Archive of Our Own ^beta

“This is devastating,” Suga muttered.

Daichi looked at the paper he was holding and his expression darkened. “It’s disgusting.”

“It’s like a crime,” Tsukishima muttered.

“It hurts looking at it,” Yamaguchi agreed.

Behind them, Kageyama spiked another volleyball against the wall before turning around to look at them. “Are you done now? It’s not like it’s the end of the world you know?” he huffed, walking over to his teammates. His steps resonated loudly in the hall, as if he was stomping his feet with every step he took.

“Yeah, but 21 points.. In a vocabulary quiz.. That’s kind of sad, don’t you think?” Maybe it was Suga’s kind smile that kept Kageyama from lashing out on him, even though he did look like he wanted to. Nobody dared to be mean to Suga, for obvious reasons.

“Even I am better at English than you are,” Tanaka declared boastfully.

“Thought the only words you knew were ‘city’ and ‘boy’,” Kageyama muttered. Tanaka scowled at him, but he didn’t pay attention to his scary face.

“I don’t think it’s that bad.” Turning around, Daichi and Suga watched as Hinata got down on one knee, and adjusted his knee pad with a small frown. “I’m sure it will teach him a lesson to work harder in the future.”

“Ah.. Hinata..” Suga began, smiling softly, but Tsukishima cut him off.

“You act like this, but you didn’t tell us your grade.”

Their gazes met and Tsukishima’s eyes narrowed, as though he had just found the perfect prey. With a small, breathless laugh, Hinata shrugged. “13 points.”

“And then Daichi threw a fit and Suga almost cried and Tsukishima said that, if grades were painful, we’d be screaming all day.” Kageyama sank into the chair and stared at the little girl who had ogled him ever since he had stepped foot into the Hinata family’s home. She raised a tiny hand and pointed her index finger at him as she turned her head to her older brother.

“He’s really stupid, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, totally!” Hinata agreed and nodded furiously.

“Your grades are worse than mine!” Kageyama growled. His hand clenched around the cool glass of orange juice in front of him. Since Hinata’s mother was taking a nap, his younger sister had served them drinks and cookies in her stead – she was awfully responsible for her young age, Kageyama thought.

“But still.. People are used to me having bad grades, but you are supposed to be something like a genius so it’s a real let down!” Hinata pouted.

Kageyama rolled his eyes. “This is stupid.”

“Hmmm,” Natsu hummed loudly, “But if you’re both reaaaally bad at English, why do you have to study together? Wouldn’t it be better to ask one of your older teammates?”

“That would be horrible,” Hinata gasped, “They’re all so nice but they can turn into monsters!”

Natsu let out an ‘eeep’ noise and clasped her hand over her mouth.

“And this really smart guy in our grade is a giant who wants to crush us!”

“His best friend is an alien with a real antenna,” Kageyama added grimly, “Probably a walking wifi signal as well..”

Hinata laughed and looked at his sister again, “That’s why they said we should study together. Suga thinks that by putting us together, we might help each other improve because we might have the same way of thinking.”

“Eh..” Natsu tilted her head to the side. “I don’t get it. Does dumb plus dumb equal smart?”

As much as those words should have offended him, Kageyama couldn’t help but laugh. He leaned over the table and smiled wryly. “Our upperclassmen think that we might help each other with.. enlightenment.”

“Because just because someone has bad grades doesn’t mean they aren’t smart! They just have a different kind of smartness.. And sometimes they’re very lazy..” Hinata’s voice drifted off, apparently realizing that he had been describing himself just now.

Natsu nodded as though she had understood everything. “So you’re gonna teach each other, right?”

“Everyone gets to be a teacher,” Kageyama nodded.

Hinata smiled at him. Natsu raised her hands over her head. “I want to be a teacher too!” she declared loudly.

“And what kind of teacher will you be?”

Natsu looked at Kageyama, seemingly unsure how to reply. Eventually, she folded her arms. “Everything! I’ll be a teacher of everything.”

“That means you must be really smart,” Kageyama replied thoughtfully.

Natsu stared him dead in the eye. “Smarter than you, yeah.”

Hinata chuckled. “Oho, shots fired..”

“Shut— Your grades are worse than mine!!”

After they had finally convinced Natsu that watching tv was way more interesting than hanging out with two hopelessly stupid highschool boys, they had headed for Hinata’s room. He slid the door shut and turned around to look at Kageyama, who seemed impossibly out of place in the tiny room.

“I didn’t clean because I didn’t think.. that anyone would force you to come over to my house.”

“We could have gone to my place,” Kageyama replied with a hint of annoyance.

Hinata rolled his eyes. “As if I’d enter the lion’s den on my free will.”

Kageyama opened his mouth to snap on him, but Hinata already busied himself with emptying his school bag. “So what are we gonna study first, huh? Math or.. maybe English?” To his surprise, Hinata seemed eager enough to study. He had expected him to be way more avoidant and keen on trying to busy Kageyama with other things, to distract him from their actual goal for today.

With a sigh, he sat down on the floor next to him. “Let’s go with English. Maybe I can drill some of my knowledge into your thick head.”

“Woah, acting like you’re so smart when you only got 21 points!”

“You only got 13!!”

Hinata ducked and avoided Kageyama’s hand aimed at the back of his head. He grinned at him. “Still.. You’re pretty dumb for a genius.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“I think the upperclassmen will be mad if you do that instead of studying with me,” Hinata mocked.

Kageyama cursed under his breath and pulled out his English text book. “Fine.. Let’s do this. When did you stop studying vocabulary along with the class?”

Hinata stared at him, one eye squinted shut. “Hm.. Halfway through chapter one, I think!”

“Oh my god.” Kageyama closed his eyes. “You’re on chapter eight now, right? Same as my class?”

“Yep!”

Kageyama let out a sigh so deep and heavy, he sounded like an old man faced with all the sadness and cruelty in this world.

“This is going to be a wild ride,” he mumbled, and opened his textbook.

The ‘wild ride’, Kageyama had to admit, was less wild than he had expected. To his surprise, Hinata wasn’t stupid or plain resistant to learning. Once he immersed himself into something, his concentration reached peaks of productivity that Kageyama could only dream of. He glanced over the edge of his textbook across the table, where Hinata was staring at the history notes they had borrowed from Yamaguchi. Apparently he was good at studying and his notes would be helpful despite him being in college prep classes – Kageyama wasn’t sure about that, and hadn’t checked them out yet, but they did seem to help Hinata.

After a few weeks, it had become a routine. A couple of times a week they would meet up at each other’s house – Kageyama had managed to to convince Hinata that his house was not the lion’s den – and do homework and study together. It wasn’t perfect, they both had to admit, and they spent more time than necessary with useless bickering and mocking each other, but Kageyama did feel like his grades were going to improve. Having someone as Hinata as his study partner fired him up, if only because he didn’t want to seem like the dumb one anymore. But that was fine, and he welcomed any means that motivated him to study harder and revise for classes more thoroughly.

Of course, he’d never say a word of this to Hinata.

“Kageyamaaa,” Hinata’s voice sounded as though he had heard his teammates thoughts. For a brief moment, Kageyama feared he had said everything out loud. “I’m hungry!”

“Uh..” Kageyama swallowed. He glanced at the table between them, covered in textbooks, bottles of soda, and half empty bags of various snacks. “I think there’s still crackers here.”

“I want real food!” As if on cue, Hinata’s stomach growled loudly. He dropped Yamaguchi’s history notes on the table, making the bottles shake in the process, and flopped over on his side. “Ah.. I’m going to die.. If you don’t feed me..” His nails scratched over the floor to add some dramatic effects.

Kageyama rolled his eyes. “We can order pizza if you want.”

“Pizza.” Hinata said the word as wistfully as Tanaka and Nishinoya whispered Kiyoko’s name.

“My parents left me some money, just in case.. Let’s go downstairs.” Kageyama almost expected Hinata to stay on the floor in a halfdead state, but when he stopped at the door and turned around, Hinata was right behind him and grinned widely.

“Come on, let’s go!” he urged and pushed Kageyama into the hallway. “I’m this close to dying, you know.” He dangled a hand next to Kageyama’s face, with the pads of thumb and index finger separated by only a few millimeters.

After Kageyama had called the pizza delivery service – he had fled into the kitchen since Hinata kept yelling in the background and changing his order every few seconds – he returned to the living room. Hinata had sprawled out on the sofa, his legs dangling over the armrest as he stared at the pictures aligning the walls. When he noticed Kageyama, he raised his arm and pointed at one of the many photographs.

“Is that you as a kid?” Before Kageyama managed to reply, Hinata laughed, “You looked so cute! With your round face and those huuuge eyes. Look at you now, though.”

“Implying that I’m not cute anymore?” Kageyama squinted his eyes at him. Not like he cared much about it, but he was aware that some girls thought of him as.. cute. It kind of bothered him because the word had taken on a bitter note ever since Oikawa had started to use it to describe people whom he looked down on.

“Nah, now you’re just scary.” Hinata watched as Kageyama slumped into the armchair opposite to the sofa he was lying on. “It’s so weird to see baby pictures though. Sometimes you just can’t imagine someone as a child, you know?”

“Like Daichi?”

Hinata laughed and nodded. “Yeah, him too. I was thinking about Tsukishima, actually.”

That name alone made Kageyama clench his fists. He jerked his head a few times, in what seemed to be nodding manner. “That giant always seems like he just popped up one day. I can’t imagine him as a kid.”

“Yamaguchi said that Tsukishima was really cute, though,” Hinata mused.

“Eh.. Can’t see it. I think Yamaguchi’s biased because..” His voice trailed off. He cleared his throat. “You know what I mean.”

“Because they’re dating?” When Hinata said it, it didn’t sound like much of a big deal.

