CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DON'T LOSE

"You know you are truly dedicated to something when you lie about being hurt so no one will make you stop."

"Don't you look nice."

Rin narrowed her eyes at the taller male, his hands were planted on his hips and his signature smirk graced his lips. Kuroo tilted his head, reaching forward to tug at the collar of Rin's red Nekoma jacket. She huffed, slapping his hand away harshly and adjusted the jacket herself - a light blush burning the tips of her ears.

"I see you added the manager patch."

Rin hummed. She was dressed in the red tracksuit, the bottom of the red Nekoma pants scrunched up and ending just below her knees, she wore a plain black shirt and the red Nekoma jacket, the 'M' patch resting right above her heart. Daisuke had helped her sow it on last night, since she kept poking herself with the needle he had offered to help - teasing her about how cute she was the whole time. But at least he helped.

"You don't get road sick do you?"

Rin shot Kuroo a lazy glare, "No... why?"

Kuroo slung an arm over her shoulder, goading her to where the rest of Nekoma was eagerly getting on the bus so they could head to the Inter-High prelims, "'Cause you're sitting with me."

"I didn't agree to that," Rin grumbled half-heartidly, none the less letting herself be ushered into the seat. The two sat in a seat across from Kenma, who sat alone with his headphones plugged into his phone. Rin pulled out her own phone, unlocking it to check the time. She let out a soft gasp of surprise when it was snatched from her hands before she could even type in her password.

"I didn't know we were the wallpaper on your phone," Kuroo teased, holding Rin's phone out of her reach while he looked at her wallpaper. Rin growled, stretching her arm out to reach for it, "This is one of the pictures from the Aquarium, right? It is! Kenma look! Rin's wallpaper is the 3 of us!"

Kenma blinked, unable to get a good look at Rin's wallpaper since she kept shaking Kuroo's hand, urging him to give her her phone back. Kenma rolled his eyes, turning back to his phone as he attempted to hide the small smile behind his screen.

"Tetsurou, give it back!"

Rin groaned, finally snatching her phone from his hands. She pouted in his direction, causing him to only snicker in response. Rin huffed quietly, unlocking her phone and checking her messages, "Hey, Tetsurou?"

Kuroo lifted his head, turning away from the window to look at Rin curiously.

"There's two representatives for Tokyo prefecture, right?" Rin asked, "Who's the other representative?"

Kuroo hummed, "Fukurodani Academy."

Rin switched her phone off, shoving it into the pocket of her sweats while she slumped lazily in her seat, "I feel like I've heard of that school for some reason."

Kuroo shrugged, "Who knows?"

Rin fumbled with her fingers on her lap, she could feel her nervousness grow as the bus continued to move closer and closer to where their Inter-High prelims would be held. Her heart was pounding against her rib cage and a part of her felt the urge to vomit. She was nervous and she wasn't even playing in the match today. It was a weird feeling, a new feeling, to be nervous for someone else.

Rin blinked when a hand was held out in front of her. She glanced up to see Kuroo staring down at her, looking at her with an arched brow. She furrowed her own in response, tilting her head to the right in confusion.

"You have the same look on your face from the day with Saruhiko," Kuroo started, his voice low, "You grabbed onto my arm when you got scared."

"Oh," Rin muttered, slowly understanding what Kuroo was offering her. He was offering her reassurance again, and the thought almost made her want to laugh again because she should be the one reassuring him. Rin bit the inside her cheek, slowly and tentatively she grabbed onto the sleeve of his jacket. She wrapped her fingers around his arm, and the thudding of her heart seemed to quiet almost immediately. They sat silently the rest of the ride on the bus. Rin squeezing the red fabric of Kuroo's jacket in between her fingers, while his hand rested in the area between them. They exchanged light conversation, neither of them mentioning their closeness.

Both of them completely oblivious to the fact that Yamamoto was red faced and silently "screaming" as he leaned over them while Kenma looked at the two of them with a small smile.

