Chapter Text
The sound of high heels click-clacking on the hard wood floor was headed towards Hinata's bedroom door, and was followed by two hard knocks.
"Shoyo? I'm coming in," Hinata's mother said, pushing open the door and entering her son's room.
Hinata, sprawled across his bed, glanced up from his phone. "Huh?"
"I have a work event tonight, so I want you to put on some more suitable clothing," she said, gesturing to Hinata's old gym shorts and over sized t-shirt, "then I want you to come out into the living room to greet the babysitter when he gets here."
Hinata scrambled up immediately. "What? Babysitter? I'm sixteen! That's old enough to look after Natsu for a few hours by myself!"
She huffed. "The babysitter isn't for Natsu. He's for you. Or do I need to remind you about the volleyball shaped hole you put in the window the last time I left you alone?"
Hinata turned bright red. "I wouldn't- I won't- I don't need a-,"
"Don't argue with me Shoyo; start getting changed. He's going to be here soon," she said, with an air of finality as she closed the door behind her.
As he changed into jeans and a slightly better fitting tee shirt, Hinata grumbled about having a babysitter at sixteen. He snatched his phone up off the bed and stomped into the living room. Natsu was already sitting criss cross apple sauce in front of the living room table, coloring, while their mother was doing something in the kitchen.
"Whacha colorin' Natsu?" he asked, switching into Big Brother Mode and dropping down to sit on the floor next to her.
"Princess Atemi!" Hinata leaned over and inspected the princess coloring page that had been completely filled in with red crayon.
"She looks very pretty."
She beamed. "Thanks!"
Hinata turned back to his phone and texted Kageyama.
To Kageyama:
my mom hired a babysitter??? for me? :0 >:(
Minutes ticked by as Hinata scrolled through Twitter, and Natsu colored beside him. There was a heavy knock at the door; Hinata jumped.
"Mom, he's here!" Hinata yelled. She rushed out of the kitchen and hurriedly opened the door to greet the figure behind it.
“Hello,” she said bowing. Hinata strained his neck to see what he looked like, but she was blocking the view.
“Thank you so much for babysitting tonight, especially since I called you so last minute.”
“Of course,” he said. The guy's voice sounded low...and kind of familiar?
His mother moved out of the way to let him in but Hinata still couldn't see him. He was still half hidden behind the wall that connected the living room to the foyer. It sounded like he was taking off his shoes.
“Pardon the intrusion,” he said. Hinata's brow furrowed.
That voice...it really sounded like...but there was no way-. They both came into the living room and Hinata finally saw him properly.
He inhaled sharply, freezing in place. Japan? Their babysitter was Japan?
Ushijima's eyes flitted across the room and landed on Hinata and Natsu. He seemed unfazed, greeting them with a normal bow. Natsu stood up, also unfazed, and Hinata had to scramble to his feet to bow with her.
“Alright. Well, dinner is already in the donabe, my number is one on the fridge-here, I'll show you where, and some basic rules...," she continued to talk as they headed to the kitchen and Natsu went back to coloring, but Hinata couldn't focus on anything other than Ushijima.
Ushijima. Ushijima inside of his house. Ushijima as his babysitter. Why? Why did it have to be him? A flood of images of how the rest of their night was going to go flashed through Hinata's head, all of them a million times worse than one thousand diving receives. Ushijima couldn't murder him in revenge with Natsu there, right? His mom had taught her how to call 119, didn't she? Ushijima and his mom walked back out of the kitchen.
“Alright then, I think that's pretty much everything! I'll probably be home around ten, is that okay?”
Ushijima nodded. Hinata's mom hurried to the table and leaned down to give Natsu (who was starting at Ushijima in wonder) a kiss on the cheek, then blew Hinata a kiss and was out the door with one last 'You two be good!'.
And then it was just the three of them. For a split second, it seemed like they were all observing each other. In their small living room, Ushijima looked even bigger than he did on the court, yet surprisingly less scary. His broad shoulders and impressive height made him look like a fairytale prince from Natsu's coloring book. Or an old-timey lumberjack. Maybe both. Ushijima was dressed casually in faded jeans and a long sleeved, red flannel shirt, with a black backpack slung across both shoulders. Still, as Hinata stared at Ushijima in shock, his heart pounded away. Just because he looked like a normal, (though huge) person, that didn't mean he didn't have a lumberjack ax in his backpack for murder-y purposes.
