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saso2016_r12016-06-26 03:57 pm
Main Round 1 Entry: Team Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka
SERIES: Haikyuu!!
SHIP: Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka
RATING: G
CHARACTERS: Shimizu Kiyoko, Yachi Hitoka, Michimiya Yui; mentions of Nishinoya Yuu, Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Sawamura Daichi, Sugawara Koushi, and Azumane Asahi; Hinata Shouyou and Yamaguchi Tadashi are allud
SIDE PAIRINGS: None
MAJOR TAGS: None
ADDITIONAL TAGS: Fairytale/Deity AU, mentions of anxiety
SUMMARY: At Karasuno High School, Kiyoko and Yachi both seek out advice about one another from the most reliable source they can find. Meanwhile, in another world above the clouds, a new goddess is being anointed in the heavens...
WORK COUNT: 3984 words, 5 images
SCRIPT: Image List
NOTES: None
“Yui-chan,” Kiyoko says when the door opens. Her tone is careful and even, but Yui knows enough of Kiyoko’s nuances to recognize that there is relief there, too. “I’m very sorry to impose so suddenly. This isn’t much, but please—”
Kiyoko hands over a box of assorted chocolates. Yui’s eyes go wide in recognition of the brand name—this is fancy stuff, as expected of Kiyoko. Yui hurriedly ushers her in.
“Don’t worry so much, please, I’ll get embarrassed! My parents aren’t even here, so make yourself at home.”
Kiyoko nods, but of course she doesn’t even take a seat until Yui herds her over to the couch and insists.
“Tea?” Yui asks.
“You needn’t go to the trouble,” Kiyoko says, but Yui knew she would and is already halfway to the kitchen to prepare it.
“I’m seriously gonna get embarrassed, you know,” Yui calls out. “I’m no good as a host, so you’ll show me up if you’re too good of a guest!”
It calms Yui a little that she can hear Kiyoko’s quiet laughter from the next room.
Kiyoko sips her tea slowly, the way she always does. Her eyes flutter shut over a soft smile like this is the finest thing she’s ever tasted. It’s only regular supermarket genmaicha, but Kiyoko is serious enough about tea that her reaction could very well be completely genuine. Yui passes over a plate of senbei, and Kiyoko bites into one delicately. Yui really just likes watching Kiyoko do things, because it’s all so precise and pretty. But Kiyoko isn’t here for that.
“Not to rush you or anything, but… how do I say this? You seem kinda keyed up.” Kiyoko looks up at Yui with surprise playing behind her dark eyes. “There’s something you wanted to talk to me about, right? No time like the present.”
Yui’s encouraging grin makes Kiyoko reflect back a small smile of her own.
“I… can trust you with this more than anyone else,” Kiyoko says quietly. It’s not a request for confirmation. It is, if anything, perhaps just a formality of Kiyoko’s own invention to fill the space before she can put words to what she has to say.
Yui nods.
“If someone had feelings for you, but had to leave before anything could be done about it, would you still want to know?”
Yui… does not get it. She sips her own tea to buy some time to puzzle that out. But Kiyoko keeps going.
“Would it be selfish to say, if that’s the case? Would it be cruel?”
Yui lowers her cup. Her mouth falls open.
“Kiyoko… you’re in love!”
Kiyoko clears her throat, but doesn’t say a word.
“Oh my god! I never thought I’d see the day—are you serious?”
Kiyoko’s cheeks are taking on a distinct flush, and she nods so small that it’s nearly imperceptible.
Yui puts a hand over her mouth and squeaks.
“Please,” Kiyoko says.
“Okay, okay. I’m just—adjusting, wow!” Yui’s eyes are sparkling. She gets a grip on herself just as Kiyoko is beginning to look like she’s seriously considering burrowing underground and disappearing indefinitely. “So, who finally won you over?”
“I hope it’s okay if I’d rather…” Kiyoko is twisting her fingers around themselves.
