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The sun was high on the pale blue sky as they drove down the dirt road, but the heat wasn’t suffocating. A cool breeze flew in through the opened windows, airing out the warmth that would have otherwise build up in the car. Around them, growing rice fields stood and stretched for miles upon miles, as far as the eye could reach. The crops swayed against the wind and enjoyed the sun’s gentle, warm kiss.
“I don’t know why I agreed to this,” Atsumu said into the silence.
Next to him, Osamu grunted and shifted in the passenger seat. He had been asleep for the past while now, ever since he had reached over and turned off the radio to let them sit in silence, and Atsumu had let him. But now they were getting close to their destination, and he had to wake up anyway. Might as well complain, Atsumu decided. It wasn’t for the first time either.
“I could have been at home,” he said, “and practiced with the summer team. Instead, I’m out here in the dirt. I don’t know why I let you drag me along to this.”
Osamu sat up and stretched. “Because you can’t say no to Kita,” he said around a yawn.
It was true. Neither of them could, Osamu less than Atsumu, but that wasn’t the whole truth.
“He didn’t even ask!” Atsumu said, voice raised louder than he’d intended. “You just offered and decided to drag me along with you because you’re hopeless and whipped.”
“Am not,” Osamu protested, though weakly.
“Are too,” Atsumu fired back.
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
Osamu flipped him off, Atsumu stuck his tongue out in retaliation, and the conversation stopped there. The Kita property appeared on the horizon and as they got closer, Atsumu could make out a figure standing in front of the main house. The figure was their Kita, his silver hair shining under the sun’s warm rays. Atsumu glanced toward his brother and saw him adjust himself, brush his newly dyed bangs to the side, and he couldn’t help but smile. He decided not to comment on it, though a tease rested on his tongue.
Atsumu parked the car and stepped out moments after Osamu. He rounded the car with a smile on his lips and a hand raised in greeting while Kita approached them with that signature smile that sat lightly on his lips but had his eyes glowing. It always made Atsumu feel like whatever he said would come out genuine, as it usually was with Kita. Kita-san was genuine and honest, and Atsumu appreciated him for it.
“Osamu, Atsumu,” Kita said as he stopped before them and gave a small bow. “Thank you for coming. My family and I greatly appreciate your helping hands this summer.”
“Our pleasure, Kita-san,” Osamu said.
“Actually,” Atsumu started with a finger raised, but he didn’t get to finish the sentence because an elbow slammed into his side before he could utter another word. He grunted and, rubbing at his now sore side, he smiled and said, “Yes, our pleasure, Kita-san.”
Kita smiled at them, used to their brotherly behaviors. “Come,” he said and turned. “Let me show you around.”
The Kita farm was big though it was more farm and fields than it was buildings. Acres upon acres of rice. The Kitas were doing well for themselves when it came to their crops, though they had been struggling to find enough hands to harvest and do maintenance, especially during the late summer times when the work tripled. They managed, Kita always said, but this year was different. This year, his grandmother was out of commission due to an injured hip and his grandfather was getting too old to be working the fields for quite as long. They were down hands, and Osamu had offered his and Atsumu’s in replacement.
It had come out of nowhere, though Atsumu hadn’t been surprised. In all honesty, the thought had crossed his mind too, but it had been nothing more than a passing thought to repay some of the kindness Kita had shown them over the years. But Atsumu had had plans, so the thought had left his mind as quickly as it had arrived. Those plans had gone out the window the second Osamu opened his mind, because then Atsumu hadn’t been able to say no and deny Kita the extra help. Not when he had looked at them both with big, wide eyes and a smile that said more than his repeated thank yous had.
Saying no hadn’t been an option after that, but as they walked past the fields while Kita showed them around, Atsumu found himself dreading the work awaiting them in the coming weeks. The view was gorgeous though. There was something ethereal about the clear sky and the swaying rice crops. Something slow, something calming. Something that Atsumu would hang on his walls as a painting rather than look at it with his own two eyes knowing that he would have to go out in it and work.
“And this will be your room,” Kita said as he stopped in front of a door that he slid open.
