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1.) Caw! Ca-caw!
They're in the southern part of Miyagi prefecture for a practice game when, of course, one of them gets lost.
Daichi's eyebrow twitches. "When exactly," he stresses, "did we lose Tanaka?"
"He was here literally five seconds ago," Noya looks around. "I was just talking to him." Their libero cranes his head around but can't see above the much taller crowd around them.
Daichi sighs. "Coach," he calls, interrupting Ukai and Takeda's conversation. The two coaches stop and read what happened on Daichi's face.
Ukai buries his face in his hand. "Who did we lose? Hinata?"
Daichi quick checks before he answers and thank God Kageyama has a hand anchored into the back Hinata's jacket before he could run off to look for Tanaka. "Surprisingly, no. Tanaka."
"Damnit," Ukai mutters and Daichi's certain he didn't mean for any of them to hear it, considering Takeda's disapproving look at the swear. "Anyone try calling his cell phone yet?"
"Wait," Noya holds up a hand, "I got this."
He doesn't pull out his phone. Instead, to their bemusement, he cups one hand to the side of his mouth, filling his lungs and blasts out a crow-like: "CAW." There's a pause. "Ca-CAW."
The sound isn't the cheesy, funny crow-mimic most people do. The noise Nishinoya lets out is a near-perfect copy of a corvid call that the Karasuno Boys Volleyball Club, instead of laughing, has everyone vaguely impressed.
"Wow!" Hinata bounces over, dragging Kageyama who's still got ahold of him along, "that was really good, Nishinoya! You sounded like a real crow!"
"Thanks!" Noya opens his mouth to say more when across the street they all hear an echoing bird cry.
"Caw! Ca-caw!" Seconds later Tanaka breaks through the crowd, racing to meet them. "Sorry guys! I got turned around when this girl stopped and asked me for directions." He pats Nishinoya on the back. "Nice call, Noya."
"I can't believe you responded to it," Tsukishima snidely laughs behind a hand.
"Well," Sugawara lets out a lighthearted laugh, "we are crows."
2.) Caw!
For a while the incident goes unremarked on and largely forgotten until two weeks later. This time the team is doing endurance runs through town when they of course lose Hinata and Kageyama, the two racing ahead when they were supposed to stay in the middle of the group.
For five minutes they're calling their names as they pass each new intersection, and when it becomes steadily more unnerving the longer the silence persists, it's finally Noya that puts his foot down.
"I'm calling them." He glares at Daichi, the captain throwing his hands up in amused surrender.
"Go ahead. Do your thing, Nishinoya."
Nishinoya climbs to stand on top of Asahi's shoulders and once more belts out, just like two weeks ago on a crowded city street: "CAW. Ca-CAW."
Everyone (even Tsukishima) holds their breaths and after five seconds Tsukishima is about to say something sarcastic when in the distance, they hear that same pattern of caws, though more human-sounding than Nishinoya's own.
They wait a few minutes, hoping to see the freak dup and are surprised to hear the call again.
"Caw! Ca-caw!"
Sugawara squints. "I think- I wonder if they're trying to figure out where we are?"
"I think you're right." Noya does the call again and the next time they hear Hinata and Kageyama respond that they are markedly closer. Both sides keep repeating the same call, small stretches of pauses in between until they see Hinata and Kageyama turn a corner up ahead.
"CAW!" Noya yells, crow-like.
The two groups rejoin, everyone slapping Hinata and Kageyama on their backs and rubbing rough hands through their hair.
"Caw!" Hinata repeats, proving it's been him calling back the entire time. "How do you do that Nishinoya? It's so good!"
"Ha, that's easy!" The second-year grins, hands on his hips while he puffs his chest out in pride. "One of my older sisters is really into bird-watching and got into doing birdcalls because of it. She used to take me along all the time as a kid and doing crows is one of the easier calls. You just use a falsetto voice- you know, up in your head instead of your chest -and then you use your throat like you're gargling water. Guttural, ya know?" Nishinoya caws gain, showing off. "Like that, see?"
Hinata tries again, this time much better than his earlier calls. His brow furrows, still unhappy about the quality of his birdcall.
"I can do better than that," Kageyama challenges and when he calls, it sounds no better than Hinata's attempt. "Caw!"
Tsukishima laughs. "I think that was even worse than the shrimp's."
"Oh yeah? You try!" Kageyama pokes him in the chest and to everyone's surprise, Tsukishima does- and the caw he makes is good. As good as Nishinoya's.
"See?" Tsukishima smirks as he raises eyebrow at Kageyama. "It really isn't that hard."
From there, the rest of the team is pulled into doing their own cawing as they jog back to the high school. Even Asahi and Daichi join in, Nishinoya coaching everyone into making the high, guttural sounds.
