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Meian should have known all hell was going to break loose when Bokuto entered practice with his hair in pigtails.
Bokuto is rarely late, not wanting to miss any more practice than he has to, so it’s already abnormal for him to not be around while everyone else is warming up. When he finally does show up, ten minutes after the usual suspect of tardiness (Atsumu) does, it’s with his hair brushed, neatly parted down the middle, and pulled into two tiny pigtails on either side of his head.
“The hell is that?” Atsumu asks, which brings everything to a screeching halt. The entire team turns to stare at Bokuto, who’s looking sheepish.
“Sorry I’m late!” he calls, jogging over with his arms stretched above his head.
“Nevermind that.” Atsumu holds the ball on his hip. “What’s on yer head?”
Bokuto runs a self-conscious hand over his scalp. “My hair.”
Atsumu snorts. “I can see that. What is it doin’?”
Bokuto furrows his brows. “Being on my head?”
“What I’m askin’ is who put it in ponytails, Bokkun?”
Bokuto unexpectedly gets very red. “I did.”
“You didn’t,” Atsumu says, narrowing his eyes.
“I...did.”
Atsumu takes the ball on his hip and throws it at Bokuto; Bokuto, in a beautifully timed reaction, karate chops it and sends it flying into Hinata’s face.
“Shouyou-kun!” Atsumu gasps, at the same time that Bokuto shouts “Hinata-kun!”
“I’m fine!” says Hinata, whose face is very red from where the ball collided with it.
Both Atsumu and Bokuto run over to Hinata, followed shortly by Oliver, Adriah, and Inunaki. All of them are fussing over Hinata.
Atsumu’s voice is loudest above the din. “Shouyou-kun, are you okay? Are you bleeding? Can you still see?”
“Hinata-kun, I’m so sorry!” Bokuto shouts, sounding distraught. “Tsumu, I can’t believe you made me do that!”
“Made you?” Atsumu questions, turning on Bokuto. “I didn’t make ya do anything, ya turd, ya shoulda taken yer punishment to the face like a man!”
“Punishment for what?”
“For lyin’!”
“I didn’t lie!”
“That’s enough!” Meian finally shouts.
The team turns to him in near-unison. He pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Hinata, you’re fine, right?” he asks.
A thumb appears in the air, somewhere in the middle of the mass of teammates. “All good, Captain!”
“Excellent. Bokuto, Atsumu, no harm done but if you pull anything else like that again you’ll both be doing laps until your legs fall off. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” they say together, but Atsumu is still frowning at Bokuto out of the corner of his mouth.
“Great,” Meian sighs. “Now if we could please get some practice in today, that would be great.”
The players disperse. Bokuto offers one last hand-wringing apology to Hinata. Atsumu slaps Hinata on the back and then tugs an unprotesting Bokuto by one ponytail over to the court.
Meian shakes his head. Just another day in paradise, he supposes.
(He’ll admit he’s curious about Bokuto’s hair, too, but he resolves to keep it to himself.)
***
“Why do I get the distinct feeling you didn’t wash your hands?” Sakusa asks Atsumu as he returns from the restroom later in practice. Meian’s head pops up from the play binder he’s studying.
Atsumu flicks water into Sakusa’s face, and Sakusa visibly recoils. “Sure I did. Right before I went.”
He offers a high five to Adriah, who happens to be closest. Adriah laughs and meets him for it while Sakusa rolls his eyes.
They go back to practice on their own without Meian having to intervene, which he counts himself thankful for. Getting between Atsumu and Sakusa is always a headache.
“Alright, let’s do some receiving practice,” their coach calls. Meian sets the binder aside and lines up with the rest of the team. This drill is easy enough; on one side of the net there’s a server, and on the other side there’s a receiver. They rotate through both positions, except Inunaki, who stays on the receiving side. He’s at the beginning of the line now. Bokuto slams a powerful serve right to him, and he crouches down to let the impact get absorbed by his forearms. The ball goes flying upward and the coach’s whistle blows.
“You got pretty low there, Inunakkun,” Bokuto observes on his jog back over to Meian’s side of the net. “That’s a hell of a squat.”
“Never skip leg day,” Inunaki says with a grin, meeting him at the back of the line. Atsumu yells something Meian doesn’t quite catch to his receiver, Sakusa, who slumps and crosses his arms.
“You know,” Bokuto says, and Meian doesn’t have time to say anything to Atsumu and Sakusa when Bokuto is using that tone of voice. It’s his “terrible idea” voice. “I bet we could play leapfrog over your head! You know, like when we were kids?”
“Yeah!” Hinata agrees, enthusiastically pumping a fist into the air. “Just crouch down right there, and we’ll leap over your head.”
Adriah is laughing and saying something behind his hand to Barnes, who’s shaking his head. Inunaki is getting ready to crouch down when Meian steps out of line.
“I will literally pay you to not do that,” he says.
Bokuto’s eyes light up. “Dinner?”
Hinata nods. Adriah and Barnes look up from their conversation with interest.
Meian regrets his life choices. “Yeah, sure,” he says.
Bokuto and Hinata high five, and Inunaki joins in when he stands up.
Practice goes on with approximately as many shenanigans as Meian has come to expect. He’s just grateful no one else takes a ball to the face.
