"I love you, Shouyou."

From their spot outside, Kageyama watched the addressed drop a spoonful of strawberry sundae. The metal was frozen in the air, a mere second away from being consumed. He tried focusing on the melting slush instead. Some daring side of his brain wouldn't permit that and kept Hinata's face visible at all times. It stayed locked to those same eyes he'd been seeing every day for the past three years. Over time, they began to give him feelings of mush that overcame his desire to stab each one with a fork.

He couldn't breathe and something in his chest tickled against his pounding heart.

He couldn't calm the heat and something else in his head prickled.

This was so embarrassing.

But then, Kageyama couldn't see them anymore. Hinata was looking down and he couldn't tell what expression he was making at all. Was he being rejected?

Finally, Hinata spoke up. "…I've been meaning to say something, Kageyama."

Kageyama wanted to punch himself in the face when he felt the contents of his stomach churn in anticipation. Every nerve in his body clouded his usually perceptive mind as he had no doubt this meant Hinata was willing to give this a try. Nothing made him feel more ridiculously happy. And this idiot was doing this to him.

Hinata gave a smile that seemed off. "Just keep tossing to me, 'kay?"

That euphoric feeling turned black.

"…S-Seriously? I pour my heart out to you and that's-"

The smile grew wider. It didn't look like the middle blocker's face anymore. He knew, because this smile didn't make his veins race a hundred miles per hour. It reminded Kageyama of those masks with the gold paint and feathers hanging off of them. "You should be happy you're getting just that."

He fell silent. Every comeback died on his tongue. He couldn't even ask what it was Hinata wanted to say. Thankfully, the shorter boy seemed to read his mind.

"You've made me really strong. Your sets are so amazing! It's like everyone says. We're the best together." A young couple passed by holding hands. The sight burned his own. "But it's just a luxury now. I don't need you anymore, Kageyama."

This pissed him off. The setter sprang up. In his haste, the strawberry sundae spilled on the white countertop. They both ignored it. "W-What's with you?! You don't have to act like a JACKASS because you don't feel the same way!" Every word made tears bundle in his eyelids. Saying them made the rejection feel so much more real.

"What can you do, other than toss?"

Once more, Kageyama found himself speechless. He wasn't like Hinata. Everyone who met him didn't fall in love with him. People didn't crowd around as moths to the light. He was snappish and scary and no girls or boys ever approached him. His hair and awkward expressions never fell the right way. His body was tall and lanky; he looked like the scrooge, ugly and depressing, by Hinata's side day in and day out. He was nothing but a tiny insignificant bug hanging off Hinata's sleeve, hoping that some of the warmth would rub off onto him. Of course, this person wouldn't like him back. He was only with him because Kageyama had his tosses. Whatever this sudden wash of inferiority, of uselessness to his sun, was, it wasn't heartbreak.

"So just keep tossing to me, 'kay?" Hinata repeated with a grin.

It felt worse.

Suddenly, Hinata was on the ground. The umbrella shielding them from the sun became a shadow of a man. He held a knife the silver of the moon with streaks of red. Kageyama blanched. What the hell?

He didn't have time to react. That same passing couple he saw a minute ago materialized from within Bisukyui's windows and snapped photos. The setter glared at them. There was nothing interesting to look at, dammit. Some people couldn't mind their own business. Another strange noise made him whip his head down. The long-forgotten spilled ice cream was bubbling. How was it turning red? The chef might've dropped some food coloring in there.

Except, the red wasn't mushy or creamy, it fell thick on his fingers like blood. Instinctively, he thought Hinata. And as if someone read his mind, as if he was the one who did it, there was suddenly a knife in Hinata's chest.

Kageyama couldn't think straight. He tripped twice in the three feet it took to get to the limp body. He must've messed up somewhere. But he couldn't recall waking up this morning. There was no memory of them purchasing their treats while bickering about sprinkles, nor taking one road as opposed to the other. All he could remember doing was I love you, Shouyou and somehow that had caused this. Fuck himself for being so selfish. He ruined everything.

