Hinata swung by the bakery one afternoon on his trusty bike. The hanging doorbell softly chimed as he opened the door and stepped in. Yamaguchi looked up when he heard the sound and smiled when he saw who it was.

"Hinata!" Yamaguchi greeted him with a wave.

"You're working here!" Hinata said excitedly. "Oh…" his face dropped. "I don't think I actually got your name when we met."

Oh wow did Yamaguchi forget to do that? He remembered that he was just babbling nonsense that day.

"I must've gotten distracted, sorry. It's Yamaguchi Tadashi." he informed. "Do you visit often?"

"I come here sometimes after my last class to do my homework. I like working with Kenma around." Hinata pulled out a chair from a table close to the counter and placed his bag on it so he could get his stuff out.

The last few customers left the bakery not long after, leaving the bakery empty. Kenma saw this and went to the breakroom in the back to get his school stuff. Yamaguchi would later learn that this is around the time where the bakery gets routinely less busy each day.

"Shouyou, did you hear what I said?" Kenma poked Hinata's forehead with the eraser side of his pencil. Kenma is used to people not catching his words. Normally he doesn't care, but Hinata was just staring off into space like 5 times in the past 30 minutes.

"Oh, sorry. Yeah I heard you." Hinata said as he shook his head to readjust his focus. Despite this, his mind still appeared to be somewhere else.

"You look a little distracted." Kenma commented, noticing some mistakes on Shouyou's paper: "boing" instead of boiling, some flipped statements like, the powerhouse is the mitochondria of the cell, and a- did he just try to say that two is an odd number?

"Hmm yeah there is something on my mind." Hinata said as he laid his head tiredly on his arms. Kenma pushed the schoolwork a little bit to the side, as if to agree that they should take a break from it for a bit.

Kenma looked at him and thought for a second. "Is this about Kageyama?" he asked. Hinata felt his face heat up. He quickly looked up to scan the counter for him, eyes darting back and forth, even though he knew Kageyama was off his shift. He then sighed, and nodded.

"What do you think I should do?" Hinata asked.

"If you're asking me for advice…" Kenma started, but he didn't finish his thought. Hinata already knows what he meant. If you're asking me for advice, then you must have it pretty bad.

"But you're my best friend!" Hinata protested. "And you also work with him, so you know what he's like."

"Not really… I don't really talk to him and he doesn't really talk much either."

Hinata shifted his head to bury it in between his arms on the table.

"Hm… you should just go for it. Maybe it's better to just try talking to him." Kenma reached for an eraser to correct some of Hinata's errors.

"But I don't even get chances to talk to him!" His voice came out muffled. "He doesn't interact with the actual customers." Kageyama doesn't really have to take orders when Akaashi and Bokuto are around. And with Yamaguchi, that's probably going to be even less of a possibility.

Wait a second… Yamaguchi! Hinata thought, lifting his head up now. If I can't find out more about him through Kenma, maybe Yamaguchi can help me.

"Hey Yamaguchi!" Hinata called, energy returning in his voice at the prospect of this new idea.

Yamaguchi looked up to see Hinata gesturing him over. He propped the tray of containers on a nearby counter, and walked over. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked.

"How much do you know about Kageyama?"

"Kageyama?" Yamaguchi was somewhat confused about the question. "Uhhh not much. I haven't really talked to him before? But I'm going to get training from him soon."

"Perfect! Then that's the prime time to talk to him! Strike up a conversation! Get to know him better!"

"You think he'll wanna make small talk? He kinda seems like the no-nonsense kind of guy." Yamaguchi asked concerningly, as if imagining Kageyama snapping at him for being off task. "What's this for?"

Hinata shifted a little bit uncomfortably. "He just seems so… interesting! And really cool! I wanna be friends with him and get to know him more." Hinata said, now looking down away from Yamaguchi. Kageyama really interested Hinata. He seems to keep to himself and doesn't really catch the attention of other people, but that's not the case for Hinata. Hinata can't help but notice him, the way that he scrunches up his face when he made a mistake, the way each cup of hot chocolate or coffee he gets is always consistent and precise, the exact amount of marshmallows or whipped cream to compliment the drink.

"The problem is that Shouyou doesn't get a lot of opportunities to just talk to him." Kenma said, snapping Hinata back to reality.

"Which is why I need your help, Yamaguchi."

"How can I help?" Yamaguchi asked in an unsure tone.

"I need to find out more about him, and also a way to talk to him."

Yamaguchi nodded in agreement. Wow, he thought. If he were in his situation, he would probably think he would have no chance. Not knowing a lot about Kageyama and not being in a setting where he could talk to him? Yamaguchi would probably give up. But Hinata seems like the type of person who doesn't have "give up" in his vocabulary.

Yamaguchi agreed to pay attention to Kageyama for Hinata and see what kind of person he is. Then three of them resumed what they were doing before, though Hinata was slow to get back into his schoolwork. It was hard to work when his mind was occupied by something else.

"Oh Hinata, are you leaving soon?" Bokuto called out.

