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~1~ 2012
That christmas was a little bitter for everyone, not even a month prior they were battling in the Interhigh, but then everything changed. Hinata was sick and after returning to Miyagi he locked himself in his room. Everybody felt sad, but Hinata took the strongest hit, blaming himself even if all his teammates told him otherwise. He knew they were right, but it was hurting too much.
When he returned to school all his classmates congratulated him, and all the messages he received from Yukitaka and Koji really boosted his mood. Yachi was also reminding him everyday that he was so cool and that next year they were surely going to make it even further. Yamauchi and Tsukishima (the latter surprising him the most) tried to be more prone to help him train than they ever have before.
Nishinoya took each moment of his free time to go and remind him what a wonderful kohai he was and that he didn’t need to worry, because the next year he was going to have his back guarded. Along with Tanaka they always bought Hinata sweets during lunch break, because they are ‘the coolest senpai ever’.
Talking with the third year students was harder, in fact he cried when he saw them for the first time after his sickness, but they were all so ready to comfort him, because yeah, it was their last year, but if it hadn’t been for him they wouldn’t have reach that far. That made Hinata cry even more and only Sugawara’s hug followed by all the others giving him a nice bear hug made him stop crying and smile again.
Kageyama was the only one who spoke only when necessary with him, and they were both ok. They knew that both of them really took this ‘quest’ far more seriously than the others, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t spend time with eachother, even if they were going to be quiet or if they were going to scream in the gym, they were going to be eachother’s righthand.
So when christmas came, Hinata didn’t expect to see Kageyama in his home, in between him and Natsu, while watching the special christmas episode of the little girl’s new obsession, and only when she bolted up to go take some cake from his mother did the two teenager dare to speak.
“So, why are you here? It's not like you’re not welcome, but it’s a little bit strange, wait! Don’t tell me you got some strange germ and want to pass it on to me! Bakageyma, I found out your plan!” He said pointing his finger at him and laying back so that he could escape the germs.
“Boke! Hinata boke! I don’t have a germ! I have a christmas present! You’re such a dumbass!”
“Wait, a present? For me?” Hinata was shocked. He didn’t think of giving gifts for all his team members, but maybe they were going to and he was too dumb to notice the exchange of gifts.
Kageyama passed him an envelope and Hinata was a little bit scared to take it. Maybe it wasn’t that big of a deal if something that could go inside an envelope was a gift, he really needed to think of something for the others too. He opened it while telling Kageyama that he accepted it but didn’t have a gift ready for him at the moment because he was taken by surprise, and when he finally landed his sight on what he took out he was screaming and jumping up.
Kageyama was curled up on himself, knowing that maybe he had gone a little bit too far.
“OH MY GOD! How did you get them! They’ve been sold out since… like… forever! Why do you have two tickets for Japan vs Italy?! How!?” Hinata was so happy, he talked about the match to his teammates a month ago, and the tickets were already sold out, but here he was, with two tickets for that specific match.
“I wanted to go with you even before you started to scream about it during practice…” When Hinata looked at Kageyama, he was blushing so hard his ears were red and Hinata started to blush too.
They were a blushing mess, and Natsu coming back didn’t really help, especially when she started to ask questions about the tickets, but in the end her attention was again stolen by the tv. If after the cake they remained there with Natsu but with their pinkies linked, nobody had to know.
~*^*~
~2~ 2013
This year was easiest than the one before. Yes they were beaten during the third round against the Atsumu twins, but they were happy. The new first years were so enthusiastic that the chaotic duo of Nishinoya and Tanaka were always boosted to do everything for their precious kohai, giving Ennoshita more than one gray hair during the year.
When they lost, Koushi, Daichi and Asahi, were there to give all their support, Ennoshita also broke down in front of Sugawara asking him how did he do it till the end and after it, because yeah, being the ‘mom’ of this hyperactive group was a handful.
hen he told Yamaguchi to ask for all the possible luck during the new year visit to the temple he almost fainted, not expecting the role of captain for the next year. Tsukishima was already resigned to the fact that he would have been the next vice captain and Hinata was grinning so much because he was happy, so happy that this year he could fight even more than the one before with all his precious teammates.
The first years were a little bit sad, but like the others did for him, Hinata was always ready to cheer them and ask them to play with him. He cheered them up so much that he also prepared a little gift for everyone this christmas, something small but with all his heart into it
He only gave something big to Kageyama. Something that wasn’t really going to win against the two tickets he gave Shouyou the year prior, but that was surely going to make him oh so happy.
