Chapter Text
“Shouyou!”
Hinata lets out a soft sigh when Yachi’s panicked voice reaches him from her bedroom for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. He places a stack of books on his bed from a box he’s currently unpacking before shouting back in response.
“What is it?”
“I can’t find my-” the girl starts, but then promptly cuts herself off. “Forget it, I found it!”
Hinata chuckles to himself and shakes his head with a smile of endearment. But the smile quickly fades from his face to be replaced with a scowl once he notices that something’s missing. He empties the rest of the box’s contents on his bed, and frantically searches around his belongings.
“Yachi!” he calls out in a slightly panicked voice. “Have you seen my mom’s cookbook?”
“Your mom’s cookbook?” comes Yachi’s confused answer.
“Yes!”
“Ah! The one that belonged to your grandma?”
“Yes!”
“Didn’t you put it with your clothes?”
Hinata drops the book he’s currently holding, and then scrambles to the only closed box that’s left on the floor of his new bedroom. He quickly tears off the tape that’s holding the lids together and digs inside until he finds the book. Letting out a relieved sigh, Hinata hugs it against his chest.
“Did you find it?” Yachi’s voice reaches him from the doorway, where she’s standing with a concerned look on her face.
Grinning widely, Hinata extends his arms to show the small, worn-out book to his friend. She smiles back at him, and then walks over to sit next to him on the floor. Yachi rests her head on Hinata’s shoulder, and he presses his cheek to her head. Both of them let out a soft sigh at the comforting gesture.
“Moving in kinda sucks…” Yachi says, and Hinata nods in agreement. They only arrived to their new apartment this morning, and they’re already stressed out and tired, wanting to do nothing but sleep for a couple hours. Or maybe a couple days.
“There’s too much to do!” Hinata whines, eliciting a tiresome groan from Yachi. “Arranging furniture, cleaning, unpacking…”
“But we’re here, Shouyou!” Yachi exclaims, perking up all of sudden. She places her hands on his shoulders with an excited grin, and moves her face closer to his. “We’re in Tokyo!”
A bright smile spreads across Hinata’s lips, mirroring the one on the girl’s face.
“We’re in Tokyo!” he repeats, and Yachi’s smile grows even wider.
~•~
“I’m home!” Hinata calls out as soon as he closes the front door behind him.
“Welcome home!” Yachi greets him, emerging from her bedroom in her pajamas. “How was your day?”
Hinata offers a low groan as an answer, before flopping face down on the couch.
“I’m so tired…” he mumbles, earning a sympathetic grimace from Yachi. “College is way harder than high school…”
“I know, I know,” she says. “My day was tough, too.”
Yachi walks over to the couch, and does a tiny gesture with his head. Hinata scoots away to leave room for her on the couch, and waits until the girl sits down to place his head on her lap. Yachi’s hands immediately find Hinata’s orange locks, and she begins to caress his hair in the most soothing way.
They’re entirely okay with this level of intimacy. Three years of friendship have made the two of them extremely close, and their closeness and easiness with each other’s presence reflects on a great amount of physical contact. Hugs and cuddles are given without second thought between them, especially when one of them has had a tough day, or needs comforting. And Hinata has to admit that there are few things more relaxing than Yachi’s fingers running through his hair.
They stay like that for a couple of minutes, silently enjoying each other’s presence, until Yachi’s voice breaks the silence.
“It’s almost time for dinner. Anything you want to eat?”
“Pizza?” Hinata offers, shifting on the couch to look up at her.
“We’ve been eating pizza for three days straight now!”
“Well, it can’t be helped! It’s not like any of us can cook.”
They both grimace at the memories of their past attempts to cook. Cleaning up a huge, uselessness-induced mess is definitely not on their list of things to do tonight.
“Okay, but it doesn’t have to be pizza every night!” Yachi complains with a pout. Hinata thinks it over for a moment, biting on his lower lip.
“I think I really want some meat buns…” he says thoughtfully, and then looks at her again. “You think they sell them at the convenience store?”
“It’s worth checking,” Yachi says. She jumps off the couch and pads over to her bedroom. “I’ll get changed and go with you.”
