"Hey! Ukai!" Ukai turned to see Sugawara running up to him from across the opposite side of the deck.

"Huh, what do you want, kid?"

Sugawara crossed his arms, "I'm not a kid anymore, cus if I'm a kid that makes you an old man." Ukai wrinkled his nose at Sugawara's small smirk.

Suga teased everyone on the ship but for some reason his favorite target was Ukai. Maybe because they were so different. He couldn't deny that much.

Sugawara was pretty, soft looking, he didn't much look like a harden warrior. Even Nishinoya, the smallest on the boat acted like more of a warrior. The only person who could top Sugawara in terms of softness was Asahi, maybe Takeda or Yamaguchi. "Guess what, Ukai, when we stop in port you're the one who gets to look after Kageyama while we're all away. Aren't you excited?"

"What? No!" Ukai growled, "Why me anyway!"

"I recommended you."

"And how can you be sure I won't just throw the kid back in the ocean!"

"Takeda wouldn't like that very much, you know how he can get sometimes."

Ukai felt a shiver roll up his spine and scowled harder, "I hate you."

"You don't have to thank me. I was happy to let you know."

He probably had been happy, "I'm in no way thanking you, brat! I'm surprised you even wanted to leave that kid's side. You seemed pretty worried about him earlier." Ukai might've looked like he was smiling but he was just bearing his teeth.

"Huh? Oh, well, that was earlier. I'm not as worried anymore, he seems to be a bit better. You better keep an eye on him though, he keeps trying to kick off the blankets like an idiot."

"… How far are we from port?"

"We should be there by tomorrow morning."

"And why are we stopping so soon? Didn't we get everything we need back at the south pole?"

"Yeah, well, it's not exactly a supplies stop. More like an experience."

"An experience?" Ukai asked doubtfully.

"Yachi's never been to an Earth Kingdom town before, or anywhere outside the south pole. She was reminding Noya and Tanaka of that and you know how those two get."

Unfortunately he did. "Haven't we already stalled this trip enough?"

"Apparently not. There isn't much we can do about it." Sugawara shrugged.

Ukai raised his eyebrows, "You hate making unnecessary stops. You didn't even want to go back to the south pole because it would delay us so I don't see why you're so happy."

"I'm not happy that we have to stop. I'm happy that you have to babysit and not me for a change."

Ukai scoffed, "When do you babysit."

"Besides all the damn time? Never."

He grunted at that, because while Sugawara could be just as chaotic as Noya and Tanaka could be he also was the one that put a stop to their antics most of the time. The only person who might've done it more would be Daichi.

"Whatever." He grumbled. "I still don't see why I have to watch him."

"Well, besides Takeda you're the only responsible adult on board, and Takeda always goes into town with us."

"I thought you weren't a kid anymore."

"I'm a kid when it's convenient." Sugawara said cheekily. "Anyway, don't stress too much about it Ukai. Surely you can handle one unconscious kid. Or is that too much for you?"

Ukai rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "It's not too much, it's just annoying. And you conveniently forgot to mention the kid is Fire Nation and a firebender."

"I suppose you're right." Sugawara shrugged.

"Well why can't Asahi watch him! He never leaves that stupid clinic."

"Asahi actually does need some stuff from town. You know some things just can't be found in the south pole. Earth Kingdom medicine is one of them."

"Ugh, fine!" Ukai had run out of arguments and resigned himself to his fate.

"So when do you think Yamayama-kun will wake up?" Hinata asked, resettling the blankets over Kageyama when he tried to kick them off again.

Asahi didn't know why the little airbender wanted to be inside the medical room and help keep Kageyama's blankets on so Asahi could work, but he'd offered. Asahi wasn't one to refuse. "Yamayama-kun?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what I decided to call him. Do you like it?"

Asahi didn't know why it mattered if he liked it, but he nodded anyway, offering the orange ball of energy a small smile. "It's cute." He admitted.

"I know." Hinata sounded way too happy about it as he sat on the chair Suga had once occupied, swinging his legs back and forth. "So how long have you been doing medicine?"

"A while. I don't remember how long exactly, but for a while."

"That's cool. I kind of want to learn medicine, but Tsukki said I was too clumsy and messy."

