Warning: Blood (from minor injuries)

As months passed, Oikawa and Kageyama's relationship didn't improve much. They avoided each other as much as possible, even as Iwaizumi tried to get them closer.

He felt bad, ignoring Iwaizumi, as his senpai always tried to be nice to him, and protect him from Oikawa. It always made him feel so warm when Iwaizumi tried, and ignoring him was much harder than he thought it would be.

Oikawa didn't come up to him with his annoying 'Tobio-chan' anymore. Kageyama hadn't realized how tired he was of that until it stopped.

His parents never found out about volleyball either, so at least Oikawa had been good for something. He didn't even remember how many lies he was keeping at this point, but he remembered three big lies he could never tell anyone.

1. He was playing volleyball against his parents wishes.

2. He heard that conversation between Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

3. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were his soulmates.

He'd done well in keeping those three secrets, and lying his way out of everything. He didn't get as many looks for wearing long-sleeves because it was cold out now. The temperatures dropped rapidly and every day, Tobio woke up wondering if it had snowed.

It hadn't though, much to his disappointment. Snow was one of his favorite things about winter, and maybe it would make winter break go a little faster because so far, he'd been stuck inside all day doing nothing but study and help his mom. There wasn't much else for him to do. He didn't have a phone, he could only get on the computer for school work, and he didn't exactly have any friends to go spend time with.

He could imagine all the things that Iwaizumi and Oikawa were doing that he was missing out on. Maybe they were playing games at the arcade, or getting coffee at some cool shop. Maybe they were having another sleepover, or watching a movie.

Kageyama wanted to have fun like that. Wanted to go somewhere outside his backyard, somewhere without his parents looking over his shoulder. He needed a break from this house, from his parents.

He didn't know what exactly went through his mind when he decided to go through with it, but from what he remembered, his head was pretty empty when he decided to crawl out his bedroom window.

That was why he also wasn't wearing a coat over his hoodie or shoes. What he'd done, he'd done on impulse and now he half regretted it and half didn't. He probably looked a little strange walking down the street without shoes, but he didn't really care about that. He eventually concluded that he shouldn't feel bad because this was better than being in his room at one o'clock miserable because of winter break.

He should have fun on his days off from school, like he knew normal kids did, but as things stood school was his favorite place to be, partly because it was one of the only places he was allowed to be.

Not sure where he was going, he just shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around the streets, peeking into the windows of random stores before moving on. People did give him looks, but Kageyama just ignored them.

He eventually decided to hang out at a park he walked passed, and sat on one of the benches, watching kids have fun playing on the swings and jungle gyms. The kids cleared out quickly though, all of them leaving, and soon the park was deserted except for himself.

Tobio remembered that those kids used to be him, before he started school. When he got to run around and play. He almost missed that. He knew he was too old for that now, but sometimes he still wished he could be that little kid again.

He didn't know how long he sat there, but long enough for his hands and feet to start growing numb. Suddenly, he was startled by a finger tapping his shoulder.

Kageyama whirled around to see a kid, probably no older than nine staring at him. He was small, wearing mittens and a hat, orange curls poking out of the bottom. "Hi." He said plainly and climbed over the top of the bench and made Tobio move so he could plop down beside him.

"Um… hi." New person bells were ringing in Tobio's head, warning him that this interaction was already a terrible idea. New people were unknown, weird, and made his anxiety spike.

"How come you aren't wearing shoes?" the boy pointed at his feet, grinning widely.

"I forgot them."

"Oh," the boy paused like he was thinking about something before continuing, "I forget things all the time. Like my lunch, and my math homework, and my pencil, and my gloves, and my coat, and sometimes I forget my sunglasses. I've never forgotten my shoes before though."

"That's a lot of stuff." Kageyama commented, just to have something to say.

"Yeah… I'm Hinata."

"I'm…" he wasn't supposed to talk to anyone outside his school, but then again he also wasn't supposed to sneak out, so he figured he might as well. "I'm Kageyama."

"Wanna play?"

Kageyama was about to refuse, saying that was a little kid thing but Hinata had already taken his hand and was dragging him over to the playground equipment.

