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Hinata’s staring at him again today.
It’s gotten to the point where Kageyama can’t even be bothered to grab him by his shirt or the scruff of his neck and yell at him. No matter how much he threatens, no matter how hard he squeezes Hinata’s pathetic excuse for a brain out of his skull, Hinata fervently denies that he had ever been staring at Kageyama.
It’s not just Kageyama who’s noticed, either. Suga-san has had to politely redirect Hinata’s attention back to receives more than once, and the demonic duo of Tsukishima and Yamaguchi have actually run out of snide remarks, resorting to whispering amongst themselves. He makes no effort to hide his focus on the setter, and Kageyama’s going a little bit more than crazy. He has the concentration of a Buddhist monk where volleyball is concerned, but Hinata’s stare has the intensity of the surface of the sun, so when they collide he really starts to get the creeps.
Kageyama attempts to focus solely on Nishinoya, shifting in place with his tongue sticking out. That’s right; Noya-san is focusing, so why shouldn’t he be able to? Kageyama presses the volleyball to his forehead, exhales slowly, and prepares to serve. He tosses it high, leaping to smack his hand hard against the ball, trying to aim just out of Nishinoya’s range. The trajectory is perfect, but of course Noya-san receives it with a slight dive to his left. Kageyama clucks his tongue in annoyance.
“Oi, Kageyama, you wanna take this seriously?” Nishinoya calls, the smirk on his face showing he’s just messing with Kageyama. “I could tell where you were sending that from miles away.”
Kageyama catches the ball as it passes back across the net, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. I am taking this seriously, he wants to growl. You try executing a perfect serve when that idiot is glaring holes through your back! Frustrated, he tosses the ball up recklessly, running into a leap sooner than he should have.
“…T-Tobio.”
The voice is small and murmured, but to Kageyama’s trained ears, completely distinctive. His jump is way short, and he stumbles on the landing, volleyball smacking the floor next to him. He ignores Nishinoya’s confused shout and whips his head around to meet Hinata’s eyes. Hinata visibly panics and turns his head, paying attention to Daichi like he’s supposed to. Kageyama can feel the tips of his ears heating up, but he’s more agitated than anything else. Why did he say my name?
Daichi glances between the two, then to Ennoshita, who had taken the distraction of the first-years to yawn into his hand. Yamaguchi sees Ennoshita, and then he’s yawning too. Daichi’s shoulders relax and he straightens up. “Alright, let’s wrap it up early for today. There’re some important exams coming up, and I don’t want our four idiots to get themselves any more remedial lessons than is necessary.” Truth be told, he’s pretty tired, and the weird energy between the oddball duo has been messing with everyone on the team. He meets Suga’s eyes, an understanding look passing between them.
“First-years are on clean-up duty today, since they’re giving everyone else a headache,” he adds. There’s a little grumbling, but mostly grudging acceptance from the troublesome group. Daichi tosses Kageyama the key to lock up, silently allowing Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to take their leave first. Kageyama scowls at the retreating backs of his seniors.
Hinata, not particularly disturbed by clean-up duty, is already bustling around picking up volleyballs while Tsukishima and Yamaguchi take down the net. Kageyama tidies up the equipment room, rolling the volleyball bins to the side so that the net can be put in first. Hinata shuffles up to him, arms overly full with volleyballs. They glare at each other for a moment before Kageyama moves to the side, allowing him to dump the volleyballs in.
“Why’d you call my name so suddenly, dumbass?” Kageyama grumbles, crossing his arms.
“I didn’t,” Hinata denies, moving around to pick up the few stray balls, not meeting Kageyama’s eyes.
Infuriated, Kageyama hauls him back, ignoring the gak! as Hinata is choked by his own shirt. “You’re really starting to piss me off,” he snarls in Hinata’s face, shaking him for good measure. “It’s one thing to deny that you’ve been staring at me all week, but I definitely heard you say my name!”
Hinata slides his eyes to the side. “Yeah, but I didn’t call your name.”
Kageyama roars and throws Hinata with all his might. Hinata, used to the treatment, lands on his feet, only tripping a little bit. A safe distance away, he points at Kageyama, a tirade of his own spilling out. “How can you blame me for this, huh?! The kanji in your name is pretty hard, isn’t it?!”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Kageyama yells.
