"Hinata. Hey, Hinata! Get up."
Hinata grumbled and rolled to get away from the foot that was prodding at his head.
"Fine," said the voice above him, "Don't start complaining later that I ate all of the meat buns."
His eyes snapped open.
"Wait a minute," he said sitting up.
Kageyama smirked down at him. "Thought so. Come on."
"You can't tease a man with food." Hinata rubbed his eyes. "It's not fair."
"It worked didn't it?"
He stretched, his muscles flexing gratefully. His fist knocked into one of the cushion walls, sending the whole thing crashing down on him. Oops.
He managed to push his way out of the pile of pillows he had been buried in, finally emerging with the blanket/roof draped over his head. Kageyama stood a few feet away, arms crossed in superiority.
"Idiot."
"Sh-shut up!"
Kageyama left chuckling to himself. Hinata huffed and yanked the blanket off. He searched for his phone that had been lost in the collapse and once he found it blinked at the time it displayed. It was already late afternoon, the sun hanging low like ripe fruit and turning the sky a mix of pink, orange, and deep indigo. He must have been asleep for a few hours. He buried his head in one of the couch cushions.
What kind of help was he to Kageyama if he fell asleep? Technically Kageyama had fallen asleep first but what if he had woken up and needed something only to find Hinata out of order? He wasn't doing a very good job of paying his pie man back this way. Well, there was no time like the present to try to make up for it. He pulled himself out of his cozy prison and followed Kageyama to the kitchen he had disappeared into. A brown bag was on the kitchen table in front of him along with Hinata's duffel bag. Kageyama sat with a meat bun in one hand and his phone in the other.
"Wait, you were serious about the meat buns?" Hinata asked pointing to the food.
Kageyama swallowed but didn't look up from his screen, "I ordered them. Now get over here before I actually finish them. I don't want to hear you whining about how you didn't get any later."
Hinata didn't have to be told twice. He rushed over and plucked one of the warm buns from the bag, sighing contentedly as the flavor washed over his tongue and the warmth spread through his entire body. There were few things that were as good as meat buns.
"Sorry I fell asleep on you," he said around his mouthful.
"You're lucky I didn't need medical assistance," Kageyama murmured still not looking at him. "What was the point of me letting you stay?"
"I'm just too good at making comfortable pillow forts," Hinata shrugged and swallowed, "Besides, you survived."
He sat at the table beside Kageyama, lifting his feet up onto the seat so he slightly resembled a frog. He leaned forward on his elbows trying to see his setter's phone. Kageyama naturally leaned away from him.
"So damn nosey."
Hinata smiled. He had noticed something throughout the day and it was time to put it to the test. Kageyama was too sick to actually fight him on anything. He said yes and relented to almost everything Hinata had asked of him and Hinata wanted to thoroughly research the phenomenon. He knew he shouldn't exploit his teammate like that but well, what kind of fool would he be if he didn't take advantage of such an opportunity? It was for science really.
"Oh come on," Hinata said leaning further, his stomach almost flat on the table's surface, "Don't be like that. I showed you stuff on my phone."
"Nobody asked you to do that," Kageyama said, but just as Hinata had predicted, he sat up straighter so Hinata could see that he was looking at the same volleyball page he had shown him earlier. "So annoying."
"But you like me anyway," Hinata said proudly.
"What?"
"What?"
Kageyama was looking at him as though his head had just been replaced with a volleyball. Hinata bit his tongue. He was such an idiot! He couldn't just say something like that! It was like shoving a deer across a busy highway; it could only end in disaster.
Fix it! Fix it now!
"Uh, wait, not like that," Hinata said hurriedly sitting back properly in his seat, "It's just that we're hanging out and stuff, even though you think everything's annoying." He held his hands out in front of him in case Kageyama wanted to throttle him. "So that probably means you don't hate me. That's all. I didn't mean anything by it."
Kageyama's ears had turned that very specific shade of pink again Hinata noted. It reminded him of the sunset sky outside; not that he would ever say so since Kageyama would throw him out the nearest window. The longer Kageyama stared at him without saying anything, the quicker Hinata's fingers twisted around each other.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that," he tried to amend. "Wait, no, not just you specifically. Like whoever likes me. And not just me. I meant if people liked people. Like anybody. It's not…weird or anything at all."
Kageyama blinked his pacific blue eyes at him, their depths giving nothing away. It was official, Hinata had royally fucked up and trying to take it back was like trying to stuff toothpaste back into its tube. He thunked his head onto the table and wrapped his arms around himself.
"Never mind."
After another two seconds of silence he felt a hard squeeze around his head.
"I have no idea what you're blabbering about," Kageyama said annoyed, "If you've got something to say then say it!"
Hinata tried to pry the long fingers out of his hair. "If you give me brain damage I won't be able to say anything you idiot!"
"I'm surprised you don't have some already with all the volleyballs you take to the face," Kageyama replied condescendingly, but he did release his hold on the redhead.
Hinata rubbed at his forehead that had pressed into the hardwood. "I'm getting better, admit it."
"At getting the shit kicked out of you by volleyballs, sure."
"Hmmph," Hinata huffed reaching into the bag for another meat bun, "I'm gonna make you eat those words and my dust you just wait."
He aggressively tore into the innocent bun. He couldn't believe he had been trying to spare him from embarrassment. Next time he'd just say what was on his mind and let Kageyama deal with the fallout on his own.
