"Someone, wake [name] and Kyoko up!"
"Come on senpais, it's morning already! Practice is starting soon!" Aiyu called out.
"Let me sleep a while longer…" Kyoko groaned out and Aiyu giggled as she walked towards the window and pulled open the curtains, allowing the sunlight to hit both [name] and Kyoko at the same time.
"URGH!"
"[name], you didn't get enough sleep? Your face looks quite pale." the manager asked as he walked past the table that the girls were seated at for breakfast.
"More like I skipped dinner last night. Urgh…" she groaned out as she put her head on the table.
"I don't see any of the other teams other than Karasuno High though…" Yuki called out as she sipped on her hot cup of tea.
"Hey, Karasuno's Mr. Refreshing is walking towards us." Naomi whispered to the girls as [name] lifted her head up. The girls then giggled as they found him quite the gentleman during the practices at night.
"Good morning." He greeted the girls with a smile, and the girls couldn't help but giggle at his smile except for [name], who was too hungry to even show any expression on her face. Suga then walked over towards [name], and patted her shoulder. [name] then looked up to him with eyes that could barely open, but he still smiled at her.
"God… You're just like my friend back in middle school, all smiles. Urgh…" [name] groaned out as she set her head on the table once again to enjoy the cool surface. Then all of a sudden her eyes widened and she sat up straight, almost hitting Suga's head. She then stared at him with wide opened eyes and then her mouth was hanging open…
.
.
.
"S-S-S-Sugar?!" she managed to stutter out, and Karasuno's team and the girls snickered at the nickname that [name] had called out as Suga's face went beet red.
"It's been a while, queen." He said and smiled.
"Queen?!" the girls called out.
"Back in middle school, the volleyball teams call her the queen of the courts because of her ability to get through any blocker and also her ability to block almost all of the spikes." Suga explained.
"Damn, captain. You're a big hit back in middle school." Kyoko spoke as she nudged [name] by the side.
"It's like calling Kageyama the king of the courts, just that hers is positive whereas Kageyama's is negative." Hinata whispered to Tanaka, and then Kageyama grabbed Hinata by the collar and shouted at him.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
"Kageyama… You should put him down… Daichi is going to get angry…" Asahi managed to whisper out quietly so that Daichi wouldn't hear, and Kageyama threw Hinata back into his seat and sat down with a frown on his face.
"Hey, hey hey! Good morning!" and Bokuto hopped into the cafeteria with a loud voice, soon followed by the rest of his teammates.
"You're too loud in the morning, Bokuto-san." Akaashi commented.
"Not to mention the loudness of his snoring last night." One of his teammates complained as he yawned.
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't expose me… There are girls here…" Bokuto whispered the last part, and looked towards Nekoma High's girls team as they giggled at his cuteness, except for [name].
"We'll talk later alright? After practice matches." Suga said, and [name] just nodded as he turned and walked back to where Karasuno High was seated at.
"Good morning…" and everybody turned to the entrance once again and finally saw Nekoma High boys team walking into the cafeteria. Kuroo then made his way to [name] and sat beside her, nuzzling his nose into her neck and sighing. [name] smiled a soft smile and ruffled his hair slightly, and asked;
"Rough night?" which he nodded into her neck.
"Awe, the both of you look so cute together." Aiyu commented as she stared at them.
"Well, you and Kenma look cute together as well." Kyoko commented, as Kenma took a seat beside Aiyu, and then both of their faces turned beet red.
"How are you feeling?" Kuroo mumbled into [name]'s neck just for her to hear.
"I'm just hungry." She whispered.
"What happened last night?"
"I just went to sleep, that's all."
"Talk to me."
"Later then."
"Promise?
"Promise."
"Alright, breakfast is served! Come on, move your morning butts and get your breakfast before they get cold!" the coach called out and everybody made a run for the food except for [name]. She was too tired, too hungry to even move. She also feels that she's too tired to even stand up or eat. She then groaned again as her stomach growled and she placed her head on the table.
