The Strongest Decoy

Okay, he hadn’t really meant for it to hit anyone, but now that it did…

Staring as aggressively as a 162 cm shota nerd can stare.

{ ♫ }—; “Well, you certainly look like a Kid to me! You’re probably the same height as a small to medium sized elementary student.” If she was trying to get this guy to take her to the festival, she definitely wasn’t off to a great start. No matter, she was already having fun with him. “Hey, hey! Tell you what Kid, maybe if you take me to that festival everyone is talking about I’ll call you Hina-whatever it was instead of Kid. Sound like a deal?” Of course, not everything she said could be trusted. This kid looked pretty gullible though.

The smile that had appeared on his face vanished quickly however as the decoy realised that he had probably been insulted yet again. "Hey! There's nothing wrong with my head!" he argued even though she had already dropped the matter; Hinata wasn't exactly good at just ignoring people who were talking down to him. Well, he at least assumed there was nothing wrong with his head, but admittedly he had taken quite a few serious falls through his years of playing volleyball, so it probably couldn't be entirely assured... "You-you're even smaller than me!" It was silly to argue with a person on a phone display, especially regarding their height, but that thought never even occurred to him. "Beside I'm in high school...! I'm just... a bit... ... short..." The last bit was added with a groan for every word and it was very clear that he didn't want to admit it but had to. But even if she was taunting him Hinata didn't exactly hold her in spite, so it didn't take long before his expression lit up again when she mentioned the festival he had taken interest in himself.

"Ah, a sportsmanship would explain how you got here. A bit surprising given your level of skill I do have to say, but congratulations nonetheless." Tsukishima was certain that he didn’t sound sincere in the slightest, but he really didn’t care. He also knew that Hinata probably surpassed him in value as a player, but teasing the shorter boy about volleyball was a surefire way to get under his skin. (Not that Tsukishima really ever had trouble getting under Hinata’s skin anyways though.)

Yet again he couldn't even retort. The orange head knew that as a player he still had so much left to learn before he could call himself an amazing player, but he would still fight for it to the bitter end. And no way in hell was he going to let Tsukishima get an advantage over him, even more so since they were playing the same position.

"I know I'm small and... kinda lousy..." he admitted although the latter bit was said in a low murmur because he hated to admit it himself. "But..." He had a promise. A vow with the person he had thought to be an overwhelming and almost unbeatable rival but had somehow turned out to become an ally that he respected and trusted in. "Kageyama promised. As long as he's tossing I'm not gonna lose." It wasn't entirely true and he already knew that; even with Kageyama's tosses they had still lost to Seijou, they had lost to Nekoma, to Fukurodani, heck, the whole training camp in Tokyo had been nothing but a huge losing streak. But that was exactly why they had to become better and evolve. The both of them. All of them.

Actually, this situation was even worse than just being on the same volleyball team as him, because now he’d have to live with him! Fantastic. The other boy hadn’t even been in the room for a minute before he began polluting the peaceful air with his grating voice. Tsukishima winced at the volume. He supposed that his wish for Hinata to have developed an indoor voice had been quite a long shot anyways… 

"I’m here because this is my room," the blonde replied coolly. "You think I would go through the trouble of kicking someone out of this room to be your roommate?" Tsukishima scoffed. "Don’t flatter yourself."

So why had it ended up like this? Why did he have to live with that guy? If there was any good in the world it would have prevented a situation like this from happening. But no matter how much he wished for it, it didn't change in the slightest, and Hinata groaned at the prospect of his upcoming school life. Well, as long as he had volleyball to keep himself occupied with he'd survive. Probably.

"Ugh... Of course I didn't think that...!" Well, maybe a bit. But Tsukishima had an annoyingly good point, because it was clear to anyone that neither of the two wished for this to have happened. There was no way the other would have willingly initiated it.