A/N: Alas, chapter two...

Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu, only original characters.

Chapter 2: Never No for an Answer

How did this happen again?

School was alright. Haruka followed the lessons perfectly. She got acquainted with a few of her classmates, if only to keep up formalities and to make things easier for the rest of the year, but she didn't hang out or eat lunch with them. She bumped into Fukuoka in the hallway and the captain waved at her, making Haruka anticipate track practice just a bit.

It was after school that Haruka felt her nerves go haywire. In the past few days when she had come across Nishinoya, she never imagined waiting for him under a tree.

"Do you live close by?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you at the park at 4:30!"

"...I haven't even said anything yet."

Having no real reason to reject him, Haruka showed up at the appointed time. It wasn't like she wouldn't be running like she had planned, so they would bump into each other eventually if he did the same. Once the school bell rang, she'd gone home, dragging her feet every step of the way. Then she changed into her running attire and went out.

When she arrived at the park, Nishinoya was nowhere in sight. Haruka glared at her sports watch. 4:36. He was late.

"Kobayashi!" As if on cue, Nishinoya appeared from a corner and ran across the clearing, wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. Was he not cold with it being only 15 degrees outside?

"Sorry I'm late!" Nishinoya clapped his hands together, his eyes scrunched shut. "That wasn't manly of me. I left school late because I got an earful from my teacher."

Haruka wondered what being late had to do with manliness, but decided to drop it before she put her mind through the torment that was Nishinoya's reasoning. It felt too much to be out with him already outside of school hours.

It's only because he's suspended from club activities, she told herself. Once he was reinstated, he would resume his own training routine. Right now, Nishinoya was probably grasping at whatever opportunity he could get.

Not wanting to put off practice and stay longer than necessary, Haruka cleared her throat and said, "Should we start?"

They began with a few simple stretches. Haruka assumed Nishinoya had lived here longer than she did, so she asked him if he had a preferred route.

"I normally go uphill," Nishinoya said. "There's a path to the foot of the hill that goes up increasingly—" As if finally realizing he was not training with Tanaka or really any other guy, he quickly put his hands in front of him and added, "—but we don't have to do that if it's too tough!"

Too tough. Haruka gave Nishinoya a smile that made him cringe. What did he take her for?

"That's fine. I don't know where you mean, so lead the way, senpai."

"H-Ha…"

They set a moderate pace towards the West, with Nishinoya slightly in front since Haruka wasn't familiar with the directions. She could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, her following the trail of a guy she had barely spoken to, for training no less.

Nishinoya was wearing one of his white yojijukugo shirts again, this time with the words「全力疾走」printed at the back (Full Speed Ahead). If it were anyone else wearing these shirts, they would look really lame, but the shirts seemed to fit Nishinoya just fine.

The words were a bit hard to make out at first with the string bag he was carrying. Who would bring a string bag out on a run? Haruka took a closer look. With the way it jostled, there was likely a volleyball in there. You can't be serious.

She kept silent as they went steadily uphill. It was definitely tougher than the routes she had tried before, but she didn't run long-distance for nothing.

Exhaling, Haruka kept pumping her legs. She glanced at Nishinoya. He was breaking out sweat but didn't seem tired at all. He must have pretty good stamina despite his stature. It was exasperating that she was comparatively out of breath, but she supposed Nishinoya was a guy and an athlete after all.

After twenty minutes, they reached flatter ground and Nishinoya gestured for her to stop. Haruka slowed down and brought her jogging to an end, her feet kicking up a bit of dust as she did so. Panting, she looked around. They were now at a small clearing with trees and a bench on the side, a brief pit stop for people making their way over the hills.

"You're pretty good, Kobayashi!" Nishinoya said, wiping sweat off his face with his sleeve. The run was shorter than her usual practice, but the gradient made it more intense.

Embarrassed, Haruka looked away. "I'm in track. That's like saying, I don't know, a volleyball player having a pretty good slam or something, if that's what you call it."

"A spike?" Nishinoya looked at her with his wide brown eyes. "I don't do it though. I know how to do it, but I'm a libero, so that's against the rules."

"Oh, I see."

The only time when Haruka got to try out volleyball was during gym class, so she had a rudimentary idea of how the sport was played—you couldn't let the ball hit the floor on your side of the court, and there were five, or is it six, players on each team—but she had no idea of its positions and terms.

