"Tsukki! Wait up!"
"Hurry up, Yamaguchi. I'm not waiting any longer for you. You're so slow."
"I-I'm not that fast. Sorry, Tsukki!"
The wind brushed past him as he ran, slowly moving into a fast jog as he tried his best to keep up with Tsukki, but it felt like he was moving farther and farther away. Why was it so hard to maintain the same pace with him? It wasn't as if he was out of breath of anything! He grit his teeth in frustration and forced himself to run even faster, if that was even possible. Was he even breathing at this point? It sure didn't seem like it, because running this fast usually made him collapse and start wheezing for air. He never really liked running all that much.
"Tsukki, please! You're going way too fast!" He shouted frantically, on the verge of tears. He was beginning to trip over his own feet and panic, and that plus running never went well at all. He finally gave up and fell to his knees, skidding across the pavement harshly, his knees and palms of his hands getting pretty banged up. He coughed out a breath and clutched his chest, squeezing his eyes shut. Why was this so difficult? All he wanted to do was to catch up with Tsukki and talk with him and maybe hold his hand and hug him and feel his warmth on his body.
"Yamaguchi, why are you giving up so easily?"
He wanted to scream that he wasn't, he wasn't giving up at all! But with those words in the air and piercing his chest, it actually felt like he was giving up. Tsukki was so far ahead and he had no way of ever catching up if he wanted to. He lifted his head in time to see Tsukki standing at a gate that wasn't there before. Why was there a gate there, and when had it appeared? He stood shakily on his legs, still out of breath, and forced himself to start walking again. With each step he took, the farther Tsukki got still, but the gate stayed put. He frowned, skeptical about it, yet continued his journey to the gate, his focus more on the gate now than Tsukki.
What could be on the other side of the gate?
Would he just be going around in a circle?
Would Tsukki be on the other side, the actual Tsukki, and not the one running away from him?
He sucked in a deep breath as he eventually reached the gate, his shaking hand pausing on the handle. He didn't know if he could turn the handle, he was so scared. Alone. He bit down on his bottom lip hard when he felt it wobble and nibbled it, trying to think of Tsukki to get his mind off the inevitable demise of this whole place. He shook his head and smacked his free hand to the side of his cheek and opened his eyes, a look of determination set on his features. He wouldn't give up, not for him or for Tsukki. He wanted to meet with Tsukki again. He nodded to no one but himself and turned the handle, pushing the door open to allow the brightest of lights envelope his body in a breathtaking glow.
"Finally. What took you so long?"
"Sorry, Tsukki."
Yamaguchi broke out into a huge smile and he stepped through the threshold, immediately reaching forward and grasping Tsukki's hand in a tight grip. He wasn't about to let go, not after last time. Tsukki loosely held Yamaguchi's hand, just as he always did, and they made their way away from the door and towards the house that appeared before them. Trees and grass, sidewalks and roads, everything started to materialize around them as they walked. Yamaguchi watched in awe, he always did, and he couldn't help but get excited. Every time this happened, he enjoyed watching everything splay out as if he were in a dream.
Tsukki yanked on his hand to make him keep up since he was slowly dragging behind and trudged up to the door, the door opening for them without anyone having to touch the door. Yamaguchi easily followed behind, continuing to look at everything as they appeared. Framed pictures of Tsukki and Yamaguchi hanging upon the wall, scattered papers of messily drawn dinosaurs and space and aliens on the table in the living room, pillows on the floor with dents in them like someone had been sitting there. Yamaguchi felt at home. He let go of Tsukki's hand in favor of picking up one of the drawings, causing another smile to cross his lips.
"Tsukki, you draw so well." He murmured, tracing the lines with his forefinger.
"Don't flatter me, Yamaguchi. I draw like a six year old."
"That doesn't matter at all." He countered, feeling the warmth of Tsukki approach him from behind, feeling his chin rest on the top of his head. Yamaguchi exhaled slowly, letting the paper fall from his hands to float towards the carpet. He nudged Tsukki with his elbow and turned around, nodding to the staircase adjacent to them.
"Shall we?" A curt nod from Tsukki and he grabbed ahold of his hand again, feeling complete each time he touched Tsukki. More picture frames were on the wall as the ascended the stairs, more of him and Tsukki playing with a volleyball as kids, to when they were in high school, to each and every little precious moment that happened to be caught on camera. They reached Tsukki's room and Yamaguchi sat down on the bed, his eyes landing on the stray dinosaur toys strewn about the room. He picked one up that was closest to him and laughed a little. It had a little blond fringe upon its head, looking as if it was mimicking Tsukki in his hairstyle or if it was actually Tsukki, but as a dinosaur.
"Did you do this?" Yamaguchi chuckled, brushing a finger over the softness of the tuft of hair. Tsukki simply shrugged a shoulder and leaned back on his desk chair, eyes flittering over the other dinosaur toys on the floor. He bent over to grab two of them and moved to sit beside Yamaguchi on the bed.
"I named all of them. Do you remember their names?"
"Of course, Tsukki. Why would I forget?" Yamaguchi shook his head. "This one I'm holding is you, that blue one you're holding is named Kageyama, the silver one is Sugawara…" He goes on to name the rest of the dinosaurs that were on the floor until he came to the last two that were slightly hidden under the bed. "And these two… Their names are Hinata and Yamaguchi."
"Exactly right. I'm proud of you, Yamaguchi."
"Heh, thanks Tsukki." He leaned up against Tsukki, holding his and Tsukki's dinosaur close to him. He suddenly flinched and dropped the dinosaurs, a hand flying up to his temple and he cried out in pain. Tsukki just eyed him with disinterest. He knew, he always did. This always happened. Each and every time.
"It… It hurts, Tsukki, please make it go away…" Yamaguchi whispered, dropping to his knees in front of the bed, clutching his head in his hands, curling into a ball. The pain came and go, a sharp flash crossing his vision and making it go black every time it happened. He trembled violently and felt hot, wet tears fall from his eyes, making wet spots on the carpet beneath him. "Tsukki, please! I don't want to go again! It's way too soon, please!" He cried. Tsukki just shook his head, folding his arms across his lap.
"It's inevitable, Yamaguchi. Just let it happen. We will meet next time."
"No! No no no! I won't, Tsukki! You mean far too much to me, please, help me, please!'
"I can't."
