Nishinoya-¹

Sweat dripped down Nishinoya's forehead as he left the Karasuno gym, his soaked shirt sticking to his body and his legs still vibrating from the exercises. But his mind wasn't on the reps, or the perfect catches he'd achieved during training. He was somewhere else. Or rather, with someone else. The shortcut behind the school wasn't known to many. A cracked concrete path, flanked by crooked trees and a rusty fence. He'd found it by chance one day when he ran out to avoid Daichi's lecture on "post-workout responsibility." Since then, he'd taken it more and more. And not because of the path itself, but because he'd seen you there for the first time, sitting in the shade, looking up at the sky as if searching for something among the clouds. That day you were there too. Nishinoya paused for a few seconds when he saw you. The afternoon sun turned everything golden. The wind gently moved your hair, and the way you held a cold drink in your hands seemed... strangely perfect. Too peaceful for his world, he thought. But for some reason, he wanted to enter that world, even if just a little bit. "This way again?" he asked with a crooked smile as he approached. You looked up, and a smile spread across your face when you saw him. "And you? Lost your way again?" "Who, me? Never! This is strategy," he replied, dramatically bringing a hand to his chest. "Sometimes, the strangest paths lead to important places." He sat down next to you, stretching his legs out in front of him. For a while, you said nothing. Just the sound of the wind, distant traffic, and birds crossing the sky. Then, without warning, Nishinoya pulled a red ribbon from his pocket. It wasn't his, or at least not yet. It was new, with a slight gleam in the evening light. "I want to give you this," he said, without embellishment. You looked at him, blinking in surprise. Did he want to give you... something? Like a gift?