Hinata and Kenma finally meet up at a sleepover once the two finally have some free time, and after some time, they've got some stuff to talk about.

"It's been, what, half a year since you two've seen each other?" Kageyama absentmindedly started the conversation, having sat down near Hinata despite his coach's pestering. "And you still haven't done anything?" He glanced at his best friend, only to see him clearly honing in on something to distract himself, though he quietly groaned to help with whatever he was feeling.

"Nothing?" The raven-haired setter whistled, almost in awe and in disappointment. "You already told me, like, at our practice game a few months ago that you finally realized that you were into him. And you, of all people, haven't done anything about it?"

Hinata suddenly snapped, a somewhat childish tone seeping into his tone, "Hey! It's not like you're one to talk..." He went back to twiddling his thumbs, doing his best to focus on the practice game coming up. He and Kageyama watched as Atsumu rose from the Black Jackals' team bench, before casually strolling towards the court, volleyball in palm.

He only smirked, a light huff coming out of him, "At least I've been in a relationship. Granted, Oikawa and I did split because we both prioritized volleyball, which we both understood pretty well, but I've been in a relationship. Unlike you." As they spoke, Atsumu had a confident smirk on his face while he strolled lazily onto the court with the same style that both Hinata and Kageyama had seen on him multiple times over.

As he got in position, taking a deep breath to prepare for his first serve of the day before the practice game were to start, he took four steps back, Hinata and Kageyama both watching him while the former spoke blandly, "But I don't know how to approach this. At least you and Oikawa are kind of similar...you both work hard, you're both setters, you're both weird..."

He got smacked on the back of his head, the smack practically in perfect unison with Atsumu smacking the ball over the net for his first serve. Though the pain registered in Hinata's head, he only quietly chuckled at Kageyama's disdain.

"And?" Kageyama prompted, somewhat cherishing the moment. Though the two had been on different teams, they still remained close friends, often calling to talk about their days when all was said and done.

"Kenma and I..." Hinata muttered, his tone become a little less like the confident, bubbly Hinata and more like a pessimistic, icy Tsukishima. "We're so..different. He's smart, charismatic, quiet, shy, loves videogames and is good at them, doesn't like talking to people...and I'm...well, I'm me." He gestured at himself for a moment, no longer needing to elaborate. Thankfully, at least for Hinata, Kageyama only nodded with a quiet hum before turning back to the court.

"You two are really different," Kageyama agreed as he started to rise from the bench. "But...you know that nothing's going to change if you don't shoot your shot, right?" He rolled his eyes, standing up from the bench.

"Well, that's what I think," Kageyama shrugged, brushing the issue off. "I know that Kenma's usually out for business trips because of Bouncing Ball, but you're one of his best friends. He'd gladly make time for you whenever he's in Japan."

As the previously temperamental King walked off, his words resonated within Hinata's core, who stayed on the bench a little longer before Bokuto heartily chuckled as he stood from the bench, sauntering towards the court with a strong look in his eyes.

"Alright guys, let's go!" He declared, as if it were war. "We've got one chance for this, and we're not letting up!"

Nothing's going to change...it's one chance... Hinata thought to himself, eyes going fuzzy from going out of focus, completely thinking on his own thoughts before Bokuto whistled towards him. The ultimate decoy sprung up, desperate to get his mind off of it.

"What do you need now," The CEO's voice muttered, clearly disgruntled. "I'm trying to go to sleep." As he watched his character roll out of the boss's way, greedily striking the Nameless King before being heavily punished, he shoved his headphones to his neck in frustration while his character fell to the ground in defeat. He huffed, seeing the chat go wild with the sixth letter of the alphabet.

"Kenma, I can see your stream," Kuroo quietly chuckled, completely used to his friend's aversion to any contact with others while he was streaming. "I'm literally watching it. Why the hell are you going for a strength build, anyways?"

"Okay, Kuro," Kenma muttered, signalling to his chat that he'd need a moment. "What do you need?" Slowly watching the viewers descend into madness, going mad about people who just arrived asking what was going on, other viewers answering with unbelievable spam, and the moderators going crazy trying to manage it all, he sighed before turning back to the phone, which he held up to his ear.

"You're comin' back to Japan next week, right?" Kuroo prompted, taking the former setter's silence as a sign to continue. "Well, I was thinkin' we could hang out again. Y'know?"

