Chapter Text
As shameful as it is to admit, Daichi runs aimlessly for the first few minutes, before he thought better than to run in plain sight, opting to pass through narrow alleys and shadowed pathways, trying to outrun phantom guards and being paranoid at every little movement in the surroundings that he’s sure didn’t come from him. He reaches the forest like this and only when he thinks he’s safely hidden among the tall grass and thick trunks did he allow himself to breathe and reflect on his situation.
He leans back on a tree, catching his breath and wipes an arm across his drenched forehead. It’s still bothering him that he has to run away from an offense he didn’t do. There’s something nagging in his head that there’s something wrong about this, but if Takeda thinks he’s in trouble, then he must really be. But what is he supposed to do then? And is this what the book wanted him to do in the first place? Is this part of his life?
He blinks, gaining a little clarity. The book! Of course. He looks around the dense forestry, trying to find a clear spot where the light of the moon shines through the canopies of leaves. He’s in luck that there’s one nearby and he makes his way there, already taking the satchel off. Just as he’s about to get his book, he hears a noise, hurried footsteps from the sound of it, and worse, it’s getting closer.
Daichi grits his teeth, pushing the book deeper into his satchel and makes another run for it, stepping into the darker parts, his sole goal is to create as much distance as he can from whoever they were. He turns to look behind him to check, but it proved to be a mistake as he bumps into something hard and the collision caused him to fall back on his behind with a loud thump and a pained groan.
One that is similarly echoed by what, or rather who, he crashed into.
Daichi sits up and inches away, squinting his eyes at the person until his eyes adjust in the darkness, noticing the shifting movement and makes out a familiar outline of ridiculously messy hair and an even more familiar person.
“You!” Daichi gasps, doesn’t think twice and throws himself into the person, pushing him further into the ground.
Kuroo groans and looks at him with a glare that slightly eased into annoyance upon recognizing who it is. “We really need to stop meeting in the dark like this, Sawamura.”
Daichi fists the front of his cloak and pulls him up harshly. “This is all your fault!” He says through gritted teeth, glaring a hole into Kuroo’s head.
“If it weren’t for what you said, the guards wouldn’t have misunderstood. Then I would still be back in my bed and you-” Daichi stops abruptly, jolted by the fact that Kuroo is here and not inside his cell. His eyes widen at the realization. “You…YOU ESCAPED?!”
Kuroo basks smugly for a few seconds in Daichi’s moment of incredulity, sending him a small quick smirk, before taking advantage of it and quickly rolls them over, successfully flipping their positions. He nimbly avoids a swinging arm, then grabs it and pins it to the ground above Daichi’s head.
Daichi tries to struggle, but Kuroo’s heavy weight and legs clamping on his sides keeps him down.
“While I’m impressed by your astute display of observation, I really need to be going now, Sawamura.”
“You’re not getting away with this!”
Before someone can get away though, they hear rustling and shouting, more footsteps being carried through the breeze and they both freeze, looking wildly and panicked at each other, no one daring to make a move or any sound.
Kuroo surprises Daichi by soundlessly lying fully down on him, a hand covering his mouth before he can even complain. This close, Daichi can hear Kuroo’s breathing, fanning against his ears, making him shiver from the contact; smell the scent of Kuroo’s cloak, mingling with the damp earth, and even feel his sweat drop into Daichi’s neck, but he doesn’t have time to worry about it, not when he sees light sweep above them and watch with wide eyes and bated breath as it pass over where they are.
Another footstep and Daichi’s sure they’re going to be caught but something rustles yet again on the other side and the guard abandons them to give chase.
It’s only when no sound come close to their way did Daichi release the air he’s holding in a shaky breath, allowing himself to relax for a moment, before remembering their positions. With a strength fueled by indignation and embarrassment, he pushes Kuroo and successfully gets the taller man off of him and scrambles backward to a sitting position.
