Work Text:
On days like this, Hoshiumi can appreciate his friendship with his teammates.
When Kageyama joined the Schweiden Adlers, Hoshiumi knew befriending him would not be easy. He remembered Kageyama from their high school matches and training camps, and knew he didn’t speak or express himself much and usually kept to himself. It took Hoshiumi a while to become close to Ushijima, since he had a similar mannerism to Kageyama, but he managed to break through. Hoshiumi knew he wanted to become close to Kageyama and Ushijima considering they’ve all competed against each other in high school and were the youngest members of the Schweiden Adlers.
Once Kageyama joined, Hoshiumi found it wasn’t hard to become friends with Kageyama, since both Ushijima and Kageyama grew up in Miyagi. With Kageyama and Ushijima clicking right away, Hoshiumi found it easy to squeeze right in, and that’s how Hoshiumi found himself in his apartment, Ushijima and Kageyama on his couch while Hoshiumi laid sprawled on top of both of them. His head was in Kageyama’s lap and his feet in Ushijima’s lap. After being teammates for 4 years, the trio managed to become close, having weekly movie nights at one of their apartments, much like the night they are having now.
They have a movie playing in the background, an action movie they regret choosing. Neither of them were paying any attention to this movie, opting to sit on their phones instead. Hoshiumi learned that being friends with Kageyama and Ushijima meant lots of silence, but no one seemed to be uncomfortable with it, so Hoshiumi basked in the quiet atmosphere.
Ushijima looked down at Hoshiumi’s feet and grimaced. “Are you aware your socks smell atrocious?”
“Yeah I bet, they’re the same ones from practice.” Hoshiumi replied, cackling as Kageyama whipped his head down to give Hoshiumi a look of disgust.
“What the fuck? Change your socks, idiot, this is your house. Go grab a clean pair.”
Hoshiumi groaned, “But I’m so comfy! I don’t wanna move, you’re a nice pillow, Tobio.”
Kageyama chose to ignore him and turned his attention towards Ushijima, who was still grimacing. “We should just push him off.”
Ushijima sighed, “I don’t know why we still keep letting him sit on us like this.”
Before they could decide to throw Hoshiumi off, their attention was diverted to the man in question, who let out a sound that came off as a mix of shock and excitement.
“Guys!” Hoshiumi squawked, “I hit 500 thousand followers on Instagram! Look!” He held his phone up towards his friends, showing his follower count as 500K. Ushijima and Kageyama looked unimpressed, staring back at the phone.
“Uh… congratulations?” Ushijima retorts, while Kageyama simply replies with “Okay.”
Hoshiumi gaped, “It’s a big deal! Why don’t you guys care? How many followers do you have?” He was starting to grow annoyed.
Ushijima and Kageyama look at each other, waiting for the other to respond. Ushijima answers first, “I don’t remember.”
Kageyama shrugs, blinking down at Hoshiumi. “I don’t know either, I don’t really check that stuff.” Hoshiumi gawks.
“Well if you guys don’t know then I’ll check for you!” Hoshiumi is more surprised that Kageyama doesn’t know his own follower count, since between Kageyama and Ushijima, Kageyama is on his phone more and texts faster than Ushijima. When he pulls up Ushijima’s follower count, he pouts.
“Ushiwaka, you have 750k followers,” Hoshiumi grumbles, scrolling to look for Kageyama’s account.
“It appears I have more followers tha-”
“Shut up!” Hoshiumi snaps back, silencing Ushijima’s comment. Kageyama looks on with amusement. Hoshiumi didn’t want to linger on the idea that he’s probably the least popular out of their trio.
The irritation slowly turned into astonishment, as Hoshiumi pulled up Kageyama’s profile. He screamed. “TOBIO, YOU HAVE 3 MILLION FOLLOWERS!”
Ushijima raised his eyebrows, also surprised to hear the number. Kageyama, the little shit, doesn’t look surprised. He looks like Hoshiumi just told him the sky is blue. Unfazed. “Oh, good to know. Thanks.”
Nearly headbutting him in the face, Hoshiumi shoots up from Kageyama’s lap, letting out a scream that could have been heard next door. Kageyama and Ushijima don’t even flinch, already accustomed to Hoshiumi being loud.
