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Kageyama Tobio was felt like he is going crazy, and it was entirely Hinata Shouyou’s fault.
The Spring Tournament was rapidly approaching. Kageyama’s new apartment was finally set up, the boxes were unpacked, and logically, everything in his life should have been aligning perfectly for maximum volleyball efficiency. Instead, his entire existence felt like it was violently vibrating off its axis.
Ever since last week—when Kageyama had caught Hinata acting incredibly suspicious, hiding behind vending machines and telephone poles with the rest of the first-years—the middle blocker’s behavior had completely derailed.
Hinata had gone from his usual, annoying level of hyperactive to downright erratic. If Kageyama tossed to him, Hinata would spike the ball and then sprint away as if the net had caught fire. If Kageyama stood too close to him during water breaks, Hinata would physically jump, turn a terrifying shade of red, and start yelling about nonsense. They were bickering constantly, picking fights over absolutely nothing, and every single practice ended in a screaming match that left Daichi rubbing his temples and Sugawara popping ibuprofen.
Kageyama didn't understand it. He hated not understanding things. It made his chest tight and his hands restless. He didn't know what went wrong.
In middle school, when things fell apart with his spikers, Kageyama had been entirely alone. He would have retreated to the gym by himself, serving volleyballs against a cold wall until his palms blistered, swallowing the heavy, suffocating quiet of an empty court.
But high school was... different.
The bell for lunch rang, and Kageyama didn't go to the courtyard. He didn't go find a quiet stairwell. Instead, he walked mechanically down the hallway, pushed open the door to Class 1-4, and marched straight toward a very specific desk near the window.
Tsukishima was already sitting there, eating a sandwich and reading a textbook with his large, expensive headphones resting around his neck. Yamaguchi was sitting backward in the chair in front of him, chatting happily.
Both of them stopped and stared as Kageyama loomed over the desk.
"Hinata picked a fight with me again," he said grumbly, sitting down heavily on an empty chair next to them.
Yamaguchi exchanged a quick, highly loaded glance with Tsukishima.
"What was it this time?" Yamaguchi asked gently, offering a sympathetic, albeit slightly strained, smile. "Did you tell him his receiving form was sloppy?"
"I told him his shoelaces were untied and to fix them before he tripped and broke his neck," Kageyama muttered. His signature scowl deepened as he stared intensely at the wood grain of the desk. "And he yelled at me not to tell him what to do, turned bright red, and threw a damp towel at my head."
Tsukishima let out a short, breathy snicker, turning a page of his textbook. "How tragic. The King's most loyal subject is staging a rebellion."
"Shut up," Kageyama snapped instinctively. But there was no real heat behind it; he just sounded incredibly tired. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, the stress headache from practice still pounding behind his eyes. And the loud chatter in the class didn't help.
"Can I..." Kageyama started, his voice gruff, forced, and painfully awkward. He gestured to the headphones."Can I borrow those?"
Tsukishima blinked, then let out a long, incredibly put-out sigh. He pulled the headset off his neck and shoved them unceremoniously into Kageyama's chest.
"One day you should really get your own pair, king. I'm starting to get tired of sharing."
"Thanks," Kageyama said awkwardly, grabbing the headphones. "Sorry that I'm not very social today."
"Awwww, that's sweet that you think that sometimes you are social." The blonde snickered.
Yamaguchi gasped. "Tsukki, that's so rude!"
Kageyama rolled his eyes. He placed them firmly over his ears, closed his eyes, and crossed his arms, slouching back in the chair like a brooding statue.
Tsukishima reached out, tapped the screen of his phone resting on the desk, and hit play.
A heavy, steady bassline started thumping in Kageyama's ears, instantly drowning out the chatter of the classroom, the looming anxiety of the tournament, and the frustrating, confusing echo of Hinata’s voice.
He could still hear a little Yamaguchi’s and Tsukishima's murmurs, but he found out a while back - he didn't mind noise that much when it was his friends.
