Chapter Text
A week after Hinata and Kageyama’s first year starts
Aoba Johsai was big. Like, big big in comparison to Karasuno. To be fair, they did have more funding from being a private school, but still! Shouyou thought that it was slightly unfair. Karasuno had just as good players, if not better, so shouldn’t they get just as much funding? Well, whatever. It was time to play!
Apparently, the coaches at Aoba Johsai (or Seijoh as it was locally known) had some sort of beef with Kageyama and wanted him as the main setter for the whole game. Sugawara-senpai had just brushed it off, saying it was fine as it was only a practice game. Shouyou honestly could care less, because all that mattered to him was whether or not he got to be on the court!
As everyone got warmed up, Shouyou took the opportunity to check out the other team. There were quite a few tall players, but no one was too incredibly intimidating. Kageyama muttered something about “Oika” or along the lines of it, but Shouyou had no clue what an “Oika” was. Maybe it was some kind of japanese food that he was craving? Or a new TV show?
The starting lineup was fairly strong; In clockwise order, Kageyama was serving with Sawamura and Tanaka on the back with him, and Shouyou, Tsukkishima (a fellow first year) and Ennoshita were in the front. Shouyou was really excited. First game of the season, and he was already on the court! Back in Brazil, the team he was in was quite large, despite most of the kids not caring about the game, so Shouyou had to prove himself before he could be on the official roster. This team, however, only had ten people.
Kageyama served, a beautiful jump serve. The Seijoh libero picked it up, and the game started. It got passed to the setter, who half heartedly tossed it to a spiker. Tanaka passed it to Kageyama, and he sent it to Shouyou. Coming from the left, Shouyou spiked. The blockers didn’t expect for him to get it, let alone so soon, and with the height of his jump they couldn’t stop the ball. It gracefully landed in a back corner, and Karasuno won the first point.
Slight celebration ensued, but soon enough the ball was in the air again, this time landing a service ace.
“Nice kill!” The team shouted as they rotated.
After that, everything ran smoothly. Seijoh was able to get in a few amazing spikes, but their blocking was also nothing to laugh at. Shouyou did feel, however, that something was… off about their setter. He seemed like a sub in, or someone who wanted to be a spiker but got stuck setting.
Shouyou went up to serve. The score was currently 6-4 in their favor, and he really didn’t want to fuck this up. Kageyama threw him a thumbs up and covered his head. Shouyou stuck his tongue out at him, and prepared to do a jump float serve. This was his favorite, as it carried the same effect in both beach and indoor. With the beach, a large portion of serves came as floats simply because of the wind, but indoors not a lot of people were shown how to pick them up, especially just highschoolers.
To no one’s surprise, it was a service ace. Shouyou grinned, and welcomed Tanaka’s slap on the back. Seijoh did pick up his next serve, to his dismay, but it was okay. Afterall, he was having fun! It’s not like there were any real stakes right now, so Shouyou figured he might as well relax.
Karasuno took the first set, and Seijoh the second. Both teams were tiring out slightly, though Shouyou was still pumped and ready for more. But then, something happened.
“Hey guys!” A tall brunette walked in, and some people from above cheered. “Did you miss me?”
“Oikawa, good to have you back.” The coach greeted him
So that’s what Oika is , Shouyou thought to himself. Still doesn’t explain how Kageyama knows him . The mysterious player started warming up as the third set began. Shouyou got in a few good spikes, but then Oikawa joined his team on the court.
A tall and presumably third year player greeted him, and swapped places. Oikawa was standing directly in front of him now, a solid six inches taller than Shouyou. “Are you Oika?”
The boy didn’t have time to do anything other than snort as the game resumed. Sawamura served, and someone from Seijoh got it. The ball then got tossed to Oikawa, who did what may have been the most beautiful set Shouyou had ever seen to a first year who had played with Kageyama last year.
That’s kinda hot , Shouyou thought as he blocked.
The game continued, and Shouyou got to spike. As he drew in the spikers, the perfect opportunity to feint arose and Shouyou took it. The look on Onionhead’s face was so amazing that it distracted Shouyou from seeing Oikawa’s stunned face, which quickly changed into a smirk.
