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Hinata Shouyou has a nose for secrets.
Snooping is an inelegant habit, his mother tells him, but in his defense it’s not really snooping. It’s just--listening! And paying attention to people! And, yes, occasionally Shouyou happens upon a conversation he maybe shouldn’t have, but it all works out in the end. Usually.
So, yes, Shouyou has a nose for secrets, especially when it comes to the one thing in the world he values above all else: volleyball. It’s how he knew Daichi-san and Suga-san had huge crushes on each other before they finally started dating. It’s how he knew Ukai would eventually agree to be their coach.
It’s also how he knows that something’s going on with Hitoka.
Sometimes after practice Shouyou departs the gym late. More often than not, actually--he and Tobio linger until the sun sets and the crickets begin to call. Tobio leaves him at the foot of the mountain, turning north to continue on to the ancestral family home tucked back into the woods. Shouyou goes south, up the winding rocky paths. He always passes the bus stop, the last one on the route.
It’s never empty. There’s always at least one passenger sitting, waiting, no matter the late hour: a small blonde girl, her face quiet and her hands still.
After she joins the club, Hitoka never turns down an invitation. It’s one of the first things Shouyou notices about her. She’s nervous, and she’s brilliant, and she’s kind. And no matter what Shouyou asks of her, or Kiyoko-san, or Takeda, she always says yes. She’s always running to something: practice, Kiyoko’s house for a managers-only strategy session, the park to help Kinoshita-san and Narita-san with their serves on their days off.
It’s weeks before Shouyou realizes that she’s not running to something. That there’s something she’s running from .
Hitoka talks about her mother like Shouyou talks about the Little Giant. Someone so high above her she’s nearly entirely out of reach.
She never even brings up her father.
So Shouyou senses Hitoka’s secret, all the small puzzle pieces that come together to form the whole, and he starts going about fixing it. He starts with Tadashi. For two reasons: 1. Without Tadashi, he’ll never convince Kei, and 2. Tadashi is also the most likely to be receptive to his plan. Indeed, Tadashi agrees with minimal convincing.
“Good,” Shouyou says. “Next Friday, then. My mom will pick us up after practice.”
Tadashi grins, stretching to shrug on his team jacket. He wears it better every day. “I’ll bring the snacks.”
Tobio doesn’t get it, at first. He’s not one to easily grasp the nuances behind other people’s behaviors. He simply expects everyone else to be as straightforward as he.
“But,” Shouyou says, and reaches for the next ball Tobio sets him like it’s the last one he’ll ever see, “what if you went home every day and Miwa was never there?”
Tobio goes quiet. His parents work abroad, and his grandfather has passed. His sister good as raised him; raises him still.
“I wouldn’t like that,” Tobio says, and Shouyou knows he has him.
Kei says yes before Shouyou even asks the question.
“Do you honestly think you’re the only person who’s noticed?” he snaps, peering over the frames of his glasses. “I do in fact have two braincells to rub together.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“For Hitoka,” Kei clarifies. “I don’t care about you.”
Shouyou lets him keep his pride, and doesn’t call him on the lie.
Shouyou doesn’t clue Hitoka in about the larger plan. He simply asks her for a sleepover--her first one with the team. He asks her to bring a change of clothes, her favorite video game, and a toothbrush. She trusts him and does--meets him in the parking lot after practice, looking bewildered.
“Shouyou,” she greets him. The light from the streetlamp above catches her in a halo. “What’s going on?”
He winks at her. It had been short notice, a day at most. “A surprise!”
She looks down at her bag, then back up at him. “But it’s not even my birthday?”
“No,” Shouyou says, “but it’s still a special day!”
“Quit being so mysterious,” Kei grunts, looming up out of the night. “It doesn’t suit you.”
Hitoka squeaks and jumps sideways--nearly knocking into Tobio, who’s come up from the other side. He wordlessly catches the bag she’s almost dropped. Behind Kei, Tadashi is carrying a large plastic bag from Sakanoshita. He hefts it in the air with a grin. “Got all your favorites.”
“ My favorites?” says Hitoka.
“Did you really not tell her anything?” Kei demands.
Shouyou shakes his head. He hasn’t. He wants it to be a surprise. He wants it to be good for her--worth all the effort she’s put into a club she just joined and a sport she doesn’t play.
