New Parents (KageHina 🏐)

Boke

When Saturday rolled around, Kageyama found himself a little bit depressed. Only two days left before this was all over. Before Kaii returned, Hinata left, and Kageyama went back to his usual routine with the Adlers.

Gentle laughter filtered in from the living room where Hinata was coaxing Kaii to try walking again. Kaii didn't care to try again though, instead feeling perfectly content to watch Hinata make a fool of himself.

Smiling to himself, Kageyama felt bittersweet about the moment. So perfect, yet so yet short lived.

When he returned to the living room with a tray of snacks, he found Kaii and Hinata both lying on the floor on their backs. Hinata held a volleyball (which he must have stolen from Kageyama's closet), tossing it up and down in the air while Kaii watched with a mesmerized stare and drool glistening on his chin.

"Think he'll grow up to be a giant blocker like his dad?"

Kageyama chuckled. "Assuming his mother isn't pocket-sized like you, then I'd say the genes will be in his favor."

Hinata caught the ball soundly and craned his head back to glare at Kageyama on the sofa. "Pocket-sized? That's the best you can do these days?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you're gonna insult me, I thought you would have come up with some better ones than—" He tucked the ball under his arm to count off on his fingers. "Runt, idiot, and short. Seriously, you've had years to come up with better material. Even if you stole from Tsuki, there are better ways to insult me."

Kageyama straightened up on the couch, feeling both offended and challenged with his arms crossing over his chest. "Okay— Well— What about asshole?"

Hinata gasped and rolled over to cover Kaii's ears. "Not in front of the kid, Stupid-yama!"

Kageyama rolled his eyes. "He's a baby who doesn't talk. It's not gonna phase him. And it's not like his first word is gonna be—"

"Uh—" Kaii started babbling, except this time, he seemed to be trying to form a syllable.

"Did you hear that? He's trying to speak!" Hinata exclaimed. "Go on, Kaii. Keep going. What were you gonna say?"

"Ah—"

Kageyama stiffened. That first syllable was sounding mighty close to "asshole," and it would be just like a child of Tsukishima to prove Kageyama wrong and have his first word be a curse.

The babbling continued. "Bu— Bu— Bo—"

"Bo... Okay, keep going. Bo..."

"Ke."

Hinata and Kageyama blinked.

"Bo... Ke. Boke. Boke boke boke boke..." The more Kaii babbled, the more the world dissolved into gibberish, but it was still recognizable.

Slowly, Hinata's head swiveled to pin a hard glare on Kageyama. "Now where in the world would he hear a word like that?"

Kageyama stared at the ceiling. "I don't know what you're looking at me for like that."

"You— You— Stupid-yama!" Hinata threw the volleyball with all his might, and Kageyama nearly didn't catch it.

"Oi! Don't throw stuff inside!"

Kaii's squeals of delight interrupted the fight, and soon the three of them were laughing at the stupidity of the situation.

"Tsukishima's gonna kill us," Kageyama lamented, rubbing the back of his neck, "when he finds out his kid's first word was boke. Maybe we shouldn't tell him."