"I was just stretching, honest! You don't have to mention it to anyone."

I stood with one leg over the windowsill as Saburo stared at me, one hand still on the doorknob. He was the spitting image of his older brothers, and their father, too. Little ginger prison guards.
"MOOOOOM! MORIIIIIII! AUNTY (Y/N) IS TRYING TO CLIMB OUT THE WINDOW AGAIN!"

Little snitch!

Scrambling to get myself all the way back inside, I dove to my bed, still kind of bouncing as Yaku skidded into my doorway, finger already pointing at me in accusation.
"I swear to-"
"I'm literally laying here, minding my own business. He's just messing with you." I lied, knowing that even if I had been telling the truth he wouldn't believe me.

"Do I have to put bars on the windows?" Mimori appeared too, and I felt like some kind of zoo exhibit with the three of them staring in at me.
"What, am I not allowed to just exist in my room? Is that a crime?" I rolled onto my back, letting my upper half slip off the side of my bed as I lifted a hand to my forehead.

"Please, can you just follow the rules? They're in place for a reason." My sister sighed, shaking her head as she continued down the hall to her room, and Yaku folded his arms across his chest, partially covering the logo of his pyjama top.
"If you weren't sneaking out then why are you wearing jeans at ten o'clock at night?"

He dresses up as Sherlock Holmes for one Halloween a decade ago and suddenly he's a professional detective?

"I find them more comfortable than..." I squinted towards my eldest nephew, trying to hold back a snort. "...are those snoopy boxers?" Yaku immediately stepped behind his brother to hide them from me before storming away, flipping me the bird before he was out of sight.
"J..Just shut up! Stay put!"

Once he was gone, I turned my attention back to Saburo, narrowing my eyes at the eleven year old.
"Santa isn't real." I stated bitterly and he just scoffed, waving me off as he too took his leave, pulling my door shut behind himself.
"Duh, I'm not five."

Why are all my nephews tiny assholes?

Letting out a long, exasperated groan, I rolled back over onto my stomach, grabbing my phone out of my back pocket and unlocked it. I messed around for a little while, responding to a joke Fukunaga had made on Facebook and sharing a meme about tall people to Lev before opening Kuroo's contact, hitting the call button and nestling it against my ear.

It connected after about six rings, the sound of eight bit music dull in the background.
"Tell Kenma I say hello pookie." I spoke before he had a chance to, and I could almost see the eye roll he gave me.
"So you call me but say hi to him first? Kinda rude." He still delivered my message, and I could hear the uninterested hum from the distracted blond.

"Could you text Momo and ask him if I can come over and study?" Now that I knew Kuroo was able to convince my family to let me out, I wanted to take full advantage.
"First of all, I doubt he'd believe either of us would have a group study session this late on a school night, and secondly, no, because it's a school night." He replied, and I plopped my face down into my duvet.

Well, there goes my night.

"I swear, you Nekoma boys are all stepford coded. Perfect little angels all the time." I muttered, deciding I would at least stay on the phone with him since I had nothing better to do.
"That isn't entirely true, but I do prefer following the rules. They're there for a reason."

I tapped a nail against the back of my phone, rolling my eyes.
"God, you sound like my sister. That just proves my point. Hive mind, cardboard eating, bed head weirdo." My insults were empty, and he didn't seem offended in the slightest as I heard his tinny chuckle through the receiver.

"We have the first summer training camp coming up soon, so at least you'll be able to be out of the house for an extended period." Summer training camp? That was the first I'd heard of such a thing.
"A what now? Elaborate."

I heard him shift about, the sounds of Kenma's game growing a bit louder.
"We're hosting a training camp for other schools we play against sometimes. Bokuto and his team will be there, as well as a couple of others. Usually everyone just crashes on the campus." He explained, and I rolled onto my back, peering up at the ceiling.

"Is it mandatory?" I made a face when I asked that question, and I was sure he was well aware of it.
"Hey, you made not one, but two deals with me saying you'd make an effort. What good is having a pretty manager if we can't show her off to the other guys?" I'd been called pretty before, but I kind of liked it when it came from Kuroo. We shit talked each other all the time, so it was a nice change of pace.

"Awww, you think I'm pretty, Kuroo? You're so sweet, wanting to show me off to your little volleyball friends." I cooed, not missing the slight cough on his end.
"N..Not me, you idiot. Taketora would probably never recover if he couldn't prove you exist. He's been running his mouth, as usual." Was that a slight stammer? It was fun toying with him.

"But what if I don't actually exist? Oh, can we gaslight him into thinking that?! Please, it would be so funny!" This wasn't so bad. Sure, I was still pissed off that my escape attempt had been foiled, but talking to Kuroo was keeping me mildly entertained, and was starting to give me a second wind.

"You might just be a touch evil, you know that?" He chuckled softly, and I did the same, climbing off my bed and back over to the window.
"Yeah, but you all like it. Keeps you on your toes." Carefully, I wedged my phone between my ear and shoulder, climbing out so I was sitting with my legs over the outer sill for a moment before making the slight hop over to the tree right outside my room.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kuroo had obviously heard me grunt, but I kept him hanging for a few long seconds as I shimmied down to the ground.
"Budget Escape From Alcatraz." I had hushed my voice considerably, creeping to the fence so I could hop into the neighbouring yard and mosey on out their side gate.