Kenma tried to keep up his stoic, emotionless tone, "It's purely for business. I'm not sure if I'll have any free time." However, despite his tone, he didn't mean it. He did want to hang out with his friends, and he didn't mean to be shutting them out like this. It'd just been a tough month for him because of all the live competitions, especially for the Super Mario 64 speedrunning ones. The speedrunner Cheese had taken the record down at the last live competition, and Kenma was hoping to take the title this year.

Spoiler alert, he did.

Thankfully, Kuroo had spent his whole life learning all of Kenma's tells and whenever his voice spoke differently from his words, something that the dual-haired streamer was infinitely grateful for.

Kuroo stayed silent, letting Kenma gather his thoughts long enough to hesitantly whisper, "Will Shouyou be there?"

Kuroo quickly responded, and his smirk could practically be heard from all the way in Japan even though Kenma'd been in Latvia for the past two weeks, "Definitely. Just gotta ask him, as his agent, y'know, and boom, he'll be ready."

Kenma gratefully smiled, creating a silence that the two of them had learned to love over time, "Thanks."

Some rustling came over on Kuroo's side before he continued, a little bit of a lecturing sort of tone dripping in, "Just make sure you actually make a move sometime. Y'never know when Hinata'll find someone. Make sure it's you."

Kenma heard a little bit of yelling, followed by Kuroo responding with his own burst of frustration to retaliate, before the rooster focused back on the call, "Look, Kenma, I gotta go, but I'm thinking a sleepover sorta thing, cool? Maybe y'could make a little speech to confess to him or somethin'! Gotta go!"

Kenma furrowed his eyebrows as the call ended, before focusing on his chat, though the words all blended together as he hesitantly reached out to unmute himself.

"Cool," he started off, his voice a little shaky before gaining its normal Streamer™ composition. "Just had a call. Now, I gotta make sure he doesn't find someo-"

He interrupted himself with a quick cough, realizing that his words then didn't even make any sense for the context of the game, "I gotta find a way to beat him...and I don't need a whole little speech from chat about what way I need to do it."

His chat seemed none the wiser.

"What do I say, what do I say?!" Hinata paced around his room frantically, going back and forth in the same path he'd been doing. He would've gone on a run, but he couldn't let himself rant like this out loud in the park. He'd probably get some weird stares and somehow a restraining order. He kicked at his ankles rhythmically, feeling the gentle pound against the insides of his legs sting but in a way that helped him stay focused. Or in this case, completely honed in on his panic.

He cracked his knuckles. He fought back the frog in his throat. He snapped his fingers. He'd resorted to behaviors that'd normally only been seen in high schoolers dying from stress during finals week, of which he graciously passed, solidly landing on the thin line between failing and passing.

He'd done anything and everything to help his nerves, to calm himself down, yet his heart rate was still blistering, blazing at a rate that he'd only felt before during intense games or on the occasional dreadful thought that he'd trip over his own feet while walking onto the court, or worse, fall flat on his face from losing his balance.

Bokuto never let him live that down, something that Hinata could very well see happening in the next few hours. If something like that, which only Bokuto regularly brought up, felt so much more severe than Hinata knew it really was, how was he going to do this?

How was he going to do something that was actually as serious, if not far more serious, than his mind had made it out to be?

He'd given Kageyama's words some actual thought. And after some deliberation that took him longer than he'd like to admit, Hinata'd come to a decision. He was going to speak up about his feelings, and do his best to accept whatever results come his way.

He clenched at his stomach, stopping in his tracks as he let out a quiet groan, before shuffling miserably to the bathroom. The volleyball player thought, he could've sworn, hell, he would've bet his life savings on how he'd finally recovered from his pre-game nerves and any sort of vomit-inducing nausea before an intense moment.

This was clearly not the case where he could bet his money on him not puking in the toilet. As the quiet noise-crunching coughs and spitting came echoing from the bathroom, Hinata did his best to take some deep breaths, eventually resorting to drinking some medicine to help with his nausea.

He threw it up before it even had a chance to dissolve.

Kenma shut off his computer, slamming it forcefully, something that he'd never do normally. His lips were pressed into a razor-thin line, a cold sweat coming upon his back as he gulped, having finally made it through his stream.

He sighed quietly, letting his shoulders relax ever so lightly, "Crap, why'd I say it like that?" He lamented over the fact that he seemed a little too blunt and emotionless as he informed his chat that he wasn't going to be streaming tomorrow. Of course, they took it well, even congratulating him and encouraging him to take some well-deserved rest, but to the streamer, it felt like he'd messed something up.

