The following Monday you were walking through a quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Miyagi Prefecture, the evening smelling of cigarette smoke and warm coffee. The air was still and mild enough to warrant a jacket instead of a coat, with the buttons undone and your sleeves rolled up to your elbows.

It was almost seven o'clock, but the April sky was still light enough to see by with the watery grey light of dusk and the streetlights that were starting to flicker to life.

You'd stayed with the Volleyball team for a late practise to make sure Hinata was okay, even though he didn't participate too much in the actual match, and were on your way home. Your mother had offered to pick you up, but you'd fancied a walk in the fresh air. It had been a while since you'd had time to yourself, but you still felt troubled. With everything that had happened to Natsu and now Hinata's strange behaviour, your mind was constantly in turmoil over what to do.

You'd never had much experience dealing with grief. Most of your family had died before you were old enough to really remember them, and you hadn't suffered any recent loss. Although you wanted to help Hinata as much as you could, you simply didn't know how.

He had changed, and you didn't know how to adapt.

The gravel crunching underfoot echoed suddenly as footsteps ghosted the pavement behind you, light, flurries of sound that you barely picked out amongst the hushed murmurs of wind rattling gutters and empty cans.

You were struck with a momentary panic, cold and sudden in your chest, but then you realised it wasn't uncommon for other people to be walking about at this time of night, and your heart soon settled again.

It wasn't until you took a detour through a back alley scarcely-visible from the main street and found the footsteps still following you did it strike you as odd, and that cold panic returned like an old friend, finding root in the cavity of your chest. Short, panicked breaths fighting their way past your lips, you almost tripped on a loose stone on your way back into the open and spun around, cornering the stranger in the narrow alleyway.

Your vision blurred, found a pale face amongst the shadows, and focused with sudden, stunned clarity. "Hinata!?"

The boy shrunk back, his eyes two deep-set hollows in the lucid sheen of his face.

"W-what are you doing? Gosh, you gave me a fright," you exclaimed, cradling your hands to your chest. You shifted nervously from one foot to the other, looking behind him to make sure there was nobody else following you.

"I wanted to make sure you got home safe," he said slowly, his voice all broken whispers. "It's late. You don't know who's around. Someone... someone might have hurt you."

"Oh, Hinata. You really didn't have to come all the way out here," you said with a shaky laugh.

He closed the distance between you, stepping out into the light of the moon, his eyes silver disks. "That doesn't matter. I wanted to make sure you were okay. What if... what if you ended up like Natsu? Taken away from me. I can't face that again."

You took his shoulders in your hands and caught his eye firmly. "I know you're still upset about what happened, and I appreciate your concern Hinata, I really do, but you need to look out for yourself too. You're not the only one worried about losing those we care for. What would I do if anything happened to you?"

His eyes widened a fraction. "You're worried about me too?"

"Of course I am!" You said with an odd look. "You're my best friend, Hinata. How could I not be?"

You tried to smile, but it didn't feel right on your lips. You were still unsettled by Hinata following you all the way from school without making his presence known to you. It was almost stalker-like behaviour. But you figured his intentions were decent enough - he was just looking out for you, in his own strange way.

"Oh. Hinata. Come here," you said, swinging an arm around his shoulders and pulling him into a side-hug. "Let's go home. We can call your mum from my house and let her know you're okay."

He nodded, his small hand finding its way to yours, his skin a little rough with callouses from handling the volleyball, but warm all the same.

Your mother seemed surprised to see Hinata when you got home, tossing off your jacket and waiting with the boy as he untied the laces of his trainers.

"Oh, Hinata-Kun, hello," she said warmly, her eyes flicking to yours for a brief moment, asking a silent question. "Would you like some hot tea? It's just been brewed."

He gave a slight tilt of his head, looking down shyly at his feet. "Thank you."

You walked with him into the kitchen, where your father was sat reading the paper. He looked up only briefly. "You're home late."

Your mother tapped his head with playful annoyance. "I told you, she stayed behind to help with practise," she reminded him with a reprimanding tone, rolling her eyes. "Are you staying for the night?" She asked Hinata as she began to pour the tea into small white cups, white porcelain printed with blue patterns, a small chip in one of the handles from where you'd been careless handling the pots.

Hinata turned to you. "Can I?"

