"Man, what's his problem?" Hinata mumbled to himself as he watched Kageyama's rapidly retreating form disappear into the darkness.

He was bummed that he wouldn't be able to have some more one on one practice time. It was probably his own fault for pissing him off during their team practice. He couldn't help it, every time he looked at Noya he was instantly reminded of the video and he fell to pieces all over again. Even now he could feel his lips curling upwards. He hurried back into the clubroom.

"Hinata, come on." Noya waved him over with a firm grip on Tanaka's sleeve. "You have to show him."

Hinata chuckled and took out his phone to pull up the file Kenma had sent him earlier that morning.

"If this doesn't live up to the hype you have to treat me to yakisoba buns," Tanaka said still sulking over having been deserted during clean up duty.

"Dude, you won't be disappointed," Noya promised.

Hinata opened Kenma's text messages and found the video file and the accompanying message: "Kuroo wouldn't stop bugging me until I sent you this." He clicked open the video and held out his phone for the three of them to see.

The video opened a little shakily to Bokuto lying down on a dentist's chair. Kuroo's chuckling was heard from behind the camera.

"Hey, how you feel, man?" Kuroo asked.

Bokuto's head lolled lazily around until he finally looked in Kuroo's general direction.

"What…what did they do to me?" He asked, voice heavy and dragging as though it were walking through mud.

"They gave you the good shit man," Kuroo asked bringing the camera closer to where his friend lay supine and slightly drooling. "You've got holes in the back of your mouth now."

Bokuto started and looked at Kuroo in alarm. "Holes? What the hell?"

Tanaka looked at his two teammates. "What is this?"

"Bokuto got his wisdom teeth removed," Hinata explained. "Kuroo offered to go with him to help him get back home."

"Probably more because he wanted to get this sweet video," Noya added. "Hinata, skip towards the really funny part."

Hinata nodded, already starting to laugh at what they were about to watch. He skipped ahead a few minutes. Bokuto was now trying to sit up properly in the chair.

"Kuroo, I can't play like this," He was moaning, "Who could play volleyball when your tongue doesn't fit in your mouth?"

Kuroo wheezed behind the camera making it shake.

"It's ok dude, Akaashi will help you."

Bokuto dramatically fell back against the chair, his arm draping over his eyes.

"Agaashiii," He said morosely, "He's gonna be so mad at me." Bokuto paused to swallow before slowly pointing at Kuroo. "Setters are so cool. Aren't they just the coolest people ever?"

Kuroo laughed again, "Yeah man. They're-

"And so pretty!" Bokuto continued eyes wide and staring at something besides Kuroo, "Like…hot damn!"

"Oh yeah?" Kuroo asked clearly amused, "How pretty?"

Bokuto made a big sweeping gesture with his hands, knocking his knuckles against the light fixture besides the seat.

"SO pretty!"

The camera began to violently shake as Kuroo doubled over at Bokuto's antics. Tanaka started to chuckle along with Noya while Hinata had to work to keep his own phone steady. Bokuto on screen attempted to stand again, despite a nurse coming in and admonishing him.

"He's kind of right though," Tanaka said grinning, "What's up with all the setters around here being complete pretty boys?"

"You hear that, Suga?" Noya yelled over to his vice-captain who was putting his shoes on, "You're a pretty boy!"

He and Tanaka batted their eyelashes and blew kisses at him while Suga could only arch an eyebrow and laugh in confusion. Hinata could agree that Suga had a nice enough face but he didn't know if that made him pretty. Oikawa would definitely consider himself pretty and then get promptly knocked upside the head with a water bottle by Iwaizumi. Hinata was also fairly certain Kenma wouldn't care if people thought he was pretty too. He looked back down at the video in his hands and elbowed his senpai.

"This is the best part, don't miss it!"

The boys all looked back to watch as Bokuto grabbed onto the hem of Kuroo's T-shirt on the verge of tears.

"But mine though, he's my favorite. My god, he's so hot!" Kuroo tried to pull away and stop his friend from stretching out his clothes. Bokuto leaned over the chair's armrest to follow, "Like, who could resist those thighs?"

"He did NOT just say that," Tanaka said eyes wide and smile wider, "Is he talking about Akaashi?"

"Shut up, SHUT UP," Noya said smacking the both of them even though Hinata hadn't said anything.

"Oh?" Kuroo said in the video clearly amused, "Is that all?"

Bokuto shook his head and grabbed another handful of Kuroo's shirt, his ribcage already passing the armrest.

"That black hair is probably way softer than it looks, but it's nothing compared to those blue eyes" Bokuto released his hands making them swirl in small circles in front of him, "I could swim in them forever."

He then promptly fell over out of the chair and onto the floor. Tanaka and Noya followed suite, near to screaming with laughter as they leaned against each other while Hinata slammed his fist against the wall, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He could see a blurry Tsukishima make a disgusted face before heading out of the room and Yamaguchi looking at them curiously before hurrying to catch up.

"Dude, Hinata," Tanaka gasped, "You have to send that to me!"

"You should have seen him earlier," Noya said trying to steady his breathing, "He did a perfect impression of him, like he stuck his hair up and everything!"

While Noya explained the hilarious rendition of the scene Hinata had done a few minutes prior, Hinata closed out the finished video and tucked his phone away into his pocket. If Kageyama had stuck around instead of being in one of his moods he could've seen it too. Maybe it would have made him less angry at Hinata's attention span during the day. Hinata nodded to himself, he'd show him tomorrow.

