Warnings: Kageyama gets overwhelmed from being crowded by his teammates.
Kageyama was awoken from a peaceful sleep by a strange sensation in his ear that had him bolting upright. "What the hell," he hissed, rubbing away the ticklish feeling.
Hinata giggled and blew in his ear again, which Kageyama wanted to smack him for. "Don't do that!"
"But it was funny." Hinata defended himself. "Plus everyone's almost off the bus and you hadn't woken up from all the noise for some reason." Kageyama managed to glare before Hinata kept rambling.
"Just get off the bus."
"I never heard a thank you for waking you up." Kageyama shoved Hinata off the bus seat, not hard enough to send him sprawling on the floor, but hard enough to have him stumble.
"Are you guys coming?" Tanaka asked, poking his head in the bus.
"Yep," Kageyama said, grabbing his and Hinata's stuff. "There," Kageyama turned his head to Hinata, "I'm carrying your stuff so you can shut up about thanking you."
"No one ever taught you manners," Hinata huffed. "You're supposed to thank people when they're nice to you, not shove them off their seats and then carry their bag as some half-assed apology."
"Shut up, it's a full assed apology."
"That doesn't even make sense." Hinata said, rolled his eyes, and jumped down from the bus.
"I don't care if it made sense."
Hinata ignored his words and how grumpy he was, switching topics in his usual jumpy manner. "Anyway, I'm so excited! This is my first training camp!"
"Really?" Kageyama had gone on a few training camps during middle school although he'd skipped some for various reasons. The first time, he'd been too scared to be so far from his parents, and no one really talked to him about going either so it was easy to stay home. Then there had been a few times where he'd been afraid of fighting with Oikawa, and the last time in his third year he didn't go at all because he felt too angry at everyone and was also scared they'd all be angry at him.
So, while Kageyama had been to training camps before, this was his first one in a while.
"Yes! Remember, I've never been on a formal team before now!"
Hinata had such a natural instinct for volleyball that sometimes Kageyama forgot, although Hinata always made sure to receive the ball into his face to remind him right after. Or say things like how he'd never been to a training camp before.
It wasn't just Hinata that was excited though, everyone seemed to be bouncing off the walls save for a few people, himself included.
"I can't believe we're actually in Tokyo! And we're going to be playing an actual team tomorrow! We haven't played another team since the Seijoh match, and that was forever ago." Hinata remarked.
"It was like two weeks?" Kageyama said, uncertainly. "Have you been drinking coffee or something?"
"Nope! Just because you never get the exciting feeling that makes you wanna bounce off walls doesn't mean I can't."
Kageyama had to admit that was probably true. He wasn't particularly fond of bouncing around just because he was a little excited. Thankfully, Hinata left with his overwhelming energy to go bounce around with Tanaka and Nishinoya. As much as Kageyama loved Hinata, he was glad the guy had other people he could be energized around too.
"Those three are a bit overwhelming sometimes, huh?" Kageyama startled a bit turned to see Daichi leaning on the door frame. His voice was exasperated, but fond.
Kageyama's voice was less fond, "Yes."
Out of everyone on the team, the captain was probably the one he'd talked the least to. He'd even talked to Tanaka and Nishinoya more despite how he tried to avoid them since they tended to make big scenes he wasn't interested in. Not to mention how loud they were all the time. Kageyama didn't always mind loud, he could be loud too, in fact he was pretty loud if he thought about it. But not only were they loud, they were chaotic and had did risky things that seemed like terrible ideas.
Daichi chuckled at his response and then continued, "You excited about playing against Nekoma?"
Kageyama hesitated before nodding, not because he was unsure about whether he was excited, but because he was pretty sure this was small talk.
That knowledge heightened Kageyama's awareness that the situation could turn awkward if he couldn't find something to say back and what also unnerved him was that the captain didn't seem bothered. "We haven't played Nekoma in quite a while, not since the old Coach Ukai retired."
Kageyama paused before asking, "You know people on the team?"
"Yep, not the new first years, but I know some of the teams second and third years. We aren't that close but the rivalry was… really nice, I guess."
Kageyama supposed he had a lot of rivals, some of them bordering on enemies, so he'd never been void of that competitive drive before. For him, there had always been someone to go against whether a rival on his own team or someone on the other side of the net.
He started wondering what it would feel like not to have that. Maybe volleyball wouldn't be quite as fun anymore.
