SOVEREIGNTY: SEASON ONE
chapter two - 5:00 am practice.

ATSUSHI JOLTED AWAKE AT THE sound of his alarm. He turned to turn it off and looked at the time. 4:30am. He sighed as he got out of bed. Atsushi got dressed in a black t-shirt, gray shorts, and his white tennis shoes. He placed his uniform in his volleyball bag and headed out of his house, making sure to lock the door.

He arrived at Karasuno's gym, and found that Kageyama and Hinata were already there. "You look worn out." Kageyama pointed out.

"The last time I woke up at 4 in the morning was when my brother wanted me to join him on his morning jog. You think I would get used to this by now." Atsushi stated.

"5:00 AM sure is rough." The three first-years looked over to see Tanaka walking towards them as he yawned. He then held up the gym keys.

"Tanaka-san?" Hinata questioned.

"Thanks!" Kageyama said.

"What a good senpai I am. Call me Tanaka-senpai." Tanaka ordered.

"Tanaka-senpai!" Hinata and Kageyama shouted.

"Once again." Tanaka said.

Tanaka finally opened the gym door. Atsushi followed Tanaka inside the gym. They both looked over at Hinata and Kageyama who were fighting over who got to set foot inside first. Tanaka looked over at Atsushi who just shrugged.

Tanaka was silent for a while before looking over at the two. "Hey. There's no time." He said before he got cut off by them knocking each other down in the doorway. Atsushi sweat dropped as Tanaka looked slightly irritated. Soon, they turned the lights on.

"Ah, the gymnasium." Hinata awes at the sight.

"You were here yesterday." Kageyama reminded him as Hinata ignored him, still deep in thought.

"Let's do this!" Hinata exclaimed.

Atsushi sighed to himself. "It's too early for this..." He thought.

ALL OF THEM WERE PRACTICING FOR THE match on Saturday. Kageyama and Hinata were both practicing receives while Tanaka and Atsushi were practicing their own thing. Atsushi looked over to see Hinata try to receive a ball but he landed face first.

"Hey, your feet stopped short." Kageyama commented. "What happened to your serving and receiving reflexes from yesterday? You need to focus!"

Hinata got up from the ground, wincing from the slight pain. "All I'm doing is receiving..." Hinata replied "There's not much time left! I want to spike, too! I wanna jump, too!"

"Go jump around then!" Kageyama shouted back, clearly annoyed with Hinata.

Atsushi rubbed his head, getting a headache from all their shouting. "Hey, you guys." Tanaka called out to them as the two of them turned to the second-year.

"I should give you a fair warning." Tanaka says. "Daichi-san is usually gentle, but he's extremely scary when he's angry."

"We know." The two of them said in unison.

"It won't be good if he finds out about this morning's practice." Tanaka stated mostly to himself. "It won't be good for me." He muttered.

He turned around to face the three first-years. "It's not that I'm scared or anything." Tanaka informed.

"Absolutely not. Absolutely not at all." Tanaka denied shaking his head. "But anyways, the four of us here are the only ones who know about this morning practice. So make sure that you—"

Tanaka was cut off by the gym doors opening. "Morning practice, huh? I knew it." Sugawara greeted, smiling at us.

"You spoke too soon, Tanaka-san." Atsushi told him, looking at the bald headed male.

"Suga-san." Tanaka said, confused by his presence.

"Hey."

"But why..."

"Because you were obviously weird yesterday." Sugawara replied to Tanaka's question. "You're always barely on time, but voluntarily asked to be in charge of opening the gym."

"Oh— ah—" Tanaka manages to say, nervous that they've been caught.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I won't tell Daichi." Sugawara reassured. "This is like secret training or something. It's kinda thrilling." Hinata, Kageyama, Tanaka, and Atsushi sigh out of relief that they weren't gonna get in trouble.

TANAKA SPIKED THE BALL THAT KAGEYAMA TOSSED to him while Hinata, Sugawara, and Atsushi practiced some receives. Hinata was watching him. "Good, that was excellent." Tanaka praised Kageyama.

Since Hinata was busy watching the two, the volleyball Sugawara received to Hinata, bounced on top of Hinata's head. "Hinata, don't get distracted." Sugawara scolded.

"I want to hit the ball, too. Send me a toss, too." Hinata whined to Kageyama.

Kageyama looked at Hinata, annoyance written all over his face. Hinata held his arms up in the air, like a setter would. "Tossing your favorite, right? Send me a toss, too." Hinata states, looking at Kageyama.

"Just one." Hinata said.

"Hey, Hinata..." Sugawara muttered.

"Just try me out once, okay?" Hinata begged.

"I refuse." Kageyama replied, turning away from Hinata, Sugawara, and Tanaka looked at Kageyama with shocked faces.

"Why are they shocked? I saw it coming..." Atsushi thinks to himself.

"What is this? Stinginess?" Hinata questioned.

"That's right, that's right." Tanaka said, agreeing with Hinata. All of them saw Kageyama turning around and tossing the ball to Hinata who did receive it but instead of the ball going back to Kageyama it went towards Atsushi.

Acting on instinct, Atsushi received the ball back to Kageyama who didn't bother catching it. Instead, it just rolled away.

"That came straight at you from the front." Kageyama stated. "Tossing and attacking only happens if there's a reception. Which you're too slow to even do, so don't talk cocky."

Kageyama walked towards the ball and picked it up. "Nice receiving, Atsu." He complimented.

"A-Atsu?" Atsushi thought, looking away as his cheeks turned pink.

"For the four-on-four match this Saturday, I'll make every effort to give Tanaka all the tosses." Kageyama informed. 

"Let Tanaka-san do the attacking."

"When I can receive it satisfactorily, you'll send me tosses, too?" Hinata asked, clenching his fists.

"I'll toss to anyone who's essential to winning." Kageyama replied. "Right now, I don't think you're essential to winning."

Tanaka looked bewildered while Sugawara looked worried a little. Atsushi still kept his stotic expression. "Nasty." Tanaka commented.

"What's it take to toss him a few here and there?" Sugawara questioned.

Atsushi sighed before looking at the wall on the clock. "It's getting to be that time. We'd better clean up." He informed.

"Crap, hurry! Erase all the evidence!" Tanaka panics as everyone starts cleaning up. Except for Hinata who was staring at the ground with his orange bangs covering his eyes.

"Tanaka, get a mop!" Sugawara ordered.

"Damn it..." Atsushi heard Hinata curse under his breath. He walked over and placed a comforting hand on the orange haired male's shoulder.

"Come on, let's clean up." He says as Hinata slowly nods and soon starts to help clean up.