"First!" Hinata and Kageyama yelled at the same time as they slammed through the clubroom doorway, tripping over each other in their haste and crashing into a heavy pile on the floor.

"Hinata was totally first that time," Noya decided. Tanaka nodded beside him.

"No way," Suga said running his hand through his hair, "Kageyama definitely came first. That's why he's on the bottom."

"And I would like not to be anymore!" Kageyama yelled angrily from his place face down on the ground.

Hinata pushed himself up so he would no longer have a mouthful of Kageyama's hair but continued to sit on the lower half of his setter's back. He pointed an accusing finger at his vice-captain.

"That's not fair! You have a setter bias!"

Before Suga could reply Kageyama rolled onto his side and Hinata tumbled off, nearly slamming his head into a shelf.

"Do I look like a goddamn chair for you to be sitting on?" Kageyama said angrily, standing and brushing himself off.

"Pfft, you're just mad that I won."

"I clearly got here before you!"

"Then why'd you end up under me like a second place loser?"

Kageyama fisted his hands around Hinata's shirt and Hinata had no doubt he would be thrown across the room.

"It's too early for this," said a tired looking Daichi from the doorway.

Kageyama set him back down on the ground properly. Suga slapped Daichi on the back with a big grin earning him an arched eyebrow from the captain.

"Better now than in matches right?"

Hinata watched Daichi shake his head but he didn't continue to chastise them. Maybe Tanaka was right. Suga used his pretty-ness, or whatever it was, to soothe fights and hype up his teammates during matches. Could a nice looking face really do that? Hinata tried to discreetly side eye Kageyama who was tying his shoes.

That's right, he was a setter too. And he definitely wasn't pretty. Maybe playing as the Great King's underclassman had siphoned all his would-be prettiness away; it seemed like something Oikawa would do. Kageyama was the opposite of soothing and could barely give Hinata a single kind word when it came to his technique. Kageyama seemed to sense Hinata's eyes on him because he briefly looked in his direction before just as quickly averting his gaze.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

Hinata stuck his tongue out at him out of reflex. "Nothing."

Yeah, maybe being pretty had nothing to do with it. Suga was just like that. Hinata noticed a crinkled looking notebook sticking out of Kageyama's duffle bag on the floor. He crouched down and tugged the corner of it out, the page it was flipped open to was full of ink smears and almost unreadable.

"Hasn't anyone taught you to mind your own business?" Kageyama sneered.

The notebook was snatched out of Hinata's hands before he could begin to decipher the messy handwriting. And he definitely needed to figure out what it said because he was pretty sure his name had been hastily scratched through at the top of the page.

"What happened to it?" he asked.

Kageyama shoved the notebook back into his bag and zipped it shut with intention. "Nothing. I just spilled water on it."

"What was written on it? Class notes?"

Kageyama glared at him, not that it had much of an effect. Hinata was almost immune to them at this point having been on the receiving end of so many different kinds. He would still absolutely crumble to pieces if he ever slammed a volleyball into Kageyama's head again though. That kind of rage could only be unlocked on rare occasions and Hinata found himself the unwitting holder of the only key.

"Do you want me to toss to you or not?"

Hinata jumped up, his limbs starfishing out of joy.

"Absolutely! Let's go!"

0o0

"Why aren't you ever prepared for anything?"

"Shut up, Bakayama! It's your fault for distracting me earlier!"

Kageyama held a volleyball against his hip. Hinata rubbed at his sore knees. He had made a mad dive to receive and forgotten not only that he wasn't Nishinoya, but also his kneepads.

"Just go get them before you break something," Kageyama said sourly.

Hinata watched as Kageyama walked to the back of the court and tossed the ball into the air preparing to practice a few serves in the meantime. The throbbing in his knees made him get a move on.

"Stupid Kageyama getting mad at me for nothing," he mumbled to himself as he walked out of the gym and headed forlornly back to the clubroom.

Alone in the clubroom he went through his gym bag and found his kneepads doing an excellent job at protecting nothing. He sat on the ground as he slid them up his legs. His gaze locked on to the duffel bag that was tucked against the far wall.

"Stupid Kageyama for giving me this opportunity," Hinata chuckled to himself evilly as he crawled quickly over to the wall.

Kageyama didn't seem like the type to have secrets which made his refusal to share what was written in the notebook all the more tantalizing. Hinata was itching to find out what it was. He could safely assume Kageyama would be every kind of pissed if he found out so he would have to take special care to leave everything exactly as he found it.

He gently slid the zipper across the bag, careful not to move the bag itself an inch along the ground. The notebook was still there, the spiral bound pages still textured with water damage. Hinata quickly looked behind him to make sure the clubroom door was still closed. He would need to be fast before he was missed and someone came looking for him. He pulled out the notebook.

It was awfully underwhelming.

It was just as Kageyama had said. A handful of pages with whatever had been written on them badly smeared after they had gotten wet. The last page had suffered from the least amount of water abuse. Hinata figured it had the best chance of being legible. There as clear as day, or at least a cloudy and rainy day, was his name. Well, this certainly made it his business to decode the rest of the writing. He had time. He could do this.

He carefully held up the page to the lights in the ceiling and frowned. Whatever had been written here in its dry period had been scribbled over a million times. He could only make out a few words spattered across the page.

Hinata,

You suck…

He honestly didn't know what else he had expected. If this was a hit piece he needed to know exactly what his teammate thought of him so he could spike a volleyball in his face later, his withering glares be damned.

I like…ball…I…want…feelings…nice ones.

Hinata blinked a few times. Kageyama had never seemed like the type to really care about feelings. Was he having a come-to-Jesus moment about…sentimentality? Was he actually becoming a normal person?