"That's not true." Asahi said even though it kind of was. "You're just a little young." Even though Asahi was probably even younger than Hinata when he'd started.

"I guess so. When did you start learning? Was it when you were sixteen? Eighteen?"

"… I'm eighteen right now."

"Oh." Hinata frowned and then said, "Oh."

"Yeah."

The room went silent after that, until Kageyama whined and tried to kick off his covers again. Hinata secured them once more though.

"So how old is Yamayama-kun do you think?"

"Oh, Suga mentioned he was fourteen earlier."

Hinata nodded in acceptance before his eyes widened, "Wait, fourteen! You've got to be kidding. This isn't fair!"

"Uh… what's not fair exactly?"

"He's younger than me and already taller! That's not fair! It means I'm the oldest fifteen-year-old on the boat but I'm the shortest!"

Asahi looked confused, "That's what you're concerned about?"

"Well yeah! I mean come on. I thought he was sixteen! He has a bit of a baby face but so do I and he's so much taller."

"You… really hate your height huh?"

"It's not that I hate it, it's just that everyone always assumes I'm eleven or twelve. It's not as if Yamayama-kun would ever be mistaken for twelve."

"From what Suga tells me he has a pretty immature attitude so he might."

"Hm… but if you didn't talk to him you'd never know that. All someone has to do is look at me to assume that." Hinata crossed his arms and pouted.

Asahi hummed and turned away from Hinata, back to his work. "You're very casual when talking about the Fire Nation."

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"Well it's just… out of all of us, I thought you'd be the angriest at them, considering."

"Considering what?"

Asahi frowned. Did the young boy really not know what he was getting at? Hinata stared at him with the utmost innocence in his gaze, so Asahi assumed he didn't. "Well considering they caused the genocide of your people."

Hinata froze, his face all scrunched up in confusion. "Genocide?"

Asahi was starting to get a little nervous at Hinata's cluelessness, not really knowing how to explain. "Hinata… how long were you in that ice burg?"

"I don't know. Maybe a couple days?"

"Hinata, the airbenders died out one hundred years ago."

Hinata was silent. "Are you serious?" the young boy asked skeptically.

"I wouldn't lie about something like this." Asahi couldn't imagine lying to anyone ever, unless the person was Fire Nation of course. And not even he would joke to a Fire Nation soldier about their entire people getting brutally murdered, much less this young airbender.

"One hundred years." Hinata whispered like he couldn't believe it. He probably couldn't. "I… you—"

He was cut off by Kageyama, who had opened his eyes and was now struggling to sit up. "Um," Hinata trailed off and stared at Kageyama who was also staring at him, his eyes bleary, but obviously aware enough to recognize his surroundings.

"What the fuck." Was the first thing he said.

Asahi didn't know what he was expecting out of the prince. Maybe more manners? Apparently he shouldn't have.

Kageyama put a hand to his head, wincing and he took a long look around, obviously processing, but processing very slowly, until his eyes landed on Hinata and Asahi.

He seemed to wake more when his eyes settled on Hinata and Hinata alone.

Before Asahi even had time to blink Kageyama was on his feet. It wasn't fair that a sick person could move so quickly when Asahi couldn't move that fast when he was perfectly healthy.

He snapped out of it when Kageyama sent a blast of fire at Hinata. That wasn't good. This was a wooden ship and if it caught fire things would go downhill very quickly.

"Whoa," Hinata nimbly dodged the flame, "no need to attack me, Bakageyama."

"WHAT did you call me!" Kageyama hissed and sent another blast of fire.

"Uh, Bakageyama. You know, cus 'baka' means idiot?"

"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!" Kageyama sent another blast. "I've been searching for you for so long and you turn up here? Now! Unbelievable." He hissed.

"Uh, I'm flattered you've been looking for me, but I don't feel that way about you."

"Don't be ridiculous, I don't care about you except that you'll be a wonderful trophy to bring back to my father, Avatar!"

"Avatar," Hinata chuckled nervously, glancing around, "What Avatar? No Avatar here."

"Don't play dumb with me, I'm not a fool! I can't believe I've been searching for an idiot all this time! And a child no less! You can't be more than eleven!"