0o0

Hinata tossed the ball up into the air and tried to practice his receives by not letting it touch the grass. He was failing miserably and it was dampening his mood. For the first time Kageyama was late and it was making Hinata antsy. He checked his phone for the millionth time as the ball rolled away on the ground. Still no texts or missed calls and he just knew that if he messaged his partner an eighth time it would end up like the others, unread. This was definitely unlike Kageyama. He left practice early yesterday and was late today. Hinata had always assumed Kageyama would've had to have his legs amputated to not want to play volleyball…or be dead. Oh shit, could he be super dead in the street somewhere? Before he could spiral any further into his panic he heard a very familiar voice behind him.

"Oy, dumbass, what are you doing?"

"Who are you calling dumbass?" Hinata said whirling on his partner and pointing at him as menacingly as he could. "Where the hell have you been? I thought you might've died. You didn't answer any of my texts. You could have-

He paused in his admonition to properly look at his moody friend. He was wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt and pants even though it was really warm out. He already looked flushed, his cheeks pinking under the sun as he looked at some point slightly behind Hinata.

"What are you wearing?" Hinata asked.

"Not important," Kageyama deflected.

"Why so late?"

"Not important."

"Did something happen?"

"Not important."

"Volleyball is still important at least right?" Hinata asked crossing his arms and frowning.

Kageyama finally met his eyes. "Always."

"Then what the hell?" Hinata bent to pick up his ball that had rolled away from him. "Making me worry for no reason. You suck sometimes."

Kageyama said nothing, just caught the ball when the shorter boy threw it to him. Hinata didn't dwell on it as they bounced the ball between each other. Kageyama slowly came out of whatever funk he was in, getting pissed all over again when Hinata couldn't receive properly and pulling his sleeves up to his elbows. Hinata didn't know what his problem had been, he was just glad that he got his partner back, even if it meant getting yelled at a lot more. They stood under a shaded tree for a water break a few hours later.

"So what's the story with the outfit?" Hinata asked as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Kageyama looked like he was pouring sweat from every square inch of skin and Hinata couldn't for the life of him understand why he put himself through such torture. Kageyama cleared his throat.

"It's umm, for protection."

Hinata leaned against him and tried to look his partner in the eyes from beneath the dark curtain of bangs that shielded his face that he tried to hide behind.

"You know sunblock exists right? There's all kinds."

He watched in real time as Kageyama's skin flushed. Had he truly not known? He probably felt really stupid. Hinata, just this once, would be a good teammate and not make him feel any worse, even though he desperately wanted to make fun of him. Tsukishima would have no such hesitations he knew. Kageyama should be grateful he had Hinata instead. Kageyama looked briefly at him before looking away just as quickly.

"Oh, that's right," Hinata said suddenly straightening back up and patting his pockets for his cell phone, "I've got to show you something."

The video of Bokuto outing himself over his very obvious crush on his kohai would make everything better. He tried to open the file but received a loading error. He tried holding his phone higher over his head, the loading icon swirling in place in the center of the screen. The service out here was garbage.

"That's not gonna help," Kageyama said swiping his forehead with his sleeve.

"Shut up," Hinata said standing on his tiptoes and hopping in place. "If you hadn't ditched me yesterday I would have been able to show you this earlier and we wouldn't be struggling."

"You're the only one struggling," Kageyama deadpanned.

Hinata dropped his hand to see if the video had loaded even a little. Still nothing. He had to get higher. Being higher solved a lot of problems. You could reach the handholds on the top of the train, you could get the TV remote to work, and you could get better cell signal.

"Hold still," was all the warning he gave before he jumped onto Kageyama, wrapped his legs around his waist, his feet digging into his back and gripped onto his shirt.

"What the hell? Get off of me!" Kageyama yelled stumbling forward under the sudden added weight and predictably getting irritated.

"I said hold still," Hinata repeated as he pushed a hand against the top of Kageyama's head and held the other with his phone in the air, "I think I'm getting another half bar up here."

"I'm not a goddamn stepstool!" Kageyama barked as he got his hands between their chests and pushed.

It might have worked had Hinata's legs not been so solidly locked behind Kageyama's back. All it did was slide him slightly lower.

"Will you chill out?" Hinata said, annoyed that he was now eye-level with his setter, holding himself upright by wrapping an arm around his neck.

Kageyama stilled for a moment before frowning fiercely and shoving again, this time succeeding in sending Hinata to the ground. Hinata groaned at the hard landing and rubbed at his tailbone.

"You can't," Kageyama said pulling his shirt sleeves back down to his wrists, "You can't just…grab people."

"Hasn't stopped you from squeezing my head like a watermelon every chance you get does it?" Hinata retorted.

Kageyama didn't respond immediately, instead turning to pick up their abandoned volleyball. Hinata didn't know what was going on with his partner lately. Skipping out on volleyball and suddenly deciding he was some kind of priest who couldn't be touched by sinners or something. It was all very strange and unlike him in the worst way. Hinata just wanted to play some volleyball and rub his successes in his best frenemy's face, was that too much to ask?

Kageyama held the volleyball with one hand palm down in a way that Hinata would never admit was cool.

"One more?"

Hinata smiled and jumped up brushing himself off.

"Yes! One more!"

**Chapter 3 10/08/22**