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Kageyama jerked when he suddenly felt someone put an arm around his shoulders. He had been trying to mentally prepare himself for his upcoming game, so he absolutely hadn't expected that. Immediately, he turned his head to see who was touching him, and well, he absolutely hadn't expected to be this close to Miya Atsumu's face either.
"What's up, Tobio-kun," he greeted him cheerfully, a wide grin spread across his face, "Ready to get your ass kicked?"
"Tch," Kageyama huffed as he felt his cheeks heat up and averted his gaze, "More like ready to kick ass."
"My, my, and this coming from a little goody-two-shoes like you," Miya replied mockingly and let go of Kageyama, "Make sure you don't lose before you're going up against me!"
"How about you look after yourself first and make sure that your team won't lose, huh?" Kageyama retorted with a frown because of the nickname, but Miya just winked at him playfully before disappearing into the crowd again.
Somehow he was gone again just as fast as he had appeared in front of him, and the spots in which they had touched were still tingling. For a moment, Kageyama couldn't help but gaze after him, but then it slowly dawned on him that it was a little too silent around him. Turning back to the others, he saw that his whole team was staring at him, and quicker than he could react Hinata and Nishinoya jumped at him, and Tanaka followed only a second later.
"Tobio-kun~" Hinata shouted into his ear and laughed, and the other two boys joined in with as well.
"You're blushing!" Tanaka remarked, which made Kageyama's face even redder.
"Sh-shut up!" he yelled back and tried to get a grip of Hinata's fluffy hair to stop him from jumping and dancing around.
Hinata dodged his grab, however, and simply continued with the teasing. "Oh, I'm pretty sure I've seen a smile there! I'm pretty sure Tobio-kun likes-"
Kageyama was thankful for Daichi and Ennoshita dragging the three troublemakers away from him and ushering them all into another hallway. Fortunately, they were very excitable people, so after a few minutes they had already found something else to be loud and annoying about, and Kageyama let out a relieved sigh. He stood a bit apart from the others and leaned against a wall, taking a sip from his water bottle.
His teammates getting on his nerves was one thing, and a thing that could be solved rather easily, but the fact that his heart was still beating as fast as it would after a whole volleyball game was another. Earlier, Kageyama had already talked to Komori and seen the rest of Itachiyama's team including Sakusa from afar, but those were normal people - or at least people who didn't come into his life and made a mess of everything within the blink of an eye like a hurricane.
While letting his gaze wander, he recognized a few more familiar faces among the other teams, and after a while, he also spotted Miya again. He was talking to some of his teammates, and they seemed to be pretty relaxed. Kageyama tried to calm down as well - he really needed to get his head in the game after all - but maybe it wasn't all that bad that the thing he was the most nervous about wasn't nationals, but another guy. It was ridiculous, though.
"Maybe you should stop staring at him like that."
Kageyama was startled by the sudden remark and turned around just to see Tsukishima standing next to him, casually leaning against the wall as well. He was grinning and definitely enjoying himself way too much for Kageyama's liking.
"Huh?!" Kageyama replied grumpily and tried to play it cool but felt how his cheeks were already heating up again.
"It's really interesting, you know," Tsukishima continued, completely disregarding Kageyama's reaction as if he had prepared what he was going to say beforehand, "I never thought that the king would be interested in humanly things just like us commoners, but now that I've seen that little smile earlier.."
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kageyama snapped at him, not quite sure what the other was aiming at with this, but he needed this to stop right now immediately.
He hated the way Tsukishima's voice sounded when he was mocking him more than the actual mocking, and he really wanted to do something to wipe this goddamn smirk off his face.
"Why don't you just go over and talk to him?" Tsukishima then asked, and it actually seemed to be a genuine question.
"Because.. what should I even say?" Kageyama responded with what was on his mind and regretted it once he realized that it had been a trick to get him to talk.
"Ah, so you're admitting that you've been staring at him after all," Tsukishima said with a smug grin.
"No, I'm not!" Kageyama protested, but it was too late anyway, so he decided he might as well go for it and see where this conversation is going, "But hypothetically..."
