Hello! As you've read in the description, this is a fic written for the Karasuno-centric Fly! Zine. This was such a great experience to be a part of, and I'm honored to have been able to write something for it.

If you can, I highly recommend you check out the other contributors' fics and art! And that you download the full (free!) zine you can find at the zine's Twitter account (FlyHaikyuuZine).

And lastly, shoutout to the mods for making an awesome zine. And without further ado, onto the fic!

Ukai let out a frustrated exhale, scratching out yet another diagram.

"That won't work," he grumbled under his breath. He flipped to a new page in his notebook and put his pencil to paper, hoping that maybe the next draft would turn into something useful. "At least it's a slow day."

Ukai was at his usual spot manning the counter at Sakanoshita Market. It had been a chill day so far, but Ukai knew from experience that the calm wouldn't last forever.

Why? Because it was Friday afternoon.

In less than half an hour, the store would be overrun with Karasuno students rushing out of class. While Ukai had to credit the school for bringing reliable customers to his family's business, that meant that Ukai only had a few more minutes to finish his diagrams before the store would be swamped with hungry teenagers. So he worked at it. Again and again—crossing out bad ideas and circling potential good ones.

Almost everything was prepped for the day. Nearly all of the shipments had arrived on time, and the only one that didn't was a rush order that was sitting on the other side of the store. It was a single box that wouldn't take long for Ukai to unpack, so Ukai procrastinated doing just that in favor of scribbling even more useless ideas.

"Can't believe I'm doing this on a Friday," Ukai grumbled. "I'm pretty much working double right now."

"Double what, Ukai-kun?"

The unexpected voice made Ukai pause. He lifted his head to see the door slide shut behind Takeda-Sensei, who was now happily strolling up to Ukai's counter.

Ukai looked up at the clock and winced when he saw the time—3:05 pm. His half an hour buffer window before students started showing up was gone. How the hell did that happen?

"It's nothing." Ukai pushed his notebook underneath a newspaper he'd cast to the side of the counter. "What are you doin' out so early, Sensei? I thought you had stuff to go through on Fridays."

"Oh, I do," Takeda said, looking far too cheerful for a man who was ready to do overtime on a Friday. "But I think I deserve a snack to help me with the paperwork. Don't tell my boss, but I snuck out a few minutes early so I could get here before the rush."

Ukai grunted. "Yeah, guess you could use the energy. But just so you know, the chocolates that you like—"

"Oh!" Takeda said suddenly, his eyes widening behind his thick-framed glasses. "Are you working on practice drills?"

Ukai followed Takeda's gaze and sighed. It turned out that the newspaper didn't quite cover up Ukai's notebook, and it exposed a slew of Ukai's messy training diagrams. "Yeah."

"Can I see them?"

"No," Ukai said firmly. "Those are just rough ideas. I'm trying to prep potential scenarios for the team to practice, but I'm not happy about how I'm positioning the wing spikers."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out soon," Takeda said. "Don't underestimate yourself, Ukai-kun. With how hard you've been working, I'm sure you'll be on top of everything in no time!"

Ukai furrowed his eyebrows. "I think you're reaching, Sensei. I've been coach for—what, three months?"

"And that's my point!" Takeda said brightly. "You've already done so much to help the team, Ukai-kun. Maybe it's because you got attached to them so quickly."

Ukai narrowed his eyes. "I'm not attached, Sensei."

Because even though Ukai had (reluctantly) accepted that he was an alright volleyball coach, that was it. He only helped the club out part-time, after all. And he didn't even get paid for it!

Coaching the volleyball club was a volunteer gig. Nothing more, nothing less. He wasn't super invested in it, he wasn't making it personal, and he definitely wasn't getting attached.

"Oh, really?" Takeda glanced back at Ukai's notebook. "So you're not working on counterplays for Aoba Johsai?"

Ukai turned, and sure enough, the words 'AJ counterplays' were written in the corner of the page. Ukai growled and snatched the notebook, placing it out of sight beneath the counter. "I was bored. The training camp with the Tokyo schools gave me stuff to think about."

"Oh, I see," Takeda said, trying and failing to hide a smirk. "So you just happened to be working on club stuff on your day off."

"Day off?" Ukai gestured to the store. "I'm at work right now!"

"But it's your day off from the club!"

"Yeah, and that's not work. That's a volunteer gig." Ukai huffed. "And not one that I care about too much."

"Well, if you don't care that much," Takeda said smugly, "Then why are you putting this much effort into it?"

Ukai paused.

Shit, he thought. Sensei might actually have a point.

"Look, don't read too much into it," Ukai said. "You saw how the boys were after losing to Aoba Johsai. They thought they had a shot, and they lost it because they weren't ready. All I wanna do is give them their best shot for the next tournament. Alright?"

Takeda nodded slowly. "I see, I see. You just want to help them."

"That's right."

"And you can do that because you pay attention to the boys."

"Well, yeah."

"And it stands to reason that if you're paying so much attention, you're attached."

"That—No!" Ukai said. "Ugh, look. It was a slow day, so I figured I'd brainstorm. You're overreacting, Sensei. It's not like I pay that much attention to—"

"Hey, Coach!" a bright voice called out.

