Chapter 11: Facades and Feelings

Kageyama screamed as he jerked into a sitting position, the soft moonlight streaming through his bedroom window bringing him back to full realization of where he was. He wiped tears away from his hot cheeks and did his best to wipe at the sweat beading on his forehead as his breathing returned to normal.

"Another messed up dream," he groaned as he let his head fall onto the pillow again. He kicked off the blankets and let his body acclimate to the cold night air in the room, images from the dream he had had racing across his eyes again.

Though the dream had shaken the boy to his core, he couldn't recall exactly what had happened. He could only remember that it had been an amalgamation of all of the terrible things that had happened to Hinata over the past weeks, just like all of his dreams had been lately. But in his dreams, everything was even worse. Every moment of pain for Hinata was heightened in Kageyama's dreams, and this one had even pulled the earlier events of that day into the mix. His collapse had taken on a different form in Kageyama's mind, ripping open all of his stitches and spreading dark red blood all over the gray sidewalk, Hinata's body completely motionless, Kageyama reaching out to him only to find that he was eternally too far away to touch him. And worst of all, as Kageyama was watching helplessly, the same damn car that had haunted his dreams every night for weeks rounded the corner and spun out of control, slamming onto the sidewalk and driving over Hinata's body. The sight of Hinata's face, bashed in and unrecognizable, had been what sent Kageyama screaming into consciousness.

That image was the only thing that stuck in his mind as he stared at the ceiling above him, and he knew trying to fall asleep again would be impossible for tonight. So Kageyama rolled over and scooped his cell phone off of the bedside table. He began scrolling mindlessly through the apps on his phone, looking for something to keep his mind off of his dream. This was the first time he had dreamed of Hinata's death, however, and this technique that he had come to rely on in the last few days wasn't working one bit. He glanced at the top of his phone screen and groaned to see that the time read 1:42 a.m.

Not knowing what else to do, Kageyama found himself drawn to the social media app that a lot of the guys on the team tended to use, which he usually avoided. It had been months since he last logged onto it, so he was caught off guard to see his face pop up at the top of his dashboard. It was a post from Sugawara, the day they had all shown up at the hospital when he had been with Hinata in the hospital courtyard. It was a simple shot of Kageyama talking with Hinata, only the back of Hinata's head visible while Kageyama's expression was fully visible. The look of shock from seeing the team coming through the hospital doors was clearly visible on his face, and Kageyama felt a blush rising in his cheeks as he realized how dumbfounded he had looked. He scrolled down to read a simple caption, "The weirdo duo is back, everyone!" There were likes and comments from the team, of course, but also from Karasuno's girls' team, Kenma and Kuroo, Bokuto, and members of many other teams they had competed against over the season so far.

Kageyama rolled onto his side and brought his blanket up under his chin as he stared at the photo a moment more, recalling the tired, pained expression on Hinata's face and the silence that had fallen between them just before the team had arrived. Images of Hinata from his dream flashed before his eyes again, and he buried his head under the blanket to try to hide from them.

"Get out of my head," he mumbled, then found himself reaching for his phone again and going to Hinata's profile.

The last picture he had posted was over two months old, a silly shot of him and Tanaka standing victoriously in front of an elaborate prank they had set up for Nishinoya. Before he knew what he was doing, Kageyama began to scroll through all of Hinata's pictures, doing what he could to replace the painful images with ones of joy. After some time had gone by, he reached the first picture Hinata had ever posted-a week after joining the Karasuno team. It was a selfie, Hinata beaming outside the door of the gym with the back of Kageyama's head in a corner of the photo. The caption read, "My name is Hinata Shoyo, and I'm a first year at Karasuno! I'm going to become the next Little Giant, but only if I can get this guy behind me to set to me! The challenge starts now!"

Kageyama was instantly transported back to those first few weeks, when he and Hinata had been completely at odds with each other but had had to work together in order to show Daichi they were capable of playing on the team. It had been completely vexing at the time, but now it brought a smile to Kageyama's face. He scrolled back to the top of Hinata's profile page and noticed that it was now 2:37a.m. This little rabbit hole had definitely made the time go by quickly, so he decided to attempt sleep again. Before shutting off his phone, though, Kageyama noticed a little green dot next to Hinata's profile picture, indicating that he was online.

