Chapter Text
When Hinata woke up this morning he only expected the usual. He expected a long bike ride to school, and a boring day of class, and the usual after school practice he loved. Except God had other plans for him. Not only did he wake up later than usual for school, but it also decided to rain on his rushed bike ride to school. He had made it on time, but it didn't save him from being completely soaked from the waist up. Hinata had wished that his setter wasn't so damn observant, but alas he's already met with a piercing glare.
"Idiot why the hell are you soaking wet?", Kageyama shouted. If it weren't for the fact that he knew him so well, he wouldn't be able to see the amount of concern behind his dark eyes. He knew Kageyama meant well, but boy was it not helping.
"The rain obviously meanie-yama! If you weren't so mean you'd offer me your sweater," Hinata began to cross his arms and pout, but to no avail the setter merely saw it as a challenge.
"It's not my fault that you decided to not use an umbrella or wear a raincoat! Plus, you have one too just use your own idiot." Before Hinata could even open his mouth, he was suddenly draped with a large grey sweater. He couldn't help but notice the faint scent of his cologne.
Had he always worn it? Why does it smell so comforting?
The best way to describe what Kageyama's sweater smelled like would have to be a mix of cedar, mint and a hint of rain. It just seemed so natural and yet so surprising that he felt the need to wear cologne. It made him feel a bit flustered. Hinata had never thought to wear any, despite owning a bottle or two of it.
Not wanting to risk being caught smelling the tall setter's sweater, he quickly pulled the soft material over his small frame. It had completely enveloped him. The sleeves went past his wrists, the bottom of the sweater had reached the middle of his thighs, and it took all of Hinata's strength to not take in another deep breath of the soft grey material.
"There, Are you happy now?", Kageyama huffed as he crossed his arms in frustration. Hinata could have sworn that a small bit of ears were tinged pink, but he quickly brushed it off.
Kageyama's sudden question snapped Hinata out of whatever daze he had been in. The small red head could barely put a sentence together, so instead he simply nodded and flashed the biggest smile that he could. If only he had seen the look of content Kageyama held for him.
To be honest, Hinata missed most of these moments of content and pure interest in Kageyama's eyes. Whenever the red head began to scream over some random video game or how his nose would crinkle when he would laugh at something stupid, it would send him over the moon. He would admire how beautiful his decoy would look whenever the sun would set and hit his brown eyes at just the right angle. To him, he found Hinata to be as gorgeous as a sunflower or the sun itself. And god only knew how he would willingly orbit around this small boy if given the chance.
"Awe, look at the dynamic duo being all romantic", Tsukishima teased. Of course, his shorter companion, Yamaguchi, would simply laugh at the taunt and give them a small apologetic smile at the duo.
Kageyama simply matches Tsukishima with his crossed arms and harsh stare, "What do you mean by romantic? I'm just trying to keep this idiot from catching a cold." Without skipping a beat Hinata quickly jabs Kageyama's side in retaliation, despite knowing how much of a brick wall he was.
"I'm not an idiot!", Hinata all but screamed in the hallway. He tried to throw another quick punch at Kageyama, but it was easily caught midway
There was a subtle smirk across Tsukishima's face as he watched the scene unfold in front of him, "Whatever, see you two lovebirds at practice". He barely even motioned for Yamaguchi to follow, but the freckled companion followed in step.
Despite the fact that class went on in its usual boring way, Kageyama found himself to be completely distracted by a certain red head in front of him. The way he would just space out, probably over volleyball, was just so...captivating? The way he would twirl is his pencil in his small soft looking hands. The way he would bounce his leg due to pent up energy. All of it just tore away his focus on the lesson on the board. Hell, what even was the lesson? English maybe?
A sudden buzz whirred in his pocket broke his trance. It was Hinata.
Shrimp: Volleyball at lunch? :)
Kageyama: Sure.
Shrimp: Yaaaaaaay !! :)
Kageyama let a small smile spread across his face at how easy it was to make Hinata so giddy. All it took was the mention of either volleyball or pork buns and the red head was raring to go.
Another buzz suddenly pinged through his phone.
Shrimp: Stop smiling like that it's creepy!
Kageyama: Pay attention to the board and not me idiot...
Shrimp: So mean! .-.
Hinata closed his phone after turning and giving Kageyama a joking glare. Truth be told, he loved how the windows in the classroom would sometimes reflect. He could actually see Kageyama and not be caught. To most it looked as if he was simply zoning out, but to him? A still moment in time.