“Get to that later? Yup, no problem.” Because Yui gets wanting to stay on track, but no way is Kiyoko getting out of this without dropping a name eventually.
Kiyoko quirks a half smile. “Do you remember the question?
“Huh? Oh. Yeah.” Yui presses a finger along the line of her lips, brows furrowing. “I think if it were me… yeah, I’d want to know.”
“Really?” There’s a vulnerability to Kiyoko’s eyes every now and then, when something truly parks her curiosity. It makes her seem, though only momentarily, so very young.
“Well, I understand your worries, I do. But… I think I’d want a chance to respond, rather than never knowing at all.”
“Even if knowing it might cause harm?”
“Yeah. You know? Even if it’s not an ideal outcome, I’d want to be a part of figuring that out, instead of the choice being made for me. Does that make sense?”
“It does.” Kiyoko sips her tea. “Thank you, Yui-chan.”
“Sure thing.” Yui pats Kiyoko on the shoulder—twice, and a little rough—and then folds her arms behind her head. “So, are we planning a confession now?”
“Hmm…” Kiyoko seeks out Yui’s eyes, her expression apologetic. “Somehow, even though I think you’re right, I still feel a little lost.”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe I am selfish after all, and I was only looking for an excuse to keep it to myself.”
“Kiyoko.” Yui spreads her hands in front of her face, and shakes her head slowly. “Listen to me, literally everyone gets nervous about confessing. That’s way, way normal.”
Kiyoko places a hand over Yui’s in a way that Yui knows means thank you; means you’re a good friend.
“That might be the case…” she sighs. “The person I like, in particular, is a little—” she bites her lip— “delicate.”
Yui wracks her brain. Kiyoko generally hangs around a lot of hyperactive, impulsive jocks. And Daichi. Yui wouldn’t exactly call any of them “delicate.”
“How do you mean?”
“Sort of… prone to bouts of anxiety.”
Yui can think of two first years on the boys’ team who’d fit that description, based on a combination of observation and what she’s heard from Daichi and Kiyoko. But imagining Kiyoko falling for either of them is nothing short of ludicrous. Not because they’re first years, exactly, but because… well, it just doesn’t match up. If Kiyoko were to fall in love with someone, it would be a person with a quiet sense of strength, an understanding of rules and decorum but the passion of heart to bend those rules when necessary. It would be someone who observes and soaks up new information like life energy, and who believes in people as deeply and profoundly as Kiyoko does. And Kiyoko, who is slow to open up and finds comfort in distance, would have to be pretty close to that person to learn them well enough to open her heart like this. Yui can’t think of a single person like that who is close enough to Kiyoko and capable of easing down her barriers except for OH—
Goodness!
“...Kiyoko?”
“Mm.” She is hiding her face behind a curtain of black hair. She’s figured out, maybe, that Yui was quiet for so long that she must have been thinking too much.
“You’re going to be fine. She’ll be the more nervous one in this equation, no matter how uneasy you feel.”
Kiyoko makes a sound that might have been a snort, were she capable of making such an inelegant noise. “This sounds like advice on surviving a wild animal attack all of a sudden. ‘Remember that the bear is more frightened of you than you are of it.’”
Yui has to laugh, too. “Well, that’s advice that saves lives, isn’t it? Except it’s even easier for you, because instead of a bear you have, like, the sweetest and most harmless person in the world.”
Kiyoko tucks her hair behind her ear, and she’s blushing again. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t make it any easier that I won’t be alone in my apprehension. That isn’t something I want to cause, or spread.”
Yui looks hard at Kiyoko’s face, and feels a surge of admiration and affection for her selflessness. It’s always there, an inextricable part of who Kiyoko is, but. Seeing it expressed like this? Yeah, Kiyoko must have it bad.
