Kinda took a little longer than usual to write the chapter.
I'll probably be slowing down the pace of my writing because I've seriously been pushing back my homework...
But in the meanwhile enjoy chapter 6~

Everything is dark.

So dark he can't see anything at all. Not even the ground, nor the walls. Not even his hands when they were held right up in front of him.

He could however, tell that he was in a tunnel. The suffocating tightness of the walls at either side of his body, the cold concrete hard at his back.

Every time he took a step forward, the wall at his back moved closer, stopping him from being able to turn around.

So he kept running, on and on, trying to escape.

Then at last, he saw a small speck of light in front, indicating the end of the tunnel.

But no matter how hard he ran, the light moved forward the same distance he did, the gap between the two not closing at all.

Why won't you let me get closer?

The light continued to run.

Why won't you help me?

The light stopped and so did he.

The light and the dark don't belong together, that is all.

And then the light, his only hope, was swallowed up by the shadows of the tunnel.

Kageyama gasped.

His head hurt like hell, his shirt was soaked in sweat and the glass of water had been knocked off the table. That must've been what woke him up Kageyama thought.

He looked out the window and realised that it was dark already. He had slept through basically the entire day and he still felt slightly drowsy.

His stomach growled in protest and then he noticed that he hadn't actually eaten anything the entire day.

Kageyama shifted his weight and slowly slid out from the comfort of his blankets. He headed for the kitchen, the lack of heat on the floor chilling his feet even more than usual.

He flipped through the pantry and the fridge which both, unfortunately for him, were rather empty. All that was available was a couple of cup noodles in the pantry and some bread and milk in the fridge.

Kageyama opened his mouth and yawned loudly. God he felt so tired and he was not in the mood for cup noodles. He decided he would just go back to sleep instead.

As he walked past the living room to reach his own bedroom, he saw a familiar brown envelope sitting on the coffee table.

Oh, it was food money day today.

The cool night air blew through Kageyama's dishevelled hair and snaked through the gaps between his clothes. Kageyama shivered, wishing that he had worn more layers of clothing before setting out. He hadn't even bothered to change out of the shirt and shorts he wore when he was sleeping. He had just pulled on a random jacket and a pair of sneakers and left for the nearest fast food restaurant.

Kageyama sneezed, causing a few people walking on the street to stare oddly at him. Crap he thought. I still have a cold.

At last he reached his destination in which on entering, he basked in the warm stuffy atmosphere of the bustling building. He ordered a heap of food, which earned him quite a few questioning looks and almost emptied out the entire envelope of money.

After picking up his rather large assortment of burgers, fries and other side dishes, Kageyama wandered around the restaurant looking for an empty place to sit. While he busied himself with that, he didn't notice a group of familiar black jacketed high schoolers had entered the building.

"Hey! Is that you Kageyama!?"

Kageyama froze, just as he was about to seat himself down in a cosy corner near the back of the restaurant. He turned around to see a certain short senpai pointing in his direction, along with three of his other volleyball teammates.

Oh no. Kageyama thought. He had just run into some of the people he had wanted to see the least right now.

"O-osu…" Kageyama mumbled weakly.

"Move over will ya?" Nishinoya said before plopping himself down beside Kageyama. Daichi, Sugawara and Asahi sat down opposite them.

An awkward silence formed over the group.

Finally, Sugawara managed to work up his courage and decided to break the tension.

"Um… So Kageyama…" Sugawara spoke uneasily. "How's your uh… cold?"

"It's better now thanks." Kageyama answered quickly before returning to his food.

Silence again.

Kageyama ate as fast as he could, trying to finish as early as possible so as to make an excuse to leave. But before he was even halfway, Nishinoya opened his mouth to speak.

"You weren't at practice today." Nishinoya mentioned, not bothering to look at Kageyama.

Kageyama felt his stomach lurch a little at the statement.

"T-that's because I was s-sick," Kageyama mumbled, clearly trying to avoid the continuation of the conversation. He looked away, shoving his face even faster than before.

"We were all worried you know," Nishinoya pressed on.

Worried? Kageyama thought. Why would they be worried? He was only gone for one day. It wasn't as though he had disappeared for a long time like…

Hinata…

Had Hinata gone to volleyball training today? Kageyama didn't know because he hadn't gone to school. Was he still skipping? Was he still sleep-deprived? Was he still unhealthy?

