Work Text:
June 20th 2017.
That was what was printed, and had been printed for fifteen years, on the stomach of Hinata Shouyou.
The date he’d die.
The day before he’d turn 16. Fate was cruel sometimes.
Today.
It wasn’t like he’d broadcasted such a fact to anyone at Karasuno, not even Kenma knew, despite the close bonds the 1st and 2nd year players had. It kind of sucked, if he was honest, considering they’d just narrowly beaten Shiratorizawa and were heading to Nationals… it wasn’t like he wanted to just suddenly die and probably cause the team to lose…
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The rather...unhelpful matter was that it was a Wednesday, and so the short decoy had to drag himself up for school, without any idea as to the time such a sudden death was due to occur…
It wasn’t something he’d really thought about… what would it be at such a young age? A sudden car accident? A robbery? What could it be? Up until the day actually happened… Hinata had tried to avoid thinking such morbid thoughts, living life to the fullest.
So that morning, on the ride to Karasuno, Hinata paid extra attention to the roads and turnings, on his bike, he’d actually wore his helmet for once, and made sure that nothing he’d packed for lunch was out of date. Ultimately he made it to school fine, which was nice, since he got to participate in morning practise at the Volleyball club. He made extra sure to make the most of it, putting in all his effort, leaving him feeling tired when classes finally started.
“See you later, Dumbass,” Kageyama muttered, as they parted and headed to their separate classrooms. Hinata gave a small smile and nodded. These tattoo’s really needed a time, not just a date… Hinata was on edge for the rest of the lessons, despite feeling tired, his nerves kept him awake.
When lunch arrived, Hinata ate with the smallest bites he could, making sure he didn’t choke to death or something dumb like that. As the day continued his anxiety grew. Should it have happened yet? When would it happen? What was he doing? Should he tell someone or just….
Afternoon lessons dragged on, Hinata’s mind zoned out of the words being spoken, and ultimately he worked himself into such a mess that when the lessons finished, Hinata was too scared to even move.
Someone, maybe one of his friends, reached out to try and prod him from his state, and Hinata couldn’t contain the muffled shriek, jerking back out of the way of the finger, eyes wide in shock and panic, before grabbing his bag and running, ignoring the shouts of concern. He had to get away from everyone.
Hinata skipped practise. He knew he should go, and enjoy it while he could, but he just couldn’t face it. He didn’t want to be around anyone, and instead Hinata pedaled home as quick as he could, and locked himself in his room, sitting huddled under the bedsheets, ignoring his mother's calls to him.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, declining dinner from his mother, and ignoring his little sister who’d come to check on him. He felt horrible about doing it, he should tell them… his mother probably knew.. Or rather she’d likely seen the tattoo when he’d been born… did she not realise or…
Hinata didn’t ponder. He’d rather she didn’t remember or else she’d lived the day in torment just as he had. Counting down the days, weeks, months...
He stayed hidden under his sheets for how long he didn’t know. He ignored the texts he could hear, his phone dinging a few times, and ringing twice… probably the Volleyball club members… after all he’d vanished without an excuse.
And those fell silent eventually. Nothing could be heard but the ticking of the clock, the sound grating on Hinata’s nerves. Surely he should be enjoying this time, not sat being haunted by the knowledge every second that passed would drag him closer to death…but no.
Hinata ended up falling asleep…
…
He jolted awake some hours later and scrambled for his phone in the dark, for the time.
2:23am.
June 21st.
Hinata blinked. And again. And again.
“Eh!?” Hinata gaped in shock, denial…
Maybe it was the still fuzzy brain that led him to ring Kageyama, the one who’d rung him twice and sent the majority of the texts he had unread.
Kageyama answered on the 5th ring.
“Hinata?” A groggy voice asked. He’d obviously woken the teen up, and instantly felt guilty.
“Kageyama…. What’s the date?”
Hinata just needed some confirmation… something….
“The 21st… why are you calling me at this time?... and you missed practise… what was wrong? You never miss it...”
Hinata gave a shaky exhale… what had happened… how was he alive ?