🏐🏐🏐
The rest of the school day dragged on, and afternoon practice was, predictably, a disaster.
It ended with Hinata spiking a perfectly good toss directly into the net, yelling something completely incomprehensible at Kageyama, and storming out of the gym before stretching was even finished.
Daichi had sighed - even the captain was tired and confused - and told Kageyama to just let him cool off. But Kageyama couldn't let it go. The knot in his chest was back, tighter than before.
After changing out of his practice clothes, Kageyama made a quick detour to the vending machines. He bought his usual strawberry milk and, after a moment of hesitation, pressed the button for a second one. A peace offering. If he just shoved the milk into Hinata's chest and told him to stop being an idiot, maybe they could go back to normal.
He walked around to the back of the gym, where Hinata usually went to sulk.
As he rounded the corner, Kageyama stopped dead in his tracks.
Hinata wasn't alone. Standing across from him was a first-year girl Kageyama vaguely recognized from class 1-5. She had her hands clasped tightly in front of her skirt, holding a small, carefully folded pink letter. Her face was flushed bright red.
Kageyama froze, his grip tightening instinctively on the two milk cartons. His feet felt like they had been cemented to the pavement.
"I've watched you at the games, Hinata-kun," the girl was saying, her voice trembling but earnest. "You're so amazing when you jump. I... I really like you! Please go out with me!"
Kageyama’s heart dropped heavily into his stomach. A cold, awful feeling washed over him. He should turn around. He should walk away. It was none of his business. But he couldn't move.
Hinata looked entirely panicked. His eyes were wide, his face as red as his hair, and his hands were waving frantically in front of him.
"I—I'm so sorry!" Hinata yelled, bowing so fast and so low he almost headbutted the poor girl. "You're really, really nice! And I'm really honored! But I can't!"
The girl blinked, looking crushed. "Oh... is it because of volleyball? I know you practice a lot—"
"No! Well, yes, volleyball is really important!" Hinata babbled, his voice pitching up in his panic. "But... but it's also because I already like someone else!"
Kageyama felt the breath completely leave his lungs.
What???
"I like someone else a lot," Hinata continued, staring fiercely at the ground, his voice dropping into something softer, something devastatingly genuine. "He's... I mean, they're... they're really amazing. And I can't really think about anyone else right now. I'm so sorry!"
The girl offered a wobbly smile, bowing back. "I understand. I hope it works out for you, Hinata-kun."
She turned and ran back toward the main building.
Kageyama stepped back into the shadows of the gym wall, his heart pounding a sickening, erratic rhythm against his ribs.
He looked down at the two milk cartons in his hands. He felt incredibly, suffocatingly stupid.
Without a word, Kageyama turned on his heel and walked away, leaving the back of the gym, and Hinata, far behind him.
He tossed the drinks to trash on his way out.
🏐🏐🏐
The next two days of practice were worse than a disaster. They were terrifyingly quiet.
If Hinata had been a live wire before, Kageyama was now a wall of solid ice. He stopped yelling. He stopped calling Hinata a dumbass. He delivered perfectly calculated, precise tosses, and the moment the ball left his hands, he looked away. There were no high-fives, no post-practice races to the clubroom, and absolutely no eye contact.
Hinata looked like he was slowly losing his mind, shooting desperate, panicked glances at the setter, but Kageyama completely shut him out. He built an impenetrable fortress around himself. If Hinata was in love with someone else, Kageyama wasn't going to stick around to be discarded.
By the end of Wednesday's practice, the tension in the gym was so thick it was hard to breathe. Hinata had bolted the second coach dismissed them, looking dangerously close to tears.
Kageyama stayed behind, methodically changing out of his practice clothes in the clubroom and taking his time walking out into the cool evening air.
He stopped when he saw Ito sitting on the concrete steps near the vending machines, sketching in his notebook under the glow of the outdoor light.
Ito looked up, taking one look at Kageyama’s dark, stormy expression, and closed his sketchbook.
