Stormy Summer

Chapter 40

I don't know what to name this Chapter

Also: this is the Chapter I wrote for today, so from now on, Updates will be weekly, on Sundays.

"You should try to jump higher," a rough but nervous voice sounded beside me, and I looked at who I now knew as Kageyama in surprise. I nodded in understanding, and when the ball flew back over to me, I jumped higher.

I tossed the ball as high as I could toward where I thought Kuro would jump, and was relieved to see that Kuro hit it better than before.

But the relief was shortlived, as none other than Rose blocked the spike, grinning at me, smugly. I scoffed in response as Kuro handed the ball over to her.

Rose took the ball and took several steps back as it was her turn to serve. Kageyama seemed like he wanted to say something, but kept quiet, while his smaller teammate, Hinata, yelled her 'good serve,' Rose took a deep breath, before throwing the ball up in the air.

We had been playing like this for what felt like hours. We had finished several rounds of cards, but eventually, it got boring, so we went back to watching them play. Hinata was the one who ended up asking us to join.

'The more, the merrier,' was what he said, and soon, Bokuto and Kuro joined in, eventually managing to convince us to play with them.

Anna and Charlie opted out. Charlie didn't like games involving balls, as Anna 'didn't feel like it,' though she probably felt like her joining in would only irk 'the scary guy,' alias Kageyama.

He had been yelling at Hinata more often than not, and since none of us had any sort of PE in school, she felt like he'd rip her apart. Or she just really didn't feel like moving around.

Who knows.

"Hana-san," Kageyama exclaimed as he tossed toward her, and Kuro, Bokuto, and I jumped to block her spike.

"Sorry!" I exclaimed as the ball hit against my fingertips and flew toward the back of our side of the net. Kuro roughly patted my shoulder after landing, before he and Bokuto ran back.

Bokuto tossed the ball toward me before running forward again. I tossed the ball to him as fast as I could, and we got right past their block, "Hey, hey, hey," Bokuto exclaimed happily before he stood back up straight and turned to Kuro with a smug look on his face. That expression on his seemed somewhat out of character, but Kuro mocked it by pretending to fangirl over Bokuto. Bokuto got annoyed quickly.

While Kuro kept pushing Bokuto, I turned toward Rose, "How do you jump so high?" I was already panting slightly, while Rose seemed completely fine. While Rose didn't answer, searching for the right way to reply, Hinata jumped up between us.

For someone so small, he sure has a lot of energy to spare... And here I thought their training camp would push them so far that they'd be left with no left to use.

"Like whoosh!" he made wild motions with his arms when he landed. While I contemplated his advice, Kageyama shouted at him for using the wrong sound effects in his explanation.

I blicked a few times before nodding.

'Swing your arms to get more momentum.'

If I understood him correctly, that is.

"Thanks!" my smile was greeted by a huge smile on his face.

"One more!" Hinata kept shouting, as Rose and I lied on the grass, half-dead. Charlie and Anna had gone inside a while ago, and the sun had already begun to set.

"How can he have so much energy?" Rose groaned from beside me as we both panted in exhaustion.

I was too tired to answer anything.

"That's what we all wonder, Hana-chan," Kuro appeared next to us, poking my cheek, "You tired?" both of us turned our heads to give him a deadly glare to which he just laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"We should probably get going, anyway," he said, pulling me up without warning, Rose begrudgingly following suit.

"You should shower," he grinned as I could only glare at him.

"Sally!"

That was my only warning before I nearly collapsed to the ground again, as I was thrown against Kuro, who was, thankfully, still in front of me. I would probably complain if I wasn't so tired right now.

"What the hell?" Kuro exclaimed as he quickly steadied me, before tearing Bokuto a new one for jumping on us.

"She's so tiny! Don't break her!" I felt my eyebrow twitch at that.

I was about to say something when I just sighed.

Too tired.

"We should do this again sometime!" Hinata exclaimed as he jumped around in front of Rose and me.

I could see Rose smile uncomfortably, "Sure..." she sounded just as tired as I felt.

When Kuro went back inside, Hinata and Kageyama quickly followed. I was about to follow with Rose, as well, but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder, "Wait."

When I turned around, I used some of the last energy I had left to muster up a genuine smile for Bokuto, I suppressed a yawn, "Bokuto! What-"

I was in the middle of asking him what he wanted to say when he stopped me with a hug, "I'm glad we came over today," I could hear the smile in his voice, which strangely calmed me.

Unconsciously, I grabbed his shirt tightly.

"I've been thinking..." he trailed off for a few seconds, but I was too tired to urge him on, so I opted for just waiting for him to collect his thoughts, "Why don't you start calling me by my first name?" it seemed to come out of nowhere.

I'm sure that if I had grown up here instead of Europe, I would feel embarrassed at the thought, but instead, I just hummed, thinking about it.

"Koutarou," I tested how it'd sound to call him that.

...

"But it's so long..." I complained, "Bokuto is so much shorter and easier to say..."

It was silent for a few moments, and I feared that I had said something wrong, so I looked up at him, but he had his head turned away from me, frowning.

Was it this important to him?

"How about 'Kou'?" I offered, instead.

Suddenly, he let go of me, and I thought I had somehow offended him by complaining about his name, but when I got a better look at his face, I couldn't help but blush.

"S-sure," he croaked out, before rushing past me, inside.