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Hinata woke up at midnight, cold with sweat and trembling.
He reached over, groping for the space beside him, but it was empty. There wasn’t a single trace of the black-haired man next to him in the bed.
Hinata knew this wasn’t the first time Kageyama had disappeared in the middle of the night, but today felt different. Something was wrong.
With hesitant steps, he got out of bed and decided to look for him around the house. In the kitchen. In the bathroom. In the living room.
But Kageyama was nowhere to be found.
It was then that he looked out the window. His car wasn’t there.
Hinata’s mind filled with worry—what if something had happened to his husband? He didn't doubt Kageyama's loyalty, but he still felt chills running through every nerve in his body.
He reached for his nightstand to call him—maybe he'd just gone out to buy something.
It rang once.
It rang twice.
It rang five times.
And then it went to voicemail.
Fear overwhelmed him. Kageyama always answered, no matter where he was or what he was doing. He always answered.
He wanted to go out and look for him, but he had no clue where he might have gone, so he decided to call Bokuto to see if Akaashi knew what to do. Akaashi always had all the answers.
Bokuto answered on the first ring.
“Hinata? What happened? Are you okay?”
His worried voice was the first thing he noticed, but he decided to ignore it. It was obvious. Anyone would be worried about getting a call in the middle of the night.
“Kageyama isn't here. Have you heard anything from him?”
There was a silence of a few seconds before a voice in the background spoke up. His words weren't loud enough for Hinata to make something out of them.
After a minute, Bokuto came back on the line.
“Wait, stay right there, okay? Akaashi and I are on our way; don't leave.”
Bokuto hung up.
Hinata just stared at his phone, confused. It seemed like his friends knew something he didn’t. Still, he listened and sat down to wait for them.
It took twenty minutes before he heard the front door open.
Bokuto was the first to come in and look for him.
Part of Hinata was disappointed that it wasn’t Kageyama, then he felt guilty.
“Hinata, how are you feeling?”
Those were the first words to come out of his friend’s mouth. Nothing about Kageyama.
“I’m fine, Bokuto-san. I just wanted to see if you guys knew where Kageyama was, he hasn’t come back yet.”
The atmosphere turned heavy. Hinata didn’t know why.
Akaashi sat down beside him before carefully taking his hand and opening the drawer in his nightstand. From there, he pulled out a silver chain with a ring on it. Kageyama’s ring.
Why wasn’t he wearing it?
Why would Akaashi know where it was?
“Hinata, please.”
His voice was pleading, while Bokuto just looked at him with a sad, slightly tearful gaze.
For some reason, the scene felt familiar—midnight, with Bokuto and Akaashi by his side. Other memories began to surface in his mind; it wasn’t just them anymore, there was also Kenma, Yamaguchi, Oikawa, and all his other friends.
Why?
Hinata began to shake his head and deny it while muttering to himself. He must have just dreamed it, and his memories of that dream were blending with reality.
“No, Kageyama just forgot his phone. He must have gone out and fallen asleep in the car. I’ll give him a hard time when he gets back.”
A voice slipped into his thoughts. A memory. Red and blue lights. A muffled voice saying words that didn’t make sense.
“I shouldn’t have doubted him. Kageyama should be back soon.”
A nervous laugh escaped his lips as he turned to look at them. They’d probably worried too much and assumed the worst, but Hinata wasn’t like that—he knew everything was fine.
His friends didn’t return his smile.
It was at that moment that the weight of reality crashed down on him as he felt his throat tighten and the pain in his chest intensify.
The silver chain was the last thing left of Kageyama.
The last thing before the accident.
He was reliving that same night over and over again.
Kageyama had gone out to buy something that night; he promised him he’d be back soon.
The black-haired man never came back.
They told him it had been an accident. A driver had been distracted for a few seconds by his phone, but that was enough to cause the other driver to lose control of his vehicle and crash in a fatal collision.
This wasn't the first time this had happened.
His mind refused to let go of his husband.
Hinata broke down in tears as the pain overwhelmed him once again. That had been the reason for the memories. He had deceived himself so many times, trying to believe that Kageyama was still with him.
His fingers and nails dug into the bed in a futile attempt to cling to that reality—the reality in which he still had his other half.
Akaashi and Bokuto simply comforted him and held him as he broke down.
And it was under the same moonlight that had once illuminated him that Hinata clung to the chain one more night, wishing it were all just a bad dream.