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Today, Kenma feels a bit more playful than ever... which is odd.
It feels like the first day of this year’s Nekoma’s training camp with Karasuno is starting to get to him. It’s been a while since that intense match at the Spring Tournament, and this would be the first time the team have faced each other since then. Would that mean, is he happy to see these crows again?
Of course, it’s not that he hasn’t seen that one crow in particular since then, however... This time, Kenma is actually allowed, and even encouraged, to mess around with him.
“Is everyone ready to begin the match?” Yachi asks both teams, walking up to the middle of the court. There is a sudden shout in response, and everybody turns to face the source of it.
“Actually, I need to go to the restroom first. Real quick, I promise!” Hinata squeaks, and it seems stupidly urgent. Like he forgot to check in once they had arrived at the destination. On Karasuno’s side of the court, Kozume can see Kageyama sighing deeply and judging his teammate. But then, the blonde looks back in Hinata’s direction, and comes up with some kind of idea.
Meanwhile Yachi nods, “That’s fine! We can wa–”
“I’ll go, too.” Kenma suddenly speaks up, which kind of surprises everyone. But Yachi nods to that as well. So he briefly looks up at Shōyō, with the redhead smiling at him in a confused way. The cats’ setter can somehow read his expression, and it’s like he’s asking, Kenma? You? , as if he has never seen Kenma visit the restroom.
“Don’t just stand like that, go.” Impatiently, Kageyama scolds Hinata, who returns to reality immediately and snaps back at him.
“I’m going now, geez! Kenma, let’s go!”
It’s really, really difficult to say what takes over Kenma today, especially after they enter the restroom. It’s weird. His strategy for today is so, so weird.
Yet the thought of meddling with Shōyō’s mind completely to make him lose is so tempting. And the thought that everytime Hinata looks at him while spiking, he loses whatever tactic he’s had made in his head for that moment and his spike becomes off, uncertain, eventually blocked. And he won’t even be really able to explain it to others, to talk about it, because what happened was left unexplained and so confusing.
This is fun for Kenma. It’s so amusing to even think about it, so having it unfold in reality, before his own eyes... He just feels crazily urged to make this happen.
It’s a practice match anyway. Shōyō won’t be mad if he just... messes with him a little today. The redhead is going to have more chances to shine throughout the training period, he knows that already.
“Kenma,” Hinata turns around, probably wanting to ask if he wants to go take a piss first (even though he’s barely holding it in himself) or something, but the pudding head takes advantage of that. He takes a step forward, pulls Shōyō lightly by the collar of his uniform’s shirt, and...
He presses a soft kiss to his lips, all while staring with his feline pupils into Hinata’s widely opened eyes. It’s technically Kenma’s first kiss, but he won’t say it’s been wasted for a game strategy he’s taken. Not at all.
He might’ve stolen Hinata’s first as well. That sort of excites him even more.
It takes just a second or two for him to pull away, but definitely way more than that for the redhead to catch up on what has just happened.
Kenma smiles in an unreadable way, and goes back to the restroom’s door. “Go ahead, Shōyō. I’m done.”
“H-huh? K–”
The door shuts behind Kozume, and Hinata is left alone with many unanswered questions, confusing thoughts, a flushed face, and... a full bladder.
He returns on the court back to everyone, only after the blush on his face starts to fade out. He doesn’t dare looking at Kenma’s face, rather darting around with his eyesight, trying to focus. He doesn’t know what is going on inside Kenma’s head at all! The second set has started, and Karasuno manages to stop Nekoma’s serve. He’s trying to focus. Now Kageyama’s about to serve.
Focus on volleyball... Come on! Hinata slaps his own face loudly, getting a few stares from others for that, and then as usual covers the back of his head as Kageyama hits a powerful serve.
But his focus during the game, despite all his efforts just keeps drifting away, it’s awful. Karasuno is clearly losing so far. Because of that, he’s been stared down by Tsukishima and Kageyama so many times, the latter started to threaten him that he’s not going to toss for him this set. It drives Hinata mad, honestly, knowing what his issue is, and yet, when he looks at the ball...
Kenma just keeps getting in his way, staring right at Shōyō, rather than the ball. Each time, there's only a few centimeters and a net between their faces. And the redhead panics, shooting the ball with less precision than usual.
Another out from him, and Hinata catches his pudding-head friend smiling faintly, which makes his ears almost match his hair color, as well as he can feel Kageyama pointing daggers at him. He turns around to check nevertheless, looking red on the face but just as frustrated. They start shouting at each other, so Kenma turns around to his teammates as well. Lev walks up to him happily.
“Seems like Hinata really is out of it today. He’s energetic as usual, but keeps missing! That’s good for us, but also, it’s kind of boring! No?”
“A little…” Kenma suddenly looks a bit disappointed with his own doing, even though he was smiling just a moment ago. He adds quieter, more to himself, “It easily gets boring to watch. Maybe I should have done this differently.”
Lev hears nevertheless. “Eh? What did you do to him this time?”
“I played with him a little.”
Taketora sighs, “Oi, he’s not your toy, you know!”
In the end, Nekoma wins the first set of the day, and Hinata reacts to it with puffed out cheeks and angry, furrowed eyebrows. He has to do something about whatever is going on with him.
Just as his team is about to start doing diving drills as punishment, he walks under the net, on the cats’ side of the court. Determined, his sight is locked on Kenma, so the pudding-head begins to look a little panicked all of a sudden, like a deer in the headlights. Within his plan, he wasn’t thinking Hinata would approach him this early on.
He knows Shōyō hates feeling frustrated with himself, as the boy immediately goes to try and fix whatever he is messing up... And today, Kozume must have somehow missed that very crucial fact in his imagination.
“Kenma, let’s go!” The redhead shouts and does not give Kenma a chance to protest as he quickly grabs his arm and runs off with him.
It’s all happening so fast, too fast to keep up... He takes them both to a restroom again, lets go of the blonde’s arm, so Kenma pants exhaustedly, his back sliding against the door.
“Shōyō, you…” He doesn’t get to finish when Hinata walks up close to him, and lets their lips press against each other. He’s returning Kenma’s kiss back from their first restroom visit and once he stops, he looks at his friend happily. Satisfied, too.
“Now we’re even!” Hinata grins, and Kenma’s eyes have long gone wide, while his throat got dry. He clearly did not see this coming… not to mention, his strategy might just have backfired a little.
"And, you know? I think you will have to toss to me a few times after the match is over!"
“...” The setter clears his throat first and asks after that. “Why?”
“Because you made us lose the first set! I wasn’t doing well because of you,” the redhead pouts. “But I figured it out, see!?”
Kenma scrunches his nose, “... sure.”
Going with Shōyō’s logic, now he isn’t going to be doing well. But Kenma believes that he will be alright. He still attempts to change the topic, though. “Can we go back now? You still have to do your diving drills.”
“Right!” Hinata beams and punches the air with his fists, “Let’s!”