Chapter Text
It was a cold December morning, and Shoyou was out. His alarm went off, but he tended to snooze it on the weekends.
He slowly blinked awake, before startling slightly at the new atmosphere he found himself in. He had moved yesterday. And evidently, had forgotten this fact. It wasn’t drastic or a secret, just a town over to a house more suited to his mother’s new job and Natsu’s new school.
There was a new window by his bed, a different wood covering the floor. A new smell and a boring wall just begging to be covered by his Japan national team posters sitting quietly in a box somewhere.
The place was new. It was different, but not unwelcome.
His team didn’t practice till later in the afternoon on the weekends, so he was content to stay in bed a little bit longer. Adjusting to the new sounds of his neighbors plowing their driveway after a fresh fall of snow, and to the way the light came in past the trees.
By ten, he figured that he’d had enough of a lazy day to appease his appetite. So he made his way through unfamiliar hallways to fulfill his other one.
The kitchen was nice, nicer than his old one. He made it a habit to start his weekends with a slice of toast, a scrambled egg, and whatever ripe fruit his mother had forgotten about over the past week.
He sat alone, slowly chewing his breakfast and scrolling through his phone, lining up directions for his new ride to school. It was significantly farther than he had initially planned. He’d have to leave almost an hour earlier than normal if he wanted to beat Kageyama to practice. And that was non-negotiable.
Once he finished his breakfast, he decided it was high time he started getting ready to go.
He had been exploring the internet, looking for new ideas on how to improve his game. Per the web stranger’s advice, he had begun meditating at least an hour before practice, when he had the time.
He thinks he’s begun to notice a difference, even if his calmer demeanor startled his volleyball partner. Kageyama called his new behavior ‘disturbing’; Like he knew anything about inner peace.
He sat quietly on his new back porch, the windchill adding an extra incentive to get going to practice.
By the time he remembers that he has somewhere to be, it’s already fifteen minutes past when he was supposed to get ready.
Scrambling to gather his equipment in the confusion of the new hallways was set to be a bigger problem than he imagined, his lack of knowledge getting the better of him.
When he was all packed and ready to go, he rushed to his bike resting on the inside of their new shed, lifting and shaking his hands off the frozen handlebars as he attempted to adjust to the change in temperature.
He took off, sailing past his mailbox, no regard for the freshly plowed and unfamiliar roads.
Upon his arrival to the bottom of the street, he squeezed his brakes, and he squeezed them hard. This, however, did not stop him from skidding across the intersection, slamming with a hard smack into what appeared to be a snowed over bike rack.
He sat there for a minute, catching his bearings and inhaling labored breaths. Once he grounded himself enough to stand, he was again startled into slipping by a loud burst of laughter. A familiar burst of laughter.
As he turned around, the enchanting, albeit a bit goofy, image of Oikawa Tooru stood starkly out against the white of the snow. A big scarf covered the lower half of his face, although it was quite easy to imagine the expression he was making based on the cackles coming from underneath.
“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Are you alr-”
Oikawa began, before his eyes widened in realization.
“Hinata?!”
Shoyou’s hands shot up to cover his face, embarrassment rushing up to his already rosy cheeks at the thought of his rival captain witnessing his crash.
“Hinata! What on earth are you doing ramming into that bike post? Don’t you know they hurt?” He said with what Shoyou could assume was a sly smile.
Shoyou debated his options. One, he could up and run away, leaving his mangled bike with Oikawa, an issue to be dealt with later. Or two, to preserve some dignity, apologize like his life depended on it for causing a scene and almost hitting the other boy.
His thoughts were interrupted by Oikawa calling his name.
“...inata? Hinata? Shoyou!”
Hearing his first name from someone so unfamiliar startled him out of his reverie.
“Sorry, sorry! I’m okay! I’m sorry for almost hitting you. And for getting distracted. And for-”
“Hey, hey it’s okay. What are you doing around here anyways? It’s hardly the right time of year for a leisurely bike ride.”
Oh right. He moved.
Just as he was gearing up to explain the change to Oikawa, he felt a warm stream running down his face, past his lips and around his chin. By the time he noticed the red on his jacket, Oikawa was on him. Startled by the sudden contact, his eyes widened and he skidded back a bit.
The proximity was jarring, Oikawa holding one hand under his chin to catch the dripping blood, the other focused on forcing Shoyou’s head backwards while pinching the bridge of his nose.
He wasn’t sure what to do. So he tried to explain his situation through the muffle of a large hand in his face.
“Umphh, I moved. A few towns over for-”
“Hey, Shoyou. I can’t understand you. Wait until the bleeding slows down.”
So he waited, feeling incredibly uncomfortable under the scrutiny of Oikawa’s gaze, and the new addition of his first name to his rival’s vocabulary.
The blood had pretty much stopped after a few minutes, and Shoyou took over the duties of cleaning up his blood-smeared face.
Oikawa took a step back, before staring at Shoyou with an expectant look.
“Oh. Um, my mom got a new job, and with my sister starting school closer to it, we decided it would be best to move. So then only I have to travel far every morning.”
“Well, well. How interesting! It seems like we’re neighbors.”
“Hah??”
Out of all the people he was hoping to live near, this one was at the bottom of the list.
“Well, practically. I live up the street that way.” Oikawa said, pointing in the direction just a bit past Shoyou’s own neighborhood.
“Um, thank you for the help! You know, with my nose.” Shoyou stated, still intimidated by Oikawa’s looming figure. “I’m sorry for the trouble. But I’m already late for practice, and I really need to get going!”
Shoyou shot up, causing Oikawa to stumble backwards.
He stuffed his bike into the culprit of a bike rack, deciding running would be the safer option for the remainder of his trek to practice.
Before Oikawa could get another word in, Shoyou was gone, his head racing with questions, his body feeling abnormally warm considering the cold December air.