Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Shouyou has always been a visual learner, not that he is any good at the erm— ‘learning’ process anyway. But when he does manage to actually learn something, he can’t have it any other way. It’s been like this since he can remember, even when he was a tiny Shouyou, taking the world by storm one sugar rush at a time. When Hinata has a goal he needs to achieve or a wall to overcome, he can’t help but play it out in his head in some dramatic way to help motivate him. Like take the dumpster battle when Kenma’s tricks had backed him into a corner for example, Hinata would picture himself trapped in a bird cage, unable to fly, weird right?

And today is no different to back then. Well, he supposes it’s a little less pressure. 

You know what? It’s just as much pressure! Hinata feels like he has the whole Karasuno team's fate as a whole resting on his shoulders, and he’s only a mere second year, not that he would take this kind of pressure even as a third year, but the point still stands! The pressure is intense!

Because his goal to achieve, his wall to overcome if you will, is currently Tobio Kageyama and his stubbornness. And that’s a whole lot more scary than it sounds, in fact, it’s terrifying.

It all started around a week ago, Karasuno were in their second match of the winter tournament and their opponents were none other than Date Tech. And it had actually started really well, they had been struggling a bit due to the loss of the third years, but they’ve got a really good new first year defender that Nishinoya has taken under his wing. So it was going fine, good even (plus they didn’t have that really scary third year blocker so Shouyou was feeling great about that too.) They were in the first set and they were winning seventeen to fourteen. Everything is moving smoothly, 

and then bam! Kageyama’s off his game, sets going all over the place, anyone with eyes could tell it was upsetting the guy, and then he just kept on getting worse and worse. And as much as Hinata hates to admit it, Kageyama is a tiny little bit important to the team. So when his game is off, everyone’s game is off.

Needless to say they lost the first set.

And Hinata was totally nice about it! He assured Kageyama that he’s doing okay and there’s no need to panic, he was friendly, polite if you will. And then Kageyama shoved him away. 

But still! It wasn’t going terribly bad.

Plus the pushing isn’t totally new for Kageyama, it was a little mean though. But Hinata thought he must’ve been having a bad day or something.

But Kageyama having a bad day was enough for him to get subbed out with a first year setter for the second set, who was good and tried his best, but anyone would’ve struggled to fill Kageyama’s big shoes,

literally, Hinata had checked his shoe size one time (he had desperately wanted to be bigger than Kageyama in one thing, okay!?) and Kageyama’s feet are in fact not small. Anyways— so they ended up losing the match.

The whole team gave him time to cool down and left Kageyama alone. And after a good hour or so of Kageyama sulking time, Hinata went up to Kageyama, to just cheer him up, take the weight off his shoulders. No malicious intent, friendly stuff!

But Kageyama went crazy, like super extra insane crazy. He was yelling things about how Hinata needed to ‘back off’ and how he’s too ‘clingy.’ He also said a lot of things about how he wishes he had a different spiker, but Hinata prefers to keep that out of mind. Along with a lot of other horrible things he said to him. And it was horrible, even for him.

It was so horrible that Hinata wasn’t sure if he could act like everything was okay on Monday. And he couldn’t, in fact he failed miserably. They just ended up getting into another fight about things that hadn’t mattered. So the two have silently decided to go no-contact for over a week. 

And trying to communicate about volleyball with someone you’re not speaking with is a lot harder than it sounds. So they decided to just not. And Hinata’s pretty sure the rest of the team are aware of this. And it’s messing up their flow. Hinata would try to talk to Kageyama again, but it doesn’t seem like there is any universe where Hinata is going ‘Hey Kageyama! I know you said you wished you had a different spiker who wasn’t such a clingy little shit. But would you mind tossing a bit higher for me buddy?’ Hinata shakes his head. That is out of the question.

So Hinata is planning to use his visual learning strategy on this current mission, which he named: trying to become friends with Tobio Kageyama in the most natural way possible. Though it doesn’t really have a ring to it. But his imaginary project for this goal does! Hinata is quite proud of it, he wanted something that he would think of easily, so he decided on a board game.

The idea is, the bottom of the board game is where someone who Kageyama hates with his whole chest would stay, and someone that Kageyama trusts with his whole life and would give anything for would stay. And Hinata’s goal is to get his pawn right in the very middle! Where volleyball playing is at its most effective, where they don’t hate each other's guts, but they’re not about to start making out in the middle of a game either. It’s the perfect spot.

Hinata’s first move is currently spending one of his three no-practice days that he would usually spend well, practicing, on walking over to Sakanoshita Market. Where Shouyou guesses that Coach Ukai will be, most likely having a cigarette.

Hinata kicks pebbles on the sidewalk until he arrives at the entrance of Sakanoshita Market, this feels like it should be a big deal, like it’s the first step to becoming Kageyama’s friend again, 

even if he doesn’t deserve Hinata’s forgiveness, but whatever. Shouyou is just that nice and friendly and amazing and many other things.

And also it’s getting really annoying having to spiker Tanaka’s sets.

He braces himself before opening the door. This is bound to be tricky.

The strong smell of Tobacco fills up Shouyou’s senses, making his eyes water a bit, he blinks the tears away, this is no time to show weakness Shouyou!
Coach his cigarette into the nearby tray next to him and plops his feet onto the counter. “Hmm..” He squints at Hinata, who is sure that this might take some convincing, but Coach just hears him out on this then— “Sure.”

“Wait wha—“ Hinata can’t help but be surprised at Coaches eagerness. “I mean, em- okay. Awesome.”

“Just make sure you’ve both got consent forms by Thursday. This is a thing you sign up for, correct?” Coach Ukai raises an eyebrow.

“About that..” Hinata trails off, this is the embarrassing part. The part when Shouyou admits the lack of honesty in Karasuno’s famous second year duo. “Do you think you could tell Kageyama that we were selected for the camp instead?” Hinata looks up to Coach, who doesn’t look surprised at all, for some reason this just makes Hinata more nervous.

Shouyou awaits an answer. Nothing.. what’s he waiting for? The magic word?

“Please?” Hinata adds with his best smile, just like his mother had taught him.

Nothing. It hits him that Coach is probably expecting an explanation. Right.

“It’s just- well, I know that Kageyama wouldn’t go if he knew that it was my idea because of the whole Date Tech thing and—“

“Shouyou.” Coach takes his feet off the counter and replaces it with his forearms. From previous experience this shows that he means business. “We all saw the whole..” Coach spends a moment choosing his words “ordeal. With you and Kageyama. And we all know how damn stubborn he can be.” 

Shouyou nods, everyone under the whole goddamn sun knows that.

“But don’t you think it could do you both some good if you tried to tell him yourself? I mean, it’s only for the weekend, so no school is missed.”

Hinata wants to tell Coach that Kageyama couldn’t care less about missing school, but that’s not something he would want to hear about a team captain candidate for next year, so he keeps his mouth shut about that.

“I’ve tried.” Hinata kind-of lies, well, he has tried. But to be honest he doesn’t want to try again. “Can you please do this for me?”

Coach runs a hand through his hair and Hinata knows he’s won by his ‘goddamn it I’m too old for this’ face. “You kids are gonna be the death of me.” Coach Ukai sighs. Hinata tries not to look too happy.

“Thanks Coach! You’re the best.” Shouyou uses his most polite voice ever and turns to leave.

He can hear Coaches usual “Yeah, yeah. Get out my shop.” before he closes the door.

Shouyou does as he’s told and gets out, and maybe he might’ve been skipping home.. maybe.

————————————-

Another day and half with no talking between Shouyou  and his setter has taken place, and it’s been..

Peaceful? Boring? Awkward?

Okay, well he’s sure about the awkward part, before all this Hinata had never really noticed how much Kageyama was in this everyday life. The boy is practically everywhere. They have all their classes together due to their.. similar level of intelligence.. 

and now that Hinata is thinking about it, lots of his free time would be spent with Kageyama as well.

Like right now, for example. Hinata is riding his bike to his Wednesday practice after school, he would usually be doing this with Kageyama, but the jerk has decided to avoid Hinata at all costs and take a whole new route. And yeah, that kind of hurts. Kageyama’s acting like it was Shouyou who said all that mean stuff to him! 

Hinata shakes all the negative thoughts out his head and focuses on what’s in front of him, which happens to be the gym. Hinata parks his bike and makes his way inside. As long as he steers clear of Kageyama, he can play volleyball. Something he knows. Something familiar.

“Shouyou!!” Hinata hears the sound coming from his right, he turns to kind none other than Nishinoya Yuu. 

“Nishinoya-san!!” Hinata prepares for incoming impact. And sometimes Hinata finds himself thinking that Nishinoya should quit being a libero and join Hinata on his quest to becoming the next little giant because, boy can he jump (obviously not as high as Shouyou though, that’s his thing, thank you very much.)

Nishinoya half-runs half-lunges at Hinata, who ends up doing the same. The two crash into each other and this time it’s Hinata who’s on the ground, most of Hinata and Nishinoya’s greetings end up with someone or something on the floor, and if it’s not them it’s somehow Tanaka or Kageyama, 

one time in first year it was Dachi. That was a very scary day for everyone, even Coach was on edge.

“Hinata-chan! Hey!” Nishinoya offers a hand which Hinata takes. Nishinoya hoists Hinata up from the ground, “you ready for practice?”

Shouyou feels that familiar rush through his veins. Good. Something he knows what to do with. “Yep!” 

A thought comes up, Hinata would rather not end up with Kageyama, which is something he doesn’t know what to do with. He dreads the words coming out of his mouth, “Nishinoya do you think I could..” a pause, uurghh he doesn’t want to do this!! “skip the spiking drills today?”

Nishinoya just stares at Hinata, mouth wide open. 

“What!?” He yelps, backing up as if Hinata had just personally attacked him. “But you love spiking!” He pulls Hinata in for a dramatic hug “my poor Shouyou!!” He wails. “Being driven away from his passion because of others!”

“I know, how tragic..” he plays along, except he isn’t really ‘playing along’ because this is tragic, hugging him back. “But to get on Japan's national team I can’t just be good at spiking.”

“I suppose..” he lets go, settling for that logic, “Yamaguchi wanted to help you with float serves anyways.” He says matter a factly. “Go gett’em Shouyou! Float some balls or whatever!” He slaps Hinata on the back towards Yamaguchi, who is sat with Tsukishima, giggling at something.

“Yamaguchi-san!” Hinata waves and jogs over. “Hi Tsukishima.” He adds, a bit less enthusiasm in his voice as to not spook Tsukishima. Yamaguchi waves back with a grin, Tsukishima just nods, Shouyou wants to roll his eyes at the boy’s nonchalance.

“Hinata-san!” Yamaguchi pats the space next to him “sit.”

Hinata complies. “So you wanted to help me with float serves?”

Tadashi begins, “Yes, just—“

“Good! Learning from the best!” Shouyou interrupts.

Yamaguchi’s face goes a bit more red than usual.

“Em— thank you Shouyou.” He smiles. “Just one thing before we start.”

“Yeah?” Shouyou says straight away, wanting to try these serves as quickly as possible.

“It’s just about you and Kageyama.”

Oh. Right. Of course it is, his chest swells with that familiar feeling Shouyou gets whenever Kageyama’s name is brought up, and it’s not a pleasant feeling, that’s for sure. Why is everything about that guy?

“Okay, what is it?” Hinata tries to not look so annoyed.

“Em, well, I was chosen by the rest of the team to be the one to ask— well.” Yamaguchi fumbles.

Tsukishima speaks up, “when are you two gonna sort out this lovers quarrel? It’s pissing us all off.”

Lovers quarrel? Hinata is about to speak up but is interrupted. “Tsuki!” Yamaguchi slaps his hand to his face. “I had it under control! They didn’t choose you for a reason.” The boy looks genuinely mad, him and Tsukishima just sort of look at each other. Hinata feels like he’s intruding, this is not what he signed up for when he asked for some help with float serves.

“Sorry.” Tsukishima mutters.

Hinata can’t help but raise his eyebrows, Tsukishima apologising is a rare sight, it must be more common with Yamaguchi since they’ve been friends for so long. He might just hang around them more often only so he can bear witness to the phenomenon.

“It’s fine.” Yamaguchi smiles softly and Shouyou’s  certain that he’s forgotten all about him exists until he suddenly snaps out of whatever the hell that was.

“Yeah- em. So are you and Kageyama doing okay?”

Hinata doesn’t really need to think about it, there’s no need to lie. So he just says the truth. “No. But I’ve got a plan.”

“Don’t treat it like it’s some secret mission bullshit.” Tsukishima butts in again, only to be met with a pinch on the leg from Yamaguchi, which shuts him up. Hinata finds the sight amusing, but doesn’t dare show it.

“Okay, it’s just, not to put any pressure on you or anything! But the team needs you guys working together. It’s important. For the spring tournament, it’s coming up quick but I’m sure you know that already..”

Hinata nods. Tadashi is right. He does know that. It’s all he can think about other than this whole Kageyama thing.

“Right. Jump floats.”

Finally, some volleyball. Something he can get behind. “Let’s get started!” Hinata jumps up.

He tries to ignore the fact that Kageyama has been staring at him for a while now, and the fact that his pawn is still on the first square of his imaginary board game. But hey, it’s not like he went into the gym expecting some legendary change.

A small one could’ve been nice though..

—————————————-

Thursday morning consists of a few awkward glances and that’s about it. Still no talking, but it’s been like this for well over a week so Hinata’s gotten used to not having Kageyama with him. He’s even manages to come up with a new lunchtime routine. Usually him and Kageyama would meet by the milk vending machine and go practice volleyball out by the gym, and if they weren’t doing that they’d just sit on a bench and talk about nothing important. But for obvious reasons that routine has come to a stop and Kageyama has started sitting by himself by the vending machine (not that Hinata has paid any attention to him whatsoever. None at all.)

Hinata has taken a less anti-social approach to the situation and has started eating lunch with Yachi in her class. She’s totally different from Kageyama, she’s chatty and bubbly and everything Kageyama isn’t. But somehow her being the complete opposite of Kageyama makes Hinata miss him and his gloominess. Not that he’d ever say it out loud. Ew.

His chats with Yachi consist of light matters, just small talk, and it's not like he was having the most groundbreaking conversations with Kageyama, but he sort of misses the bickering between them. 

Okay it’s time to stop thinking about Kageyama. 

But one thing Yachi is amazing at is listening and she’s been doing a whole lot of that every lunch. Hinata feels bad for venting his anger at Kageyama onto her, but she swears she doesn’t mind. Hinata likes what they have going on, it feels like he and Karasuno’s new manager have a friendship outside of just volleyball. A friendship filled with gossiping and sharing bento boxes.

The two are sat at Yachi’s desk, eating lunch. There’s a few strays in the class that Shouyou obviously doesn’t know because the kids in Yachi’s class are all mini-geniuses and would never dare interact with a volleyball fanatic like himself.

It’s quiet, or it was quiet until Hinata started his daily rant on Kageyama. “And he keeps on ignoring me like I was the one who said all that horrible stuff!” Hinata complains with his mouth full of instant noodles he made this morning. Unknowingly spitting a chunk on Yachi’s uniform.

They’ve had this conversation every single day since they started sitting together, and Yachi always finds the right thing to say while keeping the whole thing fresh and new. Not that this could ever get old for Shouyou.

“Shouyou,” she says, flicking the flyaway chunk of noodle off her uniform, “I think you know Kageyama well enough to realise that the whole thing was more than you being ‘clingy.’”

“Not that I even was clingy to begin with..” Hinata mutters.

“Sorry! Sorry.. I- well, we all have figured out by this point that Kageyama’s strong suit isn’t exactly sharing feelings, he might not be talking to you because it’s too.. awkward I guess.” Yachi says the last part extra high, packing away her empty bento box into her bag. “Maybe a part of him even feels a bit sorry about the whole thing.”

Well she’s definitely nailed it on the awkward part.

Hinata considers this second opinion while finishing up the last of his noodles. It is verry Kageyama to avoid stuff because he feels awkward. Apart from in volleyball, then he apparently has no problem saying what he thinks of others. Stupid. He’s so stupid.

“Yeah, that does kind of make sense.. I doubt that feels sorry though. He never has. Never will. That’s not really his thing.” Hinata says while shoving an empty wrapper of an energy bar he’s decided to eat in his bag, earning a disapproving look from Yachi for his laziness.

“But.. I guess I must’ve done something to make him go all crazy mad like that.” He thinks out loud. Yachi nods along.

“Were you acting any differently that day?” Yachi’s nose is scrunched in the same way it does when she tries to read Hinata and Kageyama’s messy English handwriting. But it’s not hand writing she’s trying to decipher, it’s the mess of a situation this is.

“I don’t think so, I mean I was excited because it was the day of a game. But it wasn’t past.. my usual level of excitement, y’know?”

Hinata thinks back to right before Kageyama started acting off, he can’t pinpoint exactly when he began being weird, but their last successful attack was the same as any other,

well except for..

“When we had managed to get through the iron wall, I got super excited because, well, it was exciting. But after I’d spiked it through Kageyama looked at me like I’d done something wrong,”

“So you got too excited?”

“No, I don’t think it was the excited part, it was after I had just spiked it, he looked like I’d just spiked it into a baby’s face or something.”

“Weird analogy.. but okay.”

Shouyou’s head gets stuck on the last word. He recognises it. “What’s an analogy again?”

Yachi sighs, opens her mouth to explain, and decides against it. “Nevermind. Your guess is as good as mine on the Kageyama thing.”

A thought pops into Hinata’s head. No, a stroke of pure genius.

“Yachi, can you pass me that paper over there?” Hinata points to a nearby piece on another persons desk.

Yachi looks around to make sure the owner of the desk isn’t around “um, sure.” She grabs the paper with a slightly puzzled look on her face while Hinata gets a pen out of his bag.

A few minutes of Yachi questioning Hinata about what he’s doing only to be met with ‘shh’ pass by until Hinata completes his project.

“Taa daa!” Hinata flips it round to show Yachi. He honestly expected himself to do worse, drawing isn’t his specialty so he’s quite impressed.

“Hinata?” Yachi squints at the paper.

“Yeah?” Hinata wonders if Yachi is going to phrase her compliments with her fancy words or not. Sometimes it’s best to be simplistic y’know? Actions speak louder than words and whatnot.

“I mean this in the nicest, most supportive way possible.”

Oh. That’s not a great start. “Go on..” Shouyou frowns, hoping his drawing won’t get ridiculed.

“What is.. this?” Yachi winces as if she’s just poked a bear.

“Em, it’s a board game drawn out on a piece of paper?”

Yachi looks at the artwork for a few more moments before making an ‘oohhh’ sound.

“It’s not that bad, right?”

“No! No- em. I don’t think art can ever be ‘bad’ per say.. as long as it makes you happy then—“

“It’s totally bad isn’t it?”

Yachi looks at Hinata with her mouth slightly parted for a few seconds before speaking up.

“It could use a few tweaks to make it more recognisable.. it looks more like a ladder type of board game, if you—“

“Okay we can do all that later!” Hinata exclaims as nicely as possible, his level of drawing skills is not the topic he wants to get into.

“Sure! So, em, why are you showing me this?”

“Right. So this whole board game represents Kageyama.” Hinata circles the drawing with his pen, (lid on, he wouldn’t want to vandalise such an impressive piece.) “And this dot represents me.” Hinata circles a small dot at the bottom of the board game. Yachi nods, listening carefully.

“But I want to get up here.” Hinata takes the lid off his pen and circles the centre of the game.

“Okay.. why don’t you want to get to the top of the ladder?”

“Board game.” Hinata mutters.

“Right. Board game. Anyways, why the middle?”

“Well it’s where volleyball playing is at its optimum.”

Yachi looks confused for a moment until her eyes light up the way they do when she solves a tricky equation. Even though Shouyou’s board game is a simplistic work of art..

“Oohhh. I see, so if you were at the top of the board game your personal feelings could get in the way of a game.”

“Exactly!” Hinata feels like a proud teacher. But that dwindles as he witnesses Yachi’s face get more and more confused again, what is she not getting? Simplistic artwork people!

“Wait, but isn’t that happening right now?”

Personal feelings getting in the way?

“Well, no. Because we’re at the bottom.” Hinata now feels like a teacher whose student is failing drastically in real time.

Yachi frowns at Hinata for a few seconds before shrugging, “you know best.”

The two share a comfortable silence before Yachi speaks up again. “Shouyou, does this visual learning thing help you in school subjects too?”

In theory it could work, but imaginary stuff isn’t supposed to be for boring stuff like school, so Hinata isn’t sure of the idea. “I’m.. not sure I haven’t tried it.”

“Maybe we could give it a go with Kageyama sometime. When you’re both.. in the middle of each other's boards?” Yachi smiles.

“When we’re in the middle of each other's boards.” Hinata repeats.

———————————————————————

Hinata and Kageyama are due to leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. It’s currently Friday and they’re in their last class of the day. They should be learning about some social studies thing, but the teachers passed out because it’s the last class of the week and nobody has the energy, so everyone usually does homework. Well everyone except Shouyou and Kageyama, they usually discuss volleyball plays.

Hinata actually really enjoys this class, during winter time the sun is about to start setting so it creates a nice sunset light in the class, but it’s the start of July so that’ll be gone soon. On the topic of things that are gone, the volleyball play conversations that him and Kageyama have obviously won’t be happening today. So here they sit, the silence making the air thick with tension, Hinata wonders if Kageyama is slowly suffocating in it well.

Shouyou reckons that Kageyama got a notice on their trip of theirs yesterday because Hinata sent in the request on Wednesday. But for some reason Kageyama hasn’t stood up and spoken to him yet. What is it that Hinata could’ve done to piss off the guy?! Kageyama’s put up with him for over a year so what’s the difference now? Don’t get him wrong. He has definitely warmed up to Kageyama, he would even go as far to call him his friend, and vise versa (probably), and Hinata genuinely sometimes enjoys spending time with him, but that doesn’t mean that he wants to spend all his time with him.
But he does, because volleyball is the most important thing to him. And he knows for a fact that it is for Kageyama too. So why can’t he suck it up and just talk to him?! He isn’t that bad is he? Why can’t he jus-

“Oi, Hinata.” a familiar voice with a familiar dryness speaks up.

Speak of the devil. Shouyou straightens up. Is he finally going to apologise? Maybe he’s excited for the training camp? Mayb- “Can you pass me my pencil? It’s under your seat.” He says with a tone so flat it actually hurts Hinata deep inside. Seriously? Thats all you’ve got after a week of no contact? Hinata winces, he actually winces. How can someone manage to be such an asshole twenty-four-seven? No apology? Fine then.

“Sure.” Hinata says with the most monotone voice he can muster, bending down and picking up the pencil at a casual pace. Honestly he’s pretty impressed with himself for being so easy going on the outside while seething with rage on the inside.

He picks up the pencil, and when Kageyama puts his hand out, Hinata ignores it and puts the pencil on his table. Ha. See how you like that, stupid-yama.  Kageyama stares at him for a second, (feels much more like at least thirty to Hinata), shakes his head slightly and has the audacity to roll his goddamn eyes, and goes back to whatever he was writing down. Right. So not off to the best start. ‘I’ll just see what happens at the camp tonight’ Hinata mentally states to himself.

Not even 10 minutes go by before Kageyama starts talking again.

What a switch up from the past few days. It’s jarring. Shouyou hates it and loves it at the same time.

“Did you hear about the camp?” he asks flatly, still writing.

“Yeah” Hinata swallows. “I did.” He cannot let Kageyama know that he set it up. Then he’ll know the whole purpose to the said training camp and probably be even more stubborn then he already is at the moment.

And that is not what Hinata needs right now.

“Bit last minute, right?” Kageyama says matter a factly.

“Yep” Hinata pops the p while fidgeting with a random rubber his hand has somehow found. He mentally kicks himself for being so anxious about one little white lie.

“It’s kinda of strange how we’re the only ones Coach signed up to get chosen for it, isn’t it?” Kageyama says, Hinata glances at the boy, who is intensely gripping his pencil as if he’s restraining himself from.. from who knows what, really.

Oh crap. He knows, he definitely knows. Hinata is so done for, how is he meant to get on friendly terms with Kageyama now? He had a plan! A good one at that, and now that’s totally out the window. Kageyama is going to be his usual stubborn self, then they’ll never get on with each other again, then Karasuno will choke and die on his and mostly Kageyama’s stupidity. Hinata envisions a fuming Coach Ukai kicking them off the team for good.

Calm down Hinata. He mentally kicks himself for letting his imagination get the better of him. But there’s an underlying sense of knowing that the daydream wasn’t even that far-fetched.

Hinata takes a breath and tells himself that this conversation has been reasonably tame and polite, so there’s no reason to panic yet. None at all. This is chill, this is calm and nice and this is friendly.

So why is there a massive lump in his throat as he struggles to get a reply out?!

“I- em.. well I. Yeah. I guess so.” Hinata blurts, staring at his desk as-well now. Eyes fixed on the rubber in his hand as he clings on it like it’s his last lifeline.

Yep. So, one hundred percent done for.

“Knew it.” he snarls, almost bitterly, putting his pencil down but not looking Hinata in the eyes.

“Knew what?” Hinata asks back dreadfully, even though he knows the answer. He’s finished, he’s dying right here. Death from a raging Kageyama.

Hinata hates how the boy can read him like an open book when it comes to lying. He can’t tell if Kageyama has a gift for it or Hinata just sucks at it.

“That you’d do something stupid and over the top like this.” He spits. Now looking at Hinata, with pure spite in his eyes.

Spite. Spite? seriously?! Oh how he has not missed that look. “Oh there is no way that we are going all the way back to square one.” He says firmly. Anger he hasn’t felt in a while bubbling in his chest. “You haven’t looked like that since we first met and we are not going to be starting that all over again. So please, spare me and stop looking at me like that.” He whisper shouts too not disturb the teacher.

“Like what?” Kageyama looks at Hinata as if he had no idea what he’s talking about.

“Like you don’t know.” He spits. Is Kageyama just toying with him right now? Thats what he wants to do?

“Humour me” he says. And he actually has the audacity to look curious.

“Like- like..” crap he’s tripping over his words. The almost indistinguishable smirk on Kageyama’s stupid face makes him trip up more, god he makes him so insanely mad.

“Like I’ve done something wrong!!” He raises his voice and stands up, turning to Kageyama, who is still sat indifferently on his chair. And ohh how Hinata wishes he was just a few more inches taller so he could tower over people like this all the time. “Like I’ve actually done something to you to make you look at me like I’ve- like.. like I’ve, I don’t know! Killed your whole family or something!” Hinata yells, his throat feeling scratchy and wrong.

And ifHinata’s eyes aren’t playing tricks on him, he would say that Kageyama’s dark blue eyes look a bit startled. They examine Hinata’s face for a moment. But they return to the spiteful look they had before.

“Seriously dumbass? Don’t you think that’s a bit too far?” 

“Just tell me what I did!!” Hinata pleads.  Putting both his hands on Kageyama’s desk and leaning towards him, a mixture of anger and desperation making him go crazy.

“No.” Kageyama says harshly. Not blinking once, staring right into Hinata so intensely that Hinata has to look away.

Why the hell not?! Is what he wants to scream, but he tries to get through, he tries to get Kageyama to understand. This is actually going to be the death of him. “Please Kageyama, it’s so much easier for both of us if you just tell me!”

“Will you stop being so pushy, it’s none of your fucking business!” Kageyama now raising his voice as he stands up, now he towers up over Hinata. It crosses Hinata’s mind that people in their class may be staring, but he’s too angry to care right now. Because that made zero sense, this is one hundred percent Hinata’s business, the business is about him!

“Kageyama. If we’re going to be a team we have to communicate!” Hinata pleads, raising his voice even more, as if becoming more loud will get this into Kageyama’s thick skull. “I hate this radio silence crap! Just tell me what to do.”

Kageyama’s suddenly decided that he’s had enough and yanks Hinata by the collar, but Hinata isn’t backing down. They’ve done this a million times before, where Kageyama looks ready to throw Hinata out the window and Hinata is willing to drag the asshole down with him. Hinata is used to this look, this position, and he knows where it’ll end, but there’s no way Hinata is letting this go. The two stare daggers at each other, almost daring the other to move first.

“Boys!” An exasperated voice sounding woman yells.

And suddenly they both remember where they are, in a classroom, a classroom with people.  Kageyama lets Hinata go and they both back down, for now.

Shouyou’s peeved to say the least, he felt like he was getting through! That he was finally getting Kageyama to understand!

Well that’s what he’s telling himself at least..

Because right now his imaginary pawn isn’t even on the damn board.

———————————————————————

The two boys are now stand opposite each other by the exhausted teacher’s desk. The rest of the class has gone back to whatever was taking up their attention before. It’s deadly silent other than the quiet chatter from their classmates and it’s making Hinata feel like he needs to do something with his hands, he decides to play with the hem of his now crinkled uniform. He hopes his mother isn’t home when he goes to get his things because he knows that she’ll start to lecture him, and Hinata does not want to be scolded by Kageyama, this teacher and his mother all in one day.

Their teacher finally finishes up on whatever she was doing on her computer and leans back on her chair and sighs.

“I’m way too tired to deal with this.”She rubs her eyes.

Maybe Shouyou isn’t going to get scolded by three people today.

“Look.. It’s the end of the week. Please.. if not for you, for me. Just be quiet. And I’ll let this slide, just this once.” Their teacher says, now pinching the bridge of her nose. She’s quite an older lady. She looks like you’d expect her to be super strict, but she isn’t. Hinata actually quite likes her, she used to play volleyball when she was younger and has given Hinata advice on his receiving. Hinata would guess that she was a libero due to her knowledge on receiving and her well—not so impressive hight. But he should know more than anyone that you should never judge a book by its cover.

Hinata’s eyes dart up once he’s aware that he was daydreaming. “I’m really sorry Mrs Sato.” Hinata says with an apologetic tone and genuine regret on his face. Bowing over dramatically. Making Kageyama roll his eyes. Which is stupid because why is he rolling his eyes at Shouyou showing respect? Maybe Kageyama could try it every now and again, then maybe he wouldn’t be such a drag all the damn time.

Hinata clenches his fists.

“I’m also sorry.” He blurts flatly. A total one eighty from around five minutes ago when he was ready to physically assault Hinata in the middle of a classroom. Stupid Kageyama. 

“It’s okay boys” she sighs. Opening up a new tab on her screen. “I forgot to set my alarm anyways, so I guess I should thank you for waking me up.” She jokes half heartedly. Hinata chuckles at her joke while Kageyama looks like he’s just wants to go home. Hinata internally does a massive eye roll but manages to keep his opinions to himself. Kageyama can’t even fake a smile can he? Making sure to avoid him, Hinata makes his way back to his seat, envisioning his board that his pawn is currently not even featured on, and sighs. If they’re going to fight. They should at least do it at the training camp.

And currently, a fight is almost inevitable if it involves him and Tobio Kageyama.

Chapter Text

Hinata wouldn’t say he is prone to being late, it just happens around.. sixty percent of the time, and approximately one hundred percent of the all the times this has happened Kageyama gets pissed, and Shouyou could do with less of that right about now, so he spends the last fifteen minutes of class reciting times, drilling it into his skull until he can’t forget it. 

The bus is due to pull up at the school at five pm. School ends at three thirty pm. It takes Hinata thirty minutes to bike back to his house (if he’s quick about it.) And another thirty minutes to return back to the school. 

So it’s not like Hinatas barely going to make it, he has time, yet he still finds himself booking it out the class once the bells ring, for peace of mind he tells himself it’s to give himself a bit more extra time to prepare, but to be honest, he needs to get out of that classroom. He needed to get away from Kageyama, even if it is only for a little while.

He rushes down the stairs and skips the last two, literally, running away from his problems. Shouyou would bet that he hasn’t made it to the front of the school that quickly, ever.

He runs down a few steps to get to the bike shed, he grabs his bike and Hinata is just about ready to start biking, but as he puts his helmet on he feels a tap on his shoulder. 

Please don’t be him.

Please be him.

Hinata slowly turns around and breathes out a sigh of relief and disappointment at the same time when he sees a pair of kind light brown eyes below him instead of the cold dark blue ones above him.

“Hi Hinata-chan! Do you want to walk home together?” Yachi chirps with her hands behind her back, a smile plastered on her face.

He has time, he tells himself. Not like he has the heart to say no to Yachi anyways. “Oh, um. Yes, hi Yachi-san! I would love to.” Hinata takes off his helmet and begins to walk towards the direction of their houses, dragging his bike with him as Yachi walks by his side, talking about something that Hinata isn’t paying attention to.

Their houses aren’t near each other in the slightest, but they walk the same streets for the first fifteen minutes or so, sometimes when they run into each other they walk together and go their separate ways.

Yachi and him walk side by side, Yachi taking the lead in the conversation while Hinata mindlessly nods and ‘hmm’s along to something Yachi is quite obviously annoyed about which involves a cat and a badminton racket.

“Will you stop being so pushy?! It’s none of your fucking business!”

Hinata can’t help but wonder why Kageyama was so defensive when he had asked what he had done. Of course it was his business! If it had anything to do with him then it is officially his business, especially if he was the main topic of the said business! Goddamn it! Why did he have to be given such a sensitive baby of a setter! Even if the sensitive baby was on track to making Japan's national team after highschool, he was a baby nonetheless.

Yachi says something that Hinata thinks is a question.

“Yeah Yachi, that’s good..” Hinata replies. Kageyama should be lucky to have someone who can keep up with his sets and his terrible attitude, or else he would’ve just had a repeat of middle school.

“And then, Kageyama started to chicken dance on the table! You should’ve been there.”

“Yep.” Hinata sighs, honestly, he’s fed up of Kageyama’s behaviour, Kageyama needs Hinata just as much and Hinata needs Kageyama, he’d thought he’d proven that last year, but apparently not. To be honest, it hurts.

Wait what?

“Excuse me!?” Hinata stops on the spot and chokes on his own spit, closing his eyes trying to get the weird image out of his brain.

Yachi giggles. “Well now I know how to get your attention.”

Shouyou doesn’t like that Kageyama doing a chicken dance on a table is the new way to get his attention.

“Oh ha ha.” He laughs humorlessly, he doesn’t find the joke funny at all, but continues walking nonetheless. “What were you saying?”

Yachi’s body becomes noticeably more tense, her eyes turn to the front instead of Shouyou’s own.

“Hinata-san,” Yachi keeps her eyes forward, “do you know a girl called, Ami?” she fidgets with the hen of her skirt, nervous about something, Shouyou can’t tell what.

The name rings a bell, Hinata racks his brain until the name matches a face. A girl with long black hair and deep blue eyes, always smiling. Hinata’s spoken to her a few times, she’s nice. “Yes I do! She’s in a few of my classes.”

“Well, me and her were walking down the stairs together, and she had just come out of social studies.” 

Huh that’s a coincidence she must’ve been in social studies with him and Kageya-

Oh..

“Really?” Hinata hopes she’s not saying what he thinks she’s saying.

“Did something happen?” Yachi utters cautiously, she stops.

Hinata sighs, stopping as-well, turning to face Yachi. Well, he supposes if he were to talk, or more likely complain, to someone about what happened, one of his first choices would be Yachi. She usually manages to say the right thing, that’s why she’s had the misfortune of being the person that Hinata chooses to direct his rants at.

“Yeah.” Hinata swallows, adjusting the way he holds the handles of his bike, palms getting sweaty, he walks and Yachi follows.

“To keep a long story short, he figured out— well it was more of a guess —he guessed about the training camp and how I signed us both up for it.”

Yachi nods.

“And he got mad?”

Shouyou pouts at the memory. Yes he got ‘mad.’ Hinata doesn’t even know what for

“How mad?”

“Not as mad as the last time, but.” Hinata tries to find the words, getting a distracted by the memories of the Date Tech match, anger and hurt dance together in his tummy.

“Was it bad?” Yachi asks, cringing a bit.

“Well if Ami noticed, I guess so.” Hinata sighs.

Shouyou thinks back to the fight, as if it weren’t just twenty minutes ago. It wasn’t as bad as Date tech, not even close, but it wasn’t pretty. They sort of just said, well, words. Nothing behind them, just blinded by anger. So.. maybe if Shouyou tried to cool his temper and tried to talk to Kageyama a bit more, nicely. Maybe the boy would react better.

Yeah! Okay, now he has a plan b. Not as strong but it’ll do.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Yachi asks genuinely. 

“No, I think I’ve got an idea of what I’m doing this time.” Hinata says, feeling less helpless than he did thirty seconds ago,

“Okay, I’m glad.” Yachi smiles.

Hinata returns her smile with a slight nod.

They walk in silence for a few minutes until they reach where they usually disband.

“Hinata wait.” Yachi grabs Hinata’s arm as he starts walking his way home.

He turns. “Oh, yeah?”

“Well, on Thursday, I couldn’t really sit still after seeing your..” Yachi chooses her words carefully, “board game—diagram. It just looked a little.. unfinished.” She grabs something out of her bag.

Shouyou’s mouth drops open.

“Yachi?!!” He squeals. No. That totally was not a squeal, Hinata’s too cool and old for that now. 

“I just thought we should make it more, well, official! I guess..” Yachi says with a kind smile.

“You’re amazing!” And she really is, he drops his bike a bit more carelessly than he should have to hold the board. Awesome.. it’s made out of cardboard, like it used to be part of a box but was cut off and painted in white paint, an almost childish looking game, with all the bright colours and pictures, but Shouyou likes it better that way, it’s more simple. It’s titled ‘Hinata’s Mission!’ In bubble writing, and there’s glitter and sparkles and aww! The pawn, stuck on with blue tac, is a little version of Hinata’s face!

Yachi cheeks turn pink. “It’s really nothing, I jus-“

“Nothing?!” Hinata gasps. “Yachi I think you sometimes seriously forget how— how.” He can’t find the words, “buuah!! you are at drawing.” 

She does that slightly confused or concerned face she does when Hinata uses sounds instead of words, “Thanks Hinata.” Yachi laughs.

“Don’t you dare thank me after giving me this, this— masterpiece.” 

Yachi smiles again and Hinata grins big back at her.

“I hope it’s okay, I just know how you like to have your ideas out on paper, I just decided to make it a bit more—“ Yachi starts.

“Glittery and cool and mesmerising?!”

Yachi blinks a few times, Hinata could swear he her light brown eyes get a bit teary, but the tears leave just as quick as they appear.

Yachi clears her throat with a few coughs. “Mesmerising… thats a pretty good word.” She looks impressed and Shouyou pretends like he even knows what the word means, “you could use that in the Japanese assessment!”

Oh yeah. That.

Hinata smiles nervously, not wanting Yachi to realise that he has done next to nothing to study for it. “Yeah! I’ll remember it.”

“I’ll see you on Monday.” Yachi says as she turns and waves, oblivious to Hinata’s distress.

“See you!” Hinata waves back, just dodging the bullet.

———————————————————————

All Hinata can think about on the walk home with his bike, is how Yachi this whole thing is. The board has tones of glittery sparkles right in the middle of the path his character follows. There’s a total of fifty squares, but Hinata only has to climb twenty five to get to his goal anyways. And don’t even get him started on the tiny Hinata face. Only Yachi could make up something so pretty but practical. Shouyou can feel his mood lighten. Maybe the camp won’t be so bad after all.

The camp. Shouyou’s brain sticks on those words, as if it we’re important.

The camp..

The bus.

What time is it?

Shouyou pulls out his phone, and feels his heart jump up his throat. Oh no. Oh nonono. His eyes reflexively scan around the scenery, as if that were supposed to help the fact that he only has thirty minutes to bike home, pack his whole bag, and bike all the way back to school. And Hinata may be fast, it’s probably one of his best attributes, but he’s not that fast.

But he has no choice, he has to try. He shoves the board in his bag ,swings it over his bag, hops on his bike and pedals harder than he ever has before. He’s around fifteen minutes away from home now. Scratch that, make it five. Hinata pedals harder, glad there’s not much traffic on the road today so he can cycle with ease. But there is a woman who he (quite regrettably) almost runs over

“Watch it boy!” She screams, having to step to the side last minute.

Hinata’s panting was too hard to say anything of meaning, he would usually (yes, usually. This has happened multiple times,) stop and check if the woman’s alright, but he has no time. So he keeps pushing, keeps peddling. And he manages to make it home in seven minutes, not exactly five, but a new record of his.

But he has no time to celebrate. He slides the door open with a bang and rushes into his room with his bag, dumping the school books out and stuffing anything and everything he may need in a matter of thirty seconds. Two changes of sports clothes, a pair of pyjamas that look the cleanest, deodorant, a packet of energy bars that him and Kageyama both love, et cetera et cetera. And he’s done, took him barely two minutes. He rushes out of his room.

“Hinata! You almost ran me over!” She squeaks. 

Hinata’s mother is quite small, even smaller than Hinata, which can be quite the accomplishment, not that Shouyou would ever say it out loud though. But their shortness is basically the only thing that they share, except for their eyes, according to the many relatives that Hinata has, their eyes are the exact same. Everything else he got from his dad, not that he’s around enough for Hinata to prove that. But looking at his mother with her short silky and neat black hair, Hinata probably did get his features from dear old dad,

“Sorry Ma!” Hinata says, planting a kiss on her cheek. Already running again he says “I’ll see you Sunday, love you!!”

“See you Sunday!!” She parrots. “Oh! Hinata wai-“ his mother scrambles after him.

But Hinata is already out the door. He has no time to spare.

———————————————————————

After the most intense and sweaty bike ride of his life, Hinata parks his bike and shoves his helmet on top. He tries to lock the bike, but his hands are slippery from sweat and clumsy from adrenaline. The sun being almost fully set not helping him.

Curse his clumsy fingers. And curse Kageyama for making him do this. You know what? Just curse everything!

Hinata pants out a ‘breathe’ to steady himself and locks his bike, grabs his bag and he starts to run as faster as he’s ever ran before.

By the time he gets to the school, it’s only 2 minutes until the bus leaves. Hinata stares at the entrance for a moment, almost not expecting it to even be there. He actually made it. Wow. Although he does feel a little guilty for leaving his house in such a hurry, he never even said goodbye to Natsu. Hinata makes a promise to himself that he’ll text his mother to apologise for him. Hinata gets on the bus, still panting, pays for his ticket as the old man who’s driving the bus rolls his eyes at Hinata’s huffing and puffing. But Hinata couldn’t care less, his legs are exhausted and so is he. There isn’t many people on board, around a dozen, none that Hinata knows though, so there are plenty of open seats, but his eyes  look for Kageyama’s, when he sees him at the far end of the bus the boys eyes lock for a moment, Hinata feels a hundred unspoken words spark between the two, apologies, insults, screams and quiet mutters of petty remarks. Kageyama quickly looks away. But Hinata’s eyes stay on the boy. Who has an open seat next to him.

Maybe he doesn’t have to wait until the camp to start making things right.

He swallows the lump in his throat that he has to be the one to make it right, not the one who started it all.

Focus.

Hinata walks up towards Kageyama, whose eyes are glued to his shoes, jaw tensed. Shouyou realises that he’s trying to avoid eye contact again.

Is he nervous? He has to be nervous.

Right, Tobio Kageyama doesn’t get nervous.

But Shoyo Hinata sure as hell does. He taps his shoulder. And Kageyama looks up at him. Hinata gestures to the seat next to him and raises his eyebrows, hoping that Kageyama takes that as a ‘Can I sit here? Please let me sit here, it’d be really embarrassing if I got rejected right now.’

The boy nods ever so slightly, taking the hint, and Shouyou sits down.

Now that Hinata thinks about it, he and Kageyama have never not sat next to each other on a bus since their first trip ever as a team, where Hinata threw up on Tanaka’s thighs. And even though there was a risk of projectile vomit, and they weren’t the best of friends at the time, there had always been a silent agreement between them that they would sit together. And Kageyama seems to stick to his word.

They sit in silence while the bus leaves the school.

They sit in silence while the bus is leaving their town.

They sit in silence as the sun sets past the horizon.

They sit in silence until only ten minutes is left of their journey.

He should probably say something, this is getting awkward.

Okay Hinata, let’s start off with some light conversation.

If Hinata were to make things easy for himself, he might’ve asked Kageyama about the weather, or maybe some volleyball talk, but instead his mouth betrays him and he blurts, “You were wrong.” Hinata almost-screams the only thing that's been on his mind since the tournament. The only thing that makes sense to say because, what else can he say? He looks straight at Kageyama, who is still face downwards, looking at his shoes.

Yep. Definitely should’ve started off lighter.

And as heads dart up in his direction Hinata realises he should’ve started probably a bit quieter as well..

For a minute Hinata thinks that Kageyama hadn’t heard him because the boy hadn’t moved nor had his face made any expression. But then he notices Kageyama’s shoulders tense up before his mouth opens.

“About what?” Kageyama looks up at Hinata.

He has to be joking right? Because what else would Kageyama have to be sorry for?

But his blue eyes remain serious. Hinata reminds himself that Kageyama isn’t such a genius outside of volleyball.

Well he has to commit to the conversation now. But Shouyou isn’t mad at himself, he’s has the right to say that, totally.

“You were wrong for ignoring me.” Hinata states like it’s a definite fact. Because it is, Kageyama was totally, one hundred percent in the wrong.

Kageyama looks at Hinata.

Hinata looks at Kageyama.

Blue eyes stare at brown until Shouyou is sure they’ll mix into a new third colour.

“I know that.” Kageyama mutters, looking back down.

Hinata wonders whether he should leave this conversation on a high note, but Shouyou can’t help but wonder what else he can get out of Kageyama. So instead he opens his bag, grabs two of the bars he shoved in there and offer’s Kageyama one.

This has kind of become a ritual for them, on the bus ride to the tournaments. Hinata had grabbed them out of habit when he was leaving the house, but he’s glad he did now.

“Are you going to apologise?” He asks, holding out the bar, swirling it in a small circle as if baiting Kageyama to answer him.

“I don’t need to.” Kageyama takes the bar and begins to unwrap it.

Seriously?

“What do you mean you don’t need to apologise!?” Hinata squawks. His face contorted into an angry expression. While Kageyama chews as if what he’s saying makes total sense.

“I’ll make it up to you.” He states as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. As if Tobio Kageyama has ever, ‘made it up’ to someone in his life.

Hinata blinks a few times in disbelief. So by the time he speaks up Kageyama has finished his bar.

“And how exactly are you ‘making it up to me’.” Hinata says harshly, how the hell can someone make up for all the crap he said. But then again, Kageyama is admitting he’s done something wrong, so Hinata guesses it’s a win..

What changed from three hours ago?

“I’ll be a reliable setter!” Kageyama exclaims with determination on his face that only surfaces when it comes to volleyball.

Hinata sighs. 

“Kageyama, you already were a reliable setter.” Hinata folds his arms, wanting something new.

A spark in Kageyama's eyes, as if that sentence mattered to him. Then they return to normal. “Then I will continue to be one.” 

Hinata sighs yet again.

“Is that not good enough for you dumbass?”  Kageyama spits suddenly, with a lot more maliciousness than mere seconds ago.

“Maybe I actually want compensation for my struggles!!” Hinata complains, feeling greedy. He wanted a new pair of knee pads, maybe a volleyball magazine or something cool like that.

“Shut up, I’m already letting you sit next to me.”

“Oh and what a pleasure it’s been.” Hinata pouts, leaning back in his seat.

His setter looks like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world, and if this weren’t for their own good, Hinata would totally agree with him on that one.

“I’ll make it up to you, eventually.” Kageyama gives up.

Eventually.

What does that even mean?!

Y’know what? Hinata will take what he can get. And the two haven’t had a conversation go this smoothly in a long while.

“Do you promise?” Hinata his stomach swirls with a tiny bit of hope for Kageyama actually being apologetic, he holds out his pinky, gesturing for Kageyama to do the same.

Kageyama’s eyes dart between Hinata and his pinky a few times before he opens his mouth.

“This is stupid” Kageyama says, his face still not facing Shouyou, as if that were some defensive strategy.

“Just do it!”

“No.”

“Why?!”

“Because I don’t want to.” Kageyama whips round, obviously trying not to lose his cool.

“I’m not going to give up on this!”

“Me neither, boke.”

“Well you’ve already turned to face me, so deep down in your heart, a part of you must want to.”

Kageyama blinks at Hinata like he’s the most stupid boy on the planet.

“Fine.” Kageyama rolls his eyes, giving Hinata his pinky.

“Say it.” 

Kageyama sighs and gives up on fighting Hinata, realising it’s fruitless when he’s made his mind up.

“I promise.” He whispers, looking at anything but Hinata, waiting for him to stop. Hinata nods and lets his pinky go.

And that’s as close to an apology as he’s going to get from him.

Because Hinata has recently established that Kageyama is a guy who sticks to his word.

They fall into a sort-of comfortable silence like they usually would do during a normal bus ride together. Hinata unwraps his bar and begins to eat in his usual manner, dropping crumbs everywhere, it usually does Kageyama’s head in, but he’s keeping his mouth shut, he seems to be doing that a lot these days, Hinata thinks with a pinch of spite. He is quite content with this progress, the two have actually managed to have a minimal, but a sort-of productive conversation with each other. 

He did a good job. Yay him!

“You look like an idiot, by the way.” Kageyama says his thoughts out loud with his face looking distracted, as if that comment was just a side note.

Hinata looks down at himself, still in his school uniform, all crinkled from him and Kageyama’s almost-fight during social studies, and drenched in sweat from his bike ride down. His hair is probably all frazzled and messy. He can feel that his face is still flushed from cycling. And he’s using Natsu’s pink backpack. Tobio Kageyama, and everyone else on the bus, are in their sports kits and prepared. He bets he does look like an idiot.

“I know that.” Hinata repeats Kageyama’s words from their earlier conversation. Unable to hide his smile at his extremely funny reference.

And Hinata can barely see, an almost indistinguishable smirk on Tobio’s lips.

Well that is one serious ego boost. Making the unlaughable laugh is a very impressive accomplishment. (Hinata thinks this smirk counts as a laugh.)

Kageyama turns his face towards the window and Hinata mentally pictures his pawn moving upwards a few spaces.

———————————————————————

By the time the bus arrives at the sports centre, Hinata is already feeling adrenaline getting pumped through him, kind of like a less intense version of how he feels after a cool spike. They’ve never been to this sports centre with Karasuno before and Hinata is excited about being in a new environment. Shouyou even heard a rumour that their beds aren’t just maps on the floor! The sports hall is medium sized, with a few housing blocks, each with about a dozen rooms. This specific place is about a twenty minute train ride from a nearby city so it’s pretty big, it’s something Kageyama wouldn’t bat an eye at, but anything new is automatically exciting for Hinata.

This place is so awesome! Before the winter tournament argument between the two, Hinata had been far more ‘touchy’ with Kageyama, jumping on him, grabbing his arm, punching his chest,

all very casual things, by the way!

But he guesses that Kageyama must not be a very touchy person other than the occasional ruffle of one’s hair. So now he knows better than to do that with him after Kageyama made multiple, not-so-nice comments about Hinata’s love of physical touch. Which honestly still hurt, but he decides to bottle it up for the sake of volleyball.

“This place is awesome!!” Hinata exclaims to Kageyama, jumping up to see through the small crowd of taller boys.

Kageyama nods, unimpressed.

Kageyama has probably been to lots of places like this since he was a kid, especially in junior high, being on a powerhouse team and all. Hinata internally groans, jealous of Kageyama’s wealth and how regular this must seem.

“What? Is this not up to your standards?” Hinata says, poking fun at  Kageyama’s pack of a personality.

“Hinata, this is a rookie camp. The only reason we’re here is to get ourselves back into shape after the-“ He pauses. Hinata’s insides scramble. “After our last match.”

Still a touchy subject for the two. Noted.

“Well, I still think we should make the most of it.” Hinata states, still walking next to Kageyama, head tilted slightly up, “it’s not everyday we have access to a court twenty-four-seven!” Hinata tries to get him excited.

“Obviously dumbass.”

He fails.

The two walk to the entrance of the lobby with the rest of the boys in silence, it’s quite a modest but sophisticated space, going for more of a warm colour scheme, definitely family owned. 

The silence that used to come naturally and comfortably for Hinata and Kageyama has gone rotten, leaving a stale, and uncomfy feeling that makes Hinata fidgety and he feels like he is actually about to explode, until their instructor speaks up.

“Hello everyone!” The man says, with a kind smile that Hinata can see even through the darker evening sky, he looks around his mid twenties and like a proper athlete. He’s wearing sports attire and appears quite serious, but excited, Shouyou likes him. “Welcome to Ika sports centre! For the next few days we will be improving your skills for the upcoming spring tournament starting in three weeks.” He states with a grin. “It looks like this batch has a mix of different levels of experience..” he takes a moment to look around at the boys, “So I will most likely be spending my time with those who require it the most, for the rest of the more advanced players, you will most likely be working with a partner or trio.”  

Good. Hinata finds himself thinking, him and Kageyama need all the time they can get to get back to normal.

“But I’m getting ahead of myself!” The instructor chuckles. “My name is coach Ika, this is my family's sports centre that I have recently taken over.” 

Called it!

“I strive to help young boys and girls to better themselves in many sports! Including volleyball!” Coach Ita says proudly.

“Oh so he’s just gotten this position from daddy.” One of the boys to Hinata’s left mutters, causing a snicker from his friend. 

A sharp and small intake of breath has come from the left of Hinata and he feels Kageyama tense up. He vaguely wonders why. Maybe he knows Coach Ika and doesn’t want people slandering his name?

Hinata decides not to dwell on it. Kageyama must know not to listen to nasty comments like that by now, even if they aren’t directed at himself.

Coach Ita continues, obviously not hearing the comment, “so, if you like to follow me to the dormitory building on our left.” Coach Ita starts to walk and talk while the rest follow. “You all must pick a partner to share a room with because we unfortunately do not have enough rooms to spare.” 

Hinata looks up at Kageyama, who nods, already knowing what Hinata was about to ask.

“If you go find yourselves a room, and meet me at the lobby in the centre building in fifteen minutes for a quick tour and dinner.”

The Coach says, turning around and giving a small subtle wave.

More boys join them from buses that have come in from other neighbouring towns, the now much larger group of boys (Hinata would guess around thirty of them) all say a collection of thanks before splitting up to find a room to stay in, all carrying their bags behind them.

“Here Hinata.” Kageyama says quietly.

He’s pointing at a room just a few doors down, Hinata nods and follows him into room ‘037.’

Now that Hinata’s thinking about it, Kageyama looks quite tense and on edge.
But then again when is he not when it doesn’t involve a volleyball. He decides to not ask him, he doesn’t want to be too pushy and get him mad.

They walk into their room, it’s simple with two beds on the right side of the room, each with a small bedside table with a lamp on them. They’ve got a desk for studies and a small tv on a dresser opposite the beds. It’s cozy and small. Hinata likes the room, it reminds him of home a bit, except it’s ten times less messy.

“I call the bed next to the window!” Hinata screeches, jumping on top of the white cotton covers. It’s fresh and smells like washing machine tablets. Hinata makes a ‘mmmm’ sound at the nice smell and comfy bed. That is above ground, by the way!

Kageyama shrugs, placing his bag neatly on the side, reminding Hinata of his own pink sparkle bag. He picks it up and unzips it, dumping its contents onto his bed and before he can find his gym clothes Kageyama makes a very strange and slightly scary grunt.

“Dumbass!” Kageyama shouts.

Shouyou jumps at the loud noise and is immediately embarrassed by his pathetic reaction. He steadies himself and looks at him, confused at what has caused this outburst.

“Yes?”

Kageyama takes a breath. 

And then another.

And then decides that two wasn’t enough.

Is he having a stroke?

“Hinata, I won’t have my room look like a pig sty just because your lazy ass can’t be bothered cleaning up after yourself. And I sure as hell won’t be doing it for you.”

Kageyama looks so, ridged and stressed, Shouyou almost feels bad for him, this causes a small giggle that Hinata can’t hold in.

“What?!” Kageyama raises his voice again.

“You’re such a clean freak Kageyama.” Hinata smiles, looking for his clothes through the pile, chucking the stuff that isn’t needed to the side.

“There’s a difference between being a clean freak and having standards!”

“Calm down, Kageyama. I’ll clean up once we get back.”

“Oh please, we both know that you won’t. You’ll pass out the second we get back from dinner.”

Hinata can’t argue with that, eating a big meal makes him sleepy.

But his pride pushes him forward. What does Kageyama know about his sleeping habits anyways?!

“Oh and how do you know that?” Hinata teases, smiling at his pile on the bed.

“Don’t act smart, I’m not in the mood.” Kageyama sighs. “That training camp where you first met that asshole spiker..”

“We’ve met a lot of asshole spikers Kageyama..”

“The one with the ugly white spikes in his hair. Boku-something.”

“Bokuto-san!” Hinata chirps, smiling at the thought of his mentor, then it clicks that Kageyama just called him an asshole, “He was not an asshole. He can just be a little.. sensitive. At certain times.”

“Whatever boke.. The training camp where you met him, on the way back home on the bus ride, your dumbass was full of barbecue and you fell straight asleep.”

“So?” 

“So. Big meals make you tired.” 

The asshole figured him out. Damn he is perceptive.

“Fine then..” Hinata groans and grabs his gym clothes, tossing them to a corner in the room for later.

“You better pick that shit up.” Kageyama mutters.

“You wouldn’t last a day in my house.” Hinata mutters back. He really wouldn’t, Hinata’s home is what you would call ‘well lived in.’ And that’s how Hinata likes it. He can’t imagine calling a house your own without leaving traces of yourself on every crevice.

Kageyama sighs.

Hinata coughs out the words ‘clean freak’ as he puts away the last of his dumped items. Kageyama sharply turns his head round and sends a death glare in Hinata’s direction, and Hinata can’t contain a smile.

“I’m never setting to you again.” 

“What?! Kageyama noooooo!!” Hinata rushes over to his setter.

“You should’ve just shut your mouth.”

“Please set to me!! I’m begging.” Hinata walks over to Kageyama, grabs his arms and shakes kageyama aggressively.

Kageyama’s eyes change from pissed to really pissed and uncomfortable real quick.

Oh crap. Too close. Too soon.

Hinata quickly let’s go, reminded about Kageyama’s melt down over a weeks ago about his touchy behaviour. He mentally kicks himself for forgetting their new boundaries.

“I- em.. sorry.” Hinata takes a step back hastily.

“S’whatever.” Kageyama shrugs.

The air feels much more stuffy and Hinata wants to leave.

“I’m going to the hall.” Kageyama says, back to his usual flat tone, walking to the door.

“Oh. Okay, I’ll get dressed here th-“

The door closes. Crap.

Hinata prays to whatever god is out there that he hasn’t just sent himself back to square one. Kageyama definitely looked uncomfortable, which isn’t great, but at least he didn’t look angry or upset! Has he always felt that uncomfortable when Hinata touched him? I mean, Kageyama isn’t exactly a touchy guy, Hinata has always known that, a fly could know that. But Hinata would hope that if he feels uncomfortable then he would notice it. Right? Maybe he hasn’t and he’s only starting to now because of how hyper aware he is of the matter after Kageyama brought it to light. The thought makes Hinata shudder, he hates the idea of making anyone uncomfortable, especially his teammates. But Hinata would’ve noticed, he had to. So he asks the same question he’s been asking for the past week, what’s the switch up with Kageyama? Why is he so uncomfortable with the mere idea of Hinata?

Shouyou decides to add it to his ever growing list of things ‘not to dwell on’ and be grateful that him and Kageyama are even speaking right now. But he has to be more careful, he doesn’t want to make Kageyama uncomfortable. For like, this fifth time in the past week.

Hinata sighs a long sigh and quickly changes out of his school uniform and into his leisure wear.

————————————————-

The meeting consists of all the boys sitting on the gym floor while Coach Ika summarises what the camp is going to be like. Hinata gets the basics, the training will start at 6am tomorrow and will go on until eight pm, the boys will have two breaks, one for late breakfast and one for lunch, dinner is at nine. And they will be leaving Sunday afternoon at around six pm but training will only be until two pm, so they are free to relax until the bus gets there. 

Hinata has been put into a small group of around ten who need minimal one-on-one training, so that the Coach can focus on boys on more of a beginner level. That’s all Shouyou remembers because his mind is on something else, or rather, someone else. 

Kageyama is sat with his legs crossed at the other end of the group, listening intently. He looks at lot more relaxed, probably because it’s a volleyball related meeting, not anything that he’s unsure about, that’ll calm him down and stop him from freaking out about random things, for example, those boys that haven’t stopped snickering this entire meeting, it doesn’t seem to bother Kageyama as much as it did around thirty minutes ago. Good, Hinata thinks, he needs his setter to be on his best game. He catches himself staring and turns back to the coach, who states a few rules about no going out of your room after eleven pm, no sneaking into other rooms, bla bla bla.

Hinata starts to day dream again about nothing important until he’s interrupted by coach abruptly getting up. “Right! It’s currently eight fifty pm,” Coach Ika says, checking his watch. “That means a few minutes until dinner. Please follow me through to the kitchen.”

The boys do as they’re told and follow their part-time coach down a hallway, take a left and there in the cafeteria, a big, open space. The bright lights of the cafeteria hit Hinata’s face and he squints at the change. All the boys gather into their collective groups on different tables, waiting for the food service to open up.

Hinata looks round for a certain black-haired boy, after most of the boys are sat down, he finally finds him at a table, alone.

“Mind if I sit?” Hinata asks, keeping a distance as if Kageyama was a ticking time-bomb.

“Mhm.”

Was that ‘mhm’ a yes or a no?

Hinata decides to take his chances and believe it was a yes, he pulls out a chair to the small, circular table and just..

Sits. A bit afraid to move, as if even a cough would set Kageyama off.

This feels awkward.

Kageyama’s foot bumps against Hinata’s and he mutters a ‘sorry.’

Yep. Definitely awkward.

Hinata’s hands find the end of his t-shirt and begins to fidget with it. Twisting and turning it in different directions.

Okay, where has this come from? It’s been tense since the match, but it’s been a sort of, angry tense. This is just awkward and uncomfortable. Hinata would much rather have a screaming Kageyama than a quiet, confusing Kageyama.

Hinata waits for food to be announced.

And waits.

And waits…

It has probably only been around 2 minutes of waiting, but Hinata thinks he is about to have a literal stroke from the pure amount of nothing that him and Kageyama are talking about. 

When a short, plump woman with blonde hair tied up announces food and 2 other kind-looking ladies put the food on display, Hinata practically jumps up to get some while the rest of the boys form an orderly cue behind him. Hinata isn’t even that hungry, he just wanted to get away from that situation, 

but the second his eyes lay on the fried rice with mochi for dessert, he feels like he hasn’t eaten in days. And then the smell hits and suddenly Hinata hasn’t eaten, ever. Full stop.

Kageyama joins back to their table, where Hinata has already eaten half of his food and will probably be done in a matter of minutes. They eat in silence, one more neatly than the other, until Kageyama speaks up.

“The way you eat pisses me off.” He spits, with rice in his mouth.

Yes it’s an insult. Yes it annoys Shouyou. But he hasn’t ever been more grateful at an insult before. “Do you ever have anything nice to say,” Hinata asks, in between bites, trying not to celebrate at the mere idea of a conversation. “Like, ever?”

Kageyama shrugs.

“Plus, I love Chahan!” Hinata states. “My ma makes it for me and Natsu every week.” Hinata smiles at the memory, Kageyama frowns slightly, which Shouyou pretends to not notice.

“Does she make you food everyday?”

“No, but when she’s off work and if I’m not eating at the market with you-“ Hinata stops for a moment, because he hasn’t been eating with Kageyama, not for a while. But when he looks up at Kageyama and he looks like his usual self, he continues. “She'll usually try make something for us.” 

Kageyama nods. “That sounds.. nice.”

“Yeah.” Hinata says, taking the last bite of his rice.

“I- em. What do you eat if we’re not at Coaches?” Hinata attempts, not wanting to sit in silence again.

“My dad sends in a delivery of stuff every time I ask for it. So I just find something from there.” 

Wow, his dads that kind of parent.

“Do you not have anyone at home?” Hinata asks, surprised how he hasn’t had this conversation with Kageyama before.

“I have Momo.”

“Aww!” Hinata squeals, causing a few glances. “Is she your little sister!?” Hinata smiles, envisioning a small girl with Kageyama’s black hair and blue eyes.

“No. She’s a cat, dumbass.”

Ah.

“That makes more sense.” Hinata scratches his head awkwardly, feeling a little embarrassed. “You seem like a cat person.” He begins, taking a bite of his mochi.

Kageyama makes another ‘mhm’ noise. “You seem like a dog person.”

“Nope.” Hinata says, popping the p. “I love cats, my family has had like, a dozen.”

“But you’re so,” Kageyama pauses. “Annoying. Like a dog..”

“Rude.” Hinata pouts. “And you’re so..” Hinata copies Kageyama’s tone, “boring. Like a cat.”

“Well you just said you like cats, dumbass.” Kageyama rolls his eyes.

“Well they can be really mean sometimes,” Hinata says, thinking of one cat in particular, a really feisty one he had when he was younger, but for some reason, that cat stuck to him like glue and followed him everywhere. “I like cats because I can just, be with them, y’know?”

“Yeah, I do.”

And so they sit.

And suddenly the silence isn’t that awkward anymore.

——————-————————————

By the time all the boys are stuffed with unusually good food for just a camp and ready to crash for the night, it is ten pm, they all make their way up to their rooms and queue up at the toilets waiting to change. Hinata waits for his turn and changes into an old big green t-shirt with a weird dinosaur cartoon that Hinata has no idea what show it’s from, matter a fact, he doesn’t even know where the t-shirt itself came from, and he’s also wearing another old pair of basketball shorts. As Hinata unlocks the door, and turns, he wonders what sleeping in a bed so high might feel like. But he doesn’t get to think too far ahead because he crashes straight into the chest of a really tall and intimidating boy.

Oh great.

The boy looks around one hundred and ninety with medium length black hair that has been tied into a bun in what looks like a rush. Hinata is just steady himself, ready to apologise, but the annoyed looking boy speaks up first.

“Oh shit! Sorry I didn’t see you there.” He smiles, suddenly looking a lot less scary and pissed than he did mere seconds ago, in fact, the boy has quite a mean looking face, but the second he smiles, his whole aura changes.

“It’s okay! I- em, I’m really sorry I wasn’t looking where I was going and-“

“Don’t worry about it.” The boy smiles reassuringly, looks Hinata up and down, and Hinata suddenly wishes he had brought more cool looking pyjamas, whatever ‘cool’ pyjamas might be.

“Nice t-shirt.” The boy feels the fabric in between his fingers, and Hinata doesn’t know if it’s his imagination, but he could swear the boy is lingering for much more than needed, but when this guy looks up from the t-shirt to Hinata, holding his gaze, he knows something’s up.

He can feel his face betray him and start to flush.

“I think I’ll see you around, my names Kenji.”

Hinata blinks at the tall boy and his hand, which by the way, is still holding his goddamn dinosaur t-shirt.

“Shouyou.” He manages to say.

“I’ll remember that, Shouyou.” The boy smiles.

He can only get out a nod before the boy lets go of him and walks away.

Shouyou takes that as his cue to make his way back to his room.

Kenji. The word slips nice off his tongue, Hinata likes saying it. He mouths it as he opens up his door.

KenjiKenjiKenji.

“Oi, dumbass.” An all too familiar voice speaks out.

“Yes, Kageyama?”

“We’re going to bed in fifteen minutes, there is no way that I will allow you to be off your game.”

Asshole.

Hinata wants to argue, even though he’s pretty sure he won’t be able to stay awake for much longer anyway. “I thought you said this is a place for rookies?”

“And I thought you said we needed to make the most of it?”

Okay, he’s got him there.

“Urgh, fine.” Hinata pouts, slamming the door and jumping onto his bed, pulling the covers over his head. “I’ll just rot here.”

Kageyama grunts in acknowledgement. 

Hinata pulls out his bag, almost dumping everything out, but he pictures Kageyama shooting a scary look at him so he only takes out a few things to get to his phone and chucks them on the floor, not even bothering to see what they were. Hinata checks his phone, it’s ten forty seven pm, they are not allowed out of their rooms by eleven, but Hinata has no reason to go anywhere so he’s not bothered. Hinata messages his mom and Natsu a goodnight message and an apology for not saying a proper goodbye, (with lots of hearts and kissy faces, of course.) Before turning it off with a smile. 

It’s currently a Friday night, in his household, everyone is free to be together, his mother is off work, Hinata doesn’t have training, and Natsu is back from school, they usually eat dinner together and watch a movie while Natsu is curled up in a ball asleep before the movie has even reached the ten minute mark, Hinata soon following. The thought makes Hinata smile even bigger, he appears out of his covers to put his phone on his bedside table.

And he sees Kageyama holding a furry brown teddy bear.

See, Hinata wouldn’t call himself a mean person, but if he ever saw Kageyama with a stuffed animal, he would probably… tease him for the rest of his life, maybe even tell Tsuki-san, who would probably bring it up at least three times per practice, knowing him.

But this teddy bear unfortunately isn’t Kageyama’s, it’s his, and Hinata would bet real money that Kageyama would do the exact same thing he would do if the roles were reversed.

“Hey!” Hinata scrambles out of bed and practically lunges onto the floor where Kageyama is sat. He must’ve accidentally shoved it in his bag when he was in a rush, and Hinata was too tired to notice he’d put his all time favourite teddy bear on the floor from his bag, leaving it right in the middle of the damn floor, where Kageyama could make fun of it. 

Oh, Hinata’s so in for it.

Hinata lands right next to Kageyama and attacks, screw his new personal space, he has more important things to worry about right now. “Give that back!”

The two boys wrestle on the floor for a while, Hinata cursing and screaming, Kageyama yelling and holding onto this bear like it’s his own damn child.

Hinata clambers on top of Kageyama trying to grasp his bear, and eventually manages to get a hold of it.

Until Kageyama grabs it back, flings Shouyou off of him and holds it above his head.

The boys stand there, panting.

“Hinata boke.” Kageyama breaths out. “What the fuck is this.” He says with a rare smirk, catching Hinata off guard.

“It’s nothing, jerk. Natsu probably put it in my bag as a joke.”

Kageyama makes a ‘tch’ noise, not believing the lie.

Hinata tries to jump up to get the bear but Kageyama dodges.

“There’s no way you would fight so hard for a bear you don’t know anything about.”

“Who are you to decide what I do and don’t do over a bear?” Hinata jumps again and fails. C’mon Shouyou! Jumping is supposed to be your specialty!

“What’s its name?” Kageyama teases, standing on tip toe to keep the bear away from Hinata.

If only he were a few inches taller..

“Screw you.”

Silence.

“I’ll give it back if you tell me.”

More silence.

Oh y’know what? Fine. What’s the worst that could happen.

Hinata could actually think of at least fifteen of the worst things that could happen right here on the spot, but he decides to just give in. “Fine,” Hinata sighs. “But you can’t tell anyone,”

“Okay.”

“Especially Tsuki-san.”

He doesn’t respond.

“Kageyama!!” Hinata pleads.

“Okay, fine.” 

“Promise?” Hinata searches his eyes for honesty or the opposite, but all he finds is amusement.

“Yes, boke.”

He’s going to regret this.. but Hinata wants nothing more than this to end.

“Itsmistersnuggles.” Hinata coughs out

“What was that?”

“You heard me.”

“No. I didn’t.”

“It’s..” Shouyou has the urge to fling himself out the window. “it’s mister snuggles.”

“Mister.. Snuggles?”

“Yes! Now shut up and give it back!” Hinata pleads.

And Mr Snuggles is thrown his way and Kageyama slumps onto his bed.

Huh?

“Aren’t you going to make fun of me?” Hinata asks.

“Do you want me to?”

An image of his piece sliding up a space on the board pops into Hinata’s head.

“No! I- em, I mean, no.” Hinata clears his throat and holds Mr Snuggles close to him. “It’s just, it’s a very easily making-funable thing.”

“I’ll just save it as blackmail for later. Go to sleep.” Kageyama turns off his light.

“I can’t tell if you’re being mean or being nice.”

“Oh I’m being mean, I’ll use it against you when you least expect it.”

Hinata groans and flops onto his back, holding Mr Snuggles close.

