Disclaimer I don't own Haikyuu
Iwaizumi flinches.
He did not.
He flinches as he opens up the group chat.
He actually did.
Brokuto: hoot hoot mtherfcker. Guess what? I got more than a 50% onn myu lst testt!111!
Iwaizumi can appreciate them. They're clearly trying to cheer Iwaizumi up. Even Sugawara, who's place in a stiff position of his own setter disappearing as well, he still continues to send supporting messages through the group chat.
However, Iwaizumi still wants to follow his first instinct of throwing his phone into the ocean.
Oikawa eyes Kageyama, who's staring at the ceiling. Inner conflict. Used to analyzing people with his perceptiveness, he mentally notes everything. Kageyama's definitely afraid, and most likely aware of it. He's lost and confused. The old-Oikawa would've laughed at Kageyama's inner turmoil, if he didn't experience it himself. Granted, Kageyama was the one who caused the insecurity of him in the first place-
But still. Oikawa feels somewhat sympathetic towards the younger boy.
Iwaizumi would be proud of him.
Iwaizumi.
How's he doing? Is he worried about me? Is he looking for me right now? What is he doing, how's the rest of my team-
"Hey, Oikawa?" Blinking, Oikawa quickly yanks himself out of his thoughts, and turns to the source of the voice. Oikawa himself, is seated on the desk across the room, with both of his feet tipping the chair in front of him. "Do you seriously think we'll get out?"
His mouth becomes dry. "I don't know." He genuinely answers. "But Tobio-chan!" He warbles, and takes satisfaction in Kageyama, who shifts his head slightly to regard him, with a withering expression crossing his face. "Don't lose hope! Because hope is all we have left!" We definitely ran out of luck a long time ago.
Kageyama is like a cracked window. A hole is already punched into the glass panel, but there are still fragments of glass still clinging onto the jagged edges of the inner window. Those glass shards represents hope. The hole and cracks are to correspond with the feeling of doubt and fear. And slowly, Oikawa can tell, those cracks will only get larger.
He believes that mental window he create, is finally cleared of everything, now just a big gaping hole, right now.
Screaming, Oikawa can't help himself from screeching himself hoarse as the body withers onto the floor, having something such as a seizure. "She had lies in her heart." Daniel shouts.
Oikawa begins to hyperventilate, stumbling backwards. Oh God. The blood. The metallic scent is invading his sense of smell, and it's so thick he might as well taste it. Staggering back as Sachiko raises a jerking hand towards him, he screams, toppling forward, and onto the palms of his hands. He can feel the carpet beneath him squish from the pressure of his hands, as it's sopping wet from the crimson fluid.
"She lied, and lied, and lied!" Daniel snarls, brandishing the kitchen knife with such intensity, and that's when Oikawa understands Kageyama's fear. Kageyama, where is he-Oikawa panics, and quickly, disregarding his bobbing and fuzzy vision, swivels his head around, to find Kageyama, standing behind Daniel. Oikawa, as there are now black dots splotched across his vision, focuses instead on Sachiko, splattered in blood, as he forces himself to try and maintain a calm breathing-pace before he faints from the lack of oxygen.
"I did this for you." Daniel continues.
Oikawa wishes he collapsed, as he realizes, that in this position, he's able to stare into the glassy, darkened eyes of the corpse, bulging out of their sockets from the shock she experienced before dying. "Sachi?" he murmurs, the words clipped as they leave his lips.
"Do you understand?" He hears footsteps, and figures that Daniel's approaching them. Oikawa quickly gets onto his knees, wanting to put more distance between him and Daniel. However, he cranes his neck upwards, staring at the taller man. His eyes focus on the crusted blood speckled across his lenses. Oikawa tastes the sour, bitter flavor of bile.
"How did you know?" A familiar voice weaves in from the distance, but as the blood's rushing through Oikawa's ears, the voice sounds distant and muffled. "How did you know she was lying?"
