Work Text:
1
Hinata blows warm air into his freezing hands, rubbing them together for extra warmth. He pulls his scarf up to his nose and picks up his pace to the gym. It’s a fairly cold winter morning, the sun hasn’t risen yet, and the sky looks like it’ll get darker as the early hours pass by. Hinata never usually leaves for the gym this early, but the group chat he has with his buddies from Brazil blew up before his alarm, and he couldn’t fall back asleep.
Hinata didn’t really mind, but this morning was significantly colder than usual and he’s sniffling every 10 seconds. “Ah I really hope the gym is open.” He says out loud. Usually Bokuto is the first one there, already doing his stretches and leg warm ups by the time Hinata rushes into the gym, shoulders visibly relaxing with the significant temperature increase. When he does see the gym in his sight, the lights are off. Letting out a short tuft of air through his nose, Hinata seriously considers going to a cafe or somewhere else warm until the gym opens, but he’s fairly tight on money this month, and buying overpriced—although arguably delicious, coffee would overrun his budget.
He jogs over the rest of the way, mindful of any slippery patches on the way due to frost, and sits upon the top steps. Taking out his phone—which is at 20 percent, much to his dismay, Hinata guesses that it won’t be too long before everyone else gets here. Closing his eyes, he can feel the exhaustion from waking up too early catch up, and rests his back against the cold gym doors. Hinata crosses his arms and buries his face in his scarf, shuffling until he’s in a comfortable position.
It's not more than five minutes before he hears the soft patter of footsteps on the dead grass approaching. ‘The crunch of frost is a nice sound’ he notes. He then feels someone sit next him, their clothes rubbing against his own. Peeling his eyes open, Hinata looks to his right and sees Atsumu shivering next to him, rubbing his hands together to generate heat.
“Atsumu-san!” Hinata yelps. Atsumu turns his head to face him and smiles. He’s wearing a grey hoodie with a thick green jacket over it. Hinata notes that he isn’t wearing a scarf and that his nose is bright red from the cold wind blowing.
“Good morning, Shouyou.” Atsumu mumbles, voice shaking from his violent shivering.
“Atsumu-san why didn't you bring a scarf? You’ll catch a cold if you don't take care of yourself better!” He scolds the other, leaning forward so that he could see his face better.
Atsumu smiles sheepishly and tucks his hands into his hoodie pocket. “I forgot to check the weather forecast today.” He chuckles. “I thought that the gym would be open by the time I got here so that I didn’t have to go back to get my scarf.”
Hinata frowns at him. “That’s no good Atsumu-san, who will toss to me if you get sick?”
Atsumu can’t help the slight blush that creeps onto his face when he hears that. They sit in comfortable silence for a bit longer, watching as people pass by on the way to work or school. The sky seems to only get darker as time passes by, signifying that it might snow. Atsumu checks his phone and sees that there’s only twenty minutes left before practice is supposed to be starting. He shoots Bokuto a quick text asking where he is and stuffs his phone back in his pocket. Looking over, Atsumu sees Hinata exhale a sigh and his breath mixes with the cold air.
“Shouyou, do you want to huddle together a bit closer? I’m gonna freeze my fingers off if everyone else doesn’t get here soon.” He says. Hinata chuckles before shuffling over closer towards Atsumu.
“Of course!” Hinata laughs. He presses his side against Atusumu’s and bumps their knees together. Letting himself slouch, Hinata presses his head in the crook of Atsumu’s neck, pulling his scarf up to hide his reddening cheeks.
It takes everything in Atsumu not to squeak when he feels Hinata’s fluffy hair tickle his exposed skin, but he lets his head rest on top of Hinata’s, and closes his eyes.
They both dont hear the muffled ding of Atsumu’s phone though.
2m ago
wym? practice was cancelled today lol
2
Atsumu’s head harshly hits the bus window as they shake from the bumpy road. He opens his eyes to see that the sun had set, covering the rest of the bus in darkness. Hinata who is sitting beside him has his knees up to his chest, scrolling on his phone. Atsumu sat up in his seat to check on everyone else, who were all promptly asleep, some snoring loudly and some leaning their heads on their seat mates shoulder. Atsumu chuckled silently, knowing that whoever had the misfortune of sitting next to Bokuto would have a wet shoulder by the time they got back to the gym.
“What’s funny Atsumu-san?” Hinata whispered causing Atsumu to slightly jump at the sound. Hinata locked his phone before lifting himself up to look around at whatever caused the other to laugh.
Atsumu vaguely points at Bokuto’s pointy hair sticking out above the row of seats. “Nothing really, just thinking that whoever Bokuto sat next to is gonna have to deal with his drooling for the whole ride back.” He can feel Hinata’s shoulders shake slightly next to him from silent laughter. He turns his head to see Hinata covering his mouth with his hand in an effort to not make any noise and wake the others up.
The bus hits another bump and they both get knocked off their seats and bump into each other, shoulders hitting each other roughly. The windows rattle loudly once again, and Atsumu just notices the frost covering the corners. Hinata pulls his knees up his chest again and pulls his sleeves down to cover his hands.
