A pair of shoes violently squeaked against the gymnasium floor only to spring up into the air, as if defying gravity.
Droplets of sweat rolled off and glistened under the fluorescent lights. Before they could reach the ground, the sound of a heavy smack and another loud thud resonated throughout the gym.
"Yes! Nice one Hinata!" Nishinoya quickly responded, raising two fists in the air.
"You guys are really fine-tuning your already insane quicks now, huh." Sugawara commented as he straightened up from his receiving position.
The coach yelled, "Alright guys, that's it for the three on three match today! Clean up the court quickly and wrap up. Get enough rest for tomorrow's practice match! Don't forget, 6 a.m., gym tomorrow for the bus to Tokyo."
"Yes sir!" The group of high school boys replied before the court dispersed.
Daichi walked to a corner of the volleyball net to untie it down, while Asahi and Yamaguchi started collecting stray balls around the gym.
Hinata picked up his yellow water bottle and sucked on it, sweet water trickling into his mouth and down his neck.
He was startled by a large hand tousling his bright orange hair and so he brought down his bottle and looked up, only to see Kageyama walking away from him in the direction of the cupboards that stored cleaning tools.
Hinata stared at Kageyama's broad back soaked in sweat and absentmindedly fixed his hair.
"What was that.." He muttered as he placed his water bottle back on the rack.
He walked to the basket full of volleyballs and pushed it into the storage room.
Black hair
Jawline
Lean, long limbs
"-nata, Hinata!" Tanaka yelled as he nudged Hinata's shoulder whilst placing one last ball in the basket.
"Huh?!" Hinata jumped, startled.
"I've called you about five times! What's got you so thinking, huh? Ya know, for muscle brains like us, thinking is bad news." Tanaka wrapped a friendly arm around Hinata. "So take it easy, pal!"
"Even muscle brains think too, sometimes!" Hinata protested while closing up the storage room.
"Like, what am I going to eat for dinner after practice, or like, will today finally be the day Kageyama buys two meat buns instead of eating half of mine! Or something like that.."
The two of them exited the gym and walked towards the changing rooms.
Sugawara joined in on the conversation, "Hinata, I'm sure Kageyama doesn't eat half of your bun just because he's hungry." Sugawara smiled innocently, "Right, Kageyama?"
Kageyama, who was walking in front of them, turned and stared at Sugawara blankly before muttering, "Huh?"
Hinata, equally confused, asked, "What do you mean senpai? Of course he eats more because he's hungry."
Sugawara had an unreadable expression on his face, mixed with a tint of surprise. "Huh. My bad," he said.
"Senpai, sometimes you say things that don't make sense at all." Tanaka whined, nudging him.
Sugawara smiled widely, took Tanaka in a playful headlock and said "Ah, ignorance is bliss, young one!" He laughed loudly, somewhat forced, and dragged a protesting Tanaka in a half jog towards the changing room.
Hinata and Kageyama, left alone, walked casually in the quiet autumn night. The only noises were their own footsteps, the occasional brushing of leaves, and Sugawara and Tanaka's shouting in the distance.
The breeze felt cool against Hinata's bare arms and legs.
"Kageyama," Hinata wiggled his eyebrows and moved his arms as if he were running, "race to the locker rooms?"
To Hinata's surprise, Kageyama casually flung an arm around the shorter's shoulders and said lazily, "Why the rush, the weather's so great."
Curious, Hinata stared up at Kageyama, who was staring up at the sky. Feeling Hinata's eyes on him, he looked down at Hinata and muttered a low, "what."
"Kageyama, you sound like an old geezer. What's wrong with you?" Hinata's eyes widened as if upon realization, "Are you hurt somewhere? Is that why you're not running? OH MY GOD KAGEYAMA WHERE AND WHEN DID IT HAPPEN -" Hinata started panicking, looking up and down Kageyama's body for any signs of injury.
Kageyama flicked Hinata in the forehead, calming him down. "Ba—ka. I'm not you, why the hell would I get hurt before the day of a practice match, with Nekoma high, of all places."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean! I've never gotten hurt before a practice match either." Hinata rubbed his red forhead, pouting.
"You're so reckless and all over the place, I'm surprised you haven't gotten hurt yet."
"Hey, bastard, you're the last person I want to hear that from… we're on the same boat, you know." Hinata muttered.
"On the same boat?" Kageyama frowned. "That's big trouble. If we were on the same boat the boat would definitely sink with the both of us accidentally breaking something."
Hinata laughed. "That's true."
