Curate, connect, and discover
ℕ𝕖𝕜𝕠𝕞𝕒 𝕄𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕣 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕣
𝔸/ℕ: I started re-watching Haikyuu so the hyperfixation is coming back STRONG!
Direct sequel to this blurb!
You took everything you had said earlier back; nervous didn't even begin to cover how you were feeling. The closer to the camp sight the bus got, the shakier your hands got. You did your best to hide them, though the worried looks Yaku was sending your way says you weren't doing a great job at it.
"Hey," You could feel the bus begin to slow down as Kuroo turned around to look at you, the playfulness that had been present was gone, and you were grateful for the small smile he was sending your way, "You'll be fine. We're going to be the first team there more than likely, so you have time to get adjusted before everyone else shows up."
You nodded, moving to stand as Nekomata called for everyone to hop off the bus. The third years and you were the first ones off the bus after the coaches departed, grabbing your bags and waiting to make sure everyone else deboarded.
Lev groaned as he stretched, "That was way too long to be sitting."
Yaku rolled his eyes, gently nudging the first year to continue walking, "Only for a tall freak like you."
"Hey! That wasn't nice!"
Kai wandered over to you, offering to carry one of your mini bags for you, and you agreed, wanting to once more go over the notes he and Nekomata had curated for you to study. You may have begun to understand volleyball more, but after expressing your fear of embarrassing yourself in front of these other teams, they had made you more things to study.
"The other teams have managers too," You two began walking, Kuroo and Yaku ahead of you, already bickering about who knows what, "I'm sure you'll get along well with them. Karasuno has a newer manager too, so you two will probably be in similar boats."
You let out a breath, "Right."
"I'm serious," You glanced over at him, "It'll be fine. We were all nervous our first training camps, but you get used to them."
Nodding, you entered the building where your rooms would be. Each team had their own room, and due to the smaller numbers, the managers all had one room to them. You were too scared to ask earlier if you had to room with your team or by yourself; both sounding not ideal.
You entered the room, dropping your bags off in a little area, mentally claiming the small spot as your own. That wasn't too presumptuous was it? Maybe you should wait for the others to show up, offer them first dibs.
Sighing, you shook your head to yourself, there was no point in worrying about it now. If any of the other girls had issues you'd quickly move your stuff-- easy fix.
A knock at the door had you turning, Shibayama peering in curiously, "Hey, we're going to set up in gym one right now, and Kuroo wants to know if you'll lead some warm up drills?"
And the day starts.
"Are we starting practice matches when they show up?"
He shook his head, "He says Lev and Yamamoto have too much energy, so this is more to tire them out so they don't annoy him."
You snorted at that, sometimes Kuroo reminded you of an over exhausted pre-school teacher. Glancing at your bag, you followed Shibyama out and towards the gym, you'd change later.
You had gotten held up by a teacher before you departed, and in turn, weren't able to change out of your school uniform. It wasn't uncomfortable per say, but you'd trade out the skirt for a pair of Nekoma sweatpants before the practice matches started.
The chatter inside the gym wasn't loud, but you could hear it from right outside. Inuoka and Lev were helping set nets up, Kuroo was discussing something with Kai, and when they saw you, they motioned you over.
You left Shibayama who promptly went over to help with some other set ups, making your way to your captain and vice-captain. Kuroo raised an eyebrow at you.
"You're still in your school uniform?"
You shrugged, "I was going to change before the actual practice matches started. Didn't want to waste precious time tiring Lev out."
Kai chuckled, while Kuroo just sighed, and the mental image of him as a pre-school teacher was back. He handed you a clipboard, "It'll be a shorter night, but we figured these starting rotations would be good. Only a few teams will be here today, the rest arrive tomorrow. So we'll just be in this gym for tonight."