Or is that just me overthinking it? Kenma shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as he leaned back in his gaming chair. He spun around a little before picking up his phone, habitually tapping his foot while he read back through the conversation he'd shared with Kuroo.

"God damn it, why'd I agree to it being so soon?" Kenma cursed under his breath, feeling a little annoyance at how poorly scheduled it seemed to be. It was literally scheduled two hours after a stream that Kenma was going to have, collaborating with someone just because of some stupid reason. Of course, Kenma thought that streaming with a guy who only USED to hold the world record for speedrunning "Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine and Dies," but his chat thought that it'd be perfect. From what he knew, though, the streamer had a...unique sense of humor, to say the least, but he could find some of his remarks incredibly amusing.

Regardless, he'd be two hours off of streaming when the sleepover was going to happen, and he was planning to have a meeting with some associates over Bouncing Ball, which was undoubtedly the most boring part of his life. It was the biggest challenge in his life as well. Staying awake to listen to all of them speak over decisions that the CEO had already made five goddamn years in advance? Torturous.

Forcing himself to get up from his chair, he moseyed over to his bed, on which he promptly flopped onto without any sense of grace, sloppily smacking his hair tie onto his wooden nightstand as he slithered into a comfier position. In reality, while he seemed like the most comfy human in existence, his face a perfect form of indifference, every nerve in his body screamed otherwise, his heart on fire as his limbs felt numb.

His fingers felt as if they weren't there, like a phantom force numbing them with the feeling of what T.V static likely feels like. Shakily picking up his phone, he gulped as he read over the texts yet again, a habit he'd picked up quite some time ago. Scrolling through the group chat that he'd formed with Kuroo and Hinata, he knew that Kageyama was going to come with, and he was glad. After all, he wouldn't want to make Kuroo feel like the third wheel.

"hi kenma! :D" the text read, clear as day, and even though there was no voice to speak the words, he could feel the excitement and sheer childlike wonder in Hinata's text. It was almost comical how so much of Hinata didn't change, yet how all of him grew exponentially. Other than his height, of course.

His shoulders relaxed as he let out a sigh, quietly yawning as his hand hit the pillow and bouncing ever so slightly, hand relaxing in turn while his phone fell down onto his bed, no longer putting effort into reading the texts as he rolled onto his other side, knowing full well that he'd have to readjust the blanket later on.

Even with all his experience in maintaining (and dropping) conversations online through years of refined experience, it ended up being Kuroo who had to continue before Kenma picked up with an actual response. He didn't know how exactly to respond to Hinata when all that was in his mind while he typed and deleted various responses to Hinata in general were all either incredibly poor flirting attempts or trying to actually converse before resorting into keysmashes to convey the emotion he'd kept within.

It was...so odd.

"You're such an ass, you know that, Kuroo-san?" Kageyama muttered, though he bore a smirk on his face as he walked into Kenma's house, greeting the former middle blocker with an eye roll. "You really sent Hinata back out there to grab chocolates?"

The rooster only shrugged, though his eyes held a mischievous, almost snake-like glint to them, "Hey, I wanted chocolates. What's so bad about a man wantin' to have a cheat day for once?" He smirked, letting his fangs bare despite the fact that he, was in fact, a rooster and not a predator.

Kageyama sighed, "I knew you were planning something." His voice held fatigue, though his expression showed just as much amusement as Kuroo's, who chuckled half-heartedly before giving in.

"Fine, fine. Y'know why I was planning this, anyways. You've been asking me all the time about getting Kenma to ask Hinata out anyways, since Chibi-chan won't do it himself," Kuroo explained in understanding, ready to let loose before he pointed his thumb towards one of the hallways. "'Oh, by the way, we're having the movie night in Kenma's room. His bed's comfy."

As Kageyama headed off, Kuroo leaned against the wall with a lighthearted scoff, crossing his arms as he kicked his foot against the wall. Oh, the mice will play.

He'd had it all in his head. Organize a movie night when the time came, and when it was available. Mainly because Kenma had so much going on, which, of course, made him happy with his life, but it meant that Kuroo often had to fight with the consequences of his job to get some free time with his friends.

