Bumper cars. They were a slightly violent ride. 

Hinata stared at the  people screaming and laughing and struggling as he dragged his mind out  of Wednesday and back to present day Saturday. One day before the  practice match. And here he was with his sworn enemy on a fun day out.  His sworn enemy, who, over time, Hinata felt more and more attracted to  and wanted to be around more and more. Like a drop of red food colouring  in a glass of water, it started as something small but quickly spread  throughout the whole liquid. An addiction had hooked Hinata, and Oikawa  was his only fix.

The ferocity of the bumper cars blasted all reflectiveness out of the  spiker as his fighting spirit came back full cowling. With the giant  bunny Oikawa had won for him as company, Hinata yelled numbers at his  adversary, counting, every time he hit Oikawa. They laughed, and chased  each other around the space. When the alarm rang, Hinata had won, 14-9,  gaining those extra five points when Oikawa had been jammed between two  other bumper cars.

‘Don’t go getting too cocky, you know that was just luck right?’ Oikawa playfully stuck his tongue out and winked.

‘Ha! You wish Great King!’

They clambered out and exited the ride, adrenaline pumping. Oikawa  knew that really the both of them should be resting before the big game  tomorrow. But he just enjoyed spending time with the crow too much.

‘Where to now chibi-chan? You thirsty? Because I’m parched -’

‘I won.’ Hinata’s eyes gleamed.

‘Hey Mr Competitive. It was a fair ride. Not a volleyball match -’

‘It means you owe me.’ His irises sparkled.

The implication finally clicked. Oikawa smirked. ‘That’s true. You can cash your check any time you like -’

‘I want to buy you something to drink first – no! Let me! And then let’s sit down -’

Hinata had to negotiate five kisses owed to Oikawa just to buy the  setter a bottle of Ramune and water. The crow scoped the place for  somewhere to sit but it was too crowded. He grabbed the setter’s wrist  and pulled him towards the bushier, greener part. As they entered a  sanctuary of trees, the noise of the crowd ebbed away as they moved  deeper into woodland. They found a quiet clearing where the sun smiled  down on them in comfortable heat. The couple took shade at the feet of a  thick tree, collapsing down on the grass with the bunny and their  drinks, laughing and bantering.

Stretched out, lying down, Hinata automatically moved closer to  Oikawa, slotting himself under the setter’s right arm. He fit perfectly.

‘Ah chibi-cha,’ Hinata heard Oikawa sigh above him. ‘I feel so happy.’

‘Why, Oikawa-san?’

‘Why?!’ Oikawa withdrew his arm and lent on his side facing Hinata.  He moved down a bit so that their eye-lines met. He couldn’t resist  playfully pinging Hinata’s nose with a finger. ‘Because you’re here,  silly.’

Those brown-gold eyes stared at Oikawa.

‘Do you really mean it?’ the little crow asked, in disbelief and hope.

Oikawa stared in amused bewilderment back. ‘Of course I do.’

Hinata blinked and stared up at the sky.

‘What are you thinking chibi-chan?’

‘I’ve never… felt this way before, felt these feelings before, for  anyone.’ Hinata’s eyes shyly met Oikawa’s again. He blushed under the  cobra’s penetrative gaze, and turned his whole body away, curling into  himself.

‘Hey what are you doing, come back here -’ Oikawa tried to pull at  the spiker to uncoil but Hinata buried his head in his knees. ‘Stop  acting like a snail you’re supposed to be a bird or crustacean!’

Hinata was mortified. Why did he never think before he said something? Did he even know what the word ‘filter’ meant?

Oikawa pulled at the spiker’s shirt but the bundle didn’t unfurl. The  setter chuckled and rested on his side, facing the back of Hinata.

‘You didn’t successfully vanish you know, I can still see you.’

Hinata groaned and the captain laughed.

‘It’s good to talk about your feelings chibi-chan. Sharing is caring.’

Hinata merged into himself that much more.

‘We can talk about something else then? Earlier on there were moments  you seemed occupied, almost vacant. What were you thinking?’

Hinata internally cursed Oikawa’s attentiveness. Nothing slipped past  him. Nothing. And it wasn’t like Hinata could open up about that  either; that too was about his insatiable obsession with Mr Oikawa  Holmes, who obviously would make some kind of unspoken reading or  deduction. But perhaps now was a good moment to change the subject –

Hinata uncurled and rolled over to face the waiting setter.

‘Hi,’ Oikawa looked as if he was trying not to laugh. ‘How was your vacation?’

Hinata’s cheeks flushed deeper. ‘You’re always teasing me.’

‘I can’t help it it’s too easy and you look delicious when you blush.’

Hinata turned the colour of beetroot although he was deeply chuffed  by the setter’s words. ‘If, and I mean when we win tomorrow,’ he spoke  to the grass. ‘You’ll stop teasing me.’

‘Well, no.’

‘No?’

‘Where’s the fun in that?’

