Chapter 13

Hinata had come to a conclusion by now, and squirmed beneath you to get your attention. Apparently, you had been spacing out and stared into the space that were his eyes, without noticing it yourself. As that realisation hit you, you blushed and let go of his wrists without making him say that you hadn't just won by a lucky strike, quickly covering your heating face with your hands instead. With this, you couldn't see Hinata frowning at you, but he didn't say anything about it. Maybe he didn't even notice, you hoped, but that was impossible, wasn't it? He had looked at you, too, hadn't he? You bit your lip, let your hands fall from your face and turned it away, while you hastily climbed off of him, feeling awkward and foolish. That hadn't happened before. Sure, you had blushed before when you were thinking about that stupid redheads eyes, but never -ever- in his presence. This was just horrible! It couldn't get any more embarrassing, could it? You willed your blush away as best as you could, though you were sure it was still evident on your cheeks. The silence that followed was deafening -at least to you- but Hinata recovered quickly enough, suggesting that you should watch the other movie you had brought over.

Which you really should do, because tomorrow would be Sunday already and Hinata-San would be taking you home before lunchtime. So you agreed with a stiff nod and stood up to go and get the DVD, whereas Hinata went over to the kitchen to prepare some popcorn -probably. You didn't really care, since you weren't really fond of the idea of sharing a bowl of popcorn with Hinata. The possibility of both your hands touching while wanting to grab some of the popcorn was too much for you to be willing to risk at the moment. You were sure you'd die on the spot if that happened. Especially after what had just occurred.

While Hinata was still occupied with making his popcorn in the kitchen, you set up the DVD-player, put the DVD in and switched the TV to the right channel. The starting-screen was running for the fourth time, when Hinata finally returned from the kitchen, a big bowl of popcorn in his hands. You bit back a snide remark about the unbelievable amount of popcorn he'd made and huddled into one of the couches corners. It was the farthest away from him you could get without having to sit on the floor. But the redhead thwarted your plan by plopping down right in the middle, the bowl of popcorn in his lap. You stiffened, but tried to ignore his presence as best as you could -even though he was so close that your arms and shoulders brushed every now and then, when he moved- and instead grabbed the remote to and started the movie. You hoped, concentrating on it would help you forget his closeness.

'The Equalizer' was good. So good, that you even forgot your uneasiness for a while and could enjoy the movie. More or less, that is. Occasionally, Hinata flinched and spilled some of his popcorn all over the couch and you tried to ignore this as best as you could. It did work for the most part, but halfway through, Hinata spoke up. "Don't you want any popcorn? I didn't make all that just for myself, you know?" He practically shoved the bowl onto your lap. "No, dumbass. If I had wanted any, I would have taken it already. Now stop talking and watch the movie already!", you refused. "Eh? But you need to eat popcorn during a movie!", the redhead declared, looking at you incredulously. "I said I don't want any!", you emphasised and then pointedly looked back to the screen to watch the movie, not wanting to miss any more of the plot. Hinata took back the bowl, making a sulky face and went back to concentrate on the movie, too. By the end of it, the bowl was still 1/3rd full, but the redhead didn't seem to care and just put it down on the coffee table. "That was a good one! Do you have more DVDs like that?", he wanted to know, looking at you expectantly. "Some, I guess.", you shrugged, thinking of the collection of DVDs you had gathered over the last two years. "Really? Cool! Can I come over next time?", he bounced in his seat, eager to get a 'yes' from you. Well, that certainly was a new one; Hinata thinking and being excited to do something that was not volleyball-related. -Not that were you any different, actually, so you weren't one to talk, really. "Maybe.", you didn't want to decide that just yet. Hinata, however, seemed to for once be satisfied with that and went to retrieve his phone.

He seemed to be checking something, when the front door opened. From your spot on the couch you couldn't see who it was, but you thought that it had to be Hinata-San. And you were right about that, just seconds later she came walking into the room, followed by a man, who looked like an older version of Hinata. He had the same, unruly mop of orange hair on his head -though it seemed he had tried to tame it with some gel and a brush- and almost the same built as him, too (though he wasn't as short as Hinata was). You figured this had to be Hinatas father. "Shou-Chan, Kageyama-Kun, we're home.", Hinata-San greeted the both of you, and Hinata and you replied a "Welcome back." in complete unison. You also bowed your head politely to Hinats father, introducing yourself to him and thanking the family again for letting you stay with them for the weekend. The man smiled and nodded to you and then dismissed you both. Hinata seemed to be reluctant to go to his room, though, and made it a point to his parents that he wanted to know about his sisters condition in more detail. Hinata-San told him with a stern expression that allowed no objections: "Tomorrow, Shou-Chan. You two should go to sleep now. It's late already and we have to get up early to take Kageyama-Kun home." The redhead whined in protest, but did as he was told. Before wandering back to his room, though, he retrieved your DVD from the player and handed it back to you, so you could put it away and wouldn't forget it tomorrow morning.

