On Thin Ice

First Skate

One Year Later

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Kageyama stood outside the airport, staring out at the moonlit countryside of Natori; his home. This was his first time back since his injury during the Grand Prix Final the year before. He'd been too ashamed to face his family and his country after his immense failure, and so he'd stayed in Europe for a while with one of his skater friends who lived there, Asahi.

But it was finally time to head home. One whole year later, and he would see his family again. His hands grew shaky around the handles of his bags just thinking about it. What would they say? They probably thought he was a coward; a failure. They wouldn't want anything to do with him. Maybe they could've accepted him back home if he'd come straight back when he was released from the hospital, but instead, he'd stayed away for a year without so much as calling or writing to check up on them. They probably resented him for it. And he honestly couldn't blame them.

What he'd done had been cowardly, but with all of the pressure, he just couldn't bear the thought of how they would take his injury and his announcement that he was retiring from skating. Both of his parents had been skaters in their youth, and were still well-known even in retirement, having broken world records and surmised a pile of gold medals between the both of them in pair skating. Kageyama was sure they wouldn't take the new well, but of course, they'd found out the day Daichi announced it to the news, and had had a year to digest it, so maybe...

"Tobio!"

Kageyama jumped, raising his head to find Daichi standing by his familiar black car in the parking lot, waving at him. When he'd learned of Kageyama's return home, he'd insisted on picking him up, which Kageyama was grateful for considering he still wasn't quite ready to face his parents. He thought the man would've been holding a grudge over the past year for Kageyama suddenly deciding to retire and dropping him as a coach, but he looked as friendly as ever, wearing one of his usual smiles, not a care in the world.

If he was honest, Kageyama was a bit suspicious. But Daichi wasn't really crafty enough to hide anything from anyone, let alone him, so he shook it off and tried to scrape his expression up into a smile to appease his ex-coach and raised a hand to wave at him as he approached. "Hey, Daichi! Nice to see you." He grimaced; the words definitely sounded forced. He'd have to get better at deception if he ever hoped to act normally around his family.

The truth was, the loss of skating had been a really tough thing for him. During the two months of bed-rest and rehabilitation, he'd mostly forgotten about his decision to retire, but after that, when he was jogging in the park to build back up the strength in his ankle, or stopping to get breakfast at a cafe with the thoughts of his waiting family lingering in the back of his mind... he missed it.

He didn't want to second-guess himself, but not skating was like not being able to speak: it felt like an essential part of him had been stripped away, leaving him helpless and drowning in a sea of doubt. But, of course, he had to hide all that from Daichi. If the man saw any hesitation over his decision whatsoever, he would try to convince him to come back again, and Kageyama really wasn't ready for that.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice, taking one of Kageyama's bags from him and heading around to the trunk of the car, which he popped. Kageyama stood beside him as they arranged the bags to fit in the small space, and the air between them felt taut despite the friendly atmosphere. Kageyama could tell Daichi wanted to say something and prayed he wouldn't. He was too tired to get into an argument right now.

"If you're worried about me scolding you," Daichi said, closing the trunk and heading around to the driver's side, "I won't. I already said my piece at the hospital that day. If you really don't want to return to skating, I'm not going to make you. It's entirely your decision." As they slid into their seats and Daichi started the car, he shot Kageyama a smile. "But, just to warn you now, your sister is a bit mad..."