“For the record, I never sleep with him anymore.” Hinata mumbles.

“Sure, boke.” Kageyama says sleepily, pulling the covers up to his cheeks.

Hinata sits up and puts the stupid bear back in his bag (it isn’t actually stupid, he loves him a lot.) And is about to turn off his light, but a thought pops into his head.

“I’m gonna brush my teeth.”

Hinata gets an uninterested groan as a response from Kageyama and he searches his bag, trying to remember where he put it.

Wait. Where did he put it?

Hinata searches every pocket and crevice until he is certain that it isn’t there. And his mind pulls up a memory from a few hours ago.

‘See you Sunday!! Oh! Hinata wai-‘

His mom must’ve realised Hinata had forgotten his toothbrush, tried to remind him, and Hinata slammed the door in her face. A pang of guilt appears in his chest and Hinata winces at how rude he was to his own mother.

“I forgot my toothbrush, can I borrow yours?”

Silence.

Hinata turns his head to see why Kageyama is so quiet, but is met with him passed out.

Hinata is now faced with an ultimatum. He can leave his setter be, and have a slightly less pissed Kageyama in the morning, but have smelly breath. Or he could wake him up and deal with the consequences later. Or he could just steal his toothbrush, but that feels immoral, even if it is just stupid Kageyama.

After a moment of questioning, Hinata decides to take his chances and wake him up, he doesn’t want to smell tomorrow, (and not that Hinata would admit it but he doesn’t want the guy with the cool hair to see him in such a vulnerable state.)

Hinata slowly advances and is right in front of Kageyama now, he takes a deep breath.

Just be quiet and polite. Then he’ll say yes.

“Kageyama…” Hinata whispers cautiously 

No answer, not even a twitch of the face.

He can’t be that much of a heavy sleeper. “Kageyama.” Hinata whispers louder.

Is he dead?

Hinata pokes Kageyama’s cheek, it’s soft, springy, warm.

In fact, Kageyama’s whole face is more softer than usual, more relaxed, not a scowl in sight, his eyebrows aren’t down and his lips are wet and slightly parted. Hinata is imagining what it would be like to have a non-angry Kageyama , a kind, relaxed setter, but then disaster strikes.

Or rather, allergies strike.

And Hinata sneezes the loudest sneeze in the history of sneezes.

Oh crap.

After a moment of intense silence and Kageyama unmoving, Hinata thinks that miraculously he has lived through what has got to be one of his top three most scariest moments of his life. Until Kageyama’s eyes flutter open. His brows no longer relaxed and his lips not parted.

Kageyama sighs. “What.” He says in the most annoyed voice Hinata has heard, like ever.

“Can I borrow your toothbrush?”

“No. You should’ve got one from Coach Ika like he said.”

Hinata racks his brain for any sort of memory of this but comes up with nothing.

“What?”

Kageyama sits up and turns on his bedside lamp, causing both the boys to squint. “Your dumbass probably wasn’t paying any attention, he said during the meeting that there was a box of stuff at reception.”

A pause.

“Can’t I just use yours?” Hinata groans.

“No, I don’t want your dirty mouth on my stuff.”

Hinata feels a pang of annoyance at the idea that he is so disgusting to Kageyama.

“Fine, I’ll just go down myself.”

“Don’t care.”

Ouch.

Hinata doesn’t say anything to Kageyama, grabs his phone, and sneaks out the door, feeling disheartened.

He slowly walks down the corridor, it is currently eleven seventeen pm meaning that if Hinata gets caught, well, Hinata doesn’t actually know what will happen if he gets caught, but he doesn’t worry because he won’t. Hinata takes a left and finds the staircase he and the rest of the boys walked up a few hours ago.

Perfect, it should be down here.

In a perfect world, there would be a box of toothbrushes and toothpaste bottles right at the foot of the stairs. 

But if it actually were a perfect world there would be a volleyball court with the friendliest Kageyama of all time waiting to toss to him, a big smile on his face. But there are neither of those things, instead there is a left hallway, and a right hallway, both identical, and Hinata for the life of him can’t remember which one to go down.

Hinata decides to go with the logic of ‘left if always right’ and takes a turn in that direction, and then takes another left.

And then another.

And then mixes it up and takes a right.

Okay he’s lost.

As he takes another left, Hinata is just about ready to call it a day and sleep on the floor because it’s currently eleven thirty eight pm and Hinata just wants to sleep, but then he sees it.

The reception. The box. Hell yes!

Hinata feels a surge of energy bounce through him and basically jumps down the corridor to the box, and there it is. In Hinata’s mind right now these things could be made out of pure gold, he grabs a blue toothbrush and some toothpaste, books it down the corridor ready to get back to his part-time bed.

Wait, how did he get here?

Oh crap he’s totally lost.

Left is always right, right?  But after Hinata says that to himself for what feels like the one hundredth time today and it’s almost midnight, he has no choice but to do something that he will definitely regret tomorrow morning.

He opens his phone and calls the only person he can think of, also the only person in this whole building that he wouldn’t want to be alone in the dark with right now,

He calls Kageyama

Chapter Text

If Hinata were to do one thing before he dies, it would be to become a professional volleyball player, the best ace in history, even better than his idol, the little giant. He would join Japan's national team and become roommates with his teammates, (who preferably be nicer than the setter he has as of now, but a good player is a good player,) and he would learn off them, and maybe they could learn off him, and they would go to the olympics and win gold. And they’d all be super happy and The End. Everyone applauds and cheers and whatever. Then Hinata would be able to die happy, but now that Hinata thinks about it, that's more like four things that he would do rather than one. But what does it matter?

Hinata won’t be able to do it anyways.

Because he has just called down the most pissed and tired and annoyed sounding Kageyama of all time to come and rescue him due to his incompetence of locating the reception. And Hinata is so, totally, one hundred percent, 

Dead.

Shouyou stands there, against the wall, staring at the just hung up phone, and physically cringes as his brain replays the conversation that had just gone down.

‘Kageyama’ Hinata says, quietly and cautiously.

He hears a loud sigh from the other end and cringes at it.

‘What do you want.’

‘I—‘ A cough escapes him. ‘Sorry—well I’m.’ Hinata stutters, his mouth suddenly forgetting how to speak.

‘Just spit it out, dumbass. I want to sleep.’

‘I- em, I’m lost.’ Hinata gets out.

‘You’re, what?’

‘I’m lost, I got to the reception and tried to find my way back but I’ve been walking around for ages and I can’t find my way back so I wa—‘

‘Not my problem. I’m going to sleep now—‘ Kageyama interrupts. 

‘No!’ Hinata interrupts him back. ‘I- em I mean, no. Kageyama I have no idea where I am right now.’

Kageyama sighs again. ‘What do you want me to do about it?’

‘Can you,” Hinata gathers all the courage he can muster. “come get me?’

‘I don’t know where you are.’

‘I’m em,’ Hinata looks round for a landmark of some sort and he spots a dimly lit sign and a small café. ‘I’m near a cafè, does that help?’

Another sigh. ‘Yes.’ Shouyou feels guilty.

‘I’m really sorry.’ Hinata frowns at the anger in Kageyama’s voice.

And then the call ends.

Now that Hinata thinks about it, Kageyama didn’t actually verbally agree to finding Hinata and bringing him back to the room, the thought makes doubt flicker in Hinata’s chest, and the fact that his phone is actively dying, currently on being fifteen percent, is not helping, but here he stays, relying on the small chance that help may come.

And god he hopes it does. Shouyou misses the tall beds that aren’t just mats.

He decides to sit down, fatigue taking over, he’ll probably be waiting for a while anyways, might as well get comfortable. He needs to think happy thoughts. Yes. Happy thoughts, like ice cream and rainbows and unicorns and stuff.

A sound. A door unlocking around the corner. The jingle of keys, a tired sigh and a flashlight illuminating from a distance. 

Shouyou is actually a bit surprised that Kageyama came to save him, that he would do that for him. The fact that he’s shocked about that is a great analogy of how their friendship is going, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

He jumps up to greet him, and fixes his hair for some reason as if Kageyama would give a crap about his hair doo. But it’s something to do with his hands so he still tries to tidy it up.

But Shouyou’s head focuses on a single detail, as if it were important somehow,

He heard keys jingle. He heard a door unlock.

Why would Kageyama have a key in the first place?

The answer is; he doesn’t.

So who is a mere dozen steps away from him right now?

Hinata checks the time while slowly walking the other direction, it’s seventeen minutes past midnight. That is way past curfew, Shouyou’s head floods with images of getting caught, what will they do to him?

Interrogate him?

Tie him up?

Torture?

Okay. That’s a bit too far. He’s sure that he won’t be getting tied up. But still, Hinata would rather not get caught.

The flashlight shines even brighter and that manages to wake Shouyou up from his daydream, he turns the corner just in time before the light reaches where he was mere seconds ago.

But Hinata would be willing to bet that this mysterious guy saw him. Or at least a shadow or a foot. So before he has time to over think it, Shouyou runs.

Straight into Kageyama?

Shouyou bumps straight into his chest, hitting his nose, his mouth starts to make noise before his brain can stop him,

“Where—“

A hand covers his mouth, it’s too dark to see who’s it is but Hinata would assume it’s not the mystery man.

So he did come to rescue him.

Shouyou squints and is starting to make out the outline of Kageyama, hair messy, face pissed.
He puts a finger to his mouth, and removes his hand. The two stay hidden round the corner and listen.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

Nothing.

Hinata waits for the fourth step coming their way. Nothing. Good, the mystery guy will leave any second. Shouyou must be pretty damn graceful to pull that off without getting caught, looks up to Kageyama with a proud smile. 

Who decides to slowly go take a look for himself, hovering over Hinata trying to move to the end of the wall, his warm breath tickles Shouyou’s face, his chest lightly pressed against Shouyou’s own, he feels his face get hot and—

And Hinata’s smile dwindles, didn’t Kageyama just throw a fit at Shouyou a few weeks ago at the Date Tech match because Hinata breathed wrong around him? And now he’s doing this? Do these new strict boundaries only apply to him? What if Hinata was feeling uncomfortable about this? Does Kageyama even care? Shouyou blinks too loudly and Kageyama lashes out. But when he’s basically on top of Shouyou, it’s just fine? Why is only Hinata in the wrong whenever it comes to this? Why does Kageyama get to choose what he can and can’t do?

Hinata has a more-violent-than-he-would-like-to-admit urge to get Kageyama off of him, who now is pushing against him, hard , trying to get a peep, but Kageyama doesn’t seem to even notice, he’s too focused on the task at hand. In the past ten seconds Hinata has gone through ten different emotions and he is tired, so very tired and done and ready to just brush his damn teeth and sleep.

“Okay, he’s just turning around now. Let’s stay here for a minute.” Kageyama says so quietly that Hinata barely hears him, breath still tickling his face. It just makes him more angry.

And even though Kageyama just said mystery guy is turning around, he still stays in this position, and god Hinata wants to punch something, or rather, someone. And there’s only two people within the two meter radius and the mystery man hasn’t done anything wrong so..

Hinata swallows. He needs to chill out.

But then Kageyama catches his eye, and scowls as if this is his doing. 

Hinata explodes.

Well not literally, but he pushes him, hard. Hoping it’s hard enough to break a bone or something.

Kageyama falls on his ass with a loud thump and yelps out a sound that sounds similar to ‘dumbass.’ If this were any other situation Hinata would either be scared for his life at the murderous look in Kageyama’s eyes, or be laughing his head off at him, but right now a surge of adrenaline and anger pumps through him, so he just looks at him, and Kageyama looks right back.

And the flashlight turns back to their direction. The two hear a ‘Hey!’ and a pair of feet stomping over to them. Hinata has so many words to say and Kageyama has so many insults to spout, but instead Kageyama springs into action and starts to run, and Shouyou has no choice but to follow. “Stop!” The man shouts. 

They obviously don’t stop.

In fact, they run faster. Heavy footsteps banging behind them. But this mystery man hasn’t put hours, no, hours doesn’t feel right. Days? Hmm.. let’s go with centuries. This man hasn’t put centuries into volleyball training like they have (Hinata isn’t sure how long a century is, but it sounds right so it’s okay.) Also.. and Shouyou means this in the most respectful way possible, by the way! Judging by the panting and thundering, this man isn’t the.. he isn’t the lightest guy in the world. So the two are making some distance, darting down corridors, until they meet a fork in the road. Hinata goes down left, can he still hear the guy? He can’t see the flashlight in front of him. Hinata turns round to see only to find Kageyama.

Going the opposite way!?

“Kageyama!?” Hinata squeaks. He remembers on around his twenty-something-th lap round the building trying to find the reception, he had gone down here and the left way had taken him back to the cafe, so if they found their way back there, they would have some idea on how to get back.

Kageyama turns round, slowing down his pace to a walk. “Hinata dumbass! Hurry up!”

“Kageyama if we go this wa—“

“Come on! I’m not waiting for your slow ass to catch up!” Kageyama stops and Hinata can hear the guards footsteps from a distance again, they don’t have long.

“If we go this way we’ll circle back!” Hinata pleads.

“Why would I believe that!? You’re the one who got lost in the first place.” 

“I’m sure of it! I’ve walked these corridors over, like, ten times today!” Hinata turns to walk the other way. Why does Kageyama have to be like this? Why can’t he just trust him?

“Well I’m going this way, I’m done with trying to rescue you.”

“Don’t you trust me?” Hinata says more quietly, stopping again as the footsteps are getting louder.

Hinata said it as a ‘now-you-can’t-say-no’ type of thing. Because of course Kageyama trusts him, if he didn’t they wouldn’t work so well together on the court. Trust is important to him, it’s important to Kageyama too, right?

“No.” Kageyama states. “I trust myself. I’m the setter.” Kageyama turns around.

And even though a second ago Shouyou would’ve given his left kidney to prove his point, his head is jumbled with emotions of confusion, anger, betrayal, and pride and it’s too difficult to sort through in a matter of seconds. So in this moment of crisis, and Hinata is well aware he’s going to be beating himself up over this soon, he backs down and begins to follow Kageyama. They can’t get separated, then what? Because Shouyou is pretty sure that Kageyama won’t go looking for him a second time.

Fat mystery man. Sorry! Hinata could’ve been a bit nicer about that. The pleasantly plump mystery man turns the corner, he’s close, but not close enough to get a proper look at who they are. Hinata hopes.

They take what feels like hundreds of twists and turns, hair brushing back in the wind, legs aching. After a while they slow into a jog, Shouyou’s not exactly sure why, pleasantly plump mystery man is long gone. But he still jogs, because he doesn’t want to talk to Kageyama at the moment.

Kageyama starts walking soon enough, and Shouyou still follows, a few feet behind him, the sound of panting filling the silence.

Hinatas hurt at Kageyama’s apparent lack of trust, but there’s no way Kageyama doesn’t have a little trust for him, he definitely only said it as a way to win the argument and get Hinata to just follow him, so he’s not going to take it to heart. He’s  still ticked off at Kageyama’s hypocrisy about personal space, and he really could do without an argument right about now, but staying silent won’t help them find their way back, so he begrudgingly speaks up.

“Are we lost?” He asks.

Kageyama doesn’t answer for a few seconds. He’s either deaf, which Hinata’s pretty certain he isn’t, or he’s being an ass.

“Are w—“

“Yes.” He answers sharply.

Okay. So he was being an ass. Surprise surprise.

Y’know what? Hinata can’t really be mad because he was in the exact same situation thirty minutes ago, so he swallows his pride and chooses not to be a hypocrite. He decides to stay silent.

“But we wouldn’t be if you hadn’t pushed me over, we would’ve been able to just get back without any of this dumb shit.” Kageyama spits.

The pride comes right back up his throat and Shouyou projectile vomits it everywhere.

“Well I’m not sorry for it.” Hinata says,

Kageyama goes silent.

“I’m not feeling sorry for someone who doesn’t trust me.” Hinata stops in his tracks.

“Why would I trust you?” Kageyama stops as well, walking over. “The only thing I’d ever trust you with is spiking. And most of that trust is based on my sets.”

Shouyou can feel his stomach knot. He wasn’t lying for the sake of proving himself right? He’d always feel a sense of pride in the fact that he and Kageyama were such a good team, he liked how even if Hinata has the strong urge to ring Kageyama’s neck and Kageyama was barely holding back from punching him the face, when they got on the court, they just.. the just got each other. They knew exactly what was going on and what the other was thinking. Shouyou thought it was because of trust. It was, wasn’t it?

It had to be.

“Trust is supposed to be mutual! How are we meant to be a team, a duo! If we don’t give one hundred percent to each other!?”

Kageyama grimaces at the sentence as if it were a declaration of love. “Why do you have to make everything so personal!? It’s so stupid.”

“How is it sappy to want a healthy relationship!?” Hinata feels his voice rise, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t want to help it.

Kageyama’s face shows a look of disgust before he says,

“We do not have a relationship.” He steps back.

Wow. Okay. He was expecting something a little less intense, maybe some shouting? But the feeling of Kageyama just saying something as if it were the most simple thing in the world, as if Hinata was the one being delusional. As if he were imagining everything they had ever done that’d hinted at friendship. An ache enters Shouyou’s chest, making it hard to think. But he ignores it. He keeps going.

“You know what I meant. We’re friends, we have a friendship.” Hinata takes a step forward, they are. They have to be, it only makes sense.

Kageyama swallows. “No, Hinata. We’re nothing outside of volleyball.” He says shakily.

The ache basically stabs Hinata in the chest, impossible to ignore now. It’s not like he and Kageyama know everything about each other, infact Hinata doesn’t know much about the guy at all except he’s stubborn and good at volleyball. They were never really friends in the traditional sense. But Hinata would still call him a friend, a best friend, or better yet, a partner. They had each others backs. No, they have each others backs. Right?

Hinata swallows. “We have to be something, why else would we be here?”

And for whatever reason, Kageyama snaps.

“The only reason I came out here to get you in the first place is because I need a spiker in good condition!” Kageyama spits, and the ache spreads through Hinata, consuming him. Blinding him.

But Kageyama isn’t finished yet.

“That’s all you are, that’s all you will be, so get it out of your dumb fucking head that you are anything more than that to me!!” Kageyama grabs Hinata’s collar and flings him to the ground, managing to rip a small hole in his dinosaur t-shirt where his thumb gripped.

Hinata’s pawn moves back one space.

He tries to make sense of it, Hinata would bet anything that they were friends. He thinks back to bus rides, Kageyama letting him sleep on his should, even if it were only for a little while. He thinks back to the rare but special moments where Kageyama would let a grin slip when Hinata happened to be extra funny that day. He thinks about the way Kageyama would always turn to him and he would always turn to Kageyama whenever they did a cool spike. They were friends. They had to be. It felt that way.

Doubt swirls through Hinata, his mind unconsciously brings up all the times Kageyama told him to ‘fuck off’ or ‘shut up.’ Were all the mean comments actually mean? Has Hinata just latched onto someone who wants to be left alone, until the met their breaking point in the middle of a rally? Were they really just rivals forced to team up? After a while, Shouyou had realised that it didn’t feel that way anymore, but did that feeling of being forced into this never leave Kageyama? Hinata needs to sort out his head, then maybe he can get a better look on what Kageyama is thinking.

“Fine.” Hinata says quietly, still on the ground. He feels his pawn move back another space, and the throbbing in his chest remains.

But couldn’t have Kageyama told him? He could’ve told Hinata that he was following him like a lost puppy. So why didn’t he? Did he not want to lose a spiker who could keep up with his sets? He must’ve known Hinata loved volleyball enough to comply with a setter who doesn’t want to talk to him, he could’ve taken advantage of that, but he didn’t. If Hinata came up to him, he would talk, maybe not in the nicest way like Yachi, but he talked, he didn’t have to, so why did he? All these questions stay lodged in Hinata’s throat, and he wants answers, but he won’t ask, because honestly he’s scared of what Kageyama will say. The things he would give to just understand.

So instead he deflects, moving on to a topic he knows how he feels about, and he feels angry. “But being a sap is better than being a hypocrite.” Hinata steps up, the feeling of betrayal had been pushed to the side for a while, but it’s back and it’s morphing into anger.

“How the fuck am I a hypocrite?”

“You can get all up close and personal with me back there, but the second I get near you, suddenly I’m like- like.” Hinata fumbles. “Like a disease!!” Hinata feels his eyes getting wet, hurt at how someone so involved in his life could lead him on, making him think that he liked him as a person, only to come round and spit all these things on him at once.

It doesn’t make any sense. None of this does.

“I’m not saying sorry to you for wanting some personal space..” Kageyama stands weirdly still.

“It’s not like.. like i’m..” Crap! What’s the word? “Like I’m hooking onto you or something!” 

Doubt and anger and sorrow and more anger are mixing together in Hinata and he’s not sure what will come of it. Probably some final boss demon, like at the end of Kenma’s games. Except instead of fireballs and punches it’s just screaming and yelling.

“When you wanted space, I gave you space!” Hinata walks up to him, why can’t he just accept that they're a team now? That they’re friends? Partners?

“Well you’re definitely not giving me space right now.” Kageyama mutters.

Maybe he isn’t, Kageyama hasn’t given him a straight answer all day. But he did during the match with date tech. He was loud and clear. But since then he gave him his space, he is giving him space, just like he asked.

“Kageyama, when will it be enough?”

Silence.

“What happened?” Hinata asks, no, begs Kageyama to answer him. A real. Honest. Answer.

Because really? What. Happened. Why have they suddenly gone back to the start first year? Back to square one.

Kageyama swallows. “You’re asking too many questions. I don’t understand.”

But Hinata knows he does, Kageyama may not be the smartest outside of volleyball, but he can keep up in a conversation well enough. But y’know what? If he doesn’t want to talk about how he suddenly cares about every single brush of contact between them. Hinata will deal, it’s not worth getting into something that he won’t get an answer out of, Kageyama has shown him that he won’t be getting one. And right now, the doubt, anger and sorrow have formed exhaustion. And all Hinata wants to do is rest.

“Fine. Let’s just get back if you’re gonna be like that.” Hinata starts walking, bumping into Kageyama, lifting his t-shirt up to his snotty nose, wiping it.

“Like what?” Kageyama isn’t moving.

Hinata sighs, “Just forget it.” They need to get back. Before Shouyou explodes again.

Damn he wishes he had a volleyball he could whack all his remaining energy and anger into.

“Okay.” Kageyama says flatly, beginning to walk.

Hinata turns and starts as well. The two get about five steps in before Kageyama speaks up again.

“Hinata.”

Nope. Hinata isn’t the type to ignore others, but he just wants to get back. He’s done with the arguing. 

“Hinata!” Kageyama shoves him forward to get his attention.

“What!?” He snaps, can’t they just let it rest? Hinata’s head is filled with too many thoughts and questions and he can’t make sense of anything right now and he just needs to—

“Look.” Kageyama says, looking up at a sign that they must’ve missed during their heated conversation.

Hinata looks up to see a sign with the words ‘stairs’ and an arrow pointing left. The boy is just too tired, hurt and pissed to feel embarrassed right now, so he just changes his course and follows behind Kageyama, exactly the same way they had done a few minutes ago, they find the stairs and make it back to their room, thankfully not running into anyone else. Kageyama opens the door to room ‘037’ and quietly walks inside, not looking back. Hinata does the same and winces as he closes the door as quietly as possible, brushes his teeth while Kageyama proceeds to fall back asleep , all without speaking a single word to each other. Hinata gets into bed and puts his phone down, it’s currently one-oh-three am. And he wants to sleep more than anything right now. He slips deeper into the covers and doesn’t take long before falling into slumber, his pawn back to where it was just yesterday morning.

Square one.

———————————————

Shouyou isn’t the type to wake up in a bad mood. He just doesn’t find it to be a good use of time, it doesn’t help him, all it does is make him gloomy and grumpy and irritable. Of course he has his off days, like when he has an English test later that day, or when he and Kageyama have a fight, a real, mean fight. And that has only happened a handful of times throughout first and second year. So yeah. Shouyou wakes up in a good mood around.. ninety seven percent of the time. But Shouyou opens his eyes, takes one look at his roommate, and he can tell it’s going to be a very long day from the get go.

His phone blares his alarm out and Hinata finds himself one leg fully of the bed, his head underneath the pillow, and by the looks of it he was probably thrashing around in his sleep, judging by the fact that his sheets are fully on the floor and his phones been knocked off the bedside table and lies on the floor along with the sheets. It’s not like this is an uncommon occurrence, Hinata has been aware he is very.. active in his sleep since he was little, which makes sense given its basically impossible for him to sit still while awake. But the thrashing and the occasional sleep talking occurs more often when Hinata has a bad sleep or something on his mind.

And oh boy does he have some things on his mind. Or rather, someone.

He groggily rolls off his bed to get his phone which is a good few steps away. Hinata turns it off with a groan and sits on the floor, head against the bed. And once Hinata remembers this is in fact a shared room, he looks up towards Kageyama’s bed which is made neatly. How does that boy function so early in the morning?

It’s currently five thirty am. The boys are meant to meet in the cafeteria by six, but Kageyama probably left early to avoid Hinata, or at least that’s Shouyou’s interpretation of his coldness. A wave of relief floods through him, he really doesn’t want to talk to him right now, Hinata cringes the memories of last night. Kageyama really didn’t go easy on him. And honestly Hinata is again, really hurt at what Kageyama had said. He seems to be feeling that way a lot these days. 

And Hinata knows that all the screaming was definitely not his fault. Well, he’s a good ninety percent sure. And those odds are good enough for him.

He forces himself to his feet, Hinata wouldn’t say he isn’t a morning person, he actually quite likes them. But training on around four hours of sleep isn’t the usual for him, his sleep schedule varies but it usually contains six hours at the least. Hinata vaguely remembers Kageyama mentioning to a group containing, Tsuki, Yachi, him and Yamaguchi how he goes to bed at eight forty five sharp. Which caused a lot of teasing from Tsukishima and multiple giggles from the rest, the latter coming from Yamaguchi. So he wonders how he must be holding up, probably not great. Hinata feels a pang of guilt at the thought of him ruining this for Kageyama, but no. Kageyama ruined it the second he decided to take it out on Hinata. The guilt doesn’t last long. Hinata decides to get dressed in the room for haste and since he’s alone, he changes into a white t-shirt and black shorts, brushes his teeth in his usual messy manner, attempts to fix the frazzled mess on his head in the mirror, and damn it he really needs a haircut. Hinata’s surprised Kageyama hasn’t made snarky comment, he vaguely remembers how in first year when Hinata’s hair grew a bit longer, Kageyama couldn’t keep his hands out of it. Maybe he’s holding back because of the either awkward or heated direction all their conversations head, Hinata decides to conduct a challenge to see how long his hair can get before Kageyama (quiet rudely, but Shouyou doesn’t mind) stick his hand in it, or at least make fun of it, he did a lot of that in first year too.

Once he’s done attempting to fix his hair Hinata goes to make his bed but decides to just chuck the cover back on and do it later, too tired from his late night outing to be bothered. 

Shouyou grabs two energy bars from the multi pack out of habit, should he give one to Kageyama? What is their current stance with each other? It’s definitely not good, that’s for sure, maybe even worse than since they got here. Hinata begins to wonder whether Kageyama would actually want Hinata coming up to him. Judging by last night probably not. So Hinata chucks the other bar back and rushes downstairs.

By the time Hinata gets to the gym the time is five fifty eight, he’s early by two minutes, that’s a first.

The boys are in similar groups as last night, with Kageyama sitting alone. Hinata has to physically stop himself from getting at the fact that he is currently walking up to the self service to find something to fuel his exhausted body and Kageyama hasn’t even given him a single glance. 

Hinata picks up a banana, eyes still on Kageyama. Who is.. well. Eating. It’s actually not interesting at all, but Hinata keeps his eyes on him, hoping for some sort of non-verbal apology that he will most likely not be getting, but hey, maybe he secretly learnt sign language or something, not that Shouyou would be able to understand it, but he’d get the message well enough. Oh! Kageyama’s done his food! That’s.. still not very interesting. Hinata starts to walk down to the chair, looking for a place to sit cause there’s no way he’ll be sitting with Kag—

Oh crap.

Hinata crashes into an oddly familiar guy. He gets out a ‘sorry’ and steadies himself, stepping back. He looks up and—

“We just keep on crashing into each other, don’t we?” The boy smiles.

“Oh! Kenji!” Hinata says a bit too loud with his mouth moving a bit too much. Why is he hyper aware of his mouth now? Focus on the guy in front of you Shouyou! Not your damn mouth.

“Hinata, right?”

Hinata steps back, very aware of the minimal distance between them. “Yep,” Shouyou’s mouth, which has now gone rouge, decides to pop the p.

“You had the cool dinosaur t-shirt?” Kenji smiles, showing off his weirdly perfect teeth.

“Yep, super cool.” Hinata jokes. He’s said the word ‘yep’ too many times. He needs to stop talking and take a seat.

What he really needs is an extra three hours of sleep.

“Do you em,” the boy itches his nose in a way that looks. Nervous? “Do you want to sit with me and my friends? I think we’re in the same group today.”

Hinata looks over to Kageyama. 

“You can bring Kageyama too if you want.” He adds, his face cheerful face looking a little less cheerful. That’s weird. 

“Oh! No that’s okay, we’re em.” Hinata clears his throat. “Yeah I’ll sit with you guys.”

“Okay great!”

It’s not like Hinata feels bad about not sitting with Kageyama. Because he absolutely definitely does not. Kageyama probably wouldn’t have wanted Hinata to sit with him in the first place so they probably would’ve ended up sitting alone anyways! So what if Hinata isn’t anti-social like him? He’s allowed to talk to other people! Stop judging him! But Hinata still doesn’t look Kageyama’s way while walking over with Kenji, even though Kageyama seems totally uninterested in Hinata, it’s just in case. His table has four other guys on it, which Hinata remembers none of the names of in the thirty seconds they took to introduce themselves. 

Their faces feel slightly familiar, but Hinata just eats his banana quietly and just lets the boys fill the silence with their own conversation until Kenji speaks up.

“So Hinata, how do you know Kageyama?”

The boys go silent and give each other glances that make Hinata weary. Are these guys secret volleyball spies? Are they trying to get insight with Karasuno to take them down?

Well they’re all looking at him now so it’s not like Shouyou can just ignore them.  “Well we both go to Karasuno. So it’s kind of inevitable.” Hinata says with a nervous chuckle.

Kenji nods and the boys go quiet.

“What about you?” Hinata adds, hyper aware of the sudden silence ensuing.

“How does he know that we know him?” A boy with a buzz cut says to Kenji. Hinata feels annoyed that he’s being talked about when he’s literally right here.

“You guys are calling him by his name.” Shouyou’s mouth butts in, except it shouldn’t be classed as butting in because the question was about him, goddamn it!

Wait. That was really stupid.

The rest of the boys snicker again at the kid with the buzz cut, who looks pissed.

That was really, really stupid. Kageyama is like, mega famous after the tournament last year. Of course they know who he is.

“Right. We know him from junior high.” A boy with brown short hair says.

Oh. Okay. So Hinata failed successfully with that one.

The boys start their third giggle spree of the hour, which is saying something considering it’s six-oh-six am. 

But the giggles and snickers feel, familiar.. Hinata jogs his memory, trying to remember where these guys are from.

Giggles, snickers.

Shouyou realises who these guys are. Why Kenji’s face went so weird at the mention of Kageyama’s name.

He can’t help but ask. “Were you guys laughing at Kageyama yesterday?”

The boys look at each other again.

“Yeah. Have you got a problem?” The guy says half heartedly.

Okay so that basically confirms it. These were the guys snickering yesterday during when Coach Ika was speaking. Come to think of it, this is probably what put Kageyama in such a pissy mood, these guys weren’t laughing at coach, they were laughing at Kageyama. And Hinata wants to know why. But after finding out where they’re from, he’s pretty sure he knows the reason.

“Why?” Hinata asks, bluntly. Maybe they’re old friends.

“What?” The boy laughs, looking at Kenji.

“Well, why were you laughing?” He tries to smile to show dominance. Is that how it works? He’s pretty sure he saw that in an animal documentary. No.. it was dancing to assert dominance, wasn’t it?

Scrap that. Hinata stops smiling, he does nothing instead, because he’s not about to start hitting the nae nae to scare these guys off.

Although it probably would be pretty scary.

“You of all people should know he’s an asshole, Hinata” Kenji jumps in.

Hinata focuses again.

Honestly, the boys aren’t exactly wrong, but they’ve got a different Kageyama in their heads to who Hinata knows.

“Yeah man, he’s the king.” The guy with the buzz cut says looking high and mighty, Hinata assumes this as mocking Kageyama, causing a laugh from everyone on the table, even Kenji, everyone is laughing except Hinata. It’s okay when he or even Tsukishima poke fun at Kageyama’s old and current attitude, but when people that aren’t friends with him do, it gives Hinata an odd uncomfortable feeling. He looks over to Kageyama’s table, now aware of the type of people he’s sitting with, the two lock eyes, blue on orange, a secret third colour of the two merged, and Kageyama looks..

 hurt.  And even though the two aren’t really on speaking terms, even though Hinata is so unbelievably pissed and hurt at him, he’s still got to come to his defence, because even if Kageyama disagrees, they are friends.

At least, they were. And Hinata sticks up for a friend, stupidly stubborn or not. 

After getting pushed around by a bunch of tall guys last year, Hinata came to the realisation that if you look past how big and scary looking these guys are, if your answers are quick enough, you can win. Because if you look past how insane their serves are and how tall their blocks are, they aren’t really that bad. They’re all just a bunch of volleyball nerds at the end of the day.
Except for Tendo, the monster blocker from Shiratorizawa, that guy definitely has some side quests worth looking into.

“Have you guys actually ever spoken to him since middle school?” 

“Do we need to? We heard him yesterday.” Kenji yaps, every word he spits makes Hinata less and less charmed by him.

The boys laugh. Again. As the brown haired boy mimics Kageyama’s ‘this is a rookie camp, Hinata’ from yesterday.

“He’s different now.” Hinata can feel anger bubbling up.

He doesn’t know why he’s defending a boy who’s been nothing but cruel to him during the past week. But he is. Because he’s seen his good side, he knows it’s there.

“Oh yeah?” The guy with the buzz cut smirks sarcastically. “From what we can see he’s still the same asshole from middle school.”

“Yeah, Hinata. It sucks you have to put up with him.” Kenji puts his hand on Hinata’s shoulder, but it doesn’t make him nervous anymore.

If Hinata were to complain about Kageyama, this would be the time. He’s surrounded by people who know how tiresome it can be to keep up with him and manage his attitude. But Hinata feels no urge to. These guys are probably right, just a tiny bit. Kageyama is still an asshole, but they have no idea how much, well, less-assholey he is compared to first year. They shouldn’t get to make fun of someone they haven’t spoken to in years.

Hinata pushes Kenji’s hand off him. “You guys don’t get how much he’s changed.” The boys suddenly look a lot less giggly. “I met him in Junior High. And yes, he sucked. When he came to Karasuno, I thought I was screwed. But he bettered himself for the sake of his team.”

Another boy with black hair who hasn’t said a word jumps in. “Well how come you’re sitting with us?” He spits.

Hinata pauses. Why is he sitting here? Is it because of Kenji? Or just because of Kageyama? Maybe both?

“He can be mean sometimes.” Hinata says the truth. Because, really. What else is there to say?

“Only sometimes?” The buzz cut boy rolls his eyes, earning yet another snicker from the rest of the boys.

“He’s not the king you remember.” Hinata thinks back to first year, where neither of them could stand to be in the same room as each other. And don’t get him started on junior high, Kageyama was the definition of stuck up. Over-confident in every way.
And in less fancy words, a little bitch.

But Hinata remembers the first week of being at Karasuno. When he and Kageyama were kicked out the club until they could work as a team, they were bickering as usual and the topic of Kageyama wanting to be a setter came up. 

‘B-but the setter looks difficult, and it’s not very flashy…’ Hinata freezes while Kageyama grips him by the collar.

Kageyama releases him not so gently with a ‘tch’ sound.

‘You… have you ever seen a huge tournament live?’ He spits bitterly, hands on his hips.

‘I.. haven’t’ Hinata mumbles, slightly embarrassed at his lack of knowledge.

‘It’s hard to tell from the angles they show you on tv, but if you watch from the end side of the court, you can see the setters super-fast toss really well.’ Kageyama looks up, picturing the court in his head, Hinata does the same, trying to get the right picture..

‘Zoom!’ Kageyama yells, causing a flitch from Hinata, who opens his eyes. ‘From one end to the other!’ Kageyama moves his arm quickly.

‘The ball goes past the enemy’s block!’ He moves his arm again.

Kageyama’s eyes light up and he moves closer to Hinata. ‘And you think to yourself, ‘Hey! Can they really return that?!’ 

The memory cuts short as Hinata is reminded of where he is. But seeing the way Kageyama’s eyes light up when he talked about something he loved more than anything. The way he stood up taller and held his face up higher, fuelled by pure passion and determination, Hinata saw a lot of himself in him, and from that moment he knew that they would get along eventually, even if Kageyama was a self-centred jerk. Because Hinata may not understand why he’s so distant, or how he can be so cold. But will always understand his passion, that’s why they’ve managed to stand each other for so long.

“He put down his crown a long time ago. And maybe if you guys looked a little closer, you’d be able to see that.”

The boys’ laughs have died down, all looking at Hinata. Why do his hands feel so clammy right now? He should probably conclude this before he ends up saying something stupid. If he hasn’t already.

“And stop snickering so much. It’s really annoying.” He mutters, getting his water bottle and leaving the table. Yep. (God Shouyou stop saying yep!) That sounded a bit stupid.

Hinata realises a bit too late that he has nowhere else to sit, he also realises that he left a stray banana peel at Kenji’s table, but it’s too late to turn back now. Hinata looks over to Kageyama, who has his head down on the table, probably exhausted from last nights antics, another pang of guilt rushes through Hinata, and maybe it’s deserved, Kageyama was being an ass last night, but who wouldn’t to someone who woke them up at one in the morning to go and ‘rescue’ them. 

No. Hinata reminds himself yet again that Kageyama had no reason to say the things he said. At all. But maybe they’re both at fault? That’s usually the case for their arguments anyway. Well except the one at their match with Date Tech, Hinata will defend that he did nothing wrong till the day he dies.

Hinata shakes the thought away, swallows his pride and starts to walk over to Kageyama when—

“Okay guys! Over here!” Coach Ika shouts from the end of the Cafeteria, near the entrance.

The boys groggily walk over to Coach and stand around him. Kageyama on the other end of the group than Hinata.

“Just a few things before we start.” Coach Ika clears his throat. “Janitor Suzuki brought something to my attention this morning,” a short man, holding a mop steps forward, the dirt on his finger nails and his bad posture give him a hard-working look about him. His hair is grey and disheveled and he’s a bit.. pleasantly plump, one could say. Nothing about him is familiar to Hinata, so why does he feel he’s met this man before… “Last night Mr Suzuki found a pair of boys wandering the halls hours past curfew while locking up for the night.” Coach Ika sounds serious and stern. “And we may not know which of you boys it was. But we are certain that if we find anymore wanderers during the night, you will be punished sternly and swiftly.”

Ah. Pleasantly plump. That makes sense.

Hinata doesn’t dare look anywhere put Coach Ika, not wanting to make eye contact with the now not-so-mysterious man. But his eyes betray him and he finds himself looking straight at the tired and angry man who happens to be intensely staring into Hinata’s soul. Isn’t that just lovely? He freezes, the room stops and Hinata can no longer hear Coach Ika rambling. All he can think about is how he can get out of this as least memorable as possible, but his knees feel weak and his hands are even more clammy and he think he might scream from pure horror,

but then Coach Ika interrupts.

“And that’s why you should never challenge your grandparents to play volleyball!” Coach laughs, diverting Janitor Suzuki’s attention back to him, the boys laugh and Hinata joins in super naturally (no he didn’t.)

“Okay, okay, back on track boys.” Coach cracks up at his own joke. “There will be three groups today. Please step up when I name your own, group one, who will be spending most of their time with me and a few volunteers that I will introduce later.” Around a dozen boys step forward and Coach tells them to make their way over to gym hall number two. Shouyou wonders how he managed to walk these halls for hours last night and still didn’t realise there were multiple gym halls. “Group two,” another dozen or so boys walk forwards, “you lot will be in hall three, which is right next door, if you have any questions at all, please let me know. But I think you guys can handle yourselves.” After the second group leaves, Hinata counts seven boys, a mix of second and third years. “I assume you guys are here for training and training only.” 

Nods and ‘mhm’s of yes' fill the room. “Okay. You guys are group three, and you will be in the first hall. There won’t be any supervision but if you need anything or there’s an emergency you know where I’ll be.” 

Hinata takes a look round the room, obviously making sure to steer away from pleasantly plu— Janitor Suzuki, and from what he can see he’s the shortest student there, by far, but when is he not? He’s used to it by now, and during training camps and matches that all of Karasuno attend, he’s finally ditched the name ‘shrimp’. Well, not completely, but Hinata would say there’s a new meaning to it, it’s almost like, sarcastic, in a way, although Kageyama and Tsukishima would beg to differ. The room consists of him, Kageyama, Kenji and his crew. Great. And another boy who hasn’t peaked Hinata’s interest yet, he has black hair and brown eyes, quite plain looking, but boy is he tall. The boys are starting to leave and Hinata follows but then Coach speaks up again.

“Oh and Hinata, can you please stay for a word?”

Oh crap.

Oh no.

Hinata is so screwed. The stupid Janitor must’ve sniffed out his nerves and ratted him out. Hinata looks over to Kageyama, who already looking back at him, eyebrows slightly raised, he knows Hinata is caught, and in turn, he’s caught. Because Hinata might as well be the worst liar of all time, he knows it, Kageyama knows it, everyone in Karasuno knows it. Scratch that. Everyone in that whole prefecture knows it. Hinata mouths a ‘sorry’ to Kageyama, who just sighs and turns to leave. Hinata walks over to Coach, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

“Y-yes sir?” Hinata mouth feels really droopy and he’s very aware of were he’s looking, he decides to not look Janitor Suzuki’s way and focuses on Coach Ika, but now his brain has decided to make him extremely confused on which of his eyes he’s meant to look at, why can’t everyone just have one eye? That would make everything way easier, wars would stop, global warming would stop and even Kageyama would crack a smile every now and again. 

Pick an eye, Shouyou! 

He settles on the right because if last night taught him anything, it's that left is not always right.

“Janitor Suzuki has just brought up something that has happened.”

Oh no. Oh nononono. Now what? What the heck is he meant to say to that? It’s not like his brain is able to formulate words right now anyway, so he just nods. Maybe they’ll just send him home with a warning, but if worst comes to worst, they might tell Coach Ukai and he won’t let him compete in the spring tournament, along with Kageyama if Hinata manages to slip up. But he won’t, he doesn’t want to ruin it for Kageyama by dragging him down with him. It’s his own fault for getting lost in the first place!

“I’ll let him take the lead on this.” He says.

The Janitor steps forward, a bone chilling energy radiating off his hunched figure and Hinata feels like this guy is staring daggers through his head, he swallows and braces himself for what’s to come, determined not to get Kageyama in trouble, even after all the horrible things he said.

“Hinata..” Janitor Suzuki says, tasting the word in his mouth. Hinata can feel his face getting red already. “I had noticed a few minutes ago you were causing a scene at one of the tables. Do we have a problem?”

Wait what?

A wave of relief washes over Hinata and he can’t help but exhale, causing Janitor Suzuki to raise a grey eyebrow.

“Oh, em— I.” Hinata chokes on his own spit a bit. Hah, that rhymed. 

Focus. 

“No. We sorted it out.”

“That’s not what it looked like to me..” he says sceptically, his hot breath on Hinata's face.

“Well I don’t know what to tell you” Hinata says defensively, “sir.” He adds, not wanting to sound rude.

The Janitor makes a ‘hm’ noise before stepping back.

“Oh, em. You’re free to go, Hinata.” Coach Ika speaks up.

“Thank you Coach.” He smiles as innocently as he can muster, whatever that looks like, “Janitor Suzuki-san.” He looks at them, gives a swift bow for good measure and basically runs out the door. And the second he can hear it close Hinata breathes out the biggest breath of his life. He feels like a secret spy with all this sneaking around. Now he can finally rest—

“Oi, dumbass.”

“Waah!” Hinata jumps, recoiling back from the noise.

“Calm down, no need to piss yourself.” 

“Oh. Kageyama.” Hinata feels yet another uncomfortable sensation running through him. Why are feelings always so inevitable when Kageyama is around? Stupid Kageyama with his stupid face and stupid insults.

“So, did they?” Kageyama looks behind Hinata, making sure they’re alone.

“No. It was for something else.”

“For what?” Kageyama looks pissed, him being pissed just makes Hinata more pissed. Everyone is pissed.

“Oh piss—“ Hinata fumbles. “I meant please.” He clears his throat, regaining his composure as Kageyama blinks, confused. “It’s not like I’m getting special treatment, it’s nothing.”

“Then just tell me.”

“Why do you care so much?” Hinata pouts. Wishing that just for a day Kageyama could just drop something.

“I could ask you the same damn thing.” 

Y’know what? Hinata wasn’t telling him for Kageyama’s own benefit, and to avoid another uncomfortable situation, but screw him.

“Kageyama. You do know that there’s always the option of, you know.. letting something go for once in your life? Are you aware of that?”

Kageyama frowns. Maybe Shouyou said something that had miraculously resonated with him.

“I know that, I just don’t want to.”

Oh. Alright then.

Shouyou gives up. “Fine. He was asking me about what happened at the table with your old friends.” Hinata barges past him, heading for the gym.

“They’re not my friends.” Kageyama starts following him, as if even being considered to be friends with those guys was insane,

“Okay, whatever.”

Shouyou’s starting to realise that Tobio Kageyama must not have any friends, because if they weren’t friends, then who the hell is left?

Well, they are friends. In Hinata’s head, anyways.

The two walk in silence as they try to find the first gym, it takes shorter than expected, probably because of their unwanted experience in finding their way around these corridors. Hinata wonders if he should diffuse the tension for the sake of their coordination on the court, but then Kageyama speaks up.

“I’m not thanking you for doing that.”

What is he talking about?

“Thanking me for what?”

A sigh comes from behind him as if Hinata is the one being overly vague.

“For saying what you said at the table, to those bastards.”

He must’ve been much louder than intended for Kageyama to have heard him across the cafeteria, a feeling of embarrassment bubbles in his stomach. 

If this were any other situation, Shouyou would probably annoy the hell out of Kageyama until he did apologise. But Hinata doesn’t think it’s necessary. It’s what any good friend would do, and Hinata is nothing but the best.

Except according to Kageyama, they aren’t and were never friends, were they? The memory of last night overshadow Hinata’s thought, all the tears Kageyama made him spill, 

‘That’s all you are, that’s all you will be, so get it out of your dumb fucking head that you are anything more than that to me!!’

And suddenly Hinata feels a lot more angry and hurt than he did mere seconds ago, Kageyama says all those things, and expects nothing but the best version of Hinata at training? And the worst part is Hinata is letting him expect that. He’s been allowing it since the Spring Tournament against Date Tech, where they had their worst fight yet. Kageyama said the most cruel things and Hinata just brushes it off, burying it down, focusing on a stupid imaginary board game, but right now he couldn’t care less about the imaginary board, because it’s just an excuse to take the easy route and not stand his ground against Kageyama.

“Just forget about it, it wasn’t a friendly gesture so get that out of your head. I just need my setter performing well.” Hinata looks ahead, they made it to the hall. He opens the door before Kageyama has the chance to reply and heads for the closest empty court. He knows he’s being an asshole. But you can only fight fire with fire, right?

————————————

The hall reminds him of the gym Karasuno did their own training camp in first year, Hinata would usually be jumping around, excited as ever for something so new, but he’s not in the mood for that right now. You can’t be cheerful all the time, right? He walks up to the last empty court and puts his water bottle down and begins stretching, Kageyama does the same. Shouyou would usually spend this time yapping about anything and everything, but not today. Today he is angry and quiet and mysterious.

The morning training before lunch consists of Hinata and Kageyama practicing setting and spiking and working on their team work. (Shouyou being angry and quiet and mysterious all the while, of course. In fact. When he did a super cool spike, he totally shrugged it off.) 

Shouyou would expect it to be as awkward as their training back home, where they tip-toe’d around each other, unsure of what the other wanted or what to say. But strangely, this time it went well, Hinata would guess because they both know what the other is thinking; they both want to get back to their normalcy as quickly as physically possible. But the more successful the tosses are and the cleaner the quicks get, Hinata wonders if this is what Kageyama has wanted all along. No talking other than to correct the other, no smiling or cheering after the other had done something impressive, no high fives and no communication to each other unless it has something to do with improvement.

Hinata throws the ball Kageyama’s way and runs up for a spike, Kageyama receives it with a perfect toss. Hinata jumps, he flys, the ball comes into contact with his hand and he cross spikes. It’s perfect. They’re back to normal.

So why does it feel anything but? Was there any need for the imaginary board if their friendship doesn’t actually affect their playing? Is this really how they’re meant to be? Is this what Kageyama wants?

The two continue their practice until it’s a perfect quick every time. Kageyama says something about practicing receives and Hinata nods, and so they practice their receives. They practice. And practice.

By the time they’re both panting and making small sloppy mistakes from tiredness, it’s lunchtime.

They start walking towards the doors, Kageyama trails behind. At the start Hinata is grateful that all of group three are walking together to the cafeteria, only because he doesn’t want a silent walk over with just him and Kageyama. But then he is reminded that he has made basically everyone in the whole group his enemy, well except that quiet tall guy, but he and Hinata aren’t exactly good old buddies either. Kenji and his friends give him glance quick glances and look away like it’s Junior High and they’ve got a school crush and Hinata feels fidgety, why’d he put up such a fight for Kageyama’s obnoxious ass anyway? It’s not like anything they were saying was wrong… 

Hinata mentally kicks himself for thinking that. He knows they were wrong, they hadn’t spoken to Kageyama for two whole years! And if Kageyama were still the same as back then Hinata probably wouldn’t have made it this far, he’d most likely just dropped out and moved to another continent or have gotten murdered right in the middle of Karasuno’s gym (probably during a serve receive drill, that’s when Kageyama gets the most angry.) 

The group make it to the Cafeteria and Coach Ika and the other groups are waiting. Coach greets them with a smile.

“Hello boys!” He chirps. “We’re having lunch outside since it’s such a nice day!” He gestures to a table filled with sandwiches. “You can fill up your bottles at the taps outside!” Hinata wants to roll his eyes. It’s the the start of july but the weather still manages to suck right now. It’s all rainy and gross and bleh. 

Shouyou stops himself there, Kageyama’s negativity must be infecting him, what was he talking about yesterday? Oh yeah, ice cream and rainbows and unicorns. Think positive.

All the boys line up to get their sandwiches, which happen to be Hinata’s personal favourite, egg. See! Plenty of things to be happy about! 

He grabs his and follows Coach up to gym one where they take the fire exit out to the fields. Hinata sits by himself, tired from training and wanting a rest. The weather isn’t even that bad. There’s kind of a breeze but Hinata’s so hot right now he’s thankful for it. He lies on his back, panting a bit more dramatically than needed for a few minutes before eating his sandwich in peace, without Kageyama. After a whole school week of sitting with Yachi or by himself, he’s pretty used to the idea of eating without Kageyama. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss it, because he kind of does. Kind of. Only a tiny bit. But he’d much rather eat by himself than with someone who doesn’t trust him. By the time he is finished, Coach speaks up once more.

“Get up guys!” Hinata jerks his head up. “You lot are going on a four mile run! I’ll see you in fifty minutes at the most, starting..” Coach Ika pauses “now!” 

The boys groan at the sudden command, some flop onto the ground. But a few, including Hinata and Kageyama, are already up on their feet.

Racing. Running. That’s something Hinata can get behind. Something simple and easy and straightforward.

Kageyama got a head start and is about a meter in front, but Hinata is gaining on him, fast. As much as Kageyama likes to disagree, between the two Hinata is definitely faster, well at least in a game he is, but when their running together it’s usually a tie just because it isn’t really a everything’s-on-the-line moment, which is where Hinata’s true peak abilities come forward. Less than ten seconds later the two are going head-on-head. 

Hinata vs Kageyama. Spiker vs setter (spiker always wins in general, obviously , but in this case it’s undecided.)

Kageyama speaks up but he’s panting too hard for Hinata to understand what he’s saying, but he does catch the words ‘dumbass’ and ‘Hinata’ somewhere in the sentence and thinks it’s safe to say that it was some form of insult.

“Shut up,” Hinata pants before finishing his sentence, “jerk.” He pants yet again, pushing himself to go forward. To Keep going.

By mile three Hinata fully believes he might pass out, he’s actually managed to get somewhat in front of Kageyama (a meter at the most.) But honestly he’s too exhausted to even be happy about it. Him and Kageyama have been in front the whole time, nobodies even been close to overtaking them, those extra races must really come in handy. But they have slowed down considerably, to basically a jog. Hinata vaguely remembers coming across some cross-country article in one of his volleyball magazines. He’s pretty sure it said something about not starting with one hundred percent to persevere energy and Hinata wonders if he’s made a mistake, maybe he can take a look backwards to see if anyone’s gaining on—

And down he goes.

Hinata attempts to turn his head and takes his eyes off his path for one damn second and his feet manage to find something to trip on. His ankle bends in a way that probably isn’t natural, and it starts to pang with pain in a way that definitely isn’t natural. But he’s so tired he can’t even put up a fight so he just accepts the fact he’s falling and braces himself for impact. 

It feels like Hinata’s flying through the air for multiple seconds, but realistically he probably isn’t. He lets out a yelp before he hits the ground on his hand and knees, but not without knocking his nose on the pavement first. It somehow hurts more than he expected it to, maybe he should’ve put up more of a fight. But you can’t change the past. Hinata groans and makes sure to take a deep breath before holding up his hands to his face to check the damage, they looks fine, just stingy and sore, by tomorrow they’ll be mostly be back to normal, but his knees are a different story, blood pours out of both of them, drenching his socks and shoes, and damn they hurt.
He doesn’t even want to think about his ankle, which is currently throbbing with pain. Hinata’s lies there numb for a few moments, he’s usually good with pain, nothing compared to Nishinoya, who dives like he’s some indestructible force. But he’s not bad, like getting bad burns from dives and stuff like that don’t really affect him. He even sprained his ankle one time in first year, he was being pumped with adrenaline so it didn’t hurt that bad, probably more than his ankle is now, so at least he hasn’t sprained it, well he hopes he hasn’t, the not being able to play volleyball for two whole weeks that was the worst part of the whole ankle situation.

Hinata prays that he can still play, it doesn’t hurt enough to be a sprain, but he might have to rest for the entire camp. And that would be a nightmare. But as long as it doesn’t affect if he can play or not, all those internal injuries are nothing. But blood has always managed to freak him out. And there sure is a lot. Hinata takes a deep breath. And another. And another. He pushes himself up to hobble over to the grass hill on the side, making sure not to put pressure on his ankle, but he fails pathetically and falls back on his ass, then he gives up and flops onto his back.

Ouch.

Maybe he could just lie here, bleeding out. Dying. He’s sure that the other guys will have the decency to not step on him while they pass over him. Well he hopes they do. If that’s the case, it won’t be so bad, then at least he won’t have to look at his extremely scary injury.

“Dumbass?” A confused sounding Kageyama approaches, panting from the run.

This is just great. Maybe Kageyama will have the heart to not make fun of him too hard.

“Oi.” Kageyama slightly kicks Hinata’s side, causing his eyes to flutter open.

“Ughh.” Hinata not dramatically at all stretches out, giving up on life as a whole. Kageyama is now standing above him quite menacingly.

“You’re such a dramatic shit.” Kageyama doesn’t move a muscle.

Hinata doesn’t reply, he sits back up, takes another breath, and attempts to make his way to the grass again, trying not to look at the blood. He was willing to be trampled to death, but having to talk to Kageyama right now somehow sounds infinitely worse to him. He gets on his feet slowly, and he’s. Standing? Sort of. He can feel his knees wobbling like crazy, and his ankle burns so badly it might.. Hinata doesn’t really know the medical terms, but he thinks it might actually fall off!

But he can put pressure on it, even if it is only a bit, so it’ll probably not actually fall off, he looks down for a moment and god his knee’s look scary. He stumbles over to the hill and successfully makes it. All while Kageyama just watches. Hinata lies on his back again, the hill is slanted upwards so there’s no way he’s getting any farther from here. For a moment all Hinata can hear are his own pants, then someone else’s enter. Hinata doesn’t need to open his eyes to know who it is.

“What.” He says, still annoyed and hurt. That seems to be all he’s been feeling this entire day, everyone and everything is making him mad.

“You’re hurt.”

Way to state the obvious. Detective Tobio Kageyama, everyone! Solving one mystery at a time! 

Hinata groans and his voice cracks as he whines “I know that!”

“And you’re being extremely dramatic over a few cuts. It’s embarrassing.”

Hinata knows that too. But he can’t help it, blood just makes his skin crawl, it’s been that way since he was tiny, it kind of runs in his blood. Well at least that’s what he’s telling himself, he remembers when Natsu cut her knee and she was crying for like, twelve hours (twenty minutes.)

Hinata considers telling Kageyama about his ankles, but then he’ll go all serious and not let him play. So he’s going to keep that to himself for now.

“It’s a family heirloom. Natsu’s the exact same way.” Hinata justifies.

“Doesn’t comparing your reaction to a little girl’s raise any concerns?”

Why does Kageyama even care? He said they weren’t friends. And he doesn’t seem the type to be concerned for just an ‘acquaintance’ or whatever the hell he thinks they are. So Hinata doesn’t reply, he just slams his head back down and shuts his eyes. He hears a sigh but doesn’t do anything. For a few seconds there’s nothing until he feels hands on his legs. He jerks up. 

He doesn’t reply to one snarky comment and is suddenly getting felt up?

“Don’t move.” Kageyama orders. And he’s holding out a mini packet of wipes.

Ah. Well that’s better than the alternative.

“Where did you get a whole packet of disinfectant wipes?” Hinata questions.

“From my pocket.” Kageyama says it like a normal person would have a packet of wipes in their pocket at all times.

Hinata’s knees and hands and nose hurt too much for him to be bothered with Kageyama, so he just lets him get to work.

Kageyama’s hands are oddly delicate with his legs, I guess it makes sense considering he’s a setter and all. Hinata envisions one of his perfect tosses. His hands must have to be precise to get sets so accurate, he could probably be a surgeon if he managed to pass English. And wasn’t so thick in the head, but Shouyou digresses.

Kageyama wipes over the cut softly, Hinata opens his eyes and tilts his head up, making sure Kageyama isn’t doing it wrong and giving him permanent damage. 

And a stream of blood runs out of his nose and into his mouth, the metallic taste giving him an instant headache. Wonderful. That’s just great. Hinata must’ve hit his nose a bit too hard. He puts his shirt up to his nose and uses it as a makeshift towel. Hinata rarely gets nosebleeds but he used to get them as a kid all the time, so maybe he’s not that opposed to the idea of blood. But he catches sight of his knees again and yep he definitely is very much opposed. He pinches his nose and mutters under his breath. Kageyama’s about five wipes in and the bleeding is just starting to stop.

“You might not be able to play, these are pretty deep.” Kageyama sighs. And that settles it, Hinata won’t be telling Kageyama about his ankle if he’s this dramatic over a few ‘cuts and bruises’ as Kageyama had put it.

There’s no way in hell that Shouyou won’t be playing. “I’ll be fine.” Hinata gets up, another gush of blood comes out of both knees and his ankle throbs, forcing him to sit again. But on the plus side, at least his nose has stopped bleeding, but it did leave a big stain on his shirt and he’s pretty sure he’s got blood on his face, so maybe it’s not that much of a plus side. “You got any bandages in those pockets of yours?” He jokes. But he quickly reminds himself that he’s supposed to be angry and quiet and mysterious.

“I forgot them.” Kageyama says with such a serious face it’s almost comical.

“I was just—“ he sighs. “Never mind. Thanks.” Hinata gets up again. Attempting not to look at his knees, knowing that the sight will be grim. The most he can do is hobble slowly. So that’s what he does. He wonders how none of the other boys have caught up by now. And Kageyama gets up and follows beside him. “You can run now if you want, I’m okay.” Hinata says, honestly he just wants to be left alone, he’s in a bad mood and Kageyama has been nothing but a jerk. Well except him cleaning his wounds and whatever. But he also can’t have Kageyama figure out he hurt his ankle, then he’ll end up bed ridden.

“You do realise that nobody else is taking this run seriously? That’s why we’re so ahead of everyone. I was only running for the sake of beating your dumbass.”

“Oh.” Hinata feels stupid, which in turn just makes him more mad.

A few minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence pass by.

“Okay what the fuck is your problem?” Kageyama stops in his tracks.

“What?” Hinata asks. This guy better not be saying what he thinks he’s saying.

“You’re being so weird. And quiet.” (And angry and mysterious.) Kageyama says genuinely pissed, then he adds, “it’s really annoying.”

Wow, okay, so he actually has the audacity to say that. Hinata stops, actually star struck at the pure amount of anger he can feel right now. Who does Kageyama think he is? He can go on and on about how much he just wants to be left alone and he’s only here for the sake of volleyball and bla bla bla. But then when he gets a volleyball spiker and not a friend, (exactly what he asked for by the way!) he’s angry?

“Are you actually being serious right now?” Maybe he misheard him. Maybe he’s joking.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kageyama looks pretty serious to Shouyou, plus, Kageyama isn’t much of a ha-ha-funny-joke type of guy. Rage bubbles in Hinata’s chest.

“Kageyama, did you hit your head or something? You were the one who asked me to stop acting like we were friends. And I did.” Hinata limps towards him. “And now our quicks are back to normal so what is your deal?”

“You know what I meant. You’re being petty and giving me the silent treatment.” Kageyama spits. “We’re here for volleyball and you’re ruining it.” And he actually has the audacity to look mad. Mad for what exactly? Hinata doesn’t know.

“No, I don’t know what you mean.” Hinata hobbles forward again, and he wouldn’t be surprised if he started exhaling steam out of his ears. “When I’m being normal you tell me to go away. And when I do go away you’re mad at me.” 

“Well I’m not—“

“Apologising. I know that.” Hinata sighs. Frustrated. Can’t Kageyama swallow his pride and admit he’s done something wrong? Is that too much to ask? Can he not formulate emotions properly or something? Is he not able to tell anger and regret apart from each other? Hinata wants to say something, he wants to say a whole lot of things. But he keeps his mouth shut, because reason one) it’s not family friendly at all, and reason two) it’s not like Kageyama’s going to listen. Shouyou can pick and choose his battles, and he doesn't choose this one, 

he turns around and begins to walk-slash-limp back to camp. Kageyama doesn’t stop him and the two walk in uncomfortable silence, each step filling the air with unsaid words and questions. At the speed they're at they’ll probably be back in ten minutes or something like that, Hinata can tell that Kageyama’s getting tired of how slow he’s been going, but he’s not about to speed up for him. Not with the way he’s been acting for weeks now. 

Kageyama looks like he’s about to say something but Hinata hears a few voices and turns around, not while moving of course, he’s not making the same mistake twice. Hinata sees Kenji and Kageyama’s old classmates, and it seems they notice him and Kageyama around the same time. Hinata looks up to his setter the same time he can hear the words ‘king’ and ‘shrimp’ in the air, and multiple snickers along with them. Kageyama tenses up. Hinata wonders why he doesn’t stand up for himself, like he did when Hinata called him a king back in first year, he wants to ask Kageyama what’s up with that, but maybe it’s different with these guys, maybe he’s picking and choosing his own battles too, so he keeps quiet. 

But the boys don’t stop snickering. Assholes.

“Can we hurry up please?” Kageyama snaps, obviously in a worse mood.

Hinata, pissed at how Kageyama thinks he’s not putting his all into the speed he’s going at now, replies “If I go any faster I’ll fall.” (And hurt his ankle even more.)

Kageyama doesn’t blink for a few seconds, as if considering something. “Here.” He puts Hinata’s arm over his own shoulder, holding it there with his hand and moves his other arm around Hinata’s waist. “Does this help?” He asks, looking down at him. Wow, he must really want to leave if he's willing to touch Hinata. Because nowadays that’s seen as immoral and gross, obviously.

“Yes.” Shouyou replies, because it does, as much as he hates to admit it his ankle hurts bad. Not exactly a sprain, but pretty close to it, definitely enough to get him banned from playing for the weekend, and that’s the last thing he wants. So he begrudgingly leans on Kageyama, and their walking at an around average pace, Kenji and his friends have seemed to have changed conversations for a minute, and Hinata thinks that they’ll actually leave them alone when one of them calls out,

“Hey Kageyama! Wait!” Hinata thinks it’s the guy with the buzz cut judging by the annoying tone.

Kageyama does not wait. In fact he speeds up, dragging Hinata along with him.

“Kageyama!” He calls out again, almost mockingly. Hinata tilts his head to the side and up to Kageyama, whose face looks distressed to say the least, but Hinata’s used up all of his sympathy for him today. They speed up again, almost to a jog and Hinata can’t keep up. Hinata focuses on matching his pace and trying not to fall over for the millionth (the second,) time today, trying to ignore the hoots of laughter.

“Can you talk to me?” Kageyama says barely above a whisper.

“Emmm.” Hinata blurts, his mind going blank. What did he just say?

“I just.” He exhales, “I just don’t want to listen to those assholes.” Kageyama looks down. This is probably the most vulnerable he’s been with Hinata in a long time, those ‘king’ jokes must be getting to him bad. Hinata doesn’t respond for a moment, not really knowing what to say to this odd request. “Y’know what? Nevermind. It’s stupid.” 

Hinata realises that he’s clenched his jaw out of anger, how come Kageyama thinks his annoying ass can pick and choose when and where Hinata has the right to speak? He isn’t a nineteen thirties housewife for goodness sake! He’s been told countless times today to ‘shut up’. But in the past hours Kageyama has just decided to take that back?

All the anger and frustration and hurt from the past twenty four hours suddenly burst through all the barricades Hinata has put up for the sake of volleyball. If Kageyama wants him to talk so badly, then he’ll talk.

Words roll off his tongue like vomit, “You’re probably one of the most emotionally constipated people I’ve ever met in my whole life. You can’t tell the difference between simple emotions and honestly I’m bored.” Hinata inhales, not planning to stop until he’s let it all out. “It’s like being pissed is your default setting, I think I’ve seen you smile a total of, what? Seven times? And I’ve known you since junior high! Not that I’m counting.. ok I might be counting. So what? Okay, whatever, as I was saying. I put up with it, I put up with all of it because believe it or not I actually like you Kageyama, you’re my friend. I can put up with your mood swings and your cold attitude. But for you to go ahead and say that we were never friends?” The two continue walking forward for a moment as Hinata catches his breath, Kageyama stays silent. “That hurt, Kageyama.” Hinata’s voice cracks. Since when does he get this emotional? “All the things you said to me during the match with date tech, that hurt too.” And it did, it hurt bad. Hinata isn’t sure where his piece lies on the board right now. And maybe he should’ve just left Kageyama be, their quick’s are back to normal, so what was the point of this? What’s the point of any of this?

But he’s already started so there’s no way he can’t stop now. He tells himself that this is for peace of mind and continues, “I feel like I’ve asked you this question a million times this weekend. But why have you suddenly decided to care about how friendly I am with you?” Hinata’s voice cracks, maybe he should’ve just left it be. “You didn’t say a thing up until the match. So what happened? Have you just stayed silent about it for all this time? If I was invading your space, you should’ve just told me.” He pants looking up to Kageyama, who looks ahead. But Hinata can tell at least some of what he’s said has gotten through, Kageyama looks a little more.. Occupied? He must be thinking about something. He must be. He has to be.

The two continue their fast pace back to the camp, Kenji and his friends have finally backed off. Though Hinata’s sure that they must be laughing to each other about the scene Hinata has caused. How could Hinata have let himself fall for Kenji’s annoying charms? He looks up to Kageyama again, who looks as if he’s in a trance of some sort. Hinata might actually implode right now, his ankle is feeling a bit better because of the weight that’s been taken off it, his knees have stopped bleeding, although red stains trail all the way down his lower legs, but Hinata’s too anxious to care. Why isn’t Kageyama saying anything? Has Hinata actually gotten through?

“I fucked up.” Kageyama mutters.

All the anxiety deflates out of him. Did he actually say that? Did the Tobio Kageyama actually admit to doing something wrong? Is having a dreaming? A nightmare? A hallucination?  Does he need to pinch himself?

Hinata ends up pinching himself three times for good measure. Yep, not a dream. What is he supposed to say to that? This is what he’s been waiting for, an apology. Yet he actually hasn’t thought this far ahead, he knows that this couldn’t have been easy for Kageyama, Hinata can’t remember Kageyama apologising to anyone other than his coaches and teachers. Well it’s not exactly an apology per se, but Hinata knows that this means a lot coming from Kageyama. He probably wouldn’t appreciate Shouyou making a big deal out of it. Hinata suddenly knows what to say, something casual, almost an inside joke to the two from how many times Hinata said it in first year.

“Don’t be so vulgar, Kageyama.” Hinata feels a ghost of a smile creep up his lips, all the anger that had formulated throughout the day has been exiled in the form of screaming and yelling and bleeding out. He looks up to Kageyama, the two still wobbling along while Kageyama supports him, and the boy, blinks.

He blinks. A blink. Not as revolutionary as one would hope. But what else did he expect really?

He envisions his piece going up to the second space on the board, now it’s definitely not what he would’ve hoped for nearing the end of their main day of training, but it’s still one step closer than he started, and that’s good enough for now.

Chapter Text

The walk slash hobble back to the gym with Kageyama felt like the longest yet shortest ten or so minutes of Shouyou’s life. He spent most of the time back trying not to step on Kageyama’s feet, trying not to make it obvious how in pain he is due to he ankle, and trying to digest what the heck just happened. Sounds simple enough, right?

Well it wasn’t.

 He managed to separate and make sense of most of it, Hinata shouted, he shouted a whole lot. Kageyama.. apologised? Kind of. Hinata’s going to count the ‘I fucked up’ as an apology for the sake of volleyball, even if it was vulgar. Anyways, Kageyama ‘apologised’ and Hinata, what? Responded half heartedly? After just screaming like a banshee for what felt like ten minutes? It feels like quite an intense switch of emotions, but Kageyama can’t say anything. Well, if he did, that’d just be plain hypocrisy. And that’s one thing Hinata won’t let slide.

Apparently the rest of the boys passed them at some point, Hinata was somehow too distracted to notice. Him and Kageyama are almost finished walking over, Hinata still leaning on Kageyama, trying not to pay attention to his ankle but paying attention to where he’s walking is proving to be more easier said than done.

“Can you walk by yourself yet?” Kageyama sighs, breaking the ten minute silence.

Hinata wants to tell him that he was the one who suggested helping Hinata walk in the first place, but honestly he’s too tired, not really from all of the training, more from all of the mental strain the day has put on him. “I can try,” he frowns, “but we’re almost there, what’s the point?” Hinata gestures to the now close by hall. He really doesn’t want to put too much pressure on his ankle, Hinata’s now certain it’s not a sprain, but it’s still not doing to great, he’s had his fair share of ankle injuries, this one probably calls for a day or two of rest. Hinata checks his watch, he doesn’t know how he’s going to get through the last three hours of training, but one things first sure, he is not spending it bed ridden. He looks up to Kageyama, who is studying him carefully, why? Hinata doesn’t know. But the whole thing is making him uncomfortable and fidgety, what is he trying to figure out? Kageyama’s brows furrow, like he’s trying to decide something, he looks like he’s about to say something and then—

Shouyou steps on his foot, fortunately not with his bad ankle. “Dumbass!” Kageyama yelps, tearing his gaze back to his foot. “Why are you so damn heavy for someone so small?”

Hinata isn’t sure how to respond, he knows by now that when Kageyama mentions his height it isn’t to take a dig at Hinata, except for when they first met of course, but it sure took a while for them to come to that conclusion though. “Muscle mass?” Hinata offers.

Kageyama rolls his eyes. “Sure.” He says, looking out towards the camp, which is only a mere minute away. 

