That Number Ten

19. Miracle Boy... Shouyou?

Tendou's heart was pounding. It was adrenalin, stress, the effort of bouncing from one end of the corner. Right now, it was because of Hinata, huddled into a group hug because of the absolutely fantastic move he'd pulled off.

His body had gone right, his right arm had lifted for a right spike. Tendou was already there, fingers grasping the air over the edge of the net, ready to slam the ball back into the ground along with the middle blocker's dreams.

The ball overshot and Tendou briefly despaired at losing out on what would have been a perfect block.

Hinata's left hand shot out without warning even as his body soared right, and with just his fingertips he smacked the ball and over it sailed, straight into the place where Shiratorizawa had no defenders, no one to receive or return the ball.

"Oh. My. God," Tendou moaned. "Wakatoshi, I think I know how you feel now, I think I'm in love."

Ushijima's head whipped around so fast that Ohira took a startled step forward to make sure that their ace and captain hadn't given himself whiplash.

"Now is not the time for that, Satori."

"But did you see that."

"I did," Ushijima replied evenly. "But now is not the time."

"Miracle Boy Shouyou," Tendou murmured. "Could you even imagine, what he would have been like on our team."

"While rough and unrefined, this team could have polished Hinata Shouyou into an even better player. But, we would not have seen what he was like on the other side of the net."

"Oh, oh, that would have been a shame," Tendou sighed despairingly and pressed his hand to over his heart before darting to the net and grasping onto it, inhaling deeply to holler, "Hinata Shouyou! I think I love you!"

Shirabu wasn't quick enough in punching him in the ribs, but he was close enough to see how Daichi's head turned around at the speed of light and he was fairly certain it wasn't his imagination that he heard something akin to a lion's growl in the same movement.

Hinata went as red as Tendou's hair but his expression went faraway, and he didn't even complain as Kageyama swooped in to guide him away from the net, eyes narrowed at the middle blocker number five.

("Kageyama-kun, I'm having flashbacks of Oikawa-san," Hinata admitted and Kageyama's hand rubbed soothing circles against Hinata's upper back.

Up in the stand, Oikawa violently sneezed, and without an ounce of sympathy, Iwaizumi remarked, "If someone's talking shit about you, you probably deserve it."

"Did I just hear Shiratorizawa's number five say he loved Shou-chan?" Oikawa responded immediately and Iwaizumi simply narrowed his eyes down at the court and fell silent.)