cocaine sunday - eyedress
since ushijima heard the confession, y/n noticed that he'd been considerably affectionate with her, though it was still a very slight amount.
on the bus, he held things while she was organizing notes and arbitrary papers. when they finally arrived at aoba josai, he unnecessarily assisted her off the bus, and held her bag with his.
"you're being especially sweet," she said while they walked beside each other across the courtyard. "change of heart?"
"i didn't realize that i was doing anything differently." ushijima's expression scrunched. "would you like me to stop?"
"no, no. i actually quite like you this way," she laughed.
ushijima hummed. "i'm glad."
shoes squeaked against the clean planks of seijoh's volleyball gym, volleyballs slammed against the skins of players' hands, and loud shouting could be heard as soon as shiritorizawa got off the bus.
"excuse us," coach washijo greeted. "we hope we aren't too late."
similarly, seijoh's coach and manager greeted them all the same.
"not at all," they said. "we just got started ourselves. but please take the time to warmup!"
though they were given permission to use the court, ushijima and his teammates noticed that one student in particular refused to leave. instead, he combed his fingers through his short brown hair and smirked.
"who is that i see? ushiwaka?!" besides y/n, ushijima scowled at the rather familiarly annoying voice calling towards him.
"oikawa tooru."
y/n noticed the tensions rising, so she discreetly swept her bag off of ushijima's shoulder and joined in with the rest of the team over near the bench while oikawa walked to converse with an unwilling ushijima.
the two spoke quietly while y/n watched them from the benches.
"what's with those two?" she whispered to ohira.
"it's more a question of what's up with oikawa... he gets under ushijima's skin a lot."
"oh... maybe i shouldn't have set this match up then?" y/n rubbed her arm nervously.
"don't feel bad," ohira quickly replied. he waved his hand to brush away her regrets. "if ushijima was incapable of handling oikawa's irritating behavior, he wouldn't be captain."
"i guess that is true..."
"i think he's more worried about you, honestly." while y/n began to pull out her clipboard covered in notes and other first aid amenities. she knew that yamagata had been having problems with his ankle recently, and she knew it was good to keep extra tape as tendou liked to tape his fingers together.
she also kept a myriad of her brother's hair clips in her bag. when udai had long hair, he'd always complain about how his bangs never stayed tied back, so she thought she'd give the same advice to shirabu that she did to her brother, even though shirabu would never openly complain about it.
"m-me? why would ushijima worry about me?"
"he's probably getting upset because he doesn't want you to be around oikawa," ohira chuckled.
"right... because of his reputation."
"unfortunately so. i'm sure if you keep your distance then you'll be fine."
"i'll take your word for it," she smiled up at him. suddenly, a flurry of shivers ran up her spine and goosebumps appeared on her arm. "god, this gym is cold. i can't believe i left my jacket at the school."
after coming from the very warm shiritorizawa, y/n felt prickles on her arms and legs after dressing in a black polo and her maroon skirt.
just the tiny expression of discomfort from y/n and jackets of all sizes were presented to her.
"take mine!"
"please take mine!"
"i just washed mine!"
y/n was almost immediately overwhelmed by the strange kindness of the team, but it only embarrassed her more when ushijima of all people pushed through his teammates with his jacket held out for y/n.
"take mine."
"i-i couldn't-"
"i'm the biggest person here, so my jacket will cover most of you."
y/n didn't want to admit it, but ushijima's offer did sound appealing.
kawanishi stood beside the two, and he nervously watched as y/n reached her hand out towards ushijima's jacket.
"thank you, but," she pushed ushijima's hand back towards him. "i'll be alright. really, i'm getting warmer already."
y/n turned back to rifle through her bag. "you boys should really go warm up."
all but ushijima nodded easily, dropping their jackets and going to run onto the court.
"stay away from oikawa," ushijima warned. "he's already begun to ask about you."
y/n tensed and glanced at oikawa over her classmate's shoulder. "has he now..." she clenched her jaw in irritation. "he's just doing it to piss you off."
"i hope so." ushijima went to look at oikawa as well, finding their fellow third year grinning at them innocently across the court. the third year player silently chose to run back with his teammates onto the court to practice their spikes while keeping a heavy glare trained on oikawa.
y/n sighed and finally took the chance to sit down.
"they'll wear you out," saito joked beside her.
"no kidding. i'll go crazy if i keep thinking about it, though." she reached behind her to pick up her water bottle, instead finding what looked like tens of hundreds of empty water bottles sitting behind her. she tensed suddenly. "i should probably go fill these before the match starts." she exasperatedly told herself, outwardly regretting that she'd forgotten to do it.
"have one of the boys show you where the fountains are," coach washijo said. "they know where they are."
"i don't want to take the time away from warmups." she reached behind her to begin filling an empty duffel bag with the water bottles. once full, she hoisted the light bag onto her shoulder and smiled. "i'll just ask the other manager. i'm sure she won't mind."
y/n walked around the court behind where the boys were lined up to greet the manager who stood beside seijoh's coaches.
when she saw y/n approaching, she smiled and, after glancing at the bag full of water bottles on the manager's shoulder, she chuckled and similarly held up an armful of water bottles.