Before Tobio could come up with something to say in response, however, he and Daichi heard a loud shriek from down the hall.
By the time he'd blinked Daichi was almost at the end of the hall ready to yell at the others to be quiet. Kageyama thought the entire exchange was rather ironic.
The next morning the whole team got ready to go out on a morning run after practicing some receives. Predictably, Hinata managed to goad Kageyama into another competition. However, when they reached the point to loop back around to the gym, Hinata was so caught up in the competition he kept running passed them all. "Dumbass" Kageyama grumbled gearing up to run after and yell at him but Sugawara stopped him.
"I'll go after Hinata, the two of you together will probably never make it back alive."
The entire team laughed a little and Tanaka teased Kageyama about his temper when it came to the other boy.
"I'll go after him. You guys get back to the gym." Sugawara said good naturedly and started running off after Hinata before Kageyama could even think to argue.
When they got back to the gym, Kageyama noticed that coach Ukai was acting a little strange, but he didn't have much faith in his ability to read people, so maybe the coach was just a bit tired or something.
The team decided to solo practice while they waited for Hinata and Sugawara got back so Tobio decided to take a short break, drink some water, and check his phone.
He had a text from his mother, telling him she hoped he was having fun at training camp. He also had a few texts from Iwaizumi and Oikawa wishing him a good time. Tobio had contemplated telling them he was going to Tokyo and had decided to say something just to let them know. And maybe to complain just a little about how hard homework was.
"Talking to your girlfriend." Tanaka teased lightly, causing Kageyama's face to instantly sour.
"It's just a message from mama." He muttered and stuffed his phone away.
"Yeah right." Nishinoya snickered. "People don't look like you just did after getting a text from their mom."
"Well what look was it?"
"A look of true love." Tanaka smirked. Kageyama picked up a volleyball and threw it at him but Tanaka just dodged and cackled.
"It was probably a text from his soulmates." Tsukishima chimed in. Of course he was the one to be completely unhelpful and ruin Kageyama's efforts. He hadn't exactly sworn him or Yamaguchi to secrecy, but how could Tsukishima just out him like that?
Of course, he knew how, but for some reason he was still surprised at Tsukishima's lack of human decency.
"Wait, you know your soulmates?" Nishinoya asked.
"You have more than one soulmate?" that time it was Tanaka.
Kageyama fell quiet, not sure what to say, but he was hoping they would somehow magically forget and drop it.
He thought he was saved when Sugawara and Hinata ran back into the gym, but the topic of conversation was just brought to their attention.
"Hey, did you guys know Kageyama knew his soulmates?" Tanaka asked when they came closer.
Sugawara furrowed his eyebrows, not seeming to know what to say and Hinata burst out, "Wait! Tobio you told them! And you didn't wait for me to be here!"
"I didn't tell anyone anything." Kageyama growled and glared at Tsukishima who didn't seem to notice.
"Then how do they know?" Sugawara asked.
"Wait!" Nishinoya interrupted Kageyama, "So you two did know? Do you know who they are?"
Hinata and Sugawara hesitated so Nishinoya looked over to Kageyama for an answer, which he definitely hadn't been expecting to give today.
Soon other members of the team got curious and came over, asking questions, probably good intentioned, but they were overwhelming. And some of them were asking for advice he had no idea about because he barely understood how his relationship even worked.
Tobio started to feel cornered and just wanted to escape.
"All of you back away, you're crowding him too much." Daichi's voice carried over all the others, effectively silencing them. Ukai and Takeda were working on pulling some of the team away to give him space.
Daichi broke through the small crowd when it thinned and asked, "Do you want to go outside for a minute?"
Tobio nodded and allowed himself to be led outside by Daichi.
Once outside, Kageyama took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and process what just happened. So basically, everyone now knew he had two soulmates but they didn't know who they were. Kageyama hadn't been the one to tell them, it had been Tsukishima. And lastly, they hadn't seemed to have a negative reaction to anything, which he supposed was to be expected if not even Tsukishima had been bothered. So that only left the question of what they would think of Oikawa and Iwaizumi being his soulmates. He recalled most of the teams dislike for at least Oikawa, not that he could blame them. Oikawa had gone out of his way to seem like an ass the first time they all spoke.
"Are you doing better?" Daichi asked, a hand still on Kageyama's shoulder.
"I'm doing okay now." Kageyama confirmed after a moment more of thinking. "I'm ready to go inside now."
