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Setting should be easy.
At least that’s what Nishinoya thought. You just form a triangle above your head, and the ball should go ‘POOMF,’ ‘FWOOSH,’ ‘GAPAM!’ I mean, sure, his tosses were riddled with mistakes as they were either too low, far, or short, but Nishinoya was definitely trying! He eyed the ball making its course towards him, he ran, jumped, and set! The ball flew, then promptly dropped three feet away from Asahi and rolled. Nishinoya harrumphed.
Resetting to their standard position, Asahi tossed to Nishinoya again. Nishinoya gave a set, except something went terribly wrong this time. Instead of the ball going “BOOMPF,” there was only a “KERPLAT.”
A cutting pain enveloped his thumb as Nishinoya winced. A sharp hiss escaped from his lips as his other hand held his thumb. Asahi was by his side in a flash, an uneasy look on his face, fidgeting nervously.
“Are you okay?! What happened?”
Nishinoya flashed a bright smile trying to calm him down, “I’m fine! It’s okay!” He tried shaking his hand to show Asahi that it really was alright, but another hot flash of pain told him to cut the charade. Nishinoya winced again. “I really went and did it now.”
“Oh no. Do you have to go to the hospital?! What’s the ambulance phone number again?! Is the ambulance different in the city?! Oh no, what if… You’re stuck like that forever?! I’m so sorry this happened because of me!”
“Shut up Asahi-san! You’re not helping!”
Asahi stood stiff as he processed next on what to do and how to help.
“Do you have any tape? It’s either sprained or jammed. I don’t think I’m going to die so rest easy. Besides I’m a young man! This isn’t going to bring me down that easy! And it’s not your fault in the first place! I did this to myself.”
“St-still-... This isn’t good! I think Shimizu should have some.”
Nishinoya’s eyes brightened, immediately perking up from the sheer mention of her name, “do… do you think she’ll tape me up?”
“Uhm, maybe? She and the rest of the managers are on kitchen duty, so she could be-.” Before Asahi managed to finish his sentence, Nishinoya yanked him towards the cafeteria with his uninjured hand.
Kicking the Cafeteria doors away upon arrival, Nishinoya loudly proclaimed for the world to hear, “SHIMIZU-SAN!! I WANTED TO SEE YOU!”
Everyone stopped from taking a bite out of their meal, staring at the sudden ruckus. The culprit then made its way towards the kitchen joyfully. Asahi tailed behind, bowing towards the disturbed people and apologizing, quickly running after Nishinoya.
As it turned out, Shimizu was unable to attend to Nishinoya’s injury as she was quite busy making food. Despite it though, she was able to locate the first aid kit and handed it to Asahi. Nishinoya was absolutely sullen beyond repair.
Sighing despairingly, he watched as Asahi helped tape up his thumb.
“Every sigh you let loose, your happiness escapes.”
“Happiness? What’s that if Shimizu-san couldn’t bandage me up.”
Asahi smiled gently, “maybe one day, when she’s not on kitchen duty.”
Nishinoya beamed as he fidgeted with renewed excitement, “Really?!”
Asahi didn’t respond, only quietly taping up his hand as Nishinoya hummed with exuberant energy. Upon finishing, he placed the tape back into the first aid kit. “There, done.”
“Thank you, Asahi-san! You’re a big help!”
“It’s fine, you got injured because of me. It’s the least that I can do.”
“Still… You’re definitely dependable when you can be!”
“Eh-? What does that mean?” Pink tinted his face as Asahi gesticulated anxiously.
“Don’t get hung up on it now wimp!” Nishinoya tilted his head back as he laughed maniacally. Asahi stood up, taking it as an excuse to put back the first aid kit.
“I’ll see you back at the gym!”
“wha- but with your hand like that you shouldn’t recklessly overdo it!”
“Psshh, it’ll be fine! It’ll be fine! Besides! I still got 100 more receives in me!”
“Nishinoya…” Just as Asahi was about to summon all the courage to lecture him, he was already gone. Asahi sighed exasperatedly.
