greek tragedy

by ineedmygirl

Chapter 3: the summer of death

Summary:

"I’ll always be by your side, for as long as you want me to be.”

“Forever, then?”

“Forever, Death Boy.”

Notes:

sorry about the wait, i hope the fact that this chapter is more than twice the length of the other two put together makes up for it!! :))

i truly did not intend on this part of the story getting so long, but it kind of took on a life of it's own - so basically, the first two parts are just the prequel to this one

i'll get sappy at the end and won't make u wait any longer to read - pls enjoy my loves!

 

 

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The Summer of Death

 

 

There’s no reason to be nervous.

It’s not like this is the first time Tsukishima has ever left camp before, and as far as he can tell, there are no monsters around (though one can never be too sure).

Still, as Tsukishima stares up at the gleaming white building in front of him, with the words ‘FUKURODANI ACADEMY’ written across it in bold, clean letters, he can’t help but feel his breakfast rolling around uncomfortably in his stomach.

The problem isn’t the building itself. The problem is that Tsukishima knows what’s going to happen once he walks into the building, and he’s not entirely certain that he’s ready for it.

Someone jostles him from behind, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, man!”

A young guy apologizes as he hurries past, black gown billowing behind him and a flat, square cap clutched in his hands. Tsukishima worries if he’s running late, but he had been firmly instructed by his friends on their Iris call last night to stand by the entrance and wait for Bokuto’s mom to come retrieve him.

“Kei!”

Tsukishima looks up at the sound of the unfamiliar voice calling his name and finds a woman he’s never seen before hurrying over to him, waving excitedly. He may have never met her before, but he has no doubt in his mind that this is Bokuto’s mother. He probably would have known it was her even if she hadn’t called his name first. She has short, jet black hair with a single streak of silver framing her face and the brightest (read: second brightest) smile Tsukishima has ever seen.

The woman stops right in front of him, giving him a quick once over before nodding to herself. “Yup, you must be him, I have no doubt about it!” And then, she pulls him into a hug.

He doesn’t know why his body stiffens up when he feels her arms wrap around him. It hasn’t been his instinct to shy away from touch for a while now, not with how affectionate his friends and siblings are with him. He’s pretty used to physical affection at this point, much to his chagrin.

But, oh - This is the first time he’s ever been hugged by a mother, isn’t it?

Mother’s hugs are different, he thinks distantly, as his arms come up to briefly hug her back. Do they all smell sweetly flowery like this? He’s much more used to the sharp, musky smell of teenage boys. Even Futakuchi hadn’t smelled as sweet as this, and the Aphrodite cabin was covered in floral arrangements.

Must just be a mom thing, then.

“Um, hi. Yes, I’m Tsukishima Kei,” he greets her properly once she’s pulled back, still beaming at him. “Thank you very much for having me, Mrs…” He trails off uncertainly. It would feel weird to call Bokuto’s mom ‘Mrs. Bokuto’, even though that is technically her name.

“Please honey, just call me Mari.” She laughs at his awkward fumbling and Tsukishima blushes. He’s never been very good with adults, probably due to the fact that he grew up raised by a bunch of teenagers. The closest thing he knew to an adult was Chiron, who was upwards of four hundred years old and had the bottom half of a horse. So, not a lot of opportunity for practice.

“Thank you for having me, Mari.”

“Don’t even mention it, dear.” Mari waves him off. “I’ve heard so much about you, I feel like you’re practically part of the family already.” She claps her hands together over her chest. “Oh, the boys are just so excited that you’re here! And you look so handsome, I bet they’ll hardly recognize you! Koutarou told me you’d probably still be wearing jeans and your camp t-shirt.” She laughs at him, linking their elbows together and leading him into the school.

Truthfully, that was what Tsukishima had been planning on wearing, but when Oikawa saw him getting ready to leave camp that morning, he dragged him to the Aphrodite cabin and refused to let him leave until he had him in a completely new outfit comprising of borrowed articles of clothing from various siblings. The light grey checkered pants were Oikawa’s, and Tsukishima thought they must have been an old pair since they exposed a few inches of his ankles, but Oikawa assured him that they were styled that way on purpose. The silky black button-down was Futakuchi’s, which he knew because he recognized it, and he didn’t know who the shiny leather shoes belonged to, but whoever it was clearly hated themselves because they were pinching Tsukishima’s toes with every step he took.

As Mari leads him down the school’s busting hallways, Tsukishima can’t help but look around and feel impressed. He knew that Bokuto, Kuroo, and Akaashi went to a fancy private school, but Fukurodani was so white and pristine, with high ceilings and decorative archways, that it put even Mt. Olympus to shame.

It’s funny, imagining his same friends that he spent summers covered in dirt and sweat and lake water with attending a school like this, in pressed uniforms with ties around their necks. He’s willing to bet Bokuto and Kuroo never wore theirs right, not a single time, no matter how many times Akaashi chided them for it. The thought makes him smile to himself. Settles his nerves just the tiniest bit.

“Right over here, sweetheart!” Mari ushers him into one of the very front rows of the auditorium with a clear view of the large wooden stage, already set up with a podium and chairs of faculty members. “Harry made sure to reserve two seats for us up front.”

“Is that him?” Tsukishima points to the man on stage standing on the podium in a long robe and funny hat. “That’s Bokuto’s - Um.”

Harry was technically Bokuto’s step-father, but Bokuto never called him as much, he just called him “Dad”. And he also happened to be the headmaster of Fukurodani Academy, which is probably the only reason Bokuto and Kuroo had never been expelled.

“His father,” Mari smiles softly at the man with the greying temples. He looks just as friendly and warm as Bokuto’s mom, and Tsukishima can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. Some people got not one, but two good parents.

If anyone deserved it though, it was Bokuto.

He nearly jumps out of his seat when the ceremony begins and there’s a sudden blaring of trumpets playing the graduation march, ushering in a sea of students in matching black caps and gowns with little gold tassels entering the auditorium in single file lines.

It doesn't take Tsukishima long to spot his friends among the students.

Bokuto and Kuroo are predictably easy to find because of their hair. Neither of their caps completely tame their gravity-defying locks, and as a result, Bokuto’s is sticking out in little silver tufts at the side of his head, giving him a very Einstein-esque look, and Kuroo’s is clearly fighting off the restraints of his cap, so that it sits tilted a little bit sideways on his head. Akaashi was easy to find, only because Bokuto kept leaning across the few people separating them to tap him on the shoulder and get his attention.

Seeing the three of them down there, so achingly familiar, laughing and getting shushed by all the teachers, Tsukishima wants to laugh. Probably would, too, if it wasn’t for the melancholy clogging his throat whenever he thinks about the reality of what it all means.

This will be their last summer at Camp Half Blood all together.

Already, pretty much all they could talk about was going to New Rome University in the fall.

Tsukishima has heard countless stories about New Rome growing up, because that’s where Camp Jupiter is. Camp Jupiter is just like Camp Half Blood in pretty much every way, except for the fact that the demigods who go there are the children of the Greek Gods’ Roman counterparts. The children of Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars, rather than Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares. The two camps had pretty bad relations years before Tsukishima started living at Camp Half Blood, but since he’s been there, the two camps have worked together. He even has a vague memory of two Camp Jupiter praetors dressed in fancy purple robes visiting when he was younger.

But New Rome isn’t just comprised of Camp Jupiter, it’s a whole city dedicated to being a safe haven for demigods. There are families that live there, coffee shops and bookstores, a park and a college. A lot of demigods chose to attend New Rome University for the safety of it, and many demigods chose to live in New Rome their entire lives.

It wasn’t just Akaashi, Bokuto, and Kuroo, though. Sugawara and Daichi had already received their acceptances, and so had Iwaizumi, who would be studying at New Rome University while Oikawa attended a fashion design institute nearby. Tsukishima already knew a few kids his age who were planning on following in their older siblings’ footsteps the next year.

They’d always be welcome back at Camp Half Blood, of course, and Tsukishima knew they would come visit as often as they could, but it wouldn’t ever be the same.

When all the boring speeches are over and the headmaster finally starts calling out the students’ names to receive their diplomas on stage, Tsukishima forces all the negative thoughts from his mind. Today isn’t about him and his self-pity, it’s about celebrating his friends.

“Keiji Akaashi,” is one of the first names called, and Bokuto’s mom is already in tears as he makes his way gracefully across the stage.

Mari jumps to her feet, hauling Tsukishima along with her, and cups her hands around her mouth, cheering louder than anyone else in the auditorium. It’s no wonder where Bokuto got his lung capacity from. Tsukishima covers his face with one hand, flushing in humiliation, but it’s totally worth it when Akaashi looks right up at them and gives Tsukishima a pleased grin, waving his diploma proudly in the air.

They stand until the headmaster calls out, “Koutarou Bokuto”, with a special sort of smile. Bokuto nearly sprints onto the stage, gives his father a perfunctory handshake, then once he has his diploma in hand, throws his arms around the man’s neck. There are a few chuckles in the audience, some classmates cheering loudly, and Mari sniffles hopelessly beside Tsukishima, clutching his hand in hers.

“That’s my baby!” She sobs, waving her mascara stained handkerchief in the air until Bokuto spots them in the crowd and waves excitedly with both arms, smile brighter than the sun.

Tsukishima and Mari stay on their feet all the way to “Tetsurou Kuroo”. Kuroo doesn’t hug the headmaster the way Bokuto did, but Harry does clap him firmly on the shoulder and lean in to whisper something in his ear that makes Kuroo smile devastatingly.

Tsukishima feels time slow around him as he watches Kuroo walk the stage with a diploma in his hand. It’s like he’s somewhere outside of his body, seeing the scene play out from another dimension. But then, Kuroo looks up and meets his eyes, and Tsukishima knows without a single doubt in his mind that this is real. There’s no other dimension in the entire time-space continuum with a Kuroo like his.

And it really is his Kuroo; the same dirty, broken, feral-eyed kid who had come violently crashing into Tsukishima’s life talking about wanting to die only four years ago, now walking across the stage at his high school graduation, face stretched into the purest, happiest look Tsukishima has ever seen. He’s an almost unrecognizable young man now, compared to the little boy Tsukishima first met.

And that’s really what they had been, isn’t it? Just two little boys, with a few jagged edges that happened to fit perfectly together.

Kuroo stops, nearly tripping over his long gown when he spots Tsukishima in the crowd, and Tsukishima’s heart trips similarly in his chest. Kuroo’s smile is softer than Bokuto’s toothy grin, like he still can’t believe this is happening. Tsukishima smiles back and tries not to look like a total lovestruck idiot.

It’s been getting harder to hide how he feels on his face.

Only when the person coming across the stage behind him nudges Kuroo in the back do his feet start working again.

“Here, darling.” Mari pulls a handkerchief out of her purse and offers it to Tsukishima, who blinks at it in confusion. “You look like you could use it more than me.”

Tsukishima touches his cheeks and his fingertips come away feeling damp. Huh, when did that happen?

“Thank you.” He quickly grabs the tissue from her. Mari tilts her head to the side and watches him a little too knowingly.

“He’s a special boy, that Tetsurou.”

Tsukishima laughs helplessly.

I don’t need you to tell me that.

 

 

*

 

 

They leave so quickly after the ceremony, the three older boys are barely out of their graduation gowns before they’re on the bus on their way back to camp.

Bokuto’s mom had tried to insist that Tsukishima at least stay for the night since he had just gotten there that morning, and Harry was just as nice as Tsukishima suspected he would be, but none of them wanted to waste a second of this summer anywhere but Camp Half Blood.

Tsukishima takes the window seat on the bus and Kuroo slides in next to him, with Bokuto and Akaashi in the seats right behind them. Kuroo immediately takes out his old beaten up MP3 player and offers an earbud to Tsukishima. It was a hand-me-down from Harry, who said Kuroo could hang onto it until they got him something better. Kuroo refused though, insisting that the ancient thing that only held a hundred songs on it at once was good enough for him. He never even loaded any of his own music onto it, just listened to all of Harry’s old albums from the 80’s.

Kuroo always played the same weird indie album on repeat. Tsukishima knows all the words by heart.

“Can’t you get some new music?”

“Absolutely not,” Kuroo says definitively. “And don’t even try to pretend you don’t like my music. I hear you singing The Smiths in the shower all the time.”

Tsukishima chokes on his own saliva. He doesn’t do that, does he? Does he? “What the - Why are you listening to me in the showers, you pervert?”

Kuroo just laughs and turns the music up louder, pretending he can’t hear Tsukishima anymore. Even though he only has one earbud in. Asshole. Stupid, gorgeous asshole.

As they drive later into the night, some of the other passengers begin to doze off around them. Bokuto is already loudly snoring with his head on Akaashi’s shoulder, but the other boy doesn't seem to mind much as he idly turns the pages of his book. Tsukishima himself is starting to drift in and out, only realizing he’d been falling asleep when he wakes up at the end of a song he could have sworn had just started.

He thinks he must be half-asleep when he hears Kuroo say in a quiet voice, “You don’t smell like you.”

Tsukishima blinks himself awake, looking over at Kuroo in confusion. The older boy has his head tilted to the side, looking strangely serious about the revelation.

“Oh, right.” Tsukishima remembers, grimacing. “I probably smell like the entire Aphrodite cabin.” Kuroo’s eyebrows draw together and he quickly adds, “My clothes! I mean, Oikawa made me borrow all these stupid clothes from them. Apparently, jeans aren’t appropriate graduation attire.”

“Hm. That makes sense, I guess.” Kuroo’s eyes appraise Tsukishima’s outfit again and his lips tug into a smirk. “Oikawa did a good job. You clean up pretty nice for a smart ass.”

“Don’t get used to it, Death Boy.” Tsukishima rolls his eyes.

“Nah, I won’t.” Kuroo’s smirk melts into a stupid grin. “I like it better when you look like yourself, anyways.”

“I like you better when you stop commenting on my body odor and let me sleep,” Tsukishima grumbles, definitely not blushing. He is absolutely not at all affected by the fact that Kuroo kind of just said that he likes the way Tsukishima looks. Not even a little.

Those are not his butterflies stirring up a frenzy in his stomach. He’s just holding onto them for a friend.

“Here,” Kuroo offers, tugging his deep red hoodie over his head and pillowing it on his shoulder. “You’ll hurt your neck if you sleep sitting up like that.”

Tsukishima stares. And he considers.

It would probably look weirder if he turned down the offer, wouldn’t it? He had no good reason not to accept a friendly shoulder to rest his head on, and it would only come off as more suspicious if he couldn’t explain to Kuroo why being so close to him was dangerous to Tsukishima’s health.

“Fine. You better not move too much,” Tsukishima finally agrees. Kuroo beams and pats his shoulder invitingly.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’ll be the perfect pillow for you to rest your weary traveler’s head on.”

As much as he doesn’t want to notice it, Kuroo kind of is the perfect pillow for him. Tsukishima is a little bit taller than Kuroo now, and at seventeen years old, he’ll probably stay that way. Most of his height is in his legs, though, so when they’re sitting side-by-side like this, Kuroo’s shoulder is actually the ideal height for Tsukishima to rest his head on without having to bend down too far and hurt his neck. As soon as he relaxes into the position and lets his eyes slip shut, he knows it won’t be long before he’s out cold.

He’s almost completely drifted off to sleep when Kuroo whispers, “Tsukki?”

“Hm?” Tsukishima absentmindedly turns to bury his face in the crook of Kuroo’s neck. He liked the way Mari’s flowery mom-hug had smelled, but he’s much more partial to Kuroo’s sharp, musky teenage-boy-smell.

There’s a long pause where Tsukishima can’t feel Kuroo’s chest rising and falling before he says in a slightly breathless voice, “Thanks for being there today.”

The warmth of Kuroo’s body pressed against his and the lulling motions of the bus makes Tsukishima just sleepy and vulnerable enough to reply, “Don’t be an idiot. ‘m always gonna be there.”

He feels Kuroo start to breathe again.

Everything is peaceful and quiet, like they’re traveling in a little bubble untouched by time and space - that is, until the bus drives over a pothole and jerks Bokuto awake so violently that he zaps Akaashi with a static charge so strong it has the other boy’s hair standing on end the rest of the ride to camp.

 

 

*

 

 

“The soil looks really good over here. I bet these’ll be perfectly ripe in a few more days.”

“That’s great.”

“These over here need a little help, though.”

“Mhm, sounds good.”

“I’m thinking about moving to India, shaving my head, and becoming a monk.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you think is best.”

“Tsukki!” Yamaguchi laughs, standing up from where he had been crouched over inspecting the strawberry vines. “You’re not listening to me at all, are you?”

Tsukishima guiltily drags his gaze down from the clouds above to his friend’s freckled face. “I was,” he lies.

“You were not,” Yamaguchi insists stubbornly, hand planted on his hip. “I know you don’t find talking about plants all that riveting or anything, but you’re more distracted than usual today.”

“Maybe you’re just more boring than usual today,” Tsukishima shoots back, though it lacks any bite.

It’s a true testament to their friendship that Yamaguchi isn’t even phased by his words. The son of Demeter wipes the sweat off his forehead with his gardening glove, smearing dirt across his face, and Tsukishima doesn’t bother telling him about it. He doesn’t usually care anyways.

“Very funny, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says in such a dry and unamused tone, Tsukishima is actually kind of proud of him. He plucks one of the biggest berries off the vine and plops down next to Tsukishima, offering the fruit to him. Tsukishima accepts it gratefully, taking a bite and letting the sweet juices explode over his tongue. “So what’s on your mind?”

