Chapter Text
The papers weren’t even in Daichi’s hand yet when they were ripped from him. Daichi felt his lips pressing together as he turned his head to stare at his co-captain who had decided he needed to read through the list of new club members before him. As he watched the setter’s eyes quickly scan the papers, he watched a redheaded student barrel down the hallway nearly taking out several other club member representatives as he went.
Suga’s eyes suddenly widened as he looked to the third applicants page and he looked like he wanted to scream as he turned to Daichi and slammed the paper literally into his nose. The sudden force to his nose made his eyes water as Daichi leaned back and pulled the paper down so he could read it. Daichi scanned the form a moment and then his eyes caught the information that must have Suga ready to practically jump out a window in excitement.
On Daichi’s other side, Tanaka partially shouted and signed, “What is it?”
Suga replied, “ We have a deaf first year joining us!”
Tanaka’s eyes widened, he continued his shouting and signing, “Really? Now we will have someone like us in every year!”
Suga nodded enthusiastically and grabbed Daichi’s wrist signing, “ Come on maybe they are here already!”
Daichi had no choice but to follow his very enthusiastic teammate. Tanaka followed behind Daichi for a moment before moving up next to Suga and began signing with him. Daichi frowned as he was towed to the gym with them.
Daichi knew some sign language, but he had only started learning when he met Suga, and Daichi for some reason was terrible at learning sign language. He didn’t understand, most of the language was just miming out certain actions, yet somehow he managed to make the language as difficult as rocket science. But Suga was teaching Daichi the best he could and Daichi was improving, he wasn’t learning as fast as some of the other team members but he was learning.
It was kind of funny though, Daichi had been so insistent on everyone who joined the volleyball club learn some sign language, yet he was the one having the most trouble. At first it had just been Suga and then last year Tanaka joined. Tanaka wasn’t like Suga though, Suga was completely and totally deaf, where Tanaka was just hard of hearing. But Tanaka prefered to remove his hearing aids in a match and that made him pretty much as deaf as Suga. So with two team members who couldn’t always hear what was going on around them Daichi made even more emphasis on learning sign language. And yet here Daichi was stuck behind his two teammates who were signing away in front of him as they dragged him off to the gym and Daichi was only catching about every other sentence.
They reached the gym to find that two first years were already inside. They were somewhat shouting at each other and Suga finally let go of Daichi obviously upset that they hadn’t found their new deaf teammember. Tanaka began shouting at them and threatening that they couldn’t use the gym unsupervised or something to intimidate them. Suga grabbed Tanaka’s collar and glared at him.
Daichi recognized the black haired first year, “You are from Kitagawa Daiichi aren’t you?”
“Yes,” the boy replied giving a slight bow, “My name is Kageyama Tobio.” Daichi made a small grin to him and noticed that the other club member was that short red head who was sprinting down the hall earlier. He was not looking at Daichi though rather his attention was fixed on Suga and Tanaka. Tanaka must have been signing for Suga.
The red head’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he raised up his hands and signed and spoke, “You guys are hard of hearing?!”
Suga looked like he wanted to tackle the first year to the ground and he brought up his own shaky hands and signed, “ I’m deaf, he,” he gestured to Tanaka, “ Is hard of hearing.”
The redhead beamed, “Wow! My sister was born hard of hearing so I learned how to sign because of her.”
“What’s your name?” Tanaka asked, then he pointed to the boy, “Wait I remember you you were that short number one!”
Suga glanced between Tanaka and then the redhead, “ Oh the one with the really good jumps, you played Kitagawa Daiichi didn’t you?”
The boy’s face went between excitement and gloom in two seconds and he replied, “Yes my first and last official match of middle school… But I came to Karasuno because I want to be like the little giant I want to be Karasuno’s ace.”
Tanaka let out a howl of laughter, “You want to be the ace?”
Suga slapped Tanaka on the back, “ It’s good to have big goals… What’s your name?”
The redhead seemed to realize he forgot to introduce himself and flailed a quick introduction, “Hinata Shoyou!”