"I'm the head of this household. I have to know everything." Daniel responds. "Now, I suggest that you two go into your room, and turn the music up-very loud. And do not come out until I say so."
Oikawa, through his heavy gasps, coughs, choking, before wheezing with a raspy voice: "What are you planning to do with her?" He questions, wanting nothing more but to prevent Daniel from even touching Sachiko-disregarding whether she's alive or not.
"How do I put this? I happen to donate organs and blood to charities." Well then. "And the meat...well, I take the job of dismembering the meat. And we have a nearby butcher."
Oikawa doesn't even know he's trembling until he can't even stand to look at Daniel anymore, and had averted his eyes to his fisted hands. That's when he notices his quivering fingers as they close around the fabric of his bloodstained pajamas. "Now, like I said, both of you-go to your rooms."
"He killed Sachiko." Oikawa whispers, his voice only heard because he's sitting right next to Kageyama. If he wasn't, the loud, blaring classical music would've drowned his voice. At that, he chuckles. Just yesterday, he complained about the music selection, wondering why Daniel doesn't allow pop music. And right now, he has to say, the intense warble of the violins, which resembles something from 'Scream', is quite fitting, as Oikawa knows that in this house, somewhere, Sachiko's limbs are being dismembered.
He stares at the trashcan which is placed next to the bed they're both sitting in, wondering if he would have to use it again. There's already crusted bile from earlier when he regurgitated. He shivers. He's more scared for Kageyama, however. Kageyama didn't even seem surprised when Daniel grabbed the nape of Sachiko, and with a fluid movement, left her with a gaping throat with a flick of his wrist and knife. "Why did he even kill her?" Oikawa asks. His vision's blurry, as he had removed his contact lenses as they continued to irritate his eyes when he was rubbing them and crying constantly. He's also sure that on those lenses, blood's dried on it.
"She was jealous. You noticed it too, right?"
Oikawa, through his hazy memories that are refusing to cooperate from his shock, was able to recall the feeling of Sachiko glaring at them darkly, especially whenever Daniel hugged them, or pet them on the head, or kissed them on their scalp as well. Yes. He remembers observing Sachiko, and realizing that she was jealous of Daniel's show of affections. "Earlier, she told me that she saw through our 'plan', that we were just playing 'hard-to-get'. Her mind's twisted, she's intensely dependent and jealous of us, because she actually legitimately loves Daniel. She's afraid that she'll be left alone. She's probably already alone all these years from the lack of socialization. She wanted Daniel to herself. That's why she lied. After all, that's why Daniel woke us up in the middle of the night."
Right. Daniel had banged on their door, shouting-screaming at them to get up. And they did. Daniel then confronted them, claiming that Sachiko told him that they held no love for Daniel [not false], and that they're planning to escape again. And she had that smug countenance. At that time, Oikawa wanted to strangle her. Right now, he wants nothing more than to get her back.
And Daniel then slit her throat. Without even confronting her about her lie. Just her cut her throat right there.
He shudders. He then quickly storms over to the closet, filled with new clothes Daniel bought. Stripping off his shirt, he wants to get off the smell.
Sachiko's blood. It stains his pants and blemishes his shirt. Wheezing now, he rips off his stained clothes, and with shaky hands, he shoves the pajamas aside, before grabbing another pair of bed clothes. He quickly wrangles them on, but then he hesitates. He can still smell it. The overpowering and disgusting scent of blood. His stomach churns. He runs out of the room, and towards the small bathroom. He needs to take a shower.
He has to. Peeling off his clothes again, he quickly screws the knob, and water spurts out of the shower head. He doesn't care. Daniel can hurt him for not obeying his advice, and straying to take a shower. It's just at the moment, he wants nothing to do with Sachiko. He wants to quickly cut off all ties. Leaping into the scalding water, he scrubs at himself until his skin turns raw, becoming a faded shade of pink. He chips away at the blood that crusted on and underneath his nails, and spurts mounds of shampoo onto him and his body, trying to rid of the scent.
