Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Natsu, be a good girl and behave well in your brother’s school, alright?” Hinata’s mother asked, giving her a small backpack with some snacks packed in it. The girl stretched her arms back to help her mother to put in on her shoulders and nodded, her face as determined as ever. She was in her orange T-shirt and black shorts today — way to match the volleyball club’s outfit.

“Y-yes!” she managed, and the woman chuckled, noticing her focused thoughtful expression.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” she stroked her shoulder, making Natsu look up at her. “Your brother’s friends are good boys, I’m sure you’re going to like them!” The little girl suddenly lowered her gaze, hiding her bright irises under eyelashes. She was probably shy and nervous about meeting so many people, but her mother knew for sure that she’d be absolutely alright once she met them. Natsu tended to seem a more-less quiet girl for like… for the first thirty seconds people knew her. Then she became her usual, loud and cheerful self.

“You’ll do great,” she said, and Hinata ran from around the corner, clutching his bag, his hair sticking in different directions. Natsu instantly turned to him, her eyes lighting up for a second, but then she frowned, apparently trying to look serious.

“Onii-chan, we’re going to be late because of you!” she scolded him, and Hinata’s face became even more panicked. He hurriedly leapt over to them, checking if Natsu was ready and grabbing her tiny hand in his tightly.

“I know, we have to run!” he pulled her along, impatiently, but still somehow gently, to allow the girl to catch up to his pace.

“I’ll be home by 10!” their mother called. “Make sure to get back home before that!” Hinata didn’t tend to come back home late, but it was the first time he was taking Natsu along, so she was still worried a bit.

“Sure!” Hinata yelled. She heard him unlocking the bike and helping Natsu up, as she asked him not to move this much so that she could wrap her arms around him properly, and they rode off, the older boy pedaling like mad and his sister laughing in delight, wind washing all over her.

They were surely going to have some amazing time at Karasuno.

* * *

They still arrived late a bit; the practice was on for about five minutes already. Hinata parked his bike while Natsu was trying to look around, taking the atmosphere in with her eyes wide open. Hinata couldn’t help but grin — she seemed so impressed, and she hasn’t even met his teammates yet.

That was something to be excited about.

He took her hand again, leading her to the gym as quickly as possible, but she was looking around and turning her head so much that it was really difficult to keep her going.

“Natsu-chan, we’ll be late like this!” Hinata exclaimed, pulling her a bit stronger. “Don’t worry, I’ll show you everything afterwards.”

“I can’t go fast like you, onii-chan!” the girl complained, pulling him back. She was just so stubborn sometimes. Hinata sighed as he suddenly whirled on spot, crunching, grabbing his sister’s legs from behind and jerking up with his back bent forward, so that she wouldn’t fall and wrap her arms around him. Natsu laughed, squeezing his sides with her legs — she always loved piggyback rides.

“Hold on now!” Hinata warned as he sprinted off, accelerating quickly while Natsu just giggled joyfully and tried her best to sit steadily on his back. It was fun for Hinata himself, and he wouldn’t mind playing around with her, but he had practice for now. If they still had some time after it, they might even play outside.

But he actually couldn’t wait for his teammates to meet her. Sure, he was a bit alarmed and worried, but something told him that everything would be fine — it’s Karasuno after all. They all survived Kageyama and Tsukishima, they could definitely deal with Natsu, even though sometimes she made Hinata doubt on whether she was his sister or some sort of a wily psychic. That girl could somehow made anyone do anything she wanted, and it could cause quite a trouble sometimes…

* * *

Kageyama was tossing the ball above himself, attempting to count and think at the same time. He was mostly wondering where the hell Hinata was — he didn’t tend to be late for practice, and they didn’t even have school today, why would that idiot linger elsewhere? They had quite a program for this training, lots of exercises to do and a practice match in the end. Why couldn’t he be just a bit less reckless? That would make things way easier.

“Kageyama, how many?” Daichi asked, coming closer to him with a ball in his armpit. Kageyama cringed — he lost count. Was he in 200-s or 300-s… he couldn’t remember. The exercise was fairly easy, especially with his accuracy, and he was already bored a little, but he kept tossing. Before he could try estimating how much had he done, Daichi smirked, apparently understanding the situation.

“You can finish up already; we’re going to practice some serves now.”

“What about the coach?” Kageyama wondered, noticing his absence.

“He has some important business in the shop today, he’ll come to the practice match,” Daichi replied, turning around and checking if everyone was done. Kageyama made the last toss a bit higher than usual; there was enough time to relax his stiff arms for a moment, to clench and unclench his fists and spread his fingers to finally catch the ball, but…

“Sorry for being late!” the words reached his ear even before his eyes caught the movement, and he unconsciously shifted his gaze to the left, already knowing exactly what to look for, but there… there was something else… brighter than usual. That confused him, caught his attention and made him turn his head completely to see what was disturbing him.

It was the first time Kageyama Tobio thought he was going to have an actual fatal heart attack.

It felt like watching the sun rising — shyly and quietly at first, but shining brighter and brighter with every second, soaring up higher than any clouds around, blinding him. He just stared at the new incomers, trying to shake off a strong déjà vu feeling and get him together, for gods’ sake! He was just surprised, that’s all. It’d be better to close his mouth now, Tsukishima was snickering somewhere in front of him already. It wasn’t a big deal, no, not at all. He knew about it all along, didn’t he? But it was still so… weird and unsettling, because he really didn’t even suspect how to behave in this situation anymore. He had trouble handling Hinata in the first place, with his endless energy and smiles, cheerfulness, childish naivety, but…

There really are two of them.

He met the little girl’s confused glance, shocked by how her eyes resembled Hinata’s, and then suddenly felt a slight punch in his head as the all forgotten ball hit him right in the top, jumping elsewhere afterwards.

Everyone around turned to him, watching the volleyball in confusion, but Natsu giggled first — it was bright, bubbling laughter, and all the Karasuno couldn’t help but join her.

Kageyama rubbed the top of his head, wincing only a bit, too busy processing the situation to even react to Tsukishima’s mocking grins. Why is it every time he met someone from Hinata’s family did he get hit on his head? But that didn’t worry him much at the moment.

No way in hell there can be two Hinatas. Simply no way, but that impossible duo was right here, staring him in the face. Hinata was tugging his little sister, telling something to the Captain at the same time, while the girl… was her name Natsu? God, Kageyama even remembered her name. She was looking around, apparently shocked by the sizes of the gym and the players themselves — everyone was carefully observing her, too. Hinata never brought his sister here before, so why now? Not that Kageyama cared, though — as long as she didn’t interfere with the practice, it didn’t matter.

“Oi, Kageyama!” Hinata exclaimed, making his way to him with determined steps. Kageyama felt a sudden urge to back away.

No, no, don’t you even dare—  

That carrot-headed idiot ran up to him, grabbed his arm and put Natsu’s small hand in his, covering Kageyama’s fingers with his for a second, as if to secure his grasp.

“Natsu-chan, this is Kageyama-kun,” he explained, gesturing at his face and almost slapping him in the process. Kageyama wanted to smack some sense in his stupid head so badly, but couldn’t really move, as if his muscles suddenly turned into stone. Why was this child affecting him this badly? He could practically feel the sparks flying where their hands touched, and he really wanted to let her go, but for some unknown reasons he didn’t.

Meanwhile, the girl raised her head, being way shorter than Kageyama, to look at his face, tilting her head a little, her lips slightly parted, as if she was wondering about something really serious. Then her eyes suddenly widened as she turned back to Hinata, squeezing Kageyama’s finger, which she managed to catch a bit tighter.

“Ah, he’s that awesome talented set-ter,” she paused after that word, probably trying to understand if she pronounced it correctly, “with the scariest smile you told me about!” she cried out, smiling wildly, apparently pleased with herself for remembering this important information.

Kageyama slowly looked down at Hinata, whose face suddenly paled as he gulped silently.

Excuse me?

Tanaka and Nishinoya were cachinnating already, doing their best not to fall down from laughing, while the rest of the team were snickering quietly. Kageyama was so going to have an actual serious talk with Hinata after this practice.

Judging from his partner’s facial expression, he probably knew what Kageyama was planning already, so he simply decided to flee.

“Kageyama, look after her for a second, I’m just gonna go change,” he blurted out, leaping off and heading to the cloakrooms. Kageyama only had time to open his mouth, intending to tell him that he was most definitely not going to do this, but Hinata was gone in an instant.

Kageyama almost hissed in annoyance, his lips turning in a thin line, as he tilted his head and stared down again, while Natsu glanced back up at him with a questioning look on her face.

The girl blinked at him, her head still tilted sideways, and then suddenly closed her eyes, grinning widely, as if she discovered a bowl of sweets or whatever.

“Kageyama-chan!” she giggled, tugging his shirt with her free hand and shaking his tense hand weakly, but persistently.

Oh great.

There was silence for a moment, only interrupted by her giggles, and then everyone around him erupted into laughter.

“Ha-ha-ha, this girl is just brilliant!” Tanaka said, rubbing his eyes and shaking already. Nishinoya patted his back, trying to stay on his feet.

“Looks like Hinata’s little sister is smarter than her own brother,” Tsukishima remarked, a satisfied grin still on his face. Kageyama breathed in and out, trying his best to calm his buzzing nerves, which was quite challenging. He glanced at Natsu again, determined to put this mess to its end.

“Oi,” he called, surprised by how low-pitched his voice sounded. But he found an explanation soon enough — once Natsu looked at him, her eyes widened with fright as she jerked away, her hand slipping out of his. Finally. She did seem pretty scared, though, as she backed away even more and hid behind Asahi, who appeared to be standing not far from him.

Kageyama snorted and turned on his heels, going after the ball he dropped earlier. He was never good with kids anyway — god, not only with kids, with people in general — why would Hinata ask him to look after his younger sister in the first place? It was so uncomfortable and awkward to be in Natsu’s presence; if Hinata behaved immaturely, she was still just a kid, without the full awareness of what she was doing or causing, and no one could blame her for that. But Kageyama didn’t want to do anything with it at all, he didn’t know what to do with this honesty, naivety and endless optimism, as if there was nothing bad in this world.

He bent down, picking the runaway volleyball up, and turned around just in time to see what happened next. Apparently, Natsu finally noticed whom was she hiding behind, backing away a little, looking surprised by Asahi’s size too, but Suga suddenly made his appearance, crouching down in front of her, reaching out slowly and smiling gently.

“Hello there,” he greeted her, his voice surprisingly gentle and steady. “I’m Suga, and what’s your name?” he probably heard it when Hinata introduced her to Kageyama, but he was still asking… why?

Natsu didn’t move, as if studying him carefully, wrinkling the edge of her T-shirt with her fingers nervously.

“N-natsu,” she managed, waiting for his reaction. Of course, Sugawara was the best to handle the child, as expected.

