Splash of Color

7: Your Volleyball

Your arms reached out and tossed the volleyball up into the air clumsily. Now, you definitely did not plan for this to happen. All you planned to do that day was watch Oikawa practice on your day off that week and get more inspiration. That is, until Oikawa asked a seemingly innocent question in your general direction while he was practicing.

"Hey, have you played volleyball before?"

You should've lied, you should've said anything other than what you replied with after a beat.

"No, not really."

You were about to return to your sketchbook until a volleyball landed right in between the pages of your book. "That's quite an aim you got there, Oikawa-san." You lean up to see his scheming expression uneasily as you take the volleyball from your sketchbook and reach out to pass it to him. "Here you go?"

His expression seems to magnify even more after he speaks. "Oh no you don't Rudolph-chan! We have to change that as soon as possible!" He slaps both of your hands which are still holding onto the ball and drags you toward the court.

"I'm sure there's a better time—" You try to reason before he cuts you off.

"No time better than the present!" He winks at you for effect. "I promise you'll have fun~"

Your eyes narrow at his broad smile. After all the times you've spent with him, you've noticed that he had little differences in his usual smile given the situation. This one had a hint of amusement.

You sigh. "If you start making fun of me we're both going back to what we were originally doing."

He nods dismissively at your warning. "Sure, sure."

You exhale through your nose and reach out your hands with the volleyball to pass it to him but he doesn't take it from your hands. "Wait, you can't expect me to start?!"

He grins. "Actually, I do!" He comes over and guides your hands and arms up into a toss. "Just pass it up like that, I promise I can return it back to you."

You huff. "Yeah, but I can't. This will be a really boring one-sided pass."

He shakes in disagreement at your comment. "Less talking, more trying." He starts walking further away to make distance for you to pass. "Try getting it over here."

"Okay..." Your brows furrowed as you tried to remember to keep your arms and hands as they were. You toss the ball up a little to test it before tossing it over in his direction.

As promised, he returns that clumsy toss perfectly and sets it over in your way. To your surprise, you notice that receiving his sets were easier than you thought.

A few more tosses and the first game of pass ends as Oikawa catches the ball. He was panting slightly, his face flushed from all the running.

That's when it occurred to you that you have stayed in the exact same spot the entire time, not breaking a sweat. You were having so much fun passing the ball with Oikawa that it didn't even occur to you that he was working on overdrive just so you could pass back and forth.

Your eyes blinked up towards him in realization as this wasn't the only time he did this. He would go out of his way just to connect with people, in volleyball and out of volleyball. It was just how he was.

"Hey~ Rudolph! Want to go for another round?" Oikawa calls from the other end of the gym after he grabbed a drink of water.

You grin. "Yeah!"

It seems that your respect for Oikawa decided to grow a little more today.

~~

After a few more rounds of tossing the ball around, you guys sat on the bench both visibly tired.

"Hah~ That was a good practice! I should've done this with you sooner!" Oikawa gives you a broad smile. "So, did you have fun~?"

You roll your eyes at his question because you both obviously knew what the answer was. "I wouldn't have played more than one game if it wasn't, wouldn't I?" You glance at him from the corner of your eye. "You certainly kept your promise."

He seemed to brighten up at that comment. "I did, didn't I?" He nudges your side. "Make it be known that Oikawa Tōru keeps his promises!"

You laugh. "The moment someone praises you you're over the moon." You nudge him back. "C'mon, we have to go or else we'll miss the train."

He nods before smiling at you mischievously. "As it so happens that I didn't practice on my own..." He trails off for added effect but you somehow knew where he was leading it up to. "You have to help me clean up Miss Accomplice!"

"Figures." You stand up and brush off the dirt on your clothes from the bleachers. "I like that nickname better though!"

He winks. "Maybe if you practice with me more, I'll use that as default one day."

You just walk past him to start cleaning up. "Don't you drive a hard bargain, Oikawa-san?"

He follows your actions a moment later. "Well, I still like Rudolph-chan the best!"

"Less talking, more working Spotty!"

~~

Oikawa tilts his screen over to show you a picture on his phone as you guys were making your way to the station. "Hey, take a look at this!"

You study the photo, intrigued. "That's a really good shot actually." It was a picture of the sunrise right at its peak. "When was this?"

He shrugs. "I don't remember. It was early in the morning though."

"Oh, so morning practice?" As you hung out with him, it was brought more and more to your attention how much volleyball revolved around him. Not that you had anything against it, you were the same way with art.

He hums to affirm your question.

"Hey...could you send that to me?" Ideas started sprouting in your head as soon as you saw the photo.

He turns to you with a teasing smile. "That means we'll be sharing numbers then~" He pulls out his phone. "Of course, I wouldn't mind but would you?"

You reply back unfazed by his usual teasing. "Well I want the picture so the rest is irrelevant."

He pouts. "My number is very relevant!" He holds out his hand. "Where's your phone?"

You sigh and pass it over to him. He quickly turns his focus towards it and punches in his number before holding it in front of your face.

"There! You better not forget it!"

"As long as it's in my phone, I'm sure I won't." Your eyes zoom into the name above the number. "Uh...The Grand King?"

He beams. "That's me!" His ego was so big right now and all you wanted to do was pop it, or at least deflate it a bit.

You take the phone from him. "...Denied. I'm changing it to Spotty." You snicker when you hear him gasp in horror. "Thanks for the photo~"

You hear him sputter incoherent words for a couple more moments before he responds in words you can understand. "Well I'm putting your name as Rudolph in my phone!"

You shake your head. "I've heard it so many times before so you can't even use that name against me anymore."

You just heard him grumble in response to let you know you have once again won this round.

Rudolph: 2 

Spotty: 0  

  _______________________

Sorry this took a while to get out, I've had to scrap the original timeline of the story since last chapter! Continuity issues and all that jazz...Anyway, I will be updating once a week Saturdays or Sundays from this point!