Hello good people! You might be wondering if I am dead, or if I hit another writer block, or if I am planning for destruction of the world. Wrong! T^T
I lost internet. And it won't be coming back until September. Fuck the internet company in my neighborhood!
But still I managed to snatch some wi-fi from my friend's place and post this.
Hope it reaches you T^T
Disclaimer: Chikae
Keishin remained silent, watching the back of his daughter listlessly disappear behind her room's door. He didn't dare ask what happened at school today, but the man predicts that more or less it has something to do with Nishinoya. The little punk doesn't seem to leave Chikae alone (and her nature of avoiding questions doesn't help either), so he is alarmingly close on the verge of giving the punk a lecture about mentally harassing her.
He knows that the kid was only worried. But everybody is worried. Yesterday, for the second time, Sugawara came to talk to him with the atmosphere that is exactly as when they share words at the training camp. Only this time it's about Chikae.
Keishin grabs the box of cigarettes along with the lighter and steps outside on the balcony. He doesn't want to spoil the air. The last thing the young man needs is for his daughter to become second-hand smoker. He'll try to give up on the addiction. Someday maybe, but definitely not now, not when she's still troubled.
Cracking a cold laugh at himself, the young coach lights a cigarette, breathing the sweet air it projects and let the smoke come out of his mouth. His head becomes a bit clearer. The sudden rush gets his brain working. Chikae is still too young to have to go through all of this. And he's still too young to help her through it all. He hasn't seen enough of life and she has seen way too much of it. The gap in the experiences are big, and yet the gap between their ages are small.
He flips out the phone, thinking to himself if he should consult his mother on this. She did a decent job of raising him (he'd like to think since reputing it only means that he's not a decent person), her advices might give him tremendous help with his own daughter.
"Is this how young parents feels like?" the man questions out loud thinking of those kids who went too far too soon and ended up stepping into the world when they aren't fully mentally prepared yet. His mother used to think he'd become one of those kids. She used to freak out whenever he said he's going out with a girl.
He never really did anything that resulted in what she thought. He knew he couldn't go that far. At least with the people that he was dating then. Being with Chikae, being her father, i makes him feel stupid about his just-for-fun dating streak, and probably even more paranoid than his mother about the fact that one day Chikae might bring home a random punk to introduce to him.
"Shit." he curses in a soft voice. His trains of thoughts let the lighter fall and hit his toe. Such a damn small object. Cool autumn winds send a chill down his spine, but Keishin is stubborn about lighting another fresh cigarette.
The town's scenery spreads out in front of his eyes. Everything is black, only slightly illuminated by the weak light from the moon. It almost looks like a huge pond of tar, or oil. Seeing how the little street lamps and electric signs are drizzling like droplets of fires above the darkness of 9:00 p.m.
It's extremely hard to tell which one is the sky and which one is earth around this time. Above him, stars are also blinking, almost identical to the man-made electricity downtown right now.
Hearing the wooden door inside creak open, Keishin snuffs out the half-gone cigarettes and leaves the magical scenery to return to his normal, one-table-one-TV tatami living room. He sneezes once, smiling slightly as the soft, distant 'Bless you' enters his ears.
Right, the young coach sits down, opening up a DVD, Time to review the match at Tokyo.
Chikae lies down on the bed, staring at the wooden ceiling. On the wall next to her, a single picture is taped.
She looks at it, wondering when she'd be able to get into one of the people standing there.
The cell phone on her desk rings, causing her to jump up and grab for it.
"Yes?" she says, plop down onto the bed again.
"Chicchan? It's me." out from the speaker, Koushi-san's voice echoes through the air. She closes her eyes, guiltily drowning herself in his warm voice, "I didn't see you at practice today."
He was just stating a fact. Yet some how is sounds like partially he's reprimanding her for her absence.
"I couldn't ask since I couldn't catch a hold of you today. Are you free this Sunday?"
