Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sound of laughter ringing in the air, pleasant flushes on their faces and a nice buzz from all the shots they had been downing - Oikawa Tooru and Hinata Shoyo were the type of people who would draw attention, even in a crowded bar in the middle of Sao Paulo. Even more so when they were feeding off of each other’s energies, having ditched their respective team dinners and choosing instead to catch up with post-match drinks.

“Shoyooo~ what was that receive in the second set, huh? How did your arms not fall off?” Tooru asked, as he twirled a glass of batida with one hand. The other reached out to touch Shoyo’s bicep. 

Shoyo flexed the arm in Tooru’s grasp with a cheeky grin. 

“You’re telling me!” He replied with a lazy flick of his hand, “What about that fantastic setter dump in the last set huh, caralho? I didn't even see it coming!”

Tooru giggled in response and let his hand trail down Shoyo’s arm, eventually reaching his fingers. Shoyo interlaced their hands and gave it a tight squeeze. 

“Yanno, I really missed this!” Shoyo mused, “Don’t get me wrong I love being able to play volleyball all day everyday but man does it get hard to keep up with your friends…” 

His eyes fell to the dirty bar table where layers and layers of sweet, old, spilt drinks piled up making it sticky under his arm. He breathed out and looked back at Tooru, giving him a small smile.

“I’m glad we got this time together.”

Tooru’s chest tightened at those words. He could relate, while it was great to be playing fantastic volleyball at their physical prime, he could not deny that they were also sacrificing a lot for the game. He squeezed their tangled hands in response and murmured, “I know, I’m glad too.”

Shoyo grinned. Not letting go of Tooru’s hand, he used the other to flag the bartender down to ask for a refill. 

“Ahhh man talking about friends!” he exclaimed and rummaged through his pants pocket to pull out his phone. Tooru snickered at the whiplash between topics - trust Shoyo to volley between being incredibly sweet and vulnerable to silly gossip at the drop of a hat. 

“Did you know that Nice just gave birth to another baby? He’s superr tiny. I got him some baby merch of me. Here, see!”

Tooru obligingly scooted closer and hooked his leg around Shoyo’s, resting his cheek on the other man’s shoulder to look at the screen. He cooed and hummed appropriately as Shoyo scrolled through his instagram feed.

Abruptly, he groaned out loud. Shoyo had scrolled to an official looking picture of Kageyama in his last match. Posted by his team no doubt, he thought derisively. 

Shoyo also spotted the picture that had Tooru in a tizzy and let out a sympathetic hum in response. As he recognised the match in question however, his irritation spiked. He leaned back to take a rather frustrated swig of his drink, dislodging Tooru in the process.

“God! Kageyama did a nasty one-hand toss in his last match. It was so cool but I’m not going to lose to him!”

Tooru grimaced in lieu of a reply and also chose to down his drink in one go. He did not want to think about Tobio-chan’s exploits right now. Not when the mood had been so good.

“It was whatever,” he dismissed, voice dropping to a whine. “I could have done that too, you know?”

Shoyo snorted, not missing the blatant jealousy in his voice. He cooed back, “Yes, Yes, How could you not? World famous Argentoto-sama.”

Tooru squawked in indignation. In revenge, he grabbed Shoyo’s inner thighs right at That Spot, where he knew for a fact that Shoyo would be ticklish. 

Shoyo yelped, a sound that was half laugh and half shout. He squirmed backward trying to get away from Tooru’s devilish hands but to no avail. In the commotion, he lost his balance. The bar stool swayed precariously but in the nick of time, Shoyo grabbed onto Tooru’s neck and pulled himself upright.

There was a beat of silence as they processed what just happened. The humor was sucked out of the air - but not for long. The moment they locked eyes, it’s hysterics again. 

They giggled breathlessly, mostly tipsy but also drunk on the atmosphere. 

Shoyo finally pulled himself together with some difficulty. His chest heaved as he paused to breathe in between fits of laughter.

“I think we had too much to drink,” he managed to gasp out, hands still clutching his stomach.

Tooru wiped the tears from his eyes and slumped forward.As they let the comfortable silence linger, his mind couldn't help but travel back to Shoyo’s words. It really had been a tough season, a fun one but tough nonetheless. If not for moments like these to break the pressure, Tooru wasn’t sure he would have been able to keep up with it all.

“You know…” he started, his eyes flickering to where Shoyo was sitting. Shoyo’s back was upright, still an athlete even at his most relaxed. Tooru suppressed a grin at the sight.

“Who’d have thought I’d be drinking it up with my highschool rival chibi-chan of all people.”

Shoyo didn’t disappoint with this loud gasp of affront. 

“Haa? Don’t call me that!”

“Well,” Tooru drawled. He eyed Shoyo’s bulging pecs. “I suppose I can’t anymore.” 

Shoyo smirked back. “Damn right.” 

“But seriously, where did that come from?” Shoyo asked, his voice had lost some of the humor. He leaned forward and turned to face Tooru completely.

“I don't know,” Tooru responded, his nose scrunched up like a rabbit. “I guess, it just struck me how different we are from our high-school days.”

Shoyo couldn’t help but smile at that. 

“That’s true! To think you used to bully me in high-school and now we’re here.” 

“Hah? When did I ever bully you? That never happened. We would have totally been besties back then too,” Tooru rebutted, just to be contrary.

“No way! You hated me! Or well, I thought you hated me.” Shoyo plowed on despite Tooru’s exaggerated protests, “Also, do you really think you would have been friends with first-year-me?” 

“Okayy,” Tooru conceded, his mouth twisted into a pout. He knew Shoyo was right. They were a classic example of the right person at the right time, after all. That didn’t mean he was going to back down though.

“We would have been good senpai-kouhai at least!!” he maintained. “And anyway, we’re best friends now right? That’s all that matters anyway!” 

Shoyo laughed loud and exuberant.

“I’ll toast to that!”

Shoyo snuffled a little. His nose felt itchy. He rubbed his face back and forth on his pillow trying to scratch it without moving any more than necessary. He could vaguely hear some muffled sounds of people talking but he could not react. His body felt heavy, like a cotton ball dipped in water. 

“Tooru. Shut up,” he croaked out, blindly reaching out to slap the bed next to him.

The sounds got louder. 

He finally blinked his eyes open with considerable effort. Beams of sunlight were peeking in through the curtains above his bed. It’s later than when he would usually wake up, he realised.

He pulled himself up halfway to rest on the headboard, his blanket pooling on his stomach with the movement. 

Almost instantly, he felt a sharp, striking pain in his head. He dropped his head in his hands and rubbed his temples with his thumbs. 

“Merda! Just how much did we drink last night,” Shoyo groaned. Speaking of, where the hell was Tooru anyways. He rubbed the sleep crust off his eyes with the back of his hand, stifling a yawn.

The room was dark, other than the bits illuminated by the slits of sunlight. He looked around, squinting his eyes to figure out if he could find some clues from last night. His clothes were on though, and that was a big win already if you ask him.

He pulled off the covers completely and sat sideways on the bed. A gust of wind made the curtain flutter, letting in more light. He could see a picture on the desk next to the window. In a daze, he strode over and picked it up.

It was a picture of Karasuno. Karasuno Boys Volleyball Team of 2012, to be specific. Despite the pain still stabbing at his head, Shoyo cracked a smile. He stroked the picture with his thumb. He put it back down after drinking it in, lost in nostalgia for a moment. 

He spotted a few notebooks on the desk, quite similar to the ones high school kids use, with his own name scribbled on top. He picked the first one up and flickered through the pages lazily before throwing it back onto the desk. Thank God he’s past school, he couldn't help but think. 

He stretched his arms above his head and let out a deep sigh. Wind flutters the curtains once more, making the room feel like it was plucked out of an old dream.

The shoji slammed open with a bang, breaking his reverie. His adorable, 9 year old sister stormed in.

“Nii-chan, Okaa-san says you need to get up now and get ready if you don’t want to be late for practice!” 

Cute, he thought. Natsu hasn’t been that little in years. Wait. 

His eyes widened.

Wait. Wait. Waitttt.

Natsu hasn’t been that little in years and here she was in all her little, adorable glory pouting up at him. He spun back around to look at the desk, his high-school desk with his high-school notebooks, his high-school bag hanging to the side, and a picture of his high-school volleyball team displayed proudly on top.

Fuck. 

He nearly fell over himself and over Natsu in his haste to run to the bathroom. His hands gripped the sink to ground himself. Staring back at him, reflected in the mirror, was his high-school self.

His high-school self; with cheeks still containing quite a bit of baby fat and barely tall enough to look at himself in the mirror without a stool. His hair was longer than it has been in years and messy from the night’s sleep. 

He raised a shaky hand to touch the mirror and the scrawny kid in the reflection did the same. He squatted down on the floor, not bearing to see his reflection any more. Was his life a damn Isekai manga? He had been fresh off a match last night, catching up with a friend, feeling carefree and loving life. 

There were years and years in his mind, of time, of people he had yet to meet, of languages he had yet to learn, of volleyball.

His heart beat heavily, painfully against his chest. His breaths sped up, constricting his chest. His eyes grew unfocused. He gasped for air.

“Nii-chan…… Nii-chan!”

Shoyo shakily looked up into the worried eyes of his sister. The bathroom floor was cold against his palms and knees. He focused on that feeling, using it as an anchor to get his breathing back to control. He weakly did a box breathing exercise (Kageyama’s serve routine, his mind supplied traitorously) to get some air into his lungs.

“I’m fine Natsu. Just a headache,” he mumbled, after a few minutes.

“If you say so…” 

He managed a weak smile, reaching up to ruffle her hair roughly in the way she hated. Natsu squealed and squirmed away from him with a parting glare.

His smile dropped. 

He sighed and got up. Avoiding looking at his reflection, he splashed cold water on his face. This was probably a dream anyway, he reasoned, as he dried his face on a towel. Isekai manga? Time travel? He was an idiot to think of all that. This was a dream, plan and simple. 

And he knew what he had to do - play along. It was a dream and all dreams end anyways. All he had to do was go with the flow. 

Feeling resolute, he called out, “Okaa-san, I’m going to miss practice today. I’ll have breakfast at home.”

Yeah, he just had to play along. 

Chapter Text

The cycle lock clicked shut as Shoyo parked his bike. He couldn’t remember much of the ride to school. In fact, he’d think he teleported here if not for the mild burning in his thighs. 

Shoyo bit his lip, hoping the pain would snap him out of his daze. He looked up at his school - a school that hasn’t been his for years by now. People were chattering around him, laughing with their friends as they walked past the gate but to him, it all felt like a distant, hazy memory. Trying not to show his uneasiness, Shoyo walked towards the school. He did his best to blend in with the crowd. He didn’t know what he would do if he met any of his old teammates this early in the day.

“BOKE!” 

Well, speak of the devil. 

Kageyama is in front of him in a flash, sweat shining off his forehead as he hooked Hinata in place with a nasty glare. “Where were you this morning?” he demanded. 

And the devil shall appear.

Old habits die hard and so Shoyo reflexively hid himself behind his bag. He peeked out to look up at Kageyama, not his Kageyama but a younger and more rough-around-the-edges one. Looking at him made Shoyo feel like he took a spike right to his chest.

His hands went slack and the bag fell, almost unconsciously. He took a moment to drink Kageyama in all his teenage, angry scowl-y glory. He had that silly middle part bang that he had since forever, his eyes didn’t yet contain that self assuredness that he had gained through his years with Karasuno, and his face still had some of his baby fat, certainly not as much as Shoyo but enough to make Shoyo reel in shock. 

Shoyo had to look away to avoid the panic bubbling up in his chest. This didn’t grant him any leeway however as his eyes were drawn to Kageyama’s hands. Hia nails were perfectly manicured, as always. Kageyama’s hands…. that were crushing an empty carton of his favorite GunGun yogurt.

Right, he had yet to deal with the teenage angst version of his best friend who looked like he was perpetually wronged by the world. 

Shoyo giggled, feeling a little hysterical. It was funny when he put it that way.

“Where were you this morning?” Kageyama repeated, set off by Shoyo’s laughter. 

“I- Uh- I had a headache.” 

“Dumbass! Do you have any idea how important it is to practice everyday? Especially for a runt like-”

Shoyo snickered again, cutting him off. “I know, Baka-yama. I’ll be there after class.”

Kageyama doesn’t look very reassured. He eyed Shoyo like one would a bug and huffed, “Scrubs who can’t take care of themselves shouldn’t be on the court.”

“Don’t you think I’d know that by now? I can take care of myself just fucking fine!”

There was a beat of silence as the words rang in the air around them. 

See, they had a routine- Kageyama nagged, Hinata whined or goaded him right back but never, ever, ever did he get seriously angry. Always raising to the occasion, never raising to the bait. 

Kageyama’s eyes grew wide, jaw dropping a little as he blinked back at Shoyo. Clearly not knowing what he had done differently this time around to warrant a blow up. 

Seeing that expression made Shoyo snap back to himself. Fuck, he just bit Kageyama's head off for something that wasn’t even his fault.

Taking care of himself was something Shoyo meticulously worked on for years, making it second nature at this point. That being said, it was still a sore point for him, either that or getting thrown back to his high-school days had made him a little more sensitive.

It started to feel like all the progress he had made over the years had been wiped clean, like it never happened in the first place.

“I uh- I meant I’ll focus on practice. I’ll see you later, Kageyama,” he mumbled in a rush and booked it, making a beeline for school.

“You better focus, you dumbass!” He heard Kageyama yell after him in the distance. 

Shoyo smiled, despite himself, and picked up the pace. 

After walking around for five minutes, Shoyo had to admit it - he was woefully lost. He remembered what class he was in but he did not for the life of him remember where it was.

“Hinata!”

Shoyo’s head snapped up. A lifeline?

“What are you doing outside? Come in man! Sensei will come any minute,” A black-haired kid yelled out. It was definitely someone from his class but his name eluded him. Still, he couldn’t be more grateful. 

He yelled out a thanks and rushed into the classroom. He managed to plop down on his seat (which he found, thanks to said kid pointing meaningfully at it) in the nick of time before his sensei walked in. Her eyes lingered on Shoyo’s disheveled form but thankfully she didn't say much. Probably already used to his antics. 

“Alright, settle down everyone and take out your textbooks. We’ll continue where we left off yesterday.”

Shoyo pulled out notebooks he didn’t remember packing and tried to listen to class just so he would have something to occupy his mind. He still did not feel fully present, instead feeling like he was staring at himself through a screen. 

If this was a dream it sure was a vivid one. Almost boring, he thought, as he listened to the teacher drone on about something or the other. 

The rest of the day goes by in a haze. He went through the motions, talking to his friends, scarfing down his lunch, and trying and failing to pay attention to class. By the time he knew it, the school day had already ended.

In all his memories, there’s one thing that always stood out when he thought of school classes - impatience. He recalled his legs bouncing up and down, his eyes constantly drifting to windows as he started wistfully down at the open grass wishing he was throwing around a volleyball or running drills or anything, except stay in class.

Today went by so fast that he barely remembered any of it. He lingered near his desk, packing his books slowly. Another thing he’s never felt about practice before, even on his worst days, was this new feeling of dread. He loved his high-school days and loved the Karasuno gym but he’s not too sure he wants to re-live them. It is something he’s grown out of and he’d rather not go back to the person he used to be.

He dragged his feet to practice, not even the prospect of playing volleyball could cheer him up. He turned around the corner where he could spy the gym’s wooden doors.

Unbridled, a memory popped up in his head about the time he and Kageyama were locked out of these very doors and told sternly to get along or never come back. It was crazy to think that was where it all began. 

A hand slapped his shoulder, startling him.

“Shoyo,” Nishinoya greeted, “Where were you this morning man?”

“Hinata’s here?”

“Wait, Hinata is back?”

From there it’s chaos. His teammates surrounded him in their curiosity and concern, throwing out questions upon questions about why he, The Volleyball Freak™, missed practice.

“Noya-senpai,” Shoyo laid it on thick, “I was just feeling a little under the weather this morning and my mom forced me to rest. I swear I'm a 100% now!”

“Hinataaa, you should take care of yourself,” Tanaka said, shaking his shoulders.

“Ok that’s enough! You guys are wasting time, get back in the gym. Hinata, Go change quickly,” Daichi said sternly, trying to reign in the problem kids.

