Forest Germ

9. Golden Week: The Next Day

「Food image from Free! Dive to the Future! episode 9.」

『3rd POV』

It was the next morning, Sakusa had his phone set for his morning runs. He woke up to see [F/n]. They were in the same position as last night. He didn't hear his alarm continue to ring as he was mesmerized by her beauty. Komori woke up to find him staring at [F/n]. He gave a cheeky grin while Sakusa was unaware. Komori snuck a photo of the two while going unnoticed.

The continuous sound of the alarm caused [F/n] to wake up. She let go his hand and slid under her blanket. Only to quickly sit up, with the blanket being a hood over her head, rubbing her eyes and yawning. The boys thought she was adorable as she did that.

"Good morning, Sakusa-senpai, Komori-senpai."

"Good morning. I'm going to bath and go for a run. You want to go, too?" He turned off his alarm and Komori stood up stretching.

"Are you talking about the bath or the run?" [F/n] asked innocently still in sleep mode. Komori bursted in laughter with Sakusa turning red. Embarrassed, he replied, "I meant the run, idiot."

"I see. Sorry, but no thank you," she turned down the offer to do her own practice and left the room first. Komori was still laughing mess while Sakusa was flushed in embarrassment telling his cousin to shut up.

Sakusa had many thoughts in his mind. One of the main ones were about wanting to hold her hand again. They felt soft with tiny calluses from ball handling. He calmed down and went to bath with Komori following.

The three went to their respective practices. It was early in the morning so everyone was still asleep. They didn't have breakfast yet so they were going their practices lightly. By the time they were done, they went to kitchen to make breakfast.

"Let's make rice with tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette), mini salad and miso soup," Sakusa suggest.

[F/n] agreed but, "I don't know how to cook. How can I help?"

"You can chop up ingredients for the salad." She nodded okay and got to work. Sakusa began making miso with instant miso soup mix. Komori made the tamagoyaki.

~ ♪ ~

After cooking, with some struggles here and there (mostly [F/n] not knowing how to use a knife), they ate and head to the gym for day 2 of practice. Coach Orhime was there waiting and formulating practice drills.

"Good morning, you three. Where are the others?" Coach Orihime asked.

"Last time we checked, they were asleep. Last night, they were playing games," [F/n] replied.

"I see, I should scold them for this. The boys' volleyball coach isn't here today, so I'll be taking over both teams training today."

"Yes, Coach!"

"How 'bout you two do spike drills while we wait for the others. Mori, can you set?" Coach Orihime asked.

"I know the basics, but I never tossed for anyone before."

"That's fine. It's important to be well rounded even if it is not part of your position," They nodded got to practice.

Sakusa throws the ball to [F/n] and he runs to begin to spike. She tosses the ball up and Sakusa spikes the ball with Komori receiving it. She was a bit shaky as it was not her field of expertise.

Sakusa complimented her, "Nice toss."

"Thank you. Nice kill and nice receive." Sakusa nodded and asked her if she could toss it a half a ball higher than the last one. [F/n] agreed to his request and continued to set as consistently as possible.