Chapter Text
A new day. A new life.
Since Sakusa was accepted into the volleyball team called MSBY, his parents decided to lend him one of the multiple apartments they owned all over Japan. Osaka was a beautiful place, but he hated the excessive humidity in the air; it made him feel sick.
Today was his first training session and, even though he had no expectations, he was nervous. People would always talk about him, judging him without knowing more than his name and race, talking to him only when strictly necessary. He knew this and didn’t expect any difference.
Sakusa left the apartment wearing his typical white mask and the black MSBY tracksuit that had been sent to him once he moved. The training bag slung over his shoulder was filled with clean clothes, towels, shower slippers and sanitizer. He took the elevator to the ground floor garage where his new, black and expensive car was parked —another gift from his parents. He left the training bag in the back of the car and sat in the driver’s seat with a long, exhausted sigh. Sakusa just wanted for a quiet training session, without his name flying through the air mouth to mouth and murmurs loaded with assumptions. That was all he asked for.
When he arrived at the private parking lot of the huge sports center, the place was deserted, and the only source of life came from the two large open metal doors from which he could hear voices and noises. It sounded like consecutive missiles hitting the wall. The practice had started, and he hated being late, so he hurriedly grabbed his things and headed to the entrance.
Near the entrance, leaning against the brick wall, he saw two familiar faces were talking to each other: the red-haired shorter one and the white-black haired taller one. The conversation seemed to be very lively, as both were gesticulating energetically. As he got closer, he finally recognized who they were. Hinata Shoyo, former player of Karasuno, and Bokuto Kotaro, former player of Fukurodani. Both excellent professional players.
Sakusa started to feel cramps in his stomach. Stupid nerves. But even in this situation, he could manage to keep a straight face. He didn’t say anything when he passed by their sides, focused on entering the court.
“Sakusa Kiyoomi?” Sakusa heard a voice say.
Shit.
Sakusa turned around, facing the person who had called him. Bokuto was in front of him with a surprised face and the red-haired guy hidden behind him. However, Sakusa had the opportunity to see a bond-mark exposed on Hinata’s neck, a warning that the omega was already happily mated.
Curious.
“Bokuto Kotaro,” he replied.
“So… are you the new teammate the coach talked about? I never would have expected it,” Bokuto asked awkwardly rubbing his neck.
Fuck, it’s already starting.
“I guess so,” Sakusa said, and his eyes focused on Hinata. “And the famous Hinata Shoyo… Your omega?”
“What? Of course not,” Bokuto responded quickly and nervously. “Omg, no. Hinata’s mate is Kageyama Tobio. You should know his name, the Adlers’ setter. If he could hear you, I would already be dead…”
“My apologies.”
“So… a new wing spiker?” Hinata spoke for the first time. Sakusa raised his eyebrow but didn’t respond.
The noises continued to sound inside the building. If they were outside, this probably means that he wasn’t late. But then, what was this sound?
“Did the practice already start?” he asked. Bokuto shook his head.
Sakusa realized that he hadn’t done this usual research to find who would be his teammates. However, finding that Bokuto would be one of them, somehow calmed him. During his high school years and all the tournaments he had gone through, Bokuto was the only person who looked beyond his race and talked to him as the normal person he was. Maybe he was just stupid, unaware of his background, and didn’t know anything about him, but people were talking, so it seemed unlikely.
Sakusa, assuming the conversation was over, finally entered in the large room. An extensive, brownish and shiny court stood out in the center, with the taut net crossing it horizontally and carts full of perfectly inflated balls in the corners. A group of people was sitting on benches on the sides of the court. He didn’t recognize any faces. The next thing he noticed was the source of the noise. Someone was practicing serves, separated from the rest of the group who were talking among themselves. Sakusa also recognized him: Miya Atsumu.
The first thing he liked about the place was the cleanliness and the air completely free of pheromones. Maybe… just a light peach scent, almost imperceptible. He regularly took his suppressants, since his scent and pheromones were much stronger than others, simply because he was an enigma. The least he would have expected was that any teammate, who wasn’t a beta, would do the same. The enigmas were a race even superior to the alphas; some people believed they had already become completely extinct due to their savage nature during mating and rut, but there were still a few of them left in the world.
Both of his parents were dominant alphas, so he would have expected to be the same, but nature played this trick on him. Some books classified the enigmas as super-alphas, since legends and tales said they were even capable of inducing an alpha to become an omega. Just bullshit, of course. Despite the influence of their strong pheromones, there was no way to change the entire physiology of an alpha’s body in order to develop a uterus and change their cycles until they become an omega. Simply fairy tales. However, many people tended to ignore and fear him for these things, so he was already used to spending his days in solitude.
