there were six of them who made me realise

that I was worthy of being their prize

because love revealed to me their demands

of loving them back: the power of hands.

Gentle caresses; fingers stroking loving up and down the new skin between them. Their bodies radiated heat, mixing together like the colours that meet at a sunset. Different breaths fanned against his body, goosebumps rippling onto his skin at the feeling. A hand moved towards his face, moving the blonde hair away from his eyes. Soft lips made contact with his temple, a lingering kiss being left behind.

"Did you sleep well, Firefly?" melodic words flowed through him, comforting every tense feeling his body had.

"The best I've ever had," he admitted. A soft kiss was planted behind his neck, strong arms enclosing around him, keeping him safe.

"Ahh I love having you here," Kuroo whispered into his ear, teeth gently pulling at the lobe.

"Hmm Kōtarō, wake up," Akaashi patted the owl next to him who only groaned in return. They were all so comfortable in this moment, not wanting to put any distance between them it.

It was perfect.

The next moment, a loud knock came at the door that had Bokuto sitting up in surprise.

"Hope everyone is covered up! I'm coming in!" Bokuto gave an animalistic squeak and he grabbed at the sheets, never mind that they were all wearing shorts. The door swung open to reveal a large man wearing a business suit, a cheeky grin on his face as he regarded the half-naked boys. Kei choked and used Kuroo's body as a human shield, trying to hide behind him as much as possible.

"Morning, Father. Seems I forgot to lock the door again," Akaashi sneered, shooting a glance at the door. His father merely chuckled.

"Seems so," he looked past Kuroo, spotting the blonde. "You must be Tsukishima Kei,"

"I must be," Kei nervously laughed. "Sorry that you're meeting me in this predicament, sir," he still tried to convey his respect.

"From the way Keiji and the boys have talked about you, I figured I would walk in on something like this sooner or later," Kei blushed a bright red. "I'll be leaving soon for some work. You'll be leaving before dinner, right?"

"Yeah, we're going to the Bokuto household," Akaashi nodded. Kei looked to him in question. So that's what they were doing today.

"Then I won't see you before New Year. Would everyone come join us downstairs for a breakfast then?" his father gleamed at them.

"Of course, sir. We'll be right down," Kuroo nodded towards him.

"Splendid," and then he left. The four quickly got out of bed and got dressed for the day.

"That was so embarrassing," Kei shook his head, face still beet red.

"Meh, could've been worse. He could've actually walked in on us. That happened before," Kuroo shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah but we didn't have sex, now did we?" Kei spoke through gritted teeth, eyeing the cat dangerously.

"And whose fault was that?" Kei just sighed. While getting ready, Kei pulled up his phone and saw a message from Yamaguchi.

'And?' Kei just frowned and typed back.

'Yamaguchi you fucking knew,'

A few minutes his reply came: 'XD send me pics,'

'Hell no,'

Kei met Akaashi's mother at breakfast, but she didn't seem too interested in the new addition and, in fact, didn't seem to pay Akaashi much attention either. After she found out that Akaashi's father was on-board with their entire relationship, she had mixed feelings about the entire thing. Sure, she loved her son but she felt like she would be losing by agreeing with her husband about anything. She didn't want to make war, though, and didn't want to drag Akaashi into anything dangerous so late in his life. It would be a year before he moved out so instead, she just stayed silent about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Akaashi was counting down the days he could get away from his toxic parents and move in with one of his boyfriends, hopefully both – depends on their career paths.

But he was pretty sure he had a half sibling somewhere in Tokyo by now because of his father.

The kitchen staff had prepared the food and Kei had never such a fancy meal before, even if it was just a breakfast. He tried to be as well-mannered as he possibly could. He flowed into the conversations the other three were bringing up, trusting that they knew what could be discussed at the table and not. It was mostly a recounting of the festival events to Akaashi's father.

When the meal ended, everyone disbanded and headed up to gather their things.

"When will you be back, Keiji?"

