Work Text:
𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔑𝔬𝔠𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔞𝔩𝔰
They once robbed a children's toystore during the daytime before. It was the first time they were caught in the act during a sly non-hostage operation. Even that didn't amount to the same kind of fear and thrill as it did now.
“Faster, Tsukki!”
“Akaashi, toss me the gun!”
“Here, Bokuto-san!”
Tsukishima can barely hear the words that follow as gunshots rang on the muted anxiety in his ears. His heart felt like it would break past his ribs and fall out; his adrenaline enough to make his hands tremble on the steering wheel.
“Strike One!” Bokuto cheered, accompanied by a high-five from Kuroo. As seen from the mirror, they hit the tires of the motorcycle that was chasing them.
“Don't lean your head out too much, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi said, reaching from the passenger seat and pulling the older man by the clothes. “Kuroo, here you go.”
“Oya oya oya.” Kuroo caught the magazine and loaded it into his pistol, immediately leaning out to aim once again.
Bang! Bang!
As the rain of open fire filled the car with gunpowder scent he was undeniably familiar with at this point, the driver busied himself by taking deep breaths and focusing on the road ahead. With the police scanner on their dashboard and Akaashi's tablet connected to a GPS, escape was much easier for him. It doesn’t mean it was any less terrifying, though.
He was Tsukishima Kei, an accessory for the three of the city's most wanted criminals, dubbed by the national police force as "The Moon". Charged with multiple counts of carnapping, he was also deemed equally guilty of a dozen couple murders as the trio's getaway driver.
When he passed his driver's license as a teenager, this isn't what he intended to use that knowledge for, obviously. However, here he was—fleeing from the city's biggest bank with the city's most notorious criminals, which he liked to call as 'friends' on any other day except Tuesdays.
"Tsukishima!" Akaashi called, pressing on the tablet and turning it to face him. “Right, 90 meters!”
The tablet then flashed green, finalizing the safest escape route to the rendezvous point, which is just a fancy name Kuroo got for the dehydrated city dam. The two sharpshooters from the backseat went back in as he turned the car on a narrow alley, drifting as calmly as he can past trashcans, fire exit stairs and the occasional clothesline.
“Wow, Tsukki! I wished I can drive like this,” Bokuto commented, wiping his sweat on the gray mask he just took off.
“At least you can drive a Corvette now!” Kuroo laughed, throwing a wad of 10,000¥ bills on the gray-haired man’s face. “Any car, actually!”
“Tch, stop throwing that on me!” the other whined, slapping his bestfriend’s hand away. In the front seat, Tsukishima found it hardly amusing to see these two are the same people who just shot a couple civilians literally just minutes ago. “You’re so mean, bro. You almost died earlier.”
He was Bokuto Kotarou, alised the “The Strix”. Seen by the public wearing a gray mask and a jacket with an owl print on it, he was branded as the main proprietor of the quartet’s hostages and heists. He was the first and loudest one to charge between the doors, proudly holding up one-bullet guns for show. It was his voice that was used to threaten hostages and negotiate with the police as Kuroo and Akaashi quietly get the money. And like Tsukishima, Bokuto also had an actual life out of crime. It was him who had the most risk of being identified, being formerly a policeman himself.
Tsukishima turned, the car drifting out on another main highway—this time on a less-busy part of the city. It was the ever so disgusting downtown, filled with mostly factories, illegal settlers and air pollution. Up ahead, a main arch to the city’s chemical plant opened to the city ahead.
The moment they passed by the welcome arch, the police scanner zapped with reports.
“Ah, shit,” Kuroo groaned, pushing the paper bills back onto their duffel bag and cocking his gun. The police scanner continued to mark them along. “They had us faster than last time.”
“You’re just going to shoot out again?!” Tsukki exclaimed, pressing his foot down on gas. “Are you serious?”
“Tsukishima...” Akaashi called, but he only met his eyes with the dark-haired man through the mirror. Kuroo stared back in surprise, pausing on his way to roll down the windows and lean back out to shoot. Outside, the police started to appear on their tails.