In her mind, Chikae pictures out her schedule. She has part-time job every weekend but not this Sunday. The pay is good and they accepted her because of the serious lack of employees. She still feels very conflicted about that fact but as her father always say: "Take all the chances you can get".
"I am." the girl answers, immediately greeted with a "That's great!" from the other side.
"There's a new movie that's showing and I was having a really tough time finding someone who would be willing to go with me." the third-year whines, sounding cute rather than troubled.
"I'll be sleeping until noon though," she chuckles, "If you don't mind that."
"You, are a life-saver, Chicchan," he cheers, "You want me to come over? We can walk together to the theater."
Chikae sits up, opening her door and steps out to the living room. Her dad is still watching the DVD of the team. She sighs, tapping on his shoulder. The man turns back, looking a bit surprised.
"Koushi-san wants to come over Sunday evening to pick me up for a movie." She mouths.
"Who the hell is Koushi?" her father mouthes back.
"Sugawara Koushi-san." the girl answers, finding severely amusing that her dad's facial expression changes to an ugly one.
She doesn't remember him being this protective when she was still Daichi Kubota to him and he was still Keishin Ukai to her. Well, things changed. Maybe now he has the chance to actually have a say in her emotional life as her father and hell, the man is making use of his new 'position' to its maximum advantage.
"Gimme the phone." he orders, gently taking it away from her.
Chikae sits back, watching him mumbling some incoherent words into the object before speaking out loud, "She's back by ten. That's the deal."
"Yes, coach." Koushi-san's voice projects out.
She takes the phone back, waving goodnight to her dad before walking back to her room again. "I thought I was gonna get killed," the third-year lets out a breath the second she closes her room's door. She laughs, "You're exaggerating it."
"So I'll see you at 5 Sunday night?" he asks to confirm.
"Alright," she replies, setting the phone down right after he hangs up.
Movie, huh? Maybe it'll help lift her mood up a little.
Koushi-san is such a nice person. Given that he's one of the few people with her number, he always seems to try his best to reach out to her. Nishinoya seems to be more annoyed at her presence now than ever so she refrains from talking to him more than anything. As far as courtesy goes, they exchange morning greetings.
The boy showed her that he is very much displeased with the situation, but before he steps up first and says sorry, Chikae doesn't think about making up with him.
He's not her jailor.
That fact she wants him to remember.
Nishinoya always seem to jump into things too fast that he doesn't even have time to think. She doesn't like that. It troubles her how he got suspended because of his hot-headed nature. Maybe an episode like this will allow him to calm down a bit?
Opening the closet, Chikae peers inside, searching its content. Where is it? the girl questions silently.
As her hand touches the familiar fabric, she smiles, pulling it out along with the hangers. It's been quite a while since she got to have a look at them. White thin cardigan and a very light emerald sleeveless one piece. Koushi-san chose them especially for her when she was still unable to see. Chikae trusts his sense, being laughably clueless about fashion. She's learning through. It takes some time, but she's learning. Seeing how the day after tomorrow she's going out with him, the girl chooses the piece, thinking that maybe he'll be happy to see her wear it.
Checking that she has everything needed for tomorrows part-time job, Chikae turns off the light, flops down on her bed. The lamps from outside illuminate half of her room, turning it into a mysterious fight between light and shadow each time a cat jump by flickering the balance, giving darkness the winning advantage. She enjoys imagining things like so, before falling asleep. It soothes her tremendously as her mind wanders off into the land of thoughts and her body heavily sinks down the softness of her mattress. September winds ring the bell hanging on her window, and Chikae counts.
One.
Two.
Three.
Before she knows what number will come next, the girl chest move up and down routinely, signaling that she is no longer awake.
Koushi dresses lightly today. The weather isn't distinct enough for him to choose whether to go with summer outfit or winter one. That's what he doesn't find good about autumn. It's too ambiguous for one to dress properly. So the third-year decided that he'd go with a little bit of both: a simple, one symbol decorated navy short-sleeve T-shirt, jeans and dark brown blazer.