He loved seeing the concentrated scowl that would take over Kageyama's face when he found something to be confusing, or how he would sometimes zone out at nothing in particular. He found the dark-haired setter to be astoundingly breathtaking and revelled at how hard it was to figure out his seemingly angry expressions at times. He wondered what he would look like when was happy about something or what he would look like when completely relaxed.
All of Hinata's daydreaming filled his head for the remainder of class until a sharp bell rang through the classroom signifying that it was finally lunch time. The red head quickly got up to approach the setter but was immediately interrupted by the site of a timid classmate trying to talk to him.
She was a little taller than Hinata, but still looked so small in comparison to Kageyama. Hinata had to commend her for being brave enough to approach him so suddenly, but it killed him. Hinata wasn't deaf in the slightest bit. He knew how many of the girls in the school wanted to be with him and how his brooding look made girls swoon. Hell, he's had quite a few of them talk to Hinata just to get more information about Kageyama since they were so close. No matter how frequent and normal these pursuits and confessions were, it still broke a small part of him every single time.
He wanted to be the one next to Kageyama at all times. He always wanted to play volleyball with him. He always wanted him in general. Hinata just didn't know how much Kageyama wanted that as well. A small pit began to grow in his stomach while a slow ache began to bloom in his chest at the thought of losing him.
Why did feelings have to hurt so much?
Kageyama was never good at rejecting confessions, and this one wasn't any different. Before the girl could even ask him anything he abruptly bowed and interrupted her, "I'm sorry, I already have plans for lunch.", He mumbled. With a quick turn of his heels he quickly grabbed his lunch from his desk and bee lined to Hinata's desk.
To say that he was relieved that the idiot made plans with him, was an understatement. Even if they didn't plan on having lunch, he knew the red head would come skipping over to his desk anyways on any other day, "You ready to go?", Kageyama asked once he got to Hinata's desk.
"Yeah! My mom packed extra snacks for us to share too", Hinata beamed at him. He was always full of so much energy and honestly only god knew how it was possible for such a small person to carry it all and not combust.
The best part about playing volleyball during lunch, in Hinata’s honest opinion, was that he got Kageyama all to himself. Only he could see the small bit of excitement in his eyes as the ball came hurtling towards him and the sheer determination to not let the ball fall. Hinata would be lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy the complete and undivided attention from the setter. Was it a bit selfish of him? Completely. Did he feel like sharing? Absolutely not.
Any moment he could get alone with Kageyama he would take it in a heartbeat. Who knows how much longer he’ll have the setter to himself anyway? Hinata pauses as he realizes this. He only really had one or two more years with him tops, and the sheer idea of them going to the same college isn’t likely.
The ball suddenly whizzes past his face, “Idiot you’re supposed to receive the ball! Not let it go flying”, Kageyama shoots him a deadly glare from across the field.
The red head quickly brushed off his last thought, “Then don’t put so much force behind it asshole!”
Hinata began to use one of his signature pouts against him, but to no avail a sudden strong hand was in his hair. Except he isn’t forcefully tugging or almost ripping out his hair. Instead it was a simple ruffling of his hair, albeit harsh. Hinata softly brought his own hand to where Kageyama had been messing up his hair and stared at the setter in awe. There was a bit of content behind his dark eyes, and for the first time Hinata felt as if he couldn’t breathe. All he could do was take in every inch of Kageyama’s small smile and commit it to memory as best as possible. It was then that he realized that he would do anything to see that smile. Anything.
Kageyama, being bad at reading the scene, simply stared back in confusion, “Hey, say something stupid and stop staring off.” He had never seen him stand so still, so his best bet was to piss him off. It worked.
“What do you mean say something stupid!”, Hinata began to wave his arms around aggressively trying to hit the setter. There’s the Hinata he knew.
The rest of the day went by in a haze for the both of them. They took a few notes here and there, but for the most part they let the lesson pass right through their ears. Both too focused on other things in the back of their mind.
Once class was dismissed an unspoken challenge was made as soon as Kageyama locked eyes with Hinata, and just like that the red head began to make a break for the door, “That’s cheating you can’t just take off like that!” Kageyama stumbled and tried his best to catch up with the energetic redhead, but by the time he got out of the classroom Hinata was already zooming down the hallway.
“Catch up slow poke!”, Hinata screamed as he hit the staircase, “Or are you trying to lose?”
“Tch, Put a cork in it idiot.” It’s not like he was trying to win, but he’d be damned if he let the idiot smack talk him like that. Kageyama picked up the pace by the time he reached the staircase and almost fell in step with Hinata once they reached the bottom.
