"An athlete is a normal person with the gift of an undying passionto be the best and achieve greatness."

-Mikia's POV-

Following me slamming the door closed, the only thing I could hear over the ringing in my ears was my own hyperventilating. The guys that were on the other side of the door I could tell were trying to help especially the guy I believe said his name was Akaashi. His words had hit me the hardest. And that concerned expression from the tall black haired man who introduced himself as Kuroo was almost enough to make me break, and at the same time, it pissed me off. Everything was fine. It was just a bad night for Katashi. They didn't know anything about me or about Katashi. Despite all of that, one set of thoughts kept replaying through my head. Were they serious about me going there if I needed help? No, of course not. They were probably just saying that out of pity.

Knowing that this line of thinking would not make anything better, I found myself taking deep breaths to try and calm down and quickly wiped my tears away, allowing me to get a better view of the damage done to the living room. There was broken glass around my desk that I quickly started to clean up, and fortunately, there didn't seem to have been any liquid in the glass. The lacerations in my back stung as the glass in them shifted as I worked on cleaning up the aftermath of Katashi's wrath.

Sometimes I wonder why I let him continue to do these things to me, but every time I try and convince myself to leave, I remember that this was how my parents' relationship was too. That must mean it's normal right? No. I knew better than that. I wasn't stupid, but that's also all I had ever known growing up. And it's not like Katashi had always been like this.

"Hey... Baby, are you okay?" Katashi's voice called out, much softer and kind, the total opposite of how he was acting earlier as I turned to him and tried not to wince as the glass pieces once again shifted themselves in my back, "I'm so sorry. Let me help you with your back." I nodded with a sad smile as he held his arms out for me, and on instinct, I ran straight into those arms and hugged him tightly, the tears finally breaking free.

"Shhhh... Baby, it's okay. I'm sorry about that. I was just really angry about the power going out in the middle of a stream where I was actually ahead of that damned Kudzoken for once. You know I'd never mean to hurt you right?" he said gently as he took my hand and led me to our bathroom where he pulled out a first aid kit. I looked into his emerald eyes and couldn't help but smile and nod when I saw the kindness reflected in them. This was the person I fell in love, the person I chose to stay beside.

After Katashi helped me with getting all the glass out of my back and cleaning the wounds, he pulled me into our bed and held me gently. Not being able to help it, I looked up at him from my spot on his chest, and he gave me a loving a smile before cupping my cheek and pulling me into a sweet kiss that lasted only a couple of moments. When we separated, I felt the need to be close to him starting to bubble up, and when he gently pulled me up and started placing soft kisses on my neck, I felt my body begin to heat up with need. Since the first time Katashi had lost it and hurt me on accident, I had found myself craving intimacy with him. Because for that time, it was like the man I fell in love with was finally in my arms again.

"I love you, baby," Katashi said between kisses, and I melted. With those words, all was forgiven, and nothing and no one else mattered.

"I love you, too."

-

Nearly two weeks had passed since the run in with my neighbors and their tall black haired friend. It was now a Saturday, and the Judo club had a tournament today, meaning I had a bit of a later start than I normally would for practice. This meant it was a rare occasion that I could actually eat breakfast with Katashi; however, due to it being a day for matches, I had to be a lot more careful what I ate. Instead of cooking something, I went with some eggs that I had already boiled ahead of time as well as some fruit.

Before I knew it, it was time to head to the competition. Katashi didn't acknowledge me as I grabbed my bag and said bye before heading out. He was always pissy and dismissive when it came to my judo stuff. He hated the fact that I was on a team full of guys, which was a big part of the reason I had to beg Castillo's sister, Luisa, to be our manager. It finally allowed me to say that I wasn't the only girl on the team. The thing was, Katashi didn't exactly know that I was the team captain and therefore was fairly close and social with my teammates. That was a fight I just wasn't ready to have. Judo was the one thing I had that was completely mine, not tainted by my home life both as a child and now as an adult. The mat was the one place I truly felt free from the storm that was my life.

Checking the time, I took a drink of my water as I headed to the competition site. Since it was nearby, we decided to all just meet there instead of at the school. As I arrived, I saw the rest of my team in their matching dark red tracksuits with two white stripes down the side and navy blue shirts with "経済大学" (Keizai University) on the front vertically in bold white letters. I picked up the pace and was immediately handed the roster by Luisa. I checked to make sure everyone was present before heading over to the sign in counter.

"Good morning, I need to check in the Keizai University Judo Club please," I said politely with a small smile. The man at the counter glanced up at me before dismissing me with an irritated sigh.

"Sorry, missy, but only captains can sign their team in. Not managers," the man stated, going back to work on whatever it was he was doing. Our two first years looked nervous and I heard Castillo's deep chuckle as I slammed the paperwork on the desk and pushed it over whatever the hell the man was looking at, a close eyed smile on my face.

