Chapter Text
When Suga walked in to the gym Wednesday morning, dressed for volleyball practice he was expecting the sound of volleyballs hitting the ground, the squeaking sound of volleyball shoes and the sound of two boys bickering. He doesn’t hear any of that. What he's greeted with is Tanaka’s loud ‘Good morning Suga’ and Nishinoya’s ‘Ready to beat the king?’.
Suga open his mouth to give an answer, to tell them that this was only practice. No one is beating anyone, but Tanaka’s voice cut through before him.
“Yeah! I’m going to smash through Tsukishima’s block today!” he shouted, pointing his thumb at himself and puffing out his chest looking like a proud father.
“Yeah!—" Nishinoya followed right after with stars in his eyes. “— and I’m going to receive a ball from Hinata and Kageyama’s famous super quick!”. The two wild beasts continued to shout about smashing, receiving, and braking through said three boys.
Suga shock his head while smiling. These guys never changed. Though – to his surprise – that couldn’t be said about three other boys…. Who he thought was abnormally quite today. By now he was expecting some remarks to Tanaka and Nishinoya’s comments.
Suga’s eyes scaned the gym and noticed (surprisingly) that Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishima was the only ones who hadn’t showed up to practice, something he found odd. Well, Tsukishima not showing up one could easily say that he was sick or having an appointment with the doctor, but for Hinata and Kageyama - who’s mind only lived for volleyball – could easily go to practice while being sick without a second thought, so a reason for them not to show up to practice was hard to find.
“Where is Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishima?” Suga asked when he reach Daichi, who had started putting up the net.
“They haven’t texted you?” he asked worryingly, putting the pole into its whole on the floor.
Suga frown. “No, they haven’t.”
Daichi continued with tighten the nets metal thread to the pole. “According to Yamaguchi, Tsukishima told him not to wait for him at their usual meeting spot, so he walked to school alone today.” he said while taking the bottom thread around the pole and locking it with the other. He did the same with the one on top without stopping to look at Suga. “No one else have heard from Hinata and Kageyama.”
Suga started to worry. There were reasonable reasons for Tsukishima to not show up even though that didn’t happen often, but Hinata and Kageyama? Suga couldn’t help but worry. Those two wouldn’t skip practice even if a meteor was supposed to hit Japan. What reasonable reason could there be for them to not come to practice?
A hand on his shoulder pulled Suga out of his little mind rambling.
“Calm down Suga, they may have couth a flu or a fever or something, there's nothing to worry about. We’ll aske coach Ukai and Takeda if they have heard anything” Daichi said with a smile, like the captain he was. Suga took a deep breath and tried to relax his shoulders. He wasn’t completely convinced, but he put his worry’s as far back in his mind as possible and planted a smile on his face. It’ll work as an excuse for now. Daichi turned around and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. Suga used this time to admire his back while everyone’s attention was on the captain.
“Okay everyone!” Daichi said. “Let’s start warming up while we wait for Coach Ukai.” Everyone answered with a loud ‘ yes sir’ before they all started jogging around the court.
The door was slammed open and a man came stumbling in to the gym. Silences echoed in the room when everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the man standing in the doorway. Suga noticed the pail face and started to worry. Something was wrong. Extremely wrong. Did someone hurt themselves? Did someone’s family members end up in an accident? Did someone lose their grandparent? What could make Takeda go all pail like that? What was going on?
Daichi motion everyone to gather around. All eyes were on Takeda with worrying expressions.
“Is everything okay Takeda?” Suga asked voicing everyone’s thoughts. Takeda open his mouth to speak but no voice came out. His hands started to shake along with his lips. The silence was unbearable. There was a heaviness floating around that Suga didn’t like. With a deep breath Takeda opened his mouth and spoke three words no one could ever imagine he would ever speak out loud.
“…Hinata is… dead…”
Suga’s body froze and his heart dropped 10 feet. Time stopped. No one said anything. Suga didn’t believe in the words. He didn’t believe in his own ears. Hinata? Dead? How? Why? When? ...What?... There was no way that was true. Hinata had too much energy to die now. There was so much more to his life. He can’t be dead. He would come running in through those doors and shout “Did you miss me?”. They will all scold him for scaring them like that. He would scratch his neck saying he was sorry. Then they would continue with the practice. There was no way.
There was no way Takeda would join in on a prank like that, and there was no way Hinata would ever pull a prank that harsh. He was to kind. To warm. Hinata wasn’t ready to die now. What about the Spring tournament? What about national?
Their sun couldn’t die now.
Their decoy couldn’t die now.
It didn’t take long before Suga heard sobbing coming from some of the teammates. He himself could feel his own eyes start to blur over and he felt some tears escaping down his chin.
