disclaimer: don't own haikyuu! or its characters, title comes from 'air balloon' by lily allen
warnings: prose, haha, way too much prose i am sorry i don't even know what this is
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Once upon a time, there was a boy who was the child of a god.
He had many adventures in the mortal realm, and came to be known for his cheerful spirit and fleetness of foot.
..
When Kenma opens his eyes, he finds himself standing in the garden.
In front of him, Hinata is sitting against a twisted tree. The boy's hair is vividly bright against the burnt black of its trunk. Around him, white flowers bloom in all directions. They brush against his clothes, swaying to some phantom breeze that Kenma cannot feel.
It's been a very long time since they last saw each other.
As the silence settles, Kenma's breath fogs in the heavy air. It is warm, as it always is in the garden. The smell of summer is sweet and light, but it rushes into his lungs as something stale. His fingers are numb. He thinks of water and rot.
Hinata laughs.
"I didn't think you'd be back," he says.
His voice is quick and bright, the sharp edges dulled but still keen enough to cut. Kenma feels something twist inside his chest. He doesn't know how long he stands there, watching Hinata as Hinata watches him. At last, the boy pushes himself up in one fluid movement. He brushes the ash off his clothes, shaking away the flowers that cling to his feet. When he looks at Kenma again, there is something soft and pale in his face.
"Walk with me," Hinata says, and Kenma doesn't even think not to follow.
..
One day, the boy's sister asked him to find her a flower she had seen in a dream.
He searched and searched to the ends of the earth, but could not find it growing anywhere.
..
The first spirit they pass is a new one; a girl whose calm blue eyes and long black hair are still clear. Visible. She does not look at them, but drifts silently onward. The new ones are always like that, Kenma thinks. Sad and quiet. Still remembering enough about their lives to regret, but not enough to stop themselves from forgetting. It is the forgetting that creeps upon them, day by day, year by year. Eventually, the girl's features will blur. Her mind will wander until it never returns. One day, she will spend eternity chattering meaninglessly as she drifts through the garden.
Some people say that such a fate is the cruelest tragedy.
Others yet call it the kindest blessing that death can offer.
Kenma has watched these spirits fade more times than he can count. He does not know if he can call it either. They pass another four spirits before Hinata speaks again.
The boy says, "For some reason, I thought things would change."
There is a stillness in his voice that seems foreign to Kenma. Perhaps the garden has not changed, and he doubts it ever will - but Hinata has. Kenma has never been good with people, living or spirits, but he knows Hinata. Or, did know him. And now, he knows that something about him is different from before. When all that time had not passed. When things were still easy.
His brow furrows.
"You don't have to stay anymore," he says, and it comes out more lost than he'd like.
Hinata's eyes flash. The weak grey light casts strange shadows on his face. In this instant, Kenma almost feels afraid of the boy. His flame-like hair. His quick bird movements, which have turned into motionless stone. Whatever has changed in Hinata is something foreign and wrong. Kenma wants to grip his shoulders and shake, and shake, until everything goes back to how it was.
But some things are impossible, even for immortals and gods.
So all Kenma can do is tremble in horror as Hinata turns away. The boy's face is as blank as that of the dead.
"Don't you know, Kenma?" he says, "I can no longer leave this place."
..
At last, just as the boy was about to give up and go home, he met a young man with a shock of old hair.
This strange man laughed and told him, "What you seek is something all will eventually find, deep beneath the earth."
..
However many days later, Kenma decides to make his way to the castle, while Hinata is asleep.
He wades through the flowers, their petals caught somewhere between bloom and rot. There is no sky above the garden, no sun and no stars. Only a distant moon glimmers, kept there by an old and petulant god. At last he comes to the castle, sitting at the very edge of the garden. Its chaotic mass of towers and spires guard the banks of a sluggish grey river. It is inside this castle that Kenma knows he will find a king.
And this king will be able to give him what he wants.
When he steps into the throne room, Kuroo does not seem surprised. The god of the Underworld grins, long and languid on his throne. His awful black hair casts strange shadows across the sharp lines of his face.
"Why are you here?" he asks with feigned curiosity.
Kenma frowns. "I have come to request something from the King of the Dead," he says.
The fact that Kuroo already knows - most likely knew before Kenma himself even knew - is left cool and pointedly unsaid. They have known each other a very long time, the two of them. In some other world, perhaps they were friends.
In this world, however, Kuroo sits up in his throne and straightens with the power of a god.
"You have come about the boy," he sighs. "You do realise that he was once the child of a god?"
Kenma's eyes widen. He can taste something bitter in his mouth. The child of a god...Hinata, the child of a god.
"Please fix this!" he says, heart emptied. "Please give him back to the world from which he came!"
Kuroo stands. "Are you sure? There will be a price, as there always is." The god's mouth purses, his dark eyes heavy. "It is, after all, only the soul of a mortal boy."
"Even so," Kenma says, "He is important to me."
..
The boy journeyed downward and downward, until he came to a very dark place where there was no sun or sky.
There he found a garden filled with the flowers that his sister had seen in her dreams.
..
"Why didn't you ever leave?"
They are sitting beneath the blossom-laden branches of another burnt-black tree. Hinata has his eyes closed, his shock of fiery hair resting on his arms. Kenma is quietly making little braids out of the flowers. He wonders if he can get away with tucking the fallen petals behind Hinata's ears.
"I was waiting," the boy says, after a while. "For you to come back."
Kuroo's words press themselves insistently against the back of his throat. It has been more days, since he came back to the garden, since he visited the castle, since he was given a way to fix his mistakes. He does not know how many. He wonders how he should tell Hinata. He wonders if he is being selfish. Wanting to spend more time with him like this.
Kenma gently places a finished braid around the boy's head. With a voice softer than silence, he turns away and asks, "Do you hate me now?"
Hinata's sharp ears miss nothing. He sits up, his hands twisting his pale robes. His skin seems paler, too, no longer suntanned and warm as Kenma remembers. He has faded. The garden has made him this way.
Suddenly, Kenma cannot bear to hear Hinata's answer. He stands, scattering flower stems and petals across the ground.
"...Kenma?"
A soul for a soul, no matter how great or small. Kuroo may be old and petulant, but he is always fair. He wonders what the world above is like. He wonders if Hinata will remember him, if the boy will be happy.
He hopes that, somewhere above, a bright sun is shining.
"I'm sorry," Kenma says. "Goodbye."
..
And in that garden, there was also a being who was neither a spirit nor a god.
The boy saw that the being was lonely and said, "I will stay here a while, for I would like to be your friend."
..
FIN.
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a/n: first haikyuu! fic, please review :P