Nobody expected the infamous Tsukishima Kei to have an obsession. Let alone, have the obsession be about a certain girl.
(L/N)(F/N). An aspiring Olympic Gold Medalist.
To put it simply, you are a Japanese volleyball player. You attended your first Olympic volleyball match at the age of 13. So, extremely young. Your team lost, on your first appearance. But at ages 14, 15, and 16, your team managed to come back, and fight for another opportunity to enter the Olympics once again 4 years later. Now, at the age of 17, you hope to win gold and make your country proud.
Tsukishima Kei just happened to grow obsessed with the girl. He had seen one of your matches on TV when he was in Junior High. He stared in awe at the girl swiftly moving about on the screen. Her receives were perfect. Her spikes were perfect. Her blocks were perfect. Her serves were perfect.
"She was perfect." Tsukishima thought.
And ever since Junior High, Tsukishima has watched every single one of your matches. He's never missed one. He'll sometimes even skip last period so he can go home in time for your match. He looks up to you immensely.
As of now, Tsukishima is walking to the school gym, headphones covering his ears. He soon gets to the gym, and walks into the boys locker room. He stuffs his duffle bag in a locker after pulling out his practice gear. He strips off his school uniform and neatly folds it. He places it into the locker, before getting dressed into a white t-shirt and black shorts. He slides on his knee pads as well as his volleyball shoes.
He walks out of the locker room, and into the gym. He spots his fellow teammates and joins them in stretching. The team talks excitedly amongst one another. Yamaguchi, his best friend, spots him and waves at him. He walks towards Tsukishima and sits next to him. The two quietly stretch together, before Coach Ukai calls the team together. The boys gather in a circle and sit crisscross.
"Sensai and I have some news."
The team nods, initiating for Coach Ukai to keep talking.
"We have a special guest coming in later today. She'll be helping you guys with your skills. She'll meet with each of you individually, and will be focusing on things you need to work on, and give you tips on how to fix them. Hopefully you'll take advantage of this opportunity, as well as enjoy yourselves."
The boys nod, before a couple of them raise their hand.
"Coach, when is she coming?" Sugawara asks.
"She should be here in about a half hour."
"Who exactly is this girl?" Kageyama questions.
"That's a surprise." Coach Ukai smirks, knowing how surprised the boys will be.
Especially Tsukishima.
The boys stand up from the polished floor and get to practice. Coach Ukai says to start off easy today, and warm up what they need to. They'll get to work more when the guest arrives. For now, each boy is simply serving balls over the net. Some bumping a ball back and forth.
Soon enough, a half hour passes by. Right as the clock strikes 4:30, a quiet knock is heard on the metal, gym doors. The team is too engrossed in themselves, and hear no such knock. Luckily, Coach Ukai hears the knock. He walks towards the gym doors, and slides them open. A familiar figure is stood on the steps, a smile present on her face.
Ukai greets his niece with a smile, and a hug. He ushers you in, and leads you towards a bench where three other people sit. You sit next to a small blonde girl.
"Hello! I'm [Y/N], it's nice to meet you." You greet the blonde.
"U-uh, I'm Yachi!" Yachi, nervously stutters out.
You smile warmly at her, before introducing yourself to the two others sitting on the bench.
You turn your attention towards who you assume to be the Karasuno Volleyball Team. Your eyes scan each player, concentration fill your eyes to the brim. You make a conclusion that all of the boys are fairly good, but can be even better. Nothing you can't fix.
Coach Ukai calls the team over, on the opposite side of the gym. They gather around in a circle, facing Coach.
"The guest has arrived. So please be on your best behavior, and do as she says."
"Where is she?!" Hinata yells excitedly.
"Right here!" You pipe in, raising your hand.
You walk towards the team, a smile etched on your face. When you reach the boys, you bow.
"I'm (L/N)(F/N). It's nice to meet you all!" You greet happily.
"Ah! I've seen you on TV before!" Hinata yells excitedly.
You chuckle and clasp your hands together behind your back.
"If you guys could please introduce yourselves, that'd be lovely. I'd really like to get to know you all!" You say in a friendly tone.
Meanwhile, Tsukishima is frozen with shock. His idol is standing in front of him. Which is the last thing he expected.
"How did Coach Ukai even get her to come here?" Tsukishima wonders.
Each boy goes around in a circle, introducing themselves and stating their positions. Tsukishima's the last to introduce himself. You avert your gaze towards the blonde boy. You smile at him, initiating him to inform you on his name and position.
"U-uh, Tsukishima Kei. Middle Blocker."
"Your name means Moon! That's so neat!" You gasp, loving Tsukishima's name.
"Is it alright if I call you Tsukki? You're name's kind of hard to pronounce. Or is it too soon?" You question, Tsukishima.
"I-I mean, if you want to. Sure." Tsukishima says, shocked that you asked to call him by his nickname so soon.
"Alright! It's nice to meet you Tsukki! And the rest of you as well!" You tear your gaze away from Tsukishima and glance at the team.
"If it's ok with you guys, I'd love to work with each of you individually. I'll call out your name, you show me all of your skills, and I'll judge from there. Does that sound ok?"
"Yes ma'am!" The team solutes.
You smile at their seriousness and politeness.
"Alright, let's get started then. Hinata, I'll start with you."
You walk towards Hinata and greet him. The two of you walk to the middle of the court and start working on Hinata's spiking.
