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Hinata had a lot of time to himself to think.
Thirty minute bike rides weren’t exactly short, after all. Sure, the distance itself might not have been all that much for a car, but on bike the steep hills and inclines dropped him down to a snail’s pace at times even if he was pedaling his hardest. Yet it was worth it when he got to the top, because from there on out it was all downhill.
He didn’t regret going to Karasuno. He could never regret something like that. Not with the teammates he’d somehow managed to acquire. It was one thing to shelter a dream from the storms and the winds and the elements, but it was another thing entirely for it to come to fruition.
He didn’t regret playing volleyball. Even if at times he’d been on his own, bouncing a ball off a wall or a tree or a metal pole, he couldn’t regret discovering that sort of passion. The long hours of practice once he’d joined a real club didn’t wear him down—it just reinvigorated him. He lived and breathed for it.
He didn’t regret meeting Kageyama. Oh, he was obnoxious and self-centered and simple and single-minded, but he was alright. He was actually really okay, once they got further away from their rocky start. Of course, Hinata had had to prove himself to him first, but he’d done that. He’d really, actually done that. Somehow. All it took was practice and time and sweat.
But he did regret one thing, however beyond his control it was.
He regretted being born an omega.
Naturally no one had known that he was an omega until his first heat hit him, but that was the period when he learned that, no, he probably wouldn't grow too much taller or bigger and his muscle mass would be limited to whatever he could manage to build. That was a devastating blow, really.
But then he saw his hero on screen and his love for volleyball set in, irreversibly.
Sure, he wished all the time that he could be an alpha—they were designed to be tall and muscular and most of his teammates were exactly that. He was envious, definitely. Not even Nishinoya’s presence could make up for that, although he was thoroughly relieved that at least he wasn’t the only omega in the club. There was already a precedent not to poke fun, not that people like Tsukishima listened…
Mostly though, volleyball aside, he regretted being an omega because of Kageyama.
It wasn’t that he treated him any differently for it—he didn’t. In fact, he was one of the few who never really made a point of mentioning or openly noticing it. For all intents and purposes, Kageyama made him feel as though he wasn’t an omega at all when it was just the two of them alone together.
And that was part of the problem.
Hinata… didn’t like to consider things like feelings. At least not about someone like Kageyama. For however much Hinata loved volleyball, he simply couldn’t match the other boy. Hinata liked his friends and some shows on TV and reading certain weekly release material. Kageyama only liked volleyball.
That was it.
And, alpha or not, that left no room for someone like Hinata.
If someone loved something and that something wasn’t you, you would be foolish to take that from them. Even more, if you loved them then you wouldn’t want to.
That was the predicament Hinata was faced with and so he kept his feelings buried deep, deep inside and hoped they’d go away eventually. He didn’t want to be that one obnoxious omega that went around getting infatuated with his teammates and distracting them. Sugawara and Nishinoya didn’t do that. Hinata had to follow their example.
It just wasn’t… professional, he told himself. They were together to train, not to date.
So he tried to forget about it.
But then it started to take root and grow. And that was terrifying.
People always said that love was an amazing feeling. When you fell in love you had been granted a beautiful gift. It was a thing to be cherished.
Hinata could… sort of see where they were coming from.
But the thing in his chest that started off so, so small… got bigger. And the bigger it got, the more it paralyzed him. He found himself feeling oddly restricted and withdrawn around Kageyama, a strange choked feeling making it hard for him to breath. He tended to forget about this for a while when he was focused on a match, but, unless he was concentrating really hard on a ball, it loomed over him, casting a dark shadow that made it hard to see.
It felt a little like he was drowning in this thing called love and that wasn’t beautiful at all.
“Hinata?” Sugawara asked one day, a look of concern on his face. “Are you feeling alright? You seem a little… off.”
“What? Oh!” He laughed, giving the other omega his best and most disarming smile. “Sorry, I guess I’m just not sleeping very well lately! My little sister got this music player and…” He trailed off. That was fairly self-explanatory wasn’t it?
Sugawara blinked. “So… this doesn’t have anything to do with Kageyama?”
Somehow just asking that so bluntly startled Hinata, who was too late to feign shock as his throat went tight and his mind struggled desperately for an answer. Finally he managed a slightly winded, “N- no… Why would it…?”
“Come with me.” Sugawara said suddenly, hand on his shoulder as he led him out of the gymnasium with a glance behind to make sure no one followed.
They eventually stopped a short distance away, nearer to the club room, and Sugawara looked at him with a stern gaze that reminded Hinata distinctly of his own mother. He was fairly certain he wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.
“Hinata... “ Sugawara said slowly, suddenly hesitating. “Did… Kageyama do something to you?”
