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When somebody saw the Karasuno volleyball team, a couple of different things would go through their head. They would think about how skilled the team was; they would think about how close the team was; they would think about how determined the team was.
And after watching the team for at most five minutes (or sooner depending on how well they knew the team), they would think about how crazy they were. Some of the members (Yamaguchi, Yachi, Ennoshita, Kinoshita, Narita, and Kiyoko) were normal, but for the most part the team was made up of teenagers that were slightly crazy in some way, and they would probably begin to wonder how Samawara Daichi managed this team.
If asked, Sawamura Daichi would respond with two words: the rules.
Rule #1: NEVER GIVE HINATA CAFFEINE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
This rule came to light because of a second year; however, it was not either of the second years one would think of in a situation like this one.
Kinoshita was the one who committed such a crime against the universe.
Hinata had walked into practice that day, yawning and rubbing his eyes, claiming that he had stayed up late studying for an English test and that he barely got any sleep since he had to wake up early to get to school. Kinoshita—the kind soul that he was—took pity on Hinata and bought him an energy drink from the vending machine, thinking nothing of it as he went to go change for morning practice.
The boys of the Karasuno volleyball team were blissfully unaware of the headache that was to come as they changed into their practice clothes and walked into the gym, only to be met by the sight of Hinata vibrating in place, grinning like a maniac.
Tanaka took a step backwards at the sight and whispered, “Is he? Is he possessed? Do we need to call an exorcist?”
Suga eyed Hinata as he cautiously took a step forward, “…Hinata? Are you okay?”
“I FEEL GREAT!” Hinata shot up in the air over and over again, doing a starfish pose every time he leaped into the air. “I was really tired before but now that I drank that yummy canned drink I’m not tired at all I don’t even know what the word tired means anymore I can probably go so fast right now I could play volleyball forever and ever and it wouldn’t even make me the tiniest bit tired!”
The Karasuno volleyball team stared wide eyed at their first year as he jumped into the air over and over again, ranting at a speed they had never heard before.
“Dude, I thought I knew what it meant to be scared, but I think that I’m only just now learning what true fear is,” said Tanaka, bracing himself against the doorframe.
“He said he drank something?” Tsukishima said, tilting his head, “Did he have coffee? Or an energy drink?”
Tsukishima would deny caring about Hinata until the end of his days, but everyone (except for maybe Hinata) knew that deep down, Tsukishima did care for their decoy and he just didn’t like admitting it. So, even though Tsukishima claimed the only reason he was asking was because he didn’t want to deal with a hyperactive Hinata, they all knew that he was really concerned about the boy in question.
Which was fair considering the boy was zipping around the volleyball court at speeds that would make Sonic the Hedgehog jealous.
Kinoshita made a little noise in the back of his throat, drawing all eyes to him. He winced, “I, uh, this may be my fault.”
“Kinoshita…” Suga said, eyeing Hinata as if he would explode at any second, “What did you give him?”
“He was complaining about being tired, so I gave him an energy drink!”
“An energy drink!” Ennoshita exclaimed, gripping his hair as if he were about to tear it out, “Kinoshita, most energy drinks have more caffeine in them than coffee does. He’s hyper enough as it is! We’re never going to be able to get him to stop being like, like this!” He threw his hands in Hinata’s direction just as Hinata jumped from the ground and started hanging off the basketball hoop, swinging his legs back and forth while laughing, “before class starts!”
“On the bright side,” Yachi said, smiling nervously, “We know that Hinata probably doesn’t have ADHD like we thought since caffeine tends to make people with ADHD sleepy.”
Tsukishima stared at Hinata as he climbed up from the hoop to the metal parts that kept the hoop and board attached to the ceiling, “No. Unfortunately, he’s just like this.”
“There has to be some way we can tire him out before class starts,” Daichi said, slumping his shoulders, “Right?”
“Uh, guys,” Yamaguchi said, drawing all eyes to him, “Hinata’s scaling the walls.”
Sure enough, Hinata was crawling up the walls towards the ceilings as if he were a spider instead of a crow. The team watched in a mixture of horror and fascination as he begun to hang from the beams in the wall, swinging his feet back and forth while giggling.
“I don’t mean to bring the energy even more down than it already is,” Narita said, “but I don’t think that we’re gonna be able to tire him out before class starts.”
Kinoshita stared at Hinata, who was leaping from beam to beam. He clutched his stomach as if at any moment he would be sick, which was honestly fair since most of the team felt that way too, “I have never regretted a decision I’ve made more in my entire life.”
Noya, on the other hand, was staring up at Hinata with stars in his eyes, “WOAH! I WANNA DO THAT TOO!”
“Absolutely not,” said Suga, without a moment of hesitation.
Daichi sighed, staring up at his underclassman who was whooping and hollering from the rafters of the gym, “Okay! Let’s make it a rule to never, under any circumstances, give Hinata something with high amounts of caffeine.”
And, thus, the list of rules were born, and afternoon practice was cancelled due to the whole team being too exhausted from trying (and failing) to get Hinata back to normal by playing inhuman amounts of volleyball and chasing him around like he was wanted by the police. (In the end, Suga bought melatonin gummies and gave him one, which made him a bit drowsy throughout the day, but it was better than the alternative).
RULE #2: If Kageyama wishes to socialize with someone new, make sure he is accompanied by someone that can assist him with social cues and friendliness.
Tobio was staring at Kenma. At first, Shoyo thought it was jealousy, but he knew that Tobio knew that Kenma was nothing more than a friend. Not to mention the fact that Shoyo had assured his boyfriend (his boyfriend!!) that Kenma’s affections resided in someone else (Shoyo was pretty sure he would cry the day Kenma and Kuroo got together). And even if Tobio was jealous, he wasn’t glaring at Kenma, he was just intensely staring at him.
