Please enjoy the next chapter!

Two years later.

Morisuke was absentmindedly studying in the dorm room alone, preparing for his school year end exams before summer hit, when his phone buzzed on the table beside him. The screen lit up with tell tale silver hair and green eyes in a photograph Yaku had set.

He took up the device and snapped it open.

"Hello?"

"MORI!"

Yaku yanked the phone away from his ear with a shout.

"What is it?" He demanded as he put the phone back to his ear again.

Lev was clearly bouncing excitedly from the other end of the line.

"I did it! I got in!"

Morisuke's mouth fell open for a moment before he felt his heart swelling

with pride and anticipation.

"Really?" He asked into the phone.

"Really!" Lev shouted out in celebration, before going on a tangent about how hard the exams had been and how much he'd studied and how relieved he was that he'd gotten in.

If Morisuke wound up having to try not to fall asleep half way through the conversation because he was missing his regularly scheduled nap, then at least Lev was to oblivious to notice.

That Fall.

Yaku stumbled into the small apartment with the last box and dropped it onto the kitchen counter with a groan.

Lev wasn't here yet, he was still back in Tokyo, while Morisuke's classes picked up a bit early, as well as his devotion to the volleyball team. Exhaling, he looked around and couldn't help being just a little bit nostalgic.

It had been just over four years since he'd accepted Lev's proposal of courtship. A little over three since they'd become mates. He'd been in college for two years. Now Lev was going to be joining him and he would never have to stress over stretched mating bonds or three hour train rides to visit ever again. From tonight, when Lev would arrive to stay, on out, they'd be together. It wasn't anything fancy, but the money Morisuke's parents had put away to help him find his first place, combined with the money Lev's parents had saved for the same purpose, had scraped together into enough for this. The apartment had a main living room, which was in one large room along with the small kitchen, separated from the living room by a countertop, and a small dining room with a four chaired table. A single large bedroom with a decent sized closet was off from there, across from the front door, with a single full bathroom in the small hallway between the living area and the sleeping area.

Groaning, Morisuke sank down onto the old black couch donated by his parents. The rest of the furniture was either odds and ends their families had had in storage, or thrift store purchases. Most of the room was still filled with stacks of cardboard boxes containing dishes, clothes, pictures, and other things.

Stretching his arms above his head after resting for a few minutes, the omega stood and moved into the bedroom, hoping to at least get some unpacking done before Lev arrived.

When he got into the bedroom he dragged in a box filled with all of this clothes, and got to work folding and hanging his entire wardrobe.

He found his old school uniform at the bottom, the second button on his blazer was missing.

Because I left it on Lev's desk before I headed home...the next day when I saw him he was all but crying. Idiot.

He folded the outfit up and stored it in the corner shelf in the closet.

Suppose I'll keep it, Kuroo was saying he wanted to do a throwback with everyone. Make everything bring their old school uniforms on the road trip. I guess that's the whole point of piling into a van with Yamamoto driving for a week. I swear I'm not letting him anywhere near the wheel next summer.

He unboxed his usual tee shirt collection, jeans, few formal clothes, annoying omegian clothes he was all to happy to hide on the top shelf with his school uniform. He was likely to wear the old uniform more then he'd wear that stuff. He lined up shoes at the bottom, having taken one side of the closet for his things, leaving the other side for Lev to put his wardrobe in. A flash of red caught his eye when he opened his second box.

He had to laugh at how the old 'Mama Kitty' patch was folded neatly on top, still stitched securely into the sleeve.

"Dammit, Inuoka..." He muttered as he hung up the jacket, with they're matching sweatpants that read 'Nekoma Volleyball' down the leg. Further down white caught his eye, and he smiled when he produced his match uniform, with the number three in red and the red collar and shorts. Along with this came his old sports bag.

Wait...where did I get this thing again?
Off colored eyes furrowed as he stared at the familiar gray canvas that he'd carried on his back too and from his school and practice every day.

Oh...

Yaku smiled fondly.

Lev gave this to me for my birthday in early during my third year...

He settled the bag in the back of the closet and continued with digging through the clothes. The majority was tee shirts collected over his entire life, from volleyball tournaments, vacation spots, other random things as well. After so much hanging of coarse cotton tees and plain button ups, it surprised him when his fingertips brushed over a smooth, silky material.

Grasping it and tugging it free, the black hem fell from a red midsection.

"Really, Mei?" He sighing in exasperation, shaking his head.

This thing gave me a lot of trouble. Even though I'm still not sure if I should hate her or thank her for hurling me out the door in this stupid outfit that day...it was the start of something a lot bigger then she'll ever know. From that day on out, I just couldn't help but get worse then I already was.

Examining the red bell sleeve, he found there was a discoloration there.

From where he'd wiped away his runny nose and teary eyes before Lev would panic as he hid behind that tree from hateful comments and longways glances.

I should throw this in the garbage.

He hung it up in the back of his side of the closet instead.

