#rudyako

[asahiwasabi]

rudyako part three

"Yakooooooo!" 

 The loud call echoed down the hallway of the house, immediately followed by a groan from the room next door and a shout of greeting from the kitchen where her mother was. Sayako smiled from where she was sitting at her desk, looking over the options for classes. 

 "Hi Rudy!" Sayako called back. After another few seconds, there was a clatter in the doorway that sounded like Rudy had dumped their volleyball bag on the ground. After another two seconds, a braid thumped her in the face before two muscular arms wrapped her from behind, and Rudy had shoved her face in the crook of Sayako's neck. 

 "I missed you," Rudy mumbled, squeezing her tighter, and Sayako laughed lightly as she hugged them back as best she could from the odd position. 

 "It's been a week, silly." 

 Rudy shrugged, and Sayako caught a whiff of volleyball stink. It was a smell she'd gotten used to over the years, especially after staying in close quarters with her teammates at times. This particular stink, however, was unique to Rudy and meant that they were wearing warmups that probably hadn't been washed in a few days. "Still," Rudy protested stubbornly. "A week is too long." 

"It's not even the longest you've been gone," Sayako reasoned, patting their shoulder lightly. Over the past couple months since Rudy had graduated from high school, their life had turned into a whirlwind of offers from various colleges and professional teams that wanted Rudy to come play for them. During the beginning of summer, they had toured the colleges and practiced with those teams, and for the last month, had been taking turns at different training camps. They'd been gone for days at a time, two weeks for one of the colleges, and even though Sayako didn't want to admit it, it had put a strain on their still new relationship. 

 It'd only been around four months since Rudy had leaped up into the stands and kissed her, and then had almost tackled Sayako after their game was over to ask her to be their girlfriend. Granted, they had been flirting on and off for about two years, but since someone was mostly oblivious to the flirting nearly the whole time, everything still felt really new. Since Rudy had been mostly MIA due to career plans and graduating, they'd really only been on four official dates and Rudy had come over at least once between each trip. Sayako honestly had no idea where they stood. Skype was wonderful, and they texted as often as they could, so they were in constant communication, but Sayako was still worried that she was a lot more invested in this than Rudy was. 

But Rudy was so hard to decipher how they felt. While they were infuriatingly honest and sincere to a fault, Rudy also had a knack for avoiding any serious conversations without even trying, and Sayako had a hard time bringing any of that up with them. Here she was, hopelessly in love with this absolute dork, and she had no idea where they stood. 

Rudy mumbled something incoherent, and Sayako rubbed their arm once more. "Tired?" 

Rudy groaned as they nodded, finally pulling back. After flopping onto Sayako's bed, they answered, "Yeah, the last day is always the worst." 

"Did you play a ton?" Sayako asked, sending up a prayer for her recently washed sheets.

"No, I had to talk to people and sign a ton of papers."

Sayako laughed, scooting the text book back. “Yeah, I can see how that would be exhausting.” Rudy groaned again, rubbing their eyes. Sayako chewed on her lip, and just as she was about to ask the Big Question, Rudy spoke.

“It’s just really really hard picking where to go.”

Okay, no way could she bring it up now. They had to deal with a different serious topic first. Without even waiting, Rudy was barreling on anyways.

“It’s just a huge decision, you know?” Rudy sounded exhausted, and Sayako’s heart winced in sympathy for them. They loved playing volleyball, they had played their entire life and it was almost like they were born to play it. Even with that, though, the amount of camps they had gone to was ridiculous. So many teams were after them that Sayako wanted to laugh. Rudy continued, “Like, I could go to college and get a degree, but that would set back my amount of time I could be playing professionally. Which, I’m definitely going to do, literally until I physically can’t anymore. But then I’ll have a degree to fall back on, but it’s a ton of money to spend on something I’ll barely need. And then there’s the teams who are offering me more money, but they’re farther away, and the men’s team that’s offering me a lot but I’d probably be a benchwarmer for a couple years, and then I have to wonder how close I’m going to be to you and where you’re going, and then there’s the one team where I’d definitely be a starter but it wouldn’t be too fun because they’re not that good--”

Hold up.

“Wait, what?” Sayako turned around, eyes wide as she looked at Rudy. “What did you say?”

