Soulmates

One day left

Hinata woke with a yawn, his brain fuzzy from yesterday. What had happened again? He remembered drinking the energy drink, running with Tanaka and Noya, playing at practice, then…nothing. Maybe he'd finally gotten worn out? Then why was his head pounding?

Hinata didn't get up, instead pulling the blanket closer. He really needed to never drink an energy drink again. Every muscle in his body was screaming at him, and the sun was hurting his eyes. Maybe he should just stay in bed that day. He really didn't feel good.

"Shoyo! You need to get up soon, or you'll be late to practice!" His mom called to him. Hinata attempted to drag himself out of bed, but fell back down. Now he felt twice as bad. What had happened to him? "Shoyo? Did you hear me?"

"Mom. Help me." Hinata rasped. He couldn't say it very loudly, or his throat burned. Tears lined his eyes, showing how bad he really felt. He'd never felt this sick before. What had Tanaka given him? Why was he getting this bad?

"Shoyo? I'm going to come in, okay?" His mom slowly opened the door, waiting for some sort of answer. She wasted no time rushing over to the young boy, felling his forehead. "What happened, baby? Tell me." "Don't know. Woke up like this." Hinata leaned into his mom's touch, which gave him a sense of calm in the midst of his storm.

"I'll have to call Ukai, tell him you're sick. Stay in bed for now, okay? I'll be back with some medicine." "Can you please close the blinds?" "Of course. I better tell Natsu she needs to stay out of your room for now, just so she doesn't get sick too." Hinata nodded, sighing as the sun went away. His headache was a little better.

His mom came back with a thermometer and a bowl, which confused him. What was the bowl for? The thermometer, he could understand. But the bowl? He didn't feel nauseous at all. He just felt really tired and sore.

Hinata waited with the thermometer under his tongue as his mom called coach Ukai, eyes slipping closed. He was really, really tired. Maybe he should go back to sleep. That sounded really nice. Yeah, he'd go back to sleep.

He woke up to an empty room, with a damp washcloth on his forehead and the thermometer gone. The lights were off, thankfully, which helped his headache. Where did his mom go? Wasn't she calling coach Ukai? What time was it? He needed to stop thinking, his head hurt.

Hinata rolled to his side, closing his eyes again. He should just go back to sleep again and sleep the day away. It was his birthday tomorrow, so maybe time would go quickly for once. He'd probably feel better by then.

"How did it start?" A voice asked outside Hinata's door. "I don't know. Normally, he's up before I am, and he's out the door right after I wake up. Today he stayed in bed, which is a warning sign already. But he was crying, Keishin. I've rarely seen him cry." Who was Keishin? And why did he sound familiar?

"His birthday is soon, right?" "Yes. Tomorrow, actually." "He may be going through that new overnight thing that's going around. Apparently, a lot of people are experiencing it. The day before their sixteenth birthday, they get tired and sore. Nobody knows why." "So it isn't contagious?" "I haven't heard anything about that, but I wouldn't be too careless. Keep Natsu away from him until he gets better."

Ukai? Was that who this was? "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know all this?" "My granddad teaches volleyball. I took Hinata to practice with him once. Some of his students got sick recently, so they told him what the doctors told them, which he then told me, since we've got a lot of first years. It'll last a few more hours, then it'll be gone. How much has he eaten today?" Yep. Definitely Ukai. "Nothing. No matter what I try, he won't eat. I doubt he remembers waking up."

He'd been awake? He didn't know that. Just how much time had actually passed? How long had he been asleep? He was so confused.

The door cracked open, just large enough for someone to stick their head through. Hinata closed his eyes, wincing at the light that came through. "Looks like he's still asleep. That's probably better for him anyway. If he can sleep through this, he'll be able to ignore most of it."

"Do you think he'll be alright?" "Definitely. If Hinata is anything, he's persistent. He'll be fine by tomorrow, I'm calling it." "Are you sure?" "Yeah. Maybe getting your soulmate is what gets rid of this. Don't take my word for it, though. It's just a theory." "So, he'll be fine?" "Yeah. I'd say in a day or two, he'll be bouncing off the walls again."

Hinata rolled over, trying to hide from the light and the noise. "I think we better leave him alone before he wakes up." Ukai chuckled, closing the door once more. The footsteps went away, leaving him alone once more. Okay, now his headache was fading more.

Hinata sighed, trying to relax and go to sleep again. Maybe he could just sleep through this thing. That would be nice. Just sleep the day away until he turned sixteen and got his soulmate. It would be easy, right?

Wrong. As soon as the word soulmate entered his head, he was wide awake. Dammit, he really was dumb. Now he wouldn't sleep at all. "Oh, fuck me." Hinata mumbled, rolling onto his back and rubbing his eyes. Sure, Tanaka had told him only to use that word in dire situations, but not being able to sleep was pretty dire.

Hinata tossed and turned the rest of the day, unable to sleep as questions raided his mind. We're they tall, or short like him? Did they like volleyball? What if they didn't like short people? What if they didn't like him?