The imminent death of our carefree youth, feels a little too melodramatic for the moment.

“Just stuff,” Tsukishima says instead.

Yamaguchi hums like that answers everything. “So, have you decided if you’re going to tell Kuroo that you’re in love with him this summer?”

Tsukishima promptly chokes on his bite of strawberry.

“Wha -" He tries to croak through his coughing fit, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes.

“Oh, crap! Gods, Tsukki, I’m sorry!” Yamaguchi scrambles onto his knees, situating himself behind Tsukishima’s back, pressing both fists into his sternum and squeezing hard until the chunk of fruit un-lodges itself from Tsukishima’s windpipe.

“Are you - Trying to kill me?” Tsukishima asks shrilly. Yamaguchi gives him an apologetic smile, shifting to sit next to him again.

“It was an accident! I really am sorry.” He pouts and Tsukishima almost forgets about why he was upset in the first place.

Almost.

“I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret,” Yamaguchi continues, as if he hadn’t just almost murdered Tsukishima.

“It’s not a secret, because it isn’t true.” Tsukishima can’t bring himself to meet his oldest friend’s eyes.

“You shouldn’t lie to your friends, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says wisely. “It’s not very nice.”

“I’m not lying!” His voice comes out just a little too loud and Yamaguchi raises a pointed eyebrow at him. Tsukishima sighs in defeat. “Nothing I say will convince you otherwise, will it?”

“Nope!” Yamaguchi says happily. “In fact, the more you talk, the more I’m sure of it. I’ve never seen you so defensive about anything before. Plus, your face is all red.”

“My face is not - !” Tsukishima starts to protest. Very defensively. “Point taken.”

He feels like maybe he should be more terrified in this moment, with his biggest secret laid out so bare in front of him, being said aloud for the first time ever. Well, unless you count the conversation he had with Futakuchi years ago, during the weirdest breakup of all time. Other than that though, he’s never told anyone about his feelings for Kuroo. Kept them buried deep down inside and acted like nothing in his heart had changed for the past two years.

But if he’s being honest with himself, it’s a bit liberating having someone else know. Plus, if it’s Yamaguchi of all people, he thinks maybe he can handle the vulnerability. Yamaguchi has always been able to read him better than anyone, maybe even better than his own siblings. If anyone was going to be able to see right through him when it came to his feelings for Kuroo, it would be him.

“Good, now that that’s settled!” Yamaguchi claps his hands together cheerfully. “Are you gonna tell him?”

“Absolutely not.”

“What? Why not?” Yamaguchi whines.

“Do you think I’ve been hiding it this long for my health?”

“I thought you were just waiting for the right time,” Yamaguchi admits.

“The right time?” Tsukishima repeats drily.

“Yeah! Like, I first figured it out two summers ago when you were dating Futakuchi, so obviously that year was no good. And last year you guys were still kind of getting back to normal, so it was a little too soon. But this summer! It’s Kuroo’s last summer before he goes off to college, and you guys are in a pretty good place, so I just thought…” Yamaguchi trails off, shrugging with a lopsided smile. “Right time.”

“Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima says, pinching the bridge of his nose. His best friend was honestly too pure-hearted for this world. “This is not one of Suga’s cheesy soap operas, this is my life. The ‘right time’ doesn’t exist, okay?”

Yamaguchi blinks at him a few times. “What are you so afraid of?”

Tsukishima reels back, jaw going slack. “Afraid? I’m not afraid of anything, I’m just being logical here. Telling Kuroo about how I - how I feel about him is just going to end up ruining our friendship, and that’s not fair to him. He would hate me.”

“How do you know that? You haven’t even tried yet.”

“Call it an educated guess,” Tsukishima mumbles, pulling his knees to his chest.

“Tsukki,” Yamaguchi says gently, tapping the back of his hand like he’s sending him a message in morse code. “You don’t have to be logical about this, you know? You should just do what feels right.”

Tsukishima stares blankly back at him.

“Alright,” Yamaguchi laughs, “think about it this way: What if it was me?”

Tsukishima frowns in confusion. “What if what was you?”

“What if I told you that I was in love with you,” Yamaguchi elaborates. “Would you hate me for it?”

“Oh. Um? I don’t -" Tsukishima coughs awkwardly, feeling heat creep up the back of his neck. He really isn’t equipped for conversations like this. “You - You’re not, are you?”

“Hades, no!” Yamaguchi laughs, nose scrunching up. “Gods, look at you blush, you’d think I just proposed marriage! I mean, I did go through that one phase when we were fourteen -"

”What?”

“- but not anymore. Definitely not in love with you.” Yamaguchi concludes. “So, you can answer honestly, you won’t hurt my feelings. Would you not want to be my friend anymore? Would you hate me?”

Would I?

Instinctively, Tsukishima knows the answer.

“Of course not.”

“You see?” Yamaguchi dimples a sunny grin at him. “Then why would you expect Kuroo to react any differently?”

“There are about a billion other factors you failed to consider here,” Tsukishima argues. “I can’t just walk up to him in the middle of capture the flag and say, ‘Hey, I know we’re best friends and all, but in case you haven’t noticed by now, I’m completely in lo -"

Tsukishima’s sentence breaks off into a startled scream as a solid mass suddenly comes crashing into him from behind.

He would have been much more terrified if the mass hadn’t then shouted, “Surprise!”, in an all too familiar voice, with all too familiar arms wrapping around him as he was tackled to the ground.

“Kuroo!” Tsukishima isn’t proud of the way the word comes out in a strangled shriek. His heart is racing in his throat, and it’s not entirely because of the warm weight of Kuroo’s body pressed against his.

Had Kuroo heard anything?

“Heya, Tsukki. I missed you.” Kuroo has the gall to press his forehead against Tsukishima’s temple.

“I just saw you at breakfast an hour ago, you moron!” Tsukishima snaps. Much like Yamaguchi, Kuroo is completely and infuriatingly unaffected by it.

“Are you saying you didn’t miss me, too?” Kuroo gasps in mock offense, then adds almost as an afterthought, “Oh, hey Yamaguchi.”

“Hey Kuroo, nice of you to stop by,” Yamaguchi giggles, and Tsukishima manages to turn his head enough see his traitorous friend looking terribly amused by the situation.

“You can’t - You can’t just drop in on the middle of people’s conversations like that! It’s rude!” Tsukishima chides, and his voice is still a little too high and panicked.

“Oops,” Kuroo laughs sheepishly. “I didn’t realize I was interrupting. Do you want me to go? I can just come find you later.”

“No need!” Yamaguchi leaps to his feet, giving Tsukishima a significant look. “I was just leaving, actually. I promised Yachi I’d help her plant some sunflowers around the Apollo cabin today.”

“Of course you did.” Tsukishima glares at him, but Yamaguchi is more than immune to it by now, waving goodbye and practically skipping away through the strawberry fields. The smug little bastard.

“You didn’t hear anything, did you?” Tsukishima asks suspiciously.

Kuroo shakes his head and draws a little ‘x’ over his chest. “Cross my heart.”

“Good.” Tsukishima exhales. Thank the gods for small miracles.

“Why?” Kuroo raises his eyebrows up and down suggestively. “You guys telling juicy secrets out here?”

“No, and I wouldn’t tell you even if we were,” Tsukishima scoffs.

“Aw, no fun!” Kuroo props his chin on Tsukishima’s shoulder, wild black strands of hair tickling Tsukishima’s cheek. “Hey, you’re not really mad at me, are ya, Tsukki?”

Tsukishima can feel Kuroo’s breath skating across the shell of his ear, making a shiver race up his spine. He’s suddenly far too aware of how close and how alone they are right now.

“No,” he swallows hard. “But I will be if you don’t detach yourself from me in the next five seconds.”

Kuroo quickly obliges, moving so that he’s sitting beside Tsukishima instead of wrapped around him. It’s simultaneously a hundred times better and a million times worse. On the up side, Tsukishima can breathe more normally with added space between them. On the down side, he can’t deny that he misses the feeling of Kuroo’s arms around him.

“Better?”

“Much,” Tsukishima lies.

Sighing contently, Kuroo flops onto his back with his arms tucked behind his head, looking up at the endless blue sky. “I can’t explain it, Tsukki, but I feel like this is gonna be the best summer ever.”

Tsukishima follows Kuroo’s lead, laying on the soft grass next to him. “Have you heard back from New Rome University yet?”

“Hm?” Kuroo says distractedly, tracing the outline of a cloud. “Oh. No, not yet.”

“That’s weird, isn’t it?” Tsukishima props himself up on his elbow to look over at Kuroo. “Akaashi and Bokuto heard back weeks ago.”

“Yeah, well, they both applied before me.” Kuroo shrugs. “I’m sure I’ll hear back any day now.”

“Hm. Maybe you should Iris message someone over there and ask -"

“Tsukki!” Kuroo cuts him off with a laugh. “It’s fine, really. Don’t worry so much, you’ll wrinkle your pretty little face.” He teasingly pokes at the furrow between Tsukishima’s brows, and it’s obviously a joke, but it still makes his face flush with heat.

“Shut up,” he grumbles, batting Kuroo’s hand away.

Kuroo laughs, but allows himself to be pushed away, falling onto his back again. “Seriously,” he says up to the sky, voice going soft. “I don’t want you to worry about me anymore, Tsukki. You’ve done more than your fair share of it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just,” Kuroo gestures vaguely. “Ever since I first got here, you’ve been looking after me. Making sure I was making friends and adjusting okay. And I appreciate that, I do, but I think I’m really okay now. I don’t want you to feel like you have to do it anymore.”

“Trust me, I don’t,” Tsukishima lies again. “There aren’t enough hours in the day for all the worrying I’d have to do for you.”

“Alright, good.” Kuroo smiles peacefully, his eyes slipping shut. Tsukishima allows himself a brief moment of weakness to let his gaze trace the edges and slopes of Kuroo’s profile, the way the sun makes his eyelashes cast delicate shadows across his cheekbones and the strong cut of his jaw, before laying down closing his eyes, too.

They lapse into a comfortable silence, the sunlight warming their skin and gentle breeze combing through their hair. It’s almost easy to forget, laying here like this, with Kuroo so solid and real at his side, that one day it’ll all come to an end.

Maybe if they just keep their eyes closed, they can pretend forever that it’s the first summer again. When things were simpler, and Tsukishima’s biggest worry was how they were going to beat the Ares cabin in capture the flag, or if Chiron was going to let Kuroo sit at the Athena table during meals because Tsukishima knew he hated to eat alone.

“I hope this is what I see,” Kuroo announces suddenly.

“What?” Lazily, Tsukishima peeks one eye open and finds Kuroo leaning on his elbow, looking down at him with a small curve to his lips. With Kuroo hovering just over him, and the sun shining behind him, the son of Hades looks like he’s glowing golden around the edges and it matches the color of his eyes perfectly. Tsukishima’s breath sticks thickly in his throat. He almost looks away, feeling unworthy to take in such a sight.

“You know how everyone says that right before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes, or whatever?”

“Um, yes?” Tsukishima had almost forgotten what they were talking about. His skin prickles under the weight of Kuroo’s stare.

“I don’t want to see all that,” Kuroo says. “Right before I die, I just wanna see this. You laying next to me in the strawberry field, with the wind in your hair and the sun hitting you just right so that I can see the freckles on your nose.” He nods to himself, satisfied and smiling at Tsukishima with warm embers in his eyes. “That would be a pretty alright way to die, I think.”

There suddenly isn’t enough air in Tsukishima’s lungs. There isn’t enough air in the world and his chest constricts painfully. It’s actually gotten to the point where it physically hurts him - how much he wants to love Kuroo. How badly he wants to tell him. To kiss him. To touch him.

No.

He forces himself to focus on the center of Kuroo’s chest, right where his puzzle piece fits. Kuroo’s friend. He promised to always be Kuroo’s friend. His place is as Kuroo’s friend.

He repeats the words in his head a few dozen times before he trusts himself to speak again.

“What is it with you heroes and always planning on dying?” Tsukishima’s voice breaks on more than one word. Kuroo chuckles, a low sort of rumble, like a car engine purring, and Tsukishima doesn’t pull back when he leans in closer.

Flashing red lights and blaring alarms are going off in his head, but he still doesn’t move.

“I like it when you do that,” Kuroo admits quietly.

“Do what?”

“Call me a hero.”

“It’s not necessarily a compliment,” Tsukishima protests weakly.

“I’m okay with that.” Kuroo brushes a blonde curl out of Tsukishima’s eyes and he nearly melts at the tender gesture. Kuroo’s breath is deep and uneven, eyes darting all across Tsukishima’s face, fervent, searching.

“Kuroo…” Tsukishima says in a hushed warning. Oh Gods, this is bad.

“Tsukki,” Kuroo starts, and Tsukishima’s heart stutters to a stop, not even daring to breathe. Don’t, please don’t do this to me, I’m so weak. “I -"

“Oi, Kuroo!”

The sudden call of his name from somewhere in the distance startles Kuroo into jerking his hand back, eyes widening like he hadn’t realized what he was doing until that moment. Tsukishima sucks in a harsh breath, silently thanking the Gods for Taketora Yamamoto. He’s pretty sure he’s never sent up that particular prayer before, but, well. Desperate times.

The son of Dionysus finally spots them, breaking into a run, waving his arms as if it would be possible for them to miss him, with his two-toned mohawk and ungodly loud voice.

“Hey man, there you are! Oh, sup, Tsukishima!” Yamamoto greets them exuberantly. Tsukishima fights down the urge to roll his eyes in response because, well, he kind of owes the idiot, so instead he nods politely.

“Dude.” Kuroo raises his arm to knock fists with Yamamoto, gaze still flitting over to Tsukishima out of the corner of his eye. “What’s up?”

“Been looking for you all over, bro! Chiron’s asking for ya.” Yamamoto jerks a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Big House. His fingers are stained dark purple as usual, from all the grape Kool-Aid he’s constantly drinking.

“Chiron?” Kuroo’s eyebrows draw together. “What for?”

Yamamoto shrugs. “Beats me, I’m just the messenger. Sounded kinda important, though.”

“You should go,” Tsukishima urges, probably too forcefully. You should go very, very far away from me before I kiss your stupid face and ruin our friendship.

Kuroo looks at him with an unreadable expression before nodding and letting Yamamoto help haul him to his feet. It seems like he wants to say something more, but then Yamamoto has an arm hooked around his shoulder, chatting incessantly as he leads him away.

Tsukishima waits until they’re far enough away that he can’t hear even the faintest whisper of their voices, then promptly buries his face in his hands and lets out a long, frustrated groan.

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima’s so distracted looking for Kuroo at dinner that he doesn’t notice the line of kids in front of him waiting for their turn at the pavilion fire stop moving forward, and he bumps into the back of the person in front of him.

“Oops. Sorry,” he says to the person he ran into, recognizing them from behind as Lev Haiba from the Hermes cabin. He’s pretty unmistakable, with his tall, lanky frame and white-silver hair. As far as people he could have run into goes, Lev is pretty high up on the list. Definitely one of the least likely people at camp to want to start a fight over it - over anything, really. Lev is one of the happiest, most easy-going people Tsukishima has ever met.

Which is why when Lev turns to look back at him, Tsukishima startles, feeling his blood run ice cold at the look in his normally vibrant, dancing eyes. They’re empty. Hauntingly so, with dark purple rings drooping beneath them. He looks like he hasn’t slept in years.

“Okay,” Lev says. Even his voice is void of all life. Then he turns back around without another word.

“Poor guy,” Sugawara murmurs from behind him, laden with empathy.

“What happened to him?” Tsukishima whispers back. He can’t see anything physically wrong with the son of Hermes, but he knows that sometimes the wounds they suffer are more than skin-deep.

His brother frowns, biting his bottom lip. “It’s not him, it’s Yaku. He was one of the campers on the quest that hasn’t come back yet.”

The icy feeling in Tsukishima’s veins comes back full force, the summer air suddenly feeling much too frigid.

Three campers had left on a quest nearly a full month ago, and were expected to finish up in three days. At most. It wasn’t even supposed to be a particularly dangerous quest, just some stupid errand to retrieve the Shield of Ajax from a museum in the city. Mortals didn’t even know when they had some of the most powerful objects in history right under their noses sometimes, and it could be dangerous to them, so demigods were often sent to take them back. They were pretty routine quests, really.

It had been weeks since their last contact with camp.

Lev and Yaku were always a mystery to Tsukishima, but then again, most things regarding love and feelings were. Over the years, he’d watched them go from constant bickering, with Yaku regularly kicking Lev’s ass all over camp, to wearing each other’s camp necklaces. Whatever they were, Tsukishima knows that Yaku is a part of Lev.

“Oh,” Tsukishima says dumbly. He’s not great with knowing what to say in situations like these, but luckily Sugawara knows that about him.

Without saying a word, Sugawara knows that Tsukishima is thinking about those three eternally dark days when Kuroo didn’t return from his quest. When Tsukishima had lost a piece of himself, too. He can’t even imagine if those days had stretched into weeks like this. He might not have made it.

When it’s his turn at the fire, he scrapes off an extra large portion of his dinner.

“For Yaku, and the others.” Then, he scrapes off a little more. “And for Lev,” he adds.

There’s an open spot between Sugawara and Akaashi at the Athena table and Tsukishima slides in easily between them, eyes still roaming around distractedly. Bokuto and Sakusa are already sitting at the Big Three table, but there’s an obvious absence.

“He went to see Chiron, didn’t he?” Akaashi asks, following Tsukishima’s line of sight.