Yamaguchi cried out in agony, the searing pain ripping across his skull, migrating down his body until it engulfed him completely. He was a shaking, writhing mess of a body on the floor beneath Tsukki, who watched him like it was a daily thing to see. To see someone that meant so much to him get ripped away each and every time unexpectedly but knew it had to happen. Tsukki closed his eyes and turned his head to the side.
"Yamaguchi, just. Go. We will meet next time, I promise. It won't be long until you see me next."
"Tsukki, why don't you understand? Th-This is far too soon, please let me stay a bit longer," Yamaguchi sobbed, his vision starting to blur, images around him of the room fading out each time he blinked, though Tsukki staying as clear as day.
"Someone is here to visit you, please go and greet them. I promise you we will meet once more." Tsukki said firmly, casting a softened look down at Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi shook his head and tried his best to will away the feeling of him being torn apart, but each time he did, the feeling came back tenfold and just looking at Tsukki was the only thing that made him keep going. Yamaguchi weakly lifted a hand and reached out to Tsukki, to try and grab at his hand, or pant leg, or anything, but seemed too far.
This again.
Yamaguchi screamed out loud and slammed his fist on the carpet, it fading out to a misty white color as the rest of the room faded into nothingness and Tsukki stood about a few yards away, watching him. He sighed heavily and turned away, something dropping from his hand as he walked away from Yamaguchi.
"I'll see you next time, Yamaguchi."
At his final words, Yamaguchi felt something slam into his chest and he wheezed out a breath on impact, wrapping his fingers around the dinosaur toy that was now somehow in his hands. He swallowed back a sob and held it close, bringing his legs up so he was curled into a fetal position, his eyes slipping shut. It always ended like this, each and every time. And every time it happened, it got worse and worse, Yamaguchi not wanting to leave and trying his damndest to prevent anything from happening. Each time, however, it got more difficult for him to stay. Before, when he first came here, it was easy to stay, to come and go whenever he pleased. But now, now was far more worse than the beginning. It was ruthless and tortuous and he hated it. So much.
Blackness slid over him as he finally gave up, gripping the dinosaur close to his chest in hopes of it still being there when the blackness evaded him. He felt himself grow weaker and weaker, could feel the ground swallowing him up and he let out a last breath, one last goodbye.
"Tsukki…"
The jolt awake Yamaguchi felt shocked him more than it probably should have. He gasped for a breath and threw off his sheets, scrambling up and off the bed until he felt hands on his arms, trying to tug him back down on the bed.
"-guchi! Yamaguchi! Sh, it's okay, you're fine!" A familiar voice echoed in his ears and he allowed himself to sit down, taking a deep breath before meeting the gaze of his best friend, Hinata Shouyou. The other smiled at him and squeezed his arm, finally taking his seat on the chair that was beside the bed. "Hey, sorry to scare you like that, but you woke up so fast and looked really scared." There was something else Hinata wasn't saying, and Yamaguchi could feel his question baring down on him like an iron wall.
"I'm fine now, Hinata. I just never woke up that fast before." Yamaguchi said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Hinata simply nodded, a frown etching itself onto his lips. He tapped his finger on his knee repeatedly, Yamaguchi noticed, and that was the telltale sign that Hinata was antsy and wanted to say something. "You can say what you wanted to say." He finally said.
"D-Did you dream about… about that again?" Hinata blurted out, then quickly covering his mouth with a hand. He knew how sensitive that subject was, but he always seemed to forget easily whenever he wanted to know things about it. Yamaguchi sighed and nodded, lowering his gaze to his hands that were in his lap.
"Mhm."
"Did- Did you want to talk about it?" Hinata asked hesitantly. The bedsheets ruffled when Yamaguchi made to stand up, Hinata on the edge of his seat in case Yamaguchi needed any help, and he walked over to the gated window to the right of him. The window was open, did Hinata open it?, and his eyes fluttered shut at the breeze caressing his body without a care in the world. He leaned his forehead against the cool metal bars and swallowed, curling his hands into fists at his sides.
"It's the same dream as always, Hinata, if you must know. It's-," He heaved another sigh, shaking his head, some of his long brown hair falling and covering his eyes. "It's always the same damn dream. I hate it… I hate it so much, you don't know how much I hate it…"
Hinata sat back in the chair and scratched at his arm. He felt helpless each time he asked and each time Yamaguchi answered. He wish he could just keep his mouth shut and not ask, because then it'd make Yamaguchi a lot happier if he didn't have to speak about it! "Was there anything else that happened in the dream?" Hinata asked idly, something catching his eye under the bed. He leaned down and furrowed his brows, picking up a green tyrannosaurus rex toy that had a soft blond tuft of hair upon its head.
"No, not that I can remember. All that happened was the same thing; he runs away from me, we meet on the other side of the gate, he go to his house, I name all his dinosaur toys, and then I leave. Always in that order. Nothing new has happened, and it's hurting me, Hinata, I don't think I can handle this again anytime soon. I won't be able to sleep." Yamaguchi felt the breeze ruffle his hair and he took the hair tie from his wrist to pull up his hair in a loose bun. He turned around to face Hinata but raised an eyebrow, noticing the look on the others face. "What's wrong?"
"Did someone give this to you, by any chance? I know I didn't bring it, but I don't know if anyone came in your room while you were sleeping and left this here. It's kind of unsettling, to be honest." Hinata replied, lifting up the dinosaur toy in his hand, still inspecting it as if it were a bomb.
Though, to Yamaguchi, it might as well have been a bomb.
His breath caught in his throat, which caused him to make a strained noise that sounded like he was choking. It could be just any old dinosaur toy, right? Pft, it's not his dinosaur, it couldn't be, it can't-
It was.
His eyes landed upon the hair atop the dinosaurs head and his knees gave out from under him, causing him to topple over and catch himself halfway onto the bed. Hinata jumped from his chair to rush around the bed to Yamaguchi, tossing the toy onto the bed to help Yamaguchi up. "Y-Yamaguchi! What's wrong, what happened?"
"That… That toy…"
"Wh- Wait, you've seen it before? So someone did come in here and give it to you?" Hinata asked, confusion written all over his face.
"No, no… It was in my dream. It's- It's Tsukki's dinosaur. I was holding it when I was leaving him and and-" Yamaguchi panicked, tugging at the loose strands of hair that escaped his bun. Hinata pulled him into an awkward side hug and rubbed his shoulder, softly shushing him as best he could.
