20th Year of December

Mother's Love

"Miwa-nee, is mom okay?"

Miwa is quiet as she continuously strokes his hair while hugging him. He can still hear mom crying on the outside while dad's voice can be heard dripping with concern. He peaks a little to see dad hugging mom and stroking her hair, similar to what Miwa is doing to him right now. The only difference being his mom is trembling and breathing heavily. He turns to look at Miwa's face.

"Miwa-nee, how did you get that bruise?"

Miwa stiffens before she trembles and tears dropped from her eyes. Tobio was stunned. He had never seen his sister cried before. Tobio immediately uses his small head to catch the dropping tears, "M—Miwa-nee? Please don't cry, please..."

Miwa shook her head and pull Tobio close. She smiles slightly at him though it looks wobbly as she trembles, "I'm okay, Tobio. Mom was just—mom just had a panic attack,"

Tobio tilted his head, "Panic...?"

Miwa nods, "That's right. Mom was just scared... She's just afraid. It wasn't on purpose..."

Tobio notices that she stopped talking to Tobio midsentence and was just mumbling to herself. He tightens his hug on Miwa as Miwa continues to sobs.

He didn't know that this will be the first of something that will occur often.

***

"Emm..."

Kunimi glance to see Kageyama opening his eyes wearily before rubbing at it sleepily. He smiles slightly at the display, "Have a good sleep, Kageyama?"

"Hmm..." Kageyama is still blinking sleepily and Kunimi reaches out his hand to comb Kageyama's hair and get rid of the slight bedhead. Kunimi smiles as Kageyama unconsciously lean into the touch.

"It's rare to see you sleeping during practice. Did you not sleep well last night?"

Kageyama yawns before stretching his hands forward, "No... Ebihara-sensei had a quiz today so I couldn't sleep. All the other teachers too are sharper than usual today,"

Kunimi sighs, "You shouldn't sleep in class, you know... I know it doesn't sounds much coming from me but still..."

Kageyama just shrugs as he looks around, "Where's Kindaichi and Iwaizumi-san?"

"Iwaizumi-san is changing in the locker room right now and Kindaichi left early for some errands,"

"I see..." Kageyama picks up the red scarf that he uses as his makeshift pillow and hugs it close to his chest, "I had a dream just now,"

"Was it a good one?"

Kageyama merely hugs the scarf tighter and seems to relax from the comforting scent coming from the scarf.

"I can't really remember,"

***

Tooru blinks.

Just now his hands were so close to pushing Ayane.

What happened?

"I... I made it..."

It's when he sits up that he realizes that he had been dragged back and another person had cushioned his fall as well as close his mouth to prevent him from screaming. He looks back at the person who is looking at him in relief.

"Kindaichi...chan?"

Kindaichi smiles at Tooru, "Iwaizumi-san is right to tell me to follow you,"

"Iwa-chan did...?"

For a second, he feels slightly disappointed that Iwaizumi have little trusts in him to asks someone to tailed him but a part of him was... glad that thanks to Iwaizumi, he had avoided from doing something horrible.