This late? Idiot!

Kageyama sat up in bed and stared at the little green dot for a moment more, then felt his fingers moving without really processing the action in his brain. Before he knew it, he was holding the phone to his ear and listening to the dial-tone starting up. A moment later, Hinata's voice picked up in a soft whisper.

"Hello… Kageyama?"

"Hinata-" Kageyama's voice seemed to catch in his throat, but he coughed and went on. "Why are you whispering?"

"Natsu is sleeping on the floor in my room, I don't want to wake her."

"Oh, then I should go-"

"Hang on, I can move to the living room. Just give me a few minutes."

"Hinata, no-"

But Hinata had already pulled his cell phone away from his ear to fumble for his crutches, leaning against his nightstand. Kageyama waited in silence, his heart pounding louder and louder with each passing second that he didn't hear Hinata's voice on the other end of the line. He was only able to relax a little as he heard the soft creaking of Hinata's bedroom door. Another few minutes passed, and a louder "what's up?" slammed into Kageyama's ear.

"Are you sitting down?"

"Yes, yes, I'm all good. Why did you call me at like three a.m.? Is everything okay?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I was just on my phone and I saw you were online too. I was wondering why you were still awake."

"Same problem here," Hinata chuckled forcefully.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nah, I'm alright. What about you?"

Kageyama paused for a moment, images from the dream flashing before his eyes again. The small glimpse of joy he had received from looking at all of Hinata's photos was quickly fading.

"I… Everything that has happened has really… scared me, Hinata. Especially what happened today. You kept telling me you were fine after you collapsed on the sidewalk, but I could tell how tired and defeated you felt. You didn't talk at all on the bus or from the bus stop all the way back to your house. I get it, I'm not asking you to pretend you're okay when you're not, but don't lie. Talk to me about it. Please."

"Kageyama… the same goes for you," Hinata's voice sounded the slightest bit shaky over the phone. "I can tell something is wrong on your side of all this, too. You've never been one to show your emotions, so having this conversation with you in the middle of the night is really sort of bizarre." He tried to offer a laugh again, but it was strained with tension.

"You want honesty?" Kageyama spoke softly, then waited for a response from Hinata. But the boy didn't speak. Kageyama cleared his throat and gripped at his blankets tightly. "Okay… I've been lying in bed for the past hour unable to sleep because I woke up from a dream that ended with watching your head get bashed in. And I've had dreams like this almost every night since you were first in the hospital… But none were as bad as tonight."

Hinata was silent for a long time, but Kageyama could hear the cadence of his breathing, a sharp intake as he had heard Kageyama's words and then a gradual steadying as they sat in silence.

"Maybe I haven't been myself," Kageyama continued. "Maybe I've been too emotional, too harsh on you for pushing yourself and too controlling when I think you're overdoing it, but I'm going insane here. So just let me freak out and don't hide that you are, too. You were a mess when you woke up, Hinata, and I've been a mess since then, so you don't have to pretend like you got over that. Don't apologize when you can't handle something, like you did in the gym today."

The cadence of Hinata's breathing changed again, and Kageyama heard him begin to sniffle. "Okay," he said, and Kageyama realized that the boy was crying. He didn't speak again for a long time, the tears turning into sobs before the sound of them grew distant, a soft thump signaling that the phone was likely out of Hinata's hands. Kageyama felt anger folding itself into a knot in his stomach, he wanted so desperately to be there in person with Hinata and make him feel that he wasn't alone, but he just sat frozen in place in his own bed and waited.

Many moments later, a soft series of rustling noises resounded and a small "sorry" came through the phone.

"Thank you for listening to what I needed to say," Kageyama replied. "Don't apologize."

"Right," Hinata sniffled.

"So it's your turn now. Tell me how you've been feeling, the truth."

"I guess I'll come out and say I've been having dreams, too," Hinata laughed awkwardly between his tears, sounding weirdly more genuine than he had in a long time. "It's usually just the accident over and over again, but it happens in different places-home, school, the court. A car just comes flying out of nowhere and hits me. I'm usually with people, but they all disappear as soon as the headlights shine in my direction. I always wake up right before it makes impact, but the memory is enough for me to feel the pain all over again when I'm awake."

