No one on the team would have associated the pair with a word like that. Noisy, rambunctious, prone to melodramatic declarations at inopportune moments, with supernovas gleaming in their pupils or the smoke of a blaze escaping from their ears.
Those were Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shouyou since day one, knocking off the dean's wing during an intense duel, up until the day Hinata repeated word by word Kageyama's grandiose declaration in front of Aobajousai. And that's the way Karasuno would always view them: the dynamic duo, boisterous, impossible to ignore, barely gathering half a brain cell between the two of them —Tsukishima's words, which were denied by no one.
A fact so acknowledged, so universally accepted, that all the signs of change were overlooked.
Early in the morning, Daichi or Sugawara —whichever was in charge of opening up the gym that day— would see them arrive with red faces, their foreheads covered in sweat, short of breath, their hair ruffled and messy (Kageyama's, only a little; Hinata's, an orange whirlwind). Daichi scoffed and rolled his eyes; Sugarawa smiled indulgently, neither of them bothered anymore to scold them for the sheer idiocy of tiring themselves out right before practice or for running outside in midwinter's cold. They considered it a lost cause, and anyway, when it came to volleyball those two always had energy to spare. No one thought nothing of it when they started to arrive a little later for practice —late enough to give Noya, Asahi, or maybe Ennoshita enough time to get there first— because their faces remained as fuchsia and they were as short of breath as always.
If Kageyama's straight hair looked way more ruffled than what a race against the wind could explain, if their clothes seemed way too wrinkled and disheveled, no one noticed it at the time.
Once the initial effervescence of reunion passed (guys, you all saw each other just a few hours ago, and how come you've got the energy to fool around so much at this time in the morning?), the team began as usual to warm up and, also as usual, Hinata and Kageyama paired up to help each other stretch. Karasuno's pair ups tended to be tacitly and rigidly defined since the day Daichi split Tanaka and Noya up for their sake and the entire team's. So if Hinata at any time yelled that Kageyama was a brute and claimed he was going to pair up with anyone else, they all took it as the empty threat it was and ignored it, just like they had learnt to turn a deaf ear to Kageyama's string of reiterative insults.
When little by little, both Hinata's complaints and Kageyama's grumbled insults began to be heard less and less until they seemed to run out, the team accepted it as something natural. Frictions waned as Hinata and Kageyama became more and more like a well-oiled machine; their movements the continuation of each other's. Kageyama didn't use excessive force to push him while stretching anymore and Hinata learnt how to hold his legs as he did sit-ups so their foreheads wouldn't bump: quite an accomplishment for them.
And a more than welcome evolution, by the way.
Evolution that grew more and more evident at practice, when their synchronization became more spookily perfect each passing day.
Even their mistakes and screw ups had changed: before, Hinata would've become frustrated, won over by impatience. Now, his expression turned resolved as he yelled toss to me again, Kageyama!, with the absolute conviction that the setter would do so, over and over again.
Even Kageyama's insults seemed to have lost a large amount of their cutting edge, "dumbass" turned almost into a fond nickname. But the former king had long ago lost much of his iron armor. His interactions with the rest of the team had lost their thorniness and ice —except, perhaps, with Tsukishima, but even their exchanges of insults had pushed aside much of their old aggressiveness.
In a team like Karasuno, personal space and individual property were considered as abstract concepts and mostly ignored, so no one concerned themselves saying "no homo" or worried about indirect kisses. With Tanaka throwing Noya up in the air, Kinoshita and Narita accidentally exchanging clothes, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi bound by the hip or the somewhat creepy telepathic link between Daichi and Suga, it pretty much went unnoticed if during long trips Hinata fell asleep with his head on Kageyama's shoulder or if the latter shared his milk carton without being asked to.
Perhaps a tad ironically, ever since the day Daichi had told them that they wouldn't make the team unless they learnt to work together, those two didn't even breathe if not in unison. One of those things, like Tanaka's and Noya's never reciprocated fascination for Kiyoko, that was tacitly accepted and that no one thought too much about.
If at some point it became a habit for them to spend almost all of their time together off school grounds as well, no one thought it worth mentioning. On Valentine's Day, Kageyama gave Hinata the chocolate that some girl had gifted him, because the latter would not stop complaining that he'd only gotten the chocolate Yachi had made for the entire team. Tsukishima mocked him and called him whipped, but it wasn't that different from all the times he gave up his last meat bun so Hinata would leave him alone, so the whole thing went pretty much unnoticed.
In retrospect, maybe a lot went unnoticed.
And perhaps it would have continued in such manner, if not for the day Tanaka arrived at the gym with eyes resembling UFOs out of a '50s movie.
"You knew, didn't you?" was the first thing he told Daichi and Sugawara as soon as he stepped into the gym.
From the look on their faces, they very much did not know.
"Know what?"
Tanaka gawked as though he believed they were pulling his leg.
"What's going on with Kageyama and Hinata, obviously."
They exchanged glances and, judging from Daichi's expression, he had already jumped in free fall to the worst possible conclusions.
"Did they have an accident? Are they hurt? Sick? Did they get into trouble with the dean? Did they flunk?"
Sugawara began patting his back so he wouldn't hyperventilate.
Around them, most of the team had already gathered, their faces showing differing levels of curiosity, expectation or, in Tsukishima's case, feigned boredom.
"No, not that kind of… Hinata and Kageyama are… you know."
From the collective blinking —in an anime, it would've probably made a tinkling sound— he realized they evidently did not know.
"I saw them making out and getting all handsy in an empty classroom!"
Silence fell, and the sound of mental gears shaking off the rust could almost be heard.
"Oh, I saw them last week by the vending machine," Kiyoko said, shrugging.
Sugawara glared at her as though she had stuck a poisoned knife into his chest and then thrown salt all over the wound. She raised her hands defensively.
"I thought you knew!"
"You didn't know?" Tanaka asked again.
"Does this look like the face of someone who knew?!"
Daichi looked like he was reconsidering many things all of a sudden and he wasn't the only one. Tsukishima even forgot to feign indifference.
"Who would've thought they'd keep it so quiet…"
Everyone started talking at once, because all of a sudden it was so obvious, and when the gym door opened, another expectant silence fell, but it was just Kinoshita and Narita, apologizing for their tardiness.
"Did you know about Kageyama and Hinata?!"
And then Noya hastened to fill them in, as though he'd been a material witness, with constant remarks from Tanaka.
The second time the door opened, Kageyama and Hinata barged in, red-faced, their foreheads sweaty and panting a string of "sorry, sorry, sorry for being late".
Kageyama's hair, which got barely ruffled during a match, was now standing on end, as though someone had tangled their fingers in it; Hinata's shirt hung loose over a shoulder, where a peculiar purple-ish mark could be seen, which he hastened to cover up.
Daichi magnanimously accepted their apologies but began yelling at everybody so they'd start warming up at once.
Two weeks later, Hinata and Kageyama stepped into the gym holding hands, blushing, and they told them, with much stuttering, that they were together. Sugawara gave them a benign smile and, in a tone that admitted no retort, Daichi said that he was sure the whole team was happy for them. Tanaka and Noya patted their backs, Yachi smiled nervously, Asahi blushed as he stammered his congratulations and Tsukishima snorted.
"So, you all knew already?"
Tanaka rolled his eyes and with perfect hypocrisy replied:
"C'mon, what did you expect? It's not like you guys were that subtle!"