Well it wasn’t, honestly. It had been weird at first, knowing that two of their teammates were dating, but they had gotten used to it pretty fast. Still, there were plenty of moments when he got aware that there was more between those two than just ‘childhood friendship’. They acted normal at school – Tsukishima was still the snarky sourpuss he always was, and Yamaguchi continued to be his obedient sidekick (though he had gotten a bit more confident, Kageyama noticed) – to a degree that the entire team forgot they were a couple now.

“Yamaguchi always seemed like he just loves Tsukishima very much, even before they told us they were together.” Hinata sat up a little, his weight supported by his elbows. “Haven’t you noticed that?”

Kageyama huffed. “I didn’t pay attention.”

“Come on, nobody would stick with such a nasty guy like Tsukishima. Unless you were forced to or.. in love with him.”

“You act like you know anything about love,” Kageyama scoffed. Hinata didn’t reply and flopped back on the sofa again.

“I’m just saying that it’s fishy when a good guy like Yamaguchi sticks around with someone like Tsukishima for no reason at all.”

“So he had an ulterior motive?”

Hinata nodded with closed eyes. “And that motive was,” he raised one arm and pointed his index finger to the ceiling, “Getting into Tsukishima’s pants!”

“Oh gross,” Kageyama groaned. He shook his head violently, to not allow any vivid images to creep into his head.

“Haha, I heard that phrase from Noya!” Hinata explained boastfully, “He said something like, uhm..” Lowering his voice to an octave that was probably supposed to mimic Noya’s tone, he recited, “’Oi, Asahi, come on, let me get into your pants’.. and then Asahi squeaked and cried ‘Noooo’ and- Hmm, I don’t know what happened after that.” He folded his arms and nodded to himself. “I wonder what was going on.. They seemed pretty weird when I walked into the clubroom after that.”

“Huh, I wonder..” Kageyama coughed overly loudly to hide his embarrassment. He was pretty sure Nishinoya had only been joking, but now he couldn’t unsee it – the chemistry he had with Asahi, that is. But was that even normal? So many guys on their team dating each other? Not like he had any problems with that, but..

His hands had gotten sweaty and trembled lightly when he wiped them on his pants. He glanced over to Hinata, who was still lying on the sofa, his attention directed to the photographs on the wall again. Before he managed to come up with a topic to talk about, Hinata turned his head to look at him.

“What do you think Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are doing right now?”

Kageyama made a strangled noise. “I’m.. I.. Uhm …” He frowned. “Why are you asking me this?”

“I don’t know! You act like you’re always smarter! I’m just wondering if they behave differently around each other than we do? I mean, what’s the deal whether you’re dating or not..” Hinata let out a deep breath. “I mean, does kissing someone really change your relationship that much??”

Kageyama blinked at Hinata, confusion plainly written on his face. “I.. never asked myself these questions..” he admitted slowly. His teeth dug into his lower lip. Hinata was saying some interesting things he had never even taken into consideration – at the same time it felt like Hinata had no idea how romantic relationship worked, however. Though Kageyama had no experience in this field either, so..

The sound of the doorball ringing cut through his thoughts like a knife. “Pizza!” he sighed happily. This was a welcome distraction. He really didn’t want to talk about the importance of kissing in human relationships anymore, especially not with Hinata.

Kageyama didn’t pay attention to his teammate, who wrestled with a sofa pillow as he turned around and tried to get up, and rushed to the front door.

Stuffing their mouths so they couldn’t talk anymore was a good idea, he figured.

“I don’t get this.” Hinata leaned in over his shoulder and dangled the textbook in front of his face which caused Kageyama to let out a surprised yelp.

“Do you have to sneak up on me like that?” He glared over his shoulder, while one hand reached up to grab the book. English, as expected. He gave it a quick glance, before he nodded. “That’s so easy.. But I’m not surprised that you don’t get it.”

"What’s that supposed to mean?”

Without replying, Kageyama leaned back against the gym wall and slid down on it, until he was seated on the floor. He tapped his finger onto the open page. “Come here, I’ll explain it. Only once, though.”

Hinata pouted but sat down next to him, “What if I don’t get it?”

“Then you’ll have to ask someone else.”

“But Suga and Daichi said we’re not allowed to ask anyone else!”

Kageyama rolled his eyes with a huff. “Then you have to listen carefully, I guess.” He could hear Hinata grumble something inaudible, but didn’t bother asking what he was trying to say.

He didn’t want to admit it, but after three weeks of dealing with Hinata as his study partner, he had gotten more used to him. While they had been well attuned to each other on the court, their conversations outside of practice and matches had been.. not to say disastrous, but far away from perfect. It was different now, he noticed. He knew which words to use to explain things to Hinata, and Hinata knew how to make him understand the stuff Kageyama didn’t get at first. Of course, Kageyama was still the booksmarter one of both of them. At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

“But why don’t you have to use -ing forms after ‘to’?” Hinata scrunched his nose as he glanced up at Kageyama, who in return let out a sigh.

“I don’t know, just remember not to use it.”

“But-”

“I can’t explain you English grammar basics now, can I?” Kageyama slammed the book shut. “Besides, you know them pretty well, if I explained them again, you’d probably be confused.”

Hinata frowned at him. “Did you just compliment me?”

“I didn’t.”

“You totally just said that I was good at English!” Hinata said, smiling widely.

Kageyama groaned. “I said you know the basics pretty well. You know, that stuff that everyone should be good at. You’re not an exception.”

“Hmm, whatever. I’ll take it as a compliment.”

Kageyama bit back on another annoyed groan. He got up from the floor and shoved the text book into Hinata’s hands. “Whatever makes you sleep at night. You’re gonna question me on my history timeline later?”

“Sure!” Hinata smiled at him before he turned around and walked to the other side of the hall, where he had dropped off his jacket, and his bottle. Behind him, Kageyama heard a faint chuckle. When he turned around, he was looking at Yamaguchi.

“What’s so funny?”

Yamaguchi held up his hands in defense. “Nothing, really. I just think it’s nice how close you guys are now.”

“We’re not.. close,” Kageyama muttered. He frowned and turned to look at how Hinata laughed over something that Nishinoya had told him.

“You’re super close,” Yamaguchi said behind him. Kageyama could hear him smile from the way his voice sounded when he spoke. “Wouldn’t be surprised if you actually did other things together, besides studying.”

When Kageyama didn’t reply, Yamaguchi shrugged with a low hum, and walked past him. He was already at the door, probably trying to catch a breather before practice started, when Kageyama found his voice again.

“Well sometimes we eat pizza together!”

Yamaguchi stopped in his tracks and looked at him, before he let out a short laugh. “That’s really cute.”

Kageyama squinted his eyes at him, until Yamaguchi shrugged and left the gym.

“Weirdo,” he muttered to himself. His gaze trailed off to where Hinata was standing only a few seconds ago. When he didn’t see him there anymore, Kageyama couldn’t help the sudden feeling of disappointment settling somewhere between his ribs.

What an unpleasant feeling.

After that, Kageyama caught himself wondering what to do with Hinata once they were done with homework and finished revising for classes, and he always blamed Yamaguchi for it. If Yamaguchi hadn’t said anything, he could have continued meeting with his teammate like before, but now he couldn’t help but feel the urge to do something with him. And that was weird, because they were both happy when the other said that it was enough studying for today, and they were going to meet up again the next day.

So, when Kageyama picked up all his pens and math utensils and watched Hinata pack his bag again, his thoughts raced as he tried to think of a way to have Hinata stay at his house for a little longer. For no reason at all.

“Do you like action movies?” he blurted out eventually. Hinata froze in his movements, and blinked.

“Depends?”

Kageyama swallowed heavily. He hadn’t thought this through at all. “Well, I’ve had this movie lying around for weeks now, but I never watched it..”

Hinata stared at him for a second or two, before he shrugged. “Sure, why not. Movies are more fun to watch when you’re with friends, right?”

Kageyama was tempted to say no, but before he realized it, he was nodding in agreement. “I’m a horrible movie watcher. I get distracted so easily,” he mumbled. That was actually a very embarrassing trait, in his opinion, and he hated to share it with others because they always assumed he had a short attention span. Admittedly, that might have been true.

“My sister’s like that too.. I don’t mind watching movies once I get really into them.” Hinata tilted his head to the side.

“I always pause the video after five minutes, do something else for half an hour, then come back to watch another five minutes.. It takes me days to finish a movie.”

“Do you even understand the plot and the characters when you watch it like that?” Hinata was probably trying to offend him, but Kageyama could only feel his cheeks flare up.

He looked away quickly. “Sometimes. I just read the wikipedia article about the movie afterwards.”

“You are a horrible movie watcher, Kageyama,” Hinata shook his head in disbelief. He jumped to his feet – actually jumped – and lifted his arms over his head in a stretching manner. “Are we gonna watch it downstairs?”

He had expected Hinata to be a more annoying kind of movie watcher. Kageyama had been prepared for him to shout at the screen or ask dumb questions throughout the whole movie, but Hinata was absolutely silent. The only noise that came from him was the sound of his teeth crunching up the chips Kageyama had prepared for them. The bowl with snacks was sitting right between them, like a third member of the audience.

“I bet this ‘bad guy’ is actually the good guy, and his boss is the villain,” Hinata whispered at the same moment as Kageyama’s hand dove into the bowl. He paused for a moment and frowned at the screen. The two main characters were in the middle of some wild chase through a rundown part of the city.

“You think so?” he asked, and felt stupid the moment the question left his mouth. Next to him, Hinata nodded eagerly.

“Yeah! It’s way too convenient, the way things are playing out right now.” Hinata shoved another handful of chips into his mouth. “And the villain is way too charismatic to be evil.”

“Charismatic,” Kageyama repeated dryly, “You.. uh, think he’s charismatic?”

In the movie, a bullet barely missed its target as both of the protagonists escaped through a halfopen door and into an abandoned building. Hinata frowned lightly.

“Villains are always like that. They’re charismatic and know which words to use at the right time, so people fall into their traps- Right?” He stared at Kageyama now, as though he’d be able to answer that question.

Completely taken off guard, Kageyama nodded and reached for the chips. “I feel like you know a lot more about movie villains than I do.”

