Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Class 1-C, Tokyo Metropolitan Nekoma High School

April 20^th, 2020

“Alright class today we have a new transfer student.”

The class broke out into loud chattering, with people shouting over each other; guessing on who it would be. Kenma, on the other hand, was preoccupied with something else, he looked around the classroom at the free seats available, there were only three options, two in the very back of the room and one right next to him; he prayed that the new student wouldn’t be seated next to him, and mentally pleaded with his teacher that she would put them in the back.

As the door opened he laid his head on his arms, simply hoping that it’s a quiet person, who doesn’t have loud people for friends.

The class quieted as the new student entered; it was a girl, obviously foreign, with blue eyes and platinum blonde near-white hair, and tall, maybe about his own height or even a little taller.

“Introduce yourself.” Chiba-sensei instructed.

The girl bowed to the class, and in thickly accented Japanese said her introduction.

“Hello, I’m Alyo- eh, Nikiforova Alyona, I’m not good at Japanese so please be patient. I look forward to getting to know you all. Thank you for having me.” She gave them a small smile, before turning to look at the teacher.

“Thank you, you can take the seat next to Kozume.” She pointed to the seat next to him.

---

It was first break, and just like Kenma feared, Nikiforova attracted people, about half of the class was crowded around her desk and subsequently his as well.

“So, Nikiforova-san, how did you end up in Japan?” One of the girls, Kumiko? Kumata? asked.

“I came to Japan because my Uncle’s um… Married person?”

“Wife” Shibano, the kid on the tennis team? added.

“Um no- yes, wife?” She looked confused but moved on “Is Japanese. So, we moved here from America.”

“Woah you’re from America.”

“Um, yes. Well I was born in Russia but lived in America for the last two Years.” She gestured with her hands as she spoke, trying to convey more meaning than her words could.

“Where in America did you live?” He was pretty sure that was Kosai, an art scholar.

“I lived in New York, North of the City.”

“Wow cool, did you ever go to New York City?”

“Sometimes with my friends or family.”

“Cool!”

The bell rang, finally everyone went to go sit down at their desks.

---

Kenma was sitting at lunch waiting for Kuroo to get there, whatever he was doing it was taking an annoyingly long time. He wasn’t allowed to play games in the cafeteria so his subconscious decided to tune into the conversation that was happening on the table behind him.

“So, like how did you learn Japanese?” 

It was Nikiforova and some of his other classmates again.

“It’s only been a few weeks since you moved here, but you’re already pretty good.”

“Thanks, my Uncle taught me when we decided to move to Japan, in Novem- October.”

“Nice, how ha-”

He blocked the conversation out again once Kuroo was in sight.

---

It was Wednesday when everything finally calmed down around Alyona. Luckily, her classmates here lost interest in her a lot quicker than when she joined her school in Newburgh (though other students did stare at her in the hall ways, which was expected, she didn't exactly look like the rest of the student population).

This morning, Yuuri had asked her how she was getting on with everyone and how well she was adjusting to the new language, country, everything. Now that she thinks about it overall it's been good, difficult but good. Speaking Japanese all the time was a struggle and by the end of the day she was completely exhausted by translating everything in her head. However, she'd done this once before when moving to the US and she got through that, so it could only get better. So now she could just try and wait for it to become second nature to her.

From what she had seen from her classmates, they were all very nice, a little loud, but nice. Some of them like Kumata could be a little intense sometimes, but the class representatives were nice and calm and very helpful (Yokomizo's been helping her find the right word the dictionary whenever she couldn’t find it herself), and she really liked speaking to Kosai, they had gotten to know each other through their similar taste music yesterday. 

As Alyona sat at her desk she pulled out her time table to check what her next class was going to be. The paper said that 2^nd Period was Biology – one of her elected sciences – it was weird how they only do two sciences here and not all of them, but that means no Chemistry for her, so that’s a win.

Okay now then, two problems. One, almost everyone was out of the room going to their elected science, and two, this is a problem because she completely forgot how to get to the Biology Classroom.

Alyona contemplated her options, and the probability of successfully finding the room on her own was very low. Well, last resort it is; ask the quiet kid – with the please don’t bother me expression – next to her and hope the directions are simple enough for her to understand.

Kenma was slowly packing his things back into his bag to go to his science class, Biology or basic science, he didn’t really know but he’d figure it out.

“Um, Excuse me.”

He glared at his desk before looking at Nikiforova and nodding in acknowledgement.

“Do you um… understand? where the Biology room is?” Okay, well that solves that problem.

He looked at her for a second before sighing. “Yes, it’s my next class, too.”

---

Kenma was waiting on the bench while the first group for P.E. were doing their run.

He was sitting around the corner hiding himself from the teacher so that he could play his game while he waited (and maybe hopefully be forgotten by the teacher). He just lost on this stupid difficult level when he heard a voice behind him and almost dropped his console.

“What are you playing?”

Kenma glanced over his shoulder to find at Nikiforova, who was looking at his screen.

“It’s Chromasky.”

“Oh, I think I know it. It is like a puzzle Action game?”

Alyona noticed him perk up at that and sat down on the bench near him.

“Yeah, well it’s more complicated than that but basically, yeah. How do you know it?”

“My cousin” she used air quotations hoping that would get over the message, Yuri wasn’t actually related to her after all, “played the game last year, I helped him.”

He looked at her for a moment, then back the screen, and back at her. “Do you, uh, know how to beat this level?”

...

Chapter Text

Class 1-C

16:00, April 23^rd

“So, Kozume-san”

“Kenma’s fine.”

“Really? Don’t you call people by the last name in Japan.”

“Well yeah, but I’m not into formalities, I think it’s just redundant.”

Nikiforova looked confused.

“Oh” She probably didn’t know the word he realized, “I think it’s stupid.”

“Ah okay, then you can call me Alyona, I’m used to it. Anyway, I would like to know what club you are in?”

“The volleyball club, why?”

Alyona looked a little surprised at that, she hadn’t expected someone so averse to physical exercise to do a sport, willingly. “I’m required to be in a Club, but I don’t know which one.”

Her schedule was so packed that she didn’t really have time to fully commit to a club. She has training in the morning and then right after school as well, most clubs probably wouldn’t accept her simply based off her attendance.

“Reception gives out pamphlets… cards with a list of all the clubs.” Kenma suggested, going back to playing his game before Kuroo could inevitably drag him away to Thursday practice.

“Ah okay, thank you, that’s helpful.”

She turned to look at Kosai, “Kosai-san can I go to reception with you?”

---

Alyona was sitting at her desk, starring at the pamphlet of clubs she had gotten yesterday after school, it was the break before 7^th period which meant she only had until lunch tomorrow to decide. Considering that Nekoma wasn’t exactly a large school they had an abnormally large selection of extracurriculars, which just made this all harder.

Well, at least she knew what she didn’t want to do; she couldn’t do a club that required her to be present at every club meeting, couldn’t do a club that required her to be there in the mornings – after off season ended she’d have morning training – and anything that requires more than elementary Japanese knowledge is also off the table. On top of that she can’t join a sports team just in case she got injured.

Taking all of this into consideration, her options dwindled down almost nothing. Based on how Yuuri had translated and/or described all her options, when she went to him for help, none of them seemed like they would hold her attention span for more than a week. Needless to say, she was stumped.

‘Great.’ Alyona sighed, as she rested her forehead on the table.

---

When Kenma got back to the class room after Biology, he was greeted by a frustrated Alyona. Based off the pamphlet she was gripping in her hand and her general mood, he guessed that she was still struggling to choose a club.

“Still don’t know which club to join, Alyona?”

“No. I can’t join a club that needs me to fully commit to it every day and I can’t do anything like social sciences and– well there are a lot of reasons.” She sighed and sat up, handing him the pamphlet, “Can you just pick one for me?”

“Why not ask Kosai-san?”

“She’d just make me join her art club.” She pouted, “Also she’s not here right now.”

Kenma stared at the piece of card, it was open on the page for the sports clubs. ‘Oh, huh, that might actually be a good idea.’

“Why not the Volleyball team?”

“Volleyball is a hobby for me, I can’t play well.”

He was surprised that she had played volleyball at all, but that just added more reason to his idea.

“I meant joining the boys’ volleyball team as the manager.”

She probably knew at least the basic rules and terminology for volleyball, so she wouldn’t have to learn to become manager. If she were the manager even if only on some days that’d mean there would be less work for him, which means he could go home earlier, which means he could play more games and do less exercise. This was the obvious choice to make for him, and as a bonus she wasn’t too energetic and had a very palatable personality. This was a win for him on all sides.

“You wouldn’t need to be there every day, and there aren’t many Japanese skills needed either. Also, we don’t have one yet.” He added.

“I’ll think about it, thanks Kenma!”

---

“I’m Home!” Alyona shouted as she shut the door to the house.

“Welcome back, Alya. How was school?” Yuuri said as he appeared from around the corner.

“It was good, I think I’m slowly starting to get the hang of it.”

She pulled off her shoes and placed them neatly onto her shoe rack. “Actually, could I have your opinion on something?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Well, y’know how I’m having trouble deciding what club to join, cause of training? Well a classmate, maybe friend, of mine suggested I become the manager for the boys’ volleyball team. He said I wouldn’t have to be there every afternoon, and I used to play volleyball at San Miguel, so I know the rules and most of the terms; I’d just have to learn them in Japanese.”

They moved to the kitchen to feed the Cats, as Alyona continued to explain her thoughts.

“Seems like a good idea, I can help you learn them if you want. But before you decide on anything I’d ask the faculty teacher about it tomorrow, they could probably help you.”

She sighed “Okay, I’ll do that.”

Yuuri looked vaguely amused “What wrong now?”

“Saturday School shouldn’t exist! Why do I have to go to school on the Weekend!”

“It’s only a half day, and it’s just every other week. It’s not that bad.” Yuuri reasoned.

“No. It is that bad.”

...

Chapter Text

Nekoma High

15:04, April 28^th

On Tuesday of the following week, Alyona followed Kenma out after classes ended, so he could show her to the Volleyball Team’s gym.

She’d spoken to Naoi-sensei and Coach Nekomata at the beginning of lunch on Saturday, and they had suggested she join them for a few hours on Tuesday for a taster, since school ended an hour earlier on Tuesdays. Which was fine with her, she had training after school on Monday anyway.

They were at the door of the gym when a rough voice shouted for Kenma.

“Kenma! The club room’s this way!” 

Kenma looked at her, “That’s Kuroo, I have to go but the Coaches should be in the gym.”

“Okay, bye.”

---

As the team filtered into the gym, they gathered around the Coaches. Next to Coach Nekomata was the girl that Kuroo had seen with Kenma earlier, if he wasn’t curious about her before, he definetly was now.

“Alright team today we’re welcoming a potential new manger.” Coach Naoi gestured to the girl.

“Hello, I’m Nikiforova Alyona. I was recommended to join the team by a classmate.” Kuroo saw Kenma relax out of the corner of his eye ‘So, she already figured out that Kenma dislikes standing out, considering she didn’t mention a name.’

“I played Volleyball in the USA, so I know the rules and terminology, but I don’t know them in Japanese, so I would appreciate your help.” She bowed “I look forward to working with you.” The team mirrored the sentiment.

---

The afternoon had gone well. There wasn’t much for her to mess up anyway, all she had done was distribute water, retrieve lost balls and stuck beside Coach Nekomata as she took notes on thing that would be useful to remember.

The most interaction Alyona had gotten with the team was during the introduction and the few times she asked them about different terminology that she didn’t know it. For the most part she stuck to asking the 1^st and 2^nd Years, ordinarily she wouldn’t really care about talking to her seniors but the 3^rd Years had a bit of an unwelcoming feeling to them.

She had left earlier than the others, who were getting changed, so that she could catch the subway too get home in time to change out of her uniform and get ready for her Pilates class. Even so Kenma, Fukunaga and Kuroo had said bye to her before she left.

All in all, Alyona thinks that this would be a very good option for her.

---

By Wednesday of the next week Alyona was the official (part-time) student manager of the Nekoma Boys Volleyball team.

All around things were starting to settle down for her, she was starting to understand Japanese school culture and she was only experiencing the left overs of her initial culture shook. It was still incredibly strange living here, but she was nowhere near as panicked as she had been when she went to school in Hasetsu for that term in elementary school.

“Alyona-san, let’s go outside for lunch!” Kosai called as she walked up to her.

“Sure”

“I still can’t believe you abandoned me to join the volleyball club.” She sighed as they walked through the halls.

“Hey, don’t say that! They’re nice.” Alyona refuted. She liked the club so far, it was nice meeting new people through it. Obviously, she had meet and was becoming friends with the club members, but Coach Naoi also pointed her to Tsubaki the 2^nd Year manager for the girls football team, so that she could learn more about the managerial role she had now. It was helpful to learn about everything and it also had the pleasant side effect of giving her a new friend.

“What club did you want me to join then?”

“My club!”

“Kosai-san, you have friends in your club, it’s fine.” Alyona reasoned.

“Yeah but their all from different classes.” Kosai wined.

Alyona rolled her eyes, “Anyway, could you tell me what mukatsuku means?” She said abruptly changing the topic.

Kosai laughed, before launching off into a brief explanation.

---

They were getting changed after practice, the 3^rd Years had already left since they had won the practice match and left the clean-up to the juniors.

“Man, I can’t believe we got a female manager!” Yamamoto gushed, he hadn’t stopped since Nikiforova had officially joined the club, it was kind of endearing but annoying too.

“Do you have to shout all the time.” Kenma mumbled while pulling his jumper on.

“C’mon, let him be happy.” Kuroo nudged him “Good job scoring us a manager by the way.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sorry, I forgot that she definitely isn’t your classmate, who definitely isn’t your friend.”

“I wouldn’t call us friends yet, I’ve known her for a week.”

They started on their way to the subway station.

“Yet.” Then he said in a much more dramatic tone. “Is the little caterpillar starting to sprout its wings”

“Shut up Kuroo.”

- Bonus “Why”-

“Where’s Nikiforova-san?!” Yamamoto shouted, again.

“She’s not here today.”

“WHY-” Kuroo slammed his hand over Yamamoto’s mouth before he could shout at the top of his lungs, it was only the 3^rd week and the football team had already filed a noise complaint to them.

“She’s not here on Mondays and Wednesday.”

“Why?” Yamamoto asked Kuroo, he shrugged and pointed to Kenma, “Why?”

“She said she was going to the gym.”

At this everyone looked curious “Why?”

“I dunno.”

...

Chapter Text

Oedo Line, Nerima Ward

1:24, May 8^th

Tetsuro and Kenma had just about managed to catch the subway after practice got cancelled. Usually they’d have a comfortable 15 minutes to walk to the station from school, but after they learnt that the Gym had to be shut due to leaking pipes he grabbed Kenma by the hood and bolted to Nerima station to get the next train.

Now ordinarily catching the subway wouldn’t be a problem, they have one that goes every 6-10 minutes. However, due to construction on the tracks today they would’ve had to wait for an extra hour, which Tetsuro did not want to do.

They walked onto the subway, finding two free seats just as the train started to pull out of the station.

He sat down to the left of Kenma and began talking in a low voice, remarking on how odd it was that specifically today was when everything wasn’t working.

“Isn’t it weird how today, especially in Japa- ” He sighed, “Would it kill you to show at least some signs of life when I’m talking to you…” That’s when Tetsuro realized that Kenma was staring not at his phone but straight ahead.

“Huh? What’s up?” He asked tilting his head to look in the same direction that Kenma was looking in.

And there, in the seat directly opposite Kenma sat a familiar girl in the Nekoma High uniform. There sat Nikiforova, platform Mary Janes and all, starring at the pair of them, mirroring their equally as dumbfounded expression.

She tried to speak up and ask them a question, but was interrupted by an Old lady who knocked Nikiforova’s knee with her bag and sent her a withering glare. She chuckled a bit and apologized – which the woman ignored – before sending them a bit of a smile and a wave.

Only 4 short minutes later the Subway pulled into Ochiai-minami-nagasaki Station. To the surprise all three of them, they all stood up and exited the train together.

Once they were on the platform they took a moment to stare at each other; Nikiforova was taking her time looking at Kenma and then up at Tetsuro and then shifted her gaze back to Kenma and up at him, rinse repeat. On their side of things, the taller was just staring straight down at her, while Kenma was just dead staring directly into her eyes.

“How, how have we missed each other for the past weeks?” Kenma said in what was total disbelief, though you’d have to have known him to hear it in his voice.

“I don’t know.” Is all she said, slightly frazzled.

Hysterical laughter is all Tetsuro had in response to the two first years; Class mates, Friends for over two weeks now, who are in the same club and have the same classes, both of whom only now figured out that they get off and on at the same station.

Once they both got Tetsuro to stop Hyena laughing at them (they’re attempts to quiet him only made it worse). The trio exited the station, slightly baffled but pleasantly surprised.

Pointing east, Kenma asked “Please tell me we don’t live in the same direction too?”

“Please say you do- Ow!” Tetsuro exclaimed when Kenma swatted him.

Nikiforova laughed softly before pointing in the opposite direction, “No, I live on the other side of the station.”

“Oh, thank god!”

They say their goodbyes before parting ways as Tetsuro continues to laugh at them.

---

They’re not far from Kenma’s house when Kuroo asks why he had been so relived to find out that she didn’t live in the same area.

“Don’t tell me you secretly hate her!” He gasped sarcastically.

“No, but I was beginning to question my observational skills.” Kenma mumbled to himself.

---

Kenma was slowly making his way to the entrance of the station, the following Monday after he had successfully talked himself out of morning practice. He was approaching the entrance when he noticed Alyona’s unmistakable silver hair by the stairs.

“Good morning? What are you doing here?”

“I thought, maybe we could go to school together?”

Kenma shrugged, before making a lead the way gesture down the stairs. He had nothing against maybe taking the subway with her from time to time. No Kuroo he wasn’t attached, it’s just nice to have another friend.

---

Alyona was running back to the Volleyball gym after Kumata called her back to their classroom. For… well now that she thinks about it Kumata really didn’t need her for it, but oh well, she was happy to help anyway.

As to the reason why she was running, she was trying to catch up with Kenma and Kuroo before they left for the station, since Viktor wasn’t picking her up today.

The door to the Gym was open and from it she could hear Yamamoto shouting again. Why he was doing that, she had no clue, Japanese seemingly loses all meaning when the volume is raised, to her at least. She walked up to Yaku who was standing in the entrance to the Gym.

“Hi, Yaku-senpai, what is happening?” She said as she tilted her head around the corner to see what was going on.

“Yamamoto and Kenma are fighting, again.”

“Fighting? Really?” She could see that Kenma was the one that Yamamoto was shouting at, and Kenma was saying something back. But whenever he opened his mouth there was just a moment of silence (Kenma was talking to quietly for them to hear) before the other continued.

“Why? I don’t understand what they are saying.”

Yaku just shrugged, “There’s always something going on with them, best to just ignore it.”

Alyona didn’t know if that was the best decision but whatever works, “Does, um, it happen a lot?”

He nodded wearily, “Yes, yes it does. Anyway, why are you here? I thought you would’ve left by now.”

“Um, oh yeah, a classmate wanted help with um, I don’t know the word, work? Since she has to leave. But it doesn’t matter, I’m back now.” She took a moment to catch her breath and reboot. “I’m going home with the others today since my dance class was cancelled so Viktor doesn’t need to bring me there.”

“Ah okay, you dance?” He asked with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah”, she laughed as she watched Fukunaga pull apart the antagonistic pair. She waved Kenma down as he approached their direction, shoulders slumped once again. With Kuroo also nearing them she looped both her arms through her backpack and got ready to leave.

“I think we’re going now, bye senpai.” She bowed slightly to him.

“Same here, see you tomorrow.”

They went on their separate ways.

...

Chapter Text

Nekoma High Extended Campus, Nerima Ward

16:23, 18^th May

The 3^rd Years just started on their run as the others were preparing to go. Alyona was unexpectedly there, usually she wouldn’t be at Monday Practice but Viktor had decided to cancel her Training for the day which she was not happy about, at all.

All she had done today was sit around, on the Subway, in class, during breaks, so she definitely wasn’t going to sit around by herself for half an hour while the whole team went on a run. Which is why she was standing next to the 1^st Years, once again wearing her track suit bottoms, with her sweater tied around her waist, reading to go run with everyone else.

Which they obviously weren’t expecting, since it’s not really something managers usually do, but theirs did so they’ll have to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Tetsuro was slightly confused by Alyona’s actions. What was she doing here? Why was she even here today? He could ask Kenma but he wouldn’t know either. Or more obviously, he could ask Alyona but she seemed, slightly irritated, maybe, he wasn’t sure what she looked like when she was mad, since her usual demeanour was that of a puppy. Well, it never hurts to try.

“Alyona-san, why are you suddenly… joining us on our run?”

“Because a certain …” then she said something in Russian that he didn’t understand but was delivered with her ever-present smile, so it couldn’t have been bad. Right? “anyway, I want to join, if that is okay?”

“Yeah, it’s no problem with us, as long as you’re sure?” Yaku added.

She laughed, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll be good, thanks!”

To Tetsuro that sounded vaguely ominous, but he was excited to see how this would turn out, it was certain to boost morale. Though no matter what happened it would certainly be an interesting Monday.

---

They were already about half way through their run, most people kept the same steady pace, well other than their usual straggler. Kenma was still barely insight, much farther behind the pack of first and second years, in what should have been his place, was Alyona, who was doing better than the rest of them. She was running next to the group having barely broken a sweat, and Tetsuro noticed that as they moved on she seemed to become more relaxed than before.

She jogged up to him, “Kuroo-senpai? Where is Kenma? I don’t see him around?”

“Oh, he’s behind us.” He told her, in response she turned around and started running next to them, backwards. He saw Yamamoto, who had been breathing heavily for a while now looking at her as if she’d grown a second head. He almost stumbled when she started jogging in the opposite direction, toward Kenma.

“I’ll make sure he is okay!” She said with small salute, before picking up the pace to get to Kenma, who had slowed down to a walk by now.

---

Kenma was questioning his life choices; why was he doing a sport, how did he get here, how did he end up with such a horrible friend who talked him into this, why did he continue with Volleyball past elementary school.

He wants to go back in time to strangle his younger self so that he never lets Kuroo talk him into doing volleyball.

His body was really starting to give up here, his knees felt like they’d fold, his lungs were burning, and his sides hurt. This was torture, that’s what Kuroo was putting him through, torture.

He was suddenly shocked out of his self-pity, “Hey Kenma! Are you doing okay?” His face just made friends with the ground so no, no he wasn’t okay, he was dying.

“Oh ouch, sorry” he heard from above him. He turned his head and, wow maybe he did just die, or it was Alyona, but maybe if he played dead he could stay here, the dirt was surprisingly comfy.

He was once again interrupted when Alyona started to try and pick him up, repeatedly apologising whilst she laughed.

Once he was on his knees he asked, “What are you doing back here?”

“I was uh going to check on you, but you fell from nowhere so.”

“You surprised me.”

“Okay so, do you want help?”

“No.”

“No?” She asked incredulously.

Kenma sighed again, he just wanted to sit down on a couch or something but that would require getting up and moving, so “I wanna stay here.”

“But, you can’t?” She tilted her head sideways still steering at him weirdly, then she asked again “Do you want help?”

“What are you gonna do? Carry me?”

She seemed to think about this for a moment, “Hm… How much do you weight?”

“About 55 kg?” Now he was the one who was questioning thing, she couldn’t possibly be thinking-

“Ok, yeah I can do that!” Then she crouched with her back turned to him, waiting for him to accept her piggy back ride. What the hell?

He debated his options, on one hand this was kind of embarrassing and while he was lazy he did have shame, on the other he didn’t want to walk or move or anything right now, so.

---

They were trailing behind the group progressing forward, not much faster than how Kenma was moving earlier.

“Remember, only till those stair, then put me down” Alyona heard form over her shoulder.

She laughed, “Yeah Yeah I know!”

---

Fukunaga handed the both of them a bottle of water when they arrived back at the gym.

Fukunaga gave Kenma two thumbs up “You were faster today.”

Kenma chocked on the water he was trying to drown himself in. “Yeah” he mumbled, half-heartedly punching Alyona’s arm when she stared giggling.

She smiled “I’m a great at Pep talks!”

Nobody had any clue what she said but she didn’t seem to care, just walked away to check her phone.

“Ah I have to go now!” She told them, “See you tomorrow!” She bowed and went on her way.

---

Later, they were practicing in the gym, the second years were talking to each other while waiting in line to practice serve receives.

“No but I wear Nikiforova-chan does a sport or something.” Sakae voiced.

“Yeah I’m pretty sure that I saw her carry Kenma for a little back there.” Yaku added with a laugh.

Kuroo smirked, “Why don’t we bet on it?”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Kai, always the the voice of reason, questioned.

“Yes” the other three said in unison.

And were immediately interrupted by the captain shouting at them telling them to continue practice.

...

Chapter Text

2-Chōme Nishiochiai, Shinjuku, Tokyo

17:09, 18^th May

“Hello? I’m back!” Alyona shouted as she entered the house, Viktor had decided to call her home at an odd time. She had half the mind to ignore his call home since he dared to cancel her training today, but she’d never actually do that.

Viktor came bounding out from the corner followed by Makkachin. “Alenka! My adorable little лиса!” He shouted as he tackled his niece in a hug. 

“Vitya- ow- you’re crushing me!” She mumbled. 

He released her, “Alya, go get ready so we can go out!” 

Now she was confused where was he dragging her this time? “Why?” 

“Oh, does my cute little Alya not want to spend time with her old Uncle anymore!” he fake cried. Which was enough convincing for her to leave the hall and start getting ready. She honestly wasn’t mad about it, she hadn’t spent much time with Viktor outside of the rink for a while now, it’d be nice to spend some time with him again.

 --- 

By about 6 pm Alyona was ready, standing by the door, in some loose fitting jeans and a random blouse she’d found in her closet, waiting for Viktor who should’ve been ready before her, but wasn’t. She was tying up her damp (from the shower she took) hair when her Uncle finally came into view. 

He shooed her out of the house and closed the door just after shouting “Make sure to walk Makkachin, while we’re out!” over his shoulder.  

“So Alenka, we can take the Subway, or if you’re feeling like you’re up to it we can take the car?” 

She loved him for always asking whether she could take the car or not, giving her the option made her feel better. Recently it hasn’t been that bad, not that she’d been in a car recently but the thought of it didn’t completely freak her out lately. 

She nodded, “Yeah I think I’m okay with it today.” 

“Okay” he said as he got in the car, “but remember we can always stop if you want too.” 

“I know” she murmured. 

--- 

They carefully drove up to a small shopping district in the Asaka area. The duo proceeded to walk from store to store, mostly just window shopping but Viktor did love to shop and even if some of that same shopaholic-nikiforov blood ran through Alyona’s vains, sometimes too much was too much. 

After an hour of hopping from one store to another Alyona finally managed to coax Viktor into a small café. Where they(Viktor) set down their(Viktor’s) shopping bags, and ordered some hot chocolates for themselves. 

“Okay Vitya, fess up why did you drag me here?” 

Viktor was just about to reply when Alyona interrupted him, “and don’t tell me it’s to spend time with me, not that I’m not happy too, but we didn’t have to come to Asaka for that.” 

Viktor sighed putting his hands up, “Okay, you caught me. We’ll go where I intended to next.”

---

Alyona was not expecting the intended location to be a random house in a residential area near the café. However, Viktor strolled up to the door and gave the bell two short rings before steeping way from the door. She was just about to ask what they were doing here, when a kind looking old man in glasses opened the door and ushered them inside.

She didn’t catch what the conversation that Viktor and the man had, since she was inspecting the interior of the house,  and still couldn’t follow Japanese conversations if she wasn’t focusing on it. The house was very traditional Japanese on the inside, and smelt lightly of leather and wood. As they moved to the back of the house she progressively saw more and more pictures of the man posing with people of all different ages and genders, some of them sparked a weak familiarity in her but she couldn’t quite place it.

They entered a larger room that looked like a workshop, and oh that’s why she’s here. On the far wall there were handmade figure skates, and throughout all of the room there was different machinery all for making figure skates.

Now she knew why she was here, but it still didn’t make sense why Viktor had brought her to this specific skate technician. Ever since Yuuri became so well known in the Japanese Athletic scene, Figure skating had become increasingly popular in Japan, and to equal that, the industry surrounding it grew as well. There were many new Skating technicians, Skate Rinks, Consume Designers and the like popping up everywhere, especially in big huge cities like Tokyo.

Viktor must have noticed Alyona’s blend of confusion and excitement and so moved to introuduce the man to her.

“Alya, this is Nakagouchi-san, he is a famous figure skate maker, the best in Japan, skaters have sworn by him since the 90s.”

Nakagouchi smiled, “You flatter me.”

“You understand Russian?” She was very surprised.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have had costumers from all around the world. I’ve learnt to understand some of the more common languages.”

Wow, she thought, if he was this well known how come she had never heard of him before, she had been practically raised in the skating world by skaters.

She asked as much to Viktor, but in a politer manner just in case Nakagouchi understood.

“Well, he is very underground, you can only really hear about him from word of mouth and finding as well as booking his time is much more difficult than you would think.”

She nodded, that made sense. “Okay then, is it okay if we start?” Nakagouchi asked.

“I would love too!”

---

They returned home over two hours later, after all the measuring and paperwork was done. With a promise for the first test pair to be done by Saturday of next week.

“Hey Dyadya, thanks for today.” Alyona hugged him, cheek smushed on his shoulder.

Viktors heart melted, he didn’t see this side of his niece all too much lately. She was growing up and as much as he was proud of her he also missed the cute little girl that followed him around back when it was just him, Larissa and Alyona.

“Anything for you Lenochka.”

...

Chapter Text

Dance studio, Kagurazaka, Shinjuku, Tokyo

12:47, 31^st May

Alyona was checking her phone during the short water break, and she really needed it the choreography that they were practicing was very energetic and stamina draining. Sakami was pushing their techniques but she was a genius when it came to choreography, although she seemed to forget that most of them had bones unlike her.

She got a pop up notification from Line, she tapped on it.

< Kuroo-петух

Hey I just remembered that we have a practice match in Yuki on the 6^th _12:48

I was supposed to ask if you could go _12:48

_12:49 Wait, where is Yuki?

In Ibaraki Prefecture (North of Tokyo fyI) _12:49

We’re going by bullet train so it should be fast. _12:49

 _12:50 Yeah I think I can go, but I’ll tell you if I’m sure in in a few hours

Okay got it _12:50

“Yo-chan! Breaks over!” She heard Makina call for her.

“Yeah, sorry uh one second!”

_12:51 I have to go bye

Ttyl _12:51

She closed her phone and ran over to the middle of the room.

They started running through it form the top, Sakami correcting them as they went on.

---

They had just gotten back from Yuki when the train arrived in Ikebukuro, and instead of switching onto the subway so they could go home the coaches lead them to a restaurant and instructed them to order whatever they wanted.

“You’ve all done very well, make sure to keep this up next week at the Inter-high preliminaries!”

It was true, the team did good out of the 4 sets they played against Chikuida High they had won 3. Alyona was proud of them, she hadn’t ever really felt this way, maybe this is what Viktor and Yuuri felt like when they saw her and Yuri succeed in their competitions. Then again it might be different, she didn’t have much at all to do with their good work, she was just support but watching her friends do to well made her happy.

“YEAH WE SHOWED THEM WHO THE BETTER RED AND BLACK TEAM IS!” Yamamoto yelled, once he learnt that the other team’s colors were also red and black he had some weird vendetta against them. Kenma who was already as far away from his fellow first year as possible inched his zabuton (at least she thinks that’s what the pillow seat is called) away from him.

Yaku glared at him “Yamamoto, would it kill you to shut up for once.”

Hōzono interrupted from where the 3^rd years were sitting together “Whatever, let’s eat!”

They didn’t need to be told twice, everyone dug in immediately. For 10 minutes there was pleasant silence as they enjoyed the delicious food, the only sounds were the clinking of chopsticks on bowls and bowls clinking against each other and the sound of Momoi choking from next to Alyona before she handed him a class of water eyes not even leaving her food.

“Thanks, woah damn Alyona you ate that fast.”

“What can I say, I love food.”

He laughed, “I can see that.”

“Yeah honestly uh if I wasn’t doing, what I do in life right now, I would be a chef wait no a food uh judge.” She said before shovelling some more noodles into her mouth.

“You mean food critique.” Fukunaga corrected.

She put a hand up before taking a sip of tea, “How do you say that?”

“Food critique” Momoi said slowly.

“Food critique?” She repeated.

Fukunaga gave her two thumbs up.

Dinner continued with no incidents, and they all ended up rolling home, figuratively that is. Though Kuroo did have to practically drag Alyona and Kenma off the subway at their stop since they were dozing off and didn’t wake up in time to get off.

When they got out of the station they were greeted by a smiling Japanese man. Alyona sprung from where Kuroo was holding her up by the arm.

“Yuuri-oji!” She gave him a quick hug.

“Hi Alya” He smiled at her, he bowed a little bit to the two boys, “Hello, I’m Katsuki Yuuri, her uncle.”

Huh, Kuroo had been under the impression that her Uncle was Russian, but the man standing before him was very Japanese. He’d have to ask about that the next time he saw her.

The two of them bowed, “Hello Katsuki-san, I’m Kuroo Tetsuro, I’m a second year in the same club as Alyona, and this” He shook his limp shoulder “is Kozume Kenma, her classmate.”

“I know, it’s nice finally to meet you both.”

“I’d love to talk more but I think I need to get him home.” Kenma was about to fall asleep standing up, so they better start moving before Kuroo had to carry ride him back.

Katuski laughed and said goodbye before they both started pushing their respective tried people in the direction of home.

Chapter Text

A Street in Tokyo

11:08, 10^th June

All 17 members of the Nekoma boys’ volleyball team were packed onto a minibus, currently stuck in traffic, and on their way to the inter-high preliminaries qualifiers. You’d think that because it’s the middle of the week and after rush hour there wouldn’t be that much traffic, but here they were, stuck in the streets of Tokyo.

Alyona would love to say that it’s okay because they have Air Conditioning on the bus, which they do, but it’s a small competitor to the humid sticky 29^oC heat outside. Coming from her comfortable St. Petersburg Summers, she thought that New York summers were horrible but apparently, Japan just had to slap that title right out of New York’s hands. She laughed to herself at the mental image she conjured up from that scenario.

Momoi, who always seemed to have everything on hand, conjured up hand-held fan and passed it to her. He probably thought she was going insane from how she was laughing to herself, but she didn’t mind, not to be dramatic but she might as well be dying here. How they expect teenagers to play Volleyball in these conditions, she didn’t know, but at least it wasn’t her.

After 20 more minutes of suffering they were finally parked and stepped out of the bus, and dear god she wanted to go back in. The others didn’t seem too bothered; she was guessing it’s because they were used to it or, from the look of it, they were too nervous to think about it, the first years and one or two of the second years especially looked like they were panicking.

They all grabbed their bags and headed in the gymnasium, the first match was at 12:15 against Toshima High, from her research they were an average to good team mostly made of 3^rd Years.

---

The Team just entered the building and were walking to the courts, when Alyona noticed something strange. The other teams they were passing were pointing at them and saying something to each other.

She walked up to Kuroo, “Senpai? Why is everyone staring at us?” She knew that the Nekoma team was decently well known in Tokyo but not to this extent, and she couldn’t understand what they all were saying.

“Are we infamus or something?”

“No, and it’s said infamous.”

“Okay, then why?”

He patted her head, “Don’t worry about it.”

She glared at him before turning to Yamamoto who had suddenly appeared next to her, completely blocking her view of the other people on the side. She asked him what it was about but he seemed to preoccupied glaring at people to answer.

She looked back at Kenma who was walking behind her, he just shrugged and offered nothing else.

“Well, can anyone explain, please?”

---

She was collecting all the empty water bottles when Ogino caught her attention. “Nikiforova-san!”

“Yes?”

“Can you find Yaku, we need to get ready.”

Alyona nodded at him and went looking for Yaku, she ended up finding him rather quickly, he was sitting near the entrance to the courts.

“Hey! Ogino-senpai asked me to get you. Uh, are you alright?” She got worried when she noticed how he was sitting, hunched shoulders, holding his head in his hands.

She gently shook his shoulder, “Yaku-senpai?”

“Yeah” he mumbled in a tight voice.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” His leg started bouncing “I thought I got over the pre-game nerves last year but-” He cut himself off with a frustrated sigh. “I feel so stupid for being nervous.”

Alyona crouched in front of him resting her hand on his knee, “It is not stupid, many athletes get nervous before competitions, even professionals.”

He gave her an unconvinced look.

“It is true, my uncle is a professional athlete and he used to have almost umm… Anxiety uh Battle?”

“An anxiety attack?”

“Ah yes, he almost had anxiety attacks before competitions even when he had done it many times. So, it’s okay, try to focus on the ball and the team, not what is around you.”

“Okay.”

Alyona continued “Think of it as a practice match, you always do good in those. And remember, there are people on every team you will fight that are as or more nervous than you.”

Yaku took a deep breath, “Okay, thanks, give me a moment and I think I’ll be okay.”

“No problem, I’ll tell the captain that you will be here in a second.”

---

22 – 24

They were match point versus Asuka High School, trying to get that one final point but the other team was not letting the ball fall on their side.

The opposing side hastily set up a synchronized attack, but Kuroo managed to predict the ball going to #5 but couldn’t fully get in front of the spikers hit, which caused the ball to bump off his forearm, sending it down to Nekoma’s side of the court.

It was about to fall on the ground when Yaku appeared and in the last second managed to send it up perfectly towards the setter. Hōzono managed to quickly set it up to Yamamoto who managed to slam it down on the other side of the court.

The whistle blows, 22 – 25.

They got to move onto the actual inter high qualifiers. Everyone jumped together, Yamamoto was shouting, Kuroo hugged Yaku picking him up off the ground, Alyona was celebrating shouting something in Russian, and Kenma was not so subtly smiling too himself. They made it into the top 16, next week they’d get to play against the other 15 best teams in Tokyo to see who would represent them at nationals.

---

It was Wednesday the 17^th, earlier today they had managed to beat Ubugawa High, after a very high tension full set match. Only for Nekoma to lose in straight sets to Seifu High School.

Alyona tired comfort the team as best she could but she didn’t really know what to say to them to help them feel better. Yamamoto in particular wasn’t doing too well, he had been the only 1^st year on the team, and was feeling really down, as if it were his fault they had lost. Which was very unlike him, and she didn’t know what to do to help someone who was usually so energetic. All of those who she would usually be comforting – namely just Yuri or Annika occasionally – responded to failure with anger and spite, before they decided to practice on what they failed for the next 2 weeks. (The problem at that point, was to just get them to stop.)

Anyway, her thoughts were getting away from the point. She asked Kuroo who was dealing with the loss very maturely, simply looking towards the next tournament, what she could do.

“Hug him and tell him that it’s okay.” He chuckled.

“With all respect Kuroo-senpai, but I don’t think that will work.”

“Just do it and see what happens.”

She rolled her eyes and made her way to Yamamoto, she placed a hand on his arm, Japan (she had learnt) was not a hugging sort of society and she didn’t want to startle him.

“It’s okay, all you can do now is work towards Spring Nationals!”

After a moment, in which he seems to snap himself out of whatever mind funk he was in, he lights up, and started shouting once again.

Alyona smiled, well that worked surprisingly well.

…

Chapter Text

Boys Volleyball Club Room

15:12, Wednesday 24^th June

The team was congregated in the Club room, standing and, or sitting around Yamamoto and Yoshihara, trying to figure out what to do to help them get through exams week.

Ever since the 3^rd years had left and Kuroo had been appointed captain they had been spending more time in the club room before and after practices. Not because they were trying to skip, but because the 3^rd Years used to get so annoyed at them for ‘clogging up’ the club room and forced them to wait in the gym as soon as they finished getting changed. Which means they had to wait till 3:20 every day for the coaches to arrive for Practice to officially start.

Their debate on what to do and who should help who was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“It’s Alyona, uh can I come in?” They could hear her voice muffled through the door.

“One sec,” Kuroo gave Takechi a moment to quickly pull on his shirt, “Okay come in!”

Alyona gently opened the door and stepped into the room, “Naoi-sensei, said to me to tell you that Coach Nekomata will be a little late today.”

“Okay, that’s –” Whatever Kuroo was about to say next was cut off by Yamamoto.

“Alyona! Help me study!”

Alyona looked surprised but replied with an immediate, “No.”

Yamamoto looked hurt, “Why?! You seem like you know how to?”

She heaved a miserable sigh, “No because I am the one who needs help! The only subject I’m good at is Math! Like I know nothing about Japanese History, Japanese Social Studies, Japanese Geography and don’t get me started on actual Japanese! Kanji makes no sense.”

Kenma chipped in seemingly trying to comfort her, “You’re good at English thou-”

“I would be, if half of the questions weren’t in Japanese!” She gestured wildly with her hands, channelling her frustration into choppy hand movements. “It doesn’t matter if I can read the English if I have no clue what the question wants me to do! I wish I could take the tests in Russian!”

Now she sat down but that didn’t stop her rant. “And Kajiguri-sensei”

“Our Social Studies Teacher” Kenma explains.

“– Never explains anything to me, or like lets me ask questions after class or let’s just the other people explain anything to me! How does she expect me to know anything, I went to school in two countries who couldn’t care less about Japanese Social Studies, or Feudal Japan, or, or agh!”

She took a breath before continuing, “Like I’m sorry that I don’t know anything about Japanese History, or which King was when or when this random feud broke apart this clan or that clan. Like it’s all so confusing and I have no start point or point of reference for when it happened, it’s uh I just get so lost and then I space out for the rest of the lesson waiting for the rest of it to be explained and then the lessons over and I still know nothing.”

She put her head in her hands and started to either cry or laugh or something in between.

Kuroo sat next to her and put a comforting hand on her back. “Well. That was a journey.”

That brought out a genuine laugh from her, “Yeah, Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” And just like that; a how do we help Yamamoto and Yoshihara session turned into a how do we help Alyona session, because she definitely needed it more than them.

---

After practice Kuroo, Kenma and Alyona were waiting at the station for their train.

“Alyona, Yaku and I were thinking that maybe we could do a study session and help you and a few of the other first years.”

Alyona raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure? Don’t you both need to study too?”

“Well we’d be helping each other with stuff too. Besides, we were mostly planning on handing you guys our old notes and explaining whatever you don’t understand. Only problem is that we don’t know where to do it that has enough space.”

Alyona still looked apprehensive, “Well the space issue isn’t really a problem we could just go to my house. Anyway, thanks, I’ll think about it.”

---

The next day Alyona found herself once again explaining her strife about exams – though in a much more controlled manner – to Kosai and Yokomizo.

“Yeah I’m really not sure how it’ll go.”

“You do still suck at Japanese.” Kumata who budged into the conversation comment.

“Uh I guess-”

“I’ve heard some people say that you sound rude, I mean I know you’re not but others don’t so I’d be careful when you speak.” She was about to go on to say something else but Kosai spoke before her.

“I’ve never heard anyone say that.” Kosai sounded defensive.

“Even if she did, they should know she doesn’t mean it.” Yokomizo added.

Kumata just shrugged and leaned back against Yokomizo’s desk.

“Nikiforova I could help you study, I’m really good at Japanese.” Sakata said as he approached from the back of the classroom, leaning with one hand on the back of Alyona’s chair.

“I’m okay,” She said before thinking of what Kumata just mentioned, “thanks though.”

Kosai laughed, “Oh come on Sakata-san you’re about as good at Japanese as any average middle schooler.”

“Still means I’m better than Nikiforova.”

