Mentions of physical abuse and they're locked in a storage closet.

"Did you really have to invite him here, Iwa-chan?" Oikawa whined, crossing his arms.

"Be nice." Was all Iwaizumi said in response and Oikawa rolled his eyes.

"He's just going to spy on me to try and learn my serve." Oikawa turned to Tobio. "But guess what Tobio-chan, I'm not letting you see it!" Oikawa stuck out his tongue.

"Kageyama wanted to get in some extra practice, and so did you, inviting him to practice in the gym with us was the best solution I could come up with and it's a win for everyone."

"Hmph, I guess so, but don't think you can just drop by Seijoh whenever you want, Tobio-chan!"

Kageyama ignored him. "Do you want to practice your spikes? I could set to you Iwaizumi-san."

Oikawa spluttered as Iwaizumi agreed. "You can toss the ball, Oikawa-san." Tobio added.

Kageyama could tell Oikawa didn't like the new development, but if he'd wanted Tobio to play nice he shouldn't have greeted him by complaining.

"Fine, but we switch after ten." Oikawa grumbled.

Kageyama agreed after a moment of contemplation, and then their extra practice begun.

Kageyama had been doing extra practice a lot more lately after club, and the more he did so, the more the gap between him and his teammates became apparent.

He hadn't wanted to admit that he might be a genius at volleyball, simply because Oikawa seemed to hate the term, but as more evidence presented itself, Kageyama couldn't really say the older boy was wrong anymore.

It still bothered him how different he was, though.

Made him angry.

Kageyama wasn't ready to admit that to anyone but himself yet.

"Okay, time to switch!" Oikawa suddenly called out triumphantly.

Kageyama hadn't even been keeping count, but leave it to Oikawa to care too much about something.

Tobio switched out with Oikawa and started tossing the ball.

They practiced for another hour or so until Iwaizumi said it was best to clean up and go home.

Kageyama agreed that it was getting a little late, and he did have homework to do, and he was pretty sure his parents would have his head if he simply stopped doing school work.

He still wasn't thrilled to return home however, never knowing what he was walking into.

Kageyama had never gone into the storage part of the gym, where the nets and volleyballs went while cleaning up. He didn't like the thought of being inside a space like that.

A small place, where the door could close and lock, trapping him inside complete darkness with no way of escape.

"Tobio chan, carry the net in here okay, then we'll be done." Oikawa said, wheeling a cart of balls inside the storage area.

Kageyama didn't really want to, but he figured it would be okay. He'd only go in there for a second and then he'd be out of there. Besides, the door would be open the whole time.

So, he carried the net inside, tripping over something in the door way, but Kageyama ignored it and focused on carrying the net to a good place in storage so he could get out of there as fast as possible.

Oikawa rolled the cart into place and turned to walk out while Kageyama set the net down. For some reason though, the older boy's face showed shock and then panic within a few seconds after he turned around.

Kageyama turned too, to see what was wrong and saw the storage door slowly swinging shut.

Tobio's heart leapt into his throat at the sight, but there was nothing he could do except stand there as the door to the storage room shut and locked with a click.

Kageyama was faintly aware that Oikawa shouted something, and there was loud banging, but it sounded far away, and Kageyama couldn't see anything in the pitch black closet.

"Tobio-chan, say something!" Oikawa demanded.

Kageyama tried, but the words came out as a strangled whine.

After a moment of complete silence, a bright light flashed on inside the darkness, blinding him.

Not that Kageyama minded much. Anything was better than feeling the darkness close in around him, suffocating him until he couldn't breathe or speak at all.

"Tobio-chan, look at me."

Kageyama's eyes wandered up to find Oikawa's brown eyes staring back at him, face cast in shadows and in the unbearably bright light, he almost looked like a ghost. "Tobio-chan, what happened. Do you know why the door closed?"

"I-I don't know. I tripped over something." Kageyama tried to hold back tears, feeling a little better now that there was some light.

"Ugh, it must've been the door stopper. That thing is there for a reason, you know."

Kageyama didn't want to tell Oikawa he'd been scared and ignored whatever he'd tripped over in favor of hurrying to get out of there, which ironically had caused him to be trapped, so he didn't say anything about that.

