Chapter Text
Looking back on it, Tanaka should have known that he would be in nothing but trouble the second that Yachi came running out of the gym yelling for help. Tanaka was the type who acted on instinct. Whether it was changing the trajectory of a spike at the very last moment in a game, or breaking up a fight between two stupid, headstrong, dumbass first-years by throwing himself between them, Tanaka was a man of action. Unfortunately, for the most part, being a man of action meant rarely thinking through those actions. Which is why the two stupid, headstrong, dumbass first-years were sporting matching bruises on their cheeks and Yachi was switching between needlessly apologizing and fighting off a fresh batch of tears.
“Alright listen up.” The second year demanded. Three sets of eyes immediately turned to look at him, each with different emotions coursing through them. Yachi, of course, looked panicked. As if any of this could somehow be construed to be her fault. Tanaka suddenly felt to urge to punch his kohai again. Hinata, unlike Kageyama, at least attempted to look remorseful. However, Tanaka had the sinking suspicion he was sorrier that he was caught fighting by his senpai, rather than sorry for actually fighting with another teammate. Kageyama, was predictably, irritated. The brat never was very good with admitting when he was in the wrong, so his demeanor wasn’t much of a surprise to Tanaka. However, the common denominator between the three, was that each of them were looking towards Tanaka in anticipation. The second year found it almost unnerving, the way each of them were obeying him. This must be how Daichi and Suga feel every day, he thought; after all, no one on the team disobeyed a direct order from the Captain or his Vice.
“I want to make myself perfectly clear,” Tanaka said in a slow and condescending tone, mostly directed at Hinata and Kageyama. All three of the first years nodded and continued to look at their upperclassman. “This didn’t happen.”
“What?” Hinata asked as he tilted his head to the side like a puppy that had just heard a new and strange noise for the very first time.
“Dumbass,” Kageyama said under his breath. Unfortunately, the ginger couldn’t let the comment go and decided to shove ‘Stupid-yama’ in retaliation, which of course caused Yachi to start getting frantic again, thinking yet another fight would break out.
Tanaka was losing his patience with his normally favorite first years. “STOP!” he barked out, causing all movement in the gym to cease. “No more of this crap you understand me.” Tanaka said while looking between the two boys. “I have had enough of it, and so has Yachi.” Both Hinata and Kageyama had the decency to look at their feet and at least pretend to be sorry for the trouble they were causing. “Now,” Tanaka said while taking a breath, “when I say this didn’t happen, I mean that all of us pretend that little fight back there didn’t happen. Yachi never had to come get me, and I never pummeled the two of you for being little shits. Got it?”
“Ummm, Tanaka-senpai?” Yachi questioned. Tanaka turned to look at her and reminded himself that she was not someone he should be upset with. “Why would we pretend this didn’t happen?”
“Because all of us would be in a heap of trouble.” That got the attention of his two idiots.
“Trouble?” Kageyama asked.
“Yes, trouble.” Tanaka confirmed while crossing his arms and letting his face take on an even more serious nature. “Do you remember what Daichi did the last time the two of you were fighting in this gym?” Tanaka asked.
“He wouldn’t let us join the team and we had to play that three-on-three!” Hinata yelled out. “I was so scared that we were never going to get to play volleyball ever again. He looked so scary when he said he kicked us out, and then,” Hinata turned to Yachi as if he was just telling her a story, “then he told Stupid-yama that if we lost the three-on-three that he couldn’t play setter as long as Daichi was the captain!”
“You’re kidding!” Yachi cried and then looked at Kageyama. “Well obviously you guys won since Kageyama plays as the setter, but that must have been terrifying.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” Tanaka said, moving now between Hinata and Yachi, trying to break up the conversation. “Very scary, but that was just an example.” Tanaka now used his position to grab the shoulders of his two morons and pulled them closer to him. “Now imagine what Daichi or Suga would do if they found out you fought again, but this time it got physical. And on top of it all you did something like that in front of the new manager. What do you think would happen?” The older boy let his underclassmen stew on those thoughts for a second, which proved to be positive because they each let out a gulp of fear.
“The Captain would be very very angry.” Hinata supplied.