“Woah, why so mad, Tsukki?” Kuroo hummed, smirking at him. He widened his eyes at the audacity. “You aren’t the one going to be shot.”
“This is no time to be so smiley, you moron!” he said. “The plan is that nobody’s gonna die and cause someone die! You already failed one of that!”
“Oh, don’t worry anymore, baby,” the other replied calmly, finally rolling the windows down and positioning his body to lean. “I don’t shoot between the eyes.”
“That isn’t what I-“
Bang!
Tsukishima can’t help the flinch that comes when the first shot come.
Are you fucking kidding me? he screamed mentally.
At the second shot, he took a deep breath and glanced back at the GPS. The red dots that come from the police vehicles tailing them didn’t affect the route. He can only take the occasional glance at the side mirror and see the police motorcycles tumble one by one. The raven-haired shooter’s cheer of victory came loudly as Akaashi tossed him another magazine.
“God damn, that felt so good!”
He was Kuroo Tetsurou, aliased the “The Lynx”. He was the man-in-business in many of the city’s reported crimes, committing five of the seven types of felonies, as well as a couple for charges for disturbing the peace and money laundering. Where Bokuto “The Strix” Kotarou would be standing on the counters holding guns to the bank teller’s head, it was him who would hijack the vault’s timer system and get a bank employee under duress to open it. Additionally, he is responsible not just for his involvement in the big three but also for his arrangement of crimes known even in other criminal groups around the city. The Lynx is also present in most drug dens, arsonist rebel conventions and underground business deals.
Tsukishima found it hard to understand that he used to be college schoolmates with the guy.
Ah well. It was a no-brainer to say that their degrees failed them for the most part. One of them became a terrorist and the other a chauffeur extreme.
He drifted to the right, pausing at the street-view.
“Uh, Akaashi. I don’t know this?” he asked, realizing he had never been in that road before. The nameless buildings were unfamiliar and the dirty canals framing the road were the only ones uncovered in the entirety of downtown. There was even a more downtown to the actual downtown?!
Before Akaashi could answer, a flutter of helicopter blades whooshed overhead. The crest of the police decorated its doors, which opened mid-air to drop off armed soldiers landing atop the buildings ahead.
“Uh, guys...?” Bokuto stuttered from behind. “Akaashi! We need another route!”
“Got it!” Not even a few seconds into tinkering with the GPS, Akaashi formulated a new alternate route. Tsukishima nodded at the new plan, quickly making his way to the left and avoiding the military intervention up ahead, barely missing a lamppost by a few degrees.
Oh no.
“Shit!” He and Kuroo chorused, sweat trickling down from their foreheads. “Why the fuck is the damn army here?”
“We’re the most wanted criminals in this country, jackass!” Tsukishima replied, his hands trembling worse the more he drove. His hands sweated onto the wheel, almost causing him to slip on it as they escaped.
“Yeah, bro! Why would you remove your mask?! They knew it’s us now!” Bokuto supplied, earning an annoyed stare from the raven.
“I didn’t take it off, man! It was grabbed by the bank teller!” He threw the said mask to the ground in annoyance, threading his hand to pull at his hair. “Shit, okay...fuck.”
“Stay calm,” Akaashi said, opening their getaway bag tossing them some rope. When he was met with confused silence, he sighed. “Just in case we didn’t reach the dam together.”
“Just in case?! What do you mean just in case?” Bokuto exclaimed, looking over to the tablet on the younger man’s lap. Tsukishima also took a short glance, seeing more and more red dots in their 100km perimeter.
“Oh fuck, are we surrounded?!”
“We’re going to escape together, okay?” Akaashi said, also tossing each of them a hand grenade. “Understood?”
“Akaashi...”
“Trust me, and trust yourself.”
Bokuto sat back down, taking a few deep breaths before he held the rope. “Okay. Got you, babe.”
“Oh my god, Bokuto-san!” The raven at his passenger seat turned, face flushed red and his voice squeaky. “This is no time to be so light!”