When they get back to the gym, everyone needs cold water to soothe their throats and Nishinoya laughs at them. "Yeah, it's an easy call to do, but kind of hard on the throat."
Hisashi throws his empty water bottle at him. "That would've been nice to know before we started cawing like lunatics."
Noya laughs again, catching the bottle and handing it back to him, much to Hisashi's annoyance.
"But isn't it cool? It's kind of like we have our own language now!"
"Whoaaaa," Hinata beams, stars in his eyes. "Our own language! What other sounds do crows make, Nishinoya-senpai?"
Senpai bounces through Nishinoya's brain like a well-received volleyball. "Well, my most treasured kouhai, crows also click, whistle, purr, and coo, but they're also amazing mimics of all sorts of sounds. People, machines, other animals- they can do it all."
"What do you think the call we've doing should mean?" Hinata bounces in place.
"What it's been meaning all along." Noya leads the way up to the clubroom, the sun rapidly beginning to set and the end of practice upon them. "It'll be our 'where are you-here I am' call. One 'caw' will just be 'hi'." He goes to his locker and starts changing, everyone else following suit as they listen. "Anything else, we'll make up as we go along."
"So cool…" Hinata mumbles, his eyes shining as he looks at his upperclassman.
"You could stand to be that cool," Sugawara mentions to Asahi and their ace slumps.
"You don't have to say that every time Noya does something like that…"
And that's how their 'Cawing' language begins.
A language that does become a staple whenever one of their members is out of sight for too long or becomes lost. And that throw-away line of using a single 'caw' as a greeting becomes even more used. When they meet in the clubroom before practice it becomes a common occurrence for a series of caws to burst forth.
What they never expected is who their third 'word' would come from.
3.) Click & Click. Click.
Yamaguchi and Tsukishima are talking in the corner of the gym when Narita yells a question at Tsukishima. Tsukishima turns towards him and makes a questioning click in the side of his cheek.
"That'll be 'what'!" Hinata cries out, everyone blinking.
"Huh?" Tsukishima scowls down at him.
"Crows click, and a single click will be 'what', for our language."
Tsukishima groans. "Seriously? We're actually doing this?"
"C'mon Tsukishima," Daichi nudges him with a shoulder as he walks by. "Even you caw a hello when people come into the clubroom." Daichi laughs when Tsukishima blushes. "And I like it. One click will be for 'what'. Guess that means two clicks will be for 'where'?"
"Sounds good to me," Sugawara grins, setting the ball for Ennoshita to spike.
With their fourth and fifth words made, it's strangely the fifth word, 'where' that sneaks it's way into games and daily life the most. Two quiet clicks in the side of your mouth are easy to conceal and receiving that nudge on which way to go to block a spike or knowing which way a total babe is standing without being obvious about it is an invaluable tool to have. Especially when most believe the tongue clicking, if they do hear it, is out of boredom or annoyance and not an actual question.
4.) Low Whistle & Caw-caw.
Their fifth word comes from Hinata.
The sun is setting and streetlamps are slowly beginning to flicker on as wispy, dark fingers of night begin to caress the sky. Practice had gone longer than usual and Hinata was not looking forward to the bike ride home that took nearly ten minutes more than coming down from the mountains. His stomach rumbling, he lets out one low, sad whistle.
Kageyama starts laughing. "What, is that going to be the word for 'I'm hungry'?"
Hinata clicks a 'what' at him and Kageyama snickers harder.
"We have another word!" Kageyama calls out loudly to the group ahead of them, getting a few laughs (and a groan from Tsukishima, of course).
Yachi pulls out a notebook. "What's the new word?" She asks Kageyama, everyone looking down at the little orange and black palm-sized notebook she's carrying curiously.
"A low whistle for 'hungry'." He scrunches his nose, pointing at the notepad. "What's that for?"
Yachi quick copies down what Kageyama said, a blush steadily building on her cheeks.
"Well, you guys caw and click all the time and then Kiyoko explained how you guys are actually communicating when you do that, so I started writing down what they all mean." She fidgets with her pen, the black puffball on top wiggling like a nervous little chick. "I didn't want to be left behind."
Kiyoko smiles fondly at the assistant manager, proud of her. "You won't be."
Tanaka and Nishinoya immediately let out a long stream of caws and coos between words fawning over Kiyoko's beauty.
"Whoa, slow down!" Yachi panics, almost dropping her pen and looking up at Kiyoko, desperate. "What are they saying? I need to write all of this down!"
"Most of what they're saying is nonsense," Kiyoko laughs, "don't worry about it."
"But-" Yachi frowns, looking between Kiyoko and the boys, clutching the little book to her chest. "Okay."