"Tuesday night, Mother,"

"Very well,"

Then the four left and were headed off to the Bokuto household. There, Kei got introduced to Bokuto's mother and younger sisters, as well as his four grandparents that lived on the other side of the ground floor. He definitely understood now what he had meant by their packed together life and how they lived on top of each other. The four spent the day indoors, playing games on the kotatsu and huddling together for warmth. Kei loved the traditional house and some lifestyle alterations that came with it. Bokuto's mother was wavering about her son having yet another boyfriend, but the three had all prepared their parents so it wasn't exactly a surprise. It was something to get used too. Kei helped out Bokuto's mother with the meals that day, deciding that he wanted to integrate himself into the household a bit more.

She seemed to like him more and more as the day went on, especially that it seemed Kei had his entire life sorted out. He knew where he wanted to study and where he wanted to work and that contrasted nicely with Bokuto's disorganised life. They ended the day with a festive movie, Bokuto falling asleep on top of the three. They all slept in futons, getting woken up the next morning by the twins jumping on top of the four. They demanded Kuroo to make them breakfast, only interested in the person who could feed them. They were ravishing little monsters.

After breakfast, they headed over to Kuroo's house. Kei and Kuroo's father had a brief introduction with each other before the four left again for an outing. They stopped by Kenma's house for a brief moment, Kuroo calling Kenma on his phone.

"Hold on, I'm coming to the window," Kuroo was immediately confused, not even a single word had excited his lips. He just sent a confused look at the other three. They looked up as Kenma opened his blinds and window. Without even saying anything, he threw down a folder from the second floor and it landed on the damp, morning grass. Akaashi picked it up with confusion, opening it up to pull out an A4 sized picture. He immediately chocked when he saw it, the others heading to see it as well.

It was a picture of the four at one of the training camps, Kuroo lying in Akaashi's lap and Kei pushing Bokuto out of his lap – when had he even taken his picture? – and in between the two pairs was a horribly edited crib with a small trampoline inside of it with a pacifier.

"Kenma, what the fuck," Kuroo spoke into his phone.

"She has four parents now. Maybe she'll finally outgrow her crib now," Kuroo shook his head, covering his eyes with his hand. Kei was just giving the others a questioning look.

"Where did you even get that photo?" Kuroo asked, putting his phone on speakerphone.

"I took a lot of pictures of you guys during the camps. I'll send them all to you sometime,"

"Why?"

"Because the way you all were with each other, it was inevitable. You looked too comfortable, and not in the same way as it is with me or Yaku or Konoha,"

"Awww did you ship us, Kenma?" Bokuto teased.

"All I'm saying is: it's good you have another calmish person in the unit since I don't know how Trampoline would've made it to adulthood with two parents who would probably mistake her for volleyballs. I also don't want Akaashi to be a single parent, that's just too cruel,"

"Hey!" Kuroo objected.

"I think I could make a great parent, thank you very much!" Bokuto huffed, folding his arms. "Don't you guys agree?" he turned to the rest.

"Uhhhh I don't even think you can look after an iguana, Bo,"

"Hey do you guys want kids one day?"

"...Kōtarō, this is not the time," Akaashi shook his head.

"Then when is the right time?"

"Try again in ten years," Kei just shook his head.

"I think you all should start out with a pet first – then again, you have Bokuto..."

"Hey! I'm not an animal! I have culture!"

"The only culture you have is bacteria," Kei went to laugh behind his hand and the others snickered, Bokuto looking at them confusedly.

"I don't get it," no one explained it to him.

The four left the Kozume estate soon after that and headed to the mall. It was buzzing with people as they were doing last minute shopping for the year and joined in on the public events held inside. They spent the day watching flash mobs and musicians, joining in on a public dance floor for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner. The four had insane fun, their entire outing one long first date that ended with a trip up Tokyo Tower where they waited for the New Year to come.

Bokuto was so excited to see the city from above, his feet carrying him all over the platforms of the tower.

"I just want to hear those three little words from you," Akaashi cooed to him when they finally caught up to him.

"I love you," Bokuto smiled brightly.

"That's sweet but try again,"

"...I will behave?"

"There we go,"

The four watched the beautiful city lights blend into the glorious fireworks of the New Year as the countdown reached zero, the four sharing passionate kisses with each other as they went into 2013 as a full set. They made no New Year resolutions or promises to each other, since they already knew. They already knew that this year was going to be a very difficult one, but it was one they would tackle together.