(“What’s this?” Yamaguchi wonders, sticking his head out from the equipment room.
“A lover’s quarrel…” Tsukishima murmurs, sighing in annoyance. “Come on Yamaguchi, I don’t want to catch idiot.”
The two skulk out towards the club room, trying not to draw attention to themselves, although there’s really no need for stealth. Kageyama and Hinata weren’t easily dissuaded from arguing.)
“It has to do with everything! Kageyama’s not too hard, but what the heck is a Tobio?!” Hinata shouts, glaring at Kageyama like he’s to blame for his given name.
Kageyama’s anger deflates, and he’s left staring at Hinata in confusion and mild shock. “What?”
Hinata’s ears are burning and he can’t look at Kageyama, again. “Ah…that is…I don’t understand how to write your name, I guess…”
“Are you an idiot?” Kageyama asks, incredulous. “What does that have to do with calling me by my given name in practice?”
Fire rekindled, Hinata stands his ground. “Because it’s confusing! You’re confusing! What kind of a name is Tobio anyway? It’s weird, why don’t you have a normal name?!”
“Haaaa? My name’s really cool because it’s so uncommon. What’s so special about Shouyou?!”
“No way! Your name is lame and weird! Tobio, Tobio, Tobio. It’s hard to write, why’d your parents pick Tobio? Shouyou’s a better name!”
“My name comes from ‘flying or jumping man’, how’s that uncool? A ton of people could be called Shouyou, but there’s not too many people named Tobio—it’s really unique!”
“Yeah? Well my name comes from ‘flying to the sunlight’, which is way more awesome! Shouyou beats Tobio any day! Tobio, Tobio…ack, Tobio just sounds so strange!”
“Stop saying my name!”
Kageyama, who had gradually gone darker and darker shades of red with every utterance of his name, finally shrieks in a desperate, last-ditch effort to get Hinata to shut up already please, this is too embarrassing. Hinata opens his mouth to yell some retort back, but he meets Kageyama’s eyes again and sees how flustered he is. His own face catches on fire when he stops and actually traces the flow of their conversation.
“Moron, don’t start blushing now! You only have yourself to blame!” Kageyama yells again, but Hinata’s brain has short-circuited, and all the energy and irritation has drained from him.
They stare at each other for a little longer, Kageyama also aware of how many times he said ‘Shouyou’. His heart is beating furiously—he’s already memorized the sound of Hinata’s voice rushing his name out in one breath, the shape of his mouth as he says ‘Tobio’, the familiarity of his tone. He can’t believe how easily Hinata’s given name fell from his lips either; he spoke it for the very first time with the fluidity of years of practice. Shouyou comes as naturally to him as tossing does.
Hinata doesn’t apologize, doesn’t say anything, but Kageyama can’t think too hard about this or he’ll lose his mind. “Let’s just go back to the clubroom,” he says finally, ignoring the shakiness of his voice. Hinata jumps and then scuttles to put away the last of the equipment, out the door before Kageyama can think to say another word to him. Kageyama steadily does not think of their encounter, focusing on unpleasant things like algebra homework, broken vending machines, Hinata’s soft call, it was a call, that little shit summoned him…
This really wasn’t helping. He locks the gym and trudges back to the clubroom, hoping that Tsukishima is gone at least, not that his luck could really get any worse.
He scores on that one front, at least—the other two have gone home, leaving just Hinata to change back into his regular clothes swiftly while pointedly not looking at Kageyama. Kageyama ignores him right back, making a point to slowly change instead of the frazzled rush Hinata’s in. The shorty is gone before Kageyama can even put a new shirt on, and he can only roll his eyes at Hinata’s weirdness. He’d been acting up all week, right?
It wasn’t like they were particularly close. They were in different classes and they had different friend circles—well, Hinata somehow managed to befriend everyone, while Kageyama was only successful at scaring them all away. They ate lunch together, went to practice together, talked to the senpai together, walked home together, but that didn’t mean they were particularly close. That’s what any normal…friends…did, didn’t they? Hinata and Kageyama just happened to share the same interests and live close to each other. Also, they both sucked at schoolwork, so it was nice to have someone to hold study sessions with.
