Hinata was excited. The tournament was in just a couple days. The tournament that could qualify them for nationals!
He was riding his bike down the mountain, thinking of the practice he was heading to, and the tournament they were practicing for.
Karasuno was going to win, for sure. They would beat Aoba Josai, and then Shiratorizawa. And then they would go to nationals and win that too.
Fog hung heavy in the air, and dark clouds promised a heavy snow to come soon. But Hinata was unfazed, taking a sharp turn around a corner.
Too sharp. He was moving too fast - too distractedly - to notice the headlights rushing for him.
Before he knew what was happening, something crashed into him, hard.
He was slammed back, the force breaking the guard rail and sending him tumbling down the steep hill beyond.
He hit his head hard against the ground, and his leg got tangled in the broken bars of his bike. A piece of the guard rail fell after him, smacking him hard in the head before continuing to fall.
Hinata tumbled and slipped and fell until he smacked into a tree.
His head spun and his vision blurred.
That wasn't good, was it?
Before he could ponder it further, Hinata's world turned black.
~
Kageyama made it to the gym early - as usual.
As usual, his eyes scanned for a familiar head of orange hair.
Hinata was usually there by now, racing for the gym to get there before him.
But the shorter boy was nowhere to be found.
Kageyama frowned. The dumbass was late.
Technically, he wasn't - Kageyama was just early. But the setter had gotten to a point where he just expected Hinata to be there.
He wasn't.
So Kageyama went to the gym, setting up the net and practicing his serve until others showed up.
The first to appear were Sugawara and Daichi. Then Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita.
Asahi came next, followed by Tsukishima and Yamaguchi.
Tanaka and Noya were late - unsurprisingly.
But Hinata was still nowhere to be found.
Kageyama frowned. Hinata was never this late. Especially not just before a tournament.
Daichi voiced the same concern.
"Does anyone know where Hinata is?"
Everyone looked around, as if expecting someone else to have an answer.
Kageyama pulled out his phone. He'd texted him a while ago, but he hadn't responded.
That was weird. Hinata always responded quickly.
He scrolled through his contacts and found his number, putting his phone to his ear and going over the string of insults he would shoot at him by way of asking what was wrong.
The phone rang. And rang. And rang.
"Hello, this is Hinata Shoyo! I can't answer right now, but leave your name and number and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!"
Kageyama scowled. The dumbass wasn't answering his phone.
He dialled again. Again he waited. Again, he was taken to an answering machine.
"He's not picking up." He reported.
Some of the others started to look nervous. Everyone knew Hinata always answered his phone.
A couple of the others tried calling.
No one got an answer.
Daichi shook his head. "I'm sure he'll turn up and have a good explanation for being late. For now, we'll have to start without him."
Kageyama scowled. But deep down he was nervous. He pushed it away, focussing on practice.
It didn't feel right without Hinata, but he did it anyway.
~
Hinata's eyes cracked open.
He was hurting. That was the first thought that crossed his mind.
His leg was in excruciating pain.
The more conscious he got, the worse the pain became.
He wanted to scream.
Next, he noticed he was cold.
Freezing, even.
He looked around.
He was outside? Trees surrounded him and he seemed to be on a hill.
He tried to sit up, but the pain in his leg doubled. He let out a cry, letting himself fall back down.
He glanced at his leg.
This time, it wasn't just a cry. It was a scream.
His leg was... it was covered in blood. Tangled in what looked like it could have been his bike, but was mangled beyond true recognition. He could see white through a deep gash in the skin.
He felt like he might be sick.
He quickly looked away.
What had happened to him? Why was he...
Memories flew back. Being run off the road. Falling.
He reached up to his head, feeling something wet and sticky.
Did he hit it?
Now that he had somewhat adjusted to the pain in his leg, he started to notice other aches. His head throbbed. His chest was burning.
How long had he been out? He felt dizzy and tired, and a part of him just wanted to go back to sleep.
The other part of him was panicking.
