Akaashi's 18th (and the events that followed...)

34. Oh Brother

Yamaguchi surveyed the spotless gym, pleased with today's work. Ennoshita and Daichi would be proud to see it, if they were here, he thought to himself. The past few weeks being captain had been stressful - there was so much work, he wasn't sure whether he could cope with it all - but he had been trying, like he had never tried before. And it appeared to be going well so far.

"Thank you so much everyone! It's great when we all work together to clean up - things get finished so much faster," he said with a smile. However, two people appeared to be missing. "Eto... Hinata? Kageyama?"

    "Yes captain?" They chorused from behind the volleyball basket.

    "Ummm... I thought you said you were cleaning the storage cupboard."

    "Ahh, about that." Hinata's gaze fell down to the floor, and he suddenly seemed to become fixated with his shuffling feet. "We kind of decided to have a competition."

    "What kind of competition?" Yamaguchi's voice rose in panic.

    "Well... d'you know the sport 'squash'?" Hinata mumbled.

    "The one where you hit a tiny ball at the walls with a racquet?"

    "Yeah... that one... well it turns out it's not so good when you play it in the storage room with a volleyball instead of a little squash ball and those racquet thingies."

    "You dumbasses," Tsukishima glared at the pair of them.

    "The most important thing is - is anything broken?!" Yamaguchi felt himself sweating profusely, which had nothing to do with having just trained for the past hour and a half.

    "No!" Hinata smiled cheerfully, and Yamaguchi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just really messy." Kageyama added, which made Yamaguchi tense up again. "But I won anyway so Hinata should pack it up."

"You won?!" Hinata glared up at Kageyama. "I got the extra point!"

"That was a practice round!" Kageyama clashed his head against Hinata's.

"Bakayama!" Hinata grabbed onto his partner's hair, and they began to wrestle. Yamaguchi sighed again as the first and second years began to giggle, already muttering bets on who would win this time. Well, at least one thing is predictable, he mused, before his gaze moved over to Tsukki. Unlike the predictable pair, the tallest of their third-year gang had begun to act differently ever since Yamaguchi had become team captain.

It wasn't that his attitude had become ruder - in fact, it was the exact opposite. He seemed to treat Yamaguchi with more respect than - in Yamaguchi's own memory - Tsukki had ever treated anyone else. However, in a way, Yamaguchi almost missed the scornful looks and jeering words, which had been replaced with respectful nods and thin-lipped smiles. It was as if Yamaguchi's status as captain had driven an electrified fence between them - one that neither of them were brave enough to even touch, let alone breach. Something had to give soon, and Yamaguchi hoped that Tsukki might take the initiative, as he had done the first day they had met, when he prevented those bullies from teasing Yamaguchi.

It didn't look like it though.

After everyone had left, Yamaguchi turned the lights off in the gym. As spring reached its peak, the days were steadily lengthening, and some light from the setting sun pierced through the windows of the gym, spotlighting a lithe figure who had been waiting by the door.

"Hurry up Yamaguchi."

"Gomen Tsukki." Yamaguchi smiled to himself, quickening his walk to a stiff jog.