Title: Jump
Fandom: Haikyuu!
Word Count: 450
Summary: Karasuno has made it to the finals of the tournament and one jump decides everyone's fate. || Written for Haikyuu PH's HQ Week. Theme for day 2: regrets.
For one shining moment, Hinata Shouyou felt as if he were suspended in time. Everything around him seemed to slow down as he frantically jumped for the volleyball. His palm brought the ball zooming over the net and colliding with the floor on the other side.
This was how the Karasuno High Volleyball Club won the tournament.
Hinata felt a sinking feeling of dread as gravity took him over and brought him sprawling to the floor. He had jumped hastily and hadn't been careful. He landed badly on his left leg.
For a few heart-stopping moments, everyone in the gymnasium was deathly silent. Jubilant cheers died in the Karasuno team's mouths as they watched Hinata hit the floor with a loud crash.
A leg isn't supposed to twist that way, right?
Tsukishima was the only one with enough presence of mind to yell at Couch Ukai to call a paramedic and run over to Hinata with a towel in his hands. Hinata didn't understand what was happening. He was in a daze as Tsukishima told him to lie back down and not to move his leg. The gymnasium erupted in shocked and horrified noise. The rest of Hinata's teammates crowded around him. He craned his head to look at his leg.
Bile rose in his throat when he saw the white glint of bone where his knee was supposed to be.
Hinata tried not to look at the quickly reddening towel that Tsukishima was gently pressing against his dislocated knee. A paramedic told his teammates around him to give him space as he motioned over the men carrying the stretcher.
The next thing Hinata knew, he was in a hospital bed with his knee in a white cast. The words of the doctor echoed in his head.
You can still play volleyball but you cannot jump a lot anymore. That is, if you don't want to destroy your knee completely.
For a short guy playing volleyball like Hinata, his jump was his best weapon. How could he properly play volleyball without his jump?
But did he regret making that last fatal jump to win the tournament for his team?
No. He didn't regret it at all.
This tournament was his senpai's last chance and he got them the win that everyone had worked so hard for. Hinata recalled everything that had happened to get them to the finals and he believed that ruining his knee was worth it. All their hard work paid off. If it meant that Hinata would never play volleyball the way he wanted to ever again, then so be it.
He did not regret making the jump that fulfilled the team's dream of winning together.
A/N: I've cross-posted this to AO3 under the same username =D