After school they went to practice to the local gym and help some little kid with their technique; Kageyama didn't really know how to be around elementary school kids, but Hinata helped him and in the end everyone was really happy. Two boys also recognised them and when they told them they were going to join the volleyball team in middle school and then in high school they cried a little bit.
Before returning home they stopped at a small café that Yachi recommended them, and that was the moment Shouyou decided to make his move. He took the present out from his bag and placed it in front of Tobio, and he was scared to open it because that envelope screamed ‘big gift’ more than last year.
“I swear that if you bought me some ticket I’m going to beat you, I already told you you didn’t have to return my gift-”
“Gosh, Bakageyama, open it!” The envelope was only a little pay back for the scare of last year, but he knew that even if it isn’t the same thing Kageyama would still be happy. So he open it and Hinata could read each emotion from start to finish.
Scared, quizzical, reading, shocked, rereading, happy grin and then confusion.
“Wait, it’s a coupon for a yearly unlimited consuming of milk, but you could only win it if you actually sent like at least 50 coupon of the lottery, how could you win it and not gain a centimeter?” And at that Hinata lost it.
“Ohi! Kenma helped me! And also Yamaguchi and only because I drank milk and I’m not tall yet, I’m going to grow so much in the next years! Just watch!”
If the next month Kagayama had to stay home because he was sick for all the milk he had drank since Christmas, nobody except Hinata had to know.
~*^*~
~3~ 2014
Finally that year they made it to the podium, they placed third and it was the best thing ever. After all those years trying to finally made make it to the center court, the first years said it was a little bit of a bittersweet victory, they were there for the first place after all, but the second years were happy for their senpai.
Yamaguchi was so proud of his team, and for the first time he didn’t cry when they lost the match, Tsukishima stood tall and almighty near his captain, Hinata and Kageyama were praised for their work, but in the end only Kageyama received calls from various teams, but Hinata was fine with it, he was happy for him and he was already pointing to his next goal, if he really wanted to explore the world of beachvolley he had to let go the convocation, and not receiving them helped a bit.
He had to start to train constantly from the next year, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t start a little bit earlier, so he bought lots of books about the matter, he asked his friends to help him sometimes in between one study session and the other, but the most encouraging was Kageyama.
He started to support him since the first days, going with him to see some matches, training with him on the beach during summer, and Hinata was so grateful for his help, but he didn’t expect him to gift him his first real professional manual about beach volley that Christmas, it was so unexpected that he started to cry, he didn’t really know why, but he felt so extremely happy.
Kageyama was supporting him like no one had ever done before; when he started to train in middle school to play volleyball he had lots of supporters, his childhood friends, the women from the local team, but neither of them gave him the same feelings Kageyama was giving him.
Shouyou hugged him and cried like a baby after opening that gift, and Kageyama felt really strange because he started to cry too, they both didn’t know why or how, but they stood there hugging and crying, not giving a crap about anything. When it started to snow they only steared up and smiled a little when they felt it hit their tears.
He put the book in his backpack and started to run underneath the snow, still crying but now from joy, he called Kageyama and together they ran and ran until they were tired and sat on the swing chairs in that park.
“Ohi, Kageyama, thank you for the gift, I really like it.”
“Of course you like it, I wouldn’t had bought it if you wouldn’t had liked it… Thank you too for the gift, I really needed a new pair of gloves.”
They smiled again and left only when it was too chilly for them to stay out talking.
~*^*~
~4~ 2015
That year was hard. After finishing school Hinata didn’t go to university, he started to work and practice under the coach that Washijou-san called to train him. He spent most of his day out and when he returned home he was always so tired that he'd collapse after eating his dinner.
Being in touch with his friends at first was a little difficult. Tsukishima, Yamaguchi and Yachi had started university and they had to adjust to their new routine, same for Kageyama. He went straight to the v-league and his schedule became busier than ever, with training and matches around Japan.
Hinata was feeling a little bit lonely at first, but he quickly adapted. He’d still chat with them online and exchanged photos in their shared group chat, that still waited for a proper name instead of ‘let’s find a cool name ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆’ that Hinata proposed two years before.
With time they all found ways to work around their day and also meet for a quick meal, but December came and Hinata found himself trapped in between training and work. Even on Christmas day, the only day that Kageyama had free, so that he could spend it with his family before leaving for another match, they had planned to meet for dinner and then go out for a little bit, exchange gifts and maybe go to the park they went the year before.
This year it started to snow around the start of December, so everything was covered with snow. They promised they would have a snow fight that day, but if Hinata has to work it would be impossible, and that pained him more than separating after high school for some strange reason
But against all odds Kageyama told him that he’d wait for him at the park, screw dinner, he was going to wait until Hinata was done, but the other only responded with a ‘don’t be ridiculous’ and left for work, the conversation ended that way and was never touched for the next days.