"Yamaguchi, it's okay, it's okay. Don't worry. It's just a sign, right? That your dream isn't really just a dream, but it's becoming a reality. That's what it feels like." Hinata offered, letting them both fall back onto the bed so Yamaguchi could curl up into his embrace properly.
"But… But what if I don't want it to become a reality, Hinata? Everyone already thinks I'm crazy, a lunatic! That's why I'm here in the first place! That's why no one actually cares about me except you and… Tsukki…" Yamaguchi forced out with bitterness, his eyes beginning to water. All this was putting a heavy toll on Yamaguchi and he just wishes that all of this would stop. That he could just live out a simple, normal life like everyone else without having to be locked up in some mental institution just because he dreamed about someone who wasn't real, someone who he wishes was real, and kept talking about him like he was as real as Hinata was and no one believed him.
No one but Hinata, that is.
And that meant so much to Yamaguchi, lest he admits it.
He curled more into Hinata's arms and hugged him close, burying his face into the fabric of his jacket. He stayed like that for a good while, until he heard a knock on the door and a soft voice come from behind it.
"Hinata-san, visiting hours are up. Please sign out at the front desk. You may visit tomorrow again at the same time."
Yamaguchi strained his ears and listened as the soft patter of footsteps led more and more away from the door until he couldn't hear them anymore. He slid out of Hinata's embrace and sat heavily upon the bed, slouching over so his arms rested on his knees. Hinata sat up behind him and groaned, running a hand through his hair and ruffling it.
"I guess I gotta go now," Hinata pouted, standing up to stretch and crack his back. He turned to face Yamaguchi as he stood as well and he nibbled on his bottom lip, not sure what to say. Silence washed over them, an awkward but good silence. Yamaguchi stepped forward and clasped his hands behind his back, his brow creasing.
"Um, please, don't- don't tell anyone about this, okay? About the dinosaur toy either."
"I-"
"I know we say this every time you have to leave, but please, just promise me. I don't want anyone else to think of me as crazy." Hinata could hear the tremble in Yamaguchi's voice and he nodded, he always agreed, and stepped forward to hug him tightly, rubbing his back.
"Of course, Yamaguchi. I wouldn't tell anyone, and I won't, I promise." Yamaguchi finally let Hinata go, watching him leave through the door with a heavy heart. Another day, another dream that was always the same, another upsetting goodbye between him and Hinata. He collapsed back onto the bed, his face in his hands, and felt hardness when he spread his legs out. He reached down to grab the dinosaur toy that Hinata had thrown onto the bed earlier and held it above his face, peering at it with intense interest. He had so many questions about this that couldn't ever be answered.
How had this made its way under his bed?
Is this a sign?
How did it even appear in his room when he dreamt of it in his sleep?
This whole ordeal was frightening him and he wanted so badly to throw the toy across the room but couldn't. He just couldn't. Mainly because it reminded him of Tsukki, and how he wished he was there with him at that exact moment. He rolled onto his side and hugged the toy to his chest, closing his eyes. Maybe another nap before lunch wouldn't do any harm.
If he thought back hard enough, it never started out this way, nor did he ever want it to turn out this way yet it did. Yamaguchi remembered always waking up back when he lived with his parents, when he was still in high school, to these vivid dreams that he had no recollection of when he woke up but he still remembered them.
He remembered waking up in a sort of panic, not knowing what happened or what caused him to jolt awake so forcefully. He had always ran to his parents room, crying out like someone has just broken into their house. His parents would freak out and try to calm him down, and eventually he did, and tried to get him to explain why he was shouting like a madman at six in the morning.
"Mom, dad, I had a really weird dream but I don't remember any of it but it felt so vivid and surreal and it all happened so fast and it felt like I had a heart attack when I woke up and-"
His parents would always shoo him away after he babbled on and on, not understanding why he decided to wake them up just to tell them about a dream he didn't remember. Yamaguchi huffed and stomped back to his room, crossing his arms over his chest. They never cared, anyways, what made him think now of all times would change that?
He would change for school and pay no mind to the dream he had that morning, instead focusing his attention on his school work and hanging out with his, back then, new friend Hinata Shouyou. It always felt nice to talk and hang out with Hinata; he always seemed to help make all the troubles go away and make him feel wanted. He would always practice volleyball with Hinata, that becoming their sort of ritual during breaks between classes and lunch and even after school. If it meant staying away from his house, then he would gladly accept.
As he progressed through high school, the dreams became more intense. It was way more than he could handle, and soon enough, he could hardly get off his bed and step outside of the house, let alone walk without feeling like his knees and legs were going to give out at any given moment. He kept saying to him that yes, it was the dreams that are making me feel like this and yes, soon enough, the dreams will stop and I will be okay again.
But they never did, and that caused his mental health to slowly decline rapidly.
His parents weren't the first to notice, which they should have been. They should be more caring towards the fact that their own son was breaking down at random points in the day and skipping out on school because he couldn't move on his own without feeling like the ground was going to swallow him up.
Hinata was the first to notice, and probably the first to freak out on him about it.
"What do you mean you can't move!? Like, at all? Can you get out of your bed at least? Do you need me to come over and help, or get you dinner, or anything?" Hinata practically yelled over the phone, Yamaguchi wincing away from the receiver.
"I don't know how this happened, okay? I just don't have the energy to do anything at all." He sighed, his head flopping back onto his pillow.
"Well, have you talked with your parents about this yet? Shouldn't they know?"
"Yeah, but they don't seem to care, so I never bothered them, especially after last time."
"Wait, what happened last time? Did they do something to you?"
"No, no, they just… Completely ignored me, invalidated my dream. Like it meant absolutely nothing to them that their son just had a really terrifying dream, and so what if I couldn't remember it? I was still really scared and they did nothing about it! Talk about great parents…" Yamaguchi muttered, shoving half his face into the pillow beneath him.
"Try to bring it up with them again, perhaps? It wouldn't hurt to try again."
"Mm, yeah I guess, but they still probably won't do anything about it."
And they didn't, until it got too far out of hand that they started believing themselves rather than their own son. They called him crazy for thinking up a random person in his dreams and believing he is real, could be real, like he had any control over those dreams. He didn't, and he kept trying to explain that to his parents but they just wouldn't have it. They put him in therapy but even that didn't help, his therapist siding with his parents.
He had his first panic attack in that room when his therapist was outside talking with his parents.
