Summary : His wings were torn apart. His body was still intact, but just imagine how painful it was to realize they disappeared. How could he continue to live without them, especially with volleyball on his side? One-shot, heavily inspired by another fanfic, as well as Blackbird by The Beatles.
"We really should get our game together, guys." The captain started, crossing his arms across his chest. Daichi bore an intense expression up his sleeve, clearly pissed with the status of his team. He stood in front of the other boys who sat on the polished wooden floor, mumbling incoherent words to each other. He then continued, "Especially you, Kageyama."
As normally expected, many had then turned their heads around to face the lost gaze of the ravenette setter. As usual, he seemed to be dozing off. Their coach simply sighed in frustration, as well pissed by this, and spoke up, his voice startling everyone but the boy, "Kageyama, stop dozing off and focus! Just because we have another setter doesn't mean you won't do anything. Hey- Are you even listening?!"
Kageyama didn't exactly seem like himself today- hell, lately, he didn't seem like himself the whole week. He looked up at the coach, blinking, then averted his gaze back down, muttering, "Yeah, I am." At first the grey-haired setter believed he was putting his pride up with his replies; "I'm fine." "I can do it, sorry." "Don't mind, don't mind, I'll do better.", however that thought began to slowly change. The replies seemed...soft. It was as if he was sick, his voice seemed softer and somewhat sore, maybe he shouted too much during practice? Ah, but he didn't. Maybe something was depressing him? Yeah, that might be it.
"Hey, Kageyama?" Sugawara began, catching the attention of the boy who simply stared in return, "Is...there something bothering you?" He continued, however the other huffed in reply, saying, "Shut up, why would there be anything bothering me?" "Well you don't seem like yourself lately?" "Tch, you're not even sure." The senior's unsteady smile turned into a flat line, not convinced with Kageyama's answer, "...your voice was wavering when you first answered me, Kageyama."
Kageyama paused, his face somewhat shocked and deadpanned, replying, "...Shit, I did?" He let out a sigh, then stood up. With that, he began to stretch his arms, from up and down, side to side, then rested his hands on his hips. "There isn't anything really worrying me, senpai." As he said that, Sugawara stopped throwing in statements and questions. He knew when he said senpai, he was serious. Despite the senior not exactly believing him, maybe pressing on the topic will hurt him more.
After a few seconds passed, realizing Sugawara had nothing else to say, the ravenette sat down, not meeting anyone's gaze at all. Clearing his throat, Daichi continued,
"Anyway, we'll need to work harder now, build more strategies. That means more training for every single one of you, focusing on your positions. Wing Spikers and Blockers are expected to have more training compared to the others, so good luck. Next, we have a practice match coming up with Nekoma. Remember what happened last time, I'm sure you don't want more laps of flying falls again. We'll..."
He couldn't bother to listen to Daichi anymore, his ears were simply ringing with a piercing sound that didn't seem to bother him nonetheless. Kageyama continued to hold a nonchalant expression, yawning every now and then, waiting for him to finish his 'speech'. Apparently, no one seemed to notice about this either. Well, maybe for one. Or two. Or three. Who cares.
"Alright guys, that'll be all for now. Remember, we'll have early training tomorrow, make sure you eat. I expect a lot from you guys." With that, loud chants of 'yes' echoed in the gym, with a lack of some voices. Everyone then stood up and began to fix all the equipment. The seniors were making up their training regimen, the juniors collected the balls and cleaned the floor, and the freshmen took the net down ( as majority of them were taller than anyone else ) and helped the juniors in their tasks afterwards, or if not tall enough.
Of course, Kageyama being one of the tallest had to help the smartass blonde and his freckled friend take the net down. Not that they minded, and for some odd instance, Tsukishima hasn't been making any snide remarks.
"Look at that, the King is sulking over the pain he's going through. Boo-hoo-hoo, do you need a Queen to rest on?"
...except for that, after days of a silent blocker, he finally spoke up to insult. Of course, as usual, Yamaguchi would laugh alongside him, however he didn't. He gave him this disappointed look, and a fake smile, saying, "Tsukki, that's really mean of you." "Tch."
Eventually they stopped, and the setter couldn't feel any relieved from this. It pressured him- no, it hurt him even more. His face masked that all, you wouldn't tell he was paining from the inside, but then again, it's not like anyone would care. Huh.
Somehow, he ended up overhearing the conversation of the seniors, and it somewhat added the pain, as well as relief. It was kind of weird, but then again, Kageyama is kind of a weird thing. Probably why he didn't have as many friends as he would've, thanks to his weird self. Then again, everyone is weird. Oh well.
"Kageyama hasn't been doing well lately, I heard from Yachi his grades had suddenly dropped after that." "It was to be expected, Daichi. Of course it hurt him the most to find out about this." "I-It's depressing, I-I would probably get d-depressed if it were me." "We should let him heal first, Daichi. Don't push him too hard, you're going to strain his injuries more." "However we..."
He believed they were right. Of course it was depressing, of course it hurt, of course it was going to strain. They acted like it was the chillest thing in the world, talking like teachers who were worried about that one failing student who was also a rebel and hated life. Now that I think about it, that kind of resembled himself; without the rebellion stuff, but again, he could be a rebel deep down inside. No one really knew about this.
