𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖

xxviii - asahi's trauma

"Oi," Kageyama raised an eyebrow at the trembling Hinata. "Don't tell me your stomach is hurting again."

"I-I'm quivering in anticipation!"

"Keep telling yourself that," Crow murmured as he laid in Asahi's lap, the ace french braiding the ravenette's hair. "It might just come true."

"I think he's quivering in anticipation," Suga chimed in, only to be shut down as Tanaka added his two cents.

"Nah, he's just quivering, period."

"I get it," Nishinoya squatted down. "The sight of Date Tech freaked you out!"

"Of course it did--" Hinata barely realized what he had just said. "I mean didn't--I mean did!"

"Make up your mind!"

"You're just as wimpy, but you don't look that nervous Asahi," Suga commented, glancing at the ace doing Crow's hair.

"Wimpy?" He looked offended.

"It's because he's braiding Crow's hair," Noya spoke up, coming over and plopping beside the ravenette and ace. "Tradition helps to calm you down, especially since we didn't get to do it for last year's match."

"Tradition?"

"Yeah," The second and third years confirmed. "We braid Crow's hair for the first match we have. He hates having his hair in a braid, but it brings us luck!"

"I just don't like the feeling of the braid pulling on my scalp every time I move," the ravenette grumbled before sighing a bit. "But it helps this guy calm down so I can live with it for one game."

"Right, there's that," Asahi nodded. "But there's another trick to get rid of the jitters," He went on to enlighten them, multitasking as he finished up Crow's hair. "Recall an experience that scared the living daylights out of you. The scarier the better. It'll remind you that there are scarier things out there so you can handle this. For example," He smiled sheepishly. "I always like about the first time I saw Crow in an alleyway."

"That is pretty scary," The second and third years concurred as the ginger pondered what his traumatic experience should be. Easily the Kageyama serve incident, hands down.

"How'd you even meet him in an alley?" Yamaguchi questioned, causing the first years to perk up. Now that he actually brought it up, they were all dreadfully curious since it seemed like such an important event, not to mention how sketchy it sounded. Asahi looked a bit nervous as he glanced down at the boy in his lap.

"Can I tell them?"

"Go for it, I don't care. Might give Hinata the trauma he needs to calm down."

"Oh, I'm okay now," The ginger assured him. "But I'd still like to know."

"I'll leave that to Asahi," Crow yawned. So, as the ace finished his masterpiece with a hair tie, he began the story of one of his core memories.

"It was a few days after we lost the prelims, and a few days after I started skipping out on practice. Nishinoya had gotten suspended the day before, so no one was coming to try to convince me to come back. In school, at least. It was late as I was walking home, so I was trying to be a bit more cautious. When I heard someone call my name as I passed a particularly dark alleyway, uh," He paused as he flushed slightly. "I nearly jumped out of my skin."

"I think you almost fainted."

"Yeah, but that was when I actually saw you," Asahi reminded him. "Seeing someone soaked in blood will gives you nightmares."

"Soaked..."

"In.."

"Blood?" The first years gaped at this new information. Crow hummed in affirmation.

"Yep. My clothes were dripping with blood, half mine and half my attackers'."

"Attackers?" At least he was somewhat justified if he killed somebody if they attacked first, Yamaguchi thought to himself as Asahi went on to explain.

"Yeah, he'd just gotten out of the hospital to come talk to me per Nishinoya's request, which made me feel really bad for being the reason he got attacked in the first place..." He trailed off with a grimace. "Part of that is why I came back to the club."

"It wasn't your fault, dummy," Crow flicked his forehead, causing the ace to wince and chuckle.

"I still feel bad, especially since your old wound reopened and you got new ones too."

"Meh, ya get stabbed once, ya get stabbed a hundred times, it's fine." The ravenette shrugged. The first years gawked at this man, who apparently had gotten stabbed repeatedly.

"If you say so," The third years sweatdropped.

"Anyway, Crow called out to me, I saw him covered in blood, almost fainted but somehow the iron smell and the look on Crow's face rooted me enough to stay conscious. He walked me home after putting my spare jacket on, and we talked for a while after he cleaned up. It was during that talk that we went through the game together, and he made me realize that it really wasn't all on me. He told me to blame him, if I really needed something to blame," He grimaced again. "That's kinda hard to do when he started bleeding through the clothes I'd lent him..."

"So basically," Nishinoya summed up. "He scared and guilted you into coming back? That is so Crow."

"I do me."

"Are you okay now?" Kageyama spoke up, the concern and worry contorting the expression on his face. Crow, in response, lifted his shirt, which revealed several scars. There was a scar on his neck as well from the time someone managed to get the drop on him, but it was faint since it hadn't been deep, so no one really saw it unless they looked for it specifically.

"Do I look okay?"

"Physically yes," Someone that had yet to speak up said, gaining everyone's attention. Tsukishima smirked a bit. "Mentally, absolutely fucked up."

"Fair enough," The ravenette gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds about right, too."

"Wait," Karasuno's libero turned to Asahi curiously. "If you had a coping strategy, why did you get so bummed the last time we took on Date Tech?"

"Noya-san, stop pouring salt and pepper into his wounds like that!"