His Sweater - Kageyama Tobio x Reader

To be honest, you weren’t much of a sports person. At all, really. But something about watching the games was a lot more entertaining than playing them yourself.

You watched the ant-like players on the court below you from the upper level of the gym. Blurs of black, orange, and brown swooped across the floors, the squeaking of sneakers and shouts of the teammates echoing in your ears.

Letting out a small sigh, you leaned forward onto the metal railing as you continued to observe them and softly murmured to yourself: “The Karasuno volleyball team… huh?” They’d just recently formed, and they still had yet to play in any official matches. But still, as they leaped around and patted each other on the back, they looked like they were having fun. Ever since they’d gotten together you’d come to watch their practices from the same spot above the gym you were standing on now and left quietly when it ended. Maybe somewhere deep inside you wanted a group of people to be so familiar with too, and that’s why you always came to watch them. Not that it mattered.

Two of the first-years stood out the most. One of them was the shortest with curly orange hair; that was Hinata Shouyou. You had history class with him, and he was always cheerful, optimistic, and loud in class, despite the fact he’d fallen asleep several times. The other was Kageyama Tobio, the stoic teen with raven-black hair and an intimidating look in his eyes. According to what you’d heard, he used to be called the King of the Court back in middle school. Those two were always bumping into each other on the court and arguing non-stop with each other for the most ridiculous reasons, but soon enough you realized it was seeing them that made watching the practices so fun. When you tried to decide who you liked better, it was too difficult, so you ended up eenie-meenie-miney-moing it and landed on Kageyama. Since then, you paid just a little more attention to him. The way his black hair swished around when he ran and his fist pumps when Hinata ended up hitting the ball properly was just a little endearing.

One fall day after practice, you wiped the small smile off your face and leaned back from the railing. But today, something was different. After you went down the stairs and reached for the door, a hand patted your shoulder.

“Hey.”

Your heart leaped into your throat as you nearly jumped out of your own skin. Quickly you spun around to see none other than Kageyama Tobio standing there with a water bottle and wiping his face with a towel around his neck.

“Y-Yes?” You asked way too quickly. When had he noticed you? A cold sweat started to break out on your palms. Maybe the eenie-meenie-miney-moing had jinxed something…

But he didn’t look mad. If anything, he seemed more confused and curious as he knitted his brows at you. “I noticed recently that you’ve come to watch a lot of our practices. What’s your name?”

You fiddled with the strap of your bag since you needed to move your hands. “I-I’m in your classic literature class. (l/n) (f/n).”

“Ah, right.” He blinked before nodding. For a few seconds he simply stared at you and you stared back, racking your brain for a good conversation topic. What now? This was the first time he’d ever spoken to you directly. You bit your lip and cursed your awkwardness.

His lips tightened; you could’ve sworn he was going to say something more, but all he said after was, “That’s all I wanted to ask. See you.” Kageyama spun on his heel and started walking back to the locker room, leaving you utterly stunned.

Hinata caught up with him and laced his hands behind his head. “Geez, what was that, Kageyama? She was cute, too! Lucky!”

“It wasn’t like that, dumbass. I just asked her name.”

You stared at your toes, still dumbstruck.

Kageyama Tobio just asked for your name.

Xxxxx

You weren’t sure whether or not it was a good idea to keep showing up to the practices. One side of your brain said to stop already since you’d finally been noticed and by Kageyama of all people, but the other wanted to go even more so because he’d noticed. But the next practice it was almost like your feet had decided your route for you, thus you ended up standing there that day. And the day after, and the day after that as well.

Ever since you’d first talked, the tall volleyball player never approached you head-on again, which you were fine with. But at least once every practice he’d turn his head towards the railing and make eye contact with you. He was never smiling, but it was almost as though he was making sure you were there. Sometimes he’d give you a subtle nod, too. Every time your eyes met you knew your face was going red and you cursed your embarrassment capacity. Were you just hyperactively wired to get flustered at anything?

Unfortunately, the next time you two did talk, it wasn’t under normal circumstances. Again.

You were completely exhausted that day, both from skipping breakfast and lack of sleep the previous night. Yawns escaped your mouth every thirty seconds and you literally had to drag your body through your classes until the end of the day. Even as you were watching the practice like you usually were, this time you leaned on the railing and completely melted. In about twenty seconds you’d passed out to the sound of shouts, squeaking sneakers, and the faint pattering of rain.

“Hey.”