"So, what were you talking about? Someone who likes you?"
Hinata had to pound his fist against his chest to get his esophagus clear of the food he had accidentally inhaled. Kageyama hurriedly filled his glass with water from the sink and gave it to him.
"What the hell's the matter with you? Slow down, dumbass!"
Hinata drank the water in big gulps until he finished the glass. He let out a few more shallow coughs before he could take a deep breath and steady himself again.
"Sorry," he said shakily, "I just…wasn't expecting the question."
Kageyama rolled his eyes. "Remind me to send you a notice three to five business days in advance next time."
He walked back to the sink and dropped off the cup. Hinata stared at his back and after considering the consequences only for a moment he let the words slip.
"What would you say if someone did like me though?"
"They have awful taste."
Hinata had just wanted to study his reaction. He hadn't expected to be so quickly and precisely skewered.
"Hey! I'm likable," he insisted.
"Not to girls you're not. You're too short."
He could hear the grin in Kageyama's words before he turned around and showcased it.
"Well anyone who would like you would have worse taste. You probably make girls cry all the time!"
Kageyama tossed the moist dish towel that was beside him at Hinata. It slapped harmlessly against his shoulder. He stuck his tongue out at Kageyama at the failure.
"I'm going to make you cry in a second!" Kageyama threatened only to have a coughing fit render it null and void.
Hinata slid his duffel bag closer and took out one of the packs of lozenges. He opened the package and dumped out a few into his hand. Kageyama finally stood up straight again and rubbed a hand against his forehead.
"You're going to kill me one day."
"Stop being dramatic and stick this in your mouth," Hinata said rolling his eyes.
Like every other request before Kageyama didn't fight him on it, instead taking one of the lozenges from Hinata's outstretched hand and dutifully popping it into his mouth.
"You should probably be back in bed," Hinata said.
Kageyama could only nod. "Yeah, probably."
Hinata hopped off the chair and went around the table to grab both of his setter's hands intending on dragging him off to his bedroom somewhere in the house.
Cold.
Have they always been like this or was this a thing his body did when he was sick? Did he have bad circulation or something? Hinata gently rubbed Kageyama's hands between his in an effort to warm them.
No, they had always been this way. They had been cold when they had dragged him around the sports complex. They had been chilly when they had anxiously checked him for injuries after he had had his nasty fall. They had been soothingly cool when they had caressed his skin as he had been carried home.
These hands had shoved at him, squeezed him and occasionally thrown him. They had also set a million amazing tosses to him, dragged him higher and higher than he thought possible and when they decided to hold onto him they never let go. Not to mention they fit so comfortably in his own, like he had been waiting for those long fingers to slide into place for years. Two sides of the same annoying coin and both could wreck Hinata beyond repair. Is this what they meant by a double edged sword?
He brought the hands in his grasp up closer to his face and softly breathed over them.
They flinched.
Hinata's eyes snapped open. When had they closed? He looked up into a million shades of blue and wanted to re-bury himself in the pile of pillows on the living room floor.
Kageyama was staring at him with the largest eyes he had ever seen. The pink blush that used to only dust the tips of his ears had spread like spilled milk across both of his cheeks. Kageyama swallowed heavily and Hinata followed the movement of his throat for just a split second; his eyes paused on a pair of lips for longer. Kageyama's hands remained enveloped inside Hinata's.
That's right, he likes me, Hinata thought.
…
Holy shit, he likes me!
And he had just...oh fu-
"Haha," Hinata laughed nervously, "Those are some cold fingers you got there. Let's get you to bed so you can warm them."
His pulse was in his throat and he could hardly breathe. Not when Kageyama was looking at him like that. Like Hinata was a volleyball about to hit the gym floor; something you'd desperately give anything for in order to reach.
He spun Kageyama around and attempted to shove him out of the kitchen but only succeeded in slamming him shoulder first into the wall. Kageyama turned his head, eyes narrowed and mouth turned down in a pissed off kind of frown. He looked seconds away from slamming Hinata through the drywall. He couldn't tell if that expression was better or worse.
"I'll get myself there you idiot," Kageyama said angrily, "You can clean up your mess in the living room."
Hinata saluted him as he started to walk backwards out of the kitchen.
"Right, right. I'll- I'll uh, go do that."
Hinata quickly ran into the other room and dove into the collapsed pillow fort pile. He balled up the blanket that had previously served as their roof and screamed into it desperate to release the anxiety that was threatening to make him self-combust.
"What was that?" He heard Kageyama ask from further down the hall.
"Nothing!" Hinata said emerging from the blanket, "Just my phone!"
"Whatever."
When Hinata heard a far away bedroom door close he sighed and hid his head back in the blanket. His grades may not be the best. His basics during practice were still shameful. He had the attention span of a deflated volleyball. Bu that didn't mean he was completely stupid. He had a fairly decent guess as to why his stomach was acting like it was going through his washing machine's spin cycle and his heart was jackhammering away against his sternum.
He might like Kageyama too but that was going to be such a mess to unpack that he would rather leave it buried away forever.
Or was that actually a dumb idea? Kageyama liked him already didn't he? Wouldn't this be a good thing? Should he say something? Wait for him to confess? This was so frustrating!
He would need a thicker blanket.
**Hey look we're on time again. Holiday miracle! Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. Next chapter on 12/03/22**