So, jealousy was out of the question.
Kenma shrunk in on himself, wishing he could disappear into thin air. “Why is he staring at me?”
Shoyo adored Tobio. When his setter asked to be his boyfriend, his heart went all GWAH, but Tobio wasn’t always the best when it came to emotions and people. Shoyo could tell that he had nothing against Kenma, but he could also tell that there was something he wanted involving Kenma.
Shoyo rose from his seat on the hill. “I’ll go talk to him and find out, okay?”
Kenma lifted the hood of his red hoodie, which Shoyo was fairly sure belonged to Kuroo, and yanked on the strings so that his entire face save for his nose was sinched in the hood, “Please do.”
Shoyo smiled and made his way over to his boyfriend (his boyfriend!!), plopping down next to him and taking his hand in his. Tobio blinked down at him, but gave his hand a squeeze nonetheless. He may not have known how to initiate affection without it being weird and awkward, but he was more than happy to bask in any affection Shoyo graced him with.
“Hi,” Tobio said, “I thought Kozume-san wanted to show you something in one of his games?”
Shoyo nodded, “He did, but I noticed you were staring at us, so I came over here to see why.”
Tobio turned deep red, not as red as he did whenever Shoyo kissed him, but still pretty red, “I was not staring!”
“You totally were! And I know you’re not jealous or anything, so why were you staring?”
Tobio clenched his jaw and looked away, but he didn’t try to rip his hand away from Shoyo’s, so no lines had been crossed. “I wanted to talk to him,” he muttered, “about being a setter…and stuff, but when I tried before, I freaked him out.”
Shoyo was bombarded by the overwhelming urge to cry. Sometimes, he forgot that underneath his boyfriend’s (his boyfriend!!) cool expression, he was actually a big softie that loved having friends.
Tobio wouldn’t appreciate being called that, though, so instead, Shoyo smiled up at him and rose to his feet, gently tugging on Tobio’s hand to get him to do the same. “Well, come on, Sillyama! I’ll help you make sure you’re not overwhelming him! Oh! You can even talk to him about that new video game you got over the weekend; I’m pretty sure he played it a little while back!”
The conversation was a little awkward at first, Shoyo did most of the talking in between them since Kenma was a little too shy and Tobio was scared of scaring him off and resorted to treating Kenma like a cat he was trying to coax out of a tree. But after a few minutes, the conversation took off on it’s own and they all began contributing their usual shares in a conversation (Shoyo was still talking the most, but Kenma was naturally a listener and Tobio didn’t really mind the fact that he was contributing less to the conversation. He was just happy to be in the conversation).
The three of them chattered on and on for a while, completely unaware of the gazes of the captains of their respective teams.
Kuroo sighed, placing his hands on his hips, “Of course Chibi-chan ended up being a gateway to Kenma making more friends.”
Suga smiled as Kageyama and Kenma began talking more while Hinata grinned and watched, “And for Kageyama too.”
Suga and Daichi shared a look, one that two parents would share after watching their kid make new friends at a playground. “New rule?” Suga asked.
“New rule.”
RULE #3: If one is concerned that Tsukishima and Kageyama will start trading blows, get their respective boyfriends involved to calm them down.
While Tsukishima and Kageyama didn’t really get along, they never really got physical. Their spats were confined to verbal altercations that left the rest of the team mildly exasperated. In fact, the only time anyone had ever seen them about to physically duke it out was when they first met, and only Hinata and Yamaguchi had been witness to that.
However, that didn’t mean that it never happened.
No one even knew what they were fighting over; one minute they were practicing spikes and the next they were leaning into each other's space, glaring and shooting insults at each other.
“Would you guys calm down?” Daichi shouted as the two kept yelling.
“Geez, those guys just can’t get along no matter how much time they’ve been on the team together,” Suga said, resting his hand on his hip, “Poor Ennoshita is gonna have to deal with a lot of that next year.”
“What are they even arguing about?” Noya asked, tilting his head as Kageyama growled at Tsukishima.
“I think Tsukishima didn’t like how high the set was and Kageyama said not making it high was wasted potential?” Ennoshita shrugged.
Suga’s lips shifted into a tired smile, “That certainly sounds like them.”
“I don’t know if you knew this, but you’re not the only one on the court that cares about the game, King.”
Kageyama snarled, lunging forward and grabbing Tsukishima’s shirt in his fist. The rest of the team jolted, each person getting ready to step in, when Hinata’s voice echoed through the gym: “To-bi-ooo! Toss to me!”
Kageyama blinked, his grip on Tsukishima loosening as he turned towards his boyfriend, who was jumping up and down with a volleyball in hand.
“Kei!” Yamaguchi called, drawing Tsukishima’s eyes to him, “let’s work on our serve and block combo!”
Kageyama and Tsukishima blinked at their respective boyfriends, blinked at each other, and broke apart, heading off in opposite directions. “Alright.”
Tanaka burst out laughing. “Oh! Hinata and Yamaguchi really have those two wrapped around their fingers, don’t they?”
Noya grinned as Narita began practicing receiving Yamaguchi’s jump float serve, “You can say that again.”
Daichi hummed and Suga turned to his boyfriend, “What is it?”
“New rule: if Kageyama and Tsukishima look like they’re about to start trading blows, get their boyfriends to stop them.”
RULE #4: If Hinata is being bullied or someone has made him cry, do not inform anyone on the team except for Yachi, Ennoshita, and the third years (minus Suga) until the issue is resolved.
