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“Well,” Shouyou murmurs, “I’m screwed.”
He’s not being dramatic. He’s being truthful. Because in front of him stands the damned Ushijima Wakatoshi in all his glory, with a scowl that could make the most strong-willed of high schoolers wilt in fear. And within his sights, is one poor, unwitting Hinata shouyou.
‘This is it’ Shouyou thinks. ‘This is how I die.’ he continues.
The overgrown high schooler who must’ve drank milk at consistent 2 hour intervals for all his life up to now keeps walking in Shouyou’s direction and it takes all of Hinata and Shouyou’s combined bravery and courage to fight the urge to turn around and bolt for the nearest elevated surface he can jump to and hide in, because he would be deluding himself if he thought that Ushijima can’t reach the heights he can. As Ushijima consistently gets closer to Shouyou, he finds it a losing battle.
“Hinata Shouyou.” Ushijima says once he gets within an arm’s distance, and had he been a weaker man, he would’ve already turned tail and ran for the hills. Unfortunately, while he may not be a weak man, that by no means makes him a stronger man either, so instead he chooses to step 5 paces back from him, conveniently out of arm's reach.
“Ushijima!” Shouyou will not let his fear stop him from basic human politeness, though, “How are you?” the words “are you here to kill me?” go unsaid.
“I have been good.” He says, and he continues boring holes into Shouyou’s soul with murderous intents from his earth toned irises. It is a truly disturbing feeling.
“Uh-huh,” Shouyou replies, “So, what brings you to me?” He inquires, because he needs to know if this is how he gets murdered. He is a coward, but he’s a living coward, and he’d like to keep it that way, thanks.
“I want to ask about how you learnt to play.” Ushijima… asks? His tone is framed like a statement, but Shouyou has long learnt to stop questioning his generation’s volleyball players’ idiosyncrasies. Most times, there’s no explanation, and other times, he wishes he could unlearn the reason.
But Shouyou can’t exactly tell the truth here, so he simply omits some important details, “I learnt from friends, and this neighbourhood volleyball association I play with! They’re super cool.” he announces, desperately hoping the excitement hides his inability to lie, even by omission, “Why do you ask?”
Ushijima is a very no nonsense kind of guy, even in Hinata’s life, so Shouyou really should’ve expected what he says. “You play like someone who’s used to a bigger body, and with experience you shouldn’t have, considering your age.” He ruthlessly surmises.
To that Shouyou only has one thing to say ;
Fuck.
Was he really that obvious?
“Haha,” Shouyou awkwardly laughs, because that was uncomfortably right on the money and he now has to deflect hard, “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or insult, Ushijima-kun.” Please fixate on the undeserved closeness of that honorific please-
“It is a comment.” He skips right over the perceived friendliness and straight to the question, “with neither positive or negative connotations.” he continues on his path, undeterred. “And one I -forgive my rudeness- do not understand.” He finishes his 16 hit combo to Shouyou’s belief in his own ability to lie and hide secrets, all while managing to stuff a jab at his height in there too. Shouyou is honestly kind of impressed.
“Well, then you need not understand!” Shouyou exclaims, and no, he’s not being petulant right now, he swears, “My secrets as to how I train are closely guarded!” He dares to refuse Ushijima’s request, and as soon as he realises what he said, he damn near pales.
’This is how I die.’ He reaffirms to himself, and he thought if he were an anime character, this is where the animator or mangaka would draw a funny closeup shot of his face with those worried blue lines going down the side of his face.
To his absolute shock, Ushijima nods, as if agreeing or understanding. “I too would not reveal the secrets of how I train to my enemies or rivals.” He says, and Hinata nearly sweatdrops, “Forgive my underhanded tactic.” He adds, and Shouyou almost laughs. As it is, he’s too busy feeling relief to find any humour in it right now. He’ll definitely laugh about it later though, when he can process this whole conversation.
“All is forgiven!” Shouyou quickly affirms, before politely bowing to someone who’s technically his senior right now, despite the time travel nonsense, “I have to go now, Ushijima-san! I enjoyed talking with you!” Shouyou yells as he walks away, because his courage has run out for the day. Ushijima simply nods politely and resumes walking to wherever he wanted to go before he saw Shouyou.
Unbeknownst to Shouyou, that would not be the last time he saw Ushijima Wakatoshi before he was meant to.
_________________
They met again once Shouyou was starting out in Karasuno.
“Ushijima-san!” Shouyou dares to start the conversation this time, because he’s got to stop being a coward sooner than later damn it. He’s also holding a basket full of groceries which he can use as both a shield and weapon, but that’s neither here nor there.