He shook the unmoving body. This had to be a really stupid joke. Shaking fingers flipped Hinata over, expecting some horror-stricken face to break his heart. Instead, he was met with a blank look. Amber eyes were so dull from what he could only describe as disappointment. His lips were curled in pent-up frustration. The mask with the pretend-smile was gone. It didn't suit the ball of sunshine at all.

Kageyama, from what his mind interpreted as three hours later, realized that was the real expression Shouyou was wearing the moment he confessed. He made Hinata Shouyou look that way. He took away his smile. His corpse was lifeless.

I'm sorry for confessing. Please wake up.

All he could do to fix it was toss, toss, and toss.

Because I'll make you invincible. Even though you're gone.

-H-H-H-H-H-H-

"Clear!"

A shock brought him out of it. Suddenly, Kageyama wasn't on an empty court tossing to nowhere for eternity. He wasn't reliving his nightmare. There was no barren, bloody body or strawberry ice cream. He was in a bed that smelled of disinfectant. Every part of his muscles, bones, and tissues ached. That familiar itch was back on his neck. He needed water.

"Heart rate returned!" A voice from far away was accompanied by many silent sighs. "Pulse is 40 and inclining."

Did he stumble into a hospital? Or perhaps, he had left the television on and fell asleep against his study books again. It must've been one of those late night dramas. Kageyama knew his mother would lecture him before leaving for school today. He'd tell Hinata at lunch and the bright boy would laugh. If Hinata was still willing to talk to him, it'd be a blessing.

"Good work everyone."

Kageyama looked around at the darkness for the corpse. There was none. The volleyballs were ash. He was alone with his thoughts. What was real anymore? His memory almost branched into two paths. One had something to do with a train crash, while the other involved the events that led him to the empty court.

It took a minute for Kageyama to realize the latter vision at the café must've been a dream. Ice cream that turned red and umbrellas that were actually men with knives weren't real. But unlike those two, his love confession was very real. Shit, he was unsure before but now he knew Hinata didn't feel the same way. Every last corner of his brain screamed this at him until he was convinced. And it hurt more once he realized it was because he wanted to admit his god damn feelings that this happened.

Finally, after staring into the abyss of nothingness for what seemed like hours, he heard shuffling.

That incessant need to drown a glass of water returned. With it, the darkness was traded in exchange for piercing ceiling lights. One blue eye cracked open. Adjacent, Kageyama could make out a small gasp.

"Y-You're awake!" It was a young male nurse.

Kageyama stayed conscious for all of ten seconds before falling asleep once more.

The next time he was roused enough to pick up sounds, a man in a white coat was probing around his stomach with a gloved hand. He noticed the teen's breathing pick up and sent him a gentle smile. "Hello. How are you feeling?"

"Where's Hin…?" His voice croaked. There was a breathing tube lodged into his esophagus.

The doctor softened at this. "Before that, can you follow my finger?" The hand that was on his bruised stomach was guided into triangular patterns. Kageyama kept his eyes on it without much trouble. "Good, this is a positive sign. My name is Doctor Kuma."

Kageyama flinched a little as calculated fingers reached past his jaw and gently wedged the tube out. The plastic hit his gag reflex and made him cough almost violently. Damn, so it was him who was being treated.

"You're very lucky, young man. You experienced massive lacerations on your stomach along with everyone else on the train. However your body specifically was thrown just under a broken sewage pipe which poured into your wounds." Kageyama cringed. He stopped when it sent an aching pain to his temples. Kuma chuckled at this. "It sounds unsanitary, but the viscosity was just right to clog the cuts so you didn't bleed to death. There is a downside though."

"Where's Hinata?" Kageyama repeated. His voice was weak. He didn't need to hear this shit. Until his middle blocker was either by some miracle bounding in front of him with a toothy grin, ready to return all the love Kageyama was willing to shower him with, or more likely was at his throat yelling hurtful words towards the setter to ripe his heart into millions of pieces, his mind couldn't rest.

"You're more susceptible to infection. We were so focused on saving your life that we haven't run all the tests yet. We will be monitoring you for the next few weeks-"

"Please," Kageyama was beginning to grow desperate. "Where is Hinata Shouyou?"