“You’re bright just like our summer sun!” Suga replied, keeping a warm welcoming smile on his face. How did people even do that? Natsu seemed to feel that too, as she relaxed, smiling curiously too, and then running up to Suga, hugging him.

“Suga-chan!” she shouted in his shoulder as his senpai hugged her in return, chuckling softly and fishing something out of his pocket at the same time. Once she pulled back, he showed that thing to her, and Kageyama finally identified a candy. Where the hell did he even get it?

“You want one?” he asked, and her eyes lit up in delight as she happily snatched the sweet out of his hand and threw it in her mouth in no time. She closed her eyes, chewing the candy, obviously enjoying the taste. Then she opened her eyes again to share her outstanding impressions with her benefactor.

“So tasty!” Natsu nodded ferociously, swallowing the rest of what was left. Suga winked at her, patting her head gently.

“I’ll give you one more after the practice,” he whispered, and the girl screeched in pure joy.

“Thank you, Suga-chan!” she bowed quickly and clumsily, probably trying to be polite, but if anything, it was… amusing? Kageyama’s tosses were a result of hard work, hours of training everyday and an incredible passion towards volleyball; handling a child like this was just pure magic.

Everyone else, except for Tsukishima, who didn’t care, and Daichi, who was trying to make sure the girl had some space left, approached and surrounded her. Natsu fit in the atmosphere easily, listening to everyone’s names and probably not memorizing a single one, but still wearing the same excited and joyful expression, gesturing a lot and generally perfectly blending in Karasuno company. Only one girl, but what a fuss.

“Natsu-chan, I’m Nishinoya, the Guardian god!” his senpai proclaimed proudly, pointing at himself, the personification of modesty. Natsu gasped, utterly impressed by that, while Tsukishima made a facepalm somewhere in the background.

“Wo-o-ow, how cool!” the girl gulped.

“You bet!” Tanaka confirmed, shooing his friend elsewhere and standing right in front of Natsu. “I’m Tanaka, and I’m an awesome spiker, so you can call me Tanaka-senpai!”

“Tanaka-cha-an!” the girl giggled, jumping up, and Tanaka just grinned softly.

“You can even call me Tanaka-chan!” god, he totally fell for her wide brown puppy eyes, Kageyama could see it even from his spot. His senpais were skilled and talented, no doubts for that, but they could be so du— immature sometimes. Tanaka, seeing Natsu’s attempts to get up higher, picked her up quickly, accompanied by the girl’s surprised yet jubilant squealing, and placed on Asahi’s wide shoulders. She instantly wrapped her arms around his head, either being scared or ecstatic — Kageyama never knew with children — and frightened Asahi himself — he flinched involuntarily, but Nishinoya and Tanaka managed to hold him in place. Once collected again, Asahi smiled weakly, unable to see the girl, and grabbed her legs carefully, securing her on his shoulders. Natsu let go of his face, which was a big relief for Asahi as he sighed peacefully and began walking around, apparently, being used as a horse.

That girl was just a manipulative maniac of some sort.

“Look, she’s not even scared by him,” Nishinoya whispered to Tanaka as they snickered quietly.

She greeted Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita, who tried tickling her, but as soon as she started kicking Asahi, he ran away from the sneaky second-years. Yamaguchi told her that she was very cute, and the girl just beamed.

Nishinoya attempted to jump on Asahi’s back too and join her, and their Ace almost fell his head first (while Natsu was seemingly having so much fun), so Daichi decided to put this to an end, much to Kageyama’s and Tsukishima’s satisfaction (at least there was something they both had the same views about).

Their Captain caught Natsu from behind, gently lifting her from Asahi’s shoulders and placing on solid ground, right when the cloakrooms’ door slammed open and Hinata ran out, searching for his sister.

“There you are!” he cried out, closing the gap between them and catching her, laughing and tickling a bit. “You didn’t make Kageyama-kun mad while I was gone, did you? Because he’s gonna serve in my head, not yours,” he grinned, taking Natsu’s hand and leading her to the benches. The girl only turned around to glance at Kageyama, but he couldn’t even understand what was there in her eyes. Not that he was interested, though — the normal practice finally started, and he was free to train.

* * *

They warmed up for a few more minutes, practiced serving, blocking and receiving. Karasuno had a small break for drinks, so Kyoko, Yachi and now Natsu, who completely fell in love with the girls, following them everywhere and asking all sorts of different questions about everything, handed the bottles out and then collected them.

Kyoko brought out a packet, calling Hinata.

“It’s your uniform from the dry-cleaning, you forgot to take it yesterday,” she said, and Hinata bowed clumsily, taking the bag from her. Natsu ran up to him, all of a sudden, and snatched the packet from his hands.

“Oi, Natsu!” Hinata laughed, instead of taking it back. Kageyama couldn’t understand his behavior. Meanwhile, the girl rummaged through it, giggling quietly, and fished out a Karasuno shirt, her eyes all lit up and mouth wide open.

"B-beautiful!” she uttered, jumping into action and putting it right on her own orange T-shirt. Hinata tried to stop her, but it was too late. The edge of the shirt was close to her knees, it was obviously too big for her, but she didn’t care. Everyone around cooed at that sight.

“She’s so adorable!” Tanaka shouted, earning a beaming smile from the girl. Senpais.

Kageyama turned around for exactly 15 seconds to get the ball into the basket. And the next time he looked at them they were already taking photos with Natsu, posing in the weirdest ways possible and seemingly enjoying the experience.

Hinata finally caught her from behind while she was showing her new outfit to Kyoko and Yachi, who were absolutely seriously considering it cute as well, and snatched his shirt back.

“I’ll show it to you later,” he said, gently pushing her to the benches.

“You should’ve let us taken more pictures!” Nishinoya protested, but their Captain saved the day.

“Time for some receiving practice!” Daichi proclaimed, getting the ball. Since the coach is away, he was going to serve, and the team was going to receive the ball one after another, in a quick line.

The girls were standing nearby, just in case the ball bounces off. Natsu was holding onto the edges of Yachi’s and Kyoko’s shirts in between.

“Ready?” Daichi asked, and Suga nodded, being the first. “Let’s go!” Their Captain served, Suga returned it perfectly well — then there were Asahi, Tanaka, Tsukishima, and the next one was supposed to be Yamaguchi, but Daichi accidentally sent the ball a bit stronger than required and to the side, making it impossible for him to reach it.

“Sor—“ a sudden flash caught everyone’s attention, as their smallest player leapt back, following the ball with an incredible speed.

“Rolling…”

Oh, here it comes.

“…thunder!” Nishinoya’s arm quickly shot to the right, his wrist meeting with the leather surface of the ball with a soft thump. The ball returned almost directly to Daichi, who only had to step forward to catch it, while Nishinoya regained a normal position of his body, standing there proudly, his shoulders broad and smile challenging anyone else to do the same.

There was silence for a couple of seconds — Nishinoya hasn’t done it for a while, could there be a chance that he was simply…

“T-that was so cool, Nishinoya-senpai! Please teach me how to do it!” Hinata wailed from his spot, his eyes wide and full of actual faith and admiration. No, Kageyama knew that receive was cool, but Tanaka was right about the name…

Of course, Nishinoya got what he wanted, grinning even wider, clearly pleased with himself.

“Weeks of hard training might give you that, Shouyou, but only under my constant supervision!” he snickered, and Tsukishima sneered behind him. But then Kageyama suddenly heard someone’s gasp, and everyone turned their heads to see Natsu running up to Nishinoya, the look of adoration and praise on her face as bright as ever.

“T-that was amazing!” The little girl cheered. Nishinoya melted instantly, patting her head fondly.

“See! Out of the mouth of babes comes the truth!” he whooped, throwing his fist into the air.

“Can you…” Natsu went quiet for a moment, as if collecting her thoughts and searching for words. “Can you do it again, Nishinoya-s-senpai?” she tweeted as she looked right into his eyes with her pleading childish gaze. What a sneaky creature! Kageyama could tell that his senpai was screwed already. Nishinoya blinked, as if still processing what he just heard, and then his jaw dropped, and he stared at the girl like she was a miracle of some sort.

“Sure! Look closely, Natsu-chan!” he winked at her as the girl nodded, probably determined not to even blink. Their libero stepped aside, his arms ready, calling for the ball:

“Bring it o-on!” he yelled, and Daichi, a bit confused, still served it to the left, closer to Natsu — Hinata’s sister didn’t even have a chance to move before Nishinoya was in front of her, overshadowing her and shouting:

“Rolling…” the ball, served almost without any rotation, suddenly rushed to the ground, but Nishinoya simply leapt forwards, stretching out his arms and getting the ball right in time, returning it to Daichi.

“…thunder-r-r!” he roared, throwing his hands up in a victorious gesture. Natsu’s eyes lit up as she gasped and clapped her hands, almost jumping in excitement.

“Again! Again!” she shrieked, her voice full of happiness and sincere fun. Everyone around grinned and snickered, clearly seeing Nishinoya trapped by that little demon, but the libero himself wasn’t fazed by that — as soon as Daichi caught the ball, Nishinoya called:

“One more!” he shook his arms, waiting for the ball.

“Nishinoya—“

“One more, one more! Nishinoya-senpai!” Natsu echoed, turning to look at Daichi with her pleading puppy eyes, while Nishinoya was just losing it already with the whole “senpai” thing. She wasn’t trying to make him do it on purpose, no — she just had this… gaze, which made people do what she wanted, even though she herself wasn’t aware of that yet. Natsu honestly wished to see more of it, and even Daichi seemed charmed by her a little.

“Okay, this will be the last one,” he warned, performing a nice serve and making Nishinoya chase the ball again, accompanied by Natsu’s admired screeching and laughing.

“Does flattery run in their family?” Tsukishima asked Yamaguchi, raising an eyebrow, and his friend simply shrugged, smiling and watching the little girl.

Tsukishima was probably right.

That was not the last one.

Kageyama lost count. Once Daichi did it, Natsu rejoiced even more, and then everyone wanted to serve Nishinoya a ball to see her reaction again.

Apparently, Daichi didn’t put much effort in trying to fix this — the coach still wasn’t there, they’ve done the biggest part of the training and volleyball club members seemed so amused and obsessed over that little girl, it was just ridiculous. Nevertheless, Natsu seemed to have this kind of aura — she attracted people, made them smile with her contagious cheerfulness and woke up an urge to make her happier in the team. And they all appeared to be enjoying it (surely, except for Tsukishima, who was observing the situation from the distance with his usual mocking and totally unimpressed expression). Nishinoya didn’t seem tired in the slightest, he was as energetic as ever, running left and right, returning all the balls with astonishing accuracy and speed and being totally smug after Natsu’s rich praises.