“W- wha— No!” Hinata felt his spine go completely stiff as he waved his arms as though to banish such a horrible, horrible accusation. “Kageyama would never—!”
“Shh, shh!” Sugawara hushed, cutting him off with a hand over his mouth. After a moment, when he was sure that Hinata wouldn’t yell anymore, he removed it. “I understand. I was just concerned. You seem to be shying away from him lately…”
“Shying away?” Hinata repeated, slightly baffled by this.
“Well… ah…” Sugawara paused and vaguely gestured. “Sort of. Normally you’re more… together. Right? I wondered if you two had broken up…”
“... Broken up?” Hinata echoed, now completely and utterly lost.
Sugawara hesitated. “... Yes.”
Hinata peered at him hard, not really sure what was going on. “We’ve never dated…” He said slowly.
That seemed to catch the other omega off guard because he looked down at him as though he suddenly had two heads. Then he made a face that Hinata liked to think was some kind of weird shock. Then he peered at him. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Even though he…”
Hinata frowned. “What?”
“Nevermind.” Sugawara said suddenly, looking as though he had just decided something. He gave Hinata a wholly unconvincing smile. “I was mistaken! My bad!”
That was essentially where the conversation ended, leaving Hinata and his feelings of love more confused than anything else. Which kind of bothered him, because suddenly it felt as though he was left out of the loop.
So he asked Nishinoya, “Hey, do you think Kageyama and I are courting?”
“Yup.” The shorter omega didn’t even skip a beat.
Hinata stared at him. “Wha— Why?”
“Wait, you’re not? I just thought that was common knowledge.” He told him as he re-capped his water bottle and put it off to the side. “I mean, I was late to the club this year, but still…”
“We’re not. We’re definitely, definitely not!”
“Oh, well… Huh…” Nishinoya frowned a little. “Shouldn’t you tell that to Kageyama then?”
“What?”
“Well because he…” The other omega gestured a little bit, not unlike Sugawara. It was just a vague hand motion towards Hinata.
“What? What does he do?”
“Really?” Now he seemed incredulous. “You’re not pulling my leg are you? Because this is really kind of funny if you’re not. I’ve got to tell Asahi later…”
Now Hinata was annoyed. “What! What does he do!?”
Nishinoya grinned at him with barely contained mirth. “Ask Daichi.” He finally said, patting Hinata’s shoulder in an almost congratulatory way. “He’ll be able to explain it much better than me.”
So Hinata did, finding the captain the next day during morning practice, in a rare moment where he was far enough from Kageyama that the other alpha wouldn't hear.
“Why do people think Kageyama and I are courting?”
Daichi seemed somewhat unprepared for this but he didn’t look entirely surprised either. That awkward laugh, however…
It put Hinata on edge.
“Shouldn’t you get back to practice?” He said weakly, casting a brief glance towards their teammates. “We can talk about it after—,”
“No! I want to know and Nishinoya said to ask you and Sugawara wouldn’t tell me and—,”
“O- okay, okay. Quiet down a little, I understand…” Daichi soothed, putting his hands up defensively. He then collected himself, a hand on his chin. “You… honestly don’t know?”
Hinata shook his head.
Daichi closed his eyes for a second, thinking, and when he opened them again he said. “You know, you smell a lot like Kageyama, so it was only natural that most of us assumed that you two were… together.”
“That’s it?” Hinata said flatly. “We just practice a lot; it’s natural that we—,”
“And right now he’s looking over here at me as though I’m a threat to his omega.” Daichi added.
Hinata tensed, eyes wide, and, unable to help himself, he looked over at where Kageyama was.
Kageyama was practicing his receive…
Hinata looked back at Daichi.
“He stops when you look.” Was all the captain said, shrugging.
“Are you sure…?”
“Do you want real evidence.”
“Well, yeah.”
Daichi stepped closer and put his hand on Hinata’s shoulder. And then he smiled at him.
The volleyball that sailed past came so close to hitting the alpha in the face that even Hinata fell back in surprise with a shriek.
And then, just like that, Kageyama was there, looking completely innocent as he told the captain, “Sorry. I miscalculated the angle.” And then to Hinata an annoyed, “You should be practicing, shouldn’t you? You’re still below the level you need to be for the—,”
Hinata tuned him out, looking at him but not quite seeing him. Picking himself up, all he could manage was a half-dazed, “Oh, uh, yeah…”
“You’re not even listening are you?” Kageyama accused and then, watching as Daichi left them, he added, “Are you not feeling well? What were you two talking about?”
Suddenly… Hinata actually didn’t feel well.
The shock of the moment had distracted him, but with Kageyama this close it had only been a matter of time before his feelings bubbled up again. And when they did, they did so when a vengeance, new branches and leaves and petals bursting into existence at the idea that Kageyama might actually like him somehow.