Ushijima broke the silence first. “Good evening Hinata family. I am Ushijima Wakatoshi and I will be your babysitter for the evening.”
Hinata blinked. He didn't sound mad. Hinata said nothing as he watched Ushijima slip his backpack off his shoulders and set it against the wall.
Natsu was still staring. “Why are you too much tall? Did you drink too much milk as a kid?”
He frowned, looking a little taken aback. Walking over and kneeling down to her level, he ignored her question and asked, “What activities would you like to do tonight?”
“Act-tivities? Uhmm... I wanna watch cartoons in my room!” she said.
“Hinata-san said you were allowed to watch 30 minutes of cartoons tonight, are you sure it's wise to use all that time immediately? Timing is the key to success,” he said, with a stone cold face.
Hinata snapped out of his trance and clapped his hand over his mouth, trying to stifle his laughter. Was he for real?
She tilted her head. “Yes?”
“Okay then.” Natsu gave him another confused look and ran off to her room; Ushijima immediately pulled out his phone to set a timer for thirty minutes.
“H-hey! Wait a second! Why didn't you ask what I wanted to do?”
Ushijima turned his head; his intense olive green eyes freezing Hinata in his place again. Nevermind, he's waaay scarier up close, Hinata thought to himself.
“Since you are failing English, Hinata-san has requested that you do your homework with my assistance. Please go get it.”
Hinata's mouth popped open again. Ushijima? Help him? With homework? In real life? Dazed, he mumbled something back and hesitantly got up. Going into his room, Hinata rifled through his book bag and dug out his English homework and a pencil. Of all the possible babysitters in Japan, why did it have to be Japan? No, actually, why did the windows in their house have to be made with what was apparently the weakest glass in the world?
When he returned to the living room, Ushijima was sitting in Natsu's spot, looking bored on his phone. Hinata felt like he wandered into a parallel world. Why the hell was Ushijima sitting in his living room, making his coffee table look like doll furniture? He shuffled over to Ushijima and sat down, carefully, like Ushijima was going to attack him.
“Okay, you may begin. Ask me to clarify anything you don't understand.”
“Er...sure?”
Facing forward, he shuffled around in his spot a little; it was suddenly really itchy. He tried reading the first few sentences, then put the paper back down on the table and smoothed it out, figuring that it wasn't any good if it was wrinkled. He shifted around again, maybe it would be less itchy if all his weight was on his right side? After all, he was right handed...
I wonder why Japan looks and talks so stiff? Maybe he's nervous too?, Hinata thought to himself.
After tapping his pencil on the table for a few minutes while he tried to read the material, he managed to put his pencil to the paper. A few minutes later, Hinata thought he was doing pretty well, but Ushijima broke his concentration, sighing deeply.
“Why aren’t you doing your work?”
“Uwah? I-I'm doing it!” he said, straightening up.
“Drawing volleyballs on your homework is not 'doing it'.”
“Those are meat buns! And...uhm...I was gonna do it eventually...I was just...warming up a little?” Ushijima narrowed his eyes; Hinata really, really wanted someone to hide behind. Even Natsu would work.
“You don't warm up before doing homework. You just do it.” Hinata pouted.
“But I don’t understand this…,”
“Oh.” Ushijima took the paper out of his hand, careful not to bend it. “What are you not understanding? The task is to read the passage and answer questions about it.”
“I know that! I…I understand what most of the words mean by themselves, but together…they get all jumbly.”
“I see. Read the passage aloud then. It will help you understand it.”
Hinata looked at him blankly but took the paper back from him anyways. There was no way. He was not going to read in front of Ushijima from Shiratorizawa high school! No fricking way!
Ushijima narrowed his eyes again, waiting. Hinata was opening his mouth. It was happening.
“Onceuponatime…” he muttered.
“Enunciate your words.”
“Once...upon...a...time...,”
“Louder,”
“ONCE UPON A TIME,” Hinata yelled, making Ushijima flinch.
The paper was snatched from his hands. “No. Nevermind. I’ll read it. You listen instead.”
