Kageyama's bedroom ceiling really wasn't all that interesting. He wished it was though since he was getting incredibly bored staring at it. He had woken up way too early for a Saturday and he was oh so wonderfully feverish. He supposed sprinting in skin melting heat and then trekking uphill in freezing rain one right after the other hadn't been his best idea. His body currently trying to liquefy itself and seep into his bedsheets was just the natural consequence.
What wasn't natural was how every time he closed his eyes he could feel the ghosts of warm breath against his neck and gentle hands in his hair. If he wasn't careful he would be haunted by the memory of strong legs around his waist and in his grasp and a full body shiver would rack through him. Thinking of yesterday could only make him sicker and yet he couldn't stop the play-by-play that was running in his mind like a movie reel.
He couldn't explain to himself why he had gone so far out of his way for Hinata. There were a million other options: asking one of the other guys for help, calling Hinata's mother, maybe even waiting for the rain to stop. But no, he had to act the part of the hero and carry him around piggyback style like a couple of kids. Now his muscles were adamant in their refusal to lift anything more than a kilogram, including himself.
I really am grateful.
"Ugh!"
He slammed his hands over his eyes as he felt himself flush all over again. If Hinata had known, if he had had just an inkling of how hard Kageyama's heart had been pounding yesterday he would have never let him live it down.
Especially not with the crush he harbored.
Kageyama's stomach flipped.
Before he could decide if that meant he needed to hurl, or something far more dangerous, his phone buzzed beside him on the nightstand.
Dumbass: Hey we going to the park to practice today?
Kageyama grinned privately to himself.
Me: Don't be stupid! You have a broken foot!
Dumbass: Maybe I would if you let me walk last night.
Dumbass: But I feel good! I guess I just really bruised it or something.
Dumbass: Can we stop at the school to pick up my bike too?
He wanted nothing more. But what he typed out was:
Me: Can't. Sick at home. Get it yourself.
He returned his phone to the nightstand and pulled the covers over his head not caring that it would suffocate him. His parents would be out on a business trip for the next two weeks so he would have to fully take care of himself. This was nothing new of course, but he really wasn't in the mood. The idea of having to feed himself or move in general was vastly unappealing. He would most likely shuffle to the kitchen later for a quick milk and call it a day. Maybe if he was lucky he could fall back asleep and let the hours slip by faster.
0o0
Loud knocking at the front door startled him awake.
He groaned and flipped the blanket off of him, the cold air instantly freezing the sweat that had been building on his forehead and beneath his jaw. Who the hell was here? He got up and shuffled down the hall trying to ignore the pulsing in his head from standing too fast.
"I'm so sorry!"
Kageyama stared down at Hinata who was bent in half in an exaggerated bow on his doorstep.
"What are you doing here?"
"It's my fault you're sick so I've come to pay the pie man."
Kageyama crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe.
"Who the hell is the pie man?"
Hinata straightened and shrugged. "I think it's from that story about the guy who plays music and has kids follow him; something about facing consequences."
Kageyama rubbed his hands down his face. He didn't have time for this.
"You don't have to pay for anything so just go home."
Hinata grabbed two handfuls of Kageyama's t-shirt. "But it's my fault you had to walk in the cold yesterday. Let me make it up to you," he whined.
"Let go!" Kageyama growled grabbing Hinata's head and squeezing. "You're just going to make things worse!"
Hinata refused. "Pleeeeease?" He stuck out his bottom lip in a slight pout and gave Kageyama what he could only describe as the biggest puppy eyes he had ever seen; his irises shining golden brown like all the most delicious things in the world. Kageyama was no match against such a weapon and powerless to stop the invisible arrow that pierced his chest. He quickly looked away.
"Fine," he muttered, "Don't make me regret this."
"You won't!" Hinata said excitedly jumping too high in the air for such a simple victory, "I'm really good at this! I take care of Natsu whenever she gets sick!"
Kageyama could feel his headache returning as he watched Hinata kick his shoes off and announce his arrival to the empty house.
"So." Hinata spun around to face him and pat his messenger bag, "Where's your kitchen?"
This was going to be a huge mistake, he could already feel it.