Rudy looked back at her, upside down while their bangs flopped back on the bed. Their braid was messier than usual, and the angle made the bags under their eyes more apparent. “Um, about wanting to play for a good team? Yeah, I know that’s kind of shallow, but especially after playing on the Bears, I feel like I really deserve to be on a team where we’re going to win a lot--”

“No, no, not that,” Sayako interrupted, voice tight. “About the part--about where you want to be near me.”

Rudy flipped over, confused. “What about it?”

“You’d...” How could Sayako even word this? “You’d want to be on a team just because it’d be closer to me?”

Rudy looked even more confused. “Um, duh?” They snorted. “Being at different schools was hard enough, I can’t imagine living in different cities.”

Sayako didn’t have the heart to remind them that they were, in fact, living in two different cities. Instead, she smiled. “You don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to!” Rudy leaned up on their elbows, bare feet kicking idly in the air. “I’m going to have to get an apartment wherever I go, and I want it to be close enough that you could come over after school some days for dinner, or that I could walk to your dorm after practice and hang out for a bit. Or even take a train! Close enough that when I get you tickets to my games, you can be there with no problem! I want to be able to have sleepovers and go explore the city with you and I want to be close enough that when I have a bad day, I can come see you and it’s always an option because I hate being away from you.”

Rudy’s mouth snapped shut at the end of it, eyes immediately looking away. Sayako watched them, breath stopped in her chest. She’d never heard Rudy talk so seriously about something, ever. Not even volleyball. It was like they’d answered all of Sayako’s questions without even knowing she was wondering. 

“Rudy...” Sayako trailed off, noticing how the blush in Rudy’s cheeks rose as she said their name. She smiled, getting off the chair and going to sit on the bed, pulling Rudy’s fidgeting hands into her lap. “Rudy, you don’t have to do that for me.”

Rudy looked up, already ready to argue it again, but Sayako interrupted them.

“But I really, really appreciate that. It means so much to me that you think we’re that serious.”

“We are?” Rudy questioned, pouting. “We’re, like, soulmates or something. For life, dude.”

Sayako couldn’t help but laugh. Soulmates? That’s what Rudy thought? She shook her head, telling them, “I know, I know. But still, we shouldn’t make giant life decisions just based on each other. Not yet. I’m going to pick the college that’s best for me, and you’ll pick the team that’s best for you, and we’ll go from there. We’ll make it work. We always have. And don’t worry, no matter where you are, you can always come over whenever you need me.”

Rudy looked up at Sayako, hopeful. “You promise?”

Sayako grinned back down at them. “I swear.”

Rudy surged up to kiss Sayako, making her squeal as they bumped noses and fell back on the bed. A half-hearted shout from her mom echoed down the hall, but Rudy ignored her in place of hugging Sayako tightly.

“Rudy, you smell!”

“Good, better get used to it when I’m a professional athlete.”

Sayako thought about Rudy in a pro team uniform. Yeah, she could get used to it.

Rudy signed with the Okayama Seagulls. Four years later, Akane would sign as well. Sayako went to a University that was only about twenty minutes away, ten minutes by the train. Rudy went over whenever they could, and Sayako spent plenty of nights in the city with Rudy. She went to every game.

Everything would be okay.

[thirdgymbestgym]

Hey I'm confused? Are these actual characters from the Haikyuu!! manga? Because I read the Rudyako AU where Rudy kissed Sayako and it's super cute, but I don't remember reading much about any girls teams?

Hi! I can see how that’s confusing, but all the characters on this blog are ocs of ours that exist in an AU alongside all the canon Haikyuu!! teams. there’s a bunch of different original teams that these characters are on, which you can find information about under the tag “HQ!!VBT”I hope this clears things up!-mod Evan

[asahiwasabi]

third gym part three and rudyako part one

The week had gone by way too fast.

Over the course of the part four days, Rudy, Ren, and Akane had abducted adopted around nine more people into the third gym, including but not limited to: a serial prankster, the tiniest player Rudy had ever seen, his teammate that was nearly as tall as Ren, their quietly sarcastic manager, and a set of twins that were a whirlwind of character tropes. Despite how wild they were and how crazy they made the third gym, they had become like family to Rudy.

All except one of them.

His name was Skunk.

