Everyone had one. A little red string tied around their wrist that led off into the distance before fading away. The "string of fate" almost never failed to lead someone to their partner, usually only failing when one of the two people suffered an unexpected death. By high school the majority of the strings had begun to become more defined and stretch out longer toward their partner.
Hinata's crimson line had, if anything, become more transparent since his years in junior high. Each person can only see their own string, so whenever his friends got together to gossip about their futures he would always say that it was growing clearer by the day. In reality the lies were beginning to wear on him, and the poor freshman was beginning to seriously question whether or not his partner was still out there. It was every person's nightmare to discover that they were one of the unlucky few with a dead partner. Since everyone was paired up at birth it was a one-way ticket to a solitary life.
The short redhead often tried to console himself by saying as long as he had volleyball he didn't need anything else. But somewhere deep down his subconscious whispered that it was a lie. Ever since starting to play in high school more people were starting to find their partners, even the people playing on the volleyball team. Quite a few of them were paired up with each other, and even though they were polite about their relationship in front of him it still made Hinata feel left out. At least Kageyama was alone too.
They were the "oddball pair" that existed only during the games, and fell apart as soon as they stepped off the court. Though Hinata had done his best to be friends with the cold setter he just got pushed away constantly. Whenever Kageyama asked why he was being so clingy he would say that he wanted to get closer because they were team-mates and it would be better for Karasuno. For some reason that response always seemed to put the egotistical king on edge, but being the persistent and somewhat oblivious person he was Hinata always gave the same answer.
Over the course of the year Hinata's string grew thinner and shorter, until one day he could barely see the end tied around his left wrist. That morning he panicked as soon as he woke up and did anything he could think of in an attempt to at least bring it back to what it was before. In the end he failed miserably, and barely managed to toss a smile over his shoulder for his younger sister as he walked out the door. His father had passed away while walking to the bus stop in the morning a few years prior, so Hinata was always careful to say goodbye to his family in the morning before biking over the mountain to school.
Worrying over his string he ended up being late to his first class, and had to awkwardly slink to his seat in the middle of the lecture. Thankfully none of his friends were in that class, so he didn't get anything more than a couple of questioning glances. Anxiously he kept twitching his wrist and half-heartedly taking notes throughout the class. Hinata was having a full on panic attack by the end of the period, and rushed to the bathroom to throw up as soon as the bell rang. His things sat forlornly on his desk, thrown haphazardly into a pile for the next class to deal with.
After thoroughly emptying his stomach into the toilet Hinata slowly sat up and tried to mentally prepare himself for his next class. In the end he managed to gather some semblance of calm around himself and go gather up his things. Once again he was late, but at least he had a mostly composed outer appearance as he slipped quietly into his geometry classroom. Smiling wearily at Yamaguchi, who sat a few desks ahead of him, he plopped into his seat and uncaringly yanked out his homework, which resulted in it getting wrinkled and tearing in a few different places. When he teacher came around to collect the worksheets she looked at it disapprovingly, but took it regardless.
When lunch finally rolled around Hinata was on his last legs from stress and anxiety. Sluggishly he wandered down the hall toward the cafeteria and saw Noya enthusiastically greeting a frazzled looking Asahi. They had found out that their red strings were connected a week ago, but due to their previous close friendship their relationship didn't seem to have changed much. Watching them together broke Hinata's final straw. He slumped against the wall and started crying right in the middle of the hallway. Almost immediately other students quieted down and began to walk away as quickly as they could, not wanting to get caught up in the drama. The majority of them were third years due to the section of the school they were in, and didn't know who the short redhead kid was anyway.'
His sobs attracted the attention of his team-mates, and they rushed over to see what he was having trouble with. Though Noya relentlessly asked what was wrong Hinata couldn't bring himself to say it. Somehow stating aloud that his string had disappeared made it more final, like it couldn't be changed. Throughout the one-sided exchange Asahi was terrified, and couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do. In the end he was saved by Suga appearing to handle the situation.
"Shh, Hinata it's alright. You can talk to me. Let's go to the nurse's office and figure this out, okay?" As always the third year's steady voice of reason got through to Hinata and, still sniffling, he followed his friend down the hall.
Once alone in the small sick room Hinata tried to explain what was going on, but kept interrupting himself with hiccups.
"I-I I'm gonna be alone forever!" He finally managed to stammer.
"Hinata, why would you think that? You're a really sweet, optimistic person," Sugawara replied bewildered.
"My string is gone! It's been fading all year, but now it's basically disappeared! I can't even tell that it was red since it's so faint…" That wasn't what Suga was expecting to hear, and in all honesty he wasn't prepared to respond truthfully. It sounded like Hinata's partner was dead, but there was no way he could just tell him that and have him get over it.
