Why Practice

An hour before dinner, there were 5 people continuously playing inside an open gym doing hitting lines and passing on opposite sides of the net.

"Can at least one of you guys come block for me?"

"Can't, I wanna practice my own hits first."

"Can't, I'm training my own teammate first."

Bokuto who pleaded to the other two guys suddenly felt downcast by their rejection and curled his lips in dissatisfaction. Near Kuroo was a guy laying on the ground with silver hair, he weakly raised his head hearing Bokuto's request and tried to raise his hand.

"You still need to practice your receives so don't even think about it."

"I didn't even say anything yet!"

"I can see it in your eyes. Get up Lev, we're going to do 50 more."

Haruto, Akaashi and Bokuto looked at the sadistic smile Kuroo was giving and returned to their hitting line and tried their best to ignore the loud screams that were happening behind them.

Haruto watched as Bokuto passed the ball to Akaashi and he spiked towards him so that Bokuto could receive the ball.

After passing the ball high up, Akaashi gave a set that was low and Bokuto quickly ran his swift approach to smash the ball right down the line. Haruto whistled as he watched the ball bounce up high in the air and gave the ball to Akaashi to do the same thing.

Haruto passed the ball just like Bokuto and jumped up for the set but instead of smashing it down, he looked towards the court where bottles were placed in certain positions.

'Position 6.'

Haruto thought in his head and swung his arm with precision to try and hit the bottle that he placed around. The ball flew with fast speed and got to the bottle he was aiming at but just slightly skimmed past it.

"Damn I missed again.That makes it 5/10."

Haruto clicked his tongue as he tried to imitate his swing just like the times where he was able to hit the bottle.

"Hey you with the glasses! Come and practice blocking my hits!"

As he was about to start his train of thoughts, Bokuto's loud yelling snapped him out of it and looked towards the entrance where Tsukishima had a puzzled look on his face.

"Ah sorry I finished my practice already."

"Ehhh extra practice doesn't hurt does it? These stingy guys don't wanna help me out with even just one block…"

"That's because you would ask for more after and we won't be able to fit in our own practice."

Haruto approached Bokuto and glanced towards Tsukishima who was staring blankly at the two of them.

"Why don't you just join us so this guy can stop whining, It's good practice anyways."

"Why me? You have other people that can join you right?"

Tsukishima still feeling unmotivated to join, tried to reason his way out but Haruto just pointed towards the back at the gym where Kuroo was.

Tsukishima looked to where he was pointing at and felt speechless as he saw a guy that was soaked in sweat melting on the floor and Kuroo still tried to spike the ball towards him.

"That guy is usually the one who helps out but as you can see he's busy."

"...."

He gave a small nod to his words and grimaced as he remembered Ukai doing a drill just like that albeit not as intense but it still exhausted him regardless.

"Plus didn't you always say you would just love to block me so here's your chance to do so with an extra person, or are you too scared to do it~?"

"....."

Haruto tried to provoke him like what he always does when they usually interact and he felt happy when he saw veins pop out of his forehead.

Tsukishima walked inside the gym, placed his stuff down and walked up to the net silently waiting for them to come. Bokuto's eyes brightened up and jumped in excitement seeing he now had a blocker to join him.

"Nice job."

"No problem."

Akaashi gave Haruto a quick high-five and the two of them went to the net to continue their hitting practice with one other person.

***

"Come on! Raise your hands in front of you and not above your head!."

Kuroo yelled out as told Tsukishima who's block was broken apart by Bokuto's spike and blasted out. After practicing with Lev, Kuroo joined the hitting line to practice blocking with Tsukishima and it had been going for quite a while.

Breathing heavily, Tsukishima wanted to call it quits but didn't have the opportunity to do so since Haruto and Bokuto continuously threw the ball towards Akaashi to hit.

"Try to cut off the line for Haruto."

Kuroo said as he watched Haruto pass the ball high for Akaashi to hit. Tsukishima reluctantly nodded and moved a bit to the left and used the open space to push himself upwards.

'This guy wants to fool me…'

Haruto thought in his head as he saw a blatant opening between the two blockers and decided to hit the ball down a hard cross doing a cut shot.

"Ehhh you didn't go for the spot I opened up~"

"Like I would fall for such an obvious set up by someone like you."

Haruto ignored Kuroo's smile and ran after the ball he hit to get back in line for his turn after Bokuto.

Tsukishima took the chance to take in a breather and subtle look towards the people around him who were practicing hard.

"Guys! Dinner is ready so you can start making yourselves towards the cafeteria to get some!"

As he was wondering when he should start to excuse himself, Tsukishima heard one of the managers voices and thought this was a good time to leave.

"I'm hungry so I'm going to go eat."

"Hmm? Ah sure go ahead we'll follow after this guy gets the hit he wants."

Haruto heard Tsukishima's words and returned back to the court and joined Kuroo in blocking Bokuto.

Picking his stuff off the wall, Tsukishima watched as Haruto was asking Kuroo some questions on blocking and gestured his arms up to follow the advice he heard.

"Why are you even trying this hard just for a simple club…"

Tsukishima mumbled under his breath as watched Haruto and after staring deeply at him, walked out the door and made his way towards the cafeteria.

***

"Hey come block for us again~"

"No, I'm tired."

"But you still haven't managed to block me like what you said before."

The next day during the evening, Haruto wanted Tsukishima to come join once again since he found that having a tall blocker alongside Kuroo, helped him a lot with improving where he attempts to hit the ball through the smaller gaps.

"Just take this guy with you in my place."

Tsukishima quickly distracted Haruto by pulling Hinata who was listening to their conversation and walked away.

"But it's a pretty good opportunity to practice with others right?..."

"...."

Haruto thought out loud as he watched him walk out and Yamaguchi who was near them kept quiet thinking about the possible reason why he refused to join them.

"So are you coming or do you have to join Kageyama to practice the new minus tempo?"

"He told me to leave him for a bit since he doesn't like the fact the set doesn't reach his standards yet. So let me join you!"

Haruto smiled as he listened to Hinata's positive response and walked out of the gym to go where the other guys were.

Yamaguchi stood in place furrowing his eyebrow thinking about Tsukishima, before grabbing a volleyball and going to the service line to practice his float serves.

As he contacted the ball, he tried to think of ways to help his childhood friend get over his rut from the past.

***

I hope you enjoyed it. Peacu.