Don't chapter 4
Hinata looked at himself in the mirror. Just like he thought, there was a big purple/blueish bruise just below his right ribs. Stretching or moving his upper body hurt less than last night, but it still stained. Touching it was defiantly out of the question.
Hinata had left as early as possible for morning practice. Now he had the clubroom all by himself, so he could change his shirt without any of his teammates seeing his bruise. Hinata already felt enough of shame by knowing what had happened, he was sure he couldn't handle it if his whole team knew how weak he was.
He heard the door of the clubroom open and he quickly let his shirt fall down again. He was pretty sure it was Suga and Daichi talking about upcoming practice.
Yeah, upcoming practice, Hinata really wasn't looking forward to that. He wasn't sure if he could spike a ball. Why did he even come in the first place?
Oh yeah, 'cause everyone would find it weird if skipped practice out of the blue. Calling in sick wouldn't work, 'cause the school would only accept it from a parent, and he didn't want to bother his dad after last night.
And Hinata defiantly didn't want to ask his mother to do it.
Still, he had no idea how he was gonna move and jump and spike and do all the other thing he usually did on a regular bases with the same energy and ugh. This was impossible. Someone was going to notice.
And that someone was probably Kageyama, 'cause that stupid person just always seemed on high alert for when ever Hinata was about to fail at something. It was as if the setter had sensors scanning for Hinata's mistakes. Could he not stay on the restroom forever? Yeah, not really a realistic option. Hinata took a deep breath and decided to just face it.
Later on he regretted that decision. The warming up was fine, Hinata could still run, although it did sting here and there, but he was pretty sure that no one really noticed something.
Then they started to practice receives. Why did the world hate him so much? They could have done everything, but not receives. Hinata was already pretty bad at them, but lowering his body in the right position just sucked and then actually receiving the ball was just straight hell.
But since everyone was used to his infamous bad receiving skills, no one really called him out on his. Besides that, Hinata was pretty sure that everyone — especially the third years- were being extra considerate with him after they found out about his mother. That had exactly been the thing Hinata hadn't wanted, but now it kind of came in handy.
Daichi wanted to end practice with a practice match, and like always making the teams was a bit off a thing. Of course Suga and Kageyama were both in different teams, since they were the only setters. However, when Nishinoya and Tanaka heard they were in different teams, they clang to each other as if one of them was going to die.
"I don't think I can live in a world where Ryuu and me are not in the same team." Nishinoya cried out. Daichi was having none of it and soon the two were seperated. Nishinoya looked content again when Asahi joined his side. Normally Hinata would giggle at his teammates shenanigans, he would have joined and yelled in what team he wanted to be.
Today he didn't. For once, he hoped not to be on a team with Kageyama. Everyone expected the best from him when he was with Kageyama, including the setter himself. Hinata was sure he wouldn't be able to do their infamous quick right now.
For once, the world seemed mercifull and he was placed at a team with Sugawara, Nishinoya, Asahi, Kinoshita and Narita.
Hinata started in the front row. He tried to ignore the stinging pain whenever he jumped, but it got worse and worse.
Same was to say about his performance. Of all the balls that Suga has tossed towards him, two had been blocked by Tsukkishima and Kageyama — to Hinata's annoyance, why did it have to be those two — the one that got trough was easily received by Daichi.
If anyone noticed, no one said a thing.
Soon enough Hinata was rotated towards the back where it was his time to serve.
This all sucked. Volleyball had always been his safe space, the one thing he was good at. He had never been good at school — and had not any intention to better that — and since a few weeks he was also letting his family down.
At the Aoba Josai match it had been his spike that got blocked. That had been the reason the team lost. He knew it wasn't that black and white, it was a team sport, every player was as much important and responsible for the outcome of a match.
But it felt as his fault. So after that match Hinata had sworn to get better, to practice more, so next time his spike wouldn't get blocked.
Now he was not getting any better, only worse.
He needed to be better, for everyone. Mostly for himself though.
With all his willpower Hinata served the ball and miraculously it didn't hit any of his teammates on the head, but went over the net towards the other side of the court.
Yamaguchi received it and Kageyama tossed it towards Tanaka. The moment he spiked, Suga and Asahi both jumped and were able to touch the ball. It broke it's fast pace, however it now flew towards Hinata.
"One touch." Suga screamed and it was like Hinata woke up. He could feel the firing burning in himself. He was going to give everything right now. Just to prove that he could still play volleyball.
