"Suga-san, what's in the bag?" Hinata pointed at the large plastic bag his upperclassmen carried. He circled the third year, tilting his head.
Suga fondly smiled. "Oh this?" he lifted the bag for Hinata to have a clear view, "It's full of lollies from other countries."
Hinata's eyes widened. "Lolis?! I didn't know you liked that kind of stuff, Suga-senpai!"
"No, no, Hinata," Suga laughed nervously, taking a bar of chocolate out of the bag and holding it out for him, "Candy and chocolate."
The first year gasped as he took the chocolate bar, one hand in his orange hair, pushing it back. "Thank you! A-are you sure though? This looks expensive, you really don't have to…"
Suga just smiled reassuringly. "You can have-"
Hinata saw, from the corner of his eyes that Kageyama was entering the gym. He had his jacket slung on his shoulder and was sipping yet another carton of milk.
"Kageyama! Look!" he pointed at the bag, "Chocolate and candy!
The setter withdrew the straw from his mouth, an expression far from happy was on his face. "Cool."
"Cool?! Is that all you're saying? It's- what was it senpai?- Lollies! Everybody likes chocolate and lollies and candy, right Suga-san?"
"Lolis? Sugawara-san, he did not just say that-"
"No!" Suga raised his hands, "Lollies. It's a different word for candy."
Kageyama looked away, disinterest on his face, "I've never liked sweet things."
"WHA-"
"That's understandable," Suga interrupted and he took a twisted piece of licorice out of the bag, "I don't enjoy the taste of licorice, but you might. It's not as sweet as the others."
"Sort of like you," Hinata teased.
Kageyama opened his mouth, ready to react, however he sighed, defeated.
"I've never liked candy. Sweet or not."
The doors to the gym opened in a sudden movement. Six members of the team were at the door, Tanaka at the front, an aghast expression plastered on his face. "Everybody. Likes. Candy. How the hell do you-"
He lurched forward. "AH!"
Daichi stood behind him, a hand raised, his expression unreadable. "Enough, Tanaka. Kageyama, can I talk with you for a second?"
Kageyama, startled, nodded his head and casted his eyes down on the floor as he walked out the gym with the captain. As soon as the door closed, Nishinoya and Tanaka came bounding to where Hinata and Suga stood.
"Do you have any idea why Daichi-san is in this bad of a mood before morning practice?" Nishinoya asked and when Hinata shook his head, the second year flailed his arms, "He had this angry dad look on his face!"
Asahi flinched. Everybody was now right in front of the stage. "Noya… You do know that Daichi might hear you!"
"Not through that door he isn't," Suga said, squeezing the plastic handles of the bag then letting go slowly. "But I was just about to ask the same question."
"Well whatever the hell it is, Kageyama's at the receiving end of it."
Nishinoya pointed finger guns at him. "Nice serve, Ryuu."
"Now isn't the time," Suga chided, but his eyes twinkled devilishly.
"Kageyama sure is in trouble," Tsukishima snickered. "How will the airhead get out of the captain's wrath?"
Beside him, Yamaguchi let out a little laugh before he turned to Suga. "Suga-san, if it helps, Daichi-san was called to the vice principals office before he was with us."
Asahi clicked his fingers. "That's right. He wasn't in the mood to talk- and we all know how scary he is when he's angry-"
-Tanaka nodded solemnly-
"-But he did mention that there was a fight."
Hinata jumped, stealing his teammate's attention. He hadn't talked in a while and, when he did, the words just came right out. "Kageyama isn't that type of person! The only time he gets fired up is about volleyball or with me! The person probably insulted volleyball!"
"Huh?! Well Kageyama was right for picking a fight with them." Tanaka scrunched his nose and tilted his chin into the air. He was assuming his gangster stance.
"I wasn't saying Kageyama was in a fight!" Asahi exclaimed.
There was silence for a few seconds until Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. "What else could the fight be about? If, let's say, the idiot setter just saw the fight and the vice principal needed a witness, Daichi-san wouldn't be so pissed."
"Screw you, Tsukishima, you quick thinker!" Nishinoya sulked.
"That was more of a compliment than an insult," Yamaguchi muttered, and, before they could say anymore, the doors opened.
Kageyama walked in, grabbing a volleyball from the large basket near the net stands.
His teammates watched him go to the serving line. Kageyama threw the ball in the air, higher than he normally would, and Hinata's eyes widened as Kageyama jumped. The ball was contacted with a palm, sending it like a cannonball, missing the court and hitting the opposite wall.
Hinata could hear every exhale of breath from his teammates next to him. They all had their eyebrows raised, Tanaka and Nishinoya had their mouths agape.
Daichi appeared at the door, exchanging glances with Suga, who nodded understandingly, following him outside. Before they closed the door, Daichi opened his mouth.
