Hello everyone! I can't believe it has been 4 years since I last logged into this account, so I apologise in advance if I do something wrongly or forget to do something that's expected of me. I'm still trying to find my way around this website so I hope y'all can bear with me :)

This is not only my first fic after my 4 year hibernation, but also my first Haikyuu! fic. I finished both seasons in 5 days (a week before my finals, I might add) and before I knew it, I emerged on the other side of the tunnel, a fully-fledged Haikyuu! trash fan. I blame Dan Howell for this.

Also, apologies in advance if I've used any of the honorifics wrong or mess up anything else. I'm not entirely familiar with Japanese culture or how their schools are run, so I had to make a few assumptions. Please let me know if I got anything wrong! I'll bear that in mind should I write any Haikyuu! fics in the future.

Disclaimer: I don't own Haikyuu!

"WOAH! Yachi-san, you have a boyfriend?!"

Heads turned at the excited proclamation to see Hinata bouncing up and down in front of their blushing manager.

"SHH!" Yachi hissed, gesturing wildly with her hands in a futile attempt to stop Hinata from jumping around and attracting further attention. "Nothing's confirmed yet, we only just went out for the second time yesterday…"

Hinata's eyes widened even more. "Both of you have already gone out? Where did you go? What did you do? Was it fun?"

"Um…"

A hand came down onto Hinata's shoulder, effectively shutting him up and sparing Yachi from further embarrassment. "Stop overwhelming her, Hinata," Daichi said in a mixture of amusement and mild disapproval. He gestured vaguely over to the volleyball court, which had yet to be set up. "Didn't you say you wanted to race Kageyama to set up the court?"

"Too late!" A triumphant yell came from the store room, and Kageyama emerged from within, his arms piled high with equipment. "I already have everything we need!"

"Not if I have anything to say about that!" Hinata yelled back, the previous conversation apparently forgotten as he raced over to the opposite side of the gym.

Yachi heaved a small sigh of relief as she watched Hinata attempting to wrestle some items away from Kageyama. "Thank you, Sawamura-kun," she said meekly, raising her voice to make herself heard over the sounds of scuffling, laughter and an exasperated "Oi!" from Sugawara. "I wasn't sure if I was ready to let everyone know yet." She shrugged helplessly and smiled. "Guess I can't do anything about that now."

Daichi smiled reassuringly down at her. "So who's the lucky boy?"

A flush crept back onto Yachi's face and she looked down shyly. "He's a boy from my class. His name is Hisashi Kenji."

Tanaka approached them from the side and patted her on the shoulder. "Hisashi Kenji, eh?" To anyone else, he looked like he was simply happy for his friend. Daichi, however, didn't miss the way his eyes glinted in mischief. "Congrats, Yachi-san. I hope he makes you happy."

Yachi beamed at him, completely oblivious to the way Tanaka was ignoring the look Daichi was shooting him. "Thank you Tanaka-san! I think we're going out again tomorrow. Ooh I really hope nothing goes wrong…"

As Yachi continued to ramble on nervously, Tanaka finally returned Daichi's look with a grin. "I hope nothing goes wrong for you, too."

Daichi groaned.

Tanaka and Nishinoya

Hisashi Kenji was a normal boy, thank you very much. 170cm tall, short brown hair, good grades, member of Karasuno's math club – he was the epitome of normalness. When he met Yachi Hitoka in class, he thought she was a perfectly (cute) normal girl too, with a perfectly normal life and perfectly normal friends.

That is, until he came face-to-face with two ruffian-looking guys in the middle of an empty corridor.

Hisashi gulped. They were both smirking at him, arms crossed and eyes glinting mischievously. He thought they looked familiar, but at the moment, his mind was too busy screaming at him to run to properly register who these people were.

Trying to push away the fear that was curdling his insides, he decided to speak. "C-can I help you?"

The taller boy's smirk evolved into a full-out grin. "Nah, we just wanted to see who you were in person."

"E-excuse me?"

"You're Hisashi Kenji, right?" It was the shorter boy's turn to speak. He took a step forward and, despite him being shorter than Hisashi, the intensity in his eyes was striking and Hisashi could not help but take a step back. "From Yachi-san's class?"