“T-Tobio… you have so many famous volleyball players following you! Like Sorrentino, the best spiker in Italy. Laurent, best setter in France. Nowak from Poland-”
“Nowak?” Ushijima perks his head up, eyes shining with a rare look of excitement from the man. Hoshiumi smirks, feeling smug about Ushijima finally seeing his side and understanding how crazy it is to have 3 million followers with the addition of super famous athletes. The only thing that still bothers Hoshiumi is how unfazed Kageyama continues to look, his emotionless face is looking over Hoshiumi’s shoulder at his phone screen, but his face still doesn’t show any interest.
“Tobio, don’t you care that these super cool super famous athletes follow you?!” Hoshiumi tries, waving his phone in front of Kageyama’s face.
“Well, I am a volleyball player. It only makes sense we follow each other since we like the same sport.” Kageyama shoves the arm holding the phone to his face away, getting up. “Move, I’m gonna go piss.”
Hoshiumi grumbles, a mix of irritation from Kageyama’s lack of interest in his followers and from being shoved. People who know they’re attractive are so annoying. Kageyama has all these followers and doesn’t care. Hoshiumi knew that if he had this many followers, he’d definitely show more pride in it!
“Ushiwaka, we need to catch up and gain as many followers as Tobio!” Hoshiumi puts his feet back on Ushijima’s lap, ignoring the grimace on the man’s face.
Ushijima sighs, clearly reaching his energy limit with Hoshiumi. “Why would I want to do that?”
Hoshiumi smirks. “The more followers you get, the more you’ll get from famous athletes, like maybe… Nowak-san?” He snickers at the way Ushijima perks up. If there’s one thing he knows about Ushijima, it’s that he’s easily influenced.
Ushijima grunts, “Alright, I’ll participate. What do you suggest we do to receive more followers?”
This is not something Hoshiumi thought about. He hums, trying to think about what Kageyama did to receive so many followers. Opening up his instagram profile, he looks through Kageyama’s photos, holding it out so Ushijima can see too.
Most of the pictures that Kageyama has posted are modeling pictures for different sportswear companies, group photos, and a few selfies with friends. He has reels of photoshoots and him doing serves, sets, and other volleyball plays.
“Kageyama has a lot of photos of himself looking good, those are the ones with the most interaction.” Ushijima notes, leaning over to scroll and show Hoshiumi the photos that had the most likes and comments.
Hoshiumi nods, “So all we have to do is post hot pics like Kageyama, right?” He says proudly, but his smile falters when Ushijima shakes his head.
“It wouldn’t be the same. It is not about how we post pictures, it is Kageyama that they like, not us.”
“That’s true… stupid Tobio and his pretty face.” Hoshiumi grumbles, trying to think of a better solution. What people like is Kageyama. Kageyama is their youngest and most popular player, in addition to being one of the best. This brings in a popular fan base of both younger and older fans, all for different reasons. Hoshiumi knew that he and Ushijima can’t compete with Kageyama in popularity, there’s only one Kageyama. So what they need is…
“We need to post Tobio more on our profiles!” Hoshiumi blurts, earning a confused look from Ushijima. He continued, “We can’t try and copy what Tobio does, because there’s only one Kageyama Tobio. So if we post more of him, we’ll definitely get more followers!”
Ushijima grunts, “How would we convince Kageyama to agree to posting more pictures of him? In addition, what types of pictures are we posting?”
“Well, we already know Tobio doesn’t check his social media. We can tag him in posts, but he won’t see it anyway so that’s not an issue. As for what types of pictures,” Hoshiumi smirks, “we can post pictures that no one has seen from Tobio. Something more casual but also something that people would love to see.”
Nodding his head, Ushijima hums in agreement, “You make a valid point. It is a vague description, but I can manage to create ideas.”
Hoshiumi holds his hand out, Ushijima taking it firmly in his grasp. They give a strong but determined squeeze. “Let’s do this.”
--
A few days following the events of Ushijima and Hoshiumi’s plan, Hoshiumi is the first to follow through. It all starts on a stormy evening. The Schweiden Adlers just finished practice, and there was a strong thunderstorm brewing outside. Hoshiumi had to ride his bike home, but the storm was coming close, so Kageyama offered Hoshiumi to sleep over at his apartment since it was the closest. After a long and tiring practice, Hoshiumi took up the offer.
