Chapter Text
The ball shoots past my head and I hold back a curse. Daichi picks up the ball from behind me and Tobio sets it, flashing his eyes over to me. I nod very slightly, eyeing the other side of the provisional net the upperclassmen had set up between the two trees. Asahi is crouching over, eyes narrowed while he tracks the ball, but he has left the very edge of the makeshift court wide open. I sprint over to it, reveling in the way my body carries me, no pain in my joints, no dizziness in my head; just the normal burn from hard work. I spring myself up and watch as my boyfriend flings the ball over to me, and I track it and slam it down, eyes open. I trust him. I would never not trust him. But my skills have improved drastically since the first half of high school, and I can handle leaving my eyes open as the ball floats through the air. I revel in the view from the top. I watch the resignation in my enemy's eyes, a panoramic view of the grass below me, and before I land I register a tree root jutting out of the ground below me. I land just to the right of it.
“Be careful!” Tobio scolds Asahi, referring to the ball almost hitting me in the face.
I laugh. “Chill out, babe, I’m fine!”
He snorts as he surveys my face. “You worry me...”
Tanaka pushes us apart before I can retort. “Have your little lovers quarrel later, yo, we’re on the fast lane right now!”
“We’re having a scrimmage in the park outside the school because they kicked us out of the gym.” I stick my tongue out.
Tanaka imitates me in high-pitched gibberish, and I hear Tobio growl behind me.
“Focus, guys!” Daichi finally calls out from behind us.
Suga checks his watch. “Dai, practice should have ended ten minutes ago.”
The team whines in disappointment, but Daichi relents.
“I expect all of you here tomorrow, bright and early,” Daichi threatens.
Tsukishima huffs. “It’s break, though. Mandatory attendance can not be allowed. I’m checking the student handbook.”
Ennoshita rolls his eyes. “Only you, who blatantly disregards the rules on a regular basis, would check the student handbook to get out of work.”
As I walk back indoors to grab my stuff from the locker room, Tobio meets up with me and grabs my hand.
Surprisingly, nothing bad had come out of our relationship going public. While we were occasionally met with whispers or lingering gazes, my illness seemed to have scared off any potential bullying. Like people felt it was morally wrong to bully the cancerous kid. I wasn’t complaining, in this instance.
As soon as I had gotten news that I was in remission, I had started doing full body workouts to regain the muscle I had lost in the hospital, and within 2 months I was almost as good as new. It took an additional month to regain my position as middle blocker during games. That was okay. I knew I had to earn my spot, and I did. We didn’t make it to Nationals in my first semester, and that was okay. It was a new semester, a new season, and we had a newfound desire to win. None of the third years dropped out in the spring.
“You free tonight?” Tobio asks me, squeezing my hand.
I smile up at him. “Of course! We’re having a family dinner tonight, and Mom wants you to join us. She even invited my dad!”
He attempts to smile at me and I laugh.
When we get to our bags, I rifle through my stuff in an attempt to find my phone. When I grab it I find that it has several incoming notifications from Kenma.
Instead of reading through all them, I Facetime him and begin to change, and after three rings, he answers.
“Hey Kenma!” I greet.
“Hi.” I crouch down to look at my phone and see that his cheeks are rosy. He’s biting his lip, but I notice the corners turned up.
“What’s got you so cheery?” I inquire.
He hesitates, so I continue to change while he figures out what he wants to say.
After a minute, he speaks up. “I made first string on my team for the spring. And the third years all graduated, so they can’t bully me anymore. They always bullied me in middle school.”
“I’m so happy for you! Why were they bullying you, anyway? You’re probably a huge asset to the team!”
“I was sick. But I didn’t know it at the time.”
That was sad. I didn’t voice my thoughts, though. “Well, you can make up for it now. I’m so happy you’re finally better!”
Kenma finally breaks out into a small smile. “Thanks. Me too.”
“I’m telling you, you have to meet Karasuno some time! They would love you!”
“I don’t know about that...” he said quietly.
“Well, anyway, I’m having a dinner date with my boyfriend, so I gotta let you go. Let’s talk later?”
Kenma nods. “Alright.”
The team has all filed in by this point, so I hang up and finish pulling on the rest of my clothes and packing up my bag.
“You ready to go?” Tobio asks me. I look up at him and notice with a surge in my chest that his face is pink with exertion from practice.
Without thinking, I pull him down by his collar and kiss him softly, cupping his face in my hands. I feel him relax against me, wrapping his arms around my waist as he leans into the kiss. The only thing keeping me from deepening the kiss is Tanaka coughing loudly from the back of the room.
I pull away from Tobio and stick my tongue out at the team, pulling Tobio behind me as I fled the room.
“What was that about?” He asks as we walk across the school property towards the road.
I grin at him, eyes crinkling. “Nothing. I just think you’re really cute.”
His face reddens and he grabs my hand, his grip tight.
The sun is beginning to set, and flowers are blooming. A breeze rustles the leaves around us and raises goosebumps on my arms. Right now, everything seems just okay.
Sure, I have my fair share of problems. I’m still not sure how I’m going to mend my relationship with my father, or if I even want to. Sometimes, people’s whispering in the hallways at school gets to be too much. My mom still doesn’t know how to stop from burying herself in her work. And yeah, someday, the cancer might return. The biyearly checkups I still have to go to remind me of what I lost in my first year of high school. But with Tobio and Natsu and Kenma and my mom and the rest of the team at my side, those problems will one day wither away into nothing.
That, I am sure of.