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It’s a Monday when you admit that you are most probably friends with Hinata Shouyou.
You see him waving at you from the other end of the hallway, a plastic bag hanging on his other arm. He runs to you and you catch a whiff of fresh meat buns when he’s close enough. Hinata sees you eyeing the bag and shoves it directly into your face.
“Here are the meat buns that I owe you,” Hinata says, his lips forming a pout, “for… losing the race yesterday.”
His downcast eyes immediately snap up to glare at you when you reach out to ruffle his hair. The glare softens ever so slowly though, and Hinata moves closer to your touch.
You retract your hand and start running to the rooftop, looking back at a stunned Hinata only to shout, “Last one there needs to buy milk boxes!”
You’re distinctly aware that Hinata’s started sprinting as well as hollering mild profanities at you for being a ‘cheater’ and ‘that was a head start!’ But both his voice and your footsteps are drowned out by the wild beating of your heart.
It’s because you’ve been running, you think, not because of the quiet purr that slipped out of Hinata’s lips earlier.
When you reach the rooftop first and it’s been a good five minutes but your heart still annoyingly goes thud thud thud, you think that it’s due to the exhilaration of winning and the pleasant prospect of a free milk box, not because you’ll be spending your lunch break with Hinata.
Your heartbeat speeds up again when Hinata leans in and takes a sip from your milk box when he’s already finished with his own. It’s obviously because you’re angry at him for drinking from your carton without permission, though that reason goes down the drain when you not only stare at his lips as he sips, but also offer the rest of your milk.
Hinata accepts it happily, of course, and you wonder if you wear the same disappointed expression as him when the bell rings and you part ways.
It’s a Tuesday when you start thinking that you probably like Hinata Shouyou more than a friend.
A classmate of Hinata’s passes by the tree both of you are taking shade under, calls out to him and gets you a face full of lower-than-average Math exams as Hinata bounds over to him.
Scowling, you place the papers beside you, where Hinata has been (the thought makes you drop your scowl and you feel the ends of your lips upturning when the words ‘and always will be’ adds itself at the end) and wait for them to finish talking.
Hinata’s friend is loud, like Hinata. You shouldn’t be surprised.
“—sitting there again?” the friend asks, and you suddenly want to step in when Hinata’s face falls.
You almost do when Hinata perks up again, a hand scratching his cheek as he laughs.
“Yeah. I guess it’s more comfortable over there,” Hinata replies, pointing to where you are.
His friend turns to look at you then and bows in greeting. You do the same, watching as he claps Hinata on the shoulder before walking away.
Hinata’s smiling as he trots back to you and plops back down on the grass.
Your heart is thudding against your ribcage again, but you hate it even more now. It’s different this time, different from the way it beat yesterday. It’s annoying.
It takes you a couple more seconds to find the answer, a couple seconds of staring at Hinata as he grabs your own Math papers and compares your answers.
You steal your exam papers back and hold them above your head, away from Hinata’s reach. There are only a few seconds left until he starts shrieking, so you ask him, “The make-up exams are tomorrow, right?”
With an eyebrow raised, Hinata regards you warily before he nods.
“Let’s have a bet. The results will be out by Friday, and the one who gets the lower score has to treat the other to meat buns,” you propose.
Hinata gets fired up right away.
“I’ll win this time!” he exclaims, immediately turning back to his papers.
You hum, moving your papers closer to his.
“But by the look of things, it looks like I’m going to win. Again,” you taunt, smirking when Hinata groans at the two point difference of their scores.
“Shut up, Kageyama! It’s just two points!”
“Yeah, two points higher than you.”
Hinata stands up. “Then I’ll be ten points higher than you in the make-up exam!”
You snort. “Okay, sure.”
“Don’t forget!” Hinata yells. “The loser buys the winner meat buns! Don’t for—”
He stops abruptly and you look up at him questioningly.
“Don’t forget, okay?” Hinata continues, his voice a lot softer than earlier.
You cock your head to the side. “Of course.”
Satisfied with your answer, Hinata beams and kneels down beside you, pushing his pinky to your face until it hits the tip of your nose.
“Swear,” Hinata murmurs.
You do. You entwine your pinkies together and you’re glad that you did. A new smile, a better smile, paints itself across Hinata’s face, your heart goes thud thud thud thud thud thud and this time it’s not as annoying as before.
It’s a Wednesday when you admit to yourself that yes, you like Hinata Shouyou.
And suddenly you feel so stupid for not noticing earlier.
Hinata’s living up to his title as the strongest decoy, as you cannot even take your eyes off of him during practice.
You’ve messed up for at least five times now, twice during service and thrice when you’re tossing. It’s just that…
Now that you know that you’re screwed and have fallen deep for a certain someone, you’re not exactly sure on how you should act around him.
Would acting the same be too harsh? You’ve heard enough shoujo manga discussions from your female classmates to know that if you and Hinata were the protagonists in such stories, another person would definitely snatch Hinata away. What if he gets enough of you? It’s quite frightening to think about it now.
Hinata answers your own questions for you though, and you appreciate the dull ache that his kick left.
“Don’t slack off, Kageyama. Don’t go easy on me.”
And you see him smirking at you before running back to place, ready for another toss.
thud thud thud thud thud
And you feel so very very stupid for not noticing earlier.
