A Tendou x FOC Haikyu!! fanfiction.
In which a girl who struggles to express herself finds comfort in the most unlikely of faces. There is a lot of darkness in the world, and Maeko realizes just how tightly she must hold onto the traces of light tha...
A week had come and gone, and Maeko was sitting on the sidelines where coaches and managers usually sat to watch her best friend, Ayume, practice, even though she still wasn't sure if she felt up to it after the last time she tried to attend.
This time, at least, had gone a lot smoother. Maeko managed to enter the gymnasium without any freak accidents. She still felt at risk of another volleyball in the face due to the bench's proximity to the players but, overall, she had to admit that it was sort of fun to watch Ayume play.
It was less fun that the boys' volleyball club was also practicing today.
The girls and boys' clubs normally didn't have to share the gymnasium since the school put enough funding into its extracurriculars, but sometimes they chose to practice together. The girls' team was well-known for its defense. Maeko thought on more than one occasion that Ushijima's spikes would rip their arms off cleanly at the sockets but, surprisingly, the girls' team could hold their own against it.
Ushijima was probably holding back just a little.
But it wasn't like his spikes were the only thing that the girls' team had to worry about.
When it came around to their turn to attack, the spiker was never without at least two blocks, one of them being Tendou.
Maeko wasn't too familiar with the rules of volleyball, but Tendou's performance made absolutely no sense to her. He would take off towards one of the spikers before the setter even touched the ball and, more often than not, he was in the right place to block it. His hands moved expertly in response to the ball as if he could predict its every move, but that had to be impossible. Nobody was that good at reading people.
He made mistakes sometimes, and when that happened it was almost guaranteed to cost his team a point, but the points he earned seemed to greatly outweigh the handful he lost.
On top of that, it looked like he was really enjoying himself on the court.
Every time he correctly predicted and blocked a spike, he'd celebrate as if one point equaled ten. His playful atmosphere on the court was infectious, but Maeko couldn't help noticing that some teammates looked more at ease with him than others.
It was the fifth time that Tendou predicted and blocked Ayume's spike. At least, the fifth time since Maeko started counting.
Ayume looked exhausted. She was hunched over with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily.
"You're so easy to read." Tendou teased, lacing his fingers together behind his back.
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His face expression was difficult to put into words whenever he had the opportunity to look down the length of his nose at a spiker he blocked. All Maeko could think to say about it was that she was grateful not to be standing on the receiving end.
"Shut up." Ayume responded venomously, abruptly standing up and turning her back on Tendou.
Maeko could tell that Tendou was getting to Ayume simply from the way she chose to insult him. She was ordinarily a lot cleverer and wittier than that.
Tendou's eyes drifted to the bench where Maeko was sitting and, with a start, she shyly averted her gaze and pretended that she was preoccupied with a very interesting wall. She hesitantly returned her eyes to the court when she thought he finally looked away.
The girls who weren't regular players were sitting close enough to Maeko that she could overhear snippets of their conversation.
"It must be exhausting to try to keep him from reading your plays."
"I don't envy the regulars when we practice with the boys like this."
"No wonder they call him guess monster."
That was an interesting nickname. Maeko rolled the syllables around on her tongue as she watched Tendou's next play: His eyes were glued to the volleyball like a leech as it fell against the setter's fingertips and then, in a flash, he positioned himself at the middle of the net and jumped just in time to block a back attack.
Was that what Tendou was doing? Guessing?
By the time practice was over, Maeko felt exhausted as if she had been playing too. The gymnasium was a loud and energetic place. It tended to sap her energy very quickly.
Ayume collapsed onto the bench directly beside Maeko, pouring water into her mouth faster than she could drink it.
"Good job." Maeko said meekly, unsure how to properly congratulate an athlete or what, exactly, constituted a job well done.
Ushijima paused in front of Ayume and Maeko on his way out. He side-eyed the two girls without even turning his body towards them.
Maeko shrunk beneath even half of his gaze; Ayume, on the other hand, quirked an eyebrow in impatience. "Can we help you?"
His facial expression remained deeply and uncompromisingly neutral. Ayume's short fuse had no effect on him. "It's impossible to avoid a block from Tendou if he reads your setter, but there are steps you can still take to get around him. Consider working on your midair form."
Ayume stared intensely at Ushijima, her lip curled in distaste. "When did I ask for your advice?"
Goshiki made an awkward noise from a short distance behind Ushijima. "The Ushijima is offering you free advice, and you're not—"
Ayume silenced him with one deep, cold look.
Goshiki quickly gathered his things and headed for the exit, lips pursed.
"Consider it." Ushijima repeated before following after Goshiki.
Ayume rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable."
Maeko slightly angled her body towards Ayume, pulling one of her legs onto the bench. "Why do they call Tendou guess monster?"
"You overheard that from someone?" Ayume asked, not sounding surprised. "That nickname has been following Tendou around for a long time based on what I've heard about it. It's because he uses guess-blocking as opposed to read-blocking."
Maeko tilted her head to the side, puzzled.
Ayume waved her hand dismissively. "I won't go into the details. All you need to know is that it's a lot harder and usually has a lower success rate, but Tendou is somehow an exception to that. He reads plays with scary accuracy as you probably saw today."
She didn't look pleased in the slightest as she reflected on how many times Tendou blocked her.
"I think I understand." Maeko said. "That's a cool nickname."
"Then you don't understand." Ayume replied hastily, shaking her head harshly.
Maeko turned to look at her best friend with wide eyes.
Ayume raised her eyebrows as if it was obvious. "It isn't a compliment, Maeko. They're calling him a monster." She gazed thoughtfully up at the ceiling, adding as an afterthought: "He sure looks like one."
Maeko didn't think about it like that.
She was suddenly reminded of the uneasy looks some of his teammates gave him throughout the duration of practice. Up until now, she thought the boys' team was proud to have Tendou on their side, but maybe it was more like they were just grateful not to be playing against him.
It sounded lonely.
She made a mental note not to call him by his nickname if she could help it.
