The Red String Of Fate (IwaOiKage)

Chapter 16: "Here's your jacket, Tobio."

[Kageyama]

"So. . . why do you think it rains?"

Kageyama opened his eyes, just to gasp a bit and quickly sit up. The sight in front wasn't even a bit familiar to his house; a shelf filled with books about volleyball and psychology, salmon curtains drawn shut over a window, a wooden study table about four feet was covered with a bunch of papers and pencils scattered. The colors chosen in the room were 'unique' or more 'aesthetic' in his opinion.

A few other futons were messily left on the floor. Sure, he knew it was someone from the volleyball team as he saw a poster of themselves on a wall.

It took him a moment until everything washed over him. . . losing . . . crying. . . being pinned. . . stuttering. . . the warmth. . . he needed to skip school.

"Oi! Tanaka! Go wake Kageyama!" A familiar voice said.

"Don't you think you should let him sleep? School won't start until two hours later," Tanaka said.

Kageyama straightened his back and rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah, sure," Sugawara's voice said from below. "I made breakfast so I thought it'd be better. . ."

"You sound like a mom," Nishinoya's voice resounded, and only a small thud could be heard afterward.

Kageyama groggily began standing up, his vision blurring. He held on to the door and stood there for a few moments until his vision cleared.

He glanced around again, the room was not that big if he were to compare it to his room, or maybe it was just because the room had more objects like an old fashioned globe, a bunch of origami cranes stacked on a makeshift cardboard shelf, the few beanbags that sat untouched.

He looked out of the door and at the room in front, which looked practically empty, other than a large table, a wooden shelf, and Sakura colored curtains with cherry blossoms on them. Kageyama took a deep breath and peeked to his left, there, was a slightly open door that led into a bathroom. To his right, a staircase led down, almost unseen if walked ahead and looked lowly at the hedge.

"Oi! I know we've lost, but what's up with the huge appetites?!" Kageyama could hear Daichi's voice as he crept down the stairs, one hand holding onto the railing.

He stared at the kitchen to his sharp right as he reached to the bottom of the staircase, a china dragon sat on a black stool under a painting of a cherry blossom straight ahead. The curtains pulled over the backyard's sliding glass door.

A tingling scent of maple syrup slipped around, and that's when he spotted the glass whisking bowl that had a mixture in it, not just any mixture, a pancake mixture. Kageyama's favorite standing next to onigiris.

"You woke him up!" Tanaka said as he stepped out of the living room, a plate in his hand that had some leftover syrup trickling down it, and leaking onto his arm.

"Um. . . hold the plate straight, you don't want to dirty the floor," Kageyama awkwardly said as Tanaka walked past him and switched the faucet to the sink on, beginning to rinse the syrup off the plate and his hands.

"Aren't you quite the genius in manners too?" Said Tanaka as he shook the water off the plate and opened the dishwasher.

"It's basic. . . You'll spill the syrup on the floor, others will step into it and lead it around the house," Kageyama folded his arms and studied Tanaka's posture, it was what you'd call 'stiff' and 'edgy'.

"I told you, Tanaka, I'll wash the dishes," Sugawara rushed into the kitchen and softly smiled at Kageyama. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Suga-san," Sugawara looked at Kageyama, a bit concerned.