He felt the warmth of Kageyama's arm and noted it moving slightly up and down every time he took a step. Kageyama was in a good mood. It wasn't everyday he was in such a playful mood. Recently he'd always been like this, Hinata noted to himself.
"So, you just admitted that you make mistakes." Hinata said triumphantly. "Which means you could accidentally get hurt before a practice match."
"Hey, you sound like you want me to get hurt." Kageyama said, squeezing and stretching Hinata's cheek with his arm around Hinata.
"Ow-ow-" Hinata grabbed Kageyama's hand and pulled it away from his cheek. "Of course not! Didn't you see how worried I was before?"
"Yeah, why were you so worried anyway?"
"Isn't it obvious? Then I wouldn't have anyone to toss to me,"
"Sugawara-senpai could."
"It wouldn't be the same. No super quicks either. And, and who would I race to the gym with? or eat lunch on the rooftop with, or stop by the supermarket on the way home with?" Hinata explained enthusiastically, waving his arms around.
"Are you stupid? It's not like I would be dead. We would still do half those things."
"Still! It's not the same…" Hinata met eyes with Kageyama as he raised his head to stare up at the latter.
The two met eyes for a few seconds, but the eye contact was broken as Kageyama glanced at his hand on Hinata's shoulder, still held by Hinata's own.
"Ah!" Flustered, Hinata released Kageyama's hand and stuttered, "Sorry, I - I forgot -"
Kageyama slowly retracted his arm from Hinata's shoulder, and with an evil smirk suddenly bolted towards and up the stairs that lead to the changing rooms.
Realization dawned upon Hinata and he soon followed suit, running up the stairs yelling, "Wait - you cheater!"
Hinata ran down the corridor and skidded to a stop in front of the changing room, only to find Kageyama leaning on the doorframe, grinning madly. He looked down at Hinata triumphantly, with an expression of smugness akin to that of a king.
"101 wins and 100 loses."
"… You cheating bastard." Hinata said, but grinned equally as wide, wondering whether his tingling senses and racing heart were because he had just ran up the stairs.
"Mornin -" Hinata yawned as he greeted his senpais in front of the school bus.
"Ah- Hinata!" Tanaka laughed as he pulled at strands of Hinata's hair that was sticking out like a birds nest. "You look ridiculous!"
"Hinata, you look like a little chick" Sugawara commented.
"So... so cute..." Azumane murmured, clutching at his heart, while Hinata rubbed his eyes, completely oblivious to his effect on others.
"Asahi, you look like a perverted old man..." Sawamura said, a look of skepticism on his face.
"Asahi's always been weak to cute things" Sugawara said, "Wouldn't be surprising if he married someone tiny, cute and homely in the future."
'Tiny, cute and homely...?' Sawamura and Sugawara questioned, and imagined a tired Azumane coming home to greet Nishinoya in a pink apron, holding a wooden ladle and saying, "Welcome home, sweetie," in the most gentle and feminine manner possible.
The two paled.
As if he could guess the things going on in the two's minds, Azumane rapidly said, "Stop it guys, stop imagining weird things!"
Sawamura, full of guilt, averted his eyes from Azumane and said, "Not like I wanted to imagine it either..."
Sugawara added on, equally guilty, "I take back what I said."
Nishinoya, clueless, and furthest from cute nor homily, ran past the trio and grabbed Hinata in a nuggie. "Shoyouuuuu!" Nishinoya shouted, "Who's the best senpai ever?!"
Hinata, smiling, shouted back in protest and struggled to get out of Nishinoya's grip. The two tumbled onto the ground in fight for dominance.
"They're at it again." Sawamura sighed.
Coach Ukai, with Kageyama and Tsukishima following him and holding boxes of equipment, approached the bus and said "Alright guys, let's hop in!"
"Come on Shoyou," Nishinoya said as he put his chin on Hinata's chest, his arms and legs wrapped around Hinata to restrain him, "admit it..!"
"Alright -" Hinata was just about to admit it, and in actuality Hinata was quite fond of Nishinoya senpai, he just liked to hold back a bit so that they could have some fun with wrestling -
"Hinata." A voice interrupted him. "Aren't you going to get on the bus?"
Hinata peeked over Nishinoya's hair to see Kageyama frowning, just about to go up the stairs of the bus holding a box of equipment. "We're going to leave without you. Senpai, you too."
Hinata pushed off a somewhat dumbfounded Nishinoya and stood up, dusting his clothes. He walked over to Kageyama as if there were a magnetic force. "Come on senpai!" Hinata turned around and called to Nishinoya before joining Kageyama.
"...No fun." Nishinoya frowned as he watched both boys disappear into the bus.
