Chapter Text
The first thing Kageyama noticed after Nationals was that nothing felt different. That was the problem. He had expected something to change after being on a court with players he used to watch from afar.
After feeling the pressure of a stage that was supposed to show who was really good he thought there would be some kind of sign that he had become better. The gym was still the same. The sound of shoes on the floor was still the same.
Hinata was still loud and always moving around like he was in a hurry even when he was standing still. Kageyama did not like that he had expected things to be different.
Volleyball is simple.
There are rules and positions and techniques and strengths and weaknesses. There is always something to improve. A toss can be too high. A receive can be too slow. A block can be adjusted. Improvement is something Kageyama can see and work towards.
People aren’t easy to analyze unlike volleyball plays.
People are especially Hinata.
Kageyama has spent a lot of time trying to understand Hinata it feels like part of his training. He studies Hinata's movements, and remembers how he approaches the ball.
He knows when Hinata will jump before Hinata even realizes it. It is supposed to be about volleyball, that is what Kageyama tells himself.
It is about making the attack and proving that their quick attack is not a coincidence. It is about becoming better at volleyball. It has nothing to do with the fact that Kageyama notices when Hinata is tired before anyone else does.
It has nothing to do with the way he always looks for Hinata's orange hair when they are in a gym. It has nothing to do with the fact that he gets annoyed when someone else gets Hinata's attention easily.
That last one really annoys him. It never made sense to him.
Kageyama is not supposed to care about things that do not affect the game of volleyball. Yet lately it feels like everything about Hinata affects Kageyama. After Nationals, it seems like there are people watching them and knowing their names. More people understand what they can do on the court. Kageyama should be happy about this.
Instead he notices how easily Hinata gets people's attention. It is not something Hinata tries to do that is the annoying part. Hinata is like that he is too bright and too honest and too eager. He throws himself into everything with a kind of determination that Kageyama does not understand. He cannot stop watching. Hinata will make mistakes, complain, get frustrated and then get back up again. He is never embarrassed by his mistakes for long. He is never afraid of being seen.
Kageyama has been called a genius for years as if that explains everything about him. As if being talented means he does not struggle or fail. Hinata is different; he struggles openly. Somehow that makes people want to support him. Kageyama does not know when this started bothering him.
Maybe it was during Nationals watching other players recognize what he knew from the beginning. Maybe it was when someone else praised Hinata's speed and instincts and potential. Maybe it was when Kageyama realized that the feeling in his chest was not just pride. Whatever the reason was, he couldn't explain it.
The only thing he knows is that when Hinata is beside him the court feels easier to understand. Everything else is noise. Maybe that is the part that bothers him the most. Because Kageyama Tobio always thought that volleyball was the thing he needed.
He was not supposed to need someone else standing on the side of the net like Hinata.
—
Kageyama hated training camps, mostly because the sheer volume of noise and bodies made it incredibly difficult to keep track of what was happening.
The squeak of sneakers against the polished gym floor usually cleared Kageyama’s head, but eighteen days of summer training? For him, the noise was just a backdrop to the constant, sharp pull of gravity drawing his eyes to the exact same spot on the court.
The same spot, Kageyama thought, was where Hinata always ruined his concentration. Not because Hinata was loud, even though he was, but because he moved like he was already halfway through the play before anyone else had even registered the ball.
“Karasuno,” Coach Ukai called. Kageyama turned, and for one second too long, he saw Hinata pause as he gave his full attention to Ukai. Four seconds, that’s how long Hinata took to concentrate.
“Kageyama—!” Hinata popped up right behind the setter. Kageyama was startled, he took his eyes off him for too long. “Yama, let’s sit together on the bus?” Bus seating assignments have always been like this, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi always cuddling together, Tanaka playfighting with Nishinoya, Daichi regularly getting mad at the team for never getting it together. Kageyama always sits with Hinata, because he always asks. Has he ever had an option to say no? Would he say no?
Kageyama was always like this, overthinking everything, especially while playing volleyball.