It was, surprisingly, Tsukishima that caused the existence of this rule. He’d been changing for afternoon practice with Yamaguchi, complaining about how annoying Hinata was and how much he wished he could punt said teammate into the sun (because Hinata had apparently been quite annoying during the study session the first years had the day prior) when Tadashi started laughing.
“Sorry, Tsukki, I mean, Kei,” he said, face heating at the look his boyfriend sent him. They’d been dating for a month at that point, but Yamaguchi still wasn’t used to calling Tsukishima by his given name; it still flustered him, which Tsukishima thought was adorable and ridiculous at the same time. “It’s just funny.”
Tsukishima tilted his head, “What is?”
“You just, you act like you hate Hinata so much, but if anyone that isn’t on our team was mean to him or hurt him, you would riot on his behalf.”
Tsukishima's face lit up like a lantern, “I would not!”
“You totally would!” Yamaguchi laughed, “He may be older than us, but you totally see him as a younger brother or something like that.”
Tsukishima blushed, “Stop with your slander, Tadashi.”
Yamaguchi laughed, but before he could say anything else the door to the club room swung open and Hinata stumbled in, freezing when he spotted them. His uniform was covered in dirt as if he had rolled around outside multiple times, and he was sporting red marks across his skin (mainly his arms and legs) that seemed like they would blossom into purple bruises over time.
Yamaguchi reacted immediately, “Hinata! Are you alright? What happened?” he guided the shorter boy over to one of the benches in the room, sitting down on it next to Hinata, his hand wrapped around the smaller boy's hand.
Hinata smile, a smile that was meant to appear like his normal sunshine smile, but was clearly fake. “I’m fine, Yamaguchi! I’ll be even better once I get to play some volleyball!” he rose to his feet, hands clenched into fists like he was fired up for a game, but before he could do anything, Tsukishima moved so that he was standing in front of the door, rooting himself in place. Even if Hinata did change into his practice clothes without answering Yamaguchi’s questions, he wasn’t going to be actually going to practice until he did.
Hinata pouted, “This is why no one likes you, Tsukishima.”
“How tragic,” Tsukishima drawled, “Talk.”
Yamaguchi tensed. Some people would think that Kei didn’t care, that he was humoring this for Yamaguchi’s sake, or that he was doing this to annoy Hinata.
Those people didn’t know Tsukishima Kei. Not like Yamaguchi did.
Hinata engaged in a glaring match with Tsukishima for a few minutes before sighing and slumping his shoulders. He returned to his previous spot next to Yamaguchi, who held out his hand for him to hold. It said something about Tsukishima that he didn’t get upset—wouldn’t get upset—about the fact that Hinata was holding hands with his boyfriend. It made Yamaguchi want to give him a kiss right then and there.
“I just got into a disagreement with some people on the basketball team,” mumbled Hinata, “that’s all.”
Tsukishima looked Hinata up and down, “I would hardly call it a disagreement. Seems more like you got a beat down.”
Hinata turned red, “Shut up, you beanpole! You weren’t there!”
“Hinata,” Yamaguchi said, his voice soft, “What happened exactly?”
Hinata slumped, “There were some guys on the basketball team that were mad that I’m a starter since I’m not exactly the tallest person ever. They decided to get a bit physical with this anger. That’s all.”
Yamaguchi squeezed Hinata’s hand, “Hinata, you deserve to be a starter on this team just as much as anyone else, okay? Those guys don’t know what they’re talking about in the slightest.” His eyes flitted over Hinata, cataloging the injuries he was dotted with, “Now, we should probably get you checked out by the nurse.”
Tsukishima pushed up his glasses, causing them to reflect sunlight and hide the glint in his eyes, “You take him there, Tadashi. I’ll let the team know what’s going on.”
“Wha-no I’m fine! I can go to practice!”
Kei rolled his eyes, “If you walk into practice like that, the captains will have your head, and ours too for not stopping you from doing something stupid like practicing after you got injured, so, just go to the goddamn nurse. For everyone’s sake.”
Hinata pouted but let Yamaguchi gently tug him off the bench and out the door as they headed towards the nurses office. “Those guys didn’t know what they were talking about at all, y’know. You’re one of the best players we have. They’re just jealous that they’re not as good as you are.”
Hinata offered him a small smile, ignoring the small stab of pain it brought him, “Thanks, Yamaguchi.”
Luckily, Hinata was the only ones that needed to see the nurse, so he was able to be checked out right away with Tadashi waiting for him in the waiting room. Tadashi rocked back and forth on his feet, fingers thrumming on his thigh.
It didn't take long for Hinata to be dismissed with an ice pack and some ibuprofen, and they walked back to the gym together.
“I’m probably not gonna be allowed to practice until I’m better, am I?” Hinata pouted.
Yamaguchi shook his head, “Probably not. They’ll probably still let you sit in and observe. Sometimes just watching other people do things can make you better at them.”
Hinata straightened, beaming up at Tadashi. “Hey, right! Thanks, Yamaguchi!”
Well, that was easy. He thought, returning Hinata’s smile.
“Oh my God, Hinata, what happened?”
The two first years turned at Suga’s voice, blinking as he ran over to them and began looking Hinata over, his eyes narrowing at every injury he spotted. A few meters behind Suga stood Tsukishima, clutching his right hand with a blank expression on his face.
“Uh, didn’t Kei tell you what happened?” Yamaguchi asked, glancing between Suga and the first year in question.
Suga frowned, “All Tsukishima has told me is that he started a fight with some bench players on the basketball team.”
“I also won the fight,” Kei said and quickly looked away when Suga turned to glare at him.
