whoops my hand slipped
"What were you dreaming about?" Kageyama finally coughed out his question, breaking the unspoken agreement he had unknowingly made with Hinata. Hinata had shrugged off his unconscious slip-up with a laugh and asked Kageyama to grab an ice pack, his ankle was really sore after that second fall.
"Why? What? I mean, so what?" he spluttered, and Kageyama almost suggested that he move the ice from his ankle to his red cheeks. "Who even cares? Not me, I don't even remember, actually!" His neck must have been broken, too, he seemed physically unable to look up and meet Kageyama's eyes.
"Then why are you so defensive about it?" Kageyama countered, lowering his brows to give the illusion that he didn't find Hinata's flustered state incredibly amusing.
"Because you're asking personal, sensitive questions, obviously!" Hinata crossed his arms. "You don't need to know what I dream about!"
"Well, I thought maybe you were dreaming about hitting one of my tosses, but now," Kageyama paused for effect and glanced off to the wall nonchalantly, "I'll have to assume the worst." Out of the corner of his eye he watched the color drain from Hinata's face, but before he could respond he was alone in his bed as Kageyama fled the scene to let his statement stew.
Hinata thought back to the moment before he'd been rudely awoken, not so long ago that he had really forgotten anything. Truthfully, his dream had started with hitting Kageyama's tosses, but that was definitely not why he had said his name in his sleep.
Having retreated downstairs to the kitchen, Kageyama was alone to make good on his promise to think up the worst possible scenario as to why Hinata was dreaming about him. Maybe he was a sadistic freak and had been imagining cutting him up into little pieces in return for dropping him on the way home? Or was he expecting to be poisoned or mortally injured under Kageyama's care, had the moan come from his deathbed? Kageyama shivered, he didn't like knives and there was no way Daichi would ever let him back on the team if he really did kill Hinata.
A buzz from his pocket shook him from his own dream, and he found a message from Hinata: "im hungry!"
"what do u want" he replied, opening the nearest cabinet, but finding only plates and glasses.
"cupboard above the fridge", was the only clue he was given. Standing on his toes, he was just barely able to reach inside, and his fingers were greeted by a pile of crinkly plastic bags. He pulled one down and read the label with a grimace, shutting the cupboard and grabbing a bottle of painkillers and a water before returning to Hinata's room.
"Gummies!" Hinata cried, overjoyed and seemingly amnesic of their last conversation. Kageyama flung the candy towards him and he caught it, tearing it open and throwing three in his mouth with a single swipe. "Want some?" he turned the open bag to Kageyama, who shook his head.
"I don't know how you're so athletic if this is how you eat at home," he scolded, handing him the water and pills. Hinata swallowed a pair of the pills eagerly and chugged the glass of water before replying.
"Oh, it's not. I'm just not tall enough to reach where Mom hides all this stuff!" he grinned.
"Don't use me to break the rules!" Kageyama shouted, but he was too exhausted to actually be so mad. Hinata grinned in thanks and continued popping the candies into his mouth, the next coming before the previous was even swallowed. "Do you want me to... Adjust you?" Kageyama asked, glancing over Hinata's uncomfortable-looking position; he sat upright in the middle of his bed with his leg propped up on the footboard. Hinata scrunched his nose up in confusion before realizing what he meant and nodding.
"Thank you!" he tucked in his shoulders as Kageyama sprawled behind him to stack his slight overstock of pillows up, grabbing a few to lay under his leg. "Oh, oh! Go get the big pillow from the couch downstairs!" he pleaded. Kageyama sighed and trudged out of the room to wrestle the couch cushion up the narrow staircase.
Hinata waited until he could hear Kageyama grunting as he got stuck at the bottom of the stairs with the cushion to stretch over to his nightstand and tug the large black tablet resting there from its dock. He turned the console on from there and searched around in his messy bed for the TV remote. It was recovered, and with a pop, the screen came to life and he tapped the icon on the tablet controller for a game he was sure would make Kageyama less mopey.
"The hell is that?" Kageyama glared at the splash screen full of colors and shifting patterns. His sudden appearance back in the room was welcome, now that Hinata was ready for him. He had the cushion, too, bonus welcome points.
"Only the best game ever for cheering up big grump-monsters like you!"
"Are those pills already kicking in? Or is it all the sugar," Kageyama deadpanned, moving his gaze from the screen mounted in Hinata's wardrobe to Hinata's wide smile.
"Don't be mean! Just bring that thing over here and come sit with me!" he pointed to the pillow then patted a patch of bed next to where he sat. Kageyama grunted again to show his distaste and slid the cushion behind Hinata's back, fluffing it around his shoulders and then flopping down on it himself. Hinata passed him the controller.
"Splatoon?" Kageyama cringed at the foreign word in his mouth as he stared at the logo on the TV. "Isn't this that weird paintball game with the octopus people?"
"Squids, Kageyama, squids!" Hinata clicked his tongue in mockery and reached over the setter's arms to press the trigger buttons on the front of the controller to start through the announcements.
"I don't want to play this! Can't you just do it?" Kageyama lifted his hands away and nudged the tablet-like remote towards Hinata, who shoved it right back.
"Nope! I even signed in under Natsu's account so you wouldn't mess up my rank!" he smiled and laid back into the couch cushion. "She won't mind."
"I don't even know the controls!" Kageyama huffed unhopefully as a last-ditch effort to get out of playing.