This is how Hoshiumi found himself coming out of Kageyama’s bathroom, freshly showered and changed into borrowed clothes. He walked out to the living room where Kageyama was laying on the couch, having already showered before Hoshiumi. His eyelids were drooping, blinking slowly. Hoshiumi felt the same, exhaustion taking over his entire body. Today’s practice was rough.
“Thanks for letting me stay, Tobio.” Hoshiumi says, using a towel to dry his hair. Kageyama glances up at Hoshiumi, then lets his head fall back onto the decorative pillow on his couch. He only hums in reply.
“The futon is in the storage closet by the kitchen. There’s blankets in there too,” Kageyama says softly, and Hoshiumi almost thinks he’s sleep talking with how slurred his words sound.
Hoshiumi yawns, then walks towards the closet. “Don’t fall asleep while I’m gone. I’m not carrying you to your room.”
In the closet, Hoshiumi has to dig through a few things until he finally finds the futon, rolled up in the back of the closet. He suddenly wonders how long it’s been since someone stayed over at his apartment. Shoyo often stays over at Kageyama’s apartment. Guess they don’t use the futon…
He snatches up 2 blankets, just in case, and walks back to the living room to see if Kageyama has gotten up yet. When he gets to the living room, he calls out. “Hey, Tobio. I got the futon, ready to head…upstairs…” He trails off, looking at the man on the couch.
Kageyama is laying in the same spot, however, now he is holding another decorative pillow separate from the one behind his head, this one curled up in his chest. Kageyama is snuggling his pillow, holding it up to his chest and partially his face.
Two thoughts go through Hoshiumi’s mind. First, Kageyama fell asleep on the couch, and he is definitely not hauling his ass upstairs. Second…
He looks ADORABLE.
Kageyama’s mouth is covered by the pillow, so Hoshiumi can only see his eyes and mouth. His bangs fall slightly over his eyes, which are lightly shut. His breathing is slow and even. He looks very peaceful, all features on his face looking soft. Hoshiumi smiles down at his sleeping friend.
He realizes in that moment that the way Kageyama looks peacefully snuggling his pillow, in replacement of the usual serious look on his face, is something people don’t get to see often. People don’t realize how cute he can look when he’s asleep. Very quietly, he approaches the couch next to Kageyama and pulls out his phone.
He aims the picture to cover from the top of his head down to where his arms are locked over the pillow. When he snaps the picture, he sits on the floor to look at what he got. A perfect shot of a cute sleeping Tobio. He goes to Instagram to upload his photo, and pauses when he gets to the caption. Something simple should be okay.
After a long day of practice, a sleeping Tobio appears.
Good enough. Hoshiumi tags Kageyama in the picture, then hits upload. He puts his phone down and looks over at Kageyama’s phone. It didn’t even light up. He must have notifications off for the app.
At this moment, exhaustion hits, and Hoshiumi decides to just set up the futon next to the couch. Once that’s set up, he puts a blanket over his futon, and grabs the other blanket to put over Kageyama, carefully so as not to wake him up. He shuts off the lights in the living room and gets under the futon, letting sleep take over.
--
If there’s one thing the Schweiden Adlers do together aside from practice- it’s work out together.
The Adlers have their own gym filled with all types of workout equipment. On days where they don’t have practice, they will get together and do their workouts, getting advice and feedback from each other or simply working out together to keep each other company.
The day after Hoshiumi stayed over Kageyama’s house, the Adlers had their regular workout day at the gym. Everyone was spread out using different areas and equipment. Hoshiumi was in the weight lifting area with Ushijima. He was working on a set while Hoshiumi was talking his ear off about the picture he uploaded the night before.
“And because Tobio looked so cute sleeping I knew it was something that would definitely be popular, so after uploading, I woke up this morning and look at this!” He exclaimed, shoving the phone in Ushijima’s face. Ushijima squinted to look down at the phone, actually surprised at what he saw.
The photo had 90k likes, which easily beat Hoshiumi’s usual 20-30k likes. Ushijima clicked to open the comments section, and found many, many comments about Kageyama in the picture.
