Work Text:
Distance wasn’t something Kageyama Tobio understood very well.
Volleyball made sense. Sets, spikes, timing—everything had a place, a rhythm.
But this?
Hyōgo and Miyagi.
Inarizaki and Karasuno.
Miya Atsumu and him.
That didn’t fit into any system he knew.
---
It had started accidentally.
Or at least—that’s what Kageyama told himself.
---
They had been at a training camp.
Teams mixing, matches stretching late into the night, exhaustion settling into their bones.
Atsumu had been… Atsumu.
Loud. Smirking. Annoying.
“Yer tosses are better than before,” Atsumu had said, spinning a volleyball lazily in his hand. “Still got room to improve, though.”
Kageyama frowned. “You talk too much.”
Atsumu grinned. “And you don’t talk enough. We balance each other out.”
Kageyama didn’t answer.
But he didn’t walk away either.
---
That night, after practice, the dorms were quiet.
Too quiet.
Kageyama sat on his futon, staring at nothing in particular.
His chest felt… off.
Tight.
Unfamiliar.
---
Atsumu’s jacket was draped over the back of a chair.
Carelessly left there.
Like he didn’t think about things like that.
---
Kageyama stood.
Walked over.
Picked it up.
---
He told himself it was just because it was cold.
That was logical.
Reasonable.
---
The fabric was warm.
Faintly smelling like detergent—and something else. Something that was just… Atsumu.
Kageyama hesitated.
Then—
he put it on.
---
It was slightly too big.
Sleeves covering part of his hands.
---
“…Idiot,” Kageyama muttered under his breath.
He didn’t take it off.
---
The next morning—
“Oi,” Atsumu’s voice cut through the room. “That mine?”
Kageyama froze.
Slowly turned.
Atsumu stood in the doorway, eyebrow raised, clearly amused.
Kageyama didn’t move to take it off.
“…You left it,” he said.
Atsumu stepped closer, grin widening. “So you decided to steal it?”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“Yer wearing it.”
“You weren’t.”
A beat.
Then Atsumu laughed.
“Keep it.”
Kageyama blinked. “What?”
Atsumu shrugged. “Looks better on you anyway.”
Kageyama frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Doesn’t have to.”
---
He kept it.
---
At first—
it was just that one jacket.
---
Then—
it wasn’t.
---
A shirt.
Another hoodie.
Things Atsumu “forgot” or “left behind.”
Things Kageyama didn’t return.
---
By the time the camp ended—
Kageyama’s bag was heavier than when he arrived.
---
“You sure you got everything?” Atsumu asked, walking beside him.
Kageyama nodded. “Yeah.”
Atsumu glanced at him sideways, smirking. “Liar.”
Kageyama didn’t respond.
---
They stopped where their paths split.
Hyōgo.
Miyagi.
---
“…Text me,” Atsumu said.
Kageyama nodded once. “Yeah.”
A pause.
Then Atsumu added, quieter—
“Don’t forget me, yeah?”
Kageyama frowned slightly. “I won’t.”
---
He meant it.
---
Back in Miyagi—
things went back to normal.
Practice.
Matches.
Routine.
---
But nights—
nights were different.
---
Kageyama sat in his room, homework abandoned beside him.
He reached into his drawer.
Pulled out one of Atsumu’s hoodies.
---
He didn’t think about it anymore.
Didn’t justify it.
Didn’t question it.
---
He just—
put it on.
---
It still smelled faintly like him.
Even after washing.
Even after time.
---
Kageyama lay back on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
His fingers curled slightly into the fabric.
---
“…Idiot,” he muttered again.
But softer this time.
---
His phone buzzed.
A message.
Atsumu:
Oi. Yer wearing my stuff again, aren’t ya?
Kageyama stared at the screen.
Then typed back.
Kageyama:
You said I could keep it.
A reply came almost instantly.
Atsumu:
Didn’t say ya had to wear it every night.
Kageyama hesitated.
Then—
Kageyama:
How do you know?
Three dots.
Gone.
Back again.
Atsumu:
I just do.
Kageyama’s grip tightened slightly on the sleeve.
Kageyama:
It’s comfortable.
A longer pause this time.
Atsumu:
Yeah?
Kageyama stared at the message.
Then, slowly—
Kageyama:
Feels like you’re closer.
Silence.
For a long moment.
---
Then—
Atsumu:
…Tobio.
Kageyama’s chest tightened again.
That feeling.
The same one from the dorm.
Atsumu:
Next camp, I ain’t leavin’ without that stuff back.
Kageyama blinked.
Kageyama:
No.
Almost immediately—
Atsumu:
No?
Kageyama sat up slightly, frowning at his phone.
Kageyama:
You’ll just have to come get it.
A pause.
Then—
Atsumu:
Yeah?
Kageyama’s fingers hovered for a second.
Then—
Kageyama:
Yeah.
On the other side of the distance—
in Hyōgo—
Atsumu stared at his screen.
Then laughed softly to himself.
---
“Yer really somethin’, Tobio…”
---
Back in Miyagi—
Kageyama lay down again, pulling the hoodie sleeve slightly over his hand.
---
Distance still didn’t make sense to him.
Still didn’t fit.
---
But this—
this was close enough.
For now.