Then, he could set Hinata and Kenma up without them even knowing it. Kenma, of course, didn't need much motivation to see Hinata as attractive, and from Kageyama had been complaining about, the same went for Hinata. Waiting for the golden opportunity so that it wouldn't seem suspicious was easy enough, especially with how much they'd had movie nights in high school before.

Last but not least, and this was the hardest one for him, was to let it happen. He'd like a plan to be in his control, knowing how the chess pieces move and predicting all the possible movements. But knowing both Hinata and Kenma so well made it impossible for Kuroo to know how to provoke them in such a way that it'd come out naturally.

All he could do was hope. He scowled, feeling like everything was riding on luck more than his effort, which broke the very rules he'd set forth whenever he was to scheme like this.

And all he could do, at least, what he chose, was to leave.

Suddenly, a ring snapped him out of his thoughts, catching him off guard as the football that Kenma installed personally continued to ring. He pressed a button on the intercom, seeing Hinata with a grocery bag from the nearby supermarket, slightly panting.

Did he decide not to drive there or something? Kuroo raised an eyebrow, seeing Hinata catch his breath. What a weirdo. It's snowing, too...

He hummed, "Yo?" He could see Hinata, but it was more out of habit than anything else, especially after Kenma called him out one time because he accidentally let Tora in with his muddy shoes without telling him to take them off.

"Hi!" His slightly fatigued voice came through, even with the bright sunny smile on his face, wiping some sweat off his brow as he gulped, licking his lips as he stood straight up again, protecting himself from the light snow.

"Gotcha," Kuroo muttered, presing his thumb on another button that caused the door to ring again, followed by creaking while Hinata entered with an excited smile on his face, the 25 year-old still having the same smile he had in the first year of high school, if not more energetic.

"So, Hinata, y'ready?" He smirked, seeing the chocolates in his hands. Surprisingly enough, he brought quite a bit, two whole boxes worth of assorted chocolates.

"Mhm!" He nodded, though there was a shakiness in his eyes and a tenseness in his shoulders that somewhat surprised Kuroo. Did Kageyama tell him something, too?

"Shouyou, could you stop clinging to me, please?" Kenma shyly prompted, a light pink dusting his cheeks as Hinata only gripped onto his panda hoodie even tighter, knuckles white with the sheer strength of his grip. The barely younger adult was curled up on the bed, buried beneath layers and layers of blanket as he watched A Quiet Pkace, which had only been on Netflix for only a few months. A perfect movie to watch, especially since Kenma refused to go to the theater to watch it in person.

"Shouyou, there's literally nothing happening," Kenma gently assured him, squeezing the athlete's forearm very gently while he whispered in his ear, though Hinata continued to shake. Of course, just as Kenma had predicted, Hinata was the biggest wuss on the planet whenever it came to any horror-related thing.

"Exactly," he stressed the importance of the silence. "There's nothing happening...what if something happens?" He slightly shuffled, finally popping an eye out from the blanket as Kageyama tossed another piece of popcorn into Hinata's mouth. Kenma wondered how the hell the setter's accuracy carried over to literally every other aspect of his life other than academics.

"Then we can watch it," Kenma whispered, faintly registering the sound of Kuroo violently chugging down a water bottle down in the meantime. "You were the one who chose this movie, after all?" Even though he was technically right, Hinata sure as hell wouldn't deny it because he didn't register the fact that Kenma had practically been challenging him to watch a horror movie beforehand.

"B-B-But..." Hinata quietly whispered, before Kageyama's fingers shushed him in an instant, the raven-haired setter now practically completely focused on the movie in front of him. Granted, he was somewhat straining his eyes, though it felt mostly natural as the dark screen worked well against the dark room they were all in.

The music slowly started to pick up. Very gentle, yet still there before slowly growing as the main character's breath started to hitch. He gulped, clearly shaken though doing his best to stay silent.

The music slowly became louder, before growing even louder with ambient sounds in the background, before-

CRUNCH!

kenma and Hinata hopped, and Kageyama's head whirled, genuine panic in his voice as he picked up the nearest object to whack something with in self-defense, before a gigantic, prideful howl broke the room.

"Oh, my fucking god!" Kuroo wheezed loudly, clutching at his left side as he cackled before holding up his left hand, showing the water bottle that he crushed right when the music finally reached a breaking point. "You guys should've seen the looks on your faces!" He smirked, tossing the crushed bottle up in the air a few times before getting up. "I guess this calls for a bathroom break? GOtta make sure you guys didn't piss your pants, after all."

