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Sitting in the dark not doing much, just waiting for the other players to arrive, a new first year Ushijima sat on the floor cleaning a volleyball bouncing it up everyone once in a while, until he saw someone. A lanky boy not being able to see much of him besides his vibrant red hair. Ushijima noticed something in his hands.
“Hello?” The lanky boy asked, sensing another human in the dark room, the lights suddenly sparked on when the red haired boy noticed a stocky, tall person appearing directly behind him. Looking into the eyes of the man with a mix of matcha and black hair, not noticing he was eventually staring into his eyes, “You’re eyes,” suddenly the green haired boy felt an immense amount of insecurities now looking down at his hands, “They’re really pretty!” The red head shouted in excitement, once the compliment reached his ears he started touching his face near his eyes. “Sorry that was a little out of left field, anyway my name’s Tendou, what’s yours?”
“Ushijima Wakatoshi.”
“The stoic type I see, would you mind if I called you Ushiwaka?”
Ushijima looked extremely confused and concerned, “What do you mean stoic?”
Tendou was shocked by the question expecting something different, “It’s not a big deal don’t worry. Anyway, do you play volleyball, what year are you?”
The newly dubbed Ushiwaka’s expression immediately changed from content to nervousness and stress, which turned into strange hand movements. Tendou tried to calm him down looking slightly frantic, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to over stimulate you the lights probably aren’t helping.” Tendou slammed the light off when he felt a hand on his heart, it was Ushijima, Tendou then placed his hand on Ushijima’s heart. If heartbeats could make noise it sounded like a screamo concert in a language he didn’t understand, but then it felt like a quiet lullaby sung by his mother, “Are you ok.” Tendou said while looking up.
Ushijima nodded taking a deep breath, “I’m fine, I’m sorry it’s my fault I’m not used to people wanting to talk to me.”
“I’m just happy you’re ok, at least now if this happens again we know how to handle it. Let’s just start over, I’m Tendou Satori, a first year at Shiratorizawa Academy, I’m a middle blocker on the volleyball team.”
“Ushijima Wakatoshi, I’m also a first year, I’m a wing spiker, more specifically I’m left handed,” Ushijima looked deeper into Tendou’s hands noticing a small box, “What’s in your hands?”
Tendou opened his hands, “A card deck, I got here early so I thought I would bring something to entertain me.”
“Can we play?” The spiker asked, while staring at the cards.
“Sure, what game do you want to play?” Tendou asked while sitting in the middle of the wooden floor of the volleyball court, being illuminated by the bright morning sun, shining through the windows.
Ushijima went to sit on the opposite side of him while the middle blocker started shuffling the cards very swiftly, “Do you know how to play speed?”
Tendou smirked, while piling the cards completing the setup in 15 seconds, with Ushijima following his hands swiping by, “Of course, I will say I’m pretty good if you want a challenge.”
“I’m always down for a good challenge.”
The two of their hands started bolting as the cards started to pile up, the cards one after another constantly picking cards up from their own piles, Tendou was the first to run out of cards.
Tendou smiled, “I’m impressed, I wasn’t expecting you to be so good at this. If you don’t mind me asking, when did you become so good at this?” Tendou asked while re-shuffling the cards, laying them back out while they started playing again.
“Every year my dad would give me a new deck of cards for my birthday, I always appreciated them but I didn’t have any friends so I would play by myself, I spent a lot of time playing by myself.”
“I know how you feel, people always called me a monster, they wouldn’t let me play on their teams so I played a lot of volleyball with the wall, and when I wasn’t playing with my best friend the wall, I played solitaire and I figured out how to play a lot of card games by myself, but it’s a lot of fun playing with you.” Once Tendou finished his sentence he continued to shuffle the cards they finished a game, and they started again.
“I also like playing with you, your hands move quite fast does that translate into your volleyball skills?”
“I guess, I am decently fast but I think my best quality is my intuition, I was called The Guess Monster.”
“Is the name an insult?”
“I mean it depends how you think about it, it was initially meant as an insult but as time went on I took it as a name that represents my skills, it’s my job as a middle blocker is to piss off the other team’s spikers people were so pissed at me that they called me insults.”
“You’re quite a positive thinker.”
“I was bullied a lot. I've always had a scary face, but I was always too weak to fight back so I decided that if I played a sport I could fight in different ways.”
“I don’t think that your face is scary,” Just as Tendou was about to thank Ushijima for the compliment, he placed his last card down, “I win.” Ushijima said blunt as ever.
“You sly dog, buttering me up to win.” Tendou poked, placing one of his hands under his chin.
“I didn’t do that, the cards are based on luck, so if you get better cards you have the advantage, but if there is a more advanced player with worse cards then they might just have better advantage. Like volleyball you can’t control the way gravity affects the ball you would need to control gravity, but the better the players the better advantage you have, but lunch is also a factor when it comes to a game, it’s not everything you need in a game even if you have the best players on one team, some normal highschool students could still win.”
During Ushijima’s rant Tendou sat infatuated with every word coming out of his mouth. “You really know your stuff when it comes to volleyball.”
“I would have hoped so I’ve been playing since I was around 2 but I was exposed to it before I was out of the womb. My mom used to tell me how my dad was watching a match while she was in labor.”
“You have no filter I like, anyways if you’ve been playing for that long you must be pretty good.”