His parents brought up the fact that he could be placed in a mental institution for saying crazy things like this, and he fought back saying they couldn't really put him in a place like that without really anything to prove that what they were saying about him was the truth. But parents had all the power they could want over their child and he was brought to his first mental institution when he was only 17 and a second year in high school. Hinata was devastated when he found out, and tried to reason with Yamaguchi's parents as best he could but to no avail. Hinata promised that he would visit each day if he could, and for him to hang in there as long as possible, and that he would try anything he could to get him out.
"Even if it means you coming to live with me! I wouldn't mind that at all, and neither would my parents or my little sister!"
But that was more than three years ago, and he was still stuck in this place, having only been able to go out of room once when everyone that was held inside the building was allowed to roam the yard out back for an hour.
There was a lot of people here that were far worse off than he was, but Yamaguchi kept his mouth shut.
Hinata hummed to himself as he made his way into the building and away from the harsh coldness of the winter breeze. He waved at the secretary behind the desk and stepped up to where the sign in sheet was when something caught his eye. He turned his head to his left and saw a tall man walking towards him down the hall, though his attention was on the clipboard he held in his hands. He frowned, not understanding what is was about this man that seemed to have caught his attention enough to stop him from signing in, until he noticed his nameplate that was pinned to his shirt on the right. He squinted his eyes to try and read the small lettering, and as the male grew closer, Hinata was able to read his name and his eyes practically bulged from his head.
No way.
No freakin' way.
Tsukkishima Kei
Tsukkishima Kei.
There was no way that could be his name, right? It was a mistake, probably on Hinata's part from reading so far away, but nope, no it was not a mistake. Hinata easily watched the male walk by him without really making it known that he was staring, and caught sight of the nameplate again before he disappeared behind the corner.
Tsukkishima Kei.
He felt like he was about to faint.
Hinata quickly signed in, bidding goodbye to the secretary, and made a mad dash towards Yamaguchi's room before stopping and realizing that maybe he shouldn't go and tell Yamaguchi about this. It'll only make him want to see the guy for real and Hinata doesn't think he's ready for that just yet. Feeling slightly guilty and upset at himself for his decision, Hinata opened the door to Yamaguchi's room, smiling as bright as he could.
Days pass, and it seems that Yamaguchi still wasn't getting any better. He still had the dinosaur toy and held on to it every time he moved around his room, never letting go of it, but the dreams kept coming and going and he felt like each time he had that dream, it was sucking the energy from him, draining him until he felt lifeless every time he woke up. Nothing new came from the dreams, everything was the same.
Except one minor yet major detail Yamaguchi would've forgotten completely if he didn't know his dreams well or hadn't had them repeatedly for over three years.
The dinosaur was missing its tuft of hair, and Yamaguchi couldn't remember the color of it at all. It was like it just flew from his mind, never existed there in the first place. That's what tore him apart; the only small thing that connected him to Tsukki, the color of his hair, was now gone and he couldn't remember and now all Yamaguchi had was the damn dinosaur that meant nothing to him now because the hair wasn't there anymore.
He threw quite the fuss that a few nurses had to come to his room and restrain him while a doctor injected him with something that made him really sleepy, causing Yamaguchi to fall limp in the nurse's' arms. They confiscated the dinosaur, also heavily confused on how that got in Yamaguchi's room without inspection first.
Everytime he fell asleep, Yamaguchi would wake up almost exactly an hour later and cry and cry and cry.
His dreams were getting shorter and shorter each time he closed his eyes.
His health declined more rapidly than the nurses thought, and even Hinata. Hinata felt guilty each time he saw his best friend like this because he knew. He knew, and he wasn't telling Yamaguchi and that little information he withheld from him was like driving a new nail into his coffin.
"Tsukki, I can't do this anymore."
"No one's forcing you to continue this, you yourself have the ability to stop having these dreams."
"I've tried, Tsukki, I tried so damn hard and I can't! I can't stop dreaming about this, about you-! It hurts me so goddamn much, every single day I feel like I'm punching myself in the gut whenever I wake up because the dreams always get shorter and shorter and I don't know why they are but they do and I just want them to stop!"
Yamaguchi's cries and pleas echoed across the vast emptiness that surrounded both him and Tsukki. Tsukki had his back to Yamaguchi, while the latter was trying to moving from where he was kneeling on the floor but found it very difficult to even lift his arms.
"Why aren't you helping me, Tsukki!? I thought you loved me!"
"Love is only a thing you conjured up in your mind to make up for what your parents didn't give you."
"Don't give me that bullcrap, Tsukki! You said so before that you loved me, so why are you saying otherwise?" Yamaguchi spat, dragging his hand over as hard as he could and grabbed Tsukki's ankle. "Why are you having a change of heart?"
Tsukki didn't answer right then. Yamaguchi growled out curse words under his breath, not wanting to believe that Tsukki, his Tsukki, was going against him, just like everyone else was. He only means of survival, the only thing he can cling on to without giving up hope, was failing him. Papers filled with messy dinosaur sketches and broken picture frames littered the ground around him, the dinosaur toys all broken up and smashed to bits. A whimper escaped his mouth and he bit down on his lip as hard as he could. He didn't want to believe it.
"Your dreams are ending because something amongst your own world has changed. I'm not who you think I am anymore. I'm not who you should be meeting with each time you go to sleep."
"Yes and yes! You're the only one I want to see in my dreams, Tsukki, please, stop this! You mean so much to me, please don't leave me like everyone else." Yamaguchi's voice cracked when he finished speaking. He held back the sob he felt trying to escape his throat and he shook his head, gripping Tsukki's ankle tighter when he felt him begin to move.
"Tsukki, please…"
"Stop begging me, Yamaguchi. Someone is here to see you. I must leave again. I will visit you once more, but that will be the last time we will ever meet again."
"No, Tsukki-!"
Yamaguchi screamed when he woke up and bolted upright into a sitting position, breathing rapidly as tears cascaded down his cheeks. "No, no, no, that c-can't be the last time I see him, no no please no!" He cried loudly, letting his head fall into his hands. Hinata, who had been sitting next to him for quite some time, only leaned over to rub at Yamaguchi's back, not saying anything until Yamaguchi felt it was okay enough to lift his head and look at Hinata.
"What do you mean, last time?" Hinata finally asked after a pregnant pause. Yamaguchi flinched and wrapped his arms around himself, sniffling.
