Chapter Text
Tobio came to a stop with the rest of his team, staring up at the Sendai Municipal Gymnasium. It was time. Finally, they could prove themselves, they could show what their team was able to accomplish. He vaguely heard Hinata saying something beside him but he didn’t bother to listen. No doubt the redhead was talking about winning and saying how they were going to get their revenge. It was the same thing that was running through Tobio’s head anyway.
And then the smaller boy took off running.
Tobio blinked for a moment and scowled. “Don’t you dare false start, dumbass!” He yelled as he pushed off himself and began to run after his friend. He came to a stop only a few seconds later when he saw Hinata frozen and staring up at another team. The boy that seemed to have caught Hinata’s attention had bleached hair and pierced ears. Tobio tilted his head curiously, wondering where he had seen the other boy, when said boy turned and looked down at Hinata.
“Huh?” his eyes flew open wide in realization. “That means…” the boy suddenly pushed Hinata’s head out of his line of vision and began to wave at someone behind Tobio. “Glasses-chan! Be sure to tell me your number today!”
Glasses-chan? Who was this guy talking about? Tobio saw Noya and Tanaka run forward furiously from the corner of his eye. Oh.
Well, at least the other team’s manager stopped it before the two got themselves disqualified.
Tobio heard the boy, the one that had pushed Hinata, say something about the first match. “Oh,” he said slowly as he comprehended the words. “So, they’re…” he suddenly remembered what had happened at the semi-finals. How a team had been harassing Kiyoko and Hinata had stepped in. Tobio had actually relayed the story to Oikawa and Iwaizumi later that night because he was irritated to think that someone would be doing such a thing to their manager. Both Iwaizumi and Oikawa had been furious as well, mostly on Tobio’s behalf since they didn’t know the shy girl well. But, well, the way Hinata had frozen when he saw them. This wasn’t the only team Hinata needed to be worried about. “This goes without saying, but they’re all here.” His mind flashed to his soulmates once again but it didn’t stop there. Dateko. Ushijima. They were all here. “We’re going to beat them all!”
Tobio was standing with the rest of team about an hour later when Hinata ran up to him, panting hard and his face drained of color. “What happened to you?” Tsukishima wondered out loud, his voice betraying just how idiot he believed the answer was going to be.
“The Great King…Seijoh’s Ace…Ushijima…and Aone…bathroom…”
“What is with you and bathrooms?” Yamaguchi wondered out loud as Yachi began to fuss over the shell shocked Hinata.
But Tobio’s brows pulled together for a different reason. He wandered away from the group and moved toward the direction Hinata had just come from. He didn’t have to go far. Iwaizumi was muttering something to a scowling Oikawa not far from the bathroom door. Oikawa answered back with his hands flailing. Tobio stepped closer to them and both of their eyes snapped up, ready for a challenge. Both boys’ shoulders relaxed when the saw who was approaching. “Tobio-chan,” Oikawa said, giving him a small smile. Tobio felt something bloom in his chest. That was a real smile. The type of smile that Tobio saw Oikawa give Iwaizumi. Not one of the fake, bright smiles the third year gave to everyone else. Oikawa thought he was deserving of the real one.
It made him give a small smile in return before he could think about it.
When he realized what he had done, he dropped the smile instantly and lifted his hand to cover his mouth. He looked at the two boys in horror. He hadn’t wanted them to see that. He knew his smiles made him look…somewhat demented, is the words Kuroo had used during their last training camp. Even Akaashi hadn’t disagreed with him.
“Hey, don’t do that,” Iwaizumi said, reaching out his hand and snagging Tobio’s jacket. He tugged gently and Tobio’s arm dropped as he closed in the last few remaining steps between them. Once he was closer, Oikawa reached out to grab his other wrist.
“Ready for today, Tobio-chan?” Oikawa asked, that smile still on his lips. Tobio nodded sharply. “Good. Remember, if you want to play us Karasuno needs to win three matches first.”
“So do you,” Tobio countered and Oikawa’s smile turned sharp.
“Don’t worry about us, Tobio-chan.”
“How’s shrimpy?” Iwaizumi asked, not wanting the tow of them to start an argument already. “He seemed…startled earlier.”
“Terrified,” Tobio corrected, sending them both a disapproving frown. They smiled wickedly in return. “What did you do?”
“It wasn’t our fault, Tobio-chan!” Oikawa whined, swinging his and Tobio’s arms for emphasis.
“Well, not all of our fault,” Iwaizumi admitted with an unrepentant shrug.