No one knew how he had known to find them last year (Ren claims that Skunk and Cory used to be friends when they were younger) but he showed up on the last day, all skeezy and flirty and, for some reason, just rubbing Rudy the wrong way. Normally not a very mean person, Rudy, for the first time in their life, felt like telling him that he couldn’t play with them. Thankfully, training camp week ended before Rudy could say something actually mean, and they put it out of their mind as they went through the next school year.

And then the summer of their third year rolled around, the usual crowd gathered in third gym, and Skunk was there.

And he was dating Sayako.

“I don’t know, we just kind of got to talking around the end of the school year,” Sayako explained shyly, blushing as usual. Rudy watched her carefully. If anything, Sayako seemed less than happy about the relationship. “We’ve only been dating for a couple months, don’t worry.”

But Rudy did worry. Skunk flirted with everyone, he was rude, he tracked mud everywhere, he stole food off of everyone else’s plates (only Akane was allowed to do that), and worst of all, he did it in front of Sayako. Sayako, who was the sweetest tiniest cutest human being that Rudy had ever encountered, was dating their literal worst enemy. 

Well, not worst enemy. Rudy wasn’t that dramatic. They did hate him, though.

And THEN, Skunk broke up with Sayako at the end of night two. Or at least, that’s all Rudy heard as Sayako cried in the equipment room. She was in there with Tadami, and Rudy had only found them because they were looking for an extra net to try and trap Skunk in with Minako. As soon as Rudy saw Sayako’s teary face and heard her say, “We broke up,” the blood began pounding in Rudy’s ears. How on earth could that scumbag do that to her?

“Rudy, no, wait--”

Rudy went storming across the gym, grabbed Skunk by the back of the shirt, and dragged him outside. He struggled, but thanks to the rage and Rudy’s weird strength, he couldn’t do anything as they threw him up against a wall. “What the hell--” he squawked, but Rudy shoved him back again, keeping a hand fisted in his shirt.

“What the hell did you do to Sayako?” They growled, making him blink before his face slid into a defensive grimace.

“The hell are you talking about? She broke up with me!”

Rudy paused. That...was not what they expected to hear. But still, it was bound to happen anyways with the way Skunk had been acting around her. It was totally justified!

“Still,” Rudy frowned again. They were a good few inches shorter than him, but that didn’t stop them as they told him, “You were terrible to her, it’s no wonder she did. I honestly hope you take this as a lesson, because otherwise, you’re going to end up alone and miserable forever.”

Skunk only glared down at them before finally shoving them away. “Fuck off, Rudy.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, the practice shirt shifting as he shrugged guiltily. “Just worry about your own business with Sayako.”

“What?” Rudy furrowed their brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Skunk leveled them with a bored glare. “Are you serious? Jesus, you really are as dumb as you look.” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “Just...do better than I did, alright? She deserves it.”

Rudy blinked at him, and he just shook his head again. “Look, I’ll tell everyone you roughed me up real good so that you can keep your tough older sister persona going--”

“Sibling,” Rudy corrected automatically, still confused, and Skunk waved a hand.

“Right, sibling, my bad. This doesn’t mean we’re cool though, aight?” He glared at them one more time, then sniffed. “So oblivious. Holy shit, she wasn’t kidding.” With that, he turned and walked back into the gym, head lowered. Rudy remained outside for another minute, still trying to figure out what Skunk meant. Do better? At what, playing against her? The Raccoons did lose to the Otters pretty regularly now when Sayako was back row. She’d become an incredible libero. Her form was immaculate.

Rudy shook their head, finally moving to walk back inside. Skunk was off to the side, complaining loudly about something to Cory and Ethan, who both were barely listening. On the other side of the net, Akane was waving Rudy over, shouting something about needing a bad blocker, and right next to her was Sayako. She had a soft smile on her face, almost thankful, and her eyes were still shining a bit from her previous tears. Her cheeks were pink, making her look like a disney princess come to life. Except cuter. Way cuter.

Rudy tripped in the middle of the court as their heart thudded painfully in their chest. They barely heard Ren sigh, “Look, you broke them.” Rudy righted themself, tossing back their bangs with a forced grin.

Suddenly, they felt like they knew what Skunk had meant.

