The Letter

"Watanabe and Kageyama, you have been invited to an All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp."

Hearing Takeda's voice that held a bit of excitement in it, the people in the gym took a while to digest what he had just said before they broke out into stunned stares towards the two players.

"All-Japan!?"

"H-He said all of Japan right…?"

"Incredible…"

Various reactions suddenly appeared on the faces of all the people in the room, some were surprised while others gave genuine admiration towards the opportunity the two of them will get.

"Wasn't Ushijima a representative too…"

"Yeah, he played as a youth representative for the 18u team. His matches were pretty damn good too, I remember him breaking down a block from one of the teams during the Youth World Championships."

"Do you still have recordings of the match?"

Takeda gave a wry smile as he heard the conversation between Haruto and Kageyama and felt like they were not as shocked as he thought they would be.

Noticing that they were starting to go off topic, Takeda cleared his throat which caught their attention back onto him.

"I do want to note however that the training camp will be held during the later portion of December, so it will be taking place a few weeks before Nationals. It is not compulsory so just let me kno—-"

"I'll go."

"I'm going."

Without letting him finish Haruto and Kageyama spoke out, immediately accepting the deal as this was a big opportunity for them to practice with some of the best players from all over Japan.

"I see, well I will inform them of your acceptance of the invitation."

Takeda broke into a small smile as he heard their quick response and then turned to one more person within the group of people.

"One more thing, during that same time period there will be an imitation training camp for the promising first years in the Miyagi Prefecture. Tsukishima, you have received an invitation to said camp."

"T-Tsukii, y-yoou too??"

"Training camp…"

Yamaguchi opened his mouth wide when he heard about Tsukishima's invitation while the person in question quietly mumbled to himself.

"You going?"

"….."

Haruto turned to Tsukishima who had his arms folded and kept quiet as he thought to himself. He began to think back to the Spring High finals where he had managed to block Ushijima but it was far less than what he had planned to go for.

Tsukishima subtly glanced at Haruto who titled his head and after staring for a few seconds he said his answer.

"I'll join."

"I understand, I will inform them too." Takeda looked a bit surprised by his straightforward response but he felt a bit happy that he was joining out of his own will without anyone forcing him. 

"Eh~ I thought you would have rejected the offer."

"....."

"I know for sure Akiteru will be really proud once he finds out."

Haruto faked a tearful expression as he reminded Tsukishima about his eager older brother. He frowned deeply when he began to think about how his brother will react once he finds out his invitation to a camp where all the best first year players in Miyagi will attend.

"Umm sensei, is there an invitation for me too?"

Hinata looked at Takeda with a hopeful expression while Takeda looked at him with a wry smile.

"Well I only got three invitations so…"

Hearing his words, Hinata's face froze and he fell to his knees.

"Heh."

"You bastard!! You laughed just now didn't you!?"

Hearing the quiet snicker Kageyama let you, Hinata jumped up and began to argue with him since he felt annoyed by the expression he saw.

"Ahem anyways I will confirm that you three will be participating. Although this is a good opportunity, be sure to rest a bit and relax as you have just gone through the Sprigh High. I heard the cultural festival is coming up so I look forward to what exhibitions your classes will set up!"

Ignoring the commotion the two were making, Takeda gave a bit of advice and proceeded to walk out of the gym with a small skip in his steps.

"Haruto we need to celebrate!"

"Celebrate?"

"Yeah! You were just invited to a big camp so of course we need to celebrate it!"

Mahiru rushed towards Haruto after seeing that Takeda had left and spoke in a cheerful tone while pointing towards her fingers.

"We still have some meat so I can make some fried foods. Oh! I also have some vouchers from Akane for some sushi so I can get some of that too. Also we can…"

Mahiru began to go on a tangent as she listed out some potential foods that she would make for dinner. Haruto broke into a small smile seeing her enthusiasm and just tapped the top of her head a few times.

"Just don't make too much or else I'll be stuffed until the next day."

"Really? I swore that you had a bottomless pit as a stomach if I looked back at your appetite these past few weeks."

"Well I was training so…"

"Sure I understand."

Mahiru briefly brushed off his claims of being a glutton and Haruto felt his eyes twitch seeing her nonchalant tone.

***

Ending the practice a bit early, Haruto and Mahiru went to the grocery store on their way back home to get some ingredients for the special dinner Mahiru was going to make to celebrate. 

