#Hinata was supposed to be taller!!!??

[kaiijo]

ROMANCE TROPES — [HAIKYUU]

characters: hinata shoyo, miya atsumu, bokuto koutarou, sakusa kiyoomi content: gn! reader, the msby four, rich sakusa (i am a rich sakusa truther until the end), bokuto picks you up, sakusa is implied to be taller than you notes: omg i lowkey want to do a fuller version of sakusa’s part 

hinata shoyo ✶ love at first sight

slouched in a plastic airport seat, hinata’s leg bounces anxiously as he awaits his flight. rain beats down the side of the windows and he prays to whatever universal force there is that the flight leaves at the right time. he couldn’t fly with everyone else earlier since he celebrated his grandmother’s birthday with family but it put him on a late night flight that lined up with an incoming storm. 

he scrolls mindlessly through his social media feed, double-tapping a photo of oikawa’s reunion with his high school team and tanaka’s anniversary post for kiyoko. 

the speaker system crackles to life. “attention, passengers of flight 7644 to sapporo, due to inclement weather conditions, the flight has been delayed an estimated two hours. we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”

hinata curses under his breath, already on his way to pulling up the black jackals’s group chat to tell them. he pulls his cap off, running a hand through his hair with a long sigh. his phone begins to buzz with texts, no doubt from his coach telling him to keep them updated. 

he rests his forearms on his knees, slumping forward and skimming through the messages. then, he feels a cautious tap on his shoulder and a soft voice asks, “excuse me, do you have a charger i could use?”

when he looks up, hinata thinks the greater powers that be answered a different prayer of his. because holy shit he has never seen anyone as beautiful as you. you’re in a comfy-looking pullover and sweatpants and hinata only realizes he’s just been staring silently for a few seconds when your expression turns apologetic. “i’m sorry to bother you, i’ll ask someone else!”

“no, no, i’m sorry,” he says, words tumbling out of his mouth. he scrambles to unzip his backpack, rummaging through until he triumphantly pulls out his charger. he hands it to you and you thank him. before you can leave, he blurts out, “i’m hinata.”

“oh!” you stick your hand out and tell him your name with a small smile and when you do, hinata knows that he’s gone. 

miya atsumu ✶ brother’s best friend

osamu’s not sure how atsumu managed to weasel his way into his plans. it was a bit of a blur, atsumu practically crashing through the door of onigiri miya as osamu closed up shop to go get drinks with you, begging to be included. he supposes to reason was pity and atsumu’s pleading look as well as the fact that you work far away that had him agreeing to his brother tagging along. 

it was in your last year of high school that osamu figured out his brother had a big, fat crush on you. honestly, it should have been more obvious, especially with the way atsumu flaunted himself and often paraded around the house shirtless when he knew you were coming over. it bothered him at first, thinking bitterly that ‘tsumu couldn’t let him just have one thing to himself? but over time, the annoyance faded as he saw atsumu prove that this wasn’t just a flight-of-fancy, and osamu has already made peace with the very real possibility that you could be his in-law someday. that is, is atsumu could even tell you in the first place.

it’s a little disturbing, osamu thinks, watching the way atsumu flirts with you and wondering if he too makes the same googly-eyes at someone he’s crushing on or if that’s the way he sounds. you giggle when atsumu tries to take a sip of your margarita, telling him, “order your own then, ‘tsumu!”

“nah, yours tastes way better.”

“can’t take this scrub anywhere,” osamu says, earning a laugh from you and a glare from his twin.

you pat atsumu’s shoulder and osamu can’t believe you don’t feel how atsumu melts into your touch. “i’m actually glad both of you are here,” you say, “because i wanted to tell you guys that i’m moving back to tokyo! my boss promoted me so i’m back at main headquarters! isn’t that great?”

“that’s awesome,” osamu says, speaking for both himself and atsumu, who looks like he just won the lottery. 

bokuto koutarou ✶ opposites attract

whenever akaashi introduces you and bokuto as a couple to new people, he always gets pulled over to the side and asked in a whisper, “how did those two get together? he’s so… and they’re less…” 

akaashi can’t say that he wasn’t surprised when you and bokuto started dating back in high school, given that they two of you were on very different trajectories. obviously, bokuto was the captain of fukurodani’s volleyball team while you were student council president and vice-president of chess club. bokuto’s grade sat at the lower end of the spectrum while you were always within the top five students in your class. bokuto liked loud, screaming parties while you preferred a quiet night with a few friends. 

so when bokuto grabbed him by the shoulders one day and shook him, saying that he needed to tell you how he felt, akaashi was taken off-guarded. he didn’t even know you knew each other beyond having a mutual friend, him. 

maybe back then, akaashi would have agreed with the person asking him but now, he just tells them to observe the two of you. because when akaashi does, everything falls into place. like right now, as he and bokuto sit in the stands, watching your final chess match. if you win, you’ll hold onto your spot as a national champion and go on to compete internationally. 

out of the corner of his eyes, akaashi watches as bokuto sits at the very edge of his seat, chewing on his bottom lip. it’s clearly killing him not to cheer and it’s a testament to both his devotion to you. your hand hovers above the bishop before you switch quickly to the queen and move the piece with confidence, setting it down and announcing, “checkmate.”

the crowds erupts into the cheers and you’ve only barely finished shaking your opponent’s hand when bokuto flies out of his seat and barrels towards you. he sweeps you off your feet, spinning you once and setting you down before planting a big kiss on your cheek. you’re beaming as you’re handing your trophy, and bokuto steps back to let you soak up your spotlight. akaashi can’t help but notice that bokuto is beaming too and clapping the loudest. 

as the crowd starts to disperse, akaashi and bokuto join you again, ready to take you to your planned dinner. before you leave, bokuto says, “i was going to do this later but i can’t hold it in anymore, babe.” and he gets down on one knee with a ring box akaashi is all-too familiar with. 

sakusa kiyoomi ✶ reunited childhood sweethearts 

“try not to look so dour, sweetheart,” sakusa’s mother tells him as she fixes his tie. sakusa wants to grumble some choice words but he knows better than to complain to her. besides, he’s only partially paying attention, eyes darting about the crowd and back towards the venue’s entrance. 

he settles on adjusting his mask with a barely audible sigh and mumbles a quiet thanks as she flits to fuss over his older siblings. he glances again, disappointed as a different group of people waltzes in. he knows his older sister wouldn’t be so cruel as to lie to him that your family will be in attendance but the anxiety is making his antsy.

the two of you were inseparable as children with you being one of his only friends growing up.  you spent you days squirreled away in some nook reading or outside playing volleyball. your mothers always cooed that you two would get together one day, and as he got older and learned what that really meant, sakusa found himself hoping too. but then your parents took you and your siblings abroad, leaving him alone and heartbroken. he cut you off, hoping the distances and time would make your departure hurt less, but it didn’t.

sakusa doesn’t recognize the voice that calls his name but his head snaps towards the doorway. you’re standing in between your older sister and younger brother, waving at him. his heart skips a beat. your social media postings don’t do you enough justice; you’re even more attractive that the pixels he’s spent hours staring at. 

you still have that ever-present smile on your face and you quickly break-off from your family to bound over to him. without even thinking, his arms close around you as you embrace him tightly. you feel so familiar and he doesn’t want to let you go as you part. evidently, you don’t either as you keep him close still, only leaning away to look at him. “you’re so tall,” you laugh, more shyly you add, “and very handsome.”

this time, sakusa thinks his heart stops. 

[lcvemiyuki]

“cliche romance tropes” | hq

𓂃𓂃𓂃𓊝 ࿐𓂃𓂃𓂃

content: haikyuu boys as cliche romance tropes

warnings: none

characters: various

a/n: my first ever writing ahhh ><

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

second chance at romance

your relationship was set; but, the future you planned and excitedly anticipated fell apart as you two grew up. when work got in the way of your relationship, you knew you couldn’t compete with his ambition. years passed and fate decided to bring both of you together. you were the one who got away. the rain patters off of him as he kneels on both knees in front of you. when a chance occurs to win you back he would do anything at all costs. anything.

⤷ kageyama, oikawa, ushijima

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

childhood friends to lovers

your families are intertwined and have been invited to every dinner, birthday party, and playdate since you were in diapers. secrets and pinky promises were shared as you guys grew up. being strictly platonic was the plan for you, but as you guys sat knee-to-knee with shared earbuds, your eyes trailed to him. you begin to notice things like how his hair falls perfectly or how he finally grew taller than you. what was happening? he knows everything about you, even more than yourself and maybe that's why you're falling. hard.

⤷ sugawara, daichi, hinata, goshiki, yamaguchi

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

enemies to lovers

his eye twitched as you entered the room. something about you made him all tense and hot. could it be how you stole the spotlight every time you entered a room or the way you always tried to one-up him? he despised you. the dark glares you cast his way and backtalk countered towards you. your very existence pissed him off. but the most annoying thing about you was how much you occupied his mind. how could you sit there and let that guy steal a smile off you? what’s so funny for you to laugh?

⤷ oikawa, tsukishima, atsumu, shirabu, semi, kageyama

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

best friend's older brother

you were always seen as his sister’s best friend. the one who hung out at his house regularly and ate all the food in their fridge. sure you guys butt heads and annoy each other, but it’s all in good fun. you were always going to him for relationship advice and he would shrug you off with the worst advice and ruffling your hair. but this time it was different; with tears in your eyes and scrunched eyebrows his chest tightened. his arms enclosed your figure and tried to soothe you in the best way possible. nobody deserved you, not even him.

⤷ iwaizumi, osamu, kuroo, kita, daichi

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

fake relationship

the golden boy was loved by everyone and their moms. the type to make everyone’s head turn and instantly attract. but you didn’t want him, you wanted his friend. you struck a deal with the golden boy and thought a fake relationship would get you closer to your target. to your surprise he agreed; the holding hands and sweet whispers of nothing in his ear were all fake. the love letters he would put in your locker and excuses to hang out with you were all to make it believable…or did he only agree to this deal because he wanted to get closer to you all along? he’s determined to make you realize his feelings for you are real.

⤷ oikawa, bokuto, atsumu, kuroo

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

opposites attract

have you ever heard of a magnetic pull? when two completely different people, who you would think make no sense, complete each other. you were chaos, a force to be reckoned with and he only watched you, cool and collected. he’s supposed to find you annoying, but surprisingly…you don’t. maybe he likes the way you fill the atmosphere with so much life. you bring out the best in him and even score a smile if lucky. sometimes people don’t have answers for how it works, because it just does. he wouldn’t want anyone else other than you.

⤷ kenma, suna, akaashi, kita, sakusa

𓇼𓆉𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆉𓇼

love at first sight

he never really understood the concept of love. maybe it was because he never was in a relationship or had that feeling of connection with someone else. that was until he ran into you for the first time. maybe it was fate you both weren’t looking where you were going and crashed into each other; all he knew is that he couldn’t thank the universe enough. what was this feeling? his vision was a little hazy, but his mind was clear. he had to at least know your name before you get the chance to run away.

⤷ hinata, nishinoya, aone, tanaka, tendou, bokuto, asahi

[hqbaby]

twenty-seven — knowing

fuck ur instincts — suna x reader & atsumu x reader

you and suna are just fooling around—so why does he care so much when you start falling in love with someone else?

previous — masterlist — next

word count. 1.4k content. swearing, slight violence

“What the fuck is happening?” Oikawa demands, dropping his bags as he runs to the center of the gym. Everyone is gathered around something and it all seems to be in absolute chaos. “Do we have another rat?”

Aran yelps as someone hits him hard and forces him to stumble backwards. “For fuck’s sake! Ya need to stop!”

“Who?” Oikawa asks, trying to peer over his taller teammates that are standing in a bunch before him. His answer comes before anyone even bothers to tell him.

“What the fuck is wrong with ya?” Atsumu. Booming. “Why the fuck would ya say that?”

Your best friend finally gets past the crowd and sees it. Sees them: Atsumu being held back by Sakusa, a black eye clearly on its way, and Suna in Bokuto’s grasp, nose bleeding profusely—it’s probably broken or just terribly fucked.

Suna just smirks. “You’re scared.”

“What the fuck would I be scared of? You?” Atsumu laughs. “Ya wish.”

The other boy rolls his eyes. “You think she doesn’t love you,” he says. “And it’s killing you, isn’t you?”

At that, the blond breaks free from Sakusa and pounces. It doesn’t take long before someone else is pulling him back, but he manages to get a few hits in. Suna’s lip ends up busted like you wouldn’t believe.

“Let me go!” Atsumu yells at Hinata as the younger boy pulls him back. “Fuckin’ let me go!”

“What are you going to do?” Yaku asks loudly, shaking his head in disappointment. “Kill him? Fuck’s sake, man, calm down.”

But Atsumu’s not listening, still trying to lunge forward. “Ya had yer chance.” He seethes. “And ya fucked up. So back the fuck off!”

Oikawa decides that he’s had enough of this. It’s all so pathetic. He marches forward and places himself in the space between the two boys, glaring at both of them.

“What did you do?” he asks Suna.

“Nothing.”

Suddenly, your best friend’s hands are on his collar, hard eyes on his. “What did you do?”

Suna swallows thickly. He looks away. “I told her that I love her.”

“Asshole!” Atsumu yells. “Like a fuckin’ asshole!”

OIkawa throws Suna back and jabs his finger into his chest. “You fucked up,” he says, voice low, before he turns on his heel and walks away, storming towards the gym doors. He glares at Atsumu. “And you need to stop!”

“Where are ya goin’?” Aran asks as the boy passes by.

“To fix the mess they made.”

He finds you on Iwaizumi’s bed, drowning in a mix of your friends’ clothes and slurping away at a bowl of instant noodles. You have a sheet mask on and your hair is tucked away from your face with a bubble headband.

“Want some?” you hold the giant bowl out towards your best friend. When you notice the sour look on his face, you frown. “What’s wrong?”

Oikawa can’t help but laugh. “I should be asking you that question.”

You click your tongue. “I heard about the fight,” you say. “Bokuto texted me. And Sakusa. And Hinata. They were mostly confused about the whole situation.”

He plops onto the bed beside you and groans. “This is what I warned you about.”

You shove him. “You didn’t even know about any of this,” you say. “You just didn’t want me to fuck your teammates.”

“I already told you that was so not the point.”

“Right, sure.” You shovel a bunch of noodles into your mouth, your mind falling into deep thought as you chew. “Tooru?”

He hums. "Yeah?"

“When did love get so complicated?”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

You put the bowl down on the bedside table and proceed to wriggle beneath the sheets, pointedly bumping against Oikawa as you do. He protests, you ignore him, things are just the way they’re supposed to be.

“I wish we could be kids again,” you say when you’ve finally made yourself comfortable. “It was so much easier.”

Oikawa leans against the headboard and places a hand in your hair, gently stroking the top of your head. “Eh. It was okay.”

You take his other hand and study it, turning it over and running your fingers over the lines and the callouses and the scars you know all too well. “Do you remember when I told you that I loved you?” you ask. “That one summer, when I fell—”

“—into the lake and told your mom that I pushed you in,” he supplies, smiling at the memory. He refused to talk to you for a whole day after that and—for two kids that had grown up attached at the hip—a day was a real long time. “Yeah, I remember.”

You hum, intertwining your fingers with his. “I was so sure,” you tell him. “I knew I loved you. I knew I’d love you forever.”

He rests his cheek on top of your head. “I loved you too. Still do.”

You squeeze his hand, he squeezes back. There’s a comfortable silence between the two of you, the kind that you’ve been practicing your whole lives. You weren’t lying back then, when you told Suna that you didn’t remember what love felt like. But, as you lie there with your best friend, holding his hand in yours, you just know. You’ve always known.

The bedroom door creaks as it opens.

“Everything good here?” Iwaizumi asks, popping his head in before stepping into the room. He feigns a look of shock. “Were you eating on my bed?”

You hold your hands up innocently. “You gave me the food!”

Rolling his eyes, he launches himself onto the bed beside Oikawa, reaching over to place a hand on your arm. “Boys suck,” he tells you.

“I suck.”

“We all suck,” Oikawa chimes in.

“Amen to that.” Iwaizumi chuckles. “What were you guys talking about?”

“How much she loves me.”

“Hey!” You slap his thigh. “He loves me too, just so you know.”

The other boy looks at Oikawa with a softness in his gaze, one that no one else has or ever will be graced with. “What about me?”

Your best friend places a kiss on his cheek. “I love you too,” he says. “More than you can imagine.”

Iwaizumi reaches up and places a kiss on Oikawa’s lips. It’s soft and simple, but true.

That’s love, you think to yourself. That’s all it’s ever been.

Ayame hasn’t spoken to Suna in three days. Ever since they went on that trip with you and your friends, he’s been completely ignoring her. On the first day, she figured something must have happened. On the second day, she knew what it was.

Rumors spread quickly. People heard about Suna and Atsumu’s fight in the gym and filled the blanks in on their own.

The public consensus is that you and Suna cheated on Atsumu and Ayame with each other. That, sometime after midterms, you must have slept together. A few people say that you and Atsumu were already on the outs when it happened, others say that the two of you were happy—you’re just too much of a slut to stick to one guy.

Ayame knows the truth. She’s put the pieces together and she knows that Suna told you about his feelings for you. In all honesty, she’s impressed.

She would normally ignore the gossip, what with it being slanderous nonsense made by people with nothing better to do with their time—but this time, she’s involved. This time, there are rumors going around about her.

Most people are on “her side.” They feel bad for her, she’s just a victim in all of this. How could she have known that her boyfriend would do such a thing? 

There are a few people though that aren’t as convinced. What did she expect? She goes out with one of the most notorious fuckboys on campus and she thinks he’ll be faithful? Maybe she likes the feeling of being pushed aside. Maybe she likes being a victim. Maybe she’s doing this all for attention.

Her friends tell her to just ignore what those people are saying. They aren’t worth it anyway.

But Suna’s still not picking up. And her lab partner ditched her. And even her professors seem to know what’s going on. It’s all getting a little too loud.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Ayame glances at the door. Is someone really knocking—

Tap. Tap. Tap.

She stands up from her bed and reaches for the knob. Her roommate’s not supposed to be home so soon. Could it be one of her friends? Her roommate’s boyfriend? Suna?

She opens the door.

You.

“Hi.” You’re standing at her door with a sheepish smile. “I thought you might need this,” you say, holding out a bottle of wine. “Can I come in?”