Somehow Hinata ended up standing beside Kageyama with a proud, yet slightly embarrassed, apologizing smile on his face. Kageyama looked at him from the corner of his eye, irritated as ever.

“You knew it was going to be this way, didn’t you?” he asked with a voice full of poison. Hinata flinched, but didn’t look at him, watching his sister with some adoration in his eyes, which Kageyama couldn’t really get, being an only child. 

“Eh, I expected something like this, but definitely not to this extent,” he chortled. Kageyama snorted at that, and they went silent for a while, looking at how Natsu was chasing the ball, trying to catch it before Yamaguchi, who was serving that time.

One stupid thought still bothered Kageyama, though. He couldn’t get rid of it, his mind just kept scrolling back to it, gnawing him and trying to spill the words out of his mouth, since Hinata was close by, yet Kageyama really wasn’t sure if it was for the best to ask him that.

“Hey, Hinata.”

Well, too late to think about that now.

Hinata turned to him, seemingly still listening to what was happening on the court.

“Yeah?”

Why did he even start this conversation. Kageyama wanted to smack himself, but if he started, backing up would be pointless.

“Why did you give Natsu to me?” pronouncing these words felt so weird and unsettling, he was practically choking them out. “Y-you know I’m bad with people, not even mentioning children,” god, it was so stupid. Why would he even wonder about such things? “You could’ve brought her to Suga directly, so why did you lead her to me?” He must’ve just been the closest person to the gym entrance (Kageyama knew it wasn’t like this, but he was trying to assure himself that it was the reason).

Hinata furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, but then relaxed and cackled softly, returning his gaze to the court and Karasuno on it.

“I don’t only trust you on the court, you know,” he blurted out and opened his mouth to say something else, but then Natsu started tugging Asahi’s hair (wait, how did she even end up on their Ace’s back?), and Hinata ran over there to take control of her.

Kageyama was left standing there, utterly stunned and confused to no extent, his head tilted backwards slightly as he tried to grasp what he just heard. I don’t only trust you on the court. Sure, he did feel… grateful, to put it mildly, to Hinata for putting his trust and faith into him, for actually jumping with his eyes closed, knowing that Kageyama would always bring the ball there, not even backing up after so many failed trial runs and mistakes they’ve made while practicing. It was unbelievable for him, he still couldn’t quite grasp or understand that. But he didn’t really think… or hope… for something like that to happen outside of the gym? And it struck him like a lightning now.

He watched Hinata snatching Natsu from Asahi’s back and whirling around, holding her in his arms, as the girl laughed and waved at everyone. She was his little sister, she must’ve been… dear to him, right? And Hinata actually entrusted her… to him. God, even thinking about it felt wrong. He definitely wasn’t the kind of person to trust such things with, no. And he didn’t want this responsibility, didn’t need it.

But why did it feel so… nice and reassuring to hear that?

The whole situation was becoming way too unsettling.

At some point, Natsu herself decided to try receiving the ball herself. Nishinoya put her arms together, showing her how to handle the ball, explaining it in this way which nobody except for Kageyama could understand, but surprisingly, Natsu nodded along, looking as determined and ready as ever (or maybe she wasn’t even listening at all). Yamaguchi threw it right into her arms lightly, as the girl stuck her tongue out, focusing on hitting the ball at whatever the cost.

“Rolling…” she mumbled as the ball soared up to its highest point, and her legs seemed to tense, as if prepared to jump. The “r” still sounded funny coming from her mouth, Kageyama could hear some snickers.

“…thunder!” she yelled as the ball touched her arms. But two things went wrong: first of all, the ball landed far too close to her elbows, creating the incorrect angle. Secondly, instead of softly passing the ball forwards, Natsu tried hitting it by raising her connected arms upwards, sending it elsewhere.

The hit was strong, Kageyama had to give her that; the ball flew past her in an instant, rushing straight to…

No way.

It smashed right in Tsukishima’s distracted face, making his glasses ring quietly, and bouncing off his head back to Natsu, who was standing there with her mouth wide open in shock.

The silence was deafening. Kageyama’s mouth twitched in a weird grin as he suppressed an urge to laugh. Karasuno didn’t hold anything in, though — everyone around him burst out laughing really hard, Tanaka and Nishinoya were almost rolling on the floor, while the rest of the team tried to muffle their guffaws. Okay, Kageyama could feel gaining some respect to Natsu for that, much to his satisfaction. Tsukishima didn’t seem harmed, even his glasses miraculously didn’t break, hanging on one wishbone. His facial expression was… well, priceless. He looked taken completely off guards, yet still irritated, as if wondering who on earth was brave enough to disturb him like this.

Karasuno hasn’t been laughing this loud for quite a while.

Only Yamaguchi seemed worried (probably, because it was his serve after all), as he ran up to Tsukishima, staring at him with an atoning gaze.

“Gomen, Tsukki!” he quaked, without any idea what to do now. Tsukishima didn’t even move, still glaring at the girl. Hinata, with a face full of horror, stepped towards his sister, his intentions unknown to Kageyama, but she suddenly rushed off to Suga. Kageyama thought Natsu was trying to hide, but she stood up on her tiptoes, whispering something to their vice captain. A few seconds later, Suga nodded approvingly, picking something out from his pocket and giving to her. By that moment, everyone finally quieted down and was attentively watching the girl.

Natsu jumped to Tsukishima, wrapping her hands around his fingers and making him cringe. Kageyama probably looked the same when she was around. Hinata moved in their way — was he trying to get ready to snatch Natsu and run for their lives? Maybe. Nevertheless, the further events were quite shocking.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a genuine concern in her voice. Not waiting for an answer nor looking at his face (which expressed some strongly mixed feelings at that moment), Natsu hugged him tightly. Tsukishima seemed appalled and finally done with this shit, yet he still didn’t dare moving, his arms stretched out, as if unsure whether to try climbing out of the girl’s grasp or just shake her off. Interesting.

“Gomen, Tsukki-chan!” the girl mumbled in the fabric of his shirt, and Tsukishima shot a glare from Natsu to Yamaguchi, who shrugged helplessly, looking amused. Kageyama heard the sound of the camera shutter, and he noticed a glimpse of Ennoshita taking a picture on his phone. Great idea; Tsukishima, dealing with a child, didn’t even notice. “I really didn’t want to hit you!” Daichi and Suga chuckled softly, as their tallest player inhaled and exhaled deeply, probably regaining his composure. Or trying.

“That girl’s sharp, isn’t she,” Ennochita grinned along with his fellow second-years.

“I-it’s fine, just let go of me,” he hissed, but apparently, not scary enough to get rid of Natsu. That girl was stubborn (and Tsukishima might’ve not been that frightening after Kageyama).

“Here,” she sniffed, putting something small in his palm. Tsukishima frowned, examining the unknown object, which, of course, turned out to be a candy. He didn’t have any idea what to do with it, staring down back at Natsu.

“You can eat it,” the girl nodded, urging him to do so. Tsukishima’s stunned face didn’t change in the slightest, and Suga suddenly commented:

“That was my last one.”

Slow realization overpowered the shock on Tsukishima’s face, as he glanced at his senpais with a disappointed expression, and then reluctantly unwrapped the candy and threw it in his mouth.

“See? It’s fine. Now let go.” Natsu beamed, not even noticing how his voice changed from glass sharp to steel sharp. She finally jumped away from him, Tsukishima sighed, irritated beyond possible, and readjusted the glasses on his nose. Meanwhile, Nishinoya and Tanaka both high-fived Natsu, each of them clapping their two hands against one of hers.

“Looks like she avenged her brother, even though unintentionally, wouldn’t you say?” Daichi suggested, and Suga with Asahi grinned to that thought.

Natsu got the ball first, throwing it at Yamaguchi, who reflexively tossed it elsewhere. It bounced off the wall and rolled outside; Natsu chased it immediately, flailing her arms in all directions.

“Really, let’s go play out there!” Tanaka yelled, and everyone else cheered him on, supporting the idea, but instinctively, they all turned to the Captain first; nobody wanted to mess with Daichi.

Kageyama was a bit mad at that point, to be honest. The practice turned into fussing over that little girl, he didn’t train properly and didn’t do anything useful, if only embarrassed himself, not even once. Why couldn’t they simply have some nice time practicing? Why did they have to turn it into a children garden? Daichi turned around to have a look at the clocks — the practice was nearly over by now. Just great. The Captain looked back, seeing all his teammates pleading gazes, and sighed, giving up this time.

“We don’t have time for anything decent anyway, and the coach still hasn’t showed up… He texted me that he probably won’t be able to come, but don’t go away yet — if he comes, we’ll stay for longer and have a short practice match.”

Karasuno nodded along, hurrying out on the street to Natsu’s cheerful screeching, Hinata being the first. Yamaguchi made Tsukishima go along, and soon Kageyama was the only one left in the gym. He considered doing some more tossing exercises, even though it would be kind of dull on his own now (Tsukishima didn’t seem like going out to play with everyone, but like hell he was going to practice with him). What else was he supposed to do? He didn’t want to play with Natsu and everyone being so loud and joyful and… he couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t exactly feel right being in such environment, it affected him badly and made even more irritated.

That was the moment when Hinata’s head stuck in from outside, his hair all tousled, a wide happy smile shining on his face. The last golden rays of sunshine were washing over him, and he seemed to… glow a little.

“Hey, come along, Kageyama!” He suppressed a sudden urge to follow him, to join everyone and just not be alone here.

“Will not.” He managed. It wasn’t that hard, though, he really didn’t want to stumble upon Natsu’s bright and overwhelming personality in combination with Hinata’s again. It… confused him.

“Come o-on, don’t be so boring!” Hinata wailed, hanging onto the door and bending down. “We’re going to toss to each other in a circle, and you want to play, don’t you?”

Kageyama bit his lip.

Curse him.

“I know that practice wasn’t really good today, but I had to bring her,” Hinata added, unexpectedly quietly. “I thought you guys would get along, but…” he shook his head. “Never mind, just come here already!”

Kageyama was still overthinking his replica, I though you guys would get along. Did Hinata really suggest that Natsu would like him, or that Kageyama would like her? Not that he hated her or anything, her presence was just way to unsettling, making him think about things and behave strangely in general. But it looked like he didn’t have a choice anymore; Hinata was stubborn like hell, and tossing in a circle would be more interesting that doing the same against the wall, even though still too easy.

He muttered something incoherent, throwing the ball he was holding into the basket and leaving the gym.

It was actually nice outside: the air smelled of rain a little, gusts of slightly cold wind washed over him, refreshing and cooling his feverish skin with soft touches. The sun was still there, and its rays were surprisingly warm, although the sunset was coming.

