Don't' Chapter 6:
"Look at all those tall buildings. Tokyo is sooo awesome!" Hinata yelled excited. The feeling was just so different from their own little town. Tokyo was awesome!
"It doesn't look that different from home though." Kageyama said next to him with his usual grim voice.
"Don't ruin it Bakeyama! The feeling is completely different!" Hinata couldn't help but grinn.
Before Kageyama could say anything back, the team was greeted by Kenma and Kuroo. The two friends had awaited them at the bus stop and showed the team the way towards the gym, where they were introduced towards the other teams. Every player looked so cool! This was amazing!
In the beginning Hinata was a bit to scared to talk with everyone– not that he would admit it – so he was just at either Kenma's side or Kageyama's. But as soon as they started playing this fear left him and a fire was lit inside. Hinata was going to show how awesome he was.
To Hinata's annoyance they lost almost every game, the reason why they had to do a lot of rounds of diving. It was terrible to see how much better everyone was compared to Karasuno. But in the end Hinata kept smiling. Fighting strong opponents was fun!
Plus, this was going to help Kurasuno get stronger!
So even though they lost a lot, almost everything else was perfect. He got along with a lot of the other players and chit-chatted with almost everyone.
Hinata was saying almost, 'cause there was one person Hinata couldn't stand.
Lev.
The Russian boy had just appeared out of nowhere with his incredible unfair amount of length and cool Russian background. But on the other hand, Lev was also a fun and strong opponent. So in the end it was okay.
They would stay in Tokyo for three days in total. At the first night – after hours and hours of practice – a lot of them came together to just hang out with each other, or to play video- or card games (whatever teenage boys would normally do on a Friday evening).
Hinata was talking with Inouka and Kenma, first about volleyball, but then also about other stuff, when Nishinoya and Tanaka grabbed him to play along with a few card games.
"Come on Shoyo, we are gonna show everyone how cool we are!" Nishinoya had said exited. Hinata couldn't resist and before he knew it they walked into a room were Kuroo, that cool ace from Fukoradani and his setter - Bokuto, and Akaashi - were sitting. Hinata couldn't contain his big smile, there were so many cool people in this room.
"So you guys really think you can defeat us with card-games. If it goes the same as the volleyball matches this day I don't have much hope for you." Kuroo said with an evil grin, knowing exactly how to agitate the three Kurasuno boys.
"Just you wait! We are gonna defeat you! Damn city-boys!" Tanaka yelled.
"Yeah! Not only now, but tomorrow we will show you on court!t." Hinata called out, frustration burning in his body. Bokuto laughed at his.
"Hahaha. I like your energy! You're that little guy that kept jumping around really high right?"
Hinata had to swallow when he heard the word little out of the aces mouth, but quickly forgot about it, because – omg – one of the top 5 aces in this country was actually talking to him.
"Yeah that's me!" He yelled while jumping in the air excited.
"Oh! I thought you were awesome today!" Bokuto said. Hinata couldn't help but beam at his.
"And I thought you were awesome!" He yelled back and before he knew it, Hinata sat in between the ace and his setter. Soon they started their card games. There were a few times they would get to exited and some coaches (or Daichi) would yell at them, but in the end it was all so fun.
It was a weekend full of excitement and volleyball and delicious food and awesome people. Hinata forgot about all the other worries in his life and he was completely back to the enthusiastic sunshine he used to be.
Hinata jumped, ran, spiked and did everything with a hundredth percent focus and energy. This weekend gave him a reminder why he loved volleyball. All the amazing players pushed him to be better. He wasn't the only one, the whole team felt the same.
On the second day, the last evening of the training weekend, Kurasuno was sitting outside. It was warm in Tokyo and the sun was still shining bright. The group had just eaten their dinner and they were now resting, giving their bodies time to digest the food.
Hinata wasn't really able to sit still, his legs kept wiggling like a dog. But he knew – from experience – if he would start jumping around right away he would probably vomit, so he waited patiently.
Hinata couldn't help but embrace the freedom he was experiencing. The feeling of not having to tip-toe around his sleeping dad, to be able to just forget about everything and play. To be completely sucked into volleyball. All of his concentration was focused on the ball, that was all that mattered right now. The feeling of learning new moves, of getting more experience on the court.
The feeling of just being a kid that loves volleyball and that was all there was. Hinata always felt different from other kids because of his sick mother. With all the other worries that had happened the last few weeks he knew that there was becoming a bridge between him and his team. Something that he had never felt before. Here at the training camp all that didn't matter.