“Hinata Shouyou.” He nods politely, and he reaches out beside him to add a bag of cookies to his basket, along with what seemed to be milk, onigiri and… gardening tools? Shouyou doesn’t comment, because while that feels very gap moe of him, he doesn’t judge.
Ushijima doesn’t seem quite as aware of social etiquette as him, though. “Is that 8 whole bags of Kinoko no Yama?” He asks, and he looks nothing short of disturbed by that. It’s not Shouyou’s fault that these specific flavours are discontinued in 3 years!
Ushijima doesn’t know it though, so instead he answers, “My sister wants to give some food away to friends.” He lies, and he hopes that it’s not obvious. The social brick masquerading as Japan’s future top ace does not notice.
“I see.” He basically grunts, with how short and deep it was -truly unfair! Hinata would complain in his shrill voice- and he continues looking through the snack aisle for a specific brand, or something. Shouyou wouldn’t know, he’s not an Ushijima whisperer.
Whatever he’s looking for, he does not seem to find it, and instead chooses to face Shouyou fully, with eyes that look determined. And Shouyou starts wondering if a lowly basket is enough to prevent his death if Ushijima wants to kill him.
He didn’t know much about Ushijima from Hinata’s life as he didn’t meet him much, damn it! How is he supposed to know if he’s got violent tendencies or not? He just gives off the aura of someone who always has criminal intent in their minds.
“Give me your number.” He says instead, and Shouyou’s mind abruptly and sharply changes lanes from murder to murder but premeditated.
“Sure!” Shouyou says instead, because he’s got no self preservation instinct, apparently.
And so, that is how Shouyou leaves a grocery store with one extra number in his phone, lovingly named “My possible murderer (Ushijima)”
_________________
The next time they meet, it’s actually planned.
Ushijima invites him to the Shiratorizawa court on a weekend, citing practice and a bonding activity. Shouyou thinks it’s an elaborate plan to take out competition while he’s ahead. He voices none of that however and agrees, because he has accepted that he has no ability to keep himself alive.
He arrives on time, and Ushijima is waiting for him by the front gate. He looks impassive as usual.
“Hello, Hinata-kun.” Oh yeah, that happened.
Over a few months of chatting, Shouyou is shocked to find they get along like ice cream and french fries. That is to say, surprisingly well. Conversation is easy between them due to shared interests and he’s neither overly formal or stuck up in the way he texts. Surprisingly, he seems to have a talent for reading through typos because Shouyou would have you know if he stops typing with an obnoxious amount of mistakes, call the cops because it’s not him anymore.
That closeness means naturally their honorifics have changed as well. And Shouyou is mostly convinced he’s no longer a murderer. Progress? Progress.
“Ushijima-kun!” Shouyou greets, a beaming smile on his face. He runs up to him and gives him a good strong High five, which Ushijima doesn’t realise and so the high five is met with a confused fist in the air. Not quite the right response, but he’ll take it!
“How have you been?” Shouyou asks, and Ushijima easily slides into an explanation of his training plans and Shouyou responds in kind. Talking is easy now, and they chat as they walk towards the gym. Shouyou valiantly ignores the confused gazes of everyone else as they wonder what a tiny kid is doing chatting with their stoic antisocial Ushijima Wakatoshi, inside the school too, no less.
They reach the gym in due time, and both easily slip onto a court for spiking and receiving practice. Shouyou would spike, Ushijima would receive, and then ushijima would set the ball he received to spike it himself, and Shouyou would receive to do the same thing. It’s doubly exerting as playing with someone else, but it’s fun, and it's thrilling, locked in a one on one against each other where it truly is only up to them and their individual abilities alone, no second player to rely on.
Far outside their notice, a crowd gathers as they watch the back and forth, demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages between power and speed. It’s thrilling. Point after point slams on both halves of the net, neither side seeming to win despite multiple points in a row. There never can be, they never set a point where one side wins. They simply play until they can’t.
It was a good day.
_______________
Shouyou doesn’t meet Ushijima much from there.
They keep in touch, but both are preoccupied with training for the inter high qualifiers, so neither attempts to even ask to meet in person. It’s simply a silent understanding between them both. They need their time to train and beat each other.
Though, Shouyou refuses to delude himself. They won over Aoba Johsai just barely last time, and Shouyou, even with future knowledge, knows that their chance as a fledgling team beating a well established giant like Shiratorizawa is slim to none. Not at first, anyway. It doesn’t stop him from training like they’ve got a chance though.
