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Arriving at the gym for the day, Ennoshita takes off his jacket and sets it off to the side near where the others have done the same, before helping everyone to get set up for practice.
They don’t have anything crazy planned for today’s training which he feels will be a decent way to spend his birthday, and Ennoshita’s glad that winter break has started by this point so he gets some rest from school. Though practice is obviously still hard work and requires him to put in effort, it’s nice not having classes that he needs to attend and he can instead spend the whole day with his team. They all aren’t exactly the closest but his two best friends are there and he likes the others well enough to enjoy being around them.
Practice hasn’t been as crowded recently with the current third years no longer here since they didn’t qualify for Nationals, so it was only this year’s first and second years, the 8 of them in total, as well as Takeda and Kiyoko, which makes it even more chill and low-key.
Once everyone’s there, they get started with all of their basic warmups and drills for the first couple of hours before taking a brief break, and then they all fall into a familiar rhythm as they play some practice games with all their usual antics. It’s nice, just the same as any other day.
Eventually as afternoon starts to roll into evening, the sun already having set, Ennoshita figures he should probably get going. As much as he enjoys spending time with his team, everyone else seems to be thinking of heading home soon too, and so there’s no real reason to stick around just to see people off.
“Are you done for the day, Ennoshita?” Daichi calls to him as he makes his way to the gym doors.
“Yeah,” Ennoshita tells him.
“Alright,” Daichi accepts before saying, “You put in good effort today, see you tomorrow!” and Ennoshita gives their future captain a noise of agreement.
“Oh hey, before you leave,” Suga says quietly as he walks over to him and Ennoshita turns to look at his upperclassman. “Happy birthday Ennoshita,” the second year tells him.
Ennoshita smiles a little bit, nodding. “Thank you Sugawara-san.” Aside from Kinoshita and Narita acknowledging it, Suga’s the only other person who’s mentioned his birthday. It’s not like he’s trying to hide it, but still he’s grateful for Suga being discreet about the whole thing.
“Of course!” Suga says with a nod back, beaming at him, and he gives Ennoshita a hard pat on the back (oof, Suga is stronger than he looks, Ennoshita genuinely feels winded after that) before letting him grab his stuff and go back to the club room to change.
As Ennoshita began heading home from practice for the day, watching his breath fog up in front of him, pounding footsteps appear from behind him as someone shouts out an “Ennoshitaaaa!!”
Jumping a little, he turns around to see that it’s none other than Tanaka Ryuunosuke who’s barreling towards him, and he has just about a second to brace himself for impact before Tanaka throws himself at him and hooks an arm around his shoulder.
“Hello Tanaka, what can I do for you?” he asks as calmly as he can, trying not to think about the fact that the cute (and 100% straight) boy he may or may not have a disastrously gay crush on is breathing warmly against his neck as he catches his breath for a moment.
Tanaka’s head whips up with a slight glare, Ennoshita only able to stare back at him in slight surprise at the uncharacteristic expression. “Why didn’t you say anything about today being important!?” Tanaka asks back, and Ennoshita thinks that his glare is actually more of a pout than anything.
Ennoshita blinks at him for a second. “Today? My.. birthday you mean??”
“Yes your birthday, what else!”
“I don’t really.. do much for my birthday, Tanaka,” Ennoshita just states truthfully, looking away from Tanaka to avoid thinking about how close their faces still are. “I didn’t think it was important enough to interrupt practice just for that.”
“Wha- You- How- Not important enough!?” Tanaka splutters before shouting in indignation, though Ennoshita doesn’t really know why. “What do you mean not important enough!?”
“I don’t think it’s that hard a concept to understand,” Ennoshita just states before realizing that that came out much ruder than he meant it to. “Ah- I-I mean, since I don’t do anything for it, it doesn’t really make sense to bring it up when we’re in the middle of practice! I mainly wanted to spend time with you guys practicing, so it wasn’t necessary for me that everyone knew about my birthday,” he clarifies before asking his fellow first-year out of curiosity, “How did you even know it was my birthday anyways?”
“I asked Suga what was going on when he pulled you off to the side before you left, and he told me it was just him wishing you a happy birthday since it’s today,” Tanaka explains, before asking two questions of his own. “How did Suga know it was your birthday though? And why didn’t he say anything about it?”
“He asked me during the first week of school when my birthday was, I think he did that with all the first years since Kinoshita and Narita told me he’d asked them the same thing. And last week he asked me about if I had any plans for my birthday and I told him that I don’t really plan anything special for it and just wanted to spend time with you guys. I’m guessing he realized from my answer that I don’t make a big deal out of my birthday and so he didn’t draw any direct attention to it. Kinoshita and Narita knew it was my birthday too.”
“But they’re your best friends,” Tanaka says with that same little pout from earlier, “so of course they knew about it!”
“It’s not like I was keeping it a secret or anything, I would’ve told you if you’d asked about it,” Ennoshita tells him, possibly as a bit of reassurance, though Ennoshita’s not exactly sure what for.
Tanaka seems to be thinking over what he’s just said for a moment, like he’s filing something away in his mind for the future, before he crosses his arms with a determined look.
“Well it’s too late for this year but next year-!” Tanaka exclaims, insisting that, “Next year I’m gonna do something for you for your birthday!”
Ennoshita wants to try to protest but he’s only able to stutter out a few vague sounds, completely unable to form any actual words, and he completely loses even that as Tanaka grabs on to his hand and start leading him somewhere. He can’t feel it due to his gloves, but Ennoshita somehow senses the softness of Tanaka’s hand as it wraps itself around his own.
“I’m at least getting you some food before walking you home!”
All Ennoshita can do is follow along as Tanaka pulls him in the direction of the convenience store close to the school. Tanaka has yet to actually say the words “happy birthday” to him, but he really doesn’t even need to because he’s already expressing that clear as day.