When the ball was back to Seijoh, it was Oikawa’s turn to serve. He took three long strides back, before launching the ball into the air and executing a perfect jump spike serve that landed on the back line. If Shouyou blushed as it rushed past his face, no one pointed it out.
Pulling Kageyama aside during the timeout, Shouyou whispered “I think I have a volleyball crush,” which prompted Kageyama to do a spit take for an unknown reason.
“Please tell me it isn’t fucking Oikawa.”
“It’s fucking Oikawa.” This now made Sugawara snort as they had unintentionally raised the volume of their voices.
“You’re fucking Oikawa?!?” Tanaka was fuming. Shouyou had only known him for a week, but it was very clear that his fuse was very short. “Not before I get a girlfriend! I mean swing either way, you do you, but don’t do Oikawa!”
“I’m not fucking Oikawa!” Shouyou accidentally shouted, leading to everyone in the large gym to stare at him. Fun fact, a big open space leads to great acoustics! This means that not only did Oikawa hear, but so did all of Seijoh’s team. Talk about embarrassing, right? Wrong. Shouyou Hinata may be lacking in some things
(height-
)
, but one thing he never found himself without was lack of a backbone when it came to things he said. Because of this, Shouyou followed up with a quick “Sorry Oikawa!” before going back to his team.
Across the court, one Iwaizumi Hajime could be seen laughing his ass off as Oikawa desperately tried to make sense of the surreal situations.
With that out of the way, the third set ended in Seijoh’s favor. As Karasuno was doing wind down stretching, Oikawa marched his way up to Shouyou.
“You.” He pointed a long (and perfectly manicured) finger down at the wing spiker. “I am not fucking you.”
“Yeah, fair enough. Could you set for me though?”
Not knowing any other way to respond, Oikawa shrugged and replied, “Sure.”
Going out onto the court, Shouyou passed the ball to Oikawa and began to run towards the net. Oikawa, who wanted to maybe knock the shorter boy down a peg or three, threw the ball just as Shouyou reached the peak of his fast jump. To everyone’s surprise, Shouyou not only hit the ball, but also hit it directly past where hypothetical blockers would be standing. Oikawa gaped, now developing his own little volleyball crush.
“Wow, that was really fast! Was it a minus tempo?”
Before the brunette could respond, Kageyama stomped his way up. “Why didn’t you tell me you could hit that fast?!?” He demanded, shaking Shouyou’s shirt. The older boy, however, stepped between them.
“Now now, Tobio-kun, there’s no need to get upset,” his trademark grin was back, blazing brightly as he taunted. “Let’s not get too upset over,” he gestured to Shouyou, “I don’t believe I caught your name?”
“Shouyou! Hinata Shouyou!”
“Right, let’s not get too upset over Shouyou-kun’s amazing spike.” Shouyou was a bit surprised at the familiarity, but went with it.
“Yeah, Bakayama, let me spike!” He fake pouted, which made Oikawa laugh.
“I like this one. Iwa-chan! Get over here!” Oikawa waved over another one of the third year players. “Is it too late to take this one for our team?” He pointed again at Shouyou.
“Tooru, we can’t keep doing this.” Iwa-chan groaned. “First it was Tobio, then it wasn’t Tobio, and then it was Goshiki, and then you absolutely dumped him, and now it’s this pipsqueak.”
“Excuse you!” Shouyou moved to his tip-toes, a sad attempt to make himself taller. “I am one hundred and sixty-maldito-three centimeters tall!”
“Mal-di-to?” Iwa-chan questioned.
“Fuck.”
“Hey, there’s no need to be rude!” Oikawa intercepted, turning the attention back to him. “Now, I see that Tobio-kun here doesn’t want me to toss for you right now, but could I get your number? I’d love to see what other quick attacks you can do.” He ended with a wink, extending his phone out to Shouyou. He grabbed it, and quickly imputed his phone number.
“Thanks! I’d love to see how fast your sets can go too, the precision on that one was crazy accurate, all WAH! And PAM! And, and,” Kageyama grunted, pulling Shouyou’s attention back to the other setter. “... And I think my team is leaving soon. Text me!”
And so Karasuno left, and Oikawa made another friend.
Nishinoya Yuu was never known as one to be quiet, patient, or still. From the moment he could walk and talk, he was all over the place. Yuu didn’t care about what it was he was doing, as long as it was something! And with that, being stuck in a two week club suspension was, how do the french put it? Absolute hell. Yeah.
