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Kageyama Tobio had never believed in fate. He liked to think he had, once, but ever since his soulmark had appeared he’d lost any faith he’d had. It didn’t hurt, not like how his mother described it. It felt like fire, like soft flames just a little too close to his skin. He knew that mark, though, had seen identical marks on the two people who hated him most.
He’d told his mother as much, once it was done. In tears, he explained how he knew exactly who his soulmates were, and that he could never have them. She already knew about them in passing. She had heard Tobio’s stories about Oikawa’s exuberant personality and Iwaizumi’s stoic presence. He thought maybe she would be sad for him, or even encourage him to mend their relationship.
He didn’t expect her anger.
“Poly-bonds are unnatural,” she’d hissed. “They bring shame and misfortune upon the family. People who engage in poly-bonds are freaks, are doomed in the eyes of God. They can not be saved. I will not allow that to happen to my own son.”
Over and over, as Tobio grew, she would say those words. It was as if they had been branded on him, like she could read it word for word off his skin. Any mention of soulmates, any wistful sigh or talk of schoolmates set her off. She swore she would send him away if he ever tried to go behind her back. She threatened to pull him from volleyball if he did not forcibly distance himself from his soulmates and all of their friends.
So he became the King. He pushed them away before his mother could do it for him. He pushed and pushed and pushed until he couldn’t anymore, until they finally gave up and left him standing on his own.
It was better to stand on the court alone than to not be there at all.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
When his mother got particularly upset about his soulmarks, he’d think about that night when he was a child, sitting with his grandfather on their back porch and watching the stars.
“Soulmates are special,” his grandfather had said. “One day you’ll meet yours. You have to give them a chance, Tobio. It’s going to feel like you’ve known them all your life. You can’t be scared, okay?”
“That’s dumb,” Tobio remembered saying. “You can’t feel like you’ve known someone. You either know them or you don’t. And I don’t get scared.”
That kind of technicality was something his mother hated about him. Tobio was always precise with his vocabulary, cutting straight to the point, picking out the flaws in other people’s words. He waited for ridicule. His grandfather, however, just laughed and set a hand on his head.
“You won’t understand until you meet them,” he’d said. “Whoever and wherever they are, you are destined for each other.”
Tobio thinks, now, that it had been his grandfather’s way of combating his mother. She had always talked about soulmates like they were a means to an end. In her eyes, you met, you got married, and then you moved on with your life.
“Your grandmother was a special woman,” his grandfather sighed wistfully. “She was all the best parts of me. Your soulmate, or soulmates, will be the same.”
“Soulmates?”
“Yes, Tobio, soulmates,” he’d laughed. “Don’t tell your mother about this, hm? People can have more than one soulmate. I need you to know this, though, Tobio. It is not wrong. No matter what anyone says, you are not wrong for having multiple soulmates.”
Sometimes Tobio thinks, now, that his grandfather was some kind of prophet. How else would he have known to say that, years before Tobio got his soulmark? It was all Tobio could do to hold onto those words when, years later, his grandfather would pass just a week before he got his soulmarks.
The stupid thing, too, was that he did understand. Despite how Oikawa and Iwaizumi had been treating him, he understood immediately what his grandfather had been talking about as soon as he realized it was them. He had always felt like he’d known them forever, like he would know them for the rest of their lives and beyond. He couldn’t explain it other than a feeling of going home, even through the despair of knowing they would never want him like that.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
In senior high, Tobio faced a lot of ridicule for either not knowing his soulmate or not talking about them, or both. His teammates were particularly annoying about it. Once they got onto the conversation of soulmates it was like they couldn’t stop, and they’d practically hound him for days. They did it to Hinata, too.
The solution to their teammates' curiosity was, surprisingly, easy. Tobio didn’t understand kindred spirits until he’d met Hinata, truly met him, in their first year. They didn’t know right away that they were cut from the same frayed cloth their parents called salvation. It took a few months, but once they realized it it was like everything changed. Tobio had never had anyone to confide in, not about this or anything else.
Hinata had approached him after practice early on in their first year with an odd look on his face. “Can we talk?”
“Not if it’s about soulmates,” Tobio huffed.
“Well– it is, but–” Hinata stopped and sighed. “Not like that. Please?”
