"Nice receive!"

"I got it. I got it!"

"It's okay, shake it off!"

"Nice kill!"

"One more, one more!"

"Mine!"

"Sorry, guys, my bad."

"One more set!"

Nekoma's gym reeked of sweat and rubber as they and Karasuno entered their fifth practice set of the evening. Though it wasn't a particularly relaxing way to spend a perfectly good Sunday, the competitiveness between the two teams was infectious. Everyone, even Kenma, had given it their absolute 100% best, and as a result, everyone, besides Hinata, was dead tired.

How the ginger was still moving was anyone's guess at this point, but he still had as much spring in his step and speed in his shoes as he had at the beginning of the match, much to the annoyance of everyone else, who were fighting to stay upright. Perhaps it was just the thrill of the game or sheer determination, but the sparkle of excitement in Hinata's eyes hadn't dulled a bit.

"Man, where does he get all that energy from?" Yamamoto muttered, wiping beads of sweat off his brow as he got in position to receive another serve. "He's got stamina for days."

Lev, who at this point was practically a pile of limbs on the floor, gave the ace a halfhearted shrug. "I got no idea," he breathed heavily, warily watching Hinata zoom from one side of the court to the next without even breaking a sweat. "I'm pretty sure it's endless at this point."

Kuroo choked out a laugh, the captain not doing much better than any of his teammates. "I don't know." He ran a hand through his sweaty hair, slicking it back before ruffling it up again. "I don't think I've ever seen it run out."

As if to punctuate Kuroo's remark, Hinata slammed the ball down with a loud bang as Nekoma just watched, too tired and too unmotivated to even attempt to receive the impossible spike, knowing it would be futile anyway.

"Nice kill, Hinata!" Daichi yelled, shooting the first year a weak thumbs-up, which at this point was all he could muster. It didn't seem to matter to Hinata though, who just smiled brightly at his captain and pranced back into position, obviously pleased with his performance.

"Why don't we call this fifth set a draw!" Suga yelled from the sidelines. Though he hadn't got to play nearly half as much as the rest of his team did, he wasn't an idiot. Both of the team's faces were shining with sweat, and ragged breaths could be heard from everyone in the room, save one little middle blocker.

"I second that!" Kuroo called weakly, flashing a grateful smile Suga's way. The setter just returned the smile and shrugged. Murmurs of agreement were heard throughout the gym as everyone either made their way over to the benches or collapsed where they stood, more than willing to call this match a draw if there was even a chance they could relax. Hinata bit his lip in a pout but didn't say anything. Call him naive all you want, but even he could tell when someone was nearing their limit, and right now that someone was both his team and Nekoma's.

The gym lapsed into silence as players either took huge swigs of water or just sat back, desperate for a breather. Hinata wrinkled his nose as the harsh aroma of sweat reached his nostrils, becoming aware just how hard the two teams had been working. Still, though, he wasn't tired. Shaking his head, he walked over to the bench, making a point of plopping himself right next to Kageyama. His partner gave him a half-hearted glared him, though there was no heat behind it.

"Whadda you want, dumbass." He asked crossly, barely able to get the words out between sharp, shaky breaths. If Hinata didn't know any better, he would've guessed his setter had just finished running a marathon or something, not played five sets of volleyball, which, in Hinata's mind, wasn't very many at all.

"Are you seriously that tired?"

Kageyama just stared at Hinata with an unreadable expression plastered on his face. Was he serious? Did he seriously just ask if he was that tired? How the hell was his partner still upright? What he even human?

Hinata lowered his voice. 'Well? Are yo-ow!" He rubbed the top of his head gingerly, glaring at his fellow first-year, who shrugged unapologetically at the wack he had just delivered to the back of his teammate's head. "What was that for?!"

"You're stupid," Kageyama grumbled, turning away from the ginger. "Now please let me go five seconds without your annoying self talking my ear off, or else I am going to lose it."

Hinata merely stuck his tongue out at the setter. "You're no fun."

Kageyama didn't even spare him a glance. "Good."

"This makes it 68-67, you know." He paused. "I'm winning."

"I seriously couldn't care less right now."

"You're mean, Bakayama."

"I'm aware, dumbass." He turned his head slightly to the side to glare at Hinata, much to the amusement of said boy. Ah, there it was. A reaction. "Now stop talking, or I will end you."

Hinata, never one to listen to Kageyama in the first place, offered a sickeningly sweet toothy smile. "Would you dare hurt little old me?" He fluttered his eyelashes for mockingly up at his teammate, who at this point was getting very fed up with the entire situation, much to the amusement of the spectators watching this exchange.