It’s not like Kageyama only ever talked to Hinata, or that they texted daily, or that they really liked each other. Their schedules were frighteningly similar, and that was all. Since they weren’t close, Hinata calling him ‘Tobio’ would obviously make him uncomfortable, right? Hinata had friends that called him ‘Shou-chan’, but Kageyama had never had anyone like that. Not in the past, and not now. There was no reason to change that pattern, especially not for a person like Hinata.
Kageyama is resolute as he walks past the bike racks. He didn’t need to get worked up about Hinata. If that dumbass wanted to be awkward and off around him, fine. Kageyama wasn’t going to think about it anymore. His resolve holds strong until he notices Hinata standing by the gate, fidgeting, his bike off to the side. Kageyama stops dead, staring at Hinata, who meets his eyes nervously.
“W-we usually walk home together, so…” he explains in a faltering voice. “If you still want to?”
A million different responses cross Kageyama’s mind ranging from ‘no’ to ‘dumbass, go home already!’ to ‘you waited for me?’. He chooses none of them, instead walking down the street to their homes, nodding for Hinata to follow. He does as bidden—scurrying to Kageyama’s side, his bike wheel clicking rhythmically in time with the slap of his shoes on the pavement. He leaves a healthy distance between them, but Kageyama refuses to feel awkward about it.
They’re quiet for a while after that. Hinata hums some pop song Kageyama isn’t familiar with, swaying slightly in time with his own rhythm. Kageyama’s eyes trace the patterns of rooftops and streetlamps, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket, feeling an air of calm settling over him. He doesn’t really notice when Hinata stops his song, engrossed in the bugs buzzing around the dim light above them.
“Hey, Kageyama?” Hinata starts, lacking confidence. Kageyama flinches a little bit, the switch from his given name to his family name all the more noticeable after his contemplations. He raises an eyebrow in response.
Hinata is silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts, before speaking up again. “Our names…they both have kanji for jumping or flying, right? And they’re sometimes homophones, too.”
He looks to Kageyama for acknowledgment. Kageyama can’t imagine where he’s going with this, but since when has Hinata ever been predictable? He’s a hurricane of fire and flight, the embodiment of his name, if Kageyama’s really honest, so all he can do is follow. “What are you getting at?”
Hinata looks down then, a soft smile on his face. “Well, I was just thinking…it’s really pretty cool that are names are connected like that. I mean, how different would my life be if I hadn’t met you?” he looks up at the rising stars fondly. “I like to hit your toss. I really, really like that it’s special, all for me. I don’t know if it would be as fun to hit someone else’s toss.”
He shrugs. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that you turned out to be a pretty okay guy after all. I’m light and you’re shadow—our names really do reflect our dynamic, I think. I’m in the spotlight, but none of it would be possible without you.” He smiles at Kageyama, brilliant and wild as he always is, tinted with the slightest trace of kinship.
Kageyama’s not looking at him, eyes hidden by his bangs and face carefully neutral. “…Shouyou,” he says softly. Hinata jumps.
“It’s okay if I call you that, right? Your other friends call you Shou-chan, but like hell I’ll do that,” he says loudly, making Hinata jump again.
He’s about to make some retort like why the hell should I let you use my first name, huh? but Kageyama’s definitely blushing, even if Hinata can’t see clearly in the low light. It occurs to him that Kageyama is trying, really trying to make this partnership work. More than that, this is his offering of friendship. All Hinata has to do is take it.
“…Sure,” he agrees, unable to hide the embarrassment in his voice. “Shouyou is fine. But definitely don’t call me Shou-chan, that’s just weird.”
Kageyama’s body relaxes, built up tension leaving his muscles in one fluid movement. Hinata purses his lips in thought. “I’m not gonna call you Tobio, though.”
Kageyama snaps to attention. “Haaa? Why the hell not?”
“Like I said, what’s a Tobio? If I say your name we’re sure to get strange looks!”
“Idiot, you have to call me Tobio! If you don’t I’ll just look like a moron!”
“But don’t you always—ow, ow, okay!”
[[ The next day at practice, Kageyama calls out, clear as day, “Nice spike, Shouyou.”
It doesn’t taste like discomfort and embarrassment and arguments.
It tastes like home.
And the answering “Good toss, Tobio!” even more so. ]]