Yachi-san? They called her Yachi-san. It sounded like they were somewhat familiar with her. How could Yachi-san know who these people were?

Then it clicked.

"Oh! Are you guys from the volleyball team?"

The guys exchanged looks. "My name is Tanaka," the taller one said, gesturing towards himself, "and this one here is Nishinoya. Although," and here the unsettling smirk returned, "you should probably address us as Tanaka-senpai and Nishinoya-senpai."

Nishinoya bobbed his head in agreement. "I'm sure Yachi-san would want you to call us that. That's how she addresses us, after all."

Are these guys for real? he thought. Not wanting to get in trouble with Yachi-san's friends, however, he quickly nodded. "Alright, Tanaka-senpai, Nishinoya-senpai. Um – "

The boys suddenly let out a loud whoop and slapped each other a high-five. "We did it!" the taller one crowed, pumping his fist into the air as Nishinoya leapt about in excitement. "We made him call us senpai!"

Hisashi let out a small sigh as the guys continued reveling in their victory. Oh, so they had only wanted to tease him. Thank goodness. He had thought that he was going to be beaten up or at least be at the receiving end of some death threats –

Hands placed abruptly on his shoulders stopped his train of thought, and he slowly looked up to see Tanaka looming over him. Hisashi squeaked when he noticed the frightening glint in the older boy's eyes. "Consider this a warning, Hisashi-kun," he said slowly, his face containing no trace of the smile that had been there previously. "Think carefully before doing anything that might hurt Yachi-san."

A sharp prod in his stomach made him double over, and Nishinoya's face suddenly came into view. "We know where to find you if you do," he said almost cheerfully before tugging at Tanaka's shirt. "Let's go Ryuu, we don't wanna be late for practice."

Hisashi remained rooted to where he was long after the boys had walked away. Were these guys for real? Were all of Yachi-san's friends like this? She had seemed so normal! Who could've guessed that she would have friends like these?

Maybe the rest of the volleyball boys weren't all like those two?

The voice at the back of his head only laughed in response.

Hinata and Kageyama

The next time Hisashi encountered Yachi-san's teammates was the next day during lunch break. Yachi-san had gone out to find a teacher, and Hisashi had been sitting at her desk waiting for her to return. He was still reeling from the encounter with her two scary friends the day before – last night, he had avoided going anywhere near the gym where the volleyball club practiced in, and had continued going out of his way this morning by avoiding any areas associated with the second or third-year students. Imagine his relief when he made it all the way until lunch break without catching a glimpse of either of them.

Hence, Hisashi had been in quite a good mood the whole day. No scary senpais, no weird teammates, no…nothing out of the ordinary. Normal. Just the way he liked it.

An exasperated sigh floated in from outside the classroom, catching Hisashi's attention. "Do you want to pass this exam or not, Kageyama?" It was a voice that was vaguely familiar to Hisashi – perhaps another first-year? "We need her help again. Or would you rather go back to Tsukishima?"

Hisashi could almost imagine the other boy bristling as he ground out his reply: "What? No! Ugh, let's just go find her."

The door opened to reveal a shrimpy red-headed boy, who was followed by a taller, dour-looking black-haired boy trudging along behind him. Both of them were holding blue notebooks loosely in their hands. They turned to look at Yachi's seat, only for them to frown in confusion upon seeing Hisashi seated there.

Hisashi frowned back. What were they looking at?

…oh.

Oh, no.

Before he could say anything, the red-headed boy had gone over to the table and was looking at Hisashi expectantly. "Excuse me, do you know where Yachi-san is?"

Hisashi had no idea how to respond. Part of him wanted to say no just so that he wouldn't have to interact with any of Yachi's weird teammates, but part of him didn't want to be rude. He gave them a small smile and, hoping that they would leave immediately after he responded, said "Oh, Yachi-san's gone to look for a teacher. I don't think she will be back before lunch break ends."

"Oh," said the small redhead, lips curling down in disappointment for a moment. Then, something seemed to dawn on him and he squinted at Hisashi curiously. "Say…" the redhead said, "what is your name?"

