#brewcha

“Great!” Hinata exclaimed. He clutched her hands in his before dropping them a second later, striding into her house like it was his own.Yachi stared at her hands, hot and cold tingles travelling up her arms at the same time, coiling like the DNA structure she learnt in Biology class.

“Excuse the intrusion!” Hinata called, and Yachi immediately close the door behind her, following Hinata into the living room.

“Ah, excuse the mess, I’ve been working—”

Hinata laughed. “My room’s even messier!” he said, putting down the plastic bag on the kitchen counter before Yachi more some of her books before helping Yachi more some of her books and papers to one side of the dining table.

Yachi let out a small laugh. “I’m not sure if that’s comforting, Hinata-kun.”

He’d been here more times than Yachi could count over the past two and a half years, hence his familiarity with her kitchen and living area. There were weekend study sessions, dinners where Yachi’s mom insisted that he attend because “it was time for her to meet the little giant she has seen Yachi editing on the screen all the time.”

All of which had only added to Yachi’s developing feelings for Hinata.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I bought us tamago kake gohan,” Hinata rambled, taking out the takeout boxes, “when you said eggs for dinner I thought of eggs over rice and that’s my—”

“Absolute favorite food,” Yachi finished together with him, a smile on her face.

Hinata nodded excitedly. “You know me so well, Yacchan,” he said fondly, and Yachi swore her heartbeat increased ten-fold. That probably wasn’t healthy; she should go get that checked out.

As they started to dig into their dinners—Yachi too, because, boy, she was hungrier than she thought she was—Hinata asked about what she was doing.

Yachi chewed on her chopsticks sheepishly. “Ah, I was revising some math for a quiz on Monday, and then I suddenly remembered I had a science project due in two weeks, and then I found the training schedule Yamaguchi-kun gave me in my notebook so I guess I tried to email Kageyama-kun about it…”

Hinata let out a sound of comprehension through a mouthful of rice. “You have so much going on,” he garbled.

Yachi nodded grimly, her stress from an hour ago returning with the memory of what happened before her nap. “I’m never gonna finish anything,” she moaned, “I’m gonna fail high school because of poor time management and end up working in a convenience store forever.”

Hinata swallowed. “Yacchan you’re pushing yourself too hard,” he said, a frown tugging on his usually cheerful face.

“Eh?” Yachi said, completely taken back by his words. This was Hinata, someone who wouldn’t give up on the falling toss no matter what, who survived his first knee injury in their second year, who finally became their team’s ace, the new little giant of Karasuno. “I’m…I guess…” she admitted, digging her chopsticks into her rice.

Suddenly, Hinata’s postured straightened up. “You should take the night off,” he suggested excitedly, eyes gleaming with a hundred ideas already. “I’ll keep you company!”

“No, no that’s not necessary—”

“I want to though,” Hinata said, reverting to seriousness again. “You’ve been so busy, and we can’t have our manager tiring herself out.” Yachi paused. “When I volunteered to come check on you, Yamaguchi agreed with me too!”

He volunteered to check on you, an annoying little voice repeated in her head, and Yachi shushed herself.  “I, uh, appreciate it,” she started, and watched Hinata’s soft smile widen, his head tilting to a side as he watched her back.

She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t refuse him, refuse this. “What…did you have in mind?”

//

They ended up just watching various videos on Youtube.

Seated close together on the couch, their shoulders brushing, Yachi’s laptop balanced on both of their thighs, Yachi was very aware that they didn’t start off sitting this close to one another.

The time was eight forty nine at night, and for the past hour, Hinata has not stopped moving since they sat down together after dinner. He bounced when he was excited, slapped the surface of the sofa with his hand when laughing at a joke in the video, leaned against Yachi as he attempted to type in the next search, only to get sucked into a recommended video on the side bar.

Yachi, caught between chasing the cursor to see what Hinata was going to show her next and basically freaking out about their decreasing proximity, barely knew what Hinata had decided to watch until it started playing, his infectious laughter bringing her close to tears with happiness.

The video that was playing came to an end, and Hinata immediately arranged his hands on top of Yachi’s laptop. “This reminds me of another video–”

He was on the verge of hitting enter when Yachi cried, “wait!”

Hinata turned to her with surprise. “Yacchan?”

Yachi pointed to a video thumbnail at the bottom right of the screen. “Cats.” she whispered, “Dancing.”

Hinata clicked on the video in a flash.

It was a compilation of dancing cat videos, and Yachi’s heart has never swelled so immensely. When the five-minute video ended, she had cooed and gasped at all the clips. Her high from laughing at the videos Hinata had chosen melted into tranquil happiness.

They sat there together, staring at the blackened screen until Hinata gently closed her laptop screen.

“Hey, Yachi-san,” he said, and she turned over to look at him. His brown eyes held her for a moment, calm and earnest, their close proximity kickstarting the thump thump thumping in Yachi’s chest again. “Wanna dance?”