“That’s because you’re a shitty movie watcher. You even admitted it yourself!”

Kageyama was aware of the fact that he should have been offended again, but for some reason, the only thing he felt was embarrassment whenever Hinata pointed out his weaknesses like that. Hinata shifted on the sofa. He raised his hand and grabbed for the bowl the same moment as Kageyama pulled his own back.

The backs of their hands brushed against each other. Kageyama drew in a sharp breath as their knuckles scraped together. His hand seemed to cramp up, but he managed to will himself to stay calm. His skin felt warm, almost hot, when he pulled back his hand and ran his fingers over it.

Next to him, Hinata seemed to be completely unaffected by it. He kept shoveling chips into his mouth, his eyes glued to the screen.

“You know, I think there’s a sequel to this airing soon,” he said after a few minutes. He turned his head to look at Kageyama, who immediately tensed up. “We should watch it together.”

“S-sure,” Kageyama replied nervously.

Hinata smiled at him, before he directed his attention to the movie again.

With a frown, Kageyama looked down at his hand, and the crushed chips he was holding in it.

Despite having watched the entire movie without a single break, Kageyama found himself wondering what the plot was even about long after Hinata had gone home. He rolled over on his bed so he faced the wall. Ever since their hands had bumped together – several times even – Kageyama felt.. Not weird, at least not in a bad way, but he was pretty sure he felt different. When he had said goodbye to Hinata earlier, he had accidentally said ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow’ and Hinata had given him a look between disgust and shock. Only when he had closed the door, Kageyama had realized how weird he must have sounded to him.

He didn’t really look forward to their study sessions. Doing homework with Hinata was exhausting because Hinata had annoying habits like clicking his pens or throwing erasures against the walls repeatedly, which completely disturbed Kageyama’s concentration.

No, now that he thought about it, he probably had said this only because it was a nice thing to say. Just like you said ‘You look great’ when you met someone again for the first time after years, or wished people a happy birthday even though you hated them.

He rolled over, flat on his back, and stared at the ceiling. His parents had raised him into a polite boy with good manners, and this had been one of those rare moments when he had forgotten that he was dealing with Hinata, and not some neighbor or older relative who he had to treat carefully.

Yeah, that was exactly it. His lips curled into a smile, and a second later he had to stifle his own laughter. Now that this was resolved, he felt incredibly stupid for worrying over things like that. There were other things to rack his head over, like the coming math exam, or the planned scrimmages against Nekoma and Fukurodani.

Too immersed in his thoughts, he almost didn’t feel the buzzing against his shoulder. Kageyama sat up quickly and reached behind himself to grab his cellphone. He couldn’t remember dropping it on the bed, but it didn’t really matter – at least it hadn’t fallen down the crack between the wall and his bed again.

He frowned at the display. For a moment he was tempted to not answer the call. But if he did that, he’d probably receive tons of passive aggressive, borderline whiny texts until he called back.

“What do you want,” he greeted, openly annoyed.

From the other end of the line came a faint chuckle. “My, Tobio, you’re so cold again.” Oikawa clicked his tongue, “Where are your manners?”

“They’re not available for you. What do you want?” he repeated his question. He could almost see Oikawa standing before him, shrugging and shaking his head over how mean he was.

“Oh, it’s nothing! Does an upperclassman need a reason to call his beloved student?” He could hear the sound of sheets rustling. Oikawa was probably lying in his bed, just like Kageyama did. “How’s school, Tobio? And practice? You better be working hard! Oh, I heard you got a cute new manager, too.”

“How do you—”

“I have eyes and ears everywhere,” Oikawa answered immediately. Kageyama bit back a comment on how his eyes and ears probably were girls who were stupid enough to be in love with him.

“She’s ok,” he replied slowly. He liked Yachi as much as everyone else from the team, but he couldn’t say anything too enthusiastic in front of Oikawa, could he?

“Hmm, I see.. Any other girls you have your eye on? I’m sure you’re a real chick magnet, just like me! But not as popular, of course.”

Kageyama rolled his eyes. Two minutes into this conversation and he already wanted to hang up and throw his phone out of the window. His old teammate had this habit of calling him every other week and try to have a conversation with him, but it mostly consisted of Oikawa talking a lot, and Kageyama being angry or annoyed. In short, Oikawa just enjoyed hearing himself talk, and having others listen to him while he did that.

“Eh, you’re not saying anything, did I hit a nerve? Or- oh my- Do you have your eyes on someone, Tobio?” Oikawa sounded even more excited than before. “Tell me more!”

Kageyama sighed deeply. “I’m not.. crushing on a girl,” he replied slowly, and as firmly as possible.

On the other end of the line, Oikawa was silent for a few seconds. “Hmm, I see..” he said eventually. Kageyama was about to let out a relieved sigh, but Oikawa quickly continued talking. “So it’s a boy, eh?”

Kageyama opened his mouth, but no word came out. He had no idea how to react to this accusation. It seemed so far off and out of this world, he could have laughed. Oikawa, however, seemed to take his silence differently.

“Ah, Tobio, I’m so glad that I am the first that you are confiding this secret to,” he sighed, “I know that you’re probably very confused and nervous now, but don’t worry, being gay is not a bad thing and you should never be ashamed of who you are.”

“Oikawa-”

“I, too, have felt very strongly for someone before, even though our love was doomed from the start,” he continued without paying attention to Kageyama.

He frowned. “Is this about your crush on your 7^th grade math teacher again?”

“8^th grade physics teacher, and maybe,” Oikawa corrected drily before taking in a deep breath to resume his monologue.

“How do you even know that you’re in love with someone,” Kageyama blurted out. The moment those words left his mouth, he bit the inside of his cheek to punish himself for his slip up. Oikawa was the worst person to turn to for advice, especially in delicate areas such as this one. That whole talk about relationships and the impact of kissing on people during the last few weeks must have befuddled him.

“Hmm, well..” Oikawa paused for a moment, “You can’t stop thinking about this person and you feel this intense urge to see them.. And you get really happy when they’re here, but sad or upset when they’re not. You worry a lot about them when they seem to be different than usual. And when you look them in the eyes you just,” again, Oikawa went silent. He let out a deep sigh, “You just feel really excited and you can’t help but smile. And when they smile back it feels like the whole world could go down tomorrow, but you’d be fine with that. Sometimes you feel hot and cold at the same time when you’re close to them, and your heart beats faster, your blood rushes in your ears and your hands won’t stop shaking and sweating..”

Kageyama blinked and waited for a moment, but Oikawa didn’t say anything anymore. He cleared his throat. “Well, that was a.. surprisingly genuine answer.”

Oikawa made a startled noise. “Ah.. I am the love guru, after all. Someone as popular as me has to know these kind of things.”

“I see..” Kageyama nodded slowly, “Looks like you actually are useful for something! Thanks, Oikawa.”

“Ooh, Tobio-”

Kageyama quickly pushed the End Call button.

As much as he hated talking to Oikawa, this call had proven to be useful at least. Maybe he’d be better prepared the next time Hinata asked him vaguely embarrassing, downright intrusive questions.

Seconds later, his phone vibrated again.

FROM: Oikawa

SUBJECT: none

i forgot to mention: it’s totes ok to feel a tingly in your dingly! ☆～（ゝ。∂）

Kageyama groaned and dropped his phone onto the bed. Briefly, he wondered whether Oikawa was aware of the fact that he continuously lowered people’s opinions of him all by himself.

He probably wasn’t.

To say that Kageyama wasn’t thrown for a loop easily would have been an understatement. Hinata’s words kept ringing in his ears whenever he allowed himself to just let his mind wander. Keeping himself occupied with homework, studying, tv shows or plain practicing had kept him sane enough, but as soon as he dared to remember that afternoon a few days ago, the barriers he built inside his mind broke down and allowed emotions and meddling thoughts to flood in.

After all, Hinata had said he was going to marry a game character because she reminded him of Kageyama – hello??

Who in their right mind wouldn’t be confused by such a statement, Kageyama couldn’t help but wonder. Even now, during lunch break, the only thing that stopped him from slamming his head into an iron pole to numb his brain, was spiking his volleyball into the outside wall repeatedly and ignoring bystanders’ comments on how he wasn’t allowed to do that because he was sure to make a dent into the plastering.

If his confidence could live with a massive dent, the wall could do so as well. He didn’t want to feel like this – weak, confused, lost – but he couldn’t just flip a switch and pretend like nothing had happened. Hinata had gotten through to him. He had found a weak spot and continued to attack it relentless, whether he was aware of that or not.

Kageyama wanted to say that he hated it, but he didn’t. Not fully, at least. He had noticed how much he enjoyed being with Hinata. As much as he disliked how annoying and weird this kid could be, he actually found pleasure in walking home with him, doing homework with him, or studying with him. Studying together and questioning each other on the stuff they had revised was fun – they’d turn it into little competitions, about who had to buy candy for the other after practice, or who would get to eat the last cookie in the box. More than once Kageyama had caught himself messing up on purpose so Hinata would be the lucky one to eat the last piece of his favorite candy. Of course he’d make fun of Kageyama for giving the wrong answer when the question had been sooo easy, but Kageyama assumed he could live with that as long as he saw Hinata smile.

Feeling the blood rush to his head at such a corny thought, he slammed the ball even harder into the wall. He had to stop thinking about this – at least at school, where people were watching, and he could run into Hinata any time.

“Uhm— Kageyama?”

He barely recognized the voice behind him, and only replied with an annoyed hum.

“Someone told me that you’ve been doing this for almost half an hour already and—” Yachi’s voice cut off when Kageyama turned to look at her. She opened her mouth, only to stammer nonsensical gibberish that sounded vaguely like ‘worried about you’. Before Kageyama could reply, a dull slap hit the side of his face. Yachi gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth.

“Kageyama??”

He staggered backwards, blinking repeatedly to get rid of the spots of bright light dancing before his eyes. The ground seemed to vanish under his feet, while the school building in front of him turned by 180 degrees. Something hard hit his shoulder.