Tsukishima stays standing, not attempting to move from his spot, and simply stares at you two. He watches in awe as you give Hinata constructive criticism. You thoroughly explain Hinata's flaws. Hinata doesn't really understand what you're saying though. You're speaking in a mature manner. You notice his confusion, of course. You picked up on Hinata's everyday vocabulary. Which mostly consists of onomatopoeias. You start to explain your thoughts in a more simple way.
Tsukishima is drawn to the fact that you're able to throw out your mature use of words, and make sure Hinata understands you. His amazement for you never seems to stop growing.
After you finish working with Hinata, you continue to work with each athlete. Everyone packs up and leaves individually, when you finish critiquing them.
Tsukishima's the only one left.
It's pretty late at night now, being about 8:00 pm. You call Tsukishima over, and repeatedly apologize for keeping him so late.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't intend to keep you so late." Your cheeks flush, as you bow.
"A-ah it's fine." Tsukishima replies.
You stand straight back up, and smile warmly at the blonde boy. You turn around, and grab a Volleyball from a near by cart.
"Tsukishima Kei. Middle blocker, correct?"
"Correct."
"I'd like to work on your blocking skills. I've seen some of Karasuno's matches. You're a very tall boy, which obviously works as an advantage. But you're actual blocking skills could use some work."
"Ouch." Tsukishima thinks.
"First, I think you need to focus on keeping your arms closer together. If they're apart from each other, the ball will more than likely fly right in between your arms. Second, we definitely need to work on your timing. You tend to jump up a sliver to early. And if there's one thing you should know, it's that the slightest mistake or disposition will completely mess everything up. So, we'll work on our arm placement and timing tonight. Does that work for you Tsukki?"
Tsukishima simply nods his head in reply. You crouch under the net and walk towards the opposite side of the gym.
"Considering nobody is here to set the ball to me, I'll simply just serve the ball. I'll aim the ball towards you. For now, I want you to focus on squeezing your arms closer together." You yell across the gym.
"Got it!" Tsukishima yells back, taking position in front of the net.
"I'm serving!" You yell, wanting to give Tsukishima a heads up.
You swiftly toss the ball into the air. You jog towards the ball, and jump up. Your palm strikes the ball roughly. In an instant the ball glides through the air, heading right towards Tsukishima. As the ball comes towards him, Tsukishima jumps up. Although, again, his timing is off. The ball scrapes Tsukishima's fingers, counting as a one touch.
"Alright! That was really good. You definitely focused on the position of your arms. We'll do that for about another 10 minutes. If your positioning is consistent, then we'll move on to timing."
You two continue to practice positioning for the next 10 minutes, as you had said. Tsukishima's arm positions were consistent, and were improving quite a lot.
"Perfect! Your arm positions were consistent, which means we can move on to timing. Most of the time, blockers' feet tend to leave the floor at the same time as the spikers'. That's not accurate. You'll want your feet to leave the floor a split second after the spikers'. Right now, considering we don't have a spiker, it'll be hard for you to tell when to jump. So, I'll try and toss the ball up myself and spike it. It won't be the best spikes, but it's better than nothing."
Tsukishima nods his head, as you walk towards the net. Once you make it in front of the net, you get in position. You throw the ball up, jump up, and spike the ball. Tsukishima repeats your previous words.
"You'll want your feet to leave the floor a split second after the spikers'."
Tsukishima glances at your feet. As soon as your feet are about an inch off the floor, Tsukishima jumps up. The sound of the ball bouncing off of his arms and hitting the polished floor, echoes throughout the gym. You land on your feet, and look at Tsukishima.
"Great job, Tsukki. That was definitely the best block I've seen you do." You complement.
"Fifteen more blocks like that, and you're bound to become an astounding blocker."
Tsukishima blushes heavily at your comment and shyly mumbles a "thanks."
You and Tsukishima continue to work on blocking for another half hour. To say you are proud of Tsukishima's progress, is an understatement. You're surprised on how quickly he changed his previous habits.
"He's the best athlete I've worked with tonight." You think to yourself.
When you decide Tsukishima has had enough practice, you inform him that you're done. You explain your thoughts on his practice tonight, and his progress.
"Being utterly honest, I think you did great tonight. You are the best athlete I've worked with in a while. I explained a mistake of yours, and you instantly fixed it. You picked up what I was explaining to you, fast. I definitely think your practice tonight will change the way you play completely. They were simple and common mistakes a blocker can make. But when you don't do the skills we worked on tonight right, it's almost impossible to be able to block the ball perfectly. But overall, you did amazing tonight. I hope to work with you again some day. Tonight was a lot of fun."
You give Tsukishima a smile, before heading towards the door. You tell Tsukishima to go ahead and go home. He obliges and walks out the door. As he's walking out the door, he pauses and turns around.
"Thank you for working with me, (L/N)-san." He bows.
"O-oh it was no problem, Tsukki." You blush, and place a hand on the back of your neck.
Tsukishima smiles to himself slightly, before walking down the sidewalk and to his house. You watch his figure until he disappears from your sight, making sure he arrives home alright. You smile and shake your head. You clutch the bag hanging on your shoulder, before turning off the gym lights and closing the doors.
"God, I'm going to miss that kid. I'm definitely coming back some time." You think as you walk towards the train station.