Chapter Text
Seven days
--
Hinata Shouyou woke up to his alarm, which, for some reason, he still had going. It’s not like it mattered whether or not he was going to wake up, since in a couple of days, he would fall victim to eternal slumber. But even so, Hinata forced himself out of his bed and into his school uniform, shoveling his breakfast into his mouth and ran out of his home.
School was a little duller now that Hinata knew he wasn’t going to graduate. His friends started to notice Hinata’s sadness and did their best to cheer him up. They missed their ray of sunshine.
“Hinata!” Kageyama shouted from across the hallway, waving down the ginger lazily. “Practice will be going on a little later than usual today. Daichi told me when I passed by him earlier.”
“Oh?” Hinata’s mood perked up a bit, knowing he’d be with his friends for a little longer. “How long?”
“About an hour,” Kageyama responded. “Class is about to start, hurry your ass back.”
“Shut up, Kageyama! When did you start caring about getting to class on time?” Hinata mocked with a cheeky grin, sprinting away from his angry teammate. “Please don’t kill me I’m so sorry I take it back!”
“I’ll rip out your hair, dumbass!”
Both boys made it back to class with a minute to spare, the teacher walking in to see their heavy pants and angry glares. “Boys, if you two are going to act like this the entire time, I might as well just send you outside.”
“Sorry!” they both apologized, but their playful rage continued on.
Hinata looked away from Kageyama and frowned, his depressive cloud taking over his mind again. Kageyama noticed his expression and sighed, promising himself to send the boy better tosses during practice.
--
“I hope everyone has a good break! If you need to take remedial classes, don’t forget to come back on Monday!” their teacher said, packing up her belongings with the rest of the students. Many hurried out of the class and down to their lockers, changing shoes and then running home. It was the start of winter break, no one was going to spend too much time wandering about the school.
Hinata sat at his desk for a moment more, taking in the smaller details of the class that he hadn’t noticed earlier in the year. Apparently, there was a small scratch on the side of the chalkboard where someone likely scraped into. Hinata thoughts drifted from the chalkboard to his volleyball games, remembering his promise to say goodbye to the teams he'd gone up against as well.
“Shiratorizawa, then Fukurodani... Then Nekoma and Aoba Johsai,” Hinata thought aloud in a hushed voice, listing off the schools he could remember playing against. “How am I going to get the coaches to allow me to practice with them??”
His teacher took a glance back at Hinata, pausing mid step out into the hallway.
“Hinata,” she called out, knocking on the sliding door. “Are you okay?”
“Hmm? Oh! Yeah, I’m fine! I just spaced out is all,” Hinata truthfully lied, rubbing the back of his head apologetically. “I’ll be out in a second! Thank you.”
“Have fun at practice.”
“Goodbye!” Hinata watched as his teacher walked down the hallway and around a corner, disappearing from his sight. “Goodbye....”
“Oi! Dumbass! What are you still sitting there for?” Kageyama poked his head into the classroom and was almost tempted to smack the boy, but chose not to.
“Sorry sorry, I spaced,” Hinata laughed.
“You do that a lot.”
“You know what?! I’ll beat you to the club room even with the time I need to pack up!” Hinata watched as Kageyama took the challenge and ran off, leaving him alone. “Oh my god, I can’t even believe you took that seriously.”
Hinata quickly shoved all of his notebooks and stationary items into his bag, pushing in his chair and hurried out of the class. He caught his hand on the door, looking back at the empty chairs and freshly cleaned chalkboard. He was going to miss it, strangely.
...
“HA!” Kageyama pounded his hand on the clubroom door, kneeling over to catch a breath. Hinata was close behind and clearly mad; he was only a couple feet late too. “I beat you, you runt.”
“I’ll beat you in changing and going to the gym!” Hinata declared, kicking open the door and dropped his bag onto the mats. “Whoever wins has to get the other one two meat buns after practice!”
“All right, bet!” Kageyama did the same as Hinata and ripped off his shirt, barely folding it before throwing it onto a shelf.
Hinata was already in his pants and at the door, Kageyama picking up speed and chased down Hinata while still pulling up his own shorts.
“You’ll never beat me!” Hinata cackled, leaping from the top of the staircase. “You’d better have enough money for those meat buns!”
“I’d kiss trash before getting you anything!” Kageyama flew down the stairs as well, a single step away from passing the ginger.
“BOYS!” Daichi’s voice froze the two first years in place, both already sweating and waiting for absolute punishment. “Can you both get ready and go to the gym like normal guys? No shouting? No racing? Just.. A casual walk to the gym?”
“Daichi, let them do whatever,” Suga cut in, leaning against the gym doors. “After all, they seem to enjoy it either way.”
Their captain sighed, agreeing with Suga and let the two off the hook. Hinata strolled into the gym first, beating Kageyama and reminding him about the meat buns. Kageyama, albeit pissed that Hinata got in first, agreed. The small bet made his friend happy, so Kageyama couldn’t just refuse.