Kageyama merely sniffed in distaste before shooting his arm out to grab Hinata's ginger locks. Before the orangette could react, he started pulling mercilessly on them, not hard enough to actually hurt him, of course, but it was still uncomfortable. Hinata rewarded him with a series of undignified shrieks and yells as he furiously clawed at the taller man's arm in an attempt to get him to let go, to which Kageyama replied to with a smirk and a shake of his head. It wasn't until Daichi glared at the raven-haired boy that he finally lessened his grip, much to the relief of Hinata and his scalp, which at this point was practically screaming from the pressure.

"Geez," Hinata muttered, crossing his arms and slumping back against the bench with a half-hearted scowl. "Love you too, Bakayama."

"Kageyama reflexively flipped him off before taking another casual swig of water. Tsukishima stifled a laugh.

"Okay you two, knock it off," Daichi smirked at his two underclassmen before turning to Nekoma, who was merely watching the scene with varying amounts of amusement. "It's getting late. I think we better head off."

Kuroo nodded, lifting his tired eyes from the two bickering Karasuno members to the windows at the top of the gym. "Yeah, that'd be for the best. It's almost dark out." He offered a small smile, which at the moment was all he could give. "Thank you for the game."

"Thank you for the game." Karasuno chorused back. Though it sounded ridiculously ingenuine, Kuroo couldn't blame them in the slightest. The two teams could barely stand up, let alone put in a reasonable amount of enthusiasm into their words. Hinata's chirpy voice was the only source of liveliness in the otherwise exhausted orange and black volleyball team, but only further proved Kuroo's theory.

Suga, who already had all of his things gathered together since he hadn't been playing the last set, rose from his position on the bench to open the gym doors while the rest of his team struggled to muster to effort to get all of their belongings together. He placed a hand on the doorknob and pushed.

Nothing.

Suga frowned. He could've sworn the last time they had come to Nekoma for a practice match he had had to push the door open. He shrugged, writing it off as a mistake. After all, he himself could barely function after five rigorous sets, even though he hadn't been a part of all of them. Turning the doorknob once again, he pulled with the same amount of force.

Nothing.

That's when Suga came to a horrible realization.

"Hey, guys?"

"Yeah?" It was Tanaka who answered.

"The door's locked."

Silence filled the gym as all heads turned toward the grey-haired setter, who in turn, gestured weakly toward the doors he had just tried to open.

"What?" Yaku asked finally, raising a tired eyebrow. "What do you mean it's locked?"

"I mean what I said," Suga replied, unapologetically blunt. "It's. Locked."

"It shouldn't be." Kenma's voice was quiet, but the confusion in it was evident. "The custodians knew we had practice." He paused. "Right?"

Kai nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. Lev let them know on Thursday that we would lock up on Sunday night." His gaze swiveled onto Suga, who was standing defiantly by the door, arms crossed and glaring at it like it had personally offended him. "You're probably just not pushing hard enough."

Lev gave a whooping cough and raised a meek hand. "Yeah. Um. Okay, so about that-"

"Ohmygod Lev, you absolute failure." Yaku deadpanned, sending the spiker a murderous scowl. Usually, the glare would be paired with a harsh kick or two, but the libero was too worn out to deliver anything more than a light punch to his teammate at the moment. That didn't mean he wasn't going to get an earful later, though.

"It's not my fault!" Lev smiled sheepishly. "I just forgot!"

"You're a disappointment."

The first year glared at Yaku. "Seriously! It wasn't my fault." His eyes widened in sudden realization. "You kept me late after practice Thursday to practice receives!"

Yaku raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Yeah. Because you suck."

Lev waved the comment off. "No, this is your fault!" He pointed accusingly at the libero. "I didn't have time to tell the custodians!"

"Okay, you two. Enough." Inuoka, ever the peacemaker, held up two hands to signal surrender. "Chill out."

"So what?" Hinata piped up, cocking his head to the side in curiosity. He vaguely resembled a puppy, though no one was going to tell him that. "Are we stuck here?"

Kuroo groaned and rubbed his face in his hands. God, his beautiful hair was going be to be grey by the time he was twenty-five at this rate. "Yeah. Guess so."

Hinata frowned. "Don't you guys have your phones?" He scratched his nose. "We had to leave ours on the bus."

