21

"Your room is pretty cool," Suga commented. He scanned the plain room, and admired his volleyball objects.

Kageyama shifted around nervously. "There's not much."

And it was true. All he had was a pile of manga books, volleyballs, knee pads, his bed, and some other volleyball related objects.

"You like manga?"

"I read it when I don't want to do my homework."

"Understandable," Suga grinned. "You really are super dedicated to volleyball though."

"Can you blame me?" Kageyama replied grinning sheepishly.

"Of course not."

The air was filled with a slight bit of awkwardness, but Kageyama wasn't sure if it was just him. He was just naturally awkward, and social interaction wasn't usually a part of his routine.

But the presence of the senpai was comforting and much different from Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi gave off a cool and relaxed guy, who could easily beat the crap out of you. But once you know him, it's easy to say there's only one person he picks on, and that's Oikawa. Even when he was angry and irritated you knew he would never hurt you unless purposely provoked him into doing so.

Sugawara on the other hand, was very warm and welcoming, and obviously nicknamed "Mr. Refreshing" by Oikawa. However, he was easily the scariest person ever when angry. The vibe he gave, if he felt it was necessary, was the most frightening a human being could ever be.

The two were almost completely opposite but the thing they both had in common for sure was their care and compassion for Kageyama.

Before, he had doubted it. There seemed to be no reason for anyone to be around Kageyama as both of them were pretty cool and had plenty of friends.

"So did Iwaizumi-san ask you to bring me a raincoat?"

"Yep, and you still haven't told me why you've been avoiding us.

"I didn't want you guys to worry."

"And somehow that made us worry more. Funny how things work huh?" Suga said. "Look, we miss you and trying to dodge us isn't making anything better. Must I remind you that our game is in two days?"

"I know," Kageyama sighed. "How's Hinata?"

"Well, we were going to ask you actually," Suga said worriedly. "We haven't heard from him in the past few days as well. You first-years are really killing us here y'know."

Hinata was gone as well?

Kageyama drew a shaky breath. The bright orange hair, with his warm brown eyes. His lips which Kageyama had once captured with his own. A rush of sentiment flowed through his veins and his fists clenched and released as he exhaled.

"What's happening to us? Just how- did we end up like this?

"You tell me," Suga sighed, but there was no exasperation in his voice. "Look I don't blame anyone, because none of you did anything wrong."

"DO YOU EVER FEEL, LIKE A PLASTIC BAG-"

Kageyama looked around startled at the sudden playing of the song.

"Oh shoot sorry, that's my phone." Suga said, blushing. "Nishinoya and Tanaka were fooling around with my phone and changed my ringtones."

"DO YOU EVER FEEL, FEEL SO PAPER THIN-"

"Hey Daichi... Yup I'm here... Hinata what? Alright, we're coming."

Suga hung up and let out another sigh. He turned his attention to the taller setter.

"Never mind, I do blame one of you now."

△△△

Hinata wasn't sure if he was suppose to feel betrayal or relief.

Probably both.

Maybe it was his dumb teenage body making him so hormonal and repulsive.

It was probably mostly the stress, like the doctor had just informed him.

"Satou is such a Mary Sue," Hinata remarked.

"I'm pretty sure the correct term is Gary Stu," Kenma commented, eyes not leaving his game console. "Because he's a guy."

Kuroo looked between the town of them. "What does that even mean?"

"I can't believe Shouyou knows but you don't, Kuroo."

"A Mary Sue is an annoyingly perfect character."

The three of them sat alone, while waiting for more adults with PhDs to come back and give them more bad news. Hinata was back on the horrid hospital bed he hated, and the two were sitting across from him.

"But you would have literally died if not for him," Kuroo pointed out.

"Why would you keep this from us?" Kenma finally looked up form his game console, and Hinata could tell he was extremely troubled from the news. "Or to your team? Your family?"

He couldn't tell if he meant that his team was his family, or just his biological family.

"But if didn't the doctor say he didn't know what was wrong with his leg?" Kuroo suggested, absent-mindedly. "Maybe Hinata will be held captive for experiments like a lab rat?"

"Don't say that, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm just trying to be realistic!" the older boy said, holding his hands up defensively. "Perhaps Hinata had a point on keeping it from them!"

"There's nothing else to be discussed and thought about, if he dies!" Kenma stood up and anyone could witness the pure fury in his eyes.

The tension in the room was so high, Hinata felt as if he was suffocating. He wasn't sure what to say nor

The awkwardness was saved however, by the entrance of more people.

Daichi entered room, and following him was Ennoshita and Yamaguchi. It was different from usual, where his entire team came to visit him. For a second, Hinata felt degraded and somewhat jealous. He wondered if his team was now sick of him now, and that broke his heart a bit.

"If you're thinking why the rest of the team isn't here, it's because they're practicing hard for our nationals."

And now, Hinata hated himself. Of course, how could he be so arrogant and selfish? Nationals were around the corner.

"Don't worry, we're all ready for nationals," Daichi said. "I talked about over with the team, and truly, we're ready with you or without. And that's not to humiliate you or whatever you may think, it's that we're a strong team alright?"

"And you're going to have to face us, with your 100% okay?" Kuroo chirped in, but still self-aware around Kenma.

Kenma was still serious but Hinata couldn't read his blank face.

"Am I not going to play?"

"Do you think you can play?"

"No..."

"Then there's your answer."

Hinata was going crazy inside and he couldn't feel the calm inside him anymore. He felt himself and his worries build up inside him. He was furious and he knew he wouldn't be able to contain himself.

He knew darn well that he was not in any shape or form ready to play, but he couldn't put a handle to anything he was feeling. He was almost scared of himself, and the consequences that would happen if he went ballistic again.

But before he could say or do anything, two more familiar faces had entered the room.

"Hey," Kageyama said softly. Sugawara was signaled the others to leave the room and they quickly did so.

Just his presence and existence somehow was like an assurance that everything was going to be alright. But not actually between them.

Kageyama sat down across from him and he uttered, if possible, especially coming from someone as intimidating as Kageyama can be at times, the most gentle words ever.

"How was your day?"

A/N: Gah, I cringe when I read stories with like a million reads but they're actually terrible and have no plot and no grammar or punctuation (and even spelling errors, christ)

I'm not saying my writing is good because I know it's not, but I've read some really good stories with great plot and descriptive writing, but they only have like 10k reads or something?? I'm probably younger than the writers who have such popular stories, but at least I can use proper grammar (most of the time :^) I apologize for any mistakes I might have overlooked)

Sorry, just a rant cuz I was feeling salty (like Tsukki ;( ).