Then, darkness.

He woke up to the smell of disinfectants and the sound of the radio blarring some pop song. The side of his face felt strange – numb and thick, as though it wasn’t even part of his head anymore. Someone had put a wet washcloth on it, which slipped off when he sat up slightly. A dull, throbbing pain surged through his head and had him groan.

“I think he’s awake!”

Kageyama could have recognized that voice among thousands of others. Seconds later, the curtain that surrounded the bed he was lying on was pulled aside.

“How are you feeling?” Hinata smiled at him, but there was a small hint of worry in his voice. His eyebrows were knit lightly, barely showing his concern.

“Woozy,” was the first word that came to Kageyama’s mind. He looked around. Someone had brought him to the nurse’s office, because..

“You knocked yourself out with a volleyball. Which is the first time I’ve ever heard of that happening, to be honest,” the nurse’s voice answered his thoughts. She appeared right behind Hinata. “Good thing your friends were there to bring you over. Does your head hurt?”

Kageyama watched as she sat down on the chair next to his bed. She pulled a small flashlight out of her breast pocket and switched it on, before waving it around in front of Kageyama’s eyes.

“Not much, actually,” he replied and squeezed his eyes shut for a second. The nurse got up again.

“Looks like you don’t have a concussion but you might have some headaches for a few days, especially when you watch tv or listen to music. I’ll write you a note for your gym teacher- and your coach.”

Kageyama was about to protest, but the nurse had already disappeared around the curtain again, clicking her pen repeatedly.

“Jeez, you do some weird things, you know that?” Hinata sighed. He sat down on the bed and turned around, so he could look at Kageyama. “I came from the bathroom and suddenly Yachi ran me over and said something about you dying!”

“I wasn’t.. dying..”

“Yeah, you only knocked yourself out with a volleyball.” Hinata scrunched his nose. “That’s pretty weird, if you ask me.”

Kageyama felt his face heat up. He stared down at the white blanket that covered him from the waist down. Scenes like that only happened in comics, right? One half of the main couple would end up in the nurse’s office and suddenly romantic scenes happened with big words being said that left both of them confused. Only that in comics, the nurse was always conveniently absent, and not on the other side of the curtain and writing sick notes while whistling along to a pop song on the radio.

“I was.. Thinking about something.”

“Yachi said that you looked really scary and someone asked her to make you stop acting like that, since she’s our manager and all.” Hinata tilted his head back and squinted his eyes at a random point at the ceiling.

“I didn’t mean to cause her trouble,” Kageyama mumbled. His fists tightened in the sheets.

“Woah, you should apologize to me too! I carried you all the way here.”

For the blink of an eye, the image of Hinata carrying him bridal style flashed before his eyes. He groaned and covered his face with his hands. Hinata moved on the mattress. “Kageyama? Is everything ok? Does your head hurt?”

He peeked through his fingers, at Hinata looking at him worriedly. Kageyama swallowed thickly. “I’m.. ok,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by his hands. Slowly, he lowered them again. Hinata let out a relieved sigh.

“Seriously. You give us nothing but trouble!”

“Sorry.”

“I was so worried about you!” Hinata complained. He folded his arms and huffed. “You’re the most troublesome friend I’ve ever had!”

“Friend,” Kageyama repeated. His voice sounded hollow. “We’re friends.”

“Of course we are!” Hinata shook his head. He playfully nudged Kageyama’s shoulder so he looked up again. He was met with a smile – shy, a little nervous – but Kageyama couldn’t help but smile back at him. The gesture made his face sting.

“I’m not good at advice, but.. uhm, if you ever need someone to listen..” Hinata’s voice trailed off. His cheeks took on a light pink shade of color. Kageyama thought it was adorable. “Anyways, you can come to me if you ever want to get something off your chest!”

“Uhm.. thanks.” Kageyama felt like he was going to pass out again, this time definitely not because he had taken a volleyball to the face.

“If you boys are done,” the nurse’s voice cut in, “classes started two minutes ago. At least Hinata should go.”

“Oh,” Hinata made a surprised noise. He slipped off the mattress, and paused. Then, he turned around and put his hands on Kageyama’s shoulder. With gentle force, he pushed him down onto the mattress. “You should rest,” he adviced with a wide grin.

Kageyama nodded, throat dry, and watched as Hinata slipped through the small crack in the curtain. Only when he heard the door fell shut, he allowed himself to exhale a shaky breath.

The feeling of Hinata pushing him down on the bed and ordering him around had just engraved itself into his mind, and he was pretty sure he had reached yet another level of suffering this way.

“Hey, Tsukki-”

“No.”

Kageyama barely stifled a laugh when he watched Tsukishima turn around, lips still connected with his water bottle. He nudged Yamaguchi with his elbow, and both of them walked off to the other side of the gym hall, albeit the shorter one of them looked a bit nervous at simply leaving Nekoma’s captain like this. Kuroo watched them, mouth slightly ajar.

“He didn’t even let me say anything,” he muttered. He turned his head and raised his eyebrows in surprise, when he noticed Kageyama. “He didn’t even let me say anything!”

“Can you really blame him for that,” Kageyama replied dryly. He didn’t know the entirety of what had gone down between Tsukishima and Kuroo, although that wasn’t even necessary. Tsukishima hated just about everyone, so his hostile behavior towards certain people didn’t come as all that much of a surprise.

“I just wanted to tease him a little. He has really cute reactions, especially when you talk about his boyfriend,” Kuroo explained happily. For a moment, Kageyama was baffled that word about Yamaguchi and Tsukishima dating had reached even Nekoma. Then he remembered that Hinata was regularly in touch with Kenma, and that he probably had updated him about private matters surrounding the team as well. “Guess I’ll have to entertain myself with someone else instead.”

Kageyama flinched when he felt Kuroo’s arm around his shoulders.

“Why not hang out with Kenma instead?” Kageyama asked nervously.

Kuroo pulled his eyebrows together. “He’s so complicated lately. All snappy and weird. Must be puberty.” He sighed deeply. “I remember, he used to be such a cute kid. Now I don’t even recognize him anymore.”

Kageyama nodded as though he understood whatever Kuroo was talking about. To him, Nekoma’s setter looked as boring and bland as ever. He silently watched as Kenma took a picture of Daichi and Suga – all the while looking more uncomfortable than the people he photographed.

“Our coach is having surgery soon. He acts like he’s going to die so he has Kenma take pictures of all of us,” Kuroo explained, followed by a scoff, “He’s just getting kidney stones removed.” He paused and Kageyama turned his head to get a glance at Kuroo’s face. He was staring at Kenma, who was showing the picture to Daichi and Suga now. His expression seemed indifferent, if it wasn’t for that small, barely notable smile that tugged at his lips.

When Kuroo noticed him staring, he grinned. “So, tell me. Who do you have your eye on, Kageyama?”

Kageyama made a strangled noise.

“Kenma told me that Hinata told him that you knocked yourself out with a volleyball last week - and that you’re just really weird in general, lately. No normal guy would act like you do unless something big was going on.” He squeezed Kageyama’s shoulder harder, almost threateningly so. “Since you’re at that age, I’m just guessing that you’re in love.”

Kageyama drew his lips into a thin line, careful not to say anything. But one glance of Kuroo was enough to have him look away in embarrassment. Kuroo laughed.

“Bingo, huh? Your first crush? How exciting!” Kuroo sounded so gleeful, it was almost disgusting. “Now, who is it?”

When Kageyama didn’t reply, he exhaled deeply.

“Fine then. If you want to play that game.. Earlier you were talking to that girl, your manager. The small one. But you acted pretty normal so I’m assuming it’s not her. After the first match you talked to Sugawara. He’s got more experience as a setter than you do, but I heard you two aren’t very close, so I doubt it’s him.. Who else could it be..” Kuroo’s gaze wandered through the hall. Kageyama could feel his heart beat faster and faster, the closer he got to the double winged doors that led into the hallway. Hinata was leaning against the door frame, talking to Lev while gesturing wildly. “Oh! What about-”

“It’s not like that,” Kageyama blurted out.

Kuroo frowned and looked at him. “I didn’t even say anything yet.”

“It’s not Hinata,” Kageyama said more firmly. Kuroo’s lips twitched into a sly grin.

“Here I was about to say something about having a baby crush on your other manager, but damn.” Kuroo shook his head and squeezed Kageyama’s shoulder even tighter. “Damn. Tell me more.”

Kageyama felt blood rush to his head. He tried to wiggle out of Kuroo’s grip but he wouldn’t budge an inch. If anything, he only grasped Kageyama harder. “It’s not what you think it is.”

“That sounds a lot like I’m head over heels in love, if you ask me,” Kuroo replied, “Seriously, you can trust me. I’m good at giving advice, you know? I mean, I’m bi, so I have like double the love experience. Actually, make that triple the experience, because I’m also hot.”

Kageyama gave Kuroo an outraged look, but the boy only nodded as though he was saying It’s a fact so you better believe me. He swallowed.

“It’s.. not like that,” Kageyama mumbled, this time sounding a lot less confident. Kuroo sighed next to him and opened his mouth, but before he could reply, Kenma stepped in front of them.

“Uhm.. I have to take your picture, if you don’t mind?” He nervously glanced back and forth between Kuroo and Kageyama.

To his surprise, Kuroo finally let go of him. “Oh, great idea. Do you have a picture of Hinata yet?”

Kageyama wanted to kick Kuroo in the shin for this question, but Kenma replied faster than he had expected. “I haven’t really gotten around to ask him yet because he seemed really absorbed in whatever he was talking about with Lev.”

Kuroo nodded understandingly. Then, he yelled Hinata’s name across the hall. Kenma almost jumped in surprise, which would have been funny to Kageyama, if his face hadn’t felt hotter than a barbecue grill in this moment. Nekoma’s captain gestured to Hinata to come over, which seemed to confuse him for a moment. He looked at Lev, who shrugged in confusion, before he headed over.