“Fine.”
They finished cleaning together, then began to walk home. They stopped just before Hinata’s path broke from his. It took Hinata a moment to start talking.
“I have a poly-bond,” he blurted. “That’s why I don’t tell anyone about it.”
“...you do?” Tobio asked, genuinely caught off guard. He’s not sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that.
“Yeah,” Hinata snapped, suddenly defensive. “And if you’re going to– to hate me or make fun of me for it–”
“No, no,” Tobio quickly said. “Um. I have one, too.”
Hinata stared at him, mouth agape, for more time than was considered polite before he shook himself out of his stupor. “Oh. Uh.”
“Yeah.”
They didn’t talk about it for a few months after that, until one night it got to be too much. Tobio was the one who came up with it. If they pretended to be each other’s soulmates, it would get both their teammates’ and their parents to stop worrying about it. It meant that their real soulmates would find out, but it wasn’t like they were planning to tell them the truth anyway.
“It’s better this way,” Tobio had said the night they made their promise. “We can’t ever be honest, but if we don’t give them an answer then they’ll never stop asking questions.”
“I wouldn’t mind being your soulmate, anyway,” Hinata said. “At least we know we won’t get rejected.”
“Our parents won’t mind,” Tobio added. “They’ll think it’s a great idea, actually. They won’t have to worry about it so much anymore.” They were both grasping at straws, trying to justify a lie of this magnitude to both each other and themselves. Neither were sure if it worked.
They went along with it anyway and, just as Tobio had predicted, it was easy to convince their parents that this was the right thing to do. So they told everyone that they were soulmates. They refused to show their marks, made up some lies about not being ready to do that yet, and it was forgotten. They went from Kageyama and Hinata to KageyamaAndHinata, a soulmate duo feared throughout high school volleyball leagues. He couldn’t stand on the court with his soulmates, but he also didn’t have to stand alone.
It was easier that way.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
“I think I love you,” Tobio whispered one night, during their second year of senior high. They had snuck out again to meet at the park and stare at the stars, and compare soul marks and fantasize. Hinata was leaned up against his side, wrapped in his old KitaDaii sweater, face flushed from the late autumn chill.
“I think I love you, too,” Hinata said back, just as quiet, reverent for the nighttime peace.
With most people, Tobio felt the need to explain himself. He over-analyzed his own words, worried about all the ways people could misunderstand him. So he talked, and then he talked some more, and wound up talking himself and his audience in circles. To most people, it came across as arrogant. It made him sound like he thought everyone else was stupid, and even though he knew that now it didn’t save the bridges he’d burned in the past. There were only a few people who had ever understood him, Hinata being one of them.
(The other two he didn’t dare think of except for at times like these, alone with Hinata and their Delphian secret.)
He knew Hinata understood him completely with just those few words. This wasn’t romantic; it didn’t burn like fire, nor did it consume his every thought. This was deeper, a connection to the way they’d grown up and the way they lived now, a testament to the trust they placed in each other.
Tobio didn’t have siblings, but if he did he imagined it would feel like this. Like Hinata pressed against his side, caught in his orbit. Like play-fighting about stupid mistakes and forgetting about it the next day, like texting to complain about their parents or their teachers. It felt like coming home after a long day, like stepping out into a rainstorm only to be met with gentle winds and water, like daydreaming about soulmates who would never want them and a life they could never have. It felt like Hinata.
He knew Hinata felt the same way like he knew breathing. It lived in the background, an instinct that fulfilled itself until he became aware of it again. When he did he would breathe deeply, would savor the feeling of knowing and being known so wholly. And then, like a breeze, it would fade into the background once more, a feeling as natural as the heart beating in his chest.
“Maybe we can tell them one day,” Tobio said, riding on the wave of emotion his confession brought. “Maybe they’ll understand.”
“We have to graduate, first,” Hinata reminded him. “Or we’d have to stop playing. But if we wait that long…”
It didn’t have to be said. This was a conversation that had been repeated in many different forms, and it always led to the same answer. All four of the soulmates in question were third years. By the time they, two first years, graduated, their soulmates would be long gone. They would be finishing university and being recruited to national teams. They would be moving on with life, leaving high school behind and most of the people they knew with it. They wouldn’t want anything to do with them.