Entering the lobby of his apartment, Haruto noticed that his mailbox had a few pieces of paper in them and after deciding for a while, he opened up the box to see all the mail he got.

"You opened your mailbox?"

"It's starting to stack up so I thought it was best I got some of the mail while I'm here."

Mahiru quietly nodded to his words and waited patiently behind him as he went to gather the mail he had in his box.

'Hmm? This one arrived just yesterday…'

Haruto saw a particular letter that was addressed to him and he turned it around to see the sender's name.

'Asahi Shiina…'

Haruto's eyes narrowed when he saw the name written in fine handprint and just by seeing the person's last name he was able to infer who the sender was.

"Did you get everything?"

"Yeah I got all of it."

Hearing Mahiru's voice, Haruto placed the letter into his jacket and closed his mailbox as he racked his mind to figure out why would Mahiru's father send him a letter. 

After thinking for a while he decided to put this issue to the back of his head and would just open it later after he had his dinner.

He entered his apartment with Mahiru and they began to put away the groceries while Mahiru did her magic to create a wonderful dinner to celebrate the special occasion.

A few hours continued to go by and Haruto was currently rubbing his stomach as he had been stuffed with the various foods that Mahiru made. 

He went towards the kitchen to boil some water to make some tea as he wanted something to help his stomach digest the food he had eaten and to prevent bloating.

'Oh right, there's that letter.'

After turning the kettle on, Haruto suddenly remembered the letter that was in his jacket and after looking at Mahiru who was sitting by the table, he walked towards his jacket to grab the letter.

Mahiru who was sitting down noticed that Haruto was holding onto something and curiously looked at the paper in his hand.

"Did someone send you a letter? That's new."

"Well…"

Haruto once again felt a bit hesitant to speak on the matter but recalling their conversation a while back regarding her family, he decided that he should let her know.

Haruto sat down in the chair beside her and showed her the letter that was addressed to him.

"So you got a letter from him."

He heard the chilly tone that escaped her mouth and he looked at her straight in the eyes. He saw the cold and distant look on her face but there was a hint of unease that she tried to hide deeply in her eyes.

"It's fine." Haruto quickly held onto her hands and spoke in a calm and gentle voice trying to pacify her rattled appearance.

"...I'll move away so you can read it."

"It's alright, you can sit next to me while I read it."

"It's addressed to you so I should…"

"Hmm, if that's the case just sit next to me because I was my girlfriend's comfort while I read a letter that's from her father."

After hearing his words, Mahiru sat quietly and held onto his hand while she gradually leaned on his shoulder. Silence enveloped the two as Haruto carefully read the contents of the letter and tried his best to not miss a single detail.

"It looks like he wants to meet me."

"I see…"

Placing the letter onto the table, Haruto summarizes the contents of the letter to Mahiru to which she just responded bluntly.

"Do you want me to meet him?"

"...I'm not going to stop you from meeting him but I just don't understand why he wants to do something like this."

"Maybe he's wondering about the guy his daughter is dating?"

"I doubt that he wants to know something like that after ignoring my existence his whole life."

Listening to her chilly response, Haruto and her sat in silence once again and he just focused on squeezing her hand gently.

"I'll meet him."

"Are you sure?"

"Even from my impression of him I still want to meet the person who had a role in bringing you into the world. Think of it as meeting and greeting your significant other's parents for the first time."

Even with his awful impression of her father, Haruto still wanted to meet Mahiru's 'father' and introduce himself as a person who chose to be with her regardless of what will happen.

Mahiru kept quiet for a while before she gave Haruto a deep hug and quietly listened to his heartbeat that she loved to hear.

"I'll leave it to you then."

Haruto smiled a bit as he heard her soft voice and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Do you still have room for dessert?"

"Dessert?"

"Yeah, I bought some Daifuku while you were checking out some of the groceries."

"How did you even sneak something like that without letting me know..?"

"Secret~"

Haruto chuckled as he got up and went to get some plates for the dessert he had bought and pulled out the package from the fridge and showed the assortment it had inside.

"Ah! Can I get the strawberry one?"

"Well come here and take it or else it might suddenly disappear."

Mahiru quickly got up after hearing his words and carefully looked inside the box Haruto presented to her. He gave a fond smile seeing her current appearance and he began to quickly choose out some of the Daifuku that he wanted, not forgetting to tease Mahiru along the way.

***

I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.