02. Tiny - Haikyuu! - KurooYachi

Switch!

Summary: Series of connecting slice-of-life one-shots of our favorite little manager from Karasuno as she remains 'on-loan' to Nekoma during the summer training camp!

My lack of Haikyuu! knowledge might make some things untrue or some characters OOC!

I don't own Haikyuu!

Please forgive any mistakes, both character-wise and grammatically-wise. I don't have time to re-read or edit things.

---

02. Tiny

HappyFace1886

---

Yachi stared up at where the bag of sugar cookies was looking tauntingly at her. Apparently the people in Tokyo were all ridiculously tall as the top shelf of the supermarket was too high for her to reach even while jumping. She’d just spent the past few minutes hopping up and down, her short arms struggling to even touch the seemingly innocent bag. With a scowl that resembled more of a pout, she jumped up a few times more in an effort to get the devious treat.

Just... a little... bit... more!

She stopped and blinked, startled when a shadow suddenly descended upon her. Glancing behind her, Yachi felt a shiver go down her spine when she saw the captain of Nekoma looking down at her with his trademark grin. “K-K-Kuroo-san!”

“Having trouble?” he inquired with an arched brow.

“Ah! I... um... y-yes?” though she’d tried to be more firm about it, the word came out in a tentative question. Her cheeks immediately flushed and Yachi was already mentally berating herself for having been caught. Oh god, he must have seen everything!!

“Need some help?”

The question was asked so casually, but Yachi immediately stiffened at the mischievous look in Kuroo’s eyes. It felt like a trap! A ploy to get her into something she knew she wasn’t going to like! But she remembered Shimizu-sempai’s face at the prospect of getting some sweets! Shimizu-sempai always gave her such calm and reassuring smiles, but Yachi had noticed the tiny sparkle in her eyes at the prospect of cookies. Forcing down her terror, Yachi gave a nod. “Y-Yes please-eep!”

The moment she spoke, she felt strong hands hoisting her up into the air. Her first instinct was to cry out in terror and struggle at suddenly floating upward, but the idea was promptly squashed when she realized just how high up she was and how Kuroo-san was holding her by the waist! She stiffened in terror and mortification, limply remaining in Kuroo’s arms while staring dumbly in front of her.

Meanwhile, Kuroo stared dumbly as well. He’d simply meant to tease her because of how easily flustered she’d get around him and not to mention, he’d almost burst out laughing like an idiot when he saw her hopping up and down like a little bunny, but now that he was actually holding her, he was taken aback by just how tiny she actually was! He’d known that Yachi was on the small side, but he could literally touch his fingers if he wanted to while holding her by the waist. And she barely seemed to weigh anything! Were all girls this light or was it just her? His brain was also insisting on how soft she felt, his fingers lightly digging into her skin in order to keep her afloat, and he felt his cheeks heating up at that notion.

“What are those two doing?” there was a hushed murmur from the side, followed by some giggles.

“Maybe they’re siblings? That guy is so tall compared to her!”

“No, I don’t think so. Look how they’re blushing. I bet they’re a couple.” The other voice insisted. “That height difference is adorable!”

“W-Wah, I’m so sorry Kuroo-san!” Yachi squealed, mortified for having embarrassed them like this. Stupid, stupid, stupid! If she’d just grabbed the cookies sooner, he wouldn’t have to keep holding her up like this. She immediately snatched the bag from the shelf and clutched it to her chest, the lower half of her face hidden behind it as she tried to contain her cries of horror. “Y-You... You can let me down now!”

“Huh? Oh, right,” he lowered her down until she was on her feet, still taken off guard by how easily his plan had backfired. “Is that everything then?”

“Y-Yes!” she stammered out. “T-Thank you for coming with me. Practice ended so late and you’re going to have to wake up early as well. You didn’t have to come with me...”

Kuroo looked elsewhere so that she wouldn’t see his pink cheeks. “Don’t worry. We got permission from the coaches anyways and one late night won’t kill me.”

Apparently with the addition of another team, they’d underestimated the amount of supplies they’d need. It was agreed that they’d send another group early in the morning with a van to pick up what they needed from the store, but Yachi had been sent with Kuroo to buy some of the more urgent supplies they needed from a nearby convenience store... namely bandage wraps and some muscle cream. The cookies weren’t part of the list, but Yachi planned on buying them on her own to treat her sempai and the other managers.

“So,” Kuroo began casually as the two left the store with small bags of their purchases. “How’d you end up as the manager of a volleyball team?”