Hisashi figured that there was no way out of this one. With a resigned sigh, he smiled again and stood up. "My name is Hisashi Kenji," he said, bowing. He noted how the mere mention of his name made the redhead's face light up, and he tried to ignore the warmth blooming in his chest. Maybe this guy wouldn't be so bad. "Are you one of Yachi's teammates?"

The redhead's eyes widened. "Kageyama!" he exclaimed, whirling around to tug at his black-haired friend's sleeve, "it's him! Yachi-san's boyfriend!"

Hisashi flushed. "Um, I don't know…"

"It's so good to finally meet you!" he exclaimed, bowing enthusiastically. "My name is Hinata and this," he gestured to his black-haired friend standing over his shoulder, "is Kageyama."

The black-haired guy nodded. "Nice to meet you."

"Say, Hisashi-kun," Hinata said, fidgeting with the notebook in his hands, "you are quite smart, aren't you? You being in the same class as Yachi and all."

Hisashi tilted his head to the side. "I get pretty good grades, yeah."

"OHH!" Hinata said excitedly. His eyes, if possible, widened even more. "Since Yachi-san isn't here, could you help us with our homework? We usually ask her, but since she isn't here, maybe we could ask you instead?" He started thumping Hisashi on the shoulder with more force than he anticipated, making him wince. "This is a good time for us to get to know each other as well!"

Hisashi paused for a moment. Hinata had turned on the puppy-eyes to full power and was looking at him pleadingly, while Kageyama was fixing him with a very serious, yet disconcerting look. It wasn't as if he didn't want to help them, but he had his own things to do. Surely they wouldn't mind if…?

"Sure, I'll help you," was what he found himself saying next.

Hinata's face lit up with a sunny grin. "Thank you so much, Hisashi-kun!" he said excitedly. He tugged Kageyama forward and pulled two chairs up to the table. "How do we repay you? This means so much to us, it's so hard to get good grades just to be able to continue participating in club activities…"

As Hinata continued to chatter, Hisashi heaved a tiny sigh. As friendly as Hinata was, he sure was talkative. And Kageyama, seated quietly opposite him, didn't seem too friendly. He hoped he wouldn't regret this.

-0-

He severely regretted this.

Ten minutes into their study session, his right ear had already begun to ring. Hinata, as nice as he was, literally could not stop talking. It was a constant stream of exclamations and "WOAH!" and "GYUH!", and his sunny smiles were beginning to make him feel very, very tired.

To make matters worse, Kageyama apparently had had enough of Hinata's chatter and had suddenly slapped him upside the head. "Oi, dumbass!" he had yelled as Hinata flinched and clutched his head in pain, "do you want him to teach us or not? Stop talking!"

They had begun arguing loudly with each other, much to the consternation of Hisashi and his classmates who were in the classroom. At their confused looks, Hisashi could only shrug helplessly. How on earth was Yachi handle these two idiots? This was insanity!

"Guys, guys!" Hisashi tried to say commandingly, only for him to squeak when both boys turned to glare at him. If he wasn't the victim here, he would have found this situation hilarious: Kageyama had grabbed a fistful of Hinata's hair and Hinata was trying to pinch Kageyama's arm. They looked less like the high schoolers they were and more like a bunch of pre-schoolers fighting over the last treat available.

He tried again. "U-um, maybe we should try going through the notes again? Y-you did say that you might not be able to go for club activities i-if you aren't able to get this right…"

There was a momentary pause as they dropped their hands slowly and stared at each other. Then, Hinata snorted. "Bet I can copy these notes faster than you."

"Bring it on!" Kageyama yelled, and there was a flurry of activity as the boys scrambled for their stationery to write down the string of English words written neatly in Hisashi's notebook.

"Stop trying to move the notebook towards you!"

"How am I supposed to write it down if I can't see what it says?!"

"I don't know, just deal with it!"

"Quit being stingy! Stingyama!"

Hisashi groaned and covered his face with his hands. This…this was too much.

Daichi and Sugawara

"Is that him, Daichi?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Hisashi huffed in annoyance and looked up. He was out in the courtyard trying to complete his homework since his own classroom wasn't safe anymore, but the constant whispering behind him made it very hard to concentrate. He looked over his shoulder to see two boys standing a few metres behind him. They were roughly the same height – one of them was leaner, with silver hair, while the other one had close-cropped black hair and a slightly bulkier build. Both of them were sporting gentle smiles on their faces, but it soon morphed into slight embarrassment upon seeing Hisashi staring at them.