Hinata would bet that the ‘sure’ Kageyama just said was in fact sarcastic, so he fires right back at him. “Well I’m sorry. It’s a bit difficult to walk when your knees are dripping blood everywhere.” Hinata mutters, looking ahead as well now. He hears Kageyama inhale like he’s about to say something, but yet again the jerk decides against it. Hinata chooses to just let him be.

When the boys get back to the camp, they are obviously last. Kageyama basically throws Hinata onto the grass, like he couldn’t get away from him sooner, guess that he’s still being weird about being touched. “Ow.” Hinata mumbles angrily. He forgot that under all that first aid treatment and the ‘apology,’ Kageyama is still an asshole.

All the boys are sat on the grass, with Coach Ika standing. “Great! Now that you’re all back— OhmygoodnessHinatawhathappened!?!” Coach rushes over towards Hinata like the boy is about to pass away from blood loss. Hinata can swear that the man is losing the colour in his face.

“It’s alright Coach! I’m- er.” Coach Ika’s face has distorted into pure disgust. Guess he must not be a fan of blood either. 

“Can somebody take Hinata to the nurse please?” The Coach looks away from the grim sight and mutters something about filling in an incident report. Hinata looks over to Kageyama. Who is staring at Hinata, yet isn’t saying anything? What the heck!?

“I’ll take him coach.” An all too familiar voice says. Hinata turns to the source of the noise and, yep. One hundred and ninety centimetres, medium length black hair pulled into a messy looking bun. Kenji. Hinata can’t help but wince as he gets up, not only due to his secretly hurt ankle. But also due to that an awkward walk to the nurses office is almost bound to happen.

“Okay, thanks Kenji, you’re a great help.” Coach smiles at him and Kenji nods before heading towards the building, Hinata quickly following behind him.

The two walk in silence into the entrance of the building, Kenji holding the door open for Hinata, he really is a charmer isn’t he? Hinata is slightly ashamed of himself that he could become friends with someone so easily, he’s not totally gullible is he? Maybe Kenji is just some form of manipulative demon volleyball player or something. Hinata stares into the back of his head. He’s not exactly sure what he’s waiting for, but from what he’s gathered about Kenji in the few exchanges they’ve had, he’s not the quiet type.

“Your legs don’t look so good.” Kenji says, the back of his head still not visible to Hinata.

He’s looks down to his knees, the bleedings fully stopped, but not without leaving now dried blood down from his knees to his shoes. The sight scares him a bit, Hinata shuts his eyes tight to shake the bloody sight out of his head, then faces forward and opens them. “Yeah.” He says. Hinata feels really out of character today, usually he’d be more cheery, it’s not that the cheeriness is an act or anything, it’s just today seems to be one of those rare days where everyone is annoying him. And he can’t tell if he’s just being sensitive or if these people are being genuinely asshole-ly.

“I’m really sorry about my friends.” Kenji turns around, stopping Hinata in his tracks. He looks at Hinata for a moment before continuing, “About me, too.”

Hinata just wants to get his knees bandaged up and to get back to training with Kageyama. He walks around Kenji, “It’s not me you should be apologising to.”

Kenji catches up, walking beside the hobbling Shouyou, “Hinata you’ve got to see where we’re coming from.” He reasons. “Kageyama was, well, an asshole. It’s only reasonable that we’d assume that he’d be the same now.” 

“You’re wrong.” Hinata says matter a factly. He looks towards Kenji, who’s staring at Hinata, questions in his eyes, making Hinata feel obligated to answer. “You don’t get to judge someone based on how they were in middle school. Everyone is embarrassing in middle school.” Hinata is sure he’s said this multiple times, so he adds, “I thought I already told you this.”

Kenji just sort of looks at Hinata for a while. It’s kind of scary, Hinata avoids his gaze fiddles with the hem of his t-shirt, they just need to get the nurses room, then Kenji will leave him be and he can get his damn bandages. Hinata glances back up at him Kenji looks like he’s made his mind up on something. “You’re right. I’ll apologise to him.” 

Hinata is surprised to say the least, he wouldn’t expect his words to have such an impact on Kenji, but somehow the conversation doesn’t seem over. “And tell your friends to stop laughing all the time. It’s annoying.”

“Got it.” Kenji replies straight away. “Friends?” He stops walking and turns to Hinata. 

The first thing that pops into Hinata’s head is what would Kageyama think if he were here. Hinata bets that they wouldn’t like each other even if the whole middle school thing never happened. But that doesn’t matter, Kageyama doesn’t need to like Kenji for him and Hinata to be friends. Hinata stops and turns as well, and waits a moment. Is this is the right choice? “Okay.” He nods.

The two continue to walk side by side, Hinata following Kenji’s lead. After he gets his knees bandaged up, how will he play without putting pressure on his ankle? Hinata adds a bit more pressure, the pain is there, sure, but he can deal with it, it’s not the end of the world. He wonders what they’re doing once they get back, maybe more personal training? Some matches? A thought pops into Hinata’s head.

“Kenji?” Hinata asks.

Kenji makes a ‘mm’ noise.

“How will we know where we are training if we’re not there for coach’s talk?” Hinata wipes his palms on his shorts, which are for some reason getting clammy, probably due to the idea of missing out on even more training.

“Oh.” Kenji says, Hinata suddenly gets a wave of worry, does Kenji not know? Kenji takes a moment to finish his sentence, it feels deliberately long to Hinata, but he doesn’t mention it. “Coach already explained everything to us, I guess he just decided to do it a second time for you and Kageyama.” Kenji says.

Hinata finds himself exhaling slightly. Wait a minute, was that supposed to be an insult towards how slow him and Kageyama were? Before Hinata can ask, Kenji interrupts. “And you guys supposed to be the most advanced here.” Kenji scoffs. 

And for some reason that sparks a bolt of happiness through Hinata. He’s considered advanced? The thought makes him want to jump up and down with joy, but he holds back for the sake of his injury. Hinata knows that the ‘advanced’ description is probably more directed at Kageyama, but Hinata is so totally getting as good as him! He’s learning to float serve! And with the new first years around, he’s now not the second shortest person on the team, but the third! (Not that height matters, of course.)

“Hinata?”

Hinata jerks out of his daydream, feeling his cheeks get pink at getting lost in thought, he replies “Yeah?”

“What are you smiling at?” Kenji looks actually interested.

“Nothing, it’s stupid.” For some reason it feels like an ‘advanced’ player like himself shouldn’t be so happy over being given a sort-of-compliment.

“Go on.”

Hinata sighs, he’s not Kageyama, it’s impossible for him to be all nonchalant and ‘I act like I don’t want to be here but I secretly do’ about this stuff. “Am I really.. y’know..” Hinata mumbles, almost embarrassed.

“No, I don’t know.”

“Am I really.. advanced or whatever.”

Hinata looks up to Kenji, who looks like he’s about to laugh. 

“What?!” Hinata exclaims.

“Nothing..” Kenji smiles, failing miserably at covering up one of his all too familiar snickers. Hinata opens his mouth to take away Kenji’s recent friend promotion, but the guy interrupts him once again. “Oh look! We’re here! I’ll wait outside for you.”

Hinata closes his mouth and sighs a long sigh. Finally, he can get bandaged up and get back to training. (And get Kenji off his back.)

“Thanks for the help.” Hinata smiles before opening the door, walking in, and shutting it in Kenji’s face. He hopes it wasn’t as rude and it felt, he considers going back out to apologise, but he’s too tired to give a crap.

“Hinata Shouyou?” 

Hinata turns to find a nice older lady, who looks around late sixties, a few inches shorter than Hinata and is wearing a soft smile. Hinata instantly feels comfortable.

He sighs yet again. “Yep, that’s me.” He smiles weakly, the nurse gestures for him to sit on a nearby bed, and he complies with zero complaints, he’s just happy to get to sit down for longer than twenty seconds.

“Im guessing you fell over?” She says with a chuckle.

“Yeah.. I must be a common sight for you, working here and all.” Hinata makes small talk as he gets his wound cleaned for the second time today, and to be honest Kageyama was much more gentle.

“Indeed.” She smiles. Hinata guesses she must not be much of a talker, so she lets her be, he doesn’t really want to talk right now anyway. “You seem stressed.” 

Well that came out of nowhere, Hinata coughs on what seems like nothing. Is this lady the camp councillor as well? Hinata prays to whatever god is out there that Coach Ika didn’t see a reason to send him to a literal therapist. 

“I- em, not really..”

“Ah, alright then, sorry if I intruded.”

If Hinata had to be one hundred percent honest with this lady, he would say, yes. He is ‘stressed,’ he’s stressed that he’s damaged his ankle, he’s stressed that he can’t tell anyone about it or else he’ll be sent to the eternal hell that is being bedridden, he’s stressed about the way this lady in cleaning his wounds way more rough than Kageyama had done, and he’s stressed that his pawn will be staying on square one for the rest of his pathetic life. (He’s also stressed about multiple English and Japanese exams coming up, but that’s a problem for another day.) 

So yeah, he’s stressed.

But why can’t he tell this nice nurse? What’s holding him back? Maybe it would help.

“I guess I have been a little stressed.” He mumbles, as if all the boys are just outside this door listening in on the conversation. The nurse looks up at him for a moment and smiles.

“How so?”

Yep. That is definitely a thing a therapist would say.

“Well I guess there’s this..” Hinata chooses his words carefully. “Person.. and, it’s just been a little difficult to figure out what they’re thinking.” The nurse nods while wrapping up the bandages. “It’s like every time we talk words get jumbled up into a big mess and I can’t figure out what they’re trying to tell me.” Hinata tilts his head back and pulls a hand through his hair.

“I’ve known somebody like that for over forty years and we still have fights like that, so believe me it doesn’t get much easier.” She says. “But what I find best is to not let my thoughts overcome me. Sometimes with people like that it’s easy just to think bad thoughts. But even though what they’re saying might sound like nonsense, it’s best to hear them out. Talk like adults.” 

“Talk like adults..” Hinata murmurs. He wasn’t expecting such good advice from this lady of all people, but he’s grateful nonetheless. “Is this person still a friend of yours?” He asks, trying to paint a picture in his head.

“Yes. We’ve been married for thirty lovely— but sometimes excruciating— years. He actually works here as a Janitor. Maybe you’ve seen him around, he’s quite a gloomy man naturally though.” The nurse finishes up wrapping the bandages, and pats Hinata’s knees for good measure. “Be more careful, I don’t want to see you back here!” She says sternly, but it feels almost motherly to Hinata.

Hinata thanks her for the advice and for the medical care, hoping that this sweet lady hasn’t had the misfortune of being married to the grumpy Janitor Suzuki, Hinata bids her the sweetest goodbye he can muster, closes the door, ready to find Kenji and get back to whatever training he can manage with his knees, and of course, his stupid stupid ankle. Kenji leans against the wall waiting, he looks up to find Hinata and gestures him over. Hinata complies, walking over with a nod, but on the way he catches sight of a sign and he winces at the sight of in fancy lettering, ‘Nurse Suzuki.’  

Hinata’s not sure if he should go back in there and offer his condolences to the poor woman.

———————————————

“Dumbass!”

Hinata slumps onto his knees and groans, then decides that isn’t enough and lies on his stomach, cheek pressed against the floor, the cool court feels nice against his flushed cheeks.

But the scolding from his setter isn’t too pleasant on the ears.

Speaking of unpleasant things, his ankle is killing him. Apart from the fact that Kageyama isn’t exactly the best person to do light training with instead of ‘I won’t stop until you’re dead’ training, his ankle is the reason he’s on the floor right now, to keep it short, it hurts. Bad. Hinata closes his eyes, is he just so exhausted that he’s imagining things, or is the scolding getting closer?

“Hinata!”

Nope. It’s definitely getting closer.

Hinata sits up with a groan, leaning his chin on his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs, accepting his fate of a classic Kageyama scolding. It’s currently seven thirty, only another thirty minutes until eight, which is when they finish training for the day and they finally get to eat. That’s another thirty minutes of jumping, diving and running, which usually Hinata would be totally up for! He lives for that stuff! In fact, he hates doing anything but moving. But with his ankle throbbing and going to sleep later than usual last night due to things he does not want to mention, along with all the fighting with Kageyama he’s had during the daytime. He can’t help but complain.

“Dumbass?” Kageyama kicks Hinata lightly.

“Whaat.” Hinata whines, Rubbing his eyes. Does this guy have no other insults in his vocabulary?

“If you’re gonna be a pain in the ass, maybe don’t make yourself tired by dragging us around the halls in the middle of the goddamn night.” Kageyama scolds, kicking Hinata again, but soon after he looks around to make sure nobody heard him. His cautiousness makes Hinata smile a bit. 

“What’s so funny?” Kageyama asks, his face distorted into annoyance.

“Nothing..” Hinata makes sure to pull the straightest face he possibly can.

“Well then c’mon, your passes are sucking.” Kageyama starts to walk to where he was situated a few meters away,

“You’re so mean, Kageyama.” Hinata pouts. “You didn’t even try to help me up..” he mutters as an afterthought. He gets to his feet with a sigh, wow he is tired,  he almost feels like he’s wasting a golden opportunity to train with Kageyama, scratch that, he is wasting a golden opportunity. 

Kageyama throws the ball on Hinata I bit more harder than needed, with an odd look on his face, Hinata reflexively catches it and the expression fades. “Let’s go dumbass! Pass to me.” Kageyama stands to the left of Hinata down the court near the net. 

“Ouch..” Hinata mutters at the ball thrown his way.

“You’re being so weird today.” 

“You’re being so weird today!” Hinata bounces back.

Kageyama sighs. The two just stand there and look at each other, neither of them wanting to begin a fight, but not really wanting to be the one to toss their pride away and end this one. Kageyama looks like he’s thinking for a moment before going. “I’ll toss to you.” 

It was meant to be a question, but Kageyama already knows what Hinata’s going to say so it’s more of a statement, it’s the only thing he can offer Hinata, the only thing he’s ever been able to offer Hinata. Himself. His sets. And for what feels like forever, that’s all Hinatas ever needed, all he’s ever wanted. And now he’s got it, so why not use it?

An image of Hinatas pawn moving up to the third space pops up into Hinata’s head. 

Hinata smiles, just a tiny bit, he can’t be letting that jerk think he’s done something important, and says, “Deal.”

———————————————

“Finally..” Hinata groans. It’s not that he hasn’t been fed, but for some reason a banana and a sandwich don’t seem to measure up to all the work he’s done today. Hinata leans forward across the small table to get a view of Kageyama’s watch, it’s now eight fifteen. A little late to be having dinner if you ask him, but he guesses this is meant to be their main training day of the whole trip, so they must want to get as much work done as possible. Images of pork and fancy bento boxes pop into Hinata’s head and he licks his lips. Right now him and Kageyama are sat on a small table by themselves, Kenji did invite them over, assuring Shouyou that he spoke to his stupid friends, but Hinata wants to avoid them at all costs after his scene that he made this morning. So he’s just going to stick to what he knows, which is Kageyama, no matter how much of an asshole he can be. And he sure can be one. But Hinata’s glad he’s apologised, but Hinata’s not exactly sure what for. That guy has spat so many things his way in the last week that he’s not sure what he’s sorry for.

Shouyou fiddles with the hem of his shirt. “Kageyama..”

The boy makes a grunt sound that probably means something along the lines of ‘what?’ Keeping his eyes on his lap, he’s probably deep in thought, but Hinata is willing to bet what he has to say is more important than whatever volleyball play is going through his head.

“What exactly were you apologising for when you, well. Apologised.” 

Kageyama looks up and sighs. “Can’t we talk about normal things for once dumbass?”

“Just answer the question. For peace of mind. Please.” 

Kageyama rolls his eyes and looks back down to his lap. And Hinata waits for an answer. 

And waits.

Ok he’s taking a while.

“Kageyama if you’re gonna be an ass—“

“For all the shit I said last night.” He keeps his eyes down. “I still think some of it was true, but I could’ve said it. Nicer or whatever.”

“What about the Date Tech match?”

Kageyama frowns, “Why are you asking me—“

“Just answer the question.” 

Another sigh. Kageyama looks anywhere but Hinata’s face, “Same thing. Could’ve been nicer, but all that crap about you being clingy, I still stand by.” 

“Oh.” Hinata breathes.

He had kind of imagined something like ‘it was all a mistake, I’m so sorry Shoyo. To make up for it I’ll give you one hundred tosses!’ But he supposes that was a bit unrealistic. 

“Okay. Thanks.” Hinata smiles slightly, but he feels like he should add something, the conversation feels unfinished. “I’ll make sure to do less of.” What is he meant to call it without it sounding weird? “Touching.” the word feels wrong on his tongue, “I guess.” He adds.

Kageyama looks up to him again and squints his eyes a bit, does he have a secret laser eye power he’s trying to activate or something? After around ten seconds Hinata’s pretty sure he doesn’t, or it’s just not working at the moment. Kageyama just mutters something with the word ‘boke’ in it and looks back down.

As if magically on time, a smell that if Hinata weren’t supposed to be eating in a few minutes, he would probably start crying, enters his nostrils. Hinata jumps up to the smell, causing an eye roll from Kageyama that he decides to pretend he didn’t see. Standing on tip-toe, Hinata try’s to see what the heck they’re serving. He notices a man place around two dozen bowls down at the start of the queue. Bowls. Soba. Rice with all different types of vegetables and meat. Saliva fills Hinata’s mouth.

“Sit your ass down.”

Hinata finds himself wanting to roll his eyes right back at Kageyama for the unnecessary stern tone. “Yeah yeah.” Hinata still obliges though, only because he didn’t want to put any extra pressure on his ankle by standing. Of course.

Hinata’s good leg starts to bounce as the minutes pass, these guys are taking ages. Hinata leans forward to check Kageyama’s watch. Eight twenty. Okay so it hasn’t actually been that long.

“This is taking ages..” Hinata groans, slumping onto the table.

“Be patient boke.” Kageyama mutters.

Hinata shuts his eyes and tries to be patient. After another minute or two he’s given up  and is halfway through an ‘uugghh’ but Kageyama interrupts.

“C’mon.”

“Huh?”

Hinata glances up and, foods ready, Yes! Shouyou jumps out his chair and stands with Kageyama, walking to the queue, he would of course rather run, but he’s already damaged his ankle enough so he’s staying safe right now. 

Hinata can finally put a name to the smell, soba. And suddenly, Hinata is one hundred percent in the mood for soba and nothing else in the world could fill his stomach.

But there’s what feels like an infinite sea of other boys between Shouyou and his dinner. So he listens to Kageyama and waits as patiently as he possibly can.

“You look like you’re about to explode.”

Hinata sighs. “Nice to see you too, Kenji.”

He looks up to the boy, who has a grin painted on his face. Hinata isn’t exactly thrilled that the guy feels like he’s close enough to Hinata to just strike up a conversation, but Hinata did kind of agree to be friends, and Hinata hasn’t heard any snarky comments or snickers from Kageyama’s old classmates since the run after lunch, so at least Kenji stuck to his word.

“Okay but seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

“I love soba.” Hinata says matter a factly.

Kenji does one of his charming laughs, and Hinata suddenly remembers that Kageyama is right behind him. He prays that Kageyama doesn’t mind that Hinata has become ‘friends’ with one of the guys from his junior high. Maybe Hinata can casually check Kageyama’s face, the jerk usually wears his emotions on his face so it’s not too hard to read the guy, (most of the time,) so he turns round slightly so he can get a look. 

And wow he looks pissed.

Not at Hinata though, at least he hopes so. Kageyama is glaring at Kenji with pure annoyance like he’s just killed a baby or something freaky like that. Well okay, maybe he’d be a little more than annoyed if Kenji had actually killed a baby but whatever.. The point is that Kageyama looks scary. For some reason the first thought that comes to Hinata is that he doesn’t want Kenji to realise that Kageyama is glaring daggers at him, he should probably distract Kenji from noticing.

But for whatever reason his mind goes blank. He just finds himself looking at Kenji as well. Maybe if he holds eye contact it’ll be enough? He just hopes Kenji doesn’t notice.

Hinata’s pretty sure he’s noticed judging by the weird look on his face, eyes switching from Kageyama to Hinata. “You two are so weird.” He squints, choosing to lock his focus on to Kageyama. This seems to snap both Hinata and Kageyama back to reality.

“What?” Kageyama says, his stare less intense but still hooked on the boy.

Kenji takes a breath in as if he were going to declare something, but deflates just as quickly. “Nothing, man.” He sighs, turning around to face the front of the queue, which has just happened to have moved so quickly they’re almost about to get served! Finally!

Kenji mutters an apology for stopping the line and walks forward.

Hinata feels like he needs to fill the silence, which feels like it’s more between him and Kageyama than him and Kenji, who has decided to get a close up of their food. 

“I love soba.” He gets out.

“You’ve mentioned.” 

Oh, yeah. He’s already said that hasn’t he? Hinata looks up, “not to you I haven’t.”

Kageyama simply looks down to the left where Hinata is standing, and nods.

Hinata looks ahead of him once more and it’s finally his turn to get his helping. He hops (as well as he can with his ankle of course) to the trays and grabs one.  And boy does he help himself.

Once he’s sat down he doesn’t hesitate before digging in, but he reminds himself to saviour his food more, like Kageyama, with his bowl of soba and a small side of three cucumber sushi rolls. Hinata basically has the same, just triple in size. He’s not usually eating this much more than Kageyama, but it must be a day where he’s extra hungry and Kageyama doesn’t have an appetite, because they’re usually eating the same amount of food, with Hinata finishing whatever Kageyama leaves on his plate.

Hinata studies Kageyama for a minute, the boy eats neatly and at an appropriate pace, like he’s been taught it since birth, drilled into him until it’s second nature. All Hinata’s Mother taught him was to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and to not eat with his hands. Oh, and no elbows on the table, of course, but Hinata sometimes breaks that one from time to time. His Mother always said ‘Of course it’s nice to have manners Hinata. But you won’t see me complaining if I see someone scoffing down my food, it just shows me they enjoy it!’ He wonders what Kageyama parents said to him to get him to eat this perfectly. But he does have faint memories of Kageyama at the barbecue at the training camp, where he was going crazy on some meat, to the point where he started choking. So maybe he saves the scoffing down food tactic for only his favourites. The thought of Akaashi slamming Kageyama’s back makes a smile creep up his lips.

Kageyama swallows. “Stop staring at me while I’m eating, it’s weird.”

Hinata feels caught, so he retaliates. “Well,” he thinks, “according to Kenji we’re both weird.”

Kageyama looks up from his food, “I don’t think we’re weird..”

“Me neither.” Hinata pouts, getting some soba in his chopsticks.

Kageyama does his usual face whenever he sees Hinata eating in his messy manner. What a hypocrite, acting like he’s better when they both know that he’s in fact capable of it too.

“Actually, you’re a bit weird.” Kageyama states.

Hinata wants to scream at the guy, but he’s just started chewing a massive bite of food, so he waits a moment before “I think we’re both on the same level of weirdness!”

Kageyama thinks about it. “No.”

“No!?” Hinata bounces back.

“You’re.. loud.” Kageyama waves a hand carelessly at Hinata, as if he were living proof of that fact, then returns to his soba.

This makes Hinata aware of the fact that he was being a teensy tiny little bit loud right then, so he makes sure to keep his volume down. “I might be a tiny bit loud every now and then.” He mumbles. “But you’re weird in different ways.”

Kageyama sighs. “Give me one example, boke.”

Hinata can think of almost a million on the spot, he’s used the same three insults to everyone for at least well over a year now, he’s really strange about touching (but maybe that’s just with Hinata), he’s emotionally immature and doesn’t know how to handle his emotions, he weirdly good at setting, he even whipped out a whole emergency med kit out of his pocket earlier today! And the list goes on.. But Hinata goes with something a little more fresh so the boy can’t deny it. “You death stare everyone. I can’t tell if you think the world would be better off if they were dead or if you’re just looking at them normally.”

Kageyama funnily enough, death stares the hell out of Hinata for that one. It would’ve sent Hinata cowering this time last year, but he’s gotten used to it by now, well mostly.

“I do not.” He says firmly.

“You’re doing it right now!” Hinata can’t help but laugh at the irony.

Kageyama almost forces his face to soften. Hinata’s brain betrays him and he notices it’s more flattering on him.

“There you go.” Hinata says softly as if he were coaching him, this makes the scowl return evidently.

Kageyama swallows his food before saying, “So what if I do it to you? That just means to don’t like you.”

Hinata swallows. He knows he’s joking, he knows it. But he can’t help but feel a bit hurt at the statement, because what if he’s not? Is he dropping hints again? Anger rushes through Hinata’s chest at how sensitive he’s being. It was just a little joke. Nothing more, nothing less. But the thought of if he should really have to even think about how serious he’s being or not rushes through his brain.

Breathe.

What were they talking about? Oh yeah, scowling.

“Well..” Hinata fumbles, “you were just doing it to Kenji.”

Kageyama’s slight frown transfers into a deep one at the mention of his name. “That’s because he’s a bastard.”

Hinata summarises everything Kenji’s done this camp in his head before responding. The guy has been charming, a ‘bastard’ as Kageyama would put it, friendly, annoying, very annoying, cruel, but he’s also been kind. And helpful. 

What an impression he has made in the past twenty four hours.

A ‘hmm’ escapes Hinata as he thinks. He concludes and checks behind his shoulder to make sure he isn’t near and spots him at the end of the hall. “I think he just acts like a..” he pauses.

“Bastard?”

“Yeah, that.” Hinata clears his throat. “But he has good intentions, y’know? He just thought you were still a—“ he stops. Is Kageyama still sensitive about that middle school stuff?

“A boke.” He states, like it’s a definite fact. Guess he’s come to terms with that.

Hinata exhales slightly, he thought he hit a nerve there. “You really need to find some new insults Kageyama, ‘boke’ is getting old.”

———————————————

It’s been an hour and a bit since they finished dinner, and Hinata is stuffed. Not only did he manage to eat up the tremendous amount of food he had, he also finished off Kageyama’s for him. So yeah, he’s pretty close to exploding from over eating. Close enough to be afraid to move in case of throwing up all over his comfy bed, so he’s currently flopped onto the bed, face in his pillow, regretting his life choices.

“I told you that the third helping wasn’t a good idea.”

Hinata moves his face from his pillow to the side, facing Kageyama, who’s sat on his bed doing who-knows-what on his phone.

“It was delicious, so I regret nothing.” He lies. Not about the delicious part, though. That part was true.

Kageyama just looks up from his phone to Hinata and looks him up and down, rolls his eyes and returns to the screen.

Hinata feels exposed in this vulnerable state, so he slowly sits up. 

“I’m getting into my pyjamas, don’t look.”

“Can’t you change in the toilets?” 

Hinata flops onto his back, tired of Kageyama’s weirdness. “Why are you so strange about this stuff?” He complains.

“It’s not that big of an ask.”

“But I’m dying Kageyama..” Hinata slaps his hands on his face. “My stomach gonna explode..”

“Not my problem.” 

Hinata removes his hands from his face and looks at Kageyama, who is upside down from the angle Hinata’s looking from. So, Hinata pulls the saddest face he can and pleads, “If you’re gonna be so weird about it can’t you just wait outside?”

“That’s not as cute as you think it is.” Kageyama says with an almost disgusted face and looks away.

Hinata’s run out of ideas and gets up to get his things.

“But fine. I’ll wait outside. I don’t want your dumbass spewing on the floor.”

“You’re the best.” Hinata makes sure to emphasise that ‘best’ really well for him, and the door slams.

Hinata quickly strips and gets into what he had on last night, he throws his clothes into a pile in the corner, but then pictures a pissed off Kageyama, so he makes sure to fold them and then put them into a corner. He glances at the mirror and notices the hole in his dinosaur t-shirt, exposing a tiny part of his collarbone, he walks closer and puts his finger through the hole , the fabric against his fingers.

“That’s all you are, that’s all you will be, so get it out of your dumb fucking head that you are anything more than that to me!!”

Hinata sighs and looks away. “I’m done!” He yells, sitting on the edge of his bed.

“You’re such a little shit.” Kageyama mumbles when he opens the door and closes it. And Hinata’s not sure if it’s the memory from last night popping up or the fact that he’s never felt so full of food or that his ankle is still killing him, but he speaks up.

“But we’re still friends though?”

Kageyama hesitates. “What?”

“We’re, friends?”

Kageyama finds something really interesting to look at on the ground for a few seconds. “We’re teammates.”

Teammates. Is that what they were before Date Tech? Have they always been just teammates? Because after their first few matches together Hinata has always felt like freinds. And even partners.

“But not friends?”

Kageyama walks over to his bed and slumps to the edge of it.

“I don’t know. Why do you care so much?”

“We’ve known each other for over a year and we’re not friends?” Hinata’s voice cracks a bit, he shouldn’t really care. But he feels angry for some unknown reason.

Kageyama doesn’t answer.

“Would you call Yamaguchi your friend?”

Kageyama switches from looking at his socks to the ceiling and swallows. “I don’t really think about it. I guess?” He says coldly.

“So why not me?!” Hinata throws his hand up. He’s not to sure where he’s going with this, the aim of this trip was to get their volleyball playing back up to standard, and they did that almost right away, so why is he still going with this?

“It just doesn’t feel right. Is that okay with you boke!? Is that not good enough for you!?” Kageyama stands up.

Hinata stands up too, he really just wants to scream. They are totally friendship material! Hinata’s pretty sure Kageyama’s smile rate goes up like, two percent when he’s with Hinata! But before he starts to go off at Kageyama, Nurse Suzuki pops into his head.

“But what I find best is to not let my thoughts overcome me. Sometimes with people like that it’s easy just to think bad thoughts. But even though what they’re saying might sound like nonsense, it’s best to hear them out. Talk like adults.” 

Fine. Like adults. Hearing him out. Okay. 

Hinata processes what Kageyama just said. ‘It just doesn’t feel right.’ Okay. Good start..

Okay bad start. What the heck does he mean by that!? Why can’t he just give him a clear answer of what he means? Why does every single thing he says have to be in some secret code that Shoyo has to figure out?! Why can people just speak in normal sentences?!

Hear them out.

Hinata takes a deep breath. “What do you mean by that?” He says as calmly as he can at the moment.

It’s like Kageyama expected him to start shouting, he looks startled. And pissed. But when does he not?

“I don’t fucking know. It’s just—“ He looks up at Hinata. “When I look at your stupid face, I think of volleyball.” Kageyama pauses. “When I look at Yamaguchi’s stupid face, I think of that time he fell down the stairs in front of half the school or some other embarrassing shit he’s done.”

Talk like adults.

“So we’re teammates, because the only reason we speak is because of volleyball?” Hinata asks, a lump in his throat. He’s not sure what he wants Kageyama to say to that.

“No— well.” He sighs, looks to the side of the room and squints really hard like he’s trying to decipher something. “I guess so. Yeah.”

Hinata just absorbs for a minute.

“G’night.” Kageyama gets into bed, and faces the wall.

Hinata shouldn’t be complaining, the ache in his ankle is lessening, and he doesn’t feel so full anymore, but all this has been almost replaced by an ache in his chest. Kageyama is an asshole. A big one. So why does he care if he doesn’t see them as friends, all he does is be mean, well, it sometimes works in his favour, but for the most part Kageyama is nothing but an asshole. Plain and simple. 

That’s what Hinata tells himself before diving under the covers.

Yet he can seem to fall asleep. He’s restless, honestly he kind of expected it, he doesn’t tend to fall asleep straight away on a typical night, and after his ‘conversation’ with Kageyama, his heart is just starting to restore back to it’s normal speed. Hinata places his hand on it, he’s sure it’s not anger making it beat so much, he doesn’t feel angry. He feels.. disappointed?

Yes. That’s it. He must be, Hinata’s not sure why he expected anything different from what Kageyama said last night, but he’s certain that they are friends and that Kageyama’s being weird, right? He said that when he thinks of Hinata, he thinks of volleyball, and well, Hinata is the exact same way about Kageyama, when he pops into Hinata’s mind, it’s almost always volleyball related. So why does it sound so, rejecting, coming from Kageyama?

Maybe it was just the tone of the whole fight they had. What did Kageyama do to start the whole thing in the first place? Hinata jogs his mind for a few minutes before remembering.

It was Hinata. He started it. Unprovoked. He was feeling worried about their friendship status, yet again. But would a friend even ask their friend if they were, well, friends? 

Hinata’s brain is saying the word ‘friend’ too often and it’s giving him a headache. But another feeling is added to the mix, it creeps up his spine and falls to the pit of his stomach, guilt? He did start an argument for no reason expect for some reassurance that he knew deep down he wasn’t going to get.

The guilt spread. The headache worsens. He should apologise.

“Ka—“

“Boke?”

Silence. Did he imagine it or did Kageyama just say his name?

“Yes?” Hinata whispers cautiously, not wanting to wake up  Kageyama by replying to an imaginary version of himself. He slowly pulls his head up from under the covers.

A sigh comes from across the room.

Was that a ‘you just woke me up’ sigh or a ‘oh no he actually heard me’ sigh?

“What time is it?” Kageyama probably frowns, only Hinata can’t actually see him.

He wants to tell him to check his own damn phone, but he’s still feeling guilty and any act of sassiness may tip him over the edge. So Hinata grabs his phone.

He squints at the bright light, when he adjusts he reads, 

“It’s eleven twenty two.”

“Hm.” Kageyama simply says.

“What?”

Hinata is only met with the sound of Kageyama getting out of bed and a massive explosion of light coming from the ceiling.

“Eghh!” Hinata yelps and buries his face into his pillow.

“Shut the fuck up.” Kageyama whisper shouts, but it’s still a bit scary nonetheless. Two hard objects are thrown on Hinata’s back and he wants to yell again, but then he’d probably get executed by Kageyama or something merciless like that. So he gets up, rubs his eyes and looks down to the two, 

shoes?

“Where are we going?” Hinata asks. Another question pops into his head. “Are we even allowed?”

“No.” Kageyama says coolly. “So that’s why you need to shut up.”

“Not until you tell me where we’re going.”

Another sigh.

“Remember what I said on the bus?”

Hinata tries to remember, and he does, he remembers the whole conversation. But he kind of (really badly) wants to hear Kageyama say it again. So he shakes his head.

Kageyama scowls, obviously not wanting to say it all over again, “I said I’d make it up to your dumbass.”

“Okay and how is this” Hinata gestures between Kageyama and the shoes. “making it up to me?”

“I’m gonna give your ass one hundred tosses.”

Hinata, out of habit, jerks up at the mention of tossing, the act causes a strong ache to come from his ankle, reminding him why he shouldn’t go along with this. So, he reasons, “At eleven twenty two?”

“You had us walking way past midnight, so I don’t see a problem.”

Hinata’s stupid eyes unwillingly look down to the said ‘problem’ that Kageyama can’t see. But he’s quickly looks back up to Kageyama

Oh crap he definitely saw that.

“Something wrong?” Kageyama squints his eyes at Hinata, it feels like he’s almost daring Hinata to lie to him.

“No. Let’s go.” Hinata lies anyways. He’d rather have a sore ankle then Kageyama finding out about it and telling on him. He grabs the shoes and quickly puts them on, still in his pyjamas, by the way. It feels sort of wrong, but the whole idea of sneaking out with Kageyama to play more volleyball after playing for a full eight hours also feels wrong. Hinata looks over to Kageyama, whose putting on his shoes, the whole sight it kind of funny, Kageyama with some old t-shirt with some also-old basketball shorts. Hinata looks closer at what Kageyama’s wearing, this is probably something he would wear at home, and its exactly what he expected, boring. At Least Hinata’s t-shirt has some personality in it, Kageyama’s is just a plain black one.

Kageyama puts a finger to his mouth before opening the door. Hinata can’t help but notice that isn’t like him. Not at all. Well, it’s not like Kageyama’s been like himself for this whole trip anyways. Rule breaking for Hinata because he has to is one thing. But rule breaking because he wants to? And after getting an official warning as well? How strangely out of character he’s been.

The two sneak out of their room and Hinata closes the door softly behind him. After walking about the place today Hinata’s sure they won’t get lost this time. So he follows Kageyama’s lead, down the stairs, a left, another left, a right and a—

“Ow-uh!” Hinata whisper-shouts as loud as he can so Kageyama can hear him, he looks to see what his deal is but the boy just grabs his arm and pulls him around the corner they just came from. What the heck?

“What is— mmmm!” A cold hand covers his mouth. Hinata looks up to Kageyama. Who looks very intensely serious. Like a good thirty percent more serious than usual. He puts a finger up to his lips, Hinata furrows his eyes as much as he can as if to say ‘let me go you jerk!’ ,Kageyama notices and lets go of Hinata’s face, which is probably a bit pink out of embarrassment, but it’s too dark for Kageyama to tell so it’s fine. Kageyama gestures to the corridor they just escaped out of. He leans against the wall and Hinata just copies whatever he’s doing. He feels kind of like a ninja, he can’t help but think that this whole breaking-the-rules thing is sort of badass, but Hinata doubts he’ll ever do this again. Still, it feels cool.

What isn’t cool is the jingle of keys and footsteps coming their way. 

Okay. What are the odds? How come they happen to run into the one person in this building who swears vengeance on them both? Hinata tugs on Kageyama’s sleeve, they should run, they’ve out run him before they can do it again. Hinata almost feels bad for the old man, spending his nights chasing some annoying kids, but volleyball calls. Kageyama puts a hand up saying ‘wait.’ But Hinata still wants to run, he wants to run real bad even if it hurts his ankle. But there’s no way he’s running without Kageyama, so he stays put. 

They hear a jingle of keys and a door opening and closing. They wait for a moment. And then another. Did the really just get away with that? Kageyama leans forward a bit towards the edge of the wall and takes a peak. Then a thumbs up.

No way.

Hinata reminds himself that Janitor Suzuki could still leave the room, so they better act quick, he gently places his hand on Kageyama’s back and nudges him forward. Kageyama looks behind him and Hinata just nods forward, they should go, now. So they do. After a while of walking in silence and they’re sure they’re at a safe distance, Kageyama speaks up.

“Did you see the room he went into?”

Hinata was more focused on survival than if the Janitor went into the restroom or the storage unit to fetch some brooms. “No, why?” He replies.

“I’m pretty sure it was his bedroom judging by where it was, he should be asleep by now.”

Hinata sighs a sigh of relief. He’s not going to admit it to anyone, let alone Tobio Kageyama, that he’s scared of one of the few people in this building that are shorter than him.

“You seem relieved.” Kageyama looks at Hinata with an intense side eye. Hinata feels defensive.

“Em- no. Just tired.” He’s pretty sure that Kageyama was terrified as well but is just acting cool, but he lets it slide.

“Well you’re about to start spiking soon. We can do some stretching before hand.”

Hinata nods, but he can’t help but wonder why Kageyama is doing this.

“Isn’t a good nights sleep important for an athlete?” He questions.

Kageyama stays silent for a minute, of course they both know that sleep is important, but the real question was ‘why are you doing this for me?’ And Hinata’s sure they both know that’s what he means.

“Yes. But we’re doing this because I said I would make it up to you. And I’m a man of my damn word.” Kageyama looks forward, “and it’s not like I’ll be getting much sleep anyway, your dumbass doesn’t stop flinging about the whole night. It pisses me off.”

“It’s not like I can help it..” Hinata mutters.

“It’s still annoying.”

“We’re not even on floor mattresses here! How am I bothering you? How can you even tell?” Hinata defends himself, annoyed.

Kageyama sighs, “You sleep talk, too.”

“Okay, now you’re just making things up.” There is no way that Hinata hasn’t known about this.

“I’m not. You mumble things about volleyball all the time.”

Hinata scoffs, no way Kageyama hasn’t told him this before. Hell, why hasn’t Tskukishima spoken up? He’s usually one to insult you about anything. “Like what?”

“Kageyama-kun toss to me! Nice kill Tanaka! You still even say stuff about the old third years from last year.”

The old third years. Dachi. Suga. Asahi. “I miss them.” Hinata thinks out loud. And he does, the new first years are nice and all, but they don’t come close to the old third years. It was hard to replace them, but they eventually got back into a rhythm, although, when someone misses an impossible looking receive, or the team needs hyped up in a way only they could, Hinata can’t help but think that if the third years were still here, would it be different? “When’s the last time you spoke to any of them?”

“Graduation.”

“What?!” Hinata yelps. How cold hearted is he!? How can he just go no-contact with people after they helped and mentored you for a whole year?!

“Well when’s the last time you spoke to them?”

Hinata contacts them quite a lot, just for quick check ups and stuff, Aashi’s taking a gap year and Dachi and Suga have gone to university! It’s nice to see what they’re up to, but apparently Kageyama doesn’t agree. “I was on the phone with Sugawara-san last week.” Hinata says proudly.

“Isn’t that weird?”

“Em. How?”

“He’s like, out of school.”

“All we talk about is volleyball and—“ Hinata cuts himself off. But it’s too late.

“And what?” Kageyama looks confused why Hinata stopped.

Hinata tries to formulate an answer to his question, the two turn the corner and Hinata must have some god on his side because they’ve made it to the gym.

“Look. We’re here.” Hinata takes the chance to get out of that conversation and runs with it.

Kageyama looks like he wants an answer to his question, but Hinata skips to the entrance and barges in. He’s about to turn on the lights but then a question comes to mind.

“Are there any cameras?”

“No.” Kageyama’s still walking down the corridor. “I checked today.”

Hinata shrugs, “okay.” He turns on the lights to the massive hall and a rush of excitement dances in his chest.

The nets are already set up, probably because they’ll be using them tomorrow, Hinata scans the hall for any sort of volleyball and finds one in the corner. Perfect. Except for one thing, his ankle, he needs to remind himself to take it a bit more easier, he’s sure he can get through an hour or so of half-assing everything and blaming it on fatigue. Not very like himself, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He picks up the ball.

“Kageyama?”

Kageyama looks Hinata’s way and makes a ‘mhm?’ sound. 

Shouyou chucks the ball to Kageyama, who catches it with ease. “Toss to me.” 

And that’s exactly what he does.

It was good, it was going good. The two had been tossing and spiking for around ten minutes, only twenty tosses through their one hundred tosses deal, but it was going smoothly. Hinata had found a way to deal with his ankle, just before the jump off the floor, he puts all his weight on his good foot, and lands on that one too. His spikes have been off and his movements are a bit sloppy, but somehow there has been no comments from Kageyama, who would usually be at his throat for anything less than perfect. So yeah, it was fine. Parenthesis on the ‘was.’ 

Hinata was on his twenty first spike, after getting so many right his confidence was a tiny bit.. high. Only a tiny bit though! So he thought, why not go for an extra big jump? That’ll impress Kageyama into saying something like ‘oh my god Hinata! You’re sooo cool! That’s another hundred tosses to you tomorrow!’ So Hinata goes for the big extravagant jump as planned, he jumps on his good foot, extra high, and hits it with all the strength he can muster. And it goes zooming. It zooms so well that Hinata forgot he was in mid-air. And guess where he landed? Right onto his bad ankle, and to add insult to injury it folded under the weight and Hinata fell right to the floor.

So that’s where he is, on the floor, he’s only been there a few seconds probably but times seems to be moving in slow motion under the stress of imitate doom. Hinata’s not sure if it’s that his ankle may be even more messed up than it already was, or if it’s the fact that there is no way he can lie his way out of this one.

“Shit, Hinata.” Kageyama fast approaches. Hinata tries to lift himself up to his elbows and gives up halfway. “That looked bad.”

Hinata looks up to Kageyama, who actually looks concerned. He really did not expect that from him. Kageyama sits next to Hinata, who manages to hoist himself up to his elbows this time. “I’m fine.” Hinata lies, there may be a less than one percent change Kageyama believes him, but it’s a chance nonetheless.

“Stop lying dumbass.”

Worth a try.

“What hurts?” He questions, and there’s a look in his eye that Hinata isn’t sure he can read.

“My ankle.” Hinata winces, not at the pain, which isn’t great by the way, but as the scolding that will most likely ensue. So he braces himself for an angry Kageyama and looks up.

To an evil smirk Kageyama?

Kageyama looks as if he’s just discovered the cure for cancer. “I knew it.” 

Seriously? Why is he being so weird? Who smiles when your teammate is in pain? “Why are you smiling right now? I’m in a dire situation!”

“Do you even know what dire means?” Kageyama’s smirk dwindles, but still remains.

“Do you?” 

That shuts him up.

Not for long though.

“Why didn’t your dumbass not tell anyone? Do you even know what would happen if you kept playing with a bad ankle? Sprained or not.”

“I do know!” Hinata defends. “I just..”

“You just what?”

“We were become friendly again, I didn’t want to stunt it.” Hinata looks to the side. He hates how much this will boost the jerks ego, but he’s been lying all day and he’s tired of it.

He half expects Kageyama to make fun of him, but the boy just sighs and goes down to Hinata’s ankle. 

Kageyama sits criss-cross, gently places Hinata’s leg in front of him and carefully takes his index finger and thumb and applies pressure to a place on his ankle that Hinata has no idea of what the name is . “Does this hurt?” He looks up to Hinata, almost like he’s making sure he isn’t going to lie.

Hinata doesn’t like the sight or feeling of Kageyama being any type of soft. It’s like he’s breaking some sort of unwritten code that says he has to be a jerk at all times. But seeing him take such care of something, let alone Hinata of all people,  kind of messes with his head. And not in a good way. It feels wrong.

“Boke! Does this hurt or not!?” 

“Oh! Um, yeah a little, it hurts a lot more a bit more down though.” Hinata looks away.

Kageyama sighs. “I swear to god I’ll leave your ass here to rot.”

Okay, so maybe Kageyama isn’t actually gentle. Hinata’s pretty sure the guy doesn’t have it in him to just be fully one hundred percent nice. But he’s used to it, it’s almost comforting after all this time.

“Is it sprained?” Hinata crosses all of his free fingers and toes.

“No. But it’s just about there. Around a week of no volleyball, maybe two to be safe.”

Dread fills Hinata. How is he meant to go one whole week without playing?! He’s not even considering the possibility of two.. “ughhh! Curse this world!” Hinata slams his hands into his face. 

“It was your stupidity that did this, not the world. You’d probably be playing by Monday if you’d just told someone and got your ass into bed.”

“Okay.. I’m sorry.” Hinata mutters.

“It’s not me you should be saying sorry to, it’s yourself.” Kageyama states. “Oh and Dachi, he’ll be mad.”

Hinata feels a jolt of fear creep up his spine, but then remembers. “Dachi left, remember asshole?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Kageyama looks awkward, it’s kind of amusing. “But Tsukishima will be just as bad when he sees you in crutches.”

“Crutches!?!” Hinata yelps. Oh no. Oh nonono.

“It’s fine..” Kageyama mumbles, Hinata wants to tell him it’s definitely not fine. “you’ll be out of them by Tuesday at the latest.”

Hinata groans. “Let’s go back, I’m done.”

“Okay.”

Kageyama squats on the side of Hinata’s bad ankle and Hinata pulls his arm over Kageyama’s shoulder while he puts his free arm around Hinata lower back for support. The position it awkward and they both know it, but it’s effective so they’ll have to do it. Still, Hinata doesn’t like the sound of just them breathing so he thinks of something to talk about. 

“Did you turn of the light before we left?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

Silence. Well that was a fail. Hinata thinks of more conversation starters when a question pops into his head.

“What did you mean by ‘I knew it’?”

“Huh?” 

“When I said I hurt my ankle, you said ‘I knew it’.”

“Oh. Right.” Kageyama frowns. “Well.. you’re just really obvious.”

“What?!”

Kageyama makes a ‘shhh!’ Sound.

“What!?” Hinata repeats but in a whisper. “I though I hid it really well..”

“To anyone else, yeah. But I know your playing really well.” Kageyama says, like he’s done with the conversation. Why does he have to be such a massive jerk about everything? Well, he was being a jerk with his tone. But if you just focus on the words it was actually sort of nice.

It’s like Kageyama just read his mind. “Only because I have to. You’re not special.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Hinata rolls his eyes.

By the time the two get back, Hinata beat, thankfully they didn’t run into anyone, or rise Hinata’s pretty certain he would’ve gotten left for dead. The two make it to the gap between their bed and Hinata flops onto his and immediately pulls the covers up to his neck.

“Where’s mister snuggles?”

“I hate you.” Shouyou says, already feeling himself drifting to sleep.

If the lights were of, Kageyama would probably be rolling his eyes. Or maybe not. Hinata’s not sure. Wow he is tired. “Thank you, Ka’yama” Hinata slurs right before slumber. Today has managed to be a terrible and a good day at the exact same time. Weird.

And the last image in his head is a pawn, moving up yet another space.

——————————

When Kageyama signed up to do this training camp with Hinata, it was obvious it was the dumbass’s attempt to get them to start speaking to each other again. Kageyama knew it the second Coach Ukai brought it up to him. But he went along with it, because in his head, it may be a training camp with Hinata, but at the end of the day it’s still a whole weekend of volleyball. So Tobio pretended to have no idea about it, and as much as he really didn’t want to look the idiot in the eye and have to talk to him, it was getting more and more difficult to practice setting when you have cut all communication with the guy your meant to be setting to. And so, Kageyama signed the consent form, packed a bag and went to the damn camp.

Tobio’s really damn tired. Yet he can’t seem to fall asleep. Hinata’s dumbass keeps on saying random things involving volleyball and, board games? He’s not sure, he doesn’t really care what Hinata’s dreaming about. All he knows is that his name has come up at least four times already and it’s distracting him from sleeping. It’s pretty rude of the dumbass to keep him up after he just took him to play volleyball, and basically dragged him back up to their room.

Okay, sure, maybe he didn’t actually go down to the gym for Hinata exactly, but it was a good cover story. And now he doesn’t owe the boke anything. Kageyama did it for one reason, okay, two reasons. His first was he really wanted to see how long Hinata could keep up the ‘oh yeah! My ankles totally fine!’ act. Not that he was doing a good job at it, Kageyama could tell something was wrong since the moment Hinata couldn’t walk back to camp himself. Yeah, the boys a wuss when it comes to blood, but he can still walk with two messed up knees and a bloody nose, so the fact that Kageyama had to help the little shit all the way back to the camp was strange to say the least. And after their training before dinner, Kageyama was sure that Hinata had done something stupid to himself and was somehow dealing with it even more stupidly. He just needed to prove it, and that’s what he did, maybe Hinata got hurt a bit more than expected, and maybe it spooked him a little bit, but he proved it nonetheless.

And his second reason is a little less interesting. That goody-two-shoes comment from Atsuma from first year has always pushed him the wrong way, even if it was only based on Kageyama’s performance on the court. Kageyama just wanted to have done something a little risky outside of the court too. Like sneaking out your room at night to practice some volleyball. Just so if the guy says anything again, he can bring it up. Is that so bad?

Kageyama gets his phone to check the time. It’s five past one. And he can’t sleep because of the twisting and turning and mumbling taking place next to him, the guy isn’t even awake and Kageyama’s pissed at him. And he has every right to be, Hinata lied. That’s something Kageyama’s always cared about, trust. It’s not like he doesn’t trust Hinata anymore, he doesn’t even know if he trusts the guy to begin with. But trust is important, not for Kageyama to trust someone, but for them to trust in him, especially on the court. Kageyama takes pride in the fact that he almost never lies.

Except today isn’t really the best example, because he did lie. Twice. To Hinata as well, so maybe he doesn’t have every right to be mad at him. Great, now he’s pissed at himself for being pissed at Hinata when Kageyama is just as bad. Even if it was only two small lies, it’s still not the truth. The first lie was when the two were talking about the old third years, Kageyama had said that he hadn’t spoken to them since graduation, which was, to Kageyama’s dismay, a big lie. 

It didn’t harm anyone, in fact, it would’ve caused more harm if he told the truth. Harm to Kageyama.

The truth is, Kageyama talks to Sugawara a lot. Even though Kageyama’s volleyball skill is, to be honest, better, than Suga’s, Kageyama still messages him for help from time to time. By ‘help’ he doesn’t mean with volleyball, he means communicating with people about volleyball, Suga-san has always had a natural gift with that type of stuff that made Kageyama jealous. So yeah, he asks for a bit of help.

And he’s been needing a ton of help recently over Hinatas annoying ass. The Date Tech thing was Kageyama’s fault and he’s excepted it thanks to Sugawara. But Kageyama’s still not entirely sure what was going through his head then and he does not want to think about it. 

So yeah, he lied about that.

But Kageyama lied about two things today, the second being a bit more.. random. The memory flashes back to Kageyama and he replays it.

“When I look at your stupid face, I think of volleyball. When I look at Yamaguchi’s stupid face, I think of that time he fell down the stairs in front of half the school or some other embarrassing shit he’s done.”

Yeah, that wasn’t the total truth.

He didn’t lie about Yamaguchi, that was the truth, the boys face constantly looks a little nervous, like he always has something embarrassing he did in the back of his mind. So in turn, Tobio’s mind does the same thing. Well, sometimes Yamaguchi looks stress free, but that’s rare, it only ever shows up when he’s with Tsukishima, and Kageyama will never be able to understand how somebody so soft can withstand a guy so constantly cold and cruel. But they’ve been best friends since middle school, sometimes it seems like their even beyond that level with how much they get each other , so they must have something worked out, like a secret formula or something that took years to craft.

What he did lie about was Hinata.

It was only a small lie, no harm done. Kageyama just sort of, switched a few words around, that’s all.

What he said was that when he thinks of Hinata, he thinks of volleyball. But it’s more that when he thinks of volleyball, he thinks of Hinata.

Its not a big deal or anything, he’s done this since first year, when he envisions a blocker, or a pass or of course, a spiker, his brain always comes up with Hinata. When Kageyama imagines a cool set, he can’t think of anyone but him, it feels weird any other way.

He’s not exactly sure why he said what he said, it’s not like he thinks anything weird when he looks at the idiots face, he just wanted Hinata to get off his back. 

Sleep. Tobio needs sleep.

It was just a little white lie. No harm done.

Why would Hinata even care what Tobio thinks?

What does Kageyama think? He hasn’t exactly just looked at Hinata, has he?

Sleep. Kageyama turns over his pillow, revealing the cooler side. It feels nice on his cheek, that’ll help.

No, he hasn’t ever looked at Hinata, he hasn’t because he isn’t a freak. So why did he lie? 

Kageyama turns the other direction.

He never lies. So why now? Why did his mouth say that?

“Screw it.” Tobio thinks out loud. He grabs his phone from the bedside table and turns it on, flashing it in Hinata’s face.

The idiot is deformed in a weird position from all the tossing and turning he’s done. One leg swung off the side of the bed, the others spread out behind him just like he does before he’s about to jump up to spike a ball. Kageyama rolls his eyes.

Hinata’s nose scrunches at the bright light, but he doesn’t wake up as expected. The dumbass is a crazy heavy sleeper.

Tobio sighs and looks at the idiots face. He must be freaked out by the fact that he lied and wants some piece of mind. That’s why he’s doing this weird shit.

Kageyama squints at Hinata. What is he thinking now that he’s looking at Hinata’s face?

Well, for one, he’s thinking how stupid he looks right now, his mouth is wide open with a trickle of drool coming out of his mouth and onto the pillow, he’s breathing heavy out of his mouth and his lips are slightly cracked. He’s thinking that Hinata looks totally different when he doesn’t have his eyes open or his face constantly moving, almost like a different person without his stupidly determined eyes staring up at Tobio, begging for a toss. He’s thinking about how long his hair is getting, and how much he wishes the little shit would just cut it, but he’s also wondering how it would look in a small ponytail, but that would probably interfere with games, so it’s best to just cut it instead. He’s thinking how Hinata has a spot on the side of his nose that is probably there due to his lack of care for his skin, Kageyama can feel his lips turn into a snarl at the boy's pathetic personal hygiene. He’s thinking that he probably wouldn’t have noticed all this if he weren’t looking so closely at him, same with his teeth, two of them, one on each side, are shaped in almost a fang kind of way, probably because he ate too much sugar as a child, he seems like the type of kid that loved stuff like that, his poor mother, having to deal with an even more hyper Hinata. He’s thinking that his eyes are mostly brown, but if you look closer you can see the tiniest bit of green in the centre, but it’s much a browny colour that you’d never notice, it’s such a disgusting colour. It pisses Kageyama off.

Wait. His eyes. His eyes are open. Why are his eyes open?

“Kag’yama?” Hinata rubs his eyes and hides away from the bright flashlight, sounding confused. “What aryou doin’?” Hinata slurs in a tired voice.

“Em, nothing.” Tobio panics. What the hell is he meant to say? Because he’s definitely not saying that he was studying Hinata’s face as an almost social experiment for himself.

“Emm. M’okay, jus’ don’t shine tha’ light inmy’ face.”

“Whatever, boke.” Kageyama mutters. No way he just got away with that. Well he could get away with it, but he feels too guilty about what he said. He feels stupidly guilty. He curses the whole concept of guilt.

So he doesn’t put away his flashlight just yet,

“Hinata?” Kageyama blurts. Shit, why has he done this, he really didn’t have to do this. 

“Mm?” Hinata kind-of replys, burying his head into the pillow more.

Tobio finds himself distracted by Hinata’s cheek that is smooshed against the pillow “I- well.” Okay, what the hell was that. Why has he done this to himself? Why did he even go on this stupid trip to begin with? “I didn’t mean what I said about you and em- volleyball and your face or whatever.” Nice one, Tobio. 

“Nice kill Tanaka-san!” Hinata giggles. He actually giggles. No way Kageyama just did all that word-shit for Hinata to start talking in his sleep again.

“I hate you so much.” He doesn’t, but still Kageyama sighs and turns off the flashlight. What a waste of his time. He could’ve just left it, but of course he had to feel bad for the little shit.

Kageyama’s just about asleep before he hears a ‘Ka’yama.. Toss to me..’

And needless to say Hinata gets a well earned pillow to his stupid, stupid face. With his two stupid fanged teeth and his stupid too-long hair.

Tobio catches himself and turns around, he’s had enough of Hinata’s face for a lifetime.

Chapter Text

Tobio wakes up to a sight of bedhead burnt orange, toffee coloured eyes that are uncannily big and looking a bit anxious, along with the sound of a familiar, but all too annoying sound of someone screaming in his ear.

In other words, Tobio wakes up to Hinata.

In other other words, Tobio wakes up pissed.

“Kageyama!” A strong grip shakes Kageyama, he covers his ears as a defense against the yelling. God, it’s almost impressive that someone can be that loud in the morning, but then again it is Hinata he’s talking about, that boy is loud no matter the time of the day.

Wait. Tobio’s brain reverses back to the topic of it being morning-time, and he has a question, how early in the morning is it?

“Tobio Kageyama?! Hello?!” Another screeching noise.

“Get out of my face.” Kageyama sits upright, shoving Hinata’s face away with one hand and keeping it there, hoping that’ll be a big enough hint that Hinata needs to shut up, he rubs his eyes with his free hand “boke.” He mumbles, why the hell is Hinata waking him up instead of the other way around? His alarm hasn’t even gone off yet. Or did it not go off at all?

“K’yama-kun, youe’ alarmn didn’ go off.” Hinatas confirms Tobio’s worries as well as he can with one of Tobio’s hands still in his face.

The words take a moment to sink in because of how tired Kageyama is, and definitely not because he’s thinking about how weirdly soft Hinata's face is for someone who must wash their face three times a year. He hates it.

Kageyama’s brain turns back on and he removes his hand from Hinata’s stupidly soft face. Shit. Oh shit. Why did the dumbass wait till now to mention that oh so tiny detail.
Kageyama wants to scold Hinata, he wants to scold him a lot. But judging by how light it is outside and what time Kageyama went to bed last night, he probably doesn’t have the time. So Kageyama settles for the most intense glare he can muster before getting out of bed. Hinata mutters something about him being ‘scary’, but Tobio pays no mind to it.

“What time is it?” He stumbles his way to the clothes he laid for himself out last night.

“Five forty-five the last time I checked.” Hinata yawns, sitting on the floor.

Okay. Fifteen minutes. He can work with that. The real problem is that the boy slumped on the ground, already falling back asleep like he hasn’t got a care in the world, probably cannot.

“I can’t believe I ended up waking up before you. Were you up late last night or something?” Hinata says with his eyes still shut.

This for reasons unknown pisses Tobio off further, probably due to the fact that the dumbass is sitting on the floor doing fuck all, and nothing related to the fact that Kageyama was up late because of the little shit. Kageyamas not exactly sure what that was, but he’s decided right here right now that he will never think about it ever again.

He quickly changes into a black t-shirt, “Hinata, get your lazy ass off the floor and get ready.” He sprays some deodorant under his shirt quickly and chucks it at Hinata's stupid face.

“Ow-ah!” Hinata looks angry as if Tobios’ the one being unreasonable right now. But Tobio can tell that he must look angrier judging by the widen of Hinata’s eyes and sudden compliance from the dumbass.

“Be ready in ten, got it?” Kageyama grabs his toothbrush and makes his way to the door. He may be running against the clock, but he’s still not changing in front of the little shit. Not that Tobio thinks he’ll try anything weird, that’s not something Hinata would ever do. It’s just— well.

Tobio doesn’t know. It's just weird, okay?

“Got it.” Hinata replies, finally standing up and gathering his stuff in a hurry. “Meet you outside the door?”

Tobio grunts and slams the door. This is going to be a long day.

—————————————

Tobio thanks whatever god that may be out there that Hinata is somewhat coordinated (there’s some room for improvement but Kageyama doesn’t mention it) because if Hinata were as clumsy as how he looks he should be, they’d be in big trouble. Constantly stepping over each other , probably a lot of name calling as well, most of it would be directed at Hinata (all well deserved though.)

But the two are doing okay. They’ve got a rhythm now, well, sort of. Their rhythm is just Kageyama trying to match Hinata’s hops, which seem to be all over the place. But Kageyama doesn’t have it in him to care right now, they’re running a bit late, as predicted.

“I told you that we’d make it!!” Hinata hops as enthusiastically as possible. Kageyama stops himself from telling Hinata that they won’t make it, well at least on time, anyway. But Tobio shuts up for now because he’d probably be a bit more handicapped if his ankle was messed up like Hinata’s is.

He wouldn’t be as painfully slow as the dumbass though.

“You didn't tell me that.” Kageyama readjusts himself, pulling Hinata’s arm over his shoulder more, this action causes Hinata’s barely brushed hair to tickle Kageyama’s neck, he recoils from the touch. They really need to get him some crutches.

“Well, no.” Hinata admits, frowning. “But I thought it.”

“Boke.” Kageyama mutters. “Why do you care if we make it or not? It’s not like you’re on the court anyway.”

Hinata’s limp becomes more strained. “Don’t remind mee!” He whines. “I wish I was playing with you so bad! This isn’t fair..”

Tobio doesn’t know why he’s trying to cheer the little shit up, this isn’t his problem, yet he still speaks up. “Well, you could be a ball boy again..” he offers.

Hinata glares at Kageyama.

He waits for the boy to speak up about something stupid like Tobio’s ‘tone’ or ‘attitude’ , but he just glares some more.

“What?”

“Not that you would ever know this because of your amazing amount of talent. But to be a ball boy, you need to be able to walk. By yourself”

“Oh, yeah.” Tobio feels called out, he attempts to excuse himself. “Well I’m more focused on the court so—“

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t even spare a second glance at us ballboys.”

“Hinata. You’re not a ball boy, that was one time.”

“Yeah but I’m still part of the community!” Hinata argues.

The idea of a ball boy community makes Kageyama roll his eyes. “The community?”

“Yes, the community! The guys I worked with at the training camp last year were super cool!” Hinata exclaims.

Kageyama tries to picture Hinata meeting all these other ball boys and becoming best friends with them, it seems realistic. Hinata is the type to make friends with anyone. But for some reason the idea of him using an opportunity like that to just ‘make friends’ doesn’t sound like what he would be doing. He was definitely more focused on the actual players. Tobio likes his odds on getting that right so he responds,

“Tell me even one of their names.”

Hinata’s rhythm of hops stops for a moment. So he definitely heard Kageyama, but he didn't get a response.

“I’m talking to Coach about getting some crutches.”

Okay that’s one way to change a topic, fine then, Tobio will go with it. “What are you gonna tell him?” A jolt of worry at the thought that Hinata hasn’t planned out his excuse rushes through him, he does not want to get in trouble for the stupid, stupid idea of a midnight volleyball session.

“I’ll tell him that I tried to walk it off after falling during the run, but I fell down the stairs last night.”

Tobio can’t help but exhale in relief. Hinata isn’t totally helpless.“Yeah, that sounds believable, for you I mean.”

“I’m not even going to ask what you’re implying.” Hinata frowns.

The two struggle down a few more corridors before making it to the canteen, only a few minutes late. Kageyama braces himself for what’s to come when they open the doors.

Everyone has already made it down, looking fresh and ready to play, Tobios jealous. He bets all their alarms went off this morning.
Kageyama is unsure why, but he blames Hinata for his bad mood.

Coach Ika is talking with Janitor Suzuki about something that hopefully has nothing to do with Hinata and him. For all of two seconds they walk in fully undetected until Coach Ika glances at them, looks back at Janitor Suzuki, and takes a second look at Hinata as if he just saw a ghost

“OhmygoodnesswhathappenedHinata!?!” Coach lunges towards them more dramatically than needed.

“Coach, I’m sorry!” Hinata starts. “I— em. I fell.. my ankle.” Tobio can’t help but get impatient with Hinata’s nervousness, the boy is only changing one small detail of the story and is fumbling badly.

“He fell down the stairs last night, I found him and I’m pretty sure it’s a small sprain. But apparently he first hurt his ankle during the run.”

“Kageyama!” Hinata looks betrayed before facing Coach again. “I’m sorry coach, I just wanted to play so badly. And now, well— now I can’t.”

Coach squints at Hinata for a moment like he’s deciding something. “It’s alright. I will take you to Nurse Suzuki for further examination.”

Hinata nods and takes his arm off Kageyama, who lets go accordingly. Tobio can’t say he enjoyed helping Hinata. But it was something to do other than eating with people he can’t stand, and as Hinata pathetically hops away slower than a fucking snail, Tobio realises that it was find of fun. Something fun with Hinata. Outside of volleyball. It’s been awhile since he’s felt this way. Probably since a month before the match with Date Tech, where—

Tobio shakes his head and turns to get his breakfast. Which has been mostly taken in the four minutes they were late. “Shit..” He mutters. It’s not like he had much of an appetite anyways, but by how much they’ve been feeding them, Tobios pretty sure these people are either on a very small budget, or want them all to lose a few pounds before the spring tournament.

Tobio grabs a small yogurt and a wooden spoon, finds a chair in the corner to sit on and calls it a day.

Or he was going to call it a day.

“Kageyama-kun?”

Tobio can’t help but let out a sigh. “Kenji.”

For some reason Kenji takes this less-than enthusiastic reply as a cue to sit himself opposite to Kageyama.

“Soo..” He trails off, Kageyama just stares, unmoving.

“So?” Kageyama doesn’t know what to say to that. He doesn’t know what to say about any of this.

“Y’know, all of junior high I was on the bench. I wasn’t the strongest setter on the team, so it was only fair.”

“I’m aware.” Kageyama continues to stare him down, he’s not exactly sure what he’s trying to achieve by doing this, maybe some part of him thinks that if he stares hard enough then Kenji will disappear.

But alas, Kenji is still on the opposite end of the table. “And you were, well. You were on the court because you were better.”

I am better. Is what Tobio would say if this were a situation where he could just walk off. But he can’t, he has to train near this guy for seven hours, so instead he just settles with a “Yes?”

“And Shouyou isn’t here?”

Kageyama doesn’t like Kenji using Hinata’s given name, but that’s not his place to complain about so again, he settles with a “Yes?”

“And you would say that you are more competent than me on the court.”

Kageyama doesn’t waste a second before saying “Yes.” Kenji smiles at his honesty.

“Perfect! That would make us partners for today then. Maybe you can give me some tips on my sets?”

Hold on, what? “I don’t—“ Kageyama starts.

“Sorry. I’m getting ahead of myself, we can figure all that stuff out later.” Kenji grins and sits up.

“Kenji.”

“Thanks Kageyama-kun!” The boy walks back to his table, almost triumphantly like he’s just won a match or something. And it hits Kageyama, Kenji wasn’t smiling because of Tobio’s honesty, he was smiling because he knew he had won.

What. An. Asshole. “Don’t call me ‘Kageyama-kun’ we’re not even friends.” Tobio mutters under his breath. That guy is such a smooth talker it makes Tobio jealous, it’s not like he’s bad at talking, he can win an argument against Hinata easily, but then again anyone who can’t stand their ground in an argument against Hinata should be checked for some sort of brain damage, so maybe it doesn’t count for anything.

Anyways— it’s just that Kageyama sometimes wishes he got some of the ‘social’ genes, but no, his parents had to pass all that down to Miwa, the lucky bastard. He could play so many mind games on the court if he could just think of the words a bit faster, Tobio feels robbed.

He quickly finishes up his yogurt and chucks the tub in the bin, and waits.

Thankfully not for long, Coach Ika walks through the doors and alerts everyone to ‘clear up and be in the hall in five.’ Then he leaves just as quickly as he entered. Weird. Hopefully it has nothing to do with Hinata. Not that Tobio cares though, but the quicker he can get back to jumping, the better it is for everybody.

Kageyama quickly gets out of his seat and makes his way down to the hall. He hates the cafeteria, it’s probably his least favourite part about this whole place. During the all-Japan youth training camp he didn’t mind it so much because Kageyama was willing to meet new people more advanced than he was. But here (not that Tobio’s paid any attention to it, none at all, obviously) Kageyama is the best player,

so there’s no need to get to know people that won’t help you improve.

Tobio knows that if he voiced his thoughts to Hinata, the dumbass would most likely disagree in his loud and obnoxious manner. That pisses Tobio off, not the loud and obnoxious part, that’s just basic Hinata coding that he’s used to by now. What does piss Kageyama off is the dumbass’s will to make new friends and meet new people, and that fact that he’s just so naturally gifted at times makes him want to strangle Hinata. But of course, the little shit does have his weak points, for example, any volleyball player that is taller than him (most) and has a natural scowl, that tends to freak the guy out a lot. The annoying part is that if Hinata stopped cowering under these guys he would have a lot more respect from them, he’s gotten better though, better than first year, at least.

Tobio pushes open the entrance of the hall and walks in, the volleyball nets ready to be used, just as he and Hinata had left them.

Speaking of, the boy was still nowhere to be found.

Kageyama shakes his head, if he isn’t going to be playing with Hinata then he shouldn’t spare him a second thought.

Even though Hinata would probably be out looking for Kageyama, or at least asking where he was.

Kageyama shakes his head again. As much as he may hate it, that's just the way Hinata is, Tobio doesn’t have to do or say anything. He doesn’t owe Hinata anymore. Not after their trip downstairs last night, even though it failed miserably.

Yet he finds his legs moving towards Coach Ika. ‘Just this once’ he thought.

“Coac—“

“Shouyou’s okay.” Kenji says from behind him, as if appearing out of thin air.

What is this guy’s deal with sneaking up on people? “How did you—?”

“You looked like you were having some internal conflict, so I just guessed.”

Apparently Kenji also has a talent for interrupting people as well as sneaking up on them.

Kageyama grunts as a response. But Kenji doesn’t leave yet, like he’s expecting something.

“Did you see him or something?”

“Em, yeah.” Kenji looks away, but returns his gaze after a moment. “He came looking for me.”

Tobio wants to laugh. As if Hinata would go looking for a different setter other than himself. “For you?”

Kenji smiles slightly. “Yeah, for me. We’re friends.”

Kageyama considers this, of course Hinata and Kenji are friends, Hinata makes friends with anyone and everyone. Even if they are as annoying as Kenji. But would he actually prefer to see Kenji over Tobio? How long have they known each other? A fucking day? Well, Kenji is nice, nicer than Tobio at least. Maybe Hinata needed a change. Maybe Hinata’s tired of him. Maybe he wants a new setter.

Okay. That’s too far. Kageyama could sort of believe Hinata wanted to talk with someone a bit nicer, but for him to go shopping for a new setter? That’s crazy, even he knows that. Tobio’s the best in that catalogue, well, at this camp at least.

