Chapter Text
Finally the sharp pangs of pain became too much, and he opened his eyes. Hinata at first assumed he was in his bed, but when his gaze landed on the bars surrounding him, his brain fell into a panic. He tried to raise his head, but there were two sharp pains in the sides of his neck, almost needle-like, that stopped him.
“Ah!” He hissed, reaching up to touch his neck. Cold metal met his fingertips, leaving him bewildered.
“W-What…?” He whispered, feeling around for a way to get the collar off. There was a metal bolt in the back that kept the restraint together, and two screws on the sides, probably the source of the small needles burrowed into his skin.
“What’s going on, where am I? What happened? K-Kageyama?” Hinata called out, head twisting in search of anything visible. But it was dark, and the bars of the cages were darker, allowing him to see them only. He forced himself to sit up, coughing into his coat sleeve and rubbing his hands together in attempt to get warm. It wasn’t very cold, but he was freezing and his body was sore. Beside him he could see bars, and across from him he could see even more. Just where was he?
He shivered and tried to peer through the bars, catching sight of a small red dot in the upper corner. He knew he felt eyes on him, and he didn’t like it, not at all. Sliding backwards, he curled up in the corner of the cage and hugged his knees.
The last thing he remembered was leaving a late practice with his friends—that meant that Kageyama, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima might be here too—and they were getting ready to split up when they saw headlights, and then there was a sharp pain in his chest, and everything was starting to go dark. Tsukishima had gone down at the same time, and there had been a dart of some kind in his chest. The teen was glad he could recall at least this much, because the rest of it was a complete blur.
‘Hinata, snap out of it!’ The fuzzy voice of Kageyama said in his mind, and he remembered hearing that before going unconscious.
He wondered where he was. Maybe he ran away with Yamaguchi, or maybe he was… No, Hinata didn’t want to think that. He didn’t want to think that whoever took him…hurt Kageyama permanently. The fear had long settled in, and he began to cry softly, hopelessly wiping at his teary eyes. He was terrified. He was cold, and lonely, and exhausted, and he didn't know what to do.
“…Hinata? Is that you…?” A voice whispered from his right.
The red head gasped and crawled toward that side of his cage.
“K-Kageyama, y-you’re here too?”
“Of course I’m here. Those bastards wouldn’t let us go anyway.” Kageyama retorted, grunting when he seemed to move closer to where Hinata was.
“Do you know where we are?” The shorter asked.
“Like I know. Ow…shit. My head’s killing me. What the hell is this around my neck?”
“I think they’re collars.”
The sudden yet familiar voice of Tsukishima filled their heads.
“They are collars. What else are they supposed to be?”
Hinata jumped when he heard his sarcastic tone across from him on the other side of the pathway between them. He couldn’t deny that he was a little glad to hear his voice. He wasn’t dead, and that was something. Kageyama though, groaned.
“Of course you’re here.”
Tsukishima grunted. “Believe me, I’d rather be anywhere else, but does it look like we have a choice? We don’t even know where the hell we are, so how about we focus on that?” He snapped, and Hinata made a mental note not to piss him off.
“Tch. Whatever.”
Hinata sighed, leaning back against the cold bars of his cage. At least the two of them were here. “Tsukishima, is Yamaguchi over there?” He asked.
“Asleep.” The blonde sighed.
In Tsukishima's own cage, he laid on his side facing them, hand over one of his ears to try and muffle even their quiet volumes. The collar on his neck pressed uncomfortably tight against his throat, but the pain of the needles wasn’t anything compared to his headache. He couldn’t see a single thing, for his glasses, along with his backpack and headphones, were nowhere to be seen.
Yamaguchi was indeed beside him, laid sprawled on his side, as if thrown in carelessly. A worry coiled deep around the pit of his stomach as he realized Yamaguchi hadn’t moved since he woke, and that was before Hinata had. But seeing as he was too exhausted and heavy to move himself, he would have to deal with it.
“Do you think anyone else is here?” Hinata whispered, holding onto himself.