Brushing aside the bug net that hung from the gym entrance, Asahi saw Nishinoya practice setting onto a wall. He bit the inside of his lip as he frowned and entered the gym. Nishinoya quickly noticed Asahi and beamed, “Oh! Asahi-san! There you are! You took your time! C’mon, hit a few at me! I want to receive your jump serves!” He was already running to the other side of the court, Asahi had to think fast.
“Nishinoya… d-don’t you want some food?”
“Hmmm, just a little… But I wanna practice too! I wanna receive your jump serves!”
Asahi could feel his willpower falter against the brute strength of Nishinoya’s, still he couldn’t just give up! It was for Nishinoya’s hand. “It’ll close up soon though… The cafeteria. Then we won’t be able to eat dinner at all!”
“Hmmmmm,” he pouted, crossing his arms together, deep in thought, “are you hungry… Asahi-san?”
“Mhm,” Asahi nodded to add emphasis.
Nishinoya pouted even more, his eyebrows scrunched fiercely as if he was making the decision of his lifetime. “Well that sucks… I guess we can always practice more tomorrow!”
Smiling gently, Asahi rubbed the back of his neck, “shall we go?”
“Yeah!! Let’s go get food!” Nishinoya joyfully jogged towards Asahi as they then made their way back to the Cafeteria. Skipping in front of Asahi, Nishinoya sung a jolly jingle about food. Asahi quietly fist pumped to himself in his mission success on getting Nishinoya to take a break.
The Cafeteria was beginning to fill up as the two of them returned. Asahi didn’t spot anybody from their team though, they were all probably still training. He turned towards Nishinoya, but to his surprise, he was gone! His eyes madly scanned the Cafeteria, soon realizing that Nishinoya had entered the line for food ahead of him. Quickly, he lined up behind Nishinoya.
“Oh! There you are! What were you doing all aloof?” he asked.
“Sorry, I was just seeing if I could find a spot for us to sit.” Nishinoya hummed in response, the duo eventually got their food, albeit with some slight disagreement.
“Asahi-san, it’s fine! I can do it by myself!”
“You say that but look at your hand’s condition!”
“I can still hold a tray!”
“You were going to drop it. Let me do it!”
Nishinoya sighed gravely, “fine!”
“Can you help find a spot for us to sit then?”
Nishinoya only huffed in response but led the way as they found a table to start eating. Asahi placed the two trays down and pulled up a seat for Nishinoya.
“You better not start feeding me now.”
Asahi jumped, his face burned as he yet again wildly gesticulated, “Eh-? Oh, no, no, no, I would never! I didn’t mean to leave that sort of impression. I just wanted to help you a little. You’re willing to practice with me, so this is the least that I can do.”
Nishinoya pouted, eyeing intensely at Asahi momentarily before he sat down. Clapping his hands, he loudly proclaimed, “ITADAKIMASU,” and madly chowed down onto his food. Asahi followed suit, dumbstruck by Nishinoya’s earlier glare, then again, he was always dumbstruck towards anything relating to him.
Leaning back onto his chair, Nishinoya let loose a large burp, patting his stomach in relief. “Thank you for the meal!” Asahi looked over, only ¾ through his meal, “h-how did you eat so fast?!”
“Hehe, it’s a skill.”
“You could’ve taken your time… Don’t be so hasty.”
“Hmm, don’t wanna,” he stretched and yawned, “I gotta poo.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and wash up first?”
“What?! But the night is still young!”
“And we have a long day tomorrow.”
“But-.”
“No buts! Otherwise, I won’t practice with you tomorrow.” Asahi nonchalantly slurped up his miso soup.
Nishinoya scratched his head, sighing, “Alright, alright. I know. I know.” He begrudgingly made his way to the bathrooms. Asahi almost choked on his soup, shocked that he managed to tame the wild Nishinoya.
Whistling after finishing his shower, Nishinoya lazily ambled back to the assigned bedroom for Karasuno’s volleyball team. Shinzen High was unexpectedly large, even larger than Karasuno! Whether that was a good or bad thing was undecided. Sudden chills sent shivers down his spine as he walked through the hallways in the dark. At this current moment, he felt like a protagonist in a horror movie and he was not about that life. Fearfully, he quickened his pace as he glanced around him. Abruptly, something fluttered onto his face. Nishinoya screamed.
