Haikyu!
Higher
Chapter 24: Shift

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Kenma peered at Aika curiously, seeing her hands shaking as she held onto the hem of her skirt. She clearly wasn't sure that she was ready, but the look in her eyes told him that she wasn't about to back down. She'd made her decision already.

Nodding, she held onto her skirt even tighter, the fabric unable to stop her nails from digging into her palms. She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to look.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Just do it."

Frowning, Kenma squeezed the scissors he held in his hand. There was a loud snip, and most of Aika's long, thick hair fell to the floor of Kenma's bathroom. Her hair fell out of the band that had been keeping it in its ponytail, gently falling just underneath her shoulders rather than being almost as long as she was tall. Kenma frowned, seeing how her hair was almost as long as his.

He held up the scissors again. "Okay, it's off. Let me just finish trimming it…" he murmured, snipping at the ends that were far too straight and neat for someone like Aika. He cut off part of her hair at her shoulders, allowing her hair to be longer in the back than in the front.

"Is it done yet?" she asked, her voice quivering.

Kenma hummed in response, and she didn't push him. After a few moments, he simply asked, "When was the last time you cut your hair?" She was silent, clearly thinking about her answer. As she thought, Kenma finished cutting her hair, making sure that one side wasn't longer than the other. "Okay, you can look."

Her eyes slowly fluttered open, only to widen almost comically upon seeing how short her hair was. "I… I look so different." She reached up, her fingers playing with the ends of her now short hair. A smile washed over her face as she looked up at Kenma. "I think the last time I cut my hair so dramatically was back when we were kids. Remember?" she asked.

"Yeah." Kenma nodded, a small smile pulling at his lips. "Your hair was always so short that everyone thought you were a boy. They thought I was the girl of the group. You were even taller than me, so it made it even harder for people to believe that they'd mixed up our genders."

Aika giggled as she looked back in the mirror. "I like it," she admitted.

He couldn't help but agree with her. He liked the way she looked, too. It was so different from only a few minutes prior, when her hair was falling probably to her knees when she left it down, but it wasn't a bad kind of different. He thought it was rather cute, actually.

She looked like she had when she was a kid, back when the two of them were the best friends anyone would ever find.

Standing, Aika smiled up at him. "Thanks, Ken. I really wanted one last change before I went to get my surgery. It's important, 'cause after this, I won't be the same person I am now, just like how I'm different than when I was a kid. Even from when I hurt my leg." At the mention of her injury, she once again let her hand drift to her injury, to the brace on her right leg.

Kenma somehow understood exactly why she had made such a dramatic decision. It wasn't because she felt long hair didn't suit her anymore, or because she thought it'd be too much trouble to take care of. It was simply for the fact that she wanted to change.

It was important to her.

Moving forward, he wrapped his arms around her.

He wasn't quite sure what'd come over him. He was mostly averse to physical contact with other people, but this was Aika. She was the only person who he'd ever really been comfortable with being touched by, besides his parents.

When they were younger, she would always link arms with him, ignoring his quiet protests. She'd hug him protectively whenever someone said something mean about him, yelling back at them while her arms were wrapped around him. Sometimes, she'd fall asleep on his shoulder while he was playing a game or watching a movie, and he wouldn't know what else to do but stay there. Other times, it was the other way around, especially during long car or train rides, and he'd wake up to find her smiling down at him.

The last time he'd really gotten to hug her was before she'd moved away. She'd been teary-eyed as she said goodbye, not wanting to fall apart as she got in her aunt's car to move to her house in Miyagi. Kenma, who'd also been tearing up, hadn't been able to speak as she opened the backdoor of the car.

Aika had paused for a moment halfway into the car, then immediately turned around and rushed back to Kenma. She'd practically leapt into his arms, hugging him tightly as she finally let herself cry into his shoulder. At first, his response had been to freeze, but he forced himself to recover, returning the tight hug she was giving him.

"See you later, Ken," she'd whispered into his ear as she'd let go.

He'd never forgotten that moment.

It'd been the moment he'd regretted since that time. He'd always regretted not saying something back to her, not saying that he would definitely see her later. If he could go back in time, he always thought that he would do something differently in that moment.

