Chapter Text
-928.5 mi
Illinois / 06.07.2020
'This is BBC News, signing off. Take care everyone, please stay home and cherish moments with your loved ones. We will be broadcasting our president's message next.'
The TV had been left on for ages, never turned off since the first earthquake that happened a week ago. Shoyou had been staring blankly at it for hours now, scared to believe the news. It had been a stressful month- he felt like the world was slowly crumbling, and today they learned that it was.
Illinois / 06.01.2020
'This is Shimizu Tanaka, reporting for BBC News.' Shoyou smiled fondly at the screen as he saw Shimizu reporting.
He did not pay attention to the news nowadays, apparently busy with college and its time-consuming load. He wouldn't have learned that Shimizu was reporting on live TV if it wasn't for Tanaka spamming his phone with messages of various things telling him to turn on his TV and watch his wife reporting live. It was funny reading those text messages aloud; he felt like a high school freshman again, witnessing Tanaka's crush over Shimizu.
He was shaken out of his reminiscence as a blaring piece of breaking news cut Shimizu's report. There had been fairly minor earthquakes happening all around the world, but everyone was told to stay alert and take every precaution that they could.
He was bound to the sofa as he listened to the news. He wasn't feeling any earthquakes so far, so he took a quick breath of relief.
Maybe it wasn’t bound to happen here in Illinois. He plopped down on his sofa and began scrolling through his phone. Barely processing the soft shakes at first, he only felt the earthquakes as the lamp behind him tumbled down with a crash. Blaring car alarms and barking dogs from outside woke him up. It made him alert, blood full of adrenaline- something that he hasn’t felt in a long time. He jumped to his feet and knelt, feeling the fast tremble of everything around him.
His thoughts drifted to his family: was Natsu okay? He quickly looked around him and saw how every frame and knick-knack he had on top of every furniture had now fallen. The sound of breaking glass deafened him as the lights in his kitchen shattered and scattered pieces everywhere.
Shoyou covered his head, arms covering his ears. He was cowering in fear for his life when his shelf happened to fall on top of the sofa, multiple books and frames crashing down and almost hitting him. A hardbound book hit him and he shook his head to quell the dizziness coming up in him.
One look forward, and he saw his high school yearbook on the floor, spilling out pictures he forgot to slip in between the pages. He snatched the heap up and clutched it to his chest. Slowly displacing disarrayed items that fell, he moved from the sofa to the little slanted shelter that the shelf provided him. He remembered the things that his mom told him- to hide under hard surfaces- and he sobbed softly. The thought of his mom and his sister cowering under a table hit his chest hard. He held his phone in his trembling hand and looked at it.
Opening his phone, he hit the emergency dials without a second thought, calling his mom’s phone, Natsu’s… and forgetting Tobio’s.
+928.5 mi
New York / 06.07.2020
'This is BBC News, signing off. Take care everyone, please stay home and cherish moments with your loved ones. We will be broadcasting our president's message next.'
Kageyama was in the car, stuck in traffic, when the radio news told him how the world would perish. He chuckled darkly at his luck; he couldn’t even believe what was happening to him as is.
“Stuck in traffic while the world is ending, how immensely great this is,” he mumbled to himself. He had done every single thing he could think of to tie loose ends. Now, driving until he finds a place where he can see everything from atop, he was in no hurry to go anywhere.
It has been exactly a week since the first earthquake- since the last call with Hinata. Strangely enough, it also happened during traffic.
New York / 06.01.2020
New York has always been loud, day in and day out. He stepped out of his blanket sleepily and slipped on his soft bunny slippers. Here, he didn’t need an alarm clock since the noisy buzz of every day kept him on his toes all the freaking time.
He grumbled as he shuffled across the room to his stove and cracked a few eggs for breakfast. On the kitchen wall was a digital clock that Daichi gave him- digital, because Daichi realized that Kageyama didn’t even have the patience to comprehend an analog one. Daichi was right, of course, because when the clock read 10:44 AM Kageyama bolted out of the kitchen, forgetting the eggs that he set down on the table.
He quickly got ready because he PRACTICALLY forgot about a summer job interview that he was supposed to have at noon. Hopping into his car, he cursed himself as he fumbled with his keys.
Stuck in traffic, he switched through different radio stations, hoping to find either a good song or some news. He knew not to blast his car’s horn or get angry at Monday traffic. He had seen enough road rage to not be part of it anymore. Blasting through some music he found at the next station, he didn’t notice the people around him panicking with the current earthquake.
He was on his own, singing out of tune to a song that he knew since he was a teenager. Something pulled at his chest when he remembered singing to this song after training back in high school. His whole body shook subtly, both from his singing and with the earthquake, although he didn't know of the latter.
He leaned his elbow against the side of his car and his head on the glass as the song ended. He felt the tremor of the earthquake as soon as he saw people outside running and covering their heads. Adrenaline peaking in his blood, he began to switch through the channels and search for news. His futile attempt to inform himself halted when his phone rang.
He fished it out of his pocket only to abruptly let it go like he was burnt when he read the contact name.
‘Hinata Shoyou’
With the thought of the earthquake gone, he quickly searched for his phone that fell underneath the passenger’s seat. His hand trembled, not knowing if it was because of the quivering of the car or his own body. His finger mindlessly hovered over the answer button, and he clicked it with his heart trembling.
“Mom, are you okay?” It was Hinata’s voice. Kageyama did not know how to react.
Hinata was rambling on and Kageyama did not understand a single thing as he just listened in on him. It felt atrocious listening in, especially when the other one thought it was his mom that he was calling, but Kageyama did not have the heart to tell him.
“..Hinata?” he finally mumbled. The other end of the line grew silent, and the call dropped.
He felt the quiet shudder of the world go as still as his heart.