‘But you think you’ll win tomorrow.’

‘I’m sure of it.’

‘So you’ve got nothing to lose.’

‘I’m not risking giving up something that fun for a wager… unless you want to wager something else?’

Hinata couldn’t help it – his eyes found Oikawa’s again.

‘There’s nothing else you want from me other than for me to stop  teasing you?’ Oikawa’s voice was drenched in honey, his eyes like  treacle.

A relationship.

The word came to Hinata unbound, forbidden. It smashed into him like a  train wreck. He reacted, jerked at the sudden intrusion of it. Scandal  was written all over his face.

‘Oh,’ Oikawa’s lips curled into a smile. ‘So there is something.’

Hinata was sure that he was redder than a Lion King sunset. Eyes  wide, he shook his head, mute, having wrapped fifty layers of invisible  tape around his mouth.

‘Shall we make a bet on tomorrow’s game? What would you like? Apart from this not teasing you business.’

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

The spiker’s gaze was back on the stream of grass between them. Oikawa sensed something beneath the surface.

‘Hey,’ he said softly, bringing the crow’s eyes back on him. ‘Did I go to far? If the teasing really upsets you -’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Hinata gulped and looked away, trying to find  something to fix his eyes on that wasn’t the full-bodied object of his  affection right in front of him. A relationship. You moron.

‘What is it?’

Oikawa could see it – Hinata’s reticence, exactly like that last  night of the blackout where the bird had withdrawn into himself  silently, obviously thinking something but he hadn’t said what. Was it  the same thing?

‘I spoke to Kageyama.’

Oikawa closed his eyes.

For a while now, Oikawa felt like he’d entered some kind of  dream-like room whenever he was with Hinata. Everything in here was  soft, fluffy, white. But, recently, after the confrontation in front of  school, out of the corner of his eye, he felt like he could sense the  presence of something hard, creepy and black, just outside of his  peripheral vision. It lurked like a shadow but not a shadow, something  gangly and tangled, always there in the background. It hadn’t showed  itself at first but recently, whenever the shorty said that name, Oikawa  felt the creature’s presence even stronger than before.

Oikawa opened his eyes to find that pretty human staring up at him, picture-perfect against blades of grass.

‘I took your advice and asked him directly,’ Hinata continued. ‘And you were right. He still didn’t tell me.’

So he’s been thinking about… Kageyama.

‘He’s been weird all week. Yesterday I was at his house for dinner  and he barely said a word. At first I thought it was about you teaching  me – I thought he’d tell Karasuno but he hasn’t said anything. He’s just  quiet and sad all the time now. Even Daichi noticed. He’s thinking  something, I know he is but I tried to ask him about it and all he said  was it was about me and him? I pressed but he told me to drop it. I’m  worried about him,’ Hinata said the last sentence firmer.

Oh Tobio. You too? I suppose it was a matter of time –

‘It’s affecting his volleyball, I don’t know if it’s affecting anything else like his studies.’ Hinata continued.

This is the second time this week he’s mentioned the setter… 

And maybe Hinata…

‘I hate seeing him like this. What do you think I should do?’

Those pools of honeycomb innocently stared up at Oikawa, for advice, for guidance.

He doesn’t know, Oikawa felt a sting at the tip of his heart, how I feel or how Kageyama feels. Or how any of this makes us feel…

Another fucking thing I have in common with you, Tobio.

But Hinata… what’s it like, to be this adored?

‘I think,’ Oikawa whispered, ‘you have to wait for him to come out of his shell.’

Hinata nodded. ‘OK. I’ll wait.’

Oikawa bit his treacherous tongue from saying anything more, seeing  as everything he said was acted on too rashly. Hinata lay back on the  grass and stared up at the canopy of leaves above him.

‘Chibi-chan, I should get you home, I don’t want to get on your mom’s bad side -’

‘I should go by myself. I didn’t tell her I was with you. Again.’

Oikawa half-grinned. ‘Alright -’ He moved onto his front and rested  on his elbows about to get up but Hinata’s hand latched onto the  neckline of Oikawa’s t-shirt.

‘Five minutes,’ Hinata said.

Oikawa’s eyes glinted. ‘I have no complaints but is it really going to be five minutes though.’

Hinata let go, shuffled sideways and wrapped an arm and a leg around  Oikawa. ‘Ten minutes then,’ he muffled into Oikawa’s side. He felt the  vibration of Oikawa’s chuckle.

‘As if I could say no to you,’ the setter murmured and Hinata barely caught it.

‘When you bit my ear and my hand…’ the crow’s face was buried in Oikawa’s t-shirt. ‘I really liked it.’

‘Sorry what was that? I can’t hear you,’ Oikawa had heard Hinata  perfectly. He moved onto his side so that he broke away from the spiker,  and moved down a bit so that he could see Hinata’s face.

Hinata’s cheeks were pink and he avoided Oikawa’s gaze.

