Don't chapter 10

Hinata was looking down at the little paper in his hand. He had printed it out this morning from the school printer. It was the paper you needed to fill in whenever you wanted to quit with a club. He had filled in almost everything, his name, the date, the club. There was one thing that was still empty.

What is the reason you want to quit?

How was he supposed to answer that question. He didn't want to quit. Every bone in his body told him not to quit.

But he didn't have a choice. His dad had given him no choice. He had said that Hinata should spend more time with Natsu and him and less with volleyball. After losing their mother, family was more important than some stupid sport.

But for Hinata it wasn't some stupid sport.

It was one of the most important things in life. It was almost as if volleyball defined who Hinata was as a person. There was no place on earth where he felt more at home than between his teammates. He had spent so much of that time on volleyball. Every jump, every serve, every hit.

Every match that Hinata had played. He couldn't just throw it all away like that. Where did he belong if it wasn't the volleyball club? But his dad had made it clear, he gave Hinata absolutely no choice. He had to quit the volleyball team.

Deciding to just ignore the last question, Hinata started walking towards the third year classrooms. Since Daichi was the captain, he would have to hand in the form with him. He tried to ignore the nervous feeling that was forming a pit in his stomach. A quick yawn escaped. He had been laying awake all night. Knowing what he was supposed to do this day, he just couldn't relax and fall asleep. He had still missed morning practice, it didn't matter now anyway, right?

Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to quit volleyball? Was he going to let his team down? Then he remembered that Natsu cried last evening and Hinata wasn't there for her. His dad was right. This was the best way to do. This way he could concentrate on his family.

Besides, maybe it did his team a favor. His dad had made clear that Hinata was a failure, maybe the team saw it the same way. They were probably too nice to tell it to Hinata, but they were probably going to be happy if they didn't have to put up with him anymore. But why did it feel so wrong. He knew that it was the right thing to do, but it still did not feel right.

And then he just decided to shut down his feelings. The third-year floor was getting closer and closer, and he didn't need those feelings right now. He just needed to give this piece of paper to Daichi.

Hinata was suddenly pulled out of his toughs when someone grabbed his arm. He was jolted awake and he looked behind him.

"Hinata, could we talk?" No. No. No. Kageyama was standing right behind him. Hinata didn't need Kageyama right now, he was the last person that he wanted to see. Besides, what was Kageyama doing on the third-year floor? Had he followed Hinata upstairs? Did he maybe know what Hinata was about to do? No, he couldn't know. There was something else going on.

"Well, um, I actually need to do something before the break ends. I am sorry." He quickly said, while slowly moving away from his teammate. Kageyama didn't seem to expect that answer and it was clear that he wasn't sure what to say now. The teen actually looked sad, that Hinata even felt a bit sorry for his rude reaction.

"Maybe we can talk later." Hinata lied, knowing full well that he was going to avoid it. Kageyama nodded.

"That's okay, maybe after practice?"

"Sure!" Hinata said, without even thinking about it, just now realizing that there wouldn't be an after practice moment for him. But Kageyama didn't know that, so he seemed content with that answer.

"See you later, dumbass." The setter said, turned around and walked away. A part of Hinata felt bad for lying to him. Another part of him was curious of what Kageyama wanted to talk about. A new volleyball move?

Well it didn't matter now anyway. There was something he needed to do and looking at the clock in the hallway he didn't have much time to do it. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, sighed and stepped towards his senior's classroom with a new form of determination that he hadn't felt earlier. Before he knew it, he was standing in the doorway of Daichi's classroom.

Of course the three third years of Karasuno where all hanging out together during their break. They were in the corner of the room. Asahi was sitting neatly on a chair, even though it was almost too small for him. Suga was sitting on the desk opposite to him and Daichi was sitting in the windowsill, with one knee pulled up.

Hinata quickly walked up towards them, ignoring the stares he got from the other classmates of Daichi. Asahi was the first to notice him.

"Oh, hey Hinata. What are you doing here?" The other two looked up at this and both gave Hinata a smile. He then suddenly remembered how those three had kindly taken him in when they found him running in the rain a few days after his mother died. They had patiently sat with Hinata while he was crying. He bit his lip, he really was going to miss those three third-years, he strangely felt safe with them.

