Rating:

General

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Haikyuu!!

Relationship:

Oikawa/Sugawara

Tags:

aliens, alternate canon, fandom week, nonbinary character, nonbinary sugawara, oisuga week

Stats:

Posted on:

2015-02-06

Words:

4,319

He loves aliens before he loves volleyball. Tooru’s ten years old and enraptured by spaceships, gets alien toys all over his room, and his parents call him down to the kitchen tv every time there’s news about JAXA or space theories or possible alien sightings. Most of the time Tooru already knows. He always has the news on the tv in his room so he doesn’t miss it.

He’s twelve when he wakes up to the sound of beeping. It’s faint, but his ears are sensitive and he can hear it. When he looks out his window, which has the curtains pulled anyway, there’s a single light blue dot that flashes once every few seconds.

Tooru is out of his bed in an instant.

He goes to the window and whips open the curtains. He nearly shrieks and falls over in surprise, because hovering over his front lawn is the smallest, shiniest spaceship he’s ever seen. It’s shaped like a disc and a bright beam is descending from the bottom.

Tooru rushes out of his room, down the stairs, and starts shuffling his shoes on. Then he remembers: not all aliens are friendly. Some of them are even dangerous! He has to protect himself.

He’s pretty sure he read somewhere that aluminum foil scares aliens away if they get to close. He can protect himself with that. So, still with his shoes on, he scrambles into the kitchen and starts looking for the roll of aluminum foil. When he does, he scrunches a bunch up into a hat with little feelers, arm bands, and a makeshift belt to wrap around his waist. (There’s hardly any left on the roll when he’s done.)

He races outside when he’s done. This time, a lone figure is on its way to Tooru’s front lawn, and is about to touch the ground when Tooru runs up to it. Tooru gasps with his mouth wide open as it lands.

In the reflection of the aluminum on his body and the moonlight, Tooru can make out its wispy silver hair, a frame bright and intense like a star. Its eyes flicker with different colored lights every so often. It’s also about Tooru’s height.

Are aliens this short?

Automatically, he sticks out his hand and does the Space Trek hand motion. “We come in peace!” he exclaims. To his embarrassment, his voice cracks.

The alien tilts its head to the side.

“Are you a human?”

The alien’s voice is surprisingly normal. Tooru’s not sure what he expected – some sort of robot monotone, or something. Its voice is also pitched similar to Tooru’s, as if it’s a twelve-year old boy, too.

Tooru swallows. “Of course!”

The alien stretches forward while looking at Tooru.

Maybe it has some sort of secret neck weapon. Tooru thrusts his arm forward and says, “Back off! Don’t get close to me! I’m armed!”

It blinks. “With what?”

“Look!” Tooru points to his aluminum foil arm band. “See this? It’s supposed to keep aliens away! So you better not touch me!”

It smiles and touches Tooru’s arm band. Tooru yelps; he doesn’t want to see an alien melt away and die!

But the alien doesn’t, and instead rights itself and says, “I’m Koushi. I, also, come in peace.”

“Koushi,” Tooru says. “That’s a weird name for an alien.”

Koushi shrugs. “Maybe. What’s your name?”

“Tooru,” he chirps. And then, “Did you ask because you want to be friends?” Is he friends with an alien now? Iwa-chan would be so jealous. He can show Koushi off to all his classmates.

Koushi’s eyes flash pink and purple and green all at once. “I’m not sure. I’ve never had a human friend before.”

“It’s easy!” Tooru says. “Mostly we play volleyball and Iwa-chan’s the only one I meet up with after school, but that’s fun too!” A thought springs into his mind. “I bet you’d be great at volleyball,” he exclaims. “You could use your magical alien powers to jump everywhere and totally destroy everyone!” He punches the air.

Koushi blinks. “What magical alien powers?”

“You’re an alien, right?” Tooru says, and it nods. “Don’t you have magical powers?”

“I don’t know,” says Koushi. “My guardians say I’m still growing. I’m only – ” it counts on its fingers ” – twelve, in human years.”

“Hey, so am I!”

Tooru was destined to meet this alien. Or something. The thought excites him, but his body isn’t too keen on the idea of staying awake much longer. He lets out a yawn so big that his eyes tear up and he nearly falls over backwards.

Koushi pulls him up before he gets a chance to. “What’s that?”

“Oh, I,” Tooru says, and shrugs. “I should probably get to sleep. I stay up too late sometimes. But!” he adds. “I want to continue talking to you!” He still has so many questions to ask. Like who won the alien beauty pageant this year? How many stars has Koushi visited? Are the other aliens as pretty as it?