He had to receive this ball.
However, the course of the ball went a bit right, Hinata knew he wouldn't get it with a normal receive, it would be too far out of his reach.
Without thinking he dove — something he didn't do a lot 'cause he was terrible at it. However, this time Hinata did it without thinking.
Wrong decision.
Yes, he did get the ball back in the air — something he was sure surprised everyone. Suga immediately took opportunity of this, tossed the ball to Asahi, who in his turn took a great swing and spiked the ball right between Daichi and Yamaguchi.
Hinata however wasn't paying attention towards the match anymore. He just lay there, both of his hands covering his stomach.
The moment he had hit the ground a sting went through his body. It was if all air was punched out of his lungs and Hinata gasped for air.
The moment the ball had hit the other side of the court, his teammates noted that something was wrong. Hinata knew he had to pick himself up soon, show to everyone that he was okay, but he couldn't.
"Hinata!?"
"Shoyo!"
"Hinata-kun!"
His teammates had shouted out his name, while running towards him. Suga — being already on his side of the court — was first one to get to him.
Hinata tried to swipe away the tears forming in his eyes. Why did he have to cry all the time?
"Hinata-kun, are you alright?" Suga-said, a slight worry in his tone.
Hinata tried to sit up, Suga and Asahi immediately helping him. The pain in his stomach wasn't going away and it made it hard to move.
By now, everyone had reached him and they were all staring at him as if he was some nearly extinct animal in the zoo. It was overwhelming.
"Hinata, are you okay? What happened?" Daichi had, as captain, pushed everyone — except for Suga of course — aside and sat down next to him.
Hinata tried to put a smile on his face.
"Don't worry, it's fine!" He lied. "The ball just went like whooo and I wanted to get to it by diving. I guess I'm not that good at it yet so I landed wrongly on my stomach!"
This seemed to ease everyone up.
"Don't just do stuff you can't do. Dumbass." Kageyama said grumpy.
"Yeah, you should be careful Hinata, we can't have you injured right before a training camp." The captain said with a serious voice. Hinata laughed it away.
"I am sorry! I will be more careful next time!" He said while scratching the back of his head. He tried to ignore the pain and kept grinning.
"It's okay. You think you can keep playing?" Suga asked.
Hinata was in doubt. He did want to keep playing the match, he wanted to show everyone was okay, however the stinging pain in his stomach didn't seem to leave.
"I think I just need to sit down for a while." That seemed to spark Daichi's and Suga's attention, 'cause they gave each other 'the look' (the one where the both knew what the other was thinking, without having to say anything to each other, in Hinata's opinion, it was just creepy).
"Well, of course, let's go back to the clubroom okay? The rest can continue with the practice match." Suga said, while giving Daichi a nod.
Daichi clapped in his hands. "You heard Suga, let's get back to court!"
Hinata stood up leaning on Suga — he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to if he hadn't had his senpai's help. However, once standing up, he let go of Suga. His pride made him walk on his own towards the club room.
For a second he wondered how they were gonna continue the practice match, since they were one setter down with Suga accompanying him, but the pain of his stomach pushed all the other thoughts away.
Hinata plopped down on one of the benches in the clubroom and let his head rest against the wall. He closed the eyes and concentrated on the pain. Yesterday it had subdued in just a few minutes, letting a dull continues sting in his place. Now the pain didn't seem to leave.
"Do you want to drink some water?" Suga said. Hinata hadn't even noticed the other boy getting a glass of water for him, but the moment he was opening his eyes Suga had one in his hands. When did he even had the time to get one.
It was as if his senpai could teleport Hinata thought. Suga-san was awesome.
He gratefully accepted the glass and chucked half of it. The moment he was done, Suga took the glass back and started talking.
"Is it okay if I look at your stomach? It seems to really hurt you,"
Hinata wasn't sure what to answer. It didn't feel okay to let Suga see his stomach. Hinata was supposed to hide it, however if he refused Suga would know something was wrong. In the end Hinata decided he preferred the latter.
"I am sure that is unnecessary, I am fine. I guess I am just not used to dive! Really, I don't want to keep you from practice, you can go back!"
Suga was having none of it. His eyebrows raised a bit (just like a mother when her kid lied to her).
"I don't mind missing a bit of practice, don't tell the others, but I needed a bit of a break to." Suga said while winking. Hinata was sure that was an absolute lie, just to make him feel better.
