Author's note: My first Haikyuu! fic! I've sunk so far into hq! hell honestly lol.
Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu!
They should have known.
"What do you mean you unlearned your smile?"
They really should have figured it out earlier.
"Smiling's a default state!"
But with all the new upgrades and programs, it was difficult to tell.
"Not for me."
At first.
x.x.x.x.x
Hinata was the first to suspect it, and even then he didn't quite believe himself. You couldn't unequip a default state, after all.
But then Tsukishima had to make Kageyama mad with his constant jibes of 'King', and when no one saw a smile after the joke had run its course, Sugawara sprung the question.
"Kageyama... Why do you never smile?"
The answer was slow in coming, as if Kageyama broke his programming somewhere along the line.
"I unlearned it."
x.x.x.x.x
They had so many questions, and the rest of practice was lousy because of it. Coach Ukai let them go early, grumbling about hormones messing up their wiring. It wasn't completely false.
Kageyama was cornered and tied down until the story was forced from his nerveless lips, and then Hinata felt just a bit sorry for him.
"What sort of an idiot unlearns his smile because of a small incident?"
He'd yelled that then, but the sapphire swirl of sadness in Kageyama's navy eyes made his anger meter reduce a notch.
Or maybe he imagined it, because he recognised that irritated slashed mouth.
"Dare to repeat that, dumbass?"
Sugawara had stepped in then, calming them down with a spark from his hands, then shooed them back home to 'think'.
Hinata was still mad about it.
Kageyama, that was.
"You can't expect me to believe that story, Kageyama!"
"Then don't! None of you should have heard it!"
He'd stormed off then, and even Tsukishima looked at Hinata funny.
"Sometimes, even a king has to be privy to commoners' emotions."
x.x.x.x.x
It was part of growing up, or so, Kageyama thought.
He thought everyone got the default state of blank and slightly angry when they reached a certain age. Maybe that part was right, and the Programmers didn't mess that up.
Maybe it was him who had messed up, because he had never before seen a default smiling state suddenly lose its default status.
On a lonely Wednesday, when yet another person walked away, Kageyama discarded his default smile.
He wouldn't need it anyway.
x.x.x.x.x
Hinata was still the same after the Incident. The rest of the team gradually went back to normal, but Hinata was still loud and obnoxious because he didn't believe Kageyama threw away his default smile.
One day he cornered him during lunch, and Kageyama was forced to show him.
"Neutral, anger, sadness, disgust... Wait, why is sadness a default for you?"
Hinata got a slap to the head for his trouble.
"Because it is!"
After a heartbeat, more quietly, "Maybe because it replaced the smile."
And then Hinata began to wonder if maybe, maybe, Kageyama's wiring was of a lonely, rejected person at its core, and not just one layer of his programming.
x.x.x.x.x
"Kageyama! Toss to me!"
The flying of the ball from fingers to hand, the slap as it connected with Hinata's palm, the satisfying slam where it hit the floor, the opponent's libero too slow to reach it.
The feeling of euphoria was so great, it made Kageyama's lips twitch just a little.
"W-whoa, Kageyama, w-w-wait, I hit the ball, why do you have such a scary face!?"
Irritation flared up then, wiping away any trace of the glitch.
Hinata sighed in relief as his partner's face reverted back to his default, but the funny look Kageyama had on didn't leave his mind.
x.x.x.x.x
They went everywhere together. Competed over the smallest things. It was only natural that Hinata learnt to read Kageyama's expression, even if he didn't have a smiling default.
Instead of watching his mouth, he changed tactics and looked at his eyes instead.
Blazing navy was for his angry default, and Hinata had so much experience with it that he began calling it Kageyama's 'Default Default' in his head. (It wasn't technically a lie. Kageyama seemed to be so angry all the time.) Hard sapphire was the most common when they weren't arguing, and Hinata learnt that it was for his sadness default (which surprisingly, was Kageyama's favourite default state). Sparkling eyes were for volleyball and winning their competitions. Hinata supposed there was supposed to be a smile involved, but since Kageyama got rid of his, there was none. Competitions were hard cobalt, determination in the angry slash of his mouth. Homework and class was dull navy, boredom on his default neutral face.
Then there was that funny look he first saw in a match, a grimace of sorts, with bright eyes and a mouth that refused to turn up, because it couldn't.
Hinata assumed that was Kageyama trying to smile, but failing because he didn't have anything like that in his program.
"Why don't you just buy another smile?"
Kageyama looked at him with his downward slashed mouth, brows drawn to the centre, and it occurred to Hinata that he'd said something stupid. "You need a default before you can get any smile, dumbass. They don't sell defaults."
"Right." Hinata chewed morosely on his meat bun. "Too bad the programming can't be jailbroken."
"I didn't think you hated me so much you wished me try, and end up with the Defects." Swish, swish, and he was gone, Hinata left gaping after him, wondering what he said wrong.
x.x.x.x.x
Kindly Sugawara always had an answer.
"Kageyama probably thought you would ask him to jailbreak his programming to add his default smile back, if jailbreaking was possible. Based on his recount to us that time, he probably thought that was the deepest betrayal, coming from someone he considers a friend."
Hinata mulled this over. "Kageyama upgraded me to friend?"
"Don't you consider him a friend?"
"I guess?" Hinata hadn't had a look at his list of people recently, and was afraid to look at how the Programmers had classified them. "He's so uptight though."
Sugawara patted his shoulder and sent him to his drills. "Have a look at your list soon."
x.x.x.x.x
Hinata looked, was shocked at the placement, and ran to find Kageyama. Only, the taller boy kept avoiding him, and wouldn't speak to him even as they practiced their quicks.
