Groaning against the strain of sore limbs, Yamaguchi awoke. The Nekarasi's gentle rocking movement as it chugged along the train tracks almost lulled the still-exhausted boy into another slumber. The train, however, was moving, and that meant that the Nekarasi had surely managed to overcome the raiders in the gulch. At the returning memory of the raid, Yamaguchi shot up from his bed, ignoring the achy protest of his muscles, and frantically took inventory of the room he was in. Six beds were pushed up against the far left and right walls of the train car, all decked in pristine white sheets. On the walls by the doorways between cars, were cabinets, also white in finish, and tables, upon which rested a half-empty bottle of distilled alcohol and an unraveled roll of gauze. The air smelled faintly of the distilled alcohol and blood. Three of the six beds were occupied, excluding his own, each sectioned off with hanging curtains, and although Yamaguchi could not see their faces, he assumed at least one of them to be the blond boy from earlier. The hospital car, that was where he was.
Quickly, from a chair in the corner that Yamaguchi had not noticed rose Akaashi, who looked rather worse for the wear. His hair was unkempt, and the bags under his eyes were so dark they could be mistaken for bruises. Akaashi's hands shook as he rushed to Yamaguchi's side and gently pushed him back into bed.
"Don't push yourself, Yamaguchi. You were the most far gone when we found you; for a moment, I wasn't sure you'd come back to us." Akaashi spoke with a low, compassionate tone, but harrowed guilt flashed behind his eyes.
Instantly, Yamaguchi thought of Kageyama and Hinata. If they managed to chase off the raiders, maybe his friends were alright. Surely the occupied beds held at least one of them. He had to ask, "Is everyone okay? Kageyama and Hinata, did we get them back? Please tell me we didn't lose anyone."
"They're all right, don't worry. Kenma, Kuroo, and Yachi are a little bruised, but fine, Bokuto got hit in his bad knee, but it's nothing he can't recover from. Hinata flew in with Kageyama just as we got the rock debris cleared off the tracks; that's why we had to stop, by the way. Those two have seen better days, but nothing life-threatening." Akaashi scrunched up his nose in thought and spared a quick glance at the third occupied bed, "Your friend will need to rest for a few days, bullet wounds are a nasty business, but he'll be fine. As for the Nekarasi, Kenma's gotten her up and running again, and we've not lost a single passenger or cargo hold to the raiders."
"And you, Akaashi? Not to be rude, but you look dead on your feet."
"I'm all right, just tired. That... blond boy... of yours needed a transfusion of blood, so I'm a bit woozy still." Akaashi gave a weak smile at that and gestured to his own bandaged arm.
"What happened to me? I barely got injured at all; that blond guy took all the hits for me." It had been bothering Yamaguchi since he woke up. Sure, he was sore, but he had no idea why.
"I don't fully understand it myself, but Kenma says it's to do with being a synergist. They said you extended too much energy by causing that gun to explode and then having the train's defenses both aim and fire on their own." Akaashi didn't explain how Kenma knew about the exploded gun, so Yamaguchi had to assume the blond had remained conscious for long enough to explain their circumstances. "There's something you ought to know about that blond of yours, though. He's, well, you see… he's-"
A loud thump and subsequent groan sounded before Akaashi could finish his sentence. Rolling around on the floor, clutching his head, was Hinata, wrapped up in an almost comical swaddle of bandages. "Owwwww! My head! That hurt, dang it!"
Both Akaashi and Yamaguchi hurried over to help the shorter boy up and check him for further clumsily self-induced injuries. There were none, of course, simply a newly forming goose egg on Hinata's forehead. At the griping of Hinata, Kageyama also woke, complaining about the noise before seeing who was making it and smiling slightly.