‘I said I liked it when you bit my ear and hand,’ Hinata muttered, embarrassed.

Oikawa grinned. He tucked a portion of hair behind Hinata’s ear.  ‘That makes sense, it goes hand-in-hand with your primitive nature. And  mine -’

Hinata looked up at the setter. The intensity of the cobra’s gaze,  whenever the crow fell into it, made it impossible to break away.

Oikawa shuffled down even lower so that his eyes were at the level of  Hinata’s collarbone. He glanced up at the spiker, who was holding his  breath, his face full of fear and anticipation. The setter smirked.  Well. Oikawa was not going to disappoint him now.

Oikawa leaned in and, ever so gently, kissed the centre of Hinata’s neck, just above the collarbone. He felt the spiker turn to mush under his lips and smiled to himself. Oikawa continued, delicately kissing  Hinata’s neck, and could feel the pulsating excitement and impatience  rising in the middle blocker. He knew that the slower he did it, the  more tantalising it was. And Oikawa relished that. He knew that the sun  was now putty in his hands. That rapid breathing had begun which he now  knew so well. Oikawa opened his mouth and, in a fake bite, softly  clamped his teeth against Hinata’s tender skin, his tongue swirling  against the spiker’s neck. Hinata gasped and gripped the side of  Oikawa’s t-shirt, shaking.

‘You’re trembling chibi-chan,’ Oikawa whispered, proud.

Oikawa licked upwards on Hinata’s neck.

‘Oi-Oikawa -’

‘I love it when you say my name like that -’

Lips suddenly came crashing down on Hinata’s. It was still as perfect  as that first night, as every dream. He tasted Ramune. Before the  spiker knew what had happened he was on his back, Oikawa’s torso hovered  above him, and the setter’s legs were between his legs. Oikawa broke  the kiss and Hinata stared up at him.

How can someone, they both thought, be this beautiful?

Oikawa lowered himself onto his knees, flicked up Hinata’s t-shirt  and kissed the skin on his stomach. Hinata’s whole body jolted; he was  embarrassingly sure that he was going to suddenly come any moment now in  his boxers. Oikawa moved up again, for round two of his lips against  the side of Hinata’s neck. The spiker didn’t know why, perhaps his neck  was more sensitive than other parts of his body, but when Oikawa kissed  him there, Hinata’s whole body tingled. The fact it was Oikawa, and the  way Oikawa kissed him – it drove Hinata wild. Another soft kiss on his  neck. A moan escaped the spiker’s lips –

‘Oikawa -’ Hinata gasped for breath.

‘Why do you always make it so hard,’ Oikawa brought his lips to Hinata’s ear. ‘For me to control myself?’

‘Oikawa -’

Oikawa nibbled Hinata’s earlobe. ‘Does that feel good chibi-chan?’

‘Yes,’ Hinata breathed, closing his eyes, breathless.

‘Should I continue?’

‘Yes,’ Hinata placed a forearm across his eyes as Oikawa slowly worked his way down Hinata’s neck in kisses.

‘Can I mark you?’ Oikawa whispered, pulling down and slightly  diagonally the neckline of Hinata’s t-shirt, and filling the exposed  skin with kisses. Hinata groaned and arched his back under the setter.

‘Yes – Ahhhh!!!’ Hinata yelled and bucked from the sharp pain slightly to the right of his chest. ‘Oikawa -!’

Oikawa’s teeth had latched on like vampire fangs biting into that  virgin skin. The setter felt a small hand grab a chunk of his hair. He  sucked hard, relentlessly, and heard Hinata moan in pain and pleasure.  Oikawa didn’t stop until he was sure the blood would bloom, full and  bruised, to the surface. He released his victim. The cobra stared at  Hinata’s flesh getting pinker, darker, redder. He smiled. Hinata was  panting, sweating, his forearm covering his face.

‘It’s done Hinata.’

A rainbow of emotions blew through Hinata’s mind: what had just  happened, he wasn’t sure but it was scariest, sexiest, most pleasurable  thing he’d ever experienced.

‘What,’ Hinata gulped for oxygen and lowered his arm. He looked up at  Oikawa, who was smiling like the Cheshire cat. ‘What happened?’

‘I bit you.’

Oikawa rested on his knees. Hinata pulled down on his shirt and  looked: a purply-reddish bruise was forming on his skin. It made no  logical sense… but he felt… overjoyed, exhilarated… Oikawa crawled  forward and brought his face close to the spiker’s. His nose kissed  Hinata’s, and Hinata could not believe, that no matter how many times  Oikawa came this close, it made his heart a stuttering wreck.

‘I marked you,’ Oikawa whispered.

The crow met the cobra’s eyes.

‘As mine,’ Oikawa breathed.

A cannonball blasted through Hinata. Oikawa’s words shocked and thrilled him more than everything that had just happened.

Hinata closed his eyes, blissfully bathing in those words.

And kissed the setter.