“E-Eh? D-Do I really look that out of place compared to the others?” Yachi squeaked. It was always a constant worry in the back of her mind, how she was still so new to all this compared to everyone. It was one of the reasons why she tried so hard to watch and listen to everyone carefully. Since she was so far behind others when it came to knowledge of the sport, she’d have to work extra hard to learn everything as quickly as possible.

“Sort of,” he admitted, trying to give her a reassuring smile so that she didn’t quiver any more than she already was. Though judging by the expression on her face, his smile was probably freaking her out some more. “I guess it’s a little interesting how someone with no history of the sport suddenly decides to become the team manager of one.”

“Ah... well... S-Shimizu-sempai was looking for someone to replace her after she graduates... and I admit that I really don’t know anything about the sport, but it was the first time someone really wanted me of all people to help them out with something.” Yachi began shyly. Kuroo caught sight of the demure blush blooming on her face from the corner of his eyes and hastily looked away, a hand distractedly ruffling through his bed-head. The expression she was holding felt a little different from her usual panicked, flustered look. “In the end, I sort of got swept away with it all at first, but over time... it’s amazing to watch everyone. I thought Hinata’s quick spikes were very mesmerizing, but after watching some of the practice matches, everyone’s so cool and inspiring!”

“Do these cool and inspiring people include me as well?” Kuroo inquired teasingly and almost laughed out loud at the panicked look that filled her features. Yachi always made the most hilarious expressions.

“O-Of course! I-I didn’t meant to imply that K-Kuroo-san isn’t amazing as well!” Yachi quickly began to blabber, worried that she’d offended him somehow. O-Or maybe she was annoying him with her blubbering? He’d asked a simple question, probably to be polite, and she was probably boring him with unnecessary details! “Karasuno is amazing, but Nekoma is also-achoo!”

Yachi paused in the midst of her panicked outburst and shivered slightly at the cool breeze that blew by. She was wearing just a plain shirt and her jersey pants. The weather was warming quickly due to the summer season and she’d thought it’d be warm enough that she wouldn’t need a jacket. An apparent mistake since she was now feeling the cool night air.

She almost released a yelp when she felt something warm draped around her shoulders. Yachi looked down to see a familiar shade of red and quickly looked upward at Kuroo. His jacket! “K-Kuroo-san!”

“You should zip it up,” he advised. “Wouldn’t want you getting sick when we barely started the training camp.”

“E-Eh? No, wait, I should be saying that to you!” she protested. “You’re the captain! We can’t have you getting sick!”

“Then it’s a good thing Nekoma now has a reliable manager to take care of me if that happens.” He said with a teasing smile.

Yachi continued to sputter, needing to run a bit to keep up with Kuroo’s long legs. What he said didn’t make any sense! It would be better if she got sick and not him! “W-Wait-!”

“You shouldn’t let my good will go to waste.” He said, stopping mid-step this time to glance back at her.

Half of her wanted to wrench the jacket off and throw it at him, but that was too rude of her to do, especially to a sempai and the captain of the team that was gracious enough to invite her own to the training camp! And so Yachi stopped as well, obediently fumbling with the zipper and closing the jacket to the very top. A part of her marveled at how big the jacket was. It was practically a short dress to her! A-And the sleeves... you couldn’t even see her hands! She looked up to see a bewildered look on Kuroo-san’s face. “K-Kuroo-san?”

“...we should hurry back. It’s getting late.” He remarked, turning to resume walking.

“A-Ah! You’re right! S-Sorry about that!” she stammered, quickening her pace so that she could keep up with his long strides.

Yachi’s eyes were glued to the floor, horrified by the turn of events and how she’d most likely offended Kuroo-san when he was just trying to be nice to her. Ah! Not to mention, she’d always act so wary around him when he was actually nothing but nice! Sure, he teased her a lot, but that was because she had so many shortcomings! At least he wasn’t being mean about it! When it came down to it, Kuroo-san was very kind...

Meanwhile, Kuroo was wondering about the wisdom of lending Yachi his jacket. Aside from how he really didn’t want her getting sick, it also wouldn’t do if she ended up with a summer cold and it spread to the other teams... but now... shit... her wearing his jacket produced a much cuter image than expected.

She was so tiny! And it wasn’t tiny like the idiot Yaku or Kenma. Kuroo was used to being bigger and taller than most of his peers, especially those of the fairer sex. However, he hadn’t realized just how petite Yachi was and not to mention, how adorable she looked wearing his jacket. It was to the point of it being stupidly ridiculous. His heart was thundering hard in his chest, tempting him to clutch onto his chest in an attempt to calm it down.

