Haikyu!
Higher
Chapter 25: Recovery

The train ride was silent, despite it being a little over two hours long.

Hinata was constantly messaging back and forth with Aika, his smiles hard to ignore as he giggled whenever she said something he found funny. It was the only sound on the otherwise quiet train, and to say that it was bothering Kageyama would be an understatement.

He consistently glanced over to Hinata, who was sitting in the seat across from him, wondering just what the two of the were talking about back and forth. It had been a while since he'd seen Hinata smile as much as he was now, reading those messages from Aika. It'd been probably around three weeks, now that Kageyama thought about it.

He peered over at Hinata, half wanting to ask what Aika possibly could have said that was so funny and half wanting to tell him to shut up.

Both were viable options, as he just wanted to know what she was saying.

"Hey, Kageyama." He snapped out of his own thoughts, staring with wide eyes at Hinata. The other wore a wide, knowing smile on his face. "What's up with that face? It's all scrunched up, like uwagh!" he exclaimed, holding back a laugh.

Kageyama flushed and angrily snapped back, "Shut up, dumbass! I'm thinking!"

"Thinking about Aika?"

Suddenly, Hinata was much quieter as he stared at the phone in his hands. His gaze wasn't as excited as before, and instead, he seemed much more subdued. He held onto his phone tightly, and he looked Kageyama directly in the eye.

His red face darkening once more, Kageyama glared outside the window, refusing to look at Hinata and his knowing eyes. "Of course not! W-what's up with that?" he demanded.

For a few moments, there was only silence as Hinata stared at his phone again.

"Hey, Kageyama… Have you ever had a crush on someone before?"

A crush? Why would I? By the time I was old enough to think girls were cute, I didn't pay attention to anything but volleyball.

When I didn't pay attention to anything but volleyball, the girls in my school thought I wouldn't make a good boyfriend, or that I wasn't interested in girls or something. There was never a girl who understood me enough for me to think that I wanted to date them.

He didn't want to reply to Hinata, knowing that the other would just make fun of him. After all, every other guy knew how it felt to have a crush.

When he didn't answer, Hinata let out a soft chuckle, closing his phone. "I'm assuming that you haven't," he murmured. He let his head fall back against the seat of the train. "I used to have a crush on Aika. She was my first real crush, since she really understood how much I wanted to play volleyball. But I was stupid, and I never acted on it." He chanced a look back at a confused Kageyama, and almost laughed again. "I'm not sad that I didn't tell her I liked her. 'Cause now that I think about it, I think I just liked her 'cause she was the first girl to understand me. I never felt more for her than a sibling would."

"Why are you telling me this…?" Kageyama asked under his breath.

Hinata sat back up straight, that wide, stupid smile on his face. "I'm telling you 'cause it's pretty obvious that you like Aika. I'm not surprised that you do, and I think it's different than how I liked her. She's my sister, and the best friend I could ever ask for. But you…" He trailed off for a moment. "You look at her like she's all you can see."

"W-what do you mean?"

"It started back during the Aoba Josai match." Both of them froze when Hinata mentioned that game. "She was always cheering you on, and you were always looking to her for advice. Then, after the game, you were always watching her, especially when she said she was going away to get surgery. But then, when she left, you kept looking for her. Like something was missing," he admitted, seeming much older than he was.

Kageyama's shoulders slumped in realization, knowing that Hinata was right. He'd constantly been looking for Aika, wanting for her to give him advice on his form or on his tosses. After just a few months, he'd become so used to seeing her that her not being there was weird to him.

He bit his lip, not wanting to tell Hinata anything. It wasn't any of Hinata's business whether or not Kageyama had feelings for Aika.

"That's… I…" he choked out, not knowing what else to say.

Hinata understood, even though Kageyama couldn't say anything. "You know, having a crush on someone is a good thing. Maybe you'll be less scary if you get a girlfriend," he joked.

"Hinata! Shut up!"

"Aika!" Hinata practically bounced into the hospital room, where Aika was sitting up in the hospital bed.