“Yeah. It’s been a while.”

Akaashi hums, but doesn’t say the words they’re both thinking.

The last time Kuroo was missing from dinner like this was two years ago, the night before he left for his first quest. Plus, there weren’t a lot of reasons for Chiron to keep a camper for so long like this, unless they were engaged in a particularly riveting game of chess, which Tsukishima happened to know for a fact they weren’t because he had tried to teach Kuroo how to play last year and the son of Hades simply didn’t have the patience for it.

Tsukishima doesn’t know what he’ll do if Kuroo leaves again. Just the thought of spending any part of their precious remaining time apart from each other makes him want to curl up in a ball and cry. Maybe Kuroo feels the way, and would turn down any invites from other campers this year?

“You should eat something,” Akaashi chides him gently, and Tsukishima realizes he hasn’t taken a bite of his food yet.

All he can think about is the look in Lev’s eyes.

“I’m not that hungry, actually.”

 

 

*

 

 

Kuroo eventually turns up again, like he always does.

Tsukishima is lounging on his bed, reading a book about the famous paleontologist, Jack Horner, who discovered his first fossil when he was only eight years old. He’s just getting to the good part when he’s rudely interrupted.

“Oh, Kei!” Daishou sing-songs, distracting him from his reading and already managing to get on his nerves with just those two words. His brother is standing in the doorway with a sly grin on his face. “Someone’s here to see you! It’s your little boyf- mmph!”

Suna walks into the cabin behind Daishou, grabbing him in a headlock and covering his mouth with his hand.

“Kuroo is here to see you,” Suna informs him calmly, while Daishou twists and thrashes helplessly. It’s useless, Tsukishima knows. He’s been caught in one of his older brother’s headlocks before, and it’s nearly impossible to escape him. Suna’s too flexible.

“Thanks.” Tsukishima places his bookmark between his pages and swallows hard to try and force his heart back into his chest where it belongs, instead of throwing it up all over the floor. He makes sure to whack Daishou on the back of the head for good measure as he walks past them and into the sticky night air.

Kuroo is waiting for him, leaning against one of the porch railings with his ankles crossed, staring up at the setting sun with a conflicted look on his face. He’s still unfairly handsome, even with his eyebrows furrowed and the little creases on his forehead.

“Hey,” Tsukishima knocks their shoulders together to get his attention. “Where have you been? What did Chiron want?”

Kuroo stares up at the sky for a few moments longer.

“Walk with me?” He finally asks.

Dread fills the pit of Tsukishima’s stomach as he says, “Okay.”

 

 

*

 

 

At least it’s a nice night, Tsukishima tries to look on the bright side, as Kuroo leads him silently down towards the lake. He follows Kuroo all the way out to the end of the pier, and they sit next to each other looking out across the fiery reflection of the sunset over the water with their legs dangling below them, Tsukishima’s white tennis shoes in stark contrast with Kuroo’s patented black combat boots when their feet knock together.

“It’s another quest, isn’t it?” Tsukishima eventually brings himself to ask. Kuroo sighs heavily and nods, confirming Tsukishima’s worst fears. He swallows down the panic rising in his throat before asking, “Whose?”

“Mine.”

Correction: This is now Tsukishima’s worst fear. The only thing worse than Kuroo being invited on someone else’s quest is Kuroo being given his own quest. If the Oracle chooses him, there’s no way for him to turn it down without some serious consequences down the line. One doesn't just mess with the Fates plan and walk away unscathed.

“I’m sorry, did you just say yours?” Tsukishima hears his own voice from somewhere outside of his body.

“Yeah, it’s, uh,” Kuroo huffs a rough laugh. “Apparently, my dad asked for me specifically. His dog ran away.”

Tsukishima blinks at him. “His…dog? You mean Cerberus? The giant, three-headed beast that guards the gates of the Underworld? That dog?”

“That’s the one.” Kuroo nods.

“Oh, that’s…” Tsukishima pauses, searching for the right word. “Bad.”

“Very bad,” Kuroo agrees with a small laugh. Tsukishima frowns.

“How does that even happen? I mean, Cerberus has never run away before and it’s not like he couldn’t have? The Underworld isn’t locked or anything, so why would he run now? What’s the -"

“Tsukki, Tsukki!” Kuroo cuts him off laughing. “Slow your roll, Brainiac. I have no idea. All I know is that Persephone apparently loves that dog, so if she comes home to the Underworld in a few weeks and he isn’t there, she’s gonna be pissed. And when Persephone gets pissed, she goes back to stay with her mother, which means -"

“No seasons,” Tsukishima finishes, gears in his brain already turning a mile a minute. If Persephone doesn’t return to the Underworld for part of the year, spring and summer would never end. It would be a global disaster, an ecological disruption of catastrophic proportion. The agricultural industry would be decimated, the icecaps would melt an an accelerated rate, not to mention -"Wait, who’s guarding the souls in the Underworld if Cerberus isn’t there?”

The Hellhound of Hades’ main job, besides being Persephone’s pampered pet, was to make sure none of the souls left the Underworld. Kind of an important job to give to a mutt, if you asked Tsukishima.

“Hades has to do it,” Kuroo says. “Which is why he can’t afford to leave the Underworld to find Cerberus himself.”

“Not that the Gods wouldn’t have made a bunch of demigods do their dirty work for them anyways,” Tsukishima grumbles to himself. “But why does it have to be you? Can't you just tell Hades no? It’s not fair, I mean it’s our last summer together, why can’t somebody else -"

“Woah, woah,” Kuroo holds up his hands, stopping Tsukishima’s rambling. “What the heck do you mean ‘our last summer together’? You the one planning on dying now or something?”

“No, but you’re graduated now.” Tsukishima stares down at his hands, twisting his fingers together miserable. “You and Akaashi and Bokuto. You’re all going to go off to college together in the fall, and who knows what’ll happen after that?”

“I do,” Kuroo says firmly. “We’ll all still be together, no matter what.”

“You can’t possibly know that.”

“Let’s just -" Kuroo tugs frustratedly at the longer pieces of his fringe that fall into his eyes. “Can you please not worry about that right now and just trust me?”

Tsukishima opens his mouth and wants to argue more, but there’s something pleading in Kuroo’s eyes that makes him swallow the words down. Trust him. Tsukishima can do that. It’s pretty much all he does.

“Fine,” he relents. “But why does it have to be you? I mean, why did Hades ask for you specifically? No offense, but it’s not like he’s ever been Father of the Year.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Kuroo laughs humorlessly. “But Cerberus is a creature of the Underworld, which means he wouldn’t hurt a child of Hades. Plus, he can Shadow Travel, which means I’m the only demigod who would even have the slightest chance of keeping up with him.”

“That…actually makes a lot of sense.” Tsukishima feels his lips turn into a frown - not a pout, no matter how many times Sugawara insists that it is. He’s not happy about it, but he can’t see an out here. “I’ll see you when you get back then, I guess?”

“Actually, Tsukki…” Kuroo starts, expression serious as Tsukishima has ever seen it. “I want you to come with me.”

There were a lot of kids at camp who waited their entire lives for this moment. For the chance to go on a quest, to fight monsters out in the real world and finally put all those years of training to use. To prove their strength, and maybe even gain favor with the Gods.

Tsukishima was never one of those kids.

He was in no rush to leave camp, and why would he be? Everything he needed was within these magical borders. He had no dreams of chasing glory, he knew he wasn’t strong or brave enough for it anyways. If anything, he would only hold a quest back.

Plus, if he was being brutally honest with himself, Tsukishima is a coward. He’s never fought a monster for real, not outside of the camp boundaries, and the ones they kept in the forest for training weren’t very dangerous. The most real danger he’s ever been in was getting between Tanaka and the last marshmallow at the campfire.

“There are plenty of stronger fighters than me. You should bring one of them, instead.” The words feel like shards of broken glass as they leave his mouth.

“I don’t need a strong fighter. I’ve already got me and Bo for that,” Kuroo insists, suddenly grabbing both of Tsukishima’s hands in his, rough callouses rubbing against Tsukishima’s smooth skin. “What I need is the sharpest mind at camp.”

Tsukishima feels his heart stutter in his chest. He can’t look Kuroo directly in his piercing gold eyes.

“Suga, or - or Akaashi -"

“I don’t want Suga or Akaashi!” Kuroo’s grip tightens. “I want you!”

Tsukishima bites down on his tongue until he tastes blood. “For…the quest?”

The pause before Kuroo answers stretches on for too long.

“Sure,” he says slowly, releasing Tsukishima’s hands. “For now, let’s say the quest.”

For now?

“Look,” Kuroo sighs, running a hand through his dark hair. “It’s not just about completing the quest for me, okay? I have my own reasons for agreeing to this. If I can find Cerberus and bring him back to the Underworld, there’s a chance that Hades might be so grateful, he’ll grant me a favor.”

“Kuroo,” Tsukishima says, stomach dropping. “You can’t -"

“I know,” Kuroo says quickly. “I know I can’t bring my mom and sister back, but if I could just - Gods, Tsukki,” he exhales roughly. “I would do anything to just see them one more time. Just five minutes, that’s all I want. So there’s more riding on this for me than just completing some stupid quest, y’know? And you’re the person I believe in most in the world. The only one I trust enough to do this with me. So please, Tsukki. Come with me.”

With the sunset reflecting off the water into Kuroo’s eyes, making them look fiery with his resolve and his passion, he’s never been harder for Tsukishima to resist.

“I - I need some more time to think about it,” Tsukishima finally decides. Just a night to sleep on it, maybe draw up a list of pros and cons.

His answer doesn’t seem to please Kuroo.

“Gods, Tsukki, are you kidding me right now?” Kuroo demands, fire in his eyes suddenly turning dangerous.

“Well, what the hell do you want from me?” Tsukishima shoots back, feeling his defenses rising. “You’re asking a lot of me here, okay! I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a little more time to think.”

“I wanted you to say ‘yes’!” Kuroo shouts, voice breaking in a moment of raw vulnerability that makes Tsukishima want to give him anything he wants. “No hesitation, no second-guessing yourself, because it’s us, Tsukki. It’s me and you, and I’m pretty sure that we could defy the Fates themselves if we wanted to!” His expression suddenly falls, as if he’s come to a horrible realization. “But you…clearly don’t feel the same.”

“That’s not what this is about,” Tsukishima says, desperate to chase that dejected look off of Kuroo’s face. “This has nothing to do with…us.”

Kuroo stands, and when he looks down on him, Tsukishima feels small and foolish.

“Yeah, actually,” Kuroo says tersely. “This has everything to do with us.” He turns to walk away, but before he can get very far, he stops and without turning back says, “So much for always being there, right?”

Tsukishima digs his fingernails into his palms until the skin breaks ten times over and refuses to cry.

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima hates dreaming.

For demigods, dreams are never just that - high brain activity during the REM cycle of sleep that conjures up subconscious images. They always have a purpose, a meaning. A warning. Some demigods have even been known to dream about occurrences that are happening halfway across the world at the same time that they’re happening, or an event from hundreds of years in the past that there’s no way they should have known about. They can be dangerous.

That night, after being invited on Kuroo’s quest, Tsukishima dreams.

In his dream, he’s at sea during a terrible storm. There’s no land in sight, and the water swirling around him is so dark, it looks black and menacing. Thunder crashes and lighting strikes dangerous close to the lifeboat he’s clinging onto as the waves thrash him around.

And Kuroo is there. In the water, he’s drowning.

Tsukishima desperately reaches out to him, screams his name, but the sounds of the storm and the ocean are too loud and Kuroo can’t hear him. He tries to stay hanging on to his lifeboat with one hand while reaching for Kuroo with the other, but he’s too far away and Tsukishima can’t reach him.

The only way for Tsukishima to save Kuroo from drowning is to let go of his own lifeboat.

He doesn’t need to ask Kunimi, the camp’s resident expert dream interpreter, what it’s supposed to mean. It doesn’t take a son of Hypnos to interpret that.

 

 

*

 

 

“What do you mean they’re already gone?”

Akaashi frowns sympathetically, not looking too happy about the situation either.

“They left early this morning, before breakfast. After talking to you last night Kuroo went to get his prophecy from the Oracle, and they seemed to be in a pretty big rush after that. Bokuto didn’t even - he didn’t even say goodbye?” He finishes uncertainly, obviously not used to being slighted by the son of Zeus like that. Bokuto quite literally worshipped the ground that Akaashi walked on, so for him to leave without stopping by the Athena cabin to say goodbye - they must have really been in a rush.

Tsukishima purses his lips and tries not to let his disappointment show too clearly on his face. After all that time he spent last night agonizing over whether or not to accept Kuroo’s invitation, he woke up to find they had gone without him. Apparently, Kuroo hadn’t really needed him that badly after all.

“Who else did they end up bringing with them?”

The frown on Akaashi’s face deepens. “No one.”

“Wha - No one? That’s not - they can’t do that! Quests are supposed to be three people! Three is the sacred number, it helps protect them!”

“Trust me,” Akaashi sighs. “We tried to tell them that, but Kuroo was insistent.”

“Why didn’t you just go with them?” Tsukishima asks. He had honestly been surprised to see Akaashi was still here when he realized the quest had gone on without him. Akaashi was the obvious choice for their third.

Akaashi shrugs. “Kuroo never invited me. I guess if he couldn’t have you, he didn’t want anyone else.” The barest hint of a smile flickers at his lips. “Kind of romantic, in an obtuse sort of way. Don’t you think?”

A flush starts to creep up the back of Tsukishima’s neck and he valiantly tries to fight it down, but there’s no use trying to hide things from Akaashi. Have I really been that bad at hiding it?

“How long have you known?” He asks, resignedly.

“Hmm,” Akaashi taps his chin with one elegant finger. “Since you were thirteen.”

“What?” Tsukishima balks. “But - I didn’t - I mean, I wasn’t even -"

Akaashi laughs and waves off Tsukishima’s fumbling. “Alright, maybe not like that, but ever since the first time you told Bokuto and I about him, I knew he was someone special to you. I just didn’t realize how truly special he was going to be.” He grabs one of Tsukishima’s wrists and squeezes gently. “Which is why I know you have to go.”

As terrified as he is right now, Tsukishima knows he has to go, too. Even if it means letting go of his own life raft, he’ll never let Kuroo drift away at sea alone.

“How?” He asks. “There’s no way Chiron will let me go after them now, I’m not technically a part of the quest.”

Akaashi’s eyes glint with a mischief to rival the Miya twins’.

“That’s why you’re going to need some help.”

 

 

*

 

 

“You’ll have to wait until nightfall to leave,” Sugawara explains, his voice slightly muffled from underneath his bed. He rummages around for a few moments more before making a triumphant sound and popping back out with something clutched in his hand. Tsukishima gasps when he recognizes it.

Faded navy fabric with a New York Yankees logo slightly fraying at the edges.

“I can’t take that,” Tsukishima holds his hands up and refuses to accept the baseball cap from his brother.

“Sure you can,” Sugawara insists.

“But that’s - That’s Athena’s Invisibility Cap! Mom gave it to you, I can’t just -"

“That’s right, she gave it to me.” Sugawara takes Tsukishima’s hands and forces him to accept the magical object. “Which means that I can decide who can and can’t use it, and right now, you need it more than I do. So just take it, will you?”

The thrum of strong magic pulsing through the object is palpable, and Tsukishima’s skin breaks out into goosebumps as soon as it touches his skin. Athena’s Invisibility Cap. He can’t believe he’s actually holding it.

Tsukishima swallows hard, emotion clogging his throat. He knows how much the cap means to Sugawara, it was a gift to him from Athena when he completed his first quest at age eleven. For him to trust Tsukishima with something so precious to him… Akaashi smiles encouragingly, and Tsukishima is so, so lucky to have brothers like them. He must have been some great hero in a past life to deserve this, like Jason or maybe Perseus.

“Alright. Thank you,” Tsukishima says. “But wait, even if I do manage to sneak out without anyone seeing me, how am I going to find Kuroo and Bokuto? They have an entire day’s head start on me, and I have no idea where they’re headed.”

“I have something that can help with that.” Akaashi pulls open to drawer on his nightside stand and hands Tsukishima a folded up piece of paper.

“This is…a map?” Tsukishima glances down at it. “No offense Akaashi, but I’m not sure how this is going to tell me where they are.”

“Really?” Akaashi raises an amused eyebrow. “Why don’t you look at it again?”

It doesn’t seem like it’ll do much good, but Tsukishima dutifully takes a closer look at the paper map, examining it carefully. It just looks like a regular map to him, but the longer he looks at it, the image in front of him starts to blur and shift before his eyes, until it’s focused in on a nearby bus route. Then, a little icon of a lightning bolt appears, traveling down the line.

“Is that - Is that Bokuto?” Tsukishima’s jaw nearly drops, watching the lighting bolt moving across the paper. “You have a map that tracks Bokuto’s location?”

“Wouldn’t you, if you were me?”

“Good point,” Tsukishima concedes, folding up the map and slipping it into his back pocket along with the Invisibility Cap, careful not to bend or crease either of his brother’s magical loans.

“It can get pretty detailed the closer you get to him,” Akaashi says. “I needed something that would be able pinpoint his location on a small scale since I originally used it to make sure he wasn’t skipping classes.”

“Where did you even get it from?” Sugawara asks, sounding impressed.

“It’s the product of the combined skills of the Hephaestus and Hecate cabins. I had to take their bathroom cleaning duties for a month in exchange for it.” Akaashi’s voice is grim, eyes faraway as he shudders at the memory.

