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When Hinata rounds the corner towards the entrance of the gym, he sees Kageyama staring at the ground. He feels a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth. He walks closer, prepared to make fun of this dumb weirdo staring at noth—
He stops dead, the insult lodged in his throat. Turns out, Kageyama wasn’t staring at a patch of dirt, but the corpse of a dead bird.
Hinata yelps, jerking his head away. “Oh my god!”
“I think it’s been here all weekend.” Kageyama says. Hinata forgets the horror for a second and looks incredulously at him.
“Are you crazy? How long have you been staring at a dead bird?” He inexplicably looks back down at the poor thing and locks eyes—well, locks eye. He yelps again.
“Jesus Christ, what can you possibly be yelling about this early in the morning?” Suga yawns as he rounds the corner.
Hinata stays quiet and shakes his head. He commits his stare to the vending machine, ten feet away.
Nishinoya, eyes wide, peeks over Hinata’s shoulder. “Gross!”
“I know!”
“Oh my god, shhh!” Suga presses a finger against his mouth. “It’s too early to be yelling over a...” He flinches.
“Pidgeon?”
“It’s a raven, dumbass.”
“Raven’s aren’t grey, Kageyama.”
“It’s a crow.” Daichi says.
All four yell.
“How long have you been here?!”
“Just now, jeez.” Daichi massages his temple. “Can we go inside now?”
“We have to bury it!” Nishinoya says. “Asahi’s gonna have a stroke if he sees this.”
“Bury it with what?”
“I don’t know! Just...” Nishinoya, with his head still twisted away, blindly kicks dirt towards the bird. He mostly misses, but the rest watch in horror as he continues to cover it in patches of soil. Hinata swears he saw a cigarette butt fall near the bird’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Suga hisses.
“I’m burying it!”
“Nishinoya-san, you can stop.” Kageyama says. Wordlessly, he grabs a face towel from his backpack and picks up the dirt-bird pile. He walks to a nearby tree and gently puts it down. When he walks back to the group, wordlessly staring at him, his wide eyes are thoughtful. “It’s time for practice, isn’t it?”
“Um.” Daichi clears his throat. “Yes.” He unlocks the gym and tosses Suga the key. “Can you open the club room?”
Suga blinks. “Sure.” With Hinata and Kageyama, he walks towards the steps.
“Kageyama,” Suga gently starts. “Why were you staring at it for so long?”
Kageyama starts to unwrap an onigiri. He looks at Suga when he replies, “I couldn’t tell if it was alive or not.”
Hinata sneers. “What, you were gonna nurse it back to health?”
At that, Kageyama’s brows furrow. “Am I not supposed to?”
Hinata and Suga look at each other. Hinata rolls his eyes. “No, you are.”
Kageyama drops it. As they walk up the steps towards the club room, Hinata keeps looking at him. He watches Kageyama’s face contort when a piece of seaweed unravels. He ducks his head to catch a piece of salmon threatening to fall out. What a weirdo. He feels his chest tighten.
They don’t check up on the bird again.