--
Their practice ended and everyone headed back to the club room together, Hinata drifting to the back of the pack. He fiddled with the ends of his fingernails, accidentally breaking one in the process.
“Hey guys?” Hinata spoke up, halting all movement from his teammates. “Would you all mind if we met up at some point this week? Since it’s winter break, I wanted to see all of you!”
“I would love that, Hinata,” Suga was the first to agree, putting his practice shirt into his bag. “Where were you thinking of going?”
“Just a little ramen shop around the corner,” Hinata answered.
“I’d also enjoy going!” Tanaka and Nishinoya both said, wrapping their arms around the first year. “Who wouldn’t want to spend some time with their kohai?”
“Do I have a choice?” Tsukishima whispered, Yamaguchi lightly punching the blond’s arm. “Okay okay, we’ll go. I’m free Sunday.”
“If everyone is free Sunday, we can meet then,” Daichi waited for Suga to finish packing up his belongings, leaning against the back wall and waved Tsukishima and Yamaguchi goodbye. “We’ll figure out a time tomorrow.”
“Awesome!” Hinata’s eyes lit up with excitement, his whole body radiating energy and sunlight. “I’m already excited!!”
“You seemed pretty down today, though.. Is there a reason why you proposed this?” Suga asked before leaving, noticing a heavy weight suddenly slam down upon Hinata’s shoulders.
“Oh. Uh, well, nothing necessarily... I just wanted to meet up with everyone outside of practice. We haven’t really done anything like that outside of games,” Hinata didn’t really lie here, per se, but he couldn’t actually tell them the truth either. “I just thought, since it’s the break, why not have a little team bonding? We only have practice four times this week out of the two weeks we have off. It would be sad if we didn’t see each other for so long!”
“You have a point,” Suga accepted Hinata’s answer and left the club with a smile and wave, leaving Hinata and Kageyama by themselves.
“You were off the entire day. There’s no way you were upset about not seeing us for two weeks,” Kageyama said bluntly. He noticed the slight twitch in Hinata’s shoulders and frowned. “Is there something you’re leaving out?”
“Nothing! Nothing at all,” Hinata lied, scratching the base of his neck. “I don’t know, maybe I’ve gotten too attached to everyone. You all feel like family, you know?”
“Mm.” Kageyama grunted. “Come on, let’s get going. It’s supposed to snow this evening.”
“I’ll beat you to the store??”
“If I lose another race, I’ll run out of money,” Kageyama grabbed the top of Hinata’s head and dragged him out of the room, turning out the lights and closing the pre-locked door. “You still want those meat buns?”
“Duh?” Hinata laughed.
He and Kageyama walked down to coach Ukai’s store, ordering three meat buns-two for Hinata and one for Kageyama-before saying goodbye.
“Goodbye, coach!” Hinata waved at his coach and exited through the double doors, biting into one of his meat buns. “Thanks, Kageyama.”
“Don’t expect me to do it again. I’ll beat you next time you propose something like this,” Kageyama rolled his eyes, but hid a smile behind his own bun. “The only reason why you won is because you cheated.”
“HUH?!” Hinata choked on his food, a vein popping from his forehead. “No I didn’t! You just suck!!”
“ Say that again I dare you, asshole ,” Kageyama glared down at the ginger and clearly asserted his place in their friendship, Hinata muttering unintelligible things into his food. “See ya, Hinata.”
“Goodbye!”
Hinata watched Kageyama walk the opposite direction from him, the smile Hinata had grown wearing away. He looked down at the second bun he’d gotten from Kageyama and held it close to his chest, holding back the tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
...
Hinata arrived home about five minutes after he left Kageyama, eating the last bite from his meat bun. He took off his shoes and threw away the bag his food was held in, letting out a hefty yawn and strolled into his room.
“I have food for you in the refrigerator if you’re hungry, Shouyou,” his mother poked her head into Hinata’s room and looked at her son, who’d flopped down onto his bed to hide the tears he failed to contain. “Shouyou?”
“Ah!” Hinata said, although muffled. “Sorry, I’m just a little tired. We played three on three this whole evening... I’m not that hungry either; I’ll eat it if I want to eat later this evening.”
“Don’t stay up too late then, sweetie,” she closed his door and left, entering her own room and set herself to sleep.
“Keeping things from my own mother is challenging,” Hinata thought to himself, lifting his face from his pillow. There was a face-ish thing on it from his tears and snot. Hinata laughed. “What in the hecky is that?”
The alarm clock to Hinata’s left read “ten-fifteen”, the ginger shutting his eyes to block out the light. “I forgot to take a shower...”
He’d do that in the morning... For now, he needed to figure out how he was going to ask to practice at Shiratorizawa. Hinata could ask Ushijima, since now he knows where Ushijima runs. Or maybe Tendou? Who knows. There’s not a chance that the coach would let him join, though. From the looks Hinata received from the older man, he didn’t like the kid.
“Oh well,” Hinata thought, consciousness drifting away. “Maybe I should just show up for it? I mean, I’ve done it before... I hope their coach won’t mind too much....”