The Silence Is Loud

The Woman

They stayed by the creek for several more hours. Kyoutani stayed by Tobio's side the whole time, even walking him back to his house.

Keishin and Ittetsu open it, "who are you?" Keishin asks suspiciously, Ittetsu slaps him on the back of his head.

"Kyoutani, ran into your son earlier, sir." He explains, making Ukai go slightly red. Of course, he's started thinking of Tobio as his adopted son, it's a bit hard not to at this point, for some reason he never realised other people would refer him in that way too.

Tobio gestures for him to enter, confused, he does.

He follows Tobio in to the lounge room, casually sitting down beside him, pulling an arm around his shoulder as Tobio tries to find a movie to watch.

Ukai sits on an armchair while Takeda stands behind him, arms resting on his head. "You have a fun time at the pool?"
"Pool? We were at the creek all day." Kyoutani answers, making Tobio stiffen and the adults to look at him funny.

"Should I not have said that?" He whispers to his new friend, who shakes his head. "What do you mean creek?" Takeda asks, a hand over Keishin's mouth.

"I ran into them at the  creek today." He repeats. "Creek in the forest?" Ukai asks slowly,  Kyoutani nods, "yeah that's usually where they're found." He says sarcastically.

They look over at Tobio, concerned. His gaze goes back to the tv, wanting to avoid his parents for now.

Takeda walks off into the kitchen, "Keishin!" He yells. Ukai rolls his eyes and gets up, following after him.

"Are you not allowed in forests?" Kageyama shrugs and gets out his whiteboard. 'Long story' 
"I like long stories. It's okay if you don't want to though." He adds, not wanting to upset him.

Kageyama shakes his head and gets up, leading him into his bedroom, shutting the door.

Kyoutani sits down on his bed, while Tobio sat on his desk chair, searching though his desk and pulling out a couple papers, handing them over.

The first one is a newspaper from a decade ago. He reads it carefully and hands it back, "the same thing happened again?" He nods.

"So you don't like it but they do? You didn't wanna be the bad guy and ruin their day, right?" Tobio nods again, frowning.

"Is that why you were-" Kageyama looks away, ashamed of himself. Ashamed that someone had actually seen him like that.

"Don't do that. Don't look away, it's not your fault." He says in that gentle voice again, that's makes Tobio want to listen to him.

"Tobio dinner!" Keishin calls from the kitchen. "So you have fun at the creek?" Ittetsu nudges him, "Ow! What? It's just a question."
"It'd not their fault." He scolds, making Keishin roll his eyes. "Their little bastards."
"You're not supposed to say that about teenagers."

Knowing that he lost, Ukai goes back to quietly eating his dinner. "You have fun today?" Keishin glares at him, "I said it nicely, because I mean it. You said it condescendingly."
"It was okay." Kageyama mutters quietly, staring at his plate full of food.

The image of those antler-tree branches fresh in his mind, replaying over and over.

Kyoutani nudges him out of it, slowly, he starts to eat, not that he's very hungry at the moment, he just wants to make his parents happy.

Mene jumps up onto the table, interrupting their dinner and trying to steal the food.

Kageyama smiles at her. He points his pointer finger up to her noise then rubs her face against his hand.

"Get off the table you little bitch." Ukai says affectionately. She meows at him. Kageyama scoops her up and puts her down. She meows at him too, annoyed that she's not allowed on the table to eat at her own personal buffet.

Afterwards, Kageyama had given him some clothes to sleep in and pulled out a spare futon. Kyoutani's lying on it, Tobio can't see but he knows he's looking at him with that soft look again. Mene is busy sleeping on his desk and Tobio, he's on his back staring up at the pitch black ceiling.

Tobio's now standing in pitch blackness, he tries calling out, to anyone that might hear but he can't. It's like his mouth is glued shut.

He makes out a face in the distance, amongst the darkness is a pale face, inching closer and closer to him, until she's a foot away from him.

She doesn't do anything other then stare at her with her unnaturally wide black eyes. She doesn't blink. Not even once.

He hand is paw-like with long slightly hairy fingers.

One brushes up against his cheek, her long nail scratches his skin. He winces. The strange and oddly beautiful woman disappears.

Tobio wakes up, gasping for breath. It's early morning, the sun is barely rising. Looking down, Kyoutani stirs but that's it.

Kageyama doesn't know whether to go back to sleep or get ready for the day.

Subconsciously, he feels the spot the lady had scratched him, he shouldn't have been surprised when he felt blood.

This seems to settle his inner debate, quietly he gets up and into the bathroom.

Kageyama doesn't like looking in mirrors but today he made an exception.

He looks tired, dark shadows under his eyes. His blue eyes don't have that sparkle, excitement, life that they used to. They've gotten duller, the childhood innocence far behind him.

Sure enough, now there's a cut across his face. Kageyama searches for a band-aid to cover it up, he doesn't need anyone worrying or wanting to know what happened.

He did end up getting ready for the day, by the time he had made himself a coffee, Ittetsu is awake. "Morning Tobio!" He says brightly.

"How's you get the band aid?" Kyoutani asks, walking in. Kageyama points to Mene, who's sitting down by her bowl waiting patiently to be fed. Kyoutani leans down to scratch her chin.

"You have a good sleep?" He asks them both, pouring both his and Tobio's coffee. "Not bad." Kyoutani answers, Kageyama shrugs. "You want one?"
"Uh yeah alright. Thanks."

It's a quiet breakfast, peaceful, unlike the dream he had last night. Maybe he should go see Takinoue later on, to get his opinion on this. He nods to himself.

"Do have some things to do at school, you'll be fine right? Or did you want me to drop you off at Makotos, I think he's off work today." Kageyama nods immediately.