"I'm sorry, Oikawa-san…"

"It's fine." Oikawa sighed. "Iwa-chan is going to find a key to get us out of here. We'll get out soon, don't worry."

Kageyama relaxed a little, knowing someone was out there who knew they were in here and was working to get them out. It didn't make him feel any less stupid though.

"Tobio-chan, do you have your phone too?"

"No, I didn't grab it out of my bag." Kageyama murmured.

"Shit!" Oikawa hissed. "My phone's almost out of battery." Oikawa paused like he was reading something off the small screen. "Dammit, Iwa-chan." Oikawa turned back to Tobio and gave him a small smile, "Iwa-chan's taking his damn time, that's for sure."

"Yeah…"

Everything in the storage room went silent until Oikawa's voice filled the room, "So, Tobio-chan, still scared of the dark ~?" Kageyama heard the teasing tone in his voice and knew there must be a smirk on the other boy's face even though his back was turned and Tobio couldn't see him.

Kageyama rolled his eyes. Leave Oikawa to give him peace and then rip it away just as quickly.

"Yeah, I guess so." Kageyama said through gritted teeth, unsure why Oikawa was even bringing that up.

"Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I just mean…" Oikawa paused, and finally turned to face him instead of the door. "I'm just wondering why you're scared. Some people don't like it cus they can't see and stuff. When I was little I always thought there were things hovering above me as a slept, and I just couldn't see them because it was pitch black."

"That's stupid." Kageyama said.

"What! You're scared of the dark too, and you're thirteen! I was seven, so you have no room to talk!" Oikawa screeched.

Kageyama rolled his eyes, "Well your reason is stupid. It's ridiculous to think there's something watching you while you sleep. Monsters aren't real."

"Do you not understand the concept of time? I know that now, dummy."

Kageyama felt Oikawa's hand pop on the back of his head and Kageyama fell silent.

"What about you, Tobio-chan? What's got you so scared?"

"It's dumb." Kageyama said quickly, trying to brush off the question. He was perfectly aware that being afraid of the dark, especially at his age, for any reason was completely stupid.

"I bet it's not as dumb as you think."

"I just… I was in the dark a lot… when I was a kid."

"You still are a kid," Oikawa snickered and Kageyama glared at him and rolled his eyes.

"So are you!"

"Did I ever say I wasn't?"

Kageyama didn't want to answer that, so he didn't.

"Why didn't you just turn on the light or something? Or like did you have terrible eyesight when you were younger and now you hate not being able to see?"

"You are so stupid." Kageyama muttered.

"How is that stupid! I'm just wondering, and it's not like you're saying anything!"

"Well if you're so smart then you should know that when people don't say anything it usually means they don't want to!"

"Why don't you want to? Are we talking literally or figuratively here. Like you were literally in the dark a lot or you felt lost and 'in the dark'."

"This is real life, not Language class. If I felt lost I would say so," Kageyama snapped.

"So literally then?" Oikawa asked with a smirk.

"I will punch you." Kageyama said dryly.

"Aw, don't be like that Tobio-chan. Tell you what, what if I tell you something that happened to me, and if it's anything like what happened to you, then you'll share?"

"We'll see."

"Okay then… I guess that's as good an answer as I'm going to get."

"It is. Now tell you're story so I can tell you it's nothing like what happened to me."

"Quick to judge, aren't we?" Oikawa said with a smirk. Kageyama gave him an impatient look, waiting to get this over with.

Oikawa gave a small laugh and then sighed, "Fine, but where to start…"

"At the beginning."

Oikawa ignored him, "Okay, well, I was about maybe eight or nine. I know I had my soulmark when it happened. I also know my mom and dad were still together at the time, even though things were getting kind of complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"Mom and dad were just fighting a lot. It was complicated." Oikawa shrugged dismissively, "Anyway, I remember it was one night and I was up later than I should've been. Mom had already gone to bed and my dad was out." Oikawa sat down on the floor and Tobio followed suit before the older boy continued. "I… I dropped a glass of water on the floor like an idiot, and it broke. I wondered if my mom would wake up, but she didn't, and I didn't want to bother her. She had been really tired lately."

Kageyama tried to remember back to when he'd met Oikawa's mother and honestly couldn't imagine her being tired. She was so energetic, all smiles and laughs. He couldn't help but feel like Oikawa's mom and the description 'tired' didn't really fit together.

