Tobio hated his sneeze.
It wasn't because it was one of those extremely loud, annoying sneezes that made everyone question if you had eaten a drum set when you were 9.
It was one of those dainty sneezes that most, if not all, main character best friends had that made the MC extremely jealous. Anyway, getting off topic.
Point is that Tobio had a dainty, mouse sneeze and he hated it. Other people not so much.
~When he was a baby~
Tobio's grandfather and sister surrounded him near the fireplace to warm up due to the cold weather.
"Dear lord, what's up with the cold." whined Miwa as she shivered again. "I hate the cold."
"I have to say that your brother agrees with you." joked Kazayo as he held his grandson's in his arms as the little tyke began fussing and pouting, fidgeting with the blanket surrounding him.
"Duh. He learnt from the-"
"Achoo." sneezed Tobio, nose twitching slightly before he went back to fidgeting with the blanket.
On the other hand Kazayo and Miwa both stared at the baby as if he was a miracle.
"That has got to be one of the cutest things that I have ever heard." whispered Miwa as she stared at her oblivious baby brother.
"Well we know that this one will grow up to be just as cute at his older sister." joked Kazayo as he bounced the small baby in his arms.
"Duh!" Miwa laughed and the three reminisced in the moment together.
~Elementary School~
Many kids at Tobio's elementary school feared the boy. Well not feared but they definitely thought he was scary. However, that all changed when they heard him sneeze.
It had been a regular day at the volleyball club, everyone practicing their moves. The weather had been colder than normal and it was normal to hear a few sniffles and sneezes.
However, Tobio refused to allow his sneeze to be heard. Absolutely refused. Too bad that luck was not on his side.
"Kageyama-kun, are you okay?" asked one of the coaches, staring worriedly at the small boy who seemed to be constantly shivering and running his nose.
Most people there had stopped what they were doing to look at the small boy and volleyball genius. A few people could see why the coach was worried whilst others were confused and annoyed that the boy was receiving extra attention.
"Ye-" a kitten like sneeze cut Tobio off. Everyone stared at the raven, surely thinking that they were imagining it but when Tobio continued sneezing so adorably they all felt their souls leaving their bodies, not thinking that they could take such cuteness.
"Yes sir. Just a cold." Tobio finally replied when he had finished sneezing, face a bright red, refusing to look at anybody. The older years all cooed at how adorable the kid was being.
"O-okay. I think it'll be better if we wrap this up. We wouldn't want anyone else to get sick." said the coach dazed.
Tobio had wanted to protest but nodded his head, thinking about how worried his grandfather would be.
When he turned around it was to see the entire volleyball club staring at him as if he was an angel before he began getting swarmed by everyone.
He seriously hated sneezing.
~Middle School~
A kitten-like sound rang through the gym.
Everyone stopped what they had been doing to stare at the cause of the sneeze, all wondering if they had imagined it. But they hadn't. That was confirmed when Tobio continued sneezing, kitten sounds getting punched out each time.
To add to the even cuter image, his eyes were scrunched and his nose was twitching. His cheeks were flushed red and his small stature made him look like a cherub.
"How the fuck does he sound so cute?" one third year mumbled incredulously, disbelief colouring their voice. Everyone nodded to his question, all wanting to know how the kid was being so cute when normally he was either scowling or focusing on volleyball.
It was quiet for a while after Tobio had finished sneezing until Oikawa interrupted it by simply being himself. A piece of trash.
"Awe Tobio-chan! You're so cute!" he mockingly cooed. Sadly, Iwaizumi was too fixated on his underclassman to scold his best friend.
Tobio just blushed even more and everyone resisted the urge to coo at how cute the boy was.
Kunimi and Kindaichi walked over to their friend and Kunimi silently handed him a tissue from his pockets.
"Bless you." Kindaichi said, still in disbelief that his normally quiet friend had such a cute sneeze.
"Thank you. And sorry for sneezing." Tobio added, embarrassed, not believing that he had sneezed that badly.
"Never apologise for that." said Kunimi seriously, taking Tobio's face in his hands and squishing his cheeks.
Tobio simply huffed at the act and the volleyball club felt their heart clench even more, wondering what other cute things that Kageyama was capable of.
~With Karasuno~
Tobio was about to kill the bastard Tsukishima and would proudly own up to the crime.
Could the asshole leave him alone about the King of the Court thing? He was trying to repent by showing he could work in a team but the asshole constantly bringing it up wasn't helping him. It made him want to be even more uncooperative if it meant this is how a team was.
"Awe, is the King going to show a tantrum?" mocked Tsukishima.
Just as Tobio was going to go for the kill a sound erupted out of him that he would much prefer to never be heard again. His sneeze.
And it wasn't just one. It was a continuous one. Due to his eyes watering he couldn't make out what his teams faces were but he knew for a fact that they wouldn't be anything good.
It was completely silent after he stopped sneezing, not even the coaches knew what to do. They were probably judging him.
