Work Text:
On Misaki Hana's first day of work as the MSBY Black Jackal's junior publicist, her supervisor Koyanagi-san gives her a rundown of her general duties, whom to ask for help if Koyanagi wasn't around, how to add and update things to the scheduling system the team used to keep track of appearances and interviews, and how to access the team's social media accounts. She shows Hana around the offices, asks about her travel preferences, waits patiently as she fills out various HR forms.
Then, most importantly, and because part of Hana's job would be liaising with the players and media, she rattles off a list of things Hana should know:
- Meian's punctual and hates delays, so if anything is off schedule, let him know right away. But don't be afraid of him, because he's never unreasonable.
- Sakusa prefers things be cleaned and disinfected beforehand, but it's not nearly as important as making sure he's got a bottle of Pocari before and after every interview.
- Barnes knows more Japanese than he pretends to. Book him as many times as Sports Weekly wants him, but not when Nanase is interviewing. It's a long story, better not to ask.
- Thomas does not know as much Japanese as he thinks he does. Always send someone to translate for him. But don't let Inunaki volunteer, even if he does.
- Yes, Bokuto is just like that. Do you like puppies? Overgrown ones? Then you should be fine. He's pretty harmless.
- Inunaki isn't, though, so try not to get on his bad side. But that's fine, because only Miya tends to.
- Hinata: see Bokuto.
It's nothing she can't handle—she spent half a season managing Johzenji when they were more well-known as a party team, and in college she worked her way up to become the Waseda Volleyball Club's head manager. But Koyanagi does it all so fast that Hana doesn't have time to jot any of it down.
"Oh, don't worry," Koyanagi says. "You'll figure these out soon enough."
"Um, but what about—" she starts, forcing herself not to look down when Koyanagi meets her gaze. "You didn't say anything about Miya Atsumu."
"Oh, him," Koyanagi says with a shrug. "Well, he can get very touchy. Not with—well, if he ever gets touchy with you, let me know—but, no, I meant just with his teammates. It's just how he is, but try not to let it get too out of control where the fans can see."
Hana blinks. "The fans?"
"Oh, you know," Koyanagi says, but she doesn't elaborate.
Hana doesn't know.
She doesn't know until she's helping out at one of the games because Koyanagi called in sick—she's shadowed her before but doesn't really remember everything she's supposed to do yet, so she's a little frazzled while doing her best to keep it together as she ushers Miya and Hinata into the media room for their post-game TV interviews, hanging back near the door, unable to shake the feeling that she's forgetting something.
"Miya," Oowada from Kahoku Shimpou asks, "to what do you owe tonight's win?"
Miya Atsumu slings his arm around Hinata's shoulders and pulls him close.
Oh, that's right, the belated thought comes to her: Koyanagi always makes sure there's a chair separating Miya from his teammates in these.
"I don't think there's any doubt," Miya says, leaning into the mic with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on his face, reaching up to ruffle Hinata's hair as he did, "that we've got my wing spiker here to thank."
Hana feels like she's done something she shouldn't have, or rather, not done something she should have, but she can't quite put her finger on it. After all, the rest of the interview passes without much incident, the two players saying nothing particularly controversial or unexpected. When the last question is answered, they say their thanks and take their leave, letting Hana lead them back to the locker room.
She pulls up her phone to post one last update on the team's social media accounts, attaching one of the interview photos to go along with the tweet.
She tries to leave it at that, but the notifications are up at 100+ again and she wants to check it quickly to make sure nothing's wrong, especially because she'd just cleared them before the media scrum. The fans, she figured, must be overjoyed with the win.
Congratulations MSBY Nation!!! the first reply reads. #myspiker #atsuhina
Both tags, she finds, are currently trending in Japan.
Surprisingly, no one seems to mind.
Not management—there is a bump in ticket and merchandise sales afterward and an increased request in interview appearances, after all.
Not the coaching staff or the team—Coach Foster just snorts and shakes his head, like he isn't surprised at all, and the team follows his lead.
Not even Miya and Hinata—Hinata blinks and says, straight-faced, "What's Twitter?" before giggling and half-shrugging. "I'm sure it's fine, Misaki-san."
Miya grins. "Ya heard him," he says before he follows after Hinata, slinging a familiar arm around Hinata's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Misaki-san."
So she doesn't.