He rushes against time he knows he doesn’t have to improve himself, maybe improve his team as well, but for as much as they listen to him, they can’t get by on pure theory either. They still need the tokyo camp for the experience. It’s frustrating, knowing how to get them past the finish line but not being able to act on it.
So for a while, Shouyou and Ushijima’s chats are online only, and it doesn’t put so much as a dent in their friendship.
________________
They meet again at inter high, where usually it would only be the third or fourth time they see each other in person at best -Hinata’s memories are a bit blurrier here- now they get along like old friends, much to the shock (and horror) of Karasuno.
Shouyou ignores that however, and conversation flows easily as they skim over their respective progress in different aspects of the sport.
They play, and they lose, as it went for Hinata. Shouyou finds he doesn’t hate it as much as he thought he would.
______________
They meet again, and again, over the years.
But today is one of the more important of their benign and aimless meetings. Shouyou holds his luggage close to his chest, an extra suitcase by him as he sat in the nice higher end cafe he asked to meet at, partly because Ushijima is fairly well off and could afford to spend a day here, though it takes coercion, and because Shouyou wants this to be special.
Ushijima appears through the door, his already large stature somehow getting even bigger, and if there was any trace of boyishness in him before, not even a hint of it remains in his chiselled jawline and sharp eyes. The years have taken Ushijima, a boy who was already unreasonably handsome, and made him handsomer. Shouyou knows that’s not a word but he can’t help it! Look at him!
And all too soon, Ushijima Wakatoshi sits in front of him in person for what may be the last time in a long time.
“Shouyou.” He greets, taking a seat in the comically small chair. Shouyou would say he didn’t mean to pick this bar stool seat just to see Ushijima attempting to sit in the comparatively tiny seat, but he’d be lying.
“Toshi-kun! It’s been a few weeks, how has life treated you?” Shouyou easily starts, and like every other time, Ushijima starts talking about how Schweiden Adlers has been an excellent team for his career, and new team plays they’re developing, and the -hilarious, from an outside perspective- ways Ushijima’s teammates have tried to assimilate him into their social circle. The poor fools will learn eventually that if you try to slip Ushijima into a social circle, by his sheer brick-ness in social situations he’ll single handedly turn that circle into a square. That analogy will have made no sense to anyone but Shouyou, but it gets the absurdity of the idea of Ushijima willingly being in a large social circle across, he thinks.
Ushijima is positively beaming as he speaks, and Shouyou?
Shouyou is taking in this moment like the tides take to the moon.
The way the morning going on noon sunlight pours through the windows, curtaining the entire cafe in a golden light, they way the porcelain cup he holds has just the slightest grainy texture, the strong smell of coffee and other pastries wafting through the cozy room, the hardwood flooring, the way the barstool’s cushions feel soft yet firm enough to be comfortable seating, the slow and quiet jazz floating through the air.
And most of all, he takes in Ushijima. How the sunlight flatters his sharp features, how his body posture seems completely at home in the tiny seat, how his shoes seem to be worn in by the scuff marks on the soles, how he slowly sips at the coffee Shouyou ordered in advance, how he reads through his phone while talking as if it takes none of his brain power to converse with Shouyou because it’s just so easy.
He locks it all to his memory, as the sun sets to twilight, and he bunches his hands together, and he takes a breath to settle his nerves.
“I have something I have to tell you.” Shouyou decides to rip the bandaid off, quick and less painful, “I’m leaving,” He says, then like an afterthought, he adds, “To brazil.”
Ushijima falters for a moment, but he steels his body language back into casual, though from the tiniest crease in between his eyebrows, and from the hint of rigidity that goes through his fingers as he scrolls with just a bit more aggression, it’s forced.
“When?” He asks first and foremost.
“In two days, exactly.” Shouyou says, because he never stopped being a coward, and while he’s confident in his decision, he hoped that if he never spoke it, it wouldn’t come, or at least not so soon. He put off telling Ushijima for weeks and now they’ve got just shy of 32 hours left before they may never see each other for years.
“I see.” Ushijima murmurs, and his eyes glance down again, as if looking for something that isn’t there. “Why?”
Why is a good question. Shouyou doesn’t think he could answer it completely truthfully now. He doesn't know if he could ever answer it truthfully. He knows why Hinata went, but he’s only going because Hinata did, and he was successful, was he not? But why does Shouyou want to go?
“That’s a simple question.” Shouyou says, and decides to speak his truth ‘less he holds his silence forever. “I want to get stronger, strong enough to beat you.”
