When Kage awoke Monday morning, he felt invigorated. After finally getting a good night sleep with the help of some sleeping pills, he was more than ready for volleyball practice. As he thought about practice while getting dressed, he was reminded of Hinata's injury, and suddenly realized that he might have made Hinata unable to play. The thought of seeing Hinata sitting on the sidelines in practice, looking longingly at the rest of the team, knowing that it might take weeks before he is able to play again, sent Kage into a panic. He knew that once Suga caught wind of Hinata's injuries that he would sideline him until he was better for fear of making his injuries worse.
"How could I have been so stupid?" Kage thought to himself angrily.
As Kage started to walk quickly to meet with Hinata, muttering furiously to himself, a familiar voice echoed from behind him.
"Hey boy… Come 'ere a second."
Kage turned to see one of the homophobic old men from Saturday. Ordinarily, he would have humored the old man, but he was not in the mood to deal with whatever he wanted so Kage started to walk off.
"Hey! I know you heard me, I said come here!"
Kage sighed and turned around and headed up the steps to where the old man was sitting on his porch.
"Now I saw you walkin' by with the look of hate in your eye, what's the matter boy?" The old man chimed quizzically.
"Nothing I would want to talk with you about." Kage said with great restraint.
"I bet it has somethin' to do with that orange haired boy I saw you with Saturday…" He said while scratching his chin before Kage exploded with rage.
"Yea it does actually, and I don't particularly feel like sitting here and listening to you berate me for dating another man!"
"Woah woah woah, easy now, no one said anything about beratin'. I don't care what who you date." The old man replied hastily.
"I distinctly remember you talking about hating gay people."
"Then your memory is worse than mine because I remember saying that you would regret wasting your time gettin' all up in arms about gay rights, and ignoring things like studying." The old man recounted sagely before adding.
"Now I might not care about you datin' a man, but there are others out there that do, some people care a lot actually. Now why were you angry in the first place?"
Kage sighed again, defeated, before recalling about Hinata's back injuries and his concerns over volleyball practice.
"Hmm, it will work out. You're both young and spry. He will recover before you know it, and he will be back at your side behind the net." The old man nodded.
"I hope so, and I am sorry about taking my anger out on you…" Kage said while feeling ashamed for yelling at the elderly man.
"I knew what I was getting myself into, I would have been shocked if you didn't start to yell!" The old man chuckled.
Kage could feel a smile trying to form on his face before he realized that he had spent far longer than he intended talking with the old man. He waved his good byes and rushed to go meet with Hinata. As he ran he could see Hinata sitting on the curb of their meeting place looking worried. He saw his face light up when he glanced at Kage running full speed at him. Kage stopped where Hinata was sitting and tried to catch his breath.
"There you are, Kageyama! You had me worried! I was about to call you to see if you were sick." Hinata uttered with a mix of worry and relief.
"I'm sorry…I was...Talking to...Someone." Kage replied in between gasps for air, before getting the last breath he needed.
"How is your back, Hinata?"
"Oh it is fine, it doesn't even hurt anymore. My mom did a really good job fixing me up yesterday." Hinata said while giving a warming smile.
Kage gave a sigh of relief before they headed out for school while praying that they wouldn't be late. They ended up making it on time, but not by much. Kage watched Hinata in all the classes he had him in, observing Hinata to see how bad his back injuries felt. He seemed to not be in any pain at all, relaxing back in his seat, stretching here and there. Kage felt very relieved at the prospect that he wouldn't have to witness a tragic conversation between Suga and Hinata. When practice started everything seemed to be going smoothly. Hinata was stretching normally, and none of his wounds were reopening. Kage thought they might get by without anyone realizing that Hinata was even injured. A bit later in practice as Kage made a toss to Hinata,he watched Hinata run at a mad dash for the net to spike when he misplaced his foot before the jump and slipped. Kage watched in seemingly slow motion as Hinata's feet slid right out from under him and he slammed directly on his back with an echoing thud.
"H-Hinata!" Kage yelled as he ran over to him.
The rest of the team rushed over to see if Hinata was alright. Kage lifted Hinata off the ground while feeling his back to see if any of his wounds had reopened. He realized very quickly that he was sweating profusely and could differentiate his sweat from Hinata's hypothetical blood. Kage knew he couldn't flip Hinata over for fear of making the whole situation worse, so he just sat there with an expression of confusion and helplessness until he quickly snapped and reverted to a facade of mere worry.
"You alright, Hinata? That looked like it hurt." Daichi asked.
"You should probably sit down for a minute." Suga said immediately after Daichi.
It took Hinata a few seconds to gauge what had just happened before getting right back up and proclaiming that he was fine. He wasn't bleeding anywhere from what Kage could see, and this made him feel immensely comforted.
