Chapter Text
Natsu's mother sighed, a little dramatically but it held real annoyance. Natsu could tell because she smiled fondly afterwards.
"Your Oniichan is quite the handful." She hummed, sparing a quick glance away from the road and to Natsu. Natsu looked away from the window where she had been watching her brother enter his school. His mother slowly drove away, leaving her big brother to get farther and farther away until he entered the school doors and was out of sight.
"He seemed to be set on playing soccer with his friends last year, but now he's set on volleyball. I keep telling him to just play soccer since there's no real club, but he's been persistent about it." She shook her head. Natsu looked at her mom, her bubbling emotions and nerves of entering first grade temporarily set aside so she could listen to her mother talk about her big brother. Clever as she was, Natsu picked up that her mother was talking to herself rather than expecting Natsu to understand and keep a conversation going.
"He wants to bike to school, play a new sport, and even wants to go to a high school the next town over, over the mountain." Natsu remembered that conversation well. It had just happened last night after all.
"Mom, I'll be 15 by then," Oniichan said, sitting at the table well his mother cooked dinner on the stove. Natsu was colouring a picture in her colouring book, choosing to make the cat purple, despite her brother’s previous insistence that a cat couldn't be purple. What did he know?
"I don't know Shouyo, it's over the mountain and you're impossible with directions as it is." Her mother said, setting a pan to the side.
"That is not true." He denied immediately. His mother turned with an exasperated look on her face "Shouyo you are 12 years old and i have managed to loose you in the supermarket we've been going to for 2 years more often than i’ve lost Natsu, who’s 6."
Shouyo opened his mouth to argue but paused and stared down at the table, Natsu could tell he was thinking hard by his silence.
"Well, let me bike to school this year since it’s just a few streets away and if i totally suck at it then... I can go to a highschool closer where you can drive me." He seemed a bit pained to say that last bit, but Natsu didn't care all that much. She was adding orange stripes to her cat. Occasionally the pencil crayon would go out of the line but she was working on minimizing that problem.
A pause went by before her mom sighed in defeat "No major problems with directions for your junior high years and... if you pass the entrance exams you can go to Karasuno."
Shouyo pumped his fist in the air, basically jumping out of his seat and shouting a happy noise instead of any actual word before his mom cut in, "I'm still driving you tomorrow so you can see the exact path I want you to take. No detours."
Shouyo nodded his head, and ran to hug his mom, who put down her oven mitts just in time to turn and receive it. The Hinatas were no strangers to surprise hugs and always prepared to give or receive one without warning.
"Oniichan! Look at my cat!" Natsu called, her masterpiece complete. Shouyo walked over and leaned over her shoulder to see it.
"Natsu! Cats aren't purple! or orange!" He said and Natsu scrunched her nose at him, sticking her tongue out, he responded in kind and they were only stopped from beginning an argument by the smoke detector beeping and their mom running to get a towel, ready to fan away the smoke caused from her burnt cooking. They ordered a pizza instead that night.
"You'll look after him, won't you Natsu?" She asked. Natsu nodded her head eagerly raising a hand up in the air "I will! I'll take care of Oniichan for you!"
Her mother laughed before becoming silent.
"Will he be able to go to Karansuma?" Natsu asked. "Karasuno, sweetie." She corrected "And as much as i want him to go to school closer to home, We both know how Shouyo is."
Natsu nodded her head, though she didn't fully get what her mom meant. But Shouyo would leave before his mom and her to bike to school and come home a little later, ready to help Natsu with her homework even if he wasn’t the best at reading the words so Natsu didn’t mind.
Approximately 2 years later, Natsu had entered 3rd grade and the other kids didn’t like her much. To be fair, she didn’t like them either. They called her a teacher’s pet. Shouyo had insisted that other kids acted the same to him when he was in 3rd grade and that’s just how kids are, but her mom seemed more concerned about it.
Shouyo had talked excitedly nonstop for weeks about his first official volleyball match that he would be playing. Natsu had begged and pleaded for her mom to let her go watch it but her mom sat her down the day before the game to explain that she herself was busy and couldn't go see it so she wouldn't be able to take Natsu to it.
Natsu had stomped her feet and hid in her room until Shouyo came in to promise her that he'd tell her everything that happened in detail once he got home. Natsu begrudgingly agreed and left her room to watch him practice in the backyard from the window. She didn't understand what he was doing exactly but Shouyo explained it as 'spiking practice' so she accepted it as a sports thing.
The next day, after school let out, she waited by the front door. Her after school babysitter-a nice neighbour highschooler who walked her home from school when her mom had to work, which was more often than not- had tried to convince her to do something else well she waited for her brother to come home but after she stubbornly refused, the babysitter just did homework at the table well occasionally glancing up to check on Natsu. It was just past dinner, which she had eaten from her spot in front of the door, when she heard the doorknob turn. She jumped up and once she confirmed it was her onii chan opening the door she jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Natsu! Hey, let me get in the door first!" He squawked and Natsu did let go but once he had the door shut and his shoes off she jumped on him and he caught her under the armpits, holding her up so she could wrap her arms around his neck and wrap her legs around his hips.
The babysitter came over and Shouyo put Natsu down so he could greet her and dismiss her now that he was here to watch Natsu.
Natsu ran to the couch and bounced up and down, yelling at Shouyo to hurry up and sit down. Once he did, she scooted closer and put her hands on his thighs, looking up at him.
"Tell me what happened! You promised you would, remember?" She yelled. Shouyo looked a bit sad for a second but he smiled anyways and began his story with a healthy bit of embellishment to keep it interesting for them both.
"The other team was full of these big scary guys, I was like GAWAH! When I saw them! They're from a powerhouse school so they are really really good! I met one by the bathroom, but he was super grumpy!" He pushed his hair down to somewhat cover his eyes to imitate the boy he was talking about "Go faster! Chase the ball! Jump higher!" He said in a deep monotone voice, obviously imitating someone else's "He was all like that but his sets were like WOAH and then like BAM! Super cool"
Natsu stared at him and listened to his story with wide eyes, occasionally gasping or prompting him to go on. Eventually, he neared the end of the story
"It was so fast! I hit the ball and when I jumped, I flew! I was above the blocker and hit it really hard! like BAM and WHOOSH! I had lots of momentum so I fell and hit the barrier, see?" He rolled up his sleeve to show what was the start of a bruise on his arm, but he was smiling while he showed it so she didn’t worry too much.
"But the ball... It hit the court and it was out." His smile slowly fell. "We lost to the game."
Natsu looked at him sadly and was about to hug him and try to comfort him when Shouyo’s face hardened and she easily recognized his determined face.
"After the game, I swore I would defeat him. Since he's the king of the court once I defeat him, I'll be the strongest player and stay on the court the longest!" He said, looking hard at his hand. "I'm going to train harder than before and when i go to Karasuno, I'll beat him! I’ll beat all the strong players!"
Natsu smiled widely and latched onto his side. "I wanna go to your next game! And every single game after that, Oniichan!"
Shouyo laughed and smiled at Natsu, leaning down a bit so they were face to face. "Of course! You're gonna watch me become the best volleyball player there is!"