The week had gone by way too fast. Somehow, the Bears were regularly beating everyone now, including the Robins. Ruth and Ethan didn’t let up on their trash talk, but they were more serious during the games than they usually were. Daiki was beaming every time he completed a set now, and their monster of a middle hitter had only been successfully blocked about once a game. Throughout the week, Rudy continued to find new people to bring to the gym, continued to try and prank Skunk with Minako’s help, and kicked ass in their games.

They wished they knew what was going on. Something in their team had clicked yesterday, and since then, the flow was so good even the Otters’ trainer had compliments for them. The Robins’ trainer told Rudy once that “they had decent footwork back row” and Rudy couldn’t stop their hands from shaking the rest of the day, and not just because they were terrified of her. Their team was winning game after game, and in the third gym, everything was back to normal.

Except for when Sayako smiled at Rudy and Rudy felt like gravity had lifted. If they wanted, they could probably jump over the entire building. Maybe even the moon. It was like every time she smiled, the whole world made a little bit more sense. Actually, everything made a little bit more sense. That weird twisty feeling when Sayako was laughing with someone else? That was jealousy. The weird floaty throat lump when Rudy was watching Sayako play? That was pride. The reason Rudy was always trying to carry Sayako? Probably just because Rudy was trying to show off or something. And the whole gravity thing?

It was because Rudy liked Sayako. Like, like liked her. How it had taken her so long to see that was a mystery, but apparently Ren had known the entire time. And Akane. And apparently, most of third gym.

“Are you seriously telling me you’re just now realizing it?” Akane asked, exasperated. Ren was smirking behind her, both of them leaning on the same pillar. Their late night meetups after third gym closed were regular now, even after Ren and Akane had gotten together. (Which was terrible, because they used to smirk a lot before, and now it was ten times worse.)

Rudy groaned and threw their head back, accidentally hitting it against the cement wall with a loud thump. Ren winced, but Rudy steamrolled on, “I didn’t know! I just thought we were like, really close friends or something! I didn’t know it was, like, a serious thing!”

“Rudy, you’ve liked her literally since you met her,” Ren told them patiently, and Akane followed up with, “You seriously didn’t know you liked her? Even when you physically lifted her up and claimed that she was a damsel in distress and you were her knight in spandex armor?”

Rudy slammed a hand on their face. “It was a joke, oh my god, I was so obvious--”

“To everyone except yourself,” Ren huffed, making Akane laugh. Rudy groaned dramatically again, and Akane finally shifted forward, looking more serious.

“Look, you’ve got two days left of training camp. Why not just tell her?”

Rudy looked up at Akane, eyes wide. “Uh, yeah, and have her tell me, sorry, I only date assholes who like to pour milk in other people’s shoes?”

Ren winced, and Akane rolled her eyes. “Pretty sure she only dated him because she felt obligated to. Also because she was figuring some things out.” Ren immediately stiffened, and Akane patted his knee before he could say anything, “No, I’m not dating you because I’m obligated to. I actually like you, you dork.” Ren relaxed, and she continued looking at Rudy. “Rudes, I promise. It’ll be fine. Just tell her.”

Rudy looked away, out over the grassy courtyard to where they had first met Sayako. As if it was that easy.

The week had gone by way too fast.

The second to last night, Rudy once more gathered all of their third gym children friends into a circle so that they could hand out cards again. All the cards were personalized and made at 3 in the morning last night with Ana’s help (because she was the only one awake) and also handed out cookies. Skunk got a wad of toilet paper and a chocolate bar that was kind of melted. Sayako got four cookies. Rudy accidentally smashed her card.

“This week has been the best yet,” Rudy announced after handing everything out, and pulled Minako and Ren into awkward side hugs. “I’m so so sad that this is my last year, but I really hope you guys keep this going. It’s a great chance to expand your play styles and try out different strategies, and you guys have improved so much.”

“Hurry it up, coach,” Cam shouted from behind Atsushi, and everyone laughed.

“I’m just....really proud. And happy. And so grateful that I met all of you.” Rudy looked at everyone, smiling softly. “You can definitely expect to see me at the Fall tournaments and every game of yours that I can make it to, and I’ll kick your butt if we play against you.”

“You wish!” Ruth shouted, and Dahlia echoed the cheer. 

