Heyo!

I have a lot of pent up feelings about sad smol kags in middle school and it kinda just happened.

Summary: For the record, Tobio doesn't believe in magic, but he doesn't know how the hell he ended up in the future where a supposed high school student that only came up to his chin laughed and smiled and called him 'Tobio' like he actually wanted him there.

Pairing: hinted Hinata x Kageyama

Word count: 1890

Warnings: OOC ness, swearing and I haven't edited a word im sorry.

Hinata and Kageyama are both at the end of their first year in this. Middle school Kageyama has idk like a couple of months till he graduates and Kitagawa Daiichi has already been knocked out of the comp

Enjoy!

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For the record, Tobio doesn't believe in magic. He believes in the things he can see with his own eyes and do with his own abilities.

In any case, he doesn't have time to focus on anything but volleyball. He didn't need spikers who rejected him. He needed to improve. Coach Ukai was back at Karasuno High School and he was determined to make an impression.

This is why he stayed later than everyone else. The other members of Kitagawa Daiichi's volleyball team had all gone home after a good session of glaring at him and ignoring everything he said. Why couldn't they get it?Why was it so hard to understand? They needed to be faster, jump higher - they weren't going to make it very far with their abilities or their attitudes.

Tobio threw the volleyball against the wall of the gym in frustration- the ball bounced straight back at him and last thing he registered was a hard impact on the side of his head before everything going black.

"Tobio!" someone yelled, and he felt that someone jump on his back, "why are you spacing out like that? Are you giving up the race already?"

What?

He opened his eyes. He was standing up, wearing a completely different uniform and he was standing on the corner of a street. The sun was only just rising and there was something… off. About him. He felt strange. Stretched, almost. Like muscle pain that's almost faded.

"Tobio?" asked the same voice, and he turned numbly to find a short orange-haired person staring up at him, "you okay Bakagaya- geh! you got shorter!"

"What did you just call me?" Tobio hissed. The kid might have been vaguely recognisable, but that didn't give him the right to just insult him out of nowhere. And what did he mean shorter?

The annoyance just walked straight up to him and stood up straight, placing his hand oh his head and drawing a line through the air to Tobio's chin. "Yep. Definitely shorter," he muttered.

"What are you doing?!" Tobio yelled, pushing the boy off him, "I don't even know you!"

He looked shocked, almost hurt for a moment. "Tobio-"

"Don't call me that! Who are you?!"

"Uh… Hinata Shōyō," the boy answered, seemingly dumbstruck.

"Okay," Tobio sighed, trying to figure out what the actual fuck was going on, "and how do you know me?"

"We're in the same volleyball team dumbass! You're my setter!"

Tobio stared at Hinata. Nope. Didn't recognise him. "Never mind volleyball team - you don't even go to Kitagawa Daiichi."

At that, Hinata froze completely. "What?"

A sense of satisfaction rose up in Tobio's chest. He had caught Hinata out in his lie. "You don't go to Kitagawa Daiichi. I don't recognise you."

"Oh fuck," Hinata moaned, "Tob- Kageyama, what year are you in?"

"I'm a third year."

"Shit," Hinata looked around, panicking and jumping up and down lightly, "um, Kageyama, do you know which high school you're going to?"

What has that got to do with anything? "Yes. I'm going to Karasuno," he said.

"Ok, now look at my uniform," Tobio couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Karasuno High School printed on Hinata's shirt, "and look at your uniform."

He did, and his mind stopped working as he saw the same words on his own shirt.

"Oooh god what are we gonna do?!" Hinata burst, pacing around him, "what are we gonna tell the team? Oh don't worry, Tobio got turned into a middle schooler! No big deal! No way, we can't tell the team… I'll have to text Daichi. Can I tell him you're sick? That'll work… although someone might try to come over.. fuck Tobio what do we do?!"

Tobio shrugged helplessly. He didn't even understand was Hinata was talking about.

The ball of energy sighed, and sat down on the low brick fence of someone's house. "I have to tell him something."

Tobio awkwardly sat down beside him. "Who's this?" he asked cautiously.

"Our captain," Hinata explained, "if we don't tell him he'll get really angry at us for making everyone worry."

Well that was new. Not the getting angry part. He was well-versed in the team's fury being directed towards him, but having someone worrying about him was strange. Stranger still because this was when he was in high school.

"We've hit a complication," Hinata murmured, typing out a message on his phone, "don't worry, we'll be there for afternoon practice - and okay! At least we gave an excuse. It's pretty shitty but oh well."

"What year am I supposed to be in right now?"

"Hm?" Hinata looked up and smiled at him, "you're in first year - same as me! We're both regulars!"

Tobio nodded. "You're a libero, right? What are the spikers like?"