Alyona winced and leaned forward, that one kind of hurt, he wasn’t wrong but it still; she’d been trying to get better and her tutor had been saying that she improved a lot in the past few months.

“Anyway, I’ll help you.”

Kenma just re-entered the room, that reminded her. She grabbed her bag and stood from the chair, and turned to Sakata who stumbled when the chair teetered from the loss of her weight when she stood up, “Sorry but I already have study plans with some senpai’s.”

Kenma looked at her confused, she seemed pretty apprehensive about Kuroo’s suggestion yesterday, and the older never said anything about her agreeing after the initial question.

Alyona smiled at the group “Bye. See you later, Kosai and Yokomizo-san.”

She turned to Kenma, “Let’s go to Biology.”

They walking away and were just about to leave the room before Alyona heard Kumata scoff, “He was just trying to help, you ungrateful-” whatever she said was cut off by Kenma pulling the door closed.

---

Once they were sitting in the Biology lab, pulled out her phone since they were a couple minutes early which gave Alyona the opportunity to text Kuroo.

< Kuroo-петух

_9:38 Hi Kuroo-senpai

_9:38 If you still want to do the study idea I’m in

…

Chapter Text

Nishiochiai, Shinjuku, Tokyo

14:40, Saturday 27^th June

Saturday found Kuroo, Fukunaga, Kenma and Morisuke trailing behind Alyona, study material weighing down their bags, as she leads them to her house.

They were happily chatting with each other when they turned the corner, Morisuke was talking with Fukunaga when they passed by a large residence, he tilted his head in the direction of their manager only to see that she had disappeared.

“It’s over here!” Kuroo laughed from over at the gate. Alyona had pulled out an ornate keychain with a couple keys attached to it and opened the gate to a plot of land that had enough space for 4 or 5 houses but instead had a one big two story house with a large garden surrounding it.

Huh, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting but for some reason her being rich was not it.

Alyona held the gate open for them and with a big one armed gestured welcomed them in, once they were all in she closed the gate behind them and opened the front door.

“Welcome! There are spare slippers in the basket.”

As they were taking of their shoes, he heard what sounded like paws tapping on the wood floors, and just a few seconds later a big brown Poodle appeared and pounced on Alyona, jumping onto her fox themed slippers, clearly very happy to see her.

“Aw, Makka, Hello.” She crouched down to scratch him behind the ears. “Everyone, this is our dog, Makkachin.”

Kuroo immediately engaged the dog ruffling his fur, Morisuke kind of felt betrayed, for someone who goes to a school that’s cat themed it’s just rude that Kuroo was a dog lover.

“Kuroo-senpai, don’t hound the dog.” Fukunaga joked, with a small grin. That drew out a laugh and a snort form them as Kuroo tilted his head to playfully glare at the younger.

Alyona smiled, and guided them into the house until they ended up in the living room, “Make yourselves comfortable, the bathroom is by the stairs, I will be back in a second, I’m just going to feed Makka.” She walked back into the hallway with the Poodle hot on her heals.

“I was not expecting this.” Kuroo voiced once they sat down around the coffee table.

“I know right, I mean like she didn’t give me the rich kid vibe.” Cause she really didn’t, she was maybe a bit reserved at the start, but they soon learnt that that was just the language barrier. Once she got more comfortable with them she started joking around with them and they learnt that she was very sarcastic and not afraid to make playful jabs at them occasionally.

“I don’t think it really matters, let’s just get the stupid studying over with please.” Kenma mumbled, it will always amaze Morisuke how Kuroo manages to convince Kenma to do anything.

Alyona came back in the room with bottles of water and lemonade which she put on the corner of the table, “Tell me if you want anything else,” she said as she handed them some cups. She sat down opposite Morisuke, “Okay then, do we want to start?”

She was met with a chorus of agreements as they all opened their books and started discussing what to do. Kuroo was helping Kenma with Biology, and Morisuke was helping Alyona and Fukunaga with Geography.

After about half an hour of good work, Kuroo was digging around his bag looking for something. “There it is!” He cheered, pulling out a stack of Notebooks and Text books.

“Here Alyona,” He placed them next to her, “these are my History, Geography and Japanese note books from Middle school, I thought they might help you catch up on what you missed.”

Alyona was gapping, “Oh my God, thanks, are you sure?” – Then she exclaimed something happily in Russian – “Thanks, senpai! This’ll help a lot.”

“No problem, if you’re interested in anything else, I have literally no other use for them so you can have them.”

“Really? Don’t you have a sister?”

He laughed, “Yes, but no, she’s in Uni so I don’t think she needs them.”

“Ooh, okay, thanks then!”

They quickly got back to work after that.

---

They were working well and had switched to the 2^nd years helping each other figure out math, while Alyona was teaching the the other two English. However, they were interrupted by the melodic ring of the doorbell.

Alyona excused herself quickly and padded off to the door, Fukunaga and Kenma relaxed back against the couch.

Tetsuro could hear the door opening followed by a male voice speaking loudly in Russian, the voice and Alyona talked back and forth gradually getting louder as the pair approached the living room.

Into the room stepped a tall man who could be no one but Alyona’s Uncle, or Father. They looked uncannily similar; they had the same silver hair, they’re facial shape and features were the same, the only detectable difference was the dissimilar eye and lip shape and that the man had much lighter blue irises. But he’d already meet her uncle, right? So, this had to be her dad? But she was living with her Uncle and his family, right?

“Privet!” He said – that meant ‘hello’ Tetsuro had learnt that by now. Alyona shushed the man, and introduced them.

“Vitya, these are my friends from Volleyball.” They all bowed and greeted him.

“Everyone, this is my uncle Viktor.” Uncle? But he’d meet her uncle? Katsuki was her Uncle? He had thought that it was weird that her uncle was Japanese… Omg did he let her go away with a random man? But no, she knew him. Wait so she has two Uncles, I mean people have multiple uncles but how’s one completely Russian and the other completely Japanese. Unless they were, Oh. OH. Okay, okay he got it now, okay.

He glanced at Kenma to see if he realized the same thing, but his face was as expressionless as always. Which meant that either he didn’t care – which yeah it didn’t change anything –

or he didn’t remember meeting Katsuki, which is more likely. Or which was most probable, is that he got distracted by the black and white cat that had wandered into his hands.

“You both look very similar!” Yaku noted.

Viktor grinned, “Yes! Nikiforov’s have very strong genes! People used to think that her mother and I were twins.”

Alyona looked surprised and asked him something in Russian.

Viktor replied with something they also couldn't understand, before excusing himself, and wishing them good luck in their studied. “And thank you for helping my Alya-chan.”

Alyona rolled her eyes and shoved him out of the room and then sat down. “Let’s just work for a bit longer, we can go out for a walk or something later.”

…

Chapter Text

Nikiforov-Katsuki Residence

17:30, 28^o Celsius

They’d been doing good work and had managed to do quite a bit of work, Alyona was proud of all of them, especially herself god knows she is horrible at focusing on school work.

Well, accept for Kenma who, it seemed completely abandoned all attempts at studying the moment Potya appeared. The cat hadn’t left the setters lap for the past hour, Kuroo was right when he said Kenma was a cat whisperer. Potya, like her owner, was usually a bit prickly around new people or, even with people like Mila, who were there when Potya was adopted. Which meant Alyona was totally going to tease Yuri, his cat came to love some random person within a few minutes, when she knows that Yuri battled for Potya’s love for months after they initially met.

But, that’s neither here nor there, she could tell that everyone was getting stiff and cramped from having been sitting still and working for the past few hours, so she decided to fulfil her earlier promise.

“Hey guys, do you want to go out for a bit?”

“Yes, please we’ve been sitting here forever!” Kuroo exclaimed, even Kenma gently stretched out his limbs in a very cat like manner, careful not to disturb his actual furry partner.

“Okay then go put your shoes on I’ll just tell Viktor that we’re heading out.”

She went upstairs to find Viktor, “Hey, Vitya, we’re going to go out for a little bit.”

He smiled, “That’s good, could you take Makkachin with you?”

“Sure, oh also where are the Yuris? Shouldn’t they have come home with you?”

“Yura wanted to work on something for a bit longer so Yuuri stayed back at the rink to help.”

“Oh okay.” Alyona would also be at the rink right now if it weren’t for exams, off season had just ended, so it made sense for Yuri to want to work on more things, he’d already figured out both of his skates. Meanwhile she was still stuck on what to do for her Free Program, this was going to be her senior debut so she wanted to make it special. Well, whatever she didn’t need to think about that right now.

“Bye Vitya!”

“See you later, Alya.”

She hopped back down the stairs, and joined the boys at the entry way, “If it’s okay with you, I’ll bring the dog with us?”

They all nodded.

Alyona grabbed the leash and made a clicking sound with her mouth twice, “Makkachin, it’s walk time.” In no time Makkachin appeared and patiently waited for Alyona to clip the leash on.

---

They just got to the small park around the back of her house after they went to the Konbini to get some ice cream, after all Japanese summer never let up.

They basically had full reign of the park as there weren’t many other people around. They were sitting on the swings with Makkachin sitting on the ground by Alyona, somehow, they started talking about their siblings.

“Wait, Fukunaga how old is your sister?” Yaku asked.

“Like, six. Why?”

“Oh damn, I was just wondering, my little brothers are thirteen and eleven, I think?”

Alyona laughed, “Yaku-senpai, how do you not know their ages?”

“It’s difficult okay! I swear they were babies yesterday!”

Kuroo spoke up, “Wait, am I the only one with an older sibling?”

“Well, I’m an only child.” Kenma mumbled.

“Don’t worry Kenma, me too!” Alyona patted Kenma on his shoulder. “But well, actually I guess you could consider Yuri as my older brother.”

“Why do you sound so uncertain about it?”

“Because he is my Uncles’, uhh, one second.” She told them to wait as she pulled out her phone, quickly typed something into google translate before showing it to Kenma.

“Okay, her Uncle is Yuri’s guardian.”

“Thanks, so yeah Yuri is sort of like my older brother slash cousin.”

They continued with other random conversation topics, and eventually got bored of sitting in the park and decided to continue their walk along Myoshoji river.

---

“Alyona?” Yaku spoke up, the three of them – Yaku, Kenma and Alyona – had been walking in amiable silence up until then, a few steps behind Fukunaga and Kuroo (who had stolen the dog out of Alyona’s hands), as they made their way back to the house.

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if you don’t mind me asking, why are you here? Like out of all places in Tokyo why boring old Nichiochiai.”

Kuroo who had heard this was rather offended, “Hey this area’s not that bad.” And was then promptly shushed by Kenma, who was also curious about this.

“Hmm well it’s a long story, and I honestly never expected to be in Japan. But we moved here because it had everything we needed. A school for me and a University for Yuri,” She paused for a moment and laughed remembering Yuri arguing with Yuuri when they decide to move here and shove him into a school. “My Uncles were very insistent that they wanted Yuri to continue his education.

“Anyway, this area had the perfect facilities that we needed, and well, not that where we lived before didn’t, but the culture was different and well, we loved it in the US, but none of us are from there so we lacked some sort of familiarity or something, it’s weird but it just didn’t feel right for us. It is funny since Japan is even more different to Russia, but Yuuri-oji is more happy here, and he’s closer to family, even if they live in the south”

“Wait, a few questions, why Tokyo? Also, there are schools closer too here then Nekoma? And did you say Uncles?” Yaku fired off as soon as she stopped speaking.

“Well again, Tokyo just had what we needed, and yes Uncles, Viktor is my actual uncle Yuuri,” she put emphasis on the longer ‘u’ sound, “is his husband.”

“Oh!”

She laughed at their surprised faces, though Kuroo just nodded, glad that his guess form earlier was right.

“Anyway, um we did try other schools, but well, none of them wanted to accept me.” She subconsciously started fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

“Why though?”

“They didn’t want to accept someone who doesn’t know Japanese well, and didn’t want to spend the time to try and get me to the level of the other students, and risk their grade average being dragged down.” Which she had always thought was a stupid excuse, like one student is going to affect the average that much. “And well Nekoma was also one of the only schools that was okay with me missing class. That’s another big thing,” she said with a shrug, “just get ready for me to miss a lot of school starting next term.”

“Well you’re lucky those other schools passed on you, you ended up at the best school!” Kuroo said enthusiastically, Yaku and Fukunaga also happily nodded along.

“Yeah I’m happy I ended up going to Nekoma, too!”

The others moved onto other conversation topics as they continued their way.

Kenma quietly spoke up from Alyona’s side, “I’m glad, too. That you, you know, go to Nekoma.”

Alyona saw the perfect opportunity to tease him, which any other day she would’ve taken, but instead she just looped her arm around his, and continued to walk with her friends, she really was grateful to have them.  

“By the way Alyona, shouldn’t we have gotten back by now?” Fukunaga asked.

She stopped in her tracks and looked around, “Ummm…”

-Bonus-

The following Monday after practice those who had been victims of Alyona’s non-existent sense of direction, were teasing her, telling the story to the rest of the team.

Alyona had pattered off to mop the opposite corner of the gym, sulking. (She wasn’t actually offended all of her friends have teased her about it at one time or another.) But, of course, some of the others followed.

Takechi opened his mouth to say something but was quickly shut down when she glared at him.

“Y’know what.”

Alyona sighed, “What Yaku-senpai?” She tried to glare at him but it obviously didn’t work, Yaku was the scariest person on the team.

“Your name is too hard to say.”

“Huh, how is saying ‘Alyona’ hard?” She looked and sounded confused.

“I think it’s the ‘l’.” Takechi pointed out.

 “Well you can go back to calling me Nikiforova if you don’t like it.”

Kuroo popped out of nowhere to add his 2 cents, “Didn’t you say being called by your last name felt weird?”

“Well, yes. But don’t let me stop you.”

“How about a nickname?”

“I don’t want a nickname from you, rooster head.”

Kuroo sputtered “Hey!” All he got in reply was Alyona’s cackling.

“How about Yona?” Fukunaga suggested, again popping up out of nowhere.

She whined “I don’t care, I just want to go home.”

Kuroo grinned ‘We’ll make it stick eventually’.

And stick it did, because two weeks later, by the start of the summer holidays, she started responding to shouts of ‘Yona’ from across the gym.

Chapter Text

Nikiforov-Katsuki Residence

7:44, Saturday 11^th July

Yuuri was busy cleaning up the kitchen after he made breakfast for the kids, Yuri has already wandered down and was sat at the table slowly shovelling rice into his mouth. Yuuri was surprised the blond’s face hadn’t fallen into his food yet with how often his heavy head kept on slipping the hand it was placed on. However, Alyona was nowhere to be seen, he anxiously checked the time again – 7:45 – usually she’d be up and getting ready for school at 7:00 on a day like this.

Just as he was about to go and get her, he saw Alyona stumble into the kitchen. Unlike he had hoped it did not relieve his anxiety; her messy hair was hanging in front of her face, slightly obscuring her puffy red eyes. Something was wrong, it took a lot to make Alyona cry when she was sad. 

“Oh Alenka, what’s wrong?” He whispered as he wrapped his arms around his Niece.

She bit the inside of her cheeks and shook her head, scared that if she opened her mouth and tried to speak she’d start crying. Still, she brought her arms up and clutched the back of Yuuri’s shirt, breathing unevenly into his chest as she tried to calm down. It didn’t have the intended effect though somehow the comfort made her even more emotional, it only fuelled the cold empty pressure in her lungs.

“Alyochka darling, it’s okay.” If she tried hard enough she thought could hear her voice calling her that, but she couldn’t, and that released her tears from her fine control. She sobbed into Yuuri’s shirt. The voice was gone, every time she actively tried to recall her voice it sounded less and less like her, the low pitch her voice had when she spoke, the tone of voice, the rhythm, quality and accent all of it was drifting away from her. Every breath rattled her, the pressure of air in her lungs felt like it was going to make her explode.

 “It’s-” she gasped for another breath, and stuttered as she spoke “Mама should be thirty-six today, but-” Whatever she wanted to say next was lost in her cries.

All these last few years Alya thought she’d been getting better at dealing with it, she thought she had finally managed to accept it and move on earlier this year, but one stupid pop up notification from her iPhone Calendar managed to break years’ worth of effort, and the past week where she actively tried to ignore this oncoming day in favour of focusing on her exams.

The two stayed there hugging for the next few minutes as Yuuri slowly patted Alyona’s back till she managed to calm down.

“Sorr-” she started to say as she stepped back, Yuuri released her but quickly interrupted her, “Remember you don’t need to apologize for grieving.”

She smiled slightly and nodded, about to leave to get ready for school, she’d be extra late if she didn’t start now.

“Say Alya, do you have any more exams today?” He asked.

She mumbled back, “No, it’s the last day before break so we’re not doing much.”

He smiled, “Great! You also answered my other question.”

“What d’you mean?”

“You’re staying home today, we can go to the rink, get your mind off it and anyway we need to start working on your Free Program.”

She was about to protest but Yuuri was having none of that and shushed her, reassuring that it would be fine, he’d call the school and excuse her for the day. He rushed her to the table and placed a plate of food in front of her.

Alyona tried to get up and call for Yuuri again, before he had the opportunity to call in at school, but this time it was Yuri who grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back into the seat.

“Just eat. You know there’s no arguing with him.” He mumbled still only half awake.

She sighed “Fine.”

“Also, Alya, I thought you might wanna know that your skates arrived yesterday.”

She raised her eyebrows “Really? When?”

“Yeah, I meet the delivery guy when I got home yesterday but you were already sleeping, so I brought it in.”

She tried to joke, “Aw, you really did that for me.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.” He was starting to regret being nice to her, but dealing with her being sassy was leagues better than hearing her cry, so he’d take it.

“Well Yura, I’ve learnt to take everything you say with a grain of salt.” In response Yuri hit her arm, Alyona dogged and laughed it off.

---

The Ice Rink was near empty, the only people there were the four skaters, three of which were stretching and getting ready for the session.

Viktor and Yuuri were talking by the rink discussing what their plans were for today, Yuuri wanted to refine his short program, everything needed to be flawless. He knew this would be his last season before he retires, and he wanted to make sure that it was a performance that would do justice to those who had helped him along his path.

He knew his fans wouldn’t want him to retire, he’d seen them panicking on the internet. And even though between Viktor, Chris and Himself they’ve raised what was the expected retirement age for international-competitive skaters from mid-twenties to late-twenties, he didn’t want to risk damaging his body, he wouldn’t be able to do any skating if that happened. After all there was a reason they already had the kids in physiotherapy, they wanted to mitigate any issues they may have in the future before it even had the chance to happen.

Talking about the kids; unlike their guardians who were having a civil conversation, just as the couple looked up they could see Alyona throwing one of her skate guards at Yuri who ducked and proceeded to shout something at her. But, before they could start another fight, Viktor told them it was the start of their practice.

---

Yuuri went to practice his skate and Yuri started working on his jumps, meanwhile the Uncle and Niece duo went off to the other side of the rink.

“Alright, Alya, we’re going to take it easy today but we do need to start thinking about your free program. Do you have any ideas for the music?” Viktor wanted to take it easy on her today, she never had much energy when she was emotionally destressed, so today he just wanted her to focus on the future and have her figure out what she wanted to do for her senior debut.

They deliberated for a while, cycling through different songs they knew before Alyona landed on a song she’s heard recently that she might be a good option.

“Actually, Vitya, there’s this song that Jake recommended me a few weeks ago, I think it fits the vibe of my other skates.”

Viktor raised an eyebrow, “Well then, show me.”

“Okay it’s called Soft Cloud, it’s from this really small artist, that Jake knows about somehow.” Alyona finds the song on Spotify and plays it Viktor.

He grins, “This would do well. Do you want to use it?” Alyona nodded.

“Alright then, let’s get to it”

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School Car Park

7:56, Monday July 20^th

It was early in the morning when the current Nekoma Volleyball team was gathering at the entrance of the school. They were all there other than Kuroo, Kenma and Alyona; which was probably because they were coxing Kenma out of his bed in the middle of their summer holiday.

Now, they were supposed to leave at 8:00 am sharp so that they could make it to Shinzen High by 10:00 am. It was already 7:59 and they were nowhere in sight.

“Where are they?” Yamamoto complained, he had gotten the time wrong and ended up there at 7 am. He’d complained about his morning to every person he saw, he never finished with the explanations though, as he ended up tiredly drifting off mid-sentence.

He heard Yaku, who looked perfect as ever and not tired at all, laugh next to him, “Speak of the devil, cutting it close aren’t you!”

Just as it hit 8:01 the trio walked through the school gates, all at varying levels of consciousness. Alyona looked perfectly fine; no eye bags in sight, silver hair braided out of her face, two duffle bags in hand. Kuroo looked like a clown; eyes squinting, his hair was mushed in one of the worst cases of bed head ever seen, dragging his feet across the ground. Kenma was being half dragged, half carried by Kuroo, still asleep.

Alyona skipped up to them, “Good morning! Sorry it took us a while to get here.”

Yamamoto blinked at her astonished at how up beat she was, “How?”

She turned over to him, “How what?” She paused to give him a onceover, “You look horrible.”

“I look horrible! You know what I had to- actually no. Never mind, how do you look so put together? It’s 8 am!”

“I wake up at 5 am almost every day so this is normal. Also, we wake up before this for school, I don’t understand the problem.” Alyona pointed out.

“But it’s the summer!” Yamamoto whined. Before he could continue complaining Takechi interrupted him, “Why do you have two bags? This isn’t a vacation, and last I checked you’re not Momoi.”

Momoi looked offended, “It’s not my fault that I like being prepared!”

“No no” Alyona laughed, shrugging the shoulder with the blue bag on it “This one is mine,” and she held up the dark red bag in her right hand, “This is Kenma’s.”

Coach Nekomata let out a laugh, “Well now that we’re all here let’s get going.”

Alyona stowed away her, Kenma and Kuroo’s bags in the compartment under the bus, while Kuroo dragged Kenma onto the bus. On the bus; Yamamoto, Momoi and Yoshihara were sitting on the back row of seats, they were watching something on Momoi’s iPad together. Kai, Yaku and Sakae were sitting on the three seats in front of them, and in front of them Kenma was sleeping over the double seat and Kuroo sat down by the single window seat. Alyona ended up sitting on the single seat in the row with Takechi, who was napping with his headphones on.

Alyona followed Takechi’s lead and put on her headphones – this would be fine, it’s just a mini bus – she clicked on her favourite playlist and stared out of the window as the bus started to move through the streets of suburban Tokyo, it was only a short trip she’d be fine.

---

Alyona got lost.

It was only the second day and she got lost for the 3^rd time. Now then, both other times there were other people around, so it was easy to just pick a group to follow and get back to where she needed to be. But now, everyone was at dinner, and not wandering around aimlessly, so being lost it is. Fantastic.

She was walking along one of the paths when the light turned off in gym 5. She speed up and jogged to the entrance to the gym, where she saw Fukuroudani’s number 10, she thinks he’s the setter.

“Hi! Could you please help me?” She called while waving to him.

He looked at her, “Um, sure.”

She sighed “Thanks, I’m lost.”

“Ah okay, if you’re trying to get to the dining room it’s in the other direction.”

She laughed when he pointed in the direction that she had just come from. “Great.”

“I’m just about to head that way too, so we can go together.” He said before they started walking down the path she had just walked on.

“Sorry, but you’re from Fukuroudani right?” she asked awkwardly trying to break the ice.

“Yeah, we haven’t meet yet so it’s okay, I’m Akaashi. You’re Yona, right? From Nekoma?”

She chuckled “Yeah but my name’s actually Alyona, the team just calls me that. I’m surprised you remembered.”

His eyes flitted away “Ah well it reminded me of this one manga I’ve read.”

“Oh, Akatsuki no Yona, right?”

“Yeah! You know it?” Keiji got excited that she knew a manga that wasn’t very mainstream, he didn’t really have the opportunity to talk about it with other people.

“Yup, I’m reading it to learn Japanese. It’s cool! I love the art and the story is very interesting.”

“Yeah, it looks like it’ll be a romance but it turns out to be a really engrossing political drama, and the character development is great.”

Alyona was quiet for a second, translating the words in her head. She wished this conversation was in Russian or hell even English, why’d her Japanese skills have to plummet every time she got excited about something. “Yeah, I think the characters are very interesting, I love reading about them.”

“Who’s you’re favourite character?”

“Oh, that is hard.” Alyona thought for a second “I like all of them a lot, but I think my favourite character is Hak, his character is so interesting, among other things”

Keiji laughed and gave her a knowing look, he could tell what the other reason was. “Does, ‘other things’ perhaps mean the fact that he’s good looking.”

“Yeah,” she laughed covering her smile with her had. “Not my fault the artist’s chose to make him good looking.”

“Don’t worry I get it.”

“So, is Hak your favourite too?” She asked as they walked down a few steps.

Keiji wasn’t really thinking when he replied, this area didn’t look that familiar to him, “One of them, but my favourite is Kija, his personality is really cute, and you know other things.”

“So you like the sort of playful, bombastic type of guy, or is it the white hair?”

“Well I guess but—” he cut himself off, the alarms went off in his head, he should not have said that, damn it. Maybe she didn’t notice anything, yeah wait people can appreciate a character of the same gender without it meaning anything, right? Right. It’d be fine, he didn’t out himself to a complete stranger – he didn’t even know her full name – by accident, it’s fine.

However, unfortunately Alyona caught onto his inner turmoil, she tapped him on the arm “What happened?”

She hadn’t given him enough time to figure out what he should say, “Uh, Yeah, it’s nothing, just um got distracted by something, sorry,” he sighed. He didn’t know how to deal with this sudden situation, the only person he was out to was his sister, but he trusted his sister, again, this was a stranger he just outed himself to, no he didn’t not yet it’s fine, she didn’t know anything yet. His eyes started fliting around, looking for a way out of this situation. Maybe he was think do deeply about this, or maybe he wasn’t over thinking at all.

“Akaashi-san, I’m not too sure what’s wrong but you can calm down I won’t judge, whatever it is that you’re worried about.” Well, he guessed that mean that his usual calm composure had crumbled around him if she was thinking that, and she probably knew, why else would he panic about seemingly nothing. But, she seemed okay with it – if she knew – so it’s fine. What did he do not then? He knew if he just sat in the unknown he’d just kick himself about it wondering for the rest of the trip.

So he told her, as casually as he could, trying to make it sound like a throw away comment, and to his surprise she just nodded and said that she thought it was completely fine.

He sighed this is not the situation he thought he’d end up in today and for some reason the fact that she wasn’t bothered made this worse; anger or disgust he could deal with, but expectance that threw him for a loop.

She seemed to sense that he was still worrying, “Look, I live with my Uncle and his Husband, and my ‘cousin’” – she did air quotes with her hands – “he has a boyfriend, well they’re not officially dating, but they are definitely dating.” She chuckled to herself. “So I’m the last person who would be against you.”

He sighed again, “Thanks.” Well, if he had to out himself by accident to anyone then at least he outed himself to someone who apparently was raised around people like him.

“Anyway,” He said changing the subject “the hall should be right around here.” They turned the corner to encounter another empty Gym. They stood there for a moment, before looking around, facing each other and laughing, today was just not going as planned.

“Maybe lets back track a bit?” Alyona suggested.

“Yeah, maybe.”

…

Chapter Text

Shinzen High, Fukuroudani Academy Group Training Camp

19:20, Wednesday July 22^nd

Alyona, having lost rock-paper-scissors, was doing a snack run with Yaku, Kenma (her fellow losers) and Momoi (self-imposed snack-run-leader), they were sent to bring enough ice cream for their whole team and Fukuroudani (cause of a bet they – Kuroo – lost). She couldn’t seem to remember what exactly they were doing, all she knew is that they ended practice early, she did know the reason, but it didn’t seem to come to her mind at this moment.

She absentmindedly started following the other three, once she noticed them moving. She felt good, it was hot – and she hated the heat – but it was that nice night-time warmth that blanketed your skin, it seemed to magically ease the bruising on her legs from one too many falls on the ice, even if it was a placebo effect, it felt soothing. The sun had set, it was blue hour and the sky was the perfect shade of dark blue, that reminded her of her mom’s eye color. Life felt calm. Her thoughts were on halt and she was content to just walk by her friends’ side.

Alyona was brought out from her mind-blankness, only when Kenma bumped into her shoulder to avoid stepping on a large beetle. She slowly drove back into her thoughts, drifting back into the conversation around her.

“How about you, Yona?” Momoi’s voice appeared in her mind.

“Huh?” was her intelligible response.

“Yona, are you excited to watch the Olympic game today?” Yaku repeated for her.

“What- oh yeah,” they were bringing ice cream to the watch party they had set up in one of the gyms, she remembered now, “Yeah, I’m excited, its Japan versus?”

“Poland.” Yaku finished for her, sounding slightly like he was laughing.

“Right, Poland. Thanks, Senpai.” Now, as much as she did forget what they were doing today, she was genuinely excited to watch, especially since it’s the Olympics. So far, she’d only ever watched figure skating at Olympics, and obviously, Volleyball is a completely different format. ‘Japan vs Poland’ was the penultimate match of Pool A – she thinks at least – before it goes into the tournament, with immediate knock out rounds.

---

Everyone at camp was gathered in the gym, Fukuroudani, Nekoma, Shinzen and Ubugawa were all sat on the floor staring at the projected image from broadcasting, ‘Japan Consortium (NHK)’ on the wall, waiting for the match between Japan and Poland to begin.

Bokuto, Komi and Yamamoto were all eagerly sat at the front of the group eyes locked on the screen and nothing else. A group of third years was sat near the coaches, having tried – and failed – to coerce the adults into letting them try some alcohol. Some of the older managers were walking around distributing drinks and snacks. All the teams were intermingling, and situated around the outskirt of the large group were Akaashi, Kenma and Alyona, enthusiastic, yes; but not ready for the crazy excitement that was bound to ensue once the match started. Which is why they preferred to watch it all go down from a safe distance.

Abruptly the chattering died down as the live stream started, everyone’s focus being held by the screen; as it showed a quick montage of the arena.

“Welcome to the Ariake Arena, purpose built for the indoor Volleyball at Tokyo 2020, and all set to stage the penultimate match of Pool A, between Host Nation Japan and Poland. Both teams have won two and lost one of their previous matches, and its surely going to be a very heated set up as they compete for a place in the knock-out rounds.”

Nice, Alyona thought, she had been right about the setup of this Olympic game.

“Two days ago, Japan lost to Italy with a score of 1-3 and Poland won to Venezuela 3-1,” On the Screen a graphic of the results of past few matches appeared. “Currently Poland is leading here with 8 match points, but Japan is not far behind with 6, I’m sure we’ll see some intense playing from Japan today as they try to secure their spot in the top four of the Pool.”

The commentators continued to list off the previous matches and the set scores, as the teams did their warmup drills. Alyona took this chance to ask Akaashi how exactly the points system worked. From what she understood of his explanation, a match won 3-0 or 3-1 the winners would get 3 match points, and a match won 3-2 the winner would get 2 match points and the loser would get 1. But, before long, the warm up was over and the court was cleared.

The commentator began by introducing the Polish team and some of their statistics, a graphic appearing on the screen of their starting line-up and rotation. Before the screen showed the Japanese team. “This is the Japanese starting line up there, we’re not expecting many changes today, as most of the team is made up of seasoned  veterans . First up is Wasei Tsuetate, Akihiro Yamazaki a middle blocker, there is the young setter Aritsura Onigashira, Kunihiro Nakashima, the captain Yūkio Ishikawa, Tatsunori Onodera, and finally our new Libero Toshiro Heiwajima.” Another similar graphic for the Japanese team appears.

“So, will it be Poland, who defeated Japan a year ago at the world cup, or will it be the Hosts Japan, who are riding the wave of support that they are getting here in their home country. As usual, it is best of five sets.”

Everyone was silent as number 9 from Poland got ready to begin the match.

“Poland to start, Japan go for a safe start, blocked by Poland but Heiwajima manages to pick it up. There’s no real play there for Japan. There’s a big ta-”

Frustrated groans are heard around the room as Poland manages to score the first point of the match, which is quickly followed by a second.

“-it’s been a long time since the Poles won, their last Olympic gold was in 1976.” The Polish player serves, “Quiet, then it continues, mixing it up really well there,” Tsuetate hits the ball down on the polish side of the court.

Shouts of glee are heard all over the room, reverberating in the high ceilings of the gym.

“Tsuetate, fires a cross court winner to get Japan on the board, side out. Just listen to that reaction from the crowd.”

And the game goes on, with another point to Poland, then another two for Japan, one more for Poland and then another for Japan.

---

It’s been two and a half hours at this point, all drinks are empty and all the snacks have been reduced to crumbs. It’s the final set, Poland took the first two sets but Japan managed to recover the last two, sending the long game into a fifth set. They were already nearing the half way point with Onodera returning to the court after a short break on the bench, and Poland was in the lead, 7:2, having just scored a point.

From the speakers, you can hear the chant of the Japanese crowd before it quiets when the Polish man tosses his serve. “In the final analysis of this one, you’re going to see that lots of the aces are going to make a huge difference. No real chance there.” The commentator observes as the Japanese do a quick attack and bypass the Polish defence, cheers once again erupting in the stadium. As well as in the gym full of high school students. “Good shot there form Onodera, new found energy after his short rest.”

However, just as they manage to snag a point, Poland takes one right back.

In the next rally the commentators voice is mostly blocked out by the shouts of frantic squeaking of shoes and the shouts of the Japanese audience. “Onigashira sets – No angle ther – noski digs that up – shut down – send it there to Ishikawa, where is this one gonna go.” More cheers erupt as the captain manages to hit the ball onto the other side of the court, three different Polish players on the ground as they tried to save the ball.

The set continues with two consecutive points from Poland, bringing them to 10 first. The high-tension match continues, the commentator comments on the successful styles of coaching from each side. It’s now 13:8 in Poland’s favour.

“After a rest day, Poland will have a strong team such as Canada ahead of them, nevertheless you’ve got to keep what’s in front of you in mind and they have certainly done that here. –Yamazaki sends that one back.”

13:9

“Poland try to move to set point, which they should do here.” The backline spike is shut down by a wall of blockers at the net, ball falling to the ground. “Ooo, forget that! Yamazaki reminds them that Japan is still in the game! That was Yamazaki and Onodera together, and its Yamazaki’s right had that gets it.” The screen shows the disappointed Polish player shaking his head as his teammate pats him on the back.

13:10

“Zielinski sneaks one in! And there it is, match point.” Around the gym dejected shouts can be heard, as everyone is distressed by team Poland reaching match point before Japan could catch up. Others are shouting that they can still pull through, everyone holding on, not letting their attention be stolen from the match until it really ends.

14:10

“–ashik comes back in. Match point. He serves it.” – Tsuetate jumps up – “Comfortable take! Tsuetate, keeps Japan alive! That point for what it’s worth bring Tsuetate among the top scorers of the match.” People jump up in celebration, even the teachers are cheering their hearts out.

14:11

“Somehow Japan needs 3 points in a row. Onigashira sends the serve in. It’s sent back!” Heiwajima dives for the ball, but it’s too late. “And that will do it. Kowalik who puts the last point on the board. And Poland so – ”

The rest of what the commentator says is cut off by the miserable shouts of disappointment from everyone around. They knew that this didn’t mean the end for Japan, they still had a chance if they got an overall point off Iran on Friday, but it still hurt to lose.

The broadcast finished with the commentator complementing both teams on their hard work. Meanwhile the Coaches tried to wrangle a bunch of upset teenagers, giving a few inspirational words about how this should be something for them to learn from and not be upset by. After all was said and done, Coach Naoi turned off the projector, and they were all sent to bed.  

---

Alyona followed the other girls back to their dorm room, not fully participating in the conversation, as she thought about today.

The high energy, and excitement that everyone had had while watching the match was amazing to her, and she can’t lie at points even she was shouting and cheering along just as loudly as the others. While she had played volleyball for a year or so back in the US, that had only really been out of necessity, as it was the only other sport she could stand to do, but now she really found herself enjoying watching it. 

Looking at her friends around her, be so excited, reminded Alyona of what it was like; when she was a little kid and her mom had brought her to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to support Viktor, watching him compete was magical, she still remembers the exact moment she realized that figure skating is what she wanted to do as she watched Viktor fly across the ice. It called to her, and as she stood there, watching by the barrier, she turned to her mom and told her she wanted to skate as well.

Alyona could see that it was something similar for the others who were watching the match today. Some of them were dead set on becoming professional Volleyball Players and she could see it happening. Alyona promised that she would help them get there in whatever way she could! 

…

Chapter Text

Shinzen High, Fukuroudani Academy Group Training Camp

17:58, Thursday July 23^rd

They were just completing the last round of penalty runs – Nekoma had lost 21:25 to Fukuroudani – when Sarukui approached Kuroo, who was drinking water while watching his team.

“Say, Kuroo-san, I’ve noticed something. Sometimes your manager goes on the penalty runs with you, why?”

“I think she does it to motivate or like help Kenma. She even goes on our warm up runs with us back at school.”

Sarukui could never imagine Shirofuku or Suzumeda doing that, so this threw him for a loop, “Really? Why?”

“She says its good training or something?”

This confused Bokuto who was listening in on the conversation, “Training for what?”

Kuroo thought for a second, “We don’t know, we have a bet going though. My bets on gymnastics.”

“How come?” he wondered.

“She leads our stretches before practice sometimes.” Kuroo laughed to himself as he remembered how that started. Alyona had been with them for a little over a month at that point and he guesses that she had just gotten comfortable with them by then. She walked up to Yamamoto who was stretching and told him that he was doing it wrong and that he was horrible at stretches.

“So? How am I supposed to stretch?”

Alyona proceeded to demonstrate in an amazing feat of flexibility how exactly they should stretch.

“I can’t do that.”

“Yeah me neither.”

“No way.”

“I’d die.”

Alyona laughed, “Of course, but I’ve done to enough Yoga and Pilates to know the difference between good and bad stretching.”

After that she started to teach them how to stretch properly and it helped quite a lot with combating soreness after practice.

Bokuto interrupted his thoughts handing him a 100-yen coin, “Put my bet on Swimming.”

“One, that’s a stupid guess, two, why are you guessing you barely even know her.”

“I have a FEELING.”

Sarukui rolled his eyes, “Sure, Bokuto.”

---

July 24^th  

It was the afternoon of the 5^th day of the training camp, the managers finally had the opportunity to relax in the bath for an hour or so. The training camp was surprisingly tiring even if they weren’t playing; keeping score of all the points and who scored them, moving around to different courts, taking care of the teams, it was all surprisingly draining. Which meant that when they got the chance to soak in the baths, they jumped at the opportunity.

Alyona was the last one to join the girls in the bath, a towel wrapped around her torso, as she dipped into the hot water. She joined the other girl is some small talk, talking about this and that and laughing together.

Shirofuku floated up to Alyona, “Nikiforova-chan? You’re from Russia, right?”

“Yes, why are you asking?”

“What’s it like there? Y’know compared to Japan?” Shirofuku asked, Outaki who was also interested, started listening in.

“It’s quite different, at least to western Russia.” She thought about what to say next as an easy example, “For example, in Russia we have Banyas which are like saunas instead of communal baths, it is a little similar but very different, I’m still trying to get used to hot springs and stuff like that in this culture.”

“Have you gone to a lot of Sento?” Hanawa, the third-year manager from Ubugawa, asked.

“Yes, because, well my pseudo… is that how you say the word?” Alyona looked to the other girls who nodded. “My pseudo grandparents run a hot spring in Hasetsu.”

“Ooo Cool! Where is that?”

“It’s in Saga prefecture, near Fukuoka.”

Suzumeda added to the conversation for the first time, “Oh that’s a nice area! I went on vacation near there before.” 

“Yeah, I haven’t been there in a while but we’re going there for New Year, Yuuri said it was tradition in Japan to spend New Year with your family, which is also different to back home.”

“Oh right, in the west the main family holiday is Christmas, right? But here the holidays are opposite in vibes, we go to like karaoke with friends on Christmas.” Shirofuku pointed out.

“Yeah I never really thought about that.”

Meanwhile Alyona looked a little confused, “What does karaoke mean again?”

Everyone was silent for a second, they couldn’t believe that that this poor child had been deprived of the amazing experience that is karaoke. (They were exaggerating a little.) While they were mentally planning how to drag her to a karaoke booth, Alyona was worrying that she had said something wrong, or mispronounced something badly.

“No.” Hanawa breathed, over dramatic as always.

“No?”

“This is a tragedy.”

“Tragedy?” Alyona’s voice raised an octave.

Shirofuku grabbed quickly her hands, splashing some water in Suzumeda’s face in the process, “You’re going to Tokyo to sing karaoke with us.” It didn’t sound anything like a question and more like a demand, she wasn’t giving Alyona an option in this. “Sure, I’d love to!” Not that Alyona would have turned her down anyway.

Shirofuku clapped her hands, “Alright!”

---

July 25^th

It was the evening, about an hour after official practice ended. Kuroo had given Alyona the job to make sure Kenma doesn’t fade away into the shadows while playing on his switch, never to be seen again.

Alyona and Kenma were on their way to the dorms so that they could rest on the couches and probably just play games. They were walking past one of the smaller gyms when Alyona stopped to look into the gym, where she saw Akaashi setting up a net. She grabbed Kenma’s upper arm and dragged him into the gym.

“Yona? Where are we going?” Kenma looked confused, he just wanted to sit down, why was he being dragged into another gym? He didn’t get a response.

“Hey Akaashi-san! What are you doing?” She greeted when he looked over at them.

“I’m going to practise setting.” He tilted his head when he saw her drag Kenma like a ragdoll and made him sit down in a corner. “Is he dead?”

Alyona laughed, “Don’t you need a spiker to practice sets?”

“I’m practising aim.”

She started to help him set up the net, “Do you want some help? I have nothing else to do.”

“I mean, I don’t mind but what about him?” He jerked his head in the direction of Kenma who was sitting on the ground against the wall exactly where she had dropped him. She looked over at him, he looked fine, “He’s fine.”

Alyona proceeded to toss balls to him for him to set for about half an hour, before the two of them got bored and ended up crowded around Kenma’s console looking at him play some game they were all interested him.

---

Kuroo and Bokuto eventually set out to look for them after they noticed that the three first years weren’t at dinner.

“I asked Yona to make sure Kenma didn’t get lost, and now they’re both gone.” Then again, having Alyona make sure someone didn’t get lost probably wasn’t the best idea.

Bokuto complained in response, “I can’t believe Akaashi abandoned me.”

Form a distance they heard familiar voices marvelling about something, talking about sound design or graphics or something along those lines. Kuroo and Bokuto looked at each other and snuck up to the entrance and peered into the gym; inside they saw the two setters and manager huddled closed to each other on the ground, they looked half asleep, yet completely focused on the screen.

Bokuto was about to shout to get their attention when Kuroo cut him off and pulled his phone out of his back pocket and started to take pictures. Bokuto gave him a confused expression.

Kuroo whispered to him, “This is a rare moment of Kenma enjoying human interaction, it needs to be documented.”

After a moment Alyona turned her head to look straight at them, next to her Kenma followed and looked at them with a dead expression, finally Akaashi looked over with the same expression. The first thing he said was, “What are you creeps doing?” as Kenma just looked back at the screen and Alyona sighed.

“Kenma! Yona-chan! You missed dinner!”

Alyona immediately responded with “No we haven’t.” Akaashi finished the thought “We’re just a few minutes late.”

Bokuto sprung up and grabbed Akaashi and started dragging him out of the gym. “Time for FOOD!”

The other two slowly stood up and followed Kuroo out of the gym, the five of them started making their way back to the canteen.

Alyona nudged Akaashi with her elbow, “At least we won’t get lost this time.”

He sighed, “That was one time.” He mumbled, “And it was your fault anyway.”

