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Now that they're super famous volleyball stars at school, people talk, and while some of it is good ("I hear they're going to win nationals!") and some of it is bad ("Hinata Shouyou is only a hundred-fifty centimeters tall!"), some of it is simply the truth: "Sugawara-senpai's gorgeous."
Hinata is overhearing it more and more these days, and it always makes him beam. Sugawara-san is gorgeous. His hair, his smile, his mannerisms—there was a day after practice when Hinata caught him in the clubroom with Daichi-san, both of them talking softly and standing close, Sugawara-san's pretty hands knotted nervously in front of him. Hinata didn't stay to eavesdrop, but it's a moment he thinks about a lot. He wonders if he ever looks that way, so kind and strong and smart all at the same time. Probably not. And that doesn't really bug him. Beauty can be Suga-san's thing. Hinata is speed and stamina, chatter and—
"Dumbassery," offers Kageyama.
They're bouncing a ball back and forth along a quiet edge of the school. Hinata catches it. "Jerk!"
"You asked," Kageyama says. "Hey, toss that back. Lunch ends soon."
"Want to know what you are?"
"No."
"Meanness," says Hinata. "Know-it-allness. Rudeness—handsomeness—"
"What?" says Kageyama.
"What?" says Hinata. His heart starts pounding very fast. He's just opening his mouth to backpedal when he hears it: a group of boys bursting through the back doors on a rush of laughter and angry words.
"He shut you the fuck down, Touma," says one voice.
"Shut up," Touma snaps. The third-years storm by; Kageyama and Hinata flatten themselves against the the wall. "Stuck up bitch. Pretending he's got some sweetheart waiting for him or something. I bet that captain's giving it to him every day after practice. He's always acting like he just got fucked."
"You're just mad because you wanted to do him first," another one says, chuckling.
"Damn straight. I'd tap that ass any day."
They disappear into the opposite hallway, still ribbing each other and shoving. Kageyama and Hinata stand very still there, stunned by the language. Hinata squeezes the ball between his hands. His palms are suddenly very clammy.
"You think they were talking about Sugawara-san?" asks Hinata.
"No way," says Kageyama. "He's none of those things." The school bells are ringing. "Come on, let's go pass those tests."
They separate for class. Hinata struggles through his English exam, sorting out the idioms with confusion. None of them make any sense. Go down in flames. Ignorance is bliss. He turns in his test without much hope and doesn't think about what Touma and his friends were saying until he makes it to practice, and finds Tanaka-senpai nursing a bloody nose.
"What happened?" he asks, fluttering around him with fretful hands.
"Nothing, nothing," says Tanaka, laughing. "Just some kids running their mouths. Had a little disagreement."
"What were they saying?" Daichi asks.
"Oh, you know. Rude things about the team."
Suga's standing at the edge of the gym, arms crossed. "Like what?" he says quietly.
Tanaka's tone changes, turns somehow terse and sweet at the same time. "Don't worry about it, Suga-san. Hey, you guys gonna practice, or are you just gonna stand around gabbing all day?"
"Right," says Daichi. He claps his hands. "Start warming up!"
And that's that for the day.
*
Tomorrow, though, Hinata comes to school—and can instantly feel that something has changed. The hallways are crueler. People are whispering about something. Nasty words are getting thrown around, and he stands with Yachi-san in the hostile corridors, trying to catch a bit of the gossip. "You know what's going on?" he asks her.
"No idea," she says, but her eyes are sick, troubled.
In retrospect, he gets mad that everyone was trying to keep it from him. He's not a child. But he sure feels like one that morning as he washes his hands in the bathroom, and a third-year he's never met leans in behind him and says, gleefully, "Is it true?"
Hinata growls. "Clearly I am 163 centimeters (rounding up)."
"Not that," says the third-year. "I mean about Sugawara."
Hinata tilts his head. "What about Sugawara-san?"
"That he'll put out if you pay him."
Put out what? Hinata thinks to say—then it hits him like a truck, and he whirls around, outraged. "Who said that? Touma-san? Sugawara-san doesn't do stuff like that! You shouldn't talk about things you don't know."
"Fine, fine," says the third-year, hands raised. "But if he wants to make some quick cash, he knows where to find me."
Hinata tears into practice that afternoon, furious and appalled. "Sugawara-san! You'll never guess what they—"
"I heard," says Suga. He's setting for the second-years now, and when he stops and turns around, he's smiling a calm, unaffected smile. "Don't worry about it, Hinata. It'll all blow over in a few days."
"But—"
"It's okay. People talk. They're just bored."
