17 Years Prior
A week after Takeda had talked to them about their respective roles, Hinata and Tsuki both found themselves in the East Tower for the first day of their new training.
Takeda looked nervous but Hinata was excited...Tsuki looked disinterested-but he always looked like that.
The only thing that kind of made Hinata nervous was that apparently Takeda wasn't going to be at the lessons. And, in fact, the man had indeed only walked them through the East Tower's entrance before patting them both on the head and leaving them in the hands of a man he'd called Keishin.
Truthfully, Hinata was still kind of preoccupied by the super cool tower and his eyes were still darting from the wall of swords and knives to the large open spaces. Hinata smiled happily. This was going to be awesome. He could tell already.
Tsuki elbowed him sharply in the side.
"Ow." Hinata turned to glare. Both Tsuki and the man-Keishin-were looking at him expectantly.
"Oh, um, sorry," Hinata said sheepishly. "I really like your tower."
Tsuki rolled his eyes but Keishin laughed.
"Good," the man said. "Because it's where you two will be living for the next ten or so years."
"Really?!" Hinata yelled excited. Tsuki scrunched his face at the hanging moss and general decay.
"Well, not technically," Keishin admitted. "You'll still be sleeping and eating with Takeda. But every spare second? Yeah, you two will be right here."
"Awww," Hinata sighed while Tsuki looked a bit more pleased with this arrangement.
"Now, as Takeda might have already told you," the man started, placing his hands on his hips. "I'm Ukai Keishin."
"Like the former King," Tsuksi interrupted.
"Yep, that was my gramps," Keishin agreed. "But, more importantly for you two, I've been running Spades' spy organization while we've been without an Ace. Which means that I know more about spying than anyone in the kingdom."
"I want to learn everything," Hinata told the man, bouncing up and down. "I want to be the best spy ever! Please, teach me!"
Keishin laughed again. "Trust me, kid. You won't be that enthusiastic once the training starts. You're the Ace, right?"
Hinata nodded quickly.
"Then, I'm going to teach you how to become a spy and assassin," Keishin said, giving Hinata a serious look. "That means hard work with no breaks, not even when it feels like you're about to die and sometimes you might be. And you will end up hating me. You ready for that, kid?"
Hinata opened his mouth before pausing, taking a rare opportunity to think through his answer.
Finally Hinata asked, "But, I'll be good enough to help Spades?"
Keshin smiled with a bit too many teeth. "Trust me when I'm done with you, there won't be anyone better."
Hinata nodded. "Okay. Then, I could never hate you."
Keshin snorted before looking over to Tsuki-who's face had stayed blank.
"Oh, no, I promise you he means it," Tsuki sighed wearily, which on a eight year old looked a bit ridiculous. "And he's just enough of an idiot that I bet he even follows through."
"You don't have to say it like that," Hinata muttered.
Keishin smiled. "Don't think you'll get it any easier, future Jack. By the time you're done, your head will be crammed with so much information, you'll think your brain's running out of your ears."
Tsuki shrugged. "I'm sure I can handle it."
"I can see why Takeda's likes you two." The man stepped back and gestured for them to follow. "Come on, then. There's a few people who want to meet you two."
"Who," Hinata asked eagerly, hurrying to keep pace with the older spy. Tsuki followed sedately after.
"Well," Keishin replied, heading for the stairs. "The Ace of Spades will always be the center point of the Spades' spy operation. But not even a fully trained Ace can always work alone," A flicker of pain passed over the man's face. "We learned that when the last Ace fell." He cleared his throat, swapping back to the jovial tone. "Anyway, I've found a few others who are very interested in learning the spy trade. If all works out, these three will be almost like teammates. Ready for when you're unavailable and helping our overall spy network extremely."
"Plus," the man said, shooting a glance backwards at Hinata. "It will give you three more people to carry your secret. Trust them, work with them, talk to them, and they may prove to be great friends along with allies."
ooooooo
Something weird was going on, Kageyama could tell.
More specifically, something weird was going on with Hinata.
The Suit's manservant had been...overly present? Clingy wasn't the right word because it's not like Kageyama was annoyed by it but...the point was that Hinata had been in Kageyama's room more in the past week than he was in a usual month.
