The five of them sat around the table in the middle of Tanaka's room. They were home alone, Saeko out at work. Textbooks, notes, and worksheets covered every inch of the table, stacked and overlapping in chaotic organization. Suddenly Nishinoya let out a frustrated groan, collapsing backwards onto the ground, his arms thrown up above his head. Tanaka followed in defeat, laying besides the libero in mental agony. "I'm so tired! I can't take this anymore!" the shorter one cried.
"We've only been working on this for an hour," Ennoshita huffed, staring with disapproving unamusement.
"Exactly! I've been sitting here for an hour straight without moving or complaining!" he roared from the ground. Chuckling, Kinoshita reached over and patted Nishinoya's stomach.
"Good job," he praised sincerely.
"Hold up," Narita chimed in. "We've been sitting here for an hour, but you two have barely gotten to the third problem," he examined pointing at the paper in front of them. Immediately the two of them shot up grabbing the worksheet and burying it underneath a mountain of notes, before fallen back down.
"No clue what you're talking about," Tanaka replied with a shrug. Once again, Ennoshita stared without any amusement.
"We agreed to help you two study, yet you refuse to study at all," he sighed deeply, shaking his head like a troubled parent.
"If we take a break, will you two work harder afterwards?" Narita hummed.
"Don't make a deal with them," the black hair barked.
"But Chikara!" Tanaka whined.
"Finish the fifth problem on that worksheet and then we can all take a break," he ordered. With childlike grumbling, the two of them sat up and pulled their homework out from the mess and began working on it again. Dark clouds of purple and blue loomed above their heads as time went on, growing larger until the entire room was covered in their gloomy aura. With a soft sigh, Ennoshita leaned over the table and glanced at their work. "Ten more minutes and then we can take a break. The more problems you get done the longer our break can be," he caved. The two dorks lit up and quickly—although still struggling to—sped through the problems. When the ten minutes were up, they had completed another four problems.
"Finally!" the two of them cheered falling backwards again.
"At this rate, I don't even know if you two will graduate," the middle blocker sighed.
"Oi! Have a little more faith in us!" Tanaka cried, Nishinoya chiming in agreement.
"We would if you two would actually try a little harder," Kinoshita laughed resting his chin in his hand.
"Oh come on, Hisashi! I'm in higher class than you," the libero whined.
"Not like it means anything! We're all in the standard class!" he huffed sitting up nicely and crossing his arms.
"Even if it did mean anything, Hisashi is actually passing his classes so—"
"Why are you so mean, Chikara!" Nishinoya howled sitting up and slumping over the table. The five of them chatted away idly before Tanaka got up to go get snacks and drinks for them. "How can you guys be so mean to me," the libero sulked as they continued to mock his grades.
"Oh come on, Noya!" Narita chirped. "You and Tanaka get the amazing volleyball abilities and Chikara and I get the intelligence," he laughed.
"Wait, what do I get?" Kinoshita piped up.
"Cuteness," the three of them replied bluntly.
"That's not a compliment!" he blushed, half from embarrassment, half from frustration. "I still remember when I was originally intimidated by Noya and Ryuu," he grumbled with a huff as he crossed his arms.
"Wait you were scared of me?" Nishinoya gasped, his eyes glittering with joy and excitement.
"I wasn't scared of you, I was just intimidated," he hummed.
"I mean I was too," Narita chimed in, Ennoshita shrugging before nodding his head in agreement. Suddenly Tanaka walked back in with a tray of meat buns and soda.
"Ryuu!" Nishinoya exclaimed. "Did you know they were intimidated by us back then?" he grinned wildly with pride.
"Ha! Of course!" he snorted placing the tray down and sticking his nose into the air. "I mean just look at me! Who wouldn't be intimidated by this face?" he asked, making an unattractively intimidating expression.
"I would like to emphasize the was," Ennoshita smirked.
"Now we know how much of a dork you two are," Kinoshita giggled, the two mention sighing in disappointment.
"Oh don't be like that! I mean my first opinion of Hisashi was that he was perpetually anxious and afraid of everything," Narita teased as he grabbed a bun and took a bite. "And now we all joke about how cute he is," he added with a soft grin.
"Hey!" he barked back, glaring across the table with a childish pout.
"Chikara may be our boss, but my first impression wasn't a very high one," Tanaka snickered as he ate.