“Seems like a lot of work just to keep Bokuto from skipping his classes,” Tsukishima points out, smirking when the tips of Akaashi’s ears turn pink.

“You’re one to talk!” Sugawara laughs brightly, and Tsukishima feels his own ears turning hot.

Touché.

“Anyways,” Akaashi rolls his eyes. “If you travel through the night, you should have no trouble catching up with them. They’re probably going to travel all day and rest at night, and Kuroo is smart enough not to waste any energy Shadow Traveling when they still don’t have an exact destination in mind.”

“I should probably get some rest during the day if I’ll be traveling all night, then.”

“You should,” Akaashi agrees. “But first, there’s someone else you need to see.”

 

 

*

 

 

It doesn’t take Tsukishima long to find Tendou.

The son of Ares never usually strays too far from the training grounds, and sure enough, he’s there today, sweat matting his fiery red hair to his forehead and swinging his favorite kopis sword wildly at the wooden dummies surrounding him. Tendou was the only demigod Tsukishima knew who used a kopis, making him easy to identify even when he’s wearing his full battle armor. The blade is long and single-edged, with a unique curve to it that made it ideal for one-armed blows that dealt the same strength as a battle axe.

Tsukishima did his best to head in the other direction when he spotted that blade in capture the flag.

He had seen Tendou training hundreds of times before, knew in intimate detail the way he slashed and cut down dummy after dummy with precision and grit and a deviant smile on his face. Today, however, there was no such smile on Tendou’s face. In its place was a severe and hardened expression, lacking all of its usual playfulness.

Something about it makes Tsukishima take pause and wait until Tendou finishes cutting down every last dummy before he approaches him, rather than interrupt.

Tendou’s wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm when Tsukishima finally gets his attention, and the serious look in his eyes melts into something much more familiar.

“Well, well, Little Kei Kei. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” Tendou says when Tsukishima finishes explaining the situation.

Tsukishima has no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but he follows along as Tendou leads him to the armory.

“Wait right here, I gotta make sure it’s still where I left it,” Tendou explains, without actually explaining anything, and popping into the large shed.

“Make sure what’s where you left it?” Tsukishima calls in after him.

“You need a weapon for a quest, don’t ya?” Tendou asks, followed by muffled cursing and the sound of metal breastplates clanging to the ground.

Tsukishima looks at the rack of celestial bronze swords sitting right in front of him with confusion. He was just planning on bringing one of them with him. They were the most commonly used weapons around camp, plus he’s been training with them since he was a kid. Granted, he’s not that great with them, but his role isn’t going to involve much fighting anyways. Hopefully.

Finally, there’s a triumphant cry from inside and Tendou reemerges, shaking the cobwebs out of his hair and proudly presenting Tsukishima with a golden cylinder about the size of a toilet paper roll.

“Here you go!” Tendou offers the cylinder to him and Tsukishima stares at it.

“Um. No thanks.”

Tendou pouts and thrusts the object, glinting golden when it catches the sunlight, towards him more forcefully. “What the heck do ya mean ‘no thanks’?”

“I’m just gonna bring one of those,” Tsukishima points to the rack of swords. “Also, that thing looks pretty useless, unless you’re planning on decorating a really fancy bathroom.”

“Listen close, Kei Kei,” Tendou throws a sweaty arm around his shoulders. “I’m gonna be honest with you. You’re a pretty shitty swordsman.”

“Gee, thanks,” Tsukishima says drily, trying to shrug the other boy off. He really doesn’t have time for Tendou’s weird games today.

“Hey, it’s not your fault!” Tendou pulls Tsukishima closer when he tries to get away. “You just don’t have the right build for it, y’know? You don’t got enough body weight to counterbalance the blade, and not enough upper body strength to make up for it. You need a weapon better suited to your body type.” Tendou pokes Tsukishima in the forehead, and slaps the golden toilet paper roll into his hands with finality. “So why don’t ya quit being so stubborn and just try this on for size?”

Tsukishima stares at the object in his hand, turning it over and examining it from all angles. He finds a small button embedded into the side of the cylinder and slides his thumb over it, not pressing yet, giving Tendou a questioning look. The son of Ares nods encouragingly, taking a few huge steps away.

“You might wanna hold it a little further away from your body. And angle it perpendicular so you don’t - yeah, that’s good!” Tendou holds his hands up to freeze Tsukishima in the position he’s standing in, with the metal cylinder held in his hand, the flat ends pointing away from his body. “Alright, let ‘er rip!” Tendou cheers, watching with shining eyes as Tsukishima presses down on the button.

A surprised yelp escapes him as both ends of the cylinder shoot out, extending on either side until Tsukishima is holding in his hand a long, shiny golden spear with pointed tips on both ends of it. He stares at the beautiful weapon in awe, surprised at how light and perfectly balanced it feels in his hand.

“There!” Tendou declares happily. “A long, skinny weapon for a long, skinny boy. Feels better than a sword, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Tsukishima agrees breathlessly. “This is - Where did this even come from? I can’t believe none of the other campers have taken this for themselves yet.”

“Ah, ah,” Tendou sings. “This weapon isn’t for any other campers. This one is just for you.”

Tsukishima frowns, turning the weapon over in his hands. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, this weapon was literally made just for you. Oikawa designed the thing himself, would ya believe it?” Tendou chuckles. “I guess designing clothes and designing weapons isn’t all that different at the end of the day. He said he got inspired watching you training one day since you were such garbage at fighting with a sword.”

“Hey!”

“When he noticed that the way your body moved when you were fighting and the way the sword’s blade moved never quite matched up, he decided that you needed something more fluid. More graceful. He went back to his cabin that night and stayed up till morning drawing the thing up for you.”

“Oikawa?” Tsukishima gapes, but really he shouldn’t be that surprised. Who else in the world could have designed something so effortlessly gorgeous like this? “He did all that just for me?”

Tendou’s smile softens at the incredulous tone of Tsukishima’s question. “Course he did, dummy. Just because you’re all grown up and don’t need us to take care of you anymore doesn't mean that those of us who have been doing it almost your whole life are gonna stop now. It’s just muscle memory, like fighting, isn’t it?”

“That’s -" Tsukishima looks away, fighting down very un-grown up tears. “I mean, you all don’t have to do that, but - Thanks, I guess,” he finishes in a mumble.

“We never did it because we had to.” Tendou slaps him on the back. “Now let me finish my story! So then, Oikawa brought the drawing to Iwaizumi, who was more than happy to try his hand at actually crafting the thing, and then they brought it to me, to keep it safe and hidden for you. Your big bros asked us not to give it to you until the day came that you would need it.” He cocks his head to the side. “Guess that’s today, huh?”

Tsukishima bites his lip, head spinning. Oikawa and Iwaizumi made this beautiful weapon together? They made it for him? For the second time that day, Tsukishima feels undeserving of all the kindness he’s being shown, now not only from his own siblings, but from all the other campers who had been looking after him since he was a kid.

“I - I don’t know what to say,” Tsukishima admits thickly.

“Don’t gotta say anything,” Tendou says. His smile turns wicked. “But you do gotta do her the honor of learning to use her right. It’s what a weapon this gorgeous deserves.”

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima spends the next few hours training harder than he ever has in his entire life.

They barely have a day to get him comfortable enough with the weapon to keep himself alive out in the real world, and Tendou takes his job of teaching Tsukishima the intricacies of spear-wielding very seriously. Fighting with a spear is nothing like fighting with a sword, and Tsukishima is using muscles in his shoulders and his back that he didn’t even know he had before. It hurts. He aches everywhere. He wants to throw in the towel and quit so, so many times.

But then he thinks about Kuroo. Thinks of the hurt on his face the night before, thinks about how much he disappointed him.

He’s not going to do that ever again.

So he keeps training, even when he collapses three times and has to pull his screaming body back to its feet over and over again, because Tsukishima wants to stay by Kuroo’s side. And to do that, he needs to be stronger.

Tendou - and Oikawa - had been right. Despite all of the muscle aches, Tsukishima is better at using a spear in a few short hours than he was at using a sword after eleven years of training. The length and the lack of hilt to grip onto takes some getting used to, but he gets the hang of it.

Slowly but surely, he gets the hang of it, until he’s knocked Tendou off his feet and has the point of one sharp end pointed in his face.

Tsukishima has never won a spar again Tendou before in his life.

The son of Ares falls onto his back and laughs and laughs, and its the most victorious sounding battle cry Tsukishima has ever heard. He follows the other boy’s lead and finally drops to the ground beside him with his own smile tugging at his lips, retracting the length of the spear until it fit into the palm of his hand once again.

“Does it have a name yet?” He asks, stroking a thumb over the smooth surface. All the best weapons had names. There was even speculation that naming them made them stronger.

“Nah, figured we’d leave the fun part to you.” Tendou grins, pulling a dandelion out of the ground and twirling it between his fingers.

Tsukishima runs his hands over the delicate metalwork and imagines Oikawa hunched over his desk by lamplight, pencil scribbling furiously over the pages of his sketchbook. Imagines him the next day, watching over Iwaizumi’s shoulder as the son of Hephaestus painstakingly forged the celestial bronze double-headed spear, bringing his creation to life. Looks over at Tendou, sprawled on his back, chest heaving with exhaustion and forehead glistening with sweat from spending all day teaching Tsukishima how to use it right.

Futakuchi’s voice comes to him in that moment, a distant but very clear memory from two summers ago. That warm, fuzzy kind of love that you feel for you friends? It’s called philia.

“Philia,” Tsukishima decides, and just saying it out loud feels right.

“Philia, huh?” Tendou repeats, propping himself on his elbows to give Tsukishima a funny grin. “Doesn’t really strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, but I like it.”

It’s nearly late afternoon by the time Tendou deems Tsukishima adequate enough with the spear to keep himself alive, and if he’s lucky, Tsukishima can get in a few hours of sleep before the sun is set and he has to leave.

Before he can go, the son of Ares stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, Kei,” he starts nervously, and just the fact that he uses his proper name makes Tsukishima stand a little straighter, pay close attention. “If you happen to see Wakatoshi out there, would you tell him that he’s late for our lunch appointment?” A tiny flicker of a grin touches his lips, his expression lifting the slightest bit. “That’ll really drive him crazy. He hates being late, ya know?”

That same chill that Tsukishima felt race up his spine when he saw Lev at dinner last night comes back, relentless icy claws making his skin break out in goosebumps despite the layer of sweat clinging to his skin.

That’s right. Ushijima Wakatoshi had been on the same quest with Yaku, hadn’t he? He was one of the missing campers.

Like with Yaku and Lev, Tsukishima didn’t know much about the nature of Tendou’s relationship with Ushijima, but he did know that it had been literal years since he’d seen Tendou without some wildflower or another tucked behind his ear or threaded into his hair. It was only now that Tsukishima realized the jarring absence of any flowers on Tendou’s person.

A literal physical representation of losing a part of himself.

“Yeah, Tendou,” he says quietly. “If I see him, I promise I’ll let him know.”

“Thanks.” Tendou’s smile looks pained, cracking at the edges. Tsukishima hates seeing it on his usually so cheerful face. The son of Ares suddenly tightens his grip on Tsukishima’s shoulder to the point of almost being painful. “I need you to make me one more promise. Don’t try to be a hero out there, okay?”

“What?” Tsukishima frowns. “Why?” Children of Ares were usually all in favor of stupid and reckless heroics in battle. But right now, Tendou looks like he couldn’t imagine anything worse.

“Just - Just come back. Don’t be a hero.”

He says the two things as if they’re mutually exclusive: Coming home or being a hero.

Historically speaking, Tsukishima would have to agree with him. Greek heroes didn’t exactly have the best track record.

 

 

*

 

 

“Alright,” Sugawara says in a hushed whisper, crouched down just outside the cabin door with black warpaint smeared under his eyes. “The border of camp is a lot further away than the Hades cabin, so when you hear the signal, you run like hell, got it?”

After all the nightmares Kuroo suffered from his first summer at Camp Half Blood, they have a sort of system for sneaking Tsukishima out of the cabin after curfew. It’s practically routine at this point, but Tsukishima still feels his heart pumping thunderously in his chest, backpack strap clutched tightly in one hand and Sugawara’s Invisibility Cap in the other.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. What’s the signal?”

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Sugawara grins dangerously, and Tsukishima shares a wary look with Akaashi. “Luckily, I’ll be able to buy you a little extra time tonight. I called in some backup.”

“Backup?” Tsukishima repeats, looking at Akaashi in confusion. His brother just shrugs, looking equally lost.

His question is answered in the form of a very obviously fake bird call coming from somewhere among the trees. Tsukishima squints into the darkness in the direction of the sound.

“Is that - Is that Tanaka and Nishinoya?”

Sure enough, as his eyes adjust he can clearly make out the silhouette of Nishinoya’s spiky hair and short figure crouched on a low tree branch, and Tanaka’s buzzed head peeking out from behind a tree trunk. They’re both dressed in all black with warpaint to match Sugawara’s, though it looks like Tanaka also has a black handprint right on the top of his head, though it’s impossible to tell if he had put it there on purpose, or if Nishinoya had smacked it on as a joke.

“Seemed like the obvious choice to me.” Sugawara shrugs. “Name two people more distracting than those two.”

“I… Literally can’t.”

There’s another ridiculous sounding bird call, and suddenly Tanaka and Nishinoya both disappear from sight, bleeding into the darkness between the trees. No matter how hard Tsukishima looks, he can’t see them at all anymore. He’s reluctant to admit to himself that it’s pretty impressive.

“That’s my cue!” Sugawara pops up and throws his arms around Tsukishima in a tight embrace. Tsukishima is nearly a head taller than his older brother now, but he still feels small and young when Sugawara hugs him like this, like he can protect Tsukishima from the world. “Be safe, Kei,” he whispers.

“I will.” Tsukishima hangs onto him tighter than he has in years. “Love you,” he mumbles into Sugawara’s shoulder.

“Love you more.” Sugawara pulls back with a wink, and then darts off into the night. Tsukishima has to remind himself over and over again as he watches him go that this isn’t the last time he’ll see his brother, even though it kind of feels like it is.

Akaashi waits with him in baited silence, eyes and ears straining into the darkness for a signal.

“Kei,” Akaashi whispers, breaking the quiet. He looks uncharacteristically nervous and unsure in the faint light. Tsukishima knows it’s killing him to have to stay behind right now. “Take care of yourself, and take care of them, too. They need you more than I think they realize, otherwise they never would have left like that. Especially Kuroo.”

“Those two idiots aren’t dying on my watch,” he promises. Akaashi breaks into a small grin.

“Kei, before you go -"

BOOM

Whatever Akaashi was about to say next is drowned out by a cracking sound like a clap of thunder far above their heads, followed by a blinding shower of colorful lights. A fireworks display, lighting up the night. As more and more campers are roused from their sleep, cabin doors are swung open and kids crowd the area, looking up at the show of reds and blues and golds in awe. The Harpies circle frantically overhead, but the sounds and the lights are too distracting, and they don’t seem to know where to start with what looks like every kid in camp now out of their cabins past curfew.

“I think that might have been the signal,” Tsukishima says dazedly, watching the fireworks dance across the midnight black sky.

“Yeah,” Akaashi grins, colorful lights flashing across his face. Tsukishima grabs for his hand, for some sort of desperate anchor to hold onto, wanting nothing more than to stay right here with him. But he needs to go. He knows it and so does Akaashi. “Just… Don’t forget to think with something other than your head sometimes, alright?”

It doesn’t sound like something Akaashi would normally say. It sounds more like the advice of someone like Yamaguchi, or Oikawa. Tsukishima doesn’t know what to make of it.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll figure it out. Go now,” his brother murmurs, tugging Tsukishima down with two hands on his cheeks and pressing a firm kiss to the top of his head.

So, with Akaashi’s map in his back pocket, Sugawara’s Invisibility Cap pulled snugly over his blonde curls, and the spear designed by Oikawa, crafted by Iwaizumi, and taught to him by Tendou secure in his backpack, Tsukishima goes.

 

 

*

 

 

Were it not for the fact that Sugawara would lock him in the Athena cabin for the rest of his life if he ever got arrested, Tsukishima would not hesitate to turn the entire New York Public Transportation system to dust.

Tsukishima has never felt so cramped and miserable in his life.

Not only is he exhausted from being too nervous to get any sleep earlier that day, but he’s also on edge. Being in a confined space for so long is never a good feeling for a demigod. Every passenger who even sneezed in his direction had Tsukishima instinctively reaching for Philia, tucked away safely in his bag. Any one of them could be a monster hiding in plain sight. Tsukishima has heard crazy stories before, about monsters disguising themselves as people’s math teachers or their dentist. He needs to stay on his toes.

Around six in the morning, the map finally shimmers and the image fades in and out until it’s zoomed in so close to the lightning bolt, Tsukishima can pinpoint the exact city it’s located in. He jumps off the bus at the Saratoga Springs stop and goes the rest of the way on foot.

As he gets closer and closer to Bokuto’s location, he notices that there are a surprising amount of people out and about considering how early it is, and most of them appear to be not much older than him. Some of them are in flannel pajama bottoms, while others are in short dresses with heels in their hands, and all of them look like severely dehydrated and sleep-deprived zombies. Tsukishima is confused, curious if maybe some strange plague has affected this town, until he spots a sign on one of the buildings.

