The most amazing thing is, perhaps, how little everything changes.

Hinata and she keep competing at every little thing: who gets to the gym first, who manages to pick up more volleyballs in the shortest amount of time, who can mop the floor the fastest. They keep arguing and calling each other "Bakageyama" and "dumbass"; they keep shoving each other when they enter the gym; she keeps tugging on Hinata's hair when she gets on her nerves – although, more often than not, her fingers end up sliding through her hair as a caress. As always, Hinata waits for her outside her classroom if she doesn't beat her to it, and they take turns to carry each other's books. They remain those two idiots with only volleyball on their minds, like Tsukishima says, always thinking about the next match, the next play, the next step on their way to the top. Hinata still claims that her smile is scary and she still insists on chasing her around the gym to make her pay.

They still sleep on the same bed or futon, they still sit by each other's side at lunchtime and on bus rides. But underneath the blankets, maybe Hinata clings to her and snuggles her face against her chest, maybe Kageyama's fingers draw spirals on the skin of her back. Maybe more often than not Hinata sits with her legs on Kageyama's lap, maybe the latter fiddles with the rim of her skirt or her shorts, and no matter how red her cheeks get, Hinata never pushes her hands off. It's not like she doesn't take the chance to sneak her hands underneath Kageyama's blouse when she hugs her, cleaving shivers on her back with her fingertips.

They still meet at the school entrance to race to the gym or run all the way to the exit after practice, but nowadays the race is postponed for a kiss or two.

None of them bring up whether or not they ought to tell the team, and anyway it ceases to matter the day dumbass Hinata, happy that they finally got their new play right, plants a kiss on her mouth in the middle of practice.

Maybe it should surprise them how little it surprises anyone, but at least Kageyama is already used to the fact that the entire universe seems to notice things before she does.

One day Hinata pulls on her hand, a grin on her lips that does weird things to Kageyama's stomach.

"C'mon, Kageyama, there'll be no one there and we still got ten minutes before the bell rings."

Her resistance is more of a front than anything and she lets herself be dragged by Hinata (she always lets herself be dragged by Hinata, it'll become her epitaph) towards the storage room behind the gym where dusty nets and deflated balls, broken chairs and unstuffed mats pile up. Kageyama makes a last attempt at maintaining her dignity, pausing before the closed door.

"Are you sure it's not locked? Won't someone come in?"

Hinata rolls her eyes and instead of replying, she stands on her tiptoes, her hands grabbing Kageyama's shoulders to impulse herself. She doesn't give in even a bit or lean her head a single centimeter, and Hinata's lips turn into a pout.

Maybe she leans in a little.

Hinata plants a kiss on her lips and practice does help, because their noses no longer bump, they no longer have anything to fear from their teeth, and when Kageyama parts her lips slightly open the other cheat is already sneaking in the tip of her tongue and, oh.

It'd be best if they got into the storage room.

Hinata somehow finds the doorknob as Kageyama grabs her chin so she can pour kisses on her mouth, her nose, her eyebrows. The girl lets out a giggle when she almost falls backwards while opening the door, but her reflexes help her keep her balance as she grabs onto Kageyama's waist. She's about to call her a dumbass, but it's more important to place another kiss on the corner of her mouth, and she tries to kick the door closed behind her and she nearly stumbles, and then the dumbass does laugh and then…

"You've got to be fucking with me."

An ice bucket wouldn't have had a more immediate effect. At once both of them turn their heads, surely with the same horrified expression painted on their faces.

But nothing could've prepared them for the scene before their eyes.

On top of a pile of mats sits Tsukishima, her face more vexed than they've ever seen it. And she's not alone: straddling her legs, with her skirt riding up quite a lot on her thighs, they find Yamaguchi, her face fuchsia underneath her freckles, Tsukishima's hands clutching her waist.

Kageyama raises an eyebrow and glances at Hinata.

"So no one was going to be here, right?"

"Oh, shut up, Bakageyama."