"Practice. We'll be back in less than five."
The door closed, none of the people besides Hinata moved. He made sure not to glance at Kageyama on his way to get a volleyball.
"Hinata…" Asahi said, then he shook his head, "We need to set up the nets first."
Less than ten minutes into morning practice, he was called by Daichi and Suga, both with concerned expressions. The group hadn't done much yet, other than stretching and partnering up to bump the ball to each other, but Hinata had started getting into it, almost forgetting the whole Kageyama incident.
Almost.
It was hard not to notice the serves Kageyama had been doing, especially when most of them ended with the volleyball slamming against the wall. His teammates tried hard to ignore him, most of them gritted their teeth in annoyance. Asahi and Yamaguchi however had their heads down. Hinata, on the other hand, was too busy noticing the pain in his forearms from having a receiving rally against Tanaka.
Now, he stood in front of the captain and the co-captain right outside the gym, underneath the roofed hallway.
"Hinata," Suga paused and looked at Daichi, "We'd like you to keep a close eye on Kageyama for the day. I know you're not in the same homeroom class, but we need to make sure Kageyama doesn't get into another fight."
"He might be suspended next time," Daichi added, "If serious enough, they're thinking of withdrawing Kageyama from club activities."
Hinata's heart stopped and he clenched his hands until his nails dented the skin on his palms. "So he did get into a fight."
His voice sounded shaky to him, and he looked desperately at his two upperclassmen for confirmation.
Daichi drew his lips into a thin line. "It was minor, there weren't any witnesses. Apparently he shoved a classmate into a wall."
"So please, Hinata," Suga pressed, "Keep an eye on him. We'll ask this of Tsukishima and Yamaguchi too, hopefully they don't dislike him enough to want to see him booted off the team."
"They'll keep an eye on him," Hinata assured, "Even I don't hate Kageyama that much."
Hinata rushed out of his homeroom as the siren rang, leaving before any of his friends could talk to him. Not that they've been doing a lot of talking lately. They'd been distant, refused to even look to him even when he had casually confronted them about it.
More than anything, Hinata was beyond relieved that he had an excuse not to hang around the classroom for lunch.
He walked over to class-3, Kageyama's class. He peered into the room, scanning for a certain black haired setter. When he couldn't spot him, Hinata walked up to the closest student, a male with shaved hair, laughing with two of his friends.
"Um, excuse me? Have you seen Kageyama? Kageyama Tobio?" he asked, shyly at first, but he managed to look them in the eye.
"Kageyama, oh you mean-"
"Hold on, pal." The girl with auburn hair, sat next to the guy he was asking, looked him up and down, "You're that Hinata guy, right?"
There was a slight snicker in her voice. When she mentioned his name, all of the students snapped their heads towards him.
"Hinata? And he's looking for Kageyama?"
Hinata gulped. "U-um yeah. Does anyone know where he is?"
"Go check the shoe locker," a guy said. Hinata thanked him, and ran out of the classroom, missing the laughter that came after.
It did not take him long at all to get to the entrance of the building, having to go down several hallways, taking sharp turns and sudden halts where he had to side step to avoid students outside their classrooms.
When he reached the entrance, there were about ten to fifteen people crowding the area.
Odd.
It wasn't the end of school, there was no reason to collect shoes not even midway through the day. He spotted two familiar people leaving the crowd.
"Yamaguchi, Tsukishima!" He called out, waving his arms to gain their attention, and when he did, they both gave each other a solemn look.
"Hinata," Yamaguchi rushed towards him, "Whatever you do, don't go in there."
"Huh? Why not?" Hinata looked past his two tall teammates, but the crowd of people were still there, blocking his view.
The blonde with glasses turned to his freckled friend. "You do realize that would make anyone want to know what the hell is going on back there, right?"
"A-ah, sorry Tsukki," Yamaguchi said, then turned back to Hinata, both his brows were upturned, he fiddled with his fingers.
"What is going on back there?!" Hinata huffed. "Everybody's been acting weird today! You know what, I'm finding out for myself."
"Hinata-"
"Leave it, Yamaguchi."
Tsukishima looked at Hinata with cold eyes, frowning. "Shrimp, take our word for it when we say that back there, is ugly. We're not stopping you. But know that Kageyama isn't there. And after you're done wasting your time with this, join us in looking for him."
And then they walked away, but not before Yamaguchi mouthed to Hinata, "It's his way of saying: don't worry, while you're dealing with this, we'll help look for him."
Hinata turned to the crowd and pushed past the students. He held his breath every time he had to squeeze in between two people, and exhaled loudly when he escaped into an area without people. He looked at the shoe lockers, all the names, until…
FAG.
Those words were written on a locker. He moved closer towards it. Not just any locker- his own locker.