Tobio sighed. “He always runs into people in the bathroom.”
“Really?” Oikawa asked, his lips quirking up at the information. “Who else has he run into?”
Tobio was retelling various tales of Hinata’s bathroom adventures, including the one that involved himself in junior high, when Suga interrupted them. He smiled and waved at Oikawa and Iwaizumi before tugging on the back of Tobio’s jacket. “We’re going to start warming up. And I think your match is getting ready to start,” he said to the other two boys. The both nodded and began to walk toward their team.
“Good luck, Tobio-chan.”
“We’ll see you later.”
Why did that sound like a threat?
Well, knowing these two, it probably was.
“Yes, you will.”
Their first opponent, Johzenji, was…annoying. Tobio couldn’t think of a better way to describe them. They were jumping all over the place, trying things they had never practiced, seeming as if they didn’t care one way or another whether they won or lost. Well, until they did. But by then Tobio and the rest of his team were on their way to winning. The only reason they had trouble at first was because of the odd moves the team made. After they learned that they mostly did two on two practice, it made sense. They were used to having to cover all areas of the court and they used whatever they had at their disposal. But that meant that they really didn’t function very well as a team.
And Tobio used that.
Of course, the most annoying part of the entire match had been when Tobio took a volleyball to the face. He had been pulled from the game until his nose stopped bleeding and was taken to the nurse to get it checked.
It shouldn’t have surprised him that both Iwaizumi and Oikawa, whose match had ended with Aoba Johsai’s win, was waiting for him. “What happened?” Iwaizumi asked as he stepped forward and placed a hand under Tobio’s chin, lifting his head so he could get a better look.
“My face, Tobio-chan?”
“Shut up, Trashykawa. At least you aren’t bleeding.”
It hadn’t been his finest moment. Oikawa and Iwaizumi stayed until the nurse deemed him ready to go back to the game and then once again disappeared with their team. Oikawa explained that they were going back to the school and weren’t going to watch the games that day, so they would talk to him tonight.
It had been a relief. He hadn’t wanted to think about the two of them sitting in the stands, watching every move that he made.
But they did it. They won.
They were moving on to the quarterfinals.
The group headed back to the school shortly thereafter and Tobio found himself sitting on the gym floor as Coach Ukai congratulated them and began to talk about the following day. Tobio was a little concerned that the man stated their defense was similar to Nekoma’s. As of now, Karasuno had not been able to beat Nekoma in straight sets.
He hoped the same thing wouldn’t be true of their next opponents.
Hinata and Tobio headed back to Tobio’s apartment. Because the games were going on, none of the team thought it was a good idea for Hinata to waste energy riding his back over the mountain every day so they decided he would be staying with Tobio. “And then it went pow!”
“I know. I was there.”
“But you weren’t as close as me! It was so cool! Hey, is the Great King coming over tonight?”
“No.”
Hinata stopped walking and tilted his head to stare at Tobio. Tobio inwardly shuddered. He hated it when Hinata looked at him like that. It was creepy. “Why not?”
“Because we’re in the middle of a competition? Because he and Iwaizumi have things to do with their team?”
“So it isn’t because I’m here?”
“They don’t even know you’re staying with me.”
“Rude, Kageyama!”
“How is that rude?”
“It just is!”
“Whatever, dumbass!”
Though neither Oikawa or Iwaizumi were coming over they did call Tobio a couple of hours later. The three boys talked for a few minutes, Hinata yelling loudly in the background as he watched something on Tobio’s laptop, before wishing each other luck and ending the conversation.
They weren’t the only ones that Tobio heard from. Akaashi sent him a message asking about the match and Tobio spent the rest of the night messaging his cousin back and forth as he and Hinata watched movies and made plans for the next day. They weren’t going to lose.
And they didn’t.
Sure, the match was more intense than the one they had had the day before. Wakunan was a well put together team. And their captain, Takeru, was good. Very good. Though he was barely taller than Hinata, he could jump and spike. His receivers were much better than the other boy. As were his serves. Tobio wanted to point this out to Hinata to make him realize that he could be just as much of a…force as this third year but he didn’t think he needed to.
He could see it on Hinata’s face.
Though they were good, Tobio didn’t really feel fear that Karasuno would lose until Daichi was injured. As soon as he stepped off the court, it was like a dark cloud settled over the team. Things were falling apart without their captain.
And then they weren’t.
The boys had to pull themselves together, to step up and attempt plays they had never done before because they had always known Daichi was there, watching their backs.
