A/N There is a fight this chapter, like fists. Also a description of suffocation feeling (air knocked out of lungs). Just so you're warned.

Apparently Hinata didn't say anything to Iwaizumi or Oikawa about the argument they'd had, because the two didn't berate him about anything or get mad at him, which was good because the last thing he needed was something else going wrong.

If one more thing happened, Tobio was pretty sure he was going to explode in one way or another. As a third year he was now a senpai to everyone else on the volleyball team, but he found it was impossible to deal with any of them most of the time.

Kageyama couldn't focus on them, could hardly look at them without clenching his fists. Something about nearly everyone on the team just seemed to hit every single one of his nerves. These were nerves he didn't even know he'd had before now if he was being honest.

All they had to do was make one mistake, cast one wrong side glance and Kageyama felt like he was going to lose it.

He was pretty sure feeling that way wasn't normal. He'd never felt so irritated as a first or even second year. And no one else on the team ever seemed to be bothered, so Tobio felt bothered enough for all of them.

If he was being honest, not liking the first, second, or third years made it a little hard to play.

But he played as he liked anyway, just as he usually did, ignoring the fact that staring at his team made his blood boil. "Kindaichi, go faster, and you first years! Why the hell are you just standing around, you should be practicing!" Kageyama snapped, glaring at them.

While Kindaichi gave him a scrutinizing look, the first years scrambled to do what they were told.

"Do you ever think that maybe you could be a little nicer." Kindaichi said, rolling his eyes, his jaw set.

Kageyama gritted his teeth, not seeing how that mattered. Oikawa would treat him like crap when he was here, and no one had even noticed. So why was everyone zeroing in when Kageyama got a little snappish?

Yelling was the only way he got anyone to listen to him anyway. Whenever he asked nicely no one paid attention to him, which admittedly made him even angrier. "Just go faster." Kageyama repeated instead of responding.

All that mattered anyway was one more win, not playing nice. Success was all his parents cared about anyway, even if he was fairly sure they only cared when it came to his studies that he'd been letting slip for a while now.

They didn't even matter anyway, Kageyama had decided what he was going to do with his life. Play volleyball. And after school became impossible to focus on, he'd mostly given up on it. There was no point in slaving over something he wouldn't need.

He just threw away the report cards, and his mother was absent minded enough to forget to check emails until late at night. So he pretended to be his parents and lied about being too busy to talk about grades and after he sent the email, deleted the messages.

He didn't see why the school was so upset anyway. His grades were no worse than Kindaichi's, and even that guy managed to pass.

The truth would probably come out eventually, but Kageyama was too focused to care.

The only thing that really mattered to him anymore was volleyball, even if he did occasionally respond to Iwaizumi's messages and stare at the conversations written on his arms.

Those things were just what he did in his free time, along with doing his homework at times.

Kageyama hadn't paid attention to his arms in a long time. He hadn't needed to considering how much closer he, Oikawa, and Iwaizumi had gotten. He hadn't even thought of doing it until recently when he had no one else important in his life besides them and his parents.

Tobio hadn't realized until after they split up, but Hinata had taken up a lot of Kageyama's time. Not that he minded, because he really wanted to apologize for what he said and keep spending that time with Hinata.

He never sent a text though, because he'd promised to get his feelings under control before he apologized and at the moment he could feel his emotions spiraling out of control more than ever.

And he had no idea how to stop it either.

After getting home from practice and climbing the stares to his room, Kageyama Leaned back against the pillows on his bed, holding up his arms to see the little bit of writing Oikawa and Iwaizumi had done lately. They didn't talk about much through the soulbond. Usually something random like a pipe dream.

Sometimes it was about him though, and sometimes it wasn't even bad. Sometimes if he looked at the words hard enough, he could even pretend they actually kind of liked him

Iwa-chaaaan~ guess what

What

I'm thinking about something right now.

Shocker

Kageyama snorted even if he didn't mean to and then instantly scolded himself. He was supposed to be angry and upset and overwhelmed at everything at the moment and for some reason, feeling some sort of joy in the midst of that felt wrong somehow.

Mean! If you're mean, I'm not gonna tell you what I'm thinking!

Fine, what're you thinking.

Tobio-chan is cute.

Kageyama felt his heart skip a beat.

Alright? And?

And?! And he's cute! What do you think would happen if I pinched his cheeks.

I think he'd bite your hand off.

No he wouldn't! Tobio-chan isn't mean like you!

Kageyama actually considered the question for a moment. What would he do? He couldn't be sure unless it happened. What he did know was that he wasn't opposed to the idea, which was something.

Kageyama decided it would be best to pull down his sleeves and get to work on his homework. Winter was moving incredibly fast already and he didn't want to have a completely horrible grade by the end of the semester.

It was almost his birthday too. He'd be fourteen, wouldn't he.

Time sure was moving fast.

