Yamaguchi was on his way back home, walking quietly with Kei. Honestly, he had missed his friend. Since Kei had started helping Hinata with his study, they spent less and less time together. He didn't blame him at all, he was even proud to see his friend finally helping someone else, but that didn't change the fact that he felt lonely too.
"Do you have to be at home now?" He asked his friend.
"No, but…" Tsukishima said, leaving unsaid that they were already on the way.
"Next week is Yachi's birthday," Yamaguchi said, changing the subject.
"It is?" Tsukishima replied, not very interested.
Yamaguchi was not affected by the apparent lack of interest. He knew how difficult it was for him to admit that he liked someone. Just saying that someone was bearable was rare, in fact. But Kei seemed to tolerate Yachi a little more than most people, which was a good thing because Yamaguchi would hate for his best friend to hate the person that he liked.
"I'm thinking of giving her a gift," he said.
"Did you already decide what it will be?"
"No," he admitted, he was a little desperate. He hadn't had enough friends to have an idea of what to give, but he hoped he could think of something. If he got too desperate, he would text Shimizu. "Can you help me to look for something?"
Kei agreed, without even complaining about how he wanted to go home, which Yamaguchi took as proof that he was not the only one missing their time together. But he said he wanted to eat before helping him.
"This coffee seems to be cool," Yamaguchi said, thinking about going in there for a bit.
For some reason, Tsukki went red. Maybe he was hot or had an allergy.
"Not here, I heard that this café is bad," he said and took him away from the café.
He offered some suggestions of gifts and so Yamaguchi found out how bad he was at it, even worse than he was. Thinking about it, even with some girls hitting on him, he didn't seem to be around any girls. Perhaps he had a hard time understanding them. Well, that was sure to complicate any relationship he might have.
Hinata was trying to study (yes, contrary to what most people thought, he tried to study at home). It was just that the subject was so boring, who cared about something that had happened 500 years ago?
"Onee-chan, where's the cake? Daddy said he was going to make it," his sister interrupted him.
He wasn't going to pretend he was sad that he had an excuse for not studying. But in fact he was a little sad about the reason, their father must have been traveling again and promised something he couldn't do, as usual.
"What cake do you want?" He asked, already knowing he would fix this situation. He hated it when Natsu didn't have the things she wanted because his father had forgotten, remembering very well how he felt.
Her mother kept warning him not to spoil her, but he didn't hear much. He was just doing what his father was supposed to do, after all.
She stopped to think and Shōyō smiled. She was so cute, no matter how many times he wanted to kill her.
"Kasutera!" she declared excitedly.
He should have known, she almost always asked him to. He headed for the kitchen and started making the requested cake, but when he went to take the eggs out of the fridge, his gaze fell on the strawberry tray that was there.
He smiled even more, remembering how funny he found it when he heard about Tsukishima's addiction to strawberries. It was so much like him and so different at the same time. Hinata couldn't imagine Kei desperately enjoying anything, but strawberry was perfect for him.
He remembered all the moments that Tsukishima had dedicated himself to helping him (even though he was angry about it many times) and the times that he found the other staring at the cake that the café sold, but that he was definitely not in the mood to eat (as if).
Without even thinking, Hinata's hands moved to pick up the ingredients to make a second cake.
Kei liked the breaks at school, finally having a free time after hours just listening to teachers talking, and he usually spent them talking quietly with Yamaguchi, since most of the classmates knew him well enough not to bother him too much.
Of course, once more, Hinata was not in the mood to let him follow his routine in peace.
Kei knew that Shōyō didn't exactly have a routine to who he shares his break with, having seen him with Kageyama, some boys and girls from class 1 and even Noya and Tanaka. A few times Hinata managed to convince Yamaguchi and Tsukishima to join him, but it was not an easy task.
Apparently, today was one of those days that for some reason he had decided to look for him. Kei tried to tell himself that he was not happy about it, not even when he saw the size of Shōyō's smile when he saw him.
"HEY, TSUKISHIMA!" Hinata shouted, attracting the attention of Kei's colleagues even more.
Kei looked at him in surprise, wanting to understand why he was there and why he seemed even more excited than usual.
Normally, Kei would try to pretend that he didn't know him or anything, but he knew that none of that would work with the redhead. So he just waited for Hinata to stand in front of him, carrying a bag of something.
Without saying anything, he handed him a pot, which contained… a cake? My God, was that a strawberry cake? Suddenly, Kei was hungry.
"What is it?" Kei asked confused, but took the cake anyway. It looked good.
"I was cooking for Natsu yesterday and well, there was some cake left" Hinata said, looking proud.
Wait, had Hinata done that? But he looked so good, really professional. Kei could almost taste it.
It took him a second to review the first information and remember that Natsu was Shōyō's sister. He wondered if she had the same infinite energy as him and how he managed to stay calm enough to cook.
"This is for me?" Kei asked, surprised.