His brain raced, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe!
His phone! It should still be in his pocket.
Struggling to take in air, he fumbled for the device. His lungs felt like they were closing up.
There were at least a dozen missed calls on his phone. He blindly pressed on one of the contacts, pressing the phone to his ear.
It rang.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Hinata struggled to take in air.
Pick up!
It wasn't till the fifth ring - when Hinata was sure it would ring through and he would have to try someone else - that he heard a voice on the other line.
"Hinata?"
It sounded like...
"S-Suga?" He stammered, feeling like he was suffocating.
"Hinata? Where are you? You're an hour late! The whole team's been worried sick!"
"Suga! I... help, I need... I was... and I... I can't..." He couldn't form a sentence. He tried again, but no sound came out. He was out of air.
He tried to take a breath, but he couldn't. His lungs were tight and they hurt. His eyes widened as his panic grew.
It was like he had forgotten how to-
"Breathe, Hinata!"
Suga's voice broke whatever spell he had been under. His lungs opened up and air rushed in.
He took a deep breath, then another. He'd never been more relieved to feel the cold air piercing his lungs.
"Hinata, what happened. Start from the beginning."
Hinata took one last breath, trying to remember everything.
"I was coming to the gym for practice." Hinata recounted, his voice shaking. "And I went around a curve. It was foggy and I couldn't see anything, and I guess they couldn't see me, either, 'cause they ran me off-"
"You were run off the road?!" Suga interrupted, followed by multiple faint shouts of 'what?!' that must have been the rest of the team.
"Yeah," Hinata agreed, coughing as pain stabbed through his lungs. That had nothing to do with panic... were his lungs hurt, too? Wait, he already knew that, didn't he? "I fell through the guard rail and I'm pretty sure I hit my head, and my leg..."
He glanced at his leg.
"Oh God, my leg!"
Again, he felt like he might be sick.
His heart started racing and his lungs closed up all over again. His eyes widened in panic.
"Suga, I can't-"
He struggled to take in air.
"Just breathe, Hinata." Suga's voice was firm and confident, and Hinata's mind was clouded enough not to pick up on the panicked undertones. "Deep breaths. You're gonna be okay."
Hinata struggled through a few more breaths and, slowly, his lungs seemed to open up.
"Hinata, are your parents home? They'll probably be able to find you easier."
Hinata shook his head, even though Suga couldn't actually see him. "Mom's- Mom's with Natsu, she took her to see..." He took a breath. "Mom took Natsu to see my Grandma for the week."
"And your dad?" Suga pressed.
Hinata's heart lurched.
"I- I don't know... I don't know where he is. He's... He's gone."
"Oh," Suga said softly. There was a brief moment of silence before he continued. "Don't worry about it. With all of us looking, we'll find you in no time."
Hinata couldn't help but feel slightly reassured by Suga's calm tone. Then he noticed something else.
"Um, Suga?"
"What is it, Hinata?"
"I... well I'm starting- I'm starting to get really- really cold."
There was another moment of shocked silence before Suga's voice returned.
"Hinata, what are you wearing?"
"My Karasuno jacket." Hinata explained, glancing at the black fabric that had been ripped severely in the fall. While looking down, he accidentally caught sight of his leg again, and the blood staining the snow around it.
He pressed his lips into a line, feeling like he was going to faint.
"Hinata! It's freezing! Why aren't you wearing a real coat?"
"When I'm- When I'm biking, it warms me up. I... I usually don't need a coat."
Hinata could practically feel Suga's disapproving frown.
More important to him at the moment was the way the corners of his vision were going dark, and his body suddenly felt extremely light.
"Suga? I don't... I don't feel so good."
"Hinata?..."
"Hinata!?"
"Hinata!"
Too late. Hinata had fallen unconscious.
~
"Hinata!"
Suga pulled the phone away from his ear to glare at it, as if it were the device's fault that Hinata had stopped answering.
