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They didn’t think a training camp would be a good idea.
Sure, a training camp in of itself was great, but one with Karasuno? Yeah, no.
But here they were. At a training camp. With Karasuno. Yaaaay.
“Oh! You’re Mad Dog! The one that is all uwaah and your spikes are all like whoosh!”
And if Karasuno didn’t get their little ball of sunshine under control, Kyoutani might just snap.
Yahaba smiled pleasantly over at the dark-haired Captain watching the two. “Ennoshita-san,” sleepy brown eyes glanced over at him. “We look forward to this, really.” His fellow third-year gave an equally sleepy smile before looking fondly back over at the shorty. Who was near trembling as he gazed up at a pink-cheeked Kyoutani in awe.
“As do we. I didn’t think Hinata would already make friends with your Ace, but, I guess that shows me,” Enooshita laughed a little, Kageyama behind him and watching his partner with narrowed eyes, the ever-present scowl in place. “Kageyama, he’s just talking, don’t get huffy.” The genius setter blinked, the scowl disappearing and leaving the teen slightly younger looking as he looked to his Captain in confusion.
“Huffy?” Ennoshita patted his shoulder lightly, stepping away to wrangle Tanaka and Nishinoya into place—from where they were circling a rather confused Kindaichi (his fatal mistake was offering Yachi some help with bringing in a few bags of their supplies). “Oh, Dumbass!” Both tensed, Kyoutani’s expression darkening as Hinata turned, pouting.
“Stop calling me that! Bakayama!”
“Dumbass!”
“Moron!”
And before they knew it, the dynamic duo were struggling, Hinata clasping Kageyama’s hands in an effort to overpower the taller setter, a scowl on his face as he struggled to get close enough to hit him.
“Children, please,” Ennoshita sighed, a sound of too much suffering. Yahaba immediately felt bad for him. “Honestly, don’t make me call Daichi-san.” The two immediately stopped moving, hands still clasped but their expressions oddly blank. “Mm, that’s what I thought. Tanaka, stop harassing Turnip-kun, Noya, please, stop—“
“T-turnip-kun?” Kindaichi managed, looking over Noya’s head easily to show his expression of confusion to the rival Captain.
Yahaba sent Ennoshita a look that the Crow Captain copied. And they both smiled, honestly. “I believe proper introductions are in order. Everyone, line up!”
“Kyo-kyoutani-senpaaai!” Their ace started, ball jumping slightly in his hands. From where he was waiting to set it, Yahaba glanced at the door to the gym. Hinata stood there, trembling once more—excitement, he learned. The small middle blocker would get super excited and instead of shouting now, he tended to shiver like a small dog (their former Captain and Vice-Captain apparently wanted him to quiet down just a bit, so as not to disrupt too many people, but ended with mixed results).
“Y-yeah?” Yahaba had noticed the shrimp had bounced straight up to Kyoutani with hardly any hesitance, though he supposed both of Karasuno’s Aces had been slightly terrifying themselves, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch. “Wait, ‘senpai’?”
“You’re a third-year, aren’t you?” Hinata tilted his head to the side and Yahaba denied it was even remotely cute. Kyoutani managed a nod. “Then senpai!”
“Did you need something, Hinata-kun?” Yahaba questioned cheerfully. He couldn’t leave it up to his Ace, who was starting to resemble Iwaizumi when the teen had been confronted with girls confessing to him. That is to say, red faced and slightly awkward. Kyoutani probably never had someone look at him with such awe or even consider calling him ‘senpai’. Leave it Karasuno’s number 10 to break their Ace so easily.
“Oh! Can I practice with you?”
Yahaba blinked. “Weren’t you practicing with Kageyama?”
Hinata pouted, eyes narrowing and looking away slightly. “Yeah, but then Tanaka-san wanted to practice some and Kageyama got all…” he flailed for a moment before lifting his hands to his head, pressing his hair down flat and narrowing his eyes further. “Let Tanaka-san spike, Dumbass Hinata, he’s the Ace,” Hinata let go and his hair sprang back up, eyes returning to their round look, “and then Kunimi and Kindaichi came over and Kageyama wanted to set to them and it got all really intense,” Yahaba started at that. Was there a fight? “But then Watari-san came over and now they’re all buddies… So! Can I practice with you? Kyoutani-senpai? Yahaba-senpai?”
