04. Laundry Days - Haikyuu! - YachiManagers

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Summary: Series of connecting slice-of-life one-shots of our favorite little manager from Karasuno as she remains 'on-loan' to Nekoma during the summer training camp!

My lack of Haikyuu! knowledge might make some things untrue or some characters OOC!

I don't own Haikyuu!

Please forgive any mistakes, both character-wise and grammatically-wise. I don't have time to re-read or edit things.

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04. Laundry Days

HappyFace1886

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Yachi struggled a bit with the heavy load of damp clothes in her arms. It was laundry day for the training camp and all the managers had gathered together to complete their duties. Since the day was nice and sunny outside, it was decided that they’d go hang out the clothes to dry under the sun. Karasuno didn’t have many members, so Shimizu-sempai had reassured Yachi about keeping focused on the Nekoma team’s clothes instead.

The tiny blonde let out a small sigh once she’d lowered the basket onto the ground, stretching backwards a bit to relieve her sore lower back. Due to her small stature, carrying heavy things were a little more difficult than for others. Not that she had much to complain about! Everyone was working diligent on their given tasks.

She reached down to pick up the first article of clothing only to stiffen and blush when she realized it was Kuroo-san’s jacket. Yachi warily picked it up and stared at it, remembering all too clearly how she’d worn it just a few nights ago. Looking at it again, the size difference was still amazing. Most of the volleyball players certainly were on the tall side...

“Oooh? If it isn’t little Yacchan from Karasuno?”

With a timid squeak, Yachi pressed the jacket close to her chest as she turned around. Her vision immediately saw a soft shade of red and lazily playful auburn eyes. She immediately recognized her as the senior manager for the Fukurodani team. “Shirofuku-san!”

“Yo,” the older girl giggled slightly, her arms occupied with her own share of clean laundry. “So what’s that you got there?”

Yachi looked down and almost threw the jacket away when she realized it was Kuroo-san’s jersey. “A-Ah, j-just some laundry I was about to hang up.”

“Any particular reason why you were hugging that one jacket like that just now?” Yukie asked slyly.

“E-Eh! I-I didn’t mean to! I-I mean-.”

Yukie laughed harder this time. “There’s no need to be so timid, Yacchan. I was just teasing you.”

Yachi returned her laughter with a nervous one of her own. “I-I see...”

“So, tell me, I heard an interesting rumor,” Yukie sauntered closer towards her and set her basket on the floor. She picked up one of the jersey’s and shook it a bit, reaching for one of the pins to hang the clothes on the line. “Apparently Karasuno went a bit crazy with the offense against Fukurodani and Nekoma today because of a certain incident that happened last night.”

“E-Eh?!” oh god, she didn’t want to hear where this topic was heading!

“So what exactly did the boys do to you that had even the ever composed Kiyoko-san in a tizzle?” Yukie inquired with a coy smile. It seemed innocent enough, but Yachi had seen enough covertly dangerous looks from her mother to know when someone had something underhanded in mind. Though, instinctively, Yachi felt that the danger wasn’t aimed towards her. Based on her observation of Shirofuku-san and Bokuto-san, the older girl was probably going to lay on the pain if she found out that Bokuto-san had done something unsightly.

“A-Ano... i-it was nothing! It was all just a misunderstanding!”

“If it’s just a misunderstanding, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind sharing it with me then,” Yukie continued innocently.

Yachi’s lips trembled as she desperately sought a way out of this. Unfortunately, it was obvious she’d been outmaneuvered by the more experienced sneaky girl. It wasn’t long until she was stuttering out the story of how Kuroo-san had lent her his jacket a few nights ago and because of her rather small physique, the boys had found it hilarious in seeing her wear their jerseys. Tsukishima just had the luck of walking in when she was trying on Bokuto-san’s jacket.