The room inside was spacious with three futons laid out, two on one end and a third on the other. The third wasn’t made and was clearly slept in, and by its side stood a couple bags that leaned against the wall. One of the bags, an orange so pale it could have been yellow, was opened and had clothes spilling out of the opening, while the other, white and fabric, was twisted closed, clearly a laundry bag. Someone had been here for a while, and Atsumu eyed the bags curiously.
“You’ll have to share with my friend,” Kita said. “He offered to help too, and unfortunately we have limited sleeping space, but I hope you don’t mind.”
“As long as they don’t mind Atsumu’s snoring,” Osamu said, so low that Atsumu almost missed it.
But he didn’t. “Oy!” he exclaimed offendedly.
Osamu looked at him, then he smiled. “What?”
“Hinata-san won’t mind,” Kita said. “I already asked him.”
“Hope he won’t mind ‘Samu being a—”
“Leave your stuff in here,” Kita said, cutting him off. “We will move on.”
Atsumu stepped into the room first and picked the futon closest to the wall and furthest from their temporary roommate. Osamu followed him in and said nothing as he dumped his bag onto the other futon, which wasn’t as surprising as one might think. Osamu never really cared where he slept, so long as there was a place to sleep. When they were younger and had shared bunkbeds, he had even let Atsumu pick top or bottom. But even with that in mind, Atsumu had rushed in to pick first.
Because while curiosity tickled his brain, he wanted a buffer between himself and the stranger.
Just in case.
Kita took them through the rest of the house once their sleeping arrangements were settled. They had both been there before, though only once or twice even though they had known Kita for years now. The main house was cozy in its smallness. There was room for the Kita family and a few guests that were farmhands more often than not, and the kitchen was just as small, but the eating area was big enough to fit a small village if needed — and if people wouldn’t mind sitting shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee.
When they passed the older Kitas’ room, Kita slid the door open, and Atsumu and Osamu poked their heads inside to say hello to grandma Yumie. She was in her bed resting, her husband sitting on a chair next to her, and they both smiled and waved hello. Grandma Yumie thanked them for their help, and Osamu bowed his head while Atsumu waved them off like it wasn’t a big deal, as if he hadn’t been complaining the whole way.
Afterward, Kita took them outside.
“Hinata should still be out in the fields,” he said as they stepped out. “I’ll introduce you, and then we can go over what you will need to do in the morning. It’s getting too late to start now.”
Atsumu looked up to the sky and squinted at the sun that still hung high. It didn’t look late, but he didn’t question it and merely followed behind Kita. The rice fields were neatly organized and separated into rows that made them easy to navigate, and they were beautiful. But there were so many, and they just kept coming and coming, and Atsumu dreaded the morning. He would much rather be in a gym with a ball in his hands and a team around him.
“Hinata should be— Ah, never mind. Here he comes.”
Atsumu took his eyes off the crops and looked to Kita before he followed his gaze to their left where the crops parted way. And it was as if time slowed to a stop, his breath caught in his throat at the sight his eyes were met with.
A boy walked out from between the crops, a boy not much younger than himself. His skin was gleaming, his face and his bare arms kissed by the sun. The sun’s kisses had left him golden and with freckles decorating his skin, neither of which he hid and instead showed off with a sweat soaked tank top and blue shorts that rolled up to above his knees. His hair was kept relatively short, but it still stood out in every which way in all its orange brightness. The freckles kissed along his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and on top of it all, a smile sat on his lips that was so bright, it dimmed the sun above.
In the sunlight, his brown eyes shined brightly.
And Atsumu forgot how to breathe.
“Kita-san!” the boy called out with a hand raised high to the sky as he approached.
“Hinata,” Kita said. Atsumu didn’t hear him, all sounds around him drowned out while this sun-kissed angel approached him— them. He didn’t look at Kita either, so he missed the rare open smile that rested on his lips but more than that, he missed the way his brother blushed too. Kita said, “These are your roommates for the next few weeks, Miya Osamu and Miya Atsumu.”
Hinata looked at Osamu and then at Atsumu, and Atsumu fist bumped his ancestors on his way to the heavens when that bright smile grew even wider once their eyes met.