"Wanna be pirates?" Hinata asked, grabbing hold of the ladder and using it to climb onto the structure.

"No."

"What about dragons? Or we could be cats and dogs. I call dog!"

"What do you mean?"

"Like you be a cat, and I'll be a dog. But you have to be higher than me cus cats are always climbing around on those thingies."

Kageyama was completely lost. "Why would I want to be a cat?"

"I don't know." Hinata said, shrugging. "We could play house. I'm the older brother. What are you?"

"Uh… I guess I'll be the younger brother?"

"Haha, that means you have to do what I say." Hinata ran up a flight of stairs while Kageyama tried to climb up the ladder.

"That's not how it works!" Kageyama shouted and huffed in annoyance.

"Yeah it is! I'm older."

"Well you're not older for real."

"Oh yeah? How old are you?" he grabbed a post on the jungle gym and started swaying on it and hanging on it.

"Twelve!"

"When's your birthday?"

"December."

"Hehe, you just turned twelve huh?"

"Yeah." Not that he'd had a celebration. Birthdays weren't a very special in his house. Why would he celebrate something as simple as his own birth anyway? He didn't judge other people having birthdays, but he did think it was a little self-centered. After all, most people weren't famous or anything. He didn't understand why you would celebrate your birth. You were just born, you didn't get to decide that, it wasn't your biggest accomplishment or anything. If anything he thought mothers and fathers should get a celebration on your birthday. They were the ones who brought a child into the world and raised them.

Maybe deep down he'd always wanted just one party, wanted to even just go to one. Because while they seemed silly and unnecessary to him, they also looked like a lot of fun. Tobio wouldn't mind experiencing one.

"Well guess what Kageyama-kun, I turned twelve in June. That means I'm older than you for reals too!"

"You're lying," Kageyama said bluntly, "you're not older than nine."

Hinata puffed his cheeks out and crossed his arms, pouting, "Just because I'm short doesn't mean I'm young."

"Fine, whatever. You still can't tell me what to do." Kageyama grumbled.

Hinata rolled his eyes, "Okay, well, I'm the big brother and I take care of you. This is our house," he hit the jungle gym for emphasis, "and it's super cold out so we have to gather food and huddle together for the winter."

"What food?"

"I have to find some. Stay here, I'll return with food." Hinata didn't even bother running down the stairs, he just jumped from the top and then jumped again without using the ladder down.

Kageyama watched Hinata run over to a woman and start talking to her. Hinata turned and pointed to Kageyama who instinctively lowered himself further so only his eyes popped out over the side of the jungle gym.

She handed Hinata something and the smaller boy came racing back over towards him. "Look Kageyama, we have food now!" Hinata exclaimed when he climbed back onto the jungle gym, holding up two granola bars triumphantly and handed one to Kageyama.

"Was that your mom?"

"I found these myself." Hinata insisted.

Kageyama almost rolled his eyes at the other boy's childishness but took the granola bar anyway. When they were finished Hinata shoved his wrapper into his pocket and so Tobio did the same.

"Let's play a new game now. Tag!" and the orange haired boy took off running and before Kageyama could overthink it, he started running in that direction after him.

He'd never played with another kid before.

He'd never played tag before.

He'd never had so much fun before.

"You're slow." Hinata taunted encouraging Kageyama to run faster, but the smaller boy was slick. He ducked under Tobio's arms and made him run around in circles to catch him.

Kageyama didn't know how long they played, but they didn't stop until Hinata's mother called him over. He went running off to her and Kageyama watched them talk before they both walked over to him. "Hey, Kageyama, is your mother around?" Hinata's mom asked.

"Yeah." Tobio lied, not wanting to explain to a stranger that he'd run away. "She's grocery shopping and she told me to wait here until she was done."

"Oh, okay." Hinata's mother looked relieved.

"Um… do you know what time it is?"

"Well it's nearly six. You two have been out here playing all day."

Tobio nodded, feeling dread in his stomach. He was supposed to be home before his father got home. His mother was much easier to handle. "Okay. I better go see if mama's almost done. Um… thank you for spending time with me." Tobio bowed slightly at the two of them.

"No problem." Hinata smiled, "Maybe we'll run into each other again."

