REINCARNATE

34, home.

The sun was blisteringly hot against y/n's back and a light sheen of sweat made her tanned skin glisten as she tipped her water bottle towards her lips. 

I'll never get used to this heat. She thought exasperatedly as she quickly gulped the freezing cold water. Sighing contently, she swiped off some of the condensation from the bottle and ran her hand through her hair just as a voice called out to her.

"L/n!" 

Hinata Shoyo jogged towards her excitedly, his bare feet kicking up clouds of sand as he joined her beneath the shade of a large beach umbrella. Y/n smiled and waved back as she set her water bottle down and braced herself to take on the South American sunshine. Despite having lived in Brazil for a year and a half now she still couldn't handle the stifling heat and often caught herself longing for the deep winters back in Hyogo. 

Encountering Hinata was a shock to the both of them, their reunion resulting from their shared desire to move away in order to find new ways to improve. Y/n was quite impressed with his progress since they last met at Nationals; his balance was impeccable now, his foundations and overall skill set improved significantly.

"Do you wanna practice some more?" He grinned, his childish spirit and passion never left him despite all the time that passed and y/n admired him for that.

She shook her head playfully and chuckled. "No way, if I spend another hour under that sun I'm gonna be burnt crispier than the bacon I had for breakfast."

They stood at eye level, Hinata with his fiery orange gaze contrasting her own cool blue. He stuck out his bottom lip in a slight pout and tilted his head to the side, "Please? I'll pay for dinner."

Y/n sighed deeply and gave a halfhearted nod, Hinata had long mastered Atsumu's puppy eye look which he knew she could never say no to. "Fine."

The sand burned the calloused soles of her feet as y/n gingerly followed him, she felt as though if she listened carefully enough she'd be able to hear the sizzling of the heat-baked sand against her tender skin.

"Don't get me wrong, I love beach volleyball, but I just can't stand sand." She exclaimed. "It gets everywhere! I'd rather play indoors where your feet won't get obliterated by stray rocks and shells."

Hinata snickered at her dismay and dusted off his knees pointedly. "But what's the point of playing indoors when the weather's always this nice outside? You can't get sun like this in Japan."

"I miss the snow." Y/n sighed blissfully, trying to picture the tiny cold snowflakes drifting down from white clouds. "Mae, Ayano, and I have a tradition each winter where we use the first snowfall to build this massive pile of snowballs and ambush the others, Suna hated getting snow shoved down his jacket but his expression always cracked me up. We'd go skiing too, that was really fun."

"Someone sounds homesick." He smiled, palming the volleyball between his hands. 

"I always felt sort of burdened with all these promises I made but moving away really helped me set up a new perspective. I feel free, but again-"

"It's not the same as home, I know." Hinata finished for her, a slight shadow of sadness flickered behind his gaze. "I miss my friends, even though I made a lot of new ones here it's not the same without them around."

"Yeah I get that." Y/n nodded, thinking of a certain someone. "Do you wanna finish up practice? The sun's behind a cloud right now."

Despite her passionate dislike for sand, beach volleyball could do wonders for an indoor player. The uneven, unreliable surface forced y/n and Hinata to ensure each step was well placed and stable. Beach was also excellent for vertical training which y/n struggled with at first, it was difficult adjusting to a court that fought against you with every movement. She had to jump higher, push harder, and acclimate to being able to use the sandy terrain to give herself an advantageous edge once her feet where once again on solid wood floor.

"You know, I wanna start my own club one day." Y/n huffed as they peppered over the net, the sand sliding and shifting beneath her feet as she moved.

"Really!? That's so cool!" Hinata exclaimed as he easily set the ball back to her, his form even better than hers now. He won't admit it, but Kageyama would probably be proud.

"Yeah I'm seriously considering it! I mean, I won't get to play forever right?"

She winced as a gust of wind suddenly snatched the ball and sent it flying, her body moved instinctively as she chased after it. Stretching out her right arm, she caught the ball midair with a smooth dolphin dive and landed with an irritated grunt as the sand engulfed her body.

"Besides, as much as it may hurt, I'd rather dive on solid ground than swallow another mouthful of sand BLEGH!" 

Hinata plopped down in the sand next to her and for a while they listened to the peaceful noises of waves crashing against the shore, seabirds calling, and children playing in the distance. Y/n's mind wandered back to a certain someone, missing him, wishing he was here to experience this with her.

"Remember Suna?" She asked nonchalantly. "Suna Rintarou, number 10 middle blocker for Inarizaki, he stuffed you guys a couple times when we first met at Nationals."

"Oh him? Tsukki didn't like him, but again Tsukishima rarely likes anyone." He chuckled lightly, "what about him?"

"I miss him, a lot. I wish he was here, I haven't spoken to him in so long because of time zones and everything, but I kind of wish I was able to show him everything I learned despite the fact that he'd probably be too lazy to pay attention. Still though, if I ever wanted to move back home and someone asked me why, getting to see him face to face again would be at the top of my list of reasons."

Y/n frowned suddenly as Hinata fell back with his hands clamped over his face.

"The sweetness is choking me help!" He gagged playfully, peeking through his fingers to see her amused but deadpan expression.

"I swear you're so much like Kenta sometimes." She rolled her eyes and picked up a stray seashell, admiring its smooth, weathered surface. 

"So what's stopping you from going home? To see him?" Hinata sat up and dusted sand from his wild orange hair.

Y/n shrugged. "I, never really thought about that? I've been so busy here I don't think I thought that far ahead. I think I was planning on moving back eventually since I'll be working with the Jackals soon, but by then we'd probably be total strangers again. I don't really know what to do."

"Nope!" Hinata yelled, roughly pushing her to her feet and pointing a finger right into her face. His eyes were blown wide with excitement and determination.

"Nothing's stopping you except yourself, if you feel like going back is the right path to tackle, then go! Nobody ever said that you can't stop halfway and choose to turn back, but that's only if you had the grit to start walking in the first place. It's like, you never know if you'll be able to get a clean spike through until you've hit the ball, and if you don't then that doesn't mean you won't get another set to try again right? There's no such thing as a one-way road."

Y/n stood perplexed by his sudden outburst as he gently gripped her wrist and pulled her over to the court, pressing the ball into her hands.

"You didn't think you could accomplish what you needed by staying so that's why you left right?"

She nodded slowly. "They call us the monster generation for a reason, and I think my ultimate goal is to ensure that these 'monsters' can carry on into the next round of players, and then the next generation after that and so on."

Y/n wanted to go home, but she didn't want to go back with her tail tucked between her legs, she wanted to be able to stand before the graves of the Rattlesnakes and proudly say "I did it, you can rest easy now. Your names won't be forgotten."

Hinata grinned at her, a grin that spoke of familiarity; of home.

"You wanna know something Kageyama told me back when we were first years?"

"Nobody said you had to do it alone, but you can fly, even higher."