Suga was about sign a quick nice to meet you when Kageyama interrupted, “You think that you will be the ace?”
Hinata scowled and turned to face Kageyama, “I have learned a lot since that match! And I will beat you just wait and see.”
“Well did you actually get better or did you waste your time like those three years of middle school?” Kageyama spat.
Suga elbowed Tanaka who had stopped interpreting and Tanaka quickly gave a just of what was going on, Suga wanted to intervene and kicked Daichi in the back of the leg to get him to do something. Daichi got the message and took a step forward bringing his hands up and telling the pair to calm down.
“Let’s have a match!” Hinata shouted.
“Hey listen to Daichi!” Tanaka chimed in rage seeping off of him.
“We can’t have a match between just us, you dumbass,” Kageyama frowned.
“Fine serve and I will receive and I will show you how much I have changed,” Hinata set his hands on his hips.
Kageyama raised an eyebrow and waltzed over to the ball that was on the floor, he must have been using it earlier, Kageyama palmed the ball and grinned to Hinata, “Well I’m not the same as last year either.”
“Hey you guys, let's settle this some other way,” Daichi pleaded, just as the Dean walked into the gym.
“What is going on in here volleyball club?” the Dean asked.
Daichi’s face flushed as he set a hand behind his head, “Oh nothing sir.”
“Looks like you can’t get control of your new teammates,” the Dean noted as Kageyama went up to a jump serve. Daichi had to admit he was impressed with the serve and he too would have flown out of the way as Hinata did.
“Ok that’s enough,” Daichi shouted.
“One more!” Hinata shouted to Kageyama. Kageyama didn’t even hesitate to serve another ball. The dean was getting ready to scold Daichi just as Kageyama served. It was going to the other end of the court no way Hinata was going to get it so Daichi rolled his eyes and turned to listen to his punishment if he couldn’t get these first years under control.
But Hinata had moved to the ball but his form was off and instead of flying back to where the setter would be the ball hit him, then flew over to the Dean his toupee flying off and spiraling through the air. Suddenly Daichi had more hair and he was ready to rip his own hair out of his head.
~~~
“Please let me back in!”
“I will work with this idiot!”
The shouting continued outside the door after Daichi kicked the two rambunctious first years off the team until they could learn to work together. Tanaka only laughed and Suga stared to the door hesitantly.
Suga turned to Daichi and signed, “ Don’t you think that was a little harsh?”
“No,” Daichi answered and Suga watched his lips, “We don’t need people like that on our team. I know they will work it out.”
~~~
“CAPTAIN!” The shouting came from outside and of the three team members closest to the door only two of them heard it.
“I bet they are going to challenge us to a match,” Tanaka laughed as Daichi opened the door, and that challenge was made the second the door was opened.
Daichi laughed, but eventually made a deal with the first years. They would play a three on three the other first years (who had yet to make an appearance) against Hinata and Kageyama, but Daichi and Tanaka would be playing on each team as well. If Hinata and Kageyama won they could be back on the team, but if they lost then Kageyama wouldn’t be allowed to play setter.
It seemed harsh but Suga and Tanaka trusted Daichi to know what he was doing.
As practice for the day came to an end Tanaka leaned against the window where he knew Hinata and Kageyama were lurking, “What time is practice tomorrow morning?” He shouted.
Ennoshita glared at Tanaka, “Seven why do you care, you won’t be here early?”
~~~
The next morning Tanaka was adjusting his hearing aids and yawning when he approached the gym. Of course he found the two delinquent first years staring at the locked door in defeat. Was Tanaka going to enjoy this.
“Looks like you two need these!” Tanaka shouted maybe a tad louder than he should have his hearing aids weren’t set properly yet.
The first years jumped and spun around but then saw Tanaka with the keys and their expressions changed, “Tanaka-san you are the best!” Hinata shouted and signed, he must have noted how loud Tanaka had yelled earlier.
“Can you be out of here by seven?” Tanaka shouted again.
Hinata and Kageyama bowed and shouted, “Yes!”