"Now, I just want to take one quick look at it, just to make sure everything is okay. I promise it will be fine." Suga slowly gravitated both his hands towards Hinata T-shirt.
Hinata felt panic arise. His muscles tighted and he felt his heart pumping his chest. Suga was gonna lift his shirt and he was going to see his bruise. Suga was smart and would see that the bruise was to old to be from diving just now. A feeling of shame crept in him. There were only four words repeating in his head: Suga was gonna know.
Suga was gonna know.
He was gonna see his bruise and know.
Without really thinking about it, Hinata pushed his senpai's hands away.
"No. Don't!" He squeaked. He unconsciously pushed his body as far away from Suga as possible — but hit the wall with his back quite soon — and covered his body with both of his arms as if he needed to protect it.
Suga was — of course — surprised by Hinata's reaction. Not that Hinata himself wasn't surprised.
"Okay, Hinata, I won't do anything you don't want to. I promise." Suga put both his hands up and pushed himself a bit backwards, giving Hinata his space.
Hinata gave his senpai a quick look in the eye, before looking away. His head felt like it could blow up any second, he was sure he was completely red and he could feel the shame of his actions creep trough his body.
Did he really just push a senpai? To make matters worse, it wasn't any senpai, it was Suga. The kindest en softest person in the world. Hinata was a horrible person.
The look on Suga's face only made it worse. As if Hinata was a scared animal.
He did feel a bit like a scared animal though.
Suga didn't say anything, giving him the time to collect his own thoughts. Again Hinata shut his eyes and let his head rest against the wall behind him. He tried to calm down a bit, letting the feeling of panic leave his body.
How was he going to explain this to Suga? He couldn't tell the truth. Well, there was one thing he could start with.
"I am sorry, Suga-san! I hadn't meant to be rude." He said after opening his eyes again. Suga's look had changed back to his normal friendly look, the boy had shifted from kneeling to sitting on his but, with his legs crossed. He smiled, although Hinata could see the worry in his eyes.
"You don't have to apologize about anything Hinata, I shouldn't do something you don't want to. Actually I am the one in need to apologize."
"No, it's Okay, don't worry about it!" Hinata squeaked.
"I guess that calls us even then?" Suga said with a wink. "So how is the pain?"
The weird thing was, with the panic and everything else, Hinata had almost forgotten about that part. Now to think about it, the pain had subdued a bit. He still wouldn't be able to practice though.
"It's getting better, thank you!"
Suga nodded. "That's good to hear."
Again a bit of silence fell, Hinata wasn't sure if he was supposed to say anything. He knew Suga would probably want an explanation, but Hinata didn't know how to clarify his sudden actions (except for telling the truth, but he wasn't going to do that).
"Is something going on Hinata-kun?" Hinata shook his head, he was pretty sure that Suga didn't believe it.
"If you don't want to tell me, that's alright you know? I am not gonna push you. I want you to know however that I am, no sorry, we are all here for you okay? You can talk to anyone on the team, or Ukai and Takeda if you ever need to."
Hinata slowly nodded his head. He felt relieved. Suga wasn't going to pressure him to tell anything.
"However, I would like it if you get your stomach looked at, okay? It doesn't have to be me, you could go to the school nurse or something if you prefer."
Again Hinata nodded, knowing full well that he wasn't going to let anyone look at his stomach except for himself the moment his senpai would leave him alone. Suga seemed done talking and let again a short silence fell. However, this time Hinata was the one to break it.
"Suga-san, could I ask something?" He said, slowly looking up.
"Of course, Anything!"
"Could you maybe not tell the rest of the team about this?" Hinata said shyly while looking down. Just the idea of the rest of the team knowing about all of this was making him want to sink to the ground.
Suga seemed to understand.
"I promise, no one hears a thing about this."
-Haikyuu-
"Hey, Suga, are you even listening."
The teen looked up. Daichi was sitting in front of him, looking questioningly. After practice they had decided to go his house to study together, however Suga wasn't really able to concentrate.
"Yeah, uh, no, sorry, what did you say?" Suga asked. Daichi sighed and crossed both of his arms in each other in front of his chest.
"It's not important. What I would like to know is why are you spacing out all the time?"
Yeah, Suga had to admit that he hadn't really been paying attention to anything that day. Every time he just wandered back to Hinata. His weird behavior this morning worried him, it wasn't like Hinata at all.