"Look, missy, I told you-"

"I heard you just fine, sir; however, my name is not, nor has it ever been, missy. It's Endou Mikia, and if you'd take a closer look at this paperwork, sir, you would see that I am in fact the captain of this team," I said in a sickeningly sweet voice causing the man to check the paper before looking up at me shock, "Now, I would like to check in the Keizai University Judo Club so that we can get changed and prepare for the competition." The man nodded quickly and checked us in before giving us our badges showing that we were competitors.

After dealing with that misogynist, I rolled my shoulders to get rid of some of the tension in them. Gotta let it roll off of your back, Mikia. You know that's only the beginning of what you'll most likely deal with today. With that super enthusiastic thought, I dismissed everyone to go get changed, telling them to meet back in the waiting area for the teams in 15 minutes. This would give everyone time to really get their heads in the game and make sure that their judogi (judo uniform) were on correctly. They knew I was quite the stickler for that. To be honest, I was a bit of a stickler for everything, but I had to be. I was the only female captain in Tokyo, and it looked like from the roster for the matchups today, I was the only female competing today. What a shame.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, I sped walked to the girls locker room which was unsurprisingly empty. I changed into my white judogi which had Keizai University on the right arm in black kanji letters and tied my red belt to my waist. The red belt indicated that I was a 9th degree black belt, and I only wore it for special occasions like testing to rank up or for competitions. Speaking of which, I was about 6 months away from reaching the final rank as long as my performance stayed on par.

I was the highest ranked on the team, with Castillo and Inoue being 8th degree black belts, Takahashi and Saito being 7th degree black belts, and Yamazaki being a 6th degree black belt. Most people in competitions for the college level were at around the 7th degree or maybe 8th degree black belt mark. There were the occasional 9th degree or even 10th degree black belts in previous years, but they were very rare. Depending on the results of the next couple of tournaments, I could reach my final rank by the end of the first semester.

That thought further lit my competitive flame as I took out a red plastic hair tie and pulled my hair into a high ponytail. Then, I grabbed some extra grip bobby pins out of my bag and twisted my hair into a secure but slightly messy bun. It didn't need to be perfect, it just needed to stay out of my way during the matches. I checked my appearance one final time before taking a deep breath and heading out of the locker room.

"Mikia-chan!" a loud and overly excited voice called out to me, and to my surprise, a literal giant with slick silver hair and green eyes began waving and running over to me. Haiba Lev, and my eyes widened when I noticed who was with him.

"Hey hey hey, Endou-chan! You know this giant?" Bokuto called out with a grin. With them were Akaashi and Kuroo, the tall black haired man that I had slammed the door in the face of. To my surprise, they all looked fairly happy to see me. Could they not take a hint? Before I could make my feet move, they were already directly in front of me.

"Hello, Endou-san," Akaashi greeted politely with a slight bow, "Sorry to disturb you. Haiba-san mentioned that his university's judo team was quite good, and we got brought along to watch." Lev was nodding like an over-excited puppy before jumping in.

"Yeah! But I had no idea you were on the Judo team, Mikia-chan! Is this why you quit showing up for Russian tutoring?" Lev asked, switching to Russian for the last bit, throwing me off but thanks to the copious amounts of studying I was doing, I just managed to understand him.

"Yes. I'm the team captain, so I am very busy," I replied back in a sort of broken Russian, but lying about why I wasn't showing up.

"You speak Russian? That's amazing," Kuroo finally spoke up, his tone showing that he was clearly impressed making me blush a little bit at the compliment. Not many people were interested when they found out I spoke another language, especially not the basics.

"Um... My Russian is very basic..." I responded, feeling a bit shy at all the eyes suddenly on me.

"She also speaks fluent Spanish and English as well. Not that I blame you guys for flirting with her, but we need our team captain now," Castillo's accented voice cut in as I felt his large hand grab my arm and pull me along.

"Gonbatte kudasai! (Good luck)" I heard Bokuto and Lev yell from behind me, causing me to let out an involuntary giggle.

"Don't get distracted now, Captain. We have some asses to kick and teammates to inspire," Castillo teased, "But I gotta admit that black haired one was pretty hot."

"What about that gorgeous little blonde you keep flirting with in your statistics class?" I teased back.

"What about her?" he joked with a wink.

"Raul, have I ever told you you're a horrible person?"

"Only when it comes to romance, my dear Captain," he finished with a slightly guilty smile. That's right. My gorgeous best friend and vice captain was a total player and he acknowledged it. He never mislead his partners though and told them straight forwardly that he didn't do romance. It was all fun and games for him. The scariest part: Raul was pansexual(attracted to people regardless of their gender), meaning no person was safe from his charms. Early on though, he pointed out that he would never try anything with me. He had told me that something about me made him more so want to make me smile and help support me. In my opinion, it was probably because he'd saw me get my ass handed to me so many times by seniors that didn't like that a girl was on the team, and if there was one thing Castillo couldn't stand, it was bullies.

But that's a story for another time. For now, I had team with two very nervous first years in front of me and a tournament to win.

-

Song: You've Got a Friend in Me (Cavetown cover)