"Maybe…"

He didn't want to admit it, but Kageyama hoped so. He waved to them as they left and then started the walk back home. His feet were cold and it would get dark in an hour or two so he better hurry.

Why did this keep happening to him?

Kageyama was walking so fast he wasn't watching where he was going, so he didn't see the crack until it was too late. He felt it the moment his toe hit the slight fissure in the concrete. He was falling and his toe was on fire.

Of course this would happen. Things never went well for him.

Kageyama threw his hands out to catch himself but still managed to scrape his nose and chin on the ground. Thankfully his head didn't hit the concrete though, that would've been the worst case scenario and a complete disaster.

When he saw the blood from the scrapes on his hands and saw blood dripping onto them from somewhere on his face he instantly felt tears start running down his face.

God the cuts hurt so bad, burned like fire just like his face and his toe was now a dull throb in the back of his head.

No one came to help him, however. They just stared for a moment before hurrying on, or not even looking at him at all.

He wished he had a phone right now too. He needed to convince his parents to get him one.

If you did what they said and not left your house like an idiot you wouldn't need a phone.

Kageyama ignored that meaner part of him and let out a small sob. He glanced around, hoping someone would help him, but they didn't. And he didn't see anyone he recognized either.

With nothing else he could do, Kageyama stood up on his own shaky legs, blood running down his knees and scrapes burning his elbows, blood still dripping down his face.

With the back of his hand he wiped his hand across his nose and brought away more blood.

Tobio instantly panicked. Why was their blood in his nose? Did the hit damage his nose in some way? What if he never smelled again. He heard smell affected taste too. What if he could never taste again? Was this permanent? His nose had never bled before, what if it just kept bleeding until he died?

He let out another small sob at the thought, and tried to wipe the blood away but every time he put his hand back there was more blood to wipe away.

Kageyama's thoughts and distress were interrupted by a familiar, "Tobio-chan?"

Tobio knew only one person called him that and he desperately wanted to tell him to go away but instead he did something far more drastic. He turned and flung himself on to Oikawa, instantly getting his shirt bloody.

"Oh my word ew. Tobio-chan is that blood?"

"Oikawa-san…"

"Just… ugh, well your hoodie is already bloody so just use that and plug your nose."

"But then how will I breathe?"

"Your mouth you moron."

Tobio pulled away slightly to be able to plug his nose with his hoodie, but with the other hand he still gripped on to Oikawa'a shirt. "Where's your mom?" Oikawa asked.

"I ran away. Or I mean… I snuck out."

Oikawa didn't say anything and Kageyama pulled away to look up at his expression. Oikawa was smirking, "Getting pretty rebellious, aren't we Tobio-chan?"

"Shut up."

"How about no." Oikawa's smirk widened and he was about to say something else but was cut off by Iwaizumi who snuck up and smacked him on the back.

"What the fuck did you do this time, Shittykawa." Iwaizumi bit out.

"Don't look at me. I found him like this."

"Found who like…" Iwaizumi's gaze turned to Tobio who had smears of blood over his clothes, including his pants which were clearly dotted with blood around his knees. "… well shit."

"Yeah… shit." Kageyama grumbled.

Oikawa rolled his eyes, "And you say I'm the bad influence. You're teaching Tobio-chan all kinds of words."

Iwaizumi flipped Oikawa off and bent down slightly so he was at Kageyama's height. "What happened?" he asked.

"I tripped and fell."

"Where are your shoes?" Oikawa asked, noticing that Tobio once again had shoeless feet.

"I forgot them."

Iwaizumi sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Alright," he said after a moment of thinking, "we'll go to my house. My dad isn't home right now anyway and it's close."

Kageyama nodded in understanding and turned to leave when he felt something wrap around his waist and lift him up, making his heart leap into his throat.

"Is he heavy, Iwa-chan?"

Iwaizumi ignored Oikawa and said to Tobio, "You shouldn't be walking around without shoes all the time, Kageyama. Especially since it's winter now, and you're fucking freezing."

"I can walk myself."