“No, listen, you’ve got this all wrong. You get the pining thing going and it troubles you, makes you lose some sleep, but that’s not some infectious disease you’re gonna spread. You’re Shimizu Kiyoko, you know?”
Kiyoko tilts her head to the side, full of questions.
“Nah, you can’t see yourself from the outside, I guess. But you’ve got this calming air, okay? Trust me on this. You’re kind of freaking out right now, but you keep breathing and face it. And that’s gonna set her at ease, too. And I’m not saying this just to make you feel better, because if I thought you were gonna crash and burn I’d tell you.”
“Do you promise?” Kiyoko is tense, thin-lipped, but there’s gratitude pouring in the space between them. It’s about honesty, this thing they have.
“Please, I always tell you when you’re about to do something stupid. No reason to stop now.” Yui makes a loose fist, nudges her knuckle against Kiyoko’s cheek. “Just say what’s in your heart. There’s nothing selfish about honesty. Just don’t decide it’s a dead end until she gets her say, okay?”
Kiyoko nods, and drains the rest of her tea. It feels, to Yui, kind of like some grizzled movie hero finishing off the last drops of his liquid courage before diving into danger. It makes Yui smirk.
“Go get her, ladykiller.”
--
Interlude: A Gift
It has been a great deal of time since the last time a new deity was anointed. Kiyoko tends to count time in eclipses, but there aren’t always the same number of them between one winter and the next, so it’s hard to tell. She does know that during the last Glorification ceremony, she was too young to even begin training as a patron. This time, she herself will become companion and guardian goddess to the newcomer.
Kiyoko has met the girl before, during the last lunar eclipse. She is the kind of good that pulls hard at Kiyoko’s heart. The crisp ringing of a bell, the sure and true glide of a bird’s wing. Once anointed, Hitoka will have so much to offer the world. She already does, even now.
A welcoming gift is not customary, but Kiyoko gets it in her head that she would be amiss not to offer something at the ceremony. For entire days before, she wanders about the prettiest corners of the heavens, browsing. All of the most elaborate bits of beauty seem too muddled, the message behind them not clear as Kiyoko would like. Simplicity is the only thing for it—a straight shot of clarity, whole and just like the bright purity of Hitoka’s heart.
Kiyoko plucks the clearest stars with utmost care, gathering them in one palm. Together, they are nearly too bright to look upon.
At the ceremony, Hitoka is crowned five times: in gemstones, in water, in blood, and in smoke, and then finally in the heavenly light that Kiyoko adorns her with.
Hitoka reaches up with trembling fingers, and when she smooths the crystal glow through her hair, it stills her hands and calms her heart.
She was made to be this way, always.
--
Tanaka and Nishinoya have communicated to Yachi, on more than one occasion, that Kiyoko opens up to her more than to just about anyone else. It’s something Yachi has trouble getting her head around, and trouble quieting her heartbeat when she does. There’s no reason she can see that it should be true.
It’s worrisome in another way, too, even if they’re only right as far as the volleyball club is concerned. Because it means that Yachi doesn’t have anyone to go to who knows Kiyoko more intimately, and that’s what she needs more than just about anything right now. She almost goes to Sawamura about it once, and Sugawara twice, but each time she gets scared and just babbles something about reorganizing clubroom storage instead.
A lead finally comes while she’s meeting with a teacher, and a third year student comes in to drop off a stack of printouts on another desk. Yachi doesn’t pay her much mind at first, but a moment later her attention is seized by Kiyoko’s voice from the doorway.
“Yui-chan. Do you have a moment?”
“Yeah, sure!” The unfamiliar girl grins and trots over to her with all the familiarity of a sister. Kiyoko notices Yachi at that point, and offers her a smile and a small wave.
“Hitoka-chan. I’ll see you at practice later?”
“Y-yes!” Yachi chirps, feeling warmth blossoming in her chest.
And that’s all it is. But Yachi peeks at a class roster before she leaves the office and finds a third year named Michimiya Yui, so she has a name to inquire about.