And then he remembered that Hinata was hurt. Hinata was freezing. Hinata had been run off the road.
"Shit." He cursed, looking away from the phone.
"Suga? What happened?" Daichi asked, walking over.
"Is he okay?" Noya added, eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"What did you mean 'he was run off the road'?" Kageyama scowled.
"Exactly that," Suga said grimly in response to Kageyama's question. "Apparently he was on his way to practice and someone ran him off."
"Is he okay?" Tanaka repeated Noya's question.
Suga frowned, remembering Hinata's shaky voice and the hyperventilating. The way he reacted to his leg and his sudden disappearance at the end of the conversation.
"I don't think so," Suga admitted. "We have to find him."
The team shared a worried look before nodding.
Takeda and Ukai weren't there that day. Ukai had to run the store every other Saturday and Takeda was busy with teacher stuff.
Which left just the boys and the two managers.
As usual in situations like these, Daichi took the lead.
"Kageyama, you know the path Hinata takes to school, don't you."
Kageyama nodded.
"Good, you'll lead the way. Suga, did he say anything that might help us find him?"
Suga mentally rewinded the conversation. "He fell through the guard rail on the side of the road. It'll probably be broken."
Daichi nodded.
"Come on then, everyone. Let's find him!"
~
Together, the team set off in search of their friend.
Kageyama led the way, slowly taking them away from town and into the mountains.
It was cold, and the snow was picking up, making it harder to see. Everyone kept their eyes trained on the guard rail, looking for a place where it was broken or showed signs of a collision.
They were walking for almost forty minutes when Yamaguchi spotted it. The guard rail was bent and broken.
"Over here!" The green haired boy called, scanning the area below for his friend.
The snow had already covered up any tracks he might have made, and the drop was steep.
"Do you see him?" Yachi asked, looking over the rail as well.
"No. Do you?" Yamaguchi asked hopefully.
Yachi shook her head.
Together, they turned to the rest of the team.
No one seemed to have seen the orange haired boy.
Kageyama pulled out his phone, dialling Hinata's number.
They waited in complete silence.
"I think I hear something." Ennoshita said softly.
Without warning, he stepped past the broken rail and began carefully picking his way down the hill.
He had made it a couple feet when the call went through to answering machine.
"Call again." The second year instructed.
Kageyama did as he was told.
Tanaka and Noya shared a look before following Ennoshita.
Daichi was the next to follow. Then Sugawara and Kiyoko.
The rest stayed up top, making sure that Hinata's phone kept ringing.
Suga looked carefully at everything, but there wasn't much evidence of a fall here. If it weren't for the broken rail, he never would've thought anything was out of place.
As they moved, Suga started to pick up on what Ennoshita was hearing. The ringing noise was definitely from a phone.
They got closer and closer until Ennoshita froze.
He swore under his breath.
"What is it?" Noya demanded, stepping past Ennoshita.
He froze for a moment before dashing forward.
"Shoyo!"
Suga blinked. Noya sounded panicked. Tanaka was frozen next to Ennoshita.
What had happened?
He sped up, moving past the second years.
His breath caught in his throat.
"Oh, God." His voice was barely a whisper.
He rushed to Hinata's side, kneeling in the snow across from Nishinoya.
"Hinata!" He called.
It was no use. The boy was unconscious.
This was way worse than he imagined.
His lips were starting to look purplish, and he was shaking violently. There was blood in his hair, stemming from a cut on his head.
His jacket was ripped and torn, and there were smaller cuts and bruises all over his body.
Suga had expected all that. He'd been run off the road, after all.
But his leg.
His left leg must have gotten caught in his bike on the way down. It was still tangled into the mess of metal that had once been a bicycle. But...
It hung at the most wrong angle possible, bone sticking out from a huge gash.
Blood covered the snow all around him, turning it bright red.
Suga stared. And stared. And continued to stare.
Because what else could he do?
For once, Sugawara had no idea what to do.
