Losing is Winning

Chapter 21

It was already well past noon when they left the cafe and headed back home.

"How long will you be staying," Tobio asked as he climbed out of the car. The long conversation with his sister had reminded him of how it had once been between them, and a part in him dreaded the moment she would have to return to her town for another long period of time.

Miwa sighed and locked her car, tapping a few buttons on her phone and then stuffing it into her back pocket. "I'll need to leave tomorrow already. They need me for a wedding." They fell into step next to each other and walked up to the door. "But until then," she said and ruffled Tobio's hair, strong enough to make his entire head shake, "I'll make sure my little brother has a great birthday."

She pushed the front door open, and Tobio instinctively jerked back when something colorful came flying towards his face and turmoil was breaking out in front of him.

A loud "Happy Birthday!" prompted him to carefully blink his eyes open again. His entire team was grinning at him. With his heart still pounding in shock, his mouth fell open.

Hinata, who was standing closest to him, had his hand raised, streamers Tobio had barely dodged dangling from it. The brightest of smiles caused his face to quite literally glow and it took Tobio several seconds to tear his gaze away and look at his other teammates as well.

The sight took all the air out of his lungs and left him stunned. Every single one of them was standing in the hallway to his home—minus Nishinoya who was just sticking his head out of the door to the kitchen, but Tobio didn't even question what he was doing in there. His mind was occupied with trying to figure out what to say. His eyes continued to wander through the room, taking in the decoration that was draped over the doors and banisters.

Suddenly, Hinata jumped towards him, hands raised and something blue clasped in them. Before he knew it, a party hat was sitting crookedly on his head and an elastic band snapped against his chin. "Don't just stand there and boggle, Bakageyama." A cheeky grin stretched over his lips. "You really have a tendency to block open doors and stare at people inside, don't you?" he added, a little more quietly.

Tobio scowled at him, his cheeks turning just the slightest bit of pink as he remembered the seconds of pointless standing in Hinata's doorway from a few days ago. "I do not," he disagreed, contradicting himself by stepping out of the way so that Miwa could close the door behind them. "What are you all doing here, anyway?" Hinata's eyes flitted to a point behind him for just a hot second, but Tobio had spent enough hours interpreting short glances to be able to predict the meaning of that one as well. Miwa. He whirled around to her. "You?"

She grinned. "Told you I was talking to them recently."

He snorted, unbelieving. "You didn't mention that it was this recently."

With a shrug, Miwa walked past him and draped herself over Hinata's shoulders. "Recently is recently." Tobio narrowed his eyes. "Besides, don't fuss over trivialities if you left out a pretty big detail yourself."

Furrowing his brows, Tobio tried to figure out what she was implying.

"Right?" Sugawara added in, stepping to Hinata's other side, who pulled in his head with a sheepish expression. Sugawara's accusing gaze moved from Tobio to Hinata and back to Tobio, resting there patiently. "As your senpai, I would have expected to hear about something like that immediately."

The way Sugawara and his sister were looking at him, Tobio knew he should feel bad about something, but he just couldn't figure it out—until his gaze fell back onto Hinata in an attempt to beg for help. Hinata didn't see his desperate gaze, eyes averted to the ground, cheeks burning and a contrite grimace on his face.