On the 25th Shouyou returned home around 11:30 pm, he was exhausted and didn’t want to get up ever again, luckily he had the 26th free and he was going to spend it sleeping. Before going officially to bed he charged his phone after it being dead for 3 hours and he found a message.
Bakageyama🖤🏐🧡
I’m waiting
22:03
Staring at that message he could only think about how stubborn he could be, they didn’t have to meet, Kageyama had to leave early the next day, why was he waiting for him when he told him he would have finished work late that night?!
He closed his phone, put it on his desk and turned back to go to bed, surely Kageyama wasn’t that dumb to be still waiting for him… Right?... Or was he still waiting for him?... Heck it was almost midnight he could still be there…
With a really long exhale Hinata bolted up, changed again, grabbed his coat and bag and went for his bike; he surely hoped that that dumb piece of Bakageyama wasn’t going to be there, or he would really beat him to dead.
He went fast, going all the way from his house to that park and really hoping that he would find noone, but when he stopped his bike Kageyama was there, sitting on a bench all bundled up, rubbing his gloved hands against eachother, blowing on them, rubbing again and then rubbing his legs.
Shouyou was slowly going to him and he only stopped when he was in front of the other boy. Tobio looked up and saw his face, he was mad, he’d never seen Shouyou so mad, even when they had that fight their first year. Tobio was scared to know what was going to happen next, and when he heard the sound of the bike hitting the ground and only stopped a bit by the snow he jumped.
“Why are you still here?” Hinata’s tone was so low and dark that the other would have ever imagined he could be capable of doing it. “Why are you so dumb to be still waiting for me when I told you more than one time that I would finish work late?”
But Kageyama didn’t flinch that time. “Because I know you are as dumb as me and would have come here in the end.” He knew him so well, Hinata had to give him credit for that.
He took his bike from the ground and walked with it till the gate of the park, mounting on it. “Hop on, I’m going to take you home, you need to sleep, and it’s already past your bedtime.” Tobio laughed a little, hopped behind Hinata and then they were going, speeding a little bit on the downhill and going a little bit slowly climbing uphill, but in the end they arrived.
“Sorry for having to take me back home…”
“Don’t worry, at least I trained my legs a bit, so it’s not like I’m not going to lose a day of training.” He said smiling a bit, and finally Kageyama felt a little bit better.
“I know that we are not going to meet each other after tomorrow… I have to start to train for the Olympic Games and you are going to Brazil in two month so… here.”
Hinata took the small package and tore it open on the spot, and what he saw made him really happy, it was a small japanese-to-portuguese dictionary, nothing much but it would be really helpful, and knowing what he had gifted Kageyama he started to laugh trying to muffle it with his free hand so he wouldn’t wake up Tobio’s family.
He put his gift in his bag and took the one he had prepared for Kageyama, and only when the other opened it and started to muffle his laugh too they were bend in half from laughing, because they had the same thought, in fact Hinata gifted him a japanese-to-english dictionary.
They didn’t know how long they had been out laughing, they only knew that at some point Kageyama’s mother was at the door asking them to please drop it before they’d wake up everyone around the house, so excusing himself Hinata left, still trying not to laugh so much.
~*^*~
~5~ 2016
Brazil was fantastic, Hinata never expected it to be so chaotic and calm at the same time. At first it was really hard to find his place there, because with his mind was still in Japan, a place where he knew the language and knew what to do if he needed help, but here he was alone, until he finally found a friend in Pedro, his roommate.
In the end they had lots in common, the only thing they had to do was talk a bit and then the conversation was flowing smoothly, like they were almost childhood friend. Pedro taught him portuguese, explaining that brazilian-portuguese had some differences with the portuguese of his dictionary, and one step at time Hinata was almost fluent after three months.
That summer he really wanted to go to see the Olympic Games in person, he was in Brazil after all, and maybe if he had sent a message to Kageyama he would have tried to give him a pass, but in the end he didn't do it, maybe he had the same thought but neither of them was too bold to write it. So in the end the Olympic Games started and ended without them seeing eachother.
By December Hinata had figured it out how to adapt, but he was still shocked about the season, yeah, he knew they were the opposite respect to Japan, but being in december and being in summer was a completely different thing, he wasn’t seeing snow, there were girls with Santa’s hat and a bikini, guys in a christmas themed surf suit. It was so strange.