He brought a scarf just in case the weather becomes cold at night.
Wiping off the fog he ungracefully breathed out on his watch, he pressed the bell. A familiar buzz enters his ears and as the setter looks over the small window next to the door, he feels his blood freezes at the pair of eyes staring at him.
The coach face peeks out from the gap between the sliding glass doors.
'I have my eyes one you' his face obviously says.
He is left, unable to speak. The sheer amount of fear from suddenly realizing coach has been poking his head out of the window to supervise him makes Koushi incapable of moving.
The door in front of him suddenly opens and he steps back avoiding being hit by the object.
"Evening!" Chicchan cheers, giggling when she realized that she almost bumped into him.
Koushi takes a long look at her. She's wearing the outfit he chose. His heart jumps. I gotta wipe the smile off before coach kick me off of the team, he warns himself, pulling out the scarf wrap it around his collar, covering half of his face. Ain't he glad it brought it along.
"You look really cute." the boy comments, stealing a glance at her father, checking if he's already armed.
Chicchan eyes slightly widen, but short-lived enough so that only her surprised chuckles can be noticed. Damn she's adorable, he gleefully thinks to himself.
Holding the door so that the girl can step out without trouble, he signals her to go on first and follow right after. His face is hot from the shock Chicchan's outfit gave. He didn't think that she would wear them. He never saw her in them after that day they hung out together. Sneaking a peek at her small posture just a tad in front of him, Koushi pulls himself closer, and shoves his hands into the pocket of his jeans, trying to hide the stupid (he deemed) grin from the adorable tiny female walking closely to him.
"What was it that you wanted to see?" Chikae asks looking at the third year sitting in front of her.
Again, he treats her to dinner.
God knows that she's gonna have to pay him back somehow for all the kindness this boy has shown her.
"The library war," Koushi-san answers, sipping down the last of his lemon tea, "It's about fight against terrorist for the future of Japan."
"Sounds interesting," she comments, "Although, it appears to be action genre. Doesn't Nishinoya like action?"
"Two guys going to the movie together?" the third-year quirks an eyebrow at her, his voice sounds somewhat mocking though Chikae finds it very lovely, "Yeah I don't think so. 'side, Nishinoya likes the type of action that would give people a headache to watch."
"Hmmm," replies, she finishes her Oolong tea.
So Nishinoya likes over-the-top action pack movies huh... Well, he looks like the type. Surprisingly, Koushi-san likes action too. He is a guy after all. Just, she doesn't see him as the type to be sitting in his room watching action movies. Her image of him is the study desk and a lot of literature books, which turns out to be completely wrong apparently after her short conversation with Sawamura-san when they accidentally met at the Foothill Convenience Store.
"You wanna go get the ticket now? It's almost show time anyway."
"Sure," Chikae answers standing up carrying her food tray before the third-year even has a chance to swiftly take it like before.
He seems to be pouting a bit at her action but the girl says nothing, only returning the deed with a taunting smirk. I have hands, Koushi-san, she thinks, amused, I can carry my own stuff.
"What flavor do you want to get?" he asks, studying the content of the menu.
Chikae leans back against the counter, eyes searching for nothing in particular. "Caramel, please," she says, "Thanks, Koushi-san."
"No problem," the third-year makes her order and hums for a while, before making his own, "Walleye pollack roe with mayonnaise flavor please", he says, "and two Calpis."
She cringes at the sound of it. "What the heck?" the girl laughs, "Walleye pollack roe?"
"It sounds tasty to me," he says.
"It's popcorn, Koushi-san," Chikae returns, shaking her head at the weird choice coming from their setter. And he even ordered Calpis to go with it. Is he trying to have diarrhea or something?
"One caramel popcorn, one walleye pollack roe with mayonnaise and two Calpises. Thank you very much." the clerk announces and the girl can swear that everyone one meter around the two just squinted their eyes at the latter flavor.
