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Tobio Kageyama was never a fan of playing the odds.
He never chose to take dares during party games. He was never interested in gambling or placing bets, either, even if there wasn’t really anything to lose. It was just his nature; he was a boy who felt comfort in surety and therefore refrained from seeking reward when any sort of risk was involved. It was a surprising fact about him, considering the nature of the sport he played; nothing was ever guaranteed on the volleyball court, after all. Contradictory as it may be, it was a philosophy that Tobio stuck staunchly to for most of his life.
That is, up until he met Shouyou Hinata, who had an uncanny knack for totally upending Tobio’s worldviews. He also had a sharp nose for shenanigans and a frustrating tendency to poke his nose into other people’s business. Combine the three of those, and Tobio had a recipe for a world-shattering epiphany—one which took place on what started as the most ordinary of afternoons…
“Fwahhh!”
Tobio sighed in relief as he reclined against the cool metal of the courtside bench, then again when the even cooler fabric of the damp rag he slung about his neck kissed his sweaty, flushed skin. He flopped his arm over his eyes to shield them from the bright fluorescents glaring above, then melted against the bench with another soft sigh. His galloping heartbeat slowly steadied; his shallow and rapid breaths steadily deepened and slowed; and his skin temperature gradually regulated as he came down from the exertion of today’s rather intense practice. Having secured victory at the Spring High Preliminaries, Coach Ukai had wasted no time in doubling down on his efforts to, as he phrased it, “whip them into shape.”
Just as Tobio was debating whether or not to drag himself up into a sitting position to drink some water or continue lying there until forced to move, he heard shuffling footsteps approaching. They were accompanied by a long, wheedling groan. Tobio lifted his arm and glanced toward the sound to see Shouyou staggering wearily toward the bench.
“Man! Coach really wore me out today,” the redhead whined miserably. Seeing that the bench was occupied, he promptly crumpled into a heap and sprawled out right there in the middle of the floor. “Ahhh~ Feels good~” he cooed while rubbing his cheek against the cool gymnasium floor.
“If you’re worn out, then the rest of us might be in trouble,” Daichi joked as he strolled by, dropping a towel on Shouyou’s back as he did so. Shouyou warbled a slurred “thank you” but made no effort to move, just letting the towel lie right where it was. He did watch Daichi as he walked off, however, only for his gaze to be caught by something more interesting.
“Oh, hey, isn’t that your sister?”
Tobio didn’t bother lifting his head from the bench when he replied, “Yeah, she’s in town, so she came to check out practice today.”
“Oh, neat.” A heartbeat passed, followed by Shouyou’s curious remark of, “What’s she doin’ talkin’ to Tsukishima’s brother?”
“She’s what now?” Tobio barked with a frown. He was instantly sitting up, sore body and beleaguered mind forgotten in the face of such a troubling scenario. Sure enough, his sister was a few yards away, eagerly conversing with one Akiteru Tsukishima.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Shouyou wondered, propping his head up on his arms and watching the two adults with bright, inquisitive eyes. “I didn’t even know they knew each other.”
“She does his hair,” came Tobio’s clipped response.
“Huh, well, it doesn’t look like they’re talking about hair to me.”
No, it certainly didn’t. In fact, it looked like something far less mundane; Tobio narrowed his eyes when Miwa put her hand on Akiteru’s arm while saying something in earnest, and Akiteru responded by blushing and pawing at the back of his head. Alarm bells began flaring in Tobio’s head, and, the next thing he knew, he was off the bench and marching toward the two of them. Over the shrieking sirens in his mind, he barely heard Shouyou squawk, “Hey, wait for me!” and scramble to his feet to scurry after him.
