HEY KAGEYAMA! ARE YOU FREE TOMORROW? WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME OVER?

Kageyama's phone bleeped a muffled notification from his pocket, and the setter perked up in his rolly chair. He reached into his black shorts to pull out the phone, unceremoniously abandoning the homework he was doing (read: not doing). His blue eyes widened when he read the question, but even more so when he read who it was from.

YAMAGUCHI TADASHI

The little speech bubble sat lonely against the white background. The boys had texted each other only once before, when Yamaguchi offered Kageyama his help to study before the training camp. They weren't particularly close friends. Yamaguchi certainly didn't hate Kageyama, and after their defeat of Shiratorizawa he often tried to talk to Kageyama during and after practice, making the most of the bonds the victory had formed between Karasuno. The first years had all become attached over the long haul and now in their second year everyone felt closer than ever.

Yet the two certainly couldn't be called anything closer than acquaintances and that was why, 5 minutes later, Tobio was still staring blankly at the little black words on the screen. He snapped out of the initial shock and pushed at his desk, rolling across the blue carpet floor.

He'd never been over to anyone's house before.

Before Kitagawa Daichi, he'd had little primary school friends, and they hung out at playgrounds together, but Kageyama had always been a bit different, which made actual play dates difficult.

He preferred not to think about middle school. Volleyball had been his refuge, but even that had rejected him. It still made his stomach twist uncomfortably.

Then, Karasuno - the first time he had real friends. Technically, Hinata was his closest friend, despite the incessant arguing. The third years were his firstfriends, followed by the second years, and then the first years (Hinata might be his closest friend, but they certainly weren't buddy-buddy the moment they laid eyes on each other). Even Stingyshima cared in his own way.

Deep down. Maybe.

Irrespective of how much his newfound family accepted him, personality and all, he'd never been invited to hang out before. Yamaguchi was the first, which was both unusual and yet strangely logical. The freckled boy was just as sassy and savage as his blond counterpart, but he was also very loving and gentle, and he adored being around friends.

Friends.

Kageyama suddenly became very aware of the clock's heartbeat on his wall. Another five minutes had passed, and his screen had gone dark. The pretty setter was at a loss as to how to reply and something funny tickled his throat, like he was going to cry, although the heat in his face and chest told him he was very happy indeed.

Tobio swung round and padded down the stairs to do something he wasn't really very good at. Ask for advice, from the only friend he had.

"Mama?" Kageyama-san whipped her head around, hair pulled up in a bun as she bustled around her study. Her hair was as straight and soft as his, but her eyes were honey brown and full of love, unlike his permanently-angry baby blues. She paused in her work and smiled at him, taking his face in her little hands and pulling his head down to kiss him. His heart buzzed and he felt six years old all over again.

"Hey, what's up, Tobio?" She stroked his cheek and dropped her gaze to the phone in his hands. He flicked the screen on and showed her the text.

Kageyama-san had always known her son was different. From his first encounter with school, he didn't get along with the other children. She knew it wasn't for lack of trying, and she also knew just how gentle and angelic her little boy could be. Unfortunately, he was born with a little barrier in his heart that meant he just couldn't connect with people, which led him through his education without a friend in the world.

Karasuno was different. His first few days there were…rocky, to say the least, but within a week he would come home and the happy atmosphere wouldn't change. He stopped bringing home those lonely rain clouds that often settled on his head for the first time in years. Most importantly, he started talking. He always told his mother about his day, but he began to include people in his stories.

Gentle Suga-san and responsible Daichi-san.

The team's ace and little blonde manager with the hearts of glass.

The tall bitter one with a vendetta against everyone shorter than him.

His incredible quick with the boy who held the sun in his hands.

He briefly mentioned second years, but when questioned, Tobio would only blanche and mutter "Scary. All of them."

Lastly, he talked about a freckled friend who would tease Kageyama one day and help him with homework the next. Yamaguchi Tadashi.

Text received, 20 minutes ago. He must be feeling rather snubbed.

This thought passed through the back of her mind, because the rest of her brain was spinning headily with joy. She looked up to her son, big and tall as he was, appearing so small, desperate for an answer that so many other people would spit out without thinking twice.

"Tell him of course you can go, my love," she beamed, ecstasy filling her up like the warmest wine on a cold night.

"Don't leave your friend hanging any longer."

There it was again, the foreign word – friend.

He stiffened and his eyes grew to the size of plates, and although she saw understandable fear in them she thought she saw something a little like love flash past as well.

"Th-thanks, mama." He bounded up the stairs after she enveloped him in her arms. Her baby was growing up, and he wasn't walking that long road alone anymore.

KAGEYAMA TOBIO | RE: COME OVER?

YA. YES. PLEASE? NICE.

Yamaguchi charitably let the unusual response slide (he did show Karasuno later, though. Tsukishima laughed for a thousand years).

YAMAGUCHI TADASHI | RE: RE: COME OVER?

GREAT. SEE YOU AT 10 TOMORROW! MY ADDRESS IS BELOW.