Yahaba smiled kindly. “So, you got kicked out by the Kiitagawa Daichi Trio, huh?” Hinata huffed and Kyoutani sent him a strange look. Almost like…
Oh god. Kyoutani liked the shrimpy middle blocker. He was being protective of the tiny crow.
But he was captain and had put up with Oikawa’s ridiculousness, so he managed to keep his laughter to himself. “Of-course you can, Hinata-kun. What say we do some receiving practice in with it? Kyoutani’ll spike a bit and you try to receive. Should be good practice.” Yahaba comprised. His smile became a little more genuine when the bright middle blocker leaped itno the air, hands thrown up, obviously agreeing to his proposal.
“I won’t let you down, Senpai! I’ll receive all of them!”
(For the first round, there were ten spikes. Hinata actually received six of them, two with his face. Kyoutani panicked the first time but when Hinata sprang back up, he relaxed. Until it happened again. When it was Hinata’s turn, Kyoutani managed to receive eight, six were clean and went up straight. Yahaba was surprised at how relatively easy it was to set to Hinata.)
“Oh, there you are, Hinata,” Kinoshita poked his head into the gym, Kyoutani landing with a thud. The ball skittered across the floor as they all looked over at him. “Ennoshita was wondering where you went off to. Time for dinner.” Hinata practically flew across the court, babbling to his teammate about how he was having such a great time with the captain and ace, and how totally ‘guwaah’ and ‘buwaah’ they were. Kinoshita nodded along, agreeing with the smaller middle blocker.
“Not to interrupt, but aren’t you forgetting something?” The spiker prodded gently. Hinata blinked. “You practice, you clean up.” Hinata went pink and scurried back, laughing a bit. “I’ll see you in a bit then. Takeda-sensei will be sure to hold some back for you, but don’t take too long,” he waved and then disappeared back out into the night as they went about cleaning up.
Kageyama sat close, eyeing the two Seijoh players across from him as Hinata continued speaking excitedly, half the words undiscernible due to his chewing. Yahaba was smiling, nodding along despite his obvious lack of understanding. Kyoutani was hunched over his dinner, but listening intently. Hinata swallowed, turning to him. He refocused. Hinata was frowning. “What?”
“We can practice tomorrow, right?” Kageyama looked down at him, long enough that the smaller boy began to fidget, but kept eye contact.
“Of-course. But I wanna set to Kyoutani-san.” He looked across the table, ignoring his partner’s squawking. “Is that alright?”
“Not the whole time! I wanna spike too!” Hinata tugged on his shirt, but Kageyama didn’t look away from the blond ace, who gazed back at him. “Kageyaaaammaaa!” Kyoutani’s eyes flickered to Hinata’s distraught expression before he shrugged a bit. “Fine! Then, Yahaba-senpai! Toss to me!”
Yahaba gave a smile that was oddly reminisce of Oikawa’s. “But of-course.”
“Your tiny bird was jealous of you, stealing away his setter,” Yahaba mused, hands behind his back as Kyoutani finished brushing his teeth. Seijoh’s Mad Dog glanced over at him, foam dripping down into the sink. A moment and he spit, cupping water in his hands and spitting again.
“He’s not my bird.” Kyoutani wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. Yahaba kept smiling, keeping pace as they walked towards their room. “Not a bird at all…”
“He’s a baby crow. And he’s gone and imprinted on you, like a duckling. How’s it feel to be a parent?” he teased lightly, leaning forward to smirk at the mild disgruntled look on his vice’s face. “Don’t pout, you’ll get wrinkles.” Kyoutani bared his teeth.
“You’re gonna toss to him. Shouldn’t I be jealous?” was his mutter.
Yahaba let his hands drop to his sides, letting one brush against Kyoutani’s as they walked. A moment and their hands were hesitantly joined, pink inching across Kyoutani’s neck. “Not the whole time. I’m sure Kageyama just wants to understand how to toss to all sorts of people. From what I saw, Tanaka’s a bit like you. Maybe some of the first-years are a little skittery, but setting to different people can only help him.” Yahaba tightened his hold, delighting in how Kyoutani refused to look at him, the pink blossoming on his cheeks. “But don’t miss me too much~”
“Sh-shut up…”