Hinata settled back up against the couch, beaming. He didn’t expect to get out of that so easily. Ushijima cleared his throat and began reading. “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...,”
In Hinata's defense, he really did try to pay attention to the story. But it wasn't his fault that Ushijima's voice was deep and smooth and it made Hinata sleepy. By the time Ushijima was done reading, Hinata wasn't sure if the story was about a girl named Cinderella, who was sad because she couldn't go to the ball, or a girl who was sad because she couldn't play volleyball in such a puffy dress. It was probably that first one, though.
“Would you like me to read you the questions too?”
“Yeah!”
When he was done, there were no more ways to procrastinate his homework, so he struggled through a few questions, his eyes drifting to the volleyball net outside every few minutes. Halfway through, Hinata started rocking back and forth and bouncing up and down at the same time. Ushijima sighed, suddenly putting his oversized hand on Hinata's small shoulder and pushing him down.
“Eck!”
“Where's all the concentration you had during our match?”
Hinata froze. The match? Oh-no, was this when all the revenge-murder stuff happened? While Natsu was obliviously watching cartoons in the other room? Hinata nervously looked up at Ushijima, but all he saw was an amused smirk on his face.
“I-uh, I can only focus like that on volleyball. And meat buns.”
“Meat buns?”
“Yeah! Weeell, Tamago Kake Gohan is actually my favorite food, but meat buns are the coolest cause if I work on it, I can fit a whole one inside of my mouth!” Ushijima looked irritated for a second, then his face went blank again.
“Okay then. If you get an A on your English homework, I'll buy you a meat bun next time.”
Hinata tilted his head. What? Why would Ushijima buy Hinata something with his own money? And how would he even know what grade Hinata got, anyways? Still...he seemed dead serious, so Hinata, with the thought of a free meat bun giving him new energy, went back to work. By the time he was finishing the last question, the thirty minute alarm went on off. Ushijima stood up to go get Natsu and Hinata put his homework away. Then, he headed back to the couch with his phone to text Kageyama some more.
To Kageyama:
you'll never guess who my babysitter is!!!
Kageyama responded a few minutes later.
From Kageyama:
I can't believe you still need a babysitter. Though I probably should have assumed.
Hinata decided to ignore that last remark, but only because there were more important things at hand.
To Kageyama:
it's Japan! HE'S HERE IN MY HOUSE!!!
Natsu ran out of her room and Ushijima followed her out; she went back to coloring at the table and he disappeared in the kitchen.
From Kageyama:
Seriously?? That's so weird. What's he like in person?
To Kageyama:
he's actually kinda nice! and scary! he helped me with my homework!!!
When Ushijima came back into the living room, Natsu looked at him, like she wanted to say something. Instead she got this look on her face like a light bulb went off above her head. Immediately abandoning her coloring book, she ran over to him. She bounced up and down on her tip toes, chanting “Piggy back ride, piggy back ride!”. Ushijima was stunned into being still for a second.
“Uhoooh, Natsu, don't-,”
To Hinata's surprise, Ushijima slowly knelt down. Natsu squealed in delight and ran around to climb on his back. Hinata's mouth dropped open for the umpteenth time that night. Then, Ushijima stood up again, even slower than he had knelt down even though that wasn't even possible, and he lumbered back into the kitchen. The floor boards creaked under his weight. Hinata watched in confusion and fascination as Ushijima milled around their house a few times. Natsu was kicking her feet up and hitting his sides with her heels while yelling something in English that sounded like 'musssh, musssh!', but Ushijima said nothing in response as he continued walking in and out of rooms like he was an automated Sim. Hinata was starting to think Kageyama threw a volleyball too hard at his face, and in reality, he was actually face down on the gym floor. The scene in front of him just...couldn't be real life. When he knelt down again, Natsu slid off his back, ran back into the living room, and was coloring again within seconds. Ushijima disappeared into the kitchen again. As for Hinata, well, he just sat there, stunned. Instinctively, he reached for his phone to tell Kageyama, but realized that Kageyama probably wouldn't believe him. Would anyone? Maybe Hinata didn't even believe Hinata either. After all, this was Japan he was talking about.
Before Hinata could think about it any more, Ushijima re-emerged from the kitchen.
"Our next activity should be a game," he stated, towering over the both of them.