Normally, Kageyama would see Hinata for a couple hours, maybe three if he was lucky, sometime between finishing breakfast and early afternoon. Now, more often than not Hinata was the one bringing him breakfast and then staying with him sometimes until after dinner.
And it wasn't as if Kageyama didn't enjoy Hinata's presence. Weirdly enough, the man knew how to stay silent and let Kageyama read-even though more and more, Kageyama had found himself reaching out to draw Hinata into conversations. Often the conversations had to do with whatever Kageyama was reading but sometimes he found himself just learning more about Hinata. Kageyama found that he knew surprisingly little about Hinata's life before he became servant to the Spades' Suit. Which made the King feel oddly disconnected, wondering if Hinata rarely mentioned his past or Kageyama had just never bothered to ask.
In the past week, Kageyama had learned that Hinata had come to capital when he was seven after his village was destroyed; that the previous Jack, Takeda, was his distant relative which was how he ended up at the palace in the first place; and that this was how he had met Tsukishima, who had gotten him the jobs of servant and courier. Kageyama knew that Hinata was somewhat close to the Jack based on a couple of times he had slipped and called him by a nickname; but, he hadn't known they'd met when they were children.
Kageyama wondered what his own life would've been like if he hadn't shut himself away when he was still a child. Would he have met Hinata back then? Could they have been friends
"You're frowning," a bright voice accused.
Kageyama looked up to see his new constant companion, smiling at him from the other side of his desk.
"Am not," Kageyama frowned.
"Are toooo," Hinata singsonged. "Whatcha reading that's making you so frowny?"
Kageyama rolled his eyes but dutifully started in on an explanation about evolving farming techniques in areas of high irrigation, even though he was pretty sure he hadn't turned a page in half an hour.
Hinata smiled, boosting himself to sit on Kageyama's desk, maybe a touch closer than he necessarily needed to be. Kageyama felt something warm in his chest.
Maybe Hinata's sudden closeness was because of that almost moment-was it even a moment?-that Kageyama thought they had a week ago. Was that why he was making an effort to be around Kageyama more? Or...or maybe Kageyama was just imagining the moment? That probably didn't have anything to do with why Hinata was here. Maybe it was just some weird change in servant schedules to get ready for the Summer Festival and Hinata was being the same as always.
Kageyama didn't know and when he'd tried to ask Hinata about the obvious change in schedule, Hinata had just laughed and told him to take it up with Yachi if he didn't want Hinata here. And...well, Kageyama definitely did want Hinata here, so he decided not to ask anymore.
It didn't matter, Kageyama decided. He should just try to enjoy it. Whatever the reason was, Hinata didn't seem to mind being here so Kageyama guessed it was okay.
ooooooo
Oikawa felt...kind of restless
It was weird. He didn't think he'd had the chance to actually be bored since he got to the castle. Normally, he'd be busy with one thing or the other-meeting with Yahaba, reading in the library, exploring the castle, talking to Iwaizumi. But, now? Now, he was just bored.
A part of Oikawa recognized it wasn't just boredom, but some kind of mix of annoyance and confusion as well.
The Ace-Iwaizumi wasn't fitting with Oikawa's expectations and he didn't know how he felt about that.
Before coming to the palace, Oikawa had expected...well, he hadn't quite known what to expect from the Ace. He knew that he'd taken the throne sometime during the end of the Civil War, ruled alone for awhile, and basically not done any kind of significant changes since. Based on that, he assumed the Ace was something like the old Suit. Maybe an arrogant brat that had been treated as royalty since he was a teenager-much more concerned with his own wealth than helping Hearts.
And originally, his perception of the Ace wasn't that different. Sure, he had been a bit more...nice looking than Oikawa had expected and definitely a better fighter. But, overall, Oikawa hadn't been surprised when Iwaizumi threatened Oikawa's village to make him stay. Angry, yes; but not surprised. Wasn't that just like every other spoiled rich kid? Not getting your way, then make someone else's life miserable until you do. Who cares if it's an entire village of desperate citizens?
But...that had been a lie. Yahaba had confirmed that Iwaizumi always intended to give the village the decrease-and the neighboring ones as well. Also, when Oikawa had confronted him in the courtyard, Iwaizumi had seemed relieved not to have to keep up the lie. That's the part that kept throwing Oikawa off-the relief.
