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Soon it was the time to get ready for spring high so Iwaizumi, Hanamaki and Oikawa stopped eating with Yana and you, they said they had to train more than usual.

Of course, Yana, being the caring girl she is, always asked whether they were eating right. And made you prepare some lunch with her for the volleyball club’s third years every once in a while.

You, of course, only leaned on a wall near the gym while Yana and Tomoyo handed them the lunches. You felt a bit bad having Tomoyo take all the credit, but you also didn’t want anyone to know you had cooked something for someone else… it was embarrassing.

It was a bit sad, when you thought you didn’t dislike Oikawa anymore, he just leaves your side and doesn’t even try to talk to you anymore. But well, that might have been because he chose to stay at the volleyball club, so he had to keep his grades up in order to get into a good university, same with Iwaizumi and the rest of them. For some reason it stung a little, he had been a really nice friend.

In the gym there was this dangerous looking second-year, he always glared at you when you were near by and it honestly pissed you off. A few months earlier you would have instantly picked a fight with him, but now you were just another high-school girl, and that meant zero hostile behavior.

Your high-school life went along smoothly, until sometime around the month before the first spring high preliminary, Oikawa had rejected Tomoyo. You wanted to comfort her, since she was your friend, but for some reason, she just ignored you. You had even caught her occasionally glaring at you… what was this? a contest to see who had the nastiest glare?

Apparently the reason of her behavior had been that when she told Oikawa she liked him and even stayed up late preparing those bento for him, he rejected her and even said that he knew it was you who cooked, because of the wrapping and the way you cut the apples, or the sausages. Instead of making the fruit look like bunnies they looked like cats and the sausages weren’t octopuses, they were squids or sometimes even looked like jellyfish.

When Yana finished telling you, you couldn’t help but feel embarrassed… your cooking skills were so bad they had noticed it was you. But it was also the same feeling you got on your first day, Oikawa was definitely the intuitive and observant type. To be honest it still pissed you off.
Soon Tomoyo’s resentment died down and it was as if nothing had ever happened, although, she did stop going with you and Yana to hand in the lunches, so it was mostly you carrying them while Yana handed them in.

***

It was cold and you were muttering cursing under your breath. You had forgotten your book at school and didn’t notice until you decided to do homework at night. You had to climb up the school’s fence and sneak into the building through a window.

Once you got what you were looking for you noticed the lights were on at the gym. Was the volleyball club still practicing? Boy, they worked hard.

You decided to take a look.

But it was just Oikawa training by himself. Serving again and again, his hand was already swollen and red, and he was sweating so much his curls had almost completely disappeared.

You remembered something Iwaizumi had told you before: Oikawa works way too hard. And something about an injury, now that you thought about it… the white pad on his knee wasn’t a normal volleyball kneepad, no, it was a knee support.

You quickly ran up to him trying to get his attention “Oikawa.” no response “OIKAWA, STOP RIGHT NOW.”

Thant’s when he let the ball fall in front of him as he looked at you astonished. “[l/n]-chan…?” He tried to recover his usual demeanor, but it didn’t last long. And while bending to pick up the volleyball with a smile he asked “what are you doing here? It’s late.”

“Same to you.” Was he trying to scold you? “I came to pick up my book.” you raised it, so he could see.

“Ah I see…” he was too tired to even use his usual cheery voice. He turned his attention back to the court. “I’ll just practice for a while longer.”

Your eyebrow twitched, and you took the final step to get to him. Yes, you wanted to punch him in the face like Iwaizumi had done, (although, he had head-butted the setter instead) but after seeing his tired expression you decided to have a… friendlier approach. You raised your hand and gently patted his head.

“Y’know, if you practice too hard it won’t make you any better, it will just hurt you. I get it that you want to lead your team to the nationals, but if you were to injure yourself, do you think that’ll be possible?” His eyes went wide; he had probably been told that kind of things thousands of times, but what surprised him was your hand softly caressing his sweat-drenched hair. You sighed and went on.

“I know it isn’t my place to say this, but you gotta think of your future too… I’m sure that with your skills you’d be able to get scouted...” you turned your gaze somewhere else. He let out a soft chuckle and next thing you knew he was leaning his head on your shoulder.
“[L/N]-chan... can I tell you something?” His tone was low and strained. You nodded.

He talked about Shiratorizawa and Ushiwaka about how he had never been able to win against him, and rambled about the time he was in Kitagawa Daiichi. He mentioned his “genius” kouhai and how he had started to fear his position as the regular setter was taken away. He talked for a long time and you didn’t stop combing his hair with your fingers, it was surprisingly soft even when sweaty...

When you had intended to halt your actions, he had leaned further into your touch, as if telling you to keep doing it. After he finished his ramble, he was still resting his head on your shoulder. It made you feel uncomfortable, but he looked like he didn’t want to move. You sighed and allowed him to stay like that.

His breath began to even out. “Oi, don’t go falling asleep on me.” You panicked.
A chuckle escaped his lips once more; he looked a lot more relaxed than before. And a soft smile was plastered on his face “[L/N]-chan! Let me just store the net and the balls and then I’ll walk you home~”

“Um, no, that’s not necessary, but I’ll help you.” You mumbled, you’ve never been walked home and nothing’s ever happened to you.

“It’s dark already! I can’t let a girl walk home alone when it’s like that outside!”
While picking up the stray balls you looked at him again “I walked here by myself and I’m fine… and even if something were to happen I’m sure I could handle it.” You stated matter-of-factly with no expression in your face, you were even going to flex your muscles, but that would have looked plain weird.

He had his arms crossed, and looked as if he wasn’t going to back down. “I won’t allow it.”

You sighed “All-right, but hurry up storing stuff, I still gotta do homework… and I’m sure you have to too”

He looked away… you had caught him.

“Oh and [l/n]-chan… thank you.” and like that he focused on cleaning up the gym.