“We always sit next to each other, Boke, what’s the point of asking me?” Hinata beamed, his brown eyes glowing. Red creeped up on Kageyama’s face, he couldn’t contain seeing Hinata smile so carefree. Hinata’s hoodie caught his eye, gray and seemingly oversized on him. Was that Kageyama’s missing hoodie?
“Oi, Hinata” Kageyama asked, his voice all tight. “Where’d you get that hoodie from?” Blood rushed to Hinata’s face, a stinging prickle of embarrassment. Tsukishima spotted the two, both red as tomatoes, and started to snicker. The third-years were packing up their stuff, yelling at everyone to get a move on.
Hinata embarrassingly scrambled his words, “Well! Kageyama, uh, your hoodie is warm so I took it. Oh wait, no, I mean that I thought the hoodie was mine, yeah…y’know?” He tried to take off his hoodie, slightly revealing his upper half of his body.
At a loss for words, Kageyama started to look down and was unable to meet Hinata’s eyes. His reaction helped Hinata quickly realize what had happened. “Cool cool cool, no doubt Boke. You can keep the hoodie, it looks like it fits you now.” Kageyama tried to smile at him, however he looked extremely awkward.
Reaching Nationals has really changed the team. It’s like everyone’s energy has suddenly shifted, particularly after the incident. It wasn’t Hinata’s fault that he caught a cold.
“Everyone on the bus!” Coach Ukai barked. “I do not want to be embarrassed by being late to this camp, we need the training.”
“Yama,” Hinata followed Kageyama like a puppy. “I didn’t get a lot of rest last night because I was probably too excited, so don’t mind me sleeping.” He gave a playful smile at Kageyama, causing him to drop eye contact and start fidgeting with his fingers. The two of them sat in their seats, close to the back, with Kageyama sitting on the aisle seat.
Hinata stared at the window, daydreaming. Kageyama guessed that he’s lost in thought about being Karasuno’s ace and the best hitter in Japan, or maybe talking to Bokuto and Kenma in the training camp. Whatever is in Hinata’s head is hard to explain, especially for Kageyama.
The bus was deafening, but Kageyama wanted Hinata to rest—not because he cared deeply for him but so he could play well for the training camp. Kageyama usually admired other setters but he didn’t have a liking for some, like Oikawa or Atsumu, both of which he hoped weren't there at the camp.
Sounds of Daichi and Suguawara quieting down Tanaka, screaming at him to shut up, were heard by the entire bus. Kageyama related to the situation, he knew he couldn’t be a captain, particularly because of his short temper with others.
“Tsukki! Are you sure you’ve eaten?” Yamaguchi panicked, Kageyama couldn’t help but listen to the conversation, he had nothing better to do anyways.
“Yamaguchi—trust me I’m fine. I’m not hungry, and plus, I can eat later. You don’t have to rush me,” Tsukishima mumbled under his breath. He was obviously trying to keep this conversation low. Kageyama noticed that he’s been getting skinnier and slower in practice, but he guessed that Yamaguchi truly cared about him. Their friendship has been so close, not like his and Hinata’s.
Time moved slowly for Kageyama, Tokyo couldn’t have been too far from Miyagi to move like this. This bus felt like it was going two miles per hour, and that feeling agitated Kageyama.
“Bakayama! Talk to me!” Hinata pouted, and Kageyama couldn’t help but to smirk at him. It was exceedingly cold in the bus, unusually cold for summer. Hinata was shivering to his core. Even with Kageyama’s hoodie, he could noticeably see Hinata’s suffering.
“Boke, are you cold under that hoodie?”
“Don’t treat me like a child, Bakayama! I’m older than you by a few months or whatever, and just because I’m 162 centimeters tall doesn’t mean I’m a middle schooler.”
Kageyama burst out laughing, kicking his feet in the air, and breaking his fake nonchalant act. “I thought you said you were going to sleep? Is your excitement for this training camp keeping you up again?”
Hinata quickly hid his face in his hands. “It’s not like I said that—well I did—but like you get the id—“
“Shut it you two!” Tanaka exploded. “Noya and I have to look good for the girls at this training camp, so we need to sleep. How else are we going to get girlfriends?”