“Why are you smiling like that, Yamaguchi?” Suga demanded, crossing his arms.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to, it’s just, we went to the nurse because some bench players on the basketball team messed with Hinata and we had to get him checked out.” Tadashi turned to his boyfriend, a teasing smile on his face, and Tsukishima looked away. “It seems like Kei actually cares more than he lets on.”
Suga straightened, glancing between Tsukishima, who had become very interested in the wall, and Hinata, who was staring at Tsukishima with constellations dancing in his corneas. Suga glared at Kei and smacked his arm, “Now, why didn’t you tell me that? If I knew what they did to Hinata, I would have hunted them down and thrown some punches at them myself!”
Of course, even with Suga’s seal of approval, Kei still had to face Daichi’s wrath for getting into a fight, and had to deal with begrudgingly admitting that he cared for Hinata Shoyo.
In the end, Kei thought, staring at the ice pack on his knuckles as Daichi screamed at him about how he would need to make a new rule, All I do is lose.
RULE #5: If Yamaguchi is being bullied or someone has made him cry, do not inform anyone on the team except for Kageyama, Yachi, Ennoshita, and the third years (minus Suga) until the issue is resolved.
UKAI’S HEADACHE INDUCERS <3
Royal Crow: I think people are bothering Yamaguchi
Crowbero: WHAT
Bald Crow: WHO THE FUCK IS BOTHERING OUR KOHAI
Papa Crow: Everyone calm down!
Papa Crow: Kageyama, tell us what happened.
Royal Crow: @Baby Manager Crow will do it, I’m gonna get Yamaguchi out of there before things get bad
Baby Manager Crow: Kageyama and I were walking with Hinata and we were about to turn the corner
Baby Manager Crow: and we heard voices talking about someone being useless and contributing nothing to the volleyball team
Baby Manager Crow: so we peered over the corner and these three upperclassman had Yamaguchi cornered!!
Baby Manager Crow: I sent Hinata to go get a teacher and I was recording the incident on my phone as proof
Papa Crow: ok, send me the videos, Yachi. I’ll show it to Takeda and he can help get these guys in trouble.
Papa Crow: Leave it up to the teachers to deal with this issue. If any of you try to take this into your own hands, you will be dealing with me and Ennoshita.
Nanny Crow: I will be watching all of the second years to make sure they don’t try anything.
Papa Crow: thank you, Ennoshita.
Papa Crow: it’s nice to know someone here won’t be giving me grey hairs before I can get a job.
Crow Jesus: should we be worried about tsukishima and Suga?
Manager Goddess Crow: I’m pretty sure Tsukishima has the chat muted after Noya and Tanaka spammed it with memes at 2 am
Manager Goddess Crow: and Suga doesn’t use his phone during the school day
Sunshine Crow: were we not supposed to tell Tsukki and Suga about it????????
Papa Crow: it would be best to do so afterwards.
Papa Crow: why?
Sunshine Crow: don’t get mad
Crow Dad: Hinata what did you do
Crownoshita: uh oh no punctuation
Nanny Crow: he’s pissed
Bald Crow: HIDE THE BABY
Sunshine Crow: don’t get mad!!!
Sunshine Crow: but I saw Tsukki and Suga on the way to a teacher and I may have told them what was going on
Crow Jesus: …
Crow Jesus: we’re gonna have to prevent a murder, aren’t we?
Papa Crow: I need to go find Suga and Tsukishima right now. If you need to talk to me, don’t.
Freckled Crow: GUYS THIS IS UNNECESSARY IM FINE KAGEYAMA HELPED ME
Freckled Crow: @Crow Mom @Tol Crow ITS PERFECTLY FINE THERE IS NO NEED TO DO ANYTHING THE TEACHERS ALREADY HAVE STUFF HANDLED
Sunshine Crow: IM GONNA GO TO JAIL FOR AIDING AND ABETTING
Tol Crow: I’m surprised you even know what those words mean.
Sunshine Crow: …
Sunshine Crow changed Tol Crow’s name to Mean Crow
Mean Crow: accurate.
Freckled Crow: Tsuki!! Pls don’t do anything rash! I’m perfectly fine!!!!!
Mean Crow: don’t worry, Tadashi.
Mean Crow: Suga and I are only going to give those people what they deserve.
Nanny Crow: I’m afraid I turned around and lost sight of the other second years
Nanny Crow: I’m so sorry daichi I just turned around and they were gone
Mama Crow: Don’t worry Hinata! No one is going to jail!
Mama Crow: We won’t be getting caught :)
Papa Crow: We’re gonna have to make a new rule because of this, aren’t we?
Royal Crow: probably
Nanny Crow: oh yeah definitely
Papa Crow: great
RULE #6: If Tanaka, Noya, Kinoshita, and Narita haven’t used the group chat in 3+ days, they’ve done something and they feel guilty about it or they are going to do something. Sic Daichi, Suga, Coach, and/or Ennoshita on them immediately.
Sunshine Crow > Nanny Crow
Sunshine Crow: Ennoshita!!!
Nanny Crow: Hey Hinata!!!
Nanny Crow: What’s up?
Sunshine Crow: do you know if the other second years are ok????
Sunshine Crow: they haven’t used the gc in a few days
Sunshine Crow: do you think it might have to do with the canon thing they were talking about????
Nanny Crow: what canon thing????
Sunshine Crow: the canon thing that Tanaka and Noya were talking about a few days back
Sunshine Crow: did they forget to tell you???
Nanny Crow: I think they did
Nanny Crow: do you mind telling me what it is???
Sunshine Crow: they want to see how far noya will fly if they launch him out of a canon!!!