After she disappears behind her bedroom door, Hinata stretches out on the couch, and smiles softly at the tingling sensation that Yachi’s fingers left on his scalp. Looking up at the roof, Hinata silently thanks the heavens for Yachi Hitoka’s existence.
~•~
Their first weekend in Tokyo finally rolls over, and it feels like an oasis in the middle of a desert for the two of them. Their first weekend in college has felt like an eternity; between graphic design projects, volleyball practice, unpacking, and cup noodles, both Yachi and Hinata realize that college life is not as easy as it seemed.
Yachi is snoring on the couch when Hinata walks into their living room that morning, yawning widely and rubbing his eyes in an attempt to get rid of any remnants of sleepiness. Her laptop rests, forgotten, on the coffee table beside her, and she looks terribly adorable with her messy hair and sprawled limbs. After he sees her, Hinata returns to his bedroom, and then comes back into the living room with a blanket, which he carefully places over her sleeping form.
Hinata looks at Yachi with a tiny smile, before heading to the kitchen with another big yawn. He’s busy with exploring the fridge for something he can eat, when a loud screech startles him. Hinata scrambles to the living room (hitting his head on the fridge shelf in the process), and finds Yachi in the middle of a gigantic freak-out.
“What happened!?” he asks.
“I fell asleep!” Yachi exclaims in a panicked voice, jumping from the couch, and nearly tripping with Hinata’s blanket. “Shouyou, what time is it!?”
“I don’t know, around ten, I think. Why?”
“Ah, I’m late!” Yachi interrupts him, and then runs to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
“Late?” Hinata asks, following her to stand behind the closed door. “Late to where?”
Yachi emerges from her bedroom a few moments later, nearly hitting Hinata in the face with the door in her hurried haze. The redhead looks at her with evident confusion on his face, watching as she tries to zip her pants with one hand, and fix her hair with the other. If there’s one thing that can’t be denied, is the fact that Yachi Hitoka is a champ at getting dressed in under a minute.
“I told my mom I’d visit her today,” she explains, groaning in frustration when the bobby pins she was holding fall from her hand. “But I overslept and I might miss my train!”
“Here, let me,” Hinata says, picking up the pins from the floor to carefully place them on her hair. “There you go!” he says with a smile, and Yachi hugs him tightly in gratitude.
The girl lets him pat her back a couple times, before hurrying to her bedroom to pick up her bags.
“Do you want me to come with you to the station?” Hinata asks, helping her carry her luggage to the door.
“No, it’s fine,” Yachi says. She opens the front door, and then turns to envelop Hinata in another tight hug. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” she says when they part. “Try not to miss me too much!”
“I’ll try!” Hinata jokes with a smile, and Yachi blows him a kiss before she leaves the apartment, closing the door behind her.
And with that, Hinata is left alone.
~•~
Around twelve, Hinata’s stomach begins to rumble. Once he’s too hungry to ignore it, he reluctantly gets up from the couch, and pads over to the kitchen to look for something he can eat. After all, it’s not like he can survive on cereal all day long.
The fridge and the cupboards are devoid of anything instantaneous that he can just throw in the microwave. Hinata sighs with annoyance at the prospect of having to go to the convenience store, and then, his eyes fall on his mom’s old cookbook, resting, forgotten, on top of the microwave.
He takes it in his hands and stares at the cover, where bright colored dishes shine, elaborate and delicious. Just as he is about to place it back where it was, his mother’s voice rings across his head.
“You have to eat properly, Shou-chan!” she had said to him the night before he left to Tokyo. “And you need to learn how to cook, so I’ll give you my mom’s cookbook. It’s pretty easy to follow, there’s no way you can fail!” she had assured him with a big smile on her face, and Hinata would’ve believed her, if it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t even hard-boil an egg without the neighbors calling the firefighters.
“Well, I might as well give it a shot,” Hinata thinks, opening the book and flipping through the pages, looking for something that looks easy enough so that even he can cook it.
He finally finds something attractive enough, judging by the shiny picture that adorns the pages: carbonara pasta. That looks easy.
~•~
As it turns out, carbonara pasta is not, in fact, easy. Not in the least.