"It'll die down," Koyanagi-san tells her, the corner of her lips twitching.
And it does.
The team goes on a winning streak for their next couple of games, and that slowly overtakes the Black Jackals chatter online, so by the time December rolls around and the holiday break draws near, the whole incident has slipped Hana's mind.
Until the Jackals' pre-holiday fan meet.
It's an annual tradition, a ticketed day dedicated to fans where they get to meet the players, take a couple of pictures with them, and have them sign autographs. Over the years, or so Hana has heard, it's evolved from a simple fan appreciation thing to something a little more extravagant, with MSBY Arena turning into an expo of sorts that includes stalls dedicated to selling Jackals merchandise, face painting, and concessions and game booths run by staff and players alike.
It's a family-friendly, kid-oriented day. Super cute. Great publicity all around.
Hana’s worked very hard with the ad hoc team that put it on, and she's been really excited to see it all come together this way. She picked the face painter out when their old one moved to Tokyo, and it had been her suggestion to get the players helping out at booths if they weren't at the autograph line, so despite the hectic pace of the day, it's been incredibly gratifying.
"Misaki-san!" Koyanagi calls, snapping her out of her thoughts. "We've got ten minutes until Miya's scheduled to do photos, and he's nowhere near that stage."
"I'm on it," she says, glancing at the time to check. Nine minutes now. They'd been worried about running on time, especially with the autographs, and had already padded the schedule for any delays. She consults the itinerary quickly, follows a hunch she has and makes her way over to the concession stands.
Hinata Shouyou had been scheduled to help man the takoyaki booth for the next couple of hours. He is at the station like he's supposed to be, cheerfully chatting with customers as he hands takoyaki out to them.
But Miya is there as well, leaning against the counter on the customer side, chatting along with them, too. But mostly with Hinata. He's got a serving of takoyaki in one hand, biting into one of the takoyaki with the other before he laughs at something Hinata says, completely unaware of the time.
Hana sighs. It's not terrible, per se. The fans are clearly having a blast, snapping quick photos and joking along with both players. Miya is not holding up the line or unnecessarily obstructing anyone's way. And Hinata doesn't seem to be totally distracted either, keeping the queue moving at a reasonable pace.
But Miya will be late for his own autograph session.
"Miya-san—" she calls out, but it happens at the same time Hinata says, "Oh, Atsumu-san!"
"Hm?" Miya asks, turning to Hinata.
"You got something on your—" Hinata starts, reaching out with his thumb to brush away what looks like a bit of takoyaki sauce caught on the corner of Miya's lips.
The move stops Miya in his tracks and steals the breath from Hana's lungs. From somewhere nearby she's sure she sees the telltale flash of a camera capturing the moment.
"There," Hinata says, impervious to anything else, popping his thumb into his mouth and sucking it clean. "All gone."
The holidays are out of Hana's hands.
This season the league gets a longer break between the last game of the year and their first game next year. There's still a lot of work left to do in the team office, but most of the players fly back home the day after their last game.
"You're not going back to Miyagi yet, Misaki-san?" Hinata had asked her. "Oh, I mean. Do you still live in Miyagi? We have met before, right?"
"Johzenji," she'd said, blinking. "I used to manage the Johzenji volleyball team. We lost to Karasuno at the qualifiers my last year there."
"I knew you looked familiar!" He'd grinned then, a little sheepish. "I wasn't sure if you'd have remembered me though, so I didn't want to—"
She'd smiled. "Your hair is orange and your team gave my boys a run for their money. And you're a heck of a volleyball player. Of course I remember. I'm staying back here one more week for work, but my family's still in Miyagi, so I'll head over after."
"Okay! Well, maybe I'll see you around then!" he'd said, waving. "Have a good break, Misaki-san!"
The team staff does get a longer vacation this year than usual, Koyanagi tells her, even though they have to stay behind one more week. "Just don't bank on this happening again next year."
"I don't mind," Hana says.
But of course, it is during that week that Hana finds out that it was not just Hinata who'd gone to Miyagi.
Miya Atsumu's Instagram is peppered with bouts of exploration, caption-less shots from atop mountains that look like nothing in Hyougo, steaming hot food inside restaurants and the winter-bare branches of trees at parks that give Hana a sense of passing familiarity. It isn't long before the other shoe drops and Miya takes a selfie in front of a shrine Hana's visited many times, Hinata Shouyo almost cheek to cheek next to him, flashing twin grins and twin peace signs.