So why did Hinata go to Kenji..

Tobio closes his eyes for a moment, why is he thinking so hard, he couldn’t give a damn if Hinata wanted to spend time with somebody else, he’s been doing it for over a week, and it’s been peaceful and quiet. Tobio could do with more of that, so again, why is he thinking so hard? Why can’t he just move on with the conversation? Or better yet, end it here?

“Kageyama-kun?” Kenji's smile widens on the right side of his mouth.

“Stop calling me that,” Tobio opened his eyes.

“Calling you what?” Kenji raises an eyebrow, definitely having at least some idea of what Kageyama means.

“It’s Kageyama.” Tobio says a bit too harshly. “Please.” He mutters.

Tobio doesn’t know why he cares so much, but he does. It’s not like him to care about stuff like that, let alone voice his opinion on it. But this Kenji guy pisses him off on a whole other level.

“Ah, okay. My bad man.”

Tobio lets himself feel a bit of relief that he might actually go away,

but no. Kenji stays by his side, and then Kageyama remembers that they’re spending the rest of their remaining training time together. Tobio checks the clock nearby, it's six forty nine, that’s around seven hours with a one hour break left. Most of it spent with the one guy in this whole place he doesn’t want to talk to, this intense feeling of just not wanting to do something hits almost as hard as it did with Hinata during the weeks leading up to the Date Tech match.

“It’s fine.” He turns back round towards Coach and makes his way over, trying to get as much distance between the two. Thankfully, Kenji leaves him for the time being and Kageyama sits with the rest of the boys, with no Hinata in sight.

This single thought seems to take up Kageyama’s brain for the few minutes that Coach Ika is speaking, but Tobio manages to grasp the important bits. Find a partner. Start a fifteen minute game against another pair, and once the bell goes off you rotate, simple enough. And apparently that’s all their training consists of today.

But Tobio is left with an icky feeling. He just zoned out. Even if it was only for a few minutes, but Hinata was distracting him, even if he is nowhere to be found, He’s still managing to piss Kageyama off. It doesn’t sit right with him, nothing distracts Tobio from volleyball. Nothing. It gives him another wave of Deja-vu from the Date tech match.

And so, Kageyama vows to himself not to pay the dumbass a second thought again.

“Kageyama!” Kenji calls over from one of the courts, getting his name correct this time, and Tobio makes his way over, ready to forget everything and just play some volleyball.

—————————————-

“Shit man! Why’d you have to pick the good one!?”

The sentence makes Tobio feel a bit smug, but then he looks a bit closer at the boy’s features and realises that the guy who said that is from his Junior high. This makes Kageyama uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, on a volleyball court. He must be off his game today or something because the court is one of the few places where he doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

Kenji says something smart before the bell goes off and Kenji and Kageyama move onto the next duo, leaving behind the boy from Tobio’s middle school that he can’t remember the name of. Kageyama quickly remembers his manners and gives a swift nod and catches up to Kenji. He doesn’t look to see what the two boy's faces look like.

Currently Kenji and Kageyama are quite frankly unstoppable, and have won two out of their two games by a lot. As much as Tobio hates to admit it, the boy is good. Much better than junior high, that’s for sure. Kenji’s risky style compliments Tobio’s polished perfection, they make a good team once Tobio forgets who he’s playing with.

But the second they get off the court Kageyama remembers and he feels his mood plummet.

“Game three baby!” Kenji exclaims, doing a little hop in the air, kind of reminiscent of Hinata after the high of winning a game. He wishes he were playing with him instead of this asshole, not that he’d ever say that out loud.

Tobio shakes his head to get the boy out of his mind.

“C’mon Kageyama! We’re on a roll!” Kenji swings his arm around Kageyama, who can’t help but retreat. Kageyama misses when the guy hated his guts, which was literally less than twenty four hours ago, by the way.

“Mhm.”

“Lighten up a bit bro.” Kenji rolls his eyes and removes his arm, jogging over to the next court.

Kageyama doesn’t respond and just follows.

Once they make it over to the next duo, the bell goes and they start. Kageyama can’t remember a whole lot. It was a blur of tosses receives, sounds of shoes squeaking against the floor, a good, interesting rally. Kenji sets the ball with decent speed and Kageyama’s impressed to say the least, but he supposes it does make sense considering that the guy is such a regular here. Kageyama steps back and takes a leap, flying. He slams the ball with all his might and the other team..

Receives it..

Kageyama sighs. Either the guy who just received that ball is a very well rounded player, or is a libero. Judging by his height and the clean receive, Kageyama would bet on the second, but he can’t judge a book by its cover, a certain ginger-haired spiker has taught him that.

The team makes a good recovery and sends the ball over with a swift slam, managing to spike it to a spot that neither of the boys are defending. These guys aren’t half bad.

Kenji dives for the ball and makes a sloppy receive that if Kageyama had the time, he would roll his eyes at.

But that makes Kenji immobile, and the ball is at an awkward position, does Kageyama spike it? Does he risk it and set it, hoping that Kenji makes it in time? Does he pathetically dig it over? Time is running out as the ball gets closer and—

“Kageyama!!”

Tobio turns not at the mention of his name, if it were anyone else he would ignore them and keep playing, Tobio turns because of who mentioned his name. It’s Hinata. It’s Hinata looking really stupid with crutches. The boy is clumsily walking around the other games taking place, still getting the hang of it. To put it simply, he looks like an idiot.

He must’ve spent a moment staring because before Kageyama can react the volleyball lands on Kageyama’s head.

Okay. Maybe he’s the one who looks like an idiot.

There’s instantly a mix of reactions, the short guy on the other team stifles a laugh. Kenji makes a pity full ‘oooh’ sound. The other kid from his middle school just blatantly starts giggling. And Hinata looks terrified. As he fucking should be, he distracted Tobio in the middle of a rally. A rally that he was very much invested in.

The boy looks as if he doesn’t know whether to run (or as close as he can get to a run) the opposite way or keep making his way over. He decides on the second.

Tobio mutters a ‘sorry’ at pausing the game and slowly walks up to Hinata. Head still hurting from the humiliating volleyball bump.

“Em. I- Hey Kageyama!” Hinata leans on his crutches. Tobio raises an eyebrow. He wants an apology.

“Sorry about that.. it’s just well, you never usually reply when I talk to you in the middle of a game. I’m, em. Sorry.” He trails off at the end, and adds an awkward smile at the end as if that’s supposed to woo Kageyama into forgiving him.

“You’re so lucky I can’t hurt kids with crutches.” Tobio glares.

“Yeah.” Hinata swallows. “I’m gonna..” he nods in the direction of somewhere behind Kageyama. “Go over there. I’ll be watching.” He eyes down the bench nearby, looking defeated. Kageyama would almost feel bad for him if he hadn’t caused the injury from pure stupidity, he can’t imagine not being able to play at a camp made for training.

Tobio nods and goes back to his game, and tries to ignore the flashes of orange that enter his vision every now and again.

———————————————-

“That felt like forever!” Hinata rolls his neck back as they make their way to their room.

They disbanded from the rest of the boys a while ago, as they needed to go the long way to get to the elevators because of Hinata’s not at all convenient injury. Kageyama would totally leave Hinata stranded. But if the dumbass got lost again and Tobio had to be the one to rescue him, and that would probably be his last straw.

“Stop acting like you did any work. All you did was sit and watch.” Tobio squirts water into his mouth.

“Hey! It’s much harder than it looks!” Hinata frowns and gestures for some water. Tobio compiles but not without an eye roll first, why does the dumbass need a drink if all he did was sit on his ass for a few hours?

“Okay..” Kageyama says, unconvinced.

Hinata squirts the water back into his mouth and hands it back over to Kageyama. “We’ve both worked so hard today.” Hinata says as if he’s reading off a terrible script. “Y’know what? We deserve a treat.” He slips into silence for a minute as if pretending to decide something. “Ooh! I have an idea.”

“Smooth.” Kageyama simply puts. Hinata’s definitely practiced this in his head multiple times,

“I’m trying, okay?” Hinata frowns once more.

“Spit it out.” Tobio can feel himself growing impatient, he presses the button to the elevator and they wait.

“Well. Em. What were you planning to do for the next four hours? Y’know, before the bus gets here?”

Tobio thinks. He hasn’t put much thought into it. Usually he would plan this out better, but his mind has been filled up with volleyball and Hinata with his stupid ankle. The doors to the elevator pop open and as they walk in, Kageyama mindlessly presses the button on their floor.

“Not sure yet.” He answers truthfully.

“Great! There's a train a twenty minute walk from here and some of the boys were going to head into Akita city for a few hours.”

Tobio blinks and tries to digest what Hinata just said.

“And you want to go with them?” Kageyama’s shocked and also not shocked at the same time. Of course Hinata’s made friends with them, that’s just what he does, he just attracts attention wherever he goes, it’s hard not to when you're a middle blocker that short.

What Kageyama is surprised about is that Hinata didn’t pick up how much Kageyama doesn’t like being near them, let alone going for a jolly little hang out with them.

“What? No! I was thinking that we could go. Just us.”

Oh. Nevermind. Tobio just nods in understanding.

“Soo.. what’d you say?” Hinata raises his eyebrows.

Kageyama turns and looks at Hinata’s face. Trying to see what he’ll get out of this, why he’s asking Kageyama to spend time with him outside of just volleyball and school.

But he doesn’t see a motive, he just sees a glimmer of hope. The most puppy dog eyes he’s seen, maybe ever.

Tobio has a strange urge to poke Hinata’s face, or maybe jump serve a volleyball right into it.

Instead he just looks away. And realises that the elevator doors have been open for a while and now they're closing. Jesus. How long was he staring? He quickly places a foot in between the door and makes his way out, Hinata soon following.

“Helloo?” Hinata waves his hand in front of Kageyama as best he can in his state, “Kageyama, are we doing this?”

“Coach Ika would never let you go with your ankle messed up.” Kageyama continues walking and hears the steady slams of the crutches against the ground behind him.

“I actually already spoke to him about it. He’s cool with it.”

Tobio slows his pace for a moment in surprise, but then continues. “Really?” He can’t help but ask.

“Yes, really. It just took a bit of convincing.”

“Wow,” Tobio almost can’t believe how stupid that decision was, maybe Coach Ika isn’t fully aware how terrible Hinata’s spatial awareness is, outside the court, obviously, it’s alright there.

Hinata just makes a little ‘mhm’ noise.

The two make it back to the dorm, and just as Kageyama opens the door, Hinata speaks up again,

“Soo, is that a yes?”

Hinata is prone to getting lost, among other things. The boy can be a bit of a walking disaster sometimes, except when he’s on the court, then he’s (as much as Tobio hates to admit it) a big threat to anyone who opposes them. But y’know who isn’t prone to getting lost. Kageyama. He would say that he’s around average, like most things about him outside of volleyball. But he’s content with that. In fact, he’s counting on it.

So without thinking about it too hard, he goes,

“Yes.”

“Yess!” Hinata instantly celebrates. And if he didn’t have his crutches, Tobios is pretty sure he would be doing some form of a dance, so for the first time since Hinata’s gotten the crutches, Tobios is happy they’re there. But he’s already starting to regret this decision to go into an unfamiliar city with him.

“Just make sure to pack your shit up before we go, leave it in the reception.”

Tobio just mumbles the last bit, because he’s pretty sure Hinata is to busy being excited to hear him,

it’s okay though, Kageyama won’t let him forget.

—————————————

“Have you ever been on a train before?”

The question almost seems like a joke. Of course Kageyama’s been on a train before. He turns to make sure Hinata isn’t messing with him, but no. He looks totally stoic, weirdly so.

“Have you not or something?”

Hinata scratches behind his ear and something about the motion tells Kageyama he hasn’t.

“Are you nervous?” He asks, simply.

“What! No.” Hinata spits like the question is absurd. “It’s just, I don’t know. Aren’t they supposed to go like, super fast?”

Tobio sighs. It’s just like Hinata to request to go do something that he knows he won’t enjoy doing. Memories of nights at Coach Ukai’s market replay in Kageyama’s head of Hinata buying the spiciest shit he could find, and soon regretting it. “Y’know you could’ve told me about this undying fear of trains before we got on one.”

Hinata adjusts in the seat and looks out down the other end of the train, away from Kageyama. “It is not undying. Whatever that means..” he mutters passive aggressively, purposely loud enough that Kageyama could hear it.

Kageyama just ends up shrugging and minding his own business, not entirely sure what it means either, but as the speakers announce the soon departure, he can see out of the corner of his eye that Hinata is gripping the metal bar that comes down from the roof of the train.

“Stop that, germs.” Kageyama mumbles.

The boy give’s Kageyama a side glance before complying, not that he’s one to care about germs anyway, he must be doing it for Kageyama’s sake.

That thought leaves him with an unsteady feeling, Hinata does this for him, yet Kageyama can’t help him out when he’s obviously nervous? What a rotten friend he is.

Kageyama corrects himself. Teammate. Not friend. The word ‘friend’ doesn’t feel right for them.

So Kageyama tries whatever a good teammate would do. He gets his backpack that he set down beside him (mainly so that nobody would sit next to him) and fetches out a packet of his trusty disinfectant wipes.

“Here.” He gestures for Hinata’s dirty hand, his spiking hand. A weird thought washes over him that this is the hand that a lot of his high school career depends on.

Hinata’s eyes widen slightly and his hands twitch. “Kageyama, you don’t have to do that..” he mutters.

“I’m not doing it for your ass. I’m not walking around someone with gross hands.” He grabs it.

“Ah.” Hinata lets out a breathless laugh. “You really don’t realise how weird it is carrying around wipes wherever you go, do you?” Kageyama looks up for a second, and Hinata looks. Nervous, he looks like he’s trying extremely hard to hide it as well .

“Shh.” And Tobio wipes it down carefully. Ignoring the anxious look on the dumbasses face. It’s weird seeing hands that do so much work during a volleyball game up close. They do the exact same things as Tobios (way more sloppier, of course,) yet they look so different. His fingers are broader and shorter compared to Tobios longer fingers which were made for precision. Hinata’s on the other hand are anything but made for precision, with their nervous twitches every now and again and their fidgety nature. But they have their similarities, both filled with callouses from constant training that feel weird to brush against, scars from volleyball and probably home-made accidents as well, a story hiding behind each one. A scar underneath Hinata’s thumb knuckle stands out to Tobio and he feels the need to ask about it.

But the jerk of the train beginning to start distracts Tobio.

And Hinata suddenly grips his hand.

Kageyama inhales sharply. He wants to yank his hand out and yell at Hinata for thinking he could get away with using Tobio as a make-shift stress toy. But he reminds himself that that’s not what an ideal teammate would do. So he does an internal eye roll and lets the idiot squeeze his hand. Hinata has his eyes squeezed closed as if the acceleration of speed is the most intense feeling in the world, Tobio feels weird staring at his face so carefully, so he directs his attention to their hands again, not knowing what to do or where to look at.

He looks at their hands clasped together for what feels like minutes. He looks at the contrast in colours, from Hinata’s slightly more tanned skin compared to Kageyama’s paper white. He can feel Hinata’s hand getting sweaty, or is it his own? It might well be, Hinata’s hands are unexpectedly warm, along with that they’re also soft, but that’s to be expected going by the rest of Hinata with his soft but steady arms and his slightly puffy cheeks, but still, it’s a weird difference to the roughness of the spots that continuously slam the balls that Kageyama sets. He notices Hinata’s bitten off nails and feels annoyance creep up his spine. Why can’t he keep his nails like Kageyama does? Perfect and clean. It’s what any volleyball player that wants to go pro one day would do. He should really lecture him about that once they get back home, maybe even show him how to do it, from a distance of course, this is enough hand contact for a lifetime, but it’s not as disgusting as one might think, and that’s a lot coming from Kageyama, if he could spend his whole life without touching anyone ever again, he would do it. But while this is uncomfortable and awkward and sweaty, it’s not bad. But he would still rather not be holding hands with Hinata right now, but what else would a supportive teammate do?

What was he thinking about? Oh right, the lecture. Yes, he should do that, it’s what any good teammate would do. And when Kageyama does anything volleyball related, he’s always the best. Well, except with the talking stuff. But Sugawara is helping him with all that. Because if he has to be a good teammate to improve Karasuno, even just a little. He’s going to be the best goddamn teammate ever.

But still, he’s thankful that there’s not many people in the cart to see this hand fiasco.

Well. It’s not like it’s a friends holding hands thing. And Tobio doesn’t even think about it being a romantic holding hands thing. Their hands aren’t held in a casual way, it’s more like a dab-up that ended up with intertwined fingers. It’s a teammate supporting another teammate thing. So who gives a damn? And y’know what? Anyone who even notices shouldn’t be butting in to business that isn’t their own. So fucking what if Hinata’s scared of trains or whatever the hell it is? And so what if Kageyama decides to help him out?

Tobio reminds himself that nobody on the train is too busy to give a damn.

But it’s been at least a minute of Hinata’s hand gripping his own and he can feel his blood circulation being cut off by the dumbasses grip, and Tobio can’t be much use as a setter if Hinata’s managed to kill off his main asset.

“Boke.” Kageyama taps his shoulder. “Can you let me go now?”

Hinata’s eyes open, and then look at their hands, and then widen.

“Oh! I’m- em. Sorry, Kageyama.” Hinata yanks his hand away and wipes his sweaty hand on his lap. “I think I was just a little. Nervous.” The boy actually looks almost terrified. As is Kageyama would lash out on him. Tobio thinks back to the Date Tech match, and Hinata’s reaction kind of makes sense.

“S’fine.” He mumbles.

Hinata strictly keeps his hands on his lap and Kageyama feels like this is getting awkward. So he continues talking,

“I thought you’d love this stuff.”

“What?” Hinata’s eyes widen and Tobio realises that the boy has misinterpreted what he just said.

“Like, rollercoasters and all.” He adds with haste.

Hinata’s eyes return to their normal state and he scoffs. “Weird thing is I actually love rollercoasters. I think it might just be that this is all,” he gestures with his hands, “unfamiliar.”

Kageyama mentally kicks himself for coming up with this whole ‘being the best teammate’ thing, because Hinata still looks awkward. And what kind of teammate would he be if he didn’t try to help him out? So, with a heavy heart, he keeps on going,

“Yeah. That makes sense, I can see you having fun on a rollercoaster. With the whole, flying thing.”

“Yes!” Hinata nods vigorously as if he’s finally being understood, “My ma’ used to have to keep me on a leash when she’d saved up enough to take me to an amusement park when I was eight.”

“You were on a leash?”

Hinata nods.

“Until eight?”

“Something wrong with that?” Hinata’s smile goes up one side.

Kageyama thinks about it for a moment. “Y’know what? I'm not even surprised.” And he plonks his back onto the seat, facing the front.

Hinata squints his eyes at Tobio suspiciously.

“I’m going to pretend like I don’t know what you’re hinting at.” Hinata slowly states.

Tobio nods.

And with that the other end of Hinata’s smile goes upwards and the rest of the train ride flies by.

When the two get off the train they have around two hours until they have to catch the next train back to camp. They make their way out of the cold train station after Hinata makes a big deal about being able to see his own breath due to the cold. Side by side, they walk out the main door which leads them to a busy street. Kageyama registers that this must be the centre of the city, or atleast near it, the roads packed with all different types of people, people selling candles and lucky cats on stands attracting tourists and locals alike, there’s couples on dates, families on a day out, the whole latter. Tobio can hear live music coming from a couple of buskers and turns to look, but it’s too busy to see anything. All the stimulation makes Tobio excited and nervous at the same time, he hopes you can’t see it on his face.

“Kageyama! This way!” Hinata calls and Kageyama whips his head round to find him, he only gets a flash of burnt orange, but he follows the general direction. Tobio’s confused on how, even with his crutches, Hinata is leading him through the crowd.

It takes them a few twists and turns down a few alleyways, but they make it out the busy bits, and now wander down narrow streets, Tobio stares at his feet mindlessly.

“Did you like it out there?” Hinata seems to also be distracted.

“Where, the busy street?”

“Yeah. Do you like it loud?” He turns to look up at Tobio slightly.

Does he like it loud? Tobio thinks about it for a moment, he wouldn’t say he enjoyed it or didn’t enjoy it. It was kind of too busy to even think real thoughts. Not bad for a visit, but for everyday life? Kageyama makes a ‘meh’ noise. “I guess I’ll have to.” He plucks a leaf of a passing tree.

“Wait, why?” Hinata looks confused.

“Well, where else can you go pro?” Tobio tears the leaf up.

“Oh, yeah.” Hinata looks down at the ground.

Kageyama’s confused at his pissy response, does he not like that answer?

“What? Where are you going then?” He asks, a bit more passive aggressively then intended.

“Oh! I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just, ugh- you’ll laugh at me.” Hinata pouts at the last part.

Kageyama looks away because the pouting pisses him off. “Just spit it out. Boke.”

“Well, the future. It’s just kind of,” he pauses, his fingers fidgeting slightly, “scary. Don’t you think?” The pair turn left down a new street, this one littered with lights hanging from the buildings, and each side of the road contains lots of different cafes and small local businesses.

Is it? Is the future scary? Kageyama can’t help but think. For him it’s just filled with new opportunities, new people to play against, new spikes to block and balls to set. But for someone like Hinata, who’s talent can be overlooked by something as simple as height, it could be uncertain. It could be scary.

But he’s not going to lie to make Hinata feel better, so he tells the truth. “Not really. I know exactly where I’m headed.”

Hinata grips the handles of his crutches a bit harder than necessary, and kicks a pebble on the floor with his good foot, as if all evil in the world is its fault. “Lucky you.”

Kageyama feels a bit bad. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so cocky.

“Well, do you have some idea of where you’re going?” He offers. Knowing that Hinata may be impulsive, but wouldn’t plunge into the real world without a ghost of an idea.

“Volleyball. Obviously.” He laughs to himself. “But I don’t think I’m going to get scouted right after high school like you. So I’ll probably spend a few years training.”

“Years?” Kageyama can’t help but question and crank his head to look at Hinata fully. Years sounds like a long time. Kageyama had thought that they would play against each other maybe, what? A few months after highschool. But now, after thinking about it from Hinata’s perspective. It’s not that simple, the boy is going to have to really go above and beyond for someone to look past his height and recruit him. Back in Junior High Tobio would’ve thought it impossible, someone as shrimpy as him playing on a national team, in fact, he probably would’ve burst out laughing like the little shit he was. But now he knows Hinata can do it. He has to. They’re rivals after all.

“Yes, years. Maybe somewhere foreign.”

The mention of foreign makes Kageyama’s chest feel tight. What if Hinata moves on with their promise and Kageyama can’t beat him once and for all? What if they never make it to Japan's national team like Tobio had stupidly assumed they would?

He’s getting ahead of himself. Just because Hinata’s moving a few hours away doesn’t mean that he can just forget the promise. He won’t be able to, if Tobios plan goes well he’ll be on the big screens soon after high school, so he can’t forget. He won’t. But just to be sure, Kageyama asks, “Oh. Like near the Kanto region or something?”

“More like Brazil.” Hinata’s mouth turns upwards.

“The country?” Kageyama almost shouts. The tight feeling amplifies by ten.

“It’s just an idea. But somewhere hot, definitely. With tons of beaches so I can play volleyball all day!” Hinata’s light smile turns into a full grin.

“That’s far.” Kageyama puts it simply. He comes across the rock that Hinata had kicked before and decides it’s his turn to put his anger out on it,

“Awww.” Hinata grins even bigger at Kageyama, who finds an interesting tree to look at instead of Hinata’s stupidly gleeful face. “don’t worry! I’ll come back home, so I can join a national team and beat your ass once and for all!”

Okay. Hinata hasn’t forgotten. And he won’t. Kageyama feels more at ease. “Ha.” He laughs humorlessly. “Remind me who’s winning on our personal tally?”

Hinata’s voice goes up by an octave, “Hey! Only by four points!”

“That’s four more wins then you have.”

And the pair reuse the same insults while arguing the same points they always do, and will do for a long while, and with that thought, slowly, the strange feeling in Tobios chest temporarily fizzles out.

—————————————

“Oh. My. God.” Hinata gapes.

“What?”

The two have been walking around the city for almost an hour, just going ‘where the wind takes them’ as Hinata had put it. When Tobio agreed to take the train with Hinata, he’d expected to have to take care of an injured Hinata while also trying to navigate where the hell they were going. But that hasn’t been the case.

It hasn’t been the case at all.

Tobio would go as far to say that he’s enjoying himself. Enjoying. Without volleyball. With Hinata of all people. The pair have just been walking and talking, every now and again Hinata freaks out when he sees something that intrigues him, like a comic book or a volleyball magazine (they were both excited over that one.) And the same thing is repeating now, Hinata leaps what looks like a meter with his crutches, the street isn’t that busy except for a few stragglers, but this depressing looking building has attracted quite a crowd. But based on how Hinata’s looking at it, it must be the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Kageyama!” Hinata yells, almost accusingly, as if Tobio knew all along about this shabby-looking building and whatever’s inside, and never informed Hinata of its existence.

“What?” Kageyama asks again, speed walking to catch up. Weird isn’t it? How even when Hinata’s immobilised he can still slip out of Kageyama’s grasp.

Tobio can see why he was on a leash for so long.

“Your poor mother.” He grumbles, adding a sigh.

Hinata makes a ‘huh?’ sound and Kageyama’s unsure if he actually wants him to repeat what he said.

“Nothing..” Tobio says. From what he can see through the window the building has around a dozen people squeezed in, and Kageyama could do without disturbing their peace with Hinata’s arguments.

“Hm. Okay.” Hinata keeps his eye on Kageyama suspiciously while turning around. “Woah..” he gawks as if this run-down store is the most magical place on earth.

And when Tobio stands by his side, he couldn’t be more underwhelmed.

“Out of all places in Akita, this?” The squint neon sign that illuminates the front of the store reads ‘Best soba in all of Japan!!!!’ Along with the fact that the sign has way too many exclamation marks at the end, Tobio isn’t afraid to admit it’s probably seen better days. In fact, the whole damn store looks at least four times the age Kageyama is.

“Yes, ‘this,’” Hinata rolls his eyes. “The sign doesn’t lie!” He flings the door and (while giving this dumpsite of a restaurant way more credit than it deserves) starts to excitedly skip inside.

“It very well could..” Kageyama says. And after having a peek inside, he’s almost certain it does. Somehow the inside is more drabbier than the outside, and the crowd being majorly men in their mid forties whose bodies have most likely seen better days, does not help its case. But Tobio still follows him in (because he wants to, obviously, not because he doesn’t want to be by himself, definitely not.)

By the time Kageyama not awkwardly at all squeezes past all the chairs and makes it to the front desk, Hinata’s already ordering. How the hell did he get here so quickly with crutches.

“Em, I think I’ll have the Tsukimi sob—“ Hinata stops himself for a moment. “Would you mind telling me what this is?” He points at the menu that he's holding with his free hand.

The not-so enthusiastic man with an uneven beard who is taking his order sighs. “That’s our spice deluxe package.” He blinks slowly, obviously impatient. “The firey sensation from hell will leave you either begging for more or crying for mercy.” He says in a monotone voice, as if he’s said that sentence a million times over. Kageyama looks over Hinata’s shoulder to the menu, he can’t help but widen his eyes once he finds the soba Hinata is interested in. All he sees are chilli peppers and a cartoon of a grown man crying. Alarm bells start ringing.

“Hinata—“

“I’ll have that please!”

“Hinata..” Tobio tugs on the boy's sleeve.

“Don’t worry Kageyama, I ordered for you.” Hinata smiles and turns back to the man, before whipping out his card and paying. “To go, please.”

The man with the patchy beard grunts in return.

Y’know what? Hinata can go ahead and eat that spicy soba. But Kageyama won’t share one bit of his. Because he knows exactly what’s going to happen. Hinata will come crying about how his food is ‘too hot’ and then Tobio feels bad and shares his. He’s done this rodeo multiple times before. But that will not be the case this time.

“I tried to warn you.”

Hinata turns back round and looks up, confused. “Warn me about what?”

Tobio sighs. “Nothing.” He looks away, feeling cramped in this tiny place. A group of five men start laughing obnoxiously and Tobio feels his nose upturn as the smell of body odour finds its way up his nostrils. “You should’ve let me pay..” he mutters as an afterthought.

“Well you paid for the train tickets!” Hinata argues.

“Because I was being nice? You don’t owe me.”

Hinata laughs. “You. Nice?”

Kageyama scowls. “Yes. Nice.”

“That’s a first.” Hinata smirks deviously, but almost bracing for impact at the same time.

“I will leave and go home.” Tobio threatens, even though he (probably) won’t.

“Nooo! I’m sorry.” Hinata whines. “Don’t go. You still have soba to try!”

“Hm. I don’t know.. maybe I should just leave..”

“You can have a bite of mine.” Hinata says way more seriously than needed, as if this were an important business trade.

“That’s not as appealing as you think it is.” Tobio wants to shudder at the thought of how painfully spicy that soba must be.

“Fine then. Go.”

Kageyama obviously doesn’t go.

“I’m staying, dumbass.” Kageyama smirks, happy to have fooled Hinata once again.

Hinata doesn’t respond directly and the two wait for a few minutes “Order twenty nine.” A depressed voice shouts. But Kageyama won’t shame the man for having a bad attitude, if he worked here he’d be depressed too.

“Oh! That’s us!” Hinata chirps.

“I’ll get it.” Kageyama states, he can’t imagine Hinata on crutches with two tubs of hot food going well. So he reluctantly picks them up, mutters a thank you, and stays behind Hinata as they leave, trying not to get a whiff of what may just give him food poisoning.

As they leave, Tobio realises why Hinata got to the counter so quickly, everyone’s in a hurry to push their chair in or make space for the guy with crutches. Someone who Kageyama would assume to be a girlfriend or wife of one of the men here give Hinata pitying looks as if this were his last day on earth. Tobio rolls his eyes. It’s just a pair of crutches.

They finally get out of the place and Kageyama takes a big intake of fresh air.

“I know where to eat it.” Hinata says.

“Not further from the train station I hope.” Kageyama replies, wary of time. They have an hour to kill so he’s not too fussed.

“No, we passed it around ten minutes ago. Let’s go!” Hinata leaps with his crutches. And yet again, Tobio just follows.

“I’m scared.” Tobio simply puts it. Because he is. It doesn’t matter how nice the scenery may be. And he admits, it is pretty nice. Hinata picked a good spot, a simple bench next to a not-so busy street, near people but also not, tucked away in a small uphill grass area, with hanging lights all over the place.

“Hey! I bet some guy spent ages slaving over a stove to make that for you. So you better eat it.”

Kageyama can’t help rolling his eyes, he bets anything but that happened. “Oh yeah, maybe it was that nice man who took our order.”

Hinata looks confused. “What’s that supposed to mean? You sound sarcastic..” He places his unopened polystyrene tub on the bench and sits cross legged, facing Kageyama as if this were the most interesting topic. His crutches lean against the bench.

Tobio sighs. “He looked like he hadn’t washed his hands in weeks.”

Hinata looks offended as if Kageyama said this about him. “Excuse you! I bet he takes pride in his craft!”

“His ‘craft’ is probably. I don’t know.. shit!”

“How do you know it’s shit if you haven’t even opened the box?!” Hinata squeaks in anger.

Tobio widens his eyes in horror. “You swore.”

Hinata’s face is washed over with guilt and shame, he slaps his hands onto his mouth as if he had just wished death upon someone.

“I’m telling your mother about this.” Kageyama says with a straight face.

“Please don’t Kageyama! I didn’t even swear!” Hinata pleads, his words sound convincing but his eyes don’t dare look into Kageyama’s. The idiots too stupid to be able to lie.

“You did.” Kageyama simply states, he can feel his lips turning upwards at Hinata’s distress.

“Did not!”

“Did too.”

“Did not!”

“Did. Too.”

Hinata looks like he might explode. Tobios not sure if it’s from shame or anger. It’s probably the latter.

“Fine.” Hinata sighs, looking defeated. “I did, I’m sorry. But please don’t tell my mother..”

Kageyama’s smile dwindles, seeing Hinata look so down makes the whole teasing thing a lot less fun. “It’s okay. I’m only joking, boke.”

Hinata sulks. Tobio would assume at the teasing.

“It's not like she would believe a guy she’d just met anyway.” Tobio carries on.

“I’d think she’d either love you or hate your guts. Nothing in between.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean!?” Tobio erupts. Love him or hate his guts?

Hinata just shurgs. “Just eat your soba Kageyama.”

Kageyama looks down at the take away box, as if an evil aura was being given off of it. “No.”

“I paid for it. So you eat it. End of story.”

He got him there. Hinata did pay for the food, it’s common courtesy to eat it now. So, he sheepishly opens the box, as if it could just out and attack him at any time. He removes the lid and sets it beside him, the steam thick and heating up his face, he inhales slightly, and it smells..

Kind of good?

“Eat.” Hinata pressures.

“Did you poison this or something?”

Hinata frowns.

“Fine. Fine. I’m eating.” Tobio picks up the chopsticks, takes a small bit of the brown-ish noodles. They look.. normal. Okay. Now he has to take a bite, just do it. Go.

Shit.

This might just be the best soba Tobios ever tasted. The best soba in Japan. So the sign wasn’t lying.

“Soo?” Hinata asks. “Is it as bad as you thought?”

Damn it. He really doesn’t want Hinata to be right on this. “If you ignore the dozen health violations that place must commit..”

“Then it’s?” Hinata’s mouth turns upwards in anticipation.

“Fine.”

“You totally love it.” Hinata grins superiorly.

You will not catch Kageyama admitting that Hinata’s dumbass is right. For anything. So he just grunts. Not a yes. Not a no.

“My turn!” Hinata chirps. And Tobio’s kind of excited. Excited to prove Hinata wrong, that is.

The boy quickly tears open his box, a cloud of steam appearing, and hums.

Unlike Kageyama, he waits no time to dig in, taking a massive bite. And Tobio knows he’s won when Hinata’s eyes tear up slightly.

“Soo?” He mimics Hinata’s question.

The boy swallows. “It really is the best soba in Japan, isn’t it?

“But?”

“It’s so hot.” The dumbass cries out burying his head in his crossed legs for a moment. “My tongue hurts so bad it’s crazy.” He whines.

“Didn’t I warn you?” It’s Tobio’s turn to smirk with superiority.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right! You’re always right! There. Is that what you wanted?”

Tobio smirks, “yep” he pops the p. But he only savours the victory for a moment, because Hinata looks to be in actual pain. “Here.” He slides over his soba. “Have some of mine, it might help.”

And shit. He said to himself that he wasn’t going to do it this time. But as much as Hinata pisses him off to no end. He can’t watch the loser suffer like this.

“Thanks, Kageyama.” Hinata smiles as much as he can muster with his probably numb, stupid mouth.

Kageyama just hums in return. Looking out at the hanging lights, watching the people go by.

“Bu’ I soo proved yo’wron. Thi’is the best soba in Ja’pa.”

Kageyama is content with getting that wrong, it evens the score. But he’ll win in the end. He always does.

“Don’t eat with your mouth full. It’s gross.”

Hinata mumbles something about Kageyama being bossy, and Tobio ignores it.

So Kageyama’s not exactly sure when this outing turned into Hinata dragging him around from place to place. But it unfortunately has, so there’s not much he can do about it now except follow.

And so here they are, fifteen minutes left until their train leaves, and a bit less closer to the train station then Tobio would like to be at this time, but what can he do about it? Hinata’s dumbass is stubborn as hell and he won’t leave until he says so.

Tobio’s still glad they left early though, he’d kind of predicted that Hinata would keep on getting distracted with all the different markets and stores, and he sure is grateful he did.

“This is the last one we’re going to.” Kageyama states.

“Yeah, sure.” Hinata says. But he’s not listening, Kageyama can tell that much, but he still trails Hinata as he looks at all the geeky figurines or superheroes Tobio never cared for, even when he was a kid.

At Least they were geeky. Until they got to the small volleyball player area of the establishment, tucked away in a corner, then, to Tobio, there was nothing cooler in the world.

“Woah.” Kageyama can’t help but let out. He knows that his eyes must be bulging out his head right now, but he can’t help it. There’s liberos receiving balls, massive figures that look more like statues of players in the middle of action, there’s small even cheap figures of spikers mid flight, it kind of reminds him of Hinata.

And then he sees it. The setter section.

Needless to say, Kageyama gawks at that for a while.

Not for long though. They have a train to catch.

Kageyama basically forces himself away. “C’mon. We’ve got to go.” Tobio flicks Hinata’s head, who turns to face him with a way less pissed looking face then Kageyama was expecting. In fact, it looks almost sad.

“What?” Tobio asks dryly. Feeling impatient.

“Look.” The boy holds up one of those cheap, tiny little figures. Ones less wide than the palm of your hand.

Kageyama glances at it. “Yeah. It’s a spiker. Great, let’s go.”

“No. Look.”

Tobio sighs and looks a little harder. The figure is a boy who has ginger hair and light brown eyes, his volleyball shoes even have a little red in them. It looks eerily similar to Hinata, with a made up uniform, of course.

“It looks exactly like me. That’s so cool.” Hinata says, not as gleefully as one would expect him to.

“Yeah.” Kageyama feels jealous, wishing he had a figure that looked like him too. “You should buy it. Quickly though.”

Hinata looks down at the figure gloomily. “I can’t.”

“Why? It must be like two thousand yen at the most.”

Hinata puts the figure down. “I just can’t. It’s okay though, I’ll live.”

“Why the hell not?”

“I can’t say. You’ll get mad.” The boy looks up at Tobio just for a moment before his eyes find something else to look at.

Curiosity spreads through Tobio. “Well now I need to know why.”

“I- no.” Hinata frowns.

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes. Or I’m never setting to you again.” Tobio argues.

Hinata’s mouth is wide open in shock, as if Kageyama hasn’t used this trump card a million times over. “Nooo! Please set to me!” He grabs Kageyama’s arms and starts shaking them desperately, looking up.

“Just tell me.” Kageyama shoves his arms off awkwardly.

Hinata looks like he’s about to mutter an apology for touching Tobio judging by the guilty look on his face, but decides against it. Kageyama’s grateful, it’s not like he’s fully against physical touch it’s just, with Hinata, it’s weird. Kageyama doesn’t like it. But what he doesn’t like even more is when Hinata makes a big deal out of it and apologises profusely.

So yeah, he’s grateful that the dumbass didn’t make a scene,
but not grateful enough to give in.

Hinata sighs. “Fine. Just-“ he pauses. “Just don’t get too mad.”

Tobio just nods, waiting.

Hinata closes his eyes and says some kind of silent prayer like an idiot before starting. Tobio wants to roll his eyes. “I kind of spent all my money on our soba.”

“Boke!!” Tobio yells. What an idiot. Tobio literally said that he could’ve paid for it. Why does the dumbass have to make everything so damn difficult? Couldn’t he have just accepted the gift like a normal person? Screw Hinata and his pride.

“I know! I’m sorry!” Hinata flinches, Kageyama’s not sure if it’s in preparation for the mean things Hinata thinks he’s going to say or something else. Either way the action drains most of the anger out of him.

“I’m paying you back. And you will take it.” He scowls.

Hinata relaxes and smiles a bit. “That sounds like a threat.”

“Oh, it is.”

“You’re scary, Kageyama.” Hinata shivers half heartedly before turning around, not until giving the figure one last look. “Okay, let’s go!”

Tobio should be even more eager to leave than Hinata is, but during the short journey to the exit, Kageyama can’t stop thinking about the tiny figure. So just as they open the door to go, Tobio mumbles something about forgetting his phone and tells Hinata to go on without him.

And just to quiet the stupid, stupid voice in the back of his head. He buys the damn figure and shoves it in his bag before leaving.

————————————

After having to run across what felt the whole of Akita to make their train home, stressing out because Hinata ‘lost’ his ticket (it was in his back pocket,) having to board and travel down that said train, running for another fifteen minutes to make it back to camp ten minutes before they leave, Tobio now stands at the entrance of reception, side by side with Hinata. Where they were told to meet in order to take the bus back home. A few boys are littered around the room with their bags and Tobio takes this as his cue to get his own bags and blend in. Hinata just follows.

“Huddle in guys!” Coach Ika orders, walking in just as Kageyama had found himself a seat. Without complaint though, he huddles in, Hinata still trailing beside him. Kageyama isn't a fan of Hinata following him, nor is he a fan of the boy choosing to stand next to Tobio when they huddle. Them being forced to put their arms around one another makes him hyper aware of what he is doing. That’s one of the main reasons he avoided him so intensely during the past few training sessions back home. It distracts him.

Coach talks and talks and all Kageyama can think about is how Hinata’s finger has accidentally hooked into Tobio’s t-shirt, his unkempt , sharp fingernail digs into his skin ever so slightly and that Hinata’s hair is so big that it’s managing to tickle Kageyama’s cheek. He wants to slap his own cheek off and shave off all of Hinata’s stupid. Stupid. Hair.

It makes total sense that he would though, they’re teammates after all, and if it really came down to it and the universe asked Kageyama if he would like Hinata to stop following him. He would probably just reject the offer and just bear it. Because it may bring him discomfort. But it also brings familiarity. And Tobio doesn’t have a lot of that these days.

Except for volleyball. There’s always been volleyball. That’s probably why Hinata seems ‘familiar’ to him. Yeah. Volleyball.

And with that Tobio does his best to ignore the fingernail and the fragments of ginger hair and listen to what his part-time coach is saying.

Just then Coach Ika gestures for the huddle to end. “And I hope you guys were listening. That’s what my old gramps used to tell me and it changed the trajectory of my volleyball career.” Coach finishes.

Oh.

“I’m only messing with ya’ Kageyama.” Coach slaps him on the back. “Daydreaming are we?”

Tobio feels confused on how to answer. Is he in trouble? “Sorry Coach!” He bows a deep bow. A boy snickers.

Tobio’s even more confused.

Coach Ika says his farewells to the regulars. Bids one big goodbye to the rest of them, and excuses himself.

“Let’s go home.” Hinata adjusts his crutches and starts making his way to the front doors, his hair whipping in his face a bit.And this time it’s Kageyama who follows.

“Yeah.”

Hinata stays facing forward, focusing on the motions. “I have to give these back when we get to the bus. Can you do it for me? Please?”

To Tobio it sounds like Hinata is saying the please extra sweetly. This makes him want to help him even less.

But he still complies, he doesn’t want Hinata to do it and risk getting more hurt. That wouldn’t be good at all. For Kageyama, of course. There’s no point in setting if your spiker is dead on the floor from ankle failure. “Fine.”

Is ankle failure even a thing?

He would ask Hinata but he’s probably just as clueless.

“Thanks! And since you’re already doing that, can you please help me get on the bus?”

“No way.” An image of Tobio queen-lifting Hinata onto the bus like some knight in shining armour fills his head. There is no chance he’ll be doing that.

Hinata smirks. “I’m only kidding, moron. I’m not paralysed.”

“You will be if you don’t shut up. Just because you can’t walk good doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you.”

Hinata seems to hoist his crutches a bit further this time, as if to defend himself. “Okay! I’m sorry.”

Tobio hums. He can’t help but have a small smirk on his face seeing the idiot look so frightened by him. As if he would actually do it.

Well, he could. If Hinata managed to piss him off enough.

The small smirk dwindles when they get to the bus though. Tobio rolls his eyes and grabs the stupid crutches from Hinata and quickly takes them to reception, Hinata carefully hopping onto the bus.

Kageyama jogs back to the bus and grabs his bag left at the foot of the entrance. It would be safe to assume that Hinata would be done getting a seat but he’s fumbling about with his bag while trying to stay upright on one leg. Kageyama sighs.

“I’ll take them. Just sit, idiot.”

Hinata gives him an annoyed glance. “I’ve got it.” Hinata hoists his bag up more to get a better grip.

Tobio sighs and lets him get on with it, waiting as patiently as he possibly can.

And as if just on cue, the dumbass takes another hop forward and loses balance, almost comically slowly falling sideways.

They both react as fast as someone with athlete reflexes should, so Hinata doesn’t exactly fall. He just tilted into a booth of seats and caught himself before he landed, with Kageyama gripping his arm for support. The position of Tobio towering over Hinata makes him feel a little uncomfortable, and he feels pure.. annoyance when Hinata glances up at Kageyama and looks away with a pink tint on his cheeks. So he soon stops holding onto the little shit and Hinata slumps down.

“That was on purpose..” Hinata mutters, adjusting himself to sit properly. Tobio can’t help but think how much of an idiot he looks right now.

Kageyama scoffs, dumping his bag on the floor underneath his seat.. “Yeah. Okay.”

The two sit side by side waiting for the bus to start. And once it starts the silence continues.

It’s not as tense as it was on the bus ride to the training camp. But Tobio can tell that there’s something bothering Hinata, judging by the constant slight furrow in his brows. Not that Kageyama was paying any attention.
But Hinata says nothing and the next thirty minutes consist of knees and shoulders bumping.

Nobody speaks up until they’re almost home.

Kageyama knows it’s coming when Hinata’s leg starts to bounce, Kageyama knows it’s something important when Hinata starts fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt.

“What?” Kageyama asks, not being able to take the thick tension Hinata is admitting just by existing.

“Uhh. Nothing.” Hinata looks out the window, Kageyama can see his reflection and witnesses Hinata curse himself under his breath.

Tobio sighs. “I know it’s not nothing. Just tell me.” He tugs on Hinata’s sleeve a bit too harshly.

Hinata turns around, his eyes dart around for a moment before finding Kageyama’s. “Well it’s just.” He swallows. “We’re okay now, right? No more weirdness? As long as I y’know.. keep my distance or em. Yeah.”

The question takes Tobio by surprise. To be honest he had mostly forgotten about the whole thing, his mind stuck on strictly volleyball. “Yeah.” He answers simply.

“Okay.” A few seconds of silence (that Tobio takes for granted.) “I was only asking because.” A pause. “Well I can’t play because I twisted my ankle, so—“

“You twisted your ankle. And then continued to play until you sprained it.” Kageyama interrupts.

Hinata blinks. “Yeah. Okay, sprained. I was just saying that, well what if we get” Hinata looks like he’s actually thinking about what words are about to come out of his mouth. “awkward. Again.”

Why is Hinata like this? Why can’t he just leave some things up to interpretation? They’ve talked about this. Tobio apologised. He said that he wanted space. What else is there to it?

Kageyama swallows hard, digging his perfectly shaped nails into his palm. “We won’t. I promise.” And Kageyama means it. He won’t let it happen again. He won’t explode like he had done during the match with Date Tech, because volleyball depends on it. And as much as he hates to even acknowledge it. It was strange not talking to Hinata during practice, it was weird not racing him to the doors. It gave him Deja-vu of their fight in first year. But he just kept on telling himself that it was better than whatever the hell was happening to him the last few weeks before the match. He told himself that it was for the sake of volleyball, but now that the two are on speaking terms now, he wonders. Was it?

Because Hinata is important. He’s important for Kageyama’s highschool career. And even if Hinata was the biggest asshole in the world (which totally can be sometimes,) Tobio has to put up with him, so him lashing out at Hinata will never happen again, he has to keep his emotions and volleyball separate. No matter how angry and pissed and frustrated and confused and annoyed Hinata makes him feel.

“Okay. Awesome.” Hinata smiles. Tobio can see his two fanged teeth and he suddenly wants that smile gone. So he looks away and stares at his lap until the bus finally stops.

Kageyama moves to another row of seats for a moment to allow Hinata through. Just so he can keep an eye on him. But the dumbass isn’t half bad at moving with one leg, maybe he caught him at the wrong moment when they were getting on the bus.

The two get off and Kageyama lets Hinata hold onto his arm as they waddle awkwardly towards a bench. Hinata basically collapses onto it.

“How are you getting home when you can’t walk anyways?”

Hinata slings his bag over his back, and bangs his head on the table. “Arrggg! Don’t remind me Kageyamaa.”

“What, are you crawling or something?”

Hinata reamurges, “Well, no. My Ma’ isn’t home from work for another hour, so she can’t drive me. But I brought my bike so I’m just going to lean on that until I make it to the bottom of the hill up to my house, by then she’ll be out of work so she said that I can get picked up there.” Hinata says dreadfully.

“You want me to walk you there?” Kageyama says in response.

And why did Kageyama say that in response? Why would he offer that? Teammates don’t walk eachother places. They say polite goodbyes and walk home separately. But no, Tobio’s mouth has to move faster than his brain.

“Just to the bike shed if that’s okay. I can go by myself once I have something else to lean on.”

Ah. That’s fine then. It’s only a two minute walk to the shed. Tobio had meant it as in to the hill. But it’s better this way.

“Okay.” Kageyama stands up and the two fold back into their regular helping-Hinata-get-places position, making space for their bags.

Once they make it and Hinata unlocks his bike, Kageyama feels like he’s outstayed his welcome, he says an awkward goodbye and Hinata seems more focused on staying upright than saying farewell, so Tobio starts to make his way to his usual ‘going home’ path.

For a while Tobio spends the first half of the twenty minutes it takes to get home thinking of volleyball plays, which ones would work on which players, who to set them to, and like always, his brain comes up with Hinata. Tobio imagines a perfect and precise set, he can almost feel the volleyball on the tips of his fingers, smell the distinctive smell of the court, hear the sounds of shoes squeaking on the polished wooden floor and exhausted pants coming from every direction.

He feels happy even thinking about it. But it’s a nervous sort of happiness. How could he not be nervous? Karasuno’s first match for the spring tournament is in three weeks. He needs to focus on volleyball.

But as Tobio passes a quiet street, he sees a cat. A ginger cat. Burnt orange, to be specific.

And his brain can do anything but focus on volleyball for the last ten minutes of his trip home.

————————————-

Tobio swings the gate open, in a mood that his walk home that was supposed to be centred about different rotations and plays somehow was overshadowed by Hinata of all things. And then that was overshadowed by the downpour of heavy rain. And then that was overshadowed by a stomach ache. Needless to say, Kageyama isn’t in the greatest mood. Especially with Hinata sticking around in his head.

An uneasy feeling hangs in Tobio’s chest at the familiarity of this problem. It happened a lot leading up to the not-so-nice conversation he and Hinata had at the Date Tech match.

Kageyama shakes his head and walks through his garden to get to the back door. He won’t let that happen again. He made an oath, for the sake of volleyball.

Kageyama searches his bag for his keys, gets frustrated because he can’t find the damn things, realises they’re in his pocket and embarrasses himself (and also soaks himself in the rain further during the process.)

Tobio would usually walk into an empty house, lights off, spotless and quiet. Maybe Momo would greet him with a purr (that usually meant that she was hungry, but Tobio likes to feel appreciated.)

Key word: usually.

But this time the lights are on, this time the house isn’t spotless, in fact it’s quite the opposite, clothes everywhere, blankets on the sofa as if someone’s been camping out, food on the table.

And this time, it’s definitely not quiet.

“Tobioo!! You’re home!” A pair of arms swing round him and squeeze far more tighter than Tobio would like, not caring about the damp clothes.

Kageyama knows who it is by the excitement in the woman’s tone, the smell of her familiar perfume, the sound of an excessive amount of bracelets and the feeling of soft, silky hair touching his nose.

“Hi, Miwa.” Kageyama, slightly uncomfortable, hugs her back awkwardly.

“Surprise!!” She lets go and stands right in front of Tobio, smile still beaming.

“Yes.. it is.” Kageyama blinks. He honestly is surprised. He only sees Miwa on Christmas and his birthday, and those two things usually merge into one with Kageyama being born in December, so this is odd, her being a ‘city girl’ as she would say, this visit is strange. Really strange.

“‘Yama. You’re supposed to act happier than that.” Her face drops a bit, looking annoyed.

“I am happy.” And he is. He likes it when Miwa comes over, she’s fun, for a certain period of time, then she gets a little annoying. But she softens what would be the worst holiday in the world with her light-heartedness, and the Kageyama’s need all the lightheartedness they can get when Tobio’s parents are home.

“I know. You love me really.” She stands on tip-toe to mess up Kageyama’s hair. “Geez, kid! You get like, two feet taller every time I come over.”

Kageyama imagines himself playing volleyball as a guy who grows two feet every year. “I wish.” He walks past Miwa and dumps his bag next to the couch, which after closer examination is even messier than he thought. “You sure make a mess.”

Miwa skips over to the kitchen, sitting on the counter while Tobio gets milk out the fridge and a glass out the cabinet, hoping to soothe his stomach ache, which seems to be getting worse by the minute. He’ll grab some pain killers later. “Yeah, sorry about that. I was watching soap operas.” She lightly swings her legs in the air like a child.

Kageyama rolls his eyes. Miwa and her soap operas. He vaguely remembers Hinata excitedly talking to him about one during a break at practice, but Tobio was too focused to listen. He bets that the two watch the same ones, but aren’t they all the same anyways? Tobio wants to roll his eyes again, Miwa and Hinata are similar, in a few ways.

Kageyama looks over to the table while pouring his milk. “You made dinner.” Miwa never cooks, she lives on takeout. Weird. Really weird.

Miwa smiles lightly. Almost nervously. “Yeah, pork curry, your favourite. But I overcooked the pork.”

Kageyama puts the carton back in the fridge and takes his milk to the table. “When do you not?”

Miwa gasps and holds her hand to her heart. “Hey! I tried!”

Kageyama bets she learnt that move from her soap operas, he’s pretty sure Hinata’s used it before.

Miwa eventually sits and the two start to eat in silence, Momo joins and purrs on Miwa’s lap for a while. Kageyama can hear a clock ticking.

“You're not eating much.” Miwa comments, warily.

Tobio looks down at his bowl. He really isn’t. The milk didn’t help his stomach and he feels a headache coming on. “I feel a bit sick, sorry.”

Miwa smiles softly. “It’s okay. Just try finish it, Okay?”

“Okay.”

More silence, the clock still ticks.
After years of eating with Miwa, Kageyama knows that when Miwa is quiet, that’s usually the only time she has something important to say. He wants to figure out why she’s here.

“It kind of tastes like mom’s.” He begins.

Miwa swallows and keeps her eyes on her food. She smiles a wobbly smile and says an even more wobbly ‘yeah.’

Kageyama blames that weird reaction on last Christmas’s fiasco, which must still be fresh in Miwa’s mind.

“What are you doing here?” Tobio asks straight up, not wanting to waste time even thinking about last Christmas.

Miwa glances up at him for a while, and her eyes look, nervous? She puts down her chopsticks and looks at Momo, petting her ear softly.

“Am I not allowed to visit my dear old brother?” She laughs. But it seems all wrong. This whole sudden visit is starting to feel wrong.

Tobio isn’t the best at reading people's emotions, but Miwa might be the easiest person to read he’s ever met, except for Hinata, of course. “It’s January.”

Miwa swallows, petting Momo’s ear like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. She stays silent for a few moments, and Kageyama can tell that the reason she is here isn’t a good one. “Tobio..” And she finally looks up at him.

And one look at Miwa and it suddenly all clicks. Why Miwa made dinner. Her nervous smile. Her anxious responses. Why she’s even here to begin with.

“I’m picking mom and dad up tomorrow afternoon.” Miwa gets out, realising that Kageyama has figured it out. That he figured out her plan. To sit him down with his favourite meal to soften the blow. And it’s like the world freezes, Momo’s purrs stop, Miwa holds her breath, the clock stops ticking, the world stops spinning as a whole.

Why? Is all Kageyama’s brain could think of. Why now?

He puts his chopsticks down clumsily. Clumsy. Something his hands never are.

Why?

Kageyama stands up, not really sure where he’s going, he’s vaguely aware that Miwa follows him up.

They can’t come over. They can’t. Not after the last time. Not with the spring tournament coming up, he can’t afford this distraction.

Tobio doesn’t feel anything. Just stands there facing the living room, thinking

why?

“Because they want to apologise, to both of us. For last Christmas.” Miwa answers. Tobio must’ve said that last part out loud.

He can hear Miwa’s voice getting closer, but he can’t register what she’s saying. Not like it’ll help. They’re coming. They’re coming tomorrow and there’s nothing Kageyama can do about it.

And as if a switch is flicked, he goes from feeling nothing to everything. Tobio can feel his mouth getting dry, he can feel his palms getting sweaty, he can feel his stomach ache getting worse and worse, he can feel each and every individual drum of his heart getting harder and harder and louder and louder.

He can feel everything.

“Tobio..” Miwa grabs his arm and suddenly everything he is feeling is too much. His mouth is too dry. He swallows. He swallows again. Nothing. Now his palms are too sweaty and his chest aches almost as bad as his stomach does. It aches bad like someone is gripping his lungs and not letting go.

He rips his arm out of her grasp and he needs to leave. He needs to leave right now. He can’t be where they are. He just can’t.

“I need to go.” He gets out.

He’s not sure where. But all he can manage to think is that he’d rather be on the streets than anywhere near where they will be staying.

“Kageyama, please.”

Kageyama tries to focus. He blinks once, twice. What does he need? He grabs his school uniform and that’s all his brain can think of. Thankfully he has most of his overnight stuff in his bag already. He stuffs the uniform inside and stands up.

“Yama?”

Tobio turns to look at Miwa. She’s crying.

Guilt mixes in with the dread and Kageyama feels horrible. He’s being cruel to his sister. His sister is only here to make this easier on Tobio. His sister who cooked him his favourite meal. His sister who must be feeling ten times worse about this than he is.

But Kageyama can’t stay here. He really, really can’t.

He tries to take a breath, it takes a few attempts but he feels well enough to speak. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

A tear escapes Miwa, who is holding on to Momo, still petting her ear. The tear lands on the cat and is absorbed by its black fur.

“I know.” She smiles a sad smile. “You have a safe place to go?”

“Yes.” He lies. Kageyama hates to lie. But he can’t help it. He’s starting to feel lightheaded. Shit his stomach hurts.

“Then be back by tomorrow for dinner. For me, please.” She steps forward and gives Tobio’s arm a squeeze.

“Okay.” Is all he can manage.

And Tobio leaves and quickly as possible, almost stumbling out the door, he swings his bag over his shoulder and runs. The cool rain feels strange on his warm body but he pays no mind. He lets his hair stick to his forehead, he lets his tears mix in with the rain water, he lets the wind rush past his face, he lets himself run.

He’s not sure where. But he runs. All Tobio can feel is anger. And he lets it seep out of him, leaving a trail of if behind him, each stomp on the pavement is an outlet to take his anger out. To take his anger at his father out. His miserable father. With his cruel insults from last month, images of Miwa pleading and crying at their dad to hear her out, to be met with only rage and yells. Tobio runs faster. Faster. Chest heaving.

He stomps and stomps with every step but the anger doesn’t leave. Because how can someone be so horrible? How can a father say such things to his daughter?
Oh Miwa.

Poor, poor Miwa. After years of sneaking around and keeping secrets out of fear of losing her dads respect, she finally builds up the courage and confidence in herself to come out as a lesbian,

and their dad managed to tear all that courage and confidence down in just one night.

And even though the whole thing has no relation to Tobio, it scares him. It scares him real bad that his dad is so, so against the whole idea.

But the scariest thing is that Tobio has no idea why it scares him.

Faster. Past trees and houses and more trees. Past bushes and parked cars and the occasional wild animal. He’s taking a specific route to a specific place and he doesn’t know why.

But he still takes all the correct twists and turns down the roads and runs as fast as he can up the giant hill, because where else can he go? He curses himself for doing this not-teammate like thing. But what other option does he have? Because every step makes his heart more heavy and his head more angry. Angry at his father, for the things he said. Angry at his mother, for standing by and letting it happen. Angry at Miwa, for agreeing with this whole thing in the first place.

But most of all he’s angry at himself. Because after running for around an hour, with his hands shaking and his mind racing and his eyes most likely puffy and swollen, he stupidly, oh so stupidly, knocks on Hinata's door.

He waits a moment, staring at the door, rain still drenching him. He didn’t think this through. He still isn’t thinking, if he was he’d probably start running the opposite direction. But he can’t go home. Not yet. And as he sees a shorter silhouette through the sliding entrance with messed up hair and something in their hand about to open the door, he realises that he has no idea what he’s going to say once that door opens.

Chapter Text

Tobio honestly doesn’t know how even got here, in front of Hinata’s door in the pouring rain, with his hair stuck to his forehead and his chest heaving from running. The whole thing feels like it came out of one of Hinata’s stupid tv shows, Kageyama feels so dumb, so so dumb and pissed off and tired and sick.

But it’s too late to go back now. Infact, he can’t go back, because in what feels like milliseconds, Hinata answered the door and is now stood right in front of him. Or rather, Tobio’s stood in front of Hinata, looking like an idiot. But he has no idea what to say, he’s not even sure his mouth would comply even if he did. The two just stare at each other, one trying to figure out what the hell is going on and the other trying to look as normal as possible.

“Kageyama?” The boy looks confused, his eyes are squinting as if he can’t see Tobio or if he’s trying to decipher something.

Kageyama feels sick. He actually feels sick. Like a slug is slithering around in his insides, mixing everything up and scattering his thoughts until he can’t make sense of anything.

What the hell is he supposed to say? Because he sure isn’t telling Hinata shit, he’ll just keep on asking questions and that’s not what Kageyama needs right now, 

what he needs is to say something. Say something. But the slug just keeps on going and Tobio wants to die.

What if Hinata doesn’t let him in and leaves him to freeze through the night? 

What if it gets so cold that he has to go home? If that is the case, he would have to, Kageyama can’t afford catching a cold with the spring tournament, but he’s sure it’s too late now, he’s probably already got one, he feels hot and cold at the the same time, his head is pounding, his stomach ache has turned into what feels like goddamn kidney stones, (he doesn’t know what kidney stones are, but it sounds right.). It can’t get that much worse, maybe sleeping outside won’t be that bad.

No. He wouldn’t do that. This is Hinata, he wouldn’t. They both know that he’d be banned from being set to for at least a few days, so he won’t. He can’t.

But his mother could. Tobio finds his brain arguing back to him. Who the hell wants a stranger staying the night? Tobio knows for sure that if the roles were reversed and this were his mom Hinata probably wouldn’t be staying. Especially when there’s school tomorrow.

The sick feeling worsens and Tobio’s head races. He can feel his throat close and his mouth water in an uncomfortable way. He takes a breath in, trying to clear his mind. He swallows. Shit he’s going to throw up. 

“Kageyama are you okay?” Tobio can’t see shit anymore because of the rain blurring his vision. But he can imagine the stupid look on Hinata’s face. It just makes his stomach feel worse.

Or is it tears blurring his vision? God, he hopes not. He can’t cry in front of Hinata, he can’t.

Say something. The slug feels like it’s making its way up Tobio’s intestines.

Kageyama feels his mouth open without his consent, he thinks he’s finally going to speak up and—

It happens so quickly, the sick feeling finally takes over his entire body and he can’t help but gag, and.. oh shit it’s happening. He turns to the side, feels a warm sensation in his stomach and—

 And he actually throws up. He vomits all over Hinata’s porch.

What. The. Fuck.

Kageyama coughs up whatever the hell he had for lunch and dinner that day, the stuff tasting vile in his mouth and he actually thinks he’d be better off dead right now. Hinata yells something that Tobio can’t decipher. He expects Hinata to slam the door in his face and never talk to him again, because, once again, what the fuck? But Tobio spits the remaining stuff on his tongue out and Hinata pulls him inside by the arm, saying things that he can’t make sense of.

Kageyama vaguely acknowledges that this is his first time in Hinata’s family home, but the thought is soon overwhelmed by the panging in his head. He rubs his eyes trying to make sense of what’s going on, but he can’t. He can’t see shit with the headache tunnelling his vision down to a small spec, black static surrounding him, he feels like he’s being turned upside down and hung up to dry and who is talking so loudly? Kageyama wants to tell them to shut up but his mouth feels like cotton and won’t move right. Where is he again? All he can smell is vomit and all he can hear is muffled voices. 

But he can make sense of two things clearly, for one, he is definitely not standing, he’s not exactly when he sat down, but he has. He must be on his sofa at home or his bed. God he hopes he’s in his bed right now. And he can still feel the strong grip of a hand around his wrist, the hand that guided him here. He’s getting dizzier and dizzier, and his last thought is how stupidly childish it is of him that he never wants that person to let go.

———————————

Hinata never wants anyone to even mention vomit around him ever again.

Don’t get him wrong, he gets that it’s a totally normal bodily response to.. he’s not sure on the specifics of it.. He knows it’s normal, okay?!

It’s just he’s seen.. a lot of things today he wishes that he could unsee. Not only with what just happened with Kageyama a mere ten minutes ago, but, and as much as he really wishes this weren’t true. With himself, the whole package, probably a bit worse than Kageyama’s performance, and that’s saying something.

So yeah, he’s been through it too, only around an hour ago. 

See, he had just gotten home and was feeling horrible. Like, not just ‘I sprained my ankle and it hurts’ horrible, he felt more of a, ‘oh my god I’m going to pass out and throw up and have a stroke all at the same time’ kind of horrible. To be honest he’s still feeling this way, he had to basically crawl out of bed to open the door. And if Kageyama’s feeling that way too.. that means that they must’ve caught something,

or they ate something bad.

And Shouyou would totally blame this on breakfast from the canteen that morning, but the thing is he skipped breakfast to get some help with his ankle..

Which means there’s only one thing that they have both eaten together, it’s the only thing that could’ve done this. And Shouyou really doesn’t want to admit it. Especially with Kageyama lying in his bed while Hinata lays on the floor. Which, by the way, what is up with that!? The boy just showed up and threw up all over Hinata’s front porch without saying a word, and his ma’ insisted Kageyama get his bed, why doesn’t she just adopt him on the spot right now!? Shouyou is aware that Kageyama will most likely want to speak nothing of the whole thing, maybe even not tell Hinata why he’s here in the first place. But he has to try. And he will. The second Kageyama wakes up from his nap. 

And maybe change into a clean t-shirt. And he probably needs to take a shower, maybe wash his hair.

Okay, Hinata will ask the second after he does all those things.

What was he thinking about? Oh yeah. It was definitely the soba that did this.

Maybe Kageyama was right, the place did look a little bit dodgy.

But the mere thought of admitting Kageyama is right about something makes Hinata's stomach even more upset. So he settles on the conclusion that his and Kageyama’s taste palettes just weren’t advanced enough for their cuisine.

He waits for Kageyama to wake up.

And he waits..

And waits.

And after thirty minutes of waiting Hinata’s scared that Kageyama was so affected by the food poisoning or whatever the hell they have that he may have actually died.

He braces himself for the splitting headache he’s about to get from sitting up and just does it. After a swift recovery he climbs onto the bed, trying not to put any pressure on his ankle, and reaches his arm over to check the boy's pulse on his neck.

And Kageyama’s hand somehow finds Hinata’s hair. And he grips onto it and pulls like it’s some volleyball scholarship right in front of him ready for the taking.

Okay. So he’s definitely not dead.

Hinata curses under his breath, then quickly looks up to see if his mother heard. Once he’s in the clear he tries to remove Kageyama's hand.

Why does this guy always have his hands in Shouyou’s hair?

“Kageyama..” he whispers. Not to wake him up, god no, if Kageyama were to wake up right now Hinata doesn’t know what he would do, probably something to do with defending himself from perv allegations. He meant ‘Kageyama’ in more of a pleading way.

But Jesus the guy is stubborn, Hinata takes both hands now and puts one in between Kageyama's hand and his hair, and the other on Kageyama’s arm.

Ok. Here he goes. Three, two, one.

He yanks Kageyama’s hand off, along with about a third of his hair. 

Oww! Shouyou manages to scream internally instead of right into Kageyama's ear. 

Hinata looks and Kageyama’s hand, okay, so not exactly a third of his hair was ripped out, more like a dozen or so strands. But it still hurts and he has the right to be pissed off.

So he just goes back to his pillow and blanket on the floor and hopes that Kageyama can sense that he’s in trouble through telepathy. Maybe he’ll wake up later.

Spoiler alert: he didn’t.

After another two hours of just laying on the floor waiting, Hinata gives up. It’s almost ten pm now and he needs to pee (among other things thanks to the soba.) So if Kageyama wakes up in a random bed without Hinata there to explain where he is, so be it, not his problem.

Hinata hops to the bathroom and spends a while doing his business then decides to take a detour to the living room. Natsu must’ve gone to bed a few hours ago, guilt swirls in Hinata’s stomach as he realises he didn’t say goodnight. Or is that just the soba acting up again?

Whatever. He hops into the living room on one foot, only to see his mother asleep on the sofa with some reality tv show playing. Why is everyone in this house asleep? Shouyou should be the one asleep, he’s the one who’s food poisoned and had to nurse Kageyama and has a sprained ankle.

Hinata sighs, that woman needs to get some proper sleep. He finishes hopping over and gets onto his knees, eye to eye with his mother now, “Ma’?” Hinata gently shakes his mother awake. Her eyes flicker open. “I think you should get to bed. I will be too.”

She rubs her eyes and sits up quickly, sliding the blanket off her. “Yeah, thanks Sho.” She smiles softly, her voice raspy with sleep. “How’s Kageyama?”

Shouyou plonks down on the open space next to her on the sofa. “He’s still not up yet. I think I might have to wake him up myself so he can get out of that smelly t-shirt.”

“Yeah. Do that, you should throw your bedding in the wash along with the t-shirt.” She runs her hands through Hinata’s hair carefully, in a way only a mother could do, Hinata leans into the touch.

“Is he— this Kageyama I mean— is he normally like, this?” She asks, her voice going higher at the last word, obviously concerned.

Hinata can’t help but frown, for whatever reason, he doesn’t want his mother to get a bad impression of Kageyama, but he fears she already has as he recalls her helping Shouyou get Kageyama into his bed, concern and uncertainty painted all over her face. His mother would never be one to send someone out onto the streets, but he could tell that she was anxious, and Hinata doesn’t want her to be anxious around Kageyama, infact, he’s sure that she would like him, if they had met under different circumstances.

“No. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s not the type to just show up uninvited.”

His mother nods. “So it’s not just the food poisoning? Do I need to call someone?”

Shouyou thinks about it. Would that be best? Is that what Kageyama would want?

“I don’t know.” He answers honestly. “He can’t go to school tomorrow like this, I don’t think I can either, to be honest.”

Ma’ hums softly, still running her hand through his hair methodically. “Do you want me to call his home address, just to say that he’s safe?”

“He lives alone, most of the time at least. But I think..” Hinata stops. He really doesn’t want to wake Kageyama up, it was bad enough this morning, but waking up a food poisoned Kageyama? A food poisoned Kageyama in which the food poisoning was Hinata’s fault? It’s basically just asking to be sacrificed to some evil sleep demon. 

That or he could just.. not mention the food poisoning.

Yeah. He likes that option better.

He sighs. “I think I’m going to have to wake him up..” he stands up. Well, he stands up as normally as you can with a messed up ankle.

“You do that.” She yawns. His mother slides back down into a lying position. She needs to get into a proper bed, but Hinata can only deal with one problem at a time, so he lets her rest.

“Okay. I’ve got this. Let’s go.” Hinata whispers to himself for the tenth time in the last five minutes. But this time’s different. Because he’s going to do it. Right now. Go!

He freezes again, hovered over Kageyama, his knees digging into the carpet.

Why is this so difficult? It’s not like Kageyama’s some rabid dog that’ll attack the second you wake him up.

Actually that was quite a good comparison.

No! He needs to stop this negativity. Hinata takes a breath, then another.

Shouyou moves the sick bucket he had brought through for Kageyama (and maybe for himself if it had came down to it) to the side so he can sit right at Kageyama’s side, eye to eye with the boy. “Kageyama..” Hinata hesitates to touch him, is that okay? Is that within their boundaries? The whole thing just feels so.. uncertain. 

Shouyou shakes him sheepishly. And before he can do anything about it, Kageyama rolls over, the vomit-covered side of the shirt officially making contact with his sheets. And sure, it’s all dried up and whatever. But it’s still gross! When Hinata was throwing up he made sure to not contaminate anything in his room because, he might be a little bit lazy when it comes to his room, but he still has standards!

Shouyou’s a lot more pissed at Kageyama than he was two seconds ago, so in turn, he feels a little more bold.

“Kageyama?” Hinata slaps his cheek lightly. The boy just groans.

Screw it. “Kageyama!” He yells directly in his ear.