It’s a Thursday when you plan to confess to Hinata Shouyou but fail because he’s stupid enough to get sick.
Hinata’s friend from the other day drops by your classroom and hands you a stack of papers and some notebooks.
You plan on visiting Hinata’s house after volleyball practice, but Daichi reminds him that Hinata practically lives on top of a mountain and going there by foot late at night is not a good idea. He excuses you from practice that day and once Hinata gets better you are dragging him out to play volleyball because him getting sick cost both of you practice time.
(You will not and will never tell him that you ate lunch in the classroom and how you immediately looked down to your left or right when you heard someone call “Kageyama!”)
Hinata’s mother is just on her way out when you reach their house. She brightens when she sees you and explains how she’s urgently needed at Natsu’s school and “Can you please look after Shouyou while I’m gone?”
You now know where Hinata got his irresistible puppy dog eyes.
Having been here more than a dozen times, you head straight to Hinata’s room and enter, not even bothering to knock. Hinata’s sleeping anyway.
You sigh at the mountain of notebooks and knick knacks on top of Hinata’s desk. While you’re clearing out some space for the assignments entrusted to you, Hinata groans, and you’re by his side in an instant.
You place your hand on his forehead, wincing at his high temperature. You look around and see a damp cloth on the floor, which probably fell when Hinata rolled over.
There’s also a basin filled with water next to the bed. Quickly, you soak the cloth in water and carefully place it on his forehead. You release a sigh of relief when Hinata’s features smoothen even for a bit.
Remembering Hinata’s mother’s words, it’s probably best to cook something for Hinata to eat when he wakes up. You ignore the beating of your heart at the sight of his flushed face and head to the kitchen.
Familiar with the layout of the place and where everything is stored, you bring out some pots, bowls, spoons, forks and glasses. You check the fridge and bring out some vegetables. The cupboards are full of cereal and snacks. Everything’s okay. You can do this.
The only problem is that you have no idea what to cook for him.
(oh and you don’t really know how to cook)
So you realize that you may have fucked up when a wheezing Hinata comes running down the stairs right after the microwave sorta kinda maybe explodes.
“I wanted to go to school today,” Hinata croaks as you serve him a bowl of cereal along with a glass of milk. You’ve cleaned up the kitchen and apologized and you hope Hinata’s mother comes home soon because the confession almost tumbles out of your lips when Hinata turns to you and smiles.
“Thanks for being here, Kageyama.”
It’s a Friday when you confess to Hinata Shouyou.
You’ve won your bet and you teasingly remind him not to forget your meat buns on Monday.
Hinata noticeably stills before sighing and glaring at you. “I won’t, idiot.”
He looks more miserable than you expected and you hear yourself offering to buy both of you drinks next week before you even know what you’re doing.
It doesn’t work.
So you suggest practicing in the school’s courtyard for a bit, to make up for the practice that they missed yesterday, but only if Hinata’s feeling okay already.
It works wonders and as he runs out beaming, you run out with him and your heart is doing the thud thud thud thing again and you do it, you confess, but you thought that with the deafening loudness of your heartbeat, Hinata wouldn’t be able to hear it.
He does and you’re glad that he did as he turns and runs back to you, jumping when he’s only a few steps away.
You both fall to the ground and you’re aware that people are staring at you both, but hey, you are too. At Hinata, that is.
It’s a Saturday when you kiss Hinata Shouyou for the first time.
You are out on a date, racing to the park, a volleyball in hand when Hinata grabs your sleeve before you cross the street.
“Be careful, idiot!”
He’s close, too close and his hair is disheveled and his face is flushed from running and you’re one hundred percent sure that you look the same.
A simple peck on the lips.
Shoujo manga often portray first kisses as something sweet, something full of flowers and sparkles. Yours tastes of meat buns, smells of sunflowers and dew, and feels like Hinata.
You jump back, alarmed when you feel tears rolling down his cheek. Distraught, you start apologizing because what if he wasn’t ready yet after all you’ve just started going out and you flail your arms around, the same way Hinata does when he’s flustered and thud thud thud thud and it only gets louder that you’re afraid that everyone will hear it when Hinata pulls you back down for another kiss.
You don’t get the “Twenty-eight,” that he whispers though.
It’s a Sunday when Hinata Shouyou confesses to you.
He traces the scar on your chest, traces it before letting his hand travel upwards to your face. It finds its home on your cheek and you unconsciously nuzzle his palm.
“I love you, you know?” Hinata murmurs against your neck.
You let your chin rest on his head, a silent ‘Yes, dumbass’ that makes him smile.
Hinata continues talking, says that he wishes that the days are longer, maybe add a few more days to the week. You ask him why and he looks at you like you’re stupid.
“More time for volleyball and you, obviously.”
Both of you lie on your bed, the clock reads 11:49P.M. As you let sleep claim you, the last thing you see is Hinata, struggling to keep his eyes open.
And you feel so very very very stupid for not noticing earlier.
It’s a Monday when you admit that you are most probably friends with Hinata Shouyou.
And you can’t help it, when you see him on the other end of the hallway, a bag of meat buns in one hand and the other waving at you, a reprimand ready on your tongue when you see that his eyes are red and puffy and your immediate thought is that he probably stayed up late playing video games.
You can’t help but wish that you were more.