His underclassman - his friend - was injured. Badly. He was freezing. He was bleeding out. And Suga had no idea what to do!
And then there was a hand on his shoulder. He blinked, turning to find Daichi beside him.
"It's fine, Suga. He'll be okay."
Suga doubted that. How could he possibly be okay? But something about Daichi's tone relaxed him, anyway.
"We... we should call an ambulance." Suga stammered, his brain finally starting to recover from the initial shock.
Daichi nodded, then frowned.
"The nearest EMS station is on the far side of Miyagi. It'll take at least twenty minutes for them to get here."
"He's freezing!" Noya argued. "He doesn't have twenty minutes!"
Ennoshita frowned. "He can take my coat. I still have my jacket on underneath, anyway."
Daichi nodded. "Some of the others have extra coats, too. If we borrow some, we should be able to keep him warm until paramedics arrive."
Ennoshita nodded, already shedding his coat. He handed it to Noya before glancing at Tanaka and Kiyoko.
"We should go up and tell the others we've found him. We can also see if they have any coats or anything we can use."
Suga noticed at Ennoshita's comment that Hinata's phone was still ringing.
Kiyoko and Tanaka nodded and the three started climbing back up the side of the mountain.
Daichi pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'll call 911. You two keep an eye on him. If he wakes up, try not to let him fall asleep again."
Suga and Noya nodded.
Daichi stood up, walking a few paces away as he raised his phone to his ear.
Suga looked back over to Hinata as Noya rested Ennoshita's coat over him. The libero looked about ready to take off his own coat for the boy, as well.
"Nishinoya, no." Suga said sharply, knowing full well that Noya only had a t-shirt on underneath.
"But Suga, he's freezing! He needs all the warmth he can get," Noya argued.
"It won't do us any good to have two people freezing to death out here." Suga told him firmly. "Keep your coat on."
Noya glared at the snow in front of him. "I can't just do nothing!"
His voice cracked the tiniest bit at the end of the sentence, and Suga noticed a tear rolling down his cheek.
He frowned, reaching across Hinata to put a hand on Noya's shoulder.
"Nishinoya, there's nothing we can do right now. We found him. That's already better than nothing. Now we have to wait for the professionals. You know perfectly well that, if he was awake, Hinata wouldn't let you give him your coat."
"But he's not awake," Noya tried.
"Noya," Suga warned.
Noya frowned, once again glaring at the ground.
When he looked up again, Suga's heart cracked a bit.
Noya looked more like a kid than he ever had before. Not because of his height, but because of the expression on his face. The sad, pleading look in his eyes.
"Shoyo... he'll be okay, right?"
Suga frowned, glancing at Hinata.
He didn't know. So he stayed silent.
Noya let out a quiet sob, grabbing Hinata's hand.
Suga's frown deepened. Noya and Tanaka had always been particularly close with Hinata. And he knew they were the type of upperclassmen to look out for their juniors, no matter what.
Honestly, they were all like that. In the end, the volleyball team was a family.
And Hinata was their little brother. So seeing him like this...
Suga looked away to hide a few tears of his own.
Ennoshita, Tanaka and Kiyoko returned, this time with Kageyama with them.
"He wouldn't stay put." Ennoshita explained quietly while Kageyama stared, wide eyed, at his friend.
Suga nodded while Tanaka moved over next to Noya. His arms were full of coats, jackets, a hat and a pair of mits. They all worked together to make sure Hinata was almost completey covered, only his head and his injured leg showing through the makeshift blankets. Tanaka shoved the hat onto his head over top of orange curls while Noya and Suga each slid a glove onto one of his hands.
Kageyama finally seemed to break out of his trance, silently coming over to sit beside Suga. He grabbed Hinata's hand, not saying anything as he glared at the snow.
Suga put a hand on the younger boy's shoulder, and Kageyama glanced up at him.
"I should've known something was wrong." Kageyama muttered, more to himself.
"You couldn't have known," Suga assured, trying for a comforting voice, even though he was still panicking inside.
