Chapter Text
My name is Kageyama Tobio. My name is said backward because that's just how Japanese is. I'm Sixteen years old. I have an older sister, her name is Miwa. Our parents are almost never home. My sister makes sure I stay inside because she says I'll get hurt. I know what it looks like outside, but I bet it looks better outside the windows.
"Hey little bro," the young woman gently taps his shoulder, ruffling her sibling's hair. "I'm going out today, don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, okay?" She teases him, gently pinching his slightly rounded cheeks which still reminded her of how he looked when he was a baby. Too bad there weren't many pictures.
"Why can you if I can't?" The ravenette looks up at her from where he had been staring at his thighs. There wasn't much else for him to do.
Miwa smiles sympathetically "because I'm not like you. And I'm not a little brat-"
"Ow!"
Tobio hissed as his older sister lightly kicked him in the ankle, causing him to huff.
"Be good, okay? I'll kill you if you do anything stupid while I'm not home," Miwa hums as she waltzes off to the front door, whimsically unlocking the many locks attached to their front door before winking at him as she slipped out the door.
Kageyama sighs, pushing himself up off the couch, shoving his hands in his pockets as he wanders the house. This was no particularly special house. A normal family house, nothing else. Just him, hidden away from everywhere else. He could walk out of here if he wanted to, but he didn't want to die that badly.
Slowly, the teen approaches the window that faced their backyard, pushing aside the curtains just enough to see into the actual backyard. It's a mess, no one has been out there since he was four. Except in the opposite yard. In the opposite yard was a boy who was probably about his age but looked much younger, swinging around his little sister. He isn't sure when, but at some point, their eyes meet. A spark flies through his body and he draws in a sharp breath, quickly backing up.
Did he spot him that easily?
He stands there for a moment, still and unmoving for at least two minutes before slowly leaning towards the window again, peeking out from behind the curtain only to be greeted with big round brown eyes.
"Holy-" he stumbled back, promptly falling on his ass. Where the hell did this kid come from? He wasn't here before! And he looked like a damned orange. Once again puzzled and a bit startled, he pulls back the curtains again. This time he sees his whole face.
Pale skin with sun-kissed freckles that spotted his cheeks. Curly orange hair framed his smiling face as he leaned against the window frame.
"Hi," he says a small gap between his two front teeth.
Tobio stared at him for a moment. Slowly he lifts the window, the smaller make leaning inside to look at him more closely. "Uh Hey."
"Have you always been here?" The redhead asks, tilting his head slightly.
"I have, why do you ask?"
"Hmmm, well I've never seen you before! What's your name?" He asks. Kageyama bites his bottom lip nervously. What was he supposed to say to this weird boy?
"Kageyama," he answers flatly. "Erm Tobio" he corrects as it occurs to him that everyone in his family is Kageyama.
The small teen raises his eyebrows "I thought you were dead!" He says with enthusiasm in an oddly calm way. As he studies the confusion on Tobio's face he explains. "Everyone around here was told that the Kageyama's son had died at age four right before his fifth birthday. It wasn't like anybody ever saw the kid. Everyone just thought they lost their son. You're technically dead," the boy chuckles, clearly finding it funnier than he did. "I was the same age but it's the only funeral I've ever been to."
"What's your name?" He asks quickly.
"Shouyo Hinata. Can I come in?" The redhead, now known as Hinata asks. Against his better judgement, he steps away from the window, allowing the smaller teen to climb inside. He looks a lot smaller when he's standing right in front of him.
"So…" Hinata fumbles with his hands. "You haven't been outside since you were four?"
Kageyama shakes his head.
"Really?" His brown eyes are wide with interest. "Why? It was practically impossible to see over here from my yard until two weeks ago! There was always. A bunch of shit on the fence! Okay well what about friends, got any?"
Kageyama pauses for a moment before saying "No, not anymore. I had a few before I had to stay inside. I don't know where they are now. Why are you asking so many questions?" He responds. When he was little he received more than just the 'don't talk to strangers' lecture. He wasn't allowed to go to the hospital or the police about anything because his parents said he would die.
"Ummm well I'm really curious about the boy that hasn't left his house in what? Twelve years?" Shouyo raises his eyebrow and a good point. He'd never thought it was too weird until someone was saying it back to him.
"What about you?" Kageyama starts, making Hinata tilt his head curiously. "How many friends do you have?" He tilts his chin up slightly because even though he's already looking down at him it still makes him feel powerful.
Hinata chuckles "Some. Not many. I haven't left either. Not since I was nine. My friend's from Elementary school visit me sometimes. Everyone is supposed to think I'm too sick to go anywhere. It's not true, I'm not sick at all." He has a smile on his face the whole time, making his words sound a bit more sinister.