"You played at this gym once, Rin," Her grandfather whistled happily, looking over his shoulder at Rin.

Rin grunted in response, rapidly typing the keys on her screen. Daisuke was suppose to get his own ride to the game, but the oversized child wasn't answering her last couple of texts. So she did the only thing she could do, she kept sending more texts. The last four texts she had sent her brother were filled with nothing but name-calling, and nothing really worth repeating.

"Rinny!"

Both Rin and Kuroo flew forward, Daisuke pulling the two back and towards his chest to prevent them from falling face first towards the ground. The brunette had his arms wrapped around both of their shoulders, a grin on his face while he spoke animatedly, "I'm so excited to be able to watch Kuroo-kun and the rest of Ya-jii's team play! I have high hopes for you!"

Rin sighed, flinging her elbow back roughly to hit Daisuke in the ribs. He grimaced, a pout forming on his lips as he stood up straighter - pulling his arms away from the two teens, "You're hits are starting to hurt more, Rinny. I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried at this point."

"Shut up, Daisuke."

Daisuke pouted, "You're no fun, Rinny. Aren't you excited - wait! That's right! You use to get super nervous before a match!"

"Daisuke!" Rin groaned, throwing her head back, "Why don't you, I don't know, go find your seat or something?"

Daisuke sent Rin a wink, "Gotcha, I'll leave the guys to handle your nerves then! I'll be cheering from the crowd, don't lose!"

Kuroo blinked a couple times at Daisuke's last comment, ignoring Rin's string of curses that she called out to her brother.

"Don't lose."

"What kind of good luck is that?"

"Oi, Rin."

Rin huffed, her glare softening when she looked away from the direction Daisuke had walked and instead looked towards Kuroo, "What?"

"Daisuke said don't lose," Kuroo started, pointing a finger in Daisuke's direction but moving it over to point at Rin, "You say that too."

Rin's cheeks flushed quickly and she turned her head away, raising one of her hands to wave at Kuroo dismissively, "It's - it's nothing! It's, ah, something Dai and I do for good luck... I guess?"

Kuroo couldn't help but smirk, "So you were wishing me good luck for that practice game, Rin-chan!"

Rin tsk'd, stomping towards the other Nekoma players a couple of feet away. They were all looking at the set up, seeing who they would have to go up against first and who they would go up against next if they won. She stepped beside Fukunaga, looking at the list of High Schools. Rin's eyes scanned the board for a few seconds before she found Nekoma and who they would be paired up against, they would be going up against Kuzuryu High School.

Rin bit her lip, slowly turning to follow the team once they were done glancing at the board. The halls were immediately filled with noise, different people talking about multiple things. Boys lined the walls, talking, stretching or eating - all dressed in their volleyball uniforms or sweat suits.

Rin tugged at the bag on her shoulder, following closely behind Fukunaga and Yaku. She jumped up when in a quick blur Yamamoto was in front of her, hissing and growling the same way he had when they had the practice game not too long ago.

"Oi, Yamamoto," Yaku drawled, shooting the younger male a glare, "Stop that, you're probably scaring Rin-san more than you are the other players."

"Why does he even need to scare the other players," Rin muttered to herself, pushing Yamamoto - who was still hissing - with the bottom of her foot. The team found a empty space on the floor to toss their bags down, everyone going into their own little routine of either stretching, munching on something or drinking water. Rin took a seat beside Kenma, the two of them leaning against the wall close by. Rin tugged a Volleyball magazine from her bag, flipping through the pages aimlessly. She read about a few teams, some in Tokyo and some outside of Tokyo. Nothing in particular catching her eye except for a few schools outside of Tokyo - Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa being a few of them.

"What's that?"

Rin looked at Kenma from the corner of her eye before turning the magazine so he could get a better look at it, "Magazines about the High School Volleyball teams in Japan."

"Sounds boring..."