“Hi!” Hinata said and bowed briefly to them both. “I’m Hinata Shoyo. Nice to meet you.”
When Hinata stood back up straight, the smile grew enough to make his eyes squint, and Atsumu had to bite his lip to hold back the pitiful whimper that grew in his throat. Some noise must have come out anyway because the smile on Hinata’s lips slowly melted away until it was replaced by a frown.
“Are you okay?” he asked with worry in his voice, a hand almost instinctively reaching out toward him. “Do you need water? You’re looking a little red.”
Atsumu wished for the ground to swallow him whole. He said nothing and merely shook his head, trying to buy himself a second to catch his breath again.
Next to him, Osamu said, “Give him a minute. I think his soul just left his body.”
Atsumu resisted the urge to smack his brother. Instead, he closed his eyes for a moment as he took in a deep breath. When he opened them again, he put on a smile that didn’t waver even the slightest bit when he met Hinata’s beautiful brown eyes again. No, it definitely didn’t waver nor did his voice quiver and break when he opened his mouth to speak.
“Miya Atsumu,” he introduced himself, then gestured to his brother. “And that’s my little brother, Osamu.”
“We’re twins,” Osamu said, voice deadpan.
“I was born first.”
Osamu said nothing, and Atsumu didn’t need to look at him to know he rolled his eyes at him. He had no desire to look at him either, not when that bright smile returned to Hinata’s lips. This time, Atsumu returned it and held onto his ascending soul with all his might.
Suddenly, he was glad to be here.
“Switch with me.”
Osamu looked at him from his cross-legged seat on his futon. There was a peeled and half eaten banana in his one hand and a bite of it in his mouth that he didn’t stop chewing as he stared. He chewed slowly, on purpose, and Atsumu repeated himself.
Osamu swallowed and said, “No.” Then he took another bite.
“Yes,” Atsumu said, already picking up his bags. “We’re switching.”
“No, we’re not.”
“Yes, we are.”
“No.”
“Yes.
“Why would we?”
“Because!”
“Because you want to sleep closer to Hinata? The answer’s no.”
Atsumu guffawed. “That is not why!”
“Oh really? Then tell me why you want us to switch so bad.”
Atsumu opened his mouth but closed it again when no words came out.
Osamu took a bite of his banana. After a beat, he said, “I’m waiting.”
“Why do you care? Just switch with me, ‘Samu.”
“Nah. It’s more fun watching you beg.”
Atsumu fell to his knees with a whined groan. For a moment, just a moment, he considered properly begging while down here, but that wasn’t who he was. Instead, he reached out to grab a pillow and flung it toward Osamu. But, Osamu being Osamu and therefor his brother, Osamu saw it coming and had already put his arm up to block his head before the pillow made contact. In the same breath, he kicked at Atsumu.
Atsumu yelled and hit him again, smacked the banana right out of his hand, and in retaliation, Osamu leaped forward and tackled him to the ground. They fought and yelled childish names at each other, both too busy to hear when the door slid open, and someone stepped into the room with them. Not until someone laughed, that was. The laughter was bright and loud, and the brothers both froze mid-action to look toward it.
Hinata stood in the open door, dressed for bed in thin pajamas and a smile wide on his lips, his shoulders shaking with laughter even though it wasn’t audible anymore.
“Do you guys fight all the time?” he asked them.
Atsumu stared at him, words dead on his tongue. And when Osamu pushed at him, Atsumu let himself fall back onto the ground.
“Only when he’s an idiot,” Osamu said. “So yes. All the time.”
Atsumu blinked, then scoffed and got up. “Big words for a dumbass,” he muttered.
Hinata must have heard him because he laughed and Atsumu both died and came to life all at the same time. The laughter was like a choir of angels, like music to his ears. Atsumu wanted to bottle it up and keep it close to his heart, always there to sing him to peace. It sent his head reeling. Crushes had never come easy to him, they had rarely ever happened. Rarely meaning once, to his memory. But there was something different here. Something that Atsumu wanted to dive head first into and explore.
Call it lust, call it attraction, call it love at first sight.
