Kageyama's hands were clenched at his sides, the fabric of his uniform pants fisted in his palms as he listened to his teacher's lecture.
"This is the third fight this week!" Takeda-sensei was saying, clearly exasperated with him.
He was staring decidedly at the papers on his teacher's desk and his eyes stung in the effort to hold back tears. He couldn't help that he just had a mean face. Even now, holding back tears, he looked more like he was glaring then genuinely upset.
His mom says it's because he is an only child that he has trouble getting along with others, and that in time he'll have plenty of words, but his inability to smile coupled with his lack of a brain to mouth filter had so far prevented any form of a positive relationship with his peers.
The fights really just started without Kageyama ever meaning for them to. Sometimes he would let his temper get ahold of him and he would un-intentionally start the fight by yelling something rude. And other times people would take one look at him and assume he was looking down on them and before Kageyama knew it fists would be flying and he'd have to fight back.
"I'm going to set up a conference with your parents," Takeda was saying and Kageyama thought bitterly that his mother would probably cry. Dad wouldn't but he'd give him that sad disappointed look he gave him whenever Kageyama had done something to upset his mother.
"Kageyama I know you weren't at fault here, but… this kind of behavior is unacceptable. This plus your low grades are all pointing towards a dark path."
He didn't know how or why it had happened but somewhere along the way his attitude and behavior had been misconstrued as delinquent. This was his third strike, his parents would be called, his behavior would go down on his permanent record and he'd never go to a nice college on a volleyball scholarship and his life would be over and his mother would cry so much his father would have to build a boat for them to live in and his dad would have that sad disappointed look the whole time all because of his dumb face and his dumb attitude and—
"So until I've had the meeting with your parents you'll be suspended from school. That means club activities as well. I'm sorry Kageyama."
Kageyama's hands unclenched from his pants in shock. He nodded stiffly, internally grateful he hadn't let his mom cut his bangs last week, so that the long locks could now cover his red-rimmed eyes and the tears he wasn't able to hold back anymore.
Kageyama could still hear his classmate's whispers when he left school grounds early. Even now as he angrily spiked a volleyball against his backyard fence over and over again - thwack, THwack, THWACK – he could still hear them.
If he listened, he could hear his mom whispering about him to his dad on the phone in the kitchen, but he didn't want to, and so he kept bouncing the ball off the wall – determined to practice twice as hard since he couldn't go to official volleyball practice anyway.
'What does it matter?' he thought angrily, 'It's not like my teammates will miss me.'
In reality, the teammates here at Karasuno were far kinder then the ones he had at his middle-school, but he could tell they easily got exasperated with him – everyone did.
But no matter how nice people were, Kageyama just couldn't change his attitude, and he certainly couldn't change his face – he would know - he's spent hours practicing to smile in front of the mirror and has managed to simultaneously make himself frightened and sad.
This time when the ball bounced back Kageyama caught it in his hands, "Stupid," he grumbled, glaring fiercely at the volleyball, "I'm so stupid."
He squeezed the ball tightly, hands curling, before flinging it at the wall in a fit of anger. But instead of the expected thwack sound there was a dull thudding sound and a grunt.
Kageyama looked up just in time to see an orange-haired boy fall on his butt – the ball rolling off to the side as the stranger buried his face in his knees, both hands up and cupped against his forehead.
"Shit!" was Kageyama's response before he was stumbling towards the boy, hands raised in a gesture to help but not quite close enough to even touch the boy.
"Are you okay?" is probably what he should have asked, but judging by the groaning the answer was a clear no and instead Kageyama was saying, "What are you doing in my yard?!"
The groans immediately stopped, and puffy orange hair swayed as the smaller boy shot his head up – gold brown eyes sparkling with an emotion Kageyama could definitely say he had never had directed at him before – delight. Kageyama noticed there was a rapidly fading red spot smack dab in the middle of the boy's forehead before he was smiling with teeth and then yelling, "You can see me?!"
'Great,' Kageyama thought, 'I gave this kid brain damage.'
The boy shot up – far more energetic then anyone should ever be after taking a ball to the face.
"You can see me!" he repeated, stepping forward to presumably grab his hands, but Kageyama quickly stepped back, evading the touch.
"I'm so relieved!" he was saying, clearly not offended by Kageyama's moving away, "I was trying to ask for directions earlier and everyone was just ignoring me – I even yelled that they were jerks in the middle of the street and no one even looked!"