“Sheesh, get a room! You two! We get it, we’re single. No need to rub that in our faces!” Kuroo said, wearing the rope across his torso. Tsukishima heard the small waver in the raven’s voice, which Bokuto playfully slapped him for. Kuroo let out a small laugh.
“Anyways, Kuroo. Permission to proceed to plan B?” Akaashi turned to him, who only slowly flashed a shit eating grin visible on the mirror. Tsukishima groaned deep inside.
“Hell fucking shit.”
He hated Plan B.
“Hell fucking yes.” Kuroo nodded to Akaashi, who then looked one more time at Bokuto and gave him a quick peck before going back to his tablet.
“Get ready to fly through time, everyone.”
He was Akaashi Keiji, alias “Athene”. Tsukishima first met him when Kuroo and Bokuto dragged him to an illegal racing rink where Akaashi used to participate in—he was the duo’s former designated driver. Akaashi led a life of unforgivable heinous crimes early in his life; so wicked to the point he even had his records removed and altered from National Security many times. Charged with burglary, arson and many more, there is one thing only “Athene” uniquely had—in the eyes of the government, “Akaashi Keiji” doesn’t exist. If Tsukishima is right, only the three people in the world knew Athene’s real name—him, Kuroo and his noisy boyfriend, Bokuto.
Together with The Lynx, The Moon and The Strix, the four of them had a couple million-yen reward as The Nocturnals. They posed as a threat not just to the police but also to their fellow evil men. As far as Tsukishima knew, he himself had a 3 million reward on whoever can turn him in to ‘Guess Monster’ and ‘White Eagle’ alive. He can’t even remember who they were from all those he crossed, perhaps the owners of the bulletproof car he stole and is driving right now?
The red beeps came more quickly as the police surrounded them quicker than ever before, and Tsukishima and Akaashi had no choice but to turn on another alley. At that moment, it became more clear to them that they were only switching alleys to buy more time, not to escape.
“If we die, I’ll get Satan’s autograph first!” Bokuto held onto the backseat for dear life.
“No! Shut up! We’re not going to die!” Kuroo smacked the gray-haired man’s head with his gloved hand. Tsukishima noted how the man seemed to breath a little heavier, contrary to his confidence just a few minutes prior. He clicked in tongue in annoyance.
“Do you, even in the slightest, understand that we’re fucked?!” Tsukishima replied, the beeping of the tablet ringing in his ears like fireworks. More red dots started to close in on them from every direction but the right.
The dam is to the east.
“90 meters, Tsukishima!” Akaashi then turned to the two at the back and glared. “Please stop talking too much!”
The men started to sweat. For the first time in the three years he became “The Moon”, this is the first time he saw military intervention against them. According to Bokuto, Akaashi himself had some history with the military force, but aside from that, it was everyone else’s first time. They had always known they were national level threat with all the things they managed to do, but seeing it like this still took them off guard.
If he can see himself right now through his eyes just hours prior, he would have flipped already. No matter how perfect a plan is, it can still get ruined in one way or another.
“There’s only two things to keep in mind—don’t kill and don’t die.”
Earlier that morning, their plan was put to action after six months of planning. It was their biggest project as of late—the second biggest being a jewelry store heist with Hinata Shoyo, Karasuno gang’s little sneaky burglar, and Lev Haiba, a comrade of Kuroo’s. With Hinata and Lev, they managed to accomplish the diamond heist cleanly (Hinata and Lev were great with harnesses and left no trace on the tiles at all). However, they were quite ambitious to create an even wilder plan without those two silent-burglary experts on board. On their own, they were loud on their footsteps, known for their hostages, and their vocal relationship with the press and the police.
The Nocturnals had always known noise is also their weakness, so they compensated with speed. That’s where The Moon comes into the picture: to get them out of the scene safely and quickly. In return, he gets his 25% of the stolen goods.
“Tsukki, look out!” The three called out to him, breaking his trance. To the left, a truck went on full speed across to their path.
He almost hesitated between stopping and turning so he did both. Before he could realize, his body auto-piloted, and they lost momentum on their side. He grabbed the steering wheels and steered to the left, while his foot slammed onto the brakes. Just when he took his foot off the pedals that he gulped in nervousness.