They asked a passer-by to take a picture of the four, their background one of the colourful sky. They clung onto each other, pushing their face close to each other as they smiled brightly. It would be a photo cherished by the four for the rest of their lives.

Later, when Kei had to separate from them with promises to see each other later the week, he sat on the train and reflected on the weekend.

He felt like a stereotypical giddy thirteen-year-old girl who got her first boyfriend. It was silly.

His phone lit up with notifications as Kuroo began placing all the photos he took of the weekend in one batch. Turns out, the sneaky bastard had snapped pictures of Kei with Akaashi and Kei with Bokuto when they shared kisses during the weekend. He could feel himself burning red as he regarded the pictures.

'And I saved the best for last,' Kuroo posted his final picture, one of all four of them huddled together on futons in Bokuto's house with their bodies intertwined.

'Who took this???' Bokuto typed back.

'I asked your sisters,'

'Sneaky shit,'

'But you love me <3'

On the second of January, Kei walked into the Karasuno clubroom with a smile that wasn't going away any time soon – one he didn't try to hide.

"You seem incredibly happy, Tsukki~," Nishinoya spoke teasingly, his fingers stroking at his chin. Everyone was regarding Kei and he knew it, but his entire mind was on a heightened level he didn't want to come down from. At this point, he didn't care to be anything else than what his emotions pushed him to be.

"Yeah. I am," he spoke simply as he opened his locker, everyone hearing the uplift in his words.

"Did something good happen?" Daichi gave him a suggestive smile, Sugawara sending his boyfriend a strict look.

"Yeah. Really good," Kei didn't deny it.

"Well, I'm happy for you man! I support you!" Nishinoya spoke like the true upperclassman he was. Kei scoffed.

"As if I need the support from someone who needs a footstool to reach his own bed,"

"YOU-!"

Three days later, Kei was back again in Tokyo. He missed being able to take the train, the journey insanely long by car. The day they arrived, they spent training at a local gym they hired out. That night, Ennoshita forced him to accompany Kageyama and Hinata on their run. The entire day Bokuto had basically threatened to sneak into the inn Karasuno was staying out, but they could be lucky Akaashi was always there in person to control his impulses.

His impulses really demanded a lot as he could barely keep himself from not clinging to Kei when he spotted him the next morning at the Tokyo Centre. Instead, Nekoma had latched onto the crows first thing.

Kenma was talking with Hinata and Kageyama, the ginger being a bit too excited with showing their new relationship off. Kenma was mostly silent and Kageyama was embarrassed with the whole situation as he listened to Hinata recount their first date.

They had played beach volleyball and they both sucked at it before they had just switched to normal training. Kenma had no idea if that counted as a date, but their 'date' had ended with dinner at the Hinata residence so it did seem there was some progress. Luckily their awkward conversation ended when Bokuto bumped into them, immediately striking up a conversation with Hinata, his pupil.

Meanwhile, the crow and cat captains were conversing with serious eyes scoping out the rest of teams that were at the centre as they all waited to be let onto the court.

"Heard you're dating Tsukishima now... I don't know how you did it, but well done," Kuroo scoffed.

"Says the one who got a nice sugar mama,"

"...wait what?"

"Kei told me he thinks you and that third year setter of yours got together," Daichi's jaw just hung. "From your reaction, guess he was right,"

"We haven't exactly made it public," he explained.

"Unlike another new couple on your team," Daichi just laughed sheepishly.

"I guess a good volleyball season can make you fall in love, right?" Kuroo rolled his eyes playfully at that. "Hinata and Kageyama... I don't know. They look happy, but I don't think they know how relationships are supposed to be so they're just going off their instincts and their instincts is to play volleyball. I personally think they can make a great couple, but it maybe wasn't the best time to get together," Kuroo didn't say anything, not wanting to show his bias because of Kenma. "I still think there's aspects about themselves they need to explore,"

"And their sexuality isn't one of them?" Daichi frowned at Kuroo's words.

"I don't even think they realise they're in a gay relationship. Don't think it's ever dawned on them," Kuroo shrugged.

"Well, give it a bit of time. I'm sure they'll end up how they're supposed to, however that may be," Daichi merely regarded Kuroo at his words.

"I guess..."

"Tetsurō," the two captains turned as Kei walked over, a slight twitch in his eyebrow.