"Then why? Why does your mom tell everyone that you're sick if you're not just to make you stay inside?" Tobio knows he's pushing his luck and boundaries here, but he just wanted to learn. He wasn't going to know anything if he didn't do this.
Hinata just grins again "Because I'm not like everyone else. I can do things no one else can," he sounds evil, but Kageyama almost chuckles because he's being playful.
"Why can you if I can't?"
"Because I'm not like you. And I'm not a little brat-"
He exhales shakily as he watches Hinata's expression shift into a visible combination of fear and amazement. "How did you know...that it was my mom if you've never seen me before?" His voice is slow, clearly confused.
"I don't...know. I just did."
Shouyo takes a noticeable step back towards the window. "I didn't...tell you that. All you saw was my little sister. I thought this was gonna be fun but that was creepy, I-" Hinata turns back towards the window, but in a panic, Kageyama reaches out to him, grabbing onto his wrist and feeling the static that shocked their skin on contact.
'Hold on a second!'
Shouyo freezes instantly, turning his head slowly to meet his eyes again. "...What?"
Tobio loosens his grip slowly. "Huh…? Uh, Is it really okay for you to go home? You'll get hurt."
Hinata's hand is shaking as he stares at him, eventually snapping out of it and yanking his hand away. He looks like he's about to cry.
'You can wait until your mom gets home, can't you?'
"Stop that, it's scary!" Shouyo cries, putting his hands over his ears to stop the voice that had newly invaded his head. He's in tears now. They both freeze up as a lock clicks. Kageyama looks towards the door briefly before turning his head back to where Hinata stood. But Hinata wasn't standing there anymore. He was gone and the window was shut.
"Because I'm not like everyone else. I can do things no one else can,"
Oh damn, he wasn't kidding. He returns his eyes to the door as his family walks through the door. He watches the horror slowly register.
"Oh no...Oh no...Oh no no no," Miwa rushes forward, grabbing a hold of his face with unnecessary aggression. "Tobio, what did you do? What did you do?!" She snapped. "Damnit, I thought…" she trails off, stepping back and revealing her hands, stained with blood from his face. There was blood...dripping from his eye.
Miwa turns back to their parents "Mom, you said-"
"I know what I said, would you relax? We don't even know it is! It could be anything, maybe a disease, a doctor's visit is in order!" His mother exclaims.
"You're lying." Tobio interrupts, startling his parents and sister. "You know what is happening to me and you want to hide me even more. You are praying that I'll die. You want to take me somewhere that they'll give you money for me Or something. You're afraid that I'll kill you."
Everyone is still and frozen as the atmosphere weighs heavy on the room.
"Tobio, you're fine, it's fine, everything's fine," His mother tries to reassure him.
"No...it's not. I'm not like you...it's not like everybody else and you just don't like it!"
Kageyama takes a deep breath and storms off to his room, slamming the door behind him. He plops down on the bed, laying back and staring at the ceiling. He closes his eyes, exhaling slowly. He wasn't loved here, was he? They just didn't want him to do damage.
'Are you still in my head, Kageyama?'
'I didn't do that on purpose earlier. What would I want to know about you for? I thought you were just a weirdo.'
'I was just freaked out, that was super cool. I wish I could get into people's minds. I'd say a bunch of freaky shit. Make them think they're being haunted or some shit.'
Kageyama covers his mouth with the back of his hand, chuckling.
'You're still a weirdo, moron. How the hell did you get out of the house that fast?'
'I teleported, duh.'
'You can do that?'
'Of fucking course, I can.'
Kageyama laughs again, feeling the mattress depress beside him, causing him to look to the side. He nearly falls off his bed when he sees a familiar redhead beside him. Instead, he sits up.
"You're not in my head anymore," Hinata says.
"Did you just…?"
Hinata giggles, but Kageyama puts his finger to his lips. "Shut up, dumbass! If we get caught, we're done." He whisper-shouts.
Shouyo huffs and nods.
"What else can you do?" Tobio shuffles a little closer, curious about this strange boy who wasn't much of a stranger now but was still strange beyond belief.
"I'm really fast and I can climb on almost anything."
"I think climbing is more of a skill, not a superpower."
"Okay well, whatever. I can run somewhere or teleport there. That's what makes me special. And you-" he likes Tobio's chest "Get into people's heads."
"I don't get it," Kageyama replied.
Hinata rolls his eyes "You're like- telepathic. You can talk to people in their heads which is super cool by the way. But also...you can see our memories."
