Haikyu!
Higher
Chapter 39: Alliance

"Yo, Karasuno." A rather tall, lithe-looking boy with the same wine red hair as their assistant coach appeared at the doorway. "I'm looking for my baby sister?"

A volleyball came flying at him, effectively hitting him in the chest. "I'm not a baby, Shin," Aika shot back, her tone and expression both sincerely unamused by her brother's wording. She pushed herself off the bench, limping her way over to him. "Thanks for picking me up though."

"Eh?! Where are you going?!" Hinata asked, his loud voice ringing through the gymnasium.

Gently thumping the extra loud boy on the head, Sugawara replied, "She's going to physical therapy. We want her to be able to walk without hurting herself, right?" Hinata nodded quickly, looking like a dog whose tail would be wagging.

"Tetsu." The Nekoma captain looked up at the siblings, but noticeably avoided looking at Aika's brother. "You should come with us."

He looked clearly displeased. "Eh? Why me?" he drawled.

"Because you're the one who recommended this physical therapist to me?" she shot back in the same tone, crossing her arms. She still looked wholly unamused. "Plus, this is my last session in Tokyo, so I figured you guys would want to celebrate."

Kuroo didn't look like he could argue that. Clearly, he wanted to congratulate Aika on nearly being fully recovered, and send her off kindly.

"Why can't Kenma come?" he finally asked.

The Nekoma setter rolled his eyes. "I went last week. And I bought her dinner," he retorted. "It's your turn, Kuroo. You brought her here, so send her off nicely."

He grumbled, but agreed. "Fine. But I get to decide where we're going."

At that, Tsukishima pushed off the wall. "I'll come, too. I haven't had anything but the same three foods for nearly a week." Although he sounded like he wanted to come for his own sake, he stood next to Aika.

It hadn't escaped anyone's notice that since the fourth day of training camp, Tsukishima and Aika had grown a bit closer. The next day, she'd sat in on their practice 3-on-3 match, dutifully taking notes the entire time. Tsukishima had even been incredibly open about asking her for her opinion on the match, even before Hinata.

He'd even wheeled her back to her room afterwards, the two chatting all the while about something or other.

"Eh? Tsukki, you want to come, too?" Kuroo looked at the first year with something akin to suspicion. But Tsukishima didn't quite back down.

"First off, it's Tsukishima," the tall blonde shot back, irritation rolling off of him. "But yeah, I'm coming. You said we'd do a game after dinner today, so I figured we'll just go to dinner, then come back and play." He grinned mockingly at Kuroo. "Unless you're not really a man of your word."

Kuroo glared. "Damn it," he muttered.

As the Nekoma team teased their captain for being outsmarted by a baby crow, Kageyama watched as Aika gave Tsukishima a thumbs up. Tsukishima, looking satisfied, just nodded back at her.

"How's your leg doing?" Tsukishima asked, looking down at the girl whose wheelchair he was walking besides. "That looked like it hurt a bit."

She smiled weakly. "It's not so bad. It's just a bit hard to move my leg in the way that I had to." She rubbed at her bandaged leg and grinned up at her teammate. "Anyways, I'm fine but where did you want to go to eat?"

"I'm kind of craving Chinese food," he admitted.

"Hey, hey, you two." Both looked to Kuroo, who was walking ahead of the group. "Since Ai roped me into paying, I get to choose, got it?"

A chuckle from behind Aika reminded the three that Shin was there with them. The older Yamada quickly suggested, "Actually, shouldn't Ai get to choose? This is for her, isn't it?" He offered his own grin, but Kuroo wasn't having it.

"Fine, fine. Just choose already." The cat was grumbling, doing whatever it took to ignore Shin's presence.

Noticing his old friend's strange behavior, Shin looked downtrodden, hurt by Kuroo's blatant ignorance of him. Aika looked at her brother, clearly unhappy about the hurt he was showing, then glared at Kuroo's back. If her eyes were lasers, Kuroo would have a giant hole in his back.

Tsukishima frowned. "Yamada. May I wheel her for a while?" he suddenly asked.

Shin, still looking clearly hurt, nodded. He moved, allowing Tsukishima to take over for him in wheeling the girl's chair. She looked up at him, smiling sadly.

"They've been like this all summer."

"Yeah." He nodded. "You told me yesterday. So… this is why you asked me to come with you?" he asked.

She sighed and tugged at her own fingers, trying to distract herself. "I just want things to be like they used to. I know it's stupid, but Shin and Tetsu both really care about each other. And they still do. They're just stubborn idiots, and they don't want to admit it," she explained quietly, watching as Shin and Kuroo walked next to each other, neither of them saying anything.