Now, that was close. They may manage to sneak out millions of yen, but millions can never really help a corpse, can it?
“Oh my dear fuck!” Bokuto cursed, “I haven’t had a near death experience like that since I was eight!”
“Yeah, well, you know. We’re on the president’s death note.” Kuroo pushed one of the bags aside and shifted on his seat, holding onto the backseat handle as Tsukishima sped even more.
In those duffel bags, Kuroo claimed to have scored 900 million yen in cash, a few millions ahead of their 850 million quota. Earlier while he watched the cctv footages Akaashi hijacked, he can tell that everything Kuroo and Bokuto pulled inside the bank was perfect and according to plan—nobody died and nobody killed. It was their mistake, however, that their escape is delayed by a woman taking off Kuroo’s mask. An alarm was set off and here they were.
“How do we escape this?!”
“Mother of fuck, Bo!” Kuroo snapped, “This is your fault, if you only ran faster we could have had a 30 second jumpstart!”
Kuroo turned to Bokuto, who looked at him in shock and confusion. In front, Tsukishima and Akaashi widened their eyes in alarm.
There it is, the shifting of blame.
“The hell, bro?” Bokuto replied, “I was shooting back to keep the guards in check! If I ignored that, they would have shot you!”
“Stop blaming each other!” Akaashi intervened.
“I knew you’re heavy on your feet but can you, like, at least think that every second matters?” Kuroo continued, “Can’t you get that through your head?”
“You little—!” Bokuto reached over and grabbed the man on the collar. The car swerved unintentionally, freaking not just Tsukishima but the other three. While they slightly lost speed, Akaashi reached to the backseat once again and pushed the two apart.
“You two!”
A gun was cocked, silencing everyone. Tsukishima froze out of instinct before Akaashi placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. The other hand? It held the gun to Kuroo’s head.
“Kuroo, stop,” Akaashi’s cold voice muted against the car’s wheels skidding. “You know what almost got you killed? Want me to remind you again?”
Tsukishima can barely hear the words from how Akaashi spoke under his breath, but he sure heard how Kuroo fell into a deep silence. Akaashi brought the gun back to his belt and sat back down, and the car fell quiet.
Akaashi just did what not many people are brave enough to do. Kuroo is a man of strength, whose weakness are only on the things he ruined. One of them is losing his crime partner just before The Nocturnals became a thing.
His greatest mistake is losing his original crime gang, Nekoma.
Tsukishima wasn’t there when it happened, but Bokuto was talkative enough to give him a gist of what went down—a heist is botched when Kuroo lost his cool. It resulted to his hacker Kenma Kozume and crime partner Yaku Morisuke getting caught and therefore arrested. He heard that Yaku Morisuke was bailed out early, but the hacker remained imprisoned for years. Bokuto also explained it was one of the reasons Kuroo kept stealing despite the trauma; to hopefully reverse Kenma’s death sentence and get him out of jail.
“I’m sorry Akaashi,” the drug den patriarch whispered under his breath. He repeated, louder this time. “I’m sorry.”
They reached the dam entryway, with the actual wall and the bridge just a few meters ahead. They’re here.
“Yeah, just keep your shit together,” Akaashi sighed.
“I know! I just...can’t deal with it,” Kuroo groaned, pulling at his hair harder. Tsukishima saw Bokuto force the hands away.
“Bro, stop pulling your hair.”
“You have to deal with it, you moron,” Tsukishima said, prompting the three to stare at him. “Don’t forget the reason why you’re here with a million yen in the bag.”
Kuroo looked at him with wide eyes.
“One step at a time.”
That was something Kenma told him before.
“Yeah, one step at a time,” Kuroo repeated. The mantra spread to the other two, who shared a small smile. Just when they had their hopes back up, a cavalcade of policecars appeared up ahead.
“TSUKKI!”
“AAH—!!!” He stomped onto the brakes, only for the car to remain in full speed.
Oh no.
“Tsukki! We’re going to crash!” Kuroo screamed.
“Holy mother of fucking ass shit!”
