Chapter Text
It was a usual afternoon for the Karasuno volleyball team. The autumn wind drifted throughout the gym as, outside, leaves swirled around, flying higher and higher into the darkening sky. The moon began to peer it’s shining face out at the boys as they practiced hard, laboured breathing and the squeak of shoes on the floor, echoed throughout the hall,the rhythm only disrupted by the shouting of two of the boys. “HIT IT HARDER DUMBASS!”, yelled Kageyama, getting closer and closer to Hinata’s face, which was screwed up in an adorable scowl. Kageyama got more angry at that, angry at the fact that the tangerine before him had the nerve to look cute when he couldn’t even hit the ball properly.
“HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO WIN IF YOU ARE BEING SO PATHETIC ALL THE TIME!” Hinata flinched at the harsh words coming from a face he admired so much, watching the fire in Kageyama’s dark, beautiful eyes as he yelled. Sputtering, he struggled to come up with a comeback, and fell short when Kageyama took a step closer, their noses almost touching, and their breathing heavy. They stared into each others eyes, the fire of anger replaced by a silent longing as Kagayama’s darkening eyes flicked repeatedly to Hinata’s lips.
“BREAK IT UP BOYS!” shouted Dachi, the loving father of the group but a terrifying force of nature if angered, as he forced the two boys apart in an attempt to prevent one of their many fights. Suga sighed and giggled under his breath as he grabbed Hinata’s arms and held him back while Hinata struggled to get to Kageyama, to fight or kiss him, nobody knew. Suga. Tsukishima chuckled at their antics, whispering under his breath how stupid they looked to his best friend,Yamaguchi, as Suga, Dachi’s boyfriend and the mother of the team, lectured a sulking Hinata and Kageyama in the corner. Suga made a beeline for his boyfriend afterwards, ready with new ideas to use as ragebait, his favourite hobby other than volleyball. The tension in the room, other than Dachi’s growing anger, dissipated - for now.
As the ragtag group returned to their practice, a thunderstorm began to rumble outside, the rain spattering on the window pane, and the occasional slash of lightning illuminating the sky in a frightening display of nature. Every time the thunder clapped, Asahi would jump out of his skin, and send Tanaka into peals of laughter, his little buzzed head bobbing up and down in delight. Across the hall, Kageyama and Hinata practiced spiking, the two of them getting more and more frustrated when their infamous quick wouldn’t work. “FOR GOD’S SAKE HINATA, STOP BEING USELESS AND TRUST ME, OR WE WILL BE HERE ALL NIGHT!” shouted Kageyama as he set another ball, which didn’t even make it over the net.
“FINE.”retorted HINATA, rolling his eyes and his shoulders as he made up his mind to make this his best one yet, to prove to Kageyama that he was great. No. Better than great. The greatest of all time, eventually greater than even the little giant himself. He would be an ace to rival all aces, and lead Japan to victory. Another thunderclap grumbled through the heavens as Hinata prepared himself. Then, in one fluid motion, faster then the falling rain outside, he sprinted towards the ball, dust gathering in his wake as he flashed by, a mere blur of orange hair.
He jumped.
He jumped so high that the others all stopped to stare as he seemed to grow wings, flying like a avenging angel above them. Kageyama set the ball, and Hinata smacked his hand blindly against it as a blade of lightning fractured the sky. The ball was hit hard. So hard, that aerodynamics fought against it, and failed. The ball hit the surrounding air so hard that a crack began to form in the atmosphere, purple and glowing with a frenzied light. Hinata was stuck in the air, levitating as below, Karasuno volleyball team, gaped in horror.
“WHAT THE -” Suddenly, so fast their necks almost snapped from the speed, each member was sucked into the ever growing violent violet crack in the ceiling, a swirling, nightmarish mass, emitting screams of terror, or that might just have been the boys. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the crack disappeared with a whoosh of wind, leaving volleyballs tapping against the floor of the now silent gymnasium, as if they had simply never been there at all, gone, lost to the ever shifting tides of time.
Like Alice down the rabbit hole, the boys fell and fell through the crack, purple light streaking like tears past them. Desperately, they tried to grab each other, to hold on, to survive. Air battered their faces, making their eyes water as they tumbled further and further, shouting, their voices lost to the cacophony of wind racing through their ears. They were powerless, lost, without a clue what was happening.
Struggling, Kageyama grappled for Hinata’s hand and pulled him as close as he could, burying his head in the crook of Hinata’s slender neck as they were swept further and further into the abyss. He regretted not telling him how he felt, for yelling at him, for making him feel smaller than he already physically was. For never kissing him. Never running his hands through his soft, tangerine hair. Never joining in when he sang Taylor Swift as they practiced. And now they were dying. What the hell, thought Kageyama ;he knew damn well they were all too hot to die, too young, too talented. Especially him.
