The Sun with A False Eternity

A Trip to The Hospital

  The entire day felt... Weird. Kageyama couldn't focus on either volleyball or school, annoying both his teachers and teammates. Daichi would flash him worried glances in the hall, and throughout practice, he felt Coach Ukai and Takeda's eyes on him, though they did a good job at keeping up the act. Both Sugawara and Ennoshita had come up and asked him if he was doing all right, and there had been a few teasing remarks from Tsukishima, Kinoshita, and Nishinoya, but other than that the team left him alone.

Finally, Kageyama thought looking at his phone. Practice was over, and they could go visit the hospital. The day felt like it had gone on forever, and he was more than ready to see Hinata. He had already texted his mother over lunch break, and she was willing to let him ride with Daichi, Takeda and Coach Ukai.

The way there was silent, each member completely enveloped in their thoughts. Kageyama stared out the window, (something he had done a lot lately) and tried to sort through his feelings once again. He couldn't get a grip on anything though, everything just felt so surreal. He was going to wake up, race to school with Hinata, have the best volleyball practice, a normal day of classes, another amazing volleyball practice, home, then repeat. That's how he was expecting the day to go.

Instead he was sitting in a car he had never been in before, heading to a destination he had never wanted to go to again. Hospitals were always unsettling, they were either too clean, too quiet, or both. The whole place felt like it sucked in the universe, nothing existed when you were inside them except the room you were in. It smelled so clean that it would burn your nose, and the people inside it hardly felt like people at all. Kageyama had been multiple times in his second year of junior high. The feelings he got when he was inside made him never want to return.

Now Hinata, a literal ball of life, was inside it. Kageyama shivered, not wanting to think about what it would do to Hinata's light. That place sucked the excitement out of people, what would it do to someone full of it? He didn't want to think about it.

They rolled up to the hospital a few minutes later, and Coach Ukai locked the car door behind them. They all seemed to flash Kageyama a few worried glances as they walked into the massive building, but the setter just pretended to not see them and kept a completely unreadable expression as he entered a place he had hoped to never return to.

Kageyama sat in the corner in a chair as Takeda checked in. Daichi looked like he wanted to say something but Kageyama turned away, pointedly directing his shoulder at the captain showing he wasn't interested in the conversation. He wasn't sure what he'd say anyway. Too many emotions were floating around inside him, he wasn't sure where he'd even start. So they sat in silence until Takeda came back, with a visitor sticker for each of them. Kageyama fastened it to the shirt that he wore under his school uniform, not even glancing at it. Details seemed like such a trivial matter, ones that Kageyama couldn't concern himself with.

The halls were just as Kageyama remembered, surreal and reeking of cleanliness. Nurses and doctors rushed past them, heading off to their next work destination. All the passages and rooms blurred together, and Kageyama completely lost his sense of direction as they rounded one corner after another. He just blindly followed the people in front of him, trying not to think about what came next.

Before he knew it, or maybe it had taken forever, they stopped at a door. Takeda looked up and knocked, waiting till he heard a response. He opened the door after a few moments and motioned for the group to follow him inside.

Hinata sat on a large hospital bed, one that made him look even smaller if that was even possible. Kageyama cringed when he saw the middle blocker's left arm hooked up to some wires, and he turned away, instead of focusing on the small teen's face. From his expression, Hinata couldn't decide whether he was happy to see them, confused as to why they were there or upset they were worried about him. He gripped a video game console in his left and a bottle of water sat next to his right. His eyes were as bright as Kageyama remembered, which made him internally sigh in relief.