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“Goodbye!” Alexander calls as he heads swiftly toward the locker room door. "See you tomorrow." He gives Sakusa a nod and Atsumu a friendly slap on the back, which hurts only about 1.5 times as much as Bokuto's chestbump does. And then he powerwalks out of practice like he does every time, without fail. Atsumu watches him go, his eyes narrowed in contemplation.
“Do you have indigestion?” Sakusa asks.
“What? No, I'm doing some thoughtful...thinking. Musing.”
“Don't hurt yourself.”
“Did you get injured, Tsum-Tsum?” Bokuto yells as he steps out of the shower. “You should go get it checked out!”
“You're hurt, Atsumu?” Adriah asks, turning toward Atsumu in concern.
“No, I'm fine! Everything's fine, guys. I'm just doing some thinking, alright?”
Meian snorts as he walks by, toweling his hair dry. “Uh oh, somebody tell Coach to get the stretcher ready.”
“Captain, c'mon,” Atsumu whines. It's times like these that he misses Shouyou-kun most. He would've had Atsumu's back! “Look, aren't any of you curious? Doesn't anybody else wanna know where Alex hurries off to every day?” A murmur passes through the room.
“He does leave very fast,” Oliver says.
“Hey, yeah, he does, doesn't he?” A wrinkle develops between Bokuto's eyebrows, and he turns his frown on Atsumu. “He doesn't even come to team karaoke night! Or team cards night. Only team dinner!”
“See! How much do we actually know about Alex, huh? Nothing!”
“Well, 'nothing' is a bit extreme,” Meian says. “We know plenty about him! Like, uh. He has two sisters?”
“Oh, and a pet!” Adriah says excitedly. “A...weasel? No-”
“Ferret,” Shion pipes up from his locker. Atsumu didn't even realize he was still here. “He's shown me a video on his youtube channel.”
“He has a youtube channel?” Atsumu whirls around to point at Bokuto and Sakusa. “Did you guys know this?”
“I don’t even know where he’s from,” Sakusa admits as he finishes packing up his bag.
“Russia, right?” Oliver says at the same time that Meian declares, “He’s Australian.” They each pause and give each other a look.
“His accent is definitely Australian.”
“But he was in that modeling thing with the other Russian guy!”
“I thought Yoffun was from Bulgaria,” Bokuto says. “It’s in his MSBY profile!”
Atsumu frowns. “Yeah, but isn’t Bulgaria like the capital of Australia or something?”
“Absolutely not,” Oliver and Sakusa mutter, but they’re drowned out by Meian crowing in triumph.
“Ha! I knew it. Alright, enough about Yoffe’s life; Atsumu, if you really want to know, just ask him tomorrow at practice. Anyone up for lunch at the udon place?”
“Your treat, captain?” Adriah asks, bounding over.
“I didn’t say that-”
“Free lunch!” Shion calls, and everyone moves to follow them out to the hallway. Atsumu watches them rush off and sighs. Looks like he'll never have closure.
Bokuto notices his glum expression and throws an arm around his shoulder. "Don't worry, Tsum-Tsum. Omi-Omi and me will help you get to the bottom of this Yoffun mystery!”
Sakusa raises an eyebrow. “When did I sign up for this?”
Bokuto's other arm goes around Sakusa's shoulders, and he shakes them both vigorously. Atsumu's head almost bonks into Sakusa's as Bokuto rattles them out of love. “When you joined the team! MSBY sticks together! And this time, we're sticking to Yoffun!”
“It'll be fun!” Atsumu tries to convince Sakusa, as their brains are rattled around. “T-team bonding- okay, Bokkun, that's good- we're good.”
“Fine,” Sakusa agrees, as Bokuto hugs them into submission. “But if things go south, I'm bailing.”
"S-sounds great, Omi-kun.” Atsumu flashes a thumbs up as Bokuto drags them out as a unit to team lunch.
--
“Good practice, everyone,” Alexander says, smiling as Atsumu strolls over to toss him his water bottle.
“Hey, Alex, wanna come grab lunch with me and Bokkun?”
“Sorry, but I have to go somewhere today,” he says, looking apologetic. “Maybe next time!”
“Sure, yeah. See ya,” Atsumu says, waving blankly as Alexander zooms off again. He sure walks fast for a guy who's pushing 2 meters. How's Atsumu ever supposed to interrogate the guy if he just immediately vanishes?
“Did you learn anything?” Bokuto asks, popping up beside him.
“Nope, he took off faster than 'Samu at the farmer's market. I think we're gonna need to do some serious recon here.”
“Okay, how about this: we each do our own research and regroup before the bus ride to the game on Friday!”
“I'm in. How about you?” Atsumu turns to ask Sakusa, who's doing his stretches on the gym floor.
“I can Google him,” Sakusa offers.
“Good enough. Alright, let's see what we can put together before Friday!”
