Chapter 8: Rhythm

The next days passed quickly. With the news about the approaching training camp, the team doubled its efforts – after all, no one wanted to repeat the number of penalties from earlier in the year – and school got pretty intense, too. For Yona, time couldn't go by fast enough. When her alarm buzzed early on Saturday morning, she was already awake and brushing her teeth. Silencing the alarm, she put on her running gear for the first time in over a month and this time it didn't even annoy her that she needed four attempts to get her shoes tied. When she checked her watch, she groaned softly. Too early…
She took a glass, filled it with water, and sat down at the kitchen table. Compared to the days during the week, time stood still – and gave the girl room to think. Room to overthink, but (more or less) thankfully, her brother stumbled tiredly into the dining room.

"Good" – he yawned loudly – "morning Sis." Tomoya went past her and handled the coffee machine.

"Morning." Her answer was short, she had hoped to evade him this morning. But of no avail… The girl started to tap at the glass with her fingernails and watched the soft movement of the water while her brother brewed one of his special and quite large coffee-pots. Soon, the whole kitchen smelled like a coffeeshop.

"Going for a run? What are your waiting for?" Tomoya sat down facing her and sipped his morning coffee.

Yona gulped. "Well…"

Getting more awake thanks his strong brewed morning- drink, her brother watched her. She seemed off this morning, he thought. His sister started to fidget with the Velcro straps of her cast now – she wore a different one for her running exercises - and tried to find an answer which did not include the words "date", "team captain" or "third year". But her hesitation gave her away, and if her brother was one thing, then it was observant: Something was amiss.

"Yona?", he leaned back and crossed his arms. Then, he raised an eyebrow.

Taking a deep breath, she gulped down the rest of her own drink, said: "Ateammateaccompaniesme", jumped up and fled the room. Seconds later, before Tomoya's brain had worked out what he just heard, the door snapped shut. Shaking his head, the young man took another sip from his mug. Only his sister would have a date while working out. But he couldn't help but smile. This was the girl he had left behind coming to Japan over a year before – and he was happy that she was back.


In the meantime, his sister was running down the stairs. She couldn't evade a talk forever, but her brother wouldn't have time to pester her when she got back, because time would be tight this morning: She was planning to stall long enough to only have time for a quick shower before walking to school for another volleyball training session.

Jumping down the last two steps, she took another deep breath, opened the door and exited the house. He wasn't waiting for her, because she was still slightly early. But before she could get even more nervous, he appeared at the corner of the street, walking towards her. She had told him her address in a text message, and he had suggested to meet in front of her house. From there they would walk for a while to wake up their muscles. Then they planned to run a few miles.

"Good Morning, Daichi-san!", she blushed slightly. He looked good, wearing dark black running tights and the jacket of the volleyball-team, also in black.

"Good Morning. Did you sleep well?", he asked with a smile.

She nodded happily. Thinking back to her talk with her brother, she asked: "Shall we walk?" and gestured away from her home. If their roles were reversed, she would probably be curious about the friend of his brother, so she wouldn't be that surprised if Tomoya would look out of the window to observe… So they needed to get away from prying eyes.

The captain agreed and they started to walk away from the house.

They spend the first few minutes in deep silence. Walking next to each other, but with at least enough space for another person between them. Until Daichi gathered up his courage to ask: "Did you run on a daily basis before your surgery?"

"Yes", Yona answered. "And back in England, I ran at least once a week, when we didn't have training. Back before running became the only sports routine I could have." Her left hand caught the end of her ponytail again and started to tug on it. "It was my brother's idea, to be honest. Running because I can't play. He kicked my butt for being lazy and went for a run with me." She laughed quietly. "You know, Tomoya isn't really a runner. It was quite funny to see him run up a hill – he kind of died after the first mile. Every. Single. Day."

Daichi watched her. "That sounds like your brother really cares for you. Not everyone would do something like that."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Tomoya… cares." She shrugged. "What about you? Any brothers or sisters?"

He shook his head no. "I'm an only child. But… well, our four first years as well as Tanaka and Nishinoya sometimes feel like a bunch of younger siblings."

She giggled. "Yeah, you could say that. I've watched several of your matches and it's always a surprise how… mature they can act on court, when they sound like a bunch of middle schoolers during training."

"You've watched our matches?", he asked surprised.

"Yeah, thanks to the Coach I got my hands on videos of your matches. Still haven't seen the last two, but they are up next on my agenda… We really need to work on our receives. Especially on Hinata's."

"I won't argue with that." Daichi said. "Also… I wanted to thank you for your help during training. It's really good to know that you have our backs."

"Oh?" She blushed. "There is no reason to thank me. I like working with all of you. It's… different from playing myself, but it helps me as well." She looked down on her right hand for a second, then she shrugged. "I'm waiting for a package from my grandpa, after that, I'll have a few new ideas for training."

"Sounds good to me." Then he signalled ahead and said: "Are you ready to run?"

With a giddy smile, she picked up pace. During the first part of their run, she moved carefully, and they didn't run that fast, because she wanted to test her body after its forced break, and it was a nice change having someone next to her who she could talk to. After two miles, she upped the tempo for a second time. Daichi followed and they fell into a nice rhythm.

"Hip feeling all right?", he asked.

