Eclipse

3

"Come on Hinata, you won't win if you keep missing the quad salchow," Yuri told him, slapping his arm.

"I know, I know. It just seems like it keeps getting harder and harder." He told him. He hadn't even gotten it once in his weeks of attempts. Yuri would be going back to Russia soon, so this was the only chance he had.

"Nothing will ever change if you don't overcome the difficult part first. If you give up now, you'll never get it." He told him, his voice uncharacteristically soft. It was one of those moments when he was thinking of his own past. His own struggles.

"Yeah, alright. If I get this before you leave, you have to teach me another curse word, okay Yurio?" He ignored the name. Hinata seemed to be the only one he allowed to call him that, but he never brought it up in fear he may stop allowing it.

"Why only curse words? The language itself is beautiful as well. I could teach you the entire language, but all you want is curse words." He sighed, skating off the ice. It was late, and they should probably head back to their respective lodgments. Yuri always stayed at the Yu-topia, but his fathers had moved out quite a while back.

"Wait, you would really be willing to teach me the language? You would teach me Russian?" He asked. The look on his face was one of hope.

"Of course. Although, while I'm away, you're going to have to ask Viktor to teach you. I'm not sure how good of a teacher he'll be, but I promise to try my best. You have to try your best too, got it солнышко?" The smirk on his face threw the boy off a little bit, but he nodded.

"Wait, what's with the nickname? What does it mean?" He asked, suddenly realizing.

"You'll find out someday."

He never did find out.

---

Hinata had never had the courage, nor the resolve to actually look up what the name meant after he left. He assumed a small part of him hoped they would meet again someday so he could ask again. Another part of him hoped that day would never come. He didn't want to face them again.

The training camp wouldn't start for another day, seeing as the trip from Miyagi would take almost twenty hours. Hinata didn't know what he would do with himself. He hadn't been stationary for this long since his flights for the World Junior Cup. He did have to say that he at least had more space on the bus than he did flying coach.

To make up for that, the coaches had all decided that the camp would go on for one more day, into the weekend, to make sure everyone got to play enough. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but he was glad to get to play.

He wasn't tired, despite it being midnight, having gotten no sleep that night or the one before.

"Hey Hinata," He looked over to see Tsukishima smirking at him. "How are you gonna do on the ride? You gonna be able to sit still for more than five seconds?"

Somehow, Tsukishima pissed Hinata off more than Kageyama sometimes.

He decided to ignore the jab and instead boarded the bus in silence. Once on the bus, he put in his headphones and listened to the music he never thought he would hear again.

After leaving Hasetsu, Hinata had made a playlist of all of his songs he had ever done a performance to. He had wanted to listen during practice, but it was too much. Now, though, as he boarded the bus, still pissed at Tsukishima, he knew it would help him relax.

Music had always helped him relax.

Maybe that was why he had been so good on the ice. The music had relaxed him, helped him focus on the move that came next. The move he was doing in the moment.

It helped him feel the movement.

He wasn't sure how long he silently stared out the window, but when the bus stopped to refuel and everyone got off to use the restroom and stretch their legs, the sun was high in the sky.

"Hey, Hinata?" He turned to see Daichi looking at him with concern as they stepped off the bus. "You know you're allowed to talk, right? And move around a bit? You don't have to worry about what Tsukishima said. We all know how much you want to move around."

The look on his face was one of care. It only made sense that Daichi would be the caring father of the group.

"Oh, I'm fine. Though, it is nice to stretch for a bit."

He walked away, missing the way the rest of his team stared at him. Was he really that calm about sitting in one spot for more than five minutes? It seemed so unlike him. They tried their best to get back to what they were doing.

Hinata had gone over to a grassy patch further away from the road to stretch. He assumed the music put him on autopilot, because the next thing he knew, he was doing his old skating stretches. He only realized when he heard someone calling his name. They had sent Noya to come find him.

"Whoa, Hinata. I had no idea you were that flexible." He commented as Hinata quickly dropped the leg he had been stretching backward.

"It's nothing. Let's just get back to the bus, okay?" He quickly grabbed his jacket off the ground before quickly walking back to the bus.

He didn't want to seem suspicious. No matter how big of idiots they may seem like, they would figure it out at some point. That is, if they hadn't already.

He just had to be careful. Especially considering he would be in enemy territory soon.

---

TRANSLATIONS

солнышко = sunshine