"Yeah I think I'm done for the day." Hinata said as he stretched his back and closed his laptop. Kenma was back to work, preparing a custom ice cream cake order for tomorrow.

"Do you wanna come with me to take the cats to the vet?" Bokuto asked, wiggling S'mores in front of Hinata's face as if to persuade him to come along.

"Sure! Is there something wrong with them?" Hinata asked, scratching S'mores behind the ears. S'mores enjoyed the petting, but disliked being so high off the ground, so she gently leapt out of Bokuto's grasp.

"No, but it's important for them to get checkups because they interact with the customers. We don't want to be sued." Akaashi informed them. He then stopped sweeping and looked up at the two. "You two better hurry before it gets too late." He added.

Hinata looked over at Kenma, quietly applying chocolate shavings to the side of the cake. He knew that Kenma would probably not like the idea of having to wait for them to come back so he could take the cats home.

"We'll take the cats back, Kenma?" Hinata asked as he leaned over to put his laptop in his bag. Bokuto was scooping the cats back up to be placed in the carrying baskets.

Kenma looked up and nodded appreciatively.

And with that, they left the bakery, Hinata walking with his bike in hand, and Bokuto holding the carrying basket for the cats.

"Isn't that exciting?" Sugawara asked over the phone. "Yes." Akaashi agreed. The idea of the bakery incorporating a bookstore seemed like an excellent addition to create a unique and relaxing environment. Many customers already come to the bakery to read or write, so this addition made sense.

"Bokuto's already taking care of some of the unloading. Could you ask anyone else willing to help, since I know you won't have time to do it?"

"Sure." He replied. Immediately, he was thinking of possible candidates for this task. "Great, thanks for your help!" Sugawara said, and Akaashi ended the call. He then turned to Kenma to notify him about the new changes.

"Sugawara is looking for volunteers for the renovation. Would you be willing to help unload some of the items for the bookstore?"

Kenma already had a basic understanding of what Akaashi was going to say before he asked from listening to the phone conversation. In his mind, he was already preparing an excuse to get out of doing the work, when he suddenly developed a thought. The gears in Kenma's head were turning. If Kageyama and Shouyou were helping out with setting up the new bookstore addition, then they could talk to each other. And almost as importantly, he wouldn't have to work.

"I don't think that Yamaguchi should do it since he's new." Akaashi continued.

"I think Kageyama should do it." Kenma said firmly, trying not to sound like he's purposely avoiding work. He's probably thinking exactly that, because that is something I'd definitely do. But Akaashi simply nodded and made no further comment, returning to his work.

Kenma took out his phone and began to write to Shouyou. Of course, he'd rather just tell him the news when they would see each other later, but Kenma knows that this is something Shouyou would like to know as soon as possible, learning from past incidents. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Hinata would say. "You never asked." was all that Kenma could think to say back.

"Well everything looks good so far." Hirugami said as he logged the information on the cats into the computer.

Inuoka walked by the room before stopping to poke his head in. "Hey Bokuto! How's the project coming along?"

Hinata looked at Bokuto. "Ooh, what project?" He asked curiously.

"I'm making a powerpoint presentation for Akaashi about why we should get a puppy."

"Ooh how is it? Akaashi's definitely going to be impressed if you do that!" Hinata encouraged.

"Right? I'm thinking he'll be super taken aback that I'm putting in all this effort. I wanna surprise him." Bokuto lifted the cats from the table to place them back into the basket. "Hirugami is helping me learn about puppy care but it's hard to pay attention! He always makes it complicated and uses big words." Bokuto pouted.

"It's good practice for me as a vet student." Hirugami shrugged.

"Maybe you should give him some more practical information, Hirugami-san." Inuoka suggested with a chuckle. "You've gotta show me it when you're done with it. I want to see how many mistakes you make." he said jokingly.

"I would be willing to help correct it for you." Hirugami offered.

Bokuto grumbled some sort of weak remark to Inuoka, being caught off guard by Hirugami's words and thanking him.

With a zip of the mesh basket, the cats were tucked away, ready for a safe trip back home. Bokuto and Hinata said goodbye, and as the two of them were walking out of the office, Hinata pulled out his phone and saw there was a text from Kenma.

Akaashi's asking for people to help with renovations at the bakery. You and Kageyama should do it.

"Oh Bokuto, is there something going on at the bakery? Kenma's saying there's renovations happening?" Hinata asked as he slipped his phone back into his pocket so he could put the cats into his bike basket.

"You haven't heard? You know that empty building next door? They're going to turn it into a little bookstore and connect it to the bakery."

"Woah! I knew they were doing construction over there, but I didn't know it was going to be connected to the bakery! How do you think they're going to connect it? Will they tear down the wall?"

"I didn't think about that! They are going to have to open the space up somehow."

"Maybe it'll be like that movie Hidden Figures, where the guy uses a hammer to open up the wall to fit a machine into the room."

"I remember that movie! I saw it with Oikawa and Kuroo. Oikawa was the one that suggested it, and Kuroo also wanted to see it because it was all mathy and sciencey. Oh! And speaking of Kuroo, look!" Bokuto ran to a closed store, with Hinata following him the best he could without jostling the cats too much. When we reached the store, Hinata tried to peer inside to see what this store was.

