Stuck In The Middle With You [Kagehina]

Chapter One: Secret Weapon

"I'm Shoyo Hinata, Number 10 on the Karasuno Boys Volleyball team. I'm a middle blocker and the best decoy you'll ever see. And one day, I'm going to be the Ace of Karasuno."

When I get nervous before games I repeat this to myself to try and put myself at ease... Well, that and the thought of how mad Kageyama got when I hit him in the back of the head a few months ago... That was really scary. Way more scary than any volleyball game could ever be.

Why was I nervous anyway? It's just a practice match. I mean, yeah it's against Date Tech, but we've beat them plenty of times before. Maybe I was just hungry. I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning. 'My fault for waking up late, I guess...'

Putting my hunger aside, I walked up to Kageyama. "Hey are we doing our new secret weapon today?"

"No, Hinata. Not yet. It's not quite ready."

"Awwwww but I wannaaaa!!"

"Dumbass, what if you go through all that effort showing off and you miss, huh? Didja even think about that?" Kageyama retorted, slapping me in the back of the head.

"OW!...no..." I muttered while rubbing the back of my head. 'He hit me hard this time. It really stings.' Nothing I wasn't used to, though.

"Time to line up!" Daichi said with a clap.

"THANK YOU FOR THE GAME!!"

The whistle blew, signaling the start of the first set. 'It's go time.' I smirked, getting in position. It was Date Tech's serve first. Nishinoya recieved it easily. Nothing less was to be expected from our star libero.

Kageyama and I made eye contact. Quick attack. Without thinking, I started running and jumping. Date Tech was used to our quick attack, however Kageyama and I had practiced getting even faster. His set was perfect, as usual, and I spiked the ball with ease.

"HINATA NICE KILL!"

I couldn't help but start beaming. It wasn't our secret weapon, but it was still something a little bit newer than our usual attacks. It was faster. But most importantly, it worked. It went as smoothly as we hoped it would. Kageyama had gotten better at his stop sets... or whatever they're called. But they had gotten better, and more accurate, so I was able to hit them faster and harder than before. We both knew it wouldn't be an advantage for long, though, since Date Tech has always had a way of learning our fast attacks and the best ways to block them.

~~~~

The score was 26-27, in favor of Karasuno. It was the second set. Date Tech had taken the first set, and we were determined to take back the second.

Kageyama looked back at me, then Ryu, then Daichi and Asahi and Noya. All in quick succession. But we knew exactly what he was planning. Synchronized attack. I had to make sure to start running at First Tempo with the others. Who was Kageyama going to serve to?

'Please serve to me, please serve to me, please serve to me...'

We all jumped, Asahi's being delayed. The serve was for Asahi. That's okay though, since we took back the set!

"Nice kill, Asahi!" I said to him, giving him high fives as I did so. We were both smiling wide, even though we hadn't won yet. The satisfaction of taking back a set was a really nice feeling.

I heard muttering behind me. It was clear that it was Kageyama, so I turned a little to hear him better.

"The ball... feels good in my hand... I think..." his head shot up. "Hinata!" I ran over, asking him what I did wrong. "...I think it's time." He looked up at me, a grin spreading across his face. It was subtle, but there. I started beaming, and jumped up in the air. "YEAH!!"

The whistle blew again, signaling the beginning of the third set. I wasn't expecting the secret weapon to be used early in the set, but I still watched Kageyama intently for any sign that we were going to do it. All of his sets and blocks were perfect today. I expected no less from the King of the Court, although he hates when we call him that. It's still only Tsukishima who calls him the King, but that's just because they like to try and get under each other's skin.

The score was 23-24 now, favoring us. We needed to win this set. That's when I saw it. Kageyama's signal for the secret weapon. Of course he would choose for this to be our winning move. I started grinning, more focused on perfecting this than anything else. Of course, I did try to stay aware if my surroundings, as I didn't want another incident like when I slammed into Asahi. Tanaka tossed the ball to Kageyama, and I started jumping. This was it. I was finally going to be able to show this off. We had been working on it for so long. This was a hard spike for me to hit, and it was also hard for Kageyama to set the ball just right. But we thought we could do it today.

I steadied my breath, focusing on the path of the ball. I had gotten better at that, too. Here it was. The ball was right here, ready for me to spike it. Nobody would expect this. I hit it straight down. In front of the blockers. It didn't even touch them. It didn't touch the net, either. This was the most perfect I had ever hit this attack. I had actually never tried this, or anything like it, before we started practicing it. And that was only last week. The looks of shock on the other teams faces as we stole the win was... empowering. I couldn't wait to do something like that again.

The whole team started screaming. Even Kageyama was cheering for me. That was new. He usually just doled out backhanded compliments. Maybe it was because he was proud of himself as well. 'He should be. I know how frustrated he was when we first started practicing that set.'

I walked over to him, high-fiving him - he was gonna have to get used to it at some point - and praising him. I caught a smile creeping up the corners of his mouth, ever so subtly. I think he really was proud of us.

A/N: Hi guys, um this is actually the first fanfiction I've ever written, so I'm sorry if it isn't the best you've ever read. I'm hoping that as I go, I'll get better, but I hope you guys enjoy this!