"Tsubomi!" Her older brother runs through the house, his hollers getting louder and angrier with each call, "hey, Tsubomi! Stop hiding already!"

"I'm not hiding," she says, right beside the boy. And he shrieks bloody murder, surprised by her sudden emergence, apparently from nowhere.

Her faintly green hair is long, tucked into the hood of her purple hoodie. Her hoodie, which she somehow wears as her sleepwear, casual wear, and outdoor wear simultaneously.

"Holy crap, stop doing that!" his brother snaps back reflexively, "how long have you been--"

"I've been here the whole time."

"No way!" He splutters, flustered, but composes himself with an almighty harumph as he marches right out. "A-Anyways!" he says, "I'm leaving for morning practice! Breakfast is in the fridge, bye!"

"See you, Tobio," Tsubomi says in return, though she isn't sure if he's heard it.

Tsubomi watches him leave the house, his white and blue jersey jacket fluttering calmly in the wind with him. The words Kitagawa Daiichi emblazoned across the back, Tsubomi wonders how it would feel to wear a school uniform like that one.

She's never had the opportunity, even back then, with Ayano.

But now she's Kageyama Tsubomi, and surely, this was the chance to finally get formal education into her system. Maybe if she gets somewhere good, she'll be able to meet all of them again, as promised.

But for now, she'll wait.

-

Kido Tsubomi was always a shy girl, and reincarnating didn't really change that at all. She's a little better now, because people around her were nice.

She took a while getting used to 'Kageyama Tsubomi', but it was fine. She kind of missed being called by her last name-- it was like a code name, so said Kano so long ago -- and Ayano (and her parents) were the only ones that referred to her as 'Tsubomi'.

Her brother is not like her sister Rin. Nor was he like Kano, or Seto, or even Ayano. He wasn't really like anyone, really. He was strong, brave, confident, and above everything, passionate.

His grades were horrendous and he was bashfully defiant to admit it, but his volleyball prowess was something that left even Tsubomi in awe.

Tsubomi went to every one of his matches, and from the cheering stands, she would smile shyly at him when he grins, tooth and joy, in her direction.

Then she shrinks when eyes are cast upon her.

Her hoodie is purple, in a different design from her old one, but it was the first thing she claimed from her brother's closet. It was warm and comfortable and reminded her of home, old home. She knows she's being too clingy to the past, but the blueberry scent mixed with boy's cologne calms her too.

-

"Hey, Tsubomi!"

Tsubomi squeaks. She had been quietly purchasing a can of red bean soup from the vending machine when that voice shoots into her ears.

She swirls around, shrinking closer to the vending machine on instinct.

"To- Tobio?" she's surprised to find him there. It was still daylight, and her brother was always at practice until the sun went down.

And it wasn't just the black-haired brother. Behind him was a taller (two taller) boys, wearing the same volleyball jersey but exuding the aura of... older people.

Tsubomi takes a step back, and leans her shoulder into the metal of the machine.

"Wh- what's," Tsubomi looks away sharply when one of the seniors turn to her, "what's-- what's? uh-- I mean why, why are you... Early? today."

Her sentence always never seems to make sense when she's nervous, but she couldn't manage anything better.

"Club practice is cancelled today because of a leak," Tobio doesn't sound entirely amused. "They didn't want me to practice anyways because of my leg, so I have a prison guard escorting me home."

He jabs an offending thumb at the brown-haired one that can't seem to stop smiling.

"And this is Iwaizumi-senpai," he points at the black-haired one, before turning to him and introducing them, "Iwaizumi-senpai, this is my younger sister, Tsubomi."

"Nice to meet you," he says, and although there's a scary furrow in his brows, he keeps a neutral, harmless look on his face.

"N-n-n---!!" Tsubomi, suddenly being directly addressed, panicked, "nice to, nice to meet you too???"

"Why is that a question?" Iwaizumi can't believe how timid she was. Tsubomi wanted to hide behind the vending machine. Can she disappear? Please?

"Sometimes I wonder why I haven't stabbed you already, Tobio," the brown-haired one mutters spitefully at the blatant favouritism. "Nice to meet you, Tsubomi-chan, I'm Oikawa Tooru."

Oikawa steps forward to greet her, but the cheesy smile and sparkly aura only made Tsubomi's head go blank. She's never been talked to so forwardly before. She manages a nod in response, tugging her hood up as she maneuvers around them to her brother, and hides behind him.

"She's really timid, so could you not scare her please," Tobio grumbles at the senior annoyedly.

"That's right, Shittykawa, don't scare girls," Iwaizumi tacks on absent-mindedly, "can't you see you freaked her out?"

"It's my fault??"

Tsubomi sticks to her brother's back, as she always did because she knew she shouldn't use her powers to fade out anymore. It wasn't as if she couldn't-- she just shouldn't .

She remembers sticking around Kano all the time. Timidly asking him to handle every conversation she didn't want to, and roping him into events she was interested in, because he cared for her and he understood just how hard it was for her to open up.

She breathes in the nostalgia, and smiles.

This is fun.