"water fountain?" the brown haired girl asked.
y/n sighed. "yes, please."
seijoh's manager nodded. "we can go together. clearly i made the dumb mistake of waiting until the last moment."
"honestly, i just forgot." y/n shrugged and they both laughed.
the two girls left the gym while they quietly acquainted themselves. they walked down the long and empty aoba josai corridor, and they both hated the awkward silence.
"i'm masuda chiyo. you can call me chiyo, if you'd like."
"tenma y/n. please call me y/n, tenma is my brother."
"tenma? gosh, where have i heard that name..."
"tenma udai? i guess you've probably heard the little giant more often, but i'd never call him that."
"your brother is the little giant? that's super cool! watari would lose his mind."
"watari?"
"our libero. he's a really big fan of the little giant, so it sort of ends up being one of the things he talks about most. he said he met your brother at nationals a bunch of years ago, and hasn't forgotten it since." chiyo stopped in front of the water fountains, where there was two sat next to each other perfectly. "do you want to go first? i can help you fill up yours."
"you're a lifesaver, chiyo." y/n placed the duffel bag on the floor, and chiyo did the same with her water bottles. both of the managers picked up a bottle from the bag and placed it under the automatic water dispenser, where they then waited.
"so why'd you decide to become a manager?" y/n asked.
"it's kind of stupid, honestly..." chiyo paused to pull the water bottle away from the dispenser. she twisted the cap back on tightly and placed it back down into the bag. y/n did the same and repeated with a new water bottle. "it might be obvious, but i've got a big crush on oikawa. i kind of hoped that my being here would draw his attention."
y/n, while she liked chiyo very much, decided to internalize her immediate judgement.
"how has that been going?"
chiyo shrugged. "i mean, i've definitely made progress. he knows me by name now, and talks to me a lot more than other girls, but he's also had two girlfriends this school year alone. and it doesn't help that i'm a second year."
y/n winced. "i'm sure it just takes time. he'll realize sooner or later that he's missing out on someone as great as you."
"it'd be so much easier if i looked like you," chiyo admitted, finishing up on her fourth water bottle.
"why do you think that?" y/n wondered, beginning her sixth water bottle.
"well, i mean..." chiyo motioned to y/n from head to toe. "it's no doubt that you're oikawa's type."
"you've got nothing to worry about," y/n dismissed. "oikawa isn't my type by any means."
"what about ushijima?"
y/n nervously froze, nearly dropping the filled water bottle that she was still putting that cap back on to.
"w-what about him?"
"you guys seem kind of close, you know?"
"i'm like that with the whole team." before chiyo could dive into y/n's somewhat complicated relationship with ushijima, y/n noticed that both of their water bottles were all filled, prompting them to start heading back to the gym. "we should start heading back. we don't want anybody to have to come looking for us."
chiyo chuckled quietly, following y/n back to the gym.
when the two managers arrived, they noticed that the boys were about to start playing, prompting sighs of relief out of both of them. they waved to each other and went in their own directions back towards their coaches, who were currently surrounded by the teams.
"oh, y/n's back." coach saito's words drew the attention of the team as y/n walked behind the benches to place the water bottles back down.
"hey, what'd i miss?"
"nothing much. we were actually hoping you'd give the pep talk this time."
"i suppose i could." y/n stepped forward and folded her hands behind her back. the boys readily watched her with small grins and bright eyes.
"i know we haven't known each other long, and this is just a practice match, but i've been really proud of the progress you've all made these past months alone. and i'm confident that you can all carry these new skills over into this game. if you guys can beat oikawa and his stupid team now, then you'll all be my personal heroes. because that guy really rubs me the wrong way. i have faith in you all, but don't forget to have fun as well."
-
it seemed like y/n's speech pushed the boys to their one hundred percent that day. even tendou, who was clinically known to depend on ushijima more than anybody else, was calling for the ball same as everyone else.
y/n was especially happy with how the game went. the game wasn't a total write off for seijoh, as they still got a few points in, but overall there was an average of a ten point difference by the end of game. she loved seeing the looks on seijoh's faces when someone like ushijima set. granted, it was nowhere near as advanced of a set from oikawa or semi, but an ace setting? how often did that happen? and the set threw the whole team off for some time. and after they became so used to ushijima setting, it made the perfect opening for him to fall right back into his ace tendencies. hitting the ball has hard as he possibly could, not caring about who was there to receive it.
but of course, it wasn't just ushijima that changed the game. tendou was surprisingly a brilliant spiker, seeing as how he knew how the typical blocker's mind worked. he could tell just by their eyes where they thought he was going, and it made tendou almost unblockable.
the receiving on the whole team was almost at libero level now, and, after y/n strictly insisted, almost everyone could pull off a jump serve, even if it bounced off the net every once on a while. getting them all accustomed to setting was doing wonders for both semi and shirabu, as it took the pressure off them entirely. and once the pressure was gone off every player's shoulders to excel at only one thing, they really were much more fluent as a team. and that was exactly what y/n wanted for them by the end of the year.
she wanted that team to go all the way to nationals and beyond.