Chapter Text
The sun was hot, but Hinata would always be hotter.
If he was ever asked why his and Bokuto’s team lost so triumphantly, Atsumu would most likely blame his severe lack of experience in beach volleyball. He’d drown himself before he admitted the full truth, since the fact that he was extremely distracted by Hinata was already humiliating enough. The little tangerine was running and diving and jumping around like there was no tomorrow, and not only his strength was a sight to behold, but so were his glorious, marvellous, spectacular biceps. Every time he put them to use, Atsumu swore he heard the angels sing.
Sakusa and Atsumu, who had had enough of the blistering heat, moved to a nearby bar to get some drinks while Hinata and Bokuto continued playing with some high schoolers they managed to rope in. Although their game ended without much fanfare, as Hinata and Sakusa’s team was simply too dominating, it was okay because Atsumu got to watch Sakusa eat shit at least twice.
Moreover, seeing Hinata in his element was worth every loss.
The beach in May was still a bit too cold for swimming, but that didn’t stop families and groups of friends from coming by anyway. Soon, a small crowd gathered around the net to watch the ongoing match, and Atsumu felt a sudden surge of pride. That was his teammate right there. His wing spiker. Atsumu loved seeing Hinata flourish like he was born for the sand and the wind, loved seeing his face light up after a score. He loved his tenacity and his passion not only for the sport, but for everything he did from day to day. He loved the way he laughed at Atsumu's terrible puns and the way he called his name.
He loved Hinata.
Atsumu’s brain shut down like an overheated computer. A comical record scratch could be heard in the back of his head.
“Wait, isn’t love too big of a word?” The blond thought as he accidentally poked the mini parasol in his nose. He liked Hinata, that was for sure. Based on how he acted this entire week, that much should have been as clear as day.
But then again, Atsumu had liked other people in the past, and no one else ever came close. Only Hinata could render him into a blubbering mess with just a compliment and make him wax poetic as if he was the dollar-store version of Shakespeare. Only Hinata could make him overthink every little touch and dissect every passing remark like a madman. Only Hinata could make him want to be his setter for the rest of their lives.
He loved Hinata.
The crowd cheered. Atsumu watched the boy, who just spiked the ball with all his might, and his heart skipped a beat as if to confirm it.
“Oh man, I’m so screwed.” Atsumu slammed his head on the table in defeat. Sakusa slurped his cocktail extra loud.
Love is kind of a sucky thing, Atsumu concluded.
Yes, he might look like your typical hot guy tanning on the beach and yes, he might act like he didn’t have a care in the world, but the reality was he was withering inside. The sky was slowly turning from blue to orange. Meaning that it was almost sunset, the time Atsumu had set for himself to act on his words. He needed to set a deadline, some sort of pressure, or else his own cowardice would make him back out, and Atsumu was not going to let that happen if he wanted to keep himself sane. This was the perfect setting, and the perfect timing.
To double down, he told Sakusa and Bokuto exactly when he was going to do it. Bokuto wanted to film everything like a proud parent at his child's graduation, but Sakusa had dragged him away by the collar, and now they were nowhere to be seen.
Hinata was on his towel, not too far away from Atsumu’s, sitting as still as a rock as he meditated. Despite being so anxious that Atsumu could hurl right then and there, the view of Hinata’s sturdy back brought him a strange sense of calm. Atsumu waited for him patiently while he tried his best to distract himself with the latest edition of Sports Weekly, until he saw Hinata stretch his arms.
It was time.
Atsumu took three deep breaths, then stood up and put on his slippers. He tentatively walked towards Hinata, every step more rigid than the last. He was getting closer now. Everything was in slow motion. The game plan was easy enough: Atsumu would tap on Hinata’s shoulder and handsomely ask “May I sit here?”, to which Hinata would blush in response. “Why yes, of course, Atsumu-san.” An acoustic version of Love Story by Taylor Swift was playing in the background. Atsumu would then profess his undying love with flawless diction just like those main leads in the K-dramas Bokuto had forced him to suffer through, and then they’d end up making out in no time.
And then Atsumu just had to fall on his ass.
Was it because of the crippling nerves, or because the dune was slippery, Atsumu didn’t know and he didn’t care. His very manly yelp had already made Hinata turn around. Some kids in the distance cackled very hard at him.
“Are you okay, Atsumu-san?!” Hinata rushed to help him up. The sand had softened the fall, but his butt and his ego hurt all the same. Atsumu wished it would swallow him whole so he’d never have to face anyone ever again.
“No, Shouyou-kun. I want to die. I beg of you, end me right now.” Atsumu laid defiantly on his back even as Hinata tried his hardest to pull him up.
The orange-haired boy puffed out a laugh. “C’mon, you big baby. It's all good.”
The sweet pet name was like music to Atsumu’s ears, and so he ended up letting Hinata take him by the hand. They sat on the towel together, their feet dipped into the glistening water.
“We had a fun ride, don'tcha think?” Atsumu opened first, and Hinata perked up with an earnest nod.
“Totally! I'm glad we had a chance to do something like this. I learned a lot more about everyone, if that was even possible.”