She glanced over from where she was, to other pairs of eyes following her gaze. Hinata froze, seeing both Kenma and Nekoma's rooster-haired captain sitting with her. Kenma was sitting on her bed with her, showing her his game screen.

Immediately, Aika offered him a smile. "Shoyo… it's good to see you!" she exclaimed happily, her eyes crinkling upwards in a smile.

Hinata paused for a moment, staring at her, like he was trying to figure out what was different with his friend. "You cut your hair!" he finally realized, a wide smile coming over his face. He couldn't believe how short her hair was. It felt like she was an entirely different person without long hair.

"Yeah, I did. It felt like it was time for a change." She played with the ends of her now-short hair before focusing her gaze on him again. "How have you been? It feels like it's been longer than three weeks since I've seen you." She paused as he rushed in, moving to stand near her bed. "Shoyo, have you grown since I saw you?"

He beamed at her. "I did! I grew half a centimeter!" he announced, pulling up a chair and tossing himself down in it.

"It feels like you've grown more… soon enough, you're going to tower over me." She reached over to ruffle his orange hair. He smiled under her touch, his eyes twinkling as he glanced at her. Her hand slowed, resting on his head as she turned her gaze to the door, where another figure was standing.

Hinata followed her gaze, seeing Kageyama, who was just waiting in the doorway, like he was frozen. He was just watching the happy reunion between the two with a hesitant look in his eyes. Hinata couldn't help but smile as he saw the expression on Kageyama's face. He reached up to take Aika's hand, the one that was on his head, as he turned to face Kageyama.

He sent a small, teasing smile at his teammate. "Aren't you going to come say hello? You did come here to see Aika, didn't you?"

Kageyama's face turned red again. "S-shut up…" It wasn't as harsh as usual as he walked forwards, moving to stand beside Hinata's chair. He simply watched Aika, who met his gaze and offered a small smile at him. "It's… it's good to see you're doing well," he managed.

"Hey now, that isn't all you came to say to her, is it?" The question came from the rooster-haired captain, who was grinning mischievously at Kageyama. "Didn't you want to say something like 'I missed you' to her?"

Neither Aika nor Hinata could help the giggles that escaped them, although Aika's were much more subdued than Hinata's. Both fixed their eyes on Kageyama's red face, tinged with both embarrassment and anger, as he struggled to contain himself.

Instead, he took a deep breath inwards, facing Aika once more.

"I…" he began, his words failing him. "I'm glad to see you."

At that, Aika's own eyes widened, hearing the words coming in that familiar timbre that could only belong to Kageyama. He hadn't been pushed to say it, either, despite Kuroo's teasing.

Hinata watched in amusement as her own face began to turn slightly pink.

"It's good to see you, too, Kageyama."

Both Shoyo and Kageyama had stayed in Aika's hospital room that night, sleeping in the comfy chairs in the corners, the two of them slumped over like they usually were on the bus.

Aika couldn't help but smile at the two of them, seeing how wiped out they'd been, probably from early practice that morning. It was easy to tell that neither of them had gotten much sleep, Shoyo probably less than Kageyama.

She had been surprised, to say the least, when Kageyama had shown up at the hospital.

Shoyo hadn't told her anything about the setter accompanying him on the visit. In fact, besides the updates about the team that he gave her after each practice, there was never much talk about Kageyama. He simply hadn't been a subject that they'd talked about.

Yet, despite her surprise, she wasn't unhappy about him being there.

Since the start, Aika had considered Kageyama to be one of the Karasuno boys that she was closest to. He'd always been open with her, even with his lack of knowledge about social graces. He wasn't very good with words, and he was never very good at being nice, either.

Aika had always known that he wasn't the easiest person to get along with, which was fine with her.

But even though he wasn't good at being around people, that didn't mean that Kageyama wasn't a nice person.

After all, he had been the one who had convinced her to join Karasuno during their first big practice match to Aoba Josai. He'd always gone out of his way to talk to her, taking interest in whatever she was doing and writing for them after practices. He talked to her not just as the assistant coach for Karasuno, but as someone he respected and listened to.

