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Deep down, Kiyoomi had expected this when he joined the Black Jackals, but that didn’t mean he was prepared.
He’d been to enough Black Jackals events to know that they were a bit more of an unconventional team. At least, unconventional in how they handled PR and their team image.
They didn’t hesitate to show off their ‘young star players’ that they’d snatched up right out of high school. Both Bokuto and Atsumu were like crown jewels, coming with new fans and reputations in the community that ran nationwide. It only helped that both men were boisterous crowd-pleasers. They even had more unique looks going with their hair. They made striking models when they were sponsored for specific ads. It only drew more eyes to the team.
Kiyoomi also wasn’t oblivious to the allure both he and Hinata added to the team. They were both parts of the so-called “monster generation” which had quickly been gaining notoriety due to the odd influx of skilled and oddball players it produced. Kiyoomi had been the Number 1 high school ace in Japan before then becoming a collegiate MVP. He had experience and was known in the volleyball circuits for one reason or the other.
Hinata was a bit more complicated. He’d created quite the stir in high school due to his unique synergy with Kageyama Tobio and his height in conjunction with speed and jump. He’d virtually disappeared after high school though. Allegedly he went to Brazil almost as soon as the ink dried on his diploma. For the first year or so, the only times Kiyoomi had even vaguely heard of him was when Kageyama would casually mention his ‘partner’ in an interview and not understand why everyone lost their shit about his mystery partner. Kiyoomi knew many forums had a field day when Kageyama dropped the info that his partner would be returning to Japan and playing for a rival team at that.
It certainly didn’t help that by that point Hinata had earned his own reputation in Brazil. ‘Ninja Shouyou,’ they called him.
Together, the four “monster generation” men on the Black Jackals made quite the striking set. Bokuto with his silver and black hair held in gravity-defying spikes and his very public infatuation with his pretty-boy boyfriend. Miya had finally discovered what toner was and now had light-blond-to-gold hair that fell in pleasant, natural waves and an odd, almost feral disposition. Hinata just had blatantly orange hair and was one of the shortest players in Division 1. He beamed like a ray of sunshine and did absolutely nothing to hide the weird rivals-to-lovers thing he had going on with Kageyama. Kiyoomi was fully aware of his own looks and how his darker and sharper features would create a nice contrast with the trio of bright bastards. They have quite the crew, and the Jackals' PR agent took full advantage of that.
He wasted no time in rushing them into a season debut promotional photoshoot and Kiyoomi couldn’t deny that they looked good. It also drummed up hype and publicity for the team and their game against the Schweiden Adlers so there was that. Kiyoomi hadn’t expected the influx of modeling sponsorships that it would bring in. He also hadn’t expected just how busy their October schedule would be.
Kiyoomi didn’t celebrate Halloween. It wasn’t out of distaste for the Western tradition, he just didn’t see the point in it. He didn’t care for candy and dressing up was a pain. It wasn’t like any of the original traditions of Samhain or even All Hallow’s Eve had been adopted in Japan either. His university friends had called him a party-pooper, but Kiyoomi just hadn’t seen the point. He’d thought for sure that the busy schedule the team had would prevent them from doing anything. He was wrong.
The PR man had scheduled in a day-long photo shoot for the entire team. Kiyoomi was puzzled by this because why? Why was this necessary? Sure, photos of the team were pretty popular, and they could all be considered ‘pretty’ men by most standards, but were cohesive costumes necessary? Why did they have to have a theme? Where the fuck did this PR agent get the budget to give them all high-end professional costumes? They weren’t idols?? Who was paying for this?
None of these things were a concern to the rest of the team. The older members were kind of just along for the ride and Bokuto and Hinata were all for it. To his credit, Miya actually argued with the PR agent. He claimed that they were just athletes so why would people care about their potential Halloween costumes. Unfortunately for him, the PR agent was very prepared with evidence from the reception of the season debut photoshoot and their appearance on the variety show. The PR man argued that the people – their fans – were only clamoring more for photos of them, and attention from the fans and media was good for both their individual careers and for the team as a whole. That seemed to quiet down Miya, and with him being the only other vocal holdout, Kiyoomi had to cave and just deal with it.
Didn’t stop him from being pissy about just how smug the PR man was.
But it couldn’t just be a Halloween photoshoot. No. Apparently, the PR agent ‘had a vision’ and they were meant to dress up as Greek gods, togas, and props and all.
“Oh… no…” Kiyoomi said, staring with wide eyes at the costume he was handed. “You can’t be serious.”
The PR man simply glared at him as he frantically tapped away at an iPad. “Don’t waste time. You already signed off on this, so hurry up and change so the stylists can fix you.”
Kiyoomi scowled. “I didn’t think it’d be this,” he grumbled as he headed over to the screened area where an employee was ushering him.
“It’s just a photoshoot,” Tomas soothed him, calling from across the room. “It’ll be over before you know it.”
Kiyoomi rolled his eyes. “Of course you’d say that. You didn’t have to deal with the extra bullshit that the last photoshoot entailed.
“At least Takahashi-san didn’t make us dance on that variety show interview.”