"And then-"
Kageyama wasn't listening anymore, torn between annoyance and confusion – why was this kid in his yard? Why wouldn't he stop talking? Why was he even talking to him? Most people would have probably told him to watch it and then demand an apology and yet here they were.
"Shut up!" Kageyama finally yelled, effectively shutting up the boy, whose teeth clacked with how quickly he shut his mouth. And great, he looked like he'd seen a ghost – now that was a look Kageyama was used to.
"Y-you trying to pick a fight?" the boy was saying before Kageyama could say anything else, taking a shaky step back but trying to look like Kageyama hadn't just scared him with his outburst.
"No. Get out of my yard." He'd already gotten into one fight already today - he was already suspended from school – he didn't need to be starting anything where his mom could see him. On one hand he wanted to shove the boy out of his yard, but the fear of his mom seeing and thinking he was bullying some middle school kid kept him rooted to his spot.
"But-" the boy started.
"No buts. Just go."
There was a split second of hesitation before the boy was crossing his arms, eyes glowing with mild anger, like Kageyama had done something to personally offend him.
"No need to be a jerk, you jerk!" was the yelled reply, "And I can't leave now – not when someone's finally seen me! I already told you I've been wandering around all day – like hell I'm just gonna go!"
Kageyama glared, and it was both disheartening and satisfying when the other boy trembled under his gaze – if he wouldn't leave then Kageyama would.
"Whatever," he said, before turning on his heel, stomping towards the back door – ignoring the other boy's yelped "Wait!"
He yanked the door open and then swiftly shut it behind him – pleased with the other's indignant "Hey!" before heading up stairs – he would just toss his other volley ball in his room.
He was in a bad enough mood already, he didn't need to deal with someone random trespasser as well. And now because of said trespasser he couldn't even practice outside. He'd swear if he ever had to see that kid again.
"What the heck?!" wasn't quite what he had in mind, but well, it wasn't like he was planning on seeing the kid perched on his bed when he wrenched his bedroom door open.
"What the heck?!" it wasn't any more eloquent the second time around.
"I'm going crazy."
"Your mom is really pretty."
"I'm really going crazy."
"Oh yeah! I should introduce myself – I'm Hinata Shouyou."
"It's finally happened – I've snapped."
"That's all I can really remember though. I think I'm 15 or something?"
Shortly after Kageyama's outburst of 'What the heck?!' his mother came up the stairs in a panic.
'What? What's wrong?!' she had asked, a little breathless and Kageyama had pointed at Hinata and explained what happened. You could imagine Kageyama's surprise when his mother told him there was no one sitting on his bed – a comment that had Hinata whining from his spot.
After his mother excused herself downstairs Kageyama figured now would be as good a time as any to have a mental break down – first all the school problems and now he was seeing someone that no one else could.
Hinata – as he had introduced himself – hardly seemed concerned that Kageyama had been crouched on the floor for the past five minutes and instead found it to be an appropriate time to chatter about himself. A fact that normally Kageyama would be annoyed about, but was too busy going insane to worry about.
"… So what's for dinner?" Hinata said after a beat of silence and Kageyama's mumbling stopped abruptly before he was snapping his head up and roaring, "Can't you tell I'm trying to have a mental break down right now?!"
Silence rung between the two of them and Kageyama dropped his head into his hands with a groan. He took a few, long breaths and after he had calmed down a bit – he realized he'd gotten a little ahead of himself. But could you really blame him when there was a boy materializing into his room, one that he could see and interact with and no one else could? If you asked Kageyama he'd say he handled it pretty well.
Once he deemed himself calm enough, he got Hinata to explain himself which turned out not to be much of an explanation at all.
"I feel like this is all I've ever known and yet it all feels so new."
That had been how he explained it.
"I'm kind of like a ghost. Except not because I can't walk through walls or anything – plus you hit me with that ball."
When Kageyama had asked him how he got in his room in the first place he simply said he'd scaled the tree and jumped in through the open window – which was significantly less frightening then Hinata just teleporting wherever he wanted to.
"So I'm thinking it must mean something that you can see me right?"
For claiming to know nothing about the current situation he was in, Hinata sure liked to pretend he knew what he was talking about. Kageyama wasn't having it.
"I'll just ignore you until you leave."
"Like I'd let you!"
They argued for a bit - Kageyama doing his best to keep his voice down lest his mother hear him.
When the arguing led to nowhere, Hinata resorted to begging, "Please Kageyama just let me stay."