"Hey, hey, hey! [name]! You ran off last night, so you're going to help me with blocking today, right? Right?" he asked as he moved his head to from side to side of [name]'s head every time he said 'right'.
"Will it be alright if I joined you guys?" [name] and Bokuto looked up and saw Suga standing there.
"Of course! We can play 3 on 3 then! Tsukishima don't think you can run away!" Bokuto yelled and pointed at Tsukki, who just flinched as he was just walking past the table with his plate of food.
"Ne, don't bully four eyes will you." [name] spoke as she tried to push Bokuto's arm down, which she eventually failed as she was too hungry and tired. Then she saw someone placing a plate of food before her, and that someone soon settled himself/herself beside her. She turned to look and smiled softly at Kuroo who had done that for her.
"Eat up. You didn't eat last night. I saw you looked too tired and hungry, so I decided to get it for you. Do you want drinks? Coffee? Tea?" he asked and [name] just shook her head and said that it's fine and started to eat.
"Today we'll play a different practice match. You'll choose your own teammates. There will be two teams with two girls, whereas another two teams with just one girl each. The captains are, Kuroo Tetsuro, Bokuto Kotaro, Sawamura Daichi and [name]. Please step out and choose your team members."
The four captains stepped out and did a draw on who is going to pick first. The order was Kuroo, [name], Bokuto and then Kyoko.
"Kenma." Kuroo called out.
"Suga." [name] called out and hi fived when Suga came to join her.
Akaashi then made his way towards Bokuto without even being called as he saw Bokuto giving him the look of, 'don't abandon me please'.
"Yamamoto." Daichi called out, and Yamamoto jumped up in joy and ran towards Daichi's side, causing him to pale slightly.
"Glasses boy."
"Yaku."
"The girls' libero." Bokuto called out and Naomi stood up with a slight displeased look on her face. She then went up to Bokuto and said straight into his face, "My name is Naomi. Sakura Naomi! It isn't called 'the girls' libero'." And then she pouts. [name] could only ruffle her hair as she walked past her.
"Nekoma High's boy libero."
"Aiyu."
"That number 3." [name] pointed at Fukurōdani Academy's number 3.
"The girl Yuki."
"Asahi."
And after a good 10 minutes, the team was finally done.
Tetsuro Kuroo
Kenma, Tsukishima, Komi, Aiyu, Aria
Bokuto Kotaro
Akaashi, Naomi, Yuki, Tanaka, Washio
Sawamura Daichi
Nishinoya, Yamamoto, Kyoko, Onaga, Kageyama
[name]
Suga, Yaku, Asahi, Hinata, Sarukui
"The rest of you who weren't selected, you're going to play a practice match as well. Split into teams!" the coach called out as the captains went to draw lots.
"Mou. We're going against [name]'s group first." Kyoko whined as she saw the colour that Daichi had drawn.
"Positions!" the coach called out.
"Let's huddle together." Suga spoke up and [name] just stared at him with a weird look which he felt embarrassed as he thinks that [name] was thinking that he's crazy.
"Come on, huddle!" [name] called out and the boys huddled with her.
"Ne, captain. Motivational speech." Yaku teased [name], and she just rolled her eyes and…
"I have faith in you all. As long as the ball doesn't drop, we play on!"
"Yeah!"
"Fight!"
"Sarukui, nice serve!"
"Nice receive!"
"Kageyama!" Kyoko called out, and Kageyama tossed the ball to her, a little too fast…
.
.
.
"I'm so sorry! I tossed it too quickly!" Kageyama apologised and bowed to Kyoko who was flustered and told him that it was alright, they could try again. Whereas [name]'s team stared in… laughter… that was about to erupt from their throats but they tried their best to hold it in.
"Sarukui, one more!"
"Nice receive!"
"Kageyama!" and Kageyama tossed to Kyoko once again, and she knew she is able to hit it this time round, and she did. But she got blocked by [name] who managed to run up in time and block her.