“Yes Captain!”

Grateful for the out, Shoyo scurried off to change.

Chapter Text

“Good work today everyone! Wrap it up and don’t bother staying back for extra practice. I need you lot bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow.”

There was a chorus of “Yes”s from everyone slumped on the ground in exhaustion. The first years were not given much time to relax as they had to start rolling down the nets and cleaning the gym. 

Shoyo used this chance to duck away into the equipment room, figuring getting cleaning supplies would be a decent excuse to slip out. Once inside, he promptly shoved his face in between the stored mats to muffle his scream. 

Porra! Stupid body. Stupid Dream. Stupid World. 

He felt the sting of hot tears welling up in his eyes and he desperately fought to hold them back. He can’t cry, not now, not when everyone’s still outside and when they have already been shooting him badly disguised concerned looks All. Through. Practice.

Once more, he wondered if this was a vivid dream but right now it felt more like a vivid nightmare.

Everything was a disaster, years of focused and diligent training were all wiped out in one night. He could barely move his arms without feeling like he was in one of those first person shooter games that Kenma had always played. His spikes, his receives (his receives!!), his blocking, everything felt off. 

“Hinata, did you get the mop?”

Shoyo quickly pulled his head out and wiped his face on his sweaty shirt. Taking a second to breathe deep and slow, he responded, “Yeah, I got it!”

He stepped out back into the gym, armed with his mop and half-a-mind to whack people with it if they came too close. Unfortunately for him though, it was Ukai-san that cornered him. He pulled Hinata to the side, brow set together in worry.

“Hey, Hinata,” Ukai-san whispered, “You feelin’ alright kid? Your mom called this morning to say you had a headache.”

His teammates were lingering around them, undeterred by Ukai-san’s glare or by Takeda-sensei’s sharp look. Daichi tried to shoo them away inconspicuously. 

“Yes Coach! I’m feeling better now. I guess I must not have slept right,” Shoyo replied. He bowed neatly in half while his hands clutched the mop like a lifeline. “I’m really sorry for my performance at practice today! I swear it won’t happen again!”

“Hinata, That’s not what I meant,” Ukai-san mumbled, rubbing his chin uncomfortably. “I just wanted to check-in with you, kid.”

Shoyo nodded, not knowing what else he could say in response. His grip on the mop’s handle tightened.

“Maybe you should leave early today. I’m sure the rest will handle cleaning up. Get some rest, got it?” 

Shoyo would argue but he’s too relieved to do that. “Yes Coach!”

He dropped the mop in a corner and rushed to the bench to grab his stuff. He wanted to leave before he could be caught by anyone else and be forced once more into this frustrating song and dance of concern and reassurance. 

“Oi, Dumbass.”

Figures he wouldn’t be that lucky. His shoulders scrunched up in trepidation. 

“You do realize we only have a few more weeks before interhigh prelims, right? We’ve barely managed to sync up on the quick 20 percent of the time and you missed every single toss today. How do you think we’ll be able to win nationals at this rate? Hah?”

Kageyama nearly lost his breath from the way his voice grew louder and louder with each word. Shoyo can feel the stares of his teammates on him, they felt like pinpricks on his skin. Everyone watched the interaction with bated breath.

Shoyo could tell Kageyama was worried for him. This was around the time they had finally made up with each other after that nasty fight, back when Shoyo wanted to hit Kageyama’s tosses with his eyes wide open. 

He knew Kageyama was worried and dammit if that didn’t just make him feel worse. The fight flowed out of him as quickly as it entered.

“We’ll get it tomorrow,” he replied, trying to inject any and all faith he had into those words. 

Kageyama frowned. He opened his mouth, about to say something dumb no doubt but snapped it shut after catching Daichi’s pointed glare.

“You’d better dumbass,” he muttered instead, huffing away to continue his cleaning duties.

As if in wait, Tanaka slid in next to him and threw a heavy arm over his shoulder. He roughly ruffled Shoyo’s hair, squeezing him between his arms. 

“Noya-san,” Tanaka called out, “Our kouhai is in dire spirits. It is our duty as loving senpai to cheer him up.”

“Hell yeah Ryuu! Nothing a couple meatbuns won’t fix! Right, Hinata?”

Looking at the eager faces of his senpai, Shoyo mustered a shaky smile in return. He nodded enthusiastically and they cheered in response, dragging him out of the gym.

The night was cold as they began the ambling walk to Sakanoshita Market but for the first time since he woke up Shoyo felt warm inside, feeling like he was basking in the warm Brazilian sun. He stayed quiet for the most part, letting the voices and laughter of his teammates wash over him. He had been on his own for so long that he forgot how nice it was to be a kouhai once more and just be taken care of.

“One extra large meatbun for my favorite kouhai!” Tanaka declared, and then winked at him. “Just don’t let the others know. Don’t want you kids fighting for the spot.”

“Thanks, Tanaka-senpai!”

With Noya’s laughter at Tanaka’s lofty words in the background, Shoyo took a bite of the piping hot meatbun. God, he had missed the taste. He had been around the world by now but nothing quite tasted like Sakanoshita’s meatbuns. Maybe it was the nostalgia speaking but Shoyo didn’t care.

He finished it in three bites straight.

As he licked his fingers, another meatbun was shoved in his face. Shoyo glanced up to see a red-cheeked Kageyama pouting down at him.

“If you don’t get better by tomorrow, I’m making you buy me two.”

Shoyo laughed at the challenge. Now, this was more like the Kageyama he’s grown to know and love. He grabbed the meatbun and took a bite, it tasted even better than the first.

“You’re on Kageyama!” he exclaimed in between chews.

That seemed to satisfy him. He nodded at Shoyo and bit into his own bun.

Shoyo’s phone chimed, a sound he could barely hear over the chatter. The only reason he even noticed was the buzzing. Curious, he wiped his hand on his shirt, earning a disgusted look from Tsukkishima, and pulled out his old flip phone.

There was a message.

“Shoyo, if you can understand this, then show up at our place at 8pm - T”

Shoyo’s heart raced. He grabbed his phone with both hands and brought it closer to his face. He read it once, then twice, then once more for good measure. He rubbed his eyes and read it again. The words didn’t change.

He checked the time. Nearly 8'o clock. He could make it there if he left immediately and that’s exactly what he did. He looked around for his cycle and grabbed it the moment he spotted it. He was not even fully seated before he took off.

“Hinata, where you off to in such a hurry? Captain said he’d get us Gari-Gari Kuns!”

“Something came up! It’s urgent!” Shoyo yelled back, not stopping for a moment.

Within minutes he was completely out of sight, leaving nothing behind but dust and the faint rattling of cycle chains.

Chapter Text

Shoyo got off his cycle with a huff. He bent over, placing his hands on his knees as he panted and tried to catch his breath. He took his phone out to check the time, he was around five minutes late but he had made it.

The mentioned spot was a little enclave whose entrance was covered by shrubs and trees. Tooru and him had spotted it by accident when they were hanging out in Miyagi, visiting their families. It overlooked the entire city and the view was breathtaking. They had kept it a secret between them, cherishing the place and their memories there.

That was exactly why Shoyo knew if this wasn’t a dream then that was truly his Tooru. 

He haphazardly threw his cycle next to a tree and started looking around. It was dark, owing to the night, covered by all the trees with nothing in sight except faint lights from the city and the low hum of cicadas. 

His heart dropped as he kept looking, only to find nothing. If this was indeed a nightmare, then it was psychological horror levels of bad. He was not sure he could take hope being dangled in front of him only to be snatched away.

He pursed his lips to keep his mouth from starting to wobble. His head dropped back, he looked up at the pitch dark night sky interspaced with a few twinkling stars. If he saw a shooting star, he would wish to not be this lonely again.

“Is this real life?”

Shoyo gasped. He whirled back and lo and behold, his prayers were answered. Standing in front of him was Oikawa Tooru, in the flesh, donning an Aoba Johsai jacket. He looked half wary and half hopeful. 

Oh, Shoyo knew how this one went.

“Grand King?” he asked, with a bitten off laugh.

They were both frozen, their legs rooted to the ground. They stared mutely at each other for a moment as it all sank in.

Then, Shoyo took off. He was running right at Tooru only for Tooru to meet him halfway. They collided with the force of two planets slipping back into each other’s orbits, that is to say, Shoyo fell back with a gasp and Tooru used that momentum to grab him and spin them around.

Shoyo gripped him tight. His head felt dizzy but in the best way possible. He wanted to laugh, to scream into the void, he settled for nestling his head in Tooru’s neck.

When they landed back on firm ground again it was to the sound of laughter ringing in the air washing away the buzz of cicadas. They stared at each other, their faces splitting with the force of their twin grins.

“You’re here too?” 

“I thought this was a dream-”  

“No! I swear, it's aliens Shoyo!” 

“-is this still a dream?” 

“-I swear it’s ET!”

They talked over each other, shouting in each other’s faces from the excitement.

Shoyo pressed his palm on Tooru’s mouth to shut him up. Tooru, that bastard, licked his palm in retaliation. Shoyo wiped his hand on his shorts and rolled his eyes.

“C’mon, We should be sitting down for this.” 

He eyed the space around them and promptly plopped down on the first decently sized rock he found. He then patted the space next to him in invitation. Tooru followed suit.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Shoyo asked, figuring it was as good a place as any to start.

“Well last night we were together and this morning I woke up in my childhood bedroom that I had not seen in years. I dunno,” Tooru trailed off, “It was surreal and weird.”

“Right? It was so weird! I swear I was thinking this was a dream, because like what the hell else do you even make about all of this.”

Tooru finally took a proper good look at Shoyo. He let out a contemplative hum, “Man, you used to be tiny.”

Shoyo scowled at that. He whacked Tooru's shoulder.

“Oh my god, even your hits don’t hurt as much!”

That earned him a harder smack, Shoyo made sure this one actually hurt.

“Okay, okay, Sorry!” Tooru whined and rubbed his shoulder with a pout.

“No but like it’s so weird to go back to your teenage body,” Tooru said, looking down at his hands. He clenched and unclenched them a few times before looking back up. “Like I have a zit now, do you know how stressful that is?” 

Shoyo snorted. 

“And I lost like 90% of my body mass,” Shoyo replied. He flexed his thigh muscles in contemplation. “The rest 10% is in my thighs.”

“They look fantastic babe!”

“I know,” Shoyo grinned.

Tooru wrapped his hands around his legs, pulling them closer. He rested his head on his arms and looked at Shoyo sideways, cheek squished.

“It was so scary and weird and overwhelming to be ‘back in time’ or whatever,” Tooru said, drawing air quotes around the word, “but it doesn’t sound all that bad now that you’re here.”

Shoyo was hit with a burst of fondness. What would he do without this man, truly. “Me too! I'm so glad you're here,” he exclaimed, his eyes curving up into crescents with the force of his grin. 

“Now what though?” he asked. “I mean do we tell people that we’re lost in time? How would we even go about that?”

“We can’t tell people Shoyo! They’ll think we are crazy! And," Tooru grasped for words. He sat up straight and grabbed Shoyo’s shoulders in desperation.

“And they’ll throw us into some mental hospital or even worse they won’t let us play volleyball.”

Shoyo gasped in shock. Not Volleyball…

“I didn’t even think of that, you’re right! We absolutely, under no circumstances, can let anyone know what’s going on,” he decided.

Tooru nodded. “We’ll just have to figure it out ourselves.”

“Uwaah! Wait, It’ll be like those spy movies! We’re on a covert mission!”After a beat, he asked, “Did I use covert right?”

“You’re good but yes exactly like that,” Tooru snickered.

Shoyo’s phone rang, cutting through the relative silence of the night. He squinted at the bright screen. 

“Shit, It’s my mom. Let me take this.” He swore as he scrambled to flip it open and take the call.

“Okaa-san,” he greeted.

“Shoyo! Where are you? It’s already late, honey. There are boars around the house, you know?”

“Ah, Sorry! I lost track of time. Practice ran late today...” 

His attention was grabbed by Tooru waving his hands wildly. He raised his eyebrows in question while he hummed at his mom’s fretting.

“Tell her you will stay over at mine,” he mouthed slowly, pointing at his phone.

“It’s fine Kaa-san! My teammate lives nearby and said I could sleep over at his home. That’s fine right? I promise I’ll be back on time from now.”

Hinata smiled at his mom’s positive response and gave Tooru a thumbs up. He continued chatting with his mom for a few more minutes and reassured her that he’s safe. Once he ended the call he turned back to Tooru, who was grinning at him. 

“I went along with it in the heat of the moment but are you really sure it’s fine?” Shoyo asked.

Tooru raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like it’s the first time you’re staying over.”

“That was your house! Are you sure your parents will be fine with it?”

Tooru just waved his concerns off.

“It’ll be fine. She’s not that strict,” he said, “Plus, we need to talk more right?.”

That made sense, he figured. His mom wasn't very strict either. He has learnt by now that other parents weren’t very forgiving to last minute plans but his mom was used to his impulsiveness.

Tooru got up with a groan to stretch his arms. He pulled Shoyo up next and pushed him towards the road.

“C’mon, C’mon, Your mom was right, it is getting late. I’m getting hungry anyway..”

Chapter Text

Shoyo made himself at home on the mat Tooru had put out for him. His eyes kept wandering around the room, taking in all the small details from Tooru’s life that he wasn’t there for; at least not in the way he was right now.

It was surprisingly bare - a stray volleyball rolled to the corner of the room, Tooru’s old (current?) Seijoh uniform hung neatly on the side, a table with a frankly ridiculously sized desktop, and various books, ranging from manga to volleyball magazines, stacked neatly on the bookshelf. 

“Why are you looking at my room like a zoo exhibit?” Tooru asked, as he walked back into the room, amused at his blatant curiosity.

“Is it not?” Hinata teased back.

Tooru handed him a glass of water and placed a plate of senbei in front of them. His mom was as welcoming as Shoyo had remembered her to be (well, in the future) and just like Tooru had said, she hadn’t seemed very shocked at a random, new guest this late at night.

“So,” Tooru drawled, “Is it aliens or a dream?”

“Well, It’s certainly not a dream. At least I hope it isn’t.” Shoyo made a face. “I tried to hold in my pee all day but had to go to the bathroom before practice. I’d have pissed my bed by now.”

Tooru gaped for a minute before bursting out with laughter.

What? Shoyo had his priorities and not pissing his bed was at the top of the list. He was a grown man for heaven’s sake. He took a senbei and bit into it.

“What makes you think it’s aliens?” Shoyo asked, partly to change the subject and make Tooru stop laughing and partly, well, aliens.

And it worked splendidly. “Of course it’s aliens Shoyo! Who else would have the technology to do this to us?”

“Well, I mean, Don’t they use their technology for other stuff, different stuff, stuff like-,” Shoyo waved his half eaten cracker in the air, searching for the words. "Stuff like mutilating your body into a flathead screwdriver, or worse, your dick.”

Tooru rolled his eyes.

“That’s just in those anime you watch Shoyo, c’mon,” he said and paused. “Though, you are right. This isn’t their MO.”

“Exactly!” Shoyo agreed. “So what is it? Some kind of teaching you a lesson story? Or a freak accident?”

“There was no accident! Well, I might have thrown up on the hotel rug last night but apart from that.”

Shoyo hummed thoughtfully as he munched. He couldn’t figure it out and honestly, as much as he hoped it was not a dream, that was still the best theory he had.

His thoughts were interrupted by some commotion from downstairs. He could hear Tooru’s mom speaking to someone, which was a little weird considering there was no one else in the house. A guest? Again? At this time? Weird. He threw a questioning look at Tooru who seemed as confused as he was.

Tooru slid open the door slightly to peek down and check who their other, sudden guest was. Almost immediately, his eyes widened in alarm. He slammed the door shut and grabbed Shoyo by the back of his jacket, manhandling him in a way he never would be able to in their adult bodies, and stuffed him in the wardrobe.

Shoyo, whose mind had shut down the moment Tooru scuffed him like a mother cat, snapped back awake through sheer indignation. His palm slapped the shoji and stooped the door, right before Tooru could fully slide it shut. 

“Let go!” Tooru hissed, struggling to close the door.

“No! What the hell! Why are you treating me like a secret hookup?” Shoyo hissed back, struggling harder to keep the door open.

“It’s Iwa-chan!”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, so let go!”