"Well, I am sorry. I didn't want to bother you guys, but I just needed to give Daichi this." Without thinking about it, Hinata pushed the paper in his captains hands and before any of them reacted he turned around and walked away. He didn't want to see their reaction. He didn't want to explain. Before he knew it he was already out of the classroom.

"Hey, Hinata wait, what is this!" He could hear the voice of Daichi behind him, but ignored it and slipped in the first bathroom he could find, to lock himself up in one of the stalls. After a few minutes the school bell ring, letting everyone know that class was about to start again. He curled himself up on the toilet seat. For the first time this day, he let the tears fall.

There was so much more he had wanted to say to the three third years. Like how thankful he was for letting him on their team, for giving him a starter position, for letting him feel welcome. For letting him experience real volleyball.

He would be forever thankful for that.

But Hinata knew that if he said any of that to them, he wouldn't be able to keep himself composed. He would have started crying. He didn't want to cry in front of them, not again.

After a few more minutes he pulled himself together. Hinata knew Daichi was supposed to be in class right now, so the hallways were safe.

He gave himself a quick look in the mirror, making sure that the tears on his face were gone and quickly made his way to the classroom. After a quick scolding from his teacher for coming in late, he sat down.

From now on he wasn't Hinata Shoyo, middle blocker and member from the volleyball team of Karasuno high school.

No, he just was Hinata Shoyo.

-Haikyuu-

Daichi's day started pretty alright. Like usual actually. He woke up just a bit before his alarm clock rang, eaten a quick breakfast and before he knew it, both Asahi and Suga were standing in front of his door ready to walk to school together. Practice was the normal, however Hinata hadn't shown up. He had sent the teen a quick message about it, just to make sure he was okay, but hadn't given it much thought. It was clear that the teen was still having a hard time grieving his mother and that was okay.

Like usual, both Tanaka and Nishinoya were too loud and energetic for the morning, but after a few scolding's from him they hadn't put off any shenanigans for the rest of the training.

Daichi didn't mind class, he even liked some of the subjects and before he knew it, it was break time and Asahi and Suga had both meet up with him in his classroom. Asahi had stolen his chair, so Daichi sat down in the window isle. Soon, they three of them where caught up in a stupid but fun conversation about Asahi's long hair.

"Oh, hey Hinata. What are you doing here?" Asahi suddenly said and both Suga and Daichi looked up. The younger teen quickly made his way to their group. He looked nervous — although that wasn't a weird thing considering this was Hinata, the boy who had thrown up because of nerves more than once. However, the boy did have a weird look in his eyes, Daichi couldn't really say what it was, but something was going on.

"Well, I am sorry. I didn't want to bother you guys, but I just needed to give Daichi this." Hinata suddenly pushed a paper in his hands and as quick as he had walked in, the teen left the classroom.

"Well, that was weird." Suga mumbled besides him. Daichi was too perplexed himself and needed a few seconds before he could react. When he had pulled himself together again, he turned the piece of paper around and read the title. KURASUNO HIGH SCHOOL FORM FOR Quitting CLUB ACTIVITIES.

What?

He needed a few seconds to actually process what he was holding in his hands. This was a paper you needed to fill in whenever you wanted to quit with a club. Hinata had just given him a paper that said he wanted to quit with the volleyball club.

Again. What?

Next to him, both Suga and Asahi where starting to get curious of what the paper said and Daichi guessed that his perplexed face wasn't helping with that curiosity. But he ignored his friends and quickly jumped up. He wanted answers and he wanted it now. There was no way that Hinata was quitting the club. Well, in the end it wasn't Daichi's choice to make, but still he wasn't going to let Hinata go this easy. He had made that mistake earlier, when his stupid goofy friend Asahi wanted to quit volleyball, he wasn't going to do that again.

Daichi ran towards the hallway and in the distance he could see Hinata's infamous jumpy orange hair among all the other students. "Hey, Hinata wait, what is this!" He yelled, ignoring the annoyed looks he got from quite a few classmates. But it didn't work and before he knew it the teen was lost in the crowd.