[kotton-kandy953]

━ 𝙻𝚄𝙲𝙺𝚈 𝙼𝙴

➛ yandere!nagito k. x fem!reader

title page┆word count: 714┆warnings: none┆a/n: not thoroughly proofread btw. the prologue can be skipped if you do not want to read it. I only wrote it for context reasons !

❝ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ, ɪ'ᴍ ᴏʙꜱᴇꜱꜱᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜ ❞

╰⋯➤ saccharine — jazmin bean

PROLOGUE ━ SCHOOL TRIP ?

⤷ 𝖄𝖔𝖚

were completely shocked by the information just dumped onto you and the 16 other students.

For context reasons, I have to explain what has happened in the last few hours.

Today was supposed to be your first day of School at Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate High-school level Digital Artist.

But to everyone's dismay, some pink stuffed bunny named "Usami," who proclaimed to be your teacher, explained that you and a bunch of high schoolers you've never met are forced to go an a "heart-throbbing school trip" in this strange tropical paradise.

After she finished explaining that you all needed to collect hope fragments and get along, everyone just went their separate ways, you included.

You were about to go into the lobby of the hotel when a hand suddenly rested on your shoulder. You let out a sigh before turning around.

There were two taller males standing in front of you. One was skinner with pale, almost white skin. He had white hair and tips that faded into a pale brown.

The other had tanner skin, green eyes and spiky short hair. He was the last person to enter the classroom earlier.

"U- uh... hi...?" You asked awkwardly, not really wanting to indulge in conversation at the moment.

The white haired male smiled, "Sorry to bother you... L/n, is it?"

How did he-

"I'm Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student. I know, a worthless talent, huh? I won't blame you if you ever forgot it"

His brown haired companion awkwardly broke the weird tension Nagito had put in the atmosphere.

"I'm Hajime Hinata, nice to meet you." He cleared his throat, "And I don't really... remeber my talent..." he trailed off.

"It's okay if you don't remember it, a lot has happened in the past hour." You smiled reassuringly, making Hajime smile back.

But Nagito smiled even bigger, "I should've known you'd say something like that! As expected from such a hopeful Ultimate as yourself!"

"Uh... thanks? I’m Y/n L/n, the Ultimate Digital Artist.”

After that... odd... conversation with the two, Usami suddenly came onto the nearest monitor and announced to everyone that they needed to go to the beach.

"Are you going, L/n?" Hajime asked after glancing over at Nagito.

"Do we really have a choice?" You responded.

Once the bathing suits were distributed and your classmates started to get in the water, you stood by Hajime, who also didn't want to join the others.

"You're not going with them?" You asked curiously.

He shook his head, "No, I don't want to..."

That was until he heard Usami's "encouraging" words and ran to go get a swimsuit.

Then, you were alone.

"Maybe I should—" before you could finish your thought, the sky grew grey with dark storm clouds. And the monitors blinked on and a strange, laidback, high-pitched voice rang out.

"Mic check... mic check... can you hear me?" Everyone froze at the strange change of atmosphere.

"Now then, sorry to keep you all waiting for so long. Let's leave all this worthless entertainment behind...

It's time for the main attraction! You guys better hustle over to Jabberwock Park!"

And that's what you all did, despite their oddly playful voice, it has a very threatening undertone that sent a shiver down your spine.

Once at said park, a half-white half-black stuffed bear appeared out of the blue and became know as "Monokuma" in a rather... extravagant way.

Next, the stuffed bear quite literally violated Usami and transformed her into Monomi, his "younger sister."

Then finally, he explained to you all that one must get away with murder to leave the island.

When he began listing the many ways to end a person's life, you froze in fear and shock.

'M- murder...?' you thought, no, there's no way this is real...

Noticing your unease, Nagito made his way over to you and rested his hand onto your shoulder. He gave you a smile that was supposed to calm your nerves but it only did the opposite.

“Don’t touch me, please.”

back to title page┆proceed to chapter one┆partially proofread

[hoperenae]

Turning Heads (a Haikyuu fanfic by hoperenae)

PREVIOUS — SERIES MASTERLIST — NEXT

PART 19- Not Enough

For once in my life, I desperately wanted to be wrong. I wanted it to be someone else’s boyfriend sitting on a bench next to another girl, flirtatiously flipping his hair across his face. I stood there for a minute, making sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me.

I felt everything all at once. Anger, sadness, frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, confusion. I wanted to cry and scream and cry some more.

Then, he glanced over in my direction while laughing. When his eyes landed on me, he waved. Like nothing was wrong. My face was blank as I turned around and walked away, back to the bus stop. I had come here to fix things, to voice my thoughts and feelings and get him to change, but now I knew the truth. Things would never change.

“Arya-san!” he called out after me. I kept my tear-filled eyes forward, trying to ignore him. “Arya, wait up!” He caught up to me and grabbed my arm, spinning me around to face him. When he saw my expression, he frowned.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he cooed, his sweet brown eyes only making my heart ache more.

“I gotta go,” I said, my voice cracking on the last syllable. I tried to shrug out of his grasp but he held onto me. It wasn’t aggressive, just firm. He looked as confused as I felt.

“Hey, talk to me. Please.” He slid his hand down so that he was holding my hand now. I avoided his eyes, fixating on my shoes.

“It’s nothing,” I muttered.

“It’s clearly not nothing,” he said, sounding a little irritated now.

“I don’t wanna talk about it, okay?” I replied, starting to get frustrated myself. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?

“Is it something I did?” he asked.

“It’s nothing new,” I mumbled. I thought he hadn’t heard me, but then he released my hand and stepped back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he folded his arms across his chest.

“Look, I don’t wanna get into this right now. Can I just go home?”

“Not until you tell me why you’re upset with me.” His feet were firmly planted on the ground. Clearly, he wasn’t letting this go.

“Who is she?” I asked, shoving my hands in my jacket pockets.

“Who?” he asked. Then, he understood. “That girl back there? She’s just someone from school.”

“Another fangirl, I expect,” I snapped.

“I thought we talked about this,” he began, placing his hands on his hips now. “You know they mean nothing to me. You mean everything.”

“Sure didn’t look that way to me,” I spat. Then, seeing his face fall, I continued. “Toruu, I know you love me, but that doesn’t make this any easier. You’re constantly surrounded by girls who are prettier than me, taller than me, more confident than me. It’s hard to feel special when I see you with them.”

“But you are special,” he said quietly, his eyes were filled with a sadness that was unbecoming of him.

“I’m sorry, I just..I don’t know what to do anymore.” I shuffled uncomfortably back and forth on my feet. I knew what was coming next, and I had a feeling he did too. But that didn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. “It’s just that…I’m only a first-year. I have a lot going on right now with volleyball and school and stuff. I just don’t know if I have time for—”

“Don’t say it,” he blurted before I could continue. “I know what you’re going to say, but please don’t. We can do this. We can make this work.”

“Toruu, I–”

“Arya, I love you so much. We’re happy. Aren’t you happy?”

“Please stop.” My eyes were a lake, the dam about to burst. If I spoke one more word, it would all be over.

“Don’t you love me?” He looked into my eyes, his own beginning to fill with tears. I wanted to give up, give in to him, let him pull me into his arms and tell me everything was going to be ok. But then I thought back to my conversation with Hinata a few days ago, the strength I felt from his confession and from mine. I had to say something. I had to put us out of our misery, bury us before we could come back to life, a ghost of what we used to be.

“Love is not enough.”

Message me or comment if you want to be added to the taglist!

Taglist: @lemurzsquad @bokuroibi

[kiljoius-writes]

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Ao3 | FFN

Pairing: Hinata Hyūga/Sasuke Uchiha

Summary: Ever since Hinata could remember, she’s had one, consistent dream, and it’s always the same.

Word Count: 5.5k

Rating: T

So uh...me and someone else from the SH server wrote stories dedicated to the prolific commenter g.o.d, kissmyass, guest, and their many other aliases where they tell the author to gfkyasap, Ashley. So this goes out to you, g.o.d, from all the Ashley's out there that don't write SasuSaku! :)

On this blessed holiday of April Fool's, this story is dedicated to the prolific commenter by many names: g.o.d, kissmyass, Guest, and their favorite person in the world: Ashley!

I hope you enjoy :)

If you want to read another SasuHina fic dedicated to our lovely troll, my friend Lea (who you may know already from SHIBARI or Our Lovely Agreement) wrote something hilarious and cracky: The Cult of Ash. Go check it out!

Ever since Hinata could remember, she’s had one, consistent dream, and it’s always the same.

It started just a few days after the Hyūga affair.

The first night she was able to adequately rest her eyes and fall into slumber, that’s when it first occurred.

It starts off with her looking through her own eyes. At the time, she was taller, a lot taller. Tall enough to reach on top of the fridge, even. It was a strange sensation for the longest time until she hit her growth spurt shortly after the chūnin exams. Then, she found she was the exact correct height, and she realized, she had been dreaming all along from her adult body’s perspective.

She’s in a kitchen, and she can smell cookies. She guesses that they’re chocolate chip because the sweet scent of cocoa fills her senses. Always, there’s a little origami bird sitting on the bookshelf to her left, and she always spends a good few seconds looking at it. Then, she hears a very cute squeal from her right, and what appears to be a mini-Hinata crashes into her side and she’s being hugged by the tiny girl. Hinata’s not sure she’s ever felt anything beyond fear or shock in her dreams, but this is the one dream she always feels…heat. Warmth, blooming in her chest.

The girl speaks a mile a minute at her, but she can never make out the words. Her body turns to the girl and she sees her hand reach out to pet the little girl's dark hair, so much like her own that she can only assume this must be her daughter. Pieces of the dream become clearer as she grows older, and by the time she’s an adult, the little girl has pearly eyes just like hers, and she knows she’s dreaming of what her daughter might look like.

Always, the girl blows her a kiss, then bolts away. Her vision follows the girl as the backdoor of the kitchen leading to the backyard flies open, and the girl goes tumbling into the grass. Another sound comes in the form of a deep laugh, and her eyes shift to the window showcasing the backyard. The same image every time: that little look-alike being hoisted up by a taller girl, with an even taller, shadowy figure behind them. The taller girl has jet-black hair and jet-black eyes to match, with thick-rimmed glasses on.

At first, she couldn’t tell if this girl was supposed to be related to her in some way but reasoned she couldn’t be. Her eyes didn’t match hers, and for a while, there was always something so…peculiar about them. She couldn’t quite tell what it was exactly, but she would always turn away and her eyes would flash, but before she could see what they became, she turned. At first, she thought they might be turning pearly, to activate the byakugan, and this was her older daughter.

But once the war concluded and the dream started becoming clearer and clearer, she could finally see it. Those eyes are turning red, and she can see the distinct pattern of tomoe. The sharingan.

This was…Sasuke’s daughter? The revelation struck her like…like Sasuke’s Chidori. She was having a dream about her own daughter, as well as Sasuke’s daughter. Still, the shadowy figure remained unrevealed.

Perhaps she was dreaming of her life with Naruto. An adorable little daughter, and sometimes his best friend’s daughter coming to train with Naruto. That would make sense because the dream always ended the same. The shadowy figure ushers the two girls back inside to join her, and they run off to get washed up, she assumes, and the figure comes right in front of her. They always wrap one comforting arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head.

Again, Hinata didn’t often feel things outside of anxiety from her dreams. And again, this was the one dream that the warmth in her chest would turn to fire, make her beating heart quicken, the butterflies in her stomach oh so real—and then she’d wake up.

Every time.

Today is no different.

Needless to say, interacting with Sasuke since she came to the revelation that she was having dreams about having a daughter that interacts with his daughter…was awkward.

Which is why she’s suddenly dreading the mission she has coming up. With Sasuke. Because last night was the first time she’d had the dream in a few months. She actually hadn’t thought about it much since then, and now the image of a little Hinata look-a-like and a little Sasuke look-a-like were burned into her brain.

“Hyūga.”

Hinata snaps back to reality and is greeted, nose to nose, with Sasuke Uchiha.

“I apologize,” she squeaks out, taking a step backward. She tries to blink away the image of red-rimmed glasses and red eyes. She shakes her head, locks of hair coming in front of her face, and she clears her throat. “Shall we?”

“If you’re done daydreaming.”

Hinata swallows at the phrasing but pushes forward with a nod.

It’s a fairly standard mission they’re on. She’d never imagine she’d be missioning with Sasuke as often as she does now, but here she is. They’re often paired for important delivery missions to other nations. Sasuke carries a scroll that can only be deciphered by the sharingan, thus he writes Kakashi’s message down, they take it to the respective Kage, he writes their message down, and he returns and deciphers it for Kakashi. Rinse, repeat. Hinata’s here to check for strong chakra networks. Kakashi still holds an understandable amount of suspicion for the other nations and likes to ensure they’re not hiding any great power, so Hinata’s sent to ensure everything remains clear.

Today, they’re going to the Sand, and thus, their travel is thankfully shorter than normal. Three days to get there, three days to return.

It’s not that she doesn’t like being around Sasuke. He’s actually sort of pleasant, once you get passed the rough exterior and the mumbled, short responses. She likes being around him more than a good few other people, it’s just the…awkwardness of it all when she has these dreams. Of course, he’s clueless about it, and on more than one occasion, she’s been tempted to reveal the dream to him, if only to have someone to talk to about it. Always, she manages to pull back and realize that no, that would make it about one hundred and ninety-five percent more awkward if she did that, and she never has.

Time crawls a little slower as she’s stuck in her mind, but soon, the sun is setting, and Sasuke stops. Thankfully, she’s got her wits about her a little better now that she’s had time to come down from the initial shock of the dream, and she notices and stops with him. He turns to her and tilts his head. “You’re quieter than normal today.”

She forces a smile up at him. “Isn’t that how you like it?”

That little thump of her heart hits a little harder against her chest when he chuckles and smirks at her. It’s a kinder version of his face she doesn’t see often; she only ever sees it when they’re alone together. She’s not sure what to make of that, but she’s pleased she’s good enough company not to earn a scowl. “Sometimes. I do get bored, though.”

“You do?” she asks, teasingly, feeling a little more at ease now.

“Don’t act so surprised,” he teases back and the thump of her heart hits a little harder. She resists the urge to place her hand over her heart in an effort to make it quieter as if he’d be able to hear it. “We can stop here for the night.”

“Alright,” she agrees, nodding as she lets her pack fall off her shoulders.

“What’d you pack us today?”

Hinata blinks in disbelief. Sasuke doesn’t look at her as he gets to work unraveling the tent. Trying to stop the tiny tremble in her voice, she clears her throat. “Why do you assume I packed us both something?”

That little chuckle leaves him again. That thump of her heart hits a little harder. “At this point, I’d be shocked if you hadn’t.”

“That’s a little presumptuous of you,” she tries to come across lighthearted as she comes to stand next to him, helping him with the tent. Even if he is Sasuke Uchiha, doing these fine motor tasks were a little harder with one hand.

“Trying to keep me on my toes, Hyūga?” She looks up to see him looking down at her, that taunting smile on his lips. She finds it hard not to return. “Besides, you already revealed yourself.”

“How do you figure?” she decides to question, plugging one end of the aluminum pole into its slot.

“You knew what I was talking about right away.”

Hinata pauses with a smile on her lips. She decides not to respond, and instead shakes out the rest of the tent and finishes putting it together while he stands back, watching her. After she’s done, she goes back to her pack and fishes out two containers. When she hears him snicker, she lets a little laugh go, too.

“Onigiri, chips, tomato,” she tells him, opening the lid of one and then setting it in his waiting hand. “Simplicity today.”

“Hmph,” he huffs lightly as he lowers himself to sit on the ground. The air is warm, and their food is preprepared for the night, so they don’t start a campfire tonight. “Feeling lazy today, I see.”

“Oh, stop,” she laughs. She doesn’t give herself time to wonder how she became so comfortable around Sasuke to banter like this. “I may have overslept…just a tad.”

Really, she had been frazzled this morning from the dream. She had overslept and then proceeded to lay in bed while staring at the ceiling for far too long, trying to figure out what it all meant. He responds, “as long as there’s tomato.”

She smiles at that. He sets the container in his lap, and she watches him pick up the pair of chopsticks. The urge to help him is almost completely gone, but she still feels it in the back of her mind. On their first mission together, post-war, she had taught him how to snap chopsticks apart with one hand after watching him bite one chopstick and pull the other with his hand. She kept helping him for several more missions until he perfected it, and he breaks them apart easily in front of her.

They eat quietly together as usual and fall into their usual routine. She gets to sleep first while he keeps watch, and halfway through the night, he’ll rouse her to swap.

When she awakens, she’s relieved at the realization she hadn’t had the dream. It didn’t stop her from thinking about it, but at least it wasn’t so vivid in her mind now.

The next two days of travel proceed as normal, and Hinata feels normal again. She’s pleased for it.

Business proceeds as usual, Hinata keeps her byakugan active for the entirety of their visit with the Kazekage and Sasuke disappears into a room with him to exchange messages. It’s only a short while before he rejoins her, and they’re off to the regular inn they normally stay at when they come here. It’s their only opportunity to rest in a real bed for their travel, so she always likes to take advantage of it.

Before they can exit the Kazekage’s building, a Sand shinobi stops them.

“Hey! Sorry, before you guys leave, Lord Kazekage wanted me to inform you that all of our inns are completely booked.”

Hinata deflates. “They are?”

“Afraid so,” the man continues, gesturing out towards the village, “tomorrow’s the Wind festival, lot of outside tourists came and filled all the rooms.”

Sasuke clicks his tongue. “Disappointing. I enjoy the baths at the Ryukyu.”

“I apologize.” The man bows his head, then turns to lift his arm towards the interior of the building. “However, Lord Kazekage would like to offer you the guest room. We still have one available.”

“One?” Hinata questions with a frown. The man nods and she looks up at Sasuke.

“Does it have as nice a bath?” Sasuke asks, pointedly. The man smiles with another nod. “Very well.”

“B-but—” She’s unable to get the thought out as the man begins eagerly guiding them through the halls, and Sasuke’s left her behind. With a sigh, she jogs to catch up. He reveals the room, and her grimace deepens at the sight of just one bed. “One bed?”

“Again, I apologize,” the man responds, bowing his head again, “I’ll fetch a cot.”

“A cot,” Sasuke scoffs as the man bolts away.

