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“Hey Coach!” Tanaka called across the emptying hall, a pole weighing down his shoulder as he and Nishinoya heaved it across the gym and towards the storage cupboard.
“Yeah?” Ukai shouted back, pausing in his conversation with Takeda and casting his attention to the shaven headed boy on the other side of the room.
“You’re on a volleyball team right?” The sentence had begun muffled as the teen ventured into the storage cupboard briefly before popping out again, walking back towards Ukai to bring the conversation back between the two of them and not a spectacle for the entire team to witness.
“Uh, I, yeah?” Ukai sputtered out through a mouth twisted in confusion, eyes narrowed as he surveyed the teen standing before him now suspiciously, “What of it?”
“Can we come to a game?” Tanaka asked, hands buried in his pockets and tilting his head, a grin teasing across his face.
“Why on earth would you want to watch a bunch of old men play Volleyball?” Ukai grunted, face still squished into a look of utter confusion, beside him Takeda muffled a chuckle.
“Well, it’d be cool I think, to see how good our coach actually is.” Tanaka grinned, teeth bared while his face glistened with insolence that Ukai dearly wished to rid it of. However he could.
“Not very.” Ukai grunted, crossing his arms across his chest and offering nothing but a scowl with its usual partner, the glare, and turning away from one pleading teen to another, Hinata.
“Please? I’ve always wanted to see you play! You never got to when your team came here.” Hinata bounced on the balls of his feet, staring up and straight through Ukai. His heart was weak, particularly to shorties begging for something. That’s how he got this job in the first place.
“Fine. 7pm, Sunday night. The local public court, we only have one. I don’t want any of you sneaking there, you all have to get permission if you’re planning on going at all. Alright?” Ukai looked up to glare at the team who had paused in their cleaning, carefully observing the exchange. They all nodded, grins on their faces of varying intensities, Tsukishima excluded.
Takeda beamed at him before turning to address the team, “If anyone wants a ride there or home I’ll be happy to drive you in the bus!”
“Oi, don’t go making this some school trip.” Ukai grunted, but it was too late. Daichi had already offered Suga and Asahi to stay the night at his place on the Sunday and the second years had already made some agreement to stay at Tanaka’s before any of them had opened their mouths.
This team was the worst thing to happen to him.
“We seem to have an audience.” Shimada said to him as they finished up their stretches, waving cautiously at Yamaguchi. Takinoue was offering the same, puzzled wave to Yachi who hid behind Kiyoko as soon as she spotted the Karasuno Neighbourhood Associations opponent. Granted they were rather large and scary.
“Ah I forgot to mention, the uh team, wanted to watch a game. And they’re all here. Great.” Ukai huffed, dropping into a squat and extending one leg, stretching his hamstring. If there was anything holding him back, it was his lungs and hamstrings.
“That’s a pretty big thing to forget to mention Ukai.” Mori hissed at him, eyeing the newly form audience warily, they’d mostly all appeared in the school bus. The second years had all packed into Saeko’s van and had tumbled out looking green and dizzy.
“Did you also forget who we’re playing today, dumbass?” Takinoue dropped in beside him, nudging his shoulder slightly and urging him to look up at their opponents, containing Nekoma’s version of their own little team.
“So maybe I did, huh? Doesn’t matter now. They’re all here.” Ukai snapped, standing up and stretching his arms for the second time to avoid Takinoue’s displeased stare.
“Yeah well, just, be careful alright?” Shimada slapped him on the back and moved into position at the back of the sandy pit. Takinoue, Mori and Uchizawa followed his lead, spreading out along the court. They’d chosen to cover more of the back area this time around, perfectly familiar with Nekoma’s long shots far stronger and incredibly overused.
Ukai approached Nekoma’s captain, a stupidly tall, beefy man. They provided a coin which was flipped and landed in Nekoma’s favour. Ever overconfident, the Nekoma has been allowed Karasuno the first serve. Ukai flung the ball back towards Shimada who planted his feet in the sand, rolled his shoulders and managed a perfect but complicated, ace serve.
