Lemon Tea

It's not like that

The teams filed in for lunch, and ate their fill. You knew they'd been working hard but you were shocked to see how much these kids could put away. Over lunch, Ukai taught you a couple more volleyball terms and showed you their playbook. 

After that, it was right back to the practice matches. And these other teams were good, really good. It appeared to you that Karasuno was playing well, Shimizu told you they were performing much better than at their last training camp, but they were still struggling to hold their own against these Tokyo schools. They could barely win a single set.

"Hey! You held back, didn't you!" 

The sudden outburst drew all of your attention to Hinata, the red head with that incredible jump. Everyone tensed up simultaneously.

"Held back?" the black haired setter coldly replied, "Me? With volleyball?" grabbing Hinata by the shirt "Say that again." 

"Excuse me! Can we get a time out?" Ukai hastily said to the ref. 

"That wasn't a falling toss," Hinata spat. 

"Hm? Falling toss?" you whispered to Ukai. 

"Mm, usually the setter tosses it diagonally upwards and the spiker interrupts its path, but Kageyama is usually able to set it right into Hinata's hand. However Kageyama has been working on a falling toss that stops at exactly the right point for Hinata to spike. They've still been working out the kinks for this new technique." 

"Oooh, I see." 

"That toss right now wasn't like the tosses he's been getting, but was more of a parabola...Hinata hasn't hit a spike comfortably for a while now. That's pretty stressful for a spiker. Kageyama might've been subconsciously worried that Hinata might not play as well because of that."

 "Ohh, so Kageyama was just making sure Hinata could spike it?" 

"Yeah probably."

 "Is that something to get angry about? I mean wasn't Kageyama just making sure he didn't miss?" 

"Hah, I agree, but those two... they never back down. Hinata probably thinks Kageyama gave up on him because he doesn't trust his skill or something like that." 

"Wow ... .There's a lot more interpersonal connection involved than I realized...I didn't know athletes were so dramatic." 

Ukai laughed, like actually laughed. He turned away from the court, covering his mouth so the team wouldn't see him laughing during such a tense moment. A wave of butterflies suddenly hit your gut. 

"Haaah yeah, you're right about that." 

As you looked up at him, your face grew warm. You wanted to make him laugh more. 

By that time, the fight had fizzled out but Ukai called the team around to settle things. The practice matches continued, and while the outcome of the games weren't much better and they faced penalty after penalty, you thought things were starting to get better. 

"Maaan I'm beat," Ukai exclaimed as the team head to dinner. 

"Well we were driving all night." 

"Yeah," Ukai said with a yawn. "But knowing Nekomata I'm not gonna sleep a wink." 

"Hm?" 

"Keishin, L/n," came a voice from behind you. "Today proved to be quite interesting, as expected." The old coach said to which you only chuckled politely. 

"L/n, will you be joining us after dinner to go drinking?" 

Ukai frantically signaled for you to refuse and you took the hint. 

"Um- not tonight, thank you. I'm pretty tired from the drive, and I'm not much of a drinker." 

"Too bad, another time." 

"I'm pretty tired too-" 

"Not a chance, Keishin" 

You sat with Ukai, along with the other coaches at dinner and watched quietly as the men joked with each other. This was a strange environment, surrounded by a bunch of men you'd never met. Usually you would've been more on edge, but having Ukai there put you at ease. You were also seeing him in a new light; joking around, getting teased by the others. You were having fun. 

"So, how was the first day?" you were drawn away from the chaos to see that Naoi had just sat across from you. 

"Oh hi Naoi. It was fun! A little overwhelming, but fun." 

"Yeah it can be a bit crazy sometimes." 

"But everyones so passionate, it's nice to see. I wish I had something I loved that much." 

"Do you love teaching?" 

"I do! But it's different. The students don't have much passion, I don't blame them. But here, everyone genuinely wants to be here so it makes you feel so...energetic. Sorry does that make any sense?" 

"Woah, Teach is getting deep over here," Ukai interrupted. You hadn't noticed he'd had a watchful eye over the conversation for a while. 

"Ah- I didn't mean to sorry" you replied, a bit embarrassed. 

"No I- didn't mean that as a bad thing,-" Ukai floundered. Naoi raised an eyebrow at him.

 "Whelp!" Nekomata bellowed, slamming his palms on the table. "Shall we?" 

Naoi's energy drained from his face.

 "Is it really that bad?" 

"Yes!" Naoi exclaimed. "He's way too intense." 

"Naoi's a bit of a lightweight, but he's right Nekomata is pretty pushy."

"He never gets hungover so he just keeps pushing everyone to stay out all night."

 "And on the first night too, how much energy does that old man have? I gotta get some sleep otherwise I'm gonna be fucked up tomorrow-" Ukai stopped abruptly realizing what had slipped out, but to his relief you just chuckled. 

"Haha, well best of luck. I'll rest enough for the both of you." You excused yourself and head off to your room to get ready for bed.

As they were leaving, Ukai passed the gyms and saw the teams late night practices. He found his excuse to slip away. 

"I'm gonna stay behind and help em out," Ukai said to the rest of the group despite Nekomata's coercion.  

"Oh by the way" Naoi asked Ukai as he started to walk away. "Are you and L/n.." 

Ukai's eyes flashed. "You've got the wrong idea Naoi, it's not like that," Ukai said, leaning his head into his interlocking fingers behind his head trying to act calm. 

"Oh? So you're saying I should go for it?" 

"I didn't say that," Ukai said, side eyeing him. The two of you may not be involved, but that didn't mean he would give his blessing to his longterm rival.  

Naoi scoffed. "Yeah I didn't think you'd give up without a fight." 

"T-That's NOT what I meant," he exclaimed angrily, to which Naoi only laughed.