A pair of headlights cuts across the parking lot. The van pulls up next to the five of them, the window and door opening simultaneously. Shouyou’s mother sticks her head out the window, the cool late-night wind tugging at the short strands of her hair. It’s as red as his, framing warm brown eyes and a ready smile.
(Shouyou might have a knack for secrets, but his mother taught him everything he knows about kindness.)
“Well?” she says.
Tobio climbs in first, murmuring a respectful, “Hinata-san.” His mother and Tobio are old friends by now. Then Kei and Tadashi, both of them reaching into the front seat for a handshake. Shouyou jumps into the middle and turns back to Hitoka expectantly. He practically sees her draw up her courage to take the last seat, placing her bag down between her feet on the floor.
“Thank you for the ride,” she says softly.
Hinata’s mother doesn’t take her eyes off the road when she replies, “Anything for Shouyou’s friend.”
Hitoka’s hand clenches around her seatbelt once.
Shouyou throws the front door open when they reach the house. The air is warm and smelling of the nikujaga his father already has heating on the stove, the familiar scent welcoming him in.
Natsu rushes to greet him. Shouyou stoops and whirls her up into the air, laughing when she shrieks. She goes quiet, a little shy when she sees Hitoka.
"You’re so pretty,” she says, reaching to touch the bright clips in Hitoka’s hair, the ruffles of her pleated skirt.
Hitoka blushes but manages to stutter out, “So are you! How old are you?”
Shouyou listens to them talk as he helps his mom set the table. There aren’t many things that are like volleyball, but having a good meal comes close. There’s the same sense of satisfaction as his family settles around the table, laughter bright in their faces.
Hitoka was tempted into the manager’s position by a beautiful girl and the promise of belonging. Shouyou will tempt her into his family the same way.
For dessert, there’s black sesame cookies from Tadashi’s bag. Hitoka’s favorite. Shouyou watches the confusion grow on her face as they transition from the dining room to the living room, where Kei pops in a disc of Sailor Moon S. She’d mentioned liking it once, when Kei was arguing for Jurassic Park and Tadashi was listing out his ranking of the Ghibli movies.
Tobio has a stack of fashion magazines he borrowed from his sister. He lets Hitoka and Natsu go through each one painstakingly, listening attentively to their critiques and praises.
And then there’s Shouyou, who takes the game Hitoka brought with her and hooks it up to his family’s TV. They have the best sound system in the neighborhood, and he can see from her smile that she’s thinking the same thing.
Shouyou’s mother bids them all good night. Even Kei doesn’t protest when she tucks his blanket closer around his futon. Tadashi blushes when she kisses his forehead but Tobio--spoiled--tilts his cheek upward in anticipation. Shouyou accepts his own kiss and then watches with half-cracked eyes as his mother kneels next to Hitoka’s futon. His mother takes Hitoka’s hand in her own: her wrinkled, freckled skin against Hitoka’s, unblemished. Something passes between them, a murmured conversation. At the end of it, Hitoka sits up and hugs her, something fragile in the line of her shoulders.
Shouyou gives them their privacy and turns away.
When Tobio’s switched the bedroom lights off, Shouyou waits.
He only has to be patient for five minutes before he feels the touch of her fingers at his wrist, each of them tipped with a perfectly manicured, pink-polished nail.
“Shouyou,” she whispers. “Why--why all this?”
“This was for you,” he says. He doesn’t bother to keep his voice down: he knows the rest of them are awake. “Because I just wanted you to know we loved you. I wanted to make you happy.” He’s never been afraid of voicing his feelings. And right now, this is what he knows. That they had been incomplete before her. That they will do greater things with her than they could’ve ever done alone.
“He knew you were lonely,” Tobio says plainly, “because we’ve all been lonely before. We all know how it looks. How it feels.”
“I’m not--” she starts, but her voice breaks.
“You won’t be,” Shouyou promises. “Ever again.”
Kei says, “If I have to be stuck with the rest of them, then you’re good company, Yacchan.”
In the night, Tadashi proves why he will one day, eventually, be their captain. “We’re all glad to know you, Hitoka. We’re all glad you’re here.”
She sniffles, just a little bit, before she wobbles out, “Thank you. I--I’m glad to know you, too.”
“Don’t be sad,” Shouyou says, and smiles. This has been the first time they’ve all five gotten together outside of practice, but he knows it won’t be the last. He sees years of it: the sleepovers, the study sessions, the graduations and the Olympic games and the weddings. He sees something enduring. “After all, we’re going to know each other for the rest of our lives.”