"Memories?" Kageyama echoes.
"It's like- you don't know what I'm thinking, but your power pulls pieces of my memory to figure out what I'm thinking about or whatever. I wasn't thinking about my life at home but you knew my mom wasn't home. And I know you know why. And I should've listened…" Shouyo looks down at the wrinkled blankets.
"If I hadn't gone home for maybe 30 more seconds I wouldn't have gotten hit. My Dad saw me run into the house. I'm like a blur of color, easy to spot too."
"Hinata-"
"Let's stop talking about being special for a second. What about…" Despite being the one to suggest it, Shouyo pauses to think of something to say. "I'm guessing you've never had a relationship?"
Kageyama shook his head, the obvious answer. Who the hell would he have even been in one with? When he doesn't respond verbally, Hinata takes it as a chance to give his own answer to his question. "I have."
Kageyama raised an eyebrow, not believing him until he spoke more.
"He was special too."
Kageyama wonders if his eyebrows have hit the ceiling yet.
Once again, Hinata speaks in response to his expression "A cat boy."
"A what?"
"I'm being literal," Hinata says. "His ears were pointy like the elves in fairy tales and then became fluffy. He stayed in my room like a pet and turned human at night. No one knew he was a person but me. My sister knocked something over one day and blamed the cat."
"...Your dad shot him."
Hinata nodded, pushing back his bright bangs. He didn't kill him. He's too quick and smart. Instead, my dad blew a hole into my bedroom floor and his shoulder. He got away. I wish I could find him again but a special boy in that condition probably couldn't survive long but...I want to try."
"How do you plan to do that, you idiot? If you try to leave you'll probably be the next one on the business end of the shotgun," Kageyama hissed.
Hinata sighed, flopping back on the bed, rolling over onto his side, and staring at the wall. "You're rude," he complains. Kageyama scoffs "And? You're in my house. You invited yourself here, not me. What else do you want?"
"I'm bored, that's all. You're really okay just...staying here? Hiding forever? We could leave, y'know! Would you rather die here or out there? Not even trying to see what it's like outside!" He jumps up again, this time on his knees as he leans close to Kageyama's face. "There's gotta be something that you think is worth running away for!"
"Tobio-chan, Iwa-chan is being so mean to me!"
He shakes his head quickly "No."
"Are you sure?" Shouyo's face is barely a few inches from his, his light brown eyes wide and curious as they looked directly into his own dark blue ones.
"Back up, Hinata.."
"We're smart, they won't find us!"
'Hinata! Just shut the fuck up!'
The redhead flinches, his hands covering his ears as Kageyama's voice echoes in his head like a cave. He doesn't know what to do as the smaller male begins to cry softly.
Hinata's mind seemed to be racing so fast that he could barely get through, but raising his voice would be a problem for both of them. If he got caught with someone in here he didn't even want to find out what would happen. He takes a deep breath.
'Just go home. I'll see you tomorrow.'
'Maybe not.'
'What are you talking about?' His expression sours. He had no reason to care about this kid that much. How did one glance turn into this? Not only that but he upset him twice and it's only 7 pm. Was he really that bad at talking to him? It made sense but still, that wasn't the point.
'Don't you remember what you said? I'll be on the business end of that gun. Or the bad guys will come get me. Either way, I'm dead if I'm not gone tomorrow!'
'Shouyo! Go. Home.'
The redhead's face is nearly as red as his hair, upset and frustrated, scooting back as he vanished right in front of his eyes. Geez…
-----
My name is Shouyo Hinata. I'm sixteen years old and I have a little sister named Natsu. My mom lies to people and tells them I'm sick, but I have friends that come over sometimes. I don't wanna die. But I might.
Kageyama jumps as he hears a knock on the door from downstairs. Naturally, he gets to his feet but hesitates. He wasn't supposed to be seen. But he couldn't help but think about the conversation the previous night. He slowly heads down the stairs, his sister rushing over, her finger to her lips the moment his toe touched the floorboards at the bottom of the steps.
"Shh! The cops are here"
"What for?"
"Freak across the street," she answers simply. Wow, rude enough.
"You mean...the house behind us?" Kageyama raises an eyebrow, his expression shifting as it slowly registered what was happening. Hinata wasn't kidding. Well of course he wasn't but he didn't think it'd be that fast.
"Tobio."
"Huh?"
"How did you know about the kid in the house behind us? Did you see him? If you saw him you have to tell me, or else they're going to find you." Miwa said. Kageyama swallowed nervously. His heart starts to race as he glances back up towards the stairs. Was it too late? Was there nothing he could do? Was he already gone?
