Chapter 7: Natsu and Nii-san

By the time Kageyama had made it to the nearby train station, Natsu had fallen asleep in his arms. He did his best to move quietly as he boarded the train and chose a spot among the late night's offering of open seats, deciding to leave the small girl asleep against his chest rather than risk waking her up by setting her down next to him. Train fare was not something Kageyama had budgeted into his meager spending allowance this month, but he knew that it would be much faster than walking all the way back to Hinata's house, and Natsu obviously needed to be home and in her bed sooner rather than later.

As the girl slept soundly, Kageyama looked out the window beside him and counted the cracks in the cement walls of the train tunnel to keep himself from really thinking. His brain and his heart were tired, and he was hopeful that sleep would come to him later just as easily as it had come to Natsu. But the constant lurching of the train as it reached and then departed from stop after stop yanked the boy out of his attempts at relaxation, so Hinata popped into his head nonetheless.

What is it gonna be like, playing volleyball without him until he's all healed up? The thought had been lurking at the back of Kageyama's head since even before the accident that morning, since they had heard the news from the nurse at the sports complex the day before that Hinata needed to take a week off. At this rate, Hinata won't be able to play again for weeks, maybe months. Sure, I mesh well with the other attackers, and Tanaka especially has been stepping up his game, but everybody always tells me and him that we have a solid partnership on the court. Will we be able to push forward without him and qualify for some good tournaments by the time he's back?

By focusing on the team as a whole in his pensive state, Kageyama refused to allow himself to ask the question of whether or not Hinata would be able to step onto the court again at all. That, too, was lingering just under the surface of his consciousness, but voicing it would be the same thing as losing all hope. Just one look at the boy's wounds was enough to make anyone have doubts that he could return to athletic habits of any kind.

Kageyama looked down at the younger sister of his teammate and found a sense of comfort wash over him again, albeit a small one. As the train slowed to a stop at the platform nearest to Hinata's neighborhood, he hoisted the girl into his arms again and made a silent vow not to have any more negative thought spirals. He was stronger than that now. Hinata and the rest of the team had taught him, in the months they had known each other, how to overcome the doubt and hatred that he had picked up playing for Kitagawa Daiichi, and now he knew he needed to teach himself how to apply what he'd learned to situations outside of volleyball. He needed to believe in his teammates, especially Hinata, and stop grasping for control where it was impossible to achieve it.

During the short walk that followed Kageyama's exit from the train platform and from his internal struggle, he distracted himself by taking the time to notice things about Hinata's neighborhood that he hadn't noticed when carrying him home the day before. These were all things that Hinata was probably all-too-familiar with, and it made Kageyama smile to know that he was learning something new about the boy, in a way. There was a small cafe on the corner, cakes and breads lining the windows. Across from that was a little electronics store, the televisions and computer monitors all turned off for the night, but it sparked a memory.

Hinata had once mentioned that he had first seen the Little Giant playing on a t.v. in a shop window as he was riding his bike. It had been so utterly transfixing that the boy had stopped in the middle of the street to watch the match, and that was the day his goal to become the next Little Giant had been born. Maybe this was where that moment took place...

Kageyama slowly stepped up to the window of the shop and stared at the t.v. on the other side of the glass, noticing that his and Natsu's reflections shimmered back at him in the dim streetlight. Overcome by tiredness and raw emotion, Kageyama let his tears begin to spill over as he pictured himself in his uniform, the young girl in his arms morphing into her older brother for a moment, beaming proudly in his own uniform. The tears this time weren't sad or desperate, but the result of shock. Kageyama understood now that he was undergoing what he imagined to be the same experience Hinata had had as he stared at the blank screen in front of him, and his heart swelled with confidence that the future Hinata had told him about would come to pass one day soon. He turned away and quickly brushed away his tears, then ran the rest of the way back to Hinata's home.

As he was walking down the front walkway of the house, his phone buzzed in his pocket. A message from a random number read, "I hope you've made it back safely!" So it was Hinata's mother. Kageyama skimmed over the rest of the message, noting that a house key had been hidden inside a pot near the door and that they kept a futon in the closet near the kitchen for guests to use.

Somehow managing not to wake Natsu, Kageyama rustled around in the pot and found the key, then kicked his shoes off at the genkan and stepped into the house. He tiptoed around, opening and closing doors near Hinata's bedroom as he searched for Natsu's room. Finally finding it, he crept inside and placed the girl in her bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin, before he crept back to the hallway and found the futon in the closet. Almost as soon as Kageyama's head hit the futon, which he had spread out in the living room, his tired body was asleep.

Morning light streaming through the unshaded window woke Kageyama up again before even his alarm did, and it felt like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Despite that, his rest had been deep and dreamless. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, then jumped as his phone began buzzing.