“It’s a picture for our coach, you see- He thinks he’s dying,” Kuroo explained as soon as he was within earshot.

Seconds later, Hinata stood next to Kageyama, and in front of Kenma who raised the camera lightly. “Alright, uhm.. Smile or something.”

“What the hell, at least make them say cheese or repressed homosexuality,” Kuroo joked. He nudged Kenma with his elbow, but the boy only bit his lower lip and didn’t say anything. Kageyama was sure that he saw him blush lightly, but it could have been just the lighting in the hall.

“Hey, maybe Kageyama should, like, put his arm around Hinata’s shoulder and lean in a little. And Hinata, lean against him a bit. I’m sure it will warm coach’s heart to see you two so close to each other.”

“Do we really have to do this,” Kageyama mumbled. Not like he was really repulsed by the idea.

“Come on, you had your arm around my shoulder only last week!” Hinata pouted, “You were passed out, but still.”

Kageyama blinked at him. “Wait, what?”

Hinata rolled his eyes. “How else did we drag you to the infirmary, huh? Yachi and I each had one arm around our shoulders and carried you there. Your feet dragged on the floor though, because you’re so tall.”

“So that’s why my ankles felt so weird all week..” Kageyama shook his head lightly. Up until now he had never even questioned how he had gotten to the nurse in the first place. He knew that Hinata had carried him, but the image of getting carried bridal style had engraved itself into his mind by now.

“Can we..?” Kenma nervously fumbled with the camera. Kageyama quickly put his arm around Hinata’s shoulder. The boy’s hand reached up and grabbed him by the collar to pull him down a little.

“The picture looks nicer when we’re of the same height, sort of,” Hinata explained with a smile. Kageyama nodded silently. The feeling of Hinata pulling at his clothes was weirdly enjoyable to him.

“Alright, say cheese..”

“Repressed homosexuality.”

“Shut up, Kuroo,” Kenma muttered and rolled his eyes so hard, Kageyama feared they’d plop out of their sockets.

After they had taken the picture – which didn’t take longer than five seconds, seriously – Hinata already darted off again. Kageyama rubbed his hands over his cheeks, fearing that his face was bright red in the picture. While Kenma went through the last few pictures he had taken to see who else he needed to photograph, Kuroo turned around to look at Kageyama.

“Listen-”

“I don’t wan’t to hear it.” He turned away, but Kuroo’s arm sneaked around his neck and pulled him towards his chest. To any bystander it must have looked like Kuroo had him in a headlock.

“You should give me your email address. I’ll send you the pic.” When Kageyama didn’t reply, he continued. “I’m sure you’d love to have a cute picture of you and your crush so close to each other.”

Kageyama gulped down his anger, as his face grew even hotter. Eventually, he nodded. “I’ll tell you after the second match.”

Kuroo grinned and let go of him. “Good boy.”

Kageyama didn’t want to admit to himself that he was looking forward to the day Kuroo would send him the picture – but, honestly, he was looking forward to it. So much that, when his phone vibrated during cleaning up after practice about a few days later, he almost jumped straight out of his shoes.

He pushed the ball cart into the corner and glanced left and right, before he pulled his phone out of his pocket. The sender’s email address wasn’t saved in his address book, but ‘kurotetsu@…’ could only be one person. His fingers trembled when he opened the message and downloaded the attached file. A few moments later, the picture popped up on his screen.

As expected, he looked.. uncomfortable. His smile looked forced and unnatural, and the hand belonging to the arm around Hinata’s shoulder was clenched into a fist. To anyone who didn’t know what was going on, he probably seemed like a camerashy teenager and nothing more. But he wasn’t the person Kageyama wanted to focus on. He zoomed into the picture, so Hinata took up the screen. His completely natural, relaxed smile reached his eyes, which gleamed in the bright gym lighting. He had raised one hand and made a V-sign to the camera, as though the picture wasn’t for an authority person such as Nekoma’s coach.

Kageyama drew in a sharp breath. Here he was standing inside the barely lit equipment room, surrounded by ball carts and other things necessary for practice – and staring at a picture of his secret crush. After Kuroo had pointed it out, he had realized that there was no way to deny his feelings any longer. He was – however weird that sounded – in love with Hinata. Only a few weeks ago they had fought and bickered because of every little thing. At the start of the school year, Hinata had been afraid of him. Thinking of their match in middle school; back then, Kageyama had viewed Hinata as nothing more than just another loser playing a sport he wasn’t even remotely good at.

Now he was the one sighing like a lovestruck middle school girl whenever he thought of that Hinata.

He shook his head and tapped the screen with his thumb. It lit up and displayed the picture again. Kageyama’s teeth dug into his lower lip. For a moment he wondered what it would feel like to have Hinata smile like that just for him. The thought alone made his heart race even more than it did during practice.

This is so fucking gay, he thought to himself. He clicked his tongue and shoved his phone back into his pocket. They still had more stuff to clean up – and Coach Ukai had promised to treat them to pork buns if they managed to be done within less than an hour.

He turned around. Someone behind him yelped, followed by a dull thumping noise of something hitting the floor. The person in front of him staggered, arms flailing. Kageyama reached out in hopes of stopping their fall.

“Woah, you scared me! Hanging out in the dark like some creeper.”

His cheeks turned red at the sound of this person’s voice. Hinata didn’t seem to notice it.

“What are you doing here? Trying to get away from cleaning up? You know, I could tell the coach and—”

“I wasn’t trying to skip out on the others,” Kageyama sighed. It only made him sound nervous, and hardly as cool or annoyed as usually.

“Huh? I see.. What were you doing here then?” Hinata turned his head left and right. “I think I saw you with the ball cart- it’s standing there all wrong.” He pouted, and squinted his eyes at Kageyama, as though he was quietly asking what was going on.

Kageyama could only wonder what it would feel like to kiss that pout from his lips.

This is so fucking gay!!!!, his inner voice screamed. He cleared his throat loudly. As much as he enjoyed this moment of intimacy in the equipment room, they still had stuff to do. Besides, their teammates were right there. They could probably see them, if they squinted hard enough into the room’s general direction.

“I got a text from my parents. Nothing serious. Let’s go back to cleaning,” he said quickly.

Hinata nodded slowly. “Oh, I understand.. Sometimes my parents text me at school and I get super nervous but then it’s just stuff like ‘Hey what do you want for dinner’ or ‘Can you buy something on your way home?’ That almost gives me a heart attack because I always think something bad happened.”

“Yeah.. Same here,” Kageyama felt his mouth going dry when Hinata smiled at him.

His teammate seemed to get aware of the situation or of how uncomfortable Kageyama felt. His smile vanished, which Kageyama could only lament, and he coughed nervously.

“Well, uh, thanks for catching me, I guess?”

“No problem.”

There was a silence of a few seconds. Hinata tilted his head to the side. “You can let go of me now?” he asked cautiously.

Kageyama’s eyes widened. His gaze slowly traveled down Hinata’s body – over his shoulders and down his torso, to his hips. Right below it, Kageyama’s hands had grabbed him to stop him from falling over. Technically, he was holding his sides, but his fingers were definitely digging into his—

Ass, his mind blared, holy shit, I’m touching Hinata’s ass.

He let go of him so fast, as though he had burned his hands.

“You’re welcome!” he squeaked. He rounded Hinata and almost tripped over the rolled up net he had dropped earlier.

“The ball cart—”

“I really need to go to the bathroom,” Kageyama explained. His voice sounded almost hysterical.

“Then I’ll do your work, I guess… But only this once!” Hinata yelled after him. Kageyama didn’t even manage to reply with a thank you, before he darted out of the door that led to the bathrooms, past Tsukishima who definitely muttered something about him being a huge weirdo to Yamaguchi.

“Kageyama is so weird.”

Tsukishima looked up from his cellphone and drew his eyebrows together as he glanced at Hinata. “Tell us something we don’t know already.”

Hinata let out a deep sigh and leaned back slightly. “Haven’t you guys noticed that he’s even weirder than usual?” He turned his head to look at Kageyama, who was talking to Suga about.. little setter things, probably.

Yamaguchi shrugged next to him. “To me he seems as weird as always. Maybe a little snappier, though.”

“I know, right? He’s so nervous and jumpy lately. I can hardly talk to him anymore. He always runs away because of weird reasons.” Hinata’s mouth twitched into a pout. “I offered to lend him an ear in case he needs someone to talk to but he hasn’t taken me up on that offer.”

“Maybe he needs some time,” Yamaguchi replied soothingly. He looked down at the water bottle he was holding. “Or maybe you are.. uh,” he paused for a moment and looked at Tsukishima, who only raised an eyebrow at him, “Maybe you are part of.. what’s bothering him.”

Hinata’s eyes widened. “You think he hates me? And he can’t bring himself to tell me?” For a moment, he seemed completely shocked, before he let out a groan. “He never had a problem with letting me know about that earlier, though!”

“I think it’s the complete opposite of hate for him,” Tsukishima muttered. Yamaguchi nudged his side with his elbow.

“Tsukki,” he hissed.

“What? I think we should tell him.” He frowned at Yamaguchi and slipped his phone into the pocket of his jacket. “Hey, Hinata. What do you think of Kageyama?”

“Huh?” Hinata blinked at him. After about ten seconds, he replied, “Well, he’s a bit gloomy, and emotional and hotheaded, and really scary sometimes, I guess? But he’s a good setter and good at volleyball in general! And that’s why we get along great! Or did get along great.” He sat up straight again and folded his arms. “Seeing that he’s so strange lately.”

“Yeah, but,” Tsukishima leaned forward, “Do you have any feelings towards him that don’t fall in the friendship category?”

“Tsukki.”

“Silence.”

Yamaguchi pressed his lips together and blew up his cheeks, but Tsukishima didn’t pay attention to him. Hinata frowned.

“Uhm.. Well I don’t hate him?”