"If you're...that certain way tomorrow, I'll annoy the shit out of you." I appreciated that Kuroo didn't use the word hangover while Kenma was present, even though I honestly didn't really care if anyone else knew.
"I'm just ducking out for a smoke, don't get your titties in a twist."

"You're aware that smoking can permanently damage your alveoli, right? At least like seventy of the chemicals are carcinogenic, too." I paused to try and decipher some of his words before jumping the fence, landing smoothly on the other side.
"Speak human, please?"

"Make lung go bad ouchie. End up in forever box." He sure dumbed it down alright and I laughed, having to hush myself so I wouldn't get caught at the last second as I jogged through the side gate and out onto the street, putting as much distance between myself and the house as possible.

"No, really? I never knew it was bad for me!" I gasped sarcastically, already pulling my packet from my pocket to spark one up.
"Hey, you do you. It'd just be cool if you considered quitting. Besides, it smells like shit." At least he wasn't being too pushy about it, and that was why I liked him. He voiced his opinion and left it at that.

"I smell like smoke, you smell like sweat, and together we will form Stanktron!" I declared in a hushed shout, earning myself another laugh. "Wanna save battery and come talk in person? I'm only a few minutes away." I heard another creak, and a few unintelligible mumbles from a voice that most likely belonged to Kenma.

"It's past my bed time, and we've got early practice tomorrow." Kuroo pointed out, and I stifled another laugh, kicking at a loose pebble as I strolled down the street.
"Pfffft, okay grandpa. Is that why you're at Kenma's? Tucking him in so he doesn't stay up all night playing games?"

"Something like that." There were another few words said in the background. "I'm just heading home now." Turning at the end of the street I continued in their direction, squinting a little as the smoke of my cigarette billowed into my eye.
"Wait, hand me over so I can say goodnight." Doing as he was told, I waited patiently until I heard the setter heave a sigh into the receiver. "Night night, pookie. Get good sleepies."

"Please don't call me pookie...but goodnight..." That was definitely something a pookie would say, but I didn't get the chance to tease him any longer since he had handed the phone right back to Kuroo.
"Enjoying your stick of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons?" He was on the move now, since I heard a door click shut.

"Gesundheit." He was more of a nerd than I had expected, spouting big words I couldn't understand half the time, but it was entertaining for the both of us. Sometimes I would even humour him, letting him try to teach me what they all meant. "I'm basically done, but it's a nice night, so I'll probably keep strolling around until I hate myself enough to go back home."

"Or, and hear me out, you could go back now and get some sleep? Crazy idea, I know." I had reached the far end of his street now, and I could see him exiting the front yard of Kenma's place in the distance.
"Ew, there's some lanky weirdo with dumb hair hanging outside your place. Want me to kick his ass for you?"

I watched him peer about before his eyes settled on me, his shoulders relaxing.
"So that's where the rotten smell is coming from." He half joked, staying put as I started to jog, pausing to stomp out my cigarette butt before I got too close.

Hanging up our call I gave him a lazy salute, meeting him at his mailbox. Both the u and r of the name plate had long since fallen off, leaving only the word 'Koo'.
"Your son is back at it already." I motioned up to Kenma's bedroom window, where a very telling faint glow could be seen through the curtains.

"Can't say I didn't try. Feel free to terrorise him tomorrow to teach him a lesson." Kuroo laughed, a hand placed on his hip as he studied me in the dark. I took the time to really look at him as well, taking note of the dumb little cartoon cat on his shirt.
"Sure you don't wanna walk with me? You can tell me all about, uh, polygamous aromatherapy hydrocarrots, or whatever it was you said before."

Thumbing over his shoulder towards his front door, Kuroo shook his head, smiling.
"As tempting as that is, I actually want to be functional for school tomorrow. What, are you trying to be a bad influence on me, (Y/N)?" I wasn't, but at times it was tempting. If I didn't actually like the Nekoma boys I probably would have tried.

"Believe me, I could show you a lot worse than an evening stroll if I so desired." I stood a few feet away from him, still on the road, tapping my lighter against my outer thigh. Raising a brow, Kuroo leaned back against his mailbox, glancing between my eyes and where I toyed with my lighter.
"You'll have to share some stories sometime. Can't say I'm not curious."

Curiosity killed the cat...

"I dunno, Kuroo, are you sure you're-"
"YOU LITTLE SHIT!" I nearly leapt out of my skin as a loud, infuriated voice echoed through the still night air. I turned to find Yaku down at the street corner, in his pyjamas, absolutely legging it towards me.

"Well thanks for letting me yap your ear off my dude! I'll see you tomorrow! Later!" With that I was off, sprinting for my damn life, hearing Yaku cursing not only at me, but at his captain as well.

Rest in peace, me. Taken down by a ginger in snoopy pyjamas. What a way to go...