Insomnia (A TsukiKage FF) ✔

100 - Practise

The day passed a little slower this time, as Tobio didn't exactly have many things to do. He occupied himself with watching the different teams play and watching volleyball matches on his phone; during lunch he snatched a few minutes to practise by himself.

Some of Karasuno stayed with him and supervised, just to make sure he would be alright, even though the setter insisted he would be fine. He decided to just stick to serving, and Noya offered to try and receive them as extra practise for himself. 

"Don't hold back okay!" Noya encouraged. "Wait, no, don't strain yourself! But try hard! But-"

"I get it!" assured Tobio as he watched the libero get more and more confused.

Noya grinned before crouching in his starting position, and Kageyama tossed a volleyball up and down as he walked to the back row. There, he took a deep breath in and out before throwing, running and jumping, aiming to spike the ball right into the left corner.

But Noya was fast and raced to the corner with his left arm stretching out; he managed to save the serve with the end of his fist, but the ball went out of the court where it couldn't be dug up and it was a point to the setter.

"Again?" the libero asked, eyes sparkling at the challenge he had missed from Kageyama's absence.

"Okay."

They continued like this for a few minutes, and every so often Noya managed to dig up the serve and send it back over to the setter. There was an atmosphere of excitement at watching Kageyama practise again. It was good to see him so active and intent; it made a change from the tiresome few weeks he had been through.

"Okay, I'm done." Kageyama announced with a heavy breath.

Kageyama thanked Noya before putting the volleyball back in the trolley and making his way over to Tsukishima. Almost collapsing down onto the bench, he accepted a bottle of water graciously and took several long gulps.

"You looked good out there. You don't seem too tired."

"Thanks, but I wish I could carry on longer." the setter stated with a sigh.

"This is going to take some time, no pressure. Besides, I don't think the team would want you to push yourself too hard for their sakes."

"It's for them that I have to try hard. If I'm not better by the Spring Tournament, then maybe we won't be able to reach Nationals... And I know the third years really want to go. I don't mean to sound conceited."

"Hey, I get it. And it's not conceited because you're thinking about the team as a whole. But it won't do you any good in the long run to push too far." Tsuki explained with an assuring look.

"I know."

Tobio dug into a bento that Hinata had grabbed for him at the cantine, and he and Kei made small talk as the rest of dinner went by. Just before the end of lunch they managed a quick hug before Tobio went back over to his seat by Takeda; neither missed the cat whistle sent their way by Tanaka that caught the interest of the two returning teams.

"What's up?" Kuroo asked, looking at the grinning faces of Karasuno.

"Oh nothing, we just had some good practise during lunch break." Daichi assured, glancing over to Kageyama who not so subtly coughed. He and Noya practised, not everyone.

"Always working hard Daichi!" Kuroo teased. "Anyways, I was thinking of just doing some drills before ending early, sound good?"

"Dibs on serves!" Bokuto exclaimed making Kuroo grin and Akaashi facepalm with a groan: Bokuto was going to be the end of him.

"Sounds good. We'll receive your serves Bokuto!"

"Hey hey hey! Let's do it!"

Akaashi joined the rest of Fukurodani on one side of the court whilst Nekoma and Karasuno went to the other, lining up to receive their serves. He glanced over to Kageyama and noticed the way he jumped at the loud shouting, and the slightly fatigued look he wore.

Had he done some practise at lunch? If so, why not with the rest of them?

He couldn't ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.