Something about Suga's expression tells Hinata to back down, especially when the captain strolls in, his face taut and pale. Hinata drops it. Practice that day is tense and inefficient, and they're all frustrated as they clean up, Hinata running the broom back and forth across the gym floor to get rid of his remaining pent-up energy. He nearly knocks Kageyama over when he steps in front of him.
"What's going on?" Kageyama asks plainly. "Why was everyone so off today?"
"You really don't hear anything but 'volleyball, volleyball, volleyball,' do you?" says Hinata. Even as he's annoyed, that same soft thing unfurls in his chest when he stares at Kageyama's stupid, clueless face. "If you don't know by now, I'm not going to tell you. It's not gonna help anything."
For a second, Kageyama looks like he's going to pursue that. Then his lips thin and he says, instead, "Just as long as everyone shapes up by tomorrow."
"They will," says Hinata. He doesn't doubt it. Sugawara-san said it'd blow over. Sugawara-san is never wrong.
*
It doesn't blow over.
"Bitch is so desperate for it, he'll do it for free," they whisper.
"He sucks cock like a champ."
"He'll do it without a condom, if you pay extra."
It makes Hinata almost physically ill. He doesn't even feel like practicing during lunch, and he sits on the step with his meal still neatly packed in his lap, watching the schoolyard teem with mean, wrong voices. He's just getting ready to step back inside when one of his idiot classmates cuts in front of him, laughing.
"What's your vice-captain teaching you these days, Hinata?" he demands. "Oral? How to spread your legs?"
"Buzz off," says Hinata. His ears are tingling with embarrassment and fury. He tries to cut past him, but the moron ducks back into the doorway, blocking his path.
"I knew Sugawara was loose from the first day I saw him. You don't smile that pretty unless you're selling something. Hey, you think he does group jobs? Heard he lowers his prices if you got a big—"
"Hey."
Hinata turns. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are standing behind him, Yamaguchi's face contorted with anger, Tsukishima's cool and condescending as usual. His voice is so cold and smooth you could freaking skate on it when he says, "Keep Sugawara-san's name out of your filthy mouth before you lose a few teeth."
The guy's lower jaw juts out. "Are you threatening me?"
"Yes," says Tsukishima, unblinking. He leans forward at his full height. "Get lost, Kosei."
Kosei gets lost.
Hinata's so upset after that that he goes to the clubroom to cool down—only to find it already occupied. Sugawara-san's standing there with his face in his hands, sobbing steadily. Hinata's heart breaks a thousand times. He goes over and rests his head against his shoulder, and Sugawara-san jumps about a mile in the air, but then he turns and pulls Hinata into a tight, trembly hug. Hinata holds him and lets him get it out. His arms shake. Hinata clings back to him, his own eyes burning with tears as Suga cries and cries and cries.
He doesn't know how much time has passed before he feels a hand on his head.
"I've got it," says Daichi-san quietly. "You go to class."
Hinata allows it. He leaves, pulling the clubroom door shut behind him as Daichi strokes Suga's damp cheeks and eases in slowly, so slowly, to touch their mouths together.
The next day, Daichi-san and Suga-san arrive at school holding hands, Asahi-san looming behind them with a proud, thunderous dignity. Someone whistles. Daichi-san turns his gaze on them, calm and focused, and the sound stops. The three of them walk through the front entrance in easy silence. The doors drift shut behind them, resolute as a ball to the face.
Hinata doesn't hear a single rumor for the rest of the day.
Does get his English test back, though. He got one of the idioms wrong: head over heels. He thought it was a bad thing, but apparently it means something like 'love.' Interesting, Hinata thinks, how that works.
He's second to practice that day. Kageyama's first, standing at the gym doors, the line of his back beautiful and sturdy as he reaches for the handle. He stops when he sees Hinata. His blue eyes are focused, conflicted.
"Are things really okay now?" he asks.
"So you do pay attention." Hinata pushes past him, and Kageyama actually holds the door for him, making him pause. He blinks up at him. They're standing close enough together that Hinata can see his individual eyelashes, delicately curved upward, like the hint of a smile that's curling his own lips. "Yeah, I think things are going to be fine," he answers at last.
"Good," says Kageyama. He smiles back with the full measure of his relief, wide and gorgeous, and it suckerpunches Hinata so hard that he barely remembers to whisper, "Good" back.
"Hey!" Noya-senpai's running to join them now, gym bag slung around his shoulders. "Ready to kick some butt?"
"Yeah!" says Hinata, shaking himself. He grins. Sugawara-san and Daichi-san are approaching, too, hands still clasped together, and Hinata thinks about how stunning they are together. Head over heels. "You good, Sugawara-san?"
"Yes, thanks," says Sugawara, giving Hinata's hair a playful ruffle. He looks up at Daichi-san, his eyes soft and happy. "I'm doing great."