"What kind of game?" Natsu asked, but it was clear she was already in.
He thought for a moment. "The best game for a new group of people to play is a game that combines trust exercises with team work building exercises. What games like that do you have?"
Hinata shifted. "Hhhuhhhm,...we have Gomoku, and uh, Menko cards,” when he said that, a mysterious blush appeared on Ushijima's face, “ and an American game called "Twister". I've never played that one before though, so I don't know how uhm, team work-y it is."
“There's only one way to find out. Let's play Twister.”
♥ ♥ ♥
Hinata sent Natsu to go dig Twister out of her jam packed closet, a decision he immediately regretted, because it left him alone with Ushijima. Hinata stared at him, trying to be discreet but failing. He looked even more intimidating up close. His features looked like they were carved out of marble, but like, a lot of marble. It probably took all the marble in Greece to make just his shoulders. Or his jaw-line, which looked sharp enough to kill an ace. Ushijima didn't look at him; he didn't say anything either. A thought occurred to Hinata.
"Do you even have Menko cards?"
Ushijima's mysterious blush reappeared."Yes."
"Really? That's so cool! How many do you have? Are you really good? What kind do you have?"
Ushijima narrowed his eyes, but he was looking down at the floor instead of Hinata. Before he could respond, Natsu rushed back in with her arms full of Twister. Hinata and Natsu took out the mat and spread it out while Ushijima read the instructions. “Twister is a physical game of skill...,”.
“...The first person to fall over or let their elbows or knees touch the ground losses,” he finished, folding the instructions back up.
“I wanna be the one who spins the spinner!” Natsu cheered, bounding over to the box and snatching the spinner out before anyone even had time to respond.
Ushijima nodded, then looked at the mat intensely, like it was a chess board. “Let's begin,” he said, after a few seconds.
Ushijima and Hinata stood side by side at the end of the mat; Ushijima with his eyebrows knitted in concentration and Hinata wondering what he could possibly be seeing. All he could see the were the circles. They were colorful. And they were circles. That was the end of interesting things about them. Natsu spun the spinner and called out in her sing-song voice, “Right foot, green!”. They both shuffled onto the mat so that one foot was on a green circle; they ended up facing each other. Hinata froze in place as soon as he got to the circle, thinking, 'maybe standing so close to Ushijima was a bad idea.'.
“Left hand, blue!”
Hinata jumped, then eyed the mat nervously, as the blue dots were two rows over. He went to turn around but-
“Heyyy! No turning Sho! You gotta get to the dot in the position you started in!”
“Mhmm,” Hinata sighed. Ushijima looked at him expectantly. Why was he doing that? It was not making him feel less nervous and-oh. He couldn't move until Hinata did, since Hinata was in front of him. Whoops. Reluctantly, he crouched down and carefully extended his left hand behind him to the blue circle, which left him belly up, like he was a wobbly little kid table. Next, Ushijima mirrored him, except his hand was placed on the circle right above Hinata's, with his back pointed towards the ceiling. If Hinata thought that playing against Ushijima on a volleyball court was intimidating, then having him hovering right above him was a whole different level. They were way too close to each other; though they weren't actually touching each other, Ushijima was basically on top of him and tangled up in him. Ushijima's face was inches from his own, and he was staring at Hinata. Because he was a jerk. Or because there was no where else to look. No, it was definitely that first thing. Wow, his eyes were really, really green. His heart started beating hard-probably because he didn't want to lose?
The whosh whosh whosh of the spinner went off again and Natsu called out “Right hand, yellow!”.
“Nngh,” Hinata whined, sliding his right hand over to the upper most yellow circle. His left arm and right leg were already burning and his thudding heart was not helping the situation. Ushijima moved effortlessly though, as he took the circle below his, putting his head near the side of Hinata's neck.
Hinata bit his lip. Ushijima's breath on his neck made him feel even more like he was going to lose which is why his heart started to pound harder and his face was starting to get too hot. That had to be some kind of cheating, right? Hinata thought telling Ushijima to stop breathing was a little weird though, so instead he said, “Natsu, hurry up and spin the thingy again!”
“Okay!” Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, “Left hand, red!”
