Chapter Text
Kotarou and Keiji are staring, unable to either comment or move their eyes away from the blonde. They were doing forth and back tosses as a kind of warm-up before the blonde entered the 3’rd gym, and the ball that Keiji tossed up when he laid his eyes on Kei lands right in front of Kotarou with an awkward bounce. The ball rolls past the owlish boys’ feet, but Kotarou’s attention is everywhere on the blonde instead of on the ball. Tetsuro drops the bottle he has in his hand, and is obviously the first to break the silence. He does so with quite a loud yelp.
“Don’t stare. It’s not going to make it go away, you know.” Kei says, hiding his fluffy wolf tail between his long slender legs. He’s wearing his usual black training shorts, which makes the tail that matches his hair color stick out even more. He avoids eye contact and his lips purses.
“How did it even get there? And those!” Tetsuro points at the pointy pair of wolf ears that lie back flatly on Kei’s head. They give off that Kei is feeling uncomfortable, if the tail between his legs wasn’t enough.
“I-it’s going to be a full moon tonight…” Kei mumbles, fidgeting with his fingers. He has his hands placed neatly in front of himself, and he glances at the floor. His ears (his wolf-ears of all things) twitch up a little when he looks back at Tetsuro, his senpai (as proclaimed by Tetsuro himself).
Kotarou finally breaks loose of his trance, and points an accusing finger at Kei, just like Tetsuro is doing. They both look like a couple of accusing cheerleaders, Keiji comments internally.
“What the hell is that!?” Kotarou points his finger from the wolf ears to the wolf tail, and waves his finger all over the place.
Clicking his tongue and glaring at the pointing bastard, Kei lays his ears back even more. His tail sticks out a little, showing that he’s more on guard and aggravated. “I’m a werewolf… It’s not like it’s a big deal or anything,” he mutters.
Smacking Kotarou on the head, Keiji shakes his head calmly. “It’s not a big deal, Kei, sorry for staring”
“Aaaakaashi!!” Kotarou rubs the backside of his head, whining. Keiji only glares at him.
“Wait, you’re a what!?” Tetsuro runs up to Kei, eager to pull his tail just to see if he’s fucking with him or not. It can’t be true, right? A fucking werewolf? That’s bullshit! That tail and those ears were probably just an old cheap costume or something, right? It’s easy to put a tail between your legs and a pair of ears on your head. He pushes the blonde to the side before he can defend himself, and yanks. Just as he can feel the tail not giving after, or fall off, a loud slap echoes throughout the gym.
Stars, Mackerel, tiny swirling owl heads and a crow are flying around his head in circles. Kuroo blinks slowly as the pain of a perfectly planted slap across his face seethes into his nerves. He lets go of the tail, not out of will, but because he has to use that hand to cup his own face.
“Oh my god” Keiji whispers under his breath. That slap must have hurt a lot- Tetsuro’s cheek already has a hand imprint. It’s so detailed he can tell it’s Kei’s hand by just looking at how long the finger marks are.
“Don’t touch my tail like that!” Kei hold his tail defensively, moving a few steps away from his senpai. His ears lie so flat on his head that even Kotarou backs up to hide behind the much calmer and collected Keiji. Keiji sighs. Of course Tetsuro would do something like that, that asshole.
“Kuroo-san, werewolves are real, and this is quite normal actually,” Keiji utters. He just didn’t expect Kei to be one. If anything, he would have guessed that maybe that orange haired first year on Kei’s team was one, but not Kei. It was, in every aspect of the word, interesting.
Stroking his cheek and fighting back tears, Tetsuro looks at Kei. He’s about to yell, but then he hears Keiji speak and his brain nearly breaks, and his heart. Kei looks so mad, yet so scared. Almost as if he worries they will hate him for it, or hunt him down like vicious beasts.
“N-no fucking way?” Kotarou sounds like he’s questioning life itself. “Akaashi how do you know that?” he peeks forwards and nearly stops hiding behind his younger teammate.
“Because I know someone whose family consists entirely of them.” Keiji looks at Kei, calmly trying to figure out what kind and breed he is. Even if the term werewolf clearly has the word wolf in it, people could turn into a lot of different dog breeds too. Kei seemed to be just a wolf though, one with an unusual honey-blonde color, that is. He notes that Kei slowly stops glaring at Tetsuro, and his ears slowly rise up to a normal position. He’s probably letting his guard down because it seems like the black haired pest has stopped aspiring to rip his tail off- and he’s apologizing.
