Chapter Text
tomorrow (n.)
- a promise.
- yet unwritten.
"Wait for it. Waiiiiiit for it. Wait....just a second...." Yachi takes a careful step back, hands out, like he's ready to bolt at any second.
He's not going to run, but damn if his fingers don't itch, ready to undo all of her hard work. Whatever substance she's used to coax his hair into order feels weirdly cool against his skin, but he still finds himself sweating, which makes him pretty uneasy cause he's not wearing the vest or the jacket or the tie and isn't that the air conditioner, humming in the background?
"No, Kageyama! Don't!"
He grimaces, shoving his hands under his armpits. "Are you done yet?" he asks, more gruffly than he means to.
Yachi rubs her hands under the water and dries them on a towel, before shaking her head. "Nope, there's still the flowers I have to do."
He groans, starts to run his hands through his hair, and immediately stops when he sees the look of horror on her face. "I got it! I forgot!" He holds them up in front of him, mostly to calm her down. "Jeez, I just—"
"...Nervous, maybe?" Her voice is hesitant and even after all these years, sometimes he thinks she's still afraid of him. But then she smiles, reaching out to touch his hand and says, "You know there's nothing you have to be nervous about right?"
"I know," he says, and he does. He's not even sure what this is. Maybe it is nervousness; has he ever been nervous before? Not for games, not for tryouts. Not even for school tests, mostly because he didn't even know enough to be nervous. He starts to rub the back of his neck and tsks when he remembers just in time.
"I'm just gonna get some air."
"Mmkay." Yachi turns back around, double checking the bouquets: peonies and magnolias and dahlias, shades of pink and orange and white in her hand. He can't believe he knows all of their names, but maybe it'd be more surprising if he didn't by this point, given how much Hinata cared about that single detail and how little he cared about everything else.
"Is my family coming?"
"Of course."
"Can we invite some friends?"
"Yeah."
"And you're going to be there?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Then I don't want anything else." When it comes down to it, maybe it's more a wedding wrought together by their mothers, because all Tobio wants is to spend the rest of his life with Hinata and he doesn't need a ceremony to do it. All he needs is the paper on their coffee table, the one that says Hinata is his family, for better or for worse, til death do them part, their seals stamped in red to prove it.
All the rest is...is what? Excessive? Tiring?
"I'll be back," he mumbles to Yachi and heads for the back door, feeling her eyes on him as he goes.
He breathes a sigh of relief as soon as the first taste of cool air hits him. The last few days have been strangely warm—Hinata was so excited about that, wouldn't shut up about it really—but right now he feels like he can finally breathe. Cherry blossom petals line the walkways, making the lawn turn pink, making the whole world turn pink with ever lift of wind. He sticks his hands in his pockets (just to be safe), and tilts his head back, taking quiet, deep breathes until he feels the knot in his chest start to finally ease.
And then he hears footsteps and he somehow knows, without even looking.
"Are we allowed to see each other before the wedding?"
"That only talks about brides. Are you the bride?"
"I thought you are." He turns, takes in Hinata standing there with his jacket on, hair brushed back, eyes shining. He's already got the flower pinned to his lapel, a pale orange that only serves to make his hair look brighter. Hinata laughs, petals falling over his feet as he comes closer and their hands are somehow already joined up, Hinata's thumb against the small callouses on Tobio's knuckles.
All the rest is a gift.
Tobio's heart eases and he closes his eyes again, trying to memorize this moment.
"Hey, Tobio, wanna know something?"
"Mm. What?"
"So actually," Hinata whispers, leaning forward conspiratorially. "I'm a little drunk."
"You're what?"
"I drank a little. 'Cause I was nerrvoussss." He slurs a little on the last word, but it seems more intentional than not, given the little wink Hinata throws in his direction.
"You were nervous?"
"Maybe." He laughs, "Or maybe Yachi talked some sense into me."
Tobio laughs, softly to himself, wondering if she used the same line on him. If she did, he hoped it worked, because there's only a few things Tobio's ever been so certain of in his life and Hinata is one of them.
"Tomorrow..." he starts to say, then stops.
Hinata bends down, picking up a flower that's managed to stay intact. He spins it around, balanced on his fingertip. The pale pink blurs. "Tomorrow..?" he echoes.
"Did you want to go somewhere?"
The flower stops spinning. "Like a honeymoon? I thought we weren't gonna do anything."
"Yeah but..." His other hand flails a little, gesturing back at the low stone building. His mother's somewhere in there, wearing her favorite kimono, hair done. Their friends are there. Their families are there. Hinata's specially chosen flowers. His vows. With all that, why shouldn't they do more? "If you want to," he says.
Hinata thinks about it for a moment, head tilted. A petal lands in his hair and Tobio carefully, carefully takes it out, imagining Yachi's horror if he ruins something. Then the man shakes his head, giving Tobio's hand a small squeeze. "I think really I just want to stay home with you."
"Really?"
"You're not always home, I have to treasure it." He presses a kiss to Tobio's knuckles and then lets go, walking backwards. "Although maybe not stay home all day. I haven't played volleyball in twenty whole days."
Tobio follows Hinata without really thinking about it, hands back in his pockets. "That sounds way too long."
"Right? I wanted to play as soon as you got back, but then there was all this stuff. Planning a wedding is nearly as bad as being in school."
He reaches his door and pauses, hand resting on the handle, as he looks back.
"Are you nervous?" he asks, and the way he grins makes Tobio certain he's being teased.
Still, he rises to the challenge. "Of course not. Speak for yourself."
"Don't be nervous, okay? I'll be right there."
I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.
He remembers the feeling he had when he first heard that. A weight falling from his shoulders, the shattering of a crown, the way Hinata's always there, just like he says.
He remembers now what it feels like to be nervous, the thought of saying goodbye to Hinata, right before they separated for college. The thought that he'd never see him again. He remembers benches in the snow and buses in the morning. If he could go through that, he doesn't see why he can't handle this.
He smiles, leans forward, and kisses Hinata carefully on the lips. "Yeah," he says. "I love you."