The last time Haruka played volleyball, she ended up with two columns of burst blood vessels on her forearms. That was about as good as she could get, so it went without saying that she wasn't highly interested in the sport.

Which was why when Nishinoya started fiddling with his string bag, Haruka prayed he wasn't about to ask the impossible.

"Kobayashi, I know you're in track, but just for a bit, do you think you could—"

"No, I'm not going to 'spike' the ball for you." So he was going to ask her in the end.

"I'll buy you two Garigari-kun popsicles!"

"No."

"Please!" Nishinoya bowed despite being the upperclassman, startling her. "If I don't get better at block follow, then the ace, our team…" He gritted his teeth.

It was that frustration again, the expression that he made this morning. Haruka, surprised by Nishinoya's insistence, hesitated to respond. She wondered what was troubling him that made him so desperate.

"I-It's not like I know how to spike anyway, I've never played volleyball." Thinking it was still rude of her to ask further, Haruka decided to point out the infeasibility.

Normally people would give up once others have said, "It's impossible for me," because you don't want to set people up for embarrassment. But for Nishinoya, who apparently took it to mean Haruka was coming around and was merely raising the question of how to do it, his eyes shone once again with hope.

Haruka grimaced. Maybe she shouldn't have responded like that to a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer.

"You don't have to spike!" Nishinoya exclaimed, determined to make it work. "You just have to toss the ball—I mean, throw the ball in an arc and let it hit the... Gah!" He dug his hands into his hair, a fresh wave of despair washing over him.

"The?" Haruka tilted her head.

"...There needs to be three people," Nishinoya mumbled, sulking. "I need the ball to be reflected off a surface so that I can pick it up near the ground."

"I'm sorry, I don't get you."

For lack of better demonstration, Nishinoya tried body language. "Say this is the net," he said, swinging an arm in the air. "Sometimes when spikers hit the ball, they get stopped by the opponent's blocks." He swiped to imitate a spike, then went to the other side of the imaginary net and jumped with his hands raised: a block, Haruka reckoned.

"As libero, my job is to pick those balls back up, to give our team another chance," he explained, going back to the other side again and lowering himself to the ground to save the inexistent falling ball. It was rather amusing actually, watching Nishinoya move about like a one-man comedy skit or something.

"Um," Haruka wasn't sure if she should be saying this, "so you just need a surface for the ball to bounce off, right?" Looking around the clearing, she saw the bench, offering elevation, the nearby tree, and the empty ground next to it.

Nishinoya rose his eyebrows in surprise, then broke out into a wide grin. "You're right! That's smart, Kobayashi! And you can do it after all, thank you so much!"

I haven't even said anything yet, moaned Haruka inwardly. This was becoming a pattern. Well, actually, I did. I provided a solution. Drats.

Sighing and thinking it might just be easier for her to give in, she got the volleyball from Nishinoya. Hell, she wasn't sure if she would make it back if she didn't throw the ball for him. Nishinoya was as stubborn as a mule. "Just for a bit, you know."

"You got it!" He shouted, still grinning.

Haruka stood on top of the bench and threw the ball at the trunk of the tree. Her first throw was a disaster, the ball rebounding right back and almost hitting her in the face. Haruka raised her forearm to defend herself and Nishinoya ended up having to chase after the ball to retrieve it. Make that her first few throws—they all ricocheted somewhere else.

"I told you I can't do volleyball," Haruka said, her mouth curled into a frown.

Nishinoya stepped up onto the bench with her. Haruka would have shifted to the side to make more space, but the bench was only so long. With their closer proximity, she could see the perspiration glistening on his brow. "Try throwing the ball like this, it'll go donk." Nishinoya threw the ball and off it went with the correct trajectory.

Donk...? Haruka was at a complete loss. "Uh…"

"I'm not good at explaining…" Nishinoya scratched the back of his head. "It's kinda like...hitting a higher place and letting it bounce off the other side!"

Haruka thought back to the other ball sports she had played during gym class. Football, basketball... When the teacher taught them how to shoot hoops, one of the ways to shoot was to hit the upper corners of the smaller square on the backboard. "I'll give it a try," she said.