Yachi’s mouth fell open softly, but the next moment, Hinata has pulled her off the sofa and into his arms.

“I don’t—I don’t know how—” Yachi stuttered as Hinata’s left hand found hers, his right warm on her waist.

“I don’t know either,” he chirped brightly, his teeth shining brightly in the dimmed room. “But we can figure it out, right?”

Yachi’s voice was high as she squeaked out, “uh huh.” She was sure her hand in Hinata was already starting to sweat. Hinata was trying his best to “lead”, which basically meant he was swayed slightly to a certain direction and Yachi immediately mirrored his body in the opposite direction. She stepped on his socked feet a few times, apologizing profusely while Hinata chuckled and said that it was okay, he didn’t know what he was doing either.

Eventually they got their rhythm; maneuvering around the coffee table, cupboards and plants in Yachi’s living room. Yachi stopped looking at her feet, found Hinata’s eyes as bright stars despite being in close darkness.

The sun had set an hour ago, so the only light source they had was from the light in the open kitchen, spilling in from the other side of the room.

Hinata wore a warm smile, a corner hitched up higher than the higher in some genuine affection. “You’re feeling much better, right?”

Yachi nodded quickly with a blush. “Thank you, Hinata-kun,” she said.

With how close they were standing, she was caught in the way his body seemed to hum with stillness. Hinata, always moving on the court, in a flash he’d go from a blur at the corner of your eyes to be at the center on the court, so high up in the sky you’d be lucky if you even caught sight of his wings before his hand touched the ball he was chasing.

Now, he was slow, and steady, and drawing Yachi closer to him with every sway, every step he took.

His face was coming closer to hers, and Yachi lifted her chin to meet him in anticipation.

He was but a breath away when a sudden buzz from the sofa jerked Yachi awake. She scrambled towards her phone, landing on her knees as she cradled it in her hands.

It was a new message from her mom, but opening up the email chain between them, Yachi realized that her mom had tried to contact her a few times throughout the night.

“Ah, my mom’s…coming back soon,” Yachi said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. When she was done formulating a email to reassure her mother that she was fine, she glanced up at Hinata with an apologetic expression.

“Thank you for coming over.”

Hinata rubbed the back of his head with a cheeky grin. “Happy to,” he responded. “I’ll help you clean up.”

“No, no, it’s okay!” Yachi said quickly, standing up and walking to turn on some lights. “It’s getting late for you anyway, you still need to bike home.”

“We’ll work faster if there’s two of us!” he exclaimed excitedly, already on the dining area and picking up the disposable take out boxes on the table. Yachi giggled, helped him in his quest to clean up in the fast way possible.

He wanted to volley the boxes into the trashcan before Yachi screamed no and ripped them out of his hands. But he only laughed, caught her by the waist and took the boxes back, dumping them into the trashcan properly.

In two minutes the dining table was squeaky clean and Hinata was putting his bag over his head. They walked to the entryway quietly.

“Good night, Hinata-kun,” Yachi said, ducking her head slightly before meeting Hinata’s eyes again.

“Good night, Yacchan,” he replied with a smile. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

Yachi nodded as he pulled open the door, left with another wave, the door closing behind him. Yachi let out a sigh, staring at the spot where Hinata’s shoes had been. She stepped down from the entryway, putting a hand on the door to steady herself, then turned around and leaned against it, letting her door thud against the wall gently.

Her mind was reeling with what the warmth of his hands meant. The warmth on her waist, the warmth covering her hand, the warmth that set her heart aflame, ignited thoughts of what Hinata could feel for her.

It was most definitely not a dream, and she had it so bad for Hinata she didn’t know what to do about it.

Yachi sighed shakily, slapped her cheeks gently and peeled herself from the door.

There was no stopping her thoughts once they started streaming into her mind, and Yachi squeezed her eyes tight, moaning softly to herself as she tried to make her speculations stop.

A sudden knock from the door jerked her upright.

It was be mom, Yachi thought, plastering a small smile on her face and pulling the door open.

Hinata stood in front of her, his legs spread wide with a face full of determination. He looked as though he was challenging a taller, bigger opponent on the opposite side of the net. His nose scrunched up, eyebrows dipped, eyes fierce, his hands closed into fists.

“Yacchan!” he said sharply.

“Y-yes?”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but you’re probably thinking about a lot of stuff, right?” he asked with the same ferocity as before.

Yachi scratched the side of her head sheepishly. “Haha, it’s okay, Hinata-”

“No it’s not!” Hinata interrupted, squeezing his eyes tight. When he opened them again, his entire posture softened, his shoulders fell from his ears and he stood up straighter. “I don’t want you to get confused, I want you to know how I feel without any worry.”

“How-how you feel?” Yachi asked breathlessly.

Hinata nodded rapidly.

“I like you, Yachi-san.”

And just like that, like the first time they met, a handful of words from Hinata were enough to erase all of her troubles.

Yachi let a smile spread across her face.

“I like you too, Hinata-kun.”