"Hypothetically," Tsukishima picked up the sentence and paused, thinking about the advice he was about to give for a moment, "You don't go over and talk to him unless you want to make a fool out of yourself. You just talked, so talking to him again right now would just be weird."
Kageyama knew that Tsukishima was right, but a part of him had hoped to be encouraged. He also knew that if Tsukishima had told him to go for it, it probably would've been bad advice on purpose, and Kageyama wouldn't have followed it. But he was still hoping for another chance to talk to Miya and he really didn't know what to say or how to approach him, so a little advice on that would've been nice nevertheless.
Since Kageyama only frowned and didn't reply, Tsukishima continued, "But if we win and they do too, we get to play against them and that gives you another chance to talk to him. And afterward, you can go over to him and say 'I told you I was gonna kick your ass!'"
"Tsukki, I don't think that's how you flirt," Yamaguchi commented, who had apparently overheard their conversation and was now standing right in front of them, "Also, we'd need to win against them for that to work."
"This is not about flirting!" Kageyama tried to talk his way out, "And we're definitely going to win."
"Confident as ever, that's the king for you," Tsukishima said, obviously amused, "And well, yeah, that is definitely now how I would flirt, but he's weird. And they're of the same breed. The only reason Miya Atsumu even so much as deigns to look at him is because he sees a worthy rival in him. Also, please forget I ever said that."
Kageyama didn't even notice the hidden compliment. He felt stupid for never having thought of it like that. Of course, he knew that Miya was paying attention to him because he was a setter, and a damn good one, but he hadn't been able to put a name to it. A rival.
All of a sudden, an old memory came back to him. The first person to ever tell to him that someone was his rival had been his grandfather. Years ago in middle school, Kageyama had complained to him that Oikawa was refusing to teach him and that had been his grandfather's explanation.
He had also said, even promised that if he gets really good at volleyball, somebody who is even better will come and find him. And all of a sudden, that made perfect sense.
"Now that you say it, this sounds like it might actually just work," Yamaguchi said and stopped Kageyama's train of thought.
"We'll definitely win this game!" Kageyama said with determination.
"Don't make it sound like we'll only win this because you have a crush," Tsukishima said mockingly.
Kageyama felt his cheeks burn up again, but decided to ignore that Tsukishima had not only given a name to his relationship with Miya - rivals - but also a name to his feelings for him - crush. Because it wasn't like that, not at all.
"No, we would've won anyway," he said confidently, "But now we'll just win even more!"
"Once you've won, you've won," Tsukishima said, amused once again, "There is no such thing as winning more."
"Oh, shut up!"
Kageyama couldn't believe that they had actually won against Inarizaki. Of course, in a way, he had firmly believed in it, but he'd also been scared that they wouldn't. But they had. And now that the game was over, he didn't have to push all unnecessary thoughts and feelings away anymore.
To be honest, he hadn't been able to do that entirely in the first place. Just thinking of Miya Atsumu made him hot and cold all over, so interacting with him, playing against him, only being a few meters away from, merely separated by the net, was a lot to handle.
But he had at least partly forgotten about the conversation he'd had earlier with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi and his plan to approach Miya after the game. Inarizaki was leaving the court, so Kageyama quickly excused himself and went after them. Tsukishima didn't even say anything, but he still felt mocked nevertheless.
He felt as if his heart was about to beat out of his chest. It was beating as if he was still in the middle of a game. But he had to do this. All he had to do was open his mouth and say it.
"Hey!" Kageyama shouted after Miya as soon as he was within earshot, "I told you I'd kick your ass."
Miya stopped and turned around to look at him. The moment their eyes met, Kageyama felt his heart drop. He wasn't smiling. Admittedly, that was to be expected only minutes after losing a game at nationals, but still, he hadn't thought about that until just now. All of a sudden, this seemed like a very bad idea after all, but it was too late anyway.
"Next time we'll beat you for sure," he snorted, but then a soft smile returned to his lips, making him look a lot less hostile, "So you better make it to nationals again."