The two walked in to see Sugawara and Takeda scolding the rest of the team. "People have personal bubbles that you shouldn't invade, and you shouldn't bombard them with questions they may not want to answer." Takeda was saying.
Sugawara added on when he was finished, "They shouldn't be telling other people's secrets either."
"No one told me it was a secret." Tsukishima huffed. He looked annoyed as usual but Kageyama thought he could see a little guilt. And not that Kageyama was happy about it, but he was right, he hadn't known it was a secret, and he hadn't known the team would react so excitedly.
"You're smart enough to know Kageyama-kun hadn't told the rest of the team and smart enough to know you should've let him say it in his own time." Sugawara countered.
That was true also.
Hinata noticed Kageyama at that point and shouted his name for the rest of the world to hear.
Kageyama thought he was about to be crowded again but a glare from Daichi had them skidding to a halt before they got too close. He almost could've laughed at how they were so excited though.
"Hey, Kageyama," Tanaka spoke first, "uh… we're sorry for crowding you, and being so loud, I was just excited to know you had soulmates." Tanaka said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.
Before Nishinoya could say anything next Kageyama cut in. "It's okay, it's not really a big deal." Kageyama wasn't mad or upset, not even about his secret being outted. It would've come out eventually anyway, and having everyone know now, just removed some pressure off his shoulders. He still would've rather told them himself, but Kageyama couldn't always be in control of every situation and he saw this as an opportunity to express being okay with that.
He'd just gotten a bit overwhelmed with everything happening at once and needed a moment to process.
"Are you sure?" Nishinoya asked.
Tobio hated the guilty look on his face and nodded. "Yeah, it's okay, I'm fine." Kageyama said. And it was. The last thing he needed was everyone fussing over him.
Tsukishima didn't even try to apologize, but that was okay too, he wasn't that upset anymore, and while Sugawara was right about him being smart enough to know, Kageyama recognized he should've been clearer about everything too.
There was still one thing Kageyama could tell everyone wanted to know though. "You wanna know who they are, don't you?"
Tanaka and Nishinoya nodded eagerly and even Yamaguchi and Tsukishima looked interested.
"I'll tell you guys after the Nekoma game." Kageyama said, hoping they would forget but by the look in Tsukishima's eye he was willing to bet that wouldn't happen.
"Alright, well," Ukai started, changing the subject, "now that that's done, I have made my decisions for the starting lineup."
Ukai started naming the players and Kageyama was surprised when his name was called. He glanced over at Sugawara. "Wait, neither Sugawara nor Ennoshita is in starting lineup?" Nishinoya whispered nonsubtly to Asahi who grimaced at how loud the 'whisper' was.
"Oh it's fine," Ennoshita said, "I mean, I did quit once after all so I'm not upset."
Kageyama frowned at that.
"I'm not upset either," Sugawara told Noya, "I just want to win as many games as we can."
Kageyama wasn't sure about that. Sugawara should be upset, and so should Ennoshita. They were older and yet he, Hinata, and Tsukishima were in the starting lineup? It just didn't seem fair to him.
So, after they were done practicing for the day, Kageyama went up to Sugawara. "Um, Suga-san… I just want to let you know that you can have my spot if you want." He promised he'd earn his way to his position on the team, he felt like he hadn't done that yet. Not to mention that he felt bad. He was scared Sugawara would hate him for taking what might be his last year of playing volleyball like this. "So, if you want, I can talk to Ukai-san and—"
"Hey, I'm going to stop you there. First off, I don't want your spot. In fact, I told Ukai-san to choose based on who he thought would help the team the most and he chose you. I don't mind, Kageyama-kun. You're a much more skilled setter than I could ever be anyway."
"No, but—"
Suga cut him off by continuing. "It's very sweet you're so adamant about this, but I swear it's okay. I'm not mad or anything but if you keep telling me to take your spot I might get annoyed." Sugawara said the last part somewhat teasingly but Kageyama could also tell there was some semblance of seriousness in there. "Now come on, let's go eat and rest up, okay?"
Kageyama slowly nodded after a moment and followed Sugawara to the dining hall.
While he was eating, Kageyama was pretty sure he saw Tsukishima look over at him several times out of the corner of his eye but turned away after Kageyama glanced over.
It was rather odd behavior for Tsukishima because he never looked at anyone, much less Kageyama. He decided to talk about it after dinner.