Everyone was just a teen who loved playing volleyball and who gave their hundredth percent for that sport. Everyone was the same – whether you were Japanese or Russian, weither you liked to play setter or libero, weither you came from a well known middle school or one without even a decent volleyball team. Weither Hinata's mother was sick and his dad was always drunk – right here he was the same as all the other teens and he loved every second of it.
"Hinata, dumbass, stop that." Kageyama's voice pulled him out of his thought.
"Stop what?" He asked, pretending to not know what was annoying the setter.
"The wiggling, it's annoying. You look like a freaking toddler."
"I do not."
"Yes, you do, you dumbass."
"You look more like a toddler than me, you stu…."
"Hinata-kun." Takeda's voice stopped their silly fight immediately. Everyone on the team turned around and looked at their teacher.
The moment Hinata's eyes saw Takeda's face he knew something was wrong. Takeda was fidgeting with his hands, as if he was nervous. His eyes were looking at everyone except Hinata. He looked pale.
"Yes, Takeda-sensei?" He carefully said, while slowly standing up.
"Could you come with me for a second, there is something I want to talk to you about." He said, while putting a smile on his face. Hinata nodded and walked towards him. The eyes of his teammates clearly following every step he made.
Then it suddenly dawned to him. Takeda knew. He knew that Hinata had forged the signature. His dad had called or whatever and now they were going to send him back and he was never gonna be allowed on a Tokyo trip again and his father was going to be angry at him and maybe he would even have to stop volleyball for a while.
Takeda notices Hinata's sudden hesitation and put a supporting hand on his shoulder. Hinata looked up and was met by the kind and calm smile of his teacher.
"It's going to be okay Hinata, just come with me." Together they walked for a bit. Hinata had never felt so nervous in his life. He rarely did stuff that wasn't allowed – although he had to admit that he was prone to do stupid things on an impulse, but never on purpose to break a rule or something.
They went inside in a little empty room. It looked like a break room for teachers, with a round table in the middle, a coffee machine and a water tap on the right side.
Without asking, Takeda gave Hinata a glass of water and grabbed himself some coffee.
"Sit down, Hinata-kun." He said and took a nervous sip of his coffee.
The moment Hinata sat down there was a short silence. Hinata was waiting on his teacher to explain the reason for this talk, but it was clear that Takeda had a hard time choosing his words.
"Hinata-kun, what I am about to tell you is….it's not good news."
Hinata started fidgeting himself.
"It, I, I really don't know how to say this. There is just no easy way of saying this." Takeda sighed. "But I want you to know that whatever is happening, we are here for you. Okay? You can always come to me if you need support?"
Hinata got an uneasy feeling. This wasn't going the way he expected it to be. Takeda continued.
"We just got a call from the school. Apparently the hospital your mother is admitted to wasn't able to reach you or your family, so decided to ring the school instead."
A panicked feeling overwhelmed Hinata. This was going the wrong way. He didn't want to hear whatever Takeda was going to say next. He wanted to ignore it. This wasn't a possibility.
"Hinata, your mom is dying. They don't think she is going to survive the night."
And there it was. It felt like a stab in his heart. He wasn't ready for this. Not now everything was so much fun.
Hinata was pretty sure that Takeda was still talking, he vaguely heard words of sorry and everything will be alright, but he didn't really listen. He just zoned out. As long as he did not listen to Takeda it was not true, it wasn't the reality.
He looked outside the window. The sun was still shining. A little bird was feeding her chicks some kind of insects.
It was probably good weather to play volleyball outside, maybe they could all play together later in the evening. Or kageyama and Hinata could practice their quick. Hinata was still nowhere close to where he wanted to be. He was too much independent on Kageyama.
But he had also promised Kenma to play some video games with him, which was also pretty fun. This was the last evening, so the last chance to do something together with his long-distance friend. So that was important too.
However, Hinata also wanted to play card games again with the other teens, he was pretty sure that Tanaka and Nishinoya were planning to play again tonight.
So if he wanted to do all of the above it was going to be a busy evening. Loads of stuff to do.
"Hinata, can you look me in the eye." Takeda touched his shoulder and ripped him out of his nice thoughts back to the reality. His teachers eyes were full of worry.
Oh yeah, this wasn't going to be a nice evening. His mother was going to die. Takeda just told him that.
Without being able to control it, his hands tightened to fists, Hinata bit his lip and let a few tears roll down his cheek. His mother was dying. She was going to be gone, like definite gone. There was no going back from dying, no re-do's. It was just the end.