She picks Asahi, even for all she’s not very good at talking to him, because he’s unlikely to ask too many questions or mention it to anyone else.
From that, she gets that Michimiya Yui is the captain of the girls’ volleyball team, and Kiyoko’s childhood friend. It’s a dream come true, really. Exactly what Yachi needs. If she can pull off actually speaking to her.
It takes three days and a handfuls of false starts, but Yachi calls Yui out of her classroom during lunch period on the pretext of discussing volleyball-related something-or-others. Yui is, thankfully, perfectly agreeable about the whole thing and seems to have no reservations about being sought out so suddenly by someone she’s never met before.
“Kiyoko’s mentioned you,” Yui says, opening the door to an empty classroom she knows about for god only knows what reason. “She’s really grateful you were able to step up! Says you’re a quick learner.”
Yachi can’t help the way her face burns, and her mouth tries to form around silent words. At that, Yui raises an eyebrow, but graciously makes no comment on it.
“So, what is it you wanted to know?”
Yachi holds her breath, and bows at a full ninety-degree angle.
“I’m sorry, Michimiya-senpai! I.. I l-lured you here on false pretenses!”
Yui pulls herself up to sit on a desk, and rests her chin in her hands. “Okay, first of all, just ‘Yui’ is fine.”
Yachi slowly straightens back up, eyes round at Yui’s calm demeanor. She’s pretty sure there’s no way she can call this girl by her first name.
“Second, I don’t bite. Don’t sweat it, okay? Any friend of Kiyoko’s is a friend of mine, so I’m all ears.”
“Um…” Yachi’s hands hover uncertainly in the air. “About Shimizu-senpai, that’s actually…!”
Yui nods like she’s inviting Yachi to continue, but she steps in to help her through it anyway. “What you wanted to talk to me about has something to do with her, yeah?”
Yachi gulps, and nods profusely.
“Gotcha. Um, you wanna sit down or anything?”
Yachi hurriedly takes a seat in the chair accompanying the desk Yui is perched on, gazing up at her full of awe. By all rights, this is supposed to be way more difficult. But somehow, it isn’t.
She tells Yui everything. All of it—Kiyoko asking Yachi to come to a practice, telling Yachi that it begins with just a spark of curiosity, Kiyoko being way too overwhelmingly beautiful and gracious and opening up a world Yachi never knew was even there. The debt of gratitude she carries in her heart, along with what Yachi is pretty sure is love.
Yui just nods, waiting a long moment after Yachi stops speaking just to be sure that she’s finished.
“You want to know what I think?”
Yachi nods. “Please!”
“I think you should stop calling her ‘Shimizu-senpai.’”
Yachi looks stricken. “What?” she says breathlessly.
“The two of you are pretty close, right? Why not try out ‘Kiyoko’ for a change?”
Yachi swallows against the sudden dryness in her throat. “I don’t think there’s any way I could ever…”
“It would make her happy,” Yui says. She starts to say something else, but bites her lip and tries again. “An insider secret from me to you, okay? For when you tell her what you just told me.”
Yachi feels kind of faint. The color is leaving her cheeks, and Yui leans forward like she might have to catch her if things go south.
“Hey, you know? The thing about Kiyoko is…” Yui scrubs at her hair with one hand, mulling over how to phrase this. “She keeps a lot bottled up, I guess? She doesn’t always say what she’s thinking. But she does really, really well with people who do.”
“Like,” Yachi guesses, “you, Michimiya-senpai?”
“I said it’s ‘Yui,” didn’t I? But yeah, that’s what I mean. You’re kind of an open book, aren’t you, Hitoka-chan?”
Yachi scratches at her cheek self-consciously. “I’m not so good at hiding my feelings, or things like that.”
Yui claps her hands together and smiles over the top of them. “See, yeah, that’s perfect! That’s the kind of person who works with Kiyoko. If you go to her with your heart wide open like that, that’s what’s gonna get you an answer you can be proud of.”
