Chapter Text
The next day, Kageyama worriedly glanced at Suga periodically throughout morning practice. Kageyama’s eyes were wide with nerves, and he was speaking even less than usually, which meant not at all. His sets were also off, which was agitating coach Ukai. He was yelling at everyone more than normal, even the members that were rarely scolded.
Every time they made eye contact, Suga tried to give Kageyama a reassuring smile, but the other turned away before he could see it, too alarmed by the accidental eye contact. Suga just sighed and continued on with the drills they were doing.
They both knew the conversation was coming, but Suga tried to communicate with his eyes that it wouldn’t be until later. It made no sense to have the conversation during morning practice. It would take a while, and he didn’t want anyone to be late to class, or to rush the discussion.
The conversation being the one where he confronted the whole team about what they had overheard, of course.
It wasn’t fair to him, and it wasn’t fair to them if they didn’t have this conversation. Both sides need to explain themselves. One side definitely more than the other. He knew his teammates could be immature, but he didn’t think they’d eavesdrop on an obviously private discussion.
He knew they had just wanted to help him, and even though they hadn’t actually done any damage, they definitely could’ve. They needed to learn how to actually help people in constructive ways, and not just flounder around making overly complicated and useless plans.Their hearts were in the right place, but their execution was way off.
At the end of morning practice when coach Ukai was giving them a brief reprimanding speech, Kageyama didn’t take his eyes off the back of Suga’s head once. He was just waiting for the vice captain to ask for an explanation from everyone, and then he would be found out.
He hadn’t yet told anyone of his complete failure to stick to the plan. He hadn’t only not stuck to the plan, he gave away the plan. To the worst person to possibly tell.
He stared, almost unblinkingly, at the smooth grey hair where a section was sticking up slightly. Hinata, who was by his side, was looking at him worriedly. Maybe his face was twisted in a scowl? That sometimes happened, but it was completely unintentional. He tried his best to make his expression blank, but he saw Hinata straighten up in fright and take a step away out of the corner of his eye. Apparently he still needed practice keeping his facial expressions neutral.
He was so focused that he didn’t even notice when they were dismissed. Everyone began to lazily scatter across the gym, picking up their belongings or breaking off into groups to discuss who knows what, and he was still staring stupidly at the back of his vice captains head.
They were free to leave?
Maybe they wouldn’t have to talk about it at all. Maybe Suga could just let it go, and they could go back to making up plans, but this time Suga would be in on it too. Maybe they would eventually give up, or Suga would pretend like he never found out, but play along anyways.
Of course, he couldn’t be that lucky. He once again made eye contact with Suga, but this time he didn’t break it, a question in his eyes. When he saw the apologetic smile on Suga’s lips, he knew there was no way in hell Suga would let it go.
He scampered out of the gym as fast as he could, hoping Suga wouldn’t try to stop him so that they could talk now. Hinata chased after him, bewildered.
Everytime he spotted Suga in the hallways, he ducked around a corner or hunched his shoulders, trying to not be spotted by his upperclassman, but Suga seemed completely uninterested in him. He began to relax again, realizing it wouldn’t be until later. He could pretend it wasn’t happening at all.
Of course, pretending it wasn’t happening didn’t make everything ok. He’d somehow procrastinated thinking about the conversation he knew was bound to happen until the end of their after school practice. They were all sitting in a messy semi circle, lazily sipping water. Most of their eyes were half way closed with exhaustion, and they were leaning back, putting their weight onto the palms which were firmly making contact with the floor.
Suga straightened up his posture, wiggling his shoulder back and forth a little bit. He cleared his throat to gain everyone’s attention, and Kageyama’s eyes flew open.
“Could everyone except Asahi and Kiyoko stay behind to have a talk?” he said once everyone’s eyes had locked onto him.
Asahi and Kiyoko glanced at each other, perplexed, but they shrugged and stood up to leave the gym. Daichi leaned over to Suga, whispering a question in his ear, but Suga only shot him a look that told him to wait.