"Yes, of course," Hinata said still confident. "I know you like strawberries."
Kei was more than surprised, he had no idea that Hinata knew that about him, much less that he was really going to do something with the information. Even though it was not made for him, it was really touching to see someone else remember him when he saw his favorite food. In addition, the cake looked good.
"Thank you," he said, holding the pot more tightly. He smiled widely at Hinata, not the usual mocking smile, but one to show his gratitude.
"It was nothing," Shōyō said humbly, choosing not to mention how his mother freaked out when she realized he had used the strawberry she was saving for a recipe and he had to buy a last-minute dessert to replace it.
"Hi, Hinata," greeted Yamaguchi, in an amused tone.
Kei was startled, having completely forgotten that his friend and the rest of the room were still there because he was so focused on Hinata. At least, by Shōyō's guilty look, he wasn't the only one.
"Oh, hi, Yamaguchi! All right?" He greeted and looked guilty at the cake. "I didn't know you were going to be here... I didn't bring you cake, but you can take my piece," with that, Yamaguchi raised his eyebrow, stopping himself from laughing.
Kei expected that his friend would deny it, saying that he didn't need to, because he knew very well that Yamaguchi had brought food. But instead, he smiled widely.
"Good! This cake looks very good," he said. Kei was one hundred percent sure he was up to something, he just didn't know what. "You can take my food if you want," he said.
Hinata also seemed a little surprised at how things were going, but not particularly sad and promptly gave his own food to Yamaguchi.
"Let's eat" Kei announced and they sat at the tables.
Kei tried not to think about it too much when he put the first piece in his mouth and immediately opened his eyes wide. Shit, it was really good! Even better than it looked. It tasted much better than most, just missing Kei's favorite places, and look, he knew a thing or two about strawberry cake.
Beside him, Yamaguchi also ate the cake that Hinata had made. The redhead looked good with the change of food. But Kei couldn't help looking at him and thinking how unfair it was that he was the only one who hadn't eaten what he had brought.
"It's very good," he praised and Hinata looked at him satisfied.
Seeing the way he seemed proud to receive a compliment from Kei, made him feel even more guilty, even though he wasn't going to admit it. Hinata should not be deprived of eating his own delicious strawberry cake.
"Hinata, eat," he called and pushed his own cake and cutlery towards him.
Hinata stared at him with wide eyes, unable to understand what he was doing. Honestly, even Kei couldn't believe it. But he knew it was the right thing and he really did want to do this, even if he had to let go of that small piece of heaven.
"Take it," Kei encouraged when Shōyō just looked at him, static.
"But…"
"It's not fair for you to be left with nothing," interrupted Kei firmly. "Eat, before I change my mind," he said.
This time, Hinata listen to him and ate two bites, looking still a little scared, completely abandoning Yamaguchi's food. Then he slid the rest of the cake back to Kei, happy as if he had just won a match against Nekoma.
Kei took the cake and continued to eat. Strangely, it tasted even better now. Not that it had anything to do with Hinata's smile, of course.
Kei could feel Yamaguchi's eyes on him, but he didn't care when Hinata started talking about how unfair the teacher had been today - despite how he thought it wouldn't be a problem to use his cell phone to watch a volleyball game in the middle of a class was beyond Kei's ability to understand.
"If you want to stop by my house later, I still have some cake left," Hinata confessed.
First, Kei was thrilled, just at the prospect of eating more of this wonderful cake - how the hell had Hinata managed to get the point he liked so much? - later. Then he panicked at the thought of going to Hinata's house, wondering how he should act. Finally, he got suspicious of this invitation, because he well knew that they had a study session today.
"This is not a maneuver to skip the study, is it?"
"We can go after eating," muttered Hinata. "Or study and go. But then Yamaguchi will be bored."
"Hum, I can not go with you today," Yamaguchi said. "My father asked me to go with him to help my aunt move out," he said. "But why don't you two just study at Hinata's house?"
"Yeah, it can be there!"
"Your mom won't mind?" asked Kei.
"Nah, she likes having people around. Even more if it is to see me studying," he said.
Right. Of course Tsukishima wasn't freaking out with the possibility of maybe going alone to the boy's house that he liked. Absolutely not.
Tsukishima knew that there was something strange about his friend refusing to give Hinata the cake and his suspicions were confirmed when he stopped him at the end of class, when he was about to go and get Hinata to study.
"You know, I've known you for a long time," said Yamaguchi. "And I never, ever, saw you sharing strawberry cake," it was true that Kei normally did everything he could to keep the food for himself and had refused to give it to his own mother.
"And…?" Kei shrugged, pretending it was no big deal.
For a moment, Yamaguchi looked at Kei as if he wanted to argue about something.
"Nothing," he gave up in the end.
But he didn't have to say it, because Kei knew what he was thinking. And he wasn't going to confirm it. It was bad enough that he was liking Hinata, he didn't need anyone else to know the pathetic feeling he had.