Descending |Haikyuu!! Reader x Various|

.11.

Kageyama's hand slammed against the wall next to Hinata, mirroring mine on the other side with a bit more hostility. Said boy jumped at the sudden trap, looking around at the other busy teammates for help.

"Hello, Shōyō." I gave a warm grin, the polar opposite of Kageyama's cold pokerface. "How you doing?"

"F-fine! I'm great!" He shuddered at the peripheral view of the setter's face. The rest of the team was too preoccupied with post-practice cleanup to notice the mob-style shakedown going on in a corner.

"Nice serve. Have you been working on it?" I asked politely, trying to communicate to Kageyama that he was too aggressive.

"Uh, yeah. As much as I can!" His excitement began to shine through as I drew his attention.

"And that curve? That was crazy, eh?" I encouraged.

"Oh, that wasn't on purpose." I could feel Kageyama deflate beside me. "I just can't stop doing it."

I looked over at Kageyama, and all of the previous excitement was back.

"You should come early tomorrow. We'll help you." I offered, and I saw his eyes shimmer in anticipation.

"Yes! Please!" He nodded wildly, completely forgetting about the still threatening-looking setter blocking his path.

.

.

.

"I think its the way you're hitting the ball." I murmured, and Hinata tilted his head. "It looks habitual, though, so you must do it on your serves all the time. I bet your standing serves would do the same if they had the same speed." I nodded to myself.

"Do you want me to try again?" He wondered, but I knew he would serve again whether I wanted him to or not.

"Yes, please. This time try to pay attention to how you make contact. Don't change anything, though." I instructed, and stepped back to get a good look at him.

Kageyama, standing against the net, had had to avoid a significant amount of serves gone awry at the start of Hinata's practice, but had since grown comfortable with his standing. Hinata's serves continued to shoot out of bounds at the last second, whipping to the left despite his attempts to straighten it.

Hinata tossed the ball into the air, and I realized it wasn't just his hit that sent the ball spinning like a top. No, it was rotating heavily already, rolling off his fingertips and spinning to the left as it floated straight up.

When he hit it, his hand seemed to brush against the back of the ball, and he was turned awkwardly like--

"Are you sure? It just looked sort of... Crooked."

Kageyama had been partially right all along.

Hinata was turned just so his hand maximized the already spinning ball's rotation, which accounted for the extreme curve.

"Uh, (Boy Name), I think--"

"I know. He's just crooked." I interrupted Kageyama, voice borderline hysterical. Had Hinata really been doing this on accident?

"Um, I was actually gonna say that practice would be starting soon." Kageyama corrected, awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

"Oh, right. Hinata?" Hinata quirked an eyebrow impatiently as he waited to be told what I was talking about.

"What is it?" He awaited his diagnosis.

"Just put a little more forward motion in your hit. It'll stay in." I assured him, running to change from my street clothes.

I had taken to wearing an undershirt beneath my practice clothes so I wouldn't be found out if someone would see me changing. Of course, Ukai still kept me from the changing room for the obvious reasons. Most of them for the sake of my innocence.

I was back in the gym before the rest of our team even started to arrive. Kageyama was stretching out, yelling at Hinata as he practiced his receives against the wall.

"You have to bend your knees more, dumbass! Move with the ball as it falls!" He scolded, earning him a glare and a weak 'Shut up' from Hinata.

I sat to the side of Kageyama, ignoring them for the most part and becoming pretty engrossed in my stretches as I warmed up. I barely noticed when the rest of the team started filing in.

"Uh, (Boy Name)-senpai?" I nearly choked, head whipping up to figure out who was getting my attention.

"Er, hey Yamaguchi. What's up?" He looked a little awkward, seeing as we didn't really talk a lot. Or, perhaps, it was because of the way the blood filled my cheeks and the tops of my ears at the 'senpai'.

"Um, have you spoken to Tsukishima lately?" Wow, this boy was full of surprises today.

"Um, no. Should I have?" I rose from the ground, drawn in to hear Yamaguchi's tensely hushed voice.

"I just thought that maybe, well you guys have been hanging out some lately, and maybe he told you if he wasn't coming." Yamaguchi's voice trailed off as he began to look like he regretting coming over.

"Oh, no. He's not here?" I looked around, eyes not finding the blonde anywhere.

"No, but he may just be running late." Yamaguchi shrugged, still looking worried.

"Maybe." I pulled my phone out to check the time. "It has been twenty minutes since he was supposed to be here, though." I worried slightly, wondering if he would skip.

"I know. Tsukki usually doesn't like to be late." Yamaguchi agreed anxiously.

"Well, I bet he'll be here. He did say, and I quote, 'Don't screw up that serve tomorrow, or I'll know today was a freak accident.'. Followed by a smug emoji." I recited from his last text to me last night, bitter as I remembered his teasing.

"You two text?" Yamaguchi looked more surprised than I expected.

"Well, sort of. He mostly just insults me until I argue with him." I shrugged, still a little sour about Tsukishima's comment.

"That sounds like him." He nodded, a grin forming on his lips. At least my pain cheered someone up.

Then, the door across the gym shot open, revealing a disheveled looking Tsukishima and a guy who could be his doppelganger.

"Akiteru?" Yamaguchi muttered, head tilting as we watched Tsukishima and the guy make their way over to Ukai.

"Who's that?" I turned to Yamaguchi, who looked nearly as confused as I felt.

"It's Tsukishima's brother. He must be home for a bit." He replied, and the two of us walked over to see what was going on.

"Okay, guys, come here!" Ukai yelled, and everyone gathered around the three of them. "This is Tsukishima's brother, and he's joining the Neighborhood Association team today. Careful, you're looking at the real thing here." Ukai said, looking over to Akiteru, the both of them with smug expressions.

"Yeah, alright." Our Tsukishima scoffed. "What does that make me? The new and improved version?"

"Shut up, Tsukki!" His brother teased.

"Don't call me that." Tsukishima clicked his tongue tiredly. "I'll have to start calling you Yamaguchi."

Everyone seemed a little surprised to see Tsukishima so open, even if he was simply bickering with his sibling. We had only seen this version of him here lately.

"Is it like watching a reflection of yourself?" Yamaguchi snickered a little, knocking an elbow against mine.

"Huh?" I had no idea what he meant.

"Those two. It's sort of like watching the two of you talking to each other." He explained.

"Oh. Weird." Was what I said. In my head, I was falling down from some great height.

The brother-zone must be twelve times as bad as the friendzone.