Kiyoomi winced. Yeah, it could be worse. At least they were longer togas. They could be blatantly sexual. It seemed like the kind of thing that the PR man would pull.
Considering Japan had its own variety of spirits and gods, it was far from the most traditional, but MSBY hadn’t been all that traditional for a while now. They could’ve just played it safe and gone as zombies or vampires or something. But no. PR man had apparently gotten it into his head that comparing athletes to Greek gods was a brilliant and clever idea.
No one really knew how to argue with that, so they just let him do his job with minimal token protests.
This all culminated in Kiyoomi and the others being shoved onto a bus and taken to a studio and then basically assaulted by stylists. Seriously, where was PR man getting his budget?
They got a small break in the fact that many of them had more simplistic costumes. Barnes, for example, was styled as Hera, so they’d emphasized a more royal and colourful purple toga design and limited his makeup to tasteful gold highlighting. He wasn’t given many props, his costume simply standing on its own. Meian as Athena and Inunaki as Ares were both similar, adding some subtle armour to the ensemble and emphasizing their strong features. They were even given war helmets.
Bokuto as Apollo was decked out in gold accents with sun imagery. He was every bit as bright and loud as he came off as in person. Hinata was much the same, although his costume add-ons included a staff and winged shoes while Bokuto had a sun-shaped headdress. Both of their togas were stark white as opposed to the cream and tan that Meian and Inunaki had. Tomas’ toga was an almost maroon colour in one of the most on-the-nose designs that Kiyoomi could have imagined for Dionysus. He was given a circlet of grape vines.
Kiyoomi himself was a bit more decked out too. The stylist had spent far too long making sure that his curls sat exactly how they wanted them to be. Thankfully, Kiyoomi was able to slip into the black and dark grey toga with ease. All the same, after the studio makeup, Kiyoomi was the second last to be done. They’d even managed to start doing the individual and paired shots.
The last one left to the tender mercies of the staff that the PR man had hired was Miya. Really, Kiyoomi wasn’t surprised. Miya was the most particular and he always made a splash at photoshoots. Why would this one be any different?
“Ne, ne, Sakusa-kun, you look very striking,” Meian greeted warmly as Kiyoomi came to stand next to them while the team watched Hinata do his level best to break the laws of physics and fly.
Kiyoomi hummed, absentmindedly swishing the ‘skirt’ of his toga. Meian looked powerful and almost regal in his costume. Kiyoomi could grudgingly admit that this might have been a good idea. “Thank you, Meian-san. Your costume suits you.”
Meian laughed boisterously. “Ah. I hope you don’t take it poorly, Sakusa-kun, but yours suits you as well.”
“Your pale skin provides a nice contrast” Tomas agreed, popping up beside Meian.
Kiyoomi bobbed his head. “Thank you.”
Meian and Tomas had drawn the attention of the other team members who weren’t being photographed, and soon enough, Bokuto had bounded up only to drape himself over Kiyoomi like a blanket. Barnes and Inunaki made their way over at a much more sensible pace.
“Sakusa-kun! You look amazing!” Bokuto crowed excitedly, almost stabbing Kiyoomi with his headset in his enthusiasm. ‘That means Tsum-Tsum is the last one left, right? You two will have to stay later then if they do us in order.”
All Kiyoomi could do was sigh. There goes the rest of his day.
“Do we even know what god Miya got saddled with?” he asked, only half curious at this point. Kiyoomi was the only one who’d really been saddled with one of the ‘big three’. Barnes was close in ‘status’ wince he was Hera, but that still left a fair few gods and goddesses for Atsumu. There was still Hephaestus, Hestia, Aphrodite, Artemis, Zeus, and Poseidon. Then again, they could even go with non-Olympian gods like Hecate or Nike. They already had a wings motif going on with Hinata (in what fans would no doubt consider a call back to Karasuno) so it didn’t really make sense to have two, although the idea of victory would be good propaganda. Hecate, or really any of the other minor gods didn’t really fit the motifs that this shoot had going on.
Honestly, Kiyoomi probably would have gone for Apollo for Miya because of his hair and loud personality. Then Bokuto could be Artemis. A certain subsection of the internet had really gotten attached to the idea of Bokuto: The Protector of Lesbians after one of his live streams went viral because he was ranting about the homophobia his high school team managers had faced. Plus, his silver hair would’ve suited that colour palette. Alas, he was not the PR man.
It would be weird for Miya to be Zeus or Poseidon though. Meian, their captain, was Athena. Why would they put the setter metaphorically above the captain? It didn’t make sense, but neither did the rest of the options. Maybe they’d make him Aphrodite and really lean into his tendency to thirst trap.
Of course, because life seemed intent to play out like a dumb anime, that was when the stylists saw fit to release Miya.
His toga had a similar cut to the rest of theirs – they were all tall (save Hinata and Inunaki), muscular men – although the colour of it was a soft, almost faded pomegranate while the rest of the team had more saturated colours. Like Bokuto and Barnes, Atsumu had a head piece, although nowhere near as flashy. In his loose and fluffy curls sat a crown made of flowers, mostly soft pink peonies and white baby’s breath. His makeup was more noticeable than the makeup the stylists had done with all save Barnes’ highlights, favouring the more feminine South Korean style. It even looked like they’d bullied him into wearing a lip gloss.
