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0. Tsukishima.
After his first day as ball boy, Hinata doesn’t feel any better than before. He can’t believe he’s put himself in such a humiliating situation. It’s suiting, though. Everyone else is miles and miles ahead of him anyway, and even running as fast as he can, he won’t ever be able to catch up. He’s stuck.
“...We have to go to school tomorrow like usual.”
Tsukishima’s words eventually register, cutting through Hinata’s pity-party.
“Tsukishima-san.” Hinata can barely meet his teammate’s eyes. Tsukishima has witnessed all of it. His stupid idea, its repercussions, his humiliation. “I-I-I’m... Sorry for the trouble—“
“Yeah, could you not apologize? It’s not like being an impulsive dumbass is anything new for you.” Tsukishima’s cutting tone is cold as ice. And he isn’t done. “You’re mad that you can’t even really touch the ball?” he taunts. “Serves you right. Wanna cry, saying you’re gonna quit? Keep doing your best, ball boy.” The words are like vitriol. “Make sure you don’t waste a precious five days of practice before the Spring Tournament!”
His tirade done, Tsukishima walks out, leaving Hinata alone in the gym, crushed by the scorching scolding he’s gotten from his peer.
But Tsukishima is right. He has to stop apologizing for this, making it other people’s burden to forgive him. He’s made his bed, he’ll lie in it.
And he has to find a way to make this all worth it. And for that, he needs to be convinced that this was the right choice, ball boy and all.
1. His mom.
His mom gets to him first. The school called her to keep her informed while she was at work, and she’s had all day to work up her anger.
As soon as he’s through the door that evening, she grabs his upper arm and starts smacking his behind with the back of a rice spatula.
“Of all - the irresponsible - things - you’ve done - this - takes - the cake!”
She must’ve been waiting for him, ready to ambush. Hinata grits his teeth and takes it, twitching slightly with each sharp sting.
“Did you even think of the repercussions? The school called me, I was mortified! This is not how I raised you!”
When he’s had enough of her vigorous onslaught, Hinata steps away from her. He’s abrupt enough that she lets go, and she glares at him instead, crossing her arms.
“Well?” she asks. “Do you have anything to say?”
Hinata’s face is red, but stony.
“You raised me to never give up and to fight to better myself,” he replies. “That’s what I’m doing.”
She splutters in outrage.
“You, I, I never– That’s not– It, I never told you to ignore common social rules and go about imposing your presence in places you weren’t invited!”
Hinata looks at her, his eyes filled with a mixture of determination and despair.
“Everyone is going on without me. Kageyama is at a training camp with the best people in japan. JAPAN, mom! I can’t be, I won’t be left behind!”
By the time he’s done, he’s teared up a bit, and angrily wipes at his face. It hurt so much when Kageyama looked at him with a mean glint in his eye and said he was going on without him, without Hinata. And Hinata can’t even claim it isn’t fair, because he knows he has so much more to learn, and he knows Kageyama is amazing, but being denied two awesome opportunities in a row had really hit him hard. He needed to do something about it. Sneaking into Shiratorizawa's training camp had seemed like the only good option at the time.
"Well, as you know, the school called me, and told me they've made arrangements and come to an agreement with coach Washijou. But both coach Ukai and Takeda sensei want a word with you tomorrow. I hope what you do at that camp will be worthwhile, because you are going to have displeasure rained upon you from all sides, Shouyou."
The boy nods, and he must look pitiful enough, because his mother's face softens and she pulls him into a hug. She's shorter than him now, and Hinata tucks his face against her hair.
"Now now, Shouyou," she says, patting him briskly on the back. "Let's have supper eh?"
Supper helps his mood immensely, but Hinata still feels queasy as he tries to fall asleep. He has a long day ahead of him tomorrow.
2. Daichi.
“I can’t believe this, Hinata. This is utterly disgraceful.”
Daichi’s callused hand flies down hard and impacts Hinata’s clothed bottom in solid, stern spanks.
Hinata grits his teeth. This has happened before, when his bad grades had impacted his volleyball club attendance, but he’d never managed to stay quiet and stoic like he is now. It hurts, and stings, and is embarrassing, especially since Suga and Asahi are present, as co-captain and upperclassman respectively. Hinata can see them between his legs, upside-down. Asahi is flinching slightly with every smack, his expression torn between one of sternness and pity. Suga has an unreadable look on his face, like he hasn’t decided how to approach the situation yet.
Hinata shifts his footing and braces himself, wiping his sweaty hands off to get a better grip on his knees. There’s nothing he’s willing to say that would calm Daichi down, so he shuts up and takes the reprimand.
Thankfully, Daichi finishes the spanking quickly, while still making quite an impact. He then has Hinata kneel while he lectures him, going on about responsibility and accountability and proper behavior, and Hinata would usually zone out on this but this time, he can’t. He feels too guilty about following his ambition instead of thinking about his team. He’s shrinking in on himself, he knows, because he can’t bear to stand tall when he’s disappointed his captain this much. The lecture keeps going on for a good ten minutes.
“How many times do I have to tell you, you need to always consider how your actions will affect others!”
Hinata swallows and nods, close to tears. Suddenly, Sugawara pipes up.
“Good going Hinata!” he exclaims with a wink.
Hinata’s stomach drops. He can’t tell if Suga is being sarcastic or if he has ulterior motives, but either way, Daichi’s wrath shifts away from Hinata.
“Suga!” he scolds as Asahi breaks and starts laughing awkwardly.
