A/N: As always, I'm eager for feedback and advice! Thank you, and please enjoy!
Chapter 3
Hinata has never ridden a horse before. Only the truly wealthy can afford them, and he has never been anything more than a penniless orphan. Admittedly, he has some vague memories of a life before Daichi and Suga took him in; occasionally images flash across his mind, of a man with golden eyes and orange hair and a beautiful woman holding a crying baby, but they're fuzzy, possibly imagined, and anyway, he certainly doesn't remember any horses.
Horses, it turns out, are a very bumpy, uncomfortable mode of transportation; Hinata grips the reins until his knuckles are white as he struggles to stay upright. He can feel Kenma's claws digging into his shoulder and assumes his companion is fighting a similar battle. The journey to the castle takes about two hours, and besides focusing on not toppling sideways to his death-by-trampling, Hinata has little to entertain himself with, besides his own thoughts.
Or rather, a single thought. He can't stop obsessing over the promise Suga extracted from the Grand King's messenger, an assurance that Hinata would definitely be delivered back home by nightfall. He dwells on this for a long time without knowing why, then suddenly a series of visions flash across his mind. The images are blurry and full of holes as though seen through a filthy, cracked pair of glasses; he is five years old, standing in a forest and begging a tall man to take him back to his parents. The man is telling him not now, Shorty, but I promise to take you back tomorrow! But that's silly; he doesn't know anyone who looks or sounds like that, nor has he ever seen those kinds of trees. Technically, he hasn't ever seen anything, outside of his dreams.
Something wrong, Shoyo?
"Are you sure they're gonna take me back home tonight?" he mutters as softly as he can. Until now, he and Kenma have resisted the urge to converse. Neither wants the Grand King's messenger thinking Hinata hears voices and talks aloud to them. For Kenma to ask, Hinata must be wearing a fairly grave expression.
Yes, of course. Are you sure that's the only thing bothering you?
"Well," he confesses, still muttering as softly as possible without his words being lost to the ruckus of the horses. "I just had a weird... thought. Memory? I dunno, my mind did a weird..." he trails off, struggling to describe it. He makes a sound like 'wuuoo' and continues, "...thing. It's like, I remembered something, but I know it never happened?"
That feeling is called déjà vu. It might be a memory from your childhood.
"No, I don't think so," he says, confident about this.
Hinata has a feeling that Kenma disagrees, but neither of them say anything for the rest of the journey.
Hinata, Kenma, and the Grand King's man approach the castle sometime in the late morning. After they hop off the horses, they walk together through a large stone archway that leads to the front courtyard of the castle. The man walks ahead but stops every few steps to glance back at Hinata. He obviously expects him to need help getting around, but Hinata navigates his own way up the stairs, through the entryway, down the corridors, and into the warm, brightly-lit room where he is told to wait for the Young King to come to him. He can sense the man staring at him with suspicion, but he doesn't dare ask the question that Hinata gets surprisingly often: Are you sure you're actually blind?
After the man leaves, Hinata walks around the perimeter of the room, running the flat of his palm against the walls. As always, Kenma offers guidance as he does so, helping him get a better understanding of this new place.
Nobody is in here but us. It's a big room and very open. Not much furniture to worry about tripping over, but there is a table pressed up against the next wall; it has food on it: bread, vegetables, meat, and things like that. There's also drinks... I see water, iced tea, and some sort of fruit juice. Careful not to knock them over! This room is very fancy… there are stained-glass windows and those curtains look expensive. If I had to guess, this place is usually used to host big parties. It's a strange place to have a one-on-one meeting.
Once Hinata feels a comfortable familiarity with the room, he goes over to the refreshments and, with Kenma's help, pours himself some of the juice. He pauses, mid-pour, as voices filter through the far doorway, growing louder as the two men walk toward the room. They seem to be arguing; their voices are raised enough to allow him and Kenma to overhear their conversation.
"You can have your bow back in an hour. One hour, Kageyama. You can't spend your entire life alone on an archery range."
"Why not? That's how I've spent the last sixteen years of it! I keep telling you, I don't need any friends! I don't fucking care!"
"Watch how you speak to me," the older man scolds. "You've never had a friend, so how would you know? You've never even spoken to anyone besides Oikawa and myself—that is, if I don't count you barking orders at the servants or the five minutes it took you to scare off those other boys. Stop acting like a brat and just meet with him."
