On Tuesday evening, while blood was being shed at Seijoh, another battle was about to commence at Karasuno. Daichi and Suga stood by the doors of the gym with Hinata after practice. Everyone else had gone home.

Their concerned faces, their worried eyes did nothing to stifle the annoyance brewing in Hinata.

‘Look, Hinata,’ Daichi sighed.

Here they were again. Daichi was starting to feel like an old man.

‘I know you maybe haven’t thought about it much…’ Daichi glanced at Suga who gave a reassuring nod, ‘and we too don’t want to misinterpret things but Oikawa at Karasuno yesterday -’ Daichi saw Hinata’s face darken, ‘We understand that he feels like he owes you. And people are bound to bond together over the same traumatic experience. But we… Look.  Oikawa is in his third year. He won’t be here next year. This year is crucial for him to be studying and making the most of his time to  prepare for his future -’

‘We’re not saying don’t be friends with him,’ Suga interjected.

‘Right. We just think you should be mindful with the amount he may want to see you -’

‘So that he doesn’t become dependent on you because of the earthquake -’

‘Maybe the trauma of it affected him more than it affected you – we don’t know. Maybe he feels reliant on you. Or maybe -’ Daichi abruptly stopped and looked at Suga.

Suga raised his eyesbrows like an expectant wife expecting her husband to do the work. Suga would not be saving Daichi this time round.

‘Maybe -’ Daichi repeated. ‘We know this may sound crazy. And it may sound absurd. But you have to consider this -’

He hesitated and looked to Suga.

‘Go on,’ Suga said. ‘He needs to know.’

Daichi took a deep breath and looked to Hinata. When he had signed up to be captain of the Karasuno volleyball club, he had not signed up for this –

‘We know that you feel safe when you’re with Oikawa -’

‘Safer than with anyone else,’ Hinata glared.

‘Right. And that you’re not uncomfortable around him and we wouldn’t want to change that. Even so. You should be aware. Oikawa -’

Shit. Maybe if Daichi said it fast, all in one go, it would be easier –

‘Oikawa may have developed feelings for you who knows and you shouldn’t lead him on.’

Daichi watched Hinata’s expression morph: The small crow pursed his lips, his eyes glittered, his body shook, trying to control his expression but then –

A burst of laughter filled every crevice of the gym like loud joyous song.

Daichi and Suga stared, stunned, as Hinata had to clutch his lungs –

‘I’m sorry,’ Hinata cried, wiping a tear before dissolving into a fit of giggles once again.

‘Hinata,’ Suga stepped in. ‘We’re being serious. Oikawa may be reading into things -’

Daichi and Suga could not understand why this made the spiker howl.

‘His intentions for seeing you may be different than your  intentions,’ Suga continued. ‘When you like someone, you see what you want to see. No one would go all the way to a rival school just to walk someone home if there weren’t feelings behind it. And those feelings may be mild now but you have to make sure they don’t progress. You don’t want Oikawa to fall for you -’

Suga and Daichi were at a loss to Hinata’s reaction. Hinata was choking with laughter, spluttering apologies, wiping his eyes.

‘Please, please, once you’ve calmed down. Please consider what we’re saying,’ Daichi begged. ‘I know you think this is crazy because he’s known for being a playboy with the ladies but trauma does things to a person and you need to be aware that Oikawa may have formed an attachment to you -’

Hinata covered his mouth as his body shook from the hilarity of it all and he nodded.

Moments, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months. It had felt like an eternity to Hinata. In dreamlike, hazy, opaque hope, wishful thinking, for Oikawa to feel even a smidgen of what Hinata felt for the setter. There was nothing Hinata had wanted more in the entire universe.

How bizarre it was that only a week ago today he had confronted Iwaizumi. It was the beginning of the week of silence from the setter, where Hinata felt that with every growing hour, he was losing Oikawa. Never would he have imagined that a week later he would be crying from laughter, relief, joy at the knowledge –

That Oikawa had fallen, for him.

