Level Horizon (Haikyuu!! WingedAU)

Year Three.25 2/3; Tentative Direction

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time. ~Lynden B Johnson

Lev Haiba smirks as the small redhead pauses beside the net with something of a guilty look of surprise, realization dawning.

"Eh... Kageyama?" Hinata says sheepishly as he looks at the Volley net. "I maybe spoke too soon. I didn't realize we were talking about regular Volley..."

"You don't say." The setter deadpans.

"We only ever played aerial at the rookery, it makes sense that they wouldn't know the ground game." Asahi says and Noya cocks a brow at him.

"Did you plan this?" Lev grins. Kuroo may have gotten to see aerial Volley games— and maybe Mori, too, but he never had.

"They have a ground net just over there if we want to play a bit later. Mori could probably still play either way, though; he doesn't need height for his position so I doubt he'd need wings, either." He says instead, his leveler's death glare quickly finding him across the circle of avians.

He can't help the way his smile gets bigger. Ribbing the short cat has always been a staple in their relationship, an indirect contributor to them ending up levelers. Heh, he will never regret pushing that little bit extra the day they became levelers instead of backing off like he'd considered.

"Keep talking, you moron." He dares, the slight twitch of his tail just like it had been that day. Hinata looks up at Kageyama uncertainly.

"We haven't played Volley in five years. And my new wings don't always react the same as my old ones. Can we really go up against Iwaizumi's team?" He says with a half-pout, and Kageyama turns a dull cobalt gaze on him.

"Probably not. But we've already agreed. And stomaching one more loss to my father for the chance to escape unhindered— I have no intention of swallowing it without a fight, so get ready."

"All right! I've always wondered what it'd be like to play regular volley with you guys." Bokuto says and Noya glances up at him with a flat expression.

"Probably less fun than you are thinking— you are playing with Kageyama. You won't catch any breaks if you are screwing up." He says and Asahi grins a little sheepishly.

"He can be pretty tough sometimes. But he's trying to motivate you." He says.

"You mean he can be worse than normal?" Tsukishima asks with a cynical smirk. Kageyama scowls with annoyance, but Hinata's face lights up.

"You haven't seen Kageyama serious in a match, Blondy. He doesn't usually get that into it in Ground Volley because it's always casual play, but he goes all 'Fwah!' and hyper focused and tunnel vision— the whole bit when he goes up against the Grand King or Iwa's team. He gets scary zoned and it's so cool and it's awesome when we win!"

The redhead's sudden enthusiasm makes Lev think that even if he'd realized they'd be playing aerial Volley, the small spiker would have still agreed to play even if only to see Kageyama get into it.

"So the psychosis is a family thing." The ibis drawls.

"No, it's a sentry thing, so can it, Beanpole." Noya mutters.

"Eh, how do you want us lined up Kageyama?" Asahi asks, pointedly steering the conversation away from the aggravated path it had been headed down. The avian heir looks around at them with assessment.

"Lev's probably right, Yaku could play libero position if Noya starts slowing down. You okay with that?" He asks and the russet cat nods, and Lev's eyes crease with excitement at the anticipation in his leveler's smirk.