And isn’t that the core of it now?
Shouyou wants to beat many people. He will always want to be stronger. But deep down he knows the biggest reason he wants to follow the path Hinata carved, beyond just the simple reason of knowing it’s a tried and true method.
He has a rival in the man named Ushijima.
Hinata had Kageyama, but Shouyou isn’t Hinata anymore. And Kageyama didn’t start as a rival for Shouyou. He started as someone Shouyou had to help teach teamwork, someone he had helped cultivate, instead of rival with and grow together with. And it’s not Kageyama’s fault, but that change has happened and can’t be reversed.
Ushijima? He was never someone Shouyou had to coddle. He was his rival since the day they had met, and they always fought on equal grounds despite -or maybe because of- Shouyou’s situation. They grew together and learnt together.
Yes, Hinata had Kageyama, and Shouyou? Shouyou has Ushijima.
The reason was all Ushijima needed to understand, because deep down they are much one in the same in how they think. Just like that, Ushijima nods in acceptance, and he gives Shouyou a determined look.
“I’ll wait for the day you return to challenge me.” He declares. The words “I won’t forget you.” are left unspoken but heard.
With that, Ushijima pulls Shouyou into a hug that lasted for what felt like minutes, despite it likely only holding for a measly 20 seconds. ‘This is a good way to say goodbye.’ Shouyou decides, as he holds Ushijima close, ‘This is a good way to remember you.’ He muses.
If Shouyou were paying attention, he’d notice the slightest dampness on his shirt where Ushijima laid his head.
___________________
‘
Two years go by.
They move along like a train speeding past a station. It’s fast, it's brief, and you barely make out even the most basic of its details before it’s already left your peripheral. But you know it happened, and your memory holds.
Hinata sets his foot down on japanese ground for the first time in two years, and he takes a breath in. he pops his back, and he smiles to himself, it’s wide, it’s unbridled and it’s beaming.
The sunkissed skin along his arms and legs are a stark contrast to the pale locals greeting family and friends, and his broader shoulders give him the illusion of height. His hair is trimmed a bit shorter, and yet the fiery quality it had didn’t dim by even a bit.
Anyone could recognize him still at a passing glance.
Before he could hope to call, strong arms wrap around him, and he’s dragged into a hug that he wouldn’t be able to forget if it took him 50 years to feel it again. It’s stilted in the torso, like the hugger doesn’t know how to angle themself, the arms are a bit rigid and stilted, and the hands are splayed wide, but timid, as if unsure if this is what you’re supposed to do when hugging. And Shouyou could recognize it with just the hands.
“Toshi!” He cried out, and if he were beaming before, he was now shining. “it’s been way too long!” He nearly shrieks, but Ushijima remains undeterred. The hug is firm, and he stays rooted in his spot, and Shouyou hugs back just as fiercely.
“Shouyou.” Ushijima starts, and he sounds disturbed. Shouyou expected something sappy, but in true Ushijima 'I can’t socialize if it kills me and everyone I care about.' Wakatoshi fashion, he comments, “The extra vitamin D did not help your height at all.”
Shouyou is indignant.
“Oy, you see me after two years and that’s what you say? Really?” he squeaks, and he grabs for Ushijima’s face, which he expertly dodges with long learnt muscle memory, after the fourth time Hinata backhanded his nose.
Ushijima lets out a small smile that almost seems smug, and in Ushijima body language that means he’s smug enough to make Tsukishima look humble. “I’m being honest.” He chuckles, and Shouyou elbows him in the ribs, which does not faze Ushijima even the slightest bit.
‘Yes,’ Shouyou thinks. ‘I’m home.’
___________________
It’s been a few months since he landed back home.
The days pass on like honey dripping from a cup. It’s slow, and it's gradual, but it’s sugar sweet, almost saccharine, and it’s absolutely wonderful. Ushijima and Shouyou make up for lost time, and Shouou resolutely ignores the feeling he gets in the pit of his stomach when they get too close, when Ushijima takes a chance and holds him closer in a way that can either be friendly or something more, depending on what Shouyou wants it to be. And Shouyou resolutely ignores the happiness that flutters through his heart, the earthquakes that go through his limbs when Ushijima holds them closer to him.
The damned romance books lied! There are no butterflies in his stomach, just the slow thoughts of something more dripping into his mind like treacle, slowly but surely, and he doesn’t know what to do with himself. What is he gonna do, none of Hinata’s memories ever had this in any capacity! Romance was a mere faraway thought for him!
