Chapter Text
English is not my first language, so be nice!
Akaashi was tired. The day didn’t seem to be ending soon, and they already were done with most of the games planned for today. Bokuto, though, didn’t seem affected like he was at all. In fact, he looked excited for the final game they had today, a match with Karasuno.
“Karasuno? Again? Man, I hate competing with them in the end,” someone on the team said. Akaashi couldn’t tell who because he was focused on trying to catch his breath from the warm-up.
“Come on, guys, I can’t wait to get through Tsuki’s blocks today,” Bokuto said with a wicked smile on his face.
“What did you just call me?” Tsukishima asked from the other side of the net, a bored expression on his face.
Does this guy have ears on his back?
Bokuto didn’t seem to care about his anger and kept laughing with the team.
Tsukishima curled his lips in anger and returned to the warm-up when Tanaka yelled at him to focus.
“You really think you’re gonna get past my student that easily?” That was Kuroo, yelling from the other field.
“Bring it on! You fake Kuroo,” Bokuto shouted, pointing at Tsukishima.
Kuroo sighed and returned to his conversation with Kenma, while Tsukishima wore his annoyed and angry look.
Akaashi exhaled and shook his head in disapproval. He stepped onto the court while stretching his arms.
Do they always have to get so worked-up?
He couldn’t wait to finish and go to sleep already. Usually, he would be as excited as them, though he wouldn’t show it. But yesterday, he had stayed up late to practice his short sets. Coach had said he lacked skill in them, so he had worked until 10 p.m. in order to perfect them, and he did. The problem was that he couldn’t show it while being that worn out.
The game started, and as expected, Karasuno was harder to beat than last time. That’s the thing about them: they always seem to be better every match. But they weren’t better than them—not while Akaashi had a say in it.
“Akaashiii, send it to me!” Bokuto yelled from the back row.
Akaashi could set it to him, but in this position, while Karasuno had their weaker blockers line, it was better to set to the front players.
And yet, Akaashi set the ball to Bokuto.
Yes, it’s better to set to the front, but Bokuto seemed to be very excited, and Akaashi wanted to give him this point after he barely scored in the former line.
Bokuto jumped and hit the ball with everything he had. The ball hit Kageyama’s block and was saved by their captain. He didn’t manage to even blink before the ball was already hit and landed on their side of the court.
Damn, this fast attack of theirs sure is amazing.
“Akaashi! What do you think you are doing?” the coach yelled from the sideline. “Why didn’t you set to Konoha?! He was wide open!”
Coach Yamiji kept on screaming while the managers beside him seemed annoyed by his childish outburst. Konoha seemed to be annoyed too. Akaashi didn’t think he liked being the reason for this outburst. But Akaashi could see a little smile on his face that suggested he did like that the coach wanted the ball to come to him.
“Coach, I would have probably been blocked too,” Konoha started saying but stopped when he saw Akaashi signal him not to with his head.
“I’m sorry, Coach. I didn’t notice he was open,” Akaashi bowed to Coach Yamiji.
“Akaashiii!” Bokuto yelled in anger, “Don’t you ever apologize for setting the ball to me!”
“I am not apologizing for that, you idiot. I’m apologizing for not noticing Konoha.”
“That still counts!” Bokuto seemed determined.
Akaashi gave up on trying to reason with him and took his words back for him. Bokuto smiled and ran back to his position.
The game resumed, and Akaashi made sure to set the next ball to Konoha. He sneaked a look at the coach and relaxed when he saw him nodding in approval.
They won. It wasn’t a surprise for him, but damn, it felt good every time. He was smiling, but his smile was like a sad face compared to Bokuto’s screaming in joy.
It was just a practice match. Akaashi wondered what it would feel like to win the real deal. He bet the smile on Bokuto’s face would be enormous. He was smiling even bigger than a few minutes ago just by thinking of it.
“Good job. Go change before dinner, and remember the game starts tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.,” the coach said harshly. Well, at least he said they did a good job.
The others on the team started taking their stuff and leaving the gym.
“Akaashiii, come on, I want to practice with Kuroo right after dinner!”
“Go, I’ll catch up with you,” Akaashi said. He knew the coach would like to talk to him, and he would rather Bokuto wasn’t here for this. In fact, he would rather no one was here for this.
As expected, Coach Yamiji approached him right after Bokuto left.
“You know what you did wrong, right?”
Akaashi nodded to him and kept his gaze on his shoes while untying them.
“Good. Also, your short sets didn’t improve. You said you practiced them.”
“I did. They didn’t work out today. I’m sorry.”
Coach Yamiji didn’t look satisfied with his answer.
“I’ll practice them again today,” he said, and the coach nodded and went back to his business.
Akaashi sighed in disappointment. He really did want to sleep early today.
He looked to the other side of the net, where Karasuno was doing their punishment. They lost, but they didn’t seem to care that much. He could hear Tanaka praising Asahi for his serves, Hinata jumping around Kageyama over his new unbelievable sets, and Yamaguchi laughing beside an annoyed-looking Tsukishima.
It’s not that they were fine with losing; it was that they knew they were winning in their current goal to improve.
“Damn it! We are sure gonna get them next time!” Nishinoya yelled out of nowhere.
I guess they still hate losing, though.
Their coach got closer to Nishinoya and tried to calm him down. The others were busy laughing at his angry face while being so short.
Hinata joined him in the screaming, and their coach seemed ready to give up on calming them down.
Instead, he just stayed in his place and smiled at them.
Akaashi couldn’t take his gaze off him. He smiled at them; he even laughed with them. Then he turned back to Coach Yamiji, who was yelling at someone on his phone.
It must be nice to have your coach smile.