Chapter Text
When two people are cluelessly in love, you can see it in their eyes.
In the sneaky glances that they steal from one another when one of them isn't looking,
like shooting stars in the sky shining with devotion and sureness.
Exactly how Atsumu has always believed in Hinata, and Hinata in all the words that come out of Atsumu's mouth no matter how pea-brained they may sound.
You can notice it in the way they genuinely smile at each other when they make eye contact,
when they make little talk, and they seem to be in their own little world.
Osamu would say that he has been third-wheeling most of his life. He was fortunate enough to be at the forefront of their love story until they realized their obvious feelings for each other worthy of a 2000s rom-com. It was exasperating (he never signed up for this) and yet entertaining to watch what would have been otherwise boring days if it weren't for them.
Their eyes crinkle and light up with fondness at the sight of their beloved one.
You can't step in between an artist and his muse, a writer and his pen, a musician and his instrument, an athlete and his sport, nor a flower and its sun.
Atsumu considers Hinata his everything from the sentence above and more.
Partners who can read each other's minds with only a look.
Two different hearts who know each other's souls.
Love is like oxygen, it feels like you can't survive without it, but in reality, it only consists 21% of the air we breathe.
But to Atsumu's survival, Hinata is his only necessity and requirement to happiness.
That bright and innocent individual has always been Atsumu's sole weakness since their eyes first fell on each other.
The one wish that he has always been unconsciously longing for.
Just like gold, love is searched for everywhere and leaves its taste.
Sometimes too bitter, too sour, too salty, too spicy, or too sweet.
Sometimes not enough.
With all the culinary experience Osamu will have accumulated throughout his life, even he would never have thought that his brother would be able to find his perfect match so early.
However, all this shouldn't be so surprising since Atsumu has always been a lucky brat.
Sometimes love comes to life like a mathematical equation, where we already have all the answers right from the beginning, but we don't notice it until we complete its calculations. It may make us feel stupid for not noticing what was right under our noses this entire time, even when we thought we were geniuses, and sometimes even when we are.
Hinata is his reason to smile, and for generally forcing himself to understand the material at school so that he can explain it to him later.
Hinata makes him a better version of himself by being nicer to people he wouldn't have thought of caring for if it weren't for Hinata's eyes who look at him with utter disapproval of his lack of kindness and politeness, his reason for asking his mother and Osamu to help him bake heart-shaped cakes without burning them, go and pick flowers (or buy some) so that he can give them to Hinata every morning.
(And to think that some don't believe that Atsumu is a romantic to his core!)
You can feel it through the unavoidable chemistry they have between them.
In the teases that they throw like they're the only ones in the room.
In the treatment that they give one another, like they're each other's only exception.
You can observe it in the way their body unconsciously lean toward each other.
They can't seem to be able to let go of the other, like snowflakes hugging each other in the cold of winter.
They hold hands, play with their hair, pat their back lovingly, and sit next to each other.
Both of their mothers have lost count of the number of photo albums they have filled with pictures of the two of them playing adorably in the snow, swimming in the pool, playing volleyball, asleep in front of the TV, or outside under a sky filled with stars.
Inseparable like two letters of the alphabet that follow each other all the time.
They long for each other and can recognize their smell like a florist knows its flowers.
You can hear it in their voices like the birds singing to each other at the beginning of spring.
You can recognize it in the way they talk about their loved one with unmatched sweetness on their lips, like an indirect kiss, and secret love letters.
Love isn't only heart-shaped and pink, that's why it needs work from both ends.
Just like the selfishness of the sun and the selflessness of the moon to keep the world around.
The consent of a tattoo artist and his client so it doesn't end with burning books in fire.
Love is a little hard to understand now and then, just like it's best friend's Fate and Time.
But it doesn't take away from its charm like a kid walking in front of a tempting candy shop.
Often it simply isn't worth a bite.
At others, its eater is simply too shy and the love perishes away, like a fruit gone awry. It moved on with the cycle of life.
Like a customer at a restaurant don't wait until it's too late to change your order, voice it like a singer would sing for his fans, words are written on a paper, and lovers talk in bed.
That's why, in the short life Osamu has lived so far, he never thought he'd have the opportunity to witness the exact moment his twin fell in love.
Even if, to be completely honest here, it was rather Hinata who did the falling part.
_
Osamu was cutting fruits on the kitchen island while Atsumu was sitting across from him at the counter, complaining about his lost vanilla pudding.
(Chances were he had probably already eaten it and forgotten about it, and is now accusing Osamu of gobbling it up like a bandit.)
They weren't fighting per se, but when Atsumu had suspiciously gone quiet, Osamu couldn't help but get worried when he heard sniffing. Did he go overboard this time by ignoring him?
“Atsumu ya crying?” he teased lightly, tasting the waters.
“Nah, I'm not.”
“So you're telling me you're not the one making that sound?” he asked, looking up from his shaping-ninja-in-real-life fruits session.
“YES!” the other pouts and crosses his arms.