He almost caught Tsukishima staring at him again, and at this point he was starting to get annoyed. "Do you need something." He hissed.
Tsukishima glared at him like usual but he didn't say anything in return so Kageyama pressed further, "I notice you've been staring at me more than usual."
At that Tsukishima's face soured even further but the expression quickly faded and he mumbled something in response. Kageyama stared at him for a minute and then said, "What?"
"I said I'm sorry for telling your fucking secret you damn king." Tsukishima muttered harshly and it was a very Tsukishima-like thing to say, other than the 'sorry' part, which was actually very out of character in Kageyama's opinion. Then again, last year someone might've said the same thing about him.
"Oh…" Tobio didn't really know what to say since he hadn't been expecting any sort of apology from Tsukishima. "Did Yamaguchi-kun tell you to apologize?"
Tsukishima just glared at him and shook his head once.
"Oh." He was even more confused about why Tsukishima had apologized of his own volition. Especially when Kageyama had already forgiven the entire team today. Maybe he thought the forgiveness didn't extend to him? Tobio really wasn't sure but tried to save the situation from being any more awkward than it already was. "It's okay." Kageyama repeated the same thing he'd told the rest of the team earlier that day. There was no way he was going to tell Tsukishima he was glad that everything was out in the open though because he still would've rather said it himself.
When it was clear Tsukishima had no intention of saying anything else or even acknowledging what Tobio had said, Kageyama turned his attention back to Hinata who'd managed to start a pillow fight with half the team and get away with it since Daichi wasn't there.
Kageyama didn't even have enough time to contemplate where he might be before Daichi seemed to almost materialize out of thin air. Even Kageyama was startled. "What are you guys doing in here!" he shouted. "You need to settle down and sleep well so you can play at your best tomorrow!"
The pillow fighters froze what they were doing, Hinata's last thrown pillow hitting Nishinoya's face the only movement. Then they all wordlessly collected the pillows and made their way to their futons.
"Why didn't you say something." Daichi grumbled, sitting beside Sugawara.
Suga just smirked, "They were only having fun. And besides, I needed to see if the one I was betting on, won."
"Who the heck were you betting with?"
Sugawara elbowed Asahi. "I said Tanaka. He mistakenly thought Noya would win."
"You don't know if it was a mistake." Asahi mumbled. "They didn't finish the fight."
Kageyama subtly listened for a little while until he was distracted by Hinata placing his futon next to him. "I can't believe we got caught by Daichi-san." Hinata pouted.
"I can. Pillow fights aren't exactly subtle."
"Yeah well… I just thought he'd be gone for longer."
"And you thought wrong. As usual." Tsukishima commented.
Hinata threw his pillow and it hit Tsukishima's shoulder. Kageyama glanced over to see if Daichi noticed. Thankfully he seemed to be too busy talking to Suga, but Sugawara had definitely noticed though he didn't say anything.
Hinata's pillow was returned to him double the force when he'd started giggling. "You're so mean." Hinata said, rubbing his face.
"You threw it first."
Hinata pouted and then huffed out another laugh as he laid down. Everyone started to quiet, loud conversations turning into quieter ones. Even Tanaka and Nishinoya were starting to settle down.
"Alright, lights out." Daichi said after about ten minutes. "You guys don't make too much noise."
Daichi flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness.
Initially he'd forgotten, but sleeping in the dark was one other reason Kageyama hadn't particularly liked training camps as much when he was younger. He usually brought a small flashlight with him and hid it under the blankets. Sometimes he got yelled at for it and sometimes he didn't. It just depended on who noticed.
He hadn't brought it this time. Truthfully he'd forgotten it, but he also felt like he didn't need it much anymore. His teammates helped him feel safer than any flashlight would really, and he was glad he'd found people like that.
A/N So, it's been a little while. Things have been tough but I decided to finally finish and edit this chapter. It's basically just team bonding lmao, like I can't not have that. Here you have Daichi being a responsible captain, Sugawara being lovely and chaotic at the same time, Tsukishima being an ass (no surprise), Noya and Tanaka being amazing but loud, and Hinata being his great self. I didn't add The three second years backstory here because I didn't and maybe it will come up later and maybe it won't, idk. But for the timeline rn, next chapter is going to be Nekoma match! And if I can, I want some Tsukishima drama to happen lol (this time happening to him instead of him creating it lol) hope it all goes well. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!