A/N: I have returned! It really took me a long time to update, but here I am. I've been kind of rusty ever since the new years, which is why the updates are being very slow. I hope that I can recover fast and continue my stories. Enjoy the chapter!

Orange

The sky takes on shades of orange during sunrise and sunset, the colour that gives you hope that the sun will set only to rise again.
Ram Charan

Hinata Shouyou moaned in pain the moment he woke up, and squinted his eyes. It took a moment for his vision to stabilize and he realized that he was in an unfamiliar room, laying on a bed. An IV was injected to his arm and his side hurt like hell. He peeked beneath his patient shirt and realized that the wound had been stitched.

Realizing he was alright, calmed Shouyou's nerves, and he let out a sigh of relief.

A sudden drowsy mumble from his side tightened his muscles as he realized he was not alone in the room. The sudden startle awakened the pain in his body, as if to remind him of that horrible experience. His one eye closed, as he tried to withstand the pain, Shouyou looked at the bed side. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of a drowsy raven-head sitting beside his bed, his eyes closed and bending slightly forward. What was he doing there?

Why was Kageyama Tobio on the bedside? On his bedside?

It was a fact that Tobio had been present when he had collapsed. Of course, he was! He was the reason Shouyou had dared to go up against those third years in the first place. But that didn't give Tobio any onus to stay behind and wait for him to regain his consciousness. Heck, even Koushi wasn't there.

"I've tried to put some sense into him, but he hasn't been willing to leave your side since you were admitted here." Shouyou's muscles tensed the moment he heard a voice that didn't belong to Tobio, speak. How could it be possible that there was even another person whose presence he had missed?

The first year turned and saw a person standing near the window. It was Tooru, the older one of the Oikawa siblings. The excitement Shouyou had felt seconds ago disappeared in a flash. Of course, Tobio and Tooru were doing it all out of duty. It was because of them than he had been stabbed, so it was only natural for them stay behind and make sure he was alright.

There were no special feelings held.

Before Shouyou could dwell deeper into his depression, Tobio let out a loud sigh and wiped his sleepy eyes. He glanced around himself, as if trying to recall where he was, but the moment he saw Shouyou, awake and sitting, he perked up.

"Hinata!? Is everything alright?" His voice had a mixture of worry and blissfulness. It wasn't clear if he did it unconsciously, but Tobio grabbed hold of Shouyou's hand. The latter one blushed as a reaction and quickly averted his eyes.

"I'm fine." He answered shortly, being unable to face Tobio. His eyes moved anxiously, as if he wasn't able to decide where to look at. This was when he suddenly realized something weird. Shouyou stopped for a moment, completely forgetting that Tobio was still holding onto his hand.

He locked a strand of his bangs between his fingers and pulled it. Shouyou kept staring at the novel color. It was radiating and attention catching, but at the same time it held an amount of intensity in it, not as much as red, though.

"What is it?" Tobio questioned concerned, and even Tooru turned to Shouyou, confused about his sudden weird behavior.

Shouyou couldn't get his eyes off his hair. "The color…" His sentence was left hanging in the midair.

"You mean your hair? Is it your first time seeing it? It sure is an eye-catching color, isn't it? Orange, I mean." Tobio spoke excitedly, seemingly cheered up by the fact that Shouyou was being so lively. He patiently waited for the orange-bush to answer him, but Shouyou's eyes were fixated on his hair.

So it was orange. Circle inside square. The mixture of yellow and red.

"Just like sunflowers." Tooru remarked, catching Shouyou's attention. The orange-bush glanced at his senior, who only smiled widely. Tobio seemed angry that his brother was bugging into his conversation with the smaller guy.

"Idiot, sunflowers are yellow." Tobio argued back, what seemed to please Tooru. Shouyou only glanced back and forth between Tobio and Tooru as the brothers kept on arguing about the different colors of the flowers. He was amazed at how much knowledge Tobio had on them, as he corrected Tooru every time.

The brothers got interrupted when a nurse entered the room, informing that the visiting hours were over and they needed to examine the patient. Tobio seemed reluctant to leave, but in the end was showed from his chair by the nurse.

He glanced at Shouyou, and hesitated for a moment. "I'll come to visit you tomorrow. Every day. If that's okay with you." He spoke, shooting nervous glances at the floor. The raven seemed to get impatient as he waited for Shouyou's answer.

"Sure," His heart skipped a beat. He looked up. "I'd like it. I want it." Shouyou corrected himself, implying that he was more than willing to have Tobio visit him every day till he got released from hospital.

"Well then, see you tomorrow, Shrimp!" Tooru interrupted Tobio before he could say anything more. He then started pushing his younger brother out of the hospital ward, leaving confused Shouyou together with the nurse.

"What was that about?" Tobio asked the moment they were outside the room.

Tooru's eyes narrowed and he wore an expression Tobio had never seen. He wasn't sure how to read it. "I already told you that he's mine." The older sibling spoke in low, serious tone, that left spines go through Tobio's back.

"Come on, what do you mean by that!?" Tobio questioned the moment he recovered, but Oikawa was already back to his usual self; smiling widely while sticking out his tongue with his one eye closed. Tobio never got answer to his question, but ended up following Tooru.

Koushi came to visit him the next day.

And he did not come alone.

Shouyou was genuinely surprised, when he saw his younger sister entering the room after the gray-head. She was holding onto his hand. It wasn't exactly uncommon for them to be together, but it made more sense to Shouyou that Natsu would've come together with his parents. Why exactly was she with Koushi?

The other thing that surprised Shouyou, was the bright colored bush he spotted on top Natsu's head.

"Yo- yo-" He stuttered, only to receive confused glances from Koushi and Natsu.

