Stay Clever, Little Fox (The Clever Series #1) || Miya Atsumu x OC

27 | Howling Gales

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There were too many instances in Miya Osamu's life where he noticed the changes his brother's personality went through, but the scale of some of them were tectonic in comparison to the others.

The first moment was when he learned to lie at the age of 8, telling their mother that Osamu was the one who started the food fight in the kitchen, spilling all of the mirin sauce, ketchup, half-cooked rice and smashing some garlic in the process. The smooth manner in which the lie rolled off his tongue, left Osamu in such a huge state of shock that their mother mistook that as an expression that betrayed his guilt, instead of shock. In the end, both of them were grounded, but Osamu was grounded for a week more than his brother.

Since then, he'd always been able to catch onto his lies, beating him to pulp in secret if he ever lied to their mother, because he was equally scared of her as Atsumu was. Hence, they had both agreed never to lie and always admit to their mistakes in front of their mother. Not that they had to do that very often, because the simplest solution was to simply behave in her presence, effectively avoiding any scary encounters with their demon (but adorable) mother.

The next shift had been when his attempt at a jump floater in a junior high official match had gone awry. That day marked their loss in the semi-finals, but it was the beginning of 'Tsumu's vision of perfecting two incredibly powerful serves that his opponents would have a tough time dealing with. For weeks after their loss and way into their spring break before high school began, 'Tsumu practiced his serves in the local gymnasium till the only thing he remembered to do was eat, sleep, practice and repeat. That cemented the fact that one day, no matter how equally talented both the brothers would be, 'Tsumu would always be a tad bit "hungrier" than him.

That hunger only grew exponentially during their recent Inter-High, when they lost in the finals to the city boys from Itachiyama. Atsumu intensely observed Sakusa Kiyoomi and his nasty spikes along with the on-point receives by the best libero in all of Japan, mentally cataloguing whatever he deemed important, vowing to beat them one day.

Which brought him to the next moment when Osamu sensed a strange change in his brother. He'd been in a bizarre mood since he came back from his Training Camp in Tokyo. Though he did enthusiastically share the important specs of most of the players at the camp including Sakusa and Komori, a new guy called Kageyama was definitely someone important to him. His drawl when describing him became slightly longer, his words seemed a bit more stressed than usual, and his shoulders tensed up almost invisibly when he narrated his dexterity on the court.

While he definitely sounded like a skilled setter back then, it was only after their match that he realised why 'Tsumu behaved the way he did when it came to Karasuno's setter. His presence had caused a large-scale shift in his drive and ambitions for the game, and the game between the two teams proved it.

'Tsumu had always been a super volleyball freak, working harder than anyone he had ever known. But he was quieter on the court today, his senses sharper, his hunger to be the best was even more evident than ever before when he copied Karasuno freak quick with him, and his attention on little Hinata lingered longer than it did on Kageyama. Earlier, Osamu assumed that he was probably feeling threatened by yet another talented setter, but it was more of an admiration and respect he had for him than anything else. But he was definitely more agitated when it came to Hinata, and that showed when he caught his twin show unbridled awe for his athletic prowess on the court. Atsumu never showed that much awe for anyone since he'd met Aran a long time ago. So, this was definitely a new change.