Work Text:
Fall is fine, as far as seasons go.
It’s finally not grossly hot, and it’s not yet unpleasantly cold. There’s still enough hours of daylight that Kageyama isn’t catching his trains in the pitch black, it’s the competitive season for volleyball, and in general he would rather wear more layers of clothing than less. Realistically, the only reason he’s pissy is because he doesn’t like his classes this semester.
It’s not really that they’re even that bad , as far as the classes for his degree go. He doesn’t give two shits about business, but needs to do something with his time until he can try out for the national team— and that’s fine, and he doesn't mind too much when he’s not taking a course on contract law.
The issue, he is loath to admit, is that between practice, games, classes, homework, and the basic being alive things, he’s barely seen Kunimi.
And that’s not, like, a huge issue. It’s not like he has to see his friend all the time; it’s definitely not taking a toll on his permanently sour mood. That would be not only stupid and dumb, but also extremely embarrassing— Kageyama is embarrassing enough without being moody that he can’t pine over Kunimi as actively anymore.
He glares at the mug of chai tea latte in front of him, and then glares slightly to the right of it where all his notes are spread out over the surface of the cafe table. He’s never been one for studying in public, he’s never been one for studying in general, but at least this way he might bump into Kunimi getting a coffee between his evening classes.
No, that’s not pathetic. It’s pragmatic.
Kageyama is very smart.
His phone buzzes against the wood of the table and he scrambles to pick it up, half because he’s hoping it’s a text back from Kunimi, and half because the sound it makes is obnoxious. It’s not a text from Kunimi, it’s a message Yachi in ‘milfs with big huge sexy… brains ;)’. Honestly, he forgot he turned notifications back on for it.
[yachi-san - 4:56pm]
tsukishima!!!! you got our flashcards mixed up >:(
[tsukishima - 4:56pm]
just study biochem then
[yachi-san - 4:57pm]
NOT FUNNY!!! DIDN’T LAUGH!!!!!!!
[yachi-san - 4:57pm]
i need those back like right now!!! are you still on campus???
[kageyama - 4:57pm]
you guys couldnt have done this in pms?
It’s easy for an outsider to think Kageyama doesn’t care about his friends, but if he really didn’t he would have gotten new friends years ago. Love is a strong word that he’s not going to use, but he’s known them for four years now, and doesn’t really want to go anywhere.
[yachi-san - 4:57pm]
KAGEYAMA!!! DO NOT BE MEAN TO ME!!!! WHEN I AM PANICKING OVER FLASHCARDS!!!!!!!
[tsukishima - 4:58pm]
heartless…
[small asshole - 4:58pm]
it’s kageyama, what did you expect???
[yachi-san - 4:58pm]
hinata!! rude!! that wasn’t a free pass to bully kageyama!!
[small asshole - 4:58pm]
omg… it wasnt????? :(
Frowning, Kageyama taps out a reply. He gets midway through ‘hinata go fuck yourself’ when he hears a “Kageyama?” and all but drops his phone as his eyes dart off of the screen.
Kunimi’s standing in front of him with an amused look on his face, which for once is unobscured almost entirely thanks to the large clips pulling his bangs out of his face. He looks very… cute? Kageyama doesn’t usually feel like that’s the right word to describe his friend, but between the large barrettes and the way his sweater is a bit too big for him, that’s how he looks. Cute .
“Earth to Kageyama~” Kunimi waves a hand in front of him. “Are you finally too much of a dumb jock to hold a conversation?”
“I just wasn’t expecting to see you,” Kageyama grumbles. Even though he had been sitting here with the explicit goal of seeing Kunimi, he hadn’t really thought that would happen. He also definitely hadn’t thought beyond that.
“Yeah, I was just grabbing a coffee before class, and— oh! Kunimi’s eyes light up in a way that makes Kageyama’s stomach hurt. “Actually, I was about to text you. Are you free after 4:30 tomorrow?”
“I think so…?” Kageyama wracks his game to make sure. Tomorrow is a morning practice, and his last class lets out at 4. In general, that’s when he’d go to the gym on campus and sneak an extra work out in, but… “Yeah, I’m free.”
“Lucky~! Yamamoto cancelled tomorrow’s lecture, which means I’m totally free, and our schedules actually line up.” Kunimi actually sounds happy at the idea that he has time to see Kageyama, which makes Kageyama happy to an absurd degree. They’re friends, it would be kind of upsetting if Kunimi hated the idea of seeing him, and yet— “Let’s do something really fun, okay? I’ll let you pick, but we’re not watching any recorded volleyball games, okay?”
“Those are really—”
“Kageyama.”
Kunimi cuts him off, but he doesn’t sound annoyed in the least. To the contrary, there’s a definitively amused lilt to his voice, and an easy smile pulling at the corners of his lips. Honestly, if he had sounded annoyed, Kageyama probably would have pressed the issue a bit farther— but his voice is so irritatingly fond that Kageyama drops it on the spot.
“Fine, no volleyball,” he grumbles, putting in an effort to seem more outwardly bothered than he is. Kunimi smiles a little wider, and Kageyama can’t fight the feeling that his efforts are entirely transparent.
“Sounds like a date~ see you later, Kageyama!” Kunimi gives him a wave as he turns away, already running a bit behind for whatever class he’s on his way to.
“Sure,” Kageyama answers in a quick response, before coming to the very belated realization that Kunimi had just called it a date. “W-Wait…” It’s too late to clarify, with Kunimi’s back disappearing out the glass door of the cafe.
He’d misspoke, right? Or used it as a figure of speech? People do that. People call all sorts of things dates; really a date is just a number on a calendar, that’s probably where they got the name.
Fuck, he needs to talk to Yachi.