"I can understand that," he admitted. "Wanting the people you love most to be close again. But do you really think that this will work?"

Shrugging, the girl looked up with a sort of grin. "If you force them to sit down and talk to each other, I'm sure that things will change. It's always been that way with them."

Once again, Tsukishima looked to the two third years, both of whom were silent. He heaved a sigh, furrowing his brow as he muttered, "I hope you're right about this."

"Hey, Kageyama."

Kageyama paused in shoving food down his throat, looking up to see Sugawara sitting across from him. He pursed his lips, still having yet to forgive his upperclassman for hurting the girl Kageyama had so suddenly realized he had such deep feelings for.

"I know we haven't really talked since… since everything happened. But I thought you deserve to know that I talked with Aika." Kageyama froze at Sugawara's words. He looked over to the other setter, fear clutching at his chest. "I told her how I felt."

That fear gripped his heart even tighter, squeezing as hard as it could. "And?" he asked, trying not to sound as desperately curious as he knew he was.

"And she rejected me," he admitted, smiling cheerily.

Kageyama could only stare for a moment as his mind worked to process what he'd just heard. It was hard to believe that it was the truth.

"She… she rejected you?"

Sugawara nodded easily. "Yeah. We talked it out. She's moved on pretty well, and I think we're just going to remain friends. I still care about her a lot, but… well, it's better like this." He sounded unperturbed by his own admissions, but it bothered Kageyama quite a bit.

"Wha…"

"She tends to do that." Another person sat besides Sugawara, a boy with brown roots that contrasted his blonde dye job. "She take things hard at first, but once she processes something, she doesn't let it bother her anymore," Kenma explained, looking Kageyama dead in the eye.

Sugawara blinked, but then smiled knowingly. "Ah, Kenma. You here to talk to Kageyama?"

The second year nodded. "Yes. It's been a bit hard since Kuroo and Aika are always around, but since they're both out now, it seemed like a good time." He paused, taking a long sip of water, but never moving his cat-eyed gaze away from Kageyama. A few moments of silence followed, in which Kageyama wasn't sure of what to say. "Look." Kenma practically slammed his glass back against the table. "Ai isn't… she doesn't take risks when it comes to personal stuff. Kuroo always made fun of her 'cause she never told the guy she liked in elementary that she liked him, even though he thought it was obvious he liked her back."

"Why didn't she?"

Kenma hummed, pushing his food around on his plate. "Because she was unsure. It wasn't something with a complete chance of going in her favor, so she never took the risk," he admitted softly. "But she's also oblivious whenever someone likes her. She won't make a move unless she knows, and she won't know unless you tell her."

"So basically…" Sugawara began, trailing off in amusement.

The Nekoma setter nodded, looking up once again at Kageyama. "Basically, you're going to have to make the first move. But she won't wait around for long. I'd confess before volleyball takes over her life again." He paused, hesitating. "Someone once made the mistake of waiting too long. He never got another chance," he finished slowly.

Kageyama could only watch as Kenma stood, taking his tray with him, and walking back over to the table that the rest of Nekoma sat at. He could see that Lev was pestering his setter about what business he'd had with Karasuno, only to have Kenma attempt to ignore him.

"Well." He turned back to Sugawara, who was grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "You know what you have to do now, don't you?"

He slowly nodded. "I'm… I'm gonna tell her how I feel," he said quietly.

"Good." Sugawara's grin only grew wider, and he looked behind Kageyama. "I'm sure we'll all be waiting to see how this ends up for the two of you."

Kageyama, confused, followed his gaze, turning around to see what Sugawara was looking at behind him. Leaning against the wall stood several other members of Karasuno, including Sawamura, Asahi, Nishinoya, and Tanaka. His face immediately turned a deep scarlet and he let out a loud yell, not knowing what else to do.

He could hear Sugawara laughing at him in the background.

The table of four was completely silent as everyone struggled to find a good conversation starter. Aika, who sat next to Shin, looked desperately at Tsukishima, who was across from her. He shook his head; he didn't know what to say, either.

Aika looked between her brother and her old friend. She'd wanted them to talk, but they weren't saying anything with the two first years sitting next to them. Glancing back to Tsukishima, she saw that he was nodding, probably having figured out what she'd also realized.

"I'm getting pretty tired," she suddenly announced, stretching her arms in the air. "I think I'm going to head back to Shinzen."

Shin looked at her in bewilderment. "Ai, you haven't eaten though! You barely touched your food at all!" He sounded concerned and surprised.

