Bring him back

chapter 18

After Hikaru had finished his breakfast, they both went to school together - obvious reasons - and at the school gate, they came across the teal headed defender of the team, Kariya Masaki

"Kariya!" Exclaimed the forward to the defender, who was only a couple steps in front of him

"Hm?" The said defender turned around with confusion written all over his face, though it only lasted for a mere second as he looked behind himself "Ah, Hika-"

For some reason, Kariya left his sentence unfinished with a gaping reaction on his face

'Did he notice?' Tenma is almost positive that the other has noticed the change and honestly, he really hoped that was it, because, he's already pent up from trying to keep his secretive happiness to not look like the fool he used to be

"Something wrong, Kariya?"

"Something wrong!? Did you not see this yourself!?"

"See what?"

Kariya had to give it to the forward, the new holder of the title 'The most thickheaded member of the team', Kageyama Hikaru, the original king - Matsukaze Tenma - has been dethroned

'My. God!' The defender had to do a facepalm to himself, one that hurts just from hearing it, and while the forward might be confused and maybe even a little worried for the other, Tenma couldn't deny that it was fairly relatable and kind of tempting for him to do as well

'Yup, definitely noticed.'

"Take a good look at Tenma. Specifically at his scaaaaaars." Kariya purposely stretched out the 'a' in his key word, in hopes to break through Hikaru's thickheaded skull - surprisingly even thicker than Tenma's skull -, and Kariya also had to make one final mental note in his head

'If this doesn't give it away, then I'm dealing with a brainless idiot here.'

Hikaru was a little taken back by the sudden exclamation, but he quickly recovered from that and he turned his head to his left-hand side, checking thoroughly on the said ghost boy

"Eh!? Where are your scars, Tenma!?"

"They've been gone since this morning."

"Oh... Ehehehe..."

The defender and ghost boy couldn't help but sweatdrop while the forward was awkwardly giggling and rubbing the back of his neck

"Anyway, Hikaru."

"Hmm?" The said forward looked directly at the ghost boy, and Tenma took the opportunity to lean in closer to the other while whispering something in his ear "Really!?"

"Mhm."

"Hmm?"

Hikaru was on the verge of tears when Tenma had confirmed his question with his head, leaving the teal headed defender utterly confused

"But we're gonna go to them after your classes. I don't want you to get into trouble because of me."

"Alright..." Hikaru was slightly disappointed at the sudden decision, but he certainly understood where the other was coming from

"Umm, mind telling me what's going on, you two?"

"Uhhhhh..." The forward trailed off and took the chance to glance over to the ghost boy, eyes demanding for him to answer the defender's question. Tenma on the other hand, immediately understood what the forward was insinuating with those eyes, and to be fair, he isn't surprised whatsoever, after all, it's his decision, wether to answer the question or not

"Sorry Kariya, but it's a surprise." Said the ghost with a smile that hasn't been seen from him in a long time, and just as Kariya's mouth was about to protest, his brain quickly shut him up at the sight of the charming smile he's been dying to see again, and in the meantime, a light blush line began to faintly form on his face and Hikaru had to suppress the biggest ruge to laugh right at that moment, in order to successfully break the ice in a good way

"Can we go to class now? We're running kind of late on time."

"Shoot! Let's go!" And with that being said, the defender grabbed the forward's arm and began to run at the speed of light, right towards their classroom, and as for Tenma, the poor ghost had to be dragged by the spell since he couldn't catch up to Kariya's speed, resulting in almost fixating him

'I thought I was gonna die...' Thought the ghost boy to himself 'Oh wait, but I am dead.'

~'0'~

After a whole day of class, Hikaru and Tenma went ahead of everybody else, all the way to the clubroom, and to their luck, they found the exact people they wanted to find in that room

"Oh, Hikaru, Tenma. You guys are early today."

"What brings you two here?"

Said the coach right after the assistant coach, both with raised eyebrows from the shock and confusion all mixed together

"Well, um..." For some reason, Hikaru found it guilty to say this for the other, so he looked at the ghost boy once again, eyes pleading for him to say it instead of himself. And just like before, Tenma understood it very easily, so he decided to just do what he has to do

"I want..."

~'0'~

"Where's coach Endou, Kidou-san?" Asked the captain of the team, the said adult looked right towards the strategist and the team through his goggles, and was honestly amused at their slight hint of worry

'They don't have a clue of what's going on.' The adult really wanted to smirk, but he easily stopped himself from doing so and instead, he answered Shindou's question with an answer that's not quite what the team wanted to hear

"He and Hikaru and Tenma had to go to somewhere else, they'll be back soon."

The team wasn't exactly pleased with that answer, but they decided to stop asking - seeing that they're probably not gonna get a clear answer from the adult - and just wait and see.

After a few seconds, Aoyama and Ichino who were talking to eachother, suddenly had their vision blocked by something soft and squishy, and their minds immediately processed the blockage as a hand. They let out a small inaudible sound, that caught everyone's attention, they all looked towards the two players, but they couldn't see who was blocking their visions, since he/she was covering the two teammate's eyes from their backside

"Guess who I~ am~."