Work Text:
Unknown Number: SO WHEN R WE GETTING TOGETHER AGAIN?
Kageyama stares at the text for several minutes, feeling confused. He has no idea who is texting him. He can’t think of anyone who would text him outside of the team, and he has all of their numbers saved to his phone, so this unknown number can’t be them.
If it isn’t someone from the team, then it can’t be important.
Kageyama deletes the text.
He doesn’t think about it again until two days later.
Unknown Number: HELLO? DID U GET MY TXXT??
Kageyama doesn’t see the text until they finish practice and he is walking home. It came in during practice, so he didn’t even hear his phone go off – not that he would have answered it during practice anyway. Whoever it is sent another text as well, seventeen minutes later, when Kageyama didn’t respond.
Unknown Number: R U IGNORING ME??
He stops walking and frowns at his phone. He had forgotten about the weird text he got a few days ago. It must be a wrong number. Whoever is texting him clearly hasn’t figured out yet that this is a wrong number, though, which is annoying.
He could text back and tell the person that this isn’t the number for whoever they are trying to reach, but he doesn’t want to. The person will figure it out on their own.
Kageyama deletes both texts, shoves his phone back into his pocket, and walks home.
The next text comes in while Kageyama is doing homework that night. He’s trying to remember the trick Yachi taught him for math problems like this when his phone buzzes.
Unknown Number: ILL TOTALLY COME YO MIYAGI
It’s that same unknown number. Kageyama frowns.
This is getting annoying.
Kageyama deletes the text and focuses on the math problem again.
Unknown Number: SRSLY. IT WAS SO COOL. I WANT TO HIT THAT TSS AGAIN. HIT ME UP FOR A MEETUP!!
This text doesn’t even make sense. Kageyama doesn’t know what a “TSS” is.
He deletes the text and heads to his next class. Just before he walks into the classroom, he hears Hinata.
“Hey!” Hinata calls, waving his arms as he sprints down the hallway towards Kageyama. He dodges around people without slowing down, weaving his way through the crowd of students. Hinata can be very annoying and his technique needs a lot of work, but his athleticism and agility really are impressive.
Kageyama waits for Hinata just outside of the classroom. He has a minute or so before he’s late, and Hinata probably won’t leave him alone until he says whatever he wants to say anyway.
“Kageyama-kun!” Hinata shouts as he skids to a stop in front of Kageyama. “Did you get the texts?” Hinata asks. “I gave him your number but he says you haven’t responded yet so I said I’d check.”
“What texts?” Kageyama asks. Hinata never said anything about giving his number to anyone.
“I gave –” Hinata stops when the bell sounds. His eyes go wide. Kageyama is fairly certain that Hinata's next class is nowhere near here. “Darn,” Hinata says, backpedaling down the corridor, back the way he came. “I’ll talk to you later, Kageyama-kun!” he calls, waving again as he turns and runs for his own next class.
Kageyama doesn’t know what that was about, but if it’s important then he’s sure that Hinata will tell him later. Even if it isn’t important, Hinata will probably tell him later.
Kageyama goes to class and puts the conversation out of his mind.
Whatever it was can’t have been important after all, because Hinata doesn’t bring it up at practice after school, so Kageyama doesn’t bring it up either. He’d much rather focus on volleyball.
Unknown Number: HEY STOP IGGNORING ME
Unknown Number: KAGEYAMAAAAA
Unknown Number: THIS IS UR NUMBR, RIGHT? HINATA SAID THIS IS UR NUMBER
Unknown Number: IS THIS THE RIGHT NUMBER?
The texts come through seconds apart just after Kageyama gets home from his morning run. He opens them one by one while he kicks off his shoes and pours himself a glass of water.
As he reads them, he feels more and more confused.
Whoever it is knows his name. That’s … strange. Why would a wrong number texter know Kageyama's name? And how do they know Hinata?
This person doesn’t seem to be giving up any time soon, and they know Kageyama's name. It’s been four days since the first text, and this person just keeps texting. It seems like Kageyama will have to say something after all to get them to stop.
Kageyama texts back.
Kageyama Tobio: who is this?
It only takes a few seconds for the person to reply.
Unknown Number: BOKUTO KOUTAROU
Oh. Well that’s … still strange.
Bokuto is the team captain and the ace from Fukurodani Academy. He practiced with Hinata and Tsukishima a lot during the joint training camp in Tokyo – Hinata wouldn’t talk about anything else for days after the training camp was over.
Kageyama only talked to Bokuto once during the training camp, on the last night, when Bokuto pulled Kageyama into the third gym after everyone else had gone to bed and demanded that Kageyama let him spike Kageyama’s new toss. Kageyama had wanted to say no, but he also hadn’t wanted to say no. Bokuto shoved a volleyball into Kageyama’s hands and ran out onto the court without waiting for Kageyama to say yes or no. So Kageyama hadn’t said anything. He had just tossed the ball.
It was a bit awkward at first. Kageyama isn’t used to practicing with players at Bokuto's level. Most of the players at Karasuno are good, but Bokuto is one of the top five aces in Japan. It was uncomfortable for Kageyama on the first few tosses and it showed in the quality of those tosses. The inconsistency of the new toss at the time – it’s gotten a lot better since the training camp – was embarrassing, but Bokuto didn’t seem to notice. Hinata always comments when Kageyama's tosses aren’t perfect, but Bokuto didn’t; he seemed excited just to get a chance to spike. After a while, Kageyama forgot to be uncomfortable about playing with someone like Bokuto and just focused on tossing to him.
