A/N [4/8/2018] 01:06AM (GMT) : I am so sorry for how late this is being uploaded. I've had a really shit day and no time for writing. The update later on today (10PM GTM) should be normal though.


Heartbreaker? Pfffsh...


Eternal


"Do you think he'll come back again," Kōshi whispered to Kiyoko close to the end of practice that day. Ushijima turning up had not only rendered him virtually penniless for the rest of the week, but it had shaken him in a less visible way that it had Hitoka (the girl looked clammily pale from where Kōshi was stood some distance away.)

For one, Daichi kept throwing him accusing glares whenever Kōshi chanced looking at the former.

That didn't bode well for him once Coach Ukai and Takeda-Sensei disappeared.

"It's likely," Kiyoko answered, not looking up form her notes as she wrote in her observations from today. "He may still be in the area, waiting for Sawamura-San without disturbing us."

"Please let that not be the case," Kōshi whimpered. He really hoped it wasn't the case, and would be quite happy if Wakatoshi Ushijima never showed his face around Karasuno ever again.

"Oh," Kiyoko said, snapping her note book shut. "You owe me a lot of juice."

"I'll settle with you later, currently I'm trying not to let Daichi tear this team apart with his paranoia."

Kiyoko tilted her head contemplatively. "Can it be called paranoia if your suspicious are well founded – or if they turn out to be true?"

Kōshi couldn't dignify that with a mature response. Kiyoko merely rolled her eyes as the Vice Captain stuck out his tongue at her.


Thankfully for Hitoka (and Kōshi's sanity), Ushijima was nowhere to be found once the gym equipment had been packed away, Hinata and Kageyama had been torn away from further practice, the gym locked for the night, and the boys sent to change after the girls had switched into their school uniforms.

Nor was Wakatoshi Ushijima to be found in the area surrounding Karasuno High School's grounds, or the quiet streets as the group walked towards Coach Ukai's family store. He did not simply 'drop by' for nikuman like Oikawa and Iwaizumi, and Hitoka found herself itching to get home and enjoy a drama-free evening.

With a weak smile, she excused herself from the group – Kiyoko had already dragged Kōshi away on an errand, so there was really nothing – no one – stopping Hitoka form leaving.

"Ya-Chan do you want me to walk you to your stop?" Hinata asked, or well, Hitoka thought he'd said that. She couldn't actually tell, because his mouth was stuffed full.

Ever since he'd roped into becoming a manager for the team, and with their practices often stretching into late evening once Hinata and Kageyama got stuck into it and everyone else called it a night, Hinata had got into the habit of walking Hitoka and his bike to her bus stop before cycling home himself.

Hitoka was fairly sure it added an unnecessary fifteen minutes onto his trek home, but whenever she protested Hinata would only wave her off. 'I hope someone will do the same for Natsu,' he'd told Hitoka one time. His little sister, he'd informed Hitoka at her blank expression. Though unnecessary in her mind, Hitoka couldn't deny she found it comforting. The remaining light in early spring and autumn began to drop suddenly – and it would often be pitch black outside once Hinata and Kageyama were done with setting, spiking, and bickering.

There was nothing more unsettling than walking alone in the dark as a young (attractive) high school girl. Even in such a safe rural area. More trees and ground to cover made it easier for someone to hide your body, but on the flip side, you were unlikely to get hit by a car like you would in the city. Though the probability of the latter was also fairly low; the majority of drivers Hitoka had seen in Tokyo (when on a trip with her mother) had been courteous and very considerate to pedestrians.

"I should be okay," Hitoka told him, though inside she felt shaky and a little queasy. The prospect of wandering alone was unnerving, but she really didn't want to spend further time here. She wanted to go home, and to be able to relax, and cry, or speak with her mother about all of the confusing emotions she was feeling at the moment.

And if it couldn't get any worse, Bokuto hadn't stopped texting her. Nothing to get her hopes up, just like Kiyoko had predicted. But just benign enough to pinch at Hitoka's heart. They were simple messages; 'HOW WAS YOUR DAY?', 'AKAASHI IS MAD AT ME', and 'SAY HI TO HINATA FOR ME!'. She should be better than this – than being reduced to her heart lurching into her mouth whenever her phone vibrated.

This whole target thing was a mess, but at least it was over.

(It was over. So, didn't that mean that Hitoka's problems would just magic themselves away?)

It was at that point that Hitoka realised she'd been spaced out for a solid thirty seconds, clutching at the hem of her school blazer while Daichi said something to her (which she'd missed, again.)

"Is that okay with you, Yachi-Chan?" Daichi dropped a hand on her shoulder, and she jolted.

"Huh?"

"Is it okay if I walk you to your bus stop?" Daichi reiterated. "It would put my mind at ease – I'll wait with you until it arrives, if you'd like."