When Hinata went into his room after dinner that evening, his phone pinged. Toru.

Ba-dum.

How strange. How strange that even just that name on a screen made Hinata’s heart feel like a drum, a balloon and a cloud all at the same time. Hinata opend the chat. A photo.

It was a selfie of Oikawa’s beautiful face.

With three long scratches across it.

‘WHAT HAPPENED?!?!’

Hinata had called and Oikawa had answered not even at the end of one ring.

‘Kageyama.’

‘WHAT!?’

Oikawa explained his whole evening leaving out the reaction of his team.

‘Ka – ge – ya – ma,’ Hinata said through gritted his teeth.  ‘I knew he’d gone to Seijoh! I knew it when he didn’t show up for practice! Why does he have to meddle in things all the time?!’

Oikawa was very pleased to hear the anger in Hinata’s voice.

‘He really went for me, you know,’ Oikawa added, ‘like he wanted to kill me.’

‘He can’t behave like this!!’

‘You’re right.’ Oikawa said solemn. ‘He can’t.’

‘He just goes around and does what he likes expecting everyone to bend to his will and people aren’t like that!’

‘I agree.’

Oikawa bathed in Hinata’s outrage as if it were a warm, Mediterranean sun until it had run its course. Then, Hinata fell silent.

‘Chibi-chan?’

‘Your… team. You didn’t say… what they thought of us.’

Ah.

Oikawa sighed. ‘I was hoping you hadn’t noticed.’

‘I did.’

Oikawa sighed again, heavier still.

‘They told you to break up with me.’

Oikawa caught the cracks in Hinata’s voice.

‘Didn’t they?’

The setter inhaled and closed his eyes.

‘Didn’t they?’ Hinata pressed again.

‘You have nothing to worry about, Sho.’ Oikawa opened his eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter what they say.’

Silence. Oikawa could hear Hinata considering his words but didn’t know what the bird was thinking.

‘Please don’t think about it,’ Oikawa murmured. ‘I’ve made my choice.  If they don’t like it, it’s their problem, not ours and certainly not yours. I don’t need their approval and neither do you. They are not  going to affect my relationship with you and you shouldn’t feel like you need anything from them.’

Hinata was still silent.

‘Chibi-chan -’

‘I miss you.’

That was it. That was all. Three words. But Oikawa’s heart started pumping more blood.

‘It’s only been a day,’ Oikawa smirked but secretly he was thrilled.

‘I still miss you and I want to feel you.’

Oikawa’s heart hammered against his chest. Who was he kidding? Sure it had been a day. But Oikawa wanted Hinata here, in his apartment again, right here, right now, forever.

‘I – I miss you too,’ Oikawa dropped his voice lower, ‘and I want to feel you.’

Hinata’s heart caught up in the race, joining Oikawa’s.

‘I want to touch you and hold you,’ Oikawa murmured, ‘I want to feel your skin and your lips. I can’t wait until I can kiss you again.’

Hinata’s heart thudded desperately and he felt giddy. How long? How long had he longed for Oikawa to say these words when he felt like he was the only one who had felt this way?

‘I want to feel the warmth of your body,’ Oikawa continued, ‘the touches from your marvelous hands. I want to smell the skin at your neck, which reminds me of the first buds of spring -’

Hinata’s blood throbbed so loudly in his ears it almost blocked out Oikawa –

‘I want to taste your tongue in my mouth -’

A thrill shot its way through Hinata, right to the tip of his dick.

‘And I want to run my tongue across your skin -’

Hinata glanced at the door of his bedroom. His room didn’t have a lock. He jumped into bed, as he felt his body reacting to the setter’s words, his ear glued to his phone, the gateway to Oikawa.

‘Your skin is so flawless chibi-chan, it makes me want to bite you even more.’

Hinata lay on his side, trying to ignore his growing erection. His heart was pounding, the blood was rushing and his shorts were starting to feel constrictive.

