Thread by @pettykawas

#krtsk (side #ushioi) — omegaverse

It’s not the first time the thought crosses Tsukishima’s mind, but it’s the first time it lingers long enough to leave a bad taste in his mouth.

Or maybe it’s the cheap beer that’s ruining his palate.

(Oh, who is he kidding? No, it’s not.)

When you take in the way Oikawa and Kuroo are standing—how their bodies are turned to each other, the easy confidence in Kuroo’s posture and the unmistakable grace in Oikawa’s—it’s hard to deny that they make a good-looking pair.

A charismatic alpha and a beautiful omega.

Compatible on every level. A striking sight, even in a sea of people.

Figures. Of course Kuroo would go for someone like him.

No, Oikawa isn’t soft or docile, not a model omega by any means. He’s sharper, bolder, more ambitious. And while he had always been beautiful, these days, even Tsukishima had to admit that Oikawa looked breathtaking, like a rose in full bloom.

Omegas get like that, he’d been told. When they find an alpha they’re compatible with, they begin to smell sweeter and appear more enticing. It’s a biological response, a sign that they have found a potential mate.

Betas like himself have no scent, and their noses don’t typically pick up on the scents of alphas and omegas unless they’re experiencing strong emotions, like when they’re particularly happy or distressed. Even then, the scents are faint.

Tsukishima can’t tell whether or not Oikawa’s scent has sweetened, but he /does/ have eyes, and it’s clear to anyone who cares to look that Oikawa has set his sights on someone.

And that someone may or may not be Kuroo.

He takes another sip of his beer, hoping the alcohol would dull the ache spreading in his chest, making it harder and harder to breathe.

(It doesn’t.)

Why is he here again?

Ah, right.

When Kuroo coaxed him into going to this house party, and when traces of the alpha’s familiar scent of spearmint hit his nose, a small part of Tsukishima had thought that maybe it meant something. After all, why else would a college junior waste their time with a freshman?

At least, that’s what Yamaguchi said on the phone.

“Maybe you’ll finally stop dancing around each other,” he said, as if this attraction that Tsukishima felt went both ways, and, now that they lived in the same city, they would cross that boundary of being senpai and kouhai.

All that talk, all of that expectation, all of the time he grudgingly put into finding clothes that made him look decently presentable, but not like he was trying too hard—all of it had been pointless in the end.

Tsukishima can’t say he’s surprised, but disappointment sits heavy in his stomach anyway. This is what happens when he lets himself entertain an impossible thought.

His face burns with shame. He feels like an idiot.

He looks on as Oikawa laughs at something Kuroo had said, at the hand that rests on the alpha’s forearm like it belongs there, at how /right/ they look together, and Tsukishima decides there’s no point in being a masochist and staying at this party any longer.

Not when the person he came with—the boy he’s liked since he was fifteen, who’d always been close but had still been out of reach—is five minutes away from shacking up with someone else.

God, he really shouldn’t have come here.

Lost in his thoughts, Tsukishima doesn’t notice that someone is standing by his side until he hears him speak.

“There is nothing to be upset about, Tsukishima,” says a deep, distantly familiar voice.

He knows Ushijima attends his university. Tsukishima had seen him at the tryouts for the volleyball team.

He just hadn’t expected Ushijima, who seemed as averse to unnecessary social gatherings as he is, to be at the party.

“You are worried about their closeness,” Ushijima continues without waiting for Tsukishima’s response, who’d been too taken aback to reply. Even in the dimly lit room, he can see the certainty in Ushijima’s eyes. “There is no reason to be.”

He realizes, then, that Ushijima had been talking about Kuroo and Oikawa. He doesn’t want to chance a look at the pair, concerned about what might break through his expression if he saw their closeness, annoyed that Ushijima had already seen him looking.

How pathetic is it that Ushijima Wakatoshi, of all people, felt compelled to console him?

Really, really pathetic.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ushijima-san,” he says, taking a sip of his drink to avoid saying more than he needs to, already feeling a little raw.

“Kuroo and Oikawa have always gotten along well, but they are not involved.”

He says it with so much confidence that Tsukishima is almost inclined to believe him.

The thing is, Kuroo would have no hardship in finding someone just as smart, attractive, and considerate as he is.

Even if what Ushijima said were true, there’s no way Kuroo would be interested in a prickly, unremarkable beta like Tsukishima.

He knows this. He’s always known this. But now, reality is staring him in the face.

Isn’t it time that he let this hopeless crush go?