Tsukishima grinned in a way, that Hinata could only describe as smugly. “Do you ever see him and think.. or feel.. What did that guy from Aobajousai say to the king that one time we had the game against them?” He glanced at Yamaguchi who stared at him, before he let out a sigh.

“’Tingly in your dingly’,” he mumbled.

“Tingly in your dingly,” Tsukishima repeated, followed by a low giggle. “This is so horrible. No wonder nobody likes that guy.”

“He’s so obnoxious,” Yamaguchi agreed.

Hinata’s frown grew even deeper as he watched them talk so intimately. When they noticed, Yamaguchi blushed and looked away quickly. Tsukishima cleared his throat.

“Anyways. Do you ever feel any tingles in whatever regions because of Kageyama?”

“Any what?” Hinata was growing more confused by the second. He had hoped that those two could help him, but so far, they only helped to make him more puzzled about the entire situation around Kageyama.

“Tingles. Ok, listen, do you ever—” Tsukishima raised his arm and curled his fingers loosely, before shaking his hand in a vulgar, but very descriptive gesture.

Hinata felt his face grow hot. “Uh, yes, but- What does this have to do with Kageyama again?” He couldn’t help but glance around nervously while talking, in fear of anyone seeing what Tsukishima had done just now, and assuming what their conversation was about. Not like the training hall was a very private place to discuss matters, with their teammates only a few meters away from them.

“What I’m trying to say, is,” Tsukishima paused and leaned in some more, so he was almost hovering above Yamaguchi’s lap, “The way Kageyama acts reminds me of a middle school girl in love and since he only does it around you, I’m guessing that you are the object of his affections.”

Yamaguchi groaned and covered his face with one hand. “Tsukki, you really shouldn’t..”

“So you’re saying he doesn’t hate me?” Hinata could feel some sort of pressure vanishing from his shoulders. Tsukishima blinked at him before he nodded, slowly.

“I guess so. But that’s just my opinion- It could be something else entirely. Right?”

Yamaguchi swallowed, and nodded. “R-right.”

“There’s nothing else to do, then.” Hinata got up to his feet. When he turned to look at Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, both of them were frowning at him.

“What are you gonna do?”

Hinata shrugged. “Ask him whether he likes me, of course!”

Yamaguchi’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that here!” He jumped to his feet and grabbed for Hinata’s wrist. “You should, like.. wait for the two of you being alone. Maybe in the clubroom, when everyone is gone already..”

“Or in the showers, where it’s all steamy and wet.”

“Shut up, Tsukki.” Yamaguchi shot him a glance and Tsukishima pursed his lips. “Or do it when- Don’t you two study together?”

Hinata nodded after a moment of thinking. “We do our homework and revise for classes together because our grades are sooo bad. So far it’s working, I think.”

Yamaguchi smiled eagerly. “That’s perfect. Wait until you’re alone and then.. Ask him.”

For a second, Hinata seemed doubtful regarding the idea. Then, he sighed. “I guess I can wait until then.” He looked up at Yamaguchi’s face. “Thanks, Yamaguchi!” He turned away, hesitating, before he muttered, “And you too, Tsukishima. I think.”

“You’re welcome,” Tsukishima replied, followed by a roll of his eyes. Hinata grimaced as he headed over to Noya and Tanaka. As much as he wanted to ask Kageyama right here and now, he vaguely understood why it was a bad idea. Which meant, he had to keep himself occupied until they were at home and brooding over their homework.

For some reason, the prospect of finally finding out what bothered Kageyama so much made him smile.

Kageyama felt like he was sitting there and trying to do his homework while waiting to get shot from behind. It was the first time they were studying together this week, and also the first time since That One Thing had happened. It was hard (often times in more than one way) to try and concentrate on math problems when all you could think about was, I had my hands on his butt. Usually, he didn’t bother getting worked up over embarrassing things that happened to him. A very logic part of him always managed to assure him that other people didn’t care as much about these things as the person who had said things happen to them.

Whenever he looked up slightly and glanced over to Hinata, who was fighting his way through history homework, Kageyama couldn’t help but want him to care. Of course he didn’t wish for Hinata to feel uncomfortable or nervous around him, but he truly did wish that he had left some kind of effect on his teammate.

Swallowing heavily, Kageyama numbly realized that his wish basically meant that he wanted Hinata to reciprocate his feeling. The sheer thought of it made his mouth go dry and a fluttery feeling wallow up in the pits of his stomach. With trembling hands, he reached over to his drinking glass.

“Hey, Kageyama?” Hinata looked up from his homework.

“Hm?” Kageyama frowned into his apple juice, before bringing the glass to his mouth and taking a sip.

“Do you like me?”

He made a choked noise, followed by another, more disgusted sound at the feeling of apple juice almost being snorted up his nose instead of being swallowed. Blood rushed to his cheeks and he quickly set down his glass as he wiped his mouth dry. His nose tingled with the small burn his drink had caused.

“Why.. uh, why are you asking?” Kageyama cleared his throat when he heard how hoarse he sounded – not only because of the juice.

Hinata pursed his lips as he leaned in. He propped his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. “You were acting so weird lately, and I thought you hated me. But then I talked to Yamaguchi and evil Tsukishima about it and they said you might actually like me. So I thought I should just ask you directly.”

Kageyama nodded slowly and picked up his pen again, if only to gain some time. “Well, I don’t hate you..” he muttered after a couple of very long seconds. Hinata tilted his head to the side.

“I see.. So no tinglies?”

“Excuse me?” It was almost funny how high Kageyama’s voice could get when he was as nervous as this. And- had Oikawa’s stupid words really traveled that far?

“Tinglies in your… ding dongs…?” Hinata ran a hand through his curly hair. “Ah, I can’t remember it!! They said Oikawa said this to you, so you probably remember it better. Do you?”

Kageyama frowned lightly. “I… I have no idea what you are talking about,” he lied with a grim face.

Hinata huffed and leaned back, until his back hit the floor. He stretched out his legs, so his feet brushed against Kageyama’s knees. “Anyways, I’m glad you don’t hate me.”

There was a bunch of things Kageyama wanted to say – starting with ‘I wish I did hate you’, but he swallowed those words as quickly as they formed in his mind. He leaned in a little, to get a better view of Hinata lying on his back. His white shirt had slid up a little, and revealed a thin stripe of naked skin above the waistband of his pants.

He cleared his throat. Strangely, while his mind had seemed all woozy before, everything was clear now. He dropped his pen on the table and folded his hands. He ignored the trembling of his fingers as best as he could, squeezing them a bit tighter to maybe suppress it a little.

“I like you,” he muttered, followed by a nervous cough, “I.. I really do.”

Hinata’s lips curved into a smile and he raised his head. “I like you too! You’re pretty awesome, I mean, so-”

“I really, really like you,” Kageyama cut him off quickly. His gaze trailed off, to a random point on the wall. His cheeks were burning, and his heart was racing so fast, it felt like it was going to just jump straight out of his chest anytime soon. In the back of his head, he wanted to stop talking and go back to doing this boring homework assignment, but thinking logically: When was he going to get another chance like this? Seeing how lucky he was in life, he’d never be able to confess his feelings properly. He had never even thought about doing this before, in hopes of just enduring his crush until it blew over.

When he looked Hinata back in the eyes, he was pretty sure it wasn’t going to ‘blow over’ that easily. He let out a short, breathless laugh.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that grossed you out.”

“Why would it?” Hinata slowly sat up again. He leaned in a little, his hands folded on top of his textbook, mimicking Kageyama’s gesture. “You, uhm.. You like me like..”

“I like you like Yamaguchi likes Tsukishima,” Kageyama mumbled barely audibly. That was about the least romantic way to express your feelings for someone, he figured, but also the easiest for Hinata to understand.

Opposite to him, Hinata made a small noise; something between a snort and a hiccup. When Kageyama looked up, his face was red. Hinata stared down at his hands.

“Hinata?”

“I.. I didn’t expect this,” he whispered. Kageyama instantly felt bad.

“It’s alright.” A strange taste was starting to spread in his mouth. “You can just go on and reject me. I never expected you to accept-”

“No.” Hinata slammed his hands on the table, which had Kageyama lean back in surprise. For a second they both just stared at each other, faces red. Kageyama heard the blood rush in his ears and felt his heart beat so hard, he feared Hinata would be able to hear it.

“I don’t dislike it. It’s.. Actually, it’s kind of cool?” Hinata bit his lip. “Knowing that someone likes you so much.. Especially when it’s you.”

“When it’s me?” Kageyama raised his eyebrows.

Hinata nodded. “I always admired you! You’re so talented and really amazing! When I think about how someone like you likes me, I just..” He rubbed his hands against his bright red cheeks. His eyes had widened, staring at the table between them as he searched for the right words. “It just makes me feel warm all over! And really excited!!”

“Ah..” Kageyama nodded slowly, never once looking away from Hinata. Staring at him felt like looking straight into the sun, and Kageyama wanted nothing more than get closer to him. “We could go on a date. Several dates, actually,” he heard himself say. “I mean, that’s what people usually do to find out whether they fit together.. as a couple.”

Hinata looked up. “A couple,” he repeated slowly. “You and me.”

“If you want to,” Kageyama replied quickly.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I want to.”

They both stared at each other, before they looked away in embarrassment. Kageyama cleared his throat and picked up his pen, clicking it a few times. His eyes were glued to the math problem in front of him.

“So..” he said slowly, and looked up, “Are you good at completing the square?”

There was one thing Kageyama had never expected to be forced to take into consideration and that was, as simple as it sounded, the existence of his parents. His smile slowly vanished the closer the came to his house, and the more he could see his mother’s car parked in front of it. The lights in the kitchen were on, as far as he could see from the street, and he could barely make out his mother through the window, as she was closing the fridge before heading into the living room.

“Someone’s home,” Hinata said, as though he had just read Kageyama’s thoughts. He turned his head to look at him.

“I can see that..” he mumbled, “My mother usually works late, I don’t know why she’s here already.”