"Nice one-touch!" Suga called out and positioned himself to toss. He looked around and spotted Hinata, Asahi and [name] getting into position. He then tossed the ball to Asahi…
*SLAM*
But he was blocked by Yamamoto and Kageyama. The ball was about to hit the floor when Yaku managed to dive for it, hitting it up.
"Nice one, Yaku!" [name] called out and then…
"Suga!" she called out and Suga tossed to her a little too far… that it ended up flying out of the court. She landed and immediately ran after the ball, stretching her arm out and…
.
.
.
"NICE SAVE!" Yaku called out.
*BAM*
[name] had hit the wall hard against her back. She had slide across the floor then.
"Connect, connect! Don't let her effort go to waste!" and Suga received the ball that [name] had saved, and tossed it to Hinata who did a quick spike, but was blocked by Kageyama with a smirk. [name] quickly got up and ran back to the court after seeing that Hinata was blocked. Yaku managed to save the ball in time and passed it to Suga
Suga then tossed it to Asahi, a high toss that is slightly away from the net…
*SLAM*
And the ball hit the court of the opponents'.
"10 running laps…" Daichi called out from outside the gym, and his team started to run.
[name] and her team were taking a break while waiting for the next team to be ready. She rotated her arms slightly as her back was hurting from the crash impact from before. She then felt someone's hands on her shoulder and she looked up and smiled softly.
"I saw you crashing. You alright?" Kuroo asked with a worried look on his face.
"Yeah… A little ache won't hurt me." She said with a sad smile and did some stretches while Kuroo helped her by pushing her back downwards.
"Queen, since when do you have a boyfriend?" Suga called out as he did some stretches.
"Boyfriend?" [name] stared at him with a confusion, and he pointed to Kuroo.
"H-He's not my boyfriend!" [name] snapped at him, causing him to flinch.
"I'm her best friend." Kuroo answered, with a sad smile on his face that Suga noticed.
"Aiyu, nice serve!"
"Nice receive!"
"Suga!" [name] called out and Suga tossed her a perfect toss. She then saw Kuroo jumping up and blocking her, she shifted her gaze to the left but his hands didn't spread. She then hit a cross and by the time Kuroo spread his arms, the ball already hit the floor although Aria dived for it.
"Yay." [name] called out and stuck her tongue out at Kuroo who just 'tch' her in response with a blush on his cheeks which Kenma then teased him about.
"Oya? Kuroo has a fever…"
"I DO NOT!"
"Asahi, nice serve!"
But the serve hit [name] on the back of her head, hard.
"[name]!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH" Kuroo burst out laughing, and [name] immediately glared at him. The positions then rotated and it was [name]'s turn to serve, since Kuroo said he felt bad and decided to let her start the serve. She was in the backline, and so was Kuroo.
"I-I'm sorry about that just now!" Asahi apologised and bowed to [name] which she just waved off with a smile and said, "Don't mind." But something about that 'don't mind' made Suga smirk and Kuroo pale.
"[name], nice serve!" and [name] did a jump serve. Aiming for Kuroo, and Kuroo… Didn't manage to receive it properly. She then smirked as Kuroo pouted at what had just happened, and she served again.
"Nice serve!"
"Damn!" Kuroo cried out as the ball was aimed at him again. He then sighed with a smile on his face, hands on his hips and yelled out to [name].
"I'm sorry, my princess. So please stop bullying me. I'll buy you ice-cream."
"HE CALLED HER PRINCESS."
"OH GOD, THIS IS SO CUTE."
"PRINCESS!"
"AWE."
"SHUT UP ALREADY." The coaches yelled as they saw the teams getting distracted.
[name] just stuck her tongue out at Kuroo and grabbed the ball that Suga tossed for her to serve, not realising that Kuroo wasn't paying attention to her serving, but rather he was thinking about how cute she was when she did that…
"[name], nice serve!"
.
.
.
*WHAM*
"KUROO/KUROO-SENPAI"
"OH MY GOD, BED HEAD!" and the other team quickly rushed to the other side of the court.
"I-I'm okay." He managed to call out as he sat up.
