Chapter Text
Three days.
It’d been three days and Noya was still gone.
Suga had told him not to worry, that Noya was probably sick or something, which only ended up making Asahi worry more. Daichi told him to concentrate on practice, which was something Asahi was finding very difficult to do.
Noya was never one to miss practice, even when he was sick. The boy even wore a mask throughout practice as to make sure not to get anyone else sick. He played through bruises and sore joints, on lack of sleep due to midterms and finals, even on a empty stomach on the days he skipped lunch to squeeze in a bit more practice. Noya was unstoppable when it came to him and playing volleyball.
So the fact that he had missed three days of practice planted unease inside Asahi’s stomach.
It was enough to throw off his game to the point where Coach Ukai noticed. When he called for a practice game, he called for Asahi to sit this one out, leaving the rest of the team to play five on five. Ukai gave him a pat on the shoulder and a side glance before returning his concentration to the rest of the team, leaving Asahi to slide down the wall and sit, where he watched without seeing. His teammates moved, but he couldn’t say who did what, or even who was on each team. His mind was elsewhere.
After several minutes of squeaking shoes and loud voices, Asahi closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, hoping to gain clear thought. He took in all the smells, noting each scent his teammates emitted.
Karasuno was one of the few teams in the in the league that was primarily built of betas, which Asahi was fairly thankful for. They only had a few alphas, and even fewer omegas, so the team as a whole didn’t let off an immense territorial presence as other teams did when they were built out of an army of alphas. The betas barely produced any scent, while the omegas were very good at hiding it, which just left the alphas, who tended to keep theirs in check. The only time it ever overly leaked was when Tanaka would get too excited about something, or when Daichi had to scold everyone when they wouldn’t shut up. Honestly, if any outsider approached their team, they’d have an incredibly hard time picking out everyone’s status, or simply assume the team was built entirely of betas. Either way, their team was a rare breed compared to neighboring schools, and Asahi liked it just the way it was.
The smell of a certain beta approached him, so Asahi opened his eyes. Takeda stared back at him. Asahi suddenly sat up straighter.
“S-sensei.”
The advisor smiled kindly at him. “Azumane, if you’re not feeling too well, you can go change if you wish.”
“I-I shouldn’t leave early,” Asahi mumbled, scratching the base of his head, bumping his hair bun slightly. “That wouldn’t be fair to the others …”
“It’s fine,” said Ukai, causing both the boy and the teacher to look his way. His eyes remained glued to the court. “Go home. You’re not doing much sitting there anyway.”
Asahi lowered his head slightly, thinning his lips as the older alpha spoke. He found it pointless to fight, so he nodded and rose to leave silently. Takada wished him a good weekend as Asahi left the building.
He hated confrontation, which went against everything that Asahi was supposed to be. He was one of the very few alphas on the team, but he never acted like one. He constantly hid his scent, he never fought for dominance in any fight, he wasn’t supposed to ever step down and let others walk all over him, but that’s exactly what he did. The tropes that came with being an alpha where forced upon him as soon as he hit puberty like a sack of bricks. It was apparent to everyone around him as he towered over others, scaring others off with just his very presence. It wasn’t anything he ever wanted. When others recognized him as an alpha, they either cowered before him or saw him as a leader and thrusted responsibility onto him, looking up to him, expecting things from him. He was put on a pedestal that he never wanted to be on. His very personality was exactly the opposite of what an alpha was seen as to the rest of the world.
As he got older, he would hide his scent as much as possible, to the point where other alphas tend to shun him for his weak demeanor. He was an alpha, yet he acted like a beta, which left him in a grey hazy area between classes, leaving him to receive odd looks from both parties, and no where to hide from hushed judgements.
Asahi quickly changed and swung his bag over his shoulder before heading down the steps and past the open gym door to give one last look at his team before he went home for the weekend. He appreciated his team more than they realized. With them, his status seemed to disappear and they all were equals. Especially with Noya.
Noya.
Right.
He walked home looking at the ground with his fists shoved deep into his pockets, hiding his hands as fingers worried into calloused palms while he thought. He partly wished he could remember where the boy lived so he could go check up on him, but he wasn’t a hundred precent sure where that was and was too afraid to knock on doors until he found the correct one. However, even if he did know where exactly it was, it would probably be rude of him to drop by unannounced to begin with. Perhaps he should call his house when Asahi gets home, or is that equally as rude? He’d have to look up the house number in the phonebook though. How many Nishinoyas would be in there though? What if there were a dozen of them?! He couldn’t just call them all, could he?!
Asahi stopped dead in his tracks. Wait a second… he dropped his bag to the cement and hastily dug through it, finding what he was looking for - his phone. He flipped it open and scrolled down the contacts and let out a disbelieved laugh as he saw Nishinoya Yuu pop up on the screen. He had forgotten the libero had stolen his phone from him last year, shortly upon joining the volleyball club, and programmed himself in there. Asahi had never needed to contact him before, since they saw each other every practice, but right now, the alpha was incredibly thankful Noya stole his phone that day.
He was about to hit the call button, when he stopped himself. Was that too forward, just calling him out of the blue? What if he really was sick and was trying to sleep? Calling him would just wake him up. The brunet drummed his fingers against the phone for a moment before settling on the idea of sending him a message instead. That way, it won’t wake him up, and he can respond when he’s up to it. It was short and simple, but Asahi couldn't’ really think of anything to say, so he left it at that and hit send.
As he walked home, he kept his phone in his hand, waiting for a response. It made no noise the rest of the walk home. There was no new messages when he got out of the shower, nor after supper. It did not go off once as he worked on his homework, nor laid in bed in the dark, staring at the harsh light of his phone.
The seed of unease in his stomach blossomed tenfold.