Tsukishima stood from his seat, moving to pull Aika's wheelchair from the table. "She mentioned earlier that she was feeling a little sick after the therapy," he quickly made up, offering his most professional smile to Shin, the one he only wore when he was trying to bullshit someone around him.

Aika quickly nodded. "Yeah, and Tsukishima can take care of me from here. It's just getting me back to the school."

"I'm not that hungry, either," he added. "Aika's health is my bigger concern."

Kuroo looked between the two, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he said nothing. Tsukishima pulled her chair away. He bowed politely to the two older boys before making a beeline for the restaurant doors, pushing Aika all the way.

Silence fell between the two once more.

It was one of those uncomfortable silences where no one knew what to say.

"Um, Tetsuro." All eyes turned to Shin, who was gazing at his nearly-full plate. "I never got to say thank you. For all that you've been doing for Ai."

There was a hint of red on Kuroo's cheeks, but he spoke as if he wasn't at all embarrassed by the praise. "It was nothing. I'm sure you'd have done the same if you could've," he replied, reaching for his utensils to hide his blush.

Shin smiled softly at his old friend, nothing but affection in his eyes, the ones that were the same soft brown as his sister's. "Yeah, but you did it. And that means a lot to me. So… thank you." His beam was so kind that Kuroo was taken aback for a moment.

But his own lips settled in a sincere, gentle smile. "It's been nearly a decade since I saw you smile like that," he murmured.

"Eh?!" Shin's eyes went wide, a bright pink flush washing over his pale skin.

His own eyes going wide at the realization that he spoke aloud, Kuroo began to stutter, searching for the words to explain himself. He waved his arms around crazily, nearly dropping his chopsticks in the process. He paused when he took notice of Shin's blush, and the way his long-time crush fidgeted in his seat, his fingers twirling one of his chopsticks, the other forgotten in his food.

Softening, he reached out to grab Shin's hand. A pair of soft, brown eyes fixed on him.

"I never heard you out that weekend. You wanted to say something to me," he murmured. "I ran away. But… whatever you want to say, I just want you to know that I wasn't joking when we were kids. I really do want to be with you."

Shin's hand turned and reached for Kuroo's, wrapping around his hand. Shin's hands, unlike Kuroo's, were soft and uncalloused. Of course they were, he didn't play sports. He was going to major in marine biology, so it made sense that his hands were so soft.

Kuroo's, on the other hand, were rough. His palms and a few of his fingers were covered in calluses, left behind after the impact of a volleyball hit the same place a few too many times.

"You never let me reply," Shin said quietly. "Not when I left, and not when I came back. And you never reached out. I assumed… you were angry."

The rooster-haired captain grinned. "Yet you knew we were going to Nekoma," he teased.

Shin shrugged. "Kenma wrote every once in a while. Mostly Christmas cards."

Kuroo held Shin's hand tighter, squeezing it, like holding his hand would tell him all about the affection that Kuroo held for him, the same affection that never died, even after ten years of being apart.

"I'm sorry. I thought I'd made things awkward," Kuroo admitted. "I assumed that you didn't feel the same way, so I avoided you. I didn't want to force you to remain friends with someone who made you uncomfortable."

Shin shook his head, his wine red hair flying all around his face. "No! Tetsuro, you… you never let me finish." He fidgeted, his fingers rubbing the back of Kuroo's hand. "I love you. I've always loved you."

I've always loved you.

Kuroo's eyes went wide, wider than they'd ever gone before.

He could feel tears welling up, threatening to spill over and run down his cheeks. He stood and fished his wallet from his pocket, practically throwing money onto the table. All the while, he never let go of Shin's hand. Pulling Shin up from his seat, he led his friend - his only love - out of the restaurant and down the street.

It felt like an eternity that they walked, but in reality, it was probably about ten minutes. They walked back to Shinzen High School, stopping in the parking lot.

"Tetsuro?"

"Sorry." He turned to Shin with a soft smile. "I didn't want to make a scene in the restaurant."

Shin didn't even have a moment to respond before Kuroo's lips were on his, pressing a kiss filled with all the love he'd held, bottled up inside of him, for nearly a decade. He could feel Kuroo's fingers running through his hair, his other hand resting on his back. Shin moved one hand to Kuroo's arm, the other to his cheek.

It wasn't anything big. There were no real fireworks or anything like that.

To the two of them, it was merely a relief. All the feelings they'd hidden for so long finally came rushing out. As they pulled away, Shin couldn't help the childish smile.

"You don't know how long I've waited for that, Tetsuro."

Kuroo grinned in reply.

"If it's any bit as long as I have, then I think I do know."