"Trouble in paradise?" Ito asked cautiously. "Yachi-san just went home. I ran into her and we started to discussing some art references for a new club poster... well, until she mentioned that you and Hinata-kun have been acting like a poorly written tragic romance."
Kageyama scowled, intensely glaring at the vending machine as if he could vaporize it with his mind. "Hinata is being a distracted idiot, and his technique is terrible," he muttered stiffly.
Ito let out a knowing sigh, shifting on the steps to make room. "What really did happen?"
Kageyama sat down heavily next to him, his jaw tightening. "He likes someone else."
"Did he say that, or did you just assume?"
"He said it," Kageyama replied, the words tasting like ash in his mouth. "A girl confessed to him on Monday. He rejected her and said it was because he already liked someone."
Ito hummed thoughtfully, tapping his pencil against his knee. He looked Kageyama dead in the eye and grinned.
"Hey, Kageyama."
"What?"
"I talked to Mio-san yesterday."
Kageyama blinked, temporarily pulled out of his own misery. He recalled the brown-haired girl Ito had been staring at during their lunch this one time. "You did? Are you dating her now?"
"Nope," Ito sid. He had a genuine, surprisingly bright smile. "She was really nice about it, but she said she already had a crush on a second-year on the soccer team. I got completely shut down."
Kageyama frowned, entirely confused by the artist's cheerful demeanor. "Then why aren't you upset?"
"Because, for once, I didn't act like a total loser," Ito said simply. "I took a chance, and got an actual answer to the question that kept me guessing for months. Now I know for sure, so I don't have to spend the rest of the year wondering 'what if.' Plus, when I told the manga club what I did, they literally carried me out to the courtyard on their shoulders. They think I'm a legend."
Kageyama stared at Ito, skeptical.
"You said that statistically, if I do nothing, my success rate will be zero percent," Ito pointed out gently. "You're doing nothing right now, Kageyama-kun. Go 'serve the ball', like you told me. Are you really going to decide that you've lost before the game has even started?"
Kageyama let out a long, heavy breath. He looked away, digesting the infuriatingly solid logic being used against him.
"I hate how smart I am sometimes," Kageyama said.
"You are something, all right," Ito rolled his eyes, nudging Kageyama's shoulder with his sketchbook. "Now go catch him before he bikes all the way over the mountain."
🏐🏐🏐
Kageyama didn't just walk. He ran.
He ran from the school, through the darkening streets of the town, and all the way up the steep incline of the mountain toward Hinata’s house. By the time his feet hit the dirt path leading up to the front door, his lungs were burning, his legs felt like lead, and he was sweating through his school uniform. But his mind was laser-focused.
Kageyama had never in his life entered a volleyball court and thought to himself, Oh well. This game is doomed, might as well give up. Like hell he was going to start now.
Kageyama marched up to the front door and, before he could lose his nerve, aggressively pressed the doorbell.
He stood there, panting heavily, trying to make his face look intimidating rather than terrified.
The door swung open. A tiny girl with messy orange hair and big, bright eyes looked up at him. She was holding a plastic dinosaur in one hand and had a band-aid across her nose.
When she saw who it was, Natsu’s face instantly lit up.
"Tobio-nii!" Natsu cheered, completely unbothered by the giant, sweating, heavy-breathing teenager on her porch.
Kageyama’s intimidating scowl faltered, softening just a fraction. He was still generally terrible with children, but Natsu was unfazed by it.
"Hey, Natsu," Kageyama said, his voice a little gruff from the run.
"Did you come to play with me?" Natsu asked, putting her free hand on her hip.
"I'm sorry, but no," Kageyama replied. "I need to talk to your brother."
Natsu let out a loud, dramatic sigh of profound disappointment. She turned her head toward the inside of the house. "SHO-CHAN! YOUR SETTER IS HERE!"
Maybe being loud is a Hinata family trait.