There was a pause before uncontrolled laughter filled the air. Yukie clutched onto her stomach at the hilarious mental image of Bokuto and some of the other boys looking at Yachi with sparkling eyes akin to a little kid that’d learned something new and awesome, apparently in awe over how someone so close to their age can still be so tiny. It certainly sounded like him. The boys mostly seemed to have just volleyballs in their brain (not to mention, too busy with sports and school, to actually have a love life) and were probably too accustomed to ridiculously tall and strong people around them, so it wasn’t surprising to hear them being so intrigued at how small Yachi was compared to them.

Though, Yukie mentally noted, it wasn’t as though one would mistaken Yachi for a grade-schooler. She was short, but there were still small hints of feminine grace and curves that made it clearer that she was older than her height indicated, which was probably why she never really encountered as many comments about her being a little kid... unlike two certain short Karasuno members whose behavior was more akin of an elementary student. Bokuto was a close second to them, but his height gave his age away.

“Say,” Yukie said playfully towards the rapidly paling Yachi. She had a bad feeling about this. “Why don’t you try on that jacket you have in your hand?”

Yachi’s eyes whipped towards Kuroo-san’s jacket and then looked at the older girl in horror. “E-Eh?!”

“Haha, well the guys seemed so interested in seeing you wear their clothes, so you can’t blame me for wanting to see as well. C’mon, just try it on just once! It’ll be just a secret between you and me,” Yukie coaxed with a wink.

“B-But it’s K-K-Kuroo-san’s jacket and it’d be r-rude to wear it without permission.”

“Well if you ask me,” Yukie said with her hands in her hips, “he gave you explicit permission to wear it already. Though based on what you told me about the night at the convenience store, it almost sounds like he only wants you to wear his jacket.”

Yachi’s eyes goggled at that and she almost fainted at how quickly the blood rushed to her face. She had been so flustered at being interrogated by Shirofuku-san that she had spilled literally all the details of what had happened... still, Shirofuku-san was probably just teasing again... Kuroo-san had probably wanted her to wear his jacket so that Yamamoto-san and Lev-san would leave her alone.

And besides...

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“Yachi-san, Yachi-san, wear my jacket next!” Lev cried out the moment she took off Bokuto-san’s jacket. The ace of Fukurodani, meanwhile, was arguing with Tsukishima that he wasn’t a perv and that it was genuine, legitimate curiosity that made him ask Yachi to wear his jacket. The fact that she’d looked ridiculously cute wearing it had nothing to do with it since, according to Bokuto, being cute was just a part of her! A line which promptly made Tsukishima remark that that just meant that Bokuto was a perv down to the core instead.

“L-Lev-san!” she squeaked, taking a step back when the overly enthusiastic boy held up his jersey for her to accept. Oh god, it looked really big! It was worse than the time she’d worn Kuroo-san’s jacket. He hadn’t been joking when he said that it was likely his jacket would fall to her knees.

“Ow!” Lev yelped when there was sharp smack on the back of his head. He looked backwards with tears gathering in his eyes. “Kuroo-sempai...”

“Enough fooling around. Leave her alone.” Kuroo grunted with a volleyball pressed on his shoulder. He then narrowed his eyes, giving Lev a sinister smile that had both Lev and Yachi trembling in fear. “Let’s get back to practice, shall we?”

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“If anything, I think I made Kuroo-san angry for interfering with practice,” Yachi protested weakly, remembering the... er... torture Lev went through for the rest of the evening.

Yukie could only laugh at her forlorn expression. “Trust me. Kuroo won’t mind. Try it on!”

“B-But-.”

“Heeey, what’s going on here?” the two looked up to see blue-grey eyes peering at them from afar, the manager in training for Fukurodani making her way towards them while carrying the other set of clean laundry for the team. Kaori gave an interested grin at the two girls.

“I’m just trying to get Yacchan to wear Kuroo’s jacket.” Yukie casually explained with a gleaming gaze that Kaori immediately picked up on.

“Oh? Why Kuroo-san’s? If we’re going by size, Lev-san would be much better!” Kaori said mischievously and Yachi knew then and there that she was alone against these two crafty ladies. “Ahhh, Yachi-san, you’d look so cute wearing Lev-san’s jacket because of how tiny you are.”