Kiyoomi’s wasn’t the only jaw to drop.
“Woah! Atsumu-san! You look so pretty!” Hinata shouts, jumping out of his pose and no doubt ruining the shot he was doing.
Miya laughed, startling Kiyoomi enough for him to slam his jaw shut. “Part of me thinks the flowers are a little much, but Takahashi-san wouldn’t budge. Of course he would give me the most feminine costume,” Miya pouted, blowing upwards as if to adjust his bangs despite them clearly being pinned and hair sprayed in place. “I swear that man has something against me.”
“You look really good,” Kiyoomi blurted out abruptly. “I mean, the uh, colours suit you.” Kiyoomi wanted to evaporate on the spot. He had not meant to just blur that out like that.
Miya practically lit up at Kiyoomi’s remark, his hands flying up to hover over the flower crown he had on. “Really?” he asked, doing a poor job of masking his innocent joy at the complement. “Thanks, Omi-kun!” Miya proceeded to do a little happy twirl, preening at Bokuto and Hinata's oohs and ahhs. "You don't think the flowers are too much?"
Kiyoomi swallowed thickly as he was basically given free permission to stare at the various flowers decorating Miya. Kiyoomi wasn't used to thinking about Miya as pretty. Sure, he was handsome (and no one could deny that), but he'd never really been all that feminine. His body was power and grace, not delicate and soft. But the flowers and the soft makeup somehow both completely changed his appearance and only enhanced what was already there. If Kiyoomi had a shred less self-control, he would be gawking.
“Miya-san!” a voice called from across the studio and Miya whipped around.
“Shit,” he cursed without shame. “I guess they want individual shots before setting up the group,” he grumbled. Then, without a moment of hesitation, he moved to bound towards the calling PR man. For a moment, Kiyoomi was able to visualize what Miya would look like running through the woods like some fae covered in flowers and beautiful billowy fabric.
Then Miya tripped over thin air and almost at concrete, completely shattering the illusion.
“I’m okay!” Miya hollered, bunching up the skirt in his grip (no doubt wrinkling the fabric) and continuing his energetic journey across the room. At least they hadn’t tried to force him in heels. He was already a terror in sandals and a skirt.
“Well… that was elegant,” Kiyoomi snarked under his breath. Really, he should have known Miya couldn’t be anything close to sophisticated or elegant. He was a rambunctious disaster at the best of times. Why, oh why, did it have to be Miya he caught feelings for? Seriously. The yellow one. It couldn’t have been the successful small business owner with a much more serious temperament? Kiyoomi just had to make things difficult for himself.
Bokuto laughed loudly. “For someone with a dancing background, you’d really think he would be able to at least walk in a skirt.”
Meian snorted in agreement. “How he can walk in heels with no problem but apparently not strappy sandals, I’ll never know.”
Kiyoomi’s eyes bugged out. “Heels?” he choked.
“Oh yeah,” Inunaki leered at him, wiggling his eyebrows at Kiyoomi. “Bet you would’ve liked to see that! Heels really do do wonders for his thighs.”
Kiyoomi choked on his own spit. Again.
“Bro, that’s kind of gay of you,” Tomas stated with a deadpan that could rival Kiyoomi’s.
Inunaki sniffed, unbothered. “Hey, nice thighs are nice thighs. I’m not blind.”
Neither was Kiyoomi. He was just glad that the teasing wasn’t on him.
“Ma, Sakusa-kun, no one’ll judge you for having a crush on Atsumu-kun,” Barnes spoke up suddenly, drawing eyes back o Kiyoomi and dashing what little hope he had of everyone just… ignoring his unfortunately blatant thirsting.
“I don’t have a crush,” he snapped in a knee-jerk reaction. He bit his lip, internally cursing at how obvious that made him sound. “He’s attractive,” he backtracked. “Anyone with working eyes can see that.”
“Sure, Sakusa-kun,” Bokuto snickered with Hinata. “Believe what you want.”
Kiyoomi just scowled.
“Sakusa-san! We’re ready for you now!”
Kiyoomi turned to look at the staff member that was calling for him. Some other staff members were still working with Miya and clearly ushering him towards a simple set where Kiyoomi would also be posing. The PR man seemed to be lecturing Miya despite Miya very clearly ignoring him. Yikes. Kiyoomi didn’t really want to go over there.
“Ah, he’s Persephone,” he remembered aloud. They would be posing together for at least a few shots then.
Inunaki wolf-whistled utterly shamelessly. “Woo! Go get ‘em, Hades-kun,” he teased.
Kiyoomi scowled, opening his mouth to try and defend himself, but he was once more interrupted.
“Omi-kun!” Miya yelled. “Hurry up! We gotta get through our duo shots while the others prep for group pictures.”
Kiyoomi sighed. It was going to be a long day.