‘I relish in being the first one to taste it.’

That was it. Hinata was about to be harder than his bed frame.

‘Do you like it when I bite you, chibi-chan?’ Oikawa’s voice was dangerously sexy.

‘Yes.’ Hinata couldn’t help it – he slipped a hand into his underpants.

‘Is it pleasurable?’

‘Yes.’

‘But slightly painful?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you like that?’

Hinata closed his eyes, his hand stroking his cock as he remembered Oikawa’s bites. ‘Yes.’

Hinata could feel Oikawa smirking on the other end of the line.

‘If you were here with me right now I’d run my fingers along your body, and touch you the way I know you like to be touched -’

Hinata’s hand moved on its own accord and he released a shaky breath.

‘I’d hold you and caress you and kiss you along your neck. I love hearing you moan my name -’

Hinata was sure that his breathing had given him away. But that didn’t seem to stop Oikawa –

‘I’d tease you with my teeth and mark you fresh as mine. I love hearing you gasp when I do things to you. I’d take you in my hand and begin moving, gently, up and down, stroking you. I’d rub my thumb against your underside and then let both of my hands savour the feel of how hard you are because of me, knowing that I was the one who turned you on. I’d run my palms along your length as I kiss your mouth, then I’d keep kissing you moving down… down your neck where I know makes you  tingle, then your chest, your stomach… feeling you quiver, listening to you moan from me. I’d run my tongue along your bellybutton and only stop moving my hands so I could kiss your tip -’

Oikawa bit his lip in a smile as he was rewarded with the sound he knew he’d hear from his words: Hinata had released a short sharp moan and then continued to exhale rapidly as he came. Oikawa chuckled under his breath.

Hinata hadn’t used a tissue, and his cum was wet inside his boxers. Hinata’s heart raced, his head felt light and dizzy from the concoction of Oikawa’s sultry voice and tantalising words. 

Hinata fell onto his back and stared at the ceiling. As the spiker caught air, his breathing eventually steadied while a patient Oikawa waited silently on the other end of the line.

‘Toru -’ Hinata breathed, half-apologetic, half in bliss.

‘I wish I was with you right there Shoyo. You look so perfect in my imagination right now. But I guess I’ll only have to wait another three days.’

If only Hinata were an alien, he could teleport. If he were magical, he’d apparate. If this were Disney, he would have something that could fly: a carpet, a horse with wings, a dragon, anything –

But for now he had to make do with Oikawa’s tender whispers, his own imagination and the beautiful promise of Friday.

Wednesday break.

Hinata found Kageyama at the vending machine. The setter was picking out what to get with his back to the spiker. A rage of boiling hot lava bubbled in Hinata just remembering the three scratches on Oikawa’s face –

‘Ka – ge – ya- ma -!’

Hinata ran forward with fury –

The setter turned –

And Hinata’s palm flew to slap him just as shocking cold water cooled off the lava –

But Kageyama caught Hinata’s wrist, and Hinata stared.

For a moment, a strange warm yellow-glowy feeling had shot through Hinata at the sudden sight of Kageyama’s face: It was battered and swollen with a massive purple bruise the size of a fist in the hollow of Kageyama’s left cheek. Hinata felt –

Justified.

After all of Kageyama’s meddling, this was the result of it.

But this feeling lasted no longer than a second. It was quickly replaced with anger and annoyance but worry too at the state of Kageyama’s face.

‘What the hell Kageyama?! What were you thinking going to Seijoh to pick a fight with Oikawa?!’

But Kageyama was still gripping Hinata’s wrist, staring intensely back into those amber eyes.

‘How is it,’ Kageyama whispered, ‘that you’re so small and yet you still manage to cause me so much pain?’

Hinata flinched from the words, his anger faltered but then –

‘Don’t you dare try to change the subject, Kageyama! I saw what you did to Toru’s face!! And that’s not OK!!!’