If she had to choose what he was to her, she would gladly call him a friend.

Aika glanced over to the two, who were still sleeping, Shoyo practically curled into a ball as he laid in his chair. Kageyama's arms were crossed, his head hanging and his eyes closed. Aika couldn't help but giggle at the two as she carefully lifted herself out of bed.

She grabbed the cane that the doctors had forced her to use to get around and a blanket from the foot of her bed. Hobbling over to the boys, she carefully draped the blanket over the two, both of whom were in a deep sleep. Neither of them stirred as she tucked the blanket underneath Shoyo.

Standing up straight, Aika couldn't help but feel happiness well up in her chest.

She reached out to Shoyo, running her hand through his brightly-colored hair. She leaned down and gently pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head, something she used to do back in middle school, whenever he fell asleep in his living room after dinner and a movie whenever she stayed too late by accident. He never really knew that she did that, but she was fine with that.

"Thank you, Shoyo," she murmured against his hair. "I'm glad that you're with me for this."

After a second, Aika pulled away from Shoyo and turned to Kageyama. She let her hand fall to her side as she simply stared at the boy for a moment.

Knowing she wasn't as close with Kageyama as she was with Shoyo, Aika hesitated. She definitely didn't feel close enough to run her hand through his hair, let alone give him a kiss on the head. They were friends, at least according to her, but they weren't that close.

Instead, Aika stumbled over to her bed and grabbed one of the two pillows lying on it. She returned to Kageyama's side and, for just a moment, smiled down at his sleeping form. Gently pulling at his crossed arms, she quickly pushed the pillow into his grasp, allowing his head to rest on it. He buried his face into the soft cushion, sighing as he did.

A wave of satisfaction rose in Aika's chest.

"Goodnight, Kageyama. Thank you for coming," she whispered.

Kageyama heard the covers rustling and knew that Aika had gone back to her own bed.

Slowly and carefully, he opened one eye. Seeing her form back in the hospital bed, he lifted his head off of the pillow she'd given him while she thought he was asleep. He held the pillow a bit closer to him as he felt his pulse racing.

He was good at faking sleep. It had been a sure-fire way to get people to leave him alone on the bus rides back from tournaments or practice matches when he was in middle school.

Faking sleep when Aika was showing such soft gestures of affection to Hinata and Kageyama, which weren't very common from her, was a lot more difficult. It was when she was close that Kageyama's pulse quickened dramatically, causing him to almost give himself away to her out of pure embarrassment. He swore that his face was getting hotter, and it wasn't just from the blanket that had been draped over his body.

His face turning red, he buried himself back into the pillow Aika had given him, hoping to hide himself from whatever was around him.

It didn't help at all. Instead, it only made the fact that Aika had been the one to give him the pillow that much more obvious.

He'd never noticed how good Aika smelled. Even though she'd been pressed against him as she slept the day of the Aoba Josai match, he hadn't been able to tell then. Maybe it was because he was too nervous to even think about what she smelled like. Or maybe it was because he wasn't so hyper-aware of her presence.

Apples. She smells like apples.

It was a sweet sort of smell, the type that was hard to figure out the origin of the first time. But Kageyama, with his face buried deep into the pillow that smelled just like Aika's hair, knew that the smell was that of apples.

His face only turned a darker red as he tried to hide himself even further.

Hinata felt Kageyama moving around tirelessly in the chair next to him.

He was sure that it was because of Aika, because of how kind and loving she was when she thought no one else was looking. She always cared for him if he fell asleep at inopportune moments, and she cared for Kageyama the same way for the first time since he'd known her.

Sneaking one eye open to peek at Kageyama, he only saw the blunt setter's face buried so far into the pillow that he wasn't sure if Kageyama could ever come back out.

Hinata stifled a soft giggle as he forced himself to turn away from Kageyama, sure that he was dyed red behind the cushion.

He couldn't help but be proud of his teammate for figuring out his feelings.