my solace | kagehina

bright and warm

🍊☀️🌻
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🫐🌑🪻

Shouyou Hinata

Tobio has begun to take a liking to me these past few weeks. As we played volleyball or cards or simply sat beside one another to watch out the windows of the asylum, I noticed him steadily coming out of his shell.

A few of my coworkers and other patients even commented about him being easier to approach, and I noticed him reaching out to me, brushing his hands against my skin now and again, working his way up to sharing the same space as another human.

Seeing so much progress in him warms my heart.

Eventually, I want to open up to the day he murdered another man. What led him to do it? What did he feel when he did? How could someone hold a love strong enough to take a life? An unreciprocated love, at that.

Does he blame himself for his crush's suicide?

Since the day of our first meeting, I've only picked up bits and pieces of the story, but I hope to make progress regarding his emotions about the matter today.

At least, that was the plan until life decided to crush my plans.

And my ankle.

Because carrying an entire fucking couch down the stairwell of an apartment complex on your own and acting as if you own the entire building is perfectly smart and safe.

While I was properly compensated for being smacked by a couch and knocked down two flights of stairs, it hardly makes up for the two weeks I missed at work, and how long it's going to take to regain the trust of most of my patients who rely on me to support them every day.

Especially Tobio. I told him I'd always be back, but I was in the hospital recovering for the majority of the two weeks I was out, half of which I was too concussed to even talk properly.

Needless to say, I'm moving to a ground-floor apartment as soon as possible. Not that I really have a choice, as I have to use a crutch to keep most of the weight off my ankle, and it's rather difficult to go upstairs with a broken ankle. Forget the elevator, the landlord would rather die than fix it.

While my friends at university and my family told me I needed more rest, I couldn't wait any more than I already had to see my patients. I was making such good progress with Tobio, I was so close to figuring out how to help him live a normal life free of possessiveness, or at least live in control of his tendencies.

No matter how you look at it, killing someone for dating someone you like isn't natural.

I skip my morning coffee, yet I run into three of my coworkers in the lobby. The first thing I ask after calming their worries is Tobio and the rest of the patients.

"They miss you, that's for certain. Ms. Denisha has all but cried for your leg massages. We've called a couple of physical therapists to help ease the pressure, but she keeps saying they're not the same. You always talk to her and make her feel like less of a burden. She says she can tell you enjoy helping her, not just because it's your job. So sweet, she is. But... Tobio... You mean Kageyama-Kun?"

I can't help but fidget hearing his last name. I adjust the crutch in my hand as if it were going to shield me from the words I was too scared to hear fall from my coworker's mouth.

"Actually, he likes to go by Tobio."

"Really? Maybe that's just true for you. I took care of him this past week and he told me not to call him by his first name. He wouldn't even... talk to me. No going outside, no cards- Nothing like what he does with you. He just stares out the window. He's really shut himself in."