Work Text:
The costume party had been more than a little bit of a surprise, so Mai hadn’t exactly managed to put together a very good costume. Bokuto had just shown up in an owl costume, announced there was a costume party, and then stood there waiting for her to scramble to get something together so they could leave.
She would have appreciated at least an hour of warning rather than literally just five minutes of warning, but, well, it was too late for that.
She’d ended up just settling on grabbing her staff, and a witch hat someone had gotten her one time as a joke and going as a witch. Ridiculous because she was, in fact, a witch? Yes. She didn’t have any better ideas though, so a witch it was.
Honestly she wasn’t totally sure why Bokuto had decided to drag her along, she only recognized like half of the people here, and most of them she only knew by their highschool jersey number.
People like Karasuno’s shrimpy number ten, who she did know to be Hinata, but mostly because of course she’d remember the one guy who managed to make friends with Aone like it was the easiest thing in the world who wasn’t on the team.
Or Inarizaki’s setter and his twin, chatting with what looked like Inarizaki’s ace and their captain with the two toned hair.
“So, uh, how were people invited to this?” Mai asked Bokuto when he circled back around to where she was hanging out next to the drinks table.
Bokuto considered that, then shrugged. “Whoever was free? We just decided to do this like…yesterday? Coach said we had tomorrow off, so we decided to party! Everyone just kind of invited whoever was available on such short notice.”
“How did you know I’d be available?” Mai asked, although she already knew the answer to that one.
“I asked Keiji. He said you weren’t doing anything.”
Yeah she’d figured that would be the answer.
“How did Ushijima Wakatoshi get invited?” Mai asked curiously, gesturing to the man in question, who was currently locked in bemused conversation with his red-headed read blocking friend and very excited shrimps 1 and 2. Honestly she wasn’t sure what was going on over there.
“Uhh, I think Hinata invited Kageyama, who said he didn’t want to go, but somehow Ushijima heard about it and I guess Tendou wanted to come so they did?” Bokuto shrugged cheerfully, evidently unbothered. “And Hoshiumi showed up with him, although I think he might have also been invited by Hinata.”
Right, alright, that made sense. Kind of. She could pretty easily track how the other Inarizaki members got invited, as well as Itachiyama’s libero, they made sense, but there were still a few people who did not.
One, Wakutani’s captain from her second year, she wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here, although maybe he’d been invited by Karasuno’s captain, who was also here with their grey-haired former setter. Johzenji’s captain and several players from there were also here, although tragically neither of their old managers had showed up. Mai would have appreciated the chance to catch up with them.
Honestly there were probably more people, but what she was reasonably sure was setter Miya’s apartment was not at all open layout and there were what seemed like a million hallways. She really did not know why they’d decided to do this here instead of Bokuto’s house, which was 1: large, complete with a backyard, and 2: had a much more open layout.
No one said they were great at making good decisions though, not when the combination of Bokuto and Hinata could power through any objections through the power of sheer enthusiasm.
“Thanks for letting me know,” Mai settled on, mostly just amused by the situation. “You can go back to your circling now.”
Bokuto tilted his head, looking very much like the owl he was dressed as. “Circling?”
Mai would attempt to explain what she meant, but he probably wouldn’t get it and she didn’t feel like stumbling over her words trying to explain what she meant. “Nevermind. Who did the drink?”
She was holding a cup of it, but it had smelled pretty alcoholic, so she hadn’t drank any. She just didn’t like the taste of alcohol, so she didn’t drink. She also wasn’t a fan of hangovers, and did not consider it worth it, although she had tried going for something that really didn’t taste like alcohol once.
“Uhh, Atsumu I think?” Bokuto said, squinting in thought. “I think he added a lot of stuff, but you’d have to ask him about what’s in it.”
Mai cast a somewhat skeptical glance at her cup, and decided to just hold it and pretend she was drinking it. No one should question it. If necessary, she’d probably just dump it in the sink or something. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“It’s okay if you don’t like it!” Bokuto assured her. “Atsumu won’t take it badly!”
“Yes I will!” Atsumu shouted over, apparently overhearing them. “Everyone has to like it!”
“‘Tsumu, you put in enough alcohol to get anyone plastered.” She only barely heard that comment from his twin, but it definitely confirmed her decision not to drink it.