“Oh, I know what sleep is.” Koushi looks pleased with itself. “We learned about this in the academy. You should go then, Tooru. It’s getting late.”

“It’s not!” Tooru protests, but it is.

“I’ll leave if you don’t go.” Koushi steps back under the space ship.

Tooru pouts, because either way Koushi will be gone, either from his front lawn or not joining him in Tooru’s house. Tooru wanted to show Koushi all the pictures and speculations and conspiracies he’d drawn about humans and aliens. “Fine,” he says, and starts off.

Koushi calls, “Wait!” Tooru stops, even though the rest of his body is eager to get back to bed. Does Koushi want Tooru to join it? Does it want to sleepover at Tooru’s, too?

But instead, when Tooru comes back, Koushi says, “Can I have that?”

It’s pointing at Tooru’s makeshift aluminum hat. Tooru frowns.

“Sure.”

Koushi takes it from his head gently, maybe like Koushi’s afraid it might be attached to him. Tooru giggles when Koushi’s fingertips brush against him.

“You’re nice for a human,” Koushi says.

Tooru beams. “You’re the first person to say that to me,” he says.

Koushi’s admiring his handiwork on the hat, then puts it on. The aluminum isn’t as shiny as Koushi’s hair. “Is this how you do it?”

“Yep!”

“Thanks,” Koushi says. “I really like this. And don’t tell me what it does, I’ll figure it out.”

Tooru wonders if he should tell Koushi that it’s just like the rest of the aluminum, meant to repel aliens but otherwise useless. But Koushi had told him not to explain it, so he just giggles to himself and says, “You’ll figure it out. Tell me when you do!”

“I will.” Koushi beams.

*

When he wakes up in the morning, Tooru clambers downstairs and announces to his parents that he met an alien last night. They say that that’s interesting, what’s its name and what does it look like, and Tooru tells them that its name is Koushi and it was in their front lawn and it was very, verypretty. He continues on with weeks and months, thinking about Koushi, wondering if it’s playing with his aluminum hat, trying to figure it out.

It’s a year later when he realizes that his parents had been humoring him and hadn’t really believed him when Tooru said that he had met that alien. Tooru’s not even sure that he believes it himself. For all he knows, he could’ve been dreaming that whole time. His elementary school teachers kept telling him that aliens aren’t real. And his teachers are older and smarter, so maybe they’re right.

But he still has his arm bands and belt and scours his entire house for his aluminum hat. When he can’t find it, his faith in himself is restored.

In in third year of middle school is when he gets more into volleyball. It’s also the year some black-haired genius enters his middle school, and embarrasses him by subbing in when Tooru flubs a serve and has to be pulled out. Tooru hates volleyball in that moment, and hates the genius king, too. He tells himself he should go back to aliens.

He doesn’t, because Iwa-chan just makes him practice more and pulls him away from Tobio-chan and, at the end of the school year, even though they lose to Shiratorizawa, he wins the best setter award. He gets accepted into Aoba Jousai high school along with Iwa-chan, and they vow to take down Shiratorizawa and Ushijima together.

It’s the night after his first day of his first year in high school when, seconds as he’s about to fall asleep, he hears a familiar beeping outside his window.

Tooru’s eyes shoot open.

He tears out of bed, grabbing the arm bands and belts he’d grown out of from his night stand. Seconds later, he’s downstairs, shoving his feet in his shoes. He whips the front door open and barrages into his front lawn.

In the back of his mind, he wonders if Koushi looks the same as he did a couple of years ago.

The spaceship is familiar; in fact, it seems a little bigger than it did before. Tooru watches from his front door as it beams down, and a figure appears. From here, it’s hard to tell the size. Tooru tightens his fingers around the foil in his palms. They’ve crumpled them a little over the past year, lost their wear, but. Tooru holds onto them to remind himself that he did see Koushi.

As soon as the light disappears, Tooru runs over. It’s definitely Koushi, visible under the starlight, and it’s staring around Tooru’s front lawn as Tooru approaches it.

“Koushi-chan!” he calls, and Koushi whips around. Tooru waves a hand and smiles.

To his surprise, Koushi’s eyes narrow. “Do I know you?”

Tooru stops. “Yeah!” he says. “I’m Tooru, remember? You came here just a few of years ago.”

Koushi furrows its eyebrows. They’re kind of small, alien-like, and Tooru likes it. Koushi’s eyes still flash colors, over the pupils, and because Koushi’s obviously grown it’s even more mesmerizing now.

