Don't chapter 12

Was Hinata's father abusing him?

How long had this been going on? Kageyama felt like he was going to faint. He always had been good at controlling his own body into the most very precise movements — one of the reasons why he made it as far as he did as a setter. But right at this moment, it was like all that control was just gone. His body starting shaking — he wasn't sure if it was from fear, shock or anger, probably a combination of all three in the end — and his hands automatically balled into fists.

"Who the hell is this." The man sounded a bit drunk.

Oh, god. Hinata's father was a drunk and an abuser.

"No one, dad. He was just leaving." Hinata sounded panicked. Kageyama shook his head. He wasn't going to leave, not when he was suspecting Hinata's father to be a complete asshole. He wasn't going to let Hinata be alone with someone like that

So instead of leaving, he made himself as big as possible and stood in front of Hinata, shielding him from his father. The shaking didn't stop, but Kageyama didn't care. He wasn't going to let his friend down only because his body didn't know how to react properly.

"Shut up, Shoyo!" His father yelled, which made Hinata cringe into himself, his eyes were big, filled with fear. Hinata was shaking, even more aggressively than Kageyama. Seeing his friend as distraught and scared as Hinata was, made something in Kageyama's switch. He relaxed his fists.

Kageyama wasn't scared anymore

He was furious.

"Did you do this to him?" He asked bluntly, even though he knew that it might be dangerous. If Hinata's father really was an abusive drunk, then he could punch Kageyama right at that moment, but he didn't care.

"What the hell? It's none of your business boy." The man said, taking one step forward. It was to scare him, but Kageyama didn't move. He wouldn't be so easy intimidated.

"Please Kageyama, please just leave." Hinata whispered behind him.

"I am not leaving."

"Yes you are. This is the last time I am going to tell you to leave this house. I need to talk to Shoyo."

"You hit him, don't you? You hit your own son." Now that the fire had been lit inside Kageyama, he wasn't planning on stopping. He didn't know what this man exactly had done, but he knew it was bad if it was the reason for Hinata's beat up body and his change in behavior.

Kageyama wasn't going to abandon his friend.

"What the hell. How dare you speak to me like that." The man did another step forward, he was only one meter away from Kageyama, his hands cramped into fists. Kageyama still didn't budge.

"You are an abuser."

Kageyama soon found out that that wasn't the smartest thing to do. Hinata's father lost it at that, walked up towards him and grabbed him by his collar.

"What, no! Let go of him, please dad!" He could hear Hinata pleading behind him. Kageyama tried to struggle free and realized that he maybe hadn't approached this the right way. But there was not much he could do about that now.

The man's grip was too strong, Kageyama didn't stand a chance against it. Hinata was panicking behind them, begging his father to let Kageyama go, but it was as if the man was deaf towards the words of his son, his gaze completely focused on the teen setter.

The feeling of helplessness overtook him, how much Kageyama struggled, there was no getting out of this and for a second the feeling of anger left to make place again for fear. How many times had Hinata felt like this, how many times had the teen been in the same position?

Just when Kageyama thought that he was going to be punched by Hinata's father, the kitchen door flew open.

Kageyama never believed in angels, but for a second he felt like an actual guardian angel walked into their derailed situation. Untill he realized that that guardian angel was none other than their coach Ukai. Kageyama had totally forgotten that the coach was planning to go check on Hinata himself.

Ukai didn't need a second to understand the situation, one look at the image in front him — an angry man holding Kageyama aggressively by the collar, and a beat-up Hinata cowering behind them — and he jumped to action.

"Don't touch them." Ukai grabbed the man by his shoulder and yanked him away from both Hinata and Kageyama. The teen fell on the ground, but quickly stood back up again. Never in the few months that Ukai had been training them, had Kageyama seen his coach this furious.

Where Kageyama didn't stand a chance against Hinata's father, it was clear that Ukai was at least as strong as the man. Kageyama knew that the situation was far from over, but seeing his coach made his shoulders relax, and he released a breath that he had unconsciously been holding in. There was an adult — well a capable adult who wasn't an abuser — in the room. Ukai would know how to handle this, they would be safe with him.

He turned around and looked Hinata in the eye, whose gaze was stuck at his dad and Ukai. He had both his hands tightened into each other in front of him.

"No, no, no, no, no." The teen kept whispering.

Meanwhile, the coach pushed the man against the wall with all his force and looked him in the eye.