“I’m sorry for pulling your tail-” Tetsuro starts. He rubs his neck and avoids Kei’ eyes. It’s a rare sight, to see Tetsuro shy in this way. He fumbles with his words sometimes, but he doesn’t act all shy like this. It must be because Kei looked so scared and distressed.
Tetsuro doesn’t even know what words mean at this moment. Werewolves exists, and Kei was one? His dear underclassman, a werewolf? What kind of world was this!? No, wait, he couldn’t think too much about it, his brain would melt if he did.
“D-did I offend you or something?” He tilts his head to the side and glances at Kei quickly before averting his gaze elsewhere.
“N-no… It just hurts like hell when people do that,” Kei mutters. He doesn’t look smug about receiving the apology, but he does look a little delighted. His tail wags (not so discretely) between his legs, twice. It’s a tiny movement, but everyone sees it.
“Are you happy now, Tsukishima-kun?” Keiji smirks. He can’t help but to want to mock Kei a little, he is cute when he’s distressed after all…
Kei jolts and his tail points out in the same way his ears do. “I am not!” a blush spreads on his cheeks- a very visible one. Tetsuro smirks too, although he looks quite pathetic as he is trying to rub the hand imprint on his cheek away.
“T-tch… so you’re not… creeped out by it?” Kei tries to change the topic, and he succeeds. His eyes scan the three upperclassmen, and he looks nervous.
“You’re a werewolf, so what!?” Kotarou exclaims, and bounces forwards. Keiji can’t bother to slap his head again, because Kotarou simply is like that sometimes and he can’t change him by slapping him all the time. Moreover, he’s already too far away. If only Kotarou was that enthusiastic at school...
Kotarou jumps around the blonde and yaps- quite ironically- like a dog. He’s obviously making Kei uncomfortable, as his tail once again ends up between his legs. Whatever Kotarou is yapping about, neither Tetsuro or Keiji can comprehend. They both dive forwards to pull Kotarou away from Kei’s tail when he tries to pull it though, and Kotarou whines again.
Kei ends up in a defensive mode and growls for a few seconds. It’s not like he wants to growl, but as close to the full moon as it can get, he can’t help it. He knows showing up for practice might have been a mistake, just like not checking if he had enough pills to keep the transformation stalled for the entire week was also a mistake. He couldn’t just go buy more pills though, due to prescription. Simply staying in the assigned classroom was downright boring too. It didn’t matter how many games he played on his phone, because as the transformation kept getting more difficult to hold back he became more restless. Thus, he ended up weighting the pros and cons of joining, and ended up here. What a mistake.
He tries to regain his composure, and forces the stupid wolf instincts to go away. It works- for a few seconds. Scanning the gym, Kei’s eyes land on the ball. His ears twitches forwards in the direction of it as it rolls in front of the other’s feet.
Tetsuro sniggers. He’s already done freaking-out, now it’s time to provoke and practice. Kei wouldn’t have come here if he didn’t intend to practice, or watch, right? Although, it’s boring when the blonde only watches. Tetsuro likes it more when the snarky teen joins them, that way he can really put it into perspective how much better he is than Kei so that the first year can marvel at him and be impressed. Also, he has an idea, a most brilliant one too- if he can say so himself. Keiji smirks too. He’s got somewhat an idea of what the pain-in-the-ass is thinking about.
He picks the ball up and he flutters his pretty eyelashes in Kei’s direction (not on purpose of course, Keiji doesn’t need to try to look pretty to be pretty) and he smiles sweetly at him. Putting his hands on his hip, Tetsuro has his ultimate jerk-face on, eyebrows slightly furrowed and his smirk as sly as ever. Kotarou arches an eyebrow, and looks lost. He has no idea what is going on.
“Why don’t you come over and play with us, Tsukishima-kun. We were doing warm up tosses just now before you came in” Keiji makes sure to put pressure on the word play. He knows Kei dislikes directness in the form of bold words.
Kei’s cheek turn red, and he mutters something under his breath.
“Yeah, we can catch ball- I mean block balls afterwards!” Tetsuro does that slip-up on purpose, and Kei gets even more flustered.
“Isn’t he going to run after the ball and rip it to shreds though?” Kotarou pipes up.
“Oh my god, Bokuto, you’re so dense” Tetsuro face palms. “That’s the point! We’re trying to make him embarrassed!” he grabs hold of Kotarou’s shirt, shaking him forth and back.
