If you were to ask someone what they thought of when they looked up at the sky, I could only guess that the answer depended on the person. If someone were to ask Oikawa, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he'd say something related to aliens-- which was another topic altogether with him. I remember I asked my dad once and he went off on a tangent saying that he was convinced at some point in his life that the moon was made of cheese and that my mom, his then girlfriend, hadn't talked to him for days because of it.

I asked Kageyama after we finished eating our lunch.

"It's blue," he mumbled, rubbing his hair. He was laying down on the floor and looking up at it with narrowed eyes, almost daring it to not be it's natural color. I sat next to him and blinked.

"Well, I guess you're not wrong," I said. I tilted my head up to see if I could spot anything else, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. A small smile grew on my lips and Kageyama raised an eyebrow.

"Oi, what's in the sky?"

He shuffled slightly as he sat back up, unbothered that his school uniform was probably wrinkled now after laying down for so long. We only had about twenty minutes left before classes started back up and no one had come up to the rooftop since lunch started.

"Well, lots of things, if you want to get technical," I counted on my fingers, "there's carbon dioxide, oxygen, then the layers of the atmosphere, starting with the troposphere--"

"No, stop," Kageyama interrupted, shaking his head as he made a face, "that's too literal."

I pursed my lips as I felt myself get hot, slightly embarrassed at how complex I'd started to become. It was a habit of mine, but Kageyama quickly retook his words and tried to explain himself before I could take it harshly.

"Remember how they have us analyze stupid, simple stuff during Literature?" I gave him a nod and he continued, letting his shoulders drop, "I mean like that."

The fact that Kageyama actually recalled something from today's lesson made me beam, absolutely proud at what progress he was making. And it wasn't just him either; when I was in the teacher's lounge, I'd manage to hear from a conversation the sensei's were having that both Hinayana and Nishinoya were both starting to participate more in class and Tanaka wasn't falling asleep as much anymore during lectures.

If I kept getting results like these, I'd work for nights on end just to make sure I kept them on their toes.

Kageyama sipped his milk and I tilted my head upwards.

"Then there's still a lot of things," I said, pointing to the sun, "there's hope. And happiness. Opportunity and unison."

Then I turned my finger towards the darker side of the sky as it was slowly coming to approach and engulf us probably later today, meaning it would be cold and rainy by the time practice was over.

"It's also despair, heartbreak and misery."

Out of nowhere, Kageyama started to cough violently and choke on his milk, holding his hand over his mouth to catch any that might spill out. I scrambled to my feet and hurried to give him a napkin and took away the carton of milk, debating whether I should call a teacher or not because his face was still red. Before I could start to make my way to the exit, Kageyama snatched my arm and pulled me back down next to him, making me fall backwards beside him. He coughed a few more times before turning to look at me, wiping away his mouth as I watched in worry.

"You're scary," he said in a weak voice, coughing again to clear his throat. I furrowed my brows at his accusation and shook my head, pointing my finger at his nose now, making him successfully flinch.

"You're one to talk, you're terrifying when you get mad during a match," I replied as I recalled the many times Hinata's eyes lost their light because of his furious shouting. Even I'd be left shivering on the bench with my clipboard held up to shield my face from anything that could possibly be sent my way, although the chances of that happening were slim to none.

A bird flew overhead and Kageyama rolled his eyes at my comment, tossing his wadded up ball of garbage and scraps of food into the nearby trash can. When he made it in, which was no surprise to me, he grinned and extended the last ball of tinfoil to me. I refused to take it.

"No way," I said with a shake of my head, picking up my books, "you do it."

As expected, the ball was tossed into the trash and I sighed softly in relief at the fact that Kageyama was not someone that forced me out of my comfort zone.

"Want to skip class and play volleyball?"

I spun around and stared wide-eyed at him, nearly appalled by the innocent suggestion. It took me a moment to realize that he was being completely serious since he pulled a volleyball out from behind him, seemingly from thin air. I wanted to be surprised, but I honestly wasn't.

"I'll teach you how to set," he offered, already bouncing the ball up into the air, over his head with the tips of his fingers, "It'd be better than sitting in a stupid desk and hearing about numbers for another hour."

I smiled and shook my head at his intention. Normally, I would scold him and force him to come back into the classroom, maybe even pull at his ear the whole way there, but something held me back from even lifting a finger. Instead, I opened the roof door slowly to leave.

"I'll make sure you don't get in trouble for ditching then," I promised. Judging from the bustle of students rushing to get back inside the building, the bell would ring in a few minutes so I hurried down from the roof, letting the door close behind me as I left Kageyama behind to let him practice setting. I made sure to grip onto the railing as I sped down the stairs to avoid tripping and was glad I did because once I made it to the last landing, the roof door was suddenly yanked open loudly enough to slam it against its hinges and make me jump.

