It was policy, they said. 

There was no getting around it, they said. 

Kageyama spent one full day in the hospital, nurses and doctors monitoring him to make sure that he was completely fine, physically. 

Hinata thought he would be able to take him home that day. 

Instead, they were informed that Kageyama had to spend two weeks in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. 

"But I can take care of him. I'll be there for him, I promise!" Hinata had argued, had pleaded. 

"You are enrolled in college here, am I correct about that?" the doctor had asked Hinata. "And you work, right? Are you planning on dropping those two things, for the next two weeks, much less the next few months?" Hinata just looked down at the floor. "I think you should take Kageyama back to his family. They can take better care of him than you can right now. You have to think about what's best for him."

Furious, Hinata had just stared at the ground and nodded, trying to hold back the tears that were trying to escape from his eyes. How could he just leave Tobio here? This isn't what he needed. He needed to be home with Hinata. 

But there was nothing they could do about that. 

That was what had brought Hinata to the lobby of the psych ward, hugging Kageyama and promising that he would come visit everyday. 

"It's okay, Hinata. It makes sense, that they have to do this. Take this time to catch up on classes and work. I'll be okay here. And anyway, it's only two weeks." Kageyama was trying to sound calm, but in reality he wasn't. He didn't want to stay here for two weeks, but he had to sound okay, for Hinata's sake. 

The words coming out of Kageyama's mouth made sense, but Hinata just couldn't accept it. 

"Okay, that doesn't mean I won't be visiting, okay? Tobio? I love you, so much," Hinata said, hugging Kageyama again. 

Kageyama hugged Hinata back weirdly. Ever since he had woken up, Kageyama had felt weird about touching Hinata. It was almost as if he was afraid to, afraid he would hurt his sunshine. Kageyama had already done so much damage, who's to say how much more he could do?  

"I love you, too," Kageyama said quietly, cringing at his own pitifulness. Hinata got on his tippy-toes and kissed Kageyama's forehead. 

"We'll figure this out, Tobio. We will."

~

Hinata trudged out to his car, only to be met with a garish scene. The seats of the car were spotted with blood, along with it being smeared along the steering wheel and and door handle, basically everything that Hinata had touched. 

The smell and sight of it combined with a lack of water and food over the past 24 hours was enough to make Hinata run to the nearest trashcan and dry heave into it. 

Fantastic. 

So Hinata went back into the hospital and asked for some clorox wipes, some paper towels, anything to help clean up the mess. A nice nurse accompanied him to help clean it up and even gave him a surgical mask to help combat the coppery smell. 

Once it was clean, or as clean as it would get without a thorough detailing, Hinata thanked the nurse and got in his car to head back to their apartment. 

After a few minutes on the road, Hinata's vision started to get blurry. Not with sleep, but with tears. It seemed that having left the hospital, all the stress and despair that Hinata had been trying to hold in was coming out, whether he liked it or not. He wiped his eyes and focused on the road. Just get home, he told himself. 

He pulled into the parking area behind the building and completely broke down. His chest wracked with sobs, he could barely breathe. He could feel his small breaths speeding up, but he couldn't do anything the calm himself down. So he just cried. He cried until he felt lightheaded and was pretty sure he had depleted the supply of tears his body had, so he was just left with hiccuping, incontrollable breaths and little red crescents from where his fingernails had dug into his arms. 

How could anything be okay after this? 

No, he needed to calm down. How could he calm down?

His fists were clenched so tightly he could feel his fingernails about to break through the skin. He focused on that. He focused on the pain in his palms to mediate the pain in his mind. 

And it worked. 

After a few moments, Hinata started to relax. His breathing evened out. He got out of the car and took a deep breath of air. He had to get through this. At least for Tobio's sake. 

So, Hinata trudged up the stairs to the apartment, rubbing his arms where his nails had dug in. Knowing there was an even bigger mess to clean up there, he tried his best to remember where the mop was. Closet next to the front door? Hopefully.

He was so focused on his plan of action to clean up without breaking down again, he almost didn't notice the note that was left on the door. As he unlocked the door, he noticed the blue sticky note pasted on the door. It read:

Hey Shoyo

We heard about what happened and wanted to see if there was anything we could do to help. You never responded to any of our texts, so we decided to just let ourselves in with that spare key you gave us (sorry!) Sure enough, your phone was on the counter the whole time. We plugged it in so you would have it when you got back

Anyway, we cleaned up the bathroom and pretty much everywhere else that had gotten messed up (we had to trash the rug in your bathroom, also sorry about that)

We also left a few prepared meals in the fridge for whenever you get back. We thought you wouldn't have much motivation to cook, much less make anything healthy. 

If you need anything else just call us, we want to help as much as we can

-Daichi and Sugawara

Hinata almost managed a smile. What had he done to deserve friends like this?

Boy, what a relief it was to walk into the apartment and have it be clean. Still, something felt off about it. It was probably just memories of the previous night lingering in his head. It'll be a long time before he stops thinking of those. 

Hinata walked over to the counter where, as they said, his phone was plugged in. There was a flood of texts from friends asking what happened. Hinata decided not to respond. 

He got out a meal that Suga and Daichi had brought and put it in the microwave. He then proceeded to text them and thank them for everything they had done. It's the least he could do. 

And now, for the next two weeks, Hinata had to try to find a way to find distraction in work and school. That's the only way he was going to get through this.