His hands glazed over the words; it didn't smudge.
That means it isn't new, it means its been here since…
Since when? His face paled when he realized he didn't put his shoes in his tiny locker earlier that morning. He always had his school shoes in his bag so that after volleyball practice, he wouldn't have to go all the way back here to change his footwear, which meant he rarely used the shoe locker labelled for him. Kageyama, however, kept his volleyball shoes in his locker…
Hinata broke from his locker, only being affected by those words for a split second- he was too busy worrying about…
Just as he thought. When he found Kageyama's locker, the same words were written, presumably with a marker. And since it didn't smudge…
"Permanent marker," Hinata said under his breath, slamming his palm against the words, on the cool metal surface. This averted all the student's attention to him.
"Oh… you don't think…"
"Is that Kageyama? The one that got into that fight this morning?"
"No, idiot, that's Hinata, his boyfriend."
Hinata gave them a sharp look, and the students just whispered more between each other.
The floor underneath him caved in- his stomach had become too filled with raging butterflies. Now he knew. It all made sense now.
Hinata gnawed the inside of his mouth to keep him from running to the gym and serve and spike as hard as he could.
Instead, he hung his head low and walked away from it all. The students parted to make way for him; he could feel every single stare pierce into the back of his head.
Before long he was sprinting down the halls, until he reached class-4, where he couldn't find Yamaguchi or Tsukishima.
They must be looking for him.
Hinata inhaled and then exhaled. He was going to find Kageyama too.
It had been fifteen long minutes since he had began his search. Yet Kageyama was nowhere to be seen. He had searched all the first year buildings, even checking in the second gym to see if Kageyama was taking out his anger and releasing it with his serves. Hinata had checked every bathroom, every space under the all the stairs. He had bumped into Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, who had even checked the second and third year buildings, to no avail. Eventually Hinata had resorted to yelling out Kageyama's name, which only intensified the staring and whispering.
"KAGEYAMA!" his voice was hoarse, but he felt that if he tried a little harder, then his voice could raise the roof …The roof…
His legs did all the work for him, because, before he knew it, he was climbing the last staircase of the building, and opened the door that lead to the rooftop.
Nobody used the rooftops anymore, not since stories of the rooftop being haunted spread across the school like wildfire. And sure, Hinata had felt a chill down his spine when he took a step out of the door, but where else could Kageyama be?
There was a cold breeze that made Hinata shiver more than the creepy stories, the weather was cloudy, but not cloudy enough to cover the sun completely.
And then he spotted him. On the far side from the stairs, a student was sitting down, his back leaning against the railing.
Hinata approached him slowly at first, then quickened his pace upon seeing Kageyama clearly. He was in front of him now, but Kageyama stayed in his place.
"Kageyama…?" Hinata's hands were getting clammier. He wiped them on his school pants. He sat down next to him tentatively, hugging his knees to his chest.
Kageyama had his eyes closed.
In the distance, he heard the siren that signaled for the first lunch to be over. Hinata let it go in the one ear and out the other.
"It's okay if you ignore me, I'd understand why-"
A noise came from Kageyama's mouth. It sounded weirdly like…
"Kageyama?" Hinata shook his shoulders lightly, "Kageyama."
He didn't budge. He didn't even open his eyes.
"If you don't say anything in the next thirty seconds, then I'm the better volleyball player."
1…2…3…4…
The atmosphere was silent for a few moments.
28… 29…30…
"So you are asleep," Hinata made a noise in between a chuckle and a cough.
Wet trickled down his face slowly, then all at once. The word kept repeating in his head.
Fag.
Hinata sniffed, his shoulders shook from crying.
This was the first time anything like this happened to him, and even though that made his heart heavy, what made it heavier was the thought of Kageyama having to endure this for longer, not even able to talk to Hinata or anyone else, for that matter. And the fight… Hinata would have to ask more about that before assuming everything- but first, his heavily lidded eyelids were taking over his eyes.
When he awoke, everything was sideways.
Hinata groggily sat up right.
"Nice of you to stop drooling on my lap," Kageyama said humorlessly.
"Kageyama? What?" Hinata looked around. "Oh!"
"Oh?"
"What time is it?!"
"Who knows? I heard the siren go off more than three times now."
"We're missing class." Hinata stood up. He sat down immediately after, after remembering the events that had lead up to this very moment. "I don't want to go back."
"This is your first time skipping class, right?"
"Yeah." Hinata looked into Kageyama's eyes, "No wonder you get bad grades- falling asleep, skipping class…"
"Do you want me to leave?" Kageyama leaned his neck back against the railing that was keeping them from falling.
"No! No… Don't," Hinata firmly said, "I was just wondering… The lockers…"
"Oh yeah." Kageyama made a face, "That."
