Happiness

19 1 0
                                    

Kageyama, unintentionally, floated throughout afternoon practice too.

He had insisted that his nose is fine and this time, they let him play.

"Tobio dinner!" Takeda calls from the kitchen. Several minutes go by and he still hasn't come out. Ukai begins looking concerned. "I'll go and see." Takeda says, getting up to go and see if something is wrong.

"Tobio?" He asks, knocking on the door and opening it wider. Kageyama's lying on the floor again. "Dinner's ready, you wanna come eat?"

"I don't remember the last time I felt happy." He says, staying where he is. Takeda shuts the door and sits down next to him. "Sometimes I feel like I'm destined to be lonely and miserable."
"I know. I know how tired and miserable you've been. It's not going get better straight away, you know that, but we'll be there with you, okay?"
"How do you know?" He whispers, "How do you know it'll get better?"
"Because we'll make sure of it. I promise."

Ittetsu helps Tobio stand up, who wipes his face before leaving his room, ridding the tears from his eyes. "Everything alright?" Keishin asks, looking between his boyfriend and son. "Yeah, everything's fine." Takeda answers, taking a sip of water.

Tobio sat on the couch with the cat in his lap, scratching her chin. Takeda sat next to him and turning on the tv, finding a movie to watch together. Kageyama leans his head against his shoulder, getting more comfortable.

Ukai walks into the lounge, wearing sweats, his hair loose and damp. "I'm uh I'm off to bed." He announces, giving Tobio a hug and Ittetsu a kiss. "Don't forget to take your melatonin." He says when he pulls away. Kageyama just glances at him, frowning.

"Goodnight." Is Takedas response. Tobio waves him goodbye.

He sighs to himself as Takeda presses play. "Don't stay up too late either." Keishin adds. "Don't worry, we won't."

"Do you ever think about dying?" Ittestu pauses the movie again, wanting to give Tobio his full attention.

"Sometimes, I try not to think about it too much. Why do you ask?"
"I think about it a lot. I thought I'd die in that forest by myself, no one knowing what happened to me." He's staring across from him at the tv with unfocused eyes.

"You know every day I used to pray that it would kill me, of course it never did." He pauses, "I tried doing it myself." He admits, Takeda looks at him with concern, waiting for what he's going to say next.

"I tried choking myself with the chain, bashing my head against a rock and drowning myself in the swamp. None of it worked, my body fought for me when my mind had given up."
"Clearly it had been the right choice." Kageyama shakes his head.

"Guess we have to disagree there." Takeda wraps an arm around him, Mene asleep in Tobio's lap.

"I'm glad you're here with us. I really am Tobio."

He un-pauses the movie once again and they watch without any interruption.

The Silence Is LoudWhere stories live. Discover now