His Warrior Queen: A Haikyuu!! Novel (Tsukishima x OC)

Chapter 92: Looks Like We Made It

Tsukishima Kei was not a happy camper.

It was much, much too early of a Friday morning.  The Friday morning before the National tournament would begin.  A Friday he would spend much of on a bus.  

A Friday where he'd found it almost impossible to fall asleep the night before.

He'd been shocked at just how keyed up he'd felt as he'd settled into his bed, eyes wide open, hands fidgety and mind racing.  He'd tried everything he could think of.  Music, counting sheep, darkening the room completely.  No luck.  All his mind had seemed to be able to do was throw images of their game against Shiratorizawa at him - and not the good moments.  He'd wondered which teams they would face.  Would they play Nekoma or Fukurodani early?  He wasn't sure he was ready to start off the Nationals with a game against one of his bros.  By the same token, he wasn't sure he was ready for the National tournament, period.

Having failed to calm himself to sleep, he tried distraction.  Loud metal instead of soft instrumental music.  Reading.  He'd called Nakano at something around midnight, babbling at her as she fell back to sleep almost immediately.  Finally, as the time came near to one o'clock in the morning, sheer exhaustion had dragged him down into fitful sleep, and dreams filled with teams of players who all looked vaguely like Ushiwaka but were all as tall as Hyakuzawa.  

And now the blonde was standing next to the bus, eyes grainy and mind sludgy.  All he wanted to do was get on board the bus and lay his head in Nakano's lap and fall asleep with her playing gently with his hair.  He watched listlessly as the student coach loaded the last of the bags on the bus, stepping over to him and kissing him gently on the cheek before the two headed aboard the vehicle themselves.

"Hey, Legs," Coach Ukai called out as Tsukki and Nakano made their way towards the back, "can I borrow you for a little while?"

Tsukishima's shoulders sagged.  All he could think was that he hoped all the bad stuff was happening to him now, so that everything during the actual tournament would be awesome.  

Nakano patted the boy on the shoulder.  "Go sit with Yams - looks like Yachi and Kiyoko are having a chat as well.  You've got your blindfold, hmmm?  Get some sleep - I know you need it."

"Yeah," the middle blocker groused, "but it's nicer when you play with my hair."

"Coming, Coach," Nakano sang out, giving her exhausted boyfriend a final peck on the cheek as several of the boys cat called the couple.  "Just sleep, silly.  We'll be there before you know it."  She made her way up to the front of the bus to sit next to their Coach and behind Takeda-sensei as the bus pulled away from Karasuno.  She spared a glance back at Tsukki as she sat down - the boy was already slumped in his seat, blindfold on his eyes, and appearing to be out like a light.  Nakano couldn't help but smile at him fondly, Yamaguchi giving her a sleepy little smile and wave in return.  She tossed herself down into the open seat next to the older blonde man.  "What can I do for you, Coach?" she asked.

"So, Legs, I wanted to talk to you about the plan for once we arrive in Tokyo.  We're going to have some practice time in one of the satellite gyms..." Ukai began.

"Oh!  Absolutely!  I've been putting together a sequence that I think will allow us to get in some really great practice on virtually everything and give each of the guys the chance to work the areas where I think they will need to have the most confidence in..."

"No."

Nakano stopped short, giving the man a confused look.  "Uh...what?  I..."

"Look, Legs, you've way overthought this.  I appreciate the hard work you've put into this, but honestly, just let it go.  All I really want you to do for these boys today is run their usual spiking drill.  Then they're gonna play a single game, and that's it."