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The ball ricochets off the two-man block, Kageyama reaching over to cover with Tsukishima at the last second. Hinata winces from the back row, watching as the cross-court shot hits the tip of Kageyama’s ring finger with such force it pushes the digit back towards his wrist. The block is enough to send the ball off it’s planned trajectory and high into the air. He shakes out his hand and calls for Nishinoya to cover.
Noya receives the ball easily, and Hinata lurches forward as he sees Kageyama get in position to set. He rushes towards the net and jumps. When the toss leaves Kageyama’s hands, it seems to wobble like a jump float serve. Shit, Hinata thinks as the ball corkscrews through the air towards him. He manages to hit it, but just barely. The tops of his fingers slap against the ball as hard as he can manage as he descends from the peak of his jump. Somehow, he manages to hit it over the block, but watches as his spike lands out of bounds.
“Ugh.” Hinata calls out, but looks over to see Kageyama not paying attention. The setter is staring down at his hands like they personally betrayed him. He flexes his left hand and winces. He must have jarred his finger on the block.
“You okay?” Asahi asks, peering at Kageyama nervously.
“It’s fine.” He grits out, which only calls more attention from the rest of the team.
Hinata sneaks up behind him and peers over his shoulder. He’s not bleeding, and he can’t see any swelling yet, but the way he’s holding that finger means it must be hurting. The commotion brings Ukai over before Kageyama can begin to push his nosy team mates away.
“Well, it doesn’t look dislocated. How does it feel?”
“I said, it’s fine. I can keep playing.”
“Hm.” Ukai taps at his chin. “Should probably tape it just in case. Don’t want to make it worse.”
Kageyama makes a face that reminds Hinata of someone sucking on a lemon. Right, Kageyama hates tape. Nothing is allowed to get between him and touching the ball, even if it’s a millimetre thick layer of cotton.
“No. It doesn’t hurt.”
Daichi rolls his eyes and pushes him towards the bench. “Come on, the sooner you get it taped the sooner you can get back on the court.”
His shoulders stiffen, but he doesn’t refuse any further. With Kageyama out, Ukai switches up the practice teams. Hinata hovers at the side for a moment while Ukai decides on a setter to cover Kageyama’s place. He watches Kiyoko-san rummaging through the small first aid kit kept in the gym. Kageyama looks pissed, standing stock still and glaring at the floorboards with his injured hand held up near his chest. Hinata should know better than to bother him when Kageyama is in one of his moods, but he’s never been one to back down when it came to his rival.
Hinata quickly slips off the court and bounds over towards them. Kiyoko-san pulls out a roll of tape and before she can pass it to Kageyama, Hinata snatches it. The manager looks up with mild surprise, shrugs, and then walks off.
“What are you doing?” He asks grumpily.
“Taping your finger, duh.” Hinata answers matter-of-factly. “If Tanaka or Noya caught you getting help from Kiyoko-san they’d throw a fit.”
“I can do it myself.” He pouts and Hinata almost wants to laugh at him. He doesn’t, because he’s a good team mate but he can’t help that Kageyama objectively looks funny with such a stupid look on his face. Instead Hinata rolls his eyes and tears off a piece of tape with his teeth.
Kageyama attempts to grab at the tape, but Hinata swats his uninjured hand away. “Give it. I don’t need your help.”
“Just hold still.” To everyone’s surprise, including Kageyama, he does. He holds his hand out between them facing palm down and fingers out straight. Hinata regards it for a moment. “We should probably buddy tape it.”
Kageyama pouts again. That would involve taping two of his fingers. Sure, it would be more stable, but he would hate it. Hinata sighs and sticks on taping the one damaged finger.
In the few minutes since the block, he does notice a little swelling has appeared towards the base of the knuckle. Hinata is honestly a little impressed, it’s the first time he’s seen Kageyama hurt his fingers. Injuries like this were pretty common in volleyball. Kageyama seems to have avoided them with his self-designed finger strengthening exercises. Hinata catches him doing them in class sometimes. They really must work, he thinks, as he wraps the first piece of tape around the base of the finger.
“It’s crooked.” Kageyama points out his tape job. “You really suck at this.”
“I haven’t really had to do this in ages.” He admits. He’d taped his fingers a little when he first started but tries to avoid it now too. He gets what Kageyama hates about it. The sting of his hand isn’t the same when there’s tape in the way.