“Who knows. We’ve been in here for hours, I'm sure of that much.” Tsukishima replied, eyes sliding closed as he curled in on himself. A distant squeak made them open again, and the three waited as the squeaks grew more frequent. Then there was a jingling noise, and Tsukishima’s stomach began to turn as he sat up.
Hinata whimpered. “G-Guys?”
“Shh.” He silenced.
There was click, and now he was certain that it was a door. There was a short buzz before bright lights shot on from above, making him hiss and cover his eyes.
“Rise and shine, beauties. We’ve got a big day today.” A female voice said in a chillingly cheerful tone. Footsteps filled the room, and still shielding his eyes with his hand, he squinted to see the blurry figures entering the pathway.
“W-What’s going on? Where are we?” Asked Hinata, crawling farther back into his cage. The woman stood in front of it with a grin on her face.
“Well, sweetheart, you’re in your new home! And right about now, it’s time we start with the mandatory procedures.” She then clapped her hands, and four very large men entered the walkway as well. Through the bars Hinata could see that it wasn’t a very big room, enough for around six rows of 10 cages, five on the bottoms, five on the tops.
His eyes flit over to Kageyama, who had backed up as well, then to Tsukishima, who was squinting harder than he’d ever seen someone squint before. He could see Yamaguchi too, stiff in the cage beside Tsukishima. He gasped when the scarily animalistic face of one of the large men appeared in front of the bars.
“Yeesh, get a look at that hair. Real color?” He asked to the woman, who looked at Hinata.
“That’s what the file says. Let’s hurry it up, shall we? I don't want to be in here all day.”
The man grunted and gripped the bars, and lifted the cage with ease, before tossing it onto the cart, causing Hinata’s head to smack against one of the bars so hard he thought he cracked his skull. “Agh!” He hissed, bringing his hand up to rub the back of his head.
“Hey, careful! They’re still fragile, you idiot!” The woman scolded, kneeling beside Hinata’s cage.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, we’ll make sure there’s no bruise.” Hinata could feel tears build up in his eyes again, and he turned away from her. Kageyama growled and kicked at the man’s fingers when he grabbed the bars of his cage, which ended in him getting tossed onto the cart too. Then Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi was to be last.
The freckled boy shifted when the lady knocked her clipboard on the bars, and when he looked up, he gasped and crawled backwards. “Ts-Tsukki!” He cried out.
“Calm down, I’m right here!” Tsukishima called back. In a moment, Yamaguchi was stacked on top of Kageyama’s cage.
“Perfect! Now let’s head to the cleansing room!” No one liked the sound of that.
Later...
It had been exactly what it sounded like. One by one, they were forced to strip and step into a contained square room, where they were thoroughly sprayed with a cold disinfectant out of a brutally forceful hose. After, they were given white short sleeves and pants that were just slightly bigger than their respective sizes. Now, anxious and freezing, they awaited the arrival of a man who would supposedly inform them of everything that was going on. Of course, none of them favored that, and would have rather been taken home instead.
It was a small room, one of white tile, with walls of white, and one of those large mirrors on the wall left of the door. Yamaguchi, who remained curled up in the corner beside Tsukishima—who came and sat with him a while ago—couldn’t take his eyes off of it. He didn’t know how he knew, but there was definitely someone staring back, multiple people staring back. His empty stomach turned, and he wasn’t hungry anymore. He was too focused on the glass; perhaps he knew because of the movies he’d seen, or maybe because he could feel their anxious stares.
“Staring at it isn’t going to make it go away.” He side glanced at Tsukishima, who leaned on the wall, eyes closed.
“How do you know I was… Never mind. I think someone’s watching us, Tsukki.” The blonde nodded, and that just made him feel worse. But he knew he was right, so he averted his gaze to Hinata, was sat underneath the glass so he couldn’t be seen—which was a good idea, only Yamaguchi was too afraid to move at all.
The ginger’s fingers were curled into his hair, pulling and letting go, and pulling and letting go, in a constant pattern that almost made Yamaguchi's spine tingle for…some reason.
"Okay, I got it. Maybe they’re actually nice people who somehow knew we were super sweaty from practice, picked us up to give us showers, and now our parents are coming to pick us up?” Hinata guessed, looking up at the others. However, receiving irritated looks from both Kageyama and Tsukishima made him sigh. “If only…” He muttered, and sighed, letting his body sink down to the floor.
