"Twas the night before Christmas..." A deep caring voice echoed throughout the somewhat spare hall of the Karasuno Orphanage. Within the elongated room, were many bunk beds. The frames looked like the styles found in a military camp, but the teddy bears, colorful cartoon blankets, stacks of bedtime stories, and even taped up drawings gave off a much friendlier appearance.
"And all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." Daichi spoke clearly, the familiar story which he had memorized but this time in his life. Only looking at the pages to make sure he was turning the pages at the right times. Before him, the children sat, many of them with bright shining eyes hanging on every word of the story. A few of them seemed annoyed and uninterested, though would occasionally look at the pictures in the book with some wonder.
When the story was over, Daichi was ready for the flood of voices, some wanting the book to be reread, some more offering more books which hadn't been read yet...
"If you all stay up, Santa Clause won't come tonight." Sugawara had come up a large tray in his hands. Small dixie cups full of milk and a large plate of cookies were say on top of it. "So everyone come and get a cookie, and what's left we'll leave out for Santa."
"Can we put some carrots on the plate too?" Yamaguchi asked as he got to the platter.
"Sure, but why do you want to put carrots on the plate?" Suga prompts wanting to get a little more of an answer out of the shy boy.
"They're for Santa!" Tanaka laughs out suddenly. "Put the carrots out instead of cookies 'cause everyone gives him cookies." The boy is quite excited when Hinata joins in.
"Nuh uh! And Santa can just take the extra cookies to the North Pole for his elves!" the two of them were getting into a little bit of an argument about who eats all the cookies and such. Daichi was separating them, keeping the two from getting much louder, while Sugawara looks to Yamaguchi.
"So why do you want to put Carrots out?" He prompts again, and Yamaguchi looks to the floor.
"Well... I just thought maybe his Reindeer maybe hungry... from flying so much and all." The words are a bit muttered, and Sugawara moves the now nearly empty platter onto one hand, and leads the boy down to the kitchen so Yamaguchi could pick out the carrots which would be good enough for the Reindeer.
Much later that night, Hinata jumps awake. His heart pounding as he looks around the sleeping forms of everyone in the hall. Leaning over the side of the top bunk, he throws his pillow at Kageyama below him. "Kageyama." he whispers and the other gives out a groan, rolling over.
"Go back to sleep Hinata." He mutters, obviously annoyed that the other woke him up.
"But Kageyama-"
"Sleep."
"-I heard something!" Hinata's whispers were in the verge of whisper yelling, and now Kageyama rolls to look at him.
"Just go to sleep." but Hinata couldn't sleep. He was far too excited, so, ignoring Kageyama, the orange haired boy climbed down the ladder of the bunk bed. Before proceeding to run from the room with Kageyama demanding he came back.
As quietly as possible, Hinata tip toed down the hallway towards the main room of the Orphanage where the Christmas tree was set up. In front of the tree, it was empty, and the boy moved closer.
"I know I heard something..." He muttered to himself and stepped closer to the wall when footsteps began to echo within the main room. Heart pounding, Hinata leaned around the door frame, his eyes widening in wonder - there he was. Santa was standing in front of the plate of cookies, the carrot tops hanging out of his pocket, and glass of milk in hand. Excitement rose in Hinata as he quickly and quietly ran back to the bunk room. Shaking Kageyama awake only to get a pillow in the face.
"Kageyama! I saw him, I saw him! He's real, he really is!" Hinata's voice was rising in excitement, and Kageyama groaned, sitting up.
"What do you want now?"
"I saw him- Come on!" Taking the sleepy boy's hand, Hinata began pulling Kageyama from the bed towards the door way. Once in the hall he gave Kageyama a hush sign, and tip toed down the hallway.
In front of the tree the presents were there, but Hinata didn't see any sign of Santa Clause.
"What are you talking about. No one's here." Kageyama glared at Hinata and puffed his cheeks a little. "Idiot, I'm going back to bed."
"But-I saw him." Hinata's shoulders hunched and he watched Kageyama walk down the hallway.
"Just in case one of them wakes up." Hinata stiffened and planted himself to the wall when he heard Sugawara's voice. A sigh was the only answer of the orphanage father's got and when Hinata had gained the confidence to look into the main hall, his eyes widened again in surprise.
In the main room, Sugawara was kissing Santa Claus. Sure, it was a peck on the cheek, but to a kid even that was extremely important.
"What's wrong Hinata." Daichi had just finished setting the table for breakfast, and while everyone else was digging into French Toast, bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes, the bright haired boy was simply staring at his empty plate with a frown on his lips.
"I saw Santa Clause last night." Hinata's cheeks puff out and he barely looks up across the table at Sugawara... If looks could kill... But the grey haired man had turned and was wiping some grape juice off of Asasi's shirt. The poor boy was staring at the stain as though he had broken a priceless family heirloom.
"Is that right?" Daichi said slowly, as though testing the waters. Usually a kid would come screaming if the second they saw Santa Clause, but Hinata seemed very angry.
"Yeah. At first he was drinking the milk, and had taken the carrots." Hinata turned to Daichi, his knees on the chair as he retold his tale of what had happened the night before.
"He drank the milk and took the carrots?" Daichi raises his brows as he faces Hinata, though his eyes were trained on Sugawara.
"Yeah, and I ran back to get Kageyama. When we got there Santa wasn't there, but as soon as Kageyama left I heard Sugawara talking." The boy's face, which had again seemed happy, turned sour once more. "When I looked I saw Sugawara kiss Santa-Right here." Hinata pokes his cheek, and he turns sheepishly to sit back down. Daichi was trying his hardest not to smile as he gave Sugawara a false angry expression.
"He kissed Santa you say?" Hinata nods though it finally reaching for a pancake.
"Sugawara, you kissed Santa Claus last night?" Daichi was going to his seat next to the other, who was seeming to avoid the subject for as long as possible, chewing some bacon as slowly as possible. Though, he finished, Sugawara elbowed Daichi's side roughly causing the brunette to groan and hunch over the table a bit.
"Told you." He muttered with a smile, and continued breakfast.
Once everyone had finished eating, it was time to go open the presents left in the main room the night before. Ennoshita had hesitantly separated some of the others who were fighting, before handing out everyone's gifts. Tanaka had ripped through his paper right away, before Nishinoya had taken his box - which was blank and didn't give out what was inside - because everyone else was drawing slips of paper to determine the order of who would get to open their presents.
"So what do you think of Hinata's story?" Daichi asked Sugawara while they watch everyone bicker and awe at what they open and get.
"I've been trying to figure it out..." Is a slow reply. "He said he saw Santa take the carrots... in the order he told it, that was before he went to get Kageyama. I kissed your cheek when when we entered the room, Daichi." Sugawara half turns his head to look at Daichi who seems to just be realizing something.
"I didn't drink any of the milk, and I forgot about the cookies and carrots."
"The plate and glass were empty this morning." And so the two looked at each other in shock, Hinata's sudden shout broke out, apparently he had the last ticket, but when they looked, the boy was by the window.
"There's a huge Volleyball net outside!"
And sure enough, there was a folding yard net pushed into the snow, and all the kids had some kind of volleyball equipment weather it was a ball, knee pads, or their own jersey from some official team.
"Did you-" Both Daichi and Sugawara turned to each other before looking at Hinata as the boy was hurriedly trying to get his coat and boots on.