wavelength

For once, Seijou VBC's commute home to Miyagi from the spring qualifiers is a silent affair. None of the usual excitement after a victory can be heard, no exultant bantering or triumphant jeers. Nobody has taken their shirt off or stuck their head out of the window, screaming in elation at bewildered passersby all while Coach tuts disapprovingly but still tolerates the madness with a glint in his eyes because once again, this mismatched yet determined group of high school kids has made him proud.

No, there's none of that this time.

Instead, there is a tension so profound it makes the air around Tooru feel heavier, weighing down like a pair of hands on his shoulders, pressing him deep into the plush of the bus seat.

Fresh is their loss to Karasuno, their disqualification from the tournament they've been training so meticulously for, and Tooru can't get the words that Ushijima had said to him off of repeat in his head.

'You should have come to Shiratorizawa'

'You should have come to Shiratorizawa'

Should he have? And would it have made a difference, really? To switch his colours from teal to magenta (initial insignificance to fore-earned prestige).

Even on a winning team, he'd still be the same as he is now, he thinks. Same lack of natural genius, same self-destructive stubbornness. Even the same accursed knee impediment to go along with it.

Yes, had he gone to Shiratorizawa he would have been the same all but for one crucial, decisive factor.

Tooru's gaze flits to Iwaizumi, naturally, as it's done so often in the duration of his 17 years of life thus far. His long-time best friend has been reasonably withdrawn since they boarded the bus, sitting taciturn with a pair of clunky white headphones covering his ears. Tooru notices the circles sagging beneath his weary eyes, dark like someone's dipped their thumbs in indigo paint and smeared it there.

As if awoken by the attention, Iwaizumi says to him, "You know what I need right now?"

A little bit of hair product? A reminder of how flawless I am? Tooru would usually quip something teasing, but the words feel inappropriate, tasteless on his tongue.

"What do you need?" he replies softly instead.

"A vacation. I feel like it would be good to get away from here for a bit."

Letting the idea sink in, Tooru realizes that he hasn't been on a true vacation since their parents had taken them to Nobiru beach for the day way back in elementary school. All of the travelling they've done in recent years has been with the team for training camps or tournaments. And even then, it's not like they've ever gotten much down time.

To Tooru, being away in a different city meant doing Captain Things like planning team schedules and analyzing their enemies. It meant gruelling day-long workouts and sleeping on a flimsy futon in a room filled with a dozen other adolescent boys. On a few occasions they were fortunate enough to cram in a new city's sights within a half day of free time, but even then, the idea of getting away for the sole purpose of relaxation and indulgence was rather unheard of in his books.

Iwaizumi is right, the prospect of a real vacation holds quite the appeal.

"Where can we go?" Tooru drinks the suggestion right up, "I don't think either of us can afford somewhere overseas."

He speaks for them both because neither of them have ever had part time jobs, let alone the time for one. Tooru's accumulated some allowance and birthday money, but it's nowhere near enough for an all-inclusive in Fiji.