“So would Suga.” Kageyama added.
“Exactly,” Tanaka nodded his nearly bald head in sync with the other two boys. “So, this didn’t happen. Got it?” Two heads easily nodded in the interest of self-preservation; however, the blonde girl was not so easily convinced.
“Tanaka-senpai?” Yachi asked, “Wouldn’t that be lying?”
A weight of guilt settled into the older boy’s stomach. He was asking his juniors to lie, well more like commanding them to, and all because he wanted to avoid the trouble that would inevitably follow the truth. “It’s not lying exactly.” Tanaka tried. “If Daichi and Suga don’t ask you anything about it, then you aren’t lying.”
“But if they ask me, what am I supposed to say?” the young girl persisted. In some ways Tanaka was happy to know that the team was going to inherit a manager that would hold each of them accountable, and act as a conscious of sorts, but that was currently working against him.
“They probably won’t ask you anything.” Hinata said as he rested a comforting hand on the young girl’s shoulder. “And if they did you can tell them the truth,” Kageyama’s head shot in the ginger’s direction with a glare firmly set on his face. Hinata looked the setter directly in the eye clearly directing his next statement at his teammate, “None of us will be mad at you. We messed up, not you.”
“Whatever.” Kageyama huffed out, picking up one of the stray volleyballs on the gym floor and walking to return it to the basket.
Tanaka sighed, taking this for the small victory that it was. “All of you, go home.” The three first years all turned to their upperclassmen looking somewhat astonished. “If you stay here, you are likely to fight again, and I honestly don’t think I can deal with that right now. I’ll clean up the rest of this mess, and then I’m going home and getting some shut eye.” He turned looking at Kageyama, expecting some defiance but happy to see him toss one more ball in the basket and then move to the door to leave. “Don’t case anymore trouble.” Tanaka warned as the three left the gym.
***
The next afternoon practice that rolled around seemed exhausting. Daichi wasn’t in a bad mood, but he did seem to be correcting people faster than normal. Usually the third year would give a gentle reminder of what was expected of them, and only after there was continued misbehavior would he resort to what the team affectionately referred to ‘Scary Dadchi’.
Finally, when practice was coming to a close and everyone had nearly finished with their assigned duties, Tanaka was starting to breathe a sigh of relief. If their secret was going to be discovered, Daichi would have played his hand by now. The Captain must have just been stressed out, after all, exams were around the corner. College prep had to have just been overwhelming when combined with leading up a sports team. That was all.
“Tanaka!” Suga yelled across the gym, waving him over to where he and Daichi stood. He should have known that running into the gym without a plan would only land him in hot water. Turning around and running straight out of the gym would be one option, but it likely would only make things worse. Instead, Tanaka decided to face whatever was coming to him head on. Jogging over, it didn’t take a genius to decode the two third years’ faces. They obviously knew.
“Hey Suga,” Tanaka tried to laugh it off and rubbed the back of his head. “What’s up.”
Suga looked over at Daichi, who had crossed his arms and let out a simple, “We know.” Tanaka’s shoulder’s slumped, he knew when he was beaten and there wasn’t any use in trying to lie further. It would only make things worse in the end. Out of the corner of his eye Tanaka could see Suga’s hand grabbing at the edge of Daichi’s t-shirt and giving it a tug. The look Suga was shooting at his best friend was reassuring, but Tanaka couldn’t tell who exactly it was meant to reassure.
“Go get your co-conspirators please.” Suga said. He wasn’t smiling like he normally would, he wasn’t acting as a counterweight to Daichi’s typical stern demeanor. Tanaka knew this didn’t bode well for him. “Daichi and I want to have a talk with you three.”
“I’m guessing that means I shouldn’t grab Yachi?” Tanaka asked. Suga nodded, which made the second year happy. The last thing he wanted was for the young girl to be in any kind of trouble because of him and his stupid kohai. “Good.” Tanaka said. “It wasn’t her fault.”
“We knew that too.” Suga said. “Now go get the other two.”
