In light of the team winning, the Coaches decided to hold a 3-Day training camp to better prepare for Nationals. For that purpose, they declared the day to be a rest day, so the guys could relax before the camp, supposedly. But, because the team was too excited and filled with so much energy, they ended up doing a light practice instead. Though not without some scolding from the Coaches, of course, and a rather guilt inducing sermon from Emi, which they did not enjoy a single bit.
It was the first years' turn to clean up, so they were left in the gym as the rest of the team changed. Two people went to get the mops from the storage, along with Emi who came to get the ball cart/ball basket.
"Oh! It's alright I'll gather the balls, if you could just take down the net." Emi requests as she pushes the cart, whilst picking up balls on the way.
The guys shrugged and just did as she says. Once they were done putting the net in the storage along with the mops, they thanked her and went on ahead to change. Walking hurriedly, in the off chance that she's not yet done by the time they are, they would go and help her.
As they leave the changing rooms, they noticed their senior members standing—peeking—in front of the doors to the gym.
They walk up to them and ask. "Uh…What are you all doing there?"
The group spares them a glance, then goes back to looking past the doors, though one of them kindly informs.
"Tsubame-chan's wiping down the balls."
"And? What's wrong with that?" Atsumu asks, genuinely wondering what 'is' the problem.
"Well, she's been wiping down that one ball since we got here. And that was 10 minutes ago." Akagi supplies, earning their attention and filling them all with worry.
"You think something's bothering her?" Nogi muses with a frown.
"Probably," His Vice-Captain agrees, nodding his head. "Should we talk to her—"
"Oy Shinsuke wha—" Ojiro exclaims in alarm as he sees Kita step into the gym, and was about to go in as well, when Nogi pulled on him.
"Shhh~ Let's give them some privacy. Time to go home children!" Nogi instructs and herds the team towards the gates. He glances back at the doors for a second, before he follows after the rest with one thought in his mind.
"Good Luck, Shinsuke!"
—~~~—
"Tsubame." Kita calls as he makes his way towards her, but she doesn't seem to notice his presence.
"Tsubame?" He tries again, and still, he gets no response. Finally arriving close enough to be in her view, he tries one more time.
"Emi."
"Huh?" Emi flinches at the sudden sound, lifting her head. "K—Kita-san!"
He studies her for a moment, before he asks. "Are you all right?"
"Wh—Why wouldn't I be?" She answers, silently cursing at her untimely voice break.
"I've been made aware, that you have been wiping down that one ball for quite some time now." He comments as he gestures to the ball in her hands.
Emi looks down at the ball and scrunches her eyebrows in contemplation. "Oh, was I? Ahaha…..guess I didn't realize I was."
She places the ball back in the cart, then proceeds to pick-up another ball from the pile to wipe it down.
"Hm. I see." Kita hums as he continues to asses her. A moment passes, and he turns and moves toward the doors, leaving through it.
A few seconds after he leaves, Emi notices that she's once again alone in the silence. She continues the routine of picking up a ball, wiping it down and then placing it back in the cart, all while deep in her thoughts. Minutes pass, she'd just finished putting the last ball in the cart and as she settles down in her seat, she heaves a heavy sigh.
"What's wrong?"
Emi jumps in surprise at the unexpected voice. "Aah!—I thought you went home Kita-san?!"
"I went to check if the others were still there. Looks like they left." Kita calmly responds, pointing towards the door.
"Oh… Oh no! I don't have the key! How will we lock the gym now?" She worries, inwardly scolding herself at her lack of oversight.
"It's all right, I have it." He reassures, calming her down.
"You do?" She asks, looking hopeful at him.
"Yes," He confirms, brandishing the key in his palm. "They always leave the key with me, seeing as I would often stay late or arrive early to routinely clean."
"Does that mean I disrupted your—"
"No. No, you didn't." He interrupts, disagreeing to what she was about to say. She looks at him unsure, but nonetheless concedes.
A beat of silence passes, before Kita speaks once again. "So, are you going to tell me what's been bothering you?"
As the seconds go by, Kita doesn't say anything and just looks on, waiting patiently as he sees Emi contemplate on whether or not she was going to tell him. But it looks like she's finally made up her mind, when she voices.
"Kita-san…. Am…Am I good manager? Is what I'm doing helping my players? Am I even doing the right thing?" She ponders, looking down at her palms in question.
"You are. And you're more than any manager the team could ever ask for." He answers without missing a beat, causing her to look up at him in surprise at the amount of certainty in his voice.
Kita frowns at the look of disbelief and uncertainty in her eyes. "I don't understand why you'd doubt yourself so much, when you spend so much thought into helping the team improve. You even thought about making us those bento boxes."
Emi freezes at his words. "How did you…."
He smiles as he answers. "I asked the Coach."
"Oh…" She mumbles, looking down, shuffling her feet.
Kita's eyes soften as he gazes at her form. "On behalf of the team, I am thanking you for all the attention and work you put in for our sakes. I am grateful that we have you as our manager, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Tha—Thank you Kita-san." Emi sniffles and wipes her eyes at the couple of tears that escape.
"You don't know how much I really needed to hear those words right now."
"I'm only doing what I can to help." He responds.
A moment passes as Emi gather's herself, she clears her throat as she voices. "I apologize for keeping you here longer, when you could've already gone home."
"It's alright." Kita replies. "I would've also had to make sure that you get home safe."
"Oh, Kita-san you don't have to." Emi waves her hands as she respectfully declines, not wanting to trouble him further. "I'll be fine. I can go by myself."
"Nonsense." He firmly argues. "Leaving you to walk by yourself at this time, would not sit well with me."
"But—" She sighs in resignation. "All right, let me just put this away." She says gesturing to the ball cart.