“Anyway, even if he does take it badly, he won’t do anything, cuz I’d stop him!” Bokuto was looking awfully cheerful for how stopping his teammate from doing anything would probably involve getting in a fight.
Oh well, his problem.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe if you do it I’ll designate you my brave knight, since my boyfriends aren’t here.”
Bokuto beamed. “Thanks! I’ll defend your honor, don’t you worry!”
Mai patted his arm. “I wasn’t worried about it, but thank you anyway.” Actually, she was rather curious about how the former Wakutani captain had ended up here, she was going to head over and join their conversation. “You can go do that or whatever, I’m going to go talk to that guy.”
Bokuto grinned. “Sure thing!” With that, he wandered off, leaving Mai to abandon the drink table and head over to where Karasuno’s former captain and vice captain were still chatting with the former Wakutani captain.
Wakutani’s former captain noticed her first, visibly trying to remember where he’d seen her, squinting at her for a long moment before realization dawned. Impressive, most people just stayed confused.
“Oh, hello, Nametsu, was it?” Karasuno’s former captain said, also noticing her. Impressive he remembered her name, she was pretty sure she’d never been introduced to him.
“Mai’s fine, I’m not too formal,” Mai replied immediately.
“You were…Dateko’s manager?” Wakutani’s former captain asked, with the tone of someone really hoping they were right.
“Yep, that was me. Wakunan’s captain?”
“Nakashima,” he replied, offering his hand. She took it, shaking his hand. Hm, that was the spark of magic. Was he also a witch? There hadn’t been that many in the volleyball circuit that she’d found, but maybe she’d missed one or two.
Mai let her eyes flash briefly with magic, and was delighted to see his do the same in response.
“Nice to meet you,” she replied before turning to the former Karasuno members. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your names.”
“That’s fair, I’m Daichi. This is Suga.”
She nodded to them, smiling politely. She had most of the Karasuno guys her age and younger remembered, since her third year was when Futakuchi and Tanaka started getting weird about each other, and since she and Chikara had capitalized on that to harass them by getting pretty frequent practice matches with each other, she’d gotten to know the team pretty well. “I assume Hinata invited you?”
“Yep. We were going to hang out anyway, so we just relocated to here, figuring it’d be a fun time.” Suga shrugged, grinning. “It’s been pretty good so far.”
“Bokuto just showed up at my apartment and kidnapped me, so I cannot relate.”
“Is that why you’re dressed as a witch?” Nakashima asked, sounding extremely amused.
“Yes. It was all I had on such short notice. If he’d given me like an hour of notice I could have come up with something better, but I had like five minutes. I did my best.”
“It’s pretty good for five minutes of warning,” Daichi said optimistically, probably not getting why it was so funny since Chikara had never mentioned him being magical.
“Could be worse,” Mai conceded. “Any of you try the drink yet?”
Daichi glanced back towards the drinks table skeptically. “No, should I?”
“According to Bokuto, Atsumu made it, and according to the man himself, it should get anyone plastered,” Mai dutifully reported. “So probably not unless you don’t have anything to do tomorrow.”
Daichi and Suga were obviously considering it, while Nakashima just looked amused. He leaned in, and Mai tilted her head towards him. “I could purify the alcohol out of it if you’d like,” he whispered. “It’s my specialty.”
“Please,” Mai whispered, handing her drink over. “It’d be so funny.” Then 1, she could actually drink it, and 2, she could do it while the twins could see her, and then they would get really confused as to how she wasn’t getting drunk.
Nakashima gave her a faintly exasperated look, but did accept the drink and held it in his hands, his palms glowing briefly before he handed it back. “It’s clear. I can’t promise the taste is good though. Purifying alcohol tends to water stuff down, since it’s mostly turning the alcohol into water, and that was a lot of alcohol.”
“Fine by me. My boyfriends are always saying I need to drink more water anyway.”
He gave her a somewhat quizzical look, while Mai absently noted Daichi and Suga had wandered off, evidently deciding it was fine to have a hangover tomorrow, since they were headed for the drink table. “Boyfriends? Plural?”
“Yep. Got a problem?” It was rare, but periodically people did have a problem with it.
