Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 1: Beginning

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Chapter summary:
Hinata wanders into Kageyama's bakery for the first time and makes a promise.

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A/N: Welcome to my third kagehina omegaverse fic. I've been toying with this idea for a long time and finally started writing it down. This one will be low angst. It's a slow burn, friends to lovers, single-parent story that will have lots of fluff, pining and eventual smut. Enjoy!

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Kageyama works quietly in the kitchen, his focus entirely on the texture of the dough he is kneading with his bare hands. Soft classical music plays on a small Bluetooth speaker on a nearby counter. He isn't sure of the composer, but it was one of the ones Kazuyo used to listen to, maybe Mozart or Bach. The melancholy timbre of the violins causes Kageyama to feel a nostalgia for his grandfather that is somehow simultaneously pleasant and sad.

He is lost in his own world, his mind occupied with pastry dough and fillings, ingredients and baking times, on which special recipe he wants to make for the weekend. He works alone, as usual, his only words of the day spoken sparsely with customers who come to buy his treats and praise his goods as if they tasted like a piece of heaven.

Kageyama is used to the silence, embraces it most times. He is comfortable in the kitchen he grew up in and feels like he belongs here, if nowhere else. Among the ovens and mixers and counters of his childhood, he can imagine that his life is fine, no more than he ever expected, no more than he deserves.

He inherited the business, the building, and the upstairs apartment when Kazuyo died. The bakery allows him to feed himself and pay for necessities. He has no debt, minimal bills and modest needs, so the unexceptional income from the small operation is sufficient. He has no family besides his sister, whom he talks to and texts with every day. He has a long-haired calico cat named Mikeneko, whom he dotes on. He doesn't go out to bars or restaurants, rarely shops or ventures out for no reason. He has no friends to speak of, only the regular customers who greet him like an acquaintance.

He has no life beyond the bakery and the apartment.

But as long as he has his baking, as long as he can envision and create sweet concoctions with his bare hands, as long as he can sell them for enough to live, there is nothing else he needs in life.

At least that's what he tells himself.

The bakery's bell chimes indicating a customer has entered. Kageyama quickly rinses his hands and wipes them off on the towel hanging from the belt of his white apron that he wears over worn jeans and a faded blue t-shirt that Miwa bought him years ago.

He exits through the door to enter the area by the counter. He is greeted by a sight that fascinates him. A short red-haired man standing by the doorway, his eyes closed, his head tilted back.

The man is beautiful, mesmerizing like that, as if frozen in time, a look of ecstatic joy on his face. His messy hair is tousled with unruly curls, his nose is cute and perfectly proportioned for his face, his eyebrows the same ginger hue as his hair. But it's his lips that capture Kageyama's attention. They are plump and pink and slightly parted.

They are perfect for kissing.

As Kageyama stands silently gawking, the redhead opens his eyes and looks at Kageyama across the small expanse of the room. He smiles and Kageyama takes in a sharp breath.

The man's eyes are a deep, rich golden brown, alight with mischief and delight and excitement, and his smile is wide and blinding. It lights up his whole face, and whereas before he looked peaceful and ethereal, now he looks blinding and joyful and absolutely captivating.