What Happens In Gym 3 Stays In Gym 3

19. Set 1 (pt 1)

Tsukishima POV

I'm benched until Nishinoya goes to the front row. Yamaguchi isn't talking. He must really want to play. I don't get how people can feel that. This game is pretty pointless to me. 

A few points go by and I stand up sub in. How can this shorty even reach the sign? Oh well, time to wait now. I go to my spot and wait for the serve from Hinata. He manages to serve the ball over, and I look ahead, ready for an attack. Kenma sets it to Kuroo. I shift and jump.

crap

too early

The ball hits my fingers just before I fall back to the ground.

"One Touch!" I yell out. I move back to my spot, backed up, ready if Kageyama sets to me.

"Tsukishima!"

dammit

I start towards the ball, seeing the blockers moving. I jump ahead of them and hit the ball away from them, but Yaku picks it up pretty easy.

"Hit it where the players AREN'T" Kageyama yells at me. 

"I did, dumbass!" I yell back, keeping my eyes on the ball. Kenma sets it back to Kuroo. I sigh but move to block. I set my feet and wait until just after he jumps. We stare at each other, but i manage to block. I smirk at him when I reach the ground.

"NICE BLOCK TSUKKI!!!!" Yamaguchi yells along with Nishinoya. I groan back. I look to Kuroo smirking back. I step back confused, which makes Kuroo chuckle and move back to his receiving spot.

Several points later, after I've subbed in and out, I'm back in where I was before. Nekoma gains a point, we gain a point, we all shift. I find myself facing at Kuroo again. I glared at him and he chuckled. Daichi quickly served and the ball was brought to Kenma, but set to another player. I moved and blocked and everything again. It kept repeating and I was getting bored. We were match point. We might actually win a set.

"Watch for a dump!" Kageyama yells. I prepare myself, surprisingly, a dump did come. I didn't jump though. It kind of fell off my wrists, towards Kageyama luckily. I think he tried to get it right back to me. I jumped to tip it over, but Kuroo jumped with me. We both face each other, pushing the ball from our separate sides. I can see everything in his eyes. He's almost desperate of something. 

What was that?

He gives me this look, I don't know how to describe it. It stung me. Kinda liked it though...

I lost control of the ball. He pushed it down, tying the score up. 

"Tsukishima try harder next time!" Kageyama yells beside me.

"I did!" 

I turn back to Kuroo, staring at me, certainly intrigued by whatever he did. I scower, but move to receive. They score on us, because Nishinoya messed up, making it set point.

I really wanted to win the set so we're closer to winning so we didn't have to run up that stupid hill. 

"We can catch up! We're fine!" I yell to the team. I moved back. Kageyama does a setter dump, tying it. Random Nekoma serve misses, so that means I'm up to serve. We just have to one point to win the set. I bounce the ball a few times, take a few steps back.

"Why is he backing up?" I hear from the bench.

I throw the ball up, take a couple steps, jump, and swing, hitting the ball. Not the usual serve I do. They hesitate, which gives us a second extra. A sloppy receive gives Kenma a difficult ball to set. A low ball for a spiker to hit barely gets over the net. Easily passed to Kageyama, getting a quick from Hinata, scoring us that final point to win the set. Everyone cheer and walk to the other side of the net. Kuroo and I lock eyes for a second, just before I run into Suga, who's talking to Daichi.

"Ah-Sorry Sugawara-san." I face down and swiftly walk to the bench before I look over to Kuroo, who's laughing. I hear Kenma and Yaku both scold him. He looks back over to me and smiles. I roll my eyes and go back to thinking of ways to beat them. One more set right?