"Oh yea? What was it?" he grinned deviously, awaiting for his friend's reply. Sweating, he gulped and turned away from Ennoshita's menacing aura.
"Ah, well, I just mean," he stuttered. "You were just plain and ordinary, I kind of compared you to a wall—"
"A wall?" the others all shouted back before drowning in their own laughter, Ennoshita amused, but not laughing along.
"Well yea, he's there and you know he's there, but you don't give him any more attention than that," he explained with a shrug. "But I don't think like that anymore!" he hollered putting his hands out towards the other second year in defense.
"I love how Ryuu was probably the most intimidating of us and now it's Chikara," Narita laughed.
"Oh, be quiet Kazu," Tanaka pouted.
"I honestly always thought that Kazu was just a sad, discontent old man," Kinoshita stated, Nishinoya roaring with laughter, momentarily choking on his food.
"What, why?" he gasped, almost offended by the claim.
"I agree," Ennoshita spoke up. "You were always constantly sighing and looking with an expression of disdain and discontent," he smirked recalling their first year together.
"I have an idea!" Nishinoya roared as he jumped to his feet, a bun stuffed into his mouth, another in his clenched fist.
"What?" the others asked as they all turned to look at him with expectancy and amusement.
"We should tell stories about how we first met and our first impressions and how those impressions eventually changed!" he suggested gleefully.
"Looks like Noya can come up with good ideas outside of the court," Ennoshita teased.
"Chikara!" he whined, sitting back down.
"I'm sorry, I'll stop with those jokes," he apologized smiling fondly. "We still have a lot of work to get through though, so not everyone gets to tell their story about everyone else, okay?" he insisted. Pouting, Nishinoya and Tanaka agreed begrudgingly.
"So who's gonna start?" Narita grinned.
"We should go in the order of our jersey numbers!" Kinoshita recommended.
"I vote we go in backwards order! Save the best for last," Tanaka called out, giving Nishinoya a wink. With a soft chuckle, Ennoshita nodded his head.
"Who wants to tell a story about how they met Kazu?" he asked looking amongst them. Suddenly, Kinoshita burst into laughter, nearly spitting out the content in him mouth. Still trembling in laughter he raised a shaky hand.
"I have a story," he giggled. Narita groaned as he covered his face in shame.
"Hisashi you bully!" he cried. "We already heard your first impression," he huffed, trying to convince someone else to tell a story.
"We may know Hisashi's opinion, but he didn't explain why," Nishinoya argued back with a wide smirk of amusement. With a heavy sigh, Narita gave in, motioning at the old pinch hitter to start his tale.
It was the second or third week of practice and a lot of us were suffering from the tough training. At the time, Kazu and I weren't acquainted. Him and Chikara already knew each other from class and were often seen together. I honestly didn't pay much attention to him at the time, but I did notice that he constant sighed and rubbed the joints on his hand or his head.
After running up and down the hill a few times, everyone on the team sat down and took a break. I was hiding in the shade on the side of the road under an overgrown tree and Kazu approached me. "Is anyone sitting here?" he asked pointing at the empty spot beside me. I shook my head and motioned for him to take the seat. With a smile he thanked me and sat down, letting out a loud sigh of relief. It was quiet for a second the only noise was the sound of our labored breathing, as he rubbed the palm of his left hand and stared tiredly with a look of gloomy dissatisfaction.
"You okay?" I hesitated. Turning to look at me he smiled softly before turning away again.
"Just tired," he sighed again.
"Yea, training's a real bitch huh?" I mused taking a sip from my water bottle.
"Yea…" he mumbled. It was quiet again and he let out another soft sigh. Glancing, I turned to look at him from the corner of my eyes. Suddenly he handed me a small plastic wrap. "Mint?" he offered. Confuse, I took it from him and thanked him with a silent mumble. He pulled another from his pocket and popped it into his mouth. We didn't speak any more than that for the remainder of our fifteen minutes; Kazu sighing every few minutes. When Coach Ukai blew his whistle, we scrambled to our feet and started walking back towards the rest of the group. Kazu let out one more deeply sadden sigh and turned to me. "I'm Narita Kazuhito," he introduced with a halfhearted smile; the other half was in agonizing pain.
"Kinoshita Hisashi," I replied with a bow of my head.
"You're exaggerating! I didn't sigh that much!" Narita exclaimed his face red from embarrassment.
"Oh, you do. You still do," Ennoshita smiled, the middle blocker groaning softly.