Dating you…boyfriend…ok.

The first thought that crossed his mind didn't make sense. No, there was no way. If he just finished trying to read the letter it would all right itself out. He swallowed. It had to.

He looked at the final line and then slammed the notebook back into the bag not caring if he bent its pages and zipped it shut with fervor. He should never have snooped. He was so stupid. He should have left everything well enough alone. If he had he wouldn't feel as sick to his stomach with nerves as he did.

What was he supposed to do now? Ignore it? Pretend he never saw it? But how could he? He closed his eyes and could still see in his mind lit up by spotlights three little words.

I like you.

Oh, he was in so much trouble.

0o0

"I'll meet you back here in a little bit ok, Kageyama?"

Hinata hoped that the taller boy couldn't tell he was so full of anxiety that it was about to come pouring out of his ears. Kageyama rubbed the back of his neck without looking at him properly. Was he nervous? Did Hinata make him nervous? Holy god was this what it was going to be like now? Hinata wanted to combust.

"Yeah, ok."

Hinata not trusting himself to speak simply nodded and ran to Nishinoya who was talking to Tanaka. Now that practice was over he needed immediate help and there was no one he thought better suited to the task than his upperclassmen. When he approached he made sure to lay it on thick.

"Noya-senpai? Tanaka-senpai? I need your help."

Both boy's necks nearly snapped in their hurry to turn their attention to lock onto their number 10. Got 'em.

"How can we be of assistance?" Tanaka said pride oozing from his voice like syrup.

Hinata made a quick note of his surroundings and judging that no one was close enough to overhear he brought a hand up to his mouth.

"I'm going to get a confession soon and I-

"Holy shit!" Tanaka yelled, "You lucky bastard!"

Nishinoya jumped and landed on Hinata's back like a spider monkey whooping as loudly as Tanaka. "Congratulations!"

"No, you guys don't understand," Hinata pleaded, "I have to reject them."

"What?" Nishinoya asked sticking his head over Hinata's shoulder to look him in the face, "Why? Do you not like them?"

Hinata bit his lip and could feel that nerve bundle in his stomach eerily similar to how he normally felt before a big match. Something in his expression must have changed his upperclassman's minds because Nishinoya and Tanaka looked at each other before the shorter boy slid off of Hinata.

"Come on, Hinata," Tanaka said gently as he threw an arm around his shoulders and led him towards the door, "Tell your senpais all about it."

And he did. God he couldn't get the words out fast enough and he just knew there was no way he was making any sense. But all of the pieces had fallen into place. Why Kageyama had been so weird as of late. Why he hadn't been able to look him in the eyes for long periods of time and why he got so flustered when he was touched even when they were fighting.

He had been harboring a crush and naturally had no idea how to go about it because he was about as dense as a bowl of udon noodles. And it had been bleeding into their teamwork since the first year setter had started getting antsy more often than anyone thought possible. Hinata would absolutely shut down if he couldn't play volleyball with Kageyama anymore because of this. His teammates listened to it all intently without interruption.

"So you see," Hinata said winding down, "I have to reject him so it doesn't ruin anything between us."

The three of them were sitting down in a patch of grass behind the gym where they were sure Kageyama wouldn't find them. They could occasionally hear the sound of volleyballs bouncing around inside the gym where he was practicing on his own waiting for Hinata to return from wherever he had gone.

"Honestly, Hinata," Nishinoya said crossing his arms, "There's nothing you can really do about it."

"What?" Hinata cried heart squeezing fearfully.

"What he means," Tanaka said elbowing his shorter teammate, "Is that you can't do anything about Kageyama's feelings. He has them and he's going to have to deal with them like everyone else. You can't just change his mind."

"I could try," Hinata said huffing, "Annoy him until he hates me or something."

Noya shook his head with a slight smile.

"You don't actually want that. Not when it means he won't toss for you anymore."

"Damn it!" Hinata buried his face in his hands. "So what else can I do?"

"You said his confession was written down and scribbled out right?" Tanaka asked, "And that he hasn't actually said anything to you?"

"Yeah," Hinata mumbled into his fingers.

"Oh," Noya clapped his hands together, "Maybe that means he feels the same way you do."

"What are you talking about?" Tanaka asked.

"Think about it," Noya said tapping a finger against his temple, "He loves volleyball as much as Hinata does. He probably doesn't want to confess and ruin their dynamic in case Hinata doesn't feel the same." Hinata lifted his head slightly to look at Nishinoya who was smiling like he'd just cracked the Da Vinci code. "So he wrote it all down and then destroyed it. Maybe he's trying to get them to go away on his own."

Tanaka nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense." He pat Hinata's shoulder gently. "I think if you give him space to figure it out he'll come back to normal eventually."

Hinata sat up straighter but continued to worry his bottom lip between his teeth.

"And if he doesn't?"

Tanaka and Nishinoya looked at each other before saying in unison, "Then you reject him."

"Ugh!"

"You just gotta do it the way the beautiful Kiyoko does," Tanaka said matter of factly, "Every time I ask her to marry me she just says, 'no thanks'."

"And that doesn't make us hate her at all," Noya added smiling.

Was this really the only route available to him? Were there no other ways to save his and Kageyama's relationship besides trusting that Kageyama wouldn't bomb it first?

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Kageyama's voice made them all jump and look up at a slightly open window where his scowling face peered through. "You trying to make me waste my time?"

The words exploded from Hinata's mouth before he could stop them.

"No thanks!"

He heard more than saw Nishinoya's and Tanaka's facepalms.

**Chapter 5 10/22/22**