"D-Dumbass, you shouldn't be so reckless! You could seriously hurt yourself!" Kage yelled in what he thought was mock anger.
The rest of the team gave him a puzzled look before returning focus on Hinata who looked saddened by what Kage just said.
"Kageyama, don't yell at him. It wasn't his fault, it was an accident." Suga said authoritatively.
Kage just sighed, not wanting to argue with Suga over pretend anger. After a few minutes, practice resumed as normal. On the way home, Kage walked with Hinata and felt bad about yelling at him earlier. He was right, he thought, Hinata shouldn't be so reckless with an injury like that. Although getting Hinata not to go all out in volleyball seemed impossible, he still felt like he should apologize.
"Hinata, I'm sorry about yelling at you at practice today. I was just trying to keep my cover going."
"No, you are right Kage, I should be a lot more careful while I have this injury. I was just distracted when you tossed to me." Hinata replied meekly.
"What were you distracted by?" Kage asked intently.
"The thought that my injury might have made me not be able to practice hadn't even occurred to me until that second. I was thinking of the best ways to hide it when I saw the toss."
Kage internally chuckled at the irony before they got to the point in their walk where they must part ways. Kage hugged Hinata, making sure not to touch his back, before Hinata gave him a little kiss on the cheek before they said their goodbyes for the night. The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. By Friday, Hinata's back was almost fully recovered with just minor scarring. All week the thoughts of what transpired on the rocks played through Kage's mind, before inevitably being brought back to reality by the image of Hinata in pain. Kage really wanted to feel Hinata that close to him again. The memories of Hinata's lips on his were fading quickly, and being in close proximity to his love interest but being unable to act on it was killing him. That day, however, he got his chance. Suga and Daichi had entrusted the task of closing up the gym to Kage and Hinata, who readily agreed. When everyone left to go home, they went into the locker room to change before Kage pounced on Hinata from behind. As Kage wrapped his arm around Hinata waist and started to kiss the side of Hinata's neck. He could feel Hinata squirm in surprise before relaxing and chuckling.
"You had this planned, didn't you?" He said as he turned around in Kage's arms to face him.
"No, it just turned out this way, and lets not spoil the opportunity."
Their lips met passionately before Kage forced his tongue into his receptive partner's mouth. He could hear Hinata's whimpers through his own ragged breaths. All that pent-up desire spilled out all at once, and Kage was in a state of euphoria and lust. As Hinata wrapped his legs around Kage, the saturated smell of musk was driving Kage wild. He forgot where he was, what he was supposed to be doing, everything. He was completely entranced by Hinata. He was deeply enjoying this feeling when a sound made both of them jump.
"I knew it…"
They both turned to see Suga with the rest of the team standing in the locker room giggling to themselves. Both Kage and Hinata blinked a few times before realizing what was going on, and their faces turned a deep shade of crimson. Kage was unsure if he felt embarrassed for being caught in the act, stupid for falling for their ploy, or livid for being interrupted.
"I figured there was something between you two after Kage pretended to not be incredibly worried about Hinata on Monday." Suga said triumphantly.
"I knew that you two couldn't resist the opportunity to have some quality alone time. Although you two were far more into it then I thought you would be; you didn't even hear us come in." Daichi added.
"The King with a commoner? How scandalous." Tsukishima said in between his cackles of laughter.
At this point Kageyama felt utterly stupid, and felt terrible for falling for this ploy as well as being very obvious about his feelings. He could see that Hinata was in a state of raw embarrassment, hiding his face behind his hands, on the verge of crying. Kage instinctively put his arm around Hinata and pulled him close.
"H-Hinata don't cry! It is fine, you two can date! I was just going to tell you that you two can be open about it like me and Daichi! I didn't mean to make you cry!" Suga stammered with a look of genuine fear of seeing Hinata cry.
"You and Daichi are together..?" Kage and Hinata said in unision.
The entire team held a collective silence for a few seconds before Suga said, "You two were made for each other…"
The thought never occurred to Kage that Suga and Daichi were together. He made a note to feel stupid about not noticing that later.
"Yea, we don't care if you are open about it, as long as you don't let it distract you during practice. I also ask that you refrain from making out in the locker room." Daichi said to the both of them.
Kage felt very relieved that he wouldn't have to hide this in front of his team anymore. Although, he knew that he would now suffer endless teasing from Tsuki. He looked down at Hinata who was still wrapped in his arm, and he didn't seem on the edge of crying anymore.
"You two make a cute couple, but now we need to close up the gym before the dean starts to wonder what we are doing." Daichi told them and the rest of the team.
As Kage and Hinata walked home that day, Kage was happy that he could be open about his relationship with Hinata to the team, but also annoyed that he was again cut short in the heat of the moment. Hinata seemed ecstatic that the team thought they were cute together. As they gave their goodbye kisses, Kage was really glad that he ended up going to Karasuno.