"What's going on?" Suga asked behind him. Both of his friends had followed him outside. Daichi tried to find Hinata with his eyes, but it was useless. He turned around to his friends and showed them the sheet of paper.

"He wants to quit." Both Suga and Asahi had the same reaction as Daichi, as they were both looking just as perplexed.

"Wait, why? Why would he want to quit?" Asahi stumbled. Daichi shook his head.

"I don't know, he didn't write it down." And of course just at that moment the bell rang, meaning that class was about to start soon. Well there was no way that Daichi would be able to concentrate on the teacher right now, but he knew that skipping it was not the answer.

"Well there isn't much we can do now. Let's go to class. I'll make sure I get a hold of him after school to talk to him about it." And just as Daichi said, he wasn't able to focus on his class in front of him like he usually was. How was he supposed to do that, when one of their teammates — yeah, Hinata was still a teammate in Daichi's head, even though he wanted to quit — just pulled a stunt like that. Plus, Hinata was an important player on the field. His amazing jumps and quick reflexes opened up a path for not only Hinata himself, but for everyone else on the team. They needed him if they wanted to win nationals.

Once class was finally finished, Daichi didn't waste a second, he jumped up and quickly made his way towards the first years floor. He ignored the shocked glances he got from all his juniors and quickly looked towards Hinata's classroom. The hallway was getting more and more crowded, and he hoped that Hinata hadn't already left.

But this time luck was on his side. Just at that moment Hinata walked out of the classroom. Daichi quickly grabbed him by his arm. The smaller teen startled and for a second Daichi saw a facial expression on Hinata's face that he hadn't expected — fear. Hinata had looked genially scared for him. Hinata quickly pulled himself together and his facial expression relaxed a bit, but Daichi couldn't help but wonder what that all was about.

Was Hinata scared of him?

"Oh Captain, what are you doing here?" As if the smaller teen didn't have a clue himself.

"I want to talk to you, come." Daichi didn't wait for an answer, he quickly shoveled him towards an empty corner, so there wouldn't be anyone listening in. He looked around if any of the other first years of their team was close by, but luckily that didn't seem the case. Hinata was starting to look like a nervous wreck in the meantime.

"Look, just calm down Hinata. I only want to know why? I mean you are an important player in the team. I won't stop you if you really want to quit, but we would miss you." Daichi said. Hinata gave him a confused look, as if he said something that was new for the younger teen.

"It's just… I…uhm…with everything going on I want to be able to spent more time with my family I guess." He said, while nervously fidgeting with his hands. Of course Daichi understood that, the teen had only lost his mother a few weeks ago. Everyone in the team understood if he needed more time to spent with his family. Daichi had hoped that he had given Hinata a safe enough space in the team for him to be able to skip practice once in a while, so he could spend some time for himself and his family, but apparently the captain had failed at that.

"You know that no one expects you to come to every training. It is okay if you want skipped a few once or twice." Daichi said.

"But.. I don't want to hold you guys back." Daichi raised his eyebrows. Hold us back? For a few seconds he got a little flashback of Asahi when he had quit volleyball, hadn't he said almost the same thing at that time? Hinata had been a great help at getting Asahi to come back and Daichi was pretty sure that his friend hadn't regret that decision ever since.

Now it was Daichi's turn to return the favor.

"Nobody thinks that you're holding us back, you know that right?"

It was almost as if Hinata didn't want to listen, he quickly shook his head and looked down to his toes. Daichi got an unnerving feeling in his stomach, this wasn't going very well.

And then out of the blue, Hinata's posture just completely changed. From completely insecure and unnerving to determined. His face shot up and looked straight in the captains eyes.

"I just want to quit volleyball, that's it. You are not going to convince me otherwise and now I'm sorry, but Natsu is waiting for me." And before Daichi could say anything else, Hinata slipped beneath him and walked away. And for the second time this day, Hinata had known how to perplex him. The captain needed a few seconds to pull himself together.

