Chapter Text
It started with a parking space.
That’s not entirely true, though. If you wanted the whole story, then it started with a middle school volleyball tournament, where Shouyou Hinata met Tobio Kageyama for the first time. If not for him, Shouyou’s life probably never would have gone in the direction it did.
Shouyou was having a bad day. A barely-slept, skipped-morning-workout, late-for-court-appointment kind of day. It was the kind of day that made him wish he had a normal job, like a car salesman or a realtor. Then maybe he could live a normal life. Come home after a long day of selling cars or showing houses, kiss his wife and sit down to dinner with his family.
Instead he was circling the parking lot outside the courthouse, trying to find an open stall. He was already anticipating an earful for being late, so when he spotted a car pulling out in the row nearest the building, it was like the gods were telling him, “Here, Hinata. You can have one good thing today.”
And, sure, another car coming from the other direction had already been waiting patiently for this one to pull out, but Shouyou was closer. He’d feel bad about it later, when he had some free time.
He whipped into the empty space, his compact car easily making the sharp turn. The other driver honked at him, which was to be expected. Shouyou shrugged it off. What he wasn’t expecting was for the other car to stop directly behind his, and for a tall, fearsome-looking figure to step out and march toward him.
The gods were playing a dirty trick on him.
Shouyou took a few sharp breaths, trying to calm himself. The other driver banged on his window, shouting obscenities. He looked even bigger now, next to Shouyou’s tiny car. He could only see up to the man’s torso through his window. And, yes, Shouyou had been having a bad day. A bad year, really. But he was not ready to die just yet.
He opened his window a crack. “Please don’t kill me, I have a kid!” he pleaded.
“Dumbass!” the angry man responded, and Shouyou froze.
He knew that voice. It had been ten years since he’d heard it, but he could not hear it for thirty more years and still know that voice. He rolled his window down further.
“Kageyama?”
The tall figure crouched down, and a familiar furrowed brow appeared in the window.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Kageyama replied.
It hurt a little, to know that Kageyama still hated him after all this time. But Shouyou supposed he deserved it, just like he deserved everything else that was going wrong in his life.
“I can…” Shouyou’s heart pounded. “I’ll move.”
“Forget it,” Kageyama said. “I’m already late for my appointment anyway.”
Shouyou studied him curiously. So Kageyama was late for a court date too. The world was getting smaller by the minute. “Appointment for what?” he asked.
Kageyama scowled. “None of your business!”
“Fine,” Shouyou said with a shrug. “I’m already assuming the worst anyway.”
He started to roll up his window and Kageyama cleared his throat. Shouyou paused.
“Minor…road rage incident,” Kageyama grumbled, and Shouyou snorted. “It’s not funny, asshole!”
“Well considering you just came over here to murder me over a parking spot, it kinda is.”
Kageyama crossed his arms. “Well, what are you here for then, Mr. Perfect, since you can do no wrong?”
Shouyou’s face fell, and Kageyama looked almost gleeful.
“Oh my god, is it bad? Did you commit a crime?”
“No,” Shouyou said softly. “I’m getting divorced.”
Kageyama didn’t respond, but he looked slightly ashamed. Shouyou silently rolled up his window, and Kageyama stepped out of the way so he could open his door.
“We’re trying to keep it quiet,” Shouyou said, locking his door behind him.
“Of course,” Kageyama said, and Shouyou knew his word was good. Even if Kageyama still hated him, he more than anyone respected public figures’ right to privacy. They had the same job, after all.
Shouyou took a deep breath. “Well, it was good to see you,” he lied.
He turned to walk away, and Kageyama called out softly, “Shouyou.”
Shouyou’s breath caught in his throat.
Kageyama coughed. “Hinata,” he corrected himself.
Shouyou didn’t turn around. “Yeah?”
“Do you want to get a drink later?”
~
He didn’t know why he said yes. He and Kageyama weren’t friends. They were practically strangers now, and besides, Shouyou wasn’t a drinker. Tanaka was very strict about that, and he was already going to have Shouyou’s ass for skipping his morning training session.
The bar was small and secluded, on the outskirts of town. Shouyou was surprised Kageyama even knew about this place, since he wasn’t a drinker either.
Or maybe he was now. They hadn’t spoken in years, and Kageyama was better than any athlete Shouyou knew at keeping his personal activities out of the media. Shouyou didn’t know how he did it. He was pretty careful himself, but snippets of his personal life still managed to leak once in a while. But he’d never heard even a whisper about Kageyama.
