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Keishin likes to pretend he doesn’t care.
And he mostly doesn’t.
But he’s also a creature of habit and when the habit isn’t going according to plan, he gets antsy.
Sure he can handle the team without Ittetsu.
He’s a grown-ass man for crying out loud.
But Ittetsu’s supposed to be here.
“Anybody hear from Teach?” he barks as the kids are finishing up their warm ups. They all look at each other, mostly toward Sawamura and Kiyoko because, of the lot, They’re the most likely to hear from the missing teacher. Both shake their heads and Keishin makes a face, grousing, “Probably in a meeting…”
It’s happened more than once.
He shrugs it off for awhile, focusing on blocking and spiking practice. The kids are getting better, even the benchwarmers. He’s still not changing the lineup, but he’s feeling better about if any of them need to be switched out. The only thing he can't say is the nerves of being on the court. That's a thing that comes with being there in the thick of it and it’s going to have to happen when it happens. There’s really no preparing for it.
There’s a brief timeout while Kinoshita gets his fingers taped and they make sure Hinata is alright after blocking with his face again. Kageyama’s yelling at him and the redhead's yelling back so he’s probably fine. Saramura’s giving one of his world-weary sighs as Sugawara snickers next to him. Man Bun’s too busy flipping out about Hinata’s potential concussion to notice he’s being made fun of... again. They eventually get back to work and everybody’s working hard.
By the time it’s serving practice, he’s genuinely getting worried about the lack of a certain bespectacled teacher. He’s texted a few times and called him once throughout the evening but hasn't gotten anything back. He looks up long enough to note that Yamaguchi’s float serve is improving by a lot.
He calls for a break after they’ve all had a turn and heads into the school. It’s mostly deserted this time of night which feels weird. He also gets this odd feeling of deja vu as he heads to the teacher’s offices. He’d never come here often as a student, but it’d never been great when he had, lack of being a model student and all that.
He slowly opens the door and spots Ittetsu hunched over some paperwork. “Hey Spec-” and pauses, seeing Ittetsu is actually asleep at his desk. Notes with phone numbers and schedules and the kids’ grades are scattered over the top, under his arms. It’s looking like most of the starting lineup isn’t doing well which means they could be missing a few at the summer training camp.
Poor guy’s gotta be stressing out.
Keishin would be… is starting to…
He hadn't expected his faith in the team’s bench players’ under-shown skills to be tested this soon.
Maybe he’ll bump up the second year trio, get them some more designated practice than he’s already been given them.
Keishin shakes his head and gently tugs Ittetsu’s glasses off his face, placing them on the desk. He shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over the smaller male’s shoulders. There’s a moment’s hesitation and then he brushes some curly hair from the other’s face, bending to press a kiss to the teacher's temple. He leaves it at that and heads back for more practice.
Nobody says a word when he gets back, jacketless and in a notably better mood.
Nobody says a word when Ittetsu shows up about thirty minutes later, hair a little more disheveled than normal and wearing his jacket, too-long sleeves rolled and bunched at his elbows.