“I wish you could have met my grandfather,” Tobio said instead. “You would have loved him. He would have loved you.”
And he would hate this, he didn’t say.
“I wish I could have, too,” Hinata said, and Tobio didn’t know what to say anymore.
So Tobio didn’t say anything. He simply held his arm up, the one with his soulmark, and waited for Hinata to do the same. Vines of ivy clung to Tobio’s skin, curling up and around his forearm, starting at his wrist and ending just above his elbow. Oikawa’s completed mark had dragon lilies: Iwaizumi’s had yarrow. Hinata’s, in comparison, was a smattering of stars splashed across his skin. They could pass as freckles if they weren’t so dark. They knew from Tendou and Ushijima’s marks that, when the bond was completed, the stars made a bird that soared down the length of his arm, nearly going onto the back of his hand. They were beautiful and so, so different.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
It began to unravel in their third year. Tobio thought it was over, but fate is not kind even to those who love her. His soulmates, as well as Hinata’s, had graduated and long moved on with their lives. None of their upperclassmen were there to question them, and all the underclassmen were too scared to say anything. They just had to get through this last stretch, one last tournament, before they could sail through Nationals and be done with it all. But then, the old third years showed up.
“Surprise!” Asahi, Daichi, and Suga shouted as they threw the classroom door open. Tobio nearly fell off his feet; Hinata actually did.
“Wha– What are you doing here?” Yamaguchi asked, already walking forward to hug each of them.
“We’re here to see you guys, of course!” Suga said. “We’re crashing your training camp!”
The old third years had coordinated not only with each other, but also with the coaches, to make an appearance at a training camp and practice with all their old classmates. It was, at first glance, a great opportunity for the younger athletes to learn from new techniques and perspectives, especially from those who had gone pro after university. But Tobio could hardly feel joy at seeing Suga again: it was overshadowed by the pure panic that consumed him like fire.
It was unfortunate that both Hinata and Tobio shared a position with one of their soulmates, but not each other. They had to part in the early morning, Hinata disappearing while Tobio was stuck following Sugawara to the gym where the other setters were gathering. Oikawa was, of course, the center of attention amongst the group, standing with Eita and catching up with everyone.
“Tobio-chan!” Oikawa shouted as soon as he saw him. He tried to go in for a hug, but Kageyama sidestepped and dodged. “How is my favorite setter?”
“Fine,” Tobio said, dodging another attempt at a hug. “And I’m not your favorite.”
Oikawa tried a few more minutes to start a conversation before they started practice, but Tobio was nothing if not good at closing people off. Oikawa looked genuinely annoyed by the time he gave up, turning to keep talking to the Seijoh team. Tobio let it hurt for only a moment before he shut the feeling away.
The morning was a blur from there. Hinata sent him sporadic check-in texts and Tobio did his best to answer between avoiding Oikawa and actually getting some practice in. By the time lunch rolled around he was exhausted both physically and mentally. Unfortunately, it meant he was tired enough that he didn’t realize Oikawa was cornering him until it was too late.
“You’re avoiding me,” Oikawa accused immediately once they were alone. “More than usual. More than you ever have.”
“None of your business,” Tobio managed to choke out, trying to reach for his phone. Oikawa noticed and pushed it further away.
“It is when it bothers me,” Oikawa countered petulantly. His gaze was drawn to the compression bands that Tobio wore on his arms, the ones that matched Hinata’s. “And what’s with these, anyways? You never used to wear them.”
Tobio yanked his arm away when Oikawa started to pull at them. “Don’t touch them,” he hissed, but it was too late. Oikawa’s fingertip had managed to brush over the top part of the ink.
Tobio slammed a mental wall up just in time to stop the bond from fully forming. He got his bearings enough to push Oikawa away, managing to not feel too bad when he stumbled backwards. “Don’t do this again” Tobio said, then he rushed from the gym.
He had to stop only a few halls away as the pressure in his temples rose. The bond was pushing hard at his block, trying to get through despite his defiance. It lessened with both time and distance, fading with each deep breath he took, until it was gone completely. Only then did Tobio let the block fall, sagging against the wall with a distraught sigh.