~~~
“... All I’m saying is that this little practice session is going to be our little secret,” Tanaka explained to the first years. He was in the middle of motivating them to work together and explaining how scary Daichi could be when the door slid open. Tanaka didn’t notice it at first but Hinata and Kageyama did and flew backwards. Tanaka spun around to see Suga standing there a smile on his face.
“Suga-san?!” Tanaka yelled.
Suga waved a hand and signed, “ I knew you were up to something, but don’t worry I won’t tell Daichi.”
And so they continued the early morning practice. Suga helped Hinata with recieves and Tanka practiced spikes with Kageyama. Suga had trouble keeping Hinata’s focus and it didn’t help that the only way he could get his attention again was chucking a volleyball at him.
“ Sorry Suga-san, I just wish that Kageyama would toss to me,” Hinata signed and glanced back over to Kageyama and Tanaka.
Suga waited until Hinata looked back his way to respond, “ You know I am a setter too, if you want I can toss for you.”
“ Really?” Hinata brightened but dimmed just as quickly, “ It wouldn’t be the same it would be like I lost to him.”
“ What do you mean? Are you still competing against Kageyama? He is on the same team as you now,” Suga signed watching Hinata carefully.
“ I know, I just want to be able to beat Kageyama because if I beat him then I can beat the other strong players out there,” Hinata shrugged.
Suga’s eyes widened, “ In your mind is Kageyama the strongest player?”
Suga watched as Hinata scrunched and unscrunched his face several times before nodding a quick yes. Suga smiled and signed, “ Well he was your strongest opponent now he is your strongest ally.”
~~~
It wasn’t until the next evening that the other first years finally showed up to practice. Suga could hardly contain himself when they entered. For one, everyone was impressed with how tall the blonde one with glasses was. He was quite intimidating and everyone must have been thinking of how much their block strength would go up if this new first year was put in.
The shorter one with brown hair and a dozen freckles did the introductions signing as he went, “Hello I am Yamaguchi Tadashi and this is Tsukishima Kei.”
A mixture of both called out hellos and waves went around the gym as the team went up to greet the new players. Suga and Tanaka went to Tsukishima first.
“ Hello nice to meet you Tsukishima,” Suga signed and beamed. Tsukishima seemed to be taken aback by the greeting but signed a ‘nice to meet you, what’s your name’.
“ Suga,” Suga finger spelled and then gestured to Tanaka, “ This is Tanaka he is hard of hearing.”
“Here I thought I was the only deaf volleyball player, ” Tsukishima signed making a small smirk.
“ We have three, one for every year,” Tanaka signed puffing his chest out apparently proud of that fact.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes and Suga signed, “ What position do you play?”
“ Spiker or middle blocker,” Tsukishima answered.
“ You are so tall I am sure you will be a great blocker for us,” Suga signed.
Tsukishima shrugged, “ I suppose height is an advantage.” After that not much else was exchanged between the three, Tsukishima went over to Yamaguchi who interpreted for him as Daichi explained that there was going to be a match against the other first years at the end of the week.
“ What do you think of him?” Tanaka asked.
Suga shrugged, “ Exciting that we have more tall players and another deaf player is always something to be excited about.”
Tanaka crossed his arms over his chest and spoke softer but faced Suga so he could lip read, “I don’t really like his attitude.”
Suga slapped Tanaka on the back, before signing, “ You don’t like anyone the first time you meet them.”
~~~
Hinata and Kageyama were yet again outside practicing for the match that would decide their fates on the volleyball team, when they were suddenly interrupted by two very tall students. The shorter of the two with brown hair laughed as the taller one with glasses caught the ball from above Hinata’s head just before he was about to receive it.
Hinata turned to glare at them but saw their towering figures and backed up a little, “Hey what do you two want…” Hinata’s voice was wavering but he tried his best to keep it under control.
The shorter first year smirked, “You were right Tsukki they are practicing outside.” Hinata noticed that this first year was also signing, the taller one must also be deaf. What were the odds? The taller one, Tsukki, rolled his eyes and waved a hand at Yamaguchi then gestured to Kageyama.
