"Nice one, Mika-chan!" Oikawa trilled as Mikaela hit the floor of the court with a thump, staggering, her palm stinging.
Mikaela grinned and flashed him a thumbs up. "Great setting!"
"Of course!" the brown-haired diva sang as he volleyed another ball to Iwaizumi, who punched it down to the floor.
Oikawa, as luck may have it, had already been intending to have practice with Iwaizumi. It had been the ace's idea to invite her after they had their phone call (on Oikawa's phone) and the gym wasn't far, so she had agreed. Sure, her legs were burning by the time she got there, and she may have had to take a quick break, but she wasn't about to tell them that.
"Let's do serves!" Oikawa cheered next, rolling the cart of volleyballs to the far side of the gym. "You two, go receive."
"Oikawa, that's just mean," Mikaela complained, trudging towards the other side of the court.
"At least hold back a little, Shittykawa," Iwaizumi grumbled, ducking under the net.
They both settled into their positions- Mikaela took the right side of the court and Iwaizumi took the left. "How's the leg?" the dark-haired ace asked, glancing at her.
"Much better than a few weeks ago," she admitted, bending at the knees. "It's getting easier. Still hurts though."
He nodded, turning back to glare at Oikawa, who was hitting the ball against the floor. "That's good. But let me know if it hurts, got it?"
Mikaela felt her heart swell and she grinned. "Yeah, for sure."
Oikawa tossed the ball up and started running, then jumped in the air and hit the ball with a loud thwack. The ball had the power of a missile and was heading towards the sideline- on Iwaizumi's side (...thank goodness). The ace leaped and managed to dig the ball, but the crazy amount of power sent it flying back over the net.
"Shittykawa, you idiot!" Iwaizumi roared, scrambling to his feet, "keep it easy!" Oikawa just cackled from the other side of the court, already grabbing his next volleyball.
"Good dig," Mikaela said honestly. It really was- she wasn't sure if she'd be able to get that in her current state- screw that, she wasn't sure she'd be able to get that if she was in perfect form either. Iwaizumi grunted, still cursing his best friend, and she laughed. Oikawa served again, but it hit the top of the net and flipped over. "Got it," she called out, diving forwards with her arms outstretched. The ball smacked the fronts of her forearms (she barely got there in time) and shot straight up. She hit the ground and started scrambling to her feet.
"Want to spike it?" Iwaizumi called, already moving in position.
"Sure!" she managed, stumbling out of the way as her senpai pushed the ball off his fingertips. Sure, he wasn't a setter, but the set wasn't half bad. Mikaela took a run at it (well, as much as she could) and leaped, hitting it with her left hand to the ground on the other side of the court.
"Yes!" she and Iwaizumi cheered in unison.
"Heads up!" Oikawa cackled, serving again.
"Asshole!" Iwaizumi called back as he lunged for the ball, completely out of position.
Mikaela laughed, and practice (if you could call it that) continued kind of like that for a while. Iwaizumi got a turn to serve- and his serves were almost as bad as Oikawa's, even though the setter's serves were on a completely different level- and then after that it was her turn. She started out easy, staying with only simple overhand serves and avoiding jumping (but when she served with her left hand and it bounced oddly off Oikawa's arm, he started cursing her and she was laughing- loudly). After she realized that her legs were doing okay, she decided to give a jump serve a shot.
"Server up!" Oikawa called, grinning.
Mikaela grinned right back, jumped, and smacked the ball with all her might. Thankfully, it didn't hit the net and continued over. But she almost fell afterward- her thighs had started to cramp up.
Oikawa moved to receive it before calling, "out!" and retracting his arms, but as luck would have it, her serve hit the backline. "Ugh, no fair, Mika-chan!"
"Says you!" she shot back, inwardly cheering from her beautiful serve.
"C'mon, dumbass, that was totally in," Iwaizumi complained, punching Oikawa in the shoulder. "You totally could've gotten that, you just got lazy."
"Did not!" Oikawa retorted, sticking out his tongue. "That hurt, Iwa-chan!"
Mikaela would've laughed but her words got caught in her throat. This wasn't just a typical cramping- those, she just took a breather for a few seconds, stretched, and was good to go after a few minutes. No, this time her legs felt like they were burning. Like a fire was racing up and down her veins.
She grabbed another volleyball from the cart and turned towards Oikawa and Iwaizumi, who were still bickering. She tossed the ball up.