@kagsprincess
Who knew Kageyama-san had such an adorable side to him?
@lovexvball
look how soft he is!! ^^
@MiyaAtsumu
Invite me to the next sleepover ;)
Hoshiumi takes his phone back, scrolling through the comments. “I also gained so many followers overnight! This is actually working, Ushijima!” The taller man hums, acknowledging the success of the plan.
“Did Kageyama ever realize this was posted?”
“He hasn’t said anything to me,” Hoshiumi shrugs, “I don’t think he’s checking.”
“I must catch up then and figure out what I will post.” Ushijima says, eyes locking on Kageyama, who is working out across the room.
Hoshiumi slaps his back, “Then get to it, big guy!”
Ushijima nods, determined, and watches Kageyama, who is on the floor working on his push-ups. Ushijima notes his perfect form, and the way his arms flex as he pushes up and down. Kageyama is working out in front of a large mirror. An idea pops into his head.
Slowly, Ushijima approaches Kageyama, not wanting to distract him from his set. Regardless, Kageyama still stopped when he saw Ushijima approach. He sat up, looking curiously at the man towering above.
“Kageyama,” Ushijima says, “I am going to take a photo in front of this mirror.”
Kageyama blinks, and slowly nods. “Okay…” Kageyama moves to the side so he’s not in the way, standing there as he watches Ushijima stand in front of the mirror with his phone out. Ushijima opens the camera app, and points it towards the mirror where he can see himself standing, full body in shot. Kageyama is standing away from the mirror, waiting for Ushijima to finish before returning to his workout.
“Would you like to take a picture with me?” Ushijima asks. Kageyama’s eyes went wide.
“Uh… sure.” Kageyama rolls his sleeves up to his shoulders, walking to stand next to Ushijima. His arms raise, stretching as his hands rest on the back of his neck. He stops next to Ushijima, looking down at the screen. Ushijima notes that Kageyama’s pose really shows off his triceps. Having experience with modeling, Kageyama seems to already know how to pose, considering how casual he can make himself look. Ushijima opts for a simple pose of standing in front of the mirror, holding the phone in one hand and flexing his free arm.
The phone clicks once. The picture is taken. They don’t take any more, just the one.
Ushijima opens the photo on his phone. It’s a good photo, two good looking men posing during a workout. Ushijima thinks this could work.
Kageyama is just standing there, not really knowing what to do with himself. They’re quiet for a moment. Ushijima breaks the silence.
“It is… a wonderful photo. You look excellent.”
“Yeah… you didn’t look too bad yourself, Ushijima-san.”
“Would you like to see the photo?”
“... No, that’s okay.”
“Alright, I will just send it to your phone number.”
“If you want to…”
No one says anything anymore. Yet they still stand there. Not knowing what to do anymore, Ushijima walks back to the weight lifting area with Hoshiumi, while Kageyama goes back to his own workout.
Hoshiumi is doubled over on the floor, gripping the mat as he laughs so hard tears have sprung in his eyes. Ushijima frowns at his friend, who is grabbing onto Ushijima’s pant leg for balance.
“You guys… you guys are so awkward!” He’s full on crying now. “He said…he said NO-”
“Stop.” Ushijima is tired.
--
“This is not fair.” Hoshiumu says, glaring down at his phone. He has Ushijima’s post open, the gym picture of Kageyama and Ushijima on display. It has 250k likes, with a simple caption of “Working out with Kageyama Tobio.” Hoshiumi would have never guessed. He opens up the comments to read what people are saying.
@teqwilasunr1se
Omg why are all the Adlers men so hot?!
@cvntycl!t
i can’t see your progress, take off the shirts
@bokutokoutaro
hey hey hey fellas, looking hot!! keep up the good work!!
The sound of a locker closing shut above him brought Hoshiumi’s focus out of his phone. Ushijima looked down questioningly at his shorter friend. “Why is it not fair? I have posted a Kageyama photo, captioned it, and tagged him. Those were the conditions in which we agreed on how to take the pictures.”
Hoshiumi rolled his eyes, “I know, Ushiwaka.” He puts his phone down onto the bench that he is straddling. “But it’s not fair because you posted a hot picture! Everyone knows hotness beats cuteness on so many levels! Of course you got more likes because of that!” He exclaimed, his loud voice turning heads from around the locker room. His teammates were used to his antics, which is why they only glanced at the pair and continued getting ready for today’s practice.