Karasuno gathered nearby one of the walls of the gym, standing in a rough circle; their managers and even Tsukishima was there, apparently, also bored to no extent to actually join this madness. Natsu was also in midst of it, running from one player to another with a ball in her hands, refusing to let it go and laughing when someone tried snatching it away from her. She was running fast, looking back at Nishinoya, who was chasing her now, and sticking out her tongue at him, so she didn’t notice Kageyama and bumped right into him. Kageyama didn’t even shake, easily standing his ground and staring down at her. The girl slowly raised her head, finally realizing what she has done, and rushed off back to the Karasuno circle, clutching the ball tightly. Nishinoya followed her, shouting:

“Don’t worry, he doesn’t kill people! Not with the witnesses!” Hinata giggled, but Kageyama sent him an expressive glare, so they simply joined the rest of the team and started playing.

Natsu tried staying more serious, but to no avail. Of course she couldn’t receive the ball properly, yet despite that everyone kept tossing to her from time to time. She either caught the ball or attempted to receive like everyone else did; and almost every time it ended up with the ball flying into somebody’s face, that girl was just unbelievable. Even Hinata lacked that accuracy of hers in head-butting the ball or sending it straight into someone’s head. Yamaguchi suffered more than anyone, standing nearby, and Natsu kept apologizing, telling him that she wanted to play as cool as him when she starts practicing, sincerity in her eyes astonishing. Yamaguchi blushed a little from such a persisting praising, rubbing the back of his head and smiling at her.

Surprisingly, Kageyama felt a whole lot better. The familiar environment, pleasant heft of the ball in his hands, cool wind flopping his T-shirt and Karasuno around him — it all made him feel kind of… peaceful. Even Natsu wasn’t that much of a trouble anymore, at some point he even found her playing a bit… amusing? Maybe, but he silently swore to himself, that if Natsu was actually going to learn how to play volleyball in the future, he should put all his effort in not letting Hinata teach her. That’d be a catastrophe, and he really didn’t want her to follow the steps of her elder brother.  

Kageyama was pretty damn done with the balls smashing into his head, thank you very much.

They kept playing for quite a while, and the wind was slowly growing strong. It didn’t interfere with the game, though. Yachi and Kyoko handled out the bottles once more, and they went back to playing after a small break, widening their circle.

The girls seemed to get tired after a while, even Natsu did, breathing heavily and running slower, but she was probably just as stubborn as her brother and didn’t want to voice it out.

“Natsu, how about we go play together, the three of us?” Yachi suggested while Suga was picking up the lost ball. The managers were trying to even their breathing too, Kyoko being the least exhausted, but she still nodded along. Natsu looked up at them, smiled widely and cried out:

“Yes!”

Hinata looked at the girls approvingly; even if Natsu didn’t notice it, she was already tired, she’d better get some rest. They could play calmly nearby, also letting the team swing the ball faster and freer, without holding back. It was getting quite windy anyway, Kageyama supposed they weren’t going to stay for long.

“Hinata, go get them another ball,” Daichi ushered, and before Kyoko could protest and say that she could bring one herself, Hinata rushed off, going after it. Kyoko and Yachi led Natsu out of the circle, holding her hands.

“Let’s do a round before Hinata gets back,” Suga suggested tot everyone’s agreement, as they stretched out their arms, preparing to receive. Suga passed the ball to Kinoshita, then it went to Asahi and Tanaka, however, Narita, who was the next one to get a toss, accidentally made a mistake and sent the ball flying backwards. The wind pushed it even further, under a huge poplar, which was growing a dozen of meters away from the gym. Its leaves were rustling on the wind, and the way its branches were swaying slowly, crackling so quietly it was barely audible over the wind, made Kageyama's stomach twist. His instincts seemed to turn on, alerting him to something, but he just tried to shake the weird feeling off. That was ridiculous; was he afraid of the tree?

“Sorry…” Narita mumbled, making a step towards the poplar, but then somebody quickly rushed past him in a flash of bright orange, even more lightened up with the golden rays of the setting sun.

“I’ll get it!” Natsu screamed, laughing and jumping, making her way to the poplar. Karasuno chuckled softly, but Kageyama couldn’t get his eyes off her. Something was wrong, something was so, so damn wrong. He couldn’t even determine what; his heart sped up out of nowhere, his muscles tensed as he watched Natsu reaching the tree and bending down to pick up the ball.

He was fussing over nothing. It was probably the tiredness that made him so impatient, that’s all.

“Kageyama?” he heard Daichi’s voice calling out for him as he finally noticed that he actually went out of the circle already, taking a few steps towards the tree. God, that was embarrassing. “What’s wrong?” No, nothing was wrong, it was just his head and all the stupid thought and forebodings it produced, completely messing up with him.

But why couldn’t he turn around, look at his teammates and confirm that everything was fine? Natsu was just a couple of meters away from them, already with the ball in her hands. Why wouldn’t she just go back, did she have to stand there and look over that damn ball like she hasn’t seen it before?

There, she glanced back at them, waving and all ready to go.

Crack.

A particularly strong gust of wind ruffled his hair, blowing the strands of hair in front of his eyes and messing up with vision, but he still saw how Natsu’s expression changed in less than a second when she glanced at him, hearing that crackling above her. Her eyes widened, filling with shock, confusion and fear, the girl quickly looked up to the middle branches as they loomed over her, bowing lower and lower with the rising wind, and at some point, after reaching the very extreme point… breaking.

For one second Kageyama’s muscles were stone, and it seemed like he was never going to move from that spot ever again. He couldn’t inhale properly, staring at the branches, which were gradually going down, as if in slow motion. All the sounds died out around him; it was impossible, but seeing Natsu’s mouth opening, he could practically hear her gasp. Kageyama’s heart stopped, not supplying his brain with oxygen anymore and preventing him from thinking and reacting fast enough. He couldn’t quite grasp the situation, couldn’t believe it was actually happening, and he was watching it — he couldn’t bring himself to move his feet, to do something, anything. He felt powerless and pathetic against an event like this.

I don’t only trust you on the court, you know.

Something snapped in his brain, finding the familiar, sense-making words. Of course, it was just as simple as that. Natsu was Hinata’s little sister, and Hinata actually trusted him with her, and Kageyama, to his own surprise, discovered a strange urge not to fail his trust. She was just a child, she had nothing to do with all of this — and she was most certainly not going to end up well after such a crash. Weird tugging feeling smashed him back to reality, the unexplainable need to protect Natsu overwhelming him in a matter of seconds and filling his very being, putting everything in order and waking him up from that stupid daze state of his. Kageyama was the closest one to the tree, and even if he wouldn’t be, it didn’t matter — he instantly darted off, sprinting to the poplar as fast as he possibly could.

“Kageyama!” he heard some screams behind him, but those didn’t matter at the moment. There was no way he was just going to let that girl get harmed without even trying to do something about it, no fucking way. His lungs burned, eager for oxygen, because the strong wind was making it hard to breath properly, but his legs did their job just fine, jumping over some small holes and roots in the soil. Adrenaline filled his entire body, enabling him to move further. His eyes were focused on Natsu’s small figure, but he could see the branches making their way down — the ones that were still attached to the trunk were lingering the falling ones, but it wasstill a double-edged sword of some sort, because they couldn’t hold them back completely, breaking after the collision and piling up even more. At least it gave him a few more seconds. Kageyama could already estimate that he couldn’t get her out of there in time, so there basically wasn’t much choice for him left.

“KAGEYAMA!” that particular cry almost made him stop, but he couldn’t allow himself any delays, not now. Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop his heart from sinking a bit — even without looking back, he already knew that Hinata took in the situation, he understood what was going on and realized what consequences there might be for his sister. He must’ve been terrified, probably even more that Kageyama himself was. That thought kind of boosted him forwards even more, he experienced that feeling before — being helpless in such an important situation, it sucked so much, and he somehow really didn’t want them to go through this, neither Hinata nor Natsu. Hinata’s voice was filled with panic, horror and concern, Kageyama could tell he was racing after him already, but of course he wouldn’t make it in time, even with his enormous speed.

The shadow of the pile of branches loomed over him, Natsu being just a few meters away. She didn’t dare move, clutching the ball to tightly her knuckles went white, but Kageyama couldn’t blame her, because he was just as frightened. He could feel the branched coming this way, but he didn’t even have any chance to shout her name. He’s going to make it. Just as he was a couple of steps away from her, Natsu suddenly turned her head, looking at him — all scared, confused and panicked, but there was definitely some… relief in her features, as soon as she realized that she wasn’t alone here, that somebody was actually going to help her.

That sincere and unconditional faith reflecting in her bright orange eyes made something drop painfully in Kageyama’s chest.

God, Natsu reminded him of her elder brother so damn much.

Feeling the pressure above him piling up threateningly fast, Kageyama braced himself, jumped forward as far as he could and covered Natsu with his own body, pining the girl to the ground and hiding her under his torso, trying to stay as low and small as possible, his arms wrapped around Natsu and his legs pressed to his sides.

The blow was painful.

Even before he managed to shrink into a protective posture, grabbing Natsu, one thick branch from the lowest part of the trunk hit him right in his right elbow, sending his whole arm flaring in pain. The arm twisted under his body, still somehow managing to wrap around Natsu by inertia from the impact, and lying there, absolutely limp and useless. It burned horribly and felt as if somebody stuck a white-hot iron wire in his shoulder — the firm bark must've hit him right into the ulnar nerve, just his luck. Kageyama couldn’t help but cry out in pain quietly, before he managed to grit his teeth and bite back all the unrequired sounds. The air around him was filled with the noise of cracking and breaking wood as it crashed into the ground all around them. A few branches hit his back in the process, but it wasn’t that bad; not until another one from the lower part of the treebroke off and fell right on his shoulders, scraping the back of his head and neck and pressing him down with its weight. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like any harm was done to his spine, but it made him really uncomfortable and wrenched his head in a troublesome angle.

Kageyama unconsciously closed his eyes, trying to ignore all the throbbing and burning pain in his body and focusing on something else instead. Apparently, the easiest and most effective option turned out to be Natsu herself — she was clinging to him desperately, not moving, her breathing barely audible. Kageyama couldn’t see her face, because she hid it in his T-shirt, but he felt her ragged and shallow inhales, felt how she shivered and trembled with fear. He did his best to remain steady under all those falling branches and isolate her from them as well as he could, just wincing occasionally when some twig would hit or scratch him. He couldn’t allow himself to seem weak now, even if he was actually deadly scared — it would take just one good hit into his head to finish everything off for him in the worst case scenario. But Natsu was appalled and struck with horror so hard, he should at least give her some confidence and hope that it was going to be alright, because he simply knew it was.

Karasuno was somewhere nearby, and they wouldn’t leave them here like this. He could count on them.