Everyone else except Kageyama was confused until they saw the fearfully expectant look on the first year setter’s face. Quickly understanding what was happening, the first and second years face’s matched Kageyama’s.
Suga tried to stifle a laugh at the comedic faces of his kouhai, but failed miserably. It didn’t seem to calm them in the slightest, and Hinata even looked like he was about to pass out.
“I think all of you have figured out what this conversation is going to be about” Suga started.
“I don’t-” Daichi started, but Suga cut him off.
“I know you don’t, babe”
Daichi’s eyes widened into shocked disks, and he turned to face his boyfriend in a flash. They’d never called each other pet names in front of their teammates before. It would give them away-
“Don’t worry. They already know. Don’t you?” Suga asked the rest of the room.
“Suga san, we are so sorry! We shouldn’t have-” Noya started, leaping off the ground and turning pleading eyes to Suga.
“Noya, sit back down. I’m not angry, but I would like to have a talk with all of you, but first, Daichi needs to know what we are talking about” Suga raised an eyebrow at all of them, waiting until one of them was brave enough to explain the situation to their on-the-brink-of-homicidal captain.
When no one spoke, Ennoshita sighed, resigned. “We overheard your conversation with Suga san a few days ago, and these idiots were trying to fix everything, but it did not work at all”
Noya and Tanaka gasped, offended at the criticism of their plans while Daichi took a moment to process what was said. Daichi’s eyebrows twitched downwards and his shoulders tensed threateningly, and Noya and Tanaka immediately shrunk back down.
“You what?!” Daichi exclaimed, and Suga facepalmed, whacking Daichi on the back of the head.
“Everybody calm the fuck down. We need to talk about this like adults” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“But we aren’t adults” Hinata said, tilting his head to the side.
Suga paused, then responded. “Well we have to talk like responsible not-adults, then”
Hinata paused, then nodded.
“Ok, so I know what happened from Kageyama, but is there anything anyone else would like to say?” Suga asked.
“I did not want to be part of this” Tsukishima drawled.
“I thought so. Anyone else?”
Ennoshita raised his hand, and Suga nodded to him. “I thought it was a bad idea”
“I also expected that” Suga smiled apologetically at him.He waited for anyone else to say something, but when no one did, he continued. “While I am glad that all of you care enough about me to try to do something nice for me, what you did was an invasion of privacy”
All of them hung their heads in shame, but looked back up when he continued speaking.
“Please try not to listen in on private conversations in the future, and actually talk to people instead of making roundabout plans that aren’t going to work”
They nodded, pitifully hunching their shoulders.
“Now, I expect you have some questions? You can ask if you want” Suga said, his face relaxing into his usual gentle smile.
“Who were you talking about?” Yamaguchi piped up.
Suga hadn’t expected him to speak at all. He tilted his head to the side. “You are going to need to be more specific.
“Daichi san said that some people were being horrible to you” he explained further.
Suga’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, he was talking about my parents”. Everyone who had been glaring holes into the floor looked up at that.”They are just kind of… absent?” he said, his voice uncharacteristically shy.
“They aren’t very nice people” Daichi added on, his mouth twisting in badly concealed displeasure.
“I guess you could say that. I don’t really want to tell all of you the details” Suga said to the others, who all nodded.
“How can we make you feel better, Suga san?” Hinata asked, his face was pinched in apprehension.
Suga hadn’t expected that question, but it filled his chest with warmth when he saw all the others look at him expectantly. They really wanted to help him. He laughed a little, a sunny smile on his lips.
“You don’t need to do anything differently. My favorite part of the day is when I get to see all of you. You’re like the family I don’t have at home”
Hinata’s eyes sparkled as he leapt to his feet to tackle Suga in an overly enthusiastic hug. Everyone else got to their feet to join in, even Tsukishima.
At their next game, Suga and Kageyama nodded to each other confidently, stepping onto the court side by side.