falling into step
A Haikyuu! fanfic
by mew-tsubaki
- ^-^3
Chapter 2: Cast a Line, They Will Bite
About a week passed after Watari finished the flyer, made adjustments and copies, and posted them around the school. The only drawback was that the opening club festival had long since passed, so the volleyball club couldn't get any publicity there. Still, the flyers got around, and people—mainly girls—began dropping by practice or by Class 3-6 to talk about the manager's position with Watari.
Hoshimura joined him after day duty so they could head to afternoon practice together, and he whistled appreciatively when the libero got an application from yet another girl who passed by them in the halls. "Damn, Watari. Anyone slipped their number to you yet?"
Watari gave the dark-haired teen a look as he tucked the application into his bag and they left the main school building for the clubhouse. "No. And why should they? This is just for becoming manager."
"Oh, for crying out loud…" Hoshimura heaved an overly dramatic sigh, and he did so again when they entered the clubroom. Ueno, of course, asked what the bother was, which caught some of the others' attention, too. But Watari ignored them and their questions and was the first one to the gym as a result.
Mizoguchi-san flagged him over as the first years arrived to set equipment up. "Ah, Watari." He held up a collection of papers with a grin. "I collected these from the staffroom just today. We've got a lot of people interested in becoming manager."
"Really?" Watari unfolded the application from before, which he'd tucked into his jacket pocket after changing. "I've got another, too. What does that bring us up to?"
The blond coach flipped through the stack after taking the latest paper. "Hmm… Nine, actually. Seven girls, two boys. Mostly first years. Some are even from Kunimi's class, though, Chiba and Sanada's, and Ishii's, too, so I wonder how well our guys know them."
"Do you want us to make a decision by the start of next week?" the libero asked as the other athletes arrived. Some of the other first years got to setting up without even asking, and Watari internally breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"I don't mind when, and neither does Irihata-sensei, so talk it over with Yahaba and figure things out for yourselves. We trust you guys," Mizoguchi added after a pause, as if assuring Watari that the faculty wasn't merely shoving it off on them.
It didn't take long to set things up for practice, since Seijou had a good-sized club, even if only a handful were regulars and filled out the bench during games. Yahaba gave some instructions regarding warm-ups and turned to Watari—likely to ask him to focus on working with Okino today, as the liberoes were doing specialized practice every few days—when something caught his eye again. But it wasn't Kyoutani at the door this time.
"Ah, Watari," the captain said with a small smirk, "I think someone's here for you."
Hoshimura and Ueno, who were nearby, turned their heads, too, and saw what Watari saw: a female student scuffing her toes right outside the gym door. She took a rumpled flyer from her blazer pocket and quickly scanned the gym, ducking her head when she accidentally made eye contact with Watari.
"The classical type—nice," Hoshimura remarked appreciatively as the girl pushed some of her straight black hair back behind her ear.
Ueno clapped the libero on the shoulder and gave Watari a thumb's up. "Go for it," he deadpanned.
Watari, meanwhile, heaved a sigh and began to wonder if this was how Iwaizumi had felt, herding cats. He shrugged Ueno off and shook his head at them before jogging over to the girl. He smiled gently at her. "Ah, hi. Were you interested in becoming the club manager?"
Her eyes widened when he spoke to her, but her lips were pressed so tightly together that no sound came out. A squeak emerged from the back of her throat, and she hastily pushed the flyer towards him.
"Uh, thanks… I'm Watari, by the way," he said, although he wondered if she had that much figured out if she was reacting to him this way—which was, in and of itself, a strange thought, at least to him. "Sorry I can't chat—practice." He smiled again and took the flyer from her, waiting until she loosened her grip from the bottom corner of the paper. Then he turned around and jogged over to Mizoguchi-san, passing the flyer to him.
Mizoguchi-san took it and glanced at it, but he stopped Watari as the third year stepped away. "Uh, Watari…"
"Yes?"
The assistant coach bit his lower lip to keep from laughing, but he was smiling. He passed something to the vice-captain. "I, uh, think this was meant for you."
Watari glanced at the slip of paper and did a double-take when he realized it was something torn out of a notebook and scrawled on.
It was not part of the girl's application to be manager. It was her name, email address, and phone number.
The libero felt the heat rising in his cheeks as he scurried over to his things and hid the info in his jacket pocket before his fellow third years saw. Goddamn Hoshimura for saying this kind of thing would happen…!
- ^-^3
Watari tried to put it out of his mind for the rest of practice, though he had to apologize to Okino the few times when he spaced out in the middle of talking with his fellow libero.
Still, walking home and mulling it over that weekend, it didn't seem real. Him. Watari Shinji. With a girl's number? He knew he wasn't disliked by anyone; he tended to get along well with everyone, and he did so pretty easily. But he'd never gone looking for a girlfriend. Not in middle school, and not in high school. Everything else—school, volleyball, family, even his own few hobbies—simply had been top priority.
He debated asking his parents for some advice, but he just as quickly dismissed the thought. His parents were an unusual case of a flipped switch, all classmates without beings friends to suddenly his mother asking his dad out and… Well, as they say, the rest was history. Watari wasn't even sure his parents had dated anyone before meeting in their university days.