"Tell me it isn't true, tell me that you didn't hurt your own son." Ukai hissed. Instead of getting angry, like the man had done when Kageyama had accused him of the same, he seemed indifferent and shrugged.

"He deserved it."

The hairs on Kageyama began to rise, and he had to do everything not to gag. The man didn't deny it. He didn't deny that he hurt Hinata. How dare he say that? What kind of horrible parent where you if you did this to your own kid.

"Hinata, Kageyama, go outside, to my car. It's the red one."

There was silence. Both the teens were freezing on the spot.

"Guys, go now."

Kageyama nodded and grabbed Hinata by his pols. The smaller teen seemed unsure whether to go or to stay by his father. However, they didn't have the time to just stay still. Kageyama wanted to leave this nightmare as soon as possible.

"Let's go Hinata." Kageyama pulled the boy careful from his seat and started pushing him towards the exit.

"Wait no. What about my dad."

"Coach will take care of that."

"But what if Ukai hurts him. Or what if my dad hurts Ukai." Hinata was clearly confused on whose side he should be. This again made Kageyama feel uncomfortable. If his father had hurt him, shouldn't Hinata be eager leave this place? But there was no time to ask for Hinata's trail of thoughts, they could do that later. They needed to leave now.

"Don't worry, it will be fine. Let's go." He didn't wait for Hinata to answer, but pushed him towards the front door. Time to leave.

The car was easily spotted — Kageyama recognized it from over a mile away. He didn't take his hands of Hinata while walking towards it. Once they arrived Hinata more or less leaned against the car, clearly still shaking from what just had occurred but also still hurt.

Kageayama could feel the fire inside him dire out. In the house, it was like he didn't need to think about what to say or to do, it all went automatically, and he knew he did the right thing. But now he was standing outside, seeing Hinata hurt like he was, he suddenly found himself at a loss of words.

Because what was he supposed to say here? Luckily he knew that Ukai was going to come to them soon and take the lead. The coach would know what to do.

-Haikyuu-

However Ukai — inside the house- experienced the same thing as Kageyama. A loss of words. Adrenaline still kicking in his veins, he was holding the man with quite a force against the wall. A thousand thoughts and a thousand feelings were racing through his body. He knew that he still didn't have the whole picture. He had seen and heard enough to make a rough estimate though. And that alone was enough to get Ukai angry. How dare this man lay a hand on kids. They were fifteen for god's sake.

Oh, how he just wanted to kick this asshole's ass right here and now.

He didn't though. It wouldn't solve anything in the end. This man wasn't worth Ukai's time and energy — something he rather spent on the two teens who were waiting for him outside, probably both shaken up and one of them physically hurt. But before he left, Ukai needed to make something clear to this man.

"Look, I am going to make this plain and simple. I am going to take Hinata with me and you leave us alone. I will figure out what is going on, but if you truly abused him, I will make sure that you will never ever get close to him again. Understand?"

It was like the fighting power left the man in front of him, and he inflated. Ukai had to use a lot less of his power to hold him against the wall. The man shrugged.

"Sure. He was a burden anyway." His breath smelled like beer.

Ukai gritted his teeth and let the man go, who then didn't even try to keep up standing — instead the man slid on the floor. Ukai didn't deem him one more look worthy and walked away. Luckily the man didn't follow him.

Outside, Hinata and Kageyama had done what Ukai had asked them to do. They were waiting in front of the car.

Or better saying, Hinata was leaning against his car. Damn it, the kid was really beat up.

How could someone do something like that against such a good kid? True, Hinata had his moments where he didn't know when to stop, but that also made the kid so endearing. Damn it. How did they end up in this mess?

For the first time Ukai took a second to actually look at the two teens. Kageyama seemed physically fine — just a bit shaken up. He was standing close to Hinata, one of his hands ready to grab his friend if something deemed to happen. How long would Kageyama have been involved in this? Had he known this for longer and kept it a secret?

No Kageyama seemed to shocked, to concerned. He was just as surprised and at loss as Ukai felt like — not that he showed it, the teens needed someone right now to have as support.

Next to him was Hinata — who was still shaking — with one hand he was holding onto the car and the other was holding his stomach — as if it could fall out any moment. The kid seemed a nerves wreck. He wasn't crying, but it was clear that he was close to.