"Tsukki said that when I go back to sleep next, that will be the last time I will ever see him again," He whispered, voice audibly shaking. "I can't go back to sleep, Hinata, I won't. I don't want to lose him, he's so precious to me, I can't…"
Hinata felt something turn and break inside him at his friend's words. He's held the secret from Yamaguchi long enough, and now is the time to tell him. He cleared his throat and scooted closer to the bed while still in his chair. He scratched his head and faltered, trying to somehow think up a way to say what he was going to say without having Yamaguchi get upset at him, but he knew it would happen anyway. He looked at the other on the bed, furrowing his brows.
"Hey, Yamaguchi? I, um, need to tell you something. And please don't get mad at me, this was for your own good. I-I couldn't have you freaking out on me when I first saw it," The look in Yamaguchi's eyes made Hinata realize that maybe there still was some hope left in him, and he nodded for him to continue. "A while back, maybe three, four months ago, I was signing in to come visit you, when I spotted one of the nurses coming from the children's ward on the opposite side of the front desk, west side. It was really weird, okay, because I've never seen him before since I first started visiting you here.
He was walking towards me, well, not towards me but probably to go to one of the rooms in the back, I don't know. Anyway, I see his name tag and thought, 'wow, okay, I knew he didn't seem familiar', but then I actually read the name, and re-read it as he passed by, and I was stunned. I literally couldn't move; it felt like the breath had been knocked out of me." He could tell Yamaguchi was growing impatient.
"Get to the point, Hinata."
"Okay! As I was saying, I read his name tag, and guess what it said."
"What, like I'm supposed to know?" Yamaguchi made a face. "Just tell me what it said."
"Tsukkishima Kei."
Yamaguchi stared at Hinata with such intensity that Hinata felt vulnerable and exposed under his gaze. He shifted awkwardly in his seat and cleared his throat again, managing to make Yamaguchi blink out of his stupor.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"His name is Tsukkishima Kei."
"No. You must be joking. Please stop messing with me, Hinata, that isn't really nice."
"I'm not kidding, Yamaguchi! I'm telling the truth, please believe me! His name was Tsukkishima Kei and he is really tall and has blonde hair and wears these really cool looking glasses! I think he works in the children's ward, unless he's a doctor? But he was wearing the nurse's garb." Hinata muttered mostly to himself. Yamaguchi blocked out the rest of what Hinata said after he explained what he looked like, sort of. Glasses, really tall, blond hair.
Wait. Blond hair. Where did he see blond hair before, or remember it from? He could've sworn he's seen or heard of it somewhere! But it couldn't possibly be the Tsukki from his dream, right? His hair was blocked out after he stopped remembering what the color was ages ago. He groaned and yanked on some of his hair.
"Tsukkishima Kei…" He whispered, trying to get the feel of the name on his tongue. It rolled off it quite easily, but not as easily as Tsukki. Tsukki was a part of Tsukkishima's name, so maybe it could be? "Tsukki…"
"So, do you think it might be him? Maybe I could ask for him and have him come here and you both can-"
"No! No, I mean, that wouldn't be necessary, I mean, I don't even remember what Tsukki looks like in my dream anymore, who's to say that that's not really him but only has a similar name?" Yamaguchi shook his head frantically, waving his hands in front of him to clarify it even more that no, he absolutely did not want Hinata to go grab some poor nurse and bring him back here just to speak with Yamaguchi about whatever nonsense he was thinking up in his mind. He didn't want yet another person to tell him that he was crazy to be thinking of things like this. Hinata understood and nodded, heaving a sigh.
"Well, alright, but I have to go now, sorry it's so early. Natsu made me promise her to help her make dinner for mom tonight." He laughed, shrugging on his jacket. Yamaguchi smiled a little at Hinata and waved at him as he walked to the door.
"Say hi to Natsu for me, please."
"Will do!"
He shouldn't be doing this. He shouldn't he shouldn't he absolutely shouldn't be doing this. But he was and there was no turning back from here. Hinata fled from his place outside of Yamaguchi's door and back towards the front desk, slamming his hands upon the surface on it and effectively startling the secretary behind it. "Excuse me, miss, but may I talk to one of the nurses here? His name is, uh, Tsukkishima Kei, I believe?"
The secretary gave him an odd look accompanied with a frown but agreed nonetheless. She rang him up and told Hinata to have a seat and he will be with him in just a moment. Hinata slumped down in one of the more comfy chairs and tapped his foot against the linoleum, waiting ever so patiently for the nurse to show up. He did after about five or so minutes, looking up from his clipboard when he entered the waiting room.
"You rang?" He asked, addressing the secretary. She nodded and pointed over to Hinata, who was dangerously close to falling asleep right then.
"Hn." The nurse grunted, turning back to face Hinata. He cleared his throat, loud enough to wake up Hinata, and put the clipboard under his arm. "Hinata Shouyou? You wanted to speak to me?"
Just from the way he spoke and how he sounded made Hinata already not like him. He sounded really stuck up and pompous, and he hoped that the nurse wasn't really all that mean and hard-shelled as he thought he did. "Y-Yes! Um, can I speak with you in private? It's really important."
Tsukkishima raised an eyebrow in slight interest and turned away without telling Hinata, making his way back down the hallway he came from. Hinata squawked and hurriedly followed after him, making sure to thank the secretary once more before he left. Tsukkishima opened one of the empty rooms and sat down at the desk, tossing his clipboard haphazardly onto it. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"
"It's about one of the patients here, um, Yamaguchi Tadashi? I don't know if you know him or not, or even work in his ward, but he was brought here because he was having really strange dreams and everyone thought he was going mental or whatever because he was speaking like his dreams were real or would become real so his parents brought him here and he's been here for more than three years now." Hinata breathed out, taking a seat across from Tsukkishima, who only nodded in response.
"I've heard of him, but with his case being so low on the scale here, I paid no mind to it. I work in the children's ward, and I assume he's an adult, correct? Therefore, I would have no need to have gone to his side of the building unless I was ultimately needed," Tsukkishima leaned back in his chair, seemingly as bored as his voice sounded. "What is it that you want?" He asked, peering down at Hinata over his nose.
Hinata shrank under his sharp gaze. "My friend has dreams about someone named 'Tsukki'. And your name sounds oddly close to that, so I was just curious, that maybe you are the one he is dreaming of."