“N...nothing… sorry… wasn’t feeling great…” Hinata hung up. Kageyama tried recalling him once, and then sent a text when he had no joy. Hinata wasn’t sure he’d be able to face reading the texts…
So he did the next best thing and dragged up google, typing in a few phrases to determine why he wasn’t dead.
What Hinata found was simply a bunch of fakes, photoshopped images of past dates on people, and a rumour of a girl whose date occurred, and she had died… but only for a few minutes. The doctors had managed to restart her heart… and she had lived, still lived now, years after her date…
Had he died? He couldn’t recall dying… he simply fallen asleep for a bit…had he...had...
Hinata had no idea…he didn't even want to think about it...
But he’d made it… he’d actually turned 16.
Plagued by thoughts, it took Hinata a long time to fall back to sleep.
When Hinata walked into the kitchen later that morning, his mother dropped her mug in shock, screamed and then tugged him into a hug.
Obviously she had known after all….
“How did this…”
Hinata shrugged. He had no idea.
“I don’t know.”
They didn’t get to speak any more on the matter, Natsu bursting into the room. The conversation didn’t continue and the Hinata family continued as normal, Hinata heading out to school at his typical time, minus the helmet today.
Kageyama was waiting for him, outside the club, for morning practise.
“Hinata… are you okay?”
Hinata just nodded.
When the morning practice started, Hinata was bombarded with Happy birthdays and gifts and oh it was perhaps too much… they’d all gone out of their way, bought him something, planned for this day… a day he wasn’t even meant to see… if yesterday had really happened… they’d all have come expecting.. And to find out… oh Hinata just couldn’t take it.
He fled. Turned on his feet and ran from the gym, to the club’s changing room.
A couple of them came to find him.
Suga and Kageyama.
They found him sat in a ball, in one of the corners of the room, leaning against the lockers. The telltale shaking of his shoulders indicated he was crying, muffled sobs reaching the two players ears.
“Hinata?”
Hinata lifted his head, and caught the double concerned looks shot in his direction.
“I..I’m sorry.” Hinata managed to cough up and Suga moved forward first, moving to tug him into a comforting hug.
“What’s wrong?”
Hinata bit his lip. And then moved backwards from Suga’s hold, moving up silently lift his shirt, dark bold date visible across the skin of his stomach.
“W..wasn’t that...yesterday?”
Hinata gave a silent nod.
“I..I don’t know what happened... and today- you’ve all planned ahead and I-I didn’t even expect today- and-everyone's so- I-” Hinata stopped, breath uneven as he tried to calm himself down, taking a few deep breathes.
Kageyama wordlessly closed the gap between them, tugging Hinata to him, in a hug, leaving Suga to watch, before he too moved forward, joining the awkward hug once more, placing a comforting hand on Hinata's head.
“Dumbass. You should have told us yesterday...that’s why you skipped practice?”
Hinata nodded against Kageyama’s chest.
“You should.. Should have told us..”
"I didn't want you all to worry..."
"Worry? I think we're allowed to worry considering you were meant to die yesterday Hinata..."
"I- but-"
"No buts. At least let us make today a day you'll remember, a day worth defying the laws of nature for, eh?"
Hinata gave a small smile at that, wiping some of the tears from his face.
"Okay, but you have to toss to me like... doubly!" Hinata cheekily added and Kageyama just nodded.
"I'll go let the others know you're okay." Suga mumbled, breaking away and exiting.
The two were alone after that, Hinata simply tugged against Kageyama's chest, arms around each other.
"Kageyama.." Hinata started,
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
"For what?"
Hinata just remained silent, snuggling closer into the setter's chest, just glad he had more time. More time to play Volleyball, to hang out with his friends, to see Natsu grow up, to surpass his idol...
There was so much more he wanted to do with his life, and now he would.
With this time he'd been given, time he wasn't owed, Hinata Shouyou would make damn sure to make his life the best it could be, and the first port of call would be to get Kageyama to duck enough for him to kiss his setter senseless.