“No need to be a show off.” Ukai called back, grinning and ignoring the finger flipped upwards in his direction.
The game was running at as fast a pace as it could with a group of adult men, most of whom had been smoking steadily since they were 15. It was 16-12 to Nekoma and Ukai was growing increasingly desperate not to lose while Karasuno were watching.
Shimada and Uchizawa were up the front, creating a wall against the smallest of their beefy players. Unfortunately his stature was not a reflection of his power and the ball was slammed through their fingertips. Uchizawa’s left hand received the brunt of the force, his fingers snapped backwards. The crack might have been audible if Uchizawa hadn’t covered it with a short, pained grunt.
“You right?” Ukai called, jogging forward, approaching Uchizawa who was cradling his hand and glaring at it sullenly.
“I just got over my fucking strained calf.” Uchizawa moaned, his fingers seemed to be already bruising but Ukai didn’t exactly have the time to pause and examine them thoroughly with a critical eye. Nekoma’s captain was stomping down the court, not far off snarling and snorting. Ukai didn’t know how they fell from being akin to a cat in high school and now could be compared with a hog.
He didn’t like to think if Karasuno’s Neighbourhood Association had changed from crows to seagulls.
“So are we playing on?” Nekoma’s captain questioned, eyeing the injured hand and failing in a spectacular manner to hide his smirk, “Or do you forfeit?”
“We’re not forfeiting. Either you ditch a man and we play four on four, or you get all your men on the court and we get to take two of my high schoolers to play with us.” Ukai offered. Nekoma’s captain scowled, Karasuno’s high school volleyball team began to chatter among themselves, his teammates also began to discuss behind him and Uchizawa merely stared at his useless hand with stony eyes.
“Fine, bring in your high schoolers. As if they could hold their own against an adult team.” Nekoma’s captain snarled and spun on his heel, raising a hand to call in all the members and discuss with them their next play.
Ukai turned to face his team who were already stood in front of the Karasuno heavy audience, scanning their faces and muttering to each other about who would be the best choice. Ukai poked his head between Takinoue and Mori’s, gesturing his head over to where Narita and Kinoshita sat.
“They’d benefit most from this, they never get to play with freaks like Kageyama and Hinata on the team. They’d get a feel for a real game plus they’re actually pretty good, just not freakishly, like dumbass three and four over there.” Ukai muttered to them, making it very clear who he was speaking of, the two boys in question looked at each other in apprehension.
“Three and four?” Shimada poked his head in beside Ukai and Ukai allowed his mouth to twist into an unpleasant scowl as he felt Shimada’s cheek brush against his own. This is why his mother was so insistent upon him marrying a ‘nice girl.’
“Nishinoya and Tanaka are older so they get one and two.” Ukai replied shortly before looking between his friends, imploring them to choose the second years he suggested.
“Yeah sure, that’s basically what this team is anyway right?” Mori laughed and the group split up, spread out in an even line before the boys and immediately Mori and Takinoue took it upon themselves to pull faces, Shimada took it upon himself to slam their faces into their knees. Ukai decided he’d put everyone out of their misery and just pick already.
“Narita! Kinoshita! You’re in. And you have practice gear on still, perfect.” Ukai waved at Narita and Kinoshita to stand and join them on the court, the two boys exchanged a panicked look and shuddered their way onto the court, knees weak and faces wrought with terror.
Karasuno cheered them on as they approached and Ukai laid a hand on both of their shoulders, “Don’t stress. You can keep up with a bunch of old men, surely.” He offered up a comforting grin but Shimada slammed his hand across Ukai’s mouth.
“Don’t do that, it’s scary.”
“Asshole.”