Kageyama was pulled out of his pondering when Oikawa continued, "I also knew that my mom told me not to pick up glass and to let her deal with it."

Oikawa sighed, "I didn't want to wake her up, and I figured she'd just see it in the morning, so I went to bed."

"That was dumb."

"I was nine, shut up. We all make stupid mistakes at nine. And don't interrupt, it's rude! Anyway, moving on," Oikawa huffed and rolled his eyes, "I completely forgot about my dad."

Kageyama was pretty sure he somewhat knew where this was going.

"He came home, didn't turn on the lights, didn't see the glass, and stepped on it. Of course he'd taken off his shoes at the door way, so he only had socks for protection, which was basically useless."

Oikawa paused after that and Kageyama scooted closer, slowly moving his hand over and resting it on top of Oikawa's. He wasn't sure why he did as Kageyama wasn't very tuned into his emotions, or anyone else's really, but he could somehow tell this was a hard story for the older boy to tell him. And Oikawa didn't snatch his hand away, so Kageyama kept his hand there in an attempt to comfort him. "Um, anyway he got… angry. And, he started screaming, which woke me up, and it woke my mom up, and… god, I was so stupid." He snorted humorlessly, "I was so, so stupid…" And even though it had been five or six years ago, Kageyama could tell that the memory was still fresh in Oikawa's mind. "Anyway, my mom went downstairs, but I stayed in my room because I was pretty sure I knew what he was screaming about and… and I was scared." He took a deep breath, "There was a lot of shouting, and eventually I heard my dad coming up the stairs. I could tell because his footsteps were heavy, even with glass wedged in his feet. And I knew he was so mad. He threw my door open so hard it hit the wall and almost slammed back shut."

Oikawa took another deep breath, and let it shutter out when he exhaled. "He asked me if I was the one who broke the glass. My mom was already telling him she'd broken it and was going to get something to clean it up when he got in. I… was scared, and selfish, and I pretended I'd been asleep for hours." Oikawa's breath shuddered. "So he slammed my door shut and… I couldn't get it open." Oikawa choked on the word 'open'.

At the beginning of Oikawa's story, Kageyama had only been half listening, but now, he couldn't stop, even though he was scared to hear what would happen next.

"I didn't sleep. There was lots of shouting, and… loud sounds, but I didn't see anything. My mom unlocked the door the next morning, and she had bruises. I could see them on her neck, just barely when her collar dipped and I knew she must have them elsewhere."

Oikawa was breathing deeply, and sniffed, letting out another choked sound from the back of his throat.. The light on Oikawa's phone was still on, keeping the room illuminated, but Kageyama couldn't see Oikawa's face even though he desperately want to. Kageyama wanted to know what he was supposed to say to this.

"Oikawa-san… did that happen," Kageyama swallowed, "a lot?"

"Yeah. I mean, not exactly like that, he didn't always need a reason… and it wasn't always my mom."

"I'm so sorry… I don't…" Kageyama trailed off, because he had absolutely nothing to say. That night in Oikawa's room, when Iwaizumi said he thought Oikawa was projecting, Tobio had no idea what that meant.

Now he had a small picture.

And despite himself he wasn't sure if he wanted to make it any bigger.

"You don't have to say anything Tobio-chan. But… but will you tell me what happened to you now? That's why I shared that story in the first place."

"I mean," Kageyama paused, "it's nothing much." Nothing compared to all that.

"Well if it's nothing, you'll have no problem telling me."

Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows, still not wanting to say, but figured it was at least appropriate now considering what Oikawa had told him. "They locked me up too, sometimes. But-but not for that. My dad doesn't…"

"Hit you, choke you, slap you."

"No." Kageyama choked out.

"But they do other things."

"Sometimes. But it's not like that. It's not that."

"Abuse?"

Kageyama nodded and then realized maybe Oikawa couldn't see him, so he added, "Yeah."

At that moment, Oikawa's phone light went out, plunging the room back into complete darkness, making Kageyama's gut twist. He didn't want to say anything more, but judging by the way Oikawa wasn't cussing because the light went out, he was still waiting for Tobio to say something. "They don't um... they don't hit me. Or each other." Kageyama whispered, tightening his grasp on Oikawa's hand to ground himself and not let his imagination run wild in the dark.