0o0
Kageyama had heard Tanaka and Nishinoya talk about girls often. Too often if he was being honest. But because of them he had learned that a common argument for high school boys was which part of a girl was the most attractive. Her hair or her eyes. Her chest or her ass if they were being vulgar. Some even preferred feet. He had never seriously considered what his preference in a girl would be, much less if those same arguments applied to other guys. Mostly because he had yet to find anyone interesting enough to make him lose valuable focus on volleyball. However, right now, as he leaned against the kitchen counter supervising Hinata's use of his stove, volleyball, for the first time, was the furthest thing from his mind.
He found himself unable to tear his eyes away from Hinata's legs. The legs that had pedaled him on thousands of trips on his bike and had raced against Kageyama the day before as they flew around town. The muscle group that propelled such a small body miles above a volleyball net to meet Kageyama's sets forcing everyone to look upwards as though beholding an angel. His eyes moved from his socked feet, over the curve of his calves to the hem of his black shorts and up along to his thighs that he knew fit very well in the palms of his hands.
He swallowed heavily.
He may have a preference after all.
"Almost done," Hinata said as he pleasantly stirred a pot of instant noodles on the stove top making Kageyama snap his eyes back up. "Told you I wouldn't burn your house down."
"It would have been faster if you had just used the microwave like it says on the package."
"They're not as good in the microwave."
"You bought convenience store instant noodles, they're not that good either way."
Hinata frowned with a hand on his hip and pointed his stirring spoon at him. Kageyama thought it made him look like an angry housewife.
"I don't want to hear that from someone who probably wouldn't have eaten anything at all today if I hadn't shown up."
"I so would have," Kageyama insisted like a filthy liar.
"Sure you would have," Hinata said condescendingly, "One of those million milk cartons in the fridge maybe. But there's no volleyball today so you wouldn't have cared as much." He turned back to the food on the stove. "Now go take the medicine I brought. You're sick remember?"
Kageyama made a big show of huffing in annoyance but went in search of the messenger bag Hinata had left at the front door. He brought it back into the kitchen and dropped it onto the table.
"What did you do? Buy the whole pharmacy?" He said looking at its contents. There was liquid cold medicine, pain reliever pills and two kinds of lozenges.
"Well, you didn't tell me what was wrong with you so I had to guess."
"You didn't bother asking!"
Kageyama weighed the options and without looking at the recommended measurements shotgunned a swallow or two from the cold medicine. "Hope this doesn't kill me," he said, his face screwing up at the displeasing taste. The advertised "lemon" flavor was a lie.
"Hope not. Who else is going to toss for me if you die?" Hinata agreed turning off the stove. "Where do you keep your bowls?"
Kageyama smiled devilishly as he pointed to the cabinet above Hinata's head. Hinata looked up and grimaced.
"This house sucks," he muttered under his breath.
"Hey, I didn't pick my house either remember?"
Hinata huffed and placed both palms flat on the counter and hoisted himself up.
"You're going to fall," Kageyama said taking a step forward, "And then you'll really sprain something."
"And you're going to have my foot up your ass if you keep standing there just watching," Hinata said annoyed as he looked through the cabinet. Kageyama could feel himself grinning as Hinata carefully sat on his knees and pulled two bowls from their place on the shelf. "Get over here and help me."
Kageyama stood beside Hinata as he passed him the dishware. "I could've just gotten them for us."
Hinata ignored him as he grabbed onto his shoulder to steady himself and he dropped back to the floor. "Pour yourself some," he said walking backwards towards the living room with an impish grin, "But don't be greedy, leave some for me too."
"I'm the one who needs it."
"Well, I'm the one who bought it," Hinata replied haughtily.
Kageyama shook his head and turned back to the pot and carefully poured the noodles and broth into the two bowls. He heard a soft "crap" come from the living room.
"What are you doing over there?" He called.
"You'll see!"
He really didn't want to see. Knowing Hinata it was something ridiculous. When he brought the food into the other room he groaned. Hinata had taken apart the couch and rearranged things into a haphazard pile in the middle of the room.
"What the hell did you do?"
"It's a pillow fort, duh." Orange hair peeked out from a gap between two of the cushions. "Natsu always wants one when she's sick at home. It's got healing magic."
"A pillow fort?"
Apparently that was the wrong question to ask. Hinata lit up as though Kageyama had just promised to set to him for ten hours straight.
