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intheticklecloset · 2 years

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One Last Hurrah (Haikyuu!!)

Primary Universe

Summary: When Hinata is late to volleyball practice right before Nationals, the team deals with its worries by ganging up on Kageyama once again.

A/N: This one has been on my Wish List for a while! I wanted to progress Kageyama’s storyline further by having him learn to trust his other teammates without Hinata around to stop them or keep them in check. I’m really proud of how this turned out, considering it took me longer than usual to write. Thank you for your patience! Enjoy! ^^

Word Count: 2,118

@myreygn

~~~

This was weird.

Eleven members of the Karasuno volleyball team sat in a nearly completed circle on the floor, an obvious gap between Kageyama and Tsukishima that the former was very much wishing would be filled.

Hinata was late. Late. To volleyball practice.

And not just any practice. The last one before Nationals next week.

Tsukki glared at Kageyama for the second time that morning, as though it were his fault they were missing the redheaded menace. “Have you heard anything yet?”

“It’s not like we keep tabs on each other all the time,” Kageyama muttered back. He met Daichi’s gaze and shrugged. “He hasn’t texted me. I don’t know anything. We don’t even live near each other. How am I—”

“Okay, relax,” Daichi said, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation. We all know Hinata wouldn’t bail on us this close to Nationals. He’s far too dedicated to this team to be late unless something was up.”

The rest of the circle nodded and murmured their agreement.

“Well, we can’t start the meeting without him,” Suga pointed out. “So what do we do? Should we go ahead and warm up and reconvene once he gets here?”

Daichi thought for a moment, glanced around the circle, and nodded. “Yeah, that might be for the best.”

Everyone split off into uneven teams to do their warm-ups – stretching, jogging a few laps, pairing off to spike and receive. Kageyama and Suga took the setter positions on either side of the net to set for the oncoming spikers. Noya was lined up to receive on the same side as the first-year and couldn’t help but notice how he kept glancing toward the door, growing more and more confused and maybe even apprehensive with each look over his shoulder.

Another half an hour went by, and still, no Hinata.

This was decidedly weird.

“Any word from carrot top?” Tsukishima asked Daichi, still appearing annoyed that their routine was thrown off because of the usually overly punctual decoy.

Daichi checked his phone. He shook his head. “Not yet. He hasn’t even read the text. If he’s still not here in a few minutes I’ll ask Mr. Takeda if the school got a call from his mom that he’s sick today or something.”

“He’d better not be sick this close to Nationals,” Kageyama muttered under his breath, having overheard the report. “I’ll kill him if he is.”

Noya laughed, nudging him in the side. “Chill out, man. He’ll be here, and even if he’s not, nothing short of death would keep him from coming to Nationals with us. It’ll be fine. Although I’m sure he’d be touched that you’re so worried about him, Kags~”

Kageyama looked both offended and like he’d been caught red-handed at once. “What? I’m not worried about that little moron! I’m just saying if he screws up our odds by getting sick, I’ll personally put him six feet under when he shows his face again.”

Tsukki rolled his eyes as he walked by. “Dramatic much, your majesty?”

“Shut up! You’re paranoid that he’s not here, too, you jerk.”

Noya stepped between the two before the blonde could whirl around and continue the fight. “All right, settle down, guys. We’re all worried that Hinata’s not here. But it’s nothing to get so worked up over.”

Daichi checked his phone again.

“You,” Noya continued, pointing at Tsukishima. “Don’t be mean. And you—” He turned to Kageyama, with an added pinch to his side. “Loosen up. We need you at your best.”

Kageyama squeaked instinctively, jumping aside and immediately covering his mouth, as if that could take back the sound that had drawn half his team’s attention with one syllable.

Noya’s eyes lit up.

“Don’t,” Kageyama said hurriedly, taking another step back.

“Hey, guys,” Daichi said, trying to get their attention.

“I have an idea,” the libero said mischievously, turning his fingers into claws and wiggling teasingly. “We all need to just chill out instead of worrying so much. How about we all tickle Kageyama again? This will be our last chance as a team, after all~”

“But Hinata’s not here,” Kageyama protested, heart racing nervously as he saw a few more smirks join Noya’s. Hinata wasn’t here to help keep them from going too far. If they started now…

“So? He tickles you all the time. I don’t think he’d mind if we had a go on our own for a change.” Noya winked at him teasingly. “Or do you just really miss him that badly?”

Kageyama glared at him. “It’s not like that! I just—”

Daichi tried once more. “Guys?”

But Noya was already moving, and so was Yamaguchi, and then Ennoshita, and then Tanaka, and soon any kind of control that may have still existed in the room was gone. Kageyama let out a shriek as he went down, yelling and protesting the whole way even as desperate giggles started to bubble up out of him at their prodding fingers.

Suga came to stand beside Daichi, glancing over his shoulder at the phone he still held in his hand. The captain tilted the screen so he could see. “Should we tell them?”

“I was trying to,” Daichi replied, pocketing the device and watching in amusement as their resident grump began to laugh in earnest, being pinned and tickled by his teammates. “But at this point, I’m just going to join in.”

Suga beamed. “Me, too.”

“Wahahahahahait! Wait! Plehehehehease!” Kageyama squealed, squirming and bucking as more fingers than he could count scribbled in his underarms, dug into his ribs, squeezed his hips and knees. He tried to kick but quickly had his legs pinned down as well as his arms, once again stuck at the mercy of his teammates as he’d been a couple of times already this season. He wouldn’t have been so freaked out about it if Hinata had gotten his butt to the most important practice of the year. “Guhuhuhuhuys! Nohohohohohot nohohohohohow! H-Hihihihihinata—!”

