The ball hit the floor with a sharp thwack that echoed through the suddenly-silent gym. My eyes were wide as I stared at a sun that had suddenly burnt out.
Hinata was curled up on the floor where he had dropped, knees pulled tightly to his chest and hands clasped over his ears. I didn't know what was going on, other than the fact that everyone was just standing there and not a soul was doing a damned thing to try to help.
Suga was the first to move. He knelt beside Hinata, who flinched away as if burned when Suga tried to touch him. The other setter looked like he was about to cry. Asahi led him a little ways away, patting his back comfortingly. Ennoshita stood awkwardly to the side, looking guilty.
I marched up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, slamming him back against the wall. "What did you do?"
Ennoshita shook his head and tried to push me away. "N-nothing! I just asked about his dad and he—"
I dropped him and looked over at Hinata. He had started rocking back and forth, whimpering. He was trembling; I could feel my hands shaking. It wasn't supposed to be like that. Hinata was supposed to be hyper and get excited by every little thing, not curled on the floor of the gym having what I guessed was a panic attack.
Yamaguchi hesitantly reached out, but as soon as his fingers brushed the decoy's shoulder, Hinata screamed. Yamaguchi pulled back, pale and shocked, and Hinata curled in tighter on himself.
My heart was pounding as I watched. No. There was something so fundamentally wrong about the sight that it scared me. Hinata didn't pull away from physical contact. Hinata clung and high-fived and tackled. I was the one who was awkward and sort of useless in social situations. Not Hinata. Never Hinata.
Eyes turned to me and I knew they were waiting for me to approach him. I was his best friend, his supposed other half.
Slowly, I walked forward. Hinata didn't seem to realize I was there, even when I knelt in front of him. I was close enough to hear what he was muttering under his breath—stop, no more, please. It was heartbreaking to hear; I knew that part of his trembling was because he was crying.
"Oi, Hinata. Come on, look at me."
The words usually would've been harsh, but I couldn't find it in me to be as abrasive as usual at the moment. Apparently, it was a good thing, because Hinata did look up after a moment's pause. His face almost broke my resolve not to touch him, though; I desperately wanted to hug him despite my not-so-touchy-feely nature. His cheeks were glittering with tears, his eyes glazed over with near desperation and shining with fear. He didn't recognize me, though, because he whimpered and shut his eyes again.
"Hey, I told you to look at me, Hinata." It came out harsher than I had intended, but it did the trick. He flinched, reluctantly reopening his eyes. By the sheer terror on his face, I could tell that he still didn't really know who I was.
"What's my name, Hinata? Who am I?" For some reason, the words made my heart contract strangely. It hurt almost physically to ask Hinata if he knew who I was.
"D… I don't…" His voice was soft and terrified, but it was there, and it was a hundred times better than that heart-wrenching scream.
"Look at me. Say my name, Hinata."
He gaped at me for a few moments, looking a little like a fish trying to breathe while it was out of water. One of his hands reached out and clutched at my jacket; it most likely wasn't a conscious action but I didn't push him away. It was probably a sign that he was coming out of his scared stupor.
"K… Kage… Kageyama…?" His voice was still weaker, and I could see tears brimming in his eyes again.
"Yeah. There you go, Hinata. There you go."
He lurched forward and I reached out to catch him, thinking he had passed out. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around my torso and buried his face in my chest. I froze for a moment, shocked and not entirely sure what to do, before slowly returning the embrace. Apparently that was the right reaction, because Hinata's arms tightened around me to the point that it was almost painful. I held him as he cried, both of our bodies shaking with the force of his sobs. I was vaguely aware of the fact that Suga, Daichi, and Asahi were shuffling the rest of the team out of the gym, all reluctant to leave but not wanting to accidentally do something to inadvertently send Hinata back into a panic attack.
My poor attempts to reassure Hinata must've worked to some degree, at least, because he calmed down relatively quickly. He shifted a bit so as to hide his face in the crook of my neck; I could feel myself blushing but didn't let go.
"…Sorry," Hinata mumbled quietly.
"For what? It's not your fault." I kept my voice as soft as I could, though it was surprisingly easy for me to be gentle with him.
"I shouldn't have freaked out like that. I didn't mean to scare everyone." His voice was quiet and he sounded almost guilty about it.
"Hey, stop that. I'm sure you had a perfectly valid reason, dumbass. As annoying as you can be, you don't do anything unnecessarily. You have done nothing wrong, do you understand me?" I hated that tone he was using; he shouldn't have ever felt guilty as something as uncontrollable as a sudden panic attack.
He stayed still for a moment, clearly shocked, before nodding slowly. It was obvious that Hinata had thought that I would be upset or angry, not supportive. I didn't really like that he had that image of me, but I'd work on fixing it later.
"Hey, Kageyama?" he pulled his face from my shoulder and looked up at me. Even bloodshot, his eyes were amazing. I knew that I could easily get lost in them if I wasn't careful.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
He leaned up and kissed me on the cheek, smiling shyly. Unsure of how to respond to that, I returned the gesture on a whim. Hinata's face went bright red and I grinned.
I could get used to that. Cherry red looked good on him.