That’s all Hinata can think when he takes the lid off the pot, and finds that almost all the water has evaporated, leaving behind a miniature disaster of dry, burned spaghettis. He lets out a whiny groan and runs his hands down his face, cursing the very moment he decided to try and make something even remotely edible.
In the last half an hour, Hinata has managed to make the lid fall from the salt shaker and on top of the cream (along with an outrageous amount of salt), end up with a handful of eggs twice while trying to crack them against the counter, and throw the garlic in the sauce without chopping it first. And now, he has burned down the pasta in the most ridiculous possible way.
Hinata takes the pot off the fire, and stares at it helplessly, wondering how exactly he managed to screw up so badly.
“Ugh, goddammit!” he exclaims, taking off his apron and throwing it behind his back.
Just as he is about to pull out his cellphone to call his favorite pizza place, the distinct smell of burning fabric reaches his nose. Hinata turns around in a heartbeat, and lets out a loud scream at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
~•~
“Okay, that’s it!” Kageyama exclaims angrily, slamming his laptop shut. He’s definitely had it with whoever his downstairs neighbor is. Loud, banging noises and shrill screaming had been coming from under his floor for at least half an hour now, and he is not going to put up with it anymore.
Kageyama stomps his way downstairs, face crumpled into an annoyed frown, and fists curled into balls at his sides. He quickly finds himself in front of the noisy neighbor’s door, where he can clearly hear falling pots and some more screaming. Kageyama takes a moment to wonder what exactly is this person doing to cause such a ruckus, before he knocks harshly on the door.
There’s a beat of silence on the other side of the door, before the sound of frantic footsteps can be heard. As soon as he sees the doorknob beginning to turn, Kageyama opens his mouth to give the noisy neighbor a piece of his mind. But before he can even utter one word, a string of barely coherent words interrupt him.
“PLEASE HELP ME, MY KITCHEN’S ON FIRE!”
Kageyama’s eyebrows shoot up across his forehead, and he lets out a confused “Huh?” He can barely catch sight of an unruly set of orange locks, and wide brown eyes, before he’s being pulled inside the apartment.
“Hey, what the hell-!?” Kageyama exclaims, shaking free from his neighbor’s grasp. Just as he is about to keep yelling, his eyes flicker to the kitchen in front of him, and he immediately lets out a strangled yelp, barely audible amongst the frightened cries of his neighbor.
This guy’s kitchen really is on fire.
Over the stove, the remnants of what looks like it used to be an apron are burning bright, the flames swaying dangerously close to the curtains. A quick glance around the kitchen also reveals a massive mess of kitchenware, pots, paper towels, and egg shells.
“Shit…” Kageyama mumbles. He is thoroughly convinced that he has never seen a most disastrous kitchen situation. And that’s saying a lot.
“Yes, shit!” the smaller boy next to him exclaims. “Now, help me!”
He runs towards the burning stove, and sways a rag towards the flames in a useless attempt to extinguish them. But the only thing the redhead is succeeding on, is fanning the fire, and making it bigger.
“You idiot!” Kageyama yells, running after him.
Doing his best to ignore the panicked screams of his neighbor, Kageyama looks around the kitchen for something he can fill with enough water to put out the fire. After a few seconds of frantic searching, his eyes fall on a steaming pot next to the sink, and he immediately reaches out to grab it.
Once the goddamned pot is finally full of water, Kageyama barely remembers to warn the other boy with a quick “Move!”, before he throws the water on the fire, effectively putting it out.
Listening to the sizzling sound of the fire being extinguished, both boys breathe heavily, staring wide-eyed at the pathetic remnants of the apron that remain on the wet stove. Kageyama is still gripping the pot by the handles, and when he turns to look inside it, he is surprised to see a bunch of burned spaghettis, now completely wet, sticking to the bottom of it.
“What the hell is this?” he wonders aloud, frowning in confusion.
“Ah, that!” the smaller boy grimaces when he looks inside the pot as well. “That… was supposed to be my lunch, I guess…”
Kageyama looks up at him, and blinks slowly a couple times, before returning his gaze to the spaghettis.
“How much water did you put into this?” he asks quietly.
“I don’t know… About a cup?”
