Together, Always. [Kageyama Tobio]

12. Lanterns and Fireworks

Stalls offering a variety of goods, food and activities, lit with lanterns and tall trees and poles draped with fairy lights lined either side of the hill trail. Even though it was very early, the festivities had already started and the place was already packed with people. Some people crowded the stalls while others occupied the seats to eat the food they bought in a more relaxed position or to rest their tired feet. The youngsters jovially ran around the place, flaunting the prizes that they won from the stall games, paying no heed to where they were going. The rest either idly chatted with one another excitedly in whichever vacant niche they could find or made haste to go to the temple which was at the topmost part of the hill. The yellow sun and the blue sky that would both soon turn orange looked especially gorgeous on this occasion as if they too were trying to fit the mood.

After every one of the Karasuno volleyball team bought the food they wanted, they took residence in a cosy corner next to a stall selling an assortment of lanterns.

Since Tobio was one of the few who was done scarfing down his food, he decided to spend his time staring intensely at one of the lanterns in the stall as he waited for the rest to finish. He thought that the lantern looked very similar to a volleyball. On paying even more close attention to his surroundings he thought that a lot of things were round like volleyballs and hence a lot of things looked like volleyballs, including the sun.

If anyone saw the serious look on Tobio's face, they could easily be fooled into thinking that he was thinking about something very important and that's why most of his teammates decided to leave him to his thoughts. However, not all his teammates are as considerate and so it didn't take long for them to rudely pull him out of his thoughts about how the dango that was being sold at one of the stalls looked like tiny volleyballs.

"KAGEYAMA!" Hinata's persistent voice rang in Tobio's ears.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW, MORON?" Tobio barked.

"Let's compete in the shooting game while the others eat," Hinata insisted.

"I already said I won't," Tobio said.

"But why?"

"I'm going to compete with Hir- I mean, I just don't want to."

Hinata's eyes lit up with glee and he elbowed Tobio much to his annoyance. "Ohhh, you're gonna play with Nakai-san? Then you should have just said that to begin with-"

"How can you just assume that it's her?" Tobio felt smug asking that question, thinking that it was a smart way to prevent Hinata from talking about that particular topic.

"Uhh, that's because she's like the only friend you have. I still don't get how she tolerates yo-"

"What did you just say, you runt?" Tobio glared at him- terrifying as usual- and went after said runt with the intention of throwing him down the hill.

"I guess things are going well with her-"

"SHUT UP!"

The only reason they weren't running around like kids playing cops and robbers was because they were wearing yukatas and the large number of people that occupied the place. Instead, they were speed-walking circles around the rest of their teammates.

Hinata kept looking back to continue the conversation with Tobio, apparently not realising that the more words that came out of his mouth, the more it strengthened the setter's resolve to throw him down the hill. Of course, it could also be that he was so used to the setter's short fuse that it no longer scared him much.

"RYU! JUST LOOK AT THIS PLACE!" Nishinoya pointed everywhere he could.

"YES! I'M SO GLAD I CAME HERE!" Tanaka agreed.