"One thing you must always do," Shouyou's mother had told him, gently wiping his face free of dirt and ridding his hair of twigs one by one in spaces between words, "Is look each person you meet in the eye. It's not to be polite, but to find something."

"Something, mama?"

"Your soul-bound, Shouyou. They'll come and go if your forget to look in their eyes." Gripping his face, she turned it upwards and looks into his wide eyes. "And always remind yourself what your eyes look like in the morning. Memorize the gem that binds you. It's the most beautiful thing you'll ever possess," and here she smiled crookedly. "And no one will ever take it from you, not even your soul-bound."

"Sooo... If I don't want them, I'll still have my gem?"

"Yes. Don't be afraid living for you and you alone." There's something like steel in those words, unbreakable and made by human hands.

"I want them though! How long do I have to wait?"

"No one knows. But I think you've got a ways to go, little bird."

"I'm not little!"

"Of course not, birdie."

"Tell me about my gem, mama."

It was an almost unknown fact the the Hinata family (his mothers maiden name, which she had clung to all this time) had been something of soul gem horoscope makers, of a kind, for a dozen or so generations. It was a case by case basis instead of a zodiac sort of thing, but the type of gem(s) factored greatly into it. It required a keen eye, and sometimes diverged into matchmaking of a sort.

Nowadays it was considered bogus, or generalized to nothing but gem type. Actual soul gem horoscope readings were rarely done- it was considered 'too intimate'. But Mama Hinata always indulged her little bird.

"Again?"

"Yeah! Because mama's family books on gem occu... opule..."

"Optometry?"

At the watery pout she got, she laughed. "Alright, let's see." He tilted his head upwards, pupils shrinking against the light as she looked close. "It looks no different than yesterday. Like a feather of amber and blackened opal, it rests quite a ways up from your iris in your left eye. The feather, I believe, means both of you will risk failing at the chance of rising above. The mixing of amber, which is considered a less beautiful and more common jewel but a hardy preservative, and black opal, one of the rarest and most demanded of jewels, means there will be quite a bit of contrast between who you will be. But it's not a bad thing, and it's so beautiful for it, so I believe it will work out. The distance from your pupil means that you will probably not start off on the friendliest for terms, may not even know what you have until you are already so entangled that you probably will wish for them to be your gem. Troublesome, really. Do you have any other questions?"

"Yeah, what's for dinner?"

Hinata would still ask, every couple of months, for her to check. He looked in the mirror every morning and forgot to blink while he tried to figure out when he would find them. Then volleyball happened, and he didn't ask he anymore, and he only looked at his eyes every few weeks. Volleyball was more important, anyway. (Still, he never let his eyes go half mast.)

Old habits die hard though, and he still looked for each one of his teammates gems.

(Suga and Daichi had milk white opal stars in their pupils, and their hands entwined whenever they thought they weren't being watched. Asahi and Nishinoya had dark sapphire triangles in their irises- though apparently hadn't noticed they'd matched. Or at least, Hinata was pretty sure they matched. He didn't go to school for that or anything, but he usually matched people right. Yamaguchi had an oval shaped emerald squished between pupil and iris, and although he'd never seen Oikawa's eyes up close, Hinata thought they might match which was... terrifying.)

Kageyama had a soul gem of yellow topaz and opal in a perfect circle in the corner of his eye. It looked like a volleyball, and Hinata would keel over laughing when he finally realized that.

When he met Kenma, he had thought he remembered seeing that same soul gem somewhere else. He brushed it off.

When Karasuno and Nekoma met for the second time, he was shocked at realizing he knew who else had that gem. So as they were warming up, he dragged Kageyama over to Kenma (who seemed sort of intimidated, which was weird, because it was just dorky Kageyama) and made them stand side by side. Kenma's eyes were turned downward, but Hinata could just see the shine of topaz and opal in the corner. Kageyama keeps glancing between Kenma and Hinata, curious but also slightly miffed.

"What's up?" Bokuto asked as he passed by, halting while tilting his head. "If you're comparing setters, why isn't Akaashi here too? I mean, he'd win, becau-"

"I'm not! Look, don't their gems look the same?" Kenma and Kageyama went still, glancing at each other. "There! White Opal and yellow Topaz, outside corner of right eye, perfect circle, sort of striped like a volleyball. You should go get checked!" Hinata chirped, seemingly unaware of the chaos he'd started.

"Wow, they do! You've got a good eye, little guy!"

"Nah, my family is just in the business. Anyway, Akaashi wouldn't be the best setter, because Kageyama is the best! He's all like-" And he walked off with Bokuto, unaware of the tentative bond he'd created between two setters and the eavesdroppers looking wide eyed at his back.

It didn't help when he also noticed towards the end that Bokuto and Akaashi shared a horn shaped gem of Lapis Lazuli, or that Kuroo and Tsukishima had diamond shaped Rubies. You would think people would look for the gems, but Hinata guessed they just forgot.

He never stopped looking, even though he still hadn't found his own soul-bound.

There's a whole paragraph in the article about Ushijima that says exactly why you can't see the Soul Gem in his eye- he's constantly half-lidded, and apparently it's hidden somewhere under his eyelids. It details what it looks like, amber and black opal marbled in the shape of a feather. It also says that he will not respond to any rumors about so-and-so having a supposed 'match' to his gem.

It's too bad Hinata doesn't read that paragraph.