Chapter Text
Hinata was struggling to catch up, he needed to move forward, push it, but his body couldn’t handle that much pressure and he ended up with a fever, nationals a long forgotten goal, he just wanted to keep playing.
“eat, and get stronger, learn from this Hinata” said coach Ukai.
Hinata nodded and felt the tears start to flow freely down his face at the first bite of the porridge. Ukai smiled and got up to leave. Gulping on a mouthful of food Hinata managed to say before Ukai opened the door. “is-is Kageyama mad at me?”
Ukai snorted “why don’t you ask him” he left the door wide open and there he was, a tied looking Kageyama looking at him with a calm face, Ukai left them and Kageyama approached Hinata, closing the door behind him. Hinata felt a nervous tingle beneath his skin, ready to hear the complaint from Kageyama, or worse, the disappointment, but all he did was look at him and sit in front of the door.
“uh are you here because-?”
“when kitaiichi dismissed me as a setter back in middle school I” he moves his sight towards the suddenly very interesting ceiling, no longer looking at Hinata “I wasn’t in the right headspace, I felt a lot of pressure, not just from volleyball, and it all boiled down towards what happened back then” he sighs, his silence stretching enough to be deafening, Hinata was confused as to why he would be telling him this and just before he could open his mouth Kageyama spoke.
“I suck at this but what I mean is that, it wasn’t entirely your fault this, yes you pushed yourself but I should have said something sooner when I felt how warm you were but I didn’t want you to think I was pushing you away, it just means that” Kageyama gets closer to Hinata, his hand touching his forehead, his eyes the blue of an ocean in the middle of a storm looking right into his fire blazing eyes “This time I win” he said quiet enough for just the both of them to hear. He could have said that he always win in volleyball for all of eternity and Hinata would still have agreed with him, his words not quite yet done processing on his brain, all his concentration going to how close his face is, his hair damp from a shower and smelling of the same shampoo everyone uses but somehow better. Hinata didn’t realize he nodded before Kageyama said alright and moved away, ready to leave the room.
“oi what-“ said Kageyama with a scowl on his face at having almost tripped over thanks to a certain ginger haired boy grabbing his pant leg.
“I-“ quick Shouyo think of something, waa why did I do that what do I do what do I say what- his thoughts halted by a pair of cold hands cupping his face, Kageyama’s forehead touching Shouyo’s.
“Um you should rest more, your face is really red, I should get Sen- “
“I’M OKAY BAKAGEYMA”
“ba-“said an indignant Kageyama, he took a deep breath before saying “whatever” and he left, his steps quickly fading.
Hinata dropped back to the futon and stared at the ceiling, muffling a scream between his hands. What the hell was that? Wondered Hinata, his heartbeat being the only thing he could listen for a while before the fever took him again and he fell asleep.