They laughed tiredly as they approached the dinning room.

---

And so, the following afternoon, the Nekoma team said their goodbyes and piled into the minibus getting comfortable in their seats, with an excess of tiny fans directed at them (due to the broken Air Conditioning unit), and settled in for another 3 hour ride. 

Alyona left the summer camp incredibly happy and rejuvenated, with new friends, good memories, a bunch of follow requests on her private instagram account and ready for the intense training that was coming for her once she got home.

Oh and obviously a bunch of mini fans, with a side of absolute contempt for Japanese Summers. 

...

Chapter Text

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Park, Ikebukuro, Tokyo

13:35, Saturday August 22^nd

The whole team was out in Ikebukuro, they’d been walking about for a few hours now, celebrating the ending of their summer training. Kuroo and Yaku had suggested it for some team bonding, since they won’t see each other for a week before school starts again.

In actuality, the team (minus Kenma and Yamamoto who didn’t know) was celebrating the temporary truce that Kenma and Yamamoto currently established. Don’t be mistaken they still definitely hate each other, but they’re getting there, maybe.  

But currently, they were all taking a little break in the park in front of the Theatre, some of them took the opportunity to go to the bathroom, while Kai and Sakae buy some ice cream for them.

Takechi was going on about some gossip that was happening in his class, “– but like he really messed up there like I know where he’s coming from but like–”

Momoi interrupted him, “Guys, tell me if I’m wrong,” he said carefully, catching the attention of the others, he looked at them and pointed to a girl with their back turned towards them; she was wearing a blue summer dress and had a suspiciously familiar hair colour, “But isn’t that Alyona?”

They all took a closer look, “No, that’s definitely her, who’s she talking too?” Alyona was talking to some man, foreign, maybe about 5 centimetres taller than her, with a slightly androgynous look and a really mean look on his face.

Kuroo raised an eyebrow, “I think you mean arguing. Because neither of them seem too happy.” They both were arguing with each other, it looked like they were both trying to not get physical but whatever they were saying was not making each other to happy. But when Alyona tried to walk away and he tried tripped her up, they were ready to throw hands.

Suddenly they all looked very serious, “How tall do you think he is.” Yaku hissed.

“Maybe about a hundred-and-seventy-five centimetres?”

“Definitely taller than you.” Kuroo added.

Yaku ignored him, “I can take him.”

Kuroo but a hand on his shoulder, “Calm down Mr. Demon Senpai, don’t get carried away, they probably know each other.”

“Yeah, I mean, how many foreigners do you see walking around.” Takechi pointed out.

“Talk about living up to the stereo type, both blond, relatively tall with light colored eyes.” Momoi laughed. “But yeah, they’re obviously here together, also Yaku-senpai, he looks a lot older than us so chill out.”

“I don’t care, he’s messing with the wrong team.” Yaku stated, Yoshihara adamantly nodded in agreement.

Just as the argument between the two of them was starting to escalate, a middle aged Japanese woman with brown hair stalked ups behind both of them without them noticing. She loomed over the them like a scene out of a cartoon, and hit the them on the head with some programs from the movie Theatre. The two teens jumped, looking at her resembling two cats who were caught making a mess.

The woman spoke some quick words to the two of them before dragging them by their wrists to the entrance of the Theatre, where they were brought to another Japanese man, that Kuroo told them was Katsuki, her Uncle that they had heard about.

Just when the group entered the doors of the Theatre, Sakae and Kai returned, with the ice cream, “What’s happened?” Sakae asked.

“Oh nothing, just a surprise Yona-chan spotted in the wild.” Fukunaga joked.

---

Alyona was in the Ikebukuro area for the second time within a week, but this time instead of watching a ballet with Minako and the family, she was out shopping with her friends from the dance crew, before the summer ended and they got swept up in school and work again.

The rest of the group had gone to a restaurant nearby, when Alyona remembered something she had forgotten to buy at the Sports store, so she told them her order and walked around the corner to the store.

The was in the medical aisle, when Alyona spotted someone familiar, looking through some shoes. She debated whether to say hello or not, before deciding it would be impolite to just ignore someone who she was now tentative friends with. She lightly tapped him on the shoulder, “Hi Akaashi-san! Didn’t expect to see you here.” She greeted.

“Oh, hi, what’re you doing here?”

“I was just buying some athletic tape and bruise cream.” He quickly glanced between her bruised knees and the products in her hand inquisitively. “What about you?”

“I was just looking for some shoes,”

“Really, sorry if I sound rude but, why here, I would’ve thought you live much farther away, you know considering where Fukuroudani is.”

“No, don’t worry, I do actually live pretty far from school, so this is the biggest shopping area nearby,” and as an afterthought he added “and all the other shops ran out of my shoe size.”

“Oh okay, well if you live nearby we should meet up sometime.” She said, surprising herself, being much more outgoing than usual, and thought back to what others have said about her outgoingness and its compatibility with Japanese culture.

“Yeah, we should,” Akaashi replied, “It’d be good to hang out with someone who’s not from Fukuroudani for once.” He trailed off while dragging out a box of shoes.

At the same moment, Alyona’s phone, which was hanging off her wrist by a Phone charm, buzzed.

< Makina (=^ . ^=)

Yo-channnn _17:39

The food is gonna be here in a min _17:39

Get over here!!! _17:39

\ (^o^) / _17:39

She looked back up at Akaashi from her phone, “Sorry, I gotta go now!”

“It’s good, see you around.”

Alyona waved to him, went to pay for her things, and went to the restaurant just in time for her Soba to be served.

---

It was the first day back at school after the summer holidays, it was the break between Japanese class and Social studies, everyone was catching up, telling stories about their summer.

Alyona was busy quickly finishing up her notes from the previous class, while keeping up a quiet conversation with Kenma, apparently, the team had seen her arguing with Yuri in Ikebukuro.

“Oh really? Why didn’t you say hi?”

“Well, Yaku-senpai was–” But Kenma trailed off when some other classmates approached them.

“What did you do over break, Nikiforova-san?” Sakata asked.

She looked up from her book, “Oh well, not much, I just stayed in Tokyo.”

“That sucks for you, my parents took me to Taiwan for a week.” He said boastfully.

“That’s nice, I haven’t had the opportunity to go there yet.” Alyona replied, trying to sound as polite as possible no matter how much she did not care in the slightest.

“Sakata, don’t be like that, you know she probably can’t travel.” Kumata said.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She began.

“Oh my god, both of you shut up, you sound so stupid.” Kosai interrupted them, “Especially you, you egotistical rich–” She would’ve continued to tear into Sakata, had the bell not decided to cut off her, as she would describe it, divine dissing session.

Well, Alyona thought, what a wonderful way to start the term. It seems like they didn’t change their distasteful personality over the holiday, what a shame.

…

Chapter Text

Sumida City Gymnasium, Kinshi, Sumida, Tokyo

14:15, Tuesday October 20^th  

< Дядя Витя

Alenka!! _13:54

How’s the tournament going for the boys? _13:55

Good I hope! _13:55

Anyway, what time does it end? So, we can go to the airport on time! _13:56

Answer now or I’ll just show up now)))) _14:14

 _14:15 NO DON’t do that

 _14:15 Stay home please

Tournament’s not going the best, we’re in the 3rd Place match, its 1:0 for

_14:16 the other team (which means we’re losing btw)

_14:16 Idk how much longer it’ll be cause yk it doesn’t have a set time like skating

_14:16 Anyway come at like 15:30 pls

_14:17 That should leave enough time to get to the airport right?

Okay Okay)) _14:19

15:30 should be fine. _14:19

  _14:20 Nice

Good luck to the team! Send them my support!! _14:20

_14:20 Will do…

All your things are in your purple suitcase? Remember

the flight to Las Vegas is much longer now that we’re in Japan! _14:21

_14:21 Ik Ik Ik

_14:21 Make sure to get the Bag that’s on my bed it has my travel things!!

I’ll put it in the car! _14:22

You sure you don’t want to take the train? _14:22

 _14:24 Yes it’s fine

_14:24 Do you really want to carry 3 suitcases on a Train???

I’d do it for you Alenka©_14:24

 _14:25 Thanks but it’s fine

_14:25 Anywayyy I have to pay attention now

_14:25 See you later

Byeee _14:25

She put her phone back in her pocket and switched her attention back to the match. They were in the second set and while Nekoma had dropped the first set, they were, thankfully, doing much better now.

She took back her notebook from Coach Naoi, who was keeping track for her while she talked to Viktor. “Thanks Sensei, sorry, that took a while.”

“It’s alright, just be extra vigilant from now on.”

“Yes Sensei!”

And so, she fully focused back in on the match, which was doing wonders for her nerves right now. In only 3 days, she was going to have her official Senior Debut at Skate America, and sure she had already gone to the Japan Open to test her programs, but this is The official Senior Grand Prix series, of course she was nervous. Anyway, eyes on the match, she reminded herself, that is what’s important right now.

---

2:1

To Ubugawa.

The Nekoma team had just narrowly missed out on going to Spring Nationals this year. They lost the final set by the smallest margin, 26:24 for Ubugawa.

With all the Play-offs done now, Fukuroudani was in first place, Itachiyama was in second, according to Akaashi, was an incredibly intense match, apparently Fukuroudani barely managed to scrape the win. Which mean that Fukuroudani, Itachiyama and Ubugawa (as the Host school) would be representing Tokyo Prefecture in Spring Nationals.

It stung to be the only one to leave the Gymnasium who weren’t going to nationals, and the team felt it. But still, they congratulated their friends from the other teams and tried to move on as best they could.

Once they packed up and moved into lobby area the team gathered around Alyona who gave them a rundown of the statistics, of the match.

“Okay, so over all, besides from Kuroo-senpai and Yaku-senpai, the worst area is definitely receiving, the team is not horrible, but you lost a lot of the rallies there.” Alyona explained to the team.

Kuroo clapped his hands together, “Okay then, we will be focusing on receives when we get back.” He was trying to add some excitement into his voice, but the others weren’t taking it, depressed about the loss.

Kuroo sighed, giving up on lifting the mood right now, “Yona could you give us the run down tomorrow.”

She grimaced, “Sorry, I won’t be here tomorrow, but-” She felt her phone vibrate with a call, “Sorry, it’s my Uncle.”

She quickly talked to Viktor, the Nekoma team only hearing half of a rushed Russian conversation, before she hung up.

“Sorry, anyway, I won’t be here for the next few days, I can’t explain right now because I have to go, but Momoi please take my notebook, go through it yourselves, it should be pretty self-expletory.” She handed the item over to Momoi, who took it carefully.

“And before I go, I want to say that you guys did really well today, and I know that you feel down right now, but I know that you have the will and drive to continue improving. This may be a hurdle right now, but you all love thing sport and really want to get better so I believe that you can do it. Next year, you’re going to nationals!” She pumped her fist in the air, and smiled at them encouragingly.

“Well, maybe you should be captain, told us everything I wanted to say.” Kuroo chimed. “Although, you did get one thing wrong.” Alyona tilted her head, confused. “We are going to nationals. You, Nikiforova Alyona, are part of this team too, remember that.”

“Okay got it! Anyway, you- we did amazing today! But I have to go now.” Alyona laughed. Then she gave them and the Coaches a short bow and dashed out of the building to the parking lot.

The team could see her running up to her Uncle who was waiting for her outside of a fancy car, just before she entered the passenger seat she waved at them, they waved her off as the car pulled out of the car park.

---

Alyona was back in school on Monday morning, after having disappeared for almost a week, unfortunately Kenma didn’t have time to talk to her before class started, because he didn’t get to class before class started. He had just managed to sneak into class as the bell rang, thankfully without the teacher noticing.

From what he noticed throughout the class, Alyona was dead tired. She was never the most focused person in the world, he noticed her fiddling and spacing out quite often in class, but usually she tried to pay a lot of attention during Japanese class. Right now, though, she had her head propped up on her hand, and she kept on doing that head twitching thing people did when they were jogged awake while half-asleep.

Again, this was kind of weird for her, Alyona was usually fully awake and fresh faced every morning, he’s never seen her this tired, she was even wearing her glasses for a change. Allegedly she got up at like 5 in the morning every day, which Kenma didn’t believe cause no sane human would do that willingly. So, either, Alyona was insane, or this was for that mysterious sport she did; he has no clue why they haven’t asked yet, but he’s not going to be the first one, and he didn’t care enough so, whatever. He’ll see how she’s doing at break.

---

By the end of 1st period, Alyona gave up and just took a nap. It was clear that she wouldn’t be learning anything being this tired, but who could blame her she got back home from the US at 1am. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone to school today, but they had a geography test 4th period, and well getting a mediocre or bad grade was better than none.

Through her brain fog she managed to decipher Kenma’s voice talking to her, “Yona, are you alright? Sorry to say this but you look dead?”

“Thanks” She mumbled, removing her glasses and lying her head on her arms to continue her nap, “Wake me up when second period starts.”

When Kenma shook her awake 10 minutes later, Kosai handed her a can of coffee – Alyona hated coffee, but desperate times – and she accepted  it gratefully. She downed the drink quickly before Kajiguri-sensei could enter, because if she was caught sleeping in her class she’d be torn apart.

---

By the end of the week Alyona was fully recovered, jet lag forgotten and fully rested, she’d be going back to her normal training schedule next week, but today she was having a full day to relax. By relaxing she meant walking around Ginza with Akaashi on the weekend.

Currently they were in a café, as she tried to explain her family to Akaashi, who was having a hard time understanding how she had so many relatives, and she kept on having to clarifying that they were not blood related.

“Okay so you only have one biological Uncle, and then his husband, and then what the reset are just their friends?” Akaashi recalled, but he sounded unsure about what he was talking about, he only ever had his parents, a singular aunt and cousin, not whatever is going on with Alyona’s family situation.

She nodded happily, “Yup, most of them are weirdly insistent on me calling them Uncle and Aunt or something but I’ve known most of them my whole life so it makes sense, it’s just natural now.

“Do you not have any relatives on your dad’s side?” He ventured.

“Maybe?” She was hesitant about answering, but decided enough time has passed, that she was okay talking about it at this point in her life – and it seems like Akaashi is nice enough not to judge her for it, like some others might. “Uh, I’m gonna be honest, I have no clue who by dad is, he just sort of left my mom after he found out she was pregnant.”

A look of panic flashed across his face for a split second before he apologised, “Oh sorry, didn’t mean to be rude.”

“No, no, it’s okay it doesn’t bother me that much. So, it’s fine.” She shook her hands in an apologetic gesture, she didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable. There was a short pause in the conversation before she managed to change the topic, “Anyway, do you want me to show you some pictures of them.”

Akaashi quietly sighed with relief, “Sure.”

She proceeded to show him pictures of a bunch of their family friends, most of them were from dinners they had before or after competitions, and one or two from a Gala after party (before the pole was brought out, obviously, she didn’t want to traumatize him).

“Wait can you explain to me again how Plisetsky Yuri is related to you?” He paused one of her story tangents to ask for clarification.

Alyona thought for a second, “Okay so, after Yuri’s grandfather went into a care home, Viktor got like guardianship over him, and now that he’s an adult he lives with us out of convenience. He’s also definitely attached to us, but don’t tell him I said that.” She grinned while telling Akaashi the last part, because no matter how much Yuri argued with them, he was happy being with them.

She continued to show him pictures and swiped onto a picture from about a year ago, when Otabek was visiting them for a few weeks. “Anyway, this is a picture of us, we were having one of Viktor’s mandatory family dinners, oh and the guy next to Yuri, is his – like I told you before – his boyfriend, cause like realistically they’ve been legitimately dating for like a year now, but they still refute it when you refer to them as that.”

Akaashi had to laugh at how flippantly she explained, like it was the most normal thing in the world, which he supposed it was, but he’s never meet someone who was so casual about it. Sure, their generation was a lot more understanding but she’s the first person he’s meet that didn’t care if someone over heard, which made it really refreshing to talk to her.

Alyona and Akaashi continued their day after leaving the café, they bounced between book stores and music shops, recommending each other stories, shows and artists to check out.

---

<  New Group Chat (3)

_18:34 Hey!!

_18:34 You remember each other from the Summer camp right?

_{Kenma (=_=)}

We don’t know who’s on this Yona… _18:50

_18:51 Oh yeah

_18:51 Its Kenma and Akaashi on here

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Oh from Fukuroudani right? _18:52

_Akaashi

Yeah that’s me _18:53

What’s this about Alyona? _18:53

_18:54 The Kimetsu no Yaiba movie: Mugen Ressha-hen got released in Cinemas

Ik both of you watch the show, so I was wondering if you

_18:55 want to see it together??

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Wait I thought it was being released next week _18:55

_18:55 No dude

_18:56 It was released on your birthday (> o <)

_{Kenma (=_=)}

OH wtf?? _18:56

How did I not know this??? _18:56

_18:56 ¯\ (ツ) /¯

_Akaashi

Kenma-san’s confusion aside, I’m down to watch it with you _18:57  

_18:57 Niceee

_Akaashi

What day? _18:57

_{Kenma (=_=)}

^ _18:57

_18:58 Is the 8^th or 15^th good?

_Akaashi

15^th would be better for me _19:00

_{Kenma (=_=)}

15^th is good with me _19:00

_19:00 Good Good

_19:01 We can figure out the rest later

_Akaashi

Sure _19:01

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Yeah _19:01

_{You changed the Group Chat name to}

^{‘Gym 5 Nerds’}

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Yona… _19:40

_19:42 hehehe

...

Chapter Text

Megasport Sport Palace, Moscow, Russia

12:30, Friday 20^th of November

Alyona had just arrived at the venue with Yuuri, they should have arrived earlier but at the sight of the snow-covered streets, Alyona and Yuuri decided to stay behind at the hotel while Viktor supervised Yuri’s Short Program Event.

Currently, Alyona and Yuri were chatting out in the hall that connected to all the prep rooms. As for the reason, why they were out here and not inside their own prep room, well, her Uncles could be a bit much sometimes, you know together, being all couplie and stuff and well, she’ll leave it at that.

Yuri was animatedly telling her about his skate, which launched him to 1^st Place, obviously. Right now, as he had always told her, he was saying that there was something electrifying about competing back in Russia, that being home just made him skate even better.

Alyona agreed that being in Moscow, while it wasn’t St. Petersburg was wonderful, she felt more comfortable, and far more relaxed, to an extent, than she ever was in Japan or America. However, now, an hour before the Ladies Short Programs were set to begin, she wasn’t feeling the wonder or relaxation. Currently the thought of curling up in a ball under her blankets and just living the rest of her life as a hermit, was sounding very enticing.

But she also knew that Yuri’s flight back to Japan was booked a few days after the rest of them, and sure, Yuri loved competing in Russia because this was his homeland, but he was exited, most of all because of his Grandpa. Who was watching Yuri from the audience, and who was also going to steal Yuri from training for a few days so they could stay in some nice hotel and catch up a bit.

And so, Alyona and Yuri were just there talking. Friendly chatter surrounded them as other skaters walked around and got ready, occasionally stopping to say hi to the two Russian skaters. However, their peaceful atmosphere was ruined when Alyona heard a voice that she had learnt to hate coming from somewhere behind her.

“Hello! Did the little princess finally decide to grace us with her presence?” Laughed the most grating, irritating voice in the world.

Alyona sighed angrily and rolled her eyes back still turned to him, “Hello to you too Jean.” She sneered with the most monotone, uninterested voice she had in her repertoire.

“Don’t be like that I was just being nice, it’s just your nickname isn’t it, princess?” JJ mocked.

She half turned towards him, side eyeing him, which opened up Yuri’s line of sight to him.

“Shut the fuck up, Shithead. No one wants to listen to your annoying ass voice.”  Yuri taunted.

“What was that, I think I heard something?” JJ said, obviously trying to rile Yuri up by ignoring him. JJ obviously knew he was there, Yuri may have been standing behind Alyona but he was a solid 5 cm taller than her, but JJ knew that he hated being ignored above everything. They’ve had this rivalry for years not but it was still charged as ever, and petty, so so petty.

Yuri scoffed, “Not in the mood today shithead, go bother someone else, we have got better things to do than to argue with a washout like you.”

Alyona grabbed Yuri’s arm, stopping him from stepping towards JJ, she noticed now that the people around them had gone quiet and were waiting for the next proverbial strike to hit.

She forced an appeasing smile, “Yura, don’t waste your breath on him. Let’s go.”

He continued to stand there like a statue, only moving when Alyona pushed him, and then finally he moved away after throwing a final insult.

She angled her head to speak directly at him, “Yura, you have to chill, twitter’s gonna go ham with that, Guang Hong was streaming with his Pairs friends.”

Yuri grunted, “Whatever, it’s always been like that.”

“Yeah well, just ignore it and move on.” They continued to walk back to their prep room, Alyona still holding onto Yuri’s arm for support, the hostile atmosphere only serving to increase her nerves.

---

Later, just as the Ladies Short Program Competition began, Alyona – who was going to be the 4^th to skate – was sitting in the corner of the waiting room, once again with Yuri. Saying she was sitting was generous, she was constantly fighting the urge to get up and pace around, the weird pressure on her chest wasn’t going, and she felt the anxious shivers run through her becoming more intense as the clock ticked by.

She was clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to work out logically if Yuri would be the best person to ask for help in this situation, probably not, but she could trust him to give her an honest answer, which is what she needed right now.

“Yura?”

“What?” He muttered, angrily tapping away at some game on his phone.

She anxiously ran her hand through her hair, “Were you ever nervous before competing back home, I mean like here, cause like right now, not gonna lie I don’t feel too great, about performing in front of a home audience…”

He turned off his phone, and went silent for a moment, “Hm, well back then I was a bit too angry to properly realize it, but yes I was definitely scared,”

“Really? Why?” She sounded surprised, which she was, Yuri rarely got worried and when he did he didn’t often admit to it.

He put his phone away and turned to look at her. “Well you’re the one who asked the damn question.” He thought before continuing with a much calmer voice. “Everyone knows us here. It feels like they’re waiting for us to mess up and no matter how annoying my fans can be, the thought of disappointing them is fucking scary.”

“How did you like manage to like deal with it?” She asked carefully.

“I didn’t really, I was upset and angry, like I said. You know that I didn’t do well on my Short that time around, but once that issue was cleared up I managed to do well, and after that I was just angry at that bastard, which was distracting enough to forget about the fact that I only got 2^nd place, or what other people thought of me.”

Alyona’s eyes were flitting around but never raising from her lap, racing through her options, as she suppressed another nervous shudder. She couldn’t just get angry at someone, that’s not what she was like, she hated being angry, it made her perform worse, than improve through spite like Yuri appeared to do. She just didn’t know how she’d do well if she couldn’t calm down soon.

Yuri tapped on her arm to get her attention and looked her in the eye with empathy, “Alenka, I’m not going to say that it’s easy, but you’ll learn to not care about what the other watching think, or what people talk about online. You should know yourself that you are good enough to win this, and we all know it. So, have some confidence that it’ll turn out fine,” He paused again, before making his tone more lighthearted, “after all Ice skating is like the only thing you’re good at so, if you fail here, I don’t know what we can do with you.”

She was affronted “Hey! I’m good at a lot of things!”

He laughed at her as she unconsciously pouted, which caused her to hit him, “Dude, stop laughing!”

He pushed her in retaliation, “Anyway, let’s go fix your hair.”

“What? Why?”

He dragged her along as he got up, “You messed it up with that weird nervous habit of yours.”

---

Annika Schmidt, from Germany was nearing the end of her skate. Which meant that Alyona would be up to skate in about 10 minutes, and while she was didn’t feel prepared, she was doing better than before. The tingling under her skin which she could now only describe as stage fright was still there, but she kept on reminding herself to be rational about this. Sure, she was scared, that’s fine, but she needed to remember that she’s done this before, this wasn’t her first ever Senior competition, she’d gotten the Silver medal back in the US, and this was certainly not her first ever Skating Competition.

 “Lenochka, sweetheart, listen to me.” Viktor’s voice caught her attention, bringing her out of her trance.

“You will be fine. You have practiced hard. Don’t be think that you’re going to make mistakes, this will go well, I promise you. Okay?” He whispered, leaning down to be eye level with his niece, the encouragements were only heard by the two of them, none of the watching eyes would know.

Alyona took a deep breath, forcefully relaxing her muscles, “Okay, I can do this.”

The rink was free, and she only had a few more minutes before she would be called onto the ice. She purposefully blocked out any sounds coming from the presenter, she’d rather not know Annika’s scores before she started, instead she took off her warm jacket, and plucked her costume into order.

She really loved this dress, it fit the song they had picked perfectly, a simple light blue off the shoulder dress, obviously fitted and modified for skating, but it retained that authentic look of a normal dress, that sometimes went missing on skate costumes.

Viktor gave her one last tight hug before sending her out onto the Ice.

The presenters voice rang through the stadium, “On the Ice, is Alyona Nikiforova, representing her home country Russia!”

Alyona made a few circles on the ice before, making her way to the center of the rink, she quickly tightened her hold on the necklace that she had gotten from her mother, as she always did for good luck, before tucking it away, and sitting down on the ice.

Only a brief moment after she got into her starting position did the music start playing, only when the first few notes of the cover she had picked of ‘all in the golden afternoon’ reached her ears, did she finally relax. Her mind somehow managing to settle into the calm state that she associated with skating.

She could do this.

---

And she did.

Because by the end of the 3-day competition, Alyona received her first gold medal in her Senior skating carrier.

---

The day following the competition found Alyona, Viktor and Yuuri all sat waiting at the Airport. Ordinarily they’d stay in Moscow for a few more days but, it was a Monday, which would be followed by a Tuesday and Wednesday and all of those were school day’s which Alyona couldn’t miss.

Oh, how she missed being in Middle school, sometimes she didn’t go into school for over a week, it’s honestly surprising how her friends didn’t find out sooner.

Alyona was brought back to the present, by the sound of a phone call ringing through the airport, it only takes her a second to recognize that it was hers, and quickly accepts the call.

“Privet?”

“Hey Yona! Since it’s a Public holiday today the team’s going to Tokyo, do you want to come?” Said the disembodied voice of Kuroo through the phone.

Alyona quickly switched into Japanese, “Sorry, I can’t, I’m at the airport right now.”

She heard Kuroo repeat what she said to the the others who seemed to be with him, before hearing his response, “Are you serious? Where?”

“Moscow,” she answers, what she says next is left unheard as a voice announces that their flight is now boarding. “Oh, sorry about that, I’m boarding now, so I have to go. Bye!”

“Huh? Bye?” Was all she heard before she hung up, and they were guided to the gate by one of the flight attendants.

Meanwhile back in Japan, Kuroo was looking at his phone in utter confusion.

“What did she say?” Yaku asked, the rest of the team also looking at him, waiting for an answer.

Kuroo took a breath and blinked, as if trying to tell if this was real or not, “She’s in Moscow.”

“HUH?!”

“Why is she in Moscow?” Takechi asked, read shouted.

“She’s Russian.”

“Don’t be a smartass Momoi, we know.” Sakae scolded, “The question is why she’s in Moscow, during a school week, is this why she’s never in school? To go traveling?”

“Woah Sakae don’t get angry, we clearly don’t know the full story.” Kuroo reasoned.

“Well she hasn’t told us so, this is what I’m assuming.” Sakae said crossing his arms.

“Then let’s just ask her at some point. We’ve left it for long enough.”

“Yeah but let’s not pry into her personal life okay, I think that’s ruder. Anyway there’s nothing we can do now she’s literally in the sky.” Yaku, said appeasing, trying to diffuse the weird tension they had in the air now.

“I’m more offended that she’s traveled more in the past month than I have in my whole life.” Fukunaga jokingly complained, which did what it needed to bring the atmosphere back up to comfortable for all of them.

-Bonus-

alyona.niki                                                                                                                                                                ...                                 

Megasport Sport Palace, Moscow, Russia

[Photo Description: A photograph, of a large group of young people, many holding up banners with Cyrillic text, a few were holding fox plushies. At the center bottom of the photograph, kneeling on the floor was Alyona smiling at the camera, with her arms’ in an open gesture as if presenting the group of people behind her.]

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alyona.niki Thank you to all of those who came to support me at the Rostelecom Cup!!! I'll see you at the Grand Prix Final!!!

#gprostelecomcup #grandprixseries2020

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November 23, 2020

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School

9:00, Tuesday 24^th of November

Alyona was dragging herself through the hallway to class, she overslept which is why she was so late to school. Luckily that didn’t matter too much today since she had a study hall first thing in the morning. Maybe she could even get a few more minutes of sleep if no one chose to bother her today.

But, of course, the moment she thought that, the universe had to utterly decimate her hopes. Because here Kumata was, leaning on the wall in Alyona’s way, “Well, look who decided to finally reappear at school. You know, there’s only so long you can get away with this till you get kicked out. Which you probably should have happened already, what are you doing to keep the school so passive?”

Alyona tries to ignore her and moves past Kumata, but she’s stopped when a hand grabs her by her arm. She sighs, she’s too tired to deal with this today.

“What is it?” She says, trying to keep her tone polite.

“Don’t be rude, I just want to know where you’ve been. I mean I’ve never seen Chiba-sensei just let people off when they miss an assignment, not to mention missing day upon day of class.” She asks with faux friendliness.

Alyona stares up at the ceiling annoyed, it’s not like she actively tries to hide the fact that she’s a skater, but she doesn’t like advertising it. She hasn’t even told her friends, so there’s no way, in any world that she’d tell Kumata, the most unpleasant – some may say, though she’d prefer other descriptors – person she’s met so far in this school. Even that annoying playboy wannabe Sakata, wasn’t as bad as her, and he has gotten on so many peoples nerves.

“Let go of me.” Is what she settles on saying.

Kumata tisks, “What did I say about you sounding rude.”

Alyona looks away nonchalantly and yanks her arm out of Kumata’s grip, causing the girl to stumble slightly at the unexpected strength of the pull. “I’d say that you are the only one I’ve ever seen act impolite, Kumata Hidaya-san. So, if you don’t mind I am late for class, which you probably know, considering how interested you are in my attendance.” She says coolly.

However, Kumata decides to step in her way again. “I’m not interested in you, but perhaps you didn’t know, since you’re not from here, but in Japan it’s unheard of for someone to have that many absences and still be in the good graces of the school.”

Alyona did her best to ignore her and stepped around her, walking to their class room. Only to hear Kumata’s last jab from behind her, “It’s only so long till someone takes action if you keep acting like this. I hope whatever you’re missing school for is worth it.”

The “Thank you.” That Alyona gave her was the most passive aggressive thing that she’s ever said, it was accompanied by a fake smile before she turned back around and walked away.

Well, that royally sucked. Alyona knows that the threats were empty, after all the school knew about her job, no teacher would act against her. They also knew that it was important for her skating to be kept a relative secret, so that nobody from the 1,000 people in the student body could expose where she lived online, because you know, stalkers and what not. But that also meant that they couldn’t explain to students about why she wasn’t there, which obviously leads to nasty assumptions and opinions about her work ethic and personality on top of the already pre-existing prejudices about her, that existed simply based off where she came from.

Which lead to people acting like Kumata, who she was mostly safe from, since she was barely ever alone at school. She was either in class, or with Kosai, or with any number of the Volleyball boys.

The short conversation – read, confrontation – today, really did ruin her mood though. She realized as she quietly slid the back door to the classroom open. Although she was tired, she had been happy, why wouldn’t she be, she had gotten her first gold medal, but this interaction left a sour taste in her mouth. It made her feel uncomfortable is some way, and she knew it would just get worse the more she thought about it.

To get to her seat in the middle of the class room, she had to walk past Sakata, another person who was a regular thorn in her side, and was definitely glaring at her. But again, whatever, just ignore it and eventually they’ll get bored and leave her alone.

Yokomizo turned around and smiled at her when she finally sat down, “Good morning, Alyona-san.”

Alyona flashed her the best smile she could conjure up right now, “Morning, Yokomizo-san.”

---

Alyona was sitting in an unused stairwell with Kosai, and a few groups of friends and couples who regularly sat here during lunch as well. Kosai, who thankfully dropped the subject when she asked Alyona why she was in such a bad mood earlier today, was sitting quietly eating her boxed lunch, the two simply sitting in companionable silence, not talking, only listening to the same music through Kosai’s earphones, when she received a message from an unknown person on Line.

< UNKNOWN

Helloooo _12:55

It’s Shirofuku Yukie from Fukuroudani _12:55

I’m sorry I didn’t message earlier, I lost your Line info and had to ask Akaashi-kun for it. _12:55

But anyway, I was wondering if you’d want to meet up at some point? _12:55

_12:56 Ooo

_12:56 Dw it’s okay!

_12:56 And Yes! I’d love to meet up!

_12:57 Actually, are you free today?

I am, Suzumeda can take care of Practice _12:58

_12:58 Oh no don't worry if you have to miss it

No, dw I’d love to hang out a bit! _12:58

_12:59 Okay where do you wanna go?

_12:59 I can go like anywhere in Tokyo if need be hah

How about we go get some dinner in Ueno? _13:00

I know a really good food place _13:00

_13:00 Of course you do ^m^

_13:00 But yeah I’d love to

_13:01 You’ll have to send me the location tho I’ve never been in Ueno for more than 10 secs

Dw I’ll just pick you up at the station _13:01

_13:01 Thank youuu

How about 3:45 pm?? _13:02

_13:03 Mm I might be a bit late but I’ll be there!!

Cya then \(^o^)/ _13:03

_13:03 (*^^)!!

She closed her phone and returned her attention to the melon pan she was half way through eating, no one had been awake this morning to make her something so, this was her lunch today. Her spontaneous plans at the end of the day really lifted her mood though, she had something to look forward to now. The only thing she had to do was explain why she was leaving practice again, but hopefully the team would be understanding.

---

“So, is Yona back today?” Is the first thing Kenma was asked, when he entered the club room.

“Yeah” He sighed Yamamoto was energetic as ever, could he never just turn down his enthusiasm.

“Great! I can’t wait to get to the bottom of this mystery thing!” Kuroo exclaimed eloquently.

Kenma wasn’t so sure about that, Alyona had come into school today, but didn’t look all to great this morning. She was tried, which seemed to be a reoccurring theme, but understandable if she had jet lag, but more than anything she seemed upset. She had seemed fine on the phone yesterday, but then again, he hadn’t actually heard her voice, maybe something had happened on her trip, or more probably something bad happened which is why she went back to her home country.

“Um, I wouldn’t.” He interjected, their excitement, the whole club being happy to have their manager back again.

The mood flips, from excited to confused. “Why’s that?” Yaku asked.

“Well,” he shifted uncomfortably, not liking everyone’s attention on him for something he was so unsure about, “She wasn’t in a very good mood today, like she seemed genuinely unhappy, so I’m not sure if she went to Russia for anything good, you know.”

“Oh,” Sakae hesitated, he had been the most sceptical of Alyona’s frequent absences, “Yeah, if it was something bad, we shouldn’t remind her of it.” He seemed to feel a bit guilty for the why he had acted the other day. As he should, Kenma couldn’t stop himself from thinking, he felt offended for Alyona when he had said those things yesterday.

“Yeah.” Is all he replied with, the rest of the team nodded and went back to getting changed.

---

“Hey guys,” Alyona greeted when she appeared in the gym, she hadn’t gotten changed out of her school uniform yet.

“Hi Yona!” Various people from around the gym welcomed her.

“Hi Yona-chan! What’s with the outfit.” Kuroo teased.

She rolled her eyes fondly, “It’s just my uniform. I have surprise planes to meet Shirofuku-san today, I know I’ve missed a lot lately, but I was wondering if it would be alright for me to..,”

She was cut off by Kuroo, “No no, it’s fine go hang out with her! No need to apologize, we can survive without you, you know.” He chuckled trying to relax her.

“Oh, okay, thanks! I’ll just go help set up the nets, and then I’ll be on my way!”

Kuroo smiled, “You go do that,” he patted her on the back as she jogged past him, into the gym.

---

Alyona stepping out of Ueno Station, shortly after the scheduled meeting time, she scanned the area with her eyes, hoping to spot the older girl. However, it seems like she didn’t have to look for her at all, as Shirofuku surprises her, placing both hands on Alyona’s shoulders, which makes her jump, before even saying hi.

“Hello, Yona-san!” She grins.

Alyona smiles right back, “Hi Senpai,”

“Shall we get going.” She cheered.

---

“So where are we headed.” Alyona asked as they had just decided to start on their way to the restaurant, after window shopping for the past hour.

“Hm, why don’t you show me the way,” She joked, Yukie had heard the stories of her horrible sense of direction, from the likes Akaashi, and basically every Nekoma team member who she spoke too, some had more to say than other, such as Kuroo who had been victim to it many times.

Alyona huffed, and glared at her, is a way that she could only perceive as cute, like a puppy who had just gotten it’s toy taken away. Yukie laughed, “Don’t worry, it’ll show you the way.”

They walked further down the street until they got to a cross walk, waiting at the red light Alyona seemed to have recognized someone.

“Ah, Sakami-sensei! Hello!” She bowed shortly to a small woman, who looked to be in her thirties, with short black hair, and also looked very cool, in her humble opinion. Yukie bowed quickly when Alyona introduced her to the woman, who was apparently one of her dance instructors.

“See you next week, good job at your competition.” Sakami said as the pedestrian light turned green.

“Thank you!” Alyona beamed.

Yukie turned to her once the woman was out of sight, “You dance?”

“Yup,” She sang, but didn’t elaborate further.

“And? You have to tell me more, or I won’t bring you to the restaurant.” She mock threatened, this was too interesting to pass up.

“Well, I haven’t actually seen that sensei in a while, we recorded the choreography and like moved onto a different instructor, but I’m planning on doing a class with her again soon.” She looked at her in a way that said, happy now.

“Oh wait, you said recorded?”

“Yup, we made a youtube video of the choreography.” She answered.

Yukie was definetly intrigued on about that. “So, what’s it called, you know asking for a friend.”

“I’m not telling you, that’s embarrassing.”

“Fine. But are you like a popular dance studio?” She asked before Alyona could close the topic.

“Well I guess a little, we’re not huge, but we’re affiliated with a really popular South Korean Dance Studio so we have quite a few viewers that know us from there.” She explained, but quickly went on before Yukie could say anything else, “You’ve grilled me, now tell me where this food is.”

“Fine, it’s this way, it’s so good you’ll love it!” She said happily as they continued their way.

---

< Fukuroudani’s Babysitters

_22:06 Sarukui?

_22:06 Didn’t you say that Nekoma had a bet about their manager?

_Babyman

Ohhhhhh _22:06

_Babyman

Isn’t she the one you said you were meeting today _22:06

_Flowerkui

Yeah they do… _22:08

_Flowerkui

Bokuto made a stupid bet in that _22:08

_{Konoha Ninja}

I’m not surprised _22:09

_Flowerkui

What? Do you wanna join as well _22:09

_22:09 Yes actually, I think I have a really good Idea

_Babyman

HEY IT WAS A GOOD BET (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ _22:10

_Flowerkui

No, you just lost 100 yen _22:10

_SuzUWUmeda

Anyway share the tea with us _22:10

_22:10 I will not

_22:10 Who’s incharge

_Flowerkui

Kuroo… _22:11

_22:11 Great, give me his info I wanna make a bet

_Flowerkui

Fine… _22:11

_22:11 Thanksss (*^0^*)

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma Boys Volleyball Club Room

17:45, Friday 11^th of December

When Alyona had once again announced her extended absence to them, nobody was surprised. Everyone who interacted with her daily; classmates, club mates and teachers, have become accustomed to it by now. Kosai, Yokomizo and Kenma take turns making notes for her, Momoi takes care of her managerial duties, and teachers make sure not to set up any group work for the class, before she’s set to leave.

So today about a week since they had seen or properly spoken to Alyona they were all relaxed, whatever she was gone for was big this time, though she seemed in a good mood before she left this time. Which just confused them more, as to what her intention was with these spontaneous vacations, but maybe they’d actually ask her when she returned this time.

However, until she did decide to return, they couldn’t do much, usually she’d be back by now, but this time around she seems to be gone for a while.

---

The team was winding down in the club room after practice, they had finished a little early so no one was in a rush to leave.

Shouhei was lying on his back tapping through Instagram stories when he landed on Alyona’s. She hadn’t been in school for the entire week, they tried to contact her but she gave very short far and in between responses, so all in all nothing new; she tended to disappear from time to time.

Shouhei sat up abruptly when he saw her story; it was a picture of her from another account under the handle @alyona-n-official. It was a picture of Alyona with ice skates on, her left arm arched over her head and the other rounded down in front of her, with her head tilted to the side. She was wearing a short light green sleeveless dress and long gloves. He was confused, it looked professional, even in the background you could see blurred out advertisements of brands.

He had never seen anything like this from their manager.

“Fukunaga? What’s up?” Yaku asked when he noticed his confused expression staring at his phone screen. He got the simple confusing response of “Yona-san.”

Shouhei clicked on the account to look at the profile – it was a public account – the first things he noticed her insane number of followers, and then her bio that said, ‘Professional Athlete’. He made another surprised noise. At this point, a few of the others started to crawl over to him and peered over his shoulders too look at what was going on.

As they continued to scroll through the account they got more and more baffled, as they saw pictures of her on podiums, videos of her skating, photoshoots of her taken out of magazines, when they looked into the other people tagged in her photos they found similar results.

Kai ended up interrupting them, “Don’t you think this is an invasion of her privacy?”

“No.” Kuroo gasped.

“No?”

“No, not no to you, but look at this.” He grabbed the phone and tapped on one of her posts, and showed it to Kai. He turned his head to Kenma and told him, “Kenma, look up ‘Alyona Nikiforova 2020 Youth Olympics.’

The post was a picture of Alyona receiving a gold medal, which was shocking enough, but what surprised them was the jacket she was wearing. It was a black jacket with the colors of the Russian Flag stretching across the side, and the Olympic symbol embroidered the right side of the jacket. This was followed by videos and photos of her skating, and her score, and a selfie with a group of other people in Olympic jackets from different countries.

Then, Kenma spoke up and told them the results of his search, “‘Alyona Nikiforova: Ladies Figure Skating Gold medallist of the Lausanne Winter Youth Olympics 2020, representing the Russian Olympic Committee.’”

After it truly sunk in that their nice, funny, little manager was an Olympic Champion, all hell broke loose.

“Holy shit.”

“Oh my god!”

“What the fu-”

“This explains so much!”

“How did we not know?!”

“Damn. Oh my god.”

“That’s why she’s never at school?!”

“Wow we really are dumb…”

When they finished freaking out Fukunaga mentioned that she was competing in something called the Grand Prix final, right now. They searched up a video and crowded around Momoi’s iPad looking a video that just finished streaming from an account called Skating ISU, titled ‘Ladies Free Skating I ISU Grand Prix Final I Beijing 2020 I #GPFigure’.

They checked the comments looking for a time stamp, and found the part of the video that was of Alyona.

The time stamp skipped to right before Alyona’s skate. Alyona Nikiforova and her Coach Viktor Nikiforov were standing rink side, Alyona was about to go out onto the ice. Viktor gave her a tight hug and lifted her slightly off the ground, after setting her down he told her something that was unintelligible to the microphone. Whatever he said it managed to slightly loosen the tension in her shoulders.

Alyona took a gulp of water from the water bottle he offered her before stepping out onto the Ice. She tightened her grip on her Uncles arm before pushing away from the gate and skating around the perimeter of the rink.

“Now on the Ice, Representing Russia, Alyona Nikiforova.”

She twisted into position in the centre of the Ice rink. She held her arms in the fourth position, head tilted up to look into her left palm, her right foot was elegantly pointed behind her. Her whole posture was suspiciously relaxed, at least it to the untrained eye.