Daichi walked over to the group, apparently done with his call.
"The paramedics are on their way. There's nothing we can do now but wait."
The others nodded.
Daichi glanced at Suga. "I should go up and make sure the ambulance knows where to stop. Have you got it covered down here?"
Suga nodded, so Daichi started making his way back up the side of the mountain.
~
Daichi clutched his phone with a white knuckled grip, climbing up the mountain.
The sight of Hinata - lying there unconscious, his leg twisted into his bike - was burned into his brain.
Would he make it? He looked way too still, the only sign he was even alive was the violent shivering.
He was bleeding a lot, as was made obvious by the red staining in the snow. How much blood could a person lose before it became fatal? He still seemed to be bleeding when he saw him.
A pit of dread hung in his stomach, as it had since they'd first found him.
Yes, he had decided to come up to the road in order to wait for the ambulance. But more than that, he left because he couldn't bare to see his teammate like that.
Hinata, who was always so full of life, looking like he was on the brink of death.
He felt rather selfish, leaving Suga to look after him and the others, who were all taking it just as bad as he was, but he couldn't do it.
So he climbed up to the road, where the rest of the team was waiting. Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Yachi, Narita, Kinoshita and Asahi.
Yachi spotted him first, waving him over. Asahi helped him up through the gap in the guard rail.
"Is he- Is he alright?" Yachi stammered, glancing back down the hill. "Ennoshita said he was unconscious, and Tanaka told us he was really cold, but that's all they would say."
Daichi frowned, wondering what to tell them. What could he say to explain Hinata's situation without making them all panic.
"He's... his leg is injured... pretty badly. I, er, I called an ambulance, so they should be here soon."
"An ambulance?" Yamaguchi asked nervously. "Is it that bad?"
Daichi just frowned, looking away.
He didn't want to. He shouldn't. He was their captain. He was supposed to be calm and confident.
But how could anyone be either of those things in a situation like this. He certainly couldn't. Not when Hinata was bleeding out. Not when he wasn't sure if he'd even make it out of this.
He sighed, resigning himself to wait for the ambulance to arrive.
~
Yachi Hitoka was no stranger to being worried.
In fact, she was probably worried more often than she wasn't.
She worried about her grades, and her mom, and the volleyball team, and whether or not she was a good manager, and about what everyone else thought of her.
But in the end, she didn't think she'd ever been as worried as she was right now.
She was so worried that her brain was acting differently then her normal worrying.
Instead of spiralling off into a million different ways that everything could go wrong, Yachi's brain was completely silent.
She didn't know what to think.
She knew that Hinata had been late to practice, which was weird, but not exactly concerning all on its own.
She knew that Hinata hadn't been answering his phone, which was more worrying, because Hinata always answered his phone.
She knew that Hinata called Sugawara an hour into practice, and that something bad had happened.
And now, she knew it was bad enough for Daichi to call an ambulance.
But she didn't actually know what was wrong with Hinata. What exactly had happened? Why couldn't they just take him to the hospital themselves? Why did he need to go in the first place?
Okay, maybe her brain wasn't completely silent. Maybe it was still spiralling off, just in a less subtle way.
Nevertheless, Yachi was extremely worried.
But she couldn't find the words to ask. And Daichi didn't seem like he wanted to answer, anyway. So she kept her mouth shut, letting herself worry.
~
Yamaguchi Tadashi had never had many friends.
As a kid, he was bullied a lot. And no one wanted to be seen around the bullied kid, for fear that they'd be bullied, too.
But then Tsuki appeared.
And for the longest time, Tsuki had been the only friend Yamaguchi needed.
Yes, he could be rude sometimes, but Yamaguchi knew he never meant it. It was just the way he was.
And then, they arrived at Karasuno. The volleyball team had become Yamaguchi's friends.
Despite being close with basically all of them, his closest friend on the team - besides Tsuki, of course - was definitely Hinata.