At Sakanoshita store, Daichi buys them all hot meatbuns and Hinata buys himself an extra power bar, snacking on both.
When they get to the last intersection where they all separate, Yachi timidly listens to the boys calling out their goodbyes while waving and it's her that croaks out, "Caw-caw!"
Hinata looks at her, face slack, then grins. "Caw-caw!"
Around them, everyone cries out "caw-caw!" and Yachi, while walking to the bus stop, scribbles onto the next page in her notepad: "caw-caw"='goodbye'.
5.) Click-click click.
Unfortunately, Tsukishima is the next one to add yet another word to their growing dictionary. This time, unlike the last time, it's on purpose.
While Tsukishima is someone who loves very much to call someone out when they're being a dumbass, but when they're being a dumbass during a match, it's harder to say that sort of thing without the referee giving him the stink-eye.
So Tsukishima Kei does what he always does: the smart thing.
At first it's only Tadashi that knows what the two tongue-tip clicks followed by a lower, cheek click means. The hidden knowledge makes Tadashi giggle every time Tsuki does it and he's sure that either Ennoshita or Sugawara will be the one to figure out what it means.
Which means that when the idiot King of the Court deciphers it, he's taken off-guard.
"You totally just called us dumbasses!" Kageyama yells, pointing at Tsukishima right after he's done his three clicks making fun of Kageyama setting the ball too high for Hinata, ending up with Hinata landing on his back in his panic.
"What?!" Hinata yells, jumping to his feet. "Suckyshima, is that true?"
Tsukishima scowls at the nickname, forcing it into a smirk as he shrugs. "If the shoe fits…"
Kageyama stares him dead in the eye. "Click. Click. Click."
Tadashi bursts out laughing, trying to muffle it with his hands over his mouth. The expression on Tsuki's face is absolutely priceless and Tadashi wishes so badly for a camera to appear in his hands he'd willingly sell his entire collection of books on the Warring States period for a disposable camera with only one picture left on it.
On the sidelines, Yachi whips out her notepad with 'Crow Language' titled on the inside cover.
"Two high clicks followed by one low click," she murmurs to herself as she writes, "means 'what a dumbass'."
Behind her, Kiyoko chokes on her water.
+1: Short Rattle & Short Coo
Daichi doesn't know how true this is for other volleyball clubs, but the Karasuno Boys Volleyball Team truly does hate it when they have missing members. It never feels right.
He finds himself doing another headcount of his team even though he knows, knows, that Hinata and Kageyama are back in Miyagi Prefecture finishing their makeup tests instead of at their sides (like they should be, they're flock family a team).
Suga catches his eye and shares a commiserating look, having just finished doing the same thing.
"Can't help but count, can you?" Suga nudges his side with an elbow and Daichi shrugs.
"Like you weren't doing the same?"
Suga laughs. "C'mon, time for another flying lap."
Daichi sighs, throwing himself forward, Suga mirroring him.
As the long day of training plods onwards, Daichi notices how each member of Karasuno becomes steadily more and more agitated. Noya gets louder, Tanaka gets quieter between each explosive yell. Asahi can't hold anyone's gaze. Narita wrings his hands while Hisashi cracks his knuckles one by one. Ennoshita taps his foot and Yamaguchi's shoulders are hunching further forward with each match. Tsukishima's sharp tongue is snipping at absolutely everyone. Not even their managers are unaffected, Kiyoko hovering within two feet of Yachi at all times and Yachi's head is on a swivel, unable to keep herself from searching.
Several times Daichi keeps himself from calling out what is now a reflexive 'Caw. Ca-caw!' because two of their members, two of some of their most troublesome members, are out of sight.
The sun is dipping closer to the horizon and there's maybe a crow's flap between the two when from outside there's an explosive, bird-like, "CAW. CA-CAW!"
The doors swing open and there's Tanaka's big sister and behind her, their wayward members.
"Caw! Ca-Caw!" Daichi echoes back at them, and it's not just him. All of Karasuno caws. Tsukishima, the girls- from the corner of his eye, Ukai and Takeda do it too. The team wasn't the only one missing them and huh, he never thought the adults would get in on it.
Everyone in the gym stops what they're doing, jaws on the floor, and it's obvious that they're collectively thinking: What the ACTUAL fuck?
Kuroo cackles. "Aren't you crows taking this all a little too seriously?"
"Whatever you say, dumb cat," Daichi digs back at him, refusing to let his good mood be soured.
He smacks both Hinata and Kageyama on the back and roughly ruffles their hair. Within the circle of their team, he lets out a rattle and then follows it up with a coo.
Kiyoko steals Yachi's notepad before she can ask and adds two more terms to the dictionary.
Short Rattle: A light scolding.
Short Coo: 'You did good.'