Kageyama just stares incredulously at the smaller boy, because how could someone be so stupid?
“One cup,” Kageyama says slowly, trying to make sense of the fact that this guy actually tried to cook an entire pack of pasta with one freaking cup of water.
The smaller boy nods slowly, shifting uncomfortably under Kageyama’s intense gaze.
“This isn’t even a mistake,” he says after a few moments of silent judging. “This is just pure idiocy.”
“S-shut up!” his neighbor squeaks. His cheeks tint with embarrassment, and he looks down at his feet with a defeated look on his face. “I’m not really good at cooking, okay?”
“No shit,” Kageyama deadpans, earning an offended glare from the redhead.
“Wow, you’re an asshole!”
“I just saved your life!”
“I could’ve done that myself!”
“You were only making it worse!” Kageyama cuts off the other boy before he can answer. “And you were the one who started the fire in the first place! What the hell were you even trying to make?”
The redhead looks down at his feet again, pouting slightly.
“Carbonara pasta,” he mumbles, before walking over to the stove to pick up a pan, now entirely filled with water. “And this was supposed to be the sauce…”
“Carbonara pasta?” Kageyama repeats, raising one eyebrow.
“It looked easy in the book, ok!?” the smaller boy says defensively. It looks like he’s about to say something else, when he suddenly gasps sharply, his eyes widening. “The book!”
He runs to the counter, and promptly picks an old-looking book. The boy examines it to make sure neither the fire or the water damaged it, before holding to his chest with a relieved sigh.
“Thank God…” he mumbles.
“What’s your name?” Kageyama asks all of sudden.
“Hinata,” the smaller boy answers, surprised by the sudden question. “Hinata Shouyou.”
“Hinata Shouyou,” Kageyama repeats in his mind.
“And you are?” Hinata’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts.
“Kageyama Tobio. I live right above you.”
“Well, thanks for helping me out, Kageyama-san!” Hinata says with a wide smile, and Kageyama’s eyebrows twitch slightly at the sight of what could probably be the brightest grin he has ever seen.
“Don’t mention it,” he mumbles, looking away from Hinata’s cheerful face. “Just… Don’t burn your kitchen again.”
They are immersed in an awkward silence for a few seconds. Kageyama is about to turn to leave, when Hinata’s voice reaches his ears again.
“So… Would you help me clean out this mess?” he asks, pointing with his thumb at the disaster that is now his kitchen.
“No way!” Kageyama says with a deep frown. “It’s your kitchen, and your mess!”
The raven turns around to leave, but he stops in his tracks when Hinata grabs him by the sleeve.
“Then-!” the smaller boy starts, but he interrupts himself when Kageyama turns to glare at him. Hinata gulps audibly, and a light blush spreads across his cheeks, before he finishes his sentence. “Would you… help me cook?”
~•~
Kageyama isn’t really sure why he agreed to this. Looking back, he probably thought that teaching Hinata how to cook at least one dish would decrease the amount of noise he’d have to hear from him. And he probably wouldn’t have to put out any more fires in a while.
Yeah, that’s what he thought.
But right now, as he watches Hinata failing to break the third egg in a row, and whine while he stares at the mess of yolk running down his clumsy hand, Kageyama curses himself a thousand times. Because Hinata Shouyou is, in fact, the noisiest, dumbest creature he has ever met.
“What the hell are you doing, you dumbass!?” Kageyama exclaims, earning a flinch and a terrified look from Hinata.
“I’m sorry!”
“Just… move. I’ll do it.”
Already beyond exhausted from witnessing Hinata’s utter uselessness, Kageyama pushes him away from the stove. Pouting, the smaller boy jumps up to sit on the counter next to him, and watches carefully as Kageyama picks up an egg, and taps it slightly against the rim of a bowl, before cracking it open with one hand.
“Wow!” Hinata says, face shining with a mixture of amazement and admiration. “How do you do that?”
“It’s easy,” Kageyama says, rolling his eyes. “Everybody can crack an egg.”
“It’s not easy,” Hinata mumbles, a small pout reappearing on his face. “And you do it with one hand! How do you do that?”
“Practice, I guess.”