Hinata fixes the wonky tape, and the next strip wraps neatly around the joint. Kageyama doesn’t complain about it, which is a huge compliment in itself. Hinata hasn’t had anyone to tape his fingers before. It’s strange doing it on another person. He’s never had a good look at Kageyama’s hands this close before either. Objectively, they’re very nice hands. Big, even for his size, with long fingers and perfectly trimmed nails. Ideal for volleyball. Maybe Hinata should ask him for some hand strengthening tips.
He looks up for a moment to see Kageyama isn’t paying him attention. He’s watching the ball fly across the gymnasium and getting antsy. Hinata tries to hurry himself up, but his mind begins to wander again as he’s tears off another strip. This reminds him of when Natsu would break a nail or scrape her knee. She come to him crying, insisting he put the band-aid on whatever was injured. He’d kneel down in front of her, humming a tune to himself as he peeled of the wrapping and place the hello kitty band aid on her knee.
Hinata wraps the last piece of tape across the top of Kageyama’s finger and smiles. He did a pretty good job; he thinks to himself. Happy with his work, and without really thinking, he carefully takes Kageyama’s hand and leans over. He brushes his lips over Kageyama’s knuckles and says “There. All better.”
Hinata freezes in place when he realises Kageyama’s eyes aren’t on the game anymore. His startling blue eyes are on his, face completely blank. Suddenly, his actions catch up with his brain. He did exactly what he would have done with his baby sister. He kissed Kageyama’s hand. The hand he is still holding. Hinata really wishes he could move, but his body is refusing to cooperate. Kageyama has gone as pale as a sheet, while Hinata thinks his face must be redder than his hair at this point. Thankfully, no one is watching them right now or Hinata might just die on the spot.
He really should say something. Explain that he was just being stupid. He opens his mouth to speak, but all that comes out is “Uuuuuuh.”
Kageyama manages to get his hand free, now not looking at Hinata’s face. He turns away, but Hinata hears him mutter ‘idiot’ under his breath as he jogs towards the court. Hinata scurries after him.
“Dude, you okay?” Tanaka says, looking at Hinata’s flustered face. Hinata just nods like an idiot.
“You look like you saw a ghost.” Noya adds.
“Woah, did you see a ghost? I always wondered if the gym was haunted.”
“No, no ghost.” Hinata quickly shakes his head. He’s just haunted by the ghost of his own stupidity. The two second-years drop the subject, disappointed. Hinata watches from the other side of the net as Kageyama seems to flex his hand a little.
He manages to talk to Kageyama after practice without bursting into flames. He was able act somewhat normally for the rest of practice, but now they’re alone again outside the school bike rack. Hinata wonders if he followed him here just out of habit.
“So, uh.” Hinata leans against the seat of his bike, fiddling with the lock. “That was dumb.”
“Huh?” He gives Hinata a puzzled look. Maybe he’s wiped the traumatic memory from his brain already.
“The thing I did before. You know.” Hinata makes a strange hand gesture that he knows makes absolutely no sense. He should really just drop it.
“Oh.” Kageyama blinks, somehow just getting it.
“You see, I do that all the time with Natsu to make her feel better. I wasn’t thinking and it just slipped out.”
“Okay.”
“I’m so- wait what?”
“I said okay.”
“Oh.” Hinata doesn’t know what else to say. Kageyama is watching him with the usual level of annoyance and confusion. He doesn’t look angry.
“Come on, Let’s go home.” He says, and Hinata supposes that’s that. If Kageyama can put something so embarrassing behind him he can as well.
---
Hinata had thought that was the end of it. Things had been normal between them for weeks now. They played volleyball, argued over who can run to the gym faster, failed classes, and walked home together like they usually did. Hinata was so relieved for the return for normalcy that he couldn’t see any of this coming.
After months of improving his receives, he face-plants in a mad dive for the ball and smashes his nose against the floor. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact it was in a practice match against Nekoma at a training camp. He hoped they would leave him to bleed out on the floor and die of embarrassment, but Daichi and Tanaka scooped him off the ground while Tsukishima tried desperately to keep himself from laughing. He caught Kenma sending him a worried glance before he buried his face in an ice pack.
Now he’s back at the lodge the Karasuno team is staying at for the night, removing chucks of bloody tissue from his nose in the bathroom mirror. His nose isn’t bleeding anymore, but it’s bruised as all hell. To top it all off, he must have bit his lip on the way down and now the skin on his bottom lip has split. He’s promised Ukai and Takeda-sensei he can play tomorrow, but now he’s not quite sure. It hurts so bad moving his face makes his eyes water.
