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When they start dating, it's sudden, unexpected, but feels like something that has been a long time coming. They're both shy at first, even though it's not their first kiss, and it's not their first time holding hands, and it's not even their first time under the sheets together, clothed bodies rubbing together in the too-warm trapped air. It's like new, though, the way Kageyama looks at him and Hinata knows what it's meant to be, knows that the fondness in his eyes isn't something he's imagining, and lets himself smile back. He feels butterflies in his stomach that were never there before, and he tells them to calm down, because it's just Kageyama, and they've been like this for basically EVER, sort of.
So he's expecting Kageyama to be the same as always, grouchy and grumpy and shrugging Hinata off when he gets too clingy. And he is, for the most part. They still get into stupid arguments about who stole who's water bottle, or whether or not Hinata's paying attention to Kageyama's criticisms about his playing (he isn't).
But then there's the unfamiliar Kageyama, the one Hinata is still getting used to. It's the Kageyama that gently takes Hinata's hand when they're walking together, or rests his head on the top of Hinata's when they're watching TV, or pulls Hinata into his lap when he complains about being cold. Hinata struggles at first, confused and thinking Kageyama's making fun of him or something, but he slowly starts to realize that, beyond all belief, Kageyama is the Doting type.
It's absolutely bizarre, and Hinata knows Kageyama thinks so, too. His cheeks flush whenever he's a little too touchy, when he brushes his fingers through Hinata's soft hair and then jerks his hand away after Hinata leans into the touch and he realizes what he's doing. It's bizarre, but Hinata likes it, and he starts dragging Kageyama's hand back, demanding he let himself pet Hinata's hair, and slowly Kageyama starts to relax and accept his weirdly contrary nature. He's still gruff and grumpy, but he gives in easier, shares his drinks with Hinata, and even picks him up one morning, huffing and puffing until Hinata laughs at him and suggests they just meet halfway.
Hinata thinks it might change as time goes on and they settle into this new thing, but even as the newness wears off, Kageyama doesn't change. Hinata starts to feel kind of...well, spoiled, like the way he sometimes dotes on Natsu, and at first it starts to bother him, like he's some kind of kid. He blurts it out one day, when Kageyama's offering him his jacket (Hinata forgot his) in the chilly weather, but he immediately takes it back when he sees the shocked expression on Kageyama's face. He doesn't want to see Kageyama like that, ever, and he pulls him in for a kiss and says sorry, sorry, and Kageyama melts against him.
Time goes by and Kageyama just gets worse and worse and worse, or better and better and better, and Hinata stops thinking it's weird that Kageyama gets his favorite drink for him when it's his turn to buy, or shares the last of his popsicle when he knows it's Hinata's favorite. Everyone else gives them strange looks, because it's weird for someone still known as the King of the Court to be sharing anything. And he doesn't, not with anyone else but Hinata. It makes Hinata's chest swell, sometimes, when he notices people staring, makes him grin and sidle closer to Kageyama, who just looks at him in confusion.
Hinata asks him why, one night, when his head is pillowed on Kageyama's arm, and their breath is mingling together.
“I like you,” Kageyama says, his voice gruff and soft, and he ends up on his back with Hinata kissing the heck out of him, because Hinata likes him, too, likes him so much he thinks he might explode sometimes, especially when Kageyama says things like that.
Kageyama lets him sleep in some mornings even though he wakes up early, which Hinata finds out when he wakes up tangled with Kageyama to find him already awake and watching as Hinata stretches his shoulders and burrows back under the sheets. Kageyama tries to cook for him, once, when he's spending a long week at Kageyama's when his parents are out of town, and although it ends in a burnt mess Hinata's so grateful that they don't get to sleep until 1 in the morning, which happens almost never for them, and Kageyama ends up flushing when they go out later to pick up instant noodles and everyone stares at the marks on his neck.
