𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔬𝔩𝔶𝔪𝔭𝔲𝔰 | BokuAkaKuroTsuki

ω - 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔬𝔩𝔶𝔪𝔭𝔲𝔰 ◼

Turns out, life had been kind to her and by the time she finished growing, she was a beautiful 184cm. Between her fellow players, she was a giant with most of her height being in her legs. She was a natural middle blocker and consequently, Kei and Tetsurō had the last laugh over Kōtarō. Shizuka loved watching old videos of when Kei had been at Karasuno and in the Sendai Frogs, and equally as much when Tetsurō had been at Nekoma.

She felt like volleyball was her calling and the unit thought it a bit of a relief. They knew the territory; they knew how to help her.

They had no idea with the twins. It had been a bit of a struggle. They had truly been cut from a different cloth.

When the twins were twelve, the four had been approached with a slideshow presentation about why they wanted to be emitted to an entirely different school. That school had been Shiratorizawa Academy.

The boys were smart but in completely different ways. Rami's main interests included chess and coding, while Mika focused on horseback riding and archery. They were ambitious, certainly, and because of their fast development as kids, they were placed in school a year early. If they had been held back a year, they would have become bored out of their minds.

With high school, they wanted to go to a place they knew they would be able to thrive. Of course, with Tetsurō now sitting on the board of directors of the Japan Volleyball Association, Keiji a successful novelist, Kōtarō being the official coach for the MSBY Black Jackals and Kei being a history professor at a university after having gone back to get his doctorate: money was no issue. They could send them to the luxurious Shiratorizawa and afford their expensive hobbies. Since they lived relatively close by, they didn't need to move into the dormitories but they had almost made Mika live on campus just so that he could keep an eye on that horse. It had nearly cost them an arm and a leg and then continuous payments to keep it at the Shiratorizawa stables.

That horse better be treated like it were gold.

Mika decided to name the horse Apollo on the reasoning that he would be carrying around the world – the so-called 'world' being Mika, of course.

"Your dad will pick you up after practice," Keiji told Mika as she dropped him off at the gates to Shiratorizawa.

"Who? 'Cause if Dad Kōtarō saunters up behind a wheel, then I'd rather have Apollo ride me all the way home," he carried a look of terror. Kōtarō could not drive, period.

"Kei'll be here after his lectures so don't go running off on horseback," Keiji gave him a pointed look before reeling him in to kiss him on the forehead. Then he took Shizuka to Karasuno so that the team could head off to Tokyo for their training camp.

She had heard all the stories of their adventures at the infamous Tokyo training camps and how when Kei had been her age, at that point, all four of them had already been together. She was a bit of a daredevil, playing with all hearts around her without opening herself up to any of them. She was hesitant, was all. She knew Rami had a bit of girlfriend already but kept it hidden as it wasn't much of anything at this point. They've all heard their dads saying that they had been silly in love and hoped that they would meet the person or persons one day that would not only give them butterflies in the stomach, but take those butterflies and help them to soar up to their destinations.

Love was only one side of the coin with compatibility being the other. Incompatible people fell in love all the time on the principal that love would conquer all if they just tried hard enough, but Shizuka knew better. Shizuka felt that when her forever person or persons come along, then she wouldn't even know that they arrived. It would just... happen. Instead of meeting someone for the very first time, it would feel as if she were welcoming someone home.