Two courts, four teams. Okay so there were three other schools showing up today, no worries. Fukurodani, Shinzen, and Karasuno today. It seemed in order, Kuroo was good with scheduling, and to be fair you didn't often have to correct his work. He was just paranoid from when he royally screwed up during exam week; the poor guy was running off of no sleep and way too much coffee.
You handed it back, "Those are two of the teams I'm supposed to be weary of, right?" The question was asked dryly, and Kuroo huffed at your tone.
"Don't appreciate the sarcasm, but yes. Thank you for asking." Kai just chuckled, patting him on the arm.
"Lev, I swear to the gods if you don't stop-"
"Yaku, come on! What's the point of a training camp if we're not training?"
"We're just warming up now, put the ball down!"
You sighed, understanding Kuroo's petulance from earlier. Damn rooster-headed captain laughed as you stalked over to where Yaku and Lev were bickering.
"Yaku's right, Lev, we're going to run some drills before we start with anything else."
Lev pouted at your words, and Yaku looked far too smug after bullying the first year. You raised an eyebrow at him, "If you both have enough energy to be bickering why not run some extra laps, hm? I was going to have everyone start with fifteen, but I think you two need a bit more than that. Does twenty five sound good?"
The two blanched at your words, the sickly sweet tone you had adopted since filling this position, you had been told, was terrifying. Yaku looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his head, but decided against arguing.
"Sorry," Lev muttered, and you nodded.
"Now put the ball back, Lev, and the two of you can get started. I'll have the others join you when you hit ten laps."
He nodded, the pout disappearing as he thought of something, "Oh! Watch this!"
Before you or Yaku could say anything, he launched the ball, clearly aiming to throw it directly into the basket. It made it, in a sense, before bouncing off all the other balls inside, and flying out the still open door. He stared after it, almost surprised by the outcome.
"Go start your laps." Was all you said, sending the two off.
You could hear Kuroo's stupid cackle from across the gym, and turned quickly, glaring his way as well. "You wish to join them, captain?"
He sobered up rather quickly, "No. I'm good, thanks."
You huffed, turning to gather the stray ball. Nekomata chuckled from where he and Naoi were talking. You all had barely been here and these troublemakers were already... well, making trouble.
The ball had bounced further down the sidewalk than you had thought, and you had to walk a good few meters away to get it. Though before you could lean down to grab it, the presence of someone startled you.
This kid appeared out of nowhere.
He was staring at you, almost as confused by your presence as you were of his.
"Um, hello?" The hold he had on his bag tightened as he awkwardly greeted you.
He was short, bright and unruly orange hair. He seemed nervous, reminding you of one of your younger cousins whenever he got caught doing something he shouldn't have been. Maybe he was wandering around and didn't think anyone would be here.
"Hey," You squatted to grab the ball, walking a bit closer to him, "Are you lost? I don't think you're supposed to be here, kid."
His cheeks burned bright at your comment, and he stammered over whatever he was trying to say.
"Hinata! What did I tell you about running off, man?"
You two turned, a guy about your age calling out to the red head, Hinata, also carrying a bag at his side. The two of you made eye contact, and the man froze where he was standing.
No one said a word, and you awkwardly moved the ball around in your hands, "Um, are you his older brother?"
Hinata sputtered at the question, "He's not my older brother!"
The other guy didn't say anything, simply staring at you silently. It was starting to make you feel a bit uncomfortable. "Uh-"
"Pretty girl!"
His shout caught you off guard, and you felt your shoulders raise, cheeks burning at the words shouted your direction. Mouth parted slightly, you took notice as other people began walking into view.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh shit.
You turned to Hinata, "Are you all here for the volleyball training camp?"
He nodded enthusiastically, "We're Karasuno high school!"
"Oh." Was all you managed to say, looking from him to the others who were walking up curiously.
One of them stepped forward, the way he walked reminded you of Kuroo some, and he smiled at you. Oh he was... he was handsome. Your cheeks burned even hotter at your own thoughts.
"Hello, I'm Daichi, Karasuno's captain. Who are you?"