“Yeah, like who knew Omi-kun was into flowers? That guy’s a sensitive soul.”
“And that Bokuto-san was abnormally good at poker? He could make a fortune from that kind of skill.”
“Not gonna lie, I'm gonna miss having Bokkun around the house. Like, who else could annoy Omi-kun as much as him?”
“Guess it's a job for us two now.”
They shared a quick chuckle, and for a while, there was only the sound of the waves crashing in to fill in the silence. Atsumu sneaked a peek at their hands, just centimetres away from each other, and then at Hinata's face. The sun was really setting now, casting a warm glow on his features, making him seem dreamlike.
Hinata used to be an ideal, a concept, something that was always so far out of Atsumu’s reach. A spiker who would accept each and every one of his sets no matter how good they were. A player so demanding, yet so benevolent, and a person so ferocious, yet so gentle. He was someone Atsumu had been looking for all his life.
People like Atsumu were, undoubtedly, bound to fall in love with people like Hinata.
Their hands finally touched. Hinata’s fingers were on top of his now. The three magic words were at the tip of Atsumu’s tongue.
“I think I'm in love with you, Atsumu-san.”
Oh.
Oh?
Atsumu’s jaw dropped, and it wouldn't go back up.
Still with his mouth hanging stupidly open, he whipped his head to look at Hinata. Hinata didn’t look back. He kept his eyes forward and his expression blank, so much so that for a mere second Atsumu almost chalked it up to one of his self-induced hallucinations, that all the manifestation videos he watched last night must’ve done a number on him. But then Atsumu caught it — the deep pink travelling from Hinata's ears all the way down to his neck, and it finally dawned on Atsumu that Hinata really did just say what he thought he said.
Atsumu didn’t reply. He didn’t blink, nor did he breathe. Instead, he stood up and walked straight into the sea. He disappeared underwater and refused to come back up.
It wasn’t fair. It was not fair at all.
“Atsumu-san!” Hinata frantically called out as he waddled through the water to pull Atsumu up for the second time today, because apparently he had as much survival skills as a pet hamster. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“It’s not fair, Shouyou-kun!” Atsumu shrieked at a higher pitch than he wanted to, his perfectly styled hair now a mop on his head. “I was gonna confess first, and then you stole my thunder!”
“Well, how could I possibly have known that?!” Hinata asked in disbelief, but his tone was just way over the top to come off as genuine. Atsumu sat there in the shallow end and stared long and hard, then there it was — the ever so slight twitch of his mouth, the twinkle in his eyes, the transparent fondness on his face; Hinata had known all along.
He had Atsumu wrapped around his fingers, and he was enjoying every minute of it.
“Why you little…” Atsumu muttered threateningly, but the smile on his face told a different story. He got hold of Hinata’s hands and pulled him off his balance, making the boy stumble and plummet into the sea with a squeal. When he came back up, Hinata was as sopping wet as Atsumu. They looked at each other, and then Hinata started cracking up, his laughter as clear as a summer night.
“It’s not my fault that you’re so obvious, Atsumu-san.”
“So I’ve been told.” Atsumu sulked. He was truly naive for thinking he could have ever gotten away with this. How could he, when his feelings were meant for the sun itself?
“Also, I was awake when you and Omi-san were talking. You guys had, like, zero volume control.”
“Oh my god, I’m dead. That nosey emo is dead to me.” Atsumu relaxed his muscles so that he could fall backwards into the sea, but Hinata stopped him this time. He cupped both Atsumu’s cheeks, his thumb gently wiping the pout off his lips. The humour still lingered in Hinata's eyes, though slowly but surely, there was something else coming in. Something that Atsumu himself knew all too well — the simple feeling of hoping the person you liked would feel the same.
He asked, half bashful, half expectant. “So, may I know your response?”
Hinata Shouyou was beautiful in the afterglow. For the first time today, Atsumu’s heart slowed. He was sure, more than anything in the world, that Hinata was gonna be the death of him; and he gladly accepted his fate.
“I am so in love with you, Shouyou-kun.”
Their first kiss tasted like salt, but it was perfect.
4.5.
Atsumu taped up the last box with a sigh of relief. Although he had promised himself he wouldn’t be so melodramatic, seeing his beloved room for the past year, now empty, was still a bit bittersweet.
It was supposed to be short-term anyway. Atsumu needed a place to stay after moving to Tokyo, and while he wanted to cut costs, he was also sick of sharing a room with his brother and had virtually no friends outside the court. So the obvious solution was to ask his teammates to move into a big apartment together. The offer was first extended to Bokuto, whose boyfriend was too caught up with work to look for a house, and then to Hinata, who then just joined Black Jackals and was dying for some teamwork building. Sakusa just kind of mysteriously invited himself in a month later, and then the rest is history.
“Atsumu-san, the truck is here!” Hinata called for him from the other room.
It was the end of an era, Atsumu gave himself an amused smile as though he was in a soap opera. It was melancholic, sure, but that was all but a small price to pay to move in with Hinata. Four weeks and two days after they became official — yes, Atsumu kept count — Sakusa proposed the idea of going their separate ways, since he couldn’t stand the idea of sharing a living space with a couple. “Who knows what, or where you guys have gotten up to whenever I’m not around?” He’d said with a shudder.
