Chapter Text
Ever since their little misunderstanding was solved (thank you, Daichi), something else switched between Kageyama and Hinata; they feel more comfortable around each other, their quicks connect better, and their chemistry got better both inside and outside the court. Kageyama has especially gotten into the habit of staring at Hinata whenever the other can’t see him. Studying the way his hair looks unbrushed and poofy no matter how many times Hinata combs it with his finger and tries to flat it down, Tobio has been getting more familiar with how soft it feels under his hand, even if he only touches it for a few seconds whenever he smacks Hinata on the head.
The first thing Hinata noticed about Kageyama was obviously his height, how he almost broke his neck when trying to look up at his face. He also notices how fast Kageyama walks, perks of having long legs, not that Shoyo would know much about that, when they first started walking together to their classroom from the gym, Hinata had to speed up to not be left behind by the black haired guy; however, he slowly stopped doing that, not because he didn’t want to walk next to Kageyama, but because for some reason, Kageyama didn’t walk as fast anymore, instead he matched Hinata’s walking pace,
Kageyama also notices that Shoyo has very subtle freckles; he only sees them whenever Hinata decides to nap during their lunch period, and the window lets the light in and illuminates Hinata’s face, revealing the light brown spots on the bridge of his nose.
Hinata always has a flushed look on his face; it honestly annoys him sometimes, but there’s not much he can do about it; he had it even as a kid, in cold weather, hot weather, he does a little physical activity, and his cheeks are already red. This fact might be the reason that whenever Kageyama randomly brushes around him, he never thinks much of it; he probably has the same problem. Shoyo does think of why Kageyama stares at him so much, it’s not that it bothers him, and he gets used to it the more Tobio does it, and if he’s being totally honest, he finds it a little bit funny how startled Kageyama gets when Hinata returns the stare.
Kageyama also stares at Hinata’s hands, and smiles when he notices that his nails don’t looked chipped and uneven anymore, like he stopped biting them and started to actually take care of them, which reminds him of the why Hinata started doing that, so he blushes and looks away, hoping no one around him is a mind reader.
Hinata also likes how Kageyama’s hair looks when practice finishes late and it’s dark outside, his black hair almost blending with the night sky if it wasn’t for the moon shining softly down on them. The way Tobio’s bangs lightly stick to his forehead because of the sweat, and Hinata simply stares at the taller guy’s hands as he moves them away from his eyes because they keep poking his eyes. Shoyo wonders why he doesn’t just cut them shorter if they bother him as much.
They both notice the changes their routine goes through. Ever since discovering their houses are in the same direction, Kageyama started waking up earlier, on the slight chance of catching Hinata on his way to school, but it fails the first few days, until he gets lucky. The sun is barely rising, the blue of the night sky mixing perfectly with the orange of sunlight peaking on the horizon, and Kageyama is barely walking out of his house, feet slightly dragging due to how tired he is, still not used to getting up earlier. He’s locking the door when he hears a familiar voice yell his name, his head whips around in time to see Hinata getting off his bike, smiling at him so bright Kageyama thinks the sun is finally out. “This is so weird! I never see you this early in the morning,” the redhead drags his bike to finally stand next to Kageyama. “If I’d known, we would’ve been walking together a long time ago!”
“I’ve only started waking up earlier recently… I like getting earlier to practice to… stretch and all.” Kageyama tries to sound casual, luckily, the redhead is too busy being excited about getting a walking partner to notice.
“That’s cheating! I’d like to get to practice earlier but I need to take my little sister to school, and her school it’s on the opposite side of Karasuno so we need to get up even earlier, but she doesn’t really like being at school too early so she has forbidden me from waking her up before her alarm” Shoyo sighs, still dragging the bike at his side.
“What about your mom? Can’t she take her?” Kageyama asks, trying not to panic at their closeness. They bump into each other every once in a while, making their knuckles brush softly. Kageyama wants to reach, remembering how Hinata’s hand felt in his the first and last time he held it. After the talk he had with Suga after the Aoba game, Kageyama realized it’s not normal to want to hold a friend’s hand, or sniff his hair, unless you want that person to be more than your friend. The though makes his face heat up, Kageyama’s still not used to having friend, much less one he wants to hug and keep close at all times, so he doesn’t know what to do with this information, or how to stop feeling whatever sensation he feels on his stomach anytime the red head is near.
