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Kageyama sighed, furrowing his brow. He was having such a shitty week of practice. He wasn’t improving and actually felt like he was getting worse. If practicing over and over doesn’t make him any better, what will? What can he do?
He was suddenly snapped out of his train of thought when he felt a fist clenching his uniform and a gentle but firm grip clasp his shoulder. He looked down to see Noya and Tanaka in front of him, mischievous smirks on both of their faces.
“Kageyama! Hey! What’s with the serious face? That’s not like you," Noya was saying, grinning widely as he tightened his grip on the disoriented Kageyama’s top.
"Yeah, you really need to relax. You’re thinking way too much!” Tanaka shouted, slowly but surely gripping Kageyama’s shoulder more forcefully as he backed him against the wall.
“What? No, it’s okay, Tanaka, I’m fine,” Kageyama protested, though he couldn’t suppress his ever-present scowl successfully enough to convince either of the other boys that that was true. He was stressed out about his lack of progress during practices lately and it was taking a toll on him, physically and mentally. Apparently it was more obvious than he had thought.
"I don’t buy it, grumpy” Noya said, shifting the position of his hand from Kageyama’s chest to his ribs, wiggling his fingers along the way as his other hand traced the slight curve of his hip. Kageyama let out a quiet gasp and tried to back up but ran into the wall. his eyes widened as he realized he had nowhere to go, but he tried his best to keep his composure. “What’s wrong? You ticklish?” Noya teased.
"No, you dumbass, now let me go,” he argued, cringing at that word and trying to squirm out from the grip of the other boys. Tanaka smiled, knowing that he was full of it.
"I thought I told you to relax?” he said, grabbing both of the first year’s wrists and pinning them to the wall above his head, allowing Noya to begin freely scribbling his fingers across Kageyama’s stomach. His reaction, though suppressed, was immediate. Strangled giggles started flowing from his mouth before he could stop them.
"Nishinoya, stop it!” he snapped, thrashing around but to no avail thanks to Tanaka’s firm grip.
"Why, what’s wrong? I thought you weren’t ticklish?” Noya taunted, and Kageyama grew desperate. He slid down against the wall, yanking his arms from Tanaka’s grip and falling gracelessly onto his ass before crawling between their legs and trying to escape as quickly as he could. Noya and Tanaka both burst out laughing at his frantic attempt and chased after him.
"Not so fast, Kageyamaaaa,” Tanaka sang, pouncing on the boy before he was able to stand back up. He straddled his waist and held down both his wrists while Noya approached them. He sat beside the restrained boy and frowned at the worried look on his face.
"Kageyama, we just want you to cheer up. You’ve been too hard on yourself lately. We really want you to relax and stop stressing so much,” he said as he began to lightly draw patterns on the underside of Kageyama’s arms. he shivered, forming his lips into a tight line to stop from smiling. He knew Nishinoya was right and that he did need to be careful of putting too much pressure on himself, but it was hard for him to just take this without putting up a fight. He always felt embarrassed being so vulnerable and so damn ticklish, even if it did genuinely cheer him up most of the time. He was jolted out of these thoughts when he felt the pressure of Tanaka’s hands leave his wrists and settle on either side of his hips. If he hadn’t been so spaced out he might have taken this opportunity to push the boy off, but by the time he realized Nishinoya was already holding his arms down again.
“Alright Kageyama, you need to make me a promise…” Tanaka smirked, circling his thumbs lightly on Kageyama’s hip bones as he squirmed. “Stop being so serious all the time!” he yelled with a smile as he suddenly dug his fingers into the hollows of his hips. Kageyama couldn’t hold back at all this time, letting out deep belly laughs as he thrashed around.
“Okay okay yes! I prohohohmise!” he choked out between giggles. Noya shifted so his legs held down Kageyama’s arms so he could use his now freed hands to scribble in the hollows of his armpits, causing Kageyama’s laughter to jump in pitch and volume. By now the rest of the team had noticed and were smiling as they watched their irritable setter get the shit tickled out of him. Tanaka reached behind him to squeeze at Kageyama’s thighs and Noya used feather-light tickles on his neck, causing him scream with laughter.
“I said I promised!! Why aren’t you stohohohopping?!” Kageyama shrieked, now sensing the eyes of his teammates on him. Tanaka and Noya grinned at each other as they climbed off him. Noya extended a hand and helped him up as he caught his breath.
“But just know,” Noya said, tweaking his sides once more for good measure, “if we go too long without seeing you smile or hearing you laugh, this will happen again.”