Chapter Text
Hinata is back.
Back from yet another panic.
“I hate having to keep talking about it,” he whispers into Kageyama’s neck.
“It’s part of the process,” Daichi says.
“I thought you promised people would just believe me, Bakayama.”
That earns him a pinch under his knee, where Kageyama is holding him up in his arms. “I promised that the school administration would believe you, not the freaking Japanese justice system.”
A hand rubs his back, probably Sugawara.
It’s just another practice, like all the ones before, but Hinata misjudged his landing after a quick and tumbled cheekbone-first into the net pole, and his stupid stupid body decided it was a good enough reason to start freaking out.
No one minds, but Hinata hates it.
It’s all over, here at school at least. The trials are another story.
“Let’s all take five,” Daichi suggests. “Get some water, walk it off.”
“No!” Hinata jerks his face from Kageyama, spinning in his arms enough that he almost gets dropped. “No, we don’t have to stop because of me! Please, I can-”
Sugawara leans in, dropping his voice to a whisper barely caught by the chattering that’s broken out at the hint of a break. “Hinata Shouyou, don’t you dare take this from me. I’m literally dying.”
It makes Hinata laugh. The team breaks for five exact minutes, drinking water, toweling off sweat, listening to Hinata and Kageyama start arguing over why he fell wrong in the first place, and then Daichi is grabbing them both by the collar of their shirts and dragging them back onto the court with hissed disappointments in their complete inability to just talk to each other.
Things aren’t back to normal all the way, but it certainly feels close.
“You look good.”
Hinata doesn’t jump. He doesn’t. He does jerk his head around at Kageyama’s quiet assertion in the literal middle of the team changing to go home, searing heat making his whole face feel like it’s melting.
“Wh-what?”
Tanaka whoops. “GET IT, KAGEYAMA!”
Nishinoya shouts out, too, bouncing off the benches. “YOU DOG!”
Eyes blowing wide, wide, oversized in his mortification, Kageyama’s entire body flushes maroon. “Th-th-that’s not what I meant!”
“Oooh, suuure, like we’re going to believe that-”
“I meant all the bruising is finally gone!”
Amid the continuing teasing, the kissing noises that are very over-embellished, Hinata looks down at his bare torso. It is finally clear. It’s just his chest and stomach, well-earned muscles, a blank canvas rather than the horror show it’s been for almost the entire school year. Something about it sobers Hinata. And when he looks back up at Kageyama, skin warm beige once more, he can see that he’s not alone.
A hand gets slung over his shoulders. It’s Sugawara, smirking fondly. “It is nice to see. One way or the other.”
“Suga, leave them alone.”
“But Captain-”
“Come on, all of you - get out of here. I’m ready to go home.”
Daichi’s not being too serious, they all can tell. Everyone still hurries after the order, filing out in pairs and groups until it’s just Hinata and Kageyama at the bikes, a familiar scene.
“Are you good to walk home today?” Kageyama asks where they usually part on school nights.
Hinata likes the newfound attention he draws from Kageyama, the concern that he never used to show in any capacity. It’s warming, a reminder that not everything that’s changed is bad. Still, they’re friends first, so Hinata sneers, “Worried about me, are you?”
It makes Kageyama’s neutral frown tense. “No,” he clips out. “I just don’t want to have to set for Tsukishima ever again if I can help it.”
“So mean.”
“I don’t give a shit.”
Hinata rounds out his eyes in an exaggerated pout. “At all?”
“No.”
“I think you’re lying.” And because Hinata is back, mostly, he reaches out with confidence, resting one palm to the center of Kageyama’s chest. “I think it’s been established that you give a huge shit about me.”
“Eugh.” Kageyama’s face twists in utter disgust. But he doesn’t move away. If anything, he’s leaning into the contact. Bringing his own hands up, he touches Hinata’s ear, lies a hand to his waist. “Why the hell would you say it like that?”
“Because it’s true?”
“You’re so stupid.”
Hinata pushes his hand upward, slips both around Kageyama’s neck to hold tight. “Only because I chose to be your stupid boyfriend.”
“Oh, you want to stop?”
“Only if you can’t admit you liiike me,” Hinata whisper-sings obnoxiously.
And maybe he took the teasing - flirting, according to Tanaka, who will not leave them alone anytime they so much as look at each other anymore - too far, because Kageyama’s face goes taut with worry. He gulps. He looks unsure of himself, and Hinata is about to soothe this over with a ‘Hey, stupid, I was just messing with you, of course I don’t want to stop,’ when Kageyama’s brows knit and he tugs Hinata into his front. One arm wrapped securely around his middle and the other hand on his neck to thumb his jaw up so that they’re nose-to-nose, Kageyama holds Hinata with every ounce of certainty that he probably possesses. It’s fire in the black ice of his eyes, sending lightning throughout Hinata’s body.
“I-” Kageyama brings them together, kissing Hinata gently without hesitation, flushing their lips together. “I might give some of a shit about you.”
Humming, Hinata kisses back. He breathes in deep, allowing the deep forest of Kageyama’s scent to ground him. “So ‘some of a shit’ is better than ‘a huge shit?’”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Kageyama frowns at him. Silence takes them over for a moment, just one moment before Kageyama breathes out a soft laugh through his nose, pecks Hinata on the mouth, and pulls back.
Their hands connect, fingers intertwined.
“I like you.”
And Hinata beams, heart light. “I’ll be fine walking home.”
Kageyama squeezes his hand.
“Promise.”
And even if he texts Kageyama once he makes it, Hinata is. Despite the trials and the nightmares that are still fading away and the panics that catch him off guard, Hinata is fine. He lives without constant fear or pain anymore. He has his team still, he has Kageyama still and more so, and he has his life back. Life is back to where it’s meant to be and then some, even after all that’s happened, and Hinata is fine with that.
Hinata is back.