Did I already tell you these weren't going to be written in a specific order? No, I guess not ^^' Well, if it isn't very obvious when a chapter takes place, I guess that doesn't really matter? (I'm no good with chronological stuff that's ongoing too OTL)

Anyway! Daichi may be a little OOC here, but even he can be kind to Asahi sometimes xD The poor giant teddy bear needs it.

Asahi tried looking out of the window, but it was too far away for him to see much.

"Yo, what are you looking at?" Daichi appeared from the hallway.

Asahi looked up. "Nothing really, I was just thinking about something."

"Oh?" Daichi raised an eyebrow. "Wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

Asahi frowned. "Not if you're gonna insult me right after."

That made Daichi laugh. "I promise I won't, okay?" He said apologetically, looking at Asahi. "Wait for me after practice, then we can talk."

Asahi had no choice but to agree. It was probably for the best to talk about it to someone anyway and what was a better idea than to talk to the captain?

School ended with no further problems and so did training. Ukai announced that they would have the weekend off as he had a cousin who would be marrying. The whole team congratulated him and wished his cousin all the best.

After practice, Asahi obediently waited for Daichi to lock up the building.

"Come with me." Daichi motioned. "My house is nearby and my parents won't be home for a few more hours. It'll give us some time to talk."

Asahi silently followed, leaving the school grounds with his friend.

"So what's it that's been bothering you?" Daichi asked right off the bat, only a few bites into dinner.

Asahi softly laughed. "Where do you want me to start?"

"How about at the beginning?"

The kindness in Daichi's voice put Asahi a little off. He had no reason to distrust his captain, so he started telling. "I… I haven't been feeling like myself lately, like there's someone else living inside my body controlling it."

Daichi frowned. "Why didn't you say something about this before? Have we been making you uncomfortable after you came back to the team? Is it the team's fault?"

Asahi was unsure which question to answer first. "It's not because you of you guys, really! I love the team and honestly, I have no idea how I survived that month without volleyball."

"That's good to hear." Daichi smiled. "Does Nishinoya knows yet?"

Asahi's eyes widened. "What?"

"Noya. Did you talk to him about it?" Daichi asked, his eyebrows raised.

Asahi looked away. "No, he doesn't. I wanted to figure out what was wrong before I said anything about it."

"But you are talking to me right now. Are you okay with that?"

"Your kindness scares me, who are you and what did you do to Daichi?" Asahi jokingly tried to avoid replying.

Daichi gently punched Asahi's arm with a soft laugh. "Don't worry, you glass-hearted giant, if something happens, I have the perfect spot for you in the garden next to my last victim."

Asahi's smile disappeared. "Well that proves you're the real one, but please don't do that."

Daichi laughed. "I won't, I won't." He looked at the clock. "I hope you did tell your mom you'd eat dinner here."

Slowly, Asahi grabbed his phone to check. He nodded, much to Daichi's relief. "I did tell her. She says hi."

He put his phone away and concentrated on his dinner again.

Daichi observed him from the other side of the table. "You know, I'm actually really surprised that stuff still works on you. Shouldn't you be used to it by now?"

The frown on Asahi's face was pointed at his dinner. "Maybe…"

Daichi laughed again. "Rest assured though, it's not my intention at the moment to scare you away. Or anytime when you wanna talk."

Asahi's face softened. "Yeah I know. Thank you."

"No problem." Being finished, Daichi set his plate aside. "When you're done, shall we go upstairs?"

Asahi nodded, quickly eating the rest of the food he had left. Daichi didn't have to wait very long and together they washed their plates and went up the stairs. Asahi knew where Daichi's room was, but let him lead anyway. Some of the occasions Asahi had been there was for study sessions with the team (or just the third years).

Daichi made himself comfortable on his desk chair and motioned Asahi to sit on his bed.

He sat down, intentionally ignoring the look Daichi gave him. The look was an invitation to speak and Asahi wasn't sure he was ready to do so yet. Unfortunately for him, Daichi showed a strong will of not opening his mouth first.

After the three minute mark, Asahi sighed. "You really want me to talk about it, don't you?"

"I do."

"I don't know what to tell you now though." His huge body seemed to shrink the more Daichi stared at him.

Daichi's words were kinder than that look. "Well, you told me you haven't been feeling like yourself lately and you haven't told Nishinoya yet. That was a quick summary of what you've told me already, so how about we go back to the start?"

Asahi played with his hands, his eyes focused on them instead of Daichi. "I guess it's always kinda been there? It usually worked when I tried to ignore it, but since last year that isn't so easy anymore."

Daichi, in full counselor mode now, kept asking questions, instead of letting Asahi hesitate over his words on his own. "Was there something that made it worse?

"There was, but…" Asahi stopped.

"But what?"

"But I feel so uncomfortable thinking about it that I even didn't tell Nishinoya."

