Chapter Text
He was so… bright. That was the only thing Tobio was sure of at the moment. He wasn´t sure if his hair was neon or sunset orange, it seemed like it had 100 different shades at once. He couldn´t decide whether his eyes were hazel or copper. They surely couldn´t be brown, the boy being as special as he was. Which brought him to the other thing he wasn´t sure of.
Lately it seemed like Hinata shined a little brighter tan usual. At first Tobio had thought it was probably because of his improvement on court, but why did he still shine brighter than anyone even when he failed to receive properly? Why did he still shine the brightness off-court?
Then came the feeling. That feeling of uneasiness in the pit of his stomach that magically appeared whenever he was close to the other boy. The former King thought it was food poisoning the first time it happened, being as dense as he was. But his there was no way he was eating poisoned food every day. Panic started to settle in.
He´d heard something like this on movies, but this felt less like butterflies and more like someone was burning his stomach from the inside. And besides, it couldn´t be. Him? In love with Hinata? No way. He was the closest friend he´d ever had, there was no way Tobio was ruining that because of an unreasonable crush. It would probably go away soon. But in the meantime, he needed a plan of action.
The feeling wasn´t affecting his concentration in volleyball. God knows no kind of love would ever keep Kageyama Tobio from focusing on volleyball. The problem was another. The bad thing was that this problem required skilled social skills, which Tobio usually lacked.
He needed to keep things normal with Hinata. He couldn´t have even the slightest suspicion. The fact that he could still ruin his friendship with Hinata even without confessing to him was terrifying. This was the reason he didn´t have crushes. They brought more problems than benefits.
Considering all of this, you can probably imagine how hard it was for Tobio to walk home with Hinata every day. Especially when Hinata flashed smiles all the time. He really was like the sun. Tobio was afraid that if he looked at him for too long he would end up blind. Every time he flashed a smile it felt like it was 11:00 AM and the sun was shining with all its might. Tobio thought that that sun and Hinata were very similar. Both bright. Both enthusiastic. Both beautiful in their own way. Both dangerous if you happened to get too close to them.
Somehow, Tobio managed to keep conversation somewhat normal(which involved only talking about volleyball), until the moment their roads parted. “Later!”, said Hinata gleefully as he started to walk away.
He should have just walked in the other direction, like always. If he hadn´t made that one mistake, he could have pretended that his relationship with Hinata was the same as always…
But he didn´t.
Instead, he caught Hinata by the arm and pulled him towards him, even when his mind screamed not to do it. Tobio didn´t know what made him snap. It could have been anything. The way the sun made his orange hair gold (one more shade to add to the list). Maybe it was the way he was so cheerful when he said goodbye. Maybe it was the fact that he always felt the happiest when Hinata was around. But Tobio knew that the fact that he was willingly refraining himself from being with his crush was probably the reason why.
It was inevitable. He cupped the other boy´s face with his hand and slowly leaned in. His lips were soft, and it made him wonder if the rest of him was also soft. He had only kissed one person before, and even that time it was the other guy who had leaned in, not him. Tobio wasn´t very sure of what he was doing, actually, he was pretty sure he was doing it wrong, but it felt right at the time. There was a warm feeling extending from the pit of his stomach to the rest of his body. It felt like he was melting inside. At first he thought the cause for this feeling was embarrassment, but it felt different than the burning sensation of embarrassment. It was like… like he was radiating happiness from the inside. He leaned in deeper. He heard a soft grunting noise coming from the other boy. That brought him back to reality.
Tobio´s eyes snapped open. He tried to apologize, but no sound came out of his mouth. Whatever impulse had made him kiss Hinata that easily was gone. Its only remainder being Tobio´s flushed cheeks. But… Hinata seemed unfazed.
“Why´d you stop?” Hinata looked disappointed.
“Because you wanted me to, dumbass!”
“No I didn´t”, He looked genuinely confused.
What could he mean? Hadn´t Hinata wanted him to stop? They weren´t a coupler, nor was his love requited, so why had he said that?
Unless…
“Bye!” Tobio yelled looking over his shoulder as he took off running in the direction of his house. If only he hadn´t run straight into a lamppost. Hinata started running towards him.
“Go away!”
“Nope”, Hinata responded.
“Why?”
“Because you were trying to book it without even a goodbye kiss. And because you´re my friend.”
It occurred to Tobio that those two concepts didn´t quite fit together. But the thought was quickly pushed away by the fact that Hinata wanted a kiss from him.
This time he didn´t run into a lamppost when he escaped, thank god. Fortunately, his legs were longer than Hinata´s, and he hadn´t chased him with his bike. He outran him easily.
That night he lay in bed staring at the ceiling . He kept thinking about Hinata. Why had he said that? He´d never shown signs of liking Tobio, still, Hinata had said he wanted to kiss him with a completely straight face.
It was impossible for Tobio to sort things out right now, so he clutched his pillow and sank into a deep sleep.