Tanaka did as he was told. At first Hinata and Kageyama were confused, thinking that somehow the four of them had managed to pull off their little plan and fool their upperclassmen. However, reality quickly set it. “She ratted us out.” Kageyama seethed.
“We promised not to be mad at her.” Hinata said, as they started to walk to the other side of the gym.
“No,” Kageyama nearly yelled. “You promised her. I didn’t say anything.”
“Actually, you said whatever, which is something Stupid-yama!” Hinata yelled.
“ENOUGH!” The command carried from across the gym, clearly coming from a nearly fuming Daichi. The entire team froze where they stood, Suga being the only one left unfazed. “Everyone grab your things and head out, don’t linger.” The order was clear.
Suga decided to take the job of herding everyone, with the exception of the three troublemakers, from the gym and towards the club room. They were once again given the instruction to go home soon, because once the others had finished putting the net away, they need the clubroom for a discussion. Ennoshita shot Suga a knowing and concerned look, but he was shooed away along with the others. “Chikara,” Suga called after him, causing the second year to turn around. “It will be okay, I promise.” Ennoshita nodded and headed up the stairs with the others, knowing that Suga had just cryptically entrusted him with making sure that everyone was swift in packing up their things and heading home for the night.
When Suga had reentered the gym his three kohai were working on taking down the net, with Daichi watching over them. “Are you sure you can handle this?” Suga asked. He knew how difficult what they were about to do was going to be, and a calm head was going to be absolutely necessary.
“I’m calm Suga.” Daichi said after taking a quick breath. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I would never actually lose my temper with one of them. The yell was more of an attempt to shock the fight out of Hinata and Kageyama.”
“I don’t think it is possible to get the fight out of them.” Suga laughed. Daichi turned to him with a serious look on his face. “We can help them channel it to something more productive though.” Luckily, that sentiment was met with the captain’s shoulders relaxing.
“Thank you for being my Vice.” Suga threw his weight against Daichi’s arm as a response. “Ow,” Daichi said, although it didn’t have any weight behind it. “Really though, I don’t think I could manage this team without you.”
“You couldn’t.” Suga fired back with an impish smirk. Daichi just nodded, knowing it was his best friend’s version of support and then made his way over to his three nervous underclassmen. “We assume you guys know why we asked you to stay after.”
“Because the net hadn’t been taken down yet,” Tanaka tried to relieve the tense situation. The look Daichi sent him clearly made it known that his efforts had failed, and he shouldn’t try again. “Because we messed up.” Tanaka clarified.
“That is an understatement.” Suga huffed. Clearly, he wasn’t as easy going about the situation as he was trying to let on. He was being calm in an effort not to encourage Daichi’s anger, only one of them could let their frustrations show and one of them had to keep their head.
All three of the troublemakers were stood in a row, staring at the two third years and waiting to be chastised. “You fought with your teammates,” Daichi said, his tone stern and brow furrowed, looking at Kageyama. “You lied to the rest of your team.” He moved on to looking down onto Hinata, the ginger quickly breaking eye contact and staring at his shoes. Daichi moved again and looked straight ahead at Tanaka, the disappointment in his gaze was palpable. “You manipulated our newest member and made her feel like she needed to lie to. When she was the only one out of any of you that had not done anything wrong.” Tanaka couldn’t hold Daichi’s stare anymore, the weight of asking Yachi to lie for him pressing down to hard. “The sad thing is, when Kiyoko first came and told me what Yachi had confessed to her, I didn’t believe it.” All three of them turned to look back up at their Captain. “I nearly accused Kiyoko of lying, because there was absolutely no way that the three of you would ever coerce another person into lying for you. Not my team,” Daichi sighed and looked to his feet. “I thought all of you were better than that.”
“It was my idea.” Tanaka said, stepping forward with his head held submissively. “I told them to lie.” Tanaka could see Daichi’s shoes come to stand underneath his eyes. “I was trying to save my own skin. I knew if I told you the whole truth about what happened the other night, I would be in trouble too.”
“And what is the whole truth?” Suga asked.
“You said you already knew.” Tanaka shrugged his shoulders. “What’s the point in saying it again.”
Daichi was quick with an answer, “To see if you will lie to us again.”
