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He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. It was early morning and still fresh outside. Ennoshita had woken with a nervous feeling and he still felt nervous.
There is no reason to be nervous, you can do this, he told himself. It didn’t help much. He stood in front of the gym, all he had to do was take the three steps upwards and open the sliding door. It was only three little steps.
When he finally managed to ignore his fears and made the first step a shaky, high pitched voice surprised him.
“Go-good morning!”
He turned around ans saw Yachi behind him. Her hands were tightly wrapped around the strap of her school back. Big brown eyes looked at him and he saw a refection of his own emotional chaos in Yachis face.
“Good morning Yachi, you’re early,” he said when she arrived next to him at the bottom of the stairs.
“It’s the first day of school and I wanted to be here early,” she explained and her eyes drifted to the sliding door of the gym.
“I know what you mean,” Ennoshita nodded. Today was the first day of school, today was his first year as a third year, but most important, today was his first day as captain of the Karasuno Volleyball Club. He was so so nervous. It wasn’t like last year, when the third years would show up from time to time, now he was on his own with a bunch of crazy kids. He really hoped Tanaka and Noya would not scare the new first years or Kageyama and Hinata arguing all the time. Oh god, he was so not ready.
“Are you not entering?” Yachi asked him with a shy smile and Ennoshita noticed that he hasn’t moved an inch, since she joined him.
“I have to admit that I am a little to scared to enter,” he said and gave her a apologetic smile.
“I know exactly what you mean!” Yachi exclaimed and turned to him. Her fists were now clenched in front of her and she looked nervous but excited.
“It’s like super scary to enter, now that the third years are gone! I am really afraid to mess things up. What if the new first years are super mean or scary and what if there are no first years? Or what should I do when the team has a hard time? I can’t motivate them like Shimizu-san did, I mean she is a goddess! And Tanaka and Nishinoya will be so disappointed that it’s only me now, and-” Ennoshita grabbed Yachis shoulder because she was loosing herself in her worries. Suddenly he felt confident to do his job, it was like a magic spell.
“Don’t worry Yachi, everything will be alright. You aren’t Shimizu but you are a wonderful manager and you are not alone. You still have the team and me! I will help you as much as I can, I’m the new captain after all,” Ennoshita said and gave her a warm smile. Yachis face brightened up and she smiled happily.
“Thank you Ennoshita! I will try my best,” she answered and they both stood there in front of the gym, confident to master their new tasks.
“Let’s get inside, before the rest shows up,” the dark-haired boy suggested and they turned towards the gym door.
It was a new year and both didn’t know what would come but they knew they had each other and the team. They had Ukai and Takeda, two motivated and helpful adults, that would do everything to take the team to Nationals again. They had Tanaka and Nishinoya, that could be a lot of trouble but were loyal and good sempais. They had Kinoshita and Narita, that sometimes became side characters because they weren’t as chaotic and loud as the others but they were important pillars that stabilized the team. They had Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, their pitch server and coolheaded blocker and last but not least they had Hinata and Kageyama, the super effective and weird quick attack.
Yachi and Ennoshita looked at each other and nodded before they took the three stairs up and stood right in front of the sliding door. Ennoshita opened the door and both took a step inside.
“What are YOU doing here?” Ennoshita asked after he saw the inside of the gym.
Hinata fell almost down on his face. He had jumped to hit the ball Kageyama had set for him.
“Oh, hello Ennoshita and Yachi, we were just practising a little,” Kageyama answered. Hinata smiled over his whole face and asked Yachi if she could help them.
“Sure,” the manager said and put her school bag down.
“Ennoshita ~” a voice from behind sang and a arm was thrown over his shoulder. Tanaka grinned at Ennoshita and pulled him in to ruffle his hair. On Ennoshitas other side Nishinoya appeared and also grinned.
“What was that? Did my eyes lie to me?” he asked and looked super hyped.
“What do you mean?” Ennoshita asked and tried to get rid of Tanaka.
“You were totally hitting on Yachi,” Tanaka said and made suggestive movements with his eyebrows.
“I didn’t” Ennoshita fought back but Tanaka just snickered and Nishinoya just added: “You two were totally flirting! You didn’t even notice that we approached!”
Ennoshita became red, not because he had flirted – because his conversation with Yachi could hardly be called flirting – but because he hadn’t noticed Tanaka and Nishinoya so absorbed had he been. For Christ's sake, he didn’t even notice Kageyama and Hinata training inside the gym before he entered, even though they were both always loudly yelling at each other.
“Haha, Noya look, he is red as a tomato,” Tanaka laughed. Ennoshita decided now was the right time to use his new privileges.
“Another word and you do 100 extra sit-ups,” he warned them. Nishinoya and Tanaka laughed hard.
“And why should we listen to what you say?” Noya asked cheekily and whipped a tear from his eye.
“Because I am your captain now,” Ennoshita said. Tanakas arm fell from his shoulder and both boys looked at him with their mouths wide open.
“Shit, I totally forgot,” Nishinoya said and Tanaka nodded.
“Please no penalty,” Tanaka begged and Ennoshita smiled. Maybe being the captain of the Karasuno Volleyball Club wasn’t as exhausting or bad as he had thought.
Later he regretted ever becoming the captain, because Tsukishima and Kageyama started a fight, Tanaka scared the new first years, Yamaguchi got hit by a ball and Hinata had stomachache for no reason. Kinoshita made some rude comments and hid behind Narita, so Nishinoya couldn't hit him and take revenge. It was pure chaos and morning training hadn’t started jet. But Yachis eyes sparkled with joy and excitement and maybe that was one of Ennoshitas motivations not to quit right then and there.