Not for the first time and he’s sure not for the last either, he envies Hinata.
And now he lies awake with his mind swirling around like a typhoon trying to process it all, mere days from the Schweiden adlers V Black Jacklas match, feeling like it’s only comparatively minutes away after 2 years of a promise to come back stronger than Ushijima. To copy future slang which he knows will come into style in time ; He can’t cope.
_________________
They meet again on the court, on opposite sides of the net, as they started and as they ended, to Shouyou’s memory. He wouldn’t have it any other way. He shakes hands with Ushijima in a firm grip laced with promises of times past and Ushijima grips his hand back with crushing force in kind.
“I won’t lose.” They both silently say through a glance and a handshake.
Let the match begin.
___________________
The game is proving to be grueling, and despite Hinata’s memories of winning, Shouyou can’t help but feel the anxiety of losing, because Ushijima this time around is somehow stronger. Shouyou has no proof but he swears he is. It may be the challenge Shouyou issued, or any other butterfly effect that Shouyou unwittingly started, but he is, and it’s proving to be a real issue.
Shouyou dashes this way and that like a madman trying to keep up with his monster spikes paired with Kageyama’s speed and precision, and Shouyou’s sure that if they even win at all, it’ll be by a slim margin, enough so that many calculators would consider it a rounding error. Still, he perseveres and pushes his legs to run faster, despite the shrieking of the muscles tearing as they try to keep up with him. The game isn’t even over yet, and he can already feel them beginning to go sore. Never a good omen.
He takes a breath in and out, and his lungs scream as if they’re on fire, but he ignores his body’s pleas to stop and lets sheer force of will carry him the rest of the way there, and he sets up for what feels like his last jump not just for this game, but for at least three days. He’s weaker and his jump by all logic should be slower, shorter, but Atsumu trusts in Shouyou to keep up and Shouyou won’t be the one to fumble the ball right at the finish line.
Set 5 of 5, deuce, 24-25 in Schweiden Adler’s favour. If he flubs this spike he’s being entrusted with, they lose. If he manages to hit it, it still won’t be a winning point either way. It’s stressful and it shoots his heart with another dose of adrenaline.
It’s thrilling. He wouldn’t want it any other way.
The ball is received by Sakusa, and he barely gets it to Atsumu, and though you need not give him a perfect pass for him to make a toss handcrafted for his separate spikers, even Kageyama Tobio would not have managed much more than bumping the ball in the vague direction of the nearest spiker with that kind of pass.
Hinata breathes in, breathes out again, and his body activates, every muscle burning as he gives chase to the wildly out of control ball with all the speed he has, and he just manages to touch the toss -though it’s not by much- and he’s sure this will be a flubbed spike, until he notices something out of the corner of his eye.
It’s a ridiculous plan. The word moonshot would not even begin to cover how ridiculous this idea would be. But he’s barely able to even get a hand on the ball as it is and no one else is nearby enough to cover for him if someone blocks it, a normal spike would be asking to be wiped.
He looks at the spot between four different potential receivers, all of which are in motion to block him or get closer for a more sure chance at receiving. With a weird and unorthodox enough spike, what are the chances that shooting at them as opposed to away from them would surprise them enough that no one can get a hand on it surely enough to receive it?
Shouyou looks at his rapidly descending height. No time to figure that out.
It was an untested idea. Shouyou had toyed with the idea and created a rough sketch of the theory while on the beach, but due to wind it was never sure enough, and he gave up the idea of testing it in game. If there’s ever a time for it to work, it would be now, in an indoor court where wind is a minimal factor, on the deciding point of a game that’s been multiple years coming for him. So he goes for it.
He locks on his aim, and twists his body to just about give him enough arm’s reach to bump the ball in the direction of the four people approaching him as opposed to away from them, he then flicks his wrist with all his might, but in such a way it allows him to pull out his previously hidden trump card, and it’s such a weak hit for a moment it almost looks like a floater.
And that is the moment his team realizes what he’s just done.
The spike is hit so weakly that it has no sure spin, allowing it to mimic the qualities of a floater, and combined with the unexpected direction of the ball, all four of the adlers aiming for the ball aren’t able to receive it, either bumping into each other in their attempts or not being able to predict where the ball is truly going.
His hidden -previously untested- trump card has just entered Shouyou’s hand.
Floater Spike.
His team cheers loudly behind him as Shouyou’s grin shifts from excited to unbelievably smug. His legs still feel like they’ve been set on fire, and his unprepared wrist aches just a bit from having to stretch that far to allow it at such a weird angle, but he’s still basically beaming nonetheless.
