made to love you || ushijima wakatoshi x reader

three

Words: 3586

Before you knew it, the day of the preliminaries was upon you. You were on high alert, your nerves making you shake. You'd done this before, and yet you were just as nervous every single time. Why couldn't you just get over this? You loved volleyball, and you were confident that you'd do your best. There was no reason to be so scared.

Your peptalk didn't do anything, and you could feel your stomach coiling in a way that wasn't fun.

If everything went well, you'd play and win five matches. If you did that, your team would qualify for Nationals. Five matches, that's it. You'd won five matches before, at least that many. You could do this.

You fiddled with your hands, standing in the hallway with your team as you waited for instructions. You could tell you weren't the only nervous one in your group, and you definitely weren't the worst at hiding it. If you were the captain, you might've given a little speech to get everyone's spirits up. But you weren't, and the real captain was too busy scrolling through her phone to notice her team's nerves.

Sighing, you tried to clear your head of all the anxious thoughts floating around. If you were this nervous in the match, you were destined to screw up. Then all of this would have been for nothing, all because you couldn't get your fears in check. You closed your eyes and took a steadying breath, clenching and unclenching your fists. You could do this, you could do this, you could do this.

"Y/n."

You opened your eyes, responding to the call of your name, and your eyes fell on your brother. He stood in front of you, Kuroo beside him, with the rest of his team gathered a few feet away.

You tried not to show the embarrassment you felt over being caught in the middle of a freakout, but you knew both the boys wouldn't fall for it.

"Kenma." You swallowed, not sure what else to say.

He didn't speak, instead putting a hand on your arm and squeezing. The touch immediately sent relief through your body, the familiarity of your bond with your brother bringing you back down to Earth. You felt yourself start to breathe evenly again, and you put your hand on his, squeezing back.

"You can do this." He said quietly, before letting go. You smiled at him, feeling choked up at seeing how much he cared. He nodded, giving you a small smile back before going back to his team.

"You're gonna kick ass, y/n. Don't get freaked. You're so talented." Kuroo complimented, hugging you quickly before following Kenma. You watched the two of them go, feeling more sure of yourself by the second.

You loved the two of them so much, even more so after they did that for you. They believed in you, and had total faith you could win. You had to prove them right. You would prove them right. You would win these games, take your team to nationals, and justify their faith in you.

You won your first game easily, taking the first two sets and the victory. Your team seemed to all have the same mindset, which was to win. None of you even thought about the possibility of losing, and that made you deadly. Failure was not in the cards this year.

Your next game wasn't for a few more hours, which meant you could go watch the end of your brother's game. He did amazing, as usual, and so did Kuroo. The two of them were damn good at this sport, and even better at it when working together. They won their game, too, which wasn't surprising. After it was over, you went to congratulate them, giddy from your own win.

"Kenma!" You called, hurrying over to where the team was cooling down, "Kuroo!"

Both of them turned to look at you, Kuroo breaking out into a grin while Kenma just took another drink from his water bottle. You threw yourself at them, wrapping one arm around each of their necks to form a group hug. Kuroo hugged back just as enthusiastically, while Kenma settled with giving you a pat on the back. You laughed, pulling away.