The bench squeaks at the weight of Ushijima sitting in front of Hoshiumi. “I’m not sure why you are upset. This is not a competition.”
“I can’t fall behind! You’re ahead of me already!” It was true. Hoshiumi realized that Ushijima already had more followers than he did, and the addition of this picture from last night getting way more attention than Hoshiumi’s post made him fall behind even farther. He needed to catch up.
Ushijima nodded, “Very well. In that case, I will not lose.”
Hoshiumi nodded back, looking more determined. Now, he needed to think of what to post next. His first post of Kageyama was him looking cute and soft, and Ushijima’s picture had Kageyama looking hot flexing his arms. The hot approach was much better than the cute approach. How can he take a hot picture of Kageyama?
As if the universe was listening, the man in question walks in. He’s wearing a long sleeve white compression shirt, hugging his figure tightly. But that’s not where Hoshiumi’s eyes are stuck on. Eyes trailing lower, he sees the shorts that Kageyama is wearing.
Those are definitely shorts.
The legs of the shorts end right underneath the curve of his ass, hugging the muscle tightly. The black color creates a delicate contrast to his pale, long legs. Hoshiumi sees out of the corner of his eye that Ushijima is also staring at the same area he’s staring at himself.
He distantly hears Kageyama telling another one of their teammates that his shorts shrunk in the dryer, and those were his only clean shorts. But he drowns it out. Kageyama is turned away from them, talking to someone else, giving Hoshiumi and Ushijima a view of the sinful shorts and the muscle hidden underneath.
After a moment passes, Kageyama must feel the eyes behind him, because he looks over his shoulder and sees his friends frozen in place. Kageyama doesn’t turn around, only his head is turned. His body stays in place. Hoshiumi knows Kageyama isn’t posing like that on purpose. That’s what makes him look all the more appealing. Kageyama rolls his eyes.
“Oi, just take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
Ushijima clears his throat, cheeks flushed a light pink. “My apologies, Kageyama.”
Unfortunately for Kageyama, Hoshiumi isn’t embarrassed. He stares at the picture perfect man. Just take a picture, it’ll last longer.
He does exactly that.
Hoshiumu holds up his phone and before Kageyama can process what’s happening, the camera goes off. Hoshiumi looks down at the photo. Kageyama’s body is turned away, his ass on full display in those small shorts. Only Kageyama’s head is tilted back to look over his shoulder at his friends. Perfect. It’s a perfect picture.
Kageyama rolls his eyes again, not caring that his picture was taken as he walks away towards the gym. “Freaks…” he mutters, but the duo on the bench ignore him.
When Kageyama is gone, Hoshiumi throws a victory smirk at Ushijima, thinking he’s finally won. Ushijima frowns. “That should not count. It is rude to post that picture of Kageyama in that… indecent pose. Everyone will be looking at a certain area.”
Hoshiumi looks smug. “You were staring there too, dumbass.”
Ushijima was silenced. He turns away, scowling. Hoshiumi sees the tip of his ears turn pink. Good to know someone else was flustered too.
“Regardless, it’ll be fine. Kageyama has worse pictures posted. This one doesn’t reveal anything, but he still has pictures from the V-League monthly posted. You know which ones I’m talking about… with the frontal-”
Ushijima slapped a hand over Hoshiumi’s mouth. “Alright, I understand…” Hoshiumi notes that a shy Ushijima is one he’d like to see more of. “You need to stop talking so loud.”
Hoshiumi ignores him and instead goes to instagram to upload the picture. He puts the picture up, adds a tag for Kageyama, and starts writing his caption.
Ushijima looks over his shoulder, making sure Hoshiumi is uploading this picture correctly. He squints his eyes, looking down at the phone to read the caption Hoshiumi just wrote. In the most serious, confused tone to ever come out of Ushijima Wakatoshi, he reads the caption out loud.
“Fruity cutie with a big booty.”
Hoshiumi looks up at him, tilting his head in confusion. “Is that too boring?”
