Chapter 12: Kageyama's POV

That dumbass was late! Didn't he say he was just going out of the gym to get some fresh air?!

We had been waiting for full 15 minutes by now and everyone was starting to get annoyed for wasting precious time that could be used for practice. Sugawara even went to check out the bathrooms together with Daichi, just in case he was feeling sick again like in the morning. Growing restless I was now running in circles, trying to imagine where he could have run off to.

We HAD looked outside of the building, but weren't able to spot him anywhere, as strange as that might be. In the end the whole Karasuno team started looking for him outside, with so many people it just wasn't possible to not discover him.

A loud, terrified, female scream finally tore the sickening silence apart! All of us froze up and Sugawara shouted: "That's Yachi-San's voice! Something must have happened after all! Her shout came from that direction. Let's hurry up!" With that, we ran towards the direction of her voice and we were welcomed with a horrible view. There on the cold, moist grass lay the lifeless body of my beloved boyfriend. Our first-year manager had apparently turned him around so he lay on his back. His face was as white as a sheet of paper, his breathing was so shallow and I soon realized there was blood on his clothing and at the corners of his shaking lips.

"H-H-He is barely breathing right now! As much as I noticed his heartbeat is also very slow and unsteady! I just found him here out cold, who knows for how long he is already passed out! Call an ambulance, NOW!" the small manager screamed. Panic rose inside of me, I knelt down next to him and took his cold hand. Everything else went by in a blur: Takeda-Sensei was explaining our situation on his phone, Sugawara-San was a sobbing mess and got pulled into a soft embrace by his boyfriend and our captain, who was also overwhelmed by our discovery. Asahi sat there with a heartbroken expression while the usual noisy Noya was quietly sitting on his lap. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi stood in the back, the shorter one quivering next to the tall blond middle blocker with an unreadable look on his face. Tanaka and Ennoshita went to grab his belongings. Kyoko-San and coach Ukai tried to perform some first aid before the paramedics arrived and I just sat there, being completely useless.

Help arrived shortly after and I watched how Shouyou got carried into the ambulance.

I asked one of them: "C-Could I please accompany him? He's very dear to me and I want to be there for him."

"Of course. You're his boyfriend, I guess? You could help us by providing more information about his state of health, I assume. Get in the car, young man."

"Go with him Kageyama. I bet he would want to see you the most once he wakes up. Inform us later on, okay?" Daichi ordered me. "I will take care of everything here and we will drop by at the hospital as soon as we are allowed to."

After bidding goodbye to my team, I climbed into the ambulance and quietly took his hand until we arrived at our destination. I watched the paramedics, nurses and doctors run around shouting things at each other as Shouyou was brought into the hospital. As soon as they had left a nurse came up to me asking for his personal information, his parents and I even had to give them my own contact information. Seeing how worked up I was this woman stayed with me, trying to distract me by talking about many unimportant things.

The time went by slowly, it felt like hours had passed since he was being checked out. In the meantime, Shouyou's mother came rushing into the hospital. I sure was surprised to see her here, apparently she drove to the hospital as soon as she got the call. She sat down beside and we tried to calm each other down at least somewhat.

Then finally, the doctor who was assigned to him came up to me.

"Are you Hinata Shouyou's family?"

She nodded, looking at him with concern in her eyes.

"I am doctor Fujimoto and I'm responsible for that young boy. Please follow me, I will show you to his room now and explain everything."

After noticing me he added: "I heard you're his boyfriend, so you're basically part of his family and therefore authorized to hear about his case too, as long as his mother is okay with it." Hinata-Sama gave a little nod while gripping my sweaty hands, which seemed to be enough for that doctor.

Once we got to his room, I took in the sight that was spread before me. My lover was lying motionless in his bed, a heart monitor was attached to his small body and an oxygen mask was providing him with much needed air. He was even connected to some sort of infusion.

The man in front of us urged us to sit down and explained afterwards: "First of all, I want to apologize to you for taking such a long time, you must have been very anxious in the waiting area. We had to make several, different kinds of examinations because we had to find the true cause of this boys suffering. After listening to the symptoms you previously described to me, I actually got a bad hunch, which I took into consideration. With that being said, I have good and bad news for you."

I nervously gulped down and focused on every word he said.

"The good news is, we found the cause. For the bad news... He is suffering from severe lung cancer. I heard that he is playing volleyball and I can imagine that the last days of extreme training had worsened his condition. From what I heard it must have started to affect his body half a year ago when he experienced his first breakdown. Fortunately, the medicine he took kept the cancer in check, so it went by completely unnoticed. It probably stopped the cancer from growing as well, but honestly, he is in a very grave condition by now. He has to stay in this hospital until you decide how you would like to proceed for the future. It will need a lot of time, so I need to explain every possible treatment we can provide for him now."

After this shocking revelation he began to speak about all the possibilities that he had, starting from therapy with medication to a big and risky operation and chemotherapy. It was a lot to think about, because this decision would decide his whole future. I surely wouldn't want to be in his mother's place by now. My focus ended up on his fragile looking figure and my heart was hurting just from watching him. I didn't listen to what the adults were discussing, all the medical talk confused me anyway. Who could have guessed something this serious? I'm sure it wouldn't have gone that far if it had been found out half a year ago... I stayed for an hour before I was asked to leave, since he needed as much rest as he could possibly get. Also, the chance of him waking up on that day was close to zero, which shook me up quite a bit. Shouyou's mom brought me back to the camp and hugged me close as I said goodbye to her.

"I know you must be as scared as I am right now. I'm so sorry that you had to experience something so dreadful. To be honest, I'm not sure what I should decide for my sweetheart yet, I'm going back to the hospital to get more information about the success rate of each therapy. Once I made a decision, I'll make sure to let you know. Please stay strong for my baby."

I nodded and slowly made my way back to the gym, hoping to find my friends there. They were playing a little game by the time I got there, however, I noticed that everyone's minds seemed to be someplace else. Upon noticing my arrival, they all stopped what they were doing and rushed towards me. I sat down on the bench next to the coach and after a moment of silence Coach Ukai asked: "Kageyama, could you perhaps tell us what happened? You were gone for half of the day and everyone was equally worried about Hinata, as well as you. Will he be okay?"

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Oikawa-San joked lightly: "Hey, come on guys. It's Shrimpy-Chan we're talking about. He'll be back to his usual annoying self in no time, right Tobio-Chan?"

I kept my gaze low and whispered: "He won't be okay... Not that easily. So shut your stupid mouth, Oikawa, please."

He gasped lightly at my cold remark and Sugawara urged me on: "Please, tell us what's wrong with him. We are all worried about our little ball of sunshine. Is it that hard to speak about?"

After another moment of tension, I exhaled deeply and explained: "It's lung cancer. They are still making tests and try to come up with a proper treatment. Seems like it's pretty bad... He's hooked to a heart monitor, is supported by an oxygen mask and he's getting medicine through infusions."

"Oh my god! My poor baby crow..." Sugawara yelped, tears starting to stream down his eyes. The others reacted in a similar way, showing their deepest concern and affection towards our missing middle blocker and friend. In the end, we quit training for the day, since the mood was now finally ruined and nobody felt like playing around in such a crucial time.