Hinata looked around the bus and at Kageyama placing the box in the front seat. "Hey, Kageyama. Half of us aren't even here yet."
"Stupid, your hair's all messed up." Kageyama frowned as he walked over to Hinata and raked both his hands through Hinata's hair, trying to fix it.
"It was originally like this." Hinata protested but let Kageyama fix his hair rather uncharacteristically gently.
To be frank Hinata kind of liked the feeling of someone else touching his hair. Oh, Kageyama was close. Hinata was nearly tucked beneath Kageyama's arms that were hovering above him and so all he could see was Kageyama's chest that was right in front of him at eye level. Kageyama was wearing the Karasuno Basket Ball club jersey and Hinata couldn't help but notice Kageyama's scent: a mixture of laundry detergent, shampoo, and - strangely enough - freesias.
"This part won't stay down." Kageyama said in annoyance as he fought with a part of Hinata's hair on the back of his head. After a few moments of struggling, Kageyama slowly lost the little patience he had and pulled and pressed the hair with increasing force.
"Ow-ow Kageyama!"
"... There's no hope. Only choice is to cut it off."
"What!" Hinata stepped back, obviously frightened and said, "D-Don't be so impulsive!"
Tsukishima, who was sitting behind where they were standing, rummaged some scissors out of his bag and gave them to Kageyama just for the giggles. "Here. Use these."
"Tsukishima!" Hinata whined.
"Come here." Kageyama laughed evilly as all logic went down the drain.
"The king breaks through new levels of stupidity - getting competitive with a strand of hair on another idiot's head." Tsukishima narrated as Hinata ran away to a seat at the back and Kageyama followed, eyes blazed with determination.
"Kageyama! Kageyama! Relax! It'll just work with some water later!" Hinata pleaded desperately as the two fought on the bus seats.
Kageyama had placed the scissors in the pocket of the seat in front of him and the two of them wrestled, Hinata sitting by the window seat and Kageyama sitting by the aisle.
Their legs were tangled as they sat facing each other, Hinata resting on the window of the bus. At one point both of Hinata's hands held Kageyama's hands in an effort to hold Kageyama back from getting ahold of his own hair. However Kageyama, taking advantage of his bigger hands, longer limbs, and strength, wrestled free out of both of Hinata's hands and grabbed both of Hinata's wrists with his single right hand. Then Kageyama proceeded to use his free left hand to touch the back of Hinata's head where the messy hair was. Completely immobile with Kageyama's legs pressing his own in place and both his arms pressed against the window above his head by Kageyama's strong right hand, Hinata knew he was completely screwed and tightly shut his eyes closed, silently bidding farewell to his few strands of orange hair.
But to Hinata's surprise, Kageyama suddenly stopped moving. Hinata carefully opened his eyes and found Kageyama staring at him with a weird expression. It was a mixture of a deer's caught in headlights and a dog's staring in the mirror for the first time.
"...Kageyama?" Hinata asked, starting to get uncomfortable at the other's intense, searching gaze.
Kageyama, as if broken from a trance, suddenly let go of Hinata's wrists that had now turned red and let go of his legs.
"...Tsk." Kageyama said, "I'll let it slide for today."
"Y-Yes." Hinata replied, still confused.
For the rest of the bus ride, Kageyama was oddly quiet. Hinata told himself it was probably because Kageyama was tired and sleepy, but when the bus reached Tokyo and Hinata woke up, it seemed like Kageyama hadn't slept at all.
To say that Kageyama was confused was an understatement.
Sure the shrimp and him had been getting along quite well recently, and for some weird reason he found it fun to hang out with the shortie... but why on earth did he find Hinata to be so interesting?
He was the kind of person that rarely found interest in others. Yet he was thoroughly interested in Hinata's reactions towards him. The littlest thing would cause the smaller boy to be happy, enthusiastic, scared, and embarassed even. Kageyama often caught himself wondering what Hinata would do next, not only while playing volleyball but also outside it too. Sometimes, when they bickered with each other, Kageyama felt immense satisfaction, similar to the emotions he felt when a spiker he tossed to scored a point.
It was the first time Kageyama had had such a trusting friendship in his life, so he hadn't questioned his own desire to be with Hinata. Sure, if he was bored it wasn't weird for him to go find the shrimp, friends did that all the time, right?
But over the few weeks, Kageyama had developed a small inkling of uneasiness somewhere at the back of his simple brain.
Every time Kageyama, by now a steady habit of his, searched for Hinata in a room, his mind told him to stop.
