Earthquake - Oihina fic

Chapter 19

It started on Monday at lunch.

Hinata received a text from Oikawa saying he wasn't feeling that well and that he was cancelling their serving session that evening. Immediately Hinata found a quiet spot and called him.

'Yahoo chibi-chan!' that voice sang.

'Are you OK? What do you mean you're not feeling well?'

A pause. Then -

'Maybe I ate something. I just don't feel... that good.'

'Should I come and see you?'

Silence. A good long silence.

'No,' Oikawa said firmly.

A pause. An awkward pause. The first awkward pause they had ever had between them. It hung in the air like an unstable rope bridge across a steep gorge.

'If you need anything, anything at all, call me, OK?' Hinata said.

Hinata did not know that his words were like a carving knife. Oikawa was at school, a few steps away from some friends and the watchful gaze of Iwa-chan.

He smirked. 'Of course,' he said, confidently.

Inside he was breaking.

I need you, Shoyo. Your heart. That's what I need.

Kageyama stared at the classroom clock. 12 minutes til practice. The rest of his Sunday had been a disaster of trying to do homework but only seeing one thing in the center of his mind -

He'd been over this a hundred times before. And couldn't help going over it again.

Nothing had gone to plan. He hadn't won the match so the argument to Hinata about being the better setter had fallen flat. The chummy third years, who he'd thought would clamp down on the arrangement, were too accepting about the serving. Then again, they didn't know about the -

If you tell them Kageyama I'll never forgive you!

Kageyama's heart winced. Hinata's words, as slicing as a razor blade. Kageyama's hands were tied, his mouth was mute. He had been over it again and again, like a scavenger panning for gold in sand dunes, sifting sifting sifting until he had found the solution. In a way, deep down, he had always known...

That this...

Was the only way.

When the redhead arrived at the club room to change, he was met with sudden silence and prickling in the air. Kageyama was there, already in uniform, along with Tanaka, Nishinoya and Asahi. The latter avoided Hinata's gaze and looked guiltily out of the window.

'Hey Hinata - is it true that Oikawa taught you how to serve because you saved his life?' Nishinoya asked, tactful as always.

Hinata flushed red from all eyes on him but he automatically looked - with great trepidation - to Kageyama, his heart thundering - had the setter not said anything? Had he not released the secret? Hinata was nervous but he had braced himself: no one, nothing, was going to get in the way of him seeing Oikawa.

'Yes, yes it's true -'

'So that's why you suddenly became so good at serving, huh? Why didn't you say anything?! I didn't realise you became friends with Oikawa!'

Hinata squirmed, his insides shaking, he glanced at Kageyama, the setter's face as passive as ever.

'Yes, we're -'