Forgive how bad this is...I've never written anything as Hinata and he's not my usual type of character.

"Hey!"

My intense concentration on my water bottle is broken when I look up to see Kageyama stomping towards me with an angry frown that looks like it could kill someone. My entire body tenses up, my mind running through the possibilities of what I could have done. I haven't seen him except during lunch and in-between classes and for once I can't pick out anything that could have sounded mocking or competitive—not even to the first years. Then again since we took over as captain and as vice-captain, he gets angrier at me more often; I've come to the conclusion it's because there's more opportunities for me to mess up. Somehow I'm not bothered, I guess I'm just used to our "fights" that the first and second years have so kindly named "lover's quarrels." Kageyama always snaps at them about that...me, I'd say "we're not dating" but I'm pretty sure nobody would believe me so I just don't say anything.

Kageyama thrusts a paper in my face. "When did we start dating?" he screams with shock and disbelief evident in his voice. I try to focus on what he's shoved into my face but it's too close, I nearly end up cross-eyed so I yank it out of his grasp to hold it further away. Dating? I never told him we were dating. Then again...I have come to terms with whether it happens now or in the next century we'll will pretty much end up dating eventually. Not that we've discussed this, we don't discuss much of anything; but it's something pretty much inevitable. I mean: we're glued at the hip, we plan on going to the Olympics together, we're entirely essential to each others' style of volleyball and there's no one else in the world I trust more than Kageyama—that's completely ignoring how sad of a state he'd be in if I hadn't stepped into his life.

"Well I'm not shocked but-"

"What?!"

I stare at the paper he handed to me and burst out laughing.

"Hinata! Are you listening to me? Stop laughing, this is important!" I ignore his protesting, doubling over with my face on my desk as I clutch my stomach. Seriously if the volleyball team did this I'm going to cry.

We won "cutest couple" status in our yearbook. Sure there aren't a lot of choices—dating in generally is discouraged, especially on school grounds—but us? We're fundamentally the worst couple, we fight over everything just for starters, I don't doubt we'd fight over limbs if they were removable. I only stop laughing when he lifts me out of my desk chair and starts shaking me violently. "You're taking this way too lightly, dumbass!"

"Kageyama-kun! Why are you so mad?" I ask finally, trying to wriggle out of his grip but it's futile. He looks utterly flabbergasted with his mouth agape and his eyes twice their regular size. Okay I knew he was oblivious but this oblivious? I almost feel bad for him. Almost, except this is way funnier than if he'd actually thought about our relationship for...I dunno? Even .5 seconds would have done him some good. "Okay," I say, attempting to sound amicable but failing as I'm still laughing a little. "Who do you spend all your time with?"

"My mo-"

I stare hard at him and he drops me, falling silent.

His silence is confirmation enough, I roll my eyes as I shove the paper into his stomach gaining a grunt in response. "Alright, who is the only person who comes over to your house just to hang out?" I'm carefully avoiding the more obvious stuff.

He frowns, nose scrunching up in intense thought so I give him a moment to digest that before he gives me a noncommittal shrug. I've never witnessed this...he's so quiet, guess I finally know how to shut him down if he starts being mean. "Who is it exactly that you talk to all the time, practice with, eat lunch with, who is it that you defend and protect when they get scared of really tall, weird guys?" He averts his gaze, I wait patiently—for once—enjoying that I won; although now that I think about it I'm usually the one who wins this kind of stuff. He's so awkward and socially inept it amazes me, it's like his social interactions are limited to yelling at people or ordering them around. Though he's gotten nicer over the last couple years, he's still himself and old habits die hard. At least he doesn't hurt my hands now when he high fives me, but proper interactions with the first and second years are beyond him.

"That's unimportant, I mean obviously we're just close friends..." he mutters pathetically, I laugh at him and he glares at me with enough heat I cut myself off mid-chuckle. "What your point anyway? Shouldn't I know if I like you or not?"

"But you're too stupid to acknowledge it without my help." The glower he sends me could murder. I skillfully dodge his hair grab and catch his wrist, restraining it—pretending it doesn't take most of my strength to do so. "So are you saying the thought grosses you out?" His wide eyes give off the aura I've just said something profound; has he really given it no thought? I don't think about...this a lot—we have volleyball tournaments and training regiments to be thinking about after all—but sometimes I do. Even I've thought about how nice it is to have someone who likes volleyball as much as I do, someone who also happens to be quite good looking and awkward, but in a cute way. Sometimes I've wondered what it would be like to hold his hand or touch his hair.

"Wow, you really do only think about volleyball."