Hinata turned his head to look for the red circles.“Nooo! Not left hand red! That's not even-I'm not glitter putty!” he wailed, nervously eying the line of red circles, which was yet another row over. Ushijima cracked a small smile. Suddenly the circles were the last thing on his mind because- wait! What was that? Did he really just?
It occurred to Hinata that he'd never seen Ushijima smile before.
“You aren't glitter putty. I think you're just short.” Natsu said, also smiling.
Hinata gritted his teeth. Oh right, he was suppose to be moving. Begrudgingly, he started to slide his hand in that direction. On the up side, this lowered his body farther from Ushijima and his heart started to give him a tiny break. On the other hand, his right leg was shaking hard from the prolonged holding-up-of-Hinata's-whole-body it was doing, and twisting his torso to desperately grasp for the red circle was not helping.
“Whaaha,” Hinata cried suddenly, as his sweaty palm slipped on the mat and his legs slid out from under him. His reflexes took over and he threw his arm around Ushijima's neck to keep from falling. Unfortunately, Ushijima wasn't a balanced as he looked, because the sudden weight immediately collapsed him on top of Hinata.
It took Hinata a second to register what had just happened. The very first thing that Hinata noticed was that he was no longer breathing. The second thing he noticed was that he was breathing, but probably not for long, as he was being suffocated by a body pillow filled with bricks, that smelled pleasantly like farm land. Oh, wait. That was Ushijima.
Oh! Wait! That was Ushijima!
He was flailing immediately (although he couldn't move much), he yelled something like “hey!” thought it came out a lot more like “mmph!”. Ushijima got off of him quickly. He also seemed confused or...shocked? Hinata couldn't read his face.
“I-I'm sorry!” Hinata spluttered when he got his breath back.
“It's fine.”
Natsu, shocked into silence for only a second, thought the whole thing was just hysterical. The spinner fell out of her hands as she doubled over with laughter.
“Don't laugh! I almost died!” Hinata wheezed at her. He was secretly glad for the distraction though, so he didn't have to really think about what just happened.
“Oh. I'm sorry.” Ushijima said solemnly. He stood up and started to smooth out the mat.
“Uhm...oh. Actually...I didn't mean-,” Hinata said, jumping off the mat so he wasn't in the way.
“Losing and dying aren't the same Shou,” Natsu said through her laughter.
“Hey,-he didn't-that was definitely a tie!”
“Haha. No way! Anyways, we should play again! Ushijima won so fast! I wanna play again!”
Ushijima looked at Hinata. “If you want to.”
Uggh. Two against one. “Sure...but hey, Natsu! Don't be selfish! Let Ushijima run the spinner this time!”
♥ ♥ ♥
20 rounds on Twister later and Hinata still hadn't won a single time. Ushijima was too big for any color/body part combination to be a struggle for him, and Natsu was surprisingly flexible. Well that, and also Ushijima always found a discreet, convincing way to let her win after putting up a 'good fight'. Thankfully, a loud hissing sound came from the donabe in the kitchen and Ushijima untangled himself from Hinata, who was about to lose his 21st round. While he took care of that, Hinata and Natsu put Twister away. Or rather they tried to; Hinata's arms were permanently out of order and Natsu just wanted to spin the spinner more. Still, eventually it got put away and they all settled at the kitchen table with a bowl in front of them. Hinata laughed to himself as he watched Ushijima ladle hot pot into each of their bowls; it was too late in the year for hot pot but it was the best thing his mom knew how to make and therefore the only thing they were allowed to have for dinner when there were guests.
“Itadakimasu,” they said in unison.
Cautiously, Hinata raised a spoon to his lips, waiting for Ushijima to eat some first to make sure it wasn't poisoned. Ushijima rose an eyebrow at Hinata, who was watching him not-so-discreetly, but ate a spoonful anyways. A few seconds after swallowing, he seemed fine. Still...maybe he just poisoned Hinata's? Actually, that seemed kinda unlikely to Hinata, since he seemed to get along with Natsu and Natsu would probably be really scared if Hinata collapsed right in front of her...it was probably safe to eat then. He took a hesitant sip. It didn't taste like poison. It tasted good. Natsu and Ushijima ate quietly, blowing on their spoonfuls of hot pot before taking a bite, but Hinata charged ahead full force, alternating between shoveling down spoonfuls and gasping as hot broth splashed the roof of his mouth.
