"Shoyo?" It was 4:30 AM, the only light in the house was the moon coming in through the blinds. Shiro was still basically asleep, having been woken up by Shoyo shaking him.
He was buried in a mass of blankets, a pillow cradled in his arms as he squinted questioningly at the shorter male.
Something Shoyo would never get used to was how normal Shiro could act. He would do all these things that would make you think he wasn't blind, like tracking things as they moved, or looking directly at you as he was right now, but the next second he was stumbling over everything.
"C'mon," Shoyo whispered, gently dragging the taller male out of the bed, "I've got morning practice and you have to come with me. Wherever I go, you go."
Something that had been drilled into their heads was that where ever one of them went the other also went. It was to make sure that neither of them got lost, or at least they were lost together. Shoyo had a horrible sense of direction, and while Shiro could tell North and West and everything he was blind so it didn't help much.
Shiro sighed, burying his face into his pillow once more. There was no way around that one, which meant that unfortunately, he had to get up and abandon his sleep.
With another sigh he sat up, rubbing at his eyes to try to get wake himself up. Shoyo knew that Shiro could do everything himself, but in all honesty, they needed to get out of the house now so he went about collecting Shiro's clothes, setting them on the bed next to him.
Shiro stood up to stretch, gathering the things that Shoyo had gotten for him to move to the bathroom.
He hated mornings.
-
The two of them had to walk to school, Shoyo's bike not having the attachment yet, and Shiro was hating life even more.
Shoyo was being weird and quiet, it was cold, and the road here was very uneven and not meant for a blind person to walk on.
Shiro had tripped numerous times already, and each time he did he felt his anger rise a bit more. Trying to keep it down he clenched the hand he had stuffed in his hoodie pocket. It didn't help much, but it gave him a feeling as if it was. It gave him a slight feeling of control over the shit that was happening this morning.
"Um, Shiro," Shoyo said softly, "we're almost there but uh..." The taller male sighed, rubbing his eyes. "What is it Shoyo?"
"You have a bunch of Natsu's clips stuck in your hair..."
"Fuck..."
------
"Aw man, 5 A.M. sucks!" Walking up the path was Tanaka, who stretched and yawned dramatically. Kageyama and Hinata were standing on the steps to the gym, both shivering, while Shiro sat on the bottom step, threatening to nod off.
"Tanaka!" Hinata yelled, eyes widening drastically as a large grin spread across his face. "Make sure to be out of here by 7," Tanaka said, spinning the keys on his finger.
Hinata let out another excited yell, Kageyama giving his thanks while Tanaka laughed, a large grin across his face. "What a good senpai I am!" he said. "Call me Tanaka senpai!" The two idiots complied, chanting Tanaka senpai as many times as he asked, but eventually, they relented, stepping away from the door so the older male could unlock them.
Kageyama was expecting a fight to get in the doors first, despite Tanaka already being in there, so when he walked in without a hitch it felt odd. Looking over his shoulder he watched as the redhead smiled brightly up at the taller male who had been on the bottom step, talking fast as he guided him into the gym and to a corner where he could sit.
Shiro had introduced himself to Kageyama that morning, but he had been so tired that all he got out was a name. He was now slightly more lucid, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get a word in while the three of them practiced, and he was correct.
The entire time Tanaka, Kageyama, and Hinata practiced it was loud and chaotic. Shiro didn't need to be able to see to know what all was happening, and god it was a lot.
Tanaka had coached them through stretches and basic warm-ups, but after that, he'd let them basically do as they pleased, which was receiving practice. Kageyama was serving overhand, harsh, and fast, and Shoyo was struggling to meet his mark each and every time.
With a yell Shoyo dove for a ball, missing and ending up just sliding across the gym floor. "Hey, you're feet stopped short!" Kageyama called out at the still prone redhead. "What happened to your reflexes from yesterday!?"
Shoyo groaned, slowly forcing himself up to his knees. "All I've done is receives," he whined. "And there isn't a lot of time left! I want to spike! I want to jump!"
The redhead forced himself to his feet, to stand in front of Kageyama as he yelled. Their screaming match, which it definitely would have turned into a screaming match, was cut short by Tanaka.
"You know, Daichi is normally pretty gentle," he said menacingly. "But he's super scary when he's angry." The two first years nodded, already knowing the wrath of their captain, completely forgetting that they had been arguing for a moment or two.
The sound of the doors opening was enough to startle them though, and standing in the doorway was a beaming Sugawara. "Morning practice I see!" He smiled as he came in, sitting down to change his shoes as if it was normal for him to be there this early in the morning.
"Suga-san!?" Tanaka questioned, finally managing to get the words out after spluttering for a moment or two.
"I knew something was up," the silver-haired male explained. "You're almost always late, but you voluntarily asked to be in charge of opening in the morning." Tanaka made some noise of shock, leaning away from the third year. In his corner, Shiro giggled.
It didn't take them very long to get back into the swing of what they had been doing, and in that time Sugawara had found himself sitting next to Shiro.
At first, Sugawara had tried to help, but he was too tired and Shoyo kept getting distracted that he wasn't helping much, so now he was just sitting and watching as Kageyama tossed to Tanaka and Hinata attempted to receive the spikes.
"It's not going well is it?" Shiro questioned. He was dressed pretty much the same as yesterday, though this hoodie seemed to be a bit darker, and his hair looked beyond help.
"No, not really," Suga chuckled. "Kageyama's being rough on him, but I'm sure he'll get through." Shiro sighed, rubbing at his eyes under his glasses. He knew that Shoyo wouldn't give up, not even a little bit, but having Kageyma here was a bit of a blow to the back.