"Tobio, look at me. How did you know?"
Fuck it. He takes two steps back and spins on his feet, taking the stairs two at a time as his sister thundered up behind him. He nearly tripped as he slid across the floor in his socks, grabbing onto his bedroom door and slamming it shut as he slipped inside, locking it from the inside.
"Tobio, what did you do?! Open the damn door, what is wrong with you!?"
What do I do? What do I do, what do I do? what do I do?!
He scrambles to grab his bookbag, old, probably his sister's old bag but it'll work. He shoves clothes inside, grabbing whatever random bottles of water or small bags of snacks were thrown lazily around his bedroom. He jumps as the wood of the door cracks. Miwa is shouting at the top of her lungs, countless profanities he wasn't even sure if he knew. He covers his ears, stumbling back towards the window.
"Leave me alone….leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone-"
His vision starts going blurry, the room spinning around him.
"Ma'am, what's going on here?"
"My brother! He doesn't listen! That stupid...freak!"
"Go away, go away, go away go away go away-"
'Let's disappear.'
He turns quickly towards the window, and he didn't think he'd ever be so happy to see someone who got on his nerves so much. He struggles to open the window as the door is being reduced to splinters. Shouyo is almost smiling at him, but it's hard to read his expression with the blood on his face.
It feels like a disturbing energy passes through him, causing him to wince, but it makes him realize quickly enough that everything has gone still and quiet. Frozen. He looks behind him to see that in fact the wooden pieces flying into his room had paused midair.
"How did you-"
"I didn't" Shouyo answers quickly, pulling Tobio's attention back to Hinata's face. "I'm not alone. I told you I still had friends," a light giggle leaves him, although he's subsequently smacked upside the head, not by Kageyama, but someone else precariously standing on the edge of the roof.
"We don't have all day!" Shouts the male who he can't see from inside the room, but is presumably the one who froze everything around them.
"I know, I'm not dumb, saltyshima!"
"Debatable."
"Whatever!" The redhead huffs, grabbing Kageyama by the straps of his bag, and says "This is gonna feel weird."
There is nothing more considered a heads up as his senses all blackout at once.
When it feels like he's back to reality, he stumbles, falling right on his ass as his vision takes its time coming back. He felt sick after that. He hears Hinata laughing at his misfortune but also being scolded by someone. He blinks a few times before he can clearly see the smaller by sitting in front of him. There's still dried blood on his face but that doesn't seem to be bothering him.
"You stupid asshole," he hisses, his eyes narrowed at Shouyo who just smiles nervously.
"It's not my fault, it just does that!" He says, shuffling up a bit closer and out of the way, making him realize that he's in a house. Not far from home just based on the structure. Also based on the not-so-distant gunshots.
"You need to learn how to give somebody a warning once in a while!" That same unfamiliar voice from earlier says to Hinata. He follows his gaze to a tall blonde. He wore glasses but the lense on one side was badly cracked. A dark-haired male was practically clinging to him. He glances over at Hinata.
'Is he afraid of me?'
Hinata chuckles and answers "Probably" out loud rather than in his head like before. The blonde doesn't even say anything else to them, considering the fact that Hinata didn't reply to him. He just sits down at the wooden dining table, the smaller boy who was with him hovering nervously beside him as it sounded like he was suffering a congested cough, but upon further inspection, Tobio could see the blood that fell from his mouth.
"What happened?"
"Nothing," Hinata replied, his gaze shifting sideways to look at him. "That just happens when we use our powers too much. " He shuffles around to sit in front of the ravenette once again. "Okay okay, so I guess there's stuff you need to know!"
Kageyama raises an eyebrow, his usual response to the confusing shit that comes out of Hinata's mouth.
"When Daichi and Asahi get back, they can explain more to you, but you just have to deal with me right now!" Shouyo says happily "We're all hiding. So we have to be careful."
"You're not very good at that," Tobio remarks.
"I am too! It wasn't my fault! You're the one who almost got killed a few minutes ago! I mean I was too but anyway! We have to stay inside for a while until this blows over. Daichi is gonna find us a new place, but the thing is that we have to get there without our powers," Hinata explains.
"Why would you when you can teleport and shit? You sound stupid," Kageyama hissed. Hinata opens his mouth to respond, but gets cut off by a female voice.
"It's not that easy," An older girl with long black hair now sits with them on the floor, sporting a black crop top and jeans. She has glasses as well, but hers are in perfect condition. "Hinata would pass out before he would be able to get us all back and forth. The blonde one over there- Tsukishima can freeze time outside of a bubble that he creates. A bubble big enough for all of us for the span of time it would take to walk or even drive wouldn't last long enough for us to get there safely within his limits," she explains.