Kageyama is still sitting on the bed, unmoved of his position from the last time Oikawa saw him. Beads of water still dripping off his hair, Oikawa crinkles his nose as he tries to shake the excess water off. While he smells like lemons, the room...still has that faint stench of blood. He cringes. "You're not going to shower?" Oikawa really wants Kageyama to. He wants to get rid of the smell. Kageyama, who was not in the way of the blood, is spotless and probably spared of the small of blood. However, Oikawa still wants him to. He feels as though this entire room is tainted from them just standing in here.
Kageyama shakes his head.
Trauma.
Kageyama broke. Lifeless. Just sitting there. Oikawa then realizes, he was the only one who screamed. Kageyama, sure, was startled by Daniel's sudden action along with the event of dragging them out of their bedroom, was still emotionless throughout the murder. He just stared, gazed with little to no emotion expressed on his face, as Sachiko gasps, shriveling and thrashing about on the floor.
If anything, Oikawa's scared for Kageyama. He can't work with a person who's given up.
And finally, Oikawa did something that he would've hit himself for doing back then.
He willingly cries in front of Kageyama, who lost the motivation and hope.
What chance did he have anyways? Kageyama, unbeknownst to his own consciousness, is now laughing out loud. How foolish. How stupid. How utterly incompetent of him to believe that he was safe here. This is like a wooden box that he's trapped in, with spikes protruding inwards. If he steps outside of his boundaries and shove against them, he'll get stabbed.
"Kageyama?" He's not that far gone. He's able to know when someone's shouting for him. Swiveling his head around, he's unable to prevent a toothed, large smile from cracking across his blank canvas of emotions. "Kageyama?" Oikawa's tear-streaked face stares at him, with a recognizable emotion behind it. Kageyama experienced it a lot within these past couple days-fright.
However, he's no longer frightened. Because for all he cares;
Daniel can kill him.
And Oikawa thought Kageyama's smile was scary in general. His laughter's worse. Along with the crazed, dull tone that has settled in his eyes, it gives the distinct impression of insanity. And he's laughing.
For fuck's sake. He lost Kageyama.
For a complete and utter doofus, Kageyama could bake. And perhaps it was him being stupidly sentimental, but here he is, dicing the strawberries. When Tsukishima's birthday happened just a couple months ago, Kageyama easily whipped up a strawberry pie. It was extremely awkward.
Tsukishima was unable to thank Kageyama, nor was he able to express his gratitude without sputtering; and he also didn't know how to react to Kageyama's sudden try on this 'friendship' thing.
And Kageyama, was extremely dense and couldn't find why Tsukishima might be flustered by him, the one kid he normally picks on, made things worse.
Yeah. It was bad. However, things went back to normal after they split the pie [it was admittedly good], and allowed Sugawara pay for all of them as a treat when they ate at a special restaurant.
And so now, Hinata, who recalls Kageyama stating that baking comes fairly easy to him, was baking the same strawberry pie. Tsukishima had the recipe for it after requesting for it, as he did find the pie delicious [but refused to admit nor compliment Kageyama on that]. "Do you think we can add whipped cream?" Nishinoya yelps cheerfully, his eyes glistening at the prospect of sugar.
Gasping, Hinata nods furiously. Sure, he's completely down, but so is everyone. The fact that Kageyma's return in chance is low, is like a suffocating prospect. But, here they are, trying the best to do things. None of them wants to get over him. Rather, they want to cling onto him as long as possible. Hinata isn't sure if this is a thing he necessarily wants to recover from; but given the deal that Kageyama's return is limited, that might be the best option.
His stomach twists at that.
"No, no more sugar!" Sugawara hisses. "The glaze is sweet enough. Too much sugar isn't good!" The boy wrings his hand, chiding them. Scorning them like a parent-figure.
"Ah-" Hinata yelps as Asahi drops the bag of flour, and it billows upwards. Coughing, Hinata tries to brush away the flour that settled on him, while choking through laughs, a reassuring statement to an apologizing Asahi.
