Loud laughter from beneath him woke Kageyama up the next day. Grumbling and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he peered down through the cluster of branches to find the reasoning behind that all-too-familiar laugh.
The dark haired man couldn't say he was surprised to see Hinata standing with Natsu, the redheads nearly identical little sister. She knew most of the places they frequented and often tried to find them if she heard rumours about any dangerous activities they'd been involved in, like the time Hinata had gotten a black eye when he got particularly cocky towards Wakatoshi.
Word was like wildfire in Cuervo, spreading quickly from house to house until everyone was in flames… Kageyama decided quickly that his brain was still too tired for metaphors. Long story short, Natsu had probably caught wind of their shenanigans from the previous day and was visiting to make sure they were alright.
With a heavy groan, Kageyama finally sat up from his slumped position against the tree. He was quick to put a hand on the branch beneath himself in order to keep his balance as he rolled his neck. Tree's were so damn uncomfortable… He could hear Hinata's loud voice from below; "Look at that! He's finally awake!"
It wasn't long before Kageyama had joined the siblings on the ground and the three of them chatted. The girl rambled on about how worried she was about them, how they should visit more often, how her door is always open, etc… Hinata, as usual, waved all her comments off. The redhead was too proud to accept help, especially from his little sister.
Kageyama had always thought it was a family trait. Natsu was quite reluctant for help as well, which was her reasoning for not leaving their mother when Shouyo had chosen to leave for an orphanage. While Kageyama's life in the home for lost boys was involuntary, Hinata's had been - more or less - a choice. A good choice, seeing as his mother was abusive and crude, but a choice nevertheless. Natsu refused to go searching for a girls home, claiming that she could 'handle mother.' It had always been quite a complicated situation, so Hinata never visited his sister unless their mother was out of the house.
The three of them chatted for hours. Apparently, after the events of the previous day, the downtown area of Cuervo was swarmed with the authorities. The price on their heads was high.
"With the amount their offering, I even thought about turning the two of you in myself!" Natsu laughed, her devilish grin nearly identical to the one Kageyama knew well from Shouyo. "You're lucky I love you both. I would have done it."
"Yeah, yeah! Whatever!" Hinata laughed, nudging his little sister playfully. She giggled and copied the motion.
Watching the two interact was… Heartwarming. Kageyama nearly smiled.
Suddenly, Natsu's smile was diminishing and a serious expression stole its place. "Jokes aside… What're you going to do?" She was staring at Shouyo, eyebrows tilted down in a sign of worry and uncertainty. "You… You can't stick around town. Not anymore. That new commander they hired, he's really got it out for the two of you. It's not safe."
Kageyama felt his lips turn down in distaste. He didn't like the idea of leaving town… He'd grown used to Cuervo, quirks and all, and didn't like the prospect of change. It was unsettling, to say the least, but as he peered towards his partner-in-crime he couldn't see any hint of negative feelings.
In fact, Hinata Shouyo was nearly beaming with unbridled excitement. "I've already been thinking about that!" he announced, "And I have a plan!"
Natsu and Kageyama watched in shocked curiosity as Hinata shoved a hand into his deep pants pocket and brought forth a rough-looking piece of parchment.
At the same time as Natsu asked, "What's that?" Kageyama was shouting, "You kept the stupid map?!"
Immediately, Hinata countered Kageyama with shouting of his own. "Well if I left it behind, the whole thing would have been for nothing!"
"When are we ever going to need that stupid map?" Kageyama asked through a growl, "It's useless and nearly cost us our lives!"
With a roll of his eyes, Hinata huffed. "They wouldn't have killed us, dummy. Whatever, my point is, the map is our ticket out of here!"
Natsu giggled, grabbing the map from her brother. "A map of the new world, eh?" she asked, reading the title on the parchment. "Just how do you plan on getting to this new world?"
"We follow the map!" Hinata's excitement was usually contagious, but currently, it was only serving to piss Kageyama off.
"It's a map of the new world, not to the new world," he deadpanned, arms crossed. "It only works if we're already there, dumbass."
Eyes blown wide, Shouyo looked to his sister for confirmation. With a tight smile - she was trying so hard not to laugh - she nodded in agreement to Tobio's statement. "He's right."
Hinata's disappointment took form in a loud groan, one that Kageyama rolled his eyes at. Natsu erupted into a fit of laughter, pushing the map back into Hinata's hands. The redheaded boy looked so disappointed, yet Kageyama couldn't find it in himself to feel sympathy for him. Obviously, they couldn't use that damn map for anything…
"Whatever," Shouyo finally muttered, shooting a glare at his still laughing sister. "Kageyama's supposed to make the plans anyways! It's not my fault mister-know-it-all hasn't offered an idea yet."
"Don't turn this on me dumbass!"
The trio continued on like that for a while more, bickering and laughing as they always had. After being the butt of one-too-many jokes, Shouyo ran off to walk ahead of them with an over dramatic pout. When he did, Natsu once again turned serious. "So," she directed her words to Kageyama, hushed enough that her brother wouldn't hear, yet loud enough to catch Tobio's attention, "Do you have a plan?"
Kageyama did have a plan, in fact, but he was hesitant to suggest it. He'd alway known they'd need to have a backup plan, just in case, but the one he'd thought of age ago was something he wasn't sure was even an option. He'd been hoping to never need to suggest it. "We could stole away on a ship."
He expected Natsu to giggle, thinking he was joking. Maybe then he could take it back… But she didn't. She looked just as serious, nodding as though considering the idea. Tobio knew that, if they followed through, the chances of the siblings ever seeing each other again would be slim. The idea made him visibly wince - despite their differences, the redheads were very close. Taking them away from each other could be catastrophic.
"It's not a very realistic idea," he noted when she'd remained silent. "The chances of getting caught are high, and I don't know if it's worth the risk of being thrown overboard-"
"It's a perfect idea." Natsu's certainty was surprising. "You need to get out of town. Getting far away quickly would be easy on a ship… I'm just not sure if Shouyo will do it."
The two of them watched Shouyo, who was still walking up ahead. His pout was gone, now replaced with a concentrated expression as he tried to catch a piece of fluff floating through the air in front of him. Kageyama sighed heavily. They both knew that if this was going to be the plan, they'd have to drag the boy kicking-and-screaming.