“Or maybe,” Ennoshita snapped, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You can rest to actually do well at the training camp. We are here to play and develop our skills, not go to parties looking for girls to seduce!”
“Rela—“
"You've been shouting since we left Miyagi. Coach already told you to settle down twice." His jaw tightened. "We're going to a training camp, not a vacation.”
The conversation drifted somewhere behind him. Tanaka was probably still complaining. Nishinoya was definitely making it worse. Ennoshita would eventually tell them to shut up again.
Kageyama stopped listening. Bus rides had always been his least favorite part of tournaments. There was nothing to do except wait. Waiting meant thinking. Thinking usually led to volleyball. This time, unfortunately, volleyball wasn't the only thing occupying his thoughts. He hated bus rides, especially to places like Tokyo. The only thing he wanted to do was play volleyball, and maybe, drink milk.
Hinata groaned dramatically, rubbing his face with one hand. "Yama," he whined, dragging out the nickname until it barely sounded like a word. He's trying really hard to stay awake because he wants to see Tokyo. Every few seconds his head jerks back up. Kageyama watched from beside him.
"What do you want?” Kageyama groaned, with pain tinted in his voice.
"...How much longer?"
Tsukishima didn't even bother looking away from the window. "You asked that, like, seven times already.”
"Because it feels like it’s been twenty minutes."
"It's been like…four."
Hinata slumped farther into his seat with a dejected sigh, crossing his arms, all warm because of Kageyama’s hoodie.
"I think time moves faster when you're excited," Nishinoya declared confidently, punching Tanaka in the stomach with his shoulder, which was backed with a nod.
"That's… not really how time works," Asahi muttered, Sugawara giggling under his breath.
Hinata ignored them all, pressing his forehead dramatically against the cold window. Outside, highways blurred together in endless stretches of gray, occasionally interrupted by convenience stores or clusters of houses. Every sign that mentioned Tokyo made him straighten up for a few seconds before sinking back down again.
Kageyama glanced sideways.
For someone who had barely slept the night before, Hinata had somehow found enough energy to complain every five minutes.
Most people exhausted themselves eventually. After enough practices, enough matches, enough sleepless nights spent studying, or pretending to study, eventually they slowed down. They yawned. They stopped talking. Their shoulders sagged with fatigue.
Hinata never seemed to.
Even when he looked exhausted, there was always something beneath it, some restless current that refused to let him stay still for more than a few moments. It leaked into everything he did. His fingers drummed against the windowsill without rhythm. His shoes tapped impatiently against the floor. Even when he sat completely still, Kageyama got the strange impression that he was vibrating with enough energy to sprint onto the nearest volleyball court. It didn't make sense. Then again, Hinata rarely did.
Kageyama rested his forehead against the chair in front of him, letting the quiet vibration of the bus settle somewhere behind his eyes. Highways slipped by in long, repetitive stretches, each exit looking almost identical to the last. The scenery blurred together until he stopped trying to memorize any of it. He'd never understood why people enjoyed bus rides. They were too loud to think and too quiet to ignore.
All Kageyama could think about was volleyball. A toss either reached the hitter or it didn't. A receive either stayed alive or it hit the floor. There was always a correct answer and response to each action. Kageyama couldn’t really deal with people’s feelings and personalities. They laughed over things Kageyama couldn't understand. They joked without expecting real answers. Conversations twisted away from where they started, somehow ending somewhere completely unrelated. Nishinoya could spend ten minutes arguing with Tanaka over convenience store bread, and somehow everyone else joined in like it was the most important discussion they'd ever had. Kageyama had stopped trying to follow along months ago.
“Yama…you okay?” Hinata smiled with his entire face. It reached his eyes before it reached his mouth, bright enough that it almost felt out of place against the dull, tedious morning.
Kageyama kept on noticing details about Hinata that he never really acknowledged.
His grin was impossible to ignore. It was loud in the same way he was, unapologetically there. There was something irritatingly contagious about Hinata's smile. Kageyama didn't understand why people smiled back so easily.