The boy had a way of befriending everyone he came across. He was kind and enthusiastic and you couldn't help but like him.
So how could something like this happen?
Just yesterday, they were practicing together. Hinata had even complimented his serve. Well, Hinata complimented everyone from time to time, but it still felt nice.
So what had happened?
Yamaguchi knew what had happened. He'd been run off the road.
Why?
Why Hinata, of all people?
Yamaguchi didn't know. He'd probably never know.
He could only hope that he'd be okay.
~
Tsukishima glared down the hill where his teammates had gone to find Hinata.
He'd figured something was off when he didn't show up to practice.
Hinata could be an idiot, but he was never late.
But he wasn't expecting this. He figured maybe he was sick, or that he had something else to do that he hadn't told them about.
But this.
He didn't quite know what to make of the situation just yet.
It was certainly annoying. They were supposed to be practicing, after all. They had a tournament coming up.
But - though he would never admit it out loud - he was worried about Hinata.
He wasn't an idiot. If Daichi called an ambulance, it had to be serious. And if the way the captain was acting was any clue, it was really bad.
And if Hinata was seriously injured...
He was a vital member of the team. Without him, they couldn't win.
He tried to tell himself that was the only reason he cared, because he refused to accept that he actually considered Hinata to be a friend.
Friend or not, Hinata was injured. And there was nothing he could do.
He was half tempted to follow Kageyama down the hill and see what was happening for himself.
But he held back, settling for glaring at the hill as if it were its fault Hinata was hurt.
Maybe, in some ways, it was.
~
When Tanaka, Ennoshita and Kiyoko came back up the hill, asking for extras jackets, Kageyama hadn't wasted a second before demanding to know how Hinata was doing.
The three looked pale and nervous.
Ennoshita was the first to speak.
"He's unconscious." He muttered. "We won't be able to tell how he's doing until he's awake."
"He's freezing, though." Tanaka cut in. "So if anyone has an extra coat or anything..."
He trailed off, glancing back down the hill.
Kageyama's insides twisted. He could tell that something was wrong. They weren't telling them the whole story.
He unzipped his coat without a second thought, handing it to Tanaka. But when the group started heading back down the hill, Kageyama refused to stay up top, with nothing to do but wait.
Ennoshita, Tanaka and even Kiyoko - who usually barely spoke - all tried to make him stay, but he wouldn't. He had to see Hinata.
When he reached the bottom of the hill where Suga, Noya and Daichi were waiting, he almost wished he had listened.
Hinata was... he almost looked dead. And then he noticed he was shivering, so he had to be alive.
When he saw his leg, he almost felt like he might be sick. His eyes locked onto it and he found that he couldn't move.
His leg.
How would he jump? How would he run? How would he play with his leg like that?
How would he do anything?
Would he be okay?
No, how could anyone be okay with their leg like that...
But they would take him to a hospital, right? The doctors could fix it, couldn't they?
He blinked, realizing that the others had moved, sitting around Hinata and covering him with the coats.
He walked over, sitting down next to Suga and taking Hinata's hand.
He'll be okay, he told himself. He's too stubborn not to be.
But he couldn't convince himself.
He should've known. He should've known something was wrong when he didn't come to practice.
Suga rested a hand on his shoulder, offering some sort of reassurance. Kageyama barely heard it.
Daichi said something about an ambulance and going back up to wait.
Kageyama could only stare at Hinata, dread swirling in his stomach.
Hinata, who never ran from him, even when he acted like a dictator.
Hinata, who matched his sets every time.
Hinata, who trusted him one hundred percent, on and off the court.
He'd been Kageyama's first real friend. He was the reason he learned to be a team player. He was his partner - the second half to their legendary quick attack.
And now he was...
Kageyama scowled as his heart cracked.
Wake up, Dumbass. Wake up and tell me that this is all some stupid prank.
Just be okay. Please...
Thoughts swirled in Kageyama's head until a sound started to cut through. Quiet at first, but getting louder.