Did he really want to though? "No. I'm carrying you, it's not even that far, remember?" Iwaizumi adjusted Kageyama until they were both comfortable, with Tobio's arms wrapped around Iwaizumi's neck and his head resting on the other boy's shoulder. His elbows, knees, and chin still felt like they were on fire, and burning against him, but they didn't hurt as much as they first had. Now he could feel the pain numbing with each passing moment.

Oikawa making funny faces when Iwaizumi talked definitely wasn't part of why the pain faded to the back of his mind.

"Shittykawa, are you making fun of me? I can feel Kageyama laughing." Iwaizumi growled.

"Iwa-chan of course not. I'd never do something like that ever~."

Iwaizumi grumbled about how he definitely would and Oikawa made funny faces for those grumbles too. Tobio made sure not to laugh this time.

Maybe he fell asleep at one point during the walk because one moment they were walking and the next he opened his eyes when hearing a door open.

Kageyama was disoriented for a moment, rubbing his eyes to get rid of the remaining drowsiness he had. He felt someone taking off his socks and then setting him down on the floor.

When Iwaizumi's face entered his vision he finally remembered where he was and what was happening to him.

Kageyama took a quick glance around and noticed that the house was a lot cleaner than Oikawa's, but it was also a little smaller, and didn't appear to have a second story.

Iwaizumi guided Tobio into the bathroom, where he rolled up Tobio's sweat pants and cleaned his scrapes, before putting bandaids over them. His nose had stopped bleeding a while ago and he could still smell, so it must not have been that big an injury. That helped calm him down a bit.

"Hey, Kageyama." Iwaizumi started.

Tobio shot his head up to look at Iwaizumi, "I'm gonna get you some of my clothes to wear so you can wash your bloody ones."

"Oh yeah…" Kageyama had forgotten about his bloody clothes.

"When your parents come I doubt they'd like to find you looking like you've murdered someone."

Kageyama agreed that would not be good and waited in the bathroom for Iwaizumi to grab him some clothes.

He was going to be in so much trouble when he got home. He couldn't even imagine what his parents would be like. This was the worst thing he'd ever done because it was intentionally rebellious. Tobio didn't know why he was surprised, he knew he would get caught, he knew he shouldn't have snuck out the moment he'd done it. This was a complete disaster.

But admittedly he'd had a good day. Despite falling and getting so many scrapes and bruises, Kageyama enjoyed the day. It had been the best day of his winter break by far, and considering how he'd snuck out it would be the last good day of his winter break.

Kageyama sighed and only looked up from his lap when Iwaizumi set the clothes down beside him then closed the bathroom door when he left.

Kageyama was glad to see a long-sleeved sweatshirt and some shorts he could tighten with the string. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to awkwardly explain why he couldn't wear short sleeves. That would've been difficult to lie about. He also wasn't sure if Iwaizumi and Oikawa had written on his arms lately because he'd sworn off from reading their conversation. But if they had that would be even worse.

He stripped off his dirty clothes quickly and then when he was changed into Iwaizumi's large sweatshirt that smelled like his shampoo, picked up his bloodied clothes and went out.

He peered around the corner to the front of the house and into the living room where Iwaizumi and Oikawa were lazily spread out on the couch.

Kageyama lurked in the corner and just watched them for a moment, feeling that horrible urge to want to join them once again. To want to cuddle in between them and just be apart of their soulmate bond. He'd decided not to talk to them again, and in fact this was the first time they'd been together in month, the first time they'd even had a proper conversation. And Kageyama couldn't ruin his resolution of not talking to them by going back to his old ways now. Not because of this one incident. Not when he'd held out for so long.

Tobio took a deep breath and walked into the living room, telling himself to hold strong.

"Um… I'm done."

Iwaizumi sat up from the couch and looked at him before giving him a small smile, "Alright, Kageyama, I'll take those and put them in the wash, you can go sit down."

Holding himself back from asking to help, he nodded and sat on the couch with Oikawa, as far back as he could manage. "I don't bite Tobio-chan." Oikawa taunted after Iwaizumi left, smirking.

"I know."

Oikawa hummed at his response with that grin still on his face, "Don't tell me you're still butthurt I called you out for lying to your parents."

"No! That's not it!" Kageyama protested immediately.

"Then why've you been avoiding me? And not just me, Iwaizumi."