Kiyiko, who finally allowed them back in their kitchen after a true apology from Sugawara, who happens to be on good terms with her always [it's hard to dislike Sugawara, anyways], is clicking her tongue, staring at Kageyama's impeccable, slanted handwriting. "So much butter for just the crust."
"It's ah pi(ah), suppos'd to have mush budder."
"Noya don't talk with your mouth full." Diachi sighs with no bark, and lacking any sort of intensity. Rather, he sounds a man who's tired out. Then again, Hinata supposes that one day Diachi has to relax; after all, he's practically an unpaid babysitter for all of them other than Sugawara, who even he refuses to cross. "And don't eat the strawberries."
The small libero grins, revealing his teeth stained slightly red from the berries. His cheeks are rounded, indicating the berries are shoved far back in his mouth. Scowling, Tsukishima, who is surprisingly cooperative at the activity of any sort of foods involving strawberries, raises the rubber spatula he was using earlier to create the glaze. He seems ready to whack Nishinoya in the head with the said spatula. "Sorry." He sputters, and Hinata cringes as he painfully swallows the mound of berries stashed in his mouth.
"You know," Yamaguchi, the shy boy begins. "I think whipped cream would actually be pretty good. And besides, we always play sports so we'd work off all the sugar." He suggests.
Sighing, Daichi rolls his eyes, as he turns to Sugawara, acknowledging him with a nod. Fascinated, Hinata watches as Sugawara and Daichi communicate through raises of eyebrows and various emotions. How strange. It's as if they have their own language, which only they can converse through as Hinata doesn't fathom. And then, all of a sudden, Daichi and Sugawara's glaring intensifies, and their slight shakes or soft nods become more like jerks. Finally, Daichi glowers at the crust he was molding onto the pan, and Sugawara turns to them, with a surprisingly victorious countenance.
"Whipped cream it is!" The male chirrups, and Hinata, acting on his joy of emotions, leaps up, laughing as the flour that was still clinging onto him, flies everywhere. Nishinoya whoops loudly.
Something's definitely missing here. Someone's definitely missing here.
Most definitely.
But at the least; Hinata knows they can go through this together, and hope together.
Scoffing, Iwaizumi shakes his head, his mouth dry. He struggles to keep an impassive expression on his face. "But you had a girlfriend?" Kyoutani gapes, staring. Now, that delinquent barely has anything to say, so for him to voice it out, Iwaizumi supposes that the idea of him getting someone special is basically impossible in their eyes. How nice. "No. I didn't have a girlfriend, I had an Oikawa," the laughing silences at Iwaizumi's claim. "And now can I have my phone back?"
And for once, Hanamaki relents, obliging without argument. Iwaizumi snags his mobile back, and stares at the picture that Hanamki had found. It's a picture of them when they were around the age of thirteen; he and Oikawa. The brunet was flashing a peace sign, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth and his head nuzzled against Iwaizumi, who had the expression of shock and slight anger as he was unexpectedly caught in Oikawa's sudden selfie on his own phone. Iwaizumi doesn't know why he kept that stupid photo that Oikawa took without Iwaizumi's consent.
But on this photo, there, smudged on the collar of his shirt, is a lipstick stain. "Yeah. When we were younger, Oikawa was insanely jealous that someone was going to become my new bestfriend, so he was stupid enough to take his mother's lipstick and smear it against all my shirts, saying it's to 'claim me'." He winces, recalling that time. "It was horrifying." He whispers. "The stains wouldn't get out."
Laughter reoccurs, and he's unsure if it's out of relief that he didn't respond badly to the upcoming of Oikawa's presence, or just out of humor. Oikawa may be gone, but if anything, Iwaizumi suspects that Oikawa is wherever Kageyama is. His heart then tweaks at a sudden thought, chopping against his chest. The idea that they're now in a trafficking system is incredibly possible. Oikawa is admittedly good-looking [not that Iwaizumi would ever confess aloud; no need to add more fuel to his ego], and Kageyama, disregarding his arrogance, is incredibly innocent and pleasing to the eye as well.