Yachi sucks in a deep breath, eyes darting back and forth. “I’m not sure if… what if telling her would trouble her?”
“Oh my god. Two peas in a pod.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Yui says, leaning back on her hands. “Anyway, I say go for it.”
“Th-there isn’t… someone else that Shimizu-senpai…?”
“Nope.”
“But she probably gets confessed to all the time?”
“You’d be surprised. Most people don’t find her very approachable.”
“What if—”
“Hitoka-chan?”
Yachi snaps her mouth shut and nods.
“I can’t really say why, but at this point I’m going to have to insist. Please let Kiyoko give you her answer, okay? As a personal favor to me.”
Yachi stands up, wavers for a few moments with her eyes trained on the floor, then bows.
“Thank you for speaking with me,” she says. “I’ll do my best.”
--
Interlude: Second Coronation
Hitoka hardly feels worthy of the honor of being taken under the wing of such a noble and beautiful goddess. Not that she won’t accept her duty—she’ll work her hardest to be the best apprentice she could possibly be to her patron and host.
Starting with a proper gift to hand over at the anointing ceremony.
With all she has in her, Yachi tries to find something good enough. The way the ocean’s waves crest and fall into a spray of foam reminds her of Kiyoko’s strength and grace, but it isn’t the entire story—falls somewhere just short of adequate.
Hitoka takes a wave with her, but searches through the roots that tie fresh green things to the earth, too, and traces them upwards to leaves and sprouts and blades. Somewhere along the way she finds a branch decorated with white-and-pink blossoms, even though winter is only just nearing its end—a delicate beauty in the face of adversity. Hitoka takes a sprig of this along with her, too.
But both of these are fleeting gifts, so Hitoka delves deep within caves until she finds a stone cracked through just deep enough to reveal the rich amber gem glimmering inside. But while the wild things are all well and good, there is a refinement to Kiyoko that Hitoka feels she has yet to represent. From a merchant, Hitoka purchases a length of the finest silk, smooth and pale, and wraps all the rest up inside.
When Hitoka is anointed, tears fall unbidden from her eyes, and she extends her gift in both hands to Kiyoko. At first Hitoka thinks it’s only her vision swimming, but she blinks and the colors against her fingertips still swirl and meld together. Where before she held every lovely thing she could find, there is only inky blackness. Her mouth falls open in horror and shame, and it takes every bit of her strength to meet Kiyoko’s eyes.
When she does, what she sees there is kindness and gratitude. Kiyoko takes Hitoka’s hands, and allows herself to be crowned as well, the same as when she was only a fledgling goddess herself. Glossy black hair falls around her face, and she smiles.
“Thank you.”
It is a coronation like no one in all the heavens has ever seen. Theirs will be a wild and beautiful reign.
--
Yachi doesn’t plan it, when it happens. They are just folding towels in the clubroom when Kiyoko brings up graduation, seemingly out of the blue.
“You’ve been working very hard, Hitoka-chan,” she says, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Do you feel confident about your duties next year?”
Yachi nods slowly. “You’ve been so patient in teaching me, so thank you very much!”
“Not at all, it’s you who learns quickly.” The way Kiyoko’s hands work is so graceful. “This team is… very important to me, so I’m grateful.”
Yachi’s breath catches in her throat, because she doesn’t want Kiyoko to leave, because there’s so little time left, and she still hasn’t even said—
“Um, Shimizu-senpai!”
Kiyoko blinks at her. “Yes?”
“I-I’ll do my best, even though I know it won’t be the same because there isn’t anyone like you at all! You know so much, and even to me, you’re… the most beautiful, and I know there are a lot of people who think that, but I…”
As frustrating as it is, Yachi finds that she can’t go on. This is supposed to be about the team, and here she is almost making it about her own feelings. Maybe now isn’t right.
