So, here was the thing.
Japan, Miyagi specifically, was filled to the brim with all kinds of flowers, blossom trees, and other assorted plants that lay dotted about the area. There was really nothing special about them, not when nearly every prefecture had at least some variation of them scattered around, but they were nice to look at in the summer months and beautiful when covered in snow during the winter.
Karasuno specifically was surrounded by myriads of plant life, ranging from bushes decorating their parking lot to cherry blossoms laying scattered around the grounds nearby the gym, which always made for a rather pleasant sight after the grueling, five-hour practices where everything hurt and it felt like there was no joy in life anymore. They were a relatively rural school, and as such, no one batted an eye when weaving through leaves and branches while flower petals drifted to sit on top of their hair.
However, there was also a thing called allergy season, and allergy season, as one could probably infer, sucked.
During allergy season, the number of students that showed up to Karasuno every day literally went down by half. Pollen practically blanketed the campus during that time, which, while not visible, obviously, always made for an obnoxious amount of sneezing and watery eyes until the teachers were forced to write up notes and tell students to go home for being too disruptive in class.
It wasn't unmanageable, obviously. People didn't have violent, hacking coughs because of the sheer amount of plant life around Karasuno. Sure, pollen sucked for most and clogged a few sinuses for a while, but it was nothing worth freaking out over to any large extent.
This, though. This was worth freaking out over.
Hinata was among one of the student population that had such allergies to pollen. They weren't severe by any means, thank god, because Suga didn't think he would've been able to handle seeing his underclassman walk into practice with watery eyes and a red nose whether from allergies or not (he secretly suspected the rest of the team felt the same, but he didn't say anything about it), but they were still present, which sucked, especially considering the ginger was avid sports player who would probably practice with his nose clogged without telling anybody until he passed out from not getting enough oxygen to his brain.
But no, because since Hinata Shouyou was apparently adorable and perfect in every single way imaginable, he didn't get a severely runny nose or itchy eyes whenever allergy season came around.
What he got- and none of them could even think about it without internally squealing like a schoolgirl with a crush- was flushed cheeks and a goddamn kitten sneeze.
Honestly- and yes, once again, they'd talked about this- they felt borderline robbed of allergy-season Hinata. Sure, that was probably a horrible thing to say since the ginger also had a slight runny nose and probably a stuffy headache some of the time as well, but he was so...dude, he was just so...Hinata, which was another way of saying indescribably perfect and made them all simultaneously want to scream and shield him from everything bad ever.
It was usually a struggle in the first place to take Hinata seriously on the court even when he was in game-mode and focused because of his small stature and fiery orange hair, but it was borderline infuriating whenever a gust of wind blew some pollen through the open gym doors and their gameplay was interrupted by a little, high pitched, fucking...fucking kitten sneeze, courtesy of their very own middle blocker, as if he wasn't already unfairly charismatic and charming enough.
It was seriously bad for their health to be around him all day without collapsing into a puddle of mush on the spot.
When they'd heard it the first time, they'd all had very mixed reactions. Most of them, like Daichi or Yamaguchi, had had to physically take a second to register what the hell they'd just heard before positively dissolving on the spot at Hinata's scrunched up, flushed face and wide puppy eyes staring up at them while he apologized profusely for interrupting the captain's speech, which yes, had promptly been postponed because no one's brains could think straight with a vision of that kitten sneeze replaying over and over in each of their heads.
Tsukishima had visibly frozen on the spot at the sound, face slack and eyes glued to the floor. If none of them had known any better, it would've looked like his brain was rebooting, which it very well might've been after hearing such an unexplainably adorable sound come out of the mouth of someone he was supposed to pretend he despised.
Kageyama had just so happened to be walking into the gym after putting all the volleyball away in the cart outside when it'd happened. Actually, thinking back, it was probably the setter opening the door that had been the cause of Hinata's sneeze in the first place because after he'd heard it, he hadn't even taken a step inside before he turned on his heel and closed the door behind him.
It was interesting, really. Kageyama was about as immune as they came when it came to Hinata since he was around his best friend all day, every day as much as he bickered with the kid, and even he'd had to physically take a breather before confronting him again, which, when he had, they might add, he hadn't been able to look him in the eye.
