𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐲 || 𝐭. 𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦𝐚

⤷𝟜𝟙: 𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕒𝕝𝕤

"please omiomi?"

"no."

you laughed as atsumu pouted at sakusa.

"tsumu, i thought you said sakusa was your friend," you joked.

"he is!"

"a friend that doesn't even give you a hug?" suna mocked. you and suna looked at each other, trying not to laugh.

"who said i was his friend?" sakusa asked in an innocent voice, winking at the pair of you.

"hmph," atsumu fumed as he crosses his arms in pretend anger.

today was the first day of nationals, and after the starting ceremony was over, atsumu had dragged suna, osamu, and you along to meet up with sakusa. it was also the first time you were meeting the germaphobe atsumu always talked about—and he already gave you similar vibes as suna.

"are you going to introduce us or..." osamu nudged his brother.

"by 'us' you mean me," you sighed. the whole inarizaki team had already met sakusa the previous year at nationals, when they played against itchiyama. "but hi, i'm y/n. i'm inarizaki's manager."

you thought you heard suna whisper, "a terrible manager," to osamu, but you ignored this.

"i know," sakusa said.

from your confused look, he explained, "atsumu talks a lot."

at that, you understood. "oh, he talks a lot about you too. and about setters."

suna, osamu and sakusa all nodded in agreement. atsumu never shuts up about the next setter he wants to beat. lately, he's still been nonstop rambling about the setter he met at the all japan training camp, and how he needs to play against his team at nationals.

"where's the rest of your team?" sakusa asked.

"probably getting ready to watch today's matches," suna told him.

because inarizaki placed second at nationals last year, they were the the second seed this year—meaning that they didn't need to play on the first day. itchiyama, who was first last year—the first seed this year—also did not need to participate in the first round.

"come hang out with us today omiiiii," atsumu suggested. "we can go watch the matches!"

sakusa, who was thinking about his suggestion, finally said, "okay. it's not like i have anything better to do." atsumu's grin widened.

"hey komori," sakusa called over to itchiyama's libero. "i'm going with these guys today. i'll be back later."

"sakusa, you're ditching us?" their captain, lizuna joked. but he waved goodbye good-naturedly as sakusa left with you four.

"i did promise akaashi that i'd go over and watch their game later," sakusa brought up suddenly as you guys walked over to the match scheudles of the day.

"which school?" you asked, curious. you've never heard of anyone named akaashi before.

"fukurodani. he's a setter," sakusa looked over at atsumu, "we've played them before."

atsumu, who perked up at the sound of another setter, said, "i think i've heard of him. he plays with bokuto, one the the top five aces, right?"

"yeah," sakusa responded. "bokuto's really energetic. i don't know how akaashi deals with him."

you zoned out from their conversation as they went on about volleyball players that you couldn't care less about. looking over at suna and osamu chatting to each other, you guessed that they felt the same.

"...but yeah, akaashi is a cool guy," you heard sakusa tell atsumu.

reaching the giant ass board with the match schedule, you saw the names of unknown teams. atsumu pointed to where he found 'inarizaki'.

"our first game tomorrow is against the winner of the match..." he trailed off, his eyes widening. "karasuno or tsubakihara!"

sakusa, looking over, asked, "isn't that kageyama's school?"

"yeah and they better win!" atsumu said excitedly. "it's not until later though, but we should watch it!"

sakusa nodded while you, suna, and osamu just went along. sighing, you realized that you weren't going to get any say in what happens today.

"fukurodani plays in the other gym," suna pointed out. "their match starts in an hour."

"then let's go meet with fukurodani and when their game is over, we can come back for karasuno's."

{ note from a stressed author-chan: i know that in haikyu, karasuno plays their match before fukurodani... but this ff is superior so👽 uhhh i changed it with the powers of editing. lmao jkjk but just wanted to give an explanation if anyone was confused abt that<3 }

as your group walked over to the smaller gymnasium to see fukurodani's match, you couldn't help but feel that today was going to be an interesting day.

✰

"agashiiiiii!"

"yes, bokuto-san?"