Hinata stands in the doorway, unable to move even as Sasuke enters.

After a moment, he looks over his shoulder at her with a pointed brow. “Waiting for something, Hyūga?”

“It’s just—” she starts, then bites her bottom lip as she looks around. “It’s rather intimate, don’t you think?”

“Sleeping?” he questions without humor. “I suppose for you it might be.”

“To…together? In one room?” she continues, waving her hand towards the room.

He snickers quietly. “I’m going to bathe.”

Hinata clasps her hands over her heart as Sasuke sets his pack next to the entryway, then disappears into the bathroom.

Sharing a bedroom isn’t new to Hinata, necessarily. Team 8 had shared a bedroom plenty of times—but Kiba and Shino were two people she considered as close to brothers as one could get. Sharing a bedroom with Sasuke…she wasn’t even quite sure why it was filling her with such anxiety. She reasoned it must be the dream.

The man returns with a sizeable cot and bids her farewell. She gets to work setting it up, having already decided she would take it because she can already hear Sasuke grumbling about how uncomfortable it would be. Another thing she’d learned about him in their travels is that he’s actually kind of a prima donna. He was very meticulous about their campsite and the material his sleeping rolls were made out of. Always, always needed a pillow with a cashmere case, a sleeping mask, and a heavy blanket. One time, after he’d rolled his ankle on a mission, she’d offered to carry his pack for him and was immediately met with what must have been 25 kg worth of weight.

Hinata’s not surprised when Sasuke takes an extra long time in the bath. Though they’ve never shared a hotel room before, it seems pretty on-brand for Sasuke to take longer than average freshening up. So, she runs down to the café downstairs to pick them up something to eat. At this point, she knows what he prefers, gets him a roasted turkey sandwich and soda, herself a cinnamon roll, and iced tea. When she returns, he’s out of the bathroom and already setting up the bed. She tries not to freeze at the sight of him bare-chested.

He looks over his shoulder and she hopes her cheeks aren’t too pink. “Thoughtful of you.”

“We haven’t eaten…” she says, quietly, setting the paper bag on the little table. She rubs her palms together as he looks back at the bed, then continues, “I think I’ll wash up, too.”

“You should,” he calls back to her and she smiles, slightly, “you stink.”

“Excuse you!” The laugh leaves her involuntarily and she rubs her forehead, shaking her head. She hears that chuckle from him again, though he doesn’t respond, and she excuses herself with a pair of sweats and a shirt.

By the time she comes back out, she finds the cot not where she left it. She frowns at the spot it’s supposed to be, then looks up at Sasuke, who is leaning over the vanity to inspect himself in the mirror. She steps behind him and raises an eyebrow at his reflection, and his eyes meet hers. “What?”

“Where is the cot?” she questions, folding her arms.

“I’m not sleeping on that thing.” She’s about to interrupt him, but he cuts her off while looking at the bed in the reflection, “and you shouldn’t have to, either. The bed is big enough for both of us.”

She bites her lips together and scrunches her eyebrows in concern. His eyes meet hers in the mirror again and a little smirk tugs at the corner of his lips. “It’s not about whether it’s big enough, you know.”

“Then what is it?” He turns from the mirror to look down at her, and she’s met with his bare chest again. She curses the heat rushing to her cheeks. “Repulsed by me?”

“No!” she responds immediately, waving her hands in front of her face. “It’s just—it’s rather…”

“Intimate?” he finishes for her, tilting his head so a lock of hair falls over his eye. She resists the urge to reach up and brush it away. “As I said, we’re just sleeping. Team Taka shared beds all the time.”

For some reason, the image of Sasuke laying in a bed with Karin stirs something in Hinata. Then she also envisions Jūgo and Suigetsu and it quells whatever it was in her gut. She has little time to think about just what it was that was stirred because he’s already settling into the bed.

Hinata wishes sometimes that Sasuke wasn’t so clueless. That’s the only way she can explain why he was doing this, is that he was clueless to human emotion, to her discomfort. No rational person just puts away the only other sleeping apparatus and expects the other person to be okay with it. Especially her, of all people! It’s embarrassing, but she’ll admit she’s fainted in uncomfortable situations before, and this is very uncomfortable.

She drags out eating her cinnamon roll, then huffs in slight annoyance when he shuts off the light to leave her in the darkness halfway through her meal. A few moments later, she finishes and lets out an anxious sigh as she pads her way over to the bed.

“Finally getting over yourself?” She hears him whisper, and she chooses not to respond, instead crawls under the hotel issue blanket he left for her and keeps her body right on the edge of the bed.

Falling asleep isn’t easy, but Sasuke doesn’t make noise or move too much in his sleep, so she eventually is able to slumber.

She’s had the dream so many times, she’s able to tell instantaneously when she’s dreaming when it occurs, like when people can lucid dream. It’s not something she practiced or anything, it’s just such a common occurrence, she’s able to gain some sort of sentience. She can never control what happens in the dream, just knows she’s in the dream when it happens. And of course, it would happen when Sasuke is sharing a bed with her.

Patiently, she waits for herself to wake up. She quit resisting the dream a long time ago. The smell of cookies, the origami bird, the little girl crashing into her, the warmth in her chest, the other little girl outside, and the shadowy figure. All muffled voices and blurry images. The girls come back inside, the shadowy figures following behind, and as always, he stops in front of her. She looks up at him, feels her mouth turn into a wide smile, and…

Jet-black eyes like the taller girls meet hers.

“Sasuke?!”

Her entire body is cold with sweat, her chest heaves, her face feels hot. She activates her byakugan out of instinct to enemy attack, but this is no enemy attack. This is her own brain messing with her.

In the darkness, she sees Sasuke’s network, the outline of his body propped up on his elbow, probably looking at her.

“What about me?” She hears him ask.

Did she verbally yell out his name? That wasn’t in the dream?

“Sasuke,” she breathes out, turning to him, though she can’t see his face as she deactivates her dōjutsu. Her fists curl into the blanket around her lap as she debates with herself. She knows if she tells him that it’s nothing, he’ll drop it. Sasuke’s never been one to care enough to push others to reveal what troubles them. But now—how can she keep avoiding this? When he hums at her to continue, she breathes in, then out. “Sasuke, do you ever…dream?”

She knows it’s a dumb question, but she doesn’t know how to word what it is she wants to ask him.

Do you ever dream of your future life with a family? Does it ever include two little girls? Does it ever include me?

“That’s an odd question.”

She sighs and hangs her head. Her eyes squint when light enters her vision. She sees him lean back over after turning on the lamp, and now he’s looking directly at her. For some reason, she feels compelled to keep his gaze. “Do you…ever dream about the future?”

She watches him suck in his cheek as he tilts his head. He brings his hand up to rub at his chin, and she’s holding her breath awaiting his response. “Sometimes.”

“What does it look like?”

“…Is this some sort of deep dive into my psyche, or…?”

“No.” She shakes her head, pulls her hands up to her face to cover it. “Never mind. Forget it.”

“You dreamt about me.” She feels her heart beat a little quicker. “I don’t think I’ll just be able to let that go.”

“It—it was nothing.” She keeps her face covered because she knows she’s now burning brighter than the sun. “Please, let’s forget about it.”

“If you say so.”

They return to bed without another word, and Hinata lays awake for the rest of the night.

The next morning, they still don’t speak.

Great, now she’s managed to make things awkward.

Sasuke wants to take off immediately, but Hinata keeps him back so they can give a respectful goodbye to the Kazekage and his council, their gratitude for putting them up. Gaara offers for them to remain a little longer to enjoy the Wind Festival, but Hinata is the one that quickly, though politely declines the offer. Sasuke looks a little surprised when she does but doesn’t question her further, which she appreciates. Spending more time with Sasuke than necessary would probably spell disaster for her.

That didn’t stop the Sand villagers from beckoning them for their attention—people running the carnival games, vendors selling sweets and flowers, a little old woman at an origami stand who sends a little bird flying towards them. She stops and watches Sasuke hold out his hand, and the paper bird lands in it.

“Sasuke?” she questions, quietly as he observes the bird. She sees chakra emit from his palm, and the bird lifts into the air again. Her eyes follow as it flies over her before landing gently on top of her head. Her eyes cross as she looks up towards her forehead, not wanting to lift her head to knock it down.

“Keep it,” he says to her, nodding his head upwards. She reaches up to grasp it from the top of her head and pulls it in front of her face.

Then it strikes her.

Her mind flashes through the dream, the beginning part, and now she realizes the origami bird on the bookshelf is this exact one. Made with purple construction paper, with a long, pointed beak, and wide wings.

“It can’t…” she mumbles without realizing, her fingers closing around it.

They leave the Sand village moments later, Sasuke having apparently chosen not to comment on her strange behavior. The entire walk, she’s had it balancing in the palms of her hands, just staring at it.

“I’m tired of this.”

She stops when he does and tears her eyes from the bird to look at him. He’s pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes shut. She hums innocently, not wanting to ask him what he means.

“The dream?” His hand drops and his eyes pop open to meet hers. “You’re going to have to tell me about it.”

“Why would you care?”

“You yelled my name in the middle of the night.”

The blush, again, is unwelcome at the turn of phrase.

He notices immediately, too, which is why he keeps teasing her. “Yeah, not something I thought I would be saying out loud to you, either.”

“Out loud?” she decides to tease him back as a distraction. “So, it’s something you’ve thought in your head?”

Sasuke shrugs. “Maybe.”

Hinata’s struggling because she’s getting incredibly mixed signals, now. “That—uhm—”

“The dream.”

He steps towards her and plucks the bird from her hands, then holds it up between them. She sighs out, squeezes her eyes shut. “I’ve had a dream-the same dream for as long as I can remember…it’s always the same.”

Sasuke is silent, and it’s because he’s analyzing her words. She opens her eyes to see his locked on her face, flitting back and forth over it. Then his face softens, and she already knows it’s because he’s realized the implication of what she’s just said.

She’s been dreaming of Sasuke for years.

“I’m an adult in it…and I have…a family. A…a daughter.”

He remains quiet and her heart feels like it’s going to burst.

“I can smell cookies, and I can…see a paper bird. One that’s just like…”

“This one?”

She bites her lips together and nods.

“How do I fit in?”

The inevitable question. “There’s another little girl…she’s outside, and she’s got…eyes like yours.”

More silence.

“The sharingan. And there’s a man with her…and I didn’t realize until last night that it…it’s you.”

Hinata wishes she could vanish. Just poof—into thin air, let the wind carry her far, far away into the upper atmosphere.

“You asked if I dream about the future.”

The words feel heavier than they should.

“I do.”

If she was confused before, she’s downright baffled when he turns on his heel and begins trekking away with the bird in hand.

Because Hinata’s not one to push for confrontation, she accepts that this is where the conversation ends.

By the time they reach the Leaf, they’ve spoken little more than simple greetings and coordinating their travels.

And that’s where they left it. Hinata tried to reason that he simply had no opinion on her strange dream. Sasuke rarely offered others his thoughts and feelings, now should be no different. So, she proceeds with her day-to-day as normal, trying not to dwell on it. Even if it causes her to cringe inwardly every time she thinks about it.

Unfortunately, the dream returns a few weeks later. And this time, she can see Sasuke. She can see everything in painful clarity. The deep purple-blue of the littler girl's hair and her pearlescent eyes. The shine of the older girl's jet black hair and her round, obsidian eyes. Sasuke standing with her, directing her in what she assumes to be training, with shuriken. The smell of cookies is stronger, and the little bird mocks her. He’d kept it after their mission was over.

Her senses are overwhelmed this time. She can feel the coolness of the wood under the pads of her feet, can feel the warm air pushing in from the backyard as the girls come inside, can feel Sasuke’s arm around her shoulders. She can feel the plush of his lips as he presses a kiss to the top of her head.

And for the first time, she can hear him. His voice is deeper in his chest, and his words sit between them.

She can’t make out the words he says but can make out one thing.

Sarada

Today, she finds a quiet spot by the lake.

She lays in the grass with her body completely outstretched, staring up at the clear sky, wishing there were some clouds to help distract her mind. But instead of distraction, she’s about to be pushed face forward into her inner turmoil. She feels something land on her stomach.

“There are no clouds to watch.”

Her fingers curl into the grass beneath her as her eyes dart down to her stomach, coming face to face with the paper bird.

“You should give it a name.”

Hinata swallows as Sasuke approaches her at her feet, then promptly sits down in a lotus position. Carefully, she pulls her elbows back and props herself up, reaches out to grasp the paper bird in her fingers. She looks back up at him, and the word leaves her dumbly, “what?”

“The bird. I told you to keep it. You should name it.”

Hinata ponders this briefly, pulling the bird up to her eyes. She blinks, deciding to test these waters. “What…what about Sarada?”

She eyes him carefully for his reaction, and his eyebrows twitch just ever so slightly. “Really? Sarada?”

“You…uhm, you don’t like it?” she asks, softly.

“I thought maybe you would have liked something more your family's speed,” he responds, his tone cool. “Something with the sun. Like, say, Himawari.”

She freezes.

Her mind floods with thoughts of her mother, and the sunflowers she took pride in, in the Hyūga gardens. Then, that little girl crosses in, her bright face, the way the tufts of her hair curl outwards, her sunny demeanor.

“Sasuke—” she stutters out, sitting completely upright, “Sasuke, do you—”

“There’s a great big patch of sunflowers out east,” he interjects, looking that way, “saw them on my way back from the Mist. I thought of you.”

Hinata's mouth feels dry as she tries to assemble a response. “You thought of me?”

Without responding, he gets back to his feet. He reaches down towards her, and she instinctively lifts a hand as if he’s offering her help but feels embarrassment pang at her when he instead plucks the bird from her stomach. She brings the hand to her face in some attempt to make it look like she was wiping at her nose and hears him snicker.

He holds the bird towards her and takes it in her hand. With his hand now free, he opens his fingers in offering, and she nods, taking it. He hoists her to her feet and she stares up at him, wondering where this is going.

“Let’s go,” he nudges his head, “see the sunflowers.”

Hinata bites her lip, looking out east. “But the sun is setting?”

“Flowers under the sunset are…pretty.” She smiles at the way he hesitates. “So…come with me.”

“This sounds…something like a date, Sasuke,” she ventures the statement in a bold move, tilting her head at him. When his eyes squint, her smile widens. “A sunset walk through flowers is kind of romantic, don’t you think?”

“Doesn’t have to be,” he scoffs, eyes shifting away, “but I guess it could be.”

Hinata pauses, running her tongue over her teeth as she waits for more, but doesn’t get it. So she nods. “I’d like that.”

They walk side by side outside of the Leaf village, and when she feels Sasuke’s knuckles brush against hers, Hinata feels that thump of her heart hit her chest even harder. She opens her hand and his slides into it, and she realizes it fits perfectly with hers.

“So…” he breathes out, quietly, “what will you name it?”

Hinata holds the little bird up to her eyes and purses her lips, thinking.

“I think I’ll name it…”

She thinks of the image of a kind woman she met once out in the Cloud village. She was bright, bubbly, and completely obsessed with manga and anime. There were a certain two characters in an older anime that, while they had no interactions within the story, she was enthusiastically shipping. She only remembered it because she was just such a die-hard fan, her bag had cute little chibi versions of the characters on it.

Her eccentricity struck Hinata, but that wasn’t why she was thinking of her now. She remembered the little parrot she had off to the side, who always had something snarky to say about cults and frequently demanded chicken. She remembered the girl laughing it off and introducing the little bird, whom she called a ‘birb’ in a quirky way. And she remembered the name of the little bird…

“I think I’ll name it…”

Hinata smiled, looking up at Sasuke.

“Ashley.”

[loopyarts]

Tutoring the most hated boy in school

Notes sorry if it a bit messy and rushed I did all the writing in day on the spot, because I wanted to something fun for dr rare pair week despite founding out about it last minute. (Although I am two days late mostly because I’m not the fastest when comes to editing or fixing gammer ha ha…) Anyway enjoy the this short Teruhina fic and the artwork despite it clunkiness in places. The prompt used is day 3 studying/shopping. 

Hajime grumbled to himself as he somehow got roped into helping Teruteru fucking Hanamura the perverted and hated boy in school with his homework by Chiaki as much as he loves her, sometimes wonder to himself just how much was he willing to do for his best friend/crush. He signed to himself come on Hajime, it just a short perverted classmate what possibly go wrong” he knock on the chef door.

The door opened to reveal a quite short yet plump darker brunette with the biggest catlike smirk on his rather rosy chubby cheeks “well, well” he cooed looking up at the taller reserve student “I know Chiaki said that you were cute but she didn’t say you such a hottie”. His eyes sparkled at Hajime as if he had just won the lottery. “My name is Teruteru Hanamura by the way but your probably already you knew that” he flicked his hair slightly before batting his eyes at the dumb founded brunette  “so, what your name mr handsome?” 

“Uh, I’m Hajime Hinata and I’m here to tutor you for a bit as favour to a friend” Hajime grumbled in disgust by the gazing but remained calm it only two hours and only have be for a day. As he entered the chef room which surprisely was rather tidy and neat although the pin up posters around bed  and the hidden starch of naughty magazines, dirty manga and playboys made it was his room.

They sat down on the table on side of his room, Hajime ignored the peppy rosy cheeked boy as he unpacked the papers and books they be studies for next two hours together from his bag. It was quiet for a bit until Teruteru spoke up, tapping his fingers on the table.

“So, what are learning today Senpai” Eyeing up at Hajime who placing the homework’s papers and some study books down, focusing on the task.

“We start off by working on math” said Hajime looking at math books and paper readying the erasers, pencils and pens. Teruteru nodded picking up a pencil and began to start writing down some math formulas.

…

Half an hour few by, Teruteru yawned slightly math was just so easy, so easy in fact that he had almost finished all the homework that need to be done for this week. he then wondered how Hajime was doing who was supposed to tutoring him to see him struggling to understand certain aspects of roots. Teruteru expression soften as he put a hand on the book that Hajime was reading and push it down to reveal the spiky hair boy face with tears of frustration on corner of his eyes. This made the chef ego melt slightly, as he talked in a gentler yet still slightly cheeky voice.

“Would like me to help you Senpai?” He offered placing his pencil on a some black paper “I know you supported to be teaching me, but I’m actually pretty at math if I do say so myself” he smiled at surprised the brunette who expressed dumbfoundedness 

“But I suppose to be the tutor….” Before Hajime could say anything else he was hushed by the chef who open up his own math book.