Oikawa supposed the Ace could just be glad that his perfect perception wouldn't be tarnished by a filthy commoner like Oikawa but...that didn't seem right. More than that, Oikawa kept finding things he liked about Iwaizumi, the man behind the Ace. Talking to him had become...easier. He talked to Oikawa about politics as if he actually wanted Oikawa's opinion, even if they disagreed. Sometimes, Oikawa even found himself enjoying spending time with him.
It was all very confusing and Oikawa needed a distraction.
As if a sign by fate-though significantly less annoying than an actual Fate-the entrance to the palace kitchens just happened to come into view at that precise second. Oikawa shrugged, better than nothing and maybe he could actually help someone rather than just pacing randomly around the castle.
Hesitantly, Oikawa opened the door and glanced inside to what had to be the most enormous kitchen that he had seen in his entire life. It was cavernous, filled with light by large windows and scattered with what had to be hundreds of different cooking tools. Easy to see how this place as responsible for the hundreds of meals prepared daily.
It was also surprisingly empty. In fact, Oikawa thought that no one was there until finally, his eyes landed on a small older woman standing by the oven and calmly kneading bread.
"Excuse me," Oikawa called, gaining the woman's attention.
The woman turned, momentary surprise flitting across her face before a warm smile settled across her face. "Hello there, dear. Are you a new servant?"
"No, just...something of a visitor, I guess." Oikawa shook his head, maneuvering around the various kitchen equipment. " I thought I'd check in and see if I could offer some help; though, it seems I've missed the lunch rush."
The woman laughed. "Yes, dear. Most everyone's either taking their own lunch or cleaning up someone else's by now. It'll just be little old me for at least another hour."
Oikawa shrugged. "Mind an extra hand?"
The woman looked at him critically. "And why's a young man like you-a visitor to the palace no less-want to hang around an empty kitchen with an old woman?"
"For the excellent company, obviously," Oikawa replied, giving his most charming smile.
The woman laughed again. "Well, aren't you precious? Though I think I know you're type well enough. Feeling restless? Something on your mind?"
In some situations, Oikawa had learned it was best to just smile and hope the question would be dropped rather than try to deny or confirm a suspicion.
...it had never worked on his own grandmother but hopefully with this woman, he'd have better luck.
The woman continued to give him a hard stare before shaking her head. "Never mind answering then, I can see it from your face. Those vegetables need chopping if you want to busy your hands."
"Thank you," Oikawa replied, bowing his head slightly before coming to the chopping block she'd gestured towards. He grabbed the knife laying beside them and began chopping some carrots into nice even slices.
"What's your name, dear," the woman asked him, moving to sit in the chair across from him and continuing to knead the dough.
"It's Oikawa. Are these thin enough" he responded, gesturing at the carrot slices.
"Those are perfect."
Oikawa nodded, turning back. "I'm afraid I forgot to ask your name."
He glanced up just in time to see surprise flash across the woman's face.
"Oh," the woman replied, frowning briefly before her mouth settled into a sheepish smile. "It's been awhile since anyone had to ask me. Most new servants have heard of me already."
Oikawa frowned. "Have you been at the palace that long?"
"I'm Head Chef, dear. I was practically raised in this palace" the woman told him. "You can call me Nana, though. Everyone else does."
"It's nice to meet you," Oikawa responded politely.
"And you, sweetheart," Nana answered before patting Oikawa's hand and leaving him to his contemplative silence.
Unfortunately, contemplative silences were never very relaxing for Oikawa.
"Does your family work for the palace, too," Oikawa asked, glancing up from the vegetables.
Nana chuckled, looking down and shaking her head fondly. "I suppose we all serve Hearts in our own way but no, none of them have been palace servants for a number of years. My husband has a small forge out in the city; but, my son and his wife moved out to the coast a few years after they were married. My little grandson came to work as a page briefly but that was during that mess of a Civil War so his training was cut brief, I'm afraid."
Oikawa swallowed, wondering if he should ask.
"Oh, no, he's still alive," Nana answered hastily, sensing his discomfort. "The page life just ended up not being his calling."
