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Yamaguchi’s phone rang for several seconds before he realized the sound was coming from outside of his dream. He fumbled for his phone in the dark.
“Hinata-kun?” He answered.
“Yamaguchi!” Hinata replied, sounding kind of whiny.
“What’s wrong?” He sat up in bed and grinned at the grumpy noise Tsukki made when he did.
“I’m having a crisis.”
“Hang on. Lemme go into another room; Kei has a game tomorrow.”
“No,” Tsukki said, wrapping his arms around Tadashi’s waist, “Put him on speaker.”
Yamaguchi petted his rumpled blond hair and did as he was told. “Um Hinata, you’re on speaker now and Tsukki’s here.”
“Gah! Why?!”
“Cause I wanna know why the hell you’re calling my boyfriend at 3AM,” Tsukki answered, sitting up just enough to lean his cheek against Yamaguchi’s shoulder.
“It’s only the afternoon here,” Hinata grumbled.
“Great. Then call back at 3AM your time.”
“Hey!”
Yamaguchi stifled a laugh as he moved his phone away so Kei couldn’t just hit the end call button. “No, it’s fine. Why are you having a crisis?”
They could hear their old teammate take a deep breath before he spoke. “I think I’m in love with Kageyama!”
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi looked at each other, eyes wide. Yamaguchi was biting his lips to keep from laughing.
“You think?” Tsukki quipped.
“Yes! I think!!” Hinata yelled.
“Wow, a free one,” Tsukki commented, “I wasn’t even trying to insult you that time. At least not that way.”
Yamaguchi shook his head. “Okay, why do you think you’re in love with Kageyama?”
“Well…” They waited for a moment for Hinata to figure out what he was going to say and, once he got started, there was no stopping his rambling: “I find myself thinking about him all the time, like even when I’m not playing volleyball. And all my partners here have been great, but every time they send me a really good toss, I kind of wish I was hitting his sets. It was great when I ran into Oikawa-san ‘cause I haven’t seen anyone from Japan in super long, but playing with him just ended up making me miss him— I mean, his tosses even more.
“And I keep going back and watching clips of his games and wanting to talk to him about all of his amazing serves and stuff. But I feel like it would be weird if I called him and he’s such a dry texter—“
“Yeah, it’s just like talking to him in person,” Tsukki commented.
“And sometimes I just lie around imagining playing a game with him,” Hinata barreled on, “And I’m like thinking out all of these plays and then we win our imaginary game and I think about running at him and jumping on him and kissing him. And—”
“Okay,” Yamaguchi said gently, signaling that they got the gist. “I guess the better question is, what do you want to do about it?”
“Urrrgh! I don’t know! But I can’t even do anything until I get on a V League team. Actually, a division 1 team.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the only way we’ll get to play on the same court again.” He said it like it was one of the innate laws of the universe.
“But you can still, like, hang out with him before then.”
“Well yeah. But if I want to be with him, we have to be on the same level.”
It was definitely faulty logic, but Yamaguchi found it kind of a sweet sentiment. He covered Kei’s mouth before he could make a snarky comment.
“Okay. So, once you’re on a team, will you ask him out?” He moved his hand from Kei’s mouth to pet his cheek with the back of his finger.
“I don’t know! What if he says no?! What if he’s dating someone else by then?” Horror filled his voice, “Oh my god, what if he’s dating someone now ?”
“Then I owe Tadashi 500 yen,” Tsukki said, his eyes closed now.
“I never actually agreed to that,” Yamaguchi whisper-scolded. “I don’t think he is,” He reassured Hinata, “If he were in a serious relationship, chances are the press would suspect something.”
“Right, yeah.” Hinata’s old teammates could picture exactly the face he was making, enthusiastically serious and thoughtful like when Daichi would give him a tip during practice. It was a pretty safe bet that Hinata had been keeping up with all the publicity around Kageyama better than either of them had, so he’d know better than they would if there had been any articles about an alleged partner.
“How do you even ask someone out?” He asked, “Yamaguchi-kun, how did you ask out Tsukishima?”
Tsukki made an indignant face.
“Actually, Tsukki asked me out.”
“Really?!”
“Why do you sound so surprised?” Tsukki grumped.
“It wasn’t complicated,” Yamaguchi continued before Hinata could give a slightly too honest answer, “He literally just asked me to be his boyfriend. But we were also eleven, so it’s probably a little less straightforward when you’re adults.”
“Ugh!”
“But you have plenty of time to figure that out. You’re still in Brazil for another 10 months, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Okay. Crisis subdued?”
“Huh?”
Tsukishima snorted.
“Are you freaking out less?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Then we’re gonna go back to bed. Good luck!”
“Thanks, Yamaguchi!”
