Song: Let Me Breathe- The Hours

Finally, I bring to you.... An actual update!!!!

The first few days back were... uncomfortable, to say the least.

Everyone was on edge around Hinata-- unsure of whether or not he was going to blow up at them again. And he understood their caution. Because he could feel it, too, that constant pressure bubbling around him like he wanted to scream.

It had been there since Natsu.

But lately, it was noticeably swelling down, and he wondered if that had to do with his own personal control or something else entirely.

To everyone's surprise, Kageyama had been the first one to break the ice. In a loud, irritated voice, he'd yelled at the club to-- and this is extremely paraphrased to avoid the damaging of young ears-- to quit being such little turds and welcome back their old friend like they should've done the first day he'd come back.

After that, it had been almost completely normal between the group. Inside jokes, handshakes, crude hand gestures, the whole shebang. But that never included Hinata.

They still treated him like glass-- no fake meaness, no wrestling around, no buddy-buddy fun.

Hinata told them that he'd started therapy (he'd started a week or so before his apology) to get better, that he was going to try his best to be their friend again, but it was clear that no one knew the proper way to react to a boy whose sister had killed herself and now suffered from severe anxiety and depression himself.

Was there even a right way for that?

And in all honesty, the therapy hadn't been his idea-- it was his mother's. She went with him to every meeting, called him every day to make sure he was taking his medication, and was basically his main support beam. Without her... He didn't want to think about it.

"You look constipated." Kageyama's humming voice came from behind a potted daisy.

Hinata nearly knocked over a row of daisies in his surprise. "I'm not consti- consta- c-consteb........ That word." Hinata exclaimed, giving up on the pronunciation completely. "I'm just thinking, is all."

Kageyama came around and put on arm around his shoulder as casually as one would a lover. Hinata allowed himself to relish a little in how far their friendship had seemed to come since he opened up to Tobio.

In fact, they might have been moving a little too quick. Hinata tried to push away the butterflies in his stomach as he stopped planting, instead focusing his attention on Kageyama Tobio's arm-- which was so long and heavy that he nearly toppled at first, but managed to hold his ground (thanks to years of volleyball experience).

"Anything you want to talk about?" Kageyama asked it with a tone of extremely casual nonchalance, a good trick he'd learned in high school. The question was serious, but the tone made it more friendly.

Hinata shrugged off the arm. He was frowning slightly now. "Do you think... Do you think things will ever go back to how they were before?" He didn't look at Kageyama and stared instead at the potted flower in his hands.

"Before...?"

"Yeah. I mean, the other club members. They don't trust me anymore... I think." He kicked a pebble.

Tobio watched him, narrowing his eyes and letting out a soft sigh. "I... Time. That's what you need. Everyone still needs to figure out how to deal with... everything."

Hinata nodded slowly. He understood, but it was just... sad. He'd already lost nearly everything because of his own incompetence, and if his friends became caught up in that, as well-- it was too much, too much...

"Hey, lighten up." Tobio slapped Hinata's back, giving him a startle. "It'll be okay. Here-- Hippie Club promise."

He extended his left pinkie finger.

Hinata looked at it, confused, then back at Kageyama, then back at the finger, then--

Tobio sighed with an air of impatience and, reaching out with his other hand, grabbed Hinata's right hand and joined their pinkies. The contact was soft, warm, and full of something that neither could explain.

"There. Now quit your stupid worried look, because everything is going to be fine, okay?"

Hinata didn't know what to say. He felt his cheeks turn a slight pink, heard Tobio's words ringing in his head. He wondered if the pills were working after all, because what Kageyama said kind of felt like the truth.

They didn't separate their pinkies for a moment longer than necessary before both both turned away, blushing.

And then Hinata said it. "Oh, and Kageyama-- about the... The, uh..." He turned major red, and his brain started getting fuzzy, "The kiss. I didn't-... I wasn't-..."

Tobio's eyes shot up, wide.

How the hell had he forgotten that he'd kissed Shouyou?

Now he was blushing, too. "No, it's not... You don't need to worry about that." He rubbed the back of his neck to have something to do with his awkward hands. "It's all in the past. Haha."

That was a lie.

It was engraved into Tobio's memories with such a burning intensity that he could feel the heat radiating from his face like the sun. The curve of Hinata's hips, the curls of his hair, how soft his lips were against Tobio's-- Agh, agh, agh! He should've known that that would come back to bite him eventually!!!