Oikawa nodded. A thought occurred to him and he opened his mouth before he could stop himself.
"Can I ask you a question? What do you think about the Ace?"
The woman looked up at him surprised and Oikawa held back a flush.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Oikawa put in quickly. "If you're scared about it getting back to him. I promise I won't tell."
Really, Oikawa wasn't quite sure why he asked. He just...he just really wanted to talk about this with someone who wasn't either royalty or a questionably human personification of Order
Nana let out a chuckle. "Don't worry, dear. The Ace isn't the type of person to shove away criticism just because it's hard to hear. I'll speak my mind."
Oikawa swallowed, aligning this to his perception of the Ace...it fit, he guessed. Ever since the first time in the official audience had Iwaizumi never seemed mad at Oikawa's complaints-even when Oikawa wanted him to be. Sometimes, the Ace would be annoyed-but, that seemed more to do with how their personalities worked together than anything.
"Thank you," Oikawa responded sincerely.
The woman smiled, patting his cheek fondly.
"Now, let's see," the woman said, tilting her head in thought. "What can I say about the Ace. Well, he's definitely a bit gruff around the edges. He's got that scowl that's made more than one foreign dignitary shake in their boots," she gave Oikawa a wink. "He gets annoyed, easily. Never mad, exactly. And definitely never enough to scare anyone who doesn't deserve it. But, the boy will definitely get frustrated."
Oikawa nodded eagerly.
"But, ultimately," Nana continued. "The best descriptor I'd give his 'kind'."
"Kind?" Oikawa prompted. That...wouldn't be Oikawa's first descriptor even with his own conflicting feelings about the man behind the throne.
The woman nodded firmly. "Yes, kind. And, honestly, I think that goes into the others, too. He scowls and he gets frustrated, but if you notice he always gets the most frustrated when he's trying to help the people and finding things in his way. He's always got the gruffness but he hasn't once taken it out on anyone in his care." Nana smiled. "The Ace is a good leader, a kind leader. He makes Hearts better."
Oikawa frowned. "But...but what about all the things that are just the same as before? The people who are still suffering?"
Nana gave him a considering look.
"The Ace is trying, my dear," the woman told him plainly. "He cares about us and he's trying to help us." The woman shrugged. "Yes, there's always more to be done. Kingdoms aren't perfect and they never will be. But," She paused to meet Oikawa's eyes. "You can't hate a person when they care and are trying their hardest. That's all a leader can do."
Oikawa sat quietly, letting the words roll around in his head.
Nana let him, going back to kneading her dough.
Hearts...Hearts wasn't perfect. And Hearts could be better. Oikawa still firmly believed that.
But what about the rest. What did Nana say that Oikawa could agree with? What didn't fit.
Nana...Nana didn't seem blind to the Ace's faults. She wasn't a lovesick fan like the girls Oikawa had seen before. She wasn't like Takeru, too young to remember life before this Suit. She wasn't even caught up in hero worship like Yahaba. She was honest enough to admit that Hearts wasn't perfect and that more could be done in the future. But her points after that...her description of the Ace.
Truthfully, Oikawa still felt kind was a bit of a stretch for a main descriptor. But maybe, maybe that was because Oikawa was still viewing the Ace only by his actions as a leader...and the problems that Hearts still had.
But...was the Ace truly to blame? No, no, that wasn't the right question. Oikawa never thought the blame could be laid on just one man's shoulders. Not even when he hated the Ace. The best question was if the Ace was part of the problem like Oikawa had always seen him or...or if he was just a man trying to be part of a solution?
If it was the second, then Oikawa really couldn't hate him. A tiny voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he hadn't hated the Ace for a while. And, yeah, that was true but this was different. Oikawa had already probably accepted that Iwaizumi the person was a good man. Even if he would never tell the man out loud. But, what Nana said was different. It wasn't about Iwaizumi the man but Iwaizumi the Ace.
And...what if Iwaizumi the Ace was...was a good leader, too. Not a perfect leader, but someone who believes like Oikawa, who was trying.
Oikawa bit his lip.
He jerked in surprise when Nana reached out and patted his cheek again. "Sometimes, dear, when I'm trying to think something through, it helps me to walk around the castle.