"Come on, Kazu! It wasn't that bad!" Tanaka grinned patting him on the shoulder lovingly.
"I thought the mint thing was the funniest part," Nishinoya snickered. Shoving his hand into his pocket, Narita threw down a couple of mints onto the table, the libero collapsing backwards in pure bellowing laughter.
"Well who wants to tell the story about how they met Hisashi?" Ennoshita asked taking a large gulp of his soda.
"I'll do it!" Tanaka announced, putting his hand up into the air as if a student in class. With a look of suspicion, Kinoshita turned to Tanaka.
"I'd just liked to say that Ryuu has a wild imagination and likes to exaggerate his stories, so if I seem like a complete fool, it's not actually me," he stated firmly.
"We'll be the judge of that," the leader of them chuckled.
This was still pretty early on in the club activates, even before Hisashi and Kazu started hanging out. We were all standing in line waiting to begin the running warm ups and what not and Hisashi was right beside me. When the whistle went off, I saw him fall flat on his face from the corner of my eyes. Being the amazingly kind and benevolent man that I am, I turned to him and helped him up. "Are you okay? What happened" I asked as he dusted himself off.
"My knees were locked, so when Coach blew the whistle, I froze and fell," he mumbled softly as we started jogging, trailing far behind everyone else. As we continue running, I ended up losing him; whether that's on account for his injury or my awesomeness.
After that day, I started to notice him around practice more. He got hit in the face… a lot. He was always off by himself and jumped at the smallest of interactions. Even when Tashiro would try to give him encouragement he would tense up and apologize like crazy. At first I thought it was funny, but I just felt bad for him at the end of it all. So, I decided to do the right thing and teach him my ways.
I'll admit, I may have come off a bit too strong, he looked like he was about to pee his pants, but I couldn't lose hope in him. "I'm going to teach you to be tough!"
"Hah?" he shouted back.
"You literally cry at the sight of other people, you need help!" I declared.
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm fine," he replied with an uncomfortable frown and a shift of his eyes. "I'm just not very good with people, that's all. It just takes me a while to open up," he murmured softly.
"Well you can always open up to me! If we're both going to be playing on the same court then we're already acquainted enough!" I reassured. "I'm Tanaka Ryuunosuke!" I added putting my hand out towards him. With a sigh of defeat he took my hand and shook it.
"Kinoshita Hisashi," he replied still not looking me in the eye.
"Don't worry Kinoshita! As long as I'm here you have nothing to fear!" a small smile met his lips and he nodded his head.
"Yea, thanks," he hummed.
"So, how was it?" Tanaka questioned turning to the man in the stories.
"I'll admit, the characterization wasn't terrible," he conceded. "But that narration of yours was awful; amazingly kind and benevolent?" he mocked with a single raised brow.
"How dare you!" he gasped cupping his chest as if pierced in the heart by an arrow. "I am the epiphany of a kind hearted delinquent!" he shouted in defense, Nishinoya aggressively agreeing.
"I think we all had the same opinion of Hisashi though," Narita chimed in changing the subject.
"Was I really that obviously nervous?" he frowned. All of them turned to him and nodded with solid belief. "Alright! I get it!" he pouted. "Let's just move onto Chikara, who wants to share a story?"
"Me! Me!" Nishinoya exclaimed before quickly starting.
So this was way later into our first year, I think it was the second or third month in. Me and Ryuu were already best bros and the three of you were already hanging out all nice and dandy. This actually happened during our break. I was—admittedly—a little too energetic and accidentally spilled my water all over Chikara. "Shit! Sorry about that! I didn't see you there!" I apologized handing him a towel.
"Eh, it's fine," he shrugged with a light smile still painted on his face. "It's only water, I'll just go change," he replied before getting up and leaving the gym. He was extremely mature about it and I thought that was pretty cool. But after a while I started realizing that he let everything slide. He wasn't mature, he was a complete pushover! Like for real!
One time I saw him in the back of school allowing a bunch of guys from the basketball team talk down to him and I was like, this isn't okay. I wanted to do something, helping him out or beat up those guys, but I was already in a lot of trouble and didn't want to risk getting expelled. So I ran back to the gym as fast as I could and told Tashiro. He immediately left to go deal with it and when he returned I ran up to him and asked what happened.
He hesitated and told me: "Ennoshita is fine, I sent him home though. Don't worry too much about it." But can you imagine the worry I felt? After that, I started doing little things to try and provoke Chikara. I was going to let him beat me in a fight so that people would be intimidated and leave him alone, but he was always so kind and content with everything and always let me slide.
