Disclaimer: I don't own Haikyuu! I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to my friend, user Oort on AO3 (different from the Oort here on FF), who read a couple drafts of this and gave helpful feedback :)

"KAGEYAMA, GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT!" Before the setter could turn around, there were arms around his neck as 51.9 kilograms of pure energy clamped onto him from behind. Kageyama stumbled under the unexpected additional weight.

"Quiet down, dumbass; you'll blow out my eardrums. What is it?" They were in the middle of the hallway and people were starting to stare. A first year that he recognized from Hinata's class pointed at them and her friends giggled. Kageyama just wanted his lunch, not to have Hinata spring a surprise piggy-back ride on him. He tried to twist his head around to face his teammate.

"I was walking down to get something from the vending machines and Takeda-sensei showed up out of nowhere in hallway like kapow! And told me that he'd just heard from Coach Ukai, who heard from his grandfather, the other Coach Ukai, that the Small Giant's going to be coming to Nationals to watch us! I could meet him after the match! I'm SO EXCITED! Can you believe it? Can you? The Small Giant is going to see Karasuno play and we're going to kick ass! You will toss to me, right? Right? I want to talk to him about volleyball after we've won. This is going to be SO COOL!" There was a little squeal that caused Kageyama to nearly drop his teammate.

"Calm down. He's not coming to see you; he's coming to see the team."

"Right, yeah, of course. A couple of other players from Japan's Olympic team are coming too, but not because Karasuno's playing, because it's volleyball and they probably all went to Nationals in high school. But Takeda-sensei said that it would be easy to ask to talk to him!"

"I guess so." Something sour twisted Kageyama's stomach painfully at the idea of Hinata getting to interact with the person he idolized.

By the time practice rolled around Kageyama was in a foul mood and everyone knew it. What no one could figure out, however, is why he was angry this time. They'd won the semi-finals over the weekend and were going to Nationals. Students and teachers had been stopping them in the halls to wish them luck for the upcoming match. By all rights Kageyama, as a volleyball fanatic, should be thrilled. And earlier in the week, he had been thrilled.

Hinata had not shut up about the Small Giant for the rest of lunch break and continued to text Kageyama about it during their afternoon classes. While Hinata's text speech generally required exclamation points for every sentence, today his messages were also rife with spelling errors and sent in all caps. Kageyama did not want to hear another word about Karasuno's shrimpy former ace from his best friend.

"Oh dear, has something gotten the King's panties in a twist?" Tsukishima jeered, and Yamaguchi chuckled with him.

Kageyama knocked another serve to the inside corner. "It's none of your damn business."

"Wow, great comeback, King."

"Fuck off. Maybe you'd be better at volleyball if you spent less time trying to think up comebacks."

"Hey!" Yamaguchi interjected, indignant on Tsukishima's behalf. "Tsukki's trying!"

"What he's trying to do is get on my nerves."

Kageyama's tosses were pinpoint accurate during drills, as always, but by funneling his aggression through the ball during the practice match, he was making the tosses far too fast for his teammates to reasonably hit. While they were on a water break, Asahi approached Kageyama timidly and began, "I would never want to presume, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I, well, I could help. If you want."

Taken aback by the ace's actions, Kageyama replied, "Uh, thank you, Asahi-san. I'll let you know." The taller boy smiled and tactfully retreated.

Kageyama took a deep breath. It wasn't like he didn't know Hinata idolized the Small Giant, and it wasn't like Hinata hadn't fanboyed over the man before during practices. Kageyama's mind had automatically snapped to the two worst scenarios as soon as Hinata had started talking about meeting the pint-sized ace.

Scenario 1: the Small Giant would be outright rude to Hinata when he started babbling about how much he idolized him and Hinata would be devastated, which would lead to him not wanting to play volleyball anymore.

Scenario 2: the Small Giant would be a huge goof like Hinata and the two of them would hit it off perfectly and Hinata would practice with the him all the time and they would both be dorks together and get married and Kageyama wouldn't have anyone to toss to anymore.

What? It could happen. And then Kageyama would be miserable.