No caption needed.
There's an uptick of buzzing online, which Hana keeps an eye on, but it simmers back down when Miya's next photos show him back home in Hyougo, eating at his brother's restaurant. Hinata's always one of the first likes and he also usually leaves a comment, as she's sure Miya would be with Hinata's posts if he ever used his socials.
But there is also an increase in interest from traditional media outlets. Shortly before the week ends, Hana fields an inquiry from Volleyball Monthly—can they do a feature for the February issue?—and a guest appearance booking for a local variety show. Both specifically ask for Miya and Hinata together.
"We think their partnership is interesting," the variety show producer says.
"They played each other twice in high school, didn't they?" the Volleyball Monthly editor muses.
Hana just raises an eyebrow, but books both requests dutifully. It's a nice flourish to the end of the week, and she pushes it to the back of her mind once she's back in Miyagi, bickering with her sisters over household chores and visiting the shrine with her old high school friends for New Year.
She never does run into Hinata during the break, but the comments on Miya's posts keep her somewhat updated.
The first week back is a whirlwind of chaos, with plenty of accumulated work to go through for the staff and practices for the players. At some point during the week, Hinata and Miya head over to their scheduled shoot with Volleyball Monthly. The interviewer, Takashima, sends over a draft of the piece for approval. Hana immediately forwards it to Koyanagi, who gives them the go-ahead to run with the feature.
It occurs to Hana, in the very last weekend of January, when the issue hits the stands and she stops by a convenience store to pick up a copy, that she never actually had the chance to read the article.
She flips over to the feature and nearly drops it in shock.
A full-page shot of Miya and Hinata, both in their jerseys, greets her straight away. Hinata's facing the camera with that challenging glint in his eyes, a combination of his pose and the lighting making it look like he's ready to take on the world. Miya's turned the opposite direction, the name and number on the back of his jersey in clear view.
His face, partially obscured by shadow, is half-turned to the camera.
His hand is on Hinata's shoulder.
His eyes are on Hinata.
Hana can count the space between their faces by hairlines.
Her gaze blurs out of focus, a mantra of Koyanagi-san approved this Koyanagi-san approved this surfacing in the back of her head as she skims the article, gleaning highlighted phrases like "he's the greatest partner I've ever known" and "you can tell right away that he's a special player" and "he promised seven years ago he'd set for me" and "some promises are worth keeping, don't you think?"
Koyanagi-san approved this, she reminds herself.
Right?
Koyanagi-san did approve it.
Hana walks into the office that day and finds the team buzzing with excitement. In her corner desk, Koyanagi hums to herself, probably refreshing their dashboard to see the metrics reflect the rise in online chatter or something. Hana's already seen the flood of mentions on their official channels; she knows how that article converted.
And it doesn't seem to be a distraction to the team in any way, either. They remain competitive, winning more games than they lose, the Miya-Hinata spiker-setter partnership as explosive on the court as it is incendiary off it. They dominate highlight reels with their plays and social media trends with the snapshots Miya would sometimes post of the two of them exploring Hirakata either by themselves or their teammates.
There is nothing wrong with it. It's just—
Hana had gone through a phase, early in high school, when she fell deep into idol groups. That was all. Forgive her for being a little wary.
"Misaki-san, are you okay?" Hinata asks now, peering up at her from the dressing room he shared with Miya. She'd come by with a question, she remembers now, but lost it somewhere between opening the dressing room door and finding Miya leaning over a seated Hinata, thumb to his lips.
"Can ya believe this guy thought he'd have to wear lipstick to this thing?" Miya says with a snicker, grabbing a wipe and cleaning his thumb with it.
Hana tilts her head at the action. Why didn't Miya use the wipe in the first place?
"You said!" Hinata huffs, kicking at Miya's calf half-heartedly. "He told me they do this all the time, Misaki-san, he said I'd have to or they'd end up using a horrible color on me—"
Hana clears her throat. That is neither here nor there. "It looks like you two have settled it since, though," she says. "Production's going to come by in a minute, so be sure you're ready when they need you."
She doesn't wait for them to answer before she leaves them to their own devices once more. They're both grown men, and not particularly troublesome—at least, not in the usual ways. They'll be fine.