No, no, don't think to that. Noticing how his teammates are staring, he slowly peers down. His knuckles had flushed red from his tight clench on his phone, which he had done unconsciously. "Now, before I dismember all of you for taking my phone, get to class!"
As they run out of the room, he suddenly wonders with a shock;
How did they get into my phone in the first place? The only person who would know his password is Oikawa, who always happens to find a way to figure out his passcode despite the numerous amount of times Iwaizumi changes it.
That bastard.
Sharing his password with everyone.
Kuroo snickers, noting the panicked expression that crossed Kenma's pale visage. The tall man is clutching Kenma, whose feet are flailing beneath him as Lev holds him in such a fashion one would carry a cat; by their armpits. Hissing and clawing, Kenma is desperately trying to escape Lev's unexpected hug. Kuroo snorts, noting how Yaku is shaking his head to the side.
Somehow, Kuroo finds himself safe. He's older. Sure, there's always that small, little darkened area in the back of his mind that his father contaminated with awful memories; but for some reason, Kuroo believes that his father won't do anything. He's just here for a job.
That's all, and nothing else. At that, Kuroo's able to trick himself into believing everything's normal. His lips knot in distaste. Well, normalcy is the tricky word here. After all, Kenma often informs him on Hinata's lack of adrenaline he usually would have, along with his darkened of mood and depressed aura that practically oozes out of the once-bright, little ball of sunshine. And Oikawa. Iwaizumi had also told them about Oikawa's disappearance yesterday, over the chat. While Kuroo isn't as close to Iwaizumi as he was with Oikawa, he's well aware of Iwaizumi's presence and leverage/balance of Oikawa's life. And besides, he's actually rather close as a friendly relationship with Oikawa himself.
But he's sure that they'll be found before the month ends.
After all, that always happens in movies, and sometimes in real life.
He ignores the statistical, logical part of his brain which whispers:
'Yeah, but what about the chances of them not being found? This is real life~' He shivers, shuddering at how the voice sounds eerily like a darker version of himself because of its low-octave voice.
Kageyama obliges to every command Daniel says, Oikawa notes, as they eat breakfast. Now that Sachiko's...gone, [Oikawa is unsure of why he seems so reluctant to just say that she's dead], Kageyama has taken over the role of making breakfast [does making count, when he's just really setting up bowls and spoons for their cereal?]. He just nods politely as Daniel compliments him, as if he did not just kill his wife, that he did not just choose his obsession over the said wife, and that he did not dismember a woman upstairs in this household. Oikawa cannot find himself to meet Daniel's eyes. He cannot focus on those dark, glittering black eyes of the man.
His spoon clacks against the inside of the porcelain bowl as his hand shakes slightly. Not wanting Daniel to see that, he quickly swallows his cereal, acting as if he wasn't traumatized. "Well, I'm off to work!" Daniel then says, and Oikawa nods, continuing to eat his cereal. "Don't I get a goodbye?"
Oikawa stops, and sets the spoon down. He doesn't miss the threatening tone underneath Daniel's voice. "Good...bye..." Oikawa meekly says, hating the crack in his voice. He does look up in acknowledgement, but he stares at Daniel's hat rather than his actual irises.
"Goodbye." Kageyama states emotionlessly.
"Goodbye, my children! I forgot to tell you this, but I bought math books yesterday. They're on the kitchen table. If you want to, you can do some of the problems."
Oikawa waits until that fucker leaves, before he pivots on his feet, to face Kageyama.
He looks like shit.
The bandages are still wrapped around his head, [fresh ones, as Oikawa forced Kageyama to cooperate as he cleaned up the wounds; he didn't want Kageyama to die from something as lame as an infection], along with carefully disinfecting his lacerations yesterday night. But his eyes, once a vivid, intense color of sapphire, now nothing less than the blue-gray color of a dull sky before a stormy weather approaches.
"Are you okay?"
Kageyama nods.
"Don't lie."