They were so close to being free and he’d almost been caught. He would’ve never played volleyball again. He would’ve had to move away from his team, away from Hinata.
It was like the thought summoned him. Hinata came barreling around the corner, skidding to a stop at Tobio’s side, sliding to the floor. He cradled his face in his hands, eyes wildly scanning him.
“Tobio,” he breathed. “Suga said that Oikawa had asked you to hang back and that you’d stayed and that no one had seen you- what were you thinking? Are you hurt? Did something happen?”
“Easy, Sho,” Tobio managed a laugh. “Slow down. I didn’t realize we were alone until it had already happened. It– he almost fulfilled the bond, but I put a wall up and ran away. Everything's fine.”
“Good,” Hinata huffed, dropping to sit beside him. “I was gonna have to beat him up if you weren’t.”
“As if you could, dumbass.”
“Hey!”
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
That night, they snuck out of the room their team had been assigned to sleep in to watch the stars. They made their way down to the ground floor and out the door, to a hill only a few minutes walk from the gyms. Tobio sat down first and Hinata sat in front of him, leaning back against his chest. Hinata’s deft hands pulled flowers from the grass nearby, and he busied himself weaving a chain of daisies and dandelions as they talked.
“Oikawa is pretty when he’s focused,” Tobio admitted to the night, to Hinata. “He was always pretty, but… he was beautiful today.”
“Tendou buys Ushijima flowers every week,” Hinata offered in return. “Yellow roses. He says it’s because they look nice in his hair.”
“Ushijima lets Tendou put flowers in his hair?”
“Mhm,” Hinata hummed. “Tendou says he loves plants, and that’s why he loves Ushijima. Because his hair is green.”
Tobio couldn’t help the laughter that burst from his chest. He curled forward to cope with it, caging Hinata against him. Hinata laughed too, sad and loud, pressing back into him.
“I think Tendou would buy you daisies,” Tobio said. “Because any other color would make your hair look dull.”
“Stupid,” Hinata huffed. “How did you know? That’s what he said, too.”
“Oh, did he now?” Tobio teased. “Tendou Satori said he would buy you flowers?”
“He picked one for everyone,” Hinata said, face bright red. “You know how he is.”
“You certainly seem to.”
“Bakayama!”
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
It wasn’t long after when everything shattered. They had a practice match with Seijoh the day before all the old third years left, another part of their big surprise visit.
“We drew straws,” Suga explained, his smile a little too wide. “All the old captains picked, and we matched up by color. We got Seijoh, and the other three are stuck doing a rotation.”
“Of course we got Seijoh,” Tobio muttered to Hinata. “Couldn’t we have gotten Nekoma?”
“I would’ve liked Fukurodani,” Hinata huffed. “That way neither of us would’ve had to worry and I could’ve seen Bokuto.”
It turned into a disaster. Tobio was distracted by trying to avoid his soulmates, doom spiraling about his bad luck and feeling forsaken all over again. It was no surprise that he, too absorbed in his thoughts, lost his footing mid-game and stumbled into the bar that holds the net. His armband, the one that concealed his soulmark, caught on a screw and tore at the seam.
He tried to hide it, tried to catch Hinata’s eyes, but it was too late. Iwaizumi was checking him, was waiting just across the net, and now had wide eyes trained on his forearm. Tobio felt exposed, torn open and bare in front of his team and, worse, his soulmates. They had their soulmarks on show, why wouldn’t they? Those stupidly perfect soulmarks that matched his own.
It was as if time had slowed. Iwaizumi’s eyes, everyone’s eyes, went slowly from Tobio to Hinata, who was supposedly his soulmate. Hinata, who was backing away from his team, so so scared and small against the weight of the moment. They locked eyes and they knew what they had to do.
Hinata turned tail and fled before anyone could stop him, flying out the gym door. Tobio dodged Iwaizumi’s initial lunge for him, but wasn’t lucky enough to evade him a second time. Not with Daichi blocking his way, even broader than he was in high school from his police training. Arms locked around his waist, hauling him back towards the net. Iwaizumi’s breath was hot against the side of his head, his voice soft in his ear.
“Easy, Kageyama,” he murmured, not even struggling against Kageyama’s flailing. “Easy, breathe Kageyama, you’re okay. You’re safe.”