She opened her eyes and began her free skate as the first notes of ‘Soft Cloud’ by Isabella Levan rang through the stadium. As she danced you could see the contemporary influences she had incorporated into her program. For a year now she had been learning Contemporary dance so that she could achieve that fluidity and graceful movement on and off the ice.

They were well into the skate when Alyona went for her first Jump, a perfect Triple Toe loop.

“OH MY GOD”

“That’s fucking crazy!”

“How’s that possible?!”

A thought randomly popped into Kenma’s mind, “Oh that’s why she always has so many bruises. I always thought it was because she was clumsy.” Which is kind of funny in hind sight, as right now Alyona was proving to them that she was anything but clumsy.

“What do you mean?”

“Wait… Bruises?” Yamamoto asked off to the side.

“Yeah, she’s always got a few on her legs,” Momoi explained, those who had never noticed just replied with a soft oh.

Kuroo, who followed the same track of thoughts as Kenma, explained for him, “I mean if you’re jumping that high, at such a fast speed, on ice, you’re bound to fall and hurt yourself.”

“Oh yeah, when we asked she always just said ‘practice’.” Yaku noted, “I guess that makes sense now.”

They all nodded and mumbled their agreements as they turned their attention back to the screen.

Alyona lunged before she stepped into a masterful display of footwork, a step sequence choreographed by Yuuri Katsuki. As the music picked up she went into another jump, a planned triple Lutz, however she didn’t manage to get the rotations in which turned it into a double.

However, she stayed professional and didn’t let it bother her. She continued to skate as effortlessly as she had been, as she danced on the ice you could see her theme shine through, ‘Beginning: Spring’.

The skate was reaching its end and Alyona performed a Biellmann spin to close of her performance. As the last few notes of ‘Soft Cloud’ rung through the stadium she touched her clasped hands to her forehead before clutching them to her chest.

Alyona bows before the camera cuts to audience who are applauding and cheering, people were walking to the front of the seating area and throwing a couple dozen fox plushies and flowers onto the ice. Alyona took a final bow and skated towards the entrance of the kiss and cry, on her way she picked up a fox plush while flower kids gathered the rest of the gifts.

The team also sprung up and cheered for her, it felt as if they just one a match. They knew nothing about this sport but it didn’t stop them from being happy for their friend who was catching her breath but didn’t let that stop the bright smile that stretched across her face.

When she reached the exit of the ice rink, Viktor handed her, her skate sheaths before giving her a quick hug. The camera cut out to show highlights and slow-mo’s of her performance.

When the two re-appeared; Alyona was wearing a blueish-black jacket with the Russian flag embroidered onto the shoulder, she was sitting next to her coach, who was lecturing her about something in Russian.

“The scores please, for Alyona Nikiforova of Russia.” Both Alyona and Viktor quieted to stare at the monitor that would show them her score.

“The free skating scores please. She has earned 142.27 points in the free program. Alyona Nikiforova has a total score of 229.11 points, and is currently in First Place.”

Alyona jumped a little, and Viktor wrapped her in a crushing hug as she clutched the Plush to herself with a huge grin on her face, it was an image of pure joy. The video cut back to the ice where the next skater took the stage.

“Should we skip to the award ceremony?” Kuroo suggested, while they were intrigued by figure skating they didn’t want to watch the rest of the performances since they knew nothing about it. So, when he was given the go ahead he skipped to the timestamp for the award ceremony.

“Third and winner of the Bronze medal from Italy: Sara Crispino!” Sara skated onto the ice in her beautiful costume and bowed to the audience. The commentators commended her on her wonderful performance and commented on the recent announcement of her retirement at the end of the 2020-21 season.

“Second and winner of the Silver medal from Russia: Alyona Nikiforova!” Alyona spun onto the ice doing her signature bow to the audience.

Everyone in the club room applauded and cheered extra loud when they saw her.

She was the youngest competitor in Senior competition this season, who had not failed to showcase her wonderful skating abilities. Ironically as graceful as she usually was, she slipped when stepping onto the carpet. Balance regained she hugged her fellow competitor, before stepping onto the podium.

“First and winner of the Gold medal from Russia: Mila Babicheva!” Mila stepped onto the Ice and danced around giving the audience a show as they cheered for her. She stepped onto the carpet and gave Sara and Alyona a hug before stepping onto her first-place podium. This was her second consecutive Grand Prix Final gold medal, she was always on spot and is now prepared to receive her win with grace once again.

The award ceremony continued in the usual fashion, the winners were handed their medals and bouquets; by the representative of the ISU and the head of the Chinese skating Federation respectively. The winners national anthem was sung, each winners flag was raised, and the skaters made circles around the rink receiving presents from fans and supporters.

Fukunaga paused the video before it could move onto the award ceremonies for other competitions. “Let’s stop there.”

Takechi sighed and fell onto his back “I still can’t believe our manager is a professional athlete. Like how does that happen?”

“‘Cause we have the coolest manager!!” Yamamoto shouted, incredibly, maybe too, enthusiastic.

Sakae sighed, “I feel like even more of a douche for doubting her now.”

Kenma thought that it was well deserved for getting angry at her for absolutely no reason, but he wasn’t going to say that. Instead Kuroo spoke up, “Well we couldn’t have known, but from now on let’s refrain from judging people without knowing the full story.”

“What I can’t believe is that we didn’t notice earlier, looking back she wasn’t being very inconspicuous.” Yaku pointed out.

Tetsuro clapped his hands when he remembered the bets they had been setting over the past few months. He’d bet on gymnast but that was wrong, the people who got closest to the truth were Yaku and Shirofuku who placed bets on dancer, but no cigar. He should probably call Bokuto to tell him he’d lost, what had he bet on again? Swimmer?

Tetsuro patted Yaku on his shoulder, “Who could have guessed Figure skater, it’s a pretty unlikely profession.” He stood up from the ground, “Anyway let’s finish getting changed now!”

---

Most the team had left the club room to go back home, the only ones left were Yaku, Fukunaga, Momoi and Kenma who was tapping way on his phone while waiting for Tetsuro.

He was about to finish getting changed when he heard Kenma’s voice from beside him. “There’s another performance tomorrow, an Exhibition Skate.”

“Is there now?” Tetsuro responded, gears visibly turning in his head.

Kenma looked at him suspiciously, “Don’t do it.”

He grinned, “Don’t do what? I’m just being a supportive friend.”

...

Chapter Text

Kuroo’s House, Minaminagasaki, Toshima, Tokyo

4:55, Saturday 12^th of December

Kenma, Yaku, Fukunaga and Yamamoto were gathered in Tetsuro’s living room, while he set up the TV so that they could watch the Exhibition Gala live on YouTube, it was scheduled to start at 4:00pm in Beijing, which means 5:00pm here. Currently it was 4:56pm, which means the others were late, granted Bokuto and whoever else he’s bringing (probably Akaashi) have to get here from the other side of Tokyo, but Bokuto is usually punctual, which means he should be showing up any minute now.

Just as he finished setting up the TV and sat down in his grandma’s arm chair with his laptop ready, waiting for the Stream to start, Yaku came back into the room with a few snacks and was about to sit back under the Kotatsu when the doorbell rang.

Tetsuro got up and shuffled to the entrance way, just before the bell rang again, he swung the door open.  “Welcome!”

“Ack!” Bokuto jumped, well he obviously didn’t expect him to respond so quickly. On his right Akaashi had grabbed his wrist trying to stop him from ringing the bell again, and on his left Shirofuku was holding a tin out to him. “I brought cookies!”

He lead them to the living room, where Shirofuku and Bokuto immediately took their place under the Kotatsu by to Kenma and Yaku, and Akaashi sat at the arm of the Couch next to Yamamoto. While they were getting comfy the stream started, pictures of Beijing flashing up on the screen.

Akaashi tilted his head to Tetsuro he looked confused, “So. Can you tell me why Bokuto dragged me across Tokyo without any warning?”

He grinned, “We figured out what sport Yona does.” Akaashi sighed, that didn’t really answer his question, and he said as much.

“Well, as it turns out, our little Yona-chan is famous!”

The three of them paused and blinked at him like a group of owls, he laughed to himself, how on brand, “What?!” Bokuto yelled, while the other two just looked at him sceptically.

They launched into an explanation about how they figured it out without revealing what sport she did.

---

Just as they wrapped up their explanation the screen changed to an angle of an Ice rink.

“Ice Hockey!” Bokuto shouted, those who knew started laughing at him. “No, sorry.” Yaku patted his shoulder in comfort in between laughs. Just in that moment a montage of highlights for the Grand Prix final, pictures and videos of host city Beijing started playing to music. Everyone in the group quieted down as a new atmosphere was created in the room, Yukie had to say that the editors of this program knew what they were doing.

When it concluded a scene with a high angle of an ice rink appeared on screen, an animation of the event appeared as well. It had the logo of the ISU next to it was the title ‘GRAND PRIX OF FIGURE SKATING FINAL® 2020’, underneath it said ‘GALA EXHIBITION, BEIJING, CHINA’.

The commentator began introducing the event, he praised the skaters on their performances over the past week, he went on to say that although it had been stressful for the competitors they were now able to enjoy their craft without being marked on their skating.

“IT’S FIGURE SKATING!” Bokuto shouted as if he’d just figured it out without it being told to him directly. Yukie rolled her eyes. She heard Akaashi mutter “Good job, idiot.” Which made her chuckle, just like how Bokuto brought his enthusiasm to everything, Akaashi was as dry as ever.

Now that she thinks about what she knew about figure skating (which was admittedly not much) it did make sense, the bandaged feet, dance classes and her Elsa-like attitude to the cold, cause like that one annoying ass song, the cold really didn’t bother Alyona at all.

The event began with an Ice show performance and a Junior skate both from local skaters. Which was split either side by a brief note from the ISU representative from China.

From then on, the skaters took on their exhibition skates, many of which were very interesting and many ideas were outside the box. The performances alternated between more popular modern music and classical, but no matter what, the skates were good, after all these were the best of the best skaters.

They were paying attention when the skating interested them or a song they knew was being used, but even so they were mostly waiting for Alyona to appear. Although, considering that the commentator was speaking English only a few of them really knew what he was saying at any given moment so it was difficult to engage properly. About 54 minutes into the show Bokuto informed them that a 20-minute intermission had just been announced.

Kuroo stretched his long limbs out, “How about we watch some of her other performances while we wait?”

There was a chorus of agreements, as Kuroo searched up ‘Alyona Nikiforova’ in the search bar. The first video’s that appeared was her short program from the 2020 Youth Olympics from earlier this year.

‘Alyona Nikiforova (ROC) – Gold Medal | Ladies Figure Skating | Short Program | Lausanne 2020’ Olympics · 2M views · 10 months ago

‘Alyona Nikiforova’s Liebestraum Figure Skating Gala Tribute | Lausanne 2020’ Olympics · 6M views · 9 months ago

‘Alyona Nikiforova (ROC) – Gold Medal | Ladies Figure Skating | Free Skate | Lausanne 2020’ Olympics · 3M views · 10 months ago

‘Alyona Nikiforova (RUS) | Ladies Full Program | JGP Latvia 2019’ Skating ISU · 4M views · 1 year ago

‘Alyona Nikiforova being friends with everyone in the skating world’ FoxPaw · 165K views · 5 months ago

“I guess we should watch the Gala one, I mean that is the most popular.” Yamamoto made a questioning motion to Kuroo.

Yukie was inclined to agree and it seemed like Kuroo was too, but then an unlikely person intervened. Kenma was about to raise his hand before he stopped halfway through and shrugging.

“Um, I don’t think we should watch that, I read something about it and it seems personal. Since we know her in person, I don’t think we should. Without asking for permission at least.”

Well, that’s the most she’d ever heard him talk in one go, granted she’d meet him only a few times before but still.

“Really?” Kuroo questioned from behind them, Kenma nodded in response and then curled back up into a ball under the Kotatsu, again. Like a cat, her mind supplied helpfully.

“Let’s just watch the Lausanne Skates then.” Akaashi said, and so they did.

They were amazing, of course they were she got the gold medal, but Yukie had never known that a person could do something like that. The way she moved and bended, and the jumps, she was playing in the snow back in middle school and Alyona was doing this. Damn, it was only now sinking in that her sweet and rather unassuming friend was an Olympian, at 14 years old. 14 years.

She looked at the faces of her schoolmates and based on their reactions they were just as shocked as she was. Akaashi’s usually expressionless face was a perfect mask of fascination and awe, and Bokuto, Bokuto was quiet for once, he starred at the TV transfixed as he watched the whole process of the competition.

---

They were already out of time once they finished watching Alyona’s Free skate. So, Kuroo clicked back onto the tab with the stream on it, which was showing replays of a Pair skate now, before the commentator announced that the Gala would be continuing.

Keiji wasn’t focusing too much on the performances before the 1:52:03 hour mark, when someone he vaguely recognized appeared on the Ice, so he tuned in.

“The senior men’s was a reeling event, and this man really contributed to the drama. He wound up with the Bronze medal, he is an absolute joy to watch, Otabek Altin from Kazakhstan. Today, from what I’ve heard through the grape vine, performing a very special Exhibition Skate.” The first notes of the music dropped and Otabek began the performance.

He spoke up once he realised when he was sure he recognised him, “Everyone, watch.”

Bokuto tilted his head back at him, “I mean sure, why are you so interested though?”

“He’s Yona’s friend, I recognize him from pictures she’s shown me.” He explained.

Shirofuku giggled, “Isn’t she supposedly friends with every skater?”

“Well yeah, she is, but she doesn’t have family dinners with everyone, but she does with this guy.”

Bokuto crossed his arms, “I’ve never seen these pictures, why are you special.”

Keiji looked away, just then remembering the context under which Alyona had shown him the pictures. However, he kept his neutral face and just shrugged, “She just likes me more than you.” Bokuto pouted. “Actually, you’re not even friends with her yet.” Akaashi corrected. Hearing this Bokuto’s pout amplified, which would be weird if he hadn’t already witnessed the pout² on court dozens of times already.

He pointed at the screen to bring everyone’s attention to the skate that Altin was performing.

He was amazed by how he skated, it was so different to the others he had seen before him. There was something different about his movements, if skating was a language, Altin was skating in a dialect different to the other skaters he’d seen so far.

It was two minutes into the skate, Otabek had skated to the left side of the rink opposite to the entrance. His dance was slowing down as the music changed from the higher pace, sharp music to something slightly more elegant, yet equally high pace.

The spot lights were pointed to the opposite side of the rink to reveal Yuri who was wearing a matching costume with Otabek. They started performing a flawless Ice dance with each other as the new song started to play.

The Nekoma students all reacted to seeing the new skater on the screen. From what Keiji could remember this was Alyona’s ‘cousin, not cousin, brother in spirit, person she knew, the stray her Uncles adopted’ in her words of course.

“Omg, its Yuri-san!” Fukunaga whispered from across the couch.

Yamamoto nodded to him “He’s scary.” Said the guy who looks like a delinquent.

“Scary but graceful.” Kuroo added, which was true. Yuri’s movements were precise, mesmerising even, yet it had this intense feeling, sharp like a knife.

After a couple minutes Otabek left the rink, Yuri seamlessly continued his solo part of the exhibition skate. He finished his skate after stepping out of a foot spin, and now after the skate, the announcer introduced him.

“Granted he needs no introduction, that was the senior men’s silver medallist, Yuri Plisetsky from Russia.” Yuri bowed to the audience and left the ice just as the announcer began to introduce the next skater.

---

< The Kittens (copyright by Kuroo) (w/o Yona ver.)

_{Momoi Poppins}

Omgggg _18:59

_{Momoi Poppins}

Are you guys watching the skating live stream _18:59

_{Momoi Poppins}

That’s Yuri-san right?? _18:59

_19:00 Yeah we are

_19:00 Yes that’s him

_{Momoi Poppins}

He looks so much nicer lol _19:00

_Taketake

Wait wait where are you guys watching this?? _19:01

_*Passion*

Ikr!! _19:01

_*Passion*

Also it’s on Youtube idk the channel name tho _19:01

_{Fukunaga ( 0 – 0 )}

Skate ISU _19:02

_{Fukunaga ( 0 – 0 )}

I’d get on it now pretty sure Yona’s ab to appear _19:02

_19:02 Yh she is

_Taketake

Ok opening the laptop now _19:03

---

Only a few skaters later and “It’s her! She’s on!” Yamamoto shouted as he jostled Kenma’s shoulder. They all immediately shifted all their attention onto the TV, where Yukie saw Alyona skate out of the darkness and into the spotlight.

“This is her first season on the Senior level, Women’s silver medallist, the Ice Princess, Alyona Nikiforova from Russia.”

Cool nickname, Yukie thought as the camera zoomed in on Alyona as she got into her starting position. And wow, she was really pretty. She was wearing and short orange-red dress with floral patterns going down the right side. Her hair was done in a half-up half-down sort of style with flowers braided into is.

Alyona was leaning over an outstretched leg, the back of her right hand touching her shin while the other was arched over her head. ‘Rustle of Spring’ began playing as she straightened her torso, arms switching places; right up, left down. She moved her body and danced to the piano, letting it flow through her as if possessed by a spring breeze.

There was a soft smile on her face as she skated, you could see how happy and at peace she was skating. One could see how much she developed over the past year, since her last skate in the junior world championships.

As Alyona’s theme implied, this was a new beginning for her, she could finally leave behind some of the grief she held within herself, forgetting all problems as she slid along the Ice.

She arched into a layback spin, with her arms stretched to the ceiling, as the music started intensifying, before gliding out into a Choctaw turn, which was an insanely satisfying transition.

“Wow” Yukie breathed softly, not wanting to break whatever had overtaken them in room, seeing her skate here was certainly different from the other ones they’d seen. The exhibition skate seemed so much more raw and beautiful, she felt like she could watch her for hours.

Alyona skated along the side of the rink with an extended fan spiral, before doing a simple twist of her body and building momentum to a double flip jump, one of only three jumps in her Exhibition program, a short quiet applause heard by the audience.

As for those watching her back in Japan, they were fully focused on her. Had Yukie not been there she wouldn’t believe that the bunch of them could ever be this quiet, yet here she was even the loudest of them were silent, the only thing she could hear were dulcet sounds of amazement, the piano music coming from the speakers and skates cutting the ice.

Alyona finished her performance with a graceful pancake spin, that lifted upwards into an I-spin as the final notes of the piece rang through the stadium.

Her friends applauded her along with the real-life audience.

After she bowed the program moved onto the final exhibition skates by the gold medallists.

They continued to watch, before Yukie was interrupted by her stomach, “Um, so Kuroo-san you don’t happen to have any food do you?” They ended up raiding his fridge to find a bunch of microwavable dumplings, all of which became a victim of the groups appetites. 

---

All the official skates were over after the Men’s Gold medallist, Yuuri Katsuki – whom all of them recognized as one of Alyona’s Uncles – finished his skate.

Seeing Katsuki triggered a reaction from Tetsuro, “Oh my fucking god, finally! That is where I know him from!”

“What do you mean?” Bokuto looked confused.

“For months now, since I meet him he’s always looked sort of familiar, like I’d seen him somewhere before. I always chalked it up to some weird sense of Déjà vu, but now I know I saw him on some Japanese Olympians list.” Tetsuro sounded simultaneously enlightened and incredibly frustrated; enlightened that he finally knew, yet frustrated that it took him so long to figure out.

Following his revelation the broadcast moved on to a performance by a music performance planned by the Chinese skating committee, while the skaters all arrived on the ice in order.

The Skaters all lined up on the side and clapped for the others as they entered the rink. Once all of them were on the ice they all muddled together, interacting with each other, swinging and pulling friends around.

Her friends could see Alyona living up to her name of being the social butterfly of the skating world. She did a round with Altin and Yuri, spun around with Katsuki, talked animatedly with Babicheva and Crispino before the former playfully pushed her away, which caused her to be quickly tackled by some Japanese Ice dancers, Utana Yoshida and Shingo Nishiyama. Tetsuro recognized the two as some of the Skaters from Alyona’s post at the Youth Olympics.

She continued to jump, literally and figuratively, from skater to skater before all of them bunched up together and waved goodbye to the audience, just in time for the stream to end.

A short while later his friends started to depart from his house is waves as they helped Tetsuro clean up after their little watch party.

…

Chapter Text

Oedo line, Subway

9:20, Tuesday 15^th of December

The combination of Alyona’s thick warm jumper protecting her from the cold winter air, the music pouring from her headphones and the excitement of the past few days made her tired. Regardless, she snuggled further into her jumper, if she missed her stop because she fell asleep, was future Alya’s problem.

She was starting to love Tuesdays, it’s the only day she could sleep in a bit after traveling, and sure right now she didn’t have any jet lag – China and Japan didn’t have much of a time difference after all – but she was still tired, even after a full night’s sleep.

To be honest most of her sleepiness probably came from the gala after party, more specifically the teens after after party. Once the adults kicked them out at about 1 AM, all the younger skaters gathered in one of their hotel rooms and played video games, just dance and simply talked for hours before sneaking off back to their own rooms.

To Alyona the tiredness was worth it, because sure, she was tired, but she was also ecstatic, the high of placing at a competition always lasted a few days, but this one didn’t feel like it was going anytime soon. The small, egotistical part of her mind was even more proud that she did so well because she was the youngest competitor. It felt nice to prove that she was good, especially to the people who always said that her scores were biased, and that she’d never last in the senior circuit.

She was forced awake as the train arrived at her station, she stumbled out of her seat, and onto the platform.

---

Alyona sat back in her seat only a few minutes before the bell rang for 2nd Period. She shook off the cold, and unpacked her things, sighing as she remembered which teachers class was up next.

In the seat in front of her Yokomizo turned around to greet her, “Hi, Alyona-chan, nice to see you again, when’s the next trip scheduled?” She said cheerily.

“Luckily that’s all for this year.” She smiled but kept her voice down.

“Good because we have exam’s coming up, December exams are infamously difficult at Nekoma.” She grimaced.   

“Mm, you still up to help me with Social Studies this weekend?” Alyona was not to excited for this set of exams, she wasn’t a bad student, but missing so many classes really presented a challenge.

“Of course! We can go to my house.” She nodded, before turning back around when Shibano approached her to ask a question.

Alyona decided to turn her conversation over to someone else, “Hey Kenma, how’s it going?”

He blinked at her, “Cold. I want a heater.”

Alyona just laughed quietly, expecting the conversation to end there as the bell rang. But Kenma had other thoughts, “Say, Yona, what’s your opinion on surprises?”

She gave him a weird look, “Um, not going to lie I’m not a big fan.”

He sighed, “That’s what I told them.”

Her question was drowned out as their Math teacher entered the room. She shifted her focus as best as she could, trying to catch up with the material as fast as possible.

---

Alyona and Kosai were walking through the hall during lunch time, and she noticed something weird. Every time she passed by one of the volleyball boys they looked at her weirdly, and when she passed Takechi and Yoshihara who were talking to each other suspiciously, she gave up and pulled a confused face at them, but they just looked away.

She nudged Kosai, “Did something happen to the volleyball team while I was gone.”

Kosai looked at her confusedly, “No? Why?”

“They just keep on acting strange today, whenever I pass one of them they look at me weirdly, and Kenma’s acting strange too.”

Kosai shrugged, “I told you that the Volleyball boys were weird, well except Kuroo-senpai, he’s hot.”

She pulled a disgusted face at her, “Oh my god, no.” She shook her head, “Anyway they’re not weird,”

“Didn’t you just say–”

“You know what I meant!” She pouted.

“Well, all I know is that you should’ve joined the art club! You say you’re bad but you have some really nice sketches!”

Alyona gave her an unimpressed look, “Sure. Even if, that’s all I got, give me some paint and it looks like a unicorn threw up on the paper.”

Kosai laughed, “Well you could get better. If you joined the club…”

Alyona stopped walking, and gave her a worn look, “Dude, it’s been almost a year, will you ever get over it?”

The older girl skipped away, “Nope,” she grinned, “We’re goanna be in our 40s and I’ll still say it.”

Alyona face palmed, “Oh my god, Kosai.” But under her hand she was hiding a smile. She shook her head, “Let’s just get to the vending machine.”

“Yonaaa, are you serious? It’s so cold outside.” Kosai whined as the two girls interlocked arms again.

“No, it’s not.” Alyona reasoned, wanting to get her favourite flavoured milk from the outside vending machine.

“But there’s a snow storm going on!” She pulled on Alyona’s arm trying to stop her from going out.

“That’s only in west Japan, it’s fine.”

“I’m sorry not all of us grew up living in igloos, Ms. Petersburg.”

Alyona giggled as she dragged the two of them through the doors leading to the frigid outdoor.

---

Alyona dragged her blistered feet up the stairs to the 3^rd floor Science Labs for the Physics Practical that their teacher had scheduled today. She shuffled in the back door and was greeted by Takechi who was vibrating with excitement.

“Congratulations!” He grinned, before his enthusiasm slowly drained out of his eyes and his expression devolved into poorly concealed panic, when Momoi hit his back, warning him, of what she didn’t know, but he quickly back tracked.

“Congrats, on having a competent Physics partner today!” He said presenting Momoi with a comedic fake grin and jazz hands.

Alyona gave him a weird look, “I mean, that’s great? But what?”

“Wow is Momoi-kun, just great to you?” He exaggeratedly comforted Momoi who was trying to inch away from him.

She rolled her eyes at his antics and went to sit down with Momoi on one of the lab spaces. She put her hands on the table and seriously turned to Momoi, “Okay, what is up with everyone today.”

He just continued to look forward looking over the experiment plan for today, “I don’t know what you mean, people are just a bit stressed about exams.”

She looked slightly offended, “Sure, whatever, what’s so scary about these unfamous exams anyway.”

“You mean ‘infamous’” he corrected, writing down the kanji on a piece of paper and passing it to her. “It means something or someone being famous for negative reasons. And yeah, the December exams here are hard, because usually they put all the content for the whole year on it.”

She sighed, aware he was avoiding the question but not bothering to push any further, as they were instructed to start the practical.

---

Alyona, slowly made her way to the gym, suspicious of how the boys have been acting today. She wasn’t not suspicious in a bad way, but she was generally just completely confused, she wasn’t sure what to think.

Regardless, she carefully walked over to the gym door, avoiding and puddles left by the snow fall of the last few days. She pulled open the door, and took off her outdoor shoes at the same time. When she stepped in, she finally looked up, and was meet by a cloud of confetti blocking her view.

“CONGRATULATIONS!” Shouted a wild harmony of voices.

When she saw through the confetti and silly string, she could read a sign that Kai and Yoshihara were holding up, that read ‘Congratulations on medalling!!!’ a few of the other were blowing on kazoos, clapping, and holding empty confetti cannons.

Kuroo was the first one to approach Alyona who was just standing there blinking at them, “We found out your secret but we’re very happy for you!”

Then Alyona just suddenly dropped, squatting on the floor laughing hysterically.

The boys just looked around at each other, not entirely sure what to do, or what they were expecting.

Kenma deadpan looked at Kuroo, “I told you she didn’t like surprises, and look now you broke her.”

Fukunaga wiped away a fake tear, “She had so much potential.”

That caused Alyona who was trying to stand up, fall straight back to the ground, which caused the team to laugh along with her, the absurdity not lost to them.

Momoi helped her up, “Yona, I know we’re funny, but you’re like dying for no reason right now.”

“No it’s just,” She paused to compose herself, “I’ve been low key worrying, for the whole day, about what was up with all of you, but it was just this.”

“Just this? Yona-chan you’re an international level athlete? You went to the Olympics!” Yaku sounded offended at Alyona’s nonchalance to her own achievements.

“It was just the youth Olympics.” She tried to mediate.

“Just, the Olympics.” Yaku said gesturing exaggerated quotation marks.

Kuroo pushed Yaku aside, “She’s right that doesn’t matter, what does matter is that none of us one the bet because of you! Couldn’t you have picked a less niche sport.”

“Niche!” Alyona sounded indignant, “Skating is not niche, it’s like the most popular winter sport!”

Kuroo wasn’t so sure, but he wasn’t knowledgeable enough on winter sports to fight back.

“Shouldn’t we tell her what we have planned,” Kai nudged them in the right direction.

She looked at them questioningly.

“Oh yeah! We’re buying dinner!” Takechi excitedly explained.

“Really? What about practice?” They proceeded to push her out of the gym, saying that it was fine and that they wanted to treat her, “You really don’t need to do this.”

“Maybe not but we want to.” Yamamoto grinned.

She looked around for the coaches wondering if they would stop them. Kuroo noticed and reassured her, “Don’t worry they agreed to it, and anyway no matter how sweet it is that you’re worried about our practice, everyone deserves a break sometimes, so this is a treat for not just you but all of us.”

---

The group of a dozen High schoolers settled into a local Hot Pot place, that wasn’t that  far of a walk from school.

“By the way, Yona-chan, I’m not mad or anything, but like why did you never tell us?” Yaku asked, Alyona, who was currently stuffing her mouth with m eat, tilted her head. “About the figure skating thing I mean.”

Alyona nodded, and quickly chewed her food. “Well, I just never tell anyone.”

Sakae looked surprised, “What, why? It’s such a flex.”

She just giggled, “Being public about it only got me, not really bullied, but a lot of people back in Russia kind of didn’t like me, especially the older kids.”

“Oh sorry,” Sakae looked like her regretted asking.

She waved her hands dismissively, “No, no, it’s fine, I had a lot more friends than haters back home.”

“Okay but why hide it for friends?” Yaku urged her to answer.

“Because it’s fun!” Alyona smiled as she pilled more noodles onto her plate.

“I lost money because of you think hiding something so integral to you is funny,” Yoshihara lamented.

She grinned, “It’s a game I play with everyone I meet for the first time,”

“Why?”

“It’s funny to confuse people.” She shrugged.

She clapped her hands together, “Talking about my game, I have to tell my friends that they’re not losers anymore.”

“Losers?” Kenma questioned, as if he’d never heard the word before.

“Yup, currently you guys are in 4^th Place.” She gestured.

“What? How?” Takechi, couldn’t believe that it had taken them that long, after all they were around her all the time.

“You guys can be quite oblivious, but what I want to know is, does that mean Kosai knows?” Kenma asked, unwilling to be in last place.

“Unless she’s found out already and just hasn’t told me, then no.”

Kenma smiled to himself, happy with the response.

“On that note, um, if you don’t mind then could you please not tell anyone else.” She elaborated upon seeing their confused faces. “It is a game to me, but with friends you know. Otherwise, in a school this big, someone is bound to talk about it on the internet, which means they could find where we live, and my cousin and I, especially my cousin, have some really crazy ‘Fans’ who I’d rather avoid.”

Kuroo put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry we won’t tell. Right guys?”

“Yes, Captain!”

She smiled, slightly misty eyed, “Thanks guys,”

“Yeah, and if anyone messes with you we’re ready to fight!” Yamamoto shouted.

“Not you, Yamamoto, you don’t need any more detentions,” Momoi pulled him down into his seat.

They laughed at him, Fukunaga pointing out that half of those detentions were for things he didn’t even do on purpose.

---

A couple hours later, the 2^nd years paid for the food, and they all left, full and happy. They all went their separate ways, in small groups.

Alyona, Kenma and Kuroo took, the train, and the two of them forced her to let them to walk her home.

Once she was inside the house, showered, and cuddled into her blankets along with Makkachin. She pulled out her phone to text her friends in the USA, they should be awake just about now. She opened their Instagram group chat, and told them the news.

-Bonus-

< TikTok Trash

_7:49

Katieeeee

Jakeeeee

Congrats you’re not last place anymore!!!!

🎉🎉🎉

_Jake

Reallyyyy 🥳🥳

Yuppp

It took you 5 months and them 7

_Jake

Omg yessss

_Kate

YES Finally

They really are more oblivious than us lol

Yeah ig but you guys were also just supper nosy

_Kate

Sorry but girl you were just too suspicious

Whatever 😒

_Jake

Also sorry Aly but we I gtg

It’s like 6 am sooooo

Dw ttyl xx

_Jake

Byeee 😘

_Kate

Ttyl x

…

Chapter Text

The Fukuroudani Academy Group Managers group chat

18:00, Tuesday 22^nd of December

< Slayest Managers (*^3^)/~ ☆

_{Mother Hana}

Hey Girls!! _18:02

We just finished with Exams at Ubugawa _18:02

Soo me and Miyanoshita-chan were thinking about going out! _18:02

More specifically going to do Karaoke, also it means you all can finally meet Miyanoshita-chan in personヽ(^o^)丿_18:03

_{Black Hole}

Yesss we can finally show Yona-chan the wonders of Karaoke tooo _18:06

_{Elementary Schooler}

Yup! I’m excited to finally meet you all in person! _18:06

Hanawa-senpai has told me so many things about you (*^▽^*) _18:06

_{Takis Spiceless ver.}

You better be scared then Shirofuku @BlackHole _18:07

_18:07 Omg I’d love to go to Karaoke

_{Sad Anime Girl}

Lol she got you there Yukie _18:07

_18:07 We also just finished exams they were Horrible

_{Black Hole}

Omg Outaki-chan what are you talking about!! _18:07

Kaori go away. Q _Q _18:08

_{Mother Hana}

Alright then when are you all free this week _18:09

_{Taki Spiceless ver}

I’m free the whole week so I don’t mind _18:09

_{Black Hole}

We should go on Christmas! _18:09

_{Elementary Schooler}

Yes that’d be fun!!! (^^)/ _18:09

_18:10 I can do the 24^th? I’m flying to Russia the day after…

_{Sad Anime Girl}

24^th is perfect! _18:10

_{Elementary Schooler}

Cool! Why are you going to Russia tho? _18:10

_{Mother Hana}

Miyanoshita-chan she’s Russian (^_^;) _18:10

_{Elementary Schooler}

Oh right forgot about that, sorry!! _18:11

_18:12 It’s fine, I’m actually heading over for a competition

_{Taki Spiceless ver.}

Competition? _18:12

_{Mother Hana}

Huh? _18:12

_{Sad Anime Girl}

Oh yeah Congratulations on that by the way _18:13

_18:13 Thanks (#^.^#)

_18:14 I’ll tell the rest of you when we meet!!

_{Mother Hana}

Okayy _18:14

Okay so if everyone is good with the 24^th then lets meet in the Park by Lawson at Shinjuku Station _18:15

_{Sad Anime Girl}

Sounds good, I’ll book ahead at a good place, 20:00 okay? _18:16

_{Mother Hana}

Good with me _18:16

_{Elementary School}

Yes! _18:16

_18:17 I’m excited

_{Black Hole}

Let’s Go!! _18:17

Dw Yona-chan I’ll pick you up at the platform lol _18:17

_18:17 Thanks (~_~;)

_{Taki Spiceless ver.}

See you then!! _18:18

_{Mother Hana}

Wow that’s the fastest I’ve ever organised anything with anyone lol _18:27

---

The girls were crowding into the Karaoke room, hanging up their parkas and peeling off sweaters, in the comfortably heated room. The room was dimly lit by the colored LEDs that lined the room, there were two large sofas surrounding a large coffee table and large TV on the left wall.

“Wait so let me get this straight, you’re an international level figure skater?” Outaki was in the process of wrapping her head around what Alyona was telling them, she’d started with her excited explanation the moment Hanawa had begun questioning her when they all finally gathered together.

“Yup!” Alyona chimed, dropping onto one of the couches.

Hanawa sat down on the other couch corner by Alyona, “Okay, so no offense to like all of us, but if you have all of that going on, why are you manager for some schools Volleyball club?”

Alyona laughed, “Well, the school required a club and Kenma, our setter,” She added for Miyanoshita who hadn’t meet the other teams yet, “said that the Manager role was open, so I went for it, and well I really like it now, it let me make a lot of friends, I mean you guys are a perfect example.”

She grinned when Shirofuku tackled her in a hug.

“Alright then,” Suzumeda said, closing the door behind her, “Who wants to start?” She held out the mic to the girls in the room.

“I’ll starts, Kaori, hand over the mic,” Shirofuku jumped up and snatched the mic out of the hand presenting it to her, “Let’s start off with Tabun by YOASOBI!” she said to Outaki who set it up.

---

“Nikifo- Yona! Sing Marigold with me!” Miyanoshita cheered, pulling Alyona off the couch by her arm.

“Oh my god yes!” Hanawa cheered, Alyona tilted her head not understanding the excitement.

“It’s a really popular song,” Outaki explained, Alyona was still confused, and was looking at them with a completely oblivious look on her face.

“Marigold by Aimyon is a popular Karaoke song.” She re-explained clearer this time.

Alyona let out a drawn out “Oh”, finally computing what they were talking about. The older girls laughed at her confused face, as she seemingly rebouted. “Okay then, let’s sing!”

Miyanoshita handed her the mic, “You’re green and I’m blue.”

---

“I call dibs on Mikan No Uta!” Hanawa called out, between turns, when Suzumeda was about to type it in.

“No, Senpai! Why!” she pouted.

“Sorry Suzu-chan, but that’s my song,” she laughed.

---

They stayed in the Karaoke booth for three hours before leaving. Within that time; Suzumeda almost knocked over the table, Miyanoshita almost knocked over the table, and then Alyona actually knocked over the table.

Regardless of their attempted vandalism, it was a great night. At about 10 pm, Shirofuku ordered them all some fried chicken from a local chicken restaurant. They also collectively managed to sing through the entire Moana sound track, with stage performance, dances and all.

Alyona had learnt of many more Japanese songs than she had ever known, and on their way home the six of them all merged Spotify music taste, which resulted in a good, yet strange amalgamation of songs.

It was a wonderful night, Alyona was definitely going to suggest it at the next Gala after party, she’s surprised no one had suggested it till now in the first place.

---

Alyona was at the Ice centre in Krasnoyarsk, not for her own competition but rather to watch Yuri and the other figure skaters who were competing today. It was supposed to be a calm and problem free day for her, but of course she could never escape drama.

Mila was with her, and had already warned her about Yekaterina being around. Now, she liked her a fair amount, she was only a few years older and so had done a few organized events together as kids. But someone, let the whole St. Petersburg and Moscow Skating rivalry get to her, which made it incredibly unpleasant to talk to her whenever they ran into each other at a skating event. Such as today.

“Alya, it’s been a while, regretting leaving Russia yet?” That was another thing, while most people had already gotten over their disappointment or grief of Yuri and her moving out of Russia, some, such as Yekaterina, were not.

“Hello, Erina, not really, I like the fact that other countries actually have four seasons.” Something that middle aged Japanese people she spoke to love to remind her of for some reason. In reality she missed the seasons of cold and less cold, in Russia, as it turns out she wasn’t built for heat, but she wasn’t going to tell her that.

“I told you it’s Katia.” She complained. Mila cackled at her response, Alyona had decided long ago that she’d never let the nickname that Yekaterina had giving herself as a child die. It was to funny so see her get embarrassed and annoyed about it every single time.

Their argumentative conversation continued until the event started, and they all quieted down to watch the Men’s Free skate.

---

At the end of the following day, Mila had gotten gold again, Alyona left with the silver medal, and Yekaterina left with Bronze. Alyona had to resist the strong impulse to laugh at Yekaterina for all her boastful talk about how she was going to beat her after, Alyona had messed up two of her jumps in the Free skate. However, she remembered that she was a nice person and resisted the temptation, Yuuri had raised her better than that.

She didn’t have much time to dwell on her performance, or what discourse that was bound to happen online, as Viktor, Yuuri, Yuri and herself all had to catch a plane from Krasnoyarsk to Beijing to a connecting flight down to Fukuoka, where a taxi would pick them up at about 4 am to drive them to Hasetsu.

Quite a complicated travel distance, but that’s what happens when the FFKKR decides to hold the championships in Krasnoyarsk, and your family lives in Japan.

---

Next thing Alyona knew she was waking up to Yuri’s sleep talking, her eyes opening to the wood sealing of her and Yuri’s shared room at Yu-topia Katsuki. Since it was the time leading up to New Year, the Onsen was empty, they could have taken any other room, but the both were tired and so they fell into old habits. So, at 6 am when they arrived in Hasetsu, the two stumbled into their room, pulled out their futons and blacked out immediately.

Alyona rolled out of her futon, dragged her feet across the wood floor and stumbled down the stairs. Once she entered the dining area she was greeted by a smiling Hiroko who quickly wrapped her in a warm hug.

She sank into the hug, and sleepily mumbled, “Good morning, Hiroko-san.”

“Now, how many times do I have to remind you to call me Obachan?” she scolded.

Alyona pulled back and laughed lightly pushing the hair out of her face, “Sorry, Obachan.”

“Don’t worry about it Alya-chan, here have some Tamago.” Hiroko pushed her to sit by the table, and placed a sea of food before her.

“Hiro– Obachan? Don’t you want to save some of this for other people?”

But she insisted, “Oh, it’s alright, the last guests left yesterday, and we have to eat all the excess before it expires, so sit and let me feed you.”

Alyona wasn’t going to be told twice, “Thanks for the food!”

---

Everyone had gathered together at noon, to finally celebrate Viktors birthday, as they had spent most of his 32^nd birthday on the plane. Of course, there were a few presents, for Yuri and the Katsukis, but Alyona opted for just a card. It’s not like she could buy anything for him anyway, Viktor and Yuuri weren’t going to give her access to most of her earnings till she was 18, so for now this is all she could offer.

After the short celebration, Viktor forced them into his official ‘family time’, which resulted in multiple rounds of various board games that the Katsuki’s had in their house, at one point they roped Mari into a round of Monopoly, where she swept the floor with them, and then was quickly banned from playing after her and Yuuri got into a full-blown fight over property prices. Meanwhile Viktor and Yuri went broke long ago and Alyona was holding on only by doing nothing, negotiating with her was like talking to a brick wall.

They finished their game night with a few too many rounds of Tipsy Uno, well they could’ve gone on, but Yuuri stopped them once Mari and Yuri tried to turn it into a drinking game, with the excuse that Alyona was underage but they all knew it was actually because he kept on loosing and couldn’t handle it.

Hiroko sat them all down for a hefty dinner, and they ended the day by soaking in the hot springs, before going to bed again.

The following day was spent in a similar fashion, with everyone in the house, Minako and the Nishigori’s gathering together play traditional Japanese games and eat New Year’s dishes that Hiroko and Toshiya prepared, after midnight in the first few hours of the New Year, the Russians and Yuuri went out to the cold beach and lit small ground fireworks and stayed out together till just before the sunrise, when they stumbled back into a house full of passed out drunk family and friends, along with a trio of preteens takings a bunch of embarrassing photos of them.

---

The next day Yuuri called for a meeting with the skaters, which somehow managed to attract both Minako and Yuuko who claimed that they were definitely supposed to be there.

Yuuri explained, that as it was going to be his last season before he retired, and he had gotten permission to perform an extra special exhibition skate at the World Championships this year.

“So? What do you have planned?” Yuri asked leaning back on the bean bag.

He grinned, “I wanted to potentially do a performance with you, Vitya and Alya?”

“Of course, zolottse!” Viktor immediately replied, jumping up to envelop his husband in a hug, “Did you even have to ask?”

Yuuri rolled his eyes affectionately, “I knew you’d agree, I’m asking the others more than you.” He turned his attention to the two teenagers who were still sitting at the table.

Yuri ‘reluctantly’ agreed, though the excitement in his eyes betrayed him, “It’d be interesting, if it’s good, I’m not against it.” Which basically translated to ‘yes, how can I help?’ in Yuranese.

Alyona was happy that he’d ask her but, “Are you sure?” She understands the other two, they had been part of how he began skating again, but she was someone who overcomplicated his life by becoming just a kid he needed to take care of.

Yuuri raised an eyebrow, “Sure about what?”

Alyona grimsed, “Nevermind,” that was a dumb momentary lapse in judgment, she was kind of embarrassed, and didn’t want to explain her thoughts.