"They called me your boyfriend and-"
"They what?!" Kageyama demands.
"I was wondering about that."
"I didn't tell them that we were dating."
Kageyama was looking at the sky, Hinata followed his gaze and leaned back against the railing too.
"I believe you." He was genuine.
"They somehow got the idea after I-" Kageyama slicked back his hair, "After I turned down a girl's confession a few weeks ago. I don't know if it was her who started the rumor… It was probably her or someone she knew."
Hinata side glanced at Kageyama. His eyebrows were knit in a hurting expression, his mouth pulled down into a frown. Black bangs that reached his eyebrows were swaying in the wind
Hinata's heartbeat was as if he'd done a whole five-set volleyball game. He had never been able to stare at anyone for so long in such a people-free environment.
Every second he stared at Kageyama took a year off his life. So he looked away, instead savoring the little glances that he couldn't help.
"What makes you think she did it?"
Kageyama remained silent for a few seconds before opening his mouth. "The day after she confessed , there was a note saying 'faggot' in my shoe locker, in the same envelope her confession letter was in."
"Oh." There wasn't a word Hinata that conveyed his feelings more than the simple one syllable word.
"I'm… sorry." Kageyama was now looking into Hinata's eyes. Hinata's heart tripled its beating speed.
"F-for what?"
"For dragging you into this."
"You didn't do anything," Hinata softly consoles, "We do spend quite a bit of time together. We're always seen together, so I can understand why."
"Yeah." Kageyama held his gaze. He still looked guilty.
"I haven't told anyone this but, if it makes you feel better, I'm pansexual. So I guess they're not far off." After seeing Kageyama's confused look, Hinata continued. "Pansexual means that I have an attraction to everyone. Boys, girls, transgender, no gender."
"Oh, yeah." Kageyama nodded. "I always get pans and asexual confused."
"How?" Hinata laughed, "They're opposites!"
"Oh yeah they are, aren't they?"
Hinata smiled.
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Are you pans? Gay?"
Kageyama tapped Hinata's head. "What do I come off as?"
"As a butthole honestly."
"You dumbass!" Kageyama exclaimed.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Truth is, you seem far too busy with volleyball than to care about love."
"Well you seem so too."
"That's because I am. There's one person that's an exception though."
"Well, I think two people who are too passionate about something to like like someone-"
"-Pfft, like like?-"
"-I think those people could learn to love someone just as passionate about the same thing."
"You think so?" Hinata smiled softly. He leaned his head on Kageyama's shoulders.
They stayed like that for a while before Hinata broke the silence.
"Please don't get into another fight. I don't want you to get suspended. Or worse- I don't want to play volleyball without you."
"I won't. Plus, I only shoved the guy lightly. He was angry at me for breaking the girls heart. He was the one who wrote on our lockers. I caught him red-handed writing on yours when I came into the building."
"So you shoved him?"
""He was writing on your locker! I'm not letting him do that shit to you."
"Thanks. No seriously, Thank you. Oh, you know that Tsukishima and Yamaguchi spent their whole recess looking for you too?"
"I didn't expect that."
"Suga-san and Daichi-san are worried too."
"Suga-san and Daichi-san…" Kageyama echoed hollowly. His eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth pulls down once more. He jerks away from Hinata. "They asked you to check up on me didn't they?"
Hinata's heart dropped. "Kageyama-"
"Hinata, did you only check on me because-"
"Kageyama!"
Kageyama gulped.
"Yeah, they did tell me to check on you. But that's not the only reason why I did."
Hinata took a candy bar out of his pocket and broke it in half.
"I told you I don't like- what was that thing? The one that sounded like Lolis? I can't remember."
Hinata took his hand and placed it into Kageyama's palm.
"Seriously," Kageyama said, "I've… Ah, this is embarrassing- I've never tried chocolate."
"You what?! Well, you never know if you'll like it if you never try it."
Kageyama looked down at the small block of chocolate.
"On the count of three," Hinata said, "One… Two… Three"
They both placed the chocolate in their mouths. Hinata practically inhaled his block.
After a few moments of Kageyama's careful chewing, he finished.
"Damn it. This is pretty good," Kageyama said begrudgingly.
"I told you."
"Hey, Hinata?"
"Yeah?"
"I wasn't really bothered that they called me… You know. I was just worried about you."
""I'm okay though."
Kageyama smiled. "Hey, Hinata?"
"What now?" Hinata was smiling wide too.
"I have one person as an exception too."
Then the gap between them was closed.
(Wowow thanks for reading my fanfic! I posted this on ao3 under the same user name so now I'm posting on here bc why not. This is my first fanfic to be put on the internet and I wrote this in one sitting. I'm fucking exhausted right now lmao, feedback would be cool, thanks.)