Mikaela tried to take a step and then collapsed.
She'd only felt this type of pain once- when she missed the time she was supposed to take her pills. Crap, how late was it?
The volleyball hit the floor with a thump, forgotten. The dark-haired girl heard distant shouting, but the ringing in her ears canceled it out. She slumped over, practically falling onto her back. This was worse than last time- the burning pain raced up and down both of her legs like wildfire.
"Mikaela!" Iwaizumi shouted urgently, and through her blurry vision, she saw him crouch next to her. Oikawa, despite his typical carefree demeanor, was actually looking very serious. "Is it your leg?" the ace asked, easing an arm under her back and bringing her up to a seated position, which helped a bit.
She nodded. "Bag," she managed, cringing as another wave of cramps seized up in her thighs.
Oikawa took off to the side of the gym where they had left their stuff and returned ten seconds later with her blue and black backpack, bending down. "What do you need?" the brunet demanded.
"Front," Mikaela croaked, wincing, trying to shift to a more comfortable position. Oikawa didn't understand at first but Iwaizumi did, and the ace reached for her bag and unzipped the front pouch, pulling out two clear cylinder containers with different color pills inside. He held them both out to her and she waved vaguely at the blue one.
Iwaizumi unscrewed the container as Oikawa took his turn to support her and keep her upright. "How many?" he asked, and she held up two fingers. Iwaizumi carefully emptied two tiny blue pills into her shaky hand, and Oikawa fished her water bottle out and handed it to her. Hands trembling, she took a sip of water, then tipped her head back and swallowed one and then the other, the procedure done by reflex.
"Three minutes," she rasped, leaning back heavily against Oikawa.
So they sat in silence and waited.
These pills were honestly incredible- they acted very quickly and were easy to swallow. Within a minute, she started breathing a little easier. Another minute, and she already felt the pain in her legs subside slightly.
Three minutes, and her leg cramps were becoming more manageable. "It's okay now," the black-haired girl mumbled, sitting up carefully. "What time is it?"
Oikawa fished around her bag for her phone and pulled it out. "5:43," he replied, handing her the phone. Mikaela cursed under her breath- she should've been keeping a better watch of the time. But that was weird...
"Does this happen often?" Iwaizumi asked, making sure the pill bottle was closed before he tucked it back in her bag.
She shook her head. "It only... Only happened once. I take the... I take the pills every day. Yellow in the morning, blue in the evening." Both boys listened in silence as she continued. "I have to take them fairly regularly. Around a set time. Normally around 7 o'clock every morning and 6 o'clock in the evening. Normally a bit earlier. If I... If I miss my time or forget, my legs just seize up and fail on me."
Oikawa frowned. "But it's only a bit after 5:40."
Mikaela bit her lip and nodded. "I thought it was weird too, but I think it might be connected to my heart rate, or... or my activity level, or something. I've been moving... moving around a lot today, so maybe it triggered my reaction a bit sooner."
"This is crazy," Iwaizumi said, shaking his head. "You've had to take these for how long now?"
"Maybe two months, almost two and a half," she replied with a sigh.
Oikawa was uncharacteristically silent. "So you really can't play volleyball?" he said quietly.
"I can," Mikaela snapped without hesitation, glaring at her shoes. "And I will. I'm just not strong enough yet. I can't jump as high as I used to, I can't run as fast, my stamina's much lower, and then there's the obvious muscle-cramping handicap." She was proud of herself- her voice never once broke or faltered.
"So it's all physical," Iwaizumi said, raising an eyebrow.
She paused, then sighed. "My mom doesn't want me to play."
Oikawa hissed, his fingers clenching into a fist. "We met your mother at the hospital. What a-"
"Does she approve of you being a manager?" Iwaizumi cut in, glaring at his best friend.
"Nope," Mikaela said, laughing. "Not at all, which makes it more fun. Alright, I think I'm good." Leaning on Iwaizumi's arm, she hoisted herself up and balanced herself. "Thanks, guys. I'm really sorry."
"Don't apologize," the ace said, patting her on the back. "It's not your fault."
She flinched. "But it technically was-"
"No." Oikawa punched her lightly in the shoulder. "Stop being so hard on yourself, Mika-chan. You'll be fine."
"Yeah," Iwaizumi echoed, "You're already ten times tougher than Shittykawa over here."