When he’d first laid eyes on her, his first impression of her had been of a tiny, easily frightened little bird. Like the rest of her young flock, she seemed impressionable and easy to toy with. Not to mention, her being a skittish young woman surrounded by huge, testosterone filled young men was why the team manager and the members of Karasuno were somewhat protective of her. It’d been entertaining to see some of the members twitch whenever Kuroo teased Yachi, along with how she’d also make such hilarious expressions and reactions to everything, but now his heart was fluttering in an odd, unfamiliar way.

Kuroo couldn’t stop the Cheshire smile from making its way to his face.

First the black horse, Karasuno, with their freaky first years.

Now a cute little baby bird that he couldn’t stop himself from mercilessly teasing.

The training camp this year was certainly going to be an interesting one.

---

Omake:

“OOHHHHHH!!!!” Yamamoto’s loud cry could be heard throughout the entire building and distantly, one could hear some of the other teams shouting at him to shut up from the other side of the building. Unfortunately, the snarls went unnoticed as Yamamoto couldn’t tear his gaze away from the heavenly sight that graced his unworthy eyes while tears began to pour down from them. “Y-Yachi-san... Yachi-san is wearing the Nekoma jacket! Ahhh! A cute girl is wearing our team jacket and it looks so beautiful!”

“Why the hell is she wearing your jacket?” Yaku looked stunned as well, looking at Kuroo for an explanation.

“It was cold,” Kuroo said with a careless shrug.

“Ah!” Yachi squealed at the realization that she was still swimming in Kuroo’s jacket. That explained the strange look she’d gotten from Ukai-sensei and the amused look from Nekomata-sensei! Face flushing, she immediately began to unzip the red jersey and looked torn between handing it to Kuroo and keeping it to wash before giving it back to him. The decision was taken from her as Kuroo plucked it out her hands. “W-Wait!”

“Hm?” he gave her his usual smile. “Why? Do you want to wear it some more?”

“E-Eh? N-No, I mean, I-!”

“Well, it is sort of cold in the building, so I don’t blame you for wanting to wear my jacket longer.” The teasing glint in his eyes returned. “Or maybe you just liked wearing it?”

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Yachi cried out.

“...Kuroo, cut it out.” Kenma calmly chastised and Kuroo glanced at him curiously. He knew the chibi from Karasuno had asked Kenma to take care of Yachi, but he’d been more proactive about it than expected.

“Yachi-san, if you need a jacket because you’re cold, please take mine to use!” literally on his knees, Yamamoto held out his jacket towards her. Somehow in the span of a few seconds, he’d managed to pull out his jersey from his bag and folded it neatly and ready for her. “It would be an honor if you were to accept mine!”

“H-Hey, cut it out you idiot!” Yaku hissed in horror, adding weight to his word with a sharp whack on the back of Yamamoto’s head. “Your jacket is too big for her anyways!”

“Ah, then Yachi-san can borrow Yaku-san’s jacket. Or Kenma-san’s.” Lev added in cheerfully, promptly causing Yaku to blush and Kenma to look stunned, before the tall boy seemed to reach an even more brilliant conclusion. “Or she can borrow mine! It’s bigger than Yamamoto-sempai’s and Kuroo-sempai’s, but it’ll probably reach up to her knees, so she’ll be even warmer!”

This time there was a sharp whack on the back of Lev’s head, courtesy of a scowling Kuroo. “No one is lending their jacket to her. If she really needs one, she can just borrow mine again since she was already wearing it.”

“No, I’m fine, really! Thank you!” Yachi took a step backwards before bowing quickly, overwhelmed by what was going on in front of her. She was always so bad at dealing with situations like this! “Thank you for everything and sorry for the bother! I-I’ll be going now! Shimizu-sempai and the other managers are probably waiting for me.”

“W-Wait a second, one of us should walk you back!” Yaku called out, but the tiny blonde was already high-tailing it out of there. He turned and smacked both Yamamoto and Lev. “Must you two behave that way around her? She’s probably freaking out enough as it is!”

Yamamoto sniffed. “So close... a cute girl was almost going to wear my jacket...”

“Gah!” Yaku scowled at him. “Get those creepy delusions out of your head! If Karasuno winds up hearing about this, I’m definitely not coming to your rescue.”

Meanwhile, Kuroo was humming cheerfully to himself as he folded his jacket in his arms, ignoring how Kenma was intently watching him from behind. The pudding-head was smart and observant, that Kuroo was more than aware of, but no way in hell was he going to let him get even an inkling of what was going on.

---

::owari::

---

AU: And now Kuroo joins the fray! :D I actually favor KurooYachi a lot, so stay tuned for more of them! Muhahahaha!

Drabble List