“I’m leaving-”
“Ah, hang on” Keiji puts the ball down and tags along before Kei can reach the door, and he traps the first year against the wall with his arm.
“Akaashi-senpai?” Kei’s eyes widen as Keiji looks at him calmly, yet with an eerier hint than usual.
“I want to know something before you leave”
“Oi, Akaashi! Stop flirting and get him back here! He’s supposed to be gazing at me and think I’m cool; he needs to be here for that!” Tetsuro keeps shaking Kotarou while complaining, not aware that he just exposed his true intentions.
“W-what do you want to know?” Kei curses himself for stuttering at a moment like this. Keiji just looks so overwhelming, in a different way than Tetsuro and Kotarou do. He decides to ignore Tetsuro’s remark.
“If there’s a full moon this night, and you’re not on any pills…”
He notices that Keiji hesitates, and his gaze wavers. Since the shorter second year has experience with werewolves, Kei’s not surprised he knows about the pills, but he’s still a little baffled.
“Were you bitten or were you born like this?” He changes the sentence, and looks back at Kei’s honey-colored eyes. They look pretty in this light, and Keiji’s cheeks turn a shade redder.
“I was born this way. In addition, I can control it. I just can’t do anything about the tail or the ears.” It is mostly true, and Kei doesn’t bother to elaborate. He’s had trouble with his tail and ears whenever he’s not on the pills for so long that he has given up on doing anything with them- and because of that he still can’t make them go away even if he’s able to suppress his instincts. Then there’s the fact that he isn’t able to turn back to his human form if he slips up and turns into a wolf when the full moon is out…
“Can you turn into like, a full wolf!?” Kotarou interrupts. He literally pushes Keiji to the side and traps Kei with both of his arms against the wall and next to his head. It must be wall-slam day for all Kei knows.
“Hah- of course I can” the blonde acts annoyed, but his tail wags and Keiji then realizes that maybe the unexpected attention of his senpai’s might be making the blonde happy.
“Ohh!! Awesome!! Can you do it now?!” Kotarou yanks at his ears, and pulls the blonde’s head forth and back as if it will make him turn into a wolf right there on the spot. Kei doesn’t look too happy about it, or rather, he doesn’t look like he’s able to collect his thoughts because Kotarou is shaking his head so fast. “I-Idiot- If I did that I-I won’t be able to turn b-ack!” Kei’s words end up messy, which is not so uncommon when you speak while getting shaken like a fucking milkshake.
“Bokuto-san, no, stop that” Keiji pulls at Kotarou’s ear, as a sort of reminder that ears have feelings too.
“Ow-OW- ow- Akaashiiii!!!??” Kotarou whines as Keiji pulls him away from the blonde, to no avail. Next up to invade Kei’s personal space is Tetsuro. Keiji starts wondering if those two are in need of training- dog training.
“Do you get into heat or do you get into a rut or anything like that?” Tetsuro leans in, invading the space much more than both previous invaders did. He has one arm next to Kei’s head, but he’s so close that even if there’s an opening to escape, Kei can’t. They’re close to bumping noses, and Tetsuro has that grin that says he’s up to no good… or was that his normal smile? No one knew- Keiji certainly didn’t.
“W-what made you think of that!?” Kei blurts. He has no idea where that came from, seriously. That’s just not something you ask all of a sudden!
“You know…dog stuff…” Tetsuro scoffs, obviously not wanting to go into detail because most likely, he has no reason to be thinking of it.
“N- No? Maybe?” Kei tries to avoid his gaze, and choses to try to step further back. The wall is still there though, sadly enough.
“Kuroo-san, no” Keiji pulls Tetsuro away by the ear too. Now he has two whining children in his grasp. He sees Kei’s tail rest stiffly against the inside of his leg, and his ears falter down slightly.
“You don’t have to tell them anything about that stuff unless you want to, Tsukishima-kun.”
“Akaashi…” kei steps away from the wall, relieved. Keiji really is the easiest to get along with out of the three, and he is so cool and kind at the same time- unlike Kotarou or Tetsuro who both seem to be about to cry from getting their ears pulled. They deserve that.
“Thank you, Akaashi-senpai” his tail wags slightly, and Keiji’s heart throbs. It wasn’t a crime to think your underclassman was cute, right?
“That’s unfair, why don’t you call me senpai too!?” Kotarou yells, trying to get loose from Keiji’s grip. Ears could only be pulled so much before they fell off…
“Or me!?” Tetsuro adds.
