Un-Moving Heart || Ushijima x Oc

Chapter 29

Yui lets out a tired yawn as she tosses the volleyball up into the air, vision bleary and mind foggy, clearly not awake enough to be doing anything other than sleeping or pretending to be a zombie.

"Nee-san!"

Startling her, Yui looked up to where the shout came from to see her younger brother with his eyebrows furrowed and a scowl plastered on his lips, arms raised mid-spike.

Yui, who had been tasked to toss during the warm-up for the match against Inaarizaki, had thrown the ball a little too high with it reaching way above her brother's hand, and escaping his palm. As the ball lands back onto the court in a soft bounce, Tobio passes under the net and toward his sister, worry etched onto his face, while Yachi takes over for a little so that the siblings can talk.

"Are you okay, nee-san?"

Yui looks up into identical dark blue orbs that seem to reflect her own and gives him a soft smile, her hand subconsciously reaching up to softly ruffle his hair.

Tobio's frown deepens.

He is glad that his sister's heart has softened over the past few months and that she is smiling more, but that soft smile of hers looks to be filled with nothing but pain, weariness, and avoidance, and that was bothering him more than he would like to admit. He was worried.

"I'm fine, Tobio." She says, giving his head a soft pat and tussling his hair up like how she used to do when they were younger.

And Tobio doesn't pry further, letting her go back to tossing while he walks back to the end of the line to continue spiking. Despite that, his eyes never leave her tired figure except for when it is his turn to slam the ball down onto the other side of the net.

Halfway through warm-ups, a sudden eruption of cheers and excited squeals came from the court next to theirs, raising the noise level within the stadium immensely.

The entire Karasuno team turns to look in the direction of the noise and their eyes widened in awe while some narrowed in curiosity, Nishinoya and Hinata letting out matching gasps of excitement as their eyes turned into saucers.

Walking through the side doors of the stadium, their opponents of the day enter. Each member of the Inarizaki team steps out in firm marches, their chests puffed out in confident arrogance and their poised aura washing over the crows in an intimidating wave.

The cheers got even louder once they started to warm up. Nevertheless, Karasuno couldn't help but let their exhilarated grins sneak onto their faces, the raging flames within their hearts roaring to be let loose.

Once the time ticks and they finally finish their warm-up to get ready for the match, Yui notices Tobio's abandoned water bottle set to the side and decides to go and give it to him. However, she slows her pace down once she sees him talking to someone, her grip on the water bottle tightens and a grimace takes over her face once she recognizes who.

"Oi, Tobio." She calls out, throwing him the drink which he catches effortlessly.

Instead of leaving to go back to the others though, Yui continues to walk until she's now standing next to her brother right behind the plastic barrier that barricades the two opposing teams from each other.

The other boy simply smirks as Yui peers at him questioningly.

"Hey–"

"Ya, did you change your hair color, Samu?"

The grin is immediately wiped away from the person's face and is replaced with an irritated look, annoyance bubbling within him from Yui's words. Tobio merely tilted his head to the side, confused as to what his sister was doing. Does she know Miya? And why was she calling him 'Samu'?