Kageyama tried to be more careful about his irritability during the rest of practice, but he ended up sitting out the last half hour after Tsukishima took a ball to the back of the head and tried to start a fight. "Like hell that was an accident!" he'd snarled. Huh. Here I'd thought that nothing could get Tsukishima to react with genuine emotion. He never cares enough about anything to get angry or excited or sad. Kageyama might have to try it again sometime when Daichi wasn't around, just to see what happened.

That night Kageyama collapsed into bed after a shower, not even bothering to shrug on pajamas. Hinata's words still bounced around his head, saying cool and amazing and he jumps super high like gwah!

Kageyama's feelings towards the Small Giant were mixed. On one hand, he felt a very personal hatred towards the Olympic team's ace because the Small Giant was distracting Kageyama's decoy. Kageyama was the one who synched up with Hinata the best. On the other hand, though, watching one match with the Small Giant had inspired Hinata's love of volleyball and his drive to be the best player despite his small stature. Kageyama didn't know where he'd be without teammates who looked beyond his past as an overbearing setter in middle school. Hinata had been the first to say he didn't care that Kageyama had been benched for his controlling personality.

Kageyama's phone sang out a few bars from the chorus to I Just Can't Wait To Be King (when had Hinata had gotten ahold of his phone again?) and he felt around on the nightstand.

He checked the sender: "Dumbass". What did Hinata want at this hour? Kageyama opened up the message. \IM SO EXCTIED I CANTT SLEEP! KAGEYAMA WHAT DO I DOOOO?/

Scratch that. Olympic player or not, Kageyama was going to strangle the pipsqueak if he stressed out Hinata and ruined Nationals for them.

Kageyama barely beat Hinata to the club room for morning practice the next day. "Tie," Hinata gasped, collapsing inside the gym doors.

"No way, I totally won. Did you sleep at all last night?" Kageyama had been up late himself, mentally mapping out plans to make Hinata forget about the news he'd received concerning the Small Giant. He'd concluded that his best bet was short-term amnesia, but couldn't figure out a way to achieve it so that Hinata only lost one day's worth of memories. It would be troublesome to get their relationship back from enemies to friends again if Hinata lost everything from this year…

"Yeah, I slept," Hinata replied after a long pause.

"Liar."

"I did TOO sleep last night!"

"How many hours?"

"Thr– it doesn't matter!"

"Three? Hinata, you're not going to be able to play at your best if you're exhausted. Go find a classroom and sleep until school starts. I'll tell Takeda-sensei and Coach Ukai." Kageyama tried to glare Hinata into submission.

Hinata wasn't cowed. "What's up with you? You were all growly yesterday too. It was scary."

Instead of getting offended, the setter rolled his eyes. "Dumbass. What's scary is that you can say things like that and not worry that I'm going to 'accidentally' smack you with a volleyball later."

"Ha ha, you like winning too much to mess around like that." Kageyama tried not to smile at Hinata's response. He loved him for that unwavering trust and uncensored honesty. He always knew where he stood with Hinata, even if they didn't agree on something. Hinata also had an incomprehensible ability to make friends with half the teams that Karasuno played, a behavior which sat directly on the border between frustrating and utterly adorable. It was a combination of his extreme enthusiasm and sheer will power that eventually won their opponents over, Kageyama was sure – it had worked on him, after all. Hinata had a passion to jump higher and train harder until he surpassed everyone's expectations, and he did just that. He was amazing.

Not that he was going to tell Hinata that. "Well, we don't have a game today," Kageyama eventually replied. "You never know when one of those tosses might go off target."

"Do it and you'll get spiders in your backpack."

"Are you five years old?"

"Even if I was, I'd still be six months older than you." Hinata stuck his tongue out. "Did you ask your mom about hanging out tonight? Natsu's having a sleepover with a bunch of her friends, so my place is out."

"She works late Fridays," Kageyama reminded him. "It's fine."

"Cool. C'mon, let's go get changed."

"You're going to catch up on sleep in the classroom right now. I'll sic Daichi on you if you don't, so you might as well go now."

"You're not my mother," Hinata grumbled, but he shivered a bit at Kageyama's mention of an angry Daichi.

"Thank god. Taking care of you would be a full-time job."

Hinata made a face. "You wouldn't reeeeally tell Daichi, would you?"

"Is that a challenge?"

"Fine," Hinata replied with a put-upon sigh worthy of a martyr. "You're such a meanie." He reluctantly left for the school building and Kageyama waited until he spotted Hinata in one of the windows on the second floor hallway before he went in to practice.