He sent lots of photos to his sister and the shared group chat, receiving as answer a ‘wow’ from his sister and a selfie of a bundled up Yamaguchi with snow on his hat. It was strange thinking about his family and friends being on a completely different place, and the weather wasn’t doing him a big favour.
He was a little homesick. He had to admit it and when Pedro found out he made it his goal to give Hinata the Christmas he always had, trying to use that little bit of knowledge he had thanks to anime and manga. It came out pretty well, Hinata cried but in the end he was really happy. He also sent a package to Kageyama just in time so that it would arrive in Japan for Christmas, he had bought him a little replica of the stadium he played during the Olympic Games and a new swimsuit.
He knew that he would not receive a gift from him this year, Kageyama was even more busy than before so he didn’t have that high expectation, but being in Brazil really changed his mind, and little by little, talking with lots of people he found out that yes, he loved Kageyama, like more than a friend, Kageyama was his high school crush even if he was too dumb to realize it and he still was, but he knew well that he didn’t have the strength to tell him about it.
So knowing his feelings and knowing that this was going to be the first Christmas without a gift from Tobio was still throwing his mood lower and lower, but on the 29th he received a small package and was so shocked to see it was from Tobio. He tore it open and when Pedro entered the room he was shocked to see Shouyou crying with a black and orange jersey in his hands.
It was his old jersey the one with which he started to play in karasuno, he had it in his room and only his mom could have give it to Kageyama, but the thing that made it more special were the autographs from all the members of team japan and even some of other international team.
Kageyama was really beating him in their little gift competition, but Hinata knew in his heart that it wasn’t a competition and that maybe he was reading too much into the gifts, but he loves it and he would hope in a happy ending even if in the end there wasn’t going to be one…
~*^*~
~ 1~ 2017
Hinata was still in Brazil, he just had up to three months after December and he would go back to Japan, but before that he had to spend another Christmas without his family and friends, but most importantly without Kageyama, yeah, they still sent eachother messages and some postcard, they were cute, and Hinata really loved to read them when he was feeling lonely.
Kageyama had visited lots of places in a year and receiving a postcard from every single place the other had been made him feel a little bit special, the last one was from France, a simple photo of the Champs-Élysées, he had also tried to write something in french, and Hinata was surprised that he could almost understand what he was saying
Pedro told him that it was because french, portuguese, spanish and italian all derived from latin, so most of the words were similar in some ways, and it was a little bit easier to understand the general meaning of something in one of that language if you know one of the other three.
Hinata was fascinated by this and Pedro proved it again taking him to a library and going in the foreign languages section taking lots of books and spending the afternoon reading all kind of things.
When they returned home Hinata found he had received a letter, at first he thought it was for Pedro but it was for him. He opened it and found out it was from Kageyama, he told him that he was going to receive a present for this christmas, but that it would arrive earlier than the previous year so he’d better wait to send his gift for him because it was going to be a big surprise and if he wanted a chance to beat him he could do it only after seeing it.
Hinata took it as a real challenge and started to write down all the things he could receive as a gift that will surely beat all the previous ones, Pedro also said what he thought Kageyama would give him, but Hinata knew better and told him that it wasn’t going to be that.
But what he told him had Shouyou boosted for some days and down on others, Pedro knew about his feelings, how could he not, it was thanks to one talk with him that he finally connected all the dots and shouted ‘Oh my gosh! I love Bakageyama!’ and Pedro, being the good friend he was, was always trying to support him and giving encouraging words to make him happy.
In the end Christmas came and Hinata couldn't think of what his gift could be, he was losing it he couldn’t wait anymore, he wanted to know what it was. He was with his head under the pillow on his bed, screaming, he really couldn’t resist another minute not knowing what it was, so he decided he was going to go out and run a little bit.
He took his pouch and went to tell to Pedro he was going out but he found him in front of the door talking with someone. He waited for him to finish but when Pedro saw him he smiled and smiled.
“I told you I was gonna be right from the start.” He went out saying nothing more, Hinata didn’t really know what he meant until Kageyama entered the room, duffle bag in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. He couldn’t even place them on the ground because Shouyou was throwing himself at him, crushing him in a hug. The bag was down in an instant and Tobio was hugging him too.
Shouyou was crying on his shoulder and it felt so right in that moment to be held by him, so perfect, it was just a natural thing and without even knowing what he was doing he kissed him on the lips. When his brain realized that he was kissing Tobio he was going to stop but sensing it the other pulled him even more closer.
“I knew you were going to win this year” was the only thing Kageyama said before kissing him again. Shouyou felt like he was dreaming but his heart was beating so fast and loud that he knew it was all real and not a dream.
Everything was perfect and they were finally together, near eachother again.