Set 5, 25-25. Black jackals are back in the game.
At the back of his mind, Shouyou is vaguely aware of Meian-san giving a speech while praising Shouyou, but he ignores it, because the reaction he’s after is in front of him, and my god, does it make Shouyou want to cackle.
Ushijima Wakatoshi is frozen in place. And he might be showing the most amount of shock at one time in his whole life. His mouth is the closest it’ll ever get to openly gaping, and if Shouyou were an imaginative man, he can see Ushijima questioning everything he knew about the game in his head.
He sends a confident smirk his way. “Come and get me, bitch.” it says.
Hilariously, Ushijima does not dignify it with a response.
______________
The scoreboard now sits at 27-27. Shouyou’s insane spike only got them to draw, and at this point he’s tired enough he won’t be shocked if he faints the moment the whistle for the final point is blown. He’s been advised to move to the bench, but he knows how the human body works. When it is tired, if you stop even for a moment, it will collapse and cease to function. If he benches himself now, he’ll be out for the rest of the game, and he wants to be there for the winning point, damnit.
The rallies are lethargic now, as everyone on the court shares his sentiments of “please end already” and are trying not to fatally tear a ligament or cause a heart attack for themselves, and that includes even the most insane of players like Atsumu too. What’s the point of winning now if you immediately go into a stroke when your body gets the go ahead to stop moving?
Shoyou breathes in and out again, and he swears he’s moments away from collapsing. Two more points. Two more points and it’s over. Two more points. Two is a miniscule number to the 100 points needed to get to set 5, excluding the deuces in the previous sets. 2 is miniscule even to the 25 needed to win a set, excluding deuce. 2 is miniscule in volleyball.
2 points feels like the scariest wall Shouyou has ever had to scale.
It feels like he’s staring at a wall built to catch only his toes, just short enough to give him hope that he’ll manage to leap over it, just tall enough to destroy his hope at the last moment and cause him a fatal fall. It’s not the tallest, not even close, nor is it the strongest, but it’s the scariest because it seems so passable at a glance. For the first time in a long time, he’s truly uncertain if he can make it over should he take the chance to leap. And that is scarier than an iron curtain he knows he can’t break, or a mountain he knows he can’t scale, because at least he knows. At least he knows his chances. This wall invites him to try even through the uncertainty and Shouyou doesn’t know if he can prepare himself for how much further he’d have to fall if he tried to jump, as opposed to staying put where he stands.
Breathe in, breathe out. Two points is miniscule. He will manage. He must. Hinata managed, and so he must as well.
His bones feel like they’re creaking, but he forces them to move despite swearing he can feel them rusting as they grinded against one another like a long unused hinge. He heads up to the net again. He bends his knees to jump and they nearly buckle underneath him from exhaustion, but he forces them up and prepares to jump, he sees blockers, two of them chase after him, and he sees Sakusa running opposite, with a blocker of his own to stop him.
Shouyou locks eyes with Atsumu, who has no blockers where he stands, and he nods at him.
One breath, just stay standing until the next step, just one more step.
He runs for the ball passed to Atsumu, and he reaches it before it reaches Atsumu and forces Atsumu to set anyway. He jumps and intercepts it, and he swears he can feel his soles bruise as he jumps off the balls of his feet, and expertly, he sets to Atsumu, who has a clear path. None of the blockers -lethargic and tired as they are- will be able to get to Atsumu in time.
Atsumu spikes it straight down.
27-28, in black jackal’s favour.
___________________
It’s Shouyou’s turn to serve. He’s been rotated to the back row, and Ushijima is up front. They have to end this now, or else Ushijima’s canon of a spike will bag 3 points in his three turns at the front with how tired everyone is.
Shouyou breathes in and out. How come it always ends up down to him and him alone in situations like these? He doesn’t find it fair. It’s not good for his heart.
Breathe in, breathe out. He can do this.
He decides on a serve that would exploit the adler’s tendency to predict his movements based on patterns.
He chooses an underhand serve. It’s yet another moonshot at yet another time of need, but Shouyou’s slightly more confident in this one. Only slightly however, but it has to be enough. It has to be.
In theory, jumping with an underhand serve would allow the ball to go much further, if hit before the peak of the jump where your body is still trying to go up. The combined force of your arm and the momentum of your body would, In theory, give it much more height and power and hence, much higher terminal speed when falling, making it much harder to receive. It will never fly in normal matches, but in a match where the adlers best defenders are in the front row right now, and everyone else is tired? It has a chance. Especially when the difficulty of receiving a ball from straight up is considered. The adlers would not be used to it.