This night was pretty much spent like the one yesterday: Hinata fidgeted for a while, before he listened to the record of you playing the piano again and eventually fell asleep. Though he did say it was getting boring to listen to the same tune again and again. "Hey, will you play for me tomorrow again?", he quietly wanted to know, just when you were almost asleep. You frowned. "Why? Your sister is no longer comatose and seems to be getting better now. I don't need to play for you anymore.", you reasoned, before you actually thought about it. "I know she is. But it helps me to calm down anyways, you know? It's really relaxing to listen to your playing. I like it.", the redhead explained earnestly, and though you couldn't see him in the dark, you could feel his golden-brown eyes were intently staring in your direction. You sighed. It wasn't that you disliked playing for him, but without a proper reason to justify it for yourself, you weren't so sure about doing it. "I don't know... ", you eventually let him know, "I'll think about it." And that was it. You'd tell him tomorrow, you decided.

For now though, sleep didn't come easy to you, since now your mind was mulling over the redheads words. 'It helps me calm down, really relaxing, I like it.', echoed through your head, and the longer you thought about it, the more meaning you interpreted into those words. Even though you knew, Hinata probably didn't mean anything special at all. After all, he was an airhead and an idiot and didn't think about things like that at all, right? You of all people knew that, of course, and yet you couldn't stop thinking. It annoyed you and you groaned unwillingly, slumping deeper into your pillow. It didn't help though, and the treadmill that was your mind didn't stop at all. You eventually fell asleep with all of your thoughts revolving around Hinata that night, much to your confusion. That had never happened before, and you weren't quite sure, what to think of it.

However, thanks to your late-night brain-jogging, Hinata was up and awake earlier than you the next morning. And he was not happy about seeing you still asleep on the futon. It meant that he wouldn't get to see what you were doing yesterday before he woke up. But you, being still asleep, couldn't possibly know that, which is why you just grumbled something not in the least understandable and tried to hide under your covers, when the redhead tried to poke you awake. You didn't want to get up just yet. You gave in though, when you remembered that you had to get up and get ready, since Hinata-San would be taking you home later.

Your house greeted you with the silence you had been expecting, and you sighed, contend with that. The bag with your stuff was dropped right at the entrance and you went to check the answering machine for any missed calls. Your father never called you on your mobile -you wondered if he even had the number- and always just called home instead. Sure enough, the red light was blinking, informing you of new voice messages. You hit the play-button and your fathers voice echoed through the room, informing you that he would be away for a few more days and that you should let your mother know, when she came back. You thought that was it, but there was a call from your school, too. It was the music-teacher, Hana-Sensei, and apparently, she wanted that your parents convinced you to seriously play the piano. You deleted the message. Of course, your mother would get to know about that, eventually, but not any time soon, you hoped. Not that she'd bother you about it, but anyway. She'd probably only ask what you wanted to do and then tell that to Hana-Sensei. It wasn't that big of a deal, really, but you didn't want to be bothered about that at all. Not when you had the upcoming Inter-High and trainings-matches to think about and really only played the piano for your own stress-relieve -or for a certain redhead. It may be selfish of you, but you didn't want to share your music with just anybody. Sharing with people you knew and cared about was fine, but when it came to strangers -that was a completely different matter. Sadly, people like Hana-Sensei didn't seem to accept that, and were being a nuisance to you.

You tried to forget that all, though, and decided to just get your dirty laundry from the weekend done and then do your homework. Hinata and you had wanted to do them together, but that hadn't worked out at all, so both of you had resorted to do them alone this afternoon. Sure, you weren't that good at studying, but you didn't want to be falling too far behind, either.

Notes:

Merry Christmas, everyone! Have a (short) new chapter, to last you over some of the time of boring family-get-together's and stuff like that :) I hope you enjoyed reading it! In the next chapter, I will do a skip in time, to fast-forward it a little, since I don't want to write what they're doing everyday. It's obvious, anyway, right? :D Besides, its about time for Kuroko and Kagami to finally show up for real!

Don't forget to fav/follow/review! It makes my day every time I receive one of those and it lets me stay motivated to keep writing! *_*

Now, that's it from me for now!

I wish you all wonderful holidays, lots and lots of presents and a happy new year! :3