“Tsukki?!” Bokuto screamed. “What’s happening?!”
Tsukishima blinked, glancing at everyone before letting slamming tablet to Akaashi’s chest. Back then, he was the slowest out of the four due to his inexperience. Right now, perhaps, he should get his ass out there too. Besides, if one of them gets arrested, all four of them will face the death sentence.
“Get the money, hold the rope. I need you guys to jump off in three.”
The three widened their eyes. Tsukishima bit his lips and kept his hands on the wheel, glaring at the police officers and vehicles ahead.
“One...”
“Wait, what?!” They scrambled for the duffel bags and looked around in panic.
“How are we even supposed to jump—!!!” Akaashi detached the tablet and pushed it inside the backpack.
“Two...”
“Holy shit!” Bokuto’s hands trembled as he placed his hostage mask on.
“Tsukki!” Kuroo called, rolling the window down and not bothering to put on his mask. “Tsukki! What about you?!”
“Catch me when I jump!”
“What?!” The three chorused. “How does that even work—“
“Three! Now!” The passengers quickly pushed the doors open and jumped off, breaking their fall by rolling and quickly sprinting away down to the dam. Tsukishima followed them from the sidemirror, seeing them disappear to the dam’s gate unscathed.
“There! Follow them!” He heard the chief policeman say, before bringing back the megaphone to his lips. “Stop the car, now!”
Sucks to be you, Mr. Policeman, he thought. But sucks more to the owner of this car.
He then reached beside him and unlocked his seatbelt. Grabbing the small bag Akaashi gave him and swinging it over his shoulder, he opened the car door and launched himself out. His gloved hands reached the gravel first and he rolled sideways to his back, only to be pushed back down by a force of a loud explosion. The car slammed right onto the first policecar, tumbling over it and exploding onto the leaked gasoline.
Too bad for Guess Monster and White Eagle that he crashed their car.
“Chief! Chief!”
“He’s there!”
“Get him!”
Tsukishima’s ears gave into muteness just before he realized the eyes and guns on him. He caught back his senses and pushed himself off the ground, fleeing from the rain of fire following his tracks. He ran as fast as he can to the reservoir gate a few meters away, reaching the bridge that overlooked the large fall below.
“Freeze!”
He skidded to a halt just when another batch of police appeared at the other side of the bridge. With nowhere to go, he ran to his right and climbed the 6-foot bridge rails.
“Stop him! He’ll jump!” The senior officer shouted, as the pack chased dumbly to the man standing on the dam’s wall.
Tsukishima balanced himself on the concrete wall, turning around to face the bridge with the fall behind him. He raised his arms in surrender, smirking at the sight of their shocked and fearful faces.
“Oh, may I?” He waved with his most pleasant smile on his face, stepping one foot off the wall. “Catch me then!”
Before he flung himself off to the waters below, he can catch the sight of the men dashed to him blindly before he fell.
So this is what freefall felt like.
The sun and the sky dimming on the humid and cloudly afternoon, with the policemen reaching over the bridge failing to grab him—that was the last sight he saw before he merged onto the water reservoir’s depth.
Good thing he’s the moon. The tide can pull up to his favor; well, his hand grenade.
The water was cold and unforgiving, and yet the surface shone down on him like the reflection of the moon over lakes, like a baptism of acceptance. It was perfect candidate for the last sight he’ll see before death, except he reached up, flashed his middle finger to the sky and pushed his feet to swim away.
He grabbed the grenade from the bag and continued swimming against the gentle tide. He then pulled the pin and brought himself back to the surface, throwing it as far as he can back to the foot of the wall.
At the corner of his eyes, he can see men clad in black hiding behind the larger of the dam’s rocks. Kuroo, Akaashi and Bokuto waved him over in panicked motions. However, before he could paddle to their direction, another loud explosion brought rain up in the sky.
“Holy fuck!” Kuroo exclaimed, holding onto the rock for cover. “What was that?!”
The water explosion went back down in a drizzle, low visibility from high above.