It was nice to know that they were capable of doing so.
But that didn’t mean they didn’t want Daichi on the court with them.
Even through all of that, they won.
They would be playing in the semi-finals.
The question was, who would their opponent be?
Which is how Tobio found himself sitting in the gym, along with the rest of his team, watching the match between Aoba Johsai and Date Tech.
He had mixed emotions. He wanted Aoba Johsai to win for the sake of Oikawa and Iwaizumi. So they could move on to the semi-finals. But… a part of him wanted Date Tech to win as well. Because then he wouldn’t have to worry about the game the next day. Well, not as much. Because if Aoba Johsai won, Karasuno was their next opponent.
And Tobio didn’t know how he felt about that.
He wanted to play against them. To stand on the court with them one last time, even if they were on different sides of the net. But…but he wasn’t sure how he would react if Karasuno lost to them again. He didn’t want to know how Oikawa was react if Aoba Johsai lost to Karasuno. He wasn’t sure what Iwaizumi would do.
He just, well, didn’t want to know.
It would be simpler if Date Tech ended Aoba Johsai’s streak here. Then Tobio wouldn’t need to worry.
But, the moment he saw Date Tech’s team, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.
The third years had retired. Date Tech had a new setter.
A setter that didn’t compare to Oikawa.
A team that wasn’t fully functioning. Not at the moment. Come Inter-High, Date Tech would be a force to be reckoned with. But now? Now they couldn’t compare the strength that made up Aoba Johsai.
And then it was settled.
The next match. Karasuno vs Aoba Johsai.
Winner goes to the Finals.
Tobio didn’t speak to anyone as they prepared for the last game of the day. He was well aware of the various eyes on him, eyes that turned away as soon as he looked over, but he didn’t both to say anything about it. This was it. He had known that it would come to this since he realized who his soulmates were. He knew that this was going to happen.
So did they.
They should be prepared for it. That one of them was going to lose. Now it was time to see which team was going to be victorious.
They would deal with the consequences after that.
He followed his team to the court and began warm ups. He kept telling himself to focus on what he was doing but he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering to what was going to happen later. What would happen that night? Which of them was going to be devastated with the other exhilarated?
He snapped out of his questioning fog when the volleyball in his hand dropped to the ground and rolled under the net. “Sorry,” he muttered as he ducked underneath and reached for the ball.
But another hand was already there.
Tobio looked up, ready to apologize once more, but met a pair of familiar brown eyes. Eyes that were challenging him. Eyes that were demanding that he focus here and now. On the game. Not on anything else. Tobio tightened his hold and pulled the ball toward him. But he met with resistance.
“Well, well,” Oikawa said as he gripped the ball. “If it isn’t Tobio-chan, who was miserably defeated last time.”
Oh, that’s how this was going to go. Fine. Tobio could do that. “We’ve come to win this time,” he snapped back as he pulled the ball his way once more.
“I depressed the hell out of you last time,” Oikawa growled. “All that’s left is that bastard, Ushiwaka.” Of course. In Oikawa’s mind, the battle between them had already been won. In a way, it had. Oikawa had seen him as a stepping stone, one that he had already crossed. Tobio was slightly relieved by that – he didn’t know where the two of them would be if Aoba Johsai hadn’t won that game. But…but Tobio knew that for him to move forward completely, he needed this. Needed to play Oikawa with all of his strength and see what happens. Only then could he truly forget about this stupid rivalry between them and move on with their lives.
“I’m gonna have you get out of the way again, Tobio,” Oikawa said loudly, letting go of the ball Tobio was still pulling on. The ball flew out of his hand as Tobio fell backwards. He hit the ground hard and scowled up at Oikawa. Oikawa who was rubbing his own back with a wince.
Serves him right.
“Damn it, Trashykawa! What are you doing?!” Iwaizumi yelled as he stomped toward them. He grabbed Tobio’s arm and pulled him to his feet.
“Sorry, Tobio-chan.”
Tobio rolled his eyes. He knew, Oikawa knew, and Iwaizumi knew that Oikawa wasn’t really. He was sorry for hurting him, sure, but not for the words. He was setting aside what they were to each other, setting aside the bond, and focusing on the game. Focusing on the rivalry.
Because, right at this moment, that is what mattered.
And they all knew it.
“We’re going to win, Oikawa-san.”
“Keep thinking that, Tobio-chan.”
Tobio turned his back and walked toward his waiting teammates. It was time to start the game.
And he wasn’t going to hold back.