Leaning forwards, he let his head fall onto her shoulder, feeling her hair brushing against his skin. "Welcome back, Aika. I missed having you around," he murmured in her ear, the same way she'd bade him farewell so many years back.

Aika smiled softly at that, reaching up and running her fingers through his soft, dyed hair.

"I'm back, Kenma."

Hinata showed up to practice with an extra bag the following Saturday.

"Hinata, why do you have so much stuff?" asked Sawamura, seeing Hinata dragging his two bags into the club room with him. "Is there somewhere you're going right after this?"

Hinata beamed widely. "Yes!" he announced. "I'm going to Tokyo this weekend! Aika has her surgery tomorrow morning, and I promised her that I'd be there for her. So, I'm sorry for not telling you in advance, but I won't be here for practice tomorrow!"

He bowed lowly, only to hear Sawamura chuckling above him. He looked up to see the captain looking at him with amusement in his eyes. "No need to worry about anything concerning your trip to Tokyo, Hinata. Just come back and tell us how Yamada's surgery went, okay?" He offered the young middle blocker a soft smile, one that reassured him that everything would be okay.

"I will!"

He was giddy all throughout the morning practice, happily doing whatever he he was told. He didn't seem to flinch in fear whenever Kageyama snapped at him. He barely retorted whenever he got yelled at. He even got up with a wide smile after he took one of Asahi's full-force spikes to the face by accident.

Nothing seemed to bother him, which unnerved a lot of people. Kageyama was among that group, not understanding why the small player was so inexplicably happy.

"Oi. What's up with you today?" he demanded after practice, glaring down at Hinata.

Hinata looked up at him, that stupidly wide smile on his face making it seem like he had flowers floating around him. "Hm? What do you mean, what's up with me? Nothing's wrong, if that's what you're asking," he replied, that smile still never leaving his face.

Kageyama's frown only grew a little bit deeper at that response. He wasn't wondering if anything was wrong. He just wanted to know what was making Hinata so distracted the entire day.

"No, idiot. I mean why are you so happy? Did you get a date or something?"

Although Hinata flushed red, he managed to maintain a smile. "N-no! Of course not! I-I just…" He trailed off, a small laugh escaping him. "I'm just really excited! I'm going to see Aika after this, and I'll know how her surgery goes by tomorrow afternoon! I'll be the first person to see her when she wakes up after the operation!" he exclaimed, the air around him practically sparkling.

In that moment, Kageyama's heart dropped into his stomach.

He'd wanted to go see her during her surgery weekend. He just wanted to go see if she was going to be alright, if the surgery went well and her recovery would go the same way. He'd been planning to ask Hinata about it, but he'd chickened out for the past week.

"I-It's tomorrow?" he managed to choke out.

The air around Hinata seemed to stop sparkling as he stared up at Kageyama with a knowing look on his face. His lips played upwards in a small smile, one that was much more mature than the ones he usually showed. It was like something clicked in his mind as he stood, plastering that wide, stupid smile on his face once again.

"Hey, Kageyama… did you want to come with me to see her?"

Hinata's suggestion managed to make Kageyama's face turn a deep red as he forcefully looked away from the middle blocker. He didn't want to look at those eyes of Hinata's that looked at him like he knew the fullest extent of what Kageyama really wanted.

Of course, Kageyama wanted to agree.

He wanted to go to see Aika again. Somehow, she'd become such a huge part of his life in just the first part of the school year. He had become so used to seeing her every day at practice and sometimes in school that going the past three weeks without seeing her or even hearing from her was such a jarring difference to him that it'd taken him a while to accept it. He still hadn't adjusted to not having her around.

Slowly, he glanced back to Hinata, who was packing up his bag after the morning practice. Hinata shoved his volleyball bag into the small lockers in the club room and slung his overnight bag over his shoulder, standing to face Kageyama.

"If you want to come, you should go pack," he advised. "I don't know how far away you live, but the train is departing from Sendai Station. I'm taking the Akita Line, and the tickets are a little over eleven-thousand yen. Hurry up, 'cause I'm not waiting for you!"

