Chapter Text
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Kei has never aspired to be popular. Blending into the background– getting lost in the crowd– he was perfectly content with that lifestyle. In class, he would be the last to raise his hand, and the first to leave the room during any social gathering. On the court it was exactly the same.
He’d be the supporting actor to their ace– to their dedicated spikers and less than coordinated middle blockers, too. Hinata was their new rising star. The sun, Yamaguchi had mentioned one time. And Kei was the moon. He was there to linger in the background. To keep their team afloat until it was the shrimp’s time to shine again.
How quickly things had changed after their first year.
These days, it was harder to put up that colder-than-ice front during even the most casual practice match. Maybe because deep down, somewhere in him, volleyball was kind of fun.
It got his adrenaline going, to get a good spike in or a kill block. And the moments in between– when he talked to his team. When their captain would buy them meat buns after club. Now, if Akiteru forced it out of him, he’d begrudgingly call them all his friends.
Even Hinata, who most especially didn’t need to know that fact.
So Kei could remain mostly anonymous at school. Keep to himself, and enjoy his privacy and space and whatever else that brought him comfort throughout the day.
It’s only in the last week of summer that he sees the change. Or rather, hears it.
When his phone rings with an incoming call.
Kei doesn’t think twice to pick up– thinking it’s Yamaguchi because who else would be calling him without preamble? Until a high, squeaky voice shouts in his ear canal.
“Tsukishima-kun! We’re almost at your house! With Yamaguchi and–! Oh wait, should we get the melon or vanilla ice cream for Tsukki?” Hinata’s voice sounds temporarily distant as he talks to Yamaguchi and what Kei can only assume is Kageyama. Wherever they’re at.
“I’m thinking vanilla!”
“The vanilla? No, no. The melon.”
“Should we get one or two? Tsukishima-kun doesn’t eat that much.”
“Just get all of them, scrub.”
“Don’t worry. We’re gonna eat everything anyway!”
Instead of attempting to keep up with the conversation, Kei rewinds the first thing Hinata said in his mind. “Excuse me. Did you say you’re almost here?”
“Hah?” Hinata squeaks.
Kei doesn’t know how, but he can hear him smiling across the phone. Is that crazy?
“Yeah! Didn’t you read the text messages? We got some ice cream for you, too! Don’t forget your swim trunks!” He sings at the end with a laugh.
Kei holds his tongue.
He only hangs up to check their first year group chat, and the plans that they’d unceremoniously made without his input.
Well. At least there was gonna be food.
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The watermelon popsicle is sweet and refreshing on his tongue as they make their trek down dirt covered paths. Living somewhere so rural had its advantages– the only cars they see come only once in a blue moon– but it also means the foliage and weeds grow in every direction, tickling his thighs unpleasantly as he walks. Between himself and Hinata, they carry the box cooler, stuffed with bottled water and other iced treats.
“What are you doing?” Kei turns warily as Hinata twists his free hand to open the thing.
“I wanna try the chocolate one! Did you bring any?” A question obviously directed at Yamaguchi, but Kei doesn’t think twice before responding.
“Already? You’re gonna finish our rations before we even get there,” A laugh bubbles in his throat, and Hinata makes a soft growling noise.
“It’s not too far! Just right around this road, here,” Yamaguchi placates the boy. Maybe to stop his tormenting, too.
But he doesn’t have to. Hinata lets go of their cargo as soon as they see the water– a big open lake surrounded by trees and what could almost be considered a beach, if it had more sand and less pebbles.
It’s where Akiteru would take Kei when he was younger– and evidently, Yamaguchi too. They'd spent a summer or two here learning how to swim. Those were memories Kei didn’t care too much about revisiting. But now...
Kei watches the two simpletons race towards the water, Hinata being the first to jump away as he realizes just how cold it actually is.
That makes him laugh, too.
Of course, he can’t totally escape not going for a swim. Not while Yamaguchi is beckoning him at every moment.
So he ditches his shirt, his glasses. The water is indeed freezing against his warm skin. But it’s more soothing than anything the more he wades in, until he’s comfortably neck-deep.