Hinata groaned, "I'm fifteen. And from what I hear prince Bakageyama, I'm older than you!"

"You're WHAT!"

Asahi should be moving to get help, but now that there was no fire being tossed around, the argument was a little entertaining. "Oh come on you guys, stop arguing." Asahi said in an attempt to calm them down.

"This is NOT an argument you peasant, this is a battle between two warriors, and fated enemies!"

Hinata giggled a little, "You're so dramatic."

"I'm not dramatic!"

"You're a little dramatic." Asahi offered.

"Fuck you!" Kageyama shouted. "You're coming with me," he grabbed Hinata's wrist and started to drag him off, swaying on his feet for a moment before righting himself.

"You look kind of pale Yamayama-kun."

"That's prince Kageyama to you."

Asahi watched them leave. It only occurred after they left that maybe he should've gone to say something to someone else. But as he looked around the cozy room he couldn't think of leaving it. He already didn't want to go into town tomorrow so he definitely didn't want to go out today. Besides, everyone barged in enough that he was never lonely. Even Daichi had come in earlier that day to get his shoulder checked.

It wasn't bad thanks to the clothes, but he still had to take it easy and come get burn salve every day for a while.

Come to think of it he should probably make more.

"Ow, Bakageyama, let go of me. You're being mean!" Sugawara heard a voice whine, and he recognized Hinata's.

"You shut up!"

And who could that be but the ever-rude Fire Nation prince. Suga rolled his eyes. Why was he always stuck babysitting? Why couldn't Ukai or Noya or Yamaguchi do it?

He ignored the glaring problems with that seeing as Ukai was too angry and strict and might end up actually hurting the kid. Tomorrow would be interesting. Noya was too reckless and the two together would probably end with the ship on fire. And Yamaguchi didn't know how to handle people yelling at him or how to put his foot down.

And Daichi and Takeda, the only other people responsible enough and patient enough to be able to take on the job, were too busy for such things.

That left him.

And he hated it. But it wasn't like he could pick someone else.

Sugawara sighed and walked towards the voices, ending up in front of them.

Kageyama was stomping down the hall, dragging a whining Hinata after him. "Tobio, you're awake." He used the first name just to piss the younger boy off.

It worked too. "I'm Kageyama! Don't call me that. Only my stupid, annoying brother calls me that!" and then he paused for a moment before adding, "And his second in command." sounding much less annoyed with that person. "And yes, I'm awake. Don't sound so happy about it."

"Fine. I hope you stay asleep next time. Now that I've sounded less happy, why don't you tell me what you're doing with our little airbender."

"Don't pretend you don't know!" he shouted. "This isn't just some 'airbender' this is the Avatar. And if you must know, I'm capturing him!"

Sugawara raised an eyebrow, "You must be very sick to think you could accomplish such a thing with a boat full of enemies."

Kageyama wrinkled his nose and bared his teeth in a snarl. "Let me through or else!"

"Or else what? You going to firebend at me? You couldn't even beat me the first time, and you were completely healthy then." Sugawara ignored that the fight was probably a fluke, it wasn't as if Kageyama knew that.

The boy only growled at him however and tried to force his way past by just barreling into him.

Suga was caught by surprise and stumbled back, Kageyama tearing past him and towards the door to the top deck. "Kageyama!"

The shout actual startled him into stopping for a moment, and he whipped around to face him. "If you go up there right now, they are going to slaughter you." Sugawara wasn't kidding and by the look Kageyama gave him, he didn't doubt what Suga said. "Why don't you come back to the infirmary and you can try again another time." He suggested.

"Or you could, you know, not try again." Hinata said hopefully.

"Okay… fine, I'll try again later."

Suga let out tension he didn't know he had, his shoulders relaxing, and he let out a breath of relief. "That's good, Kageyama, let's go back to the infirmary, okay?"

"Fine." Kageyama bit out, stomping back over, letting Hinata's wrist go and crossing his arms.

As they started back toward the clinic, Kageyama's attitude dropped and he hunched his shoulders, stumbling a little from time to time.

