Chapter 3: A Little 'Not Gossip'
"You'll be to blame for playing this game,
And learning that true love exists."
Tobio wakes up the next morning feeling that feeling buzzing in the bottom of his stomach. From experience, it's going to last a few hours, so he ignores it, rolls out of bed ungraciously and proceeds to switch his attire and grab his bag. He's going to school today – he can't stay away forever and he knows it. On his way through the kitchen Tobio takes an apple and eats it as he leaves for practice.
The whole of last night feels like a hazy memory, like one you have from when you were five that you can only really remember when someone shows you a picture. Of all the days to stay up, of all the people to stay up with, of all the reasons to stay up at all, it had to be goofing around with Hinata Shouyou until one o'clock in the morning the day before extra long morning practice. But Tobio doesn't think he minds too much. The sea air has probably done his stomach some kind of good, although from the looks of it nautical walks aren't immediate remedies.
When he gets to practice, the gym's open but there's only a few people there: Tanaka, Nishinoya and Samawura. Tobio shrugs off everyone else's lateness - because he isn't that early - and heads towards the stores cupboard. He emerges with his trainers a few moments later and sits on a nearby bench to tie them up. (He'd decided to leave his trainers in the gym because they were just an unnecessary weight to carry around with him. Why lug about a pair of shoes when you only use them in the same place at the same times anyway?) Tanaka throws a ball at his head, and he hears it coming through the air and stands to return it before it hits. His return is perfect so the second-year catches the ball easily.
"Woah, Kageyama, your reflexes are good in the morning," Nishinoya comments. Tobio grunts. But my people-skills aren't.
"They're good all the time," he replies, not lying.
"Oi, that's not how you talk to your superiors!" Tanaka reprimands. "You should say, 'Thank you, Nishinoya-Senpai, yours are good too!' or, 'Not as good as yours, Nishinoya-Senpai, but I'm working on it!'"
"Hmm," Tobio hums, noncommittally. Tanaka's eye twitches a little, and there's a moment of silence until:
"What's wrong with you, you-"
"Sorry I'm late! I overslept! Sorry sorry sorry sorry!"
"It's all right, Hinata, you're here now which is all that matters," Daichi replies. Tobio glances past the leering shadow of Tanaka to see most of the team gathered in the centre of the hall, changed and ready to practice (when did they get there?) and Hinata in the doorway. Light from the early morning shines around him brightly, like an all-encompassing shower of pure white. He can't really see him, but Tobio can make out the bright orange nest of hair and oversized backpack and muscled legs and sports uniform and smile smile smile.
"Okay!" He walks out of Tobio's view (behind Tanka's back) so the setter focuses his attention back onto the guy in front of him, who suddenly looks less like he wants to slap him, and more like he wants to talk about which shade of nail polish will look best for his newest dress. There's a smirk on his face which Tobio knows all too well, and it's making him slightly scared. Tobio raises an eyebrow.
"You stared."
"What?"
"Stared. At Hinata. You."
Tobio scrunches up his nose. Stared? Hinata? What? God, it's too early for this.
"Stared?"
Tanaka opens his mouth to reply, a smile playing on his lips, but a shout from behind interrupts him.
"Oi, you two, come and practice!" Tobio sighs a little and heads off towards the others, not noticing his skipping superior.
The team splits into two smaller teams (sacrificing a libero here and a blocker there) and set up either side of the net, playing a few games to practice their specific skills. Tobio finds himself on a different team to Hinata, in fact, they're exact mirror images of each other across the net – position wise.
"Kageyama," Hinata murmers before the whistle blows, eyes narrow and voice low, "how much sleep did you get last night? I got four hours." He shoots a grin through the net a laughs a little.
"Six. You shouldn't get up so early, idiot."
"I have a lot to do in the mornings. I-"
The whistle interrupts them as the game begins.
The harsh ticking of the clock in the Geography room is the only sound as Tobio and his classmates suffer through an unexpected test. He's been finished for ten minutes now – well, as finished as he can be when he's left six answers blank out of thirty, but they're hard questions! - and is just starting to consider jumping out of the window, just for a change of scenery.
Suddenly there's a harsh knocking at the door, and Tobio looks up to see the sickening sight of Tanaka... again. That's the second time he's found Tobio since practice that morning, the first time being in the hallway at lesson change. That time, the younger had managed to get away quickly declaring he needed to get to English, but this time there is no escaping him.
The presence of Tanaka is unavoidable. Unfortunately, that's a fact that Tobio has grown to accept.
"Tanaka-kun? We're in the middle of a test – what is it?" the teacher says. She's irritated, but Tanaka and her have a good relationship so she doesn't raise her voice.
"Sensei, could I borrow Kageyama Tobio, please? It's urgent, but will only take a few minutes."
"Fine, be quick," she sighs, gesturing Tobio out of the room. He leaves sluggishly. When the classroom door shuts behind him, Tanaka starts bouncing up and down.
"You stared at Hinata," he says. "Kageyama, I want you to know that if you ever need to talk about it, I'm right here. Well, unless you're gonna say something stupid, in which case I don't care. Oh, and don't let it affect your play, because that'd be stupid too."
"What are you talking about? 'It'? Tanaka, have you just taken me out of Geography to gossip like a little girl?" Tobio replies, face portraying the usual blank look, despite his stomach flipping. He bites at the inside of his cheek a little to minimize the pain, and feels it die down.
"Gossip?! It's not gossip if it's true!" The second-year replies, anger bubbling away under his skin. "I just think you need to know that I'm uh here for you? I don't know much, but I'm definitely good with girls, and Hinata's a bit like a girl so-"
"Oi!" Tobio snaps, before it's too late. Tanaka laughs and claps him on the shoulder.
"Totally in love! Don't worry – I'll keep your secret. I've got to go back to the common room, see you tomorrow."
"I'm not in love with that dumbass!" Tobio calls after him, before sighing heavily and returning to the cavern of awkward stares and silence that is his Geography class.
He takes a seat, ignoring his classmates' looks, and gets back to his test.
But he doesn't get to it, he just sits and thinks about Tanaka's accusation. Love? What does that mean away? The way the girls talked about it in class, love is buying each other chocolates on Valentine's Day; going to the cinema and sharing the same popcorn bucket; winning each other over-sized teddies at the fairground. To the guys, love is big boobs, round asses and sassy attitudes. Tobio doesn't see Hinata like this at all. He doesn't even like the guy that much. They are sworn enemies after all. Who could be in love with their one strongest enemy?
Besides, Hinata is too excitable, too loud, too brash, too jumpy. He's either an insomniac or a narcoleptic. He's either the strongest asset in their team or the most unreliable player on the court. How could he even begin to love someone so changeable and extreme? Nope, there is nothing endearing or attractive about Hinata Shouyou.
Despite this, the image of Hinata tumbles around in Tobio's head throughout the day: in social studies when they studied body language ("Shut up, idiot. I know you're tired." "Am I really that easy to read?"), at lunch ("Let's get something to eat." "I didn't bring any money." "Fine. I'll pay for you."), in Russian ("I don't know um... say 'Hinata is the greatest ever and everyone loves him'.") and worst of all in his free period, where everything just reminded him of his shorter volleyball partner.
In all honesty, Tobio knows that Tanaka isn't completely to blame for this. His head's a mess, but so is the rest of his body. It's probably to illness making him deluded. That's the only logical explanation for all of this... Hinata-ness.