The thought of his birthday coming up wasn't as exciting as it had been last year.

Last year, Hinata had been there to make him look forward to his birthday.

This year just reminded him of all the things he'd thrown away for absolutely nothing.

As time passed Kageyama continued to go to school, answer emails, and play volleyball, pushing for the win even if his teammates didn't want it as badly.

"Kageyama-san," a first year started, and only when Kageyama was standing next to him, looking down did he realize how much he'd grown in the last few years.

"Yes?" Kageyama tried to keep his voice interested, although by the boy's long pause he assumed he'd failed.

"Uhh, can you teach me how to set like you?"

Kageyama was fairly certain that very few people could set like him, considering he was apparently a genius, but he saw no reason why he couldn't help improve the other boy's skill.

"Hey," Kindaichi's loud voice rang across the gym, almost making Kageyama cringe, "you should ask the second year setter. He'd be more willing to help."

Kageyama gritted his teeth and glared, "I'm perfectly capable of helping!"

Kindaichi rolled his eyes, "You'll just get mad and start yelling at him when he can't get it right the first time. Kid's better off with the second year."

"I will not get mad and start yelling!"

"Right, because you're totally not yelling right now." Kunimi chimed in.

"I'm only yelling because he's being annoying right now! He," Kageyama pointed at the first year, "came to me for help, not the second years so obviously I'm the one he wants help from, which makes sense since the only one working on this fucking team is me!"

Kindaichi narrowed his eyes, "Listen here you asshole, I don't know what you're on, but we are all working! Some of us just don't spend our every waking moment on the court because some of us have lives! Got it? So shut the fuck up, you have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Well you have no idea what you're talking about. I spend everyday working my ass off because I want to be the best! And I'd be perfectly willing to help any of you if you actually wanted it!" Kageyama's chest was pounding with fury and the only thing he could see was red.

Kindaichi grabbed his collar and pulled him up so Kageyama was almost on his tip-toes because while he had grown, Kindaichi was still quite a bit taller. "We don't want your kind of help, you fucking tyrant!"

Normally, Kageyama would back down now. Normally, he wouldn't have even gone this far. But now he knew what fighting felt like. He knew what it felt like to stand up when someone was fighting with him, and he wasn't ever going to back down after discovering what it felt like.

He wasn't ever going to let Kindaichi win when he knew this was worth fighting for.

And he would never be ignored either.

Kageyama shoved Kindaichi and would have punched him if Kindaichi hadn't recovered quickly and body slammed him into the ground.

The moment Tobio's back hit the gym floor breath rushed out from his lungs leaving him gasping on the floor, unable to breathe or move.

All of a sudden it felt like he was dying. He couldn't breathe. All he could was gasp in short breaths even though it was like no air was entering his lungs.

He couldn't breathe.

It didn't help that Kindaichi was staring at him like he was actually dying. The older boy backed off of him, still staring wide-eyed, and a few seconds later he could finally breathe again. Tobio took large gasps of air, tears in the corners of his eyes from the sudden complete lack of oxygen. He knew it had to have only been a few seconds but it felt like he'd been unable to breathe for three years.

Kageyama sat up, still breathing a bit heavily, both boys staring at each other and both a little surprised themselves at what had just happened. As angry as Kageyama ever got, even screaming at someone had at one point unthinkable, the prospect of trying to hit anyone even more foreign to him.

Everyone in the gym had tried to ignore the argument to the best of their abilities, although the first years looked a bit shaken.

As everyone was processing the event that had just occurred, the coach walked in and stared at Kageyama on the floor and then at Kindaichi standing a few feet away from him. "Is… everything alright in here?" the broad-shouldered man asked cautiously.

Kindaichi and Kageyama both looked at each other before they both slowly nodded. No one else in the gym said absolutely anything either and practice continued as normal for the most part.

Even if there was still unmistakable tension in the air.

After that incident things only started to get worse.

The change was unnoticeable at first, but in a couple weeks everyone in the club had nicknamed him "King of the Court" or "King" for short.

At first he hadn't really minded or paid attention because he was focused on volleyball and not failing the semester. Not to mention that after all the yelling and fights his parents had been speaking to each other less and less which was somehow even more unsettling.

It took him two weeks to realize the name had a negative connotation, and it took him two more to realize what the name was doing to his image (or lack thereof to be precise).

Kageyama had gone from no one taking notice of him to everyone staring at him, whispering, and laughing too.

Kageyama just tried to ignore it and focus on volleyball which at some point, because of the people in the gym, had ceased to be a safe haven where he could hide from his problems.

If everyone at school was bad his team was definitely the worst. They called him that name whenever they got the chance, and it was their new comeback for anything he asked them to do.

It was frustrating, but Kageyama surged forward regardless as he always did, and played to win as he always did.

He soon learned Kunimi had been the one to start spreading the name around the club and eventually the school. It was annoying he'd done such a thing if only because it inconvenienced him.