“What the? How the hell did you catch up so fast!”, Hinata huffed out. He knew it was most likely due to Kageyama’s long legs, but dammit he got a head start on him.
The final stretch of the breezeway between the school in gym was finally in sight, and like hell either of them were going to throw in the towel. With a small extra burst of energy in his step, Hinata tore through the gym doors with only one step ahead of Kageyama.
He had won.
“Ha! Guess who has to buy this time?”, Hinata shouts as he pumps his fist into the air, “You have to buy the buns”, he sings in taunting tone.
“Yeah whatever, but you only get one since you cheated!”, Kageyama exclaims with a scowl. Hinata simply matches his scowl with another one of his bright smiles.
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi entered gym shortly after the duo’s usual race, “Glad to see that the two of you are still acting like love birds.”
At this point Hinata was used to all of Tsukishima’s salty remarks. It was always Kageyama that would protest immediately and so… aggressively. Does the idea of being with another guy seem that repulsive? Hinata knew that people weren’t exactly too keen on homosexual relationships, but to find out that his own team thought so lowly of it was heart wrenching. That small pit in his stomach began to stir once more and only increased as Kageyama continued.
“I don’t know if I could even consider dating a guy…”, Kageyama trailed off as he got lost in his own thoughts.
Hinata took this silence as a confirmation that his gut feeling was right, and it felt as if someone had hit him with an entire bus. He had been an idiot and allowed himself to read way too far into Kageyama’s so called advancements.
A heavy weight sank into his chest as he realized how badly he had fallen for the setter. He knew it was his fault for getting so attached to him so quickly, but no one else made him feel like a whirlwind of emotions like Kageyama. No one else made him laugh until it hurt. No one else understood his random bursts of energy like him.
Kageyama was irreplaceable in Hinata’s eyes…
Before Hinata could drown in his inner thoughts, Ukai had blown his whistle to start practice. A shitty practice at that. Set after set he kept missing every single one Kageyama would give him. It wasn’t until Ukai had told Suga to set in his place when Hinata realized it was just the presence of Kageyama that was throwing him off so much. Unfortunately, the dark-haired setter could pick up on this too.
“Idiot, why can’t you hit any of my sets?”, Kageyama grumbled as they took a water break.
Hinata didn’t answer. Well, more like he couldn’t. It’s not like he could simply look Kageyama in the eye and tell him, “Hey, I’m absolutely in love with you and I have been for fuck knows how long and you basically just told me that you’re not interested in me okay bye…”
Not wanting silence as an answer, Kageyama continued to stare at him until he got a decent response, “I’m still mad that you called me a cheater earlier”, Hinata lied with a huff.
“Idiot, I said I was buying the buns this time.”, Kageyama laughed slightly. The answer seemed to be enough to get him off of Hinata’s back.
The rest of practice wasn’t any better. Each set was a failure, all of his serves kept hitting the net, and gods he was so happy that practice was over. It was painful really. A sport that usually brought him so much joy, was ruined by a simple statement. Okay, so it wasn’t a simple statement for Hinata, but it was just a sentence!
He ended changing a lot faster than Kageyama, so all he could do was wait for the much taller setter to meet him by the bike rack, “Why were you in such a rush to get out of practice?”, Kageyama questioned once he met up with him, “Usually I have to drag you out of the gym.”
“I’m just tired is all.”, Hinata shrugged as he fell into step with Kageyama, “Plus, you owe me buns!” Hinata turned to Kageyama and flashed his usual wide grin that could make anyone melt.
A small smile to tugged on his lips, “Come on then.”
The walk was as usual. Hinata would talk about anything and everything about his school day as if they weren’t in the same class, they would each order a bun for their walk home, and then they would part their merry ways. However, Kageyama had something else in mind.
He had been thinking about what he had said to Tsukishima, and actually questioned whether or not he could see himself with a guy. At the time he had said no, but images of a certain cute orange haired volleyball player began to fill his thoughts. There were a series of questions that he had asked himself:
Did he find guys to be attractive?
Well, he found the way Hinata’s curly red hair could shine no matter the time of the day to be rather impressive. He found the light in his eyes as he successfully hit one of his sets made it feel like a million flowers were blooming in his chest. So, he figured that guys were attractive.
Could he ever date a guy?
He hadn’t dated anyone before anyway, so it didn’t matter what their gender was. If he could give it a shot, he would try it with someone he could trust wouldn’t hurt him. The only person that could even come to mind was Hinata. Again.
Could he ever kiss or let alone love a guy?