“Didn’t even thank me,” Kei grumbled and Tadashi returned his phone to the nightstand.
“You weren’t very helpful,” Tadashi giggled.
“There’s no helping that level of idiocy.”
Tadashi rolled his eyes and rested his head on Kei’s chest. Kei pressed a kiss to his forehead.
Hinata laid back on his bed. He pulled up one of newer compilations of Kageyama that had been posted on YouTube, indulging in that stupid sweet longing feeling that has thrummed deep in his chest for almost two years now. He found himself, once again, focused on the way the cuffs of Kageyama’s sleeves fit snug around his biceps.
He flexed the fingers of his right hand, wondering how much bigger Kageyama’s hand would look pressed flat against his. Hinata’s fingers had gotten thicker more than they got longer in the last couple years. Kageyama’s still looked as long and nimble as they had been their third year of high school.
He kept his eyes focused on Kageyama’s upper body. There was certainly a lot there to look at. He didn’t let himself look down because Kageyama’s legs and ass did things to him and Pedro was sitting in the living room just outside his bedroom door.
Instead of tapping the next compilation that came up, he googled “How to ask someone out?” Yamaguchi was right, he had plenty of time to figure out how exactly he’d tell Kageyama about the way his heart trembled with excitement whenever he thought about getting to see him in person again. He’d make a foolproof plan.
The idea of actually confessing to Kageyama was making him nervous. He googled his name to make sure there wasn’t anything new that said he was dating someone. Luckily, there was nothing of the sort.
What was there was another article about Kageyama’s insane service aces. Reading it made Hinata’s fingers itch for the ball. He jumped up, grabbed one of his volleyballs, hopped on his bike, and rode to the beach where he practiced his jump serve until the sky was streaked with orange and pink.
Hinata was buzzing with excitement as he stood on the court for his first official game in the V League. And his first time since middle school playing against Kageyama. The other MSBY Black Jackals players thought nothing of the way Hinata was literally vibrating. By now they were accustomed to Hinata, and even more accustomed to Bokuto, who got jumping up and down excited for warm up drills.
As they stood on opposite sides of the court, Kageyama met Hinata’s eyes and grinned challengingly. Hinata smirked back, the thrill of the upcoming game making his heart race and muscles ache to jump high off the ground.
Hinata had seen Kageyama a couple of times since he’d gotten back to Japan, but never on the court and never just the two of them. They’d gone drinking with Yamaguchi, Tsukishima, and Yachi not long after Hinata had gotten back and the alcohol that fizzed in his brain made it nearly impossible for him to stop staring at Kageyama and his pretty face and stupidly attractive muscles. They’d attended the Karasuno, Nekoma, and Fukurodani training camp for a day along with Kuroo and Bokuto to talk to the kids and help with practice. Then Kageyama had shown up to the surprise birthday party Atsumu and Bokuto had thrown for Hinata.
But now they were finally, finally , standing on a volleyball court together again, ready for the rematch seven years in the making.
The door to the changing room where the Schweden Adlers were getting ready to leave burst open. Hinata stood in the doorway with his hand on his hip and pointing directly at the setter.
“Kageyama!” He yelled, startling anyone who hadn’t already gotten startled by the door.
“What?” Kageyama asked, instantly ready for whatever challenge Hinata could pose.
“Arm wrestling match?” Ushijima asked with his head tilted to the side, vaguely remembering the argument he’d walked in on before the game began.
“Ah.” Kageyama nodded as if that made perfect sense.
That tripped up Hinata’s momentum a little. “No. Well, we can do that too. And I’ll crush you!”
“As if,” Kageyama scoffed.
“I will! No, wait, that’s not even what I was gonna say.” He resumed his stance and pointed back at Kageyama. “Toss for me!”
The blue eyes lit up almost imperceptibly. “Now?”
“Yeah!” Hinata bounced up and down. “Me, Bokkun, and Tsumu stay after games to get in some extra practice all the time!”
“Okay. But first I want to see you try to dig more of my serves.”
“Deal!”
Kageyama leapt and the ball hurtled to the left corner. Hinata got under it just in time and passed it cleanly back to his high school setter. Kageyama gave him almost no time to recover before sending another killer jump serve across the court. Hinata very nearly had to drop a knee to get that one, but he stayed on both feet. His forearms stung where they’d made contact with the ball.
Kageyama looked at him, expression unreadable. Hinata smiled wide. “Toss for me now?”
“Yeah.”
Hinata immediately started running. Kageyama caught on quickly and set the ball perfectly for a minus tempo quick attack which Hinata slammed in a powerful cross shot. The way the ball had seemed to stop in the air in front of his open palm felt so familiar. It made his heart swell with thrill.
“Again!”
