Chapter 2
As the team left the gym, Takeda and Daichi tried their best to calm Shouyou down. He sat there crying and shaking, his frail body hugging himself. Daichi and Takeda shared concerned glances, unable to figure out what to do.
Takeda tried talking to him but it didn’t work, and by a minute of his panic attack he passed out, once again. Takeda sighed, wiping the hair out of Shouyous tear-stained face. Shouyous body seemed to relax and Daichi put him against the wall properly.
“I’ll call his mother, go tell everyone else that practice is ending early.” Takeda said, grabbing his phone. Daichi nodded and got up, walking towards the door.
“Sh–Daichi! Is Hinata okay..?”
“Yeah.. he kinda freaked out there..”
Daiched sighed, “He’s out again. We weren’t able to calm him down. Practice is over, you guys can go home now.”
“We need to change, are we allowed in..?” Tanaka asked. Daichi looks behind him and opens the door, finding Takeda holding Shouyou bridal style and taking him out the other door.
“Yes. You can.” Daichi mumbled, looking back.
The team went inside, neither Shouyou nor Takeda in there.
"Just take your time, there's no rush. If you want to stay and practice a bit more, you'll have to lock up." Daichi sighed.
"Nah, I'm so tired.." Tanaka mumbled, taking off his shirt.
"Wait until you get in the changeroom, you ape.." Tsukishima said. Tanaka and Noya laughed.
The team decided that they should just all go home, but Kageyama couldn't think straight.
'"If he were here he'd stay and practice all night.." Kageyama thought. He looked up into the night sky, the sun just setting. He kept walking to his house, his mind full of worries.
he wouldn't say he and Hinata are ''close friends", they're just teammates. And because of their freak quick attack, people associate them with each other.
Kageyama wouldn't say he hates it, sure he'd get annoyed whenever someone would mention Hinata when talking about him, but it's better than his old teammates.
He doesn't understand why HInata just stopped being himself. He doesn't understand anything. And seeing him fall into a panic attack and pass out, makes things even more confusing.
He wants to help Hinata, even though he really doesn't know how. Then he thinks about what Nishinoya and Tsukishima said.
"Has Hinata really been starving himself.. what does that mean?' he thought. He decided to just look it up when he gets home.
Hinata woke up in his bedroom that night. His limbs and back ached, and he had a really bad headache. He looked around his room, trying to steady out his vision.
"S-Shouyou, you're awake..! good... good.." His mother yelped, studying herself. She looked half asleep, messy hair and eye bags. She'd obviously been sleeping on Shouyou's bedside drawer.
"I was getting worried, you were out for a while.. It's only 8:07, so it's been maybe 2 hours.." she sighed. Shouyou tilted his head.
"Honey.. I–I um booked you a doctor's appointment.. you.. you aren't okay. That's obvious. You don't sleep, don't eat, .. and.. I saw your scars.." she said, not so sympathetically.
Shouyous heart dropped. He hugged in on himself as his breath quickened, not bothering on doing anything else in the world. His mother held onto him as he sobbed. He doesn’t want to get better. He wants to do this until he dies and now everybody knows that he messed up.
He cried for a long time, and eventually cried himself to sleep.
His mother looked down at him and grabbed a pillow. She sucked in her breath as her shaking hands wrapped around the pillow, tears rolling down her face as she stared at him.
She hates herself. She hates herself because of what she’s about to do. She knows she is insane, she's known for a long time. Ever since her first diagnosis and her long term neglect towards her children she had stopped giving a shit.
She’s a terrible mother, how could she have not noticed her son's failing health. She only said she booked him an appointment to reassure him, but that clearly failed.
Her son obviously doesn’t want help so why should she waste her life caring for him. She had him, gave him so much and yet he’s repaying her by destroying himself. She hates herself so much for this, what mother talks about their own child like that?
She knows that he probably wouldn’t blame her for whatever he’s going through but she can’t help but feel like she’s entirely to blame. She only talks to him whenever he looks exhausted and other times she just neglects the poor kid.
She drops the pillow, sighing and turning over, walking over to her son's cabinet. She sees the advil and takes it as a sign that she failed in life. She pops the bottles open and downs 18 of them.
