Chapter Text
Hinata
1:12am
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The house was quiet except for the beat of Hinata’s volleyball hitting the wall. It was late, and normally his mom would have already told him to quit it by now, but the house was otherwise silent. Hinata's mom and sister had left for America on some work thing his mom had. His mom had told him he was more than welcome to come too, her work would cover any travel expenses too, but he didn’t want to miss volleyball. She had laughed at that, ruffling his hair, and told him to be good. His grandparents would be over Sunday night, the work trip had been sort of last minute, so that was as soon as they could come. Which meant he was alone for Friday night, all Saturday, and most of Sunday.
(“I don’t need a babysitter,” Hinata complained, ducking under his mom’s hand.
“I know you don’t, that’s why I trust you to be fine tonight and tomorrow night. But they want to see you, and I don’t want anymore cooking accidents.”
Hinata felt his face flush. “It was an accident! Won’t happen again.”
His mom laughed. “I know Shoyo. I do still wonder how you managed to catch a salad of all things on fire though…”)
This wasn’t the first time Hinata had stayed home alone, but it didn’t make the house feel any less empty. Hinata hit the ball harder.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was kinda dumb, he was 15 years old, he could handle himself just fine, and his family hadn’t even been gone a day yet. He was fine, he wasn’t worried in the slightest. He didn’t mind being alone. Hinata glanced at the clock, the time glowing a soft orange. They probably hadn’t even landed yet. If they had left around 9, then carry the 1… Yeah they hadn’t landed yet. Although his math wasn’t quite as bad as his social studies or English, school in general just wasn’t his strong suit. Not his fault though, it just never clicked the same way volleyball did.
Thump. Thump. Thump .
Volleyball was amazing. There was nothing Hinata loved more than that feeling when his hand hit the ball just right, right at the top of his jump, as it speeds through the other team’s defense, the sound it makes when it hits the ground, and then the look Kageyama has in his eyes when the play his perfectly executed, how they sparkle in that way that Hinata just adores-
Thump-thump.
Hinata frowns as the ball misses the mark he’d been hitting, causing it to ricochet weirdly and for him to miss the next hit. Had he just gotten distracted by the thought of Kageyama’s eyes?
He shook his head, it was late, he was tired, that’s why he had missed. That was it. Hinata leaned off his bed to retrieve the ball off the floor and was getting ready to start bouncing it off the wall again when the sound of a gong, low and continuous, rang through his room. He froze. It couldn’t, it couldn’t be-
He didn’t even notice he dropped the volleyball as he turned to look at his phone, vibrations almost unnoticeable underneath the sound of the gong. That stupid gong.
There was only one caller with that ringtone, one Hinata hadn’t heard in-person since the day his dad, well, since his dad got the call.
Death Cast.
The earlier thumping of his volleyball now seem quiet compared to the thrumming of his heart, and his breaths came out as erratic. It couldn’t be, it couldn’t be, it couldn’t be.
It was.
Maybe it was all just a misunderstanding. The wrong number. Yeah that had to be it. He was going to pick up the phone, and they were going to hear they had the wrong number, that he wasn’t today’s unlucky winner, and then maybe he could go to therapy about it later. Yeah that was a good plan. He just needed to answer the phone and tell them they had the wrong number.
With shaking hands, he reached for the buzzing device. He had to swallow down his fear even as he read the caller-ID he knew would appear. DEATH-CAST . It was all a misunderstanding. That’s what he had to reassure himself of as he hit the answer button.
“H-hello?”
“Hello, this is Takahashi from Death-Cast. Is this Hinata Shoyo?”
Shit.
Kageyama
1:38am
It was freezing outside, but Kageyama couldn’t bring himself to care. Didn’t really matter if he caught a cold or anything today did it? Not like he would have it for much longer anyways. Fuck.
He had just fallen asleep when the terrible, awful, familiar gong noise woke him up. He had been having a nice dream too, he and Hinata were playing volleyball and they were winning, although for some reason they were both wearing wedding gowns-- he wasn’t going to dive into that part. Point was, he figured there was some irony about waking up to a nightmare rather than from one.
All things considered, he thought he was handling things well. He had woken up, answered the call while ignoring the dread in his gut, nodded along as the lady on the other side of the line explained how “sometime in the next twenty-four hours, he would meet an untimely death,” hung up, wrote a quick note for his sister telling her he was going out, put on his shoes and jacket and left. He wasn’t going to stay his last day holed up in his room.
That was about fifteen minutes ago. He was still walking, and it wasn’t until he saw the familiar gym that he realized where he was headed. Karasuno. Of course. Where else?