"Ennoshita Chikara, I challenge you to a fight!" I declared bluntly during lunch one day. People began crowding around us to see what the commotion was and I waited triumphantly to purposefully lose.
"No thank you, Nishinoya," he smiled and walked right on.
"I gave up after that, but I was always worrying deep down inside me," Nishinoya sighed exaggeratedly. Ennoshita snickered and shook his head.
"So that's why you were always pestering me? At first I really thought you had it out for me," he grinned.
"Well duh! I wanted to help a fellow teammate out!" he exclaimed.
"I would just like to point out that if you two actually got into a fight, I think Chikara would've easily kicked your ass," Narita stated cheekily.
"Yea, but I wouldn't have known that! I would've just thought that I went way too easy," he replied.
"Hey Chikara, what was Noya talking about with the basketball team?" Kinoshita asked turning to the man in question. Contently, Ennoshita smiled and nodded his head, contemplating how to explain what had happened.
"Let's just say that they went 'easy' on me and I was sent home to prevent anymore kind of trouble," he answered, the smile still plastered on his face.
"Wait you beat them up?" Nishinoya shouted in shock.
"Why don't I tell you the story about how I first met Ryuu, huh?" he suggested, completely ignoring the libero.
As many of you know, I'm a very reserved person. I don't like fighting, I don't like tension, and I don't like annoying people. It was such a shame that on my first day of orientation, I had to be stuck with all three. Outside of the school gates, was a group of people I'd probably call delinquents and then there was Ryuu too (Tanaka shouted at Ennoshita, the others laughing jubilantly). He was either picking a fight with them or visa-versa, either way it didn't matter to me; I just wanted to get into the building.
A literal brawl broke out between them, Ryuu and the other dude rolling around the entrance in a fury of punches. Several girls screamed at the scene and someone ran to go get a teacher. Fed up, I sidestepped pass them and went on with my life. As I snuck by, one of them accidentally kicked me in the leg, causing me to fall. Irritated, I got back to my feet and turned to them. Grabbing the other guy, who had Ryuu pinned to the ground, from the back of his jacket collar, I threw him off to the side and glared at them both. Almost immediately after, the teacher appeared and I left.
Lo and behold, weeks later—during our first day of practice—I saw Ryuu in the club room. Luckily for me, he didn't recognize who I was and I pretended I didn't know him either. Throughout the weeks to come, I began studying his mannerism. He had an aggressive tone and often attempted to intimidate people, although Tashiro, Daichi, and Suga didn't stand for it. Outside of club activities, I heard a lot of outrageous rumors, but I'm not the type to usually listen to those or take them to heart. They were just interesting.
I didn't really talk to Ryuu up until I noticed him harassing Hisashi. So I did the right thing and decided to confront him. Obviously I didn't know he was attempting to "teach him his was" or whatever, so I was admittedly a bit coarse. "You better leave Kinoshita alone. He has enough problems without you menacing him," I stated bluntly out at the back alley of the gym. Doing his signature look, Ryuu tilted his head back and scowled deeply, the furrows on his forehead and chin deeper than the damn ocean itself.
"Who do you think you are?" he grunted.
"No one really; just a concern friend of Kinoshita, that's all," I replied with a soft shrug.
"Well if you're a no one then you should mind your own damn business," he scoffed shifting his weight over to his other leg. Scratching the back of my head, I sighed and averted my eyes.
"Right, whatever. Just know this Tanaka Ryuunosuke: if you ever hurt Kinoshita—mentally or physically—I'll make your life a living hell," I threaten before walking off.
"Wait that was you!" Tanaka shouted in astonishment as Ennoshita finished up.
"What do you mean?" the storyteller frowned, not understanding their ace.
"That was you!" he repeated loudly. "I remember when this happened, but you never said your name so I didn't know who you were! The sun was so bright that it shaded your faces!" he exclaimed still in shock.
"What? How the hell did you not know it was me?" he stated, furrowing his brows.
"Like I said, I associated you with a wall; you were hardly noticeable. If I knew that that was you I probably would have had a completely different first impression," he replied, the others snickering softly.
"So, why'd you get into a fight on the first day Ryuu?" Narita asked, trying to stifle his remaining giggles.