“Sakusa Kiyoomi!” Someone screamed from the other side of the court. The coach, Samson Foster, was waving at him. The rest of the people there diverted their attention to him, even Bokuto and Hinata poked their heads around the door.
Well, thanks for nothing.
Sakusa hated attention, and people loved to give him the attention he didn’t want. The murmurs began when he walked toward the coach. He could hear them, the group on the benches, talking about how bad it was to have him there.
“People say he is an enigma…” one muttered.
“He can pose a danger to us.”
“There are a lot of teams, why did he have to choose this?”
Sakusa ignored them, as much as he could. The coach smiled at him when they were face to face.
“It’s nice to have you here,” the coach said. “I’m going to introduce you to the team and then one of them will show you the gym when we finish the practice.”
“It will not be necessary…” he wanted to say, but the coach called the entire team to group together and form a horizontal line in front of him.
“Team, he is Sakusa Kiyoomi. Our new teammate. He will join the wing spiker position to help Bokuto, but maybe he will surprise us with some unexpected talent that I don’t know about.” Sakusa made his typical courtesy bow that he had so memorized. “Any volunteers to show him the facilities once the practice is over?”
Nobody said anything. He noticed they were anxious, moving their foot repeatedly to let their nerves escape. Bokuto seemed to be as calm as ever they met, perhaps even excited. Hinata gave him a warm smile as his eyes passed over the omega. Of course, he could be calm. Being marked meant that no one would dare touch him. Not without terrible consequences. And, then there was Miya Atsumu…
“Me” Miya replied. The whole team looked in his direction.
“Miya…” one tried to warn him.
“What?”
The guy didn’t respond immediately, perhaps out of respect since Sakusa was there. Miya turned around to look at him and frowned.
“You don’t have to do it…”
“I know that.”
“I mean, Miya, he is…” Miya raised his eyebrows.
“Oh…” he laughed. “Is that why you are so restless? Just because he is an enigma?”
They gave him a fleeting glance until they diverted it to their sneakers. Sakusa grimaced under his mask, if there was any lucky guy who didn’t know about his condition, now everyone did.
Fuck the coach for calling him out. Fuck Miya Atsumu for…
“I can’t believe all of you were that childish. Especially you, captain,” he pointed to the guy who tried to warn him. “All of those stories about enigmas… they are just another form of exclusion. There are alphas, as Bokuto and I are, their pheromones are stronger, but they are not more dangerous than us. The legends are not true, for God’s sake, nothing is going to happen to you for talking and training with him.”
“Yeah!” Bokuto agreed. “What the fuck is an enigma, by the way?”
“Sakusa-san was an amazing player when he was at Itachiyama. He was the ace, so he can play any position” Hinata added.
Something felt strange inside his chest, like an enormous pressure that was suffocating him. No one had ever defended him because it was easier to keep quiet. And this… just seemed wrong.
“I am not here to make friends. I just want to play volleyball,” Sakusa spoke for the first time in a while. “Even if the legends were true, it would take more than my presence to cause any kind of harm to you. My pheromones are effectively suppressed thanks to the special medicine I take every day, so no one will be in contact with them. Right now, I am no more dangerous than a beta. And I repeat, even if someone was in contact with them, even if the quantity was immense… an enigma could only transform an alpha or a beta into an omega if there was a connection between both parts. Something I don’t have in mind. I don’t believe my words are of much use, since everyone believes what they want to believe, but I only want to ask for a calm environment for everyone.”
“Guys,” the coach said. “I think you owe him an apology.”
“There’s no need. I’m used to it.”
Nobody spoke.
“Mm… Sakusa-san!” Hinata intervened, approaching the young man with dark, curly hair. The omega grabbed his arm. “Let’s think of a quick attack that we can do together,” He suggested, pulling him toward the court.
Sakusa would have hated any contact if it were any other situation, but there was nothing more uncomfortable than the silence that had formed after his speech. Even if he wasn’t sure Hinata had washed his hands, he let him drag him away without saying anything.
“Can I call you Omi-san?” the red-haired guy asked.
“Yeah! Omi-kun is a good nickname.” Bokuto followed them, placing his arm over Sakusa’s shoulders. Too much contact at once.
“Omi… what?”
Sakusa turned to find Miya talking with the captain of the team alone. He pursed his lips through the mask. He had never held alphas and betas in high regard, even if his parents were alphas. If Sakusa had to choose, he would have always preferred omegas, just like his cousin, Komori. At least they weren’t afraid of being turned into something they already were… and they treated him like a normal alpha.
Miya noticed Sakusa’s gaze, returning it to him for longer than considered normal. He, finally, winked at him amusingly. Sakusa growled silently.
Just another stupid alpha showing that he was more than the betas who were afraid of him, but… he had to admit that his speech hadn’t been that bad. He was sure that it would be the first and last time that he would be grateful to Miya Atsumu.