“You two are gross,” Tsukishima says one day, when Kageyama's toweling Hinata's hair for him, and they both jump forward to snap at the same time and Hinata feels like he's absolutely and thoroughly in love with this tall, dumb idiot who lets Hinata climb into his futon on team trips and sneaks dessert to him one time Hinata gets too sick to get out of bed.
Kageyama skips school for Hinata, once, when he's really ill and his parents are going to be out of the house all day. “You might die,” he says in explanation as he shuffles through the front door with bags of sports drinks and energy bars, because they're all he knows to buy. He lets Hinata sleep against his chest on the couch, touches his forehead every so often, and doesn't even complain that much when Hinata's fever makes him sweat under the heavy blankets he's draped over them. In the end, he carries Hinata to his room, and even though he goes back to school the next day, he stops by after, with homework and a popsicle he sneaks in past Natsu, and an issue of a sports magazine Hinata hasn't read yet.
Hinata really, really wants to treat Kageyama as well as he's being treated, but it's hard. It's really hard, actually. He doesn't know where to start; he can't lend Kageyama his jacket, because he knows from experience that it doesn't fit across his shoulders and rides up on his arms and it's just a mess that gets them both shouting. He can't offer Kageyama a piggyback ride, which is also something he knows from personal experience, and Kageyama never gets sick, so he's out of luck there.
He tries cooking breakfast for Kageyama one morning, when he actually sleeps in, worn out from certain things they'd done the night before. He's sure Kageyama won't mind if he uses his kitchen, and it's going well until he actually gets to the cooking part, fills the kitchen with smoke and sends Kageyama scurrying in, hair messy and rubbing at his eyes and looking panicked. He groans and relaxes when he sees it's just Hinata, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a smoldering frying pan. It's a little better that Kageyama can't cook either, but Hinata sulks for the rest of the day over having had his plans ruined, no matter how many times Kageyama nuzzles his ear or tugs a strand of his hair.
There's also the matter of Hinata not really knowing exactly how to spoil Kageyama the way Kageyama spoils him. He knows Kageyama's favorite things, of course, but they always play volleyball together, Hinata can't cook, and between those things, it's impossible. He tries giving him a massage once, ending with Kageyama halfway off the bed with a pained look and a bruise blooming on his back the next day. He tries getting Kageyama chocolates, only for Kageyama to end up feeding most of them to Hinata because he doesn't care for sweets all that much, and Hinata can't resist going back for one more.
Kageyama seems content with a kiss, but that's not enough. Hinata wants to make Kageyama feel as good as he does, but it's hard, harder than he's ever thought possible, the very few times he imagined dating someone. One morning after the breakfast fiasco, when Kageyama's spending the night, he tries making pancakes the way his mom makes for him and Natsu, smiling and sunny and always a good breakfast to wake up to. He doesn't want his mom to help, because this is for Kageyama, and he wants to do it himself. The result is a misshapen lump that has an expression sort of similar to Kageyama's everyday one, black on the bottom where he's scraped it off in a panic. Kageyama shovels it into his mouth, grimacing and looking close to tears, and when he finishes the whole thing Hinata's close to tears himself. Kageyama's even spoiling him when he messes up making stupid pancakes.
Hinata tries to wash his clothes for him once, too, and ends up turning half of Kageyama's clothes pink. It's not exactly a bad color on him, and it sends Hinata into peals of laughter, but the annoyed flush to Kageyama's face hadn't been what he was going for. He tries to let Kageyama ride on the back of his bike and sends them both tumbling down a grassy slope, ending with Kageyama halfway on top of Hinata and declaring that he's never, ever going to let Hinata do anything for him ever again, which is exactly the opposite of what Hinata has been trying so hard to do.