There was a loud crash from inside the house, followed by the frantic sound of footsteps scrambling against hardwood floors. A second later, Hinata skidded into the entryway, wearing a ridiculously oversized T-shirt and mismatched socks.
It was annoying how beautiful he looked.
When he saw Kageyama standing on his porch, Hinata looked like he had just seen a ghost.
"Kageyama?!" Hinata yelped, his eyes going wide. "What—what are you doing here?! How did you get here?!"
"I ran," Kageyama gasped, catching his breath. He glared down at the middle blocker. "I want... I need to talk to you."
Hinata’s face instantly flushed. He crossed his arms, suddenly looking very defensive and incredibly small. "I don't want to talk to you. You've been a jerk all week."
"Me?! You are the one that-" Kageyama started, then stopped himself and took a deep breath.
"Come with me. To the park down the street. We need to talk."
"You can't just boss me around at my own house!" Hinata yelled.
"Just go, Sho-chan, you two are so annoying!" Natsu complained, pushing Hinata toward the door.
Grumbling under his breath, Hinata shoved his feet into his sneakers and stepped outside, slamming the door behind him.
The walk to the nearby neighborhood park was agonizingly silent. The streetlights were just starting to flicker on, casting long shadows on the pavement. Kageyama kept his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.
They reached a small, empty playground with two swings and a rusty slide. Hinata stopped near the swings, refusing to look Kageyama in the eye. He kicked at a pebble in the dirt.
"Fine," Hinata muttered. "We're at the park. What do you want, Kageyama?"
"Who is it?" Kageyama demanded, his voice much louder and harsher than he intended.
Hinata flinched, looking up in pure confusion. "Huh?"
"The person you like," Kageyama gritted out, the words feeling like glass in his throat. He forced himself to look Hinata directly in the eyes. "I was behind the gym on Monday. I was bringing you milk. I heard you reject that girl."
Hinata’s entire body went rigid. The color completely drained from his face, only to rush back in a violent, fiery red.
"You—you were eavesdropping on me?!" Hinata shrieked, taking a step back.
"I wasn't trying to! I was bringing you a peace offering!" Kageyama yelled back, his carefully constructed calm instantly vanishing. "And you have absolutely no right to complain! You literally spent all of last week spying on me!"
Hinata opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, looking incredibly guilty for exactly one second before doubling down. "That—that was different!"
"It's the exact same thing!"
"Is not!"
"Yes it is- wait, that doesn't matter!" Kageyama tried to focus. "I heard you say that you like someone else! Someone amazing! So who is it, Hinata?! Is it someone from another team? Is that why you've been picking fights with me all week?!"
"I've been picking fights with you because you're a stupid, insensitive jerk!" Hinata exploded, throwing his hands in the air.
"I gave you space!"
"I DIDN'T WANT SPACE!" Hinata screamed, his voice echoing loudly across the empty playground. "I wanted you to yell at me! I wanted you to toss to me! I wanted you to look at me, you stupid Bakageyama!"
"I'm always looking at you, dumbass Hinata!"
The words ripped through the cool evening air, echoing off the metal of the slide. Both of them froze, their chests heaving as the absolute, undeniable weight of what Kageyama had just admitted settled over the playground.
Hinata’s eyes widened, his lips parting in shock. The fiery anger that had been radiating off him just a second ago seemed to vanish into thin air.
"So who is it?" Kageyama asked. His voice cracked, dropping into something quiet, raw, and painfully desperate. He looked down at the dirt, suddenly unable to meet Hinata's wide eyes. "Who is so amazing that you can't even focus on our receives? Because I don't... I don't know how to compete with that."
Hinata stared at him. The silence stretched between them, heavy but completely different from the suffocating, freezing quiet of the gym. His brown eyes started to water.
"What?" He whispered.
Kageyama clenched his jaw. He was so incredibly tired of fighting, so tired of the awful, heavy ache that had taken over his chest. If he was going to lose, he was going down swinging.