Rudy smiled at Sayako and quickly looked away.

The last night was a whirlwind of team gatherings. As the new captain this year, Rudy was running around trying to keep their first years from doing anything to the Raccoons (they did not want a repeat of the water fountain incident) and making plans with the other captains for games throughout the season. Before they knew it, it was two in the morning, and everyone was asleep.

The week had gone by too fast, and Rudy was left, awake and alone and staring out the bus window on the way back to their school, wondering if they’d missed their chance.

[asahiwasabi]

wanted to practice drawing clothes, so here’s rudy. they got sponsored by nike and they’re tyring to do a photo shoot but rudy keeps talking to the photographers about how much they don’t want to wear shoes. (that face on the left is definitely when they’re yelling “LOOK HOW HIGH I GOT MY FOOT”)

also bonus rudyako:

[asahiwasabi]

rudyako part two

This was it. This was everything they’d been working for their entire life, from the first time they picked up a volleyball to their last game, where their serve had been the game winning ace. This was finally it. The Bears had made it to the championship game of the Spring Tournament, with Rudy as the captain.

And the worst part of it all was that Sayako was standing there, right in the front row, cheering for them.

Rudy had spent the entire last night sitting with their brother on a video call with Ren and Akane, pretending not to be nervous even though everyone knew they were. Warmups were tense but loud--everything was loud on this team, but there was a different kind of energy: a tense, nervous thrum that everyone could feel. Their ace was off doing push ups, trying to work out some of the worst of it. 

The first two games they had one, their powerful attacks breaking through everything this dumb Shiritorizawa team was throwing at them. The third game they lost by two points, only doing so poorly because their best blocker had sprained their wrist on a fall. He was now on the sidelines, splinted, screaming at the top of his lungs along with the rest of their team as game four was drawing to a close. If they won this one, that would be it: it’d be all over. The Bears would win. The only problem was that they were in their worst rotation.

Rudy was definitely better at back row. They excelled at picking up anything and knew how to line up to receive any kind of hit. Right now, however, they were front right, heading over to front left. Their setter was better used front row, the player they had at middle back was okay at it--

Rudy’s eyes landed on Ren’s in the crowd, stoic and silent in the stands of screaming watchers. He nodded once, and they nodded back. Ren always had their back. Right next to him was Akane and Rudy’s brother, Natsuro, cheering loudly some chant that Ethan and Tadami had come up with a couple weeks ago. Speaking of which, those two were right behind them, along with Cory, Cam, Minako, Toby, Ruth, Daisy, Skunk, Dahlia, Ana, Lucius, and just about every other person that’s ever been through the third gym.

Right in front of them all, with her hands clasped tight in front of her and eyes wider and more awake than Rudy had ever seen, was Sayako.

They’d never found the right time. Training camp was always crazy, and there had never been a good moment alone together. Every time they’d hung out, someone else was always there, or the mood wasn’t right, or it just hadn’t felt like the right time. Honestly? Rudy had chickened out. Rudy had chickened out of telling Sayako how they had felt about her for the past two years, and now they were regretting it.

They hadn’t spoken much since the tournaments began, but they’d kept each other up to date on how their teams had done. The Otters had made it up until the last couple of rounds, ending up in sixth place. More and more teams came to the tournament every year, and it was still super impressive that they’d gone so far. Rudy had been able to catch part of the last match, but had to run to their own game before they could say anything to Sayako.

Now, here she was, a bear paw print painted on her cheek and her hair sprayed gold with Rudy’s fall jersey on. (Rudy was going to kill their brother.) Chest tight, Rudy glanced back to the score board. They needed one more point, and their last game as a third year in high school would be over.

All they needed was one more point.

The whistle sounded, and the Bears served. 

It flew in a solid line, straight in between two of the back row players, but the libero picked it up, immediately calling out to the setter. It went out to their wing spiker, but Rudy got a finger on it, slowing the spin enough that their own libero could receive it well.

And then their setter slipped.

Incredibly late to where they needed to be, they threw the ball up. It sailed off to the right, just behind the ten foot line, but there was no one back row to hit it. Rudy glanced to the libero--no, they’d jump too high and lose the point--and then looked to the other back row--terrible angle, they’d never make it--and then looked at themself. If they could just...