“B-But-!”

“Or why not wear Bokuto’s jacket again first? Don’t worry, since we’re dealing with the laundry, they shouldn’t complain if someone else wears it once or twice. Besides, he’s the one who made you wear it yesterday anyways.” Yukie said with a careless wave.

Yachi looked ready to continue protesting, but knew it was lost cause due to the determined glint in their eyes. It was how she’d also fallen under the excited gazes of Bokuto-san and Lev-san the night before. Her shoulders slumped and she began to reluctantly put on Kuroo-san’s jacket, her cheeks already flushed at the fact that she was wearing it again.

“So cute!” Kaori squealed. It was so hard to believe that they were the same age. Yachi-san was so small compared to her! “Neh, neh, try on Bokuto-san’s jacket next!”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Yachi almost cried when she saw the other managers coming along with their own loads of clean laundry.

“We’re getting Yacchan to try on the guy’s jackets!” Yukie supplied cheerfully.

“Ooh! Let us in on that!!”

Yachi mentally bided her dignity farewell and obediently began to put on the jackets one by one, the other girls marveling and cooing at how big they were and how adorable Yachi looked swimming in all of them. It was a scene that Shimizu ended up walking in on, her steps coming to a halt as she stared with slightly widened eyes at Yachi currently donning Lev’s Nekoma team jacket this time. Since they’d gone through the entire rotation of teams, the girls were now trying to find which size looked the cutest on her.

“What’s going on here?” Shimizu inquired quietly.

“Heeey Shimizu-san,” Yukie greeted with her hand raised, a lazy smile lingering on her lips. “We’re just having a little fun with your kouhai here. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Ah, no,” Shimizu shook her head. “As long as Hitoka-chan is okay with it, I don’t mind.”

Yachi wanted to cry that that. Shimizu-san was so beautiful and kind! All forms of protest were immediately swallowed up and Yachi bravely posed with Lev’s jacket, earning a giggle from the other girls.

“Thanks for indulging us, Yachi-chan,” Eri, from Ubugawa Highi, said with a sheepish grin.

“Yup, yup, that was a nice reprieve from our domestic chores, I’d say,” Mako, from Shinzen High, said while stretching. She looked at their piles of clean laundry waiting to be hung and rolled up her sleeves to her shoulders. “Let’s get to it, shall we, ladies?”

There was a chorus of agreements as everyone began to carry their loads to their respective laundry lines. Yachi shyly glanced beside her where Shimizu-sempai was, internally excited that Karasuno and Nekoma were right next to each other. It was always so nice to see her beautiful reliable sempai, though Yachi was doing her best to become independent so that Shimizu-sempai would have nothing to worry about once graduation came along.

...a thought which Yachi immensely depressed... thinking about it, this would really be the last year for the third years. Yachi mentally shook her head. No, that was why they had to do their best to succeed! That was what Hinata and the others were doing their best on and something Yachi aspired to be as well!

Yes! She’ll do her best to learn during her time here at the training camp as well!

“You looked quite cute in all those jackets, Hitoka-chan,” Shimizu murmured quietly and Yachi looked in awe and shock at the sweet sounding voice. The younger girl ducked her head bashfully.

“T-Thank you, s-sempai.”

“Though... I must say,” Shimizu continued, plucking one of the clips off the line in order to hang Asahi-san’s jersey. “Personally, I think Karasuno’s colors suit you best... don’t you think?”

For a moment, Yachi was speechless, which was then quickly followed by the pricking of her eyes as tears gathered in them. She forced them at bay and nodded wildly instead, turning away so that Shimizu-sempai didn’t see her flushed cheeks and the wetness in her eyes. All she could offer instead of a croaky, but firm “Yes!”

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::owari::

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AU: Dedicated to the considerate Fher_Gtz.. who actually took the time to review both on ff and on this website! Thank you very much! You and carolina acuña lit up my world with your reviews! xD

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