After the fifth beautiful combo, Kageyama shouted “Four!” before his fingertips touched the ball. Hinata pushed solidly off the ground, his weight in the balls of both feet, and then he soared, even higher than he’d jumped during the game with all the extra time the slow toss provided. The ball came to him like it was a magnet that was attracted to his hand.
He landed back on the court and immediately whipped around to face Kageyama, a blinding smile on his face.
“If we could’ve done that in our first year, we would’ve beaten Hoshiumi-san for sure!”
Kageyama’s pretty blue eyes scanned over Hinata’s face. The ghost of a smile touched his features. “You’re incredible,” He breathed.
Hinata couldn’t take it any longer, he ran the short distance between them and jumped up, wrapping his arms around Kageyama’s neck; hanging there with his feet dangling, he pressed their lips together.
He had a moment of panic. A moment of “oh shit, this wasn’t the plan!” But then Kageyama was kissing him back, using one arm to hold him up off the ground while the fingers of his other hand stroked through his hair.
When he dropped back onto the court, he sort of expected his lips to sting like his hand did after hitting an especially satisfying spike. He did feel like he’d just nailed a spike, at least. It was the same kind of rush.
He grinned up at Kageyama, whose fingers were still tangled in his ginger locks. Kageyama leaned down and kissed him again. Then he pulled back and frowned.
“What?!”
“Why are you so short?”
“Bwah?!”
“I have to lean down so far to kiss you.”
“Meanie-yama! It’s your fault for getting even taller!” Hinata pouted.
The corner of Kageyama’s mouth quirked up and he pushed lightly on Hinata’s shoulders. “Sit,” He told him.
Hinata kneeled on the court, too distracted by the way Kageyama had just licked his lips to formulate any sort of argument. The other man sat in front of him, his knees on either side of Hinata’s. This way, Kageyama leaned forward more than down and Hinata had no problem sitting up on his knees to meet his lips again.
He gripped at Kageyama’s muscular shoulders, ran one hand up and the other down, sliding fingers over his jaw and under the cuff of his sleeve.
Kageyama was a little rough with his kisses, nipping at Hinata’s lips and pushing their bodies closer and closer. It was dizzying. But his hands were gentle, brushing against Hinata’s face and supporting him as he forced him to lean further and further back until he was lying on the shiny wood floor.
And that’s how Hinata and Kageyama wound up making out on the floor of the Sendai gymnasium when their teammates came to get them.
Atsumu snapped a picture and cheered, “Get it Shoyo!”
Kageyama hurriedly got off Hinata and offered his hand. Hinata let him pull him up and tried not to look his teammates in the eye as his face burned.
“Hina-kun!” Bokuto yelled, “How could you not tell us you and Kageyama-kun are dating?!”
“Kotaro,” Akaashi, who was standing just behind the two other MSBY players, said quietly.
“Huh?” Bokuto looked at his boyfriend with a hopelessly blank expression.
Akaashi just sighed and smiled at him.
Atsumu pointed at the couple. “I will be offended if you cheated on my sets with him though.”
“Sorry, Tsum-Tsum,” Hinata said, not at all sorry. He cracked up at the dramatically horrified face his setter made.
Ushiwaka was totally unphased by the whole thing. “We will be leaving shortly,” He told Kageyama.
“Yeah, better pack up if you don’t want to be abandoned, Shoyo,” Atsumu said, focus primarily on his phone and with a shit eating grin on his face.
They followed their teammates back toward the locker rooms, but Hinata pulled at Kageyama’s shirt to get him to hang back.
“You guys are staying in a hotel near by, right?” He asked, eyes gleaming.
Kageyama nodded.
“Us too. Ask if you can come stay with me for the night.”
He looked unsure. “Aren’t you sharing a room with one of your teammates?”
Hinata shook his head. “Uh uh. I was rooming with Bokkun, but he got his own room for tonight since Akaashi is staying here tonight too. You won’t even be the only boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend,” Kageyama echoed quietly.
“You are my boyfriend now, right?” Hinata asked, suddenly very unsure.
“Yeah.” Kageyama’s soft smile all but melted Hinata into a puddle of affection. “I’ll ask.”
“Yay!” He hopped rather than walked the last couple meters to the locker room.
Yamaguchi’s phone buzzed. He fished it out of his coat pocket and was surprised to see the Karasuno boys volleyball group chat from their first year revived. He opened the message to see a picture of Hinata and Kageyama on the ground, very clearly making out. Tanaka had sent it along with “They grow up so fast! 😭”
Not far behind him, he heard Yachi let out a small “Eep!” and Kiyoko—her husband having run ahead to the restaurant with the other guys from his high school class—laugh quietly as they too saw the picture. Yamaguchi chuckled and pulled at Tsukki’s sleeve.