"Mean, Iwa-chan!"
"But it's true, and you know it."
"Oi!"
With much reluctance, the crazy duo let her walk back on her own- only after she'd called Kageyama and ask him to meet her halfway. She said goodbye to both of them, thanked them for their help and apologized for the trouble, and then set out.
When he told her his idea for a new set, she took a minute to think about it.
"Well?" Kageyama said after a minute. "Do you think it'll work?"
Mikaela frowned. "It's going to need crazy precision. And it'll be incredibly difficult to do- you need a high level of skill. So, if anyone could do it, it'd be you."
Kageyama grinned and clapped her on the shoulder. "Would you help?"
"Any day," she promised, grinning right back at him.
He never asked about her leg, even though she told him over the phone.
She never said anything.
To be able to pretend like everything was fine and ignore her leg for her was an incredible feat on its own. Mikaela squeezed Kageyama's shoulder in a silent thank you as the trudged back home, no words needed.
They both knew what the other meant.
Mikaela had been dreading coming home- but at the same time, she looked forward to it.
She was walking home after the team's practice (she had just said goodbye to Hinata and Kageyama) and she had just been given the role as manager. The dark-haired girl was proudly sporting her new jacket that branded her as a member of the Karasuno Volleyball Club.
What a great way to start off on her third day of school, hmm?
Mikaela nearly paused before pushing open her door, but she exhaled slowly and walked in, shutting the door quietly behind her.
Her mom's head popped out of her office, which was a hallway away. "How was school? Where'd you get the jacket?"
"I joined a club," she said warily, slipping off her shoes. "You know, because we have to join a club or something. It's mandatory."
Kageyama Monomi narrowed her eyes (she had chosen to keep her maiden name after the divorce) and frowned. "As long as it doesn't distract from your school studies. What club? Something tame, I presume?"
Mikaela wanted to laugh. Tame? Her? She turned around, showing off the back of her jacket. "I'm a manager for Tobio's volleyball team. The Karasuno Boys Volleyball Club."
When she turned back around, her mother's face was expressing a few new shades of red and her lips were pinched together. "Volleyball? Still? You'd think after the trouble you've been through, you'd have some more common sense."
The black-haired girl twitched, not missing how her mother referred to volleyball as 'trouble'. "You don't get it, Mom," she said softly, pulling her bag off her shoulders and setting it against the wall. "I'm staying invested in volleyball because of my accident. Once I've healed a bit more, I'll definitely join the team. Maybe next year, hopefully." Could she be the manager of the boys' team and a member of the girl's team? Would that work?
"Kaisha," Monomi said firmly, putting her hands on her hips. "Volleyball is out of the question. It ruined your life, and I won't allow you to do that to yourself again."
She rolled her eyes. "Aren't you being dramatic? It didn't 'ruin my life'."
"You transferred schools-"
"Upon your request-"
"And were out of school for a month. Do you know what that does to your grades?"
"Sure, they're not as high as they used to be," Mikaela admitted, "but I needed that time. Besides, Kags brought me school work-"
"Your grades are slipping, you're not physically healthy, and obviously your mentality is not up to scratch," Monomi listed off, her frown deepening.
Her jaw slipped. "My mentality?! Are you serious?!"
Her mother shrugged, "you're still dead set on playing volleyball even after what it did to you-"
"It didn't do anything!" she screamed, finally down holding her temper. Monomi snapped her jaw shut, glaring at her daughter. "My accident wasn't caused by volleyball, and you know it. It was an accident, it wasn't done on purpose. At all."
"Your world does not revolve around volleyball," her mother snarled, "and you know damn well that if you weren't so invested in volleyball and you hadn't tried to get extra practice, none of this would've happened."
"I found something," Mikaela snapped, waving her hands around in sharp gestures, "that I love and I want to throw all my passion into. Why can't you just support me for once?!"
"I am. I'm supporting your future which will not come through volleyball. I've picked out a good law school and back up schools, but if you don't follow the plan-"
The black-haired girl was one hundred percent done. "To hell with that!" she cried, throwing her hands in the air. "I'm not following your stupid plan. It's yours! I'm doing what I want to do, not what you want me to do. Let me live my own damn life!"
And then she shouldered past her mom, the constant stream of protests and insults tuned out, and locked herself in a room, swallowing hard and pushing the tears back as she angrily punched her pillows.
Dammit.