They looked pretty mature. And nice. But Hisashi wasn't ready to underestimate them that easily – after all, he had thought that the two weirdos who accosted him in class yesterday had been normal, too. Just look at how that had turned out.

Anyway, nice or not, Hisashi didn't appreciate having people talking about him behind his back. He raised his eyebrows and looked at them pointedly. "Excuse me, but may I help you?"

At least these two had the decency to look contrite. "I'm so sorry!" the silver-haired one cried, waving his hands frantically in front of his face as they came over, "We didn't mean to be rude! It's just that – we wanted to know if you were Hisashi Kenji?"

Hisashi nodded, not trusting himself to speak to yet another pair of Yachi's volleyball weirdo friends approaching him out of nowhere.

"I apologize if we were being rude," the dark-haired one said, running a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Yachi-san told us that she was seeing someone, and we just wanted to put a face to the name." He bowed, the silver-haired one following suit. "My name is Sawamura Daichi, and my friend here is Sugawara Koushi. We're the captain and vice-captain of Karasuno's volleyball team."

Hisashi's eyes widened. The captain and vice-captain of Karasuno's volleyball team were paying him a visit just to see who he was? They sounded pretty nice, but Hisashi had a feeling that there was more to the nice and friendly façade these two were putting up.

As he carefully contemplated his next move, the two captains had taken a seat opposite him, much to his chagrin. "We're so sorry if any of our teammates caused you any trouble, Hisashi-kun," Sugawara said, smiling apologetically. "I heard you helped Hinata and Kageyama with their work yesterday. Knowing how they can get, that's very commendable of you."

"I also heard that Tanaka and Noya approached you," Sawamura said, his face contorting in a bizarre mixture of exasperation, annoyance and fondness. He reached out and patted Hisashi on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I've already told them off. They tend to get very protective of their friends."

"What they did to Hisashi-kun wasn't the worst, though," Sugawara said, almost wistfully. "Do you remember the time Shimizu started seeing that boy?"

Sawamura threw back his head and guffawed. "How could I forget! Tanaka and Noya were following her around all day they almost couldn't be alone together!"

Hisashi could feel his blood freeze. Followed them…around? He cast a quick look at his surroundings. Neither Tanaka or Nishinoya were around, as far as he knew. As if random members of the volleyball team approaching him out of nowhere wasn't enough! He highly doubted he could deal with them following him around, especially if he was with Yachi-san.

Sawamura and Sugawara had continued talking as he panicked, apparently oblivious to the paranoia slowly consuming the younger boy. "It got really bad after the boy dumped her, though," Sawamura was saying, his face becoming very solemn. "Shimizu was heartbroken for weeks."

Sugawara nodded. "Yeah, it took nearly the entire team to restrain Tanaka and Noya from going after him."

"Still didn't stop them from properly confronting him, though."

Beads of sweat were beginning to pop out on Hisashi's forehead as Sugawara grinned. "Didn't we all confront the guy, though? Remember when he tried to approach her during practice but everyone just came together and drove him off?"

"We literally are crows, aren't we?" Sawamura said, smiling at the memory. "I have to say, Asahi's looks really came in handy then. I don't think Tanaka and Noya could have properly driven that asshole off without him looming over their shoulders."

…hold the damn phone. There were more of these scary senpais? Tanaka and Nishinoya were already scary enough. To think that there were members that were way scarier than they were…

Hisashi could feel himself panic. Well and truly panic. He never should have asked Yachi out. His life was over. He would be left with no future. He's going to be stuck with these crows hounding him for the rest of his life –

"Well!" Sawamura suddenly pounded Hisashi on the back, instantly snapping him out of his panicked reverie, "I hope we haven't taken up too much of your time, Hisashi-kun." He and Sugawara both got up and slung their backpacks over their shoulders, and Hisashi could swear that the grin he was shooting him was almost…crafty. "We hope that you and Yachi-san are happy together."

"We want what's best for her, and I really hope that you would be that person for her!" Sugawara said, waving at him cheerfully. "See you around, Hisashi-kun."