"Hey!" he snaps I am able to—barely—restrain his hair grab again. "As if you have any room to talk, dumbass." When I refuse to get off topic and wait for him to move onto the real meaning of my words he averts his gaze and fidgets awkwardly in place. He rarely gets uncomfortable around me, that in itself is answer enough that it doesn't gross him out at all. I'm surprised but only because none of this actually surprises me...if that makes any sense, this whole experience is underwhelming. I guess when I imagined us having this conversation it played out a lot differently. "Fine," he says, clearly exasperated as he yanks his arm out of my grasp and crosses them over his chest defensively.

He mutters something incomprehensible, I stand on the balls of my feet to get closer, damn him and his height!

"Huhhh?"

He sends me a sidelong glare but the sentiment is ruined when his cheeks start turning red. "I've thought about it some," he finally admits, loud enough for me to hear him but nobody else.

I can't help the huge grin that appears. "Oh yeah?"

His gaze remains directed towards the hall even when I lean closer, coming nearly up to his nose the more I insist.

"Yeah," he says, sounding challenged; guess that's what I get for teasing him.

"Like whaaat?" I ask in singsong, trying to successfully annoy him despite being genuinely curious. Is it bad to want to know? I've thought about his hair, his hands—don't get me started on his hands—his eyes...I deserve to know what he has.

"Um..." his nose scrunches up again and his pout grows deeper as he considers what to say. He's cute when he thinks, cute and attractive, I like it. "...I've thought about, uh, you know-" he gestures at me wildly. I tilt my head in confusion and his face gets redder like it's embarrassing to say or the way I'm looking at him isn't helping. Maybe he likes it when I title my head the same way I like when he scrunches up his nose? "I've thought about...kissing you."

This time it's my turn to be embarrassed. I back off, rocking back on my feet with my face getting maddeningly hot. After all this, I'm the dumber one cause kissing him has never once came to my mind when it comes to Kageyama. Actual dating stuff—kissing, cuddling, holding hands, er, sex—never pops up when I think about him. I never put them together but if we're dating we'll definitely kiss, hold hands, cuddle and-you get the idea, it seems pretty obvious now I just never gave that stuff much thought.

"Is that good enough for you?"

I glare up at him. "No," I say stubbornly, his brow twitches in irritation, "you didn't explain why you were mad."

He slaps his face loud enough I feel peoples' gazes on us from the hall. I avert my gaze to pout as convincingly as I can when I want so bad to grin at his lame confession.

"Because...you know," he starts again but this time I really don't, he lets out an annoyed sigh when I say nothing. "Cause you know."

"No I don't," I insist, meaning it. His jaw squares when he clenches his teeth, letting out a suffering hiss from between his teeth. I cross my arms over my chest, mimicking his earlier posture subconsciously.

"Dumbass, I told you I wanna kiss you and," he rubs his hands over his face, "you're lucky I do, because you're ridiculous."

"So you're saying you like me," I clarify, he stares at me as if he's not sure how to answer. I want to hear it from his mouth, but he won't. "Okay but, like a friend? Or-"

"Hinata," he interjects with a red face. "-Don't finish," he cuts me off quickly when I go to do just that. Well, I can definitely feel gazes on us now, I'm not sure if I'm embarrassed or not especially cause we now know half the school wants us to go out. His face is redder than I've ever seen it. "Not like that, like, you know, the normal way."

"How is that?" I know I'm pressing all his buttons, I'm actually pretty sure he'd punch me if a voice doesn't suddenly interrupt us.

"I hate both of you so much." Both of us look over to see Tsukishima sitting over by the window with an unusually impatient scowl. "If I have to listen to you guys argue over couple stuff for two more seconds I'm going to rip out my own eardrums." Neither of us even have a defense, we were arguing over something totally dumb.

"Oh c'mon, Tsukki," Yamaguchi sounds diplomatic, at least until he finishes, "if you do that you won't be able to listen to your music anymore."

"Mm, true," he hums thoughtfully like he's seriously considering this.

Well, we really should go somewhere quieter at least. I grab Kageyama's arm and half drag him down the hall, past the onlookers who have gathered outside to listen to us.

"Slap him around, vice-captain Hinata!" someone yells.

"Good luck guys!" Yachi shouts. I didn't realize how many people were listening in, at least a dozen?

I drag him into the nearest closet and shut the door, fumbling clumsily for the light switch. Unfortunately I can't find it, I reach further from the door than I thought I would have to, only to jump off the ground with a surprised yelp when Kageyama pins my wrist to the wall.

"Hold on." He sounds calmer than before, I'd expected him to be upset over our crowd in the hallway but he sounds quite the opposite. What's he doing anyway? It's so dark in here, I can't see anything. "Listen, it's easier for me to tell you things if I can't see your reactions. Also stop wriggling so much, dumbass!"

