"Hey dumbass! If you don't start focusing I won't toss for you anymore!" Kageyama threatened his thoroughly distracted teammate.

Hinata and Nishinoya had been catching each other's eyes every few minutes from across the gym and then falling into fits of laughter. Daichi had already reprimanded both of them for distracting the rest of the team but it was hard to keep the two balls of energy from bouncing off each other.

Kageyama had arrived to the gym first before Hinata, and while he was proud to add another tally to his mental scoreboard he was slightly annoyed that it was won without any competition. Hinata had surprisingly arrived only a few minutes before they were set to start with Nishinoya in tow. They had been sharing headphones and laughing at something on Hinata's phone. The energy between the two of them had been steadily climbing for the past hour and Kageyama was getting sick of needing to physically stand in between their line of sight to get Hinata to pay attention to their quick practice.

"Sorry, sorry," Hinata said clearing his throat attempting to dispel the laugher bubbling up within him, "I promise I'm focused."

He clamped his bottom lip between his teeth in an effort to curb his chuckling but a grin spread across his face anyway.

Kageyama didn't trust Hinata as far as he could throw him, and he could be thrown pretty far, but he grumbled under his breath and set a toss to him anyway. Kageyama allowed the weight of the ball to sit just for a millisecond against his fingertips. This was a secret pleasure of his, that split moment before the ball left his hands, the single breath that slipped between his lips as he pushed the ball towards where he knew Hinata's hand would be waiting. Hinata was running, jumping, hovering in the air.

The ball smacked onto the top of the net before falling and bouncing unsatisfyingly onto the other side. The setter blinked slowly, his eyes sliding to the redhead who had finally lost the smirk he had been wearing all day. Hinata held his hands out in front of him waving them at Kageyama, apologies spilling from his mouth like a faucet. Kageyama could only imagine the expression he was making. He started stalking towards the shorter boy.

"I was focused I promise it was just-

"You saying my toss was the problem?"

"No!"

Kageyama grabbed Hinata by the collar of his sweatshirt and dragged him closer so the shorter boy had to balance on his tiptoes.

"So why the hell can't you hit it properly then, dumbass?"

Hinata tried to pry to taller boy's fingers off from his shirt and frowned back at him.

"Why can't you get off my ass about it?"

"The both of you need to stop wasting time fighting or you'll be spending the rest of practice kissing the hardwood!" Daichi yelled from across the gym making everyone including the bickering teammates freeze up.

From where they were standing, the two first years could almost see the vein at the captain's temple throbbing. Kageyama dropped Hinata back to his feet and they both quietly shuffled away from each other. Asahi seemed to be having a similar although less violent talk with Nishinoya who nodded at his words but still wore a huge smile. It didn't give Kageyama much hope for the rest of practice. Hinata retrieved the failed ball and threw it back to the taller boy.

"One more?" he asked.

Kageyama nodded solemnly. One more.

0o0

Kageyama frowned as he watched Hinata balance four balls in his arms and unceremoniously dump them in the ball bin before chasing after Nishinoya out of the gym. His senpai had been partly responsible for his partner's brain being elsewhere for nearly the entire practice. Now Hinata thought he could just skip out on helping the team put things away? Kageyama couldn't remember the last time Hinata had ever left practice on time which made his behavior all the more suspicious. Kageyama threw the volleyballs he had gathered into the bin and stomped out of the gym vaguely hearing Suga ask where he was going.

The light shining from the slightly ajar clubroom door exposed the libero and middle blocker's hiding place. Before Kageyama could slam the door open and give them both a piece of his mind he heard Nishinoya's explosive laughter on the other side.

"You have to say it again," he was saying between heaving breaths, trying to get ahold of himself, "One more time."

Kageyama frowned and slowly leaned against the wall beside the open door. They must be talking about whatever had been so detrimental to Hinata's performance at practice; he may as well listen in. He knew he most likely wouldn't get a straight answer if he followed his original plan of tossing Hinata over the net instead of the ball until he confessed. He glanced around to make sure the other members of his team hadn't arrived yet before leaning as close to the door frame as he dared. He heard one of them clear their throat.

"Setters are so cool," Hinata was saying in a dopey voice, "Aren't they just the coolest people ever?"

Kageyama scrunched his eyebrows together. While he whole heartedly agreed with the sentiment, he knew Hinata in fact did not. Why would he lie about such a thing?

"And so pretty!" he continued, "Like hot damn!"