Another few hours passed peacefully, the sun was nearly set. He got bored of hanging clothes after a few minutes and went to work on the kitchen, then the living room for a while before returning to finish off the clothes. On the last box, in the very bottom, after he'd gotten out everything and thought he was done, he found one more thing tossed in there at the very bottom of the box.

It really didn't seem like it belonged in there.

It was a jacket.

A heavy, bright red jacket with white stripes running down the sleeves.

Issue was it was easily big enough to reach down to his knees. There could only be one culprit for how such an oversized garment made it's way into his clothes.

How the hell did one of Lev's jacket's get in here?

He wondered as he put his nose to the article. It was his mates alright, the scent of pine and a winter forest clung tightly to the threads. Despite this, it had another distinct scent too it.

This...no...

His eyes widened and he took the jacket away from his face, swallowing.

The park.

Vividly he recalled the downwards spiral, the worthlessness he'd felt, and how Lev had come and found him even when he didn't want to be found.

Never wanted to be found again. Not until he was gone off this earth.

His eyes grew somber as he gripped the simple object of cloth in his hands, feeling his throat closing up just at the memory coming back so strongly.

When I ran out of the house that night...I didn't want to come back...I didn't want to see them again. Yet still he found me, and when I didn't listen to reason he...

Morisuke's heart pounding a bit stronger, faster, against his ribcage at the prompting to recall emerald eyes lit on fire with anger and a deep roaring voice that had snarled at him. It didn't make sense, how the person who could make him feel safe, warm, and comfortable could also make him feel more terrified and alone then anyone else could.

Really two sides to the same coin, he supposed.

He saved my life that night. There's no argument.

Often he wondered if Lev really full understood that. Though he hadn't consciously wanted to die, the fact that he'd wanted to throw himself into a drop was proof enough that he was getting to that point. It would have happened, surely, if Lev hadn't come into his life. It was, admittedly, sped along by his appearance at first. Because what did a plain, hot headed, easily angered omega have any business doing, harboring a crush on an alpha like that? Someone like Lev who, outwardly, was everything any omega could want. Yaku honestly thought it was a little sad that once anyone got to know him, most people who'd approached him with the urge to court had run away. Overwhelmed by his childish spurts and still immature nature.

Hell, he's almost nineteen and he still chases around ducks at the park while I try and pretend I don't know him.

The omega sat down heavily on the edge of the bed.

How the hell did this even happen?

Out of nowhere things were catching up. Ever since he'd started courting Lev his life had gotten more complicated. He didn't mind, though, because it had also gotten so much better. He'd been brought out of a dark place where he was always hiding behind his spitfire temper. Behind how no one was brave enough to try and see who he really was. No one wanted to get him to open up to them, because they didn't see the point for someone who was unattractive, short, and irritable.

No one saw any worth in him.

No one, except Haiba Lev.

Who'd shown up with his horrible volleyball skills, his annoying height, his perfectly, completely alpha, outwardness.

Then, he'd revealed his idiocy. Constantly joking about Morisuke's height, giving them rather the close hate-love friendship. How overjoyed he'd been the first time he'd been walking to school and seen Yaku arriving at the corner nearly the same time as him.

The entire time as he watched from afar, he'd just sunk deeper and deeper. Kuroo and Kenma, the only two friends he had close enough to maybe, possibly, know, were unaware. His siblings couldn't tell. His parents never noticed. Just because Morisuke had gotten way too good at hiding his feelings. Shying away and keeping his up his superiority act, so that no one would ever be able to see how he was crumbling away inside.

No one saw how much he was hurting.
No one, except that stupid sixteen year old alpha.

Who, somehow, Yaku had learned years later, noticed it after only knowing his future mate a few weeks. Lev had explained it as seeing how sad Morisuke's eyes looked. Yaku supposed that was one thing he hadn't learnt to hide.

Morisuke hugged the jacket to his chest as his mind ran wild with the events of years past.

He saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself.

A tear slipped down his cheek.

When I was ready to just let it end, he became a reason for me to keep trying, if just for another day.

Another day turned into another week, and another week turned into another month. Now another month has turned into another year. Another year...just now...it turned into another lifetime.

Hiding his face in the jacket that had stirred these thoughts, Yaku felt like the last of those demons that used to be tearing down his sanity and ripping apart his life, vanish into a ray of gold.

I'm not hurting anymore. For the first time since I presented, I feel like I deserve to be an omega, and for the first time I started courting him, I feel like I'm worth him. That everything he gives me is worth it, and that everything I give him is enough in return.

The doorknob rattled and the apartment door swung open inwards.

"Mori? I'm here!" A cheerful voice called in.

Yaku wiped hastily at his face with his sleeve.

He really did save my life, this idiot.

"Welcome home, beanpole!" He called as he dropped the jacket onto the bed and walked out into the living room.

He's the reason I'm still breathing today.

His feet left the ground as his mate snatched him up and enveloped him with lanky, overlong arms and a kiss that made his heart flutter.

But hell will sooner freeze over before I ever truly tell him that.

Thats the end of the story! Thank you all so much for reading this all the way through, and leave a review to let me know what you thought of this story as a whole! Once more, please favorite, follow and review! Thanks so much! :D