Kageyama reaches out for another egg to crack it open on the bowl, and then another two. Hinata watches him with the utmost attention, letting out tiny sounds of appreciation at the sight of the raven’s skilled hands.
Once he’s done cracking the eggs, Kageyama extends one hand towards Hinata, without even looking at him.
“Spoon,” he commands, and Hinata scrambles to grab a wooden spoon from a nearby drawer. He hands it to Kageyama, who immediately begins to whisk the eggs with fast, fluid motions. “Okay, now grab the salt.”
Hinata does as he says, and takes the salt shaker in one hand, with an expectant look on his face.
“Now, slowly, put some salt into this,” Kageyama instructs, bringing the bowl close to Hinata. “Slowly.”
“Slowly. I get it,” Hinata mumbles to himself, and he gives a shaky nod, before carefully moving the salt shaker over the eggs.
Both boys watch as the salt slowly falls on the bowl with each one of Hinata’s movements. The shorter boy bites on his lower lip, focusing on being careful.
“Thanks okay, stop,” Kageyama says, and Hinata retrieves the salt shaker. “Now pepper.”
They repeat the same process, with pepper this time, until Kageyama tells Hinata to stop.
“Always be careful when adding salt and pepper,” he explains while whisking the eggs again. “If your food is missing salt, you can always add more. However, if you use too much, then fixing it will be way harder.”
“So, I should add it little by little?”
“At first. Eventually, you’ll learn how much salt your food needs. But for now, you’re still useless, so yeah.”
Ignoring Hinata’s offended look, Kageyama puts the bowl down, and looks around the kitchen.
“You don’t have oregano, do you?” he asks, earning a confused look from Hinata.
“Ore-what?” he says, and Kageyama sighs.
“Of course you don’t.”
Kageyama picks up the bowl again, and pours half of its contents on a frying pan over the stove. A nice sizzling sound fills the kitchen, along with the familiar smell of eggs being cooked.
“Did you chop the onion like I told you?” Kageyama asks, and Hinata nods, handing him a small plate.
Kageyama notices how awfully cut the onion is, but he decides to ignore it. He pours it on another frying pan, and extends his hand towards Hinata. The redhead hands him another plate, full of finely chopped ham. Kageyama was the one who cut it, and the difference between it and Hinata’s sad, irregular onions is noticeable.
“You’re really good at this,” Hinata comments, while Kageyama puts the ham on the pan along with the onion, and stirs it with the wooden spoon.
“I guess.”
“You’ve been cooking for a long time?”
“Since I was little.”
“And do you cook a lot?”
“I’m a chef.”
“That explains it,” Hinata thinks. Kageyama’s answers are short and absent-minded, showing how focused he is on the task as hand. His black eyes are set on the ingredients he’s working with, slowly cooking in their respective pans. His hands work with practiced ease, moving accurately. They’re quick, but careful, and soon enough, Hinata finds himself lost in the movement of those skillful hands.
“Here,” Kageyama’s voice brings him back to reality, along with a bag of grated mozzarella being shoved into his chest. “Put the cheese on the eggs.”
“How much?” Hinata asks, grabbing the bag with both hands.
“As much as you want.”
A wide smile spreads across Hinata’s face. He can definitely work with those instructions.
~•~
“There,” Kageyama says, slowly sliding the finished food on a plate. “Piece of cake.”
Hinata’s eyes nearly sparkle at the wonderful sight before him: on two separate plates, rest two delicious-looking omelets, steaming, and smelling wonderfully.
“Wah, it looks so good!” he exclaims with a gigantic grin on his face.
“You still used too much cheese,” Kageyama complains, frowning slightly.
“You told me to use as much as I wanted!”
“I never expected you to use so much, you cheese-monster!” Hinata sticks out his tongue at him, and Kageyama has to resist the urge to grab him by the nose. The raven pinches the bridge of his nose, and sighs. “Whatever. It should still be edible.”
Just as he finishes his sentence, Hinata’s stomach rumbles loudly, and Kageyama snorts.
“Shut up, I haven’t eaten in hours!” Hinata says with a blush spreading across his cheeks.
“Well, I’ll be leaving then,” Kageyama says, stepping out of the kitchen.