"Misunderstanding," he answered with a subtle shrug. "It happens," he added blankly, the other bald man shaking his head with an amuse smile.
"So who's going to tell a story about me?" Nishinoya chirped, sitting up all excitedly.
"Well I haven't told a story yet," the middle blocker hummed raising his hand. The shorter man turned to him with a shimmering face of enthusiasm, waiting expectantly to hear a story about himself. Smirking at this sight, Narita nodded and thought back to when he first met Nishinoya.
My opinion of Noya was formed way before we ever really interacted. I had heard of him way back in junior high and I had seen him sweep the entire court, never allowing the volleyball to hit the ground. He was on a whole new level than me and everyone else there. Then came our first day of practice at Karasuno and I was surprised to see someone as talented as him there; now we know he came for some slightly unethical reasons.
Admittedly, I was intimidated by his sheer skill in volleyball, but after a while everything about him started to intimidate me—except his height of course. He was very in your face about things and wasn't afraid to call you out and tell you how things were meant to be, at least in his eyes. When Noya and Ryuu became friends, I was sure they were both troublemakers and preferred not to associate with them. Then one day, during practice, Noya called me out.
"Your blocks are sloppy," he hollered from behind me, easily receiving the ball I failed to stop. I grimaced and let out a weak sigh, deciding it was better if I just ignored him. "I can get whatever you miss, but the only way this team can be any good is if everyone pulls their own weight," he stated when he realized I wasn't going to say anything. At the time, I felt like he was mocking me and felt mortified by it. Now I know he was actually just trying to help encourage me in his own way.
Weeks had passed and Noya called me out every chance he got. One day, during our break, I left the gym to get some more water, Noya stalking after me. "Hey!" he shouted. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face him.
"Yes?"
"Your name is Narita Kazuhito right?" he asked with a stern face, his hands on his hips. Even though I practically towered over him, I felt as if I was cornered. Looking down at him, literally made me feel oddly powerless.
"Yes, I am," I replied.
"Well, I'm Nishinoya Yuu and it's my job as your libero to make sure that the ball never touches the ground. You're our middle blocker; it's your job to defend our side of the court," he declared pointing a finger at me. I looked down at the finger centimeters away from my chest and back at him
"I know," I replied.
"Good," he retracted his hand and nodded, turning around and returning back to the gym. After that day, Noya stopped criticizing me, but my timid nature made me fearful.
"To be honest, I wasn't scared of Noya; I just felt belittled by him," Narita added as he took a sip from his can of soda. Suddenly, Nishinoya sprang into the air, hugging Narita tightly.
"You're such an amazing person, Kazu! I'm so sorry I hurt your feelings!" he cried out. Chuckling, he hugged him back and patted him.
"Yes, yes, Noya, I know, I know. You don't need to apologize," he sang. "It was a long time ago and I know you had good intentions; you're just a bit rough around the edges, that's all," he smiled as the libero continued to nuzzle into his embrace. "Chikara, why don't you tell the story about how your opinion of Noya change?" he suggested, cradling the man still in his lap.
"Sure, why not?" he smiled fondly as he leaned over to pat Nishinoya's head. "I bought him ice cream," he stated. A moment of silence fell upon the room as the others waited from him to go on, Nishinoya even popping his face out of Narita's neck to turn to Ennoshita. "That's it," he replied with a shrug. "I literally just bought him ice cream," he repeated.
"At least make it into a story," Kinoshita complained, gently nudging Ennoshita with his feet underneath the table.
It was about two weeks after Noya tried picking a fight with me and the club was having a small outing to bond as a team. We stopped by the usual market to buy some meat buns and ice cream. I ended up grabbing an extra popsicle than I wanted—I'm pretty sure someone had accidentally dropped it into my basket for me when I wasn't playing attention or something.
After we left the store, we all decided to eat our ice creams first so that they wouldn't melt. When I reached in, I noticed that there were two of them instead of the one. Noya had practically inhaled his and was biting on the empty popsicle stick. Pulling out both of the ice creams I walked up to him. "Nishinoya," I called out, him and Ryuu turning to me in bewilderment. Noya's face lit up—I assumed that he thought I was going to fight him. Extending my hand out to him, I offered him the extra popsicle. "Its soda flavor," I stated when he stared blankly. Suddenly his face burst into a radiant beam of sunshine as he grinned dumbly at me.
"I can have it?" he exclaimed in glee. I nodded.
