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Kageyama was that type of person that got people things at random, no matter the cost, even if they hadn’t asked for it.
Like the time Sugawara didn’t have enough to cover the bill for his meal when they had all gone out to eat after practice one night. Instead of helping out with the rest, Kageyama had just paid for the whole meal. Or the time when Asahi ran out of sports tape, and Kageyama showed up at practice the next day with a brand new pack of them for him.
He didn’t care, really, and refused anything in return. His parents left him with a large allowance each time they left for business trips, and if he needed more, they wired some into his account for him to withdraw. Even if they weren’t around in his life much, they didn’t leave him up and dry. Kageyama was grateful for that, at least, even though support would’ve also been appreciated.
So, buying things for the people who gave him that support on a constant basis wasn’t that big of a deal for him. He liked it, actually, being able to give back to his teammates at Karasuno for everything they did for him.
“Ack, these knee guards are killing me,” Kageyama peered up from tying his shoe at the sound of Tanaka’s distressed voice, watching him pull his left kneepad up with a distasteful look on his face. Nishinoya, who stood next to his friend, punched him once on the knee with a mischievous smirk on his face. When Tanaka yelped, he clicked his tongue in mock disappointment.
“Yeah, guess they are pretty worn out if that hurt,” He put his hands on his hip and winked at Tanaka, “Either that or I’m just too strong for ya’.”
“His kneepads must be really worn out then, my grandmother punches stronger than that and she’s in a nursing home,” Ennoshita muttered from the other side of the room, half intending for Nishinoya to hear, half not. Even Kageyama couldn’t restrain himself from cracking a grin as Nishinoya yelled indignantly and launched himself at the other second year. Ennoshita stayed straight faced as Nishinoya ran at him, until Daichi caught the libero by the waist and stopped him, which made him smile smugly.
“No fighting,” Daichi warned, letting him go, “You guys have 10 minutes before you need to be in the gym or I’ll add 10 more laps to our warm up drill,” He scanned the room, making eye contact with everyone for a moment before following Sugawara and Asahi out of the clubroom.
Once the door closed after the third years everyone sighed in relief. The room started to empty quickly after that, starting with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, who were trailed closely by Kinoshita, Narita and Ennoshita. Hinata waited impatiently next to Kageyama, who was taking his sweet time putting his shirt on as he watched Nishinoya and Tanaka talk about something that had happened during lunch.
The four of them left the room together, and arrived at practice just in time for Daichi to start. Practice went on as normal as it always did. They did spiking practice after warm ups, and Kageyama could feel the strain in his arms after the amount of continuous sets he had to give as one of the only two setters on the team.
During break he sat off to the side, towel draped over his head, water bottle forgotten somewhere on the Coaches’ bench. He felt something cold butt his shoulder, and he jumped in response. Kageyama yanked the towel off his head and saw Tanaka snickering down at him, holding a water bottle out to him.
“Get all the water you can, I heard Ukai is focusing on spikes and receives this practice. You’ll need it,” Tanaka said as Kageyama took the bottle, and after another moment, decided to sit next to him. His knee brushed against Kageyama’s thigh, but he didn’t seem intent on moving it, so Kageyama didn’t say anything. They sat there in a relatively peaceful silence together until Ukai called them back in.
Lo and behold, Tanaka’s warning proved right. Kageyama liked to be worked, to be pushed past his limit, and this was no different. He left the gym with an air of confidence, especially after Yachi telling him he’d hit a new record low of missed jump serves.
“Yama-yama, are you going to join us for meat buns?” Hinata called out to him after they’d all dressed back into their clothes and started to leave school campus. Behind him, the third years and most of the team waited.
He waved him off, pointing to his phone, “I have some things to deal with, I’ll see you guys later,”
Hinata scoffed, but Tanaka, although he seemed just as disappointed as his underclassman, called out, “All’s good, goodnight Kageyama!”, and was echoed by his teammates yelling the same. Kageyama gave a small smile and said a quick ‘goodbye’ before walking in the other direction.
Before he went home, though, he scrolled through his phone and dialed up his mother. His phone rang for a couple of beats before the other end picked up, “Hey, mom,” Kageyama greeted, “No, I’m fine. Do you think you could transfer another 3700¥ into my account? … Yes, it’s for something important … okay, thank you, love you too. Tell dad hi, too. Goodnight.”
With that settled, he started walking. Kageyama wondered if his teammates had noticed that he’d gone in the opposite direction of his house.
-*-
Tanaka threw his gym bag on the ground as soon as he walked into the clubroom, plopping down next to it with a defeated sigh. He’d had a long day, between tests and quizzes and forgetting his homework at home, nothing good had really come out of it. All he wanted to do was play some volleyball with his friends, go home, and sleep the night away.
But he had a problem that wasn’t going to go away. His knee guards were getting on his last nerves.
He’d had them since middle school. They were kind of like another layer of skin to him at this point, but in all honesty, they weren’t helping as much anymore. His knees were bruising from yesterday’s receiving practice, and he could only pray today would be better on him.
He pulled on his volleyball shorts, but stopped halfway through taking his shirt off when he heard a quiet “Tanaka,” from somewhere behind him. He quickly discarded of his shirt and whirled around dramatically.
In retrospect, that probably wasn’t the smartest idea, as Kageyama was right behind him, and the two were now chest to chest. More specifically, chest-to-bare-chest.
“Oh, Kageyama, sorry,” Tanaka sputtered out, jumping back a solid foot away. The setter quirked an eyebrow at him, but said nothing.
Instead, he held out a shopping bag, and after a few moments of Tanaka just staring at it, thrusted it into his hands.
“You said your kneepads were getting worn out, so I went out and bought you some yesterday” Kageyama stated simply, as if that was something everyone did for their teammates. Someone wolf whistled from the other side of the room.
Tanaka all but ripped through the bag, and made a noise of pure joy when he pulled out a brand new pair of Mizuno kneepads. He didn’t hesitate to pull the tags off of them and slip them on, reveling in the feeling of freshly bought sports gear. He took another moment to bask in the glory of it all before jumping up and pulling Kageyama into a huge bear hug.
“T-Tanaka!” Kageyama yelped, which only made him squeeze tighter, and made the rest of the team -- who’d sat back and watched the whole thing unfold in surprised amusement -- laugh.
“Thank you, Kageyama, you’re the best teammate ever!” Tanaka boasted, releasing him and stepping back to admire his new kneepads for all they’re worth.
Kageyama couldn’t control a blush from spreading across his cheeks from the comment, and he quickly made his way back over to his gym bag to finish changing.
He swore he heard Tsukishima start to say something about “The King and his most loyal follower,” while looking between Tanaka and Kageyama, but a swift kick to the shins from NIshinoya was a perfect silencer in any situation.