always...

chapter 44 - kagehina

kageyama stood outside of the building, its neon sign flashing a dozen bright colors. he checked his phone once again, anxiously waiting for the numbers to change to 2:00.

as soon as he shoved his phone back in his pocket, he caught a glimpse of a certain familiar mop of orange hair in the corner of his eye.

"hinata!" kageyama called out suddenly, waving the small ginger over.

"hey kags! so, an arcade, huh?" hinata tilted his head, staring up at the retro-looking sign.

"it'll be fun! i promise you won't regret it," kageyama assured him.

"mhm, i better not. i said one date, right?" hinata reminded the taller boy.

"yes, i know. don't worry," kageyama gave him a gentle smile.

the two first years walked inside the arcade, immediately greeted by the intense glow of the games that surrounded them. they had everything from retro games like tapper, pac-man, and dig dug, to more modern games like dance dance revolution, coin pusher, skeeball, and various other racing games.

in the center of the room stood the prize counter, along with 3 token dispensers. based on how many tickets you won, you could trade them for anything from jolly ranchers or ramune, to airpods or a skateboard. the shelves behind the counter were filled with all sorts of knick knacks and the glass case boasted a variety of smaller treasures.

kageyama glanced over at hinata, admiring how his soft brown eyes sparkled in awe under the gleaming game lights and how his mouth dropped open slightly at the sight of all of the prizes.

"let's go get some tokens, shall we?" kageyama smiled, looking down slightly at the stunned boy.

hinata only nodded, still overwhelmed by the busy and bright environment of the arcade.

kageyama took hinata by the wrist and led him over to a token machine. in no time, they each had a small paper cup filled with about 50 tokens each to spend on the games around them.

"kageyama! can we try dance dance revolution first??" hinata practically jumped at him, his energy overflowing from his small frame.

kageyama chuckled and nodded, allowing himself to be dragged over to the vibrant glowing platform across the room.

the two of them stepped up onto the stage, hinata quickly choosing a song for them to dance to.

"hey hinata, let's make this interesting. whoever wins this game gets to choose the next, and so on. and whoever wins the most games, gets to choose how to spend our next date," kageyama challenged him.

"oh ho ho, confident now, are we? you still have to make this date count before i let you take me on another one," hinata giggled.

kageyama blushed lightly, marveling at the sound of hinata's laughter. it was like his voice took on his own sunshine-like aura that could make anyone smile.

the song began, its tempo faster than kageyama had expected. he had no idea that hinata would pick such a difficult song to start with, but little did the ginger know that kageyama would have the upperhand on almost all of the games in the arcade.

as the chorus started, kageyama matched every step that the arrows on the screen ahead of them showed, perfectly keeping up with the rhythm of the music.

hinata struggled a little bit at first, tripping over his own feet and holding onto the metal bar behind him as he attempted to pull off the complicated cross step moves. however, when the second chorus started, he quickly picked up the beat of the song.

kageyama's side of the screen flashed bright green "perfect!"s after every move he hit while hinata's mostly showed blue "great!"s. the song soon came to an end, displaying both of their scores in front of them.