But the look on his face was so lost. Ukai hated it. He hated all of this. He hated that he didn't understand what exactly was happening. He hated that he didn't know how long this has been going on for. He hated that he didn't know how hurt Hinata was at the moment. He hated that he was the only adult right now, because now he needed to act up to his age, and he was scared that he would do something wrong.

Yeah, Ukai Keishin was actually scared for once. True, the fear was dialed down by the anger he was feeling, but it was still there. It wasn't that he was scared of the man inside the house, he was drunk and weak. Ukai knew he could easily take him on.

No, he was scared of the responsibly that was suddenly on his shoulders. He needed to make sure that these kids were okay, but he so not understood how big this situation was.

What was best to do now?

Call the cops, bring Hinata to the hospital?

Or trying to get a better understanding of everything that had happened before involving the professionals?

Ukai suddenly realized that Kageyama was looking at him expectantly, waiting for Ukai to do something, so the coach decided to man up and walked forwards. He was not going to show the kids how uncertain he was.

"Are you two okay?" He asked. Hinata looked down and shrugged.

"I am okay. But I think Hinata needs to go to the hospital."

"I don't!"

Ukai looked skeptic at the boy. He did seem hurt and god knows what he was hiding under his shirt. Maybe going to the hospital wasn't such a bad idea. Hinata saw the way Ukai was looking at him and just started to go full on panic-mode.

"No, coach, please, please, don't make me go to a hospital. I don't want to go to a hospital. Please, I promise I will be better."

The voice than Hinata was using, the way he was begging Ukai not to take him, the way he was saying that he was going to be better. Damn it. It all felt wrong.

He knew it wasn't the right decision. As an adult Ukai should be responsible and drop this kid of at the first hospital he would see. However, he just couldn't. Hinata was shaken up, had finally started to cry. He had been through god knows what, Ukai couldn't do that to him just yet.

He needed to find a way to get Hinata to trust him and that wouldn't be by doing the opposite the boy wanted right now.

And it was clear that Hinata didn't trust him yet. He was trembling like a new-born baby. His breathing was way too fast and he kept whispering.

"Please Ukai, please. Not the hospital." It almost became a mantra. This wasn't good, the kid was hyperventilating and if he continued like that it would change into a panic attack. Next to Hinata, Kageyama stood frozen, with big eyes he looked at his broken teammate.

Damn it, Ukai wasn't good in this. Where was Takeda when you needed him. But he had to try, right now he was all Hinata and Kageyama had, so he had to do something. He walked towards Hinata and sat down on one knee, he carefully touched Hinata's shoulders with both his hands and looked him in the eye.

"Hinata, calm down. I am not taking you to a hospital, you don't need to do something you don't want to. We are going to my place for now. Okay? We can figure everything out later." This seemed to set Hinata a bit more at ease, he started breathing normally again and stopped with that mantra. He didn't stop crying, but no one really expected him to stop at that point.

Who wouldn't cry at a situation like this?

"Okay good, come on, get in the car." Ukai said, while opening the car door. Hinata looked at Kageyama for reassurance. Kageyama clearly didn't expect this, but quickly nodded at the teen, who then crawled into the car, with Kageyama close behind. Ukai closed the door again and walked upfront where he said down before the wheel and started the car.

The drive towards the house was only fifteen minutes, but it felt like an hour. It was silent, except for Hinata's occasional sniffing and crying. In the front mirror of the car Ukai could see that Hinata was either looking outside or at his hands, Kageyama however didn't take his eyes of Hinata. It was clear that they were all lost in thought, trying to process what just happened.

Ukai himself was also trying to understand.

It was clear that something bad has been going on, that Hinata's father had hurt Hinata in terrible ways. But what exactly has happened and — more importantly — for how long has this been happening was all a big puzzle.

It couldn't be for that long right? They would have noticed something? Maybe not Ukai, but Takeda would have seen it right?

Would they?

After all, it is true that the boy acted different the past few weeks, but Ukai had thrown that as fault of the death of his mother. Not a second had he stopped thinking that the boy was being abused.

No, that wasn't completely the true. Yesterday, when Daichi came in with the sudden news that Hinata decided to quiet volleyball, Ukai had started to suspect something was wrong because it was so unlike Hinata to just give up the ball sport.