***
Meian Shuugo has regrets.
At the other end of the table, Bokuto and Hinata are tossing food into each other’s mouths. There’s sauce all over Bokuto’s face from where Hinata has missed, and a small but growing pile of meat on Hinata’s plate. He’s about to say something when Hinata tosses something to Bokuto so poorly that it gets closer to Atsumu; Atsumu grimaces and knocks it into Sakusa’s face.
Sakusa glares at all three of them as sauce drips down his chin.
“I’ll switch with you,” Barnes offers, clapping Sakusa on the shoulder. Meian makes a mental note to send him an extra fruit basket at Christmas this year as Sakusa gratefully stands and allows Barnes his chair. He still hasn’t wiped the sauce off his face, but Meian decides not to remind him.
At the closer end of the table, Adriah and Inunaki, who’ve finished their dinners already, have pushed their plates aside to make room for an arm wrestling competition. Meian thinks to himself that Inunaki doesn’t really have any chance, but he insists on rematch after rematch, even when he keeps losing.
Hinata wanders down the table and puts his chin on Adriah’s shoulder. “Maybe you should compete at a different game? We could all go back to the dorm and play something together.”
Bokuto shouts his assent, making a few other patrons turn their heads to look at the table. Atsumu also immediately agrees, which sends a shiver down Meian’s spine--there’s no way he doesn’t have something up his sleeve. He leans over Barnes, who’s shrugging, and pokes Sakusa in the ribs until he agrees, as well. And Inunaki grins wickedly, informing Adriah “he’s going down.”
Meian gets the feeling it’s going to be a long night.
***
“I’m absolutely not playing Mario Kart with you again,” Inunaki declares loudly, poking Atsumu in the bicep. “You’re a dirty cheater.”
“You can’t cheat at Mario Kart !” Atsumu declares.
“You can if you intentionally fart on the opposition,” Sakusa says drily, which sets Bokuto into a round of giggles at the memory.
“Why don’t we play Monopoly?” Hinata suggests.
There’s a tense silence as everyone considers this. Atsumu already looks like he’s trying to find ways to sabotage the competition. Barnes looks, rightfully, like he has some concerns. Bokuto’s still laughing quietly about the farts.
“That sounds like a great idea,” says Adriah, wrapping his arm around Hinata’s shoulders. “Good one, Shou.”
The moment the board is brought out, Bokuto grabs the dog token and hoists it above his head triumphantly. Hinata takes the shoe, Inunaki the horse and rider, Atsumu the cannon, Sakusa the thimble, Barnes the boat, and Adriah the car, leaving Meian with the iron. Which is fine, he supposes. It’s not like it matters all that much anyway.
By some mutual agreement, they allow Hinata to go first. He rolls double twos and lands on income tax, and the whole team groans in sympathy.
“It’ll get better,” Bokuto promises, slapping Hinata on the back.
***
To no one’s surprise, it does not get better.
“Nope, that’s a load of crap,” Inunaki says, flicking a plastic house at Atsumu’s forehead. “You absolutely did not roll free parking again.”
“Sure I did,” Atsumu says with a grin, moving the cannon onto the space and collecting the load of cash that’s sitting there. “And let me tell you, it’s a good thing, too. I was wondering how I was gonna afford my next set of hotels.”
Meian catches--but pointedly ignores--the look Adriah and Barnes share behind Bokuto’s back. Barnes stands without saying anything, since his turn’s still several away. Hinata navigates his shoe onto another of Atsumu’s properties and lets out a low groan.
“I can lend you the money,” says Bokuto, handing over the paper. “Here, Tsum-tsum, I’ll pay this time.”
“That’s cheating,” Sakusa and Atsumu say together. They turn to furrow their brows at each other.
“The point of the game is to eliminate the weakest link,” says Sakusa.
“Yeah, I wanna torture you all into submission,” Atsumu agrees.
“I think what you need is a time out,” Adriah says, and just as Meian questions what that might mean, Barnes hauls Atsumu up by his armpits.
On the other side of the room is a makeshift pillow fort. Atsumu drags his heels and shouts as Barnes tosses him in and throws another pillow on top.
“Avenge me, Bokkun!” yells Atsumu’s muffled voice.
The game descends into chaos. Bokuto takes the pile of cash that’s accumulated at Atsumu’s spot and holds it above the board, letting the paper bills rain down into the center. Sakusa goes over to help keep Atsumu down and ends up sitting on his back while Atsumu howls. Hinata and Inunaki, seemingly pleased to just be done with the game, start making up some complicated handshake that involves them jumping as high as they can and yelling “go short guys!”
Meian surveys the scene with a smile on his face. Their team name, musubi, means connect, and it’s moments like these where he really feels the weight of that name. The men he plays with are all wild, barely contained personalities that grow only louder in each other’s presence. But the connection that ties them together is incredible. He’s never been part of a team that loved each other so much, so hard, so loudly. It’s humbling to be part of, humbling to captain. He’s proud of them all, and despite the chaos that so frequently surrounds them, he wouldn’t trade this team for any other.
“Captain!” Atsumu screams. “Please!”
Meian goes over and sits beside Sakusa on Atsumu’s back.