Just as quick as he fell on the floor, Hinata bounded up and onto Kageyama's bed, grabbed him by the shoulders, and gave him a thorough shake, "You idiot! Why would you willingly go after me? We were so outnumbered! You could have died, Dummyama! Do you have any idea how worrying it was to see you and your frail human body get thrown in with me and roughed around?" Kageyama hadn't the decency to even look guilty or sorry as Hinata lectured him, instead he simply stared relievedly into the other's eyes.
As Hinata rambled on, ranting about Kageyama's recklessness and how dangerous their situation was, Kageyama grew more annoyed. His smile soured ever so slightly as his eyebrows furrowed. Eventually, he had enough, and to silence his loud partner, kissed him. "I went after you because I love you, dumbass. And there's no way in hell I'm just going to sit by in safety while you fight."
Hinata stilled and blinked rapidly in surprise, taking in the new information. Then, registering his position of being seated on Kageyama's lap, he blushed and buried his face in the other's chest. "Stupidyama, confessing to me before I could say the same to him. Hmpf."
Akaashi and Yamaguchi stood awkwardly to the side, waiting for the new couple to cease their sickly-sweet affections. Akaashi turned with a wide grin and mouthed, I knew it. The confessions had been a long time coming, of course, Kageyama and Hinata had been dancing around each other since Tauveriin, maybe earlier. Yamaguchi knew perfectly well how much of a pigtail puller Kageyama was, and he wouldn't be surprised to know that all the original bickering and arguing was poorly attempted flirting, at least on the tall boy's part. That didn't make it any more comfortable to be in the same room as the two as they coddled and fussed about each other.
A new, clearly annoyed, voice chimed in from the last occupied bed, his accent, articulate and sophisticated, like Yachi's; the blond boy from the Firefly Empire, "Goddess, can you two shut the hell up? Some of us are trying to sleep off injury here."
Hinata's face quickly soured as he scowled in the direction of the blond's bed, "Hey! Show a little gratitude, guy! We're the ones who saved your sorry butt anyway! Tadashi could've totally killed you, and instead, he saved your stupid life!"
The blond sat up in his bed and pulled the separating curtain back, glaring, or maybe squinting, at everyone in the room. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Where are my glasses? And where is this blasted train headed to?" Akaashi handed him the glasses, seemingly unbothered by the stranger's rudeness, and surreptitiously gestured to his slightly exposed collarbone. There, just barely peeking out from underneath the tattered cloth, were the antennas of a mechanical firefly. Whoever this guy was, he was important.
Yamaguchi stepped in before any of his injured comrades threw hands, "Hello, I'm Yamaguchi, those two are Hinata and Kageyama, and this is-"
"Akaashi Keiji, yes, we've met before." The blond interrupted, staring directly at Akaashi with a rather shocked expression. "You sure keep strange company, Akaashi-san. Do you still travel with that champion of yours?"
Akaashi's expression betrayed nothing, but as he spoke, the barest hints of nostalgia and unease bled into his voice, "Yes, Bokuto is still my partner, I'm shocked you remember me, little prince."
"Will you two stop talking in riddles and just explain who this blond weirdo is?" Kageyama grouched loudly, never one for formalities.
The blond rolled his eyes and spared a glance to Akaashi, who nodded, before he turned to face the rest of the group, "Prince Tsukishima Kei, I'd say it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but it's really not."
"Well. That- that, uh, throws a bit of a wrench in the plan, doesn't it?" Stuttered Yachi as she walked through the doorway, with the rest of the crew in tow, having just caught the tail end of the conversation.
"Damn, Yamaguchi! You really are just collecting blonde Fireflies left and right, huh?" teased Bokuto, unaware of, or perhaps indifferent to, the rising tension between the prince and everyone else.
"Right." Tsukishima said, clearly annoyed with Bokuto, "And what, pray tell, is this plan of yours that I have so effectively ruined?"
