(I changed my mind by the way. If that doesn't make sense to you don't worry!)

A week. It had been a whole week since Kageyama had made his request for space. A week since Hinata had graciously allowed it. A week of awkward silences, skittish glances, indignant looks, and one very, very antsy red head.

For the first two days, Kageyama appeared blasé through the whole thing, when he was present that is. He showed up to practices and never missed a class, but between that Kageyama was almost always off somewhere and Hinata wouldn't see him until the next class. It was highly suspicious, and on one occasion Hinata had attempted to follow Kageyama to find out what he was up to, but apparently his boyfriend possessed a nimbleness he wasn't aware of and he lost him in the crowd in under a minute.

For the remaining days he would be there for lunch and breaks and all the other times they managed to sneak in time for each other, but it was overwhelmingly awkward. Kageyama seemed out of it of sorts, looking at him with a kind of nervousness that Hinata interpreted as worry. Worry about what? He didn't know, he was perfectly fine as far as he knew.

Kageyama used the loophole in Hinata's kiss demand to its full extent, only kissing him on the lips once, and that was after a late night practice when he'd taken a ball to the head particularly hard and had to lie down for half an hour. He had to admit, he didn't mind the cheek kisses or the forehead kisses (or the nose kiss on Wednesday that made him laugh and Kageyama blush). They were... nice. They felt nice. But it was getting to the point where he really missed Kageyama. Even though they spent plenty of time together, it felt like an infinitesimal amount of time in comparison to the age it felt when they were together together. It was actually kind of lonely.

He wanted to touch Kageyama again. Sure the first time hadn't gone exactly as he'd expected, but Sugawara-san had taught them everything hadn't he? They knew what to do and they had the stuff to do it. Hinata found himself thinking about it in an increasing amount and had already woken to soiled pants twice. Even if it wasn't touch in that way, Hinata missed the general physical proximity a great deal. He missed curling up with Kageyama to watch scary movies and he missed the warmth of his body when they spent the nights at each other's houses.

He thought about bringing it up with Kageyama, asking him what was going on with them. He should probably ask whether Kageyama was ready to go back to how they were. A week was more than enough time to think wasn't it? The way he was so careful and tentative around Hinata was getting old fast.

The bell signalling the end of class pulled Hinata from his daydreaming, hurrying to join the flurry of students streaming out for lunch.

He made it to Kageyama's class in a flash, grinning up to his ears when he spotted the dark head. He pulled a chair up to Kageyama's desk, slipping in easily.

"Hey!"

Kageyama jumped at his sudden appearance, the pen he had been using to scribble something down in his notebook falling to the floor with an echoing clatter. He scowled, leaning down to retrieve it. "Don't do that, dumbass."

Hinata said nothing, pursing his lips and looking at Kageyama expectantly.

"What?"

"You haven't said hello yet." Hinata pouted.

Kageyama sighed, "Hello, Hinata." Hinata grinned, propping his elbow up on the desk and resting his chin on his hand. "You're pretty needy you know." Kageyama added quietly.

"Hey!" Hinata kicked his shin under the table.

Kageyama winced, reaching down to rub at the spot. He hadn't kicked him that hard had he?

"...sorry?" Hinata blinked, peering up at him.

"Don't worry I just knocked it during training the other day."

"Oh..." Rather than pull his foot away, Hinata tucked his heel behind Kageyama's ankle.

Kageyama narrowed his eyes, "What are you doing?"

"Hm? Me?" Hinata feigned ignorance. "Nothing." A wry smile crept onto his face as he watched Kageyama's cheeks tint pink.

Hinata lifted his leg, stroking the back of Kageyama's calf with his foot slowly, liking the way it made the other boy shift in his seat.

Kageyama swallowed, throwing surreptitious glances around them, likely to assure no one was witnessing this. The classroom was roughly half full of students, chatting idly and ignoring the two boys at the back of the room for the most part

With a loud squeak of metal scraping against hard floor, Kageyama shot up from his seat.

"I'm going to the vending machine." He announced, probably louder than necessary considering the two girls nearby throwing him strange looks. Hinata chuckled when he immediately walked away swiftly, not asking Hinata if he wanted anything like usual or if maybe Hinata wanted to accompany him.

Leaning back in his chair, Hinata opened his lunch. Messing with Kageyama could actually be pretty interesting. Sure, it wasn't what he'd planned to do with the whole 'talk it out' thing, but this seemed much more fun anyway.

