OLD Stealing The Sun

Chapter 23: I Can't

Oikawa POV

Shouyou's jittery and jumpy, his previous calm seemed like a dream since his anxiety had shot all the way up again, no it was like he was even more anxious and nervous. And the closer it came time to go to the gym, the worse it got. Maybe it would be better if he stayed in the room today, I could easily just come back on breaks and do touch with him, maybe not having to do that in the middle of the gym would help. Plus he looked majorly exhausted still......

"Shouyou you okay?" I asked walking over to him, I knew the answer but asked anyway.....

"Yeah.....ish?" He said, I raised a brow and he sighed and shook his head no

"Is it because we have to go to the gym?" I asked sitting next to him on his futon, he leaned his head on my shoulder

"No......well a bit but....." So it was only part of the answer, the nightmare must still be haunting him.....

"Is it the nightmare then too?" I asked wanting to confirm my thoughts, he nodded reluctantly

Again I wondered what terrified him so much to cause him this much fear, to act like this..... I didn't like it, I wished whatever it was I could get rid of it, but I didn't even know where to begin guessing at what it was..... And there was no way he was ready to tell me. Sighing I put my arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer.

"Do you want to skip going to the gym?" I asked, and he tensed up and I could smell the fear in him "Shouyou what's wrong?" I asked panicked slightly

"N-nothing..... I uh I'll go to the gym don't worry......." He said, looking down and seeming to shrink a bit.

"Are you sure?" I asked, narrowing my eyes in thought, trying to figure out what happened.......

"Yeah.....i'll go...." He whispered

"Okay you can sit in the bleachers like normal." I said and his fear subsided a bit but not completely.... "Unless you feel like playing?" I said jokingly trying to get him to calm down

"Oh yeah that would be fun, what do you think Hinata?" Hanamaki asked, the team had been sending him worried glances the whole time, I smiled slightly, they accepted him into our pack and would protect him.

"Uh, no sorry...." Shouyou said glancing up and away again

"Oh but how are we going to win now." Matsukawa said coming over as well, Shouyou rolled his eyes at them and I laughed, it was so cute

"I guess you'll have to figure it out unless you want to do flying laps for the whole camp" Shouyou said jokingly, a small hint of a smile there......he was calming down a bit more, good

"Flying laps?" I asked and he nodded

"It's the penalty for losing a set." He said I could tell he was thinking back to last time he was here, I wonder if it was a good memory or not....

"Then I guess we better win." I said and then we stood and left for the gym.

I didn't miss how everyone glared at me, or the shock they had when Shouyou didn't play. I knew it would come, after all what I did was unforgivable, and it caused Shouyou to stop playing the sport he loved. Sighing I went over at break, sitting behind him and wrapping my arms around him, the dirty looks I got were amplified, but I ignored them and focused on Shouyou. He was doing the homework for over the break, and right now he was focused on math. Iwaizumi and I have helped him a few times, and he has been doing better....but he's still horrible at it.

"Number three through seven are wrong." I said and he frowned, picking up his eraser to start them over, "You don't have to redo everything....here" I showed him where to restart from and he did, getting three and four done but getting stopped on five