LOST IN JAPAN. ᵐᶦʸᵃ ᵃᵗˢᵘᵐᵘ

welcome to the team

"you were the one who picked up my wallet?" her jaw practically dropped to the ground. "now this is just getting weird..."

you pinched the bridge of your nose as atsumu let out a chuckle.

"you look suprised." (anything written in bold will be in japanese in order to prevent confusion and overly excess "he said/she said in japanese" descriptions haha.)

"hinata you're my walking translator now," y/n said pointing to the blonde haired male in front of her. "do your job!"

the orange haired male rolled his eyes playfully. "he said that you looked surprised."

"well of course i am, japan really is a small world."

"oi," sakusa interrupted the three. "i'm sure the lady would like to get started with her job if you two stopped bombarding her."

"you heard the guy atsumu!" hinata grinned.

the blonde furrowed his eyebrows, displeasure visible on his face. "he was talking to you too."

"well i'm the only one here who can speak good english and it seems like our lovely athletic trainer over here needs a translator, isn't that right y/n?" the orange head looked your way.

"huh? me? uh yeah whatever you said." you nodded your head in atsumu's direction only for him to tilt his head.

"she didn't even understand a single thing you said." he said putting a hand on his hip with a volleyball sandwiched between his waist and his other arm.

"well it's just another reason why she needs me around isn't it?" hinata smirked.

"hmm..." atsumu looked over to the h/c haired girl. "you're even cuter in real life."

"thank... you?" you sheepishly smiled.

all of a sudden a voice boomed throughout the entire gym causing a chill to run up your spine. "hey you two! get back to practice and leave the young woman alone!"

"yes coach!" atsumu ran off leaving you and hinata behind.

"you can get yourself comfortable for now, whatever coach says goes so i'll be off!" hinata laughed before running off as well.

you waved at the male before walking over to some place at a safe distance from the flying balls. there was one thought that circulated your mind throughout the entire practice though and it was you weren't quite sure how you would get used to the whole language barrier thing. although having hinata around was quite helpful, you couldn't rely on him forever so the best course of action to take was giving in to the one thing you dreaded the most ever since arriving in japan. learning the language. it wasn't like you had a harboring hatred towards japanese, it was more of the time and effort that went into learning a new language part that you didn't like.

you dug through your bag and pulled out a book that contained tips on how to learn japanese before turning to the first page. you were a bit hesitant at first about reading a book during practice but you were only there to tend to any injuries that the players obtained and it seemed as if they were all absorbed in their practice anyways so you decided that it would be alright.

but not even 5 minutes into your reading, a certain setter ran up to you with a complaint about his fingers "feeling weird."

"yeah, i think while it cramped i was setting?" he held out his supposed injured hand in front of you.

you have him a questionable look. you thought it was funny how he was trying to speak english but it just sounded like a jumble of words to you. all you got out of the sentence was 'cramped' but the fact that he was holding his hand out gave you an idea of what he was trying to say.

"really?" you managed to say in his native language. oh you knew a scheming fox when you saw one.

he nodded.

you smiled before grabbing his hand and examining it. and just as you thought, his hand was completely fine and there were no signs of cramping.

you gave him an okay sign with your index finger and thumb before letting go of his hand, causing a frown to etch onto his face. truthfully he wanted you to play along with his little scheme so that he could get a chance to talk to you in order to get to know you better but judging by the look you had on your face he knew you had him figured out.

"so, how do you like japan so far?" he asked you, trying to make small talk.

you on the other hand, thought it was kind of cute how he tried to speak english.

"i like it here, everyone is really polite and kind." you smiled.

although atsumu couldn't understand you, he nodded at your response anyways so that you could feel like he was interested in your answer. (which he really was!)

"atsumu quit flirting with y/n! she's gonna get scared of you!" hinata's voice echoed throughout the gym.

"does she looked scared to you?!" the blonde retorted.

atsumu turned and waved at you before running back onto the court. "see you."

you smiled at his shrinking figure before digging your nose back into the book you were reading.

after about 2 hours, practice finally ended which meant the team was finally able to greet their new athletic trainer. normally you would've introduced yourself at the start of practice but you were running late and basically interrupted practice so that was a no-go.

"so this is l/n y/n, and she will be your temporary athletic trainer as of today," the coach introduced you as the team diverted their attention towards you. "she came here for an internship so cherish the time you have with her because even though you'll be seeing her quite a lot from now on, she'll be leaving in a few months."

"welcome to the team!" they all chorused as they bowed at you.

"o-oh um..." you looked towards hinata who mouthed the words 'welcome to the team.' "...ganbaru?"

all of them laughed at your words of encouragement.

"let's work hard together, y/n"