Inuoka shook his head. "We have them, but calling or texting doesn't work. The school blocks any cell signal from any student's phone because one stupid kid decided to call someone while during a test." The rest of Nekoma nodded, all aware of their school's unnecessarily strict policies.

"That seems pretty shitty," Nishinoya commented, flopping down on his back to stare at the ceiling. "So we're stuck here?"

"Seems like it." Inuoka put a finger to his lips. "At least until tomorrow morning."

Yamaguchi raised a shaky hand. "Wouldn't they have heard us practicing, though?" He smiled nervously at all the eyes on him, never one to actively seek out attention from people he didn't know all that well. "We were pretty loud."

"Yeah, that's the point." Kenma stated, sensing Yamaguchi's discomfort. "Soundproof walls. The school installed them after we received a few too many noise complaints."

Tsukishima sniffed and pushed up his glasses with one finger. While spending the night in a foreign gym with his teammates and Nekoma didn't really appeal to him, it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd done with his volleyball team by far. "The people on your school board kind of sound like total control freaks."

Kuroo snorted. "They totally are Tsuki-dude." His smile fell as he gestured to the gym around them. "Never thought their decisions would get us into something like this, though."

xxx

For about the first two hours, the teams stayed on their opposite ends of the court, talking amongst themselves about school and who knows what. Everyone had been wholly rested now, and the fatigue that had once plagued their bodies was replaced with itching boredom. The two teams soon merged though, courtesy of Hinata and Kenma, when the latter had plopped down right next to the ginger and had refused to leave until everyone else had joined them.

They soon positioned themselves in somewhat of a circle. Lev and Yaku were strategically placed as far away from each other as possible, the latter having Kai and Nishinoya sitting next to him while the grey-haired spiker had Kuroo and Tanaka on either side. Hinata was sandwiched between Kenma and Kageyama, both of whom had refused to move, Kenma because he hadn't seen Shouyou for the last two weeks and Kageyama because he was simply too lazy to get up, so the two teams had formed their circle according to their positions.

Currently, Yaku and Nishinoya were chatting up a storm in some weird libero language that no one else understood, while on the other side of the cluster Lev and Tanaka were arguing about who knows what. Kuroo on Tsukishima's right and Yamaguchi on Tsukishima's left kept poking the irritated middle blocker's cheeks, seeing if they could get a reaction out of him, much to the amusement of Asahi, who was watching the scene intently. Daichi, Suga, and Inuoka were having a hushed conversation of their own while Hinata and Kageyama exchanged their usual insults and banter. On Hinata's other side, Kenma was twirling his friend's curls between his fingers with practiced ease while he scrolled leisurely through the internet with his free hand.

Hours passed, and everyone was getting more bored by the second. They had tried playing volleyball for a while after about the fourth hour, but they soon discovered that while they weren't exactly tired anymore, their legs still felt like jelly.

Around the sixth hour, though, the remaining members of Nekoma not exposed to the ginger's charm had each respectively gotten a proper look at one of Hinata's sunshine smiles.

xxx

Yaku was the first. Hinata had said something or other to Kenma about needing help with receives, which the pudding haired setter had responded to by saying that Yaku himself had helped Kenma improve on his, which was all fuel Hinata needed to start ranting about how amazingly cool Nekoma's libero was. Yaku had turned Hinata's way after hearing his name, obviously curious as to what they had been talking about. Seeing him notice, Hinata smiled so brightly that the libero barely had time to recover before the ginger was all up on him, eyes sparkling and gushing about how crazy good he was.

Yaku was still for a few seconds after Hinata's rain of praise stopped, eyes wide and mouth open. The ginger smiled one last time, causing the brunette snapped back to attention and tackle the middle blocker in a hug while promising him multiple times that he could help him work on receives any day. That had then promoted an angry response from Nishinoya who claimed that Shouyou was HIS teammate and HIS underclassman and Yaku better not touch him because HE was going to teach Hinata receives.

That lead to a ten-minute wrestling match, a shocked Karasuno, who had no idea what their teammate had just done to make the notoriously temperamental libero of Nekoma wrestle Nishinoya over a chance to teach him receives, and an equally confused Nekoma. Kuroo bit back a grin. Well, better to get his team exposed now rather than later.

xxx

Yamamoto was the next to fall victim to Hinata's charm. It was his fault, really. Hinata had moved positions in the circle and was now talking excitedly to a smiling Yamaguchi about how cool all the aces from each team were.

Yamamoto, overhearing, teasing pointed to himself and asked, "What about me? Am I cool?"