"Hey smexy~," Kuroo said with a sly grin, sneaking his hand around Kei's waist.

"Call me that again, and I will stab your kneecaps," Kei said with a frown.

"You seem to be in a great mood today," Kuroo grinned brightly. Kei sighed.

"Is Kōtarō usually this way before tournaments?" Kuroo tilted his head and searched for the owl. He spotted him in the crowd, his owl tips moving all around the place as he searched for Kei who had escaped him. Daichi watched the scene with interest, taking note of how Kei allowed himself to be held in public by Kuroo. He really was comfortable. "He's very... needy?" Kuroo just chuckled.

"He likes getting good luck kisses in before tournaments,"

"...why? It's not like he needs the luck. He's amazing," Kei said it so simply that Kuroo almost brushed off his words.

"He may be amazing, but either one of us needs to brush that smirk off his face and shut him up. Make war, not love. Play the game, not the player," Kei just looked at his lover with furrowed eyes.

"Then why are you still holding me?"

"Ayyyy the game hasn't started yet," Kei just rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I'll go tell him he better survive until one is kicks his ass," Kei slipped out of Kuroo's arms and headed off to his Fukurōdani boys. Kuroo was left with a slack jaw.

"Hey, what about me?!" Daichi chuckled at Kuroo's desperate look. "Don't you dare laugh at me, crow boy! You get to play with your boyfriend on the same side of the net!" but Daichi was still amused.

The entrance ceremony went off without a hitch early that morning, Karasuno moving towards another gym to practice until their first match. Hinata's bag had been swapped out at the gym and Kiyoko had to run back to get it. By some miracle, she was back before the match started. Of course there would be a disaster before they even started.

The first match was against Tsubakihara Academy. It was a bit of a disaster at the beginning, especially since Kageyama struggled with the lights from the ceiling and the special awareness of the court.

When the quick attack made its comeback, it riled up everyone who was watching. The way the enemy would tense up at the attack, no matter if they had seen the quick on videos or not, was absolutely satisfying to Kageyama.

Yes. That's my Hinata. All eyes should be on you and what we can do. Only us, no one else. No one will ever be able to do what we can.

"What? He's completely different than he was back at camp How frightening..." eyes trained on Kageyama, another setter couldn't help but be surprised by the lustrous look he spotted in Kageyama's eyes. From his spot in the audience, he couldn't figure out if Kageyama was pure excited because of volleyball, or... "Oh? Who is that?" his gaze was fixed on Hinata and his presence. He demanded notice and he got it unconditionally, no regard given to anyone else on the court.

The watcher licked his lips, excited for a showdown with Karasuno.

And him.

Kei was a true force against Tsubakihara and, where he failed, Nishinoya made up for it. Nishinoya, and surprisingly, Hinata. Of course, Kei wasn't surprised. He had seen Hianta's new receiving powers start to fester at Shiratorizawa.

Well, Hinata may be able to receive now, but Kei wasn't horrible in other aspects either. He set for Asahi, the toss incredibly easy for their ace to get his striking point.

Wow. Tsukishima's toss. I feel...touched...

Asahi slapped Kei across his back at their success.

"Tsukishima! Nice toss!"

"Ah, thanks," but Kei was glad.

They took the first set but had trouble in the second due to underhand ceiling serves but at the end, they put Sugawara in. The final point went to Asahi and at 2-0, they won their first match. Hinata jumped onto Kageyama's back as they headed off the court, arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"Our attacks were so cool! I'm glad you got used to this place!" Kageyama agreed, nodding with pride that his hard work had paid off.

"Yeah. Now for the next one,"

Chance truly does favour the prepared mind.

They had lunch while watching the last set of the Nekoma vs Kiyokawa match. Kiyokawa wasn't getting blocked, but every ball they sent over was received and it made them exhausted. Nothing was working.

"One touch!" Kuroo called, his hair beautifully flipping as he got a hold of what Kiyokawa thought was their guaranteed ball. Kei whistled at the sight, Yamaguchi sending him a curious look.

"What? He looks nice when he's dominating," he said in a whisper, Yamaguchi barely able to pick it up. He blushed as he heard Kei's words.

Nekoma won and Karasuno couldn't be happier.

