that Kuroo approached him with seriousness.

"There's a transfer student in my class. He's not too tall, around 170 or a bit shorter, but he's got amazing serves. His return was solid and he can jump really high too. I was wondering if you'd give him a chance to become a middle blocker or a hitter if I got him to join."

"Hou~ a transfer student, huh?" Nekomata's eyes glinted in interest. "This guy must be good since you're praising him so much."

"I haven't really seen him play, but his serve was amazing." Kuroo said.

"Well, I'm not stopping you. Go ahead and bring him over."

"Uh, the thing is..." Kuroo trailed off. "He told me at first he didn't play any sports. And then I saw him play and he told me that he quit."

"And?" Nekomata asked, his lips curling upwards.

"And... uh... I was wondering if you as the coach could do something about it." Kuroo said. At that, Nekomata broke out into a chuckle.

"Well, that's not my problem! How am I going to convince a future player if a captain won't be able to? You're going to have to convince him, Tetsurou." Nekomata chuckled and said with amusement. "If you're desperate enough, you'd find your way one way or another. Let me know if you succeed." With that Nekomata walked away with hands behind his back, a playful grin spreading across his face.

'Yeah. I'm a captain. It isn't like me to step down so easily.'

The next day, Teru was eating lunch by himself quietly—until he noticed someone sitting down in front. It was Kuroo, who was grinning much too mischievously. He set down the snacks he bought from the school store and laid it out on top of Teru's desk. He then opened up one of them and started eating as well, staring at Teru while doing so. Teru looked up, giving him a suspicious look. Their eyes met and lingered for a while until Teru simply looked down and continued eating, hoping that he'd go away if no attention was paid to him. Kuroo didn't stop staring, and it was enough to make anyone uncomfortable.

"What are you doing?" Teru finally asked, setting the chopsticks down.

"Eating. Do you want some?" Kuroo avoided the question and merely held out the snacks that he's been eating.

"I told you. I don't play sports anymore." Teru glared at him.

"Yeah, I got your point last time, don't worry." Kuroo answered and blinked rather indifferently.

Teru gave him a sour look, rolled his eyes, and went back to finishing his lunch. Even after a while, the tall boy didn't cease to stare; finally running out of patience, Teru shot up and looked at him with confronting eyes. "What do you want from me?"

"I just wanted to ask you to be my friend, that's all." Kuroo said, smiling rather innocently. Teru gave him a suspicious glance for a couple seconds; Teru stared and Kuroo smiled. Silence prevailed for quite some time; Teru then sighed in defeat as the smile on Kuroo's face remained wider and bigger than ever.

"Sure, whatever."

"Yay."

Teru pressed a 4-digit number on the keypad; with a click the door was unlocked and Teru opened the door.

"I'm home."

No answer came from inside but Teru naturally took off the shoes without anticipating a reply; it was a small studio apartment with a living room, a small kitchen, and small loft as a replacement for bedroom. The curtains weren't drawn and almost no light entered the apartment; Teru sighed and undid the ties of the school uniform after taking off the knitted vest. Then the buttons of the shirt were undone as well as Teru's fingers moved clumsily. There was another layer of t-shirt underneath the button-up; Teru took them off as well and was down to the last piece of clothing—a white bandage wrapped around the chest.

Teru undid the bandages and sighed as the last bit of it came loose and the pressure added to her bosoms were relieved. 'It's getting too hot… I hate how they make vests mandatory in this weather. I should just stop wearing a t-shirt underneath.'

Teru walked around with nothing covering her top, carelessly throwing the bandage on the coffee table and plopping down on the sofa next to it without even drawing the curtains to brighten the living room. She sighed and turned on the TV, changing the channel occasionally. Unable to find anything interesting, Teru just turned off the TV and closed her eyes. She shuffled around constantly; she sighed, sluggishly got up, and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Her eyes then naturally lingered on a small photo frame. Inside the photo was Teru biting into a medal while grinning cheekily and a boy around her age with his arms slung around her shoulders, smiling widely as well. Teru's eyebrows slanted downwards. She reached over carefully and placed the photo frame face-down so that she couldn't see the the bright smiles of two teenagers anymore.

So what did you think of the first chapter?

I actually write fics for Prince of Tennis and this is my very first time writing a fic for something other than PoT... haha. Check out my profile if you're interested in POT!

Also, don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you liked or what you think I should work on! Thanks! :D