Yuuri brushed it off, “Alright now to start–”

“Wait have you not thought of this yet?” Yuuko interrupted him.

“Of course, I have, I’m in the process of contacting some music artists to write something for us.” He explained.

“Wait, your making this custom?” Alyona chimed, he was serious about this then.

“Yup!”

Minako inquired about her speciality, “How about a choreography?”

“Well I was going to wait to have the music to start, I was actually going to go talk to some people in an hour or so.”

Viktor looked at him insulted, “We don’t wait here, you don’t need music to dance.”

“Unless you don’t want to look stupid you do.” Yuri rebuttaled.

“Never mind that,” Viktor waved it away, “We can start coming up with some moves.”

“Yeah after all how common in it that we do four person skates?” Alyona put forth.

“Aw, my sweet little Alenka understands,” He started to squeeze his niece in his arms.

“Fine,” Yuri paused, waiting for the pair to stop squabbling so they would listen to them, before giving up and continuing, “Then the Nikiforovs go and figure out some choreography, and I make sure Yuuri doesn’t make us skate to some cringe music.”

Alyona who was still trying to push Viktors relentless hugs away, threw him a thumb up.

Yuuri sighed, “Of course Yura, then let’s get to work after lunch.”

---

By the time that they were on the plane back to Tokyo they had managed to arrange a deal with a very talented Japanese artist, who was hopefully going to get back to them with a demo within a week.

Viktor, Alyona and Minako had also managed to come up with a few different ideas at the ice rink.

After arriving back in Tokyo, Alyona spent the last few days of winter break meeting up with various friends. One notable day, just before school was about to begin again, she managed to convince both Kenma and Akaashi to go sledding with her in Sagamiko, it was supposed to be a trio trip.

However, due to unfortunate circumstances, meaning Kuroo found out, told Bokuto who told Yukie, which meant that the three second years decided to tail the first years for some reason – the reason being that their two little baby introverts (Kenma and Akaashi) had decided to do something social and they were proud – and then they got caught and joined in on the fun. It was a great day, despite, or maybe even because of the shenanigans that went on.

All in all, it was a wonderful winter break, Alyona could get used to this.

-Bonus-

It was the first day back in, Alyona was already sat at her desk pulling out her stationary, Kenma walked in only on time by a few minutes.

“Good morning, ken–” Alyona’s words got caught in her throat as she turned to look at Kenma, who’s mop of dark brown hair, was gone, no not shaved, luckily, but it was bleached blond. Kenma, blond, was not, something she had expected to see this morning.

She shook her head and blinked a few times, staring at him, but his dark hair wasn’t reappearing, was this the same person she was just meet 2 days ago?

Fake Kenma was starting to look concerned, “You good, Yona?”

“Oh my god it’s you,” She gasped, and Kenma just looked at her, knitting his eyebrows together looking even more concerned, she continued with a placating hand stretched in his direction, “Respectfully, your hair, what the fu–”

…

Chapter Text

Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium – Spring Nationals

14:30, Wednesday 13^th January 2021

The squeaks of dozens of shoes could be heard reverberating around the Gymnasium, slicing through the ambiance of conversations from the courts to the stands to people waiting in line for the vending machines.

The Nekoma team had taken the afternoon off to watch their friends and potential competitors play at the Spring nationals. Ubugawa had already been eliminated in the first round yesterday, they lost to Hidawa from Gifu Prefecture, according to the handbook, this was their 3^rd time at nationals over the past 5 years. Fukuroudani, on the other hand, were doing much better, they’d passed the first round and were starting their second round in about an hour.

They stopped right in front of the doors they had just entered the stadium. “Okay, so what should we do?” Yaku voiced from the back of the group.

Kuroo briefly looked up from his phone, which he was using to talk to Bokuto, and just looked them in the eye and shrugged.

Kenma rolled his eyes at him, “Very helpful Kuroo.”

Kai, ever the voice of reason, ushered them to a less busy corner so that they wouldn’t get in the way of others, “Let’s get out of the way first.”

After a few minutes of them just chattering, their Captain finally pocketed his phone and addressed the group, “Alright everybody, we’re going to go meet a few of the guys from Fukuroudani to watch the Itachiyama Institute vs Osawa High match. Pay special attention to Itachiyama, they’ve been at the top of Tokyo for a while now, so we’ll probably encounter them on the court sooner or later.”

“Wait, shouldn’t the others be watching their next match, instead of Itachiyama?” Yoshihara questioned.

“The other half of the team is watching those, but they already lost to Itachiyama, so they want what advantages they can get.” Kuroo answered, slinging his arm around Yoshihara’s shoulder as they walked over to court 4 where the match was currently taking place.

---

They heard Bokuto before they saw him, “Kuroo! Hey man!” he called, waving his arms from a relatively empty area of the stands, with only 3 other seats taken by Akaashi, Shirofuku and Komi, who were waving at them, drawing them forward.

They all made their way to the seats, sitting in a clump in three rows of seats, Alyona and Kenma sat next to Akaashi, and Yaku practically jumped into the seat next to Komi, saying something about Libero solidarity or whatever.

“What’s happened so far?” Momoi turned to ask the Fukuroudani students once they all settled into their places.

“Itachiyama took the first set, and it looks like they’re going to win this in straight sets, especially since it’s that terrifying servers turn again.” Shirofuku explained to them.

“Terrifying?” Takechi asked innocently.

They collectively flinched when a loud cheer rose from the other side of the stands where the Itachiyama cheer squad was sitting.

The group directed their attention down to the court, number 15, he was a very tall player with dark curly hair and a face that was blank with focus. The whistle blew again and 15 held onto the ball briefly before throwing it in the air and pulling off an incredible jump serve. The libero from the other team tried to receive the serve but it flung off his platform and landed outside the court in the blink of an eye.

18 : 12 to Itachiyama Institute.

“Holy shit! The spin on that!” Yamamoto shouted as he led forward to his seat. Sakae’s jaw was on the floor, and the rest of them were also gapping like fish.

“Is he a Pinch Server?” Yoshihara asked, already contemplating how much practice he would have to do to live up to that.

Alyona quickly flipped through the tournament handbook looking for Itachiyama. Once she found him she handed the booklet over to Momoi, who cleared his throat to introduce the player, “Itachiyama institute player number 15, Sakusa Kiyoomi, first year, starter, Outside Hitter. Even in his first year, he’s already one of the top 7 spikers in the country, and was invited to the All Japan Youth Training Camp.”

“He’s not a Pinch Server. Why is he so good!” Yoshihara knew he himself wasn’t the most invested in volleyball, he loved playing and all, and he knew he wasn’t the best at serving, but he still thought he was good. Seeing someone who wasn’t even a pinch server like he was, do better than him stung quite a bit.

Kuroo turned to Bokuto, “Dude, didn’t you go to the Training Camp too? What was he like?” While he wasn’t looking Sakusa scored another service ace, bringing the score up to 19 : 12.

“Yeah, I met him, he was super quiet. The only person he spoke to outside of practice was Komori, that tall Libero.” He pointed to the boy who was wearing a libero uniform with the number 18 printed on the back and front. He contemplated for a moment before he continued to speak. “His serves were good the last time I saw him, but I can see that he’s gotten a lot better since then. The only person that could reliably pick up those serves now is probably Komori.”

The moment he said that, both Yaku and Komi turned to him at breakneck speed, with very angry looks on their faces. Bokuto back tracked as fast as he could, “I mean obviously, except for you two.” He corrected, smiling as if he had a gun pointed to his head and was recording a hostage video. They seemed appeased and turned their attention back to the match.

They turned back just in time for number 15 to win another point, breaking 20 first while the other team was still 9 points behind, this time just like before it bounced off the libero’s arms. One of the other players went to try and save it preemptively but ran in the wrong direction. The Nekoma and Fukuroudani players were busy thinking of how they would receive the ball if it was them on the court.

Meanwhile, Sakusa stepped back up to serve a 4^th time, one more flawless jump serve late, the libero made another botched receive, the Osawa players were running after the ball, desperate to get him out of the serving spot, after two more bumps from revievers the ball flew back over the net to the Itachiyama team. Komori received the ball and quickly sent it back to the setter’s spot. Miraculously, after a long rally Osawa managed to score a point, successfully kicking Sakusa out of the serving spot. They managed to grab 3 more points, but in the end Itachiyama Institute beat them soundly with 25 to 16.

---

“I can’t believe that match ended with such a divide.” Takechi was still hung up on the ending of the game they watched as they made their way to court 1 to watch the Fukuroudani Academy versus Sengoku Biz High.

Kenma shook his head, “It makes sense, Osawa is a heavy offensive team, their libero was also clearly quite inexperienced. On the other hand, Itachiyama are all-rounders. Of course, their offense is amazing but almost all their players are good receivers as well.”

“Oh,” was Takechi’s very intelligent response.

Meanwhile, Fukunaga just interjected with “TMI.”

Kenma threw him a questioning look, “What do you mean TMI?”

“TMI.” He said again, giving Kenma a sassy look.

Momoi giggled, “You can’t just say TMI to everything?”

“TMI.”

“Just say something else,” Alyona pushed him before mumbling something in Russian.

Yoshihara placed his hand on Fukunaga’s shoulder, “How long are you going to keep this bit up?”

“TMI.”

“Sorry to interrupt you, Fukunaga-kun, but before we start watching the next match, what Kenma said is really valuable to know.” Kuroo began talking in his ‘captain voice’ ^TM, “Once we get back to school we’re going to practice hard on our receiving, if you’re not at least half as good as Yaku by spring you’re on clean up duty for the rest of the year.”

Kenma looked at Kuroo as if he had just pulled the plug on his game console when he was just about to beat a difficult level he had been struggling on, or in any other person’s case; as if he had just drowned a dozen kittens.

At the same time, the 1^st years turned to face Kuroo simultaneously with the same blank stare and chorused, “TMI.” Before bursting out in laughter.

Kuroo rolled his eyes, looking at Yaku, ever the hypocrite, who croaked “It’s not that funny.” Between laughs.

---

They were sat, watching the beginning of the match surrounded by the rest of the Fukuroudani team and students from the school.

“Okay, so what do we know about their opposing team?” Sakae asked both Alyona and Momoi.

Alyona flipped open the page for Sengoku Biz High and pushed it over to Momoi, but he put out a hand blocking it and pushing it back. The two of them engaged in a brief push and pull war with the booklet, while having some sort of conversation with their eyes. Alyona pouted and Momoi glared, before finally Alyona gave in, “Fine. I’ll read it.” Momoi grinned at her, and Kuroo smiled at him approvingly, the biggest advocate for forcing Alyona to improve her Japanese.

“Ugh, okay, so, looks like everyone on the team is great at serves. The captain is also a very good setter, he’s a third year and, according to this interview he is planning on going professional after high school.” She read out. 

Kuroo tapped on his chin, “Hm what’s the name of that setter?”

“Uh, Naro?” She pointed to the name and showed him.

“It’s Kanji, so it’s actually Naguchi, don’t worry that’s an annoying one.” He told her comfortingly when she sighed. “I do remember people talking about him a lot last year, apparently, he has really stable and powerful sets.” Kuroo recalled.

“Is he better than Kenma?” Yamamoto asked, not in an insulting way, but he sounded curious, just intent on gauging how good of a player the other was.

Which was a huge improvement since the start of his and Kenma’s feud at the beginning of the year. Long past are the days when they started arguments over the way the other walked or talked or chewed their tempura. Now they only started arguments over who’s turn it was to clean. The team was never more grateful for Fukunaga dowsing the two in water. Since now they did mythical things such as complimenting each other, which was a real development in the past few weeks.

“I’d say our Kenma is a much smarter player than him, but Noguchi-san definitely has more stamina and power than him.” Kuroo shared his analysis.  

“Hm, how does he stack up against Akaashi?” Alyona wondered.

Kuroo thinks for a moment before answering, “I’d say if you gave Akaashi-kun another year, maybe less, he’d be able to easily out setter him.”

Yaku patted and or hit Kuroo on the back, “Wow, your vocabulary almost rivals Yona-chan’s.” he commended sarcastically.

They had a quick laugh before the shrill whistle interrupted their banter. It looked like the match was starting, the captains of both teams met and it seemed like Sengoku Biz was going to begin by serving, which wasn’t ideal, but Komi and the two 3^rd years on the team were very good receivers so they could do it.

The Sengoku Biz player number 5, decked in green, stepped up to serve. They only managed to get 2 points before Fukuroudani managed to get a chance ball and Bokuto immediately managed to spike it, getting them on the board. Fukuroudani managed to snag 3 more points before they let those in green win one back.

---

The match was about to end and it seemed like Fukuroudani was going to win it. The first set was won 25 : 20 and it finished with a completely surprising setter dump from Akaashi, Fukuroudani went crazy and practically squished their youngest starter to death. Sengoku Biz managed to secure the second set early on with a Pinch server who could do multiple types of serves and changed it a lot, which made it extra difficult to predict.

The final set was currently at match point for Fukuroudani. The Green players managed to set up a quick attack, but Komi managed to save it at the last moment, sending the ball over to Akaashi, who tossed the ball up to one of the 3^rd years. However, the spike was too rushed, which decreased the power in the hit, allowing the opposing team to pick it up, they passed it around and made a synchronized attack, but the decoys were sloppy having used so much energy throughout, and so Washio managed to kill block the spiker. The ball fell on the oppositions side of the court, the whistle blew, and now Fukuroudani was going onto the third day of competitions!

The team on court was celebrating loudly and so were the spectators who had come to support them, Nekoma included.

---

The last few rays of light were leaving the sky as the sun set just after 5 pm. Once the sun set, it became especially cold, all the people were wrapped up in their jackets and scarfs.

Kuroo and Kenma were both wearing long padded jackets and scarves. On the other hand, Alyona was only kitted up in an extra hoodie over her uniform, fluffy socks and some ear muffs that weren’t even being put to use. The trio were standing by the exit to the arena waiting for the Fukuroudani students who agreed to go out with them after their match for a bit of a celebration, but it was actually just an excuse to hang out and sit in a park.

After a few minutes of waiting; Bokuto, Shirofuku and Akaashi appeared, all in similar regalia as Kuroo and Kenma, the tallest of the three were wearing a thick bright pink scarf, for extra warmth.

“Hey, Hey, Hey! Guess who won the match!” Bokuto, the only person who would somehow have more energy after a match than before, yelled the second he saw them again.

Kuroo grinned and double high fived him over Shirofuku’s head, “Yeah we saw, good job man.”

“That first set and kill you two pulled off was really good.” Kenma said, looking at both Akaashi and Bokuto.

Akaashi smiled but deflected the compliment, “Thanks, but we couldn’t have done it if Komi hadn’t pulled off that receive.”

“Of course, you’re a team, but you both did really well today.” Shirofuku stared Akaashi down, till he took the compliment, he sighed quickly but nodded.

Kuroo clapped his hands together, “Anyway, let’s get going before you guys have to go back home.”

“Oh, I literally just realized, but shouldn’t you guys be resting?” Alyona said, spinning around to ask Akaashi, and almost bumping into the glass door had Kenma not pulled her out of the way.

“Oh Yeah, Day three hell.” Shirofuku pointed out. Both of the Nekoma 1^st years looked at her confused.

Kuroo decided to explain, “On the third day of the Spring Nationals both the third round and quarterfinal happen on the same day. It’s really draining and thus called Day Three Hell.”

Kenma looked disgusted, “Maybe I don’t want to go to nationals anymore.”

“Kenma, no.” Kuroo said in a faux upset voice, “Next year we’re beating these guys at nationals.”

“Hell yeah!” Alyona cheered.

Shirofuku fought back, “Woah don’t get ahead of yourself there.” Everyone immediately started bickering, they had to stop Bokuto and Kuroo from getting into a proper fight as they were crossing the road to the conbini.

---

The group had all bought food from the conbini, everyone who had already found and bought their food were waiting right next to the exit, opening the packets of their food before they froze stiff in the cold outdoors.

“Yona-chan, I’m gonna go buy this now,” Bokuto said, holding up the Onigiri set he picked out to Alyona who, was still crouched on the ground making her own selection.

“Mh, okay.” She glanced up quickly before replying.

She was staring at the wall of onigiri trying to decide whether she wanted three of the Onsen Tamago version or the Yaki version. She was staring at it, aware that she was taking way too long to decide such a simple thing, but she was indecisive as hell. She sighed, screw the 3 for 2 deal, she’d just get two Yaki and one Onsen Tamago. She grabbed the Onigiri off the shelf, and made her way to the cash register after grabbing hot canned tea. Listen, she might be okay with the cold but she didn’t want to freeze.

She glanced over to the others who were mid conversation as she placed the food onto the counter for the cashier, who was a nice looking older lady, to scan. Alyona already had the payment for the food in her hand, ready to hand over and leave.

“That’s 590 Yen please.” The woman informed her in a gruff voice. Alyona handed her the coins without much thought, she reached for the onigiri before the woman hit her hand.

“This is 710 Yen.” She said in a slow, overly annunciated manner, her tone was taut and she didn’t seem very happy about Alyona’s little mistake.

“Oh sorry,” Alyona started, throwing a quick glance at her friends who weren’t really paying attention, but she wasn’t sure what the woman wanted her to say.

“The Onigiri is three for two, it says it very clearly on the sign, if you really go to school here,” She said, scrutinizing the uniform she was wearing, “you must be skipping a lot of classes.”

Alyona felt a bit awkward, not used to being accused so openly, she stuttered through a response. “Um no miss, sorry, I just assumed that you could only by three of the same version.”

She was a bit guilty that the woman wasn’t completely wrong. She had glanced at the sign that said 3 for 2 and didn’t read any further when Bokuto got happy about the deal and grabbed there of the same thing, so she pieced it together, but now it was obvious she pieced it together wrong.

“Well, if you could read Japanese then you’d know that’s what it says.” Now her voice was very clearly annoyed, she loudly grabbed the right coins for change. The loud clinking sounds finally caught the attention of the rest of the group, who looked at Alyona with a light mix of concern and confusion as to why the woman was so irked.

The woman finally handed Alyona the receipt, she just stood silently and picked up her stuff, she smiled tightly and bowed multiple times. She walked away but she was still close enough to hear the woman as she mumbled, “Foreigners shouldn’t be so ignorant, just learn the language if you want to be here, pretending by wearing a uniform is not enough.”

Alyona shook her head and sighed, she told herself to ignore it, this wasn’t anything unusual, but she was still embarrassed. She just walked straight out of the door, the others looked at each other confused for a moment before they followed her out.

Kuroo was the first one to mention it, “What was that about?” he asked, pulling her back by her arm.

Alyona looked in through the glass window to see if the cashier was looking at them, but she was already serving another customer. She sighed angrily, “The old woman was angry that I ‘didn’t read the deal sign’,” she said with big air quotes. “She actually just didn’t like that I was foreign.” She sighed again, “But whatever.”

The others looked at each other behind her back unsure of what they should do. This wasn’t something they had ever experienced or seen happen with customer service, not to mention they didn’t really have experience with Alyona being upset. Akaashi rolled his eyes at them, for being so over precarious. “Well that’s rude, I mean she literally works at a 7/11,” he said to her pointing at the green conbini.

She bit out a laugh, “I know right, it’s from the US.”

“Yeah she’s committing treason on enemy territory.” Kenma tried to add his own dry humor to cheer her up.

She smiled as she shook her head, “Unacceptable.” She said with mirth.

---

They were all crammed onto a bench in Shinjuku Gyoen National Park. Every time someone moved their shoulder there was outrage from everyone around them as they were thrown off balance, and Kuroo and Shirofuku, who were sitting on the edges almost fell.

Alyona moved to pick up her drink that was on the ground in front of her. Everyone groaned. Immediately, Kuroo fell off the bench, his arms flailed around trying to find anything to hold, eventually his hand caught onto Bokuto’s scarf and it ended up dragging Bokuto down with him.

“Ay don’t steal my scarf.” Bokuto yelled.

Kuroo looked at him like he was dumb, “What the, you, I was just trying not to fall dude.”

“But you don’t have to grab my scarf.” He said with his hands on his hips, looking at Kuroo as if they were both toddlers.

“Why are you so attached to the scarf anyway?” Akaashi asked in a seemingly uninterested voice from over Alyona’s shoulder.

“My oldest sister gave it to me when I was fourteen since it was my favorite color then.” He said, getting up to sit back on the bench, but took up more space so that Kuroo wouldn’t be able to sit down. After trying to push him off and further in, he just sat on Bokuto. After about a minute, Bokuto gave up and moved to the side pushing Alyona into Akaashi, who squished Kenma, who almost pushed Shirofuku over the edge.

They chattered on for almost an hour, talking and bickering about random things. Shirofuku gave each of them a lollipop which devolved into all of them pretending that they were smoking, like elementary schoolers who realized that their warm breath in the winter looked like puffs of smoke. Once it started to get late, Akaashi started looking at the game Kenma was playing, Kuroo was left staring at the lights of Shinjuku through the trees, Bokuto, Shirofuku and Alyona were still talking, but as they got more tired; Bokuto got louder, Shirofuku got quieter and Alyona was losing communication skills rapidly.

It was nearing 7 pm and Shirofuku reminded the boys that they had to be back at the hotel by dinner. So, they all said good night to each other, the Nekoma members wishing the others good luck for the next day, and parted ways.

The Nekoma trio walked to the Yoyogi station, even though Shinjuku station was just as close, so that they could avoid the crowds. A quiet 15 minutes later, they all got off at their station, the boys walked Alyona half way to her house before they also said goodbye and made their way to their houses.

-Bonus-

Alyona knocked on the door to her house, knowing that if she rung the bell Yuri would kill her if she interrupted his studying or sleeping or his video call with his ‘not boyfriend’.

Yuuri opened the door for her, “Alya, how was your day?” he asked in Russian.

She quickly ran through the door, relishing the warmth and familiar scent of their house. She grinned at her Uncle, “Oh my god, it was amazing!”

She launched off into a long explanation of her day full of tangents around every corner, she stayed talking throughout all of dinner and it was nearing the middle of the night when Yuuri reminded her that she had to get up for training tomorrow.

She did a speed run of her evening routine, got into bed, sent a few messages to her friends in America before finally going to sleep.

…

Chapter Text

2-Chōme Nishiochiai, Shinjuku, Tokyo

10:10, Saturday 20^th of February

The Team was walking down a street in a residential neighbourhood of Nishiochiai. They all decided to meet up on their day off, to go to Alyona’s House, to, drumroll please. Study. Yay. Finals were coming up and everyone was stressing once again, so Tetsuro suggested to the team that they should prepare together, and Alyona offered to host everyone at her house. Which lead them to their current location, waiting in front of her house, with Alyona nowhere in sight. She had told them that she was at training but would be waiting for them by the time they got there, which she currently wasn’t.

Just when Yaku pulled out his phone to text her, they heard two voices arguing. Walking down the street were Alyona and her cousin Yuri, who were arguing, loudly, in Russian. Their friend was glaring at her taller relative. They’d seen that glare before, which made him wonder how Yuri wasn’t cowering in a corner somewhere far far away. Then he looked at Yuri and, oh god, his glare was even worse. Tetsuro was sure that if that glare was directed at him he’d disintegrate, none of the glaring he’d experienced from his Grandma or Yaku would be able to prepare him.

Yet, Alyona seemed to be a stronger soldier than him, because she did not back down. The two were obviously trying to keep their voices down, but they were failing miserably.

The pair walked past them and Yuri darted into the house after saying something to Alyona, which caused her to move in a way that looked like she was going to punch him. She held back though, instead she clenched and unclenched her fists, closed her eyes and breathed out a puff of air.

She gave them a slightly irate smile, but spoke to them in a much calmer and quieter voice, “Sorry about that. We were discussing something about the skate we’re preparing.”

The whole team synced and looked at her in a way that meant that they didn’t believe her, because what they witnessed was not a calm ‘discussion’. They didn’t say anything though, because when you have Yaku on your team, you have to develop survival instincts at some point.

Alyona shook her and pushed the hair out of her face before letting them into the gate. They followed her obediently.

“Okay,” She sighed as she opened the front door to the house, “Welcome in, spare slippers are in that basket,” She pointed to a grey basket by the door.

She moved to the stairs on the right of the entrance, she turned to them, “So, I’m going to go change out of my training gear. Those of you who’ve been here before, show the others around, get some drinks, we can work in the living slash dining room.”

She made a clicking sound with her tongue and gave them a thumbs up before disappearing up the staircase.

“So,” Tetsuro began, pointing down the hallway, “The room is this way.”

---

When Alyona appeared in the room she was noticeably calmer and wearing her glasses, with a much more peaceful look on her face. She surveyed the room, noticing everyone had spread out, all of those who needed help with Geography were sitting on the floor around a coffee table all staring at Kai like lost puppies, or kittens in this situation.

The rest had all pulled-up chairs around the excessively large rectangular dining table. Don’t ask her why Viktor insisted on such a large table for a four-person household. Then again, it did come in handy when they had friends staying over.

She pulled out a chair at the table across from Kuroo and Yaku, who promised to teach her History and Japanese respectively. She winced quietly when she sat down, Kenma looked up from where he was sitting, Potya curled up on his lap, “You okay?”

“Ah yeah,” she laughed, “The whole left side of my body is just a bit bruised.”

Yaku looked at her with a face that questioned why she was laughing about that, “Omg, How?”

She just shrugged, “Jump practice, it’s pretty standard for a skater.”

Everyone just looked at her with an expression that was the image of a confused and not fine, ‘Okay?’. However, she didn’t seem to notice and just opened her notebook, and stared at Yaku expectantly.

“Yaku-senpai, you ready?” she smiled.

He looked at her for a moment before responding, “Yes, let’s go.”

---

The team was working together well, they’d all broken up from their larger groups into pairs and trios helping each other out with different subjects. At one point, the first years all gathered around Alyona, who helped them with English comprehension, which was quite funny when you think about it; a Russian girl teaching a bunch of Japanese people English.

Yuri had even come down and helped Yaku and Kai with Physics, since he was studying the subject at University, as Alyona had informed them. The team was scared they would start arguing again, but the two Russians seemed to have suddenly completely forgotten that they were arguing.

Currently, they were all just peacefully working, some of them were slowly getting a little tired or started losing focus. Over by the coffee table, sitting on the floor, was Alyona, who was fighting a losing battle against the Japanese Language.

Alyona abruptly stood up with her books in her hand, she dragged her feet over the floor to the table, and unsuspiciously dropped her books in front of Kuroo. She looked at him in the eyes and opened her mouth to say something, and proceeded to close it again, her facial expression slowly becoming dejected.

She sighed and took a few steps back, “I can’t do it anymore.”

“Why the fuck is Kanji a thing?” She whined, leaning her forehead onto her clasped hands. She fell into a rant in Russian. The group didn’t need to know the language to understand that she was not happy. Alyona gradually sank onto the ground, until she was squatting on the ground, her head in her hands, looking like she was about to cry.

Yaku moved to sit down next to her, placing a comforting hand on her back, “It’s okay, it’s just a learning curve.”

She imminently spun her head to glare at him, “No it’s not okay.” She fell to the ground holding herself up with her arms.

“You guys have an Alphabet,” She stressed, “So why don’t you USE it?” She really looked like she was going to cry now, or maybe explode into a puddle of sadness. “Every other language uses their alphabet, so why not Japanese? You don’t need two ways to write things?”

“Actually, Chinese is just characters,” Takechi pointed out, not reading the atmosphere.

Not the right move.

“AND Japanese didn’t have to use the dumb characters too.” Alyona proceeded to melt into a puddle on the floor. “If I ever meet the man who decided to keep Kanji I’m going to punch him.” She mumbled.

Kuroo fake whispered to Yaku, covering his mouth with his right hand as if that would block the sound from reaching Alyona. “Who’s gonna tell her he’s already dead?”

“I know,” she groaned, Yaku had to suppress a laugh and continued to pat her on the back comfortingly.

From the other side of the room there was another cry. Yaku almost snapped his neck, turning around. Yoshihara had tears in his eyes, “I can’t do it anymore either.” He was staring down at his chemistry books in desperation.

“You know what,” Sakae also began his voice just as defeated as the other two, but Kuroo stepped in before he could stomp on all their dwindling morale.

Kuroo clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention before he spoke, “How about we call it a day? We’ve done a lot of work today. So, let’s just get out of here.”

Everyone immediately agreed as they started packing their things up, all relieved to take a break.

Soon they were all putting their shoes on and quickly going out of the door. Alyona walked the group to the subway station, before grabbing groceries on the way home.

---

A couple of weeks had passed since their first study session, it was now March, Spring was right around the corner. The weather was getting warmer bit by bit, though it was still cold enough that the Japanese students hadn’t abandoned their coats and sweaters yet. Alyona had already switched from her thick hoodies to wearing cardigans on the daily, not as bothered by the cold as the rest.

In the past two weeks leading up to the exams nothing very interesting had happened, other than the practice match that the volleyball team had against Fukuroudani. Nekoma’s 3^rd years had been invited back for one last set against their 3^rdyear friends on the other team, and likewise it was Fukuroudani’s 3^rd years last time playing before they graduated. It was a nice short event, as older alumni came by to visit and watch them play, even an old manager from 2 years back came to watch. She was very happy to see that Alyona was there to take care of the team. The previous manager talked to the 3^rdyears like they were babies, something Alyona aspired to be like since the 3^rd years still kind of intimidated her.

It was a nice thing to experience but Alyona had more pressing matters, such as the week of exams that had just begun. They had Biology this morning, which went okay, she thought, at least. She understood all the concepts but the vocab was a bit more difficult, but all in all, she’d pass, hopefully. The same can’t be said for the exam she had just taken after lunch, her arch enemy, Japanese Literature.

She studied hard, but at the end of the day she was still nowhere near fluent in the language. Guessing had been her strategy for at least half of that exam, but guessing Kanji wasn’t like the easiest thing in the world, she was pretty sure she just wrote down the butchered Kanji for bag like three times. But she was certain that she got at least a few questions right, at least more than last time, which is an improvement.

She was reclining in her chair, slowly stretching out her arms and legs the way a cat would, getting the creases out of her arms and legs.

Kenma, Kosai, Yokomizo and Herself were sitting in a square talking about the exams, Kosai having moved over into the empty seat in front of Kenma, as most students had left the classroom to go for a walk or talk to friends in other classes, other than a few people standing around the doorways and a handful of people in the back of the class they were the only people in there.

Yokomizo groaned, “Ugh, I need a drink after that, do you all want anything?”

Kosai stood up quickly, “Yes! I need some coffee, but I’ll go with you.”

“Mmm, can you get me some chocolate milk please?” Alyona asked, smiling up at her friends.

“I’ll have some green tea, thanks.” Kenma said in a wheezy voice. He was recovering from a cold he had over the weekend.

“Sure thing!” Yokomizo grinned, before motioning for Kosai to follow her out of the room.

Alyona and Kenma were close enough now to just sit together quietly without feeling awkward, and she was thankful for it. Honestly, she was just so tired now, she really needed a nap.

Yet, they didn’t have time to sit together quietly because someone who was now becoming a common annoyance, decided to walk into the classroom.

Kumata walked past Alyona’s back, pretending to look as if she was just innocently walking by. She pretended to shout to her friends, when she was really just directing a jab at Alyona, “Don’t worry too much about the exam girls, no matter what you do, you won’t get last place, that spot is already taken.” She finished by kicking the leg of Alyona’s chair, who just rolled her eyes in response.

“You’ve been here for a year and yet it doesn’t seem like you’ve improved much at all, you’re just wasting your and the teachers’ time at this point. I do hope that I won’t be seeing you after your cute little exchange year here.” Kumata shot off in rap fire Japanese, not even taking a breath between sentences.

“Kumata-san, would you just-” Alyona hissed, but the other girl didn’t even give her time to bite back.

Kumata painted a mocking pout onto her face, playing with her long black hair, “Sorry, Nikiforova-chan, could you speak more clearly, I can’t understand you with that thick accent of yours.”

Alyona sighed, turning around to give the Japanese girl her coldest and most angry glare, one she usually reserved for people like JJ. Kumata flinched slightly, she never dealt with Alyona when she was angry, as her usual strategy was ignoring her and not giving the older girl the pleasure of getting a reaction.

“Can’t you understand me?” Kumata mocked, a little bit less confident than she had been a minute ago.

“Kumata-san, would you please shut the fuck up.” Kenma snapped, his voice cold, looking up at Kumata from his seat dissecting her with almost disinterested eyes. Everyone in the room was looking at their usually quiet classmate in surprise. “Are you really so insecure about your own shitty grades that you need to pick on someone who’s not even native to feel better about yourself? If she was as bad as you keep on saying, why does it sound like you’re threatened by her? Why don’t you go to Russia or even just America? I’d love to see you try and get through even one day without falling apart.”

The silence in the room was so intense you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was looking at Kenma with shock, eyes wide and jaws on the floor. Kenma himself looked a bit shocked, but moved on anyway.

Kenma scoffed at Kumata dismissively, “Let’s go Yona.” He said, standing up from his seat. Alyona quickly followed his lead, getting up and following him out of the room, not sparing a glance at the other girl.

---

“You really ripped her to shreds.” Alyona laughed, “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Neither did I.” Kenma said quietly, slightly embarrassed at his actions, even if it was kind of cathartic, because Kumata was really getting on his nerves and listening to her talk about his friend like that really made him angry.

“Thanks though, Kenma,” She said, nudging him with her arm, “Anyway, where are we going?”

“The vending machines?” He looked at her as if it wasn’t obvious, gesturing at the hallway, pointing to the door leading to the outside. “You know what, your Japanese is fine but you really need to get your eyes checked out.”

Alyona sputtered, “Kenma, that’s uncalled for!”

“It’s true.” He shrugged.

---

The end of the school year was approaching fast, there was only one more week left in the year, a week which Alyona would be missing. Sadly, for her teachers, the World Championships were more important than getting her grades back on Monday, to her at least.

Alyona was spending her last day in Japan at the dance studio with her friends. They weren’t doing anything too strenuous, just a bit of free dancing or random dance plays from J-pop or K-pop. It was simple, and perfect for Alyona to get her mind off the impending competition, she wasn’t going to pretend, she was very nervous. The flight to Stockholm was tomorrow and if she didn’t exert some energy right now she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

She had just finished a random dance play match against Kaita Kadogake, who had just joined a few weeks ago, and they had become friends fast. He was fun and also the first person in the team who was similar in age to hers with him only being a few months older.

“Good job, pretty boy,” Makina teased, throwing a bottle of water at him.

Kaita grumbled, “Will they ever stop calling me that?” he asked, looking up at Alyona who was standing next to him.

She grinned, “Eventually.”

“Very comforting.” He replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

She explained, “My nickname was worse, but it wears off once they learn your name, anyway. They’re not wrong though.” And the group wasn’t wrong, he had a mysterious androgynous look to him, especially with his slightly longer hairstyle.

“I know I’m gorgeous, thanks.” He said in a faux flamboyant manner. “But,” he went on, “what was your nickname anyway?”

She heaved a long sigh, “It was Elsa.”

He laughed, “They really didn’t have to work hard there.”

“I know! I mean they’re all so unoriginal, someone really needs to teach our senpai’s how to be more creative.” Alyona complained.

“Yo-chan, did I just catch you bad mouthing us?” Makina shouted, pretending to be offended.

“Yeah,” the blond girl replied. Makina put a hand on her heart and mouthed, ‘Why?’

“Because you guys suck!” The two shouted back together.

Makina looked around to the others, “WOW, the babies are fighting back guys.”

Their other teammates all started to go off and they ended up doing one more random dance play free for all. Needless to say, when Alyona got home that evening, she fell asleep the second she hit the bed, no time to worry or even think about the competition coming up the next week.

...

Chapter Text

Stockholm, Sweden – 2021 World Figure Skating Championships

18:00, Tuesday 23^rd of March

Alyona was tired, really tired, which logically meant that she should be sleeping right now, right? Wrong. Instead of sleeping in a nice, soft, warm bed, in a quiet hotel room, she was lying across a cold, hard bench, because someone (coughViktorcough) dragged her along to the Competition Arena. Apparently, he needed to sort out a few logistics and wanted some company. However, he met Cao Bin, a friend of his apparently, and they started talking, and then he met another friend, and another, and another, and now she was waiting for him to drive them back to the hotel. Because apparently, her Uncle was immune to jet lag, a trait Alyona had not inherited.

She was scrolling through all the reels Jake had sent her on Instagram. Which consisted of a lot of plant moms, book memes, and ducks? Either way they were keeping her mildly entertained, but by the fifth time she dropped the phone on her face she gave up.

She settled for staring at the ceiling. The air was comfortably cold, and if she focused she could probably fall asleep here. She was starting to settle into that in between place of wake and asleep, still aware but the sounds felt far away.

“You alright?” Said a Feminine British voice, but Alyona didn’t really pay attention, it didn’t sound like it was her being talked to anyway.

“‘Excuse me, Russian girl?” Said the same voice again, this time closer and clearer.

Alyona sighed, slowly dragginh herself up into a sitting position. “Yes?” she grumbled.

The girl smiled, “I knew I recognized you.”

Alyona squinted at her, trying to remember where she’d meet the girl before. She was very pale and had long straight brown hair, and her eyes were a warm hazel colour. It was dawning on her that she’d seen the British girl before, maybe at a competition, but a name wasn’t coming to mind.

“Mm, you have nice eyes.” Her sleep addled brain blurted. Good job brain.

British girl made a face but soldiered on, “Uh, thanks. I’m Charlotte Hills.”

A light bulb light up in Alyona’s brain, “Oh, I have seen you before, in Beijing?”

The British girl – Charlotte – simply nodded. “I’m Alyona Niki-”

“Nikiforov, yes I know who you are, hard not to know one of Russia’s many prized figure skaters.” She remarked dryly.

“It’s actually Nikiforova.” She stressed the ‘a’ sound.

“Oh, my fault, I’m just so used to hearing ‘Nikiforov’, crazy how he’s famous even after retiring.” Charlotte marvelled, but her tone felt dishonest, or maybe that was just Alyona’s tired mind talking.

She didn’t respond immediately, instead she simply sighed again and turned her eyes away from the Brunette to stare off into the distance, or in this case a wall. She couldn’t blame people for not remembering her for her, Viktor was so famous that everyone was just a person in relation to him, they were just, ‘Viktor Nikiforov’s Husband’, ‘Viktor Nikiforov’s Student’, and of course ‘Viktor Nikiforov’s Niece’. Either way the other two were known before she had even started skating, and of course she had her mom’s last name. Which meant it would always be Alyona Nikiforov and not Alyona Nikiforova. Even a few MC’s had gotten it wrong before, and more than a couple news outlets.

Most skaters, especially those in the same division or their family friends, knew her proper name, and used it. However, it seemed like Charlotte was a new skater, or just rather unaware. Then again, she couldn’t get angry at her, I mean she hadn’t even remembered the British girls first name.

A hand invaded her field of sight, Alyona shook her head, yawning while turning to look at Charlotte again. She looked a bit irritated.

She smiled a bit as an apology. “Sorry, I spaced out, what did you say.”

“Not much going on up there, huh.” She said poking Alyona’s forehead. “I was saying that I look forward to competing against you. I want to see whether the Nikiforov blood really is that special.”

She forced a laugh, “I’m looking forward to beating you.”

Charlotte huffed, standing up from the bench, “Can’t say I wasn’t expecting you to be like that, don’t be so sure of yourself. England is going to be known as a Skating powerhouse again soon.”

“What do you mean?” She asked, confused about what Charlotte, ‘was expecting’ for her to be like.

The British girl scowled, “Whatever, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said as she walked away.

“Huh, oh,” Alyona realized how what she said may have been misinterpreted. “I meant what you thought about me being like something.”

Charlotte turned, “You’re rude, Nikiforov.”

“Sorry?” Alyona was shocked, had she been rude? She sighed again, she was too tired for this. She’ll just clear up everything tomorrow.

---

Later after Alyona had gotten a nice long nap she was sitting in Yuri’s room eating some food provided by room service.

“Hey, Yura. Does my tone sound rude to you?” She pondered. Taking another bite of food.

Yuri tsked, “You’re always rude to me Bitch.”

“Says you, Jerk.” She pouted, mouth still full of food.

“Ew, chew with your Mouth closed.” Yuri shouted, pushing the girl over.

“Ow, dude, you made me drop my food!”

---

It was the day of the Ladies Free Skate, Alyona had already completed her skate, she ended up in 4^th place after the Short Program. Her skate went fine, it was a fun and energetic skate, she loved performing to ‘All in the Golden Afternoon’, and the audience loved to watch is.

However, her mind didn’t seem to be in the right place that day, maybe it was the pressure, maybe she should check her period tracking app, but whatever it was. She kept making small mistakes, which on their own wouldn’t have had much of an affect, but compiled she ended up dropping enough points to fall out of the top 3. A few slip ups with her foot work, and an under rotation on her Lutz and Axel, all in all it wasn’t her most perfect skate, but thankfully it was still good enough for her to get 4^th.

She managed to catch up after finishing the Free Skate, she was safely in second place, just behind Mila by 6 points overall. There was only one more skater left in the day, unlucky for her it was Sara, if she didn’t have any major mess ups then Alyona would most likely be knocked down into 3^rd.

Yet, it seemed like Alyona wouldn’t be so lucky. It seemed like Sara was going to put her whole soul into her last competitive skate. She was skating to Puccini, her performance was perfect, she didn’t have many extremely high difficulty jumps, but her GOE was perfect on the jumps she could perform, this was born from two decades worth of practice, and refinement. Not to mention that her choreography was stunning, the quick swaying movements of her skate were complemented by a flowing of the shoulder skate costume.

It was nearing the end of the skate, Sara had one more element left to complete. She bent into a beautiful Layback spin with a catch foot, as the music crescendo for a last time she released her foot stretching her clasped hands in front of her body. The piece cut out with one more dramatic string play, as Sara finished her skate with her arms arched over her head.

Mila sighed from beside Alyona, “Well that was a flawless skate if I’ve ever seen one.”

“She wasn’t lying when she said she’d go out with a bang.” Yan Hyunh, who was currently in 3^rd, laughed quietly. “I can’t say I’m very happy about being kicked off the podium but she deserves this.”

The Italian skater made her way to the kiss and cry, cheers following her off the ice. It only took a few minutes before the results were announced, she got 163.87 points, which was only a couple points below the current world record, and safely lifted her into 1^st place.

Sara’s face was adorned with a grin, she celebrated with her coach, and thanked her family and coach on camera.

---

Alyona was standing in the dark by the rink, a pair of Chinese ice dancers who had won gold were currently doing their exhibition skate. She had just gotten changed out of her exhibition dress, and into the outfit they had picked out for their special group performance. She was wearing a frilly white blouse, tucked tightly underneath a corset belt which morphed into loose fitted slacks, made of very stretchy material perfect for the flexibility needed for skating. 

Out of the corner of her eye she could see her cousin approach, Yuri didn’t seem to notice her, so she snuck up behind him and pulled back his suspender and releasing it, making a snapping sound as it hit his back.

“Alya!” Yuri whisper screamed, “What the fuck?”

She just smiled innocently, twirling around to watch the pair skaters as they performed a death drop. “You ready for the performance?”

“Tch, of course I am.” Yuri was faking nonchalance, the younger knew how excited he was for this, he had been looking forward to it for months.

Alyona hummed in response. Yuri was busy fiddling with the collar of his own blouse, which was buttoned down quite a bit, showing the black shirt he wore underneath. They were all going for a cohesive classy look, now if only Yuuri and Viktor could show up so that they could complete the set.

The Chinese skaters had already gotten off the ice by the time that Yuuri appeared wearing his pin tucked white blouse, in tow was Viktor wearing his dark-blue near black chiffon shirt. They were all together now, ready for their performance.