But it is still just that, a gimmick. A gimmick that’s hard to aim, a one time surprise use that’ll be useless after, once the adlers expect it. But a one time gimmick is all Shouyou needs right now.
He bends his legs to jump, and the whistle blows. He wastes no time, ‘less he collapses where he stands. He leaps, and he throws his ball up. It looks too short for a normal jump serve, and he can practically see the adlers lowering their guard.
A fatal mistake in front of the unpredictable variable of Hinata Shouyou.
He hits the falling ball as his body is still in the process of going up to the peak of his jump, and as theory says, the ball soars.
It parabolas to Ushijima in a high arc, and Ushijima never has been the best defender in any team he plays on. His receive fumbles, and before anyone could hope to cover, the ball bounces off at a weird angle.
It’s a wipe.
27-29, Black jackals wins.
Shouyou promptly collapses. It’s almost immediately after the whistle is blown, and as he looks at the ref, he notices the ref looks tired just watching the match. ‘Oh you don’t know the half of it’ Shouyou wants to say, but none of his muscles are listening to him, and that includes his mouth. He lays in a heap right at the serving box. He’s vaguely aware of someone cheering his name, but he’s too dead tired to think, so he doesn’t and he shuts his eyes, and every sound that reaches his ears filters through as white noise.
It’s a few minutes before his eyes open to an ecstatic Atsumu laughing as he sits next to him, and bone deep tiredness visibly clings to both of them like an old memory. Atsumu is rambling about god knows what, and Shouyou doesn’t get a chance to ask as some reserve players rush to pick both of them up to stuff with water, carbs, and hopefully toss them a pillow while they’re at it. Bless their heart, they’re incredibly gentle and careful with him, but that helps naught as his muscles protest every slight shift of his limbs. Hanging uselessly as if he were a lifeless body. He feels like being one right now. Passing out sounds really nice right about now.
The coach doesn’t start a speech or an evaluation, instead he deeply bows to them with a smile gracing his lips, a shine in his eyes, causing the whites of his corneas to seemingly shimmer and the chocolate toned irises to look like glaze. His words are succinct but they get the point across. “Thank you, for all you’ve done today.”
It takes all of what little energy Shouyou had left to smile at him, and he then promptly passes out, with the last noises he hears being the panicked exclamations of the newbies of the team who was holding him. He almost feels bad.
_______________
He was completely right to wonder if he'd even be able to move at all the next day. The answer is that he’s currently stuck in the infirmary bed to recover from exhaustion, and he can’t even get up to get the glass within arms reach of him. That is to say ; the answer is no. He's tried, but it proves both a futile and painful effort.
He stays rooted to the bed, and briefly contemplates yelling for help, before the door opens and in waltzes Ushijima, somehow looking like he was completely unaffected by yesterday at first glance. You can definitely see exhaustion seeping into his movements if you pay attention, but not at a passing glance. The world is unfair. Completely unfair. Shouyou easily ignores that he pushed himself to move a lot more than Ushijima did, admittedly sometimes needlessly -hindsight is 20/20, after all- in an attempt to prove himself to the much larger audience of his worth, of the fact he belongs in this team despite seemingly coming out of nowhere.
“You played well yesterday.” Ushijima starts, easily helping Shouyou sit up and drink. “I was amazed.” He praises, straight to the point with no fanfare.
“Clearly not well enough considering my state.” Shouyou sulks. And he’s not entirely wrong. He was the worst off of both teams' players, both because of how much he moved and because he lacked the same conditioning his teammates and enemies had done for much longer. Ushijima has none of that however.
“Do not be overly harsh to yourself, Shouyou.” He scolds, though his voice lilts with amusement at Shouyou’s petulant sulking, “That is how even the greatest players can be fell.” He explains, in his overly formal japanese. He unlocks his phone, scrolling through in a hurry, and easily finds the video he was after. It’s got lots of views, with commentary. It was his last match. Surprisingly, it seems to have blown up considerably.
“I know you pushed yourself to prove yourself. There was never a need, but I’m happy to say it worked.” Ushijima tells him, and Shouyou sees how he looked from an outside perspective. Coated in a thin layer of sweat, limbs moving stiltedly that clearly shows he’s tired, but he pushes on and still manages impossible receives and ridiculous spikes, feints, and decoys. Dare he say it- he looked cool.
