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Tobio walks in the gym like any other day.
As it’s winter, the early morning is dark, and he smirked to himself when he sees the gym’s windows dark, earning him another point in the competition between him and Hinata.
The lock was unlocked, and he wonders who could be so uncareful. Hinata, of course, he thought. He was in charge of the keys yesterday; of course he would forget to lock it. Such an clumsy dumbass. The volleyballs could’ve been all stolen, and then how would they play?
He opens the door to the gym, taking his shoes off and putting on his volleyball shoes. The gym has a different vibe in the early morning that he’s come to appreciate. The gym was deprived of the usual horseplay. Tanaka and Nishinoya’s shouting, Tsukishima’s snarky remarks, Hinata’s enthusiastic yelling, captain’s stern voice, were all absent. It was calm and cool, like he preferred it.
He goes into the changeroom and change into his clothes, and turns on his phone. Friday, December 22, it reads.
Okay, I have Japanese Literature first period, math second period - good, I can sleep in math, and - he stops. Oh. It’s his birthday today. No wonder his mother left a small cupcake in the fridge that morning - he’s been wondering since when she liked sweets. Well, whatever. It’s not like he’s been celebrating his birthday since his first year in middle school. Plus, he never told anyone on the team when his birthday was.
He didn’t like noise. A hyper life was not for him, quite the opposite of his partner, Hinata. Back in his middle school, he was always quiet in class, disliking big discussions and crowds. Volleyball practice and small talk with his ex-friends Kindaichi and Kunimi was the only times where he tolerated it. But they abandoned him, of course, and he doesn’t really mind, because it’s more quiet like that anyway. It’s not like he likes noise anyway.
When he finishes changing, he takes note of the still dark gym, distinctly wondering where the rest of his teammates were. By this time, the first of them would be arriving, and Hinata definitely would be here. In fact, he would be right next to him. Did he mistake the practice time?
He turns on his phone and sends a message to the Karasuno group chat.
6:07 a.m. Blueberry
Is there practice today? Where are you?
6:08 a.m. Littlegiant
Ye ther e practice
Natsu was sick I had to get mendecine from teh store
Be a lil late
6:10 a.m Blueberry
Oh okay
At least spell medecine right, dumbass
6:10 a.m. Saltyshima
....
Tobio closes his phone, and steps out into the gym. He would expect the gym to be cooler, since he didn’t turn the heater on, and it was officially winter. Strangely, the heater was on, which makes him criticize the jumpy smaller boy more. The bills the school would have to pay that month would increase dramatically.
He goes to turn the heat down a little, since it was starting to get too close to resembling the hell like heat of summer when the lights flickered and turned on suddenly behind him.
He turns around immediately, prepared to fight or to flee from the person who sneaked in the night before due to the unlocked door.
Instead, a single stand of streamers exploded out from behind a mat. He hear a whisper of oh shit followed by a Noya! You’re not supposed to do that until he sets up the nets!
He stood there for a few seconds until he heard steps coming fast behind him, and he only had a second to prepare for the impact of a certain orange haired boy tackling him to the floor despite being much smaller.
Party hooters started, streamers fell from the roof, all his teammates and Kiyoko, Yachi, Takeda-sensei, and Ukai jumped out.
“KAGEYAMAAAAAAAA!!!” They all came running at the moment he recovered from Hinata’s attack.
“Wait- oh god-” And down he goes with the rest of his teammates. Even Tsukishima was there beside the flail of limbs, a party hat on his hat, in his hand a small wrapped present. They were all laughing, Noya blasting ‘Happy Birthday’ airhorn version on his phone.
After a moment, even he was, despite his lungs being crushed by everyone. He had no idea why he was laughing - their laughs were contagious. Tanaka, noticing that, shouted, “Guys! You’re gonna kill the birthday boy!”
They laughed and got off of him. A snarky remark came from the side, surprisingly from not Tsukishima but Suga. “He’s not the only one we were about to kill.” What?
Tobio turns to Hinata on his left, and noticed that he did not laugh with the rest of them, though his eyes, he thought, still shined brighter than all of them combined. Unknowingly, Tobio still had a smile on his face.
The little boy turned red, but laughed it off. “Suga-san’s not wrong.”
Somebody tapped his shoulder, and he turned around to face the ace. He held out a present with panda designs on it. “Happy Birthday, Kageyama.”