It seemed to go on forever, but all the sounds and noises quieted down after a short while. Kageyama opened his eyes slowly, wincing from every movement his chest did while breathing — he felt the weight of branches on his back, and it was pushing him down, sucking the oxygen out of his lungs. Kageyama raised his head carefully and instantly regretted that decision — something cracked in his neck as he hissed in irritation. He couldn’t see what was around properly because of all the dust flying in the air and sticking to his eyes; there was quite a thick layer of wood they were lying under, but some traces of sunshine were visible all around, too. How did this tree even managed to stand for this long? It was really old and fragile already, but still quite damn solid, spoken from the experience. No wonder it took just a few gusts of strong wind to knock it down, and after the upper twigs everything fell off like in domino, one branch after another. Thankfully, the trunk hadn’t fallen, but judging from the amount of twigs and branches they were under, it was probably the southern part of the tree (it felt really weird to remember such stuff now, but since parents did make him go hiking with them when he was a kid, he used to get lost in the forests often enough to know this shit). It shouldn’t take his teammates too long to dig down here and get them out.

Kageyama loosened his grip on the girl, looking down carefully and trying to touch her without frightening even more at the same time.

“Oi,” he rasped, attempting to regain control over his shaking voice. “Are you alright?” It seemed so strange to ask someone this question, but he had to make sure she was okay. Natsu flinched at the sound of her name, gradually raising her head and staring at him, her eyes widened and crossed with shock.

“Natsu, are you hurt?” Kageyama repeated, calling for his patience. The girl was scared, of course she had some trouble talking. He probably shouldn’t push her really much or… or was he supposed to check for some injuries… he had no idea how to handle children whatsoever.

Fortunately, Natsu gulped and blinked at him, obviously doing her best to grasp the situation and understand what to do now. She shifter closer to his head, so that he wouldn’t have to bow it much, and nodded carefully, still clenching his shirt, and not taking her eyes off him.

“A-are you ok-kay?” she managed, her voice trembling like leaves on the wind. She stopped shivering, but still remained very tense, tugging his T-shirt like a reassurance of some sort.

Kageyama looked at her, tilting his head a bit. She was actually wondering if he was alright, didn’t he misheard something? Well, that girl almost didn’t know him, and he managed to scare her earlier, why would she be interested in his well-being?

“K-kageyama-chan, are you okay?” she repeated louder, starting to shake him weakly, demanding a response. Kageyama swallowed a lump in his throat, nodding at her calmly, wishing to share his composure with her. He expected her to panic or weep uncontrollably, because that’s what children usually did in his experience, but she stayed surprisingly cool and collected, as far as she could’ve in such situation.

“Don’t worry,” he still found himself saying, “your brother and everyone else are going to get us out of here soon, we just need to wait.” Kageyama could already hear some ruckus up there. He just wanted them to get it done faster, because his arm was starting to really bother him. It might’ve been a dislocation…

“ ‘m not gonna cry,” the little girl suddenly shook her head, looking surprisingly determined, although still not quite like her usual self, and her voice seemed like one on the verge of tears. “Onii-chan t-told me I could trust you, Kageyama-chan, and onii-chan n-never lies,” she finished, sniffing.

Kageyama stared at her, having some really hard time processing what she just proclaimed. So Hinata wasn’t joking after all? Natsu spoke with such sincerity it was too much for Kageyama to handle. People were afraid to trust him a toss, a ball, much less an actual dear person. It was something brand new and astonishing, it hit him out of nowhere and he wasn’t prepared in the slightest. How could he possibly earn that much trust and faith from one single person? As far as he didn’t admit it to anyone, he did have… a difficult character. He didn’t know a thing about interacting with people, well, because he didn’t give a hell about that. He didn’t need to, or at least he thought so before his own team kicked him out right in the middle of the match. But this idiot… He was far beyond Kageyama’s understanding. Did Hinata actually… could he?..

He suddenly felt something cold on his nose, wincing, and after a moment he realized that it was a water drop. Natsu noticed it, too, frowning and rubbing it off with her finger carefully. Then she looked up at him again, tilting her head slightly, as if deciding whether to do a thing or not. Before Kageyama could’ve tried to put a finger on what she was pondering, the girl raised her hands, lying back on her shoulders, and slowly, gently wiped Kageyama’s eyes from all the dust and dirt they had. Kageyama wanted to jerk his head back, recoiling from an unexpected touch, but Natsu’s fingertips were cool and soft, and it did help him to feel and see better again. She pulled her arms back after she was done, as if afraid of his reaction, but Kageyama simply muttered a quiet “thank you”, causing the girl to beam.

“Natsu! Natsu! Kageyama!” they both heard yelling, surely Hinata’s voice being the loudest. Kageyama sighed in relief, Natsu’s eyes lit up.

“We’re here, onii-chan!” she screamed in return.

“Can you see him?” Kageyama asked, not being able to turn his head because of a huge branch on his neck.

"We’re going to get you out of there, just hang on!” Daichi said, and there was more noise of branches being lifted and thrown away.

“Just shadows,” the girl answered, and suddenly peaked up again. Another drop fell on the grass nearby, than one more, and one more — it a couple of seconds it started raining, the water splashing and pounding against the wood.

Perfect timing as usual.

Natsu looked around helplessly, pouting a little and shivering again, getting wetter with every moment. Kageyama pointed to his chest with his chin in an inviting gesture.

“Hide under me and don’t go out,” he told her as she hurried back to her improvised shelter. She curled up, trying to keep herself warm, and Kageyama pressed his chest against her tiny frame, hugging her a bit tighter in order to provide some warmth as well. The rain wasn’t really powerful, but still unpleasant in such an environment, as small puddles began to form around them already, while Kageyama was listening to Karasuno member’s shouting as they cleared up their way to them.

Unwillingly, Kageyama shivered too, cold water running underneath his cloth and sending goose bumps all over his skin. Did it really have to rain now? He sniffed, involuntarily clinging closer to the girl, who radiated pleasant warmth and… unbelievably comforting aura, too. Kageyama didn’t feel unsettled in the slightest, it was good having her here — although he suspected that it was better for her to have someone here. Who knows how would it end if this damn ton of wood fell on Natsu alone…

The girl shifted under him, reaching up and wrapping her arms around him — not long enough to actually connect her hands, but it still felt so… nice.

Kageyama knew for sure that his cheeks prickled with heat a little. Yet it made some of the cold surrounding him go away, and he was grateful for that.

“Natsu! Kageyama!” Hinata’s voice was really close now, and only now could Kageyama actually determine how desperate and frightened it sounded. He could feel some pressure disappearing from his spine and legs gradually, but there was still a whole lot of wood closer to his head.

“Onii-chan!” Natsu jerked, hearing the voice of her brother, and it made Kageyama’s hurt arm twitch in an uncomfortable position. He hissed in pain, biting his cheek in an attempt to get his mind off his throbbing flaring elbow. Natsu stiffened, trying to look up at him.

“Kageyama-chan, are you hurt?” she wondered, concern flowing through her demanding tone of voice. “Kageyama-chan!” she called louder.

“Sh-sh-sh, don’t worry, it’s fine,” he answered, trying to shush her, although it probably sounded more like a snake’s aggressive hiss. He just wished for somebody to finally get them out. It seemed like someone was ripping his forearm from his body, only rain cooled it down a bit.

“Kageyama, are you and Natsu alright over there?” he heard Daichi’s stern yet worried voice from behind.

Sure, just cooling down here! he wanted to answer, pissed off by those branches to no extent already. But his irritation was a bit irrational in this case — surely, they needed to know if they were okay and if they could keep cleaning the obstruction.

“Yes!” he shouted back. “We’re both fine!” he only needed them to get the girl out faster, before she could catch a cold or anything. Apparently, Natsu wanted to say something, but Kageyama pressed her closer to his chest with his good arm, so that her words were turned in decipherable mumbling. If she said something about odd, they might start looking for a safer way to clear the area or whatever. He just wanted to get her out of here as soon as possible.

Natsu sneezed, confirming his worries.

“Natsu! Natsu, hang on, we’re almost there!” Hinata yelled, and it actually sounded as if he’s been… crying. “Kageyama!” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Kageyama, are you hurt? Answer me, goddamn idiot!” his voice was angry but so distressed at the same time, even hysterical to some point.

Did they all really worry about him, too?

Kageyama couldn’t bring himself to say even a single word in return. 

One of the heavy branches was moved away from his legs on the count of three, and he felt himself breathing a bit freer. His muscles were sore, but at least some weight was lifted from him. Somebody patted his calf, saying “Don’t worry, we’ve got you two” (judging from the voice, it was Asahi, but rain was clattering pretty loudly against the ground and the wood, so Kageyama wasn’t absolutely sure). But the touch was still comforting — they’d get them out soon, it’d be over in no time.

“Kageyama, can you help Natsu to get out? Maybe you could climb out too, if we held the pile?” Daichi asked him, and Kageyama tried to think it through. He was in a position where Natsu was hidden under him, behind his thighs, and his knees were touching the ground. There was still some wood on his spine, but it wasn’t really heavy, he could lift it. The one thing that bothered him was that goddamn branch on his neck; it was kind of hefty, he was afraid to move it and didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if it crushed on his neck with its full force, not being supported by other branches anymore.

“Natsu! Natsu, are you alright over there? Natsu!” Hinata’s deeply upset and stressed out voice rang in his ears along with the rapid beating of his own heart. It made something sink in his stomach yet again, and weird tugging in his chest revived with new force. Natsu shifted under him, struggling to hear and to reach the familiar voice, screaming:

“Onii-chan! Onii-chan, I’m fine! Are you going to get us out soon? Onii-chan!” she did actually sound like she was on the verge of tears by now, it was probably all just too stressful for her. Kageyama sighed, trying to stay cool and collected (not to mention, rain helped a lot with the “cool” part), finally making a decision. It was rushed, most likely, but he didn’t care anymore. Natsu was shivering badly under him, it was getting colder and wetter, and he just wanted her to calm down and find some peace at last; as well as he wanted Hinata to.

“If it’s too heavy yet, we’re going to clear some more,” Tanaka suggested.

“I— I’m going to let her out,” he rasped as loud as he could, not having a proper control over his own voice yet. “Keep an eye on the branches from the right.” It seemed like there was less wood, so he was going to made some window for her to crawl through over there. He tilted his head, wincing from the unneeded contact with some small rough twigs and meeting Natsu’s lost gaze.

“Listen to me: I’m going to make some space for you over there, to the right— to the left,” it was left for her, since she was on her back now, but Kageyama used his chin and eye movements to gesture the general direction, just to be sure, and the girl seemed to understand. “You’ll crawl out from there, Hinata is waiting for you outside,” her eyes lit up instantly, two small fires dancing in bright irises. “But be careful — try to avoid the branches, don’t touch or shake them, okay?” Natsu nodded, and from there on Kageyama could only hope for the best.