"I accidentally bought an extra, it's all yours if you want it," I explained motioning my hand to him again. Snatching it, he quickly opened it and shoved it into his mouth. With the ice cream pushed half way in, he pulled out his wallet and started counting his change. "You don't need to pay me back," I reassured, stopping him. "It was my own mistake; plus you didn't ask for it, I just gave it to you," I smiled opening my own treat and beginning to eat it.
"Thanks Ennoshita!" he glimmered as we walked on.
"How did that change your mind about him?" Tanaka frowned, recalling the day himself.
"Because I realized he was just a huge lovable dork," Ennoshita chuckled, stilling petting Nishinoya who was now so comfortable in Narita's lap that he refuse to move.
"I'm not a dork!" he pouted.
"Oh yes, you are," he chuckled. "The way your face glowed when I offered it to you was just like a child's. It was because of that that I realized there was no way you were as crude as you sometimes acted like," he hummed with a smile. "So who's next?"
"I want to tell my story about Ryuu!" Kinoshita exclaimed sitting up nicely. Everyone turned to him and Ennoshita motioned him to go on.
As Ryuu has already given context to the story, I'll jump right in. Every day before practice, he would approach me and ask me how my day was going and other things like that. After practice, he'd check in on me and make sure I wasn't in any pain or what not. It was very kind of him, but I was still struck with fear and intimidation whenever he came around.
About a month later, Ryuu was glued to Noya by the hip and I had Kazu and Chikara; nonetheless, he came to check up on me like clockwork. But one day he just stopped; now I know it was probably because of Chikara, but back then I was rather hurt. I decided to muster up any courage I had and go confront him. Class had just ended and people were going towards their club activates. Rushing out to find Ryuu before anyone else got to him or me, I caught him at the doorway of his classroom.
"Can we talk?" I asked slightly out of breath. Surprised, Ryuu hesitated before agreeing and following me to the side of the school.
"What's up?" he asked nonchalantly, his posture atrocious with his fist shoved into his pockets.
"Are you mad at me? Like did I do something wrong to upset you or drive you off?" I questioned sincerely. His eyes widen, sparkling with tears of joy. With much of a warning he pulled me into a hug. Quickly pushing me away just as fast, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and grinned wildly.
"Thank god!" he cheered. "There's no way I could be mad at you. I thought you hated me," he added.
"Why would you think that? I mean, I know I said I'm bad with communicating with people but I didn't mean to imply anything like that or—"
"You're fine!" he chimed cutting me off. "It doesn't matter I'm just glad we're still friends," he sighed in relief.
"We're friends?" I questioned. Out of nowhere, his face burst red and he turned away from me.
"Well, I mean, we're teammates and we've been talking, and I just thought that 'hey maybe I can make some new friends in the volleyball club' but I guess that was just some wishful thinking…" Ryuu continued to ramble on but I had a hard time deciphering his murmurs.
"Uh… we are friends. I just didn't know where you stood on it, that's all," I comforted. It was kind of lie really. I had never considered Ryuu my friend up until he had stopped talking to me. Turning to me with glee, he grinned widely.
"Great! I'll introduce you to my best bro Noya! He's on the team too!" he cheered dragging me off to meet the libero.
"Now that I think about it, that's how I first really got to know Noya too," Kinoshita hummed as he thought back to it.
"Wait, so what's your opinion of me now?" Tanaka asked. The man in questioned paused as he pondered for a second.
"You're a huge loveable dork, just like Noya," he smiled. Tanaka opened his mouth to argue, but realized he was right and there was nothing to debate.
"I'd love to tell my story about how my opinion of Ennoshita changed," Narita called out as he continued hugging the tiny dork in his arms.
"Sure, you were the one who coined him the Don of the Second Years," the other bald man chimed,
"Was he?" Ennoshita snickered. "I've forgotten," he smiled softly.
"Oh, you're going to love this story then," he smiled back.
This was way later into our first year, after the three of us returned from our desertion. By now Daichi was captain and was straining enough to keep everything and everyone together and motivated. It was the day before the Spring High Tournament and everyone was crumbling with pressure and nerves. Except for the oblivious Noya, who jumped around in excitement as we practiced. Noting the tension in the air, Chikara grabbed Noya by the shoulders and stopped him from moving. Confuse, Noya continued to smile dumbly at Chikara. "Sit," he commanded, the libero suddenly listening, kneeling down onto the ground. "Good," he sighed letting go of his and turning away to go back to practice.