Shoyo let go and the door slammed shut. Thrown into darkness, he could hear his own heartbeat stark in the stuffy closet. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw for good measure, lest he let out any sound. He slowly moved forward and gently placed his ear onto the door to focus on hearing what was going on outside.

“Iwa-chan!” Tooru greeted, sounding a little breathless even to Shoyo’s ears.

“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi-san greeted back. Maybe it was just Shoyo’s over-active mind but he already sounded suspicious.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you need your beauty sleep Iwa-chan?”

The questions went ignored. Shoyo strained his ears harder to listen.

“Um, Iwa-chan? It’s rude to ignore people, ya know?”

“Did you have someone over?” Iwaizumi-san asked instead.

“What makes you think that Iwa-chan?” Tooru replied, at length. He sounded like he was closer to the closet, probably moved in case something happened.

“The half-eaten crackers on the floor, with crumbs everywhere and the cutesy little shoulder bag on your desk sure as hell isn’t yours.”

“I can’t have a cute bag now?” Tooru asked, offended. Shoyo hoped it was a deflection and not actual indignation. And his bag was not cute, the pins were… Natsu’s. 

“Not unless you changed it overnight,” Iwaizumi-san countered, matter of fact, and added, “It looks pretty worn out too.”

“Since when did you become a detective Iwa-chan?” Tooru asked with a strained laugh.

“You’re usually not this secretive, or sloppy. Who is she?” 

Shoyo grimaced. God this was bad. He could feel himself get restless. The closet smelt of musty old clothes and dust was getting into his nose. He pinched his nose to stop an ill-timed sneeze.

“They, uh, just left. Right before you came actually. It wasn’t a big deal honestly, Iwa-chan, It was just someone-” 

Tooru was rambling now and thankfully Iwaizumi-san wasn’t in a mood to listen. 

“I saw the shoes still by the door when I came in, idiot,” he cut him off, voice dripping with irritation.

“Ah.” 

Now it was Iwaizumi-san’s turn to rant. Shoyo tuned him out, there was more dust getting into his nose and he had to deal with that stat. He shifted as slowly as he could to inch away from the spare futon stored right next to him. Still no luck as Shoyo was overtaken with the need to sneeze. He whipped his head back and away from the door and sneezed into his arm. Kenma had always said he sneezed like a kitten, almost no noise.

Feeling proud of himself, Shoyo turned back with a smile. Only for his head to slam into the door with a dull thud as he misjudged the amount of space he had in the tiny closet. 

The rant he had been tuning out had come to an abrupt end and the silence was frankly more chilling than whatever lecture Iwaizumi-san had been subjecting Tooru to.

“What was that?” Iwaizumi-san asked, breaking the silence.

“What was what?” Tooru feigned confusion.

“There was a sound from the closet. You heard it too,” he accused. 

“I didn’t hear anything, Iwa-chan,” Tooru maintained.

“Then move away from the closet. Let me take a look.” 

Shoyo plastered himself as far back as he could go in the closet. He prayed to become one with the musty spare futon in the corner of the closet, to attain enlightenment and be rid of all worldly desires and sins.

Sadly, Musty Spare Futon-sama was not on Shoyo’s side and he was still a human when Iwaizumi-san repeated himself, “Move away from the closet if you have nothing to hide, Shittykawa.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea. A teenage boy needs to have his privacy right?”

“Not if it means you’re acting weird all day!”

“Were you worried about me Iwa-chan? That’s so sweet of you,” Tooru teased, in what was probably half auto-pilot.

“Yes, you freak, I’m worried about your dumb ass!”

Finally, Tooru replied. “Yes, I’m hiding someone.” 

There was a small pause as Iwaizumi-san took in those words, during which Shoyo was resolutely yet not a musty futon.

“You’re disgusting. At least treat her with some respect, Pervykawa,” he said, and there was a noise, like someone was getting hit, and then another noise of pain, like someone just got hit.

With those parting words and fists, Iwaizumi-san stormed out. The door slamming shut in his disgust and haste. Tooru weakly called after him but the words fell on deaf ears.

Shoyo didn’t dare move. He was certain he was halfway through becoming one with the musty spare futon and he wasn’t going to lose his progress. What if Iwaizumi-san came back?

The door slid open slowly, letting light pool into the closet and onto Shoyo’s face. Perhaps, this was it! This was his moment of ascension. He could practically see the lights of musty spare futon heaven calling to him in his state of blissful enlightenment. He lifted his head high and closed his eyes, ready for his prayers to be answered.  

“When I asked you to make yourself home, I didn’t mean my closet,” Tooru snarked, as he continued to not move. He squinted up at Tooru.

“I was close to gaining nirvana,” Shoyo said and ambled out of the closet now that he was out of danger, quickly forgoing his quest for enlightenment. 

“What?”

Shoyo ignored him in favor of heading to the window. He moved the curtain aside to peek out at the road down below. Iwaizumi-san was power-walking away in what Shoyo guessed was his normal pace when he was mad.

“That’s his ‘I’m Mad right now’ walking pace,” Tooru said from behind him, looking down with him.

“Well, that’s to be expected,” Shoyo muttered. He let the curtain flutter close. “I mean secret girlfriend? Really?”

Tooru grimaced. “Yeah not my finest moment but it wasn’t yours either. Good lord couldn’t you have kept still for five minutes?” he asked, hands on his hips.

“Hey, It felt like five hours,” he weakly defended himself. 

“What now?” Tooru asked, looking defeated. He sat down next to him and it was oddly reminiscent of their position a few hours ago in the enclave. Except they probably had more problems on their plate now. 

“We could watch some volleyball?” Shoyo offered, tilting his head at the giant laptop meaningfully.

“...Really?” 

Shoyo shrugged. What else were they to do?

“Yeah, let’s watch some volleyball,” Tooru conceded, because really, what else were they to do?

Iwaizumi cursed to himself as he walked back to his house in the biting cold of the night. He had noticed Oikawa acting not quite like his usual self and was concerned for him all day. All this concern, only for that Shittykawa to be chasing some tail, honestly, he had expected better out of him. 

His steps faltered as a thought struck him. Hadn’t Oikawa mentioned that his girlfriend dumped him recently? Iwaizumi frowned but shaked the thought away. They probably got back together, he figured. Poor girl.

Chapter Text

When Shoyo reached school the next day, it was with an extremely rumpled shirt and his hair sticking up in all directions from the long bicycle ride. If last night he felt like a ‘secret hookup’, now he felt like he was taking the walk of shame back home.

Trying not to feel too conscious of himself, Shoyo combed his hair with his hands to the best of his ability as he headed towards the Karasuno Volleyball Team’s locker room. Thank God, he had packed two sets of gym clothes yesterday out of his future (current?) self’s sheer muscle memory from being prepared for the unexpected. If he was lucky he would be able to change out into his gym clothes before anyone notices the state of his uniform.

He strode up the stairs two at a time but lingered outside the door listening for any sound or movement from inside. When he felt like the coast was clear, Shoyo rushed into the empty locker room and stripped out of his clothes in an instant.

“Hinataa, Little man! Made it to practice today eh?” 

Shoyo jumped at Tanaka's sudden entrance, his hands were still half stuck in his uniform. Not wanting to raise any more suspicion, he plastered on his best smile.

“Tanaka-san, Good Morning! Let’s have a good practice today!”

Tanaka-san bobbed his head in agreement, “Damn right! We need to get our gears grinding or our gears locked up or whatever Take-chan said.”

Shoyo had no clue either but he nodded all the same and continued to battle with his uniform that was all tangled up in his hands. 

“Man, What is with you and getting stuck in uniforms? See, you got it all crumpled up! Oda-sensei will scold you,” Tanaka chuckled.

Finally extracting himself from the shirt prison, Shoyo laughs, perhaps slightly hysterically. He pulled on his gym shirt without ado, who knew when the next piece of clothing would start acting up on him. 

“Let’s go practice!” he yelled and ran out. It’s been a while since he was on the court and despite all that happened recently, he still ached for it.

“Wait for me, kid!”

Shoyo’s phone buzzed again with another email from Tooru. He flipped it open and snickered at the message. They had promised to keep in touch through the day just in case something happens and he had to admit, it was easy to fall back into the usual routine of texting each other about every inconsequential moment of their day.

“Hinata, put that damn phone down!”

He yelped when Ukai-san yelled at him, almost dropping his phone in the process. He buried his phone deep within his gym bag and yelled back an apology, “Sorry Coach!”

“Get your ass back on the court and keep the apology to yourself, brat. You can feel sorry after finishing 20 receive drills,” Ukai-san grumbled.

“Yes, Coach!”

Shoyo ran back into position. Honestly, it wasn’t as big a punishment Ukai-san thought it was. It might have been to high-school Shoyo but right now one of the few things he had retained in this freak back-to-past accident is his sense of the game and the keen eye he developed for spotting where the ball will head toward.

He bent his knees and got his arms into position. Ukai-san looked slightly impressed at his stance but gave no other verbal indication before spiking the ball at him.

Shoyo licked his lips, as his eyes zeroed in on the ball. It was fast, sure, but Shoyo was faster. He stepped to his right in an instant, getting his body behind the ball. He scooped the ball up with his arms in the familiar motion he was used to, and there the ball went. It was a perfect rainbow of a pass, right to where the setter would have been.

“Good one, Hinata,” Ukai-san whistled, “Keep this up and I won’t even have to scold you anymore.”

Shoyo grinned. “Bring it on, Coach!”

Ukai-san gave him another one and then another after that, both perfect passes. Ukai-san seemed excited to send him another ball but he was interrupted by Takeda-sensei running into the gym.

“Sensei?”

“Take-chan?”

There was a chorus of voices as the team crowded around Takeda-sensei, who was bent over and catching his breath. His glasses and tie were askew.

“Match,” he gasped out. 

“I didn’t quite catch that, sensei,” Ukai-san said, handing him a water bottle.

Takeda-sensei gulped down two mouthfuls and wheezed. He pushed his glasses back into place and waved a piece of paper in his hand.

“We have a practice match!” 

This immediately caused a buzz of excited chatter from the team, even after the training camp they were not satiated. They would not turn down the opportunity of honing their skills in another proper match.

“Who is it with sensei?” Daichi asked what all of them had been wondering.

“Ah, That’s the best part,” Takeda-sensei said and grinned, “It’s with Seijoh.”

Seijoh? Seijoh? This had not happened in his memory of the past or Shoyo would have remembered it. A practice match with the team they had lost to? That is not something you forget, even if it was your first year of high-school.

“In fact, I got to this late. I was trying to book a bus for us and well, things happened. Anyway, we have to leave in fifteen minutes if the team is fine with it,” he asked, with hope glittering in his eyes.

“Of course Take-chan! We won’t let you down after all the begging you had to do, no doubt!” Tanaka exclaimed, slapping Takeda-sensei on the back a few times, ignoring his weak protests that he didn’t get on his knees this time.

Tooru, Shoyo thought. Tooru would have said something to him! He snuck away from the group and fished out his phone from his back. Just as he had expected, Tooru had left him around twenty messages, each one growing more frantic.

Shoyo punched out a reply that he, too, had heard of the practice match but that was about as much as he could send before Noya-san jumped on him from behind.

“Shoyoo! I saw those receives! You were solid today!”

He felt himself grow warm at the praise. “Thank you, Noya-san! It was all from watching you!”

“My darling kouhai,” Noya-san laughed and released him. He landed back on his feet and ruffled Shoyo’s hair. “I will buy you two yakisoba-pan for that.”

“Team! Start packing now! We need to head out in five,” Daichi-san ordered, cutting through the excitement and the chaos.

Shoyo flipped his phone open one last time to see another new email.

“See you at school~~”

He snorted and threw it back in his bag. Maybe he ought to be scared at the changes in the timeline or time-space continuum, assuming this wasn’t a dream, but right now he just couldn’t wait for the match. 

Chapter Text

“Managed to not puke this time around huh, Hinata?” Tanaka-san teased. He patted him on the shoulder while swinging around an empty plastic cover with one finger. Noya-san snickered at them, having heard the story from Tanaka-san multiple times already, despite not being there himself.

“Bwah??”

Shoyo felt his face burn hot red at the memory. He clutched his shoulder bag and pouted. That was such a long time ago! Though, he would be lying if he said he didn’t still feel bad. Tanaka-san had been such a good sport about it. No wonder he bagged Shimizu-san.

“Don’t tease him, Tanaka, Noya,” their captain warned, voice stern, which made the duo straighten up and gulp.

“It’s alright, Hinata,” Sugawara-san said, smiling at him kindly. His expression turned mischievous. “There’s no way you can top nailing Kageyama in the head with a serve.”

“Suga!” Daichi-san chided.

Suga-san just giggled. Speaking of, Kageyama would have been here by now to add a snarky comment about scrubs being too nervous and dragging the team down or whatnot. He looked around for his setter in the midst of all the chatter.

Kageyama was trailing, falling back to the every end of the team. He looked like he had just bit on a very, very sour lemon - which could mean he was brooding or honestly, could very well also mean he needed to take a shit. Shoyo was going to get to the bottom of it, though. 

He zoomed away from the front of the team and started walking beside Kageyama, going at his pace.

Kageyama looked at him from the corner of his eye, his expression so dark and moody you’d think Shoyo had run over his family or his favorite Mikasa volleyball. He kept silent for a while, humming to himself, to give Kageyama a chance to speak on his own.

He did not speak until they reached the door of the gymnasium. Shoyo felt he had to take action at this point or Kageyama would never speak.

“Oi, Yamayama-kun,” he said, knowing it would goad him into reacting.

A hand fell on his head, almost instantly, and squeezed it tight. “What did you just call me, runt?” Kageyama asked, the menacing aura overtaking him. 

“You’re getting nervous,” he yelled. He shaked him off and danced out of the reach of his handspan. “It’s not like you, ya know?”

“Shut up. I know. I’m just… concentrating.”

“Don’t concentrate too much. Your head will overheat and explode,” he teased and swiftly dodged when Kageyama tried to smack his head again. “Besides, our team is strong now don’t you think?”

Kageyama only grunted in response but he stopped trying to smack him and he seemed much more calm. The things Shoyo did for his setters!

“Line up for the greeting!” Daichi-san called out. Shoyo rushed ahead to the doors, spurring Kageyama to rush after him through sheer instinct.

They lined up and bowed in greeting. He could hear the bustling gym coming to an abrupt halt at their arrival and people yelling out a greeting in reply. He peeked up, still bending at the waist.

His eyes caught Tooru’s and he looked so, so, amused that Shoyo felt laughter bubble up inside him in return. He looked back down to hide his grin. 

The team stepped inside the gym, sizing up the other team, and in some cases (Tanaka-san) goading them subtly so as to not be caught by their respective captains. If you could call repeated slicing motions across the throat subtle, that is.

Tooru sauntered over to them and almost everyone on the team went on high alert. 

“Yahoo~ Tobio-chan, Chibi-chan,” he greeted, his eyes curving up as he gave them a mocking grin.

“G-Grand King!” Shoyo gasped, putting on his best ‘I’m terrified’ face. He couldn’t let Tooru have all the fun.

“Annoying Chibi-chan,” Tooru stated, eyeing him up and down. His grin, however, turned ever so slightly more amused at Shoyo’s exclamation. Everyone held their breath, unsure what wisecrack he would deliver next. “I hope you DID NOT eat your breakfast today and if you did that it WASN'T tasty.”

“Huh?”

Shoyo felt Yachi tremble beside him. She tugged on his sleeve and whispered into his ear, “Hinata-kun, he wants to eat you for breakfast.” 

“What kind of insult is that?” the scary black-haired blocker from Seijoh asked.

“It’s incredibly insulting!” Tooru insisted, mock-aghast. “Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day and if you-”

He got interrupted by a volleyball to the back of the head, courtesy of Iwaizumi-san.

“Iwa-chan! Hurts!”

“If you have enough time to antagonize first years from other teams, you have enough time to help the team warm up.”

Iwaizumi-san grabbed him by the jacket and with a parting, apologetic nod, dragged him back into the court with him.

“Alright,” Daichi-san said, with a clap of his hands, “That was strange but we need to start warming up too. Everyone pair up!”

Shoyo grabbed Kageyama as his partner and quickly lost himself to the familiar routine of stretching his (currently, non-existent) muscles and tendons. Nothing was more grounding than a pre-match stretch. 