Kageyama glared, “What does he want?”
“Don’t be rude Kageyama,” Hinata grumbled to Kageyama and signed as he spoke out of courtesy of the other first year. Even if he did interrupt their practice Hinata wasn’t going to deny the kid the right to know what everyone around him was talking about.
Tsukki signed down to Hinata with his free hand, “ You know sign?”
“ Yes, my sister is hard of hearing,” Hinata answered.
The other first year seemed to notice that Kageyama wasn’t following and spoke directly to him, “You are Kageyama Tobio aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Kageyama answered flatly.
“I’m Yamaguchi and this is Tsukki- Tsukishima,” Yamaguchi corrected himself as he was signing when he noticed the glare from Tsukishima at the shortened spelling of his name. Hinata noticed that earlier Yamaguchi had only spelled out part of Tsukishima’s name, perhaps that was easier for the pair of them to communicate. But it seemed that to others, especially strangers Tsukishima prefered his entire last name.
“Are you the other first years that we are playing against?” Kageyama asked.
“Yes, we are,” Yamaguchi grinned.
“We won’t lose tomorrow,” Hinata signed and spoke confidently.
Tsukishima tossed the ball up in the air before sticking it under his arm and signed, “ Oh that’s right, this match is important for you two isn’t it? How about we take it easy on you?”
“Take it easy on us?” Hinata shouted and completely forgot to sign, but Tsukishima must have understood because he let out a small laugh.
“It doesn’t matter if they take it easy on us or not, we will still win no matter what,” Kageyama replied his head tilted to the side a seriously pissed expression on his face.
Yamaguchi was interpreting for Tsukishima and when he finished, Tsukishima signed to Hinata and Yamaguchi, “ Some confidence, I’m not surprised. One would expect it from a king.”
“What did he say?” Kageyama asked glaring to Hinata.
“Umm,” Hinata glanced between the death glare on Kageyama and the frightening smirk on Tsukishima, “He said that you have some confidence, and that you would expect it from a king…”
“Why you!” Kageyama shouted and stepped forward to grab at Tsukishima. Hinata blocked him though and pushed into his stomach.
“What are you going to do Kageyama?” Hinata shouted. Kageyama seemed to realize that he couldn’t really have an argument with Tsukishima without involving everyone present and he didn’t really want to get in a fist fight. Even though Tsukishima’s smirk was asking for it.
Tsukishima let out a satisfied click when Kageyama turned away and then signed to Hinata, “ He doesn’t like to be called the king then?”
“ No, I don’t understand it’s a cool nickname…” Hinata answered.
Tsukishima made another click of satisfaction, “ Not if that nickname is the result of self centered tosses, that no one was there to spike….” Hinata turned to Kageyama who was standing with his back to everyone. It made sense now. Kageyama had watched no one show up to spike for him and now wouldn’t toss for Hinata because he believed he wouldn’t be able to spike just like his other teammates.
Hinata looked back to Tsukishima, “ We will still beat you tomorrow.”
Tsukishima tossed the ball in the air again, “ I can’t wait.”
Hinata liked to believe that maybe there was good in everyone but that had changed when he met Kageyama, there was still hope for him though… Maybe. But Tsukishima really was asking for it. Tsukishima tossed the ball up one more time and that was all it took for Hinata to soar up into the air and snatch the ball just before it landed in Tsukishima’s hand again.
“ My name is Hinata by the way and Kageyama and I won’t lose,” Hinata signed to the shock stricken Tsukishima after dropping the ball to the ground. Tsukishima’s mouth only stayed agape for a second before he closed it and nodded, he turned around and motioned for Yamaguchi to follow him. Yamaguchi gave a small wave and with that the two new first years walked off into the night.