Hinata wouldn't see Kageyama for the rest of his classes, which was kind of a letdown, but he still had afternoon practice to work with. He spent most of his classical lit class thinking up different ways to catch Kageyama's attention, thanking his past self for bringing a loose shirt for training.

He was itching to get to the gym as the minutes ticked towards the final bell, practically vibrating energy. One of his classmates had actually asked him if he was feeling okay— he'd never looked that excited or lively in that class apparently.

When the end of the day finally arrived, Hinata ran all the way to the gym, grabbing his bag on the way and throwing a few apologies over his shoulder to both teachers and students as he pushed past them.

Sugawara and Daichi were just unlocking the doors when he zoomed past them, heading straight for the locker room with a fleeting greeting. He missed the perplexed looks from his senpai, wrapped up in his mission.

As soon as the door was pulled shut behind him Hinata started pulling off his clothes, acutely aware that Kageyama would be there any second—they were always the first ones there. Reassured that Sugawara and Daichi always set up the net before getting changed, Hinata tugged his shirt over his head. He deliberately left his school shoes on, singing his own praise at this blatantly brilliant plan before attempting to take his pants off. Predictably, they got caught around his ankles and couldn't be pulled past his shoes. Content with the mess he'd got himself in, Hinata settled on the floor, half naked save his boxers, waiting for Kageyama.

There was a half-minute or so where he entertained the thought of someone else walking through those doors, someone like Tsukishima. It very nearly spooked him into giving up on this particular act, but just as he contemplated this, the door clicked open.

He reach for his pants again, pretending to be struggling with them purely for show.

"Hinata? What the hell are you doing?!"

He almost sighed in relief at his boyfriend's gruff tone. "Getting changed if course! My pants are just stuck." He delighted in the colour already rising in Kageyama's cheeks as he gaped at the scene before him.

"On what? Your feet aren't exactly huge, you know." Kageyama said, dropping his bag onto the bench and crouching down next to Hinata.

"Hey!" He refused to look any deeper into that statement.

Kageyama smacked his hands away (which were being particularly unhelpful) tugging the cuffs of his pants back over his feet.

"You're still wearing your shoes! What's wrong with you, are you an idiot?!"

Hinata glared, "Just shut up and help me."

After a few minutes of shuffling, untying impossible laces (kudos to Hinata), and some not-so-subtle perving from one Kageyama Tobio who was apparently markedly aware of Hinata's near naked state, they finally managed to get both the redheads shoes and pants off. Hinata mused at the familiarity of the situation, both of them on the hard floor of the locker rooms, Kageyama pulling his pants off. He stopped his train of thought there.

"Thanks." He said cheerily, bouncing up from the floor and offering a hand to Kageyama.

Eyeing it for a moment, Kageyama took it, mumbling a "dumbass" under his breath.

Hinata dressed quickly after that, mostly so he could openly ogle Kageyama while he changed. Kageyama flushed under the attention, making a fair effort to ignore Hinata.

"—I swear, she totally paid attention to me for longer than two seconds, Ryuu!" Tanaka and Nishinoya entered the change room, shifting the charged atmosphere between the first years.

"Ahh Kiyoko-san is so generous, offering her time to you like that when she's so busy!"

Nishinoya nodded along eagerly, expressing his own praises for the third year manager.

Hinata greeted his two senpai, following Kageyama as he left the locker room. It was going to be a good training, Hinata decided.

Half an hour into afternoon practice, Hinata had pulled out some if his best ideas; when he went to spike, he tried to catch the air in a way that would force his shirt to ride up, revealing skin that Kageyama would definitely see. Kageyama's eyes were glued to him constantly, leading to a few dud tosses to other spikers. Luckily for him, Kageyama could pass off his flushed face as physical exertion.

In their short breaks Hinata would use the front of his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, having conveniently left his towel at home. He made a big deal of doing it too, taking his time to hike up the fabric, making sure Kageyama was paying him attention all the while. He drank from his water bottle too fast, tipping his head back and letting some of it drop down his chin. It was around that point that Kageyama's red face started looking angry, and Hinata was finally getting somewhere.

"Alright, take a three minute break!" Daichi announced to the relief of all players, "It'll be the last one before we finish up."

Hinata watched as Kageyama slumped down into the bench beside the court, drinking deeply from his bottle.