“Hinata-kun,” Yachi called. He hummed in response, still focused on stretching. 

“You seem far less nervous today!”

Shoyo looked up and around, most of their teammates were pretty freaked out. It made sense though, considering the last time Karasuno had taken on Seijoh, they came out as the losers.

“You are looking pretty chill, Hinata,” Yamaguchi agreed. He was clutching his stomach and looking halfway queasy himself.

“Yeah, considering what happened last time,” Tanaka-san added with a sly grin.

Shoyo squawked. He tilted his head to look up at his senpai with a pout.

“You are far too calm, comparatively,” Tsukkishima observed with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s that supposed to mean huh? It was a long, long time ago!” Shoyo scowled. He wasn’t taking shit from Tsukkishima of all people.

“It really was not,” Tsukkishima replied. His eyes were still trained on Shoyo.

Ah, well it was just a few months by the current time but for him it was years ago. Wait, Maybe he was acting suspicious. Didn’t Tooru say they might be banned from volleyball and something else about a mental hospital? He needed to fix this.

“Ah, Hah, Yeah. Now that you mention it, I think I need to throw up,” he said and scrambled up to his feet. He clutched his stomach in his best performance yet and groaned loudly.

“Oi! Idiot! Scrub! Let me beat the nerves out of you!” Kageyama yelled, his own nerves seemingly forgotten in lieu of his anger.

Sugawara-san held him back and placated him. This was his chance, he needed to commit to this fully! He couldn’t throw up but he could run to the bathroom dramatically at least.

And so he did. He rushed straight to the gym doors, still clutching his stomach to keep up the act.

“Where are you heading off to, idiot?”

Shoyo glanced back. Tooru was in earshot. “Bathroom,” he yelled loud enough for both teams to hear and disappeared out the door.

Shoyo was on his third, impatient lap around the pretty tiny and cramped bathroom when the door finally creaked open. He held his breath hoping it was Tooru and not another teammate with a nervous stomach.

Tooru peeked in, a little hesitant, and scanned the room. The moment he spotted Shoyo, he stepped in fully and closed the door behind him. 

“Oi! You took forever!” Shoyo complained. 

“I don’t have a history of being an IBS baddie to rely on as an excuse for urgent, clandestine bathroom visits, Shoyo,” Tooru snarked. Shoyo flushed red in embarrassment. He didn’t have to put it that way!

“Why didn’t you reply back to me? I sent you, like, forty texts!”

“I used my phone so much that Coach made me put it away for the rest of practice,” Shoyo replied, sheepish. “This was pretty sudden though, was this your idea? I do not remember this happening at all.”

“Me either,” Tooru hummed. “We were in the middle of practice when Coach told us to get ready for a match. He didn’t even tell us it was with Karasuno until we asked.”

Shoyo frowned. “This won’t cause issues for us right? We would be changing things in our timeline if this isn't a dream, I think.”

“Ahh,” Tooru exhaled, leaning back and propping himself next to the sinks. He folded his arms. “I don’t know… but it’s kinda funny, you have to admit.”

“We could permanently alter our timeline and never get back to our original time ever and you think this is funny?” 

“Yes?”

Shoyo pursed his lips, looking at Tooru grinning back at him. It took only a moment before he broke and started to giggle. “Okay, yeah it’s kind of funny.” Tooru joined in and they were both giggling like madmen, like they were drunk at some god-awful hour in the night.

The door creaked again and Shoyo startled in shock. Tooru had more presence of mind however and shoved him back so they wouldn’t be as close. He briskly turned towards the sink, facing away from Shoyo. 

Their eyes caught in the mirror and Shoyo dropped his head to stop another incoming laughter fit. He felt like he was in a classroom where the very fact that he should not be laughing was funny in and of itself. 

“Hinata!” Tanaka-san boomed. Shoyo whipped his head back up with a smile. He let his senpai come over and ruffle his hair fondly. 

Tsukkishima followed him in, who was followed by Iwaizumi-san. Geez, looks like his bathroom curse struck again.

“Were you just talking to the Grand King?” Tsukkishima asked him, a bit too loud in the acoustics of the tiny bathroom. His eyes flickered suspiciously between him and Tooru. Ah, Shit. 

Iwaizumi-san’s eyes widened and Tanaka-san gasped when it finally clicked for them.

Tanaka-san predictably overreacted. “Hah?! What is going on here? Did this pretty-boy prick say anything to you, Hinata?”

He winded his arm like a windmill, which should look corny but ended up pretty intimidating through sheer menacing aura. 

Tooru side-stepped away from Tanaka-san, clearly holding in a grimace. Iwaizumi-san looked ready to grab Tooru by the collar and pull him out of the room, should anything escalate - which made Shoyo wonder, did it not already?

“What are you doing? Iwaizumi-san asked with a exasperated sigh. Tooru and Shoyo exchanged panicked glances and almost simultaneously, they blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Bullying him.” 

“Getting bullied.”

They blinked at each other in shock. Well. Maybe they unintentionally poured gasoline over that fire.

The other three stared at them in silence, not expecting the rather blunt declaration. Even Tanaka-san’s windmill punch lost steam and dropped a little pathetically to his side.

"Why are you just standing there getting bullied?” Tsukkishima asked, finally.  

"Huh? What the hell, Tsukishima? Way to blame the victim!" Shoyo fired back, ready to defend his honour. 

Tooru let out a crackle-wheeze-cry sound that he clearly did not mean to. His eyes were closed and his whole body was shaking with the effort to contain his laughter. 

“What the hell, Kusu-kawa! Is all this really necessary before a practice match?”

Tooru looked back up, eyes filled with unshed tears. He pointed at the three Karasuno members. “We will crush you," he paused to let out a whistling sound, almost like a kettle and tried to compose himself again, “at this match and also during inter-high prelims. Just you watch.”

With that final parting declaration, he grabbed Iwaizumi-san, who looked supremely confused, by the shoulder and herded him out the door with him. 

“What was that? Why that shrimp of all people? I thought you’d pick on Tobio if you-” Shoyo could hear Iwaizumi-san's voice mumbling, fading away as they got further and further away from the bathroom. 

Shoyo’s heart beat like he just finished a five- no wait, not that hard, like he finished a three set match. He let the silence linger, not turning back to look at his teammates. 

“That was weird,” Tsukishima accused, narrowing his eyes. 

“What does that mean, you bastard?” Shoyo frowned. 

Tsukishima opened his mouth to reply but he was cut off by Tanaka-san roaring in their ears. 

“What nerve! Hinata do not worry, your senpai will get revenge on your behalf. We will pound them to dust!”

“To do that we need to get back to court, Tanaka-san. The match will start soon,” Tsukishima said matter-of-fact, pushing his glasses up. 

“Oh. You’re right. That's what we're here for, to get you Hinata. Come quick,” Tanaka-san yelled and pulled them both by their arms as he took off into a run towards the gym. 

Tumbling behind Tanaka-san, Shoyo finally let himself laugh. 

Chapter Text

Tanaka and Noya were yelling their heads off circling Shoyo in their... enthusiasm. Asahi was bustling around them, fretting at the noise they were making. 

“We gotta make them pay, Ryuu!” 

“Yeah, yeah!” Tanaka yelled back. 

“Quiet down both of you,” Suga berated. “You’re making everyone even more nervous!”

Asahi sighed in relief when they calmed down a little. He, rapid-fire, made ‘person’ kanji on his hand three times before mock-swallowing it.

Thankfully, maybe out of a rare show of tact, neither Tanaka nor Tsukishima made a big deal out of what happened in the bathroom. Though Shoyo could feel Tsukki’s eyes lingering on his every move.

Of all people, Shoyo hadn’t expected him to catch on so quickly. He had thought Tsukki wouldn’t have cared much back when they were first years or perhaps it was merely a puzzle for him like he was trying to solve a tricky math equation. 

“Guys, gather around,” Ukai-san called, waving them over to the side. They lined up around Ukai, in varying degrees of tension. “We are receiving first and we’ll be playing around three sets total, like an actual match.”

He tapped the little whiteboard in his hand with his marker. “This is our starting line-up. We will not be throwing any surprises at them just yet,” he said and sighed, ruffling his hair. “That being said, feel free to use this match to practice anything you want to try out.” 

Ukai-san looked at the jittery faces before him and cracked a smile. 

“Just remember to have fun, okay? It would be a shame if we found a great opponent and spent the entire match dreading the next rally.”

“Yeah!!”

All the loudmouth members prone to excitement chorused, Shoyo being one of them. He jumped up high with his hands raised in the air. Truth be told, these moments right before a match were not all that different to the pro matches or practices with another club’s team. 

He landed with a laugh. His body felt good, not his usual best, but certainly not bad. His muscles were practically twitching, raring to go. 

“Oi,” Kageyama grunted beside him. Shoyo looked up at him in question. “If you get good receives today, I’ll think about tossing to you more.”

Oh.  

That sounded so much like what adult Kageyama, his Kageyama, would say that it bowled Shoyo over momentarily. He gulped air into his lungs, frustratingly feeling a very familiar burning behind his eyes. 

For a second, just for a second, Shoyo could pretend that nothing went wrong. He could pretend that everything was normal, that he was not stuck in a body and time that he had outgrown, that it was just them - Hinata and Kageyama, The Freak Duo, Number 9 and Number 10. He could pretend that they were playing for Japan with Oikawa Tooru on the other side of the net. 

“Calm down Tanaka! Honestly,” Daichi yelled, exasperated. 

That shattered the illusion. The world grew louder and he could hear the chattering of his highschool teammates. Shoyo breathed in, cherishing the warmth of Kageyama to his side. Still, it made him feel much better reminded of the fact that he has stellar teammates backing him, no matter what time he was in.

Shoyo let out a soft sigh and stood up straighter. A smile broke out on his face. “You’re on, Kageyama!” 

Kageyama’s eyes brightened and he nodded at Shoyo, looking pleased with himself. Knowing him, that bastard was patting himself on the back for successfully cheering up Shoyo and probably also mentally deciding that, therefore, all his points in this game belonged to Kageyama instead. 

Shoyo’s eyes, subconsciously, drifted to the other side of the court and for the billionth time that day his eyes caught Tooru’s. Tooru’s eyes were dancing with amusement and Shoyo’s smile grew. 

The whistle was shrill in the air, jolting all the players back to reality. The referee, a benched player from Seijoh, gestured towards his team to signify the start of the match. 

Shoyo was nervous but it was in his usual excited, butterflies in his stomach kind of way. Maybe the jokes and jibes were not fully wrong, Volleyball was his first love after all and being back on the court felt like greeting an old lover.

His body may not be what he was used to, it surely was not what he had spent years building and moulding but it was still his. He has done this before after all and he could do it again, get used to this again.

On the other side of the net, Tooru bounced the ball off the floor a few times before catching it. He then spun the ball in usual pre-serve routine. Shoyo shivered slightly at the look in Tooru’s eyes but god, how he wished he was the one receiving that serve.

A serve toss, the smack of the ball hitting a palm, and the deafening sound of the ball smashing into the wooden floors. It was all over within a matter of seconds.

Ah, he thought wistfully. There it is, the monster serve. Shoyo could think of very few things that were more exhilarating than scooping up a demonic serve like that. 

He craned his head to look back at his teammates and they were all frozen stiff. He turned back forward. This was going to be a tough game. Luckily for him though, even his high-school teammates were talented. 

Nishinoya got the next serve in a wobbly, high arc. It was not the cleanest but more than enough for Kageyama to work with and that was his cue. 

Shoyo took flight.

As it had multiple times before, the ball came to him and stopped - this time, it was about the length of two balls too long. It did not matter to Shoyo as the wind had played the same tricks on him and more. He twisted his body mid-air and in a stunning feat of athleticism, he snapped his wrist and spiked the ball right onto an empty spot on the other side of the court.

When Shoyo landed, it was with a blinding grin. The grin stayed on his face even as he wobbled and lost his balance, falling on his ass. He looked up at Tooru who was looking down at Shoyo with a pout of annoyance which, impossibly, made him grin wider.

He was promptly tackled by his senpai who roughly ruffled his hair in cheer. Kageyama looked shocked and pissed off but it was more so at himself, Shoyo was sure. He was not worried, he knew back then and he knew now that Kageyama would master the toss without a doubt. 

Shoyo gobbled down the cold, refreshing water but took care not to drink too quickly. He knew from past experience how queasy it made him when he drank too fast, especially after a hard workout.

He rested his body against the wall and looked around at his teammates. They were, quite literally, littered around on the floor before him.

His own palm was throbbing and stinging in the familiar, nostalgic, pleasant way that it has for years since he first landed a good spike. He looked down at his red hands in reverence. It was a comforting feeling. 

Seijoh had claimed the first two sets, almost effortlessly but Karasuno managed to claw its way into a victory in the last set. If it had been a real match, Karasuno would have lost 2-1. Ukai-san was acutely aware of this and was mumbling strategy and observations to Takeda-sensei and the managers. Yachi was scribbling down everything with her tongue poking out and eyebrows furrowed. 

The rest of the team were surprisingly calm, including Kageyama. They had been trying out new stuff and after the Date Tech match blow-up from Kageyama, it seemed they were not as scared of temporary losses or setbacks. Shoyo exhaled, enjoying the buzzing yet focused atmosphere. 

There was a loud crash on the other side of the gym, sounding louder in the reserved post-match atmosphere.

A young, jittery kid from Seijoh had dropped a few water bottles. Tooru was right next to him, playing the role of the darling senpai by patting him on the back and crouching to help him pick up the fallen bottles. 

Tooru looked his way, trying and failing to be casual or subtle. He maintained eye-contact and shook the water bottle in his hand. Shoyo was confused but he nodded all the same. Satisfied, Tooru looked away to comfort the kid for a few more minutes and lugged a handful of water bottles towards the gym doors. 

Ah, maybe he wanted Shoyo to follow him. Smart! 

Shoyo looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him but everyone was caught up in the sheer exhaustion of the match. Even the more suspicious Tsukkishima was too tired to keep an eye on Shoyo. He grinned in delight and slipped out slowly. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, his short stature really helped in moments like these. 

Shoyo kept his head down and power walked towards the gym doors, his own bottle in hand. He needed a refill anyways.

He soon came to an abrupt stop once he was outside the gym realising he did not know where to go. He shivered, the cold air feeling like blades against his sweaty skin. 

Shoyo lingered in the same spot, hoping to find a glimpse of Tooru somewhere. If he didn’t spot him soon he was going to just walk back into the warm gym. Just then, he spotted the water bottles that Tooru had carried lined up against a wall. Probably Tooru’s version of dropping breadcrumbs, knowing how directionally challenged he was. Shoyo snickered. 

He slid next to Tooru and focused on filling his water bottle, keeping his eyes trained on the faucet. He let the silence linger for a moment. 

“We won that last set, you know.”

He could see Tooru stomping back a smile from the corner of his eye. Tooru also kept his eyes facing forward. 

“We won the first two, you know.”

“Means nothing. In a five set match-”

“Oi! This wasn’t a five set match!” Tooru complained, eyes narrowing.

“This wasn’t a three set match either! It was a practice game and in practice games, there is no end,” Shoyo said gravely.

Tooru cocked his head. “What are you talking about? No, you know what? I don’t wanna know. We won that match.”

“If you had won then there wouldn’t have been a third set,” Shoyo pointed out. His own water bottle was filled and he wordlessly took one from Tooru’s stash to fill.

“Well,” Tooru considered. “I suppose. Though, how many times did we manage to block you? Huh?”

“And how many times did I slip one past your face? Huh?” Shoyo countered.

“And how many of my serves did your team manage to get up? Huh?”

“Noya-san did it multiple times! He is fantastic!” Shoyo scoffed, he dropped the act and turned towards Tooru. 

“Hah!” Tooru crowed, also turning to face him. “That’s what I expect from a silver medal loser!”

“Huh? What medal, Oikawa-san?”

Shoyo and Tooru blinked at each other. Oh, they weren’t alone anymore. When did that happen?

“Oikawa-san?” Kindaichi asked again. There were more people around them than they had noticed. A couple of Karasuno and Seijoh members had surrounded them when they were caught up in bantering. Just a handful though, Shoyo noticed with a bit of relief. 

“Medal?” Tooru echoed.

“You mentioned something about a silver medal…” Kindaichi trailed off, eyeing Shoyo curiously. 

