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Kageyama Tobio.
A prodigy Cupid. 99% hit rate.
Aaaand a 3% six month success rate.
He's gone through two dozen partners already. They call him the sniper, apparently: ridiculously good at hitting the target, but better left alone. Well alone. He's had even less savoury names banded around about him - they've called him heartless, they've called him cruel. Everyone seems to think he's Oikawa's protege, except for Oikawa, who hates him. Oikawa states that no protege of his would be quite so disagreeable and uncooperative.
Seeing as Oikawa has kept the same partner for ten years running without too much disagreement, he has a point.
And Shouyo is listening to Kageyama get chewed out. Well, he can't hear most of it, but there are raised voices, mostly Kageyama's, and the words he does catch are argumentative. How is he meant to know what humans want in a partner? They should just do it themselves if it's going to be a problem. He picks the best target for them, they should be happy.
Shouyo snorts. With a 3% six month success rate, he clearly isn't that good at picking targets.
"Hinata! Come here!" Comes a shout from inside the hall. Shouyo jumps, before scampering in, trying not to look nervous.
Sawamura is stood there, with his aide Sugawara, looking fed up. Kageyama glares at him so venomously that Shouyo halts in his tracks.
"Hinata, you've probably heard about him already, but this is Kageyama Tobio," Sawamura starts tiredly. Shouyo nods. "Kageyama, this is Hinata, another rookie." Kageyama assesses him slowly, and clearly finds him lacking. "You two are going to be paired together."
"WHAT?!" Kageyama bellows, while Shouyo just stares at Sawamura, mouth open. Why? Why him? It's gonna last two seconds, for sure.
Sawamura runs his hand through his hair, then looks at them: he's known for his piercing gazes, and this is one of them, freezing both of them in their tracks.
"Kageyama, your hit rate is fantastic but you're terrible at working with people and picking matches. Hinata, your hit rate is terrible but you can work with people and your success rate is through the roof." Kageyama shoots him a disbelieving look. Rude. "When, of course, you actually get around to hitting the target." Shouyo pouts. He can't help it! Love isn't to be rushed, and what's the point in giving the target heartache down the line because he couldn't choose right? (Or, you know, aim. He's working on it!) "Therefore. You're going to work together, and maybe you can both improve. Who knows, together you might be the ultimate pair," Sawamura finishes. Sugawara grins at the two of them, clearly having had something to do with the idea.
"I deserve someone more talented!" Kageyama cries, stepping forward. Shouyo is about to complain about him too, but Sawamura beats him to it.
"Frankly, Kageyama, you haven't been able to work with anyone at all. Work on your team skills before you make those requests," Sawamura returns, then grins icily, "Unless you want to hang up the bow altogether?"
That shuts him up.
Sugawara goes on to explain that they'll be finishing off Shouyo's target, Izumi.
This'll be fun, Shouyo thinks sarcastically, as when they leave, they immediately start arguing.
"The best match is Wakana," Kageyama asserts grumpily. "She's in the badminton club, so they share an interest."
"And that's enough?!" Shouyo screeches back. Kageyama is worse than he thought. He's totally, completely and utterly useless at reading people.
"Yes."
And stubborn, to boot. Not that Shouyo doesn't kinda like that, but not when he's being so stubborn about something that's so wrong.
"Well that's why all your matches failed!" He shoots back, only wincing a little when Kageyama pierces him with a murderous gaze. "I mean, they've never spoken, and they don't even catch each other's eye. There's nothing there!"
"So what's your suggestion, then, idiot?!" Kageyama snaps, highly irritated.
"Koji!" Shouyo says. "They talk all the time, and Izumi already has a bit of a crush on him. They work well together, and they're already friends!"
Kageyama blinks at him, then scowls. He doesn't rebuke it though, which is some good progress.
Izumi isn't in any position to get shot today, though. He's off school with a bad cold, moping in bed. Turning over, he stares at the ceiling and sighs, proceeding to murmur something about hoping Koji passes by.
Shouyo smirks victoriously. Kageyama huffs.
Shouyo can feel it in his bones. Today's the day - Izumi is gonna fall in love and it's going to be great. Finally! Then he can look for more people to match up, and when his hit rate goes up, maybe he'll be able to work on the more complex cases - the polyamory ones, and the ones who need to love themselves, always a finer touch.
If, that is, he can survive working with Kageyama long enough.
He's finally come around to thinking that Koji is a good match, but still occasionally grumbles about other matches he thinks are more suitable (they're not). The problem is that he's too eager to shoot Izumi and get off the job.
Shouyo zones out for one second, and he's there, aiming. He'll pull it off-course the best he can, saying it's not the right time - and then Kageyama will snipe back telling him that this is the reason why he never gets any work done and they get into an argument and lose Izumi to the crowd.
Now though, seems just perfect. Kageyama has stormed off somewhere, long enough for Izumi to (with some slight emotional help from Shouyo) ask Koji to lunch, alone. They sit in the courtyard, it's a sunny day, and it's perfect.
Shouyo lines up the shot, holds his breath, and releases the arrow- okay, that one missed. Try again. And again. He lines up another.
"Idiot!"
Startled, he twists. The arrow flies, thankfully not hitting any humans - but landing square in Kageyama's stupid arm before shattering to light.
Oh shit.
Kageyama looks at where the arrow was, then back up at him. Shouyo awaits the yelling. The arrows don't work on cupids. Right? He's read that somewhere, hasn't he?
Right?!
Kageyama doesn't yell. He kind of smirks, instead, and sidles closer.
"You missed, idiot," he says, but it seems much softer than usual. "It's 'cause your form's all wrong."
He stands too close to Shouyo, deftly using his hands to adjust Shouyo's posture, describing how it should be the whole time. Straight back, relax the shoulders, keep the middle of the bow at just below eye level to make for better aim, didn't they teach you all this, you idiot?
And when he finally makes the shot, it's with Kageyama's hands guiding his, murmuring about allowing for the wind.
It implants directly into Izumi's chest, and melts away. He looks down, then at Koji, then away again, blushing. Success!
Shouyo looks back at Kageyama, still so close, and feels his heart thud when Kageyama grins. Oh no. He's prettier when he's not frowning and grumpy and- why is Shouyo even thinking about this?
"So you can make a shot," Kageyama teases. "Anyway, let's get our next assignment."
He squeezes Shouyo's hands before releasing them and turning on his heel. Shouyo feels his own face go pale.
What has he done?!
Izumi and Koji are a resounding success, Sawamura announces with vigour. They haven't told him about the shot gone awry - Kageyama hasn't really mentioned it either. Shouyo wasn't eager to get in trouble again so soon, and he's still desperately trying to work out whether it actually had an effect or Kageyama just got... nicer, to him, and easier to work with, and less prideful, and more defensive of him, and-
Shouyo thinks that for all he's a Cupid, he's still got a lot to learn about love. And a library to continue scouring to try and work out if it's permanent, or even works on cupids.
Inexplicably, the answer has become quite important to him. If all this is just because of his arrow, he can't accept it. If it's Kageyama's free will, then...
Then maybe he can see where this goes.
He hopes it's the latter.