The Lone Wolf (Iwaoi)

Chapter 17

Hinata felt kind of stupid, just sitting there in the middle of grass and dirt, staring like an idiot towards the staircase. But the tension was unbearable and he could only think of who the mysterious beast could be. If it was Ushiwaka, then all would have been lost. Oikawa-san had made it clear prior that he was not going to play this game with him.

Nishinoya next to him was just as antsy, constantly playing around with his waistband and chewing on the strings of his hoodie. Why did club activites have to take so long? It was only their luck Karasuno's volleyball club activites didn't match the timetable of Shiratorizawa, or else they wouldn't have been able to come here at all.
Nishinoya breathed out a soft sigh, tearing his eyes from the stairs and turning towards his company.

"How are we gonna confront 'em?"
Hinata paused, eyes turning to face Nishinoya. That guy had a good point. They couldn't exactly go up to whoever it was in front of the entire team and expose them. Aone stared down at the shoes he hadn't put down yet. In his opinion, stealing shoes under such an excuse was going to damage his reputation as a good boy.
Slowly, he was starting to regret coming along. But he sure was curious about the inu.

It felt like hours before voices came closer; and the three of them ducked further into the corner and behind the bushes. They recognized Ushiwaka's voice immediately thus they kept their silence and patiently waited for them to go back into the training room.

"Boo."

Hinata jumped with a squeal of surprise and horror out of the bushes while Nishinoya turned around ready to fight; Aone had heard the person prior but hadn't had enough time to react. Tendou stood with crossed arms and raised eyebrows in behind the three crouching people with Hinata now on the ground and eyed them from head to toe. Realizing he was looking like an idiot, Aone raised himself to his full height and Nishinoya grinned up at him.
"A-ah, Tendou-san, was it...?! N-nice to meet you off game, see, we have a reason to be here, there is no need to do anything spontanous."
"Business in Shiratorizawa, huh?" Tendou cocked his head, lips curling up into a smirk, "And what exactly could this business be?"

Hinata swallowed and flailed in a desperate attempt to raise himself while Nishinoya rubbed the back of his head, trying to come up with an excuse.
"W-well, yeah, we came for-"
"Inu."
Silencing, three pairs of eyes wandered over to Aone who stared intensely at Tendou, nostrils flaring. Hinata's mouth popped open as he looked back and forth between the redhead and their silver haired friend.
"What? ...hey, what are you doing with my shoes?" Tendou stretched his hand out and took them back from Aone who didn't lose his stare, in fact his eyes seemed to pierce through him by now.
"Inu," he repeated himself, barely audible. Tendou stared at him with an expression that was a mix of 'Shut the hell up' and 'I don't have any clue what's going on'.

Yet before he could interject any further and deny this accusation, Nishinoya and Hinata went wild. Tendou could only stare as these two jumped around with excited bird-like thrills coming out of their mouths while Aone bowed respectfully towards him, still sniffing, obviously trying to figure out his breed.
"Oh my god!! We found one!!"
"I-I had no idea it's Tendou-san!!"
Tendou opened his mouth to ask but already found himself grabbed by two strong pairs of arms and dragged away from Shiratorizawa'a changing rooms.
"H-hey what the heck! Let go! What's going on?! What do you want from me?!"
Tendou was getting increasingly frustrated by the overexcited small boys in front of him.
"You need to come flirt with Oikawa-san!!"
"It's really important!"
"What?! Why should I flirt with the guy Wakatoshi-kun constantly talks about?!"
"We'll explain on the way, come on!"

Tendou had to do his utter best to suppress a large and overdramatic sigh. He had no choice than to come along and let himself in on this crazy plan of those two Karasunos. A hopeful glance into Aone's direction for help went unanswered; and Tendou realized he had been forced just as much into this adventure as he himself. Slowly, the dread started to creep into his soul. Maybe he could at least find anything out about Oikawa that Wakatoshi-kun could find use of?

Inside the train towards the Aoba Johsai domain, Tendou took a whiff of the smells around himself and flashed a calm glance over to Aone. "So, you're an inu, huh? I wasn't quite sure because I didn't get a good enough smell of everyone at the tournament but something was off about you." Aone nodded silently and cocked his head to the side. Tendou leaned over to his fellow inu, eyes on the giddy winged children who kept talking in hushed whispers, a confused yet undeniably curious look on his face. "Karasuno's number 10 and the libero have some kind of weird smell around them. But not inu. Care to tell me what they are?"

Trusting his fellow inu, Aone had no hesitation to answer "Winged children. Very bubbly and far too energetic." Tendou stared at Hinata and Nishinoya, disbelieving. What were winged children? He hadn't been quite interested in other races or inus, especially since Tendou's family of inus was huge. Lots of sisters, brothers and cousins, more inus around him than he could have ever wished for. But what were winged children? Curiosity was as obviously evident as ever on him and finally, Tendou decided to raise his voice.

"Why do you need me to flirt with Oikawa? He's cheeky and fun but I don't see why I should do that." Hinata and Nishinoya paused at the same time, two pairs of eyes going towards the redhead before they exchanged a glance. "Well..."

Asahi stared at his phone, heartbeat ringing in his ears. Iwaizumi was going to come soon to meet up, and he was everything but sure that this ridiculous plan was going to work. Oikawa was close by, boredly staring at this phone and striking a few poses, obviously taking selfies to post somewhere. Asahi's gaze flickered back and forth between his phone, Oikawa and his surroundings. He could only beg that Hinata and Nishinya were going to arrive faster than Iwaizumi.