That they grow at the same rate makes a warm feeling bubble inside Tooru’s chest. Aside from the whole alien parts, Koushi could pass for a fifteen-year old, too.

Koushi says, “I was young then. I’m not sure if I’d remember it.”

“You – ” says Tooru. “You took my aluminum hat, remember? You said you would figure out what it was for?”

“I do have a strange shiny accessory,” Koushi accommodates.

Tooru sticks out his hand. “And see?” he says. “These were the other ones I wore! I thought they would scare you but they didn’t.” He blushes. “I don’t know where I got that. I forget things, too.”

Koushi’s eyes widen and it reaches out to touch an arm band. Its eyes glow pink.

“I remember this!” it exclaims. “I do, you were that little human, who – ”

He points at Tooru and Tooru nods excitedly. He kind of wants to hug Koushi, but he’s not sure if that’s a thing that aliens do. Iwa-chan doesn’t like his hugs very much either, but sometimes he will when they see each other after a long break. This is kind of like that, right?

Koushi continues on and says, “It’s nice to see that you’re doing well.” It smiles and its eyes linger on a gold color before continuing.

Tooru catches himself before he stares for too long. “What are you doing back here?” he asks.

“I examine plants of other planets,” says Koushi. “I visit them to collect samples. I’ve come back for some Earth plants.”

“We don’t have a lot of plants in my house,” Tooru says thoughtfully. “My dad’s allergic. But I would help you if I could!”

Koushi shakes its head. “It’s okay. I don’t need too much.” Koushi’s smile is unreadable, but it matches his eyes and Tooru kind of likes it. He wishes he could tell Koushi to come here for every visit. But Tooru doesn’t like embarrassing himself like that.

Instead, he says, “Will you give me something, since you’re taking from here? And also because I wanna have proof when I tell my friends that I was visited by an alien!” he adds.

Koushi laughs and says, “Sure.”

It holds out its hand, and the beam of light shines from the spaceship again. What comes down are Tooru’s familiar hat, and a small item that he can’t quite make out. Tooru stares in awe as both of them come hovering into Koushi’s palm.

“Here.” Koushi hands them to Tooru, who accepts them. “You can have your hat back. It was nice to keep around, but I don’t think I’ll forget about you again. And,” Koushi gestures to the small object in Tooru’s hand, which feels like a marble, except a little heavier, and swirls with all different sorts of colors. They’re the same colors as Koushi’s eyes, Tooru realizes, blinking from one to the next. It has lines on it like a volleyball.

“Sometimes we shed gems,” Koushi says cheerfully. “I like to keep mine. But you can have one.”

It’s kind of weird. If Tooru wasn’t absolutely enamored by Koushi, he’d throw it on the ground with disgust. But it’s beautiful and Tooru squeezes it in his hand.

“Did you know that I’m in the volleyball club, Koushi?” he says.

Koushi blinks. “Volleyball? What’s that?”

“It’s.” Tooru thinks about explaining serving, setting, passing, receiving, spiking, the net, the ground… They’d be here for days. Instead he settles for, “It’s the best sport ever!” and Koushi seems to know what that is, because it smiles like it understands that.

“I believe you,” Koushi says. “We play sports on my planet too. I’ll have to show you sometime.”

Tooru clenches his fists again, and not because of the marble. Excitement thrums through his body. “Really? Can you show me now?”

“Nah,” Koushi laughs. “As I recall, when the sky looks like this you need to rest.”

It points to the stars. Tooru can look at Koushi under them forever.

Tooru pouts. “You’re no fun, Koushi.”

Koushi twines its fingers with Tooru’s. Tooru blushes suddenly, but Koushi doesn’t seem to realize either what it’s done or what this means.

“But you like it when I visit, don’t you?” Koushi says, and Tooru has no control over his mouth when he says, “Yes.”

Koushi smiles. “Then I don’t mind being no fun.”

*

“Seijou! Fight!”

Tooru wipes at his forehead as he jogs toward the gym doors. It’s been another long year. Even though his grades are manageable, and – well, this is the second girlfriend to dump him because of volleyball (“Really,” says Iwa-chan, “if you can’t find any emotional investment to date, then don’t say yes when they ask.”

“But Iwa-chan,” Tooru protests. “I’m not that mean!”

“You’re mean if you say yes and then don’t give them a time of day!”)

– and in addition to that, they don’t win against Shiratorizawa High for the second year in a row. Ushiwaka is just as intimidating as he was in middle school, if not more. Tooru grits his teeth and hates himself.