Once Kageyama got over being uncomfortable, playing with Bokuto was easy. Bokuto is loud and excitable like Hinata, and he sometimes loses his focus like Hinata does, but Kageyama doesn’t have to slow down or hold himself back at all so that Bokuto can keep up. Kageyama knows that it’s the setter’s job to match the spikers – Suga has told him that, and Kageyama tries very hard to follow Suga's instructions – but it was nice to be able to toss without thinking about whether or not the spiker could keep up, because Bokuto could. No matter how high or fast Kageyama tossed the ball, Bokuto was there. Kageyama didn’t have to compensate for a lack of skillfulness in the spiker’s technique, because Bokuto is very skilled. Kageyama could just toss the ball and Bokuto met him halfway every time.
It was like … like … Hinata would probably say that it was like flying, or something dumb like that, but … if anything that isn’t flying can feel like flying, it’s definitely playing volleyball with Bokuto.
It felt amazing.
Unknown Number: HELLO??
Unknown Number: IS THIS KAGEYAMA OR NOT?
Kageyama doesn’t know why Bokuto is texting him. They practiced together one time and haven’t seen each other since. They are on different teams.
He doesn’t want to be rude, though, especially to Bokuto, so he texts back.
Kageyama Tobio: yes this is kageyama.
Bokuto texts back very quickly.
Unknown Number: !!!!
Unknown Number: I THOUGHT I HAD THE WRONG NUMBE OR SOMETHING. U HAVENT ANSWERED MY TXTS!!
Unknown Number: DID U GET MY TXTS??
The number is the same one that has been texting Kageyama for several days now, so the texts that Kageyama deleted must have been from Bokuto, too.
Kageyama Tobio: yes.
Unknown Number: SO R WE ON FOR ANOTHER PRATICE?? I WANNA HIT THAT TOSS AGAIN.
Kageyama hesitates. He wants to practice with Bokuto again, but he also doesn’t. It’s frustrating. He really liked practicing with Bokuto, but he knows that playing with Bokuto will make him sloppy when he plays with his own team. Bokuto can meet him halfway, but Hinata and the rest of the spikers at Karasuno can’t. Kageyama needs to focus on improving his own technique. Practicing with Bokuto is fun, but it won’t help Karasuno get to Nationals.
Unknown Number: ILL COME TO MIYAGI. HOW ABOUT THIS WEEKND??
They don’t have practice this weekend – apparently someone damaged something in one of the other buildings and a repair crew is coming in over the weekend to fix it. Kageyama doesn’t see why that should shut down practices in other buildings, but it is. It’s really irritating.
… Practicing with Bokuto might be a good way to make up for the official practice that they’ll be missing.
Unknown Number: HINATA SAID U DONT HAVE PRACTICE
Unknown Number: U KNOW U WANT TO
Unknown Number: KAGEYAMAAAA
Unknown Number: I KNOW U HAD FUN PLAYING WITH ME
Kageyama watches the texts come in, one after the other, as he stares down at his phone screen. He did have fun, but that isn’t the point. The Spring Interhigh is coming up fast; he needs to stay focused. He doesn’t want to let the team down.
Unknown Number: ILL BRING AKAASHI. U CAN PICK HIS BRAIN ABOUT SETTER STUFF.
Unknown Number: AFTER U SET 2 ME
Well, if Akaashi is there then Kageyama might be able to improve his setting after all. Akaashi is an incredible setter. Kageyama talked to him a little bit at the training camp and he would really like to talk to him some more.
Kageyama Tobio: ok.
Unknown Number: !!!!!
Unknown Number: AWESOME!!! HINATA SAID HELL COME TOO SO ITLL BE LIKE A REAL PRACTICE MATCH
In that case, this really might make up for the practice they’ll miss. Kageyama is glad he said yes, now.
Unknown Number: SO EXCCITED!! CANT WAIT TO HIT THT TSS AGAIN!!
Kageyama feels a bit warm when he reads that text, though he isn’t sure why. Maybe he’s just excited about this weekend, too. He’s definitely looking forward to tossing to Bokuto again. And to talking to Akaashi again. And to playing a practice match with players from another school – especially one as good as Fukurodani.
This weekend should be … fun.
And productive.
Kageyama taps out another text while he heads upstairs to change out of his sweaty running clothes.
Kageyama Tobio: looking forward to it.
Bokuto's reply comes in seconds.
Unknown Number: !!!!!!!!!
Kageyama stares at the text for a long moment, stopped halfway up the stairs.
It takes him several minutes to realize that he is smiling. That warmth is still there, too, spreading out from his chest. He frowns. It’s just a practice match. The fourth best ace in Japan is excited to hit his toss – but that doesn’t mean anything. Kageyama still hasn’t beaten Oikawa. Kageyama still has a very long way to go if he wants to be a setter on the same level as Oikawa. This is just a practice match.
The warmth doesn’t go away, though. Kageyama knows that this is just a practice match, but it is … nice to have someone as skilled as Bokuto want to hit his tosses. It’s really nice. It seems like Bokuto sees Kageyama as someone worth practicing with, which is amazing and strange. It feels like Bokuto means it when he says that he is excited to practice with Kageyama again.
Kageyama doesn’t mean to, but he likes that feeling.
He likes that feeling a lot.