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Hinata can't sleep. It's 2 am, he's got thoughts zooming around as fast as the cars zipping past his window. Nothing in particular is bothering him, his mind just gets like this sometimes. Times like this, sitting in the lonely dark, he feels like the entire world might swallow him alive. Hinata wants, no, he needs to reach out. He sits straight up, grabbing his phone. Hinata dials the number that comes to his mind, waits with bated breath for Sugawara to pick up.
"Shouyou?" comes a voice at the other end of the line.
"Yeah. It's me," Hinata says into the phone, in a voice not quite soft enough to be a whisper. "Did I wake you up? Sorry."
"No, no, I was already up." Sugawara says. Hinata can't tell if he is lying. There are a thousand things Sugawara could be saying now, like who the fuck calls at 2 am and why didn't you just text me like a normal person and why do you always do this but the older boy doesn't say that. Instead he asks Hinata what his day has been like, what's going on with the team, how are Kageyama and Hinata coping as captain and vice captain? Before he knows it, Hinata is giving Sugawara a play by play breakdown of everything that happened today.
He sits on the edge of his desk, staring out the window at the passing headlights on the road below. He talks into the phone, his voice filling up the air. "...and then the first year was like, 'Kageyama-san isn't going to like this' and I said 'yeah'..."
"Sounds like you have your hands full," Sugawara says with a hint of amusement.
"Yeah, for sure. The kids are a pain in the ass but...they're alright."
"Hmm," Sugawara says and Hinata can hear the smile in his voice. "Reminds me of someone."
"Hey, we weren't THAT annoying!"
"I beg to differ. Remember how you and Tobio almost got kicked off the team because you were fighting?"
"Oh, yeah." Hinata smiles, thinking about the old days. They still argue pretty regularly, but neither wants to strangle the other. It's hard to believe it'll all end soon. Their last year. Has Hinata gotten what he'd wanted out of high school? Has he fulfilled his sixteen-year-old self's dreams?
"Shouyou?"
"Hmm?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"I was just thinking, am I really the ace?"
"What?"
"I mean," Hinata tenses up, "I make a lot of kills, but I don't do as many as that angry-looking ace from Seijoh used to do, or Asahi-san used to do, I don't have all that power, I just..." He shrugs. "I don't."
"Don't compare yourself to other people, Shouyou." Sugawara says.
"But th--"
"So what if they have more power? You have your own strengths. Speed. Stamina. And you know what I think? In a way, you've always been an ace." He takes a deep breath. "Asahi was my ace but you've always been Kageyama's ace. Who does Kageyama prefer to toss to, at the last moment, when it's the match point? You."
Hinata sits with his mouth open, his hand clutching his T-shirt in front of his heart. He feels light inside, like some weight he didn't know was there has been taken off his chest. Hinata flops back on his bed and looks at the ceiling. Suga always knows the right thing to say.
"Shouyou?"
Hinata yawns loudly. "Yeah?"
"Go to bed," Sugawara says affectionately.
"I am in bed!" Hinata closes and opens his eyes. "Y-you're coming to see our game on Saturday, right?"
"Yes. Goodnight, Shouyou."
"Night." Hinata hangs up and sinks into his pillows with a blissful sigh.