Slowly, Noya rose back to his feet. With daggers in his eyes, Chikara look over his shoulder and glared. "Sit," he repeated with a sudden force in his voice. Noya immediately dropped to the ground. "Stay," he instructed pointing a stern finger at him as if talking to a dog. Still unsure of what was going on, but too scared to defy him, Noya sat patiently as Chikara left to practice. From my seat against the wall I snickered softly.
Ryuu, noticing the retrained Noya, snuck over to him. He pulled him to his feet and a sudden volleyball hit him in the head as Chikara rushed over. "Drop him," he ordered, Ryuu releasing his friend as he rubbed his head. He turned to Noya who sat obediently, before grabbing Ryuu and pulling him over to another side of the gym. "Sit," he stated.
"Why—?"
"Sit," he echoed. Hesitantly, Ryuu lowered himself to the ground. "Good," he muttered before returning back to the court. For the entirety of practice those two sat there, waiting for Chikara to tell them it was okay to move. While I laughed to myself Daichi approached me.
"What's going on?" he asked motioning at the other two.
"Chikara scared them into submission," I smiled with amusement. "He's like a don," I mused. Daichi chuckled at that and nodded his head as we watched Chikara walk over and help the other two to their feet.
""The Don of the First Years, huh?" he mumbled pleasantly.
"So that's how it started!" Ennoshita mused with delight.
"Chikara is so surprisingly intimidating," Kinoshita hummed.
"Surprisingly?" he questioned back.
"Well yea, no offense but you seem like such a mellow guy. You're reserve and very patient. Your confidence is almost as bad as mine and you don't really stand out or anything," he explained. "Yet you don't take shit from anyone and will boot them if need be," he added with a whooping laugh, everyone snickering from the truth of that statement.
"Thanks, Hisashi," he hummed. "But it's somebody's turn to tell a story about you—"
"Let me do it!" Nishinoya shouted shuffling around in Narita's lap, causing the other man some distress.
It was the same day that Ennoshita gave me the popsicle. After I had finished it, Hisashi looked at me and frowned. "You're such a messy eater," he sighed like a doting parent, taking a handkerchief from his pocket. Pour some water onto it, he wiped my face from the sticky residue.
"Thanks!" I gleamed. By now Hisashi had been hanging around me and Ryuu ever so often and it appeared normal to me for him to do this. Later that night, while during dinner, my mother frowned at me and grabbed a napkin.
"You're too messy, Yuu," she hummed, although there was a pleasant sound in her tone as she wiped my mouth, drawing flashes back to Hisashi. After that, I started noticing more and more often how Kinoshita was just like a parent. When I came to school in disarray he would fix my uniform or help me do my hair properly. If I didn't bring lunch, he'd always willingly share his with me. At some point he started making lunch for me every day without me asking. During practice, he would lecture me for pushing myself too hard as he handed me a water bottle and tended to my wounds. He'd nag about my terrible grades and help me study if I asked him too. It was uncanny.
At first I thought Hisashi was mocking me because I was short and he was purposefully treating me like a child. But then I noticed he did it to everyone. He helped Kiyoko with bring towels and water bottles to everyone on the team. He lectures Ryuu just as much as he lectured me and even combed Chikara's hair when it was unkempt. Even though he was the clumsiest of us all, he was also the most doting. He would encourage us in our ever endeavor even after he lectured us about how stupid some of them were. He was literally like a parent who was also your best friend.
As Nishinoya finished up, everyone turned to Kinoshita with wide and questioning eyes. "W-what?" he stuttered, pulling back from their uncomfortable staring.
"I never noticed!" Narita was the first to exclaim.
"You literally are like a mom!" Ennoshita added.
"Mom Friend! Mom friend!" Tanaka chanted over and over. With a groan of annoyance he folded his arms onto the table and rested his head.
"Stop," he whined. The others going on and on about different instances where he babied them. "Let's just get to the other story!" he huffed. Laughing, everyone agreed.
"Who hasn't told a second story yet?" Ennoshita asked, Tanaka raising his arms as he stared over at Narita with a grin.
"Like what Hisashi said; if I sound overly anything than Ryuu's exaggerating," he stated before motioning for Tanaka to tell a story.
"Since both of us were bald, but I was obviously more amazing, I saw Kazu as my less awesome counterpart—" Narita chucked an eraser at Tanaka, who laughed merrily.
"Stop dicking around," he huffed.