“She works night shifts most of the time, so I try to let her rest as much as possible." Hinata simply shrugs, Kageyama doesn’t say much else, they’re almost at school now anyway. After a few seconds of silence, Hinata starts speaking again, “Oh, I’m so excited for the next practice game, I packed my bag already, it’s just waiting in my room now.” Kageyama gasps at that, looking down at the redhead, “Why didn’t I think of that!? That would save more time. I was planning on doing it the night before, but doing it now would save so much time, I could use it to run a little…”
Kageyama is now rambling to himself, Shoyo simply stares at him with a smile, they’re basically at school now, he wishes the walk here took longer, as much fun as he has arguing with the taller guy he also enjoys the moments where their conversations are normal, the way they almost whisper instead of talking regularly, as if they don’t want to let anyone else in on their conversation. He’s surprised at how close the two have gotten in such little time, something that seemed impossible just a few months ago, when he thought that Kageyama was another boss he had to defeat in order to be better at volleyball. He locks his bike right outside the school gates, and they walk to the gym, both giddy with the excitement of playing volleyball.
.
⋅─── /ᐠ - ˕ -マ ───⋅
Kageyama should know better than to trust the weather app when Japan is in its rainy season. This morning his phone said it would be a sunny day, but here he is now, halfway to his house when the rain starts pouring down, he's about to start running when he hears his name being yelled. He turns around to see Hinata riding his bike towards him “hop on wetyama! You can't be getting sick now” Kageyama rolls his eyes at the nickname but decides to ignore it for now and get on the back of Hinata’s bike.
“Wait, idiot. Wouldn't it be better if I pedal? You're going to drop us both” Hinata simply ignores him and starts pedaling again, Kageyama will never say it out loud but he's impressed at the shorter guy for being able to maintain balance even with someone on the back.
“Just hold on to me scaredyama, we're not that far away from your house anyways” The taller one simply rolls his eyes but does as Hinata said, and places both of his hands on the other's shoulders, he bends his back a little, taking advantage of his height and covering Hinata from getting even wetter, the back of his shirt is already soaked anyways.
They finally reach Kageyama’s house and before Hinata can even speak, Tobio is already dragging him inside the door, bike forgotten outside. “Wait, what are you doing? I have to get home before the rain gets worse” Hinata complains but still let's himself be guided inside. Kageyama simply ignores him and leaves him standing by the door, disappearing down a hallway. Hinata simply stands, wet hair dripping in the floor, he might as well take off his shoes so they dry a little. Kageyama comes back holding two towels, throwing one to the redhead.
“Just wait here ‘til the rain stops. It's going to be soon anyways so… you live a little far from here, right? Unless you don't want to then you can go but, you can if you want” Kageyama is basically mumbling and Hinata thinks it's a miracle that he can understand whatever the tall guy is saying.
“That’d be nice Kags, thank you…” Hinata takes the towel and starts drying himself. “mom's picking up my little sister so I don't really have to be home anytime soon” The redhead smiles.
“We can watch some games… I have the recordings of the Brazil game from last week, the TV is in my room.” Hinata perks at this, and after drying himself he follows Kageyama down the hallway. Kageyama's room is exactly what he imagined it would be, very clean and organized, except for his desk and a volleyball rolling around the room.
Hinata sits on the floor in front of the bed while Kageyama sets up the video, if you would've told him last year that he'd be at the King of the court’s room he'd have called you crazy and biked away from you. It still kind of feels unreal, Hinata looks out the window and thanks the rain. Kageyama presses play and moves to sit next to Hinata, the way their shoulders brush slightly reminding him of their walk to school in the morning, how he can feel the heat radiating off Hinata's body, even centimeters apart.
Feeling brave, Kageyama inches closer, their arms now fully touching. Hinata stills, eyes glued to the screen, he thinks of the stray cat by his house that he feeds sometimes, how it rubs against his legs but hisses and runs away when he tries to pet it, Kageyama might not be so different from the little kitty, so Hinata stays still, trying to not make any sudden movements that might scare the stray Kageyama away, he smiles to himself at the comparison.