"It's dark right? In the daytime it's also like that too! It's really weird and that's why Kuroo and I stuck our faces to the windows, so we could see what this weird glass was. We were making weird faces and then we decided to go inside, and that's when we realized there was a guy there and he could see everything we were doing."

Hinata laughed at his story. "What happened next?" Hinata asked amusingly, reading the posters hanging on the outside. "What is this place anyways?"

"I think it's a smoothie shop. After we walked in, Kuroo awkwardly bought some sort of green drink and then we ran. Cause we couldn't just walk in and immediately walk out."

TI-84 Plus meowed tiredly, as if to remind them of what they were supposed to be doing.

"You're right TI-84, TO KUROO'S!" Bokuto commanded, leading the way. Hinata followed behind him, pushing his bicycle along.

When the two of them got to the door, Bokuto pulled out the spare keys he had and unlocked the door. The inside of the apartment was dark, except for a faint light coming from the living room that was pouring into the hallway.

On the far side of the couch, Kuroo was sitting underneath a lamp working on his laptop. Kenma was on his phone, sitting on the ground in between the couch and the coffee table, which had papers scattered all over and a closed laptop above the mess.

"Guess where we stopped by on our way here." Bokuto announced to Kuroo as Hinata bent down to open the basket.

Kuroo looked up from his screen. "You didn't go by that cursed playground did you? I have an exam coming up and I can't have spirit children eat up my precious brain the night before." Kuroo remarked. There were a pair of thin reading glasses on his face.

S'mores hopped out and sauntered off to another room. TI-84 Plus stepped over to Kenma and curled up in his lap.

"Will they really leave the playground? I made Christmas cookies in the shape of stockings once and we didn't have enough red food coloring, so Akaashi said they looked like brains. I left them out and in the morning, there were chunks bitten out of them! Do you think the spirit children ate my cookies?"

"That's ridiculous, you probably slept walk and ate them while unconscious or something."

"I don't sleepwalk! If I did I would know!"

"How would you know? You're asleep."

"...Akaashi would tell me."

"Hm true. What if Akaashi sleepwalks too?"

"He'd probably know if he did!"

"How would he know? He's asleep."

Kenma already stopped paying attention to the discussion right when Bokuto said "guess". Instead, he and Hinata were having their own separate conversation.

"I don't think I ever see you really doing schoolwork and yet you're doing way better than me. How do you get it all done?" Hinata wondered.

"Eh…" Kenma dismissed. "I procrastinate a lot too."

"I feel like I ask you this a million times and I still don't know the answer." Hinata lamented a little.

Kuroo glanced at the time in the corner of his computer screen. "You guys wanna stay and play something?" He pushed the glasses off his face and set them on top of Kenma's closed computer.

"We should play Sorry!" Bokuto chided.

"Oh, how about Uno!" Hinata suggested.

"Uno! That's a great idea Hinata!" Bokuto agreed. "I've been watching a lot of Markiplier's Uno videos and it's making me really wanna play!"

"Do you watch him?" Kenma asked. Bokuto waved his hand in dismissal. "Nah. Akaashi has been playing his Uno videos a lot though. He says it's 'good background noise.' I end up watching it and it's so entertaining. I can quote large chunks of the videos!"

Kuroo frowned "We literally have video games and you guys choose board games?" then he paused to consider. "I do like Monopoly... but that's kind of a really long game."

Kenma quietly pulled out a deck of cards from the storage area under the coffee table and placed it on top of the papers. Except, this wasn't a normal deck of cards.

Cards against humanity

"Ooh, now that's more my taste." Kuroo grew a fiercely competitive grin.

"How do you play?" Hinata and Bokuto asked at the same time.

"Oh but these aren't functional." Kenma said as he shook the silent card box, indicating it was empty.

"That's alright, maybe another time." Hinata said.

"What happened to the cards anyways?" Bokuto asked.

"Kuroo left them in his pockets and then he did the laundry."

"No, don't listen to him, it was S'mores. He got to 'em." Kuroo denied.

"You didn't even know that the box was empty until just now. Which just proves that you forgot about them."

"Ack, you got me there."

Instead, the four of them played Hearts with regular playing cards. Bokuto has never played before, so Kenma taught him, and grew annoyed when Bokuto shot the moon without him realizing it. Not even Bokuto knew what he did. Beginner's luck.

After a few games, Bokuto and Hinata said goodbye to everyone, and Hinata rode back home. The streets were quiet and mostly empty, but not scary, as this was an area he was very familiar with, and felt like home. The cool air felt refreshing as it hit his skin, though it gave him a little more of a bite than yesterday. The weather is starting to get colder, and Hinata realizes he has to break out the fall and winter clothes.

The thought of finally getting a chance to talk to Kageyama entered his mind, and Hinata found himself planning what he would do during that day, finally being able to see those talented and meticulous hands that put so much care into each drink crafted, up close.