“You’re both annoying,” Kei mutters. He tries to look annoyed, he really does… but his tail says something else. It says he’s enjoying the attention. When the tail is bouncing forth and back against his legs like that, it’s impossible not to see it.
“We have eyes you know” Tetsuro points at the tail, smirking. “ha-ha- OWWW!” Too bad Keiji decided to pull his ear harder. Trying to defend his ear, Tetsuro gives Keiji a confused look. “Don’t ruin it,” the other whispers.
“Ruin what? I think he looks kinda cute when he wags his tail like that, super cute actually!” Kotarou pulls off a stupid grin, and still manages to look somewhat attractive. Hot actually, Kei noticed. He considers fighting his own tail to make it stop wagging. This is just too embarrassing. First it was about heats and ruts and now it was about his cuteness!?
He stomps off to the door, desperate to leave. He didn’t care if it looked immature, or that his cheeks felt too warm and that they were probably redder than before.
“Idiots,” Keiji mutters. He lets the two pests go, and they yelp while covering their ears.
“Now he’s gone… good job.” After picking up the ball, he tosses it directly at Kotarou’s head. The ball bounces off of the spiked hair, and right into Tetsuro’s head. A double kill.
As he left to find Kei, he could hear the two man-children whine “AkaaaashiiiiI!!” in unison. God they could be so annoying sometimes.
Sitting under a tree with his legs pulled up to shield himself from the sun was more comfortable than staying in that gym. All those questions and all those embarrassing remarks were just too much for him. He regretted going there in the first place. Trusting his upperclassmen had been a huge mistake. What was more important was that he had felt his instincts lurk too close to the sane part of his mind. He didn’t like that at all. It was a full moon today, and it would be visible at around 22:43- meaning that was when he should start struggling, not already now! It was only 12: 15 damn it!
He huffs. Who asks about heats and stuff like that anyway? Stupid Tetsuro, that mischievous hot bastard. Kei can feel his cheeks heat up just at the thought of him. No- wait, because of the things he said. Not because he was hot or anything. Also, why did Kotarou have to be so honest and stupid all the time? It was a so painfully embarrassing. It was a good thing he was hot, because otherwise, who could live with that guy? Ok true, his grin was perfect and his honesty was a little cute, anyone could fall for him, but still!
Then there was Keiji. Kei had decided that joining them for practice would be manageable simply because of Keiji’s existence. It turned out that that wasn’t correct. Keiji was too pretty and so… ugh, no. Kei’s stomach twists and his heart flutters at the thought of him- let alone the other two. He can’t deal with this. Having his perfectly hidden emotions turn so visible was a pain. If this continued, all of them would know he fancied them before the day was over.
If that happened, the only option was to escape to the woods and become a lone wolf forever. No way they liked him back in any sort of way like that, right? It was impossible. They probably only said he was cute and stuff because they liked teasing him. Tetsuro was a lady magnet after all- and Kotarou was a sports idiot that probably didn’t have time for things like that. Keiji was… well, Kei was unsure of him. Maybe he actually had a girlfriend already. Keiji was so levelheaded, he definitely seemed like he could have one.
“Ugh” Kei groans- feeling a slight growl come from the back of his throat.
Maybe he should tell his actual teammates about all this… the pills and all…that would be smart. They knew about his condition, although he doubted they knew he had ran out of pills. He really should tell them; since they were the ones he was going to share a room with all night. Getting out of bed this morning had been a hazard, since he was so embarrassed about everything that he had hidden under the covers. He had to feint a damn deep sleep for Shouyou to stop pulling at the covers… ugh- so much for not wanting them to see his wolf tail and everything. He was better off when no one knew how he looked; that way no one could specifically point him out and say “that guy ate my rabbit” if he ever went out on a run and lost control. Now he had no choice though.
“Tch- so many irritating problems,” he mutters, his tail flopping next to him as he huffs.
His ears twitch as he picks up a sound a few fields away, and he blinks. Oh, it was Keiji…
“So here you are” Keiji spoke as he finally found kei after a few minutes. The blonde only huffs and his tail flops again while his ears twitches back in a flat position.
“I tried to call your name, you know” Keiji sat down next to him, carefully bumping shoulders with him. He was trying to not be too pushy or touchy, although he had no idea of what Kei considered too much or just about bearable.
“I’m not going to come running to you like a dog, just ‘cause I’m like this,” Kei scoffs.
“Ah, I know that… But you could have answered.”
“Sorry, I didn’t think that was an option. I thought you were just screwing with me.”