Sugawara put a hand on Kageyama's forehead and sighed, "You're burning up, you shouldn't be out of bed."

Kageyama rolled his eyes and the winced from pain, but Suga didn't feel sorry for him. "Whatever, we're going there, now aren't we?"

Sugawara let out a growl of frustration, then shouted, "You shouldn't have gotten up in the first place! You should be resting, even though you're too much of a damn brat to do what's good for you! Anyone on this ship could've killed you a million times over, so be fucking grateful that not only did we let you live, but are taking care of you, giving you our clothes, giving you our food, using our medicine on you! We don't owe you shit, so stop acting entitled."

Sugawara didn't usually curse, and it was even rarer for him to curse at kids, but this one was too rude and entitled for his own good and seeing his expression gave Suga some kind of sadistic pleasure.

Then, to Sugawara's annoyance, he opened his mouth again, "I never asked you to save me! I—"

"Doesn't matter if you asked or not. Fact is we did, so be grateful you brat."

Kageyama turned away from him and glared at the ground. Thankfully, he didn't say anything else. Suga might have punched him if he had.

Kageyama was angry. That was the only way he could describe this feeling. He was hot all over, it felt like his insides would explode, and he had this pounding headache that wouldn't go away. More than that he wanted to reach over and snap Sugawara's neck.

He wished he could, but he remembered the waterbender's movements from their first fight. He was faster than anyone else he'd ever fought before. And now, he felt sick, so his movements were more sluggish than usual, like he was going in slow motion. And even if he managed to kill Suga there were so many more Water Tribe up there, and when they found out he killed their crewmate, it would be all over for him.

Besides, he didn't actually want to kill Suga, he knew it wasn't just the fact there was more Water Tribe and his slowness stopping him. What he did want was to punch something. Hit it over and over and over until he let out all his pent-up frustration.

Sugawara raised his hand up again, out of the corner of his eye this time and Kageyama flinched, expecting a hit. He was angry with him, after all, and Kageyama could admit that maybe he deserved it. He had been a bit of a brat after all.

Sugawara only pressed it to his forehead again, however, and then his cheek, "You're extremely warm. Is this how it usually is for firebenders or something?" he huffed.

"Uh…" Kageyama ended up just shrugging.

They arrived at the infirmary at last, Sugawara pushing open the large, wooden door and guiding him inside. "Asahi."

Sugawara's voice made the much bigger and older looking man turn with a nervous smile. "Oh, Hi Suga," He gave a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me or anyone else Kageyama woke up as soon as it happened? And why didn't you chase after him?"

"I knew you guys would stop him. Besides," he pointed at himself, "old and slow remember?"

Sugawara narrowed his eyes and then rolled them, sighing. After, he turned back to Kageyama, "Alright prince, back in bed."

Remembering Suga's words from earlier, Kageyama did what he was told for once and covered himself with the blanket when Sugawara gave him a hard stare. Even though the covers were too heavy and too hot for his liking.

"Okay, I'm going to go get some broth now, I'll be back. You better not cause trouble Kageyama."

Kageyama grumbled unhappily, rolling his eyes but other than that, settled down.

If he couldn't escape with the Avatar, he'd just have to find other ways to be rebellious.

As soon as Sugawara left, Kageyama threw off the blankets and sat up. "You know, he's not going to be happy when he gets back and you're not in those blankets."

"I'll put them on before he comes back in."

Kageyama was a little brother, he was used to quickly hiding anything he wasn't supposed to be doing two milliseconds before his older brother entered the room.

"You're pretty skilled at being mischievous, aren't you?"

"I'm a little brother, I get away with pretty much everything on my ship. Even though most of the time I know how to not get caught."

"Like when you snuck on the boat?"

Kageyama glared, even though he knew Asahi was only teasing him a little. He was used to that too.

"Sorry, sorry," Asahi laughed slightly.

"Aren't you supposed to be nervous." Kageyama growled.

"You don't feel all that threatening."

Kageyama wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not.

He then heard footsteps coming down the hall, and quick as a flash, Kageyama yanked up the covers and laid down again right as Suga walked in with his so-called food.

Asahi only gave him an amused look, before giving Suga a timid smile. "Here you go, you better eat all of it." Sugawara said.

