Vivid Doses ; Iwaoi oneshots !

[ 12: The Way Home / reunion!]

HI! It's been a while. Hope you guys are keeping safe and healthy as always.

Before anything else, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for 10K reads on this little one shot book! *cries*. Honestly, as cheesy as this sounds, my 14 year old self who began writing these stories in the middle of my junior high years would have never imagined the fic to grow as it did. I'm 18 now and would like to think my writing style had changed for the better (hopefully! Hehe) Thank you so much. Your support, votes, comments, and love, are all highly appreciated.

As a thank you, this one's a bit longer than usual. I also plan to upload this on my AO3 account (find me: theemeraldalpaca). I have some other fan fictions over there, mostly BNHA, but I also started writing genshin. I plan to publish more genshin stories soon too.

Once more, thank you all for everything. It's been a while since I last wrote an IWAOI fic and it gave me so much deja vu writing this. Just to let you guys know, I'll be uploading one new story at least once a month from now on until prob the end of the year. Then I'll officially mark this as complete! :"D

As always, AKAASHI BELIEVES IN YOU.

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The young athlete grunted as he missed yet another serve.

He immediately staggered back upwards, arm sliding across his slicked forehead, shook it off and turned to Iwaizumi.

"That's enough," Iwaizumi said, shaking his head. "Go hydrate yourself and get some rest."

The young boy, panting, widened his eyes "Sir! Sir, I can still do a few more—"

Iwaizumi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He crossed under the volleyball net and approached the shaky figure. It was obvious he could not do a few more, less even another one. His limbs wobbled like faltering pillars. Bruises dotted his arms and legs like a repeated game of tic tac toe. His chest rose and fell like waves underneath the storm—rapid and fragile. He was going to bend over any minute now.

A single hand on the boy's shoulder was enough to make his knees collapse under him. He dipped his head and shook it. "I...I can do it, Sir..."

"I never said you couldn't," Iwaizumi said quietly. He was sure he had this talk before. "But greatness comes with balance." A certain auburn haired boy flashed in his mind, one of similar determination and pride.  "And balance comes with knowing one's limits."

"I...I'm not in my limit yet," the young boy protested.

Iwaizumi raised his eyebrows. "Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that?"

The young boy's head shot upwards, weary eyes wide with distress. "With my impairment, Sir, I have to work harder than everyone else."

"Kid, listen to me." Iwaizumi offered a hand to help the boy up, which he clasped and pulled to raise himself up. A wave of deja vu rolled over him, and suddenly he was his fifteen year old self trying to pull Oikawa together.  He knew better than anyone what burnout looked like, what it felt like to watch it consume and burn a soul as bright as Oikawa. He'd like to think he was well versed in the whole encouragement spiel but even after all this time, he struggled to fnd words.

He allowed his thoughts to drift to Oikawa, that trashy, shitty Oikawa. He would probably go off on him in a stream of profanities, but he could not do such to this child in front of him. And so he settled for a rather mild one. "I can throw you a hundred balls right now, but given your current condition, you wouldn't hit a single one of them. Do you think that will make you stronger or just make you feel sorry for yourself for not hitting them?"