Chapter Text
Brazilain Portuguese: Underlined if translation of conversation, (In parentheses next to talking for translation)
Japanese: Normal text
English: in bold because we’re loud
Italics means that it’s thoughts or a flashback
Hinata Shouyou bounced his way onto the court, hesitance just barely lingering in his mind as he glanced around. His five teammates stood behind him, all wearing their homemade jerseys and carrying off-brand water bottles as they found where to warm up. He knew how to do this, he’d done it so many times before that he had done it in his sleep on multiple occasions according to his mom.
Smiling extra brightly at his nervous teammates, Shouyou pulled them all in for a quick talk. “Now listen, guys.” He began with a slight tremor in his voice, only noticeable to the person standing directly next to him. “I know that the other team is a lot bigger, sure. They have more players. But can I tell you what we have?!?” He made sure to get more enthusiastic. Even if they did nothing the whole game, Shouyou would guarantee that they would at least do nothing while in high spirits.
“Uh… we have you?” Shouyou’s new friend, Izumi, chimed in. He played for the basketball team, so he was their setter. He had been bribed to play with them for free meat buns.
“Yes!! And!! We have our team spirit! As long as you guys can keep the ball from hitting our ground, I’ll make sure it goes over! And hey, at least none of you are going to be benchwarmers,” he made an obvious hand signal pointing to the opposing team's bench, “unlike some people.”
That got a few light laughs and a chuckle, so Shouyou deemed their spirits to have been lightened. He wasn’t scared in the slightest himself, but he did remember the deal he had made with his dad as he prepared to receive the ball from Kitagawa Daiichi. “If you lose," he’d said, “Then it’s only club volleyball until you graduate.” A chill straightening his spine, he got into position. I can’t lose, or at least, if I do, it’s a good thing that bastard is too busy .
Kageyama Tobio didn’t know how he felt about this guy. He was clearly the most experienced on his ragtag team, but somehow Tobio had never even heard of their school before. As he served, he expected it to land perfectly in between two of the players on the back row, but instead the short guy perfectly dug it, sending it in a beautiful arc towards the clearly inexperienced setter. The “setter” fumbled with it, barely managing what Tobio would describe as a shitty toss. Expecting the ball to just fly to the ground for an easy first point, Tobio was mistaken. The orange haired captain from before soared up and knocked the ball perfectly past their three blockers, scoring a point.
This was not their last point scored, though they did lose the next due to a terrible serve on #4’s part. Tobio served again, and this time their #3 did a half-hearted receive. To Tobio’s seemingly unending surprise, the captain then did a perfect toss to #2. Tobio was glad that he wasn’t the only one on his team who was surprised. Kindaichi’s mouth was practically on the floor, and Kumini had his eyebrows raised.
As the game went on, the first set ended up going to Kitagawa Daiichi. Tobio, however, was unhappy. He kept sending all those perfect passes to his teammates, yet they still wouldn’t move fast enough! They still didn’t jump high enough! What was it that they weren’t getting in his statement of “Jump higher! Spike faster!”? He honestly was confused, and not just about his team’s lack of ability to understand. The captain of the other team, Hinata, was apparently just amazing at everything in volleyball. His serves? Either perfectly landed in a back corner, or just barely grazed over the net so that his team had to scramble to dig it. His sets? Pristine and sharp, yet still meeting the hands of his inexperienced teammates. His spikes? Perhaps his biggest asset despite his height, they always made it past the blockers and Tobio’s team had a lot of trouble receiving them. His blocks were also very good, but due to his lack of height they weren’t the best quite yet. Had Tobio been any weaker he may have broken down in tears at how amazing of a player the orange haired boy was. But no, he had a team of his own as well.