He paused a long moment, staring at the doors to the gym. The lights were off of course, and the doors were definitely locked, but it wasn’t as though he even had his gear or anyone to practice with. He sat on the concrete, staring at the building, but not really taking it in.
He was thinking of that first day of practice, when he and Hinata realized they had both ended up a Karasuno. How they had fought and gotten kicked out. How they had to learn to work together to get in. It all felt so long ago, even if in realty it had only been a few months. But so much had changed. He had changed. Now he wouldn’t know what to do without Hinata, with his grit and determination that he had found annoying at first. It was strange to think there was a time where they couldn’t even work together, setting to Hinata now felt just as natural as breathing to Kageyama.
Thinking of Hinata, Kageyama shivered, the cold and the loneliness suddenly flowing through his bones. He reached into his pocket for his phone, vaguely noticing how low the battery was and realizing he had no charger. Looked like he wouldn’t be the only one dying today.
It was on instinct that Kageyama found Hinata’s number and pressed call. It didn’t even make it past the first ring when Kageyama heard Hinata pick up.
“Come meet me in Karasuno's courtyard. Bring a volleyball,” Kageyama spoke before Hinata even had the chance to say hello.
There was a soft sniffle on the other side of the line, and a slight hiccup before Hinata responded, “Okay. See you in ten minutes.” His voice sounded thick with tears and Kageyama felt his heart sink.
“Hinata?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you get the call too?”
There was a beat of silence. “Yes.”
No, no, no. Hinata couldn’t be dying. Kageyama, sure he could maybe accept that. But Hinata, the volleyball prodigy, the kid who dreamed of being just like the Tiny Giant one day, the sun who brightened up anyone’s day, he couldn’t be dying .
“Do you still want to practice? With like, well, everything?” It seemed taboo to mention dying.
“Yeah. I, uh, yeah. I don’t want to be alone.” That’s right, Hinata’s family was gone for the week. Some business trip or something. They probably wouldn’t even make it back in time for-- no. Thinking about his own death was one thing, but he couldn’t think about Hinata’s, not now.
“Um, will you stay on the line? Just while I get my bike and ride over? Just in case...just in case?” Hinata’s voice faltered, and Kageyama’s heart ached.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll stay on the line. Um, fair warning, there’s a possibility of my phone d-, uh, my phone running out of battery, but it should last at least until you get here. But like don’t freak out if it does hang up.”
“Yeah okay. I’m just leaving from my house now, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“See you in a few.”
Sounds like there would actually be three of them dying that day. Immediately as he thought it, Kageyama tried to shake it from his mind, but it lingered.
Hinata
1:58am
Compared to any of the other late nights that Hinata had ridden to or from Karasuno to practice with Kageyama, the ride was uneventful, but under the circumstances it took Hinata longer than usual, quadruple checking for cars on empty streets, jumping at every little sound. He took comfort in talking to Kageyama though, as they carefully spoke about everything and anything except The Thing. The Death Cast call. Or, well calls.
He still was having trouble wrapping his mind around it. It was one thing for him to accept dying (not that he really had yet) but a completely other thing to think of Kageyama, for Kageyama--
No, he couldn’t think about that. Kageyama couldn’t be dying. Neither of them could. Maybe this was all just a bad dream he would wake up from.
(It wasn’t a dream, he had pinch marks all up and down his arms to prove it).
It was probably fifteen minutes past when Kageyama called when Hinata rolled up to the courtyard. Kageyama was already there, just beginning to stand and hang up the call as Hinata dismounted.
“Hey,” Kageyama greeted.
“Hey.”
Hinata wanted to say more, but at the same time what else was there to say? Asking Kageyama how he was doing seemed trivial and dumb, what would he expect the answer to be? ‘Oh, I’m doing great, just counting down my last hours.’ How would Hinata even answer that question? Talking on the phone had been nice, they just fell back to talking about the stuff they always did on late nights when they accidentally stayed up on call or when they couldn’t sleep. Talking about the other schools, about volleyball, about the bird Hinata befriended as a child, about how Kageyama loved oranges as a kid, just whatever came to mind. The bike ride phone call had been no different. But seeing him in person, just meeting as a couple of dead-men walking, there was so much to say but never enough time to say it.
So he didn’t.
Swinging his bag around off his back, Hinata reached for the volleyball nestled inside. Grinning, or trying to at least, he held it up.
“So, wanna play?”
“That’s why I told you to come here wasn’t it? Stupid question, dumbass.”
That got a real smile out of Hinata, and he dropped his bag near his bike. Then without warning, he took off running.
“Race you there!” he called over his shoulder.
“Shit- you cheater!” he heard Kageyama stumble behind him, and Hinata found himself laughing for the first time since he got the call.