With a groan, you stirred and reluctantly opened your eyes. What…? Where were you again? What were you doing? Who was talking to you? Your head spun with unanswered questions and your arms hurt from leaning on them for so long.

“Hey! How long do you plan on napping there?”

Your eyes snapped open at the voice, and you shot up from the railing to see the boy you were trying to avoid the most standing there again. He had the same towel and water bottle as last time, and again he was wearing that cream-coloured sweater that had the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Heat rushed to your face. Not only did he catch you sleeping, he had to show up wearing that sweater. Truthfully, it was really cute on him. You liked seeing him in it.

“S-Sorry! I don’t know what I’m doing.” Hurriedly you brushed your hair back into place, staring at the ground again.

There was a sigh from the boy and a short pause before he spoke again. “You should look at people when you’re talking, you know.”

That made you even more flustered, and you lifted your face to meet his eyes. “R-Right! Sorry.”

Another sigh. Now he was starting to look irritated, and your stomach twisted. Great. Was he sick of you now? “You don’t have to apologize for every little thing.” He put a hand on his hip and looked out to the empty courts. “Everyone already left a while ago. You should get going too.”

“Yeah. Sorry, Kageyama-kun. See you tomorrow.” You blurted out one last sentence and briskly walked right out of the gym-

Only to see it pouring outside.

It didn’t even seem to be raining. It was like every single drop was crashing down and exploding rather than just falling. As you stood there, shocked, you wondered who had turned up the gravity by about five times.

Well… it wasn’t that far a walk to the train station, so… Maybe it wasn’t a terrible thing that you hadn’t brought your umbrella, considering the clear blue skies that had been greeting you just this morning. Your hands found your schoolbag, and you wondered if it would keep you at least a little dry. Hopefully, you glanced up, but one look at the graying sky proved you otherwise. Sucking in a breath to prepare yourself against the cold, you dashed out into the rain.

Icy bullets sprayed you from head to toe, soaking both your clothes and shoes in a matter of seconds. You blinked rapidly against the falling drops tangling in your hair and eyes, pants escaping your parted lips as you struggled against the wind. Bitter cold bit into your exposed skin and soon your toes from your wet socks.

Eventually you whirred to a stop the second your feet started to go numb and you were dripping from head to toe. You had barely even left school grounds and it was already this bad… You leaned against a wall under a tree and attempted to wipe yourself off even though you were shivering as you did so. Goosebumps littered almost every inch of your skin as you clutched your arms and sneezed. This was a horrible idea.

“Tch… I can’t watch this anymore.”

When you looked up, still hugging your arms, Kageyama passed by you with a clear umbrella hanging over his head and dressed in the zipped-up team jersey. The sight was somewhat surreal, and after taking a few more steps he looked over his shoulder to you from where you stood huddled by the wall.

“Are you coming or not? You’re soaked to the bone.”

Your head was still spinning, but you picked up your bag and chased after him hoping he would stop pestering you if you did what he said. But soon enough he noticed you were trailing behind him somewhat and grabbed your wet wrist.

“What? Get under the umbrella.” He tugged at your wrist a bit, and before you could even speak you were pressed shoulder-to-shoulder against him. You didn’t even have time to question the situation. You knew your face was red, so you hid it behind your hair the best you could.

“S-Sorry, Kageyama-kun. I’m getting water on you too, aren’t I?”

“I told you not to apologize for everything. I don’t care if I get wet. But besides that, there’s something else I wanted to ask you.” He said as you walked along the path together. The world seemed completely void of anyone else other than the two of you at the moment.

“Yes?” You turned your gaze to him to see his face in profile. After you spoke, he turned his head down to look at you.

“Are you in any other clubs?” That same curious look appeared again.

“No, nothing in particular.” You forced yourself to keep looking at him as to not be rude. You tried to smile a little. “I like watching your team play volleyball, though.”

“If you like to watch us so much, why not join a team of your own? And if there’s not, you could always make one with other girls.” He quirked an eyebrow at you. “I’ve been wondering this for a while now.”

“Uh…” Now you stared at your hands, feeling even more uncomfortable under his gaze. “Well, I guess… it’s that I don’t really have an interest in the sport itself. But watching the team play is fun.”

Kageyama suddenly looked a little put off, and a slight frown touched his features. “What’s not to like about volleyball? Something wrong with it?”

You didn’t like where this was going. You waved a hand to try to reassure him. “No, no, I don’t have anything against it, I just-”

“Is it something with the positions?” He jutted in, eyes blinking. “If they’re confusing, it’s seriously easy if you’ve been watching us play. I’ve seen you. You have been watching us play. Right? Right?”