“Hinata!” Tobio shouted, prying at Iwaizumi’s arms. He didn’t even bother to correct his name in favor of shouting for his best friend. “Hinata, Shouyou–”
“We’ll find him,” Daichi assured. “Ukai?”
Ukai looked up from where he’d been huddled Takeda and the Seijoh coach. “Do what you need to do. Seijoh, you boys can leave your stuff in the clubroom and go explore. Be back by 7:00. My boys split up. Find Hinata.”
“We’ll help,” Kindaichi said, gathering his team.
Tobio felt the fight die out of him as the gym emptied. Ukai hovered for a moment, but Tobio nodded his assent to the man leaving. It was too late to fix this or prevent it. There was nothing Ukai could do for him now.
Iwaizumi didn’t let go of him. Instead, he lowered them both to the floor, keeping Tobio in his arms. Oikawa settled in front of them, something like understanding beginning to cross his face.
“The training camp,” he said. “When I grabbed you. I touched it, didn’t I? That’s why I felt so dizzy.”
“Why did you hide?” Iwaizumi asked gently. “After all this time, why not say anything?”
“I couldn’t,” Tobio admitted. “Neither of us could.”
“Were you scared?” Oikawa asked. “I know we have a– a certain history, Kageyama, but it’s been years. We’ve all grown, and we would never reject you.”
“You have to,” Tobio said immediately. “You have to reject me, now, before this gets worse.”
“What?” Iwaizumi asked, bewildered. “Why? You sound scared. Who’s– is someone threatening you, Kageyama?”
There it was. Out in the open, now, same as the ink on his skin. But this, at least, wasn’t a secret. It was well known that Tobio’s parents were distant. They had never come to his volleyball games, never attended an awards ceremony or graduation. They didn’t celebrate Tobio’s achievements because to them he was simply doing as expected. Oikawa seemed to realize it, too.
“What did that woman do,” Oikawa hissed, suddenly on his feet. He paced back and forth. “I knew it, I knew I should have gotten you away from her when I could, now look what she’s done–”
Oikawa looked as if he was about to storm out of the gym, but he stopped at the first sniffle Tobio let out. Once the tears began falling it was like he couldn’t stop them. He couldn’t stop the way an overwhelming fondness bloomed in his chest either, stealing his breath. Oikawa was so upset, so angry on his behalf despite the lies.
“Oh, easy, easy sweetheart,” Oikawa dropped back down to the floor. He coaxed Tobio from Iwaizumi’s arms into his own. “That’s it, come here, Kageyama. You’re safe.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Tobio, then.”
“I’ll kill her,” Iwaizumi growled. “I’ll kill them both.”
“No you won’t,” Oikawa said. “Sit down, Hajime. That’s not what he needs right now.”
Tobio sat curled between his soulmates for what felt like forever, keeping his marked arm tucked against his stomach as he tried to remember how to breathe. It was hard without Hinata there. He wondered if he got away, wondered if they found him and where he’d gone. Eventually, the exhaustion won over, and he let himself fall fully into Oikawa, pressing his forehead to his collarbone.
“There you go,” Oikawa breathed. “Easy, Tobio. Just breathe. We’re both here with you. We’re going to figure this out, hm? That’s it, lean on me.”
“She won’t hurt you,” Iwaizumi vowed from behind him. “You hear me? She will never lay a hand on you again.”
“She’s going to send me away,” Tobio whispered. “This was– I made a bargain. A deal. Hinata and I would pretend and– and she would let me stay here and keep playing.”
“She knew you were lying to us?”
Tobio flinched, but Oikawa plowed on. “What’s her problem with us, then, huh? At first I thought maybe it was because we’re all men, but if she knows about Hinata then what is her issue?”
“Poly-bonds are unnatural,” Tobio recited. “They bring shame and misfortune upon the family. People who engage in poly-bonds are freaks, are doomed in the eyes of God. They can not be saved.”
“What a load of bullshit,” Iwaizumi said. “Is that what Hinata’s parents believe, too? Does he also have a poly-bond?”
“It was easier this way,” Tobio said instead of answering. “This way we could stay close. We could– I could still see you guys. I could still play volleyball. And then you graduated and moved away and it didn’t matter any more.”