"Yes,", she answered. "Some twitching, but no real pain."

Whenever the sidewalk wasn't wide enough for two people to run next to each other, he fell a few steps behind so that she could run ahead. But this time, when he ran behind her, she threw a glance at her sports watch, then she sped up for another – and last – time. He watched her closely before following. First, he wanted to remind her on taking it slow because of her injury, but then it became clear that this was her final sprint – and she slowed down after a few hundred metres. Reaching a corner, she stopped and turned around to see where he was - with a bright smile on her face.

"Well, Captain, what's holding you back?", she shouted with a giggle, when he got closer.

He chuckled and started to answer when another runner rounded the corner at which she had stopped. He recognized him immediately – how could he not?

The height, broad shoulders, long legs, and the concentrated and serious expression of the face - even without the familiar colours of black, white and purple of the clothes he would have recognized the team captain of their opposing team in the finals of the prelims: Ushijima Wakatoshi. He must have been on quite a long morning run because they were still a fair way off from Shiratorizawa…

Daichi greeted him with a bop of his head. "Ushijima."

"Sawamura.", Ushijima nodded as well. He threw a glance at Yona, surely having heard her loud remark, then he turned his way. Yona recognized the shift in the mood of her running partner immediately when he stopped next to her.

"Who was that?" She watched the back of the young man who was running away in a steady pace.

"The team captain, well, probably former team captain, of Shiratorizawa Academy. We won against him and his team in the final game…"

"Oh! He's the one Hinata told me about. Quite a bit haughty, huh? He's huge… And Hinata did… Whoa."

Now it was Daichi who laughed. Her surprised face was adorable. "Yeah, little Hinata outdid himself in blocking his spikes. Did he tell you that this guy is lefthanded? It took us a while to get the hang of that."

"I could never spike with my left hand. I can't even write nice and neat with my left hand, I'm always glad to have Hitoka and her notes next to me.", she said in a low voice. Then she looked up to him, for he had come to stand next to her. She was tall, be he was a few centimetres taller still. "Will you tell me about your game? I'm curious about it."

"Of course. Let's stretch for a bit and then… Over there, there's a little playground. Let's sit down on the bench." She followed his raised hand, which pointed to a playground about 50 meters away.

"Bench? No. The swing is mine! Race you to it!" Grinning, she started to sprint again.

Chuckling once more, he followed her.

They spend half an hour at the playground. She sat on the swing and swayed gently forward and backward, he leaned against one of the posts of the swing and told her about their way to Nationals. And after that, he told her about their time without an official coach and how he assumed the duty of being captain and a coach for the team at the same time.

Later, he asked her about her team back in England. She told him about her teammates, about her best friend, who was her designated setter.

"You're missing them a lot, huh?", he asked.

She swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah. I miss them. I miss IT a lot. Volleyball, I mean. It was a huge part of my life for so many years, and now…" She looked down at her right hand, which she had cradled on her lap.

He pushed himself off of the post and sat down on the second swing. "How long until you will get the cast off?"

She shrugged. "Hopefully in the week before the training camp. But I won't be allowed to spike a ball for weeks after that. The break… well… you don't want to know the details." She grimaced. "Trust me. It will take time. Maybe it's a good thing my brother got the school to enrol me as a first year – age wise I'd be in second year. Now I'll have more time to get this thing working again." Daichi could hear hatred in her voice. Hatred against her own weakness, against her own body.

"Yona?", he waited calmly until she looked up to watch him. "It doesn't matter how long it takes. Next week, next month, next year, the year after that – you'll have lots of people helping you getting back into Volleyball at Karasuno." He smiled warmly at her, and she reciprocated it. "And until then, you'll have your hands full with our first year duo."

She laughed at his remark. "You're right with that."

"Mhm." He murmured with a glance at his watch. "We should head home and to the gym afterwards, otherwise we'll be late…" He stood. Then, building up his courage, he turned towards her again to ask: "Yona? Would you… would you go out with me? Sometime, maybe… next weekend?"

She blushed. "It's nice of you to ask. I'd… well, I'd love to."

His face got some color as well – adorable, she thought – and he smiled shyly. Even almost dazed.

She rose as well. And then, dumbfounding him completely, she reached for his hand with her own hand, and linked her fingers with his. With a gentle pull on his hand, she headed towards the exit of the playground. Smiling gently, she threw a gaze at him over her shoulder. He was still stunned, but came with her willingly.

A date, she thought. Who would have thought …


Yeah, who would have thought? Things are getting serious!

Greetings, dear readers, and thank you for every review, follow or fav for the last few chapters.
I'm feeling blessed that you're taking the time to read this story.
Things between Daichi and Yona are coming together. Don't worry, you'll get some sports-action as well, because this is still a slow burning story, and those two need time. Also, I need time to re-read the manga and rewatch the anime again to get some facts right, especially the time line. I'll try to include several characters as guests, but I don't want to force it. Ushijima will be back some time during the story...

I've already written the next chapter and will start chapter 10 (10! Oh my gosh!) during the next days, so I'll probably update during the next two weeks again.
Let me know what you thing about Daina - or is it more Yochi? ;'D (I'm having way too much fun with that.)

Until next time: Stay healthy and take care of yourself!
Katily