Daichi nodded, letting Asahi know that he was listening and urged him to continue.

"I always thought it was because of that grow spurt I had a few years ago, that I just wasn't very comfortable in my own body and that it had changed so much I couldn't recognize myself anymore. And then the school festival came along."

The last line was more of a whisper, but Daichi heard it anyway. "School festival?" He repeated. Daichi clearly remembered it.

The volleyball team was dismissed for the week to prepare for the festival. Tanaka and Noya were participating in a haunted classroom (and were extremely excited about it too), while he and Suga were doing something with games. Asahi had the bad luck to be in the class that wanted to do a reversed maid café. The girls were wearing a butler uniform and the guys were wearing maid dresses. The class representative had a dress specifically made for Asahi, since he couldn't fit in all the dresses they had. The whole team had been happy to pay him a visit and Asahi had felt so awkward that he had disappeared ten minutes after the team had arrived.

"Tell me what happened at the school festival." It was more a request than a demand, though it felt forceful, even to Daichi.

Asahi didn't meet Daichi's eyes. "I'm sure you remember what my class had prepared that days and what they made me wear…" He trailed off and for Daichi, he had said enough.

"Of course, I think Nishinoya even managed to snap a picture of you."

Now Asahi did look up, his eyes wide in shock.

Daichi quickly added. "He wouldn't show it to anyone for some reason though, so we all agreed that it wasn't true what he claimed." He thought for a moment. "Though that was before we knew about you and Nishinoya."

Asahi tried to ignore the wink Daichi pointed in his direction.

"Was that what triggered it? That dress?" Daichi asked just to be sure.

A nod.

Daichi waited for Asahi to speak again, but when he didn't, Daichi roller his chair a little closer. Asahi looked like he wanted to disappear completely and the tears almost streaming down his face said enough. "Okay, let's take a break here. You want something to drink?" Daichi asked.

Asahi quietly responded he would like some water and Daichi left him alone for a moment to calm down. He deliberately took a little longer than he had to and returned with their drinks and a small snack.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Asahi obviously wasn't completely okay, but Daichi decided it was better to leave it at that. His eyes were still somewhat red, though he looked calmer than before Daichi left.

"You know what I think you should do?"

Asahi shook his head.

"Google. Use Google and tell Nishinoya, I don't care in which order. And then, after you've figured stuff out, come back to me and we'll talk about stuff we might need to do for you."

Asahi's eyes started to water again, the glass in his hands shaking slightly.

Daichi, not capable of dealing with an upset Asahi, put on his captain face. "Asahi, do that research and meet with Nishinoya this weekend. I don't want something that's been bothering you so much that you're crying to have a negative effect on the team."

Asahi nodded, slowly. "Okay." He whispered, maybe glad someone forced him to do something about this.

Daichi smiled, the serious look immediately gone. "Great! Good thing we sorted that out."

Asahi smiled back weakly. "Thank you for helping me out, Daichi." The gratefulness was audible in his words. "If you weren't so scary most of the time you'd make a good counselor."

"Shut up or you'll make me blush." Daichi said in a deadpan voice.

Asahi's smile widened by the tiniest bit as he saw the smile creep up to Daichi's eyes. "I mean it though, thank you."

"You're a friend, teammate and our precious ace. There's no way you're gonna let yourself be replaced by Hinata solely because of your feelings. I won't allow it as captain of the team."

"I don't know if I should be grateful for that." Asahi averted his eyes.

"You should be grateful. That being said, I think I've given you enough food for thought for today. I'm not saying you should leave, but I don't want you to get home too late and make your mom worried or something."

"You have other plans." Asahi concluded.

Daichi scratched the back of his head. "It's not like I'm in a hurry to get you out or anything, but yeah, I had something planned for tonight."

"Then I'll shall take my leave. I've already taken up too much of your time."

Daichi wanted to protest, but Asahi already stood. Quicker than was really necessary he put on his shoes and coat and was ready to leave.

Daichi let him be, his mind already partially somewhere else.

On the doorstep, Asahi turned around. I'll let you know when I've talked to Nishinoya."

"Much appreciated, yes."

They said their goodbyes and Asahi took a few steps until he had reached the gate. He waited a few seconds and looked back at Daichi. "Say hi to Suga for me." He grinned, waving goodbye one last time.

Daichi didn't have time to answer as Asahi took off in what looked like a sprint and he didn't stop until he was far away from the Sawamura residence. Only until he was sitting in the train he had the courage to message Noya to ask if they could meet up the next day.

Was this chapter better than the first one? Worse maybe? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this~ I promise I'm not gonna bite ;)

Thank you for reading 3

This fic is also on Tumblr! Look for 'genderfluidasahi' on Tumblr and I think you can find me right away~ Go and see for yourself ;)