"What else?"

"What do you mean?"

"What about when you're not dreaming?"

"I'm… scared all the time. I know what you meant, when you said you were. Today was really freaky for me, too. I just tried really hard to make everything go back to normal as fast as possible, but it's not going to happen that way, is it? And what I said, about being afraid of volleyball now, that was genuine. It's tearing me apart, but I'm afraid of volleyball now. It was just a bump on the head in that game against Inarizaki, but it terrifies me. What if it was my fault that I got hit by the car, because I was already shaky on my feet? It could happen to me again. It could happen to you."

"Thinking like that and acting like nothing's wrong are pulling you in two opposite directions, Hinata. No wonder you're exhausted. Sure, people get injured in matches all the time, but the series of events that happened to you is not something that will happen to everyone. It's totally valid for you to feel that way, and I'm glad you're telling me, but don't worry about me when you have so much to deal with already. Think rationally."

"You sound a little more like yourself now," Hinata said warmly, seemingly calmer. He stifled a yawn, causing Kageyama to glance over at the alarm clock on his bedside table.

"Oi, it's almost four a.m. We should both try to go to sleep. You especially, your body needs sleep to heal faster."

"I don't think I can," Hinata spoke in almost a whisper. Then he groaned. "Plus I have to hop all the way back to bed."

"Just sleep on the couch, if it's comfortable enough. I'm sure Natsu won't be offended. Are there blankets around?" Kageyama grimaced at the thought of Hinata moving around the room in search of blankets.

"I carried my comforter out here with me!" Hinata replied happily over the phone, only causing Kageyama to grimace even further at the thought of how close Hinata had probably been to tripping while balancing such a heavy blanket on crutches.

"Idiot," he said under his breath.

"But seriously, Kageyama, just the thought of closing my eyes is giving me shivers." Hinata's tone had become serious again, and Kageyama silently admitted that he, too, shared the same apprehension despite his tiredness.

"Okay, let's just keep talking until one of us falls asleep, then. About stupid, pointless shit. Like how many cracks you can count in the ceiling or something."

"I count three," Hinata replied as soft shuffling noises indicated that he was lying down on the couch. Kageyama rested his head on his pillow and put his phone on speaker, laying it down on the pillow close to his head.

"I'm not turning on my light to look at my ceiling, but my guess is zero. You should get your ceiling fixed."

He heard the soft click of what seemed to be Hinata turning off a lamp beside him. "Do you have blinds on your bedroom window?" Hinata asked before stifling another yawn.

"Yeah, they're open. The moon is almost full tonight. I already know there aren't any blinds on the windows in your living room."

"Creepy. How did you know?"

"I slept in there when I was taking care of your sister."

"Oh…" Another yawn. "Right."

"Um… Oh, is the couch comfortable enough?"

All Kageyama got in response was soft, barely audible breathing. He smiled.

"Goodnight, Hinata," he whispered before rolling over to end the call. But as he tapped the phone screen and it lit up to reveal all of the call buttons, a thought occurred to Kageyama.

Maybe I should just let the call go, in case he wakes up after a dream or something and needs to talk… or if I do.

Kageyama rolled back onto his back and pressed his face closer to the phone beside him, then closed his eyes and tried to eliminate all the thoughts that continued to swirl around in his head, centering his mind as best as he could on the soft up-and-down of Hinata's breathing. It was a strange experience to attempt to fall asleep to the sound of another person sleeping, but it was better than being alone. He was in dreamland within minutes.

Hours later, Kageyama was jolted awake not by a haunting dream, but by the soft whisper of a woman's voice in his ear.

"Shoyo, sweetie, what are you doing out here on the couch? You should be in bed." He stared up at the ceiling as sunlight poured into his room, soft rustlings from the phone beside him recentering him as he became more alert. "That's better," Hinata's mother came through the phone again, more rustlings coming as she tucked Hinata's comforter around him, now in his own bed. Another rustle, and her voice was much closer. "Wow. A five hour call? With Kageyama? Why didn't either of them hang up?"

With a small click, Kageyama sighed as Hinata's mother ended the call. At least Hinata was still sleeping soundly, surrounded by the family who loved him, not alone anymore. Kageyama dug under the covers again and closed his eyes, reassured that maybe he could get a little bit more sleep on his own with that thought resting easy in his mind.