Atsumu didn’t care to define it. He merely wanted to bask.
“You can just put your futon closer to mine, if that’s the problem,” Hinata said. “I don’t mind.”
Atsumu looked at Osamu and sent him a pleading look.
Osamu sighed dejected. “I don’t care anymore,” he said. “Just take it and let me sleep in peace.”
“Thank you, ‘Samu!”
Osamu mumbled something incoherently as he got to his feet, though he wasn’t up for long before he threw himself onto the other futon, banana long forgotten on the floor. He laid there and only moved to make himself comfortable and when Atsumu glanced over after dragging his own things over to Osamu’s futon, he found his brother’s eyes closed.
Atsumu, unsurprised and used to it, kept moving. He dragged the futon just a little further away from Osamu and closer to Hinata. Not too close but just enough. Just enough. He sat down and pulled his legs underneath him before he turned to look at Hinata. Hinata was already looking back at him with a smile on his lips. Atsumu returned it, sure that his cheeks were red.
“Better?” Hinata asked.
“Much,” Atsumu said.
“Great!” Hinata crawled under his covers and said, “We should get some rest. There will be a ton of work to do tomorrow.”
He sounded excited about it. Atsumu almost wanted to groan, but he bit back the urge. Instead, he followed suit and crawled under the covers of his own futon. Behind him, he heard Osamu snore quietly as the quiet fell over them. Atsumu stared up at the ceiling, fingers tapping on his chest.
“Hey, Shoyo-kun,” he said after a beat, voice a whisper.
Hinata rolled over to face him with an answering hum.
“How do you know Kita?”
“Our grandparents have been friends for years,” Hinata told him. “Kita-san and I have been friends since before either of us could talk.” There was a smile in his voice when he said, “Kita-san is amazing.”
“Yeah, he is,” Atsumu agreed with a smile. “’Samu especially thinks so.”
“Shut up,” came Osamu’s mumbled, sleepy response.
Atsumu cupped a hand next to his mouth and stage whispered, “He has a massive cru—”
He was cut off when a pillow smacked down on his head. Hard and with no care for how hard in a way that only a brother would. Atsumu tossed it back without looking away from Hinata and without seeing where he threw it. In the general direction of Osamu was his goal, but he didn’t care where it landed.
In front of him, Hinata chuckled and continued like this was completely normal. It was almost like he understood, like he had a sibling himself and found none of their brotherly antics anything but hilarious and amusing. Relatable, even, maybe.
“How do you know Kita-san?” Hinata asked.
“We play volleyball together.”
In the blink of an eye, Hinata shot up and looked at him with wide eyes. Atsumu could have sworn his eyes even sparkled. “You guys play volleyball?” he exclaimed, so loud that the whole house could have heard him.
Atsumu smiled. Behind him, Osamu groaned.
“Yeah,” Atsumu said and sat up as well. “You play too?”
“Uh huh,” Hinata said with an excited nod. “I’ve been playing forever!”
“What position?”
“Middle blocker.”
Atsumu raised his brows, unable to hide his surprise.
“I know.” Hinata laughed and said, “You wouldn’t think it, but I’m really good. I’m gonna be the ace one day!”
His enthusiasm made Atsumu soar. It was like this boy was lovingly crafted for him.
“You’re gonna have to show me one day,” he said.
“I can show you right now!”
“No,” Osamu groaned from his futon.
Hinata didn’t seem to hear him, but he deflated anyway. “Only… I didn’t bring a ball.”
“Neither did I,” Atsumu said with a sigh. “’Samu wouldn’t let me.”
“What position do you play?”
“Setter,” Atsumu said proudly.
The room was dimmed, but Hinata’s eyes suddenly brightened the whole room. “Set for me, Atsumu-san!”
In his chest, Atsumu’s heart swelled and exploded. That was it. He was a goner.
“Shut up and go to sleep,” Osamu cut in before either of them could say more.
“Right, right!” Hinata spoke quietly and went to lie back down. But not before making eye contact with Atsumu and whispering, “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Atsumu smiled and whispered back, “Tomorrow.”