"You've never been in one?" Hinata asked crawling further out to get a better look at him. "You take cushions and pillows and blankets and turn them into a hiding place. You have to try it."
Kageyama looked over the unstable looking structure once more. "But you don't have any blankets."
Hinata chuckled quietly and poked his index fingers together almost shyly. "Can I borrow one?"
He was looking up at him with a slightly weaker version of the puppy eyes he had wielded earlier. It didn't make them any less lethal though. Kageyama was sure he'd have to go start popping those headache pills in the kitchen like Pez candy.
"Fine, I'll bring you one." He set the two bowls on the coffee table. "But you're putting all this shit back later. I didn't let you in here so you could make a mess."
Hinata nodded quickly, promising he would be solely responsible for the cleanup afterwards. Kageyama turned back to his bedroom to go find blankets. This was stupid, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested.
0o0
There was something incredibly domestic about this situation and Kageyama decided he liked it. He and Hinata were lying on their stomachs inside the confines of the soft-walled fort. Hinata had used one blanket for the roof and they were currently sharing the second. Kageyama could feel the beginnings of the healing effects Hinata had been talking about. Whether that was mostly thanks to the medicine, food, or the "fort magic" he couldn't decipher.
He rested his head on his arms as Hinata pulled his phone out to show him a new page online he found which posted amazing volleyball plays. They watched as some libero in America received a ball with his foot only for it to make it to the other side of the net and score his team a point.
"You think Nishinoya will be able to do that?" Hinata asked as he scrolled to the next post.
Kageyama yawned and closed his eyes. "If you show him that video he'll probably try."
He was still too warm but now he couldn't tell if it was just because of his fever or the ball of sunshine that was currently pressed up against him from his shoulder down to his hips. He had told Hinata he would probably get sick too if he got too close but the idiot never listened to anything he was told and burrowed beside him anyway.
His house was empty most days so suddenly having someone else taking up space the way Hinata always did, well, he couldn't find it in himself to push him away. It was a welcome change, even if the short stick had spilled the left over broth from his bowl all over the kitchen floor on his way to wash it out in the sink. It would have been out of character if Hinata had managed not to be a nuisance, and even though Kageyama had been rightfully pissed at having to clean up after him, he struggled to hold onto that anger for long. He did take two of the headache pills afterwards though.
"I can't believe he got scouted for a professional league," Hinata said in disbelief. Kageyama had no idea what he was talking about, but was sure he would learn what he meant eventually. His patience was rewarded. "That guy they call the "Ace of Diamonds" was approached by someone from the Raitos team in the north. So cool!"
Good for him, Kageyama thought. He didn't want to think of much else. He never imagined he'd find his living room floor comfortable but he was two seconds from successfully dozing away right there on the carpet. He heard the sound of shoes squeaking on a gym floor and knew Hinata must have gone on to the next video.
"This girl sets really differently now that her broken hand from last season healed up. Like it starts all gwaah, but then becomes shwoom! And it always works no matter how weird she looks," Hinata mumbled to himself, "Kinda like yours."
Kageyama had the brief thought to push him over but that would mean bringing the cushion walls down on his own head.
"What do you think?" Hinata asked.
He didn't know what he thought. He just wanted to stay lying here in his warm little floor bubble listening to Hinata talk about whatever thoughts flew through his skull. Normally it grated on his nerves but right now it was a soothing backdrop.
"You asleep already?" he heard Hinata ask before he felt a gentle finger poke into his cheek.
He slightly muttered his displeasure but didn't speak. Hinata giggled softly which was a change from his regular obnoxious laughter.
"You're an old man for sleeping so early," Hinata said before he played another video, "But you're sick so I forgive you." The volume of the video went down to just barely audible.
Kageyama felt Hinata adjust against him and felt the blanket brought up a little higher near his shoulders. It was like being watched over as a child, but instead of feeling pitied or looked down on, he was feeling… feeling…something. Something really nice.
He felt fingers around his own.
"You ever wonder what would happen if you broke your hands? Would you set the same once they healed?"
Well, damn, he was now. Who the hell asked things like that? Was he planning on putting him out of commission or something?
Hinata slid his hand gently around the back of Kageyama's.