“Oh. Um,” Tooru stalled. He glanced at Shoyo, who looked back at him blankly. Yeah, he's got nothing. “Silver medal in… receiving volleyballs in the face?”

“Why did he win silver? Shouldn’t he win gold?” Kunimi drawled lazily. Shoyo felt indignation rise up within him. It was a long time ago! He was an Olympian now dammit! 

“Haha,” Tooru laughed uneasily. “That is, um, because he sucks at that too.”

Everyone stared at Tooru who was doing his worst impression of a poker face. If this was an anime, he would have had buckets of sweat pouring down his face. Shoyo’s lips twitched. 

Kindaichi’s jaw dropped and he looked towards Shoyo in part-awkwardness and part-sympathy. Even Kunimi, who had been quick to throw out a witty rejoinder, looked a little taken aback. Shoyo dropped his head in a vain effort to not burst out laughing in Tooru’s face. His shoulders shook slightly and his eyes watered from the suppressed laughter wrecking his body. 

“You pretty boy bastard! What are you doing to my precious Kouhai?” Tanaka-san’s shrill yet concerned voice broke the confused silence that had fallen upon them. 

Shoyo managed to finally look up. His eyes were dewy and red, a few unshed tears clinging to his lashes. Unbeknown to him, he looked the very picture of an innocent, young boy in peril and distress. 

When he noticed Tanaka-san not slowing down as he barreled toward them, Shoyo scrambled to step in his path. “Tanaka-san! It’s fine!”

“It’s not fine, Shoyo!” Noya-san, who also popped out of god-knows-where, supplied. He was glaring daggers at Tooru. 

Shoyo was panicking, he needed to de-escalate quickly and Tooru was of no help. He had not so much as twitched the moment he heard Tanaka-san’s voice, completely frozen and rooted to his spot. 

“We are truly so sorry,” a gruff voice said from behind him. Iwaizumi-san! Shoyo had no idea where he came from either but boy, he had never been happier to hear his voice.

He looked back to see Iwaizumi holding Tooru’s head in a bruising grip and making him bow in apology. 

“Do you think this is enough, Huh?” Tanaka-san postured. 

“Tanaka-san,” Shoyo whined. C’mon work with the man here! “It’s fine, really,” he reassured Iwaizumi-san, hoping he would drag Tooru away by the collar again and Shoyo would be safe. 

Iwaizumi-san was really an angel sent from heaven, he grabbed his teammates and bowed once more in apology before dragging them away. “Why are you picking fights with the chibi this much?” he whispered hotly, as he dragged Tooru away. 

Shoyo exhaled and rubbed his chest in sheer relief. That had sucked the humour out of the situation quickly. 

“You good, Shoyo?” Noya-san asked. 

“Yes! Really, it was just a misunderstanding. I didn’t even understand what he said anyways.” 

“If you say so,” Noya-san conceded. He ruffled Shoyo’s hair with a laugh, making him yelp. 

“I still don’t like that bastard. Never trust a pretty boy, Hinata!” 

“Aren’t you just saying that because you’re jealous, Ryuu?” 

“Noya-sann! Not true…”

Shoyo laughed along as he walked with his senpai. It had taken him nearly a week but he could finally admit that being back in time wasn’t that scary after all.

Chapter Text

Shoyo was used to waiting for Tooru. It had been a theme in their relationship, with Shoyo being more punctual and Tooru being more ‘barely made it in time got stuck in traffic I promise’. 

So when he reached the small park situated a few streets away from Karasuno, he promptly made himself home on the grass. It was a good spot with ample shade from a nearby tree. He rolled out a cute picnic blanket and rummaged through his bag to fetch the two bentos, which were filled to the brim with his own cooking. The bentos did not only look good and taste good, they were also protein-dense, fully balanced meals made specifically for an athlete. 

Shoyo was used to cooking his own meals by now and it was surprisingly easy to convince his mom to let him take over and make his own bentos for lunch.

He had been bringing his creations for a week, much to the envy of his classmates. Hell, a few girls had pulled him aside to ask how he made his tamagoyaki so round and clean, hoping for a miraculous secret technique. (The answer was practice. His first few attempts were, frankly, a mushy mess and Tsukki, who had been his dedicated taste-tester at the time, could attest to that.)

Point is, he was proud of his cooking and how far he’s come. Which was why he, quite proudly, snapped a picture and sent it to Tooru. He was expecting the usual half-joking ‘send me some!’ response, considering for most of their friendship they lived in different continents. He had, however, forgotten that they were currently not in different continents and the ‘send me some!’ had turned from a joke into a whine, and from a whine into a threat. 

Which brought him to his current situation -two bentos in the grass before him, waiting on his perpetually late friend. He had chewed Tooru out yesterday for showing up fifteen minutes late, for all the good it did. Shoyo huffed and leaned back against the tree, resting his eyes and yawning. 

The sounds of the birds chirping, the low rustling of the wind and quiet chatter of a slow neighbourhood was lulling him to sleep. Despite sleeping his usual eight hours, Shoyo felt it wasn’t enough. Teenagers needed upwards of eight to almost ten hours of sleep, he remembered reading in a book once. He rubbed his eyes to stave away the sleep lingering behind them.

Suddenly, the shrubs next to the tree crackled ominously. Shoyo sat up straight. Usually that meant there were animals scurrying around and usually, for him, that meant it could be something dangerous — hangup from living in a house surrounded by nature. They crackled once more and Shoyo kept his eyes trained on the shrubs, hands reaching out to cover his bentos. 

He could hear some murmuring? That was unusual but some animals did eerily sound like humans. 

“What’cha lookin’ at?”

Shoyo tore his eyes away and upwards. Tooru was looking down on him, with raised eyebrows and a milk tea in one hand. He took a loud, obnoxious slurp. 

“You sure took your time,” Shoyo grumbled. 

“You shouldn’t be surprised anymore, Shoyo, honestly,” Tooru rolled his eyes and plopped down on the blanket right next to him. 

He wasn’t but that didn’t mean he couldn’t complain. 

“Soooo,” he drew it out, “What were you looking at?”

Ah, that reminded him. Shoyo glanced back at the shrubs. They seemed silent except for the slight wooshing of the leaves in the wind. Perhaps it was a squirrel that ran away, Shoyo reasoned to himself.

“Nothing, I thought I heard something in those bushes,” Shoyo mumbled, waving it away. He narrowed his eyes at Tooru. “Also, you show up late and make me cook for you and you have specific requests yet won’t even apologize for it?”

“Sorry Shoyooo~ You know the buses in Miyagi take forever and I had to make a stop at my favorite milk tea spot!” Tooru whined.

Right, the milk tea spot that ended up closing right as Tooru graduated from high-school. He had bemoaned it forever — something about your favourite shop closing right as you move away from the country and one more spot of familiarity being stripped away. Tooru had wanted Shoyo to try them out too but with one look at the sugar contents Shoyo shut that down. He was not used to overly sweet stuff, he learnt as he grew older. 

Shoyo hummed agreeably and handed Tooru his chopsticks. Immediately perking up, Tooru abandoned his mostly-finished milk tea and snapped open the chopsticks. With a hasty ‘Itadakimasu’ they started chowing down on their lunch.

“God Shoyo, the salmon is fucking good,” Tooru moaned between bites. “I could marry you just to have your cooking everyday.”

“I’m not moving to Argentina for you,” Shoyo replied dryly. The salmon was fucking good though, Shoyo agreed as he chewed slowly. He had heard it aided in digestion and has been chewing his meals like an old baa-san since then.

Tooru waved his chopsticks in dismissal. “I will move out if it means access to your cooking. I’ll never have to get takeout ever again!”

“I don’t remember agreeing to be your personal servant and cook for you everyday,” Shoyo teased. 

Tooru was about to reply when both their attention was drawn to a loud gasp coming from a bush next to them. The gasp was followed by a sharp “Shhh!” and some rustling. Shoyo and Tooru glanced at each other in confusion. 

“Didn’t you say you heard something before?” Tooru asked, keeping his voice low. “I thought you meant an animal or something, that sounded like a person.”

Was it a voyeur? Someone perving on schoolgirls or boys? Shoyo felt queasy at the thought. He pinched Tooru’s uniform sleeve and pulled him close to whisper in his ear. “I did think it was some animal. Do you,” Shoyo hesitated. “Do you think it’s some hentai freak?”

There was more rustling, this time from the bush right next to it. Two Hentais??

“Should we go and check?” Tooru grimaced. 

“Yeah? I don’t know? What if we just let them be and they keep perving out in bushes? We should think about the young kids that come to the park.”

“Shoyo, right now we are the young kids,” Tooru replied, baffled. Oh yeah, yikes.

There was more rustling in both the bushes and Shoyo could spot what seemed like half a knee. “What are you doing here!” Rustling bush #1 whispered hotly to the other. 

The hentai bushes are talking to each other, Shoyo thought deliriously. 

“What are you doing here?” Rustling bush #2 accused right back, perhaps a touch louder than they intended. A dull smack was heard, followed by another “Shh!” that was ironically louder.

Undeterred Rustling bush #2 continued, “Are you here to spy on-”

There was more rustling and some muffled noises. 

“Fuck. I think I know that voice,” Tooru whispered (In an actual whisper! Learn from him, rustling hentai bushes!) with a look of dread on his face. He got up slowly and waved at Shoyo to do the same, placing a finger in front of his lips. 

Together they inched closer slowly to the arguing, rustling bushes whose whispers were steadily increasing in volume and becoming more and more clear. Oh God, Shoyo could now recognise a few voices himself and when they finally reached the (still) arguing bushes, Shoyo’s stomach dropped. 

In front of them, badly hidden behind said rustling bushes were several members of both Karasuno and Seijoh volleyball teams. Some of them held two broken sticks of the bush to blend in, some had dirt smeared on their face, and some wore conspicuous hats and sunglasses.  

“Are they trying to hide?” Tooru whispered incredulously, he might as well have talked normally for all the noise the two bushes were making. 

“I think so, yeah,” Shoyo replied, feeling faint. The teams hadn’t yet noticed them, too focused on their squabbling. They waited for a beat to see if they would notice. This is when Shoyo decided this could not be a dream, his subconscious was nearly not creative enough to come up with this situation. 

Finally, Tooru snapped. “What exactly is going on here?” 

The chattering finally silenced and the two bushes turned together to look at them. They stood up, dislodging some leaves and branches in the process. Hanamaki-san, whose name Shoyo finally remembered, broke the silence first and pointed at Tooru. 

“I should be asking you that!”

“Don’t turn this on me,” Tooru sneered. “We’re very clearly having lunch normally. Now, what are you guys doing hiding like some perverts?”

Shoyo nodded. They were so clearly not the weird ones here.

“And since when do you guys do that together?” Hanamaki-san countered back.

Ah, Shoyo had forgotten that they weren’t supposed to be friends at this age. He shared an uneasy glance with Tooru. 

“You know what? Scratch that. Where is your secret girlfriend? Are you using chibi-chan here to hide her? Did you think we would not notice?”

“What girlfriend? Did you think we would not notice two speaking bushes?” Tooru diverted quickly. He stomped on Shoyo’s foot, reminding him that he had to pitch in too. Shoyo quickly scanned his team to see who would snap first.

“Daichi-san,” Shoyo picked the easiest target. He was sure his captain would fold from the guilt. “Were you guys following me?” For his finishing blow, Shoyo frowned in disappointment. 

Daichi-san ruffled his hair, causing a leaf to fall off. “Well, it kinda… ended up that way. Sorry Hinata," he mumbled, in a rush.

Shoyo frowned a bit more, Daichi-san was close to cracking. He could feel it. “I don’t understand. Why would you guys do that?”

Daichi-san grimaced and looked away. The rest of the group squirmed under his hurt look. They looked at Daichi-san to speak, throwing him under the bus immediately. Daichi-san sighed deeply. 

“It’s a long story…”

Suga was walking alongside Shimizu, a fact he was very smug about, when they crossed the first years’ classes. The kids were rowdy and loud, making him think back fondly of his own first-year days. 

A loud voice cut through the noise and ruckus in the hallway. Suga heard a familiar name and he couldn't help but listen in.

“Hinata brought tamagoyaki today! Did you see how round it was Riku-chan? Ahh, I’m soo jealous. I want to cook like that for my boyfriend, I bet he’d fall head-over-heels all over again!”

Suga had not known Hinata cooked his own lunch, let alone that he could cook in the first place. He frowned, wondering if he somehow type-casted Hinata as a volleyball-focused typical jock in his head.

Shimizu snorted next to him. “Yachi told me about this,” she filled him in, her eyes filled with mirth. “Apparently Hinata-kun has started to bring his own elaborate bentos for the past week and they’ve been the envy of every girl in the class.”

“Elaborate? I didn’t even know he could cook!”

Shimizu hummed. Suga guessed she hadn’t known either until Yachi told her.

“Though I have to say, It’s nice seeing him get back to his usual self,” she said, fondly. “He is Karasuno’s secret weapon after all.”

Suga smiled back. That he could agree, Hinata being depressed and down felt as unnatural as seeing a monkey on a unicycle. Suga had been worried for a while but it seems he didn’t have to. It was good to know the team will be in good hands.

“Well, we have to get a taste!” Suga decided and peeked inside the room, hoping to catch Hinata’s attention and taste the elaborate, enviable bentos for himself. 

“Huh. That’s weird. I can’t find Hinata,” Suga mumbled, frowning. Did he finish lunch and leave already? Lunch period just began. It wasn’t good to eat that quickly. 

“Ah, senpai! Are you looking for Hinata?” a curious girl asked him, leaning out the classroom window. 

Suga nodded, “Yes, We’re from the volleyball team.”

“He just left,” she told him. “He’s been leaving early these days and taking his lunch with him.”

Another girl next to her giggled and slapped her arm playfully, “Hey, hey Akane-chan. Did you know? I saw him carry out two bentos!”

Akane-chan gasped, covering her mouth with her palm. “No way,” she breathed, clearly loving the gossip. “Shizuki~ you didn't tell me! Do you think he’s going to share his bento with a girlfriend? She might be from another school.”

Suga gaped at the two girls quickly diverting to gossip right in front of their senpai. Not that he was complaining, he wanted to know what was up too.

“Yeah and I heard,” Shizuki said, and leaned in conspiringly. “She’s his senpai, which is why he makes bentos all the time. It’s all to impress her.”

Akane-chan oohh-ed at the information. Suga had half a mind to do so as well. She then whined, “No fair! Maybe I should also date a kouhai when I get older. I am no-good at cooking, I would love a boyfriend who would do that for me.”

She finally looked back at Suga, as if only just remembering that he existed. The girls shared a glance and nodded, as if deciding to proceed. 

“Senpai, you’re in his team right? Do you know anything?” they asked with bated breath. That was the issue! He knew less about his own kouhai than his classmates. Suga clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Shimizu had better manners than him and waved the girls off with some excuse or the other. She then pulled his sleeve (woah!) and dragged him away from the first-year classes.

They barely made it till the end of the hallway before they were rudely interrupted.

“Ack, Kiyoko! Don’t touch him, he's dirty!”

Suga dazedly looked toward the voice. Daichi and Asahi were standing next to the stairs, with their mouths dropped, pointing at Suga in accusation. 

“Not true,” Suga scowled. Shimizu ignored them but decided to drop his sleeve. Tch. “Ignore that for now. We have bigger issues.”

Suga, with Shimizu chiming in occasionally to add a word or two, filled the other two in on what he had just witnessed — from the cooking, the double bentos, Hinata sneaking off, to the senpai-girlfriend allegations. 

“I can’t see him focusing on anything except volleyball,” Daichi said, rubbing his chin. 

“Same,” Asahi agreed. “I was thinking, woah, so even he can get crushes? Noya and Tanaka will be insufferable if they hear about this.”

The other three laughed at that mental image. 

“Hear about what?”

Shit, Suga grimaced. Asahi’s eyes widened and he started muttering some half-formed excuses. He was clearly going to be of no help so Suga felt he had to step in and take control of the situation, now that it had come to this.

“We’re not sure so don’t go around saying anything to him or the team but we think Hinata has been making bentos for a potential new girlfriend, who we suspect is older than him,” Suga said in one breath. There, handled. 

Noya and Tanaka went silent, absorbing that information.