Of course, the segment they're filming itself is another story altogether.
The show is called Better Pair!!, a local variety hosted by the popular comedic duo of Kabakura and Nifuji. Every week they have guests over that they challenge to a series of contests, cycling through a few different surprise categories, to determine who can ultimately claim the title of that week's—yeah, surprise surprise—better pair.
It starts out harmless. They pander to Miya and Hinata's strengths at first, with a toss-and-spike drill that has the setters tossing from trickier and trickier angles. Miya and Hinata win that comfortably, even when Kabakura insists Hinata do the tossing and Miya do the spiking halfway through—not that it makes any difference. They've pulled enough switcheroos on the court that Hana knew that wouldn't phase them at all.
"What kinda handicap do we need ta give ya!" Kabakura asks, exaggerating his heavy breathing as he hunches over after that round, resting his hands on his knees.
"Kabakura-san, didn't you say you used to play volleyball in high school too?" Nifuji deadpans. As the setter, he'd simply thrown the ball as he pleased and made Kabakura do all the work trying to hit it. "Exactly how long ago was that, then?"
"They're pros! They're pros!" Kabakura shrieks, to the laughter of the audience members.
The next round is meant to level the playing field, as the hosts pull out an impersonation challenge where half of each pair will do their best impression of a celebrity—in this case, V.League players for Miya and Hinata, pop stars for Kabakura and Nifuji—and make the other half guess who it is before they switch again.
Kabakura and Nifuji clearly don't expect Hinata's impressive impersonation skills to come out, and Miya guesses every player easily. The true highlight of the segment, however, happens when they switch.
Perhaps Hinata shouldn't have gone first, because Miya is exponentially more terrible at the game. Hinata runs through every foreign player he knows before realizing that Miya has been trying to do Sakusa, their own teammate, with an excruciating attempt at a Tokyo accent.
"Oh no," he says, wiping tears from his eyes as Miya hangs his head, defeated. "Oh no, Atsumu-san, I'm so—I'm so sorry!"
For the next guess Hinata tells Miya not to worry about the accent, only then he starts throwing out guesses like "Osaka Kageyama!" and "Osaka Suna!" and—though Miya's impersonations are legitimately painful to watch—full-belly-laughing at every single one, like Miya Atsumu is genuinely the funniest guy in the room.
Which, given he's sharing a stage with two comedians, is a stretch for anyone.
The final contest turns into a tie-breaker as the production crew rolls out identical kitchen islands onto the set. There are various ingredients laid out there on both, a pot of just-steamed rice on one side and an empty plate on the other.
"Miya-san," Nifuji says, "we heard your brother runs a well-liked onigiri shop right here in Osaka."
"Oh no," Miya says, drawing out another giggle from Hinata. "Are ya gonna make me cook?"
They draw lots to figure it out, and in the end it's Hinata who gets the honors. Sort of. They make Hinata wear a blindfold, Nifuji on the other side putting one on as well, and then Hinata's guided over to stand behind Miya.
"This game is called Helping Hands," Kabakura explains, tucking his arms behind his back and placing himself in front of Nifuji, who sticks his arms through the space between Kabakura's waist and elbows. "Miya-san, please help Hinata-san out."
The challenge is laid out once both teams are positioned: the blindfolded half of the pair must make three kinds of onigiri using the ingredients before them without saying a word. Their partners can use all the words to instruct them, but cannot, at any point, use their hands to assist. The fastest to complete the challenge wins the game.
It goes about as disastrously, and hysterically, as the show intends. Kabakura and Nifuji have an established rapport that's a steady source of one-liners and jokes from Kabakura and visual comedy from Nifuji, but Miya makes for an especially panicked head chef, and Hinata an especially confused cook. At one point he tries to form a question mark with his arm when Miya's directions make no sense, and when Miya demands what a heart's got to do with any of this Hinata forms an actual one with both hands before breaking them off and wiping a non-existent tear from Miya's cheek.
He nearly pokes him in the eye, but the take itself, Hana hears from backstage, is priceless.
Somehow three onigiri are made, and when Kabakura looks over, his team half an onigiri behind, he adds, "But wait! The chef has got to taste it and see, right?"