"KUROO TETSURO, PAY ATTENTION ALREADY!" his coach yelled out with an angry mark on his forehead.
"Good practices today! I hope you all have learned something from each other during today's training. Tomorrow we'll be doing the normal ones, get enough rest today! Practice if you want to, but remember to clean up the gym and take your dinner. ESPECIALLY YOU, [NAME]!" Mukami sensei yelled and pointed at [name] who just quickly looked to the other side and whistled.
[name] sighed as soon as the coaches, teacher advisors and managers were out of sight. She was sitting on the bench with a towel draped over her head with her eyes closed, trying to relax from all the crashes she had suffered from during today's training.
She had crashed into the benches during the match against Bokuto's team. The wall, during the match against Daichi's team and also Kuroo's team. And she suffered many back hits from Asahi's missed serves.
"Hey, hey, hey!" and [name] groaned inwardly. She then felt her towel being removed and she opened her eyes to see that Bokuto was standing right in front of her. She the noticed Akaashi was holding onto Tsukki's sleeve to prevent him from running away, and then she saw Suga seated next to her. But no sign of Kuroo.
"Let's practice!" Bokuto called out as he went to grab his gears along with the others to move to the next gymnasium as it was rather crowded in the current gymnasium that they were in.
[name] sighed and stretched as she stood up. She then grabbed hold of her back and all of a sudden she felt someone just behind her and she immediately turned. What greeted her was a dorky looking Kuroo, with an ice-cream in his hand.
"Really…" she mumbled and grabbed the ice-cream and ate it in 6 bites.
"Here, later after your shower get the girls to help you with the bruises." He said as he placed a small bottle of ointment into her hand.
"Hey, hey, hey! Let's go practice! Four eyes, don't run!" Bokuto called out, and Akaashi managed to grab Tsukki by his arm and dragged him out of the door towards the other gymnasium.
"Don't you think it's a little unfair?" Akaashi called out.
"It's alright, let's do things that we can't do in practices!" Kuroo called out.
Sure enough, Akaashi was in the same team as Kuroo and Tsukki. Whereas [name] was in the same group as Bokuto as well as Suga… It was the tall versus the taller.
[name] sighed as she walked to take her position as the middle blocker. She didn't have on a happy look as her body was still aching pretty badly from all the crashes, but she dealt with it without any complaints as Suga tossed a ball to Bokuto to start the practice.
"Nice block…" Akaashi called out as he tossed the ball up to Kuroo. [name] then jumped up and blocked Kuroo's spike, killing it. Wincing in pain as she landed as her body wasn't in shape to take the same impacts as before.
"Nice block!" Bokuto and Suga called out as they both smacked her hard on the back, causing her to wince in pain once again. She sighed as she got into a spiking position as Suga tossed a ball to her, and she spiked it, getting through Kuroo's solid block by pulling on a clean wipe on him.
"Mou, stop wiping me already [name]!" Kuroo cried out and pout, which [name] just giggled at.
"That sounds wrong…" Akaashi commented.
"I didn't know Kuroo-san was into that kind of thing…" Tsukki teased.
"Hey, hey, hey! Kuroo you need to get a room!" Bokuto cried out.
And all Suga could do was to laugh softly as he saw how red Kuroo's face has gotten within that few seconds.
"Hey, can we join?" a voice came from the entrance, and everybody turned to look.
"Oya?" Akaashi called out.
"Oya, Oya?" Bokuto called out as well.
"Oya, Oya, Oya?" Kuroo joined in.
"Oya, Oya, Oya, Oya?" Suga decided to join in the fun, whereas [name] and Tsukki just stared. There standing at the entrance was Asahi and Daichi.
[name] then quickly ran over to Asahi and dragged him to the side of the court where her team was and shouted, "Asahi-san will be in my team!" which caused Asahi to pale slightly.
"Mou, that isn't fair [name]." Kuroo called out and pout.
"IF THIS IS UNFAIR, THEN WHAT DO YOU CALL YOU GETTING ALL THE TALL PLAYERS INTO ONE TEAM?!" both Suga and [name] yelled at the same time, causing Kuroo to flinch and everybody else to burst out laughing.
