Work Text:
Yachi Hitoka could easily count this day as the worst day of her life. At the tender age of 18 (just about to turn 19), Yachi was 100% ready to be shuffled off this mortal coil.
Why, you might ask?
Because Yachi had single-handedly gotten everyone evacuated from her dorm at 11:30pm. All because she had forgotten she had food in the oven.
But to fully set the scene, it was important to go back a few hours. Instead of bouncing out of her seat at the end of her Graphic Design class like normal, Yachi had slumped over the desktop, head pillowed in her arms as she groaned.
Her professor had just set the most annoying project: to put together a portfolio of their best work in a way that best markets their strengths. And Yachi had absolutely no idea how to go about it.
The parameters for the assignment were clear, and her professor was reasonable in his parameters. The assignment itself wasn’t too difficult as long as the person completing it had an accurate idea of their skills and knew what they wanted to do with them.
Which was exactly what Yachi’s problem was: she had no clue what she wanted to do. She knew she was good at the marketing side of things, she knew she had enjoyed putting together the flyers and logos and design for the Karasuno boys’ volleyball team, but how she wanted to apply those skills in the future was a mystery at the moment.
Isn’t that what going to college and taking classes was for?? To help her figure out what she wanted to do with her skills?? And instead she’s forced to market herself and have a clear direction for where she wants to go not even halfway into her first semester??
Yachi peeled herself off of her desk eventually and morosely made her way back to her dorm, throwing her backpack beneath her desk as she flopped on top of her bed. She was lucky her roommate was out - she would’ve been forced to talk about what was wrong, and Yachi just wasn’t ready for that yet. She wanted to stew in her misery a bit longer.
As Yachi wallowed, her mind began spinning with all the other things she needed to do: homework, studying, cleaning her side of her dorm room, sending an email to one professor about a missed quiz, setting up a meeting with another professor during their office hours, and soon enough Yachi rolled to her feet so she could get started on her to-do list.
The faster she got it all done, the sooner she could bury herself in her bed and forget about her Graphic Design assignment.
Yachi worked at a steady pace, making good progress through her to-do list until her body started grumbling loudly into the quiet of her room. Immediately, two things became apparent to Yachi: one, she had forgotten about dinner again and would need to figure something out, and two, her roommate was apparently spending the night at her boyfriend’s again if her not being back in the room at…Yachi blanched as she checked her watch…10:54pm was any indication.
Sighing heavily, Yachi moved to her room’s mini-fridge and popped the door open, reaching blindly for her leftovers from the other day.
Toting the white container, Yachi tiredly made her way to the kitchen on the third floor as it had the best selection of cooking equipment and an oven that didn’t click when it was in use.
Popping her leftover nikujaga onto a baking sheet and putting it in the oven to heat up, Yachi yawned as her mind wandered back to the cursed Graphic Design assignment from earlier that day.
Fingers playing with the ends of her hair restlessly, Yachi considered calling one of her Karasuno boys for advice or sending a message to their groupchat, but quickly shooting her head to dispel the notion. Yachi didn’t need to bother them for something so trivial, not when Hinata’s being in Brazil clashed awfully with Kageyama in Sweden and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi both having to wake up early the next day for labs.
So, Yachi turned her thoughts to what Graphic Design she had done for people in the past: mostly for Karasuno, but she had a handful of other clients commission her for work as well, like Kenma for Bouncing Ball or Akaashi for a novel cover he was trying to publish. She went back through her memories, considering what she liked and disliked about the process for creating each piece until it struck her: Yachi was good at people . Not like in an outgoing, charismatic sense, but in terms of design. Yachi could find a design that appealed to the most amount of people and get them thinking about the brand as well. And suddenly, Yachi’s mind was spinning with ideas and her fingers were itching for her tablet.
Sprinting back to her room, Yachi tore into her backpack to find her tablet and began strategizing how she would market herself, pulling up some of the Karasuno designs she’d made of Hinata and Kageyama through the years, grabbing doodles she’d made of various volleyball teams and their mascots, sketching out new designs centered on players Karasuno had faced that made an impression that fused with their team colors and dominant animal trait they reminded her of: Bokuto as an owl, Ushijima as an eagle, Oikawa as a lion, Tendou as a monkey, the Miya twins as foxes, Kenma as a cat - the list went on! It was like her fingers had wings; she couldn’t stop herself if she tried!
That is, until the fire alarm started going off.
Shocked out of her work state, Yachi glared fuzzily at the fire alarm before grabbing her phone and taking it and her tablet outside with her.
As she stood with the mass of disgruntled students, Yachi had a sinking feeling in her stomach as it growled once more. She was forgetting something, but what was it…
As the fire fighters searched the dorm and called out to the rest of their team from the window in the third floor kitchen, that sinking feeling turned into all-encompassing dread .
Oh, God…Yachi had left her food in the oven. The whole dorm being evacuated so late at night was her fault! Yachi’s heart pounded in her ears as her tablet and phone slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers. There were too many people here, and they were all going to know it was her!! Breath rasping in her chest, Yachi felt panic tighten her throat and claw at her lungs as her vision grew dark at the edges.
She was going to pass out.
“Hey…hey! Eyes on me, look up here,” came a calm, deep voice in front of her, and Yachi struggled to open her eyes through her tears.