Even now, during the practice match with Nekoma, Kageyama was hyper aware of Hinata, who was standing in front of the volleyball net with his knees bent in a playing position.
Kageyama breathed out steadily.
Throwing the ball upwards, he ran a few steps and jumped.
As he was about to serve the ball, an orange figure in the corner of his eyes stirred and caught his attention. Mid air, he made eye contact with Hinata who was staring upwards at him.
Kageyama for some reason panicked and hit the ball with way too much force, the ball landing on some point way behind the line.
The whistle blowed and Nekoma won the game with a score of 27-25.
"Sorry." Kageyama apologized to the senpais who were standing in front of him.
"Don't mind, Kageyama. It was a good game." Sawamura assured Kageyama while patting him on the back.
Tanaka laughed and also hit Kageyama on the back, "But that was one big home run, Kageyama. I've never seen you screw up that bad!"
Kageyama clenched his fists and suppressed his growing annoyance. Through out the match, or rather, through out the last few weeks, he had been always on edge.
On edge about everything... to do with the shrimp. He was growing restless. It was tiring and draining, and now it was affecting the last thing he had hoped it would effect - volleyball. The serve wasn't the only mistake he had made today. His tosses had been off a couple times too. He was endlessly mad at himself for his lack of self-control.
Sawamura, upon realising Kageyama's bad mood, tried to cheer him up a bit. "Kageyama, although it was our last game today, we have another full day of matches tomorrow so uhh - don't mind too much. Have a nice bath and get plenty of rest, alright?"
"Yes." Kageyama replied while wiping off his sweat with a towel. "I'll head off to the baths first, senpai."
"Kageyama!" Hinata called him as Kageyama was walking off the court, "Throw me some tosses?"
Here he was. The cause of his instability. Even now as the shorter was asking for a toss, Kageyama was happy at the fact that Hinata wanted his and only his tosses. For the first time, the intensity of his own emotions scared him.
"No." Kageyama curtly replied.
"Why not?!" Hinata whined as he skipped up to Kageyama, holding a volleyball.
"Because you suck, turd."
"Whaaat? That's harsh, king of the court."
"Shut up, I'm tired. Don't bother me." Kageyama said as he turned his back towards a pouting Hinata and exited the gym.
As Kageyama took a bath, a fleeting image kept creeping its way into his mind.
The image was of the incident on the bus this morning, when Hinata was pressed against the bus with his arms raised above his head, his eyes shut and cheeks slightly tinted while his white shirt was crumpled to reveal his lower neck.
Shit. Kageyama was thinking of Hinata again. He tried desperately to get his attention elsewhere.
'Think of something else. Think of something else...'
"Yo." Kuroo greeted Kageyama as he stepped into the bath.
"Not practicing?" Kageyama asked him.
"Well," Kuroo let out a contented sigh as he submerged his entire body in the heat. "Not in top condition today. I see you're not either?"
"Sort of."
"Yeah, that last serve was totally a 'I'm totally off today!' kinda serve. What's got your knickers in such a twist, huh?"
"I'd rather you not talk about my knickers while we share a bath." Kageyama frowned.
Kuroo laughed. "My bad, my bad. That was kind of gay - well..." For a moment Kuroo seemed to hesitate. "Should I let you in on a secret?"
"I didn't even ask but if you want to tell me go ahead."
"That's no fun. You should be honored! No one knows about this, not even my teammates!"
Was it a weakness of Nekoma's captain? Suddenly Kageyama wanted to know. "What is it?"
"That's the spirit." Kuroo smirked. "Well, you see..." Kuroo leaned in and whispered, "Kenma and I are dating."
"Huh?!" Kageyama said, "And you're telling me this because?"
Honestly Kageyama didn't give two shits. But it was the first time he saw a gay in real life so maybe it was a little shocking.
Kuroo leaned back and rested both his arms on above on the ground. "Wait, so you don't have a problem with me and Kenma being gay?"
"No? Why should I care about what other people do with their lives. As long as it doesn't affect mine, it's fine."
Kuroo whistled. "That's very mature of you. But does that mean gays are fine as long as its not yourself?"
"Of course, I'm pretty straight and I've dated a girl before so,"
"Hmm..." Kuroo stared at Kageyama with an unreadable expression. "Are you sure?"
"Am I sure what? that I've dated a girl? Well she asked me out and I said yes -"
"I meant, are you sure that you're straight."
Kageyama felt indignated by such a posing question. "What do you mean are you sure?" Kageyama said, raising his voice a bit. "Of course I'm straight, what are you hinting at?"