“You were never going to tell us, then?” Oikawa accused. “You were just going to let us go?”
“We talked about telling you guys,” Tobio admitted. “We would— fantasize, I guess. Talk about what it would be like if we told you guys, if things changed for the better. But we want to keep playing, too, you know? We want to stay here. We want to take Karasuno to Nationals again.”
“And you will,” Iwaizumi promised. “You’ll do all of that, and more. You’ll have us, too.”
“I can’t,” Tobio stressed. “I can’t have both. I’ve already accepted that. Why can’t you?”
That was the truth of the matter. All this time, he and Hinata had pretended that all they had to do was graduate, and then they could either give up for real or fix this. They had acted like things would magically be better once they were out of high school, out from under their parents’ thumbs, but in reality they never would be. Because even if their parents couldn’t send them away, they could still disown them. They could still rip away what little stability either of them had left, and force them to face the rest of their lives alone. Deep down, he knew neither of them would have ever taken that risk.
“Because it’s absurd,” Oikawa spat. “It’s against everything soulmates are about. It’s abusive and it’s wrong, Tobio. It’s just wrong.”
Tobio could only cry more at that, leaning further against Oikawa. “I know that. You think I don’t know that? This is all I can do. This is all I can ever have. It’s okay—“
“It’s not,” Iwaizumi cut him off. “It’s not okay. I won’t accept it.”
What a sight they must make, Tobio thought, collapsed on the gym floor, arguing in hushed voices. No one had returned, yet, and suddenly Tobio had to know if Hinata had been found. He scrambled for his phone, huffing when he couldn’t find it. Oikawa was startled by his sudden movements.
“Woah, easy,” he said, sounding for all the world like he was placating a spooked animal. Maybe he felt like he was. “What’s wrong, Tobio?”
“Have they found Hinata?” Tobio asked. “Is he okay? He didn’t go home, did he?”
“I’ll call Daichi,” Iwaizumi soothed, always the problem solver. “You just rest right here, okay? Take it easy for a little longer. We’ll get him back to you.”
“You don’t have to hide, you know,” Oikawa murmured as Iwaizumi rose to make good on his promise. “I won’t touch it without your permission.”
And oh. Right. Tobio was still curled around his soulmark, hunched over uncomfortably to cover it. His torn armband lay on the floor a few feet away, but his other one was still intact. He switched it arms, then leaned back a little. Oikawa let him.
“They found him,” Iwaizumi called from a few meters away. “He’s with Suga. Want him here?”
Tobio hesitated. He’d just made up with them. What if he upset them by wanting Hinata and not them? Would they take it as rejection? Oikawa huffed, impatient. “We won’t be upset, Tobio. Don’t worry about us. What do you want?”
“I want him here,” Tobio said immediately. “Please.”
“Then he’ll be here,” Iwaizumi said, and turned back to tell Daichi as much.
Hinata came in like flowers emerging after a storm, as sudden and blinding as the sun against water-soaked pavement. It was like Tobio’s vision cleared, like he could breathe again. He didn’t move from Oikawa’s arms, letting Hinata plow into them both.
“It’s okay, Sho,” Tobio said immediately, pulling him as close as he could. “We’re gonna figure this out, shh, don’t cry.”
Hinata cried anyway, tucked in his best friend’s arms. Tobio coaxed him through it, and Oikawa held them both up, stopping them from tumbling back, until Hinata could speak coherently through his tears.
“I was scared,” he whispered into Tobio’s shoulder. “I am scared. I want to stay.”
“I know, I know,” Tobio soothed. “We’re staying. We can— we can hide it. We don’t have to tell them.”
“They’ll find out,” Hinata cried. “You know they will. Then what?”
“Then you let your friends do their jobs,” Daichi, who had arrived with Hinata and Suga, cut in. “You let us, and your soulmates, protect you.”
Tobio was scared, too. He was scared of this hope, this bird that fluttered in his chest. He was scared for Hinata, that his soulmates wouldn’t be as accepting as his were. He was scared that his friends would get hurt, or that he would be sent away anyway and this would all be for nothing.