"I'm sure you can do it!"

Nishinoya hopped back down and got into position.

Looking at where he stood, Haruka took a step to the right so that she would be throwing the ball at a wider angle. Aiming higher this time, the ball hit the trunk from the right and bounced away on the left, successfully heading to where Nishinoya stood the way a blocked ball might run close to the net.

Reacting immediately, Nishinoya tipped forward and caught the ball in an underhand receive, bumping it back to Haruka. "That's it, you're awesome, Kobayashi!" he laughed, even though it was him who had saved the ball. She just threw it at a tree. With Nishinoya, you could see all his emotions on his face, Haruka mused.

They repeated the drill some more. Haruka's tossing was inaccurate, but it was all the better because it forced Nishinoya to shift his position each time, like blocks that would deflect the ball in multiple directions.

There were occasions when Nishinoya's receives weren't perfect, but Haruka could tell he had fast reflexes. As soon as the ball was up in the air, Nishinoya showed complete concentration, his eyes tracing the ball for every minute detail. He would turn completely quiet, the opposite of his usual loud self.

With time passing, sunset was imminent, casting dim orange light on the area. Knowing that she couldn't possibly stay longer than she already had, Haruka said, "These are the last few ones I'll do, I need to go back home."

Nishinoya opened his mouth like he was about to protest but promptly closed it again, aware that Haruka was doing him a favor. She didn't play ball sports, so it wasn't like she was benefiting from this. "Right, thanks!" he said.

Haruka threw her last toss. It hit the tree and Nishinoya bounced the ball back to her, but it was flying more to the right. "Ugh, Kobayashi—"

Haruka instinctively stepped to the right to follow the trajectory of the ball, but soon realized her mistake as she went over the length of the bench. Gasping, she lost her foothold. She ended up stepping on the ground on her right foot, the shock rocketing up her ankle. Her hands flung in mid-air in a poor attempt for balance and she ended up landing on her bottom, her back hitting the edge of the bench with enough force to make her wince. She heard the ball hitting the ground somewhere.

"Ow…"

"Kobayashi!" Nishinoya ran immediately to her side. "I'm sorry! Argh, that receive was off, you shouldn't have to chase after it."

Her back felt a bit sore, but she was otherwise alright. She didn't even have any scratches. "I'm fine," Haruka said. "Just surprised."

She stood up, patting her clothes to clear the dust. Still feeling the thudding pain in her back, Haruka rubbed the area to soothe it.

Nishinoya frowned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Haruka said. It wasn't that big of a deal. She'd had worse in the field. After assessing that Haruka could stand and move around just fine, Nishinoya relaxed.

With practice being over, they made their way home before evening came. As they were walking down the slope, Nishinoya said, "Thank you for helping me practice today, I mean it."

Haruka glanced at Nishinoya from the side and saw him in profile. With his back to the setting sun, Nishinoya had his head held high, his brown hair showing very slight hints of blond in the light. She looked away.

"Don't worry about it."

Their walk continued mostly in silence while Nishinoya appeared to be in his thoughts. They reached Haruka's junction after a while.

"I'm heading off here," she told him.

"Whoa, I'm just two streets away—you live really close!"

"Well, this area is close to school." She turned. "So, I'll—"

"Let's do this again tomorrow!" Nishinoya blurted out. Before Haruka could respond, he continued, "You don't have track practice until next week, right? So do I for volleyball. In exchange for helping me with block follow, I'll show you the different routes to run in this area!"

He pointed his thumb at his chest and grinned at the plan he had devised.

So it will be beneficial for me as well, huh, thought Haruka. A few more days with the hyperactive Nishinoya. If she could survive today… "Deal," she decided.

"Awesome!" Nishinoya beamed. "But," his expression turned serious, "we need a net after all. The bench was kinda dangerous today."

They decided to exchange numbers just in case. Feeling nonplussed that Nishinoya was her first contact at Karasuno, Haruka quickly pocketed her phone once she inputted his information.

"Then I'm going." She gave him a brief nod and headed home.

"See you tomorrow!" Nishinoya's loud voice boomed from behind.

Was Haruka looking forward to it? Only for the running routes.

-.-.-.-

A/N: Read and review! Next up, angsty Noya and his Asahi-san.