Even half-asleep, Hinata's eyes never really rested. They darted from teammate to teammate, to the passing scenery, always looking for growth in his skills and friendships.
His unruly orange hair, maybe a ginger or a tangerine, stood out against everyone else without trying. Kageyama could usually find him in a crowded gym before he recognized anyone else's face.
It was strange.
The bus was just as cramped, just as noisy as it had been five minutes ago, yet Kageyama's attention kept drifting toward the same seat beside him.
“Kageyama!”
He was caught red-handed. Instead of looking away, he committed to the situation, giving a stiff, exaggerated thumbs-up before turning the deepest shade of crimson imaginable.
“Stop staring at me, you look creepy,” Hinata wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes at Kageyama. “You okay? You’ve been acting weird…”
"I was not—I mean, I was looking past you. At the...scenery outside, obviously. Anyways, you’re the one acting weird, you’ve got to stop complaining,” Kageyama stammered with hesitation, he could feel invisible sweat dripping down his forehead. His eyes darted back and forth, timidly. The atmosphere was tense, only for Kageyama.
“Oh okay!” He replied, going back to staring at the window. Kageyama wondered about what was so interesting outside. The highway dragged on forever. Every exit looked the same, and none of them seemed to be worth paying attention to. The road stretched endlessly ahead lined with the same signs, the same guardrails, and the same forgettable cars. Did Hinata just want to talk to him?
The warmth against his shoulder made Kageyama look over. Hinata was fast asleep, leaning on him like it was the most natural thing in the world. Hinata’s soft snoring instantly made Kageyama focus on anything but Hinata.
“Boke Hinata…don’t sleep on my shoulder, go lay down or whatever!” Kageyama didn’t want to get discovered like this, luckily they were all the way at the back of the bus.
Hinata’s eye slowly opened and blinked six times. Not like Kageyama was counting or whatever. “Let me sleep…Bakayama,” he prolonged, finishing his sentence with a yawn. He started to lay on Kageyama’s lap, thinking that he was his bed.
Flustered, Kageyama’s body goes rigid, thinking about what to do. He stares down at Hinata, and considers shoving him off. Hinata is breathing evenly. His hair is messier than usual. He's lighter than Kageyama expected.
“Oi, King,” Tsukishima called. “You’re awfully still, aren’t you?” He snickered and told Yamaguchi to look at the scene.
Kageyama refused to answer.
"You know," Tsukishima continued, wearing the headphones he never took off, "most people would move if their legs fell asleep.” Kageyama heard a slight chuckle from Yamaguchi, who unfortunately found the current situation hilarious.
Tsukishima took off his headphones and finally glanced over
Hinata was fast asleep, cheek buried against Kageyama's thigh, breathing slow and steady, his orange hair all messed up. Kageyama hadn't moved an inch.
The corner of Tsukishima's mouth lifted slightly, ready to make another comment.
"I didn't think you'd be the clingy type,” Tsukishima tilted his head, amused at the circumstances that Kageyama was stuck in.
"We're on a moving bus, what do you expect, Saltyshima? For me to push him off my lap? I need him to be ready and at his best for this camp, we can’t just humiliate ourselves in front of all these good teams.” Kageyama closed his eyes for a moment, his black hair tousled from running his hands through it often.
The bus settled back into silence after Tsukishima put his headphones on.
It was weird.
Not that Hinata had fallen asleep, per say; it wasn't uncommon for Hinata to fall asleep in the middle of a practice if it had gone on long enough. There had been times where he had fallen asleep in the desk of his classroom, or on the floor of the gym, or even on the side of a cart when he hadn't gotten a single break during his training. In some ways, sleep was just another ridiculous talent of Hinata's.
It was Kageyama's fault, rather.
The boy rarely tolerated anyone leaning on his shoulder or slinging an arm over his chest after a match, because Tanaka would do it most often and Nishinoya was just as bad but in a different way. If someone wanted to celebrate their victory on Kageyama, they would have to find another way other than physical contact, because he would push them away in a matter of seconds. It was unnecessary to lean on someone else if you could just talk to them and say what you needed to say.