The school day was tedious and Kageyama bolted from his seat the moment that the last bell rang. Everyone else was razzed up at practice too, possibly because it was Friday. Maybe I won't have to implement my give-Hinata-amnesia plan, Kageyama thought, looking at the spiker. Hinata was well-rested from his nap (which apparently had lasted through first period and had gotten him in trouble, but Kageyama wasn't going to apologize when Hinata could have easily set his phone alarm) and was practicing with enthusiasm.

Comparing Hinata to the sun was an easy association. This morning's practice had been lacking something in mood despite the antics of the other exuberant team members. He had gotten used to Hinata's energy and pace, his bright attitude that lit up the gym. With Hinata there, the rest of practice flew by in a blink and Kageyama listened to Hinata give a blow-by-blow account of his classes on their way to Kageyama's house.

"– And then in chemistry Yoshida-chan asked the teacher 'so why do these two chemicals explode when they're combined like this?' and the teacher was like 'it's magic' and Yoshida-chan said –"

"I'm not a dumbass, dumbass. There's no way the teacher actually said 'it's magic'. It's fucking science class."

"She totally did! I mean, she was kidding, but it was still funny. She explained how it really worked after that. Oh, and Fujimoto-kun showed up halfway through class and said he'd been in the bathroom since lunch, but he was obviously lying, and she told him to do fifty pushups in the front of the classroom, two for every minute he was late."

Kageyama was drawn in despite his skepticism. "Did he do it?"

"Yeah. She's super scary and threatened to send him to the principal's for being disrespectful and not listening to her."

"Huh." Kageyama pushed open the front gate and got out his key to open the door.

Hinata shucked off his shoes once they got inside. "Pardon the intrusion!"

Kageyama removed his sneakers and wriggled out of his sweaty shirt. They'd run laps at the end of practice because Nishinoya and Tanaka had made some objectionable jokes in Daichi's hearing. "Guests –"

"Guests shower first, don't use up all the water, and towels are in the closet," Hinata recited, flicking his host on the arm with a finger. "Yeah, I got it by now. I'm here often enough."

"Whatever." Kageyama's heart jumped at Hinata's bright smile before the shrimp dashed off towards the bathroom. Kageyama ambled over to the kitchen and raided the fridge and cabinets for ingredients. Tonight he planned to make tempura for the two of them. They would probably eat and then pretend to do homework for about five minutes before Hinata got bored and suggested they play video games.

The evening went pretty much as usual. "C'mon, Kageyama, put in Smash Bros!"

"We played that last time. I want Mario Kart."

"But I'm shit at racing games."

"Exactly."

"It's not any fun without good competition!"

"Two races and then Portal," Kageyama bargained.

"Deal." They settled on the couch under a fuzzy green blanket and Kageyama handed Hinata the second controller. As the gaming console started up, his eyes wandered over to Hinata and stopped. First crushes rarely worked out, he'd been told. He'd heard his mother talk about the people in her high school class, how only one couple among them stayed together after graduation and through university. Despite that, Kageyama could picture himself five years from now, ten years from now, cooking dinner and curling up on the couch with Hinata to play games or watch TV. The clarity of the image was startling: they'd both go pro and play for the same team. They'd go to the Olympics together and be invincible. And every night after a long practice they'd come home together.

Hinata hadn't been what Kageyama wanted when they'd met in Karasuno's gym on the first day of high school, but he was exactly what Kageyama needed.

Kageyama wondered which god he'd offended to deserve this. Someone – heaven help them if he ever found out who – had gotten Hinata started on the Small Giant again at the beginning of Saturday practice and the spiker was at full energy and full volume. Kageyama didn't know what would happen if he had another practice like Thursday's. Asahi's effort to offer an ear was appreciated, but Kageyama knew that he really should be able to keep personal problems off the court. "– and I looked up how high he could jump and it's a full twenty centimeters higher than I can! Like ZOOM! I'm gonna keep practicing until I can get that high."

Tsukishima pushed up his glasses, murder in his eyes. "Hinata. Shut up." For once, Kageyama was in complete agreement with his freakishly tall teammate. The fallout from their almost-fight on Thursday had involved Coach Ukai and Daichi demanding that Tsukishima and Kageyama apologize to each other when they'd both calmed down the next day. He'd bitten out a grudging apology and Tsukishima's had had about the same level of sincerity.

