The Taller Half of the Oddball Duo

The orange shade of the sunset and the crow's black feathers looked splendidly well together. Hinata Shoyo, a student of Karasuno High School, randomly thought one late afternoon.

Volleyball practice ended for that day. The boy let out a sigh, not because he's physically exhausted, but because he received dozens more of insults and lashes than usual from his grumpy volleyball partner, Kageyama. He figured that the grouchy setter was always like that. The idiot was a serious guy, too serious. And if Kageyama wasn't as passionate in volleyball as himself, Hinata would never get himself near the grouch.

The little orange head continued to sigh again and again until Yachi, one of their managers decided to ask the boy of his predicament. She felt a bit worried and he did offer to walk her to her bus station, maybe he needed some attention.

"Tired, Hinata-kun? You can go on ahead." Not that the walking distance mattered. Hinata had to ride his bike all the way home. Yachi thought as she had fleeting look at the bike the boy was pushing with him.

"Nah, I'm alright." Hinata let out another sigh. Deep inside, Yachi wanted him to stay longer. (Assassins from Kiyoko-senpai's fans are less likely to strike if you have a companion after all.)

"I'm just thinking that I wish Kageyama-kun and I were friends, you know." The boy felt scratching his nape. (-kun?)

"Eh? I thought you two were close?" Yes, no one would call you insults constantly if you weren't close enough as friends right? That's how twisted friend ship really is. And if they were really throwing insults at each other out of spite, then would they be able to work together as a combo?

"We may look like we work well together, but that's just because Kageyama likes volleyball as much as I do. I guess, yeah, you could say that we're great partners. Other than that and outside the team we're practically strangers."

"Really?" In Yachi's mind, those two were inseparable but when she thought more about it, the only times she saw the two boys outside of volleyball was when she decided to help them with their academics. And that's also because they were only driven by volleyball to study. They didn't want to lag behind their academics so much so they could attend training camps and practice matches. "I guess you're kind of right." Yachi relented.

"No use feeling bad about it now. I'll just try being friendlier with him tomorrow!"

"You can do it Hinata!"

The next day, Hinata forgot all about being friendly at the raven-haired and started out their morning competing who'd be the first one to the clubroom for morning practice. Not that it wasn't their daily routine to do so. Orange team won today's skirmish. The definite 'tch' from Kageyama brought back the fact that he was suppose to be nicer to the grumpy setter from now on.

"H-hey! You'll get me next time!" Hinata shouted cheerily without thinking and unsurprisingly Kageyama took it in offense.

"Are you mocking me, dumbass?" The taller boy grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him to eye-level. Hinata quickly thought of something before he panics.

"Sorry, Kageyama-san." With this Kageyama only raised an eyebrow and let him go.

"What's up with you?" The taller boy who still looked crossed entered the clubroom.

I blew it!

On morning practice, Hinata reassessed why would he even wanted to be friends with Kageyama. Their combinations were working enough given their current partnership. Did he want less insults? Did he even wanted to hang out with Mr. Grumpy-puss off practice? Maybe if they're closer, their teamwork would improve. Hinata shook his head to brush off those ulterior motives. Did you really need a reason to be friends with someone?

And the ball hit him squarely in the face.

"What was that for, Bakeyama?"

"You weren't paying attention Dumbass Hinata."

And it was another week later when Hinata offered to escort Yachi to the bus stop because of another late practice session.

"No luck, Yachi-san. The guy just can't take a hint that I'm only trying to be friendly."

Yachi let out a giggle. "You're still on that? Everyone thinks you two are best friends, though."

"But that doesn't mean anything..." Hinata puffed his cheeks.

"Alright, calm down. Hm... I'm not an expert in making friends myself but I could share you some tips if you want me to."

Hinata, the ever so hyperactive boy looked like a dog wagging his tail as he nodded his head.

"I met a close friend by having lunches with them."

"Eh? But Kageyama and I do that already, then after that we practice volleyball." (Right...)

"What about talking about a common interest?"

"We talk about volleyball all the time." (Of course you would.)

"Er.. I guess talking about boys?" Yachi followed. She realized her mistake and took cover to defend herself in case Hinata-kun took offence of what she just suggested. He might even leave her here alone in the darkness of the night, where creatures undistinguishable lurks to take her to their lair...

"Oh, you mean guys from the other teams?"

Yachi refrained herself from slapping her forehead.

"Er... nevermind. How about talking about girls instead?" Yachi can't believe she's suggesting this to a high school boy. This should be a normal topic for them.

"Girls? You're a girl Yachi-san. You're alright with guys talking about girls and-" It was a rare sight for Yachi to see Hinata blush because of something like this. He's a high school boy after all.