But he was also, for once, brave. Maybe it was Hinata staring up at him with stars in his eyes, or maybe it was the way Oikawa stayed at his back, or the way Iwaizumi and Daichi and Suga were already talking about a plan. Maybe it was the way that stars were starting to peak out in the sky. Maybe it was the way the sun’s rays shone through the gym windows and lit everything he’d ever held dear in gold.
Maybe it was just him, and this little bird in his chest, that was brave.
Whatever it was, it bolstered his hope into a thing of boundless, frightening quality. Before he knew it he was nodding, pressing his face into Hinata’s hair.
“Okay,” he said, quiet at first and then louder. “Okay. We can do this. But we have to— I need to know that Hinata’s soulmates won’t reject him.”
I can’t leave him alone, they all heard without him saying. Suga nodded.
“I have at least one phone number from every team,” he said. “Who am I calling?”
Hinata turned his wide eyes on Tobio, a silent question hung between them. Could they do this? Were they? How would they react?
But this can’t have all been for nothing. They had hid all their lives. They had let this slip away, let their soulmates graduate and leave without saying a word. This was one last chance, their final moment to set things right and take something for themselves. Tobio nodded to him, too, leaning close to whisper to him. “It’s okay, Hinata. They didn’t put all this effort in just to turn you away now. We have to try.”
“Shiratorizawa,” Hinata said, turning to look at Suga. “It’s… it’s Ushijima and Tendou. They’re my soulmates.”
Hinata hid then, overwhelmed from finally saying it out loud. It was quiet for a moment, but then Oikawa started to laugh.
Iwaizumi smacked him over the head, but he didn’t stop. “Oh man, your parents are screwed,” he wheezed. “They won’t make it out alive if they try to fight this.”
“Excuse me?” Hinata squeaked, alarmed.
“I may not like the guy, but even I can see how protective he is,” Oikawa managed. “Tendou, too. They’re scary when they’re angry.”
“Who says they’ll be angry?” Hinata tried. “We don’t even know if they’ll accept me or not.”
“Oh, they will,” Oikawa snickered. “And they are never letting you go.”
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
Ushijima and Tendou, just as Oikawa predicted, were furious in a way Tobio had never seen them. He had seen them angry at each other, and he had seen them angry at themselves. He had seen them angry at the world, standing defeated on a court that was supposed to send them to Nationals. He had never seen them like this.
He could see how Hinata was drawn to them. For the first time he got to witness what his grandfather had been talking about from an outside perspective, and it made him understand all the more. Some people thought it was unnatural that trusting your soulmates was an instinct that superseded those of self-preservation. There were people that pushed that soulmate marks should be documented, and that soulmates shouldn’t be allowed to meet until they were out of university. There were people that called it a government scheme that meant to test the bounds of human trust and sentiment. All Tobio could see was beauty in the way that Hinata let them comfort him so easily, like they were an inevitability. Maybe they were.
Ushijima had Hinata tucked into his side on a bench as Tendou stalked back and forth across the room. He’d always thought it was stupid to compare high school athletes to their mascots, but Tendou had never seemed more like a bird of prey. He’d demanded an address at first, and then a phone number, and then eventually settled for silently fuming while they figured out a plan.
“We have to wait until after graduation,” Tobio had demanded. “The consequences… lessen, once we’re able to leave. They can’t send us away if we’re no longer under their care.”
“That’s too long,” Oikawa argued. “I want you out of there now. Both of you.”
“But Tobio’s right,” Hinata said. “We can’t do anything before graduation. This has to stay between us.”
“And if they find out before then anyways? Then what?”
“Then we’ll deal with it,” Suga cut in. “But they’re right, Oikawa. We have to bide our time.”
“Or I could just kill them now,” Tendou muttered, though everyone could hear him. “I think that’s the easiest way out.”
“Not if it ends with you in jail,” Ushijima deadpanned. “Enough, Satori. No one is dying.”
“They could, though.”
No one graced him with a response, instead moving on to actual brainstorming. It was decided then that, the night of their graduation, their soulmates would go home with them, confront their parents, then help them get their stuff and get out. Tobio would move to Tokyo with Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Hinata would leave most of his things with Ushijima and, if his plans played out correctly, leave for Brazil by the end of the summer.