‘SKIDMORE COLLEGE’

“Great,” Tsukishima grumbles, as a guy wearing nothing but boxers and an American flag tied around his shoulders like a cape topples over into the bushes lining the sidewalk next to him. He carefully edges his way around the kid. “Just what this day needed. Hungover college kids.”

The map leads him a little ways off campus, where the uniform brownstone buildings give way to a more suburban layout. A little neighborhood with big, white houses lining the streets. He’s close now, maybe only a hundred feet or so away, so Tsukishima pockets the map again and keeps his eyes on his surroundings, looking for any sign of his friends. They shouldn’t be too hard to find, he just needs to look for an obvious path of destruction to follow.

There are random letters on the fronts of each of the houses, he notices as he looks around, but they don’t spell anything, so he doesn’t pay them much mind.

In hindsight, Tsukishima really should have caught on sooner.

He’s a son of Athena, he should be able to make simple connections like this. It shouldn’t have taken a shirtless guy with a beer gut and a red solo cup in his hand sleeping on one of the houses front porches for Tsukishima to put all the pieces together.

The letters on top of the houses - they weren’t from the English alphabet. Tsukishima’s brain was just hardwired to translate them in his head.

They’re Greek letters.

“No,” Tsukishima says in horror. A few people passing by give him strange looks, probably because he’s stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the sidewalk. “No, no, no, please gods, no.”

“Woah, you alright there, man?”

Tsukishima pivots sharply, dislodging the hand on his shoulder, ready to give the beer-breathed frat boy behind him a piece of his mind, but the words shrivel up and die in his throat, coming out as something closet to a squeak when he sees the person - the creature - standing there.

He looks a little too old to be your typical college student, like maybe he’d been held back a few years, with long brown hair and a matching beard, braids scattered randomly throughout it, and a bright red t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, the words Party Ponies proudly emblazoned across the chest.

A fitting name, considering the fact that he has the bottom half of a horse.

“You’re - yuh - you’re a - a -" Tsukishima stammers.

He knows he sounds like an absolute imbecile, but can he really be blamed? He’s never seen a centaur other than Chiron before, and certainly hasn’t seen one just prancing around in the mortal world with their four hooves so clearly on display like that. Looking at the centaur now, though, Tsukishima can recall scattered mentions that Chiron has made in the past about his unruly distant relatives. They gave ‘party animals’ a whole new meaning.

“Huh?” The centaur cocks his head to the side and Tsukishima wordlessly points to his lower half. It’s probably a bit rude, but the centaur just laughs heartily. “Oh man, you can see those? You must be a demigod! And sober!”

Tsukishima nods dumbly. “Yeah, I. Um. I’m sorry, but should you really just be walking around like that?”

The centaur laughs again, holding his stomach and throwing his head back. “Ah, don’t worry about it little guy! With the combined powers of the Mist and all the alcohol in these kids’ systems, they never notice a thing!”

As if to prove his point, the next person who walks by claps the centaur on his shoulder and gives him a fist bump, maneuvering around his hind legs as if on autopilot, not even giving them a second glance.

“See?”

“Wow. College kids are even dumber than I thought.” Tsukishima hopes his friends don’t get stupid (even stupider than they already are, in some cases) when they go off to college.

“College kids,” the centaur says sagely. “Are the best. Hey, you’re probably looking for those other demigod dudes, aren’t you?”

Tsukishima’s heart jumps excitedly - nervously? “Those would be my friends, unfortunately. Do you know where they are?”

“Do I ever!” The centaur points to the house right next to them, decorated with a crooked PP sign over it. “Found your friends wandering around like some lost puppies last night, so we told them they could crash with us! We could smell the demigod on them from a mile away. They must be pretty strong, those two.”

“They’re children of the Big Three, actually,” Tsukishima says, and the centaur whistles, impressed. Then, he swallows hard, looking up at the toilet paper-decorated building. “So they’re…in there?”

“Nah,” the centaur chuckles at the disgusted expression on his face. “They said they didn’t want to impose, and insisted on sleeping out in the yard. They’re just around the side of the house.”

“Oh thank Gods,” Tsukishima exhales. He’s not sure if his stomach would survive a trip into the Party Pony lair. “Thank you for -"

“Bro, look at this perfectly good pizza somebody threw away! Looks like breakfast to me.” A very familiar voice comes from around the side of the house.

Of course, Tsukishima groans under his breath and the centaur gives him an amused salute goodbye.

“Don’t you dare!” Tsukishima shouts as he rounds the corner of the house, before he can even see the people there.

“Woah… Did you just hear that?” The same voice says. “It kinda sounded like -"

“Tsukki!” Kuroo’s eyes blow wide with shock as Tsukishima steps into view.

It’s barely been twenty-four hours since they’ve seen each other, but seeing him makes Tsukishima realize just how painfully his heart had missed Kuroo. A part of him.

How is it possible to want to be so close to someone who looks like they just spent the night rolling around in a bed of dirt? Kuroo’s hair is a disaster - what else is new? - and Bokuto doesn’t look much better off, but they both look surprisingly well-rested with big grins on their faces.

“Tsukki!” Bokuto echoes. “You’re just in time for pizza!” He shakes the half-empty pizza box in his hands triumphantly.

“Drop it,” Tsukishima commands. Bokuto pouts, but obeys, the cardboard box falling at his feet. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”

Bokuto jumps up excitedly. “These cool centaurs let us crash in their yard for the night! They even let us borrow some of their pillows. We just told them that we were Greek, and they basically treated us like family!”

“I think the better question is,” Kuroo interjects, rising to his feet as well, brushing dirt off the seat of his pants and raising an inquisitive eyebrow. “What the hell are you doing here?” He doesn’t sound accusatory, though. He sounds absolutely delighted.

Tsukishima feels a flush creep up the back of his neck, crossing his arms and turning his nose away. “The camp rules clearly state that quests are to be made up of three campers.”

“Oh yeah?” Kuroo smirks. “If you’re so worried about following camp rules, why do ya got Suga’s Invisibility Cap sticking out of your back pocket, hm?”

Tsukishima’s hand instinctively flies up to cover it, but Kuroo’s shit-eating grin makes it obvious that he’s been caught.

“I - don’t?” He tries anyways.

“The Athena cabin has an Invisibility Cap? What the heck, that’s so cool!” Bokuto says, but Tsukishima can barely hear him, senses completely narrowed in on the sight of Kuroo walking towards him, muscles shifting beneath his ripped black jeans like a big cat stalking their prey.

“You snuck out of camp to come here, didn’t you? You came,” Kuroo says, laughing in disbelief. In awe. Like Tsukishima showing up here was the answer to all of his questions. “You really came, you -" He suddenly stops, freezing a few feet away from Tsukishima, eyes suddenly going wide, faltering a step back. “You can’t be here.”

Tsukishima feels like he just got smacked in the nose with the hilt of a sword. “Come again?”

“You have to go back.” Kuroo takes another step away from him like Tsukishima is a nuclear bomb about to detonate, shaking his head frantically. He looks…afraid? “Tsukki, you can’t - I’m sorry. You need to leave right now.”

Something cracks open in the cavity of Tsukishima’s chest, dripping sticky and acidic all over his heart, making his eyes sting. Oh, right, that’s the word for it. Rejection.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Tsukishima hisses, surprised at the vitriol in his own voice. Bokuto takes a few very big steps backwards, eyes darting nervously between Tsukishima and Kuroo. “Do you have any idea what I went through to get here? What me and a whole bunch of other people risked because you got your stupid feelings hurt and ran off like a reckless idiot? And now you’re - you don’t want me here?”

Kuroo winces. “It’s not like that, I swear! It’s not that I don’t want you here, you just can’t be. Please,” his words take on a desperate tone. “Please, just trust me -"

“I do trust you!” Tsukishima explodes. “I trust you more than anyone else in the world! That’s why I came here in the first place!”

“Then keep trusting me now and just go! Please!” Kuroo shouts.

Kuroo never shouts at Tsukishima.

“You said - You said you wanted me here.” Tsukishima’s voice breaks and Kuroo’s expression shatters. “You said we were gonna defy the Fates together, you asshole! Or was that just all talk?”

“We can’t defy the Fates together if we’re both dead!”

Tsukishima’s stomach drops to the floor.

“What does that mean?” Kuroo looks away, avoiding his eyes. Tsukishima takes a shaky step closer. “Kuroo, what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s the prophecy,” Bokuto says quietly, coming between them with his hands held in the air peacefully. It’s only then that Tsukishima notices his own hands are balled into tight fists. He wasn’t going to hit Kuroo, he doesn’t think. “The Oracle said that…” Bokuto trails off, biting his lip uncertainly.

“Said that what?” Tsukishima barely dares to ask. Kuroo finally looks up and meets his eyes again, mouth set in a grim line.

“We’re going to meet death.”

And then, a window above opens and a Party Pony pukes right in front of them.

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima remembers his father bringing him to the local public library when he was a kid. Very vaguely, but he does remember it. Spending his Saturdays flipping through countless picture books while his dad collected more and more research books until they had a stack of books that looked close to toppling over on the table between them, so tall, Tsukishima could only see the very tips of his father’s wiry blonde hair over the top of it.

That library didn’t hold a candle to the Skidmore College library. A college library. Tsukishima felt like he was on Olympus. The stacks of books ran vast and deep, and as his eyes skimmed the spines of each and every one of them, he could see that they covered every conceivable topic anyone could ever want to learn about.

He wishes he had more time, wishes he had hours and days to peruse the selection but, well, this was kind of a matter of life or death.

Kuroo borrowed a piece of paper and a pencil from a table of giggling college girls behind them and wrote the prophecy down for Tsukishima to finally read for himself.

He can admit, it’s not the most optimistic prophecy he’s ever heard.

 

You shall chase the season, and recover what was lost,

Keep your eyes on your back, or pay the cost,

Call on the brightest of gods, but don’t hold your breath,

If you follow your heart, you’ll be sure to meet death.

 

“This is why you didn’t wait for me,” Tsukishima realizes, staring down at the ominous scrap of paper sitting on the table between the three of them. “You didn’t want me to say ‘yes’ anymore.”

“I never would have invited you if I knew it meant you might get hurt,” Kuroo says quietly. It’s so soft and sincere, Tsukishima can barley find it in himself to be upset anymore.

“You could have at least told me and given me the chance to decide for myself.” Tsukishima crosses his arms with a huff.

“You didn’t even want to come in the first place!”

“I never said that, I just said I needed more time to think about it!”

“And I was going to wait for you.” Kuroo sighs, deflating a little. “I was going to wait, Tsukki, of course I was. But once I heard the prophecy, I just - I panicked. I didn’t want you anywhere near it. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.” His eyes beg Tsukishima to understand.

The horrible part is that he does. If he were in Kuroo’s position, he probably would have done the same thing. Would have put his own life at risk if it meant keeping Kuroo safe, keeping him as far away from harm as possible.

But Tsukishima isn’t in Kuroo’s position. He’s in his, and he knows what he has to do.

“I’m not leaving.”

“Tsukki…” Kuroo groans and drops his head to the desk with a dull thunk.

“No,” Tsukishima says. “You were right. I did say that I was always going to be there for you, and I will be. Zeus himself couldn’t stop me if he wanted to.”

There’s a distant rumbling of ominous thunder that makes the library windows shake in their frames. Kuroo picks up his head from the desk and looks around in alarm. Bokuto doesn’t seem the least bit affected.

“Okay, maybe Zeus could,” Tsukishima amends quickly.

Kuroo frowns, eyebrows drawn together. “I still don’t like this.”

“Well, I don’t like that you left without me in the first place.” Tsukishima arches a pointed eyebrow. “Besides, now that I know what the prophecy says, if I go now and you two half-wits end up getting yourselves killed, that’s gonna be blood on my hands. We’ll have a better chance if we’re all together.”

“Or all three of us will just end up dead,” Kuroo points out dully.

It’s kind of heartbreaking, the defeated look on his face. Like he’s already accepted their fate.

Well, Tsukishima simply isn’t going to stand for that.

“Why are you so convinced we’re going to die, huh? Because some stupid prophecy said so?” Tsukishima slams his hands on the table in front of him, making the other two jump, and leans over it until he’s right in Kuroo’s space. Dazzling golden eyes stare back into his, wide with shock. “Defy the Fates, that’s what you told me we would do. So pick your sorry ass up and let’s do it already.”

Kuroo’s mouth parts in surprise, and Tsukishima is taken aback at his own words. They sound a lot braver, a lot more confident the he feels. But Kuroo was right the first time he said it - there is something indestructible about them together. Not something he can see, but something he can feel. When he looks into Kuroo’s eyes, it’s something he’s felt since the first moment they met.

Invincible.

“You’re sure?” Kuroo whispers.

“I’m not afraid if you’re not.”

He’s surprised by how true the words are when he says them out loud.

Kuroo searches his eyes for a moment, and Tsukishima refuses to let any fear show. Slowly, his lips curl into a familiar grin.

“What could I possibly have to be afraid of if you’re with me, hm?” Kuroo tilts his head to the side, looking up at Tsukishima with a powerful combination of softness and fierceness, and Tsukishima finds that he really isn’t afraid. Not anymore.

Bokuto clears his throat loudly, and Tsukishima jerks backwards, out of Kuroo’s personal space. The son of Zeus gives them both pointed looks, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“Aren’t you two forgetting someone?”

Kuroo laughs, lunging at Bokuto and catching him easily in a headlock. “I already know you’re not afraid. I told you exactly what the prophecy said, and you still agreed to come with me, you crazy bastard.”

“You did?” Tsukishima asks, but Bokuto is too busy struggling in Kuroo’s hold to answer him.

The old librarian behind the desk clears her throat loudly, and the two boys immediately freeze with their arms wrapped around each other’s necks. The table of girls behind them break into more high-pitched giggles, peeking over at them from behind books that they probably haven’t read a word of.

“I think that’s our cue to go,” Kuroo announces, releasing Bokuto and smoothing the wrinkles out of his shirt.

“Where are we going?” Tsukishima asks, carefully placing the scrap of prophecy paper into his backpack. Kuroo grins at him dashingly, the promise of adventure etched into the crinkles by his eyes, and Tsukishima knows he would follow him anywhere.

“We’ll figure it out along the way, won’t we?”

Tsukishima pointedly ignores the way the table of girls fawn all over Kuroo when he walks over to return their pencil. He’s not jealous. He’s not. Kuroo is gay, and Tsukishima knows that, but it doesn’t stop him from wanting to pull Philia out of his bag and lop off a few fingers when one of the girls lays her hand on Kuroo’s forearm.

Instead, he focuses his attention on the boy in front of him. Bokuto had been strangely quiet during their entire conversation, staring down at the table in front of him like he could set in on fire with his eyes. Which, actually, he probably could, so it’s a miracle he hasn’t yet.

Tsukishima has a feeling he knows what’s on his mind. (Pretty much the only thing that ever is.)

“So what lie did you guys tell Akaashi?” He brings up as casually as he can.

“Huh?” Bokuto scrunches his nose.

“You obviously didn’t tell him what the real prophecy was, or he never would have helped me sneak out to join you guys.” Tsukishima sits back and observes Bokuto curiously. “So what did you tell him?”

“Oh, that.” Bokuto scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “We didn’t lie to him because we wanted to, ya know? I hate lying to Akaashi! But we didn’t want him to worry, and I - I mean, we didn’t want him to pull the same crazy stunt you did and try to follow us. So we told him the last line was, uh, If you follow your heart, you’ll be sure to do what’s best.”

Tsukishima purses his lips. “But ‘breath’ and ‘best’ don’t rhyme? They just have assonance?”

Bokuto laughs. “Yeah, that’s exactly what Akaashi said. Something about repeating vowel sounds, right? But there was no way for him to prove that we were lying. It’s not like he could storm up to the Big House attic and ask the Oracle to repeat the prophecy. They only come once.”

Akaashi must have known that they were lying. He’s smarter than the three of them combined, there’s no way he fell for such a stupid trick. He’s going to school to study linguists, he knows the different between words that have assonance and words that actually rhyme, for gods’ sake.

He knew something was up, and he helped Tsukishima sneak out anyways. Because he trusted Tsukishima to keep them all safe, the same way Tsukishima trusted Kuroo.

“Why are you here?” Tsukishima asks bluntly. Bokuto’s eyebrows raise in surprise, so he elaborates. “If you knew this quest was going to be so dangerous, why did you still agree to come?”

“Seems crazy right?” Bokuto laughs helplessly, scratching his head. “To agree to go on what might be a suicide mission.”

“A little,” Tsukishima admits, even though he’s here voluntarily doing the exact same thing.

“Other than the fact that Kuroo is one of my best bros? It’s because…” Bokuto takes a deep breath, setting his shoulders squarely. “Because I have something to prove. To myself, and to someone special to me.”

Tsukishima doesn't need to hear Bokuto say his name to know that he’s talking about Akaashi. It’s right there, plain as day, in the fiery devotion in his eyes.

Maybe it isn’t in the same way as Kuroo, but Bokuto has always been pretty heroic in his own right. Whereas Kuroo had seen the darker sides of the world and wanted to do everything he possibly could to make it a brighter place, Bokuto had much simpler, though no less lion-hearted, intentions.

He just wants to make people happy.

You don’t have anything to prove, Tsukishima wants to tell the other boy, his heart bursting with pride and affection, but he never gets the chance.

“Hey, guys!” Kuroo suddenly bounds back over from the the table of girls, a triumphant grin on his face. “I know where we need to go next.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Tsukishima asks for the third time.