However, contrary to his belief they were all trying to stop themselves from cuddling him with blankets and cooing at him.
"Bless you, King." Tsukishima interpreted the quiet and Tobio just nodded confused on why the blonde wasn't teasing him but he wasn't going to question it.
"Awe!" cooed Suga, practically appearing in thin air right in front of him and ruffling his hair. "That was so adorable!" he giggled. Tobio tried to scowl but it came out looking more like a pout than anything and that caused Suga to coo even more
"Well here I thought you were only a scowly, little introverted brat!" yelled Tanaka, laughing loudly as he slapped. Tobio on his back.
Tobio just grumbled as he eyed how his teammates seemed to be looking at him through glazed eyes, some even with blushes on their cheek.
"What? All I did was sneeze." mumbled Tobio, but unfortunately Tanaka heard.
"Just a sneeze!?!" he practically yelled in his ear and that caused Tobio to flinch closer into Sugawara, to which the older setter didn't seem to mind much. "That is the holy grail of amazing sounds Kageyama!" yelled Tanaka, shaking his shoulder as if that would be able to get Tobio to understand their obsession with his sneeze. All it really did was make him feel dizzy.
"Tanaka get off." Daichi said sternly and reluctantly Tanaka did so. "And what Tanaka is trying to say, Kageyama." Daichi turned to him, a gentle smile on his face "That normally you just seem to tense around us that it was nice to know that you do have a soft side to you."
That has had to be one of the most backhanded compliments that Daichi had ever given but it still made Tobio blush.
"So the King is cute, so what? That doesn't mean he isn't stupid." taunted Tsukiushima and Tobio responded with the same bite, completely ignorant to the blush on the blonde's face, or the way that Kiyoko was trying to help Hinata with a nosebleed.
~At the Interhigh~
"Yahoo~ Tobio-chan!" called Oikawa and Tobio simply turned the other way round and ignored him. "How rude, Tobio-chan!" yelled out Oikawa, mock offence in his voice.
Meanwhile, Tobio was just trying to peacefully stop himself from sneezing, unwilling to humiliate himself.
"Is the king too proud to say hello to commoners?"muttered Kindaichi and Tobio made the fatal mistake of trying to counter him. It made him sneeze.
"Achoo!" how in the name of fuck did sneeze get higher than before?!
It was silent on the court. Not even the referee did anything, all of them too focused on the setters' look of utter embarrassment.
"Awwwwe, so you still sneeze like you ate a mouse." sneered Oikawa and due to that Tobio hadn't realised the intense blush on the setters face. Or any of the other players' faces.
"Shut up Shittykawa!" yelled Iwaizumi as he smacked Oikawa at the back of the head. "Sorry about him." he turned to Tobio to apologise, ignoring the never ending whining from his best friend.
Tobio was so grateful for Iwaizumi shutting Oikawa up he didn't notice the blush on his cheek
~Yachi~
Tobio had wanted to thank Yachi for agreeing to help him and Hinata revise as it really was helping. The kinder teaching methods no longer made him feel like an idiot when he asked a question and she didn't seem to mind that he struggled a lot.
If anything she seemed to enjoy being able to talk to him for a while. And Tobio wanted to thank her for being so kind.
So he went to his sister and asked her what do you get a girl when you want to thank a girl?'' His sister's immediate response had been flowers.
So, on the weekend he armed himself with some pretty flowers and went over to her house. The only downside to this was that he had completely forgotten about his allergies.
"Kageyama? What are you doing here?" she asked, head tilting in confusion before a scared look over took her face and she began to ramble. "N-not that I don't want you here! It's just that normally you don't come here and also why do you have flowers? Is this-?"
"Achoo." at the sound of his sneeze she stopped her rambling and looked up from where her gaze had been on the floor and gave him a surprised look.
Tobio just blushed heavily. "Umm, I wanted to get you a thank you present for helping me and the dumbass study so well and Umm, I might have forgotten about my allergies." Tobio sneezed again and that prompted Yachi to take the flowers from him.
"Thank you, Kageyama." Yachi had smiled sweetly before looking back at her house and back at him again. "Wanna come in?"
"Sure." for once he didn't entirely hate his sneeze. Didn't mean he liked it though.
~Tokyo Schools~
See, Tobio knew that he wasn't the most, ahem, social of people.
Whilst, yes, he did try to connect with people he didn't ever really do a good job at it, and it normally resulted in the person running away (Kozume) or hating him (his middle school volleyball club).
So it didn't come to his surprise that he was left relatively alone at the Training camps, his only sources of companionship being Yachi and Sugawara but they had their own friendships that they had to worry about and Tobio had decided not to 'burden' them with his.
This ended up with Tobio practicing by himself, trying to ignore the pang in his chest every time he heard loud laughter from his team and he pushed feelings of jealousy aside, wanting to be happy for his teammates.
His inner monologue of sadness was interrupted when a teen with curly back hair tapped him on the shoulder.