Hinata is an impatient person though, and it's not like Kageyama has anywhere to run now, so he lowers his head until it's resting on the side of Kageyama's arm, his little revenge for leaving him alone in the bus the other night “I'm getting a sense of deja vu right now, though last time we were in this position you left me on a bus by myself, and didn't even bother waking me up” Shoyo’s tone is teasing, and he raises his head to stare at the side of Kageyama's face, who's taking a turn on gluing his eyes to the TV to ignore the situation. “Y'know, Suga talked to me the other day, something about if I needed to talk to him about anything, like say… having a crush on one of my teammates, I could always go to him for it. I was wondering where that came from. Though I guess he's way more perceptive than I gave him credit for”
This is what gets Kageyama to finally look at him, “Wait, what? You have a crush on someone on the team” his voice sounds a little panicked, and Hinata can't help but laugh at it. “Stop laughing, you idiot! Answer the question” Hinata keeps giggling for a few seconds before calming down and going back to staring at kageyama “I do!” He says with a smile, inching his face closer to the dark-haired boy “and guess what? You do too” Kageyama blushes at this, mouth opening to start making excuses, or denying, but nothing comes out. He kinda looks like a fish… Tobiuo.
“Don't worry, your crush likes you back. Though he would also appreciate it if you didn't ignore him if you ever hold his hand again, that kinda hurt” Hinata is just enjoying watching Kageyama's face turn a deeper shade of red.
“I don't know what you're talking about” Tobio finally stops resetting and finally speaks, though he sounds unsure.
“It's true that we're only smart for volleyball, but don't worry, I'll help you figure out” Hinata reaches a hand forward, cupping one of Hinata's cheek, the other closes his eyes for a second, so quick that it might've been a blink if not for him moving closer to the hand on his face. Hinata hesitates before continuing, he's being too straight forward and if anything goes wrong he's blaming himself for listening to Tanaka and Noya’s dating advice. (The mentioned seniors want to trademark the phrases said in the last few paragraphs, thank you).
They're both just looking at each other right now, it can't get any more embarrassing than this, so Kageyama takes advantage of the situation to examine Hinata's eyes, the little yellow spots on his pupil that look like stars, and the green rings that surround it.
“Who are you and what did you do to my idiot?” Kageyama still sounds a little nervous, an unsure smile on his face. “You sound like a bachelor on a reality show” he laughs softly, it's Hinata's turn to blush now.
“Too much?” the red head bites his lip lightly, the motion making Kageyama bring his attention to the redhead’s mouth.
“Maybe a little” Kageyama laughs “for a second it sounded like Tanaka was flirting with me” an image of the senior flashes in the setters mind, that one time he and Nishinoya were practicing their kissing abilities with their hands to ‘impress Kyoko’ when one of them finally got to kiss her, goosebumps, he kind of feels bad for the girl, he shakes his head to forget about the memory, though the thought of kissing doesn’t quite really leave his mind. Tobio moves his hand to lay on top of Hinata’s, are they really going to do this? Besides witnessing whatever his seniors were doing that one time, and pecks his parents gave each other when leaving to work, the only other time Kageyama saw a kiss up close was that one time Oikawa’s girlfriend came to visit him at one of their practices, gross.
Kageyama was zoned out, Hinata wished he could read his mind to see what he was thinking, the setter lips were pursed now, whatever he was thinking was definitely not helping the move. Hinata can be called many things but patient is not one of them, so after gaining back the courage he lost after being caught using Tanaka’s flirting phrases, he launches himself forward trying to catch the taller boy’s lips, their mouths connect, their teeth bumping with the force. He pulls away, opening his mouth to apologize for the action, when a hand flies to his face, fingers digging into his cheeks, and before he can react Kageyama’s mouth is on his again, this time softer, still a little awkward due their inexperience but sweet nonetheless.
They separate after a few seconds, faces flushed. There’s a comfortable silence that stretches for a minute, before the middle blocker starts laughing “I think this counts as another win on my name, I kissed you first”
“Pfft, as if. That was a murder attempt, you almost knocked me over! I on the other side did kiss you, so erase that tally off your list because our first kiss win goes to me” The setter smiles at Hinata smugly, making the redhead gasp in mock offense, before tackling the setter on the floor, causing him to land on his back, Hinata takes advantage of their position to kiss the setter a second time, a quick peck before getting of him.
“Fine” Hinata says, trying to resist a smile “but i get the win for our second kiss, and…” he stops talking to kiss the setter once again.
“Our third”
And another kiss.
“And fourth”
And another kiss.
“And fifth”
“That’s cheating! You idiot” Kageyama catches Hinata’s face before the redhead kisses him again, and holds it in place, raising his head off the floor to kiss the middle blocker instead “There, the sixth one goes to me”.