He had expected just a simple head nod or a polite smile; after all, he had only been joking. What he didn't expect was for Hinata to turn to him with a delighted beam on his face, look at him like he hung the stars in the sky, and go on a five-minute rant about his skills and the things Hinata wished he could do that Yamamoto could and a full in-depth analysis about how fantastic he was.

All poor Yamamoto would do was choke back and sob and clutch his hand to his chest, feeling like he was going to explode with the overwhelming joy he felt at that very moment. The only thing stopping him from whisking the little ginger away from Karasuno and never giving him back was Yamaguchi's positively murderous expression, an expression utterly foreign to the pinch server's soft features, as he slung an arm around his friend's shoulders and pulled him back to his side, prompting him to keep talking while shooing the Nekoma player away with one hand.

It might've been for the best, though. Yamamoto didn't know if he could take one of those smiles directed straight at his face again without turning to putty on the ground. It was almost as if the ginger had read his mind. He knew exactly what to say and made sure to hit all of Yamamoto's sweet spots, find all the chinks in his armor, successfully chipping it away and worming his way into the ace's heart in a matter of minutes.

Yamamoto's gaze slide over to Kenma. It was a miracle his setter was still able to form proper sentences with all the beams Hinata directed at him every time they were together.

xxx

Kai was a different situation altogether. After seeing two of his teammates go berserk over the ginger, he had decided to talk with the ridiculously fast middle blocker himself to see what had made his libero and ace go so crazy over him. Kuroo just watched his vice-captain with mild amusement.

Hinata had smiled at him halfway through their conversation, causing the wing spiker to freeze on the spot. Hinata continued with his chatter, not even noticing the stunned look that had passed over the very person he was talking to.

It was comical, really, and Lev had to physically stifle a laugh.

With all of his team thoroughly exposed to Hinata's charisma, Kuroo could finally lay back and relax. He had been watching each interaction carefully, excited to see his various teammate's reactions to the sunshine child everyone adored so much known as Hinata Shouyou.

xxx

"Dude, this is so boring." Tanaka groaned after the eighth hour, throwing his head back dramatically. "Nothing is happening." Conversations between the players had long ceased, and everyone was doing their part to get comfortable on the hardwood floor, still slick with their sweat.

"I agree." Asahi raised his hand. He stole a glance at the clock. "It's nearly four in the morning, and no one's asleep."

Kageyama snorted. "I don't know how anyone could sleep in this gym, no matter how tired they are." His statement was met with quiet murmurs of agreement. "What time will the gym be unlocked?"

"I dunno. Somewhere around nine." Kuroo answered with a yawn. He wasn't particularly tired, crazy as it may seem, but he was getting fed up with this situation. They were too sore to play volleyball, but volleyball was the only thing there was to do. Of course, Hinata could always play on his own, but knowing the ginger Kuroo figured that that idea would be abandoned in less than five minutes.

Tsukishima held his head in his hands. "God, why so late? It's a school day for crying out loud." The middle blocker was getting really annoyed at their current predicament, that much was painfully clear. "We need something to do."

"Agreed," Nishinoya mumbled. He had been pulling on his dyed piece of hair for the last hour, and he was desperate for any kind of action at all. "What should we do?"

Lev shrugged and forced himself into a sitting position. "We could tell embarrassing stories." He suggested. He wasn't in the mood for a game like truth or dare or something because, you know, that would involve actual movement, and he suspected that the rest of his teammates and fellow volleyball players agreed with him. "Or show embarrassing pictures."

Kuroo perked up almost instantly. Holy crap, he couldn't believe he had nearly forgotten about those. He smirked slyly, wide awake now. This would be the perfect distraction. "Oh, I have some fantastic embarrassing pictures on my phone."

"Really?" Daichi's interest was piqued, as was everyone else's. On any typical day, the mere prospect of Kuroo having embarrassing photos on his phone wouldn't have seemed so exciting, but they were over twenty bored teenagers with nothing to do at four in the morning, and it was most definitely not a typical day.

Kuroo nodded, the smirk on his face getting even more prominent. "Oh yeah. I think they'll interest both teams."

"Oh yeah?" Kageyama propped himself up on his elbows so he could see the Nekoma captain. "What are they?"

"Hinata and Kenma cuddling."

Many things happened all at once at that moment. Hinata audibly choked and whipped around to stare at Kuroo while Kenma exploded into a coughing fit, his breath having gotten caught in his throat at his childhood friend's statement. Tanaka, Lev, and Nishinoya all burst out into hysterical laughter while the rest of the players scrambled up to Kuroo, confusion and curiosity etched clearly on their faces.