"Yes! We're one step closer to going up against them!" Hinata smiled, thinking of his fated battle against Kenma. Kageyama regarded him, also excited for such a battle. "Hey, Tsukishima!" Kei looked up at the excited ginger.

"What?"

"Want to come with me to watch Fukurōdani's match? I want to see Bokuto in action!" Kei regarded him for a second, the bright emotion in the ginger's eyes blinding him. He looked towards Yamaguchi.

"Do you want to come with?" he nodded quickly. The three first-years headed off to the sub arena where Fukurōdani was playing, the team going up against Eiwa. Hinata had bought a shirt on the way, Kei nearly walking away from him had Yamaguchi not stopped him.

Bokuto was off since the beginning of the game, feeling as if there weren't enough eyes on him in the sub-arena. The team didn't worry though, as they were confident in all of their abilities. They were an amazingly strong team, with or without their ace. They scored continuous points, Bokuto all the while keeping his eyes on his incredible teammates.

"Bokuto is really strong, but he also has his off days, huh?" Hinata commented to Kei, the three of them standing on the sidelines as they watched the game.

"He definitely has off days, but that's not what's happening here. Kōtarō has many weaknesses when it comes to volleyball and Keiji has every single one of them memorised. He knows the best way to handle him on the court, but if he's not feeling well off the court, then we're all there for him," Hinata stared up at Kei with wonder, a twinkle in his eyes. Kei flinched away. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're using their first names! That's so cool!"

"Why wouldn't I? We're dating," Kei said as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Huh? But Kageyama and I don't use each other's names?" he spoke with a tilt of his head.

"...are you sure you two are dating or are you just friends outside of the club now?"

"What do you mean?" Kei sighed.

"I mean... have you kissed yet?" Hinata gave him a look. "Do you even want to kiss that dictator?"

"...uhm,"

"Hinata," the ginger shot his head to Yamaguchi, question in his eyes. "You and Kageyama have only been together for about a month, and of course I don't know this, but I think this is both of yours' first relationship, right? You may want to talk about these types of things," Yamaguchi shrugged his shoulders.

"Like what?"

"Like if you want a physical relationship or if you want to wait or not at all and... boundaries, basically. We've seen Kageyama give you cheek kisses and he's usually the big spoon but it just seems that... you don't want what he wants?" Hinata continued to stare at Yamaguchi who started twitching. "Of course, I've never been in a relationship either so I don't know but... maybe you're asexual? Maybe?"

"What's that?"

"Yamaguchi, don't confuse the tangerine,"

"Sorry, Tsukki," Hinata just looked between the two, not being given any explanation. He sighed and continued watching the game, figuring he'll just look it up afterwards.

But it did leave an interesting though with him – did he want to kiss Kageyama? Like, properly? They were a couple - and that's what couples do - and he didn't think he was against kissing or anything like that. He's just never thought about it all that much.

But does that mean Kageyama has and he had felt like Hinata wasn't reciprocating? Did he feel like Hinata was pushing him away somehow, keeping him at a distance?

"How do you do it, Tsukishima?"

"Hm?"

"I know you guys have only been together for a couple of days, but let's be real here, you guys have basically been each other's for much longer than that already so... how do you do it? How do you know what they want? It must be harder, since there's three of them..." Kei sighed.

"Of course it's harder than normal, but for us... we communicate, so it's really not an issue," he shrugged his shoulders. "And you're right – we all did like each other long before now, and if I'm honest, if my scenario had only been with one other person then we would've gotten together earlier than we did. Since there's four of us, though, our entire situation is out of the norm so it was difficult to know who liked who and if I was into all of them. In the end, we were just scared for a long time,"

"...scared, huh?" Hinata bowed his head. "And do they keep secrets from you? Do you keep secrets from them?"

"Well, it's not even been a year so there's no way I can know everything about them, of course. And we've just gotten together so now's the time when we'll properly start getting to know each other. Although it's not all that different than before, dating them just feels like... I can entrust myself to them and not worry about what they would do with me. I think Kuroo said that, and I agree. Of course, there's secrets I have that I'll definitely have to tell them in the future, but only if I feel it's the right time and I'm comfortable enough with it. Even then, I know I can trust them enough to tell them I'm keeping something from them, but that I'm not ready yet. I know they'll respect me and not force anything out of me. That's what I think love is, anyway,"

Yamaguchi knew exactly what Kei was referring to, and it was something Kei brought up in the last few days in the passing.