“Positive,” Kuroo insists. “Those girls said that there was a huge black bear sighting in the park earlier today, and I’m willing to bet good money that the Mist makes a giant, three-headed dog look like something very close to a black bear to mortals.”

Tsukishima doesn’t disagree with Kuroo’s logic, but there’s no denying the fact that there’s no giant black bear terrorizing the Saratoga Springs National Park as they stand in it now. The park is different from anything Tsukishima has ever seen before, laid out with plenty of grassy areas, but scattered with a bunch of different cultural buildings - museums and performing arts halls, and a huge grecian looking building with a big, square bath in front of it.

Other than that, however, there doesn't seem to be anything strange going on.

“We must have missed him,” Bokuto says dejectedly, kicking a rock into the large pool of water in front of them. It hits the water with a pathetic plop and slowly sinks.

“Shoot,” Kuroo grumbles, agitatedly running his fingers through his hair, making it stand on ends. “Our only lead, and we screwed it up.”

“At least one good thing came of this,” Tsukishima says. “We know what Cerberus appears to mortals as now. As long as we keep an eye out for any more unusual bear sightings, we’ll know where to go next.”

“Yeah,” Kuroo perks up a little. “I guess you’re right.”

“I’m insulted that you’d ever assume otherwise,” Tsukishima sniffs.

“You guys!” Bokuto calls. He’s kneeling by the edge of the water, both hands splashing in it happily. “Come feel this, the water is so warm!” He cups some of it in his hands and washes the grime from his face.

“It’s a mineral spring,” Tsukishima explains, sitting by the bath with one finger swirling around in the water as Kuroo cleans off his own face. “Naturally heated water from the Earth’s core being pressurized to the surf - Ack!”

Tsukishima’s hands scramble for purchase on the ledge of the bath as something roughly bumps into him from behind, nearly knocking him over the edge. He might have fallen in completely, too, if it wasn’t for a hand in the back of his shirt grabbing tight and holding him in place.

“Woah, sorry about that!” A young man’s voice comes in a sudden rush. The hand on his back releases his shirt and smooths out the material with light touches. “I am so sorry, are you okay?”

Bokuto’s eyes are widened, looking just over his shoulder, and Kuroo’s face is shuttered off, narrowed and suspicious. A sudden, violent chill races down Tsukishima’s spine and he slowly turns, expecting to find some terrible and dangerous monster waiting behind him.

But it’s… It’s just a boy.

Porcelain-pale with hair like inky strands of silk, a sharp, narrow jawline and electrifying blue eyes, wearing a leather jacket that’s probably way too warm for the New York summer heat. He’s beautiful, unnaturally so, but he’s just a boy.

“I’m fine,” Tsukishima finally manages to answer, trying to shake off the last of the coldness clinging to his skin. Must just be the shock from almost falling in.

“My mom’s always saying this thing is going to be the death of me,” the boy laughs, holding up his phone, evidently the reason he bumped into Tsukishima. “I really didn’t think it would be death by embarrassment at accidentally drowning a pretty boy,” he smiles and his blue eyes twinkle.

“Um.” Tsukishima says eloquently, because, Um??? Is this extremely hot college guy seriously hitting on him right now?

He’s saved from having to say anything else by Kuroo jumping in with a curt, “If you had drowned our dear Tsukki here, it wouldn’t have been the embarrassment that killed you.”

There’s a sharp edge to his smile that Tsukishima doesn’t recognize.

Pretty electric blue eyes flicker curiously between Tsukishima and Kuroo, almost like he’s sizing them up. Tsukishima’s skin breaks out in goosebumps, a completely unwarranted feeling of dread clawing at his mind, but then the guy is laughing and holding up his hands innocently.

“Well, aren’t you a good friend,” he tells Kuroo, putting extra emphasis on the word ’friend’ with a strange glint in his eye. “Sorry, again,” he says to Tsukishima, with a final press of his fingertips against the small of Tsukishima’s back. He involuntarily shudders and backs closer to Kuroo, desperately searching out the familiar warmth and comfort of his body. Kuroo winds an arm protectively around his waist, and they watch as the boy disappears into the crowd of people.

“Well,” Bokuto says, breaking the tense silence. “That was weird.”

“You felt it, too?” Tsukishima asks, frowning. “There was something…off about that guy, wasn’t there?”

“You mean besides the fact that he was a handsy creep?” Kuroo grumbles under his breath. Tsukishima rolls his eyes.

“Oh please, he touched my back.”

“Well - So what!” Kuroo argues, releasing Tsukishima’s waist to cross his arms over his chest defiantly. “It’s still your back, and he shouldn’t touch it without asking you first!”

Kuroo looks a little bit like he wants to pull his Stygian Iron sword out of its hilt and take the guy’s hand off at the wrist. Not unlike Tsukishima had wanted to do back at the library to those girls that -

Wait.

No way.

Was Kuroo jealous?

That guy had been hot and all, sure, but he didn’t even hold a candle to Kuroo. Though in Tsukishima’s eyes, nobody ever really does. The most scientifically perfect looking person in the world could be standing right in front of Tsukishima, but he would only have eyes for Kuroo, and all of his quirks and stupid little imperfections that Tsukishima loves.

How could Kuroo ever possibly think that guy was better looking than him? What an absolute idiot.

A little smirk creeps unbidden to Tsukishima’s face, and Bokuto muffles his own laughter into his hands. Kuroo pointedly looks away, scowling into the distance. Gods of Olympus, he really IS jealous!

Tsukishima does something foolish in that moment. Foolishly brave, maybe, since it’s a page right out of Kuroo’s own book, but foolish nonetheless.

“My hero,” he coos, and it’s supposed to sound teasing but he’s a little more breathless than he anticipated being. “So brave, defending my honor like that from the big, scary college boy.”

Snaking his own arm around one of Kuroo’s, Tsukishima tugs himself close to the son of Hades’ side and leans in to brush a kiss right on the apple of his cheek. It’s barely more than half a second, just the barest touch of their skin, but it makes Tsukishima’s entire body light up with pleasant tingles.

Kuroo blushes redder than a strawberry, and Bokuto is outright cracking up at this point.

“You’re making fun of me,” Kuroo accuses. Tsukishima shrugs and releases his hold on Kuroo’s bicep.

“Yeah, obviously.”

“Can we go find something to eat now?” Bokuto whines. “I think I saw a little touristy cafe near the entrance, and Tsukki made me skip breakfast!”

“I am not even going to waste my breath explaining to you all the ways that I saved your life by not letting you eat that disease-ridden pizza this morning.”

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima hadn’t been homesick at all, up until that night.

He’s been away from Camp Half Blood overnight before, that one time he went with Yamaguchi to visit his family in Georgia for a long weekend and met his environmental activist father and his redheaded step-sister. He hadn’t missed camp too badly, but maybe it was because he had Yamaguchi with him, or maybe because he knew he would be back at camp in just a few days.

Or maybe because he actually had a bed to sleep in that time.

They spent all day in the library (after begging the librarian to let them back in, only on the condition that Tsukishima promised to keep Bokuto and Kuroo on their best behavior). They scoured the internet for hours, looking for any news stories about black bear sightings, refreshing the search pages at least every thirty seconds. They didn’t find a single thing.

Bokuto and Kuroo had wanted to go back and stay with the Party Ponies for another night, but Tsukishima said he’d rather eat sewage, so they compromised and snuck into the Saratoga national park, waiting until all the rangers were gone for the night, and set up camp (which was nothing more than their three sleeping bags) under the stars.

Tsukishima agreed to take first watch, mostly because despite the exhaustion clinging to his bones, he was sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

He misses Camp Half Blood. He misses his home.

The hard ground underneath him as he pulls his knees to his chin is unforgiving, nothing like the well-worn mattress of his bunk in the Athena cabin. There are crickets chirping and lonely wolf calls in the distance, rather than Sugawara’s even breathing and Daishou’s soft snoring. When he looks up, it isn’t Akaashi’s peacefully sleeping face above him, but the vast, endless night sky.

A quiet rustling sound behind him makes Tsukishima tense up, but when he recognizes the heavy, combat boot-clad footsteps coming towards, him he relaxes.

He may be homesick, but he doesn’t wish he was anywhere but here.

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asks, glancing over at Kuroo out of the corner of his eye.

Kuroo shakes his head, settling next to Tsukishima and stretching his long legs out in front of him.

“Nah. Bokuto’s snoring too loud.”

The light from the moon casts shadows beneath their bodies, and Kuroo’s fingertips dance over them, stretching them into random shapes, twisting them together and pulling them back apart mindlessly. It’s soothing to watch, and the protection that the darkness of the night provides makes Tsukishima brave enough to ask a question that he’s terrified to know the answer to.

“Are you really unhappy that I’m here?”

Kuroo drops their shadows and leans back on his palms with a sigh. “I’m definitely not happy that you’re putting yourself in danger because of me,” he starts. “But… I was really gonna miss you.”

“You always miss me,” Tsukishima huffs fondly. “Even when it’s only been an hour since we saw each other.”

“I miss you every time I’m not with you,” Kuroo says earnestly.

Tsukishima hugs his knees tighter, heart fluttering in his chest. “That’s ridiculous.”

Me, too.

The moonlight paints silvery streaks in Kuroo’s black hair when he looks at Tsukishima, and there’s something terrifyingly honest in his gaze when he suddenly asks, “Can I tell you something?”

Tsukishima feels his heartbeat speed up, mind immediately jumping to all of the worst conclusions. “What is it? Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine,” Kuroo assures him quickly. “It’s just… Do you remember the first summer we met? How I told you that I met my dad in a dream, but I wouldn’t tell you what he said?” Tsukishima nods, confused. “I wanna tell you now, if that’s okay. It just…feels like the right time.”

The right time.

Thanks to Yamaguchi, those three little words set of blaring red alarms and warning signs in his mind. He forces them to shut the hell up, because there’s no way that’s how Kuroo means it.

There’s no way.

“If you want to, you can tell me.”

Kuroo lets out a relieved breath, turning his face to the stars. Tsukishima rests his cheek on his arms crossed on top of his knees and watches the way his dark eyes reflect the bright lights in the sky above. It’s moments like these when he knows without a shadow of a doubt in his mind that Kuroo is more than man. Kuroo Tetsurou is a force of nature himself.

“Hades told me that his children were cursed,” Kuroo says finally. “He said that they almost always have sad lives, and then they die tragic, lonesome deaths.” He smiles wryly. “Whole bunch of uplifting, fatherly stuff like that, but the bottom line was that I shouldn’t expect any kind of happy ending. He told me to just play it safe, and to never be a hero.”

Tsukishima draws in a sharp breath and he hurts, oh he aches for fourteen year old Kuroo who had just lost everyone he loved and had to hear those words from his own father.

“Those things could never happen happen to you,” Tsukishima swears, digging his fingers into his own elbow. “I’d never let them.”

Kuroo’s smile softens and he gently eases Tsukishima’s nails from his skin, leaving crescent shaped indents behind. “Yeah, it’s easier for me to believe that now, but at the time I was… Well, I was in a pretty dark headspace, if you remember. I agreed with every word he said. I promised myself I’d never be a hero.”

“That clearly didn’t stick,” Tsukishima says. Kuroo was so stupidly heroic, it hurt to look directly at him sometimes. “What changed your mind?”

When he asked the question, it was out of out genuine curiosity. He wasn't at all expecting Kuroo’s answer to change his life forever.

Kuroo looks right into Tsukishima’s eyes and his gaze doesn’t waver.

“I met the brightest, most beautiful boy I’d ever seen in my life, and he made me want to believe in in things like that again.”

Tsukishima draws in a sharp exhale, feeling his heart pounding, swelling to the size of a basketball and leaving no room in his chest for anything else. It’s almost painful, being the subject of such a fiercely adoring look, but Tsukishima selfishly, foolishly never wants Kuroo to look away from him.

There’s no way, there’s no way, there’s no way.

“I took one look at him and I wanted to believe in heroes and happy endings, like I was still a carefree kid,” Kuroo continues, oblivious to Tsukishima’s entire world flipping on its axis. “Even if I was only a hero to that one boy, that’s all that mattered to me. I figured I owed him, since he was mine first.”

“He - He was?” Tsukishima manages to ask in a small voice, not sure if he can handle hearing the answer. He’s trembling now, from head to toe, and Kuroo takes one of his shaking hands in his own.

Bigger than Tsukishima’s hand. Broader. Tanner. Littered with scars. Holding Tsukishima’s heart right in the palm of it.

“Tsukki, that first night in the dining pavilion when you walked up to the Big Three table and offered me your hand, you saved my life. I was a complete stranger, but you shared your family with me when I lost mine, and you held my hand when I cried, and you made me laugh when I never thought I could again. You reminded me that there were still good things in this world, and you were the best thing of all.”

For someone who prides himself on being so smart, Tsukishima has really been a total idiot, hasn’t he? He’s always known just how much of an impact meeting Kuroo had on his life, but he never even considered that he had just as much of an impact on Kuroo’s.

That Kuroo might - That he could actually, possibly - That someone like Kuroo could ever love him like this.

He’s so beautiful and pure in this moment, baring his entire soul to Tsukishima, braver than Tsukishima could ever hope to be. Kuroo smiles and squeezes his hand, and Tsukishima wants so badly to be brave like him.

But what if it’s a mistake? The traitorous part of Tsukishima’s brain the never shuts up whispers. What if they do something here that they can’t take back, and it ruins their friendship forever? What if they feel differently tomorrow? Or in a week from now? Or a year from now? And what about the quest? What if this thing becomes too much of a distraction and they fail and Kuroo never gets to see his mother and sister again and it’s all Tsukishima’s fault for being so weak in this moment? And -

And -

And Kuroo is looking at Tsukishima like he hung all the stars in the sky.

And Kuroo has been looking at him like that since they were kids.

And for the first time in his life, Tsukishima Kei stops thinking with his head.

“Kuroo,” he takes a deep breath so his voice won’t shake. “I like you.”

“Really?” Kuroo breathes.

“No.” If they’re possibly going to die on this quest, Tsukishima isn’t going to die with these things unsaid. “I love you.”

Tsukishima was expecting his heart to be erratically pounding, threatening to jump out of his throat with terror when he finally says it, but… But it’s Kuroo. Instead, all he feels is calm. Perfectly balanced. More himself than he has in many years.

Kuroo stares at him. And then he pinches himself. Pretty damn hard, based on the resulting shout.

“Ouch!”

Tsukishima startles, abruptly sitting up straight and watching Kuroo rub his abused arm in confusion and mild alarm. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“I’m just trying to make sure this is real life,” Kuroo starts to laugh, then gets a suspicious look on his face. “This is real life, isn’t it? I’m not dreaming? This isn’t Kenma just messing with me.”

“No! Why would Kenma - ?”

“Kenma!” Kuroo starts to stand, looking around like he’s expecting the son of Hypnos to drop out of the branches of a nearby tree. “Is this you?”

“Kuroo!” Tsukishima says exasperatedly, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back. “Sit down and be quiet, you’ll wake Bokuto.”

Slowly, Kuroo sits back down, still looking at Tsukishima like he might be a figment of his imagination.

“So… This is definitely real life?”

Tsukishima huffs a quiet laugh and scoots closer, placing one hand on Kuroo’s shoulder so that his thumb brushes the side of his neck.

“I can think of one way to check,” he whispers. Kuroo sucks in a breath and holds it there.

“Really?” He asks, eyes wide and still dancing with stars.

Tsukishima doesn’t bothering answering his question. He keeps his eyes open until the very last second, watching the way Kuroo’s lips part every so slightly, and the way his chest rapidly rises and falls.

He lets his eyes fall shut, and in the darkness behind his eyelids, there’s an explosion of light when Kuroo’s lips finally touch his.

Guiltily, Tsukishima has thought about what kissing Kuroo would be like before. He thought about what his sharp jawline would feel like underneath Tsukishima’s fingertips, and if his big hands would feel as hot as brands on his waist. If Kuroo would kiss rough and passionately, with biting teeth and a bruising grip on his chin, or if he would treat Tsukishima was he was delicate as a paper doll, with featherlight caresses of his cheeks.

None of it comes even close to the real thing.

It feels like what Tsukishima imagines being struck by one of Zeus’ lightning bolts feels like. A current of electricity coursing up his spine, making every nerve ending on his body tingle and burn, but in the most pleasant way. All the way to the core of his being, Tsukishima feels more alive than he’s ever felt before.

Kuroo inhales sharply through his nose, and Tsukishima thinks he must have felt it, too. Kuroo’s lips are a little chapped, not nearly as soft as Futakuchi’s had been, and he tastes a little bit like greasy diner food, and it’s perfect. It’s so, so perfect.

When Tsukishima starts to get a little bit dizzy from lightheadedness, he forces himself to pull away, but not too far. Just close enough that the tips of their noses bump.

“Did that feel real to you?” Tsukishima asks, more than a little breathless.

Because it felt more real than anything in the world to me.

“I think so,” Kuroo says, slowly running his tongue alone his bottom lip, like he can still taste Tsukishima there. It makes a shiver race up his spine. Suddenly, Kuroo’s face breaks into a sly smirk. “But I might need to try it a few more times to be sure.”

This time, it’s Kuroo that pulls Tsukishima in, frenzied enough that they overbalance and Kuroo ends up falling on his back, with Tsukishima landing hard on his chest, glasses getting knocked askew. He tries to scowl, but it’s entirely ruined by the fact that he can’t stop smiling, especially when Kuroo reaches up and adjusts his glasses for him, letting his hands linger on Tsukishima’s face, fingers tucked behind his ears.