"[name]~" Suga called out and tossed the ball to [name] who spiked it down, getting through Kuroo and Daichi's block.
"Nice kill!" Asahi called out.
"I will never want to step onto the bad side of her, if I did I'll probably be spiked to death, or maybe worst strangled. Or beaten, I don't know, she seems so scary-." Asahi was talking to himself as he saw how much power [name] had in her, and was suddenly cut off by…
"THERE IT IS, THE NEGATIVE GOATEE." Suga called out, causing everybody to look at Asahi.
"Negative goatee, negative goatee, go away!" Suga called out as he did a weird dance and hit the side of Asahi hard with his hand.
"GAH!" Asahi cried out, and everybody could only snicker at what happened.
"Oya? Daichi, did you bring a friend?" Kuroo asked as he looked at the entrance.
"Ah? Hinata? Kageyama? I thought you were playing a practice match against Tanaka and the others?" Daichi called out.
"Erm… After Tanaka hit the face of Aiyu 4 times… The ended up bailing on us, stating that if Tanaka can't aim properly, they won't play with us." Hinata mumbled out, and silenced filled the gym…
.
.
.
"HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA." Everybody burst out laughing, yes including Akaashi.
"Tanaka has done it this time." Suga cried out as he wiped away a tear.
"My poor Aiyu, she's going to start complaining to me later about how Tanaka had given her free blush make-up." [name] cried out as she rolled on the floor laughing.
"What about Kenma?" Kuroo asked after he finished laughing.
"I asked him to give me some tosses, but he ran away after the 5th one…" he mumbled.
"It's a miracle that Kenma gave you 5 tosses already." Kuroo chuckled out.
"HINATA YOU DUMBASS!" Kageyama cried out as Hinata missed the toss that Kageyama had tossed.
[name] sighed and pulled Kageyama by the collar and beckoned the others to continue with the match as she pulled Kageyama to the side, and made him sit on the bench with her.
"Ne, Kageyama. Do you know the role of a setter?" she asked.
"I do. Setters are to orchestrate the offence. Run the team's offense and build up offensive scoring opportunities for the team. Right?" Kageyama answered, and [name] smiled softly.
"But different spikers need different tosses. Don't you think so?" [name] spoke as she watched the match before them, knowing that Kageyama had a confused look on his face.
"Your toss only matches Hinata. I noticed that. But Hinata isn't the only one who can score you know. But sometimes, you need to take into consideration with the tempo that Hinata is running at." [name] commented.
"Tempo?" Kageyama repeated.
"Alright, come with me." And she walked back to the court and made Kageyama stand at the side for him to see clearly. She then asked everybody else to stand to the side except for Suga. She then got into position onto the court and called out to Suga.
"Suga, tempo spiking!" which Suga nodded, and then he signalled for [name] to start running. She started to run at a slow pace, and Suga tossed the ball. She jumped up and spiked down the ball, which then she hi-fived with Suga.
"Looks like it hasn't rusted!" they both called out.
"That is the first tempo." [name] called out. She then got into position once more and ran a little faster than the first time, and spiked the ball that Suga had tossed to her when she started to run.
"Second tempo."
"Alright, let's wrap up and head for dinner!" Bokuto called out after they had played a few matches within the two hours, after [name] and Suga had thought Hinata and Kageyama about the tempo. [name] stretched and winced as she knew that bruises were forming on her back already. She then grabbed hold of her bottle and towel, and proceeded to walk out of the gym with Kuroo by her side.
"Ne, since when are you so close to that Karasuno setter? The one that always smiles." Kuroo asked, a hint of jealousy was present in his voice.
"Ah? We attend the same middle school." [name] answered and took a sip from her bottle.
"Ah…" Kuroo managed to get out, and all of a sudden he was dragged by the arm moving backwards. [name] then turned to take a look, and she saw the whole group of boys that she was practicing with a few minutes ago were dragging him off to somewhere else, waving at her.