“There’s those pretty eyes. You alright?,” the guy asked, and Yachi squeaked as she slammed them shut once more.
“People…” she wheezed, squeezing her fists so tightly she was sure she would draw blood. “Too many…”
“Hey! You’re alright, you’re safe; I know there’s a lot of people out here and that the fire alarm was startling, but you’re going to be fine,” the guy stated soothingly, and Yachi tried to nod but failed.
“Can I touch you? One of my best friends gets these too, and sometimes he likes me to rub his arm for him to help him calm down but sometimes he likes his own space so I always ask,” the voice asked considerately, and Yachi felt a wave of relief wash over her as she nodded vigorously, holding up a one with shaking fingers.
Even though she knew it was coming, she still flinched at the first touch of the guy’s palm to her shoulder. He began rubbing up and down her arm, and to Yachi it felt like her skin burned where it touched hers. “You’re safe,” the voice repeated. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you, I promise. We’re going to stay here just like this until we get everything back under control.”
Not too much later, Yachi managed to settle her heart rate and get her breathing back to acceptable levels. Scrubbing her hands over her eyes and exhaling slowly, Yachi turned toward the man and opened her eyes only to immediately turn beet red.
Yachi’s savior was a tall, attractive man with wet, messy black hair who was doing his best not to loom over her in concern as she squeaked again, this time in alarm. She saw his lips move, but couldn’t hear anything but the rush of blood in her ears. As he placed a hand on her red forehead, Yachi felt lucky that she didn’t pass out at his shirtless proximity, oh my god!!
“A-ah!” Yachi stuttered out, and the man’s grey eyes flickered up to catch her own. “C-could you re-p-peat that?? I literally didn’t h-hear anything you j-just said.”
“Are you sure you’re feeling alright? You looked like you were calming down before, but now it looks like you’re panicking again…” the man’s voice filtered in, and oh my god it was just as attractive as he looked, how was that even fair?
Yachi really was going to pass out, but from arousal rather than panic this time.
“O-oh! No, I-I’m fine; I’m not p-panicking anym-more,” Yachi raced to reassure him.
The man smiled at her, and Yachi momentarily became lost in thought of how she could make this man smile at her like that all the time, eyes trailing down over his well-defined chest and abs, before being snapped back into the present by the man shifting his hand from her forehead to the back of her neck with an intensely worried expression.
“I-I’m so s-sorry!” Yachi exclaimed, bowing repeatedly as her cheeks flushed once more. She had been ogling this nice man who had helped her out of her panic attack and missed whatever he had said. How embarrassing! “Y-you’re extremely muscular a-and shirtless and somehow wet? And you’re t- touching me and my b-brain just temporarily s- stopped working… sorry…”
The man’s face changed immediately, the worry being replaced with mischief (and still a little bit of concern) as he smoothed his had from the back of her neck, to her shoulder, down her arm and finally encircled her wrist.
“I just wanted to help you calm down, but if you must know I was in the shower when the fire alarm started going off,” the man joked and Yachi giggled a bit as well, tucking her head so her hair could curtain her face and hide her, suddenly shy of the man who had helped her.
“But your pulse seems back to normal, if a bit fast,” the man announced before releasing her entirely, and a part of Yachi mourned the loss of this extremely attractive, shirtless, and wet man in front of her. “I really just wanted to help you stop panicking, so I guess I’ll head back in now.”
Yachi hadn’t even realized that the firefighters had finished their inspection and cleared students to renter the dorms.
“A-ah, please,” Yachi called and the man immediately turned back to her. “Th-thank you s-so much! My name is Yachi Hitoka. W-what’s yours?”
The man’s grey eyes widened in surprise as he shook some still dripping black hair out of his face. “I’m Kuroo Tetsurou. I’m Kenma’s best friend; you know, from Bouncing Ball? I think he commissioned you for a logo - it’s amazing, by the way.”
Yachi’s heart stopped before picking back up at an even faster pace. “N-no way! Do you still p-play volleyball? And I’m g-glad Kozume liked it.”
Kuroo grinned broadly as he laughed, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I do, actually! I’m on the team here. You should come watch us play sometime! Or we are looking for a team manager if you’re interested, Yachi Hitoka?”
Yachi was seriously going to pass out if she kept blushing like this every time Kuroo said anything remotely flirty or nice or even smiled at her.
“I’d l-love to come watch! But as for Team Manager, I-I’ll t-think about it,” Yachi demurred, looking away from where her eyes had gravitated to Kuroo’s shirtless chest.
Kuroo chuckled a bit, completely aware of where her eyes had been, before saying, “If you’re interested, come by Room 315. I can either introduce you to the coach, or give you my number. Just in case you accidentally try to bring down the dorm again. Hopefully I can either talk you out of it, or help you schedule it for a more convenient time.”
With that parting shot, Kuroo sauntered away in his bath towel, and Yachi’s face was so hot she thought she could probably cook an egg on it.
Eve if Kuroo teased her, she was unimaginably glad to have met him. He had managed to pull her out of her panic spiral quicker than almost anyone other than Tsukishima had before.
But now, Yachi willed her cheeks to cool as she walked back into the dorm. She was suddenly filled with a vision of a panther with grey eyes, messy black hair, a smirk on its muzzle, and mischief in its gaze.
Yachi was totally going to rock her Graphic Design assignment.