Sighing to himself about this, he looked up at the ceiling. It went up pretty high, no one would reach it if they wanted to, short or tall, giant or dwarf, there was no chance. Maybe if he could jump even higher than he did before, could he then reach the ceiling? Nah, there wasn't any chance of this happening soon.
The freshmen finally finished taking the net down, and saw the juniors finished with their tasks, allowing the libero and wing spiker to leave, waving their hands goodbye as they smiled sheepishly at their seniors. Kageyama began to do the same, heading over to the lockers silently, with the other taller boys following him, again, he didn't mind it.
Taking his things with him after changing into his uniform once again, he headed straight home. At least, that's what most of the people would think. Seeing Kageyama's Kageyama, they thought maybe he really wouldn't care much about others due to his previous nickname as the King of the Court. He was known for his pride that kept the ball in the air, however it costed the trust of his teammates, seeing he was often accusing them of the reason why they lost a point.
Eventually he strayed from his usual route heading home, saying his farewells to his teammates who were just utterly confused as he did so. They later on just assumed he was doing chores or something, like buying milk seeing that's what he typically bought. When they left his sight, he sighed heavily in relief, and headed over towards the park. Pushing the gate, he ventured in further.
As he continued to walk, he saw his usual friend sitting at the same bench they both sat at before. Sighing again, he gave a small soft smile at this, not like anyone would see it in the first place. Well, maybe except for the god above that depends on who you believe, and if you don't, then imagine the sun staring down at him and sighing as well.
"Hey!" This caused the boy who sat there to turn his head around, and gave Kageyama a huge sheepish smile. As the ravenette saw this, he smiled back and walked over to him rather slowly. Sitting next to the boy, his friend started, "Kageyama, what took you so long?" He answered rather irritably, "I had practice, dumbass Hinata."
His orange haired friend simply laughed at him, waving him off, saying, "Of course, of course. Sorry I forgot." Kageyama stared at him, blinking, then scoffed, "Tch, how could you? Wasn't Volleyball your favorite sport, dumbass?" Nervously chuckling, Hinata replied, scratching the back of his head, "Y-Yeah, sorry..."
The duo stayed quiet after that, looking at the sun that slowly began to set in front of them. It was a wonderful shade of orange that lived between red and orange, but not exactly a red orange for him, at least. Clouds slowly began to disappear into the soon-to-be night sky, with the birds flying in flocks as they made noise that dissipated the silence that surrounded them.
"So...uh, Hinata?" Kageyama started, not averting his gaze from the glowing sun as the other did turn his head, scratched his cheek and responded, "Eh?" He then continued, "When are you going back? When are you going to return to Karasuno and play with us again?"
Hinata gave him a pretty sad smile, sighing, "K-Kageyama, you know I can't? I wanna play with you guys again though..." Kageyama nodded in approval, although with a frown. With that, the other did the same, a frown then another sigh. "Y'know Kageyama, I really hope we could play again. It would be fun, wouldn't it?!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air in utter 'happiness'. The ravenette nodded, "...it would be. We could do our 'freaky quicks' again, right?" Hinata nodded as he smiled, standing up from the bench as he took Kageyama's hand in his, "Of course we could! C'mon, let's go let's go!"
The setter sighed, although standing up as he replied, canting his head to the side, "Dumbass Hinata, we can't, you know that. It would be...weird. Sorry Hinata..." This caused the former spiker to pout, then began to complain, "Ehhhh, Kageyama! C'mon c'mon, let's just go! If we can't play, let's watch others play!" With that, he dragged the poor grouchy boy elsewhere, nearing the closest sandy location in the middle of the park, wherein they saw some young boys playing volleyball. Hinata's eyes were sparkling, while Kageyama simply stared and facepalmed.
The duo watched them play, bringing nostalgia to them as they saw the style they played with, that being the usual quicks every now and then, as well as some Setter Dumps here and there. It brought a very small soft smile to the setter's face, wherein the other noticed this, and teased him, "Hehehe, I didn't know you could smile like that, Kageyama!" "S-Shut up!" He yelled rather loudly, causing the boys to notice him and stop playing for a split second. They began to mumble to themselves, which led to Kageyama to sigh in frustration, and took Hinata's hand and ran away from them.
Once he believed they were far anough from her, he stopped, and placed his hands on the other's shoulders, "Hinata, I...I can't play volleyball anymore. Not like this. I've lost everything...!" He didn't notice the boy in front of him frown, then sniffed. Catching the setter's attention, he looked up, seeing Hinata's current state.
"What...what about me...? I can't even play anymore at all...I can't play with any of you!" He yelled, tears violently falling from his eyes, as Kageyama clenched his fists, then covered his face, "You would be more happier without someone like me! You can be happier up there!" "But I don't want to be without you, Kageyama!" "You don't deserve me!"
With that in Hinata's mind, he sighed, then gave a very faked smile, "...Maybe. Just...maybe we could be happier than we are now. I'll see you soon, King of the Court."
Kageyama dropped to the ground, intaking the air as he covered his face once more, then said,
"Why did you have to die...Hinata...?"
As the blackbirds sang in the dead of night that slowly tore his wings apart.