The scorching fuming fury was back and Hinata felt livid at the thought of anyone defiling Oikawa’s beauty –

But Kageyama was still looking at him with the same ferocious intensity, a mix of awe and sadness on the setter’s face. Kageyama moved his hand up Hinata’s wrist so that his thumb nestled, warm and firm, in the alcove of Hinata’s palm. Heat rose to the middle blocker’s cheeks but Kageyama was thrilled to note that the redhead did not pull away.

‘Don’t you know how much it upsets me to know that you care more about him than you do about me?’

With a sudden wakening, Hinata tried to snatch his hand away from Kageyama’s but the setter would not let go.

‘Do you honestly feel nothing knowing that Oikawa did this to me?’

Hinata struggled but Kageyama’s grip was like a vice.

‘Or that I went to Seijoh for you? To save you?’

Hinata finally wrenched his hand out of Kageyama’s grasp and took a step back. His heart was going wild in his chest, his emotions like clashing waves in a storm. And Kageyama still had that fixated gaze, pinning Hinata to the spot.

‘Stop this,’ Hinata whispered.

‘Are you sure,’ Kageyama raised his eyebrows, ‘you want me to stop?’

Hinata squeezed his eyes shut. He took a deep breath and exhaled a mountain of air. He opened his eyes.

‘I’m sure,’ Hinata said, firm. ‘Stop causing trouble, stop obsessing over Oikawa, please listen to me. You have to… let me go.’

That, Kageyama thought, is impossible.

Hinata turned and walked away, a flurry of mixed colours swirling around inside of him. Kageyama watched Hinata disappear back into the main school building. Sure, Kageyama may look more beaten than Oikawa  was right now –

But Kageyama was not the type…

To lose.

Wednesday after practice.

Oikawa arrived, he’d taken his sweet time, and was surprised to find the Karasuno member already at the coffee shop near Nagamachi station.  When Oikawa entered and they locked eyes, neither of them smiled. But. Alarm lit up on the older crow’s eyes as he stared at the stripes on Oikawa’s face and dawning realisation crashed down on him.

At practice just now everyone had had questions about where Kageyama had been last night; it was not like the first-year prodigy to miss a single practice session and today it was as clear as day that he had gotten himself into a bust-up with someone. But Kageyama had brushed it off, muttered something about it being, ‘a personal matter’ before Tanaka had joked that for all they knew Kageyama was in the mafia.

The bruise had looked really bad. It had taken up a whole chunk of Kageyama’s cheek like a country on a map. And now, this Karauno third-year knew exactly who had caused that bruise.

Oikawa ordered a takeaway hot chocolate. He sat down with it opposite his opponent, who had already drank half of his tea. The captain extracted himself from his bag and then confidently met the crow’s eyes.

‘Did Kageyama… go to Seijoh last night?!’ the third year asked in disbelief as he stared at the scratches on Oikawa’s face.

Oikawa popped the lid off the hot chocolate, expressionless and gave a slight nod.

‘Why?’

One corner of Oikawa’s lip pulled back into a half-smirk half-sneer.  ‘Because your deluded number nine thinks he owns your number ten… or  have you not noticed?’

They stared at each other across the table, brown eyes vs grey.

Oikawa had wondered why it was Karasuno’s number 2 and not number 1 that had got in touch. Either it was a smooth move to make it less obvious or they perhaps thought this particular third year was more personable. If Karasuno thought the latter then they were wrong: Oikawa had far more respect for Daichi than for this kind-looking pushover setter. The short third year before him was a bug who had been squashed by Kageyama. And if he was a bug to Kageyama, then he was a speck to Oikawa.

Suga’s brow furrowed. ‘Hinata said that?’

‘No. I observed.’

Suga watched Oikawa blow on his cup of hot chocolate and felt like he was trying to read hieroglyphics without a guide. Still. At least some of the dots were connecting –

‘So you fought about Hinata, right? Why?’