So why wasn't Kageyama doing something about Hinata?
He should have already shoved Hinata's body off of him, because it didn't require a ton of energy to give the boy a small nudge onto the floor. At best, Hinata might have grumbled a few unintelligible curses before moving to a more accepting teammate, like Tanaka, who would be more than happy to have Hinata's weight on his chest.
Maybe he knew that training camp wouldn't be easy. More of the other team's blockers would be faster, the rallies would be much longer, and there would be more practices than matches, leaving everyone's muscles sore and tired. Hinata never stopped practicing for nationals, even if it had only been a few weeks ago. He fought through every play like it was the final game for the country, and he wouldn't stop just because it would only be the first day. That was all it was.
Kageyama frowned at the sudden realisation, not particularly liking it all that much. The bus jolted forward again as it passed over another hole in the road, making Hinata squirm his small frame onto Kageyama's lap before releasing a content sigh and falling back to sleep.
It was strange to see Hinata like this.
Asleep in his lap with his legs draped over the front of his thighs, he looked almost peaceful. He wasn't frowning with determination or smirking with some sort of ridiculous victory. His lips weren't stretched into that impossibly long grin he usually wore when he hit an impressive play. His usual spark had disappeared behind his closed eyelids. All traces of a furrowed brow had gone, even the small crease between his eyebrows that usually appeared when he got particularly excited.
His hair was wilder than usual, if that was even possible. Some of the short strands had fallen over his forehead before he had pulled them away, leaving his fringe spiked up impossibly from where his head had rested on Kageyama's knee. It looked ridiculous. More importantly, it looked incredibly soft.
Kageyama turned away with an uncharacteristically long glance. Why the hell was he even looking at Hinata?
It didn't really surprise him to see that most of the team was unconscious or staring unseeingly at their phones. Tanaka was quietly yelling at Nishinoya about something the other boy would forget about by the end of the week, while Narita seemed to be struggling against trying to move to look behind him. No one had really seemed to notice that Hinata had fallen asleep on Kageyama, which he was slightly grateful for.
He turned back to look at the sleeping boy, only to stop at the sight of his expression. It looked like the fight had been knocked out of him for the night. Hinata’s the type of person you would think would smile as he slept, like he was dreaming about something exciting that happened during the day. Kageyama looked away again, turning the seat so that his back was facing the window.
It wasn't like he enjoyed having Hinata sleeping on him. His leg was practically numb by now; Kageyama tried stretching it forward as subtly as he could to regain feeling in his leg, but it only made it worse. The pins and needles had gone further down his thigh, crawling down to his calf as he tried to shift his weight in his seat.
He could wake him up, if he wanted to. He should have woken him up in the first place, really.
Instead, Kageyama let out the quietest sigh he could manage and rested his head against the back of his seat. It wouldn't kill him to wait an hour, after all. And besides, if Hinata fell asleep in practice because Kageyama had decided to be stubborn about letting him sleep on his lap, then it would be a wasted practice. A setter's job was to take care of their spiker, after all. That was all it was. It was only necessary to repeat it several more times in his head before it finally calmed him down enough to go back to sleep.
The rest of the bus ride disappeared into a blur. Kageyama wasn’t sure exactly when he’d fallen asleep. It felt like one moment he was staring out the window, listening to the conversations that were happening around him, and the next, the sounds around him had faded into something distant and meaningless.
For once he didn't wake up irritated.
Maybe it was because he was tired. Maybe it was because there was no point in fighting it. Or maybe it was because Hinata was still asleep. Kageyama refused to think about that possibility.
When the bus began slowing down, Kageyama barely noticed. The shift in movement should have woken him immediately, but instead he only adjusted slightly in his seat, his eyes remaining closed. It took him a few seconds to realize something was different. There was a weight against him.
His eyes opened slowly, and the first thing he saw was a mess of orange hair. Hinata, who was still asleep.
For a moment, Kageyama simply stared at him, his brain taking a second to catch up with reality. They had been on the bus for hours, but somehow Hinata had managed to stay exactly where he was—leaning against him like Kageyama was some kind of personal pillow.