Kuroo smiles deviously at Daichi. “Well, that was close,” he remarks flippantly, earning a glare from Daichi because the double meaning isn’t lost to him. He stands up and pats the dirt off his cloak and pants.
“If you’re ready, we need to go,” Kuroo thumbs to the direction behind him.
“What makes you think I’m going anywhere with you?”
Kuroo raises his eyebrows at Daichi at the mature display of attitude and shrugs. “Have it your way then. Good luck on navigating the forest and not getting caught!” He gives a mock salute then turns and walks away from Daichi.
Daichi stares at his back, mouth open at the audacity, before feeling a distinct sense of fear that pushed him to call out. “Wait!”
Kuroo stops and languidly turns his head to look back at him.
Biting down on his lips, Daichi exclaims a heartfelt ‘screw it’ inside his head, and quickly stands and hurries to Kuroo, slowing down as he nears and stops a few steps away in front of the outlaw.
“Just so we’re clear,” Daichi says, meeting Kuroo’s eyes seriously, “I’m not coming with you because I want to. I just don’t have a choice.”
Kuroo gives him a meaningful look and scoffs. “Typical Keepers. Spouting words like ‘want’ and ‘choice’, as if you know what it really means; as if you have any idea what it’s like to have one and live by it. Let me tell you now, you’re wrong.”
Daichi frowns at him.
“You always have a choice,” he continues. “Always had the freedom to choose. And right now, you’re choosing to come with me, instead of going back or staying here. You made that decision, so don’t tell me that you don’t have a choice, because right now, you are living it.” Kuroo relaxes and asks, “So tell me, how does freedom feel?”
Daichi squarely meets his eyes. “If this is freedom, then I don’t want it. I don’t want this fear, this wrongness. It doesn’t feel much, when you’re considered a criminal.”
“It’s still better than following a passage from a book and letting it dictate your life.”
It’s Daichi’s turn to scoff, shaking his head. He’s not going to discuss this with Kuroo right now. “Look, let’s just agree to disagree and leave now.”
Kuroo stares at him, seemingly looking for something and Daichi wonders what it is, but he probably finds none because he just shrugs a shoulder and continues to walk, brushing past Daichi’s shoulders and leads them to a place unknown.
-----
“Say,” Kuroo starts, a few long minutes into resting. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but what’s a law-abiding citizen like you doing in the forest and running away from the guards?” Apparently, he can’t not have something to fiddle with, and have picked up a thin branch, pulling it back, repeatedly letting it spring back and forth. He also has the annoying inability to keep silent.
“None of your business.”
“It kind of is, since you were blaming me.” He poorly imitates Daichi’s voice and the way he was seething earlier. “So, what gives?”
Daichi grinds his teeth, an action he seems to be doing a lot around Kuroo to quell the anger but it only did so much. “What gives is that I’m wrongly accused of stealing the Compendiums, just because I visited you to investigate. They took what you said as evidence linking me to the Resistance.”
Kuroo sobers upon hearing that. “Oh.” Daichi’s consolation is that he has the decency to look a little guilty.
“I clearly don’t know anything about it. What was up with that anyway?” Daichi stands from the rock he’s sitting on and walks in front of Kuroo. “Who are they? How were they ‘wrong’ about me?”
Kuroo stops his fiddling and studies Daichi, reads his eyes which is something that is easier now that the sky is lightening as dawn is starting to break. “I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it,” he shakes his head.
Daichi’s face turns incredulous “What?! That’s not fair. You got me into trouble because of it. You owe me the truth for that.”
“And that’s the truth,” Kuroo insists. “Look,” he licks his lips. “This is not the time nor the place to be talking about this. And I personally don’t think you’re ready to know. You’re still close-minded so…not yet.”
Daichi takes little offense at being called close-minded but has a feeling that he cannot make Kuroo talk about it and resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. But he’s not going to give up. He still needs answers. “Fine,” he says with a huff. “Don’t tell me about it. But tell me this, how did you escape?” He pushes an accusing finger on Kuroo’s chest.