The way Hinata had looked at him, how he had spoken to him, the younger teen had never before done it in that way. The captain was used to Hinata's shenanigans. Just like some of the other teammates, Hinata had the tendency to lose himself at the moment. Daichi had to use his captains stern voice more than once, to make sure he didn't actually do anything stupid. But never had Hinata looked at him the way he just did.

As if he wanted the captain to go away, to stop talking to him. It didn't feel right. He suddenly remembered that it hadn't been that long ago that Suga had shared his worries about Hinata after their weird encounter in the club room. How had his friend described it again? Suga had said that Hinata had looked terrified of him. Was there something going on here? Was there a bigger picture that they weren't seeing.

Something was going on and Daichi didn't know what to do with it.

And with an uneasy feeling he walked towards the gym, knowing that everyone probably already gathered there. Was he supposed to tell the team? Knowing Suga and Asahi, they probably kept it to themselves for now.

Karasuno without their crazy number 10 just wasn't really Karasuno right? Just like they weren't complete without their guardian deity or their ace. And still why? He understood that Hinata wanted to spend more time with his family, but to completely quit with volleyball, just felt so out of character for him. The teen had almost begged the captain for accepting him in the club. Hinata had spent so much energy, so much time on this sport and now he was just going to quite like that?

It didn't sit right with Daichi. But there wasn't much he could do about it now. The club room was empty, which meant that everyone was probably already in the gym. He quickly changed. Once inside he got a few stares from his teammates, a captain wasn't supposed to be late, and he knew they were going to use it against him if one of them was ever going to be late in the nearby future. But he ignored them for now and quickly rushed towards his Takeda and Ukai.

"Ahh, Daichi, you are here too. Now we are only missing Hinata, right?" Takeda said, while quickly looking around in the gym.

"Well, about Hinata. He…ehm…he just gave me this." Daichi pulled out the official form for quiting a club and showed to his coach and teacher.

"What is that?" Ukai mumbled.

"Wait, Hinata wants to quit volleyball?" Takeda asked panicked.

"He does!? Wait, why?!" UAI yelled out, just as panicked. And of course that got the attention of the team.

"Yeah, he said he wanted to spend more time with his family. I tried to talk him out of it, but he made it quite clear that he wanted to stop." Daichi said. Ukai and Takeda both shared a look.

"I am sure you did all you could Daichi, it isn't your responsibility." Said Takeda, trying to ease up the captain. "How about I'll talk with Hinata in the morning. But in the end it is his choice."

"I don't like this." Ukai said. " I don't believe he really would want to quit. There has to be something else behind it."

"Who wants to quit?" Nishinoya was stretching just a couple of feet away from them and looked at them with big curious eyes. Daichi shortly locked eyes with both his teacher and his coach, before answering.

"If everyone would gather around, we have some news." He said uneasy. Daichi was pretty sure that the team wouldn't react calmly by this news, remembering how heavily Nishinoya had reacted when Asahi didn't want to come back. A part of him was also concerned of Kageyama, the setter probably wouldn't take news lightly too.

But keeping it a secret wouldn't work. The team should know. Once everyone was gathered, Daichi looked at his teacher, hoping that he would want to bring the news. Luckily Takeda understood his silent message and took a step forward.

"Guys, we have got some news. Today Hinata approached Daichi and said that he wants to spend more time with his family considering the death of his mother and therefor wants to quit the volleyball club." Where Daichi had expected to be greeted by an explosion of reaction, it was the opposite. Everyone was as quiet as they could be, staring at them with big eyes.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow, just to make sure if he really wants to quit. But in the end it is his decision, if he wants to quit, then we'll have to continue forward without him."

"This is a joke right?" Tanaka asked. "We need him, especially with spring tournament coming closer and closer. Maybe I talk to him tomorrow too, see if I can convince him to stay!"

"And otherwise, I am sure — as his senpai — I will be able to convince him. He was the one to get me and Asahi back to the team, so tomorrow I'll bring him back towards the team. Just watch me!" Nishinoya had jumped up too.

And that was exactly what Daichi was afraid of. Hinata wasn't waiting for every single person to rush towards him, saying that he wants to come back. He was pretty sure that would work the opposite. And then out of nowhere, Kageyama jumped up and with a determined look in his eyes, walked towards the door of the gym.

