This is a birthday oneshot for icecoffees. Hope you like it dear and Happy Birthday icecoffees!
Fireflies surrounded me as I lay quietly on the grassy hillside, staring up at the star filled sky. I slowly reached up towards the twinkling lights with one hand, almost expecting to be able to touch them, they looked so close. Just as I was about to pull my hand back and give up, a single firefly landed on my fingers to rest, its light flashing slowly.
I stayed there for what felt like hours staring at that tiny glow, as happy as if I had caught a star instead of a firefly. Just before it flew away, I made a wish on the slowly twinkling light, not caring that it wasn't really a star I was wishing on. After all, to a six year old child things like wishes didn't have to make sense.
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Several years passed and I still liked to lay in the grass on late summer evenings where the fireflies could be seen flying about like little floating lights. It didn't really matter where I was, as long as I could lay in the grass and watch them flying around me. Once in a while, one would land on me and I would lay there happily until it flew away.
It didn't matter to me if I made friends with the other students or not. I spent each of my summers doing what I enjoyed. When summer was over and the fireflies no longer flying about, I often read books about the different kinds of fireflies all over the world, dreaming of a day when I could travel and see them for myself.
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It wasn't until the last year of middle school that things changed, my parents suddenly requiring me to join an after school club for 'educational reasons' that I suspected were false. It was more likely to keep me from spending my afternoons being antisocial for yet another school year. I soon found myself wandering from club to club seeing if anything caught my interest enough to join up.
It took a couple weeks of searching before I found myself looking at the sport clubs, something I had never really been interested in, regardless of going to a school that put an emphasis on their athletic department. None of the academic clubs had been interesting enough to want to join, failing to measure up to the talk I'd heard from students in the hallways.
Baseball, basketball and soccer also failed to catch my attention, the clubs lacking something in my eyes. Sure, the players were good but they just didn't manage to grab my focus like I was hoping something would. Maybe nothing could grab my attention like the fireflies did, capturing me with their simple flickering glow, something that could only be seen at night when the world was covered in darkness.
Tomorrow I would be checking the volleyball club, likely the last sport club I would bother checking. If this one failed, I would just go join the photography club. It might not have grabbed my attention but at least I might learn a few new techniques to help me catch better pictures of the fireflies I loved so much.
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I stared as the ball smashed into the ground, the dark-hair setter standing there with a frown as he told people to move faster and not give up the ball so easily. I had to admire his determination to win, even if it was simply a practice match. He seemed like the kind to practice long after others went home.
Making my choice, I was soon walking over to the coach as he stood there frowning at the practicing students, bowing politely when I reached him. After gaining his attention and introducing myself, I handed him my newly filled out application to join the club as a manager, although I had no previous experience.
I was willing to learn and that is what mattered to him. That and the fact that I was obviously not a fangirl simply there to stare at the guys during practice. Of course, the notebook I had with me covered in newly written notes about what I'd learned and seen during the practice probably didn't hurt. Even if it was written with brightly colored gel pens.
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Over the following weeks, I had slowly come to learn the different positions the boys played, from setter to ace to wing spiker. I even learned the names and habits that each player had, verifying my notes quietly with the coach to ensure I was understanding things correctly. I was even slowly making friends with some of the players, talking about simple things like homework and even helping each other understand the questions that had us stumped.
When I first heard the boys calling Kageyama the 'King of the Court' behind his back, I had thought it was a term of respect. That was quickly dashed when I heard the other comments being made about him, although I tried to put a stop to it when I could. All that seemed to do was cause tension between them and me.
Even my friendships with the members started falling apart, as I became more and more disturbed by how they simply turned against the setter instead of trying to work out the problems they were having with him. Slowly, I found myself being shunned as much as Kageyama was.
I began to wonder if it only hurt me because I'd never really been attached to any friends in the past the way I was with the members of this club. Part of me regretted joining but I refused to simply give up and quit after putting so much effort into learning so much about the club and its members.
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During the Junior High Athletics Meet, everything started to really fall apart, the members quietly beginning to rebel against the dark-haired setter. From the start of the first match, all I could do was watch the downward spiral of the team as game after game, things went from bad to worse.
By the time they pulled Kageyama off the court, I knew that the game was already lost for our team. What concerned me more was the slowly fading light that I could see in his eyes when he'd seen his team turn on him during the match. It reminded me of a dying firefly.
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It was nearly a month into my first year of high school before I finally gathered the nerve to head over to the school's volleyball club after classes ended, memories of last year having kept me from the sport that I had come to love almost as much as the fireflies I had spent so much of my life admiring.
Quietly sliding the door open, I stepped inside before I even looked up, my eye's growing wide at the sight before me. Two familiar faces stood out among the boys who were racing about the court, trying to keep the ball from hitting the floor, although I only knew the name of one of them.
"Kageyama-kun? You came to Karasuno?" I stared in shock at the boy I hadn't been able to stop thinking about since the Meet ended.
"(y/n)-chan? Why are you here?" He returned, his cheeks slightly red.
I could only smile as I looked at him, noticing the way some of the other boys moved around him. It looks like he'd found a team that might just get along with him and his unusual ways. Maybe even help him work on his people skills. That would be good.
"Well, I thought I would apply as an assistant to the current club manager. With you on the team, I'm sure she could use the help." The way he blushed slightly when I winked at him made my heart feel as warm as my face.
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I smiled when I saw his blue eyes watching me from partway up the hillside. The start of summer training camp was full of fun filled days, but it was the nights that I had been looking forward to sharing with the boy who had captured my heart.
Climbing up the hill, I sat down beside him and we watched the sun sink behind the horizon, the soft flashing glow of the fireflies slowly surrounding us as we lay side by side. I smiled when I felt his hand slowly slip into my own, my heart racing as I turned to face him.
It was a warm summer night that I gave my first kiss to him, surrounded by dancing fireflies.