Kageyama flushed an even deeper red than he already was, his embarrassment becoming too much for him to handle. It was like Hinata had seen right through his silent denial and red face. "I-I never said I wanted to go with you!" he practically shouted, causing both Sugawara and Azumane, both of whom were still changing, to stare at him in surprise.

Grinning, Hinata moved to leave the room. "You didn't have to. It was pretty obvious," he shot back.

If Kageyama turned any redder, he swore that he'd explode.

Hinata looked at his phone, checking to see the time.

"Jeez, this Kageyama is going to miss the train!" he complained to himself, although most of the people around him could hear him. He irritably snapped his phone shut and shoved it in the pocket of his black jeans, ones that he barely ever wore.

He felt as if he was extremely out of place in what he was wearing, despite his clothes being something that most people would deem trendy. He rarely wore anything besides his school uniform and his volleyball clothes, so wearing something that wasn't either of those things was weird to him.

The outfit he'd chosen was something he'd worn in the past, when Aika had invited him out to dinner to meet her brother and aunt. He'd been nervous, not knowing what to wear, and it'd shown.

When he told her, she'd only laughed and offered to help him pick something that was suitable. He'd easily taken her up on the offer, the two of them having often hung out at his house after school sometimes to keep practicing a little longer. More than often, they got distracted by some sort of video game, which led to Aika having to stay for dinner.

That day, she'd picked out an outfit for him that fit really well in his opinion. It was a white T-shirt with the number 10 on it, the number he'd loved so much since he first saw the Tiny Giant play. She'd told him to tuck the shirt into his jeans so he didn't look sloppy, and had handed him a warm, black hoodie to go along with it.

It was something that he'd always defaulted to whenever he had to pick out something nice to wear.

People sometimes complimented his style, but he never knew what to say when they did. After all, it wasn't really his choice.

Hinata sighed, leaning back against the wall of the train station. "The train's going to leave in ten minutes… I wonder if he's even going to come," he muttered to himself.

He was so sure that Kageyama was going to show up, especially after seeing the look on the setter's face when Hinata had admitted that he was going to see Aika. Kageyama had looked like he was ashamed and like he wanted to say something, but just didn't.

When Hinata had teased him, just to be sure, he'd turned a bright red, one that was a dead giveaway of how Kageyama really felt. The look in Kageyama's eyes upon realizing just what was happening that weekend was one thing, but the red face was another bit of evidence to support the theory Hinata had formed.

He wasn't sure, considering he was definitely no expert on matters of the heart, but Hinata had enough experience to know the signs of a crush when he saw one.

"Oi." He suddenly heard that familiar voice. "Come on. We're going to be late," Kageyama murmured.

He looked different, too. He was wearing just a casual pair of jeans and a pullover sweatshirt, a baseball cap sitting on his head. His bag was under his arm, and he looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but where he was at that moment.

Hinata grinned internally, knowing that his hunch was absolutely correct. But since it was Kageyama, he didn't grin at all. Instead, he snapped back, "And who's fault do you think that is?!"

Flushing a deep red, Kageyama pursed his lips and glared at Hinata. "S-shut up!" he practically shouted, his voice echoing through the halls as he began walking away, towards the track they were leaving from.

With a wide grin that took over his face, Hinata moved to follow after Kageyama. He noticed the tickets in Kageyama's hands, and couldn't help but feel triumphant in what he'd discovered. He quickened his pace to catch up with his setter, peering up at his red face.

After everything that had happened, he was sure that the red tint of Kageyama's face wasn't just pure embarrassment. It was because his pulse was fast and he didn't know how to respond, just like someone was whenever they were developing feelings for another person.

Yep, I'm sure of it! Kageyama… he likes Aika.

He paused, seeing the confused look in Kageyama's eyes.

That wasn't how someone with a crush looked. That was how someone who was still struggling to understand their own emotions looked.

Hinata merely grinned.

Maybe he just doesn't know it yet.

Author's Note:

Sorry this is nearly a week late! I'll make up for it by uploading on time next week.