Work Text:
Hinata sighed and rolled over, pulling his blankets with him. He missed Kageyama; 2 am blanket burritos just weren’t the same without him. He had only been gone a week and a half, but that was the longest they had been apart since they came to college a year ago.
“Stupid Kageyama,” he whined. “Why did you have to go to America without me? And to Las Vegas, too! I wanted our first time out of the country to be together.” Of course, he knew Kageyama hadn’t really had a choice in the matter. There was a big international volleyball tournament being hosted in the city, and part of their team was going. Originally, Kageyama hadn’t been slated to go, but a week before the tournament one of the other setters had twisted his ankle, forcing Kageyama to go in his place.
They were due back the next day and Hinata couldn’t be happier. Even he knew Las Vegas’ reputation with its nickname of Sin City. What if something had happened, like Kageyama losing all his money in a casino, or getting mugged, or, worst of all, if he found some hot American and decided that Hinata wasn’t actually all that good. He knew that last one probably wouldn’t happen, but there was still a niggling doubt. And of course, there was the question of if Kageyama would actually bring him a present. Hinata had bothered him about it nonstop before he left, until finally he got a ‘Yes, fine, ok, if it’ll shut you up so I can finish packing.’ Now the only question was is he would actually follow through on his promise, and if he did, how awful the souvenir would be. Kageyama was notoriously bad at gift giving, and it would almost certainly be something extraordinarily tacky.
He wrapped the blankets more firmly around himself. Just one last night, and Kageyama would be back.
“TOBIO!” Hinata yelled as he launched himself across the gym, leaping into the air and wrapping himself entirely around the other boy.
“Sh-Shouyou,” Kageyama said, looking flustered and staggering slightly under the sudden weight. The rest of their teammates simply laughed, used to Hinata’s antics.
Hinata buried his face in Kageyama’s neck. “I missed you,” he whispered.
“I missed you too,” Kageyama whispered back, hugging Hinata close before letting him drop to his feet. The rest of the team had already gone to put their things away in the locker room, so the two began making their way in that direction, Hinata leading. “By the way,” Kageyama said, “I was expecting you to meet us at the airport. Why are you here?”
“Well, I totally wanted to, but when I woke up I had a text from the captain telling me not to bother, and to come unlock the gym so you guys can put your stuff away instead.” Kageyama couldn’t help but laugh at how dejected Hinata sounded.
“You really wanted to meet us at the airport, didn’t you?” he laughed, quickly stepping up so that he could poke Hinata’s back. Just then, though, Hinata abruptly stopped walking and turned around, mouth open to say something. Kageyama slammed into him causing the two to go stumbling around the gym, ending with Hinata flat on his ass.
“Oh shi- Shouyo, I’m- are you-?” Kageyama mumbled, unable to finish as he was interrupted by loud laughter from their teammates, having emerged from the locker room. Hinata and Kageyama looked at each other for a moment before joining in, laughing so hard that Hinata ended up laying on his side, arms wrapped around himself wheezing.
When they all finally stopped, Kageyama helped Hinata to his feet. The rest of the team said their goodbyes and began leaving. “Let’s head out too,” he said, and Hinata nodded.
The walk back to their apartment was short, and Hinata was strangely quiet. Maybe he realizes how tired I am and is actually being considerate for once, Kageyama thought. But that idea quickly left his mind once he noticed how the other boy was fidgeting and constantly glancing up at him. Those were tell-tale signs that he wanted to say something, but didn’t want to bother Kageyama. Well, whatever. He knew that he would bring it up eventually.
When they got back, Hinata quickly got to work preparing lunch for the two of them. Kageyama was—surprisingly—a very good cook, so making meals was typically his job. But Hinata had insisted, and he was tired, so he let it go this time. After all, Hinata couldn’t blow up the kitchen while making sandwiches. Probably.
“So, what was it you were going to say earlier?” Kageyama asked as he stifled a yawn and grabbed his slightly messy but still good sandwich.
“Oh! Right!” Hinata said. “I can’t believe I forgot to ask you earlier, but how did you guys do? I was so nervous for you, I didn’t look it up online or anything. I wanted to hear it from you!” He looked up at Kageyama with wide eyes.
“Really? That was what you wanted to ask that caused all of that. Honestly, I can’t believe you,” he said, hiding a smile as he bit into his sandwich.
“Hey, hey, hey, you were the one who ran into me, remember! Now tell me how you did!” Hinata demanded.
“Okay, okay! We came in 10th,” Kageyama said, preparing himself.
“10th!?” Hinata yelled. “Tobio, there were like, a hundred teams there! And you came in 10th! That’s amazing!!” He jumped up and hugged Kageyama, hard.
“We would have done better if you were there,” Kageyama muttered.
Hinata looked up at him. “Well, duh. We are the unstoppable duo after all. But… I don’t think it’s a bad thing for us to learn how to play separately, even if I don’t like it. At all.” He scrunched up his nose, and Kageyama finally gave it up and kissed him. It was a bit awkward, half on Hinata’s nose, but he was still kissing Hinata, so that meant it was perfect.
“Finally,” Hinata said. “Jeez, Tobio, you’ve been home for like, an hour now and you still hadn’t kissed me.”
Kageyama looked at him. “You’re just as capable of kissing me, aren’t you? You could have done it any time.”
“Yeah, but,” Hinata looked down, suddenly embarrassed. “Oh god, this is so dumb. But, I dunno, I was thinking… you were in Las Vegas and everything…. What if you found another guy there who you liked more than me and you were just being nice by coming back here and you’re actually going to move to America because he’s the love of your life and—“ Hinata stopped talking when Kageyama’s hand pressed against his face. “Tobio. What are you doing?” he asked, utterly confused.
“I- I didn’t know how else to shut you up,” Kageyama confessed. “But you’re being an idiot, okay. I didn’t do anything while I was there, and I already have the love of my life so it’d be kind of pointless.” He froze, realizing what he just said. He could feel Hinata’s smile grow under his hand. “I meant volleyball?” he said weakly, trying to cover but to no avail.
“Oooh, Tobio you bastard. You aren’t getting out of this one,” Hinata grinned wickedly. He grabbed Kageyama’s hand from his face and dragged him into the bedroom.
My sandwich was Kagayama’s last coherent thought for a while.
“Blanket burritos really aren’t the same without you, Tobio,” Hinata mumbled, warm and sleepy.
“I know, that’s only the fifth time you’ve said that to me tonight,” Kageyama said. “Hey, earlier when we were walking back you seemed kinda troubled. What was up with that?”
Hinata blushed. “Oh, I, uh… was wondering if you followed through on your promise to get me a present,” he said, sounding embarrassed.
Kageyama laughed. “Honestly, you’re such a dumbass.” He rolled out of bed despite Hinata’s whines of protest at losing his heat source and retrieved something from his bag. When he returned, he looked almost nervous. He dropped something small and metallic into Hinata’s hand. “I wanted to get you something perfect but nothing really seemed quite right and then it was the last day and I was in a gift shop and I saw this and thought I wouldn’t really have time for anything else and I just—here.”
Hinata looked down at the small object. It was a keychain, styled to look like a Las Vegas license plate with the words ‘I ♥ volleyball’ on it. It was dumb and cheap and tacky, everything Hinata had been expecting. He looked up at Kageyama. “Tobio, you are so terrible at giving gifts I really do not understand how it’s possible.” Hinata could see Kageyama’s face fall with disappointment. “I love it,” he continued, and leaned up to softly kiss him.
It was on his gym bag for the rest of his life.