Tsukki narrowed his eyes at Hinata's words and sat up straight, placing his hands flat on the desk. "Let me get this straight. Your friend has been having dreams about someone named 'Tsukki' for, what, however many years, and now that you've read my name on my tag, you think it could be me? Who's to say there isn't anyone else out there with a name like mine?"
Well, that was true enough. There could be others with the name "Tsukki", but that wasn't the matter! Hinata made a frustrated groan and shook his head. "No, I mean, yes you're right, there could be endless possibilities! But you're the only one here right now that has a name similar to the one he keeps dreaming of, so, could you possibly visit him and talk with him about it? I-I don't know. He says the Tsukki in his dreams really likes dinosaurs and I saw on your clipboard some tiny dinosaur stickers?" Hinata said feebly, making a move to stand up, but yelped and jumped about half a foot back when Tsukkishima slammed his fist against the desk and stood up abruptly.
"He said something about dinosaurs?"
"Y-Yeah, he said his Tsukki named all the ones and Yamaguchi even woke up with on under his bed. I didn't put it there, and he didn't know how it got there either," Tsukkishima seemed to process this, and he grabbed his clipboard off the desk, making his way past Hinata out of the room. Hinata followed suit and trailed behind him nervously. "S-So are you going to talk to him, maybe?"
"Maybe." Was all Tsukkishima said as he turned the corner back down the hallway past the secretary's desk. He knew that whenever Yamaguchi fell asleep, he would dream, that's what Hinata had told him, but what he failed to inform him was that the next time Yamaguchi slept would be the last time he would see Tsukki.
Everything was so immaculate to Yamaguchi's tastes, he wondered how anything bad could have happened between him and Tsukki. The cool breeze felt wonderful, the sun poking out from behind the clouds but not for long, the happy laughter coming from inside the building that was in front of him.
Yamaguchi was happy.
He was in a suit and tie, his hair swept back and combed nicely, and he felt ready to face the whole world. He felt someone appear beside him, and smiled to his left as he saw Kageyama as a dinosaur walk beside him and into the building. He noticed how everyone was a dinosaur, Hinata, Ennoshita, Nishinoya… But he stumbled and leaned against Kageyama when he caught sight of Tsukki up at the altar and felt his breath leave him in one fell swoop.
"Oh, my god…" Kageyama laughed under his breath and nudged Yamaguchi along, Daichi and Sugawara coming to help aid him. "I can't believe this is happening…"
It had happened all so fast. It felt like yesterday that he and Tsukki met when he first dreamt of him, and then his dreams were cutting out short and leaving him to his wits end, broken and useless, and now. Now he was going to be married to the one he loved the most, the one who stuck by him all these years, the one who never said he was crazy for dreaming all of this. Never. Not once. And he was glad, oh so glad that soon he would be married to his one true love.
"Tsukki…"
He eventually made his way down the aisle, with the help of Sugawara at his side, and stood beside him, feeling his hands begin to sweat. The pastor started speaking, and the blackness that was emitting from the corner of Yamaguchi's vision startled him. No, this can't be happening, not right now, not when everything was going perfectly well. He inhaled deeply and clenched his jaw, forcing himself to think the blackness away, if that would even help the problem. He could feel it lingering in the back of his mind, but at least it wasn't bothering him anymore. He broke out of his daze right as soon as the pastor looked at him and spoke,
"And do you, Yamaguchi Tadashi, take Tsukki to be your lawful wedded husband?"
"I… I do."
"With the power invested within me, I now pronounce you, husband and husband."
Yamaguchi could hear the voices of his friends behind him, cheering for the both of them and congratulating them, but all Yamaguchi could focus on was Tsukki and how charming and handsome he looked in his suit and tie.
Mine, he thought as he stepped towards Tsukki, he's all mine and I'm so happy right now I could cry.
Tsukki met him halfway and cupped Yamaguchi's cheeks with his hands, tilting his head upward so he could lean down to kiss him softly, the crowd erupting into yet another set of applause and cheers. Yamaguchi couldn't help but smile into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Tsukki's neck to pull him closer. The kiss lasted longer than thirty seconds, at most, and it was Tsukki who had to pull away. He had yet to say something to Yamaguchi other than the 'I do', but he didn't mind at all. Not when they were both wedded to each other and he could have Tsukki to himself anytime he wanted. Though, when Tsukki did pull away, he hovered in front of Yamaguchi, his eyes searching deep in Yamaguchi's until he frowned and creased his brow.
Within that moment, Yamaguchi felt the blackness seeping back into his vision and he let out a surprised gasp. This was ending far too soon, and he kept trying to push it back as much as he can but he couldn't. He leaned against Tsukki, his legs shaking uncontrollably, Tsukki holding on to him as much as he could but it felt as if he didn't really want to help keep Yamaguchi standing.
Like he was a burden to him.
"Tsukki, it- it's happening again. Please tell me this won't be the last time I see you, please…" Yamaguchi whispered, grabbing hold of the front of Tsukki's suit tightly. Tsukki only gave him a hard look and didn't answer him, but for Tsukki, that was all the answer he could give. "No, no, dammit, why now!?" Yamaguchi yelled, shoving his face into Tsukki's chest. "Why now…"
As the blackness continued to consume him, Yamaguchi felt lifeless. He stayed leaning up against Tsukki for as long as he possibly could, watching as his friends slowly disappeared in front of him like a magic trick. When the blackness overtook his vision and even Tsukki was starting to fade out, he felt Tsukki lean into him and his breath washed over his ear as he said,
"Your time is up."
Tsukkishima reached the door that he was positive was Yamaguchi's. Why was he doing this again? Oh, right, to appease that little brat who stormed into the building practically demanding him to help out his friend. He didn't know why he even tried to be nice when all he got was nothing in return, but he had to be nice to work here. How else were you supposed to act around children if all you had on you was a horrible personality?
He heard cries from the other side of the door and hesitated a few seconds before opening the door, not bothering to knock. He entered the room and the first thing he saw was a man hunched over on the bed, sobbing his eyes out while his pillows and the chair that was beside his bed were thrown across the room. He looked like a right mess.
"Are you Yamaguchi Tadashi?" Tsukkishima asked, stepping towards the bed. The man looked up from his arms and Tsukkishima grimaced. He didn't look it, he was a right mess.
"I-I… Y-Yeah, I am," He responded after having to clear his throat multiple times. "Who are you?"