He'd been there, at the tournament, and he'd had to listen to Shoyo talk about Kageyama the entire year from then till now. He was a bit tired of it.
His thoughts were interrupted by a series of light beeps coming from his side, the noise causing the gym to fall into silence.
He could immediately feel Shoyo's eyes digging into him, but before the redhead could get too far he held a hand up, the other dragging his bag into his lap. It was a bit awkward, the gym silent while he drug everything out of his bag, books stacked together with the laptop on top, papers set into a different pile, and it wasn't long until the bag was empty.
The bag was empty.
Shiro felt his face start to heat up as a familiar set of steps got closer. Normally he was on top of this stuff, normally he always had his shit together but Shoyo had been so adamant about getting out the door he'd forgotten.
"What's your blood sugar at?" Shoyo asked, now crouched in front of the taller male. This was probably the most serious he'd been all morning, serious enough to shock Kageyama into not caring that he'd just walked off the court while they were still in the middle of practice.
Shiro sighed, forcing himself to kneel instead of sit on the ground. This way he could pull up his many upper layers while slightly pulling down the waistband of his pants more comfortably.
Sitting snug against his skin, a bit above both hips, were little white circles. One protruded slightly, an odd little metal bit on the side of it, while the other had a clear tube that ran into a black box clipped to his pants. The box looked almost like an iPod, it had a screen with a few buttons, but it was thick and had this clear dome-like part at the top the tube ran into.
Suga felt almost guilty watching as Shiro held his shirt up and his pants down, as Shoyo looked at the box there before getting up and going to his own bag. Once the redhead was gone Shiro let his clothing go back, sighing as he moved to sit down again.
The skin there was pale, like the rest of Shiro, but it had the same textured look like his arms and back.
Chemical burns, he'd said the day before.
"I've got a slightly squished blueberry one or a normal strawberry one," Shoyo called from his bag, watching as Shiro rubbed at his eyes.
"Gimme the blueberry one, the strawberry ones aren't very good." Everyone in the gym watched as Shoyo handed over a flattened granola bar, the taller male ripping the packaging open without care.
"Is that gonna be enough?" Shoyo questioned. "I dunno," Shiro said around the granola bar, "what was I at?"
"68." Shiro grimaced, putting the granola bar into his mouth before holding his hand out. Shoyo put the other bar into his hand without a question, taking the garbage from the first to the trash.
....What had just happened?
Instead of getting to ask Shiro what had just happened the timer on Tanaka's phone went off, telling them all that they had only a few minutes left. Enough to clean up the gym with a bit of time to spare exactly.
The two first years immediately started to tear the net down, Kageyama dealing with the poles while Shoyo brought the net back to the storage room, Tanaka going around to gather the loose volleyballs around the room.
It wasn't long before they were done, Suga shooing Tanaka away to go grab the other ball cart. When Suga came back from the storage room he saw that Shiro had removed himself from the corner of the room, now away from the wall with Shoyo standing behind him, pulling the mass of colorful hair clips out.
He watched as Shiro gripped harshly at his legs, Shoyo apologizing the entire time he tried to detangle a rainbow from his hair.
"Don't pull so much!" Shiro pleaded, uncovered eyes twitching in pain. "I'm sorry!" Shoyo apologized again. "They're so tangled that all I can really do is pull!"
Shoyo was trying to be gentle, but it wasn't working.
"I got it!" Shoyo yelled with triumph after a few minutes of torturous silence, followed immediately by Shiro. "It feels like you just ripped off part of my scalp!"
Suga felt bad for giggling at them interacting, but at the same time, he didn't. It was obvious they got along very well, Shiro having said they were cousins the day before, but it seemed almost more than that.
They seemed like brothers.
"How many more are there?" Shiro practically whimpered, hands having moved to scrub at his eyes.
"I can see five," Shoyo started. "But there might be more." Shiro groaned, leaning back into Shoyo's legs.
"I'm gonna be bald by the time school starts."
Tanaka, who had been trying to take a drink of water, spit the drink everywhere as he started to laugh, Suga glaring at him lightly.
He'd just cleaned the floor.
Shiro's head moved to track the sound of Tanaka spluttering but was stopped by a sharp pull to his hair. "Ow ow ow! Don't pull so hard!" Suga watched in horror as Shiro reached back, grabbing Shoyo's wrist to dislodge his hold.
"Shiro, don't pull! You'll just-!"
Shoyo was cut off as Shiro let out a less than dignified yelp, slouching over as he held the back of his head. Shoyo stood awkwardly behind him, a pink butterfly clip in hand with a significant amount of black hair still attached to it.
"You'll just.... pull it out...."
It was a strange thing to look at, Shoyo only stood at 162 cm, 5'4", and was towering over his cousin who stood at 206 cm, 6'9". Shiro was curled forward onto the floor, holding the back of his head as an almost pathetic sound escaped his form.
"I'm done," he said softly. "I'll just leave them in." Shoyo nodded, moving to kneel by the olders head. You could clearly see the colorful clips against the darkness of his hair, and Suga felt a little bad for giggling at the sight.
Tanaka was outright laughing though so he didn't feel too bad.
-
[To sort of address this one I'll get right into it. In the older version of this, if you haven't read that one, in part of the chapter I have Shoyo explaining that Shiro is on some kind of medication that makes him super sleepy, and I wanted to keep something like that in here as I really enjoy medical stuff, like knowledge and shit so I decided to make Shiro diabetic! I do know lots about Diabetes, but if I do end up getting something wrong feel free to correct me!
Also! I wrote a whole like prologue and shit, but I didn't upload it mostly because it was a lot of stuff all at once and I just wanted to get right into the episodes so if you want the prologue I can upload it later, just let me know!
Thank you so much for reading this mess!]