“I wouldn’t screw with you, Tsukishima-kun, you’re a first year and I don’t have those kinds of intentions. I don’t mind werewolves, at all. I think they’re very interesting”
Kei blinks, unsure how he should interpret that comment.
“Besides, Kuroo-san and Bokuto-san are both idiots, but I don’t think they are against you or anything, they’re just curious,” Keiji doesn’t add the I think at the end because he doesn’t want to unnerve the first year even more. It seems like Kei is actually quite the shy type, considering how often his ears lie flat and his tail rests between his legs. The blonde’s ears are actually lying flat right now.
“Do you think they’re scary maybe? Just because you’re normally cool and all, there’s no shame in getting intimidated by your upperclassmen. It is quite normal”
“I don’t think they’re intimidating. Rather the opposite” Kei mumbles. Keiji pauses and looks at how the first year blushes- and it hits him. Oh…OH.
“Oh….”
“What?” while glancing at the other, Kei also blushes, and it’s just so obvious.
“Are you afraid we won’t like you because you’re a big bad wolfy?” that rare smirk Keiji possesses slowly reveals itself on his lips, and he leans closer to the blonde.
“A-Akaashi-senpai!?” Kei stutter loudly and the blush on his cheeks turns at least five shades darker. Keiji is sure it even spreads over his nose. Spot on.
“Did I hear someone shout out a name in embarrassment?” Tetsuro peeks over the two. Kotarou is just behind, and joins in on looking at the two sitting there.
“Oh, Kuroo-san, Bokuto-” about to acknowledge the two, he nearly misses the fact that Kei blushes even more. He can’t allow himself to do that, and ends up staring.
“What’s going on?” Kotarou squats down next to Kei and pokes his cheek. “You’re bright red bro.”
“Bro, he’s probably overHEATED.” Tetsuro breaks out laughing.
“But he never said he had a heat or anything- maybe he’s sick. Bro that would be awful!” Kotarou worries himself over the top, and slaps his hand onto Kei’s forehead. “Are you alright!?”
“What!? Of course. Stop that!” Kei pushes Kotarou away, or tries to push him away. Getting a muscle hunk like Kotarou to fall over or even move showed to be very difficult.
“Bokuto-san he’s fine. He just need some space. Take your sweaty hand away from him before he actually gets sick”
“My hand is not sweaty! It’s just warm, like the rest of me!”
“No it’s sweaty- the whole you is sweaty.” Tetsuro joined in.
“It’s not sweaty” Kei’s jaw clenches as he speaks.
“See!” Kotarou beams. He continues to press his hand against Kei’s forehead, and doesn’t seem to notice that the younger boy is struggling.
Tetsuro sighs. “Bokuto, bro, he doesn’t like it when you do that.” Even he can tell, and Kei is one of the most difficult people to read he has ever met. It’s mostly because of the ears and tail that he can now read Kei’s emotions spot on though, but he still takes pride in it.
“But why is he so red then!?” Kotarou looks genuinely worried. He even swipes Kei’s hair away and strokes those big, fluffy, pointy ears back too while looking his underclassman deeply into the eyes.
Kei’s tail starts flapping around uncontrollably, up and down, forth, and back- it’s almost like it belongs to a puppy. Kotarou sees it, and takes no shame in ruffling Kei’s hair while he’s already at it. He adds in a good boys can’t get sick and even then, Kei’s tail won’t stop wagging around.
Tetsuro blushes- literally- and claps his hands onto his own cheeks. “Oh my God that’s adorable,” he whispers, almost like he can’t believe what’s happening right in front of his eyes. “I know that’s why I wanted you two to stop bothering him,” Keiji utters. He’s watching the scene, wide eyed.
“Aren’t you such a good boy?” Kotarou continues, petting Kei shamelessly and cheerfully. He has already forgotten he was worried just a few seconds ago. This first year just looks so cute and huggable like this. At that last thought, Kotarou really does hug him. He literally squeezes so hard a tiny bark comes out of the younger boy, and they all pause in silence. Kotarou pulls back and looks at Kei, shocked. They all look at him shocked, because instead of Kei, there’s a giant, fluffy wolf…
“Wolfy?” Kotarou questions. The wolf has golden eyes, just like Kei. It has honey-blonde fur, just like Kei. It has glasses, just like Kei!
Tetsuro and Keiji look at Kotarou before shouting out in unison.
“Oh my fucking God, Bokuto what have you done!?”