It was difficult for Tobio to picture Hinata in another country, but it wasn’t hard to picture him happy there, either. Tobio wasn’t selfish enough to keep him in any way. If he could let him go to be with his soulmates, then he could let him go to his future, too.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
Tobio had never been scared of his parents. Despite all of the fighting, all the harsh words, he knew they would never truly harm him. Whether that boundary came from a place of love or simply a place of necessity, Tobio was unsure, but it didn’t matter. He had never seen his parents raise a hand to someone like they had his soulmates.
They tried to keep their composure at first. His mother, especially, did what she did best and put up a front.
“Oh, Tobio,” she said, stepping forward as if to comfort him. “Where did you get such a silly idea? I’m your mother, Tobio. I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“Don’t do that,” Tobio managed. “Don’t act like I’m crazy. I’m not.”
“Well now you’re just being dramatic,” she scoffed. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I would never do something like try to keep you from your soulmates.”
Tobio saw on his father’s face that he wanted to interject, maybe even stand up for Tobio, but he was silent. He worried for a moment that his soulmates would believe her, that Oikawa and Iwaizumi would agree with her, call him crazy and leave. But they didn’t.
“I’ve had about enough of your lies,” Oikawa hissed. “You were horrible in junior high and you’re horrible now. That’s enough.”
“You’re sick,” his mother spat, finally losing her temper and trying to jump Oikawa. It would have been comical, watching his mother try to attack a professional volleyball player, if he wasn’t his soulmate. “You’ve infected my son. You can’t have him.”
It was like something shifted. Time stopped. Tobio stared at his mother’s red face, at his father’s irate expression, and he knew he could never come back from this. He had hoped, at first, for some kind of understanding. He’d hoped they would be uncomfortable, at first, but eventually come around to the idea. That could never happen.
“You’re the sick one,” Oikawa said, easily catching her flying hands. “You’ve poisoned him all his life. You made him feel guilty over something he couldn’t control. You treated him like a commodity, like he was just something there to make you look good. You don’t get that anymore.”
“You’ll regret this!” She cried, turning her emotions on Tobio. “You’ll see that we were right, and you’ll come crawling back but guess what? Some sinners don’t get salvation. You will not be welcomed back.”
“He is never coming back here,” Iwaizumi said. He planted himself between Tobio and his mother like a shield, crossing his arms. “You had your chance with him.”
Tobio managed to keep his composure until they crossed the threshold into Oikawa’s parents’ house. With an arm band over his soulmark he let his soulmates pull him in, soothing the fear that threatened to swallow him. They just held him there in the entryway, and Tobio felt, for the first time, that he’d finally gone home.
He heard later from Hinata that his had been worse. Tendou had almost made good on his offer of manslaughter when Hinata’s parents had tried to drag him away. Ushijima had to physically hold him back, and then eventually kick him out entirely when he wouldn’t settle down. It had been scary, Hinata had said, but they laughed about it like it had happened years and not minutes ago. They talked for hours; about volleyball, future teams, university options; about soulmates and soulmarks and shit parents. They talked until Hinata fell asleep on the line and then Tobio kept talking, speaking his worries to himself and the night sky until he, too, was asleep.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
A week later, Hinata sent a picture of himself with daisies in his hair.
.❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。
Once the dust settled, after Tobio moved out to Tokyo with his two soulmates, he finally felt safe enough to fulfill their bond. He’d been worried at first that this was all just a fluke, that Oikawa and Iwaizumi Tooru and Hajime would tire of him and send him crawling back to his parents, begging for forgiveness that they would never give him.
But they didn’t, and then he was moving into their apartment and wearing their clothes and he didn’t feel that way anymore. He went to bed one night without his arm band, crawled his way between his two soulmates and let their skin brush against his.
He waited for the pain he felt the first time, for the pressure to push at his temples, but it never came. Instead, it felt like fire. It felt like he’d finally stepped too close to the flames. For a moment Tobio thought of Hinata’s sun-bright smile, and he regretted it. But then the heat died down, leaving only the feeling of the ink shifting on his skin. Tooru held him around the shoulders and Hajime held his waist, and they watched as flowers, white and dainty, bloomed along the vines on his arm.
They were daisies. ❀