"I thought you didn't like me, shouldn't you be happy?"

Oikawa fell silent for a moment and crawled over a little closer before saying, "You're cuter without a bunch of blood on your face."

If Oikawa was good at something other than playing volleyball and being an asshole it was dodging questions. He noticed Oikawa also had a new shirt on when he got closer.

Kageyama scowled and said, "You'd be cute too if you weren't such an asshole all the time."

Some sadistic part of him enjoyed Oikawa's mouth dropping open. The other part of him noticed his soulmate's beautiful, smooth, pink lips and the first part punched that second part.

Kageyama was left with his heart racing anyway, and he felt his face heat up at his horrible thoughts. He didn't know why he zeroed in on Oikawa's lips anyway. Especially during a conversation like this.

They were interrupted then, by Iwaizumi coming back in the room, "You know your parents number right?" he asked.

"Yes." Kageyama nodded and figured he should probably use his mother's number. He couldn't imagine calling his father right now. Tobio took Iwaizumi's offered phone and dialed the number.

Four rings later he heard his mother's voice. It sounded even more tired than usual and instantly Kageyama's guilt doubled. Since he wasn't there to deal with his father, he knew his mother was dealing with him. "Mama…" silence on the other end.

"Tobio. Where are you?"

"I'm at one of my classmates houses. He's my… I mean, he used to be my teammate."

He saw Iwaizumi raise and eyebrow at that but Kageyama kept plowing on anyway , "Can you come pick me up?"

"Your father isn't happy." Is what she said instead of answering his question.

He knew they were both thinking the same thing. That if his father couldn't control his temper he couldn't know where Tobio was. Kageyama would be so embarrassed if Iwaizumi and Oikawa caught his father acting like that. He knew deep down his mother would be embarrassed too. "What's the address?" She asked softly.

Iwaizumi told him when prompted and he relayed the information to his mother. "I'll be there in ten minutes. Be ready to leave."

When he hung up the phone he turned to Iwaizumi, "What about my clothes?"

"We'll just return each other's clothes when school starts back up, okay? Let's not worry about it."

Kageyama nodded and they sat there for a few minutes before Oikawa snatched Iwaizumi's phone. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Tobio was a little annoyed too. He'd been enjoying the silence.

"Well I don't have a phone." Oikawa said as if that answered everything.

"And what do you need my damn phone for?"

"I'm going to make you confess to a girl."

"I don't have any girls in my phone except my mom. You gonna send a confession to my mom?"

"Then I guess one of our teammates is going to get a heartfelt confession from you~."

Iwaizumi glared and Oikawa caved, admitting, "Fine, I'm looking for music but your taste is trash."

"You're trash!"

"Rude Iwa-chan." Oikawa pouted and kept scrolling. Iwaizumi went to say something else but Oikawa cut him off, "Ooo, this is actually a good one."

"You suck."

Oikawa hit the song anyway and blasted the phones speakers up to one hundred percent.

"This is the trashiest song I have."

"Oh shut up. It's good."

It took Tobio's mother an hour to actually appear at the door and by that time Oikawa had dragged them both into a dance battle somehow.

Iwaizumi turned off the music and went to open the door, Tobio following closely behind him.

His mother stood in the doorway and she gave Kageyama a small smile. "Let's go home, Tobio. But thank the nice boys that helped you."

Kageyama turned and bowed, "Thank you for helping me!"

"It was no problem." Iwaizumi said and smiled at them. Oikawa was obviously scrutinizing his mother in the background. Kageyama wished he could've said more but before he could even think of what to say his mother grabbed his arm and dragged him off towards the car.

Kageyama couldn't see his mother's face but just the grip on his arm told him she was upset.

Tobio couldn't remember a day where he'd had so much fun like this, but he knew that fun would cost him a lot. Kageyama wasn't sure he cared at this point.

A/N This would've been out sooner, but the first version of this chapter I despised so I had to rewrite the entire thing XD anyway, here we have minimal parent interaction, saviors Oikawa and Iwaizumi (Kinda) and adorable baby Hinata (I love him). Oh yeah, and I was editing this in the middle of my zoom class (oop-) but it's probably fine. Reviews very much appreciated ;)