With the weekend gone without a solution, Watari chose what he thought was the best path for now, and he tucked the girl's info into his top desk drawer in his room at home, safe and undisturbed and half hidden by the small stack of sticky notes that lay within. There. With it out of sight, it would also be out of mind.
…not.
One of the good things about Yahaba was that nothing ever really escaped his sight, so that helped to make him a really great captain. Ueno even joked that Yahaba had eyes in the back of his head. However, that was also one quality Watari wished his friend could do without come Monday afternoon.
"So. What's her name?" Yahaba asked more comfortably than Watari would've liked.
Kyoutani gave Yahaba a clueless look while Hoshimura and Ueno exchanged an excited glance and Watari regretted eating lunch up on the roof with the lot of them. For a second, Watari debated playing dumb, but he knew that wasn't going to fly. "Morioka," he replied. But he kept his eyes on his bento.
"And?"
"And what?"
Yahaba and Hoshimura half sighed, half growled at him, forcing his attention on them. "You know damn well what," Yahaba retorted, clearly taking the words out of Hoshimura's mouth as the other boy nodded. "That was her number Mizoguchi-san passed you, right? So? Have you texted her?"
"What? No, I haven't! Why should I text a complete stranger?"
Yahaba rolled his eyes, so Hoshimura cut in. "Because that's one of the few ways to stop being complete strangers, Watari." He snorted as if he were an expert in all things romance. "You go from strangers to friends to something more—and, if that ends, you at least have a catalogue of people from whom you can borrow notes and homework." He ended his spiel by producing his own phone and showing the other four the heinous number of entries in his phonebook.
Ueno gave Hoshimura a look. "We don't want him turning into you. One of you is bad enough—hold on. Is that a guy's name? Ah, that one, too!" he exclaimed just as Hoshimura took his phone out of reach.
"I'll never tell~"
Yahaba and Watari sighed at them, but then Yahaba faced his friend again, light brown eyes fully focused on him. "Actually, that's part of the equation."
Watari gave him a funny look. "What is?"
"You, Watari. So, what is it? Girls? Boys?" Beside him, Kyoutani reddened and choked on the large bite of his sandwich he'd taken the moment before.
The shaven-haired boy scratched his left eyebrow and returned his eyes to his bento. "Honestly…I don't know."
He could feel three sets of eyes trained on him, with the fourth set no doubt doing anything but look at him. "You don't know," Yahaba confirmed.
Watari groaned. "I just—I've never given it much thought, y'know?"
"Never given it— Well, did you think Mori was cute?"
"Morioka? I guess…"
"What about any of us?"
Watari lifted his head and gave him a dry look. "Come again?"
But Yahaba was nonchalant as he waved an arm at the rest. "Us. Have you ever thought any of us were attractive?"
Oh, for crying out loud…! Kyoutani, at least, had the decency to look away, and he scooched an inch away from Yahaba, too.
But the other three? Yahaba stared at him openly, there was mirth in Hoshimura's slightly sloping blue–gray eyes, and Ueno was grinning wolfishly as if waiting to have his good looks praised.
Watari frowned at them. These guys—they were his friends. Objectively, yeah, he could see they were good-looking. Ueno was kind of plain like Kyoutani, with a square jaw and small eyes, although his ready-made smile was always a nice sight, and his spiky blond hair looked cool. Hoshimura was pretty kind of like Yahaba, although his dark hair was a little on the long side, coming down almost to hide his ears. Still, Watari knew all of them, and that partly made up how he saw them, as well.
Even Yahaba. Pretty and friendly though he was, Yahaba… Watari couldn't see his friend as being his type. Not with how boisterous he knew the guy to be during overnight trips or staying over at his house. Not with how Yahaba let himself get carried away when he and Kyoutani had one of those days when they'd simply go at each other. And certainly not with how Yahaba was almost always guaranteed to return Watari's notes out of order when he borrowed them. At that thought, Watari grumbled to himself.
"No," he finally answered, and he knew it to be the truth, though he was surprised when Yahaba and Hoshimura pouted at the response.
"You're no fun. People like being told they're attractive," Hoshimura whined, and he leaned dramatically against Yahaba's arm.
Oops. Watari sometimes forgot he had his mother's tendency to be unknowingly blunt. He frowned and backpedaled. "Sorry. What I mean is—"
But Yahaba shook his head as the bell rang, ending lunch. "It's fine, Watari. I figure, with you, you'll probably know it when it happens for you."
Wow. Yahaba…really could say some great things sometimes. How heartening to hear that from his friend.
"Well, you probably won't notice it right away, considering your obliviousness, but…y'know," the captain added.
Ah. Never mind. Watari knew then that he wasn't herding cats with the new make-up of the club. He was running a kindergarten full of kids who said whatever was on their minds. And Watari still had a full year of this ahead of him.
- ^-^3
Poor Watacchi, *lol*. The kid needs a break…which he will get, in the next chapter. ;3 That headcanon about Watari's parents is something I figured out when writing "During the rainy season…" and it's something I liked, so I kept it. And these other third years…! XD I actually love Ueno and want to smack Hoshimura half the time, but y'know. OC woes, *lol*.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and please leave a review while you await ch3!
-mew! :3