Kageyama had spent much of that Sunday morning in bed, but awoke around noon to a text message from Hinata thanking him for helping him to fall asleep, and also apologizing that his mother had found the phone still on the call and had hung it up.

"No bad dreams this time, what about you?" a second message had delivered right after the first one.

Kageyama hadn't had a bad dream this time. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even dreamed at all. His sleep had been deep and restful, something that he hadn't experienced for weeks. He spent the rest of that day in conversation with Hinata over text message, doing his best to generate the same kind of openness that he had pried out of the boy the night before, as he went about his tasks around the house. Hinata stayed in bed the whole day, but did his best to catch up on homework. Every so often he would pepper in a few academic questions amidst their conversation about when Hinata would be starting outpatient therapy and various other topics.

When the doctors were informed of that Saturday's events a few days later at Hinata's first outpatient therapy session, he was banned from spectating any Karasuno practices until he was well enough to attend classes again. He called at the beginning of practice to let everyone know, barely concealing the disappointment in his voice, but Kageyama quickly came up with a solution to the dilemma. On the days when his therapy didn't overlap with their practice times, the two managers would take turns video chatting with Hinata so that he could still watch and offer encouragement. On the days when he was at the hospital while they were practicing, Kageyama would occasionally record clips of spikes, sets, and receives that individual players were working on and text them to Hinata later on. This carried on for a few weeks, Kageyama and the others only really getting to see Hinata in person on Sundays, when he had the day off from therapy and they had the day off from school and practice. Everyone would usually end up at Hinata's place, either packed into his room or crowded around his living room, as they helped him catch up on the piles of homework he had left to finish.

The day finally came when Hinata had the all-clear to return to school. He still had a long way to go before he could walk without crutches, but he was at least able to momentarily put weight on his bad leg without horrific pain in the event that he dropped a crutch, and walking with crutches in-and-of-itself wasn't so painful. Kageyama still didn't want to take any chances though, so he rang the doorbell in front of Hinata's house bright and early that Monday morning.

"Tobio-nii-san!" Natsu beamed brightly when she answered the door. "What are you doing here!"

"I'm here to walk you and your brother to school!"

"Yay! Nii-chan!" Natsu turned and shouted down the hall towards the open door of Hinata's room, out of which he came hopping with his crutches, dressed in something other than sweatpants for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Kageyama?"

"I never thought I'd be excited to see you in a school uniform."

"That was… weird." Hinata's cheeks flushed as he began hopping down the hall, much more smoothly than the last time Kageyama had seen him actively using crutches.

"Stop making it weird, idiot. I was just getting tired of seeing you dressed like a shut-in, is all."

Hinata frowned slightly before carefully stepping down into the genkan on his stronger leg, doing his best to move quickly as Natsu pushed behind him. He sat down on the edge and reached for his shoes by the small shoe shelf in the corner, but Natsu began to hiss.

"Nii-chan! You told me I could do it for you! You promised I could be the one to put on your shoes for you on your first day at school."

"Yeah, but that was before Kageyama showed up," Hinata sighed with a look halfway between exasperation and amusement on his face.

"Nii-chan!"

"Fine."

Hinata leaned back on his palms as Natsu clambered down and brought Hinata's shoes over to him, then started the process of shoving them onto his feet and tying them up. Kageyama was shocked to see how gentle she was with Hinata's injured leg, moving slowly and with the grace of someone much older than she was. As soon as she was finished, Kageyama extended his hand and pulled Hinata to his feet just as carefully.

"Ready, you two?"

Both of the fiery-headed humans before him nodded vigorously, their smiles wide. As they headed out onto the open street ahead of them, Kageyama stayed as close to Hinata as he dared, the boy's little sister clinging onto Kageyama's hand between them.

"There was morning practice today," Hinata said suddenly after a few moments of silence. "Why didn't you go?"

"I couldn't go to practice with enough time to make it to your place, too. I can't trust you to get Natsu-chan to school in the sorry state you're in, can I?" He beamed down at the girl, who giggled back.