“Wait, Tsukki!” Akaashi tapped the two on their shoulders, bringing their attention back to the stream. They looked at each other in panic before Kuroo took off his bag and shoved it to Bokuto’s chest.
“Bo, you hold this. I’m getting our driver back.”
With the artificial rain coming down, Kuroo took advantage of the low visibility and dived to the waters. Holding onto the money and their supplies, Bokuto and Akaashi laid down an open space deeper in the rocks’ frame. Kuroo then reappared minutes later, stepping back onto the shore, shirt clinging onto his muscular chest and hair down in dampness.
He was alone.
“Kuroo? Where’s...?” Akaashi gasped. Bokuto stared in shock and denial.
“I can’t find him...” Kuroo groaned, leaning onto a rock and dragging his hands across his face. “He must be....he must be taken by the tide.”
“What...?”
The two sat next to the raven-haired man, their backs sliding down as their knees collapsed. Akaashi was the first to give, launching onto Bokuto on a tight hug and digging his head deep onto his boyfriend’s chest. Kuroo joined the hug a moment later, Bokuto in the middle staring into space in denial.
“Tsukki...”
“Holy fuck, it’s my fault, isn’t it?!” Kuroo screamed onto Bokuto’s hug.
“No...” the gray-haired man replied.
“It is! It is my fault!” Kuroo pulled away, face wet with droplets of tears. Bokuto looked away from the space and looked at Kuroo, tapping Akaashi off his shoulder.
“NO! I MEAN TSUKKI!”
“What are you saying, Bokuto-san?” Akaashi asked, wiping his face onto his sleeve. That’s when he followed Bokuto’s gaze and turned around that he also fell into silence.
Kuroo was the last one to turn around, taking in the sight of a man pushing himself up from the rocky shore. The three watched speechlessly as the man looked up and squeezed the water off his damp dress shirt and hair.
Tsukishima looked back at them with the smuggest smirk he ever pulled.
“Hello cowards,” he greeted, “can you beat that?”
“Tsukki!”
The three immediately pulled him close and wrapped him in a squelchy wet hug, their damp clothes and bodies pressing together in a hold that is never meant to be let go. Kuroo was the first to bury his head onto his neck, with Akaashi’s palm on his chest feeling his heartbeat, with Bokuto’s warm arms wrapped around his chest from behind.
Tsukishima kept telling himself that at one point in time, they could have been something else other than a gang of colossal pricks. However, now that he stood on the rocky shore hidden by the earth, his body cold against his crime partners’ warm bodies, he decided that if he were to go to the death row, it would be with these three he’ll meet the afterlife with.
“I can’t breathe, you assholes!” He pushed them off, coughing. The couple first pulled away in the midst of their happy tears. Tsukishima glared at the man who remained hugging him. “Kuroo, get your damn knee off my damn dick!”
“Ah, shit,” the raven-haired laughed, wiping his tears and snot. He pulled away, sniffing, eyes clearly glad to see his face. “My knee isn’t a virgin anymore.”
Tsukishima rolled his eyes, but can’t help the small smile that graced his features.
“Just get me up, idiot.”
Watching their tear-streaked faces and damp bodies, he can only facepalm mentally. If this is how they’re going to look if he actually dies, then he’s not dying; not without them.
“You guys do know we need to get out of here, right? What are we standing idly around for?” Tsukishima tapped them on their shoulders, the three still dousing on the sight that was him.
“Hey man! We saw you fall! Give us—Give us a moment to catch up!” Bokuto punched him playfully on the shoulder, wiping his tears. “We thought we lost you!”
“Ah, right!” Tsukishima smirked. “You can’t drive! You do need me.”
“You have the guts to go be that smug when you just threw yourself off a bridge!” Akaashi launched at him first with a playful jab. Kuroo joined in on the fun, tickling his sides.
He can take that fun all the time. After all, death is only the end if the only person to talk is one. Make it four, and death will just become a new crime to commit.
Hell, they’re voted the most likely to be successful in highschool. They can live up to that title as the most successful criminals to ever walk Japan. The Nocturnals will be vastly known and until the day they meet their executions, they will not stop conquering the nights to come.
Fin.