Chapter Text
The sweet moment they were all having was fractured by the shout of an unfamiliar voice, angry and aimed at the huddled boys, cold in their flimsy sports kits.
“WHO DARES TRESPASS ON THE GROUNDS OF BASGIATH WAR COLLEGE, HOME OF THE DRAGON RIDERS. SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE AIMSIR TURNS YOU TO A PATHETIC PILE OF ASH.”
Out of the shadows behind them, through a hidden door they hadn’t seen before, a tall, muscular woman approached. She looked about fifty, with dark brown, greying hair cut close to her scalp and fierce eyes which held all the ferocity of a thunderstorm. Her face was a myriad of harsh lines and set in a permanent scowl as she approached them, flanked by two men, their faces shrouded in darkness, dressed head to toe in black leather and sprinkled with daggers. Kageyama stepped protectively in front of Hinata and Daichi did the same with Suga, stepping forward as the leader to address this terrifying woman who now stood, weapons drawn, staring him down.
“Ma’am I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to intrude, we don’t know how we got here and-”
“Don’t worry General, they’re with me.”
Like a gift from God, Tsukishima stepped out in front of who they now knew was the general, flashing her a grin, an expression which so rarely crossed his sulky face.
“Ah, my apologies your Highness,” muttered the general, sheathing her sword and stepping away from the gaggle of boys who audibly breathed a sigh of relief. Then it clocked to them what she addressed Tsukishima as.
" Yo, bro since when did you become a Highness?” Scoffed Tanaka, pushing his way to the front of the group to look the beautiful blonde in the eyes,bemused and thoroughly confused by the interaction which had just passed before him.
Tsukishima simply shot him.
No, not with a gun, don’t worry, but with a stare so brutal it may as well have been a bullet, before turning back to the older woman before him, who had been watching them suspiciously.
“General Sorrengail, would it be okay if my friends and I stayed in the college for a while while the issue of them returning home is sorted out. If that’s alright with you.”
General Sorrengail was far from impressed. In fact, she was more suspicious than ever about the Prince who had mysteriously crossed the parapet in the dead of night, and was now trying to discuss his accommodation in the most feared establishment in all of Navarre. The nerve. The disrespect. However, he clearly looked like royalty, this strange song with a great beat played when he talked, and he spoke like he was from a different continent. Japan in Asia, he said. The professors would be fascinated by this new place they had never heard of, so much of their world was undiscovered, this was an opportunity they couldn’t miss. However, only he had crossed the parapet. The others hadn’t proved themselves yet, and lucky for them, it was two in the morning, technically conscription day. Lilith Sorrengail smirked, she had made a decision.
“You can all stay in Basgiath, you can even study here officially, if, you cross the parapet.”
“I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Today is the day we die. I’m going to die today. I’m actually going to die.” Hinata muttered this new mantra under his breath as the volleyball team lined up in front of the ledge, the black, bottomless pit calling out to them.
“Hey, hey, hey, Shouyou, Shouyou, hey, look at me.” Kageyama tilted Hinata’s face towards his own and stepped closer to him, blocking out the world around them, and brushing a stray orange hair away from his face in a gentle caress. Hinata looked up, startled by such soft words coming from Kageyama’s mouth, and by the use of his given name - that had never happened before.
“Shouyou, it’s going to be okay. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I swear it.”
Hinata nodded slowly, lost in Kagayama’s eyes, forgetting for a second that he was probably going to die. Thankfully, he remembered this vital piece of information when Kageyama stepped away, arms outstretched, onto the bridge, leaving him face to face with the parapet and the deadly wind, his fingers twitching, and his arms still in the position of an embrace, missing Kageyama’s warmth.
Hinata knew that this was his only option, that there was nowhere else they could go, but he didn’t want to die. He really didn’t want to die today. He watched as before him, his friends all began to walk across the parapet, feeling his heart ache whenever they wobbled slightly, watching rocks tumble down into the abyss. General Sorrengail cleared her throat, his signal to take his place on the ledge of death, but he couldn’t. His feet were frozen in place, panic taking control of his mind, Hinata began to fall into a downward spiral of detrimental thoughts. What if he- What if they- What if Kageyama- Oh God what if-
General Sorrengail impatiently cleared her throat again leveling him a cool stare and breaking him out of his trance. Taking one deep breath in, Hinata stretched his arms out into a t pose like George Russell, and stepped out onto the parapet, keeping his eyes locked onto Kageyama’s head ahead of him.
“You’ve got this,” he whispered to himself.
“Catch up with Kageyama and prove… prove that you’re better, that you’re not the dumbass he thinks you are. You’ve got this!”
The wind attacked him from all angles as he pushed onward, rocks crumbling off the ledge with every step, and falling, falling, falling, deep into the nothingness below him. Hinata kept pushing forward, the last of the team to venture out, he watched as his friends all made it safely to the other side. Gritting his teeth, he resolved to join them, he would not die today. He walked like a newborn child, swaying with every step, his footing uneven in his flimsy trainers, curling his toes in his shoes in search of any sort of grip. The cold battered his face and sprung tears to his eyes as he stumbled across, whispering his mantra to calm him down.
" I will not die today. I will not die today. I will not die today.”
It all happened so quickly then. He could have never seen it coming. Like a gift sent from Beelzebub himself, gale force wind came tearing through the blackened sky and knocked into him, pushing him off balance and sending him face down onto the rough stone. His fingers scraped for any sort of hold as the wind continued to beat him about, pulling him further and further away from the parapet. A bloodcurdling cry, hoarse and desperate,tore itself from his throat as he was sent dangling precariously from the edge of the bridge in one fell swoop. Thunder began to rumble all around like a warning. His lungs burned and muscles screamed in agony as he tried to pull himself back up, scrambling terrified to hold onto any piece of stone.
“SHOUYOU,NO!” Screamed Kageyama, his distraught voice carried viciously across the bridge to Hinata, whose eyes, wide with terror flashed to Kageyama’s. He was crying. Kageyama was crying. And with surprise, Hinata noted that he was crying too. Desperately, Kageyama was trying to run across the bridge to Hinata, tears blinding him as he thrashed against Dachi’s arms, keeping him on the other side. He kept screaming Hinata’s name, his voice scratchy with fear, frantically fighting against the muscular arms that restrained him. Hinata tried to pull himself up again, he kept trying, he had to try, he had to survive. But the wind was too strong, his arms too weak and he was too tired. And so, as a flash of lighting fractured the sky, Hinata was pulled away from the parapet and down into the darkness below, his final scream reciprocated by Kageyama, who fell to the earth and cried out in pain as his first love tumbled into death’s cold embrace.