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The training camp brings along many opportunities for Karasuno. They get to play against opponents of varying strengths and techniques, learning from them whilst pushing themselves to the limits, and they got to make new friends.
But whilst the good things far outweighed the bad, there was one little thing that was really, incredibly annoying.
Bath time took forever.
Hoards of smelly, sweaty boys would fill the baths, waiting their turns, but with only 6 people allowed in each turn, the wait for all 5 teams to finish bathing was tremendous. So for the managers of each team, who were scheduled as the last, it was slightly annoying.
But it did give them time to themselves.
Currently, Kiyoko and Ootaki were talking in the shade of a tree, whilst Yachi and Miyanoshita were clumsily trying to pass a ball between each other. There was a lot of giggling, laughing, and apologising from them, Suzumeda watching over them and jogging to catch the ball if it started rolling down the slight hill they were on. Occasionally, she would shout up to Shirofuku, who was quite content hanging upside down from a tree branch, reaching down and plaiting Kiyoko’s hair.
“A-Ah! Sorry! Sorry, my bad! Sorry!” The squeaked rambling from Yachi made Miyanoshita laugh as she waved her hand as if to dispel the apology.
“It’s fine, Yacchan~! It’s fun just messing around~.” She smiled kindly, and Yachi – with her gay little heart – blushed and nodded, fumbling her hands awkwardly as Suzumeda brought the ball back up from the bottom of the hill.
“Ready?” She waited until Miyanoshita nodded before throwing it towards her, the Ubugawa manager bouncing it clumsily off her forearms. Yachi caught the ball and threw it back, like she was practicing tossing.
“Don’t forget to use your legs, Hitoka~.” The tease has Yachi blush a little deeper, but she nods at Kiyoko’s constructive criticism, and when the ball comes back to her, she sets it back the best she has yet.
“I- I did it! I did it, Kiyoko-san!!!” She’s so caught up in her mini-celebration that she doesn’t notice the ball coming back until it bops her on the forehead. Seeing as Yachi isn’t hurt, just caught off-guard, the other girls burst out into laughter. Shirofuku suddenly cuts off with a distraught squawk.
“Kiyoko! You moved! Now I have to start all over again!” Kiyoko tilts her head back, her nose almost touching Shirofuku’s as she smiles, a hint of a smirk.
“It would be easier if you came down from the tree.” Shirofuku puffs out her cheeks, swinging back up to sit in the branch before dropping to the ground on her feet, moving to kneels behind Kiyoko and starting to plait her hair again. Kiyoko sighs.
“Let me do yours next.”
“You don’t wanna touch my hair. I’m a greasebucket right now.” Suzumeda bites back a snappy retort about how that’s Shirofuku’s own fault for not washing her hair yesterday. Water alone did no good on days as humid as this.
“Ooh, you can play with mine~.” Ootaki has no reservations about personal space, planting herself in Kiyoko’s lap with a wide grin. Kiyoko rolls her eyes, but does nothing other than take Ootaki’s hair out of its side ponytail, brushing her fingers through.
Watching them, Miyanoshita turns to Yachi with the biggest puppy-dog eyes Yachi has ever seen. Even bigger than when Hinata wants her to feed a ball in to Kageyama for extra spiking practice.
She looks like a kitten... She’s so cute!
“W-Want me to do yours too?” Miyanoshita’s answer to that is to pull both her pigtails out at the same time with a grin like sunshine, holding her scrunchies out for Yachi to take.
“I’ll do yours, Yacchan~.” Suzumeda rolls the ball down the hill purposely, just at the right angle so it rolls straight into the open doors of the gymnasium.
“Kaori, Kaori!” Ootaki pats her lap enthusiastically, like a bongo drum, and Suzumeda rolls her eyes. Look like she’ll have someone playing with her hair too. And so it occurs that the girls arranged themselves into a line, sitting in each other’s laps and talking quietly – occasionally bursting into laughter – whilst playing with the hair of the person in front. Miyanoshita was quite happy to pluck the grass in front of her, since she had no-one’s hair to do.
Yachi, face almost crimson, was desperately trying to keep up with the conversation when all that swirled around her head was “I’m gay, I’m gay, I’m so so gay. I love girls so much.”
“Oh? Is that Takeda-sensei?” She’s distracted from her flustered thoughts by Kiyoko’s calm question, peering over Miyanoshita’s shoulder to see their teaching advisor jogging over towards them.
“It is!” Takeda approaches, waving in a friendly manner.
“The baths are free now. Thank you for waiting so patiently.”
“Ah, is it okay to wait a little longer, sensei? We’re busy~.” Shirofuku throws him for a loop, but Takeda taps his lip with a finger as he thinks, glancing skywards, before he nods.
“Try not to take too long. Since we’re having the barbeque send-off tomorrow, this’ll be the last chance to use the baths. If you take too long, you might miss it!” The girls freeze in their hairdressing. They glance at each other rapidly.
Like someone sounded a claxon to start a race, they shriek and laugh as they take off, running down the hill and stumbling over each other as they sprint to the bathing rooms in a mad rush, leaving their half-done plaits and braids and intricate hairstyles to come undone.
After all, nothing beats a warm, relaxing bath after waiting for the boys!