Tanaka paused. He knew there was no point in lying, it would only make his situation worse. “When I ran into the gym and saw Hinata and Kageyama fighting, I threw myself at them and hit them both to get them to stop.”
“It’s our fault.” Everyone turned in shock to look at Kageyama. He stood there with his shoulders set, staring straight forward, looking only to Sugawara. “Tanaka-senpai yelled for us to stop, we didn’t listen, and when he tried to pull us apart, we were still fighting. The only way to get us apart was to hit us, he shouldn’t be in trouble for that.”
Sugawara stepped forward, placing his hand on the younger setter’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you for realizing what you did was wrong and taking responsibility, but that doesn’t excuse what Tanaka did.”
“It doesn’t excuse what any of you did.” Daichi said. “All of us are going to the clubroom and we are going to take care of this. Once it is over, there will be a clean slate.” He turned his back and started for the door. “Let’s go.”
The walk to the clubroom was tense. Kageyama and Hinata had no idea what was about to happen to them, but Tanaka had a pretty good idea of what was about to take place. Noya and himself had been known to cause trouble every now and then, leading them to receiving some ‘guidance’ from their senpais. It was only ever really a couple of swats, nothing too major, but Tanaka has a sinking suspicion that all of them were in for more than a few love taps.
When all of them made it into the room, Suga shut the door and locked it. “Okay,” the third-year setter said as he moved to stand next to Daichi, “All three of you are about to very upset about what is going to happen, but at this moment Daichi and I don’t really care. The behavior that you have displayed was abysmal at best, and it will not happen again.” Suga paused and made sure to look each of his kohai in the eye. “Am I understood?” He asked for good measure, receiving nods from each of them. “Good.” Daichi and Suga shared a look, the silver haired boy nodding and walking over to Tanaka. “You are with me,” He said while grabbing Tanaka’s arm and leading him to one side of the clubroom. “I know you know what you have coming, so there is no need to explain it. As for you two,” Suga said turning to the two first years, “Daichi will tell you what you need to know. If I have to come over here and help him, I promise you that you will regret it.” The threat was clear. Honestly, Daichi was the one that everyone watched out for, but Suga could be just as scary.
Tanaka followed his senpai to the far-left corner of the room and sat down on an open folding chair. “I don’t think there is a need for a lecture, do you?”
Tanaka shook his head. “I hit my teammates, and I told them to lie.”
“You did,” Suga agreed. “You were the senpai in the situation Tanaka. You should have known better.”
“I’m sorry.” Tanaka apologized.
“I know you are.” Suga said while reaching out to grab his kohai’s hand. “Let’s just get this over with, so we can move on.” With that Suga lead Tanaka to lie over his lap resting his hand on the second year’s back, to keep him in place. Suga was quick to pull Tanaka’s gym shorts down, which caused the younger boy to release a small yelp. “You didn’t expect for me to let you keep those?” Suga asked, an air of amusement in his voice.
“A guy can dream, right?” Tanaka asked. He was met with a strong slap at the center of his butt. “Guess not.” The boxers he was wearing was providing very little protection to the on slot of stinging slaps. This was the first time that Sugawara had ever disciplined Tanaka, but he wasn’t surprised by the ferocity of the blows. He had seen Suga give Asahi ‘playful’ punches, resulting in the teams ace doubling over in an attempt to catch his breath. Another circuit of slaps around the Tanaka’s poor bottom, and the second year began to squirm. Despite the struggle, Suga was not missing even one of his marks. Slap after slap landed, with no relief in sight. Minutes passed by, and it was impossible for Tanaka to continue keeping still. He either was going to need to move or he was going to start making some noise. Somehow, he was going to need to get relief.
“Ow! Ow! O-OW!” Tanaka yelled out, trying to reach a hand back to stop his punishment, but Suga smacked his hand away. “Suga, please!” Tanaka begged. “Please stop!”
“You don’t get to decide when your punishment stops.” Suga tutted, and then landed four solid smacks to Tanaka’s under-curve. “You earned this.” Suga then pulled down Tanaka’s boxers, and the last of his remaining dignity. Tanaka tried to wiggle away, but a firm grip around his hip held him in place.