"We will for sure," Kageyama replied and couldn't help but smile too, "I just hope you'll make it too."
"Of course we will!" Atsumu said as if it was ridiculous for him to even question it.
Kageyama didn't really know what to respond to that. He'd never been good at making small talk and he hadn't thought about what to do after he got this far, so they just stood there in silence, staring at each other. It felt pretty awkward, but Miya didn't leave, so Kageyama decided not to either. He wasn't satisfied with this yet. He wanted to see where this was going.
But then someone called Miya's name. It wasn't obvious, but Kageyama noticed that he hesitated for a second nevertheless.
As Miya left, he turned around once more, a sly smile on his lips. "See you later, Tobio-kun~"
And Kageyama just stood there, watching him leave, wondering whether it had just been a phrase and if not, when later would be.
Kageyama had thought about the possibility of losing a game at nationals at some point. He'd always tried to push that thought away. He wasn't sure he had really believed they were going to win all of their games, but he had wished for it so much, he hadn't really let himself consider that they wouldn't.
But even if he hadn't thought about it much beforehand, he'd expected losing to hurt, but in reality, he felt just numb. Somewhere deep down he knew that it was the exhaustion and that he pain was going to catch up with him at some point nevertheless.
He was so preoccupied with thinking about what losing meant - that they had to go home now, that he'd never get to play with this same team again - that he had totally forgotten about Miya.
"Hey, good game," Miya said and tore him out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" was all he was able to say to that. He'd been so spaced out, he hadn't even seen him approach.
"Looks like you're not such a little goody-two-shoes after all," Miya said with a grin, "Watching you play was fun. Don't you ever quit volleyball."
"Huh?!" Kageyama was even more confused than a second ago. "I'd never quit. I'll keep playing until I'm the best setter in the whole world."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm going to be the best," Miya said confidently, "But I heard second best isn't taken yet."
"We'll see about that."
"Well, I'm looking forward to it."
And so they stood there in slightly awkward silence for the second time this day, but Kageyama once again didn't know what else to say or do. He liked the concept of being rivals, though. It was nice to think that they'll inevitably see each other again, but hypothetically thinking about their relationship and knowing that it'll never be more than that very much - and absolutely not hypothetically - hurt.
Suddenly, Miya moved and for a moment Kageyama thought he was going to leave again, but instead he made a few steps forward and grabbed his hand. He quickly dragged him away from the main corridor into an empty side-tract.
"What are you doi-" Kageyama started to ask in confusion, but was interrupted by Miya's lips on his.
Miya Atsumu was kissing him. It was neither soft, nor slow, nor hesitant. He was kissing him as if he'd done it a thousand times before, as if he was one hundred percent sure the kiss would be returned. And well, he was right about that.
After the first shock, Kageyama kissed back. He didn't know how long they had been kissing, but it felt way too soon when Miya eventually pulled back. His lips still looked slightly wet and his cheeks were flushed. He actually looked a bit flustered.
"We should go back to our teams before someone comes looking for us," he said.
Kageyama wanted to ask him why he had kissed him and what that meant. Were they going to do that again? And most of all, he didn't want this to be over just yet.
He wasn't able to express all of that, though, so all he said was, "Why did you do that?"
Miya chuckled. "I've been kinda wanting to do that since the training camp."
"And why didn't you?" Kageyama asked in disbelief.
"Well, how do I put that," Miya started and paused to think for a moment, "You seemed so naive. Like I already said, like a little goody-two-shoes."
"But I'm not," Kageyama protested.
"Oh yeah, I saw that today," Miya said and Kageyama wasn't quite sure how to interpret his tone of voice, "You're actually even a lot more interesting than I had expected."
It seemed to be a compliment. "Oh, okay, thanks, I guess?"
Miya just laughed at that. "Yeah, but we really need to get back. And don't forget, next time I'll totally kick your ass!"
"Will you kiss me again, too?" Kageyama blurted out and immediately regretted his sudden burst of courage.
"I just might," Miya said with an unfathomable smile on his lips, "See you, Tobio-kun."
And before Kageyama could figure out what to make of that, he disappeared.