He and Yamaguchi relax until Kageyama and Hinata pull them into a swimming contest: from one end of the lake to the other.
They do three laps, and Kageyama declares himself the winner until Yamaguchi corrects him. Kei and Hinata come to an unfortunate third and fourth place respectively.
It’s no surprise that the shrimp whines loudly about his loss as soon as they return to the shallow end, with a wave of his hand that splashes both him and the King.
“It’s no fair! I was going so fast like shwoo and hwaa! I think Kageyama cheated,” his bottom lip juts out petulantly.
“You can’t admit defeat, so you try to call out whoever won. Of course you’d be the first to say that,” Kei grins derisively at the little pipsqueak, inching closer. “What style did you try? The goldfish swimming technique?”
“I think it’s called the butterfly,” Kageyama says somewhere behind them, and Yamaguchi chuckles at him.
“Wait, I see what the problem is.” Kei continues his spiel, reaching out to hold Hinata’s little wrists and raise them. To his surprise, Hinata lets him. “You’re so tiny. There’s no way you could’ve propelled yourself hard enough in a million years.”
It only takes a moment for Hinata to squeeze out of his hold, pushing him away with those tiny, slippery hands against his middle.
“HEY! You let Kageyama and Yamaguchi-kun beat you, you know! You’re just a tiny, little bit better at swimming than I am!” He emphasizes his point by making a pinching motion with his fingers.
“A little?” Kei crinkles his eyebrows together.
“Don’t ask for a rematch,” Yamaguchi says suddenly, practically ready to sink to the bottom of the lake already. “Cause I definitely can’t go again. And I still won fair and square,” he tacks on, unnecessarily.
“We could eat the rest of the ice cream before it melts,” Kageyama suggests.
“Unless there’s another game you guys wanna play.” Yamaguchi swims closer to the shore, combing wet hair out of his face.
“Uwahh, I know!! Chicken fight!!!”
Kei can’t move away fast enough. A pair of arms clinging over his neck, knees caging over his back like a baby koala finding its first tree. He only succeeds in making them both topple over, splashing water everywhere. Kageyama and Yamaguchi howl with laughter.
Even when Kei comes back up, he still finds Hinata holding onto his shoulders, struggling to catch his breath with how hard he’s giggling.
He’s so incredibly warm and smiley. In their proximity, he notices Hinata gets tiny, barely-there freckles splattered across his skin from the sun.
Kei holds zero qualms about tossing them both back into the cold water.
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“Tsukishima…! Your skin is pink!”
With the box cooler under one arm, and a vanilla popsicle in his other hand, Kei can’t stop Hinata from poking at his shoulder.
His sunburn doesn’t hurt. Not really. But tomorrow, he’s definitely gonna regret not layering on five pounds of sunblock.
“And your skin is tan,” Kei observes, matter-of-fact. He’s not sure if he could say something more snarky if he tried – much too tired from the days’ events that he’s ready to go straight to bed.
Behind them, even Yamaguchi is silent, and he’s pretty sure Kageyama is sleepwalking.
Hinata raises his forearm to his face, pinching the skin as if trying to inspect the microscopic cells. “I know! Luckily I didn’t get any tan lines.”
His smile is lopsided, like maybe he would find that a little embarrassing, but Kei lets his eyes wander to the shrimp’s exposed shoulders– his lithe torso and waist. He hadn’t bothered to put a shirt back on– just letting himself dry in the cool summer air.
Looking at him now, in the last remnants of dusk, he’s not sure why Hinata might think that.
Before the boy can sense he’s being watched, Kei brings his eyes back up to brown irises.
“Tsukishima,” Hinata starts again.
His soft voice is nearly drowned out by the sound of cicadas.
“What?”
“Can I have some of that?”
Oh.
Maybe it’s his initial tone… but Kei swears Hinata planned to say something else.
Without much thought, Kei looks at his half eaten popsicle, already starting to melt onto his thumb and index finger. Maybe it’s gross, but it would be a waste to throw it out, right?
Hinata smiles as he hands it over. When he walks ahead to eat his treat, there’s a jovial bounce in his step.
Above them, a striking full moon overtakes the sky.
Kei keeps his eyes on Hinata in front of him.
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