His Warrior Queen: A Haikyuu!! Novel (Tsukishima x OC)

Chapter 76: Isn't it Romantic

Tsukishima entered the gym, Yamaguchi close behind him.  Both boys looked around, hoping to see a certain strawberry blonde setter.

No such luck.

"Are you sure she's coming today, Tsukki?" Yamaguchi asked, his voice a bit more tremulous than usual.

The blonde clicked his tongue, following it up with an irritated huff of breath.  "Look, Tadashi, I've told you.  The only way she won't be here is if her doctor absolutely forbids it.  And even then, she'd probably show up anyway, just to watch us."  Of course, she'd never tell us she wasn't allowed to practice, she'd just do it anyway, Tsukishima thought.  I'm sure she'll be here, just as soon as she can be.  She'd better be here.  He'd been jumpy all day, his eyes darting between Nakano's empty seat and the doors to their classroom, as if somehow she might suddenly materialize back at school.  He knew that wasn't going to happen - she had physical therapy again this morning, and then another doctor's appointment in the afternoon.  Even if she was cleared to come back to practice, she wouldn't be able to get here until after the appointment was finished.  There was no guarantee she'd be here exactly when practice began.  He'd checked his phone repeatedly before leaving the clubroom and there'd been no message from her.  She'd call or text if something was preventing her from coming.  What if she's tried to call me in the...no, quit it you moron.  Just get started with your stretches.  She'll be here when she gets here.

Tsukishima fixed his eyes on Yamaguchi, wordlessly asking his best friend to please help him get started stretching.  The freckle-faced boy nodded, and the two began stretching out.  If they both kept looking to the gym doors as their teammates slowly came in to join them, well, neither one of them made a big deal out of it.

Slowly but surely, everyone began settling in to stretch.  No fewer than half of their teammates looked like they might try to approach Tsukishima - almost certainly to ask about Nakano.  Yamaguchi managed to catch the eye of each of them and wave them off.  Well, almost.

As Ennoshita was nodding, seeing Yamaguchi's slight shake of the head and moving away, Narita came up right behind the tall blonde.  

"Hey Tsukishima, any word from Naka-chan?  She is coming back today, right?"

Yamaguchi resisted the urge to facepalm as he watched his best friend's eye twitch.

Their saving grace was the fact that it was one of the upperclassmen.  Tsukishima was generally pretty polite to his senpais.  If it had been Kageyama or Hinata, well, Tsukki probably would have let them verbally have it.

Instead, Yamaguchi held back his chuckles as Tsukishima worked to control his natural tendency to be a total smart ass.  "She is planning to, Narita-senpai.  But her doctor gets to make the final call on that."

Narita gave Tsukishima a rather sheepish smile.  "Sorry.  I'm sure you're sick of people asking you by now.  It's just...I think we'll all be glad to see her back here again.  And you're..."

"I know, senpai."  

Daichi called out to the team, and they began doing their group stretches, calling out the counts and working together to get everyone limbered up.  It was Thursday, and that meant serving drills, which was for nearly everyone on the team their least favorite thing to do.  Even passing was a more welcome drill set than serving.  Daichi was slow to finish out the stretches, trying to decide if he wanted to call for a run and risk being out of the gym when Nakano arrived, or move directly into the hated serving drills.

As the team began to slowly break down into small conversations, a voice was heard from the gym doors.

"I'm out for a few days and this is what happens.  Honestly, boys, I know the serving drills aren't your favorite, but they still need to be done."