“Y-Yes, really, I have been! I should know that the best!” You cried.

Kageyama just huffed and calmed down. “Being a setter is the coolest, to be honest. But instead of just watching people do what you want to, you should go ahead and make it happen yourself.” He paused to look down at you again. “That’s the way it is in any sport. If you want to stay on the court the longest, you have to be strong.”

“And if you’re not?” You watched a dewdrop crawl down the umbrella’s clear surface and gather with other drops.

“Then you don’t get to stay.” He firmly said. “But I’ve seen you watching us. You say you’re not interested, but that’s just because you don’t have any experience. Your eyes are easy to read.”

Your face rapidly heated. He was looking that deeply?!

“I’ll… think about it.” You mumbled, more to yourself than him. Playing volleyball with everyone… did seem kind of fun…

Kageyama nodded. “Yeah. Tell me tomorrow in classic literature if you want to start or not.”

“R-Right.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled. “Do you take the train home?”

“Yeah. Thanks for lending me your umbrella.” You meekly thanked him.

“It’s nothing. I live near the station anyway.” He coolly replied as you approached the station, ducking under the safety of the roof and the announcer voices echoed around the empty area.

You sat down on the blue plastic seats right away, curling inwards from the cold as you shivered.

“T-Thanks again. You can go home too, Kageyama-kun.”

There was another pause before he answered.

“You’re… cold, right?”

“Eh?” You blinked and looked up to see him glancing away from you. Was he trying to hide his face?

“You are, right? Since you were being stupid and running around without an umbrella.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and put down his umbrella.

“Yeah, I guess so.” You laughed softly and pushed back your hair. “But it’s fine. The train should be here soon.”

He still didn’t face you, and his eyes met the pavement. “…Look away for a second.”

“Uh… why?”

“Just do it. I’m trying to be nice.” Kageyama grumbled.

Not wanting to get lashed by another scolding, you sighed and turned away. You heard the rustling of fabric and a zipper being pulled; what was he doing?

“You can turn around now.”

You opened your eyes and turned back only to have a shirt flutter into your face. Confusion sank in as you moved to take it off and felt something soft under your fingers.

It was the cream sweater he’d been wearing earlier. When you looked up, he was still looking away with his hands in his pockets. But rather than a shirt just peeking out from the top of his zipper, his bare collarbones were exposed.

“Kageyama-kun…” You dumbly said as you held the sweater that you’d loved to see him in so much.

“You’re soaked. Hurry and put it on. It’d leave me with a bad taste in my mouth if you caught a cold.” He muttered and rubbed the back of his neck.

A warm smile touched your lips. “Thank you.” He mumbled something else you couldn’t hear, but you pulled on the soft sweater over your wet clothes and basked in the comforting heat. It smelled a bit like sweat and a mix of nice-smelling deodorant, and you felt instantly calmed down for some reason. The sleeves fell past your palms, too.

“Now it’s a bit better, right?” He closed his eyes and put his hands back in his pockets. Could it be that he was… flustered? “Just make sure you take a hot shower or something when you get home.”

“Yeah.” You hugged yourself closely. “It’s warm.”

Silence hung in the air for a while before he sat down next to you. “By the way. Sorry about earlier. I said too much.”

“Huh? Oh, no, don’t worry about it.” Somehow you felt a little more comfortable talking to him like this.

“If you want, though, I can ask Kiyoko-san if you can help out with the team in some way. She has been mentioning she needs some extra help during clean up.”

Now you smiled a bit teasingly. “Do you want me to join that badly?”

He flared up and an interesting shade of red crossed his nose. “N-No! I’m just sick of you standing around and doing nothing when you can be helping us out!”

A giggle left you, and now it was your turn to take a deep breath.

Quickly, you leaned to the side on your chair and pressed your lips to his cheek softly.

When you pulled away, you tried to smile the best you could. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

You almost laughed at his face. The stoic Kageyama Tobio was now staring at you wide-eyed and red-faced. He pressed a hand to the cheek you’d kissed. At that moment the P.A. rang, and your train came rushing into the tracks. You stood up, picked up your bag, and stepped onto the near-empty train when the doors opened.

“(first)!”

You turned to see Kageyama standing across from you in a rigid pose with his fists tight at his sides. His face was still dyed red, but his eyes were sharp and focused.

“I’ll be waiting for your reply.”