You chewed your lip thoughtfully. Hinata had stayed over countless times before in the past, but you felt guilty for leaving his mother all alone after she had just lost her daughter. You relayed this to him in a quiet mutter, turned away from your parents.

The brown-eyed boy seemed unfazed. "She'll be okay on her own. She takes tablets to help her sleep anyway," he said in that slow drawl he'd taken to using, when wording things carefully, so as not to come across as abrupt. "I'll phone her and ask."

With a reluctant nod, you let him use the phone in the hallway while you helped your mum with the tea.

"Are you sure it's okay for him to stay?"

Your mother seemed surprised at the question. "Of course. He's always welcome here, you know that."

You stayed silent as Hinata came back in with a smile sitting a little crookedly on his lips. "She's fine," he said simply.

"Have you two already eaten?" Your father asked as he folded away his newspaper and stood up with a stretch. No doubt he would retire to his office to do some more work, before falling asleep in his chair and awake in the morning with a stiff back.

"We got pork buns with the others."

"Okay then. I'll leave you three alone," he said, before kissing his wife's head and leaving the room. Your mother sighed after him, carrying a tray of tea over to the table. You and Hinata sat down.

"How is your mother, Hinata? I really ought to pop round and see her myself."

Hinata sipped his tea. "She's... struggling," he offered, and your mother gave him a gentle, motherly pat. His head bowed under the action.

"We all are," she said quietly. "But we'll get through this. Just remember that we're all here for you and your family."

— ♠ —

You caught the bus to school with Hinata the following morning after he stayed over at yours.

He didn't speak much on the way, propping his elbow against the window and balancing his chin on his hand, staring through the glass. His reflection was watery, smudged around the edges, like he wasn't really there, wasn't real. He was so silent and still you at one point reached over and touched his shoulder, just to make sure he was tangible, real, not a ghost. He turned to you with those brown eyes, like burnt umber, roasted chestnuts, but there was none of that warmth that you were used to seeing.

"Did you sleep okay last night?" You asked in idle conversation, shuffling your feet and grabbing the opposite headrest as the bus lurched suddenly to the left.

"Better than I have in a while," he admitted, keeping his eyes fixed ahead. "Sometimes at home, it's hard to fall asleep when her room is right next to mine. I sometimes get up and go inside, to see if somehow she'll be there this time, fast asleep in bed like none of this had happened."

Your face crumpled. You didn't know what to say.

"But she never is. She's always gone. She's really gone."

Still struggling to find the words, you reached over and took his hand, and held it for the rest of the bus ride.

Kageyama was waiting outside when the bus dropped you off at school. Hinata didn't see him, but you did and waved him over with a smile. "Hey Kageyama-Kun!"

"[L/N]-San," he said with his usual stiff politeness. "H-Hinata."

Hinata gave him a small smile, looking away. His eyes found the blueberry-coloured sky instead. "Morning Kageyama-Kun. We should get to class before we're late."

"Yeah, I'll catch you guys later, okay! Have a good day," you called in parting, before running off to your own class.

"So h-how're you holding up?" Kageyama asked on their way to homeroom, the larger boy acting as a shield as the smaller one traipsed solemnly through the corridors, barely paying attention to the other students caging him in from all sides, like a herd of animals about to trample on a flower.

"Fine," he replied with an irritable sigh. He knew Kageyama was only trying to be nice, but he'd been asked that question so many times lately he was sick of it.

Kageyama's face flushed slightly and he looked away, embarrassed about asking such a stupid question. "R-right, of course you are," he mumbled, struggling to think of something else to say without coming across as rude or abrupt. "Are you joining practise later?"

Hinata smiled wanly. "I guess. Depends if [F/N] is going," he said, much to Kageyama's surprise. He'd noticed Hinata had grown a lot closer to you recently; he knew you'd been best friends for years, but since his sister's death it was like Hinata had turned to you as a replacement, filling in all the gaps her death had left behind. He never seemed to want to leave your side. Kageyama himself didn't have much experience with grief; most of his extended family either lived away or had already passed away before he was born, so death wasn't something he came by often. Consequently he wasn't very adept at dealing with it, so for all he knew, Hinata's sudden attachment to you might just be normal.

"Okay. Uh, let's head to class. We don't want to be late again."