Chapter Text
He was late. Kageyama was fucking late. Hinata angrily took a swig from his water bottle before he continued working on his own assignments - at least this wouldn’t be a complete waste of his time.
Did the bell ring four minutes and 27 seconds ago? Yes. Would he normally consider that as late? Maybe not, but this was Kageyama and Hinata was not one to show mercy to assholes whose names began with Kage and ended with -yama.
Brrrrng .
The five-minute “you’re late” bell rang and Hinata rolled his eyes. The guy might as well do them both a favor and just not show up. He put in his other earbud, turned up his music, let the melodious perfection that is Yachi’s “dark royal academia core” playlist wash over him (his Spotify wrapped is going to be so fucked this year), and locked in on next week’s linear algebra homework.
Just as he was trying to figure out a particularly hard matrix, he noticed in his periphery that someone had sat down across from him. Frustrated (and mildly startled) at being taken out of his flow state, he took out his earbuds to face the perpetrator, only to be faced with striking blue eyes and jet black hair. Hinata began to feel his face heat up and heart flutter before he remembered it was Kageyama - the literal king of assholery.
“You’re late.” Hinata said curtly.
“It’s not my fault you chose someplace so far away and hard to get to!”
“Shhhh. This is a library! Do you want to get reported to the principal or Mr. Koushi?” Both boys shuddered at the memory of an angry Mr. Koushi.
“Tsk. Whatever. Are we gonna study or not?” Kageyama whispered loudly.
“You’re,” the redhead checked his phone, “nine minutes late.”
“Okay, and? Why do you care?”
“Why do I care? Oh, I don’t know, how about that we’re now seven minutes behind schedule an- ” Hinata’s rant was cut short by the sound of paperboard ripping as Kageyama opened a small milk carton. Hinata blinked, momentarily at a loss for words. Judging from the amount of condensation on the container, it must have been recently bought. That, coupled with there being a vending machine down the hall…
“Hold on. Were you late because you were busy buying MILK?”
Kageyama rolled his eyes, “Yeah? So what? Jesus, you’re acting like I killed your family. If you’re so worried about time, how about you stop complaining and start tutoring me or whatever… Dumbass ” the last word, he mumbled under his breath. Hinata rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. This was going to be the longest third period of his life.
~~~~
“Okay, so I took a look at your transcripts and current grades and, thankfully, they aren’t as bad as I thought they would be.”
“Wait, who said you could look at my grades!? That’s like a total invasion of privatesy.”
“First off, it’s privacy , and second off, I had to look at your grades to see what you needed help with the most. And it looks like - let’s see,” Kageyama groaned as Hinata opened his binder and pulled out the transcript Yachi had printed out. He wasn’t technically (or legally) allowed to have access to all of Kageyama’s records but when you’re best friends with half of Karasuno’s ASB rules don’t apply to you.
“Currently, you have a 2.6 GPA. You need a minimum of a 3.0 to graduate. Based on your current grades, if you can get in the B+/A- range for just Spanish and Bio this semester, and get C+’s or above in all your classes next semester, then you should be able to graduate on time.” Hinata looked up from the athlete’s transcript only to find Kageyama with his head in his hands.
His tutee groaned, “I quit. Those classes are my worst subjects. There’s no way I can go from failing to a B+ by the end of the semester.” Hinata had never expected to hear the raven-haired boy to sound so defeated. He felt… well, kind of bad for him honestly. Being in such an academically accomplished friend group, it was easy to forget that school could be really hard for some people. Guess all of Kageyama’s genetic fortune went to his looks and not his brain.
“Hey,” Hinata used the same gentle tone he used when helping his little sister, “it’s going to be fine, I promise. My whole job is to make sure you don’t fail and graduate on time! You’re not in this alone, remember? I’m here!” Kageyama looked up from his hands and looked at Hinata as though he had hung the moon and stars. The redhead felt his face flush. Kageyama was so… so gwaaaah . He had been so focused on comforting the athlete that he completely forgot both who he was talking to and how gorgeous that person could be (when he wasn’t scowling or looking constipated that is).
The two continued to stare at one another for much longer than necessary before Hinata cleared his throat and continued, “Besides, you totally lucked out by getting me as your tutor.” He flashed his tutee a huge smile, giving him two thumbs up.
Kageyama raised his eyebrow, “How did I luck out when I got a shrimp like you as my tutor.”