He turned around and raised an eyebrow when he saw how nervous the other looked before berating himself for thinking something so stupid. He was around him, why wouldn't he be scared? He didn't exactly have the friendliest, well, anything.
Any more thoughts like that one stopped when the boy cleared his throat and took in a deep breath.
"H-hi!" both teens cringed at the highness of the voice but the unknown teen didn't allow them to discourage him from continuing. "I-I saw you practicing a-alone and I was wondering if I c-could help you p-practice instead!"
It seemed that even his own coach was shocked by the fact that somebody actually came up to him and asked to practice with him and Tobio didn't blame him one bit. He was also extremely shocked as well. Still, he turned to answer the boy.
"Actually i-" and his godforsaken sneeze had to come out once again and make itself known.
Belatedly he realised that the entire gym had gone silent, everyone just watching the setter trying to reign in his sneezes with little success.
When he finally finished he flushed brighter than he had thought was possible and when he saw the way that Nekoma's captain was looking at him with a conniving smirk he made up his mind instantly about what he was going to do with the others' offer.
"You know what? Sure, why the hell not!" and he blindly dragged the other outside, uncaring if that was counterproductive.
He had seen Daichi's face whenever the rooster headed guy's name came up. He wasn't about to risk shit.
"G-great!" and he was too embarrassed to realise the genuine happiness and excitement in the other's voice. "My name is Chigaya Eikichi!"
"Kageyama Tobio." Tobio muttered out when he finally felt safe enough away from the Nekoma team.
He may not know much about them but he had seen how some of them acted during this training camp and he wasn't about to risk his life nor his dignity.
"I know!" the boy must be seriously excited that Tobio agreed if he wasn't stuttering everywhere. "We can use one of the other gyms. Follow me!"
And as Tobio was led away he couldn't help but feel like he should be thanking his sneeze for giving him another friend.
Meanwhile, Kuroo was interrogating the shit out of Daichi trying to convince him to let Tobio go to Nekoma instead. His only convincing argument was Tobio's sneeze.
~Japan Youth Camp~
Being at the Youth Camp was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to Tobio, minus Karasuno. Even better was the fact that Chigaya was also with him so he at least had one person with him at all times.
However, at times the Youth Camp brought difficulties. One of them being the crazy guy yelling at him.
"Listen." Tobio said to him after the guy had finished telling and after Miya had finished calling him a goody two shoes. "I am freaked out by your jump but I also see it as a-"
Tobio would just about love to jump into a hole right now. Maybe that would erase the burning feeling of embarrassment as every head in the gym turned to face him, all sharing equal looks of disbelief.
"Awe, so the little goody two shoes has a goody two shoes sneeze to go with it? How adorable!" cooed Miya mockingly and Tobio was too embarrassed to try and argue with Miya, only hiding his face in his hands refusing to look at anyone.
"You know what?" and why did Hoshiumi sound so dazed? "I think I'll be able to live without you being surprised about my jumping abilities." and he staggered away.
Tobio, however, didn't even bother looking behind him, instead just focusing on keeping his gaze in between his hands.
"Here." said a semi-familiar and when he finally looked up it was Sakusa waving a tissue in front of him.
Tobio took it gracefully and whipped his nose. He was then handed some sanitiser and he had officially declared the cold boy his favourite senior in the youth camp.
~Nationals~
This was it. They were finally here! The moment they had all been waiting for!
They were at Nationals!!!!
Tobio was buzzing with excitement, so happy that he was in such a setting with people he trusted and was trusted by. It was an amazing feeling.
They had won their first match despite the struggles at the beginning. They had won victoriously however, despite the challenges and were now advancing to play against Inirazaki.
They were half way through the first set when Tobio felt it and like always, he cursed it.
'Why, why, why!! Why did it have to be in the middle of the tournament! Curse you sneeze!'
Tobio soon realised that he would have no choice but to sneeze. It just so happened to be when the commentators were talking about his monster abilities.
Well, bye bye dignity and pride and hello humiliation and embarrassment.
"... Kageyama had actually been invited along with Miya to the Japan Extensive Youth Camp! And you can see why! Those abilities are ones you would see on a college student or someone who's gone-"
The sneezing fit cut them off. It actually seemed to cut a lot of people off as everyone turned to stare at the raven, faces either incredulous, awed or red.
Tobio just stood there, refusing to look down for once and be humiliated by his sneeze. When the commentators' voices returned to them they continued to talk about Tobio's abilities but now it just seemed that they were trying to bring up a child who was 5 instead of someone who was 15.
The audience were probably whispering and gossiping about his sneeze and Tobio felt his blush increase.
Thankfully, Saeko big sis seemed to realise his dilemma and signalled for the drums to start playing again.
Distantly, whilst he waited for Hinata to serve, he could remember that this match was going live on TV and that multiple people were watching this. Including all the schools in Miyagi.
Oh well, he'll cry about his reputation being destroyed later.
And so, Tobio hated his sneeze. But others didn't.