Yuuri spoke up after greeting them, “After Sara’s skate there’s going to be a brief announcement before we go on. In that time, we need to get into our positions alright?”

They nodded. Viktor smiled mischievously, “Remember to be extra quiet while getting into your corners. We don’t want to alert the audience to the surprise.”

Alyona smiled, “Yeah, yeah, we know.”

She was so excited for this. This was going to be their last and only chance to perform at a gala all together. Today marked the end of an era, so many experienced skaters were ending their competitive carriers today. She could only imagine what Yuuri and Sara – who had just taken to the Ice – were feeling today.

---

Sara’s skate was over, it was go time. The Quartet split up, Alyona and Viktor entered through the left entrance to the rink, before quietly sliding into her designated corner, holding onto the railing for guidance in the pitch-black arena.

Alyona had her back pressed to the wall of the ice rink, nervously holding her breath as the music began.

The piano of their own unique track began, it was dubbed ‘History Maker’ by Dean Fujioka who they had employed to make it.

Like that the Magic begun.

A blue spotlight shone on Yuuri as he pushed into the rink, swinging his leg from a beautiful swirl into a short Besti squat. He reached up to the sky as he twisted his body facing back towards his corner.

‘I close my eyes,’

A second light blue light joined Yuuri’s, as Yuri entered the centre of the ice. He jumped into an extended Lutz, gracefully landing on the Ice, sliding past the Japanese man in perfectly timed symmetry. Alyona took a final breath, now it was her turn.

‘There’ll be no more darkness,’

A third colour light up the stadium as Alyona slid onto the ice followed by violet hues. Arms fluttering lightly as if she were a ballerina, the girl lowered her arm as she spun between the other two.

‘Where your destiny lies,’

Dark purple illuminated the stadium, as Viktor became visible. A shout erupted from the audience, shocked to see the legend performing. He executed a spiral before kneeling on one knee, arm stretched out to the spectators, his three team mates coming together, gliding past him.

‘Don’t stop us now.’

The four all slid perfectly into a side by side, effortlessly synchronised as they skated backwards on the ice, executing choreographed foot work, arms swaying around them creating beautiful imagery, as if a flock doves were riding the winds in the sky. They circled around the ice angled towards different corners before reproaching the centre of the rink.

‘Yes, we were born to make history.’

The whole stadium light up, a painting of lights across the arena. All four spun away from each other perfectly timed just as they were close enough to collide, their left arms extended towards each other.

They continued this breath-taking dance, slipping past one another, mirror skating towards their opposite, moving between each other like pendulums. They’d pair up into duos; Uncle and Niece, Cousins, Husbands, no matter which pair they were in, it was as perfect and seamless as ever. They performed flawless jumps, in synchronisation, or one after another as a domino.

The family moved with one another so blissfully it was as if they were born to perform together. They were mostly unrelated to each other but had found their way together by some magical fate. Yet the image they created together made it seem like they were made to fit together like puzzle pieces.

‘You believe in, yourself you are unstoppable.’

The Nikiforov’s were paired off, skating next to each other as the younger turned to skate backwards facing her Uncle. She extended her hand as an offering, Viktor took it. They pulled together into a wonderful pair dance, and from then on Alyona couldn’t help the careless smile that painted her face.

‘You set my heart on FIRE’

The four circled around one another, moving in and out of the centre point, each cutting flower pedals into the ice. The rink was being cut into a beautiful flower as the family worked together.

‘We’ll make it happen.’

Yuri and Alyona leaped into a synchronized triple axel on opposite ends of the arena, flipping to skate back towards the centre, reaching towards each other as they passed, moving into a spiral. Viktor and Yuuri both jumped into a loop, before skating towards the centre yet not meeting.

‘We were born to make history.’

Yuuri and Alyona were paired together, holding onto each other’s fore arms as they spun around. It was a very simple move, but one of the first things that Yuuri had every taught Alyona, not for competition but just for the fun of it.

‘We were born to make history.’

A synchronized footwork sequence.

‘We were born to make history.’

A quartet of Bielmann spins.

‘Yes! We were born to make History.’

Viktor, Yuuri, Alyona and Yuri all came together in the centre of the ice. The elder two sliding into a kneeling position, one arm tucked behind their back and the other extended in an open armed gesture. The younger Russians stood behind the couple, one arm held to their back as the other arm extended into the air.

The last notes of the song rang through the arena, all illumination other than their spot lights switched off. The audience seemed to hold their breath for a moment, before what just happened settled into their minds and they burst out cheering.

The family on the centre of the ice looked at one another, ears not yet perceiving the sound. Their faces all mirroring the same happy grin.

---

They had just gotten off the ice. Alyona was still dazed from the skate, she had never been so happy skating. She loved skating yes, but it could be stress full at times, especially competing. Today, she had renewed her love for it. She was glad that Yuuri had included her on this project.

Viktor caught her staring off into the distance, he placed a hand of his Niece’s shoulder. “You did an amazing job today.”

She smiled shifting her gaze to her feet. She was only a small part of it, the history makers as the song suggested, were her Uncles. Yuuri and Viktor had broken so many records and achieved so much.

Viktor nudged her shoulder lightly, Alyona looked up at her Uncle who was now also staring out at the ice rink. “Yuuri is retiring now. Which means all our attention will be focused on you and Yura. The message of the song doesn’t apply to Yuuri and I, we are part of history now, you are the History maker.”

Alyona was surprised, “What?”

Viktor smiled down at her, “Lenochka, you are the future of the skating world. You’ve got so much talent and you’re so hard working, you’ll create history one day.”

Alyona could feel tears forming in her eyes, “How do I know if that happens?”

“You won’t realize it form one day to the next, but sometime in the future I’m sure people will begin referring to me as just the great Alyona Nikiforova’s Uncle.”

…

Chapter Text

RoRo Tea, Nakai, Tokyo

16:45, Friday 2^nd of April

Makina, Kaita and Alyona were sitting in the back corner of a small local café. They were simply catching up a bit after the youngest had returned from Stockholm.

“Sooo”, Kaita drew out, “What’re you planning on doing for the rest of the spring break, Yo?”

“Uh, not much,” the blond pouted, “I only have one week left till school starts up again.”

The other two groaned.

“Don’t remind me,” Makina cried. “It’s final year. Ugh, it’s gonna be so difficult.”

“Uh, I don’t want to be rude, but didn’t you just finish third year?” Kaita tilted his head, questioning what she was still doing in school.

“Well. I, for one, go to a Technical school, so I’ve got four years to complete. Which means this time next year I’ll officially be free!” The red-head confessed in a sing-song voice.

She giggled. “Meanwhile, you two are still stuck in second year.”

The soon-to-be second years sighed and went back to sipping their drinks.

Makina tsked playfully, “Well, aren’t you two in a good mood.”

They both leveled her with the same peeved stare, saying ‘And who’s to thank for that?’

“Any who, you didn’t answer the question, Yo-chan. What’re you gonna do over the next week?”

“I’m going to meet up with some of my friends from school, but other than that, basically nothing. Just gonna relax a bit through the off season while I can.” Alyona hummed, she was looking forward to sleeping longer. She had no jobs lined up for April, her first professional schedule was in May, and then On-season started again in June. Which meant she had almost 3 months she could sleep through, with a body that didn’t ache every time she so much as lifted her leg.

Suddenly, a dozen buzzes lit up her phone. Alyona giggled, glancing at her phone to look at the notifications, turns out it was the ‘Gym 5 Nerds’, “Speak of the demon. That’s them.”

Kaita pointed at her with his fork, “It’s actually ‘Devil’. ‘Speak of the devil.’”

“Oh. Right.” She sighed, resting her head on the table. “Ugh I’m not ready to go back to speaking Japanese all day.” The older two both laughed but pat her on the back comfortingly anyway.   

---

< Gym 5 Nerds

_Akaaaashiii

Wait so where are we meeting? _16:54

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Idk _16:55

She hasn’t been very specific _16:55

_Akaaaashiii

She’s such a great communicator isn’t she _16:55

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Yeah 囧_16:56

_Akaaaashiii

I think _16:56

I think she said something about meeting her at Higashi-Nakano station? _16:56

_{Kenma (=_=)}

ヽ(´ー｀)┌ _16:56

_Akaaaashiii

Kenma…_16:57

That’s not helpful…_16:57

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Yh _16:57

_17:07 Okay Okay

_17:07 Yeah

_17:07 Higashi-Nakano is right

_17:08 We’re going Ice skating so wear some thick pants

_{Kenma (=_=)}

No _17:10

_17:10 You literally already agreed to this

_Akaaaashiii

Kenma agreed to a meet up that’s not just sitting around _17:10

Crazy _17:11

Never been seen before _17:11

_{Kenma (=_=)}

 (~_~;) _17:11

_17:11 We ALREADY had this discussion

_17:11 And you agreed to go

_17:11 (＾▽＾)

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Yeah Yeah Ik ik _17:12

_Akaaaashiii

So _17:12

It’s Thursday right? _17:12

_17:12 Yupp

_Akaaaashiii

What time should we be there _17:12

_17:12 Ummm

_Akaaaashiii

Yona. _17:13

_17:14 Let’s say 15:00?

---

It was the Thursday before the start of the new school year. As usual for April weather, it had rapidly changed from sunny, to full on raining within an hour. The trio quickly made their way to the ice rink, all huddled under the tiny umbrella Keiji had brought with him.

The first thing that Keiji noticed when the sliding door to the lobby of the ice rink opened was the warmth, he had expected an ice rink to be fringed, but apparently not. What he noticed next was the smell; it was a strange mixture of rubber, musky wood, and some strange chemical that he couldn’t quite discern.

Alyona grabbed each of their wrists and skipped up to the front desk, greeting the young woman who was standing there, flipping through a Vivi magazine.

“Heya Alya, what are you here for? It’s still public hours, you know.” She queried, eyes still locked on the text she was reading.

Alyona laughed, “I know. But as you can see, I’m here with some friends, and they need skates.”

The woman finally looked up from her magazine noticing the two boys with Alyona, “Oh, damn, sorry. What are your shoe sizes?”

They gave her their sizes and were quickly situated with a pair of chunky rental skates each. Alyona pointed them to the male locker room while she strolled over to hers, swinging her own custom skates as she walked.

---

They met Alyona again once when they entered the large room, or was an arena a better description? Either way the room was large and cold. There were two dozen people in the room as well, adults chaperoning their children, couples here on a date, and a few groups of friends such as them were also on the ice.

Alyona clapped her hands together and smiled, “So, you guys ready to skate!”

She opened the gate to the ice and held open an inviting arm to let them through. Keiji stepped onto the ice and immediately clutched onto the railing to his right. Okay, time for him to pull out his long-lost skating skills from that one time he went ice skating in elementary school.

The figure skater snorted as she saw him slip, but the next thing she knew a loud thumping sound came from before her. They both looked down to see Kenma face first on the floor.

Kenma simply sighed. Alyona was contorting her face, trying not to break out into full laughter. She quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket, nabbing a quick picture of the downed boy. After laughing at her friend, she helped him up and onto the ice, where they all stood by the railing. Well, Alyona stood, the others clutched onto it.

“Um, I probably should’ve asked this before, but uh, do you guys know how to skate?” She asked, placing her hands on her hips.

They both shook their heads aggressively.

She stared at them dumbfounded, “Seriously? Never?”

Keiji raised his hand as if he was in class, “Once when I was like? Seven?”

“Okay, well. I’m sure you’ll be a natural Akaashi,” Then she looked at Kenma, who was still slipping on the ice even if his hands were still holding onto the railing. “Um, we can work on you.”

Kenma gave her a miserable look, Alyona just smiled sheepishly, picking him up by his underarms like a toddler.

“Anyway, I’ll teach you the basics. Trust me, I’m a great teacher. You’ll have it down in not time.” She promised.

---

They were 30 minutes into Alyona’s impromptu skating lesson, and it seemed like the two boys were finally figuring it out. Well, some more than others. Akaashi was skating wonderfully, very stable with good posture, and well, Kenma, he was standing. And she couldn’t have asked for more.

They were doing laps around the rink together. Alyona had a vice grip on Kenma’s right forearm, keeping him stable, and to her left Akaashi was gliding alongside them.

Akaashi was grinning, “I think I got it now!”

Alyona smiled at him as he gained a bit more speed. She knew he would be good, maybe she could convince him to change sports. He was a bit old for a skater but it never hurt to try right? Professional skaters started pretty late sometimes, she thinks at least.

While she was lost in her own little fantasy Akaashi, far too secure in his new-found confidence, slipped up. He clutched onto Alyona’s shoulder trying to stop himself from falling, but in return destabilised her who loosened her grip on Kenma for just a moment. The bleach-blond flung his arms out, holding onto her torso. The result was a domino of bodies, as Kenma fell, followed by Alyona and finally Akaashi who landed across both of them.

It was quiet for a moment. Kenma tried to get up only to land flat on the ice again. Alyona sighed. Akaashi flipped onto his back, lying flat on the ice and started laughing like there was no tomorrow.

Kenma glared at him, “You Jinxed it!” The taller boy shrugged from his place on the ground, laughing quietly to himself.

Alyona took a deep breath, staring at the sealing, letting off a string of her favourite Russian insults. She got up quickly and glided away from her friends who were still sitting on the ice like ducks.

She continued to curse in Russian, but you could hear a smile in her voice, by the time she lapped them she was simply laughing at the two of them who were struggling to get up between laughs.

---

< Gym 5 Nerds

_{Kenma (=_=)}

I’m sore in places I didn’t even know could be sore _8:23

I’m blaming this all on you _8:23

_Akaaaashiii

What on me or Yona _8:40

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Both _8:41

_8:42 I didn’t even do anything

_{Kenma (=_=)}

You made me do exercise (*￣m￣) _8:41

_Akaaaashiii

Honestly that still has me shocked _8:42

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Shut up. _8:42

_8:43 (#^.^#)

_{Kenma (=_=)}

Don’t laugh at my suffering L

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School Foyer

7:50, Monday 12^th of April

Alyona was jogging into school on her own, Kenma having gotten lost somewhere between Nerima station and Nekoma school. Kenma simply didn’t understand the urgency that was needed. It was the first day of school, which means; one, they get to figure out who they are in a class with, and TWO, once they do figure out which class they are in they must reserve their seats for the rest of the year. Alyona was very passionate about the fact that she wanted a window seat this year.

She ran up to the notice board, a small crowd of students already gathered around it. She quickly spotted her short friend, Kosai, around the edge of the crowd.

“Ouko-chan!!” Alyona shouted out the new nickname she had created for her friend, one she had come up with after a few to many sleep deprived nights studying with her friend via facetime. Her sleep deprived self-thought that the combo of Ouha Kosai’s first and last name was funny, it turned out to be cuter than anything.

“Yonaaa,” She grinned, waving her hands, “We’re in class 2-C together!”

“Oh my god, really?”

“Yup!” She said, hugging Alyona as they twirled around.

“Who else?” She asked as she started speed walking down the hall, walking in the direction that she thought their classroom was.

“Like 70 percent of the class stayed the same, so Yokomizo, and Kenma are still in the class.” Kosai explained as she grabbed the younger girls arm, directing her up the stairs to the floor that their classroom was actually on.

“Okay the only other important changes, are that that cretin Sakata, was moved to 2-E. And that sadly the K word is still in class.” Kosai grumbled, clearly unhappy with the development, or lack thereof, in this case.

Alyona smiled, finding her friends anger on her behalf comforting, “You know, there’s a lot of people whose names start with K?”

“You know who I mean,” She said with a scowl, Kumata had not made herself loved among their friend group over the past year.

The girls were making their way to the second floor, where all the second-year classrooms were located. Alyona was happy to see that they were some of the only people on the floor, which means that they could get the good seats.

As soon as the room was in sight Alyona blotted in, leaving Kosai, just like Kenma before her, to follow behind slowly. She pushed open the door, happy to see only a few people in the room and none of them sitting in the seats she had set her mind on. She swiftly manoeuvred around the tables to the windows on the other side of the room, taking the seat in the second to last row of the class room. Kosai trailed in after her, sitting down in the neighbouring seat.

Kosai laughed at Alyona’s childlike excitement at getting the seat she wanted, “Happy?”

She nodded enthusiastically, “Very! You know, it’s the little joys in life that matter.” She said with a grin.

A little chitchat later, more and more people were trailing into the classroom, and eventually, Kenma and Yokomizo trailed into the classroom as well. Kenma placed himself in front of Alyona, and the tall girl sat down in the seat next to him. Only a little while later, the classroom was filled with all 34 students that they would spend the rest of the year with. The bell rang at 8:30 and so, the first day of their second year began.

---

It was afterschool and they had their first Volleyball team meeting of the year. Alyona pushed open the door to the gym, the first person she saw was Momoi, who was holding a small stack of paper clipped to a red board.

“Hey, Momoi!” She said as she entered, giving him a friendly wave.

“Hi, Yona! How has the first day been?” He said smiling at his friend.

She shrugged, “It’s been good, I haven’t gotten used to the new class room yet. I keep getting lost again.”

The tall boy laughed, “Please never be an usher during a school festival.”

She threw an exaggerated frown his way, “Uncalled for. Anyway, are those the applications for the team?” She asked, pointing at the pin board.

He held out the papers to Alyona for her to take. “Yup, some of the 3^rd years collected them during lunch, and Kai-senpai gave them to me to give them to you.”

She flipped through the applications, “There’s only three here, do you think we’ll get more?”

Yaku, who just walked through the door as well, answered, “We’re hopefully going to get more tomorrow at the Sports club fair. The early applications are usually from those who have already played volleyball in Middle school. We’ll meet all the applicants tomorrow afternoon.”

“Oh okay, sounds good, are the first three going to come here today?” She asked. A few other team members started filtering into the gymnasium.

He shook his head, “No, today the club has a few other things to talk about.”

The ‘other things they had to talk about’, were the positions of Captain and Vice-captain, if they wanted to keep it Kuroo and Kai, and if they were happy to stay as captain. The business was quickly resolved as everyone unanimously agreed that the current arrangements were what they wanted. The coaches walked them through the first few schedules of the next two weeks, before handing over to the Captain’s to discuss for the rest of the short meet.

---

< Akaashi

Yona _17:29

Yona I can’t belive it _17:29

I really don’t know how to feel _17:29

I mean I’m happy but this feels like a lot of trust when I’m just a second year _17:30

_18:46 What?

_18:46 What happened???

_18:46 You okay????

Nothings wrong, but we were choosing new captains right _18:50

_18:50 Yeah

_18:50 We did that today too

Anyway, Bokuto’s the new captain _18:50

_18:51 Congrats but also good luck to the rest of you lol

Yeha but yk then the thing for vic-captain came up _18:51

And _18:51

BOkuto was like _18:51

“How about Akaashi” _18:52

And then everyone agreed??? _18:52

_18:52 OMG

And they asked if I wanted to do it _18:53

And I said yes of course _18:53

So now I’m Vice-Captian??? _18:53

_18:54 OMG CONGRATS ヽ(^o^)丿

_18:54 Why are you so worried that’s amazing

Second years usually aren’t captains unless the 3rds are gone _18:55

_18:55 And?

_18:55 I don’t see the problem?

I’m a Second year _18:55

_18:56 And? They trust you, they all picked you, so they want you as the Vice-captain

_18:57 Don’t doubt them or yourself you’re a great player and you’ll be an amazing vice

Okay yeah, still it’s just a bit much idk _18:57

I’m happy but really nervous, I wasn’t expecting this _18:57

_18:58 It’s okay, It’s a big thing

Yeah _18:58

_18:59 Do you think… maybe… you’re so worked up about this

_18:59 Because

_18:59 It was Bokuto who suggested it (^_-)

No _19:04

_19:04 I’m right! Yay!

I said 'no', that means the opposite of right _19:04

_19:04 But... (^^ゞ

No (ー_ー)!! _19:05

_19:05 Yes!!! (✿◠‿◠)

I’m done talking to you _19:07

_19:07 Nooo

_19:09 Akaashi

_19:10 <(｀^´)>

_19:10 Come backkkkkk

_19:10 Akashiiii

_19:11 I’m sorry I told you the truth

_19:21 HEY DON’T LEAVE ME ON READ

_19:21 AKAASHI

---

The preexisting team, were lined up in the Gymnasium, ready to greet the newcomers.

Alyona was standing at the edges of the line, holding a copy of the applications, while Kuroo had the originals. From yesterday and today, they had collected a total of nine applications, five of which had already played volleyball before, the rest thought that it might be a fun sport. One of the applicants was very interesting Shibayama Yuuki, was a very good Middle school libero, as Yaku had informed them. His middle school team managed to go to National Junior High School Volleyball Championships, the team hadn’t gotten very far, but it was impressive nonetheless.

Kuroo greeted them, and instructed them to do their introductions before they began. The team followed this up by introducing themselves as well, some of the new boys who had been staring at her in confusion, stared even more after her introduction.

That aside they started their warm ups, and guided them through the try outs.

---

Tetsuro was observing the newbies, half of which, who already knew how to play were having a four a side with some of the 2^nd years. Currently it looked like they had about three good player options so far; Obviously Shibayama Yuuki who was doing very well as a libero, there was Inuoka Sou who had the gift of height and wasn’t letting it go to waste, and Moro Ganto a good wing spiker with very strong receives. The Fourth and Fifth were alright player as well, but he didn’t seem very passionate about volleyball. Yes, their team was small and needed some extra players, however they needed to be committed. He wouldn’t be wasting time convincing players to come to practice (with the exception of Kenma).

Talking about committed players he was observing the first years who were almost complete beginners to the sport. Yaku, Sakae and Kenma were teaching and observing them was they were taught the basics of the sport. Of all of them, the only one who currently showed promise was a guy with very strong eyebrows called Teshiro Tamahiko, according to his application, he had done volleyball in elementary school, but hadn’t had the opportunity to do it since, and was now getting back into the sport. The rest looked like they were okay, they were good a following instructions but seemed to enjoy gossiping.

Which lead him to his test, aka a personality test for the newbies. During the break, he was observing how they treated, Kenma and Alyona. Kenma was commonly underestimated, and if they couldn’t respect him and his opinions than this wouldn’t work out. Their Setter was the brain of their team, he was the best analyst and the most reliable member. He wouldn’t ask for them to trust him so they had to be good enough people to do it themselves. Tetsuro had been using this technique for teams since he was in Middle school, some called him Protective but he just wanted to make sure there were good people on the team.

Alyona was a new test variable, and another rather important one. The Russian was as much part of their team as anyone else, she helped keep the team together, and was much more organized than half of the team. Not only that, but he had seen some of them staring at her earlier. Sure, Yamamoto and Yoshihara had some sort of crush on her, but they channelled that into being very protective of her from other people, and they never said anything weird or rude to her. Which created his minimum requirements, be respectful to Kenma, be respectful to Alyona, Trust Kenma and Trust Alyona. If they couldn’t do that he didn’t want them.

Which lead Tetsuro to pick out the first person to fail today, one of the already experienced players, the captain overheard him talking to another first year. He had asked why everyone was made to follow the ‘Pretty boy’ for instructions, saying he looked too timid and unathletic to be a good player. The other pointed out that Nekoma was apparently one of the top teams in Tokyo, to which boy No.1 replied that Kenma must obviously not be one of the starters then. He’d see if that opinion held on after the Newbies vs Team match after the break.

The next two who were looking to fall through were two beginners who were gossiping in the corner, he forgot their names, and Kai currently had the papers, so he’d just call the tall one Guy A and the tall but shorter one Guy B.

Alyona was currently getting extra water for team and their new additions. As she came back into the room, the two approached her.

“Hi, that must be heavy.” Guy B spoke first, gesturing to crate of water bottles she held securely in her hands.

Alyona smiled, polite as ever, “A bit, but it’s not a bother.”

Seemingly ignoring what she literally just said, Guy B tried to take it from her, “Let me carry it for you.”

She yanked the box back slightly, laughing tentatively, not wanting the atmosphere to become awkward. With a little bit of a tense smile she shook her head, “Honestly, It’s all right.”

The blond stepped back slightly looking at the two boys before her, “Is there anything I can get for you two?” While she said this, Tetsuro signalled for Yamamoto to walk over to him, getting him ready to step if needed.

Guy A made his very clumbsy and frankly cringe move, he smiled lopsidedly, and asked “Yeah, it’d be really helpful if I could get your number.”

Alyona snickered, laugh turning a bit awkward when she noticed the other two weren’t laughing, “Seriously, what can I help with?”

“I am serious.” He said frowning slightly. The Russian laughed again, before looking at him with a face that read, ‘I can’t believe people like this actually exist’.

Before either of the two could say anything more, Tetsuro sicked Yamamoto onto them, instructing him to “Attack, go!” Like one would instruct a Pokémon, or tell a dog to fetch.

“AY, You two, stop bothering our manager, and get to work!” He yelled at them as he approached stomping his feet.

“She’s too good for sorry asses like you, you’re here for volleyball so go practice!” He grabbed onto their forearms, dragging them away as he nagged them. The pair looked slightly terrified of their upperclassman who looked like a gangster with his Mohawk.

Tetsuro approached their lovely manager, asking her if she was alright.

She shrugged, “Those Kids are a bit weird, but they were actually much more chill than some other things people have said.”

He didn’t like that his friend had heard worse stuff before, but they weren’t going to go down that path today. Instead he said, “Can you even call them kids? They’re only like a few months younger than you.”

“You call us kids? And you’re not that much older than us either, I mean I can recall at least five separate occasions where you me a kid in the past month.” She pointed out, a bit of indignation in her voice.

“Yeah, I call you a kid because you’re really short.” He went patted her head for extra emphasis, but she shook her head and stepped away from him before he could.

“Excuse you,” She glared up at him playfully, “I am well above average height for women in this country.” She mimed kicking him in the shins, “And, I’ll have you know, I’m the same height as Kenma.”

He grinned mischievously, “Well, I call Kenma a kid to, and I’m pretty sure he’s actually taller than you now.”

Alyona gaped, “No he is not.”

Tetsuro smiled more.

“I literally stood next to him today he is not taller than me.” She protested.

He threw his hands up in surrender, pretending to be innocent, “Well, some of us don’t cheat our real heights by wearing platform shoes all the time. Even now your sneakers have suspiciously thick soles.”

She huffed, “Well, I’m sorry that I don’t want to look like a speck when ninety percent of my friends, aka you guys, are giraffes.”

The Tall boy laughed, “Who’s the other ten percent? Your classmates and Kenma?”

“Well, actually yes. But also, isn’t Yaku a lot shorter than you, you don’t call him a kid?”

A smidge of fear found its way onto Tetsuro’s face. “Well, first off he’s older than me by a few months. And, you know you never, never, call him short.”

Both felt a shiver run down their spine as turned to see Yaku, glaring at them from across the room.

“There’s no way he heard us right…” Alyona said looking very concerned for her own safety.

“No, no, there’s nothing for him to hear anyway. Because Yaku is a perfectly respectable height.” He said looking at her with slightly concerned eyes. Not many people scared him but the one that could, was definitely Yaku.

Alyona nodded in agreement, “Yes, yes, I believe he is actually quite tall.”

They looked at each other in the eyes and both broke out in quiet laughter, trying to keep it down as not to draw to much attention to themselves.

The blonde sighed, “Well, I’m going to go do my job and distribute these water bottles now.”

He nodded, sending her off.

Once the try-out day ended he sent off the current members of the team to get changed and go home. While he stayed behind with Kai to talk to the first years. Tetsuro gave them a short speech, read threat, to them. His speech boiled down to; if you aren’t serious about volleyball, if you wouldn’t dedicate the needed time to the team, if you wouldn’t respect the culture they had created in their team, and if you only wanted to do this sport purely for extracurricular reasons; Then you could leave right now.

The following day the number of newbies reduced from nine to six and by the end of the week only four of them remained.

---

It was after school on the Friday of their first week of school, Kosai, Yokomizo and Alyona meet up after their clubs finished. They had all agreed to hang out and go to a café near their school, Kosai and Yokomizo were advocating a lot for this hang out, not that Alyona didn’t want to, but the others were oddly persistent with it.

This showed when Alyona was the last of the trio to walk out in front of the school gates. As they walked, Kosai excitedly told her some news she had just learnt from her cousin who was a first year. Apparently, there was a super tall Russian boy in her class. That immediately interested Alyona, other than a few non-Japanese East Asian students that were scattered around the school she was the only Foreigner, the potential existence of another really excited her. She immediately grilled Kosai for all the information she had on the guy, and resolved to maybe pay a visit to him next week.

Together they made their way to a popular local café, where they found a free table by the window, it was a quieter corner away from the other students dressed in their black and blue Nekoma uniforms. They sat down around the small round table, Alyona sitting with her back to the wall and Yokomizo opposite to her, the shortest of the trio had dropped her bag onto the seat opposite the window, and promptly went to get drinks and a few pastries for the three of them.

Once she was back she sat down in her seat, and shared a serious look with Yokomizo, who propped her elbows onto the table, folding her hands together leaning forward. Okay, Alyona leaned back slightly, this was starting to feel more like an interrogation than a hang out. She glanced at Kosai who had an equaly grave look on her face, well before you looked at her lips and saw a smile twitching on and off.

They didn’t look like they were going to start talking, and Alyona was starting to get uncomfortable with their unblinking stares, “Um, girls, what is going on?”

“Well, Nikiforova Alyona-san, you my dear, have been keeping secrets from us.” Yokomizo professed.

“And today you will tell us what it is.” The other girl threatened lightly.

Alyona just looked at them, because what the hell were they on about, “I –” A laugh slipped out of her mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, why are you two pretending to be so serious.”

“Because we are serious.” Kosai said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Okay this was some weird anime villain stuff going on now.

Yokomizo spoke next, she stopped beating around the bush as she got to the real reason for this meet up. “You, Alyona-chan, always disappear from school, for a week, for no apparent reason. And while you’re gone you post insta stories of countries on the other. Side. Of. The planet. When you come back you are either happy, or sad, and always very tired. Why? Where are you going? There’s only so much my curiosity can take trying to be respectful and not prying.”

Kosai slammed her hands onto the table, “Exactly, we can’t take it anymore, we need to know.”

Alyona laughed, god she loved her friend’s, only they could be this dramatic about something. The Smiled at them, and pretended to contemplate telling them. Apparently, she was taking too long, because the others started throwing their guesses at her, they ranged from her doing ‘rich people shit’ to international spy. Usually she’d never do this because she thought people would think she’s a bit full of herself for it, but her friends wouldn’t think anything different of her for this, she was sure.

“You know what,” She said to the both, interrupting their attempt to deduce what she was up to. “Why don’t you just google me?”

They looked at her sceptically but pulled their phones out of their pockets either way. Alyona did the same, but this was for the sake of filming their reactions.

The girls tipped away at their phones. Kosai looked up from her phone, “I got nothing.”

Yokomizo nudged her still looking at her screen, “You got to use English, other… otherwise… Oh my god. Alyona. Alyona-chan. You are, no way, what. Oh my god, Alyona that’s amazing! Alyona!” She looked towards Alyona from her screen, face first in complete shock before morphing into pure joy and excitement. The source of this excitement was mirroring her smile, glad that this was her friend’s reaction.

“What?” Kosai looked at them from where she was still struggling to type in the English, she was never the best at English after all. “What is it Mizo?” But she didn’t respond just grinning.

“Yokomizo? Yokomizo Kotane?” She begged, poking her arm. Said arm handed her the phone. A Wikipedia page translated into Japanese open on the screen. Her jaw dropped, “No way. That’s insane! Yona, this is crazy. You’re famous!”

Alyona was laughing with her whole body, the shock on their face was perfect. “You’re faces were perfect, you should see it. And you will cause this video is one of my favourites now.” She shook her phone in front of their faces.

“It’s what you deserve from making me so concerned.” She said pouting.

Kosai was smiling but pretended to be upset “I can’t believe you kept this from us! To the Volleyboys know?”

She nodded, “They figured it out last December.”

Yokomizo tilted her head, “How?”

“Through my insta story actually.” She shrugged, “I accidentally posted something meant form my public account on my private account, and Fukunaga saw it before I deleted it.”

Kosai hung her head, “Damn it, to think we could have learnt of this months ago.”

“Oh yeah, talking about your Instagram story. Who’s that boy that’s always in your story?” Yokomizo snooped.

“I’ve got a lot of guy friends you need to be more specific.”

“Oh I know who she’s talking about, he’s not from our school but our age-ish and has like long hair, for a guy at least, and he has a really handsome face, with like the perfect nose.” Kosai, who apparently really dissected the people she hung out with, explained.

She understood who they were talking about now, “Aah, that’s Kaita.”

“Yeah, is something going on between you two?” Yokomizo prodded further.

Alyona rested her chin on her hand, she hadn’t ever really thought about them that way, but maybe. “You know, I could see it. But we’re just friends.”

“Aha, but there could be something, right?” She continued.

She shrugged again, but decided that two could play at that game, they had interrogated her, it was their turn now. “What, like how there’s something between you and Shibano?”

Yokomizo choked on her drink. And Kosai grinned, she shared a look with the Russian, oh they were going to sink into her on this.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Sure, you don’t.”

“Yeah stop kidding yourself, you blushed everytime he talked to you last year.”

“I did not. Did I?” Yokomizo was surprised, this was not what she needed, she wasn’t that obvious right.

Kosai grinned “Yeah it was really cute, our beautiful, composed Class president, Yokomizo Kotane, completely flustered by a guy.”

She took another sip from her drink and tried to derail the conversation, “Anyway, Alyona-chan, I’ve been meaning to ask you about what lip gloss you use, your lips are always so perfect and pouty.”

The corner of Alyona’s lip twitched up “Ohoho, why are you asking, want to use your lips on someone?”

“Oh my god, No!” She exclaimed resting her head on the table. She picked her next target, who was also laughing at her misery. “What about you Kosai, any guy in your life.”

The girl crossed her arms and looked proud of herself, “I’ll have you know I’m a girl’s girl!”

Alyona looked at her confused, “Didn’t you say Kuroo was hot once?”

She gestured about, “Well, yeah I like girls, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate some good visuals.”

Alyona nodded, “Makes sense, anyway back to you, Yokomizo.”

“Stop,” She frowned, looking out the window, the embodiment of an upset toddler.

The other two laughed, and Yokomizo couldn’t help cracking a smile either.

Ah, how Alyona loved off-season. The more time she could just spend with her friend’s doing nothing important and just living the better. Not that she didn’t adore skating, but sometimes just handing out with friends felt much better.

-Bonus-

< Yukie aka the black hole

_10:03 Yukie-senpaiiiiii

_10:03 Can you get Akaashi to check his messages from me!

_10:04 He hasn’t replied to me for a week now

_10:04 (T▽T)

That so unlike him put sure _10:10

_10:11 He’s just being petty (~_~)

Still quite unlike him, but I’ll force him to reply _10:12

Just for you (＾ｖ＾) _10:12

_10:12 Thankssss (*^3^)/~☆

~40 minutes later~

LINE: New Message from Akaashiiii !

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School

12:25, Tuesday 20^th of April

Alyona, was walking down the old 1^st Year Corridor. No, she was not lost, she was here for a reason. That reason was to find the elusive Russian first year. She got the classroom number and name from Kosai, who had asked her cousin – a classmate in Class 1-C.

She was walking towards her old classroom, she was planning on just poking her head through the door and asking for the student but it turned out that she didn’t need too. Just as she was approaching the room, she encountered a very tall boy with platinum blond hair, much like hers, and sharp green eyes. Well, she thought that would’ve been more difficult.

Now that Alyona was faced with the person she was looking for, she didn’t really know what to do or say. She couldn’t just be like, ‘Hi, you’re Russian, maybe, I think. And I’m Russian! Let’s be friends!’. She probably should have thought this through beforehand, but could you blame her, she’s been kind of lonely at the school. Sure, her friends were amazing, but being the only one to look different and to have a fully different cultural heritage and understanding of things. It just made her feel a bit like an outcast sometimes even if her friends really didn’t care about their differences, she just wanted someone who wouldn’t blink twice when she put jam in her tea.

But right now, she had to figure out what to do with the situation that her impulsive thoughts brought her too. Or perhaps she should just start by saying ‘Hi’.

Better to just rip off the band aid. “Privet, I was actually looking for you,” She greeted with a small wave and smile, looking up to meet his eyes, “I’m Alyona, I am a second year, I just wanted to come by and say hi!”

“Oh, Privet,” The tall boy said rather awkwardly. “I’m Haiba Lev, nice to meet you Alyona-senpai.” He looked a little confused as to why she was talking to him, which was what she was confused about as well right now.

“Also sorry to say but my Russian kind of only extends to ‘hello’, so.” He added. Damn that nipped her ‘turn this conversation into a natural Russian one’ plan in the bud. But she put herself in this situation so she’d just run with it, she was good at coming up with things to talk about.

She gave herself a max of two seconds before things got awkward, and needed a few extra seconds to fill time, “Please, just Alya is fine,”

Now then, what could she talk about? ‘Hi, wow we’re both blond!’ – Weird. ‘I’m Russian and you’re definitely like at least part European, let’s be friends.’ – creepy. ‘You’re really tall’ – way to state the facts Alyona. What could be a conversation starter? The only thing that really stuck out to her was that, he is really crazy tall? Well. Huh? Maybe? Oh, that might actually be a good idea.

Now that she had decided what to say and her two-second timer had run out, “I wanted to ask, are you looking to join a club?”

He shrugged, “I mean, yeah, the school kind of requires it, but I haven’t really decided on anything yet.”

She smiled – her sponsorship smile, “So, I’m the manager of the Volleyball club, we’re still recruiting first years,” No they weren’t, but no one would complain about a tall addition. “I’m not sure how much you know about the sport, but having height like yours is a significant advantage to have in the sport. It’s competitive but also so fun and if you don’t know the game, we’re training a few others right now too. So, you wouldn’t be learning on your own.”

Alyona was still smiling at him, hoping that her sales pitch worked, because if so that was a score. She’d have to send Kuroo over to do a proper like intro, but hopefully this worked, and she could become friends with Lev without it being weird.

The boy stood there and thought for a moment. The other students in the hall were not so subtly talking about her. Well, that’s what she got for randomly walking into the 1^st year corridor in some random Tuesday lunch.

“Thanks for the offer, Volleyball does look kind of cool, I’ll think about it.” He finally responded.

Okay, that was good enough for now. “Great, I’ll send over a team member to tell you more about it if you want?”

He nodded, “Sure,”

“Perfect, I’ll get out of your way it was nice to meet you.” Alyona gave him a little nod.

Lev bowed back, though it didn’t look like much considering his height. “Nice to meet you too Senpai.”

The conversation was quickly coming to a close. However, she still wanted to mention something to him, just in case he didn’t join the club, than this would be her last chance too. “Oh also, I know some of the teachers here can be a bit difficult sometimes. So, if anyone gives you any trouble, you can talk to me, I’m in class 2-C, I’ll try to help as best I can.”

He smiled and nodded at her, “Thanks, I’ll probably be seeing you then.” He laughed a bit self-deprecatingly.

She sighed; it wasn’t fun but she’d make sure he’d be fine, at least he seemed like he’d be fine on the whole language front. He probably grew up here if his perfect accent was anything to go off by. Whereas she still had a noticeable western accent most of the time, don’t get her wrong, it light years better than it was a year ago, but definitely not native. And don’t get she started on KANJI.

Pushing her vendetta against the Japanese writing system to the corner of her brain to stew over later. Alyona waved at Lev and walked into to stairwell, going back to her classroom. How many floors up was it again, or did she have to go down?

---

< Kuroo-петух

_16:34 Kurooooo

_16:34 I found another 1Y for the club!!

Who?? _16:37

Also we literally just finished recruiting?? _16:37

_16:38 That doesn’t matter

_16:39 He’s tall as duck

Intriguing _16:39

How tall…? _16:39

 _16:39 190

_16:40 Easily

OH DAMN _16:40

_16:40 IKR

What’s his name? _16:41

Class? _16:41

Does he play? _16:41

What have you told him? _16:41

_16:41 Okay, it’s Lev Haiba, 1-C, Don’t think so

_16:41 and I just said it would be fun so he should try it out

Amazing _16:41

I’m going to become a sales person _16:41

We’ve got a lot at Nekoma, but we’re lacking a freakishly tall person _16:41

And that spot is about to be filled if I have anything to say about it _16:42

_16:42 AWESOME

_16:42 PERFECT LETS DO IT

Thank you dear messenger _16:43

_16:43 Always happy to be of service

(b~_^)b _16:43

_16:44 d(>_< )

---

News of their recruit got back to Alyona later in the week. Kuroo had spoken to him the previous day and seemed to have successfully convinced Lev to join. According to Mr. Bedhead, he used his 'advanced' communication skills to artfully explain to the younger student why he wanted to join the club, purely for his own reasons. Now in normal people speak, their captain, manipulated Lev into wanting to join. But hey-ho, she didn’t really care as long as he joined the club.

So that brought them to Friday Afternoon practice, Coach Naoi was making the team do a practice match. With 14 players now, they could do full team matches. If Lev officially joined, they would have enough players to move Moro into a Libero position, as the coaches planned.

Coach Nekomata introduced Lev to the sport, giving him a crash course on attacks, and strategies, how the game worked. Nekomata told the newbie that he would probably start out in the Middle Blocker position, that might change if he showed aptitude somewhere else, but for now he could use his height to make up for his inexperience in the sport.

Among his explanations, he also introduced the team and their positions to Lev, the Old Coach cleared his throat, “So, to start off the Nekoma Volleyball team, there’s Kuroo, who you’ve already meet, he’s the captain and the best middle blocker on the team, so he’ll be teaching you.” Lev gulped, a little nervous, probably a bit off put, or maybe even scared by the captain’s creepy tenacity, when it came to Volleyball.

From there he introduced the rest of the team, “The one with the Buzz cut is Kai, Vice-captain and Wing spiker, he may be quiet but if you have any questions he’ll most likely have the answers. The shorter one with brown hair is Yaku, he’s one of the best libero’s in Tokyo. And to round off the third years we have Sakae, he specialises and focuses on serves, that is what we call a pinch server in Volleyball.”

Lev nodded along, memorizing the team he would become familiar with if he decided to joing the team. Coach continued, “As for second years, the one with the unenthusiastic face is Kenma, he may not look it, but he is the brain of the team, our most strategic member and setter. The one with the long hair is Momoi, he is a middle blocker, if you ever need anything he will most likely have it, the other middle blocker in second year is Takechi. And the loud one is Yoshihara, another pinch server. As for Wing Spikers, we have Fukunaga, and Yamamoto who fulfils the role of Ace, which I told you about earlier.” Lev definitely remembered that one; Ace sounded like the coolest position, being the player who reliably scored the most points was awesome no matter how you put it.

“We have quite a few new additions in your year group as well. You will most likely work with Inuoka quite often as he is also a Middle blocker, so you should try and learn quite a lot from him. Shibayama and Moro are some of our new Libero’s, while Shibayama is quite experienced in the position we’re still trying to get Moro used to it.  As for new players, you are not the only one who is learning to play Volleyball from scratch. Teshiro only started playing Volleyball competitively two weeks ago, he’s showing promise as a Setter but much like you we have to figure out where he works best.”

By the time, Coach Nekomata wrapped up his explanations the practice Set was over, he sent Lev over to the group of students as Naoi split the team up into groups to practice different skills.

---

Later that same day, Alyona was eating dinner with her family. Yuri and her uncles were discussing his moving out, but considering his plans to stay competitive for the next years, it would not happen anytime soon. She was more than happy that he would be staying. She knows that he wanted to get away from how annoyingly in love Yuuri and Viktor were, but if he abandoned her with them, she would never forgive him. Don’t get her wrong she loves her uncles, but sometimes it could be a bit too – “How’s school been going?” Yuuri asked. – much, and really just the level of PDA would put even, wait did someone just talk to her? “Huh?”

