kageyama tobio's accidental first year harem - fic recap

[onceand_forall]

i love this fic. truly. so much. it was sooo self indulgent and god i am so happy on how it turned out :) this idea first came to me in a dream (lol, no). it came to me after lia and i were texting about how good senpai / third yr kags is and i was like AHHHHH bday present for the lovely lia :)

admittedly, it turned out quite a bit longer than i had planned for it to be. i always aim for the sweet spot of 5k, but i am nothing if not the master of writing more than i originally planned to. there was just so much that i wanted to cram in: the ocs, the pining, the first years turned third years, the kagehina! but i really like how it all came together so no complaints there :)



THE BACKGROUND

so like i said before, the inspo for this fic was def lia's love of third year kags. it's such a precious, good love. i had a lot of fun creating the OCs for this fic. first, there's yoshimoto, the libero that's cursing out noya for making setting a thing for liberos, lol.

i really am fond of the idea of the newbies not knowing the older players (ofc) but still following in their footsteps. makes me feel some kinda way. yoshimoto is a really cute kid that tries very hard to be cool and i love him for it.

then there's sakata who's bold and daring and has no clue how he got here in the first place. he's a good kid with lite imposter syndrome. but he's also SOO forward and def the leader of the first years, even if he denies it.

and then there's the baby fukuda. everyone's favorite, hehe. the gentle giant... the one who is def going to go pro. i thought it would be really interesting to see different dynamics of ppl's loves for volleyball. yoshimoto and sakata both love volleyball so much and are going through a bit of a transition period with the team, yet making it work.

fukuda on the other hand is doubting if he even likes volleyball in the first place. (he does) he's struggles a bit in this fic and kags helps him along the way!

we love a good vice captain kags who is out to help the team's kiddos!

THE THEMES

this was mostly just self indulgent and nothing is too deep, but i would def say that there is a current of growth throughout the whole fic. growth on the third years parts as we now see them as more mature, responsible young adults (aka still teens).

there's a lot of growth for kags too. in canon (pre time skip) he's really coming into himself and it was a lot of fun to imagine where he would be in his third year! he's reliable and caring, but still awkward and little rough around the edges. but god he is TRYING and we love him for it.

and of course, you have the growth of the first years. growing into the team, growing into new habits, growing crushes on the handsome vice captain. all in good fun!

FAV LINES

“I’m not grumpy, you’re just annoying,” Tsukishima quips, but then his stomach lets out the biggest rumble Kageyama has ever heard and the sound shatters any sort of bite Tsukishima’s words had.

tsukki is barely in this fic, and i've barely truly written him, but GOD do i love his banter. and i really love how the third years r a little family. this is well highlighted in the manga itself but AHHHHHHH! doesn't it make ur heart so warm that these friendships last a lifetime!

There’s only a few seconds for you to think— it’s mostly a sport done through sheer muscle memory. You block, you serve, you spike time and time again in practice and hope that your muscles will remember what they’ve practiced

this is directly from my experience with golf.... like it's a hard sport that can be played very casually and is a sport that is sooo extremely technical and also very simple. it's full of contradictions and to me-- a person who has never played volleyball-- it seems that volleyball is the same.

“Volleyball is a team sport,” Kageyama repeats. “Karasuno will teach you that if you don’t already know. They’re good like that.”

KAGEYAMA TEACHING THE LIFE LESSONS HE LEARNED TO HIS UNDERCLASSMEN!!! SOBS!!! SOBS SOB SSSSS

FINAL THOUGHTS

this fic is just.... it's sweet! it's lovely!! it's formulaic! it's nothing special but that's the beauty of writing fic... you can really just do it for fun and BOY is this fic fun!!!

thanks for reading!
once

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