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“Ehm… Excuse me!”
The ball weakly bounced off of Tobio’s fingers in his surprise at the sudden voice, his angle of trajectory skewing to the left and bouncing off of Hinata’s head rather than his hands.
“Ow, ‘Yama you-you idiot!” Hinata sputtered, chasing after the ball as it bounced away. Kageyama snickered to himself as he turned towards the voice, finding Takeda waving a note in the air.
“I need the third years in my office for a bit!” Takeda called out once more once all attention was on him, bowing slightly. “It shouldn’t take long.”
Ukai sighed heavily and waved his hand in the air. “Yeah, yeah. You three get going,” he gestured towards Sugawara, Daichi, and Asahi, who glanced between each other before moving to follow behind the teacher.
Tobio watched with a slight pout on his lips, fidgeting in place. Both Sugawara and Daichi turned before they left the gym and met his intense gaze, nodding reassuringly. He relaxed slightly and nodded back, tearing his gaze away.
He never liked to be left alone, even when big. But he wasn’t alone, not really, not with Hinata bouncing excitedly around him and Kei sending him pointed looks from across the net. He sighed and took his position once more as Ukai shouted for them to get back to work.
He was on the floor. How did he get on the floor?
“Wah, Kageyama! Are you okay? I’m sorry! The floor was slippery an’ I fell into you and then you fell and- yeah!” A shape was darting around above him, too fast for his eyes to track. He felt like he was in molasses, slow and sticky and… small.
“Probably just got the breath knocked out of him,” Another voice spoke up, deeper and slower and Kageyama was able to focus once more, turning his head to meet the golden eyes of Kei.
Tobio grinned despite himself, reaching up. “Kei?”
There was a gasp from somewhere around him but Kei didn’t miss a beat, looping his hands under Tobio’s arms and gently lifting him to a sitting position. “Hi, Tobi. Are you okay?”
Tobio blinked quickly and looked around, shocked to find most of his teammates crowded around him, equal looks of concern on their faces. His cheeks flushed and he cowered into Kei’s side. “Where’s Daddy and Papa?” He whispered instead, not finding them anywhere in the crowd.
“They’re still with Takeda-sensei!” Hinata’s voice floated into awareness and Tobio turned to catch his gaze instead, watching the way his friend’s eyes softened when he realized Tobio was now little. “They’ll be back soon. In the meantime, are you okay? Do you want some water? A snack? Does your head hurt?”
Tobio blinked and felt around his head for some source of pain. He shook his head. “Snack?” He asked softly, nervous with all the eyes still on him.
“Ah! I can get you a snack? What do you like?”
“I have Goldfish, do you like those?”
“Wait - Tobio I have tons of snacks in my bag, you can pick anything!”
“Your snacks are disgusting, Enno, nobody wants th-“
“They are not disgusting, Tanaka, they are healthy and we know Tobio likes healthy food.”
“No, Kageyama likes healthy food, I bet little Tobio wants some of the Oreos I brought, huh?”
“You bring Oreos to practice?”
Tobio watched with wide eyes as the bickering continued between all the second years, Kei sighing heavily by his side and Hinata already digging in his bag for any snacks he brought.
“Um… I like Goldfish?” Tobio spoke up after a moment, pausing the arguing. Each of the second years all dove into their bags, searching for the snack.
He ended up with a lapful of bags of goldfish, two granola bars, and a half eaten sandwich from a bashful Hinata. He wasn’t sure what to do now, nervous by all the attention still trained on him.
“Hey, Tobio,” Yamaguchi knelt in front of the little, holding out a hand. “Do you want to go sit by Coach and eat your snacks until you’re feeling bigger?”
Tobio hesitantly nodded, eyes flickering between the first year and his coach. He took Yamaguchi’s hand and carefully gathered up his snacks, letting himself be walked over to the side of the court.
Ukai glanced down at Tobio as he approached, meeting his wide eyes. “Hey, kiddo. Wanna keep score for me?”
Tobio’s eyes widened even further, less with apprehension and more with excitement. “Really?” He set the snacks down on the floor next to the bench, still gripping tightly to Yamaguchi’s hand.
“Sure. Suga and Dai will be back soon, you can hang out with me until then, yeah?” Ukai grinned, reaching over to ruffle Tobio’s hair. The boy flushed under the attention and nodded, letting go of Yamaguchi’s hand to sit down next to the scoreboard.
The third years came back to practice a half hour later, backpacks loaded with information on graduation, to find Tobio sitting on the sidelines with a pile of snack bags across his lap and the floor surrounding his feet and laughing brightly as Noya and Tanaka chest bumped each other after scoring a point for their team.
“Oh, hey!” Hinata swiveled around to see the third years and he pointed. “Tobs, look who’s here now!”
Tobio turned towards the door and lit up when he saw his caregivers, dropping the granola bar Ukai had just helped him unwrap. “Daddy! Papa! I scorekeep’n!”
“Woah,” Sugawara gasped, moving to sit next to Tobio. “That’s so cool, buddy! I’m sorry Papa and I weren’t here, but…” He glanced down at the floor, covered in snacks and laughed.
“Looks like the team took good care of you,” Daichi finished, leaning over Tobio’s shoulder and kissing his cheek.