When Atsumu woke the following morning, the futon closest to him was empty. He stared at the indent of where Hinata had slept as he slowly came to consciousness. He allowed himself to stay there for a bit, staring at the unmade futon while Osamu’s soft breathing filled the room. Outside, the sun had risen and cast a soft orange glow into the room. It must have still been early if his brother was still asleep too, so Atsumu found himself in no rush to get up and closed his eyes again.
He breathed in, breathed out.
And then he flung himself out of bed and rushed out.
He found Hinata in the kitchen with Kita. Kita stood by the counter and brewed coffee, while Hinata sat by the table with a bowl of breakfast rice in hand, chopsticks in the other. He had his mouth full and his cheeks bulging out like a chipmunk when Atsumu stepped in from the hall, but that didn’t stop him from smiling brightly at him when he looked over.
Mouth full, Hinata said nothing but raised his hand to wave.
Atsumu, words failing him, waved back.
“Good morning, Atsumu,” Kita said from the counter. “Did you sleep well?”
“Like a baby,” Atsumu said as he took a seat across from Hinata.
Hinata swallowed thickly and said, “Morning, Atsumu-san!”
Atsumu smiled at him and said, “Morning, Shoyo-kun.”
“Is Osamu up yet?” Kita asked as he poured coffee into a cup.
“Nah,” Atsumu said. “Probably won’t be for a while either, unless you plan on dragging him up.”
Kita hummed but said nothing.
Atsumu looked at him, then shared a look with Hinata. Though they had known each other for mere hours, he recognized the look in Hinata’s eyes as a look of mirth. It seemed like he wasn’t the only one who had noticed something growing between Kita and Osamu. For a while, Atsumu had thought it was wishful thinking on his brother’s behalf. But if Hinata had noticed something too, maybe it wasn’t all in his head.
“Ya know, Kita-san,” Atsumu said and looked back at Kita. “He would probably like it if you woke him up.”
“I will,” Kita said. “If he’s not up in five minutes. Meanwhile, get something to eat.”
“Yes, sir!” As he got up, Atsumu leaned across the table and whispered, “They’re hopeless, I swear.”
Hinata chuckled quietly and nodded enthusiastically in agreement, his mouth too full for words.
Atsumu had only just gotten himself something to eat when Osamu emerged from the hall. He came trudging into the kitchen, dragging his feet across the wooden floors. He was barely awake, eyes still not fully open, but he must have been awake enough to fix his bed hair, because it wasn’t quite as bad as it usually was. Atsumu snickered at him and sat back down at the table, this time next to Hinata which he tried to make look as casual as possible even though his heart was pounding in his chest as he made the decision to sit there.
“Osamu,” Kita said and turned to him with a cup in hand. “Good morning.”
Osamu grunted out a morning and took it. He didn’t look, just brought it to his lips and took a sip. He grimaced and quickly turned to the cabinets. To look for something sweet to put into the coffee, no doubt.
“I’ll let you wake up and get something to eat,” Kita continued. “But then I will show you both what I need you to do. We will have to get started on the day’s work soon.”
Atsumu slumped. A complaint rested on his tongue, but he never got to speak it because Hinata spoke before he could ever think of a way to form said complaint.
“Or I could show them the ropes,” he said.
Atsumu glanced at Hinata. There was a bright smile on his lips and his eyes were already on Atsumu when he turned to look his way. Hinata was excited, as if this was somehow the best thing in the world. Atsumu recognized that kind of enthusiasm because he felt the same for volleyball. And Hinata had had a similar form of enthusiasm with regards to volleyball the night before too. It seemed like Hinata was excited about the smallest thing, even this. Atsumu liked that.
Hiding a smile, Atsumu shoveled food into his mouth.
“Are you sure?” Kita asked Hinata.
Hinata nodded. “Yeah!” he said. “I don’t mind. It’ll be fun.”
Fun wasn’t the word that Atsumu would use to describe it. Hours later, when he was covered in dirt and soaked with sweat due to the sun beating down on them as they moved and moved and his limbs were soar, he wanted nothing but to lie down and do nothing. Even as they took a break for lunch, Hinata had to grab onto him and haul him up to get back to work, because he didn’t want to.