“Wait!” Hinata’s voice stops him just as he’s about to reach the front door. “Are you not gonna stay for lunch?”
“Huh? Why would I?”
“Well, you made two plates, so I thought…”
“You can save one for dinner so you won’t burn down your kitchen again,” Kageyama explains in an annoyed tone. Hinata blinks owlishly at him, and the raven turns to leave again.
“Kageyama-san!” Hinata’s voice stops him again, and he turns around with a groan.
“What now?”
“Um, thanks…” Hinata says, and then shoots him a tiny smile. “For helping me out.”
“Drop the ‘-san’,” Kageyama says after a moment of silence. He opens the door, and then turns to look at Hinata before he leaves. “And if you burn your kitchen again, I’ll kill you.”
Kageyama’s threatening words hang in the air, as well as the echoing sound of the door closing behind him. A small frown appears on Hinata’s face, as his previous gratitude fades into annoyance.
“Jeez, so grumpy…” he mumbles, returning to the kitchen.
Doing his best to ignore the loud rumbling of his stomach, Hinata grabs a fork, and takes a bite from one of the omelets. An almost pornographic sound leaves him as soon as he begins to chew, and he closes his eyes with delight.
The guy may be an asshole, but damn, he can cook.
~•~
“I swear to god, Shouyou, whoever’s in charge of the Tokyo-Miyagi train line, should seriously consider another profession.”
Without a word, Hinata reaches out to pat Yachi’s head in a comforting gesture, and keeps watching as the girl unpacks her bags, placing her clothes on the bed next to where he’s seating.
“I know, the trains suck,” he says, fighting back an amused smile at the sight of his friend’s angry pout. “Aside from that, how was your weekend?”
“It was fine, I guess,” Yachi says, letting a small smile appear on her face. Suddenly, her expression turns sour again, and she places one of her shirts on the bed with a lot more force than necessary. “Except for the goddamn-!”
“I know, the trains suck,” Hinata repeats, patting her head again. Yachi sighs, and shoots him a tiny smile.
“So, how was your weekend?” she asks, returning her attention to her bag.
“Oh, it was fine. I watched movies, studied, almost burned down our kitchen, met our upstairs neighbor…”
“Is he hot?” Yachi asks without missing a beat.
“Well, yeah, kinda-” Hinata starts, but then interrupts himself. He looks at his friend with an unamused expression on his face. “Yachi, I just told you I almost burned down our kitchen, and that’s all you care about?”
“Were you trying to cook?”
“Yes.”
“I figured,” Yachi finally takes out the last item from her bag, and promptly turns around to look at Hinata with a little smirk. “So, about the hot neighbor…”
“I never said he was hot!” Hinata exclaims, stammering a little.
“You did!”
“Did I?”
“You did.”
Silence falls around them after Yachi’s last words, and they stare at each other with unchanging expressions. Finally, Hinata looks down at the floor, and his voice breaks the silence.
“He helped me cook lunch,” he mumbles, avoiding the topic of Kageyama’s hotness.
“Wait…” Yachi starts with a low voice, and Hinata looks up at her with silent questioning in his eyes. “You learned how to cook?”
Hinata nods, and Yachi’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Nothing especial, just a ham and cheese ome-” Hinata begins to explain, but the girl cuts him off.
“You need to show me!” she exclaims, grabbing Hinata’s arm to pull him out of her bedroom, and into the kitchen.
~•~
They both stare silently at the pathetic mess of eggs and cheese resting on a plate before them. Yachi raises her gaze to give Hinata a dubious look, and the boy groans.
“Ok, I still don’t know how to flip it properly,” he says, poking what was supposed to be an omelette, but is now a sad version of scrambled eggs. “But I’m pretty sure it’s edible.”
“You sure?” Yachi asks with a grimace, looking back at Hinata’s failed omelette.
“I’m sure!” Hinata says with a mildly annoyed tone of voice. He hands her a fork, which Yachi takes doubtfully. “Go on, try it.”
Yachi takes a piece of the omelette with her fork, and gives it a questioning look, before shoving it into her mouth. Hinata stares expectantly at her as she chews slowly. Finally Yachi lets out an appreciative sound.