The idea was almost too much for him to handle, especially when face to face with the alpha himself.
And then there was a hand on his forehead, feeling it, and his mind completely shut down when he registered whose hand it was.
“You’re really warm. Maybe you should go to the nurse’s office…?”
Hinata wasn’t listening. Or, rather, he couldn’t hear. He couldn’t breath. The tree of feelings felt like it was crushing him.
So he did the most reasonable thing he could think of:
He ran.
His teammates yelled his name at the abruptness of his exit, but none of them pursued him.
Well, save for the one he least wanted to at that exact moment.
Kageyama was hot on his heels, yelling and demanding he come back and attempting to catch up with him. However fast Hinata was, the alpha was just as quick, but where he mostly had speed and reflexes, Kageyama was gifted with the ability to analyze and plan too.
Slowly but surely he was catching up to him, until they were off school grounds and their chase reached a sudden halt along a path on a hill. Namely that Kageyama reached out to grab him and the second they made contact Hinata stumbled.
They rolled down the grassy hill in a tangle, which was more painful than it was fun.
At the bottom, Hinata groaned a little as his head pounded, dizzied and overwhelmed with Kageyama asking him too many questions too fast. When his vision stopped spinning, he finally realized that he was being straddled.
“Y- you—,” Was all he could get out as he struggled a little and then was set free by the alpha getting off of him.
“What’s wrong with you!” Kageyama demanded, glaring and angry. On a better day Hinata would have faltered a bit at that, but he was already so done with everything that all he could do was stare.
“What’s wrong with you!” Hinata countered, pointing at him.
That was enough to throw the alpha off for only a second before he glared and took up the challenge. “You’re acting strangely. Why did you run away from me?”
Hinata flinched. “I- I—…”
“Was it something I did?” Kageyama asked, a picture of complete seriousness.
Suddenly the omega felt guilty. “Oh, uh, no…”
“Then what?”
Hinata fiddled with the fabric of his shorts, flushing red. “It’s, uh…”
Kageyama was watching him, listening one hundred percent. Hinata looked down at the grass, swallowing nothing.
“Have you ever… liked someone?”
“Yes.” Kageyama answered without hesitation.
Hinata frowned at him. “No, I mean… romantically. As in, someone you would want to court…”
Kageyama blinked. “Yes.” He repeated.
That actually threw Hinata off. “Wait, what? Really?”
The alpha looked annoyed and skeptical. “Yes.”
“Who?”
Kageyama just stared at him hard. “... Really?”
“Yeah? Who is it?” Hinata asked. As much as he felt like this should have gutted him, he mostly just felt surprised. The fact that there was any room in that brain for something other than volleyball was incredible...
“You… I…” The alpha floundered, switching between expressions faster than Hinata could read them, and then finally settled for hanging his head. He stayed like that for a full ten seconds before he looked up again, scowling. “I hate you.”
“What.” Hinata balked, not yet sure whether or not to take offense. “Why?”
“It’s you.” Kageyama said softly, sounding more defeated than anything else. “The person I want to court is you.”
Hinata gaped before he finally found words. “... R- really?”
“Yes.”
“But what about volleyball?”
Kageyama looked at him. “Well that comes first, of course.”
Okay. Well, Hinata had expected that. “And then?”
“And then…” The alpha considered this. “Schoolwork.”
Hinata frowned. “And then?”
“... You.” Kageyama concluded.
Grabbing the front of his shirt, Hinata could only shake him. “Why didn't you tell me this sooner!”
“I thought you knew!” The alpha barked back, affronted.
Hinata stopped at that. “Wait, you thought I knew?”
“Yes! I thought you were aware… You acted aware! I didn’t— I…” He slumped again with that same pained, weary look from before. “Forget it.” He decided. Then he looked at him. “You know now though. Do you accept?”
The omega beamed. “Yeah!” He said, feeling a thousand things at once. “I do! I’ve—… I’ve really liked you for a while! I love you!”
Kageyama actually turned a little red at that and Hinata made sure to memorize the sight. “Idiot.” He muttered, but it didn’t hold any bite at all. The alpha reached out to ruffle his hair before moving to stand. “Come on, if we hurry back we might be able to make the end of practice.”
Jumping to his feet, Hinata felt like a battery that’d just been charged to full, a bounce in his step as he followed after and shamelessly threw himself against Kageyama, looping an arm around his back and laughing and jostling him before challenging him to a re-match of their race.
They became insufferable in the following days.
But at the very least, Hinata consoled himself, he wasn’t the one who became renowned around the team for carrying a very obvious infatuation for a teammate...