He’s about to head to his futon and crash in a heap of misery for the night when Kageyama finds him in the hall between the bathroom and communal bedroom. He has a glass of water and two ibuprofen pills in hand. He shoves them at Hinata.
“Sensei said to give this to you.”
Hinata takes it without question, downing the pills and water in rapid succession. He winces when he swallows and Kageyama frowns.
“You look like shit.” He tells him.
“Thanks, Bakageyama.”
“Let me see.” He grabs Hinata’s shoulders and Hinata is too tired to protest. Kageyama exaggeratedly hunches down a little to get a better look at his face, which is wow, insulting. He’s not that short. Kageyama makes a face as he takes in Hinata’s busted nose and lip. “Did you actually break it?”
“No, they said it’s just some swelling and bruising.”
“Your receives have reached a new level of sucking.”
Hinata would headbutt him right now if he could. Technically, he still got the ball up. The rest of the team was so shocked they didn’t follow it up and the whistle blew when Hinata felt warmth gushing out of his nose, blowing the play dead.
“Does it still hurt?” He asks, poking Hinata’s lip. Hinata smacks his arm as hard as he can. Kageyama doesn’t move away, so it mustn’t have been very hard.
“Obviously it hurts, you moron.”
The hand grips tight on his shoulder and Kageyama leans closer. Hinata is about to spit at him to take a picture it will last longer, but he doesn’t get the chance to. Kageyama’s mouth is pressed hard against his. Hinata panics, flailing his arms and shoving Kageyama off of him.
“What the fuck was that?” Hinata isn’t one to swear but in this moment, it feels justified.
“What?” Kageyama frowns, putting his hands on his hips and looking at Hinata like he’s the crazy one.
“That hurt, asshole.” Hinata rubs at his mouth.
“Oh.” He says, having the audacity to almost look guilty.
“Why did you- have you actually gone crazy?”
“I just thought…” Kageyama begins to drift off with a huff. “You seemed like you needed cheering up.”
“So you kissed me?”
“Uh, yeah. You did the same for me so it was only fair.”
Hinata wonders if he went through the concussion protocol too fast. Were extremely vivid hallucinations a symptom of brain damage? He holds the side of his head and tries not to entirely freak out. Kageyama stops him from outright pulling out chunks of his own hair.
“Stop freaking out on me. It’s weird.”
“You’re the weirdo here.” Hinata pokes Kageyama in his stupid muscular chest. “You kissed me.”
“You kissed me first.”
“That didn’t count. It wasn’t on the mouth anyway.”
“Well then ha. I win.”
Hinata stops yelling at him. “You actually meant to kiss me?”
“Yes?”
“Why?”
Kageyama sighs like the answer isn’t a complete mystery to him. “I already told you. I thought it would make you feel better. You seem pretty miserable.”
Hinata then remembers with a jolt how he had explained to Kageyama he’d done something similar when his sister had hurt herself. Hinata feels himself blush. It felt strange to know Kageyama was trying to take care of him in his own stupid way.
“Did sensei really tell you to give me those pills.”
“No, but you would have forgotten to take some yourself if I didn’t remind you!”
“Kageyama,” He says slowly. “Do you…Do you like me?”
“What? No.” Kageyama is blushing and not looking at him.
“Oh my god you do, don’t you?” Hinata gasps, eyes wide.
“No!” Kageyama hides his face in his hands and Hinata barks out a laugh.
“Oh, so you go around kissing all your team mates? Should I go get Tsukishima?” Hinata goes to turn back towards the bathroom but Kageyama stops him with a hand on his arm. He pulls Hinata closer and hides his head in Hinata’s shoulder.
“If I tell you I do will you just shut up?” He mutters into Hinata’s shirt.
“Hmm. Okay.” Hinata is having too much fun with this, he knows he’s probably being a bit unfair. In his defence, there’s a lot for him to process and his nose is still throbbing.
“I don’t like seeing you hurt.” Kageyama says, and Hinata feels his chest swell. He grips the side of Kageyama’s shirt to make sure he’s really standing there. He feels like he is, but this can’t be really happening. It must be a dream.
“Sorry.”
“You’re small, and annoying, and a pain in the ass,”
“Gee, thanks.” Hinata lets go of him.