“Kageyama-chan, are you going to be alright?” she wondered all of a sudden, her eyes fixed on his with a weird persistence, as if she was asking him not to lie.

“Of c-course I am,” he muttered. “I survived your brother for months, don’t underestimate me.” Natsu smiled sincerely at that, and it gave him some confidence for his plan of action.

“Are you ready?” he asked, and there were confirmative shouts from Daichi, Asahi and Tanaka. Kageyama took a deep breath and tried to raise his back slowly, inch by inch. It wasn’t completely easy, but someone helped him to lift the general pile, throwing some twigs off in the process. He could see more and more light, even though faint, coming from behind. As soon as his knees straightened some more, he moved his right leg to the left, pressing them together and creating a small window. Natsu got her call — the girl turned around carefully, scrambling to the exit, and Kageyama heard some cries of approval as she was pretty close already.

Everything was ringing ferociously in his ears; it was incredibly difficult to maintain his position while barely using his second arm, the pressure seemed to rise, even though someone still kept lifting redundant weight from his spine. His legs shook, the rain seemed to worsen, too.

Just a few more seconds. Just a little bit.

Something cracked above him, and his knees buckled helplessly.

“SHIT!” he could see a pair of arms snatching Natsu outside, and relief washed over him for a second, instantly substituted with fear and panic. That damn branch couldn’t hold any longer — it was probably hooked on a few more, but now that they’ve moved the pile a little, everything shifted. His legs smacked into the ground, sending some branches flying down back on him, too, but the heaviest ones were supported by two men standing behind him, the third one joining in quickly. They spread out their arms — it was kind of unnatural, you had to hold them tied together while receiving, right? Kageyama’s mind was dizzy, he attempted to shake all those weird useless ideas off, but he still couldn’t exactly think straight.

“Kageyama, can you get out?!” He was an idiot, he should’ve told them about that branch above his neck earlier. Before he could even warn them about it, something pressed against his nape painfully, sliding down and scratching his skin, leaving him choking for air.

“Wait!” the pressure suddenly eased, as if someone tried to lift that branch from the left, although he didn’t know how one could even stand there — it was still bulked with wood. Whoever the hell it was, Kageyama was grateful for that — he could breath again. His neck burned and itched, but oxygen was far more important.

“I’ll help, take it higher!” Was that… Ennochita’s voice? Kageyama couldn’t hear it properly in all the ruckus and noises. His bad arm was flaring with pain after having to support part of his body weight, and just for a second he felt like curling up and staying down there, giving up and not putting any effort anymore.

“Kageyama!”

Just for a second.

It was so idiotic of him. Losing to a pile of wood? He’ll never hear the end of it from the others. And he was certainly not going to let Hinata, that dumbass, outplay him in volleyball. Not in this life, not in the next.

“Kageyama, we’re holding it, can you crawl out?” Daichi’s voice was more or less concentrated, but he could hear fright flowing through it. They were supporting this whole ton of branches for him, he had to do something.

Kageyama shifted his legs slowly, carefully examining the background. There seemed to be some space left, so he tried to creep back, allowing some minor twigs to slide down from his back and shoulders. Everything was fine, as much as it could’ve been at least — his arm and caution held him back a little, plus he felt something wet on the back on his neck, and it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

“You’re almost there!” Asahi told him, and Kageyama moved a bit faster. The wood was shaking above him, some twigs were falling down. Not that he wanted to stay here any longer. Suddenly, something cracked above him, and another “not-so-little” branch slammed down, crashing straight into his right arm before he could even react.

It felt like a hammer hitting him with its full force.

The branch was as thick as his arm to begin with, and of fucking course it fell right onto his elbow. His arm and shoulder exploded with pain, as if being set on fire and re-forged at the same time. He couldn’t — or didn’t want to — feel it, even if it meant cutting it off for fuck’s sake, but there was nothing he could do, and making up the stupidest ideas wouldn’t do him any good anyway.

Nevertheless, Kageyama couldn’t suppress a small cry escaping his lips after the collision, and it caused the commotion outside to quiet down.

“Kageyama!” There were lots of voices, but he could barely identify any, deafened by the insane ringing in his ears. “Kageyama, are you alright? Can you get out? Kageyama!” God, there was so much screaming, and the rain was still thundering all around. Kageyama’s vision blurred from pain, he got disoriented and didn’t know what to do anymore, he couldn’t get the storm of thought echoing through his mind and order and think of something sensible, it was just too much.

He only knew that he had to keep moving, going backwards and getting out of this goddamn lump of garbage!

But before he could even try backing again, something… were those hands? Something grabbed his ankles firmly, and to be honest, his first instinct for such an action was to kick. Yet he didn’t even have time for that — he was pulled from under the pile of wood unbelievably fast, sliding through the small muds and dirt on his way. Kageyama suddenly stopped after a second, and all those twigs and sticks fell down right in front of his face, sending a bit of dust into the air and his nose, but the rain struck it down quickly enough.

He coughed, trembling with cold, and there was a complete utter silence for a moment, before everything sprang into action.

The next second he was surrounded by people — his teammates — as they gradually helped him to sit up, not stopping asking him if he was okay. All those noises were giving him even more of a headache, but it turned out to be surprisingly… nice to be in the middle of that fuss. When his vision finally adjusted and cleared a bit, he found himself sitting in front of the pile — it turned out to be even bigger than he estimated. Sugawara was sitting beside him, his hand on his shoulder, and everyone else stood close by. Daichi, Asahi, Tanaka… Ennochita was coming back from under the tree, too. His brows furrowed when he noticed some movement amidst the pile — it was Tsukishima, who discreetly climbed and jumped over the branches, walking from the left side of the place where Natsu and Kageyama were trapped, clapping and rubbing his hands.

The realization hit him out of nowhere.

It was Tsukishima who lifted that branch away from his neck.

The situation was… complicated. Of course, Kageyama felt grateful, somewhere deep down — but even deeper he just hoped that Tsukishima wasn’t enough of an idiot to bring this up. Kageyama didn’t really think he enjoyed helping him anyway.

“Kageyama, how are you?” Sugawara asked, sitting in the dirt beside him. His arms were dirty, too, as well as his knees and T-shirt a little. “We heard you screaming, did you hurt anything?”

And it was most likely Sugawara who pulled him out.

“There’s a bleeding on his nape,” Nishinoya, apparently, stood behind him. “Kinoshita, give me that rag…” Something was wrapped around his neck carefully — it itched, and he hissed in pain involuntarily, but some part of his brain realized that it was necessary. “Yeah, that’s better.”

“Thank you, Nishinoya,” Daichi said, crouching in front of him. “Kageyama, you still haven’t answered. Are you feeling alright? Do you think you stand?”

Kageyama nodded uncertainly, not quite sure about what to do now. He was still a bit delirious, as if he drank some sedatives or something, and it was so damn weird. Thankfully, cold rain, now pouring him entirely, was slowly getting him back to reality.

“We need to get you somewhere warm,” Asahi said, bending down to carefully help him up. “We’ll support you, don’t worry.” Before Kageyama could put one word after another and say something, anything to catch his attention, Asahi touched his right arm, and Kageyama jerked back unintentionally, biting his tongue in an attempt to leave all the sounds in his mouth. It didn’t seem like dislocation anymore, definitely not.

“Something wrong with your arm?” Suga asked, immediately readjusting his position and sitting in front of him, carefully checking his elbow and shoulder. Kageyama reacted badly at some touches, and the tips of Sugawara’s lips turned down in a bitter expression.

“It might even be a fraction,” he muttered, but clear enough for everyone to hear. Well damn, of course that stupid branch had to hit his arm — not his leg, not his head, but his right arm. It just couldn’t have happened any other way.

Kageyama felt a weird urge to spit at that pile solely for the sake of getting some small revenge he could actually get for this.

Now that his mind was more or less clear again, more important questions popped up as his head shot upwards.

“Is Natsu alright?” he asked, watching his senpai’s reactions attentively. Fortunately, he didn’t see anything that might’ve been a cause to worry.

“She’s safe and sound,” Ennochita said, turning to the side and looking somewhere else. “She’s with— oh, here they are.”

It wasn’t comfortable, but Kageyama turned his head, instantly catching two bright wet mops of hair just a few steps away from him. The relief, which washed over him, was ridiculous, but still so satisfying. Natsu was okay, she was with Hinata. The girl was clinging to his older brother, her eyes reddish a bit — she probably cried, but Kageyama was still quite surprised with how collected and well she behaved down there. And there was a weak smile on her face, the one that assured him that everything was absolutely alright after all.

Hinata was holding her arm as they walked around him — his gaze slipped on Kageyama’s neck for a second, brows furrowing in concern. Actually, it was just a scratch, he was quite lucky, thanks to… never mind that.

Daichi stepped aside and Sugawara pulled away, standing up, as those two stood in front of him. It was such a ludicrous scene — Kageyama was sitting in the dirt, Hinata and Natsu were staring at him, and it was pouring. There weren’t any sounds except for the whisper of the rain for a while, even their senpais and Tsukishima went a bit further, knowing that they needed some time and just keeping them in check, finding out when was the ambulance going to arrive.

Hinata’s eyes dropped down to his twisted arm, as he looked over it, pressing Natsu closer to his side. Kageyama couldn’t tell what he was thinking about, but it didn’t seem good.

“You…” Hinata broke the silence first, but he was at loss for words, his mouth opened with nothing to spill out. Kageyama didn’t quite know how to react, either. The situation was… weird, so awkwardly weird.

“Is that…” Kageyama took a better look and saw, to his surprise, how scrunched up and reddened Hinata’s face was. His voice was trembling uncontrollably, and he appeared to be on the verge of crying. Kageyama could only faintly guess what he was feeling, but apparently, it didn’t really cover that.

Nevertheless, he didn’t want Hinata to cry.

“I’m going to be fine,” he blurted out without even using his brain-mouth filter properly anymore. “It might be a fraction, but it’s nothing.” The words burned on his tongue — a lie, such a terrible lie. This fraction could mean month without volleyball, month if he was lucky enough. He’d lose so much training, developing the technique and playing… with Hinata and everyone else…

Obviously, Hinata didn’t like his fake consolations, too.

“Shut the hell up! Don’t you tell me it’s nothing! If that’s a fraction, you won’t be able to play at least for a month! Jeez, it’s not even about playing!” his voice jumped and octave higher as he gulped to calm down a little. Something stirred in Kageyama’s stomach painfully. As much as he didn’t admit it, even to himself, much less to anyone else, he didn’t like seeing Hinata like this, it hurt him to see his partner like this, whether he wanted it or not. “You… you saved her, and I was away…”

Kageyama’s head flinched back as he took in what he just heard. That idiot was just unbelievable.