Quickly, he slapped the thing away and jumped back. The thing flew away and Nishinoya searched around for what it was. Suddenly again, something touched him, this time on his shoulder. He stood stiff, dread running through his spine as he perspired coldly. Slowly, he turned around to face who, what, or it was. Nishinoya screamed, again. It was the scary woman that his grandpa would often tell him about, who was coming to take him or any naughty children away!
The woman had a very uncharacteristically deep voice though as they tried to calm him down, “shhh! You’ll anger Daichi if you’re so loud!” This only made Nishinoya scream more. The woman with the uncharacteristically deep voice clasped their hand against his mouth.
“Shhh! Be quiet! It’s me! Asahi!”
“Asahi-san?” The phrase was muffled by Asahi’s hand.
Letting loose a sigh of relief, Asahi finally released his hand away from Nishinoya, “What’s wrong? I thought I heard screaming, so I came up here and found you!”
Nishinoya shivered, “t-there’s a creature here! It touched my face!”
Immediately, Asahi started trembling, “what?!” Slowly, but surely, he raised the flashlight he held, gulping as the light trailed around when it finally hit the culprit. “It’s a moth...”
Nishinoya squealed in terror as he hid behind Asahi. “Make it go away!”
“Eh-? What? But it’s harmless!”
“It’s a monster! Make it die.” The moth noticing the light, made its way towards the flashlight, Nishinoya squealed even more. “No, don’t come here! Go away! Go over there!”
“Nishinoya, it’s fine! It’s harmless, see!” Asahi raised his other arm for the moth to land on, it cleaned its antennae on his finger. He turned to let Nishinoya see. “Look. It’s harmless.”
“You have been sullied,” he hissed, “now make it go away!”
Asahi sighed exasperatedly, he went to the window and opened it, freeing the moth. “There, now it’s gone.”
Nishinoya breathed a huge sigh of relief, “that was crazy.”
“You’re telling me. I can’t believe you’re scared of moths!”
“I absolutely hate them. They’re big and hairy! They have absolutely no business being that big and hairy!”
“But they’re harmless.”
Nishinoya fumed.
“Alright, alright, I got it. We won’t ever speak of this.” Nishinoya huffed in agreement.
They then started making their way back to the bedroom. Asahi led the way with his flashlight when suddenly, Nishinoya grabbed Asahi’s arm. Asahi almost jumped from the sudden action. “You may be a dirty moth toucher, but you’re the only sort of protection I have. Who knows how many of them are out there!”
Smirking, Asahi just continued leading the way, “Do what you want.”
The pair walked in silence, only their light footsteps were heard as they got ever closer to their destination. Nishinoya broke the silence one more time, “hey… What you said earlier. The thing you said before we started eating? You know I like practicing with you… Right? I want to practice with you.” Heat creeped up Asahi’s cheeks as he could feel his heart quickening. Turning to face Nishinoya, Asahi noticed he was still holding his arm. “I know this is a late reply, but what you said really stuck with me! You really made it seem like I was being forced to practice with you.” Asahi hummed to let Nishinoya know he was listening. “You always think badly about yourself and I don’t like that. I think you’re absolutely cool! When you can be, that is… Agh, I’m bad at words, but don’t think so badly about yourself! You can be cool!”
Asahi smiled gently as he could feel even the tips of his ears burning up, “T-thank you, Nishinoya.”
“No prob…”
Nishinoya was suddenly fully aware of his own heartbeat. It was going, “BADUM,” “BADUM,” “BADUM,” the moth attack must have really gotten to him! He squeezed Asahi’s arm even tighter, he smelled of soap. Every step they were taking they were getting closer to the room. Nishinoya didn’t like that thought for some reason though, once they arrived, this would stop. “BADUM,” “BADUM,” “BADUM,” went his heart, it matched their footsteps. Maybe, just maybe, time could slow? Nishinoya shook the idea out of his thoughts. For now, he would just cherish this odd moment.
“BADUM,” “BADUM,” “BADUM,” without realizing, their heartbeats steadily rose in sync with their slow footsteps.