After a lot more silent walking, with a bit of hopping on Hinata's part, they had safely arrived at Natsu's elementary school. She raised her arms in Kageyama's direction once they got to the gate, and once he had scooped her up, she leaned over and placed a quick kiss on her brother's cheek.

"I love you, Nii-chan! See you after school. Do your best!"

Once Kageyama had put the girl down and walked her over to the front door of the school, he returned to the gate to find tears rimming Hinata's eyes.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm working on that honesty thing, still, so don't make fun of me, 'kay?"

Kageyama nodded silently as he followed Hinata's hopping.

"I just haven't really thought about what Natsu felt about all this, until now. It kinda hit me when she said 'do your best.' She's probably been in a lot of pain, too. Much more than a kid her age should ever have to experience."

Kageyama's mind instantly was taken back to all of the words Natsu had said to him while he had taken care of her, words that seemed to present a girl many years beyond her age in wisdom.

"She's tougher than you give her credit for, Hinata. She kinda reminded me of a lot of important things when I should have been doing that for her. She's your sister and you know her a hell of a lot better than I do, but I know that at least."

Hinata smiled weakly as he focused his attention on his feet and the crutches moving before him, but kept silent. He turned the corner, then stopped as Kageyama froze.

"Are we going that way?"

"Yes. It's the only way to go, Kageyama."

"What about the bus?"

"We'd have to go the opposite direction to find the nearest bus stop, plus the route is too long to make it to class on time now that we've taken the time to drop Natsu off. It's fine, Kageyama. I'm a big boy." Hinata laughed, and the confidence behind it almost made Kageyama believe him.

Kageyama relented though, and the two carried on in silence. Hinata began to work a little harder as the concrete beneath them elevated, his body taking on a worn-out weight as they crested the top of the hill. Kageyama instinctively moved to walk between Hinata and the road, shielding Hinata's eyes from the hole in the railing across the street that still hadn't been repaired. He kept his eyes on Hinata, who was beginning to look pale not from tiredness, as he was still moving fairly quickly, but from being painfully conscious of the landscape they were walking through at that moment. Not a word was spoken between the two of them.

Many long minutes later, once Kageyama had accompanied Hinata into his own classroom and to his desk, Hinata collapsed in an exhausted slump. Kageyama resisted the urge to say anything to the boy as his classmates began to congregate around them, instead choosing to squeeze his shoulder lightly before retreating from the crowd and heading for the hallway and his own classroom.

"Shoyo-kun, you're back!"

"We missed you, Hinata-kun!"

"How are you feeling?"

"Who was that guy who just walked in with you?"

Kageyama tried to tune out all of the voices of Hinata's classmates as he imagined the suffocating weight they were pressing over Hinata. Just as he slipped out of the room, he turned to see Hinata lift his head and put on a huge smile.

"He's my friend, Kageyama. He's a first-year from another class. Don't any of you know him?" Kageyama did his best to listen from outside the doorway as some of the girls looked back at the door. "I'm just fine, by the way! Just a few scratches. What did I miss while I was gone?"

Kageyama turned and shook his head vigorously at Hinata's sudden change, like turning on a happiness switch. "Why didn't any of you visit him?" he mumbled under his breath as he trudged towards his own classroom.

Hinata had insisted that Kageyama keep his coming back to school secret from the rest of the team to avoid fuss, so when the two had walked (and hopped) into the gym later that day, the boys had been ecstatic. Nishinoya and Yamaguchi were both in tears, making remarks similar to Kageyama's own about how good it was to see Hinata in a school uniform again. Takeda-sensei had insisted Hinata sit next to him on the bench again, and this time Yachi sat glued to the spot on his other side. Hinata was still a bit fidgety around the edge of the court, so Yachi distracted him by helping him out with the work that he still hadn't caught up on. Even when Shimizu asked her for help with things around the gym, it took her a moment to realize that someone was calling her name.

As the days passed and Hinata's list of uncompleted assignments slowly dwindled, he seemed to ease into being in the gym more and more. Even when balls seemed to fly in his direction, he wouldn't get pulled away from his work so easily and wouldn't jump so much, confident that Takeda was watching out for him as he had promised on the first day. Kageyama also walked him home every day and talked through the events of that practice with him, not only going over what the team had accomplished, but what Hinata himself had accomplished in his emotional recovery. Kageyama could tell that at first Hinata had been very hesitant to drop the facade that he had been steadily building with his classmates during school hours, but he kept pushing at the boy to remember their late night conversation about honesty, which made him cave pretty quickly, and eventually their afternoon walks home became spaces of vulnerability as soon as they were out of the Karasuno main gates.