No worries, you can help me with something else later” Teruteru grins at Hajime which made the spikes haired boy worries with all the rumours surrounding Teruteru he couldn’t help be worry what that something was.

Strangely, Teruteru was actually a pretty good teacher when it came to math. Treating it like the measuring parts of a recipe, it made Hajime kinda enjoy learning math and it made it look so easy. Wait… was he actually enjoying his time with Teruteru Hanamura!? the most hated boy in school. They even began to chat to each other casually as they wrote things down; although most the rosy cheek boy conversation were about relationships or sex but Hajime was most interested when he would talk about his passion for cooking and surprisingly he was quite the gardener saying he home grows most of his ingredients he uses in his cooking. Time flew by like a breeze, until they had finished the math homework.

“And that about does it” said Teruteru as he putting away his homework and the math book, Hajime nodded following suit as he put away the math homework and book in his bag. He looked up to the grinning chef all no he thought was does perverted boy want from him now, he began sweat bullets fearing the worse as the brunette pulled his chair closing towards hajime.

They stood still for a bit awkwardly before the chef spoke in a somewhat nervous voice while fidgeting with his fingers in his chair.

“A-Are you any good at English, Senpai, no Hajime?”

“Yeah, Why do you ask” questioned Hajime who looked puzzled by Teruteru question. Teruteru puffed up his cheeks “Look I found the English language hard, mostly because… I struggle to understand the language of the text, it so different to compared to Japanese” He then sided eyed Hajime with an annoyed look.

“You know English, is teach in most schools right and how can you not even know the basics of the English language” 

Teruteru bit his lip as he stuttered out to Hajime “I-I wasn’t Taught English at my school” his eyes widened as he gasped covering his month at what he had said in front of hazel eyed boy who face was shock by this.

Hajime looked the now embarrassed Teruteru who looked on break of tears as his whole body shivered. Hajime went into his bag to get an Japanese to English book from it. He patted the chubby boy shoulder “hey, it no big deal alright” beamed Hajime as he opened the language book “I’m supposed to be your tutor for a day after all”. This made Teruteru looked at Hajime with flushed cheeks as he giggled at his ‘tutor’ who need help at math, only just an hour ago.

…

For the rest of afternoon Teruteru and Hajime practiced learning how to speak and write English, while it took some time for Teruteru to get hang of basic English sentences. Hajime supposed him the whole way even cracking some bad joke in English which made Teruteru cringe yet laugh at the same time. Even as they read the book together the rosy cheeked boy felt his heart swell in his chest, he gazed at taller boy for a bit, he never felt so warm and fuzzy inside, not even when hitting all the other guys and gals, no Hajime felt special to him.

“Right, that should about covers it for today” said Hajime as he checked his phone for the time to see it close to evening already, he spent almost all whole afternoon with the chef despite only needing to be here for two hours. He shook his head as he packed his things while Teruteru help me clean things up.

“Yeah, it getting pretty late, unless you want keep me company in my bed for the night he he” joked Teruteru in a flirty manner as he put the book in Hajime bag. Hajime rolled his eyes at him standing up and putting his bag on his shoulders as Teruteru escorted him to the door to open it. 

As Hajime stay by open doorway “so, do wanna hang some more?” He asked the darker brunette who answered him rather shyly.

“S-sure, uh why don’t we you know, go out for ice cream tomorrow” his turning red as his mind went dizzy there was no way this handsome boy would actually say yes…

“Sure” answered Hajime as began to walked down the hallway he stopped turning back towards the chef “Hey Teruteru, uh thanks for helping me with today despite that I suppose to be tutoring you” Hajime laughed slightly before giving a genuine smile “you’re not half bad for the ‘worst boy in school’ after saying that he continued walking down the hallway as Teruteru shut the door behind.

He then collapsed into the floor, leaning his back on the door as look up smiling at the ceiling “not half bad hey,” he chuckled softly to himself before getting up to lay down on his bed closing his eyes he daydreamed of tomorrow hanging out with Hajime and enjoying ice cream together on nice hot summer day.  

[estasticvanni]

//Angst <

AtsuHina\\

“I hate his guts and yours too.”

Atsumu and Hinata were laying in bed,They both were upset,Atsumu was so sure Hinata wanted Kageyama and not him whilst Hinata was upset that Atsumu viewed him as unloyal.

“Just admit it,Ya want him and not me.”Atsumu spoke,Hinata had the urge to argue back but he didn’t,He knew he wanted Atsumu.

“Yer even being all quiet. I’ve hit gold,haven’t I?”Atsumu kept at it,He was jealous as hell,The way the duo talked,looked at eachother..Hell even the way they hugged looked fucking intimate,to Atsumu at least.

Hinata sighed and snuggled under the sheets,He didn’t want to argue anymore,He just hoped Atsumu would wake up from his untrue delusions and apologize.

“Yer so stupid yknow. What the hell does that stupid guy have over me?!”Atsumu was getting upset,He wanted Hinata to argue,He wanted to know Hinata cared.

Hinata was already asleep though,Atsumu had leaned over to check. He cursed under his breath,his lover was sleeping when they were supposed to be arguing right now. Atsumu groaned as he got out of bed,What’s the point in lying in bed with that twat..That’s what Atsumu thought.

He yawned as he made his way into the living room,This was Hinata’s house but still,having pictures of that dark haired setter upset Atsumu,It should be him not that bastard,Atsumu actually decided to get rid of the pictures.

He took em down one by one,looking at each with disgust”That bastard..”Atsumu quickly threw the picture in his hand into the basement which made a clattering noise but he could careless.

Walking around//2:00 PM

Atsumu and Hinata decided to take a walk together,Hinata didn’t wanna bicker and prayed Kageyama didn’t show up out of any where, whilst Atsumu damned it all to hell,He swore he would’ve kept Hinata home if he didn’t love him as much as he did.

“Come on Atsu~ I see a food stand over there!” Hinata smiled at Atsumu,The blond smirked and kissed Hinata’s cheek,They were getting along.

Hinata chuckled and and blushed,The duo heard a few footsteps in their direction,It was Kageyama,He was jogging apparently

“Boke!” Kageyama shouted whilst walking up to the two,Atsumu turned away so he could curse the setter to death,Hinata sighed with his usual annoyed face “What are you doing here Bakayama?” “Jogging duh! Are you brain dead?!”

Hinata pouted and tried to kick the taller male,in which Kageyama had Hinata in a head lock while ruffling his hair “Lemme go Bakayama! You jerk”Atsumu watched with intensive disinteres and disgust,He and Hinata were supposed to be together alone.

He ultimately walked off,pissed the hell off but Hinata didn’t notice since he was goofing off with his old setter”You’re just a Tsukishima 2.0 now!””Pft I’m way better than that guy! I’m king!””Bakayama Bakayama!” The two continued goofing off until Hinata realized Atsumu was gone.

“Eh..? Where’d he go..?”Hinata looked around frantically”Probably went to go je-“ Hinata pinched Kageyama”Don’t talk about him like that!” Kageyama only sighed “Okay I won’t talk about your setter~”

Hinata’s house//2:54 PM

Hinata had finally made it back,He closed the door loudly,making it known he was there. Atsumu sat on the couch,he was pissed off,what the hell did those two do? did they do it? did they kiss? What the fuck did he do with my boyfriend is what Atsumu thought.

“Atsumu! You didn’t have to-“ Atsumu cut Hinata off. “Shut the hell up.” Hinata was taken aback at Atsumu’s sudden aggression “You love that asshole,don’t you?”Hinata was upset,He didn’t want this to start again. “Atsu-“ Cut off again. Atsumu got up from the couch and stepped towards Hinata with hostility,stopping when he was in his boyfriend’s face “Didn’t I say shut the hell up?”Hinata was scared now,He didn’t wanna get hurt but Atsumu wouldn’t hit him right..?

“I’m tired of your shit,You probably fucked the bastard when I left huh?” Atsumu was grabbing Hinata’s chin now,forcing him to look at him when he spoke these foul words “You enjoyed,didn’t you? Fucking slut.” Hinata pushed Atsumu unexpectedly causing the blond to stumble backwards a bit “Atsumu! This is too much! You know i’m loyal! Why would I-“ Atsumu slapped Hinata across the face causing the ginger to collapse to the floor,Atsumu pulled Hinata by the collar “You little liar. You think I believe that bullshit?” Atsumu stared into Hinata watery eyes,He didn’t care if Hinata was crying,He needed to get his point across,He’s better,He’s everything Hinata wants not that lanky bastard.

Hinata looked at Atsumu with fear and betrayal,He hit him…He..actually did it,Hinata began screaming as Atsumu dragged Hinata to the bedroom.

“Plea-“ Atsumu threw Hinata aganist the wall,Hinata yelped in pain and cried as he laid on the floor “I was yours. You decided to play with that fucking good for nothing. Atsumu began kicking Hinata in the stomach,He was fueled by rage and jealousy,God this was the worst Atsumu has been..

Hinata coughed up blood before Atsumu stopped and spat on him from above.”We’re done,Don’t call me either. Fucking whore.” Atsumu walked out of the bedroom,slamming the door behind him,Hinata weeped and cried as he was bruised badly and couldn’t move

Hinata’s bedroom//3:20 PM

Hinata was sitting on his bed as Yamaguchi was patching him up,He didn’t call Kageyama,He never wanted to see Atsumu again after that nor Kageyama for being the reason he was beat.

“Hinata,stay with me for a while,I’ll help you move too” Yamaguchi suggested,He was worried Atsumu would come back for more,Hinata nodded while he sobbed a little. Yamaguchi finished patching Hinata up and hugged him,Hinata sobbed into his friend’s shoulder,How could Atsumu do this..?

//1:00 AM

Hinata was cooking dinner for himself until he heard the front door open,He looked up with fear,It was Atsumu. Atsumu looked at Hinata with disgust and walked off to take a shower,Hinata shuddered with every step Atsumu took.

Hinata just quickly took his food and went off to bed,Atsumu eventually got out of the shower and came to bed.He never said anything but he did kiss Hinata’s neck,Hinata shuddered at that as well,He was scared but he still loved this guy..

Atsumu got more intimate,before Hinata knew it he was lying on his back,gripping the sheets for what seemed like an eternity whilst Atsumu groaned from above.

//7:32 AM

Atsumu was still sleep,Hinata was sitting on the edge of the bed,Hinata felt the marks he’d been given last night,the marks of love but was it really..? Hinata enjoyed himself sure but was Atsumu just doing this to be forgiven..?No..Atsumu just wanted some fun.

Hinata weeped again,His cries weren’t quiet,He shivered as well while holding his undressed body. Eventually Atsumu woke up due to the noise and movement,He looked over and frowned.He was sorry,he’s just not good at showing it,maybe doing that wasnt a good idea..

Atsumu shifted over to Hinata and hugged him,Kissing his cheek and wiping his tears away “I’m sorry. I mean that,I was wrong.” Atsumu spoke while holding Hinata tight,Hinata only nodded,his tears withholding for the moment.

“All those words were lies,Sure I was pissed but you’re my world and I should’ve stopped being jealous a long time ago..” Atsumu buried his face into Hinata’s neck “I should’ve stopped once we got those rings..Truthfully I was insecure..and an fucker heh..Yknow I love you right..?” Hinata didn’t nod,He wasn’t sure anymore.

Atsumu sighed “You don’t have to forgive me,but atleast kiss me once.” Hinata moved slightly..He wanted to but he was confused but this.

Atsumu stopped hugging Hinata and shuffled back over to his place on the bed,Hinata looked back at him,his eyes were puffed up and his cheeks stained with dried tears,the same red mark Atsumu gave him was there.”I hate seeing you this way.” Atsumu said looking off,it’s true,He hated seeing the ginger not in his usual mood.

Hinata got back under the sheets,his back turned to sulking blonde.

“Do you love me?”

“I do.”

The answer was quick,too quick for Hinata’..

“I love you as much as I love volleyball even more than that actually,I love you too damn much.”

Hinata managed to sniffle and chuckle,Atsumu smiled as he brought the ginger closer to him

“I love you.” Atsumu went straight for Hinata’s lip,pressing his aganist the shorter male’s,Pling him closer..

Maybe they loved eachother more,Maybe? No it was definite.

Yooo back to back posting?!

Hahaaa Lemme stop!

Anyway,yknow the deal ignore my horrible grammar

See ya next time !

[kagehinafromtheconcrete]

afterglow || your hand in mine (fictober day 09)

fandom: haikyuu!! pairing: kagehina fic summary: Kageyama has learned a lot of things since befriending Hinata Shouyou. Things about Hinata, things about himself. How to open up. How to be vulnerable. How to love. And Hinata? Hinata learns more about Kageyama than he ever thought he would. First-year Kagehina/Hinakage drabble collection ft. the rest of Karasuno, written for sarahenany. Slowly working through the remaining Fictober 2022 prompts! fictober day 09: "sounds like 'you' problem" by @fictober-event ch summary: After practice one day, Hinata feels insecure about his size. This isn't unusual, but Kageyama says something that makes Hinata rethink his position on the court and his place on the team.

entire drabble below. :) find the whole collection: ao3 // tumblr

Hinata narrowed his eyes. “I… I can’t tell.”

Noya brought his face closer to their hands, squinting as well. He frowned in concentration. “I can’t… either. You know what that means, right, Shouyou?”

“What?”

“It means I win.”

“Whaaa?!” Hinata jerked his hand away, giving his upperclassman an offended look. “That’s not fair, Noya-san!”

“Of course it is.” Noya’s frown vanished and was replaced a second later with a toothy grin. “I have seniority!” 

“How does that make your hands bigger than mine?”

“Because seniority~” Noya sang as if it made perfect sense, even though it didn’t make any sense at all.

“Yeah, well,” Hinata began, scrambling to think. “Well, I’m still an inch taller than you!”

Noya gasped, now looking just as offended as Hinata felt. “Going for that single inch? Shouyou! You wound me.”

“Oh, knock it off, you two,” their captain said. “You’re supposed to be helping clean up! Did you forget your promise this morning?”

Noya slumped forward, and in a defeated voice: “To work with everyone to clean up for the event this evening.”

“And?”

“And that’s why practice ended early,” Hinata added with a sad sigh.

“Good.”

“You’re both short to me,” Tsukishima said suddenly.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what I’m known for these days.” Hinata rolled his eyes as he stood up to fulfill Daichi’s orders. “Nobody’s gonna let me live it down.”

“Sounds like a ‘you’ problem.”

“Don’t you worry, Shouyou,” Noya said, standing as well after giving Tsukishima a dirty look. He clapped Hinata on the back with enthusiasm, their argument now long forgotten. “I’m not giving up on you. We’ll always suffer together!”

Across the court, Tanaka burst into laughter. Despite this, Hinata smiled at his upperclassman, trying to remain in good spirits. “Thanks, Noya-san.”

Twenty minutes later, when they’d finished cleaning up and changed out of their practice clothes, Hinata walked in step with Kageyama like he usually did when practice concluded for the day. It was oddly quiet—but then again, it wasn’t unusual for Kageyama to stay silent while Hinata babbled away. This time, though, Hinata didn’t feel like talking, either.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Kageyama noticed.

“What’s with you?” 

“Hm?”

“You’re moping.”

“I’m not moping,” Hinata defended, giving him a heated look.

“Are too.”

“Hush it."

“It’s the hand thing, isn’t it?”

Hinata opened his mouth to deny it once more but then paused, irritated because Kageyama was right. And maybe that was stupid or made him seem childish, but he didn’t care—he’d always been self-conscious about his size, and while Noya didn’t seem particularly worried back in practice, it did bother Hinata, because, well…

He’d always thought it was cool that other players—Kageyama included—could hold a volleyball with one hand. Hinata hated that he couldn’t do it, himself. His hands just weren’t big enough.

 “Oi,” Kageyama said when Hinata remained silent. “What’s your deal? Why does that matter?”

It took Hinata a few moments to realize that he’d stopped walking, causing Kageyama to pause in his steps as well, only a foot or so ahead of him. 

“Shut up,” Hinata said sourly. He gripped his handlebars tightly, gazing at the pavement. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause you’re tall! Nobody picks on you for being short. Nobody would pick on you for having tiny hands.”

Kageyama didn’t respond, at first. Hinata risked a glance up at him to see why and found that Kageyama wasn’t even looking at him—instead, his eyes were locked on Hinata’s hands.

“Your size is actually your greatest weapon,” he said eventually. 

Hinata’s frown deepened. “I know. Volleyball is all about size. You don’t have to keep reminding me.”

“No, I mean, it’s your greatest weapon, personally,” Kageyama went on. “You’re short, so everyone looks at you and thinks, ‘This guy isn’t a threat.’ But you are. You’re the biggest threat we have.”

Hinata’s breath caught in his throat upon hearing the words, eyes blown wide. Something fluttered in his stomach—a sensation that he’d associated with Kageyama time and time again—and he thought, in the safety of his own mind:

How come you know exactly what to say to make me speechless?

“...oh.” A tiny, excited smile pulled at his lips. “You think that?”

“You’ve proved it, you idiot.”

“Me,” Hinata echoed, suddenly extremely giddy. “A threat. The biggest threat in Karasuno.”

“You still have a lot to learn,” Kageyama warned abruptly. "Don't let it go to your head."

“As if you have any room to say that to me.”

Hinata’s grin shifted into something less gleeful and more teasing as he spoke. Still, he couldn’t deny the joy that spread through him brought by Kageyama’s words. It was so strong that he wanted to take off on his bike with a celebratory cheer, and he was getting ready to do just that when something curled around his wrist.

Hinata froze. “Wh…”

He glanced down to check and yeah, that was Kageyama’s hand. When he lifted his gaze to give Kageyama a questioning look, Kageyama wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“S—” He stumbled, cheeks pink. “So, uh…”

“...Kageyama?”

“Don’t. Um.”

Hinata blinked, waiting.

“Just don’t let it bother you,” Kageyama finally spat out. “It’s—it’s not like it has to be a bad thing.”

It took him a few moments to realize that Kageyama was trying to reassure him. It was… almost funny how Kageyama could say something that would stick with him for a long time without even trying, but when he actually put the effort into cheering him up, he didn’t know how.

Once again, Hinata’s smile changed. Grew softer. Sweeter. His wrist felt warm underneath Kageyama’s fingers, and slowly, experimentally, he moved his hand to touch Kageyama’s.