“Are you seriously going to blame yourself for the fallen tree, you dumbass?” Kageyama snapped in return. It was so idiotic of him, really! How one could predict when and which tree was going to fall on whom? Kageyama just happened to nearby, thank his damn instincts. They were all lucky to end up this way, it could’ve been so much worse.

“But I—“ Seriously, Kageyama was cold, hurt, irritated and done with this bullshit completely.

 “If you can’t say anything smart, then keep your mouth shout!” he yelled, lowering his voice after Karasuno members turned their heads to them. “Listen, idiot, you couldn’t have done anything to prevent this. Natsu went to get the ball, it wasn’t her fault either. And unfortunately, you can’t sue the wind. It’s a good thing that I noticed it, the whole mess could’ve had… worse results. I’m glad I was there, and I’m glad she’s fine,” you shut your mouth right now, “and I would’ve done the same for you, so stop whining and calm down already!”

For a split second, an idea of being crashed by a branch wasn’t half as bad as the situation he found himself dragged in by his own uncontrollable tongue.

Kageyama swallowed a lump in his throat. It didn’t help. Thankfully, the rain was still quite strong, so the others probably couldn’t hear his last replica — he prayed for that. Hinata’s eyes widened, his lips slightly parted, and he was staring at him like at some sort of a miracle. There was so much, too much emotions in his eyes to take in — confusion, concern, surprise, worry… bliss.

If somebody told Kageyama a year ago that he could lit up somebody’s eyes like that with his words, making someone look happier, be happier, he’d make that person fall over dead with his glare and say nothing more.

It really was different now.

As much as Kageyama was irritated by Hinata, as much as he wanted to strangle him sometimes, or serve a ball really hard into his thick skull, he… cared.

Natsu let go of her brother’s arm, running up to him and wrapping her arms around his neck carefully, afraid to disturb the scratches. It seemed like air got sucked out of Kageyama’s lungs as his eyes widened in shock from a sudden touch. The corners of Hinata’s mouth flinched up, barely noticeable, as his face gradually relaxed.

“T-thank you, Kageyama-chan,” Natsu sobbed in his shoulder, trembling slightly. There was Hinata’s black Karasuno coat on her, but it was soaking wet already. “Thank you!”

Even if Natsu wasn’t making him want to move away as far as he could anymore, he was still sitting there, utterly stunned and with no idea what to do whatsoever. Expressing feelings this way… he was never going to understand how could people do it so easily in the first place.

Hinata grinned, seeing his confusion, but it was quite a weird smirk. Why were his eyes watery? Was it rain?

Hinata stumbled forward, refuting his surmises, and fell to his knees right in front of him.

He landed in a little mud, splashing water all around, but that didn’t seem to bother him. Hinata practically fell onto him, wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug, still careful not to touch his bad arm and not to press Natsu to it, though. He buried his face in Kageyama’s shoulder, shaking with sobs, as well as his sister — they didn’t hold anything back any longer.

“Thank y-you, Kageyama,” he whispered, clinging to him and trying to even his trembling voice, but to no avail. “Thank you for saving her, thank you, thank you…”

He kept whispering it, sniffing from time to time, tears rolling down his face and mixing with raindrops. Kageyama could feel the gratitude, which he basically radiated with his skin, it seemed like he could reach out and grab it with his own hands. Natsu threw one arm around Hinata, bringing them all even closer, and then Hinata wrapped his left arm around her, too.

Kageyama felt heat rising to his cheeks — rising from the very depths, unknown parts of him, reviving his every cell, stirring weird emotions and making him feel something completely new, something he couldn’t quite figure out, not yet. Kageyama was sitting in the muds under a pouring rain, hugged by Natsu and Hinata so tightly that it was like being wrapped in a big blanket. It was strange, awkward, cold, even a little bit frightening — it was so many things.

But most of all, it was warm. Warm, pleasant and reassuring.

He wasn’t used to such interaction, not at all, but Kageyama already suspected that maybe, maybe he could live with that.

Even if it meant dealing with two Hinatas at once.

* * *

Hinata stared at his house windows, wondering why the lights were off. It was about 10 pm already, their mother was probably sick with worry, since Hinata forgot to take his mobile with him in his morning rush. He could only hope that she called Daichi and he explained the situation, or at least tried to. But he was the Captain after all, Hinata could count on him.

His father was away for a few days, having some job in Tokyo, so their mom was doing her best to maintain the household, still managing to stay working late. She tried to avoid coming home after 9, but sometimes she simple didn’t have a choice. Maybe it was one of those days. Work required a lot of her attention, especially when dad was away.

Kageyama seemed to tense as they neared the front door. Hinata couldn’t help but glance over at him every few seconds, always checking for any signs of pain or discomfort. His heart was still beating like mad, the adrenaline didn’t dissolve completely. The whole scene kept echoing through his mind repeatedly again and again, not giving him any rest. He was clutching Natsu’s small hand tightly as they climbed up the stairs.

Kageyama stopped. Hinata heard it and turned around, giving Natsu the key and hoping that she wasn’t going to stick it in there and somehow break the door (it did happen once, he didn’t want it to become twice, not now). Little girl jumped up, more or less recovered already, and began toiling with the lock.

“Do you need help?” Hinata asked hurriedly, and Kageyama snorted, giving him his brand unimpressed look. Even though he was probably less dangerous with his arm broken, that glare was still sending shivers down his spine.Although, whom he was kidding — Kageyama had a solid chunk of plaster on his arm now, and that would definitely be more painful than a volleyball.

“I broke my arm, not leg, idiot,” he spat in return, but Hinata was kind of glad to hear that. It was good that his partner was his usual self, it reassured him to some extent. If Kageyama was insulting him, he’d surely live.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he blurted out, his cheeks pinking slightly. For god’s sake, he just couldn’t choose better timing, could he?

"You want to go home on your own?” Hinata wondered, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows, unable to hold back a quiet smirk at Kageyama’s puzzled and bewildered face. “There aren’t any buses this late, and you said it yourself that your mom and dad are on a business trip. Is there anyone to pick you up?” Kageyama opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but Hinata was faster. “Nope. My mom will get you home once she comes back, and that must be soon. Let’s go!”

He turned around, hearing that Natsu finally won the door, and could hear Kageyama cursing under his breath while making his way up.

Hinata dropped their bags in the hall, asking his sister to turn the lights on. He noticed how Kageyama stopped in front of the door, probably unsure of whether he should come in or something. That guy was just unbelievable.

“These aren’t the gates of hell, come in already,” Hinata grinned, and Kageyama glanced at him, his eyes alone easily delivering one clear message: Shut up. Kageyama walked in, and he closed the door after him, watching attentively how he looked around, taking in the atmosphere of his house. It was way different from his own — Hinata’s been there before, but it was the first time Kageyama visited his place. To be honest, Hinata never thought it would even go this far.

There was a message left on his phone — no, even two. Hinata clicked the button to hear the first one.

“Shouyou, I’m sorry, I’ll have to stay working late today! I don’t know exactly for how long, but I think I’ll be back before 11. Take care of Natsu and go to bed early, too! I hope you had some great time at school today, you’ll tell me everything tomorrow!”

Hinata glanced at the clocks. It was 10:20. He could only pray for his mother to actually come home before 11, because he wasn’t sure what to do with Kageyama for this long…

The phone’s display blinked, reminding him of the second message. Hinata wondered what else could she have told him and pressed the phone against his ear.

“Shouyou, you didn’t take your phone, I called Daichi and he told me everything! Are you and Natsu both okay? And how’s Kageyama-kun? God, please, call me as soon as you can! Daichi told me that Suga took care of you, but still… I’m so sorry, I didn’t get a single chance to come, he told me that everything was handled already by the time I called, and I really can’t leave work now. But if there’s something, anything — call me immediately, and I’ll go back! Shouyou, I’m so sorry. Please, call me back!”

Her voice sounded as if she was on the verge of crying, and Hinata’s heart wrenched in his chest. Forgetting the phone was too stupid even for him. He knew how difficult was it for her to work now, and how she needed to earn a bit more while father was away, he didn’t want to make her worry this much. On the other hand, at least Daichi explained everything to her already, and their Captain was way better with words than him.

Hinata pondered the question of what were they going to do before their mother comes home, and the simple universal answer came quickly enough with a growl from his stomach.

“Come here, we can eat something before my mom gets back.” He searched the fridge quickly, looking for something decent to eat. Thankfully, mother always left them some food, because Natsu could eat so much sometimes that Hinata had some doubts about her being human (although, Kageyama told him the same when they were in a training camp).

Kageyama was walking slowly, as if it was a minefield. He looked at him, suspicion and uncertainty gleaming in his eyes.

“Wouldn’t it be…”

“No, it wouldn’t. Yes, it’s a good idea. You’re probably hungry by now, too.” Hinata scooped out two bentos mother prepared earlier. Making quick calculations, he returned to the fridge, finding nothing more. Just some ingredients.

“Uh, guess I’ll have to share with you,” he mumbled, calling his sister loudly. “Natsu, come down here, mom left us bentos!”

“Comi-i-ing!” the girl squealed, running down the stairs in different set of cloths already: dark-blue T-shirt and black shorts. He still didn’t know why would Natsu even ask to buy her those, they looked really gloomy and contrasting with her bright appearance.

Hinata liked the colors, though.

Natsu jumped on the sofa, patting the space next to her.

“Kageyama-chan, sit with me!”

Kageyama looked as if someone had just offered him to sit on an electric chair.

“Kageyama, you broke your arm, not leg,” Hinata mimicked him, slumping on the next spot to the right from the one Natsu reserved for Kageyama. “Sit here and just eat already.”

He was sick with worry for today.

Kageyama gulped, his lips forming a thin line, and came over, accidentally smacking Hinata’s head with his plaster bandage while sitting down.

“Oi, that hurt!” Hinata rubbed his head. It was surely solider than a leather ball.

“It’s going to hurt even more if I put some effort into it,” Kageyama warned, landing on his chair carefully and settling in between them, shrinking uncomfortably a bit. Hinata just hoped it was due to his lack of human interactions, and not yet a lost case.

Kageyama frowned, seeing two bentos and one plate on the table.

“I know you’re dumb, but even you are expected to be able to count the portions of food on this table.”

“Hey! There were only two in the fridge, I’ll share with you, alright?” Hinata opened the first one, looking in and trying to ignore the way his partner’s ears pinked a bit. He probably just imagined it, that’s all.

“Oh, pork curry with an egg. Natsu, that’d be yours—“ the way Kageyama’s stomach growled all of a sudden made him stop. Natsu held out her hand, waiting, but then her eyes traveled to Kageyama, too. Hinata eyed him thoroughly, suppressing a giggle, and then it suddenly hit him with the memories of the training camp.

“Is that one your favorite?”

“N-no.”

Kageyama didn’t move, look of a trapped animal on his face. It was so ridiculous.