They hear a frustrated growl and the sound of something getting punched—the door, maybe? Hinata sets down the pitcher of juice and starts backing away from the direction of the voices.
"One hour," older man repeats. He opens the door before the Young King can argue further. Hinata hears someone step into the room, then the sound of a door closing.
"Is that him?" Hinata whispers.
I guess so. Black hair, blue eyes, tall, fairly lean. He is pretty handsome, actually. You'll be fine.
Hinata can feel Kenma tensing up, so obviously that's not all there is to it.
"And?" Hinata insists, allowing his annoyance to show. Kenma dragged him here in the first place, and he isn't going to let him forget it anytime soon.
Alright, he has a scary face. Really scary.
"This was entirely your idea, remember," Hinata whispers as quickly and quietly as he can. He hears footsteps approaching and doesn't want to give this scary guy a bad first impression. The Young King walks over and stops maybe a foot away; Hinata notes his scent, an odd combination of peppermint and wood shavings.
"Your eyes are weird," the Young King greets.
"Um," Hinata replies, taken off guard. "What the hell?"
"Your eyes. They look weird," he repeats. "Is that a cat? I hate animals. Put it outside."
Both of Hinata's hands immediately grasp for Kenma, who is resting on his shoulder as always. He clutches him defensively.
"What? No! He helps me see! If Kenma goes outside, then so do I!"
"Fine. Bye," the Young King says, and by the sound of it, he is already walking away, presumably back to the door through which he entered.
Is his dad going to be cool with that?
"Is your dad going to be cool with that?" Hinata says aloud, mimicking Kenma. "I heard him say something about an hour? It's been like, thirty seconds."
He stops and scowls.
"He is not my dad, dumbass. Iwaizumi is Oikawa's adviser," he explains, as if Hinata knows who Oikawa is, or why that question was dumb. The Young King also fails to address whether or not Iwaizumi will be happy to hear that this meeting ended early. After a pause, he asks, "What do you mean, the cat helps you see?"
"I'm blind, idiot," Hinata snaps. His minimal patience is already spent. "Isn't it obvious?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know that? I've never seen a blind person before."
"Just how sheltered are you, exactly?" Hinata asks.
Tactlessly sidestepping the topic of his sheltered upbringing, the Young King asks, "How... exactly does a cat help you see?"
"He just does," Hinata mumbles, evading the question.
"Prove it."
"And how exactly do you suggest I do that, King?"
"Don't call me that!" he shouts, suddenly furious.
"Jeez, sorry!" Hinata appeases, his heart skipping three beats. He takes a few steps back and throws his hands up in surrender. "What the hell do I call you, then? It's not like you introduced yourself!"
"Kageyama."
"Is... your name?"
"Yes, dumbass."
"Okay," Hinata says, taking a deep breath. "Well, how about this? I won't call you King if you don't call me dumbass. My name is Hinata. Not dumbass, okay? Hi – na – ta!" he says, enunciating each syllable with a sing-song tone and finishing with a big, toothy smile. "Got it!?"
"Fine," Kageyama concedes, sounding reluctant.
They fall quiet, neither knowing where to go from there. After several minutes pass in dead silence, Hinata starts to suspect that Kageyama is just running out the clock, desperately waiting for the hour to be up.
Remember, Kenma says, trying to be helpful, He has never had a friend before. He doesn't know what to do with you. Help him.
Nodding slightly, Hinata hums to himself, rubbing his chin and glancing upward. What might this scary guy want to talk about?
"Hey," Hinata says, suddenly very curious, "Why didn't you get along with Tsukishima?"
"I don't know who that is."
"He came here a couple weeks ago," Hinata explains. He tries to recall how Kenma most recently described Tsukishima. "He has blonde hair and yellow eyes and wears thick black glasses and he is a super mean dickhead," Hinata says, all in a single breath.
"Oh. Right. Him," Kageyama says. There is another long pause, during which Hinata starts to brainstorm other topics of conversation, but then Kageyama continues, "He was an asshole."
"I know, right!?" Hinata gushes a bit too happily. "He is always such a dick to me! He even stole my cat a while ago!"
"Oh," Kageyama says before going silent yet again. This time Hinata knows to be patient, and as he expects, Kageyama eventually finishes his thought. "He called me pathetic, so. I had him kicked out."