Yuuri smiled at her delayed response, spacing out was not unusual for her, “I asked how school was. Have the teachers been causing any trouble?”

“Oh yeah, it’s been chill. Kajiguri-sensei isn’t teaching my class anymore, so that’s nice.” Alyona said before taking another bite of food.

“That’s good, if any of the other teachers act out of line, tell us.” Yuuri looked at her pointedly.

“Yes, preferably tell us before final exams, after your teacher has been discriminating against you for a whole year.” Viktor added.

She sighed, “Yeah, yeah, I got it, I won’t let it get that far again.”

The couple were about to further state their point about keeping them informed and letting them know when people bother her. Something Alyona had heard thousands of times, when they could be focusing their energy on much more important things, she had a bunch friends at school they didn’t need to worry that much. Before they could continue to fall deeper into concerned parent mode, she needed to change the conversation. “Oh actually, there is something interesting that has happened lately. There’s a first year who’s half Russian! He joined the Volleyball team so that’s really cool.”

Viktor immediately brightened at this, “Oh really? We have to invite his family over, it would be great to meet some other Russians also living in Japan.” And with the conversation successfully derailed, they spent the rest of dinner talking about home, Yuri pretending not to have a boyfriend and how Viktor was making it his mission to befriend or annoy every person he meets. All normal dinner conversations between the four figure skaters.

---

< The Kittens (copyright by Kuroo)

_{Kai added Haiba Lev}

_{Mr. Freeze changed Haiba Lev’s name to}

^Behemoth

_Kai

Welcome to the team group chat Haiba _13:54

Sorry it took so long to add you _13:54

_Behemoth

Just Lev is good _13:55

_Taketake

Fukunaga why can’t you ever let anyone just use their normal name _13:56

_{Mr. Freeze}

I do _13:56

_{Momoi Poppins}

Just Kai-senpai doesn’t count _13:56

_{Demon Senpai}

Yeah mine is just rude _13:56

_{Mr. Freeze}

That’s because Kuroo-senpai did yours ( ﾟｰﾟ)_13:57

_13:57 I mean it’s not wrong

_{Demon Senpai}

This is slander _13:57

_Behemoth

Wait so who is the demon? _13:57

_13:58 Yaku-senpai

_{Muscle Mommy}

Yaku _13:58

_{Dog ૮ ´• ﻌ ´• ა}

He’s Yaku-senpai! _13:58

_{Muscle Mommy}

(I’m Sakae btw, please don’t ask why this is my name idk either) _13:59

_Rooster

Alright everybody _14:01

The Coaches have organized a few practice matchs in Miyagi during golden week _14:01

Since we’re going to be gone for a couple days parental permission is needed _14:02

Some parents should have received an email with a form _14:02

So make sure they do that _14:02

_{Tooth  fairies  Nightmare}

(?_?) I didn’t get anything? _14:04

_Rooster

Yeah that’s because some of you, namely _14:04

Lev _14:04

Moro _14:04

Takechi _14:04

And Teshiro _14:04

Are staying behind to practice with Sakae _14:05

_Behemoth

Aaa why?? _14:05

_Rooster

Because most of you aren’t ready to actually play in a match _14:06

And since Coaches will be with us someone responsible (if

that’s what you can call Sakae) needs to stay behind _14:06

_{Demon Senpai}

Wait, if we’re going to Miyagi _14:07

Does that mean we’re playing against the Crows… _14:08

_Yams

Crows? _14:08

_Rooster

Yup _14:08

On the final day we’re playing Karasuno _14:08

_Kai

The Trashcan showdown _14:09

_Rooster

Precisely _14:09

We have to bring our A-game to this one _14:10

_14:10 Trashcan showdown?

_14:11 Is this some new word I don’t know about?

_Rooster

No, it’s just a name _14:11

Our school has this old rivalry with them _14:11

It’s called trashcan, because it’s Street cats versus Crows _14:12

_14:12 Oohhhhh

_Yams

Ohhh _14:12

_{Dog ૮ ´• ﻌ ´• ა}

＜("0 ")＞ _14:12

That’s cool _14:12

_Rooster

Anyway all of you go fill out that form now _14:13

… 

Chapter Text

Tomiya, Miyagi Prefecture

11:23, Monday 3^rd of May

It was a pleasant 16 degrees Celsius in a random parking lot in a town just north of Sendai. The Nekoma students were were outside for one last short pit stop before they reached Norikizawa High School. Alyona was standing there, enjoying the fresh air and sold ground, the air here reminded her of Hasetsu, it was so pure and clean, a far cry from the pollution in a mega city such as Tokyo.

She heard Shibayama quietly curse from beside her, coupled with what sounded like beads falling on the concrete ground. “Damn it.”

Alyona glanced at the younger student, “What happened?”

His head swivelled up to look at her, slightly embarrassed, “I just spilt my M and M’s on the floor.” He lamented, “I was looking forward to eating those the whole bus ride.”

A little smile found its way onto her face, amused at the situation, “I saw a vending machine with some around the corner if you want some more.” She pointed her thumb vaguely over her shoulder.

He perked up slightly, “Really, could you tell me where?”

Alyona shook her head, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll go get them, I’m not that good at giving directions.” She wasn’t very good at taking them either, but this was just down the street and around a corner, she could do it.

“No, Senpai! Really, you don’t have too.” He squawked, quickly standing up showing that he was ready to walk off.

The blonde held out a hand placating, “Seriously, I’ll get it. You should worry about cleaning up the mess on the ground.”

Shibayama looked down at the colourful M&Ms that littered the concrete around his feet. “Oh yeah.”

She laughed lightly at the surprised look on the youngers face. “You do that, I’ll be back in a second.”

He looked up briefly to see Alyona jog away around a corner, before redirecting his attention to picking up the soiled chocolate off the ground.

---

Kenma was only leaving the bus to find Alyona, he needed some help beating a level on one of those dumb, boring, annoying phone games. She seemed to have a whole library of those games that you got ads for on other games, which means she most definitely had this one, so she could probably help him. If she didn’t then he would just delete the stupid thing right then and there.

He didn’t bother looking for her and asked the first person he saw about her whereabouts, which happened to be Momoi. Apparently, he had last seen her talking to Shibayama, so that was his next step.

Kenma approached the short boy who was currently crouching on the ground picking up M&Ms.

“Hey Shibayama?” He ventured.

He startled and almost lost his marbles (or little balls of coloured chocolates in this situation), “Yes, Kozume-senpai?”

He sighed, “It’s Kenma. Also do you know where Yona is?”

“Yeah, sorry. She, ah, went to get some things from a vending machine.” He looked embarrassed, but the older wasn’t really invested enough to care why he was acting weird, he just wanted to beat the dumb game before they got their destination.

Wait. “Wait, where did she go?” Oh, this was going to be bad, if she walked far enough who knows where she could have ended up.

“Um, I saw her walking in that direction,” He pointed down the road, past a building that was next to the parking lot. “She said we drove past it on the way here.”

He looked down, damn it this was going to turn into a quest of its own. “How long has she been gone?”

Shibayama thought for a moment, “I’m not sure but it’s been a while.” He sounded vaguely worried, not knowing what was wrong but sensing the building stress in his teammate.

Kenma instructed the other to stand up, “Come on, we’re going to look for her.”

He didn’t protest as they started walking but was quite confused, “Uh, why are we looking for her?”

“Because she could get lost in an empty room without even trying.” He explained.

Shibayama grimaced, wasn’t she the one who was worried about him getting lost. Seemed like her priorities were a bit tangled. The two approached a crossing and they split up, Shibayama to the right, and Kenma to the left, off to pick up their lost Manager.

---

Kuroo was missing three people from his interim head count. There should be 11 people, so why was he only counting 8. Those missing were, Alyona, not surprising, Kenma, mildly surprising but not shocking, and Shibayama, he hoped that he wouldn’t become another teammate that needed an escort (read: babysitter) every time he broke off the group.

Well he just had to start asking around then, “Kai, have you seen Kenma, Yona and or Shibayama recently?”

“No, isn’t Kenma in the bus?” Kai suggested.

He shook his head, “Nope, already checked.”

“And Yona is missing?” He reiterated.

Kuroo sighed, “Yes, but is that even surprising at this point.”

Kai laughed and suggested to start asking the others, and so they did. Kuroo had to ask three people before anyone knew where they had gone off to, I mean seriously how unaware can people be of their surroundings. When they got back to Tokyo he’d have to suggest a class on basic survival skills for the team, because this was honestly a pathetic display from all of them. In the end the one who knew was Momoi, he told Kuroo that Kenma and Shibayama had walked off five or so minutes ago.

Just as Kuroo was about to ask the direction they walked off to, Shibayama and Miss Alyona ‘I have zero knowledge of my surroundings’ Nikiforova, appeared. That brought their total from 8 to 10, so where was Kenma if not with the two of them.

He approached the both of them quickly, “Where were you guys?”

Alyona looked sheepish and scratched the back of her head, “I got lost…”

“Oh, I know that, but where is Kenma.” He pressed.

Shibayama raised his hand as if he was nervous to answer a question in class, “He went down the other direction.”

Kuroo glared up at the sky before addressing the whole group, “All of you get on the bus, and don’t move till I get back, especially you Yona.”

“Hey!” She complained, but the captain had already run off it the direction that the libero had told him about.

As he walked he pulled out his phone, it would be best to use the technology at his disposal instead of aimlessly wandering around like some people.

< Pudding Head

Send me your location _11:40

_11:41 [‘Pudding Head’ has just sent their current LOCATION]

Kenma if you dare move from there _11:41

I’ll kill you _11:41

_11:41 I’ll just use google maps I can get back on my own

You can’t read a map for shit _11:41

_11:41 Yes I can

Video game maps don’t count _11:42

_11:42 They do

Do not _11:42

_11:42 Do too

They DO NOT _11:42

And you are staying right where you are _11:43

_11:44 fine.

The location showed him a place 6 minutes away, how Kenma managed to get this far in so few minutes he didn’t know. If only he put as much effort into volleyball practice as he did into searching for Alyona.

As he approached the youngers location, he finally spotted the bicolored mop of hair he was looking for. Said antisocial mop of hair was talking to some short sweaty ginger kid.

“Hey Kenma!” he called once he was in ear shot. The boy quickly looked up in response, attention breaking from the conversation he was in with the shorty.

Kenma ran up to his friend, turning to wave goodbye to the kid, “Later, Okay?”

The short ginger looked quite confused as they walked off back down the road they came from. However, they’d have to leave him confused as they didn’t really have time for explanations, they needed to get back to the bus asap. “You shouldn’t wander off.”

Kenma shrugged with one shoulder, “Sorry.”

“You don’t know your way around here.” He insisted.

“I know.” They continued their half serious-half joking, bickering all the way back to the bus in the parking lot. Ready to go to their first Practice match of the trip.

---

They were preparing for a practice match against Norikizawa, a large school located in a city nestled between the mountains. Kenma and the spikers where warming up with some set, while, Alyona did her rounds, making sure all the players were okay before the match started.

She was walking to the exit to fill up some water bottles, only to stop when she noticed Kuroo blocking the doorway looming over some of the Norikizawa students. Great he was back at it again with the ‘subtle’ intimidation tactics.

She only heard the last bits of what he was saying, oh looks like the opposing team were underestimating Kenma once again, they always did that and always regretted it.

“– the spine, brain and heart, of our Team.” He said in his lower register, something he always did when he was boasting about the team to other people. It was honestly quite endearing. Alyona simply sighed and used the other door, she didn’t want to ruin his thunder now.

When she re-entered the sports hall, Kuroo was standing off to the side retying his shoelaces. She approached him, “I heard you intimidating the other team again.”

Alyona set down the bottle carrier next to a bench on Nekoma’s side of the gym. She spun back around to speak to Kuroo, “You know, some day you’ll run out of vaguely ominous statements that you can throw around to make people scared of an apathetic one-point-sixty-nine-meter setter.”

Kuroo winked exaggeratedly, “Not to worry, I’m very innovative.” She looked at him unimpressed, but he simply laughed.

Coach Naoi called for the players to round up, to get them ready for their first set against Norikizawa. Kuroo nodded to her, brain shifting into game mode, as he went to prepare with the rest of the team.

---

The following evening, they were winding down after a second day in Miyagi, today’s practice against Shirato had been even more successful than yesterday, they managed to win sets before the other team even got to the 20-point mark. It felt good to win a bit compared to the power houses in Tokyo. Obviously the wouldn’t learn anything from always competing against weaker teams, but it was a nice reassurance (and ego boost) that their hard work was showing improvements.

Half of the club were sitting in their dorm room, talking and relaxing however they saw fit. Kenma for one was back to playing another game on his phone, honestly, he was missing his console at home, the tiny thing was making his eyes crossed. The only others in the room were Kuroo who was looking through the match data Alyona had gotten for them, how that was relaxing, he did not know, but to each their own. Speaking of Alyona, he was really jealous of her right about now. She had a whole nice room all to herself, which meant she didn’t have any shouting occupants to disturb the peace.

Yamamoto was sitting opposite Shibayama and Inuoka, who were still way to polite when talking to the teams resident clown. They were placing a bet on whether Karasuno also had a female manager or not. The setter didn’t really understand why it was so important to Mohawk man when they already had Alyona.

It seems like Inuoka was similarly confused, “Why is it bad if they have a Manager, if we have Yona-senpai?”

Yamamoto clenched his had in frustration, “Because, Yona is too intimidating, I mean she’s so totally amazing and pretty there’s no way I can stand up to that.”

He guessed, that logic? Kind of made sense, if you looked at it from an angle. Alyona was really nice, but also super passionate, and when she got fixated on something also was quite scary. But he assumed the wing spiker was thinking about it like that but rather from the view that she was super beautiful, from what he overheard Yokomizo and Kosai talking about, she had even been on teen vogue magazine recently. So yeah, maybe Yamamoto’s point of view did make sense. Kenma just wished he wasn’t so loud about it.

It seemed that Kuroo has also had enough of his shouting, and decided to quiet him down, but also shouting. And for some unknown reason as a response to that, Mr Blonde Mohawk decided to turn this on Kenma too. “Hey, what does Kenma think?”

“Does it,” he questioned, “really even matter?”

Yamamoto turned to look out the open window dramatically, as if he was some cartoon protagonist, and the cold country air wasn’t hitting his face before it invaded the formerly warm room. “I knew he would say that.”

Kenma looked back at his phone, he wasn’t planning on replying till a voice in his head – that sounded suspiciously like Kuroo – told him that he should play nice, so he through in his own two cents on tomorrows match up.

“But,” he started, “I do kinda look forward to playing them. You know, a little bit.” He was thinking about the stories Kuroo had told him about the legendary matchup between Karasuno and Nekoma. Also, that player he had meet by accident when he was looking for Alyona seemed quite interesting, at least tomorrow wouldn’t be a boring practice.

Yamamoto, Shibayama and Inuoka all their turned their head to him in an instant, the second year especially was completely shocked by his former rival’s admission. Which meant he was back to shouting, “HUH. Woah, since when are you looking forward to anything, mister couldn’t care less Kenma Kozume.”

Kenma mentally sighed as Kuroo told Yamamoto to can it for the nth time that night, and by that he meant that the captain was back to throwing out threats.

Kenma really just wanted to go to sleep.

---

Kenma couldn’t believe that he had somehow ended up standing exactly opposite the ginger kid he had meet a few days ago, what was his name again, Hinata? Either way, he didn’t know what to do with the really confused yet happy looking person in front of him, so as soon as introductions were over he b-lined for the door.

Just as he was about to enter, he heard Hinata call out to him, “Hey, Kenma!”

“Hey,” he greeted back, as the other came to a stop in front of him. Hinata was asking him how Kenma knew that they would see each other, when really it was pretty obvious, he himself had a bunch of Nekoma uniform with him, so he was surprised the other didn’t notice as well. But then Yamamoto decided to start a fight – as he was prone to do – in ‘defence’ of the setter, a fight which a guy with a buzzed head and mean accent took him up on.

However, their potential fight, got cut off rather quickly by what he assumed was Karasuno’s version of Yaku and Yaku himself. The two of them seemed to bond as buzz head and Yamamoto stood facing each other, with a dejected and sad look.

Kenma should have known it never took long for the other second year to go back to shouting, as he started blabbering about a girl. He sighed as Yamamoto ran off dramatically, as were those actual tears running down his face?

---

Alyona was organizing a few things in the gym, unlocking the storage room with the Coaches key, and instructing the first years to set up the net for them to play. She was also helping Momoi go through what she could find on the Karasuno team, which admittedly was not a lot.

As she was looking down on a year-old profile of the team, which means they only knew who the third and second years were, she noticed someone interesting entre her peripheral vision. She looked up to have her eyes graced with an angel.

Alyona’s eyes follow the face of who she assumes is Karasuno’s manager, “Oh my god she’s so pretty, oh my god, she should be an actor.” She gapes. “She totally looks like a Japanese actor right?” She looks to Momoi for support in her observation.

He laughs a little, “A little ironic coming from you, but I do agree. Also, it’s ‘actress’.”

Alyona nodded enthusiastically, mind playing out different ways she’ll be able to start a conversation with the other manager. But she looked busy right now so later, maybe, hopefully.

Her dark blue eyes flitted across the room, observing the first years dutifully stringing up the net. Kuroo smiling as he greeted the opposing teams captain, and a couple of Karasuno students who had just walked into the hall. Coach Naoi, and another man who kind of looked like a punk were laughing together, maybe that was the old friend he had mentioned to them as they got on the bus that morning.

Once all the players had finally entered the gym, and everything was set up the teams got into their groups, a last talk before the practice match began.

---

The ball landed on Nekoma’s side of the court within the blink of an eye. Alyona had to rub her eyes to make sure she saw that right. That ginger first year was incredibly fast, and did she just hear Coach say that he did that with his eyes closed? That’s insane.

Karasuno went straight off that insane quick attack to a normal set, oh, number 10 was one hell of a decoy. It made sense that Coach Nekomata swiftly called a time-out, then needed to get this under control fast.

As the game went by, Inuoka was tracking Hinata closer and closer, following the plan Kenma set out perfectly. It was good that their first year was such a good learner, he would be tracking the opposition in no time, backing him into a corner until that disgustingly fast quick attack didn’t work anymore.

Kenma himself was performing exceptionally well today, he was interested in this match up no doubt. He was playing them as best he can, dissecting the team as he always did. As Alyona thought about it, Kuroo’s threats really did make sense. Their bored looking setter really was something scary, it was as if he could tell everything about someone just by looking at them. He was reluctantly one of their best players, a piece that elevated the entire team to their full potential.

And then Inuoka finally began catching up to Hinata, winning their first set, and then with their skills as a team, won the next, and the next. Karasuno was a bit of a rag tag team, but they were getting themselves together slowly, it was not aided by Nekoma’s signature confusion tactics, but they were improving even just within this afternoon. However, by the 5^th it was getting exhausting to watch, they played set after set short breaks between them, but she had used three extra pages than she would usually need just today, and could see both teams getting tired.

---

After both teams had finally run out of energy after a long 6^th set, they all broke up to clean the gym. The squeaks of shoes on the smooth wood floors could be heard from around the room as players from each team broke off into groups as they disassembled the net, and cleaned the gym.

Meanwhile Alyona was embarking on her own friendship mission as she exchanged notes with Karasuno’s Manager.

 “Hi, I’m Nikiforova Alyona by the way.” She greeted, giving a shallow bow for the sake of formalities.

She returns the gesture, “Nice to meet you, I’m Kiyoko.”

She scratched at her check awkwardly, “I was wondering if you wanted to share notes? I know sometimes it’s difficult to tally everything, especially when they keep on doing sets.”

Thankfully, Kiyoko laughed, “Sorry about that, they can be a lot sometimes, the first years especially have a lot of energy.” She said glancing at Hinata as he jumped up and down as he talked to Inuoka.

Alyona shook her head, “Don’t worry, my team’s not much better.”

“Anyway, you wanted to trade notes, no?” She smiled, damn she was so nice, and her smile was so pretty. Alyona had to mentally shake herself out of her respectful appreciation (infatuation) before responding.

She held up her note book, “Yes, I’d love too!”

---

It was early morning and the Nekoma team were on the bus driving back home to Tokyo. Kenma was looking around the bus, interior illuminated by the soft light of a blue morning sky, the occasional street lamp lighting up corners and contouring faces. Nearly everyone asleep, from as far as his eyes could see and from what he could tell from the gentle and not so gentle snoring coming from behind him. As he said everyone was asleep save for Coach Naoi, himself, and a high school volleyball manager with long platinum blonde hair.

She was sitting just the row in front of him, he could see the corner of her eyes, slightly glazed, probably from tired tears, as her eyes were fixed on her phone screen. Or maybe not, he noticed how she was running her hand through her hair over and over again, gnawing at her lip, and closed off with one leg propped up onto the seat.

“Yona,” he whispered, trying not to wake up the others.

She turned to look at him slowly, okay good it didn’t look like she was actually crying, he wasn’t sure if he had the social bandwidth to help with that right now. However, she did look tired and not particularly happy, and maybe embarrassed? He wasn’t sure.

“What’re you up to?” He asked innocently.  

“Just, you know, scrolling through twitter.” She replied quietly.

“Twitter,” Kenma muttered, “Yikes.”

Alyona laughed half-heartedly, “Yeah it can be pretty bad sometimes.” Her accent was slowly deteriorating as she got more upset and tired.

He hesitated, “Are you, okay?”

She smiled at him, the light of her phone striking her face eerily, “Yes, it’s fine, I’m just a bit tired.”

He knew that wasn’t the only thing, but he wasn’t sure how he could ask any further. “Then get off twitter and sleep.”

“Will do,” she tittered before turning back around. He watched out of the corner of his eye as she put in some head phones and finally closed her eyes, head resting against the cold window pane. Kenma followed suit, leaning back in his seat, pulling his legs up to get more comfortable.

-Bonus-

Alyona just saw the most amazing thing. Truly astonishing, never been seen before, revolutionary, titling the world on its axis thing. And she had to tell Kuroo right now, her life depended on it.

She jetted around the side of the bus, to where Kuroo and Yaku were loading their luggage into the cargo compartment.

“Kuroo-senpai! I just saw something incredible!” She whisper screamed.

His head sizzled her way immediately, he knew that tone of voice, it always foretold a wonderful story.

She spoke each following word slowly with near perfect annunciation, “I just saw Kozume Kenma,” she now gestured with her hands to pointedly stress her words, “exchanging contact information.”

“What?” Yaku seemed genuinely surprised at that. “Are you sure?”

Kuroo gasped hand zooming up to covering his mouth, “When? With who?”

“With Hinata from Karasuno.” She said carefully.

“No, he made a friend?” It looked like there were actual tears in the tall man’s eyes.

Alyona nodded gravely, “He’s growing up so fast.”

Kuroo pretended to wipe tears off his face and placed his other hand on his heart.

He sighed, “I’ll have to pretend I don’t know for a week so I don’t scare him, don’t I?”

Yaku placed a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry I believe in your ability not to tease him.”

“I don’t.” She shrugged, scurrying away around the corner.

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma Metropolitan High School

12:25, Friday 3^rd of June

It was a warm day in Tokyo, the air heavy with moisture, looking out at the courtyard of Nekoma High school you could see students running back and forth on every floor; preparing for the school festival. Alyona and Kenma were walking to the club room, they were evading their allotted work for their class project, but running away from class meant they were running head first into preparations for the Volleyball team’s festival activity.

They passed at least two dozen students running with stacks of boxes and materials. Now, Nekoma High wasn’t usually a quiet serene place, but today there were students stampeding in the halls, ruckuses in the classrooms and students hanging their head out of windows shouting at their classmates from three floors up. Alyona’s phone was blowing up with messages from the class 2-C group chat and from the Volleyball team (well mostly Momoi and Yaku, who had taken it upon themselves to lead the project). Right now, all she wanted was a relaxing lunch time, but nope, it was time for her to get some cardio in.

She heard Kenma sigh from beside her, “I can’t believe I have to give up my Sunday for this.”

She chuckled, “Don’t be dramatic it’s not that bad, it’ll be fun.”

“Don’t you breakdown every time someone reminds you we have school on Saturday?” He said accusatorily, as he looked at her from the corner of his eye.

“Because it’s a crime, I shouldn’t be in school on a Saturday,” with emphasised disgust on ‘Saturday’, “But we’re doing a non academicy activity over this weekend, and the teachers don’t give us any tests next week either since they know we’re busy.”

“I guess–” Kenma cut off by Kai who calls for them from the gym, summoning them over.

“Kenma, what’s your schedule Sunday, we need to know when to match up with who.” Kai asked, gesturing for them to walk over.

Kenma spoke carefully, “I think I have-” only to be cut off again by Alyona this time.

“He’s free for both matches.” Alyona answered for him, glancing at her friend with a fake innocent look, knowing that he didn’t want to do anything. Kenma was glaring at her, but she didn’t mind. She was still salty that he got out of doing anything for their class on Sunday, so this was payback.

Kai scribbled it down on his board, “Great, Yona do you know about anyone else?”

“Yup, I’ll send the spread sheet I made onto the group chat.” She said using the chain around her wrist to swing her phone into her hand and unlocking it. And yes, she was just holding her phone in her hand, it was way too hot for her to wear a blazer. if the humidity so early in the summer was already this bad, well, safe to say, she wasn’t looking forward to July or August.

He looked up once the document sent through, “Thanks, Kuroo and the others are in the gym, I’ll join you all in a second, once I write this down.”

The blonde gave him a double thumbs up, before entering the gym, Kenma dragging his feet behind her. The gym was a bit of a mess, halfway through the process of cleaning up; a stack of flip chairs sitting in the corner of the room, a net lying in a pile on the ground, and the team running around doing preparations.

“Guys, have you finished everything else for your class?” Kuroo asked them once they got to a small group of teammates gathered in the centre of the gym.

Kenma nodded, as a response. Alyona just sighed, “I still have to print a bunch of things, but I don’t know how to release them from the printer.”

“Couldn’t you just ask a teacher?” Yaku suggested.

“Senpai, seriously, don’t you think I’ve already tried that?” She lamented. She had asked her Geography teacher, but Gima-Sensei had brushed her off saying she should know how to do it by now, despite her never having printed anything on the second year printers before. He probably didn’t know that, but it wouldn’t have been that hard to just give her the code, but he acted like a student asking for 5 numbers was the biggest nuisance in the world. She explained as much to her friends as well.

Yaku sighed, “Wow, that’s so dumb.”

“Yeah, I know.” She shook her head, maybe it was the lack of proper grammar in the essays she handed it but Gima-sensei always acted so petty with her.

“I have the code from last year if you want it?” Kuroo suggested.

Momoi looked confused, “Don’t they change it each year?”

Alyona nodded, “I thought the same thing.”

Kuroo laughed and shook his head, “You think the school is techy enough to change printer codes. They just tell people that so that they don’t use a different year groups printer budget.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t be surprised,” She laughed, “Could you send it to me, because I guarantee you I will forget by the time I get to the printer.”

“Yeah no problem.” He said messaging it to her, “But right now, all of you need to get to work, we only have lunch time to get this all done, so go!”

Kenma stayed standing next to Kuroo while everyone else dispersed, the taller one raised an eyebrow. “Can I-” only for the shorter one to be cut off again.

“No.” Was his immediate response. Kenma sighed and walked away.

---

Alyona was climbing the staircase to the second year corridor, off to print out all the price lists and different miscellaneous decorations for her classmates. There where students running up and down the stairs, a symphony of clicking shoes against the polished wood floors of the school.

It was nice to observe the chaos around her, everyone hectic to set up their activities. It was honestly so weird to experience school this way. The past year has been really fun, being in a club, was something so new to her, she never had time before. Honestly, she didn’t really have time now either, last year when it got to competition season, she was so stressed it became a blur. She knows that the team wouldn’t pressure her to focus on them more, but still she didn’t want to let them down, not when they’re the first proper group of friends of her age that she’s ever had.

Okay, she wasn’t antisocial, she loved meeting and talking to new people, so she knew a lot of people, didn’t mean she was friends with all of them. Back when she lived in the US for two years, while Viktor and Yuuri managed to get legally married, she had made a total of two actual friends; by the names of Katlin Oyekan and Jake Bailey, and that was about it. She loved the two of them, and knew a few others from her old middle school, but she never had a group of friends like she had at Nekoma.

Back then she wasn’t really concerned with making friends, it was all just skating, trying to pass school, and trying to claw her way out of the cold hole she found herself in after her mom died. Her heart constricted uncomfortably at the thought, and she could feel the tension of a sob welling up in the back of her throat. But she ignored it and passed it off as you would any other uncomfortable thought. It made her both sad and happy to realize that she was capable of that, just a year ago she would have started crying just at the thought of her.

Alyona supposed her mom would probably be happy for her, to have so many friends, and to live most days feeling, happy and content, going through the motions of her life here in Japan. That realization intensified the uncomfortable scratching under her skin, so she shook it from her mind again, for real this time.

She tuned back into her surrounding, the sound of the rapid clicking of shoes on the floor was still there, in the back ground you could hear the buzz of small hand held fans as well as the mingle of dozens of voices conversing in Japanese, a language which was becoming increasingly familiar and comfortable to her.

She was also familiar with this hall way, so familiar in fact that Alyona knew that this definitely wasn’t where she was supposed to be. She had ended up in the first year’s corridor, again. God, maybe Kuroo was right, she should just have an air tag attached to her at all times, because how does one get lost in a school they’ve been too for this long? Think about how you became an orphan that’s how. But whatever, at least she knew her way out of here.

She turned around to head back to the stairwell. As she walked to the left a wide window letting the sun in, rays shining on her clothes, making her hotter than she liked. And on her right, there was a poor first year girl who is hanging up fairy lights over a door way. Well, was handing up fairly lights over a door, because currently the short girl was slipping off the ladder she stood on.

Before Alyona had the chance to speak up and warn the young student, she had already fallen. The blonde quickly rushed to the side, and in an instant caught the girl in her arms.

The girl, with cute pink star clips in her hair stared up at Alyona with stars in her eyes. The older cracked a little smile at her and quickly set the other down onto the floor.

The first year was still looking at her as if she had just performed magic. Alyona simply politely told star-clip-girl, to be a bit more careful, have someone hold the ladder while she used it, before leaving.

Alyona thinks that falling-girl may have said something afterwards, or called out to her. She didn’t hear her however, as she was a bit more preoccupied by trying not to laugh, because this was such a Shojo anime romance trope. She was writing out the text she would send to the Gym 5 Nerds group chat later, they’d definitely get a laugh out of this one.

Anyway, Alyona focused back on the task at hand. Printing. Alyona was here because she wanted to print. So, she needed to go the printing room on the third floor. Printing now, Alyona. Printing. Now.

---

It was afterschool on Saturday, Alyona, Kenma and Kuroo, were sitting next to each other on the Metro. They were traveling in relative silence, all far too tired to speak.

Kuroo and herself were preparing themselves for the non-stop talking and happy face they will have to put on tomorrow. They may both be extraverts, but the past days have been so tiring and tomorrow would be even more busy. As for Kenma, well she could only imagine what cursed things he was thinking.

Knowing him, the setter was probably contemplating his entire friendship with Kuroo which brought him to this point. Well, sucks to be him because Alyona was sure that he would never escape.

Actually, maybe Kenma wasn’t even worrying about any of that, far too busy fighting sleep. She could see his head doing that bobbing thing that happened when someone fell asleep but then quickly shocked themselves back awake.

Alyona would probably follow suit the second she got home.

---

It was Sunday morning, and the day was looking to be just as humid and sticky as the rest of the week has been. Alyona’s whole family was packed into the Oedo Line subway, Yuri had his headphones on and was looking out of the window, Yuuri was reading something on his phone and Alyona was lecturing Viktor on how not to embarrass her at the school festival.

“So, I’m gonna go to the Volleyball area for the second match, at 2:40, you can see it on the pamphlet. I’ll be in my classroom for the rest of the day. Got it?” She tried to sound as serious as possible, she had to get it through her lovely Uncles annoying head.

“Yes.” He said dismissively, he had already listened to the same talk five times over the past week.

Alyona quickly fired back, “No, don’t ‘yes’ me I know that yes, that’s the kind of ‘yes’ you use when you’re not actually listening to me and are just responding to my noise.”

Viktor sighed, “Okay Alenka, I am listening.” He said looking at her in the eyes making sure she knew he was paying attention.

“Alright, also no charming my teachers, I know you find it funny, but I don’t.” She stressed. One time back when she went to school in the States, he schmooze talked her English teacher and she swears her teacher fell in love. It was one of the most traumatizing moment of Alyona’s school carrier. Honestly the bigger question was how her teacher fell in love when she’s pretty sure Viktor spent most of the conversation talking about Yuuri, but her uUncle knew some sort of dark magic, so she wasn’t going to question it.

“Yes.” He nodded robotically.

“Oh and please don’t follow me around all day, look around at the other stands and class rooms, I’m pretty sure there are also a few dances going on I’m sure you’ll like that.” She added, she didn’t want her uncle trying to stalk her the whole day.

“Yes, Alenka” He said boredly, before switching his tone to an overly dramatic whine, “Honeslty it feels like you hate me, is your old Uncle really that embarrassing.”

She aggressively rolled her eyes, “Yes, Vitya you are. So just do what I told you okay?”

Viktor pouted, sometimes she forgot this man was in his thirties but the drama was injected into every skater and he was no different. “Yes Ma’ma.”

“Good.” She said strictly, just as the speakers told them they arrived at Nerima station.

---

Alyona rushed into the sports hall after getting changed into her Sports uniform. The day had been going well so far, her work in her class room had gone perfectly fine, their café idea had come across very well with younger siblings of students, a few first year girls had also been loitering around the classroom. Though she had answered so many questions today that her brain was starting to get fried, there was way too much Japanese going on up in her head this week. She really could use a break from it.

The skater was jumping into the gym through the side door when her momentum was stopped as she crashed into someone.

She stumbled back a bit, but quickly looked up to apologize. “Sorry, miss, huh?”

Alyona stopped talking when she heard a loud gasp, the lady she bumped into was looking at her with wide eyes and a hand politely covering her mouth, jaw dropped with shock. She was beautiful, but also looked very familiar. She was maybe a few years older than herself, with long blonde hair, and Jade green eyes, her face was a perfect marriage between western and Asian features. She was also rather tall maybe 7 cm taller than her, damn she could really be a model. She was wearing a cute scalloped blouse and pastel trouser shorts. But that wasn’t what was familiar, because the person she was reminding her of, dressed like your standard teenage boy, well he was trying, but he needed to try a little harder.

“Oh my god, hi, are you Haiba Lev’s sister?” Alyona asked with a cheerful pep in her voice.

The woman responded quickly but fumbled over her words, “Are you, wait, I mean yes, I’m his sister, Alisa,” She stepped back a little bit and bowed shortly as a greeting, before quickly getting back to the cause of her excitement, “Are you Alyona Nikiforova?”

Alyona jumped a bit she was surprised, this wasn’t the first time someone in Japan has recognized her, but it was the cadence in the way she said her name, it was said with near perfect Russian pronunciation.

“Oh, you know me?” She said simply, thinking of the chance that maybe Lev had just mentioned her at his home.

Alisa looked mildly offended, “Of course I know you, I think I’d get my Russian DNA revoked if I didn’t, I’m a big fan.”

“Oh really? It’s so nice to meet you.” Alyona was grinning, her excitement was infectious.

“It’s nice to meet you too. And yes again, of course I know you, my mom loves figure skating, so I watched it a lot growing up, so we know you and the rest of your family as any other skating fan would.” Alisa continued to say excitedly, her speech fluctuating between Russian and Japanese vocabulary.

“That so cute, oh and Vitya is here so if your mother is here than I’m sure he’d love to meet her. He’s pretty lonely in Japan and always looking for someone to speak Russian with.” She elaborated slowing her words just a little bit to make sure that Alisa could understand her properly. She tended to speak a lot faster when she was speaking Russian, and could be a little difficult to understand.

 “Ohmygod, my mom would pass out, like fully faint.” She giggled. Alyona had to laugh along, simply thinking of the mental image of what Yuuri acted like when he first meet Viktor.

Alisa clasped her hands in front of her almost apologetically, “Oh I’m so sorry about my horrible Russian by the way.” She said it with a slight laugh, but with a bit of embarrassment.

 “No, no, it’s honestly really good, I’m not one to say anything considering how much work my Japanese still needs.”  Alyona quickly reassured her, “I’m actually pretty surprised considering that Leva doesn’t know much.”

She shook her head affectionately, “Yeah, we both understand it better than we speak it, I’m very out of practice because I only speak it to my mom sometimes.”

Oh, Alyona was not about to pass up this opportunity, “Yura and I can practice with you! It would be nice to speak Russian with more than just the family for once.” Alisa was probably about the same age as Yuri give or take a year, and from what she knew in the one year they have lived here Yuri had made like one friend. So, she saw the opportunity to get Yuri a local friend and seized it.

“Wait Yuri too?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Yes, also please just call my Alya, I’m so happy to meet you!” She was doing her usual subconscious happy claps out of excitement, this made her day even better. It was so refreshing to finally be able to talk some Russian again.

“Ah, please call me Liza then.”

“Gladly,” both girls were smiling from ear to ear, as they continued their conversation into the gym hall.

Alyona was sure that by the end of the day, Viktor will have already invited the whole Haiba family over for dinner next weekend.

---

Lev, Shibayama, Inuoka and Fukunaga were standing off to the side of the court near an open sliding door, trying to catch a bit of a breeze. They were stretching and getting ready for the second practice match. A mixture of first and third years, versus a team of second and third years, it was supposed to show those watching how much the first years have improved. Even if they’ve improved a lot, they were still intimidated, especially when some of them have only been playing for a few weeks, the second years were just still on another level.

The boys were lazily stretching their shoulder muscles, while they chattered between themselves. Lev was staring out the door watching the people walking by with different treats they bought from the classes, he was almost tempted to ask where the kid that just skipped past got his ice cream from, it was just way to hot today.

Shibayama swung and hit Lev with his outstretched arm, “Yo,”

“Hey! Why’d you do that?” He retorted quickly head swivelling over to the libero, but he was ignored when Shibayama continued to talk, confusion painting his usual calm quiet tone, “Why is your sister talking to Yona-senpai?”

Lev raised an eyebrow, “What, is my sister not allowed to talk to her?”

Inuoka shook his head, “No, that’s not what he means, your sister looks like she’s going to cry.” He said pointing towards the other side of the room where Alyona and Alisa were standing next to each other talking while Alisa had a hand covering her face, eyes wide and shocked.

Lev looked over, “Oh yeah, my sister is a fan of hers.”

Both of his fellow first years looked at him heads tilted like cats, both very confused by what he just said, “Huh, what?” was what Inuoka asked first.

Lev nodded, not understanding why they were acting so shocked, they knew this already he was sure. Fukunaga wasn’t surprised at all either, though he still didn’t know how to read his upperclassmen’s expressions very well, but his bored resting face hadn’t changed, so that probably meant that this wasn’t any new information. “Alya-senpai and her family are like Russian legends.”

Shibayama being uncharacteristically loud shouted “What?”

The taller looked at them sceptically, “Didn’t you know? They’re some of the best and most famous figure skaters in the world.”

The first years looked even more baffled, and Lev looked slightly offended at their ignorance.

“Dude, you seriously don’t know?” He questioned the them, they both shook their heads. Lev side eyed them as he turned to point to a Japanese man across the room, “Japans best figure skater is literally standing right over there.”

The two looked around the tall first year to see a Japanese man in a sleeveless knit sweater, with tousled hair and glasses perched on his nose. He was talking to a woman who was most likely Lev’s mom considering the striking resemblance, Lev’s mom for one, looked like she was about to pass out, and the Japanese man was very stressed about this fact. The third person in this equation was a tall Russian man, who looked like an almost carbon copy of Alyona, he was smiling and excitedly yammering, without processing that what he was saying was most likely the cause of Lev’s mom having to sit down and drink some water.

Shibayama’s head swung over from the scene to Fukunaga who was standing there smirking slightly. “Did you know this?”

The second year nodded with satisfaction, “We, well actually I was the first one to find out, but as a team we found out last December.”

Shibayama’s eyes raised and was shocked, “And you- you didn’t tell us?”

Fukunaga shrugged cryptically, “It’s a rite of passage to learn about our awesome manager.”

Shibayama was looking at him so incredibly confused and mildly offended. Inuoka was still asking Lev about the situation they were observing. “Wait so who’s Japans best figure skater?”

“Well,” he answered, “The guy with the glasses is Katsuki Yuuri, he’s a Japanese Olympic figure skater, one of the best in japan. Then next to him is Nikiforov Viktor, Alyona’s Uncle and the most decorated figure skater of all time.” Inuoka was looking at him with wide eyes, but he continued. “And that woman right there is Haiba Inessa, my mother, who has been a fan of figure skating her whole life, and has been a fan of Nikiforov-san since he debuted when he was fourteen.”

Inuoka laughed awkwardly at the last part out of shock, this was too much for his brain to take in. Shibayama also wasn’t looking to good, looking visibly overwhelmed by the new information.

Regardless of what his friends were thinking Lev continued, he pointed over to where Alyona and Alisa were, and now they were joined by man. He was slightly taller than Alyona, and had blonde hair that was tied up intricately on his head, he had sharp eyes which were glowing as he excitedly spoke with Alisa.

“That is Plisetsky Yuri, he’s currently the best Russian skater, and one of the best in the world. He’s not related to the Nikiforovs but he’s been living with them for a while I think.” He explained.

“How do you know all of this?” Shibayama asked again, he was doing a lot of that today.

Lev shrugged, “My mom and, as such, my sister love figure skating, so I’ve heard of it quite a bit.”

Inuoka and Shibayama looked like their brains were short circuiting. Fukunaga added his two cents, “Hm, I think this is the most naturally blonde people this school has ever had in one room.”

Inuoka coughed out a shocked laugh, and Lev grinned, because it was so true, this was probably the highest concentration of blonde or Russian people the school has ever had in a room.

From behind them they suddenly heard a gruff voice, “Yo, how did you kill Inuoka and Shibayama, I thought you were stretching.”

They turned to see Yamamoto who was pointing at the two shocked first years while looking at Fukunaga for an explanation.

“They learnt about Yona,” he said bluntly.

“Ohhh yeah it’s awesome!” He exclaimed, but quickly moved on, “Also Captain said we were goanna start in five so I’m here to get Fukunaga, good luck to you guys.”

The three of them nodded, Inuoka and Shibayama slowly without really thinking about it.

Yamamoto grinned, “We’re still going to beat you though.”

The second years walked away to the rest of the first years along with Yaku and Sakae. On the other side the Kuroo was standing amongst the rest of the first years, waving them over to get ready to play.

-Bonus-

Fujimori Chika is a first year at Nekoma High, these are a few facts about herself; she has really long hair (which she spent hours taking care of every day). She has really bad eyesight (but prefers wearing contacts to glasses). She was proud to be part of class 1-A in Nekoma (the gifted class), she loved cute dogs (she had grown up with a very affectionate terrier), her favourite fruit was strawberries (especially the pink ones). And she loved figure skating. Chika had only become a fan very recently but it was a quick obsession. She loved everything about it, the beautiful dancing, the cute outfits, the insane talent. She loved learning about the skaters themselves, they all did the same sport but there was such a variety in different personalities and many different relationship dynamics between skaters.