"No. No I'm okay. It's nice. When you stop caring, everything's nice." Kageyama states, lackluster. Oikawa puckers his lips, watching in disgust as Kageyama removes the dishes and places them in the sink. He hates how weak Kageyama is. He hates how Kageyama just reverts into a shell of his former being. But he can't bring himself to hate Kageyama himself; he can't do it. He pities him. He's still young. In fact, Oikawa's sure that he's the youngest out of the entire Karasuno team; of course after this experience he'd be broken. Nothing more than a shattered porcelain doll.
Plastic.
And while Oikawa's sure that Daniel would hit them for acting as if they don't love him, he's sure that Daniel loves Kageyama's emotionless, broken state, despite it meaning that he won't receive any sort of affection. After all, Daniel probably takes satisfaction in breaking a stubborn, hard-headed boy such as Kageyama.
"Tobio-kun," Oikawa uses his favorite honorific for this boy. "You can't give up so easily."
"And you can't blind yourself from the obvious. We're not escaping, Tooru." Taken back by Kageyama's use of his name, Oikawa's pity melts away, replaced with anger.
"You're a coward."
"I came to terms with that." Shocked, his anger dissipates, as he loses momentum. He didn't expect for Kageyama to respond so flatly and easily. His pride is definitely crushed along with the rest of his capability to comprehend and feel emotions. "I want to die, but I'm too afraid to do it. I want to escape, but I'm too afraid of the consequences of failing."
Oikawa, for once in a long, long time, is unable to retort smartly with his lashing tongue. Instead, his words and thoughts are quickly jumbled together, into a muddled mess, submerged in the murky waters of confusion. And somewhere, somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice that sounds oddly like Iwaizumi, a whisper hisses, 'Idiot. You need to protect this boy; he's innocent and young.'
And then, another voice [which sadly resembles Oikawa's], states, 'He's given up. You've seen people like this, Oikawa. He's one of those people who can't return. He's gone. Just let him be; you can't do anything anyways'.
Right. He was always worthless. Useless. What can he do? Oikawa is conscious of how much he depends on Iwaizumi to prevent himself from breaking. And right now, he's beginning to believe that all that Iwaizumi said, claiming that he's not worthless and completely needed, is bullshit.
No. No, you're just letting your lack of self-esteem get to you. Oikawa Tooru; you're the only sane person left here, you have to get out of here. With or without Tobio-kun's help; but you have to get him out too.
Soon.
Because while Kageyama's distant; gone, Oikawa knows that while he's still in the shallow stage of vanishing, leaving behind only a former shell of himself, the possibility that Kageyama might return is probably hopeless. But the idea that he might be pieced together, into a cracked, broken doll, is still there. He won't ever be the same, but at least he'll be better.
In a way;
Oikawa has an inkling of suspicion that Kageyama needs Shrimpy,
Almost as much as Oikawa needs his Iwa-chan.
Sugawara: image sent
Kuroo: whoaa is dat pie? cherry?
Diachi: strawberries.
brokuto: oMG I WANT SUM
Ace W/ A Pretty Face: guys help me. Bokuto changed my account user and I don't know how to change it back.
Brokuto: No, but Akaashi!1! its gret dont change it!
Kuroo: such an old man, Akasi no knowledge oin technologi todaye.
Kenma: how is it possible that you spelled 'knowledge' right but not 'on'?
Iwaizumi: how is it possible you guys are texting during school? Now stop. Your notifications are interrupting my class.
Sugawara: Silence the notifications?
Iwaizumi: but what if someone important texts?
Even an utterly simple-minded fool such as Bokuto [probably] can tell what Iwaizumi meant.
He's still gripping onto the foolish hope that Oikawa may text back.
Not gonna lie, but I feel as though Kageyama would be a good baker, because he's good at following direction and instructions, and he's always precise whenever it comes to his serves and stuff; in a way, I feel like his perceptiveness and logical sense on following would be good with baking?
I don't know.
But I want a Kageyama that can bake, dammit.