But to his surprise, Hinata was blushing, too. Shouyou looked at the plant in his hands. Tobio found himself longing for a look at those chocolate eyes. "Oh, because I..." He trailed off.

"Weren't yourself." Kageyama finished for him, turning more red. Why didn't Shouyou just see how he felt already? Things would be so much easier if Tobio just came out and told him the truth.

"That's... I mean, that's not what I was going to say, but yeah, sure."

Then he looked up at Tobio, and the expression was one of confusion. "But... Why did you kiss me first?"

What.

What?!

"Oh, because, uh, you looked really sad, and, uh, I didn't know how to get you to stop crying, so... "

Hinata seemed to buy it, but he looked a little... disappointed?

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." He tugged at his sleeve. The reminder of his embarrassing outburst from a week ago made his skin tingle.

"You know... I feel like every time we talk, one of us either ends up crying or storming off." Kageyama joked, trying to ignore what he thought to be obvious-- that his feelings for Hinata were not reciprocated.

That produced an embarrassed chuckle from Shouyou. "I probably cry so much around you because you always look angry." He teased, trying to avoid any more uncomfortable topics.

"At least I don't look like a human garden gnome."

Hinata gasped. "You take that back! Call me by my actual name, not that-- that mean nickname!"

"Make me, you garden gnome!" Kageyama made a face, stuck out his tongue.

Hinata set down his potted flower, and, slowly, carefully, walked over to Tobio. Maybe it was the way his thin waist and curvy hips moved when he walked, or the way his fluffy pumpkin-colored hair bounced, or the cute retro short shorts he was wearing, whatever it was, but something made Kageyama completely melt inside as the other boy slinked toward him.

And, like a mouse trapped by a snake, he allowed himself to be pinned against the glass wall by Hinata. The boy wore a smirk as he leaned in closer, his eyes barely level with Tobio's, even if he stood on his tiptoes. Yet somehow, the fact that Tobio had to lower his chin to look at Hinata made it feel all the more submissive on his part.

The voice Hinata used was silky and seductive. "What's my name?"

Kageyama couldn't help it-- he was so red and so turned on and so completely shocked by the situation that he let out a low, gravelly, "Hinata."

The latter stepped back immediately, grinning like a maniac as he doubled over with laughter.

"You---should've seen---your face---!"

Tobio watched with mild irritation. He would've been more irritated, had he not been enjoying the moment. This was the first time he'd seen Hinata be truly happy like this. Even before he'd seen the emotional side of him, Hinata hadn't been this happy-- but that was before they'd become friends.

Just friends.

And suddenly, Kageyama was starting toward Hinata.

Shouyou's eyes widened and he stopped laughing when Tobio picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder.

"What are you---"

"Shut up."

"Let me go! Put me d-

"I said, stop talking, Shouyou."

"Wait, why are we leaving the arboretum-- Tobio, I'm serious, what are you doing?"

Kageyama stopped just outside the door.

He considered putting the boy down. Thought better of it-- he'd just run away.

"We're friends, right?"

"Uh... Yeah...?"

"And friends do stuff together."

Hinata nodded against Kageyama's back, slowly coming to an understanding.

"So, we're..."

"I'm taking you somewhere. We're going to hang out. You're going to like it, whether you like it or not."

"But that didn't even make sense, you-"

"Let me rephrase that. You're going to shut up and like it, whether you like it or not."

At that, he felt Shouyou's small body relax on his shoulder. He felt the soft curves of Hinata's skin brush against his bare shoulder as his shirt rode up. It sent a tingle down his body when their body heats connected.

"Tobio?" Hinata's voice snapped him out of his indulgent thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"We're not moving."

"Oh. Right. I knew that."

"Mhm."

"I told you to shut up before, didn't I?"

"Mhm."

"You're impossible, you know that?"

"Mhm."

And for once, Kageyama realized that Hinata was happy. They were hanging out, and for the first time, neither one was upset.

He was going to make the most out of this day. He'd get closer to Hinata, get to know him better.

Because Hinata deserved to be happy.

"Where are we going?" He asked after about three more minutes.

People on campus continued to pass them, giving them weird looks, but Kageyama refused to set him down.

"Shut it. You'll see soon enough."

"Okay." Silence, until Hinata spoke quietly against the cloth of his shirt, "This whole situation is really weird, you know that, right?"

"Mhm."

"And that we keep getting weird looks?"

"Mhm."

"Who's the impossible one now?"

"Mhm. Shut up."

"Okay."

"Mhm."