“Then what is that sound?” he lets go of his plastic knife (It's not like the toy he was using, because of his mom's precautions, was doing a good job anyway.)
They then definitely heard the sound of someone or something crying coming through the open window of the kitchen.
The twins looked at each other and immediately rushed outside upon hearing the mysterious cries for help.
“We're gonna be heroes Samu!” exclaimed Atsumu with stars in his eyes.
“Maybe it's a lost cat,” agreed Osamu all delighted at the news of possibly getting a new pet.
“OMG!! No, I want a dog! Dogs are way cooler-”
What they never expected to see was a little boy in the front yard of their house with a hurt, bleeding knee and a broken bicycle next to him.
Atsumu gasped, making the injured boy look up at the sound.
“Samu do ya also see the angel in front of our house?” pleaded his brother, shaking Osamu's arm like an earthquake would.
It hurt, so Osamu hit him to shake some sense back into his dumb twin's mind.
“How many popsicles have you eaten, Tsumu?” To which Atsumu only winced.
But to be quite fair with him, the child did look angelic with his soft features and big, teary eyes. Before Osamu could think of anything else, Atsumu had already started walking and knelt in front of said angel.
“Would ya like to marry me?” is the first thing that seven-year-old Miya Atsumu confidently phrases lovingly to a surprised six-year-old Hinata Shouyou.
Osamu and Hinata share a look, one of many others that they would share in the following days and years to come because of Atsumu's lack of closemouthedness and his overall oafishness persona to act first and think later.
Atsumu, being as dramatic as ever, then rushed Hinata inside their house bridal style, and started tending to his wounds while Osamu went upstairs to call for their mother.
He had plopped Hinata down on the couch and got to work. With all the seriousness of a tiny doctor, he disinfected the scrape.
Hinata winced, and Atsumu whispered, “It’s okay, I’m almost done”, applied cream, and finished it all off with a bright pink bandage covered in cartoon bunnies.
Atsumu explained how there were only weird bandages left, since their mother knew that he and Osamu often fought and that they would probably stop if there were only plasters that they would be embarrassed to wear to school.
This tactic prevented them from at least hurting each other on their faces, because none of them wanted to walk around with pink bandages on their faces.
“It's okay, I don't mind,” laughed the personification of the sun upon hearing Atsumu's explication.
“It's just a color,” he replies and smiles. He smiled and Atsumu never thought that a simple gesture such as this one could eradicate so much warmth and happiness.
“Euh-,” He scratched his head, unable to compose words to answer him.
Then Osamu and his mother came down the stairs and joined them in the living room.
“Names Miya Osamu and this tomato-colored face right there's Atsumu.”
“Hey!” complained the latter.
What a snitch.
An angelic laughter filled the room, and with that Atsumu's heart.
It was dangerous, but ever so beautiful and it simply meant everything to him.
“Thanks for the help Osamu, Atsumu, Miss Miya,” he bowed to all of them. “I'm Hinata,” he made eye contact with Atsumu.
“Hinata Shouyou.”
Abruptly, Atsumu ran outside, feeling like this might be a little too much for him.
How could one manage to be so perfect?
Even his name was pretty.
-
Atsumu, not long after, got into a fight with his dad so he could repair Hinata's bike, which he miraculously managed with the twins' help, under Atsumu's big insistence and promise of helping with the dishes more often.
His father ruffled his hair and smiled contentedly, getting to work.
That was one of his last good memories of his father before he left.
But Atsumu couldn't know that, so he and his mother insisted on lifting Hinata back to his house.
“You really don't have to,” the ginger said with a lot of gestures of his hands. “You've already done so much for me!”
“Hinata dear, it's alright, we've already spoken with your mother on the phone, remember?” Hinata shakes his head in a “yes”.
“You're new to this neighborhood, just got a little hurt, and we all want you to get home safely. So I'll give you a ride, you don't worry okay?” She kissed him on his forehead like she always did with her twins. “It's not a problem at all.”
-
“It's not a problem at all,” is what Atsumu told himself all along the way to his mom's car, locking Hinata's seatbelt for him and keeping a hand on his knee in case it moved and the injury got worse.
“What if ya can't play volleyball anymore? I haven't even set for ya yet Hina-chan!”
Hinata blushed and hid his face under his hands, saying how exaggerating and embarrassing Atsumu was being.
His mother chuckled.
From that day forward, their mothers quickly became good friends, and Osamu, Atsumu, and Hinata were inseparable.
Even if Hinata had fallen (from his bike) first, Atsumu had fallen in love harder with him.
But that wasn't as easy to comprehend for a young Atsumu.
-
That fateful day when they finally got home after dropping Hinata off at his house with his mother, Atsumu burst into his shared room, scaring Osamu from his night-time-reading-cooking-books session.
“Samu I might have a problem!” he panics.
Osamu fell laughing on the floor once his twin shared his falling in love at first sight experience with him, only in a seven-year-old way, filled with obliviousness to it all.
“He said it was like WHAM! And then that he lost control of his bicycle and ended up in front of our sidewalk...”
Yeah, these two idiots were always meant to be.