First day off his suspension, and Yuu was bolting into Gym 2. Finally, freedom! Now, all he needed to do was find Asahi and-
“Where the fuck is Jesus?” The people he presumed were the new first years perked up, not used to his antics. “Asahi?”
“Oh hey Nishinoya, Asahi hasn’t shown up.” Sugawara gave him a slightly pitying smile. “I saw him walking out the gates earlier, so he’s probably at home now. You could try talking to him tomorrow?”
“Fuck!” Yuu stomped out. Asahi was supposed to be there! Sure, they were crushed by Date Tech last time, but that was on Yuu! And that’s also why Yuu had been working so damn hard to pick up blocked balls. Couldn’t Asahi also put in the work? Pouting and sitting on a little cement stoop by a tree, Yuu noticed that there was a first year following him. “What do you want?”
“Are you taller or shorter than 163 centimeters?” His bright orange hair reflected the sun into Yuu’s eyes.
Looking away, Yuu responded. “I’m 159, thank you very much!” He huffed, wanting to go back to being all angsty. The other short boy wouldn’t let him.
“That’s so cool! Are you the libero?” When Yuu didn’t immediately answer, the tangerine incarnate elaborated. “Not that I think it’s your height! It’s just that Sawamura-san said that we had a ‘guardian deity’ who was full of energy, and you look like you-”
“Sawamura called me what?” If this were an anime, there would surely be stars in Yuu’s eyes. “Well, I’m not quite that cool.” He sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head, smile radiating. “Who are you, anyways? My new libero kouhai?”
“Not quite! I used to be a libero, back in Brasil, but that was only for a little bit and I’m a wing spiker on this team! Oh, and my name’s Hinata Shouyou!” Hinata stook out his hand, and Yuu took it and stood up as he shook it.
“I’m second year libero Nishinoya Yuu, but you can just call me the best senpai you’ll ever have!” I’m so glad I got to use that line , he thought.
“That’s funny, Tanaka-senpai said the same thing!” Hinata snorted, clearly enjoying Yuu’s pain.
“That bastard! Stealing all the kouhai’s attention while I was suspended! I’ll never forgive him!” The two walked back to the gym, and Yuu continued to name all the terrible things he’d do to his supposed ex best friend.
When they reached the gym, a first year was doing serve practice. On instinct, Yuu ran and dove for it, pulling his (trademarked) Rolling Thunder!!™ move. Hinata gasped, and ran over.
“That was so cool Nishinoya-senpai!” Yuu nearly passed out hearing senpai attached to his name. “That dig was so cool! All Pwoo, and Sheeep!”
From the other side, the person who served called out “Dumbass! Sheep is an animal!”
“Oh thanks, Mr ‘I only know Japanese’!” Hinata stuck his tongue out at the other first year. “So, can you show me that roll again?”
“Sure!” Yuu brightened up. Tanaka made fun of his naming technique, and Asahi was impartial, so having a kouhai who thought he was cool and wanted him to teach? This was perfect! “Wait, but this doesn’t mean I’m joining again! I’ll just show you around my libero ropes!” Damn, that sounded cool . What Yuu didn’t know was that it would’ve been way cooler if Shouyou hadn’t already been a majorly successful libero at his Brazilian middle school.
“Sounds fun! I can show you my (patent processing) Shouyou Mega Serve Blast 2000!” Yuu nodded, getting hyped up.
The two spent the rest of practice serving and receiving, but then Shouyou brought up an interesting point.
“How good are you at setting?” This made Yuu stop. Ever since he was little, he had been put in as a libero because of his speed and height. No one had even considered him as a setter.
“Why? I’m a libero.”
“Yeah, but there’s this cool work-around the rules where you can jump above the line and set.” Hinata mock demonstrated, arms tossing an invisible ball.
“I’d… I’d never thought about that before.” This opened a whole new bunch of questions. Could he set and save for Asahi? Could he pull some cool Sugawara-style moves, or maybe even copy Oikawa? “I had a lot of fun today, maybe I’ll come back later to receive with you again, Hinata.” He walked out, with a plethora of new things to consider and a hell of a lot more to do.