Ukai looked over at the door, relieved that someone had given him a way out of his conversation with Takeda. "You don't have to announce yourself every time you come into my store, Hinata."

Hinata grinned at Ukai. "Why not? It's fun! Oh! Hi, Sensei!"

"Hello, Hinata-kun," Takeda greeted. "You have a lot of energy today."

"Of course I do. It's Friday!"

"Shut up before he bans you from the store," grumbled Tsukishima as he followed Hinata inside. He was followed by both Yamaguchi and Kageyama, all of whom said hello to both Ukai and Takeda. The four boys looked tired but pleased that they'd made it to the end of the school week. Of course they would—Friday afternoon meant that they had two whole days with no school to worry about.

Meanwhile, Ukai was set to work a double shift tomorrow.

Fun.

"Hey, Coach, do you have melonpan today?" Hinata asked. He ignored Tsukishima's stare in favor of wandering through the aisles.

"Yeah, I made sure we stocked up," Ukai grumbled. "The shipment was almost delayed until Sunday, but I know a guy who knows a guy, so I pulled a couple strings."

"Sweet!" Hinata said.

"At least thank him," Kageyama scolded as he walked over to the fridges. "If you didn't eat those things so much, he wouldn't have to restock them in the first place."

"You're not one to talk, Kaegyama," Ukai said. "You think I don't notice you hoarding the protein milk? Take what you need for the weekend, but save some for the rest of the team."

Kageyama froze—with at least six protein milks in his arms. Tsukishima snickered. Though Kageyama gave him a pointed look, the setter did put back at least a couple of the protein milks.

"I'm sure you'll find more on Monday, Kaegyama-kun," Takeda said cheerfully.

Ukai ignored him.

"Yes!" Yamaguchi cheered. Ukai turned to see Yamaguchi excitedly hold up a bottle of Ramune. "I was hoping I'd find this flavor."

Ukai rolled his eyes and reached under the table.

"You think I wouldn't stock the sodas our customers actually buy, Yamaguchi?" Once Ukai's hand found the item he was looking for, he pulled it out and threw it. "Think fast!"

The months of intense training paid off as Yamaguchi caught the jacket single-handedly. He even grabbed it without jostling the bottle of Ramune in his other hand. "What's—My jacket!"

"You left it at the gym last practice," Ukai said. "Take better care of it, or next time I'm leaving it."

Yamaguchi's eyes grew twice their size.

"He wouldn't actually leave it," Takeda stage-whispered to Yamaguchi. "He's just saying that so you don't forget it next time."

Unfortunately, Takeda was right. Ukai wouldn't actually follow through on his threat. But just saying it out-loud made Yamaguchi look sheepish enough that Ukai was sure the kid would be more careful to remember it in the future.

The other boys were heading toward the counter. Ukai pushed himself off his chair so he could ring them up. "Alright, who's paying first?"

Tsukishima stepped up and placed a couple of bags of potato chips on the counter. "I should remind you that you promised us discounts this week."

"Oh, yeah!" Hinata said. The boy was balancing a combination of melonpans, protein milks, and instant noodles in his arms. "You said that if we worked hard at practice this week—"

"You'd get a discount—yeah, yeah, I know," Ukai grumbled. "I had you guys do diving drills, so I guess you've earned it."

"Good." Tsukishima smirked, and before Ukai could figure out what that meant, the boy placed three roll cakes on the counter. "Then I think I'll add these to my order."

Takeda chuckled.

Ukai groaned.

Once all of the snacks had been purchased, the boys waved goodbye and left, leaving only Ukai and Takeda in the store.

"Goddamn kids," Ukai grumbled. "If they keep buying so much at a discount, we might get run out of business."

"And who's fault is that?" Takeda asked. His grin somehow got even bigger.

Ukai sighed. "Shouldn't you be heading out, Sensei? I thought you only stopped by to get your snack."

"Oh! I was!" Takeda walked over to the sweets section of the store. "Now where are my—"

"Sorry to break it to you, Sensei, but I couldn't get your usual this week." Ukai scratched the back of his neck. "The supplier ran out of the white chocolate Pocky, and they're not restocking for a fortnight."

"Oh." Takeda blinked. Though he kept his smile up, Ukai saw that it was forced. "That's alright, Ukai-kun. I'll just get the milk chocolate ones, instead."

"But the reason you eat those is because you like white chocolate." Ukai made his way around the counter. "I forgot to stock them before you got here, but I got a box of white chocolate Kit Kats sent over. It's not exactly what you get, but I hope it's enough to make up for it."

Ukai was halfway to the box when he realized that Takeda was staring at him with wide eyes, raised eyebrows, and the most smug face Ukai had ever seen in his life.

"You know, Ukai-kun," Takeda said. "You really do care about others a lot more than you think you do."

Ukai didn't reply to that. He just grumbled under his breath and trudged over to the box of white chocolate KitKats.

Ukai had never thought of himself as someone who paid close attention to others. As someone who got attached. But then again, Ukai never thought he'd end up coaching a volleyball team, much less have someone as honest as Takeda tell him that he was doing a good job. Tell him that was getting attached.

And Ukai couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, Takeda might be right.