It’s been 3 days since what happened with Hinata, and Kageyama is getting pretty worried. He hasn't replied to anyone's texts or calls and Hinata's mom isn't responding either.
Yet here he is, walking in the school gates. He looks like when they last saw him, but paler and definitely bandaged.
Nothing about him is completely off, just the fact that he doesn’t look as lively as he should. He’ll have to talk to him at lunch.
“Shou-chan?” Acchan asks as he studies Shouyous appearance. Shouyou doesn’t answer, eyes fixated on his desk.
“I heard what happened last time you were here..” he fixes his posture, turning all the way towards Shouyou. “I’ve been worried about you, you know. Are you okay?”
Shouyou’s eyes still rest at his desk, no reaction. Acchan stutters out another word but he stops when Shouyou places his elbows on his desk, hands on his ears and lets out a deep sigh. Acchan reaches out to Shouyou but retracts when he flinches. Worry floods Aachans eyes.
Class goes by like normal, and it really is. Shouyou never really pays attention, always distracted by the smallest things. This time though, Shouyou seems like he’s trying to remove himself from reality.
Acchan tries to focus, but his eyes keep drifting towards Shouyou. He keeps leaning towards the ile and doesn’t really seem to be awake. He turns his head back but is quickly turned around when a loud thump disrupts the class.
Everyone looks at Shouyou’s limp body on the ground, eyes blinking as he slowly gets up. His hands start shaking and his breath hitches as he sits back down, more present in reality, on his chair, eyes looking up.
“Hinata. Falling asleep in class? Very immature, detention.” Their teacher declares, grabbing a pile of papers. Tears form in his eyes. She takes the stack and puts it on his desk. “In the meantime, you can do all of these homework sheets you missed while sleeping.” She says.
“But sensei, we only did three.. That’s like 11!” One of the girls shouted.
“Well yes Naomi, we only did three. But if he gets to sleep in my class he might as well be punished.”
“But he already got detention..!” Acchan adds.
“No buts or anything else. I am tired and frustrated and he is wasting my time by disrupting and sleeping. Do your homework, sheet 3 should be done before I get back.” She says, walking out the door.
Eyes dart over to Shouyou, who looks like he seconds away from bursting into tears. He picks up his pencil with shaky hands and starts his work.
“Hinata you don’t need to do it.. You're obviously overwhelmed and uh, it was very unprofessional of her to yell at you like that.” one of the girls says over the silence.
But despite his classmates nodding and agreeing, Shouyou ignores them and continues his work. Classmates try again, walking towards him, trying their best to get him to listen but he again, keeps ignoring them. Acchan has had enough when he notices the tears coming out of Shouyou’s eyes.
He gets up from his seat and embraces Shouyou, holding him close in his arms. Their classmates relax but take it back when Shouyou shows no emotion nor reaction to the hug. He just continues his work, like nothing happened.
“Why are you hugging me? Please get off.” Shouyou says, with a dark and cold tone in his voice. He puts down his pencil and turns his head to glare at everyone else. Acchan stumbles back.
“Leave me alone.”
Kageyama and Nishinoya walk around school at lunch, looking for Shouyou. They bump into Acchan, who they thought was doing the same thing.
“Hey you’re friends with Hinata right? Do you know where he is?” Nishinoya asks.
“Oh you're on his volleyball team right? Well he’s in detention right now.” Aachan sighs.
“Pardon?”
“Like I said, he got detention.”
“But how?’ Nishinoya gasps, eyes wide. Kageyama’s eyes also give the same reaction.
“Well he fell asleep in class, maybe even passed out, but like hell I know which. Point is he’s really not okay and our freaking teacher won’t acknowledge that.” he groaned. “I tried comforting him, I don't know, as his best friend? But let’s just say he didn’t appreciate it..”
“The hell?” Kageyama snarled. Nishinoya grabbed Kageyama and dragged him down the hall.
“The fuck are we going?” Kageyama asked. Nishinoya sighed and tugged on him harder.
“To Shouyou’s classroom duh–” he paused, “where is it–?”
“God, maybe know the direction you’re going, it’s this way–” Kageyama sighed.
They walk together until they reach his classroom. Before they can even touch the door, they hear yelling within the class.
It's even worse when they hear that the yelling is coming from Hinata himself.