It should've been annoying. Kageyama looked away, focusing on literally anything else. The passing buildings outside the window. The bags scattered around the seats. The fact that they had finally arrived in Tokyo.
Anything except the fact that Hinata looked completely comfortable. He shifted carefully, attempting to move his shoulder without waking him. He wasn’t trying to be considerate or anything. He just didn’t want Hinata stumbling off the bus half-asleep and complaining about how tired he was. A setter had to take care of their spiker. That was the only reason. Before he could successfully move, the sound of someone stopping beside their seats made him freeze.
”Kageyama,” Tanaka’s raspy voice acknowledged. “Why is Hinata sleeping on you?”
Kageyama started breathing faster than normal, “Well—he didn’t get enough rest last night, y’know, and he decided to sleep on me!”
“Oh…okay? Just know that I’ll be telling Nishinoya-kun,” Tanaka bit his lip and quickly left; avoiding the trouble he could’ve been in.
Their voices were enough to wake a few nearby teammates. Ennoshita, who had been waiting near the front of the bus, looked over with the exhausted expression of someone who already knew exactly where this was going.
“We’ve been here for five minutes,” he said. “Can we leave before you two start bothering people?”
Kageyama ignored him and looked back down at Hinata.
“The guy could jump higher than anyone else on the court, run until he collapsed, and somehow sleep through everything.
“Hinata.”
Still nothing. Kageyama sighed and lightly shoved his shoulder.
This time, Hinata finally stirred. His eyes opened slowly, blinking up at Kageyama in confusion before looking around.
“Are we there?”
“Yes,” Kageyama answered, still embarrassed by what happened.
Hinata sat up, stretching with a tired groan. His hair stuck up in every direction, and he looked completely unaware of the fact that everyone around them had been watching, soon he noticed.
“Why is everyone staring?”
Nobody answered immediately. Tanaka was still grinning. Nishinoya looked like he was fighting for his life trying not to laugh. Yamaguchi looked between them, clearly unsure whether he should say something. Tsukishima smirked at the two, his motive unreadable. Not like Kageyama cared, he spent the whole ride listening to Newjeans with his headphones on. Kageyama found this out by looking at his phone earlier, seeing their songs playing.
“What?” Hinata asked, oblivious to what was happening.
Kageyama immediately grabbed his bag, “Nothing. Get off the bus.”
He moved past them before anyone could say anything else. Because if they started talking, if they started making jokes, if they started pointing out things Kageyama definitely did not want to think about, then he would have to admit that maybe he had been sitting there for the past few hours for a reason other than just being a responsible setter. After all, he was the one who let Hinata sleep on his lap.
The Karasuno bus looked tiny compared to the massive training camp. The campus is bigger than any camp they've attended before, with multiple gyms, dorm buildings, and outdoor courts. Kageyama starts immediately thinking about the level of volleyball he'll get to play, mentally ranking the teams before they've even unloaded their bags. A list on the table had the teams that were attending, Kageyama picked it up and started reading it.
List for Post-Nationals Camp: Nekoma, Aoba Johsai, Fukurodani, Karasuno, Inarizaki…
He didn’t know the rest of the teams.
“Great…” Kageyama muttered to himself, tone filled with annoyance. “Atsumu and Oikawa-san are most likely here.” Kageyama started fidgeting, his leg being like a sewing machine.
“Eh—? Can you repeat that again, Tobio-chan?”
Kageyama turned around, his face plastered with an irritated expression. Oikawa stood in front of him, staring at him with a smug smile.
“How are you and the shortie?” Oikawa teased. Luckily for him, Iwaizumi wasn’t there yet to stop him from mocking Kageyama.
“Why are you here?” Kageyama asked the obnoxious setter. “I thought you wouldn’t come after losing to us?”
“Well—fortunately for you, my little Tobio, the people who arranged this wanted all the third-years to come. I don't know why…maybe for extra people.”
“Oh,” Kageyama murmured to himself. That’s why Daichi-san and the other third-years came, Coach Ukai never gave us an explanation.