--
On Friday morning, Atsumu arrives at the gym bright and early to find Bokuto and Sakusa sitting inside, waiting for the bus. Bokuto looks more amped up than usual, and Sakusa has a notebook in his hands, which is a good sign.
“Mornin'! The bus isn't supposed to arrive for another fifteen minutes, so we have plenty of time to debrief. Everybody do their job?” At their nods, Atsumu beams. “Okay, Omi-kun, why don't you go first.”
Sakusa flips open his notebook and begins reading off his list. “Alexander Yoffe, born June 2, 1992, is an Australian men's volleyball player. He plays in the V.League Division 1 for the MSBY Black Jackals and the Australian National Team. Yoffe was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria-”
“Wait, is this just his Wikipedia page?”
Sakusa snaps his notebook shut. “Yep. It was the first link on Google.”
“Oh. Uh, did you find anything else, or...”
“I got distracted editing Wakatoshi-kun's page.”
“Okay, well- that's real decent of you, but why don't I go now,” Atsumu says, pulling out his phone. “I found some pretty juicy stuff! Wan-san sent me the link to Alex's youtube channel — he has all these videos about living in Japan and some stuff about trying new foods and a lot- and I mean a lot of bird videos. Uh, and he seems to have a fansite-”
“The Beautiful Alex website!" Bokuto interrupts. "The number one news source for all Yoffans to get info on Beautiful Alex!”
“Beautiful...?”
“That's what they call him! It started after his first modeling gig with Lev and the Yoffans really liked it so they stuck with it! Did you know Yoffun is one of the faces of Maneazu's 2022 fall collection? And that he speaks 4 languages? That's how he knows Lev in the first place! Well, it was really because of Kuroo, but anyway, his fans are hoping he'll collab with Maneazu or other designers in the future! Some of them even think he'll get an endorsement with KFC! Do you think he would make a good Colonel Sanders?”
“He could probably pull off the fake beard," Sakusa says. Atsumu wants to say something to acknowledge this deluge of information, but Bokuto is already charging on.
“Anyway, like you said, Tsum-Tsum, most of his youtube channel is about birds because he really likes to go birding! He even takes pictures for Wikipedia! When he's not looking at birds, Yoffun also likes to play fighting games! His fans think it's cute that he's not really good at Smash. Oh! And his family is Jewish! And like Meian-san said, he has two younger sisters! They have a dog back home but Yoffun's pet ferret is-”
“You three are here early,” Oliver comments as he walks in. “Ready for today's game?”
“Yep, the Rockets'll never know what hit 'em,” Atsumu says, slapping his hand over Bokuto's mouth so he doesn't continue babbling about Alexander. “Is the bus here yet?”
“Looks like it,” Sakusa says, squinting at the doors. “Let's go.” He bumps Bokuto with an elbow as he gets up.
Oliver gestures toward the bathroom. “I'll meet you guys there.”
“You...sure know a lot,” Atsumu comments as he and Bokuto follow Sakusa outside. “Got caught up in the Beautiful Alex fervor, huh?”
Bokuto nods thoughtfully. “Yeah, I guess once I started researching, it all kinda snowballed. He's a pretty interesting dude, you know? I didn't know he had all these other hobbies. Especially all the stuff about birding! I watched some of his videos and it actually seems kinda fun.”
“Are you talking about birding?” says a voice to their left, and they both turn to see Alexander waiting by the bus doors. Sakusa has already disappeared inside.
“Hey, Yoffun! Yeah, I was just saying that I watched some of your videos! I learned a lot!”
Alexander lights up. He's normally on the more reserved side, so it's a bit of a revelation to see him looking so bright. “Do you think you'd be interested in finding out more, Koutarou?”
“I mean, I think birds are pretty cool!”
“Then you should come to the bird park with me and Wakatsu! You as well, Atsumu!”
“Thanks for the invite, but can we back up for a sec? Kiryuu Wakatsu? Likes birds?” Atsumu demands.
“He does! Wakatsu is an excellent birder; we meet often when we are in the same city. He makes a very good barley tea.”
Bokuto takes a second to think about it, and then nods with exuberance. “If Kiryuu's doing it, then I should probably find out what it's all about, too, right?”
“Wonderful. We'll be going after today's game-”
Atsumu holds up a hand. It feels like he has too many questions and Bokuto doesn't have enough. “Wait, is...is that where you run off to after practice every day? To go birding?”
“Usually! I have been making plans to view the storks on the coast, but there is a lot to see even in Higashiosaka. You are free to join me any time.”
“Sounds great!" Bokuto says. "I'll be there! What about you, Tsum-Tsum?”
They both turn to look expectantly at Atsumu, who blinks back. Well. He did want to know more about Beautiful Alex's mysterious life, didn't he?
“Alright, yeah, why the hell not? Let's do it. Let's go birding.”
Alexander's broad smile and Bokuto's crushing side hug tell Atsumu that he made the right choice. MSBY sticks together, after all.