"That's not my alarm, though?" Kageyama mumbled as he fumbled around on the floor to reach for his phone. "Uh... hello?"

"Tobio! I'm standing outside the door of your friend's house!" It was his older sister, Miwa. "When you texted last night saying you were staying over to take care of his kid sister, I realized you didn't have, like, anything you need for a sleepover. Come on, let me in!"

Kageyama sighed and hung up the phone, then did his best to pat down his hair before moving on to tidy up his uniform button-down and pants, which he had ended up having to sleep in. As he made it to the door and carefully unlocked it, Miwa burst into the house.

"God, did you sleep in that? Look at those wrinkles! You should thank me, because I brought you a new shirt and pants. Please tell me you didn't sleep in your jacket, too, because I can't help you with that one."

"Geez, I'm not dumb!" Kageyama growled as he retreated back to the living room and gestured to the small coffee table, where his jacket sat folded nicely.

"Good boy," Miwa smiled as she deposited a load of items onto the table next to the jacket. Among them were a toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, deodorant, his phone charger, and underwear.

"You went through my underwear drawer?"

"Oh, you're complaining? Do you really want to show up at school wearing the same underwear you did yesterday?"

"Nobody would know but me," Kageyama grumbled as he lowered his gaze.

"Gosh, boys! Nasty creatures!" Miwa exclaimed as she sat down at the low table. "Now, I'm sure your friend is fine with you bathing at his house, so go wash up!"

"But Natsu-"

"I'll get breakfast going for her, and you take over when you're done. I need to be at work in half an hour, so don't dawdle. Now, where's the kitchen?"

Kageyama pointed in the direction of the kitchen as he started walking down the hallway in search of the bathroom. He had woken up much earlier than necessary because he knew that cooking in someone else's home, without knowing where everything was, would be a challenge. He wanted to prepare something healthy and filling for Natsu to help her do her best at school, so he was very appreciative that his sister had come to the rescue, if only just to get breakfast started.

After moving as quickly as possible through getting dressed for the day, Kageyama returned to the kitchen to find Miwa at the stove. She was cooking a traditional Japanese breakfast, including miso soup and fish. It maybe wouldn't be as fun for a little kid as something like pancakes or waffles would be, but it was definitely more nutritional and homely.

"It's a good thing there were a few leftovers in the fridge, because this family is seriously short on groceries," she quipped as she heard her brother padding into the room.

"Well, Hinata's mom works full-time, so I don't think she's been grocery shopping recently given everything that's happened to him over the last few days. I don't think his dad is around, but I can't say for sure."

"Right," Miwa murmured quietly, realization seeming to dawn on her. "Well," she continued, looking up at him. "You're looking much more normal now, so I think I'll head out. I have fifteen minutes and I don't intend on being late, so get your butt over here and man the cooking."

Kageyama grasped his sister's arm as she tried to slip past him. "Thank you for doing all this, Nee-chan. You really didn't have to, with your own job to prepare for and all."

"No problem, little brother," Miwa playfully punched his arm. "I'm always looking out for you and your friends, even if you won't ever introduce me to them. Tell your bud I'm thinking of him next time you get to talk to him." She leaned forward and placed a light kiss on her brother's cheek before heading back to the genkan and slipping her shoes on. She offered a final wave, then rushed out the door.

As Kageyama stepped over to the stove and gave the searing fish a confident flip, he heard a door creak somewhere behind him in the house. Soft padding reverberated down the hallway and into the kitchen, and he turned around to see Natsu yawning, already fully dressed in her own uniform.

"Good morning, Natsu-chan!" Kageyama beamed at her, doing his best to shake the sleepiness from his system. "I hope you slept well! Are you hungry?"

"Mhm!" Natsu returned his smile as she scrambled onto a seat at the kitchen table and folded her hands, waiting patiently. "I heard you talking to someone though. Did mommy come home?"

"Ah… no. That was actually my older sister. She dropped some stuff off for me and helped me get breakfast started. And here it is!"

Kageyama did his best to balance a tray full of the fish, rice, miso soup, and several small side dishes as he made his way over to the table, then sat down across from Natsu. The two dug in immediately and rabidly devoured everything in front of them, both still starving from the small dinners they had had the night before.

"This is really good, Tobio-nii-san! The coach guy gave me dinner last night, but it was only an energy bar from one of the vending machines at your school! Blegh!"

"Well, you can thank my sister for most of it, but I appreciate it!"

After every single morsel was gone, Kageyama glanced at the time on his phone. He quickly plugged it into an outlet near the kitchen sink as he began carrying dishes over.