"Yo-yo?" Shouyou's younger sister questioned, wondering why her brother had suddenly gotten interested in the toy. If she recalled right, he hadn't touched any toys ever since taking up volleyball.

"Your hair…" Shouyou finally managed to mumble, "It's the same color as mine…"

Natsu looked at her bangs with a proud smile. "Ah, you mean the orange… Yes! It's a very beautiful color, I like it very much… too bad that mom's hair brow…n," the girl stopped the moment she realized her mistake. Natsu's eyes widened in shock and her hold of Koushi's arm tightened.

Heavy silence filled the room.

It wasn't like Natsu to talk about colors, they knew it. Because of the colorblindness of the rest of her family, she had shut herself from mentioning colors all together – especially around her older brother. It wasn't certain what had triggered her sudden carelessness; was it the happiness of realizing her brother indeed saw colors, or was it the relief she felt after seeing her brother alive – but that split-second mistake was fatal.

That one slip made all the hard work banish into thin air.

He knew.

The secret she's been keeping from her brother, he knew it.

"Natsu you…" Shouyou whispered as he stared at his younger sister with glazed eyes. Unable to face her brother anymore, Natsu averted her glance and slowly hid behind Koushi.

"It's not her fault, I…" the gray-head hurried to explain, but stopped the moment Shouyou's deeming eyes locked on him. He lowered his eyes and tried to come up with something to say, but failing to do so. In the end, he held his head low, unable to face his best friend.

Shouyou's whole body was stiff as his brain tried to pick up and process all the information he was receiving. The way Koushi and Natsu came together, while holding hands. The way they had always been acting so friendly, sometimes even spending time together – just the two of them. He had always thought it was only natural because Koushi was his best friend, but now he started to wonder if one would really have such relationship with best friend's younger sister.

And finally, the fact that Natsu had orange hair, just like Koushi's soulmate.

As all the puzzles had found their place, Shouyou took a deep breath and lowered his glance. Gripping on the blanket, he whispered from between his teeth.

"Leave."

Koushi looked panicked and approached Shouyou. "Shouyou let me ex-"

"GET OUT!"

It was an order – cold and indifferent; something Koushi had never heard from Shouyou's, who could literally put the sun to shame, mouth. Tears rolling down Natsu's eyes, she held onto Koushi's hand as they exited the ward.

Once let in the ward alone, Shouyou Hinata's face darkened.

He did not feel like eating.

Shouyou Hinata stared at the food before him with listless expression. He had no appetite whatsoever; his mind was a mess. Just remembering what had happened, made Shouyou feel like throwing up. The boy put his spoon on the table, next to the plate.

He seriously couldn't believe it. All this time Shouyou had trusted his younger sister to Koushi, they had been working behind his back and tricked him to believe they just had close relationship. When in reality, they were soulmates.

They must've had lots of fun fooling Shouyou because of his ignorant attitude toward soulmates. They had been laughing behind his back and while he had always known that Koushi had a soulmate, the boy never bothered to tell who it was. Shouyou finally understood why it was like that.

Koushi did not want him to know.

He did not think of Shouyou as a good friend, he did not believe Shouyou would take him seriously if he was to tell it. Koushi did not trust Shouyou with this secret of his, which meant he did not see him as a best friend. For all these years, Koushi had him completely fooled.

For all these years, Shouyou was nothing more than trash to him.

Hinata Shouyou lost it.

Meanwhile, Oikawa Tobio looked slightly discouraged. It was true that Shouyou had accepted his request to visit him every day, but this was already the second time that day. For some reason his creepy older brother was persistently following him everywhere and it had taken all Tobio's energy to shake off Tooru.

Even though they had visited Shouyou already, he decided to come again. Because he wanted to see Shouyou. Again. Alone.

Tobio was moving anxiously, with maddening expression on his face, the whole way till Shouyou's ward. He stood before the door for a while, wandering whether he should go in. He gulped loudly and took hold of the door knob.

The moment Oikawa Tobio entered the ward, all the restlessness and doubt he had had, disappeared in a flash.

His body must've moved on its own, because he remembered his mind blanking out at the sight, and before he knew it he was already dashing forward. He had no idea what was the right thing to do in such situation, what was the thing he was supposed to do, but he was sure of one thing.

He needed to stop Shouyou.

It was a horrible mess. Hinata Shouyou was rampaging in his ward, throwing everything he got hold off. He had teared off his IV lines and his side had reddened, suggesting that the wound had opened. The boy had lost control over his body.

Tobio rushed toward the other boy, grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him into tight embrace. He knew it wasn't a proper way to hold a patient, but he couldn't think of a better way to restrain his friend while waiting for the nurses to come.

Shouyou wasn't going to back down without resistance. He tried push himself away from Tobio. Once he understood it was futile, he started hitting the taller boy and even aimed to bite his arms. Tobio had to use all his power to keep Shouyou in his hold.

"LET GO OF ME, FUCKING SHIT HEAD!" The smaller boy cried, while trying to escape from the hold. He used words Tobio had never expect to hear escape from his lips. Where had he (aka. the innocent sunshine) learned such vulgar language?

"LET GO!"

"LET GO!" He continued in hopes of an escape.

Tobio's arms had locked around Shouyou and he pulled him closer so that Shouyou's face was buried against his chest.

"LET GO!"

"Let Go!"

"Let.. go…"

"..et… g…"

Shouyou's resistance was breaking and his hits stopped. His tensed-up body loosened and now instead, he grabbed hold of Tobio's shirt. The moment the raven felt something trembling against him, he looked down. It was a bad idea, and after a few blinks he sighed loudly.

Now this wasn't a good thing.

Having calmed down and resting against Tobio, Hinata Shouyou cried.