And as if that wasn’t enough to inflate his ego, the commentators are going insane about this “incognito new member” who’s “explosively pushing himself onto the professional scene!” and hyping up his plays, sometimes losing all pretence of professionalism when he sprints across the court and out of bounds to catch a wipe before it can land. They do the same for other players too of course, but Shouyou’s focusing on when they do it for him. It’s fulfilling, exhilarating even, to see people obsess over his plays like he obsessed over the tiny giant. It feels like coming full circle.
Suddenly, as if realising Shouyou needs to be humbled ‘less he loses all his dignity, Ushijima immediately tacks on “Social media has memed both you collapsing and passing out multiple times over, though.” and Shouyou cannot care less. It’s too late to salvage his humbleness, Ushijima. You’re barking up the wrong tree.
Shouyou still checks his twitter though, because he knows that if they’re collectively memeing something, it has to be funny. Lo and behold, he was absolutely right. Be it simply people asking “Why he collapse like a boneless chicken tho” to his initial collapse right where he stood at the service box, or posting clips of him passing out after just managing a smile at his coach -to the panic of the newbies, he ought to apologise- and simply laughing at the comedic timing, people are deriving unnatural amounts of enjoyment at two simple clips. Who was he to stop them though?
As he continues scrolling through the tag “BlackjackalsVSchweidenAdlers” on tiktok, he nearly spits the water he was sipping out through his nose at a thirst trap edit of him. Oh my lords. Then he realises this is a prime chance for giving someone a heart attack, and through his verified tiktok account (thank you Atsumu!) he writes the simple comment “I nearly snorted my water because of this” and hits send, then continues to scroll like he didn’t just drop an internet nuke on a video.
‘Yes, this was a good game.’ He muses, as he ignores the notification of a reply from the video creator. And 15 different people.
_______________
He expected it to happen sooner than later.
Sure enough, the moment he could walk without feeling every bone creak like he was 90 years old, Ushijima asked him to meet up at this theme park that had opened nearby. He smiles to himself as he imagines idyllic first kisses at the peak of the ferris wheel, or them clinging to each other as they rocket down a -probably unsafe- roller coaster.
He chases the thoughts away with a mental duster, and double checks his outfit. It’s simple, not overly fancy, and he decides it’s good enough.
He had his fingers crossed as he waited for Ushijima’s car to pick him up.
_______________
Ushijima picks him up at exactly 5, and they drive to a cheap, quick dinner, where they joked and chatted and ate in a hurry to get to the theme park in time for the prettiest moment of sunset. As they ate at the cheap diner hurriedly while still joking, the 22 year old Shouyou feels like he’s 17 again, rushing through and hitting every cheap gift shop or snack shop in an entire area with Ushijima because it’s all they can afford but Shouyou still wanted to try all these snacks anyways, and he wanted to look for that perfect souvenir to remember that day by. But the moment passes in a rush, all too quickly for his liking, and Ushijima is already whisking them both away to the theme park, where he bolts for the roller coaster.
The day is spent rushing from attraction to attraction, the lines thankfully short as it had just opened, and was still quite hidden compared to the larger established amusement parks in the area. And as the sun starts to paint the sky purple tones undertone by golden streaks, Ushijima forces them both onto a ferris wheel basket like a man on a mission.
Time seems to realise it had to stay consistent with itself and it slows to a near halt as they begin the climb to the top, Ushijima and Shouyou staring out at the almost ethereal view of the sunset, seemingly painted by a master artist right in the comfort zone of their craft. It’s a perfect day, a perfect view for something bigger to happen.
As they reach the peak, Shouyou doesn’t even get the chance to think about how picture-esque it would look for them to hold each other’s hands here before his face is firmly but gently grabbed by strong hands, calloused from years of gardening and sports, and he follows its guidance like a man bewitched. He is met face to face with Ushijima’s hopeful face, inches away from a kiss. And Shouyou? Shouyou has always been a coward. But he also always knew when something was worth overtaking fear for.
Shouyou pushes forward and connects their lips, looping his arms around Ushijima’s neck, broad shoulders easily supporting the weight of his arms, and Ushijima responds in kind, hands holding the small of Shouyou’s back, as if trying to hold him here, as if fearing that if he didn’t physically hold him, Shouyou would pull away like a fleeting dream. The kiss is a bit timid, as it’s still their first time, but it feels right. It feels like this is what their first meeting 8 years ago was leading to. It feels like what Shouyou has always longed for without knowing it.
The view of the skylines bathed in sun rays is forgotten to the gentle caress of someone who they knew they’ve both wanted for years.