“Mmm! It actually tastes good!” she says, surprise evident in her voice. A proud smile spreads across Hinata’s face.
“See? I told you!”
“So, this guy is hot, and patient enough to teach you how to cook something edible?” Yachi starts, taking another bite of the omelette. “Should I call your parents and tell them about the wedding?”
“There’s gonna be,” Hinata snatches the plate away from Yachi, and the girl lets out a small whimper. She reaches out her hand in a futile attempt to retrieve it. “No wedding! And he’s not very patient at all, let me tell you…”
“Nobody would be patient while teaching you how to cook! Remember when you tried to hard-boil an egg and-?”
“Oh, like you are any better!” Hinata interrupts her, exiting the kitchen with the plate still in his hand.
Yachi chases after him, and takes the plate from his hands. The girl flops down on the couch, and dives her fork into the omelette.
“You should learn how to cook other things,” she suggests. “I’m tired of pizza and cup ramen.”
“How?” Hinata asks, flopping down next to her. He opens his mouth for Yachi to feed him.
“Ask the hot neighbor!” she says, shoving a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
“Stop calling him that!” Hinata furiously chews and swallows, before speaking up again. “And no way!”
“Why not?”
“He has a terrible personality!”
“Aw, come on, it can’t be that bad!”
“And it’d be so embarrassing!” Hinata gets up from the couch, and paces around the living room. Yachi follows him with her eyes, doing her best to hide her amusement. “I can’t just show up at his door and be like ‘Please teach me how to cook’!”
~•~
“Please teach me how to cook!”
Kageyama stares incredulously at him, eyebrows raised, and mouth slightly agape.
“Huh?”
He hadn’t even fully opened the door, when this guy was already clasping his hands together in a begging gesture, and requesting cooking lessons at an almost incoherent speed. Kageyama blinks a couple times at Hinata, and the redhead raises his head with a hopeful look on his face.
“You want me to what?” Kageyama asks.
“Teach me how to cook!”
Silence engulfs them as they stare at each other, one expectant, and the other confused.
“No way,” Kageyama deadpans after a few seconds. He’s about to close the door, when Hinata reaches out to grab him by the wrist.
“Please, Kageyama!” Hinata begs with wide eyes. “I’ll pay you!”
“I don’t want your money!” Kageyama says, feeling the annoyance grow inside him with each passing second. “Let go of me!”
“Pleeeeeeeaseeeee!”
With a loud groan, Kageyama shakes himself free from Hinata’s grip. He glares daggers at the smaller boy, inwardly cursing the moment when he decided to help him save his kitchen.
“Why the hell do you want me to teach you!?”
“Because you’re like, a king of the kitchen!”
Hinata’s excited words echo around Kageyama’s head. He stares blankly at the redhead, before slamming the door shut.
“Ah, Kageyama!” Hinata’s panicked voice reaches him from behind the closed door. “Wait!”
“Go away!” Kageyama yells out, and then turns to return to his living room.
“I will stay here until you say yes!”
“What the hell is wrong with you!?”
“Come on, Kageyama, I’m begging you!”
Kageyama runs his hands down his face, and lets out the loudest groan he can muster. He stomps towards the door and flings it open, making Hinata, who was leaning on it, tumble a couple steps, almost falling face-first on the floor.
“Fine!” Kageyama exclaims, pointing his index finger into Hinata’s face. “But I won’t be patient with you, you hear me?” Hinata nods furiously, eyes wide with excitement. “I’ll make Gordon Ramsey look like a goddamned forest fairy! You’ll have nightmares about me!”
“Does that mean you’ll teach me?” Hinata asks, barely containing a gigantic grin from spreading across his face.
“Ugh, YES! Now go away!”
With that, Kageyama slams the door shut again. He stands there, his shoulders raising and falling to the beat of his heavy breathing, until a loud “Yahoo!” reaches him from behind the closed door.
Kageyama stomps his way back into the living room, and flops face down on the couch, letting out a massive sigh.
“Great,” he mumbles, with a tiresome groan. Suddenly, he has become the new cooking teacher of the noisiest, dumbest creature he has ever met.