"Thought you'd be more…fuzzy still," Yamaguchi finally woke up all the way, after a rushed pregame practice. They were waiting in the hallway, for the gym to open up so they could warm up and mentally prepare for the pregame ceremonies.
"Man, you look terrible," Noya joined the conversation in his painfully tactless way.
"Couldn't sleep," Kitsuna yawned as they finally filtered in and got changed into their uniforms. She used her jacket as a cover over her shoulders to swap shirts out, regretting not changing beforehand. She slid her arms into the sleeves after, not one of the starting lineup for the first game at least.
"Wow, orange is not your color Kageyama!," Hinata teased the setter. There was some bickering back and forth about the change into their alternate uniforms. Kitsuna pulled the bright orange jersey out, frowning at it.
"You good?," Yamaguchi asked her. She dropped it, earning a glare from the coach for not tucking it in.
"Why's it gotta be orange. It's so bright," Kitsuna complained as she joined the others on the side. She yawned again, and zoned out during the announcements. The guys on the court were rusty, and fumbling a little bit more than they should be. Suga lost it finally, shouting at them from the side. He stopped after a glare from the referee, and Kitsuna died laughing after her initial startled reaction.
"Dude. You're gonna be fucked out there," she held herself up with his shoulder, eyes watering up and wheezing.
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for that," Suga said in an uncharacteristically flat and terse tone. Kitsuna's cackling stopped, though she was still struggling to keep from laughing a little bit as she forced herself to stand upright. She smacked his shoulder and smiled, looking at the match as it started to get going for real now that the team got past their nerves.
"Look, they're starting to play for real now. So maybe they'll pull off something really good and everyone will forget about it," she tried to reassure him but quickly got caught up in the momentum of the match herself. Karasuno lost the first set, and was keeping pace during the second. Sugawara was called over to the bench, about to be sent out to cover some of the slack where others were already getting exhausted.
"Hey," Ennoshita stepped up beside Kitsuna and whispered in her ear with a hand over his mouth.
"Hm?," Kitsuna glanced at him, but maintained her rather serious stance while watching the match. It was hard to tell if there was anything else on her mind at all, though Ennoshita was sure there had to be. After all, Daichi had pulled him aside to talk about her habit, keeping close to the windows behind the balcony so there was no chance of Ennoshita feigning ignorance to it. It was there that they both witnessed something amazing, for various reasons.
"Just, try not to tease him too much today. You probably already added to his stress levels," the future captain pleaded with the girl.
"Hah?, Kitsuna raised her voice and finally broke her concentration to give him a nasty leer. The others waiting nearby were pretending not to notice the interaction but that was getting harder and harder by the second. Ennoshita flinched, but wasn't going to back down and didn't want to shatter her mental state completely.
"Shhh! I'm trying to be quiet on purpose," he shushed her with his hand over his mouth. Her sharp eyes narrowed into a wary glare, but she didn't shout at him again. For now.
"Sorry. Um, Daichi pulled me over to talk and…we sorta saw? Not the whole thing! But, well. Uh," Ennoshita lost his confidence and was dangerously close to spilling his guts then and there. Kitsuna's lips tightened and her eyes shot wide open, finally realizing what he meant. She took a deep breath while the boy babbled beside her, and rammed her fist hard into his stomach with a hard exhale. He doubled over, but shut up at least.
"Eavesdropping is pretty lame," was all she said before turning her focus back on the court. That's what it looked like, but the tops of her ears and nose were tinged with red and her eyes didn't appear to actually be processing what was in front of her as Karasuno took the second set. She started doing some targeted stretches, and taping up finally.
"Oh, look at that! Are they gonna send out their little fox right at the end?," one of the announcers caught on to her movements and made a strange comment. She shot a look right at him, with her serious game face on it was a whole different kind of intimidating. Sure enough she was called to the bench just a few minutes after that. The number she was given to hold out and fill in for was a major shock though. For her, and the corresponding teammate being pulled off the court. He headed her way after the rally and took the card from her hand. His expression was hard to read, but hers wasn't.
"Hey. Are you okay?," Asahi asked before leaving the court. She didn't respond at all and made her way onto the court. Before the serve went up, she did a few more last minute stretches to loosen up her suddenly stiff shoulders.
"Bold move, replacing their ace and other left wing spiker right at the end of the third set! Let's see if it pays off for them!"
"The way they're trying to conserve energy, it's like they fully expect to win this one and play a second game!"
The commentary made the pressure that much worse, for both teams. Kitsuna took another deep breath and shook her head. Things went more or less the same as before the switch, but there was some obvious timing error between Suga and Kitsuna whenever he set to her or blocked with her. The rotation brought her to the middle of the net, with Kageyama at the back, creating an opportunity.
Kageyama ended up getting first contact, sending the ball right for Kitsuna to set. Hinata and Tsukishima rushed to spike, but she sent it behind her instead. Sure, there were no blockers there, but that was not like any of the plays they had signals for or went over in practice. Suga panicked but managed to jump, knocking the ball over the net and just out of reach for the opposing libero. Takeda considered calling for a timeout, but Keishin stopped him and studied the atmosphere of the team in play.
"Hey, Kitsuna! That worked out but you gotta make sure we're on the same page," Daichi warned. She made eye contact with him for just a moment, then turned her hardened gaze back on the silver-haired setter.
"Hey. I'm not some sort of monster or ghost, y'know," she didn't raise her voice at all, but Suga's face shifted as though he really did see a ghost where she stood. Everyone turned to the net on the whistle blow, so Daichi had trouble figuring out what happened in the next instant. But Suga flashed a signal just like always, and finally without hesitation. They rolled into the next rally, set point for Karasuno, and it was a long one. The ball flew back and forth, round and round the court. Finally it was sent back to the front, by an impressive dig from Suga. Hinata jumped, the blockers following, but his hand connected with only air. Kitsuna rose up behind him, slamming the ball down into the middle of the court with force that would terrify weaker players.
"Fuck yeah!," Kitsuna shouted along with the others, celebrating their victory for just a moment before they moved into the end of match stuff. Then they left the court, having quite a bit of time before their next game would start. If it did, the games were bound to run long and the schedule would be tight. Kitsuna helped carry things out, handing them off to Kiyoko at the door.