DISCLAIMER! I do not own Haikyuu! neither do I make any money from this fic.
CHAPTER I: Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there
[thursday evening]
Hinata has been under a lot of mental strain lately. Never has the boy let his size define his feelings, but this has grown steadily more difficult after their victory in the Miyagi prelims. The boy usually doesn't address his height as a disadvantage because he is too busy playing to even reckon it. During the past days however the end-of-semestre feeling has downed over Karasuno Volleyball Club, and the trains have grown shorter and less intense. They were all looking forward some well-deserved holidays after beating Shiratorizawa. Coach Ukai was even letting them have more time for free practice at the end of evening training sessions. This would normally set Hinata in absolute hype, but after three days of extended free-time the small redhead has started to think too much.
The last free practice went particularly bad for Hinata. He, Tanaka and Asahi were practising spikes. For twenty minutes or so all was well, Tanaka and Hinata were actively competing to set who would score a point closest to the line. After scoring the victory-point against both Aoba Jōhsai and Shiratorizawa, Hinata's spike was definitely the favorite to win, but Tanaka was putting up a good fight. Asahi remained out of this mess. He isn't the kind of guy who enjoys competitions, anyway. In the end, Hinata scored a point merely two millimeters from the back-line and beat Tanaka. After some fuzz, all the team members proceeded to train serves.
Despite his victory, Hinata's mind wouldn't settle. Not even during his serve.
"What does it matter if I can score that close to the back-line if I can't spike past a block?" the redhead thought as the hold the ball at the back of the court.
"Put a blocker as tall as Tsukishima in front of me and my spikes are useless". He threw the ball up, lifted his right arm, stepped forward and hit the ball. "If only I had Asahi height or power..."
The ball hit the edge of the net but didn't have enough momento to cross it so the ball fell in Hinata's side of the court. "Tsc" Hinata grunted. The short boy then started moving to get back the ball. "I shouldn't be thinking this, it helps no one. Kagayama has already said this to me...". The boy kneeled down, got the ball and started to head back to the other side of the court. "Anyway! The Small Giant was Karasuno's ace and he was small as I am. If he could do it I can, too!" He tried to sher himself up again, not that it was very effective.
From the opposite corner of the court, Kageyama couldn't hear what Hinata was thinking, but he could imagine it very clearly from the faces the redhead was pulling. He got to know the shrimpy very well by now and every time he would start think nonsense about his height it would put the genius setter in a horrible mood. "Hinata, boke." Kageyama said in a low voice so that only himself could hear. "I've already told the shrimp he is fast, he can jump. If he trains hard enough to improve, he won't need any centimeter more to become an ace."
Despite all the bullying the setter would make of the small boy, he cared for him. He just didn't like to make it public. And just because he cared for the boy, every time the shrimp entered the low self-esteem self-destructive mode he would intervene. He did so when Hinata first got hit in the head by Asahi's spike in the game against Karasuno Neighborhood Association Team, and he has done so ever since. This time, though, he decided to let the boy alone. It would draw too much attention if he started yelling at him from the other side of the court because of the shrimpy's slightly downed attitude.
With that in mind, Kageyama proceeded with his serve training. Right now, only himself and Asahi-san could hit a jump-serve properly. Yamaguchi still had much to practise before he could perform it safely. "So I can't afford to miss a serve anymore" thought the setter as he threw the ball high up and sprinted for the serve.
Kageyama serve was monstrous as always. "Yes!" the setter celebrated his seemingly perfect serve. If he succeed to repeat it in a match, it would be a service serve. But this wasn't a match, this was a free practice. "Shit!" cursed the setter when he realised where to the ball was heading. It was heading straight to Hinata, who was returning to the back-line at the opposite side of the court. Kageyama shouted: "Hina-".
Too late. The ball hit Hinata right at the back of his head.
The small boy was caught by surprise, the shock wave threw his light body forward and he fell with his face to the ground.
"HINATA! YOU ALRIGHT?!" Daichi shouted to the boy, who has changing position from lied with his belly down to sit with his legs cross.
"Y-yeah. I'm al-alright" the redhead answered a little too slow for his captain's taste. A small circle with the order team members formed around the boy.
Kageyama noticed that Hinata was a bit slower than usual after the impact, too. Something inside his chest stinged and he grew unquiet next to the innocent victim of his crazy jump serve. He was so discomfortable he started yelling at the boy. "Hinata boke! Keep your eyes up during serve training or you'll-".
"ENOUGH, KAGEYAMA" Daichi shouted at the setter. Even crouched down next to Hinata, looking up to him, Kageyama had to admit his senpai presence was undearable.
So he shut up.
Hinata couldn't help but feel bad for Kageyama. Despite the pain he was feeling at the back of his head being the genius setter's fault, he knew the taller boy hadn't done it on purpose.
"It's alright, captain. I feel better already" said the redhead trying to lift the foggy atmosphere that had downed over the team. "Ah, Kageyama" he kept going "sorry for not paying attention on the court. I should had been looking up".
The setter's heart almost broke into pieces with this last phase. He could have been killed by that impact in the head and yet the boy was apologising. Kageyama should have said something, but couldn't find the words, so he remained quiet and offered his hand to pull Hinata back on his feet.
Once standing up, Hinata realised how dizzy he actually was. He tripped in his own feet, and he would have fallen down again if it wasn't for Daichi holding him up. The captain put Hinata's left arm over his back, held the boy's waist with his right hand and carried him to the bench.