“—on, Akiteru, go with me! It’ll be worth your while, I promise <3”
“What will be worth his while?” Tobio snapped as soon as he was within earshot. Both Miwa and Akiteru looked over at him with owlish expressions. Tobio didn’t know who he wanted to glare at more—Akiteru for being an unwelcome encroacher or his sister for probably starting it—so he settled for alternating between the two of them, glowering fiercely enough for sparks to fly. When Shouyou trotted up next to him, Tobio glared at him, too, just because there was plenty of hostility to go around.
The two adults exchanged bewildered looks out of the corners of their eyes, then looked back at the seething teenager.
“I was just telling Akiteru about this new ice cream parlor that opened up,” Miwa explained, her lips curling up into a knowing smirk. “They’re supposedly really good, and, here’s the kicker—if you go there as a couple, then it’s buy one, get one free!”
“C-couple?!” Tobio spluttered in indignance, steam practically billowing out of his nose and ears. As he rounded on Akiteru, steaming, the older boy held up his hands in surrender with a nervous laugh.
Right as he was about to say something, a dark shadow appeared behind him. The temperature in that area of the gym dropped about ten degrees as Kei loomed behind his brother and, in an eerily calm voice, asked, “What’s this I hear about a couple?”
“Eeep!” Akiteru yelped and jumped nearly a foot in the air. He scampered away from his brother and the dark cloud festering over him but made the mistake of hiding behind Miwa—who looked awfully gleeful at how things were playing out. Quivering in the face of the thunderstorm brewing from the two enraged teenagers, Akiteru gulped thickly and then hastily explained, “Look, Miwa’s trying to get me to pose—pose—as her boyfriend to get free ice cream. I haven’t agreed to anything!”
“Oh, so you’re just faking it,” Tobio and Kei said simultaneously. Just like that, the volcano threatening to explode at any moment suddenly fell dormant.
“Tch! I dunno why you’re being so uptight about it,” Miwa scoffed and pouted at Akiteru over her shoulder. “It’s just free ice cream. We aren’t robbing a bank.”
“It’s not that,” Akiteru frowned back. “I just… I dunno if we can pull that off. What if they suspect something, huh? We could get banned or something for trying to pull a fast one on them!”
“Eh? But how hard can it be to pretend to be a couple?” Shouyou chimed in, and everyone looked at him. He just looked between all of them, his eyes wide. “What?”
“Exactly, Shouyou!” Miwa laughed and walked over to sling her arm around his shoulders, and the boy grinned bashfully. “It’s not hard at all. Akiteru’s just a chicken.”
“I’m not a chicken!” Akiteru whined in protest. “I just—you know—haven’t dated much…” he finished in a shy mumble.
“So, you’re a chicken,” Kei sighed with a shake of his head, and Akiteru just looked exasperatedly at him. “Still, I have to agree with my brother. If it were so easy, then everyone would do it.”
“You guys are thinking too hard!” Shouyou countered with an airy laugh. “All you gotta do is just act like you’re all lovey-dovey with the other person, right? Like you’re in a movie!”
“Moron,” Tobio huffed and rolled his eyes, prompting Shouyou to pout angrily at him. “If you think it’s that easy, then why don’t you do it?”
“Okay, I will!” Shouyou snapped back. He then pointed firmly at Tobio. “Let’s go to the ice cream parlor, and I’ll show you just how easy it is!”
Several seconds passed, with Shouyou staring adamantly at Tobio and Tobio just staring back with a blank expression. It was amazing how, with one incredibly idiotic statement, Shouyou could render Tobio’s mind completely devoid of any intelligent thought. Even after several seconds of struggling, Tobio couldn’t even process the absurd notion that Shouyou presented—and so he just replied, “... What?”
“Oh, now this is interesting,” Kei sneered. “I say we bet on it.”
“Ha! Good luck with that. Tobio doesn’t do bets,” Miwa said with a hum. “But I’d take that wager. I think the two of them could pull it off.”
Tobio’s head snapped around to blink owlishly at his sister, and he again replied, “... What?”
“I bet that Tobio cracks,” Kei smirked devilishly.