After enlightened by Yachi-sensei's teachings. Hinata now ventured to attempt to apply every theory on Guy Friendship 101 with Kageyama. He didn't have any chances yet but he managed his best to voice out compliments to Kageyama more often. Although, it is volleyball after all, vocalizing things like that is only a minor detail in between teammates.

Then, came the in-between classes periods. He found chances where he would meet Kageyama and give him hand waves. In one particular event he actually crossed paths with the taller half of the oddball duo. He gave his friendliest smile (which came naturally for him) and raised his fist towards the other boy.

"Kageyama!" he exclaimed. It was loud enough for classmates and other students alike to take a glance at them. Hinata whose fist was still on the air waited for Kageyama's response.

"A 'quick' signal? I'll give you plenty of those later. Stop being weird idiot."

Denied!

Kageyama mistakes the 'bro-fist' as one of their customized quick signals.

"Dumbass!" Hinata shouted at the retreating boy.

"Right back at you dumbass!" And that exchange with insults of limited vocabulary. Hinata continuously fail at becoming friends with Kageyama for another week.

"YACCHAN!" Hinata whined. The only times Hinata dubbed Yachi by that was when his dialogues was mixed with desperation.

"Why just not talk to him about it?" Yachi squirmed at the adorable puppy face Hinata was pulling right now. Would Hinata be weirded out and ditch her if she dared pinch his cheeks. But for some reason she felt that facing the creatures of the night wouldn't be so bad if she did that.

"Oh, why didn't I think of that!? Thanks, Yachi-san! You're the best!" Hinata shook her arms so harshly that she thought for a second that they would pluck out.


And that was the plan if Hinata had the enough attention span to process it in his long-term memory. The plan of just asking Kageyama about it melted with the excitement of the week-long event Karasuno High School held. Hinata wasn't aware that Karasuno High held such events every year.

Their volleyball club participated in a relay race held as the events' opener where they used a volleyball as the baton. They came in second, narrowly beating the soccer team. (The first was the track team, of course.)

Then, their classes had games against each other. In all the excitement and adrenaline stimulated by the event day, Hinata forgot all about his plan. He was effectively distracted by the volleyball event. The event where he wasn't allowed to participate since he's part of the Boy's Volleyball club. The prospect of hitting one of his classmate's tosses somehow thrilled him.

"Calm down, Hinata."

"Why am I not allowed to play?"

"Your kind of a regular at the club, right? You'll overpower the non-clun members. Besides, your club will play whoever class wins this mini-tournament... And crush them."

Apparently, the prospect of crushing the class who'll win the mini-tournament participated by non-volleyball club members gave him such a thrill that he didn't realize that he was being dragged by Kageyama.

"Here.". Hinata snapped in his reverie as he perceived Kageyama's familar voice. It sounded smug.

"Nice one, Kageyama-kun!"

"I-3 is now leading on the scavenger hunt event."

At the knowledge of another class winning something sparked the competitiveness in the baggage that was Hinata. "Hey, not fair! I'm from Class I-1. Don't just drag people around, Bakeyama."

"So it wasn't a fault, then. Kageyama does have friends. Well, they're on the same club after all." At the comment of a random girl from Kageyama's class, Hinata took the piece of paper from Kageyama's hand.

'A friend from another class.'

Hinata stood there and stared at the taller boy for a while as the event continued.

"A friend from another class?" Hinata repeated the writing as he suddenly remembered his plan. He failed to realized that he was staring Kageyama with an incredulous look.

"What dumbass?" Kageyama's annoyed expression warped into something familiar to Hinata. It looked alike of that expression he had when they were defeated by Aoba Josai last Inter-High.

"Oh, I'm sorry for being presumptuous about being friends... It's just class rivalvry.. so yeah." Kageyama said lamely as he made a retreat, looking kind of embarrassed and disappointed. How Hinata could tell from Kageyama's retreating back was anyone's guess.

EH?

Kageyama already acknowledges him as a friend? And Kageyama thought that he was denying the friendship? Hinata didn't think of anything else. He sprinted down to Kageyama and caught him by the waist. He felt somewhat giddy at the information that he mind that he was being juvenile.

"Bakeyama!" Hinata didn't realize that Kageyama would want to be friends with him. If that friendship between them was glued together by volleyball, rivalry or whatever. He didn't care anymore.

"Kageyama! I'm disappointed that you used our friendship for your personal advantage." Hinata felt relief when the disappointment departed from the raven's face and returned to his usual frown.

"Fine, I'll buy you a drink. Like I had a choice, Yachi-san wasn't around.- Would you let go of me, weirdo dumbass?"


(A/N: And done! I hope I got their characters right. I finally got those randomness out of my system.

PS. Reviews will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.)