“Oi!” Kageyama heard a familiar voice coming straight at them. “Crappykawa stop tormenting Tobio with all your crap!” Iwaizuimi threw his bag at Oikawa and stormed off with him. Kageyama always admired the two in his middle school years.
The campus was crowded, so crowded that Kageyama lost track of his team. Hinata must’ve been lost too, his small height probably prevented him from finding his way around this huge place.
The sound speakers from above blasted into everyone’s ear, “Inarizaki and Karasuno please meet at Court 1, Aoba Johsai and Fukurodani please meet at Court 2…”
The rest of the announcement was of no use to Kageyama. As he walked past the multiple crowds of players making their way through he overheard many conversations.
“I heard Shiratorizawa’s coach declined the offer because they lost to Karasuno…”
“Hey, did you hear that there’s another training camp like this because they invited too many teams?”
“Bokuto, you look like an owl.”
All Kageyama wanted to do was find his team, this campus was way too huge for rest him to navigate his way around it.
After ten minutes he finally found Karasuno, Coach Ukai was giving orders. Hinata was laughing with Yamaguchi, probably about some stupid dog video. Inarizaki was all huddled up and talking to each other. At the corner of his eye Kageyama could see Atsumu glancing at Hinata. After what the blonde setter said to Kageyama’s spiker at Nationals, Kageyama has felt a rivalry between the two.
Hinata was practically vibrating with excitement, sprinting around to look at everything. He disappears twice while Daichi was telling the team what to do. Forcing Kageyama to track him down both times. Kageyama is irritated but also oddly relieved every time he spots the flash of orange hair.
During the opening meeting, all nine teams gather, four of which Kageyama didn’t know about. Atsumu noticed Hinata almost immediately. The director, Kazehuyo, looked oddly young, maybe at his early twenties. He had milk tea hair, and was 195 centimeters. The meeting passed by quickly, briefly explaining what would happen during the two and a half training camp.
“Ay! Shouyou-kun,” Kageyama promptly watched Atsumu talking to Hinata. “I missed you! You were so good at Nationals, can’t believe you lost to Kamomedai!”
“Ah! Hi Miya-senpai!! You also did great at Nationals!”
Atsumu pulled out his phone, surprisingly decorated with cute stickers, “Can I get your number?”
The scene turned into a long chat, lasting twenty-four minutes. Hinata laughed four times while talking to Miya.
Kageyama told himself he wasn't watching.
His shoes were already on. His bag was slung over one shoulder. All he had to do was leave. He could be talking to his team. Instead he had to stay.
Across the gym Hinata was still talking to Miya.
No—Atsumu.
The realization came with a sort of irritation. He didn't know when he'd stopped thinking of him by his name. Maybe because Hinata had spent twenty minutes saying, Miya-senpai, Miya-senpai like the words came easily.
The sound echoed through the empty gym, bright and effortless filling the silence left behind after practice.
Kageyama looked away. There wasn't anything about it.
Hinata made friends everywhere he went. That was just who he was. Loud. Earnest. Stupidly easy to like. Atsumu was the same. So naturally they'd get along. It shouldn't matter.
Then why did it feel like every laugh pulled Hinata a little away?
His fingers tightened around the strap of his bag until it creaked.
You're being an idiot.
"Hinata."
The name left his mouth before he could think better of it.
Hinata turned immediately, eyes lighting up the second he spotted him.
"Kageyama! Hold on!"
For one fleeting second Kageyama thought he would. Atsumu nudged Hinata with his shoulder.
"Leave him for five minutes yeah? C'mon Shouyou-kun. I still gotta tell ya about that quick."
Hinata blinked, glancing between them.
"Oh..."
It wasn't a real hesitation. Long enough for Kageyama to notice.
"Sorry!" Hinata rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'll catch up with you later!"
Then he smiled. Not at Kageyama. At Atsumu.
The two of them disappeared through the gym doors, their conversation fading into the hallway until Kageyama couldn't make out the words anymore.
The silence that followed felt heavier than it should have. He stared at the doors for another second before forcing himself to move. For the time, in what felt like forever—Hinata hadn't walked beside him.