Kageyama for one couldn't understand how "I don't want you around" couldn't get any clearer but maybe Hinata was just that dense.
"I won't just free-load, I'll help you out," he whined.
"The only way you could help me out is if you leave."
"No, be serious! Look I'll help you play volleyball and then I can help you make friends so you can play with them when I'm gone."
"You probably don't even know the first thing about volleyball!" was Kageyama's initial remark, and then as an afterthought he added, "And what makes you think I don't have any friends?"
"I do too know about volleyball! I know all kinds of stuff about everything except for me right now but that doesn't matter! And besides, if you had friends you'd be playing volleyball with them and not your wall." Hinata replied, eyes blazing.
Kageyama huffed in response, not having a rebuttal and Hinata sighed – Kageyama could physically see him wilting.
"Look… you're the only one that can see me so far. I… can't remember how things got this way but I think I'm supposed to help you or something. Like maybe if I do a good deed I can like… get my wings or something and move on. It's scary to say but I'm probably dead right? So… let me help you so I can help myself."
Kageyama was silent after the miniature heartfelt speech. He was sure Hinata had no idea what he was talking about, but he had to admit Hinata had a point. If the smaller boy really wasn't some figment of his imagination then maybe Hinata really was a trapped spirit. Surely it meant something that Hinata had found him and that Kageyama could see him in return.
'I need time to think about it,' Kageyama thought – trying to ignore the pitiful looks Hinata was sending him.
He opened his mouth, intent on telling Hinata he'd think about it when his mother's voice carried up the stairs, "Tobio, dinners ready!"
Hinata jumped at the voice, and Kageyama would have laughed if the situation were any different.
"Stay here," he said as he got to his feet, "And I guess I'll bring you food when I'm done."
Hinata didn't say anything and so Kageyama quietly slipped out of his room, shutting the door behind him even though no one would spot Hinata sitting in there anyway.
The talk he had with his parents was uncomfortable and even more so when his mother asked him about earlier in his room. He came up with a poorly crafted excuse, one that both of his parents seemed skeptical about but neither pressed the issue.
He picked at his food slowly, waiting for his mother and father to finish first before he served himself another bowl of rice and took it up to his room a while later.
Hinata had taken it gratefully, and instead of complaining about not getting anything else like Kageyama thought he would, scarfed down the food with an excited thank you. Kageyama wasn't sure how the whole eating and being physical thing worked with the whole being invisible to everyone else thing but he didn't question it – he was sure Hinata didn't have an answer anyway.
He waited until Hinata was done eating before telling him he could stay. He almost took the words back when Hinata squawked in delight and then tackled him to the floor though. For such a small guy he was pretty heavy.
After he took the dish down stairs Hinata followed him to the bathroom where he proceeded to brush his teeth with his finger and toothpaste while Kageyama brushed his own properly. He guessed he would have to get Hinata a brush some other time.
Hinata showered with him as well which was probably more awkward then it should have been – or at least it was for Kageyama. Hinata didn't seem to find the situation strange at all.
"Hey Kageyama," Hinata said as they sat in the bath together. Kageyama was resolutely staring at the wall, turned away and as far away from Hinata as reasonably possible – why was he in this situation again?
"Do you think if I was splashing the water other people could see?"
"Let's not find out."
"But-"
"-No."
"Why are you in my bed?" Kageyama asked from where he was standing by the light switch.
"Well where else would I sleep?" Hinata replied as he pulled the covers over himself.
"The floor."
"No way!"
Kageyama had, by now, after only a few hours with this idiot realized there was no use arguing with him, but damn if he did not want to argue with him. If it weren't for the fact his parents might hear him and think he was crazy he would have long since tossed Hinata onto the floor.
It was bad enough he'd already had to lend sleep clothes to the idiot. Earlier Hinata had insisted on taking a bath as well but then spent thirty minutes too afraid to take his clothes off for fear that they'd disappear or something. Which they didn't and Kageyama ended up having to stuff them in between his mattress and bed frame lest his mom find them or something.
Laying out a futon for Hinata was a big no – how would he be able to explain it to his mom when she and if she saw it laying out?
Kageyama sighed – he'd been doing that a lot these past few hours.
"Fine, but you're sleeping by the wall and if you move even an inch onto my side I'm tossing you out the window."
It was a good thing they weren't keeping score, because so far Hinata had won every argument.
'Tomorrow,' Kageyama thought as he flipped the light switch and made his way to the bed, 'Tomorrow I'll set some ground rules.'