‘That,’ Oikawa brought the cup near his lips, ‘is a question for Kageyama.’

Oikawa took a sip. Not bad. Could be hotter.

‘I would still like to hear your side of the story.’

‘Hmm,’ Oikawa considered him. The indecipherable Seijoh star would never admit it, but he admired this type of unbiased judgment. ‘I would  tell you but… it is not my place to say.’

Suga could not believe… was that sincerity in Oikawa’s eyes? For Oikawa to withhold an opportunity to drag his arch nemesis Kageyama through the mud… was very un-Oikawa-like. Somehow, deep down, quite  possibly, just an inkling, just a nano speck of speculation, if Suga  permitted himself, he was sure that this was somehow out of consideration for Hinata.

‘For the record,’ Suga said, ‘no one knows I’m here.’

Oikawa smirked. ‘OK.’ Like I care.

‘But I wanted to ask you something, face to face.’ Suga’s warm grey eyes stared into cold brown ones. He watched that face that he knew was nothing more than a mask, a facade, and hoped that he would be able to see past it. ‘I wanted to ask you how you feel about Hinata.’

Oikawa’s face broke out into a half-grin.

‘Hmmm,’ Oikawa hummed, amused, considering the ceiling, ‘how I feel about Hinata…’

My sun, my moon, my planets, my stars… The entire world doesn’t matter if chibi-chan isn’t in it.

Oikawa met Suga’s eyes and held the crow’s gaze. No smirk. No slippery smile. No jest. ‘He is the most precious person I know.’

Did Suga dare… to believe Oikawa?

‘Because he saved your life?’ Suga asked.

‘Yes. But also because of who is he is as a person. I’m sure you’re well aware – the shorty has quite a warm personality that is extremely pleasant to be around.’

Oikawa knew he was under scrutiny, and felt as intimidated as if he was sitting opposite a plush Pikachu toy – even if Karasuno’s third-year setter was observing him like a scientist with a microscope.

‘Would you say that you feel more for Hinata than you do for other people?’

Oikawa narrowed his eyes. ‘What precisely are you implying?’

‘I’m not implying anything.’

‘Come now,’ Oikawa’s eyes were suddenly harder, ‘don’t think you can slip me up because you won’t be able to. You’ve been frank thus far and you should keep it that way.’

Suga sighed. Well. There it was. Suga had known that the spikes in Oikawa’s mask were going to shoot out sooner or later.

‘Do you think the earthquake has led you to feel attached to Hinata?’

‘No.’

‘You don’t think so?’

‘Not at all.’

Oikawa had not broken eye contact neither did he seem to be in denial. Suga was also acutely aware that Oikawa could be lying this whole time… Suga finished his lukewarm tea not taking his eyes off of Oikawa, who openly stared back at the grey-haired setter. Am I sitting opposite a person, Suga wondered, or a Rubik’s cube?

Oikawa could sense that this was getting too close to the bone. He  was only here to show Karasuno that he was not hiding. But at the end of  the day, this was Shoyo’s team and it would be Shoyo’s choice to disclose what he wanted, when he wanted to.

‘I am not “attached” to Hinata nor am I dependent on him,’ Oikawa ventured into his exit interview, ‘But he is someone I care for deeply and I want nothing but the best for him in every area of his life. In other words, you and I want the same thing. We both want Hinata to do well and be happy. And that is all I can tell you.’ Oikawa stood up,  grabbed his bag and hot chocolate. ‘Actually I can tell you one more thing: he is very fortunate to have a senpai who cares for him like you. Now if you will excuse me, and don’t take it personally, but I don’t  want to see anymore of Karasuno this week.’

Well. Bar one person.

Suga watched the walking mystery that was Oikawa Toru leave the coffee shop with his head held high. The grey crow came here hoping for answers but now felt like he had more questions.

Outside the coffee shop, a flutter of black wings rose to the sky. A crow.

Oikawa smirked.

‘Eight,’ he smiled to himself.