“Their dating life is none of my business, Ushijima-san,” he says finally, a glass smile on his lips. “If you’ll excuse me, I must—”

“Waka-chan, what are you doing? You’re scaring the new recruit.”

Oikawa is right beside them now, resting his weight on one leg, hands on his hips, chin turned up appraisingly.

Kuroo is nowhere in sight.

Tsukishima tries to squash the irritation that flares in his chest. Has Kuroo found another person to flirt with already?

“I was not,” Ushijima replies to the question Tsukishima had nearly forgotten about. “I was merely offering my perspective.”

Oikawa clicks his tongue. “What did I say about doing that? You always have to be right, don’t you, Waka-chan?”

Tsukishima is wholly unprepared for the way Oikawa directs his attention to him. He’d always found the other boy a little intimidating. Up close, Oikawa looks even more stunning, and judging by the proud way that he carries himself, it’s clear that he knows it, too.

He braces himself for the worst, but it seems the omega isn’t interested in ruffling his feathers.

“Did this alpha brute give you trouble, Megane-kun? Don’t take it personally, he does this with everyone.”

Oikawa doesn’t seem interested in him at all, actually,

because he turns to Ushijima before Tsukishima could even open his mouth to reply.

“Anyway, come on, I’ve been waiting for you on the dancefloor,” Oikawa says as he tugs at Ushijima’s wrist, pulling him towards the center of the room.

Then he pauses to look at Tsukishima over his shoulder, as if he’d forgotten the beta had even been there, as if Tsukishima were no more than an afterthought.

“Ah, Megane-kun, stay put! Tetsu-chan is grabbing you a drink.”

Just like that, the two are off, leaving him baffled and speechless.

What the hell just happened?

He watches as Oikawa wraps his arms around Ushijima’s neck, looks at the easy way the alpha pulls Oikawa into his space.

Then Oikawa laughs, radiant.

A rose in full bloom.

“You couldn’t dance if your life depended on it!” he somehow hears the omega say over the music.

Ushijima doesn’t appear to be bothered by the teasing. He simply smiles as he noses the curve of Oikawa’s neck, before pressing a kiss onto the omega’s scent gland,

a gesture so intimate that it could only mean—

Oh.

/Oh./

As if he could hear the puzzle pieces slotting into place in Tsukishima’s head, Oikawa catches his eye, grins, and /winks/.

It makes Tsukishima feel just a little dumb.

He nearly jumps out of his skin when a broad, solid chest presses against his back. The scent of spearmint, however faint, is stark even amidst the smell of bad alcohol and even worse decisions.

“I set them up, you know,” Kuroo says into his ear. Tsukishima tries not to shiver. He fails spectacularly. “Not that they really needed my help, what with all that tension. They just needed to be, ah, nudged in the right direction.”

From behind him, Kuroo takes the beer in Tsukishima’s hand and replaces it with a bottle of water. Kuroo had remembered his dislike for alcohol, and because he’s weak, the gesture soothes the hurt that had been festering inside Tsukishima all night.

Kuroo doesn’t move away even as he continues talking.

“Omegas like Oikawa are more trouble than they’re worth,” the alpha says, although his tone is fond. “I don’t know how Ushijima keeps up with him. But maybe that’s what he’s into. Who am I to judge?”

Before he can stop himself, the words fly out of Tsukishima’s mouth.

“And what exactly is your type, Kuroo-san?”

God. Shut up, shut up, /shut up/.

He doesn’t have to see Kuroo’s face to know he’s grinning from ear to ear.

“Well, let’s see. Smart, definitely. Gorgeous, of course. Athletic, duh. Sarcastic, a little blunt, but they’re actually a lot softer than they seem. They’re shit at replying to my texts though, but I guess that’s alright since we’re in the same school now.”

Tsukishima’s heart feels like it’s gonna burst through his ribcage.

This can’t possibly be real.

“Do I know them?” he manages to ask, wincing when he hears his voice waver.

“Mmm, pretty sure you do,” Kuroo says, his voice taking on a softer, more affectionate tone. “You don’t have to look too far, though.”

Tsukishima swallows. “No?”

He feels Kuroo shake his head, hears him chuckle softly. “No. You just have to find the nearest reflective surface… and you’ll find him staring right back.”

Tsukishima draws in a sharp breath when another wave of spearmint hits his nose. It’s stronger than it was before, stronger than it has ever been.

Oh, how could he have missed this?

It has always been /him/, hasn’t it?

“Have you figured it out yet?” Kuroo asks gently, fingers tentatively stroking at the bone of Tsukishima’s wrist. “You’ve kept me waiting for a long time, you know?”

