Epilogue

Shouyou wakes up with his face pressed against the ground. When he opens his eyes, he gasps for breath and feels his lungs fill for what feels like the first time. Pulling himself to his knees, then his feet, he stares out around him but finds nothing but darkness. Save, of course, for the floor below him, which is glowing brightly red. It's carved with characters he doesn't recognize that spiral outwards.

"You are awake." A voice calls out from the darkness.

"Y-yeah..." Shouyou answers back. For some reason, he can almost recognize whoever is talking.

"This one was shorter than I'd been expecting." The voice says again.

"I'm not short!" He shouts back and listens to the echo of his own voice.

"I was not referring to your statue, little one." The voice says with a laugh.

All at once, the scenery changes. The blackness around him becomes a little less intense, shifting into a shade of purple he can't name. Then, a figure appears in front of him. It has no distinct features, not ones that he can comprehend anyway, with large, stretched out wings that seem to go on forever in either direction. Shouyou was tempted to run his fingers across them, to see if they were as soft as they looked, but couldn't find the courage to do anything but stand still.

"Are you prepared to start again?" The figure questions.

Shouyou is confused, but nods regardless.

A flash of white. Then he's back home, mostly, running along a path he doesn't recognize. A boy is leaning against a fence. His eyes are impossibly gold, his jacket is impossible red. There are volleyball shoes in a bag at his side. Shouyou feels his cheeks heating up in a blush. The person is beautiful in a way he can't get over. When he opens his mouth to speak, to introduce himself, nothing comes out. The boy, Kenma is his name, is nice to him, still, even when he can't talk. Shouyou uses his hands to express himself, to share himself with the other, and Kenma picks up on it quickly. They become friends quickly and rivals even faster. Kenma ignites a fire in him that he can't control, then Oikawa comes into the picture, an inferno that Hinata can't seem to pull away from. Kenma is still there though, pressing his lips against his, wrapping his arms around his waist and holding him through his nightmares. It all ends with a pain beyond comprehension.

Shouyou returns to the platform below him, with the purple sky and red floor. The shadowy figure curls his wings around him and asks if he wants to start again.

Shouyou nods.

His leg is missing, but not bleeding, replaced with plastic and metal. He's slowing down when it starts hurting and stumbles upon a stranger in an alley. His hair and eyes are made out of sunlight, but his chest is coated in crimson. Volleyball shoes are in a bag at his side and Shouyou lifts his hands in greeting, introducing himself wordlessly. Kenma is quick to catch on, though, using his mellow voice to communicate in return. Kenma wraps his jacket around his shoulders and Shouyou finds himself blushing. Kenma is a good rival but a better friend. After they finish practicing together, Kenma unhooks his leg for him and massages his stump; it's impossibly erotic and the first time he pushes his lips against Kenma's, they both end up with nosebleeds. Even still, he ends up meeting Oikawa, who carries him to the bathroom when they're sharing the same gym, who gushes over him and presses kisses against what's left of his leg. Those same lips tear into his throat in the fall and those same kisses are the last thing he feels as he fades.

The figure pulls him tight, but asks him if he wants to go again.

Shouyou agrees.

And agrees.

And agrees.

At some point, he can't even reach the other anymore, but those golden eyes still manage to find him. And, even if Shouyou can't see anymore, he still feels that loving gaze wash over him.

Eventually, he has nothing left to give. The shadowy figure with wings like a crows had already taken everything from him. He could no longer walk himself, see, or feel.

He just was.

Only then did he ask for it all to stop.

Still, even as the shadowed figure held onto him, letting him walk through his old lives, of his first meeting with Kenma and every one after, he still feels the need to keep going. He doesn't though. He lets Kenma finally rest, to live a life without him. One where he stays with his best friend and lives with him, one where he doesn't hurt and doesn't kill. He smiles and laughs, and lives his life. Shouyou would be lying if it didn't hurt to watch, but he does. He watches every life that he isn't in.

Sometimes, he watches over Toru too. Watches him suffering and crying, but still captivating and beyond impressive. A part of him still loves him, is still a part of Oikawa himself, even when he belongs entirely to Kenma.

Kiyoko is another one that he pays special attention to, but each time he glances into her life, he cries against the wings holding him together and he's forced to stop.

His other friends and teammates make him smile and laugh, and cry sometimes.

But his eye always drifts back to Kenma, his greatest friend and love. His red-clad shield.

Shouyou's own Crimson Aegis.