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Hinata was tired. The tournament they were in made him wake up earlier than he’d like twice this weekend. And he’d played pretty much the entire time Karasuno was on the court on top of that. He just wanted to get home and sleep.
“Hey, Hinata, those games were great today, weren’t they?” Tanaka asked.
“Yeah, yeah they were. Daichi was all like whoosh! And then the ball went all like bam! And then…” Hinata just kind of left his sentence there. Sometimes he did that when he was tired.
“Yo, Hinata, you ok?” Tanaka asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” Hinata asked.
“You just kind of zoned out for a little bit there buddy, that’s all.”
Hinata’s chest tightened. “Maybe not then,” he muttered. If it was long enough for Tanaka to ask, maybe he wasn’t okay
“What was that?” Tanaka asked.
“How long was I out of it for?” Hinata questioned.
“It was only a few seconds,” Tanaka responded. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, it was probably nothing then.” Hinata nodded.
“I only asked, ‘cause it was like somebody flipped a switch there,” Tanaka told him nonchalantly. Hinata’s heart skipped a beat, but he tried to shake it off.
On the ride back to Karasuno, Hinata tried his best to just listen to his teammates’ chatter. But the short ride wasn’t enough to shake his nerves. Normally it was. Even the bike ride home couldn’t clear his mind. He kept on imagining his jaw clenching and it sometimes became a struggle to open his mouth. At other times, his throat would seem to tighten. “There’s no spasms, I’m fine,” he kept muttering to himself. But he couldn’t shake what happened earlier. “It was probably nothing,” he reminded himself. “There’s like, a one percent chance that that meant anything.” But still, he couldn’t shake the paranoia. Maybe things would be better when he got home. His mom wouldn’t be home yet, and neither would Natsu, who was sleeping over a friend’s house, but he could at least do homework or something to try to take his mind off of things.
But he couldn’t focus when he got home. His jaw clenched and he wrenched it open again. After a few failed attempts at doing his homework, he decided to text Izumi.
Hinata: Can we just text for a bit?
He sat there staring at his phone for a few minutes before deciding to text Kouji too.
Hinata: Hey. Can we text?
He kept on staring at his phone, leg thumping nervously against the floor, feeling his jaw tighten every few seconds. He was starting to get really nervous.
Izumi: Sure, what’s up? Is everything ok?
Hinata: Yeah, I’m fine. Just feeling a little paranoid, and Mom and Natsu aren’t home so…
Izumi: What are you paranoid about?
Hinata: It’s probably nothing, but earlier I zoned out and Tanaka-senpai noticed, and he said it was like someone flipped a switch, and now I’m worried that it might have been a short seizure even though I don’t even usually HAVE absence seizures, and now I’m worried I’m going to have a big seizure.
Izumi: I’m sure it’s nothing. You’re fine Shou-chan. Normally I’d offer to come over, but I’m in Tokyo for the weekend. Are you ok by yourself though?
Hinata : Yeah. Just keep texting me though?
Izumi: No problem Shouyou. I think you should call someone though.
Hinata: But my teammates are so far away, I don’t want to bother them.
Izumi: I’m sure they won’t mind Shouyou. Just call someone. Please?
Hinata took a shaky breath. Why couldn’t he shake this paranoia? Izumi was probably right. He probably needed someone to be physically present right now. But he wasn’t sure who to call. Eventually, he took a breath, and texted Tanaka.
Hinata: Hey Tanaka-senpai. I know it’s been a long day, and you probably don’t want to leave your house right now, but do you mind coming over my house for a bit? I’m feeling a little paranoid, and I just need someone to be here and talk to, and you can probably get here easiest.
Hinata stared at the message for a few seconds before finally getting up the nerve to press send. He sent Izumi a quick message to let him know he’d contacted Tanaka. He then just stared at the phone anxiously, waiting for Tanaka to text back. His nerves were acting up even more now, not because he was afraid he was going to have a seizure, although that still hadn’t gone away, but what if Tanaka said no? What would he do then? It had taken a lot for him to text Tanaka, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up the nerve to text anyone else on the team. Just as he was about to text Izumi again, his phone buzzed.
Tanaka: Sure. Give me your address and I’ll be there as soon as I can.
Hinata let out a sigh of relief and then sent Tanaka his address before letting Izumi know that Tanaka was on his way. Hinata’s attention then turned to the door. He knew Tanaka would need some time to get there but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t focus on anything but his paranoia right now.
When Tanaka finally got there, Hinata ran to the door to let him in. Tanaka looked down at him. “Are you ok?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Hinata nodded. “Just, what happened before we got on the bus kind of freaked me out. I’m scared I’m going to have a seizure now,” he admitted.
“Hinata, listen, zoning out is perfectly normal, and I’m sure you’re fine.”
Hinata nodded. That was what he was trying to tell himself, and it wasn’t working. Logically, he knew he was fine, but that one percent, the what-ifs, they were really getting to him. When the two sat down, Hinata noticed that he was shaking. Like, visibly shaking. That was new.
“I’m so jittery right now,” Hinata said, offering Tanaka a sheepish smile.
“I’ve noticed.” Tanaka said, eyeing the smaller boy carefully. The older boy took out his phone and started flipping through it. Hinata must have looked nervous at this, because Tanaka started explaining what he was doing. “I have something on my phone that will help, if I could just find the stupid thing.” The two boys sat there in silence for a bit, with Tanaka showing Hinata a funny picture every now and then. Finally, the older boy must have given up on whatever he was looking for, because he got up. “I’m just gonna grab something from my bag real quick,” he told Hinata, who just nodded.
Tanaka came back with a small box in his hands. “Here, now we have something to do,” he said, grinning at Hinata. As Hinata got a closer look at the box, he recognized it. Tanaka had brought it to a team bonding night once, but they never wound up playing it. It was Exploding Kittens. Tanaka opened the box and it meowed, making Hinata huff out a laugh. “Have you ever played this before?” Tanaka asked.
“No,” Hinata said, shaking his head. His body was still shaking like crazy but he was at least able to act a bit more like his usual self now.
“It’s fun, you’ll see.” Tanaka said.
As they played, they talked, both about why Hinata was feeling so paranoid, and about things that didn’t matter. The cards didn’t fail to make Hinata smile, and they eventually started telling each other funny stories about their middle school days.
“Thanks so much for coming over,” Hinata told Tanaka between rounds of the game.
“No problem, what else are teammates for?” Tanaka just brushed it off. At some point, Hinata had stopped shaking. He grinned up at his senpai.
Eventually, Hinata’s mom came in with Natsu.
“I didn’t know you were having company over Shouyou,” his mom said.
“Tanaka-senpai came over to help me out with some stuff. I wasn’t feeling my best for a while there, but he really helped, and I’m feeling much better now.” Hinata informed his mother.
“If you’re sure you’re okay now Hinata, I should probably get going. Saeko probably wants me home for dinner.” Tanaka said.
“I’m fine now. Thanks again for coming over Tanaka-senpai,” Hinata said. Tanaka just brushed it off and hugged Hinata before heading out, leaving a grinning Hinata waving behind him.