Oikawa sighed, and told him something Kageyama had never heard in his entire life. "It's not just about the hitting."

"I don't understand… what do you mean?"

"I mean, abuse, isn't just hitting. It's the things no one really talks about. Not in mainstream media, not even between your friends and family. It's also about the control, the manipulation, the humiliation, degradation. It's about the yelling, and the threats, the throwing, and making you think you deserve it all. It's about thinking it's all normal. You know other families aren't like yours, but you don't realize just how different they are. Sometimes I think you never really know how different. Maybe not until you have a family of your own. Maybe not even then."

"Oikawa-san, are you telling me this for a reason?" Kageyama asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"I'm gonna be honest, it's because I saw signs of abuse. Things in you, that were apart of me too… at least at some point, things that might still be apart of me. And I was curious. Iwa-chan said not to pry, and I wasn't going to, but now we're trapped in here, alone, and I mean what better time than now."

"I guess so. It's just, Oikawa-san, I haven't been abused. I've never had any of that stuff happen. They just yell at me sometimes."

Kageyama couldn't see Oikawa's face, but he could feel the energy of the room change, and somehow it felt even more serious. "Have they ever made you feel horrible for wanting something? Just completely sorry you ever asked? Do they judge you a lot? Do they dismiss your feelings, tell you that you can't feel certain emotions. Are they controlling? Kageyama, no offense, but you don't have a lot of interests."

"Volleyball is all I need. And studying." Kageyama answered bluntly.

"But don't you ever do anything else? Watch TV, read books that aren't for school? Anything?"

"Sometimes." Kageyama shrugged. "I have been more than usual. It's getting better. My parents got me a phone, they said I can go out with my friends which is how I'm even here, and they let me rejoin volleyball. Papa even apologized to me."

"Just cus they apologize doesn't mean anything. That's what they always do, but it keeps happening."

"But it's not happening. Papa hasn't yelled at me in a long time but… but he and mama are fighting a lot now. Papa's always yelling at her, and mama doesn't yell but the way she talks to him is how she yells."

Kageyama's mother didn't yell, that just wasn't like her. She did, however, say things that didn't need to be yelled to hurt. "I love them." Was that wrong? If Kageyama was being abused and hadn't even known it, he should hate them. Shouldn't he?

"That's okay." Oikawa murmured. "If you love them I mean. It's okay if you hate them too. I say that to my mom a lot, that I hate my dad. And she always just responds that he's the only dad I'll ever have. And I know that I just… that doesn't mean anything to me. And I don't know what she wants it to mean."

Kageyama understood why Oikawa hated his father. Kageyama had only heard one story about the man and he hated him too.

"She still doesn't call it abuse. She's always complaining about all the things he ever did to us, all the shit he put us through, but she never once called it abuse. And… and sometimes that bothers me."

Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows, "Why?"

"She's the only other person who lived through it. She's the only person who will ever truly know exactly how it felt to live in the same house as my dad. And when she doesn't call it abuse, I wonder if that's what really happened, or if I'm blowing everything out of proportion, and her and dad and I just didn't get along."

"But he even hit you. How doesn't she call that abuse? How doesn't she know?"

"She knows, she just doesn't connect the two things. And I hate her for making me doubt that. I mean, I love her, but I hate when she does that."

"Your mom… she's so nice to me. She's so different from mama. I never would've guessed that she… or that you," Kageyama trailed off.

"I know. People usually don't. We're good at pretending everything is normal. We were good just the two of us, and we were even better when he was still around. He was good too." Oikawa said. "One look and you never would've guessed. Even a thorough examination you never would've guessed. Sometimes I still wonder how he was so normal. How he quelled his rage when others were watching but let it spiral out of control on the people he was supposed to love the most."

Kageyama didn't know what to say to that either. It was obvious Oikawa had a lot of time to think about this, and Kageyama was just starting to realize and he had no idea how to feel about the whole thing.

"Oikawa-san, am I not good at pretending? Do you think other people know?" Kageyama asked nervously. He had a feeling more people getting involved wouldn't be a good thing. Despite everything Oikawa was saying, Kageyama didn't want anything to change. If his parents stopped fighting everything would be completely perfect.

But he didn't want anything that he'd gotten to slip away either.