“Chill out, man, he’ll get here eventually,” Tanaka replied teasingly, interpreting his desperate cries as a sign that he wanted the redhead to be part of this madness, too. Which technically he did, but not for the reasons they were thinking.

Kageyama’s eyes darted to Daichi and Suga just as they knelt down to find an opening and join in on the fun. “Plehehehehehease, wahahahahahait! Dohohohohohon’t!”

When they merely grinned at him and started tickling anyway, a million old memories resurfaced, causing Kageyama to panic. In his mind’s eye he only saw his middle school teammates. They’d never once stopped when he screamed for them to, never once let up on his death spot no matter how purple his face got from not being able to breathe. It was all fun and games to them, but to the setter…

“Vohohohoholleyball! Volleyball! Plehehehehehease, stohohohohohohop!” he begged through his forced laughter.

At first, Daichi and the others were confused by his randomly yelling the word in the midst of his mirth. But then the captain realized it had to be a safe word of some kind and hurriedly told everyone to let up and give him a minute to breathe and communicate.

Kageyama was surprised when his safe word actually worked with his teammates who weren’t Hinata. He blinked and caught his breath as he looked around at their concerned faces, and all of a sudden he realized how wrong he’d been to assume that the Karasuno volleyball club would be anything other than playful and respectful.

“I…I’m sorry,” he said at last, propping himself up on his elbows once his arms were free. “I was afraid if Hinata weren’t here to stop you, you wouldn’t stop at all, and I…I panicked.”

Suga patted his leg gently. “Do you want us to stop? Are you not comfortable?”

Kageyama glanced around again. But he didn’t have to take long to know what his answer was. “No, I’m okay. It’s just…there’s one spot…”

Noya traced his own bottom ribs just above his stomach. “Here, right?”

Kageyama’s relief intensified so much he could have collapsed right back on the ground then and there. He nodded. “Yeah. I’m not ready for that spot yet.”

“If we promise not to tickle you there,” Daichi asked, “and stop when you say ‘volleyball,’ will you trust us not to go too far?”

The setter bit his lip, trying to keep himself from smiling in anticipation. “Y-Yeah. I trust you.”

“Then give these back,” Ennoshita said playfully, grabbing his arms and pulling them above his head again. “Let us show you we’re nothing like the jerks you played with in middle school.”

“I already k-knoohohohow thahahahahat.” Kageyama’s words ended in giggles when his friends gradually picked up where they’d left off, tickling his knees, hips, ribs, and underarms all at once. For several moments he allowed himself to relax and snicker openly. Then the first of what would surely be many hands slipped under his jersey to tickle his bare belly, and he choked on a snort and dissolved into laughter, squirming helplessly and elatedly on the gym floor.

“Aww, your tummy is still super ticklish, huh?” Noya teased. He must have been the first to go for the spot; Kageyama couldn’t entirely tell from his position at their playful mercy.

“Gah! Nohohohohoho, don’t t-tehehehehehease me!” Kageyama whined, though it was obvious he didn’t entirely mean it.

Tanaka grinned evilly, glancing around at everyone. “Oh? I say we should all tease you at once, just to see how flustered you get, ticklish little first-year!”

Kageyama yelped out a “no!” before suddenly being bombarded with teases from all sides. His teammates cooed and reminded him how ticklish he was and how fun it was to make him react, and the setter squeezed his eyes shut and blushed and laughed even louder, both from the effect of their words and an attempt to drown them out all at once.

“Stahahahahahap it! Guhuhuhuhuhuys! AH!! NONONO WAHAHAHAHAHAIT!!” he squealed suddenly, trying to jerk his leg out of the way when someone dug into his knee pit. “NOHOHOHOHOT THEHEHEHEHEHERE!! NOT THE KNEHEHEHEHEHEHEES!!”

Yamaguchi grinned and kept it up anyway.

For the next few minutes the members of the Karasuno volleyball team pinned and tickled their young setter with all the playfulness they could manage, always staying away from the spot he’d declared off-limits but finding ways to make him throw his head back and cackle out his harder laughter anyway. Kageyama was so caught up in the fun of it all that he lost his sense of where he was, only knowing ticklish sensations and unstoppable giggles until finally – after no one knew how long – the gym doors burst open and the final member of their team arrived a full hour late to the meeting.

“I’m here!” Hinata yelled, dropping his bag by the door and sprinting over to them. “I’m so sorry I’m late! My mom fell and hurt herself this morning and my sister was freaking out and I had to make sure they were both okay and I really wanted to be here on time but there wasn’t anything I could do about it and hey is Kageyama okay why are you all crowded around him like that?!”

Everyone had stopped the instant he barged in, staring at him as he spewed words at them that only kind of made sense for how fast they were flying from his mouth.

After a long pause, Daichi cleared his throat. “First off, is your mom okay?”

“Yeah, she’s good now. I helped her get to the living room so she’d be comfortable and then had to walk my sister to school since she couldn’t take her, then I sprinted over here as fast as I could. I’m so sorry I’m late!”

“It’s okay,” Suga told him calmly, smiling. “We found a way to pass the time while we were waiting for you.”

It was then that Hinata looked – really looked – at Kageyama for the first time. It took him all of two seconds to take in the blushing face, bright eyes, the jersey that had ridden up to expose his belly, and the way everyone else was either pinning him down or had hands on various ticklish spots.

“We’re gang tickling him?” Hinata gasped excitedly. “Is it too late for me to join?”

Kageyama whimpered, lips wobbling as he tried to suppress a giddy smile, knowing exactly what was coming next.

Everyone looked at him again and grinned.

Daichi chuckled. “I think we can spare a few more minutes.”

And Kageyama wound up laughing even louder now that his best friend had made his circle of teammates complete.

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