It wasn't fair. Hinata didn't want to lose her. He couldn't lose her. His sweet mom didn't deserve this. What was he supposed to do without her. Hundredth thoughts were racing trough his head. Hinata couldn't keep up with it anymore and just curled in a little ball on the wooden chair. His knees pulled up, his head down and his hands tightly hugging himself.
Out of the blue he felt a warmth surrounding him. He was pretty sure that Takeda was giving him a hug.
"Hinata. I am so sorry. I know it isn't fair and you and your family don't deserve this horrible situation. It's okay. It's okay to cry and it's okay to be sad." He whispered to the teen boy.
And with that Hinata just let go and cried.
-Haikyuu-
Coach Ukai was standing in front of the group of teens. They were looking at him, most of them curious of what he was about to say – Tsukishima just looked annoyed like always. Everyone of Kurasuno – hence Hinata and Takeda-sensei – were all present. He sighed, he never liked to be bringer of bad news and he had no idea how the team was going to react to this. Ukai always thought of the team as quite close, it was clear that they cared about it each other. The teens weren't only teammates, they were friends. It was never fun to hear bad news about your friend.
After Takeda had received the horrible phone call that Hinata's mother was dying, the teacher went to him in the first place. Takeda had asked advice for how to bring this to Hinata. Ukai was stumped, how was he supposed to know that? He wasn't the teacher.
So after they both took 10 minutes to think things trough they had decided that Takeda was going to bring this news to Hinata and would drive him back home. Coach Ukai would stay with the others. Takeda had asked if Hinata wanted the rest to know what was going on. After a short consideration Hinata carefully had nodded his head, although it was clear he wasn't sure about that decision.
Ukai was glad Hinata trusted the team with this though. This way they would be able to support him, that was important in these times.
Ukai bit his lip. He had known that Hinata's mother was in the hospital, apparently the moment she was admitted the school was informed about the situation – just to keep an extra eye out – and Takeda had in his place informed Ukai about it.
However, he had never felt like he was the right person to talk with Hinata about it. Ukai wasn't good at counseling stuff. As long as Hinata wouldn't have any problems during training, it just didn't feel like his responsibility.
Besides, Hinata never seemed to wanna talk about it, he never said a word about his mother during practice. Ukai understood it, the kid probably wanted to be able to forget about it sometimes and volleyball was probably the perfect way for Hinata. That's why Ukai never felt in the right place to talk about it.
It was true that the kid had been acting weird a few times during practice. Hinata wasn't a hundredth percent focused like he used to be, so Ukai had decided to cut the kid some slack for a little while. That was the coaches was to support him.
However, during this training camp the old Hinata came back, focused, energetic, happy and jumpy. It was nice to see him – and all the other teens of Kurasuno – enjoying this training camp.
That was all over now. Hinata was going to go trough some rough times from now on, losing your mother at such a young age was harsh and he certainly didn't deserve this.
"Coach Ukai, why did you ask us to come here?" Daichi pulled Ukai out of his toughs.
Ukai sighed, now was the time to tell the team. He didn't even know if the team already knew Hinata's mother was sick.
"It's about Hinata." Everyone tensed up and a silence filled the room. The teens were staring intensely at their coach.
"His mother has been sick for a while, some of you might know this." A few nods between the teams and he saw Suga and Daichi give each other a quick look. Good so they were at least aware of that.
"The hospital called, it's not going very well with his mother, they…well…they don't think she is going to make it trough the night." Ukai looked up at the team and was met with stares and open mouths. Everyone was processing what he was saying. The first one to react - of course - was Nishinoya
"Were is Shoyo now?" The small teen was looking around him. "We should support him!"
"Calm down. Takeda has rent a car and is bringing him back home right now. For now there is not much you can do."
"What do you mean! We should go back too and stand by his side." Nishinoya had stood up and looked fiercely at his coach. However, Ennoshita grabbed him by his jacket and pulled him back down.
"Listen to the coach." He whispered to his friend. Nishinoya didn't seem to like it, but stayed down this time.
"I understand how you're feeling. But right now Hinata is where he is supposed to be, with his family. We need to give him time to say goodbye to his mother and then mourn her loss. Takeda is with him now and I'm sure he will look after Hinata."
Ukai took a moment to look at everyone in the team to see how they were processing this. The third years manly looked concerned. Nishinoya still looked ready to run back home to support Hinata, Tanaka had the same energy as Nishinoya, but was a bit more composed. Ennoshita was the calm one between them, knowing full well that there was nothing he could do at the moment. Yachi seemed ready to cry herself, the same was said about Yamaguchi. Tsukkishima just looked annoyed.
Kageyama looked down, his face completely blank.