The gym falls silent, walking for his response, though there was a sensation that everything was about to explode.
He looks at each one of their faces, a face with genuine happiness, starting with Asahi to Narita to Yamaguchi and Hinata. He feels tears sting his eyes, and was dimly wondered how to describe it.
How lucky he was, he thought, to have found such people.
“Thank you,” he managed to choke out. The gym paused for a moment to comprehend his words.
“KAGEYAMAAAAAAAA!!!” They screamed.
“TOBIOOOOOOOOOO!!!” The more daring ones screamed.
“THREE, TWO, ONE!” Daichi’s voice rang through the gym.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAGEYAMA!” They all threw their party hats, and Yamaguchi offered him his present with a huge smile big enough to fill the world, followed by Yachi, then Kiyoko, then all of them with Tsukishima offering him his little gift wrapped box, mumbling a ‘Happy Birthday’ and walking away with his senpais patting him on the back. By then, Tobio was almost drowning in the 15 gifts he received and struggled to get up, until a hand appeared.
“Hehe,” the small boy chuckled. “Look at the Kageyama drowning in gifts. Let’s go, Suga-san’s already cutting the cake!”
Tobio gladly took his hand without any hesitation.
As he ate cake and practiced volleyball and walked around, he realized that, for once, he wasn’t alone. He thinks of the past years where he ate the same little cupcake alone, practiced in a team but isolated at the same time, walking around with no one with him.
For the first time in his life, he realizes that he doesn’t mind noise and voices. It was just the voices of the wrong people. Maybe, just maybe, a life as wild as Hinata would like it would suit him. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, his life was meant to be beside Hinata, beside his team.
“Euphoria: a intense feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being.” The teacher writes it on the board. That caught his attention; he turns up from doodling on his notebooks and raises his hand. The teacher turns around and sees his hand extended, surprised that the quiet boy who is always doodling on his notebook was more focused than they’ve ever seen.
“K-kageyama?”
He puts his hands down. “How does it feel like?”
“Well, it’s really unexplainable; the definition really does not do it justice. It’s a flood of unexplainable happiness. You’d have to feel it yourself to be able to understand.”
“And how do you do that?” Bright blue eyes stared back at the teacher.
Their eyes widened, but smiled. “It could be anything, really. For me, it was when I first won the volleyball tournament back in college. It was our first year making it to nationals, and when we won it , it was unbelievable. Around my teammates, staring at the scoreboard in disbelief, I felt it. I then realized it was because we worked so hard, but the main reason was them. People and love, I believe, are the thing that brings you the most happiness.” The young boy nods and goes back to his state of daydreaming, though this time it seemed different than before.
Young Tobio goes home that night and tells his parents. “Mum, Dad!” he runs up to them.
“Yes, dear?”
“I actually don’t want to quit volleyball!” he says.
They look at each other and smiles in confusion. “What made you change your mind?”
He beams at them. “Euphoria!”
They give each other a puzzled look, but agreed to Tobio nonetheless.
Tobio, at 15, no, 16 years of age, looks around him, and see Tanaka and Nishinoya shouting, Tsukishima making snarky remarks, and Hinata enthusiastically yelling. He also sees Suga, Asahi, and Daichi laughing at some joke Kinoshita and Narita made, and he sees Yamaguchi and Ennoshita in a conversation and smiling at him when they notice him. He sees Ukai and Takeda quietly enjoying cake in a corner, and sees Kiyoko trying to calm Yachi when she accidently dropped some icing on the corner.
He feels tears flow down his face, one at a time, and he tries to wipe them away but they just keep coming. They look at him, concerned, with a shout from Hinata and rushing over.
“What’s wrong, Kageyama?” Suga asks.
He smiles despite the tears.
“Thank you.”
A surprised look appeared on their faces, and they pull him into a hug.
“Tsukki, come on!” Yamaguchi and Noya yells.
“Bu-” Tsukishima lets out a welp when he was dragged into the hug, but succumbs at the end.
Will he ever feel it, euphoria, he wonders 5 years later from that class.
Three years later, he wonders how to describe the intense feeling of happiness, confidence, and well-being. And his teacher was completely correct. Words do not do it justice. The word he is looking for was ‘euphoria’, the one he wondered if he could ever find so long ago.
Looking around and feeling his breath getting taken away but in a good way, he can say that he has found it.