Oh. He forgot. Hinata must have imagined their (oddly intimate) interaction because there’s no way in hell that Kageyama could be anything other than an asshole.
The redhead sighed, pulling out two medium sized textbooks from his backpack and slid them across the table, “Yes, you ungrateful twat, you did luck out because Bio is my best subject and hablo español muy bien . Though I can’t say I got as lucky.”
Kageyama rolled his eyes at the last comment before the rest of what Hinata said registered in his head. Confusion, disbelief, followed by bewilderment flashed across his face, “Wait, wait, wait. You speak Spanish?!
“ Sí . It’s honestly not that big of a deal.” he shrugged, “I speak three languages actually - Japanese, obviously, Portuguese, and Spanish. I’m in the midst of learning English too but it’s definitely still a work in progress.”
The athlete stared, his eyes wide and his mouth parted in disbelief. Hinata snickered. Although this was the usual reaction he received when he told others that he was a polyglot, Kageyama’s reaction was much cuter. Gahh , if only his personality were as good as his looks.
“What!? But you look so…” Kageyama gestured at Hinata’s appearance, “Japanese? Minus the red hair n stuff but I just figured one of your ancestors like banged a white guy or something?”
Hinata threw his pencil at Kageyama’s forehead, “I- Don’t be so vulgar Kageyama!”
The athlete, barely managing to dodge the incoming #2 pencil, gave his tutor an expectant look, “Well?”
Hinata rolled his eyes before explaining, “My mom is Brazilian and grew up in Brazil, whereas my dad is Japanese but was raised all over Latin America - primarily Mexico and Peru. So when I was growing up, I spoke Spanish with my dad and Portuguese with my mom at home, and Japanese at school.”
Kageyama’s brow furrowed, “Hold up - ”
Hinata sighed. He had forgotten the many questions that usually followed his explanation - the three most common (and annoying) being “ Why did your dad grow up in Latin America? ”, “ Do your parents speak Japanese? ”, or “ Do your parents understand each other?” .
Normally, he would be happy to answer but they did not have time for Hinata to explain his entire freaking life story right now.
“We really do-”
“I thought Portuguese was a type of dog?”
“-nt” The redhead’s words died on his tongue.
There was a beat of silence as the two teenagers stared at one another.
“I- Wha- Ho-
Huh
?” Hinata’s brain short circuited as his brain tried to process the words that just came out of Kageyama’s mouth.
“What?” Kageyama asked, his face deadpanned.
Holy shit. There was no helping the boy in front of him. Forget graduating highschool, Hinata wanted to know how the guy managed to graduate middle school.
Hinata stared at Kageyama incredulously. “Do you mean Pekingese ?”
“Isn’t that what I just said?”
Hinata slapped his face with a loud smack and dragged his hands down in defeat, trying to erase the last few minutes of this conversation. This was going to be a long semester.
~~~~
Following the great Pekingese/Portuguese debacle of '23, and an explanation that dragged on far longer than necessary, they finally began mapping out a study plan for the rest of the semester.
“-and here’s what you need to do on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I made sure it wasn’t too much since you have daily practices so the weekend is where you’ll be doing the most work.” Hinata pointed at the different time blocks on Kageyama’s new schedule.
Snatching the laptop from his tutor, Kageyama reviewed what was on the screen.
“This is the most unrealistic schedule I’ve ever seen! There’s no way someone can do that much work in a week!” The athlete slumped down in his chair.
Taking the computer back from the moody teenager next to him, Hinata glanced over at the color-coded google calendar they had just spent the past 30 minutes creating and gave Kageyama a deadpan stare.
“My little sister’s schedule is more packed than yours and she’s eight.” Was Hinata lying? Not fully… Yeah some of his little sister’s extracurriculars were much easier than what was on Kageyama’s schedule but he wasn’t going to tell him that.
“ Tsk .” Kageyama rolled his eyes and looked like he was about to retort when the bell let out a brrrrrng . It was time to pack up.
Both boys started shoving their things in their backpacks and headed towards the exit.
“Be on the track at 3:20pm. Don’t be late.” The raven-haired teenager turned around and started walking away.
Oh yeah. Hinata almost forgot about his end of “deal” - track practice. Ugh, when was he supposed to get his homework done now? Stupid Kageyama just had to be an athlete on a team with a late practice…
This was going to be a long year.