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It started off as a joke.
That seemed to be the theme here, at Japan National Team---the Tokyo Olympic 2020 team, to be exact. Sakusa didn't particularly care for jokes and pranks if it didn't directly involve him. Or he wouldn't have the mental capacity--or patience--to deal with anything else. He was playing for MSBY after all, and no single team in the V.league is as packed to the brim with chaotic idiots and conniving assholes quite like the Black Jackals.
This joke did concern him, however.
The name of the culprit was Kuroo Tetsurou, JVA's sport promotion division employee assigned to the Olympic team and former Nekoma's captain. Or more accurately, the real culprit was Bokuto Koutarou with his Marvel Cinematic Universe obsession. Kuroo Tetsurou was just the perpetuator of mischief who pitched Bokuto's fanatical idea to the committee and actually got it approved. And Now Sakusa had to suffer the consequence.
The idea being a commercial clip with Team Japan players acting as super heroes jumping in, literally, to 'save the day'. And the consequence being Sakusa getting picked as one of those 'heroes'.
When the names were announced, Bokuto congratulated him with an enthusiastic clap on the back, Hoshiumi pouted because he wanted to play the spiker part, and Komori just straight up laughed in his face.
Sakusa just scowled, because really, what else was there for him to do? The higher-ups had spoken, and he could only refuse so many interviews and advertisement deals before they started threatening his spot on the Olympic team.
The commercial went like this:
The scene began with two kids kicking, yes kicking, around a volleyball in downtown Tokyo, chirpy melody playing in the background. For some unknown reasons. Already off to a great start.
After a few passes, one of the kids decided he was Lionel Messi reincarnated and performed a powerful free kick right there in the middle of a busy street. The ball flew in a beautiful curve, hurtling towards an unsuspecting construction worker on a stair, who would surely fall if the ball made contact. Threat of death or at least severe bodily harm is imminent for the poor middle age man.
Suddenly, the camera swirled to a tall lithe figure, Suna Rintarou. Suna was dressed in casual clothes, and by casual clothes he meant a blue button down with a pair of plain khaki pants the middle blocker wouldn't be caught dead wearing and a brown leather tote bag, of all things. Dramatic music gradually replaced the chirpy tune, heavy bass could be faintly heard.
Suna's golden eyes focused on something behind the camera a little bit off to the right, presumably the construction worker, judging by the repeatedly switching shots between the two. The scene moved in slow motion, the volleyball inching closer and closer to the man on the stair while Suna let the leather tote bag drop to the ground.
The lighting instantly turned dark with heavy contrast and saturated colors, the music was now blasting with drums and guitars joining in. Suna ripped off his blue button down, something Sakusa suspected he might secretly enjoy doing just because it meant destroying the offending garment, to reveal Team Japan's iconic red jersey. Then the middle blocker ran forward, shot up into a blocking position and successfully blocked the flying volleyball from making its way towards the aforementioned construction worker.
The ball fell. The camera shifted again to reveal a small man with light beige hair in a gray hoodie and black shorts. Yaku Morisuke stood on the sidewalk, holding a loaded white plastic bag in his right hand. Immediately dropping the bag, he tore off the gray hoodie exposing his own red jersey with the number 17 in white, and leaped pass a random office worker into a majestic dive with his right arm outstretched. The camera cut again to show Yaku's small fist making contact with the ball before it could hit the ground, sending it back up into the air. The ball floated up in slow-motion, a wide-eyed girl turned her head to follow its path.
Another camera change showed Kageyama Tobio, in a weirdly similar blue shirt but with a striped blue, sad excuse of a tie hanging loosely around his neck. The setter stared off into the distance, his expression blank, before he took off the tie along with the shirt. The red jersey underneath was pretty much expected at this point, number 9 almost glowing with the dramatic lighting. Kageyama surged forward, raising both arms up into an overhead setting position. The ball flew towards him, then narrowly missed his waiting hands. One glitch of the shot later and the ball was now directly over his head. He tossed the ball, and it floated off in a beautiful arch towards the void on the far side of the scene.
The camera cut again, this time showing none other than Sakusa himself. He was adorning a plain white tee shirt, a small blessing in all this madness, his right shoulder sporting a black backpack. Next to him a smaller man with bowl-cut black hair in dark blue flannel was talking, his own backpack securely on his back. The script dictated that Sakusa ignored the man, which he found no trouble doing, and dropped the backpack on the floor. He was directed to look up to the sky, the sunlight making him involuntarily squint his eyes in distaste. Yanking the white tee shirt off to reveal his number 15 red jersey, he glanced down quickly before turning to look up again. The scene quickly switched to a shot of a dark blue gym bag lying suspiciously open on the pavement, and back to him again for a few times. Movie logic implied that the bag was what Sakusa was glancing at. Eventually, the camera settled back on Sakusa jumping up into his perfect spike form, again in slow-motion, and then spiking the ball right into the gym bag. The ball bounced up once, still in slow-motion, then fell down to sit comfortably in its rightful place.
A few passersby were shown clapping excitedly. Then after all the troubles the four professional volleyball players had gone through, the same Lionel Messi wannabe kid picked it up again.
Thankfully he didn't kick it this time, choosing to hand it to his friend instead. Both boys kept hold of the ball, a smart decision if you ask Sakusa, since they seemed to have such terrible control over it to begin with. The two boys talked animatedly to each other and the camera. Then the scene was cut.
But before the logo could come on and end Sakusa's suffering, he was forced to do one final shot. The four of them walked towards the camera, supposedly going their separate ways now that the crisis had been averted and the good citizen of Tokyo had been saved. Each of them had one discarded clothing item held over their right shoulder, with the exception of Kageyama who had the same hideous blue tie tied sloppily around his neck. His suspicion was that the poor guy had to use the same blue shirt Suna was wearing and Sakusa shuddered just thinking about the sweat and germs that must have accumulated in the fabric through their numerous takes.
Finally, the red and white logo screen showed up. Sakusa let out a sigh of relief, his torture was over...
Then he heard a loud gasp. "Oh my god....Omi!"
... so maybe not.
On his left, Miya Atsumu was sitting crossed legged on a couch--Sakusa's couch, as a matter of fact. The faux blond was laughing uncontrollably, with tears down his cheeks and his mouth wide opened, occasionally letting out a hideous snort. Sakusa wrinkled his nose.
"Ha ha, yeah keep laughing Miya."
To his credit, Atsumu tried to muffle his laugh with his hands. He pushed his face against Sakusa's shoulder trying to hide the fact that he was still giggling. Instead, he was getting Sakusa's sweater wet with his tears, or at least Sakusa hoped it was his tears.
"Sorry, sorry. Omi-omi, that was awesome ." Atsumu mumbled into his chest, Sakusa shoved him away lightly.
Falling back onto the armrest, Atsumu covered his eyes with one hand. His other hand was held up between them with his palm out towards Sakusa.
"No. Hold on, hold on."
He breathed heavily for a while, clearly in an attempt to hold in his laughter. After a few minutes Atsumu seemed to have it under control, he lowered his hands and pushed up into a half sitting position to look at Sakusa.
"Sorry, my bad."
His brown eyes focused on Sakusa's face, his lips pursed in slightly like he was biting his cheeks to keep from smiling. Sakusa breathed out a sigh and let himself slump against the backrest a little. Atsumu opened his mouth with an audible pop.
"...That wasn't awesome, it was marvelous." Then he burst out laughing again, throwing back his head and clutching his stomach with both hands.
Sakusa grabbed the nearest cushion he could find and proceeded to smother the idiot with it. He fucking hated his boyfriend sometimes.