"I was requested by a… doctor of mine to check up on you since he would be out for the rest of the day. May I ask why you were crying?" Tsukkishima picked up the chair that had been thrown and sat down on it in front of the bed so he was facing Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi stared at Tsukkishima like he was an ethereal being, his jaw dropping open slightly now that he got a fairly good look at him. He quickly sat up and wiped his eyes hastily with the backs of his hands, coughing into his arm. "I-It was nothing, I just woke up from a bad dream, is all."
"Your doctor told me that you have certain dreams that allow you think up a person that you may deem as real in your eyes." Tsukkishima continued, lifting his clipboard so hopefully Yamaguchi would think that he was interested in this and think that he was jotting stuff down. Yamaguchi nodded and shifted, pulling his legs up to his chest to wrap his arms around them tightly.
"Yes, that's right, but it is real, not just in my head…" He mumbled, pouting into his arms. "You never answered my question, though. I asked who you are, because I've never seen you around before."
Tsukki feigned rolling his eyes and he crossed a leg over the other, eyeing the other dumbly. He might as well get this over with, I mean if Yamaguchi didn't read his name tag the moment he saw it, then what else was he supposed to do?
"I'm Tsukkishima Kei."
It was as if the whole world had stopped at that exact moment, and Yamaguchi felt like he stopped breathing, and it looked to Tsukkishima like he might as well did stop breathing. Yamaguchi stared at the other, his head lifting up just a bit from his arms and he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.
So Hinata was telling the truth all along?
"T-Tsukkishima?" Yamaguchi forced out, his voice sounding hoarse. He couldn't believe it, this all felt so surreal. He shook his head fast and scooted back up against the wall behind him, curling up into a ball and glancing away from the other. "T-That must not be right…"
"You think I don't know my own name?" Tsukkishima scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Okay, I'm done playing these games with you. Your friend came to me and told me everything, the little shrimp with the orange hair? Yeah, he told me about you; I had absolutely no idea who you were until after he told me, and then he said my name and it was kind of freaky because who the hell has dreams about people they haven't even met before?"
"It's not like I could help it!" Yamaguchi yelled back, snapping his gaze back onto Tsukkishima. "I had no control over my dreams, and I honestly wish I did! I didn't know who you were, or if you were even alive! I thought you were just a part of my dream, something my mind made up for me to cope with when my parents gave me shit in return. At least the Tsukki in my head loved me more than them or anyone else I met, excluding Hinata." Yamaguchi snapped, pushing himself from the bed to stand before Tsukkishima, who in return stood as well and towered over Yamaguchi. Tsukkishima glared down at the smaller boy, who was following suit, and gave up trying. He smacked a hand to his forehead and sighed.
"He also told me that a toy dinosaur appeared after you woke up one morning and you had no idea how it got under your bed. Do you still have it?"
"No, it was confiscated a while back. I don't even know if they still have it, they probably threw it out, knowing this place…"
Tsukkishima thought for a second, then turned on his heel and headed for the door. "Stay here." He said, exiting the room and shut the door behind him. He went to the staff room that was on the opposite end of where Yamaguchi's room was so he had to trek all the way there as fast as he could, reaching the room within ten minutes. Something clicked in his head as he was walking to the room and he could clearly remember seeing a green something sitting atop the refrigerator for the longest time, but he never knew what it was or cared to find out. He reached up, not by much, and grabbed it, feeling the telltale sign of a tail and two stubby arms. Tsukkishima's eyes widened by a fraction and he swallowed, feeling his mouth go dry.
The dinosaur looked like him. It had the little tuft of blond hair, the exact glasses he wore. It was terrifying, to say the least. He didn't know why this was kept up on the fridge so however long it was, but it must have been up there for some time because it was really dusty and sort of scratched up. He bolted from the room again, his head starting to hurt badly all of a sudden. He took his medicine earlier before he came to work, why was it acting up now? Tsukkishima growled under his breath, realizing that this dinosaur and his relation with Yamaguchi now could possibly mean something to him that he never quite figured out a while back but all made sense at that exact moment.
He pushed open the door to Yamaguchi's room and tossed the toy to a startled Yamaguchi. "Was this what you were looking for?"
"Ah, yes, actually. H-How did you find it? This was taken away from me months before, shouldn't it have been thrown out?" Yamaguchi asked suspiciously but relieved all the same.
"I saw that up on the fridge in the staff room maybe a month or so ago, I never bothered to look at what it actually was. But why does it look so much like me? That's really weird."
"What? What are you talking about?" Yamaguchi asked, raising an eyebrow at Tsukkishima, who sighed in exasperation.
"The toy! The dinosaur toy you are holding right now! Why the hell does it look like me? It's really fucking creepy." Tsukkishima knows he's not supposed to yell or curse in front of patients, but he couldn't help it.
"Tsukkishima, this is just a plain old dinosaur. It wasn't the same after I woke up from a dream months back and the small tuft of hair was gone. I don't even remember the color of it." Yamaguchi admitted, staring down at the toy sadly. Tsukkishima groaned in frustration and grabbed the toy from Yamaguchi's hands, pointing at it.
"Look, yes it does! It had my hair and my glasses. Why the hell can't you see it?"
"One day when I woke up, it was just gone. The glasses weren't there either. I-I don't know what you want me to say! I'm sorry, Tsukki!"
At those three, simple yet powerful words, Tsukkishima Kei felt something snap back into place in his mind and he keeled over onto the bed, Yamaguchi making a strangled noise as he lept forward to catch Tsukkishima.
"A-Ah! Are you okay? I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Yamaguchi cried, scooting back once more when Tsukkishima finally had the energy to sit up. He felt like he was just suddenly drained completely, what the hell?
"What just happened?" He asked through his teeth, wincing at the throbbing pain in his head. "The hell… As soon as you said those… those words, I felt pain. What the hell did you do to me?"
"I-I didn't do anything, I swear! I just said I was sorry is all." Yamaguchi bit his lip, frowning at Tsukkishima. How could he think that he had something to do with causing him pain when all he did was speak?
"You said, 'I'm sorry, Tsukki', and that's what caused it, I think." Tsukkishima said, rubbing the side of his head. But in all actuality, it made sense.
Because before he came to work here, he had been having strange dreams where he would dream up a person that he thought was real as well, shockingly similar to Yamaguchi's case, but hadn't realized it until right then because he chose to forget about it. The person didn't have a name and no recognizable facial features, all except for a toy dinosaur that had a tuft of brown hair and dots all over its cheeks. But now that Tsukkishima thought about it after so long, and by looking at Yamaguchi's face for an extended period of time, he now understood that yes, Yamaguchi Tadashi is the faceless man that had haunted his dreams all those times.
