Chapter Text
It was warm.
That was the first thing Noya registered.
Warm and gentle. A hard press forward that was careful despite the suddenness. Unsurprisingly perfect aim, even for lips chapped from being worried between teeth. The barest brush of fingertips against the front of his shirt, the heavy weight of a volleyball a safety net between them. A nose almost brushing his cheek and the tickle of soft hair against his forehead.
Fleeting. A blink of the eye.
Starting and ending in an instant.
But it still set his heart beating like he had done a hundred flying falls, blood pounding heavy in his ears. Lips numb. Nerves singing.
This changed everything.
From now on there would always be a before this moment and an after. Ten years, twenty years, fifty. He would have this moment etched in his memory forever.
Kageyama looked nearly as surprised as Noya felt, blush suddenly splashing onto his face like paint spilling from a bucket. He looked ready to run, grovel, combust.
“I’m sorry.” Kageyama’s eyes slid to the side, towards their teammates, and then back to Noya. Pleading with him for understanding and Noya felt his heart pound into frustration. Anger. The moment flipped on it’s side in an instant: in the amount of time it took to kiss someone and steal their heart away as it were. He was ready to break something. Tear it to the ground and scatter the pieces into the wind. “I should have asked first.”
“What?”
The anger splinters, shatters, and his heart pounds again. His fingers are trembling where they’re pressed into his palms. He might need to get that checked out. Surely it isn’t normal. Isn’t sane. Isn’t reasonable.
But when is hope ever really all that reasonable? And that is what was coursing through his veins and leaving that copper taste behind from biting his tongue so often wasn’t it? Hope that this was real. That this was happening. That this was true.
“I should have asked first. I know. I’m sorry. I just. And then you just. And I really wanted to kiss you because I wanted to see you smile. I’m sorry.”
Fleeting. “Kageyama.”
“Yeah?” Hopeful.
“You can kiss me if you want.”
Before and after.