Another groan, but Kageyama’s eyes finally open this time. And he rubs his eyes.

Shouyou braces himself for what’s to come, but when Kageyama sits up, instead of scolding and yelling, he just sits there, avoiding Shouyou’s eyes.

“Hi.” Hinata mutters, realising that he never properly greeted Kageyama, the confidence fizzling out.

“Hi.” Kageyama’s voice is raspy with sleep, the soba in Hinata’s stomach starts acting up again.

Shouyou waits for him to say something, anything. But the two just stay still and silent, one on the floor, the other on the bed. It stays this way for a few minutes, but Hinata allows it so Kageyama can regain consciousness.

“Sorry about your porch.” He mumbles, obviously still half asleep, or maybe just being petty about having to apologise.

“It’s okay, nothing a bit of soapy water can’t fix.” Shouyou smiles, hoping to get an emotion out of Kageyama. Any emotion, even anger. He would much rather have a screaming Kageyama than a quiet one.

But nothing happens. Why? He was fine whenever they parted ways a few hours ago at the bike shed. Then he pulls up at Hinata’s front door with tears in his eyes, something Hinata would’ve thought impossible for Kageyama to do.

“Did something happen? Why are you here?” Hinata asks, he can feel himself frowning.

Kageyama swallows, looking uneasy. His eyes widen in horror and Hinata’s pretty sure the question wasn’t that bad.

But then he puts a hand to his mouth and Shouyou realises what is going on. “Shit—“

Shouyou grabs the bucket, “not in your hand, in here.” He says quickly, slapping the boy's arm away.

Kageyama grabs the bucket and Shouyou can’t help but look away.

Yep, if anyone even thinks of vomit within a one mile radius of him ever again, he’ll probably have a breakdown.

“Thi’ sso di’gusting.” Kageyama wipes his mouth with his t-shirt. Yes Kageyama. Yes it is.

And as if he’s just noticed the state his clothes are in, he groans and bangs his head against the wall. 

“You have no idea.” Hinata agrees. “I’m going to have to wash my sheets tonight.”

Tobio looks around the room, eyes darting from one thing to the next and looks like he’s just seen a ghost. Hinata really hopes he hasn’t, he could do without a haunted bedroom. Kageyama quickly gets up, only to shut his eyes tightly closed, “god, my head.” He brings a hand to his forehead.

Hinata stands up as well, a bit slower so as to not meet the same fate as his setter, “Kageyama, sit down.” Shouyou gestures for him to sit on the bed, he doesn’t want to touch Kageyama because one, he’s really gross right now and two the boy has clearly stated he wants nothing to do with Hinata.

The boy sits back down on the bed and Shouyou joins him.

“You’re being so weird. It’s like, scary.”

Kageyama just nods and looks away.

“What happened?” Shouyou asks again, adding an edge of seriousness to his voice so Kageyama knows that he’s not joking around.

Kageyama looks up and finally meets his eyes, and just for a second, as if remembering exactly what happened, he looks sad, he looks angry. And Shouyou knows that something bad has happened. He can feel his own face strain, trying to figure out what exactly happened. What has got Kageyama, someone who is so impossibly good at not being sad, acting like this?

Kageyama opens his mouth, Hinata is certain that he’s actually about to open up to him and—

A knock on the door.

Kageyama looks away from him quickly as if they’d been caught doing something scandalous. 

Shouyou sighs. “Yeah?” He asks. A bit mad that someone interrupted. Damn it! He was so close.

The door opens and it’s his mother, her hands fill with clean clothes and her face tired but kind. And instantly the bit of anger he may have felt melted.

She walks in, seeming a bit nervous from what Hinata’s seeing. “Hey Sho’.” she smiles lightly at Hinata. “Nice to meet you, Kageyama.” She keeps up her smile and bows slightly.

Kageyama tries to smile but fails miserably, resulting in a wobbly facial expression, 

god the only thing that boy can fake is a set. 

“I’m sorry about your porch, and for barging into your home, it’s just,” he pauses. “yeah. Sorry.” He bows his head.

And wow Hinata has never seen him so polite. It may have been only the most awkward sentence ever spoken, but it was respectful, really respectful.

Shouyou can see his mothers cautiousness melt away, now being sure that her son isn’t teammates with some roughian. “It’s okay, honey. I’ve got you some clean clothes here and feel free to take a shower to get yourself cleaned up.”

Kageyama’s face goes a bit pink and he mumbles a ‘thanks.’ 

“Oh, and before I forget. I called your house phone and your sister picked up. I told her that you're safe but that you're not well. She seemed really worried, please send her a text. I'm sure it’d mean a lot.” She smiles warmly, and Hinata can tell that she likes Kageyama. It makes him feel a little jealous about how well taken care of Kageyama is right now.

Kageyama just blinks as if his mother had just done a monkey impression and ‘ooh-ooh ahh-ahh’d’ all around Hinata’s room.

“Well, em. Goodnight boys. There’s pain killers on the kitchen counter for you both.” And with that she leaves the clothes on the floor and closes the door.

Kageyama stares at the closed door for a while before speaking up.

“She’s nice.” He states.

“Yeah.”

Silence. Which Hinata would usually fill but he’s trying to figure out why Kageyama’s face has made such a confused expression.

“Where’s your bathroom?”

Ah. Right. “Down the hall to the left. I’ll strip the bed while you’re gone.”

Kageyama nods, grabs the clothes, closes the door behind him and Hinata can’t help but exhale in relief. That was really awkward.

He checks the time on his phone, it’s almost eleven. Damn it. The sheets won’t be washed for a whole hour, let alone dried. Shouyou’s gonna have to improvise. He groans. He wants to do anything but laundry. He feels like everyone in the house is forgetting that he has been food poisoned too, even himself to be honest.

But alas, he gets changed into pyjamas, another old t-shirt: this time with a dog cartoon at the front (it’s childish, Hinata doesn’t care,) and a pair of plaid bottoms. He strips his bed down, carries it all in one go down to the washing machine, and heads back to his room, doing all this with a sprained ankle, by the way! He’s glad everyone’s either too unconscious or too busy to see his crawl to and from the washing machine.

He examines his room while taking a break from moving, wondering what Kageyama must’ve thought of it. With volleyball posters spread all over his walls, put up with care throughout the years, a bookshelf filled with magazines and books, all mostly centered around or featuring, again, volleyball, his desk with study material he barely touches scattered along it, a pile of clothes in the corner (a staple in Hinata’s room), and his big cardboard game board that Yachi made. It's a nice room, he feels a sense of pride about it.

Wait a minute, Hinata’s brain goes backwards. His big cardboard board game. The one Yachi made him. The one that has Kageyama’s name on it multiple times. The one that’s centred around Kageyama in general. The one that’s been sitting out in plain sight this entire time.

Oh crap. 

Oh crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

Hinata rushes over to it, fumbling around with it trying to figure out where to put it, why would he ever accept such a stupid, stupid thing?

No. He stops himself. That’s not fair. Yachi probably spent so long on this for him. Hinata finds himself admiring it once again, he never really got the chance on Friday, and wow is it well-made. The careful lettering, outlined in glitter. The tiny game piece of Hinata’s very own face, with little details that only she could do. Yep. It’s super Yachi. Hinata can’t help but love it. He counts up everything he kept track of through the weekend, it all adds up to four. It feels like his and Kageyama’s relationship totally back to normal now, accept for the fact that Kageyama refuses to take in the fact that they have one, but other than that minor detail (one that, quite frankly, is a little hurtful. But it is a detail that Hinata is willing to work on) there isn’t really any need for this thing, maybe Yachi adding fifty steps was a little unnecessary.

But instead of throwing it out, he finds a place under his bed. It’s fun having a challenge to complete, maybe by third year he’ll have made it above twenty-five (because him and Kageyama will totally be best friends by then.)

Yeah. Hinata’s keeping it, away from sight though, because he may love it, but Kageyama probably wouldn’t.

Okay. Hinata takes a breath, now let’s focus on where they’re sleeping.

Shouyou stumbles over to the door, takes one look down the hall, a smile creeping up his lips, and knows exactly what he’s going to do.

“What the hell is this?”

Hinata flinches at the sudden noise, halfway to sleep. He had a whole plan of yelling ‘surprise!’ or something super cool like that, but apparently that’s down the drain. It’s okay though, Kageyama probably would’ve been pissed off either way like the asshole he is.

He rubs his eyes, his head panging as if there was a tiny drummer hammering away inside his brain. He blinks, faces Kageyama, blinks again, and he tries oh so hard to hold in his laugh at what Kageyama’s wearing, but he takes one look at Kageyama’s face and fails.

He snorts. “Are you talking about this,” he gestures around the room, “or that.” He says, pointing at Kageyama’s outfit, while giggling all the while.

Kageyama frowns in his usual scary way, but honestly, the frown with the ‘it’s a purr-fect day!’ t-shirt with the matching bottoms, all covered in cute kittens just makes him laugh harder.

Kageyama doesn’t move, “I’m talking about both, but you can start with this thing.” He gestures at the shirt, looking just done with everything, but Hinata’s not nice enough to stop teasing.

“My auntie got a matching set for me and Natsu, but it was too big on both of us and kept falling off, but it seems to fit nice on you.” Shouyou smiles kindly, but with the context they both know it’s petty and fake.

“Was there not anything else to wear?” Kageyama sighs.

Hinata flops onto his back, spreading his limbs out like a starfish on the blanket below him. “It’s the only thing that’ll fit you. I’m the tallest one in the whole house, so your options are limited. You can, of course, just go home.”

Shouyou can see out of the corner of his eye that Kageyama tenses. “No.” He says, still standing, as if scared to move any closer into the room. What a rude response to such an awesome surprise Hinata has cultivated just for them.

“Why are you at my house, anyway?” Hinata asks, not expecting an answer.

Kageyama glances around the room, “why aren't we sleeping in your room?”

Yep. That’s expected. Oh well, at least he tried, Shouyou vows to just leave it be as Kageyama very obviously doesn’t want to talk about it.

“First of all, who said anything about you sleeping in my room?” Hinata questions, knowing that if the situation were different, Kageyama would probably have his bed and he would sleep on the floor. “Second of all, I know you probably have some fancy at-home rich boy maid to do your chores for you, but sheets don’t clean in just ten minutes, fancy-pants.”

Kageyama frowns at the nickname. “I do all the household chores. I just thought you might’ve had spare covers.”

“Nope.” Hinata pops the p.

“Also.” Kageyama continues.

“Also?” Hinata turns, puts his elbows on a pillow and his chin on his hands.

“Don’t call me fancy-pants, asshole.”

Hinata can’t help but smile at his frustration.

Kageyama can’t help but scowl at Hinata’s enthusiasm.

“Do you like it?” He gets up as slowly as his excited body can manage, the drummer in his head and rising stomach ache still taking a toll on him, and of course, his ankle. He stands on one leg next to Kageyama to catch a view of the extremely impressive sight.

Not to brag, but this might just be the best DIY bed ever made, like ever. Made out of every single blanket in the house, so at least twenty (they’re a very blanket-loving household), all the pillows from Hinata’s room and the living room, some used for resting your head and the others used for a good-old pillow wall between them, plus every stuffed animal he could find (not that Kageyama would like any of that, it’s mainly just for effect.)

But it paid off, it looks awesome and cosy and Hinata just wants to dive into it and never come out. And they got the tv!

Kageyama sits down in his designated spot. “This isn’t a sleepover, by the way.”

Shouyou joins him, stepping over the pillow wall and sitting in his spot. “Oh yeah, totally not.” (It totally is!)

Okay. So it’s not exactly a sleepover. Shouyou feels too sick for it to be a sleepover, not as bad as an hour ago, although that stupid drummer is starting to do some crazy freestyle tricks, hammering away in his head, and his stomach is telling him that he needs to go to the bathroom in the next ten minutes, but he got most of the bad food out when he.. yeah. But all around he is still feeling like crap, but it’s almost like a nice crap (he knows it doesn’t make sense, but it does to him, okay?)

Hinata glances back at Kageyama, who seems to be studying him with precision, Shouyou’s about to ask if he has something on his face but he speaks up, “You look like shit.” Kageyama says like he’s concluding something.

Oh. Okay. Guess he must look like a nice crap too. “That’s because I feel like shi—“ he looks over his shoulder, scared that his mother will overhear. “Crap. That’s just because I feel like crap. Also you’re not looking so purr-fect either.”

That, unfortunately, was a lie. It pisses Shouyou off how Kageyama can always look so.. good. Even when the guy has just projected vomited all over Hinata’s porch an hour and a half ago and is food poisoned for god sake, he makes it work, the asshole’s probably not even trying, but the whole hair-wet, skin looking paler than usual, eyes heavy and tired, face flushed from a hot shower, in cat pyjamas thing just works, he looks good. Purr-fect, one could say.

Shouyou pouts with jealousy. He tries not to think about it too often, but when he starts he can’t stop, it’s just one of those things that makes his mind race. Even when their mid-game when everyone’s all sweaty and panting and gross, Kageyama looks like he’s in his element, like he wouldn’t look better anywhere else, his hair stuck to his forehead, squirting water into his mouth, the beads of sweat on his forehead making him look so shiny and just good, the way that his face looks so much more relaxed during a match while everyone else in the room looks more tense than ever, but his eyes are so intense with focus it’s scary, even the way his thigh muscles tense and relax during break like he’s training them even at the most important moments, or maybe that’s a nervous thing (not that he’s been paying any attention!) Shouyou doesn’t know its just—

it all makes Shouyou so—

It all makes Shouyou so annoyed. It’s not fair.

“What do you mean you feel like shit?”

“Huh?” Hinata flinches again, getting caught mid daydream.

Kageyama raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean you feel like shit?”

Oh. Kageyama still has no idea about the food poisoning. Hinata better keep it that way so as to not prove Kageyama right about the soba.

But he didn’t think so far ahead to come up with a cover story, “I don’t—“

“No lying.” Kageyama interrupts, not that Hinata knew what he was going to say anyways, “Now that you mention it, you don’t look so purr-fect either. Not at all.” He squints his eyes slightly as if he’s trying to unlock some hidden code.

Hinata can feel his palms starting to sweat. The tiny drummer in his head migrates to his heart, picking up the pace.

“I know what happened here.”

Hinata swallows, his stomach knotted. “What happened?”

Kageyama’s eyes flicker as if they’ve just found the last piece of the puzzle. The knot tightens and the drummer drums faster and faster.

“You must’ve given me a virus at the training camp. That’s why you're hiding it, you don’t want me to get mad.”

Suddenly the knot in Hinata’s chest turns into those tasty strawberry laces Yamaguchi brings to practice and Kageyama gobbles them up with his own stupidity.

“What?!” Hinata can’t help but gawk at the insane conclusion.

“What?” Kageyama parrots.

Wow. He actually thinks that Hinata has some virus. “That’s not it.” Hinata scoffs.

Kageyama thinks about it for a moment, and then seems to actually believe him. “Then tell me.” He persists.

“No.” Hinata rebounds.

“Yes.” 

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” Hinata groans, pressing a hand to his forehead, the tiny drummer going back to his home in Hinata’s head, deciding to go full out now, whacking and smacking every crevice of Shouyou’s poor fragile skull.

“It’s nothing, please don’t be annoying abo—oouw!” Hinata pressed his other hand to his forehead, trying to soothe the pain a bit.

Screw soba and screw Kageyama. Shouyou’s going to get some painkillers. Where did his mother tell them they were? Oh yeah, kitchen counter.

“What?” Kageyama asks for the second time in the last thirty seconds, as if Hinata holding his head like a crazy person wasn’t obvious enough.

Shouyou gets up, forgetting about his ankle for a second and putting a little too much pressure on it, the shock making him fall backwards onto the sofa. Jeez. Can this get any more worse? “Head. Tummy. Ankle. Hurts.” 

Shouyou stares at the ceiling, knowing that Kageyama is probably rolling his eyes or something mean like that at him being so dramatic. And maybe he is being dramatic. But the whole day of trying to function with his ankle messed up, along with the food poisoning and this surprise visit has him beat, so he has the right to be dramatic.

He can hear covers moving. Footsteps.

Hinata closes his eyes, he’s so tired, so so tired.

“Oi. Dumbass.” Kageyama is beside him now, shaking his shoulder. Hinata must’ve fallen asleep for a minute.

Kageyama hands him a cup of water and two little white pills, the cup is an old one that Hinata used as a kid that Natsu drinks out of now. It must’ve been on the table, it’s such a cute cup. Shouyou’s brain takes a minute to catch up and realise that they’re for him. 

He takes them, without saying a ‘thank you’, which his mother would scold him for but he’s too sleepy, and he’s pretty sure Kageyama knows that he’s thankful.

After the drummer in his head slowly finishes his routine and packs up, his stomach calms down, Hinata finds the will to speak up.

“It was the soba. It gave us food poisoning.”

Kageyama stays silent for a moment, “Oh.”

Hinata waits for an insult or a scolding or something. But it never comes.

The silence is driving him a bit crazy, so he speaks up. “You’re not mad?”

“I’m pissed at that stupid soba place. But it’s hard to be mad at someone who looks so pathetic. Also I’m exhausted, so..” he doesn’t finish the sentence, but Shouyou fills in the blanks, his head feeling clearer now.

Hinata uses this moment of clarity to hoist himself down back into his pillow and blanket cave instead of the sofa. “Me too.” He agrees, around a minute after Kageyama has said his sentence, but he’ll understand. He usually does.

Shouyou grabs the remote and attempts to put something on, but sleep catches up to him and he soon falls unconscious.

———————————————

Shouyou expected to wake up to Kageyama in his face telling him to ‘get his lazy ass up’ as the boy, very poetically, says all the time, but he doesn’t. He wakes up to birds chirping, the nice but groggy feeling you get when you’ve slept just a little too long, the sun fully up, and pure silence.

Oh yeah, and the instant feeling of knowing you're about to throw up.

Shouyou hops as fast as he can to the bathroom.

Screw soba and whoever created it.

Once he’s done his business, (and brushed his teeth because ew.) He hops his way back to the living room, half expecting to see Kageyama gone, having left earlier as quickly as he appeared. But there he is, still asleep, and according to the clock in the kitchen, it’s ten thirty three am. Tobio Kageyama. Asleep. At ten thirty three am.

This is legendary.

Shouyou sits back down on his side of the pillow wall, which by the way is still intact after all of Hinata’s kicking and squirming he probably did during the night, mainly because he gets too hot during the night. Weird right? He can only sleep if he has a ton of blankets, but then he gets too hot and kicks them off during the night.Hinata’s impressed with himself, what a good design he came up with. Maybe Hinata should quit volleyball and start designing pillow walls.

That was a joke. By the way.

He looks over to Kageyama, should he wake him up? It’s not like they can go anywhere anyways. And Shouyou has a feeling like Kageyama doesn’t want to go home anytime soon.

His face has that same softer look, the one you can only achieve in sleep, cheeks flushed and his head buried into a pillow, he looks so.. so pretty, for a guy, obviously. But that's the only word for it. He'd be a million times less scared if Kageyama looked like this all the time, but then again if he wasn’t so scared he wouldn’t work as hard, so maybe it’s better that way (also, Hinata wouldn’t be able to handle a pretty Kageyama all day every day.)

Shouyou pouts with jealousy, wishing he looked pretty when he slept. He probably looks like some foreign creature, with his limbs spread out in all directions and drooling all over the place, sweating and snoring like a pig, Shouyou shakes his head and focuses back to Kageyama. 

He looks less pale than last night, maybe he’s better? Shouyou hopes so, a sick Kageyama is a very weird Kageyama. He doesn’t have the energy to scold and who is Kageyama without scolding? But then again, if Kageyama were sick, he’d be nicer, more soft. More pretty.

Hinata shakes his head again and looks away. That was weird.

It’s ten thirty six now. Hinata tells himself that if Kageyama isn’t up by eleven, then he’ll have to take measures into his own hands. His eyes glance back down to Kageyama, whose face is all squished from digging deeper into the pillow, he shifts slightly, moving his hand up to his face and curling into a ball-like shape and—

And Shouyou grabs the remote and turns on the tv. He plays some volleyball clips that he’s watched a million times over, but he can still feel his heart pick up at the right moments. This is nice, this is better than school. Better than staring at Kageyama for too long.

Hinata stares at the TV, leaning his head on the knee of his good leg, still feeling groggy. Shouyou actually might fall asleep but then—

covers are flinched off the bed, and Kageyama runs to the bathroom. Hinata's guessing it’s for the same reason he did.

He wants to help.

Shouyou grabs his cup, gets up and hops his way to the kitchen as fast as he can manage with his ankle weighing him down.

Painkillers. Kitchen counter.

He grabs another cup, fills the two up and takes four pills of paracetamol. Two each. That should be fine.

He hops back to the living room. And waits. He takes his painkillers while doing said waiting.

He doesn’t have to wait long until Kageyama gloomily trots back down the corridor.

“G’morning sunshine!” Shouyou chirps, showing all his teeth with a pleasant grin, (it wasn’t pleasant, quite scary actually.)

Kageyama slumps back down to his side of the blanket pile, holding his head in his hands, the sight reminds Shouyou of a traumatised war veteran he saw on TV once.

“I can’t be sick. I can’t.” He stares at nothing, then suddenly looks up at Hinata, “you can’t be sick. Not with the qualifiers three weeks away, and with your ankle. Shit.”

Hinata doesn’t know what to say, he’s trying not to think about that. Two weeks of no volleyball training, leaving him only one to prepare, and by then he’ll be rusty and stiff and bad. He has to get better. They have to get better. He hands Kageyama the glass and two pills.

“We just need a day of nothing to feel better. A sickday.”

Kageyama just squints his eyes and Hinata, deciding on something. Once his eyes look as if he’s chosen his decisions. He takes the pills, chugs some water, puts the glass down and grabs Hinata’s phone.

“Hey!” Hinata holds his head, which pangs from screaming too loud. “T-there’s personal stuff on there!”

There isn’t. But Shouyou wants it back nonetheless.

Kageyama scoffs, “I just need to search something, password please.” Hinata almost congratulated him for using the magic word, but there’s something about the sarcastic tone in his voice that tells him that praise isn’t deserved.

“Emm.” Hinata pretends to think. “It’s ’give me back my phone, asshole.’” He lunges forward to grab it but Kageyama with his annoyingly fast instincts grips him by the head, locking him in place. He holds out the phone in Shouyou’s face and he thinks that Kageyama might actually give it back. But then the phone dings and Kageyama is in.

Hinata gasps. “How dare you use my own face against me.”

Kageyama doesn’t let go of his head yet, the perfect defense. “It’s not against you. This is helpful stuff.” He types into the phone with one hand and Hinata can only sit and watch. Kageyama could be texting his mother for all he knows. Or messaging the volleyball group chat that he’s quitting for good!

“Here.” Kageyama shoves the phone in his face. But it’s not to get a Face ID, he’s on google, searching something up, like he said. Hinata reads.  

‘The duration of food poisoning can vary depending on the severity. It typically last 2-10 days. But can be gone within 12 hours if the symptoms are not severe. Your body acts to remove the toxins from your digestive tract through vomiting or diarrhea, or both. This may go on for a day or two.’

 Kageyama takes the phone and starts talking, “The doration— no that’s not right —the durra. The duratin of food poisoning can vary de—“

“I can read, asshole.” Hinata interrupts, not wanting to put himself through the painful experience of Kageyama trying to read outloud. “Appears you can’t..”

“I heard that.” He glares at Hinata, hand still holding him back.

“Okay.”

Kageyama drops Hinata’s head and lightly chucks the phone back, “Just a reminder that I got two more percent than you on the Japanese test.”

Shouyou winces at the memory of that test. Usually he manages to beat Kageyama in Japanese while he takes the higher score for English. But that test was extra hard, no matter how much help Yachi offered. 

“Oh yeah. Because thirty eight percent is just soo impressive.”

“Better than thirty six.”

“Go away.”

“No.”

Hinata pauses. Not really knowing what to say. His mind is taken over by the thought that this bickering, this teasing, seems normal. They’re having a normal time at Hinata’s house. They’re hanging out at Hinata’s house.

Before this, Kageyama had never been in Shouyou’s house, not even near the area, which is fair enough because it is in the middle of nowhere. And in turn Shouyou has never gone to Kageyama’s , the need had just never came, when they needed to study, they’d do so at the library. And their personal ‘hangouts’ (if you can even call them that) consisted of one on one volleyball practice. And he was content with that. Not like Kageyama would have it a different way anyways. But suddenly he feels curious. He wonders what his home must be like.. probably all neat and tidy and big, all things that Hinata's house isn’t, does the sight of the house so messy disgust Kageyama?

Well, it’s not gross or anything of the sort, it’s just a bit cluttered, what you’d expect with a single mother with two kids. But it can’t be that bad, because he’s here. And they're being normal. Together.

“Breakfast?” Shouyou asks.

Kageyama’s eyes spark with what Hinata assumes is hunger. “Yeah.” He says before adding, “No soba.” Kageyama grimaces at the thought.

“No soba.” Hinata repeats, balancing himself to be able to hop to the kitchen.

The next few hours pass by quickly, quicker than someone with food poisoning would imagine. Hinata expected the whole experience to be bad. 

And it was, mostly. But! Once he threw up the rest of the soba that morning, all he had left was basically a super bad headache. And he’s pretty sure that’s all Kageyama had left too, even though the boy insisted he was on deaths door. But the painkillers took care of the headaches so all around Hinata enjoyed the next four hours, which mainly consisted of,

Hinata and Kageyama eat breakfast, Kageyama complains about breakfast, Hinata chucks a piece of bread and Kageyama’s face.

Hinata and Kageyama go to watch TV, they fight over what to watch. Kageyama arguing that Shouyou’s taste in TV was ‘stupid’ and ‘over the top’ and Shouyou arguing that Kageyama’s documentaries were ‘boring’ and ‘a waste of time’ 

(because they were!)

Hinata and Kageyama decide to watch an old volleyball match. Shouyou hadn’t seen this one before and was glued to the TV, Kageyama had seen it a million times but was still glued as well.

Hinata and Kageyama got hungry. There was no instant ramen left, only three packets of soba which they will not be eating.

And now, Hinata and Kageyama stand in the kitchen, arguing over what to make.

“Hinata. You need to get your head out of your ass, we’re not skilled enough to make vegetable rice!”

Shouyou scoffs at Kageyama. “It cannot be that hard. You boil vegetables. You boil rice and add seasoning. And then baam! you’re finished.” He uses his hands to show an explosion at the ‘baam!’ to make it extra convincing.

“We could overcook it! Or undercook it!”

Hinata walks up to the cabinet that holds the rice, grabs the family stool and stands on his tip-toes on his good foot to get it from the top shelf. “The fact that you know what those words mean shows that we know what we’re doing!” He chirps, feeling confident. Hinata is ninety percent sure that an ‘undercook’ doesn’t exist, if it cooks, then it’s cooked, right? He grabs the rice.

Kageyama sighs. “Fine. But if it goes to shit I’m making toast. Where are your pots?”

Shouyou grins big, “In the cupboard below the sink thank you!” 

The two now stand, staring at the hob side by side with two carrots, a bowl of rice, two pots, a small cup of peas and sweetcorn and a dream.

“Okay..” Hinata hums. What would his mother do? He jogs his memory from everytime he has ever assisted his mom in the kitchen. “You boil the kettle, I’ll peel the carrots.” He orders, taking the carrots and grabbing a chopping board.

Kageyama nods and finds the kettle. It makes Hinata feel like he’s head chef.

The two work in harmony, it's actually going really well! Hinata is sure they’re  going to make the best vegetable rice in the whole world, maybe win an extra special award or something. And Kageyama will be all ‘ohh I’m so sorry Hinata.. I was so wrong.. Let me set to you please..’ Shouyou smiles at the thought. Yep. This is going super awesomely well.

And then there was blood.

A whole lot.

And a sharp pain in Hinata’s index finger on his left hand.

“Owwaahh!!” He cries out. Because ow. Ow ow ow ow ow! What the hell? What happened? Okay, Hinata isn’t that dense, he knows what happened. He cut himself, peeled his own skin off. 

Is he dying? Has he died? Is this hell?

Ow!

“Holy shit.” Kageyama is beside him now, just staring. Hinata doing the same.

The two just stare at the finger for a few seconds like it’s an art exhibition or something.

“Yeah, ‘holy shit’ Kageyama! Can you help?!”  He waves his other, unbloodied, hand about, trying to get his attention.

Kageyama flinches away, as if Hinata were scaring him. Then he realises he still has the peeler in his hand and that must’ve looked like a threat.

“Sorry. It’s just. Blood.” He apologises quickly, the warm red liquid drips onto the kitchen floor, all over the poor carrots. So much for that extra special award. He carefully puts the peeler on the chopping board, separating himself from the hazard. Yeah. That’s responsible and safe. Step one complete.

Kageyama blinks. “Umm.. I forgot my wipes.”

It’s Shouyou’s time to blink, it seems that neither of them know what to do. They just sort of, look at eachother. Hinata doesn’t really have a clue what to do with his finger, which is now painted red. And Kageyama— well, Shouyou doesn’t know what he’s thinking. If he’s even thinking at all. 

Kageyama bounces into action and rushes off, grabs a chair from the nearby dining room. Makes Hinata sit. And then stands, as if that were the only step needed.

Well at least he’s thinking, even though it’s minimal.

Kageyama is clueless for a minute. “Do you have a medkit?” He asks. Shouyou almost wants to applaud him for finally coming up with something.

“Yeah, top shelf over there.” He points with his eyes.

Kageyama grabs it, without needing the stool, by the way, which Shouyou pouts with jealousy about for a moment. Only a moment though, then he looks down to his finger and feels his heart jump out of his chest.

Blood.

So much blood.

Did Hinata mention that he hates blood?

Kageyama’s back now, with the medkit. Yippee. He’ll clean him up and then Shouyou will never see blood ever again.

He opens it up on the floor, taking everything out one at a time. Tweezers, nope. Thermometer, nope. One of Natsu’s toys, nope.

Disinfectant wipes, bingo.

Kageyama sits up on his knees, obviously too focused to think, he carefully holds Shouyou’s hand. And begins to clean.

The whole ordeal reminds him of the train ride yesterday, where he kind of accidentally held Kageyama's hand. Shouyou cringes at the memory. He doesn’t really know what happened, it’s not like he was fully unconscious while doing it, he knew what he was doing, he just wasn’t exactly thinking of what would happen afterwards. He just needed to focus on something, and Kageyama was nearby. He feels really bad, interfering with his boundaries and all, but it worked, instead of focusing on the rush of the train starting, he was focused on how cold and firm Kageyama's hands are, yet they manage to be so gentle and careful.

That’s kind of what he’s doing now. He looks at Kageyama instead of the cut. The way his brows are furrowed in concentration, the tiny movements of his hands. It makes Hinata feel cared for. It makes him feel better.

Shouyou feels a swell of happiness that Kageyama is doing this for him. Hinata knows they’re not friends, he knows. But Kageyama does all these nice things for him that show he cares. So maybe they are?

A flash of what Kageyama said to him back at the training camp fills Hinata’s head, engulfing him.

“The only reason I came out here to get you in the first place is because I need a spiker in good condition!”

Hinata sighs at the memory, a swirl in his stomach that isn’t soba, it's hurt, the hurt spins and dances, turning itself into a knot.

Kageyama’s doing this because he needs a spiker in good condition. That’s all. That’s all this is. But his head doesn’t stop there,

“That’s all you are, that’s all you will be, so get it out of your dumb fucking head that you are anything more than that to me!!”

The knot just ties itself tighter and Hinata needs to stop. He can’t be all upset about things said days ago. He needs to let it go. No, he needs to accept it. They’re teammates, not friends. And that’s okay. Because they can still do things like this, as teammates.

“There.” Kageyama says.

Hinata looks down, snapped out of his daydream. He finds what looks like half a dozen blood soaked wipes and a wrapped up finger, he didn’t even realise.

“I’m sorry..” Hinata looks at Kageyama’s bloodstained hands, his perfect, precious, precise pale, hands. Yachi would be proud of his use of alliterations, she’d be even more proud to know that he actually remembered what an alliteration is. “No vegetable rice I assume?” He adds.

“No vegetable rice.” Kageyama agrees, tidying away the medkit. “Find something to watch, I’ll make toast. Nothing stupid.” Says the last two words extra loud as if that would convince Shouyou.

Hinata frowns. “But Kageyama.. the stupid ones are always the best..” he pleads, using those puppy dog eyes he uses whenever he asks for a toss. They usually work in that setting, but apparently not in this one.

“No.” Kageyama stands up and puts the medkit back in its home.

Shouyou gets up, leaning on the chair as a crutch while also putting it back in its place.

“Kageyama?” Shouyou asks.

Kageyama, bread in hand, turns around. “Dumbass?”

Hinata smiles lightly, “thank you.”

Kageyama’s cheeks turn a little more pink than they were three seconds ago. “Yeah. Whatever.”

Shouyou sits back down in their blanket fort, Kageyama makes toast, the knot makes itself at home in Hinata’s stomachs.

They eat, they talk, they even smile (well Hinata, at least.) But that’s the thing that kept Shouyou’s mind occupied, the thing that kept the knot present and lingering, not fully focused when Kageyama was talking about some volleyball play he’d seen.

Kageyama has somehow managed to take the title of Hinata’s best friend. Not as in ‘best friend’ he just means that Kageyama happens to be the bestest friend that Hinata has at this moment in time.
It makes sense to him, okay?

But he doesn’t really know one thing about the guy. He doesn’t know his favourite food, his favourite colour, his hobbies, if he even has hobbies outside of volleyball? Shouyou feels bad. He’s tried before, to take a peek into what Kageyama is really like, but Kageyama’s stated multiple times that they’re teammates, 

and would a teammate need to know those things?

No, is the straightforward answer. A teammate needs to know whether you like your passes to be high and long, or quick and precise. They don’t need to know if you enjoy colouring in every now and again.

Hinata has managed to get glimpses into Kageyama, not the school Kageyama, not Kageyama on the court. But the real, genuine version of himself. The version that just lazes around the house, the version that hates chocolate for breakfast (insane take, by the way,) the version that gets shy around parents, the version that goes easier on you when you hurt yourself.
And it means a lot to Hinata, because those things may seem like unimportant tiny details, but they are important. They’re nice to know, the simple yet interesting habits and traits. Things that only a friend would know.

But they aren’t friends, are they?

So Shouyou drowns in the need to ask Kageyama all types of questions, like if he prefers summer or winter? If he likes ice cream? What’s his favourite flavour? What's his favourite video game? Does he even like video games?

He drowns, the pile of questions only getting bigger and bigger. The knot getting tighter and tighter as the day goes on.

But he can’t do anything. Because to him these moments, this whole day, feels like a giant sleepover with a slightly bossy and annoying friend. But to Kageyama, it’s just staying at a teammate's house because he had nowhere else to go.

Shouyou doesn’t persevere, he just does what he usually would. Because the day isn’t unpleasant, it isn’t unpleasant at all. That’s the hard part.

And as the clock ticks on and the hours pass, Hinata forgets and pretends, even for just a few hours. That they’re friends.

It’s not difficult, though, because it really feels that way.

Kageyama looks to the side instead of Hinata, like this was the most difficult thing in the world. “Thanks. For housing me and whatever. Tell your mom I say thank you.”

Shouyou smiles. “Yeah, yeah. Get out of my house.”

Kageyama opens the door, bag slung over his shoulders, he looks nervous. To leave? Or to go home?

“You’re..” he pauses. “You’re going to school tomorrow, right?”

The knot tightens so hard that Shouyou’s tummy starts to hurt, he says, with pursed lips, “yeah, I’ll try.”

Hinata is always the type that whenever he doesn’t like how something is done, he’ll change it. 

But he doesn’t know if he can change it this time.

Chapter Text

Kageyama isn’t much of a stomper. What he means by stomper is that he doesn’t, well, stomp.

He moves smoothly and with precision, in a volleyball game at least. During school and everyday life he moves, quite normally, he would hope.

But not today, not tonight. Tonight he stomps all the way home.

And he has plenty of things to stomp about.

Firstly, he has to walk home in goddamn cat pyjamas. Let him say that again. Cat. Pyjamas. He probably looks like a world class idiot. But he didn’t really have a choice, because the one thing worse in the world that is worse than walking home in cat pyjamas is walking home in soaking wet clothes. Because apparently Hinata’s dryer broke last week (but Tobio has a sneaking suspicion that the dumbass is lying for the sake of humiliating Kageyama.) So yeah, he’s stomping because of that.

Secondly, he’s still not fully recovered from the food poisoning, his head is still aching badly, and will probably continue to get worse considering it’s been a while since his last painkiller dose. It’s been just over twenty four hours since he ate the soba so really he should be grateful that he got a mild case and is basically out of the woods. But Tobio isn’t in a grateful mood so screw gratefulness.

And the last thing he’s stomping about is, he’s going home. Well, he’s not pissed about the going home part exactly, it's who he’s going home to. 

He really thought that he wouldn’t have to see his parents until Christmas, that he wouldn’t have to endure endless interrogation about school and grades along with lectures about how volleyball isn’t a ‘viable’ career and he should ‘let that stupid dream die’. But what he’s really pissed about is that he has to watch them walk all over Miwa again, that he has to watch them belittle her about something that she can’t fucking change. No matter how ‘wrong’ it may be.

So yeah. Kageyama is stomping home today.

He can feel his heart pick up and his headache worsen as he turns the corner to his house and sees their car in the driveway, all clean and polished and expensive. Every step closer worsens his condition by ten fold.

Tobio thinks that his heart might actually explode from strain when he opens the gate to the back door. His palms start to sweat, his throat tightens and Kageyama wants to run. He wants to run like he did last night so badly. So badly it hurts. So badly he can feel his fists clench and his nose scrunch.

But he can’t. So instead he makes his way to the door, slides it open and takes his shoes off.

He can tell that they’re watching him before they even speak up.

“Hello Tobio.” A voice says, a voice that sounds exactly like his own but more ragged from age and years of smoking, they say it in a way that a supervillain would greet a superhero and Tobio wants to roll his eyes. And he bets another certain person is standing right by the voice's side, just like it’s been for years.

His heart manages to somehow pick up even more though. How long have they been waiting for him? Do they know he didn’t stay the night? And why the fuck are his hands trembling? His hands haven’t trembled since, well, ever.

God he really doesn’t want to turn to the direction of the voice. He wants to pretend he didn’t hear it and go straight to his room. But that wouldn’t help and he knows it. He knows it but he wants to so badly, he doesn’t want to see them. Not at all. 

But again, it wouldn’t help. Not him or Miwa. So he turns, the small action making him feel dizzy and he’s pretty sure it’s not the food poisoning this time.

His parents are tall individuals, the whole family is. But they aren’t as tall as they used to be, having shrunken with age combined with stress and the effects of being hunched over a desk all day for years of their lives when they should’ve been taking care of Tobio. But they are family after all, so they do look similar, all with blue eyes and straight black hair (and for some, grey roots,) they all have that natural scowl about them, except Miwa, somehow she dodged that genetic trait. Or maybe she just smiles so much it’s stuck on her face.

They aren’t anything like Hinata’s mother, who is young and warm and sweet, who makes your chest feel warm and scarily at home with her smile, who (at least from what Kageyamas seen) is actually around. Maybe not all the time, but it’s enough.

He forces a polite smile, it feels all wobbly and wrong. “Hello.” Kageyama replies, looking at his mother because she’s easier to look at. 

“Good to see you, Tobio.” His mother walks forward and pulls him in for an embrace, cold and swift as if touching him were like touching hot coals. As if he were a stranger.

She says that sentence every time they see each other. As if she were some machine and it was put into her coding by his father. Same tone, same small pursed smile, same stiffness. And it makes him feel on edge, every single time.

Tobio’s dad straightens up, “Your mother made dinner. Let’s sit.” He looks Kageyama up and down, now just noticing what he’s wearing. “Change your clothes first.”

If this were any other visit. Maybe Kageyama would change. But for some reason he feels a sense of pride about wearing his ‘it’s a purr-fect day!’ pyjamas now, as if it were some sort of rebellion. 

Wow, Tobio. You’re really changing the world with this one. One pair of pyjamas at a time.

It’s stupid. He knows that. But he’s still going to do it.

“I’m okay.” He replies, making sure to keep his face neutral.

His Dad tenses his jaw. But just nods and turns to make his way to the dining room, his mother following as usual.

They never change do they?

Kageyama walks through his living room. Almost looking at it through a new lense. Before yesterday he hadn’t been to anyone else’s house since his early childhood, and those memories are mostly blurred with time. But after staying at Hinata’s, whose house is filled with colour and family photos, where even the magnets on the fridge feel like they hold some sort of value, a memory behind everything, he realises how bland his house is. Believe him, he likes it that way. He likes it tidy and neat. That’s how it’s always been, how it will be forever. But there’s not much colour except a few plants and pillows and blankets, there’s no family photos, no magnets on the fridge except for a to do list. Their homes are different, very different. It’s not like Kageyama is yearning for a home more, well, home-y. It’s just an observation, a comparison.

The three of them enter the dinner room and the smell of pork with rice enters Tobio’s nostrils. His favourite. Again. Probably going to be used for making a hard blow softer. Again.

Miwa is already sitting on the table, a soft smile on her face. She looks.. okay? Maybe a bit worried? She looks better than Tobio feels, that’s for sure.

Kageyama takes his seat next to her. Not wanting to sit next to anyone else. His parents sit across from them, dad in front of him and mom in front of Miwa. 

Tobio expects them to talk about Christmas, that’s what they’re here for, right? But no. Nothing about it is mentioned. In fact, for the first few minutes, nothing at all is mentioned. They eat. The sounds of knives and forks scraping against plates fill the silence. Kageyama drops his a few times, stupid, sweaty, shaky hands.

His knee starts to bounce. 

It’s pathetic. But he can’t stop.

His mother notices, “So. Tobio, how’s school?” She smiles, cutting her pork carefully. Careful. Something his mother always is. 

Kageyama swallows his food, but not the lump lodged in his throat. “It's fine, same as always, I guess.” He trails off at the end of the sentence, feeling small.

He glances at his dad, nothing coming from his side of the table.

Nothing. Absolutely fuck all. Why is nothing happening? He looks over to Miwa this time, who hasn’t said a word this whole time. In all of Tobio’s years he has never witnessed Miwa be quiet for more than two minutes,

and that's at the most.

His dad butts in. “Grades okay?”

No. Not at all actually. But they haven’t cared enough to check for a few years anyway. “Yeah. They’re good.”

They both nod. He can tell they don’t believe him, but they don’t push like they usually would. This is weird, this is wrong, it’s all backwards.

Kageyama swallows again. He wonders if Hinata’s family dinners are this tense. Probably not. He finds himself wishing he were at his house instead, but he swallows that stupid thought along with his rice. But it stays in his stomach, lingering.

“Where did you get those pyjamas?” His dad asks.

Seriously? They’re talking about pyjamas now? Why aren’t they bringing it up? What’s going on? Shit, Tobio’s head hurts.

“They’re from my..” He pauses. Nervous again. “Teammate. I had to borrow them.”

Tobio’s dad nods, a sour expression on his gloomy face, the same sour expression that comes up whenever he even mentions volleyball.

Kageyama thinks the conversation has ended and has gone back to his rice, having finished all the pork now.

“Which teammate? Were you visiting them in the afternoon?”

Tobio can feel his jaw tense. Miwa must not have told them about him staying the night. Plus, he really doesn’t want to bring up Hinata at the dinner table. 

“He’s a middle blocker. And yeah. I visited.” Tobio avoids saying Hinata’s name for some reason, like saying it would make him real to them.

They don’t get to know Hinata.

“Okay.”

This is odd, really odd. His father would usually burst into rage from even a mutter containing mention of volleyball. The lack of cruelty is making Tobio nervous. But there’s nothing else said the next few seconds, the conversation’s over.

“They look childish, the pyjamas.”

Or not.

He opens his mouth to argue. But then again, they are childish aren’t they? They look stupid and childish and his dad is right for once . ‘It’s a purr-fect day!’ Really? It’s not some form of rebellion. It’s Tobio being stupid. Kageyama nods in agreement. And he’s not faking it this time.

“I think they’re cool.” Miwa speaks up, saying in a way that sounds like she’s saying something else. Like Tobio's stupid cat pyjamas symbolise something. Which is stupid. Because they’re cat pyjamas. But he can tell she means something else by the way she’s staring their dad down, not even blinking.

And even though they have yet to talk about the elephant in the room, even though his parents are here to begin with. Tobio can feel a weight off his shoulders. Because Miwa is here. Miwa is here for him. He’s not by himself.

His dads face goes a bit red the way it does when a conversation doesn’t go exactly his way and Kageyama thinks that he might leave the table. Which is confusing because she was only sharing her opinion. His dad is controlling but not that controlling. Tobio must be correct about the symbolism.

Great. The cat pyjamas are symbolic now.

But his dad doesn’t leave. He stays. In fact the man starts smiling. Face red and all. Only a small one, someone who doesn’t know him as well as his family does probably wouldn’t notice it. But it’s a smile. Kageyama can tell.

“Tobio. I think it’s time we talk about last Christmas.” 

Yeah. He thinks so too.

His dad turns towards Miwa, and gestures with his hand. “I think we all have things to say, but let’s start with Miwa.” 

He can feel the room tense. Or is that just him?

He looks at Miwa, who is looking at him. And suddenly she doesn’t look okay or just a bit worried. She looks sad. She looks really sad. It’s not just him, she’s tense too.

She takes a deep breath and starts to speak. “Tobio. I’ve been thinking about last Christmas, thinking really hard. About what was said, about what I said and—“ she coughs, but it wasn’t a cough, was it? She’s stalling. 

Whatever’s she’s about to say. She doesn’t want to say it. 

“And I think dad and mom were right. I think I was just a bit confused about everything.”

Bullshit.

Is what Tobio wants to say. But he doesn’t. Because Miwa’s mouth is saying that she’s ‘confused.’ But her eyes are saying ‘I know. But please don’t say anything. For your own sake.’

Bullshit. It’s all bullshit.

Miwa likes girls. Miwa is a lesbian. Kageyama’s known since she and him watched a new superhero movie on the very couch that Kageyama just passed ten minutes ago. He can’t remember shit about the movie itself because he was a sticky and gross  seven year old. But what he can remember is how Miwa stared extra hard when some pretty girl actor was on screen, he remembers the look on her face when the pretty girl actor changed into her superhero suit.

So as he was saying. Bull. Shit.

But if Miwa tells him to keep quiet. Then he’ll keep quiet. She’s usually right about these things, even if it hurts her, she always keeps the peace. So maybe it’s not ‘right’, but it is easy, and isn’t that some form of right in itself? 

“Okay.”

The word tastes wrong on his tongue. But he doesn’t say anything else.

“I’m glad you understand.” His mother smiles. His dad starts eating again. Miwa stares at her lap.

He doesn’t understand. Not one bit. But he still quietly eats his dinner, because what else can he do?

The lump in his throat, the sweat in his palms, the racing in his heart, his panging headache that makes him nauseous, the unsaid arguments in his throat, being held back by will and pork rice. They all stay, lingering for a while.

Nobody talks for the rest of the meal. Tobio’s glad.

—————————

Tobio stays in his room, laying on his bed, setting a ball to the air over and over, door closed, half empty packet of paracetamol on his nightstand with a glass of water. Still in the cat pyjamas even though dinner ended two hours ago, he doesn’t know what they symbolise to Miwa and his dad, but he doesn’t want to change just in case it causes his dad to win this invisible argument, no matter how stupid he may look.

A knock on the door, Kageyama wants to sit up, but his limbs are lagging behind and he’s scared of the headache he’ll get if he does sit up. Please don’t be him.

“Tobio?” A quiet voice stage whispers.

Thank fuck. He can’t help but exhale in relief. Kageyama would’ve had to escape out the window if it were anyone else.

“Yes?”

“Can I come in?” 

She sounds small, almost unsure of herself, something Miwa Kageyama never is.

“Yes.” He replies, still setting the volleyball.

Toss.

Make contact.

Toss again.

Repeat.

The door opens, Miwa walks in, the door closes behind her. “Smells like teenage boys in here.”

“Ha ha.” He rolls his eyes but he’s secretly glad that Miwa can still be an idiot.

She looks like she doesn’t know where to sit or what to do. Kageyama doesn’t blame her though, she hasn’t been in his room in years, Kageyama felt the same way when he was in Hinata’s room. Except he woke up in the little shits bed. Once he had computed that he was in Hinata’s bed and the sweet tangy scent he could smell was Hinata’s scent, it scared the shit out of him. It gave him whiplash for a while, in fact, being in Hinata’s family home alone gave him whiplash. It was a lot.

“Can I sit? I need to talk to you about something.”

Kageyama nods, knowing what the ‘something’ that she wants to talk about is. Miwa sits on the edge of his bed.

Toss.

Make contact.

Toss again.

Repeat.

Miwa sits. “I know you think that I’m, well, that I’m being scared.”

Tobio doesn’t know what to say. Does he? He thinks so, but he gets it, it’s easier to pretend. Even if it is being ‘scared.’ He just nods.

Toss.

Make contact.

Toss again.

Repeat.

“I just thought that it would be more, simple. For you, I mean. I-I know it’s not a great example and you should.. you should always be yourself?” 

Poor Miwa, for all she’s worth, she’s really bad at this sappy shit. But so is Tobio, it must run in the family.

“Shit. I suck at this— just. Just don’t stop being yourself. If yourself is.. something that they might not like? You understand?”

Kageyama has no idea what she’s saying. “I understand.”

Toss.

Make contact.

Toss again.

Repeat.

Miwa shifts in her seat. “And— and you're going to be okay? Okay?”

“Okay.”

Toss.

Make contact.

Toss again.

Wait what?

Tobio catches the ball in hands and sits up. Too fast. “What do you— fuck—“ His head pangs. He holds his hand up to his skull, holding it as if that were supposed to help. “Wha— what do you mean?”

He really looks at her for the first time since she came in. Her eyes are teary. What is going on?

“Kid.. Shit. I’m sorry.” A tear rolls down her cheek and what the fuck is happening?

He shuffles up the bed, closer to Miwa. “I don’t understand.”

“They’re staying. For a while, a visit, and I—“ a sniffle “I can’t stay here. Not with them.”

Kageyama blinks. The volleyball falls to the floor, and with every bounce his heart drops deeper and deeper and his stomach twists and turns more and more.

“I don’t— why?”

Miwa touches Tobio's arm, he wants her off but he can’t move his body. “I’m gonna give you the adult answer. Okay?”

Tobio manages to nod.

“I think they want to watch you, to take care of you, I guess,” Kageyama interrupts her with a scoff. They want to take care of him? Really? 

Miwa explains, “to make sure you don’t mess up like I did. And I— I don’t think I’ll be any help here. But I promise you. I promise I will come back. I will visit. More than usual.”

Kageyama doesn’t care. He doesn’t want to be left alone, at all. “You’ll help me.” Is all he can manage. Because his throat seems to close up every time he wants to say something.

“I know, kid. But they’ll be staying until Christmas at least. And the longer I’m here the longer they’ll stay, you understand?”

Everyone keeps on saying that word. Understand. Understanding. He hates it. Tobio hates it because, no. No he doesn’t ‘understand’, he doesn’t understand any of this.

Kageyama’s brain was moving too quickly to hear anything after the words Christmas. Almost like when he’s playing volleyball, he’s thinking so much and so intently that everyone outside of the court doesn’t exist. 

Except this kind of thinking is messy, it’s jumbled and frustrating and Tobio just— he just doesn’t understand. They’ll be here till Christmas? That’s five fucking months. He can’t last five months. Not without Miwa. Not with the spring tournament coming up. 

Tobio's mind starts racing more so, why would Miwa leave? Well, he could ask her. But she’d probably give him a half assed answer and he’d still be in the dark. 

But as  Kageyama tries to figure out why this is happening. It hits him.

Miwa is a peacekeeper. She takes the easy route. And all this time Kageyama thought it was for him. 

But there’s only one person she makes it easy for, and it’s herself. And leaving to her amazing ‘city girl’ life is one hundred times easier than staying to help her pathetic little brother, isn’t it?

Miwa starts talking after Kageyama doesn’t reply, she says things about ‘not letting them change you’ and ‘staying strong.’ But Tobio feels empty, he can’t think. No. Not anymore. He knows what he feels, he feels angry. Because Miwa is leaving not because it’s better for Tobio, but because it’s better for herself. 

He feels angry, because— because,

Because Mr and Ms Kageyama are back. His mother and father.

And Tobio is trapped, more than ever.

—————————————-

Okaay.. So when Shouyou told Kageyama last night that he would definitely be coming to school, that wasn’t a lie. Not at all.

Buutt.. that was before he had a few— issues.. in the bathroom. Again. And maybe it was more than a few. He still wasn’t feeling one hundred percent when Kageyama was over, but he thought he’d gotten through the worst of it. Apparently not.

Food poisoning is a cruel mistress. She really gets you when you when you’re already down.

And boy was Shouyou down. Well, technically he still is.

He’s tried everything. After he was able to move his limbs he tried all sorts of remedies off google to cure the annoying knot in his stomach. He drank like, a million litres of water and two different teas (google had recommended entirely different ones but they were selling for ten thousand yen. So Shouyou had to make do.)

But now he’s sure the knot in his stomach wasn’t from the soba, it was definitely because of—

because of the whole teammate thing. He wishes it was the soba. He wishes it was a whole lot. But the knot didn’t disappear after Kageyama left, it didn’t disappear after he— you know’d.. —again, it didn’t disappear after a whole night's sleep, not to mention the tea.

So unfortunately the knot was one hundred percent Hinata’s own. And he has no idea how to get rid of it.

Well. He has some idea. All he has to do is kill the source.

Okay. That came out wrong. He’s not killing Kageyama. He needs to kill what made the knot in the first place,

but that involves talking, or more likely, arguing with Kageyama about their whole relationship. Ahem— friendship. (Kageyama apparently has some sort of gag reflex to the word relationship.)

Anyways. So Shouyou is actually feeling pretty good at the moment other than the damn knot that he is trying his very best to ignore, but.. he has just woken up so nausea might take a few minutes to kick in. And he was feeling ‘pretty good’ last night and that didn’t last very long. And it’s not like his ma’ would let him go to school anyways, she’s too careful for that. And (this is the final ‘and’, he promises) he doesn’t have any crutches until later this afternoon, but it’s not like Shouyou can hop around from class to class all day.. or can he.

No. Shouyou! No you can’t. Don’t be silly.

And so, Hinata grabs his phone from his bedside table and clicks on ‘asshole (Kageyama).’

Shouyou laughs at the name, as he does every time he contacts Kageyama.

He types in a swift apology, and the stupid stupid knot tightens at the thought that only a friend would care if you weren’t coming into school.

Wait. No. Hinata will just make it super professional and strictly volleyball related.

A setter needs to know if their spiker is off sick. It only makes sense.

You:

‘Hello. Kageyama. Unfortunately I won’t be making it to training today as I have a medical emergency. My condolences.’

-Hinata

Shouyou smiles at the message. He did it. He had to google the definition of condolences, but he did it. He even added his name at the end like it’s an email to a teacher. It’s very teammate-like, and that’s what they are. Teammates. Yeah.

Should he add an emoji? 

No! No emojis.

What about a little smiley face? He adds it as a tester.

C’mon Shouyou!

He deletes it and clicks send, Hinata is very committed to this role.

The knot loosens, but not enough to make it any less annoying.

Hinata, ever so slowly as to not set his head off into a panging frenzy, sits up, and hops over to the corner of his room, taking every hop very seriously and using all the precision he can be bothered to use at eight in the morning. He grabs his volley and hops back to bed.

He could be studying, but what the hell does he get out of that? Answer: nothing. Studying is a scam. Volleyball practice isn’t.

And if he can’t practice using his legs, he’ll just use his arms. Easy peasy.

———————————

Using his only arms was a terrible, awful idea.

Hinata never wants to use his arms ever again. Arms are overrated, who needs them? All they do is just mess up. Stupid arms.

Shouyou has been practicing a while, to say the least. And his arms are stingy and sore and won’t move right anymore, he’s pretty sure he’s bruised them. But, on the bright side, he hasn’t had to.. do his business, at all!

Okay wait, he has done his business, but it’s been at a total normal amount and rate all day! All he’s had is a bit of a sore head. By ‘a bit’ he means that it goes from barely noticeable to blinding within seconds, but that’s nothing compared to the horrors he’s witnessed the past two days. And it’s nothing a bit of paracetamol won’t fix.

Hinata would say he’s ready to get back to school. 

He would say that he’s ready to get back to school right now.

But.. Oh no! Schools over.. that’s a pity. 

He just wishes he could go somewhere that all his friends are.

Here’s the cool part, volleyball training is today, it starts in fifteen minutes. And it happens that all of his friends are going! What crazy luck that Shouyou has definitely not been planning all day! All he has to do is convince his mother to drive him. And she’s back in five minutes with Natsu, it takes ten minutes to get down to the gym by car. How conveniently perfect. It’s definitely a sign.

Hinata can hear the sound of a car pulling up.

And she’s early? Wow this just keeps on getting better and better.

Shouyou hops to the door, almost knocking a photo from the wall, but he catches it with his super amazing fast athletic reflexes, he keeps on hopping. The door opens just as he turns the corner.

Natsu comes rushing in backwards talking to their mother, still in her school uniform, her pink backpack in hand. “Yeah! And then me and Aimi were on the monkey bars and—“ she takes a sharp intake of breath so she can finish the story and turns around “and— Shouyou?” Her eyes widen in the cute way that only happens when she sees Shouyou, it makes him feel special every time.

“Natsu?”  He uses the same confused tone, except he isn’t confused at all so it’s just funny. 

Natsu doesn’t get it and ends up looking even more confused. Why is he the only one in this house who knows how to crack a joke?

She walks up to him. “Why are you here?” She says, knowing that he isn’t home until after dinner on Mondays. She gasps before Hinata has the chance to answer as she realises. “Ma’!! How come Shouyou gets off school and I don’t?” She whines.

Ma’ speaks up, carrying groceries in both hands, “because—“

“Because I’m sick and injured.” He interrupts. “Also high school is wayy harder than your baby school.”

Natsu pouts and blows raspberries and their mother speaks up again. “Shouyou it’s rude to interrupt y’know?”

Hinata looks up and realises he’s supposed to be convincing right now. “You’re right. I’m sorry ma’.. you’re looking suuper pretty today, did you do something with your hair?” He moves forwards to touch it but she rudely dodges his attempt.

Ma’ sets walks forward and sets the groceries on the dining table. “What’d ya want?” She does her ‘hurry up’ face. The face she makes when she’s had an extra long day.

Hinata grins big and nicely and beautifully (he practiced it in the mirror.) “Where are my crutches?” He asks, following her with a hop. That’s a good way to start it off. No pressure. Just conversation.

“Car.” She blurts, more focused on putting food away.

“Wow! That’s so convenient! I was hoping you could drop me off to volleyball practice for, you know, experience and whatnot.” He says as casually as he can muster.

She grabs the milk and looks up at Shouyou, “so that’s why you’re in your sports clothes.”

He didn’t rehearse a response for that. “Well— Um. Yeah, just in case.”

Ma’ closes the fridge. “Sho, it’s been a long day at work. Can you please just miss one?”

Hinata had actually rehearsed a response to that. And he was just about to start giving a speech about how Olympic players don’t just ‘miss one.’ But then disaster strikes. Or rather, his little sister does.

“Whaat!?!” Natsu starts, Hinata hadn’t even noticed her spying. Now she’s probably going to start crying about how ‘Shouyou gets to go to volleyball but I can’t go to Aika’s house!?!’

It’s all over. Hinata accepts his loss. It was never meant to be.

“I want to see Sho’s volleyball friends!!” She runs up to her mothers leg, stopping her from passing.

Huh?

If there is a god out there. He or she is definitely on his side today. Except for the food poisoning. And the knot in his stomach that still hasn’t left. But other than that god is totally on Hinata’s side.

“Yeah! Can me and Natsu see my volleyball friends?” Shouyou joins in.

“I like the tiny one with the bit of blonde hair and it’s all spiked up like ‘bleaah!’” She plays with her own ginger hair and makes it like Nishinoya’s own.

Hinata agrees. “Yeah! The tiny one, ‘bleaah!’”

Ma’ sighs, but stays still because of Natsu blocking her path. “Isn’t the tiny one a bit.. crazy?”

Yes. Yes he is. But Shouyou can’t say that so..  “Only when he’s like, extra excited! And Natsu will only say hi for a tiny little bit! You can take her to the park while I watch practice for a few hours.”

Her eyes widen. “A few hours?” 

Uh oh, wrong words. “Or you could just go home and get me after dinner?” He offers.

His mother considers it while humming.

Shouyou puts on his best puppy dog face he only uses for times like this (and when he has to beg for a set from Kageyama), he hopes Natsu is doing the same.

“Fine, but you both have to help me put the groceries away,” she moves Natsu and continues to tidy, choosing to put away the butter next.

“Deal.” Hinata chirps, grabbing the first thing he can see.

Shouyou feels like he’s just won the lottery. Mission accomplished.

———————————

Shouyou pulls up to practice ten minutes late because someone wanted to wear her prettiest dress, in crutches, and with Natsu by his side because he pinky promised that he would let her see Nishinoya and Tanaka. Coach seeing all these things at once might give him a heart attack or whatever happens when old people are shocked considering he hasn’t yet contacted him since last practice, which actually isn’t even that long of a time, maybe it just feels that way.
And even though there’s a small chance of a heart attack on Coaches end, Hinata moves forward nonetheless. Might as well pull the bandaid off sooner rather than later.

He opens the door, the bright lights of the inside making him and Natsu both squint and—

“Shouyouu-san!!” Nishinoya notices him instantly, as if he were waiting and lurking near the door for him to appear. “I haven’t seen you in—“ he freezes,

Hinata was about to say ‘oh Noya-san, you flatter me too much’ or something super humble like that,

but then Nishinoya speaks up, or rather, screams out, “oh my god you brought Natsu?!”

“Hi Nishinoya-san!” Natsu chirps as if she weren’t just screaming in the car because Hinata didn’t want to listen to her stupid girly songs. 

What a devil child. Shouyou rolls his eyes.

Nishinoya jogs the short distance over and squats down to Natsu’s level (which doesn’t take much considering their height difference,) he offers up his hand for a fist bump that Natsu returns with a pink tint in her cheeks.

And Hinata is forgotten about, he feels a pout coming on.

“You just keep on getting taller and taller every time I see you!” He gawks at how fast Natsu is growing. “Won’t take long till you’re bigger than me!”

“Wouldn’t take much..” Tsukishima mutters with Tadashi by his side. The two are sitting a few feet away, quietly observing together. Yamaguchi mutters a scolding “Tsuki. That’s not nice.” But he’s hiding a smile so neither of them take it seriously.

Noya looks his way, “okay what the shit bro—“ he gasps. “Oh fuck I just said shit in front of Natsu! Damn it I just said fffu—“ he pauses and takes a breath.

“I’m not going to talk anymore.” He stands in silence for a good few seconds just staring at them both before getting bored, “Bye Natsu!” He skidaddles away, leaving Natsu and Shouyou behind.

“Bye Nishinoya..” She says, a bit confused at all the weird and new words said, Hinata hopes that they don’t stick or else he’ll be in massive trouble.

He wants to get Natsu out before she learns any more inappropriate words. And if they run into Tanaka that might just be impossible. “Okay Natsu you got to say hi, ma’s waiting in the car. Bye!” He scoots her out.

“But I didn’t get to say hi to Tanaka-san!”

“You will next time, I promise.”

She pouts. “Awwe..”

“I know..” he sympathises (not really though, he just needs her to leave.) “Okay bye!” He adds, shoo-ing her out the door with one crutch.

“Bye Sho.. Bye Tsuki!” Natsu picks up on Yamaguchi’s nickname. She rushes off, leaving a slightly pink looking Tsukishima next to a giggling Tadashi.

Shouyou sighs. That girl can be a whole lot of work sometimes.

But it’s whatever. At least he’s here. His genius master plan worked. Even if he won’t get to play, he can still feel that same adrenaline pumping through him whenever he enters this room, or any room with a volleyball net, really. 

“Hinata! Oh my god!” Tadashi speaks up. “What happened? Why are you in crutches?” He jumps up. Racing to Shouyou as if he needed urgent care.

Finally he thinks. 

Everyone loves to coo over Natsu when he’s the one who should be getting coo’d, because he’s the one who’s hurt! Nishinoya didn’t even notice, how?! But Yamaguchi always notices the small things, even if they aren’t small at all. 

Because, again, how can someone miss crutches?

Okay, whatever, he needs to stop being petty.

He may or may not have practiced the coolest response he could possibly give a few times over this morning (he totally did.)

“Ohh. These?” He looks down like he’s seeing the crutches for the first time. “I sprained my ankle. No biggie! I’m going to the doctors with my ma’ tomorrow.”

Okay maybe mentioning how him mother is taking him to the hospital wasn’t the coolest thing ever, but it’s fine. He totally played it off.

“How’d you get crutches if you didn’t go to the doctors?” Yamaguchi asks.

“My ma’ bought them. They were only like, three thousand yen, super cheap apparently.”

Tadashi nods and brushes his green hair out of his face, blinking fastly the way he does when he’s nervous. “How long can you not play for? You’ll be ready for the qualifying rounds, right?”

Shouyou hopes so. He really hopes so. 

“Yeah, I’ll be ready.”

Because he has to be.

Yamaguchi smiles a sideways smile. “That’s good. We need you walking, or rather jumping, I guess.. Okay, em. Bye Shouyou!” He does an awkward looking wave and goes back to Tsukishima, who has his phone out and is gesturing Tadashi over.

“Yeah, bye.” Hinata mumbles, because he’s still stuck on the ‘we need you’ part of Yamaguchi’s goodbye.

A warm pleasant feeling reaches Shouyou’s heart. Because, aww!! They need him?! He can’t help but smile.

He knows that they need him, not to brag but he’s essential to the new starter line up. But to hear it coming out of someone’s mouth is an entirely different thing. It’s nice. He’s needed. Yippee!

Hinata eyeballs the whole gym, there’s Nishinoya who’s now with Tanaka, probably feeling bad about the whole swearing thing. There’s Tsukishima and Yamaguchi obviously, who are now looking at something on Tsukishima’s phone through shared earplugs. There’s the first years, setting up the net. There’s Coach Ukai, who is..

staring daggers at him. Or rather, his crutches.

Hm. Okay. So that’s not good. He’ll have to talk to him soon, real soon, because Coach Ukai looks like he’s about to explode. A sense of impending doom creeps up his spine, he’s not going to be happy. Not at all.

But Shouyou keeps on looking. Because he hasn’t seen Kageyama yet. And he knows. He knows that a teammate shouldn’t care as much as he does. But he can’t help it. So he looks closer.

Yep. Kageyama isn’t here at all.

Hinata doesn’t care if they aren’t friends. He doesn’t care if this isn’t something a teammate or rival would do. He doesn’t care if the knot tightens. And he doesn’t care if it would piss Kageyama off. He needs to know why he isn’t here. 

Because there hasn’t been a single day when Kageyama isn’t at practice. Not ever. 

And to find out why he isn’t here, Shouyou needs to talk to Coach Ukai. Which also means he’s going to have to explain what happened to his ankle. Which also means he’s going to get the scolding of a lifetime.

He sighs and begins to take his journey over to Coach. A few of the first years whisper about the crutches as if Shouyou can’t hear them. One of the new annoyingly tall first years with annoyingly dyed blue short hair on the team looks excited. He shouldn’t be. Not at all. There’s no way Shouyou’s letting him take his spot.

The whole long way over to the other end of the court, him and Coach Ukai are making an uncomfortable amount of eye contact.

“Heyy. Coach.. how— how are you?” Shouyou says as casually as possible, but he realises halfway through that he has never in his life asked Coach how he’s doing,l

He just stands there. Oh! Now he’s opening his mouth to speak. Crap Hinata’s scared. Crapcrapcrapcrap. Is he moving in slow motion? What is happening? Crap.

“I—“ he starts. “I don’t— I don’t know what to say.”

Okay, this is better than screaming. Let’s keep it that way.

“And that’s okay.” Hinata validates, nodding all the while. “Sometimes actions speak louder than words. You don’t have to talk. At all.”

Was that a bit too pushy?

“How— what? What happened?”

Shouyou swallows, at least he’s letting him explain. “I sprained my ankle. At the camp. It’s not even that bad, Kageyama said it was super mild, It’ll take two weeks to heal. But I thought it’d be better not to put any pressure on it for a few days. Also crutches are fun so—“ he cuts himself off. That’s enough talking for now.

Coach looks like he’s reevaluating his life choices. Shouyou frowns. He really doesn’t want to get in trouble. It wasn’t even his fault!

Okay. So it was his fault, he could’ve been back to normal by now if he had just rested after he twisted it, but no. He had to be stupid. He had to keep on playing, didn’t he? Stupid. Stupid idiot Shouyou.

“Fine.” He says, as if he were allowing Shouyou to have a sprained ankle. “But you come to practice. You practice at home, work on your receives. Move forwards. Not backwards.”

Yes. A motivational speech. That means that he is okay with it, mostly.

“I will.”

And Shouyou means it. Because there’s no way he’s letting that tall first year with the cool— no. Stupid, hair, take his spot.

——————————————

Just as everyone starts the serve receive drill and Shouyou finally gets into a comfy position is when he realises that, he never managed to ask Coach Ukai about where Kageyama is.

And just when Hinata is walking around, taking big leaps with his crutches, kicking the stray balls with his good foot to one of the first years (Shouyou’s favourite but it’s a secret shhh) and it’s a full thirty minutes after practice started,

Kageyama walks in.

Let Hinata say that again, thirty minutes. Three-zero!

He decided to walk through the door across from Hinata, so Shouyou has to squint trying to figure out what’s up with the boy. He looks.. pissed off. Stoic.

But then again that is what Kageyama looks like ninety nine percent of the time. Sometimes Hinata wonders if Kageyama is amazingly good at hiding his emotions or if he’s just a robot. But he can’t be a robot, right? Shouyou would know. He remembers ‘accidentally’ spilling water on Kageyama a few weeks into first year, just to make sure he didn’t start malfunctioning. And he didn’t! 

Unless you count yelling and threatening someone as a malfunction.. then yes, he did malfunction.

But if you don’t.. then Kageyama must be the exact opposite of Shouyou, who wears his heart on his sleeve at all times. 

He must be a master at pretending to be normal, because there’s no way that him turning up late combined with the fact that he randomly showed up on his doorstep all upset is just a coincidence. Something's wrong and Kageyama’s hiding it. And it annoys the hell out of Hinata. Why did his brain have to subconsciously choose Kageyama as his friend? Yamaguchi’s nice. He doesn’t do weird stuff like this. Yachi would be a good fit. They totally match each other's energy! But no. He had to pick Kageyama to be his best friend.

But they aren’t best friends. Are they?

The knot hadn’t left, not really. Hinata had just gotten used to it. But now it’s back and tighter than ever.

Stupid brain. Always thinking on its own, bringing up stuff like that won’t help the matter at hand, Shouyou!

But he did kind of lead himself into that one.

Arrgghhh!! Why is it that everytime he sees Kageyama he has to be reminded that the boy wants nothing to do with him as a friend? It just makes him nervous to go up and talk him. Which is what he would do anyways, no matter what goes through his head beforehand. It’s just what he wants to do. And nothing can stop him, not even a silly knot. Not even his brain.

He’s friends with Kageyama, in his head. Which is basically the same thing as it being real. Because they act exactly like friends would. It’s just that Kageyama’s too proud and stupid and pretty to admit it!

Hinata has no idea what him being pretty has to do with anything. But it is relevant! Somehow..

Shouyou gives up kicking the balls, he quickly apologises to the first year, who just takes one look at Tobio and nods,

he starts heading towards Kageyama, he needs to talk to him before the boy gets into his volleyball practice headspace, where nothing else matters.

Kageyama’s wearing his normal volleyball kit, with all the things he usually brings. It’s all normal.

Except it’s not, because Kageyama would never be late to practice, never ever.

