Unreadable. Unreachable. Unrequited. | TsukiYama ✓

9

[Yamaguchi]

We were there over the whole weekend, which meant there was plenty of time for us to have some practise matches. It got even more exciting when Fukurodani showed up, Coach Nekomata having invited them to 'spice things up a bit'. It had become an unofficial, informal weekend training camp and I'm pretty sure everyone was just fine with that.

I'd been subbed in a few times, though not to do any float serves.
See, Coach Ukai wanted me to start trying a whole variety of serves since he said I was getting to be quite good at them. I was subbed in almost every set, testing out special powerful serves that admittedly at first had started just going out of bounds. Coach told me it didn't matter though as our team would just keep scoring the points that I lost back. He told me it was good practise, going up against teams like this.

Kageyama had taught me to serve like him, giving me instructions and begrudgingly showing me videos of Oikawa's devastating serves. I was still nervous going out there alone, but slowly yet surely I was starting to show more and more progress, managing to get quite a few service aces over the whole weekend. Coach Ukai had told me to save my float serves for the final match against Nekoma, so that's what I did.

Coach subbed me in for Tsukishima, who gave me a slight nod of what I assumed to be reassurance? He'd been acting strange ever since I called him by his full surname, going out of his way to spare me glances and give me little nods. I hadn't failed to notice him sneaking off to meet with Kuroo, Bokuto and Akaashi though. It hurt, but I knew if I just ignored it I'd get over it. I'd get over him.

"Stressyguchi, get your ass out here!" I heard Hinata call with a laugh in his tone and I jumped in surprise but nodded, apologising as I hurried out to get the ball.
"And stop apologising so much! I told you that right?"

"Hinata! Shut up or he'll serve it to the back of your head!" Kageyama barked, whacking Hinata around his head, making the ginger whine and shout back at him.

"Both of you shut up!" Daichi yelled, making the ref glare at him. Our captain calmed down and I glanced at Nekoma, seeing them chuckling and shaking their heads at our team's antics. They'd won all of our practise matches... I wasn't letting then win this one!

The ref blew his whistle and I only jumped slightly, remembering Shimada's words telling me to just relax when the whistle was blown. I exhaled slowly and threw the ball up, jumping with it. I drew my arm back before throwing my arm forward, letting my flat palm connect with the ball so that it wouldn't have a spin.

The ball floated over the net, momentarily stunning Nekoma. They hadn't seen me pull this trick before. The ball seemed to be heading straight towards their libero, Yaku, who got in the position to receive it... when the ball suddenly fell short and dropped untouched onto Nekoma's side of the court.

When I tell you I think I grinned from ear to ear, I think I completely meant it. My team cheered loudly and I felt (who I assumed to be) Tanaka ruffling my hair pridefully, babbling about how he definitely believed in me one hundred percent. I could hear Kuroo clapping on the other side, telling his team to 'shake it off' and that 'no one could've received that one'.

He met my gaze and I really couldn't help myself. I smirked. This was probably going to bite me in the ass later, but I didn't care. Seeing the disgruntled look on his face was completely worth it.
That's what you get for stealing my best friend.

"Serve us up another point Yamaguchi!"

"Do it!"

"Serve's up!"

I heard my team whoop as I mimicked what I did last time, hitting the ball so that it didn't spin and scoring another service ace. I was practically shaking at that point, glancing at the scoreboard to see that we'd just about pulled ahead. We were one off match point, I could help us take the set against Nekoma!

When the ball was tossed back to me I bounced it once or twice, not jumping in surprise when the ref called the whistle. I made a mental note to thank Shimada when we got back home as I threw the ball up and ran towards it. I crouched, drawing my arms back in a way that could only be described as 'Oikawa-like' before springing up as high as I could. My hand connected with the ball harshly and I went it flying over the net, hitting the court with a screeching noise.

"Sorry guys! My bad! I totally prepared for a float serve again!" Yaku called, waving his hand around as his team who also responded with a chorus of 'don't mind! We'll get the next one!'s.

Three service aces in a row to get us to match point? That was... amazing! Holy crap, so cool...
I went for another float serve this time, watching as Yaku overhanded it just in the nick of time. It was a chance ball and flew right back over to us so that Nishinoya could receive it over to Kageyama. Hinata darted around, making the blockers glance to him as he leapt up to spike it down... when the ball was instead set to a mostly unblocked Asahi, who easily spiked the ball to the floor.

We'd taken the set and won the final practise match! My team turned to me, whooping and cheering and congratulating me like crazy... It felt just wow, in Hinata's insane language. I felt so warm and amazing around this team of amazing people, I was just so lucky.
Say I'm overreacting because this was only one practise match, but I won't care. This is the first time my float serve has actually properly intentionally worked in a match-like situation. Of course, in a real match things would probably be quite different, but I was proud of this!

I felt so good...