Ukai just did not have an idea of how bad it actually was and god bless Takeda for asking him to check. And then he suddenly realized, what the hell was Kageyama actually doing at Hinata's house? It was school time. Had the teen decided to check on Hinata himself after not finding him at the school? Well to be honest, that was probably the least important question that Ukai had in his mind right now. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, what was he supposed to do now? Sitting here in the silance of the car gave him time to think things trough and - for the hundreth time today - he realized that he still had no idea what he was doing.

At the heat of the moment it had seemed logical to take Hinata and Kageyama out of there as quick as possible and Ukai was glad that he did, but the rest seemed like a big puzzle for him. It was probably important to get Hinata to talk about his injuries and the extent of the abuse. Then Ukai would need to find a new place to live for the kid — 'cause there was no way in hell he was going to let a teenager get back to his abusive father.

God damn it, he would probably have to sue Hinata's dad one way or another. After all, he had parental rights over Hinata.

There was so much to do.

What if he couldn't do it? It was rather overwhelming. For a rather terrifying second, Ukai thought about how his grandpa would think of him if he knew how unmanly his son was right now.

"Man up, idiot. Are you my grandson or not? There a two teens in the back of the car who both need your guidance. You decided to become their coach, so be there goddamn coach." UAI almost smiled at the voice of his grandfather in his head.

And it was true, there were two teenagers needing help right now.

Because not only Hinata was hurt right now, Kageyama was just as shaken up. The kid had just find out that one of his best friends was being abused, he had to step up and defend Hinata from his own father, he had almost been physically hurt himself.

Ukai couldn't help but sign, how was going to do this? He was so not qualified for this. He was just a stupid shop owner who happens to like to coach a bunch of good high school kids. He never asked for more.

Well he should probably just start at the beginning, one step at a time. First, to get to his apartment and to get Hinata and Kageyama to calm down.

Ukai parked in front of his apartment, it was a small two-bedroom apartment close to the store. At first Ukai had searched for an apartment with only one bedroom, but this one had been available for a reasonable renting price and it was close to the shop. Now it came in handy, in the case that the teen would need to spend a night with him.

"We are here." He said, before stepping out of the car and walking to the front door. Behind him Kageyama had grabbed Hinata carefully by his shoulder and followed his coach. Hinata still seemed unsure, but his friends presence next to him didn't allow any doubt. Kageyama was clearly carefully leading Hinata without giving him a choice.

Ukai didn't bother stepping out of his shoes when walking in. He saw that both Kageyama and Hinata didn't either. It didn't matter, Ukai didn't have the time to clean last week, so the floor was dirty anyway.

"Come in, this is my apartment, there is the kitchen and this way is the living room." He said while walking in. He led them towards the dining table, where both of them sat down.

Hinata still kept looking down, the crying had finally subdued. Ukai gave them both a glass of water. He wanted to call Takeda, but wasn't sure if Hinata would like it if another person knew about this.

But on the other side, Ukai really needed Takeda on this, he wasn't ready to deal with something like this alone.

Takeda would know for sure how to handle this. Teachers probably would get taught about child abuse, right? So he decided to give him a call anyway. Ukai excused himself from the room and dialed the number of his friend.

"Please pick up, please pick up." He whispered in the phone. He knew that Takeda was probably teaching, but luckily his friend picked up anyway.

"With Takeda." Only hearing his voice already gave Ukai a strangely calming effect.

"Good god, Takeda, it's me Ukai." He knew he sounded stressed and Takeda was probably alarmed by it right away.

"Did you find Hinata?"

"Yeah, I did."

"And?"

"It's bad."

-Haikyuu-

So there you have it! Someone finally got Hinata out of there! I found this chapter quiet difficult to write, but also loved doing it! I find it very interesting to dive into both Kageyama's and Ukai's reaction at the situation!

I know that you guys have been waiting for this chapter and it is a bit on the short side, but I hope you guys like it!

Thank you for Shia-neesan, KittenQueen789, .3, Daileywishaw24, Lemontarto, Libatalia Riddle, Nlydragneel, Micam9, froggy1827, whatsunderneath and Unle Sam's Boot for posting a review! And an special thanks for the ones that have been writing reviews on almost all the chapters! You guys motivate me to write more!

And thank you for the holiday wishes, I had indeed a very nice (and welcome) vacation

Also for KittenQueen789: A few reviews back you said that you might be interested in beta-reading for me, does this offer still stand? If you are interested, would you might sending me a private message?

Stay safe and healthy!

XXX

-Meri