courage dear heart | Yuki Ishikawa

23

I heard an alarm ring briefly before it was quickly silenced.

Wait, isn't today Sunday?

The arms that were already wrapped around me tightened, pulling me closer to someone's chest.

I opened my eyes and looked up.

Yuki had closed his eyes again, clearly trying to go back to sleep.

So I guess this wasn't just another one of my spicy dreams...

I raised my hand and gently traced a finger over his eyebrows and down his nose, watching as a smile appeared on his lips.
"Not tired anymore, Nabi?" His voice was low and husky.

Wow, maybe I'm still dreaming.

Since I didn't answer right away, he slowly opened his eyes. "I thought I tired you out last night... or should I say this morning? You did fall asleep barely two hours ago."

Flashes of last night came rushing back to me, and despite the lack of sleep, I felt unusually relaxed and at the same time a slight pressure between my legs.

I just stared at him, taking in the details of his face, the little moles I loved so much.

He propped himself up on one elbow, giving me a half-smirk. "You weren't this quiet last night, not even when I had my hand over your mouth."

I stifled a chuckle. "You sure talk a lot in the morning, don't you? What time is it, anyway?"

He laughed softly. "Sorry, I guess I woke up in a good mood." He hugged me again. "It's 7"

I shot him a glare. "What? 7 AM? Why do you have an alarm set for 7 on Sunday?"
He gave me a sheepish grin and raised his eyebrows. "Habit."

I buried my face into his chest. "Ughhh!
I wanted to sleep in all morning."

He gently stroked my back. "If you want, I can tire you out a bit more, and then you can sleep while I head to practice." His hand slid slowly down my back, teasingly.

I swung my leg over him, straddling his laps, and pinned his hands to the bed.
"Okay, that's enough! You're getting too much control here!"

But with a swift motion, he flipped us over, pressing his hips firmly against mine. "You should know I hate losing, especially after last night."

I looked into his eyes. "Yeah, you definitely proved that last night. But honestly, I don't think I can handle another round right now."

I saw his smirk fade a little. "Oh... sorry." He released me and sat up, kneeling on the bed.

I laughed at his reaction and sat up too, wrapping my arms around his neck.
"But a shower doesn't sound too bad."

He smiled and pulled me back down onto the bed. "Okay, but first, I just want to kiss this gorgeous woman in my bed." He said with a sly smirk before kissing me.

After many make out between the bed, the shower and against the door, we finally managed to leave his room.

I even convinced him to wait outside my door long enough for me to throw on some sweatpants and a hoodie over his red jersey.

We headed downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast. There weren't many people since most had stayed up late the night before. Only Yuki's team was already there, eating.

"You finally made it down, Captain! We didn't hear anything from you guys, so we were playing Jack N' Poy (*rock-paper-scissors) to see who'd go wake you up," Yuji said with a laugh as we approached the table.

"Well, we were definitely awake," I whispered with a chuckle.

We sat down and ate breakfast before heading to the gym for their training session. They wanted to play volleyball since Yuji was there, and he'd be leaving later that evening.

Once in the gym, I settled onto a bench while they warmed up. I took out my phone to check emails from sponsors regarding upcoming projects.

I noticed that the video we recorded yesterday had already been edited and posted on social media.

I played it and saw that it was getting a surprising number of views-more than usual.
The video was edited really well, with smooth transitions, and they used
"Swag" by Miyauchi as the background track, which fit perfectly.

I spotted a small mistake I made during a trick.

Ugh, I can be such a mess sometimes...

Yuki came over, curious about what I had been watching on repeat for the last 15 minutes.
"Oh, your video's already out! It looks great," Yuki said, taking my phone from my hands.

The rest of the team gathered around to watch. "Whoa, it's already at 400k views, and it was just uploaded!" Ran exclaimed, pointing at the number.

"That's strange... We don't usually get that many views so fast," I said, puzzled.
They gave me my phone back and I checked the comments.

Ah, that makes sense...

I turned to Yuki and tried to hold back a laugh.
"What?" he asked, confused.

"Your fans found out you guys were there, so they've been watching the video. Some are saying they're going to follow our sport more now that they know you're into it."

Yuji burst out laughing. "Well, you're welcome!"

Another teammate playfully nudged
Yuji. "I think it's Yuki and Ran's fans, not yours, Yuji." Everyone laughed.

I turned to Yuki again. "Remind me never to get on your fan club's bad side," I said, laughing.

Their coach entered the gym, and everyone got back to training.
During their warm-ups, they pulled me in to try spiking a few sets.

Yuji watched me and shouted, "You spike just like Yuki!"
"Yeah, but only the spikes! The rest is way too hard," I said, taking off my hoodie as I started to heat up.

I noticed Yuki staring proudly at my chest,  So I looked down and I realized he was eyeing his jersey. "Nice, right? Number 14 is the best number!" I pointed at his jersey on me.

"Cho, you wear number 14 too, right?" Ran asked, noticing what I was wearing.

I nodded. "Yep, January 14th, my birthday."

Then Yuji tossed me a volleyball. "Try serving it with a spike!"
"Can you show me first?" l asked, and Yuki stepped forward to serve three perfect spikes.

Hmm... doesn't seem that different from a regular spike...

I backed up from the line, took a deep breath while holding the ball, and tossed it in the air, counting my steps mentally.

One... two... three, jump and spike!

The ball barely made it over the net.

"Ooh, so close!" I said as the others cheered, raising their fists. Yuki ran over, yelling, and hugged me. "Brava!" (Nice!!)

We kept practicing for a while before they started playing matches against each other for the rest of the day.

I spent most of the time watching them, laughing when they argued about points and occasionally snapping a few photos of Yuki.