Hinata had a crush on someone? Iwaizumi had often told Kageyama that girls on the brain meant wasted time in practice. He had seen it countless times with Oikawa to know it was true. If a crush was the problem then Kageyama could just do what his old senpai had done to get Oikawa to function normally; throw something at his head. Now that he thought of it, who was the setter for the girl's team? Nishinoya made a muffled giggling sound.

"How pretty?"

"SO pretty!" Hinata repeated.

For some reason this made Noya howl with laughter all over again. Kageyama was annoyed and felt stupid for wasting his time listening to such a pointless conversation which made him even more annoyed. Some girl had wiggled her way into Hinata's head and had made him a mess all through practice and his senpai was absolutely not helping the matter by encouraging the behavior. Time to go back to plan A.

"But mine though, he's my favorite," Hinata said loudly, "My god, he's so hot! Like who could resist those thighs?"

Nishinoya sounded like he was near to sobbing with how hard he was laughing.

"Is that all?"

There was a loud thump before Hinata continued. "And that black hair is probably way softer than it looks. But nothing compared to those blue eyes." Another thumping noise. "I could swim in them forever!"

The both of them were screeching in the room while all of Kageyama's thoughts slammed to a halt and crashed into the pit of his stomach. There was a logical explanation besides the unmentionably obvious for what he had just heard his teammate shamelessly confess to their upperclassman, but he'd be damned if he knew what it was.

"King, what are you doing?"

Kageyama reflexively turned and scowled at Tsukishima who was walking towards him, Yamaguchi grinning beside him.

"You pissed at them too?" Tanaka asked pushing through from behind the two taller first years before stomping past Kageyama and kicking the door open. "What the hell you guys? You just gonna ditch us like that?"

Kageyama looked into the room properly. Noya was on his back on the floor while Hinata was spread across one of the chairs on his stomach.

"Once we show you, you'll understand," Noya promised rolling onto his side, "You just have to give me a second."

"Ugh, my stomach hurts," Hinata complained slowly sliding off the chair onto his knees.

Kageyama quickly got to work grabbing his things while Noya beckoned Hinata to pass him his phone. The rest of the boys began to trickle into the clubroom. Was Hinata going to tell everyone on the team? Was he just going to be shouting these embarrassing things from the damn rooftops? He needed to…to… he didn't actually know what he needed to do but he couldn't just hang around here and act like his entire world hadn't just been thrown off its axes…axis? However it was said, he was screwed.

"Kageyama?"

He froze, his jacket half zipped and turned to face the source of the voice. Hinata was still on his knees by the chair and looking him up and down. Kageyama flushed remembering what he had heard the redhead say earlier and was extremely grateful for his pants.

"You going home already?" Hinata asked tilting his head at the gym bag strapped across Kageyama's chest.

Kageyama knew he would usually stay for extra practice with Hinata for much longer, the only other person he could eat, sleep, and breath volleyball with and have it feel so easy. The thought of turning down another hour or two of gym time was physically making him sick. Or was it the accidental confession he'd overheard stampeding through his intestines?

"Yes." He didn't trust himself to say more than that. Of course, Hinata never knew how to take subtle hints.

"Oh come on," he said standing back up and getting in Kageyama's personal space, "Just a few more tosses please."

"You didn't seem to want my tosses earlier," Kageyama said taking a step back and bumping into the wall. Hinata advanced and grabbed onto Kageyama's jacket, his thumbs pressing against Kageyama's sternum over his shirt.

"Pleeeeease," Hinata whined, "I'm sorry about earlier. I promise I won't goof off or anything and I'll hit every single one."

Kageyama had learned early on in their partnership Hinata was a touchy person who had never been afraid to give back to Kageyama as good as he got. Hinata's perpetual clinginess had annoyed him at the best of times and had infuriated him at the worst. Except right now. Kageyama wanted to retreat and let Hinata have this win, even if it meant his pride took the hit. Hinata was touching him after having just confessed to liking him and Kageyama was so unprepared and unequipped for such a thing so soon after having learned it that he needed to disappear. Like, right now.

"I can't."

He carefully tugged Hinata's wrists away from his body and dropped them as if they had burned him. He took big strides towards the door, uncomfortably aware of all the eyes on him. He hurried out of the clubroom and down the stairs. Before he had made it far though, he heard his name called from behind him. He turned to see Hinata looking over the railing and waving at him.

"See you tomorrow?"

He briefly nodded once before breaking into a run away from the school. It wasn't until he was halfway home that he slowed down, breath heaving from his lungs and heart hammering against his ribcage. And it was in this pause where he realized that tomorrow was the weekend and he had scheduled to spend most of the day with Hinata practicing in the park. He would be dead within the next twenty-four hours.

**Chapter 2 10/01/22**