“Don't do that, Hinata,” Ushijima said, sounding concerned.
“Whym nmot?” he asked, mouth full.
“You're going to burn your tongue.”
Natsu giggled and decidedly blew on her spoonful.
“Don't care! 'S too good to shtop!”
Ushijima raised an eyebrow but shrugged. “Hinata-san is a good cook. I wouldn't have put coconut milk in hot pot, but it's good.”
Hinata nodded, but paused when he thought about what Ushijima said. “Eh? You cook too?”
“Yeah.” Ushijima shrugged again, before taking another sip.
Suddenly overcome with curiosity, and the bizarre mental image of Ushijima in an apron, Hinata forgot about his food. “You really, really know how to cook? But why?”
Ushijima stared at him, making him regret saying anything. “When plants are not properly nourished with correct nutrients like water and sun light, they wither and die. Humans are no different.”
They were both silent for a second. “Uoohoh. Okay,” Hinata said, quickly going back to eating.
The whole table ate in silence for a few minutes after that, a heaviness hanging in the air. Hinata mulled over 'withering and dying' as he chewed. That was a very serious reason for doing something, it kind of made Hinata want to laugh. Why was that surprising to him? If it was Ushijima, he probably learned to be the best cook in the world just because.
“Can you teach me how to cook sometime? I can't cook at all, even a little, and I don't wanna wither and die before nationals so...,”
Hinata said absentmindedly, with Natsu giggling in agreement. Ushijima looked startled. Then, after a second or two, his face twisted into a sort of confused, yet broad smile that made his olive colored eyes light up like traffic lights. Hinata almost dropped his spoon. Ushijima could smile? Ushijima could smile like that? At him?
Another few seconds passed. “Yeah. I guess I could.”
Hinata made some noise in agreement and quickly went back to eating. Although, for some reason, he wasn't really tasting the food anymore.
After dinner, Ushijima turned down Hinata's offer to help clean up and sent both of them to go brush their teeth and put on pajamas. Hinata laughed to himself as he got ready for bed; it was strange to hear someone so scary say 'pajamas'. By the time Hinata walked back out into the hallway he could hear Ushijima reading Natsu one of her favorite books in her room. Once he was back in the living room, he grabbed his phone and sent another text to Kageyama.
To Kageyama:
he's really good with kids!!! 0.0
Hinata played The Legendary Blacksmith on his phone until heavy footsteps wandered out and stopped in front of him.
“It is time for you to go to bed as well, Hinata.” Ushijima said, looming over him.
Hinata jumped up. “Ha? I-It's 8:30!”
He shrugged.“Hinata-san said that 8:30 was the time for bed.”
“For Natsu? I'm sixteen, I can stay up later! Much later!”
Ushijima gazed down at him, like he was trying to mind-control him into complying without resistance. “She didn't specify which child.”
Hinata plopped back down on the couch and went back to playing his game. “Well I'm not going to bed, 8:30 is a silly time to go to sleep!”
Ushijima said nothing, but he took a step closer. Hinata refused to look up. With no warning, Ushijima stepped to Hinata's right, threw his left arm under Hinata's knees and his right arm behind Hinata's back, then lifted him into the air.
“Gyaah!” Hinata wailed as his phone slipped out of his hand and he was pulled up.
Suddenly, Hinata was pressed close to Ushijima's chest, princess-style, and was staring up at him in horror.
“My phone! I haven't finished designing my sword yet! Also, what the hell?” Ushijima was carrying him towards his room.
“You can finish tomorrow.”
“It might not save my place!” he said, trying to twist out of Ushijima's hold.
“Then you will have to start over tomorrow,” Ushijima stated, tightening his grasp on Hinata, even though it was already strong. And warm. And weird.
“You're so mean! And this is weird!”
He seemed to take offense to that. “I'm only following instructions.”
They were stopped in front of Hinata's bedroom door as Ushijima struggled to push it open with his hands full. Hinata started to squirm in Ushijima's grasp. “I'm sixteen! I don't need to-”
“If you continue to make so much noise, you will wake your sister.”
Hinata stilled for a second and Ushijima pushed the door open. “You managed to get Natsu to sleep so early? That's...awesome.”