"Maybe we can make a cart for Hinata. That way he knows we are here for him, but we still give him his own space." Suga suggested. A few nods were given among the team.
"I can make that, if that's alright? I brought my pencils with me!" Yachi said while holding her hand up high. "When I'm done you can all sign your own name under it, so Hinata knows it from the team."
"Yeah, that's a good idea" Ukai said. "I know it's weird to continue the training camp without Hinata, but he would want you guys to enjoy this and learn as much from it as possible. Besides that, the bus we rented is only available from tomorrow the afternoon, so we have to stay here for the time."
There was silence among the team, everyone seemed to think about it.
"So you're saying we can go back to playing volleyball?" Kageyama said out of the blue. Everyone looked at the setter, surprised that he seemed so unfazed about this news of Hinata's mom. It was clear that Hinata and Kageyama didn't always see eye to eye, but it was also obvious that the two had become close friends the past few months – even though both would never admit it probably.
Kageyama wasn't the kind of person to jump up and run to Hinata to show his support like Nishinoya wanted to do or make a nice cart like Suga and Yachi. He wasn't socially skilled for these kinds of situations. This was his way of dealing with it. Volleyball.
"Well, if you guys are ready to go back, it's fine by me. There are no practice matches in the evening, so I guess it just best to do individual training for now." Ukai said. "However, if anyone wants to talk about anything. I am always available, same goes for Takeda of course." The team nodded.
"I am gonna practice my jump serves." Kageyama said – sounding grumpy as always – and without waiting for anyone, he stood up and walked away.
Ukai wasn't sure weither he should follow the boy or not. Kageyama didn't seem shocked by the news at all, almost as if he was blocking it out. He knew Kageyama wasn't the best in showing emotions – except when it was anger or grumpiness, but showing that he actually cared about someone, wasn't a normal thing for Kageyama to do.
Again, Ukai wasn't good at these counseling things. He wanted to support the team, it just wasn't one of his talents. Maybe playing volleyball was a good thing for Kageyama to do right now. So Ukai decided to let him be for now, that way the boy would be able to catch up with his own thoughts. Besides, there was really not much they could do otherwise right now.
-Haikyuu-
The ride towards home was mostly silent. Hinata didn't really feel like talking and Takeda wanted to respect that and gave the boy some space to think things trough.
If Hinata was ready to talk about it, he would know that Takeda was here for him.
When they arrived at the hospital Takeda asked if Hinata wanted him to go with him, but Hinata had shaken his head, saying that the rest of his family was probably already there. Takeda had given him his phone number just in case he would need anything from him. Hinata had taken it hesitatingly
After they had said their goodbyes, Takeda drove home. He wasn't going back to Tokyo in case Hinata did need him for something.
At home, he took a shower. He thought back of the moment he had to tell Hinata the terrible news. The look on Hinata's face was just utter despair.
Takeda never wanted to bring news like this again.
Luckily the kid still had his father and sister, he wouldn't be alone.
But still, grief was a hard process, especially for someone of such a young age. This was going to be a though time for him. Tomorrow he was going to have a call with Hinata's homeroom teacher, just to make sure the school was going to cut him some slack the next few weeks. Takeda was going to do everything he could to support the kid.
Everyone on team was probably feeling the same way. They could be competitive with each other, but in the end it was clear that they were all friends – although some might never admit that – and cared about each other.
And this was especially the case with Hinata, who seemed to be the center of attention a lot with his happy, energetic, but competitive and ambitious character.
Takeda was glad Hinata had volleyball. It was good to have something to take his mind of the harsh truth. Although Hinata probably wasn't going to show up for practice the next week. He should focus on himself and his family.
Takeda signed and wanted to close his eyes when his phone rang. It was Ukai, probably wanting on an update on Hinata. So he answered the phone and for almost a hour the teacher and the coach talked about the recent events.
-Haikyuu-
I am sorry I'm a bit late. I didn't have much time to write last week! But here is chapter 6! I will try to post chapter 7 next Wednesday, so that you all get the chapters I promised you!
I am sorry for hurting Hinata like this and making it all sad (and it is gonna be sad for a little while longer).
Thank you all for your kind reviews! Feel free to comment about what you thought off this chapter!
1SilverandGold1: Thank you! And I think that is a great idea, I will try to put some of that in the story line! I cannot wait myself to write about the team finding out about everything that Hinata is going trough, but we have to have patience! And I am glad that you are both doing okay ( and that the person who abused got help)! And it's true that nursing school takes most of my time (especially with the corona virus now), that is why this chapter was late. However, I love nursing school! And I love writing, it is very relaxing, so it's okay!"