"Disclosing such information right now is against my better judgment."

The boy was pissed all over again. His head hurt, the itch by his neck was worse than he remembered, he didn't know what day it was, and he still couldn't discern reality from fantasy. Now this random stranger who didn't know anything kept ranting on about him being lucky when Hinata fucking sunshine-flying-boy Shouyou wasn't by his side.

"Your better judgment is about to land you five years of volleyballs being jump served into your head if you don't tell me what happened to him." Kuma sighed. It only served to fuel Kageyama's rage further.

"You're a good boy, Tobio-kun." The doctor's face tensed into a hardened stare. "I was one of the doctors on scene who had to ripe your body away from the boy beneath you because you refused to let go. You took most of the damage for him too. I knew from that moment that I wanted to be the one to look after your health. Please understand, there were over eighty people on that train. Only nineteen didn't die on impact. Six of these survivors have already been announced dead these past few days-"

"Don't give me that!" The setter snapped, ignoring the piercing pain in his abdomen as he shifted. This can't be. Years of hard work and training and aiming for the world just for this? The other man tried to calm him down. "How is he?!"

Finally, Kuma gave in. "I do not know, Tobio-kun."

At that, Kageyama's glare sharpened. What kind of doctor danced around confirming someone's…

No. He didn't want to think about it.

Hinata is not dead. He refused to believe it. Throwing that guy off a building wouldn't kill him.

"Your body had to be transferred to this hospital an hour away because the local infirmary didn't have the necessary tools to perform the correct surgery on your stomach." He noticed the older man begin whipping sweat off his brow. "If you're talking about the one beside you, he was alive on the scene, but was carried to another hospital."

Kageyama wanted to sigh in relief, but something was wrong.

"All I know is the number, not the names nor injuries. I advise you to be prepared for the worst."

After that, Doctor Kuma proceeded with more tests. One involved a pen light and naming the letters, while another was a stethoscope pressed to his back as he attempted to move his fingers. Kageyama didn't speak for the rest of the time. The man had mentioned something about his mother sleeping in the lobby. When he was alone again, he could only gawk at his fingers; they didn't look like his own. An IV wire connected to his wrists left an unpleasant swelling spot. He imagined Hinata's blood.

It was so bright and red.

I'm sorry for confessing. Just live, okay?

He outlined the scars on his stomach. It was hard to believe he was on the brink of death. What a gruesome end that would've been. He lied back down. There's no way he could sleep now. Kageyama contented himself by listening to the beeps of the heart monitor. It was annoying and high-pitched. "Just like that idiot's voice." He smirked half-heartedly. The heart monitor quickened.

Just as he anticipated, he couldn't rest. He didn't know how much time passed, but the window by his bedside was dark when his sluggish mother walked through the doors. She looked like she aged more in the past day than the last thirty years.

Upon seeing her precious son, her demeanor brightened immediately. She scurried up to him, throwing her arms around Kageyama in a vice-grip. "Tobio…! I-It really is a miracle!" He choked slightly. Before he could reply, the woman dropped her bag on a chair and pulled out a cutting board along with fresh fruits. She got to work right away, slicing them into volleyball shapes. "Now you must eat a lot of Vitamin C! These oranges will help with your digestive system too, not like all that nasty stuff in the tubes they're giving you here."

Despite himself, Kageyama felt his lip twitch up. "I'm fine, mom. But…thanks."

She paused, just enough to plop a slice of peach into Kageyama's mouth. "Less talking; more recovering."

It was a week and a half before the hospital gave him permission to leave intensive care for a few hours and visit the town of Karasuno. The itch on his neck persisted. Kageyama refused to accept it actually got worse as the days passed on. It was his imagination, for sure.

A female nurse was required to escort him on the trip, leaving his mother behind on the insistence that she had missed too many days of work. The tires of the wheelchair clanged against every sidewalk and stair. It hit a bar on the way and an umbrella fell in front of him. Kageyama nearly screeched. If he now had a phobia of umbrellas, Hinata was going to pay. Stupid wheelchair. He insisted the vehicle was unnecessary but at this point, walking long distances did tire his legs a little. The stubborn setter had no doubt he'd be back to his old self in no time. It sucked feeling so helpless.