Emi pushes the cart towards the storage room, while Kita moves to wait outside the gym. After turning the lights off, Emi comes out and Kita locks the doors.
"Shall we head home then?" Kita turns to Emi and asks, with Emi's affirming nod, they start their walk home.
—~~~—
The team's progress has been great so far. No petty and unnecessary fights have occurred that needed to be broken (courtesy of the twins). Suna and Osamu weren't lazing around or distracted by food. And Atsumu wasn't challenging anybody to some outrageous competition, just because he was bored. All in all, Captain Nogi was able to somewhat keep his wild children in line. He's forever grateful for the second years being able to take care of themselves, and not adding to his gradually deteriorating sanity.
Emi was especially busy. Going around assisting, handing out towels and water bottles, whilst keeping track of the member's growth process. But the guys looked out for her, making sure to remind her to not push herself too hard and rest every once in a while.
As the guys were doing their cool-down stretches, Atsumu looks around and notices something.
"Hey, has anyone seen Emi-chan?" Atsumu muses.
"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her since Coach called time on our last exercise." Omimi comments, causing the others to look around as well.
"She's with Tarou preparing dinner." Coach Kurosu voices from the sides, looking down at his folder.
"Eh~ So she can cook." Osamu muses with a gleeful twinkle in his eyes.
"Of course she can. Who do you think made those bentos you had?" Coach Kurosu states, raising an eyebrow at them as if it was obvious.
"EH?!"
"I thought those were bought?!"
"Hmph. Your diets are important, for you to build muscle and have ample energy. Store bought bentos wouldn't have enough of the needed nutrients, so she decided to prepare your bentos on her own. Even I didn't think that far. Be grateful you have such a thoughtful and considerate manager." He finishes, walking out of the gym and leaving the players to themselves.
The team looked at one another and nodded. Once free practice concluded, they made their way towards the cafeteria. Backs straight, looking dignified, walking with a purpose. The cafeteria doors opened, and as one they called.
"TSUBAME-CHAN/EMI-CHAN~!"
The poor girl jumped in surprise and almost dropped the ladle she was holding. "H—Hai?!"
"THANK YOU FOR THE BENTOS!"
"Huh—Wha—" Emi put the ladle down and turned towards them confused, only to lock eyes with a proudly smug Coach Kurosu sitting at the nearest table.
"Fuu~ You told them." Emi whined, pouting at him.
"They should be aware as to just how much work you put in for them, and you deserve all the praise they give." Coach Kurosu countered, earning nods all around.
Emi sighed and gave in. With a clap of her hands, she says. "Well then, who's hungry?"
They all cheered along and got in line to take their food. Eagerly chatting amongst themselves as they ate.
As time passes and the night deepens, a couple of the guys were starting to look visibly drowsy, finally feeling the effects of their high energy from the past week. A crash if you will.
Ginjima had to reach out and prevent Suna from face-diving into his dinner multiple times. While Osamu, who was sitting beside him, stole a few pieces of his meat when he was preoccupied. Even Nogi had to be smacked awake by one of the guys, as he kept dropping his food before it even reached his lips. Meanwhile, the second years quietly finished their meals in peace.
"Hey Emi-chan~ Are you sleeping here too?" Atsumu asked, just as he was finishing up his meal.
"Oh no, I live close by so I don't have to." Emi answered, gathering all the utensils used for cooking that needed to be cleaned, and placing them in the sink.
"Speaking of which, you should hurry. We'll take care of the dishes so you don't get home any later." Coach Oomi says as he takes her place, making Emi turn to look out the window and see just how dark it's gotten.
"Oh yeah, I should get going." Emi said, hurriedly walking towards a chair in the corner to check her stuff and see if she forgot anything, before standing up.
"WAIT!" The twins suddenly exclaimed standing up, making the whole cafeteria stop what they were doing, turning to look at the two.
"You mean to tell us, you're going to walk. alone. in the dark. at this time of the night?" Osamu asked, all seriousness in his voice
"Yes? Is there a prob—" Emi, confused, was going to ask, only to be cut off.
"Is there a problem?! OF COURSE THERE'S A PROBLEM!" Atsumu shrieked, looking at her like she's crazy.
"Coach, we're walking her home." Osamu declared looking directly at the old man.
"Yeah, how can you let her walk alone?!" Atsumu butted stubbornly, waving his arms around. Even if it was relatively safe in their area, a little extra precaution is still better than nothing.
"Guys, I just live around the—" Emi tried to refuse, to no avail.
"SHHH! NO! WE'RE WALKING YOU HOME! COME ON 'SAMU, LET'S GO!" Atsumu commands, grabbing his brother and Emi by their arms, and then turning towards the door.
"Well, as long as she gets home safe." Coach Kurosu shrugged, seeing no problem with it. "Just make sure to come back before lights out."
"Well then, I guess I'll see you all in the morning. Goodnight!" Emi bids with a wave of her hands, as she's dragged through the doors by the twins.
"GOODNIGHT!" The guys hollered after the trio.
Notes:
*A little moment for the two. What did you think? And also, Atsumu being the chaotic mother-hen he is. He would totally be like this to people he tolerates more than others, you can't convince me otherwise.
*Also, all you lovely people, I posted an art for Emi on my tumblr page. Just thought I'd share it with you all.
*Dear Monxu Aki, you're half-way there! I did in fact use Sakusa as a reference when I was writing, but their techniques are a little different. Wonderful observation! Her brother will be revealed in the next chapter, so stay tuned!
*I would like to thank Quos, chippsies, Magic126, stopeatread, plumpeaches and JulieBlue1152 for favoriting and following; readingtosurvive for favoriting, and Cipher1233, Lellay, Midnitewhispers, Moonligt Heartfillia, kotono3, LightFun27 and LeenaPPt for following after my last post.
Thank You!