Level Pair; Day Six 2/3
A good friend is a connection to life, a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse
Kageyama is taking them away from the river.
Shouyou was right, his sprained wing joint is doing better— marginally. He has to grudgingly admit that the redhead was correct and all those exercises he's been going through five times a day have really loosened it up. That's not to say it's back to normal… the stupid thing still hurts and it definitely lets him know if he makes a wrong move. But it hadn't even been a concern when he'd been jarred awake this morning by Hinata's screech.
He'd snapped awake so fast and was instantly looking for his companion in such a frenzy, his heart still skips a beat when he thinks about it now. The only thing he'd really determined was that someone had his redheaded shrimp and Hinata was in trouble. When the second screech split the air, he never noticed his feet leave the ground. His mind was so scattered with panic and lingering confusion borne of the remnants of drowsiness that his thought process consisted of 'Find Hinata.' Exclusively.
He never paused to consider whether the redhead's assailant would be one or fifty people, or that it might be no one at all. He'd never bothered to come up with any type of plan or strategy. When he'd found him and realized what was actually going on when Hinata had pointed out the sentry silhouette, he'd mentally freefallen for several seconds before he felt fury.
Honestly, it wasn't just at Hinata… actually, not really at Hinata much at all, but he was the person in front of him when he lost his temper. It hadn't even really been anger so much as the backlash of rampant, mind-numbing fear. He'd snapped at him and quickly regretted it as the redhead's excited expression had fallen. And then Hinata's self-depreciation had bled through his words more than the he'd realized and it had made Kageyama want to cringe, his entire chest tightening painfully.
Useless.
Shouyou thought he was useless. It had made him angry all over again but with that uncomfortable knowledge in his head this time, he'd collared his ire in a stranglehold, but it wasn't quite enough to curtail all notion of rebuke and he'd firmly informed the redhead where he stood on that particular matter.
But the smaller boy's mood swing in the immediate wake of it did set Kageyama quite off balance. It was as if that morning's scare had never even happened. Hinata was quieter than he'd have considered normal, but his buoyant personality seemed to have returned and Kageyama had no idea how it had happened given that he'd all but verbally thrashed him that morning.
The smaller redhead is always surprising him. It's always been this way— if Kageyama expected one reaction, there was a fifty-fifty chance that Shouyou would do something the complete opposite. And it's always baffled him. He can't help but watch Hinata for any clues at the shift as he picks his way through the underbrush ahead of him. He's shoving his way through the bushes and shrubs and Kageyama is focused on his back where his wings used to be with frustration because he can't seem to figure Hinata out.
And Hinata disappears out of sight with a yelp.
Kageyama's thoughts fracture and his limbs leap to life. He's blowing through those bushes in a heartbeat just like this morning, needing to get a visual back on the redhead. But his pulse and nerves are humming for no reason. Hinata sits in a little gully where cattails and swampgrasses grow in three inches of standing water. He's wet again and Kageyama hears him swear under his breath. It makes the corner of his mouth twitch as he drops down beside him and pulls him back to his feet, even as he takes a deep breath to steady his reaction to losing sight of him.
"You are sure this is the right way? I thought you said you knew where we were when you went up for a peek this morning." Hinata complains and Kageyama helps him up the other side of the little washout with a scowl.
"I do. The river we've been following is the Torono. The Karasuno flows into it not much further upstream and our rookery isn't that far beyond that." He murmurs defensively.
Hinata had suggested that since his wing was functioning again that he try getting a bearing and a heading of which way to go. He had and while he supposes he shouldn't be surprised with how far they've come, they are off course a bit and still probably a good day's hard push before they'll be into rookery territory where most major threats can safely be disregarded. They should actually be hitting the Karasuno river soon and he thinks he might just be able to hear it not too far off.
"Kageyama."
Hinata's hand finds his wrist with a tension that makes him pause once they crest the other side of the gully.
"I'm pretty sure there's something out here."
Kageyama blinks before starting forward once more.
"It's been following us since mid morning." He says lowly and Hinata looks at him with a questioning glance. Honestly, Kageyama is surprised it's taken him this long to notice. "I'm not sure what it is, but it knows we are here."
The redhead's almond eyes dart out around them again, searching intently.
"Is that why you've set a blistering pace?" He asks lightly but Kageyama sees the tension at the corner of his mouth. The taller boy nods.
"It's not really doing anything; just following. If we can get into range of our rookery, we should be okay."
Hinata's head tilts slightly.
"I think it's a cat." He says mildly.
Kageyama turns toward him with his own inquisitive glance but doesn't break stride.
"Why's that?"
"I think I saw an ear. And it has gold eyes." He says.
Well, his vision isn't failing him, Kageyama muses. He'd only gotten the impression of a shadow over a hill a few times.
"So it's a gold cat?" He asks and boosts Hinata over a large fallen tree.
"No." He grunts before dropping on the other side while Kageyama bats his wings twice to reach the same point, his one wing offering only minimal protest. "It's black. It's eyes are gold."