The loud, blaring sound that was unmistakably a siren.
~
When the paramedics arrived, things started to move extremely fast.
Hinata was whisked away on the ambulance, and the team was left on the hill, still trying to process everything that had happened.
Less than two hours ago, they were at practice. It was a normal Saturday morning.
So now what?
"We should call Ukai or Takeda." Daichi said after a moment. "They'll have Hinata's parent's contact information."
The team nodded.
"We should head to the hospital." Suga said.
Again, the team nodded.
But no one moved.
They finally had time to think. To process everything. It was a slow process, so no one did much.
Slowly, Nishinoya's mind started to clear.
He started to notice the things that had been pushed out of his mind since he saw Hinata, like that fact that it was still snowing heavily.
He was cold. And if he was cold with his coat, he could only imagine how cold the people who'd taken theirs off must be.
"Come on! We should get going, before we all freeze out here." He struggled to maintain his usual, cheerful tone.
But he had to. He had to smile, and joke, because that's who Nishinoya was.
He was the libero. The moral support.
Then again, Hinata had always been just as much moral support as he had, with his cheerful attitude.
And now he was...
No. No, no, no, he couldn't think like that.
He hadn't been there for Hinata, but he could still be there for his team.
"Come on! I wanna be there when Hinata wakes up!"
He ran a few paces ahead of everyone before turning to watch them start walking.
He ended up leading the way back down the mountain towards Miyagi, turning every so often to make sure everyone was still following.
When he was facing ahead, Noya would let his smile fall. He was worried.
Hinata had been pale, and frozen, and his leg...
He clenched his fists, pushing that image out of his mind for the time being.
Hinata would be fine. He had to be fine.
He forced another grin onto his face, turning around.
"Come on, hurry up! You guys are so slow!"
He watched the team speed up a bit, chuckling slightly before turning back around.
He wondered if the team knew he was acting.
They probably did.
Suga and Daichi definitely did. And Tanaka would know, since he knew Noya better than anyone.
The other second years had probably figured it out. And Tsukishima was probably smart enough to put it together.
Asahi knew Noya enough to know he would never be happy in a situation like this. And Kiyoko had probably figured it out as well.
Which just left the last three first years. Noya wasn't quite sure about them.
Yamaguchi and Yachi both looked too worried about Hinata to wonder about him. Kageyama was worried, too, though he'd probably never admit. Noya had seen him when he saw Hinata. He'd never seen Kageyama that upset, even when he was talking about his old teammates.
It probably (definitely) wasn't the right time, but Noya couldn't help a slight smirk at the thought of Kageyama's old teammates. Kageyama wasn't a dictator anymore, and Karasuno had proved that.
After his brief moment of pride for the first year, Noya's mind went back to Hinata, and his heart sunk all over again.
~
The team made it to the hospital. Daichi went up to the front desk and the lady there directed them to the proper waiting room.
And so they waited. Daichi left to call Ukai and tell him what happened. The rest of them just sat.
Tanaka had no idea why they were just sitting there. They couldn't do anything for Hinata in a waiting room.
They should be trying to find the bastard who ran him off.
Who runs a kid off the road and doesn't even stop to see if they're okay?
Tanaka was pissed. But behind that, he was worried sick.
Hinata was hurt. The first years were freaking out. Noya was pretending everything was fine, which really just made things worse. The third years were acting like someone died. And the other second years were coping by going completely silent, staring at the floor.
Daichi came back into the room after a couple minutes.
"Ukai's calling Hinata's mom." He reported.
The second the last word left his mouth, a door opened down the hall and a woman walked out.
"Family of Hinata Shoyo?"
She looked worried. Tanaka frowned as he stood up with the rest of the team.
Daichi took a step forward. "Not family. We're friends."
The nurse frowned. "He's in surgery now, I really need to get into contact with his parents."
Daichi glanced at his phone which lit up, as if on cue.
He opened it, scanning the screen.