“Kiyoko-san,” Tanaka said, finally, “Do you want bentos too? I can cook really well.”

“No,” Shimizu replied, voice flat. 

“Aww, Kiyoko-san I really can cook- WAIT, WHAT?”

“OUR KOUHAI HAS A NEW GIRLFRIEND?” Tanaka and Noya yelled in unison. “AND HE NEVER TOLD US?”

Asahi sighed. “See this is what I meant.” 

Suga felt a spike of annoyance at their loud voices. Did they intend to announce it to the whole school? “Guys, I specifically told you not to overreact.”  

“Isn’t she older than him?” Daichi asked, frowning, “Do you think he feels the need to impress her? You said his bentos were pretty elaborate. He already wakes up early for morning practice and has to cycle past a mountain everyday too.”

It was clear Daichi had been sitting on that for a while. Suga considered it, maybe Hinata is acting like a typical boy-in-love. He didn’t see anything wrong with it but he understood Daichi's fears. 

“Do you think she’s taking advantage of him?” Suga asked.

“I wish Kiyoko-san would take advan-” Tanaka got a swift smack to the head from Suga.

“Not necessarily,” Daichi replied, “Maybe he is overextending himself? And she might not know about it.”

Asahi wringed his hands in worry. “Should we check in with him? Poor guy...” 

“We should ask during practice. Daichi-san, you ask!” Noya exclaimed, looking at Daichi hopefully.

“No way, he gets twitchy with me,” Daichi refused, shaking his head. “I think he’s still a little afraid of me. He might take it as an interrogation. He recently had some issues with performance that he was down about, too.”

Suga agreed. “Yeah Daichi, Let me ask! I got this!” 

“If you say so,” Daichi replied, sceptically.  

“Have more faith in me Daichi!!”

“So Hinata,” Suga said, leaning up against the wall and smiling harmlessly. 

“Suga-san? What’s up?” Hinata looked up from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Oh nothing much,” Suga leaned down and placed his hands on his knees to look Hinata in the eye. “I passed by your class today during lunch and you weren't there. Did you have lunch elsewhere?” 

(A couple of feet away, Daichi and the rest were creeping around the corner and trying to act like they weren’t listening in. 

“Why is he being so direct? Has he never heard of tact?” Daichi hissed while Asahi shushed him frantically.)

Hinata fidgeted with his bottle cap for a second before replying. “Uh, yeah. I went outside to eat, Suga-san.”

“Ohh really! I heard you were making such great bentos recently that I wanted to see for myself,” Suga laughed, exaggerated. He widened his eyes, aiming for ‘innocent lamb’ and landing somewhere around ‘sleep-deprived college kid’. “Did you forget to bring lunch?”

“Uhhh.”

“Or,” Suga continued, his eyes gaining a manic edge. “Were you sharing with someone special?” 

Hinata stared at him, seemingly at a loss for words. His ears were turning red, which indicated that he was embarrassed but Suga felt Hinata was easily embarrassed by matters of dating and love. He had to stop the delight from showing on his face, either way, this was progress!

“Oh ho ho, ignore your silly senpai! I always hope for the best for my kouhai in all aspects of life,” Suga laughed again, even more exaggerated. He gave Hinata a couple firm slaps on the back. 

(A couple feet away, Daichi was banging his head on his bottle. 

Noya was laughing in delight, “Oh he’s straight to the point! That’s what it means to be a man! Asahi-san you should learn a little.” 

“Noya…”)

Hinata finally rebooted and frantically shook his head. “No, No! Suga san, I just, uh, forgot to make one day. I got up a little late,” he explained, rubbing his head sheepishly.

That was all he felt he could get out of him and well, this was confirmation enough, according to him. Suga smiled. “Too bad! Anyway, good practice Hinata.”

“Yeah, you too. Good practice, Suga-san…”

With that, Suga straightened back up and walked toward the rest. They acted casually, chatting about this and that, until Hinata was out of earshot. 

“Why did you ask him that! Can you at least try to be subtle?!” Daichi, finally, whisper-yelled. 

“Daichi,” Suga sighed. Daichi never did trust him fully, Tut tut. “If I beat around the bush you’ll never get answers. Now we know, don't we?”

“Know what?”

Suga rolled his eyes. “That he clearly has a girlfriend! Maybe that’s why he was a little off last week too!”

“No way, Suga-san,” Tanaka refused immediately, “We don't know that for sure. Didn't he say that he had a headache? Besides he would tell me, right? Me, his beloved senpai?”

“Tanaka,” Asahi looked at him with pity. “With the way you act, you can't be surprised if Hinata was hesitant to tell you.” 

Tanaka frowned in distress, Noya patted him on the back looking just as distressed.

“Well either way,” Daichi said, folding his arms. “I think we should leave it alone and let Hinata come to us when he feels like it.”

That sounded like a typical Daichi resolution, as in - boring! Suga huffed, he would leave it alone for now.

Suga yawned behind his hand and huddled further into his cozy scarf. The mornings were getting colder and colder, to the point where waking up was a herculean task. Thankfully, he wasn’t in charge of opening the gym or he would have to come in earlier.

Suga walked up the creaky stairs to their club room, he could hear some people moving around inside. He paused abruptly at the door when he heard who it was and what was being discussed. 

“Yeah but how do we follow him without him seeing us, Noya-san?”

Oh, that’s all he needed to hear to know what those two were up to. He opened the door as slow as he could and tip-toed into the room, holding his shoes in one hand. They didn't notice him until he was right behind them, a rookie mistake.

“What are you two planning?” he asked, pleasantly. 

Tanaka and Noya jumped up in surprise and stammered out excuses that he didn’t care enough to hear. 

“Are you planning to follow Hinata? Despite Daichi telling you to leave it alone?”

After a beat, “...No”

Suga sighed, of course they would. “Well what is the plan then?” he asked, turning away to place his shoes in his cupboard. “If you're going to do it I would rather you guys do it right.”

He turned back and smiled at them mischievously. “Not to mention, I am curious who the girl is too.” 

“Suga-san!!” Tanaka and Noya chorused with looks of awe on their faces. Suga loved being the fun senpai, it was far more fun.

“We were thinking of following him when he leaves the school,” Noya explained. “We just need to be stealthy and we can figure it out easily!”

“Not a bad plan,” Suga considered, tapping his chin with a finger in contemplation. “Are you guys sure he’s going to go today too?”

Tanaka nodded. “Yeah, I saw him at the bike stand this morning with two bentos packed.”

“Oh-ho!” Suga grinned and clapped his hands together. “Well boys, you’d better eat lunch between classes or you’ll end up hungry when we skip lunch to solve a mystery.”

The duo grin back at him. The curiosity was frankly eating away at Suga and this way Daichi would be none the wiser. Win-win.

“This is why I never trust them with you, Suga.” He heard a very Daichi-sounding voice but that was impossible… right?

Suga gulped and turned around woodenly, “Daichi… Good morning”

“Don’t ‘good morning’ me,” Daichi grumbled, “Following him? I told you guys to leave it alone!”

“Daichi,” Suga whined. If he was caught he might as well convince Daichi, he wasn’t half as disciplinarian as he tried to portray himself to be anyway. “We will! He won't know. It's just for, you know, checking if he’s with a decent girl or not. You were worried too, right?”

“I was but that doesn't mean we need to follow him. That would invade his privacy,” Daichi chided.

Before Suga could reply, there was some commotion near the door. Loud whispers were heard outside the room causing everyone to freeze in panic. There was some back and forth before Tsukishima was pushed inside the room with Kageyama, Yachi and Yamaguchi following right after him. Tsukishima righted himself and said, “Senpai, we heard you guys talking.”

Daichi freaked out and jumped to damage control. 

“Oh no, we were not planning on following Hinata. Don’t worry guys, I’ll set those idiots right,” he said, pointing back at them. Suga pouted at the indignity. 

“Actually,” Tsukishima cut him off. “They, well, We were planning on the same.”

Daichi was stunned into silence. 

“I think he’s wasting energy on romance and weird things when he should be practicing more,” Kageyama grumbled, tugging at his bag strap.

“Sure,” Tsukishima rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you ask him if he made his other bento for you?” 

“That was because it was nutritious. If I play better he’ll play better too,” Kageyama said, matter of fact. “I don’t know why he would spend all that time to make that and give it to some random girl instead.” 

Does he even hear what he’s saying? Suga thought with amusement. Tsukishima gave him a look of utter disgust. 

“We don’t want to invade his privacy either!” Yachi blurted out and looked surprised at herself for speaking out. “We just want to know if he’s alright. It’s just that, he’s been out of it lately.”

Exactly! This was cause for major concern. They looked at Daichi in expectation, he withheld the stares for a few long minutes before his hunched up shoulders drooped in defeat. “Okay, fine. But if things are normal, we do not bring it up unless he does.”

They would agree to just about anything at that point and so, everyone nodded.

“Okay, Well. Eat lunch between classes then, don't go hungry.”

They cheered together. And if anyone walked past their club room, they’d wonder if the team had just won nationals. 

“Guys,” Matsukawa said, “Isn’t Oikawa acting weird these days? He's even running off to get lunch outside.”

Hanamaki, Iwaizumi and him were hanging out together in their classroom, as they usually do. Usually though, they would also have another person with them - said missing person was away getting a carton of milk from the vending machine, which was the best time to be discussing things behind his back. 

“By himself,” he emphasized. 

“That’s normal though isn’t it? Lunch is the only time he spends with his girlfriends, when he is in a relationship,” Hanamaki pointed out, unbothered. He added, “What a loser.”

“Yeah but didn’t she break up with him? He was whining about it,” Matsukawa replied.

“Actually,” Iwaizumi interjected, “I went to his house yesterday and he had a girl over pretty late at night. He even tried hiding her from me when I came over.”

“That’s unusual,” Hanamaki concedes, leaning back dangerously on his chair. “He’s usually not the type to really hide his relationships.”

“Right,” Iwaizumi said. “There’s definitely something going on.”

The other two thought about it for a bit and nodded their agreement. 

“We should just follow him out when he goes for lunch,” Matsukawa decided. “He did not bring his lunch today either, did he Iwaizumi? 

“Nope but do we want to be all up in his business like that?”

The other two just stare at him. Iwaizumi sighed. “Yeah, let's just follow him.”

Chapter Text

“Why did their team deliberate over it for so long while you guys took all of five minutes to decide?” Tooru griped, after both groups were done explaining their sides of the story.

“That’s obviously because we don’t care about your privacy. What do you need to hide from us, huh bastard?” Hanamaki retorted, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah bastard,” Matsukawa echoed.

Tooru pouted. “I hate all of you.”

“Now that our explanation is out of the way,” Iwaizumi-san threw a threatening hand over Tooru’s shoulder. “Isn’t it your turn now? What happened to your hideaway girlfriend? Explain.”

Tooru grimaced and looked over to Shoyo for help. Shoyo pointedly did not look back. This was not his problem, he sure as hell didn’t come up with that stupid lie. 

“There was, um, no girlfriend,” Tooru replied, eyes still boring into the side of Shoyo’s face. Everyone looked between the two of them, back and forth, like they were at a tennis match. 

“Oikawa,” Suga-san called. Tooru finally paused in his attempts to catch Shoyo’s attention and turned toward him, confused to have been addressed. “Are you, by any chance, dating my kouhai?” 

“Shit,” Hanamaki swore. “Is that true Oikawa? Oi. Isn’t he a bit young?”

“I’m not,” Tooru denied, shaking his hand frantically in front of him. “That’s not true! Ask Shoyo!”

“It’s not true,” Shoyo said, coming to his rescue at last. The last thing he wanted was his team thinking he was dating a rival.

“See,” Tooru gestured toward Shoyo. You’re right, he is young right now. Maybe in the future but I'm so not dating him right now.”

“In the future?” Daichi-san frowned. 

“Ah. No. I mean,” Tooru spluttered, realising how that sounded a bit late. “He could grow up and become more mature and…” he trailed off.

Shoyo kept shaking his head at him to keep his mouth shut. Talk about foot in mouth syndrome!

Tsukishima snorted. “I highly doubt he’ll mature at any age.”

“Oi bastard. That was unnecessary,” Shoyo growled, though the effect was lost when you were 50kgs soaking wet. 

“Really,” Tsukishima locked in on him as if waiting for this moment and pointed between him and Tooru. “What’s with all the secrecy?” 

“What secrecy? There’s no secrecy. Oika-san tried my food once and liked it so I decided to trade one bento for some, um, volleyball help,” Shoyo said, coming up with a random excuse. He wanted to pat himself on the back, this was so much more believable than whatever nonsense Tooru had come up with. 

“He’s helping you?” Kageyama pushed to the front. He removed his sunglasses and cap and dramatically flung them onto the ground, glaring at Shoyo.

Hah? Doesn’t this situation look a bit like a cheating girlfriend being caught by her boyfriend? Shoyo thought, feeling wronged. He hadn’t done anything! Why was he made to feel guilty?

“You keep telling me I could use the help. Why are you mad?” Shoyo asked, glaring right back.

“You do need the help. Scrub.”

Shoyo flung himself forward, grabbing whatever part of Kageyama that he could. Kageyama moved into motion just as quickly, grabbing Shoyo’s head and squeezing it. They scuffled, as they always had, almost crashing into people standing nearby and they would have continued if not for Daichi-san grabbing them both by the neck and physically separating them. 

Daichi-san threw in a disappointed glare for good measure, ensuring they didn’t go right back at it. That didn’t stop them from continuing to glare at each other, though.

“This is so weird,” Matsukawa said. He turned to face his friends and hooked a thumb over his shoulder to point at Tooru. “You realise he’s fraternizing with the enemy right? Who is to say he isn’t meeting up with Ushiwaka and exchanging bentos for volleyball tips with him too.”

Oh, no. Not Ushiwaka. Everyone knew that was Tooru’s biggest sore-spot. Shoyo warily glanced at Tooru hoping he would not completely blow his top. He was older now, Shoyo reasoned. He knew better than to get riled up at the mere mention of-

“THAT IS MY LAST STRAW,” Tooru exploded, stomping his foot on the ground like a child.

Okay, maybe Shoyo miscalculated. He dragged his hands down his face in exasperation. This was going to be rough.

“You guys,” Tooru started and paused for effect. “Did not just accuse me of being in cahoots with Ushiwaka. Ushiwaka, of all people.”

Shoyo mouthed ‘in cahoots’ to himself.

Tooru looked at Shoyo and Shoyo looked back blankly. Whatever he saw on Shoyo’s face must have been enough and so he stood straight and resolutely declared:

“We are from the future.”

Shoyo’s entire jaw unhinged when it dropped to the floor. He had miscalculated… again, clearly. He would have thought he was hearing things if not for the ringing silence that followed Tooru’s declaration. 

“Shittykawa, What the hell are you saying?” Iwaizumi-san asked, after a long pause.

When Shoyo finally got the courage to peek at other’s expressions, it was a mixed bag of confused, amused and annoyed - leaning more towards annoyed. Only Tooru looked pleased with himself, god knows why. 

“Guys, he's gone crazy. I think I might have fucked up the food,” Shoyo laughed, a touch delirious. Then, desperately added. “Don’t listen to him. Please.”

He inched toward Tooru slowly while people were still processing the stupid, stupid, line of his. 

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Shoyo fumed, keeping his voice as low as he could go.

“I don’t know Shoyo,” Tooru sighed, not even bothering to whisper, “I just couldn’t take that slander. I mean, seriously, why would they say that?”

Shoyo was so mad he wanted to shake Tooru’s shoulders. That was not a reason, dumbass! He couldn't do that in front of everyone so he settled for stomping on Tooru’s foot.

“No, don’t either of you dare change the subject. Something is not right, you are acting very strange,” Iwaizumi-san complained, gritting his teeth.

Now he was included too, Shoyo realised in despair but before he could defend himself Tsukishima chimed in. “He is calling you by your first name? I didn’t know you and daiou-sama were this close,” he mocked.

Shoyo panicked. “So what?” he asked, puffing out his chest. “You believe him? You would believe him if he said we are actually from the future and that one day we suddenly woke up in the past, in our past bodies? Hah? Is that it, Tsukishima?”

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. “I never said all that. That was awfully detailed.”

“Boke! Have you gone insane?” Kageyama asked, panic-struck. “Right before prelims?”

Shoyo’s eye twitched, not Kageyama too.