"Oh, uh," You were stammering like Hinata had been when you called out to him, introducing yourself, "I'm Nekoma's manager."
He blinked, "Their manager? I didn't know they had gotten one. That's great!"
He smiled down at you, and you felt your heart flutter some. This was dangerous.
Wait, weren't you supposed to avoid this team? Because-
"What!" Someone else came into view, standing next to the buzz cut guy who called you pretty a few minutes ago, "Nekoma got a manager too?"
You stepped back, the attention scaring you, and you were beginning to feel like you had when you first became Nekoma's manager. "Uh, yes?"
"She's so pretty!"
"Stay strong, Noya," The buzz cut guy grabbed his friends shoulder, "We must remain strong!"
Those two. You were supposed to avoid those two.
You failed.
"Hey!" You had never been so happy to hear Yamamoto's yells before, "Back off our manager!"
You felt yourself breath a bit easier as your team came out of the gym, Lev and Yaku looking a bit more winded than the others. Kuroo hurried over to you, smiling at Daichi.
"Well well, I thought you all weren't going to be here until later."
Daichi sighed, "We thought so too. Kiyoko really saved us with motion sickness medicine for Hinata though, so we pulled through."
"I would have rather your managers meet ours before the rest of your crows," Kuroo muttered, standing close enough to you that you could feel his body heat, "Especially your rowdy second years."
"Yeah, sorry about them," His apology was directed towards you, and you waved it off.
"Oh, no, it's- it's okay!"
"Yachi and Kiyoko are putting their stuff away, if you want to go introduce yourself to them."
He really needed to stop smiling at you, it was not doing good things to your heart.
"And change into something that's less cute," Kuroo muttered to you, half playful, half serious.
You self consciously tugged at the end of your skirt, those sweat pants were really calling your name. You quickly bowed towards the rest of Karasuno, "It's nice to meet you all! I'll be back!"
With as much dignity as you could muster you sped walked back towards the rooms, cheeks warm and heart fluttering. You thought you were going to have more time to calm down before meeting more strangers? Oh you were so making Kuroo do some type of drill he hated as punishment.
Outside of the manager's room, you took a moment to compose yourself. You patted your cheeks, hoping the flush would die down soon, before softly knocking on the door to announce your presence, before sliding the door open.
"Um, hello," You stepped inside, the two figures turning to look at you.
One of them was a bit shorter than you, she seemed like a first year. She had cute little star hair clips in her hair, and she seemed almost more nervous than you were. The other one was down right beautiful, and you were regretting agreeing to come to this training camp.
You introduced yourself, "I'm Nekoma's new manager. Daichi said you two were Kiyoko and Yachi?"
The taller of the two, Kiyoko, smiled softly at you, "Yes. I'm Kiyoko, this is Yachi. It's lovely to meet you."
"Yeah!" Yachi echoed, voice a bit louder than necessary, all nervous smiles, "I didn't know Nekoma got a manager!"
"I really only started a few weeks ago, Kuroo had to beg me to come to the training camp. He also said you all would be a bit later coming, so I'm sorry I wasn't here to greet you two."
"No, it's alright," Kiyoko waved off your apology, "It was good luck and proper planning that got us here now, something I fear we often lack when traveling."
Yachi nodded, "Yeah! I'm going to start packing a mini first aid kit, and I'll keep motion sickness medicine in it for any time we travel in the future."
That didn't seem like a bad idea. Granted, none of your teammates got sick traveling, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities.
"Oh, if you don't mind I need to change," You motioned towards your uniform, "Then I can meet you all back at the gym."
"We can wait for you if you'd like," Yachi offered, voice tentative, "Only if you want though!"
"Oh," You blinked, before smiling, "That would be nice, yeah!"
These two were so sweet, you were starting to look forward to this training camp. Yaku and Kai were right, they were all nice, and even the quick talk with the other team, they all seemed sweet.
This would be fun, you were sure of it now.