Tobio gained a lot of respect for this shorter boy as they wrapped up the second set, the no name middle school getting it this time. Something he’d noticed through this set was that between points, Hinata always gave his teammates encouraging pats on the back or a smile that could fight the sun for dominance. Also, they had no coach. It seemed that Hinata took on that role as well, calling for a timeout on his own to tell his team how to improve. And yet, even after their timeout, his teammates looked just as enthusiastic. Tobio wanted to be able to do that, to hold that power over his underlings.
In the end, the bright haired boy and his team lost. To their credit, though, they did manage to end it in an intense deuce going into the thirties. Tobio was almost certain that he was going to lose in that second set, but one well-placed serve put an end to the match. No matter how amazing their captain was, he still couldn’t receive all of Tobio’s killer serves. He was almost sad watching the losing team wind down, because he knew that it would be another few months, if at all, before he would get to see the amazing captain again. They still had a few months left in their third years of junior high, and then it would be a while before the interhigh tournament, if Hinata was even going to a decent school next year.
As he watched the no name team walk out the gym doors, the slackers separating from their captain, Tobio decided to follow his gut and run after him. Telling his coach that he was going to the bathroom, the raven haired boy ran out in the direction that he’d seen Hinata leave in. The front door was closing just as he reached it, Hinata had just left. Shoving it open with more force than necessary, Tobio stepped out to the stairs. He had expected Hinata to be sad, maybe crying. After all, it did suck to lose on your first game of a tournament (not that he would know). Instead he was greeted with Hinata giving him a feral smile, looking him directly in the eyes.
“Hey #2-san!” The short boy called out, waving his hand. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you this earlier, but that jump serve of yours was killer! I barely managed to get it!” Tobio was shocked. None of his opponents had complimented him before, let alone so wholeheartedly.
“Thank… you?” Tobio was thoroughly confused. While it had been a great match, wasn’t Hinata mad that he’d lost? Didn’t he want to play more?
The orange haired boy continued. “The game we played was pretty fun, yeah?” Tobio gave a curt nod. “I thought so too!! Your onion haired guy, #5? His blocks were amazing! All SWOOSH! And POW!! And your sets!!! They went all WHOOP! And GWAP!”
“What’s “GWAP”?” Tobio interjected.
“Yknow, when you hit the ball, it goes “GWAP”!”
There was a moment of silence after when Tobio Kageyama realized something, and the something goes as follows:
Holy shit, I think I have a crush on something other than volleyball .
Hinata, on the other hand, was now waving his hand in front of Tobio, trying to get his attention. “Earth to mean face! #2, please report to mission control!” he taunted, making silly faces as he waddled around the taller boy. He had an accent, but not one so thick that he wasn’t correctly pronouncing the words. Instead, it made him sound like he was almost singing with the way he paced his sentences, adding breaks where Tobio was taught not to, and using his hands and tone to tell his thoughts almost more so than his words.
Suddenly, the oranged haired boy grabbed at his phone, a look of distress spreading across his face as he saw an onslaught missed notifications on his lock screen. “Merda! Hang on new friend, my mãe is going to kill me!”
Tobio was thrown back into reality, suddenly jerking back as he realized he wouldn’t be able to see the boy again for a while. “No!” He shouted, making Hinata startle. “I, uh-” Tobio was shit at social interactions, but he pulled through. “My name isn’t #2, it’s Kageyama Tobio. Could I get your number?” Oh Miwa, he thought, if only you could see me now.
“Okay Kageyama-kun, I should be able to get away with wasting another minute or two.” Hinata smirked, handing his phone over so the other boy could input his number. “Hinata Shouyou, prazer em conhecê-lo (it is nice to meet you).” The foreign words easily rolled off of his tongue, gracing Tobio’s ears as he finished.
“I… I’m just going to hope you weren’t disgracing my name?” He needed to pay more attention in English, maybe then he’d be able to understand what the boy was saying. “Anyways, here’s my number.” He handed the flip phone back, almost hesitating as he said a goodbye. “Text me sometime, #1.”
And so the two parted, one with a new number in his phone, and the other with a new found adoration. Little did they know, however, that soon they would meet again in only a few short months.