Haikyuu One-Shots

Hard (Wakatoshi Ushijima)

Wizzy: Y'all are perverts... But so am I. I know y'all were thinkin' dirty the minute you saw the title. I'm not sorry. lol. 

 I've always wanted to play volleyball.

Nothing ever could compare to that rush that a good match could bring... but as much as I may have wanted it, the closest I would ever get would be to watch from the sidelines.

I didn't have the height. I didn't have the speed. I didn't have the skill... and even more importantly, I never had the stamina.

To play... it would be too far beyond what I can do... and even if I could, making it onto Shiratorizawa's team would be next to impossible. No, I would be content to remain on the sidelines... That is, until I started my first year of high school.

Until that year, it have never really occurred to me that being a manager was an option. Of course, that had been easier said than done. Within the first day, I'd quickly discovered why the team never had a manager... not one that lasted more than a day or two, at least.

It wasn't because of the coaches... no, it was the team's captain. Ushijima was always super strict and hard on anyone who dared to try to be team manager. No one could handle all the pressure, so everyone always quit a couple of days in.

Admittedly, I wanted to quit at first too.

You're too slow. Do this like that. Do that like this. Don't do that like that. Don't do this like this.

No matter what I did... no matter how many times I tried to improve, it never seemed like it was enough. Naturally, that was very discouraging. If I could never seem to please him, then why would I continue to waste my time?

And yet... no matter how hard he was on me, I could never bring myself to walk away.

I didn't even know what it was that he was scolding me for this time. To be honest, my head was kind of elsewhere today.

"Hm... Wakatoshi..." I perked up at Tendo's voice. I'd zoned out again... "Don't you think you're being a little too hard on our little Manager-chan?"

The team members nearest us tensed a bit, not having expected him to actually call the ace out. Until now, no one had ever bothered to say anything.

"Hard on her?" And of course, the ace is oblivious... social situations weren't exactly his strong suit.

Tendo nodded. "Even if she makes a lot of mistakes, it's quite mean to point all of them out all the time... She already looks like she's about to cry..."

Did I really? Tendo screwed around a lot and said a lot of weird things, so it was hard to tell when he was actually being serious. He then looked to one of the other third years. "Don't you think so, Semi Semi?"

Semi glanced at Tendo and then at Ushijima before stopping on me. "I mean, she does look pretty down..."

"See, Wakatoshi? You being mean is breaking her little heart-"

"No." Even I was startled by the words that came out of my mouth. All eyes turned to me. "I know Ushijima is hard on me... but that's because he's right. I know that I screw up a lot, but I'm going to keep trying my best." I looked over at Ushijima. "If he thinks that I can do better than I am, then I know he's right. If he didn't believe it, I know that he wouldn't say it."

"I don't have the height or the strength or the speed or the stamina that you all have, but..." I put on as much of a smile as I could muster. "Everything that I can't be, Ushijima is. For that, there's no one that I admire more."

"So... I don't mind... as long he doesn't say that I'm useless to the team, then I'll keep trying to do the best that I can!"

As I went quiet, a hand placed itself on my head, lingering only a moment before disappearing. Ushijima didn't say anything, but this was more than enough... because for the very first time, I'd earned even the slightest bit of praise from the ever stoic ace.