Tsukkishima breathed out a low "shit" and stood up from the bed. It looked like Yamaguchi was piecing together the mashed up puzzle pieces as well. His hands began shaking as he brought them up to his face to inspect the dinosaur more closely now, his eyes widening.
"O-Oh, my god…"
"You can see it now, right?"
"Yeah, but… How did- How am I able to see it again?" Yamaguchi asked, flabbergasted. He met Tsukkishima's gaze and held the toy to his chest tightly. Tsukkishima wet his lips before he spoke, his voice low.
"I think… I think it's because I remembered too."
"You, what? What does this have to do with you?" Yamaguchi asked, thoroughly confused. Tsukkishima sat back down on the bed in front of the other and ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes.
"Way back when, probably four or so months, I started having these dreams. It was really weird for me, because I usually never have dreams, okay?" Tsukkishima started, picking at his nails as he spoke. "It started out with me dreaming of a person that I've never met before, and their face was blurred out completely so I couldn't really see who it was, not like my dream would let me because I couldn't control it. I didn't understand what the dream was about, but when I started having it consecutively, I started realizing that it was supposed to mean something in some strange way.
I kept having them, they would usually happen once every day or once a week. Every time I had a dream, my head would start hurting considerably bad and I would wake up to a toy dinosaur next to me on my bed. It was always there, even when I threw it out or stuffed it in my closet; it would always reappear beside me. So I started trying to force myself to forget," Tsukkishima continued after taking a deep breath, noticing Yamaguchi's intense stare on him. "The more I fought against myself, the more I won, until I stopped having those dreams. I felt way better afterwards, to say the least. The dinosaur stopped showing up, the dream stopped, but I would always remember what that dinosaur looked like and how it makes so much sense right now."
"What… did it look like?" Yamaguchi asked, his voice shaking with anticipation, though he probably already knew what Tsukkishima would say.
"It had brown hair and what looked to be freckles on its face."
A noise flew from Yamaguchi's mouth and the dinosaur dropped from his hands, noticeably shaking. He covered his mouth his his hands to stop a sob from escaping. This couldn't be real, this couldn't.
"S-So, what you're saying is, is that all this… what I went through… could have been prevented?" He whispered, finding it extremely hard to breath in the now stuffy room. Tsukkishima nodded.
"But, what I am saying right now, is that I'm glad you didn't try to prevent this from stopping. And I'm really sorry you had to go through whatever it was you went through, it must have been torture. Your friend said you've been here for, what, going on more than three years?"
"Mhm, it was terrible. I- I still don't know how I'm going to get out of here, even with this all clearing up." Yamaguchi admitted, staring down at the bedsheets sadly.
"Just think of it this way, since you're not having any more dreams- wait, you're not still, are you?" Tsukkishima said quickly, narrowing his eyes. Yamaguchi gulped and shook his head.
"N-No! Um, the last dream I had, or was supposed to have, was the one you walked in on, where I was crying. Um, yeah."
"Okay, well, since you're not having anymore dreams, you can bounce back relatively quick and prove to them that you're ready to leave. I mean, you look like you can do in in less than a week, maybe two weeks at most," Tsukkishima admitted, rubbing his arm. He glanced at his watch and cursed, picking up his clipboard that had fallen on the floor. "I have to go now, to check up on the children I left playing in one of the play rooms. If you need me, don't hesitate to ask. I'll explain things to your other nurses if they ask."
Yamaguchi stood up to follow Tsukkishima to the door and he smiled gratefully, feeling as is the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt free. He grabbed Tsukkishima's hand tightly on the spur of the moment when he put a hand on the doorknob. He didn't want him to leave so soon, they had just come to terms with things not even twenty minutes ago.
"I wanted to thank you, for, um, not saying anything to me when you first came in here or first found out." Tsukkishima held back from rolling his eyes again and he smirked.
"I honestly didn't know anything until your friend shoved the information down my throat, asking me to help you out. I wasn't going to at first, believe me, because I had no idea who you were. You were just another person locked up, why would I get into your business? But when I heard you crying, that's when I knew that you weren't like the others. They would never cry as disgusting as that."
Yamaguchi blinked for a second, processing what Tsukkishima just said, then his eyes widened and he faked a gasp, though smiling all the same. He knew Tsukkishima didn't mean that.
"Another thing! Before you go, I mean," Yamaguchi coughed, tugging on Tsukkishima's hand again, the said one looked back and cocked his head to the side.
"Is… Is it alright if I call you Tsukki?" That seemed to shock Tsukkishima, but he brushed it off with a curt nod.
"Yeah, I don't mind. Though, only you can call me that."
It took weeks to be able to get out of that building, way longer than Yamaguchi and Tsukkishima thought it would take. To be able to show to his doctor and nurses that he was more than capable to go out into the world beyond this building now that he was doing far better than the past few years. But that didn't matter now. All that mattered was that he was free, free from the sickening white paint peeling off the walls and the other patients that were around him and the nurses that wouldn't care if they hurt him with needles or not.
He was of age now, but had nowhere to go at all. He didn't want to call up his parents since he gave up on them when they decided to dump him in that horrible place. So his only last resort was to call Hinata, who didn't even know he was out.
Tsukkishima had offered for him to stay with him, but Yamaguchi didn't take the offer right away. He wanted to get back on his feet first with the help of Hinata and Tsukkishima understood that wholeheartedly, telling him to come back to him when he feels ready. They exchanged numbers and bid each other a farewell, Yamaguchi hugging Tsukkishima so hard he thought he heard a rib crack.
He rang up Hinata, who answered with an excited little squeak. "Yamaguchi! Hey, how are you? Did they let you have your phone back?"
Yamaguchi could hear the excitement coming from Hinata seeping through the phone, and he could feel it oozing into him. "Actually, um, I just got released today. You maybe want to come and pick me-" He was cut off by a loud shriek and fumbling and crackling, then Hinata was back on the phone, breathless.
"Hell yeah! I'm on my way right now. Oh my god, Yamaguchi, I'm so excited! I have so much to show you!" Yamaguchi laughed along with Hinata, feeling better already.
"Oh, also, I have so much to tell you that happened just this past week…"