Hitoka really wanted to say, 'No thank you', but a slight glint in Daichi's eye made her refrain from doing so. Instead, she bobbed her head in affirmation and fiddled with he straps of her back pack.

"Great," Daichi told her. He reached into the pocket of his trousers, pulling out a slim leather wallet and withdrawing a handful of notes. "This should be enough to pay off our tab this week," he told Coach Ukai (who had lit his seventh consecutive cigarette since Karasuno had turned up to eat his store out of sellable products) and placed the money onto the counter.

"Shall we go?" Daichi asked, and Hitoka nodded once more.

The pair walked in silence – not unlike the time they had ventured to buy the team ice creams. It was companionable, if a little strained; though Hitoka was certain the latter was due to her own inability to hold a civil conversation at the moment. It was possible that Daichi was partly responsible for the atmosphere between them, or he was picking up on her discomfort too.

"Ushiwaka turning up at practice today was a surprise," Daichi started, eying Hitoka from the corner of his eye. Hitoka's shoulders scrunched, like a piece of elastic snapping back after being stretched out for too long. She hunched in on herself tensely.

Daichi coughed. "Did he mean what he said?"

"Why… why wouldn't he?" Hitoka was genuinely curious. Daichi had got her thinking; was all of this an elaborate set up? Would she wake in her bed nearly three months prior to today's date and find her targets and Kiyoko's Kami-damned lessons had all been an elaborate fever dream? Or had she really had the (burgeoning and wavering) nerve to swindle kisses from elite high school volleyball players?

"I mean, uh-" Daichi back-peddled, obviously thinking he'd offended the younger of Karasuno's two managers. "You're lovely, and I can see – but, but Ushijima of all people? It was a surprise. Most of our team has speculated on whether he actually has feelings."

Hitoka coughed wetly, feeling the beginning of tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. "We bon… bonded over Shakespeare and, um, I guess that's it."

Daichi's footsteps seemed to scream to a halt in the middle of the path with how quiet the surrounding area was. They were close to Hitoka's bus stop now, and it wasn't in the well-populated area of town. The perks of attending a rural school, she supposed, but it was better than the train fares to Sendai every day. "You're unsure."

"Wha-"

"You're unsure about dating- about, what did he call it again? Courting! You're unsure about him 'courting' you, aren't you?" Daichi interrogated.

"I'm not – I," Hitoka tried to protest, but the more she thought about it, the further unstuck her feelings – and her resolve – became. They walked a little farther, settling onto the bench inside the open-fronted hut that served as a makeshift shelter for Hitoka's bus stop.

A part of her, the foolish, romantic, sentimental girl that she could have been if she weren't so shy – which had only been indulged further by Kiyoko's ministrations and had slowly and silently developed an ego with each passing target – had been captured in the whirlwind Wakatoshi Ushijima had created the day before; just as she had been swept up into Tōru's games and Bokuto's energy.

For all of the giddy rush of endorphins and hormones, Hitoka knew deep down that she shouldn't accept Ushijima's feelings, even if Shiratorizawa's Captain gained Daichi's approval. (And why Daichi's approval? Why not Coach Ukai, or – heaven forbid – her mother?)

Accepting felt wrong purely because without Kiyoko's interference it would be unlikely Wakatoshi Ushijima and Hitoka Yachi would have ever crossed paths. It made Hitoka feel selfish. At Karasuno and Shiratorizawa's match, yes, both would have been present and may have met somehow, but without Hitoka ever making it onto the courtside in Karasuno's time of need or actually being introduced to Ushijima afterwards by Daichi or Kōshi, she never would have talked to the guy. Let alone have spouted Shakespeare back at him.

But the way he looked at her.

Oh, did it make Hitoka feel special. She wasn't going to lie; his smile was forever going to be burnt into her mind as one of the most singular things she had ever witnessed. She would happily say yes to whatever he had to offer her solely for a subtle upwards tilt of his lips and faint creases appearing around his eyes.

Though would that be enough?

Happiness and feelings could blossom with time, even past those which Wakatoshi Ushijima inspired in Hitoka already. What she felt was far different between her and her other targets; Bokuto had been like an explosion, or like being trapped inside a hurricane's confines. Tōru, like a river that couldn't be tamed – one could only ride along the rapids or find themselves bashed against the rocks and drowned. Ushijima's feelings were organic, and slow to form. They were, Hitoka had a feeling, going to be eternal – and damn near hard to crush.

Hitoka worried her lower lip between her teeth, feeling Daichi's eyes on her once more. He was, as he had said, waiting with her until her bus arrived.

"I'm not un… unsure," Hitoka said softly. "I'm confused. I don't – I don't understand why me of all people, or what's been happen-" here her breath hitched, "-happening recently. B-but I…"

"You?"

"I think I want…" Hitoka really wasn't sure what she wanted, if she was being honest. Why did becoming a volleyball club manager have to be so confusing?