“We did well this year,” Iwa-chan says here, when they’re back in the boys’ locker room. He rests a hand on Tooru’s back.

Tooru nods, even though he doesn’t particularly feel it. “Yeah,” he says anyway, because that makes Iwa-chan smile, and Tooru feels a little better. Not too much. There’s something missing.

He shoves his hands in his pocket and feels it there. The marble that Koushi had given him almost two years ago – his lucky marble, even though carrying it in his pocket during the last match didn’t make them win. But it did make Tooru serve his strongest jump serve before, and calms him whenever his anxiety spikes, so. He clutches it in his fingers, thinking of Koushi, hoping Koushi kept its promise to not forget about him.

He packs up to go home. They’ve played their last game of the year, but it was his first game as captain already. Tooru clutches the strap of his bag in mixed disappointment and pride. He can’t let his seniors down, especially after they played so hard during the earlier Inter Highs. Tooru decides he won’t do that. Even next year when the counselors tell him to quit to focus on his universities, he vows to take the Seijou volleyball team to the national level.

The thought keeps him going as he walks home. As of today, he’s officially a third year! Gleefully, he bounds down the sidewalk. Iwa-chan has already berated him for abusing his power, but sometimes Tooru’s just too tired from practicing to get his own water bottle all the time.

It’s when he’s coming up his driveway when he slows – his parents are on the porch, talking to someone. Tooru walks a little faster to get a closer look.

And there’s Koushi, smiling and laughing with them, no part of his body blinking or out of place, looking like he could be one of Tooru’s classmates.

“Tooru!” says his mom. Is she under some kind of spell? Is Tooru under some kind of spell? “You didn’t tell me you had a friend like this.”

“I – ” Well he’s told his parents he met an alien before, but there’s probably a reason why Koushi decided not to show its eyes. Koushi looks seventeen and smiles at Tooru, and there’s something in his eyes that actually twinkles. Koushi knows exactly what it’s doing.

“I guess I didn’t,” Tooru concedes. It’s been two years, but he bumps Koushi’s shoulder with his own like they just saw each other yesterday. “Wanna come up to my room and play video games, Koushi?”

“Sure.”

Koushi grins, following Tooru inside and upstairs. Tooru doesn’t turn around or say anything to it because he’s feeling too many things at once. It’s weird that an alien is following right behind him in his home. Tooru’s stomach jumps with excitement and a little something else.

As soon as they’re in Tooru’s room, Tooru shuts the door and turns around.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” is the first thing he says. “And you remember me!”

“I came because I remembered.” Koushi smiles. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“It’s always been a while,” says Tooru. “I’m glad you came here on purpose this time, though.”

“I am, too,” Koushi says.

“Why did you come here the second time, then? Especially if you hadn’t remembered me?”

“I don’t know.” Koushi glances up thoughtfully. “I’ve been trying to figure that out myself. I just felt drawn here, so I did.”

Tooru wants Koushi to hold his hand again. Instead, he says, “And I have so many other questions to ask you! Like, do other aliens look like you? Like, exactly like you? How many of you are there? Where are you from? How are you even speaking Japanese? Do other aliens come here? Are – ”

His words come out faster and faster and Koushi holds up a hand and laughs. Tooru stops.

“That’s too much, even for me.” Koushi looks amused. “Let’s see. Um, I’m not thoroughly sure on most of these questions, because we tend to function on our own, even at a young age… I do know that we’re capable of speaking any language in the world, though. It makes things easier for us when we collect samples from other planets.”

“That’s so cool,” Tooru gushes. “But, but that means you’ve been to so many other planets, too, haven’t you? Have you interacted with different kinds of aliens before? Was I the first human you interacted with?”

He scrunches up his nose, remembering that Koushi had talked to his parents, too. “Even though I’m not the only one.”

Koushi laughs. “Yes to all of them.”

“You should take me with you!” Tooru blurts. “I mean, once I’m done with high school. And maybe uni too, though I don’t know if I’m going there. But being an alien must be so cool!” He’s sitting on his bed, and bounces. It’s like he’s twelve years old all over again. “I always knew aliens were real! Hey, do you want to come to Iwa-chan’s tomorrow, so I can show him that I wasn’t lying all those years ago…”

“I can’t stay for long,” Koushi says, and Tooru’s face falls. Koushi’s does, too. “We have a policy not to reveal what planet we’re from when we visit others. You humans probably do, too.”

“I don’t think any humans have visited another planet with aliens on it before.” Tooru thinks about all the time he spent invested in the United State’s Area 51 and visiting the NASA homepage every day when he was younger.

