The Sun with A False Eternity

A Final Practice Match

  "Really?! They said I could go?!" Hinata jumped out of bed, wobbling for a second after he landed. He gripped the railing as his legs nearly collapsed under him.

"They said as long as you're careful you can, now sit back down!" Hinata's mother snapped, causing the ginger-haired teen to complain under his breath. "Yes, they said you could go, but you can't walk there, you have to take a wheelchair just in case, and you have to come back as soon as it's over."

It was Sunday, December 16th, two days after Kageyama had returned from training camp. They had just received the news that Date Tech was coming over for a practice game on the 17th, which Kageyama had informed Hinata of.

Now, they were sitting in the hospital while Hinata's mother told the ginger-haired teen that he could attend the match to watch. Kageyama felt extremely excited, though he would never voice that. He knew it would be hard for Hinata to not be able to play, but with volleyball, completely out of his life he had quickly slipped into a depression.

While he was always excited when Kageyama came to visit, the tiny details told another story. There would be times where Hinata would quickly look away when Kageyama entered, his eyes red. Although he smiled a lot, there was always something... Sad about it. It was hard to miss the longing in Hinata's voice when he spoke about volleyball, and Kageyama knew just how much his best friend missed it.

As much as he was trying to hide it, Hinata wasn't happy. Kageyama knew that. He tried to deny it, tried to convince himself that Hinata had been happy the past few months, despite everything happening to him.

But he wasn't.

So Kageyama's heart skipped a beat when he heard the excitement in his best friend's voice at the thought of attending the game. It had been such a long time since Hinata had set foot in the gym, and Kageyama could tell every day had been a battle. Shortly after Hinata had received his diagnosis, the boy had stopped coming to school altogether. There was no reason for him to be there. Hinata himself had decided he didn't want to spend his last few months doing school. So his mother had pulled him out, and he hadn't returned.

Kageyama felt like he could absorb the energy radiating off of Hinata. He was uncertain about how the game would go. While Narita was trying his best, he was still no Hinata. Kageyama himself still hadn't recovered his usual abilities. Sometimes he would completely envelop himself in the game and forget about everything else, and that was when he played his best. In those moments, Hinata didn't exist. It was just him, the ball, and the other people on the court.

But then he would remember the sound of Hinata next to him, the excited shouts of "I'm here!" Or the thrill of the quick attack, the satisfaction of seeing Hinata hit the spike perfectly on the other side of the court. When that happened, his form would crumble. Everything felt... Lost. It reminded him of how things were in middle school. He felt... Abandoned. Worthless.

Without Hinata there... He felt alone.

Even though his team was there, he could hardly hear them. Their words entered his mind and then left the second after. None of them reached him.

Practice used to be his favorite place in the world, but he found himself less and less excited to go. Not when the person who mattered to him sat in a room not even thirty minutes away. So the idea of the two things he cared about meeting again, at last, made him more excited than he was willing to say. Though looking over at Hinata, who was sitting back on the bed with a huge stupid grin on his face, he realized that Hinata was even more excited than him.

Even though he's not playing... Anything to be a part of volleyball really means the world to him, huh? Kageyama smiled. Even though everything felt like it had been covered in despair the past few months... This felt like a glimmer of hope. Even though Kageyama knew things weren't going to be okay, he allowed himself to believe that they would be, just for a day.