Unlike Noya’s, Kageyama’s hand was much larger than his own. He rested his palm against Kageyama’s, lining up their fingers, and for once, the size difference didn’t bother him.

He... kind of liked it.

“Alright,” he said softly, with that same smile. Kept their hands pressed together. Found the warmth to be pleasant. He didn’t pull away.

Neither did Kageyama.

[eohascats]

Koi No Yokan

(n.) the premonition of falling in love

"Tsukishima-kun, who's your favorite setter?"

Story rating: E / Chapter rating: T (cross-posted to AO3)

tags: canonverse AU, Fukurodani Tsukishima, Fukurodani Yamaguchi

Chapter 3

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

“You’ve worked with a few setters, right, Tsukishima-senpai? Who’s your favorite?” The fresh-faced first-year spiker was standing next to him during warm-ups, nearly vibrating at the prospect of the training camp ahead. Kei, a veteran of the team at this point, was thinking more about he overate at breakfast.

“Anahori,” he answered. It wasn’t necessarily the truth — though not exactly a lie, either — but with his teammate within ear-shot, even Kei had the social graces to know it was the only acceptable answer. The setter perked up, a small smile on his face, confirming Kei’s intuition.

“Even though you’ve worked with Kageyama-san? Yamaguchi-senpai told me you practiced with him all of last-year’s training camp!”

Kei shot a glare at the aforementioned ‘Yamaguchi-senpai’, now captain of their team and apparently more of a gossip than Kei had realized.

“Kageyama’s good, sure, but we didn’t do anything more than spiking practice.”

And kiss — once, disastrously — but that was neither here nor there. Kageyama had run out of the gym that night and Kei didn’t see him again until Spring Nationals. And ‘see’ was all he did — in their singular near-encounter in the hall, Kageyama’s ears had turned red and the other boy spun so quickly to walk in the opposite direction that he stumbled.

Kei took the hint and left him alone.

Kageyama hadn’t been at the first two training camps of the season, busy instead with the U19 team, and Kei had taken the reprieve with both gratitude and trepidation because now that the tournament was over, Kageyama had rejoined his team.

At least Karasuno was their last match-up of the day, so they could ease into the idea of the awkward meeting, having seen each other around the small gym. Even so, standing across from Kageyama as Hinata and Yamaguchi shook hands, captain to captain, Kei made it a point to look at a spot over his shoulder.

It took most of the first set to overcome the lingering unease he was feeling. Karasuno had recruited taller players over the years, now mostly 180-centimeter-plus on both offense and defense, and their blocking — previously a weak point — was significantly better.

Kei could tell Anahori was struggling to navigate around their defense as things currently stood, and knew that the setter was playing conservatively for Kei’s sake.

Damn knee.

“Anahori,” he called over. “Don’t hold back on my account.”

Anahori nodded in answer and, on the next play, set the ball high.

In a repetition of the motions he practiced here so many times just a year ago, Kei stepped back for his approach, built up speed and jumped.

Karasuno may have added height to their line-up, but Kei was still taller.

It wasn’t a forceful spike, barely more than a feint, but, unused to Kei’s quicks as the other team was, it fell behind the two-man block in a spot a foot shy of the diving libero. Kei came out of the crouch he’d landed in and shook out his knee, testing it for twinges and soreness as his team cheered at the point. When he looked up, midnight blue eyes were staring straight at him, Kageyama’s whole face fiercely annoyed.

The rest of the sets followed the same pattern: Karasuno attacked as they always had, Fukurodani attacked as they always had, both sometimes scoring, sometimes getting blocked. Every block-out or successful quick Kei managed, Kageyama’s eyes narrowed and jaw twitched. Every time Kageyama was faster than Kei’s read block resulted in a vicious smile.

It was fun. He almost forgot that he was supposed to feel uncomfortable.

Almost, because when he reached under the net at the end of the match to shake his hand, Kageyama stared first at his hand, then his face before scurrying away with pink cheeks, barely having touched Kei’s palm at all.

Kei declined offers for more practice as people began to mill about, instead heading to the ice machine in the hallway behind the supply closet. The day had been long and more strenuous than anything he’d done recently, so while his knee didn’t exactly hurt, he was definitely aware of it.

He was filling a second bag when the voice called out from behind him.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Excuse me?” he asked indignantly, turning around.

Kageyama stood just a few steps away, passing a water bottle back and forth between his hands. His eyes were pointedly not looking at Kei’s face and his ears were red.

What was wrong with Kei? What was wrong with him? Absolutely nothing. What was wrong with Kageyama, coming after him a year later and asking —

“Your knee.” Kageyama gestured at Kei’s left leg, where black kinesiology tape wrapped around the joint. “What happened?”

Oh.

“Sports Fest accident,” Kei said, deciding that he had enough ice and tying off the baggie. “Got fouled playing basketball.”

The other player had run up in Kei’s blind spot, appearing out of nowhere as Kei had pivoted to pass or take a shot — he couldn’t remember — and colliding with him. The crack of his knee against the court floor rang in his ears for days. His first thoughts weren’t of the pain or if his knee were broken but that, if he were seriously injured, he might not be able to play volleyball.

Volleyball, the ‘club’ he’d once written off as a marginally better alternative to the grocery mart cashier position his mother had threatened him with.

Luckily the injury was mild — a slight sprain, some bruising of the bone and more swelling than Kei was comfortable with — and between taking it easy for the past six weeks and copious ice, he was nearly fully recovered. He considered continuing to use the tape though — he liked the way it felt, even under the kneepads.

“You should be more careful,” Kageyama admonished, brows furrowed.

“Thank you,” he said, condescension dripping from his every word. “For your concern, Your Highness, this humble peasant will try his hardest —”

“Stop! Why are you being like this?”

“Like what?”

“Like — like — like this!”

“You haven’t clarified what you mean at all —”

“Why can’t you be like you were last year!”

And there it was — the first actual acknowledgement that something had transpired. Maybe Kei should be glad that Kageyama wanted to pretend it never happened but, as he often found the when the other boy was concerned, his mouth acted without his approval.

“When? Before or after you ran away?”

Kageyama flushed fully at that, sputtering and averting his eyes. Kei immediately regretted it.

“Look,” he said. “I’m sor — I should have asked before I kissed you last year. I realized that not everyone is…okay with that.”

And Kei wished he could be basically anywhere other than where he currently stood, given the way Kageyama was giving him a wide-eyed stare. Sometime during their conversation he’d moved closer, now blocking Kei’s easy escape down the hall and out the door.

“Do it again,” Kageyama said.

Kei rolled his eyes. “I’m only apologizing once, King —”

“No. Ki — kiff — kiss me again,” he stammered out.

He froze, staring intently at Kageyama. The hallway was suddenly unbearably quiet.

“What?”

Kageyama looked to the side and muttered from behind clenched teeth, “Kiss me again, asshole.”

“Well when you ask so nicely — oh, wait, you’re not asking —”

Kageyama growled and closed the space between them, pressing his mouth against Kei’s with a characteristic lack of preamble.

Kei stumbled backwards into the ice machine from the force of the kiss; Kageyama followed. Dropping the bags he was holding in favor of grabbing Kageyama’s waist, he fully intended to push him away but paused as Kageyama let out a quiet gasp at the flex of his fingers. Hard muscles tensed under his touch and Kageyama leaned further into Kei’s space.

The kiss, initially more of an assault on Kei’s own lips, gentled until the pressure eased up fully.

Unlike the last time, all he could see was Kageyama’s closed eyelids. Then those eyes snapped open and Kageyama, impossibly red, tried to take a step back.

But Kei didn’t let him go.

“Quit running away,” he said. “Especially since you kissed me this time.”

“HEH?” Kageyama was immediately indignant. “Running away?”

Kei couldn’t help but smirk. “Yeah, running away. Though it is expectedly tyrannical of you to kiss me a whole year lat—”

“Shut up!” Kageyama growled.

“Make me.”

Then Kageyama’s mouth was on his again. It was a better kiss this time — less force, more finesse. Kageyama had caught Kei’s lower lip between his own, tugging on it lightly as he pulled back to breathe before surging forward again and something sharp and sweet sang in Kei’s veins. The sting of teeth pulled him back to the present, though, and he nudged Kageyama back by the hips.

“But seriously, what’re you doing?”

Kageyama, still red, gave him a confused stare. “Kissing you.”

Kei blinked. “Yeah I know, but why?”

Blue eyes darted away and his tongue darted out over his lip. Kei tracked the movement of it intensely.

“I…because I want to.”

“And last year, you…didn’t want to?”

“Last year I didn’t know what I wanted.” He swallowed. “You caught me off guard.”

“So what changed?”

Kageyama swallowed, looking back at Kei.

“I figured it out.” Kageyama’s stomach growled loudly in the silent hallway. “Can we get dinner now if we’re not gonna kiss more? Unless” — and he looked bashful again as some realization dawned on him — “unless you don’t want to?”

“Don’t want to get dinner?”

“No — don’t want to kiss m—”

Kei didn’t let him finish, pulling him in closer with one hand and running his other thumb over his lip. The brush of their mouths was gentle, tender, almost too sweet for whatever ill-defined something this was, but Kageyama tasted sweet —

“Are you wearing chapstick?”

Kageyama blinked, eyes wide, cheeks probably permanently stained pink at this point.

He mumbled something from the corner of his mouth, ‘Hinata’ being all Kei could pick out from the hushed speech before reeling him in again, huffing a laugh.

He swallowed Kageyama’s gasp as Kei returned the favor from earlier, catching his bottom lip between his teeth and nipping at the flesh. In return, Kageyama pressed his tongue against the seam of Kei’s lips, licking into his mouth, running the tip over his hard palate just behind his teeth.

Pure sensation ran through Kei, starting at the point where Kageyama’s tongue pressed against him and jumping to his throat, stomach and groin. He moaned, couldn’t help it, a note that started low in his lungs and crawled out of his mouth as a full chord of desire.

Then Kageyama’s stomach growled a second time and although he’d rather immerse himself in the taste, feel and smell of Kageyama, laughter erupted from Kei, happy and bright. He threw his head back and laughed like he hadn’t in a long time. Looking back down, though, Kageyama was a few centimeters shorter than he had been a moment ago.

“Were you…were you on tiptoes this whole time?” Kei laughed again, giddy, lightheaded, feeling things he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt before.

“You grew, asshole!”

He had — a full two centimeters. He was also unreasonably pleased that Kageyama had noticed.

“Is His Royal Highness jealous?” Kei teased. “How kind of him, in that case, to bestow a kiss upon a mere peasa—”

Kageyama leaned up once again, kissed Kei quiet and turned, walking away.

Kei bent over to pick up his bags of ice and Kageyama’s water bottle before following, smiling.

[lys-9-10]

EEK new art for one of my Yachi-Kageyama-Hinata friendship trio fics! 🤩 by astay_y! THANK YOU! This is a Karasuno Volleyball club sleepover scene from my fic In Which Yachi Ships Kagehina (read excerpt below) Ps. See all my Y-H-K friendship trio fics here. 😁 I love writing these three 🥲💗

“Oi. Pass the popcorn, dumbass.” Kageyama elbowed Hinata in the ribs.

The redhead looked over and scowled. That is, his mouth was scowling. His eyes were always smiling whenever he looked at Kageyama. “You’ve already eaten more than half, you big tyrant. We’re supposed to share this bowl between the three of us.” He motioned with his head to Yachi, who was sitting between them with her back resting against Kageyama’s shoulder and her feet tucked up against Hinata’s thighs. “Sugawara said one bowl per three people. Right, Suga?” 

From the couch, the silver-haired third year glanced over and smiled lightly. “Yep. Those are team sleepover rules, Kageyama-kun.”

Nishinoya, who was sitting on the top of the couch above Asahi with his legs dangling down over the ace’s torso, snickered. “Mom,” he quipped. 

Suga ignored him. 

Kageyama was now reaching across Yachi to grab at the popcorn bowl in Hinata’s lap. “I’m taller than you two combined,” he declared decisively. “So I warrant a double-plus share.” 

“That isn’t how it works!” Hinata protested, snatching the popcorn bowl up and hiding it behind his back. “Tell him, Yachi.” Yachi looked between the bickering pair and sighed. “Just because I get credit for the existence of your relationship, doesn’t make me arbiter for all your couple conflicts.”

Suga, who was watching the interaction in his peripheral vision, smiled at the girl’s sauciness. He enjoyed seeing Yachi come out of her shell with Hinata and Kageyama. The latter two dating had seemed to bring all three of them closer together as friends. Yachi might still cower before the rest of the world, but with Karasuno’s 9-10 duo, she was fully at home. 

“You don’t get credit, Yachi,” Kageyama said dismissively. “Hinata was going to ask me out eventually. Was just a matter of time.”

Hinata rolled his eyes and chucked a piece of popcorn at his setter’s head. Yachi giggled. 

---------

“Well I gotta say,” Daichi said, scrubbing a hand through his hair and grinning at the three first years passed out on the floor. Yachi had her legs draped over Kageyama’s lap and her head resting on Hinata’s stomach. The two boys’ hands were clasped together in their sleep. “I was really rooting for KageYachi. But I’m kind of digging this KageHina plus faithful third-wheel Yachi thing.” 

“Yachi isn’t a third-wheel,” Suga said. “She’s part of the wholesome friendship trio. Different thing. It’s like Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry isn’t a third wheel just because Ron and Hermione started dating.” 

Asahi hummed and scratched thoughtfully at his facial hair. “Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “They aren’t Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The gender pairing is wrong. Try Simon, Baz, and Penelope.”

Nishinoya squawked and fell off the top of the couch. Asahi caught him.

 “A-Asahi!” The libero stammered, gazing wide-eyed up at his ace. “You read gay romance too?”

Read full fic on AO3

[floraesky-a]

‘TOL AND SMOL’ PROMPTS | @raeso asked: [ GIVE ]  for the taller muse to place their jacket around the shorter muse’s shoulders,  the garment essentially ‘swallowing them whole.’ kageyama to hinata lets go.

He rubs at his own arms like it might break the chill that he feels, though he finds himself feeling a wave of disappointment when it doesn't do as he wishes. It wasn't supposed to get this cold from what he remembered the weather report saying so he didn't bring along a jacket, something that he was regretting now.

There's a jacket that is suddenly placed around his shoulders, though it is practically swallowing his smaller frame as it settles there and provides warmth. Head tilts to find who had given him the jacket and he's blinking in surprise at Kageyama.

❛ So you do have a heart just as I always thought ! ❜ The words tumble out before he can stop them, blinking a few times as he realizes what he said, there's a sheepish smile that slowly turns into light laughter. ❛ Thanks. It's nice to know you won't let me freeze to death ! ❜ And then he gives him a beaming smile and pulls the jacket around himself more.

[moonchild-things]

Chapter Two: Karasuno High School’s Volleyball Club

Summary: Shōyō Hinata loves volleyball! There is no doubt that all he really thinks about is volleyball. His sister, however, isn’t the same way. Sakura is ready to start her first year of high school at Karasuno with her twin brother and doesn’t really want to do anything, unlike Shōyō. Though she can’t help it when she gets dragged into the antics of the volleyball club.

Word Count: 8930

Blog Masterlist | Red Herring Masterlist | Last Chapter | Next Chapter

A/N: I’m thinking that Imma post a chapter every day. That seems like a good idea imo Hope you like reading this, this has got to be one of my favorite stories to write!

---

SAKURA TAPPED HER FOOT AGAINST THE FLOOR impatiently. Though really it was also in nervousness. She had been searching for the photography club for a few minutes before finally finding it. The president of the club was currently talking with a few other people about what exactly the club would do. Apparently they do take pictures for the yearbook but then those pictures get sent to the actual yearbook club and let them deal with them. They also take pictures for the newspaper as well, but they do more than that apparently. The club holds exhibitions every month of the pictures that the club members have taken. They focus on learning how to take the perfect picture and how to edit. They also had some of the best software and equipment to use for photography. Overall, it sounded pretty promising. At least it was better than doing it alone which Sakura had been doing since she could hold a camera. Plus getting to actually show off her pictures instead of just keeping them for herself sounded kind of nice.

"Are you thinking of joining?" The president walked over to Sakura. 

The president looked like a nice girl. Obviously a third-year who was quite pretty with long light brown hair cascaded over her shoulders with bangs that swayed in front of her bright green eyes. She was at least a few inches taller than Sakura, which wasn't surprising considering most people were taller than her. She had a kind smile plastered on her round pale face as she approached the first-year.

"...I guess," Sakura muttered.

The girl continued to smile sweetly, "that's great! I'm Shimada Emi, president of the club."

The younger girl nodded her head in understanding, "Hinata Sakura."

"So how about it? We're always ready for new club members!"

Shimada was quite an enthusiastic person. She wasn't on the same level as Shōyō but still above average, Sakura supposed. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle though.

"Hm," she hummed and raised an eyebrow, "do we get to take pictures of other clubs, like the boy's volleyball club?"

"Oh, want to take pictures of those boys, do you? Got a crush on one of them?" Sakura bristled at the accusation as Shimada continued on with hearts in her eyes, "I can't blame you, just about all of them are adorable!"

The first-year shook her head frantically, "No! My brother is joining the team, I was just thinking about getting to take pictures of him, that's all."

"Alright," Shimada giggled, "well, we do have to take pictures of the other clubs, one or two people are assigned to each one. If you want to join, you can be assigned to take pictures of the boy's team. You'd just have to go to each game and such with them."

That fact alone was probably a deal-breaker for Sakura. She'd get to hang around Shōyō even when he was at his club. Plus being in her own club would give her a chance to make friends of her own instead of just befriending her brother's friends. High school was a time to reinvent oneself, after all.

Sakura pursed her lips and shrugged her shoulders lightly, "Yeah, it sounds cool." 

It seemed impossible, but Shimada's smile widened, "Awesome!" She scurried around to grab an application for Sakura. "Here you go, fill this out!"

Sakura nodded her head and started to fill out the application which only took a minute or so. Once she finished she handed it to Shimada who was ecstatic to have another member of the club. Photography wasn't exactly the most popular club at Karasuno. There was interest in it and there was a decent amount of members, but the number of new applicants had been decreasing yearly. So having any new members was one of the best things that could happen.