“Are you cold Shouyou?” Atsumu scoots closer to him, hoping that his little body heat will provide him some warmth. He’s a little chilly as well since he's the one with the window seat. He’s always told that he radiates body heat no matter what the temperature was—which admittedly was annoying in the summer when everyone kept a two foot distance from him.
“I wish I brought a thicker jacket, I always get cold on bus rides.” You could hear the slight pout in his voice as Hinata rubs his arms. “You’re really warm though Atsumu-san, like a living, breathing furnace.”
Atsumu huffed at that. “Ha. Ha.” The way they were positioned, the moon was hitting Hinata’s face just right, the light illuminating his features and giving him an angelic glow. Atsumu almost doesn't want to look away but he thinks that getting caught staring would be a tad bit more embarrassing. Hinata is giggling, and Atsumu feels like this is their own little world at this moment. He moves his arm from Hinata’s side and circles it around his shoulders, pulling him closer. Their sides are pressing against each other and Hinata can feel the warmth seeping in through his jacket, as well as onto his face.
“Might as well use my furnace powers to good use.”
“I think I should upgrade you to be my personal kotatsu.”
“How cruel, I set to you and share my body heat yet I’m being degraded to a lowly kotatsu.” Atsumu jokes. He sneaks a glance at Hinata to see the cute way his face scrunches up at being teased. Coiling his arm further around Hinata, he squishes them closer together, heads almost touching. “Do you think they have the highlights from today’s game up yet?”
Hinata reaches for his phone that he discarded from earlier and turns it on, unlocking it. “Let’s see. I’m sure it’ll be up by now, seeing as it’s past ten.” He fiddles with the phone’s brightness before searching up the reels from their earlier game. Hinata reaches below to the beaten up backpack at his feet, and pulls out an old tangled pair of headphones. Unsuccessfully trying to untangle them, he passes them to Atsumu with a sigh, who quickly gets the knots out and plugs it into Hinata’s phone while handing one bud to the other.
Hinata unlocks his phone, and both him and Atsumu scrunch up their faces when the phone’s bright screen hurts their eyes. Hinata quickly turns down the brightness and goes on whatever volleyball highlights news site that Atsumu can’t recognize. Atsumu settles his arm back around Hinata’s shoulder and shifts his position so that they're both more comfortable
The monotonous humming of the bus and the quiet snores of the other members fill the air along with Hinata and Atsumu’s not so quiet comments and whispers. At some point Atsumu draped his jacket over both of their laps, and he vaguely thinks that they fit together like two puzzle pieces.
3
“You’d better hope you get better before the big match next week.” Atsumu says jokingly. He presses a cold patch on Hinata’s forehead and smooths it down, making sure it's properly placed. “To think you’d just drop on the floor in the locker room—come to think of it, didn’t the same thing happen to you in your first year?”
Hinata lifts up his blanket to muffle his cough. “That was different, I passed out during the actual match.” He mumbles weakly. Atsumu snickers and brings his legs in a criss-cross position to sit more comfortably—or at least as comfortable as you can get while sitting on the floor.
“Hardly makes it better. You know I had to carry your sick ass all the way from the locker room? And let me say, I did not expect someone so short to be so hard to carry.”
“I’ve grown a lot since high school.” Hinata whines, turning his head towards Atsumu to pout.
Atsumu conceals his laugh with his hand, trying to be quiet for the sake of Hinata being sick. “Leave it to the one and only Shouyou to argue about his height, even while sick.” Hinata grumbles something about ‘being the average Japanese height now’ while settling further into his bed. Atsumu gently presses the back of his hand against Hinata’s cheek, feeling if his skin is still hot to the touch. Still a bit warmer than normal but better than it was initially. “At least your fever is going down. You’ll probably be all better by tomorrow but might as well take tomorrow to rest as well.”
“Atsumu-san, won’t you catch my cold if you stay so close to me?”
Setting one hand on Hinata’s blanketed figure, Atsumu rests his chin on the edge of the bed. “You don’t have to worry about that. Remember that bug I caught last month? I’m practically immune at this point.” He boasts.
Hinata scooches over and shuffles a bit until he’s lying down on his side, back towards the wall. “Then will you stay with me for a bit. I’m freezing and I don’t wanna be by myself yet.” Atsumu blinks. Does Hinata mean to stay with him? As in, inside his bed? As in, getting into his twin sized bed with him?
Atsumu for one wasn’t about to complain, and Hinata—the poor thing, is sick anyways so nothing would really happen. Swallowing his embarrassment, Atsumu lifts the covers just enough so that he could slip in. He was very conscious of what was considered too close even when he could feel the heat radiating off of Hinata’s skin. He shifts his weight until he’s on his back. Hinata worms his way closer, resting his head on Atsumu’s chest. Atsumu accommodates the new position by placing his arm under Hinata, cushioning his head.
The setting sun’s rays filter through the cracks of Hinata’s closed blinds, coating the entire room in a gold glow. Hinata has long since fallen asleep, and Atsumu’s lids flutter closed as his entire body relaxes. Before sleep envelopes him, he decides that he wouldn't mind if time stopped in this moment right now.