Work Text:
Christmas time with the Hinatas was always the best. While the weather outside nipped at your toes and fingers, the fire inside was lively and warm, flickering alongside the festive candles placed by the fire mantle. Joyous music played, aside from when they sat down to watch a holiday movie.
Tobio was lucky enough to be joining the Hinata's this Christmas Eve, after Shouyou begging for days and days. In all truthfulness, it didn't take Tobio very long to be convinced. He loved spending time with the ginger boy, and in all honesty, would take any visible opportunity to hang out with Shouyou.
But it's not like that. It's not like Tobio liked him in that way, or anything. They were just friends.
"Are you sure it's okay with your parents that you're staying with us tonight?" Shouyou questioned, putting a gloved finger to his pale chin. The chill in the outside air brought Tobio's hands to his armpits in an effort to warm up.
"Yeah," he answered, as a shiver ran through his body. "They're going to a co-worker's Christmas party, or something. It's fine."
"What about your brother?"
"His flight doesn't arrive until tomorrow morning. I told you, Hinata, it's fine." Tobio breathed out, his breathe turning into crystallized fog in front of him. "Are we almost to your house? It's freezing."
"Yeah, yeah." Shouyou scanned him up and down, before his eyes locked on Tobio's hands. The taller boy followed his gaze, out of confusion, his eyebrows pinned together. "Hey, can I see your hand for a minute?"
"Why-" The older boy didn't even give him a chance to answer, instead taking Tobio's hand in his. Tobio froze, the chills that ran through his body suddenly turning into the heat of Japan during the summer. Now, his snowsuit and scarf that his mother forced him into wearing were too many layers. "What are-"
"We match!" Shouyou exclaimed, as he flipped Tobio's hand palm-side up, still holding the other boy's hand in his. Tobio, half of the time, had no idea what his partner in crime was going on about. He just went along with it, although his teasing touches gave him butterflies to no end. It's not like he liked him, or anything, though. "See, your glove! It has the black edges around the thumb, pointing finger, and middle finger. Just like me."
Shouyou held up his neon orange glove, finally releasing Tobio's hand, his fingers pointed up towards the sky. Sure enough, the thumb, pointing finger, and middle finger had black edges. Tobio put his hand in the air, matching the middle blocker's, his light blue gloves having the black edges just as Shouyou's did.
"Was that so important that we had to stop walking in the freezing cold for?" Tobio asked, causing a snicker and snort from his shorter counterpart. To be honest, he wasn't that cold anymore because of the heat of Shouyou's touch. He was just glad his tuque hid the blush at the tip of his ears.
"You're the one who stopped walking. We're almost there, anyway. Come on." The brown-eyed boy began walking, but not before he grabbed Tobio's hand in his. Again.
This wasn't the first time they'd held hands, in fact, they held hands all of the time. It never failed to give Tobio the butterflies and blushing cheeks.
After idle conversation, rosy cheeks and slightly blue lips, the two boys arrived at the Hinata household. Tobio almost let out a sigh of relief at the chance to stop holding his best friend's hand. It wasn't that he didn't like it. No, in fact, that's the complete opposite. Tobio loved holding Shouyou's hand, and loved any subtle touches that Shouyou would often give him. He just didn't like the pit in the stomach that it gave him.
It was a relief to get his fifteen different layers off of himself and strip completely down to his Karasuno sweater inside the warmth of the Hinata's home. Shouyou almost immediately dragged Tobio upstairs into his room, without even being able to say hello to his parents or even Natsu.
"Sorry, I just wanted to give you your present before we go downstairs with my family," the ginger told him as he turned his back against him, shifting through a pile of items in his mess of a room.
"You just gave me a present, like, two days ago for my birthday," Tobio pointed out as he took a seat on Shouyou's bed, placing his backpack by the frame. A volleyball was the older boy's present to Tobio, to match the fifteen other ones he had lying around his backyard and in his room somewhere. Tobio didn't really care about the amount of volleyballs that he already had, he was just grateful that he had gotten him a present in the first place.