Now officially a member of the photography club, Sakura spoke with a few of the other members, new and old. She acquainted herself with them and was glad to say that they were all tolerable people. So now with her position as a new member and the boy's volleyball club photographer, Sakura started to make her way towards the gym. There was just one problem, she wasn't exactly sure where to go.

She was in a new school after all and didn't know the layout yet. Sakura did her best but ultimately was just wondering around aimlessly after about fifteen minutes. At this point, the only way that she would find the gym and her brother would be to ask someone.

Just then a beautiful girl with shoulder-length, straight black hair, the clearest skin that Sakura had ever seen, and a slim figure started to walk down the hall. She must have been an upperclassman from the way that she walked around with confidence. Confidence that none of the first-years had and was somewhat difficult to replicate. Someone who was familiar with the school, like this upperclassman, might know where the volleyball club meets. Seeing no other choice, Sakura decided to ask for directions.

"Uh, excuse me?" She approached the girl.

The girl turned to her questioningly and smiled kindly to the younger girl. "Yes?"

Goodness, even her voice was smooth and heavenly. "I'm looking for the boy's volleyball club, but I don't know what gym they're in. Can you tell me how to find them?"

"Of course," the girl smiled, "I was just heading there myself. You can come with me."

Sakura nodded her head, "Thanks, I'm Hinata Sakura."

"Shimizu Kiyoko."

---

Meanwhile, in the gym where the boy's volleyball club were supposed to meet up, Shōyō was arguing with the King of the Court himself. Well, he didn't like being called that apparently. Kagayama made that quite clear. Shōyō was easily able to get on the former king's nerves. Though it seemed that both of them were quite frustrated with each other. 

Their tense atmosphere was broken when they heard a few voices approaching the gym. "Who knew that the setter from Kitagawa First would end up at our school?" The first voice said.

"He better not be too cocky," A second voice exclaimed, "or I'll have to pound him."

A third voice sighed, "Give it a rest, Tanaka, you don't have to threaten everybody."

"What are you going to do about it? Huh? Yeah, that's what I thought."

A fourth voice scoffed loudly, "He'd probably just beat your ass if you did end up in a fight. You are quite weak after all."

"Why you-!"

"Uh, hello," Kageyama said as a quartet of upperclassmen entered the gym. The four of them were wearing the Karasuno Volleyball uniforms which consisted of a black jacket with black pants. Each of them was quite tall with slight smiles on their faces. Well, two out of the four had kind smiles on their faces.

The first was a silver-haired boy with slightly paler skin than the others. He didn't appear to be threatening or intimidating at all. His eyes were a light brown color that seemed to greet the first-years warmly. 

The second one next to him was a guy with brown hair and also brown eyes. While he had a kind smile on his face, there also appeared to be a spark of leadership in his eyes. It was quite obvious that he was most likely the captain of the team. 

The third guy had a shaved head and his eyes were narrowed at the two newbies. He had this sort of crazed look in his eyes that just screamed how crazy he was. Though his appearance alone would make someone think that he may be a delinquent, yet that was quite far from the truth.

The fourth looked a bit different than the others in the scense that he appeared to be a foreigner. He had blond hair with the right side of his head shaved. It was quite obvious that he put a lot of effort into how his hair looked as it shined slightly due to the gel in it. He had crystal blue eyes that held a certain sort of mirth in them as he pinpointed the newest members. His skin was softly tanned like the sun had given him a brief hug. His thin lips were also pulled up in a large smirk, unlike the other two who actually smiled or the one who was trying to intimidate them.

"Well, well, well, now what do we have here-" Tanaka Ryūnosuke, the second-year with a shaved head, said as he made a face that he thought would intimidate the younger teens. Though all it really did was make him look ridiculous.

Sawamura Daichi, the brown-haired captain, grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him away, "You Kageyama?"

"Yeah," the boy answered as he was approached by the four.

"It's nice to meet you."

"Pretty tall aren't ya." Sugawara Kōshi, the silver-haired teen, commented in awe.

"First impressions are everything, Suga," Tanaka explained to the vice-captain. "You're a third-year so you have to establish dominance," He then pulled a face that he believed to be intimidating at the setter. Yet again he only looked ridiculous.

Daichi shook his head lightly, "Stop it, Tanaka. You look stupid."

The blond third-year, Endo Joji, laughed loudly, "he always looks stupid!"

As they were introducing themselves to each other, Shōyō walked around the older teens to stare at the back of their jackets. He stared in awe at them as he grasped the reality of the situation. He really was going to be joining the Karasuno volleyball team. The same team that the Tiny Giant had been on!

"Hey, guys-!"

"So how tall are you?" They disregarded him and didn't even see that he was there. Oh, the curse of being short.

"Six feet," Kageyama answered plainly. Meanwhile, Shōyō was still trying to gain their attention as the boys exclaimed their amazement at the King's height. Seriously, was he really that invisible?

Fed up, Shōyō exclaimed, "Hey!"

They all went silent as they looked down to see the orange-haired teen. "Huh?" Finally seeing the other first-year was there, Tanaka pointed at him, "Hey, it's you! You're the shorty!"

The other four's eyes widened in recognition. After all, they couldn't forget about the small junior high schooler who had jumped to heights that seemed impossible for someone like him. Daichi glanced down at the other paper in his hand. "Wait a minute, the other applicant goes by the name of Shōyō Hinata. I guess that's you. It's just kind of surprising, that's all. But, well, hey you guys both chose Karasuno."

Shōyō tilted his head, "Guess so."

"Didn't mean to freak you out." Suga smiled kindly, "It's just you made a big impression last year."

Tanaka nodded his head along with him, "Yeah, you were tiny and all over the place but you really had some spunk."

"Even I thought you were impressive," Endo said mindlessly with a hand on his chin in thought.

"Wow, thanks a lot!" Shōyō beamed.

"And not to mention that jump of yours," Suga said.

Tanaka walked up to the short kid and sized him up, noticing that there wasn't much of a difference in his height from last year. "It's too bad you haven't had a growth spurt yet though."

Shōyō groaned, "I know! I may be small, but I've got talent. I'll be Karasuno's ace before you know it!" Kagayama's eyes widened before he scowled at the spit-fire. His ambitions were far too out of his reach, the setter thought. Unless Shōyō had improved significantly over the year since their first game as opponents, there was no way Hinata was going to become the ace.

Tanaka laughed, "Hot damn, already got your eyeballs on the ace position do you? Somebody's got cojones."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with shooting for the stars, is there? Right?" Suga asked with a closed-eye smile.

At the encouraging, hopeful words, Shōyō grinned widely, "Yeah, I'll do my best."

"Okay, then," Kageyama started from behind the ball of sunshine with a harsh tone, "now that you've sworn to become the ace, you better be prepared to back it up. If you're not careful, you'll waste another three years."

Shōyō's eyes narrowed as he turned around, "Excuse me."

Daichi let out a sigh, "Was that really necessary, Kageyama?"

"I did everything I could, I did." For a moment, Shōyō thought back to that first game he got to play against Kitigawa. The team that he had to back him up and what they had gone through. "Look, I've done a lot. Stop putting me down."

The two of them had a bit of a stare off at each other. Shōyō glared up at the setter who just returned the stare with annoyance flashing in his eyes. The rivalry that had been born between the two the year prior was still kicking. This was certainly going to be a problem if the two of them were meant to be on a team together.

Endo smirked at the petty argument between the two. Oh, he loved drama like this, he lived for it. Watching the two underclassmen have this little fight between each other was quite entertaining. Barely in the club and the two are already giving him a show. The blond was no stranger to drama and such, as he was one of the biggest drama queens at Karasuno. He thrived off of this sort of stuff. Oh, he could already tell that this year was going to be extremely fun!

"Relax, guys." Daichi said scratching the back of his head, trying to be the voice of reason, "You know you're not enemies anymore, right? Volleyball is supposed to bring people together-"

"I want you to play me, right now," Shōyō exclaimed as they ignored their captain.

"Whoa watch it punk," Tanaka glowered, "don't you know Daichi is talking to you!"

The two still ignored the team as Kageyama continued their conversation, "What are we going to play?"

"Volleyball!" Shōyō shouted, "What the heck else is there?"

"How do you plan to play volleyball one-on-one?"

"...Like passes and stuff."

"How does anybody win at that?"

"The kid's got a point!" Tanaka shouted.

Daichi did his best to keep his composer, however, his smile was growing tight as they bickered. His patience was wearing thin with these first-years, and he already knew that these two were going to a handful to deal with. He certainly had his work cut out for him as captain this year.

"What's all the noise in here." A new voice asked from the doorway. Entering the gym was the vice-principal himself in all of his fake hair glory. 

"Oh, turds! VP!" Tanaka exclaimed harshly.

"Be quiet!" Suga reprimanded him.

"Why don't you be quiet!"

"Shut it," Endo hissed, hitting Tanaka on the back of the head.

The older man ventured further into the room garnering all of the teens' undivided attention. Well, besides Shōyō and Kageyama who were still glaring at each other. "Are you boys fighting in here?" 

"No, we're just working as hard as always, vice-principal." Daichi smiled, trying to hide the fact that there was some sort of discord between the newbies. "Right?"

Tanaka turned to the first-years to explain to them in a not so quiet whisper. "We gotta watch ourselves around the vice-principal, that guys always waiting for us to slip up."

However, still lost in their own world and rivalry, Shōyō and Kageyama continued to fight,  "Serve it to me. I can handle whatever you send."

"Dude!" Tanaka shouted.

"Listen, jerk, I only received once serve from you last year." He grimaced at the memory. "Granted it was with my face but since then, I've practiced with everyone I could. I am not the same person I was."

"Hm, not the same person, huh?" Kageyama asked before walked over to the abandoned volleyball and picked it up. He pointed at Shōyō dramatically, "Well, I've improved a bit in the last year too."

"Alright, alright, that's enough smack talk, you guys." Daichi tried to defuse the situation before they were punished by the VP for something or other. How was he going to be able to control these boys if all they were going to do was fight like this?

"They're both first-years aren't they?" The VP asked in disapproval.

Kageyama readied himself on the other side of the court as he bounced the ball. Shōyō also prepared himself in a receiving position. He wouldn't let Kageyama get to him now. Shōyō would prove that he had risen to the challenge to better himself, to improve his volleyball skills.

"Get ready," Kageyama said before throwing the ball up into the air. A jump serve!? The king could do jump serves now? He certainly had improved since their last meeting. With an immense amount of force behind the serve, Shōyō had to dive out of the way before the volleyball could hit him in the face which caused him to fall to the floor.

"Whoa!" Tanaka marveled as he and the others stared in awe. "Not even I can catch that."

"Pathetic." Kageyama scoffed, "How is that any different than last year?"

The initial awe of the serve wore off as Shōyō's expression hardened. He jumped up to his feet with determination in his eyes, "One more try."

"Okay, now cut it out." Daichi tried again to stop them only for it to fall on deaf ears.

"I see the new recruits have no respect for their captain." The VP drawled out unimpressed.

Endo snickered, "Man this is great!" His statement earned a smack on the back of the head from Suga and a disapproving look from Daichi. He just shrugged his shoulders innocently.

Kageyama threw the ball up again for another jump serve. Instead of falling out of the way, Shōyō used his speed to get to the ball. He had some good reflexes, though he lost control of the ball when it hit his forearms. It went straight up into his face and bounced off towards the spectators.

Unaware, the VP turned to Daichi, "If this keeps-"

He didn't get to finish his statement as the volleyball slammed into his cheek. This caused his toupee to fly off of his bald head and land right on Daichi's head. Everyone stared in shock for a moment before Tanaka and Endo tried to stop themselves from dissolving into laughter.

"Oh, man, that was a toupee?" Kageyama asked as he walked over.

Shōyō snorted, "You're just now figured that out. I noticed it at the entrance ceremony."

"Dude, shut up." Tanaka did his best to keep his snickering to himself but was failing. "It's not even that funny."

"You shut up, moron!" Suga yelled at the second-year who had to hang onto Endo to stay standing.

"Captain," the VP said emotionlessly, "a word please."

---

"Luckily we're not in trouble, he doesn't even want an apology," Daichi said to the team as they all lined up in front of him. They all let out a sigh of relief at that. They certainly dodged a bullet after that. "But we have been sworn to secrecy." He then addressed Hinata and Kageyama, "And as for you two-"

"If you had handled the serve it wouldn't have happened in the first place," Kageyama gritted through his teeth to the shorter teen, completely ignoring Daichi. "You're the same clutz you were last year. I can't believe I thought you'd be a challenge."

"You don't know when to quit do you?" Hinata asked with a glare.

Growing fed up with their childish behavior, Daichi shouted, "Can it!" Which instantly silenced the two gaining all of their attention. "There's something I want to tell you. I don't know your reasons for coming to this high school, but I assume you came to win."

"Yeah!" Hinata answered instantly.

As did Kageyama, "Yes, obviously."

"Up until a few years ago, Karasuno's volleyball team could compete with the best of them. They even made it to nationals once. But these days we're eighth in the prefecture. Not terrible, but not good either. And people talk, they call us the Wingless Crows." Daichi started to reminisce, "I remember when Karasuno played in the spring high national tournament. I was a student at a nearby school who happened to be in the neighborhood. Watching them fight those tough opponents in that huge gym in Tokyo, it gave me chills." Hinata remembered the same thing happening to him on that fateful day while headed to the park. "Let's go back one more time!"

An image of playing on the court, the same court that the Tiny Giant had played on, passed through Shōyō's mind. How amazing would it be to play on such a stage! That was his ultimate dream, to be just like his inspiration and it seemed like his new captain had the same idea.

"The nationals, huh?" Kageyama asked with a slight scoff. "Plenty of high schools talk about making it there one day, doesn't mean they'll go."

"What?! You little-"

"I know what you mean." Daichi cut Tanaka off, "but I'm dead serious. If we wanna get there, we need to be a cohesive unit. That means no more run-ins with the VP for one thing. It's not like I'm telling you to be best friends or anything like that. I know back in middle school you two might have been adversaries on opposite sides of the net, but let me be clear, you're on one side now and you need to make peace with that. Is that clear?" He flashed them a terrifying glance that caused shivers to travel up the boys' spines. Daichi placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "I don't care how good you are or how determined you are to play hard. Anyone who lets a petty rivalry get in the way of the team's success gets the boot!" He slammed their applications into their faces now that he had pushed them both out of the gym door. "You two are banned from participating in club activities until you learn to think of yourselves as teammates." The metal doors of the gym then slide shut in their poor faces, locking them out of the club. It took a moment for them to process what had just happened, but when they realized they were not allowed in the club the two first-years screamed.

---

Sakura followed after Kiyoko lazily as they walked through the school. After sharing a few words with Kiyoko, Sarkua found out that she was the team's manager and dealt with most of the behind the scense stuff for them. She even told her about what the team was like and who was on it. Useful information to use since she'll probably be spending a lot of time at their practices.

She explained to the third-year that she was the photographer for the club, and Kiyoko was quite happy to hear that. Despite loving all the boys on the team, she really would like to have another girl around. Some times, they could just be too much, especially Tanaka and Nishinoya. Kiyoko could only hope that having Sakura around for a few practices or games would give her a chance to have a girl friend to hang out with than just the boys.

"Keep talking short stack!" A shout greeted them as they approached the entrance to the gym. To Sakura's dismay, the one who had yelled, was the King of the Court himself, Kageyama Tobio. It was no surprise that he had been yelling at her brother. Oh, how terrible it was to find out that they were going to the same school as that arrogant prick. 

"Excuse us," Kiyoko said to the two boys who had suddenly been mesmerized by her beauty. "We need to get through."

The teens moved out of the way to let Kiyoko walk between the two of them to enter the gym. Sakura walked over as well, though she stopped to look between her brother and the king with narrowed eyes. "Why am I not surprised you two are out here?"

Kageyama and Shōyō were still slightly distracted by the upperclassmen to really pay any attention to Sakura, so she just shrugged her shoulders and walked behind her senpai.

"Hey, Kiyoko!" Tanaka jumped over to them once the door was open. "Thanks for your hard work. Oh, let me get that."

Kiyoko shook her head lightly, "No thanks. I can carry it myself."

"Okay then, you look super gorgeous today." Kiyoko just walked away from him without replying. The ignored teen hugged himself as he visibly shivered, to Sakura's confusion, "Oh, man, She's so pretty when she ignores me."

Sakura ventured further into the gym as Suga closed the doors, once again not letting the two first-years into the practice. The orange-haired teen kept her distance for a moment and silently observed them. They certainly looked like a good group of volleyball players, she thought. Tall, lean, and athletic, the perfect combination for a volleyball player. Though she wasn't sure what the team was like now or how they played. After all, they were once a powerhouse school. One would suspect they were at least somewhat talented. Though it's a shame that they fell from that. The Wingless Crows indeed. She would just have to see how they practiced.

Just as the team was going to start a few practices runs, Sakura decided to speak up, "Hello."

The sudden voice drew the team's attention and startled them quite a bit. Standing just to the side of the door was an identical copy of the little ball of sunshine that was just thrown out of the gym by the captain. The team stared wide eyes at the teen who casually standing looking back at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Hinata, how did you get there?" Suga gaped at the sight of the teen.

Endo stared for a long moment before rubbing his eyes as if he had something in them, "am I seeing double?" While the girl in front of them certainly looked like Hinata, he could instantly tell that she was not a boy. He wasn’t wrong about this. Endo could definitely tell the difference between a guy or girl, quote him on that.

Tanaka bounced over to her in shock and started to poke her in the cheek, "you're like magic!"

Sakura raised an eyebrow and pushed the second-year's hand away from her face with a scowl. The terrifying look that crossed her face caused a shiver of fear to strike the older boy. To say that Tanaka was frightened by the small girl was an understatement. "Don't touch me, baldy," Tanaka shouted out in offense at the name but was disregarded by the others. Sakura turned to the captain and vice-captain with a bored expression. "I'm Hinata Sakura, that idiot you probably tossed out is my twin brother."

Seeing the mistake that they made they smiled apologetically to her. Daichi scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Sorry about that, Hinata-chan."

She shrugged her shoulders indifferently, "no worries."

"It's nice to met you!" Suga smiled towards her kindly.

"Same, I guess." She waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the door where they could hear the two idiots bicker with each other. "I don't know what Shōyō may have done, but I apologize for him, he can be an idiot." Her scowl seemed to deepen even further, "it doesn't help that the King is here as well." The four upperclassmen shared glances with each other. The venom that dripped from her voice as she said the setter's nickname, it was obvious that she is not a fan of Kageyama's. 