In the end, the two had just sat there in the clubroom waiting for practice to end. Hinata didn't seem to be ready to go back and Suga didn't want the teen to be alone. They had chit-chatted a bit about not important stuff as school and the weather. Suga had tried to swift the conversation back to Hinata's stomach and the way he had reacted to Suga trying to touch him, but it didn't work. Hinata didn't want Suga to look at his stomach, nor did he wanna talk about it. Hinata hadn't shown up at practice after school, with the reason that he had to take care of his little sister.
"Hey Suga, your wondering off again." Daichi said, his voice pulling him back into reality.
"Sorry."
"Is it Hinata that your thinking of?"
As usual Daichi knew what was going on his mind, Daichi always knew what was going on.
But Suga had promised not to tell anyone, he didn't want to break that promise. However, this was Daichi, maybe he could just tell a bit of it to Daichi. Just not everything.
"It's just, I am worried about him."
Suga had already noticed before that Hinata seemed a bit off since a few weeks, but after the revelation of his sick mother, he had combined the two as one. However, the way Hinata acted this morning, the way Hinata had looked at him when Suga tried to take a look at his stomach.
As if he was afraid of Suga.
Suga was used of seeing Hinata afraid, like when they would meet another scary strong big volleyball player and he would hide behind Tanaka.
This time it was different though. It only lasted for a few seconds, but Hinata was seriously scared.
"This morning you said he was fine? What are you worried about?" Daichi asked. After morning practice, of course everyone came asking if Hinata was alright. Suga had lied and said that his stomach was alright.
Was it right to lie about it to Daichi? Suga couldn't remember a time he lied to him. As a captain, shouldn't he know about it?
Suga trusted Daichi.
"I, there, um. Something happened, but I kind of promised not to tell anyone."
Of course Daichi knew what Suga really meant with that.
"Whatever secret you have, it's safe with me. You can tell me, that's alright."
Suga nodded, that was all he needed to hear.
"When we were back in the clubroom I tried to look at Hinata's abdomen. I mean, it isn't normal for a dive to hurt that much, right?"
Daichi nodded, but didn't interrupt him.
"Well, he didn't want me to look." At this Daichi raised it eyebrows. Suga continued. "The moment I touched his T-shirt to raise it up, he pushed me away. He almost looked scared. As if he was hiding something he didn't want me to find out. "
Daichi seemed to process this and nodded slowly.
"I didn't want to push him, so I just let him be. But, but what if he really is injured? What if it only gets worse just because I didn't check it and Hinata continues playing volleyball? What if…
"Sugawara, stop." Daichi interrupted and grabbed his arm. "What ever is happening, it isn't your fault."
Suga nodded.
"It's just, something is not right. You should have seen his face back there. He was panicked and scared, because of me."
"Hmm, yeah, then there is something off here. Do you think he was already injured when he began with practice?" Daichi said. Suga had already considered the possibility, with how off Hinata had seemed during the practice match it wouldn't be a weird option.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he was, but you should think he knows better than to hide it right?"
"Well, you gotta admit, he is a bit of a - quoting Kageyama here - dumbass." Daichi said with a little smile. Suga couldn't help but giggle for just a second, before turning serious again.
"Do you think I should have checked it? Like forcing Hinata to show me?" He asked. It hadn't felt right to make Hinata do something the teen didn't want to. Still, he was unsure if he did the right thing. Daichi didn't seem to doubt it a bit. Like normal he was steady as a rock.
"You did the right thing. There is no use in forcing Hinata to do anything he doesn't want to." He said.
Suga nodded. "So what are we gonna do now?"
Daichi sighed.
"Let's just keep an eye on him for a while. Okay? If he still seems injured or hurt in the next practice we will let him sit out on the bench.
Suga nodded. For now that seemed like the right thing to do.
-Haikyuu-
So there you go, chapter 4! I hope you guys like it.
loka39416: And here is Sugamama's six sense! He is starting to notice that something is wrong with our favorite decoy and doesn't like it. Suga is definatly one of my favorite characters! So I loved writing this chapter!
Don't forget to review!
Stay save!
-xxx-
Maredith
Ps. I hope I will be able to post a chapter next week. I am working in the hospital as a nursing student and my schedule is kind of crazy for next week. So I hope you understand! I might be a bit late with posting next week, I am sorry! (But I'll do my best!)