Chapter Text
Fate fell short this time,
Your smile fades in the summer.
Place your hand in mine,
I'll leave when I wanna.
Blink-182, Feeling This
For a boy who spent a great deal of his time drenched in orange from head to toe, it wasn't Hinata's favourite colour. Despite the mocking during his elementary years, Hinata had grown to tolerate the sunset-stained mop of hair that adorned his head like a crown, and during his time at Karasuno he even came to like the way it matched with the accents on his jersey. To him, orange was never an attractive colour. But hey, if Nishinoya could pull it off then he might as well try, right? He grew into his tangerine locks with age, but sometimes he still stayed up at night, laying face up staring at his dark blank ceiling, wondering what life would have been if he had a prettier hair colour. Blue. Blue would have been nice. He would still be his normal bright self, always lighting up a room, but without the dreaded orange. He always appreciated blue, but he really did come to fall in love with it once he began high school.
Blue blanketed the small Miyagi town during the last seconds of sunset. The last of daylight relinquished its fervour to deep royal blue skies, and Hinata could watch them for hours. The tips of the surrounding mountains just barely kissed the clouds; Hinata imagined how he would climb up them to the very top, and he would outstretch his arm to dip his fingers into the cool blue of the skies before it resolved itself to a deep midnight hue. He claimed to be stargazing, and the stars were beautiful, but he would leave their admiration to Tsukishima. Hinata wanted to relish in the blue. Kageyama would eye him suspiciously when he tipped his head back to drink in the mural above while walking home after evening practice, but Hinata didn't mind the piercing gaze.
Their first year started in the spring, which left sakura petals flourishing meer days into their first taste of high school. Hinata paid them no mind, forgoing the flamingo-coloured spectacle that danced through the air with each passing wind to fall in love with the fresh asagao vines that steadily crawled up the posts on the overhang outside the gym. Like him, they crawled upwards slowly, and Hinata came to wish he could be as beautiful as their reaching tendrils. As April faded into May, blue buds hung from the branches, opening their petals to bask in the warming weather as the sun rose only to curl in on themselves to cower as the afternoon sun perched high amongst a field of baby blue and puffy white clouds.
Kageyama noticed the way Hinata stared, enamoured by flowers that everyone else paid no mind to. "Let's go dumbass!" Kageyama fisted a hand into the orange fluffy mess of Hinata's hair one morning, gripping gently, and he dragged him through the gym doors.
"Ow, ow ow!" Hinata whined as he stumbled after Kageyama. "You don't have to be so harsh Bakageyama." A childish pout took over his round face and Sugawara and Daichi laughed at them from the bench. Tsukishima snickered at the two, sadistically pleased that Kageyama was looking grumpier than usual. He surrendered his grip on Hinata's hair after a substantial pause, relishing in the way tangerine locks curled around his fingers and tickled his palm. Kageyama secretly wondered what it would be like to run his fingers through the other boy's hair: would he lean into the touch, desperate for more of Kageyama's sweet caress; would he make little breathy noises like he always did, a wordless plea for more, that the setter would happily comply with; would Hinata peer up at him from behind thick black eyelashes and bright tufts of hair, wide saccharine eyes begging for just one more toss. Kageyama would always give him another toss, another five, another twenty. He would give Hinata anything he asked for just to see the heart-stopping smile that overcame his face.
As Hinata admired the blue all around him, Kageyama fell in love with the orange.