Lemon Tea

You should stop by sometime

The weekend had come and gone, now once again you were walking to the teacher's room after class. As you approached the room, you saw the familiar blonde haired coach. 

Standing with his back to you, he was cautiously peeking into the room, testing the waters as if he could go in alone or not. 

"Coach Ukai?" you said startling him, as if he'd been caught red handed. 

"Oh hey," he said casually, playing off his initial surprise. "And like I said before, you don't have to call me coach," he said seemingly annoyed, which honestly made you a little happy. Teasing him was surprisingly fun and you weren't planning on giving up on it so easily. 

"Are you looking for Takeda?" 

"Oh uh- no. I was actually looking for you." 

The sentence surprised you, a quick jolt of excitement through you. You instantly suppressed the feeling and stupid grin, instead looking up at him with genuine confusion. You didn't say anything, the confused look was enough. 

"Oh well I wanted to thank you for coming to the tournament on Saturday. Not sure if you heard but they lost the third match-" 

"I did unfortunately," you said with a frown. 

"Yeah, but I think knowing that they're supported has helped them get over it." 

"I'm glad I could be of some help, even if just a little. Also, I had a good time." 

"I know it's a crappy thank you, but I brought you this," he said, handing you a bottle you'd barely noticed he was holding. 

"You like this one right?"

 It was the bottle of lemon flavored black tea you'd bought almost two months ago. 

"Yeah," you said, slightly dumbfounded that he'd remembered what drink you'd bought, even down to the brand. 

"Thank you, this is really nice of you."

 Ukai cracked a smile. "You don't have to pretend, I know it's not much," 

"No really I-" 

"Oh also," he said, cutting you off. "You should stop by the gym sometime." 

"Hm? why" 

He shrugged his shoulders. "If you want to, I mean. Might be good for morale or something like that." 

You smiled, nodding. "Ok." 

"Just stop by whenever," he said, turning to walk away. 

"By the way," you said, stopping him. "You don't have to worry about going into the teacher's room. We won't bite," you said teasingly. 

He chuckled, a slight embarrassment rising to his face. "You saw that, huh?" 

"Yeah," you said laughing too. 

"Hahh well see ya later L/n." 

You waved, then went to your desk inside, deciding to save the drink for later. 

As Ukai walked away, he was still trying to understand why he'd invited you to practice. He had only planned to thank you with the drink, but it just slipped out. He did think it'd be good for the team, but that wasn't even on his mind when he'd first asked.

 He sighed, rationalizing that he just wanted to get even with Shimada and Takinoue so they could stop talking shit about how they knew you better than he did. He was shuffling to the gym when he suddenly had a thought. 

Was it totally creepy that he remembered the drink you bought months ago? He thought back to your obvious surprise at the drink. 

It was totally creepy, huh. 

"Aggghhh" he complained, rustling his hair with both hands. 

"Coach?" He looked over to see Daichi, Sugawara, and Asahi standing behind him, confused. "Something wrong?" 

"Haha nope, all good. Let's head into the gym," he said, faking a chuckle. 

He was blissfully unaware that the trio had been leaving their classroom at the opposite end of the hall at the same time he had been talking to you. 

"Told you," Suga said cockily, shoving Daichi into Asahi.

Thursday came and you were relieved how quickly you finished up your lesson planning and paperwork. 

"I'll just finish grading these at home," you thought to yourself, organizing a stack of papers and putting them into your bag. 

As you started walking, you thought back to Ukai's invitation. You were sure he was just trying to be nice and didn't actually intend for you to stop by. But if he had been serious wouldn't it be rude not to visit? 

You walked to the gym, stopping awkwardly in front of it. Why was this so nerve wracking? You would probably just be in the way anyways. You began walking away when you were interrupted by Takeda. 

"Oh L/n! Are you stopping by for practice?" 

"Oh Takeda, no I was just-" 

"Ukai mentioned you might swing by," he said, giving you a short look before opening the doors. "Let's go on in."