Hinata can't stop smiling, though he suspects it's partly because he can't see this guy's so-called scary face which, admittedly, would probably have him quaking in terror. Instead, he gets to simply enjoy a mental image of Tsukishima being forcibly removed from the castle by several armed guards. He doubts it happened that way, but a guy can dream.
Scary face or not, Hinata figures, anyone who can acknowledge Tsukishima's awfulness probably isn't that bad, so he swears to himself to keep trying to crack this grumpy walnut.
"Sooo," Hinata ventures cautiously, "Do you, uh, have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"What's your favorite food?"
"Milk."
"Do you have any pets?" Hinata asks, still trying his best to get a conversation going.
"No," Kageyama answers. He is starting to sound annoyed, and Hinata can sense his own cheerfulness slowly crumbling away.
"So," Hinata asks as the first drop of sweat begins to slide down his temple, "What are your hobbies?"
"Archery," Kageyama says, sounding no less annoyed about this than the previous questions. Hinata frowns. Not for the first time today, he wishes he could ask Kenma for advice, but Kageyama is standing way too close; he would look completely delusional if he started talking to his cat.
Mercifully, Kageyama eventually elaborates, although he continues to sound annoyed.
"It's the only thing I don't hate," he says. "I practice every day for at least ten hours. I'm the best in the kingdom. Are you any good?"
Hinata is taken aback; these few short sentences sound like an epic speech after the excruciating awkwardness of Kageyama's previous monosyllabic answers. Hinata has to collect himself before he can answer.
"Uhh, no," he admits, worried that this will put him even further out of favor. "I'm blind," he reminds Kageyama. "I wouldn't be able to see the target."
"Right," Kageyama says, and it's clear that yes, he had forgotten.
"But, I mean," Hinata hurries to say, eager to avoid further awkward silence, "I would like to try!"
"Is your cat going to aim the arrow for you?" Kageyama asks, and it's a mean question, but Hinata senses the faintest whisper of friendly humor buried deep in the mockery.
"Yes, actually," Hinata replies, puffing up defensively. "Well," he adds, hesitating, "No— Not exactly, but, he will help!"
"I'd love to see that," Kageyama says, and he even laughs a little.
"Great!" Hinata shouts, his baseless confidence getting the better of him. "Good! Let's go, you and me! An archery contest! I'll totally beat you!"
"I just told you," Kageyama says, right back to sounding angry, "I'm the best in the kingdom, and you just said you've never even shot a single arrow before. Yet you think you can beat me?" Hinata doesn't need his eyesight to know how Kageyama is looking at him; eyes wide and disbelieving, his mouth pressed into a very thin line. "Are you stupid?"
"Mhmm," Hinata affirms, trying and failing to hide his nervousness. "That is, yes I can beat you! Not— No, I'm not stupid!"
The door opens, starting both Hinata and Kageyama. Somehow, miraculously, between all the awkward silence and pitiable attempts at conversation, the entire hour has gone by. Or, perhaps more likely, Iwaizumi returned early, not quite trusting Kageyama alone with an unsuspecting villager.
"Kageyama?" Iwaizumi calls as he pokes his head in. He sounds very, very surprised to see them standing together, talking, neither bruised nor crying. "Do you," he says, shocked and at a loss for words, "Want... more time with him?"
"No," Kageyama immediately shouts in reply.
Iwaizumi sighs deeply.
"Okay," he says, sounding both disappointed and exhausted.
Hinata tries not to allow his feelings to hurt too badly. He knew it wasn't going great, sure, but he didn't think things were that bad either... certainly not bad enough to justify Kageyama's irritated tone and the quick dismissal.
He feels something poke him between the eyes, the hard press of a single index finger against his temple. It immediately snaps Hinata out of his thoughts of self-pity.
"Tomorrow," Kageyama says. "We'll see which of us is the better archer."
"Wait," Iwaizumi says, astonished. "You want him to come back?"
"Yah," Kageyama replies, although he is already walking away, back toward whatever part of the castle he originally came from.
"Tomorrow then!" Hinata shouts in reply. Iwaizumi seems downright paralyzed with shock, but eventually snaps out of it and hurries to follow Kageyama, leaving Hinata alone once again.
The silence is broken only by Kenma's voice in Hinata's head. He sounds very pleased with himself.
See? I told you it would be an interesting experience.