"Why are you still here? Why haven't you gotten out of here?"

Tsukishima's voice sounds super annoyed, perhaps beyond all possible vexation, but also a little trembling. Are her cheeks beginning to pink? Now that she looks at her closely, she seems to have her face stained with something purple-ish and glimmering, the same shade as Yamaguchi's lips, whose head looks like it's about to explode.

Kageyama starts to tug on Hinata's arm because she doesn't want to remain there and not because she's afraid of Tsukishima but because she really doesn't want to stay, but the dumbass digs her heels on the floor before she can drag her through the door.

"That's the cherry flavored lip gloss, isn't it? Did you notice it's actually flavorless?"

She gives her arm one last tug to get her out of there before either of the other two can react and she slams the door shut. They stare at each other for a while in silence.

"Did you know…?"

She shakes her head and Hinata nods.

"Me neither."

Definitely, Kageyama will always be the last one to figure things out, but at least now she's not the only one.

They come back from their training camp at Tokyo more determined than ever to win, each one on the team polishing their new weapons, slicking up the gears so Karasuno conquers the skies once more. Spring high preliminaries are just around the corner and almost the sole conversation topic there is.

"If we want to face Ushijima Wakatoshi and got to the nationals, we have to beat the Grand Queen first."

"I know that, moron. Now, do you want me to toss to you again or not?"

Of course Hinata wants another toss from her, she always wants another toss from her, even when she's about to fall down from exhaustion and Kageyama is the one who has to say it's enough before she pulls a muscle. In the constant whirlwind that implies having Hinata in her life, there are some constants that give her a certain sense of calm.

A sense of calm that stumbles when the dumbass throws a way too brilliant grin into her direction, stars glimmering in her eyes as she blurts out a you're incredible that weakens her knees and makes her head spin.

Everyone else is too immersed in their own training to make much fun of Kageyama and the faces she makes when Hinata suddenly blurts out a compliment. Even Tsukishima now trains until sweat plasters her blonde hair against her face, a new determination in her jumps and blocks, and the rest of the team won't be left behind either.

Karasuno will soar or crash, but they won't hesitate before the jump.

There's a brief interruption in their monothematic conversations on the tournament when one afternoon Tanaka shows up at the gym trailed by a boy who is carrying all of her stuff.

The boy in question is Fujioka.

Hinata and Kageyama exchange a glance as the rest of the team gawks at Tanaka. She shrugs.

"He saw me carrying my bag and the model for Biology and he offered his help. Isn't he such a charming kouhai? Hey, Fujioka-kun… your name was Fujioka, wasn't it? You can leave it over there if you want, and thanks a lot again."

Fujioka grins. He has to look up a little to meet with the girl's gaze.

"Yes, Tanaka-san!"

Noya approaches her with a smirk to elbow Tanaka in a very unsubtle manner. Tanaka looks somewhat befuddled, and is that a smile on Shimizu-san's face?

"It's the relief," Daichi mutters behind her and now it's Suga the one to put her elbow to use.

The boy bids them goodbye with his usual effusiveness, almost skipping as he walks to the door. Before crossing the threshold he pauses for a second and glances over his shoulder, his eyes meet Kageyama's.

Slowly and trying to make sure the gesture goes unnoticed to the others, Kageyama raises her thumbs in his direction. Fujioka looks surprised, but he winks at her and leaves the gym. She knows it was the right call when she finds Hinata looking at her with a smile on her lips.

"Behold the Queen, making new friends and everything."

"Shut up, dumbass!"

And she grabs her by the hair as the girl shrieks, but both of them know that it's more theatrics than anything, because Kageyama's fingers for a long time now dissolve into caresses when they touch her.

It's a stupid field trip with all the first year classes to the Natural History Museum, which excites Tsukishima (according to Yamaguchi, the official translator of her friend's lack of expressivity) and bores to tears both Kageyama and Hinata, who'd much rather find themselves back at the gym.