Nanny Crow: what
Sunshine Crow: yeah!! I was gonna ask if I could join too but they said they’re gonna have to build the canon themselves
Sunshine Crow: and that would take time away from volleyball
Nanny Crow: they’re going to w h a t
Sunshine Crow: do you think that’s why they’re not using the gc anymore??
Sunshine Crow: are they too busy building the canon?
Nanny Crow: probably
Nanny Crow: ty for telling me about this Hinata
Nanny Crow: I’ll make sure they know you were worried about them
Sunshine Crow: ofc!!!
Nanny Crow > Papa Crow
Nanny Crow: Daichi we have a problem
Papa Crow: Does it involve me making a new rule?
Nanny Crow: probably
Papa Crow: GOD FUCKING DAMNIT
RULE #7: If someone says something stupid and Tsukishima doesn’t immediately mock them, send him home immediately; he is sick.
Tsukishima Kei was a logical person. He always had been and always would be. However, if there was one thing he wasn’t logical about it was his own health. Unless he was actively vomiting or too dizzy to stand, he would carry on with his day as if he were in peak health, even if his throat was on fire every time he swallowed anything and his nose was so clogged that he could only breathe out of his mouth.
So, of course, when he woke up one day with a sore throat and a stuffy nose, he simply got out of bed and got ready for morning practice as if nothing was out of sorts.
Unfortunately, by the time he’d arrived at school for morning practice, his condition had worsened. His under eyes began to hurt and he’d sneezed so many times that he had to switch to one of his backup handkerchiefs. Still not bad enough that he had to miss school, so he merely continued to the club room and changed into his volleyball attire.
“Good morning, Kei!” exclaimed Yamaguchi as he entered the club room.
“Morning, Tadashi.”
“I still can’t believe Pluto isn’t a planet anymore!” Noya exclaimed, “like just because it’s small means it doesn’t get to be a planet? What kind of bullshit is that?”
Tanaka laughed, “I’m just glad the moon's still a planet, you know. It’s my favorite one out there.”
Suga sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew that Ennoshita was working his butt off tutoring them before every exam, but it seemed that no matter how hard he worked there were some things those two would say that were absolutely idiotic. “Guys, the moon isn’t a planet.”
“ITS NOT?”
“No, it’s a natural satellite. I know that you had an astronomy unit in science last year. You should know this!”
Tanaka crossed his arms and pouted, “Yeah, well that was last year. I’m not gonna remember the information from last year.”
Suga sighed again. He loved his teammates, but sometimes they really tested his patience. At least Tsukishima didn’t start anything by making a comment on their intelligence, Suga thought, before pausing and looking up at the first year in question. Wait a minute, why didn’t Tuskishima make a comment?
“Tsukishima, are you feeling okay?” Suga asked, tilting his head at the middle blocker, “You didn’t react to that comment like you normally would.”
Tsukishima turned to Suga, his eyes drooping the tiniest bit, “I thought you all wanted me to be nicer to my teammates, and now you’re upset that I’m being nice? That seems kind of backwards.”
Suga frowned. He gestured Tsukishima closer to him, laying his hand across Tsukishima’s forehead once he leaned closer to Suga, “Tsukishima! You have a fever! You shouldn’t be at school!”
Tsukishima rose to his full height, “It’s only a slight one. I’m fine.”
The thing about being sick is that sometimes, people get worse before they get better. Tsukishima started off the day with nothing more than a runny nose, but as he progressed through practice, his under eyes began ache from pressure building up, causing him to want to curl up and sleep, and his throat began to feel as if there were thorns scraping the sides of it, especially whenever he swallowed.
“Tsukishima?” Hinata asked during receiving drills, “Are you sure you’re okay? You look kind of like you’re going to collapse.”
“I’m fine, Shrimp,” Tsukishima said, ignoring the pain stabbing at his brain, “Leave me alone.”
On a normal day, the taunt would have been better, biting even and Hinata would have responded by getting all riled up like he always did. But being sick meant that Tsukishima didn’t have any excess energy to expend; he barely felt like he had energy at all.
“Tsukishima!” Coach called, “You’re up!”
Tsukishima stepped forwards, getting into position and staring down Kageyama as he threw the ball up in the air and served it. Tsukishima gritted his teeth as he stared at the ball, moving forwards to receive it. He’d never been strong when it came to receiving, he knew that, but he wasn’t atrocious either.
He stumbled, falling forwards, and before he even knew what was happening he landed on the floor at the same time as the ball smacked against the hardwood, just a bit in front of where Tsukishima landed.
He didn’t remember losing consciousness (maybe that was normal, Tsukishima wasn’t sure), but he woke up in the infirmary, surrounded by his teammates, all wearing expressions that would make someone think that Tsukishima were on his death bed.
“You guys better not be mourning me already,” he said, sitting up and immediately being hit with a wave of dizziness. He leaned back down, closing his eyes to try and shut out the spinning world, “I intend to live longer than, His Majesty.”
“Fuck you too, Tsukishima.”
“Tsukishima,” Daichi said, his voice firm and level. It reminded Tsukishima of the way a parent’s voice sounded when they were scolding a child, “Why did you come to school today if you were sick?”
“Missing school is annoying. I’d have to make up a lot of work depending on how much school I miss.”
“Your health is more important than the school work, Kei,” Tadashi said, taking Tsukishima’s hand into his own warm one. “You should stay home when you’re sick. You could’ve been seriously hurt if that ball had landed any closer to you! And if you got hurt you would’ve had to miss more school than you would if you just stayed home and rested, so you would have gone to school for nothing.”
