Carry the Day

Chapter 8: Heads Up

'Is this guy serious?'  I thought as I watched Hinata mess up everything. My eye twitched dangerously and my foot was tapping the floor in clear annoyance. "He's completely overwhelmed by everything..." I mumbled. A sigh escaped me. Looking around the court, I found something peculiar. 'He's not here...'  I thought with a frown.

Eventually, it was Aoba Johsei's set point, and Hinata's turn to serve. "Well, this set is our loss." I said. My tone was flat and blunt, making the guys on the court glare at me. I shrugged back at them. "Y'all know it's true." I said. 

When I looked at Yutaro, I saw him staring at me intently. A smirk appeared on my face as I rose an eyebrow at him. He swallowed and quickly looked away, making my smirk widen. I looked back at my side of the team, who were all preparing for the worst.

The referee blew the whistle, startling Hinata. The poor boy threw the ball up and slammed his hand against it. His posture was wrong, his hit was wrong; Everything about his serve was wrong. Though, even I couldn't have guessed what happened after that. The ball zoomed through the air and hit.

It hit the back of Tobio's head. I blinked once, twice. The temperature of the court seemed to rise immediately and I could see Tobio basically bursting into flames as he slowly turned around to face Hinata, who looked like he just died. The referee blew the whistle and ended the first set, but I was too busy being amused at the scene before me.

Me, Tanaka and Tsukishima were silent for a bit, just staring at each other before we all burst out laughing. 

"Nice headshot!" Tsukishima yelled.

"Is your head okay?" Tanaka laughed.

"Don't razz him." Suga-senpai said. 

Tobio turned around completely and slowly walked up to Hinata, like a predator sneaking up on his prey.

"Just wondering..." Tobio said. He stood before Hinata, peering down at him with a blank look in his eyes.

"Yes?" Hinata-kun squeaked. He was petrified in fear, eyes wide and muscles tensed. An amused smile spread on my face as I watched it all go down.

"Why are you so intimidated? Why are you so nervous? Is it because the opponents are tall? Is it because this is your first practice match?" Tobio asked him. With every question, he leant more towards Hinata. His eyes were set in a glare.

I saw Hinata  starting to sweat even more as Tobio raised his hand. "There's nothing scarier than hitting a serve into the back of my head... is there?" he asked. He slapped the back of his head repeatedly, like the creep he is.

Another snicker escaped my lips as I clutched my sides in silent laughter. "I can't think of anything." Hinata answered. He was as white as a ghost and honestly, it made even me feel a little bad.

"In that case, you have no reason to be nervous anymore." Tobio said. "Because you've already done it; The scariest thing possible." he said. He pointed his finger at Hinata. "Now, get back to normal jackass!" he yelled.

I watched Hinata mumble about his 'goof' being safe, before glaring at Yutaro heatedly. "What the hell happened between those two?" I asked. 

"Apparently they had a run-in at the bathrooms." Yamaguchi said. 

I picked up a bottle and held it up for Tsukishima, who grabbed it from me. He looked at me, eyebrow raised at my sudden change of attitude. I shrugged it off, not knowing why I did that either.

Back on the court, I watched as Tanaka walked up to Hinata. "Hey, you. Hinata." He said, making Hinata shiver. "You." He said. 

"Yes." Hinata-kun said. He fell to the floor, defeated, and looked down at the ground.

"Are you thinking you have to play well, like the others? As if you have the experience?" Tanaka asked him. 

"If I don't, I'll get switched with another player. I want to be in the match to the end." Hinata-kun said, his voice cracking a bit.

I rolled my eyes at him and stood up, walking over to them. "Oh please. You suck at basically everything. Technique, Game Sense, it's all shit." I said. "But Daichi-senpai still lets you play. As for getting switched, why worry about it now? You can worry about it all you want when it actually happens." I said.

Hinata looked up at me, eyes gleaming. Then he tilted his head to the side, confusion flashing through his eyes as he narrowed them at me. "Since when are you so nice?" he asked me.

I scowled down at him. He immediately froze and flinched. "I'm just saying the truth." I said. I shrugged off Hinata's comment as I walked back to the bench.

"You're going soft." Tsukishima said. 

I looked up at him and saw a smirk plastered on his face. "No, I'm not. I'm just telling the truth." I repeated. 

Tsukishima shook his head as he stared down at me. He seemed deep in thought as he looked away with confusion in his eyes. I raised an eyebrow at his weird behavior and looked at Yamaguchi for clarification. The boy simply smiled knowingly before sitting down next to me with a grin on his face.

"Listen to me, in volleyball, everyone on this side of the net is your alley." Tanaka suddenly said.  He motioned to the rest of the team. He wasn't done just yet and said,"It doesn't matter if you're lousy. It doesn't matter if you're a nuisance. You can slow us down, that's okay. But to make up for those things... that's why you have your team and your senpais." 

He grinned when Hinata looked at him in awe. My nose scrunched up when I heard Hinata call Tanaka 'senpai', which was obviously Tanaka's only goal with that whole speech. 

A bottle got pressed into my hands and I looked up at Tsukishima. "Thanks." he said before walking back onto the court when the whistle was blown. 'What was that about?'  I wondered.

I'm really sorry about the long wait. I wasn't feeling well and totally forgot. I'm pretty sure everyone loved this scene in the anime. Now, Tsukishima and Akira are getting a closer friendship, which I kinda like. Tsukishima is slightly OOC, I think, but not too much I hope.