When Kuroo grabs Tsukishima by the face and holds him like this, like he’s the first flame that Prometheus gifted to the mortals, like he’s the only thing keeping him alive, and pulls him in to mold their lips together again, it sets Tsukishima’s heart on fire.

“Gods, Tsukki - Kei,” Kuroo breaks apart to breathe against his lips, and the sound of his gravelly voice saying Tsukishima’s given name makes him want to cry. “In case I didn’t make it perfectly clear with all of my rambling before, I love you, too.” Kuroo kisses him again. “I love you, I do. I’ve always loved you.”

The last of the words are barely out of his mouth before Tsukishima is ducking down and kissing hi. furiously again.

Everything. Everything everything everything in Tsukishima’s life has been entirely worth this single moment. He feels so happy, he thinks he might float away. Like he could fly - Like - like he has wings. Like he’s -

Icarus.

“Wait - Kuroo, wait.” Tsukishima pulls away, biting his lip.

“What’s wrong?” Kuroo sits up immediately, pulling Tsukishima with him and situating him in his lap. “Is something wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“No, nothing like that,” Tsukishima reassures him, foreheads pressed together and his fingers wound in Kuroo’s surprisingly soft hair. Kuroo has to go almost cross-eyed to meet his gaze, but Tsukishima can see the way his eyebrows are scrunched together. “It’s - I need to apologize. To you.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure you should be doing whatever the opposite of apologizing is right now.”

“I broke my promise to you.”

“Hm?” Kuroo rubs broad, comforting strokes up and down Tsukishima’s spine. “I don’t recall you ever promising not to give me the most mind-blowing kiss of all time,” he grins, kissing the corner of Tsukishima’s mouth teasingly.

“Gods, you don’t even remember it, do you?” Tsukishima huffs a humorless laugh. “It was when I stayed with you in the infirmary, that first night after you came back from Kita’s quest. You were practically asleep already, but you told me that you never wanted us to not be friends again, and I promised you I would always be your friend.”

“Why can’t we be -" Kuroo gestures vaguely between them, “- whatever this is, and still be friends?”

“Maybe for now we can, but there’s no way to know if we can keep it up forever. If we do -" Tsukishima copies his hand gesture, “- whatever this is, we’re putting our whole friendship at risk.” Tsukishima’s fingers thread even more tightly in Kuroo’s hair, belying his words, but he’s afraid to let go at this point.

Kuroo doesn’t answer right away, and Tsukishima is sure this is it. This is the moment that Kuroo realizes the same thing he did years ago, and regrets what they just did. A sob wells up in his chest, a dangerous bubble of pressure that makes it hard to breathe, and he has to squeeze his eyes shut to keep it all inside. No use making Kuroo feel worse about this than he already does. Tsukishima can hide the hurt. He’ll hide the hurt if it’ll make things easier on Kuroo.

At least they had this. This moment. It’s not too late to fix things, to go back to the way they were before, to forget this ever -

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take if you are.”

Tsukishima’s eyes fly open, a few errant tears escaping at the corners. The look of confidence and determination in Kuroo’s gaze is enough to put the breath back in Tsukishima’s lungs.

“What? I - But I promised -"

Kuroo shrugs, like this is all the easiest and most simple thing on the planet. “It’s me and you, Tsukki.” He cups Tsukishima’s face and gently wipes away his tears with the pads of his thumbs. A playful smirk curves his lips. “Besides, you didn’t swear on the River Styx, did you? Rookie mistake.”

Tsukishima drops his head onto Kuroo’s shoulder, buries his face in his neck, and laughs. He laughs so hard, it wracks his entire body, and he might be crying a little bit, too, but Kuroo doesn’t say anything or try to stop him. Just holds him close and hums a Smiths’ song under his breath, and of course he somehow just knows it’s Tsukishima’s favorite one.

Because Kuroo knows him. And Kuroo loves him.

And maybe, just maybe, because it’s them, it really is that simple.

“Okay,” Tsukishima breathes, voice cracked and raw from crying and laughing. “Okay, Kuroo Tetsurou. Let’s break some promises.”

And this time when he looks at Kuroo, he can see it so clearly. That spot right in the center of his chest, that spot is Tsukishima’s.

But the little space right next to it, the one over his heart - that spot is Tsukishima’s, too.

(They never wake Bokuto up for his turn on watch that night.)

 

 

*

 

 

Breakfast the next morning is…eventful, to say the least.

As a group, there are three major realizations that they come to:

The first is by Bokuto, when Kuroo asks Tsukishima to pass him the salt and pepper for his paper-wrapped egg and cheese sandwich from the same park cafe they had eaten at the day before.

When Tsukishima hands off the little black and white shakers to him, their fingers overlap for just a brief moment, but it’s enough to make him burn where they touch. Kuroo meets his eye, something soft and knowing and secretive passing between them.

And then, he blows the whole thing by saying, “Thanks, Kei.”

Bokuto’s orange juice comes spewing out of his nose.

“Wha - Huh? What?” He points an accusing finger back and forth between them wildly, wiping his chin with the back of his hand. “Did you just - Did you just call him Kei?”

“Um. That’s his name?” Kuroo winces, shooting Tsukishima an apologetic grin.

“His name is ‘Tsukki’! And you -" Bokuto turns to Tsukishima. “You just let him! I’m not worried about having to report an attempted murder or anything! What in Hades is going on here?” He points his breakfast burrito accusingly between them.

“Alright, okay, calm down, we’ll tell you!” Tsukishima hisses, when a few of the other patrons start looking over at them.

The last thing they want to do is draw more attention to themselves. They’re already doing plenty of that already as they odd group they are, with Kuroo dressed in his oversized mess of black clothes, Bokuto in his favorite sleeveless gold workout top and gym shorts, and Tsukishima in his camp t-shirt and jeans. They all look totally prepared for three completely different events.

Tsukishima spares a glance at Kuroo out of the corner of his eye and inexplicably feels his palms start to sweat. He spent the entire night tangled up in the other boy’s arms, but for some reason, trying to put the situation into words is tying his stomach in knots.

They didn’t discuss this part. Tsukishima wasn’t even planning on saying anything to Bokuto yet, at least not until they finished the quest. He didn’t know what Kuroo’s plan had been, but based on his flustered reaction, he hadn’t meant to reveal what was going on over breakfast this morning either.

“We’re, uh. That is, Kuroo and I are - um.” Tsukishima’s traitorous tongue won’t cooperate with him, and he has no idea what to say. Thankfully, Kuroo always seems to.

“We’re ruining our friendship,” he declares proudly. Bokuto’s eyebrows shoot up and Tsukishima palms himself in the forehead.

“You guys aren’t friends anymore?” Bokuto clarifies, still looking hopelessly confused.

“Nope,” Kuroo beams.

“Well this sucks!” Bokuto wails, burying his face in his hands.

“Nice going,” Tsukishima grumbles, elbowing Kuroo in the side. “And stop crying, Bokuto. What Kuroo meant to say is that we’re… Trying out some new things,” he finishes awkwardly.

Kuroo snorts an indelicate laugh and Bokuto peeks out at him from behind his fingers.

“Like… Kissing things?” He says hopefully.

“Hell yeah, buddy.” Kuroo grins, holding out his fist for Bokuto to bump. Tsukishima smacks it out of the air, rolling his eyes and fighting down a blush.

“Finally, oh thank Gods!” Bokuto falls back dramatically into his chair. “I don’t think I could handle the pining for even a second longer.”

“Really?” Tsukishima pouts. “Did everybody know about my crush on Kuroo?”

“You?” Bokuto’s ears nearly bug out of his head. “Are you kidding me, I was talking about Kuroo!”

“Wait,” Kuroo holds his hands up to pause the conversation, then turns to Tsukishima with a shit-eating grin. “You had a crush on me?”

“Shut up, Death Boy,” Tsukishima crosses his arms and feels his cheeks flush. “You had a crush on me, too!”

“Sure did,” Kuroo winks and Bokuto gags. “I was gonna tell you about it, too,” he says conversationally, “but then you had to go and get yourself a boyfriend. Honestly, rude, Tsukki,” he tsks.

“Wait…” Tsukishima’s mind grinds to a sudden halt, flashing back to memories of sitting on the top of a hill with Kuroo. “Is that what you were going to tell me on the first day of summer that year I was dating Futakuchi?”

Kuroo shrugs and takes another bite of his breakfast sandwich.

“Okay,” Tsukishima presses his fingertips to his temples. “We really don’t have time to unpack all of this right now.”

So, that’s how Bokuto finds out that Kuroo and Tsukishima aren’t exactly “friends” anymore.

The second Breakfast Epiphany comes to them in the form of a perky blonde newscaster on the television hanging on the wall in the corner of the cafe.

Tsukishima and Bokuto are too distracted by folding up empty sugar packets into paper footballs and flicking them across the table at each other to notice, but suddenly Kuroo is sitting up straight in his seat, pointing excitedly at the TV.

“Did you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” Tsukishima adjusts his glasses and squints so that he can read the red banner running across the bottom of the screen.

Small Town in Panic After Huge Black Bear Sighting

“Do you think - ?”

“That’s gotta be him!” Bokuto shouts, jumping out of his seat.

“Are we really that lucky?” Tsukishima asks dubiously. Things are never that easy for a bunch of demigods. It doesn’t sit quite right with him.

“Do you really wanna sit around here and wait until it’s too late to find out?” Kuroo counters.

Tsukishima taps his fingers on the table thoughtfully. If, in the ideal case, this is another Cerberus spotting, the sooner they get there, the sooner they can catch the dog, send him home to Hades, and get back to camp with plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the summer together. Plenty of time for Tsukishima and Kuroo to enjoy their newfound activities together.

On the other hand, if this is some kind of trap and they all die, well.

They’ll be dead.

He hates making “what if” decisions like this, but Kuroo and Bokuto are both looking at him expectantly, like they’re deferring to him to decide.

The town, some place in Pennsylvania called Bedford isn’t too far away, and if Kuroo Shadow Travels them all, they can be there in literal moments. If that black bear spotting really is Cerberus, they have a good chance of catching him there. It’s the best lead they’ve gotten in days.

And if there is danger waiting for them? Well, Tsukishima is pretty confident in Kuroo and Bokuto’s fighting abilities.

“Alright, let’s pay and get moving, then. Kuroo, are you good to Shadow Travel?”

Raising his arms over his head and cracking his fingers, Kuroo gives him an overly-dramatic wink. Tsukishima is not proud of the way it (or what he says next) affects him.

“Born ready, baby!”

“No,” Tsukishima shoots him down immediately, tips of his ears burning.

“Aw, come on!” Kuroo whines. “Bo already knows anyways, let me give you a cute nickname!”

“Sorry, bro,” Bokuto shakes his head solemnly. “I’m with Tsukki on this one. I’m super happy you guys are together or whatever now, but if I have to hear you call him ‘baby’ one more time, I might lose my breakfast burrito all over you.”

Kuroo pouts and it’s unfairly cute how a six-foot-something eighteen year old boy in an XXL band t-shirt and combat boots can look with his lower lip jutted out like that.

“You’ll survive. Now just leave the money on the table and let’s go.” Tsukishima looks back and forth between them when he only gets blank stares in response. “Which one of you has the money?”

“So, funny story…” Bokuto starts, and Tsukishima already knows that he’s not going to be laughing. “I thought that I told Kuroo to pack the mortal money, but Kuroo thought he told me to pack it, so, well -" They both upend small money pouches onto the table and scatter little golden coins everywhere. “On the bright side, we have plenty of drachma!”

“Why do you think we were sleeping in an alley contemplating eating garbage pizza when you found us?” Kuroo asks sheepishly.

“And why we made you pay for dinner last night,” Bokuto adds.

“Oh, well that’s no problem.” Tsukishima smiles kindly at them. “I brought plenty of spare mortal cash with me. Hundreds of dollars, in fact.”

“Really?” Bokuto perks up.

“No!” Tsukishima snaps. He pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales long, and slow. “I only brought enough for the bus ride here, plus a little extra for a day’s worth of food. I figured you two would have been smart enough to get plenty from Chiron, which was obviously my first mistake.”

“Hey, don’t worry,” Kuroo says, placing a firm hand at the back of his neck and squeezing gently. Tsukishima feels some of the tension leaving his body, and is slightly terrified of this new power Kuroo seems to hold over him. “When my sister and I were on our own traveling to the Underworld, we ran out of cash pretty quickly, too. The only reason we didn’t starve is because we perfected the art of sneaking out the back door without anyone seeing us.”

“That’s awful, dude.” Bokuto grins, eyes lighting up with mischief.

Tsukishima surveys the other occupants of the cafe. There are three other tables of people; an elderly couple, some college kids studying, and a small family with two young kids. Only two waitresses, and a bald-headed guy with a beer gut behind the counter. There aren’t quite enough people for them to slip completely under the radar, but if they’re fast enough, it might not matter if they’re seen or not. Doesn’t look like any of them would be willing to give chase over a few breakfast sandwiches.

“I don’t think we have another choice,” Tsukishima admits. “Are you sure there even is a back door? This place is pretty small.”

“Sure I’m sure,” Kuroo grins confidently. “There’s always another way out, and nobody is ever watching the back door.”

And that’s when it hits him. The third realization.

Something about Kuroo’s words makes Tsukishima pause, all of the noises of the cafe around him dulling to nothing more than muted background sounds as his mind begins to work. It picks at millions of different threads of thought, stringing them together so that they make sense, painting a picture in his mind that only Tsukishima can see.

He lives for moments like these. Moments where he has no doubt in his mind that he is his mother’s son.

“That’s it,” he says suddenly. He doesn’t know how long he was lost in his own mind, but Bokuto and Kuroo are both looking at him with concerned faces. Tsukishima ignores them. “I know how Cerberus must have gotten loose. And I know who let him out.”

 

*

 

 

“The Underworld must have another entrance.”

Tsukishima explains his thought process to Kuroo and Bokuto as they search around the town center of Bedford, Pennsylvania for any sign of people running away screaming from a giant bear. Bedford is a quiet and small colonial-looking town, with tall red brick buildings lining the main street, with white roofs and wooden hand-painted signs in the windows. Tsukishima can imagine how the appearance of Cerberus would be big news in a place like this.

“What, like a back door?” Kuroo asks. He has one arm lazily slung over Tsukishima’s shoulders, and that’s something new that Tsukishima is getting used to. He and Futakuchi used to walk around Camp Half Blood holding hands or touching in some way, but that was at camp, surrounded by people they knew. He can’t help the way his heart stops beating for just a brief moment every time someone they pass on the street looks at them, but luckily everyone so far has just smiled politely and kept on walking.

Even if they didn’t, Tsukishima isn’t sure he’d be able to find it in himself to care, not when he’s allowed to enjoy being so casually close to Kuroo now that they’re… Whatever they are.

“Exactly,” Tsukishima nods. “Like a service entrance, of sorts. Think about it; if Cerberus had tried to walk right out the main entrance, someone definitely would have noticed and tried to stop him. Either Hades himself, or Charon, the boatman who takes souls across the River Styx. It’s impossible that a giant, three-headed dog could have just waltzed right out of the Underworld without anyone noticing. So he must have left another way.”

“The Underworld isn’t like a restaurant though,” Bokuto points out. “What would Hades need a back entrance for?”

“It’s not for Hades. It’s for the God of Death.”

Bokuto screws up his face, perplexed. “Wait, but isn’t Hades the God of Death?”

“No,” Kuroo shakes his head, looking at Tsukishima thoughtfully. “Hades is the God of the Underworld.”

“Hades is the ruler of all the souls who enter the Underworld, but it’s another god who actually brings them to him. Who reaps the souls from the mortal world and guides them to the Underworld.” Tsukishima pushes this glasses up his nose and waits for the group of kids walking past them to be out of earshot before saying his name. Names give the gods power. “Thanatos.”

“Thanatos?” Bokuto repeats. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that god?”

“He’s a minor god, mostly forgotten in modern retellings of Greek mythology. He’s the equivalent of what most mortals today would refer to as the Grim Reaper.”

“Oh.” Bokuto swallows hard. “Lovely.”

“He must have some sort of entrance to the Underworld that he specifically uses to deliver to the souls to Hades,” Tsukishima continues, on a roll now. “And it’s so routinely used that Hades probably never even spares it a second glance. It would be the perfect way to sneak Cerberus out of the Underworld.”

“But why would Thanatos want to set Cerberus loose in the mortal world?” Kuroo frowns, chin tilted to the sky. Tsukishima allows himself a moment to appreciate Kuroo’s razor-sharp jawline before sighing heavily.

“That’s the part I haven’t been able to figure out yet.”

“Hey,” Kuroo nudges him gently with his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, alright? You will.” He smiles winningly. “You’ve already figured out way more than Bo and I would have by ourselves.”

“No kidding,” Tsukishima scoffs, but allows Kuroo a warm grin in return.

“Yeah, and anyways, remember what the prophecy said?” Bokuto jumps in enthusiastically. “The prophecy said that we’ll ‘recover what was lost’, so it’s only a matter of time before we find Cerberus now!”

“That’s about the only part of the prophecy that made any sense at all,” Tsukishima grumbles. Kuroo squeezes his shoulder comfortingly. He knows how much it drives Tsukishima crazy when he doesn’t understand something. “Can we go ask that sheriff about the bear sightings?” He sighs. “I’m tired of walking around.”

“I could carry you,” Kuroo suggests with a wink. Tsukishima elbows him in the ribs and walks ahead of his friends in order to hide his stupid blush.