“I said I was sorry!” Tanaka wailed. “I won’t do it again!”
“I’m glad.” Sugawara said as he gave another round of harsh smacks to Tanaka’s now bared bottom causing the wing spiker to whimper. Suga continued spanking, not pausing, slowing down, or lightening the intensity. When Tanaka received a particularly harsh smack, his body bucked causing him to look up and see a very sorry Hinata standing in the corner with a red bottom on display. If he listened, he could hear cries from the other side of the room, promises to never fight again, and stinging slaps accompanying each plea.
Tanaka felt tears welling up in his eyes. He was only in this position because of himself. If he had been smarter, if he had taken a second to think about the consequences of his actions, he wouldn’t be here, lying over the lap of one of the people he respected most, getting his bottom spanked like a naughty child. This was absolutely humiliating, and he deserved every second of it. Three more slaps to his sit spots is what did it, the tears fell out and Tanaka began to cry. Suga was relieved that they had finally reached the point where he could wind down the punishment. He hated being the disciplinarian. Normally Daichi was able to take on this role, and Suga could be the one slip by with just a lecture and stern glance. Tonight, though was different, Daichi needed his support. Two wayward kohai he could handle, but three of them was just asking too much of the Captain. “I. Never. Want. To. Have. This. Conversation. Again.” Suga said, punctuating each word with a quick smack to Tanaka’s thighs. The spanks were met with whimpers and more tears, but Tanaka had lost all of the fight in him.
The spanking then stopped, but Tanaka didn’t seem to notice. It was only when the hand that was punishing him only moments ago began to rub soothing circles on his very punished bottom, did Tanaka register that the punishment was over. “Pl-please Tanaka,” Tanaka looked up to see Suga, trying his best to control his emotions, “I really don’t want to do this to you again.” Tanaka shot up from his spot on Suga’s knees and went in for a hug.
“I’m sorry.” Tanaka said, desperate for his senpai to believe him.
Suga brought his hands up to hold his junior, grateful that all of this was over. “I know you are, and I forgive you.” That sentence caused the weight in Tanaka’s stomach to lift, knowing that his senpai forgave his idiocy was monumental. However, Sugawara wasn’t the only senpai he had disappointed. Tanaka nuzzled his head into Suga’s shoulder and whispered, “Will Daichi forgive me.”
“Of course.” Suga reassured, rubbing the younger boy’s back with one hand and cupping his shaved head with the other. “Look over there for a moment.” Suga’s finger pointed across the room, and when Tanaka’s eyes followed it, he saw it land on the picture of the two stupid, headstrong, dumbass first years curled up in the arms of their Captain, faces nuzzled into his shoulder while he was murmuring soothing affirmations to each. “He forgave all three of you before we even started this.”
“But he was so mad.” Tanaka couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that his Captain had managed to forgive him before he had even been punished.
“More disappointed than anything.” Suga said, but he noted the frown on his junior. “I know that doesn’t help much, but I promise you he isn’t angry. We just care about everyone on the team so much, and we take our jobs as its leaders seriously. The idea of the three of you hurting one another…” Suga paused. “It’s unbearable. We are supposed to protect each other. We are supposed to be each other’s greatest allies. But when teammates fight and hurt each other like the three of you did or lie to your teammates like the three of you did, we are the exact opposite of a team.” Suga sighed. “That hurts Daichi and I…we take it personally, and maybe we shouldn’t; but when you guys do stuff like that…it makes us feel like we failed you in some way.” The tears which Tanaka had thought he finally had under control began to make their way back.
“I’m sorry.” He whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey now,” Suga soothed. “It’s all over. The three of you are forgiven and we can move on.” Suga gave Tanaka another hug, squeezing him extra hard so he would know that he was extra forgiven. After Tanaka was released, he bent down and pulled up his boxers and pants, slightly embarrassed that he hadn’t noticed he had been having the conversation with Suga in only a t-shirt.
Once he was put together again, Tanaka made his way across the room, meeting the gaze of his Captain and two very sorry kohais, each still bare like he was a moment ago. He chuckled to himself, knowing they probably hadn’t realized their situation either.