“No, I don’t think I’m the best. The best players are the ones who have no skill but then become the best, going from nothing to something incredible is quite amazing, and worth admitting, I will never be the best player I was gifted with skill.”
“I can tell you’re really passionate about this.”
“Why wouldn’t I be, I don’t understand how anybody couldn’t love volleyball, it’s my entire life. Satori, do you plan on playing pro moving onto a V-League or the olympics?”
“No, this is my paradise but I can't, it breaks my heart knowing I may have to leave, Ushiwaka do me a favor, become the best even when I’m on the sidelines I want to cheer you on. I like you, you're a good dude.”
“I’ll do my best, I promise.”
“Promises are difficult to keep, are you sure?”
“I’m going to tell you 2 things, first of all I don’t make promises that I know I can’t keep, second of all I don’t make promises to many people. I can tell you feel comfortable around me.” Tendou looked up for a moment, slightly questioning what may have been a compliment, “Your eyes are like diamonds, including the slight sparkles, when I walked in they were diamonds but now they look more relaxed, even slightly closed, like a cat.”
“A cat, why so?”
“Cats are very high strung, when they find someone or something they feel comfortable around they tend to calm down.”
“You’re really smart, I can also tell you’re comfortable around me as well.” Ushijima raised a brow, “I met you about 45 minutes ago, all we have done is sat, talked, and play a simple card game, and you got overwhelmed when I asked a few questions, nothing is wrong with that everyone has different ways of functioning, in that span of like 30 games you’re talking in full paragraphs, it’s nice I like your voice. Ushi, can I ask you a question?” Ushijima nodded, “Are you autistic?”
“Yes.”
“Blunt as a spoon, thank you for wanting to talk to me. We should do this more often, how does next Saturday, how does every Saturday I’ll be here early make sure you’re here.”
“I also had a good time, I’ll be here early, let’s start practicing. I want to see your skills.”
Ushijima stood up grabbing the ball, holding it up with one hand. Pointing it at the sun lit Tendou, with one word Ushijima could move mountains, with one word, “Ready?”
Tendou’s eyes glimmered with a smirk, “Ready!”
-
2 years later, on the first pratifc of Ushijima and Tendou’s first practice of their last year.
The new ace of Miyagi walked out of the gym, with The Guess Monster chasing behind him, “Ushiwaka-kun what did you think of the new first years, do you like any of them?” Tendou asked.
“I can’t say much about them, I only met them today.”
“That’s not the point, I mean did anyone catch your eye, what was his name, the one with the bowl cut I think he has amazing potential.”
“Nobody threw my eye, Satori.”
“I- nevermind don’t bother, maybe I’ll give him a deck of cards, then he can start playing speed like we did or maybe I’ll give him multiple then it can be like a little tradition.”
“I’m not opposed.”
“I’ll give it to him when we graduate, or maybe after nationals.”
“They.”
“Oh right sorry, I’ll give it to them when we graduate.”
-
The day of finals before nationals right before the game Tendou and Goshiki stood in the bathroom
“Are you nervous, Goshiki?”
“A little, but nerves won’t help.”
“Perfect, win or lose there's still more time for you to go where you want, I know you want to go far and I know you will, and I’ll be there for you so don’t stress too much.” Tendou said comforting them while putting a clip to hold their bangs back.
“Thank you Tendou."
“Don’t even mention it, we all love you.”
They left the bathroom onto the court, then the ball fell, the last point was lost. Tendou pulled in Goshiki while pushing Ushijima to the side, the red haired blocker pushed the future ace’s bangs back, “Don’t be sad, it’s just highschool, you have so much more time to do everything in life, I’m gonna graduate soon which is fine you can get through everything without us, but if you ever need anything feel free to call.” Tendou pulled out a small card box taking out the ace of hearts and ace of diamonds, he handed Goshiki the ace of hearts and Ushijima the ace of diamonds, “For my two favorite aces these have my number on them so if you need anything, from a car jump to a friend to talk to.”
“Goshiki, you can always call me as well, I’ll see you in the V-leagues.”
After Tendou’s and Ushijima's little speech card in hand, the tears started to run down in larger waves, “Thank you, I won’t let you down!”
Tendou and Ushijima jumped into Goshiki’s arms pulling him into theirs. “I know you won't,” Tendou said, moving his hands through their hair. “You’ve already made us proud.”
Walking out of the gym, heads still high even after defeat, Shiratorizawa walked out with pride in tack and with their future ahead.
-
The day of Shiratorizawa’s graduation, the entire volleyball team sat in the gym 3rd years in suits.
“My, my you look dapper.” Tendou complimented Ushijima.
“You also look nice, do you have the cards?”
Tendou pulled out a 3 pack of cards. “Can I give these to them?” Ushijima asked, Tendou nodded.
Ushijima walked up to them and pulled them to the side, “Do you like card games, Goshiki?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Tendou and I have this little tradition, every time we have practice on a Saturday we get there early and we play a game called speed.” He said cracking open one of the decks, “We want you to continue the tradition, I’m going to give you these, find a person to play with then when you graduate I want you to give one of these decks to your favorite kohei, ok.”
“Whoa really that’s really cool I would love to continue this!”
“Ready?” Ushijima asked, laying out the cards in the normal setup.
“Ready!” Goshiki replied.