"Shut up, bakayama. You guys are the ones insisting we’re weird. We are not.”

“You guys are the ones who are saying you came back in time or whatever,” Hanamaki pointed out.

“I DID NOT SAY THAT! HE SAID THAT!” Shoyo snapped, pointing at Tooru. 

Tooru, unhelpfully, clapped his hands and said, “Yeah, and I meant it!”

Shoyo groaned, dropping his face in his hands. Why did he even bother? It would be better to just stand there waiting for a black hole to open up the ground below him and swallow him whole. 

“Don’t you guys also agree that something is off?” Tooru continued, “Why else would you stalk us, huh?”

“I mean,” Matsukawa replied, “Yes, you acted weird but not back to the future weird.”

Tooru floundered at that, losing steam. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times trying to find something to say. Giving up, he turned to Shoyo pleadingly, “Shoyo, help!”

Shoyo raised his head from where it was hiding behind his hands and fixed an annoyed glare at Tooru. He seriously did not expect him to help after he got them into this, right? Right?

Tooru got impatient and grabbed his arm. “C’mon, we can’t play this off now! We need to find something to convince them or it is a mental hospital with no volleyball for us.”

Shoyo got his point. No volleyball was serious. 

“Okay, Okay yeah. Didn't I get worse at volleyball?" he offered, looking toward his team and hoping one of them would bite.

“You are always worse at volleyball,” Kageyama said, monotonously. 

Shoyo pounced at him again but Tooru got in between them and held him back with a wince.

Yachi-san, bless her soul, mused to herself, “Hinata-kun did get better at English.” Everyone turned to look at her, which made her flustered. She creeped behind Tsukishima to hide.

Shoyo had stars in his eyes. “Thank you Yachi-san,” he said gratefully, “Yes, I did get better at English, in fact, I’m fluent! Now, would that be possible for high-school me, who failed English class?”

“What do you mean you failed English?” Tooru eyed him. He went ignored.

Tsukishima pushed up his glasses and looked down at him with pure disbelief etched into his face. “Okay then, prove it.”

"I really do know how to speak English, you dickhead. I had to do quite a few press meets in English." 

“Woah,” Suga-san breathed out. “This is solid evidence but wait, what do you mean by press meets?”

(“Seriously, this is what convinces you guys? How bad was he at English? Iwa-chan, why do you look convinced too? Don’t ignore me!” Tooru went ignored.)

“Yes,” Shoyo finally, finally committed fully. Point of no return. “I’ve had press meets because we are professional volleyball players.”

Shoyo swore he could hear crickets with how silent the group goes at his statement. 

“Right,” Tsukki said, unconvinced. “That really doesn’t answer my question. Why are the two of you acting like you’re friends?”

“Obviously because we are friends,” Shoyo replied. 

Tooru threw an arm over his shoulder and pulled him close to hug him. “Yeah, Shoyo is my darling friend. Well, in the future at least.” Shoyo nodded, from where he was squished in the crook of Tooru’s elbow. The team went silent again.

Shoyo was getting used to it at this point. 

“Okay I have to ask,” Suga-san spoke, looking at the two of them like they were animals in a zoo. “Why did you get worse at volleyball if you’re from the future, where you’re a professional player?”

“Suga! Don’t ask that!” Daichi-san gasped in disapproval. Despite the reaction, Shoyo could see the curiosity in his eyes, Suga-san had pointed out a reasonable question after all. 

Shoyo placed his hands on his hips and groaned. Tooru took pity on him and patted his back. He pouted, “Suga-san you have no idea how hard it is to get used to a teenage body. I was losing my damn mind getting it to move the way I wanted it to.”

Suga-san widened his eyes, as if he hadn’t thought of that. Shoyo didn’t blame him, it’s not like this was a common situation. He felt a hesitant hand pat his shoulder clumsily. He looked up to see Kageyama wearing a very sympathetic face. Shoyo’s mouth pulled up in wry humour, figures that this is what Kageyama would relate most to.

Iwaizumi-san squinted at Tooru, thinking back to the past few days of practice. “You have been having issues syncing up with the team more than usual, too,” he said.  

Tooru winced. “Iwa-chan, please don’t remind me.”

“Hinata also looked more frustrated these days,” Asahi-san pondered. 

“Yeah! He’s been getting better at defence.” Noya-san added, enthusiastically, “Your form is fantastic now, Shoyo.” 

He gave Shoyo a certified thumbs-up, much to the envy of others. Shoyo preened, he did put a lot of work into his defence and it always felt great to get compliments from liberos.

“That’s because he’s one of Japan’s best recievers,” Tooru boasted. “Whenever there’s anyone with a nasty serve, like yours truly, Shoyo has to be on the line-up ready to receive.”

Shoyo snorted, of course Tooru couldn’t stop himself from bragging about his own achievements. Ah, what the hell. It wasn’t as if Tooru hadn't earned it. 

“You’re telling me, world-famous setter!” Shoyo teased back. Tooru giggled, swatting at his arm playfully.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Kageyama cut in, looking at Shoyo skeptically. Not fair, maybe he’ll get Kageyama to serve at him again and make him eat his words. 

Shoyo was about to suggest just that when he was interrupted.

“Do you kids know how long it’s been?” 

He whirled back in shock. Ukai-san was standing with a lit cigarette in hand, looking very un-amused.

“Forgot it was a school-day?” he asked, ominously. 

“Coach, Sorry! We lost track of time. We weren’t planning to skip classes,” Daichi-san started to apologize, while the rest huddled together behind him. 

Ukai-san took one final drag of his cigarette and stubbed it on a nearby trashcan. He stared at them mutely for a minute, dragging out their misery, before heaving a heavy sigh. 

“I have been here for a while, y'know. I heard what you guys were talking about.”

Flashes of steel jail bars, hospital IV drips, and the slamming of gym doors ran through Shoyo’s mind. Shit, this was what Tooru was talking about. He grabbed the other’s hand tightly, in sheer fear, and felt him squeeze back.

“Coach-” Shoyo started but that’s as far as he got before Ukai-san cut him off. 

“Save it kid, We’ll talk more at school.”

Ukai-san had lied when he said that they would talk at school. 

Shoyo had to tersely sit through the rest of his classes, and even half of volleyball practice when Ukai-san pointedly did not bring up the events of that afternoon.

If he wasn’t bringing it up, no else wanted to either. They focused on practice with a single-minded dedication and Shoyo was right with them. If Ukai-san never brought it up, all the more better in his opinion.

Eventually though, Ukai-san stopped practice after a rough-session of serve and serve-receive drills and dismissed the team with a few words of encouragement to keep up the good work.

Was that it? Shoyo thought. Was he really not going to bring it up? It seemed anti-climatic. 

Right when he thought he was safe and grabbed his gym bag happily. Ukai-san stopped him with a simple - “Except you of course, Hinata-kun.” and a razor-sharp smile. 

Which led him to where he was right now, kneeling next to Tooru in Takeda-sensei’s office with their tails tucked. Ukai-san was deep in conversation with Seijoh’s coach - apparently having briefed him during the day, Tooru had told him. 

He fidgeted a bit, hoping to ease the numbness in his legs. 

“How long are they going to talk? This is getting boring,” Tooru said under his breath. 

Shoyo grunted in reply. He kept getting occasional nightmares of being benched all through the day and he would like to know his fate soon, thanks. 

Ukai-san muttered a few ‘thanks’ and ‘goodbyes’ before placing the phone back with a click and cutting the call. They walked up to where the both of them were kneeling.

“I talked with your Coach,” he informed Tooru. “We have discussed and decided that the best approach for now will be to have joint practices together, until we deal with the situation.”

The way he said ‘situation’ was very pointed, Shoyo noted absently. He shared a surprised look with Tooru. This was not what they were thinking would happen. 

“Get up you two. I hope you will have a bit of discretion and not lose track of time going forward, though I’m aware it is a…” Takeda-san said and trailed off, uncharacteristically lost for words. 

Tooru and Shoyo got up and shook out their legs while waiting for him to continue. 

“It is a unique situation,” Takeda-san said, finally. “I don’t have much to offer you guys by way of advice but please remember, no matter what, that you are high-school students now.”

They nod stiffly. 

“Okay, that is all. Thank you,” Takeda-san dismissed them with a wave. 

Shoyo finally relaxed for the first time since lunch. He bowed and said, “Thank you coach, sensei. Sorry again, for this morning.”

With that, he grabbed Tooru and hightailed it out. 

“You done, Sensei?” Ukai-san asked Takeda. He nodded in lieu of a verbal reply. It had been a long, long day. He could feel a pulsing pain build up behind his temple. 

With one final look at his office, Takeda moved to close his window but paused when he heard faint voices and the rattling of a bike chain. 

“See you at practice tomorrow then.” Takeda could hear Hinata saying, sounding amused. 

“Wow, that’s a new one for us!”

“Hey,” Hinata whined in reply. “We’ve played beach together, yanno.”

“Doesn’t count! Not official practice! You never come to Argentina no matter how much I ask.” Argentina, Takeda wondered. He glanced back to see Ukai-kun in a similar predicament. 

“The entire country of Brazil will have my head, are you joking?”

The sound of laughter and murmurs grew fainter as they walked away. Takeda sighed and closed his window. 

“None of that made sense, I think I’m going to get a headache,” Ukai-san muttered. 

Takeda had to agree. “It is very unbelievable.” Which is why he had his doubts, only having heard the story second-hand from Ukai-san and Daichi-kun. They seemed serious enough that Takeda hadn’t questioned it, until now. 

“Are you sure, Ukai-san? About them?” he asked. 

“That they’re from the future?”

Takeda nodded. Ukai-san pondered for a moment.

“Can’t think of anything else that’ll explain this. The more time I spend around them the more it fits,” he replied, reluctantly. 

“I suppose,” Takeda had to concede. It wasn’t as if he had a better explanation. “Well, it’s been a long day, we should get some sleep.” 

“What we need is a drink," Ukai san grumbled and cracked his neck with a loud hiss. 

Takeda laughed and he picked up his bag. “Lead the way Ukai-san.” 

Chapter Text

The tall wall of the school’s entrance loomed over Shoyo as he stood in front of it in silence. The morning air was chilly, making him shudder. Maybe it was nervousness that had rooted him to the spot. 

After everything that happened yesterday, Shoyo barely had enough time to get back home and pass out in sheer exhaustion. The creeping thoughts of being left out once more without a team to play with, or being locked out of the gym cutting access to the sport he dearly loved had not plagued him last night the way it did now. The large school clock chimed as the hour hit 7 AM. He knew he couldn't drag this out anymore.

As he walked up to his team's locker room, he could spot a figure in the distance with a deep blue scarf on, waiting in the cold. It was Kageyama, Shoyo realized. He had half a mind to start a race but there was something in the other boy’s demeanor that made him pause.

Shoyo walked up to where the setter was standing and Kageyama looked back at him, neither of them saying a word.

“Hinata,” Kageyama said, his voice loud in the relative silence of the morning. 

“Did you make it to the top of Japan?” 

Shoyo blinked, taken aback. When what Kageyama asked finally sank in, Shoyo huffed in amusement. Typical.

“And why are you not asking if you made it to the top of Japan?” he shot back. Silly question, for the coaches had decided to avoid any questions about the future to be safe. 

It was Kageyama's turn to huff now. He looked at Shoyo like he was the stupid one. “I will be, that's my goal.” 

His self-assured, level voice pissed Shoyo off. “You're so frustrating, you know that?” he cursed and stomped past Kageyama, heading further toward the lockers. 

Kageyama said nothing in reply, nor did he badger him for an answer. He followed silently, only the sound of his steady breathing and Shoyo's aggressive stomps could be heard. 

Shoyo came to a stop at the familiar steps, the one right outside their changing room. Old memories washed over him - of walking up these very steps with Kageyama asking him the same thing he asked today, of Kageyama telling him he can fly higher, further. 

He took two quick steps climbing the staircase and turning back to face Kageyama. Kageyama was already waiting, looking up at him expectantly.

Typical Kageyama. He was one of the first to truly believe in Shoyo and here he was, looking up at him, eyes full of hope, asking him if his grandfather’s words came true, if he had finally met his ‘Someone even better’ within Shoyo.

“At the top of Japan,” Shoyo declared, injecting as much gravity as his younger self did but this time around he had none of the doubt. “And at the top of the world. We are on the same stage, as partners and rivals.” 

Kageyama's face broke into a purely devilish, excited grin. He nodded and without a word shouldered past Shoyo and into the changing room.

Shoyo looked back over his shoulder, at the closing doors, and snorted. He shook his head and followed him in. 

He supposed that's all Kageyama needed to know, the details were irrelevant anyway.

“Okay,” Ukai-san started and trailed off, at a loss for words. He looked over to Seijoh’s Coach, Nobuteru, for help. 

Nobuteru eyed Shoyo curiously and only looked away to address Tooru, “So, we thought having the teams together might be more helpful in resolving this… issue you guys claim to have.”

“Coah,” Tooru whined, “We’re not lying!”

“I know, I just,” he broke off with a sigh, “It’s just a bit hard to believe.”

Shoyo couldn’t fault him for that - having himself taken days to come to terms with the ‘issue’ as Seijoh’s Coach put it. He scuffed his shoe on the sparky linoleum floor, feeling awkward. This was the first time they sat down to discuss the whole situation and it is starting to finally feel more real now.

“Why practice together?” Tooru asked. “Haruko is coming up and both teams need the time to focus, don’t they?”

“About that,” Uksai-san said, rubbing his chin. “I felt having more hands on deck might be better. I don’t want to assume the worst but we don’t know why this happened and it’s better to be safe.”

Shoyo squirmed at the reminder. He was so sure there was a way out of this that he hadn’t thought of what would happen if there just wasn’t. He snuck a glance at Tooru, who looked as queasy as he felt. 

“I don’t want this to be all gloom and doom,” Seijoh’s Coach-san said, with a slight smirk. “How about you boys give us some tips? I heard you went pro.”

Shoyo flushed at the implication, he could hardly be asked to give tips to his own high-school coach. 

“Hmm. Let me think,” Tooru pondered, clearly having no such reservations. 

Shoyo felt a rough tug on his sleeve before he was dragged to the other side of the room by Ukai-san.

“Let’s give each other some privacy,” he explained and looked at Shoyo with anticipation. “Go on now! Let’s hear it, you surely must have some thoughts about our team.”

Shoyo felt his mind go blank at being put on the spot, he shook his head to clear it out. He did have some thoughts, it was just a matter of striking the balance between nudging the team to be better and not spilling too many secrets about the future. 

“Our serve receive is weak,” he pointed out the first thing that came to mind. Karasuno was more offence focused by design but he knew they had potential to improve in their defence. Hell, he was one among the team to actually do so. “We don’t have too much time. I think your current approach to focus on defence and serves is the best we can do at the moment.” 

“Well, It’s nice to get the professional’s seal of approval,” Ukai-san grinned, teasing. 

“Coach! Don’t make it more awkward!” Shoyo pouted, to which Ukai-san only grinned harder. 

“I do want your thoughts on some rotation changes I’ve made though,” he said, patting at his body in search of the tiny notebook filled with strategy he’s taken to carrying around ever since he became their coach. 

It’s a tiny thing but it reminded Shoyo of how if not for him, neither Karasuno nor himself would have made it half as far as they did. He could still vividly remember the look on Ukai’s face when he abruptly announced he wanted to switch to beach volleyball for practice. Once Ukai-san had gotten over the initial surprise and shock, he hauled ass to get Shoyo the contacts he needed to achieve his dream. 

Shoyo stared at his coach’s much younger face as he flipped through the notebook he finally fished out. How old was he now? 25? 26?

Ukai-san looked up and caught Shoyo staring. He floundered at the intensity of it, almost instinctively taking a step back. “What is up with the stare, kid?” he grumbled, gruffly. 

Shoyo blinked. “Sorry, It’s just,” he swallowed, “When I was a kid I remember looking at you and thinking that you knew everything and that you had it all together.”

“No way you thought that,” Ukai-san raised an eyebrow. 

“I did,” Shoyo insisted with a laugh. “It’s just - I see you know and you’re the same age as me and I guess, I see more.”

“So you’re saying I don’t have my shit together?”

Shoyo spluttered, “No, hey! You said it first!”