"Well, um…" He hugged the freshman crying on the bed. "You, just…" He couldn't even imagine what he would feel like if Daichi died. Poor Hinata had no way to cope with the fact that he was going to be alone the rest of his life. Who would? It was the cruel twist in the system that the majority of the population never saw since they were both guaranteed a soul mate and a way to find them. Knowing there was someone out there specifically for you was comforting, just as knowing that there wasn't a single person in the world meant for you was severely devastating.
"The team is going to be standing with you. We're all your family you know," he said quietly. It was all he could think to say; what else could he possibly do? He had no power over the red strings, no one did.
"Take your time, alright? I'll get you excused from class for the rest of the day. Come by the gym during practice to pick up your homework." Overwhelmed and out of his element Suga went to clear things with Hinata's teachers and try to find a passable solution for the situation.
When practice rolled around Sugawara was surprised to see Hinata there warming up with everyone else, but sadly realized that his eyes were completely blank. That day they were focusing heavily on receives; something that Hinata was without a doubt very bad at. Instead of whining like he normally would about not being able to spike he quietly asked Suga if they could be partners and started working with a level of concentration that was surprising for the entire team. Their little decoy wouldn't laugh, wouldn't shout, wouldn't jump… Or do just about anything besides work on receiving and hollowly apologize when he accidentally sent the ball flying away from Suga.
Kageyama for the most part looked irritated and confused. Generally Hinata would do pair activities with him so that he could try to sneak in a spike once in a while. Practicing with Daichi was a nice change of pace, but he was confused with Hinata's strange behavior. As the practice dragged on he would insult the spiker as usual, but instead of getting a fiery response all he got was a worn half-smile and a vacant gaze in his direction. And it scared him. The only other time he had seen that kind of expression was on a stray cat when he was walking home from school. Hinata was the team's cheerful ball of energy! He couldn't go around like that, it was bad for morale!
At least that's what he told himself.
In the last fifteen minutes of practice Daichi proposed that they do a mini four v four game to put what they had been working on into game scenarios. Everyone was excited, and Kageyama felt that his team was on top of their game. Until the first toss he sent to Hinata. It hit him squarely in the back of the head, and after he apologized quietly he went back to his position without another word. Kageyama was starting to get worried enough that he was admitting to himself that he was concerned about his vertically-challenged team-mate. Each toss he sent toward Hinata never got over the net, and as the mini game went on the spiker got more and more discouraged until Daichi called for the end of practice.
Hinata crept into the club room to change his clothes, wrists shaking. As he changed he kept glancing at where the hazy outlines of his string were, and slipped further out of his normal demeanor. It was all he could do not to start crying again while he packed up his volleyball things into their bag.
"What's wrong with Hinata?" Kageyama was still very insecure about not having anyone there to receive his tosses, and having Hinata miss every single one consistently was doing a number on his confidence. That little spiker had delivered on his promise to be there up until that practice, and Kageyama had been unconsciously relying on that support. Of course he wouldn't admit it to himself, but he really did need the security that came with always having someone ready to receive a toss from him. And Hinata was the only one fast enough to do it, so he needed Hinata.
Sugawara looked guiltily at the floor before slowly responding.
"Well… He told me earlier today that his red string is gone." By the time he was finished speaking his voice was practically a whisper. In a state of shock no one could figure out how to respond, and in that moment of uncertainty the antisocial setter slipped off into the club room. Hinata was there, staring at his left wrist.
"What's going on? You missed all of my tosses." He was worried, but that didn't mean that his social skills had suddenly improved.
"I-I'm sorry! It's just… My string is gone. Gone Kageyama! I practically can't see it at all…"
"That's fine." Well there was a response that Hinata wasn't expecting.
"What?! How is that fine?! Kageyama what is wrong with you? What would you do if your string suddenly disappeared?"
"Nothing. My string is so distinct that it's almost tangible, but it's really short. It's never gotten any longer, so I gave up on it a long time ago. I only focus on volleyball now." There was almost a hint of sadness in his voice, but Hinata wasn't sure if he had heard it correctly.
"Look, we all care about you. Don't get worked up about it, nothing is going to change. You're still going to come to practice, and you're still going to do your crazy jump." It was the closest Kageyama had come to comforting someone in his entire life, and Hinata had stopped looking like he was going to bust out into tears any moment.
When he got home that night Hinata started on the homework that Suga had kindly gathered for him. And he noticed that, unlike earlier that day, his string was a deep shade of crimson. It had never been that dark a color before, even before it started to dissipate.
I was bored during Driver's Ed and started the intro do this just to pass time, then the red string au really grew on me. If I get motivated this will probably have one more chapter to it. If you have comments please review! I love hearing what people think, even if it isn't completely positive! ^^