𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆

speak of the devil

(and he shall appear)

The first thing that came to mind was Queen's We Will Rock You when Hinata was violently woken up. His body couldn't decide between having a seizure or suddenly having motion sickness.

"Oh! You're awake!"

The redhead blinked hard before sitting up. "J-Jikaru-chan?"

The girl nodded before patting his back with a close eyed smile. "Glad to see you can put context clues together," She unexpectedly hugged him, her curly hair tickling his neck. "Introduce me to your blonde manager." The same smile was on her face, but for some reason it looked more threatening than before. Maybe because she was threatening him.

Shoyou perked up as the sleep stopped clouding his mind. "I haven't seen you in like, two years! You look exactly the same!"

"And you're still the size of my little sister!" She replied with the same enthusiasm. Hinata pouted and shoved her weakly. "Don't you have breakfast at nine?"

"Yeah- wait. How are you here?!" He heard a click in a corner of the room and a loud sigh. He looked over his shoulder to see Tsukishima and Sugawara looking at a stopwatch.

The blond sighed and gave their co-captain 200 yen. "The one time I had faith in you to not be an idiot, Shrimp,"

Sugawara sighed with a smirk on his face. "You're just too predictable," He stopped to ruffle Hinata's hair and waved goodbye as he left the room.

Jikaru gave a soft chuckle and answered Shoyou's question. "My uncle is the weight training coach for this college, and he let my cousin and I come too," She stood and helped the redhead.

"I have to get to breakfast!" the boy gasped as he looked at the time on his phone. He was pretty sure he heard Tsukishima call him stupid, but he wasn't too worried about it. His shower and everything between getting dressed was quick.

"You guys are like Mario and Luigi, but better," Hinata knows exactly who his friend is talking to the second he walks into the cafeteria. He looked over to see her hands spread out on the table trying to map out her thought process. "Just hear me out--"

"Who the fuck is better than Mario and Luigi?"

Nishinoya punched Tanaka in the arm. "Us!"

Daichi was already attempting to redirect the conversation in hopes of calming their libero down before he was too far gone. "You're giving them the Mario and Luigi rant this early?" Hinata asked as he sat between her and Kageyama.

"It's the only appropriate time to give it,"

***

"Is she your friend I thought you were dating?" Oikawa nodded to the railing where the Jikaru and her cousin were laughing and pushing each other. They were running hitting drills, so the teams were mixed together.

Hinata spun the ball in his hands. "Yeah! She's been bugging me to introduce her to our assistant manager," He saw Suga making a 'keep it up' motion from the other side of the court where they were shagging balls.

Shit! What do I say now?! "I think we should work on receiving today after lunch," The setter picked up.

"So I should bring a helmet,"

Oikawa laughed and ran his hands through his hair. "Then I won't be able to see your face," Smooth bastard. Said face flared up red as the decoy restrained himself from hiding behind the volleyball in his hands.

"You can't just say stuff like that!" He whisper-yelled. He tossed his ball to the target setter and hit his ball out of bounds. "So embarrassing..." The decoy whispered to himself as he went to shag his ball. Oikawa and Sugawara rotated into target setters as the managers chatted among themselves about players' stats and whatever else.

As they gathered the volleyballs to put in the carts, the third year setter didn't mass the chance to spare him multiple winks. The effect? His face was red for the remainder of their drills.

After their drills he begged Kageyama for a couple quick tosses while Nishinoya, Ennoshita, and Daichi stayed behind to receive his spikes. "You guys received those a little too well. Maybe I should do body weight exercises," Hinata pondered as they headed towards the showers.

Kageyama hummed as he wiped his neck with a towel. "You don't do any?" Daichi asked while he held the door to the building.

"Besides gym, not really," Kageyama looked pissed, but he always looked generally annoyed whenever anything left Shoyou's mouth so he was ignored.

"I think I'll start too," Nishinoya agreed.

Ennoshita shook his head. "I don't know if I should be disturbed or inspired," They parted as they made it into the locker room to their respective lockers.

+++++

a/n: i'm thinkin' about doing the next chapter in first person...??? Let me know if you guys are into it before I start writing the next chapter :)

- edae