"Well, let's hope that those two can get over their differences and become teammates," Daichi said encouragingly to his underclassmen.

"Yeah, let's hope," Sakura said, though there was an obvious amount of doubt coating her words. "Anyway, I'm in the photography club, and apparently I'm assigned to take pictures of you guys and stuff. Just so you know. " She shrugged her shoulders.

Endo walked over to her and leaned down so that he could try to be eye-level with his underclassman. "A photographer now, eh? We've got our own paparazzi now," he ran a hand through his hair with a large smirk. "I'm sure you'll find I'm a perfect subject for photos, Hinata-chan. I don't have a bad side." He then stuck a few poses which earned himself a few laughs.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "yeah, yeah, sure."

"Well, I'm Sawamura Daichi--"

"The captain, yes I know," She deadpanned and waved her hand in the general direction of the lady-manager. "Kiyoko-senpai already told me about you guys on the way here."

"Kiyoko talked about me!" Tanaka exclaimed as hearts formed in his eyes.

Sakura eyes the overdramatic teen for a moment before nodding her head. She certainly understood what her senpai meant when she described Tanaka as "over the top".

"We're about to start practice," Suga said approaching the younger girl, "you can stay and watch if you want."

His kind smile caused Sakura to purse her lips and look away. Consideration for the option buzzed around in her head for a moment before she nodded her head. "Sure, I guess I'll take some pictures while I'm here."

What better way to pass the time. After all, her brother certainly wasn't going to leave the school if he was locked out of the practice. She could already see him trying to peek through the windows. So instead of riding back home by herself, she might as well as see how the volleyball team works together. It would definitely give her a better idea of what would be the best method to take pictures of them.

So Sakura pulled out her camera and stationed herself on the sidelines. Occasionally she would help Kiyoko if she saw that she needed help with something or other. Other than that, she stayed out of the way and snapped a few pictures and was content just watching them. Sakura could tell that the team worked well together, they were just missing a few pieces. A libero would be a good addition to the team, maybe another wing spiker or ace, but other than that they were strong, she observed.

Throughout the practice, Endo seemed to be the one who was acting up the most for the camera. It was like he wanted to make his poses more appealing than functional for practice. He was scolded by Daichi for it a few times after he had missed a few sets. She made sure to stay out of their way as she took pictures and analyzed their playing style.

While Sakura wasn't a volleyball player, she understood the game enough. Having Shōyō as her brother forced her to learn nearly everything about the sport. She knew every position, what they did, different attacks, and almost every term related to the sport. In her own conclusion based on her knowledge, she thought that the boys in front of her had potential. The team was rough around the edges for sure, but what team wasn't? Either way, she could see her brother possibly reaching his dreams with this team. At least, she hoped so.

Night had fallen and darkness covered the nearly abandoned high school. The volleyball club was most likely one of the only clubs still at the school besides maybe one or two others. Everyone was thoroughly exhausted after the practice that Daichi had put them through. He wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to go to nationals this year. The captain wanted to work his team into shape to actually get there this year.

"Good work everybody!"

The boys started to clean up the gym, putting away the net, collecting the scattered balls, etc. Sakura gathered her things and put them in her white messenger bag and slung it over her shoulders. The practice gave her the perfect opportunity to take action shots of the players and figure out who was the most photogenic. She had to admit, she at least enjoyed watching them a little bit. 

It was also a plus that the boys were kind and tolerable. Well, the majority of them were. The team themselves were a very positive bunch. There are worse people that she's had to be stuck around. So having to deal with them wasn't a problem.

Sakura could already tell that Tanaka was probably the most troublesome of the group and a complete goofball. If he wasn't celebrating his skills by taking off his shirt and whipping it around, then he was ogling Kiyoko from afar or declaring his love for her very loudly. Sakura had no idea how Kiyoko dealt with this! She was just glad that Tanaka wasn't doing the same thing to her. There had already been enough attention drawn to her when she had to be introduced to the team, there was no need for Tanka to start gushing over her. Though Sakura was able to catch him saying something along the lines of "Hinata-chan is small and adorable". She just glared at him for that which effectively shut him up for the rest of the practice, to her knowledge.

Another pain, Endo liked to be the center of attention, which was proven to how many times he tried to pose for a picture("Hinata-chan! Make sure to get one of my good side!" "Shut up, Endo and focus!"). Sakura could tell that she wasn't going to like having to deal with him and his attention-seeking personality. Though that wasn't the part that really irked her. His crystal blue eyes always had this spark in them that unsettled Sakura, for some reason. Though she was easily able to hide that fact from everyone. His gaze, whenever he did look at her, was so... accusatory. Like he expected her to say something about him. What did he think she would say? Did he think she would say something about his athletic skills? His arrogance? Either way, she tried not to dwell on it for long.

Daichi could be a pretty intense captain and did his best to keep the team on task and motivated. He did his best to control the more unruly underclassmen, and honestly, was like the dad of the team. Sakura admired his level over leadership as it seemed like the team knew that they had to listen to him as their captain. He had the confidence level that a captain should have. In himself and his team.

Suga encouraged the team to improve their skills if they needed to, a total mom in her opinion. He was the setter of the team which made scense since a setter was the control tower of a team. He basically had the responsibility of pacing the team and keeping them alert. Something that she thought Suga could do quite easily after seeing him control the ball so flawlessly while practicing. 

Narita Kazuhito is a pretty mellow guy, someone who certainly wouldn't get on Sakura's nerves(unlike Tanaka or Endo). They had only shared a few words of greeting before he had to get back to practice, but she knew that they would get along. The second-year has a shaved head much like Tanaka, however, he didn't look like a delinquent or as intimidating. He was a second-year, just like Tanaka as well, though they were drastically different from each other, Sakura observed.  

Another second-year on the team was a boy who had a light brown shade of hair that reminded Sakura of Izumi. Sakura got to talk with this boy, Kinoshita Hisashi, a bit during practice drills, and he seemed to be a slightly nervous guy. He wasn't anxious in general, but just in his playing style, Sakura supposed. He was kind to her at least, that's all she cared about at the moment.  

Ennoshita Chikara was a second-year who seemed to be able to handle Tanaka's craziness the best. He was most likely the buffer between Tanaka's insanity and reality. Ennoshita kept him grounded, for the most part. The brown-eyed, dark-haired upperclassmen always had a kind smile on his face(except when he had to deal with Tanaka) and an air of maturity that some second-years don't have. If she didn't know, Sakura would have thought that he was a third-year. 

The manager of the team was a complete sweetheart. Kiyoko has the patient of a saint to be dealing with these boys. She was also obviously a hard worker with all the chores and such that she did for the team. Though Sakura had to wonder how much work she really did as the manager, guess she'll get to see if she hangs around to take pictures of them.

Her thoughts on the team carried a bit from person to person, but overall they were nice. Tanaka and Endo could be a bit much at times, but she'd live. Though now that practice was over, everyone was ready for some rest after their first practice back. "You know what, I bet those two goofballs are thinking right now," Tanaka started as he pulled on his jacket, "that if they can beat us then they'll make the team, right?"

Suga shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, sure. But all they really have to do is cool off and prove to everybody that they've learned their lesson."

"Did you see those two?" Endo scoffed as he pulled on his jacket, "I highly doubt they'd do that."

"Captain!" The troublesome duo outside shouted which prompted the team to jump in shock before sliding open the doors. "We challenge you to a match!"

"I stand corrected..." Endo drawled out with pursed lips and arms crossed. Next to him, Tanaka laughed loudly as the boys continued to go on their challenge for the team.

Hinata stood strong in front of the upperclassmen, "If we win, you have to let us join."

"Guys, I'm psychic!" Tanaka exclaimed before wincing as he was hit on the back of the head by Endo.

"Now, we want to prove that we finally understand how to play together as teammates." Once again, the two spoke together as if they had been practicing saying it together this entire time.

"How many times did you rehearse that?" Suga asked in amusement.

Sakura watched the interaction from behind the upperclassmen. She was more than happy with not interfering in whatever plan her brother and Kageyama wanted to do. Despite both of them disliking each other, she knew that neither of them would want to admit defeat or be kicked out of the club. After all, both of them were completely volleyball crazy. 

Tanaka continued with his laughter that had subsided slightly after Endo's cuff to the back of the head. "This is gold, I can get used to having these clowns on the team!"

"If you lose?" The captain asked with his arms crossed over his chest.

The first-years gasped slightly before Kageyama spoke up. "Then you get to choose the penalty."

"Huh?" Daichi tilted his head with a raised eyebrow. It was an interesting proposition from them. In honesty, he expected them to do something like this to prove themselves to the team. However, he didn't expect them to challenge them like this. He then started to explain, "Club application form, here's an idea we have two other first-years joining the club soon, you'll play against them in a three-on-three match. We do this game every year with our new club so we can get an idea of how they play."

Shōyō's eyebrows furrowed as he pointed to himself and Kageyama, "But if it's going to be three-on-three, then who's going to be our third player?"

"Tanaka, you're with them. Make sure they behave alright?"

"Oh, man, why me?" Tanaka complained as Endo patted him on the back in sympathy. Though he was slightly glad that he wasn't chosen to help them. As much as Endo loved seeing people bicker with each other, Hinata-kun and Kageyama were too much.

"Well, you seem to like them." Daichi shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't drag me into their mess!" 

The captain sighed, "That's too bad. I was thinking you'd be the only one tough enough to keep these delinquents in line."

Hearing that, Tanaka perked up. Stroking his ego obviously helped persuade him into doing just about anything, which is something that Sakura filed away in her mind. "Aw, well, why the heck not. When you put it like that! Just stick with me, little man!"

"Anyway," Daichi brought back their attention, "here's the penalty if you lose; for the remainder of my time here at Karasuno, Kageyama cannot be the setter."

At his declaration, Kageyama's eyes widened. Not be the setter? How could Kageyama Tobio not be the setter on the team?!

Shōyō looked up in thought, "Is that the only penalty we have sir?"

"If the setter's aggressive, self-centered and driven by his own ego, the team can't win," Daichi said bluntly which caused Kageyama to glare at him, "What? I'm not saying I'll reject your application to join, I'm sure you'll be well suited to a different position."

"NO WAY, I'M A SETTER!" Kageyama screamed angrily.

"Then win the game." The captain deadpanned, "You're the one who thought you could win without help, right?"

Shōyō bristled, noticing that he hadn't even been addressed by the captain. It was like all that mattered was the great and powerful King of the court, not him. "Hey, uh, but what about me?"

Shōyō was ignored once again as Daichi continued on. "We play on Saturday."

"Come on! I'm over here too, you know?!" The orange-haired boy jumped up and down to try and be noticed. Sakura raised an eyebrow at her twin's desperate attempts to be noticed as she glided around Suga to approach her brother and stand next to him.

Tanaka waved his hand with confidence, "Don't worry, your cool upperclassmen will show you the ropes-"

Suga grabbed the back of Tanaka's jacket before he could finish and dragged him back inside before sliding the door shut with a farewell, "See ya."

"Bye-bye Hinata-chan~!" Sakura scowled at the blond third-year as the doors slid shut.

The doors shut in the first-years faces once again. Shōyō sighed and plopped down on the stairs in seeming exhaustion. Though after having to go through all of that, Sakura gave him the benefit of the doubt. She leaned against the side of the building with an uninterested aura surrounding her. The most frustrated out of the trio was obviously Kageyama, who stomped on the ground, "Damnnit."

"What's wrong?" Shōyō asked the former king, "Are you mad because you're the only one who gets penalized? Even if you're not the setter, I bet you'd figure out a different position just like that. Plus, spikers are cooler than setters anyway. They get to go up and slam the ball!" 

Shōyō was just doing his best to try and make the setter feel better. However, it didn't seem like that it was working so much. That was pretty obvious from how Kageyama's shoulders were shaking in anger. Sakura would have said something since her brother was oblivious to it, but she elected not to. Since seeing the King frustrated entertained her.

"SHUT UP!" Kageyama screamed as his anger finally erupted. He spun around and grabbed the front of the shorter boy's shirt. There was a moment where Sakura contemplated getting in between the two of them. After all, she would do anything to make sure that nothing and no one hurt her family. However, she had a feeling that Kageyama wasn't going to really hurt her brother. He was all bark and barely any bite when it came to something like this. So he let it slide, for the moment. Kageyama continued on, "The setter is the team's control tower plus, it's the position that gets the most contact with the ball. It's the greatest position there is because you get to be the ruler. Without the setter to toss the ball, there wouldn't be any spikes for you to hit."

"I know, but even though the setter as an important job you don't really stand out very much, do you?" Shōyō asked as he squirmed in Kageyama's tight grip.

Kageyama rolled his eyes and sighed heavily before letting go of the short teen. He stared down at Shōyō with dark narrowed eyes and his hands on his hips. It almost looked as though he was disappointed in him. "I'm guessing you've never seen a major volleyball tournament in person, have you?"

"No."

"And you?" Kageyama turned his narrowed eyes to the girl leaning on the wall of the gym.

Sakura was slightly surprised that he even addressed her. She thought he was just going to ignore her existence completely, which she would have been fine with. Though now that he has taken to talking to her, guess she'll have to engage with him now. Especially since he'll probably be around her since he's on the team.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't care enough to watch it."

Kageyama narrowed his eyes at her, as if asking her why she wouldn't care about volleyball since it was all he ever thought about. He turned back to Shōyō sharply, "You can't tell by the angle they show on tv but pay attention to the end of the court. From there you can see how fast the setter tosses the ball. It flies straight across the court, the ball passes right in front of the face of the other team's blocker, then just when you start to think, 'no way! He's never going to hit that one!' There's a spiker just waiting to strike and he smashes the ball just in time."

From his words, Sakura could tell that he was extremely passionate about volleyball, just like Shōyō. The only real difference in their love for the sport was that Shōyō wanted to be the ace and Kageyama, the setter. It made her think that these two were more similar than she previously thought. Yeah, they're both volleyball-crazy, but Kageyama is arrogant and controlling while Shōyō is humble and shy, at times. Yet they both had this burning passion for the same sport, and they would do anything just to play it. Including teaming up together to ensure they get to join the club.

"Y-yeah," Shōyō stuttered.

"The spiker's job may be flashier but the spiker can't get through without the setter to get the opponent to block and break the wall." Kageyama explained with so much passion lacing his voice. "It's the most important, cool, and challenging position on the court, okay?"

The orange-haired boy pursed his lips, "Yeah, sure, fine, I get it. You wanna be the setter."

Their minds flashed back to the penalty that their soon-to-be captain set for them, which caused Kageyama to grunt. "Damnnit! What with that guy?"

"All you have to do is win. You seemed pretty confident when you challenged them to a match earlier."

Kageyama seemed to think for a moment, his thoughts sticking firm to the idea that he would only set to Tanaka on Saturday. "Okay!" He suddenly exclaimed, "We've got until Saturday to work on your crappy receiving."

"Crappy?!" Shōyō bristled at the accusation, "But we can't get into the gym."

"Ahem," The three then heard Tanaka in the gym. Suspiciously, he was talking a tad bit louder than normal as he seemed to angle himself to face the window. "I forget we start practice at 7 AM tomorrow, don't we?"

"Uh, yeah, is that a problem?" 

Tanaka quickly tried to cover his suspicious and loud question, "Ah, not at all. Anyway, do you think the vice-principal's nappy rug made it out alive."

"We're not supposed to talk about that," Daichi deadpanned to the younger boy.

Endo piped up with a chuckle as he remembered what happened only a few hours ago, "it was still funny though."

"Endo." 

Outside, a plan that the first-years came up with silently was mutually agreed on. "Alright then, 5 AM," Kageyama said curtly before the two boys started to walk off beside each other. Sakura watched them with a small smirk, seeing that the competition between these two was certainly going to entertain her for a while.

Shōyō nodded his head, "Don't be late."

"I won't."

Sakura watched in annoyance as the two idiots started to race each other to the exit of the school. She would let the two of them run on their own, there was no need for her to chase after them. Especially since they were far faster than her. So, she just lazily started to walk after them, with her bag slung over her shoulder and her brother's in her hand. He would realize that he left his bag at some point. Might as well as be a helpful sister to her impulsive brother.

---

Sakura yawned loudly as she sat on the stairs leading to the gym. It was five in the morning and she was not happy. Mornings are tough for her as it is, but being woken up at about four just to get here on time was something that definitely made her grumpy. She didn't even have to come to this! This was Shōyō's thing and had nothing to do with her. Sakura would much rather be sleeping in for another few hours instead of sitting on the stairs to a locked gym. Yet here she was. All because Shōyō said that it: "wasn't safe for her to ride her bike by herself and as the older brother, he has to keep his imouto safe!" She had such a caring brother... good grief.

"Should have seen that coming," Shōyō said defeatedly as he tried to open the gym doors, "it's locked."

"Okay, let's go through the window," Kageyama said casually as if he hadn't just suggested committing a crime.

Shōyō turned to him with wide eyes at the idea, "Are you crazy? We'd end up getting expelled."

"Let him do it, Shō." Sakura mumbled out while leaning on her knees, "If he gets expelled, one less pain we have to deal with." Kageyama glowered down at her which she returned with one with equal ferocity.

There was then another pair of footsteps heading in their direction as a tired voice spoke up, "Man, 5 AM is too early."

"Tanaka-san?"

The second-year yawned loudly as he approached the trio. "You got two hours, and then beat it." He flashed the gym keys he had volunteered to take the other night to the teens.

Shōyō's eyes sparkled in admiration, "You're awesome!"

"Thank you!" Kageyama exclaimed.

Sakura deadpanned, "It's cold, let us in."

Tanaka laughed loudly, almost sounding insane in Sakura's opinion. "Yeah, who's your hero first-years? Call me Tanaka-senpai!"

"Tanaka-senpai!" Shōyō and Kageyama chorused.

"What was that?!"

"Tanaka-senpai!"

"How about you, Hinata-chan?" Sakura just pinned a glare on the older boy which caused him to freeze up. Like hell would she call him senpai right now. She was far too tired for any of this. He chuckled and turned to the door to open it. "Okay, punks. Let's get cracking."

Though it seemed like things were certainly not going to start out on a good note since the boys were already starting to bicker. "Get out of my way," Shōyō exclaimed as the two boys fought to even walk through the door. "I'm going to be the first one on that court!"

