Kageyama doesn’t say ‘I love you’. Hinata doesn’t understand, at first, why he can’t just do it – it’s easy, isn’t it? After all, Hinata tells him all the time, whenever they kiss, their fingers laced up, Kageyama’s mouth soft and shy against his own because they don’t need to go further than this yet.
Hinata doesn’t understand – until another spike hits him in the skull during a game, and the world goes black before his eyes.
He finally understands when he wakes up under a white ceiling, his mouth dry, and a warm, sweaty hand clings to his own.
Hinata understands that there’s other ways to say it when he listens to Kageyama cry, face buried into Hinata’s hand inside his own.
“Please be okay. Don’t leave me, please, please come back to me. I can’t play volleyball without you. I’ll buy you all the meat buns, you dumbass, but come back to me and spike my tosses and steal my milk and God, Hinata. Hinata.
…Shouyou. I promise, I’ll make you invulnerable this time.”
And somehow, Hinata doesn’t need I love yous anymore, when he can squeeze Kageyama’s hand and see how his dark eyes light up with fireworks inside when he looks at him.