Kageyama wasn't sure if that was a threat, but he didn't like the tone. It was disrespectful, and it made him angry again. He was not some child like everyone else on this boat. He was a Fire Nation prince, and this Water Tribe peasant could not tell him what to do. "I don't have to do anything I—"

"Eat it." Two words, and Sugawara gave him a smile that for some reason sent shivers down his spine. Surely, he'd faced worse than the waterbender, but that look made him doubt it for just a moment.

So he carefully took the soup and sniffed it, wondering if it was poison.

Then he figured that it wasn't anything he wasn't expecting, so he took a sip.

Turns out it was something unexpected. The soup tasted awful. Like sweat socks dipped in mud, and he knew that because he'd tasted it before. Oikawa wasn't the best older brother when they were younger.

He spit it out, right into Suga's face, narrowly missing his eye.

Asahi snorted and then quickly coughed to hide it.

Kageyama held the bowl and shrunk back from Suga. Kageyama had done many things like this to Oikawa before, spit in his face, coughed on him, 'accidentally' pushed him into the mud, even puked all over him before.

But Sugawara wasn't exactly Oikawa, and he probably wouldn't be as forgiving. He vaguely thought of it like if he were to spit into father's face. That would NOT end well.

Sugawara took a deep breath and sighed, wiping the soup away with his forearm. "Come on Kageyama, it's not that bad." He snatched the soup from Kageyama and took a large drink of it.

Kageyama saw the moment Sugawara tasted it because his entire face changed. He looked like he wanted to spit it out, and then he looked like he might puke, and then he swallowed it, forcing a smile as he did so.

"See, not that bad." Suga said, coughing a little.

Kageyama stared at him blank-faced and crossed his arms.

"Okay, fine, never mind. Don't drink it, it'll probably make you sicker." Suga set the bowl on the end table and sighed. "It's getting to be about that time of day anyway."

Asahi paled. "What?"

Sugawara smirked, "That time of day."

"What time of day?"

"Bedtime." Sugawara says. "Asahi's least favorite time of the day because he has to leave the clinic and get some rest."

Asahi laughed nervously, "Nonsense, I have to stay here to watch over Kageyama, he can't be left alone."

"Then I'll watch him Asahi, you've been working hard all day."

"Oh no, I'm sure you've worked harder." Asahi said.

"No, I would never make you miss out on sleep, you poor thing, you must be exhausted. After all, you're already so old and slow, I couldn't possibly trouble you with looking after this brat."

Asahi glared, hating the words used against him when he'd just found a way to make them work in his favor.

"I would actually rather have Asa—"

Sugawara slapped a hand over Kageyama's mouth. "Aw, Kageyama must be so tired he can't even think straight."

Kageyama wanted to tell him he didn't think gay either, but he couldn't because Suga had his hand clasped too tightly over his lips.

"You win this round." Asahi said, slowly getting up.

"I do indeed."

Asahi slowly backed away, opening the door to the clinic with a dragged out creak and then he closed it, again with a creak and then a click.

Only when he'd left did Suga let go and Kageyama could breathe properly. "He kids himself." Suga said. "I win every round."

"I heard that!"

After what happened with Kageyama, Hinata decided to go upstairs, onto the deck with everything else. He was caught between deciding to focus on what Asahi had said about the airbenders and ignoring the information completely.

The second option sounded way easier to him, but it also sounded like denial. And if he denied that the airbenders were dead, it would be the same as thinking Asahi lied, and Hinata didn't want to think that either.

Just as he opened the door out it seemed someone had been about to come down. The door banged against them because Hinata heard a smack and then a whine of pain.

He peeked out from behind the door to see Yachi, on her knees clutching her nose and Hinata immediately started to panic. "Yachi-chan, are you okay!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She insisted, and finally looked up, her nose red and her eyes watering slightly, but other than that she seemed okay.

"Sorry." Hinata said, feeling guilty.

"It's okay, I mean it could've happened to you if I'd been there first and you might've fallen down the stairs."

Hinata supposed that was true but, "I'm still sorry." He rubbed the back of his head and then offered her a hand up.