Honestly, Yamaguchi hadn't really been expecting otherwise. When he opened the door to Kageyama's knock, he was greeted first by Kageyama's mother, who took a picture of him instantaneously and thanked him profusely for the invitation. Tobio followed her in, well and truly flung out of his comfort zone. He had homemade snacks in one hand and a homemade drawing of some stars and planets in the other (labelled 'for Yamaguchi')(see A/N). He took a prepatory breath and said,

"Thanks for having me!"

It was said as though he'd practiced it in the mirror (he had), but the sincerity in his voice made Yamaguchi pause. He didn't know from what dark place the air-headed setter had crawled out of but Yamaguchi had eventually realised Kageyama was a tyrant king because he'd never been shown another way to rule. He was someone who just needed a guide. A friend. Their friendship might have been only because it was desirable as team mates, but after the third years had graduated everyone had realised that they were more than comrades. They were family. Bonds formed from necessity had evolved (albeit slowly) into love.

Yamaguchi smiled. "Thanks for coming."

After several more pictures and blubbering from Kageyama-san, Tobio stepped into a world he hadn't even realised was open to him because it was so alien.

Love.

Tobio sat at his desk, hands fiddling with an assignment he knew would never be completed. He'd taken to staring at literally anything other than the paper before him and his eyes soon found the collection of photographs nearby.

They were all photos of different ages but each had perfectly captured the moments of time that Kageyama treasured most. At the end of the cluster was the most recent one. It was a little digital illustration of Tsukishima's trademarked look of disgust, strawberry gelato smeared on his lips unbeknownst to him. Kageyama smiled his now better practiced but still fear-inspiring smile. That was the first time Tsukishima asked Kageyama, by himself, to hang out with him. Tsukishima had insisted it was because Yamaguchi was sick and he had nothing better to do, but the whole time (just a few hours to go get ice-cream by the beach) not a truly mean thing had left his mouth (although at least several thousand snarky remarks were made, so everyone wondered if that really was a victory). Perhaps it was because November was nipping their heels and Tsukishima was really beginning to understand in a few short months their third year would be over and they'd all part ways.

They might all walk different paths now, but Kageyama was convinced their hearts would always remain aligned. Who knows? Perhaps during university they might see each other on the opposite side of the net.

The next few ones along were all beach selfies taken by Hinata of the whole group. The little golden boy outshone the three others, who were fighting in the background for a spot in the picture. Yamaguchi was trying to shove Tsukishima out of the way, but the blond was too busy saying something nasty to Tobio's past self, who looked incensed.

Then there were several of Tobio, hanging out with mix-matched people in different places. Yachi's happy face beamed at him from several of these. Clustered in the midst of these there was a favourite of his – a picture of the boys and Yachi in Tokyo Tower, minus Tsukishima (because Hinata had pointed to Tsukki the day before and said, 'is that Tokyo Tower?'. Tsukki served into the back of Hinata's head for a week afterwards).

As Kageyama went along the line, the pictures became older. Instead of the delirious emotion the recent ones brought, each one he looked at now tied a little weight to Kageyama's heart. It wasn't that they were sad memories. It was that they were good ones that Tobio couldn't return to.

For example, third-year Nishinoya and Tanaka stood either side of second-year Kageyama in this one. A few minutes before the picture had been taken, Nishinoya and Tanaka had taught Kageyama something he didn't understand, but it must have been rude. The libero then got a little first year to take the picture as they all made the obscene gesture together. It was a cute photo, although when Ennoshita discovered what they had taught Kageyama to do the disastrous duo were cleaning the sports hall after practice for a month.

His gaze trailed onwards, down the line of time until he came to the first and oldest photograph. Dust was sprayed across the frame, mimicking the spray of brown freckles across the face of the boy in the photo. The photo was blurry, and Yamaguchi's much younger and pointier face stared out of the frame at Kageyama in astonishment.

Kageyama's eyes danced. The earth seemed to pause beneath him. His mother had captured the second that Tobio felt Karasuno's love pierce his soul in an A5, two-dimensional universe. It was the moment he realised that he didn't have to hide himself anymore because as simple and blunt and scary as Kageyama was they didn't care. They asked only that as they carry his burdens that he carry theirs in return.

His mother called on him from downstairs, breaking his reverie and evoking something like déjà vu in him. He dropped his pen, and it brushed across the paper without leaving a mark, the assignment remaining as pure and blank as the day he had gotten it.

A/N: Kageyama drew Yamaguchi a picture. Of space.

Yamaguchi had to control his overwhelming desire to roll into some dark pit and laugh his butt off for the rest of eternity so as not to offend Kageyama while he was over. Kags stayed for 10 hours. 10 hours of desperately forcing away the image of the drawing so you don't vomit everywhere from laughter. That does things to you. The new first years were afraid of Yams for a week. Kinoshita and Narita took a photo of the drawing and made it their phone backgrounds. Tsukki bought him a frame for the picture. Yamaguchi hung it ironically, but the next time Kageyama came over for Tadashi's birthday party he saw it and nearly cried from happiness. Yachi, Tsukki and Hinata had to be hospitalized shortly afterwards.

Also Kags is a total mama's boy.

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