Lead Wings | Ushijima Wakatoshi x Reader

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

After that day, everything changed in your life. Your plan of returning to Miyagi was now forgotten, thrown in the trash and set on fire.

You will not be stripped of your pride like that.

Now, there are good and bad parts about this situation. The good part is that you no longer have to try to focus on your job as a manager. For these past few weeks, you've only been paying attention to Shiratorizawa's ace, feeling your heart flutter every time he did anything on the court. There were times when balls hit you because you were spacing out, thinking about the flex of his muscles.

At the same time, not being that much around him will result in your feelings fading away... but since you're no longer leaving Tokyo, there is no need to reject how you feel anymore. Well, there's no way Ushijima feels the same about you, you think. He's too stupid to realize what a crush is.

Never mind, there are only bad parts.

And the cherry on top of this situation is that right now, you are in front of the girls' gym, working up the courage to step inside and face them again. 'There's no going back', you tell yourself. You take a big breath of air, exhale, and enter.

Your coach is the first to notice you and he tells the girls to take a break. When they turn around and see you, your heart practically stops beating.

"If it's okay with you, I would like to return to the team," you swallow dryly. "I-if you haven't found someone already to replace me, of course!" Your voice is shaky, same as your fingers. You clench your fists to stop yourself.

"Nobody will be able to replace you, (Name)," Daitan tells you, smiling widely and throws a ball at you. You catch in and look down at it. Ah, it feels nostalgic, good... right... it feels right. You are back to where you belong to. You look up, finding your old teammates smiling at you and giving you thumbs up. There are new players; some of your senpai are gone too. Things did really change while you were gone.

But some things still stay the same: the smell in the gym, the roughness of the ball in your hands and—

"Ukai-saaaaan!" The libero of your team zooms from the court and jumps in your arms, forcing you to throw away the object from your hands to catch her. And this. "I'm sorry! I'm soo soorry!" She says between cries. "Daitan said that you were mad at us for not visiting you in the hospital, but your condition was really bad and we were afraid of worsening it by telling you that we lost all of our matches," you put her down, since your arms are about to give up.

"Don't worry about it," you pat her gently on the head. "It's all in the past. I should've come to talk to you instead of running away. So, let's put all these behind us and play some good volleyball, okay?"

"Loks who's using big words now," Daitan comments, grinning. "I've been trying to convince you to return for months and then you show up on your own. You're pissing me off, you know?"

"Oh, shut up, I know that you love me. And apparently you've missed me a lot since you've been trying 'for months' to bring me back," you grin back at her. She puffs on her nose and wraps you in a big hug. You don't need to say anything else to each other. Next year will be Daitan's last as a college student. Knowing that you'll be with her until the end, makes her worries disappear.

"So, how did Shiratorizawa's captain convince you? He was very... hmm... affected by your decision of quitting" Her smirk is bigger than before. And don't even think about denying it, because she knows already. Or just assumes, based on your flustered face and quick reaction to 'deny the accusations'.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Wakatoshi, did nothing—"

"'Wakatoshi'? Oohh, you're on a first name basis with him?" The vice-captain butts in. Their constant teasing wasn't something you've missed. (Lies).