The rumors and nickname were of no such concern to him, and he kept his sights on what he wanted because everything else was spiraling out of control and the ball in his hands was all he had left.

Volleyball was all he had left.

It was the only thing he trusted to never leave him.

When Kageyama returned home on Monday, he walked inside to see his mother on the couch.

He knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Tobio, I need to talk to you about something." She murmured before he had even shut the door.

"Um… yes?"

"Come sit down. This is important."

Tobio slowly shut the door and took off his shoes before inching his way over to the couch and sitting beside his mother. He wasn't sure what exactly she had to talk to him about but he was sure it was nothing good.

"I got an email from the school today," she paused as Tobio's heart dropped even though he tried to keep his face neutral. His mother seemed to be trying to see his reaction to her statement and considering she continued she'd probably gotten it. "It was interesting to say the least. When exactly were you planning on telling us your grades were slipping?"

Never. "It must've slipped my mind." He tried his best to look sheepish and not outright terrified.

"Well that part of the email wasn't good, you'll need to correct that. However, there was something even more interesting. The email talked about how they knew we as your parents were busy but that the school would appreciate if we could come in this time. Do you know what that phrasing implies, Tobio?"

Kageyama knew exactly what it implied but he played dumb anyway even if there was no point in doing so. She had caught him in the middle of a lie.

"It implies that they've asked us to discuss your grades more than once, although I didn't see anymore emails regarding the subject. I certainly wouldn't have deleted an email from your school, and your father doesn't even look at the emails and there's only one other person in this house. Do you know who that is?" during the conversation her eyes had turned sharp and the last question was certainly accusatory and not at all rhetorical.

"Um… me?" Kageyama murmured hesitantly.

Her eyes narrowed further, "Yes, you. So tell me, have you been deleting emails from your school about your grades and telling them we're busy."

"I have…" Kageyama admitted, seeing no easy way out or any way out at all really.

"Why." His mother asked shortly.

"Because I didn't want you to see them." Kageyama admitted. "I wanted to get my grades up before you realized I was… um, struggling."

"Well then why exactly did you let them fall in the first place?"

Because Kageyama hadn't been able to sit still and focus on school work in a long time. Any time his body wasn't moving his mind was racing with a million things that had nothing to do with what he was supposed to be doing.

There was only one thing he had been able to focus on all this time.

He couldn't focus on school, relationships, tasks that required more than a few minutes of concentration, and everything in between.

Kageyama could probably come up with a million excuses but he decided it wouldn't hurt to just tell his mother the truth. "I can't focus." Kageyama didn't say anything else but his mother's constant stare on him prompted him to say a bit more, "I keep reading the same paragraph over and over but never really digest any of the words. Like I'm reading it but not comprehending what it's saying. And when I try to do math I just stare at the problem and my mind keeps wandering like I'm always distracted even though there's nothing distracting!" If Kageyama was being honest school was the least of his worries. He couldn't even text back a simple 'good' when Iwaizumi asked about his day anymore, and he was honestly more worried about damaging any of his other relationships than his failing grades.

"Hmm," his mother said as if she were thinking though he knew she'd already made up her mind before they even started talking, "well we'll meet with the school and talk about it more. And I'll talk to your father about you keeping this from us."

Kageyama was definitely not looking forward to that.

To say the least, his father was unhappy and after a long, loud lecture about responsibility and honesty, Kageyama was promptly grounded until his grades improved. He was forbidden from practicing volleyball outside of actual practice, he was forbidden to go out with friends, and his phone was taken as well.

Kageyama was almost glad for the last one because he had an excuse not to text Iwaizumi back. One that didn't make him feel like a horrible person.

The grounding wasn't good, especially not for his final year of middle school, but Kageyama took it as an opportunity to practice even harder at the gym than ever before which made watching his teammates not work as hard as him even more irritating than usual.

The nickname grew even more popular at school as weeks went by, and even the people who didn't talk to anyone knew what he was called. Kageyama still ignored it, and plowed ahead with more force than ever, never looking back because at this point that was all he could do.

At this point, volleyball was the only thing he really had left.

Tobio held onto it with all his strength and he had no plans of ever letting go.

A/N Welp, here you have filler number one. I think number two will be more interesting as I want to include Oikawa and Iwaizumi, but this one was still important overall to the developement of finishing this arc. Also, some of Kageyama's emotions come from my experience lol. Once I was out in the yard doing a hand stand, fell flat on my back, and got the air knocked out of me (It really does feel like you're dying), and once, when I thought my family was going to move it felt like my life was falling apart so when I was playing soccer with my team and was laughing and joking with them it felt almost wrong because I was supposed to be unhappy lol. Also updates may be a little slower (a chapter every 1-2 weeks) because life's been a little rough.

Okay, so, there you go, hope you enjoyed, reviews always appreciated!