Ushijima nodded slightly; it looked like he was trying not to smile. Hinata forgot he was suppose to be struggling. As Ushijima leaned down to pull back the covers, Hinata, due to Ushijima's hands being full, was shuffled into a strained position. When he leaned over, Hinata's face got buried in the crook of Ushijima's neck, and there were some other small changes to his position, but Hinata was mostly focused on that first thing. Ushijima was very warm. And he really did smell like hay that had been sitting in the sun for a long time.
Hinata was gently lowered onto his bed and his bed covers were over him in a second, as if to prevent him from escaping. Ushijima hovered over him and used the edges of his fingers to tuck him in, as if that was a completely normal thing to do for your volleyball rival. All the attention made Hinata's cheeks turn red.
And it was about to get even worse. Way worse.
“Would you like a bed time story?”
Hinata's mouth fell open. What was wrong with him?
“I'm-I'm not an elementary school kid! I'm sixteen! Six-teen!”
He put hands up defensively. “Whatever you prefer.”
Hinata huffed, but as Ushijima turned to leave, Hinata glanced out his large bedroom window. It was barely dark out; it would be hours before Hinata would feel even a little sleepy.
“Wait! I change my mind!”
Ushijima turned back around. “Okay. Which one do you want? Do you have any books you'd like me to read from?”
“Uhm. I have mostly manga, and one chapter book on volleyball basics. And a math book. I think.”
He gave Hinata an amused huff.
“I want you to make a story up!”
His smirk fell. “I don't-”
“Then I guess I can't go to sleep then!” Hinata said, sitting straight up.
That was a lie. He mostly wanted to know what kind of story Ushijima would make up.
Ushijima stared at him hard, but Hinata stared right back. Eventually, Ushijima sighed and walked over to Hinata's bed.
“Lie back down.”
Hinata lied back down. Ushijima sat down on the floor, taking a deep breath. And then another. Then he closed his eyes for a second, and slowly began. “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a princess with a dead father. Her new mom was mean, and her stepsisters were also mean. And not good at volleyball.”
Hinata snorted. “Was that a joke?”
“Be silent, I'm telling a story,” Ushijima ordered, but it was hard to take him seriously with his face twisted in another small smile.
“The sisters and the step-mother made the princess work very hard-,”
Hinata sat up. “You're just re-telling me the Cinderella story from my homework!”
“I am telling you an original story I made up; now lie down and close your eyes.”
Hinata only crossed his arms, so Ushijima put his large palm on the whole of Hinata's face and gently pushed him down. “Whaaaha,” he whined, hitting his pillow with a thud. Even when he was being gentle, he was too strong. Hinata let out a sigh and let his eyes, close even though he wasn't tired. It was...kinda nice to just relax and listen to Ushijima's voice. It was deep, but smooth like a calm ocean.
As Ushijima continued to tell “his” story, his voice slowly got quieter as he seemed more convinced that Hinata was asleep. Which Hinata found hilarious, because who could fall asleep at 8:30? After a while Ushijima stopped completely and Hinata heard him stand up. He tensed. Was he going to be murdered now? Was this the opportunity Ushijima had been waiting for the whole time? Hinata tried to lie as still as possible as he waited for Ushijima to leave or try to kill him, but instead, he felt a feather light touch on the top of his head. He stopped breathing all together in an attempt to keep quiet. Calloused fingers brushed through strands of his hair just barely, so gently that Hinata wasn't sure it was even happening. Ushijima let all of his fingers slip through Hinata's hair, and then he ruffled it, just slightly. Hinata was about to pass out when he heard the floor creak; Ushijima had stopped and heavy footsteps retreated through his bedroom door.
What the hell? Hinata let go of his breath as soon as the door was shut. He sat straight up, gasping, and tugged his hand through his hair. Did that just happen? Did Hinata misunderstand something? No...what else could that have been? Hinata stared at the door, trying to think things through.
Yeah, it was nice, but weird because it was Ushijima, and because it was so gentle from someone so scary, but also it was really nice. But confusing? Why would he do that? Actually, more importantly, what exactly did he do? And why? Hinata flopped back down onto his bed, pulling his fingers through his hair again and again, wondering when the tingling in his scalp would go away enough so that he could sleep.