"I’m saying I like you," Kageyama forced out, the words tearing from his throat, raw and agonizing. He finally lifted his head, his dark eyes locking onto Hinata’s wide, tear-filled ones. "I like you, dumbass. I like you so much it makes me feel like I’m losing my mind."
Hinata let out a tiny, breathless gasp, but Kageyama couldn’t stop. The dam had completely broken.
"I don't want you looking at someone else," Kageyama continued, his voice shaking. The defensive walls he had built up all week crumbled into dust. "I don't want you thinking about someone else's tosses, or someone else's smile, or whatever it is that makes you so distracted. I want it to be me. You promised you'd always be there to hit my tosses, but I want... I want you to be there even when we aren't playing."
Hinata stared at him. A tear slipped down his cheek, cutting a clear path through the dirt on his face, but his expression rapidly morphed from shock, to disbelief, to overwhelming, explosive affection.
"You..." Hinata breathed, his voice trembling. "You really are the absolute dumbest person alive."
"What—" Kageyama started, completely thrown off.
"THERE IS NO OTHER GUY, YOU IDIOT!"
Hinata closed the distance between them in a flash, grabbing the front of Kageyama’s uniform shirt with both hands. He pulled Kageyama down so they were completely eye-to-eye, glaring with a ferocity that made Kageyama’s breath hitch in his throat.
"How can you be a genius setter and so incredibly stupid?!" Hinata screamed right into his face, his brown eyes shining with unshed tears of pure frustration and relief. "You're the crush! It's you! I like you!"
The world stopped.
The wind stopped blowing. The streetlights stopped buzzing. Kageyama’s brain completely, entirely short-circuited.
He stared at Hinata. Hinata stared back, still gripping Kageyama’s shirt like it was a lifeline.
"Me?" Kageyama whispered, the terrifying, weightless shock finally washing over him.
"Yes, you!" Hinata groaned, dropping his forehead heavily against Kageyama’s chest. He sounded completely defeated, but his hands didn't loosen their grip on Kageyama's shirt. "I've been going crazy all week. Tsukishima made me realize it, and then you started freezing me out, and I thought you hated me, and I—"
Hinata’s frantic rambling was cut off abruptly.
"Ohhhhh, I get it now." He said.
"What?" Kageyama furrowed his brows in confusion.
"That's why he laughed at me! That jerk!"
Kageyama didn't know what to say. Or what Hinata was talking about.
He wrapped his arms tightly around Hinata’s shoulders, pulling the shorter boy flush against him, burying his face in Hinata's messy orange hair.
Hinata froze stiff for a second, totally stunned, before his arms slowly crept up to wrap around Kageyama’s waist, holding on just as tight.
"You're a dumbass," Kageyama muttered into his hair, his voice completely raw. His ears were burning red, but he refused to let go. "I ran all the way up a mountain because I thought you were leaving me behind."
Hinata let out a watery, highly embarrassing sniffle against Kageyama’s collarbone. "I'm not leaving you behind. You can't get rid of me that easily. "
"Good," Kageyama breathed. The awful, suffocating knot in his chest—the one that had been choking him for days—finally dissolved completely, leaving him feeling impossibly light.
🏐💞🏐
Honestly, Kageyama had thought that he was the happiest about finally becoming Hinata's boyfriend.
But the next morning, when they walked into the gym and told the team, the deafening cheers, the whoops of absolute relief, and the sight of Yachi honest-to-god bursting into happy tears made him realize he might have been getting ahead of himself.
Daichi looked up at the ceiling like he was thanking a higher power, and Sugawara looked like a man who had just been pardoned from a life sentence.
Kageyama thought they were all being a tad dramatic. But the absolute chaos made Hinata laugh—a bright, unrestrained sound that echoed through the gym and made Kageyama's chest feel impossibly warm.
So, he decided to let it slide.
Also, I made memes:
For the previous story (the one where kageyama wasn't in the group chat):