"Never! Hey, Kageyama, you wanna come with me when I go talk to the Small Giant? I'll probably get nervous going by myself."

"Hell no." That was a bad idea for a couple of reasons. First, he'd probably get in trouble for socking a complete stranger upon sight. Second, he was just starting to gain the trust of his teammates and it would be a pity if he got the reputation for physical violence when he was angry. And third, Hinata would be hugely upset. Amazingly, it was the last reason that worried him the most.

"What? Why not?"

"I don't need to meet him. He's your hero."

"Ah, my bad, you probably want to go talk to their setter."

"Not really."

Hinata paused. "Huh. That makes sense, I guess, since you're the best setter. I bet he wasn't as good in high school as you are." For some reason, Kageyama suddenly felt a lot better than he had a few minutes ago. "Oh! But I won't tell him that, because that would be rude."

"Mmm, definitely rude," Kageyama replied, but he figured Hinata's opinion would come out anyway. Hinata would, without a doubt, babble like a fool when faced with the man he idolized.

Kageyama had worried that Hinata would take some time to warm up during the first set. Between the knowledge that this was Nationals and that Hinata's hero was there, things could have gone badly for their quick if Hinata wasn't in sync with Kageyama. He had breathed in relief when his first toss to Hinata scored and the decoy looked like he'd gotten over his usual pre-game anxiety. Everyone was at the top of their game today, thankfully. Against Shiratorizawa High, they would need it.

Wakatoshi Ushijima was a nightmare. Kageyama knew it was going to happen, but seeing their ace's selfish behavior on the other side of the net hit a little too close to home. Their setter was good, but the focus of the team was on Wakatoshi. Setters were supposed to be the control center of the team to keep everyone organized. Not for them, apparently. Kageyama said a prayer of thanks that he hadn't been accepted to Shiratorizawa. His gaze flicked over to Hinata. Yes, there were a lot of reasons that Karasuno was better for Kageyama.

Unfortunately, the first set was a slaughter. Karasuno hadn't been prepared for the powerhouse team, but Tanaka was still shouting encouragement at the end of it, looking a bit tired but ready to keep running. "WE'LL GET 'EM IN THE NEXT SET! COME ON, KARASUNO!"

The second set was better. Nishinoya tirelessly saved the ball and Asahi spiked again and again without losing confidence. Hinata and Tanaka were formidable at the front, and Daichi was powerful on defense. Karasuno ended up switching players in and out until they'd used up all their substitutions – not to give the players breaks, but to frequently change up their strategy and confuse Shiratorizawa. It worked to some degree, because their opponents couldn't get used to their style of play and they won by the skin of their teeth.

Third set, match point for Karasuno. The ball came over the net and Nishinoya got it back in the air. Kageyama took in everything on the court in an instant: Tanaka was moving forwards, calling for the toss. There was a blocker on his side who had been very effective. Hinata was up against Wakatoshi. That was unlikely to get them the final point. Tanaka was the better option.

Then Hinata linked into that bottomless pool of energy he had. He dashed across the court towards the middle, Wakatoshi shadowing close behind him. Hinata got to the center and feinted, darting back to the now-open right side. Shiratorizawa's large ace couldn't pivot with the same speed as the tiny decoy. Kageyama set to Hinata.

He watched Hinata spike with everything he had, eyes filled with the view from the top, and Kageyama knew they were going to win. The ball flew down the side of the court with such speed that the player in the back corner didn't have a chance. It slammed down just inside the line before bouncing far off behind the court.

25-23, Karasuno.

There was screaming from the stands, he was sure, but Kageyama couldn't hear anything except for his teammates. Tanaka ripped off his shirt and was running around the court like a moron, Nishinoya riding on his back. The pair of them were whooping loudly. Asahi sank to the ground, exhausted but satisfied. Daichi looked like he was wiping away tears and Sugawara ran onto the court to smother him in a hug. Ennoshita was frozen in absolute shock and Hinata –

Hinata was barreling towards him with the biggest grin that Kageyama had ever seen on him. Kageyama had only a moment to brace himself before the greatest decoy leapt into his arms, screaming and laughing and crying a bit. "KAGEYAMA, THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"You were awesome, dumbass." He buried his face in Hinata's shoulder, savoring this moment where it was acceptable to touch him.