It was annoying. It was stupidly annoying that stupidly charming and adorable Hinata had this kind of effect over all of them, but at the same time, none of them could find it in themselves to care.
To be honest, if it weren't for the impressive hold Hinata had around each of their hearts, they'd probably try to make him sneeze in a game and see how their opponents would react if they didn't already know that they'd all freeze up themselves. Nishinoya had theorized that half of them would probably go into shock if they knew him, and the other half of the teams who hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Hinata yet would probably melt on the spot.
To be honest, getting dragged into Hinata's inescapable charm by nothing more than a mere smile was already overwhelming enough. None of them could imagine meeting Hinata for the first time because of a kitten sneeze.
Tanaka had speculated that the sheer amount of dopamine and serotonin that would be released after seeing that for the first time could probably kill a person.
The rest of them had been inclined to agree. Hinata was just that charismatic, likable, and downright charming.
So, to sum everything up in a couple of sentences, was allergy season hard for everyone? Yes, absolutely.
Was it borderline fatal for the Karasuno volleyball team? If feeling like your heart was going to explode from the sheer amount of adorableness exuding from your little ginger teammate counted as fatal, then yeah. Without a doubt, yeah.
"Okay, everyone. Run through it again!" Daichi clapped his hands together, face set into a straight line from where he sat observing on the bleachers. "We need to get this position down today, you guys. Strongest receivers in the back. Hinata, Kageyama, take your positions as normal. Nishinoya, you'll sub in for shorty once the rotation comes around."
Everyone shuffled into position, grumbling. They'd been at this for at least the last hour, doing nothing other than getting in formation and practicing running through serve-receive until their captain deemed it good enough to accommodate the team they would be going up against next week. It was busywork, and although vital, none of them were particularly enjoying it.
"Kageyama!" Suga called from next to Daichi, cupping his hands over his mouth like a megaphone. "Wipe that expression off your face, and straighten your palms! You slack off, you lose a point." He turned away towards the sidelines. "And Yamaguchi! Just because you're not on the court right now doesn't give you the excuse to be lazy. We need to be on our A-game, and we can't do that by taking any shortcuts."
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
Both first years mumbled in unison, exchanging dry, unamused looks. How those two could sit there and lecture their underclassman while not even participating themselves was beyond them, but no one had said anything yet in fear of angering the already clearly irked captains any further. Asashi had already tried approaching them near the middle of practice to ask what had gotten them in such a foul mood, but all he'd received for his struggle had been a glare and a flick of a wrist.
"A bit overkill, don't you think?" Tanaka murmured from the right of Kageyama. "I wonder what slithered into their granny panties last night."
"Oh, relax." Tsukishima huffed from the sidelines, but it was easy to tell that he was as decidedly put off with their captains' behavior as everyone else. "They're just trying to get us prepared; there's nothing wrong with that."
"Says the guy who looked like he was gonna burst into tears when Daichi took him off the court." Kageyama quipped back. He would've flipped him the middle finger for good measure if he hadn't been at the risk of the captain's notoriously short fuse, but that would probably just land him another lecture about 'respecting his teammates' or some stupid stuff he didn't care at all about, so he refrained. Barely. Just barley. Tsukishima's stupid fucking face was just asking for it, but never let it be said that Kageyama Tobio had no self-control. "You don't have to suck up when they're not listening, idiot. They're being complete control freaks."
"Not control freaks." Hinata piped in, turning to face the trio with an equally bored expression. "I hate this just as much as you guys do. We're not doing anything important, we're not moving around, and we're not playing volleyball. I don't think I've touched one in thirty minutes."
Kageyama rolled his eyes. "I pray for a speedy recovery for your withdrawal symptoms. That must be so tragic."
"It is tragic. This is supposed to be volleyball practice. What's the point in volleyball practice when there are no volleyballs?"
"Stop enunciating every other word."
"Stop being an idiot."
"Moron."
"Stupid."
"Dumbass."
"Try-hard."
"Tangerine."
"Your highness."
"Shrimp." He paused when Hinata didn't immediately offer his rebuttal. The ginger's face scrunched up a little, nose crinkling and eyes narrowing by default just the tiniest bit. "Are your allergies acting up?"