Which is how Hinata first tries to feed onigiri to Miya's nose ("How tall d'ya think I am, Shou-kun!"), then recalibrates, finding Miya's open mouth and pushing the onigiri toward him at the same moment Miya leans forward to take a bite.
They overshoot.
Hinata's fingers end up in Miya's mouth.
And Miya, without thinking, licks a stray rice grain off Hinata's thumb as he's pulling away.
Hana has been at her job for only six months. She knows by now that kind of footage won't be ending up on the cutting room floor.
Hana is ready when the episode airs, Koyanagi directing their strategies depending on how the studio decides to edit the entire thing.
What ends up airing is funny and entertaining, a cheeky take on the relationship between Hinata and Miya, so there's enough plausible deniability from the producers, the team, and both players if needed, but it still sets social media on fire.
Hana doesn't engage too much, and certainly not too closely, simply dropping relevant gifs of the show—they’d requested a few clips from the studio ahead of the episode—as those moments happen onscreen. She's asked Miya to livetweet his commentary as well, but he does one better and holds a watch party with half the team at his brother's apartment.
His first tweet for the evening: a selfie of him and Hinata, simply captioned #myspiker #atsuhina #betterpair.
Everyone plays along, including other V.League players who have clearly heard about the episode from their peers. At some point Hoshiumi even tries to both book a follow-up gig at the show and get #HOSHIKAGE #BETTERBETTERPAIR trending, and Suna spends the episode replying to Miya's tweets with dis u? along with unflattering photos of Miya from high school.
At the end of it, Miya reveals his and Hinata's attempt at redeeming themselves for the onigiri challenge by posting a picture of freshly made onigiri, Miya and Hinata smiling over them both. Thanks for watching along! he adds, before plugging the next Jackals match in Tokyo.
From there it's a constant, Miya and Hinata seemingly hanging out not only all over the city but also in each other's apartments as well, sometimes with their teammates, often without. At Hinata's, Miya documents and showcases Hinata's cooking prowess, posting stories of whatever Brazilian dish Hinata's making for the evening. At Miya's, where there is a backyard, they do trick shots and dares.
It's enough that even Hana's friends are sending her fancams and conspiracy theories and slideshow presentations various people from the internet put together—sometimes with no more than a long string of question marks, sometimes with just a fainting gif.
But that's just how Miya and Hinata are.
It's certainly how the entire team treats them, so Hana's inclined to follow their lead.
That said, she's also spent enough time around groups of men to know they're not always the sharpest in these things either.
But it's really none of her business, and both of them seem to know well enough what they're doing. And with the playoffs starting, there is so much more work to do relevant to the entire team.
It's a long, grueling run. The Jackals play five games over three weekends for the Final 6 matches, losing only one game to the Red Falcons. They get the fourth weekend off to rest, watching the Raijin upset the Adlers in a best-of-three series that determines the Jackals' opponent for the Finals.
The tension and pressure is sky-high across the board when championship weekend descends upon them. Hana works feverishly in the week leading up to it, and tirelessly throughout the matches, managing three different accounts during every game. It goes to three games, of course it does, but the Jackals pull through with the win—and the championship—by the end of it.
It’s late when everything is said and done, mostly team personnel remaining in the Nagoya arena that hosted the matches. Nearly midnight, Hana thinks. But there's champagne for the team as they're ushered into the bus—it's only a two-and-a-half hour drive back to Hirakata—and spirits stay high as they travel back home with the first championship they've earned in seven years.
There's a small crowd of fans waiting for them when they arrive at their practice facilities, cheering the team on as Meian lifts the trophy in the air to greet them. Even more pictures are taken, then Bokuto says he's hungry enough to eat a horse, and the next thing Hana knows, someone from the crowd is offering to open up their restaurant for everyone there.
"You're welcome to go home and get some sleep," Koyanagi tells her.
It's a matter of courtesy. Hana's exhausted, but the constant rush of adrenaline has her wired and she's gotten her second wind at some point between that convenience store stop near Yokkaichi and facing the fans back here.
"I'm fine," she says, returning Koyanagi's wide smile with one of her own and following her into the restaurant.
She doesn't want to say it was pandemonium—everyone gets seated at some point, the players spread out across a couple of tables, some fans and team staff mixed in, the restaurant owner insisting everything's on the house while Coach Foster assures him he will be paying—but it does get close enough to it. She finds herself squished next to Inunaki and two college students who look like they were just out on the town on their own before they stumbled onto the Jackals thing, but everyone's jovial and tipsy enough that it doesn't really matter.