"Woah woah, my bad. I didn't mean anything." Kuroo waved his hands in denial as he tried to calm Kageyama down. "It's just that, dating a teammate is pretty fun, you know."
Kageyama listened quietly, still fuming.
"It has its perks, like being able to spend a lot of time together with someone I love without sacrificing volleyball, having mini dates after practice, and always having an excuse to go over to each other's houses without our parents suspecting anything! But best of all... I get to connect with Kenma on levels unimaginable if we hadn't been dating, while playing volleyball included! Our volleyball performance has improved exponentially, you know?"
"Volleyball?" Kageyama repeated, surprised. That was something he had not expected. Somehow he had always thought dating was bad for volleyball. "Would it be like that if I dated Hinata?" Kageyama muttered under his breath, rather unconsciously.
"Hinata?" Kuroo picked up instantaneously, with so much enthusiasm it almost seemed staged. "What's this I hear? Dating Hinata?"
Kageyama, beyond startled at his own words, spluttered incoherent words. "What Hinata? Of course not! S-Straight, I am - very straight. I never said Hinata. When did I say that? Why is it so hot in here? I'm getting out." Kageyama leaped out of the bath, obviously disturbed.
"It's hot in here cus it's a bath, idiot!" Kuroo laughed and shouted behind him as a flustered Kageyama left the room.
"So what's this you wanted to talk to me about?" Kenma said as he pressed the buttons on his nintendo DS, playing a new mario game that had been released a few weeks back. He was in the middle of abducting princess peach as bowser.
Hinata restlessly rolled around in the sheets spread out in the room. "Ahhhh, I don't know... How do I say this?"
Hinata sat up besides Kenma and watched him play the new game. "Oh, you forgot a coin." Hinata pointed out.
Kenma kicked Hinata in the shoulders, causing him to land in the sheets on his back with an 'ouf.' "Shoyou. Stop avoiding the topic and get to the point."
For a few moments Hinata laid in the blankets, thinking. Then he opened his mouth. "Lately I feel weird. Like, I get really really happy about the littlest things and I feel like I feel invincible and like I can fly and do incredible things! But in another moment I get really down and I feel tired and restless and I don't even know why."
Kenma lowered his DS and shut it off, his attention now completely on Hinata. "Really?"
"Yeah. I didn't want to talk about it with my teammates because I didn't want them to feel the burden of having to look after me, especially when I meet them everyday." Hinata looked up at the ceiling light and the small moth that was fluttering beside it. "I just feel like... maybe I'm sick somewhere? Maybe I have the infamous bipolar disorder...?" Hinata's voice cracked at the end.
"Shoyou, you're not bipolar. Rather, I'm surprised you even know what a bipolar disorder is."
"Hey! I'm being serious here!" Hinata protested, kicking up at the air.
"I'm being serious too. You're not bipolar."
"Then why am I like this?"
"Well -"
Ping!
Kenma opened his phone to check his message. He seemed to think for a moment, then shrugged and shoved his phone back in his pocket.
"It's a symptom of a physical misbalance. I can show you where the problem is." Kenma said, moving closer to Hinata who was lying on one of the sheets.
"Physical misbalance?! I don't know what that is but it sounds bad."
"Oh yeah, I guess it's kinda bad." Kenma said unenthusiastically as he creeped up to Hinata and placed both his hands on each side of Hinata's head and both knees on each side of Hinata's own.
Kenma was now hovering over Hinata who was clueless more than ever. Kenma brushed his hair behind his ears and started lowering his head slowly, the distance between his and Hinata's face becoming smaller and smaller.
"Kenma?" Hinata asked, confused and a little scared.
Kenma placed his right hand on Hinata's chest and said, "This is the place -"
All of a sudden, the door slid open with a thud and a voice said, "Oi, Kozume -"
The owner of the voice let out a strangled noise as he stopped talking. Hinata turned his face to see Kageyama, frozen in place with surprise. His expression changed to that of annoyance as he said, "Kuroo asked me to give you this."
Kageyama placed a toothbrush on the sheets in front of him, slid the door shut, and exited the room as fast as he had appeared.
Kenma got up and walked to pick up the toothbrush.
"A toothbrush?" Hinata asked behind him.
"Yeah. Didn't really need it though." Kenma shrugged.
HELLLLOOOOO GUYSSS THANK YOU FOR READING MY FANFICTION!
It's my first time writing a boyxboy story so I hope it wasn't too bad :)
If you liked it, please don't hesitate to review. Actually, even if you didn't like it review anyway for the constructive criticism! Much appreciated!
I'll try to update the next chapter within a week hehe.
Cheers :D