She took it and let him pull her to her feet. "I thought you were helping out Asahi-san with Kageyama-san?" Yachi said.

"Oh yeah. He woke up, actually. Said some crazy stuff too and tried to kidnap me!"

"Kidnap you?" Yachi looked horrified. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Suga-san stopped him and they went back to the infirmary together. He looked mad though. Actually both of them did. Oh well, I'm sure it's fine."

"Yeah… I mean, we didn't hear any shouting really."

"That's true." Hinata said. "So yeah, I'm sure they're fine. Anyway, are you excited about stopping in port tomorrow?"

Fire prince apparently forgotten, Yachi's eyes lit up, "Yes, I'm so excited! But also super nervous, I mean, what if something goes wrong?"

"It'll be fine." Hinata assured her. "I've been to the Earth Kingdom before. It's busy there, but super fun, and a lot of people are really nice!"

But that was a hundred years ago, he told himself and winced.

"Yeah, you're probably right, there's nothing to worry about." Yachi said with a small smile. Anyway, I—"

She was cut off by Tsukishima who at that moment decided to walk up. Hinata knew he shouldn't dislike Tsukishima so much, but he did. Something about him just got on his nerves. It was probably his personality. Hinata was also annoyed he'd basically tried to kill Yamayama for nothing more than where he was born.

It was hard to keep reminding himself that things were different now. In this day, the Fire Nation was an enemy of the world. Even still, Kageyama wasn't the Fire Nation, he was just a kid like Hinata.

"Is this guy bothering you?"

The question was obviously directed at Yachi. The question only confirmed Hinata's dislike. His big, stupid glasses. And his stupid, blonde hair too. Hinata knew he shouldn't hate someone for their appearance, but this guy just looked like a butthead.

"Oh, no, of course he's not bothering me!" Yachi said, glancing from Hinata to Tsukishima. "Besides, it isn't as if he's the Fire Nation boy on the boat, so how could he be bothering me?"

Tsukishima shrugged, "He just looks like the bothering type."

"You're the only one being a bother." Hinata said, crossing his arms immaturely with a pout.

Tsukishima wrinkled his nose and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, you human tangerine."

"Saltyshima!"

Tsukishima ignored the insult and stalked off to go bother someone else.

Hinata just glared after him but didn't say anything else. "Sorry about him." Yachi murmured, looking a little embarrassed. "I guess he just doesn't like you."

"Probably because I convinced Suga-san to save Yamayama-kun."

"Yeah, that's probably it." Yachi admitted, turning to stare out at the open sea.

The sun was setting, night falling, and the stars rising. A cool breeze had picked up during their travels. Not the icy biting air that had been at the south pole, but just a cool breeze. "You know," Yachi said, breaking the silence between them, startling him, "this is my first time this far from home."

"Really?" Hinata didn't even try to hide his surprise.

She smiled slightly at him and nodded, starting to walk closer to the edge of the boat. He followed a step or two behind her until they were both leaning against the edge, staring out at the water.

"Yeah. I actually snuck on the boat and stowed away. If I hadn't been here, Kageyama-san probably wouldn't have even gotten caught."

"And do you think that would be a good or bad thing?"

"Bad?" Yachi paused. "Good maybe? I don't know." She sighed. "It happened the way it did for a reason I guess, so I'm not going to complain."

Hinata nodded. "Yeah, that's probably the best idea." He wanted to continue the conversation, but he wasn't sure how. This was getting a little too deep right now for him and he wasn't sure what to say.

Thankfully, Tanaka saved him. "Oi, newbies, it's bedtime. Be thankful you don't have to keep watch tonight."

"Yes sir Tanaka-senpai!" they both said, almost giggling at how elated Tanaka looked when being called 'senpai'.

Kageyama did not understand these people. It was barely dark and Sugawara was already nodding off in his chair. Kageyama rolled his eyes. He wasn't even tired and he was the sick one here. "How do you live with yourself." Kageyama spat.

"What are you going on about now you little brat."

"How are you already tired, it's barely dark outside."

Sugawara sighed, "You're not the one who had to deal with your temper tantrums all day and you aren't the one who had to haul some idiot Firebender on board."