Kageyama notices him when Shouyou’s still making his way.

It’s a bit awkward, but Hinata gets there.

“Hi.” He says.

Kageyama plonks his stuff down, sorting through his things to find what is probably knee pads. “Hi.”

“You’re late.”

Kageyama looks at him like Hinata has just insulted his entire bloodline. “I know. You don’t need to point it out, asshole.”

Stupid Kageyama. Shouyou’s only trying to understand! “Well I'm sorry for only trying to help!”

Kageyama looks even more pissed. Good. Screw him. “I don’t need your help Hinata. I can handle myself.”

Shouyou takes a moment to think. Kageyama probably wouldn’t need any help. They are teammates after all. Not friends. The knot tangles itself further, twisting and turning so it’s impossible to sort through.

“It’s just, I don’t know, you’re never late!” Maybe Hinata’s making a big deal of this. Maybe Kageyama just found a kitten stuck in a tree and had to save it or something.

Kageyama starts to stretch, obviously done with the conversation. “Well everyone’s late at some point. You don’t see me annoying the hell out of you whenever you’re late.”

Hinata bites his cheek. Maybe he’s overstepped, maybe he’s overthinking it. But there’s only one way to be sure. He prepares himself to analyse like he’s never analysed before.

“Are you okay?” He looks at Kageyama, who snaps his head up from whatever weird stretching pose he was doing.

And Shouyou sees it. Only for a second, but it’s there. 

Kageyama’s eyes flicker, and Hinata can see something. Sadness? Anger? Guilt? He doesn’t know. He can’t read it, so much for his analysing. But it was only there for a fraction of a second.

He can feel his own eyes widen a bit. He’s right. Something is wrong.

Kageyama notices Shouyou noticing him.

Hinata can feel a change in the air, it thickens.

Kageyama stands up fully. “I would be more ‘okay’ if your shitty ass stopped bothering me. I came here to practice. Not to talk to you.” 

And Hinata knows that if he weren’t in crutches right now, he’d probably be shoved to the floor. But Kageyama holds back.

Shouyou takes that as his cue to leave. He doesn’t say anything and turns around. He was too pushy, too annoying. He goes right back to his viewing seat, having failed.

No! He failed successfully. He definitely knows that something is wrong now.

Shouyou can’t play volleyball anymore. He needs something to occupy his brain, he’d thought it’d come naturally. And it did.

And that topic, that interest. Is Tobio Kageyama and whatever the hell is bothering him so much.

—————————

The rest of practice is just five versus five games to ‘strengthen teamwork’ or whatever, the players switch every twenty minutes so everyone gets a go. Everyone except Shouyou, of course.

And Hinata just.. sits.  By himself. Yachi had invited him over, but he’s feeling too gloomy and would probably bring the team morale down. So here he sits.

He had to do this at the training camp too, and he remembers Kageyama mocked him for being tired after the six hours of doing nothing. But sitting still and doing nothing may sound easy. But it may just be the toughest thing like, ever. Of all time!

Because having to just watch as everyone else gets to do your favourite thing in the whole wide world is a different type of torture, because that’s what this is, full on torture!

And whenever that stupid blue-haired first year, who Hinata has learnt is called, Abo Minato (stupid name, by the way,) messes up, Shouyou finds himself thinking things like ‘I wouldn’t have done that.’ or ‘they should’ve broken their ankle, not me.’

It’s when he thinks that second thought that he realises that he should probably stop wishing misfortune on the guy (even though he totally deserves it for getting his hopes up!) middle blocker is Shouyou’s position Minato, Shouyou’s!

When Coach Ukai starts telling everyone to finish up, Shouyou finds himself grateful. Let him repeat that. Grateful. Grateful that volleyball practice is over. 

Grateful!

He needs to figure out how to stop this mindset before it drives him insane.

Shouyou starts to make his way over to Nishinoya. He always manages to cheer him up, motivate him and so on. Shouyou stares him down on his way over, hoping that the boy will notice him. He does. Nishinoya glances down to Hinata’s legs and his mouth goes agape.

“Shouyoouu!?” He gasps, running over and closing the distance between them. “What the hell happened!?” He glides onto his knees, as if Hinata’s legs were the most precious things in the world, making Hinata feel proud of them.

Is he just noticing this now?

The thought makes Hinata giggle. “Nishinoya-san. I’ve been like this all practice.”

The boy frowns, trying to make sense of it. “Ahh. So that’s why you weren’t playing. Had me all worried you’d lost your passion or something.”

“You should be worried. I sprained my ankle!” Hinata rebuttals.

Nishinoya stands up and slaps Shouyou’s shoulder. “Naahh. You’ll be fine, I’ve sprained my ankle like—“ counts with his fingers, Shouyou can feel his eyes widen as Nishinoya moves on his second hand, “like eight times. You’ll get over it.”

That makes him feel better. A whole lot better. Although he’s not as tough as Nishinoya, his bones probably won’t heal as quickly as Yuu’s super bones. But who else’s would?

“See’ya Shouyou!” He skidaddles away for the second time today, always managing to keep their conversations short and sweet.

Hinata would say goodbye, but Nishinoya’s too far away to hear him. So Shouyou makes his way to the door, his mother must be starting to leave soon. He hopes. She’s always late, but with the task of getting Natsu out the house, Shouyou doesn’t blame her.

He pulls out his phone. Yep. He’ll probably be waiting around twenty minutes.

Hinata looks for somewhere to sit and wait. He spots his usual small set of stairs next to the car park and starts to migrate.

“Dumbass?”

Shouyou turns at the voice, he knows who it is before he gets a look at the face.

How weird. The last time they spoke Kageyama had said something along the lines of ‘I come here to practice, not to listen to your dumbass bla bla bla.’ 

Hinata rolls his eyes before fully turning, this guy can never choose an opinion. 

But he’s secretly glad, he wants to talk to him, he wants to see him. 

“Kageyama?” He responds, mocking his tone.

He analyses his face. The boy looks, uncomfortable? Almost like he doesn’t want to be here (which is totally not how he looks ninety percent of the time, definitely not.) 

Shouyou blinks, waiting,

“Can I—“ he takes a breath, as if this actually pained him to say. “Can I walk with you?”

Shouyou wants to say yes. He probably will say yes. Yeah. Okay. So he’s definitely going to yes.

The issue is, how?

Does he say it like a teammate? Is that what this is supposed to be, a teammate-rival walk home?

Does he say it like a friend? A best friend? Why is he thinking so hard about this?

Just answer the question Shouyou!

“Em—“ he fumbles, why is he fumbling? Stop fumbling! “Yes! Yes.. you can.”

Kageyama nods and walks forward, beginning their journey home. “Okay.”

Their houses are in the same direction, so they would sometimes walk home together when Shouyou didn’t bring his bike. It’s only for the first twenty minutes, then they go their separate ways, Kageyama with around five minutes of his journey home left and Shouyou with another twenty (he always went the long way instead of his shortcut so they could walk together, it’s a bit pathetic, he’s aware.)

But they haven’t walked home together in weeks because of the whole— Date Tech thing. And Shouyou is just about to be pathetic all over again and go the long way.

He follows Kageyama without saying goodbye to anyone else. Because, yeah. Shouyou’s nose diving straight into the patheticness and owning it.

Pathetic? That’s his middle name.

They walk side by side. Silent. Hinata feels nervous, like he’s missing something.

What is he missing?

He didn’t bring anything to practice. So he lets the feeling go and focuses on climbing the small hill with his crutches.

The silence isn’t unusual or anything, in fact it’s just as likely as a conversation for the two. It just depends. It’s weird though, Hinata can’t stand silence with anyone else, but with Kageyama he doesn’t mind it, it comes naturally.

But.. he would rather be talking right now. Just to see if he can figure out what’s wrong.

“Soo..” 

Shouyou probably should’ve figured out what he was supposed to be talking about. Crap.

Kageyama glances down at him, waiting.

“Sorry for em— for bothering you or whatever.” 

Huh. He can’t believe he thought of that on the spot. Well, it’s not the most imaginative thing to say, in fact, Shouyou isn’t very sorry at all. He was totally in the right, just checking on a friend!

No— teammate.

Hinata sighs out loud, he shakes the thought out of his head and looks up to see the boy's reaction at his heartfelt apology.

“Em. Okay?”

Rude much? “What do you mean, okay!?” Hinata squawks.

“I don’t know! What do you want me to say!?” Kageyama squawks right back at him, face distorted into some mixture of confusion and frustration.

It really doesn’t take much to turn a conversation into a battle with Kageyama, does it?

Shouyou doesn’t really know what he wanted him to say to be honest, just not that. “Hmm..” Hinata 'pretends’ to think except he is actually thinking.

“Maybe something like, ‘it’s okay Shouyou, it was my fault for being an asshole and shouting at you. To make it up I’ll give you a million tosses’.” Hinata stops in his tracks and holds both his crutches in one hand, all to be able to flatten his hair down and do his very best Kageyama impression.

Kageyama looks away, “I am not saying that. Dumbass”

“You’re such a dick!” Hinata says.

“You’re such a dick!” Kageyama parrots.

Hinata roughly begins walking again and stomps his crutches on the road extra hard for the next few minutes. Kageyama grips his gym bag extra hard.

It stays that way for a while. Until it doesn’t.

“I was late because—“ Kageyama swallows, Shouyou’s head perks up. “I was late because I forgot. That’s it.”

Shouyou almost trips over one of his crutches. Because, what? Tobio Kageyama what!? 

“That is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. Like, ever.”

Kageyama looks insulted, Hinata’s pretty sure that what he said was some form of compliment in a way, it was kind of a ‘wow that’s so unlike you! You’re never late,’ but if Kageyama doesn’t see it that way then so be it. 

“It’s not like your dumbass has never forgotten.” He argues.

Shouyou looks at his shoes, that’s only happened like, twice! 

“Yeah but.. that’s because I’m me. But you’re you. So— so how?!”

It’s Kageyama’s turn to look at his shoes. “I don’t know. I think it was the surprise English test. Messed up my brain.”

Shouyou looks sympathetic, even though he isn’t. “Yeah. That stuff can be hard on dumb people like you..”

Kageyama nods. Then realises what Hinata had just said, he looks like he wants to shove Shouyou but stops himself because Hinata is all sad and injured. “I hope you get ran over.” He mutters.

Car headlights blind them both right at that moment, ironic, huh? They step to the side of the road to let the car pass through. Hinata’s surprised someone would go down this road, he never sees anyone except—

Except..

The car stops in front of them both.

Wait a second.

His mother pops out of the driver's window, looking confused.

So that’s why Hinata felt like he’d forgotten something.

“Shouyou?” 

Whoops. Good thing Hinata embraced his patheticness and didn’t take his shortcut, or else.. Shouyou doesn’t want to think about it, it would probably involve a ton of scolding and a pinch of Natsu evilly grinning at the said scolding.

“Hello. Mother.” Hinata acts like he has been expecting her. Because he totally has, this is all part of his master pathetic plan.

One side of her mouth lifts into a half-smile. “That was ominous.. I thought you were at the gym.”

Shouyou looks over to Kageyama, who looks a bit uncomfortable. Maybe if he starts some conversation.. “Yeah! I was.. So basically—“

“Sho’, I know it’s probably a super interesting story, but dinners’ getting cold.”

Hinata stops himself. “Right.” But he doesn’t get in the car straight away.

His mother looks to Hinata’s left, where Kageyama has been standing the entire time, her eyes spark in recognition and she smiles. “Oh! Kageyama! Sorry, honey I didn’t see you there. You want a ride home?”

Kageyama looks from Hinata to his mother, looking.. it’s one of those faces that Shouyou can’t make sense of.

“Well, it’s cold out here, so I’m closing the window. It’s no problem to take you home, but it’d be great if you could make up your mind though.. Dinner, getting cold, y’know? Yeah.. you get it..” she pauses, “Hey! Maybe you could stay for dinner! Unless.. it gets cold. Nobody wants cold dinner, right? So um, no pressure. But there is a tiny bit of pressure.” She rambles, Hinata wants to shush her but he’s slightly afraid of the outcome.

Kageyama nods, looking a bit pink, and ma’ closes the window.

“So?” Hinata asks, already knowing the answers going to be no.

Kageyama looks at his shoes once again. “Do you— do you think I could, stay for dinner?” He gets out.

Shouyou’s pretty sure his jaw dropped, and he’s pretty sure Kageyama saw.

Why is he doing this? It’s not that Shouyou doesn’t want him over, he does! He does more than he would like to admit. It’s just.. teammates? Really? This is such a classic friendship thing to do! A visit!

“Yeah! Yes.. um. Sure.” 

Hinata doesn’t know why he agreed using three different variations of the word ‘yes.’ He also doesn’t know why his face is getting hotter and hotter. He also doesn’t know what the hell is going on with Kageyama. That last question is probably the most important one. Because, huh!?

Kageyama never comes over to Shouyou’s house. And Shouyou never comes over to Kageyama’s. That’s the way it’s always been up until yesterday. And it’s not like Hinata especially liked that arrangement, in fact he’d probably rather it be this way. 

But not when Kageyama says they aren’t friends. Not when the knot is still in Shouyou’s stomach. Because staying over for dinner? That’s not a teammate thing, not to Hinata at least.

But he still says yes, because even though the knot twists and turns and aches in Hinata’s tummy every step they take to the car, he realises that he wants this. He wants to be close to Kageyama. He wants to be his rival. He wants to be his teammate. He wants to be his friend. He wants to be his best friend. He wants to be— he wants to be his bestest best friend in the whole world. He wants this.

This is a good thing, really.

But the knot still sits.

It sits when Shouyou and Kageyama get into the car, Kageyama in the middle, Hinata on the right and Natsu on the left.

It sits when Kageyama tries and fails to keep up in small talk with ma’.

It sits when Natsu interviews Kageyama and he makes that face that he makes when he’s trying to be nice to a kid, but Natsu isn’t one to get scared away so she presses on.

It sits when Shouyou pokes fun at Kageyama for being late and Kageyama freaks out, causing another smirk from his mother.

It sits when they bicker during the car ride and Natsu takes Kageyama’s side, which makes Shouyou pout.

And it sits as they walk inside the house and Kageyama looks hesitant to walk in, but he takes a breath and does.

And something tells Shouyou that it might be sitting and stirring for a while.

Chapter Text

Shouyou isn’t the type to be in a naturally bad mood, but after Kageyama’s visit, which was annoyingly pleasant, he is. He’s in a terrible mood. Because with every smile Hinata cracked and every word that came out of Kageyama’s mouth, the knot grew tighter and tighter in ways Shouyou hadn’t thought possible.

So yeah he was in a bad mood. And after his doctors appointment on Tuesday, where he was given an x-ray and was sat down, told that he would have to use crutches for the next week and he would not be able to play any sort of sport for the following eight days after that, he was dropped into the hole of despair and sadness, with no way of escaping for two whole weeks and one day of just spectating.

Relatively speaking, two weeks for a sprained ankle is lucky, super lucky. But the unlucky part about the whole thing is that Shouyou wasn’t able to play until the something-th of July (Shouyou forgot the date, all he needs to know is that he can walk on Tuesday,) , and was strictly expected to obey those rules, which, by the way, is wayy harder than it sounds! It’s like he’s being punished for getting hurt! By the doctor for— for diagnosing him! Couldn’t he have given him a different one or something!?

Right. The unlucky part. Back on track.

Coach Ukai had set up a practice match with Nekoma for the day before Shouyou was allowed to play! And Hinata would bet everything that Coach had done that on purpose to teach him a lesson. It made his blood boil an unreasonable amount. He even thought about quitting the club out of spite, except he didn’t actually think about it because he knows he’d never do that, but still!

But to be honest, fourteen days had passed relatively quickly. It had surprised Hinata. He had thought that it would be a dragged out, painful, and exhausting two weeks. 

And it was, in different ways.

In ways that Shouyou hadn’t expected. Not in a million years.

School had been back to normal for him and Kageyama, well except for the whole no-touching thing, but Hinata had gotten used to that and he and Kageyama were mostly back on good terms.

Key word; mostly.

 Because the knot was still there, it didn’t leave. Not for a second. To be honest it had only grown tighter, more intense. Because school may had been somewhat normal, with Shouyou and Kageyama eating lunch and spending breaks together, sometimes with Yachi. But after school was a different story. Totally different. And Shouyou had loved every second of it.

Kageyama had been coming over almost everyday apart from weekends, but they would see each other on Saturdays for their usual study sessions at Yachi’s anyways. But other than that, Kageyama was over what felt like all the time, eating in Shouyou’s home, talking with Natsu and Ma’, watching stuff with Hinata on his tv in the living room, buried in blankets (Shouyou always made sure to keep his body far far away from Kageyama’s, just to keep the knot more under control, see! He’s adapting!)

Its not like Kageyama was super enthusiastic to come over, he just asked almost everyday after practice and sometimes just on normal school days, and after around the fifth time there wasn’t a need to ask, they’d just always eventually end up at Shouyou’s, if he were allergic to his own family home.

And yes, Shouyou was curious, very much so. The switch up is crazy and he wanted to know what was wrong really bad, what was making Kageyama act so much more, different? But he didn’t ask questions. Because if he had asked questions then Kageyama might’ve left. And Hinata liked him staying. He liked it more than he would’ve liked to admit.

Okay. So maybe he loved it. And maybe he was pathetically desperate for Kageyama to come back every time he left. Just maybe though!

He wishes he hated it. He wishes he hated it really badly. Because then the knot might have been less intense, it might’ve bothered him less.

But alas, he liked it. He wanted it. The visits were the only reason that Shouyou’s days had passed so quickly. He felt like some sort of addict, everyday after school, just waiting for Kageyama to bring it up so he could say yes.

And with every meal eaten together, every bicker, every walk home, Shouyou felt closer and closer to exploding.

He wants Kageyama to see him as a best friend so so badly. So badly he might just die.

But the two weeks passed and are over, well, technically it’s not over yet. He still has today. The day of the practice match with Nekoma, which is probably going to be the most difficult day to get through yet. Especially with Hinata on edge after the insane experience that has been the past two weeks, and especially with the knot, which seems to choke him every time he even takes a glance at Kageyama. But yet again, he craves it, he craves Kageyama’s company, his friendship. So he finds himself glancing more and more everyday. It’s a double edged sword.

School has just finished for the day and Shouyou is heading straight to the gym. Nekoma won’t be here for another half hour but Shouyou is too excited to sit at home, he wonders about the new Nekoma team, what it’s like without the old third years and the new first years. Is it as unflawed and perfect as last year? Does it have holes to burst through and take advantage of? How’s their defence doing? Have they focused on attacking, now that Kuroo’s gone? How is Kenma doing?

Okay, the last question is a little less volleyball related and a little more just Hinata’s general thoughts. Because, yeah! He’s excited to see Kenma and Lev. It’s been ages since he’s seen them! He has so much to talk with them about! So many conversations!

Or rather, so many one-sided conversations while Lev nods enthusiastically the whole time and Kenma slightly raises his eyebrows in recognition whenever Shouyou says something extra interesting.

Shouyou makes it to the gym. Nobody is here yet. Nobody except for a small figure, writing vigorously in a pink notebook, an anxious look on their face.

It’s Yachi.

“Yachi-san!” Hinata wants to leap over, but he holds back and begins a slow walk, not to hurt his ankle more. How responsible. He’s impressed with himself.

The girl looks up, blinking a lot more than the average person should, she must be super nervous. Her first practice match as team manager.

The team surprisingly hasn’t had one yet this year, everyone’s either too scared of them or they don’t think Karasuno is worthy of their time. 

Shouyou can only pray it’s the first option.

Yachi’s managed to dodge the bullet of her first practice match for a few months. But that streak ends today. Shouyou knows she’s scared, but he can’t help but be excited for her.

“Shouyou! Hi!” She chirps, a bit more quicker than usual, as if she were on two times speed, Hinata swallows a laugh.

“Wha’cha writing?” He looks over her shoulder.

She smiles lightly. “It’s nothing. I’m just writing down everything I can remember from the training camp back in first year. For Nekoma. It’s not really for the team— more for me.” The notebook has each individual player, their position, and how scary they were from a scale of one to ten. She blinks up at him, then suddenly her eyes widen.  “Does it being only for me sound conceded!? Oh god— I’m so nervous. Kiyoomi would’ve known what to do. I just—“

“Yachi!” He grabs her by the shoulders. “Do I need to shake some sense into you?” He raises his eyebrows. Poor Yachi. She doesn’t realise how good she is. She’s been an awesome manager! Once she warmed up to the whole team she’s been like a sister to them, it’s oddly different to the way Kiyoomi was treated, it’s less.. trying to make them fall in love with you-y. And more.. just her being a friend that happens to be a girl, 

Hinata thinks that a couple of the first years have big fat crushes on her though, but that’s just him and his opinions.

“Yes please..”

Oh. Shouyou hadn’t expected her to actually agree to the shaking. Well then. 

He flings her back and forth, “it’s gonna be fine!!” 

He shakes until her hair clip becomes ridged and her face relaxes a tiny bit more, that's enough, he’ll give her motion sickness if he doesn’t stop.

“Thanks Hinata-san. It’s just— it’s a first.”

He shrugs. “I get it.”

And he does. And Yachi’s taking doing something for the first time way better than Shouyou ever had, but then again it’s pretty hard to get much worse than Hinata’s tummy aches and anxious nausea.

Yachi smiles lightly and diverts her attention to writing in her notebook again, a bit less intensely this time.

The silence should be comfy. But Hinata isn’t the type of guy to enjoy silence, with most people atleast.. 

Blue eyes and silky black hair rudely interrupt his train of thought.

“So em— Kageyama’s been..”

Yachi slams her notebook shut and Shouyou thinks he’s about to get scolded for talking to her about the same issue once again, and for interrupting her important note taking, but Yachi’s eyes sparkle with excitement of all things.

“Tell me everything.”

Shouyou’s a little taken aback from her enthusiasm. She must’ve been on the edge of her seat these past two weeks just waiting for this like the gossiper she very secretly is. Hinata feels bad for not noticing.

But the best apology he can give her is to, well, tell her everything. He takes a deep breath, and begins to do just that. Yachi nodding and humming and gasping at all the right moments. 

Shouyou hadn’t realised how much he’d needed this. The knot untightens, even if it is only a little bit.

——————————

The bus arrives more quickly than expected. So do the members of Karasuno, forcing Hinata and Yachi into a corner to gossip some more so none of the nosey first years overhear.

They had finished their conversation on Kageyama after around twenty minutes after they started, now they’ve moved onto common school drama. Yachi’s favourite, even if she doesn’t like to admit it.

Her eyes glimmer mischievously and her low whisper has turned into a stage one, “yeah! Y’know Ami told me that—“ the mischievousness dies and is replaced with pure terror.

Shouyou’s scared there might be a wasp or something scary like that, he opens his mouth to ask what’s wrong—

“Nekoma’s here.” She says shakily.

Ohhh. She got Hinata all worried that they had a real emergency on their hands (Shouyou is a bug enthusiast, but he does not play about wasps after he got stung by one of the little shits when he was a tiny nine year old,) he turns to face the bus, which is pulling up now. Ennoshita speaks up.

“Okay guys let’s line up!”

They make their way over, Yachi muttering to herself.

Once Nekoma gets out the bus and they line up and say a respectful and professional hello, they dispatch so they can say their less-than-professional ones.

Shouyou looks round for Kenma and spots his blonde hair and not very great posture, hunched over doing something that looks extremely important judging by his face. By himself in the now mixed crowds of socialising.

“Kenma-san!” He chirps, speed walking over.

Kenmas is playing his game, obviously, because what else would Kenma Kozume be doing during a social gathering. But he looks up to see Shouyou and pauses it. Hinata feels honoured, like he might just cry right here on the spot. Although, if it weren’t a game you couldn’t pause he doubts he’d be getting the same treatment, but he’s honoured nonetheless.

“Shouyou, hi.” He replies. But his face frowns as something pops into his head. “You didn’t answer my message last night.”

Hinata can feel his face make a guilty shape. He saw the message. And he was totally just about to reply! But then he fell asleep, it was a long day of doing nothing, which for some reason is more exhausting for Shouyou than a day of doing everything.

“I’m sorry Kenma..” he apologises. “I fell asleep..” he looks to the side.

Kenma smiles, just a tiny bit. “Who knew that you’d be able to get tired.”

Shouyou doesn’t really know what to say to that. It must be one of Kenma’s unanswerable sentences where you just have to nod along to. He moves on. “I have so much to tell you— how long has it been since I last saw you?” Kenma opens his mouth to talk but another thought pops into Shouyou’s head, “I can’t wait to see how our new teams will mix!”

The boy blinks. “Emm— I think we had a practice match at the very end of last year. I don’t know.” He answers slowly.

Hinata gawks, “really? Has it been that long? That’s like, a whole year!” 

“Five months, but yeah.”

That must be right. The thought sounds crazy to Hinata, but it’s correct. Karasuno hadn’t attended the summer training camp this year and had focused more on strengthening teamwork at home. So yeah. Five months.

Another thought pops into Shouyou’s head, “Wait. What was your message about, I forgot.” He asks.

Kenma looks a bit annoyed at all the questions, but he does every time they catch up with each other and Shouyou’s learned to ignore it and carry on, which now that he thinks about it probably isn’t the best way to handle it, but whatever!

He puts his game into his jacket like he’s saying goodbye to his newborn baby and begins to talk, “well, I was talking to Kuroo and—“

“Kuroo!?” Hinata reacts like the two are childhood best friends, “you were speaking to him!? How is he? I bet you miss him..”

Kenma’s face looks even more annoyed, and a bit more pinker at the mention of Kuroo. Shouyou decides right there and then that Kenma totally misses him.

“Sorry.. continue.” Shouyou says.

Kenma sighs. “I was talking to him and— and he said that your position has been taken by a first year.”

Shouyou can feel his mouth drop wide open. Em, what!? Who has been spreading these rumours? Has someone been spying on their practices? Has Kuroo turned to the dark side and is now trying to sabotage Hinata in some way?

“Excuse me!?” Shouyou barks. “No! Well— not necessarily..” technically his spot has been snatched away, up until tomorrow of course. “It’s temporary, okay?! Like— super temporary.”

Kenma’s tiny smile returns. “That’s good. Are you playing today?”

Hinata looks at his shoes and kicks a rock hard. “No..”

“Why?” Kenma asks, Shouyou can’t see his face, but he bets that Kenma’s.. crying or something like that, because who wants to play against a middle blocker with a name as stupid as Abo Minato. 

“I sprained my ankle a while back, it was only a tiny one apparently. But I’m not able to play until, well, tomorrow actually.” He pouts, reminded of the situation. He had excepted it mostly, but now seeing Kenma, seeing how he’s gotten a few inches taller, realising that it’s not just Hinata who has improved, it’s everyone. He wants to play really bad.

“That’s bad luck.”

Finally! Someone who’s not telling him to see the bright side!

Hinata’s head pops up to see, not a crying Kenma, that was a little too much to ask for, but he does see a disappointed one. 

Aww! Is he disappointed because he won’t be playing against Shouyou!? He’s flattered.

“Yeah.” Hinata says.

Because it is, this all totally sucks. It’s going to be the worst match of Hinata’s life and ugh.

They make their way into the gym. Hinata still chatting, just a little less enthusiastically than usual.

——————————————

Okay. So maybe it isn’t the worst match of Hinata’s life.

And maybe it is cool to watch the two teams from a different perspective.

Shouyou’s watching intently on one of the final rallies, the score is twenty two to twenty four to Nekoma and— oh my god that new Nekoma libero is amazing!

Okay this is maybe totally awesome! Seeing the updated teams face each other from the outside is so, so cool! Nekomas sticking to their defensive strategy, even without Kuroo it still works, they got lucky with their first years, Kenma said he was some kid who’s been playing since he was like three! And he’s a middle blocker! 

But Karasuno is still great, of course. Nishinoya’s basically perfected the art of libero and is saving like, every ball ever! Tanaka’s still Tanaka, just a stronger more focused version, perfect for the ace, which Shouyou has allowed him to have this year, because yeah, Tanaka-san’s awesome, him and Kageyama get on really well together as well. So he’ll let him, (it’s not up to Hinata in any way shape or form.)

Kageyama has also been getting along with Abo..

which was fine. It’s all fine. Whenever they made a successful spike and celebrated, a little piece of Shouyou died, but it’s fine.

And speaking of Kageyama. He’s perfect, as usual. Nothing else to say really. The perfect setter, like he always is. Kageyama’s tired though, he can tell, the hair stuck to his forehead and his thigh muscles tensing with every jump, he sets the ball, Tanaka spikes, Nekoma receives. Awesome. Kageyama is awesome.

It’s always so cool watching Kageyama play, he usually is more focused on the ball, but not today. Today he studies Kageyama intensely, feeding into his addiction of staring. The knot tightens a tiny bit, but the thumping in his heart from just witnessing Kageyama in a real game is overwhelming.

He’s smooth and precise. But there’s an underlying tone of sloppiness from fatigue, not like that would ever affect his accuracy, of course. Because Kageyama’s perfect. He’s perfect and pretty and amazing. He’s pretty, he’s really really pretty. Hinata looks at his face, relaxed in a way that only happens during a match, relaxed but also focused in a way that makes Shouyou fascinated, like he wants to grab out and touch it, just to make sure it’s real. His cheeks are pinker than usual and he’s sweaty. He’s sweaty all over. Especially his legs. His legs and shins and thighs. Sweaty. Sweaty in a way that makes Hinata himself sweaty. Kageyama moves to the left a bit, getting ready to block an attack. He jumps and Shouyou can visibly see Kageyama’s muscles tense and a bead of sweat rolls down one leg as Kageyama hits the floor and Shouyou licks his lips and—

And the whistle blows, they lost. Uh oh.

What!? What happened!? No way Shouyou missed the winning point. Ughh!! No!

He turns to Yachi, who is sitting next to him. “What happened? I missed it!”

Yachi giggles. “I don’t know, I was watching you.”

Hinata is confused, “why? You should’ve been watching the—“ oh.

The two look at each other. Hinata is at a loss for words as Yachi keeps hers to herself.

“Dumbass.” A voice pants. Shouyou looks up.

A sweaty Kageyama in front of him. Not that pretty considering the scowl on his face. But still. A sweaty, pink, panting Kageyama. A Kageyama who looks pissed.

Oh god. Did he notice him staring? Shouyou has zero idea what the hell the staring was about but he knows that he probably looked creepy. Oh no. Oh nononono. 

“Water.” He gestures to the dozen or so water bottles next to Shouyou.

Oh yeah.

That’s his job now.

Shouyou stares at him for a second, just thanking whatever higher power out there that didn’t make Kageyama notice. “Right.” 

And he gets to work.

————————————

When Coach Ukai tells the boys they have an hour until their bus gets back, Lev loudly suggests ‘that one market with the buns’, nobody objects, not even both of the coaches, Ukai-san just reminds everyone to be nice to his niece who he has working his shifts. And so, both the teams set out.

You’d expect everyone to stay within their own teams and interact with the opposing team like they were rivals, but no. They walk in a mixture of red and orange. The two sets of first years talk, and the third and second years mix. All tired and excited to eat.

Kageyama stays with Tsukishima surprisingly. But Shouyou doesn’t mind, Kageyama’s probably going to come up in conversation quite a bit, so it’s best that he’s far away, lost in the crowd.

Hinata walks with Kenma and Lev, Yachi unsurprisingly didn’t want to go, but Shouyou basically dragged her out. She’s not with him, she’s stayed with Nekoma’s manager, Mikuru, at the back of the group, the two are chatting away.

Kenma is hunched over playing his game and Lev and Shouyou talk about meaningless things. Kicking stones as far as they can. The afternoon summer air feeling nice on Shouyou’s face.

“I don’t know, Shouyou..” Lev kind of considers the opinion. “Do we really remind you of cats?” He looks up to the pink and orange sunset sky as if god were going to give him the answer.

“Yes!” He nods, “every single one of you! Especially Kenma.”

Kenma glances up at the mention of his name, “I don’t think I look like a cat.”

Hinata shakes his hands, “noo.. you don’t look like one. It’s just— energy.”

“Kageyama looks like a cat.” Lev rebuttals.

Kageyama looks like a cat.. Shouyou considers this. Okay. That’s valid, he can see that. Kageyama would definitely be a black cat with blue eyes because— does he really have to explain that logic?

He’d be a cute cat. 

Shut up Shouyou! No he wouldn’t! He’d be a smelly, nasty cat, because Tobio Kageyama is smelly and nasty!

“I told you!” Lev yells into Kenma’s ear, startling him. Kenma’s character dies to the evil demon thing he’s fighting. He closes his game and looks up at Lev, obviously annoyed.

Huh? What does Lev mean, ‘I told you?’

Kenma smiles a soft smile.

Lev continues. “You totally saw it, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. That time.”

“Saw what?!”

The two look at each other. 

What is this? Since when has this trio turned into one where secrets are kept?! Secrets at Shouyou’s expense!

“Tell me!” He shakes Lev's arm.

“I don’t know Hinata.. you might get a little mad.”

He pouts. Hinata doesn’t have a short temper, that’s Kageyama’s thing. Not his. So he doesn’t know why Lev would ever think that. Hinata is nice and bubbly and cheerful (and very humble to, of course.) “I promise I won’t!”

“Tell him.” Kenma says.

Lev looks uncertain. “I’m scared for my safety though.”

“Just do it” Kenma rolls his eyes, restarting his game.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” Kenma and Shouyou say in sync, one more noticeably louder than the other.

Lev begins to smile again, a playful spark in his eyes, “okaay.. Shouyou.”

Hinata nods.

“Its nothing big, it’s just a bit of an observation I have made. And kenma agrees with me one hundred percent on this by the way.. so if you’re gonna hurt someone please hurt him..”

“I agreed one time..” Kenma argues, more focused on taking down the demon king or whatever the monster’s called on his screen than making a convincing comeback.

Lev coughs, Hinata waits. “It’s just— every time we mention a certain someone— and by this we mean Tobio Kageyama, you just get a little.. hot and bothered.”

“Excuse me!?” Shouyou’s jaw drops and he can feel his face betraying him and going red. “I do not!” 

“You do.” Lev says.

“Kenma!?” Shouyou gets in his face. The boy loses the game again, this seems to make him a lot more irritable and he shoves the game away in his pocket, folding his arms. He looks at Shouyou, his patience obviously growing thinner.

“You do.”

Hinata looks over his shoulder to make sure there are no prying ears or eyes, and then begins. “You two are crazy. To think that I— that I would— this makes no sense! You’re insane! Both of you! He’s my friend and—“

No he’s not.

The knot tightens ten fold.

Crap. Why’d his brain have to get all gloomy now?

Shouyou swallows.

Lev notices because of course just he had to. “Woah, why’d you go all depressed?”

Shouyou pouts. “No I didn’t..”

Lev argues, “em— yes you did. Your face went from like super mad to.. super sad.”

“That rhymed.” Shouyou reflexively says, even though he’s mad, well, he supposes he’s sad now.

“Yeah, that was awesome.”

Kenma jumps in, “why are you sad?”

Ew. Why has volleyball club turned into share-your-feelings club. This is horrible.

But Hinata will take whatever chance he can to rant about Kageyama, so he begins. “I don’t know— it’s just. Kageyama has been. Well, super nice.”

“Huh?” Lev barks.

“What I mean is. I think that we’re— friends because.. because yeah! We are! But he’s been all ‘eww no dumbass, we’re only teammates I’d never be friends with you’.”

“Ohh!” Lev replies. “Is that why you’re getting hot and bothered?”

“I’mnotgettinghotandbothered!”

Kenma jumps back in. “What do you mean he’s been all nice?” 

“Well— he’s still being an ass like usual. It’s just.. he’s been coming over almost everyday, acting like we’re friends even though he made it clear that we aren’t and never will be.”

The two nod.

He takes a look at the two, both looking too intrigued for this to be their ordinary behaviour. “Wait a minute! Why do you guys even care!?”  

Hinata’s curious, Lev is naturally nosey, but Kenma isn’t. So why is he asking all of these questions?

“Well I think it’s fun.” Lev says matter of factly. “But in my humble opinion, I think that poor Kenma here misses Kuroo and needs a distraction.”

“Aww.” Hinata grins. That does make a lot of sense. Kuroo’s gone away for something Hinata has no clue about. Kenma must be all alone without his best friend.

Kenma’s looks mostly stoic, but Hinata can see this tiniest tint of pink on his cheeks. “Can we go back to Shouyou’s thing please?”

Lev places a hand on Kenma’s head affectionately, “sure..” Kenma shrugs him away, it reminds Shouyou of a cat who’s annoyed at its annoy younger brother cat who won’t leave them alone.

“Well that’s all there is to it so..”

“Can I share my opinion then?” Lev offers, he seems acutely interested in this. But Hinata will take any suggestions so he nods.

“I think you guys are super friends, like super. Theres no doubt in my mind. But I also think that Kageyama is a dick. So he’s going to be a dick towards everyone, even you.”

Hinata sighs. That wasn’t really eye opening. Everyone on the planet is aware that Kageyama is a dick.

“You should ask him about it.” Kenma says, joining in again.

“Really?”

“Well, if he’s going to your house tonight, then just ask if you guys are friends.” The advice is simple, extremely so. But coming from Kenma’s mouth it seems so much more reasonable, probably because Kenma sharing his opinions is a rare sight.

Lev nods in agreement. “Then you’ll stop getting so hot and—“

“You’re such an asshole Lev!”

Kenma smiles a tiny smile while Lev grins big while Hinata pretends to be angry. But he’s actually content with the conversation, Shouyou feels a lot better about the current Kageyama situation.

Because he has a plan. He has a plan that he’s going to implement tonight.

Karasuno say goodbye to Nekoma, waving as they ride into the sunset very cinematically everyone’s crying, even Kageyama, the bus grows wings and flies away and bla bla bla it’s very emotional and sad.

And after that very much real, not made up goodbye that Hinata definitely didn’t dramatise, the plan goes perfectly. Well the first part of it does at least, Hinata has no idea what the future holds for him.

“Dumbass?”

“Wanna stay for dinner tonight?” Hinata asks, knowing that Kageyama probably doesn’t want to say it. But also because he wants to.

His eyes widen a tiny bit, Shouyou realises that he hasn’t actually asked Kageyama that himself yet, it’s always the other way around. What if he scares him off? Was that too much? 

“I guess.” he acts like he has other plans. Shouyou curses him in his mind for being an asshole, but he does exhale out of relief, just a tiny bit.

Hinata goes along with his act and pretends like Kageyama totally wasn’t about to ask. “Cool.”

Shouyou’s mum stopped driving them after Hinata lost the crutches and could walk by himself again, in other words, the moment it became socially acceptable to let your son walk home alone.

But he’s not been alone, he has Kageyama to himself everyday now.

Shouyou’s brain and heart and every other part of his body is overwhelmed with the desire to learn more about Kageyama. He’s been getting that quite a lot as of recent, and it’s only getting stronger, adding more and more layers of feeling to the knot. 

“Kageyama?”

“What?”

“Do you listen to music?”

Kageyama looks down at him like he just asked him if he does sacrificial rituals every Tuesday.

Shouyou looks right back at him. “Do you?”

“Why are you asking?” He spits defensively.

“Am I not allowed to or something? This is basic small talk!”

Kageyama frowns. “This is meaningless.”

“Not every conversation has to be revolutionary you know?” Hinata scowls.

Shouyou’s pretty sure the word ‘revolutionary’ was too big and it scared Kageyama into answering, because the boy responds with a mumble, “Yeah. I’ve been listening a lot recently.”

Hm. Okay. So that’s something. Maybe that ties into whatever’s going on at home..

“What music?” Shouyou pushes. Even though it’s not really a push, it’s just a simple follow up question. But to Kageyama it’s like he’s asking for a kidney.

“I don’t know.. music?”

Hinata makes a face. He’s not sure what it looks like exactly but he hopes that it’s managing to display ‘that makes no sense.’

“What?!” The boy barks.

“How did you not know what music you're listening to?!”

“Maybe I just don’t want to tell your dumbass.”

Hinata feels a little hurt that Kageyama can’t tell him something so simple. But you can’t get everything. So he steers the topic to something they can talk about; how stupid Kageyama is!

Hinata fights back, now basically side stepping so he can face Kageyama and keep up. “Well if I'm a ‘dumbass’ then you’re— then you’re a stupid idiot dumbass!”

Kageyama humours him. “Oh and why’s that?”

“Because I got three marks higher than you on the Japanese test.”

“Well— well I got six marks higher in English!” Kageyama argues.

Hinata scoffs at his agreement, “who cares? You’re Japanese. That means that you should be good at your own language. I’m allowed to be bad at a language I don’t speak!” He smiles victoriously. He won. He won that real good.

“You fucking stink.”

“How does me being better than you have anything to do with my personal hygiene?”

Woah, Shouyou’s on a roll with snarky comebacks today! Tsukishima must’ve magically gifted him his magical snarky powers for the night.

Kageyama kicks a rock. “It doesn’t. It’s just a side note.”

“You know you basically just agreed to me being better than you?” Hinata grins.

“I did not!”

“Yes you did! You didn’t disagree, therefore, you agreed!”

Kageyama scowls. “Did not.”

“Did to.”

“Did not!”

“Did tooowah!!”

Shouyou gets shoved onto the road. But he could’ve sworn he saw Kageyama take a look ahead to check there wasn’t any incoming traffic. That’s it! He’s decided it. They’re so totally friends.

And with that the knot tightens, right on cue. Because Kageyama doesn’t think so.

Screw this. Hinata’s fed up. He’s fed up with all of this, (not the Kageyama coming over bit, of course. As if he could get fed up with that.)

He’s ending this tonight.

When they get to Hinata’s house, ma’s car isn’t in the drive way. She must be working late, which means Natsu went to a friend's house. They’ll be back in about two hours if he had to guess based on past experiences.

“I guess we’re making vegetable rice!” Shouyou unlocks the door with his house key.

He turns to see Kageyama’s face horrified. “No fucking way we’re doing that.”

“I’m kidding!” Hinata kicks his shoes off with his feet. “My ma’ got ramen yesterday, I think she got pork flavour for you.”

Hinata smiles at that last part. It sounds stupid, he knows, but he likes that his mom knows those things now, he likes that Natsu always makes sure to put her shoes away properly when Kageyama’s over because she sees him scold Shouyou whenever he doesn’t.

He makes the house better, somehow. Even though he’s such a pain to be around.

Kageyama kicks his shoes off too and puts both the pairs away in the storage container, which is a tiny bit overcrowded with old shoes his mother refuses to get rid of.

“I’ll boil the kettle.” Kageyama says, filling it up.

“I’ll cut the carrots.” Hinata giggles while grabbing the ramen.

Kageyama glances at him. “You’re not funny..”

Shouyou glances back with a smile. “But I am.” His voice quiets down at the end of the sentence. Because guess what? It’s the damn knot. Can he not have a single nice moment anymore?

The ramen is made, they eat it on the sofa and Hinata puts on some match on the tv from like, Hinata would guess the seventeen hundreds considering the quality, but the match is iconic in volleyball history so he doesn’t mind.

He glances over to Kageyama, he looks comfortable. He’s leaned back in a spot on the sofa that is now one hundred percent his, feet crossed almost sensibly, he eats much more carefully than Shouyou, making sure not to spill on the floor. The whole scene is— is really nice. 

The knot scrambles even more. So much that Shouyou’s getting that explode-y feeling again, the feeling that he might just word vomit everywhere. Word vomit about everything. But then again, that is the plan, right? He’s going to talk to him. He has to, Hinata can’t take it anymore.

He places his ramen down on a table stand nearby.

Okay. He has to do this. He needs to clear this up. Then they can go back to normal, better than normal. They can be friends, best friends. Then Shouyou will feel content with everything and everyone will live happily ever after. The end.

“Kageyama?”

The boy grunts in reply due to the ramen in his mouth, maybe Hinata should’ve waited until he was finished. Whatever. Shouyou takes that grunt as a ‘what.’ But for his nerves his heart takes it as ‘you’ve got this dumbass, I won’t get mad.’

“We’re— we’re friends. Right?”

Kageyama stops eating.

Shouyou blinks six times before he responds.

“Why do you always bring this up?”

Oh. That’s okay, all Shouyou has to do is explain.

The still knot stirs though, but it’s probably just because of the bit of pork on the corner of Kageyama’s lip, which seems to be taking up too much space in Shouyou’s mind. “Well, I don’t know— it’s important. To me.”

Focus. Hinata. This is important, you just said it was.

“Yeah well— well I don’t get why you keep on asking even when I’ve answered.”

Hinata’s confused. “So— so we’re not?” 

He said it in a joking way, but Kageyama didn’t take it like that.

“I don’t— we’re teammates. Rivals if you really get into it. You don’t need to be so picky.” He stares at his unfinished ramen as if it’s grown two heads.

The way he said it sounded like a conclusion, but Shouyou isn’t done. He needs this. He needs this or else he’ll go crazy.

“How is it picky to just want a friend? A best friend? I just want you to say it! You won’t need to change anything, if that’s what you’re so worried about. It’ll— it’ll be the same. Between us.”

Kageyama’s face recoils when Hinata says the word ‘us.’ “I can’t lie to you, Hinata.” He puts the ramen on the floor next to him. Kageyama looks his feet, as if Shouyou weren’t there anymore.

He doesn’t get it. Why can’t Kageyama just say it? Because of course they’re friends. Of course they are! The things they do are things that friends do! The knot squirms in Shouyou’s tummy and he feels nauseous, because what happens if he can’t get rid of it? He can’t live with this disease staying in his stomach forever. Because whether Shouyou wants to or not, because of volleyball he has to look at Kageyama everyday, because of volleyball he has to communicate with him. And he doesn’t think he can anymore, not like this. Not with this blinding desire to just know Tobio Kageyama.

He gets desperate.

“Then what are you doing here!?” He argues. “What kind of teammate is— is this present?!” Hinata grabs Kageyama’s arm to get him to just look at him. The boy flinches away.

“Don’t touch me.”

It’s the way he says it. So serious. So tired. As if Hinata has been doing it non-stop. But he hasn’t! He made sure of it! He made sure to give him space and not invade his new boundaries! What is going on?

“And what the fucks up with that?” Shouyou says bitterly. “With all the sudden bursts of ‘ew! Get off me Hinata, you’re gross I don’t want your germy ass hands on me.’”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say!”

“Then what are you trying to say!?”

Silence. This wasn’t the way it was meant to go. But Shouyou can’t stop, because the knot is still there eating him inside out. He can’t give up now, he’s broken them, but he has to fix it, he can’t leave it all messed up again, he can’t leave himself this messed up again.

He waits another moment for an answer. Nothing.

 “I don’t get you, Kageyama. I thought we were friends! Because— because if you aren’t, then what are you even doing here?”

Kageyama looks up at him finally. “If you want me to leave, I will. I’m not forcing you to keep me.”

“No. Don’t go.” Why can’t he understand the words coming out of Hinata’s mouth?

“But you’re yelling so—“

“I’m yelling because I don’t want you to go! Because I like this. I like you staying over. But— but I can’t keep letting you stay if we’re not friends to you. It doesn’t feel right. It feels fake.”

Kageyama grips his shorts tight. “It’s not.”

“Then what is it!? What do you see this as?” Hinata’s trying. He’s trying so hard to figure out what’s going through Kageyama’s brain. But he can tell it isn’t working. This whole thing isn’t working.

“I don’t fucking know! Okay?! I just— I don’t understand why you’re trying to title this as something that it’s not.”

“So we aren’t friends?” Shouyou asks, more quietly this time. This doesn’t make sense. He feels like they’re having the same conversation over and over again and it just keeps getting more confusing every time they repeat it.

“I think that we’re.. I think that— I think that I don’t want your shitty ass touching me like we’re some lovey dovey couple. I think that you’re— I think that you’re.” He pauses, it’s such a swift pause that Hinata almost misses it. But he doesn’t, he can see the sudden change in Kageyama’s demeanour. He can see all the walls that he worked so hard to break down build up again. 

“I think that I’m going home. Thanks for dinner.”

He stands up, but Shouyou’s still stuck on the first part. Like they’re some lovey dovey couple? Shouyou hasn’t done anything even remotely close to that. In fact he’s made sure to steer away from touching Kageyama at all. What’s happening?

Well, what’s happening is that Kageyama’s getting his shoes on.

Hinata’s brain clicks on again. He gets up.

“Wait. Kageyama— please don’t. We need to talk.” He rushes up in front of him, blocking his path. “Please don’t—“ he repeats. “I don’t understand what I did.” And shit. He’s crying. How long has he been crying? Stupid eyes. Stupid tears. Stupid knot.

Kageyama finishes putting his shoes on, gets up and takes a look at Shouyou’s face. And just for a second he looks guilty. Fuck him. If he feels guilty then he should stay.

“I only want to know—“ a hiccup, “—if we’re friends.”

Kageyama looks like he’s having some internal battle and Hinata thinks that he might actually listen, that he might actually consider—

“We’re not. We’re teammates.” He says, then adds, or more so declares. “Rivals.”

Well there’s his answer. Kageyama’s said it around a dozen times. But it stays in the air for longer this time. It lingers now that Shouyou doesn’t have the energy to argue back. Hinata considers it, tastes it on his tongue, he thinks he hates it. But he can’t tell for sure, the knot is consuming and the tears are blinding so it’s difficult to think of anything else.

Shouyou vaguely remembers being moved to the side gently, and Kageyama thanking him for dinner one last time. 

And the door slams. For some reason it feels more final to Shouyou. Like it’s the end of something. Something big.

Kageyama’s pork ramen still sits on the floor. Hinata stares at it for what feels like hours, until he wills himself to move and washes it, puts away the bowl, robotic in a way he has never been before. He tidies the sofa where Kageyama has sat. Just to make sure there’s no trace of him. Just so the stupid fucking knot can lessen its grip on him just a tiny bit.

But it doesn’t. Hinata gives up and goes to bed.

Chapter Text

Shouyou wakes up unsure of how he’s feeling.

Technically, it’s a good day. A great day, a day he’s been waiting over two weeks for. It’s a day for celebration. 

Today is Tuesday, his first alarm has gone off, which is usually followed by an extra four to properly get Shouyou out of bed, but he’s wide awake today. At five am, a time when Shouyou should be half awake, contemplating whether high school is really worth it if it means he has to get up this early every morning. 

But here he is, starting at the ceiling, not really wanting to get up but not really wanting to stay still. Today is the day his doctor said Shouyou can play again. If Hinata wanted to, he could play right now! He can run, skip around like Natsu and her friends, do the splits, hell! He could even do a backflip!

Though Shouyou’s not too confident he could complete the last two tasks, maybe with some practice he could get the job done.

But for some reason, he isn’t happy. Well, he’s thinking ‘for some reason’ as if he doesn’t know the direct cause of this mixture of feelings. He does know. In fact, he doesn't just know, it’s almost like he’s feeling it, like he’s living with the information latched onto his back. As if the information were infused in his bones, weighing him down with its own intensity. 

It was decided, it was made immeasurably clear. Tobio Kageyama is not and will never be, Shouyou’s friend.

But he isn’t exactly distraught like he was last night, he’s feeling.. oddly numb. Like he doesn’t know what to feel anymore.

Except for the knot. Somehow that hadn’t left.

Which is insane, by the way! The whole reason the whole thing was there in the first place was because Hinata wasn’t sure of what his and Kageyama’s relationship stance was!

And now he’s very sure. Kageyama made sure of that.

“We’re not. We’re teammates.” 

The knot tightens and Shouyou knows what he’s feeling now, it isn’t numbness, it’s sadness. 

“Rivals.”

Sadness. In its purest form, starting from his gut and spreading all over, spreading over him like a weighted blanket, making Hinata not wanting to get up. He groans, turning to the left, reaching for a real blanket. But he’s kicked them off in his sleep and they’re somehow halfway across the room. Great.

For some reason Kageyama simply stating them being just rivals instead of screaming it hurts more. Because he wasn’t blinded by anger this time. It’s just what he thinks. What he feels.

His second alarm goes off. Hinata slowly sits up and turns it off, along with the other two that follow in around ten minutes. 

Shouyou ignores the weight of sadness and stands, he’s going to do everything he’s supposed to. He’s going to school. He’s going to class. He’s going to practice.

He’s going to play volleyball.

And maybe, just maybe, he might be able to stand looking Kageyama in the face.

Screw him. Screw him and his not-at-all pretty face and how sad he’s made Shouyou feel.

The week left leading up to August, in other words, the week leading up until Karasuno's first match of the spring tournament, is busy.

Hinata thinks busy is an understatement. Before school? Practice. During lunch? Practice. After school? Practice. After practice? Practice at home, Shouyou! You’ve been lazing around on your ass for two weeks! Get your head in the game!

Shouyou took inspiration from Coach Ukai for that last part, who seemed to be stressing out as if Hinata had suddenly lost every ounce of skill he had in his bones during that two weeks.

But that’s what he did. He practiced. He got his head in the game even when his sister, with her requests to play princesses, and his English teacher, with her demands for him to study, tried to drag him out.

Nuh-uh. His head is stuck and it’s not going anywhere. They’re gonna have to drag out his cold, dead body.

It didn’t take long for Shouyou to get back on track volleyball wise, with the whole, you know, ‘head stuck in the game’ thing he’s doing.

Because he’s afraid that if he even took a peek outside the game, he might notice something he doesn’t want to. Like how Kageyama and him haven’t spoken for anything other than volleyball requests, which were cold and harsh yet somehow awkward. Like how Kageyama has been looking more and more tired each day, yet he somehow doesn’t seem to let it affect his sets, but Shouyou can see him trying not to fall asleep during class, which is super unlike him, if Kageyama’s strict on one thing, it’s his routines, he likes to keep it ‘Olympic worthy’ or whatever his stuck-up ass likes to say, Shouyou knows that much. 

He might start noticing things like how Shouyou can’t seem to keep his eyes to himself during school, always observing, sometimes they even make eye contact, someone always pulls away, Shouyou’s okay with that though, it settles the knot, just a tiny bit. Things like how, for some sinister reason, their teamwork is great, amazing, even. Hinata thinks it’s reminiscent of the training camp. They work well together now because it seems that Hinata isn’t the only one with his head in the game.

But outside of volleyball, something that Shouyou doesn’t even dare to think about for more than a minute because the knot swirls and his sadness returns, it’s a mess. A big. Fat. Messy. Mess.

When Shouyou looks at Kageyama during a match, it’s okay. He’s focused, his head is— does he need to say it again? It’s in the game, goddamn it!

Because when he looks at Kageyama in a game, he’s thinking ‘oh em gee I hope he sets to me!’ Or something of that similar nature.

But when Hinata even thinks about looking in Kageyama’s direction outside the court, he’s met with the knot feeling like it might explode all over again and a lingering feeling of hurt, creeping up his spine until he has to look away. When he looks, he’s filled with a desire to fix it. But also, weirdly enough, a desire to stay the hell away from Tobio Kageyama, even if it drives him insane.

But it seems no matter which option Shouyou chooses he’ll be headed down the insanity route.

When he looks at Kageyama outside of a game, a million thoughts swirl through his head until he feels dizzy, the loudest ones being; ‘You hurt me. You hurt me so bad and I’m angry and I hate you, I never want to see your face again.’, 

What usually follows is; ‘Please be my friend, please please please. I want you to be my friend Kageyama. I miss you. Come back and we can eat ramen on my coach and watch volleyball plays together.’

and sometimes there's something along the lines of; ‘Wow your hair looks so soft. Wow your eyes are so blue. Wow. I wanna touch your face it looks so smooth and sweet and pretty. Wowowow you’re so pretty Kageyama.’

By the time his brain starts going down that route again, he usually looks away and tries to focus on other things.

Shouyou’s confused. To say the least.

But on the court he’s okay, he’s ready. He’s ready to play, as long as his brain stays focused. And that’s what matters most.

Hinata looks down to his feet, then stretches his neck all the way to the tall wooden roof, seeing many people watching him and his team on his way up. He’s ready to play his first match at the qualifying rounds, which is good because Karasuno are set to play on this very court in under five minutes.

Shouyou’s ready, in fact he’s excited, he’s pumped. He’s focused.

And nothing— even this Kageyama predicament, can stop him from playing volleyball. Because that’s what matters, volleyball. 

Karasuno's first match is against Kakugawa High. They had played against them last year and if Shouyou’s being completely honest, he can’t remember much. The match was overshadowed by the soon-following matches against Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa. Hinata remembers the team being around the same skill level as Karasuno at the time, maybe a little less. 

Shouyou hates thinking this, because many times this was said about Karasuno before they basically forced everyone to respect them, he hates thinking it because so many teams thought it about them,

but even though he feels a tiny bit of guilt, he’s not worried. They’re most likely going to win this match judging by the other teams recent matches. Just thinking that makes Shouyou feel like an ass, but it’s true.

He isn’t letting his guard down, though!

They head onto the end of the court in a polite line. Take their respectful bows and then their positions.

Head in the game, Shouyou. 

Focus.

The whistle blows and the game begins.

———————————

It was a good game, more difficult than Hinata had expected. Kakugawa had improved, they had improved a whole lot, their team had switched to full on attack, it gave Shouyou a bit of a fright by how full on they were from the very beginning.

But Karasuno had improved too, more than Kakugawa.

So on the second set, they won twenty-five to fifteen.

“That was awesome!!” Tanaka barks, sitting beside a just as happy Nishinoya, the bus hits a curb so he gets boosted upwards, making his declaration of awesomeness even more awesome.

Noya grins, “Man, we were so good. Tanaka-san you were all like ‘whaack!!’” Nishinoya swings his arm forward to indicate a spike.

Shouyou sits behind them, by himself, which definitely doesn’t bother him at all. Nope. He’s all good. “No.. I thought it was more of a ‘kahpow!!’, y’know?” Shouyou butts in, swinging his arm in the manner as Noya.

The three consider this option.

Tanaka speaks up. “I mean either is pretty good to me.”

Noya smiles. “Yeah bro! Let’s go with you went ‘kahpow!!’ at some points and ‘whaack!!’ at others.”

“Deal.” Shouyou agrees.

They sit there like they’ve just made the cure for some terminal illness, soaking in their glory.

“But you guys were awesome too!!” Tanaka randomly shouts.

“Noya-san!! Your receives were so— so.. so ‘bwaah!’” Shouyou hopes the noise suffices how cool Nishinoya was today. Because he was so extraordinarily cool!

The noise must’ve really struck a chord with Noya because Hinata thinks he can see real tears in his eyes. “Aww.. Shouyou! You were—“

“Oh my god can you guys shut up?” A pissed off voice booms from behind them.

The three of them turn in unison to see a blindfold-harshly-removed pissed off Tsukishima and a trying-not-to-giggle Tadashi. 

“Sorry. Tsukishima..” Hinata pouts at his compliment being interrupted, but doesn’t complain like he usually would because Tsukishima is looking extra frightening today, having bent a nail, which makes him way more irritable than a teenage boy should be at a broken nail. Not that Hinata’s scared! He could take like, ten Tsukishimas! If he wanted to..

The blond scowls at the apology. Which doesn’t make sense to Shouyou because he apologised? “I don’t want to hear you guys wiping each other's asses when I’m trying to sleep.”

Yamaguchi looks to his side, where Tsukishima is gloomily sitting. “What gross wording, Tsuki-san..” he mutters. Tsukishima’s face softened a tiny bit, but that was until Tanaka spoke up.

“Tsukishima-san! That’s no way to speak to your upperclassmen!” He folds his arms on the top of his bus seat and leans on them, as if waiting for something which is most likely an apology.

Which is something he will most likely not be getting. Tanaka uses his scary face, but in Shouyou’s humble opinion Tsukishima’s is way worse.

“Yeah!” Nishinoya agrees. “If you wanted to be complimented too you should’ve just asked us!”

Tsukishima looks confused, Yamaguchi is failing at hiding his smile. 

Nishinoya continues. “Tsuki. Your blocks today were extremely satisfactory.” He says with a grin which Tsukishima does not return.

Tanaka joins in, “and don’t think we’re going to forget that spike! You went flying so high!” 

Hinata wants to join in but he also doesn’t want to pay the asshole a compliment, and he’s still a little petty that his own compliment has been sub-sided. So he stays quiet.

Tsukishima looks confused, his cheeks taking the tiniest bit of pink. “Whatever. Please just don’t be so damn loud.”

Tanaka and Nishinoya nod and sit back down properly, starting to take interest in teasing the first years nearby. Tsukishima goes to turn his music back on, but not without telling Tadashi to ‘shut up’ for pointing out his pink cheeks. 

Hinata stays up, knees on his seat, still facing the back. It’s only for a few seconds really. But it feels much longer. It feels like minutes. Hours, okay maybe hours is a little excessive, but it really was a long time!

Kageyama’s looking at him. He’s looking at Kageyama. Blue eyes stare at brown and brown stare at blue. Neither one looks away, neither one dares to even blink.

Kageyama is sat on the other side of the bus, the right side, a few seats behind Hinata. A look on his face that Shouyou can’t seem to figure out. 

It’s not like the said look is much different then his usual one, only someone who looks and imagines Kageyama’s face as Hinata does could see the difference. But there is a difference. 

Shouyou squints his eyes, trying to get a closer look. What is he thinking?

Kageyama squints his eyes right back, as if trying to figure out the same thing as Shouyou.

I’m thinking that you piss me off! In case you were wondering! Shouyou screams in his head. But then again that’s not all he’s thinking, is it? He’s thinking that he misses Kageyama, he’s thinking that hitting the idiots' tosses don’t feel nearly as good when they can’t celebrate together.

He wishes they could celebrate together. He wishes they could be together, partners and friends.

But he also wishes that he could just give up on Kageyama, he wishes that Shouyou didn’t have this blinding desire to just— to just be with Kageyama.

The knot tightens. Shouyou wishes it didn’t.

Shouyou glances down at Kageyama’s seat and back up at Kageyama, as if asking ‘can I sit?’ 

Shouyou wishes he hadn’t.

Kageyama’s eyes widened, still on Shouyou’s. They spark with something that Shouyou can’t name, but it’s there and is present and it’s staring him right in the face. He glances down to the seat next to him and back up at Hinata, as if mimicking him. His face hardens and he looks away, placing his bag on the seat. 

Shouyou wishes he hadn’t.

They don’t speak or look at each other for the entire ride and walk home, which was spent on opposite directions of the road and bus, Hinata’s glad. It’s better for the knot, but then again that thing seems to ache until he feels nauseous no matter what. But it is better. It has to be. So he keeps his distance and he’s glad.

He’s glad, but Shouyou still wishes he hadn’t.

He wants to talk. He wants to talk so bad, but he still ends up going home.

—————————————

If Kageyama could change one thing about the past week, he’d probably say that he wishes he missed practice on Wednesday, a bit less than a week before Karasuno's first match. Which is strange for him. Because when has Kageymama ever missed practice? (And he’s not including that one time that Hinata had refused to let go of.) Let alone wanted to miss it.

What makes it even worse is that he and Hinata had minimal time to practice together, with the ankle injury and all, and wanting to miss one of their crucial practices is just— crazy.

It’s not that the practice was out of the ordinary, it was fine. It was all normal. Except for one small part of it.

Coach had ordered Tobio to take a break because the boy had been playing non-stop since he got there, which was dumb, because what else was he meant to be doing? Anyways, so there he was, sitting on a bench watching the others practice, squishing water into his mouth every now and again, it was peaceful. The sound of shoes squeaking against polished floors and the sight of his favourite thing in the world right in front of him. Volleyball.

But then he felt the bench dip down, as if someone were sitting next to him. He had decided to not look and see who it was, just in case the person felt compelled to talk to him. Kageyama continued to observe.

He can’t help but look at Hinata while observing, it’s always been this way. He tells himself that it’s so he can criticise the dumbass if he screws up. But there wasn’t any need for that anymore, they aren’t talking. Just how it’s meant to be. So he’s not exactly sure why he still chooses stupid Hinata to look at.

But he still stares, because the little shit had been staring at him all week in class thinking Kageyama didn’t notice, but he did, and it pissed him off.

So he was staring out of revenge. Yeah. Revenge.

“You’re so stupid it’s almost amusing.” The person next to him says.

Tobio sighs. Other than Hinata, this is probably the one person in the entire club that he wouldn’t want sitting next to him.

He turns to the voice, and is met with a snarky grin and glasses. Tsukishima.

“What?” He asked, trying and failing to hide the annoyance in his voice that can’t help but emerge when he looks at his ugly face.

He smirked. “You. You’re stupid.”

Kageyama could feel his own face contort. “How?” He spit.

“Really? You need me to say it?”

He hates him. He actually fucking hates that guy. Acting like Tobio’s some mind reader who can— who can read minds. “You’re such a dick.” 

Tsukishima puts his hands up in front of him as if Kageyama had just exploded into rage. “Woah! King, calm down..”

“Just fucking say it.” He grits his teeth.

“I mean if you really need me to spell it out..”

“Yeah. Go ahead.”

“Well I guess I’ll start with a question.”

Tobio’s confused on how that has anything to do with him being ‘stupid’, but he nods because he just wants this conversation over with.

“Why are you and Hinata having what feels like the fourth lovers quarrel this week?”

Tobio had basically recoiled away from him. Because what? A lovers quarrel? What the hell is wrong with Tsukishima? “It’s not a damn— it’s not that.”

“Mhm.” Tsukishima hummed, as if nothing could convince him otherwise, as if him and Yamaguchi weren’t fighting the urge to make out every three fucking seconds.

That had just annoyed Tobio more, so he deflected it, trying to steer the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic. “Why the hell do you even care?”

“Answer the question then you’ll find out.”

Asshole. Such an asshole. Kageyama sighs again.

“It’s nothing. I only told the dumbass the truth.”

“Which was?”

Why is he being fucking interigated as if he committed some hate crime? What is going on? “He was getting all weird so I told him that we weren’t friends.”

Tsukishima laughed, as if he were expecting such a silly answer. “And how was he ‘being weird’?” 

“Why do you care?” Kageyama asked again.

“Answer the question, king.”

“No you answer the damn question.”

They had paused, both staring daggers into each other’s eyes.

“Yamaguchi was curious, along with the whole team.”

“Why are you asking then, d’they bribe you or something?”

“Basically yeah.” He states quickly the moves on, “So how was Hinata ‘being weird?’”

Tobio sighed, wondering what on earth they have on Tsukishima to get the asshole to do something like this. And why would they ask Tsukishima of all people? Did they just pick him to piss Tobio off? If that’s the case, they had succeed.

“He just kept on being..” he trails off. What was Hinata being. He was definitely being something, don't get him wrong, he just doesn’t have a name for it.

“He kept on being Hinata?”

A pause, that actually sums it up quite well, it’s not like Kageyama can’t handle Hinata being— well, himself. But it felt like it was amplified by ten only when it came to Kageyama, when it came to labelling. The thought of that word made Kageyama shift uncomfortably.

“Yeah.” He swallowed.

“So he kept on being himself?”

The way Tsukishima had said it made the issue feel small. Even though it fucking wasn’t! It was a very big and annoying issue! “Yeah. But it was— extra.”

“So what is the problem?”

That question pissed Kageyama off. Because there was a problem! There was! He just can’t— he just can’t put his finger on it, okay? “What’s your problem?!” He barks, because why is Tsukishima talking to him about his issues and problems?! Not that there is any to begin with!

“Listen king. From what I'm seeing and from what Yamaguchi’s seeing. This is just you being an ass to Hinata, once again.”

“You don’t see shit.” He defends.

“I see enough. Enough to confidently say that Hinata being too ‘Hinata’ isn’t the problem. It’s you being scared because you finally got a close friend and you don’t know how to handle it.”

Friend. Close friend. It didn’t feel right in Kageyama’s stomach. He hates that word, for him and Hinata at least. Because he’s not dumb enough to not acknowledge that the only person he might be able to share that title with is Hinata. Technically they could be friends. But Kageyama doesn’t like it. Not one bit.

Tsukishima continues, “I see enough to notice you two ogling at each other when the other isn’t looking. It’s embarrassing. Makes me uncomfy.”

Tobio had scowled. “I’m not ogling, ass.”

“Then what would you call whatever you were just doing?” He points over to Hinata and leans his lanky arm on his lanky knee, then he leans his ugly face on his ugly hand.

Tobio paused. He was observing. Not ogling. He was observing Hinata's volleyball skills, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t misses him. Sure, he misses Hinata’s house. Where it was always warm and bubbly and smelled like Hinata everywhere he turned. He missed that, only a bit, and only because his own house is a fucking nightmare right now. That’s it.

He misses talking to him, sure. But that’s only because he misses having someone to discuss volleyball plays with, plays that they could actually do together. That’s it.

Tobio pictured an excited Hinata beaming up at him, trying to make some deal for tosses, being excited for volleyball in a way that only Kageyama can understand. He pictured him heading over to Hinata’s home instead of his own and how eventually the conversation would drift away from volleyball, and he would listen to rants about Hinata’s home life, learning more and more about the boy. Becoming less and less of a teammate to him. Making it harder and harder to stop coming over.

But he had to draw a line. And that’s what he did. And now it’s fine. It’s all fine.

Except you might miss it a tiny bit. His brain had betrayed him.

Kageyama choked on nothing. What the fuck? He can’t be missing Hinata. He just can’t. They aren’t friends, the only thing that he could miss about Hinata is his spiking, and that’s still here. So he doesn’t need anything else. So therefore, he doesn’t miss him.

“Fuck off.” Kageyama finally said, because Tsukishima’s presence was pissing him off three times more than it was two seconds ago, and also because he couldn’t remember the question he had asked Kageyama.

Tsukishima had said a snarky comment and left, Kageyama soon followed after his ‘rest’ which wasn’t a rest at all, it had just made him more tired, more irritable.

The whole interaction hadn’t lasted more than a few minutes. But it had been bugging Kageyama all week. It had made him want to talk to Hinata. It had made him want to stare back at Hinata when he was sure the boy was staring at him.

He wishes Tsukishima could’ve just left him alone, content with being ignorant.

But now he isn't. Somehow Tsukishima, the equivalent of a pig, managed to push Kageyama into the realisation that he, in some form, misses Hinata. Kageyama doesn’t even know how the team sniffed it out before he did in a full day. It pisses Kageyama off when people think they know stuff about him, and it pisses him off even more when they’re right.

Tobio kicks the blanket off him in frustration and huffs. He turns his head towards his alarm clock nearby on his bedside table. It’s midnight. He huffs again.

Kageyama hasn’t been sleeping well, and yet again he's failed to fall asleep yet despite heading to bed at nine pm sharp, he even made sure of it because of Karasuno’s second match tomorrow, but it’s been like this every night this week. He’s made sure it hasn’t affected his quality of sets though, that comes first. But outside of that, outside of volleyball, he’s tired. Really tired.

Tobio’s not exactly sure why his sleeping has been so bad, it might just be because there’s two extra bodies in the house, it makes the most sense, for the full week that his parents visit every Christmas he always has some trouble sleeping. He gets over it though. But he can’t seem to do that this time. It’s annoying.

Jesus he’s freezing.

Tobio grabs the blanket he had just kicked off minutes ago and burys himself in it. He’s quite a cold person naturally (he’s talking about body temperature, not his attitude, his attitude is fine, thank you,) so he can usually sleep with a blanket on him all night. But for some reason that trait of his that he’s had for years of his life has disappeared. Now he’s somewhere in the middle between hot and cold, wherever he is, he bets it’s the most annoying place to be on the entire scale.

He flips his pillow again and turns, trying to get comfortable.

It isn’t working. He needs to sleep, the match tomorrow depends on it.

Screw this he’s getting water.

He silently groans and gets up, sitting on the edge of his bed, his feet touch the cold hard floor, waking him up even more. Great.

Tobio makes his way to the kitchen, trying not to wake his parents because if he does that means he’ll have to talk to them. Which he has avoided an impressive amount, only actually talking to the his dad when he gets home from practice, then Tobio just makes his way to his room and doesn’t come out. Even the conversations haven’t been pushy, it’s like a dad talking to his son,

Kageyama thinks he hates that even more. Who does this guy think he is? Coach fucking Ika is more of a father figure to Tobio, and he knew the man, what? Two days?

