Big thanks to my friend Jeff for helping me work thought Writer's Block on this chapter. I messaged him late at night on FB and was like: HELP. Apologies for the kind of short chapter considering this only updates once a month, but I just finished finals and graduated from university with my BA. All my time goes into job searching currently.
Chapter 12
Battle of the Sauna
"I'm going to head back to the room, then." Kuroko asserted as the sportsmen got out of the bath to head to the Sauna.
"You'll be okay on your own?" Izuki looked over him.
"I'll be fine." The blue haired teen held the towel a little tighter.
"The losers will join you in a few minutes, I'm sure." Daichi laughed.
"Who won the last time you did this?" Hinata bounced behind the group into the sauna.
"Seirin," Aomine stretched his arms over his head.
"Mitobe was the last one standing."
"This time I'll be here, so I'll win though." A smile slid across the dark skinned ace's face. "The only one who can beat me is me."
"You're such an asshole, Dai-chan!" Momoi shouted over the wall between the two bath areas.
"Shut up Satsuki!"
The boys gathered individually around the room on the benches and stuck to their teams. The first few minutes were no sweat for any of them. Furihata ducked out first because the heat got to him.
Daichi forced Kageyama to leave with Hinata when the middle blocker slipped into a light sleep. The setter wasn't happy about the arrangement visually, but his small pants of exhaustion told a different story. Mitobe showed no signs of giving up his championship and Murasakibara dropped out so he could find snacks. Kenma decided he wanted to play some video games and Inuoka went with him to make sure that the others were getting ready for bed.
The coaches only rented on room and somebody needed to be responsible for proper setup of the sleeping space. Inuoka would rather not be pressed to close to a wall or fellow teammate. Ennoshita volunteered to escort out Kinoshita and Narita when they started to act tipsy. Koganei volunteered to help hold one of them up since he wasn't fond of the battle overall.
When Takao started to sway and slip into unconsciousness, Midorima scooped him up into his arms and left the battle. Hyūga forced an irate Kagami out of the sauna to avoid heat exhaustion and Akashi made Aomine follow them out. Kise left shortly after them because he wasn't interested in the mainly volleyball competition. Suga escorted out Asahi, who tried to live up to Nishinoya's standards and stayed in far too long, along with the small libero. Yaku was forced to drag a half coherent Lev out a few minutes later.
Tsuchida helped Kawahara and Fukuda leave next—Shibayama and Fukunaga from Nekoma weren't far behind them. Outside the sauna, several of the participants soaked in the small ice bath to cool down from the ridiculous high. Most of them gathered their things and already returned to the room. Yamaguchi decided to leave while he was still coherent; Tanaka, Yamamoto, and Izuki left with him. They struck up a conversation about the weekend's training camp plans and the hawk eye provided them with his guess of Riko's plans. He suspected it would be similar to their last onsen trip that Tōō crashed.
"You can leave Tsukki with me Daichi. I can see you're tired. I'll take good care of him." Kuroo threw his feet up so that he spread across to the other row of benches. The Karasuno captain took a moment to look between the two before he decided on his answer.
"Yeah, I'm dying of heat."
His absence left one team member to represent each part of the camp. Tsukishima glared across the space at Kuroo. Sweat rolled down his face from his hairline, but he gave no signs of giving up. His glasses were thoroughly fogged over, but he didn't care. He had to beat Kuroo at all costs now that he started the stupid competition.
"How you doing Tsukki?" Kuroo nudged the blond with his foot. Tsukishima pushed it away with a disgusted frown.
"I'm just fine."
"That's what you say, but you've got a glob of sweat on your forehead that's telling a different story." He sat up straight and leaned across the confined space.
Kei turned away from the middle blocker and leaned against the wall. He let his eyes drift closed so he could concentrate on winning without the distraction of Kuroo's pectorals—although, if he had to admit, the most attractive part on the Nekoma captain was the V at his hips and the sparse treasure trail. Tsukishima felt his cheeks heat up and the red coloring immediately alerted Kuroo that something was wrong.
"Screw winning, you're gonna die if you stay in here." Tetsurō grabbed Tsukishima's hands and pulled him up from the bench. The blond groaned and fell against the shorter man for only a moment before his wits returned to him. "I'll even compromise."
Kuroo exited the sauna first and proclaimed Tsukishima the winner. The Karasuno member wasn't amused, but he took the win before the third year shoved him into the cold bath. He felt his body recoil immediately, but it felt good on his skin. In his delirious state, he could've sworn that Kuroo pressed a soft kiss to his forehead—but he figured it was just his imagination.
-oOo-
Mitobe ended up winning the battle for a second time. Akashi declared him a true monster because the smaller male could only take so much heat. Seirin cheered for their winning teammate before Ukai and Nekomata ordered the boys to go to bed.
"Hey Kageyama," Hinata whispered into the dark. The setter grunted roughly, on the verge of sleep. "What do you think of the training camp?"
"It's good practice, especially since you need it." He yawned. "Now go to bed dumbass."
Shōyō opened his mouth to say something else, but Tobio placed and arm across the space and clasped his hand over the middle blocker's lips. Hinata gently took the hand off his mouth and held onto it tight between their two beds. He'd pretend as long as Kageyama allowed him to.
