1The first time Hinata comes over to his house, it's out of pure necessity. They have a training camp to go to and Tobio was not going to let something as small as grades be an obstacle. Hinata is in a similar boat, and while the shorter boy is annoying ( not really ), bad at receives ( but he's trying ), and easily distracted ( at least he pays attention in matches ) it's also a fact that he's better than Tobio is at English and pride be damned, Tobio really can't afford to fail this time.
He thinks his mother went a bit overboard with the snacks, but the last time he had someone visit was when Iwaizumi and a reluctant Oikawa dropped by when he hurt his ankle in a match during his first year of middle school, so he can't exactly be surprised at his mother's happiness of "I'm so glad you're making friends, Tobio".
Hinata, unsurprisingly, gets along swell with her, as he probably does with every living creature on Earth. Tobio is half convinced that he could make friends with a rock if it came down to it.
They sit for three hours and barely understand three pages, before they decide that they should have just asked Yachi-san for help. Hinata leaves with a still bright smile despite their failed attempts at understanding tenses and with a promise to Tobio's mom to visit him.
"I don't understand why I have to learn english, Japanese should be enough," Tobio huffed.
"But Kageyama! How will you manage matches in other countries then?" Hinata had replied, wide eyes, and Tobio felt like his life had just changed because– he hadn't thought of that, shit.
The second time Hinata comes over, it's two days later on a Sunday and he's brandishing a copy of Yachi's notes that he had photocopied that evening. It's a night before the exam and Tobio is doubtful about achieving any kind of understanding this late, but he lets Hinata in all the same.
He is, yet again, unsurprised to find that Hinata gets along as well with his dad as he did with his mom. His dad is a little taken aback at the ball of energy enthusiastically introducing himself, but he smiles back all the same and Tobio feels like he should have taken a class from his parents on dealing with people or something.
It takes Tobio glaring and clearing his throat for Hinata to remember what he came here for, and although they don't get much done ( as he had predicted ), the thought was still nice ( not that he'd say it out loud ).
Hinata stays for dinner, brightening the conversation with his smile alone, and by the end of the meal, he's in a deep discussion with his mother over the best kind of jacket to ward off the winter chill, of all things. He's invited to stay the night, which takes both him and Hinata by surprise, but the shorter boy politely refuses claiming that they have school tomorrow and he would need his uniform for that.
He leaves with a wave and a few taunts for Tobio, all delivered with a smile that doesn't falter when Tobio retorts back.
( As he watches the cycle turn around a corner, Tobio feels almost relieved because he has no idea how to handle a sleepover, even if it's with Hinata. )
The third time Hinata comes over, Tobio actually invites him over from his own free will. There's no exams to pass this time, but he maybe feels just a little guilty over refusing to go to the New Year shrine visit with him and Yamaguchi.
"Want to come over?" He asks after Daichi scolded them away from the gym ( and called them salmon, of all things ). He doesn't expect Hinata to agree, because the boy definitely wasn't short on friends he could hang out with, and would have definitely received a lot of invitations that day.
"Sure," Hinata agrees easily, like the decision was as easy as breathing. "What?" He added, because Tobio must have been making one of the expressions that the idiot called 'scary'.
"Nothing," he muttered.
They play some video game that Tobio once got as a gift from someone but never bothered to play, and it occupies an hour of their attention before the conversation inevitably drifts to volleyball and the team and nationals and what comes after, Kageyma?
The Olympics, he says, and he means every word.
The fourth time Hinata comes over, it's a few days after finals. He doesn't say much, but Tobio pops in a movie and there's that.
The tenth time Hinata comes over, it's during summer vacations of their second year to return a cap that Tobio had forgotten at the shorter's house. He holds it open with a grin, sweating and panting from the exertion of cycling in the heat and Tobio wordlessly opens the door a bit more to let him inside before grabbing the cap from his clutches.
He places down a glass of juice ( mango– because while Hinata's favourite may be orange, the only thing they had were mango and pineapple and Hinata didn't like pineapple ) in front of him, because his mother might not be home right now but Tobio was aware she'd somehow know through some motherly telepathy if he was being a bad host.
He tells that to Hinata, who's grin was getting annoying and he could practically see the "aww Kageyama-kun, you care so much about me?" on his face.
"You're so scared of your mother?" Hinata teases, but Tobio points out how scared Hinata was of his own mother as well, and they reach an agreement that mothers are scary in general.
The topic somehow ends up on the upcoming summer camp and how Hinata was mildly upset it was Kenma's last year and then somehow the shorter had dragged him halfway to the local pool and Tobio– Tobio is used to this at this point. Any and all interactions with Hinata move as fast as the person himself.
Tobio doesn't mind it as much as he thought.
The fifteenth time Hinata comes over, it's Tobio's birthday and he had been subjected to "I can't believe you didn't tell us about it last year!" for the past four days from a certain orange head after Tobio had mentioned his birthday in passing. There was a small party after practice, so it's only Hinata now, clapping enthusiastically as Tobio blows out the candles on a small cake his parents got for him.