And yes, maybe he put on a show just to have Hinata touch him. Maybe he did, but it wasn’t a ploy, and it wasn’t a lie. They got a lot done at the cost of their energy though, and that was satisfying. And it was nice to have Hinata instructing him, especially since Osamu wandered off to be with Kita instead somewhere along the way, so Atsumu got to be alone with him. That was nice. But Atsumu dreaded repeating the work the next day and the next day and the next day.
He would rather have gotten tired out playing volleyball.
Oh, why had he not met Hinata in a gym?
When the sun started to set, Atsumu found himself on the porch enjoying the cool breeze brushing over the land in a gentle caress. The breeze was a pleasant contrast to the warmth he had been enduring throughout the day, and so he closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and let himself enjoy being cooled off. His brother was in the kitchen with Kita, the two making dinner and making subtle eyes at each other, and Atsumu hadn’t wanted to stick around to witness it. So, he was out here, cooling off.
“Orange?”
Atsumu cracked an eye open and looked up at the bowl presented to him. In the bowl were orange slices, neatly peeled and cut up. His eyes followed the hand holding said bowl, traveling up a sun-kissed bare arm to a freckled shoulder until he found Hinata’s smiling face, orange hair illuminated by the setting sun. With a returning smile, Atsumu reached out to grab a slice.
“Thank you, Shoyo-kun,” he said as he scooted aside, though there was plenty room on the porch already. “Join me. It’s nice out here, good place to cool off.”
Hinata did. He sat down beside him and pulled his legs underneath him in a crisscross position. It made his knee touch Atsumu’s thigh and his shorts bunch up along his muscular thighs. Atsumu’s eyes were drawn to the sight, mouth watering. He pretended to be looking at the bowl that Hinata placed between them instead and reached out to grab another slice of orange, though he found himself fumbling a little due to his divided attention.
His attention was brought back, however, when Hinata suddenly took in a deep breath and let it back out audibly. He looked at him. Hinata had his head tilted back with his eyes closed and an easy smile on his lips as a breeze passed by them, a breeze that ruffled his hair and his clothes and knocked the breath right out of Atsumu.
He wanted to immortalize this moment, this feeling.
He didn’t know what to call it, but he wanted to keep it.
He wanted to keep him.
“Where do you go to school, Shoyo-kun?” he asked.
“Karasuno,” Hinata said and opened his eyes to look up. “In the Miyagi Prefecture.”
“Ah,” Atsumu said in a disappointed sigh. “That’s a shame. Karasuno isn’t that close to Inarizaki.”
“Oh.” Maybe his ears deceived him, but Hinata sounded disappointed too. “But we can still meet up after the summer. Maybe we’ll even have volleyball matches together!” Hinata was smiling now and looking at him with that open smile and bright eyes. “And we can find a ball, so you can set for me before summer ends too!”
Atsumu chuckled, heart pounding. “Your endless optimism and enthusiasm are admirable, Shoyo-kun,” he said.
“I want to play with you, Atsumu-san,” Hinata said, and it was just what Atsumu wanted to hear.
He smiled and said, “I want to play with you too, Shoyo-kun.”
It felt like a promise, from both of them. A heavy promise that couldn’t be broken.
In the morning, Atsumu woke to find Hinata’s futon empty again. There was a pull in his chest that made him fling the covers off his body and jump out of bed faster than he had in a while. He was out of the room before he had even gotten properly dressed, still tugging his shirt down his torso when he slid the door open and rushed down the hall to reach the kitchen. When the kitchen showed to be empty but with remnants of someone having eaten breakfast, he rushed out the backdoor and to the fields. And that’s where he found him.
Hinata saw him coming long before he made it to him. He turned to him and smiled so bright, you would think it was midday and not early in the morning, his smile brighter than the afternoon sun. He stopped whatever he was doing to raise a hand in a wave hello and called out his name. Pulled by the string tugging at his heart, Atsumu rushed to him with a smile of his own and a lightness to his feet.
The days passed like such.