--
Fortunately, Hoshiumi didn’t end up using that caption after being told by Ushijima that it was “highly inappropriate”, so instead he opted to use peach emojis as the caption. Regardless, the photo got lots of attention, which ended up becoming the most popular post on Hoshiumi’s account, and gaining more engagement than the photo Ushijima posted.
Currently, Hoshiumi and Ushijima are sitting at a park on a blanket, a bag with onigiri and meat buns sitting in the center. They’re waiting for Kageyama to arrive, since Hoshiumi had the idea of having a picnic at the park on their day off from practice and training.
Yes, a picnic. Three grown male athletes can have picnics, too.
“700K likes, 60k comments, and I got so many new followers! This post blew up so much overnight.” Hoshiumi says, staring down at his phone in awe. He has the comments opened, Ushijima peering over his shoulder to read.
@sakura.dreams
THANK YOU FOR THIS GIFT HOSHIUMI-SAN!!!
@adlersgirl69
I NEED HIM SO BAD
@HinataShoyo
!!!!@$!!1!# HOSHIUMI-SAN DM ME RN PLEASE
“Looks like I’m winning,” Hoshiumi smirks.
Ushijima huffs, averting his gaze from the screen. He realizes that in order to make a good post, he needs to post something that people have not seen. People have not seen Kageyama wearing revealing shorts in a photo that wasn’t part of a sponsorship. This one was candid, that’s why it got so much attention.
Now, the plan was to think of what people have not seen from Kageyama. Everyone has seen him play volleyball, everyone has seen him wearing athletic clothes, he even has photos wearing casual clothes. Kageyama’s face doesn’t change much. Except…
A smile. People rarely see Kageyama smile. Luckily, Ushijima and Hoshiumi have had the pleasure of seeing Kageyama smile, even laugh. Ushijima can admit that when Kageyama is smiling genuinely, without forcing himself to, his smile is very beautiful.
Oftentimes, when being told to smile, Kageyama will force it and it will come out “creepy”, as Hinata likes to call it. That’s why in his modeling pictures he doesn’t smile, since photographers caught early on that the man does not know how to smile.
Just because he doesn’t know how to smile, does not mean that he can’t. His smile has to come naturally. Ushijima decides he needs to find a way to make Kageyama genuinely smile, which is already a difficult challenge itself, since Kageyama doesn’t find a lot of things funny.
The quickest and most dangerous way to get Kageyama to smile, Ushijima decides, is by tickling him.
That is going to be a difficult challenge, since he needs to figure out how to tickle him and take a photo at the same time. He can’t do both, so he’s going to need some help.
“Hoshiumi.” Ushijima calls, snapping Hoshiumi’s attention away from his phone. “I require your assistance with my next photo of Kageyama.”
Hoshiumi sticks his tongue out, “Why should I help you? We’re competing!”
Ushijima bows his head slightly. “I need you to tickle Kageyama so he can laugh. I want a photo of him smiling and cannot perform both actions on my own.”
Hoshiumi’s head perks up. “Tickle Tobio-kun?” He grins, putting his phone away. “Oh I can definitely do that, that sounds like fun! What’s the plan?”
Ushijima quickly tells Hoshiumi how they’re going to execute this plan while Kageyama isn’t here yet. By the time Kageyama arrives, they have agreed on how to take the picture and are waiting for that moment.
“Tobio-kun! It’s about time!” Hoshiumi says while Ushijima waves as a greeting. Kageyama waves back.
“I ran into some volleyball fans at the store and they wanted a picture.” Kageyama says, setting down a shopping bag with three sports drinks inside.
Ushijima picks one up. “Popular as always, I see.”
“Yeah,” Hoshiumi laughs, “Too bad the ladies dry this man up.”
Kageyama shrugs, “They were men.”
Ushijima and Hoshiumi go wide-eyed. Although their fans are usually female, they forget Kageyama has a handful of male fans too.
Hoshiumi snickers, “Too bad this guy is loyal to Shoyo.”
A soft laugh comes from Ushijima as Kageyama sputters, “We’re not even dat-”
“Lets eat!!” Hoshiumi exclaims, already unwrapping onigiris and passing them out while Kageyama grumbles, snatching away the onigiri being offered to him and taking a small angry bite.