Then the spiker is urging him to open the present he got him, and Tobio does that with copious amount of grumbling and "idiot"s. The small presents the team– even the little first years– got him were still in his bag, and whatever his parents got him was still unopened on the table ( he'll open that next ) but all that leaves his mind when he sees what Hinata got him.
"Huh," he intones. "This is something I'd expect from Oikawa."
( Oikawa, who makes sure to text him a happy birthday in a hideous font and a frankly alarming amount of emojis. )
"It reminded me of you," Hinata smiles, gesturing at the cursed plushie of a flying fish that was in Tobio's hands right now, and even his own mother was hiding her laughs behind a hand.
"I can't believe they manufacture this," is the only thing he says, but he does say a small thanks just as Hinata was falling asleep on the futon next to Tobio's bed ( because he stayed over this time, and much to Tobio's relief it wasn't as awkward as he had expected ). The other grins, pretending he didn't hear it and demanding Tobio to repeat what he said.
The only thing Tobio repeats is "dumbass".
The twenty second time Hinata comes over, it's a day before graduation.
"I'm switching to beach volleyball," Hinata says. Tobio's video game character dies a tragic death.
"What!?"
"Let go of my collar idiot!"
"What?" Tobio repeats, letting go of the collar. He doesn't really physically attack Hinata a lot now– other than grabbing his hair, because Hinata's hair was soft and fluffy and he won't ever say that aloud even on his deathbed– but in his defense, something this stupid deserved a collar grab.
"I'm not leaving indoor volleyball for ever!" Hinata informed as he tugged on his shirt to adjust it. It was kind of cute. "I just want to get good at some things and I think beach volleyball would be nice training. Got it?"
Tobio grabbed Hinata's wrist to lower the finger the spiker had nearly stabbed into his eye while pointing. "You better get real good," he threatened. "I refuse to play against someone who sucks."
"I'll be even better than you and then you'll be the one who sucks!"
"Sure, whatever lies help you sleep at night."
"The next time I see you," Hinata grinned, eyes blazing, "I'll be the best volleyball player you'd have ever seen."
Tobio grinned back, reaching out to clasp the hand Hinata had put up. "We'll see about that."
The twenty third time Hinata comes over, it's to Tobio's small apartment in Tokyo instead. He's tanned, even more than the times when they returned from summer camp and their skins were darkened with too many hours spent outside in loser's penalty.
Over the course of the evening he finds out that several things, such as the fact that staying out in the sun might have darkened his skin but has magnified the brightness of his smile, how Hinata's roommate was a fan of Kenma as a gamer and how his teammate got married, how Hinata was supposed to go to Miyagi for a week to visit his family before returning to Tokyo for league teams tryouts but he still decided to visit Tobio first and stay the night.
( that made something warm unfurl in his chest, feelings that he might had tried to squash down if he was a few years younger. )
He also learns that Hinata had gotten used to cooking for himself and his roommate, and he makes a much better cook than Tobio. God damn it.
"Next time," he declares, swallowing first because he had manners unlike a certain overexcited ball of orange, "I'll make something so good your jaw will drop."
"Okay," Hinata smiles easily, taking another sip of the miso soup he had hastily put together along with some rice after Tobio had burned the eggs he had tried to make. "Next time I come over, I'm looking forward to master chef Kageyama."
The fortieth time, Hinata comes over, he's Shouyou instead because Tobio had let it slip once while they were engrossed in watching one of Tsukishima's matches, and he hadn't been able to live it down after that. Tobio's only saving grace was that Hina– Shouyou decided to call him by his first name too, and stuttered through all three syllables.
They get distracted by a particularly good block form the blonde, and Tobio thinks that's the end of it, but then Hi– Shouyou asks him what he thought of the opposite team's libero, adding a shyly spoken Tobio at the end, eyes focused on the screen.
"I– he's good. Shouyou." Tobio replies back, hoping that his cheeks aren't pink or something equally as obvious. "He does a lot of unnecessary movements, but I suppose it's useless to conserve energy for the next set if they don't make it to the next set in the first place."
"Right," The other laughed, leaning against him and looking up at him with a smile, and Tobio knew he was thinking back on one of their five set matches back in high school. Maybe their first one, against Shiratorizawa. Maybe their hardest one, against Date Tech. Maybe even their last one as third years. They were all fond memories, and Tobio wouldn't be lying if he said his favorite team till date was the one in Karasuno, back when they were first years, and he knew that the other would agree. That may not be his first team, like it was for the orange head, but it was the team that had made him who he was.
He tentatively smiled back at shorter, the feeling foreign on his face but not as rare as it was years ago, and Shouyou's smile widened, face more illuminating than the screen in front of him.
The seventieth time Shouyou comes over, he's there to welcome Tobio home.