Kageyama was nervous. He leered at his own arm to stop shaking. This was going to be the first time he would see Hinata in what felt like forever. Four days after he initially woke up, the news released a list of survivors. Dancing right above his own name spelt 'Hinata Shouyou' in big black letters. Apparently no one else with names between H and K lived.

It made him a bit sick. That was when the reality of it really hit. All these people were gone while he and his partner went up against all odds and continued breathing.

On the way, they passed a florist shop after getting off the bus. Kageyama grabbed onto the closest thing to make them stop. Unfortunately, it was a dog leash. The canine growled at him. Kageyama sent it a look, turning on his Spartan flames. Eventually it backed down and whined. He deserved it, that little beast.

"D-Do you want to go in?" The nurse held back the urge to run for the hills.

Bringing his attention back to the shop, Kageyama nodded. He already had an orange and blue volleyball in his hands, something he bought from the local gift shop a week ago as a present for Hinata. There was no doubt it was enough to keep him happy but some girly flowers wouldn't hurt…right? As the bell tingled, his eyes were drawn to the selection of roses right away.

The display at front showcased a single red rose wrapped in a gold plastic and ribbon. Beneath the array pinned a card with the words 'I love you' in cursive. Beside it was a bouquet of many pink roses donning a similar slip of paper except with 'Appreciation, Admiration' printed instead. A little further ways were some yellow ones symbolizing friendship. Kageyama never bothered with the language of flowers. It all seemed like just a ploy from narcissistic farmers until now. He shuffled sideways to notice bouquets of different sizes. Not only the color but the number of roses mattered too.

He didn't want to mess up again.

The nurse was about to tell him if he was going to buy anything, when his eyes trailed back to the single red rose. Kageyama flushed and bogeyed it out of the store as soon as possible. I-I'll get them n-next time…

Screw flowers. The manly volleyball was enough.

That vexing twitch in his fingers like he was showing up empty-handed wasn't him at all. It was just getting cold outside. Besides, he had a gift. Hinata would probably make him toss to him in the middle of the room, diving for the save and getting Kageyama kicked out. He was that kind of moron. The teen was so overwhelmed, he didn't bother to think that Hinata was anything but okay.

So, when the nurse wheeled him past the white doors of '304', Kageyama was expecting Hinata to metaphorically jump him with all his energetic sunshine and complaints of the volleyball tournament on channel 121. He was met with silence instead.

There was a lump in the pillows. Through the blankets, he could make out a tuff of oily orange hair that'd lost almost all its shine. His hibernating heart sped up. Without bothering to wait for the nurse to push him in, Kageyama raced to the unconscious boy's bedside. The heart monitor beeped in a lower pitch than his own. There was a massive pile of sparkly cards and a basket of hard candies in the corner. On top of them lay four bouquets of varying orange and yellow flowers. It figured. Hinata probably had people he'd met twice coming to visit, while Tobio only had his mother and the air he breathed dotting on him. He was used to it.

What was this dumbass doing? He had made sure to contact Hinata's mother to let her know of his visit. If anything, he wouldn't be able to sleep. Unless…he really was upset with the confession.

Kageyama shook the thought away. Hinata looked so pale all of a sudden. It was too eerie to see this face he came to know with anything but a healthy red flush behind it at all times. The sun had morphed into a snowman. Akin to his own circumstances, his middle blocker also had a breathing tube, but this one extended to his nose as ten different wires penetrated his body. Hinata was always small but right now, he reminded Kageyama of an infant.

He brought up a finger to poke him but was stopped by a blonde woman in a doctor's coat. "Please refrain from irritating the patient."

"Sorry." He mumbled. He would've leapt up in surprise if he wasn't used to his teammates sneaking behind him. "How long is he going to sleep?"

"That would be up to him, sir."

Kageyama nodded, slightly annoyed at her attitude. He looked away to glare at a tile on the wall. Behind them, the nurse who escorted him giggled. "I'll stay until he wakes up then."

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. Then, as if finally realizing something, a long painted finger was brought to her forehead to hide a grimace.