"I can help now!" Natsu beamed, stacking up the smaller bowls and racing behind him. She pulled a small step stool out from between the stove and the refrigerator and set it up beside Kageyama at the sink. "We'll get this done fast if you wash and I dry! Me and Nii-chan help mommy with breakfast everyday, so I'm really good at drying!"

"Thanks, Natsu-chan!" Kageyama beamed, but then found thoughts of Hinata flooding back into his head as he stared at the soapy water between his hands.

Even though Natsu was so eager to help, there was still a lot she wouldn't be able to do at her young age. Without Hinata around in the coming days, their mother would have to shoulder so much of the responsibility alone. He worked quietly to clean the dishes in front of him, and Natsu seemed to notice, as she quieted down as well. Soon, the dishes were done and Natsu was attempting to place them back in the cupboards, but she was too short even with the step stool.

"Woah, careful there!" Kageyama grabbed her from behind and placed her down on the floor. "Besides, we need to get you ready for school! If we have time, I'll put them away before we leave. Now, let's go brush your teeth!"

Natsu giggled and ran to the bathroom, where a smaller step stool waited for her to climb to the sink. She scooped a small orange toothbrush out of a pink cup to the right of the sink, then held it out to Kageyama.

"Nii-chan usually squeezes a big glob on it for me," she said, a shadow of sadness passing over her smile for a moment.

"Okay, I can do that," Kageyama replied, scanning the counter for a tube of toothpaste. On the left side of the sink stood a white cup with a black toothbrush sitting in it, definitely Hinata's. A heavy sensation began to weigh down on Kageyama's chest. It was weird to see such personal items of his while he was miles away in a sterile, uniform environment. He quickly resumed scanning and noticed a tube of toothpaste sitting next to Hinata's cup. He flipped open the cap and began squeezing the paste onto Natsu's brush. "So you and Shoyo brush your teeth together every morning?"

"Every night, too! When I was younger he would do it with me to show me how, so it just became a habit. He does other stuff for me in the morning, too, so mommy has time to get ready for work. He brushes my hair and then braids or puts it in pigtails for me."

Kageyama shivered a bit as he noticed the little girl's eyes start to water. She turned away from him as she stuck the toothbrush in her mouth and started brushing. "Um," he placed both hands on the counter and leaned forward, trying to see her face. "Would you like me to do that? Do your hair, I mean."

Natsu turned back to him with the toothbrush still jabbed into her mouth, tears slowly dripping down her cheeks. She nodded slowly as she continued brushing.

"Okay, I'll do my best. I don't have a younger sister, so I've never really done hair before, but I'll try!" Kageyama smiled widely at the little girl as she finished brushing and spit into the sink, then rinsed out her mouth. "So, pigtails or braids?"

Natsu opened a small drawer to the right of the sink and pulled out a hairbrush, along with two small hair ties with blue beads attached to them. "Nii-chan gave these to me for my birthday last year and I wear them almost everyday. He says he likes them best with the pigtails, so I want pigtails, please." She timidly outstretched her hands to offer them to Kageyama.

After he scooped them out of her small hands, Natsu gripped the edge of the counter and hoisted herself up, then sat down with her legs dangling off the edge of the counter to the side of the sink. "This makes it easier for Nii-chan to do my hair, so it'll be easier for you, too, right?"

Kageyama began to brush the girl's fiery orange hair, and stifled a chuckle as he pictured himself doing the same to her brother. Hinata's hair might be long enough on the top to put into some small pigtails that would jut straight upwards, and the image of him walking onto the volleyball court with that sort of updo almost made Kageyama start to cackle. As he got his wild imagery under control, though, he noticed Natsu was in her own world as well.

"What are you humming, Natsu-chan?" He asked as he started to separate her hair into two big clumps.

"Oh, nothing! It's just a song we made up a long time ago that we like to sing together when we're getting ready. I miss him today, so I'm humming it myself."

"How does it go?"

"It's stupid really, Nii-chan was pretty young himself when we thought it up, but it stuck… Okay, here goes… It's time to get ready, so we can do our best! You and I will work real hard, so we aren't both a mess! You have big dreams, I've got them too! It's time to get ready, there's lots of work to do!" Natsu's face in the mirror immediately started blushing as soon as her song was finished.

"That's cute, Natsu-chan! Um… how old was Shoyo when you guys came up with that?"

"Oh, early middle school maybe." She tapped her fingers together as she looked nervously at Kageyama in the mirror.

"Makes sense," Kageyama said more to himself than to the girl in front of him. "He was so determined to do his best practicing volleyball even when he didn't have a team that he pumped himself up every morning with a song?" And he still does it every single day? Kageyama shook his head in disbelief as he wound the last hair tie around Natsu's hair. "Well, what do you think?"

