Without Me (kagehina)

Chapter 7

(the next morning (it's Monday)

"Tsukkiiii wake up!!" Hinata vigorously shook Tsukishima in a hurry. With the events that happened over the weekend, both boys completely forgot that today was a school day and failed to set an alarm.

"Hey hey stop, I'm awake! What's wrong?" Tsukishima was still half-asleep and slowly rolled over, facing Hinata only to see a panicked face in front of him. "We're late for practice! It's already 7:30!" Upon hearing that, Tsukishima popped out of bed and got ready as fast as he could, Hinata doing the same shortly after. They both grabbed their bags and ran out the door, skipping breakfast.

During the run to school, Tsukishima had a surprisingly hard time keeping up with Hinata. Even though his legs were many times longer than the shorter boys', he could only barely keep pace behind him. 'How in the hell does he run so fast' Tsukishima thought to himself.

•••

"Finally" Hinata breathed, attempting to catch his breath as they neared the gym. "Come on, let's change before we go in" Tsukishima said as he started jogging to the clubroom with Hinata right behind him. They made their way up the stairs and into the clubroom where they started to change into their gym clothes.

Hinata tried to be quick, not because he wanted to hurry and get to practice, but because he still felt uncomfortable with Tsukishima seeing his cuts. He felt an overwhelming anxiety take over when his cuts were visible. He was ashamed that he resorted to it those few years ago and never stopped, he regretted the lines that now permanently marked his body.

"I'm done!" Hinata said with his usual forced smile. The real smile from the previous day didn't last long. Tsukishima gave a nod in return as he slipped his shirt on and looked over at Hinata "Don't do that around me." Hinata relaxed his expression some "Don't do..what around you?" he asked. Tsukishima stared at the short boy in front of him for a few seconds before he put a hand on his head, taking a mental note that the boys' neon orange hair was surprisingly soft "Don't fake your smile around me, shrimpy. Okay?" Hinata looked up and stared him in the eyes "Okay."

They walked out the clubroom and down the stairs, running once they got to the bottom. When they reached the gym doors, Tsukishima and Hinata looked at each other. They knew it would seem odd to the rest of the team that they showed up late at the exact same time. "We can just say it's a coincidence if they ask" Hinata said as he slid open the gym doors.

Nishinoya- "Shoyo! Where were you?"
Tanaka- "Hey my underclassmen!"
Kageyama- "Hinata boke, where the hell have you been?!"
Daichi- "Hey, you two. That'll be 20 serves later. 20 serves each. You know we have nationals coming up so make sure you're not late again."

Sugawara shooed Daichi away and walked over to the two boys "Good morning. Are you two alright, why are you so late?" He questioned in a soft, motherly tone, genuinely worried.

"Well..I forgot to set my alarm and ended up waking up late" Tsukishima blankly stated and walked deeper into the gym a bit farther from the others. It wasn't technically a lie. Sugawara didn't think twice about it, he knew Tsukishima wouldn't care about being late for one day but Hinata on the other hand was usually there at 6am with Kageyama. Suga looked at Hinata with a warm smile, waiting for an explanation. "I..guess I lost track of time this morning..." Hinata put a hand behind his head and gave a nervous laugh as he entered the gym, walking past Sugawara. "Well alright. Tell me if anything is wrong, okay?" Hinata looked back and smiled "Okay!"

Without thinking, Hinata walked directly to Kageyama. It was a force of habit to just be near him. Kageyama glared down at him with what seemed like murderous intent. "You could've texted me so I wasn't waiting outside for over 30 minutes, only for you to never show up." Kageyama was actually very worried about Hinata. He would never show up so late to practice and if he did, Kageyama would be the first to know. His concern for the tangerine only came off as anger. He wanted to show his worry but he didn't know how to put it into words.