"It's what we'll have to do to stay alive. Pretending to be normal is better than what we've all had to do up until we got here." The girl stands up, reaching her hand out and pulling a still-dizzy Kageyama to his feet.
A startling thud from the ceiling directly above startles him, making his eyes widen a bit. The girl just waves her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about that. There's two boys upstairs, they'll drive you insane. Until Daichi and Asahi get back, you should meet everyone else. I'm Kiyoko," she gives him a little smile.
Before he can respond, Hinata is pulling on his arm, dragging him towards the kitchen.
"Hey! Cut that out you dumbass!" He snaps, trying to pull his arm away, but the grip Hinata has on him is shockingly relentless.
In the kitchen, there are three people- a short blonde girl who they walk in just in time to see light the stove with her index finger. Off to the side is a shirtless guy with silver hair, his face obscured by his bangs as a black-haired guy tends to a nasty gash on the former's side. He's the first to look up from what he was doing and notice them.
"Hey there, you were knocked out when you got here. You look pretty shaken," he says as he stands up. The silver-haired guy probably wouldn't have even looked up if he hadn't.
"I'm Ennoshita," The one with dark hair says with a calm smile.
"Um-" the small girl starts "I'm Yachi! I-It's nice to meet you! I was just uh- working on setting stuff up so I could help Asahi make food when he gets back!" She gives more information than necessary but is clearly nervous. Despite their introductions, the guy with silver hair still says nothing to them.
Hinata is the one who approaches the little table he's sitting at, leaning over until he's right up in his face. Did he ever understand the concept of personal space? "Suga-senpai!" He says cheerfully. The gray eyes of the male fade to a soft hazel-brown and he smiles "Hinata, when did you get back?" He asks, leaning back in his chair.
"A few minutes ago! And that's the guy I brought!" Hinata energetically points to Kageyama who smiles faintly and waves awkwardly. The one named Suga chuckles. "I'm Sugawara Koushi, nice to meet you," he stands up despite a brief protest from Ennoshita.
"Uh is everybody here... special?" Kageyama asks, his awkwardness not tapering off in the slightest.
"Yep," Suga answers, putting his hands on his hips. "We can't exactly let ourselves trust many normal people," he explains.
"So what was...that?" Tobio questions, referring to whatever dissociative state the older male had been in a moment ago.
"Me being special," Suga says with a soft chuckle. "But really, I'm probably the least interesting one, so you should just talk to the others instead. Oh! But uh don't go upstairs yet, little monster rolling thunder and his sidekick are messing around and the last thing we need is for you to get struck by lightning or something," he warns casually, clearly avoiding the given question.
Ennoshita hovers his hand over the side of Shouyo's face, the wound that had caused all the bleeding closing up right before his eyes. It made him cringe a little but he was equally as fascinated.
"There's not even anyone else to talk to!" Hinata complained as if he didn't already know everyone here. "Tadashi doesn't talk to strangers, so-"
He's cut off by the sound of the front door opening, which startles everybody. Footsteps grow louder as they head right for them, and in walks a guy who was shorter than Kageyama, but was big and his aura was dangerous. Nobody had to tell him that this was Daichi and the slightly bigger guy behind him was Asahi.
What was most startling, however, was that Daichi was in a police uniform, approaching him without a single word and flashing a purple flashlight at his face. He can't see it on his own face, but he can see the glowing streaks on Ennoshita's face just beside him where blood used to be. Once again he's fascinated.
"Let him see," Asahi suggests, his voice softer than he had expected. To his surprise, though, Daichi puts the small flashlight in his hands. He turns to Hinata who narrows his eyes, blinking rapidly at the light being shined directly in his face as the blood on his face glows, along with long streaks on the other side of his face. When he flashes the light towards Yachi, she grins nervously as the ghosts of bloody tears light up on her cheeks.
With Suga, it's the same result except he looks away. The faint remnants of blood are coming from his nose as well. He turns off the light.
'What happened to you?' He thinks.
"Get out of my head, Kageyama," he mumbles. For a moment he pauses before turning back to Daichi who now had his arms crossed. It felt like he'd just pissed off the Alpha male of a wolf pack. It was kind of cool that they could feel when he was trying to do something. But also scary.
"You're scary," he says suddenly, a thought that wasn't meant to ever leave his mouth.
Daichi's serious expression softens a bit and he chuckles. "Good. We need to be scary."
"What for?"
"If people are scared," Hinata says "They'll leave us alone.
Suga speaks next in a confident voice with a slightly smug smile "They've left us alone since I got here."