Kuroo looks down on it and swipes it away pointedly. “I woke up to a commotion happening in one of the cells, too loud and too many guards for comfort. I was about to check what it was about when something was thrown into my cell. I picked it up and it was the keys. Only a fool wouldn’t take the opportunity, so I did.”
Spoken like a true criminal, Daichi thinks, but he stays quiet.
“Grabbed whatever hanging clothes I got my hands on and made a mad dash through the forest. Then you not-so-gently bumped into me and here we are. Satisfied?” Kuroo ask with a raised brow.
“The guards didn’t see you?” Kuroo shrugs with a mischievous smirk.
Daichi rolls his eyes and shakes his head but relents.
“What are you going to do now?” Kuroo unexpectedly asks him.
Daichi pauses stiffly. That is a question he also likes an answer to, because for once, he doesn’t have a definite one.
“I-I don’t know.” He deflates and steps back from Kuroo.
An upside of having your life planned out for you is that you’re left with nothing to worry or think about, especially with what to do with your future. But now that he’s suddenly thrown into this kind of predicament, he can’t help but feel that that kind of life makes work cut out for him.
“I’ve just been told to run away as far as I can, but I don’t know where, or how far, or how long I should keep running, how long should I hide. I don’t know!” He throws his hands in the air.
“I have to find the Compendiums to prove my innocence, but I don’t know where to start looking. And if I find it, then what? Will they even take me back? Will I have my life back?” His throat constricts while the sides of his eyes prick with welling tears, as the real possibility of not having a normal life back, not seeing his friends and family, crashes into him.
To think that just yesterday, he’s a stickler to the rules, Head Book Keeper, with his future mapped out for him, and just needs to consult his Book. Now… now he’s a runaway, mistaken outlaw travelling with a real, actual one, uncertain of what the next moment would bring and unsure about how this will affect the course of his whole life.
Adrenaline gives way to exhaustion, frustration, and fear that comes out of him as tears, a sob that welled-up from deep within breaks his voice and shakes his shoulders. Never mind that he’s showing vulnerability in front of what he considers an enemy.
This is simply all too much for him to take at the moment.
Kuroo stays quiet and lets him be, looks anywhere but him to give him some semblance of privacy. He offers Daichi a hesitant squeeze on the shoulder that is probably meant to be comforting. Daichi’s somehow surprised by the action, but nevertheless felt grateful for the consideration.
Feeling a touch better at having let it out, he wipes his tears and faces the journey ahead with a slightly restored conviction.
“I know it probably wouldn’t mean much to you,” Kuroo hazards, after gauging if it’s alright for him to say something. “But I can take you to the Community and maybe there you’ll find some answers.”
Daichi sniffs. It’s the last place he wants to be in, given his circumstances. He’s close to asking if he has a choice, but thinks better of it, Kuroo’s earlier words echo inside his head.
Choice. Kuroo said he’s always had them. He can choose. Can he really? He’s itching to reach for his book and read it, but a part of him that is scared of what he may find, wavers. He doesn’t know what’s in store for him and he’s not ready to find out.
If he says no, then he’ll have to search for the Compendiums by himself. But where will he start? If he says yes, will he really have answers to his questions? There seem to be more now, than before.
He looks at Kuroo, at the hesitant but hopeful look on his face. While he doesn’t completely trust him, he feels better doing this if he’s with someone, rather than alone. And having a place to start is as good as any. Making his decision, he nods. “Alright. I’ll go with you.”
Kuroo offers him a small smile, one that nearly unbalanced Daichi because it’s the first time that he sees it, and more importantly, it’s sincere. It’s a change from their constant head butting, and frowning and snarling.
“Well, I’m rested enough,” Kuroo says, lifting himself from the tree trunk he’s been leaning on. “Shall we?”