He grabs a glass from the top of the cupboard, makes his way to the sink and fills it up and—

“Hello Tobio.”

Shit. He swallows and turns off the tap.

“Hi mom.”

He turns towards her, having abandoned the water in the sink.

Now that Tobio thinks about it, he hasn’t spoken to his mother much, not at all.

She looks tired, she’s in a grey dressing gown that she’s folded over, covering her from head to toe in fluffiness. Is that what she likes? Does she wear comfy clothes over formal? She was never around enough for Tobio to know or remember.

“Can’t sleep well?”

Kageyama’s irritated, why does she even give a damn? He doesn’t understand why his parents suddenly care about him. He swallows his pride though and answers, “yeah.”

She nods, her eyes looking sunken and sleepy. “Me neither.” She lets out a breathless laugh. “Want me to make you something? A tea? You have a match tomorrow, right?”

Tobio’s surprised that she knew about the match, but he supposes it makes sense, Miwa might’ve told her before she left a few days ago. Miwa always knows when Tobio has a match on because she’s the one who has to sign all the consent forms. She’s of age, so Kageyama has labeled her a guardian, knowing that his dad probably would hesitate to let him play.

Miwa never hesitated, because she knew how much Kageyama loved it, she wanted the best for him. What made him happy, he misses her.

Tobio shakes his head slightly, snapping himself out of it. No. Miwa left him. He can’t miss her.

“Tobio?”

Leave me alone!
Is what he wants to say.. Why does she care? Why now? His chest tightens, he only wanted some water, not a tea, not her help.

“Honey?” Tobio feels a gentle hand on his arm.

“Why are you here?” He barks, the pet name and the touching is too much. Too motherly.

She looks startled, his mother removes her hand, but keeps it hanging in the air, as if waiting to use it again. “We— we wanted to see you.” She hesitates.

“Why now?” Kageyama questions.

Her eyes spark with something Tobio can’t decipher. Maybe if she was more present, more of a mother. He’d be able to read her. But then again he’s never been any good at that, has he?

“Your father. It’s— it’s what’s best. For everyone. The family.”

Kageyama lets out a bitter scoff. Family? What family? It’s only him, Miwa and Momo. That’s it. 

“You don’t think so, do you?” He says. Because he knows she doesn’t. His mother may be a pushover, but she’s not cruel at heart, he knows that much. She knows that what his dad said to Miwa wasn’t right.

She opens her mouth to say something, another unfamiliar spark in her eyes. But it leaves soon after, along with any motherly tenderness she may have expressed. “Goodnight, Tobio.”

Fine then. If she’s too much of a coward to admit it, then he won’t make her. She made the choice to follow dad years ago, Kageyama’s over it. He doesn’t need her anymore, her and her teas and gentle hands. He turns, forgetting his water.

“Night.”

He leaves the kitchen, climbs the stairs and gets straight back into bed, and weirdly enough sleep comes quicker than any other night that week.

————————————-

The day had passed fast. Faster than usual, it was ordinary. Boring. Tobio hadn’t spoken much the entire day, too busy persevering his energy for the match. Plus, it’s not like he has anyone to talk to in class.

Tobio, yet again, could feel Hinata's eyes on him. But he hadn’t done anything because— because what was there to do? He wanted to stare back, he wanted to talk to him. But he had felt unusually stubborn about it. He knows it’s stupid and petty, but if they’re going to talk, he’s not going to be the initiator. Not because he was nervous or something dumb like that.

He’s just— he’s just— okay. Maybe he was a little nervous. Kageyama has never been any good at that sappy talking stuff. In fact he hates it. He usually lets his actions speak louder than words, like if he were to call Hinata a dumbass but then buy him a pork bun later that day. It all balances out at the end and the two are them are stuffing their faces.

He just has to do that again. Use his actions. Pork buns and whatnot.

So here he sits, in the changing rooms. Already changed but not wanting to get up just yet, because then someone might try to talk to him. And he’s not talking, not today. He’s keeping all of his energy for the match. Then after they win, he can divert all his energy to practice, and if there’s some leftover he can try smooth things over with Hinata (which by the way he would totally be okay with not doing! It’s just stupid Tsukishima had to ruin everything by getting into his head,) yeah! Smooth things over, preferably with pork buns instead of words.

Kageyama glances at the clock in the corner of the room. Five minutes. He takes a deep breath, not because he’s nervous. Just so he can steady his head. So he can focus.

Focus.

Before he knows it they’re walking onto the court.

———————————-

Tobio walks home, bag slung over his shoulders, trying to avoid looking at the blaring sun, he’ll be at the wooded area close to his house soon, then he can hide in the trees. But for now, he’s sweating like a pig. They had won the match. Not much else to it. Tobio’s happy, Karasuno managed to make it through the qualifying rounds pretty easily, more easier than last year at least. Now they have a month of training. The qualifiers. Then Tokyo, then they’ve won.

When Hinata mentions old matches, (except Hinata can’t ever simply just mention something, if he talks about something except that to be the topic for at least ten minutes,) he always blabs on and on about how he felt and how that experience had educated him.

He always has something to say, there’s always something to learn. And Tobio can understand sometimes, he’s had lots of matches that have bettered him. But this was just an ordinary match that they had won. That’s all he sees it as. But Kageyama knows for sure that Hinata definitely has lots to say, about how it made him feel, about what was going through his head. And Tobio doesn’t get to hear it. Just like yesterday.

Which is fine. It’s fine. He’d rather it be that way. Stupid Hinata.

For the past few days Kageyama has been a quick jogs distance in front of Hinata, neither of them daring to look at the other.

But Kageyama knows he’s by himself now, he had passed the fork in the road where they split up a few minutes ago. So Hinata must be long gone.

Kageyama sighs. Fuck it’s hot, he wipes his forehead, trying to feel more cool. He just needs to get home and—

A twig snaps. Tobio whips around.

It’s fucking Hinata.

“Waah!” The boy yelps.

He’s around two meters away from Kageyama, still in gym clothes, still carrying his bag, he hasn’t changed, just like Tobio. He must’ve skipped going home and followed him. 

He takes a closer look at Hinata's face, guilt written all over it. He was definitely following him.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Tobio looks over his shoulder, they aren’t too close to his house, about another few minutes, they’re hidden. Good, he doesn’t want his dad to meet Hinata for reasons unknown to him.

Hinata straightens up, but doesn’t move any closer. “Sorry— I just. I don’t know.. I wanted to— say hi?”

He wanted to say hi.

Tobio’s first instinct is to scream at Hinata, to scream at him to leave him alone and tell the boy that he doesn’t want anything to do with him. But he doesn’t this time, for two reasons.

Number one; it’s not like that works, he’s said that dozens of times and here Hinata is. Still bothering him. Still lingering.

Number two; Tsukishima’s ugly voice is in his head, torturing him, reminding him. Reminding him that, even if Kageyama tries to deny it, Hinata is probably the closest thing he has to a friend. Even if it doesn’t feel right to call him a friend. It reminds him that, well— this is more Kageyama's own thoughts now rather than Tsukishima’s, but.. but he misses Hinata. Some aspect of him, at least.

“Em.” Tobio looks at the floor, because if he’s not telling Hinata to go away then he’s pretty clueless on what to say. 

“Hi.” He decides on.

Which is stupid. So stupid. Why would he be saying ‘hi’ of all things? The heat must be getting to him.

“Hi.” Hinata mumbles.

Tobio looks up again. Up at Hinata. His stomach does that nervous thing that pisses him off. Of course Hinata said hi as well, because of course he had to pick the stupid thing to say. He always does.

Hinata looks at him and he looks at Hinata, both sweaty and shined from the heat. Both exhausted from the day of playing.

Hinata speaks up, “I know that you— that you’ve said everything that you need to say.” He swallows, looking at something to Kageyama’s left for a moment, “But I’m not done yet.”

Tobio blinks. “Okay.”

Hinata blinks back, and Kageyama decides that talking with Hinata without screaming is both the best and the worst decision he could’ve made.

So now what? Is Hinata going to say this— thing? What even is this thing?

Hinata fidgets with the hem of his t-shirt nervously before saying, “Can you— can we go to mine? Just to talk.”

“Okay.”

Kageyama freezes as if some demon took over him. Why did he say yes? Why did he say yes less than a second after Hinata offered? His mouth just moved. He didn’t even get a chance to think it through! What’s wrong with him? Now he probably looks like some homesick puppy. Some stupid, lonely puppy, yearning to go back to Hinata’s house,

Hinata’s eyes widen at the quick reply which Tobio admits is totally valid, because what? 

Maybe he was taken over by a demon, he is feeling extremely hot right now, but that’s probably the sun.

“Em. Let’s go, I guess.” Hinata looks like he doesn’t know what to do. Tobio finds himself thinking that the boy looks dumb, but then again he probably looks the exact same because he himself doesn’t know what to do.

Hinata eventually turns, heading down the hill towards his home.

Kageyama could run. He could run home right now and forget that this ever happened, that he ever had the chance to become Hinata’s friend. Maybe that would be the easiest choice. Maybe even the smartest.

But for some reason, he has no urge to run like he did the day he ended up on Hinata's doorstep, he wants to go, he wants to follow. He wants— he wants to be Hinata’s friend? Is that it? 

No..

Kageyama doesn’t know what’s making him sling his bag tighter over his shoulders, he doesn’t know what’s making him put one foot in front of the other.

He doesn’t know why or what’s making this happen, but Tobio follows.

Chapter Text

The walk to Hinata’s house had been a long, hot and silent one, both sweating from the heat and both trying to stay out of shot from the blaring summer sun. Tobio would say that he's a quiet person at times, he enjoys silence, it's how he spends a lot of his freetime, silent. 

But anyone with eyes, or rather ears, can see, or hear, that Hinata isn’t as fond of silence as Tobio, with the boy's constant need to say or do something, as if the world would implode if he wasted even a second on something as boring and pointless as being quiet.

But recently Tobio’s been noticing more of it, quiet moments of them just doing their own thing, in silence. 

It’s not like they have nothing to talk about, Kageyama’s sure that Hinata won’t ever run out of random and dumb things to bring up, it’s more like.. Kageyama’s okay with it being quiet and somehow Hinata has managed to be okay with it too. It’s weird, considering that the dumbass is always running his mouth for what feels like twenty four hours every day. But Kageyama doesn’t mind it, he likes the silence, he likes those moments.

But he minds it right now. 

This silence is different, it’s an awkward, thick silence. Tobio’s not sure what he means by ‘thick’ though,

it could be the air in Hinata’s room, feeling all stuffy and hot from the hot and obnoxiously shining sun, sending patterned beams of light through the window.

Another possible contender could be Tobio’s throat, feeling swollen and dry. As if Kageyama were— as if he were nervous.

Which is stupid! What does he have to be nervous about?!

Hinata clears his throat in a way that makes it obvious he actually didn’t need to clear it, filling the silence just like usual. 

He’s obviously feeling a little uncomfortable like Kageyama, judging by his knee that won’t stop bouncing, it pisses Kageyama off, he wants to nail it to the ground.

“Em.” Hinata speaks up, looking at a pillow on his bed, no. He’s staring daggers at it as if this whole situation were its fault. Kageyama glances at it, trying to figure out what’s so interesting. There’s nothing. Just a pillow. 

“Do you want to sit?”

No. Kageyama doesn’t want to sit. He doesn’t like being in Hinata’s room, it’s just too— Hinata. It looks exactly what Kageyama had expected in his head, (not that he ever thinks about Hinata’s room, ew,) it’s all cluttered and there’s a bunch of stupid meaningless junk that Hinata’s probably just keeping for the sake of keeping it, the room smells just like Hinata, there’s too many Hinata things, Hinata clothes, Hinata-ness,  it— it pisses him off.

He sighs. “Sure.” Maybe the bed is less awkward than standing in the middle of the room.

They’re sitting now, Tobio feels the soft fabric on his fingertips. His brain decides to bring up the fact that Hinata sleeps here. Hinata relaxes here. Hinata—

Hinata is looking at him waiting for Tobio to say something.

He needs to focus. He’s been on his bed before, what's the difference now?

Well, the difference is that he’s not food poisoned and is fully conscious.

Say something, Tobio!

What is he supposed to say? It’s Hinata’s dumbass who is supposed to be saying something, he was the one who invited him here in the first place!

Hinata speaks up, “I think— I think the reason I wanted to talk is because—“ he swallows. And maybe Kageyama doesn’t have to say anything anymore. “I know it’s stupid. Because you said what you said. It’s just.. I think what you were saying wasn’t completely true.”

Hinata blinks, awaiting an answer.

Kageyama only needs a second or two to just think of an answer, but Hinata suddenly starts having some sort of nervous seizure at the fact that Tobio didn’t immediately respond.

“Or well, I guess I want to think that it wasn’t true! Because— because we’re totally friends! Right? It— it makes sense? I guess.. but you don’t want that so, so I don’t really know why I asked you to come over— sorry! This was stupid. Stupid Shouyou. I’m sor—“

“Hinata shut up!” Kageyama barks, he can’t think with his annoying voice blaring in his ears. And he needs to think right now. He needs to think quick. Think Tobio.

Was he truthful? What he said was the truth. It was. But he might have.. glossed over a few things.. Kageyama doesn’t think they’re friends, that’s true. But it might just be for different reasons than whatever Hinata’s stupid brain is thinking right now.

Kageyama looks up at a panicked Hinata who looks like he might explode any minute now, Tobio should probably should hurry up with his answer. “What I said— I mean, I didn’t lie.”

Hinata’s face drops, “ah..”

“But I um. I think that we aren’t friends and—“

Hinata’s face drops even more, why is Tobio’s mouth saying all the wrong things? He’s meant to be helping! Why can’t the dumbass understand that?!

Kageyama groans, Hinata isn’t getting it. “I’m trying to help you!” He yells, because why can’t Hinata just figure it out?! Tobio’s trying here and he’s making it harder!

So far the current pattern of Hinata’s face has been to get sadder and sadder, but that breaks the second Kageyama opens his mouth again. Tobio was expecting joy or something a little more Hinata-like at the realisation that Tobio is helping him. But no. The little shits face is angry? Angry? Huh!?

Hinata’s angry face transitions into full-on rage and he starts to yell, “What!? You asshole! I don’t— you’re so— guurwaaa!!” He exclaims, frustration building.

Frustration? Frustration at what!? Well then, Tobio’s frustration is building right back at him. What did he even do!? “I don’t get—“

“No. I don’t get—“ Hinata pauses for a split second, obviously unsure of what Tobio was going to say. “—Whatever! What the hell do you mean ‘I’m trying to help?’ That makes no sense!” Hinata’s hands are flying around the place the way they do when he’s extra pissed. Kageyama doesn’t care.

“If you could listen—“

“No! How is telling me that ‘I’m Kageyama and I loovee volleyball and hate talking about my feelings and bla bla bla. Oh! Hinata, by the way, we aren’t friends even though we totally are. But that’s okay because I’m trying to help you.You can thank me now.’”

Tobio tries to interrupt but Hinata just keeps on going with his terrible impression, trying to flatten his wild hair and failing.

“Volleyball and setting and tosses and dumbass! Bla bla bla..”

“Are you done—“

“Bla bla bla!” Hinata screams. Tobio can tell he’s run out of ideas for the impression judging by the excessive use of ‘bla bla bla.’

“Bla bla bla— setting. Bla bla bla— I’m stupid. Bla bla—“

“Shut up Hinata! Euugh you’re so annoying!!”

“Bla bla bla—“

Tobio lunges forwards over and slaps his hand over Hinata’s mouth.

Hinata makes a strange noise in his throat from surprise, but he doesn’t fight back. Tobio sighs. “There. Now I can— euurrgh!!” A pang of pain on his palm, he snatches it away. “Did you just bite me!? You’re so fucking gross!!”

Hinata jumps up onto his feet, standing on his bed. “And you’re so damn— so.. so.” 

Kageyama takes this moment to his advantage, Hinata’s fumbling. He’s winning. “You’re an idiot Hinata! My hand’s all wet! Stupid dumbass! Gross! Loser!—“

Hinata must’ve been really annoyed at Kageyama winning because— because he fucking kicks Kageyama. In the stomach! And everyone and their mother knows Hinata can jump high. That’s his thing, along with being insufferable. But Kageyama had thought that was just because of how small the boy was. But apparently not. Apparently Hinata’s legs are strong. Apparently, Hinata can kick too. 

This boy should start fucking kung-foo or something.

“Owah! What the fuck is wrong with you!?” Kageyama yelps, clutching his stomach because damn that hurt.

“Ha! I win! asshoaauugh!!” Kageyama grabs him by the ankle and pulls. Hinata falls over like a ragdoll. Tobio grins. 

Hinata lands almost perfectly, head on his pillow and all, before he can gain his composure Kageyama flips him onto his stomach and flops himself on the boy's upper back, his thighs rest on either side of Hinata, making sure he can’t get up, that he can’t fight.

“Ge’ ouff o’ mae!!” Hinata yells into the pillow that Kageyama is mercilessly shoving his face into, hand firmly gripped onto his stupid hair that needs a damn cutting.

“Not until you promise to just listen to me you dumbass!” 

Hinata flings his legs up and down in a show of rebellion. “Nefaa’!!”

Tobio rolls his eyes even though Hinata can’t see him do it, but he’s sure Hinata could sense it. “Why not?! I’m trying to—“

“Don’ sae it!”

“—help you.”

“Aeerghhhh!! Moomm!! Help!!” He flails his legs again, using his arms to helplessly scratch at Tobio.

Kageyama actually loosens his hold for a moment, then he remembers Hinata’s mother is at work on Thursdays, “Your mom isn’t here, dumbass. Now just listen.”

The leg flailing stops after a few minutes, after Hinata realises that Tobio isn’t backing down, he backs down. “Fin’ Assho.’”

Tobio tries to remember what he was going to say, but so much has happened in the last few minutes that it’s slipped his mind. Screw it. He’ll just start again.

“Okay. Em. So I wasn’t lying. And— and I feel like the word friends isn’t.. right. I mean that it— it doesn’t sound like the.. correct wording.” Kageyama sighs at how much he sucks at this.

“Si’ne whe’ wu yu som’ tye o’ gu woo thi’k so depy aboo’ wors’?” Hinata yells into the pillow.

What? Kageyama fails to catch that one, Hinata was speaking too fast. Tobio moves Hinata’s head at an angle so he can hear what he has to say.

Hinata takes a deep breath, Tobio realises that he was kind of suffocating the boy, but it was purely out of self defence so it’s okay.

“Since when were you some type o’ guy who thinks so deeply abou’ words?” He says, Tobio’s not totally let go of his hair in fear that Hinata could escape and get revenge, so his face is still a little smooshed into the pillow. But that’s okay, Kageyama heard him this time. He heard him loud and clear and now he can feel his face getting hotter.

“I am for this, okay?!” He defends, except that wasn’t really a defence, he just gave away the fact that he pays a second thought to Hinata and their ‘words.’

Which he doesn’t! By the way..

The one eye that Kageyama can see looks up at Tobio and frowns at him. “Fine! Okay. Can you, can you.. expand?”

Can he? Tobio sure doesn’t want to. But he wants to end this whole friend thing once and for all even more, so..

Screw it, he’ll expand. “I don’t know. I think it just isn’t right.”

That wasn’t an expansion, was it?

“Tha’ wasn’t an expansion, stupid.”

Well then. Fuck him. “The word friend. I think that we’re..” ew Kageyama hates this, he hates this so much and ew. He swallows, “not less. Then that.”

Hinata looks confused, then his eyes widen and Tobio knows he’s caught on. “So.. more?”

Tobio doesn’t want to say it, it’s gross and sappy and eugh. “Yeah.” He cringes, looking anywhere but Hinata’s face.

Tobio can hear the smile on Hinata’s face, “aww! I don’t see you in that way.. I totally get why you’d like me like that, I’m pretty awesome.”

Tobio can feel his stomach drop. That wasn’t what he meant, that wasn’t what he meant at all. Does Hinata think— does he think that..

Kageyama looks back at Hinata. He’s joking. He has that stupid look in his eyes— well this time it’s just one eye— that he gets when he’s messing with Kageyama.

Tobio can feel a scowl creep up his face. “Fuck you! That’s not what I meant and you know it!” 

“It’s okay to be embarraeeuggsh—“

Tobio shoves his head into the pillow again, as hard as he can, screw Hinata. Screw him and his stupid teasing. Hinata flails his legs around and screams into the pillow but Tobio doesn’t give him the relief of letting go. If he’s suffocating the bastard, good.

It’s not like Hinata’s teasing ever works on Tobio, it’s very rare that it does because of how much Hinata sucks at it. But when that does happen Tobio always feels a strong urge to just die, because it’s embarrassing in itself that Hinata is able to get a reaction out of him, let alone manage to tease Kageyama successfully.

The romantic comment had bothered Tobio, so much so that he’s now very aware of the position they're in. He's sitting right on Hinata’s back, thighs tight around him to make sure he doesn’t get away. It isn’t romantic, not at all. But he still finds himself climbing off the boy, not wanting to touch him another second.

“Hah hah! My kicking worked!” Hinata stays laying down on his stomach, what looks to be relishing in the fact that he can breathe freely.

“No it didn’t..” Kageyama mutters.

Tobio stays quiet, crossing his legs and staring at his fingers. He can feel Hinata’s eyes on him.

He sits up and crosses his legs mirroring Kageyama. “Can I ask you something and you won’t kill me?” Hinata asks, more seriously.

Great. More questions. Tobio nods though, he doesn’t know why.

“Or physically hurt me in any way?”

“Hurry up dumbass.”

Hinata straightens up. “Okay.. And you said you wouldn’t get mad so you aren’t allowed! ..But em— what with this touching thing?”

Kageyama scowls. “What touching thing?” 

Hinata sighs like Kageyama’s an idiot for not understanding what he means by ‘the touching thing.’  “Well, I don’t know! It’s just— sometimes you’re okay with touching. And sometimes you’re super.. grossed out? It’s just a little. I don’t know— annoying?”

Oh. The touching thing.

Kageyama hates being asked all these questions. He hates everything about this conversation. He wishes he could go back to just screaming at Hinata, it’d be a much simpler conversation, a quick, easy conversation. But then they’d never get anything done, would they?

“I’m not grossed out..” okay. Good start. Now he just needs to think of the rest. “I just think it’s a little— a little much. Sometimes. I don’t know.” He mutters the ending. This is all so stupid. So so stupid.

Hinata blinks at him, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. “Em okay. Is it like.. always, too much?”

“Yeah.” 

Liar.

“Ah. Sorry.” Hinata nods, his stupid face looking stupidly sad.

Kageyama curses himself for what he’s about to say, “no.” He mutters.

Hinata looks up at him and blinks. Tobio blinks back. God he hopes Hinata doesn’t make it weird. This means nothing. Nothing at all. They stay still for a while, Hinata not saying anything and Kageyama following his lead.

“Em also. Just to— y’know, fully understand the complexity of Kageyama—“

Kageyama’s pleased that he changed the conversation, not that he’ll let the dumbass realise that though. “Hurry up.”

“Right.” Hinata pauses briefly, “I guess I was just a little curious about why you’re coming over to my house?”

Huh? Isn’t that obvious? “You asked me to?”

“No stupid! I mean— why have you been over all the other times?”

Oh. That makes more sense. Kageyama doesn’t want to answer though, he doesn’t want to tell Hinata. “None of your business."

“Aw c’mon! I’m only asking! Pleasee.. I promise I won’t tell anyone.” He leans forward with eagerness and curiosity. Kageyama knows the answer isn’t as heartwarming as Hinata wants it to be.

“I know you won’t. That’s not the problem.”

“Then what is?” 

What is the problem? Why does Kageyama not want to tell him? It’s not like the boy will go off telling anyone who’ll listen. Hinata’s trust-worthy. That’s not the issue.. 

So what is?

Tobio’s mind goes blank. There isn’t one.

“My dads home.” He says, because there’s no problem, no issue. He can trust Hinata, with this at least. Which is strange, because less than a month ago at the training camp he would do anything but trust Hinata. It’s not like anything’s changed since then, not between them at least.

Or maybe things have, just a small amount. But it’s enough.

“Oh. Is that bad?” Hinata asks as if his home were hell on earth, as if this place would be Kageyama’s last choice.

“Yeah. He’s an ass.”

Hinata pushes on. “Is that why—“

“Can you drop it?”

He trusts him, but it’s minimal. Kageyama doesn’t want to talk to Hinata about his problems, he doesn’t need that. He can handle them himself.

Hinata freezes, Tobio can see the cogs turning in his brain. “Yeah okay.”

Silence. Hinata looks like he’s thinking, about what? Tobio has no idea, he plays with the soft fabric of Hinata’s bed in between his fingers again.

“Back to the word. I think I’ve thought of one.”

Kageyama pops his head up. He’s surprised, surprised that Hinata hadn’t said anything. He’s glad though. 

Hinata has found a word. Good. Then they can put this whole thing behind them and never speak of it again. “What?

“So you don’t think friend is a strong enough word to express our unbreakable and amazing bond, right?”

Kageyama frowns. “That’s not the exact wording I would use..”

“Best friends?” Hinata blurts.

Tobio blinks and looks back up at Hinata, who is staring, waiting, looking a bit nervous.

“Huh?”

Hinata had said the words so quickly, as if it were a meat bun hot out the oven that he ate too soon. Kageyama isn’t sure if he had heard him right.

Hinata frowns, but he says it more slowly this time, “best friends?”

“What?” Tobio says, more to himself than anyone.

“You heard me!”

Tobio did. He just wasn’t sure what to say. Best friends. It’s definitely a step up, and it is more. It doesn’t feel perfect but it feels right enough, like a jigsaw piece that has one tiny flaw that Kageyama can’t name.

Oh wait. Yes he can, it’s childish and stupid.

“We aren’t five.”

Hinata looks insulted. “I know that! I thought that it was a good fit, that’s all..” He lowers his head like a kid who’s been told no. Tobio rolls his eyes.

Great. Now the dumbass is going to go sulk in a corner like the immature brat he is. Kageyama can’t be bothered with that, he just can’t. So he spoke up. “Fine. Best friends.”

Hinata’s head perks up. “Really?”

Kageyama swallows. “Yes. Just don’t— just don’t say it.” He doesn’t like the sound of it. Or rather, he doesn’t like how much he does like the sound of it.

“We’re so best friends!”

“Shut up!”

“Never!!”

“Hinata I’ll—“

“We’re best friends!” 

Tobio chucks a pillow at Hinata’s dumb face, but he’s sort of okay with the whole thing. Best friends. It’s stupid, but it’s right. Or, it’s the closest thing to right they can get. And that’s good enough for him.

—————————————-

Around ten minutes later Hinata’s mother had come home. Tobio had said he was leaving and needed to get home, which he did, but he had basically been forced to the table. It was fine with him, even if he pretended to be annoyed when Hinata was looking, he likes Hinata’s mom’s food, he likes Hinata’s mom. And even if he didn’t, anything is better than dinner with his own family.

It had been an hour, Hinata had gone to the bathroom coincidentally when Tobio and Hinata’s mother had just started cleaning the dishes. Now it’s just them and the distant sounds of whatever Natsu has decided to put on the tv. 

Kageyama has taken the job of drying dishes while Hinata’s mother places the washed ones to the side, the sun was starting to set, sending in beams of orange and pink. They were talking about just school stuff, nothing important.

Until it became important.

“Kageyama, I don’t think I’ve seen you around for a few days.” She scrubs a plate hard, trying to remove a stain, “To be honest when Sho’ had said you weren’t coming over I was a bit disappointed, we like you around here.” Hinata’s mom finishes cleaning the plate, then puts it to the side for Tobio to dry and grabs a pot, stained with the curry they had for dinner.

Kageyama's brain needs a moment to take in everything. 

He needs to take in that they like him. ‘They’ as in Hinata’s mother and Natsu. They like him being here. He doesn’t know how to feel about that, but his stomach swirls with something that Tobio mistakes for nausea. But he realises it isn’t, it’s a pleasant swirl, it’s warm and kind. He forces the feeling down.

He needs to take in the fact that he’s most likely going to have to explain why he was absent the past few days.

He needs to take in the fact that Hinata’s mom is now done washing the pot and he now has three clean dishes to dry.

Pay attention Tobio. “Yeah. I thought it was.. I em—“

“You got into a fight, didn’t you?”

Kageyama freezes, keeping his eyes on the plate that he’s drying. Is he in trouble? Does Hinata’s mother even have the authority to get him in trouble?

“Yeah, we did.” He admits.

Tobio slowly looks up to see.. a furious Hinata’s mom? An upset Hinata’s mom? Hinata’s mum threateningly cleaning or more likely swinging a kitchen knife?

But he sees none of that. She’s smiling, not in a creepy way that kitchen-knife wielders smile, it’s soft, like she’s trying to hold in a chuckle. In fact, she’s even cleaning a spoon, the least threatening kitchen utensil.

“I thought so. Shouyou was moping around for days.” She cleans the spoon fondly and sets it down ready to be dried.

Tobio’s confused. “So you’re not mad?”

She laughs breathlessly. “At you? No honey, I’m not mad. It happens with close friends.”

He picks up the spoon, trying to ignore the feeling he got at the nickname ‘honey.’ And trying even more to ignore the phrasing ‘close friends.’ 

“Ah.” He says simply. That makes sense, Hinata’s mom is kind, she wouldn’t get mad. Let alone start swinging a kitchen knife at Tobio. He admits that was a little far-fetched.

She continues, “plus, I think everyone in this house knows that Shouyou can be a little.. annoying at times. So don’t worry about it. People clash.”

Kageyama scoffs. She can say that again.

“I’m what!?” Hinata barks, suddenly barging into the kitchen.

Tobio jumps at the unnecessarily loud noise, dropping the spoon. “Shit.” He curses. Then he remembers that he’s in someone else’s house where cursing may not be allowed. He bends down to pick up the spoon. “Sorry..” he mumbles to Hinata’s mom.

She smiles softly. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh so he can swear and I can’t!?” Hinata pouts, standing by the entrance, looking as if the world's greatest betrayal has just unfolded.

His mother whips her head around. “Yes. My house, my rules.”

Hinata’s jaw drops wipe open and his mom goes back to cleaning. “That’s so not fair! First I get called annoying and now you're— you’re declaring your favouritism!”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t have to if you helped with the dishes like Kageyama. He’s a good kid!”

Tobio feels very much stuck in the middle.

“Such pettiness..” Hinata mumbles. “Kageyama, don’t you have anything to say!? Help me!”

“Nope.” Tobio isn’t getting involved, he just finishes drying the last dish.

Hinata finally slides forward, his socks gliding against the hard wooden floor, he looks over Tobio’s shoulder. “I was going to help.. just so you know..”

His mom makes a ‘ppffttt’ sound. “Yeah okay.” 

Hinata frowns, “I was!”

Tobio can just tell that he wasn’t, but he’s keeping his mouth shut. Hinata’s mum hums a condescending ‘mhmm’ and Tobio fails to not crack a smile at Hinata’s dramatic reaction. It’s all just so stupid. Natsu bursts in, jumping at the opportunity to be mean and Hinata starts to get even more agitated. And it’s so so stupid.

But it’s nice. It’s warm and it’s bubbly and it’s a home. Not Tobio’s, he knows that. But it’s a home he gets to be a part of. Even if it’s only for little bits at a time.

———————————

Kageyama had to leave. For one, he’d been at Hinata’s for three and a half hours. Time had flown by and Tobio hadn’t messaged anyone at home saying that he’d be away. Which yes, on his part, wasn’t the greatest choice. But even just having to send a text to his mother or father pisses him off and ruins his mood. And also he just genuinely forgot. It’s busy at the Hinata household when all three are home, it’s always buzzing and there’s always something going on, 

it can be a little more.. relaxing— well as relaxing as time with Hinata can be— when not all family members are home. But Tobio doesn’t mind, either way he’s out of his own house so it’s a million times more relaxing, even if it can be a bit chaotic at times. So yeah, he likes Hinata’s home but he also likes that he’s just generally away from his own.

Well— not anymore he isn’t. He checks his phone before he opens the door, it’s almost eight but he’s not worried. His dad has never given a shit about when he gets home, not that he’s around enough to experience Tobio staying out past curfew. Hell, Kageyama doesn’t even have a curfew. He slides the door open, taking his shoes off and leaving them at the door, his socks sliding against the hard floor slightly.

Momo comes to greet him, gently rubbing her dark black fur against Tobio’s school uniform.

“Hi Momo.” He mumbles, knowing that she can’t understand him. But he feels the need to greet her anyway, he hasn’t been the most attentive with her recently with all the avoiding the house as much as possible he’s been doing. She purrs. Tobio smiles, leaning down and stroking under her chin. His heart swells. He feels bad for Momo, the Kageyama household isn’t that bad usually when it’s just him and Momo. But it definitely has been as of late because of a few specific reasons.

One of the specific reasons speaks up from across the room, “where were you?”

Tobio bites his cheek. He hadn’t seen him, he must’ve been in the kitchen, where the dim lighting from outside doesn’t reach as well.It 

Kageyama has to stay calm, getting mad at his father won’t make him leave any quicker, so he tries to swallow down the anger in his chest that appears whenever he hears that awful voice.

“I had a match, so I came home later.” He turns to face him.

His dad is sitting at the dining table with a laptop and a hot cup of black coffee, reading glasses on and wearing leisurely clothes. He’s obviously hard at work, it must be difficult working from home when all the action is taking place in another district.

Maybe someone out there would say that Kageyama should be grateful, grateful that his dad has gone through all the trouble of working through a screen rather than leave Tobio by himself. But it only makes him more mad.

He’s mad because, if he can do it now, he could have done it before. When it really mattered. He’d have help, Tobio’s mother’s position in the company is just as important as his dad’s, but they could’ve helped each other out with school runs, with making breakfast and checking to see if Tobio had done his homework on time.

But they didn’t, that was up to Miwa. It was her job.

Kageyama’s over it though, he doesn’t feel sad, he doesn’t mourn the family he could’ve had because he does have a family. Himself, Momo and Miwa. He likes it that way. Even if he’s realised where exactly Miwa’s priorities are.

But that doesn’t mean he still can’t get pissed at his dad for his choices. Because he is. Definitely.

“A match that causes you to get home four hours after school ends?” He asks coldly, his face making the infamous ‘I do not approve of this volleyball thing’ expression. Kageyama doesn’t care, not one thing in the entire world could ever make him give up volleyball, certainly not the opinion of a man he doesn’t care about.

He gives Momo one more stroke under her soft chin and stands up, ready to leave. Ready to go into his room and not come out until morning. “We went to practice at the gym, then we had dinner at the market. So I’ve eaten.” He lies, because he’s got a bad feeling that his dad wouldn’t like him being at someone’s house. Not that his dad would give a damn usually, but Hinata isn’t a usual case. Tobio already knows his dad would hate him, Hinata and his loudness and his honesty and his crazy hair and his crazy, well, ness.

Tobio grabs his bag and takes a step towards the direction of his room.

“Who’s we?” 

Seriously? Why does his father suddenly decide to play the concerned parent role now? Kageyama tries not to roll his eyes. “Me and some teammates from Karasuno.” He answers flatly, just wanting to leave.

His dad’s eyes spark with something Kageyama can’t understand, it looks like annoyance. As if he had hoped Tobio would be practicing volleyball with someone other than his volleyball teammates.

“Not that middle blocker I hope, I can tell by even those foolish pyjamas that he’s no good. Probably one of those kids who don’t take school seriously.”

Tobio is confused and a little startled that his dad would know about Hinata. But then he remembers, he had mentioned Hinata at the table, not his name obviously. But he had mentioned enough for his dad to remember. For his dad to dislike him.

“No, not him.”

His dad nods, Tobio leaves, shuts his door and doesn’t come back out.

Screw him. Screw his dad and his pretending to care.

——————————————

“I hate him. I hate him so much.” Tobio stomps, his face doing that scary thing with his eyebrows that when directed at Hinata, makes him want to hide.

Shouyou rolls his eyes, grabbing a leaf of a passing bush and begins to rip it to shreds, he doesn't know exactly what Tsukishima had done to piss Kageyama off, but he knows that it’s pretty likely that Kageyama’s being an overdramatic baby like he usually is when it comes to Tsukishima’s teasing.

Kageyama kicks a nearby pebble and it goes flying, the two are walking into the courtyard to eat after getting Kageyama one of his gross yogurt drinks, which is how they bumped into Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, which then triggered the said teasing.

“I don’t get what he was talking about.” Shouyou pouts, feeling left out. Is there some inside joke that pisses off Kageyama that he doesn’t know about? Hinata hopes not, he wouldn’t want to miss a golden opportunity to annoy the Tobio Kageyama.

He thinks back to the interaction, it was quick, not much was said. But there was a specific word that Tsukishima had used. A word that Shouyou didn’t know the meaning of but what he did know is that Kageyama’s face went like.. super extra mad.

What was the word? He can’t remember. It had been about Kageyama and himself during their.. clash, last week. Which by the way, Shouyou is starting to forget ever happened. It’s now Wednesday lunch time, almost a week of Shouyou and Kageyama being official best friends! And they are! Even if Kageyama refuses to say it out loud or acknowledge it, because he had verbally agreed to it so he’s basically legally obliged to fulfil that role

But it’s weird. Or maybe it isn’t? Shouyou’s not sure. Things are the same as they were before ‘the clash’ last week. They don’t act like best friends, they just act like.. well, how they usually would.

Which makes Hinata wonder, were they always best friends? Or did they always act like that, even if Kageyama denied it?

He thinks so, the thought makes him smile.

Anyways, they were connected to the word that Shouyou can’t remember somehow. Which is super annoying! Because how come this word is somewhat about Shouyou and he doesn’t even know what it was?! Let alone what it means and why it pissed off Kageyama so badly.

Ogre? Olive? Ogre-ing? It began with an o, he knows that for sure.

Kageyama replies, “it doesn’t matter. It just— it just pisses me off. That he thinks that he knows things when.. When he.. can’t. Because he’s too— eugh. I don’t know.”

Ovaling? Ongoing?

Shouyou’s brain finally decides to take the initiative and let him remember. “Ah! Got it!” He barks out loud.

“Huh?” Kageyama says, the two make their way to their usual spot, a bench on the other end of the courtyard near a cherry blossom tree that is no longer blossoming, right next to a wall of the school.

“Ogling. He had said the word ‘ogling,’ what does that mean? What did he mean by it?”

Kageyama sits on the bench, leaning against the wall behind them, a group of girls pass by them as Shouyou also sits, talking loudly.

If Hinata weren’t mistaken he could swear he notices a difference in Kageyama's cheeks, they seem.. pinker.

Because of the girls? Or because of the word? Probably the girls.

“It’s stupid. He had just mentioned it at practice a while ago. The week before last I think.”

“What’s it mean?” Shouyou asks. He hates it when Kageyama starts saying that something is ‘nothing,’ because that thing is definitely not nothing if it makes him react so negatively! It’s common knowledge!

Kageyama looks down at his lap. “Why are you asking so many damn questions?”

“I don’t wanna be left out!” Hinata complains.

Kageyama mutters something about Hinata being stupid, but he soon speaks up and  answers the question, “it means to— like.. I don’t know!” He looks up from his lap and up to the clear sky, “Stare? I guess..”

“Stare?”

Hinata thinks about it, him and Kageyama being linked to staring.. 

he hopes not! Shouyou thinks he’s getting pretty good at not staring! It had been a tiny problem for a while, but now that he and Kageyama are back to being friends— no. Best friends, he hasn’t had any reason to stare.

Except when nobody’s looking.

But that’s different! It’s just something to look at! 

Shouyou reminds himself that Kageyama had said that Tsukishima had said (and yes Hinata’s brain is getting more and more fried by the second while thinking about this complicated timeline,) the word ‘ogling’ during practice the week before the two matches. Which happened to be the peak of Shouyou’s staring.

Okay. Then yes, the word ogling could be linked to those two. But it’s not Hinata’s fault! It’s not fair that Kageyama’s just so— so.. ogling-able!

Kageyama replies. “I think so. That bastard always uses the big words.”

Shouyou nods in agreement, some part of him thinks that the only reason Tsukishima uses words like that is to confuse them. Or just to use it in some sick way of proving he’s better than them. Which he isn’t, by the way!

“Here, I’ll just look it up.” Shouyou grabs his phone. It’s easier this way, plus, Kageyama isn’t the most reliable source when it comes to.. anything outside of volleyball, really. Especially definitions, of any kind.

He searches it up, reading and saying the definition out loud.

“To stare in a leckeroosus manner.” He says in his most official and definition-y voice. He’s not entirely sure if he said ‘lecherous’ correct though.

“Huh? What does leckeroosus mean?”

Shouyou shrugs, now searching yet another definition up. “It says here that; a leckeroosus— no that’s not right— a lecherous” that sounds better “look is.. a vaguely erotic ogle..” Shouyou frowns at his screen. “Well that’s dumb, it’s just sent us in a loop. Why’d it use the word ogle when we’re trying to figure out what it mea—“ Shouyou looks up to Kageyama, who looks..

he’s not sure. Some form of emotion that’s a mixture of rage and shock.

“What!?”

Kageyama doesn’t answer. Is he okay? Is he having a medical emergency? What the hell is happening to him?

“Kageyama? Why are you looking at me like— like that?” Hinata sheepishly says, trying to remember anything he might have to apologise for that has happened in the past twenty four hours.

Nothing, he’s done nothing!

Oh wait. Shouyou did take a bite out of Kageyama’s meat bun last night.

Is that it? Is that why Kageyama looks so mad? Shouyou’s not sure why he would choose to be mad about that just this second. The second he had said the definition—

Ohh. The definition. Shouyou looks down at his phone again, a vaguely erotic ogle. Hinata had thought that he and Kageyama were on the same level of.. illiterate-ness. Because yes, Shouyou will admit that at times he can be a little, well, dumb. But he had thought that he and Kageyama could be dumb together! Now the boy knows more words than he does? 

“What does erotic mean?” He asks.

Kageyama’s face grows even more pinker and Hinata’s curiosity grows even more stronger.

“It’s stupid. Tsukishima’s being stupid.” He mumbles, taking a sip of his yogurt drink awkwardly, as if that would change the subject.

Shouyou pushes, “well it’s obviously not nothing asshole. Stop treating me like some baby just because I don’t know what a word means!”

“I’m not!” Kageyama barks.

“You so are!”

Kageyama shuts up and so does Hinata, the two just lean against the wall Hinata pulls his knees up to his chin and leans on them, he may or may not be sulking. Kageyama crosses his legs on the bench, finishing his drink while Shouyou stares down at the gravelly floor.

Kageyama keeps his eyes away from Shouyou “Sorry.. it’s just— Don’t search it up. It’s weird, I’d feel.. weird.”

Hinata looks to the side, trying to use his pro Kageyama analysing skills. The boy looks.. uncomfortable, even a non-pro-Kageyama-analyser could see that. And usually Shouyou wouldn’t give a damn whether Kageyama’s uncomfortable or not. But for some reason this seems more.. serious. Serious as in, if Shouyou were to search this thing up then they would both be uncomfortable. 

So he reluctantly decides to swallow his curiosity and nods. “Okay.”

He swallows his curiosity, but there’s still some residue left over, lingering. Erotic. He doesn’t know what the word means, but he stores it in his head for later. Later when Kageyama doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

—————————————————

Hinata had been doing most of the asking, he thought it would be of some help to Kageyama.

The two would walk up the same road leading to their houses, with the same trees and the same uphill climb that made you slightly sweaty and your knees ache. Then Hinata would ask the same question every time they met the fork in the road that sent them different ways.

‘You wanna come over for dinner? My moms making..’ 

Sometimes he wouldn’t need to say it, Kageyama would just keep walking the way to Shouyou’s house. He liked it when he didn’t have to ask, he liked knowing that Kageyama knew that the answer would always be yes.

He’s content. Everything’s good, the knot is gone, Hinata knows— well, he knows what they are. It may not change anything between them, but it makes him and the knot feel better, a lot better.

Today, on Friday after practice. Shouyou didn’t need to ask.

The august sun blares just as strong and bright as it has been the entire month, they are on their way back home, but the two had gone a different direction this time because Shouyou really wanted ice-cream and refused to take no for an answer. Shouyou loves summer, he loves going outside in the sun, playing volleyball outside and well, eating ice cream like he is now.

Kageyama does not. Shouyou could tell that much from the boy's consistent complaints, and by consistent he doesn’t mean a comment every once and a while. He means constant whining. 

It’s the tiniest bit hot? Kageyama’s complaining. Shouyou wants to do something summer-like that doesn’t involve a volleyball? Kageyama’s not going. Kageyama sees a wasp? He tries and fails to keep his cool about it and his mood in ruined. Shouyou wants ice cream?

Well, Kageyama hasn’t actually said anything negative yet, he’s actually been looking rather sleepy ever since practice. Maybe he’s maturing, maybe Kageyama got used to the heat. Maybe they could do a summer activity together. Hell, maybe they could go to the beach and play beach volleyball without Lageyama muttering about it ‘not feeling the same.’

“My hands are sticky. This is gross.” Kageyama mumbles to himself while licking his pinky finger which has been soaked in cold, sticky, pink liquid.

And there we have it. Kageyama's millionth complaint of the evening.

Shouyou sighs, licking his chocolate ice-cream, the flavours feeling pleasant on his tongue just before he spouts some not-so-pleasant words at Kageyama and his negative attitude.

And not that Shouyou would ever say this out loud, but the negative comments don’t annoy him, not too much anyway. Because they’re Kageyama’s comments. It’s how he’s feeling, what he’s thinking, and Shouyou would rather have those comments over him hiding opinions any day.

Because they’re best friends now, and best friends don’t do that.

Shouyou could always tell that Kageyama felt a bit out of place in his room, well at least for the first few minutes of awkwardness until he warmed up to it. So Hinata and Kageyama usually hung out in Shouyou’s living room, on the couch or on the floor, watching tv or just sitting and sometimes playing board games, by themselves or in this case, with Natsu.

She had jumped up out of her spot on the sofa and paused her show the second they had come in, not to see Hinata though. Which yeah, it was a bit annoying that Natsu totally favoured Kageyama over him even though Shouyou is like.. a million times cooler. But whatever, he’s over it. He’s over it because the relief that Natsu even stands Kageyama is too overpowering for him to care about anything else.

Natsu is picky when it comes to Shouyou’s friends. The people she likes on the Karasuno team consist of Tanaka, Nishinoya, Tsukishima (which is totally insane considering how uninterested he is in her,) and Yachi. Everyone else she pays no mind to, sometimes it seems that she could go as far as to dislike Yamaguchi (Shouyou thinks it’s because Natsu gets jealous when Tsukishima pays more attention to him.) 

But now she pays mind to Kageyama as well, she pays a lot of it.

So much so that Shouyou can tell that Kageyama’s a bit afraid of the girl when she’s at her peak of hyperness.

“Kageyama!!” She squeals, running up from her seat and basically lunging towards them, a big grin on her face. “I haven’t seen you in ages! Will you play with me? We’re having kimchi noodles tonight, mom always makes them super good so I think you’ll like them.” She inhales sharply, trying to say everything in one go, “I got some new hair ties, they’re all pink and sparkly and pretty and some even have butterflies on them and—“

“Hi Natsu!” Shouyou butts in.

She looked confused, as if Hinata speaking were something so unexpected. “Hi Sho’.. you can play too I guess..” she said, almost passive aggressively. Like her voice is saying he can play and her face is saying ‘what are you doing here? Ew.’

This is Shouyou’s house goddamn it!

Shouyou pouts, Kageyama always takes the spotlight, (okay so maybe Natsu paying more attention to Kageyama did bother him, just a little,) but that’s okay. Shouyou’s glad he’s here either way.

On that note, Kageyama hasn’t said a word since they got in. Shouyou looks up at him. The boy is looking a little..

Overwhelmed.

Well.. okay. That’s fair enough, Natsu can be, well, overwhelming.

“Natsu how about we play after dinner instead?”

She frowns, “no! I wanna play now, it’s ages until dinner!”

“Thirty minutes, by the way!” His mother calls from the kitchen.

Hinata sighs, kicking off his shoes. Kageyama doing the same.

“See!” Natsu called. “It’s ages!”

Shouyou can tell from Kageyama’s odd expression that he just wanted a moment of peace, and also maybe possibly sort of wants Kageyama to himself, so he pushes. “Yeah, but if we play later we can do it for like.. forty!”

“An hour then we have a deal.” Natsu smirks, folding her arms like some pro-negotiator. Shouyou bets she learnt this from tv.

Shouyou feels himself frown. “Forty-five.”

“Fifty”

Jesus. Why does everything in this house have to be like some court hearing, Shouyou spends a moment considering, if Kageyama spends fifty minutes with Natsu, that means he probably gets more, but that all depends on when the boy leaves.

Which could’ve actually been any second considering the argument that is ensuing.

His mom butts in again. “Fifty minutes and that’s that! Okay?”

Natsu glared at Shouyou and he glared right back.

“Deal.” She says, looking triumphant.

“Deal.” Shouyou pouts, Kageyama’s his friend, not Natsu’s.

He can hear a sigh coming from the kitchen, “I wasn’t asking you guys, I was asking poor Kageyama. It’s his time you guys are squabbling over.”

Hinata glanced over to Kageyama, feeling a tinsie bit embarrassed at his eagerness to keep Kageyama to himself. “Oh— em. Deal.” The boy says.

“Okay, let’s go.” Shouyou grabbed his wrist and made his way down to his own room.

Once Hinata had dragged a weirdly not-complaining Kageyama into his room, he had shut the door and jumped onto his bed. It might’ve been awkward, but Shouyou could tell that Kageyama needed a quiet space. So he has decided to shut up.

Well, not until he clears something up.

Shouyou sits up and wraps his arms around his legs, tucking his knees in and leaning on them, “I could tell. That you were tired I mean. So I just thought you’d want to.. I don’t know— rest?”

Kageyama stayed standing, taking off his bag and dumping it , maybe Shouyou had got it wrong? God, he hopes not.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Kageyama mumbles.

Okay. Well that’s good. At least he hadn’t gotten it completely wrong.

“Well. If you want you could take a nap.” 

Kageyama blinks for a moment, as if what Hinata had said was the craziest thing ever. “Where?”

Seriously? Is he messing with Shouyou or is he just that dumb? “On my bed Kageyama duh!”

“Well I don’t know! I just thought—“ he cuts off, staying silent

“You thought what?”

“I’m in my gym clothes so..” he mumbles the end. 

“So?” Shouyou asks. Then he remembers Kageyama’s strange standards of hygiene, it’s not like Shouyou’s gross or anything, it’s just Kageyama can be a little.. extra..

“you could take a shower? I have clothes, might be a bit small though.”

Kageyama made a face.

“What!?” Shouyou barked. What has he done now? He’s trying to be a good host!

“It’s nothing.”

Shouyou couldn’t help but pout, he really hates it when Kageyama does that ‘it’s nothing but also I’m really upset about it’ thing, it’s confusing. 

“Well it is something.”

“No.” Kageyama quickly replies, his face looking oddly pink.

“Yes.” Shouyou rebuttaled.

“No.”

“Just tell me!”

“You’reshampoosmellslikeyousoIdon’tlikeit.” He gets out quickly, so quickly that Shouyou had no idea what he had said.

“Huh?!” Shouyou asks, he heard something about his shampoo.. he thinks.

Kageyama looks at the floor for a while and Shouyou just waits. Kageyama’s being so weird today. “Nothing. You only have that four-in-one shampoo and it pisses me off.”

Of course he would end up saying something so uptight-sounding. “Em. It’s three-in-one. Also it’s amazing and effective so I don’t see a problem with it!”

Kageyama’s face looks confused. “It’s like— how does it work on all those things at once, it’s impossible.”

“No. It’s magical!” Hinata argues.

“That makes no—“ he cut off, then sighed as if he had decided something. “Okay fine! Whatever, I’ll take a damn shower.”

“Fine. The towels are on the left of the bathroom.”

“Fine.”

“Fine!”

Kageyama walks out angrily, yet somehow manages to close the door delicately and quietly, as if not wanting to spook Natsu and Hinata’s mom, the thought makes Shouyou feel less angry.

“I’ll leave some clothes outside the door!” He yells, trying to sound just as pissed.

A grunt replies, Hinata tries to stay mad while waiting for him, but fails.

They were back in Shouyou’s room when it happened.

Kageyama had come back in, hair wet, cheeks flushed from the shower, in Hinata’s clothes, and muttering something about shampoo again, which Hinata had replied with asking why Kageyama had such a problem with his shampoo. And guess what? Another bickering session occurred, shocker right?

After a while, Shouyou realised that dinner would be ready in around twenty minutes, so he had suggested a power nap. Kageyama had been hesitant for some reason Hinata couldn’t understand, but he had eventually got on Hinata’s bed and is now laying on his back, he must’ve been exhausted because in less than two minutes Shouyou realised he was asleep already.

That brings him to where he is now. On his bedroom floor because Shouyou could tell that Kageyama wouldn’t even dare to relax if Shouyou was also laying down next to him, so he had very casually stated that he would be sitting on the floor because it was more comfortable (it wasn’t.) A statement that Kageyama somehow believed due to his sluggishness.

Shouyou turns towards his bed, blinking at Kageyama, as if testing to see if the boy really was asleep. Kageyama is wearing Shouyou’s biggest clothes that still look a little bit too small, Shouyou picked out some normal ones this time because he felt nice, a dark blue t-shirt that matches Kageyama’s eyes and some black basketball shorts that are a bit tight but they fit him fine. They fit him well.

Shouyou finds himself staring at Kageyama intently, it might be the fact that he himself is also feeling sleepy and groggy, therefore his brain isn’t comprehending how weird this may be, or it could be because Shouyou never has the time to stare at Kageyama without getting noticed.

He can’t get noticed here. It’s only Kageyama and him, one asleep and the other close to it.

And so he stares.

Kageyama’s hair dries quick, much quicker than Shouyou’s thick mess atop of his head, Hinata can already see dry spots on the boy's silky dark hair. 

Hinata feels his own hair, which needs a cut, he remembers the deal he made with himself, a deal where he said he wouldn’t cut it until Kageyama commented on it, somehow the boy still hasn’t, in fact, Kageyama hasn’t been doing his usual routine of playing with Shouyou’s hair. Hinata wishes he was, he’d like that.

His own hair is soft. But he bets Kageyama’s is softer, he bets it’s silky and smooth and feels amazing to play with, he bets that there’s a pressure point on the back of Kageyama head or behind his ear, a soft spot that he would find if he were to play with Kageyama’s hair. Everyone has one so it only makes sense if Kageyama has one. And if Shouyou were to find it and touch it while playing with his hair, Kageyama would like it.

He would have to like it. It makes sense. 

Shouyou wonders what Kageyama would do if the impossible situation ever happened. Would he nuzzle and lean into it, into Shouyou? Would he make a noise? What type of noise? One of those grunts from earlier, or maybe.. something softer? More high pitched? Like a.. like a whine? Hinata shakes his head. He would never be able to cause Kageyama to make a noise like that. He’s weird for even thinking that.

Shouyou’s eyes trail down from the boy's hair to his face, he finds himself leaning closer, not onto the bed though, he's still on the floor, that’d be weird if he weren’t. Not best friend-like, and him and Kageyama are like.. super best friends now.

Kageyama’s eyelashes. Thick and dark. The type that girls in their class have to apply make-up for. Kageyama’s got them. He’s got them easy, they must be jealous. Hinata’s stomach has a familiar feeling in it, but he can’t name it right now. Right now he’s too entranced and sleepy and oh Kageyama’s lips.

Kageyama’s lips. Pink and pouted from sleep. Hinata finds himself dizzy from them, he wants to touch them, just with his fingers. Only to see what they feel like. They must feel like.. well, how lips feel like. But Hinata’s got a feeling Kageyama’s are special, like most things about him. The feeling in Shouyou’s stomach tightens.

Kageyama’s neck. There’s a mole Shouyou’s never seen before, he must’ve never paid enough attention, he promises to himself that he will from now on. He’ll notice.

Hinata wonders if he has any more moles. Maybe on his legs, his arms, maybe on his stomach. On a part of his that Shouyou has never seen before. Parts that he’ll never see because they aren’t that close.

They aren’t that close.

The feeling in his stomach amplifies by ten.

Playing with Kageyama’s hair. Finding a spot on his head that if he were to touch, would make him squirm. Admiring Kageyama. Touching Kageyama’s lips. Finding secret moles on his legs and arms.

Things that Shouyou won’t and can’t do, because of course he can’t do that stuff! That’s weird and it’s not what best friends do, Shouyou’s just bored and tired and sleepy and out of it.

He turns away from Kageyama and up to the ceiling. The feeling in Shouyou’s stomach tightens again, hard and he suddenly realises what it is.

His eyes widen and his hands get sweaty and no. Nonono. It can’t be. This was supposed to be gone. It was supposed to never come back and leave forever.

What is it doing here? He and Kageyama are best friends. He knows that for a fact. He knows what they are so it should be gone. Gone for good.

But it isn’t. It’s there.

It’s there when they head down for dinner.

It’s there when they play with Natsu, and Kageyama was somehow convinced into helping Natsu do Shouyou’s hair. He had thought that maybe the feeling would loosen at the touch of Kageyama on his head, but it only got worse. It gets worse because Hinata knows that this is a one time thing, it gets worse because— because it feels so good and he wants more.

The feeling is there when Kageyama leaves that night and it’s there when Shouyou watches tv with his family.

It’s there because this time, Shouyou doesn’t know what he has to do to stop the feeling. There’s no wall to overcome, there’s no challenge to compete. He’s just.. confused. Confused on what he wants, confused on how he feels, confused on how this feeling, 

this knot, could have returned so soon.

But that’s okay, because he and Kageyama are best friends now, best friends share more secrets, best friends go over to each others houses. But they don’t do— they don’t do that stuff.

And that’s okay. What they have is enough, it’s enough and the stupid knot won’t ruin that for them.

Because things are good, awesome even. And they’ll stay that way, Hinata will make sure of it.

Knot be damned.

Chapter Text

Shouyou was getting tired. He was fed up. He was done. Done with this stupid knot. Done with constantly being confused about stupid dumb Kageyama, because it’s all so— so dumb! Shouyou doesn’t understand why he puts so much thought behind someone as uptight and mean and.. and guuraa! as Kageyama. He doesn’t understand why every time he thinks these thoughts he gets so annoyed, because yes. Kageyama is annoying, but it’s the thought of him that is annoying Shouyou the most right now.

It’s the thought of his dark silky hair, the thought of his deep blue eyes and wondering what goes on behind them, it’s the thought of his annoyingly strong legs, the thought of careful hands, soft pink lips, strangely perfect teeth, random moles that Shouyou wishes he could touch and—

And it all makes Shouyou so— so.. annoyed. He doesn’t want to think about Kageyama, he wants to think about volleyball and spiking and flying. But every time he does, somehow, ever since Friday night where Shouyou had noticed all these special things about Kageyama, or well, he had registered them, the boy always manages to sneak his annoying ass into Hinata’s daydreams.

And Shouyou is tired of it already, and it’s been less than forty eight hours.

And Hinata loves a good daydream. It’s how he spends a good twenty percent of his time, imagining things. Mostly volleyball related, and in turn that means it’s all mostly Kageyama related.

So yeah, Shouyou’s tired of it.

So tired of it that, after skipping his Yachi’s and Kageyama’s Saturday studying session (or whatever people would call Hinata and Kageyama bickering for two and a half hours while Yachi tries to calm the mood,) he calls her.

It was a split second decision that Shouyou had made on Sunday morning, sitting on his bed when Kageyama infiltrated his head for the millionth time that day.

It was very much a split second decision.

Yachi picks up after three rings, giving Shouyou around eight seconds to think of what he’s going to say.

The idea never comes. But that’s fine he’ll just wing it.

“Hello? Shouyou-kun?” Yachi’s voice chirps into Hinata’s ear, he puts the phone on speaker mode, digging his free hand’s fingers into the covers.

“Emmm.” Shouyou thinks out loud into the mic. 

Okay so winging it isn’t going well.. Why exactly did he call? What is he trying to get out of this? Someone to hang out with? Someone to talk to?

Yeah. That seems right.

“Wanna eat lunch? I could go for a meat bun and Kageyama isn’t coming over soo..” Hinata blinks at his phone awaiting an answer. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that he’s only calling Yachi because Kageyama is busy..

“I— em. Yes, of course! See you in..” a pause, “thirty minutes?” Shouyou can’t see her but he’s pretty sure she’s smiling, so he smiles too.

Shouyou checks the time. It’s nine fifty three.

“What kind of people eat lunch at ten am?”

Yachi giggles at Hinata’s very serious question, “Productive people, Shouyou!”

Hinata frowns. “Really? I mean I would call myself pretty productive and I wouldn’t go—“ 

“Let’s call it brunch then? I know this really good place nearby my apartment. My treat?”

“Sure. But give me an hour to get there I’m..” Shouyou takes a look around. 

His room is a mess, bed unmade, he’s still in pyjamas because.. because it’s nine fifty three and he’s not strange like Yachi. And he still hasn’t properly woken up yet. “Busy?”

Hinata can hear some rustling from the other end. “Yeah okay. See you in an hour!”

“Yeah, see you.” Shouyou hangs up, wonders what on earth compelled him to make that decision, and gets up.

After completing everything he needed to do, minus making his bed and tidying his room, so Shouyou supposes he only completed half of what he needed to do…

Whatever! Shouyou changed into the few non-sport clothes he owns, well half owned, they were his dad’s. So they basically are his by like.. law. If the guy isn't gonna be around at least Shouyou could get some clothes out of it, even if he doesn’t know the first thing about.. well, clothes. He once heard two girls in his class yapping on and on about how ‘your shoes have to match your hat’ and ‘never wear red with pink lipstick’, or something like that. But Shouyou’s in the clear because he will not be wearing pink lipstick today.

His shoes don’t match his hat though.. 

It’s a stupid rule anyways!

He’s wearing some washed out blue jeans that, because they were his dad’s who was larger than Hinata, are a bit baggier than a usual pair but they fit fine.  And he’s wearing a random blue striped t-shirt he found with tiny red stripes. Oh, also a red cap. Shouyou thinks the girls from his class talking about colours and whatnot would be proud of him, red and red, he’s a genius. 

Well it may have been a coincidence.. He only wears the hat because it’s obnoxiously hot outside and Shouyou doesn’t want to burn, but he likes the genius title more so he’s sticking with that. Oh! Also he’s wearing him and Natsu’s friendship bracelet they had made together a few years ago. 

Look at Shouyou go, he’s like.. a fashionista or something!

Hinata grabs his phone, some loose change just in case, grabs a hair tie from the kitchen, digs his feet into the only pair of non-volleyball shoes he has, and bikes down the hill. He decides around half-way that taking the hair tie was a great idea, while biking he holds one hand on the handles and the other one ties his hair up into a tiny pony-tail, he sticks his hat back on and hopes it stays.

It actually does. Hinata finds the location Yachi sent him, it’s near a big park in the middle of town, but it’s Sunday morning so it’s not busy at all. Because again, who is eating lunch, or ‘brunch’ at ten am?

Anyways, the cafe is cute and bubbly, kind of like if Yachi turned into a building. There’s lots of plants and lots of natural light and they sell all kinds of sweet things. Shouyou’s excited to eat. Very excited.

Yachi is sitting on a two seated table in the shade, Shouyou’s grateful since he’s already sweating a ton from the ride down. He walks closer towards the table and— there’s a fan right next to Hinata’s seat! Yay! Shouyou jogs the majority of the way there.

“Hi Yachi-san!” He tries to chirp but it’s mostly just an exhale because of the fact that Shouyou is panting from the heat, he takes a seat in front of her, already loving the cool air hitting his back, he can feel his shoulders start to relax and his breathing begins to calm.

Yachi looks up from her phone, she’s wearing her hair in two small pigtails with a simple white tank top and some denim shorts, along with some girly perfume that Shouyou likes the smell of. “Shouyou, hi!”

The two start their usual small talk while looking at the menu until someone comes over to take their order.

“Hey guys, what can I get for you?” A waitress a bit older than them with long brown hair asks.

Yachi hums, “can I get.. the strawberry shortcake and an iced matcha please?”

Shouyou blinks. He was going to get a brownie.. but Yachi’s order sounds so good, and she’s been here like, a million times! So she must know best..

“Same as her, please.” He decides.

“Okay, great. That’ll be here shortly.” The waitress scurries off to the kitchen, Hinata feels bad for anyone who has to work in this heat.

Yachi speaks up the second the waitress is out of earshot. “Hinata-san.. not to sound rude..” she looks to the side and back at him, “but we never hang out, so I was just wondering.. why, I guess?”

Shouyou bites his lip. Does he say it straight away? Spit out all his problems at Yachi? Does he wait until their shortcake and whatever the hell that fancy drink was called arrives?

No. He’ll get it out the way. Sorry Yachi. “Well.. I don’t really know how to say it. It's weird to bring up, you’d be all like ‘arg Shouyou, shut up and stop talking about it!’ Y’know?"

“It’s Kageyama, right?” Yachi blinks at him like she was expecting this. Like this was the usual.

Shouyou can feel his mouth part open a bit. He hates how obvious this was, he hates that Yachi can just tell.

But then again it does make this conversation a lot easier.

Hinata was just about to tell Yachi everything, but the girl starts to panic at his silence, “or not! Sorry— I just kind of assumed it was him because you’re a little obsessed—“ she slaps her hand over her mouth, “sorry! You aren’t obsessed! It’s good that you care so much for somebody and em..” 

“I’m not obsessed..” Hinata mutters. Because he’s not! If he’s obsessed with anything then it’s volleyball, not him. Why would anyone ever willingly choose to be obsessed with stupid smelly Kageyama!? He’s so dumb and thick in the head and stupid and pretty and his hair—

Shouyou needs to stop. He needs to stop this right now.

“Sorry. What were you saying?” Yachi gives him an opening.

“It is.. Kageyama. But I’m not obsessed. I just..”

“Go ahead, just word vomit.”

Shouyou does as he’s told and word vomits, “This is gonna sound like the stupidest thing in the whole wide world and you can definitely judge me for this, but I cannot go three minutes without thinking about him and it’s really really annoying and I— I don’t know?! I don't like it?” He stares at his fingers which have found a fork to play with, llightly stabbing his finger-tips in the pokey bits nervously.

“It’s like, involuntary. And it’s stupid because why would I— why would my head want to think about him? He’s dumb.”

Yachi hums. “Yeah, he isn’t the brightest guy. That was made clear when it was just him and me at tutoring yesterday. But he’s getting the hang of it.”

“Did he say anything about me?” Shouyou asks, then he realises how stupid and desperate that must sound.

Yachi’s face looks a little uncomfortable, “Erm.. no? Well, he asked where you were and when I said you couldn’t make it he just, nodded.”

“He nodded.” Shouyou repeats, Yachi nods. He doesn’t understand why he cares so much, he just wonders.. he wonders if Kageyama would be as bummed out as he would be if Kageyama was a no-show.

“So em. What are you thinking about?”

“Huh?”

“You can’t stop thinking about Kageyama, what are you thinking about?”

Pink lips and strong legs flood Hinata’s mind involuntarily. 

“Nothing!” He says, snapping his mouth shut right after, blinking to get the image out. Eurgg!! Think normal thoughts Shouyou!

“Are you sure?” Yachi asks, slowly. 

Shouyou looks up to her and she’s staring at him like he’s a nutcase. 

And maybe he is.. what kind of normal best friend thinks those things? 

Well, it could all be part of the process. Yeah. The process. Shouyou’s merely just admiring those things. The real problem is the knot. And what the knot wants.

So what he’s thinking is normal.. it’s just the knot isn’t. Which means all he has to do is get rid of it!

“Well, no.. I’m thinking,” Shouyou’s breath hitches, why is he nervous? Yachi will get it. That’s what she does, it’s why Hinata chose to talk to her. “I guess whenever I think of him.. I’m thinking of my favourite qualities of him?” 

Yachi hums thoughtfully, like she’s trying to figure out a riddle. “Okay.. what things?”

“Like.. his hair. Em— I think about his eyes sometimes too and—“ Hinata stops.

“And what?” 

“His hands.. his legs sometimes too. Not in a weird way though! It’s not like— like that.. and em— his moles?”

Yachi frowns in confusion, "Kagayama has moles?”

“Yeah, two on his neck and three on each of his arms.” Shouyou recites.

Yachi blinks, mouth open slightly.

That sounded really creepy, didn’t it? 

“Well, that’s what I know atleast..” Shouyou tries to make himself sound less.. knowledgeable about the placement of Kageyama’s moles.

Yachi smiles a bit, “yeah, okay. So um.. what thought pop into your head when you think of these things?”

He shifts in his seat, his stomach feeling nervous, “What’s with all the questions?” Shouyou pouts, he would rather Yachi steer clear of what exactly he’s been thinking about, it’s embarrassing.

“C’mon Shouyou.. I’m trying to help. I won’t laugh.”

Hinata can feel his stomach relax a bit, he knows Yachi won’t laugh. But what will she think? “Just don’t.. don’t take it as anything strange. It’s best friend things.”

Yachi looks to the side, uncertain about something Shouyou can’t figure out. But it looks like she decided on something. “Yeah, of course.”

Hinata knows it’s a bit childish, Kageyama would probably freak out at the sight of it. But screw Kageyama and screw.. ageism! He can do this at whatever age he wants, thank you! 

Shouyou holds out his pinkie across the table, leaning his elbow on the table cloth, slightly sticky from his sweat. “Pinky promise?”

Yachi smiles and immediately brings out her own, her teeth showing and her eyes having a rare mischievous gleam in them, as if they were ten years old and sharing secrets in a pillow fort. “Pinky promise.”

Shouyou tells her everything, mainly because he trusts Yachi. But also because he’s never been that good at keeping things to himself for long.

From the moment Shouyou met Yachi he knew she was smart, he also knew that she was probably the most nervous person on the planet, Tadashi coming in close second. Hinata before a match with an upset stomach at third, but that’s old stuff by now.

By that he means his tummy aches, Yachi and Yamaguchi still take the cake on that.

He had just accepted her smartness as a trait of hers, Yachi had gotten perfect marks on a test Shouyou failed? So be it. Yachi can count past the number twenty in English? Good for her.

Now that Shouyou thinks about it, maybe counties to twenty isn’t as impressive to everyone else as it is to him..

But today her smartness comes into use! And Shouyou is eternally grateful. 

Because Yachi has come up with the smartest plan in like— all of existence ever!

She had suggested that maybe the reason Hinata was having these ‘thoughts’ as she would put it, is because that he’s wanting all these new things with Kageyama because they’re best friends, 

playing with his hair, touching him, spending more and more time with him, it’s all because Shouyou is just a naturally touchy person and spending-time-with-people person! He’s an extrovert! And because he and Kageyama are at this new level of bond, he, very naturally, wants more to match that said bond! And there’s nothing wrong with that!

Shouyou feels better about his thoughts now that he has an explanation to them. They’re not as weird as he had thought. They’re normal, he’s normal.

Anyways, back to the plan.

Yachi had said, while sipping her green drink that Shouyou had decided tasted like grass and was disgusting, that Hinata should try slowly but surely get to that level of ‘more’ that he wanted, when Shouyou had asked what the heck she meant by that, Yachi had sighed and explained.

She had explained that basically, if Hinata starts off with small amounts of touching and bonding and works his way up to bigger stuff, then he could stop the knot from growing, and then stop it all together. The end! Then it’s all sunshine and rainbows and volleyball-playing in peaceful harmony or something like that.

The idea sounded pretty good to Shouyou, not that he had any other options anyways. But still, he was surprised at how good Yachi was at this. Pleasantly surprised.

They had strategised over yet another serving of shortcake (which Hinata did enjoy) until it was well until lunch hours and they were told to leave by that same long-haired waitress who had served them hours ago, they complied and paid because that long-haired waitress looked.. very much done with them and their ramblings.

Actually, she had probably wanted them gone since Hinata, very loudly, stated that the matcha Yachi got was ‘the grossest thing he’s ever tasted,’ ..in front of paying customers no less.

But during their strategising, they had come up with three points that Shouyou needed to work on. 