Hinata was desperate enough for an answer that he chased Kageyama down after practice ended and jumped him. The startled drop and roll that happened next was sure to have jostled their wiring, but Hinata didn't care.
"My list says you're my best friend now."
Kageyama started, stopped struggling, and pulled up his list in surprise. Hinata peeked, even though it was impolite to, and found the same words printed beside his name.
"I guess this means I'm not supposed to stay mad at you?"
Hinata punched him.
"Stupid Kageyama. We never would have reached that if we stopped fighting each other."
x.x.x.x.x
Their fights got more intense, more competitive, with ever higher stakes. Some days they ended up nose to nose in an argument and didn't care about Tsukishima and Yamaguchi's snickers or Tanaka and Nishinoya's whispers of 'kiss, kiss, kiss!' because their lists never showed a change in status.
"I don't think lists show ranks like 'the person I love-hate and want to kiss'. For all we know, that's their real status."
The bickering duo had paused to glare at Tsukishima, but his words got them thinking anyway.
x.x.x.x.x
It was after a particularly tiring practice in the dead of winter when Hinata walked into the clubroom and saw Kageyama shivering in front of his locker.
His jacket was too small but he draped it around his shoulders anyway, his hands moving automatically. He thought nothing of it until after he changed and turned around, which was when he saw the strangest sight.
A tiny thing, a tiny quirk of the lips as Kageyama pulled the jacket closer to himself, eyes closed in contentment.
Hinata was so excited, he ran and threw himself at Kageyama, knocking them over onto the floor.
Kageyama was about to yell at him to get off, dumbass when Hinata beamed, and the smile was so disarming he lost his words.
"Again!"
Kageyama frowned. "What?"
"You smiled! I know you did! I saw it!"
And Kageyama thought he was being ridiculous because he hadn't smiled. Not since grade school.
"I can't remember how to smile. And I don't have a default, dumbass!"
"Well, just do whatever you were doing before I jumped you!"
"Why are you still on me anyway?" Kageyama tried to kick him off, but Hinata clung tighter and peered into his face.
"It's cold and you have my jacket."
That, Kageyama thought, was even more ridiculous, because Hinata willingly gave up his jacket. But he didn't argue because his attention was a little diverted–
Wow, since when did Hinata have such big, brown eyes, and that mess he called hair looked really soft suddenly, and before he knew it, his hand had come up to pet that orange nest.
Hinata instantly melted, eyes shuttering as he collapsed back on Kageyama's chest, funny purring sounds emitting from him. And Kageyama thought he must have been a weird kid to have paid for a cat's purr in his program.
Hinata's eyes flew open and he grinned at Kageyama. "You're smiling."
The tension left his face as he stared at Hinata, and raised a hand to his mouth.
"That was a smile?"
Hinata only grinned more widely and reached up to pull the corners of his mouth. "How'd you get your default back?"
Kageyama looked distressed. "I didn't."
Then they were scrambling to check his interface, and there was no default, but a shining new panel with the words 'Unidentified' on it.
When they pulled it up, there was Kageyama, a tiny smile on his face, eyes half-closed and contented.
They stared at it for longer, and Hinata blurted, "How?"
Kageyama shook his head, in wonder of the discovery.
"The Programmers must have lied. We're still human, and we can't run on programs and wiring. Not fully."
"Or maybe that's just you, Kageyama!" Hinata bounced in his lap, and Kageyama pushed him off. Dumb Hinata and his dumb puppy program.
The smaller boy picked himself off the floor, nonplussed, energy radiating off him. "We're only human and limited by programs, but you broke their code! You smiled by yourself!"
Kageyama felt that funny twitch in his face again as his body moved on its own to grab Hinata, and the other looked so stunned he allowed himself to be caught.
They crashed to the floor.
Hinata groaned, and Kageyama only felt the twitch grow, until it felt like his face was straining. A funny sound escaped him, and Hinata looked up in shock.
"Are you laughing?"
Kageyama covered his mouth, but it was too late. Hinata was doing that beaming thing again, smiling so brightly that he thought he would go blind. "You can smile, you can laugh! You're human after all!"
"Shut up, dumbass. Of course I'm human." The words had no heat to them, and Kageyama's hand moved by itself, grabbing and yanking Hinata into his arms, squeezing tightly, tightly, even as his face strained and he could feel the cold air on his exposed teeth.
He was smiling.
And Hinata was laughing and crying and thumping his back happily because Finally!, Kageyama can smile!, We're human, we're human, we're not machines, we'll never be machines–
Kageyama pulled away, grabbed Hinata's face and kissed him.
Because why not. If he broke the default, the one that said he could never smile again, why couldn't he break the label that said he could only kiss and marry girls?
(Okay maybe he was a bit worried about how rash he was acting, but this was Hinata, who was as rash and impossible and hot-headed as he was–)
–Hinata was definitely as rash and stupid as him, because he was kissing back with a ferocity he usually saved for the court, and by the time they broke apart, they were both panting and red.
They noticed that there was a gleaming sign beside them that said 'Relationship Progression', and Kageyama's opened interface had the word 'Boyfriend' next to Hinata's name. It was sort of transparent, though, as if the program was unsure of itself, and that only made Kageyama smile a smile that stretched his mouth from end to end, his eyes scrunched up.
Hinata patted his arm excitedly while informing him that "That's called a grin", but Kageyama was so happy to have gained back his default when he most wanted it that he didn't care how noisy Hinata was being for once.
He could always shut him up with a kiss.