"Sir, Hinata-san has been asleep for two weeks now."

Kageyama was pretty sure he forgot how to breathe.

-H-H-H-H-H-H-

The next stop was his house.

"Are you alright, Tobio-kun?" Lost in thought, he realized the nurse was addressing him. He had been subconsciously scratching at that spot on his collar. Kageyama grunted. She dismissed the question.

His cell phone was destroyed in the accident. It came as a surprise when Kageyama opened the doors to the home just to find exactly three hundred and seventy-two messages on the answering machine. Why are there so many. His curiosity got the better of him. He halted in the middle of staring in disgust at the molding food on the kitchen table to press the play button.

"Hey celeb's! I saw your name on television again last night." Navy blue eyes widened. It was Tanaka's voice. "I wonder if any of those names belong to a cute girl. It would be a good conversation starter for the great senpai. You better let me know if you meet any of them, Kageyama."

The machine beeped. This time it was Daichi on the other end. "It's me again. The team's doing really well…" He talked of how he recently got promoted from vice-captain at the local team before giving his goodbyes.

The next one was a call of Natsu. She talked of how her onii-chan was stuck in a deep spell like Sleeping Beauty and Kage-chan had to come and wake him up with a kiss. The setter flushed. Natsu passed the baton to her mother, who thanked him for protecting her son. The house was soon filled with the melody of his old teammates' and friends' voices.

It made the dreary room seem so much livelier.

Before he knew it, Kageyama found himself smiling. His nurse excused herself to the other room so he could spend the rest of the day listening to them.

There was a very frantic Sugawara. He firmly asked for the location of Kageyama's hospital in over three dozen of the messages. Nishinoya ranted about how officials refused to let him know where they transferred him, milking some excuse that they weren't related by blood. Tanaka bragged about this amazing life-size get well card he made. Asahi and Daichi gave him advice on nutritious foods with the latter lecturing about good hospital manners. A timid Yamaguchi wished him well. There were even two calls from Tsukishima. They were short, stuck-up and annoyed him though. Kageyama realized then why none of his teammates visited him. He suddenly felt so lonely.

When the messages reached the last fifty, he realized they were playing in reverse order so the newest calls would be heard first.

Kageyama jumped when Kindaichi was coughing through the phone. "D-Don't think I'm going to apologize for junior high, ever! It's just-dammit! You're a great setter, okay?" There was another cough. "Don't just die, you retard! That's all!" The receiver was slammed. These were the calls from before the news had revealed any survivors. To the world then, he and Hinata were deceased.

The next five came from Asahi, who kept pressing the end call button and cutting himself off due to his shaking fingers. "H-Haha, I f-feel like I'm talking to a ghost no-now." He joked.

Nishinoya was no better. "I-I know you're not dead! And when you show up at our doorst-step, I can be the one who said 'I told ya so'!" He offered the advantage of not randomly ending his calls but his rants were so extremely long that it had to be split into two messages. The libero dropped the phone every other sentence. There was sniffling muffled out by loud music in the background. He was trying so hard to uphold a confident stance, it made Kageyama want to call him back first.

Sugawara was strangely silent at his turn. He kept pausing. There were moments it seemed like he just left the phone on by accident and the setter was a finger away from skipping the message until the gentle man spoke again. It was during those moments where he could pick up slight choking on the other end.

Then there was Daichi, thanking him for what he's done for the team. He was the most composed out of everyone. It was all stuff he'd expect the captain to say, until "I know you don't believe me, but we weren't just teammates. You were a very good friend, Kageyama, even without volleyball…I pray you can figure that out with Hinata too where the two of you are now."

"You bastard, we're friends!" Tanaka wailed.

"I hope…" It was Sugawara again. "That you let Hinata know how you feel at least."

Kageyama felt wetness on his cheeks. His friends…he really had some. They were wiped away indignantly. Hinata's sappiness was rubbing off on him. That's all.

The last recording ended; it was a call from the police which undoubtedly sounded in the middle of his mother setting up the dinner table. There was a plate smashed into pieces on the ground. Kageyama was sure he would've accidentally cut himself if he wasn't on a wheelchair. He went to pick up the receiver.

