Insomnia (A TsukiKage FF) ✔

3 - Downhill

It had been a week or two since Kageyama showed up late a second time, the start of a very unusual time ahead. They had one extra practise Saturday afternoon and had Sunday off; Kageyama was late to over half of their practises. As the days went on he looked worse and worse, each day a minute change that- after time had passed- made him look completely different.

He had eye bags and pale cheeks; he looked thinner too, his muscles less prominent. He walked slower and looked down a lot, getting lost in thought and zoning out in practise. He almost never had any emotions on his face and hadn't shouted at Hinata in days. They were getting really worried. Ukai held the first year back at the end of one practise and asked what was going on. Kageyama took a while to answer but simply said that he was fine and the coach didn't have to worry. Again, Ukai wanted to protest and find out the truth but Kageyama's state held him back.

They really had to do something and soon before Kageyama was at risk. From what? They didn't know.

One Tuesday morning, and the setter was once again absent. Everyone practised half-heartedly and they hadn't had a match in a while. They didn't want Kageyama to exert so much energy when he seemed so exhausted; it worried them that he didn't even seem to notice their change in attitude when they expected him to be annoyed at their treating him differently.

It was half past the hour when Kageyama showed up. He wasn't even in his gym clothes nor the school uniform, instead a grey hoodie and black shorts alongside white sneakers. He slid the door open and shut and went to sit down against the wall near the corner of the room.

"Suga, you can play setter position. I know you want to do a practise match."

Suga's eyes widened at Kageyama's words and the tone of resignation that came along with them. At first he wanted to protest, saying that Kageyama was the official setter now and he should practise more. Besides, he was working on his serves now anyways. But Ukai shook his head silently and- with a final glance at the first year- told them to start a practise match.

Kageyama brought his knees to his chest and rested his forehead against them, letting out heavy sighs as he let his eyes shut, the sound of volleyballs hitting the floor keeping him awake. Every so often one of the team members would look over to check on him but never spoke up. Tsuki saw this and sighed; when he switched off the court for a while he headed over to the first year and joined him in the corner, leaning against the cold wall and giving another curious look.

"King, there's not point showing up if you don't practise."

"I..." Kageyama began but sighed, resting his chin against his knees as he looked up to glance at the middle blocker.

"Go on."

"I had to get out of the house."

Now this made Tsuki even more intrigued to find out what was going on with the younger. Get out of the house? Why? Was it to loud or was his sister being too annoying? He knew about annoying siblings from first-hand experience. Were his parents arguing? Or was it something else?

"You're really not helping me here."

"Huh?"

Kageyama looked over at him, frowning at the odd words.

"I'm trying to help."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Hm... I'm fine."

"Clearly." the middle blocker agreed sarcastically. "Why aren't you in uniform if you're not going to practise?"

Kageyama hesitated for a moment- looking over at their coaches and captain- before sighing and confessing.

"I'm going to skip school. For a while, maybe." he added.

The older remained quiet for a while, letting Kageyama return to his original position. He had nothing to respond with so when he was called to get back on the court he got up and headed over. The team noticed him cast a glance at Kageyama with a frown on his face, letting them know he was thinking hard about something. But that didn't affect his blocking and his team won the practise match.