“Look.”
“Ew,” Tsukki said after glancing at his boyfriend’s phone.
“Guess they figured it out.”
“That better mean no more 3AM phone calls.”
“I will scold Hinata if he calls me at 3AM now that he’s back in the time zone. He’d better be taking care of his body better than that.”
“You know you’re not still his captain, right?” Kei teased, glancing fondly at the man next to him.
The picture spread around the members of the monster generation and anyone that played with them with alarming speed. Asahi very nearly choked on his drink when he saw it and Suga thumped him on the back, maybe a little harder than was necessary.
“About fuckin’ time,” Oikawa muttered to himself, up early for a run.
Kenma: Can’t believe you chose Kageyama over me. Consider your sponsorship revoked.
Hinata: Aww! 😊 You’d divorce Kuroo for me?!
Kenma: Obvi
Kuroo: Why include me in this conversation? Just why??
Hinata and Kageyama both put their phones on Do Not Disturb, not really bothered by the onslaught of messages, but with something much more important to focus on.
They laid in the hotel bed face to face, legs tangled under the covers. Their kisses were slow now, gentle and lingering. Kageyama once again had a hand in Hinata’s hair, letting it slide between his fingers.
“You really like touching my hair, huh?” Hinata observed, a more subdued grin on his lips.
Kageyama just grunted his confirmation.
“Wait. Is that why you were always grabbing me by the head in high school?!”
“It’s so fluffy and so soft,” Kageyama muttered, caught red handed.
Hinata pressed a kiss to his chin. “When did you start liking me?” He asked, a bit timid.
Kageyama gave it some thought. “Probably that first time you hit my set with your eyes closed.”
Hinata’s brown eyes widened. “First year?! Why didn’t you ask me out while we were still in high school then?”
“You asked when I started liking you, not when I realized I liked you,” He replied grumpily.
“Oh.” Hinata nodded and their noses bumped. “That makes sense. When did you realize?”
“Right after I got on the Adlers, we were doing some team building ‘get to know you’ stuff,” He recalled the memory with his distaste for that kind of thing very clear in his voice, “We were supposed to talk about our history with volleyball and I talked about high school… and you.”
Hinata failed to suppress his smile that Kageyama paused his story to kiss a couple times.
“And Heiwajima-san asked me how long we’d been together. He thought we were dating. And when I said we weren’t, everybody made fun of me for being totally into you.”
Hinata giggled. “Poor grumpy-yama.”
“When did you know?”
“There was a day in Brazil when I was feeling really homesick.” He appreciated the way Kageyama gently cupped his face and petted his cheek at that. “I was thinking of all the things in Japan I really missed: having a whole team to play with and see every day, getting meat buns at Coach Ukai’s store after practice, that kinda stuff. But when I thought about the specific people I missed the most, it was mostly Natsu and you.”
Kageyama hummed and kissed the end of his boyfriend’s nose. “I missed you too.”
“But I’m here now! And I got revenge for middle school.”
Kageyama huffed. “I’ll win the next one.”
“No way! I’m gonna win!”
Kageyama glared at him but his voice was quiet and unsure when he spoke, “Did you date anyone while you were overseas?”
Hinata shook his head and Kageyama’s whole body relaxed a little. “No,” Hinata reiterated, “I had a couple hookups here and there, I tried to kiss Oikawa-San once, but nothing serious.”
Kageyama sputtered. “You kissed Oikawa?!”
“No! He turned me down, since he was already engaged to Iwaizumi-san and everything.”
“You like him?” His jealousy was so palpable that Hinata could almost feel it settle on the bed between them.
“No, no, no!” He assured him, relieving a little of the pained irritation on Kageyama’s face. “Trust me, I was really drunk and missing you and he was the closest I could get.”
Kageyama hmphed.
“He was the first person I’d seen from Japan in months.” He rubbed Kageyama’s arm comfortingly and the other man seemed to give in and relax a little. “And, like I said, I was wasted. Drunk and sad logic is pretty fucking dumb.”
Kageyama seemed to accept that answer, but he still pushed Hinata over onto his back and then flopped down on top of him, face hidden in his chest. Hinata laughed and petted his boyfriend’s sleek black hair. The weight of his body squishing him into the mattress felt nice.
He rubbed his back and took one of his hands. He pressed his hand flat to Kageyama’s, taking in how his boyfriend’s hand dwarfed his, with long bony fingers and carefully tended nails. Then he slid his own fingers between Kageyama’s.
Finally, Kageyama lifted his face out of Hinata’s tits. He whispered, “Dumbass,” and then pressed their lips together. Hinata deepened the kiss.
“Your dumbass,” He said into Kageyama’s mouth, “Only yours.”
Kageyama made a pleased noise.