Tsukishima had to admit, his boyfriend had a point. He only got a few injuries from the fall itself, but if that ball had hit him when it landed, he could have gotten a concussion, or his glasses could have broken (which would mean glass shards and those were not fun). He normally wasn’t this bad when he was sick, but he knew that it was getting worse throughout the day and chose not to go home. And now he was worrying Tadashi (and the rest of his team members he guessed).
“It wasn’t this bad this morning,” Tsukishima said, “But I’ll stay home tomorrow.”
There was a collective sigh of relief, which Tsukishima thought was overkill but tolerated nonetheless. He knew his team. He knew that they were probably standing around worried about him for however long he’d been unconscious because they would never be able to focus on practice when one of their teammates wasn’t feeling well. He’d allow them to be dramatic just this once.
“I’m so glad you’re okay, Dude,” Tanaka said, “You were unconscious for so long, I was worried we’d have to give you the himelach.”
A silence descended upon them. Normally, Tsukishima would fill it with an insult to Tanaka’s minimal intelligence, but he just didn’t have the energy at the moment.
“Tanaka,” Yachi said slowly, “I don’t think you understand what the himelach is.”
The next few minutes were filled with arguments about what the himelach was and what it was supposed to be used for. Not once during the time did Tsukishima glare at Tanaka or make a comment about his stupidity or lack of common sense, the way he usually would.
Witnessing the scene, Daichi opened up his phone and begun typing up Rule #7.
RULE #8: No one is allowed to talk bad about Yachi. Including Yachi.
This rule, surprisingly, didn’t have a particularly chaotic backstory behind it. Not that the situation lacked chaos, but for the Karasuno volleyball club, it was all surprisingly tame. Yachi merely made a self-deprecating comment about herself and Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Hinata spent the rest of practice yelling various compliments about her (with Kiyoko whispering a few). By the time practice was over Yachi’s face was so warm that Asahi was worried that she would pass out from all the blood rushing to her head.
Yachi had assured the worried third years that she would be fine, but asked that everyone swear to never speak of this moment in detail ever again.
Because if they did, she might just die of embarrassment.
RULE #9: If Sugawara is angry, use Hinata to distract him. Hinata is the favorite child (even if Suga won’t admit it).
“I cannot believe you!” Suga yelled, his voice reverberating through the gym as the rest of the team stayed silent, afraid that if they breathed wrong their vice captains ire would turn on them. “What on earth made you think that launching Nishinoya out of a homemade canon would be a good idea?”
Somehow, Noya came out of the cannon launch unharmed. No one was sure how, but the general concensus was that pain feared what Karasuno volleyball team would do to it if it fucked with their guardian. deity
Which was completely reasonable since Sawamura Daichi and Sugawara Koushi were the ones that ran them team (and of course, Couch Ukai, but he wasn’t nearly as unhinged as the players were). Now, Sugawara Koushi was many things (one of them being chaotic), but he had lines. Lovingly punching the human embodiment of anxiety to try and get him to stop letting his anxiety monster get to him? That was perfectly fine. Launching the libero out of a homemade canon to see how far he would fly? That is so far passed the line that the line isn’t even fucking visible anymore.
“I didn't even know that you all could exhibit such idiocy!”
“Damn,” Tsukishima muttered, “He’s not even using words that Tanaka and Noya know anymore.”
Yamaguchi snickered.
“I expected better from all of you! Especially you two!” Suga pointed at Kinoshita and Narita, who sat up straighter upon being addressed. “Tanaka and Noya are absolute chaos gremlins, but you two? I thought Daichi and I could trust you two to at least be a bit reasonable, but turns out we can’t!”
“I can’t believe Suga’s being such a buzzkill,” Tanaka muttered. The temperature in the gym dropped. Tanaka stood frozen as he slowly craned his head to face Suga, who glared at him with fire flaring in his eyes and steam practically pouring out of his ears.
“What the hell did you just say--”
It was at that point that Kiyoko, who had been silently watching the dressing down, decided it best to intervene before Sugawara strangled someone. She tapped on Hinata’s shoulder, pointed at the volleyball in his hands and then pointed at Suga, “You haven’t practiced hitting his tosses recently, right?”
Now, Hinata had been also silently watching the scene, fear in his heart as Suga hollered at his teammates. But, at his core, he was nothing if not a volleyball nerd, so when Kiyoko mentioned practicing with Suga’s tosses, all thoughts except for those pertaining to volleyball exited his brain.
“Suga-san!” Hinata shouted as he ran into the gym, “Can you help me practice serving?”
Suga turned to Hinata, his expression softening at the smile on the first year’s face, “Hinata, I’m a little busy right now--”
“Please please please?” Hinata begged, staring up at Suga with his famous puppy dog eyes.
Instant kill, Noya thought as Suga’s shoulders sagged, and he relented.
“Okay, Hinata, I’ll be outside in a second.”
Hinata pumped his fists in the air, “Yay! Thank you, Suga!”
As Hinata retreated, Suga turned around to glare at the second years, “You guys were lucky this time. But I won’t forget what you did.”
He began walking backwards towards the exit, his sharp gaze never once leaving them until he’d exited from view.
The four second years collapsed as soon as Suga was gone, breathing heavily as if they’d just undergone an intense form of training. “We should make this a new rule,” Noya said in between his pants.
The other three chorused: “Agreed.”
RULE #10: NEVER ASK HINATA OR NOYA TO GET SOMETHING THAT IS HIGH UP THEY WILL ENDANGER THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF ASKING FOR HELP.
There were very few times that Suga felt like he was going to have a heart attack. The first one was when his younger brother fell down the stairs and hit his head. The second one was when he found a wasp’s nest near his house. The third was when his neighbor was nearly hit by a car.