Maybe, Hinata thinks, maybe he can get him back on his birthday, but he ends up just giving Kageyama a new pair of sweatpants because he has no idea what you get a boy (boyfriend) for their birthday. Kageyama looks pleased, as much as he can, but it's still not enough. He tries again on Christmas, when he asks around about what Kageyama wants, and in his frustration he ends up getting him a shiny new volleyball, which is made slightly better when he finds Kageyama's gotten him the exact same thing, cheeks red with embarrassment. Hinata loves it. It's the best volleyball he's ever had.
“I can't believe he's the type to spoil someone,” Nishinoya muses one day when they're taking a break, both of them watching Kageyama on the court. Hinata glances over, and it's true, he can't believe it either, but that also means other people have noticed. It's embarrassing, kind of, but it's also Kageyama, and leaves a warm feeling in his chest.
Hinata asks him why again, after stealing Kageyama's juice box and drinking over half of it.
And Kageyama's answer is the same: “I like you,” but the way he says it has Hinata's heart thudding in his chest because he knows what it really means, and he loves Kageyama, too.
Finally, Hinata caves. It's one evening when they're doing homework, and he flops over with his head on Kageyama's lap, blowing his hair out of his eyes. There are long, smooth fingers brushing it across his forehead, suddenly, and Hinata leans into it as he lets Kageyama pet his hair, slide his fingers down to smooth over Hinata's cheek, until he sits bolt upright and sends Kageyama's head knocking into the side of his bed.
“Kageyama!” he yells, which probably isn't the best way to start this, and the pointing probably isn't, either. “Tell me how to spoil you!”
The look Kageyama gives him is equal parts annoyed and confused, as he rubs at the back of his head.
Hinata has to explain, about how Kageyama always does things for him, and how he's so soft and warm and gentle and it drives Hinata crazy. Kageyama's cheeks flame the entire time, and part of Hinata's always known he does a lot of things without thinking, because that's just the surprising way he is. It's frustrating, he says, being the only one to be pampered like that, and it makes him feel like he's not working hard enough.
“Don't be stupid,” Kageyama says when he finishes, taking a deep breath after spilling everything. “I don't want you to pamper me. I just want you to be you.” His cheeks are red and his eyes flicker away, a sign he's embarrassed.
Even now, Kageyama's way too good. He's good at this, and Hinata's being beaten, so he huffs and crawls onto Kageyama's lap and decides to kiss him silly, and then some, looking on with satisfaction at Kageyama's red cheeks and red lips, the saliva at the corner of his mouth and the way he clutches Hinata's shoulders with too-tight fingers.
“I really like you,” Hinata says, against his ear with his arms curled around Kageyama's middle, pressed up to his back when the lights are out and it's dark. “I like you so much, I want to do nice things for you too.”
“You already do, dumbass.” Kageyama's voice is gruff with awkward emotion. He shifts and then he's rolling out of Hinata's arms, turning to face him and sliding their legs together. “Why the hell do you think I ate that pancake you made me?”
Hinata flushes up to his ears, grateful for the darkness that maybe can hide part of his shame. He's about to protest when Kageyama kisses him, short and sweet, and then again, longer and sweeter, and Hinata decides that maybe if Kageyama wants to pamper him, he should just let it happen, because Kageyama has always been a stubborn ass as long as they've known each other.
The next morning, though, Hinata tries one more time for the pancakes, and when Kageyama walks into the kitchen, wary and skeptical, Hinata's cheeks are pink with pride when he holds out a definitely (mostly) not burnt pancake, with a lopsided smile that he mentions reminds him of Kageyama. Kageyama smacks him on the back of the head but eats the pancake, and Hinata watches closely enough to know that he doesn't even grimace once, and when he says it's good, Hinata believes him, because even when he's being his nicest, Kageyama's honest and straightforward.
There's probably hope for him yet, he thinks, as his stomach grumbles and Kageyama ends up shoving a bite of pancake into Hinata's mouth. In the meantime, though, he'll maybe settle for kisses, for early-morning handjobs under the sheets, and for his newly refined skill of smiling pancakes for breakfast, and when Kageyama quirks a smile at him later, it really does look kind of similar.