“Come to think of it, I never met your parents.”

Kageyama sighed as he walked towards the door and pulled his keys out of his pocket. “It’s complicated. Not bad, but.. complicated. They leave me alone most of the time and I don’t do anything weird or dangerous, so we’re good.” He glanced at Hinata, who seemed slightly taken aback by his words. “Not everyone has the kind of family you have.”

“I know, but..” Hinata paused. He stared at the door in front of them, biting his lip. “I feel bad that I never noticed it.”

“There’s nothing to notice.” All of a sudden, Kageyama felt bad for bringing up such a grim subject. He felt like an idiot for bringing the mood down like that. Today had been a good day with a nice date, and he had been all excited to get home and fulfill the promise Hinata had wrung out of him.

And he had eaten so many breath mints, too.

“We don’t have a bad relationship or anything, don’t worry. We don’t yell or fight.. We listen to each other, when there’s something wrong. It gets kind of lonely sometimes, though.” Kageyama’s gaze trailed off. Without noticing, his hand reached over to Hinata’s. The boy seemed confused for a moment, but quickly squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“It would be different if you had siblings, maybe,” he mumbled.

“Maybe,” Kageyama agreed. He shrugged and finally turned the key in the lock. The door sprung open and he stepped inside. “At least you get to meet my mother, I guess.”

“Tobio?”

As if on cue, the door to the living room was opened. Light flooded into the dimly lit hallway as a woman stepped out. She was small, petite even, with black hair tied into a ponytail.

“I’m home- but why are you?” Kageyama frowned at her while he stepped out of his shoes. Behind him, Hinata closed the door and unzipped his jacket.

His mother shrugged and folded her arms. “For some reason we had absolutely nothing to do. I have so many extra hours that I decided to go home early today.”

Kageyama blinked at her. Knowing that his mother was kind of a workaholic made it hard to believe those words. But she didn’t pay much attention to his clear confusion, and turned her head to Hinata.

“Uh, that’s my teammate,” Kageyama said quickly. “Hinata, that’s my mom.”

“Nice to meet you! Sorry for intruding,” Hinata said with a nervous smile.

“Hinata,” Kageyama’s mother repeated, “That sounds familiar.. I think Tobio told me a lot about you.”

Hinata’s eyes widened. “Did he?”

“He was completely enamored with you when he started high school.” She nodded slowly. “I remember asking about his day and he would only talk about Hinata, all the time, every single day. Ah, the memories.. It’s nice to finally have a face that belongs to the name.”

Kageyama coughed loudly. “That’s.. not true at all,” he muttered, slightly strangled. His mother laughed.

“Of course it is! I’m glad to see you’ve become such great friends.”

“Yeah we’re really close now!” Hinata smiled, and for a moment, Kageyama feared he would grab his hand in front of his mother. He didn’t, though. Fortunately.

“So, what brings you here?”

The way his mother spoke immediately gave Kageyama the chills. He glanced at Hinata, who didn’t seem to notice anything.

“Oh, we were at the cinema and now—”

“Hinata just dropped by because he really needed to go to the bathroom. He said he couldn’t hold it until he made it home,” Kageyama cut him off.

Hinata didn’t even bat an eyelid. “Yep, exactly like that. Where was the bathroom again..?”

Before Kageyama could reply, his mother spoke up, “It’s the second to last door down the hallway.” She smiled frostily. Hinata nodded appreciatively and dashed past her.

Once the door was closed, his mother took a step closer.

“He better leave once he’s done, Tobio.”

“He will,” Kageyama replied lowly, ignoring the cold feeling that settled in his chest.

“There’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” she continued. He frowned and looked up. “About your grades.”

“I told you I’m working on it.”

His mother’s eyelids fluttered contemptuously. “I can see your improvement but it’s not what I wanted yet.”

“I’m trying my best,” he hissed through gritted teeth. He clenched his fists, only to notice that his hands were shaking.

“Well your best obviously isn’t good enough.” She swiped a strand of hair out of her face. “What about your friend? Is he the one you’re studying with all the time? He doesn’t look like much of an honor student either.”

“We’re helping each other out. My improvement is thanks to him.” Kageyama noticed the tremble in his voice, and hated himself for it. His mother was a small woman, yet he felt incredibly tiny and insignificant in front of her.

“I wish you’d make better friends. The thing is that the people I want you to be friends with know that they shouldn’t be friends with someone with such bad grades, though.”

When Kageyama didn’t reply, his mother sighed. “Well, make sure to say goodbye to your friend. I’m too tired to deal with this today.” She turned around and, without another word to him, returned to the living room. Even the way she closed the door was firm and unshakeable, much like the way she talked and behaved.

About a minute later, the toilet was flushed. Hinata opened the door and peeked out. He let out a small sigh of relief, when he saw that only Kageyama was there.

“Man, she really doesn’t like me, huh?” he muttered as low as possible when he stood in front of Kageyama.

“Like I told you.. Complicated.” Kageyama sighed and looked down, embarrassment painting his cheeks bright red. “Thanks for playing along.”

“She just did a 180, that was reaaally creepy,” Hinata sighed. “Does she always do that?”

Kageyama didn’t know how to reply – a part of him wanted to say no, the other part the complete opposite. Fact was, his mother did have a habit of being completely doublefaced and hard to deal with. First she acted nice and kind, then she had no remorse showing her dislike towards others. It had been especially embarrassing during parent-teacher-conferences in middle school.

“Maybe she’ll like me more once we push our grades high enough,” Hinata mused. He had walked over to the door and was busying himself with putting on his shoes again.

“Maybe,” Kageyama sighed as he headed over to him.

When Hinata was completely dressed again, Kageyama opened the door. “I’m sorry that.. you know..”

“It’s alright.” Hinata paused and tilted his head to the side. He stared right into Kageyama’s eyes, lips pursed.

“Something wrong with my face?” Kageyama frowned at him.

“Actually- can you lean down a little?” Hinata asked.

Kageyama blinked, and leaned in a little. “Wait, is there actually some—”

His voice was muffled by Hinata’s mouth being pressed to his – short and firm, and it was over so quickly that Kageyama thought for a moment that he had only imagined it. He stared at Hinata, whose face had taken on the color of those cherry lollipops Kiyoko liked so much.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then..” Hinata made a step forward, but Kageyama pulled him back. He brushed his lips against the corner of Hinata’s mouth, which probably didn’t even qualify for a kiss, but it still made both of them blush even more when they parted.

“See you tomorrow,” Kageyama whispered breathlessly.

“Y-yeah..” Hinata cleared his throat. His nostrils flared and he drew his brows together. “Why do you smell like an entire box of Coach’s breath mints?”

Kageyama stared at him before he shrugged. “I just really like peppermint.”

He knew that he should have been excited over having a friendly match against Aobajousai (since Takeda had gone through so much trouble to arrange another one), but standing inside the gym along with his former teammates was more than enough to make him feel restless. Kageyama pointedly turned his head away when Oikawa looked around the hall, in hopes that his former upperclassman and mentor would just ignore him. Despite that, he could already feel a pair of eyes rest on him, and hear steps that gradually came closer.

“Tobiooo” Oikawa greeted in a fake, cheerful manner. Moments later, his hands reached out and were wrapped around Kageyama’s wrist – probably a poor attempt to keep him from running away. “How is my favorite student?”

“I’m not your student anymore,” Kageyama replied through gritted teeth. He could have sworn someone behind him snickered. Someone that sounded a lot like Tsukishima.

“You know how it goes, boys will be boys, students will be students – Tobio will be Tobio.” Oikawa giggled happily, as though he was proud of his own words. He let go of Kageyama, only to put an arm around his shoulders and pull him closer. Kageyama wanted to push him away, creeped out by the sudden body contact, if it hadn’t been for Oikawa leaning in to his ear and speaking softly. “So how’s it going? With your little decoy?”

When Kageyama didn’t seem to get the question, Oikawa jerked his head into Hinata’s direction. He was standing not too far away, tapping on the screen of his cellphone with a small grin. Probably texting Kenma.

“Did you get a little closer to each other?”

Kageyama was torn between answering honestly, and lying. The latter made him feel bad in theory already. It was as though he was lying about his relationship because of embarrassment. Hinata wouldn’t like it – and imagining the opposite that had Hinata lie about Kageyama made his stomach churn.

He gulped.

“I guess we’re dating.”

“Oooh,” Oikawa sounded like he wanted to clap his hands excitedly, which didn’t work since he still had his arm around Kageyama’s shoulder.

“How’s it going with Iwaizumi? I didn’t know you two were like that,” Kageyama replied quickly.

Next to him, Oikawa seemed to stiffen completely. Like a spontaneous rigor mortis.

“W-what? Tobio, that’s ridiculous.” He let out an airy laugh and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Iwa-chan and I aren’t like that. We’re friends, nothing else!”

“Huh..” Kageyama frowned and turned to face Oikawa. Oikawa’s arm slipped off his shoulders in the process. “So you make out with friends all the time? In public?”

There was a plethora of emotions washing over Oikawa’s face, changing his expression a handful of times in a matter of seconds. Eventually, he bit his lip and looked away, eyebrows drawn together. Kageyama followed his gaze, only to see that he was looking at Iwaizumi talking to some fellow teammates.

“Where did you see us?”

“Cinema. Two weeks ago.”

Oikawa let out a deep breath through his nose. “Hm. Let’s talk somewhere else.”

Kageyama wanted to protest – why was it alright for Oikawa to try and embarrass him in front of everyone, but now that the tables had turned, they had switch their location? - but Oikawa had already started walking away from him and towards the door, and Kageyama quickly followed after him. For now, he would bite back on the mean comments.

“Promise not to tell anyone,” was the first thing Oikawa said as soon as the doors had fallen shut behind them. He stopped a few meters away from Kageyama and slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

Kageyama nodded hesitantly. “Since when are you.. dating?”