Kageyama doubts the wisdom of carrying on this conversation with a cat wandering around since they have stellar hearing but then again, it hasn't attacked them yet. And he has to think that Hinata's known it's been around for at least a little while now with how calm this exchange is. He's willing to trust Hinata's intuition; he probably has more insight than Kageyama does in any case.
The feline keeps pace with them for another half hour before they reach the Karasuno River. The sun is starting to drop in the sky, but Kageyama is reluctant to stop. They already have one thing tailing them and he doesn't want to take any chances.
"We have to cross the river don't we."
He looks over at Hinata to see his face a bit pinched, his gaze focused on the moving water. Kageyama glances across, his limbs itching and he wishes they weren't stopped here like this. They are backed up against a river with some cat behind them… it's a good ambush opportunity.
"Yeah… rookery territory is less than a day away on the other side."
"Kageyama."
There's a hitch in the redhead's voice, the slightest waver, that makes Kageyama turn back to him with more serious attention.
"I don't want to go in the water." He says quietly, his almond eyes never leaving the river. And for an instant, Kageyama is annoyed.
"You've been in and out of the water constantly the last five days and now you don't want to get wet?" He asks incredulously.
"It's not that. And we were never in anything over a few inches." He replies, melancholy filtering into his tone and Kageyama looks at him closer.
His jaw is a bit too tight, his shoulders pulled a little inward. His eyes follow the small swirls in the water with rapt focus and really, his face is quite pale. It hits Kageyama like a fist to the gut.
Hinata is afraid.
"Are you ok?" He asks stupidly, because he's obviously not.
"I guess. I just… I don't want to go in the water." He finally looks away and to a seedling by his feet, his hands menacing the bottom of his shirt. "I didn't know if I was going to come back up last time." He says.
It is a blatant reminder that this whole mess is leaving lasting mental scars, not just physical, and Kageyama is quick to try to ease his discomfort.
"I'll carry you."
The redhead looks up at him in surprise.
"But your wing—"
"Will be fine the fifty feet across the river." He cuts him off, neatly hijacking his agitated thought.
"Are you sure?" He asks and he looks like that uncertain little kid who had followed Noya into training that first time that Kageyama remembers so well.
"Yeah. Let's go."
He pulls him forward and reaches around to secure a solid hold under his arms and around his chest. Hinata doesn't protest but he does tense up.
"Why did you take the river before, anyway? You had to have known where you were headed?" He asks to distract him as he starts moving his wings.
His shoulders tense as he beats them harder. It's been a long time since he's flown supporting an entire other person like this so it takes a moment and a lot more effort before they start to rise. Hinata's hands find a death grip on his arms as they leave the ground.
"It seemed like the best option at the time." He murmurs, his gaze firmly fixed below them as they leave the tree cover and breach the open gap over the river. "I figured if he was anything like us, he wasn't going in after me and well… I didn't really have wings anymore to hinder me." He says and suddenly Kageyama is sorry he brought it up.
"It was awful. I couldn't right myself, I kept hitting tree branches underwater, and my shirt got snagged on one at one point, too. I didn't think I would make it."
Kageyama doesn't say any more since he's already dredged up one nightmare… and the opposite bank is only another twenty feet away but, man, his wings and back are starting to burn.
He is surprised it takes this much effort to carry the smaller boy; he's done plenty of weighted flight drills and Hinata really isn't heavy at all so this shouldn't be that hard. They'd even done deadweight carries, but there had always been rope that secured them to their dangling counterpart, not just the cumbersome hold like he has with the redhead now. And perhaps most critical of all, he'd also not been injured, sleep deprived, and surviving off a severely limited vegan diet for six days either, he reminds himself.
He's losing altitude and is ridiculously relieved when the rocks of the opposite bank slide by beneath him. He folds his wings and drops them on the bank just outside the moving water's reach, his lungs pulling in heavy breaths and his wings and shoulders pulsing with a burning tightness from the effort. And his one wing is sending him zinging reminders that it isn't really healed yet.
"There." He says as he releases the redhead, but he's out of breath. The whole thing lasted maybe twenty seconds but it feels like it took much longer.
The redhead steps away and turns to look up at him.
"Your wing seems a lot better than even just a couple days ago. I remember how swollen it was and how you could barely move it so I'm surprised it's doing so well now." He murmurs. Kageyama shrugs around his burning lungs.
"The exercises were your idea." He says, pulling in a deep breath and leaning forward to brace himself for a moment against his own knees. Besides… it isn't necessarily doing that well.
"That's true, I guess…" He says as if he's distracted before he glances back at the river. "You know… I don't know if I should really go back." Hinata says. Kageyama instantly bristles.
"Idiot." He puffs, still trying to even out his breathing. "I told you not to say— stupid things like that." He says between intakes. "We are going back together."
"But I will be the only person without wings. I don't know if I can explain it. Everyone will stare or pity me."
Kageyama straightens and blinks at him, his patience running thin under the discomfort of fatigue.
"I won't." He says caustically. There's a long moment that stretches between them and then Hinata laughs.
"Of course not. Let's go." He says and the mood is passed.
Kageyama is left standing in awe of the about face the redhead just pulled for the second time today.
How the hell does he do that?
Still mystified, he huffs and treks after him, ever careful to keep him within easy reaching distance.