Hinata takes the seat across from her. Moments later, Miya plops down next to him, draping an arm around his shoulder.
"Misaki-san!" Hinata sings out, beaming wide. "Tell 'Tsumu how we know each other!"
"We don't really," she says, hastily adding, "but our teams played each other in the Miyagi qualifiers a long time ago."
"If they'd won," Hinata says, his eyebrows scrunching up and his cheeks puffy in a pout, "then we wouldn't have met, 'Tsumu!"
"We'd still have had the year after," Miya says with a laugh. "Then you wouldn't have ever beaten us."
"Then you wouldn't have told me you'd toss to me!"
"Here we go," Inunaki says with a roll of his eyes, turning to Hana with a shrug. "They're gonna be like that for a bit... Tsum-Tsum doesn't hold his liquor well, whatever he tells ya, and I'm pretty sure he had a whole bottle of champagne on the bus."
"So same as usual, then?" Hana asks, laughing when Inunaki does.
"Damn right. Well ya worked hard tonight too, Misaki-san, so we might as well join in. Get this girl a beer, sir!" he calls out to someone who was passing by and handing drinks out to people.
And because Hana has never quite forgotten what being a team manager was like, she adds, "We should get some food too."
"Ya heard her," Inunaki says, placing an order for their table before he starts talking about college volleyball with Hana and the two kids next to them. They're snapping selfies when the food arrives, and maybe Inunaki ordered a little too much because the food keeps arriving.
"Wan-san!" Hinata gasps, eyes huge and sparkly. "What did you do?"
Inunaki just shrugs, reminding them all Coach Foster said he was paying, before he pulls out his phone to take a video of the food.
"It's enough to feed MSBY nation!" he says into his live feed, "so come find us if yer still up!"
"Was that really wise?" Hana asks, shooting Inunaki a look.
"Coach'll tell me tomorrow," he says, tilting his head toward Hinata and Miya, who have both started digging into the food as well, Hinata reaching across Miya to pick up a dumpling, Miya ruffling his hair idly as he takes a bite out of his grilled chicken. "Maybe wiser'n that, though."
"Ah, that's just—"
"Oh, Shou-kun, ya gotta try this," Miya says, picking up another piece of chicken and popping it into Hinata's mouth, waiting as he chews thoughtfully, then widens his eyes in agreement.
"You're right! That is great! Have you had this one yet, 'Tsumu?" he says, holding up a dumpling to Miya, who indulgently leans down to bite it off his chopsticks, his lips curled up to a fond smile, the look he gives Hinata tinged with an inexplicable softness.
Hana, feeling like she's intruding, turns away and comes face to face with Inunaki's stunned gaze.
"That's just how they are, right?" she asks, as Inunaki puts down his phone and goes, "I think I just streamed that live."
Hana doesn't have time to react, much less crisis manage. It's not a crisis, Koyanagi's voice echoes in her head as Barnes and Thomas come over, loud and boisterous and way too energetic, dragging the Jackals players at the table away for some team pictures.
"Don't worry about it," Inunaki tells her over his shoulder. "I didn't save the video."
Deep down, she knows there's nothing to worry about. You can't technically save those things, and it's already so late, closer to early morning than late night. Who would be up watching? And even so, it certainly hasn't been anything that much more different from what those two have done before, at least on the surface.
There's just something about the way Miya's gaze softened—maybe imperceptibly so, but Hana has been around him often enough to see the difference—that sticks in the back of her mind. How it matched too well with how Hinata's face lit up in return.
She'd only ever seen him look that way during a game.
"Misaki-san, you look like you're still trying to work when you should just be celebrating," Koyanagi says, taking Inunaki's seat and beaming at her. To the students, she goes, "I'm sorry, but I'll have to take her back with me. We're commemorating now."
Hana lets Koyanagi drag her over to where the rest of the team staff have gathered, lets herself get swept away by the excited conversation and picture-taking, lets her coworkers ply her plate with food, lets Koyanagi ply her with drinks, lets the picture-perfect ending of her first season with the team actually sink in, because it's surreal and it's wonderful and they are the V.League champions.
The team comes by for more pictures.
Then the servers come by for more food.