The next few minutes are spent with the three men chatting lightly about anything and everything as they ate their food, bathing in the warm sunlight and relaxing atmosphere. The energy was very lighthearted as they cracked jokes and laughed, talked about good memories and teased each other. After 4 years of being on the Schweiden Adlers together, the trio have gotten close and comfortable, easily falling into conversation. Although sometimes Kageyama and Ushijima are awkward around each other, when Hoshiumi is added to their mix the three of them connect as if they’ve known each other their whole lives.
“... and they both ended up following me all the way to the Shiratorizawa gymnasium.” Ushijima said, earning a cackle from Hoshiumi.
“Well you challenged us,” Kageyama mumbled. “If you challenge Hinata and I to keep up with you, we’re going to do it.”
Hoshiumi grinned, a slight glint to his eyes. “Tobio, you’re so silly.” He gave an experimental poke to Kageyama’s side. The boy flinched with a sharp intake of breath. Hoshiumi smirked, making eye contact with Ushijima, who understood the cue.
“Wow Tobio, I forgot you’re ticklish…” Hoshiumi giggles mischievously, and Kageyama tenses up. Ushijima subtly begins to pull his phone out, opening up the camera app. Kageyama doesn’t notice, too busy feeling on edge as he watches Hoshiumi’s suspicious gaze.
“Oi, Hoshiumi-san, don’t you dare…” Kageyama scoots backwards. Hoshiumi scoots forward. Kageyama gulps. “Please don’t- AH!” Kageyama yelps as Hoshiumi pounces on him, leaning over Kageyama’s bent over figure. He drags his fingers along the sides of Kageyama’s ribcage and abdomen, tickling him. Kageyama tries and fails to hold in his adorable, genuine laugh. His laugh is not loud, but it’s not quiet either. It’s higher pitched than his actual voice, and it’s the most beautiful thing Ushijima and Hoshiumi have ever heard. Ushijima smiles and Hoshiumi is laughing along with him, dragging his fingers to Kageyama’s stomach, which causes him to let out a yelp as he falls backwards onto the blanket. Hoshiumi stops tickling him, sitting back in his spot so Ushijima can take the next step.
Kageyama is slowly sitting up, his body shaking with giggles. His eyes are closed, meaning he does not notice Ushijima holding his phone up and speedily snapping a picture. Once he’s calmed down, Hoshiumi is laughing and pointing at Kageyama, who is now turned away with a pout. Ushijima takes this chance to look at the photo he took.
When he does, he forgets how to breathe.
In the photo, Kageyama’s cheeks are flushed, his curtain bangs and hair are disheveled after laying on the floor. He is mid laugh, but his smile is soft, holding his stomach with one hand and propping himself up with the other into a half sitting half lying position.
Ushijima smiles at his phone. He sends the picture to Hoshiumi, who immediately pulls his phone out to look at it. The shorter boy gasps softly, clutching at his heart.
Cuteness overload.
--
The next time they had practice, Ushijima and Hoshiumi were sitting together stretching while Kageyama was helping another one of their teammates stretch. Everyone was spread out in pairs. The picture that Ushijima uploaded that previous day was an absolute hit. He got 550k likes, and 30k comments with new followers, including a few very famous volleyball players, much to Ushijima’s pleasure. The caption read: Picnic with Kageyama Tobio.
Very original.
The comments were all going crazy, which goes to show that this was definitely something people have never seen from Kageyama before.
@LuvKags_20
i’m losing my MIND!!?!.
@ur-phavorite-09
STOP BEING SO DAMN PRETTY KAGEYAMA TOBIO
@ OikawaTooru
Delete this right now I’m disgusted.
When Ushijima read Oikawa’s comment this morning, he blinked down in confusion. Oikawa’s comment did not line up with the fact that he also liked the post, but he decided not to look into it too deeply.
In the gym, Hoshiumi is helping Ushijima stretch. “That picture you uploaded got a lot of attention, but I think my Tobio booty pic still wins.” Hoshiumi teased, earning a grunt from Ushijima.
“I would not post something so lewd of another teammate.” He says, and Hoshiumi sputters.
“It’s not that bad you prude. He’s wearing clothes in that picture. Tobio has professional photoshoots uploaded where he’s only wearing pants.”