Koushi actually brightens at this. “Then you can be the first.”

Tooru stares. And then he shoves Koushi and laughs, who seems surprised and falls backwards.

“Yes, I can,” Tooru agrees. “But after next year, maybe.”

“What’s next year?”

Tobio-chan’s coming next year. Tooru clutches the hem of his shorts. “Volleyball,” he says. “It’s my last chance to win the inter – or spring – highs. It’s this tournament,” he says, at Koushi’s confused expression, “where we compete to see who’s the best team.”

“And you’re not?” Koushi’s expression is open and astonished at this, as if Koushi had expected him for be to be the best player in Japan. It kind of makes Tooru feel more motivated, actually.

“We will be,” he says confidently. “We’ll defeat Shiratorizawa and be the best high school volleyball team in Japan. Finally.”

“I know you will,” says Koushi. It doesn’t mean much objectively, since it doesn’t know anything about volleyball, but Tooru believes that Koushi has faith in him, anyway. “You can’t love something that much and not win. If you love something the most, you’ll always win.”

Koushi’s eyes are still disguised, but they flash pink and gold for a brief moment. Tooru doesn’t know if Koushi even knows. He decides not to mention it.

“That’s not necessarily true,” he says, “but there aren’t a lot of things I love more than volleyball and I will definitely win.”

*

He’s a third year. It’s the Spring Highs.

And Aoba Jousai is declared the top men’s high school volleyball team in the nation.

Tooru definitely cries. Iwa-chan does, too, and Tooru punches him in the shoulder and says, “Don’t be a crybaby, Iwa-chan!” while tears are streaming down his own face.

Iwa-chan laughs and punches him back and pulls him into their group hug.

Ushiwaka-chan comes over and tells him it was a good game. Tooru’s so exhausted and relieved that he can’t even bring himself to come up with a snarky reply; he just says, “We deserved it,” and, “You played well,” and accepts the proffered hand.

Everyone cheers when they go outside, into the fresh evening air, to celebrate. It’s dark and windy and Tooru stares up at the sky, watches what look like shooting stars flash by, even though it’s probably just his blurry vision from the adrenaline and exhaustion. Arms are around his shoulders and neck and he’s not dignified enough to pull himself away as captain, just lets his team lead on until they eventually break apart to wash themselves.

There are water spouts outside, but most of them retreat back into the building. Iwa-chan does, too, and when Tooru stays outside, he asks, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” says Tooru. He’s still gazing up at the sky. “I am.”

Iwa-chan goes back inside. Tooru starts to the water fountains. He’s sweaty all over, but he wants to stay like this forever. Not a lot of things can make this any better.

And then he hears a voice say, “Tooru.”

He hasn’t heard it in a little less than a year but he’d expected it to be longer. Tooru turns around.

Koushi’s standing there, beaming, eyes blinking colors so fast that Tooru nearly sees them in his own pupils.

He runs over, says, “Koushi, Koushi, we did it,” and Koushi says, “I know,” because oh, right, Tooru had told him where and when it was going to be, last year when Koushi had come over to visit. It hadn’t crossed his mind that Koushi might come, but.

Koushi’s here and beaming and witnessing Tooru at the peak of his happiness and it truly couldn’t be better.

Tooru gets close enough to Koushi and then even closer, grabs Koushi by the hands and kisses. He’d expected it to be weird, Koushi being an alien and all. Tooru’s kissed only a handful of girls.

But Koushi has the same texture as girls, except it’s Koushi so of course Tooru feels that zing that shoots through his body, energy from winning the spring highs turning into an excited heat, and Koushi is clutching his face gently like it’s not sure what to do but wants this to continue.

Tooru pulls back and grins. “Do you know what that was?” he asks.

Koushi touches its lips. “I’m… not sure.”

“It was a kiss!” And Tooru’s not sure if he’s always wanted to kiss an alien before, or if it’s because Koushi’s eyes are flashing so bright it looks like pure gold, or if Tooru just has really weird taste.

“It means I like you,” he adds.

Koushi blushes prettily. “I. Me too.” The gold eyes glance down at Tooru’s lips, and wow, Tooru feels really hot. “Can we do that again?”

“You have to say you like me too,” Tooru says with a grin.

“Fine,” Koushi says, and Tooru remembers that their hands are interlocked, because Koushi’s fingers tighten around his. “I like you too, Tooru.”

“I know,” Tooru says.

When Koushi kisses him this time, it feels like the best thing in the world.