Was he still CRYING?

"You don't have to worry about Hinata," Daichi said, causing Kageyama to snap from his train of thoughts.

"I wasn't thinking about him!" Kageyama huffed.

All four of his teammates laughed.

"Hinata came to volleyball training today and he seems a lot better," Sugawara smiled. "He's alright now so you only need to focus on getting better, ok?"

Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows. He really didn't want to discuss any topic related to Hinata at the moment. The thoughts that he had finally managed to push to the back of his mind surged up again. Hinata's voice echoed loudly through his mind.

"Kageyama?" Daichi asked.

The nightmares that he had gotten every single time he slept. They were indeed frightening, but his most recent one was the most terrifying one of all. Kageyama had lost all his hope when his teammates had all left him.

Isolated him.

How could he trust again? How was he to toss with all his confidence if there was always the thought that there would be no spiker to hit it? How was he to believe that there would always be someone beside him, backing him up, giving him a reason to remain on court?

He couldn't.

No one could blame him for reacting the way he did. As a setter, there was nothing Kageyama feared more than tossing to a spiker that didn't exist. So when his worst fear came true, Kageyama only did the best he could to repair himself and in the process, built a wall around himself.

That was the best thing to do, Kageyama had reassured himself. He didn't need anyone to get closer than necessary. Each toss was singular and detached, it would be the only time he and the spiker would be connected. Just for that one short moment. Not anything more. Not anything less.

"Kageyama?" Daichi asked again.

"Ah," Kageyama sat up startled. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Uh… no we were just saying that Hinata is fine…" Daichi said with a puzzled look on his face.

"Oh… I see…"

Yet seeing Hinata had completely overwhelmed him. His amazing reflexes, agility and his surprisingly strong will, yet he was unable to put them to any good use. It felt the same as seeing someone chuck a $1000 bill down the drain. And it frustrated Kageyama.

In the end however, Hinata had ended up on the same side of the net as Kageyama. He had thought there would be no way they would ever be able to get along, but Sugawara's words had stirred something up from within him.

So for the sake of victory, Kageyama had extended his setter-spiker relationship ever so slightly, but had not expected Hinata's trust to fill him with so much warmth.

Hinata's bright light had seeped through the cracks in the wall he had put so much effort into creating. It had broken them down from within exposing himself to the blinding light he had spent so long hiding from.

Hinata had given him his hope back.

So the thought that he might lose his hope for a second time, truly chilled him to the bone. He didn't think he would be able to recover a second time, especially not when he no longer had a wall to protect himself with.

Kageyama knew he had already begun to crumble, ever since the day Hinata had said those words. It only seemed to get worse when judging from what Sugawara had said, Hinata appeared perfectly fine without Kageyama by his side.

He was in trouble.

"K-Kageyama? A-are you ok?" Asahi sputtered.

Brought back to reality by Asahi's words, he realised that he had completely crushed the drink that was in his hand, causing the contents to spill all over the table.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" Kageyama apologized, immediately cleaning up the mess he had made.

"I'll be heading back now," Kageyama said, standing up abruptly after the spill was dried and cleared off the table.

Kageyama walked quickly towards door, hoping to get out as soon as possible.

"Kageyama!" Nishinoya yelled.

Kageyama stopped in his tracks.

"You will be coming back right?" he said in an almost menacing tone. "Ryu certainly won't be able to take it if we have another 'Hinata' incident occurring."

"Osu…" Kageyama mumbled before briskly exiting the building.

Hinata lay in bed, tossing a volleyball into the air.

He thought back to his discussion with Kenma.

"Well, you're friends right?"

"Yeah?"

"If you apologize you'll be fine."

"Are you sure…?"

"Yeah."

"Ok…"

"Ah, but this might be a special case…"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Sorry, but you're going to have to figure it out yourself."

What had Kenma meant by 'a special case'?

Hinata squeaked when he missed the volleyball and it landed on his nose, bouncing off to the side.

Dammit… Hinata thought.

Author's Note: Oops, this chapter ended up being basically all about Kageyama. Don't worry, I'll include more of Hinata in the next chapter.

Please review~~~ Reviews really are nice to read TTvTT

See you next chapter~