“I don’t want to sound mean, but I’m with Kei,” Akiteru smiled sheepishly and held his arms up in a bashful shrug. “I don’t think that Tobio would be able to handle being on the receiving end of Shouyou’s acting for very long…”
“Well, if there’s anything that Tobio hates more than anything else, it’s losing,” Miwa countered. Tobio cried out in alarm when she suddenly lunged forward, looped her arm around his shoulders, and pulled him to her so that she was standing between himself and Shouyou with her arms around them, beaming like a coach hyping up her two star players. “He’d stomach anything, even Shouyou flirting with him, if it meant winning.”
“Yeah! Isn’t that right?” Shouyou beamed and nudged Tobio in the ribs with his elbow.
Completely exasperated by how this situation had spiraled out his control, Tobio looked helplessly at all of them and cried, “... What ?”
“Listen, are you gonna take the bet or not?” Kei sighed impatiently. After a second, he then smirked and turned up his nose a little, his glinting eyes cutting into Tobio. “Or can you not do it because you know you’ll crack before he does?”
There was nothing like a blatant challenge to snap Tobio out of a stupor. And, unfortunately, his sister was right—Tobio did hate to lose, especially to Shouyou.
“I didn’t say that,” he growled back. “I won’t crack. He will.”
And, that’s how Tobio found himself pretending to be Shouyou’s boyfriend on a fake double date with Miwa and Akiteru. Kei refused to come along, or, in his words, “to be their pretend fifth wheel.” Honestly, Tobio was grateful for that. This situation was already irritating enough; comments from the peanut gallery would only serve to further Tobio’s chagrin—and he had plenty of it, between watching Miwa fawn adoringly over Akiteru and having Shouyou fawn over him.
The latter was especially annoying—because Shouyou was good at it.
“Come on, babe, let’s share a milkshake,” Shouyou cooed as he propped his chin on Tobio’s shoulder and batted his eyes at him. They were at the counter perusing the menu, and Shouyou had wasted no time in putting on the act for the cashier. “I know it’s two-for-one, but it tastes so much sweeter when we share, don’t you agree?”
It was hard to remember that Tobio’s pride was on the line when it was being so ruthlessly battered by the circumstances. He couldn’t deny that Shouyou’s acting was having an effect on him; butterflies swirled in his stomach, and a faint blush dusted his cheeks. Surely, that had to be the awkwardness of having his friend-slash-rival-slash-teammate flirt shamelessly with him. Nevertheless, Tobio was not one to back down from a challenge once he’d committed to it; despite his internal squirming, he plastered a serene smile on his face and looked down at Shouyou.
“Whatever you want,” he answered, trying to sound as earnest as he could. “As long as you’re happy, I’m content with anything.”
“Ahhhh, do you remember when we were like that, Akiteru?” Miwa giggled girlishly as she hugged Akiteru’s arm and wiggled around in delight. “So young and in love~”
“What? We’re still like that,” Akiteru chuckled and leaned in to affectionately nuzzle into Miwa’s temple—seeming totally natural despite his earlier misgivings. “In fact, I think we should share one, too, Miwa.”
Ah, there’s that devilish Tsukishima streak, Tobio thought as Miwa’s face blazed bright pink in an instant. The two adults certainly had nothing to prove themselves—the bet was about Shouyou and Tobio, after all—but Akiteru wasn’t holding back in the least. Tobio didn’t think Akiteru had it in him to seek revenge on Miwa for dragging him into this mess, but it seemed that he was Kei’s brother through and through.
“You both make very lovely couples!” the cashier praised adoringly. “Tell you what—if you’d like to claim your free item after you finish, that’s fine with me.”