Kageyama glared at the temper tantrums part before his eyes widened, "Wait, there's another firebender here!"

Sugawara blinked sleep from his eyes and smiled lightly, shaking his head, "You're such an idiot."

"No I'm not!"

"Of course you're not." Suga murmured. "Go to sleep now, brat."

Kageyama wasn't going to go to sleep, probably not for several hours, but he didn't say anything else and rolled over. He half wondered if he should kick off the covers but it was probably too risky. Suga could wake up in the middle of the night and see.

He hated lying under the covers. It was hot and stuffy and he hated it with a burning passion.

Sugawara woke up because his head fell onto the edge of Kageyama's bed and because someone cried out.

The next cry was his own because he was startled and his head was now throbbing with pain. "What!" Sugawara stood up, glancing around and moved to get a match so he could see what was going on.

Only when he tried to move did he notice something was making it almost impossible. He tugged harder only for the something to tighten around his arm. Sugawara groaned, everything was so dark he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face much less what was holding him.

So he had to rely on touch. Sugawara felt around where he knew the something on his arm was and felt fingers.

Woken up to screams, a dark room, fingers. He tried to tell himself that wasn't terrifying. "Sugawara-san."

At the voice he relaxed a little. It must've been Kageyama holding his arm. He wasn't sure why that calmed him down because the boy could literally light his arm on fire if he so felt the urge, but Suga had been thinking it was someone else who'd been able to sneak on to the boat.

He pictured a creepy, grinning face with dirt in between their teeth and big black eyes that stared into his soul. "Sugawara-san!"

"Oh, right, yes?"

"Um, could you light a match?"

"Well I would go get some but your death grip is stopping me."

"… Can I firebend?"

Sugawara thought back to the lighting his arm on fire, but also knew Kageyama probably wouldn't ask permission to do something like that. "Alright. But only enough so that we can see." Suga said cautiously.

Sugawara heard something and then the room was lit with a small spark of flame, that Sugawara almost thought was scarier than complete darkness, because it cast weird shadows everywhere.

Maybe he should've let Asahi take this job.

Kageyama was sitting up, the blankets off, and had his face buried in his knees.

"Sugawara-san, I know you don't like me but," Kageyama paused and then said, "never mind."

Sugawara was instantly irritated and gritted his teeth to keep from telling Kageyama he'd like him a whole lot less if he didn't finish his fucking thought. But he held it back like a responsible babysitter should. "I don't dislike you." He murmured instead, "What was that noise?"

"What noise?" Kageyama said it way too fast, and Suga knew that he knew exactly what that sound had been.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Oh… well, it's nothing, it was just a nightmare so yeah. Sorry I woke you up."

"Are you sorry because you woke me up or are you sorry because you wished I hadn't seen you in the sorry state you're in now?"

Kageyama went quiet for a few moments, "The second one," he admitted.

Suga stared at Kageyama, who once again looked far too much like a child for Sugawara's own good. "Well… do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

Kageyama shook his head. "If you want to, I just… can you tell me a story. Tooru does it for me."

Sugawara didn't know why Kageyama wanted that but tried to give Kageyama a smile, "Alright, fine. But you have to lay down first." Sugawara was so tired he missed that Kageyama said 'Tooru' instead of 'Oikawa'.

Kageyama laid down as he was told and the fire went out, leaving the room in complete darkness. He didn't pull up the blankets, Sugawara could tell because there was no sound of Tobio going to do so. He didn't say anything about it. "What kind of story."

"Any kind."

Sugawara took that with a grain of salt though because something told him he would not like the story of his nation getting obliterated like a lot of the other kids did when they still liked him to tell stories. "Alright." And Sugawara started his story about something random.

He would tell the story until he was nodding off, only to be awoken a couple minutes later by Kageyama's, "And then?"

Eventually they both must've fallen asleep, because he woke up the next morning with no more 'and then's' whispered in the dark that made his heart stop for a few seconds each time.

The next person who said 'and then' was going to be slapped.

A/N I don't really like how this chapter turned out, but this is kind of just a filler anyway. Some more interesting things should be happening next time with the Earth Kingdom and everything. Hope you guys enjoyed, as always reviews are love!