The two high schoolers were added to the mix and the game re-started where they had left off. Ukai found himself distracted for the first five minutes or so, observing the two high school students and noting tips and praises he could offer to them. Takinoue heaved his weight against Ukai’s, shoving him in the side and causing him to stumble slightly, “Stop being a coach, idiot. You’re a captain right now.”
Ukai nodded, landing his hand between Takinoue’s shoulders solidly and offering a grim smile, they were still down by four points, 24-20.
Unlike high school and professional games of volleyball, there was only one set. They have lives to attend to, shops to run, and families to feed. Well, most of them. They didn’t have the time, nor the athleticism if they were entirely honest with themselves, to play three sets. Thus, the large split, so close to match point, was something that had to be dealt with swiftly.
They grew mildly desperate, Takinoue was leaping higher than he had in a long time, grunting with effort and dripping with sweat as he fell to the ground, knees wavering beneath the force but maintained their strength for another jump. Mori was diving left and right for the ball, Ukai could already spot marks that would blossom into beautifully disgusting bruises. Narita was spiking each toss as though he had a personal vendetta against the ball and everything it stood for. Kinoshita was blocking with as much strength as a wall. Both teens had barely broken a sweat but not through lack of trying, much to Ukai’s chagrin. Shimada had also been serving more practiced but perfect serves and yet they had yet to land without a touch. Ukai hadn’t been able to do much aside from set the best he could for Narita mostly, but for anyone else that could approach the net too.
Nekoma’s captain, the ball clamped between his hands, stared down Ukai who stood on the back corner of the court. The ball went up. A meaty palm slammed against it. The ball soared over the net. It wobbled and wavered, a jump float serve, it looked to be going out but none of them were close enough to the farthest boundary to let it drop any further without perusal.
Ukai spun on his heel and sprinted, feet hitting the uneven ground heavily but he wasn’t going fast enough. As a last ditch effort Ukai leaped and stuck out his arm, his shoulder protested at the overstretching movement but Ukai forced himself to travel further.
He hit the ball, he hit the ball hard and it flew back towards the net, falling almost perfectly into Shimada’s hands as he set it for Kinoshita. Kinoshita slammed the ball down on the other side of the court and they suddenly they had a zero point difference. Takinoue and Mori cheered, wrapping their arms around Kinoshita’s shoulders and swaying him back and forth as the ball was rolled to them to serve.
Their victorious cheers were quietened as Ukai rolled into a sitting position, clutching his chest, heaving slightly as he tried to bring air back into his winded lungs and ignore his shoulder that had begun to throb. He’d landed roughly and his shoulder had already been playing up since he pulled a similar move the year before. Shimada sent him a disappointed glare when he noticed the hand on his chest shift briefly to rub his shoulder as he stumbled to his feet.
“Ukai-kun?” Takeda called from the sides and Ukai turned to him, waving off his concern with a placating grin.
“I’m fine.”
Shimada’s glare intensified but his mouth remained pursed.
Takinoue and Mori refrained from congratulatory backslaps and Ukai continued to pant lightly as Mori served the ball.
The final two points were earned with a degree of difficulty they hadn’t desired. Ukai had been shifted to the front lines and each ball he sent towards a teammate re-introduced him to the stabbing pain he had felt when he had fallen. Slowly, painfully, they succeeded in getting the final two points past the grunting Nekoma ‘cats’ and celebrations were loud and obnoxious. As was the Karasuno Neighbourhood Associations way.
Takinoue and Mori had wrapped their hands around the others forearms and were leaping around in a circle, chanting “We did it!” voices light and overflowing with excitement. Nekoma always ruined any sense of maturity they had. Narita and Kinoshita had slung their arms over each other’s shoulders, grinning between them and sharing brief congratulations. Uchizawa trotted onto the court and clapped Narita on the shoulder, grinning at both of them and offering up minor tips and major praises.