The collar wasn’t cold anymore, and the neck stinging went away a while ago, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still foreign and uncomfortable.
“What do you think the collars are for? And the numbers on them, what do you think they mean? Hey Kageyama, what are my numbers?” He asked, and Kageyama, who sat on the wall opposite the door(to Hinata’s left and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi’s right) and had his face buried in his knees, didn’t respond.
Hinata huffed and stood up to face the mirror, before he banged his fist on it. “Hey! Let us out of here! We wanna go home!” He said.
“Idiot, don’t talk to them!” Kageyama hissed, and Hinata let out a long drawn out groan, flopping down again. Just then, there was a beep, and the doorknob twisted.
On instinct, Yamaguchi curled his body closer to Tsukishima, who sat up straight, curling farther into the corner. Hinata crawled toward the corner closest to Kageyama’s wall, and Kageyama didn’t move, only stared. A man walked in, followed by one of those large men from earlier. Another was visible standing on the other side of the door as it closed. The large man blocked the only exit, and the man in the lab coat settled in front of the table.
“Good morning, boys.”
Yamaguchi tried not to tremble, but he wasn’t faring very well when the man’s eyes rolled over all of them so calmly.
“That’s alright. You don’t have to speak for now. My name is Katsumata, and I run the facility we’re in now. Tell me, do you have any memory at all of this room?” His voice was smooth and chillingly calm, and his hair was dark brown and too neat, and his lab coat eerily white.
The teens seemed confused by that question, and he grinned. “Of course not. That also means you don’t know why you’re here. Come, sit. We’ll be chatting for a while before your tests begin.”
Katsumata gestured for them to come to the table, but apprehension got the best of them, and they didn’t move. The man, sitting on one end of the table, sighed and pulled out a small remote with a good five buttons on it, and a dial at the top.
“See, this is why we have these.” He said to the muscled creature blocking the door.
Katsumata fiddled with the dial for a moment, before pressing a button. The teens jumped when they felt a shock buzz through them for a split second, and with eyes wide, they hurried to the seats at the table, Yamaguchi pulling Tsukishima along so the blonde didn't smack his abdomen right into it.
“Wonderful. Now, I’m sure you want an explanation, am I right?” No one replied.
“Well, let’s start with your names.”
“Our…names?” Hinata gulped, hands shaking as he still felt the invasive presence of the shock.
“Yes, your names. You aren't Hinata Shouyo, Yamaguchi Tadashi, or Tsukishima Kei or Kageyama Tobio. You never were, is what I need you to understand.” Katsumata started, nodding to the muscled man, who opened the door. In walked the cheerful woman from earlier with a stack of clipboards.
“In fact, you weren’t even meant to be. See, when you were young, very, very young, a coworker of mine, a friend, even, took it upon himself to take you from under our surveillance and place you with waiting families. Now, that wasn’t our intention. We had you conceived for a reason.”
The woman set the clipboards down and their eyes followed. Hinata didn’t know what to make of it any more than the others did. He thought is sounded bat-shit crazy, to be honest, but he wouldn’t say that.
“What do you mean? Had us conceived?” Tsukishima frowned, still squinting. The blurry figure’s gaze seemed to settle on him, and he didn’t know where else to look. Katsumata’s eyes looked like two dark holes, and it sent chills down his spine.
“I mean, we took four women who didn’t want their children, and we took them off their hands. Have a look.”
Katsumata’s figure reached out toward his face, and on instinct he leaned back, only to stop when he realized that his glasses were being returned to him. Finally he wouldn’t have to squint, which was worsening his headache, and now he was gazing into the eyes of the scientist, who had an unsettling smile on his face.
“I apologize for not giving them back earlier. Now, have a look at your file.” Tsukishima looked down, and there was a manila folder with a white tab. On the tab there were small letters and numbers, just large enough for him to read without getting closer:
SUBJECT W11-1159
On the cover in bold deep red, THE WINGED PROJECT.
He looked back up with furrowed eyebrows.
“The…Winged Project?”