“Whoops, my bad,” grins Suga, rubbing at his head, and Hinata realizes with relief that Suga did this for him, because he took pity on him. Which means he’s not angry at Hinata.
Daichi turns back to him and the boy tenses up again, ready for more scolding, but Daichi just sighs, deflated, lecture cut off in its tracks.
“Just make sure you learn something from this. Don’t make these five lost days.”
Hinata nods quickly.
“I swear.”
“Okay. You can go.”
Hinata doesn’t need to be told twice.
3. Coach Ukai.
Surprisingly, coach Ukai’s reprimand feels like it is the mildest so far. It’s not really. The coach’s small paddle being applied over and over again, reviving the sting from Daichi’s punishment, hurts probably more than both the spatula and hand combined. But Ukai isn’t angry, just calm and resigned, which significantly changes the way Hinata sees the reprimand.
When he’s thoroughly warmed up Hinata’s seat, so the boy is close to tears and his behind feels like fire is being applied to it, coach Ukai stops. He gives Hinata a shoulder squeeze and has him sit down (gingerly) for tea and a talk. Hinata thinks he’s going to get lectured again, but again, coach Ukai surprises him.
“So... did you really think they’d let you join the practice if you went?”
Apparently it’s not a lecture. It’s actually a talk. Taking his time to make sure his voice won’t waver, Hinata replies.
“Everyone’s so far ahead of me, so I wanted to do something to catch up.”
Coach Ukai crosses his arms and makes a face Hinata can’t quite decipher. After a breath, he replies.
“That doesn’t make it okay for you to cause everyone trouble.”
Ah, maybe it’s a little bit a lecture then.
“Right.”
“So you volunteered to be a ball boy?”
Hinata is tense. His coach has excellent reason to scold him for this. He’ll be spending time filling water bottles and picking up stray volleyballs instead of honing his technique and studying team strategies.
“Yeah,” he admits.
“You stuck your nose in all this,” simply states coach Ukai. “You better not regret this. Think about what it is that only you can do there.”
Hinata takes the words seriously, intently focused on what coach Ukai is saying. He’s the first one to offer concrete advice, which Hinata could really do with right now. He’s determined to make it all worthwhile, so any hint as to how to achieve that is a lifeline.
“Also... don’t go underestimating what it takes to be a ball boy.”
4. Takeda-sensei.
The spanking this time is a formality. It is administered in front of the headmaster, five strokes of a bamboo cane with Hinata lying down on his stomach and Takeda-sensei kneeling next to him. It is impersonal, and painful in a way that steals Hinata’s breath away. He’ll never underestimate Takeda-sensei again.
It’s simultaneously the longest and shortest spanking Hinata’s ever experienced. It hurts so much it feels endless in the moment, but it’s also over before he can begin to digest it.
One second he’s gripping his hair for dear life, trying to cope with the pain, and the next he’s kneeling in front of Takeda-Sensei, trying not to shake too visibly as he is stared at.
He notices that at some point the headmaster has retreated, and is now peeking from beyond a partition.
After a long while of complete silence, during which Hinata re-evaluates all of his life choices, Takeda-Sensei finally decides to speak.
“'He who climbs the ladder must begin at the bottom.' To become good at something, you must follow the proper steps. That is all. Is there anything you’d like to say?”
Hinata can’t wait to get out of the oppressive teacher’s room and away from Takeda-Sensei’s unnerving stare.
“No sir,” he replies.
And it’s true, he has nothing to say. He'd already apologized to Takeda-Sensei on the phone. There’s nothing else to say.
“You may go,” Takeda says simply.
Hinata stands up woodenly, bows stiffly, and walks to the door, fighting a wince with every step.
5.
Hinata wobbles out of the teacher’s room on weakened legs. He got through it. It’s finally over. There’s no one left to yell at him.
The boy is so out of it he barely startles as Tanaka suddenly slides up next to him.
“One lecture after another for you, eh?”
Hinata makes a face. Tanaka is spot-on.
“What about Daichi-san?” Tanaka asks with suppressed glee.
Hinata closes his eyes and deflates. Tanaka’s face becomes a bit more kind and compassionate, but he is still clearly amused.
“He got me first thing this morning.”
“Well, I mean, you are pretty sucky. Make sure you learn a special move or something. You don’t really get the opportunity to play with players from other teams.” He pats the boy’s back. “Don’t panic too much.”
Hinata still looks very troubled. He’s been punished by everyone, but he still doesn’t feel like he’s atoned properly. He doesn’t really get why Tanaka is being kind to him when he should be at least as angry as Tsukishima was.
“I’m sorry,” he finally says. The apology he didn’t, couldn’t voice earlier. Couldn’t tell his mom, his captain, his coach, his teacher.
The burden of forgiveness that only his teammates can actually grant him.
Before Tanaka can say anything and before Hinata can elaborate his apology, Nishinoya pops out of nowhere and bounds towards them.
“Shouyou!” he exclaims. “How’s the training camp going?”
He looks so excited about it, so enthusiastic, and he’s the first one to actually ask. Slowly, bubbles of excitement Hinata didn’t let himself feel earlier start manifesting in his gut.
“Th-the guy who’s two meters tall is super huge!” he says, matching Noya’s tone.
Noshinoya is delighted.
“So that one guy’s there too? Uh... Manzawa!”
“You mean Hyakuzawa” Tanaka corrects him.
And they keep bombarding Hinata with questions and happy reactions and positivity until his next class.
Yeah... they’ve forgiven him already. He’ll be fine.
The End