“It’s your favorite, isn’t it.” Natsu tilted her head, and Kageyama took the bento from Hinata’s hands, placing it into Natsu’s, obviously wishing for the topic to be closed. Meanwhile, his sister was looking at her bento with a concentrated expression flowing through her features, until she finally raised her head to look at embarrassed Kageyama again.

“But it’s my favorite, too,” Natsu uttered, staring at him, as if still not understanding how in the world could she have the same favorite dish with Kageyama. The thoughtfulness of her face was priceless.

“Don’t worry, Natsu, I’m gonna share my portion with him,” Hinata said, opening his own bento and finding tamago kake gohan inside.

“A-a-ah!” he gasped. That was his favorite dish, nothing could’ve lift his spirits up now better than it did. Kageyama tilted his head slightly, his eyebrows furrowing and cheekbones rising a bit.

“What is that?” he asked, genuinely not having an idea. Hinata clicked his tongue.

“You never pay attention. It’s tamago kake gohan, and it’s my favorite, you baka.” Kageyama nodded reluctantly, watching as Hinata separated a half of his portion and transported into Kageyama’s plate.

“I don’t need that mu—“

“I can share with Kageyama-chan, too!” Natsu declared as she quickly shooed half of her own bento into the plate, too. Kageyama blinked a few times, as if trying to get back his control over situation (not that he had one to begin with).

“I said I don’t need that much!”

“Itadakimasu!” Hinata and Natsu announced, immediately starting to eat. Kageyama looked to the right and to the left helplessly, and Hinata, chewing though another bite, explained him:

“Sh’you heed to eash bedda ‘f you wan’a go bach on tha curtch shoon.”

Kageyama replied with a totally unimpressed glare.

“Are you chewing or talking? Just choose one.” Hinata swallowed some of the delicious food that was still waiting for him and spoke:

“Eat up, you need more strength for your arm to heal and for you to be able to play sooner.”

Kageyama looked back at his plate, muttered a barely audible “thank you” and took chopsticks in his fingers.

Bad idea.

His left arm was still unused to handling such tasks, and he almost spilled some rice over himself — fortunately, Hinata saw it coming and managed to grab his hand in time, holding chopsticks in place and only allowing one seed of rice to fall down. One second he sighed in relief, the very next he realized what kind of a position they found themselves in. The chopsticks were pretty close to Kageyama’s mouth, and when the danger passed, he slowly glared at him, putting as much venom in his gaze as possible.

If you’re not going to get your hand away from me, I’ll chew it off as well.

Hinata still didn’t know whether Kageyama was actually human, or could he eat flesh, so he took no chances. Hinata hurriedly pulled away, seeing the murderous intentions in his eyes clearly. He went to the kitchen and got a spoon, handing it to Kageyama a few moments later, taking chopsticks away after he swallowed the food that was already in there.

“This should do it,” he said, sitting down to finish his own food.

Surprisingly, Kageyama relaxed — slowly, gradually, his shoulders slid down, wrinkles between his eyebrows disappeared as he quietly enjoyed his food. I don’t need that much — yeah, sure. The plate was as clean as ever, only some sauce left inside. At some point it seemed like he was about to doze off.

Hinata finished his own food quite some time ago, stroking the smooth surface of the box and involuntarily thinking about everything that had happened today.

They both went to hospital with Kageyama earlier, along with Suga, who really helped them a lot. Unfortunately, it actually did turn out to be a fraction of the humerus bone, close to the elbow. The doctors treated Kageyama’s scratches, especially the ones on the neck, and imposed a plaster bandage. His right arm was now bent in a way when his collarbone, upper arm and forearm formed a turned to the other side “ko” letter (コ).  His fingers were hanging down uselessly. It was so unsettling to see Kageyama like this — helpless, clumsy and a bit lost, as if unfamiliar with the protocol for such situation. Hinata didn’t want to see him like this, never.

Yet he was the main reason of this mess. He wasn’t with Natsu when he had to, and Kageyama had to pay for that, pay so much.

When he heard creaking of the wood outside, Hinata dropped the ball and raced out, picking up speed. Something was stubbornly telling him that there was trouble coming, and this something was right. The first thing he noticed after running out was Natsu, staring at the falling branches in shock, clutching the ball in her hands. His heart stopped at that very moment. Too far, he knew that he was simply too far. With all his speed, with all his reflexes he wouldn’t be able to reach her in time.

That’s when he noticed Kageyama running towards her at his full speed — no, Hinata’s never seen him running that fast. It took him less than a second to understand his intentions, and it snapped him out of his daze, cruelly slammed back into reality and hit with a realization that two people, to people he cared about so much were now in danger.

His legs carried him without any consideration on his side. He remembered screaming Kageyama’s name — he didn’t even know why. Hinata was trying to yell so many things in one word — tell him to stay back, to get the hell out of there, but at the same time he was desperately wishing for him to run even faster, to make it in time and to save Natsu.

Watching him throwing himself over his little sister, covering her and protecting from the pile of branches falling down, broke him down completely.

He could barely remember anything after that. He ran there, he started clearing the pile, but in his hysterical state he was pretty much useless — Suga held him back, trying to comfort as much as he could. Hinata considered Kageyama his partner, maybe even friend — he wasn’t sure about that, since Kageyama himself didn’t seem like exactly going for it — but he never would’ve thought that he could put himself in such a dangerous situation for the sake of his sister. It blew his mind, shocked him to bits and filled with endless guilt, guilt so strong that he felt like ceasing to exist for a while.

Something went back to live inside of him when he heard their voices. Everything happened so fast, but back then it seemed like eternity. He snatched Natsu from Tanaka’s arms quickly and hugged her so tightly the poor girl began coughing. The relief he felt was simply impossible to cover — his sister was fine. And when Kageyama got out, when he saw him shivering on the ground and came over, when it was all over and the two of them were finally safe…

He didn’t care that he cried. He was the happiest person in the world, and he didn’t care in the slightest.

Hinata went back to reality when the door creaked and his mother walked in after a few seconds, coming up straight to him, surprisingly quietly. He jumped up, so glad to see her again, ran to her and hugged her tightly, as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his forehead.

“Thank gods you’re alright!” she managed, her voice trembling and eyes reddish a bit. His mother looked over his shoulder, apparently at Natsu, alleviation shining in her eyes.

“Don’t worry, we’re all fine,” Hinata could pinpoint the exact moment she noticed Kageyama — there was confusion in her gaze for a moment, instantly replaced with concern, gratefulness and love.

Hinata turned around too, finding quite a delightful sight to look at. He couldn’t help but smile softly, enjoying such view. It really warmed him from the very inside.

“What happened?” his mother whispered, urging him to go to the kitchen not to make too much noise.

“Eh, his parents are on a business trip, and his home is in the opposite direction, pretty far away from here, I thought you could give him a lift, but…”

“No buts, it’s too late for that. Besides, I wouldn’t let him go either way, in an empty house all alone.”

Hinata had to agree with her. Basically, the main reason why he was so persistent on Kageyama coming to his place was the fact that he wanted to keep an eye on him — he still felt really guilty and also responsible for his well-being, he worried about him and of course didn’t want him to be alone in a situation like this. He needed help, even if he wasn’t going to admit it.

Hinata nodded, placing the bento box on the table.

“I’ll go bring a blanket,” his mother said, heading upstairs instantly. Hinata took the empty plate and another box from the table, washing those quickly, right in time before his mother came back with a huge duvet in her arms.

“There you go,” she handed it to him, and Hinata almost got tangled, but his mother helped him. It was heavy, but really soft and big. “Are you going to?..”

Hinata shrugged, not really sure about that. He did want to stay, just in case, but that would be like incredibly weird and dangerous…

“Just make sure everyone’s comfortable, alright?” his mother asked him, and he hummed something in response, still pondering her question. His mom looked at Kageyama with such a gaze that Hinata thought Kageyama was lucky to be asleep; she’d probably hug the hell out of him, and with his socio issues…

“Good night, Shouyou,” she wrapped her arms around him once again, kissing his forehead, and he hugged her in return. His mother smiled fondly at him and then went upstairs.

Hinata stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do, but then went back to the living room, getting his control over the blanket. He looked at the sofa once again and couldn’t take his eyes off that sight for a while.

Kageyama was sleeping calmly, his head slightly tilted to the left; Natsu was clinging to him there, hugging him with one hand and nuzzling into his side. It was so heart-warming and… cute? God, and he just used that word to describe Kageyama Grumpy Face Tobio. But he wasn’t grumpy now, no. His facial expression looked so relaxed and peaceful, it was incredible. And it definitely suited him.

Hinata carefully put the blanket on them, trying his best not to disturb their sleep. He tucked Natsu in, leaving some space where her face was, so that she’d have fresh air. Hinata pecked her forehead softly, blowing some strands of hair away from her eyes. She sniffed in her sleep. Hinata smiled and moved on to Kageyama, readjusting his arm in a more comfortable angle carefully and covering him with the blanket as well. His mother opened the windows, letting some refreshing cool night air in, and it felt nice, but he didn’t want them to catch a cold.

Not quite knowing what to do, Hinata simply set on his spot next to Kageyama, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. He should’ve probably gone to his room and settle for some sleep. The day has been long and exhausting, he needed rest, too.

But it was so nice to just sit over there. He felt safe, peaceful and warm, all the people he cared about were alright and somewhere close by. His brain was stubbornly shutting down, refusing to proceed anything else. Restless thoughts quieted down in a wave of sleep that washed over him softly, slowly dragging him away to desired oblivion.

All the people he cared about were alright and somewhere close by… what else could he have possibly wished for, after all?

* * * 

When their mother woke up next morning, the first thing she wanted to check was the living room. There she found Natsu practically lying on Kageyama's laps, the blanket somehow still covering her from above, except for her face; Hinata’s head slipped to the left and rested on Kageyama’s shoulder, while Kageyama’s cheek was touching his forehead.

Her mobile phone vibrating with an alarm clock on the nearest shelf made it impossible for her to resist an urge to leave such wonderful sight somewhere else apart from her memory (not that she was going to tell anybody any time soon).

Kageyama had to keep the plaster bandage for about 5 weeks, but it wasn't half as bad as he anticipated. Hinata helped him in any way he could, even made up some safe ways to play with a ball; and if he got too annoying, his super-solid arm was doing him some great service. Natsu often came to visit him, too. But whenever she was a guest in their house on a day when Kageyama’s mother made pork curry, she simply couldn’t resist the “cute little girl” and let her eat it all (Kageyama didn’t even know humans could possibly eat that much). She did share with him all the time, though.

Breaking your arm might hurt, but when people who care about you and whom you care about are around, pain fades away, leaving space for something much more wonderful. And for experiencing that, even a fracture seemed like a fairly low price.