"I was going to show you, obviously!" Hinata huffed right back and navigated to, what Kageyama assumed was, a practice room. "Okay, press this one to use your weapon..." he started to point out the buttons, wrongly assuming Kageyama would remember them.
"What's that thing it's carrying?" he asked, squinting at the weapon that seemed to be a paper towel roll mounted on a stick in the character's hands.
"It's a roller! You can put down lots of ink, it's really fun to use!" Hinata nodded matter-of-factly. "Natsu has other weapons, too, but just start with this, okay?"
"Fine..." Kageyama pressed the "fire" button a few times and watched globs of paint fling into the air, then discovered it was more effective to keep the button held down as he moved. After a few seconds, a warning popped up on the screen. "Why do I need to reload a roller? It doesn't have bullets!" he gestured to the TV to convey his frustration.
"Press down here," Hinata touched one of Kageyama's index fingers with the correct button underneath, "And wait for your tank to fill up!"
"This isn't fun," Kageyama rolled his eyes.
"Let's see how you do in an actual game, then?" Hinata raised an eyebrow.
"Fine," Hinata slid the controller into his own lap and Kageyama watched as he made his way to the online lobby and joined a match on his behalf before handing it back.
"Okay! Turf war! You're orange!" Hinata watched the TV and reported back to Kageyama, who thought it was a little unnecessary, considering he was also watching. "Go!" Kageyama started flicking the paint stuff from his roller at the people surrounding him, and Hinata slapped his arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" he turned away from the screen, and Hinata immediately pushed his head back to face the action.
"That's your team, idiot! And eyes on the match, you're timed!" Kageyama could only imagine how well they'd get along if Hinata was this focused on other things. The avatars around him had dispersed, painting the entire area as they went. He started to run after one before they disappeared, seemingly into the ground.
"Where'd he go?" Kageyama scrunched his brows as he searched the screen.
"He's swimming, just like you should be! It's faster!" Hinata gestured to the same button he'd used to reload before. Kageyama pressed it and watched his own character melt into the ground, swimming along in the direction the other player seemed to have been heading. "Good," Hinata smiled in approval. Soon, though, the orange liquid ran out and he found himself squirming on bare ground. In the distance, he could see a character decked out in blue.
"How far is the range on this roller thing?" he took a side-eyed glance at Hinata, who blinked in confusion.
"Not far? Why?"
"Gonna get him," Kageyama pushed on the toggles as hard as he could, running towards the player who appeared to be on the opposing team.
"No! Paint the ground first!" Hinata instructed with the air of a mother telling a child to eat their vegetables before dessert.
"But he'll get away!"
"Doesn't matter! You're supposed to spread ink, you don't get points for killing people!" he clicked his tongue again at Kageyama's violent tendencies. As he turned back to the screen, the very player he had been plotting to kill popped out in front of him and fired right into his face.
"Hey!" Kageyama shouted as he watched his character fall apart into a pile of clothes. "If killing doesn't give you points, why did he kill me?"
"Don't worry, you're fine," Hinata giggled and pointed as he respawned. "And that's what happens when you stand there in someone's way like an idiot." Kageyama wondered if there was any chance of combining this Hinata that came from playing games and the one that he actually had to interact with on a daily basis.
"Okay, I'm done," he pushed the controller back towards Hinata, who shrugged and expertly dove Natsu's squid into the orange ink surrounding where he had respawned. He watched as Hinata moved the controller around with every flick of the toggles, leaning into his side and resting on him as he found the perfect camera angle. The timer at the top of the screen ticked down through the last ten seconds, and the orange team had lost. Badly, thanks to Kageyama's blundering during the first portion of the match.
"Might as well switch to my account, huh?" Hinata closed the game and signed back into his own profile before loading it up again. He skipped through the announcements and maneuvered back to the lobby.
"Isn't your character a girl?" Kageyama snickered, noticing that Hinata's avatar had the hairstyle and face that was different from the more masculine players he had seen in the game.
"Well, yeah. Isn't she cute?" Hinata pointed at the outfit he had spent forever putting together to maximize abilities and fashion. "I'm really proud of her!"
"Right," Kageyama sighed through his nose and leaned back into the cushion behind him, pulling his phone from his pocket to tell his mother the current situation, since she would be expecting him home from practice soon. His arm bumped with Hinata's a few times, and he heard a loud, frustrated noise from beside him. With one hand and his knee, Hinata continued the game, while with the other he grabbed Kageyama's left arm and tugged it around his shoulders so that his camera angles wouldn't be disrupted.
A heat crawled its way from Kageyama's stomach to rest in his cheeks as he felt Hinata's shoulders and neck pressed into his arm, his torso clutched between his hand and his chest. He swallowed hard and shakily clenched the fist next to Hinata's head. It felt like it wasn't attached to the rest of his body, but was rather connected to Hinata's as he moved with the controller and game, bobbing and weaving with his neck, taking sharp breaths when he thought he might not have jumped long enough or when someone started shooting at him.
"Knockout!" Hinata squealed, startling Kageyama from his confusing train of thought. He stretched his arms up high and leaned back into Kageyama's arm, looking up, too, and smiling like he'd just performed a perfect receive. Kageyama thought he might be having a heart attack, or an asthma attack, or a stroke. Hinata looked away again and he wondered why on earth it felt like the sun had dropped right out of the sky.
dang this is long... review pls..