Everyone else looked to Yamaguchi, expecting him to be the delegator as he usually was with their other resident hostile tall person. Yamaguchi, in turn, shot a why me look at the group before turning to the prince, "Well, your, uh, highness, we, that is Kageyama and I, stumbled across your box, the stolen one, and-" The explanation took a long time, mostly due to the scrutinizing comments from Tsukishima and intermittent arguments between him and Kageyama or Hinata. By the time Yamaguchi finished, the prince reclined back in the bed, staring off in thought.
"Well, massive invasion of privacy aside, I suppose you did the right thing. We certainly stand a better chance with the Futakuchis in the know." Tsukishima begrudgingly said, although he mostly looked at Yamaguchi and Yachi as he spoke.
"Ye-yes well, um, can I, uh… What, exactly, is happening in the capital? We've sort of, um, lost all contact with the palace. Or, I have at least." Yachi shook nervously as she spoke, absolutely terrified by the sight of someone so politically her superior.
Tsukishima scoffed, "Haibuichi is a mess, that's what is happening. With every little thing that goes wrong, my parents only trust Daishou more. He has them convinced that the Iron Wall is planning on subsuming us to try and pull a full merger, where they come out on top. It's complete horse shit, of course, but they're eating it up." The prince rolled his eyes in annoyance, as if war was a simple political inconvenience rather than a life-shattering event, "Anyhow, I apparently became too big of a roadblock because Daishou had me kidnapped. We were headed down to the Slithering Isles until a band of raiders overtook the caravan and grabbed me as part of their cargo. The idiots thought I was some lord and wanted to ransom me."
"It's a super good thing, then, that Tadashi was nice enough to not kill you with his cool machine magic!" Exclaimed Hinata, as if that would make Tsukishima like any of them anymore.
Tsukishima side-eyed Yamaguchi, "Machine magic, right… Well, I would've been fine without your help; raiders are nothing to fight against, they just had me outnumbered, that's all."
Kuroo, who had been otherwise silent, made a sour face at that but chose not to comment on it, instead switching to his hospitable conductor expression, "Well, circumstances aside, we are honored to have you on the Nekarasi, prince Tsukishima. We'll transfer you to the closest possible train back to Dateko, where you should find relative safety. I'll organize an escort for you as well, just so you don't find yourself outnumbered again." So maybe Kuroo couldn't resist the subtle dig, oh well.
"What? No. I am not going to Dateko. I need to get back to Haibuichi and fix this mess." Tsukishima said, as if Kuroo were an idiot for suggesting he go anywhere else.
"Wuh, um, but Prince Tsukishima, won't going to the capital only bring you back to Daishou? He might just actually kill you this time. As a certified Firefly Agent, I must insist you take the safer option of Dateko." Yachi all but squeaked, desperate to not seem intimidated.
Tsukishima just glared at her, "And as your certified superior, I say I'm going back to Haibuichi. As for Daishou, I'd like to see him try and kill me. That yellow-bellied boot-kisser is nothing without his smoke and mirrors."
"Aside from killing Daishou, what do you even plan on doing at the capital? Your own family doesn't seem to trust your premonitions and advice; you can't affect much as yourself." Kenma finally spoke up, face as blank as ever but still clearly annoyed with the prince's attitude.
Tsukishima whipped around to Kenma, sizing them up, before sneering and holding up a faded leather-bound journal, "Yeah, well, I have evidence they can't very well deny this time. I'm not taking no as an answer. I'll get to Haibuichi one way or another. If you're so concerned with my wellbeing, I suggest you keep me safe and actually help me."
Yamaguchi kept his comments in opposition to Tsukishima's attitude to himself as he sat back down on his bed. There was no point in an argument with a prince anyway. Still, something just didn't sit right with him; Daishou clearly had plans for Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi was dead positive the snake would still try and carry them out. Not that the prince would listen to his concerns anyway, he seemed like a 'my way or the highway' kind of guy. Yamaguchi was not looking forward to traveling with him, especially considering he had been implicitly labeled the designated Tsukishima handler by everyone else. This would not be a fun few weeks.