"KUROO WHAT THE HECK?!" Hinata, having finally regained his voice, whirled around on his upperclassman. It wasn't like he was embarrassed about it or anything. Kenma was one of his best friends, and it had become practically instinct by now. Neither of them meant anything by it, obviously. They both would rather chop off their dominant hands than even consider the possibility of romantic feelings toward each other. It was just gross.

Kuroo grinned, eyes twinkling mischievously. "I got a whole album." He was immediately met with demands to see the pictures, to which he eagerly complied. Curious, but still fuming, Kenma grabbed Hinata by the elbow and dragged him over to look at whatever Kuroo was about to show their teammates.

Kuroo wasn't lying. He did, in fact, have a whole album dedicated to pictures of Hinata and Kenma cuddling in some way, shape, or form. It was filled with over forty pictures in total, and at each one, the two small volleyball players grew more and more flustered.

"You guys look so cute!" Suga exclaimed, who in Hinata's opinion, was enjoying this way too much. The particular picture he was looking at was Kenma asleep on the couch with his hands locked around Hinata's back, who in turn, was directly on top of him, also asleep. "You have to send all of these to me!"

Choruses of agreement immediately filled the gym, much to the embarrassment of the resident ball of sunshine and videogame addict.

"Kuroo, how did you even get these?"

Kuroo flashed a toothy grin. "Whatever do you mean, my dear Kenma?" He cocked his brow in feigned innocence.

"Exactly how many times have you broken into my house to get these?" Kenma's voice was flat. "Seriously, Kuroo."

Kuroo fluttered his eyes dopily. "Come on, Ken! I couldn't resist! I mean, look at you two!" His finger swiped to the left to reveal another picture, this time with Hinata curled up onto himself and Kenma's head lazily buried in the crook of his neck. Wii controllers, gaming consoles, and DVD's surrounded the sleeping pair. Everyone on either team, including Kageyama and Tsukishima, had to admit that the two volleyball players looked adorably cute and peaceful.

Pure bliss and calmness had been written all over their faces in every single photo without fail. Hinata and Kenma were notorious for having cutesy baby faces, Hinata especially, but even with their hair thrown over each other's features, you could distinctly see Kenma's ridiculously long eyelashes and Hinata's light brown freckles peppered across his cheeks. These were features you wouldn't usually have the opportunity to see on the two players, given that Kenma had literally mastered the art of keeping his eyes open for long periods because of his video games and Hinata was rarely still enough to where you could see the speckles on his cheeks without them being just a faint blur.

"I thought you didn't like being touched?" Yaku glared at Kenma accusingly, though there was no real heat behind it. After all, how could someone be mad after seeing one of the cutest things in all of existence? These photos weren't embarrassing at all, though Kenma and Hinata seemed to think they were.

"I don't mind it with Shou." The blush was spreading furiously across Kenma's cheeks. "I've spent so much time with him, and he's so naturally affectionate that it's become instinct at this point."

"Yeah!" Yamaguchi piped up, tearing his eyes away from the pictures to look at the duo. "I noticed you playing with Hinata's hair earlier when he and Kageyama were talking."

Kuroo chuckled, signaling to Kenma that he would handle this one, much to the setter's relief. He never was good at talking to people. "Yeah, Kenma does that a lot. I think it's become a habit of his." He directed his gaze to Hinata. "It's a good stress reliever for him, I think."

"So you two are pretty close, huh." It was Tsukishima this time, who was frowning at the photos in front of him but was ultimately betrayed by the foreign fondness in his eyes.

Hinata nodded enthusiastically, flashing the biggest, most cheerful smile any of the players had ever seen, before leaping toward Kenma and tackling the setter in a hug, sending both of them sprawling to the floor in laughter, much to the surprise of Nekoma, who had never heard Kenma laugh before in their lives, but hey. Hinata could get people to do so some crazy things.

That action alone was all the answer anyone needed.

Once Hinata and Kenma were out of earshot, Kuroo promised everyone that he would send them the photos by text the next morning once they all got out of there. Surprisingly, everyone wanted at least one of the forty photos Kuroo had shown them, including Tsukishima and Kageyama. Whether it was for blackmail material or simply because it was just so damn cute and innocent, no one will ever know.

Suga asked for all forty. He wanted to make a photo album.

God, they were all so totally whipped for Hinata.