"Yeah, sorry, just-" Hinata waved him off after a sniff, rubbing at the bottom of his nose as gently as he could. "Sorry. I don't know what it is, but the pollen in here is extra bad today. I'll be fine, just gimme a second and it'll pass-"
"No!" Tanaka blurted, thrusting his hands forward so fast they almost toppled the middle blocker completely. Several heads turned their way at his sudden outburst, one of the said heads, unfortunately, being Suga looking up from where he was correcting Ennoshita's posture, but luckily all he offered him was an eye narrow and displeased frown. "Ugh, crap, sorry about that shorty. I'm just saying, don't hurt yourself, you know? If you wanna cough, then cough away. It's not like it'll get any of us sick or anything."
Hinata just shrugged and gave Tanaka and lopsided smile. "Eh, it's okay. I don't think you guys want to go through practice hearing me sneeze every five minutes."
"Oh no, please, do as you wish," Tanaka replied, gesturing to the entirety of the gym with sweeping arms and pointed fingers. "Sneeze away, Shou-Shou. Don't try to hold back and make your head explode for our sake. Let it out, little man. Be free."
"The hell're you getting at?" Tsukishima murmured into Tanaka's ear, shooting Kageyama and quizzical eyebrow. The setter simply replied with a shrug. He had no idea what was going on in his upperclassman's impressively warped brain either.
"Just trust me." Tanaka hissed back. He turned away again, facial features softening just the tiniest bit when they landed on the small ginger. "Just go with the flow, shorty. None of us care at all."
Hinata, once again, looked up at Tanaka with scrunched-up eyes and puckered, confused lips. "Are you-"
He didn't even get halfway through his sentence before he sneezed, curling in on himself and letting out the cutest, most high-pitched, adorable kitten sound one could ever imagine.
The effect was instantaneous, and...oh. Kageyama blinked in surprise. Tanaka was actually sort of a genius.
The room, quite literally, froze, and Kageyama could've sworn he saw every participant's heart jump into their throat at the sheer amount of freaking serotonin that little noise brought accompanied by big brown eyes and thick orange curls.
"Hinata," Suga said after a moment of silence. Whatever previous anger he'd been retaining was long gone, the frustrated bite to his voice replaced entirely by tight, barely concealed fondness. "Are you okay? Do you need us to close a window or something?"
"Oh! No, I'm all good!" Hinata shook his head vigorously, letting out two more sneezes in quick succession and melting everyone when his nose twitched, of course, like a freaking kitten. "My allergies are just acting up a little today, no worries. I'm fine."
All it took was that one reassuring smile and one more sneeze for Daichi's barely-held-together resolve to crumble into nothing but dust.
"Okay." Their captain sounded strangled, and yep, they all knew that feeling all too well. It was the feeling that basically anyone within a mile radius of Hinata got because this kid was too damn perfect and adorable for his own freaking good. "Alright, I think we've...I think we've had enough for today, I think. Yeah. We can...is everyone okay with leaving early and picking up where we left off tomorrow?"
"Yep!" Tanaka called instantly, followed closely behind by all of the first years and eventually the chorus of the rest of the volleyball team. "Sounds good to me."
"Cool," Daichi muttered weakly. Much like his silver-haired counterpart, whatever bad feeling's he'd harbored towards the beginning of practice had melted into nothing more but softness, softness and the kind of happiness that made you want to run one hundred consecutive laps without stopping. "Cool. Sounds cool to me, everyone." He waved weakly, face fixed with an expression Kageyama knew all too well after seeing Hinata charm student after student this entire school year, because that was the face of someone desperately trying to resist wrapping the ginger in a hug and never letting go. "Have a good weekend."
"You too." Kageyama chirped back, reflexively placing his hand on Hinata's head and squeezing. The ginger yelped automatically and clawed at his arm, obviously playing at their usual shtick of cat and mouse and probably yelling at him, but Kageyama didn't really care. This stupid, moronic, orange-haired best friend of his had just unknowingly gotten him out of the most boring practice alive, and Tanaka was a freaking genius.
It was a miracle they didn't exploit Hinata's undeniable charm and overall charisma more often, honestly.
Their middle blocker could probably just sweet talk his way into winning nationals and not even know what happened.
Kageyama just sighed. He'd seen Hinata melt people enough times before with nothing more than a twinkle of his eye and a small, innocent smile to know that that was definitely possible.
Definitely, without a doubt, one-hundred percent possible.