"hmph, nevermind."

to be completley honest, you weren't sure what you had expected. but for what it's worth, it certainly wasn't an ace that resembled a sad owl who's standing next to one of the prettiest boys you've ever seen.

wait, no.

i did not just think that.

looking over at akaashi again, you pushed that away from your mind.

he's not my type. he's not my type. he's not my type.

oh please. who the fuck do i think i'm kidding? akaashi is everyone's type.

while you were lost in your train of thought, sakusa walked over and greeted the second-year setter.

"hey, akaashi."

looking up, akaashi smiled at sakusa—

please sir, being this pretty is illegal.

also, wasn't this a fanfic about another setter???????🌝

"hey. glad you could make it," akaashi said. he cast a worried look over at bokuto.

"i don't think bokuto wants to talk right now, but hi," akaashi greeted the four of you.

at your confused look, akaashi explained, "bokuto's having one of his mood swings." sakusa just nodded apprehensivley.

"one of his what?" you asked.

"don't ask, it's complicated," akaashi joked. "are you guys from inarizaki?"

"yeah. this is miya atsumu and osamu, suna, and y/n. y/n's their manager," sakusa told him as you smiled. atsumu looked as if he wanted to start asking a million questions, but you nudged him in the ribs to stop him.

"well it's nice to meet you all. i'm keiji akaashi," akaashi started, then looking over at bokuto once again, said, "i have to take care of something right now, but we can talk after the match?"

"for sure," sakusa said. "we'll be watching in the stands."

✰

"is he okay?" you asked.

fukurodani had just called for a time out, and their captain—who hasn't been spiking most of the sets—looked in bad condition mentally.

"he'll get over whatever it is," sakusa said in a bored tone. "he always does. plus, akaashi's there."

you were still confused. this man's mood swings were worse than yours when you're pmsing—and that's saying a lot.

"is this normal?" suna questioned.

"yeah, very. it happens almost every game and somehow only akaashi can fix it," sakusa told him. from sakusa's tone, you could tell that he's seen this happen before, multiple times.

you saw akaashi say something to bokuto, unable to hear clearly due to the far distance. but suddenly, akaashi pointed over at the five of you, and yelled, "look bokuto-san! it's japan's top ace, the miya twins, suna and inarizaki's cute manager! they came to cheer for you!"

#ripsunawestillloveyou🔫#appreciatethemiddleblockers💔

as if on cue, you and atsumu started cheering while sakusa and osamu gave a thumbs up. suna looked bored.

immediatley, bokuto's eyes that had looked incredibley sad, sparkled as he saw you guys. he threw his water bottle onto the bench { #justiceforthebench } and it was like all his energy came back as a large grin widened on his face.

bokuto, standing up, jumped to his feet and yelled, "HEY! HEY! HEYYYYY!"

you resisted the urge to laugh, but you saw akaashi sigh in relief at getting their ace back on his feet.

✰

"hey akaashi hey akaashiii hey akaashi!!! did you see my spikes? agaaashiiii!" you heard bokuto's energetic voice as you guys walked over to the team.

"yes, bokuto-san, i did. they were amazing, like always."

you saw akaashi sigh as bokuto started his rant.

"...and did you see how the ball went sWOOSH and i got the point? i was super sad at first but we won! of course, i already knew that we'd win. i just really really really really wanted our first match to be in the main gymnasium! that really bummed me out but i don't think i mind the fact that it's a smaller gym. i was also hoping that we could meet up with some other friends like kuroo. but nekoma's playing their game right now so i couldn't even go see my bro! kuroo's my bro by the way, just in case you weren't sure who i was talking about. do you know how sad that made me? and can you believe that sakusa and the miya twins came to cheer me on? wait, agaashii i didn't know you and sakusa were friends! why didn't you tell me?"

{ if you read that entire paragraph, then you have as much patience as akaashi. }

"hm?" akaashi said with pretend interest. "oh, i'm not really sure how me and sakusa ended up being friends. he said that he thought that i was a good setter and we started talking from time to time after that."

"oh okay then," bokuto continued. then, as if he just realized that you five were standing there, he said, "hi guys! i'm bokuto, the captain of fukurodani!"