Rin shrugged, flipping to another page, "It's nice to know who you guys are going up against, big names or small, everyone has their own trick up their sleeve."

"What was your trick?"

Rin lifted her eyes from the magazine to look at Kenma, a small smirk making it's way onto her lips as she let out a light laugh, "It's complicated."

Kenma pulled a face, "If you say so."

"Lemme see that."

Rin growled when the magazine was tugged from her hands. Kuroo stood above both her and Kenma, flipping through the pages of the pages rapidly, "Oi, I just opened it!"

"Ah~," Kuroo hummed, flipping the magazine over to show Rin a picture of a familiar team, "Isn't that the school the Coach said was suppose to be are rivals?"

Rin tilted her head, eyeing the black and orange uniforms, "Oh yeah, Karasuno. I'm pretty surprised I forgot about them.."

"You think we'll be able to play them this year?" Kuroo asked, his eyes skimming over the contents of the magazine.

"Who knows," Run mused, "Maybe? Then maybe Jii-chan will finally get that whole, Battle at the Trash Heap again."

"Haah?"

Rin snickered, snatching the magazine from Kuroo's hands to look at the players. It was an old photo from last year, since the magazine wasn't too new, a few young and promising faces plus some older ones that have probably already graduated.

"Jii-chan and Ukai-san, the old coach of Karasuno, for some reason always called Nekoma vs Karasuno that," Rin stated, looking over the names and years of the team's players, "It makes sense when you think about it, cats and crows, but I still think it's a silly nickname."

Kuroo chuckled, "That's strange coming from you, didn't your old teammates have a nickname for that time-difference move you pulled?"

Rin grimaced, "That was different!"

"Settle down!"

Rin and Kuroo turned their attention to Yasufumi, who clapped his hands together to gain the attention of the players. The older man moved his hands behind his back, a sly smile tugging at his lips as he looked at the faces of all the players, "The court is open for us to head onto now, why don't we go?"

Rin could feel her heart pound against her ribcage again and she stood slowly, inhaling a large sum of air and then letting out a shaky breath. Her eyes moved to the floor when Kuroo slung his arm over her shoulders, bending down ever so slightly so their faces were parallel to each other, "Don't make such a worried face, it doesn't suit you."

"Shut up," Rin huffed, lifting her chin up and crossing her arms defiantly, "I can pout all I want to, if I want to."

"You're much cuter when you don't pout."

Rin flushed, her shoulders tensing for a second before she reeled her elbow back into Kuroo's stomach, "Don't be so embarrassing!"

The court was huge, the ceiling reaching high points and the bleachers mostly filled with people waiting to watch. Rin inhaled, the grip on her bag tightening for a moment before she relaxed, she tilted her head to look at Kuroo who was looking at the gym with curiosity.

"Tetsurou."

Kuroo arched a brow, looking at Rin. She offered him a lopsided grin, her heart still pounding with nerves as she spoke, "Don't lo-"

"Rin? Nekomata Rin?!"

Rin frowned at the interruption. Both her and the Nekoma players turning to look around and find the voice that had just spoken. Rin's eyes searched through the uniforms of the opposing team, trying to find out who had just called her name. She froze, her whole body stiffening when her eyes locked with the person who had called out to her. A sly grin formed on his lips and Rin's eyes widened from surprise, her heart dropping to the pit of her stomach at the sight of her old teammate.

{AUTHORS CORNER: I was super excited to get this chapter out, I should be sleeping since I work in the morning but WELP. So please review! BUT GAH, ANY GUESSES? No? AIGHT.}

[FF USER Silver Hydrangea : To respond to your message they are at the Inter-High prelims, and no they have not met Karsuno. I plan to have them meet Karasuno when it happens in the actual manga, so in Rin & Kuroo's 3rd year. Right now this is their second year since my story takes place 1 year before the actual plot.]

(HEAD CANON TEN: Rin has never had a boyfriend, but has had her first kiss.)