One day in particular, about two weeks after returning to school, Hinata was the first to bring something personal up. They had just turned onto the sidewalk outside of the school gates, heading towards the hill that Hinata still remained utterly silent while traversing each day despite Kageyama's attempts at distraction.

"So, my mom got a letter yesterday from the guy who was driving the car," Hinata spoke quietly, shifting his weight around as he was still getting used to walking with now one crutch instead of two. He was still attending therapy, later in the evenings now and only a few times a week, and was making tremendous progress. "She said that he came to apologize or something when I was still in a coma, and he ended up being kind of an asshole to both her and you."

"Yeah, that's an understatement," Kageyama mumbled gruffly.

"Well, he apologized formally in the letter, and said he wanted to talk to me in person. He said he was happy to hear that I was doing better. I wonder how he found out."

"That nurse probably told him. She was a little too lenient with him from the beginning."

"I'm sure she was just trying to be nice, but I guess I wouldn't know." Hinata looked down at the crutch at his side. "Anyway… he said in the letter that he was originally mad because he had thought the whole thing was my fault. He remembered seeing me sort of fall off my bike and tried to swerve to avoid hitting me, but lost control of his car."

"That's his excuse?!" Kageyama glared at Hinata, rage fuming under the surface. "Do you believe him?! You mentioned feeling at fault when we talked on the phone that one night…"

"Maybe that's what happened… I don't remember anything before reaching the top of the hill. But there's no use getting mad about it now, Kageyama! He admitted that he was at fault, regardless of the context."

"He's just trying to cover his ass so your mom doesn't sue him. She should."

"I don't want her to. We already talked about it."

Kageyama just shook his head and looked down at his feet, amazed at Hinata's attitude. His kindness was one thing that could never be taken away from him, and Kageyama couldn't fight the resulting feeling of happiness that lingered in his chest despite his anger at the situation.

"So I am going to meet with him. I asked my mom to invite him over for dinner tonight."

"You're hosting this guy? Providing a meal for him? What has he done for you besides scar you and your family both literally and emotionally?"

"If the scars are gonna heal, we need to talk." Hinata stopped as he reached the bottom of the hill, then, to Kageyama's surprise, continued to speak as he began his trek upwards. "I didn't get the chance to talk to him in person before, but my mom said he sounded different in his letter. She's hopeful. So I will be, too."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"In case you wanted to be there, to accept his apology to you specifically, to forgive him. You're walking me home anyway, so you'll already be at my house."

Kageyama was the one who remained silent this time as they crested the hill, but as they began to walk down the other side, Hinata having ignored the hole in the railing altogether, he finally spoke up. "Let me think about it."

A few hours later, he found himself sitting at a low table in the Hinata household dining room, next to Natsu, staring directly into the face of the man who had smashed Hinata and his bike into a tree with his car. Hinata sat on the side of the table between Kageyama and the man, across from his mother's seat. She was bringing plates in from the kitchen, the rest of the group silent as she worked. She had again refused to let Kageyama, or Sato, the driver, help in any way.

"Please, Sato-san, help yourself," Hinata's mother said as she finally joined the group at the table.

Kageyama just stared at Hinata's face as the man began to collect small helpings of the dishes his mother had prepared. Hinata seemed pale and a little timid, and hadn't spoken anything more than a "Hello" when the man had entered their home. Kageyama hadn't said anything himself, and besides the glint of surprise in his eyes to see Kageyama there, Sato hadn't said anything back.

The dinner proceeded uneventfully, everyone eating in silence, even the charismatic Natsu keeping silent and staring exclusively at her plate. Only when every person had put down their chopsticks did the man clear his throat to speak.

"Thank you for inviting me here tonight," he said shakily, nodding in turn to each person he addressed. "Hinata-san, Shoyo-san, I would like to start by apologizing deeply for what I did to you."