“I wasn’t finished. You’re pretty stupid and your receives and blocks still suck, but for some reason I like you.”
“Oh.”
“So please don’t bash your head against the floor again.”
“I’ll try.” Hinata pulls away to look at Kageyama’s face. His cheeks are pink and it’s shockingly adorable.
“And sorry I made your face hurt worse.”
“It’s not so bad.” Hinata tells him. Either the ibuprofen is kicking in or Kageyama’s bizarre confession has taken his mind off the pain. “You can still make it better.”
“How?” He perks up. Hinata leans in close.
“Just do it gently this time.” He presses his lips to Kageyama’s and the boy happily complies. It’s so light Hinata probably wouldn’t feel it if his face wasn’t already throbbing. He pulls away after a moment to look at the dopey expression Kageyama is wearing. It’s like a mixture of surprise and relief, his eyes wide but his mouth is soft and relaxed. “I think I like you too, dummy.”
“Okay.” He says in a soft voice. He pulls away a little a nudges Hinata towards the bedroom. “You really should get some rest.”
Hinata sleeps with an icepack over his face. It’s there only partially to help with the swelling, he’s really using it to hide the stupid grin on his face from his team mates.
--
It’s meant to be a calm Wednesday afternoon practice. Daichi has had an impossible day studying to prepare for his exams next week and the last things he needs is more stress. Don’t get him wrong, he loves his team mates, he would just love for them to be someone else’s problem for once. Maybe that makes him a bad captain. He’s too tired to care at this point.
He lets Suga lead the team through warmups while he tries to clear his head. Asahi gives him a sympathetic pat on the arm and steers Nishinoya in the other direction so he can be loud and boisterous away from Daichi’s vicinity. By the time they start up a serving drill, he doesn’t feel all the bad.
He rubs at his eyes, tries to focus in, but serves the ball before he really thinks about it. He realises once the ball’s left his hand that he didn’t aim it at the water bottle on the other side of the net, but right square at Kageyama’s head. Daichi can only watch in horror as it bounces off his skull before Suga can shout out a warning to him. His hand immediately comes up to hold the top of his head, shoulders stiff with surprise. He turns around slowly and Daichi is so thankful he’s a third year, otherwise he might be really intimidated right now. His expression is blank, rather than one of anger. Daichi doesn’t know if that’s worse. He’ll have to consult Hinata about it, as the walking guide on their starting setter’s facial tics. He’s about to hurriedly whisper to Hinata when he realises the first year is no longer standing next to him.
Hinata is bounding his way over the Kageyama, who is still standing at the other side of the court rubbing his head.
“You okay?” Hinata asks when he reaches Kageyama’s side. He scans his body for signs of injury.
“Yeah. It didn’t really hurt. Just surprised me.” He shrugs. Hinata doesn’t look entirely convinced.
“You should probably try hitting him harder next time.” Tsukishima says, with an admiring smirk on his face. Daichi just sighs at him.
“Sorry Kageyama.” Daichi calls out. He gives Diachi a thumbs up and the captain is about to turn away when he notices a sudden orange flash.
Hinata grabs Kageyama by the shoulders and vaults up in the air. At the peak of his trajectory, he leans over to plant what is unmistakably a kiss on Kageyama’s forehead before landing lightly on his feet. Daichi swears he hears the boy say “All better.”
Silence overtakes the Gymnasium. Daichi himself feels his jaw drop. Everyone is staring at Hinata and Kageyama, who are in turn staring at each other. Neither one of them seems to be shocked at what just transpired. The silence is only held at bay for a moment before everyone’s voice returns in a rush. Everyone, aside from Daichi is shouting in bewilderment and excitement. The noise snaps the two boys out of their revelry and cling to each other as the volleyball team descends on them in a tirade of questions and exclamations.
Daichi sits on the floor, decides it’s not enough, and slumps down to lie on his stomach. The team continues screaming, with no signs of slowing down. Usually, Daichi would at least try to restore order but he’s taking Suga’s advice on knowing a lost cause when he sees it.
“Um, since WHEN have you two been macking on each other?” Tanaka shouts above the ruckus.
Out of his one cracked open eye, Daichi sees Suga emerge from the huddle with Hinata and Kageyama under each arm.
“They grow up so fast.” Suga sighs.
“Wait, we’re allowed to date team mates?” Nishinoya’s eyes widen.
Daichi closes his eyes. He can deal with his troublesome team later.