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When Yachi suggested a “team building exercise” be held at her house the Saturday before they started second year, Kageyama expected the room to be filled with white boards and volleyballs. He arrived dressed in his favorite track suit ready to strategize for the next season.
Imagine his surprise when Yachi opens the front door in a stunning red jumper. “Kageyama!” Yachi exclaims. She doesn’t comment on Kageyama’s attire, but he can feel silent judgement as her gaze lingers. “Please, come in!”
The living area is decorated with Karasuno paraphernalia along with streamers and balloons matching the team’s colors. The back wall is lined with folding tables full of refreshments. Kageyama can’t help but knit his brows in confusion.
“What’s with the face, pouty-yama?” Kageyama searches for the familiar voice, breath hitching when he turns to find his crush clad in a salmon-colored button up and a pair of khakis. Damn, Hinata looks good.
Kageyama hadn’t realized that his signature pout had disappeared until he feels it return as the ginger looks him up and down, sarcastically adding, “Nice outfit.”
Kageyama scans the room, realizing that he’s the only one underdressed for the occasion. “Laundry day,” he grumbles, trying to cover up the fact that he clearly misunderstood the memo.
“Right.” Hinata knowingly glances to the side as he takes a sip of his beverage before quickly changing the subject. “Isn’t this nice? Yachi sure knows how to throw a party.”
Ah, so this is a party. That explains a lot. “Yeah. Really nice.”
The two are interrupted by Yachi ceremoniously tapping her glass. “Can I get everyone to gather in the living room, please? I’d like for us to sit in a circle.”
Hinata plops down next to Nishinoya. Kageyama follows, finding a seat on the other side of Hinata.
Yachi then sits to his right and begins to speak. “Now that we’re all here…first of all, I’d like to thank everyone for coming! Now that the third years have graduated, I wanted to do something special for my first act as sole manager. We also have a new captain and vice captain,” she motions to Ennoshita who gives a quick wave and a straight-lined smile, and Tanaka who flexes his biceps, “and soon we’ll have new recruits to help ring in a new era. I only hope they’ll be more tame than last year’s newbies.”
“Don’t lump me in with those freaks.” The group chuckles at Tsukishima's remark clearly meant to target Kageyama and Hinata.
“C’mon, Tsukki!” Nishinoya links an arm around Hinata’s neck and rustles his hair. “You gotta admit these guys make life much more interesting.”
Tsukishima grunts and mumbles something under his breath, but Yachi jumps in before Kageyama can get a word in edgewise. “Let’s have some fun, shall we? Does everyone know how to play the telephone game?”
Most of the circle looks around, giving blank stares at one another. Then Tanaka finally speaks up. “Is that where someone whispers to the person beside them, and then that person repeats what they heard to the next person, and so-on until it makes it around the circle?”
“Yes! That’s it! Have you played it before?”
“Yeah. Saeko made me play once—said it’s more fun with a lot of people. Though she called it 'Chinese whispers' or something like that.”
Narita interjects, “My sister calls it 'the rumor mill'.”
A few ‘ooo’s and ‘ahh’s are heard from the group, prompting Yachi to continue. “So Tanaka gave us the gist of the game, but there are a couple of rules. Number one, please cover your mouth when you whisper. We don’t want anyone trying to read lips. And number two, you can’t ask the person to repeat what they said, so be sure to listen carefully. The last person will repeat what they heard out loud. Any questions?”
Most of the group shakes their head. “Okay! I’ll go first.”
Yachi turns to Kageyama and whispers something that sounds like ‘I’d jump her, she’s so hot’, so that’s what he whispers to Hinata. Hinata gives Kageyama a look of wide-eyed surprise to which he responds, “She’s the one that said it, not me.”
Yamaguchi chortles when the gossip train makes its way around the circle. “Yachi, what the hell?!”
“Go on, tell everyone what you think I said.”
“Um…” Yamaguchi fiddles with his fingers, blushing as he says, “Ukai loves to smoke pot.”