"His mom is out of town. The railway is closed down for repairs for the day. She won't be able to come home until tomorrow at the earliest."
"And his father?" The nurse asked.
Suga shook his head. "He's not around."
Tanaka blinked.
"I can ask Ukai for his mom's contact information." Daichi told the nurse.
The nurse nodded and Daichi typed out a message.
There were a few moments of deafening silence before Ukai texted back. Daichi passed the number along to the nurse, and then they were left alone again.
"What do you mean, his dad's not around?" Tanaka asked Suga as they sat back down.
"He told me earlier, when he called." Suga explained. "I asked if him parents were home. I figured they'd find him faster than we could."
Tanaka frowned, processing that.
After all, there wasn't much else he could do but sit and think.
Tanaka didn't like thinking all that much - a fact that was reflected in his grades at school.
Tanaka liked doing.
But there wasn't much left to do.
So he sat.
And he waited.
And he thought.
~
Time passed by painfully slowly. Minutes crept into hours. Ukai arrived in the waiting room after a while, asking what had happened.
The third years filled him in, and then the waiting continued.
The room was silent save for the sounds of breathing and a clock ticking away in the corner.
And then, finally, a doctor came out.
"For Hinata Shoyo?"
The team stood up in unison.
"He's out of surgery," the doctor reported.
His face was an unreadable mask. Suga and Daichi shared a look.
"Is he... is he okay?"
"He is stable, and he is in no immediate risk. However..."
~
Hinata started to wake up, but his eyes remained closed.
He tried to process where he was.
He was lying on some sort of bed. There was a loud, intrusive beeping filling the room.
Slowly, he opened his eyes, looking around.
"Hinata!"
He blinked, noticing the group of people around him. It was Nishinoya who had shouted, but they were all there. The whole team.
He looked around.
"Wha... where am I?"
The last thing he remembered was biking to practice that morning, and then...
His eyes widened. Memories flew back and it clicked.
This was a hospital.
He looked down to find a tube stuck into his wrist and a clamp on his finger.
The beeping sped up.
"Hinata, breathe." Suga interrupted his panic.
He took a deep breath.
Then another.
"How much do you remember?" Daichi asked.
Hinata frowned. "I... I was on my way to practice. Someone ran me off. I rolled down the side of the mountain for a bit, then I blacked out."
Something nagged a his mind. "No, there was more. I... I called someone? Maybe?
Suga nodded. "You called me."
Hinata nodded. Then he remembered something else.
"My leg! What happened to my leg?"
He couldn't feel it. Had they numbed it? For the pain, maybe? It had been extremely painful.
He noticed the way the team looked anywhere but him, glaring at the ground or at the wall.
"Guys? What happened to my leg?"
Kageyama's fists clenched. Yachi looked like she was about to cry.
Daichi and Suga shared a look but stayed silent.
Hinata looked between them, frustrated.
If they wouldn't tell him, he'd see for himself.
He grabbed the blanket covering him, tugging it to the side.
"Hinata, wait!"
Too late.
Hinata's eyes were wide. His face went paper white. The heart monitor sped up, faster and faster.
He wanted to scream, but it got caught in his throat. Instead, what came out was a broken sound somewhere between a sob and a cry, too quiet to be either of them.
He clasped his hands over his mouth, as if he could shove the sound back in.
His lungs started to close up.
He heard voices shouting, but they were far away.
"Shoyo!"
He blinked. The use of his first name seemed to drag him back to reality. The team was crowded around his bed, looking panicked.
"Hinata, breathe." Daichi told him firmly.
He took a breath. It hurt, but he did it anyway.
He took another.
"It's okay. You're gonna be fine." Suga assured shakily.
No, he wasn't. Hinata was most certainly not going to be fine. How could he be?
"I... I won't be able to play..." he stammered, still staring.
Kageyama pushed his way in front of him. "Of course you will! We'll find a way."
Hinata hoped. He really did.
But it seemed impossible.
After all, how could he play volleyball with an amputated leg?