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The room is devastatingly quiet. Like, pin-drop quiet. Like, teacher-handing-exams-back quiet. Like— you get it.
Tsukishima hasn’t moved a muscle in ages— not that anyone would have noticed if he had. They’re all far too absorbed in their own anxiety to notice. Hinata’s leg is bouncing a million taps per second, Kageyama’s arms are firmly crossed as he scowls at the wall, and Yachi can’t keep her hands still on the hem of her bright orange ‘Camp Half-Blood’ shirt. There’s a thread that’s come loose. She’s worried everyone will notice, but she also can’t keep herself from making it worse.
“Knock it off, Hinata,” Kageyama snaps from right next to the vibrating redhead. He doesn’t need to be sitting so close to him, but they all know he kind of does. It’s so easy to want to be near the shimmering son of Apollo— everyone has fallen into the trap of his glow at some point. But for the serious son of Hades, it almost seems to be a compulsion. Sometimes, it’s miserable to experience the obsession between them from the outside, but for the most part, it’s not so bad. Besides, without Hinata, Kageyama would hang on the edges of every circle at camp. It’s not so easy to be the only illicit son of the literal god of the Underworld, no matter how powerful he may be. And without Kageyama, Hinata would surely drift into the clouds of possibility and never return.
Movement from outside the window spurs Yachi to squeak an unintelligible exclamation. Hinata is on his feet the moment that the door handle twists. Tsukishima turns his head a little too quickly for his typically-unaffected disposition. The door swings open to reveal a cautious and ruffled Yamaguchi, whose eyes seem a little wider than usual.
“Hey! What happened?” Hinata blurts.
“Don’t rush him,” Tsukishima drawls, shooting a sour look towards the small boy.
“Oh! Sorry, Yamaguchi.”
“It’s okay,” Yamaguchi replies, a little hazy. He shuts the door behind him and balls his hands into fists at his side.
There is a new kind of quiet in the room as they all wait for the freckled boy to speak, but he just stands there, the tension in his shoulders seeming to be the only thing holding him upright. His startled gaze is far and riddled with thought.
“You—” Yachi begins. The nerves pinch the words in her throat. She clears it and tries again. “You don’t need to tell us, um… but we’re here if you want to.”
Yamaguchi tears his eyes away from his thoughts and fixes them upon the tiny blonde. His face softens at the sight of her. No matter how nervous she is— and Yachi is always nervous— she shows up anyway. She shows up to training and Capture the Flag and those big, loud dinners and days by the lake. He had spent so many hours this summer with Yachi that he almost feels as if he’s known her for much longer than three, measly months. As the only two members of their age group who went unclaimed all summer long, they had plenty of time to lounge in each other’s company while the others were off doing claimed-kid stuff. Well, except for Kageyama, but he preferred to train during the lulls anyway.
Now, she looks at Yamaguchi with a brave face, even as she fiddles with a loose thread at the bottom of her shirt. Whatever chaos is happening inside of Yamaguchi stills at this. If Yachi can be here and be brave, so can he. He smiles just a little, and she smiles just a little back.
“I do, I think. Need to tell you.”
The room leans in, and Yamaguchi begins his story, hands flitting up to illustrate what can’t be said. There’s the missing box— the box: Pandora’s box. And there’s the quest to get it back, it being bestowed upon the clever son of Hermes. And, oh yeah, the minor detail that he’s the son of Hermes! Can he even do it? He isn’t sure. He’s only just found out about his destiny! It was just a few, short hours ago that that glowing orb appeared over his head and said, “Surprise! Here’s your destiny! Traverse it well!” And now, he must traverse. He must go. Go where? All the way west! With only his mind and a couple of companions in tow. Who knows what will happen? Who knows what’s in store? When he woke up this morning, he was just a boy, and suddenly, he’s supposed to be a hero!
Yamaguchi sucks in a breath, holds it, and releases it in a whoosh of air. “All of this… this whole summer has just been—” He searches desperately for the words. “I didn’t know who I was! I still don’t know! But now, I’m… I have to be someone different than before?” He sinks to the ground against the wall with a groan and closes his eyes. Yachi makes eye contact with Kageyama.
“There’s nothing bad about things changing, Yamaguchi,” Hinata chirps, breaking the momentary silence. Yamaguchi opens his eyes and blinks at him. “You’re different than you were this morning, but that’s kinda true every single day! You learn new things and you go new places and you change. But you get better. You get to be different,” he shrugs with a smile.
Tsukishima tsks and lifts a brow. “He’s not wrong,” he says reluctantly. He’ll never admit Hinata is right, but he can be ‘not wrong’ for a moment, especially if it helps Yamaguchi. “You were chosen for a reason.”
Yamaguchi turns to him. “You’ll come with me, right Tsukki?”
The son of Aphrodite doesn’t react to the question for a moment, which is basically a reaction to the present company’s eyes anyway. “Sure,” he replies in his aloof monotone, but his chin sits a little higher than before.
Yamaguchi exhales and beams at him. “Thanks, Tsukki!” He whips his head to Yachi. “Yachi, you too?”
She yelps. And freezes. And forgets how to breathe. And, and, and. Me too? Me too?! What on Earth is she going to do on a quest? Hinata huffs quietly in disappointment, and Kageyama elbows him. “It isn’t always about you, dumbass,” he hisses. “I know that, Grumpy-yama,” he grumbles.
“Me? Wh- why me?” She manages to stutter, barely even noticing the bickering boys. Yamaguchi makes a face, which seems to say, Because of course ‘you’. “The prophecy said I would be accompanied by a ‘resilient and constant companion’.”
“Tsukishima-san!” She exclaims, pointing at the boy in the corner. Yamaguchi is already shaking his head.
“No, she said something else about Tsukki.” Yachi’s mouth gapes.
“I-I-I-I ca-- I can’t do that! Tadashi, I can’t do th--”
“Hitoka…” Yamaguchi slides over to Yachi and grips her trembling hands. “I need you there. I can’t do it without you.” She flutters like a leaf. “Remember what you said to me during training that one day?”
Briefly distracted, her brow furrows. “Which day? I say a lot to you, Tadashi…”
“It was that archery week. And Tanaka-san made, like, ten bullseyes in a row, and everyone was so happy for him--”
“Except Hinata.”
“Hey! I was happy for him!”
“Yeah, but you only made seven,” Yamaguchi says with a sly smile over his shoulder. Kageyama sniggers. “Shut up,” Hinata huffs. “I’m gonna do it.”
“Anyway,” Tadashi says, returning his attention to Yachi. “We couldn’t stop laughing so hard because--”
“We didn’t hit a single one all week,” she finishes with a giggle, and Yamaguchi joins in, eyes crinkling to half moons with joy. “Do you remember what you said?” He repeats. She scrunches her nose.
“I said, ‘Well, as long as we’re together in this, it’s not so bad.”
Yamaguchi squeezes her hand. “Now it’s my turn: Hitoka, as long as we’re together, it won’t be so bad.”
Her eyes well up with tears. “I’m scared.”
“Me too. And Tsukki.” They turn to look at the blonde, who is passively lowering out of the corner of his eye. “Shut up, Yamaguchi,” he sighs. Yamaguchi smiles. “Sorry, Tsukki,” he shrugs.
“Alright, it’s settled then,” Tsukishima says, rising from his seat on the floor. “We should go tell Chiron that we’re ready to go.” Yachi squeaks again. Yamaguchi takes a breath and rises as well.
“Alright. Let’s go.”