The Ace of Spades

{4} And so it begins

(Y/N), Bokuto, and Akaashi sat on one side of the table, facing Kuroo, Tsukishima, and Kenma. The new group of Volleyball players had all left shortly after their team assignments. Hinata left right after, followed by Oikawa who told him multiple times to ignore Kageyama. Yet to no avail, Hinata stormed out after the black-haired man.

"I paid the owner to let us stay," Kuroo spoke.

"Of course you did," (Y/N) replied bitterly.

Had the last adventure not been enough for him? Her mind was flooding back with those terrifying memories. She could picture Sakusa so well, the sound of gunfire, the feeling of Suna's hands around her neck.

"It's nothing evil, I swear," Kuroo continued, running a hand through his messy dark hair.

"Was the last few years not enough for you?" Bokuto's voice trembled slightly.

Kuroo shrugged and took a sip of water. "I already said I'm not doing anything evil."

(Y/N) knew that he had to be lying. Bokuto put his money into fixing cars, Osamu and Atsumu put theirs into their business, and no one simply bought a volleyball team for no apparent reason. Especially not someone like Kuroo.

"I mean why aren't you guys giving Hinata and Oikawa the third degree?" Kuroo questioned.

"Because they ran after Kageyama. If they were still in this restaurant we'd be asking them the same thing," Akaashi suddenly meddled in.

Tsukishima pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He regained that look of annoyance which he had constantly back when he and (Y/N) first met. Everything about this scenario felt familiar.

"Kuroo save us the bullshit and start talking," Bokuto groaned.

From the kitchen, a petite brunette came out carrying a tray of appetizers. She kindly placed them in front of Kuroo and then asked if he needed anything else. He smiled up at her and pulled a one hundred dollar bill from his wallet. The young girl was left speechless as he placed it in her hand and then told her that he was all set.

"Sports teams make a lot of profit," Kenma said while Kuroo was still trying to get the waitress to take his money. "If you market your team, win some games, and get people coming to games you can triple that profit."

He then slides over his phone with a spreadsheet. It had a bunch of random categories, all with large numbers typed next to them. He scrolled down to a row that said PROJECTED SUM. Next to the words was a 9-digit number with a dollar sign next to it.

"We ran the numbers. Sure I asked Kenma to give me the best possible outcome but even if we don't do as well it will still be a handsome number," Kuroo budded in.

(Y/N) glanced over at Akaashi and Bokuto who were both staring ferociously at the document. It was certainly a lot of money, but they were used to getting large amounts of cashback in the day.

"Yeah, but you would still have to split that with other people," Bokuto stated.

"He's right. I mean players, broadcasting, advertising, travel expenses, the list goes on and on," Akaashi added.

Kenma shook his head and then quickly swiped on his phone a few times. Up popped a list of names, all crossed out with red ink. "This is everyone who we plan to fire. We then bring in guys who we know and cut some deals," Kenma explained.

Kuroo smiles, looking amorously at Kenma. "Basically if we fill up our team with you guys and some other old friends we can figure out a way to keep that money..." Kuroo's voice lingered as he tried to come up with the words he wanted to say. "To keep that money in the family, let's put it that way."