Shouyou quickly decided he wasn’t missing much by not drinking. His chest felt warm, and his skin tingled, but not in a pleasant way.
“How are you such a lightweight?” Kageyama asked him, as the bartender placed a second drink in front of Shouyou. “You ate before this, right?”
“Oh,” Shouyou said softly. Yet another reason for the tongue-lashing he was looking forward to from Tanaka. “I guess I forgot. I was nervous.”
“Idiot.”
“Yeah,” Shouyou agreed, sipping on his second drink. He didn’t know what it was, but it tasted like battery acid, and he knew his body would hate him for it later. “Your body is a temple,” he could hear Tanaka lecturing.
“Why were you nervous?” Kageyama asked.
Shouyou laughed. He hadn’t seen Kageyama since before he got married, and now here he was popping back into his life the day he finalized his divorce, and he wanted to know why Shouyou was nervous?
Kageyama sighed, and they downed their drinks in unison.
“Don’t ever get married,” Shouyou advised, slamming his glass down on the bar.
“You know I can’t,” Kageyama said pointedly.
Shouyou’s face grew hot, and not from the alcohol. “Right.”
Kageyama absently swirled the ice around in the bottom of his glass.
“Where are you staying?” he asked.
“I got a hotel room. It’s close to Tanaka’s studio, so it works out, I guess.”
“You’re renting by the night? Isn’t divorce expensive?”
“That’s why drinks are on you,” Shouyou replied, flagging down the bartender.
“I have a guest bedroom,” Kageyama said, and Shouyou choked.
“You hate me!”
Kageyama didn’t disagree. “It will save you money,” he said simply.
“I’m not broke ,” Shouyou said, almost offended. He was worth a lot to the V.League, one of the most popular players among volleyball fans, a real underdog story. “I’m at the top of my game right now, thank you very much.”
The bartender slid two more drinks in front of them and Kageyama took a long swig of his.
“You just seem lonely,” he said after a pause, and Shouyou stared at him.
He was lonely, but he hadn’t expected Kageyama to notice. He’d never been that perceptive off the volleyball court. Maybe Shouyou was easier to read when he was a little bit drunk.
He thought about all the choices he’d made up to this point. Wondered how his life would be different if he’d made better ones. If he hadn’t chosen his career over his family every chance he got. Would he have been happier? He didn’t know who he was without volleyball. But he’d never even stopped to consider who he would be without his family.
“Do you ever think about retiring?” he asked.
“What kind of stupid question is that?” Kageyama replied.
~
“Hinata. Wake up.”
Shouyou pinched his eyes shut tighter. His head hurt and his stomach felt weird and he was not ready to be awake yet.
“You made the tabloids.”
Shouyou opened his eyes. It took a moment for them to adjust, but when they did, he saw Kageyama standing over him looking concerned.
“Am I at your house?” he choked. His throat was dry.
“You were too drunk to tell me where your hotel was,” Kageyama replied. “Here.”
He shoved his smartphone in Shouyou’s face. The headline on the screen read, “V.League star Shouyou Hinita divorces wife Chiharu after five years.”
“Shit,” Shouyou said, sitting up and regretting it immediately when his head started to spin.
Kageyama placed a warm hand on his shoulder to steady him. Shouyou took an unsteady breath.
Chiharu was going to kill him now, probably. How had this gotten out? Had someone overheard him at the bar? Seen him at the courthouse?
Kageyama slid his phone into his pocket before sitting down on the bed beside him. “I can’t believe you ended up marrying her,” he said.
“Yeah, well.” Shouyou pulled his knees up to his chest. “It was good. Before it wasn’t.”
“So what happened?”
Shouyou shrugged. “I think everything changed after Mei was born. I was always traveling and Chiharu was overwhelmed. She asked me to take a season hiatus, but I just couldn’t miss a whole season. After that it was just… Every conversation turns into an argument. We’ve only stayed together this long for Mei, but she’s getting old enough now that she knows things are wrong.”
It felt strange to admit all that, especially to Kageyama. That he had failed as a husband and a father.
“You know,” Kageyama said after a while, “when I was a kid, I wished my parents would get divorced.”
Shouyou planted his chin on his knee and sighed.
“Did you love her?” Kageyama asked.
Shouyou was insulted. What did Kageyama think? That he’d married Chiharu and had a daughter with her as a publicity stunt?
“Of course I did.”
Kageyama looked up at the ceiling. “More than you loved me?” he asked.