égoïste [Akaashi Keiji]

raison #28

The rest of the team had actually eavesdropped on the whole thing that happened outside and behind the gym. The whole outburst that Shiori had and Bokuto's way of calming her down.

"I know you guys are there." Shiori looked towards the side of the gym, behind the edge, where heads poked out. They belonged to the other members of the team.

"Eep! Sorry!" Yukie squealed, clasping her hands together in apology.

"Sorry." The other members of the team chimed in, some rubbing the back of their heads and others mimicking Yukie's position.

"It's fine. Sorry for my outburst earlier." Shiori apologized, bowing a little in apology. She wiped the remnants of her tears and sniffed, giving them a smile afterwards. "I'm fine now, so let's go back."

Akaashi stared at her for a moment. She certainly did look better in the aspect that it didn't seem like things were bothering her anymore, but it also seemed like she wasn't because she was just crying.

Now that I think about it, this is the first time I've seen her crying, the setter thought.

"Okay, then." Akaashi stood up from where he was squatting. "The coach will yell at us if we're out here for too long. We have to prepare for Nationals."

"Oh yeah, you guys are going to go to Nationals!" Shiori clapped a couple of times, "Urgh, sorry for hindering your practice. I'll do even better this time!"

Komi grinned and crossed his arms, "Shiori, make sure you don't hit it out of bounds this time! Make it hard to get, okay?!"

The girl made a face when the libero mentioned her blunder, but nodded and stretched her arms, her mind made up. "Yeah, okay! Let's do this!"

-

"When I said hard to get, I didn't mean you aiming for me every single time!" Komi was complaining to Shiori, but she was getting a good laugh out of it.

"But you're the libero, so you should really get most of them, right? Receiving is your thing!" She grinned. She twirled the ball around in her fingers, then threw it at the 3rd year. He caught it and threatened to throw it back at her, but she caught it even when he followed through with that threat.

The rest of the team laughed as they bickered. Shiori was back to normal again, and it seemed like she was doing better than when she had previously.

So it really was a mental thing. At least it's better than Bokuto-san's emo mode, Akaashi stretched his legs, reaching over easily with his medium-high level of flexibility.

They were finished with practice, and thus had started to do stretches and cooldowns.

If it's okay now, then is she okay? Akaashi could just remember her tears, the ones shed from sheer frustration. If she had been holding that in for such a long time, would she let it go so easily? He wouldn't know.

She looks fine...I guess I'll just ask later. If it wasn't Bokuto who cheered her up I wonder if she would have felt better, Akaashi leaned on his bent arms, slowly breathing in and out to make sure he was stretching properly and within his limits.

If it was me—

A negative train of thought went through his head, making his eyes narrow just slightly. He exhaled and let it go, trying to not think of it.

Bokuto is just naturally like that, so it makes sense, as Akaashi's thoughts drifted to the ace, his eyes went to him. He was stretching too, but he was talking to Yukie about something. He occasionally looked towards Akaashi's way, but he had no idea why, because he didn't feel like he was looking at him.