"OI!" Kageyama's frenetic voice echoed, startling me. He was standing at the doorway, hair disheveled and panting somewhat unevenly, nervously. I shifted the weight on my feet as I waited for him to say something else and he crossed his arms across his chest stoically, contrasting his panicked shout to his now seemingly unbothered demeanor. By the way he was refusing to glance my way, however, I could tell he was trying to spit something out.

"I... I'm not that good at saying what I want to say sometimes..." he mumbled after a few silent seconds, uncrossing his arms and scratching the back of his neck, "and sometimes I use the wrong word..."

The sound of footsteps rushing past us in the floor below caught our attention for a moment and Kageyama used this moment to pause in his strained sentence, seemingly a relief for him. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and waited patiently for him to continue on, tapping my the tips of my school shoes together out of habit.

Kageyama scowled and shoved his hands into his pockets, slightly irritated as he spoke his next few words.

"I'll try hard on and off the court to make you smile, since you have this dumbass smile that's nice to see," he muttered, scuffing the tip of his shoe against the floor. It took me a second to put his awkward compliment together but the second warning bell rang before I could respond to it, giving him the incentive to rush me out of the stairway corridor.

"Go before you're late and mess up your perfect attendance," Kageyama said, nodding his head to me, "Don't trip on your way out."

I rolled my eyes --even though we both knew he was right to warn me about my clumsiness-- and gave him a quick wave before I rushed back down, making sure to avoid slamming the door open on someone's face as I merged into the current of students, notebooks held tightly against my chest. It wouldn't be the first time my supplies went flying in the middle of a crowded hallway, but right now I didn't have time to have it happen.

"O-Oh! Hisashiburi, Tomo-San!"

I nearly rammed the corner of my notebook into Yachi-San's eye as she scurried to join me, surprising me with her cheery smile since it had been a while since we saw each other. From the colorful paint marks on her cheeks and dyed fingertips, I could tell she had taken my advice and joined the art club.

I shuffled my abundance of notebooks and folders into my right arm and bowed my head towards her with a smile. Her blonde hair was still cut short and held back with a small pin and, luckily, she was still shorter than me.

"I heard you joined the volleyball club as their tutor," she quipped, shivering at the mention of the team, blood draining from her usual pink cheeks, "I could never do that, they're so tall and scary..."

Yachi made a face and I giggled, nodding in agreement. We reached the end of the corridor and paused to stand at the edge of the hall to finish talking.

"They are very tall, and only some are scary," I corrected. Tanaka-San, Nishinoya, Kageyama and Tsukishima were probably the scariest and Asahi-San only looked tough, but he was probably even shyer than Yachi and I combined. As the parents, Suga and Sawamura played their roles well and could probably terrify the members into behaving, but that wasn't their usual personalities.

"And, not to be nosy since rumors are usually lies and I don't want to pry into your life since it's private, I mean after all who would like to be constantly pestered--"

I raised a brow as Yachi-San started to babble but she quickly composed herself and breathed in deeply to catch any more words that wanted to spill out. It was to be expected, though. She and I were nervous wrecks and sometimes it happened.

"Gomen," she squeaked before continuing on, lowering her voice now so lowly that I had to bend down to hear her.

"I also heard you're dating the scary, tall one that's really good at tossing the ball up," Yachi whispered, eyes darting around, "the one with black hair. Kageyama Tobio."

Hearing his name made me laugh and I straightened up immediately, finding it funny how he was known around the school. To stop Yachi from babbling out an apology, I hurried and nodded, confirming the rumors.

"Yeah, we're dating," I said. It felt sort of weird to say it aloud, but it was the truth and it was nice to know that I didn't need to hide it. So when Yachi gave me a warm smile, I could only smile in return.

"I can tell you're are happier than before, so I wish you the best of luck," Yachi said with a low bow. My eyes widened a bit, slightly taken aback at her display of respect. I nearly rushed her to stand back up out of embarrassment; I didn't deserve such a gesture.

"You know, I'm always thanking you for helping me figure out how to talk things out with my mom," she mumbled, pursing her lips, "so I'm glad someone is going to be looking out for you now too."

A pair of frantic students suddenly sprinted past us and we exchanged panicked glances, nodding once in acknowledgement before starting to run back to class ourselves.

The satisfaction of helping others really lifted my spirits, so much that I didn't even notice the death glares from Hatsumo-San and her group as I stepped into class a minute before the bell.

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god damn it took me so long to get this done, once school started I had no time to do ANYTHING like this chapter was written during car rides, passing periods, shower times and my supposed sleeping hours. It's over 2000 words tho soooooo i'm okay with that btw i found my rings that i lost uwu

UPDATES WILL BE SCATTERED I AM SO SORRY BUT THANK YOU FOR STAYING WITH ME

PLEASE READ MY NEW BOOK IT WOULD MEAN THE WORLD TO ME! ITS CALLED 'Anti. Social.' PLEASE GIVE IT A TRY!
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...If you want to be the last one standing, become strong...