The visit wouldn't have anything worth mention for them, if at one time the students are allowed to walk around the museum on their own, they didn't encounter a spectacle that makes Hinata stop dead on her tracks.

On a bench a few meters from them, Matsuo Akio sits. Kageyama knows that things have gone somewhat cold between them and that he barely talks to her in class and when he does, he's often a tad barbed, so Hinata avoids him.

He's not alone, though: by his side there's a girl, a little shorter than Hinata perhaps. She's got brown curls, not the bushy and tangled kind, but the sort that fall in perfect ringlets behind her ears, kept in place by a red bow. She wears big glasses that make her face look quite small and she's got a smile with tiny, straight teeth; her uniform is spotless, each sock right in its place.

She's showing Matsuo how to make an origami crane with her little white hands and the boy stares at her, mesmerized.

"Oh," Hinata breathes and Kageyama doesn't like that she can't quite read her expression at the moment.

"Ah, he got himself another one" Tsukishima says with her usual lack of interest. Yamaguchi bites her lip.

"She's very… very…"

"Cute?" Hinata suggests.

Yamaguchi shrugs.

"Actually I was gonna say moe…"

Tsukishima doesn't even bother to hide her snickering.

Kageyama frowns and studies the girl. With such delicate, white hands, with long nails painted pink, she's sure that girl has never spiked a ball that managed to get past three blockers much taller than her. No one with such white skin unblemished by bruises on elbows and knees could have ever thrown herself at the floor to receive an impossible ball and hit it back after everyone else had deemed it lost. Surely someone with such an unwrinkled uniform neither spills half of her food all over herself nor ends up with grains of rice stuck on her face, nor does she jump to cling to someone else's back for a piggyback ride. Those curls wouldn't survive a race and she can't see a girl like that soaring in the air with a jump that seems to make wings grow on her back.

"I don't think she's cute," she says and it's true: brown is such a boring hair color after all and a smile like hers isn't capable of dazzling with the radiance of the sun.

Tsukishima snorts, Yamaguchi giggles behind her hand and Hinata stares, confused.

"Why do you sound so angry…? Oh!" If her life were a manga, a bright lightbulb would appear over her head as her lips curve into a knowing smile. She grabs her arm and glances at her from under her lashes, imitating Noya-san when she speaks to Asahi. "You don't have to get jealous, you know? I like them taller, with black, straight hair and blue yes. And it's much better if they play volley instead of doing origami."

"Oh my God, just get a room," Tsukishima whines, covering her face with her hands; Yamaguchi gapes and Kageyama can feel the smoke coming out of her ears.

"I'm not jealous!"

She tries to get out of Hinata's grip but the girl grabs her arm tight and her smile widens.

"Of course not, if you have no reason to be. I like you better than anyone."

She wants to call her a dumbass, she wants to tug on her hair, maybe toss her into the air. Her face burns and where Hinata's fingers close around her arm she feels feverish and she's a moron and above all things, she wants to kiss her until she wipes that smile off her face and leaves her breathless.

Hinata Shouyou isn't a tall boy waiting outside her classroom to ask her out, she'll never give her flowers or open the door for her so she walks in first. Hinata Shouyou doesn't know how to make cute heart-shaped cards with romantic quotes, she still eats as though she were five years old, and she insists on sharing her futon only to kick her all night long, she's loud and dumb like no one else.

Hinata jumped with her eyes closed, she shouted I'm here when the silence was deafening and promised her that she would defeat her even if it took her twenty years to do so. Hinata keeps challenging her every day and she keeps the score of her victories and defeats; insists on carrying her books every other day, she always asks for one more toss and her smile is the first day of summer after the most withering winter.

On the bus ride back from the field trip, Kageyama takes her hand and squeezes it tight, whispering I also like you better than anyone and this time it's Hinata's turn to blush and hide her face on her shoulder. Kageyama, after a quick look around, places a kiss on her forehead.

She also tugs on her hair.

For being such a dumbass .