Take Me Home (Tendou x Reader)

Chapter 37

After Tendou had been using Line to chat with you for a couple of days you noticed something unexpected in his messages.

Contrary to what you had predicted, he never used the stickers or even the emoji that came with the messaging app. He still typed his own and while you tried to convince him otherwise in the beginning, you quickly came to the conclusion that it was more 'him'.

That didn't hold you back from spamming him with stickers though, sometimes you would have a whole conversation that was just you sending stickers and him typing kaomoji.

As the year progressed you noticed pressure building from the teachers as well as your parents to study and prepare for college.

Even from your club came the message 'if you need time off to study, that's no problem at all'.

You had asked Tendou about it one day, even though you already knew that his parents would be putting the pressure on even more, if that was even possible.

What did surprise you however, was that the club expected him to keep up with his volleyball training. Apparently, he was good enough that no one pushed him into quitting.

"There is no talk at all about our studies." He had told you when you accompanied him on his way to the gym one day. You had made some healthy snacks and wanted the team to try them out. Through the years you had gotten really interested in nutrition and tried to make foods that held a lot of nutritional value in small amounts. Tendou was your test subject most of the time, since he had such a small appetite. But sometimes, like today, you also made larger batches of food to pass around. Sometimes you gave it to your class members, sometimes your club, sometimes just your friends and sometimes the volleyball club. You hadn't consciously realized it yet, but Tendou was in three of those four groups.

"We're just expected to keep up our results and that's that."

You gulped nervously. "Isn't that harsh? Not all of you are planning on getting a career in volleyball..."

"What? No! It's like a little piece of heaven. That one place where no one bothers you about your future, only about the here and now. If you play well, you get praised, if you play badly... It's 20 laps, or 100 serves." Tendou said, and you got a little better understanding of him. It was always little things he did or said, like this, that gave you a new insight about him.

"I think I understand what you mean. Still, it can't be easy." You mused.

"On the contrary. Those few hours of practice a day help clear my mind. Those are the times I'm so focused on volleyball that I can finally take a break from this pressure cooker called studies. As soon as I leave the gym, everything comes back, and by the time I'm back in my room I'm stressed again." He admitted without batting an eye. You wondered if you interpreted it worse than it was or if he really was this comfortable talking about his worries with you.

"Geez, it'll be good to have this all behind us huh?" You commented, meaning well.

"Hmh..." Was all the reply you got before you entered the gym and were greeted by an enthusiastic bunch of athletes.

"So when are you going to finally come to watch one of our games?" Yamagata asked you as he gingerly picked out one of the homemade granola bars.

The question didn't come entirely unexpected. Some of the members of the team had been bugging you since last year to come to one of their games. You had attended their practice on multiple occasions, but had yet to find the resolve to attend an official match.

"Yeah, you missed the Interhigh again, there's only one tournament left this year." Semi pitched in as he munched on a rice cake.

You decided that you had put it off long enough. "I'll come to watch you at nationals in January. I'll make sure to bring lots of food as well."