Atsumu had told him to get his mind out of the gutter. But once he glanced at the worn leather couch Sakusa was sitting on, where Atsumu and Hinata might or might not have really gotten up to something, he thought that maybe the guy had a point.
With Bokuto already gone, and Sakusa now on his way out too, it was pointless for the two of them to share a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. And so, the remaining three of MSBY’s quartet agreed to bid the place farewell.
“I’m coming!” Atsumu replied. The living room was packed up as well, leaving only the big pieces of furniture. There was a random shoe on the ground which no one had taken ownership of. Bokuto, who overzealously agreed to help them, was now sitting on the counter with his feet dangling.
“Sorry, false alarm. It was Omi-san’s truck.” Hinata was eagerly opening up a box of freshly made onigiris. Atsumu’s stomach grumbled in protest as he took in the familiar smell. He turned to the front door, and there Osamu was, being all buddy-buddy with Sakusa.
“What are you doing here?” Atsumu pointedly crossed his arms.
Osamu leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms as well. Whether or not he realised he had copied Atsumu’s movement was debatable. “Good morning to you too. I’m here to help with the moving.”
“Wow, you’re awfully nice today.” Atsumu raised his eyebrows, but then he blinked away with a dismissive wave of hand. “Anyways, you can start with the kitchen supplies, thanks.”
“Oh, no, I forgot to specify. I’m here to help Kiyoomi-kun.” Osamu emphasizes, and Atsumu cringed outwardly at the intimate nickname.
“Why are you fraternising with our enemy, ‘Samu?”
“He’s not our enemy, he’s yours.” Osamu rolled his eyes. He casually picked up a box and turned to Sakusa. “You ready?”
“Woah, so it’s Myaa-sam that Omi-kun's moving in with?” Bokuto talked through the rice in his mouth. His garbled words went into one of Atsumu’s ears and shot out the other like a bullet. Osamu winked at Bokuto.
Atsumu looked at Osamu. Then to Sakusa. Back to Osamu. Then back to Sakusa.
“You’re moving in with who?”
“Osamu.” Sakusa stated matter-of-factly.
“Osamu what?”
“Is moving in with me.”
“Who’s moving in with you?” Atsumu asked skeptically.
“Me.” Osamu grunted.
“You what?”
“Okay, you’re definitely messing with us.”
Fearing the unknown, Atsumu fell to his knees and resorted to screaming at the top of his lungs. “No, you two are messing with me!”
“Oh no... I think the stove is on.” Hinata burst out an obviously fake laugh, and then whispered so loudly that he shouldn’t have even bothered. “Come with me, Bokuto-san!”
“Wait, I kinda want to see how this goes.” Bokuto picked up a second rice ball, clearly invested in the impending fiasco unfolding before him. Hinata didn’t waste another second. He dashed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut like it was a bomb shelter.
“Hold on. Is— Is the one you said that you were in love with… my brother?” Atsumu asked in horror, his face turning increasingly paler by the second.
Sakusa shrugged, but his enthusiasm at Atsumu’s turmoil was poorly disguised. “Guess.”
Atsumu pointed an accusatory finger at Osamu next and screeched like a banshee. “Are you guys… boning each other?!”
Osamu stared at him for an uncomfortably long time — his typical, bored, listless gaze. And then Atsumu saw it. The faintest hint of a smirk, which soon bloomed into a full on shit-eating grin.
“Use your imagination.”
Atsumu joined Hinata in the bathroom soon after. Hinata held his hair while he threw up.
After an hour or so, the bare apartment finally returned to the peace it so badly deserved. There were only Hinata and Atsumu now, sprawling lazily on top of each other on the couch while they waited for their truck. The others had been shooed away so that Atsumu could “rediscover the lost art of mental stability”, as he called it, and were not to be allowed back into his sight. At least, not before their housewarming party tomorrow anyway.
The two of them were going to start over together, in a new apartment of their own. A place both of them could call home. It should’ve been a major event — pre-Golden Week Atsumu would've foamed at the mouth at this information — yet the only thing that filled him in this moment was serenity. Now that he looked back at everything that had happened between them, perhaps this was always meant to happen.
Atsumu lifted his head to look at Hinata, his voice dripping with fake distress. “Aren’t we moving too fast, Shouyou-kun? We’ve only been dating for a month and we’re already moving in together.”
Hinata laughed so hard that Atsumu could feel his ribcage vibrating underneath him. “We’ve basically been living together for more than a year, dummy.”
“Well, here’s to many more, I hope.” Atsumu craned his neck so that he could close the distance between them. Hinata intertwined their hands together as he leaned in as well, smiling into the kiss.
“I hope so, too.”
Atsumu felt a slight twinge of guilt, though not nearly enough to warrant any consideration. Hinata’s mole on his ring finger was still beautiful, but Atsumu was determined to be the one to cover it up.
He had fulfilled his promise of setting to him, it was now time for a new one.