I'm Blind, Not Glass

5

It was a few hours later that Shiro, unwillingly, found himself helping Sugawara and Tanaka put things away in the equipment room. He wasn't sure why Suga thought that him helping with this would be a good idea, but he had accepted nonetheless, wanting to do something for the team he was technically a part of.

Oh yeah, that was something else.

At the end of practice, Daichi had managed to shoo Suga and Tanaka away from him long enough to talk in private. It hadn't been anything bad, mostly going over the details of what was expected of Shiro to do since he'd decided to add him to the team. Shiro was to be a bookkeeper and number cruncher, keeping track of the things people did well in and things they needed to work on.

It was all thanks to Kiyoko really, but still.

Shiro was now in the cramped equipment room, holding onto one of the poles for the net, while Sugawara and Tanaka cleaned up some stuff that had fallen.

"There's something I don't like about those newbie first years..." Tanaka started, grumbling under his breath as he put away a box of spilled athletic tape.

"You don't like anyone you meet for the first time." Sugawara rolled his eyes, the brown orbs unconsciously finding their way to where Shiro stood in the doorway. "You know, that's your personality, right?"

Tanaka deflated, looking at Suga in disbelief. "My personality?" he questioned, and Shiro couldn't help himself to let out a light chuckle.

"But those guys sure were beyond expectations," Sugawara continued. "Are you going to be okay in the match on Saturday?" Tanaka made some sort of spluttering noise, ripping another smothered chuckle from Shiro.

"O-of course! I'm on the team after all!" Suga made a noise acknowledgment, finishing folding the spare net they had. "That's true."

It was after a few moments of silence that he started to talk again. "There's Kageyama, too."

Tanaka rolled his eyes, after having to deal with said male all morning he didn't really wanna hear about him. "He's really mellowed out since junior high, don't you think?"

This time it was Shiro rolling his eyes. "How can you think he's mellowed out?" Tanaka demanded, having forgotten that he was supposed to be cleaning, now just leaning against a shelf to talk.

Sugawara sighed, stretching to put the net back onto the shelf it belonged on. "Well, when he was in junior high it seemed as if he had this unwavering confidence." The grey-haired male kept talking as he helped Shiro put the pole into the stand it belonged in. "Like he was some unchallenged phenomenon or something."

Shiro hummed, understanding where Sugawara was coming from. Unfortunately for the blind male, he was in an area where he'd only been told one side of the truth, one side of the story. Shiro hardly knew anything about Kageyama, but he didn't like the male all for the fact of what Shoyo had said about him. Sugawara was indifferent, and Shiro wished he himself could be.

"Either way he's cocky as hell," Tanaka said with another roll of his eyes, and Shiro chuckled.

"Sorry, sorry," Sugawara said with a smile, one hand pressed gently into Shiro's back to guide him out of the equipment room. "I shouldn't have asked you that."

Tanaka, still in the equipment room, looked at the two of them in confusion. "What?"

Shiro smiled, letting Sugawara guide him across the gym floor so they could grab the other pole. He knew what Sugawara was talking about, was getting at. He knew that he saw unlimited potential in Kageyama and Shoyo, knew that he saw the way that Kageyama had been humbled a bit by not getting into the school he'd chosen first.