"You can't be first if Tanaka is already on it, dumbass!" Kageyama yelled as he pushed against Shōyō.

"Then why don't you let me go!?"

Tanaka groaned, already knowing that this was probably going to be the longest two hours of his life. "We don't have time for this."

Fed up with their childish behavior, Sakura pushed the two bickering boys which caused them to fall on the floor tangled together. She scoffed down at them with narrowed eyes as the annoyance was clear in her eyes. Lightning stuck behind her as she glared at her brother and his new teammate on the ground, "stop being annoying."

Shōyō bowed his head from Sakura's narrowed eyes, "sorry, imouto."

Kageyama looked up at Tanaka apologetically. "Sorry, boss, we've got a long way to go on those combinations."

They turned on the lights of the gym to get ready for their first practice. Sakura situated herself to sit by the entrance and pulled out some work to do for school. It wasn't like she had much to do, but she needed something to pass the time. Besides, it's not like she was completely interested in watching her brother and the former king fight with each other. Honestly, they were like an old married couple!

"Wow! Check it out!" Shōyō marveled as he stared around the gym.

"You were just here yesterday..." Tanaka pointed out lamely.

It didn't matter that he had been here already, Shōyō would always be in awe at the same gym that the Tiny Giant practiced in. Not only that but his first real practice with high school volleyball players. Not that practicing with Koji, Izumi, or Sakura wasn't good. It was just different getting to do with other volleyball players who were also trying to improve their skills instead of people just trying to be stand-ins. Either way, Shōyō was ready to get to spike some real sets!

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

Justice and Duty

Word Count: 3000 (oneshot)

[AO3]

Genre: Crime/Angst

Characters: Hinata Shouyou, Udai Tenma, various Karasuno characters

Summary: Udai Tenma was the legendary heir to a yakuza clan: cold-blooded, terrifying, and everything that new recruit Hinata Shouyou wanted to be. Now, Tenma is going straight, abandoning home and family, and destroying any chance his juniors have of being acknowledged by their hero. Shouyou is having none of it.

Warnings for gang violence, murder, possessive behavior, and brief harm to children.

Written for the HQ Black and Blue zine

~0~

People didn’t like to look Hinata Shouyou in the eyes. 

They noticed him, of course, despite how small and slight he was next to his much bigger brothers, but then they very quickly wished that they hadn’t. They tried to pretend that they hadn’t, but they still couldn’t get him out of their heads. 

There was an energy around him, a danger, like a live wire. Getting near him felt like creeping towards some wild thing on a frayed tether: those who hadn’t seen him in action felt their skin tingle and their guts start to swim without knowing exactly why. Those who had seen what happened when the tether snapped never forgot it.

Only the truly strong or the truly stupid had no fear of being caught in his line of sight, more terrifying than staring down the barrel of a gun. While once they had been a light, possibly even warm and friendly brown, now the light caught them and turned them amber. They were bright, too bright, always a bit too wide, and his perpetual smiles never quite reached them. Nobody could ever recall seeing him blink.

Likewise, nobody would peg Shouyou as being used for protecting people instead of destroying them. Which was exactly why the head of the Udai family was sending him to Tokyo to do just that.

Shouyou had met Udai Tenma fist-first. 

It was his own damn fault; he’d been a pretty dumb thirteen-year-old. He’d known since he was little that there was something shady going on in that little electronics store; there had to be a reason his mother would always cross the street to avoid it, after all. It was a too-ordinary place on a too-ordinary road, whose interior was blocked by the assortment of TVs in the front window, all playing different sports, where plenty of men went in and out but never seemed to buy anything. 

He’d been curious. He’d wanted in. And so he’d been skulking around the back, looking for a vent, a basement window, a glimpse of something that had not been his to see yet. Tenma moved on cat’s feet, but it was still amazing that Shouyou hadn’t realized he was there until he was being yanked bodily around by his unbuttoned uniform shirt and punched square in the jaw.

The blow rattled his skull and knocked him off his feet, straight into the trash cans against the back wall. Dazed, he’d looked up expecting to see a hulking beast of a gangster. Instead, he’d seen an older boy who looked a lot like him: only a couple inches taller, hair short and spiky over his round face. He certainly hadn’t been smiling, though.

“Who are you? What do you want with my father’s business?”

Tenma’s dark eyes had burned, and the growl of his voice had sent shivers down Shouyou’s spine. It had brought a grin to his face, despite the blood gushing from his smashed nose.

“To help out with it, actually.”

~0~

Shouyou wasn’t sure yet whether or not he liked Tokyo. 

It could just be the weather. Winters in the city were decidedly unpleasant, cold and full of freezing rain. But he knew he was kidding himself if he thought it was really something that minor. 

Being cut off from his brothers and boss was bad, no two ways about it. Nobody here knew who he was, though their eyes still flicked away if they chanced to meet his own: they knew they didn’t want to look any deeper or see any more of him. He would take his scraps of pride where he could get them, he supposed. And then there was the near-complete lack of things to do...

No. No, not quite. He had a job to do, like it or not.

Tenma was the worst part of Tokyo. 

He followed in the footsteps of his favorite brother, just like always. But Tenma would never see him, never acknowledge him again, and that was the hardest pill he had ever had to swallow. 

In the dusk, in the rain, Shouyou stalked down the sidewalk, black raincoat covering his suit. His hood did the job for now, but he was starting to amass quite the collection of hats to hide his telltale orange hair. If Tenma realized that he was here and what was really going on, Boss Udai would have his fingers. 

The rain fell on Tenma’s thick mane of black hair. He never used to let his hair grow out. Shouyou almost hadn’t recognized him when he first tracked him down here. But he could never mistake his brother’s face. Just couldn’t understand it.

Why, after everything they’ve been through together, was he reduced to still chasing Tenma’s back? Never to meet him, let alone surpass him?

His beloved brother was becoming a different person; the long hair wasn’t the half of it. Instead of a box cutter or lead pipe in his hand, there was an increasingly well-worn leather portfolio. He spoke unfailingly politely to everyone, instead of simply demanding what his bloodline entitled him to. Whoever he was speaking to on his new cell phone, Shouyou didn’t know them; he had not only his father but every one of his old friends and younger brothers blocked.

Sometimes he wanted to run up behind Tenma, grab his shoulders and shake him, demanding to know, What did I do wrong? Why did you leave me behind?

As far as Shouyou was concerned, the organization and himself were interchangeable. Tenma might say differently, were Shouyou selfish enough to actually confront him, but Shouyou made no mistake: it was very personal.

~0~

Tenma had been impressed with him: not by his brazenness, but by the surprising maturity with which he carried out the sharing of sake, first with Tenma’s father and then with Tenma himself. The fact that he had worn his broken nose like a badge of honor, he tells Shouyou later, certainly helps. As does the fact that Shouyou will do anything to follow him. 

Tenma directs him to collect protection money from bars and restaurants? He does it quickly and efficiently; despite his size, the weight of the Udai family behind him means everyone takes him seriously.

Teaches him through a school of hard knocks how to fight, with fists and blades? He’s a wildly eager learner.

Orders him to hunt down one stubborn shop owner who thinks he can refuse them their due, and remind him otherwise? However — and with whatever — he likes? 

Oh, he’ll do it. Happily. 

“Aniki,” Daichi remarks one night, “you should be proud of yourself.”

Five of them are gathered in Sugawara’s chilly but clean-smelling basement, watching Suga’s needle patiently poking the last sections of a samurai on Daichi’s back. Shouyou sits in the corner, playing Oicho-Kabu with Nishinoya and hoping that the lighter flipping around in their resident arsonist’s free hand won’t send their card game up in flames. Their jackets are off, and Shouyou’s bare skin itches for a needle in it too, to make him match his proudly decorated brothers.

Tenma sits cross-legged between each pair, his back straight and expression stoic, save for the single eyebrow raised at Daichi’s remark.

“Oh? What for?”

Daichi’s smile is tense (the traditional tattooing process is slow and painful) but genuine. 

“The way you’ve trained Hinata. I overheard some of those street thugs complaining about him downtown. Apparently they’re the friends of that guy whose arms Hinata broke. They’d love to get revenge, but they’re too afraid of him to try on their own. And if they brought more of their friends in to overwhelm him, then you would be after them, and nobody wants that.”

Sugawara doesn’t take his eyes off his work, but gives a slow nod of approval. Nishinoya snickers, still flipping the lighter in his hand, the spinning circle of flame gleaming eerily off his grin. 

“I’d like to see that little bastard try and pull a knife in one of our pachinko halls again!” he crows. “Must be hard, with your bones sticking out!”

Shouyou tries not to preen at that, but Daichi snorts anyway. “See what I mean, aniki?”

A smirk plays on Tenma’s lips as he looks over at his youngest brother, like a king regarding his heir.

“So I might’ve created a monster then, huh?” 

Shouyou holds his head a little higher, and the glint of satisfaction in Tenma’s eyes feels like a lighter flicking on deep in his chest.

“I think I like that.”

~0~

He kept his head up high now. Ears pricked, like a dog on the watch for predators. Tenma was young, and he might be trying to go straight, but he’d been in the business long enough to build up a reputation to beat, and to make plenty of enemies.

It didn’t take him long to catch sight of some. They wore matching suits — sharp, but ill-fitting on their brawny frames — and dark sunglasses, and their hair was slicked heavily back. They strode down the street like they owned it, and maybe around here, they did. But Shouyou was here now, and the usual rules didn’t apply to him. No matter what opposing group they belonged to, he wouldn’t let them do as they pleased. 

Shouyou watched the men’s hands more than any other part of them: the way they drifted towards pockets and waistbands as they followed Tenma, too. Clearly the threat of Boss Udai’s retaliation if his son was harmed mattered less to them than paying Tenma back for however he’d offended them. And they certainly didn’t give a damn who was on the other end of his phone call to hear them, when they finally reached him.

If they reached him. 

With the rain still falling and night slowly coming on, none of them noticed the others as they made their way off the streets proper down to the path by the river. It was quiet; their footsteps made no sound. The streetlights were few and far between. And they were alone there, entirely alone. 

Shouyou had already been tensed to strike, an arrow in a bow pulled back as far as it would go. He watched, unblinking, letting the fire inside him build and build until it suffused his whole body. Maybe he was angry and resentful. Maybe he had a right to be, maybe he didn’t. But he was going to put it to good use now. 

The instant he saw a flash of metal emerging from one of those pockets, Shouyou was running, his sneakers soundless on the wet pavement. They were fifteen meters away from Tenma, but he had no doubt that with their bulk, they were one hundred percent capable of making that sprint. Though Tenma could react in time to counter them, probably even fight them off himself, that wasn’t the point. It was Shouyou’s responsibility to protect him.

Most of his brothers didn’t carry knives, viewing them as too big a liability in case the police caught them with it. (They were all willing to go to prison, but in service of their group, not out of their own carelessness.) Shouyou was just a little bit more reckless and he was glad of it now.

Five inches of stainless steel slid through the back of the bigger man’s neck, with the soft, quick sounds of tearing tissue and clicking vertebrae that Shouyou only heard because he’d been listening for them. Directly through the cervical section of the spine, enough to paralyze him from the neck down with one quick and clean stab. It was a high part of the body to reach, but Shouyou sure could jump when he put his mind to it.

The man dropped to the pavement like a wet sack of skin, and his buddy, to his credit, reacted well. He pulled his weapon so quickly it seemed to just materialize in his hand, and if his nerve were just a bit steelier, he might have actually landed a blow on his attacker. He might have, if he hadn’t had the bad luck to look straight into Shouyou’s eyes.

He was never sure, exactly, what everybody seemed to see there. But whatever it was, it was an icy part of him, a part not quite human, and it froze anyone in his gaze to the bone. Like realizing the moment of your own death. For once, he wasn’t smiling, and he didn’t know whether that enhanced or lessened the effect. Then again, he didn’t exactly care.

The man only froze for a second, maybe less. It was more than enough. Shouyou wasn’t afraid of the claw hammer in his meaty hand, not one bit. The sight of it, and the thought of what it was meant to do to Tenma, were like alcohol thrown on a fire. His fury renewed, Shouyou lunged, underneath the faltering swing of the hammer at his temple. 

He had never felt his hand move so fast before in his life. Splashes of red seemed to appear on their own, all over the front of the man’s white dress shirt, in a matter of moments. To finish up, Shouyou put all the strength in his small, slight body behind burying the knife up to the hilt in his sternum and twisting it hard. 

The man’s eyes bulged behind his sunglasses, and dark blood dripped over his lip. He might have made a choked gurgling sound, but the blade Shouyou left stuck there made that impossible. He lunged like a wounded animal, frightened and wild, and Shouyou crouched down, lifting his hands. It was one of the first things Tenma had taught him about hand-to-hand combat: no matter how big his opponent was, he could always win if he used their weight against them, in exactly the right way. 

So with a twist of the arm and a mighty push upward between the hips, Shouyou hurled the man over his own head and into the water. His death throes propelled him for a few seconds, his hands flailing for the edge and his chin jerking breathlessly up above the surface. 

Shouyou looked down on him with an expression of flat disgust. With one decisive kick in the face, he sent him under the water for good. He turned to the first man — still immobile on the ground, face bone-white and tongue twitching, unable to make a sound from shock — and with his other foot pushed him into the river, too. He, at least, wouldn’t be trying to swim. 

He was incredibly thankful for the rain, so torrential it drowned out all the sounds and washed away all the blood, both on the path and on Shouyou’s hands. He started up a nearby stone staircase back up to the street, where he could watch Tenma from a less conspicuous vantage point, pulling his hood back up over his head.

Tenma seemed to be done with his call, and if he had noticed anything amiss, he hadn’t let on, his attention devoted instead to shielding his phone and portfolio inside his jacket. The water plastered his hair down and ran in rivulets down his face and the side of his neck, making the large bandage stuck on the latter peel at the corners. Shouyou knew that it hid not a wound, but the tail of the great black dragon tattoo that dominated Tenma’s chest.

It still stung to see such a beautiful thing covered up in such a way, as if it was shameful. As if the men he had once called brothers were shameful things as well. Shouyou hadn’t cried since he was a small child, but...it had made his chest seize up something awful the first time he’d realized it.

Aniki...do you really understand what you’ve done? How you’ve hurt us?

Tenma was in his own world now. A world that not just didn’t include Shouyou, but that actively shut him out. He wanted to surpass his brother one day, to be acknowledged by him; he had never been satisfied with simply chasing Tenma’s back. But now it seemed that that would be the rest of his life.

Aniki...

He could hear his heartbeat thumping in his ears. He could feel the resentment and hurt like red-hot needles, along every line of the dark tattoos he now boasted on his torso. He could give in to the urge: run back down there himself, take his brother down now that his skills were rusty, with nothing but his fists, force him to come back and — and —

Aniki!

Just before passing under the bridge, Tenma stopped, as if hearing his thoughts, or just finally sensing the eyes on him. He looked around: suspicious at first, then puzzled when his gaze landed on Shouyou. They were too far away for Tenma to recognize him, especially with the hood obscuring his face, but Shouyou could see Tenma’s face clearly. He hadn’t looked directly into his eyes since before he had left for the city.

What he saw in them drained him dry of his fury. They still burned, but with passion instead of ferocity. They were brighter, stronger...full of life and pride. 

(His opposite. Naturally.)

Shouyou realized with a jolt that he had never seen his brother like this before. Maybe...he had never really seen him at all.

...Well. There was no point in standing around and staring until his cover was blown; Tenma wasn’t stupid, after all. Shouyou turned and hurried the rest of the way up the stairs, and watched Tenma shrug and move on from a better hidden vantage point on the street. At that moment, his phone buzzed in his coat pocket, and he was surprised to find his hands trembling as he pulled it out.

A text from Boss Udai: Hinata. How is he doing?

Shouyou’s thumb hovered over the phone for a moment, before typing a simple reply.

He’s happy.

[haikyuuincorrecttrash]

100 letters

part 3.

"Jerk,

Today we will fight for a place in the team.

Look, I know that guy is two heads taller than you, and he also knows how to get mad. Most likely, he is a good blocker, which, no matter how hard you try, you will never become because of your height. We don't know anything about his friend, but since he was accepted into the team, it means he also knows how to play. Unlike us, these two have nothing to lose, and we can stay without volleyball for the next three years. I don't know about you, but for me it's like losing a limb. In general, it all looks deplorable, but we have the main thing – it's me! You don't have to do a damn thing, just listen to me and follow my orders, and then we'll both get on the team. You want that, don't you? In that case, shove your pride up your ass and be the quiet, obedient boy your mom raised you to be.

I'll deal with everything.

With confidence in victory,

the future setter of Karasuno."

It was supposed to be a parting note that would raise the spirit of struggle in Hinata. Kageyama can't judge how much he succeeded, but he thinks he did a good job. The words are chosen as accurately as possible: even if this blond is scary, he is definitely not better than Tobio, and Shoyo... is not the best volleyball player, and this is a fact. You can argue with it, disagree with it, challenge it, but you can't change reality. It's good that Kageyama himself is a great volleyball player, whose footprints on the ground Hinata is not worthy of kissing. Tobio wrote the truth, and even though Shoyo maliciously tore the note into small pieces, Kageyama knows that he was right.

[thechaoticfanartist]

Why are Grim and Tamohara just every duo in Haikyuu.

Like

Kageyama and Hinata - fucking crazy short dumbass and taller one who is supposed to be smart but is also a dumbass

Daichi and Sugawara (this is more Rebellion era) - tired people who are kind but might fight you. secretly they are just as chaotic as the rest

Tanaka and Nishinoya - chaotic fucking best friends and one of them is short

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi - sassy bastard (affectionate) + nervous trainwreck

Bokuto and Akaashi - CHAOTICCCC LET'S GO FIGHT PEOPLE + the friend who is so done trying to get them to calm down

Kuroo and Kenma - Same as above + tall/short

Bokuto and Kuroo - smart individually, braincells disappear when together

Lev and Yaku - short person who attacks people who make short jokes, + the tall one making the short jokes

Matsukawa and Hanamaki - bros4lyfe, similar to Tanaka and Nishinoya. They also make fun of the very obvious flirters around them

there are more but that's enough for one asksjfsjf

I have never seen Haikyuu but yeah those really are the Grim & Tamohara dynamics lol