“We’re not.” Oikawa said that so fast, Kageyama assumed he was lying. One look, however, was enough to prove the opposite. “We really aren’t. Iwaizumi is.. enduring me, you could say.”

“Enduring you,” Kageyama repeated.

There was a long silence in which Oikawa merely stared at the ground to their feet, worrying his lower lip between his teeth, and not saying anything. Then, he turned around. “It’s complicated. It’s not like your cute first love with Hinata where everything is sunshine and rainbows.”

Kageyama drew in a deep breath, prepared to retort something that would definitely count as snappy, if he hadn’t noticed the weird gleam in Oikawa’s eyes. His former mentor looked away again, which made it hard to see, but Kageyama was sure that he was, as weird as it sounded, holding back tears.

“Hinata’s and my.. relationship.. isn’t all sunshine and rainbows either,” he murmured after a few seconds of wondering how to reply.

Oikawa looked up with a frown. “What do you mean?”

Kageyama sighed. “We’re just.. testing whether he really likes me. Any day could be the day he decides that he’s not really into me, and just break it off.” He shrugged in an attempt to make it seem like he didn’t care that much. Which, of course, was a blatant lie.

He cared almost too much. The thought of Hinata saying that he didn’t really like him and all those dates and kisses still didn’t make him feel anything more than just a little excited killed him whenever he allowed his thoughts to wander into that direction.

Oikawa let out a sigh. “I’m sure you will be fine. He’s a good kid. I think he really does like you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Iwa-chan isn’t like that,” Oikawa continued without paying attention to what Kageyama had said, “We share a very deep and.. profound bond. He’s a nice guy to be friends with, but when it comes to feelings, he’s a very cruel person.”

Kageyama frowned lightly. The idea of Iwaizumi being cruel had never even crossed his mind. Oikawa rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head. “Well, whatever. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Kageyama said. It took him a moment to realize the meaning of his own words. “Hinata knows, but I’ll tell him to keep his mouth shut.”

Oikawa blinked at him in disbelief. Slowly, his mouth curved into a smile that could only be described as thankful. “Thanks, Tobio.”

A few minutes after Oikawa had gone into the gym again, the door was opened again. Kageyama turned around, raising his eyebrows in surprise when he saw Hinata coming outside.

“I saw Oikawa come in but you weren’t with him- I was scared he beat you up!” he explained, waving his hands exaggeratedly.

Kageyama laughed dryly. “He was pretty tame. Kind of poured out his heart.”

“Eh? That’s weird.” Hinata pouted and folded his arms. “Is he trying to trick you that he’s not dangerous, only to bite off your head when— Oh.” He was obviously taken off guard when Kageyama put his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. “W-what’s that for..?”

“I just felt like hugging you,” Kageyama replied, his voice muffled by Hinata’s unruly hair.

“Oh, I see.. Good thing I like hugs.” Hinata wiggled his arms free and wrapped them around Kageyama’s torso. “Hugging tall people feels nice too.”

“Hugging short people feels nicer,” Kageyama replied weakly. He could hear Hinata huff and stammer some counter argument, but he didn’t listen to it very carefully.

A tiny part of him hoped that hugging Hinata like this would be a way to convey the vastness of his feelings to him.

Oikawa hadn’t said anything deep or helpful to him, but for some reason, their conversation stuck in Kageyama’s mind and had left some kind of effect on him. He watched as Hinata bit his lip while skimming through his history notes and searching for more questions to ask him, and felt the familiar sting in his chest area. It felt like a pull and a tug at his heart, as though his body wanted to remind him how much he liked the boy in front of him.

As if he needed any reminders for that.

“Oh, right— John F. Kennedy died on …?”

“November 22,1963,” Kageyama answered.

Hinata nodded slowly. “You got everything right.. I think you’re set for the test tomorrow.” He looked up and smiled at Kageyama, who cursed himself in silence when he felt himself blush.

“Thanks for questioning me,” he mumbled. He took the notes Hinata handed him and put them aside.

“You’re good at learning stuff by heart, huh? I wish I could do that too,” Hinata pouted.

Kageyama shrugged, even though he couldn’t deny that he was a little flattered by his words. “I also know all 719 Pokémon by heart.”

“That’s extreme,” Hinata frowned at him.

“I’d rather call it a hobby. I used to have this kid in my class who’d know everything – weight, height, levels, attacks. It was insane.”

Hinata giggled and tilted his head to the side. “Sounds like something Kenma would know.”

“I.. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Kageyama admitted hesitantly. There was a weird feeling in his stomach whenever Hinata mentioned Kenma’s name, but he chose to ignore it as much as he could. They were friends, and being jealous of Hinata’s friends would only cause unnecessary trouble.

“He can be really obsessive about video games. But I think knowing all 719 Pokémon is obsessive too,” Hinata grinned.

“It’s easy when you’re really into it.”

Hinata shrugged. “I never really got into Pokémon.. I don’t know why. I did play some of the games though.” Kageyama wanted to reply, but Hinata had gotten up and walked around the table. “What other stuff do you like?”

Kageyama watched as Hinata sat down next to him, and looked at him with big, curious eyes. He cleared his throat. “Uhm… pork curry with egg. And yogurt.”

“Aside from food?”

“Uhm..” He frowned at the table in front of them. “I like things that smell or taste like lemon.”

Hinata let out a short, breathless laugh. “Like bathroom cleaning products.”

“Well not those,” Kageyama rolled his eyes, “But lemon candy is nice. And dark chocolate.”

“That’s so bitter,” Hinata grimaced. He had leaned in a little, maybe out of curiosity. Both of them were sitting on the floor, their legs crossed, and their knees pressed against each other.

“I like animals but I think they don’t like me.”

“Oh, you’re a bit scary, but animals judge people based on their hearts, you know!” Hinata replied enthusiastically.

Kageyama huffed. “Thanks for the encouragement. That means I don’t have a good heart, huh?” He squinted his eyes at Hinata, who only shrugged.

“I don’t know, I’m not an animal, so I can’t tell you. What else do you like?”

Kageyama sighed. He knew a bunch of things he liked, but they either had to do with food, or with volleyball. Listing the things he hated would have been easier. He would have started off with Oikawa, probably.

“I like you,” he replied after a few seconds of silence. Hinata drew in a deep breath. Kageyama reached over and brought his hand to his cheek. His thumb rubbed along his cheek bone, slowly and cautiously. Hinata leaned in to the touch. “I like you a lot.”

Hinata stayed silent – the way he always did when Kageyama declared his affections. Kageyama didn’t take it personally. He preferred Hinata to be honest with him, and not replying was better than replying ‘I like you too’ when he didn’t really mean it that way.

Hinata straightened up and Kageyama lowered his hand. At first he assumed that Hinata was going to return to his seat opposite to him. Instead, Hinata crawled over and climbed on his lap.

It wasn’t the first time that this happened. Hinata was someone who enjoyed physical contact a lot, and had no qualms with demanding it whenever he felt like it.

“I like it when you kiss me,” Kageyama muttered under his breath when Hinata had settled on his lap. His teammate’s lips curved into a smile, before he leaned in and brushed his mouth against Kageyama’s. His breath was hot against his skin when Hinata whispered, “What else do you like?”

Kageyama swallowed, mouth dry. “I like it when you pull my hair when we kiss.”

“I figured.” As if to accentuate his statement, Hinata’s fingers curled in his black hair. Kageyama shuddered.

“What do you like?” he asked quickly, to hide his embarrassment over such a reaction.

“Hmm..” Hinata squinted his eyes a little. “I like a lot of things.” Before Kageyama could reply, he continued talking, his voice low, “I like you.”

“D-do you?” Kageyama blinked. He watched as Hinata’s cheeks slowly turned red. A moment later, Hinata buried his face in the crook of his shoulder. Hot breath ghosted over Kageyama’s skin, making him shiver in the process.

“I do,” he heard Hinata mumble. “I’ve been thinking about this for a really long time, but..”

There was a pause that seemed like hours to Kageyama, but he didn’t dare say anything to urge Hinata to keep talking.

“Kageyama?”

He cleared his throat nervously. “Yes?”

Hinata pulled back. His face was red, and his hands gripped Kageyama’s shoulders tightly now.

“I’m in love with you.” His voice was barely audible. Kageyama feared he didn’t even hear that right.

“You.. what?”

Hinata groaned and shook his head. “I said I’m in love with you!! Don’t make me say this again! Stupid.”

For a moment, Kageyama feared Hinata was honestly mad at him. That was, until he saw the playful pout on Hinata’s face.

“You like me.”

“Yes.”

“Holy shit.”

“Wow.” Hinata punched his shoulder. Kageyama only shook his head in bewilderment.

“That hurt; that means it’s not a dream.”

“Of course it’s not! I’m going to take it back if you don’t—” The rest of his sentence was muffled by the small kiss that Kageyama gave him.

“How.. I mean, when.. Hinata?”

Kageyama was vaguely aware of the fact that he was talking complete gibberish, but Hinata only smiled at him, albeit nervously. “I don’t know. Last week, when we had this friendly against Aobajousai and you hugged me outside the gym..” He bit his lip as though he was reminiscing the moment. “Everything was so warm and tingly and suddenly it hit me that I really liked you.”

Kageyama didn’t even know what to say, so he merely stared at Hinata.

Hinata stared back at him.

“All I could think was, Wow, I want to stay with this idiot forever.”

“I’m glad, but also offended,” Kageyama replied. “Mostly glad, though.”

“Good. It took me a lot of courage to say that, just saying. Confessing seemed way easier when you did it.” Hinata closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry that it took me so long.”

Kageyama bit his lip. “It’s fine,” he muttered. He sighed and leaned in. Right before Hinata’s mouth, he stopped. “That means we’re.. a real couple now?”

“I guess we are.”

A small giggle bubbled up in Kageyama’s chest. His entire body felt warm all over, from head to toe. He hugged Hinata tighter, pulling him closer to his chest. “I love you,” he whispered.

Hinata smiled and ran his hand through his dark hair, before he replied.

“I love you too.”