[cw: angst]
It starts off slowly.
Barely anything changes, but when 'nice kill' rolls off Tobio's tongue with ease as Tsukishima hits his set perfectly. When pride (and something softer ) blooms in his chest as the middle blocker makes the effort to jump just a bit higher, he doesn't notice it at first. When Tsukishima calls him 'king' but the bite isn't there anymore, Tobio can't help the small smile that quirks up, but he still doesn't notice it. The fuzzy feeling deep in his chest, the way his heart starts beating faster when Tobio is around Tsukishima, he thinks nothing of these feelings. Not until Hinata brings it up, seemingly out of nowhere.
"You've been acting weird these days, Kageyama-kun," Hinata says, making Tobio choke on his lunch.
"Hah?! W-What are you... talking about... idiot?" Tobio manages to get out in between choughs, his eyebrows knit together, confused because he really hasn't changed that much from his first year.
"Really? Cause, you seemed... I dunno.... calmer?" he tries to explain and Tobio is even more confused, "like last weekend! At my place for our group study, you were really quiet and paid attention to Tsukishima! That was so unlike you!"
Tobio feels his face heat up, huh? Why is he feeling embarrassed about that? Before he can speak, Hinata continues his rant, "And you weren't listening to me at all!! I had to shout every time to get your attention, very rude of you, Bakayama!"
"That was because I wanted to pass my exam, dumbass!" Tobio says, so what he paid more attention to Tsukishima then, that doesn't mean anything. He thinks back to that day, he and Tsukishima were sitting side by side in Hinata's living room, and he was actually paying attention for once. He recalls Hinata struggling to pry his attention away, oh. But it was about him passing, right? He needed to pay attention to pass, not because it was Tsukishima explaining, right?
Hinata narrows his eyes, and Tobio gets a sneaking feeling that he's being scrutinized, maybe because the warmth hasn't left his cheeks, maybe because he's thinking too much, which is concerning because Tobio does not think that much. "Do... Do you like Tsukishima, Kageyama-kun?!"
"Now you're just askin' for me to kill you! What kinda question is that, huh!?" Tobio roars, because, because, because -- he does not like Tsukishima, he tolerates him at best. Right?
Before Tobio actually does decide to murder Hinata, he drops the topic, not without sing-songing ' but you're still hiding something, Kageyama-kun.' Still, Tobio didn't think much about it during the rest of the day. He focuses on practice, the team has a practice match coming up as well as Summer Inter-high, so there's no time for him to be distracted by anything unnecessary. Right?
A few weeks have passed, and Tobio is honestly convinced something is wrong with him. He can't stop feeling all weird around Tsukishima, no matter how much he tries, that weird, warm feeling does not leave his chest, and the flush doesn't fade until long after practice is over, why is this happening? It doesn't affect him on the court, not that he will ever let anything affect his play, but off the court, he feels like an absolute mess, and he doesn't understand why.
