Monochromatic: Haikyuu Fanfic

Chapter 49: Hiding

As a child, Fukui was crowned as the world's best hider in the game of hide and seek.

It was as if she knows just where the eyes wander, and those keen senses know just the perfect nook to fit her small body in. God blessed her with lean fluid reflexes like cats and movements as light as a feather. You may never know if she hid at the largest tree in the daycare's playground or if she buried herself within the leaves of a bush.

Hiding. She's way too good at hiding.

It was a hot Monday in Miyagi, years and years ago. They were all so small. So tiny. So naive.

"Gah...! Where in the world is Ume-chan!?"

Oikawa hated how impossible it was to find her. She's always hiding or running away just before his eyes could blink - and it's frustrating. It was one of these days that Oikawa is left  to deal with her again, he found Iwa-chan long ago hiding behind the shade of the slide. But just before he's able to search the one last possible location, the giant tree, he happened to bump into the largest kid in the daycare.

This kid could easily be confused as a junior high student if it weren't for his teeth that's stained with cavities. Oikawa merely bumped into him - and yet it was enough to annoy the bully to shove him roughly to the ground. Oikawa landed harshly on his back, the very air in his lungs knocked out of him.

It really did hurt, Oikawa protests. He's known to be a crybaby, and was ironically a subject that girls love to tease. All the girls in pre-school thought he was hopeless, because guys "shouldn't cry like girls." And this made him a vulnerable target for bullying too.

He hated to admit it, but the way his elbow skidded on the ragged concrete stings like hell. Tears prickled on the corners of his eyes as he heard the looming boy bark out a laugh.

"So they're right...! You're the crybaby everyone's talking about!" He cackled, "Aww is your little pinky hurt~?"

Oikawa was only a kid - a kid with the softest heart goddamnit. He felt so helpless as he looked up at him, hiccuping his cries and trying his best to choke back his tears.

"Oi! Don't push him like that!"

And of course, Iwaizumi saved the day. He planted himself right in front of Tooru to protect him, and it's quite a daunting move... The bully in front was more than a foot taller than him, and Iwa-chan cranes his neck to look up with fury in his eyes. With a swift move, he drags the bully down to his eye level by the collar. An intense stare-off began, and while Iwaizumi's gritting his teeth in anger, the bully merely smiles with that shit-eating grin.

It only takes one flex of a muscle to land a hard punch on his stomach until -

"Come on...Why interrupt during our game? That's not cool at all."

A voice groaned directly from above, and it's a familliar, smooth voice that Oikawa and Iwaizumi fully knew. Fukui's head pops from the leaves, long locks of black hair dropping down. With experience, she leaped from the tree with a clean land on her feet.

She placed a gentle hand onto Iwaizumi's arm that held down the bully's collar. Iwaizumi glances at her direction, as if to protest without words, but Fukui gave him that pointed look. Reluctantly, he let his arms drop.

Fukui smiled sweetly at Iwaizumi, a tone so cloyingly sweet. "That's it. Violence is not the answer."

...And then she whips around to land a meaty uppercut on the kid's jaw.

Oikawa was quite certain he heard a loud, violent smack - grimacing at the boy who's nose began to drip viciously of blood.  Then he started wailing loudly, snot mixing with blood.