Rather than sitting beside Kageyama, Hinata seated himself right next to Yamaguchi, who was on the floor by the net catching his breath. He sat much closer than would be considered appropriate during a hot and sweaty practice. Hinata smiled sweetly at Yamaguchi, who was staring down at him curiously with wide eyes.

"Your receives are improving heaps, Yamaguchi! It's like you don't even have to think that much, you just know where ball is gonna go and then fffwaahh! You get it!"

Yamaguchi blushed under the praise, "A-ah, thank you!"

Hinata smiled again, enjoying the way Kageyama was blatantly eavesdropping. It was so far from subtle, he was practically glaring at them. "Oh," Hinata reached up, bringing his hand to Yamaguchi's face. He dragged his fingers gently over the brunet's cheek, as if there were something there to brush away (which of course, there wasn't.) "You had an eyelash on you." Hinata explained, the lie seeming to settle Yamaguchi who had been quite shocked by the contact.

"Th-thanks." Yamaguchi stuttered.

Daichi addressed the group once more, "Have one last drink and we'll do another fifteen minutes and finish up."

Hinata stood up, fetching his drink bottle from the bench near Kageyama, who watched him while he drank. This was turning out to be easier than he anticipated. Kageyama looked frustrated, like he wanted hit him. He hoped that frustration would manifest in other ways...

The last 15 minutes flew by quickly and Hinata could barely hide his grin when Kageyama volunteered them both for broom duty.

He had barely taken three steps into the storage room when he was pushed roughly to the back, behind a tall shelf filled with boxes. No one would be able to see them if they happened to look in.

Hinata was shoved against the shelf, the metal digging into his back uncomfortably, but he couldn't complain when Kageyama's hot mouth was on his, demanding and unreserved.

Hinata responded in kind, opening his mouth and taking whatever Kageyama was offering. He seemed completely unlike his recent self, licking into Hinata's mouth without hesitation. Hinata moaned into the touch, pulling Kageyama closer, the only feeling running through his mind being one of insane relief. He'd missed this.

Finally pulling away to breath, Hinata smiled, "So does this mean were boyfriends again or was that today's kiss?"

Kageyama glared at him, panting hard, "I know what you're doing. Stop it."

Hinata put on his most innocent face, frowning at Kageyama quizzically.

"You've been trying to seduce me!" He accused. "And make me jealous!"

Hinata pouted, looking up at Kageyama through his lashes. "Did it work?"

Kageyama groaned, "I really hate you. Don't touch Yamaguchi like that again, or anyone who isn't me for that matter."

Hinata chuckled, "I didn't know this would work so well, if I had I might have tried it earlier."

"Hinata," Kageyama admonished, "you have to stop. I won't take too much more time okay?"

Hinata deflated, "So were not boyfriends again."

"We've been boyfriends this whole time, dumbass. Taking a break is different from breaking up."

Hinata said nothing, looking away indignantly. Kageyama sighed.

"Look, we'll have a big talk soon, okay? I promise. This is just me figuring stuff out for it. You should think about things too. Things you want to talk to me about, all of it." Kageyama tucked his fingers under Hinata's chin, forcing him to make eye contact.

"A big talk doesn't sound like something we'd do." Hinata mumbled.

"Exactly." Kageyama said pointedly, "That's why we're doing it. We're going to do all of this right. You heard Sugawara-senpai, communication is important or whatever."

Hinata didn't know for sure, but it felt like Kageyama wasn't telling him the whole truth. Still, he didn't mention it, not wanting to exasperate Kageyama further.

"Hinata? Kageyama?" A voice echoed into the store room. Kageyama stepped away from Hinata, straightening out his clothes before walking around the shelf. Hinata followed his lead.

"Sorry Asahi-san, we were having trouble finding the brooms."

"Oh, that's fine!" Asahi said, holding his hands in the air as though he'd done something wrong, "they're just there." He gestured to the same spot the brooms had always been in.

"Ah, of course. Thank you." Kageyama grabbed a broom, passing it to Hinata.

"R-right." Asahi smiled. "I'll be heading off then. Thanks for the hard work!"

The two first years repeated the sentiment, watching the upperclassman leave the gym.

"The quicker we get this done, the sooner we can leave." Kageyama said, walking out in the gym.

Hinata huffed and hurried to catch up.

Safety tip: always take shoes off before attempting to take off pants

(Pshh, what? There's no personal experience there what are you talking about I'm just lookin out for y'all..)

Thank you for your patience (seriously)