Who should I call first? He owed them all that much, at least.

His fingers moved on their own. It was probably due to old habits, but the phone number of Daichi began taking form on the screen. He was his ex-captain on the outside. Inside, he was more of a really scary father to him. If he didn't let Daichi know that things were fine, Kageyama was sure he'd be found in a dark alleyway somewhere tied to a vending machine.

He planned to call Sugawara next. Hopefully the fellow setter wouldn't bring up his feelings in their conversation. Then, of course, Nishinoya and Tanaka took third along with Asahi. God knows he'll probably be the one calming down the gentle giant the whole time. There would be a remark on Tsukishima as well, but only because Kageyama had a well-formed comeback for the insults tall, moody, and with a stick up his butt left on his answering machine. He wanted to call Hinata's family last. It was nearing evening, but the nurse was in no hurry to return. All this time could be spent with his friends he missed so much.

Some part of him began hoping, believing, that they all wouldn't hate him since he was the one who wanted to confess his feelings. He was the one who dragged Hinata on that subway and probably made him cry in those final moments. He put their lovable sunshine in a coma. Hinata will wake up, he was sure of it. They could still be together now that they've graduated.

Maybe things are looking up.

It was the last thought that crossed his mind as his finger hovered over the call button. That cursed itch was suffocating. A smile was on his lips when that headache returned. His body swayed. Like bugs creeping through his skull all over again, his vision turned white once more. Kageyama fell.

The nurse came sprinting back at the sound of the phone hitting the floor.

He was back.

That abyss of nothing that stretched for eons surrounded an empty court. The volleyballs weren't ash anymore. He could hold them tightly in his hands. But instead of tossing, Kageyama sought an exit. He didn't need to keep tossing to find everyone. They were his friends. They were not here just for his tosses. A random direction was chosen. He took it. He'd keep walking but always end up coming back to the same court.

When he came to, his mother was bawling.

"I…" Kageyama cursed. The woman bolted up from her mess. "I feel like crap."

To his surprise, she only crushed him in another embrace which rivalled Hercules. Kageyama blinked. He scrunched his face to try to comprehend what she was saying. It was a fruitless effort. She only spewed out jumbled words that sounded like a foreign language. Awkwardly, Tobio lifted a hand to pat her on the back. "What's wrong, mom?"

"Welcome back, Tobio-kun." As Doctor Kuma's speech was actually legible, Kageyama switched his attention to the old man. Her hug pushed one of his legs against the corner of the table, but he didn't move away from it. "You fainted from intense cranium stress and were taken back to the hospital."

He nodded. That made sense.

Kuma finally convinced his mother to release him in favor of resting back on the chair. He had a clipboard with unknown results. It reminded him of those times the teacher would patrol the class to access learning skills or some other finicky thing that had nothing to do with volleyball. "As you've apperceived, all the general area tests for infections we carried out came back negative. We had to switch gears and start with more specialized diagnoses."

Damn, long words.

"When you fainted from head pain, we ran a CAT scan of your brain." His mother turned hysterical. She interrupted Kuma with a loud cry. A passing nurse had to escort her back to the waiting room.

"Let her back in. She needs to hear this too." Kageyama protested.

The doctor retracted his pen to place in his breast pocket. "She already knows, Tobio-kun." With that, he flipped the clipboard over to a greenish scan of a brain. In the corner was red ink circling white spots where blood clots were forming. "You came in contact with an infection at least three months ago. A certain species laid eggs next to your spinal cord. It didn't hatch until a little before the accident, and should've died off on its own. However, because of the sewage pipe, it found food and multiplied."

Kageyama couldn't stop staring at the laminated scan. He didn't know what any of it meant. A wobbly wrist lifted to trace the soles of his fingers against the red ovals. Kuma continued. "You have been under heavy sedation with antibiotics for 10 hours. The infection won't spread anymore, but the damage to your brain has been done-"

"Can I still play volleyball?" Kageyama cut him off. With Hinata.

"You have a year." He drew little arrows around the clots indicating a spread. He reiterated. "A year until you lose your sight completely."