~~~
Hinata wondered if Daichi had done it on purpose to pair Hinata and Kageyama up with Tanaka. At first Hinata figured that it would be fine, Tanaka had hearing aids and could still hear. But apparently when Tanaka actually played in matches he took out his hearing aids to avoid damage. Lucky for Kageyama Hinata was on the team. But Kageyama was still arrogant and didn’t listen when Hinata tried to explain what Tanaka wanted to do or where he wanted to spike. Instead he told Hinata to tell Tanaka where to go.
“Kageyama this is exactly why we got kicked out in the first place,” Hinata grumbled about half way through the match.
“What do you want me to do, it is working isn’t it?” Kageyama asked glaring to Hinata.
Hinata clenched his fists, “Yea but you do want to be setter for the team, and that means knowing how to set with your team or do you want to be the King like Tsukishima said?”
Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s collar and glared at him, but he seemed to realize that maybe just maybe Hinata had a point. But then Hinata added, “And you can toss to me too.” With that Kageyama practically threw Hinata to the floor and marched back to his place with a huff.
The match continued with Hinata trying to help Kageyama understand where Tanaka best hit from and how he usually communicated with the setter. Tanaka got several good spikes out of this and despite his lack of hearing he still was very loud if not louder on the court when he got a spike through. He even ended up ripping his shirt off at one point and circling it over his head.
And so the match continued. And Hinata even managed to get an incredible toss from Kageyama even though the toss looked as though it was going to go to Tanaka. It was a learning process for everyone that ended the match with Hinata spiking a ball so fast with his eyes closed. It blew everyone away, and had Sugawara jealous of the skill level of his new teammates. They all still had plenty to learn but this was a start.
~~~
When the match ended with Kageyama, Hinata, and Tanaka’s victory the new first years were now officially members of the volleyball club. Shizumi brought them their new jackets and Hinata tried to tackle Tsukishima to get him to shake his hand, “They were teammates now damnit!”
All was well and then the door to the gym flew open and crashing in came Takeda, he fell to the floor then stood up a crumpled piece of paper in his hand, “A practice match!”
“Really?” Daichi asked, “Sensei, who is it with?”
“One of the prefectures top four,” Takeda answered and then stared over to a slightly confused looking group of three individuals, “Oh so sorry!” He instantly signed for the three hard of hearing team members.
“ Wow who is it sensei?” Suga asked.
“It is Aoba Jousai,” Takeda answered, “But there is one condition to playing them… They requested that Kageyama play setter.”
An odd tension filled the gym and several eyes flew Kageyama’s direction and then to Suga.
“ It’s fine,” Suga answered before anyone could say anything.
“ Are you sure Suga-san?” Tanaka asked.
Suga took a breath before answering and he answered by speaking, “I want to see just how good Hinata and Kageyama’s attack will be against one of the best four.” The first years stared to Suga clearly taken aback by the fact that Suga had actually used his voice. But no one protested Suga after that. Hinata figured that Suga spoke when he really wanted to get his point across. It worked.
~~~
Kageyama wasn’t really sure how this was going to work but he chased after Sugawara anyway. He practically collided into him before he got his attention. When Suga turned to smile at him Kageyama realized that maybe he should have brought Hinata with him. Then he could at least interpret for him. This was dumb, Kageyama didn’t know sign language. But Suga seemed to understand and pulled out his phone and typed a message before passing it to Kageyama.
The message read, “ If you speak regularly I can read your lips, I will use this to answer you.”
Kageyama nodded and passed the phone back to Suga, he hesitated before trying to speak without making it too awkward, “I know that I only get to play setter by default this time next time I will work my way up to a starting position.”
Suga eyes widened and then Kageyama stared at Suga wondering if he had understood or not, but Suga began typing on his phone before passing a message, “ I didn’t expect you to say something like this Kageyama, you are a much more talented setter than me.”
Kageyama practically shouted, “You can’t fill the experience gap so easily… Plus trust of other players and such…” Kageyama wasn’t shouting anymore as he finished his statement, he was really mumbling and Suga could just barely guess what Kageyama had said.
Then Kageyama looked up to Suga, “I won’t lose.”
Suga smiled and reached out to pat Kageyama on the shoulder and spoke as well, “I won’t either.”