Hinata visibly stiffened as Sato pulled back from the table and touched his head to the floor in a bow in Hinata's direction. "It's oka-"

"It is not." Sato said, his face still pressed to the floor. "Not only did I seriously harm you, and threaten your life at that, but I got off with only a scratch and treated the whole experience as an inconvenience. I disrespected the incredible weight of the situation and the stress it placed on your mother, as well as your friends."

He lifted his head from the floor and returned to his original position, then locked eyes with Kageyama across the table, bowing this time in his direction. "Kageyama-san. I understand that you have done a great deal to make sure that Shoyo-san is here with his family today, and I have been a roadblock in your mission to care for your friend. There is no way I can attempt to apologize for being so selfish, but I will try anyway. Please understand my regret and my shame, even if you do not accept it."

"He's the one who really matters," Kageyama nodded his head in Hinata's direction, "and you just cut him off. I know you mean well, but you did."

A look of horror crossed the man's face as he sat up again, and he moved quickly back to look at Hinata. "He's completely right. I'm so sorry, Shoyo-san. Even in my attempt to atone, I'm repeating the same behavior all over again. I haven't heard you speak more than three words to me since I stole so much away from you, and yet I keep stealing…"

Hinata was leaning backwards, the intensity of Sato's eyes on him seeming to overwhelm him a bit. It was hard for Kageyama to read anything behind the boy's eyes, but a new sort of light seemed to ignite behind them after a moment.

"Just now," he began as if he hadn't spoken in days, a scratching, painful crack coming out with his words which slowly dissipated as he continued on. "I remembered something about the accident. Because of your eyes, I think. I remember seeing your eyes behind the windshield. Wild. Panicked. Completely at a loss, and deeply scared. I don't remember anything else but that. So I forgive you." At the end of his words, Hinata squished his face into a wide smile, and the man in front of him let his head collapse into his hands.

Everyone in the room remained silent as the man began to weep softly, and Kageyama gripped Hinata's wrist under the table. When his eyes turned to meet Kageyama's, he offered the boy a firm nod. He didn't know why, or what about Hinata's actions had changed his own mind, but the anger was melting away, and he wanted Hinata to know that.

Sato stayed only a few minutes longer, too overcome with emotion to properly hold a conversation anymore, but he thanked and apologized profusely to Hinata again at the door. The interaction had taken its own toll on Hinata as well, and he fell asleep on the couch only twenty minutes later, in the middle of watching a national volleyball game with Kageyama and Natsu. Kageyama carried him to bed before helping his mother clean up the dishes, and slipped out the door. The night air greeted him differently this time than all the others, washing over him with a newfound sense of calmness. Things were finally starting to go right.

Three weeks later, Kageyama was sitting on the floor of the Karasuno gym, stretching with a few other early-arrivers to practice. Hinata had taken to walking the long way to practice every day to work on strengthening his leg, leaving Kageyama no option but to go on without him in order to be there on time. It irked Kageyama to no avail to leave Hinata alone, but he was proud that Hinata was pushing himself, safely, to even walk short distances without using the crutch.

Kageyama kept waiting for Hinata to walk in, but was torn away from watching the door as Ukai ordered everyone to start up a light warm-up jog around the court. Every time the door was visible as he ran around, Kageyama kept his eyes glued to it. Soon enough, the jog was over and they were circling up in front of the bench.

It never takes Hinata this long to walk here, no matter what route he chooses. Kageyama eyed the door again as he sat down on the ground and took a swig of water. Something's not right…

"Coach," he spoke up before Ukai could begin going over the plan for the day. "Hinata should be-"

"Hinata!" Sugawara shouted from behind Kageyama, and Kageyama jerked his head violently towards the door of the gym.

Hinata was walking into the gym, full weight equally distributed on both legs, his crutch slung over one shoulder like a baseball bat. He wore the white t-shirt and black shorts Karasuno players donned at every practice, as well as his gym shoes. He stopped a few paces into the gym and locked eyes with Kageyama. The long, thick, white scar that marred his leg was clearly visible, even making the muscles in his thigh and calf look slightly misshapen, but he was standing tall and smiling.

"I think it's time, guys!"

Author's Note:

Fanfic Tumblr: beccerslynnfics

Main Tumblr: beccerslynn97

(Follow me to receive chapter updates here! Should've been including this since chapter one, sorry folks)