Taking whole of her own box of popcorn, she digs in, satisfy to feel the sweetness melting inside of her mouth. The girl looks at her companion, not surprised to see him hesitantly eyeing his own box.
"Here," she offers the caramel flavored one at him, "It's good."
"Really?" Koushi-san asks, picking up one piece and plop it into his mouth.
She stares at him, at his face that is clearly investigating the piece of food with care. "It's good right?" she suddenly grows wary of her own taste bud.
"I don't know," the third-year says, plopping another piece, seemingly studying it even more cautiously.
"Well?" she says, this time very much doubting her judgment. Is it too sweet for him, maybe?
"Hmm. Not sure." the boy repeats, plopping two other pieces, "I'm really not sure." he takes another two pieces. "Yep, really not sure."
Something clicks inside Chikae's head as she burst out laughing around the same time Koushi-san crack a wide grin at her. He's such a sly one.
"Hey aren't you eating too much?" she mockingly retract her popcorn, making an exaggerate act to protect it.
"Sorry," the third-year chuckles, "It's really good. Maybe I'll get caramel next time too."
"Well, it's definitely better than walleye pollack roe. You're just ordering that for the lolz aren't you?"
"I want the experience-"
"And the diarrhea along with it so it would appear." she cheekily retorts, "It's alright. I'll let you have half of mine," Chikae smiles, "It's obviously better and I can't finish all of it by myself anyway."
The third-year covers the lower half his face, peaking at the skipping girl ahead of him.
"I'll let you have half of mine"
Blood rushes to his face as the smile on her face engraved into his mind. Shit, that was too cute, he tries to regain his breath. Koushi likes to blame it on the atmosphere tonight that made Chicchan so god damn adorable; but he knows that, from the deepest place in his heart, atmosphere has nothing to do with it.
I like her.
It was simple as that.
Once you like someone, anything they do, whatever they do, you'll like it too. And Koushi likes Chikae. More than he likes to think. He likes the silly distant smile on her face whenever she sees something to her liking. He likes the tired, half asleep her he happened to see whenever lunch break starts. He likes the confident Chicchan on the court occasionally when they do practice matches and lack a good enough libero to go against Nishinoya. He likes the loud chuckles she gave every time Hinata missed a receive (or took a receive straight to his face. Bless him).
He likes her.
He likes everything there is to her.
"We came at a really weird time huh?" she comments as the loud sound of some ridiculous commercial showed up on the screen.
They quickly settle down on the seats, trying to not cause any trouble to the guests standing behind them. Chicchan seems to be really excited. Now that he thinks about it, this is actually the first time for her to come to the theater and sit in front of a huge screen like this huh.
Well, now I'm nervous for no reason, the setter thinks, How lame.
"This is awesome," he hears Chicchan cheers quietly, "Koushi-san, the movie's about to start!"
Koushi chortles at her manner, and replies, "Well aren't you a happy camper? You look like someone about to go on their first picnic. Calm down, Chicchan."
Keeping the smile on her face, she continue her marvel at the size of the screen in silence. The third-year though, as he look at her, questions himself about the validity of his word. Calm down? Yeah right. Speak for yourself, stupid.
Well, what do you think? Personally I really liked this one since I really like movies and stuff. A few weeks ago I watched Boruto too, that Naruto movie? www
It was all that I wanted :))) watched it twice actually. Not good for my pocket lol
Shinonome Haruhi: You words help me so much, mate. I can't describe just how much you guys all mean to me. The thought of making the best chapter for all of you to read helped me break through so many writer blocks. I will be looking forward to your story! I'm sure it'll be great!
: You scare me with how sharp you are. Yes, it is kind of like that www Maybe I should get rid of you so that my story have the element of surprise MUAHAHAHAHA *sharpening my knife*
ALSO shout outs to xXMasqueradeOfVendettaXx and Hikari no Hoshi for the follow! Thanks guys! Hope you'll stick with this till the end! www
Well then! See yall in the last chapter!