And the fourth? The fourth was during a team sleepover at Daichi’s house.
The team had taken to doing at least one sleepover every month; they helped with bonding and got everyone used to being in close quarters like they would have to be during training camps and nationals.
Every member of the team was gathered in a semicircle around Daichi’s TV, their eyes fixed on the movie that was playing. Suga couldn’t help but smile at his team; Hinata and Kageyama were snuggled up against each other with Hinata’s head resting on Kageyama’s chest; Tsukishima and Yanaguchi were laying on their stomachs—shoulder to shoulder—whispering and snickering to themselves either about the movie or about their teammates; Ennoshita and Tanaka’s eyes were both fixed on the screen, but their hands were overlapping on their sleeping bags; Kinoshita’s head was resting on Narita’s shoulder, and Narita’s head was on top of Kinoshita’s; Noya was fully on Asahi’s lap with Asahi’s chin resting on his head; Yachi was braiding Kiyoko’s hair while staring at the screen, a light blush evident on both girls faces.
Suga couldn’t have asked for a better team.
“Hey, I’m gonna go get some more water, does anyone else want anything?” asked Noya rising from Asahi’s lap.
“Oh! Can you get more potato chips? We’re almost out.” Tanaka said.
Noya gave him a thumbs up, “You got it bud. Feel free to continue the movie without me!”
Around ten minutes passed and Noya still hadn’t returned, which was confusing to say the least. Daichi’s pantry was kind of big, sure, but everything was easy to spot. It shouldn’t take Noya so long to find the potato chips. Koushi had been through his pantry plenty of times, and he knew exactly where the potato chips were and that they were-
Oh.
Oh no.
“Daichi?”
“Yeah, Koushi?”
“Do you still keep the chips on the top shelf of your pantry?”
Daichi nodded, his brows furrowed at the question, before he froze, his eyes widening as he seemed to come to the same realization as Suga.
It was too late, though, because a loud curse followed by a stream of objects crashing to the ground reverberated throughout the house, causing Daichi to wince.
When they all rushed down to the kitchen, they discovered that as opposed to asking for help, Noya used chairs, a stool, and awkwardly stepped onto a shelf to grab the chips, only for the stool to slip causing him to go crashing to the ground with the chips in hand. He’d been laying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling with a punch of different snacks and other things in Daichi’s pantry splayed around him like fallen soldiers on a battle field.
“Hinata?” Suga asked, as Asahi helped Noya onto a chair and began to do some basic concussion checks while the others helped pick up anything else that went toppling to the ground from Daichi’s pantry.
“Yeah?”
“If we had asked you to get the chips would you have climbed the shelves like Noya did?”
Hinata blinked, “Oh, yeah! I do it all the time at home!”
Suga sighed as Asahi determined that Noya might have a concussion and would need to see a doctor to get a more conclusive diagnosis. “Okay, then. New rule?”
Daichi nodded, dialing a local 24 hour clinic to check if they could take Noya, “New rule.”
RULE #11: When walking through a big crowd, hold Asahi’s hand even if he doesn’t ask you to; it helps his anxiety.
Asahi would be the first to admit that he was scared of a lot: large crowds, failure, Sugawara and Daichi when they were angry, spiders, public speaking, being late, being too early, rejection, the future, snakes, big dogs, an excessive amounts of dots on something...the list could go on.
However, after he started therapy, everything became more...manageable. (The anxiety would never go away, it would always follow after him like his shadow did, but given the choice between it being bad and it being manageable, he would always choose the latter).
One of the best gifts that therapy had given him were the ways that his team could help him.
They knew the signs to look for to identify if he was having an anxiety attack; they learned what stuff he would want to avoid people talking about in front of him; they learned his comfort foods and would try to bring them to him if they could tell that he was having a bad day, and—most importantly—they learned the ways to help relieve his anxiety.
Hinata had already known a few because of Kenma when Asahi first brought it up to the team, but the others learned about putting ice on his wrist to help ground him, breathing exercises, anything that would make their ace more comfortable in his day to day life.
That being said, Asahi wasn’t sure if he’d ever stop being nervous around ginormous crowds.
“Asahi, come on! We don’t have to stay in it too long! We just gotta walk through it!” Suga exclaimed, gesturing to the crowd in front of him.
Asahi swallowed at the sheer number of people bustling around, judging him, plotting against him, wanting to cage him in and keep him there like a bird in a cage, “Uh, you guys go without me. I’ll hang here for a bit.” Or forever.
Suga opened his mouth to say something when a small hand slid into Asahi’s as Noya jumped into place right in between him and Suga. He grinned up at Asahi with a smile that seemed to reflect the light from the sun rays, “Don’t worry, Asahi! I’ll protect you! Just keep holding my hand and you and I can get through this together! You and me against the world!”
Asahi’s thoughts screeched to a halt as he stared at Noya’s hand. Gone were the thoughts about the crowd and how terrifying it was, how threatening it was. They were still there, but they were suffering under the storm that Noya sent rolling towards him the moment he took Asahi’s hand. The thunder crashed through Asahi’s mind, blocking out all his worries. There was no room for them in his mind. There was only Nishinoya.
“Asahi?” Noya said, peering up at him, a softer smile adorned on his face, “C’mon. Let’s do this together.”
Asahi said nothing, but he managed to gather up enough courage to nod, which caused Noya to give him another bright smile that made Asahi weak in the knees. Before he could do anything else, though, Noya had already began pulling him towards and through the crowd.