Hisashi stared at them as they walked away. When he thought they were gone, his entire body slumped forward and he found himself staring morosely at the floor.

Maybe now was the best time to consider switching schools?

-0-

"Do you think that worked?"

"Of course it did. Did you see his face right before we left? I almost feel sorry for him."

"Daichi, the day you feel sorry for being protective over the team, I will eat my foot."

"…yeah you're right."

Asahi

Hisashi stormed away from the courtyard. Great, just absolutely fantastic. So far, all of Yachi-san's teammates had freaked him out. Two of them were thugs, another two were pre-schoolers, and the damn captains themselves were crafty little sneaks. Apparently there was no place in this school that could keep him from bumping into at least one of them.

He made his way over to the vending machine. These creeps could spoil his day, his life and his dignity, but if there was one thing they couldn't spoil, it was his appetite. Casting a quick look over his shoulder to see if anyone was following him, he didn't see where he was going and found his foot catching on a loose brick on the ground, sending him hurtling into the back of a person standing in front of the vending machine.

"I'm so sorry!" he squeaked, swaying a little in an attempt to regain his balance. Hands clamped down onto his shoulders to steady him, and he slowly looked up to see…

…what the hell?!

To his horror, Hisashi had found himself staring up at a man that towered menacingly over him. His messy brown hair had fallen in waves around his face, casting eerie shadows over his eyes which crept down to the sides of his face. He was also well-built, to the point that if he were to take a swing, Hisashi would be knocked out cold even before the guy's fist connected with his face.

He was that terrifying.

To make matters worse, a bunch of keys were dangling off the pinkie finger of this guy (man?). Hanging along with the rest of his keys was a…

…a blue-and-yellow volleyball keychain.

"Are you okay?"

Hisashi felt his mouth go dry as the hands on his shoulders tightened. This volleyball titan had just spoken to him. He was about to get devoured, wasn't he? Dragged away to a forgotten corner of the school, never to be seen again? How had Yachi avoided being eaten by him?

Whether it was the fear of getting kidnapped and eaten, or the exasperation from bumping into yet another one of the volleyball freaks, Hisashi found the strength to wrench himself from the titan's grasp and pulled away. He stumbled a few steps back and raised his arms up in surrender.

"Please don't eat me," he managed to choke out before turning tail and sprinting in the opposite direction.

He suddenly wasn't so hungry anymore.

Yamaguchi and Tsukishima

Students from the same year and gender always underwent their PE sessions together, so Friday afternoons saw Hisashi separated from Yachi-san to exercise with his fellow male cohortmates.

Throughout the entire warm-up run, Hisashi kept a look-out for Hinata and Kageyama. He had not seen any sign of them, which was a good thing as it meant that they were unlikely to cross paths for the day.

Despite the inane chatter he had to endure that day, he did remember Hinata mentioning that there were two other first-years in the volleyball team aside from him and Kageyama. According to him, one of them was apparently a "pompous little shit with glasses" while the other one was "really sweet but I don't understand why he would hang out with an asshole like Tsukishima", which only served to make Hisashi feel very uneasy about them.

When he was done with his run, Hisashi dragged himself over to the sidelines to take a breather. While he didn't exactly hate sports, he wasn't the fittest guy around either, and the run had winded him. He had only just slumped against a wall and gulped down some water when he heard a soft snicker to his left.

"Ah, so this is the one."

Hisashi turned and, upon seeing who it was, wanted to sink to his knees to pray for forgiveness from whichever being he seemed to have offended. The two people on his left could only be the people that Hinata had described to him – the taller, glasses-wearing boy was smirking down at him, while the other boy had his hands on his hips and appeared to be scrutinising Hisashi with his head tilted to the side.

The second boy didn't seem sweet at all.

"You are Yachi-san's boyfriend, aren't you?" Megane-kun said, his lips curling as he walked up to Hisashi and towered over him.

Hisashi reflexively threw his hands up and edged away slowly. "Um, yes, I suppose – "

"You…suppose?" Megane-kun said slowly. He drew himself to his full height and stared menacingly down at Hisashi, his smirk all but gone. "You have a problem calling her your girlfriend? Is that why you suppose you're her boyfriend?"