She shrugged her shoulders and decided to head for dinner on her own then.
"Seconds please!"
"Woah, [name]-senpai is eating a lot today."
"Like finally."
"Sometimes when I see that she doesn't eat, I wonder where did all the energy come from!"
"Hey, I'm here alright!" [name] called out and pout as she ate her second plate of rice.
"Ne, where are Kuroo-senpai and the others though? I see some of them are missing."
"Probably still practicing."
"[name]?"
"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders and continued to eat.
"Ne, Kuroo-san. I heard from Kenma that you got rejected by [name]." Suga spoke as he ate into the pork bun that Daichi, Kuroo and Bokuto had bought for them, before leaving the duo alone for their talk that Suga said he wanted to have before he goes berserk about it.
"W-W-What? That Kenma…" he muttered as he ate his pork bun.
"Don't worry. You're a nice guy." Suga commented as he munched onto his food.
"But… What's the point?" Kuroo sighed out.
"I don't know if you know about the relationship with Oikawa. But what I heard from rumours was that Oikawa abused her." Suga spoke and blew on his food as it was piping hot.
"I figured that out when she was so afraid when I had her trapped in between me and a wall. I was stupid then. Urgh." Kuroo groaned as he threw his head back.
"You know, [name] talks to me a lot about you. I mean, today during the breaks, when you were busy doing your penalties." Suga spoke and then turned to see that Kuroo was staring at him with a surprised look.
"She says that you're a nice guy. You care for her. You're always there for her. You know when she's down, what she needs. She doesn't mind opening up to you. She says she likes you." Suga spoke, and Kuroo's face couldn't help but form a soft smile.
"But she's afraid. You know she does self-harm right? Ever since I know her in middle school, I know she suffered from depression. She has always isolated herself from everybody, even in volleyball. On the court she bonds with them, but off court she doesn't. So I find it a miracle that Aiyu and the others are able to talk to her freely off the court. That's an improvement." Suga continued.
"Doesn't matter. I'll still wait…" Kuroo mumbled out.
"I know you will." Suga said with a soft smile on his face.
"That hurts!" [name] cried out as Aria was sitting on her bottom, rubbing her back with the ointment that Kuroo had given her earlier in the afternoon.
"You will feel better soon!" Aria giggled as she put in more force, causing [name] to cry out in pain.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and Kyoko went to open it.
"Ah, Kuroo. Looking for [name]?"
"Yeah, is she here?"
"Give her a minute, she's getting her back rubbed."
"Ah, alright."
"I'm done!" [name] called out as she pulled her shirt down and stood up with the help of Aria. She then thanked Aria and walked out of the room to meet up with Kuroo. They then started to walk along the sheltered walkway.
"So, what happened last night?"
"I just remembered what Oikawa said to me that one time."
"What was it?"
"You're not cut out to be a volleyball player."
And Kuroo stopped in his tracks as he pulled [name] into a tight hug. He nuzzled his nose into her bed of hair and sighed.
"You're a volleyball player. Don't let what he said affect you. You're the best, remember that. You're number one in my eyes, and I'm your number one fan." He mumbled into her hair. And all [name] could do was to nod in his chest.
[name] then shivered from the cold and they both realised that it was raining, and it was extremely cold outside. Kuroo then removed his jacket, and made [name] wear it. He then ruffled her head and brought her back to the room where the girls were sleeping in, and bid her goodnight.
[name] laid in her mattress, still wearing Kuroo's jacket. The scent of him seems to have calmed her down as she smiled a soft smile and drifted off to a peaceful slumber, while the other girls were just giggling at her as they found her cute.
Kuroo sat by the window in the room that he was staying in with the other boys, including the other school boys. He had on a soft smile as he remembered how open [name] was to him just now, and he couldn't help but feel happy about it.
"Kuroo looks so creepy…"
"He's smiling to himself, oh god…"
"He's worse than Kageyama…"
"What?!"
"He probably did something to [name]…"
"What a pervert…"
"I CAN HEAR YOU GUYS!"