"You're late," he pouted, calmly drinking juice, sitting on Tobio's own carpet in Tobio's own apartment.
Tobio set down his bag, toeing at Shouyou's side. "What are you doing here?"
"I brought you dinner!" He grinned, standing up and pointing to the kitchen from where Tobio could vaguely see a tupperware. "Practice ended early today so I decided to bring some over for you because I know you live off the convenience store two blocks away."
"I make sure to eat healthy," Tobio protested weakly, gesturing to the fridge that was stocked up on milk, fruits and protein shakes when he smelled the tell tale smell of the curry that haunted his dreams. "Please tell me you didn't."
Shouyou cocked his head to one side, staring curiously at him. "I didn't what?"
"Use that curry."
The orange head broke out into a grin, which was all the confirmation Tobio needed.
"Of course I did! After all," Shoyou raised his fist and tried to make his face neutral, in an imitation of him in the commercial, "power curry is a service ace."
"I'm taking back the key I gave you."
"What you're going to do," Shouyou smiles and pats his arm, "is pay the next time we get takeout since I'm taking on the duty to keep you fed with home cooked meals, master chef Tobio."
Tobio grimaced at the memory, because even after all the help and advice Yachi had very kindly offered him, he was no closer to making something edible than he was when he had first challenged Shoyou.
He can't bring himself to mind though, because Shoyou's cooking was as good as one of Ushijima's serves, and he supposed paying for takeout was the least he could do, because his grandfather had always reminded him to give back what you receive.
"Fine," he conceded, lightly ruffling Shouyou's hair ( it had become a habit somewhere in their third year when the shorter hadn't bothered cutting his hair, and Tobio had never made much of an effort to break the habit ). "Just don't make that curry ever again."
The ninetieth Shouyou visits him, he's falling asleep on Tobio's sofa as Tobio works on some strategies Romero handed the team.
"Don't you have your own apartment?" Tobio asks, but not seriously because living ten minutes from each other's place definitely made the spiker come over way, way more often than he used to do when there was a mountain separating their houses, but he didn't mind the company.
"I do," Shouyou mumbled, syllables half lost into a cushion. "Yours nicer. I like it."
Tobio was about to mention it's nicer because Shouyou has dragged him to go shopping along with Yachi because he thought Tobio's apartment was too bare, when Shouyou blindly reaches out a hand towards him, face emerging from the cushions. "I like you too. Just as much as I like volleyball, but," Shouyou paused and suddenly averted his eyes and looking very awake, "But I don't want to kiss volleyballs."
Tobio blinked, unprepared for this sudden conversation. "I think you have already kissed a volleyball with how many receives your face has done."
Shouyou made a vague circle with one hand. "Your head looks a little like a volleyball, you know? It's all round."
"Heads are supposed to be round, dumbass."
"Can I kiss you?"
Tobio bends down, pressing his lips to Shouyou for a split second before straightening. He doesn't know about Shouyou, but he certainly hasn't kissed anyone before and he didn't want the other to know how inexperienced he was.
The other shot up, eyes wide and hair messy. "Did you just kiss me!?"
"Why are you so surprised!? You were the one who asked!" Tobio yelled back.
"I asked if I could kiss you dumbass! That would have given me time to prepare myself."
"You can."
"Eh?"
"I'm not going to say it again." He crossed his arms petulantly.
Shouyou leans forward and kisses him, just as quick as Tobio himself has done. Maybe they're both equally inexperienced, but it doesn't make sense why Shoyou is, because the other is much more friendly and social than Tobio is, and he had never expressed an aversion to romantic relationships like he had– wait.
"Do you want to date?" He asked, watching as the shorter flailed at the sudden question.
"Of course I do!" He affirmed, but then he stilled, gazing up at Tobio with disappointed eyes. "Do you not want to?"
Tobio thought it over, aware that Shouyou's disposition became more and more quiet as the seconds ticked by.
"I–," he swallowed, "I want to."
Shouyou smiles, looking like a miniature sun, and Tobio ducks his head to hide his own, smaller one.
The three hundred and sixteenth time is the list time Shouyou comes over.
Tobio shifted the grocery bags in his hands, waiting for Shouyou to finish unlocking the door. The key had a habit of getting stuck in the lock until you jiggle it the right way, and Tobio has been meaning to complain about it to the landlord but it has never posed much of a problem, and he kept putting it off.
Shouyou made a pleased sound as the door finally unlocked, and Tobio made a mental note to get it looked at this weekend because it seemed to be taking longer to open.
They went in, shouting an "I'm home!" in unison to the dark apartment. Shouyou flicked on the lights, grinning as Tobio set down the grocery bags for the nabe the shorter had planned to cook for dinner. They had finished moving in the last of Shouyou's things into Tobio's apartment, and the older felt that it'd good to have after all the work on a cold day.
Shouyou doesn't visit the three hundred and seventeenth time, because one doesn't visit home, they come back to it.