"Fine, fine! Let my tales sweep you off your feet," he hummed as he dramatically gestured with his hands.
By now, the five of us were well acquainted, but I wouldn't really say we were all friends yet. I had grown close to everyone expect Kazu. At the time, I still thought that he was just a really sad guy with a lot of self-esteem issues. I had tried getting to know him better, but he was usually quick to turn down my socializing.
One day, after class when I had cleaning duty, I got into an argument with some bad guys. As much as I act like a badass, I'm actually a really down to earth guy. To be honest, I can't even remember what we were arguing about at the time. When I wasn't paying attention, one of the guys went back into a classroom and bought out a chair. Luckily for me, I had fast reflexes and dodged the chair. Consequently, it crash through the window, completely shattering the glass.
The guys immediately fled the scene and I—admittedly—panicked. I wasn't able to flee because I still needed to finish cleaning the classroom and I knew no one would believe me if I said I didn't do it. Suddenly, Kazu appeared from his classroom, probably hearing the loud shattering noise. Immediately he rushed over to me and looked out of the gaping hole of the window frame and at the chair that had fallen out.
"I have a plan," he whispered, quickly running back into my class and pulling out several stacks of chairs. Handing me a stack he instructed me to lay them out on the ground as if they had fallen and I did as I was told. Without warning, a teacher appeared at the scene.
"What happened?" he yelled looking straight at me. Confused, I stared with my mouth opened and looked over at Kazu who was carrying two chairs stacked on one another.
"I'm so sorry!" Kazu cried looking around at the chairs meticulously placed on their side. "I was helping Tanaka sweep by moving the chairs out of the classroom, but I ended up grabbing too many and tripped," he explained finally setting down the chairs. "One of the chairs ended up breaking the window," he added with a voice of deep guilt and shame.
"You're not even in my class? Why were you helping Tanaka?" he questioned sternly.
"Oh, I'm from class four. Tanaka and I are in the same club and I finished cleaning my class before him, so I decided to help him with his so that we could go to the gym together," he reasoned still with a somber tone. The teacher sighed and shook his head.
"It's fine, accidents happen; as long as no one got hurt," he muttered ruffling his hair in relief. "You guys go on to club activates, I'll take care of this," he instructed. Kazu nodded his head and grabbed my wrist as he walked away. When we finally left the school's main building, he let out a loud sigh.
"Thank god he bought it," he hummed, smirking at me.
"Why'd you help me out?" I asked, still startled with what went down. Shrugging, Kazu turned ahead and smiled softly.
"We're teammates, it's our job to have each other's back. Plus, I knew you were innocent," he mused. Wrapping my arm around his shoulder, I pulled him closer and grinned.
"Thanks Narita!" I exclaimed. "I owe you one!" he laughed and shook his head.
"Let's just get to practice; we're late as it is," he said with a soft smile.
"Kazu is such a bro!" Nishinoya stated with a breath of awe and admiration as he crawled out of his lap to turn and look at him. Chuckling, Narita shook his head.
"I honestly almost forgot that I did that," he laughed.
"What? How could you forget that? Ever since then, I always thought you were the coolest thing ever!" Tanaka shouted back.
"Aw shucks, Ryuu," he blushed, rubbing the back of his shaved head. "It's no big deal really, I just had to help a friend out that's all," he mumbled fondly.
"Even I have to admit, that that was pretty courageous of you," Ennoshita praised. "But now that we had our fun, let's get back to work, hmm?" he suggested picking up a pen and twirling it in his fingers. Immediately, Tanaka and Nishinoya groaned, collapsing onto the ground as if suddenly out of energy.
"No!" they both whined loudly.
"Come on, we had our fun; let's get to work," Kinoshita lectured placing their homework in front of them.
"When you guys finish, we'll take another break," Narita offered. Sullenly, the two rose from the dead and slumped over the table.
"Fine," the libero sighed exaggeratedly.
"If you two do well on your next exams we'll take you out as a treat after practice on Saturday. We can finish telling everyone's first impression stories and how they changed, or whatever you want," Ennoshita grinned. The two turned to each other before furiously skimming through their notes and textbooks. The other three laughed amusingly and went on studying their own material.
A/N: YOU HAVE NO CLUE HOW MAD I WAS WHEN I DIDN'T SEE A KINOSHITA AND NARITA TAG! My poor underappreciated crows! Anyways, thanks for reading!