Chapter Text
Miyagi, Japan
9th of september of 2013, 06:10pm, Monday
Kageyama finished his warm ups and turned to the gym door again, frown deepening in annoyance.
Tsukishima was late. Again.
It wasn’t necessarily the lack of his presence that annoyed Tobio. Afterall, Tsukishima was an asshole to be around on a good day. But they had kind of figured out their differences during their first year, to the point where he could even risk it and say they were actual friends and not just teammates. He was still annoying and made Tobio want to punch him in the face daily, but he was also funny, and smart, and seemed to have a way to get under anyone’s skin, which was pretty entertaining to witness and also beneficial for the team.
Lately, though, Tsukishima seemed to be off his game. His blocks weren’t as good as they normally were and he was constantly tripping on his own feet or losing balance when he landed a jump. Kageyama didn’t want to say he was worried… but something was definitely wrong with Tsukishima and he wanted to know what it was.
Being late to practice when he was always in time was the last thing to confirm his suspicion. Maybe, after practice, he could try and ask Tsukishima if he was having a problem with anything he could help with. He seemed so tired the last time they saw each other before the school break, and Tobio didn’t like that expression on him. He knew Tsukishima had a terrible sweet tooth, perhaps he could offer him to go get an ice cream or something like that…
Well, that was, when Tsukishima decided to appear in practice, of course.
“Where the fuck is Tsukishima?” he asked turning to the rest of the team but to no one in particular.
Ennoshita looked at him and then to Yamaguchi, who bit his lip and lowered his gaze to the floor, before looking back to Kageyama. Yachi also looked nervous as she clenched the binder with the team applications in her hands. Since when did the team take applications mid year?
“What?” he felt confused and annoyed that everyone seemed to know something he didn’t.
“Tsukishima left the club” Ennoshita said “Well, more like, he left school and the club along with it”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know, I found out today too”
Tobio turned to Yamaguchi, who kept looking at the floor and seemed to want to avoid the conversation.
“He’s your best friend” he accused, anger slipping into his tone “You must know”
“It’s a personal matter”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Yamaguchi breathed in and looked him in the eye, his expression determined in a way that reminded Kageyama of Daichi.
“I mean that is none of your business. If he didn’t tell you is because he didn’t wanted you to know, so that’s all there is to it”
Millions of questions circled Tobio’s head. Why did Tsukishima leave? And where to? They were in the middle of their second year and he wasn’t the type to just leave the school year unfinished. Was his new school somewhere in Miyagi or had he moved away?
… And why the hell did Tobio cared so much? Why did he feel so hurt ?
After all, he had been the first to point out when Tsukishima’s game started to drop and he surely didn’t do it in a nice way. Did he actually expected Tsukishima to trust him with a personal matter after that? It seemed stupid even to him.
Perhaps he hadn’t actually changed that much from middle school after all. Snapping at his teammates until they didn’t want him around anymore.
Or maybe Tsukishima was just a lazy asshole who decided he simply didn’t care about the team anymore.
“Whatever” said Tobio as he turned his back to his teammates to grab the net.
Sendai, Japan
13th of december of 2017, 08:45pm, Wednesday
The sky was dark when Kageyama finally left campus, feeling tired and drained from the day. Studying has never been his strength, but right now it was the only thing he could do to try and give himself some sense of purpose.
College had never been part of the plans he had for his future, so he never really cared about his grades more than what he needed to still be able to play volleyball. He knew he was good and that several coaches already knew who he was, even attending some of his last games with Karasuno during his third year. The future seemed clear and easy, deserved after all the effort he had put during his teen years.
Reality slapped him on the face.
No one wanted an 18 year old fresh out of highschool in their team. All the coaches he emailed answered saying that he was very promising and that they would love to have him in their teams in a few more years. In a few more years.
Suddenly, he found himself with his high school diploma in hand and years of regular grades, not knowing what to do with himself. All his friends had plans already in motion: Hinata had spent the last six months preparing everything to move to Brazil, while Yamaguchi and Yachi were studying for their college entrance exams.
Lost and unsure of what to do, he did the only thing that he could think of.
“Hello?”
“Hi Iwaizumi-san. It’s Tobio”
“Kageyama? We haven’t talked in so long, why are you calling me?”
“I…”
“Kageyama? You still there?”
“What was the name of your major?”
“Are you thinking of going into college now? What happened to playing volleyball professionally?”
“No one is letting me into a team. They say I’m too young”
“So you just want to do college instead?”
“I can’t be doing nothing ”
“... Okay, I get it. But no offense Kageyama, I don’t think you can get into Athletic Training”
Iwaizumi had been right. His college entrance exams were terrible, since he only had a month to try and prepare himself, but the scores had been enough for Sports Journalism in Sendai. So he packed some things and moved to a new prefecture without really knowing what he was doing but confident that he would figure it out.
Three years had passed, and he wasn’t so sure anymore.
He checked his phone while he walked and saw a message from Miwa’s boyfriend telling him that she had forgotten her phone at work, asking if he could go get it on his way home. He answered affirmatively and changed his rute, taking a turn a couple of blocks before the one he usually did so he could pass by the hair salon where Miwa worked.
As he turned the corner, a tall, blonde figure appeared in front of him. His heart skipped a beat.
He knew that hair. For a whole year he looked at it as he standed behind him in court.
Before he could think it through, he opened his mouth:
“Tsukishima?”
The person in front of him stopped and turned back to him. He looked different from how Tobio remembered, but it wasn’t a bad different, just… different. His hair was a bit longer, curling cutely in the ends, and his features had changed a bit, but it was still easy to recognize him. The biggest difference was…
“Where are your glasses?”
“Excuse me?” Tsukishima’s brows furrowed in confusion, but Kageyama noticed that his eyes weren’t actually looking at him, more like to a vague point around his torso.
He stayed like that, planted in the middle of the street looking at his old classmate and trying to figure out why his chest felt so tight.
“Uh… Sorry, do I know you?” Tsukishima asked.
There was no way. This person wasn’t Tsukishima. The Tsukishima he remembered had a playful smirk and a teasing tone when he spoke and always looked Tobio straight in the eyes when they talked, as if it was some kind of challenge.
That was Tsukishima. No this… soft looking and quiet person who was still waiting for an answer and still not looking at him.
Tobio turned back and ran away, weirdly scared by the encounter. He stopped after a block and leaned against the wall of a shop, lifting a hand to his chest to feel the ridiculously fast beat of his heart.
It must have been a coincidence. That person was not Tsukishima. No matter how much he looked like him or that he had answered to the name, there’s no way it was him. Sendai was a big city, plenty of blonde guys could have the Tsukishima surname.
Still, for some odd reason, part of Tobio wished that this stranger was in fact Tsukishima Kei. Maybe he just wished to have something back from the past, when everything seemed so simple and easy.
Tobio rubbed his eyes with his cold fingers and hesitantly peaked around the corner to see if the person was still there, finding the empty street instead. With a mix of relief and disappointment, he adjusted his scarf more tightly around his face and resumed his path back home.
“If that was Tsukishima” he told himself “He’ll never let me live down the fact that I runned away from a simple conversation”
The thought gave him some weird sense of comfort. He almost wanted to have that stupid fight with his old classmate.