In the mornings, Atsumu woke up and left bed in search for Hinata. Hinata would be in the kitchen some days and already outside in the fields others, but Atsumu found him every morning. It didn’t take long before he was told, by Kita, that Hinata purposely made it easy to find him. Usually, he told him, Hinata would be far out in the field and never as close to the house as he had been lately. It made Atsumu smile, though he had a feeling that Kita had meant it teasingly. It had come out genuine despite it.
Kita wasn’t the only one to tease Atsumu. Ten days into it, Atsumu was growing used to this routine they were having, and he was walking on cloud nine day in and day out. And of course, Osamu noticed it and, being Osamu and his brother, he had to comment on it.
“You’re pathetic,” he told him one afternoon.
Atsumu had gotten up from his seat next to Hinata on the porch—their seat—to refill his bowl with food when Osamu made the comment. The smile dropped from Atsumu’s lips immediately only to be replaced by an aghast and offended look that he shot his brother. He scoffed at him and shoveled food into his bowl with a grumble.
“Like you’re any better with Kita,” he was his grumbled response.
“We kissed last night,” Osamu said, so nonchalantly though his cheeks were red.
Atsumu stared at him. “Shut your trap, no you didn’t.”
Osamu scooped some food onto his fork and said, “We did.”
“No way your coward ass would kiss Kita.”
“I didn’t. Kita kissed me.”
Atsumu couldn’t believe it, yet he believed it all the same. He congratulated his brother, though not without insulting him as well, and then turned to look at where Hinata was still seated right where he had left him, sitting in the sun and looking like a lovingly crafted picture that Atsumu would gladly spend hours and days and months to create. He was happy for his brother, but he was jealous too. He wanted to love and be loved as well, in that way.
The days passed, Osamu and Kita acted no different though they were gone more often than they were seen, and Atsumu’s jealousy grew as his bond with Hinata grew as well. Or maybe it was yearning, pining, rather than jealousy. Yearning to be touched by Hinata in the same way that Kita would touch Osamu when he thought no one was looking. Yearning to kiss him like the sun had kissed his glowing skin. Yearning to hold him and call him his, for all dramatic purposes.
They had known each other for such a short time. Had you asked Atsumu before, he would have told you that love at first sight was impossible. It was for movies and fictional tales only, not real life. But when he looked at Hinata, he was almost convinced that fictional tales had come to life to prove him wrong.
The days passed by in a warm routine, but they passed by too quick and soon, the Miya brothers’ last day was drawing near. He could feel the disappointment in Hinata and knew it wasn’t projection from himself though he was disappointed and heartbroken as well. He didn’t want to leave. Not yet.
“Atsumu-san,” Hinata said into the quiet the night before.
They were alone in the room this night. Osamu had grabbed his things and moved elsewhere without a word and with cheeks so red, they looked sunburnt. The room was quiet, and Atsumu had been staring at Hinata’s hand for the past several minutes, longing to reach out and touch him. His name being spoken so softly and so quietly had him turn his attention to Hinata’s face instead.
Hinata wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at the ceiling, but when he spoke again, he turned his head to the side and made eye contact with him. The eye contact felt heavy, and it washed away the rest of the world. In this moment, it was just the two of them. The two of them and no one else. Nothing else mattered but him and them.
“We never got to play together,” Hinata continued. He sounded sad.
Atsumu wanted to fix that, and so he decided to be brave. He shifted himself a little closer to Hinata and reached out to take Hinata’s hand in his own. He didn’t break eye contact as he moved, and neither did Hinata when he curled his fingers around Atsumu’s hand and held on.
“Let me set for you one day, Shouyou-kun,” Atsumu said in a whisper. “Let me set for you until we’re both too tired to move. And then let me do it again the next day, and the next.”
The way Hinata smiled at him, one would think Atsumu had just said I love you.
And maybe, in his own way, Atsumu had.
“When we see each other at a match,” Hinata said, and he sounded so confident that they would, Atsumu believed him, “I want you to look at me. I want you to see what I can do, and then find me when we’re both looking for teams. Then I want you to set for me.”
It was a promise that Atsumu swore to keep. And so, when they parted ways, he did.