Brief Encounter

"So you managed to block someone who was over 200cm? Pretty impressive."

"I know right. Hey you can use your left foot on that edge and use that to lever yourself up."

"Ah I didn't see that, thanks."

Using one hand to stick himself onto the wall, Haruto pointed towards a certain spot to let Kageyama know where to stand next. Watching from below was Kuroo who crossed his arms after hearing a bit about Karasuno's first preliminaries.

It was the weekend where Haruto usually goes to his bouldering training but this time some people wanted to tag along.

"How were your matches for the Spring Tournament?"

"It was fine, just some hiccups every now and then due to our new first year…"

"Lev?"

Kuroo sighed and nodded to Hinata's answer who was currently taking a break by sitting down and drinking water.

He thought back to some of the matches where Lev would get easily fooled by their opponents deliberate baits, causing him to jump at random players.

"At least he was able to get some of those points back due to his height."

"I wish I had that sort of height…"

"You would need some sort of miracle for that to happen." Haruto who landed onto the safety mat, repeatedly tapped Hinata's head.

Hinata felt eyes twitch when he felt him tap his head, trying to emphasize his height and started to lunge at him.

Unfortunately he was stopped in place when Haruto just held him an arm's length away by the face.

"Tsk Tsk, he does have some skills in provoking others. I wonder where he got it from." Kuroo gave a sigh as he looked at both Haruto and Hinata.

"...."

Kageyama who also came down, kept quiet but he couldn't help himself from glancing at Kuroo who had a helpless expression on his face.

'I think he's gotten better after meeting a certain someone though.'

Kageyama thought in his head but kept it to himself and just enjoyed the show that was in front of him.

"You got your lists of schools that filled in the slots for the representative playoffs right?"

"Yeah and our bracket so far is pretty much identical to our Inter High one, except for a few changes."

After having their fun, Haruto and Hinata separated and went to get changed since they had been bouldering for a few hours now and were getting tired.

Going to the changeroom Kuroo asked the three of them about their matches and Kageyama answered, seeming to have the paper that was given to them by Ukai memorized.

"We have Aoba Johsai in our semi final match and Shiratorizawa in the finals. But there are also some tricky schools in our block."

"Johzenji and Wakutani right?"

"Yeah those two."

"I'm surprised that you went ahead and started looking into those schools."

"After our match against Kakugawa, I started to realize how helpful it was to research our opponents beforehand."

Kageyama placed all his things inside of his duffle bag and thought about how Haruto's quick investigation before their first match, made playing against them much more simpler.

"But that one player on Wakutani is the type I hate blocking the most... "

"Why does one of them have something that even Mr. Ace over here can't handle."

"What kind of nonsense are you saying?" Haruto said as he scoffed at Kuroo's words

"He likes to score his points by getting touches off his opponents blocks."

"...Hmm like shrimpy over here right?"

Kuroo narrowed his eyes a bit as he also hated blocking these types of players, even more so during the time he's been playing against Hinata during their practice matches in Tokyo.

"I see what you mean now."

"Well it won't be too bad since I'm accustomed to someone who does that already so I just need to see what type of hitter they are."

Haruto closed off his thoughts about the upcoming representative playoffs and talked with the other guys about more casual things as they made their way out the facility.

Saying goodbye to them, Haruto got on a bus and took his time to commute back to his apartment when he suddenly got a call.

Looking at the caller Id, he answered right away and wondered what they needed.

[Have you finished bouldering yet?]

"Yeah, I'm actually on my way home now."

Haruto smiled a bit after hearing Mahiru's voice and they started to talk about how their day has been so far.

"So what's up, did you call me just so you can hear my lovely voice?"

[Yes of course, I couldn't help myself since I haven't seen you all day.]

On the other side Mahiru who was in his apartment rolled her eyes but still laughed when she heard Haruto chuckling on the call.

[Are you still far away or are you close?]

"I still need to transfer to another bus so I'm still far away."

[Oh then can you buy some ingredients from the supermarket while you're out since I noticed that some things won't last for dinner tomorrow.]

"That's fine, just send me the list of things I need to get. Should I use the coupons that I have on my phone?"

[Sure, but only use them when the prices are more than what we usually get them for.]

Hearing some confirmation from Mahiru, he talked for a while before hanging up since he was about to reach his next stop and transfer over to another bus.

***

"I didn't think that there would be a flash sale… good thing I got what I needed before getting myself crushed by that crowd of housewives..."

Haruto who was walking with plastic bags in his hands, felt relief since the supermarket decided to suddenly announce to the speakers that a certain type of cleaning supply was on sale.

This caused a commotion with people suddenly crowding to the center of the store where the supplies were at, so they could get their hands on at least one.

"But I wonder what Mahiru decided to make for dinner."

Putting that event to the back of his head, Haruto mumbled under his breath as he was pretty excited about what Mahiru decided to make.

Getting close to his apartment he pulled out his keys in advance before entering when he noticed that a person was standing near the entrance looking at the apartment doors.

He was only able to see his back but the color of his hair made Haruto narrow his eyes slightly since it was one that he was very familiar with.

'It's the same as Mahiru's…'

With thoughts still swirling in his head, he decided to discreetly look and see if this person was who he thought he was.

"Um excuse me, do you mind if I pass by?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been in the way in the first place."

The man turned around and as Haruto expected, he looked very similar to Mahiru. He had a kind and handsome face with the same blonde hair and golden eyes she had.

He spoke in a deep and calm voice and bowed his head slightly, moving away from the entrance but his eyes still wandered towards Haruto's apartment.

Haruto gave a passive smile and approached the stairs but still continued to glance at the man near the entrance.

'He might not be the one but if he is, why would he be here?'

"Haruto!"

Still thinking in his head, he was about to land on the first few steps but he jumped up in surprise when he saw Mahiru start to come down the stairs towards him.

"As I thought it was a lot of bags... welcome back, I'm sorry for suddenly making you shop out of nowhere." Mahiru smiled apologetically as she tried taking some of the bags in his hands.

"It's fine, I was out anyway so it wasn't a bother."

Haruto gave a wry smile and felt a brief kiss on the cheek from Mahiru who was grateful.

He felt happy with the reward but he tried his best to block her view past the entrance to prevent her from seeing the man at the front, since he didn't know how she would react by seeing him.

Haruto also knew that the man had seen them since the stairs were close to the entrance and was visible from the outside.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just thinking about some stuff."

Mahiru looked at him for a bit before going up with the bags of groceries Haruto bought.

Watching her back, Haruto turned around to see if the man had decided to walk towards him after seeing them together but Haruto felt surprised when he saw him go back into his car and drive off.

'Did he just leave after seeing Mahiru…?'

Haruto felt confused since he thought that the man would have wanted to meet her but his thoughts were apparently wrong after seeing him drive off.

'Why did he even show up in the first place…'

Still feeling confused, he continued to look at the spot where the man drove off before walking up the stairs trying to catch up to Mahiru.

***

The Fontaine quest was pretty good. I liked how we got to talk with the in-game characters more than the NPC's majority of the time. I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.