As he prayed that he would survive, stars flickered past them, the blistering, ultraviolet slowly fading into the midnight black of the night sky, crisp air biting at their noses, a stark contrast to the suffocating heat of purple. They were no longer in a strange hole in space and time, but free falling through the sky, heading toward what seemed like a heavily fortified castle.
“CHAT, WHAT THE ACTUAL SIGMA!!!” Screeched Nishinoya, as gravity clawed and dragged their ankles down. “I DON’T WANT TO DIE, I NEVER GOT TO TRY DUBAI CHOCOLATE !”
“REALLY NISHINOYA, YOU WANT THOSE TO BE YOUR LAST WORDS?!” Yelled Tsukishima, his golden hair tussled by the wind as he fell, looking effortlessly beautiful even in such a tragic situation. Sexyback by Justin Timberlake seemed to play every time he spoke, the cadences of his voice as captivating as the beat, making everyone around him want to dance.
“EVERYONE STOP DANCING, WE ARE LITERALLY DYING!” Shouted Kageyama, looking around in horror at his friends who were mindlessly moving, momentarily unaware of their impending doom as they plummeted further towards the ground.
Somehow managing to defeat gravity and the laws of physics in general,the boys fell and landed unscathed in an ungraceful heap of limbs on the cold stone, everyone but Tsukishima, who landed in a superhero pose before nonchalantly dusting himself off and standing up. Far off wails echoed through the cool breeze as he blew a stray hair away from his gorgeous face and glanced around his surroundings.
An ebony sky littered with stars veiled Karasuno volleyeball team like a melancholy bride as they lay on the top of a perilous tower, surrounded by heavy walls, so tall they could only see the cliff edge before them. The wind was cutthroat, biting at their exposed skin and carrying the smell of burning blood on metal toward them. Like an omen of death, grey and monstrous, a castle towered in the distance, the aged stone looming and snarling at them, turrets as sharp as swords staring daggers down at the pile of teenagers. The whole place reeked of danger, and adventure whistled around the many towers of rock, plastered together with blood, sweat and tears, a fortress built with the bones of determination and resolve. The moon shone an ominous light on the midnight scene, and scratched terrifying shadows over the evergreen mountains behind them as they stood quite literally on the edge of a cliff. Before them, a long, thin ledge of stone stretched out over the cavernous pit that the cliff eluded too,leading to the fortress. It looked so dangerous, no hand rails, not even big enough lie down on : it was surely certain death to tread across, to venture into the billowing night wind, to attempt to approach the heavily fortified stronghold -
“TSUKISHIMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
Daichi’s yell was splintered by the whoosh of the gale around them. The boys had all begun to stand up, to look around in horror and awe, to cower in wonder and terror, to despair and delight in the situation they had found themselves in. Their attention was drawn away from the fortress across the abyss to the figure crossing the bridge , hands in the pockets of his practice shorts, glasses glinting like diamonds under the harsh glare of the moonlight. Tsukishima crossed the parapet like he had been born on it, the aura he exuded was unbelievable but his friends gaped, not in fascination, but in fear. Today was the day they lost Tsukishima, they thought, God would take another angel from earth because the angel was stupid enough to cross a bridge of certain death.
They all waited with baited breath, taking sharp intakes of freezing air with every step he took, nobody daring to utter a word until he was safe, until by the grace of God he survived. And survive he did. Like a nonchalant dread head, Tsukishima stepped off the parapet and shrugged as he turned around, almost asking why they hadn’t followed him. “Oh thank God.” Sighed Suga, falling to his knees on the rough stone, relieved that he hadn’t lost a child. The others thanked their lucky stars and turned to each other, breaking out into peals of hysterics, the adrenaline finally kicking in. They began to chatter nervously, asking the obvious questions.
“Guys, where the hell are we?” asked Hianta, his brows furrowed and his large, almond eyes glancing worriedly from side to side like a nervous fox cub. Kageyama’s eyes softened when Hinata’s distracted gaze landed briefly on him, a sudden urge surged through his heart, an urge to make it all better, to brush away the crease between his eyebrows and protect him from the danger which seemed to laugh at them in every whistle of the wind as it whipped across the harsh architecture.
“I don’t know, Hinata, I don’t know,” whispered Kageyama, realising in that moment that he was scared. He was so scared. They were all so, so scared. None of them knew what was going on, where they were, how they got here or how they could go home. Hell, they didn’t even know where Tsukishima had gone after he turned the corner on the other side of the parapet. Silently, Suga reached his arms out and pulled them all into a hug. And for that second, they all stayed in this moment of brief safety, a peace of quiet before the imminent storm.