Natsu beamed widely even though the pigtails were a bit lopsided and stray strands of hair were left out. "They're perfect! Thank you, Tobio-nii-san!"

"No problem, now let's get moving! We both need to get to school on time!"

Their walk to Natsu's school was filled with singing and skipping on Natsu's part, as she recounted various other stories of creating songs together with her older brother. As they reached the front gate of her school, Natsu's homeroom teacher was waiting for her and waved to Kageyama.

"Natsu's mother made us aware of the situation last night, dear boy. Please accept my well wishes for Shoyo's health, and thank you for taking care of our little Natsu!"

Kageyama waved back to the teacher as he began his own trek to Karasuno, experiencing for the first time the complete headache it was to complete Hinata's commute under a time crunch. He didn't want to face it, but soon enough, he was back on top of the wretched hill he had encountered the day before, where he had found Hinata pinned between the car and the tree. As he passed the hole in the railing, Kageyama refused to let his eyes wander from straight ahead of him and he picked up speed, almost beginning to jog as he started down the hill.

By the time he reached the bottom, thoughts of Hinata were swarming Kageyama's brain to the point where he couldn't focus on what he was doing. He pulled to the side of the sidewalk and sat down on a bench, then focused on calming the rhythm of his breathing. In, out, slowly, okay, yeah, you're fine. Don't freaking be late for school, man.

But he couldn't move forward again until he had at least given his mind some sort of reassurance, so he grabbed his cell phone and pulled up the messages from Hinata's mother. "Good morning, Mrs. Hinata!," he typed out as quickly as he could manage. "I just wanted to let you know that Natsu is safe and sound at school! I'm on my way to school now and was just wondering if there's any news you can share about Shoyo. Is he out of surgery? Did it go well? Will he be allowed visitors this afternoon?"

After hitting send, Kageyama stared at the screen for a solid minute. But there was no reply, not even the little dots that meant she was typing. So he shoved the phone back into his pocket and started jogging again to make up for the lost time. As he crossed over the threshold of the school courtyard, the other members of the team were grouped together in a circle near the main door.

"Any news?" Yachi asked eagerly as he approached. "We didn't really hear anything from you last night."

"Sorry," Kageyama shook his head. "I ended up taking Natsu, Hinata's little sister, home and caring for her so Hinata's mom could stay with him. I took her to school this morning, too, and I just texted to see if there are any updates, but nothing yet."

The rest of the team looked downcast as he shared his news, but they quickly plastered on fake smiles as they broke apart and headed to their respective classrooms. As Kageyama took his seat in his own classroom, he again found himself staring at his phone in the hopes of receiving a reply. But this time, the fear was so all encompassing that he kept his eyes glued to the screen even after class started. He walked through his day with his phone in his hand, crammed under the lip of the desk in every class, his charging cord wound up in his pocket, at the ready, at every moment.

As lunchtime rolled around, he walked into the cafeteria to see the whole team sitting together for the first time. They all looked terribly stony-faced, and his heart hurt to have to tell them his news. There was still no response.

"She's probably too occupied with caring for Hinata to be able to care about updating people outside of the family," Asahi stated to the group, trying to provide the reassurance Kageyama, along with everyone else, had been craving all morning.

"But she knows how concerned Kageyama was yesterday," Sugawara replied, glancing at Kageyama, who was still staring at the phone and not eating.

"I'll send her another message," he offered quietly, "but I don't want to be pushy and annoying, so if I don't hear from her by the end of lunch, I'll put my phone away and I won't look at it until school is over. I'll go crazy otherwise."

"I think that is a wise decision," Daichi replied, grasping his shoulder tightly. "Now, please eat your food. You need your strength."

Kageyama nodded as he shot off another quick message: "Any updates? The team is wondering, but no worries if you can't reply right now."

He had lifted an onigiri up to his mouth and was just about to take a bite when the little dots sprung up which indicated that Hinata's mother was replying.

"Guys!" Kageyama screamed and threw his hands out to tap at the boys and girls around him, letting the onigiri go crashing onto the table next to the phone. The little dots continued, but before the message went through, the bell signaling the end of the period rang.

"Kageyama," a voice behind the group bellowed as they stood. His homeroom teacher. "I understand the situation you and your fellow volleyball enthusiasts are in, but I've been alerted that you've had your phone on all morning. Please don't make it a habit after lunch as well, or there will be consequences."

Kageyama grimaced as he locked the phone and tossed it into his bag, receiving fate's unlucky hand as the bzz! of a new message shook the bag at his side.

Damn! He screamed internally as he walked past his homeroom teacher and headed into the direction of his classroom. Any more of this unanswered waiting and his heart would give out.