Last week was very busy for her, she was setting up for her very first High school festival. She had been a bit clumsy when setting up the fairy lights outside of her classroom and had been caught not by an attractive guy like the manga would make you think. But by the most beautiful, gorgeous girl she had ever seen in her life. She had the most perfect features ever, her eyes were a deep blue, framed by long platinum blonde eyelashes that made her look like an ethereal fairy. And no Chika was not exaggerating, not about this, how could she when she truly meat the most perfect person alive.

Now then, other than the beauty, something else was stuck in her mind. The face she saw was one that she was familiar with, Chika was sure it was some skater she had seen recently. But why was a Figure skater, who was clearly not Japanese, in her very Japanese school. Was she her guardian angel who just teleported to save her.

No, Chika liked to be delusional but she wasn’t crazy. Her saviour had been wearing the Nekoma school, and was probably the best one to ever do it, no person has ever pulled of a dark navy skirt better than her. Anyway she was getting side tracked. The point is that the girl went to her school, now all she needed to to was find her, or at least figure out her name. There weren’t many foreigners as Nekoma so it shouldn’t be that difficult right?

Wrong.

Angel-senpai, as she was being called in Chika’s mind for now, was so elusive. She was in year 2 class C, but does she know her name, no. Has she meet her, even more no. Angel-senpai was never in her class room during breaks, neither was she there before or after school, the only time senpai was in there seemed to be for her lessons.

Chika switched plans after a week and tried to just at least get her name, so she could know who she was looking for, because ‘blonde blue eyed figure skater’ wasn’t a very helpful google search.

Now then, you’d think she’d have more success here. Not at all, all of the classmates 2-C had been giving her fake names, or weird nicknames, one had even worn a blonde wig one day and claimed that it was him she was looking for. Chika doesn’t even know how it started, she asked one day, and this guy with bleached hair and dark roots, just mumbled something about her being an innocent looking traitor and just walked away.

But, Chika won’t give up, she’ll find out who Angel-senpai is if it is the last thing she ever does.

...

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School Gym

18:03, Wednesday 16^th of June

The tournament bracket for the Inter high preliminaries in Tokyo had just been released. Which is what lead to all the first year sat on the cool floor of the gym eyes fixed on a white board pulled from the storage room. Kuroo and Yaku were explaining the Inter High qualifiers to them. Again. One would think they would have figured it out by now, considering they had already taken part in the Qualifying Rounds last week, but Lev and Teshiro (mostly Lev) still couldn’t quite get it.

Yaku pinched the bridge of his nose as he explained once again, directly to Lev, “So, since Tokyo has so many schools, before getting to the actual Inter High Preliminaries for the Prefecture, you need to do regional blocks, understand?”

Lev nodded slowly, while the rest of the first year, who all understood it the last time it was explained to them sighed and just passed on a chorus of yes’s.

The libero continued with his explanation, “We took part in the Shinjuku Block, and since we beat Taisho Academy, we got into the top 4 schools of the Block and are going to the actual Inter High Preliminaries, along with 30 other teams from across Tokyo Prefecture.”

The Russian raised his hand as if he were in class, Yaku sighed and prompted him to ask his question. “Okay, I’m not great at a lot of stuff but I know math, and 30 schools does not make an even tournament bracket.”

Kuroo took it upon himself to explain this one, “The number of teams for the Preliminaries varies from year to year, and this year it’s a difficult number to work with, so their solution to that is to have two teams seeded. Which means the two Tokyo representatives for the Spring Nationals from the previous year are getting to skip out on the first round, which in this case are Fukuroudani Academy and Itachiyama Institute.”

“Which is no fun for us,” Came Sakae’s voice from behind the first years, causing them to jump at his serious tone. “We are up against Ryūsei High school in the first round, and right after its Itachiyama.”

“So, is that, bad?” Teshiro asked hesitantly.

“It will be if you kids don’t start practice soon.” Coach Nekomata announced as he finally entered the door with Noai.

---

According to Alyona’s research it was in fact, very bad, that they were up against Itachiyama in only the second round of the tournament. The team was good, like really good, they had a solid defence, but their offence truly incredible, and honestly kind of scary for a high school team. She had watched them play at last years Spring Nationals, and it seems like their team was just as good this year as it was then.

The standout members she had found were the captain Iizuna, who was a very dynamic setter, he had even taken part in the 2018 Youth Olympics in only his first year of High school. Though he had been on the bench for most of the time it was still nothing to sneeze at. Komori was a freakishly tall libero, which gave him a lot of extra reach and he had great technique to go with it. Most of the team were good at receives, even so he was the heart of the team’s defence. But the biggest monster of the team was its ace, Sakusa. His technique was incredible both with spikes and serves, he was also surprisingly good at receives. When she cross checked her notes with Kuroo, the main flaw he could find was the lack of power behind Sakusa’s spikes, but he more than made up for it with his skill. The rest of their team was also rather good, they had a pair of good Middle blockers, a third year called Maita, and a second year called Agano, both of which were skilled skilled at their positions, not as good as Kuroo but a close second.

On top of all of this, they had also won the Inter-high competition the previous year, and gotten second at the last Spring Nationals. So, yeah, this was going to be difficult.

It was at 1 am when Alyona had realized that she probably should have thought about the team they were facing in the first round instead of looking ahead to round two. Which lead to another 2 hours of research, most of which was spent simply looking for the resources, and the rest was spent writing notes and deciphering Kanji. It was only at half past 3 in the morning when Yuri barged into her room, and shut off her laptop, and silently yelled at her to stop watching the squeaky videos (which much more colourful language), that she was thrown out of her hyper fixation and went to sleep. Or at least tried to go to sleep, the melatonin gummies were simply not working with her today.

---

The following morning, saw Alyona almost falling asleep in English class, which on its own wasn’t that bad, but then she had also almost fallen asleep in Geography, needless to say Gima-sensei was not amused. Maybe she shouldn’t have gotten up at 6 am after only an hour of sleep to go on a jog with Yuuri. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but that run burnt through what little energy she had gained from what was essentially a powernap.

No one else knew what was going through her head, and to be honest neither did she. On the exterior, the only thing that looked amiss was Alyona choosing to wear glasses instead of her usual contacts in class. If you knew her well, the glasses were a tell tail sign that she was very tired and that she stayed up long enough last night for her eyes to become bloodshot. However, on the inside, her brain couldn’t really process any sentences longer than eight words. This type of exhaustion, was exactly why she was practically married to her bed. She did not handle even the slightest bit of sleep deprivation well. She really couldn’t fathom how Kenma lived his life when most days he got less than three hours of sleep. Last year there were even times where she had woken up for early morning training, and gotten messages from Kenma who hadn’t even fallen asleep yet. She really didn’t understand what superpowers he possessed but more power to him she supposed.

The volleyball manager just had to get through a couple hours of practice before she could return home, limp up to her room and pass out on her bed. She just needed to stay strong for a little while longer.

---

Yamamoto watched from a distance as their manager walked in through the door of the gym, well stumble may be a more fitting term. While their manager did have her clumsy moments she really looked like just standing up was a challenge. In her hands, she was carrying a small stack of blue folders baring the Family Mart logo.

“What’re those folders for?” Teshiro asked from beside him.

He shrugged, “It might be some info about teams we’ll be facing in the Prelims. She did it for us last year too. Though last year it was just a couple stats, not whatever textbook that is.” Textbook may be an exaggeration but there was not an insignificant number of pages in each folder. “No matter what it is though, it just makes me feel so touched that she put so much time and effort into us and our success.” He said clenching his hand infront of his face, truly the thought that their endlessly busy manager spent her precious time on them almost made tears well up in his eyes.

His contemplation was interrupted by a quiet thump, and the sound of thin plastic and paper sliding onto the ground. Yamamoto opened his eyes to see some of the folders had fallen onto the floor. Alyona glared at the folders as if she were trying to use the force and float them back into her arms, sadly her stint into space magic did not bring her far. So, she fell back to her usual trick, nattering to herself in angry sounding Russian as she bent down to pick up the folders and placed them in a pile on the bench that she stubbed her toe on. This habit of hers happened quiet often. Whenever something annoyed the blonde, the easiest tell was the sudden stream of Russian before she composed herself and immediately acted as if nothing had ever happened. He wondered what she said to herself that worked so well to rationalize and calm down her thoughts.

“Huh, I wonder what she’s saying,” Shibayama pondered as he finished with his warmups.

Well, seems like Yamamoto wasn’t the only one, “Yeah it’d be cool to know, she’s been mumbling to herself in Russian for as long as I’ve known her.”

“Oh, you do not want to know what she’s saying.” Lev quickly interjected.

The small group turned to him, heads tilted in curiosity.

“Why do you say that?” Teshiro wondered.

Lev listened to Alyona as she finished her personal rant, “Well, actually, you know what, I’ve decided that I’m impressed, actually astounded may be a better word.”

They all looked even more perplexed, “What do you mean?”

The tall boy sighed as if he were an ancient philosopher giving an important answer to a dilemma, “You see, I should really start taking notes form her, because our manager, is the most talented person I have ever met. And no, I don’t mean her athletics, I mean at swearing.”

“Huh?!” They were all wildly confused now.

“I have learnt so many new Russian words from her, she is the most creative person at cussing I have ever meet.” Lev continued, undisturbed by his teammates disturbed looks.

“I thought you didn’t speak Russian?” Shibayama questioned, trying to make a bit more sense of this.

“Well, sure I’m not fluent, but I can understand it well enough, and of course I know all of the swear words, and as I said, I’m learning a lot by listening to her. She’s come up with some sentences that I never could have imagined anyone saying in my life. Not just cause it’s vulgar, but from the creativity.” Lev nodded to himself in satisfaction as if he had uncovered some deep hidden knowledge. “Actually, you know who’s even better, her cousin. Yuri-san probably has Olympic medals in cussing. I guess he’s probably who taught her, because older Yuuri-san definitely does not approve of their form of anger relief, not sure about Viktor-san though.”

“Dude how do you know all of this?” Yamamotos other questions had mostly been answered but where had Lev sourced all this info.

“Oh, my family went over to her place for dinner last weekend.” Lev explains casually.

Teshiro and Shibayama looked so surprised, “Seriously? That was quick.”

“Yup, once mom got over her initial shock, she and Viktor-san became fast friends.” He explained.

Yamamoto glanced back over at their manager. Now sitting on the bench that had wronged her, she was flipping through one of the folders, her hair fallen into her face and she looked like she could fall asleep any moment. He never thought that their pleasant manager would be so proficient as swearing, but somehow it made her even better in his eyes.

---

The tension surrounding the team was palpable. Nekoma high had just defeated Ryūsei High school in their first match of the Preliminaries. They had won in straight sets, all in all it had been a good warm up match for their upcoming opponent. Currently they only had about 5 minutes left before their next match begun, everyone had finished with their warm ups and were mentally preparing for the upcoming opponent.

Alyona sat down next to the coaches as the team lined up on the far end of the court. She really had to commend how calm they seemed, she knew for a fact that many of them were very nervous, Inuoka usually loud and excited had been uncharacteristically quiet today. Kuroo’s pre-match speech seemed to reassure them a bit, she had no doubts that they would perform well today, now they just had to hope that all their preparation was enough to take down Itachiyama.

She observed the opposing team on the other side of the court, the players she had spent her evenings analysing standing there ready to play. The manager saw Naoi-sensei tense beside her, she looked closer at the team and noticed that they had adjusted their rotation up by two positions from what they had been expecting. She quickly managed to pick out Itachiyama’s star player, he was remarkably tall, with a lean build that looked much like the physique of a male figure skater. His surprisingly attractive face was set into a blasé expression, which violently contrasted the Itachiyama uniforms highlighter neon green and yellow colour scheme. This was Sakusa Kiyoomi, now sporting the number 10 on his jersey instead of the 19 from the previous year. Behind him was Komori Motoya, the tall libero and one of the best receivers in high school volleyball. In her opinion the obnoxious colours of the uniform suited him quite a bit better than the former, but truly whoever came up with the colour scheme for their school should be fired. It was certainly unique, but well, Alyona was definitely happy she got to wear red and black instead of that.

She shook her head as the pre-match whistle blew, her thoughts were getting side tracked again. Her eyes shifted back to her own team as they got ready for Agano’s serve, which started off the game. Yaku quickly dove to his left, successfully intercepting the ball, directing it to Kenma, albeit slightly off kilter but a proper save none the less.

---

Kuroo jumped off to the right, managing to kill block a spike made by Itachiyama’s own middle blocker, Maita. Annoyingly enough the oppositions libero managed to dig it. This match was getting out of hand quickly, with their opponent drawing ahead in points, steadily building a gap between the two teams.

---

Itachiyama’s number 1 faked a quick, setting a perfect back-row attack. Sakusa spiked sharply, the ball flew falling into Nekoma’s side of the court, just barely landing inbounds, causing the team to pull another point ahead.

---

Nekoma managed to score two points in a row, a shocking setter dump by Kenma followed by a quick spike by Inuoka. They managed to close the gap, but with the others at set point it wasn’t looking good.

---

Kenma was getting frustrated, they were halfway through the second set and his brain was working overtime. They were executing their strategies just fine, Itachiyama was just plain and simply stronger, they weren’t doing anything overly complex, but they had so many stand out players that it was difficult to keep up.

---

Yamamoto wrath out on a spike, the ball streaked past the blocker only to be picked up by Itachiyama’s annoyingly perfect Ace. The blue and yellow ball drifted back over the net, letting Kenma set him up for quick attack, which this time landed, earning them another point. He believed they could pull it back, they were only a few points behind they could get to the inter-high competition he knew it.

---

Alyona’s team packed up their gear in relative silence, they would all go home for the day and have a debrief tomorrow. She tried her best to cheer up Inuoka, who wore his heart on his sleeve and was clearly feeling down after their loss.

They slowly made their way out of the gymnasium, busy team all around them either mourning their losses or going home in celebration. She jogged up to Nekoma’s libero, his jaw was tensed and he was lowkey glaring at the floor as he walked.

“Hey senpai, how are you feeling?” She asked casually keeping pace with the shorter, not that she would ever mention that.

“Kind of angry, I definitely could have picked up more of those serves, and god damn, their libero is good.” He shared, his voice curiously calm as he spoke.

“But all I can do now is get better, I’ll make sure to do my part to get this team to Nationals.” He continued, posture set with determination.

Kuroo followed up behind slinging his arm around Yaku’s shoulders, “All of us will. We’re going to nationals this year, no matter what.”

“I’m sure you will, or else you guys have to repeat the year and try again.” She threatened, grinning mischievously.

“No way.” Was Yaku’s immediate response.

“Aw, why not senpai?” She said with faux seriousness.

“I’m not being in the same grade as any of you second years.” He countered honestly.

Yamamoto who was walking in front of them with Momoi, overheard this and his head immediately snapped around. “Hey! What’s wrong with us!” he shouted.

“Watch where you’re going!” Momoi yelped almost immediately as he pulled the fake delinquent out of the way of a wet floor sign.

Yaku looked from Alyona to Yamamoto, who was now bickering with Momoi, his expression somewhat translating to ‘do you get it now?’. Kuroo continued on his own, “I don’t think I would mind.”

The blonde laughed, “I know a few people who wouldn’t mind either.” Thinking of some of her classmates who definitely wouldn’t mind the volleyball captain’s company.

“Really,” He preened, only for Yaku to immediately slap him in the face, “Don’t let it get to your head Rooster face.”

“What the fudge,” He squawked pushing the shorter boy in retaliation.

“Did you seriously just sensor yourself in real life?” he glared, looking at his friend like he was dumb.

“There are children present,” He said pointing at Teshiro who was the youngest on the team.

Both Yaku and Alyona rolled their eyes at the same time, and simultaneously kicked their captain in the shins as they exited the building.

---

Alyona was slumped over the dining table, cheek mushed against the dark wood, relaxing from a gruelling practice with Kaita. The two highschoolers were in a swing class together for fun but who knew how energy consuming it could be. So, she was taking a little break, doom scrolling on tiktok as she let her mind switch off momentarily. The past week had been so busy she might just have to sleep for the next month, she had been so busy preparing for exams starting on Monday that she almost forgot that the Nekoma team had just been in the preliminaries a few days ago.

After who know how long a porcelain cup was placed between her face and her phone obscuring her view of a cute Horimiya edit.

Viktors soft and deep voice came from over the cup, “How about you talk to your poor old uncle, instead of gluing your eyes to your phone.”

Alyona dragged her body into and upright posture in the chair, before ruining it by pulling her legs up to contort into a weird criss-cross position on the chair. “Yikes you really are starting to sound like a boomer.”

“I am not a ‘boomer’.” He scolded.

“Ah, well, I fear that that is what a boomer in denial would say.” She shrugged, her face reading ‘hate to tell ya’.

Her Uncle rolled his eyes and sat on the chair adjacent to her, “There are more serous things I wanted to ask you about.”

She took a sip of the tea before responding, “Okay, go on.”

“I recently got a call from the Russian Olympic Committee, they told me that they are considering you for you to be one of the representatives at the 2022 Winter Olympics.” He said, calmly delivering news that had Alyona practically jumping in her seat.

“What! When?” She asked hastily, setting her drink down her whole body suddenly buzzing with energy as is she had been hit by lighting.

“They asked yesterday morning, however I wanted to wait until I could speak with you alone so you don’t feel pressured.” He explained smiling as his nieces reaction.

“I- really I- Oh my god, are you serious this is amazing, oh wow,” Words of excitement and shock continued to flow out of her before she slowly petered out, actually thinking about the implications instead of just the prospect of going to the Olympics. Going to the Olympics was big, which was also the issue. “Do you think I’m ready?” She pondered, voice suddenly mellow, her mood taking a quick 180 as the implication of participating in reality and not hypothetically.

“Whether I think if you’re ready is neither here nor there.” He stated sagely, but continued with a hit of a smile in his voice as he observed the young teenagers unsure posture, “But in my eyes I have no doubt that you would be a fantastic competitor, but this decision is solely reliant on whether you believe in yourself to do this or not. It will certainly not be a walk in the park but…” he trailed off and grinned.

“I want to do it.” She claimed, deep blue eyes looking up at him set in determination.

Viktor reached over to ruffle her hair, “I’ll call them first thing tomorrow morning then, the process of choosing might take a while but I don’t think there is a single other figure skater better suited to represent the country.”

She blushed slightly, batting her uncles hand away from her head. “Don’t let Yura hear you say that.”

Her uncle merely laughed in response.

...

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School

14:50, Tuesday 29^th of June

Alyona really wanted to go home, she wanted to retreat into her beautifully air conditioned room, eat ice cream and let her brain shut off. It was hot, humid, sticky, and she had just had her fourth consecutive exam of the week and still had six more to go after today. She wanted to go home and do nothing, but she had a Geography exam tomorrow morning, which meant there was no time to rest. She promised herself she’d do well in it, even if it was just to prove Gima-sensei wrong. That snake of a teacher had been fine at first, he was young so it seemed like he was just a bit clueless when it came to teaching or just how schools worked in general, but as the year went on she realized that it wasn’t just incompetence.

One day after Gima-sensei had been particularly petty about the marking of her essay, she had complained to Yokomizo and Kosai about it, only for them to say that he was actually a very generous marker as far as teachers went. Which, did not compute in her brain, that man got at her for every little mistake she made, red marking pen colouring her paper. She wasn’t denying that she made mistakes but really, you would think he’d be a bit more lenient than to pick out every single grammar mistake she made and to add a – what she though was passive aggressive – comment to it but maybe she was just over thinking it. After all everyone else seemed to like the guy, apparently Gima-sensei was a bit more laid back than their usual teachers, which could be true, she had only been in Japan for a year, and before that well, never mind that was irrelevant in this situation.

Point was, she needed to get a good grade in this exam, if she didn’t she was going to punch a wall, run into the mountains and become a cryptid. Okay, maybe not that extreme, she was just a little frustrated, but still having a teacher treat you like an idiot, did not elicit the happiest thoughts. She would be the first to admit that she spaced out a lot, and got distracted pretty easily too, and unlike in back home in Russia she couldn’t as easily pick up the topic again in class when her brain decided to clock back in. Which would be fine, and was fine in most other subjects because she could just do this thing called asking the teacher. But not Gima-sensei, he would always brush off her question, tell her to read the text book and tell her that ‘it wasn’t a very difficult topic, none of your classmates had a problem with it.’ Anyway, this was all to say, she didn’t like the guy.

She exhaled and let her head fall onto the table, it was too hot, and uncomfortable, the weather was making everything feel to constricting. She really wanted to get up and go for a run or do just do anything that didn’t involve sitting in a hot classroom and answering a bunch of dumb questions.

She doesn’t know how long she had been sitting slumped over onto her table for. She stared out of the window letting the sounds of everything blend into white noise in her ears, but eventually the tranquil nothingness of the summer day was interrupted by a pleasant cold touching the back of her neck. She released a sigh - it was a nice relief from the heat.

“Earth to Yona, anybody in there?” She heard the chipper voice of her friend from above her, a fist gently knocking on her head. 

Alyona groaned as she slowly sat up, arms stretching over her desk like a cat.

Kosai laughed at her, placing a pot of ice cream from the vending machine onto her friends’ desk. “Girlie you’re going to ruin your perfect posture if you keep sitting like a shrimp.”

“Ugh,” the skater sighed, as she reached for the ice cream, “Thanks, Ouko-chan.” She let out a second happier sigh as she gripped the cold container.

Her friend pulled out Kenma’s chair and sat across from her, “How’d Physics go?” She asked after a few spoonsful of her own ice cream.

“It went fine, nothing too bad, some of the questions on electricity were really convoluted though, I lost a bit too much time trying to answer them.” She replied, “And what about you, how was Chemistry?”

“Ugh,” Kosai sighed dramatically, “I hate Organic Chem. Why was there so much of it on the paper, I swear Watanabe-sensei hates us all. Anyway, I’m happy to go home soon, to be honest I’m this close to just skipping the last study period, but Mizo would judge me so hard so I guess I’ll stay.”

Alyona couldn’t help but agree, “Yeah, I’m so excited to go home, I’m going to take the nicest ice cold shower, it’s going to be great.”

Kosai nodded, “I always forget that you’re a summer hater.”

“Don’t hate summer I hate this, you can’t convince me that this hell is summer.” The Russian complained, pushing her sleeves further up her forearms.

The sun was glaring, the open window was not bringing much relief from the stifling muggy air. But she only had a few more days of hell left before the exams were over, and then Nekoma High would be holding two-day training camp, with the Fukuroudani group and even Karasuno, which meant she would get to stop her brain from working and just enjoy a bit of socialising.

---

Kenma noticed something was off about Alyona, the school had a break from exams this afternoon but she seemed like she was at lower energy than before. She was quiet, well quiet for her, usually she was peppy and optimistic even though she hated exams with a passion, but right now she wasn’t even talking much more than Kenma himself, and seemed preoccupied with her own thoughts. He chalked it up to exam stress, their Geography exam this morning had definitely not been easy.

About half of the team, including Alyona were sat in the club room, they didn’t officially have practice today but were taking the time to relax and hang out while decompressing from exams. The third years couldn’t join them having gone off the study together again, this exam period being a bit more serious for them than it was for the first or second years, with them graduating this year. Which was not something Kenma wanted to think about, doing Volleyball without Kuroo there was such a weird thought to him, one that he did not want to dwell on.

He looked up from his phone to look at the room around him, the first years where sat on the opposite side of the room, sitting on the floor in a pile watching something on Moro’s phone while they talked amongst themselves. His fellow second years were sitting around the bench in the middle of the club room, talking – read: complaining – about their exams and school in general. Kenma had only come along because he could tell Alyona was getting antsy and had decided to be a good friend and look after her until he could tell she was doing better.

“Hey Kenma, what did you think of Geography earlier?” Fukunaga asked including their quiet setter in the conversation.

“Hm, it was fine I guess, could have been easier.” He answered monotone, he appreciated the effort but he also didn’t want to get roped into a conversation.

They continued talking about the exam, going through some of the questions which confused them and how they answered them, Alyona seemed a bit pressed and didn’t contribute much to the discussion.

“I hope I answered question nine right, but Gima-sensei’s the one who wrote the test right, I heard he’s not that strict so maybe I’m over thinking it.” Momoi shrugged.

Yoshihara interjected, “Yeah, Yona doesn’t he teach your class? What’s he like?”

“He is actually pretty strict sometimes, but I hope you’re right Momoi cause I do not think I answered nine right either.” She said nervously, running a hand through her hair.

“What really? I’ve heard a few people say he’s super chill, he covered one of my lessons and was actually kind of funny.” Momoi asked further, not noticing that Alyona was getting tense.

“Yeah well, maybe but I don’t think he’s that great.” She affirmed, voice short and irritated.

“Ahah, are you sure you just didn’t fall asleep in his class or something.” Yoshihara joked.

Momoi laughed, “Yeah Yona, you do kind of have a habit of napping wherever you go.”

“I haven’t. I just don’t fucking like the guy okay! I’m happy you all seem to want to go flower picking with him or some shit but I’m allowed to think he’s horrible.” Alyona cursed, almost shouting at them. The second years were all taken aback, they had never seen her genuinely angry or upset, even the first years who had not been paying attention were looking up at her in surprise.

They quickly lapped into an awkward tense silence, which Momoi eventually had the courage to break being one of the people who were closest to her, “Yona, I’m –”

Alyona sighed angrily, “It’s fine, I’m sorry for shouting. I just think he’s a petty asshole who isn’t very good at teaching, but I shouldn’t take that out on you.” She spoke with the words of someone who was calm and collected, but her tone and the fire in her eyes clearly showed that she was still angry.

“No, I should be –” Momoi tried again, the rest still blinking at their manager in shock, which was quickly morphing into concern.

“It’s fine. I just need to clear my head.” She insisted, as she quickly got up and walked out the door.

The door closed with a soft thump, leaving behind half a dozen boys to figure out what the hell had just happened. For a moment eyes just flitted about, trying to ascertain what the others thought, waiting for someone to say something first. The sound which broke the silence came from Kenma in the corner of the room. Maybe hanging out had not been the best idea, he probably should have just gone straight to the station with her when school let out.

“Um, should someone, uh, maybe go check on her?” Shibayama suggested tentatively, eyes locked on the door in concern.

Inuoka jumped to his feet, “I’ll go!” He seemed equally as concerned but from the way he was shifting he was probably also not too comfortable in the stiff atmosphere of the room. He turned to Momoi as if asking for permission to go, and when the older nodded he quickly bolted for the door. It probably would have been better to send one of the second years after her, after all they had known each other for a while now. However, Inuokas bright personality and optimism complimented her personality nicely and considering that the second years were the ones who upset her in the first place, he was probably their best bet right now.

“Good going guys,” Yamamoto jabbed look directed at both Yoshihara and Momoi.

Yoshihara threw his hands up in defence, “How was I supposed to know she hated Gima-sensei!” Meanwhile Momoi just let his head hang, long strands of hair falling over his face, shoulders slumped with guilt.

“Not knowing is kinda half the problem,” Lev, of all people spoke up.

“What do you mean?” Momoi asked.

“Well, I can’t really blame you since none of you are in her situation, and to be honest this is kind of also speculation. But, well, she’s not Japanese.” He said matter of factly, pointing his thumb at the door.

Yoshihara gave him a weird look, “Yeah no shit, have you seen her?”

“Fine, I’ll spell it out for you then. She’s not from here, as you so aptly observed, and some people in Japan don’t think very highly of foreigners. I mean I’ve grown up my whole life in Japan and even I’ve had a few nasty encounters, but I had the benefit of being able to read and write Japanese perfectly fine, I know all the unwritten social rules and everything. Yona-senpai doesn’t have any of that.” He pointed out, his voice lacking the usual sass and sarcasm he used with his friends.

“I’m not sure if it’s just this or if something else is also bothering her, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the teachers just don’t bother giving her any of the extra help or explanations that she needs.” He continued, “I also heard she had a similar issue with a teacher in the past, it sounded like that got resolved but maybe not.”

Kenma remembered, Kajiguri-sensei, their teacher for the same subject last year, had not been very kind to Alyona. She had told him and Kuroo about it on their commute one day, explaining how her Uncle ended up getting involved with the school about it. Not much came of it except that the teacher was not allowed to teach her in class anymore, but at the time on the surface she hadn’t seemed very bothered about it. Gima-sensei on the other hand did not seem like a very hateful man, but he his patience was thin, he would not put it past him to do something to hurt their friend.

Momoi pushed his hair out of his face, “I’m sorry I didn’t know.” He said guiltily, unhappy that his friend had been struggling while he had just sat idly by.

“You don’t have to feel guilty, it’s not like you’re the one out there harassing her. And if you’re going to apologise say it to her not me.” Lev said, shrugging as he leaned back against the lockers.

Yoshihara was quick to react, bolting up planning on going to speak with Alyona immediately. He strode over to the door only for it to swing open, missing his face by just a hair. Inuoka jumped almost falling back seeing his upperclassman so suddenly.

“What did she say?” Kenma asked quickly.

Inuoka walked into the room as he addressed its inhabitants, “She’s going to walk home, said she needed to do something active. She looked a little upset but told me to tell you that it’s not our faults. I apologised anyway but she wasn’t having it, just told me to come back here so I did.”

“Still I think we should apologise ourselves anyway, it’s best if we do this, tomorrow right?” Momoi reasoned, looking at Yoshihara to see if he would agree.

He nodded solemnly, “Yeah, it’d be a good idea to apologise fast before the third years find out we upset her, they would probably skin us.”

---

The following Monday saw the students returning to their usual schedule, or as usual as possible, many of the classes for first and second years were focused on easier topics and handing out homework to be completed over the summer break. Club activities were taking priority as they finally had time to meet without the pressure of exams on their backs.

Alyona had been on her way to the Gym after classes finished, before Momoi and Yoshihara raced to speak with Alyona, and apologised profusely for what they said last week. She tried to brush them off, it’s not like they purposefully tried to hurt her feelings, so really, she was not angry with them. However, she quickly realized that they were not going to back down until she accepted their apology, so she did, on the condition that they both buy her some food sometime as payback for making her sit through their dramatics.

The three then made their way to the Gym, finding the whole team gathered there already sat on the benches as the third years stood before them.

Kuroo cleared his throat, “As you all know, this is about the time of year where the third years on a lot of teams step down. We,” He gestured to himself and his classmates, “have discussed this with each other and the coaches a lot, before we each individually came to a decision.”

Alyona watched as everyone’s shoulders tensed, the anxiety of losing their senior members laying heaving on their chests. They were a very tightknit group, more than just any team that plays together, they were a close group of friends, and losing anyone would feel like a weight. She observed as Kenma especially grew tense, his back straightening, eyes glued on Kuroo, he looked back at him, something in his gaze must have reassured the setter whose shoulders slumped once more.

Alyona grew rather anxious herself, she hadn’t known the previous third years very well, but Kuroo and Yaku played a big part in her feeling welcome in the team, and were good friends to her. And losing Kai or Sakae would be a bit destabilising for the whole friend group, they were a backbone that kept them from devolving into chaos. Kuroo took a deep breath, drawing attention back to himself, before he continued.

“Myself, Kai and Yaku, have all decided to stay with the team for Spring nationals. But Sakae,” He trailed off.

Sakae stepped forward. “I’ve decided to step down from the team. It’s been an honour to play Volleyball with all of you, I know you’re all going to kill it at Nationals. I know the team can get there, and I’ll be happy to watch all of you succeed. Yoshihara and Teshiro, I know both of you are great Servers, so kill it for me alright.” He finished with a reassuring grin.

The team quickly sprang forward, crowding Sakae with goodbyes, and she thinks she can spot Yamamoto was crying ‘manly tears’ as he said, and Teshiro looked like he was panicking, quietly pleading with Sakae to not leave, Momoi was lamenting the fact that the team was losing one of its sane members. Before any more tears could be shed, Sakae interrupted the mob, offering to play one last game with everyone, which seemed to have the opposite of the intended effect as Takechi’s eyes began to water.

Even if a few tears fell, they played a final game with the full team. It was fun, chaotic, and filled with joking schoolyard taunts. They left the gym that day laughing together. Alyona had to smile as she followed the group from a bit of a distance. She’s glad she joined the Volleyball club, it may have been one of the best decisions she has ever made.

Inuoka called for her to speed up and join them, her footsteps speed up as she approached them more quickly, yeah, she felt right at home.

…

Chapter Text

Nekoma High School Gym

12:35, Saturday 10^th of July

Nekoma had just finished their third set of the day against Shinzen, thankfully they won, which meant an earlier lunch for the team. Alyona bounced off the bench, stretching her arms and cracking her knuckles over her head.

Yaku cringed at the popping sound, “Ugh, Yona-chan, that cannot be good for you.”

“I know you’re old senpai, but you sound like my Uncle.” She rolled her eyes letting her hands fall to her sides, “besides it’s medically proven that it has no effect on you.”

“It still sounds gross” He huffed, and then quickly added “and for god’s sake stop treating me like I’m senile.”

Alyona covered her mouth as she laughed, “But senpai I’m surprised you can hear my joints popping at all, do you have a new hearing aid?”

Her eyes met Yaku’s sharp glare, “You little,”

Kai cut them both off with a sigh, “Can you both please stop bickering. Let’s just go to lunch please.” He said as he dragged Yaku away.

“I will never not be amazed by how you can talk back to the demon-senpai.” Lev shivered as he watched their team mates leave for lunch.

She shrugged, “It’s all fun and banter, he’s not actually scary.”

“Say that when you’re the one being trained by him.”

She laughed at his serious attitude, “Aren’t you going to go eat?”

“Of course, are you?” he asked glancing down at her.

“Yep, I want to catch Karasuno’s manager first though, I promised I’d introduce the other managers to her.”

Lev nodded, “Okay, see you in a sec.”

“Uh huh,” she replied before pivoting on her heals, and making her way to the other side of the gym where Karasuno should be right now.

Alyona was walking by the supply closet when she noticed a short blond girl wearing the Karasuno hoddie, looking around the gym with wide eyes.

Alyona didn’t know that Karasuno had gotten a new manager, but then maybe that explained Yamamotos mutterings about crushing Karasuno earlier. Well no time to introduce herself like the present, she quickly made her way to the girl, dogging a few stray volleyballs lying on the ground.

She put on her patented and trained friendly smile, and spoke softly, not wanting to startle the other as she still wasn’t aware of Alyona behind her. “Hi, are you Karasuno’s new Manager?” she asked politely.

The girl turned around quickly, “Yes, Hi! I’m –ack.” the bubbly words died in her throat as her brain seemed to shutter to a stop when her eyes locked onto the girl in front of her.

Alyona was a little confused by her reaction but took it in stride, “Oh sorry, I’m Nikiforova Alyona, Nekoma’s manager,” She said gesturing to her red uniform, “It’s nice to meet you.”

Karasuno’s manager stuttered, “I-uh- you too, um Nice to you too.”

Alyona blinked in confusion she was using some odd mix of English and Japanese, maybe this was a weird dialect she wasn’t used too. The girl – who she still didn’t have a name for – continued to move robotically, like her body was trying to catch up to her brain.

“Ahah, don’t worry I can speak Japanese,” she meant to sound reassuring but the girls face dropped a little, “Anyway, I was looking for the Karasuno managers, do you know where Shimizu-san is?”

She looked like she had broken, Alyona could almost see steam rising out of her ears. “Um,” she tilted her head unsure of what to do, “Are you alright?” she asked, reaching a hand out to lightly touch her shoulder, trying to bring her back to earth.

The next thing she knew the blond girl recoiled like a spring, landing a couple meters away from her. All Alyona could do was stare dumbfounded as the other bowed profusely, she took a step forward reaching out her hand to placate the girl, when suddenly she ran away and out of an open door screaming something that sounded like a very formal apology.

Now it was Alyona’s turn to stand there, still and oh so very confused as to what had just transpired. She stared at the open doorway for a few moments longer before making her way to her original goal, the Karasuno team, and preferably Shimizu who might explain whatever that fever dream of an interaction was.

She could not spot Karasuno’s manager but found the Captian and Vice-captain instead, what were their names again? Sugu- sugu-something, sugumura maybe? And Sawawara? No that didn’t sound like a name that existed at all, there were way too many ‘a’s. She’d have to ask Kuroo or Kai later. Lucky for her the two of them noticed her approaching.

“Hi, you’re Nekoma’s manager, right?” the one with light hair asked.

“Yes, I’m Nikiforova Alyona, I wanted to ask if you knew where Shimizu-san was?” She asked politely.

“I think she went to fill up the water bottles.” He said with a smile, “Either way she should be back soon.”

“Ah okay, um” she looked around if she could find the blond manager again, running her fingers through her hair out of habit. “Do you guys have a new manager by chance?”

This time the Captain of the team responded, “Oh yeah, we do, she’s a first year, her names Yachi. I’m sure you’ll meet her soon.”

“Yeah, I already did,” she laughed awkwardly, “I may have scared her, so please tell her I’m sorry.”

He tried to reassure her, “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s fine, she’s just a little excitable.”

“If you’re sure.” She trailed off, “Anyway, since they’re both busy right now, could you please tell them to meet me and the other managers at the end of the lunch break, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“We’ll make sure to pass on the message.”

She quickly thanked the Captain and Vice-Captain, before leaving to ask her team what the heck their names were.

---

Around the end of lunch, the team managers finally managed to gather together, the boys all either finishing their meals or slowly filtering back into the gym to do some stretches before the sets continued.

The Managers were all haphazardly sat around a picnic table, Suzumeda and Shirofuku were still eating the rest of their lunch while chattering with the other managers. Alyona approached the group having retrieved the Karasuno Managers for introductions. The Managers meeting each other usually happened rather naturally, whenever they happened to stumble across one another at a meet up, or when an older manager introduced their new blood to the rest of the group. However, Karasuno was an entirely new school from far off Miyagi, so Alyona thought it might be best if they were properly introduced this time around, she didn’t want them to feel left out at all in the coming training camp.

“Oh Hi, come sit with us!” Outaki waved her hand in a come here motion, inviting them to sit at the table with the others.

Alyona slipped in between the bench and the table sitting down next to Shirofuku, while Karasuno’s managers sat down across from her next to Suzumeda.

“Alright then,” She spoke, propping her arms up on the sun warmed wood of the table, “Time for some introductions!”

She looked to the right at the four managers from Kanto, while gesturing to the two new comers, “Girls, these are the managers from Karasuno, Shimizu and Yachi!” Both greeted the others kindly, though Yachi still seemed a bit nervous, Alyona was sure that she would Manage to calm down after she got to know everyone a bit better.

She turned herself to look at the pair, “As for us, sitting next to you is Suzumeda, from Fukuroudani, if you ever have any questions about how something is organised go to her, she’s the least of a mess and, somehow always hears things first.”

The aforementioned girl, laughs, “Yamiji-sensei is the one in charge of organizing most of these camps, so it’s not too difficult.”

“I think she means you always know all the gossip.” Shirofuku teases her.

Suzumeda points her chopsticks at her classmate accusatorily, “Well how come we go to the same school yet you’re always confused about things.” Her dead pan tone makes the girls laugh.

“And besides we all know Mako is the real gossip queen.” She finishes with a shrug.

Before Shirofuku can retaliate Alyona cuts back in, “Speaking of Mako, Outaki Mako, from Shinzen,” She says gesturing to the brunette. “She has a flawless skincare routine, a great sense of humour and two cats that I promise you will hear about to no end.”

“Aww, thank you Yona,” She said before looking at the Karasuno managers, “The week-long training camp is going to be held at Shinzen, so I’ll be giving you and your team a tour when you arrive! Our campus is big but it’s pretty straight forward once you get to know it. And unless you’re like Yona here you won’t get lost.” Shimizu thanked her while Yachi nodded in thanks very enthusiastically. Alyona huffed and moved on to the next person, shooting Outaki a light glare.

“Next,” She gestured to the girl with pigtails sitting on the same bench as her, “is Miyanoshita, from Ubugawa, she actually used to play volleyball, but had to quit during her first year, she knows a bunch and is just as nice as she seems. Oh and she’s also a great cook!”

“Yeah! I’ll make everyone something to eat when we go to camp!”

“Really? You don’t need to do that for us it’s okay!” Yachi squeaked.

Miyanoshita shook her head, “No, no, I want to, besides I promised everyone here I’d do it. Just think of it as a little Managers bonding activity!”

“That’s a bonding activity I can get behind!” Shirofuku cheered, giving her a tight hug.

“Of course you can, Yukie-senpai,” Alyona laughed, then gestured from the Karasuno managers to her. “This is Shirofuku Yukie, another manager from Fukuroudani, and our resident foodie. Now I personally love to eat, but she’s a real conne- uh connoisseur.” She said laughing at herself as she stumbled over the pronunciation of the last word.

Outaki nodded gravely, “Make sure never to leave your food near those two,” She warned, pointing at Alyona and Shirofuku. “It’ll disappear instantly.”

“I don’t steal other people’s food.” Alyona sputtered defensively, her head falling into her hands dramatically.

“I’m sure she’s introduced herself to you already, but allow us introduce our food thief ourselves.” Suzumeda offered.

Shimizu smiled jovially, “Go ahead.”

“That,” She said gesturing to Alyona, who peaked her face out of her hands to send Suzumeda a little glare, “is Nikiforova Alyona, or as everyone calls her Yona, she’s from Nekoma, she’s our resident Athlete, though I’m not sure if she’ll curse me if I reveal it to you immediately.”

“Senpai, you’re making me sound scary. I promise I don’t walk around attacking people for no good reason.” Alyona said to the new pair.

“You also play volleyball?” Yachi asked.

She shook her head, “Nope, but I’ll tell you at the end of camp, feel free to try and guess in the meantime.” She said with a grin.

“Don’t worry she plays this game with all the new people she meets. But that’s enough about us tell us about yourselves!” Shirofuku asked.

“Um I’m not all that interesting.” Yachi confessed, she seemed like she was a bit out of her depth.

“I’m sure that’s not true, why don’t you guys start by telling us why you became managers?” Miyanoshita offered.

Shimizu smiled, “I haven’t thought about that in a while, I’m also a third year, so…” and they continued to chat for the rest of lunch until they all had to separate to their teams as the practice sets started back up again.

---

The next morning was Nekomas third match, now up against a complete Karasuno, after their crazy first year duo finally arrived yesterday evening. There wasn’t much for Alyona to do while she waited so she settled on telling Lev about what had happened in the movie she had been watching with Alisa and Yuri, because he’s decided to fall asleep. Which was really quite rude, after all it’s not often she managed to convince Yuri to do something other than work, and the rare time the four of them managed to get together Lev decided to fall asleep. Okay, she wasn’t actually angry, after all she walked out of that hang out with some great photos of Lev sleeping, with half his body hanging off the couch, and a laughable look mushed on his face.

“So, she was about to jump off the train when- Leva are you paying any attention.” Alyona scolded, looking at Lev who was staring at someone on the Karasuno team.

She sighed and followed his line of sight, “Dude, why are you glaring at Number 10? Do you have beef with him or something?”

At the lack of response from her teammate she continued rambling, “Or are you confused as to why he’s ginger? Cause I was confused too, but Kenma’s seen a photo of him with red hair as a kid, so it’s natural.” She glanced at him to check if he was going to respond. “Oh, I don’t know how, genetics are weird.” She said dramatically as if he has asked her a question.

Alyona settled on just pocking him in his side, causing Lev to immediately recoil. “Ack, that was unnecessary, what are you even going on about anyway.”

“And so he speaks, you were making me feel like I was going crazy. Anyway, real talk it’s not like you to get so up in your head, so what’s with the glaring.” She asked, coming down from her casual banter to check in on him.

“Nothing,” He assured, “I’m just looking forward to playing against him, like I know he can jump, but how much is that going to help him when I can achieve the same with half the effort.”