"Wait, Kageyama, where are you going?" Yachi asked.

"I am not going to wait for tomorrow, I am going to his house right at this moment and ask that dumbass what the hell he is thinking." He said grumpy. Daichi couldn't help but sign, of course that was how their grumpy talented first year setter was going to react on this news. No one expected otherwise. Luckily Suga stepped in on time, he grabbed his arm.

"Wait Kageyama, Daichi already had that talk with Hinata. I don't think it will really work if you go there tonight. Let's wait how the talk with Takeda goes, alright?"

"But should we just accept that he leaves." Kageyama. "What would that mean for the spring tournament."

"Yeah, we can't just let him go like that!" Nishinoya voiced.

"Why not."

"Tsukki!?"

"No, we need him and he needs us!"

"I could try talking to him!"

And there was the explosion of reactions that Daichi had expected to come. Luckily Ukai stepped forwards.

"If he really wants to quit, than there is not much we can do. Like Suga said, it is best to let Takeda have a talk with him. I don't know anyone who is more persuasive than your teacher." The coach said, even though it was clear that he wasn't completely comfortable with it either. Takeda, meanwhile, started to blush at Ukai's comment.

The group of teenagers nodded, even Kageyama, although he still didn't look content.

"I know it's weird and it doesn't feel right, but let's start with training. There is not much you can do now anyway." Ukai continued and with that their practice started, even though no one was really able to play with hundredth percent focus.

Which was especially the case for Kageyama. More than once he tossed the ball to fast, too high or too low, which made it extra hard for the spikers. He bit his lip in annoyance. How could the action of one person throw him of his game like that?

But for one reason or another, Hinata just seemed to have that effect on him.

He wasn't able to put his mind of him and his new decision to quit the club. He just couldn't understand why. Had they done something wrong as team? Had kageyama done something wrong?

Kageyama could not figure out what he said or had done that could have been hurtful towards Hinata. True, Kageyama had been an asshole towards Hinata since the moment they first met. That was just how their friendship worked. Hinata would do something stupid and Kageyama would insult him and Hinata would stick out his tong, say something back and then hit one of Kageyama's tosses. Never had Hinata seemed to be annoyed or actually hurt by any of the things that Kageyama said to him.

So, no, Kageyama was sure that it could not be any of the things he said to Hinata.

But what could it be otherwise? What was going on with that dumbass?

And why didn't Hinata tell him? Kageyama realized that when he tried talking to Hinata this morning, the teen was on his way towards the third-year floor, he had a paper in his hands. Hinata had shoved him away, already knowing that he was going to quit the volleyball team anyway. So why didn't he say anything to him? Kageyama could have talked him out of it.

This was all so stupid. A feeling crept inside his chest and took him a moment until he realized what it was. Betrayal. He knew it was stupid to feel like that, but he couldn't help thinking that Hinata betrayed him by leaving the volleyball club like that without talking to him. Where they not planning to go to the nationals together? Never in a thousand years had Kageyama expected that Hinata would just leave him like that. It was so unlike him. This must have to do something with the weird behavior Hinata had been showing the past few weeks. Kageyama balled his fists and decided that tomorrow, when Hinata would come to school, he would talk to him.

And this time, Kageyama was not going to let Hinata push him away again.

-Haikyuu-

And there is chapter 10! I hope you guys like it!

Thank you lemontarto, 3, Daileywishaw24, Whatsunderneath, Micam9, Lola and Nlydragneel for reviewing on the latest chapter. It always makes my day to see your reaction on my story!

Also, I reached a 100 followers on this story! I know it is not as much as I used to have on the original fanfic and that it might not feel like much for some people, but I was still a bit excited for it! So thank you all for who followed / favorite!

Also for the guest who reviewed as Lola: Thank you very much! Luckily my family and me are still very much healthy and happy! I hope the same goes for you! I still don't have a beta, so if you would like to help me out, it would be absolutely welcome! Would you mind sending me a private message?

And for everyone else, stay safe and healthy!

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-Maredith