"Someone go find Takeda-senpai!" he told the team as Nishinoya sprinted out the gym to look for their professor.
Less than five minutes later, Nishinoya and Takeda-senpai arrive at the court. "Hinata! What happened? Can you breath? Can you walk? How many finger are you seei-" Takeda-senpai was freaking out as usual.
"Takeda-senpai, calm down please. I was just a little dizzy, but I'm alright now" interrupted the boy as the stood up and sprinted around until the other side of the court and back to the bench.
"Thanks Goodness you are alright, Hinata" Takeda-senpai finally breathed, then he continued "but I think you've had enough action for one day, haven't you? Go home and rest for tonight, okay?".
"Okay..." answered Hinata a little saddened for losing the rest of the evening practice.
"Come on! Let me take you home. It was me who almost killed you, anyway" offered Kageyama after noticing how distressed Hinata became on the perspective of losing the evening practice.
So the two partners said goodbye to their fellow teammates, stopped by the changing room to gather their stuff and headed to Hinata's house. In the way, their they didn't talked. When they were together they would usually fight over some nonsense, but today they were both deep in thought. Each trying their best not to let their thought be discovered by the other.
Hinata was a little unquiet close to Kageyama. It was him who accidentally threw that crazy serve at back of his head and got yelled at for it. Hinata felt bad because Kageyama got yell at because of him, but he also was a little offended for being hit by the setter's serve.
Everyone knew Kagayama was Karasuno's best player at serving, he was on par with Oikawa from Aoba Jōhsai. He knew how to control his serves. And he wouldn't have aimed a serve at someone's head on propose. Kageyama wasn't emthat/em mean. So the only option left was that Kageyama didn't actualy saw Hinata. And the only reason Hinata could think of why Kagayama didn't saw him was because of his height.
"Everything goes back to it" the little redhead thought "If I was taller, things would be much easier, and none of what happened today would have taken place".
Hinata's mood was getting worse by the second, Kageyama was able to notice. He had grown quiet proficient in reading the shrimp feelings after tossing to him for months. Kageyama could bet the reason of Hinata's bad temper was the same as in the court earlier: the shrimp was jealous of other players' height and strength.
It would always upset Kageyama when he noticed these thoughts in the redhead's mind. This time however what he felt wasn't anger, it was pity.
Due to Hinata's energy and light-heartedness the setter would almost never notice their height difference. In situations like this, or like when Hinata as on the floor however he could not help but to notice how short and how light this boy actually was, or how easily he could get hurt jumping and bumping into others players recklessly.
For the first time since they had met, Kageyama found the right word to describe Hinata the way he was now… fragile. It broke his heart. He want to say something to console the boy, but he couldn't gather the courage to, so the remained silent.
After a thirty-minutes walk, the two boys arrived that Hinata's house.
"Thank you, Kageyama!" said Hinata smiling forcefully. "And don't worry, I know you didn't do that on purpose" he completed, leaving the setter slightly more relaxed. "See you tomorrow" said the short boy before he entered home.
Kageyama sighed and resumed walking back to his own home.
Hinata didn't told his mother what happened at the volleyball club. He knew that if he did she would certainly overreact. So they boy acted like normal, even though a slight pain still lingered to the back of his neck.
The redhead took a shower, had dinner and then went to his bedroom to do his homework. When he was halfway through his math worksheet, Natsu his little sister entered his room.
"Onii-chan, come play with meeee" she invited her big brother, and Hinata could say no to a four-years-old. So he layed down his pencil and suddenly sprinted up towards Natsu, grabbed her up and started tickling her.
Natsu exploded in laughter. He took her to the living room, still hold and tickling her, and then put her down on the sofa. "I wanna play hide and seek!" the little girl demanded.
"Okay. But only once, alright? I've gotta finish my homework" Hinata explained to his little sister.
"All right"Natsu accepted. "You hide and I look for you. One, two..." she stated and then she put her hand in her face and started counting all of a sudden.
"Hey! It's not fair" Hinata tried to argue.
"Three, four…" Natsu wasn't going to stop, so Hinata hurried up to find a place to hide. He ended up hiding under the very sofa Natsu was standing on.
"Gezz... She's just like Kageyama..." Hinata thought. "At least she will never find me here. This one of the perks of being small: winning at hide-and-seek." Hinata laughed mischievously inside his head.
Natsu finished counting and started looking for Hinata throughout the house. After five minutes, his little sister didn't found Hinata and started to grow impatient.
"Onii-chan! You still in the house?! If you aren't, it is not fair" Natsu shouted in the air. More five minutes have passed and Natsu was VERY annoyed at her big brother.
It was when Natsu started to cry.
Natsu's outburst got Hinata with his guard down. He jumped in his place, and hit the back of his head in the sofa above him.
The boy wasn't excepted the pain that followed the impact. "Gezz, that ball must have really made some damage" he thought as he got out from under the sofa, putting brave face not to let his little sister notice his pain.
He then consoled his sister until she calmed down, he apologized for hiding in a place too difficult for her to find him and headed back to his bedroom. "Enough of playing for today" he told Natsu.
Hinata closed the door behind him when he entered his bedroom. He sat on his bed, feeling the back of his head throb. So the boy decided not to finish his homework, and go to sleep
If his head wasn't any better in the morning, he would tell his mother.