“Three years is hardly a long time,” Tsukishima somehow retorts, surprising himself and drawing a bark of laughter out of Kuroo.

“Yeah, but it has felt like forever, hasn’t it?”

It has, but there’s no way he could ever say that to Kuroo, even if he wanted to. His brain has forgotten how to string words together, stuck on what the alpha had said and what that implied.

Kuroo had missed him, too.

This is it. This is all he has wanted since he’d first seen Kuroo on the court. Since Kuroo had insisted on teaching him to be a better blocker, a better player. Since Tsukishima had learned what it felt like to want someone, to want things reserved only for alphas and omegas.

But old habits die hard, and, god, he needs to know.

“Why me?” he whispers, a little too soft given the noise of their surroundings, but Kuroo hears it anyway.

He always does.

Kuroo hums contemplatively. “Why not?”

There’s so much he could say. About how he doesn’t know the first thing about expressing himself. How he’d rather suffer silently than be forthcoming about what he really wants. How Kuroo is so obviously out of his league.

How he’s a beta, how that’ll mean sacrifices, compromises that he’s not sure Kuroo would want to make.

(If Kuroo decides one day that Tsukishima isn’t worth the trouble after all—if he proves that these fears weren’t unfounded—he doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to recover.)

But Kuroo’s thumb brushes against his temple, as if to will the thoughts away before they could really begin to take shape. It’s gentle, sweet, and it makes Tsukishima long for dangerous, impossible things.

“Don’t overwork that beautiful brain of yours,” is Kuroo’s reproach. “Come on, Tsukki. If I thought I was better off with someone else, don’t you think I would have moved on by now?”

He wants to say, “You seem to have a lot of faith in yourself,” or something just as snarky. But seeing Kuroo and Oikawa tonight had brought down his walls and hit him where it hurt most, and he doesn’t feel quite like himself, so he ends up not saying anything at all.

“Unless…” Kuroo trails off as he retreats from where he’d been pressed against Tsukishima. The disappearing warmth makes Tsukishima’s heart jump to his throat. “Ah, did I totally misread this?”

The laugh that comes out of Kuroo is unlike anything he’d heard before. It’s nervous, resigned, and self-deprecating—it sounds /wrong/—and hearing it, knowing that he’d caused it, is a sort of pain that Tsukishima is entirely unequipped to deal with.

Before Kuroo can put any more distance between their bodies, Tsukishima turns.

For the first time since laying their hearts bare, they’re looking each other in the eyes.

The words die in Tsukishima’s throat.

“I—you—” he stammers, feeling like a fool. He’s about to close his mouth so he doesn’t embarrass himself any more than he already has.

But then Kuroo looks at him with so much /hope/, like he’s hanging on to Tsukishima’s every word, however inarticulate he may be at the moment,

and somehow he finds the courage to press on.

“You didn’t misread this,” he says, not quite as evenly as he had wanted to.

Judging by the way Kuroo is looking at him, like he thinks that maybe Tsukishima is made of magic, it doesn’t seem like he minds.

“Yeah?” he asks.

Tsukishima swallows. “Yeah.”

He’s always seen Kuroo as this smooth, confident boy with a silver tongue, naturally gifted in the art of persuasion. He’s certain that even if Kuroo hadn’t been born an alpha, he would know how to command and work the room with an enviable sort of ease.

The same boy with the same inky, untamable hair and the same warm brown eyes looks at him now, but when he speaks, there’s a discernable shyness in his voice.

“Wanna get out of here?”

It’s hard not to falter at the naked affection lighting up Kuroo’s eyes.

Tsukishima has to look away, feeling a little bashful from the attention. His face is ablaze, likely as red as the jerseys Kuroo used to wear.

“I guess,” he mutters, trying for casual.

It doesn’t break Kuroo’s spirit one bit, because he sees right through Tsukishima, just as he always has. Wordlessly, he weaves their fingers together, squeezing gently, before taking a moment to marvel at the sight.

“I’ve always wanted to do this,” Kuroo admits, looking so impossibly young.

Ah, they really did keep each other waiting.

“Me too,” Tsukishima says. The embarrassment, he decides, is worth seeing the smile that takes over Kuroo’s handsome face.

/ phew, that was a long thread, huh? It’s my first time writing krtsk so I was a little nervous about this but I really enjoyed playing with their dynamics! I hope this wasn’t too bad haha. Thank you for reading! 🤍

+ I feel like this song really captures the ~ mood ~ of Tsukki’s inner monologue

open.spotify.com/track/0SAesBxf…