Then there's another round of drinks.
She's petting Koyanagi's hair and giggling over something someone said that she's already forgotten when she realizes it's time to use the bathroom. "I'll be just a moment," she says, both palms on the table to push herself up to stand. "Oh dear."
"Are you okay?" Koyanagi asks.
Hana nods. "Yes, I'll be fine." She takes a deep breath, feels the slight wooziness in her head, and exhales. "Just going to the ladies'."
It is with all the concentration and willpower she has left in her that she gathers herself to walk in a straight line to the restaurant bathroom. Maybe it's a little too straight, her limbs stiff as she marches her way there, but after washing her hands and face she sobers up enough to go back from drunk to tipsy. The adrenaline rush she'd been running on since the bus ride home has simmered down to a trickle, her eyes bloodshot from a mix of alcohol and lack of sleep, but no worse than anyone else's.
Some fresh air would do her good.
She steps back into the dining area and realizes that the crowd's actually thinned a bit since they first arrived. Fewer fans, fewer staff, even some of the players look like they've already taken their leave. Strangely enough, she's not inclined to want this memory to end just yet. She'll stay a little longer, she decides, and come back after she's sobered up a bit more.
The chill of the air hits her cheeks as soon as she's outside, and she's awake in an instant, shivering when she remembers she'd left her coat at her table.
But the sky is a pretty lavender, lighter now with the sunrise imminent, and the rest of the street is quiet and asleep though the restaurant's alive with laughter and sudden bouts of cheering. She breathes in the early spring air, catching the faint scent of grass and damp earth as she does.
This is much better.
The door behind her opens, making her step to the side as one of the athletic trainers stumbles out with a smile and a wave. "M'headin' home," he says. "Wife's about to wake up."
"See you around, Minato-san," she says, waving back. She moves further away from the door so she doesn't block anyone else's exit, but the front side of the restaurant is all windows so she walks around to the side that's next to a vacant lot. Here the noise from the restaurant is more muffled too, the early chirping of nearby birds louder, even.
"Ya sure yer okay, Shou-kun?" she hears Miya's voice, faint and soft, from around the corner. There's a sound like something thumping against another, a whoosh of breath, and then: "Maybe we should get ya home—"
"M'okay, 'Tsumu-san." Hinata's voice, when Hana hears it, lilts a little, drawls on the consonants and draws out the vowels. He sighs the way the Misaki family cat purrs when it's being petted: fully content. "Let's just stay here a bit longer."
"Okay," Miya says, the way Misaki's mom sounds when she's petting the cat: utterly indulgent.
Hana lets out a soft exhale. She'd worried she'd been about to hear something she shouldn't have, but it doesn't look like—
"D'you think s'true?" Hinata asks. "What Wan-san said?"
The pause that follows feels weighted, the question volleyed back just as heavy. "What do you think, Shouyou?"
Hana should go. She isn't even sure what they're talking about but whatever it is she should definitely—
Out by the front of the restaurant, Miyuki from operations walks by, entangled with one of the college students Hana had shared a table with earlier. They're giggling over something, but upon seeing Hana, Miyuki puts a finger to her lips, winks, and then pulls the student away to somewhere more private.
"Y'can't be dating someone without knowing, s'what I think," Hinata says eventually, and Hana realizes then she shouldn't hear this. That no one should. But she can't let anyone interrupt, which means—
"Oh." A hitch of breath. A forced huff of laughter. "Yeah. Yer right."
"But maybe—" Hinata starts again, and Hana tries to move away to give them their space. It's not far enough away. But maybe the words just carry louder in the stillness and clarity of the morning air. "Maybe you can be with someone you like enough to be dating without knowing that's what you want. Maybe you can think about someone all the time without knowing why, and maybe you can act like you're dating someone without knowing you are because it's just—because that's just—because you want to, you've just never known that's what it felt like to want something like this, and it's not like you've ever said you wanted me to stop, Atsumu-san."
"I—"
"S'what I think, anyway. What about you? What do you think?"
"I think—" Miya says, his voice dropping to a low murmur. It's whisper-soft and tender.
Hana doesn't quite hear the rest of it.
She leans back against the wall and stays a bit longer to watch the open sky blush sunrise-orange. It looks like it'll be a cloudless, sunny day.
She smiles, then heads back inside.