"I like your hands though, just the way they are," Hinata was saying softly as he traced imaginary lines between his knuckles, "They set to me perfectly." Just for the briefest second their fingers interlocked and it took everything in Kageyama not to combust on the spot. Hinata's hands, like the rest of him, were warm.
The hand disappeared leaving him with the urge to reach back out for him. But no, he had to stay still.
"As if you need your ego inflated anymore," Hinata said laughing to himself. "Thank god you sleep like the dead or this would have been embarrassing."
Kageyama was incredibly grateful half of his face was buried in his arms so Hinata couldn't see the smile he was desperately trying to hide.
0o0
His arm was asleep.
Great. The best way to wake up.
Kageyama tried to blink open his eyes against the light shining at him. The entire living room was lit by a warm orange evening glow. He must have been asleep for a few hours. Who would have thought the floor made a great nap spot? Cats definitely knew what they were doing. He felt unbelievably warm and comfortable. What time was it? Hinata had been using his phone earlier, it must be around here somewhere.
He couldn't get up.
Hinata wouldn't let him.
His head was comfortably tucked beneath Kageyama's chin and the main cause of his numb arm. His steady breathing was wafting warmly over his collar bone. Since Hinata never did anything half-assed, with the exception of some homework assignments, he also had one arm curled around Kageyama's ribs and one leg snug between Kageyama's knees.
Kageyama could feel his soul desperately trying to leave his body.
He pulled back to see if Hinata was awake. Nope, he was sleeping quite soundly and drooling slightly out of the corner of his mouth. Peaceful and, with the sunlight behind him, damn near cherubic. Kageyama took deep breathes to bring his heart rate down. He didn't want to wake him and make the situation awkward but his poor hand was asphyxiating.
He would have to go slow and steady.
He gently lifted Hinata's arm off of him and lowered it almost too slowly, carefully watching for signs that he was waking. Next he tried to slightly shove Hinata's leg from between his own, holding his breath for the entire action in case his partner started to stir. Once they had been mostly untangled Kageyama allowed himself to breathe again. He was not looking forward to getting his arm unstuck since the probability of Hinata waking up was much higher.
He started to pull away, centimeter by centimeter, using his free hand to try to hold Hinata's head in place. His elbow had just been freed when Hinata groaned and started to shift. Kageyama froze when two sleepy hazel eyes slowly blinked open at him.
"Yama?" Hinata whispered dazedly not really focusing.
Kageyama felt he had no choice but to respond. "Uh, yeah." Hinata yawned. Kageyama made a split-second decision. He started to run his fingers through Hinata's hair, carding through it as gently as he could praying he wouldn't get stuck in any knots. He figured if dogs could be calmed with petting then surely it would work on his friend.
And it seemed he was right. Hinata rubbed at one of his eyes, rolled over and soon was softly snoring again. Kageyama's arm immediately filled with pins and needles.
Kageyama promised he would visit a million temples to thank whoever he needed to for this miracle. He kept up his ministrations, his fingers playing through soft orange hair. Hinata was a lot more manageable when he wasn't bouncing off the walls.
Hinata was a lot of things. Loud, expressive, a handful. The exact opposite of him. There were things about him that drove Kageyama positively crazy. And yet, here he was anyway in a shelter made of his couch cushions, with his shirt sleeve damp from drool, and lying next to a warm teammate for no other reason than he wanted to be.
His heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel his pulse in his throat. He couldn't look away from his napping teammate. Hinata had fit so well against him, as though he was a puzzle piece snuggly pressed into its correct spot; even if his initial reaction had been an immediate spike of anxiety. He should've stopped petting his hair by now.
He was pretty sure he had a problem.
Was it really so bad?
Hinata hadn't been acting any differently, being the same annoying and friendly tangerine he was with everyone else on the team. They had been at each other's throats just as often as they usually were after their big fight during the game against that asshole team. Nothing had really changed and Hinata still hadn't said anything explicitly confession-sounding to him. So was it so wrong if Kageyama secretly thought he was pretty when he slept? And wanted to take care of him when he did something stupid? And badly wanted to slide back in beside him, to hide from the world for the rest of the weekend?
"Does that mean I like him too?" he murmured to the ceiling.
Unfortunately the blanket roof did not have any answers for him.
** Chapter 10 11/28/22 **