“There isn’t,” Kiyoko says, “anyone like you either, Hitoka-chan. It’s special to me, hearing that from someone who’s stayed by my side the way you have.”
The tone of Kiyoko’s voice catches Yachi off-guard. She pauses, just running her fingers along the towel she has in her lap now, and finds that Kiyoko has stopped folding, too.
“I admire the way you can speak so openly.”
“N-no!” Yachi squeaks. “I’m the one who admires you! You’re the one who’s so… composed, and you make everything look so easy, but I can tell you’re working so hard and…! And everything,” she finishes sheepishly.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Kiyoko says, breathing what is almost a laugh. “You can say all of that with an honest face. It’s amazing. I wish I could be like that, and say what I mean.”
Yachi can hardly breathe, and the towel is all bunched up in her fists now. It’ll probably have to be washed again, for all that Yachi’s palms are sweating. “What you mean…?”
“Mmhmm.” Kiyoko nods. “It may be for the best. It might just end up being a bother to you, if you knew.”
“I’m sure,” Yachi says, shoulders shrugging up to her ears, “that nothing you could ever say would be a bother to me, Shimizu-senpai.”
Kiyoko wets her lips. She takes a good look at Yachi, and breathes.
“Somewhere along the way,” she says, “I think I came to like you a little too much, Hitoka-chan. I apologize for saying this now, so close to graduation.”
Before she even lets herself believe what she’s hearing, Yachi can feel the sting of tears forming in her eyes. “Is it—I mean—! To think that someone so wonderful and beautiful could feel the same way, I’m…! I’m really, really happy! Really!” She flushes, because that’s definitely too many reallys.
“The same way?” Kiyoko’s eyes widen behind her glasses, and her hair shifts around her face when she tilts her head to the side.
Yachi presses her lips together until they go white, and nods. “I really like you—” she gathers every ounce of courage she has— “Kiyoko-san!”
Kiyoko’s lips part around a silent gasp.
“S-so… I don’t mind if you’re graduating, and if we won’t see each other all the time, because… if someone like me is really okay, I’d like to accept! And return your feelings one hundred percent!”
Kiyoko pulls Yachi’s hand out of the hopelessly crumpled towel, smooths her own over it a few times before lacing their fingers together. “The distance isn’t so much. I’m sure we can manage.”
“I’m sure,” Yachi echoes, voice quiet under the weight of what Kiyoko is saying.
“Hitoka-chan,” Kiyoko says, “may I kiss you?”
Yachi means to say yes, she really does. But instead, she squeezes Kiyoko’s hand and beats her to it.
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Yui's such an awesome friend aw
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And this fic! Made me fall in love with Kiyoko! You wrote her perspective so well - how elegant she is, but also how human she is when she falls in love. It was lovely to see her getting advice from Yui, too! Their interactions were wonderful and the dialogue flowed so nicely :D I really liked how you described Yui's reactions to Kiyoko's sudden appearance and the subsequent revelations. Seeing Kiyoko from an outsider's perspective carried across her quiet strength and her kindness in a really nice way <3
The watercolour artwork complements the narrative in a lovely way, too - I think your team spaced out the pictures at great moments :) And Kiyoko's outfit was super cute - I love her posture, slightly inward-facing, and the casual atmosphere of Yui's place.
Yachi's picture, too, was super pretty - her earnest expression and posture was so characteristic and good, and it contrasts well with Yui's relaxed pose. (Yachi's little blush !!) And the writing is really great - how she and Kiyoko both worry over similar things, and the different ways they approach the situation. Yachi's hesitation comes across super clearly since it's from her own perspective, but also her polite and respectful manner, sjdhflak
shfljakfjs; this line it's so easy to imagine with Yachi tensing up and just going for it -- you nailed their characters in this entry and their speech patterns are just so on point!!
Super solid entry and it's so good to see some girl teams - all the best with the voting!
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