-H-H-H-H-H-H-

The halls were dim. Some lights above him flickered on and off, say, about one in every seven. This was the place nearly all the crash victims were deported to for recovery. All forms of extra power, including the lights, were being used to fuel hundreds of devices which kept them alive.

Sugawara gathered the patterned basket into his arms. In it held about ten different types of protein bars and bananas. Really, that Tanaka bringing in candy would not help Hinata from a nutritional standpoint. Plus he had to make sure the temperature wasn't too hot or cold and the comforter covering Hinata's thinning body was tucked in.

After knocking, he straightened his stance and walked in. Some voice in his head had a habit of creating these illusions where Hinata would be awake and greeting him. As always, he was only greeted by beeps. "It's me again. How are you feeling today?"

He made his way to the ever growing pile of gifts. It'd been exactly a month today since the day of the crash. The hyperactive boy had yet to twitch let alone wake up. It sent an unspoken chill down everyone's spines. They knew the longer Hinata stayed in a coma, the less likely he was to respond.

Sugawara brushed aside the items into neat piles. There was one present he never dared to touch though. A week ago, he and Daichi were paying a visit when they discovered a bouquet of over ten black roses sitting ominously on the counter. Death. Black roses meant death. Someone had given up on Hinata. They had no name on the label. It made them both shrink away. After chucking the object into the corner with the rest of the goodies, the team made a silent oath not to go near them again. The subject of who sent them was taboo. Though, Tanaka had been pointing accusing fingers at any random passerby for days after that. He never brought the finger close to anyone at Karasuno thankfully.

The grey-haired man scooted a plastic chair next to the bed. There was a plasticine unicorn with Natsu's name on it beside him. He laughed. "That's new. Natsu-chan must have made it in art class and wanted to show you. She's a good girl."

Silence answered him.

"I feel a bit ashamed. Kageyama was the first one to think of bringing a volleyball as a gift. Everyone agreed that his present was the best. It was much better than those pork buns Ukai delivered. They started molding and we had to throw them out. Sorry, Hinata." Sugawara scratched his head abashed.

A bird chirped from outside.

"None of us have seen or spoken to him in a month though." At this point, the forced smile was gone. "He's probably too upset to face any of us. You're going to have to talk sense into him, Hinata. He would twist his eyebrows a lot, but that just means Kageyama's really happy."

He clenched the sheets. The doctors told him when he checked in. If Hinata didn't respond in the next 12 hours, his chances of survival would fall close to zero. He managed to stay composed for the rest of the trek. Now the emotions came spilling out. "He protected you. You only have head injuries; you can still play volleyball if you wanted to. Don't you want to wake up?" Realizing the fabric beginning to bruise his fingers, Sugawara let go. "You have someone who loves you a lot. You want to see Kageyama again, right? He would like that."

When there was no reply, he felt tears clouding his vision. Sugawara wouldn't let them fall no matter what. It was forfeiting hope. Hinata was like…a son to him. He was losing a son. So caught up in his inner battle, he didn't notice the slightest rustle of the sheets. He finally blinked them away, just to come face to face with one bleary brown pupil gazing back at him.

His instincts kicked in. He was by the bed and pressing the button on the wall like a madman in an instant. Doctors rushed in not five seconds later. Some nurses went to check his vital signs. By now, Hinata had his eyes squinted to block the blinding sunlight. His sweaty body twitched restlessly. The blonde doctor who was assigned to him gently commanded him not to move. "Take one step at a time. Open your eyes."

The confused boy complied. Sugawara had never been so relieved to see a routine checkup. She stared into the nerves of his eyes before finally taking the light away. The woman faced Sugawara with a half-smile. "There appears to be no brain damage. Now that he's awake, his recovery is guaranteed."

"Thank you." Sugawara wanted to laugh. He bowed graciously. "Isn't that great, Hinata?"

Through the plastic in his throat, the orange-haired boy stared blankly at him and choked.

"W-Who's…Hinata?"

-H-H-H-H-H-H-

* Black roses can also symbolize farewell. Eleven roses assure the recipient that they are deeply loved.