Rudy twisted, pushing off from their stance across the court and ran three steps before jumping. It felt like time slowed down as they swung sideways, hitting the ball low but at a cross so that it spun quickly at the net. Miraculously, it went over, sailing towards the back line because of how low they had hit it. Rudy landed and swore, watching as it flew towards being out--

Only for it to stop its arc and drop inside the court.

Everything was quiet for two seconds. In the first second, Rudy realized they had accidentally done their serve approach, hitting the ball with their hand positioned for a float serve, which had made the ball drop like that. In the second second, the referee whistled, signaling that the Bears had won the point, then crossed their arms, blowing their whistle to signal that they had won the game.

The gymnasium absolutely erupted. Rudy was tackled on all sides by their teammates, everyone screaming and crying. Rudy wiped their snot on their liberos jersey, then screeched when their coach joined in the hug. Slowly, they went over to thank the other team for playing, and Rudy held onto their captain’s hand for a few moments as they both congratulated each other.

The Bears lined up in front of the crowd, Rudy’s eyes blurry with tears as they bowed and thanked everyone for coming. They wiped their eyes, chest a mess of emotions, and looked up to see Sayako staring right back down at them, tears of her own dripping down her face.

It was like Rudy had no control over their movements anymore. They surged forward, first pushing off a chair before they launched themselves off a small ledge in the wall, reaching up to grab onto the very edge of the landing where everyone was standing. Ren, far too used to their ridiculous antics by now, only reached down and pulled them up with a minor sigh. Rudy swung their leg over the railing, landing heavily right in front of Sayako.

“Hi,” they gasped, suddenly unable to breathe. Sayako was pressed right up against them, Tadami screeching just behind them. Akane was leering just to the right of Rudy, shit eating grin taking up their whole face.

“Hey,” Sayako grinned through their tears. “Congrats.”

Rudy was frozen, even as everyone kept cheering around them. Honestly, why were they still waiting? Why had they been waiting this entire time? What were they even waiting for?

Sayako sniffed, and Rudy’s heart jumped into their throat.

Probably something like this.

Sayako smiled again, a blush rising in her cheeks as she started, “Listen, Rudy, I’ve been meaning to say something--”

Rudy grabbed her cheeks and kissed her.

There wasn’t much height difference between them, but five inches was enough that Rudy had to swoop down into the kiss, holding Sayako steady into it. They felt her surprise, then her lips softening as she relaxed, and then Rudy’s heart absolutely exploded as she kissed back. The pawprint was definitely smearing under Rudy’s sweaty palm, and they definitely smelled terrible after playing today, but that didn’t matter, none of it mattered anymore because Sayako was kissing Rudy back.

They pulled back, looking down at Sayako, throat clogged with emotion. Their hands dropped down to her shoulders as they whispered, “I hope that was okay. I really like you. I’ve liked you since I met you and I kept running out of time to say it and now just felt right because I won and you’re here and you’re in my jersey--”

“Rudy!” Sayako interrupted, giggling breathlessly. Her hands came up to rest on Rudy’s, and Rudy couldn’t help the blush that crossed their face immediately. Sayako smiled like she knew and told them, “Rudy, I know. That’s what I was going to tell you. I was going to say that I like you, too.”

The world stopped spinning. Rudy blinked. Rudy blinked again. “Oh.”

Sayako smiled. “Oh?”

Rudy shook themself, leaning down to peck Sayako on the lips once more before saying, “Good oh. Very good oh. The best oh.” Sayako giggled once more, and then Rudy finally heard their team yelling behind them.

They turned to see their trainer standing with the rest of their team, hands on his hips. “Look, kid, congrats on getting the girl, but we have stuff to do. Get back down here.”

Rudy grinned and turned back to Sayako, squeezing her hands. “Don’t leave, I’ll find you after. Don’t leave.”

Sayako smiled at them. “Wouldn’t think of it.”

Rudy’s brain imploded, but they had enough left to lean forward and kiss her once more before swinging over the landing and jumping back down to the ground. Their trainer muttered something about ‘dumb parkour’ and ‘kids these days’, but none of that mattered. Nothing mattered anymore, because Rudy liked Sayako, and had finally told her.

And Sayako liked Rudy back.