Nakashima was quick to raise his hands and shake his head though. “Nah, just curious. Not something you see often. Would I know them?”
“Karasuno’s number six and Fukurodani’s setter,” Mai provided, although it was more unlikely that he’d recognize Keiji. Unless he knew Bokuto, in which case, Bokuto would not have shut up about Keiji. It was really funny when someone met Bokuto first, and then got really confused when he and Keiji weren’t dating.
Nakashima considered it. “I remember Karasuno’s number six, he subbed in for Daichi during our match against them. I never met Fukurodani’s anything I’m afraid.”
Mai jerked a thumb towards Bokuto. “He was Fukurodani’s captain and ace your third year, my second. If you talk to him for more than five minutes he’s probably going to start talking about Keiji. He does that.”
Nakashima blinked in that politely confused way people did sometimes. “I see.” He did not, but that was fine.
Eugh, yeah this drink didn’t taste great, but that was more because it seemed like someone had thought cranberry and cinnamon was a good combination.
“Did the watering down do it?” Nakashima asked curiously.
“Nope, it was whoever decided cranberry and cinnamon was a winning combination.” Mai offered him the other side of the cup, and after a second he took it, trying the drink, and immediately making his own face.
“Yeah, that’s not good. I’d imagine the alcohol would cover it, but the water does nothing on that end. I’m not sure if watering it down helped honestly.”
“Probably not much. I assume you also don’t really drink?”
Nakashima shook his head. “Not a fan of being drunk. Or the hangover. I’m good being the designated driver. You?”
“Don’t like the taste. Or the hangover I guess, but mostly the taste.”
Was that a knock? It didn’t sound like anyone else had heard it, but Mai had definitely heard a knock.
Nakashima appeared to have heard it too, since he was staring at the door with a puzzled look on his face.
Well, nothing to do but open the door and find out who was knocking.
Mai strolled over to the door, evidently catching the attention of Bokuto, since he basically appeared next to her as she reached the door, Nakashima standing behind them.
When she opened it, she was very puzzled to find a gargoyle standing there with a package.
…Had she ordered something? If she had, she’d never received something outside of her house before.
“Nametsu Mai?” The gargoyle asked flatly.
Mai blinked a couple of times, then held out her hands to receive the package. “That’s me, uh, what’s in it?”
“Mooncharged sage and mutakis.”
…Huh, yeah that was her, she really hadn’t thought it would arrive this quickly though. “Uh, wasn’t this supposed to go to my house?”
“Deliveries must be made to the customer,” the gargoyle informed her.
Right, alright, that was fine.
“Well, thanks for this I guess,” Mai said, tucking the package under her arm. She’d just hold onto it until she got home then.
The gargoyle turned to leave, but Bokuto stopped it. “You should come in! Have a drink and some food! Stay a while!”
The gargoyle blinked at Bokuto a couple of times before replying flatly. “I don’t eat. Or drink.”
Mai could almost see the words flying right over Bokuto’s head. It was almost impressive.
“Then just hang out!” Bokuto continued, evidently finding nothing wrong with that. “You’ve got a sick costume.”
The gargoyle, now very obviously absolutely baffled, glanced down at itself, the stone skin, the talons, the very obviously gargoyle feet. “Thank you? I’m afraid I must be off however.”
“Aw, not even going to take a snack?”
The gargoyle simply repeated itself. “I do not eat.”
“Well, have a good night then! Thanks for stopping by!” Bokuto said, waving cheerfully and then closing the door. “He was nice!”
Mai turned enough to share an extremely amused look with Nakashima. “Yep. You could say that.”
Bokuto wandered back off, job apparently done.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human just entirely miss the fact that they were speaking to a magical creature,” Nakashima said, sounding faintly impressed.
“Yeah, that’s, uh, that’s Bokuto.” Mai glanced down at her package, tucked under her arm. “I didn’t think it’d arrive this quickly, honestly. Seller must have had some on hand.”
“What were you planning on using it for?”
He probably had a completely different specialty than her, since he’d managed to easily purify the alcohol out of her drink, but Mai would never pass up the chance to talk shop with another witch. Even if it was at a party.
A party where she was probably going to get to watch most of these idiots get drunk. It’d be fun.