The audience had erupted, Nishinoya and Tanaka were almost as excited for the win as they would be of their own team. Yamaguchi sent a grin Shimada’s way who grinned back, waving as Tsukishima and he left. Hinata had joined Nishinoya and Tanaka in their cheering when Kageyama had refused. Daichi, Sugawara and Asahi were smiling although Daichi appeared as though he was preparing to muffle Nishinoya, Tanaka and Hinata’s exaltations.
Shimada and Takeda had both taken to eyeing Ukai suspiciously, the blond man had taken up rubbing his shoulder again, lips twisted into a scowl as he stared at the ground, willing himself not to start screaming at his own idiocy.
Moments later he had to push down the desire to scream for a different reason as Nekoma’s captain swirled Ukai around by his injured shoulder and snatched Ukai’s shirt in his hand, yanking the shorter man up to meet him.
“We want a rematch, there was blatant cheating.” Nekoma’s captain hissed, spit landing about Ukai’s face. The cheering had stopped and already he could feel his friends behind him, trying to pull him out of the Nekoma’s captain’s meaty fist.
“How the fuck did we cheat?” Ukai spat back, taking his hold in the other man’s shirt.
Distantly, Ukai heard Shimada mutter a despaired, “Oh for fucks sake.”
“Your little sub ins, you didn’t tell us they were any good.” The taller man growled and Ukai rolled his eyes and stared up at the man with eyes oozing disbelief.
“If you think I’m accepting that as a reason then you’re more disconnected from reality than I thought.” Ukai replied dryly, the other man’s face scrunched further in his anger before he spat out another reason.
“And you brought a team of groupies, they threw us off.”
Ukai couldn’t restrain the laugh, it was a cruel laugh, laced with the very same derision that coated his following words. “If you can be put off by a group of high schoolers now then it’s no wonder why you were so shit in high school.”
He should have expected the forehead, slamming into his own, knocking his nose and causing and instant rush of blood and a blurred view of the world to surface.
He didn’t.
Ukai stumbled back into Takinoue’s arms and as soon as he regained his footing, attempted to charge at the bigger man who was now retreating to his team, growling out a low, “You piece of shit.” Takinoue wrapped his arms around his waist tighter and hauled him off, Mori ducked in front of him with an eyebrow raised.
“You remember your little high schoolers are here, right?”
With that, Ukai fell limp in Takinoue’s arm, noticing that the blood now pouring from his nose was dripping on his shoes and released a resigned sigh. He struggled out of Takinoue’s tight grasp and looked up at the opened mouthed team before him with flushed checks, he couldn’t bring himself to pinch his nose and attempt to stem the blood flow. He simply stared at them for a moment.
After several moments of silence in which Nekoma’s team had dispersed and Karasuno’s high school team sat still, watching their coach work up the nerve to say anything. Ukai finally managed to trick his mouth into forming words that matched his vocal cords and arrived at, “Don’t get in fights.”
“You’re the biggest moron I’ve ever had the displeasure of befriending.” Shimada snapped, jabbing at Ukai’s uninjured shoulder with a loosely closed fist.
The onlookers, consisting of the teenagers that had taken over his life and the man who made it all happen, remained still and quiet until Hinata rushed at Ukai, Tanaka and Nishinoya close behind him.
“That was so cool!” Hinata crowed, and Tanaka nodded behind him. It didn’t escape Ukai’s notice that Tanaka’s sleeves were rolled up and his fists still clenched, he hid a snicker inside a cough. Hinata’s onslaught of praises were hurriedly warming his cheeks, the blush slinking down to his neck as the small teen was joined by Nishinoya.
“Oi, Oi. Don’t go complimenting him. He’s terrible at compliments.” Mori teased, slinging an arm over his shoulder, careful to avoid touching the still throbbing side.
If Karasuno’s Neighbour Association garnered a little more supporters over the following years, mostly overeager high school students, it was rarely questioned. Only smirked at by opposition, and stressed over by a volleyball coach who knew his authority was diminishing every match they witnessed.