"You aren't bad. I'm just observant. Sad thing is you don't have to be good. Normal people just won't see. You could tell them so much shit, but they really won't say much of anything. You only hear the gasps when you tell them they hit you. Isn't that kind of funny?"

Not really. "I guess so."

Oikawa snorted and then fell silent before saying, "You know, this doesn't change anything between us."

Kageyama almost groaned, because of course Oikawa had to say shit like that, "You say that, but is that because it's true or because you're trying to convince yourself it is?"

"Shut up, Tobio-chan," Oikawa rolled his eyes.

Kageyama sighed, "So um… now that you know, what's gonna happen?"

"I mean, nothing, I guess. Do you want something to happen?"

"No," Kageyama denied quickly.

"Well… if you ever need someone, just text me."

Kageyama gave a small smirk, "Will you even respond."

"Only if it's something important." Oikawa grumbled, nudging Tobio with his elbow, but there was a smile in his voice.

Kageyama giggled, "And you won't tell anyone, right?"

"Not unless you want me too or your life's in danger."

Kageyama smiled and curled his fingers until they were interlocked with Oikawa's.

It felt nice, he supposed, to have someone else know. He still had a lot he wanted to talk about, had a lot of questions and had no idea how to even begin working out his feelings on the subject, but he was also exhausted and wanted to go to sleep.

Kageyama hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until he was startled awake by a screeching sound.

Kageyama's head bolted upright, having had it rested on Oikawa's shoulder, and the light from the door made him instantly look away until his eyes adjusted and he saw Iwaizumi standing with the door open.

Kageyama's memories came flooding back to him in that moment as Oikawa leapt up from his spot on the floor. "Iwa-chan!" Oikawa bolted up to the other boy, basically throwing himself on top of him.

Iwaizumi's deep laugh reverberated in his ears. "Tooru, calm down." He turned to look at Kageyama, "You guys okay."

Kageyama nodded, slowly standing while Oikawa said, "We're fine, Iwa-chan~."

"You weren't mean to him, right?"

"I'm never mean!" Oikawa lifted his nose in the air.

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow as if he didn't believe the other boy, and honestly, Kageyama didn't blame him. He thought back to all the conversations he had alone with Oikawa and definitely took note of how mean he could be.

"He wasn't mean this time." Kageyama said, because it was true. He never really knew how conversations were going to go when he first started them with Oikawa because apparently they could range anywhere from unpleasant to comforting.

"Well, I'm glad we got that solved, but we should probably get going, it's going to be dark soon."

Kageyama nodded in agreement and walked out of the storage room too before Iwaizumi let the door shut behind them.

His bag was by the gym entrance where he'd left it and Kageyama jogged over to it and pulled out his phone.

Mama: Where are you?

That text was from thirty minutes ago and Kageyama figured he'd better reply or she'd surely be upset with him when he got home.

Kageyama: Sorry, mama, I stayed late practicing but I'm coming home now.

Kageyama didn't get an immediate reply so he shoved the phone back in his bag and followed Iwaizumi and Oikawa out of the gym to head home.

He had a lot to think about, things he didn't necessarily want to share with anyone else, which left only Oikawa who he normally would've been against talking to about such a matter, but the older boy seemed serious about this.

Which he should be, but still.

It would only be a matter of time before Iwaizumi found out too, either from him or from an emotional outburst Oikawa had, and Kageyama wasn't look forward to that conversation either way.

Kageyama liked Iwaizumi, and he was far nicer to him than Oikawa usually was, but he was also pretty sure he wouldn't get the same kind of understanding. Unlike Oikawa, he might have questions which Kageyama couldn't answer because he didn't know himself.

Neither Oikawa nor Iwaizumi would ever truly know what it felt like, just as Oikawa had said, but at this point Kageyama wasn't even sure what it felt like.

But he was working towards figuring out, and hopefully Oikawa could help him along the way.

A/N I had this whole big thing planned out but then I was like ewww too much, and then I tried to say a ton again, but I no, I didn't like that either. Then I got rid of a lot, cus I figured now that I introduced this I have time to say something else later. Also, I loved all your guys' petnames XD

Also I didn't edit my edits if that makes sense so I hope it turned out ok T-T

Thanks so much for reading! Reviews always appreciated!