“O-oh, how generous,” Miwa stammered. Tobio could tell that she wanted to refuse; her entire point in rigging up this scheme was to get free ice cream, after all. However, his sister couldn’t withstand the pressure to perform, and so she smiled sweetly as she hugged Akiteru’s arm tighter and nodded eagerly. “Okay, we’ll do that! After all, how can I refuse to share a milkshake with my darling?” As she looked up at Akiteru, she’d look perfectly loving if not for the glint of fury in her eyes that screamed, Just wait until we get to the table!
“How indeed?” Akiteru chuckled. He’d look perfectly endeared if not for the devious gleam of triumph in his own, one that said, Try your worst.
“Ahhh, I hope I can be in love like that one day~” the cashier cooed as the four of them walked away with their milkshakes, blissfully oblivious to the secret wars raging between them.
“You cost me my free milkshake,” Miwa pouted as soon as she sat down in their booth.
“Relax. We can get another one,” Akiteru chortled as he slid in beside her. He placed their milkshake between them, then asked with a cocked eyebrow, “So? Are you going to drink this with me?” He then leaned closer to her with a mischievous grin on his face. “Or are you too chicken?”
“How dare—!” Miwa gasped in affront, then huffily grabbed the milkshake glass, wrapped her lips around the straw, and took a big gulp.
The idea of watching Akiteru and his sister share a milkshake, even in some twisted competition of bravado, made Tobio nauseous. So, he hastily turned his attention to his and Shouyou’s milkshake instead. Right as he ducked his head down to sip at the creamy blended ice cream, Shouyou did too; they both glanced up instinctively, and their gazes locked.
The butterflies took to the air in Tobio’s stomach again, but this time, he realized that the situation really didn’t feel awkward. It felt… nice. Tobio stared at Shouyou, and Shouyou stared at him, as they sipped delicately at the milkshake. Tobio felt heat rising to his cheeks, and Shouyou’s cheeks reddened a little bit, too; as they both blushed, he could see Shouyou’s gaze melting a little bit at a time, like the ice cream melting slowly in the frosted glass between them.
Shouyou was the first one to retreat. As he did so, he still kept his gaze locked with Tobio’s and murmured, “See? Told you it was easy.”
And suddenly, Tobio was reminded of why he didn’t take dares, place bets, or indulge in gambling. He was reminded why he didn’t like playing the odds. It was because they involved forces out of his control, and that meant there was always a chance that he could lose.
But, strangely enough… losing this bet didn’t seem so bad.
“I give up,” Tobio announced, his voice just as soft as Shouyou’s.
The redhead’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. Distantly, Tobio heard Akiteru and Miwa gasp, but he honestly wasn’t consciously aware of their presence anymore. All he could see, all he could perceive was Shouyou Hinata, the boy who so easily turned Tobio’s world topsy-turvy. The boy who made him do crazy things like take bets and be reckless and fly higher than he ever could before. And that’s what made Tobio like him as way more than just a friend-slash-rival-slash-teammate.
“You give up?” Shouyou said finally. “But you hate losing.”
“I do,” Tobio conceded with a nod, “but if you date me for real, then am I really losing?”
As Shouyou’s mouth dropped open in stunned silence, Miwa’s did too. Unlike Shouyou, who continued to just gawk at Tobio, she hastily snapped hers back shut and looked uncomfortably at Akiteru.
“... I think we should take our free milkshake to-go.”
“Yeah, I think we should,” Akiteru laughed awkwardly as he rubbed at the back of his neck.
They made a hasty retreat, but to Tobio, it was all white noise in the background. He could hear little else over the thumping of his heart in his chest as he nervously awaited Shouyou’s response. After what seemed like ages, Shouyou finally dragged himself out of his stupor; he snapped his mouth shut and bit down on his lip, only for the corners of his mouth to tug upwards in a giddy grin.
“Dating you seems like a win for me, too, though. So, let’s just call it even?”
“Works for me,” Tobio chuckled.
Tobio Kageyama had never been a fan of playing the odds, but... Maybe there was merit to the saying “without risk there is no reward.” This little gamble of Tobio’s had paid off quite well indeed, after all.