It was a sunny afternoon, beautiful clear blue skies and soft breezes. Spring had finally sprung and of course nationals was coming up. Arguably the most exciting, heartbreaking and stressful time of year for volleyball players. Nekoma and all surrounding schools were preparing for Spring Nationals, it was a big deal. Top players from all schools central to Tokyo would play each other, the perfect chance to get scouted for a college team or straight onto a professional team. Today captain Tetsuro Kuroo wasn’t giving you or anyone on the Nekoma Volleyball Team a break, this year he was deadset on winning nationals. Kuroo was busy training Lev constantly, a new rookie to the team but his skills were lacking…

Even coach Nekomata seemed more excited than usual, he’d gone ahead and organised a few practise games ahead of time. Particularly the rivalry of Nekoma and Karasuno was back. Some things had never changed at Nekoma, the passion and hard work into the team hadn’t fallen out.

You were absolutely sweating on the gym floor, trying to relax and catch your breath. Kenma looked worse for ware, his eyes tired and bloodshot as he sat by the court, sipping some water.

You got up off the floor slowly, making sure to not over do it yourself. Wiping the sweat off your forehead with your shirt. You and Kenma were close, good friends and an even greater duo on the court although you’d never stack up against him and Kuroo. You thought of something to get Kenma out of his slump, “hmm…maybe something to eat…hm no, video games? oh that new store opened…” you thought to yourself since you shared some common interests so maybe he’d like to go out somewhere to take his mind of volleyball.

“Oh hey…what’s up, you look tired.” Kenma asked with a bored expression, wiping the sweat from his neck as he stood up to talk to you. You knew instead he was happy to talk to you, although his face said different.