Kei might be comfortable with kissing them – maybe a little too much, he didn't want to admit – and he had teased Kuroo about it, but Kei was worried about sex. He knew Bokuto and Kuroo were extremely sexual beings and Akaashi eased into it when he got together with them, but even though Kei said it himself and they had reassured him – there was still n tiny bit of pressure. It was way too soon for anything of that degree, but Kei felt embarrassed going into the relationship as the inexperienced one. They were already so far along and here he was, trying to slot in with them.

But there was another reason, another reason why he was scared of sex and anything relatedly physical in that manner.

Yamaguchi's eyes shot towards Kei's leg for just a second.

"Hey look, he's looking this way!" Hinata pointed out, waving his shirt in the air as Bokuto's eyes fixed on them after Akaashi pointed them out. Akaashi's eyes met Kei's and he immediately got the message.

Kei lifted his knuckles to his lips to place a small kiss against his skin; then he held his fist out towards Bokuto.

The owl swooned.

That helped him drag up his motivation again and, it was as Akaashi had stated: when Bokuto was in his top form, he was a human highlight reel. When they won 2-0, Bokuto was cheering the loudest as the smaller court's loud audience deafened his ears. He looked over towards Kei, expectation in his eyes as he held up two fingers after pointing to himself and Akaashi. Kei huffed and the horrible communication but held up four fingers. Bokuto was glistering.

All four of them won their matches.

When the three crows headed back, Hinata had met the dragon child - Hoshiumi Kōrai. He was so interested in him that he headed to see him up close when he played. Kei took that opportunity to take a nap, his head resting against Kuroo's shoulder as Nekoma and Karasuno sat together in the audience.

Kenma didn't go down with Hinata to watch Hoshiumi, instead sticking with Kuroo to rest up. He noticed Kageyama give Kuroo and Kei curious looks, eyes downcast searching for Hinata at times.

Ah, trouble in paradise?

The next day, the seeded schools joined in the brackets. Karasuno went up against the school that ended up as the runner up in the Interhigh - Inarizaki High. They had watch some of their videos the day before, but that still didn't hold a candle to the real thing. While warming up, Hinata's mind was on the Little Giant he had met yesterday. He now understood what Kageyama had been talking about after he came back from the Youth Camp, how he though Hinata could improve his jump if just changed his technique a bit.

A ball hit him straight in the face, Hinata rearing back from the impact.

"Hinata, boke! You have to focus for me today," Hinata took the ball into his hands, eyes trained on Kageyama. They haven't had a chance to talk yet, but Hinata was trying to notice more details about Kegayama's actions – if there was anything extra to them.

"Look like you're ready to go," a foreign voice flowed, Hinata's attention immediately captured as the main enemy of today's match approached them.

Miya Atsumu.

"Ah, morning," Kageyama greeted.

"How are you doing, Tobio?"

He was using Kageyama's name? Why? They met once at the Youth Camp.

"Fine, thanks,"

"Do your best for me today, okay? I hate playing against people who suck," Atsumu's eyes immediately fell on Hinata, the ginger growing offended by every second he remained close.

"Yeah, sorry about that,"

"Why are you apologizing? Kageyama!" Hinata's jaw hung.

"Because I don't suck," Kageyama continued.

"Yes, I'm very aware of that," Atsumu commented.

"Though, he sucks," a finger was pointed at the ginger. Hinata couldn't understand Kageyama. Why was he saying this? "But he's not weak, so I think we'll be okay," Hinata froze, eyes regarding his boyfriend with shock. Did he just... compliment him? Indirectly, but still. It sent a new wave of motivation through him.

Atsumu smiled excitedly, his eyes narrow as he thought of the pleasurable battle to come. His eyes caught Hinata's and for a moment, Hinata couldn't breathe. Luckily, Atsumu quickly moved away before Hinata could really start to question it.

"So he was one of the Miya's, right?" Hinata looked to Kageyama.

"Ah, yeah. His name is Miya Atsumu,"