Beads of sweat that had nothing to do with the run had begun to pop out on Hisashi's forehead, and he noted shakily how people have seemingly begun to notice this little altercation, but didn't dare intervene. He couldn't blame them, to be frank. Megane-kun was intimidating.

"Look, Hisashi-kun," the other boy finally said, coming up to the side. His intense scrutinising glare was gone and now he simply had an apologetic smile on his face. "We don't mean to frighten you. We just wanted to look out for Yachi-san since she is both our friend and our manager. Her best interests are our concern."

This seemed to break the menacing spell hanging over Megane-kun, who tore his gaze away from the stunned Hisashi to cast an irritated look down at his friend. "You don't always have to be so nice, Yamaguchi," he huffed. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Sorry, Tsukki," Yamaguchi said, not sounding the least bit sorry. He shot Hisashi a look that was somehow both an apology and a warning before attempting to drag his friend away. "Let's go before we get in trouble."

Megane-kun tsked in annoyance before looking down his nose at Hisashi again. "You know that you're not just dealing with us if you ever upset Yachi-san, right?" he said coolly.

"Yes, I do," Hisashi blurted out, surprising himself. Judging from their raised eyebrows, he guessed that he had surprised Yamaguchi and Megane-kun as well. He was tired of being cornered by these volleyball boys, intentionally or not, and something inside him had broken free. "I'm well-aware that you guys are the biggest bunch of freaks in these school, from your thugs all the way to your captains. But if anything," and here he allowed himself a small smile, "I'm glad that Yachi-san has you all to look after her as well."

Yamaguchi's face broke out into a wide grin, and even the frown on Megane-kun's face eased a little.

"That's good," Megane-kun said simply and walked away.

As they gradually disappeared into the distance, Hisashi counted that as a small victory. Still, it didn't mean that he would willingly come anywhere near the volleyball boys again in the future.

He's had enough of them for an entire lifetime.

"Hitoka-chan, are you okay?"

Yachi blinked and turned to find Shimizu peering at her in concern. They were standing at the sidelines as the boys were doing their stretching – she must've been talking to me and noticed me getting lost in my thoughts, Yachi noted in embarrassment. She quickly smiled and nodded.

"I'm fine! I was just thinking about something."

Shimizu's face relaxed, the concern in her face quickly being replaced with relief and curiousity. "What are you thinking about?" she asked. "Is everything alright with you and Hisashi?"

Yachi nodded fervently. "Yes, we are great!" she said enthusiastically. A frown slowly crept back to her face as she returned to what she had been thinking about. "It's just…the way he reacted, that's all."

"Reacted to what?"

"I thought it would be great if he could come down here to meet everyone," Yachi explained, "since my job and the friends I've made here are very important to me. But when I asked him, he turned very pale, mumbled some excuse and ran off. I don't know what happened."

To her surprise, Shimizu laughed out loud. It was so unexpected that it caught the attention of the boys, who turned and stared at her in disbelief. Yachi swore that Tanaka and Noya were about to cry.

"You have to understand something, Hitoka-chan," Shimizu said. Her attention turned back to the boys and her face softened as she watched Coach Ukai yelling about distractions. "As irritating as these boys can be, they are at the same time the sweetest and most protective people you will know." Seeing the realization dawning on Yachi's face, she smiled. "Crows can get very protective of their own – and you, Hitoka-chan, may not have realised this, but you and me are most definitely one of their own."

Yachi was speechless. A smile had begun to bloom and her chest felt warm as she surveyed the scene before her – at that moment, the boys were busy in their preparation for an upcoming practice match with another school, and were forming a single row to practice their receives. Tanaka saw her looking and shot her a grin, nudging Noya, who gave her a thumbs up. Daichi threw her a wink when he caught her looking, and Yamaguchi even gave her a small wave before turning his attention back to the drill.

Her heart felt full. She truly was one of them.

Well, for a first attempt after 4 years, I hope that this isn't too bad. Do let me know if you liked it, have any comments, or even any critique! I welcome constructive criticism.

I might be doing a series of one-shots centering around the team's interactions with Natsu in the future (because she's too adorable for words), but we'll see how that goes.

Hope you enjoyed the read! I'll hopefully post another story in the future so I'll see y'all around then :)