Noya’s grip was hardly tight, in fact Asahi would be able to just slip his hand out if he wanted to, but that was part of what made it grounding instead of suffocating. Noya was guiding him, not forcing him. He had the chance to escape, to turn back around and flee back to where he began if he so needed to. Noya took his hand and told him they’d face the world together, but he also gave Asahi an out in case he wasn’t ready to face the world yet.
The darkness tried to encroach on him as he walked through the crowd, but the thunder Noya brought with him boomed and sent them running anytime they tried anything. The two of them waded through the sea of people, and came out on the other end without ever once getting lost at sea.
“See, I told you you could do it!” Noya exclaimed, pumping their joined hands in the air, “You and me against the world, Asahi!”
Asahi smiled down at him, softly repeating, “You and me against the world.”
Unbeknownst to the two of them, Suga and Daichi watched their journey through the crowd and return from the other side from a distance, small smiles playing on their faces.
“New rule?” asked Suga, smiling at his boyfriend.
Daichi mirrored the smile, “New rule.”
RULE #12: If Ukai starts playing Teenagers, inform the entire team and be on your best behavior.
Of all the things Ittetsu thought would happen after becoming the advisor of Karasuno’s volleyball club, getting a boyfriend was not one of them.
Granted, they’d only gotten together because they’d both gotten drunk while hanging out, kissed each other senseless, woke up with hangovers, avoided each other as much as they physically could since they were coworkers, and then talked everything out after Hinata locked them in a closet together to sort out their feelings (Hinata still to this day denied that he’d been the one to do it, and not even Tsukishima would rat him out, but they both knew he’d done it).
It was a strange revelation, but a welcome one nonetheless. He’d never really been in love before (not properly, at least), so he more than welcomed the different things that came with love. He liked the fact that he knew what Keishin’s facial expressions meant (like how he scrunched up his nose when the lights flickered), and the fact that he knew that Keishin was a great cook but couldn’t bake anything to save his life, and that fact that Keishin had an emo phase when he was in high school. Whenever people talked about love, they talked about the butterflies dancing in one’s stomach, or the way the heart skipped a beat when they laid eyes on their love.
In Takeda’s opinion, people should talk more about the novelty of knowing someone as well as you know your very soul. It was one of the best parts about being in love in his opinion.
Which was why, when they got into Takeda’s car and Keishin began playing Teenagers by MCR, he knew that something was wrong, and that it probably had to do with the volleyball team.
“...Did something happen?” Ittetsu asked his boyfriend, pulling out of the parking lot.
Keishin sighed, “Kageyama realized that he has feelings for Hinata.”
Ah.
The only people in the entire world that didn’t know that Hinata and Kageyama had feelings for each other were Hinata and Kageyama. Hinata, at least, seemed to know his feelings if the way he’d been asking Suga and Daichi for love advice was any indication, but Kageyama? That poor, amazing, wonderful, emotionally stunted baby seemed to be one of two people that were unaware of the fact that Kageyama Tobio was in love with Hinata Shoyo.
Until today, apparently.
“How’d you find out that he knew?” Ittetsu asked.
“He told me that he thought that Hinata was sick and then gave me a list of reasons why ranging from the speed at which Hinata ran to the temperature of his hands,” Keishin said, rubbing a hand down his face, “So I asked him why he knew all those things, and he said it was normal to know those things about a friend, and then I asked him if he knew those things about his other friends and he said that he didn’t. So, I asked him what made Hinata so special that he knew those things, and he went on a rant for ten minutes about how amazing Hinata is and when he was done he seemed to finally realize that he had feelings for Hinata.”
“Okay…”
“And then he asked me for love advice.”
Ah. Fuck.
Ittetsu and Keishin’s relationship was by no standards normal. Getting together was messy, and after that they seemed to take everything much faster than most people thought was reasonable. They said their first “I love yous” after three dates (and Ittetsu had thought them before that), they talked about marriage and children, and they told the people close to them that they were each other’s soulmates. It worked for them, and it would work for some others, but Ittetsu was well aware of the fact that it wasn’t exactly the best example to set for a young and impressionable high schooler.
“What did you tell him?” Ittetsu asked, glancing from the road to his boyfriend.
“I suggested that he confess to Hinata and get him a gift to show his appreciation,” Keishin said, “Kageyama started spiraling about what would be a worthy gift for Hinata and somehow came to the conclusion that the best gift he could give him was the world.”
Ittetsu’s heart melted, “Aw, well, that’s very sweet of him-”
“He started planning world domination right after.”
The two of them fell silent, the only sound between them being the chorus of Teenagers.
“Well,” Ittetsu said, “That is…romantic?”
“I managed to convince him to buy Hinata some snacks and flowers instead.”
“Yeah that’s probably for the best.”
In truth, Ittetsu had completely forgotten about the conversation. It wasn’t until long after Kageyama and Hinata had gotten together that he remembered it. And the only reason he remembered it was because Daichi and him were discussing a change in practice times because of the weather and Daichi brought up how he would need to tell Kageyama that he couldn’t practice volleyball with Hinata in pouring rain and that he should say no whenever Hinata begged him for a toss. Ittestsu couldn’t help but be reminded of his and Keishin’s conversation, so he decided to recount it to Daichi (without mentioning the park about him and Keshin dating, of course).
Daichi sighed, “So, I guess this song is kind of an indicator that we need to be on our best behavior?”
Ittetsu nodded, a sheepish smile on his face, “Yeah...kind of.”
“I’ll add it to the rules,” Daichi said, sounding so utterly defeated in a way that no kid his age should ever sound.
Ittetsu blinked, “The rules?”
“Yeah, I started making a list of rules to keep the team in check and stuff like that.”
“Oh, how many rules are there? And how did you decide to make all of them?”
Daichi sighed once more, “It’s a long story.”