Suga glanced in Yamaguchi’s direction and to his surprise, Yamaguchi looked even more shocked than the rest of the team - if that were even possible – and blended in with that shock, he thought he could also see hint of concern, like he was realizing something?
The sobbing went on for a while before they slowly quiet down. No one said anything yet, letting the news really sink in. After almost half an hour after hearing the news Daichi decided to break the sad atmosphere.
“That do explain why Hinata’s not here, but where is Kageyama and Tsukishima?” he asked Takeda.
“We were only told that they are taking some days of school after losing a loved one.”
“I wonder which loved one Tsukishima has lost?” Tanaka pondered. “That sure can’t be Hinata. That guy doesn’t even like him.” Nishinoya nodded in agreement. “Yeah, all he ever does is tease our little kohai."
“It can’t be Yamaguchi ether-“ Tanaka continued.”- since he’s here with us. Who else would be that close with that beanpole? Maybe a brother?” Tanaka thought out loud.
“No.” Yamaguchi said. The team looked over at him with questioning expressions. “They don’t have that close of a relationship. Tsukki and his brother I mean.”
“And you’re wrong. It makes perfectly sense.”
“What do you mean?” Tanaka asked questioningly. Yamaguchi went quiet for some seconds. Fiddling with the hem of the t-shirt, like he was wondering if it was okay to share the next information he held. Yamaguchi took a deep breath before his eyes meet the team.
“Tsukki doesn’t hate Hinata. It is quite the opposite. He loves Hinata to the deepest part of his heart.” Silence filed the gym once again. Everyone was shocked. Suga included. He couldn’t remember any affection in the teasing Tsukishima gave Hinata.
“W-WHAT?!?” Both Tanaka and Nishinoya shouted when they found their voices. “But why would he tease someone he loves?” Nishinoya asked. Confusion clearly showing on his face.
To everyone’s surprise Yamaguchi laughed at that. “That would be Tsukki being Tsukki. Stubborn about everything evolving feelings.” Yamaguchi shook his head. “For a long time, he was oblivious to his own feelings. Every time I mentioned something related to him being in a relationship with Hinata he tried to deny he had any feelings for him. I once asked him, after one of our regular homework sections with Hinata and Kageyama, if he liked Hinata. He glared at me and said ‘Why would I like a shrimp like him? He has too much energy and is too easy to read. And he’s an idiot.’ He didn’t fool me.” Yamaguchi chuckled a little. Fondness in his eyes. “His glare was short and wasn’t as threateningly as it usually was. Plus, his cheeks had a faint pink color to it.”
Suga let out a small chuckle at Tsukishima’s attempt to deny his own feelings in front of his best friend. He may have fooled everyone else, but Yamaguchi had clearly known him long enough to read through his mask.
“The funniest thing about it all, is that he claimed Hinata to be easy to read, but he was so oblivious to Hinata’s feelings for him that he was so surprised when Hinata asked him out.” That gave a new wave of shock through the teammates. They were more than friends? When did they even start acting like friends?
“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Tanaka said while waving his hands in front of his face. “So, you’re telling me that Tsukishima not only loved Hinata, but they also were boyfriends??” he stared at Yamaguchi in disbelief. And Suga had to agree, it was hard to believe that Tsukishima – the guy who only wore a board and an annoyed expression – could care for someone that deeply. But what was more surprising was how Hinata had manage to hide it pretty well too.
“Yes, and to be honest, I have never seen Tsukki this happy before.” Yamaguchi gave a shy smile.
“How long have they been together?” Asahi asked nervously.
“For almost four months.” Yamaguchi said with a fond expression which, not long after, turned into a somber look before it again turned into a worried expression.
“He must have closed himself in again…” he whispered. Some tears escaped his eyes. It broke Suga’s heart. First of all, knowing that Tsukishima’s love was so deep that he would close himself in, but, this had happened before?
“Again?” Suga asked. Yamaguchi was silence for a moment before he breathed in deep.
“In middle school I fell from a tree and hit my head so hard I was in coma for three weeks. The first week Tsukki had shut himself in his room, not sleeping, eating or speaking to anyone. Far too deep into his overthinking mind and fear of losing me.”
“It wasn’t before Tsukishima-san managed to convince Tsukki that I would get better if he talked to me, that he finally got out of his room. He slowly started to sleep more and eat more, though that only happened when he was with me.”
Yamaguchi was quite for a while. No one said anything.
Small sobbing broke the silence. Yamaguchi’s hands covered his face.
“I don’t know how easy this time will be.” He said half sobbing half whispering.
No one knew what to say.