He wouldn’t be able to count how many times he probably stared at Hinata’s lips as practice went on. They just seemed like they would be so soft? As for love, he didn’t really know what it felt like for him. He just knew that seeing the amount of happiness that radiated off of Hinata as he scored a point, or saw a cute dog, or literally anything made him feel invincible. If he could call it love, he would.
The only problem was that he could tell that what he had said earlier bothered Hinata, and the short red head wasn’t keen on telling him the real reason why either, “Hinata, I know that you were lying earlier about what was bothering you.”, Kageyama stated as he continued to look forward on their walk.
Hinata stopped walking at the sudden interjection, “If I tell you the real reason, you’d freak out.”
“I promise I won’t freak out on you, okay?”, Kageyama sighed as he stopped to face Hinata. He couldn’t quite read his face, but flustered was the best way to describe it.
“Kageyama, earlier you said you couldn’t think of yourself with a guy…”, Hinata started, “I just freaked out because I’m sort of attracted to guys.” He could feel the threat of tears prick in the corner of his eyes as he tried to come out.
“I get it if you aren’t, but I just don’t want you to be completely disgusted by me.”, Hinata whispered unsteadily. He didn’t want to cry over something that clearly made Kageyama uncomfortable, but the idea of losing his friend felt like someone had stabbed him and twisted the knife for good measure.
Kageyama couldn’t really find the words to say to Hinata, so instead he roughly ruffled his hair and waited for him to continue.
Hinata finally looked up through his slightly dampened eyelashes, “Do you hate me?”
“Idiot, I could never hate you for something like this.”, Kageyama said softly, “Do you want me to tell you what I’ve been thinking about?”
He took the eager look in Hinata’s eyes as a yes, “I thought about what I said earlier too. I think I could date a guy.”, Kageyama whispered as if it were a secret just for Hinata. Really, it was a secret for just Hinata to know about. He hadn’t brought it up to anyone else, and surely never gave it much thought until today.
“Wait, really?”, Hinata asked with newfound confidence, “So, if a guy asked you out would you say yes?”
Kageyama laughed at the sudden shift in mood, “Obviously not idiot, I want to know the guy at least.” Or in other words, it needs to be Hinata. He knew he would probably find another guy to be attractive, but he also knew that Hinata would actually be able to understand him more than anyone else could.
Hinata could barely contain his laughter. Somehow the socially inept setter was able to make him feel not so shitty about himself.
Maybe this could work out?
Hinata dropped all of his stuff onto his desk with a huge sigh of relief. His head was still replaying the last moments with Kageyama over and over again. He couldn’t help the weak smile that graced his lips as he thought of how stupid he was for getting all worked up over him.
A small bit of a grey sleeve poked out of his volleyball bag. He had forgotten to return Kageyama’s sweater that he had borrowed earlier.
“Well, it couldn’t hurt to just wear it around the house…”
Not wasting anytime, Hinata shrugged the oversized sweater over his pale shoulders and once again enveloped himself in the overly intoxicating scent that was Kageyama. He knew that he had to return it eventually, but he might as well enjoy it while he still can.
A sharp ping suddenly ran through his phone. After rooting around for it in his backpack he curled up in bed before flicking the screen open.
Kenma: Is it true that we’re having a practice match soon?
Hinata: Yep!! We’re totally gonna beat you guys ^_^
Kenma: Hmm ok…
Hinata: Hey can I ask you a question?
Kenma: Sure
Hinata: Did you come out to Kuroo?
Kenma: …I didn’t have to. He already knew.
Hinata: Lucky .-.
Hinata: I finally told Kageyama. He didn’t freak out as much as I thought he would.
Kenma: Oh. That’s good.
Hinata: He also came out…
Kenma: ?
Kenma: Are you going to tell him how you feel?
Hinata: Not yet… :((
Kenma: Well, good luck if you do.
Hinata knew Kenma wasn’t much for conversation, but he could tell that the pudding-headed setter actually cared. Whenever it was anything about their team having a match soon or about a new video game he just bought, it didn’t matter how dry the conversation seemed. He knew that that was Kenma just being well…Kenma.
Knowing that that short conversation was over he tossed his phone onto his desk and rolled over to face the wall. Today was interesting for him to say the least. Never in a million years did he think that he would come out to his crush. Let alone his crush coming out right after him, and only telling him how he truly felt.
Hinata brought one of the long grey sleeves closer to his face as he curled in onto the sweater. The faint scent of Kageyama gradually lulled him into a deep sleep.