Hinata squeezed him tighter. "THAT WAS THE MOST PERFECT TOSS EVER!" He pulled Kageyama's head back so they were eye-to-eye before leaning in and laying one on him.

Kageyama's eyes snapped closed. His higher brain functions decided to abandon ship and waved farewell to him from the familiar waters he was rapidly leaving. Hinata was kissing him. Kissing him. Kissing. It had only been a second so far, but it was the longest, most glorious second of his life. Jolted back into action, he focused his attention on memorizing the feeling of Hinata's lips moving across his. His body warmed at every point they were touching and he realized it was sort of hard to kiss while smiling. It was definitely Hinata's fault, though, Kageyama decided. Something wet landed on Kageyama's cheek and he pulled back from their kiss to wipe away Hinata's tear, face flushed as he stared at brown eyes that were locked on him with delight.

Speech was still beyond Kageyama at this point. "Uh."

"Yeah," Hinata replied.

"Later?"

"Later." Hinata climbed down and they ran to join their teammates on the line to bow to Shiratorizawa. Everyone was swarming the court and it was a half hour before everyone got untangled enough to move to the lobby, where the school had organized a last-minute party. Everyone was jumbled together and Kageyama scanned the room for that red hair until he felt a small hand clamp around his wrist.

"Come on!" Hinata shouted over the noise. "Coach Ukai invited the Small Giant and a bunch of other former Karasuno players who showed up to watch. Say hi to him with me!" Kageyama allowed himself to be hauled over to the hastily set up drinks table where he came face-to-face with another petite volleyball player. He was dressed casually and looked mostly indifferent to the screaming that was taking place among the current Karasuno team members.

Hinata wasted no time. "Uh, hi, I'm Hinata Shouyou! I'm number 10, which was your number when you were at Karasuno. OH! I mean, I'm sure you knew what number you were, I just wanted to tell you that I was the same one. I've ALWAYS admired you and I wanted to be an ace just like you!" The Small Giant blinked in response, looking a little overwhelmed with Hinata's speed. "You're one of the best volleyball players ever despite being really short, and I'm really short and I wanted to be amazing like that too. I watched one game where you played and pow! You were awesome. It's why I started practicing even though my middle school didn't have a team and I'm totally babbling, aren't I? Sorry. How are you? How do you like playing on the Olympic team? Is it cool? I wanna play for Japan too someday!"

"Pleasure to meet you," the Small Giant finally managed to get in.

"Same here! How do you practice jumping? I heard about how high you can jump and I'm a ways behind and I'd like to get better than I am now! Do you do certain stretches and stuff?" Hinata would undoubtedly have continued his nervous prattle if not for Nishinoya, who bodily dragged him away and was yelling about getting the best slice of cake for his fabulous kouhai.

Which left Kageyama and the Small Giant standing there awkwardly. The shorter man coughed. "Good job. That was some excellent setting out there." Kageyama nodded once in acknowledgement. "Is he always…?"

"Yes, always." Genuine, boisterous, energetic, whatever the Small Giant had been planning to say. "Can't get him to shut up ever."

The Small Giant nodded, like that made sense. Then, politely: "Was there something you wanted to say too?"

Several responses came to mind. "Stay away from my decoy" was his first reaction, but given that Hinata and Kageyama might end up on Japan's team with him in the future, that wasn't something the ace could reasonably do. Plus, Kageyama was feeling a lot less threatened after the kiss he'd shared with Hinata on the court and the promise that they'd talk about it later. "Thanks for playing volleyball" also came to mind as a reply, though that made it sound like the ace had done it on purpose to inspire Hinata, which he hadn't.

"I've decided not to dropkick you," Kageyama finally said before walking away.

From Meri: Thanks for reading! This is my first foray into the Haikyuu fandom, so I'd love to know what you thought about my characterization/pacing/etc. for this piece. I did a bit more telling (rather than showing) than I usually do because I'm still working out how Kageyama's mental dialogue would go. Also, my knowledge of volleyball strategy is limited, so I took some creative license :P Please leave a comment, even if it's just a line you liked or disliked - every bit of feedback helps my writing!