Sorry about the late update, but I've been super busy. That also means a shorter chapter, but a chapter nonetheless.

Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu!

~An Old Promise Fulfilled~

It had been awhile since Kageyama had been this tired. He was partly convinced that he had walked from the school to his house in his sleep, because he could honestly not recall most of it. A week of training camp and a full day of practice matches against a strong school like Nekoma would do that to a person. He and Hinata had originally planned to practice some new attacks, so that they had other things that their special quick, but even Hinata had almost fallen asleep just talking about it, so they decided to meet early the next day.

"I'm home," Kageyama said as he entered the house. He kicked off his shoes, knowing that his mother would yell at him later, but he just couldn't be bothered at the moment.

"Tobio, do you want chicken or fish for dinner?" His mother called from the kitchen just as he was about to enter his room.

"I'm really tired so I'm not gonna eat din-"

"What!" She yelled, making Kageyama instantly regret his decision, "As an athlete you should know that it's important to eat dinner! I will ground you if eat less than me, so get in here and help prepare the chicken!"

"I thought you asked me if I wanted fish or chicken?" Kageyama sighed as he dragged his feet into the kitchen, hiding a yawn behind his hand.

"Well, you don't get a choice anymore and I want chicken."

Kageyama and his mother prepared the dinner, while she would ask questions about the training camp. The questions were mostly training based and she was particularly interested in their new coach, since Kageyama had told her that he had never had any previous experience in coaching.

It might be important to mention the fact that Kageyama's mother was a coach herself. She was the head coach of Nadeshiko Japan, which was Japan Women's National Football Team (1) and a few years ago, she had lead the team to victory in the World Championship. A fact that she would never let anyone forget and would use to get her way with almost anything.

"Are you getting along with you new team?" She asked suddenly, catching Kageyama off guard, causing him to stumble upon his words.

"Um, yeah, I guess, you could say, yeah..."

"It's important to get along with your team mates in a team sport. Besides, you shouldn't go your whole high school life not making any friends. Since Takehiro and Houjou don't attend Karasuno, you can't do with just them." She clasped her hands together, "That reminds me! Wouldn't you meet Houjou at tournaments? It would be neat if both your teams made it to nationals this year!"

"Mm, sure..."

"Aww, c'mon Tobio, don't be like that. Show me some spirit!"

Kageyama yawned.

Kageyama went straight to bed after dinner, fell asleep immediately and started dreaming.

About 7 years ago

Kageyama was standing outside a public gymnasium, curiously looking at the older kids playing Volleyball. Today he was going to join this team and start playing Volley for real. The team were for all children who had yet to attend Middle School, where there'd be official clubs one could join. Kageyama still had four years until he started Middle School, so if he wanted to get good at Volley, he needed to attend this club, but... There were so many people and Kageyama couldn't find the courage to enter on his own.

"Are you going in? There'll probably be a lot of people today, so you want a good place to put your stuff, so you won't lose it." A voice from behind Kageyama asked.

Kageyama turned around to find a tall boy standing right behind him.

"Yes, um, are you a part of this club?" Kageyama asked, assuming this boy was a year older than him, since he was tall and seemed to know his way around things here.

"I'm actually joining today, but my brother used to go here, so I'm somewhat familiar with this place."

"How old are you?"

"I'm seven, but we should really get in, I can already see a big group coming soon."

Kageyama ended up following the boy around the entire time he was there. He even sat beside him, when their coach explained how things were going to work in the club. Apparently they would try playing all the positions for a month and then they would choose their position, when they found the one that they were most comfortable with. They would also be playing with children who weren't in their grade, so the younger players could learn from the more experienced players in the club. Of course, the club was mostly for fun and there was no extreme practice that would leave you panting on the floor, but for beginners, the task of just receiving a ball correctly was very challenging.

Kageyama ended up quickly befriended the boy, as they both found it hard to socialize with big groups and they therefore tended to drift towards one another. They were both passionate about Volleyball and though they didn't talk about anything else, Kageyama could easily say that he was closer to this boy than he had been with anyone else.

A few weeks after they had joined the club, Kageyama's friend got an admirer. It wasn't a girl who had a crush on him, but a boy who looked up to him. In the beginning, he just observed them from afar. He didn't have a problem talking to other people, he just seemed to be more interested in Kageyama's friend than the other friends he'd made in the club.

"You should probably talk to him," Kageyama told his friend one day before practice started

"Why? If he wants to talk to me, he can just talk to me."

"He's probably too shy. He looks away whenever you look in his direction."

"Really? I hadn't noticed. You're a good observer, Setter was probably a good choice for you."

"Yeah, well, ever since I was introduced to Volley, I always imagined myself as a Setter, so it was just a natural choice for me." Kageyama looked over his friends shoulder and noticed someone approaching, "Look he's coming over."

When the admirer came up to them, his cheeks flushed red instantly and without a word he held out a small box. None of them moved or spoke, which made everything really awkward after five seconds. The admirer seemed notice this and explained.

"I, um, I made these cookies for you, to thank you! Um, I mean, I didn't make them by myself, I had help, but they are home made!"

Kageyama's friend accepted the cookies, but before he could thank him, he just ran off.

It took the admirer a few weeks, but eventually he started talking to them normally and without fidgeting.

About half a year later, the trio was forcefully split up. The club had gotten increasingly bigger over the years and it was decided that the club was split in two teams with one of the teams using a new gym a few kilometres away. The split was decided by where people lived, so the children would be using the gym that was closest to their home. This meant that Kageyama was going to use the new gym, while his two friends were going to stay in the old one.

"We'll still meet when the club holds tournaments and then we can play against each other!" The admirer said teary-eyed after the announcement had been given.

"Yes, but I wanted to be on the same team as you guys..." Kageyama said, feeling a bit defeated.

"Then let's make a promise," Kageyama's friend declared, "The three of us won't be going to the same Middle School, so let's go to the same High School. In six years we'll be much stronger and together we'll make it to nationals!"

"How will we know what High School to go to?" Kageyama asked.

"We'll keep in touch and, when the time comes, we'll chose a strong school! Right now, the two top High Schools are Shiratorizawa and Karasuno, so we'll probably attend one of those if things don't change."

The three of them huddled together and held out their fists so they connected.

"It's a promise."

Kageyama woke up before his alarm set off and decided to just stay in bed until it did go off. He could very rarely remember his dreams, but tonight he knew he'd dreamt of when he'd first joined a Volleyball Club. He'd made two friends very quickly, but he couldn't for the life of him remember their names or what they looked like. Whenever he tried to picture them, they were all blurry. The only thing he knew for sure was that they were the same age and that one of them had been taller than him and one of them had not.

It was also only just now that he remembered the promise they'd made and a smile found its way to Kageyama's lips, when he thought about how he'd ended up going to Karasuno after all. He wondered if they could remember him and if they had met at tournaments in Middle School. There was of course also the possibility that they had both quit. If Kageyama remembered correctly, they had stopped showing up to the club tournaments after awhile. Not that any of this mattered anymore, since they hadn't kept in touch and he couldn't even remember who they were. What mattered now was his new team and nothing else.

1 – This is an actual thing and Nadeshiko Japan won the World Championship in 2011

Thanks for reading.