Oikawa looked up and let out a rueful smile. "Thank you, Nana."
"Anytime, dear, anytime," the woman smiled. "You're always welcome in my kitchen. We could use an extra steady hand like yours."
Oikawa left the kitchen, now with more questions than when he'd entered
ooooooo
Tsukishima looked up from his desk as he heard a weird bump-scratch noise coming from his door.
A second later, the door opened and Hinata walked in-on his hands with his feet up and held in a perfect line. Well, that answered the question of the noise. The idiot had apparently used his shoe to twist the door handle.
Frankly, the entire thing would have been more impressive if Tsukishima hadn't been around when Hinata was nine and Keishin ordered him to walk solely on his hands for an entire week in an effort to improve his balance and physical awareness.
As it was, all the Jack said was, "Bored?"
Hinata groaned, doing a cartwheel to right himself before collapsing in the visitor's chair, "Sooo bored. Yachi put me on break again?"
"How many hours had you been there," Tsukishima asked.
"I don't know? Ten? Eleven, maybe?" Hinata shrugged. "Figure out what was bothering you about the Hyakuzawa plot?"
"Not yet," Tsukishima bit out. "I'm close, though."
"Alert the rest of the Suits?"
Tsukishima nodded. "I sent out a message to Clubs and Diamonds to put extra guards on their Kings."
Hinata scrunched up his face. "Bokuto's going to hate that."
"That was what Akaashi essentially wrote back."
Hinata nodded and the two fell into silence.
"So," Hinata started again after a few minutes had passed. "What else is bothering you?"
"Isn't the possible infiltration of the entire Cards Kingdom enough?" Tsukishima raised a brow.
Hinata tilted his head, assessing. "Sure, I guess. But if it was that, you'd be trying to bug me to start an argument so you could figure it out. You always think best in an argument." Hinata hummed. "So far though, all you've given me are short answers. Something else is bugging you. Something you don't want to talk about."
"Then one would think that I wouldn't want to talk about it when asked," Tsukishima replied, trying for even but coming off a bit too snappish.
Hinata ignored him. "Is it the librarian? Yamaguchi? Yachi told me she saw you talking to him the other day?"
"What part of I don't want to talk about it are you missing," Tsukishima asked flatly.
"Not sure," Hinata shot back. "But you're missing the part where I might be able to help."
"I doubt it," Tsukishima retorted.
"Come on, Tsukiii," Hinata said, drawing out his name plaintively. "I've never seen you like this before and you've seen a lot of people"
Tsukishima glared. "So did you before you got hung up on his Royal Highness."
"No," Hinata corrected, rolling his eyes. "I dated a lot of people. You went on dates with people. Singular dates, two if they were lucky. You didn't really care about them."
Fratricide always seemed like a vaguely appealing concept to Tsukishima.
"So, what?" he snapped. "And if I wanted to to have a piss poor psych eval, I wouldn't be going to you."
"You care about Yamaguchi," Hinata emphasized. "That's what's got you so twisted up."
Tsukishima scoffed. "I do not and I am not."
Hinata glared and Tsukishima could just tell he was restraining sticking his tongue out like when they were kids.
"You do, though,' Hinata accused. "You're just scared."
"Scared of what," Tsukishima demanded.
"Of trying," Hinata said as if it was simple. And sometimes Tsukishima really, really hated how Hinata could do that. Could be a near idiot most of the time and then make huge leaps about other people's mental processes, be right, and then talk about it like it was obvious.
"Fine," Tsukishima bit out, well aware that this conversation would not end until he admitted it. "Fine, I don't want to ask him out because I'm worried he might say no. Happy? Going to try to tell me I'm being stupid?"
"Course not," Hinata frowned.
"...Oh." Tsukishima deflated. He then immediately got suspicious. "Why not?"
Because it kind of sounded like even Hinata didn't think he had a shot and if that was the case then….well, Tsukishima didn't exactly know how he'd feel.