The team erupts with a mixture of gasps and laughter, all eyes on Yachi begging her to explain. Kageyama is pretty sure that isn’t what she said, but decides that he wouldn’t be surprised if the contents of the statement turned out to be true.
“No, no, no!” Yachi exclaims, gesturing to her outfit. “I said ‘This jumper is so hot!’. I’m sweating my butt off over here!”
Ah, that makes sense.
Kageyama doesn’t beat himself up too much though, since what he thought she said made sense too, as well as the thing about Ukai. He feels a smile forming at the corner of his lips. This game is pretty fun.
Yachi turns to Kageyama. “Your turn! Think of a phrase to whisper to Hinata.”
If his crush wasn’t sitting right next to him, Kageyama might be tempted to let the broken ‘telephone’ contort his words simply for the opportunity to speak his feelings into the open air. But the sun’s a bit too close at the moment and he really doesn’t want to get burned. Instead, he opts to whisper “two hundred and sixteen to one ninety-eight,” referring to the amount of wins each has for their ongoing competition.
The way Hinata knowingly smirks back tells the setter that he understood exactly what was said. Phew...it’s a good thing Kageyama chose not to bare his feelings. That would have been embarrassing.
Kageyama intently watches each person as they attempt to hear and repeat Kageyama’s phase, each one more confused than the last. It's not surprising that they don’t understand it. To them it’s just a random set of numbers.
Yachi raises one brow, appearing more suspicious than surprised when Yamaguchi whispers into her ear. “There’s no way that’s what Kageyama said.”
Before Kageyama can ask himself, Hinata jumps in, “What did Yamaguchi whisper, Yachi?”
“It was mostly nonsense syllables, but it sounded like ‘Do Juan’s dreams make him lactate?’”
“WHAT?” Kageyama and Hinata cry in unison before Hinata continues. “Hilarious, but no. I heard him perfectly. He said ‘two hundred and fifteen to one ninety-eight’.”
“Um, no I didn’t. I said ‘two hundred and sixteen to one ninety-eight’.”
“But why would you say ‘two sixteen’ when you’ve only won two fifteen?”
“Because I’ve won two sixteen, dumbass!”
“Nuh uh!”
“Yeah huh!”
“Okay, that’s enough!” At some point during their spat, Yachi moved from her spot to stand behind both boys before smacking them upside the head. “You two can hash that out on your own time.” She returns to her spot in the circle and motions to Hinata. “It’s your turn now.”
Kageyama thinks he must have really upset Hinata judging by how red his face is right now. The ginger finally whispers to Nishinoya. Nishinoya jolts with surprise, glancing to Kageyama before whispering something that sounds a lot like ‘dude, are you sure?’ to which Hinata simply nods in response.
Kageyama watches carefully as each person shares the same astonished look that Nishinoya did before spreading the news to the next unsuspecting individual. Yachi actually squeaks when Yamaguchi whispers to her, and at this point Kageyama has had enough.
“Boke, what the hell did you—" Kageyama’s words are cut off, eyes widening as something firm presses against his lips. His field of vision is blurred by the object directly in front of him. Something orange falls between his eyes causing them to cross in an attempt to focus on it.
Kageyama’s brain finally catches up to the situation when it realizes that the orange line is a lock of Hinata’s hair, and that the blurred object ahead is Hinata’s face, which can only mean…
Holy shit.
Kageyama’s lids flutter close, his hand reaching up to hold his teammate’s head still as he readjusts his face, parting his mouth slightly to suck on Hinata’s top lip.
They break apart as a chorus of approval erupts from the rest of the team. Kageyama’s pretty sure he hears Yachi say “It’s about time!” before he turns around to see her beaming face.
“Do you want to know what Hinata said?” Yachi asks and Kageyama nods with enthusiasm.
She leans in, her words clear as day as she whispers, “I’m gonna kiss Kageyama.”