"Oi Bakagayama! I'm a spiker too!" he bumped his shoulder grumpily.

"Oh."

Well that sucked. He joined a weak team. If a kid like Hinata was a regular spiker then there was no hope for the rest of them.

Hinata stood up suddenly and walked over to the bag he had left attached to his bike. After rummaging around for a bit, he pulled out a volleyball.

"We won nationals you dumbass, and if you don't believe me, set me the ball."

Tobio could never refuse something like that. It was a shame for Hinata that he didn't believe in pulling his punches. He always played at full strength.

Hinata passed him the ball and did a couple of tuck jumps before stepping away from him, getting into position at what would have been the back line.

Tobio sighed. He would never be able to run fast enough to match his toss, let alone jump high enough for it. He nodded anyway, and set the ball.

An orange blur sped past his eyes and all of a sudden there was Hinata, flying far above his head, eyes wide and laughing as his palm smacked against the ball. Tobio was dumbstruck.

"Haha," Hinata grinned, "I forgot how much your tosses used to suck."

"Hah?"

Hinata sat back down and fiddled with the ball. "Oh yeah, you're way better now. You do this amazing falling toss," he started out into seemingly nothing, eyes becoming glazed over, "you're incredible."

Tobio felt uncomfortable. He had never gotten this kind of praise from anyone and he wasn't sure what to say or what to do with his hands.

He sat down.

"T-thanks."

"Also the guys in Kitagawa Daiichi are just bitter and pissed off."

Those words shocked Tobio to his core. How did Hinata know about… future-Tobio must have told him. It made him wonder when, and how he was close enough to the tiny spiker to tell him. How much did he know? What had Tobio said to him?

To the current Tobio, showing the slightest bit of unease or sadness about the way his team treated him was out of the question. It was their faults after all.

"They're pissed off because they really are trying, despite what it looks like," Hinata paused, "or.. they were. Now they think you're a dumbass - which is correct, but we don't mean it the same way - and what I want you to remember when you go back is that everyone at Karasuno legitimately likes you, and we sure as hell can keep up! So you're okay!"

Tobio didn't know what to say. He stared at the laughing boy in front of him and wondered what kind of saint he was in his past life to deserve someone like this in his future.

A tear fell down his cheek before he could catch it, and he turned away. Hinata ignored the action.

"You're still a total dumbass though - I can't believe you didn't recognise me!"

"Huh?" he asked looking back with dry eyes (stupid. don't cry over something dumb like this.).

"I played against you in the first preliminaries!" Hinata exclaimed incredulously, "Yukigaoka Junoir High! Green uniforms! The super short game!"

Something clicked. "You were that fast shorty-"

"Oi!"

"-Who hit the missed toss!"

Hinata laughed once again before standing up and throwing the volleyball to Tobio.

"You got there in the end Tobio!"

He stopped, ball in his hands. "Why do you call me that? Does everyone on the team call me that? Do I have.. like, friends and… shit?"

A blush erupted across Hinata's cheeks. "Yeah… you, um… you have friends. I'm the only one that calls you Tobio. I think Tsukishima would literally rather die than be friendly with either of us."

"Tsukishima?"

"An asshole on our team. You'll see."

"So what's so special about you then?" Tobio persisted.

"E-eh it's… kind of a long story, and I don't think we have enough time, like, school's meant to start soon and…"

Tobio's eyes widened. "I'm gonna have to go to school? As a high school student?"

"Shit."

Tobio threw the ball to Hinata, who panicked and spiked it back at him. He hears a string of curse words fly out of Hinata's mouth, and then the ball hits him square between the eyes, and everything goes black.

"Oi, King!"

Tobio opens his eyes. He's back in one of Kitagawa Daiichi's gyms. Back? Where did he go? Tobio was certain he got here the same half an hour before everyone and yet the rest of the team was there and he hadn't felt like he practiced at all.

Everyone seemed to be ignoring him more than usual, and a first year squeaked and ran away when he approached him to ask for a towel.

Something strange was going on. Or maybe they just hated him more than usual today.

"-and we sure as hell can keep up! So you're okay!"

Tobio didn't know it was possible to think of a voice you'd never heard, but the chirpy sound flashed through his mind as quickly as it came and Tobio was sure he'd remember if he met someone that sounded so annoying.

But… somehow, the voice calmed him down. It was fine if they hated him. He would continue to set against the wall and work on his serves. Even if he never set behind him again, in fear of being rejected, somehow, it would be okay.

He will meet a spiker that could keep up with him. Sooner or later, it'll happen.

—

Holy shit this is such a dumb idea but I kinda liked it? ?

Please tell me what you thought and feel free to point out my mistakes bc it's like 1 am and there are no doubt a few.