"hello," you greeted shyly. you weren't sure why, but next to bokuto's high energy, it made you feel slightly quieter than normal. either that, or it was because akaashi was really pretty🤺

"yo. we're going to go watch karasuno's match now, did you two want to tag along?" atsumu asked.

a surprised look went across akaashi's face while bokuto looked excited. "you know karasuno?" akaashi asked.

"we know kageyama. he went to the all japan training camp with us," explained sakusa as bokuto yelled, "can we go agashiiiii? please?"

you found it funny how their third-year captain was asking permission from the second-year setter, and it was endearing as you saw akaashi nod at bokuto.

"we'll come," akaashi said. "we know karasuno pretty well."

✰

"is that him?"

"no, he's the one with black hair," atsumu told osamu.

"the one in the middle?" you asked.

"yeah, no shit. he's the setter," suna critisized.

at first, you had absolutely no interest in what was going on, but as soon as you all arrived, you couldn't seem to take your eyes off of karasuno's setter. there was something about him that interested you, for some odd reason. you thought kage—whatever his name is—was just as, if not prettier than akaashi.

and you had this gut feeling that karasuno's setter would be a good friend.

{ yuh, you just friendzoned kags, what about it?🥶 }

"yeah that's him," sakusa said. "i don't think he can hear us from here even if we screamed though."

"i will prove you wrong," bokuto grinned. he took a deep breath before yelling, "SHOYO!!! TSUKI!!! GO KARASUNO!"

you all—except akaashi, who was used to this by now—flinched as bokuto's screaming filled your ears.

the player with orange-hair looked back, and seeing bokuto, grinned. he gave a small wave before getting ready to serve. the player 'tsuki' did not move. neither did their setter.

damn, their concentration is either really good, or they're just purposely ignoring bokuto.

you looked over to see if atsumu looked excited to finally see his ✨nEw fRieNd✨ he'd been pestering about, but instead found him with a quizzical look on his face.

"i wonder what happened to tobio-kun..." atsumu mumured to himself. "he looks different than before."

"different?" you asked, finding a spark of interest—who knew why—in what atsumu was saying.

"yeah. he used to be a goody two-shoes on the court..." atsumu trailed off.

you cringed at the word 'goody two-shoes.' why did that cringy-ass nickname sound familar? chile anywayz—

you pushed that thought away as you focused on the match happening in front of you.

✰

as you watched the karasuno shake hands with their opponents at the end of the game, you heard atsumu say, "kita just texted saying that we better be back at the hotel in fiften minutes or we die."

"oh fuck, really?" osamu asked, looking over atsumu's shoulder to see the messages on his phone.

"okay bye y'all, we gotta run!" atsumu waved at sakusa, akaashi and bokuto. "and omi... see you in the finals."

you saw sakusa roll his eyes as he waved goodbye.

the four of you then bolted out the gym to meet up with the rest of the inarizaki team.

"hey y/nnnn," you heard atsumu pout as you ran.

"hm?"

"do you like akaashi?"

catching you off guard with the unexpected question, you almost tripped over your own feet.

"what?" you asked atsumu.

"bitch you heard what i said the first time," atsumu smirked.

a small blush crept onto your cheeks, but it had nothing to do with the fact that it was akaashi. you weren't someone that developed a crush just based on looks. personality matters just as much, if not more.

"of course not! i met him literally an hour ago," you fumed. "yes, i'll admit that he's really really really pretty, but he seems really quiet and reserved. he would be a cool friend though."

{ is that the second person you friendzoned today? queen behaviour sis👑 }

besides, akaashi only pays attention to bokuto.

"i was only messing with you but go off i guess," atsumu laughed before continuing, "i know you're not the type to judge just based on looks. but still..." atsumu looked over at you. "imagine how beautiful your children would be!"

that was the second time you almost tripped over your own feet and eating shit. you rolled your eyes as you hit atsumu playfully.

"stop worrying about my love life, and start worrying about tomorrow. "

atsumu laughed again and said with an excited look on his face, "we're playing karasuno."

indeed, tomorrow was going to be a long day.

and you would've never guessed that the following day would change your life forever.

for good or for worse, you had no idea.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

author's note~

this literally took me daysssss to finish writing. why does writing take me so long🤺