As Kuroo stood up from the couch, satisfaction on his face, he strolled out of the room before hitting Kenma with a meaningful look before his eyes darted to Hinata's before the rooster finally made his full exit into the kitchen.

Kageyama followerd suit, nodding his head at the two before getting up to go to the bathroom himself, since he, as many others would, didn't want to piss his pants in front of his friends because of a movie.

As Hinata realized the, in retrospect, amusing move that Kurooo made, he shot a nervous smile towards Kenma, who clearly hadn't been paying attention to Kuroo or Kageyama leaving the room. Instead, his focus was on something else entirel, based on how his breath was caught and the way there was a light blush on his cheeks that Hinata couldn't help but notice, before following Kenma's eyes.

"A-Ah, K-Kenma!" Hinata stuttered out, his palms instantly feeling twenty times as clammy as they'd normally be. "S-Sorry!" He quickly removed his hand from Kenma's, as their fingers had been locked together, before making contact with the former setter.

He...he held my hand... Kenma registered in his mind, locking eyes with Hinata, eyes wide and all before gulping, realizing what he needed to do with this. If I don't do anything...nothing's going to change...

This...it's one chance... he told himself, the silence in the room almost suffocating as Hinata scooched ever so closer to him, "S-Shouyou..."

Hinata could feel Kenma's breath on him, and gulped, feeling the pressure tenfold, far greater than any volleyball game he'd ever been in as Kenma started, though his voice seemed to fall apart.

Hinata gulped, "Y-Yes?" He didn't know where he was going with this, but he knew he couldn't stop himself.

I...I have to make a move sometime...I...I don't know when Kenma's going to find someone...I... Hinata's resolve began to strengthen, before softly grabbing Kenma's hand again. I...I have to make sure it's me!

"I..." Kenma began, before shutting up and gulping. "I..." he looked away for a moment. "Do...do you mind if I just show you instead?"

Hinata tilted his head, before nodding gently, not a word or sound coming out of him before Kenma very slowly but surely wrapped his arms around Hinata, causing the younger adult to freeze up for a moment.

"I...I...I like you. I like you, Shouyou," Kenma admitted, feeling an immense amount of weight lift from his shoulders. Hinata bit his lip, body completely freezing.

"I..." Hinata began, searching frantically for the words he wanted to say. Come on, come on, come on! You can't leave him hanging! "I...I have something to give you!" As he spit out the words, he instantly wanted to slap himself for how stupid it was.

"..." Kenma stayed silent, in shock, almost. "...What?" It was clear he hadn't been expecting it either. Oh, how could I be so stupid! Of all the things I could say to the thing I wanted to hear, it was that!

"J-Just..." Hinata gulped, before reaching down to the side, fumbling around for a bit before grabbing something and showing it to Kenma. "H-Here. For you..." He looked away bashfully, before hearing a gentle laugh.

"Only you, Shouyou..." Kenma whispered gratefully, hesitantly kissing Hinata on the cheek while he was looking to the side. "Only you would accept my confession by telling me that you have something to give me." His voice was soft, though as Kenma pulled Hinata tight into his arms, Hinata could feel the emotion surge out of the quiet, normally expressive boy. It was a hug that he gladly reciprocated.

Click!

"Huh?" Kenma blinked, feeling the atmosphere vanish as he searched for the source of the sudden flash of light, before locking on. "Kuroo! What are you doing?"

"Taking a picture of you two, duh," Kuroo crooned, pressing a button on his phone before showing it to the two. "Just look at ya here! I never thought I'd see the day where you actually initiate contact with someone!"

Lo and behold, it was a picture of Kenma gently pulling Hinata into his arms while he pressed the gentlest of kisses onto the volleyball player's cheek, a heavy blush on Kenma's face as he did so, though a tranquility in both of their eyes while Kenma held the chocolates in his right hand.

"Delete it."

"Nope."

"Delete. It."

"Hey, Kenma? Nope!"

"Please, Kuroo-san?!"

"Not even for you, Chibi-chan. Oh, Kageyama, there you are. Y'wanna see this picture I got of Kenma and Chibi-chan being whipped for each other?"

A gag.

"Nah, I see enough of Hinata being whipped for Kenma at our practice games."

"Hey!"

I'm gonna get to the Oihina one next! If you have any requests for any ships, I'm down to do it!

Best Regards,

SpiritBloodDragon