"Because I still have the same problem with Kageyama, duh," Hinata replied and Tsukishima immediately felt a relief that he refused to examine too closely. "I'm still scared of doing anything about Kageyama so it would be like super hypocritical of me to lecture you about asking out Yamaguchi." Hinata's frown took on a contemplative edge. "Although, mine is mostly centered around the whole him being King and him not knowing I'm Ace and like it jeopardizing the kingdom or something if it didn't work out…"
"Okay, I get it," Tsukishima interrupted.
Hinata shrugged again.
"So, if you weren't even going to annoy me about asking him out," Tsukishima glared. "Then, what even was the point of this?"
Hinata propped his head on his hands. "Because it's important to know why you're scared. Otherwise how can you beat it?"
Tsukishima rolled his eyes and bit back a groan. That was such a Hinata answer. He honestly didn't know why expected anything else.
"By the way," Tsukishima added, figuring he should at least mention this to the Ace. "There's a mission tonight."
Hinata sat up. "Do you need me?"
Tsukishima shook his head. "No, it should be fairly simple. Just a routine surveillance and reconnaissance. Only reason I'm even bothering with it is there's a rumor some Hyakuzawans could be involved. I assigned it to Noya. It's more important to have you on guard duty."
"Kay," Hinata agreed and Tsukishima could see in his expression that Hinata was already preoccupied, worrying about guard duty. "Tell me how it goes?"
"Will do," Tsukishima responded dryly. "Now, if all you're going to do is look lovesick or fret about the King, then get out of my office."
This time Hinata really did stick his tongue out at him.
"See if I try to help you again," Hinata retorted and made no move to get up.
Tsukishima leaned back at his desk and resigned himself to the company.
ooooooo
Ugh, this mission was so boring, Noya thought as he remained squeezed into a tiny section of the roof as he had been for the last six hours.
The mission, as Tsukishima had explained it, was simple: watch unseen from the roof, find out why some boring Hyakuzawa criminals were in the area, and leave and report back. All in all, the mission shouldn't have taken three hours max.
The problem? The stupid Hyakuzawan guys never showed up! Not much point trying to see a meeting, if the meeting never happened!
But Noya-like the cool, awesome, patient, super spy that he was-had dutifully waited on his small, tiny place on the roof just in case the criminals were showing up late. Cause I mean, hey, they're low level criminals? Maybe they're not really the type to care about punctuality.
Now, it was nearing sunrise though and literally no sane person-criminal or otherwise-wanted to be up at this hour. Noya fought back a yawn and resigned this mission to an unfortunate bust.
Although...if he hurried back, there was a chance that Kiyoko and Azumane might be up early-because those two were insane like that-so he might get to have breakfast with his two beautiful, lovely, and altogether charming partners before he headed for a well deserved sleep. So, all in all, maybe this mission wouldn't be a complete waste of time.
It was still really disappointing though, Noya frowned. All the spies had their different unique specialties. If you wanted to know about poisons or healing, go to Azumane. Had a job that needed infiltration? Kiyoko's your spy. Was your job insane and bordering on impossible? Hinata was...well, Hinata.
But for getting in and out unseen? Noya was the best. Maybe even better than the Ace, definitely a close call. No one could get in and out places like Noya could. No one could do it while remaining practically invisible. Azumane always said it was "ironic", Kiyoko used "unexpected", Tsukishima had once commented "how can a loudmouth like you be so quiet." Personally, Noya would use the word "awesome".
The point was that Noya was kind of disappointed that he didn't get to be any of these things and instead had spent his night on a small nook enclosed in the overhang of a roof-an easily defensible position that had the bonus of hiding him and giving a great vantage point.
Noya sighed, grabbing the edge of the roof to flip over. Oh, well, it's not like every mission could be exciting.
Landing on the roof, Noya took just a second to look over the city. The first touches of sun could just be seen over the lower parts of the horizon. It made the city seem still, peaceful. Noya breathed out, watching the dew for over the roof's edge.
Before he could turn, a sharp pressure dug into his lower back.
And then...pain.
An agonizing pain that had Noya's knees buckle as he landed hard on the rooftop. Dark red started mixing with the dew drops and Noya blinked, confused.
Before blackness encroached in his vision, the last thing he heard was a low whisper right beside his ear.
"An honor to kill you, Ace of Spades."
ooooooo
A/N: Sorry for being a day late. Busy week. As always, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!