They had first come up with compliments, telling Kageyama nice things when they pop into Shouyou’s head instead of stifling them down. Then Shouyou will feel like he’s not holding as much in. Smart.

Touching was the second, just small gestures to feed to the growing knot, and to work up to something bigger.. like.. a hug! Although they had both called Hinata crazy for thinking he could ever get that far. Maybe one day, if Hinata gets into a biking accident or something and is on his deathbed, then maybe he could manage to guilt trip Kageyama into an awkward hug before he dies. 

Anyways! The third thing was honesty. This kind of tied into the compliment thing, but Yachi had emphasised its importance, something about ‘you’re holding so much in, you need to let it out’ or something philosophical like that, and she hasn’t been wrong yet so Shouyou’s listening to whatever that girl says. And what she’s saying is that.. Shouyou should tell Kageyama what he’s thinking, at some point..

And by ‘what he’s thinking’ she means the wanting more from Kageyama thing.

Right. Hinata will try it only for Yachi’s sake. But he will most likely fail. Because he may have convinced, or more fittingly forced Kageyama into the best friend title, but Shouyou doesn’t think Kageyama will ever let Shouyou play with his hair or do any other of these best friend activities he so badly wants. Which he’ll learn to deal with.. eventually, even if it’ll take a long time.

Shouyou reminds himself, it won’t! It won’t take a long time at all! With these— these things for him to try out, for him to experiment, the knot will leave, and he will deal. And he and Kageyama will be best friends and the best volleyball duo of all time!

Yeah. Okay. So it’s a plan. It’s experiments he’s willing to try.

And try he will.

———————————————

Shouyou decides that the first (and easiest) course of action to take was to tick the compliment category off his imaginary checkbox list. Because it is the easiest, right? He just says some not so horrible words to Kageyama, walk— or run —away before he gets.. well, injured for life, and then he’s done it! Easy peasy! Knot gone!

And it was easy. Weirdly, Hinata had made a nice comment in a definitely not slightly nervous tone about Kageyama’s serve. It was a regular serve, well, regular for Kageyama, amazing for anyone else watching. But Shouyou had mentioned it being good, not a ‘nice serve’ type thing, a considerate, well planned (not that Shouyou had planned it! Nuh uh.) thought out comment.

Kageyama’s face had gone a shade of pink, the boy had also shouted some rude words that Shouyou will not be repeating. And Hinata’s knot had.. 

it had decided to tighten at the sight of a flustered pink-cheeked Kageyama instead of loosen.

It was easy. It felt good to compliment Kageyama, but it wasn’t working.

It was confusing and frustrating and stupid, but Hinata wasn’t giving up, giving up is for losers! Well unless it’s an English test.. or any kind of test.. then giving up is fine.

He had another idea, maybe. Just maybe! And he knows this sounds almost impossible because Kageyama is well— Kageyama. But he could pull it off! With time.. a lot of it..

His idea fell into the category of compliments, so he’s not giving up on that experiment, but it won’t be Hinata giving the compliments this time. 

It will be Kageyama. Yep. Kageyama the asshole who has a volleyball for a brain and seems completely incapable of giving anyone a compliment of any kind will be giving Shouyou a compliment. 

Eventually..

That’ll have to soothe the knot. It makes sense, logically or whatever.

And the saga of Shouyou desperately trying to get a compliment to soothe his ever growing knot began.

Hinata’s logic was that, if compliments between them became normal, then one was bound to escape Kageyama’s mouth at some point, right? 

Yeah! It made sense!

So every practice, every hangout at Shouyou’s, he mentioned something somewhat similar to a compliment. A comment about a set, a congrats on a good save, more mentions on Kageyama’s amazing serves.

Kageyama had started off defensive, biting back with rude words always including some form of the insult ‘dumbass’, but Shouyou is not a quitter! He doesn’t— well, quit! So he kept going, kept doing the odd compliment, and soon enough after a whole month.. Kageyama had.. nodded.

He nodded!

Hinata may have or may have not jumped for joy when the boy had left. Because what!? This is a big thing! Kageyama’s stupid ass has never taken a compliment before, not like this! He had accepted it so— so.. normally!

Everything was going on track. Shouyou’s saga of trying to earn a compliment was coming to an end soon, he could feel it. It was going to happen, he was going to get a compliment from Kageyama and the knot would soothe, then he’d finally be done with the first part of his list which was supposed to be the easiest.

Then it all crashed and burned. Kind of.

Shouyou probably should have seen it coming, he was getting impatient after a month of nothing. And just like in volleyball, when he gets impatient, he gets risky.

“You’re eyes look really blue right now.” Shouyou states matter a factly, as if he were paying no mind, when in fact he was. He was paying a lot of it.

And yes that counts as risky. This is Kageyama! The guy basically seizes up in uncomfortable-ness the second someone utters a word of praise.

They’re walking up from training, the weather has been starting to cool since it’s mid September, and because it’s getting colder, the sun sets later, Shouyou knows that much.

And that’s relevant because the sun is starting to set, and it well— well it did make Kageyama’s eyes look really blue.

Shouyou looks at a bush. Because bushes don’t make his stomach twist.

Kageyama doesn’t respond for a minute, Shouyou hadn’t seen him nod either, he was just.. thinking. As if his eyes looking extra blue was a thought provoking thing.

“I’m going to my house today.” Kageyama says as they meet the fork in the road, a large tree above them shields them from the sun, leaving tiny snippets of light on Kageyama’s face. It’s breezy but not too breezy.

“It’s Tuesday..” Shouyou keeps on walking, Kageyama probably just mixed up the days and thought it was a Saturday or something.

But why would they be walking home from training on a Saturday..

Hinata spins to face Kageyama, the boy looks a little unsure. But his face still has that stupidly unreadable look. And his eyes—

Well, they still look really blue.

“Wait what?”

Kageyama looks at the ground. “I’m going over to my house. I’m tired."

“You can sleep at mine.”

Kageyama looks up and blinks, not knowing what to say. Until his eyes squint the way they do when he makes a decision and Shouyou knows what’s coming.

“No.”

Shouyou feels his head spin over this seemingly normal situation. Kageyama’s tired. He wants to sleep. He wants to go home.

Except it isn’t normal! Kageyama never wants to go home nowadays! What’s so different about a normal Tuesday!?

A thought pops into Shouyou’s head, maybe today is different. “Is your dad gone?” Shouyou finds himself wishing that he wasn’t, because what if Kageyama stops coming over, it’s selfish, he knows, but he doesn’t care.

Kageyama frowns slightly, “No..” 

Shouyou tries not to look so glad. “Then what?”

“Nothing dumbass! It’s nothing!” Kageyama’s face distorts the way that it does when it’s totally something.

“You’re totally lying!” Shouyou waves his hands, gesturing at Kageyama’s dumb face.

“I’m not!”

“You are too!”

“Shut up Hinata!”

For some reason Hinata does shut up. Maybe it’s because of the angrier than usual look on Kageyama’s stupid face. Maybe it’s because he just doesn’t know what to say.

Kageyama looks like he’s trying not to scream, Shouyou’s trying not to roll his eyes. “I just— I don’t have to spend all my time with you. I have other things to do.”

Oh. That’s right. It feels like Hinata’s whole life revolves around volleyball. It’s his world, and for him that means that Kageyama is a big part of that world. One of the biggest. His setter. His best friend.

But Kageyama’s world might be different.

Kageyama mutters a ‘bye’ and turns to leave, but Shouyou’s mouth says something it maybe shouldn’t have.

“Did I do something wrong?”

The boy doesn’t start to walk forward. He stays still. His back facing Hinata. And that’s all he needs.

“I did, didn’t I?”

Kageyama sighs. “When do you not?”

“Rude.” Shouyou folds his arms, not wanting to move forward yet, not wanting to face Kageyama, because if he did he probably wouldn’t have the courage to ask what he needs to.

“What did I do? I know I ate the last bite of your meat bun on the way up and I’m sorry! If that’s it then I’ll buy you one tomorrow.. and I know that I gave you the wrong answers to the English test but honestly you should know better than to trust me with those things and—“

“That isn’t it!”

Hinata has probably wronged Kageyama at least fifteen other times in the last two hours alone, but he can’t think of any more examples. “Then what did I do?”

Kageyama’s back is still to Hinata, but Hinata can tell he’s mad, he has some of that angry Kageyama aura around him and his fists are clenched. “It’s.. the stupid comments you keep making.  I.. I hate it.”

Shouyou probably should’ve caught onto this sooner. The boy’s uncomfortable look whenever a complete is said. Him never returning the compliments.. of course he doesn’t like it. But is him not liking it valid? Is Hinata in the wrong here?

“Oh. Well..” Hinata pauses, is this really an apology worthy thing?

No! That stupid! Of course it isn’t! Kageyama’s being an ass about everything like usual! “Well I’m not sorry for being supportive!”

Kageyama flicks his head to the right to make himself clearer, now Hinata can see half of his stupid pissed off face. “Well— well then you’re being too supportive. It.. pisses me off. You don’t need to say things for the sake of just saying them.”

“I have no idea what that means but I am not doing that!”

“Yes you are!” Kageyama turns,…l “with the— the eye thing right now. I don’t— I don’t need to know that. There’s no point to it!”

Hinata’s mouth moves without thinking again, just to oppose anything Kageyama says, to prove him wrong, “yes there is!”

“Then tell me.”

Shouyou’s mouth hangs agape, taking a backseat and leaving his brain to clean up the mess he’s made. He can’t do that. He can’t tell Kageyama. How would he even do that? For some reason ‘hey Kageyama, so the reason I’m saying all these things is to feed the ever growing knot in my stomach that has been plaguing me for over two months now!’ doesn’t seem ideal to say.

But maybe a version of it could be..

“I don’t know— I was just hoping that..” that we could be close best friends. More. Closer. The peak of best-friendship. More, Kageyama! “That maybe you’d compliment me back?”

Kageyama’s mouth hangs open slightly in what looks like shock. “What?”

Shouyou isn’t sure what the facial expression on Kageyama’s face is called, but he knows what it’s saying to him.

It’s saying that he made a mistake saying that. Saying any of this.

“Nothing! Sorry— it’s dumb. You can go, I’ll just tell Natsu—“ Shouyou turns. He needs to get out of here before he does something even more stupid.

“You want me to.. compliment you back?”

Hinata’s glad that his face is away from Kageyama’s view because now he can mouth out every curse word he knows before turning back.

He swallows. “Well.. yeah? That’s what best friends do, right?”

Kageyama blinks for a moment, his head trying to come up with an answer. “I don’t know anything about that shit. I’ve—“ he sighs and looks at the big tree and the tiny specs of light go all over his face, Shouyou thinks Kageyama’s seen a wild bird or something before he answers. “I’ve never had one. A ‘best friend’ or whatever.”

For some reason Hinata smiles a small smile, “Me neither.” He has always had friends, he’s never been alone. But he’s never had a best friend. Never had one single person for himself. He’s never had a person that he can say for sure is his favourite.

And now he does. “But it feels right to me.”

“It does?” Kageyama frowns, still looking up at the tree.

Shouyou nods, wanting Kageyama to understand, but also wanting to get as far away from this situation as he can.

Kageyama doesn’t say another word, the two stay there for a minute and Shouyou is trying to figure out how to leave in the least awkward way when Kageyama stops looking up and—

and begins walking towards Shouyou’s house. Hinata freezes for a moment, unsure of what to say or do.

He settles on saying nothing and stays a bit behind him, cursing himself for what he just said. He was stupid. So so stupid and embarrassing and dumb and arggg! He’s surprised Kageyama’s coming over for dinner, he’s surprised that he hadn’t just ran away and never spoke to Shouyou again. He’s surprised. Very much so.

“Your receives— em. Getting less—“ a swallow “..dumb.”

Okay now he’s surprised. Shouyou hadn’t even understood the feeling of surprise until that second. All those other surprises peril in comparison to this one, big, massive, insane surprise.

They were in Shouyou’s back garden playing when that came out of Kageyama’s mouth. Was it pathetic? Yes. Was it the worst planned out compliment Shouyou’s ever seen? Yes.

But was it perfect? Also yes.

The knot soothed. It soothed and another, different feeling entered Shouyou’s insides at that moment. It was fluttery and new and strange.

And it left as soon as it had entered, like a short gust of wind that almost knocked Hinata off his feet.

Shouyou had decided to focus on the knot, because he knew it, because it was familiar. The knot because it had soothed and that was amazing and awesome and wow! Wow, his plan had (kind of) worked!

And wow. He got a compliment. He got a compliment from Kageyama.

Shouyou wasn’t able to focus on playing after that, which cued some not-so-nice words from Kageyama, almost like a take back to the compliment from earlier.

But that doesn’t matter, it had happened and Shouyou would never forget it no matter how many takebacks ensued!

It had happened, and that was the first checkbox ticked off. A third of the experiment completed.

It had happened, and Shouyou was, almost concerningly, overjoyed.

Hinata had decided to not spend too much time marvelling in the compliment since he wanted this all to be over before the spring tournament qualifiers which are coming up in a month (three days of celebration for the compliment was enough for him,) and start the second stage of his experiment. Possibly the most risky..

But then Shouyou thinks about even uttering a single syllable on him wanting him and Kageyama’s best friend-ness to be more.. close-knitted, and he comes to the conclusion that this is the easiest step forward. For both of them.

And the step forwards is touching.

See Shouyou had stupidly made the mistake of thinking the complimenting stage was the easiest. But obviously it wasn’t judging by the crazy amount of time it took for Kageyama to say, what? Six words? (Shouyou knows exactly how many words, he had repeated the sentence over and over in his head until his brains turned to mush only filled with Kageyama and volleyball.. okay so maybe that’s how they are usually nowadays.. but still! He knew the words by heart!)

So no, complimenting wasn’t the easiest, It was touching. Because once he does it he’s either soothed the knot (yippie!) or he’s dead (not really a ‘yippee’, but hey, the knot will still be gone either way.)

So now all that Shouyou has to do is.. well, do it. He has to do it without breaking Kageyama’s boundaries and causing another fight, because then they’ll just go all the way back to square one.

But he has to do it.

And so he does.

Hinata hadn’t planned it strategically like last time, it just sort of.. happened.

They’re sitting on Shouyou’s couch waiting for dinner, watching an old volleyball match for the millionth time. It’s one of those fancy and important ones that show the entire game, not just highlights, and have people commentating the whole time, even during breaks. They’re talking about an important spiker’s hand size.

Shouyou had his head resting on his side of the couch and Kageyama was on the other, somehow having a blanket draped over his legs even though it’s like— one hundred million trillion degrees outside.

The topic of hand size had made Shouyou’s head perk up in curiosity, he scrambles over to Kageyama’s end of the sofa, facing him.

Kageyama pauses the TV, rolling his eyes like he already knows what Hinata was going to ask. 

Rude, there’s no way he—

He puts up his palm in a high-five stance.

Hinata can’t help but make a ‘tch’ sound. He tells himself it was a lucky guess and that he isn’t that obvious. He puts his palm in front of Kageyama’s, not touching, an inch of space between them, he doesn’t want to make Kageyama uncomfortable, he doesn’t want to be clingy.

“Mine are way bigger.” Kageyama smirks, his voice doing that tone it gets when he’s winning.

He’s winning? Over hand size? No the hell he isn’t!

He feels a pout forming, “Yeah well—“ damn it! Think Shouyou! “Em.. Once I’m done growing they’ll be way bigger.”

Kageyama squints his eyes at Hinata. “You’re seventeen. You are fully grown.”

Shouyou doesn’t want Kageyama to win. Not right now. Not ever. “Don’t you stop growing at twenty or something like that?” He lies.

“Dunno.” Kageyama shrugs, not knowing the answer himself.

“Me neither. I think that’s it.” He sort of lies, surprised the lie worked out, but then again, why would Kageyama ever know something like that, or anything outside of volleyball for that matter. Not that Hinata’s any different.

Shouyou squints at their hands, trying to decipher how many years it’ll take to catch up. Once he gets past the age of twenty he gives him and folds his arms, Kageyama putting both his own on his still folded legs.

“I think you’re just naturally tiny to be honest.” He says casually, his head leaning back on the couch, looking at the ceiling, as if that sentence wasn’t the worst thing he could’ve said.

“Hey! That’s so mean!” Shouyou pouts. Stupid Kageyama. Stupid Kageyama and saying all the wrong things.

“It’s not mean. It’s the truth.”

“Well at least I’m not actually tiny. Unlike you, you’re still sixteen. You need to hurry up man.”

Kageyama looks to the side, annoyed. Shouyou always uses their ages as a trump card, not that he cares, he just knows it pisses Kageyama off, therefore he uses it.

“Shut up. Also don’t call me ‘man’, it's weird.” 

“Okay.. Tiny-yama.” Shouyou teases, grinning with a shift closer.

Kageyama doesn’t back away, not that Shouyou notices their closeness, or well, clos-er-ness, he’s too focused on teasing. “I’ll leave.” Kageyama threatens.

Shouyou doesn’t say anything, but he’s still smiling.

“Wipe that stupid grin off your face or I’ll never toss to you again.”

“Right. I’m sorry!” Hinata does his very best poker face for as long as he can. Until he gives up and flops on his back leaning into the pillowed couch, much closer to Kageyama than before.

Maybe his brain would register that fact if he weren’t so distracted with other things.

He speaks up after a while, the tv still not being turned back on. “I can’t believe I’m seventeen. I still feel like— twelve.”

“Probably because you still act like you're twelve.”

Ugh. So rude! “I will kick you out.” Hinata mutters, he doesn’t act twelve! Maybe on a bad day.. but on average he’s like.. a fifteen year old, and what’s wrong with that? He’s got to live youthfully or whatever!

“No you won’t, dumbass.”

“Yes I will!” He argues, sitting back up and turning to face Kageyama fully.

“No you won’t. You—“ he stops.

Hinata frowns. “I what?”

Kageyama takes a moment to what looks like decide if he should say what he’s going to say.

“You like me here.” He says, but it almost sounds like a question the way he said it. But his face is the same, it’s the same neutral expression it was ten seconds ago.

Does he? What kind of a question is that? Of course he does. He knows it, Kageyama knows it, even his mother knows it. Everyone in the goddamn house knows that Hinata likes having Kageyama over. Not that Shouyou was hiding it with his willingness to accept Kageyama into his home. 

And his willingness to invite him over every single day after that.

And his willingness to actually argue over Kageyama with Natsu.

And his willingness to—

Okay so he’s willing. So what!?

He does like it. He likes it, so he takes a risk. ”And you like being here.” Shouyou doesn’t ask like Kageyama had, he says it like it’s a fact, because it has to be right? Right?

Kageyama looks to the floor. “Whatever.” He mutters, not confirming nor denying the allegation, which is Kageyama-language is basically confirming.

It sounded like a conclusion. A conclusion that says Shouyou likes having Kageyama here and the boy likes being here. But Kageyama doesn’t grab the remote and Shouyou stays near him. Both unmoving.

Shouyou doesn’t want a conclusion just yet. Because now he’s realised how close they are to touching knees, and for whatever reason he really wants that to happen. It seems like a good best friend thing to do, so he wants to do it. He wants to real bad.

So he keeps talking. This could be it, the second experiment. Right here.

“Y’know what? I’ve decided.” Shouyou speaks up.

“Decided what?”

“My hands aren’t small,” he holds out his palm in a perfect high-five position, “yours are just big.”

Kageyama blinks at his hand for a moment, probably questioning why they’re doing this again, before putting his hand against Shouyou’s.

No inch of space. Skin to skin.

Shouyous heart flips at least three times in ways he had no idea were possible.

This was probably just a casual thing to Kageyama, stupid Kageyama who doesn’t understand how important this is for their friendship. But it’s not casual to Hinata, Hinata whose hand feels all weird and ticklish and so does his stomach. Why has Kageyama done this?
Not that Shouyou doesn’t like it, he does. He does a whole lot.

It’s just.. why? Why not keep the space? Was there a need for keeping the space in the first place?

“Dumbass..” Kageyama mumbles, staring at their hands. And all thoughts of ‘why’ disappeared and Shouyou wonders if he’s thinking what he’s thinking, that they’ve reached a new best friend status.

Then Shouyou wonders if he’s feeling what he’s feeling, if he’s feeling that weird ticklish feeling too, he wonders if Kageyama’s heart flipped aswell.

Kageyama continues, “big hands are good. For..” he trails off, Shouyou looks up and the boy is still staring at their hands, Kageyama’s weirdly cool and Hinata’s own hot in comparison, the boy swallows. Shouyou does too. They stay staring, Kageyama knowing Hinata is looking at him and Hinata knowing he knows.

But he can’t help it, he can’t help that Kageyama’s face is always just so stare-able, he can’t help but look at things that are nice to look at.. it’s like— human biology!

“Good for volleyball?” Shouyou guesses, except it’s not really a guess because that’s all Kageyama’s mind thinks about. It always goes back to volleyball, for both of them.

“Yeah. Way better than small hands.” He mumbles, his lips not fully closing, looking pink and plump and again—

so stare-able.

Hinata checks on his knot to distract himself from Kageyama’s stupid facial expression that crinkles his nose just right and leaves his pink lips like— like that. The knot is still there, still strong. It’s not working.

Before he can second guess it, Shouyou moves his knee forward. He does what he wanted to do so badly and..

And it bumps against Kageyama’s still crossed legs and he stays there. Knee touching knee.

Shouyou’s almost waiting to get screamed at, or shoved away, or anything hostile and rude and Kageyama-like. 

But nothing comes. Nothing except the steady soft sounds of his setters breathing.

And..

And Kageyama curls his longer fingers slightly, slowly and carefully, precisely in a way only he can achieve. As if he were testing what would happen, as if he were to move any faster Shouyou would disintegrate right in front of him, and Hinata feels the exact same way.

He wants him to test more, more and faster even if he might disintegrate, faster and more.

But he freezes. What is he doing? Does Kageyama want this? To become even more best friend-like? To embody the title wholeheartedly?

Shouyou doesn’t know. What he knows is that his knot is soothing, it works, it is working. The knot unravels and swirls in his stomach the same way it had done a few days ago when he had earned a compliment and—

and it’s so warm and tickly and nice and..

and is this how it feels? How it feels to be the best of friends?

If it is, Shouyou wants it. He wants to feel this all the time, he wants to be the very best of friends with Kageyama. All day every day. He wants to drink every drop he can get from this feeling until it’s gone dry.

It reminds Shouyou of flying right before a spike, right when his palm hits the ball in the perfect spot. Except this time it’s prolonged, it’s lingering and it’s softer and swirlier.

But it’s the same feeling, or similar at least. A mutation. 

It makes sense, he’s with Kageyama while he spikes, with him as his setter. And now he’s with Kageyama when they do this, as best friends. Always together, whether they like it or not.

But right now, Shouyou likes it.

His stomach swirls and his knee warms up even more as Shouyou feels his own fingers slightly and shakily start to move even slower into Kageyama’s, but Hinata can feel it, he can feel the friction and the electricity and oh Hinata never wants this to end—

Hinata moves his knee closer, touching more of Kageyama’s leg. It’s the right thing to do, they need to be closer. He needs more touching, more warmth and more tickling and swirling and niceness and..

And Shouyou keeps his eyes on their hands as he hears Kageyama’s breath hitch, he pauses moving his fingers. Hinata doesn’t dare look up.

Has he pushed too far?

 Wanted too much from their friendship? Are they not this close? Don’t best friends do this?

Will Kageyama get mad again?

Did Shouyou misread the situation? Does Kageyama not want to be closer? Physically and as best friends?

Hinata’s mind swirls with questions almost as much as his stomach swirls. Kageyama never did really agree to any of the touching.. did Shouyou do something? He moves his knee away. He messed up, got too greedy. Too clingy.

A call from the kitchen, “Dinners ready guys!”

Kageyama snatches his hand away, as if woken up from a trance. Shouyou feels the same, like he’s been taken out of a fever dream and now everything’s..

awkward?

Uh oh. He’s done it again. Ruined everything with being too clingy and pushy and too much.

Too Hinata.

Natsu runs down from her room. “Did you get the white rice this time?!” She barks. Shouyou would usually roll his eyes but he’s feeling a bit dizzy.

Dizzy because now he’s recovered, now that he’s walking to dinner. He’s realised that the knot isn’t swirling warmly anymore, it’s snapped back into shape ten times more tight than the last time.

Dizzy because he might have just messed everything up, everything and anything. Because what if Kageyama didn’t want that? What if Shouyou forced himself on him? Forced his hand onto his, his knee onto his?

Images swirl in Hinata’s head of things that didn’t happen, but they might have? Was he too clingy? Too needy? Does Kageyama still want to be his friend?

Natsu and his mom take the lead in the conversation and Kageyama adds on like usual but.. Hinata’s silent. He doesn’t want to spook Kageyama away with the sound of his voice. Not again. Not like the Date Tech incident.

It can’t go that way again, Shouyou won’t manage. In volleyball and in life.

After dinner Kageyama comes up to Shouyou and he’s ninety percent sure he’s about to get told to leave him the hell alone and—

“Wanna keep watching the match or do something else?” Kageyama asks

Hinata blinks. Did he hear that wrong? Is Kageyama.. acting normal? After that? Was it not as life-altering for him as it was for Shouyou?

“Em.. Match.” He mumbles.

They sit on opposite ends of the sofa like originally and.. and it feels fine? Kageyama quickly fast forwards past the hand size part and they continue watching, Kageyama adding in small comments like usual. And eventually..

Eventually Shouyou joins in. And it’s all good. All normal and usual and ordinary. They’re okay.

When Kageyama leaves it’s not tense and awkward.

But it is different, to Shouyou at least.

Because now he knows what it feels like. What it feels like to be the very best of friends. And Shouyou can’t help but selfishly crave more, more because.. yes the knot is unbearable.. but also because he just wants to.

Faster and more. More and faster.

——————————————————————

Needless to say Shouyou started on the third experiment extremely quick. And by extremely quick he means the next day.

Honesty. Telling Kageyama he wants more.

It’s probably the most difficult one, because how is he meant to explain that he wants to be extra best-friends with Kageyama? How much does he mention? Does he mention the day-dreams? What the daydreams are about?

It’s all just so.. uncharted.

Hinata decides he will wait until the perfect opportunity arrives. An opportunity where they’re alone, where there is no distractions and it’s quiet, preferably if a volleyball is in the vicinity as that usually improves Kageyama’s mood by twenty percent (this is probably the only statistic Shouyou has ever attempted in his entire life, so.. yay him?)

So yeah. He waits for the perfect time.

He doesn’t have to wait long.

They were practicing after practice, Ennoshita had given them a strict extra thirty minutes and they were using that time well. Working on perfect sync while Shouyou delays his jumps to fool invisible blockers.

They were alone. It was quiet, no distractions. And plenty of volleyball to keep Kageyama happy.

Yet the words wouldn’t come. They just wouldn’t.

Every time there was an opening, Hinata’s throat closed up and his voice disappeared. And with every toss and spike, he felt less and less motivation.

So the moment came, and it passed.

Another moment, at the yogurt vending machine at lunch. Alone. Quiet. Undisrupted. No volleyballs though but the yogurt drinks made up for that.

The moment passed there too. Shouyou couldn’t help it. He couldn’t be honest.

Another passed. And another.

The knot grew and grew and so did Shouyou’s desperation. Compliments were having less and less of an effect and he felt like an addict, an addict to anything Kageyama. Even if it was just staring. Even if it was just a brush of the shoulder. He craved it. He needed it.

He desired it so badly. Even just a pathetic brush of the fingers while handing Kageyama a spare pencil, sometimes if he’s lucky he can doodle on the boys smooth and perfect hands, but that just made the long run worse when he got separated from them.

Pathetic. Which is what he was. What he is.

Shouyou flops onto his bed, it’s a Saturday afternoon and he’s just came home from Yachi’s house for studying, the main event being that his and Kageyama’s elbows touched twice.

Yippee?

He groans into his pillow and kicks his legs on his bed like this is all it’s fault.
This is stupid. So so stupid. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get why his brain needs this so much, why he needs to be the bestest of friends with Kageyama even though they’re already pretty close. 

Because they are! Kageyama even told Shouyou about his dad! That takes real trustworthiness. Hinata’s an expert at Kageyama by now! He’s the most knowledgeable in the whole world!

Hinata grabs his piece of paper with the three checkboxes and a pencil nearby, because yes he made a physical copy. He scribbles out honestly with his pencil. Screw honesty. He doesn’t need it. In fact, who does? Honesty is stupid anyways!

“Honesty.. more like—“ Hinata pauses, “dumb-sty.”

Because yeah. He’s done. All these experiments have done is make his knot worse and worse and Shouyou doesn’t know how to fix it.

Something pops into Shouyou’s mind and he sighs.

The experiments have done one thing. They’ve shown Shouyou just how badly he wants this. How badly he wants to be the bestest best friends ever with Kageyama.

They’ve shown him he wants to compliment him, compliment him and get one back along with that feeling of giddiness that comes with it.

They’ve shown him— that he wants to touch Kageyama. He wants to feel his fingers joined with his fingers again and he wants their knees to touch the same way they had done before, Hinata wants that feeling back really really badly.

But one thing is for sure, they’ve shown him how truly bad this whole situation is. And how impossible it seems to be able to get out of it.

Shouyou just ends up throwing the entire paper away and succumbing to the endless daydreams of his setter.

Because at least in the daydreams he gets more and he gets it fast.

Faster and more. More and faster.

Chapter Text

Tobio can tell the ball is coming his way before the receive is even made, he call tell from every spiker on his team readying themselves for an attack, he can tell by Nishinoya’s positioning, by the way the yellow-streaked boy licks his upper lip the way he does before a difficult receive. But he’ll make it. Kageyama knows that by now.

Tanaka’s spike zips past Tobio and for a second he thinks it’s too fast— that maybe Nishinoya can’t make it and—

and he makes it, having to dive to the left with haste. The ball is up, a perfect pass. He should’ve known.

The ball flies up right where Tobio had thought it would.. to him. He has three options. Three options and he has to think quick. He can set to some first year on his team that he can’t be bothered to learn the name of. But he’s good, good for a first year. He’s a good height and his power isn’t that bad, he’s in perfect range.

It’s predictable though. Very predictable.

He could set to Hinata, which in itself is predictable. Because whether Kageyama wants to admit it or not he has kind of caught a habit of setting to Hinata’s dumbass more than he should be.

But they're both in range, both already starting to run forwards, Tobio’s ready. They all are.

Tobio’s job as setter is to get the ball to a spiker, and the spiker scores the points. Depending on how you see it, the job is the simplest thing in the world or it’s complicated in ways that a normal person wouldn’t understand. 

The way Kageyama sees it, it’s both.

The goal is simple. But how does someone get to the goal? Do they play it safe? Colour inside the lines? Score points gradually and safely?

Or do they risk it? Play with such confidence in yourself and your teammates that you’ll know that you guys can pull through?

Kageyama still doesn’t know the answer to that question. He thinks it’s a bit of both, a bit of everything.

The ball touches his fingers and he plays his third option. Which is a bit of both. Safety and risk.

He’s going to toss the ball to Hinata. He’s playing it safe.

He’s playing it safe, safe with a twist.

Tobio sets the ball in what looks like his normal perfect style. But it isn’t. The ball doesn’t meet at the perfect spot, it keeps going past Hinata’s peak of contact as the boy taps it over with his left hand at the last second, the ball flies the tiniest bit in the air, giving the opposing team no time to think.
It was safe. But it wasn’t predictable, because Tobio’s learnt quite recently that everyone always holds himself and Hinata up to the standard that their quicks will always work. And they’re going to take advantage of that.

The ball hits the floor. They win. Tobio registers Tanaka cursing in frustration from the other side of the net.

“Kageyama!!” Hinata yells. “Good call! That was awesome. You were so— we were so—“ Hinata rushes up to Tobio’s face, speaking of Tobio’s face, he can already feel it heating up at the mention of praise. Stupid Hinata. Stupid Hinata and his niceness. “Gwaahh!!” Hinata simply holds his hands out for a double high five.

Kageyama, also simply, high fives him. But he doesn’t hold on, he doesn’t linger, of course.

Tobio thinks that sometimes it’s good to play it safe, to make it easy for your teammates. Because there’s minimal consequences for playing it safe and easy.

But with that said, sometimes you’ve got to risk it for the reward.

And even though the two had planned it, Tobio still counts it as a risk because.. because it was kinda scary not doing a perfect toss, okay!?

“Man!!” That first year whines. “Can you not only set to Hinata all the damn time?”

Kageyama blinks at the first year, who annoyingly is already taller than Tobio. What is he supposed to say to that? Because he sure isn’t saying yes.. Hinata is his partner, it makes sense that Tobio sets to him, even if it can be a little excessive at times, that just makes it more of a surprise when he tosses to other attackers. It works out.

“You’ll get to my level one day Abo, don’t you worry.” Hinata has to stand on his tip toes to pat ‘Abo’s’ head. Kageyama stifles a smirk at the fact that the first year was bending down for Hinata to reach.

Coach Ukai speaks up from across the gym, “that was good guys! I think we’re ready for tomorrow. Tanaka, stop being afraid of cross hits, it won’t hurt you—“

“Right!” Tanaka bows a deep bow, Nishinoya mocks him a few seconds later. Hinata stupidly snickers at the bad joke, Tobio tries to focus his attention back on Coach Ukai and not on Hinata’s dumbass, that’ll just make his already deteriorating mood worse.

Because yeah, he’s not in the greatest of moods today. His dad made sure of that.

“—and remember! Our bus is at lunchtime! That’s one pm guys! Don’t forget! You all know that I’ve contacted all your parents and teachers so I think that’s a wrap and—“

Tobio can see Hinata’s hand perk up in the corner of his eye “can me and Kageyama—“

“No. Go home and rest.” Coach says flatly, sternly, with no room for consideration.

Both the boys argue though. It’s no use.

They eventually give up.. but it’s fine though, it’s a Thursday. Kageyama always goes to Hinata’s house on a Thursday, which means practice.

It also means having to spend more time with Hinata, Tobio tries to feel annoyed at that fact.

After some more of Coach’s favourite downtime (reaally long speeches,) all the boys can eventually go, Kageyama watches Hinata say his dramatic goodbyes as if they're not going to see their teammates tomorrow and..

And they can finally start walking. Together. Up the hill to their houses, the sun is starting to set, but it’s still bright out so Kageyama doesn’t make that much of an effort to check for cars, but he’s still on high alert because.. 

Hinata. Not paying attention. Speeding car. Bam. High school volleyball career being a lot more difficult. 

And also just life in general being boring and sucking.

Hinata bursts into sing-song randomly and Kageyama mentally takes that last statement back. He could do with a little boredom.

The spring tournament qualifiers are tomorrow. Their first match is at two pm and their second at four. Tobio’s feeling.. not nervous exactly, he doesn’t get that feeling at all when it comes to volleyball. What he’s feeling is underprepared. And it’s not like he hasn’t prepared! That’s all he’s been doing for the last two months,

Except it hasn’t been the only thing. Usually his routine would go, wake up, jog, school, volleyball, home, volleyball again and repeat.

But he hasn’t been going home, not straight after school that is.. so his volleyball practice has been brought down by a good twenty percent. Which isn’t ideal. Not at all.

So yeah, he’s prepared but not over-prepared. Which is an odd and almost foreign feeling. It’s making Kageyama feel more irritable than usual.

But he’d rather be the normal amount of prepared (which to him is underprepared) than go to his own house, his own house which has been taken over by its.. well.. rightful owners..

But with all the time Tobio’s spent living there, by himself he may add, he should be the rightful owner!

And the more Kageyama stays away, the more his dad wants to get involved,

god he hates it. 

Specifically today. This morning his dad had said something, something about Miwa. And Tobio may be pissed off at her for leaving him alone with their parents but that doesn’t mean he’s about to let her name get shit on, and it’s not like his mother is going to do anything about it..

So he defended her, only slightly. But even the single comment he made that didn’t exactly line up with his dads ideals was enough for an argument to ensue. A big one.

So yeah. Kageyama has maybe been in the tiniest of bad moods today.

Okay so he’s in a horrendous mood. But honestly he’s too focused on the tournament to care. He has to practice, he has to practice, practice, practice—

“Wanna watch something when we get to mine? I found an old match on YouTube! It’s like— supposed to be all crazy and insane.” Hinata asks, adding a bit of useless information at the end, because Tobio recalls Hinata showing him a video of two kittens cuddling, which apparently was also ‘crazy and insane.’ 

Hinata kicks a rock, the cooler October breeze making the tip of his nose a bit red. Kageyama looks down at the ground instead of his stupid nose.

Right. He has to say something back. 

“No.”

Hinata’s throat makes a noise of shock as if Kageyama would’ve said yes in the first place, on the afternoon before the qualifiers no-less. “Why!? That’s so mean!”

“We have to practice, dumbass.”

“I know.. I really really want to too— heh I just said ‘tutu.’—“

“Just get to the point stupid.”

Hinata side eyes Kageyama hard with annoyance, Tobio stares right back at him with a glare that he bets looks even more annoyed. “—but maybe we should listen to coach and rest—“

“No. We practice.” He answers straight away.

“Hey! You don’t need to order me around like that, you ass.”

Kageyama doesn’t say anything at that, he’s pissed off at everyone and everything and he doesn’t want an argument the night before two important games.

“You’ve been in a crazy and insane mood all day, it's annoying.” Hinata pouts his lips, kicking another rock and missing like an idiot. Why is he saying crazy and insane so much?

“No I haven’t.” Tobio lies.

“Yes you have! You didn’t laugh at my funny joke during English!”

Kageyama scoffs bitterly, “When do I ever laugh at your jokes? They aren’t funny, like ever.”

“Well this one was extra funny!” Hinata yells in defiance, shoving Tobio lightly away onto the road.

Tobio, quite idiotically, stumbles a bit and shoves him back, a made up argument coming along with it. “How can something be ‘extra’ when it wasn’t even that thing to begin with?”

To be honest Tobio has no idea what he just said, he was just saying words that seemed to match up in order to confuse Hinata enough to get him to shut up.

It works.

Hinata spends a few more seconds sulking, giving up on the shoving war and folding his arms. His attitude is reminiscent of a toddler, Tobio doesn’t say that out loud though. “Fine. We can practice.” Hinata makes a pouting face again.

Kageyama knows Hinata is mad at him now, but he doesn’t care enough to.. well, care. They get like this sometimes, when they’re around each other so often that they just end up clashing. It happens, and when it does Tobio usually just waits until he (and Hinata if he’s feeling nice,) are in a better mood and then pretends like nothing happened.

Which will probably be the case for today, Hinata isn’t the type to get mad at having to practice, in fact Tobio’s sure Hinata wants to just as much as he does, he’s just being a petty little shit over it like usual. But going over to Hinata’s house has been mostly it’s good other than the clashing. It’s better than spending school time alone. Better than going to his own home by a long shot.

He’s been going to Hinata’s a lot.

He’s been going to Hinata’s and they practice.

He’s been going to Hinata’s and they watch tv.

He's been going to Hinata’s and he eats dinner.

He’s been going to Hinata’s and he.. holds Hinata’s hand?

Kageyama blinks the thought out of his head. That only happened once. Twice if you count the train incident, which Kageyama will not be counting because once is more than enough. More than enough for a whole lifetime. Also it wasn’t even at Hinata’s house so— so yeah. Once.

He doesn’t really know what happened at Hinata’s house, he doesn’t really understand what was going through his head, plus it was also over a month ago now, which seems like a really long period of time compared to the blur of practicing and practicing and going over to Hinata’s. But yeah. It’s been a whole month.

He remembers it was a hard day with his dad, and he well— he just wanted to feel someone’s hand, Hinata’s hand.

He’s not sure why he wanted Hinata’s hand specifically, they’re so small and sweaty and warm and Tobio’s ninety nine percent sure he’s witnessed Hinata skip washing his hands after going to the bathroom and— and he doesn’t know. Maybe it was because they were near, or maybe Tobio actually wanted Hinata’s small, warm, slightly sweaty, unwashed hands specifically. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it won’t happen again.

But he did do it.

And he regretted it straight after. He regrets it now.

It had felt all weird and tickly and warm and so did his stomach from.. from gross-ness? Grossness of himself, because what was he doing? What was he thinking?

Well, what he was thinking was how weird and warm it felt to have Hinata’s knee touching his leg. And that thought made him feel even more gross.

He— he.. didn’t like it? He thinks he didn’t at least, it was unfamiliar and new and strange and he’ll never do it again. Ever.

But it wasn’t all bad, which was probably the worst part about it. It’s also the worst part about anything to do with Hinata.. Tobio can try to hate it, but there’s always a glimmer of good. A spark of comfort, even if Kageyama tries to lie to himself. But still, he won’t ever do it again and he doesn’t want to do it again.. but whenever Kageyama was angry or sad as a kid, which was normally caused with nobody wanting to play volleyball with him, he had always had Miwa to hold him, he had his grandpa to relate to and hug. So it was weird when they both left him alone, it was weird not having anyone to hold and—

And Kageyama needs to stop thinking about this and start practicing.

“You ready?” Hinata asks across the small garden, it wasn’t ideal, less ideal than Tobio’s own.. but it still works. Anything to get his mood up, anything to get rid of the stupid amount of tension in the empty house caused by.. probably Tobio’s bad mood if he’s being honest..

Whatever! They need to practice.

“Yeah.”

Hinata nods and they begin.

After around two hours of practice until they were panting and sweaty the tension was gone as expected, and so was Hinata’s mom and Natsu still. It’s a Thursday and Hinata’s mom is at work, so Kageyama doesn’t know why he’s so aware that they aren’t here..

Anyways. They were gone.

And so was Kageyama’s patience.

Volleyball had helped, but making instant ramen with Hinata hadn’t, they boy was like a walking hazard. So much so that Hinata ended up needing to change his shirt. Twice. Now he’s wearing black basketball shorts with a dark green t-shirt, which by the way, already had a stain on it so what was the point of changing again? Stupid Hinata had said that if it was over a week old ‘the bacteria or whatever will have died by now.’ 

Tobio had whacked him over the head for that one, because what the fuck is he talking about? Tobio is still in his first change of clothes, ones that he brings from home everyday so that he can change at Hinata’s instead of staying in his sweaty gym clothes. Grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt that’s a tiny bit big on him, which remain unstained, by the way.

Anyways, maybe Kageyama’s mood hadn’t fully returned back to normal.. 

But what’s so wrong about that? Why does everyone have to be in such a good mood all the time?

There’s nothing wrong with being in a sucky mood, but Kageyama would rather not make the mood more-sucky, so he stays at Hinata’s home instead of his own. It’s six pm and his dad usually gets mad when he’s out past nine, so he’s okay to stay longer. For a few hours.. Then he has to go back. He has to go back and stand being in the same house as his dad.

Kageyama bangs his head against the wall with a groan.

“What?” Tobio can see the boy lift his head up from his desk to look at him, an edge of annoyance in his tone. Hinata is actually doing homework for once, Tobio’s surprised to say the least.

“Nothing.” He shifts on the floor, which yeah, isn’t the most comfortable spot, but it’s better than Hinata’s bed, which is radiant with the scent of Hinata, the feel of Hinata, it’s just— too much Hinata to the point that it’s overwhelming, he shivers at the thought that he was actually in Hinata’s bed at some point, and thank god he was too sick to think real thoughts because— because if he was he’d have probably ran out the house straight away. Tobio doesn’t know what that says about him, he doesn’t care to find out.

So yeah, he’s staying on the floor, thank you very much.

“Well it is something. And I can’t work if you—“

Tobio scoffs. “Oh like you’re actually working right now.” When has Hinata’s ass ever worked for anything other than volleyball?

“I am!”

Tobio makes a ‘tch’ noise. “As if. You’re like the least work-iest person ever, you’re even worse than I am. ”

“I am working! I’m learning what a verb is in English.” Hinata holds up his notebook as proof.

Tobio’s eyes scan the page, okay so maybe he is working.. “Whatever.” he mutters, but then he realises that it sounds like he’s admitting defeat so he adds, “I’m pretty sure we learnt that in first year.”

Hinata groans, leaning his head onto his arms, slumped over his desk, ruffling his green t-shirt, his long hair looking extra big as if it were inflating from stress, but it’s probably just the angle. “I know!”

“Well I was just—“

“Oh my god you’re so annoying!” Hinata barks.

Tobio scoffs again. No way Hinata just said that, the most annoying guy he’s ever met. Annoying with his jumpiness and loud personality. He’s just so—

So annoying.

“Says you.” He rebuttals, “you’re like—“

Tobio doesn’t finish his sentence, he’s interrupted by the sight of Hinata getting up and half-diving half-running onto his bed, his face landing on his pillow and his stomach on the bed, his arms laying limply on either side. He looks.. defeated.

Tobio lets his face distort into confusion, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“You’re bein’ so urgghh todae I ca’ de wifth it a’ymore!” He yells into his pillow muffling his voice, reminding Tobio of a toddle for what feels like a millionth time.

Kageyama doesn’t say anything. He just stays sat, doing nothing. Hinata does the same, slowly suffocating from breathing through a goddamn pillow. Idiot.

They stay that way for a while, Kageyama feeling too annoyed to speak and Hinata probably feeling the same. 

A few more minutes pass, Kageyama tries to think happy thoughts of volleyball.

Of tossing, of playing with Karasuno, which just ends up being him and Hinata playing together. But the thought makes him feel a little better so he holds onto it.

Tobio feels slightly less pissed off, so maybe Hinata does too,

also it’d be a pain if Hinata dies from suffocation..

He finds the will to move and walks over. “Dumbass?” He taps, or rather— shoves Hinata’s shoulder. The boy doesn’t move and Tobio’s patience runs even thinner.

“Dumbass?” He raises his voice. Fuck this. Fuck this and stupid Hinata and his stupid face and attitude and his stupid.. ness.

Hinata suddenly flips over, laying on his back now, Tobio standing above him. “Yes?”

Kageyama doesn’t really have a clue on what made him come over, also the angle of Hinata being right under him is weirdly distracting and Hinata really needs a fucking haircut and—

“I don’t know. Just—“ Tobio pauses. “Just don’t be all pissy about.. things.” He steps back.

Hinata sits up on his knees, looking.. 

even more pissy about things. Great. Awesome. This is just what he needs, Hinata in a bad mood, it’s enough trying to keep up with his own sucky mood, now this? “Thanks, Kageyama. You’re a real help.” Hinata spits.

Tobio stares down at Hinata’s stupid pissy face, trying to figure out what the hell he’s done wrong. His mind comes up blank. “Well how am I meant to help when I have no idea what you’re thinking?!” He barks.

And Hinata—

Hinata fucking laughs. At what? Tobio doesn’t know.

Even more annoyance fills Kageyama’s chest and he can hear it sneak into his voice. “What!?”

Hinata’s face does some dense half smile and Tobio hates it. “Sorry— it’s just really ironic. That’s what I’ve been thinking all day so it’s kinda funny hearing it from you.”

“Well—“ Tobio starts, but he isn’t entirely sure what he was starting. Is that really what the little shit is thinking? He’s been thinking about what Kageyama’s been thinking about? He doesn’t want to pay anymore mind to that fact.. It's weird.

Kageyama sighs and sits on the edge of the Hinata-smelling bed while the real Hinata sits against the headboard, his knees to his chin.

He should’ve stayed on the ground and let Hinata suffocate.

And the only reason Kageyama’s doing this is because of the matches tomorrow, because they can’t play as well if they’re all— wrong like this.

Tobio keeps his eyes on his own hands instead of Hinata’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Tobio then fails to not look at Hinata’s eyes. They’re staring right back at him, a weird spark in them that Kageyama can’t name.

Hinata looks down at his feet, which Kageyama has just noticed are wearing the stupidest and the most Hinata socks ever, bright orange with some cartoon dogs randomly dotted all over them. He wants to roll his eyes. “I don’t know— I just wish I could say the right words.”

Tobio stays silent, he’s starting to wish he’d never asked the question already.

“You just— you can’t laugh. Promise?”

Tobio sighs.

“C’mon Kageyama!”

“Okay! I promise.”

Hinata fiddles with the hem of his top for a while, Kageyama just wants to shove it into his dumb face. “I dunno. I guess I just want you to know that— because we’re best friends and all— that you can, lean on me. I guess?”

“Lean on you?” Tobio is confused.

“Yeah. Like— you can talk to me or whatever, about your dad.”

Tobio can feel himself recoil, not physically, just— He doesn’t need to talk about his dad, not to anyone. “No.”

Hinata nods like he was expecting that. “Okay.. well then maybe, you could take it more literacy.”

Kageyama can’t help the confused expression on his face. “Huh?”

“You know.. more seriously..” Hinata expands except he isn’t really expanding.

Kageyama spends a few seconds trying to figure out what Hinata’s stupid ass is saying. “You mean literally?”

Hinata’s cheeks go a bit pink. “Yeah. Whatever. Literally.” Kageyama looks away from the pink cheeks and his eyes find Hinata’s blue bedsheets instead.

“What are you even talking about?”

“I don’t know!” He throws his hands up in frustration, “Just— if you want a hug or something—“

“No.” Tobio says more harshly. No more touching, it’ll be too— he’ll feel too—

He doesn’t know. Just.. No touching.

“Why!? It always helps Natsu!” Hinata argues, straightening up his posture, as if that would intimidate Kageyama in submission.

“Well I’m not a seven year old girl.”

“Okay. First of all, she’s eight, you ass. Second of all, hugs are like— awesome! Especially from best friends.”

“I wouldn’t have signed up for this best friend stuff if it meant all this stupid dumb crap.”

“Hey! My hugs are great, not stupid idiot poo or whatever you just said, I promise!”

Kageyama couldn’t care less even if Hinata gave the best hugs in the whole universe. Because Kageyama hasn’t been hugged in so long, he wouldn’t know what to feel or where to put his hands and face and how to breathe and—

“Yeah well, not for someone double your size.” He settles on saying.

An insulted gasp. “You are not double my size. That means you're like— one hundred percent bigger.”

Tobio frowns. “Does it?”

“I think so..” Hinata squints at the light wooden planked floor as if it knew the answer and was holding it from them.

Logically speaking.. he’s not actually double Hinata’s size, Tobio wishes he were, then he’d probably be one of the best volleyball players, well, ever. Maybe.. he’d have to be, that’s for sure. So he settles to something a little more realistic.

“Well.. I’m like eighty percent bigger.”

Hinata puts his knees away from his chin as if it would help him argue better. “Em, no! Like thirty!”

“No..” Kageyama says slowly. So maybe he’s not double Hinata’s size, but he’s definitely not only thirty percent bigger.

“Forty!”

That’s not right either. “Seventy!”

“Forty five?” Hinata offers.

“No.”

“Fine. Fifty.”

“Sixty. Final offer.” Tobio smirks. The loser is getting desperate, which means he’s winning.. which means…

Hinata looks intensely focused, like this is the most important deal in the world, like this actually matters to him. “Deal. Sixty.”

Hah. Tobio wins. He feels, and probably looks triumphant for a few seconds until Hinata ruins the moment by opening his big mouth. 

“Sixty percent isn’t that bad. I think it might help you. I just have to lie down and you can—“

“No!” Kageyama can feel his cheeks getting hotter. He doesn’t want to think about— about that. 

“Why!? It’ll help!”

“No it won’t!”

“How do you know!? You haven’t even—“

“Euughh! Shut up! You’re so clingy!”

Kageyama knows that the word ‘clingy’ was a mistake the second it came out of his mouth. He wants to take it back, he wants to wipe all memory of him saying it. Memories of him saying it now and the memories of him saying it then. It was a mistake. It was a mistake because he hadn’t used that word since.. since the fight at the Date Tech match months ago. It was a mistake because somehow even saying something slightly related to the fight makes them both tense up, it makes the room tense up. It’s stiff. Quiet.

He knows it was a mistake judging by Hinata’s face, the playfully argumentative look is gone and had been replaced with a layer of..
awkwardness? Guilt? Hurt?

His caramel eyes shimmer.

Shit he really shouldn’t have said that. Not now and not then.

And the only thing that makes sense to Tobio in that moment, the only thing that could make sense, is that Hinata is upset. That Kageyama’s mood had finally reached a breaking point in the worst way possible.

For some reason the thought makes Kageyama feel a little sick. Tobio had thought that they had forgotten about that, that they had silently agreed that he was being stupid, that he was being rash and was blinded by—

yeah. Tobio had made a mistake.

Hinata snaps out of his trance. “Emmmm..” the boy says for a good seven seconds, his face getting pinker.

He doesn’t sound or look upset anymore, except for his eyes, still shimmering slightly. Face a bit pink, Kageyama may be a bit useless when it comes to reading people, but if he’s good at it with anyone he’s good at it with Hinata. And Tobio knows he left a mark there.

He sighs. He sighs and he says it. “Show me.”

Hinata’s eyes transform from shiny to confused. “S-show you what?”

Stupid Hinata. Stupid Hinata and missing every single lifeline Kageyama throws to his dumbass. “Show me how to.. y’know..” he looks at his hands instead of Hinata’s confused and now even more pink face.

“How to what?” Hinata’s voice sounds unsure, shaky.

Kageyama hates the next words that come out of his dumb mouth, he hates that his voice pauses and he hates that he’s saying it in the first place. “You know what I mean! I mean how to— to hug or whatever.”

Tobio glances up to Hinata, which in itself was a mistake. The boy blinks at Tobio and Tobio blinks back, brown eyes stare blue. Well— sort of, Hinata’s eyes panically dart around the room.

His eyes weren’t back to normal yet, they still had that shine of something. In fact, they’re shining even more, but differently this time, Tobio can say that much. “Okay.” Hinata mumbles, a lot quieter now. 

The boy waits for Kageyama to say something as if he were the one in control of the situation, Tobio wishes he were though, because if he was they wouldn’t be doing this in the first place. This is futile and dumb and it’s probably not even going to help his mood and—

And Hinata slowly lies down, but not before taking Tobio’s wrist with his hand.

Kageyama stops breathing, hyper focused on Hinata’s soft, warm, smaller hand.

The second their skin made contact Tobio felt his heartbeat increase, he felt his cheeks grow hot and Tobio might actually explode from— from he doesn’t know what..

uncomfortable-ness maybe?

Hinata’s head still lies on his headboard, but he is lower, on his back now. Tobio is still sitting on Hinata’s bed next to him, a bed that he doesn’t even remember getting on. In a house he doesn’t remember getting inside, in fact every memory he’s ever made has become insignificant to this moment and he has no idea why. He’s waiting.

Hinata speaks up, his voice a bit breathless, “okay..” he thinks out loud.

“Just get it over with.” Tobio mumbles quietly, as if this were a secret and there were a million people outside Hinata’s door waiting for him to make a noise and catch him— catch him because.. because is this normal? For friends? For best friends?

Hinata does that thing he does where he almost reads Tobio’s mind. “This’ll make you feel better. Best friends do this all the time.. I think so.”

Kageyama frowns. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

Kageyama briefly recalls Hinata mentioning that he had never had a best friend before. So how would he know? How does he know anything about any of this?

Tobio decides to shake that thought from his head, only because it was easier to not think of it.

Hinata tugs Kageyama’s wrist closer softly, “lie down and.. and put your head here..” he points at a spot under his own chin, on his chest almost on the same level as his shoulder. He wants Kageyama to put his head on his collarbone, on his stupid green t-shirt with the stupid stain and—

And for some reason, Kageyama obliges.

He slowly lies down and puts his head there. He puts it on Hinata’s smaller and warmer and somehow almost.. nice frame.

And if Tobio had thought that it smelled like Hinata before on his bed.. he had no idea. Now it’s all just Hinata. Everywhere. Hinata’s skin. Hinata’s t-shirt. Hinata’s bed. Tobio isn’t sure if he’s going to throw up or pass out or just stay unimaginably still in this environment of just pure— Hinata, all over him.

He settles on the third option. Staying. Every inhale making him dizzier. It smells like that kids apple three-in-one stuff from Hinata’s bathroom that he had to use the first time he visited, it smells like a tiny hint of deodorant and a natural smell that Tobio can only describe as truly Hinata’s own. Also a bit of oranges, that does kind of make sense, considering y’know— oranges. Hinata’s hair is orange— yeah, Tobio had expected that, it makes sense.

Not that he— he doesn’t think about how Hinata smells, by the way!

But it doesn’t smell good or bad. It just simply smells like him. Sweet and tangy and warm. 

Okay maybe it smells a little good.

Kageyama awkwardly keeps his hands to himself, the only contact between the two being his head and Hinata’s chest for a a minute or two of stiff silence until—

“I'm not gonna.. y’know, disintegrate if you touch me."

“Huh?”

“Here.” Hinata grabs Kageyama’s wrist again and roughly flings it over his own side, forcing half of Tobio’s face to bury in Hinata’s green t-shirt and his chest and stomach lightly press against Hinata’s side, making all this feeling and scent amplify by what feels like a million. Kageyama can hear Hinata’s heart racing, he can hear it racing almost as fast as his own probably is.

Kageyama doesn’t dare move his arm that’s now around Hinata’s waist, not wanting to cause anymore friction between the two, not wanting to touch anymore of Hinata than he already is out of stubbornness to not feel good, because he’s basically just fucking laying on half of the boy now, Tobio keeps his legs strictly away from Hinata’s. No more. He can’t— he'll, he doesn't know what he’ll do. But whatever feeling he’s feeling right now can’t be good. 

How the fuck did he get here?

“Is this needed?” He mumbles, hating how his breath must feel hot against Hinata’s skin, even if there is a t-shirt between them.

“Well— well you’re so stiff that it won’t work!”

“Well then make it work!” Kageyama barks. Only to want to grab the sentence and shove it right back into his big dumb mouth, because why would he say that? Why?

“Fine.” Hinata mutters. “I’ll do what I do with Natsu when she has a temper tantrum..”

“I am not having one of those.” Kageyama mutters into Hinata’s t-shirt.

“Whatever.. I’ll make it work if you want me to.”

Tobio wants to respond with curse words and insults. Tobio also wants to respond with getting up. But he can’t respond in time because—

Because Hinata before had his arm outstretched to let Kageyama— in, so he could— yeah. So Tobio was kind of stuck between Hinata’s torso and his arm, but Hinata moves it, he moves his arm up to reach his hand into Kageyama’s hair and for a second Tobio stops breathing because jesus.

Now that he’s on the topic of breathing, he’s pretty sure Hinata was holding his breath too.

Tobio remembers to inhale, which is just another reminder of where he is, with Hinata, on Hinata, on Hinata’s bed and in Hinata’s house with just the two of them and this is so dumb. So so dumb—

Hinata’s hand finds the back of Tobio’s neck and yep. This is it. Kageyama is going to explode. He represses a shiver at the shy touch, Hinata’s fingers run through Tobio’s hair so slow Kageyama just wants to do it for him because god. Fuck this. He isn’t going to feel better— he won’t allow it. Dumb. So so dumb.

Hinata’s fingers start moving up and down in smooth slow circular motions and a weird feeling washes over Kageyama, and he finds himself thinking— only for a second— that maybe the whole thing isn’t dumb.

Then he forces the dumbness to rush back. Yep. Super dumb.

But it doesn’t feel bad, which is probably the worst part about this whole thing, in fact it feels— it feels okay. Tobio feels okay.

And he promises to himself, he promises that he won’t fall asleep. That he won’t prove Hinata right, he won’t give Hinata’s dumbass the satisfaction of letting this make him feel better. He won’t do it, he can’t.
But he feels it, he can feel his own breathing matching Hinata’s, slow and calm. He can feel his limbs start to un-tense and he can feel himself feeling better. Feeling good?

But what he feels the most is Hinata. Hinata under him, Hinata’s weirdly warm body in contrast to his cooler one mixing into the perfect temperature, Hinata’s chin slightly touching the top of his head, Hinata’s torso under Kageyama’s flinged-over arm, the smell of Hinata coming over him in waves every time he takes a breath in, the feeling of the dark green fabric against Tobio’s fingertips along with Hinata’s covers brushing against his legs from underneath him every time he dares to move,

he can feel every breath, every tiny movement and every pattern that Hinata’s soft and uncharacteristicly careful fingers draw into Kageyama’s scalp. Tobio mentally kicks himself for almost leaning in closer to him.

Hinata’s mindlessly playing fingers are getting more droopy and slow.

Tobio’s feeling droopy and slow himself. So reluctantly after a long while, he gives in to the feelings, letting them engulf him. Bury him. He lets himself lean on Hinata of all people. Just once, and only for a few more minutes..

Hinata, Hinata his rival, Hinata his teammate, Hinata his— his best friend? Well, what other kind of person to Tobio would ever do something so— so simply nice? So yeah, best friend. He’s okay with that now, for real this time. But it’s still all so strange to Tobio that the person he would finally get to lean on is— Hinata, even if it’s only moments like this, even if Kageyama won’t share stuff with him, it’s still somehow Hinata.

But he thinks about it some more, and of course it’s Hinata’s dumbass after all this time, because who else is in the running? Who else is there for him? Miwa, of course. But who is really there for him? Who is always there, even when both of you are being assholes?

Stupid fucking Hinata is.

And it feels so— so strange and weird and warm and unpleasant all at the same time to have someone like that again, after all this time since grandpa left.

But once Tobio’s sleepiness forces him to really feel it, to lean into it, the touching and the realisation of Hinata’s importance. Unpleasant isn’t a word he’d use to describe this feeling. 

Not at all.

———————————————————

Tobio wakes up. He wakes up which means to wake up he must’ve fallen asleep. His mind is groggy and he can’t exactly remember where he is but he knows he shouldn’t have fallen asleep, he can tell. He’s on a bed but not under the covers, which he can feel are disgruntled and messed up underneath him.

But he doesn’t get up yet because— because it’s so warm and comfy. Because there’s a source of warmth right next to him, so why leave? In this trance he wonders what it is, what is the thing that he’s buried half his face into into, that his arm and leg have flung over, what is he leaning on right now?

Kageyama feels a fabric caught in his fingers, he moves his leg against something that feels like another leg only warmer and slightly smaller, he shifts his head into something that feels like a person.

He groans and takes a deep breath in, moving closer to the warmth, burying himself deeper in its soft embrace, letting himself get closer into the comfort.

He smells something sweet. Tangy. It’s nice, pleasant.. familiar—

The mysterious warmth leans closer to Tobio, the something that feels like a pair of legs tightens around his own, the feeling of hot breath appears on Tobio’s forehead. It’s nice, real nice.

It takes all of two seconds for Tobio to realise that the warmth had just moved. That the warmth was living.

And holy shit. Holy fucking shit.

Suddenly the something that feels like a leg is a leg. The fabric Kageyama is holding is a t-shirt, most likely a green stained one if he remembers correctly.. The something that feels like a person is a person. 

Hinata. Oh no.

It only takes a few seconds for the memories to come back to Tobio, and once they do he springs up, backs up against the cold wall, away from Hinata. Shit. Shitshitshitshit.

Now that his eyes are open he can see.. nothing. It’s dark. Really dark. Tobio can’t see a thing.

He uses his memory of Hinata’s room to find his way to the light switch and turns it on. Big mistake. Hinata makes a noise through his throat that Kageyama doesn’t like. Not one bit. But the little shits a deep sleeper, so the light won’t wake him up, nor can anything really.

Tobio walks over to his bag, trying to avoid looking in mirror. He takes a glance anyways. He’s a mess. Cheeks flushed. Hair scrambled. Shorts rolled up from tossing and turning for who knows how long.

Fuck this is embarrassing. He pulls out his phone, it’s— it’s one in the morning.

This is bad. Really bad. He has a very certain sleep schedule for the night before a game and if it’s disrupted he’ll— Well nothing will happen.. but Tobio likes routine! Not— not whatever just happened, believe it or not sleeping in Hinata’s bed isn’t part of his usual pre-game routine.

He runs a hand through his hair. Shit. He had his goddamn legs tangled up in Hinata’s, he had his face buried in the little shits neck, he had his arm wrapped around him like he’s some stupid koala or something. 

Hinata’s hand was in Tobio’s hair.

What the hell is wrong with him? Why would Tobio agree to the whole thing in the first place?

The worst part though? The worst part is that the cuddl— ew. No. The— erm, hug, wasn't even that bad. It was fine, it was good. Tobio’s mood is— well it was better, it’s kind of in the shitter now.

Crap, his dad is gonna— he doesn’t want to think about it.

Tobio realises that Hinata’s mom must be back by now, Natsu too, and he doesn’t exactly want to wake them up by opening the front door, what would they say? What would they think? He grabs his bag and goes to put on his shoes—

he’s missing a sock.

Fuck it, he needs to leave. He shoves his feet, one sock-less, into his shoes and opens Hinata’s window,

“K’yama?” A voice asks, sleep making it raspy and lazy. Tobio doesn’t need to turn to know who it is.

No. Not now. He’s almost out.

“What?” He spits, not needing to look, but also not wanting to look. Not at Hinata. Especially not at Hinata all sleepy and messed up from— from that. He doesn’t want that image in his head.

Kageyama feels guilty, he feels wrong and gross and eugh. They shouldn’t have done this. He shouldn’t be here, not at this time. Tobio opens the window fully, a cool draft emerges from outside, he shivers. It was warmer with Hinata, a lot warmer..

“Wher’ are you goin’?” Tobio can hear what he assumes is Hinata sittting up. 

He needs to leave. Now.

Kageyama bites his tongue. He doesn’t want to say it out loud.. but he’s going home. To his dad. To his dad who is probably waiting for him. Shit. “Go back to sleep dumbass. We have a game tomorrow.”

“M’kay.” Tobio hears a spring of the mattress. Hinata’s flopped back down, almost uninterested in whether Tobio stays or goes.

Tobio sighs, keeping his eyes ahead on the window, on the outside. He climbs out before Hinata has the chance to say anything again, 

and before he second guesses leaving.

———————————————

By the time Tobio gets home it’s half one in the morning.

Also by the time Tobio gets home he’s exhausted from the twenty minute walk, still in his clothes from hours ago that (if Tobio isn’t just imagining it,) smell just a tiny bit like Hinata, and in dire need of a shower, or even some sleep would suffice.

He uses all the precision someone with his level of energy can use to open and close his door as quietly as possible, the lights are off. Everyone is presumably asleep. The house feels unoccupied, it should be unoccupied. Then again maybe they just didn’t notice that Kageyama never came home.. he wouldn’t put it past them, it’s not like they’ve acknowledged each other much in the last couple of months, in fact, the pure amount of just silence has Kageyama wondering why they’re even here.

Well he knows why, to ‘keep an eye on him,’ whatever that means.

Tobio kicks his shoes off, the wooden floor cold against his one bear foot, just making him crave his bed even more so. He squints hard, trying to see through the darkness of his seemingly empty home. He knows it’s not empty though.

That thought just makes Kageyama more exhausted.

Not for long, he thinks. Because by tomorrow his parents will be gone for three whole days, gone on some important business trip, one they couldn’t miss apparently, even for the thrilling task of eerily taking up space in Kageyama’s home day after day. What a pity.

He’s glad though. He needs a break. And yeah, he’ll probably want to steer clear from Hinata’s house for a while after— after that.

And with that thought, Kageyama heads to his room. He needs sleep, sleep in his own bed. By himself.

He heads up the stairs.

Hinata was really warm though. And he did smell nice..

Eugh! Stop it! There’s no point in thinking such stupid things! Hinata smells like shit! And piss! And— and other bad things!

There’s no use in thinking stuff like that. That was the first and last time that moment will cross his mind, he swears. Who even gives a shit if Hinata smells nice? He certainly doesn’t.

That whole hugging thing was a mistake, an unpleasant, gross, definitely not relishable, mistake.

And Kageyama did not like it. He’s not allowed to.

“Tobio.” A cold voice echoes up from behind him,.

Kageyama stops mid climb, which in turn hits his foot against a step. Hard. “Shit.” He breaths through gritted teeth, his pinkie toe pangs with pain, making him a bit dizzy. Fuck, that hurt.

Wait, did someone just—

“Where were you?” His dad’s voice asks from behind him from the bottom step, not mad, quite emotionless really.. but that’s how it always starts. Kageyama knows that by now.

Tobio now realises that he had, dimwittedly, never came up with an excuse in case he ran into his dad, which he has now. Well, it’s more like Tobio was snuck up on.. where did he even come from? He must’ve been in the kitchen, waiting. The thought makes Tobio feel.. not nervous. He doesn’t get nervous.

It’s eerie. It feels eerie, the entire house does.

“I em—“ he stays facing the top of the stairs, his dad looming behind him, almost daring him to turn, he doesn’t, letting him drill holes through his back with his eyes, “I was at a friend's house. Homework.”

“Homework? I don’t remember homework ever taking so long that you get home at—“ he pauses, probably checking that dumb expensive gold watch that he flaunts around all the time, “one thirty six am.”

Well shit, he’s got him there.

Tobio could tell the truth, most of it, he could say that he fell asleep by accident, he could say that he had woken up only to find it was one in the morning. No mention of Hinata, because—

because mentioning Hinata would be stupid and rash, Kageyama has never once told his dad about any sort of friend, he never had play dates or sleepovers, not that he had anyone to have them with.. but the point still stands! 

He shouldn’t bring up Hinata because Hinata is for him. Not for his dad. The boy is his spiker after all.

Plus, he has a feeling that if he tells half the truth, his father would be able to coerce the rest out of him. And that would be— yeah. Not good.

“I don’t know. We got given a lot of work this week so—“

“Don’t fucking start with me.” His dad booms, the distinctively louder voice echoing up the staircase. Kageyama’s mouth hangs open slightly at the sudden switch of tone. “And don’t be so pathetic, Tobio.” Kageyama can hear footsteps, fast approaching, coming right for him.

He wants to leave. He wants to leave right now.

“If you’re going to lie to me. Say it to my damn face.” 

The footsteps stop and Tobio can feel hot breath on his neck. And it’s not sweet and tangy. It’s bitter, definitely alcohol-ridden, Tobio scrunches his nose, not wanting to smell anymore, he just wants to rest. He needs to rest.

“Go on. Turn around. Face me.”

Tobio stays. He can’t, even now. After so long, after so much time and space between them, he still can’t face him, he’s still too afraid. Afraid like he was as a kid. Afraid like he was when his dad was being so— so cruel to Miwa. He was so stupid.

He is so stupid.

And it’s not like he’s afraid of his dad.. it’s more of what his father can do, what his father would think. Tobio isn’t afraid to disagree, he’s gained that much courage over the years at least. It’s just he can’t—

he can’t push back. He can’t turn around and wholeheartedly stand against his father. It’s starting to seem like he won’t ever be able to do that. But that’s okay, he’s learnt to be okay with that

Not too long and they’ll be gone. Just over two months then this is all over.

His father waits a few minutes, it could pass off as giving Tobio a chance. But they both know that he won’t turn, at this point it’s just taunting. Rubbing it in Kageyama's face that he’s weak.

A scoff from behind him.“You’ve always been nothing special. Average.. Knew it since you were young.”

Kageyama feels a sharp jab in his back from cold fingers, it’ll leave a scar long after the mark is gone, he doesn’t jab back though, he doesn’t do anything..

Footsteps make their way back downstairs. Tobio stays for a minute, not wanting to get caught moving, not wanting to admit his existence. He’s still, unrelevant to the world.

Soon enough he moves. The wooden planked floor feeling even colder against his feet, the air seeming thicker, his throat tight with words he couldn’t say. Words he can’t ever say.

He shuts his bedroom door quietly, just wishing that this house were only for two. A boy and his cat. How it’s always been. How it was meant to be.

Tobio changes and gets into bed, the covers feeling cold on top of him like a sheet of ice, but maybe that’s because of the contrast from Hinata’s bed to his own.

Halfway between real life and unconsciousness, burnt orange and gentle hands enter Tobio’s head, reminders of sweet smells and caramel eyes follow soon. He finds himself holding onto them, holding onto the warm feeling that helps him get to sleep.

It’s ridden with a sense of stupidity, because why is he thinking about something so weird? Something so odd to think about? It’s probably one of those dumb things that come with having a best friend. It’s still annoying though.

It’s annoying, yet he still finds himself thinking about it.

It’s also ridden with a sense of naivety, naivety because he knows this won’t help him in the long run. Not one bit.

It’s naive, yet he still falls asleep to Hinata’s dumbass face.