"I know, I know. But I wanted to give you more. I got you three things..." Shouyou sat beside Tobio on the bed, of course, much closer than needed. He handed Tobio a gift, a terribly wrapped one, at that. The present was squishy and soft, so it definitely wasn't another volleyball.
"Nice wrapping job." The raven-haired boy snickered, looking over at Shouyou. Honestly, he didn't care. It was the effort that counted in his mind.
"Shut up, Kageyama. Just open it."
Tobio carefully opened the wrapping paper, careful not to rip any of it despite the poor wrapping job. Inside, was a sweater. An ugly Christmas sweater, at that.
"Uh, Hinata?" He questioned as he pulled the sweater up, examining it. "Why the hell did you get me an ugly Christmas sweater?" The sweater was a knit sweater with a reindeer on the front. In bolded letters wrote the sentence "All I Want For Christmas Is You To Get Run Over By A Reindeer".
"I saw it at the store and thought it'd be perfect for you! Plus everyone else has ugly Christmas sweaters, so it's only fitting that you have one, too."
"Yeah? So where's yours, then?" Tobio questioned as he cocked his head to the side. Shouyou, almost instantly, hopped off of the bed with a creak of the floorboards and shifted through many of his wardrobes, muttering 'where is it's and 'what happened to it's until eventually, he pulled out a sweater. It was equally as ugly as Tobio's, which made him feel a little better about his gift.
The sweater was green, and knit as well, with the words 'Merry Elfin' Christmas' written on the front in white letters. Tobio's best friend slid it over his shoulders with a bright grin, Tobio's favourite grin of all. The first thing that popped into his mind was 'cute', and he didn't even try to correct himself. Shouyou was cute. He couldn't deny it, even if calling your totally platonic best friend cute was a little gay.
"Put it on!" He demanded, hopping back up onto the bed wearing the same grin as before. Tobio frowned, and shook his head.
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
That went on for about two minutes before Tobio finally gave in, after Shouyou began giving him the puppy dog eyes. He cursed himself for being so weak to Shouyou's expressions, for giving in to him.
"I guess, since it's a gift..." he grunted as he peeled off his sweater and replaced it with the ugly Christmas sweater (it was actually beyond ugly, he swore if Shouyou posted a picture of him, he was going to kill somebody).
After a while of arguing and bickering over who's sweater was better (Tobio argued that his best friend's was better, and cuter, while Shouyou argued that the taller boy's was funnier), Shouyou finally pulled out another wrapped gift for Tobio.
"I felt kind of... bad, about only getting you a volleyball for your birthday... so I hope this makes up for it... Merry Christmas." He placed the rectangular-shaped gift in Tobio's hands. Shouyou's cheeks were bright red, why, Tobio didn't know. Hesitantly, he opened the bright green wrapping paper carefully.
A bright orange box stared up at him, the white Nike swoosh more prominent than anything else. No, it couldn't be. Shouyou couldn't have spent that much on a gift for him. It's not volleyball shoes, it has to be something else-
Tobio opened the box, and sure enough, a new pair of volleyball shoes were there, in his exact size. His eyes widened like diamonds, his mouth gaping open in disbelief. He carefully took the shoes as if they were porcelain and he was going to break them.
"Hinata..." Tobio said as he looked over at him. He was smiling, but instead of the big dorky grin that was usually pasted on his face, it was a different smile. The same smile that he had when he was playing volleyball, when Tobio tossed to him, when he successfully spiked onto the other side of the net. He didn't know how to describe it, but out of all of Shouyou's smiles, it was his favourite.
"Don't say anything... I know, it's embarrassing, but I really-" Shouyou was cut off by a long pair of arms engulfing him in a tight affectionate hug, one so tight it could cut off his circulation. Tobio was terrible with words, so terrible with compliments, he needed to thank Shouyou with actions. He almost never made the first move.
As the two blushing boys smiled and hugged for an eternity, it seemed like no one would let go. But when they finally did, it was worth it, for Shouyou to see Tobio smiling, and it not being a terrible, scary smile that he usually found plastered on his face.
Tobio then thought, yeah, he had the best friend ever. And now, he wasn't going to deny himself of the simple pleasures in life, and just admit it to himself - he had a big, stupid crush on the shorter ginger boy.