Before Ushijima could reply, they are approached by a small woman, who has her arms crossed in disapproval. They recognize this woman as Haruka-san, the Schweiden Adlers’ PR manager.
“You two, come with me.” She says, not waiting for them to reply as she starts to walk off.
Ushijima and Hoshiumi gulp, quickly getting up and following behind her. They notice a pair of blue eyes watching them leave before they step out into the hallway. Haruka-san glares at the two, who shrink under her gaze despite her being a small, 5’2” woman.
“Care to explain what both of your recent Insta posts are about?” She says, her foot tapping repeatedly on the waxed floor. Ushijima and Hoshiumi have the decency to look embarrassed. Hoshiumi decides it’s best to be honest with Haruka-san in order to avoid any trouble.
“We just wanted to get more followers…” He says. Haruka-san raises an eyebrow.
“And you thought posting pictures of Kageyama would help achieve that goal?”
They both nodded. When Haruka-san continued to look confused, Hoshiumi elaborated. “Tobio has way more followers than us, and we thought that by posting more of Kageyama on our pages we would get more attention.”
“It has been proven successful thus far.” Ushijima added.
Haruka-san had an exasperated expression. “Well this little game you’re playing needs to stop.” She turns to Hoshiumi. “That last post you uploaded was too much. What were you thinking?!”
Hoshiumi sputters, “But Haruka-san! He was fully clothed and he has other pictures that are far worse!
“Those are professional sponsorship pictures. That is not the same as something posted unprofessionally.”
“That is what I tried to tell him,” Ushijima retorts, earning a sharp glare from the shorter man.
“Traitor! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Ushijima glares back, the two having a stare off. Haruka-san sighs.
“You don’t have to delete the pictures, but don’t post any more pictures like what you’ve been doing. Despite your popularity growing, I’m worried you guys will cross a line. Keep posts casual and stop uploading pictures with Kageyama only.”
Both men bow and mutter an apology. Haruka-san starts to walk away, but stops and looks over her shoulder at them. “One last thing. Let Kageyama know what you guys did. I don’t think the poor boy is aware of the posts and what people are saying about him.”
She was right. Kageyama was oblivious to everything that’s been happening online. The least they could do is let him know what’s been going on, since eventually Kageyama will see and have many questions.
After practice ended, Kageyama offered Ushijima and Hoshiumi to stay at his apartment for the night. This was perfect timing as it allowed them the chance to confess everything to Kageyama. Which is why on the walk to Kageyama’s apartment, Ushijima and Hoshiumi spilled everything.
Kageyama was shocked, to say the least. As soon as he was told about the pictures, Kageyama went to his phone and opened up the app to look at the pictures in question. Hoshiumi watched Kageyama’s face go redder and redder as he looked at the photos, which one could mistaken for anger, but his friends knew better.
“W-why didn’t you tell me you posted pictures of me?!” A flustered Kageyama asked, to which Hoshiumi shrugged.
“We tagged you but you didn’t see, so we were technically never hiding it.”
“Regardless, the pictures look good so you have nothing to worry about,” Ushijima added, to which Kageyama could only respond with a frustrated sigh.
Hoshiumi smirked. “Yeah, you should see the comments Shoyo left on our posts.” He raised his eyebrows suggestively, which Kageyama didn’t even process as he RAN to the comments on his phone, making Hoshiumi laugh dramatically.
Ushijima smiled, putting a hand on Kageyama’s shoulder. “Hinata messaged me privately asking how we got you to laugh like that in my last post, then asked if I had more photos of you similar to that one.”
Hoshiumi didn’t think it was possible for Kageyama to get even more red, but here he was, looking away as he held up a hand to cover up his blushing face. He looked so shy and adorable, Hoshiumi wanted to take a picture right there and then.
Kageyama mumbles something into his hand, to which Hoshiumi yells at him to speak up.
“I said maybe I should post more pictures like that then!” He exclaims, which made Hoshiumi laugh harder and Ushijima even let out a few chuckles.
“If you want to post them just to get Shoyo’s attention, just DM them to him directly.” Kageyama squawks at Hoshiumi’s comment, the latter laughing his ass off while Ushijima tries to hide his smile.
“That’s not why, you dumbass!” Kageyama shouts. Although that is what he is claiming, his face definitely says otherwise.