Ukai-san laughed and reached out to ruffle his hair. “Yeah,” he said, finally, with a grimace, “I barely know what I’m doing kid, I’m just making it up as I go.”

“I think you did alright,” Shoyo smiled. 

“Oh, Alright now, that’s enough. Make yourself useful and look at these damn rotations,” Ukai-san barked, his ears glowing bright red in barely-masked embarrassment. He nearly flung the notebook at Shoyo’s chest in his haste.

“Just buy me a drink when you get back in time, kid.” 

Shoyo barely walked into the gym before Noya-san launched himself at him like a human-bazooka. 

“Shoyooo,” Noya laughed. “What was that about being one of Japan’s best receivers? Is it true, my kouhai?”

“It is true,” Tooru answered for him, rolling his eyes. “I hate to see him on the other side when I’m serving. He does this crazy ninja thing. Ugh, Ninja Shoyo.”

Shoyo can’t help but laugh, it wasn’t the first time he’s had a disgruntled player mention they hated seeing him on the court. Though the ‘crazy ninja thing’ was half Tooru’s own making. “Blame yourself for the ‘eyes on the back of your head’ comment.”

“Ugh,” Tooru whined, louder.

“Is that a nickname? Ninja shoyo?” Noya-san cut in, looking between the both of them for answers. 

“Yeah, I mean sort of,” he said and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. God, he remembered how he used to workshop cool titles for himself.  

“Woah! Hinata, that’s such a cool name!” Tanaka-san said, stars in his eyes.

Soon, most around them were murmuring it to each other and eyeing Shoyo with slight admiration. He could even spot Kageyama mouthing it to himself. Shoyo felt himself flush at the attention.

Noya-san grabbed him by the shoulders. “You need to show your super cool Noya-san inspired trick, Shoyo!”

“Noya, don’t take credit randomly!” Suga-san laughed.

He could still do the trick – or at least a more easy version of it, half of why it worked was because Shoyo took advantage of the flow and chaos of the match but no matter. It wasn’t like he lacked flashy moves.

“Okay, fine but I need someone to serve for me,” Shoyo said and looked around hopefully. 

The murmurs and whispers died down in a flash. Asahi-san looked away right as Shoyo was about to make eye contact. Tanaka literally turned the other way, showing Shoyo his sweaty back. He tried his luck with a few Seijoh members but it was the same.

Boo! Shoyo thought with a pout. Boring!

“I’ll do it,” Kageyama cut through the silence as he looked at Shoyo with a familiar fire burning in his eyes.

Tooru sighed at him. “Do not lose hope,Tobio-chan. Your serve is good for your age. I mean, you copied me after all and even a copy will be good.”

The last comment was unnecessary, Shoyo thought with amusement.

The teams quickly cleared out to the sides of the court in anticipation, even the coaches were seated eyes trained on Shoyo.

Kageyama moved to the other side of the court, like he had done thousands of times before – in official matches, silly competitions, and practices. He did his usual pre-serve routine and twirled the ball in the air before making eye contact with Shoyo. Shoyo felt the urge to stiffen up but he didn't, he kept his body completely relaxed and free.

Taking a deep breath, Kageyama started running into the serve motion. The ball smacked his palm and headed right at Shoyo. That bastard, Shoyo thought with a smirk. The ball moved towards him in slow motion, he could see how it rotated, and how it curved - one step to the side and it was right in his hands. He killed the momentum instantly, bumping the ball up in an easy, slow curve, right to the front of the net. 

He could feel his forearms smarting from the hit of the ball, another pain he has come to love as much as his palms going red. It was a good serve like Tooru had said but Shoyo’s seen worse, way worse, and from Kageyama himself.

The gym was pretty silent as the ball bounced off the floor and rolled to the side. Shoyo gets it, he was humble but not an idiot, even high-school Kageyama’s serves were fairly lethal and Shoyo had just made it look as if he was passing an easy spike. 

“GOOD ONE SHOYO!” Noya yelled, breaking the silence. He rushed toward Shoyo and quickly got him in a head-lock. “As expected of my kouhai!” 

Shoyo laughed agreeably. He did learn a lot from Noya-san. 

When he finally looked at the peanut gallery, he was met with various degrees of dread on his teammate’s faces. Asahi-san looked ready to puke and Tanaka-san wasn't that far off. Even Yamaguchi was grimacing. If they weren’t fearful they were either shocked or impressed - only Tooru seemed normal, almost amused. 

“AGAIN,” Kageyama shouted, gripping a volleyball with one hand and pointing it at Shoyo. Well, this was familiar too.

“You’re on,” he replied and took position again. 

Chapter Text

Shoyo was half-leaning on a wall, with eyes trained on the court, not only to assess the team but also to give himself a break. The moment he stepped out of the court after his little display with Kageyama, Ukai-san had been Glued. To. His. Hip. 

Every single damn play the team made needed his ‘expert opinion’ and worst of all it wasn’t just Ukai-san, it was also Takeda-sensei, Yachi and Kiyoko-san at his heels. He had to come up with a random excuse about needing to analyse the team without distractions to shake them off.

“Long day, huh?” Tooru exhaled, sounding as exhausted as he felt. Shoyo grunted in reply, unable to find the energy to even open his mouth and formulate a reply.

Tooru settled down next to him, swiping his water bottle for a few sips. They continued watching in silence until the scrimmage ended and the teams scattered for a break. Kageyama was looking around, searching the court, and once he found them he made a beeline to where Shoyo and Tooru were resting. 

“Oikawa-san,” Kageyama greeted shyly. Shoyo rolled his eyes, so he was looking for Tooru then. 

“Tobio-chan,” Tooru returned, his voice saccharine. 

Kageyama didn’t continue past the initial greeting, standing awkwardly and fiddling with a stray volleyball. Shoyo ignored him, he didn’t have the energy to mediate those two today. 

Tooru didn’t seem to lack energy. “So, Tobio-chan, here to see how well you fare against me in the future?” 

Kageyama balked at the question, not knowing how to reply. 

“Rest assured,” Tooru continued, “I continue to prove why I am your senpai. You should ask Shoyo about the last Olympics. Oh, better yet ask him which among the two of us he prefers as a setter? Careful though you might not like the answer.”

Shoyo inwardly scoffed. Don’t bring him into your setter feud, thanks! Plus, he wasn’t sure if Kageyama really cared who he preferred and not to mention it is a very complicated thing! Sure, he would never turn down any sort of practice with Kageyama but he hardly gets to play with Tooru or even Kenma. It really depended on the situation and was not as easy as these setters made it seem. 

Shoyo looked up to see Kageyama looking at him, completely betrayed and shocked. Oh, for fucks sake. He never thought he’d say this but he much preferred the older, more self-assured and cocky Kageyama. 

“I-” Kageyama broke off, voice wobbly. He looked like a pitiful, abandoned puppy. This gave both Shoyo and Tooru pause. Shoyo eyed Tooru wondering if he did need to muster up the energy to mediate between them after all. 

Thankfully, Tooru reeled it back in immediately.

“Tobio-chan,” he said again, voice softening significantly. Tooru looked at Shoyo briefly, to which Shoyo nodded in encouragement. “I was just kidding, jeez! You’re usually more tough than this.” The last part Tooru murmured more to himself.

Kageyama brightened up upon hearing that and Shoyo swore he could see visions of a tail wagging behind him. This was the final nail in the coffin for Tooru it seemed like, as he fully lost the cocky, teasing persona.

“Do you want some tips on your serve?” Tooru threw out casually, as if he didn’t know Kageyama would be beyond himself to take him up on that offer. 

Predictably, Kageyama nearly lost his head while nodding vigorously. “Yes, Please! Can we go now?” Shoyo could see the tail wagging harder now, though maybe it was the exhaustion getting to him. 

Tooru huffed like he was doing Kageyama a huge favour and walked toward the court wordlessly, leaving Kageyama to run after him. Shoyo watched them go with a fond smile, it was always so complicated with those two.

“That was new,” Iwaizumi-san said, startling Shoyo in the process. 

“Agreed,” Suga-san chimed in, walking up to them with Daichi-san in tow. He had clearly been within eavesdropping range.

Shoyo simply snorted. “Yeah, they’re always like this now. Any actual hard feelings and teenage grudges have long been forgotten.”

“It’s just hard to imagine,” Suga-san said, looking at the senpai-kouhai pair chattering away at the corner of the court. 

“Well,” Shoyo heaved himself off the wall he was resting on. “It took many years.”

“Are they friends?” Iwaizumi inquired, curious.

“God no!” Shoyo laughed, "Definitely not. They’ve settled into good rivals, at best they put up with each other because of me.”

“Yeah that sounds like them,” Iwaizumi-san chuckled. 

“That being said though, they respect each other a lot while pretending they don’t care. They always keep tabs on each other, hounding me for information about each other. I mean, Tooru is really soft on him, you know?” 

At the court, Kageyama landed the best serve he had made all evening. He looked at Tooru with stars in his eyes. Tooru patted his back with a smug smirk. 

“Once more,” Kageyama asked. Shoyo snorted and walked to the other side of the court. 

“Let’s put those lessons to test!” he exclaimed, getting into position. 

“Get his ass, Tobio-chan!” 

Not only did their coaches manage to get both the team together for practice but Shoyo later found out they also got the team catered lunches. It wasn’t quite a barbeque but Shoyo was not complaining. 

He was scarfing down food like he hadn’t been fed in days, barely speaking to his friends sitting next to him. As usual though, Tooru was sitting right next to him which led to a very awkward moment for both their respective friend groups as they pondered where to sit. They quickly resolved that by pushing two tables together to form a giant long table with most of Seijoh on one side and Karasuno on the other. 

“So, Hinata,” Kindaichi called. 

Shoyo waited to finish chewing and swallowing before he replied. “Yeah?”

“Um, What was that earlier? The bit about some silver medal?” he asked, shooting a furtive look at Tooru who had just stepped away to refill his plate. 

“Ohhh that! Well, it’s nothing really. It’s just silly ribbing,” Shoyo dismissed. 

Kindaichi waited to see if he would elaborate. After a while, he tried again. “Yeah but why silver medal specifically? I was just thinking about it and it seemed a little specific.”

“So basically it was about the Olympics,” Shoyo said with a casual shrug. The group around them leaned in with bated breath. “We lost right at the finals and well, you know, we got the silver medal. He likes to rag on us about it, it’s whatever.”

“We?” Kageyama questioned. 

“Yeah, we,” Shoyo gestured between them. “Like the Japan National team.”

“Right,” Kindaichi said, as his face drained of color. “Japan National team silver medal losers. At the Olympics. Haha.” 

He had said the ‘Haha’ part outloud.

Shoyo raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn’t comment. He supposed it must be shocking to them at this age. 

“Hinata,” Iwaizumi-san greeted, moving from his seat to Tooru’s to sit next to Shoyo. He motioned for Shoyo to lean in closer to which Shoyo obliged. 

“So, he’s playing for Argentina now?” 

Ah, Shit. Shoyo hadn’t thought about that when he let the team into that bit of information. He floundered for a bit, unsure if he should just confirm it or if he should pretend to not know what he was talking about. 

“Hinata,” Iwaizumi-san said again. The look in his eyes was serious, almost hopeful. Faced with that, Shoyo couldn’t pretend or lie anymore. 

“Yes, he’s doing great there. I mean, clearly,” Shoyo replied, smiling slightly. 

Iwaizumi-san visibly relaxed, finding comfort in the success and happiness of his friend. He leaned back upright but didn't move back to his seat. 

“Did you know?” he asked, keeping his voice low. Shoyo had to lean in even more to better hear him. “When Oikawa was a kid, he was always playing Volleyball. He would have this look on his face every time he got better, like nothing else in the world would make him as happy.”

“As he grew older, he started hitting plateaus in his growth and it started getting harder and harder to get better. I thought-,” Iwaizumi-san paused, tapping the table as he got his thoughts in order. “I thought the sport didn’t love him as much as he loved it. I thought maybe he would only find true happiness in it but then he stopped smiling when he played.”

He looked at Shoyo and grinned slightly. “Today, I saw him laughing, truly laughing and enjoying the sport for the first time in a long time.”

Shoyo felt his breath hitch, he knew Tooru had his low moments with the sport but to hear it pointed out plainly reminded him of how similar the both of them were. 

“I don’t know if this is truly because of you or if it was just the passage of time but Hinata, thank you.” 

“Iwaizumi-san,” Shoyo said, voice shaking. “If anything he’s helped me more.”

“Don’t lie to boost his ego,” Iwaizumi-san rolled his eyes but his fond smile gave him away.

“Iwa-chan! Don’t steal my seat!” Tooru stomped up to them, right on time.

Shoyo and Iwaizumi smiled at each other one final time before they turned to deal with their menace of a best friend.

“Shoyo please let me sit on the back of your cycle, pleaseee~”

Shoyo snorted and moved his cycle away for good measure. He honestly would if he wasn’t tired himself and facing a long ride back home. Practice was finally over and Shoyo let out a sigh of relief for the first time in his life. He was walking home with Tooru for the first time after practice too, now that he thought about it. 

“Huh, I was right!” Tooru said, stopping in his tracks. Shoyo stopped too and looked back. What was it now?

“We hung out all day today, we had practice together, we ate lunch together. We were friends in high school,” Tooru pointed out gleefully. 

Shoyo called foul. “Hey! This does not count!”

Tooru wasn’t bothered with the semantics, he was going to gloat no matter what. Realising a lost cause for what it was, Shoyo huffed and continued walking with his cycle in tow. Tooru skipped along. 

“What if we’re here forever? What if we never go back?” Shoyo asked after a bout of silence. He still wasn’t sure what to feel. 

“It's not like I’ve not been thinking about that,” Tooru said with a sigh. “I liked the life we have, playing at the top-most level and having those challenges, for better or for worse.”

He took his time to think about his words before continuing, “But I don’t know Shoyo. The way I see it, if anyone can do it all over again, it will be us. I mean, this just means we get to play more volleyball than we ever could, don't you think?”

Shoyo bursted out laughing. They did essentially extend their life-span and simple math showed they’d be playing more volleyball than anyone else. Hah, Take that Kageyama, one more point for him!

“You’re right,” Shoyo said. “Despite everything we’ve lost, we still have each other and our skills and memories. That will never go away.”

Tooru nodded with a smile, knowing he would get it. They continued the rest of their walk in comfortable silence until they reached their parting point. 

“See you tomorrow?" Shoyo asked, swinging up to sit on his cycle.

“Yeah. See you tomorrow,” Tooru echoed. 

Satisfied, Shoyo sped away on his cycle. It was getting chilly and the last thing he needed was to wake up tomorrow with a headache.

Shoyo woke up with a groan, clutching his head. The familiar pounding from a killer hangover made him curl up even more into the cool bedsheets. 

Once he felt the pain subside slightly, Shoyo opened his eyes with some effort. Tooru was curled up next to him, folding his pillow in half to cover his head. 

He sat up on the bed and felt for his phone on the bedside table. It was 9 in the morning, if they tried they might make it in time for the breakfast buffet. 

As he was trying to get some strength to get off the bed, Shoyo heard a muffled sound from Tooru’s pillow. He turned the lights off, which they had clearly forgotten to do when they crawled into bed last night.

“What?”

Tooru finally dislodged himself from the pillow. “I said, that’s all it took? One heart to heart about our school days and we’re dragged back home?”

Shoyo started giggling, which in turn made Tooru giggle. Soon, they were tangled up in the sheets with tears in their eyes from laughing so hard. 

“Ow,” Tooru clutched his head. “Even laughing makes it hurt, stop making me laugh!” 

Shoyo stomped down the last few errant chuckles and got up from the bed. He spotted a t-shirt on the ground, to which he gave a cursory sniff, before slipping it over his head. 

“Let’s go,” Shoyo said. “If we leave now we can get some carbs in us to fight off this headache.”

Tooru got off the bed with a groan and ducked into the bathroom to freshen up. Shoyo followed him in and they make quick work of brushing their teeth to get rid of their nasty morning breath. Without bothering with much else, they took their key-card and rushed out the door.

“So,” Tooru asked as he slipped on his giant sunglasses, to hide his bloodshot eyes. “What's the plan after breakfast?”

“Volleyball?” Shoyo offered. He firmly believed volleyball could cure everything. 

Tooru laughed but didn’t disagree. Maybe it could after all.