“I’m sorry!” Tanaka yelled while bowing to the group of them. “I should never have struck my teammates or told them to lie to the rest of our team! I was supposed to be the responsible one and I failed them, especially Yachi.” Tanaka sucked in a breath, knowing that he would need to find the blonde first year and apologize to her personally for the situation he put her in. “I promise I will do better.”
Tanaka could only hear the shuffling that took place, and a few muffled grunts as people readjusted, but then once again he was greeted with the sight of Daichi’s shoes right beneath his eyes. “You didn’t fail.” Daichi’s voice graced his ears, and a hand grabbed his chin pulling his eyes up to meet the now gentle brown gaze of his Captain. “You made a mistake Tanaka, that is very different from failure.” Tanaka nodded, knowing that he couldn’t give his senpai a verbal confirmation.
“I’m proud of you.” Daichi said, prompting Tanaka to fling himself into the arms of his Captain. “I know it is hard for you to admit when you are wrong, but today you owned up to your mistakes immediately. You are maturing Tanaka,” Daichi pushed their bodies apart, just a bit so they could make eye contact. “I want you to know that it hasn’t gone unnoticed.” Tanaka nodded, trying to fight off a third round of tears. “I know this was a misstep and it won’t happen again, so let’s just move on from all of this. All of you are forgiven.”
Suga stepped forward and motioned for the other two boys to join in a group hug. Three of the five people in the hug would have a difficult time sitting for the next couple of days, but there were worse things in the world. Tanaka was just grateful that he hadn’t lost the respect of his senpais, and he had a fresh start. After the three freshly punished boys took a second to freshen up, they made their way outside along with the Captain and his Vice. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Tanaka was surprised to see Ennoshita sitting on the sidewalk patiently waiting.
“I thought you had gone home.” Suga said, raising his eyebrow. Clearly, the brunette second year was not meant to stay behind, causing Kageyama and Hinata to stop walking and stand behind their Captain. They did not want to get involved in another ‘conversation’.
“I’m sorry Suga,” Ennoshita said, rubbing his neck and blushing a bit. “I know you said that they would be okay, but I just wanted to see for myself.”
“DUDE!” Tanaka yelled. “You can’t know about this! It’s so embarrassing!”
“Calm down Tanaka,” Daichi said, coming forward and resting his palm on the back of his kohai. “How do you think Ennoshita would know about all of this in the first place?” The Captain asked, hoping his junior was able to put two and two together.
“Wait…” Everyone could see the moment it clicked for the three boys who had just been punished.
Tanaka’s head swiveled back and forth between his Captain and one of his best friends. “You?” He pointed at Daichi. “Him?” He pointed at Ennoshita. “But he…” Tanaka paused. “When?”
Ennoshita stepped forward grabbing his backpack from the ground and beginning to walk away. “That’s none of your business.”
“No fair!” Tanaka yelled, chasing after his friend. “No way you get to know mine, but I don’t get to know yours!”
Daichi and Suga just chuckled, not bothering to yell the correction that Ennoshita technically didn’t know the specifics of anything. Hinata and Kageyama were looking at Daichi, expectantly, waiting for an answer to their unasked question. “I don’t think so,” Daichi said. “I don’t plan on telling the team anything about how or why I punished you guys, so I will not tell you how or why I have punished any of the others.”
The two nodded, knowing it was a fair trade and made their way to the school’s exit.
Daichi caught Suga’s arm before the silver hair boy could get too far ahead of him. “Thank you again.” Daichi said while giving his Vice a small smile. “I really wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”
Suga came forward and gave his best friend a much-needed hug. “Yes, you could.” Suga reassured, “but my job is to make sure you don’t have too.” The two stayed like that for a few more seconds, happy to absorb the comfort each of them was giving the other. “They really are rascals, aren’t’ they?” Suga joked.
Daichi laughed and began moving forward, “They are worth it though.” He said, happy to see his best friend nod in agreement. It was exhausting being the leaders of Karasuno’s volleyball team, but neither of them would change any of their teammates. For better or worse, they were a team, and they were going to fly together.