I make an admirable effort to stay still, but I'm too excited to hear what he's going to say so I settle for bouncing on the balls of my toes instead. I know he's thought about kissing me and that he wants to punch me, but what else does he want to tell me? He growls quietly. "I'm going to ask you again when we started dating. I'm completely serious. I know we don't kiss but, we sleep in each other's beds, I come over to your house a lot, we even plan on going to the same university and say shit like "in ten years I bet we'll have a bunch of trophies and medals" even though...I don't remember deciding we'd be together for ten years." I actually consider what he's saying.

We kinda just...fell into a relationship—extremely, extremely ungracefully—where we talk about stuff like that and I've always imagined a big wall with all our trophies and medals from all our volleyball tournaments and games together, in some home I'd never considered until now. Somehow it seemed obvious to me that we'd be together even after our careers in volleyball ended. Now that I think about it...why? Sure we were sort of friends during in our first year, but would I have ever thought about living together? Not in our first years; soon after.

"Awhile ago."

"A couple years," he agrees. There's one thing we can agree on at least. I guess even I didn't think about it. We share beds quite often, text each other constantly, make plans for our future as a whole, we're always together, and I'm incapable of imagining it any other way. I honestly don't want to imagine a future without Kageyama.

"I love you," I blurt out of nowhere, it seems like such an obvious statement, I just never thought to say till now. "Please don't ever make me play on some boring volleyball team without you, I don't want anyone else to toss to me."

"Ha," he laughs, I don't think I've ever heard him laugh in actual amusement. "Of course not, I love you too and I have for a long time." I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, hearing him return my feelings unquestioningly lifts a huge weight off my shoulders. It was so obvious he didn't even get awkward.

I feel his heat and hear him moving closer, but I still don't expect him to wrap his arms around me and lift me off the ground. He's warm and can embrace me so completely I'm surrounded by Kageyama and nothing but him. I breathe in his scent: clean, crisp, but welcoming, like a volleyball court...I can't help that I'm so happy I start to giggle as I wrap my arms around his shoulders tightly, lacing my fingers behind his head and hooking my feet around his thighs to help support myself.

We just stay this way for awhile, I'm relaxed pressed against his body...being in his arms feels right. I rest my cheek on his chest, listening contentedly to how his heart is racing and only increases when I squeeze him reassuringly. I could get used to this. It hits me how much control I have over him, it's unfair. I can demand a perfect toss, anything I ask for he tries to oblige in his own way, and I can even make him fall in love with me, it sure makes me feel powerful. I smirk against his collarbone. "So if we've been dating, does this mean we're getting married?" I'm joking of course, but he sputters and nearly drops me, I scramble to hold onto him.

"We're not even old enough, so shut up idiot or I'll really hit you!" I laugh, shutting him up firmly by leaning up to kiss his cheek. He doesn't dare make another sound, not even a squeak and it hits me he's probably thought about this a lot more than me. All his earlier shock was probably his way of covering up all his insistent romantic fantasies about me. I hesitate a second before bravely kissing the corner of his mouth too, resting my chin on his shoulder to hide my red face from him, even though it's still too dark to see me anyway.

"I'm totally mean, you're such a bad influence."

I expect him to retort about having nothing to do with that, it's weird when he doesn't. "Huh, um...whatever." He sounds way too dreamy, is he even paying attention? Was he that dazed by my kisses? I can mess with him so badly now.

After a minute of silence he finally puts me down wordlessly, I manage to land on my feet safely enough to remain standing despite that my legs are wobblier than I expected. "Don't you think we should do something about all those weirdos outside? At least tell them to leave us alone?"

"They'll leave us alone," I say confidently he sends me a skeptical frown, but I don't answer just grab his hand and open the door. There's...a few outside the closet too, I squint at them from being in the dark and they look at us with wide, hopeful eyes. What all did they overhear? I hope they didn't hear that whole conversation. I put on a convincing bravado. "Okay, show's over," I announce, "I made Kageyama my boyfriend so you all can go back to your classes." He blinks at me looking a cross between shocked and offended that I'd insinuate I did all the work. I mean...I practically did, but you know I wouldn't argue with him over that.

Yachi yells excitedly and starts clapping, I'm really uncomfortable when the little gaggle of nosy first and second years join her applause.

Kageyama is pissed though, I quickly release his hand and take off running before he can even try to grab my hair, but I hear him running after me screaming and I scream too, only more in horror than anything else.

"Wait boys, c'mon!" Yachi shouts after us, but I can barely hear her over our yelling. It was still worth it, what I said.

I still think that when he chases me all the way to the gym and the first years start laughing at us.