There’s an older guy in a beige sheriff’s uniform with dark glasses and a stupid looking hat standing on the street corner. Usually, Tsukishima’s instinct as a teenager and as a demigod is to avoid law enforcement at all costs, but they’re working off of nothing right now, and Bedford is small, but not so small that Tsukishima wants to spend his day walking the whole thing.

Tsukishima keeps the conversation brief and polite, escaping before the sheriff can start asking questions about where they’re from and what they’re doing in Bedford. He finds Bokuto and Kuroo waiting for him on a bench in the middle of a small park in the center of the town.

“The Sheriff said the last sighting of the bear was hours ago, when it ran away into the woods.” Tsukishima approaches them. “Some officers went in looking for it, but it hasn’t been seen since. I think we were too late again.” He pauses. “Also, where in Hades did that cat come from?”

Tsukishima hadn’t noticed it at first, too caught up in his own disappointment at having missed Cerberus and thinking about what their next move should be. But there it is, a small orange tabby cat, perched happily at Kuroo’s feet with its tail wound around his ankles.

“He’s cute, right?” Bokuto laughs delightedly when the cat nuzzles into the palm of his hand.

“It’s a cat,” Tsukishima say, unimpressed.

“Man, I haven’t had a cat since I was a little kid.” Kuroo feels around the cat’s neck. “I don’t see any tags on this guy. I think he might be a stray. Maybe we could - ?”

“No. Absolutely not. We are not even having this conversation right now.” Tsukishima crosses his arms tightly across his chest and fixes them both with a stern look, pointedly ignoring Kuroo’s puppy-dog eyes. It’s a Herculean feat. “Have the two of you completely forgotten that we’re not here on vacation, we are on a quest.”

“He could be helpful!” Bokuto insists, looking to Kuroo for backup. Kuroo sighs and gives the cat a final scratch under the chin before standing.

“Nah man, Tsukki’s right,” Kuroo says. Those might be Tsukishima’s favorite words to hear come out of his mouth, right after ‘I love you.’ “We have enough trouble keeping ourselves alive as it is.”

Bokuto gasps, betrayed. “I don’t like this thing going on between you two anymore if it means you’re always gonna take Tsukki’s side now!”

“It’s not taking sides,” Tsukishima rolls his eyes. “It’s common sense, and I just happen to always be right.”

“He has a point.” Kuroo shrugs. The cat butts its head against Kuroo’s shin and he grins down at the animal. “I still want to bring him to a shelter or something before we go, though. I feel bad just leaving him out on the street like this.”

Tsukishima considers arguing that they really don’t have time for this, but he knows a lost cause when he sees one. And asking Kuroo to turn his back on any living thing that needs his help - whether it be human or feline - was like asking him to sever off a part of himself.

Stupid heroes.

“Fine,” Tsukishima sighs, and Bokuto and Kuroo erupt into cheers. “But we are just dropping him off, nothing more!”

“Deal!” Kuroo plants a sudden kiss on his cheek, and Tsukishima only has a few moments to enjoy the tingling feeling his lips leave behind before Bokuto is leaving his own enthusiastic kiss on Tsukishima’s other cheek. “Okay little guy, let’s get you - Huh?” Kuroo starts to bend down and stops. “Where did he go?”

They all spin in a few quick circles, looking down at their feet, but where the tabby cat was sitting just moments ago is now empty.

“Oh well,” Tsukishima feigns disappointment, holding his hands up in a What can you do? gesture. “Guess he likes living on the streets. Come on, let’s just -"

“There!” Kuroo suddenly shouts, pointing across the street where the cat is now sitting, licking its paw demurely.

Tsukishima squints suspiciously. “How did it get over there so fast?”

His question goes unanswered as Kuroo and Bokuto take off running across the street. Tsukishima debates just waiting here on the bench and letting them take care of it themselves, but he promised Akaashi he would keep an eye on them, so he follows. Who knows what trouble those two could manage to get themselves into when he wasn’t looking?

Just as Kuroo and Bokuto are closing in on the cat, it darts off again, this time into a narrow alleyway between two buildings. Tsukishima silently prays that they’ll leave it alone at that, but of course, they don’t. They disappear into the alley after it.

Tsukishima doesn’t bother running, and by the time he makes it to the alley, he can see Kuroo and Bokuto’s backs standing stock-still at the other end. Not exiting the alleyway, just standing there.

“Why did you guys stop? Did you lose the damn thing again?” Tsukishima tries to peer past them as he approaches, but the alleyway is so narrow that the two of them standing side by side takes up the whole width of it. Not to mention, seeing over their hair is a lost cause.

“Uh, nope,” Kuroo responds in a weird voice. “Definitely didn’t lose him.”

Tsukishima is about to ask what he means by that, when he’s cut off by a roar so powerful, it shakes the walls around him.

A flood of adrenaline and heart-stopping fear floods Tsukishima’s system all at once, and he runs the rest of the way through the alley to stand alongside them. His jaw drops.

“What in Hades did you two do?”

The alley opens up into a dusty gravel service lot behind the buildings, lined with a wired fence. And standing in the middle of the parking lot is a glittering gold lion approximately the size of a monster truck, incisors the length of Tsukishima’s entire body bared, and eyes red with bloodlust.

It snarls again and Tsukishima jumps, grabbing instinctively onto the back of Kuroo’s shirt. That seems to finally kick the son of Hades back into motion.

“It was the cat,” he explains, putting one arm out to keep Tsukishima behind him and reaching for his dark Stygian Iron sword with the other. “We followed him back here and he just - he grew into that thing right before our eyes.”

Bokuto reaches for his own weapons - dual Celestial Bronze daggers, each one about the length of his forearm. Tsukishima has never seen him use them seriously in battle before. Bokuto usually didn’t even use them during games of capture the flag, opting instead for the basic sword and shield that all the other campers used because he didn’t want to accidentally injure someone too badly.

Tsukishima would never admit it out loud, but he was more than a little afraid of what Bokuto was capable when he actually did want to hurt something.

He starts to reach into his own bag for Philia, but a hand on his wrist stops him. Kuroo’s eyes are stormy with fear, but Tsukishima knows that it isn’t for the lion.

“Kei,” Kuroo starts. Since the slip-up at breakfast, he’s mostly reverted back to calling Tsukishima by his nickname, saving his given name for more serious matters. Tsukishima would never tell him, but he kind of missed hearing the teasing lilt when he called him Tsukki. “I want you to stay here.”

Wait -

“What?”

“The alley is too small for him to fit in now that he’s that big, so you’ll be safe here,” Kuroo explains in a rush.

“You don’t think I can help you out there?” Tsukishima glares.

“No! No, that’s not it at all.” Kuroo takes Tsukishima gently by the shoulders. “I just - I won’t be able to think straight out there if I’m worrying about you, okay? I know, it’s selfish, but I can’t - I mean, this whole quest can’t afford to lose you. You’re the brains of this operation, right?”

“Obviously,” Tsukishima agrees, but he knows he’s sulking. He didn’t come all this way to be treated like some helpless damsel. To hide somewhere safe while Kuroo and Bokuto risk their lives and play heroes together.

He came to stand by Kuroo’s side.

“But can’t I just -"

“I just need you to sit on the sidelines this time, okay?” Kuroo doesn’t wait for him to respond before he’s charging towards the lion. “I’m the quest leader, you can trust me!” He calls over his shoulder, narrowly dodging a swipe of the large cat’s giant paw. Bokuto gives Tsukishima an apologetic shrug before he’s joining the fray, running between the lion’s legs and swiping at him from behind.

It’s agony to sit aside and watch helplessly as two people you love put themselves in danger right before your eyes. Tsukishima has his thumbnail caught between his teeth, watching every move Bokuto and Kuroo make with dread and anxiety swirling in his gut. Akaashi would be so disappointed in him right now, sitting by safely and doing nothing to help.

Okay, okay. Kuroo was right. He’s the brains of this quest, he can still do something from where he is.

The first step would be to figure out what monster it is that they’re up against exactly. Tsukishima racks his brain, but nothing he’s come across in his books over the years has said anything about a shapeshifting lion. It doesn't even look like a hybrid of any kind, has no special way of fighting as it swats and pounces at Kuroo and Bokuto, who dance around its feet, trying not to get caught by its claws. It just looks like a regular - albeit, huge - lion.

He tries to stay focused on the lion, but it’s a little difficult with how godsdamned distracting Kuroo is in a fight. Tsukishima has seen him in games of capture the flag and sparring with other campers during training, but this is the first time he’s ever seen him fight for real. It’s mesmerizing to watch the shifting of his muscles, and his quick reflexes that Tsukishima’s eyes can barely even track.

It all makes sense, when Tsukishima remembers that this is the same boy who had to fight his way to the Underworld by himself with absolutely no battle training at all. It makes sense, because Kuroo was so obviously born for this.

And that’s when Kuroo lands a strike on it.

His sword deflects right off of the lion’s fur with a metallic sounding clang.

“What the - ?” Kuroo looks down at his own weapon in confusion.

“Watch out!” Bokuto shouts, shouldering Kuroo out of the way just in time to stop him from getting sliced to ribbons. His dual daggers thrown up protectively in front of him, literal sparks fly when the lion’s claws collide with them. Bokuto staggers back a step, still holding the lion at bay, and Kuroo takes the opportunity to sneak up on the monster’s other side, striking another blow against its flank.

His sword bounces harmlessly off once again.

“Why can’t we get a hit on this thing?” He growls, striking again and again to no avail.

The sunlight glints off of the lion’s pelt like pure gold and something clicks in Tsukishima’s mind.

He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts, “It’s the Nemean Lion!” Bokuto and Kuroo share a confused look, so Tsukishima elaborates. “Killing this thing was the first of Hercules’ twelve labors! It’s hide is completely impervious to attacks, and its claws are sharper than any sword!”

“Great!” Bokuto calls back, ducking and rolling out of the path of the lion’s claws. “So how the heck do we kill it?”

“Um!” Tsukishima says. “Give me a minute!”

“No worries, take your time!” Kuroo shoots him a thumbs up, narrowly avoiding getting swatted into next week by the lion’s paw.

Shit. This is bad. This is like, say-your-final-prayers bad. The Nemean Lion? How terrible could their luck be? Their first encounter with a monster on the quest, and it’s one of the most legendary and feared creatures of all time. Only Hercules was able to kill it in the past, how in Hades were the three of them supposed to do it now?

But… Hercules was able to kill it in the past, which means that the Nemean Lion does have a weakness. If Tsukishima could only remember what it is…

“Any day now, babe!” Kuroo sounds slightly out of breath now, and Tsukishima knows he’s running out of time. He’s so panicked, he doesn't even bother chastising Kuroo for the stupid pet name.

Impenetrable fur. Claws that would cut through demigod flesh like a knife through hot butter. Teeth bigger than their entire bodies. How do you kill something like that?

Think, Tsukishima. Come on, you have to remember. THINK.

Tsukishima’s brain is scrambling, a mess of jumbled thoughts, frayed strings tearing at the edges. He can’t seem to get a grasp on his thoughts, to ground himself -

Kuroo screams in agony.

The Nemean Lion’s claws have caught him, tearing right into his shoulder. His shirt hangs torn, and the sight of his blood dripping down his arm, all the way to his fingertips, is what spurs Tsukishima into remembering.

The Nemean Lion is only impenetrable on the outside.

His feet are moving before his mind can think better of it, running into the clearing right for Kuroo. Bokuto keeps the lion occupied while Tsukishima puts Kuroo’s good arm over his shoulder, wraps an arm around him, and helps him stagger to the safety of the alleyway.

“Fuck!” Kuroo hisses vehemently, collapsing to his knees and clutching at his shoulder with bloodied hands. “Fuck, just give me some ambrosia so I can get back out there, would ya?”

“No way,” Tsukishima pushes him back down when Kuroo tries to climb to his feet. “If you try to fight that thing again in this state, it’ll kill you in seconds.” He reaches into his bag for Philia. “Just sit down and let me take care of it.”

Kuroo’s eyes narrow. “Kei, whatever is it you’re planning on doing, please -"

Tsukishima turns away without listening to the rest of his sentence.

“Bokuto!” He shouts. “I need you to make it mad!”

Bokuto laughs, dodging out of the path of the lion’s teeth, pivoting around and uselessly trying to dagger it in the neck. “I’m pretty sure that’s all I’m doing out here!”

“No, Bokuto.” Tsukishima takes a few steps closer, ignoring the trembling in his legs. “I need you to make it really mad.”

There’s a brief pause where Bokuto manages to look over and meet Tsukishima’s gaze. Understanding flashes in his wide, yellow eyes and he nods.

It takes only a few more seconds of Bokuto and the huge cat dancing, prowling around each other, before Bokuto manages to slide beneath its large body and get behind it.

Then, he grabs hold of its tail and pulls.

The lion opens its mouth wide in an enraged roar, so wide that Tsukishima can see the soft, vulnerable pink inside of it’s throat. It has to be now. He needs to move.

Tsukishima’s knees still shake when he starts to charge right at the monster, but he keeps running anyways. Even when he hears Kuroo screaming his name, begging him to come back, he doesn’t stop pushing forward.

He raises Philia high in the air, nothing but a golden tube now, but when he throws the weapon, he pushes the button right before he releases it.

He times it perfectly so that the second it enters the Nemean Lion’s mouth, both tips of the spear shoot out from either end, piercing the lion right through the throat. Bokuto barely moves out of the way in time to miss being crushed by its enormous body as it lets out a series of strangled, earth-shaking roars, kicking up on its two hind legs, before crashing to the ground hard enough to knock Tsukishima off his feet.

And then, as all monsters do when they die and go to Tartarus, it disintegrates into a cloud of golden dust. All that remains in the clearing is Tsukishima’s spear, sitting right in the middle of the of it.

Bokuto stares wide-eyed at him from the other side of the clearing, before erupting into a victorious shout.

“Damn, Tsukki, you did it! That was so cool! Holy shit, I had no idea you could fight like that? And where did you get this spear, this thing is awesome!”

Tsukishima can’t help the relieved and slightly giddy smile that tugs at his lips. He did it! Him, Tsukishima Kei, son of Athena, killed the Nemean Lion. No one, not even he himself, could doubt that he was good enough to stand by Kuroo’s side now.

Oh, Gods. Kuroo.

He’s sitting right where Tsukishima left him, but he looks like he doesn’t even remember that he’s been injured. He’s just looking at Tsukishima. Looking at him like he’s seeing him again for the first time. Looking at him like - like -

Like he’s some kind of hero, or something.

“Are you okay?” Tsukishima drops to his knees in front of Kuroo, eyeing his wounds critically. “How bad does it hurt, on a scale of one to ten? We need to apply pressure to the -"

Kuroo apparently doesn’t care all that much for Tsukishima’s first aid advice, because as soon as Tsukishima is kneeling in front of him within arms’ reach, Kuroo is grabbing Tsukishima’s face in his bloodied hands and kissing him stupid.

It’s different than their first kisses had been, all soft and slow and full of lazy passion. It’s hot and fevered and desperate. Makes Tsukishima’s toes curl.

“That,” Kuroo says very seriously when they pull apart, “was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Tsukishima smirks and pushes Kuroo’s sweaty bangs out of his eyes. “What was that you said about sitting on the sidelines, oh wise quest leader?”

Kuroo laughs and the fact that they all almost just died feels like such a distant memory.

 

 

*

 

 

Luckily, Kuroo’s wounds aren’t actually that deep. He’s lost a good amount of blood, but it’s nothing that some ambrosia and nectar won’t have fixed up in a few hours.

They head down to a nearby stream to patch him up, and Bokuto tears off his clothes and cannonballs straight into the water to wash the sweat and “lion dust” off of himself, while Tsukishima rinses the blood out of Kuroo’s shirt and cleans off his cuts, and Kuroo slowly eats a square of ambrosia.

Well, Tsukishima is trying to clean Kuroo’s wound, but his body doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with him. His hands won’t stop shaking, trembling like he’s in the middle of an earthquake, and it’s so bad that he’s afraid to even go near Kuroo’s cuts in case he accidentally hurts him and makes it worse.

He takes deep, even breaths, trying to steady himself but when the cloth in his hand is just about to touch Kuroo’s skin, it starts up again and he has to pull away, cursing quietly to himself under his breath.

After the fifth or sixth time, Kuroo stops him, taking Tsukishima’s hand in his and holding it steady against his heart. His skin is warm and his chest is firm, and feeling his heart beating steadily manages to calm Tsukishima some, his own heartbeat syncing up with Kuroo’s.

“That was your first time fighting a monster for real, wasn’t it?”

Tsukishima releases a shaky exhale. “Yeah.”

“Nemean Lion right off the bat. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.”

“It was a little too easy, actually. I hope we run into the Minotaur next.”

Kuroo laughs and pulls Tsukishima’s hand to his lips. It’s so tender it almost hurts when Kuroo kisses his knuckles, so softly it might have been the wind.

“I really like your hands,” he whispers, breath ghosting over Tsukishima’s fingers.

Tsukishima arches an amused eyebrow.

“Did you lose too much blood?”

“I’m serious!” Kuroo insists, biting playfully at the tip of his thumb. The scrape of his teeth makes Tsukishima catch his breath. Well. That’s new. “I’ve always liked them, but I can actually finally tell you now.” Kuroo traces from the center of his palm up to the tip of each finger and back down in turn. “They’re so delicate and graceful and soft. How are they so soft? You don't have a single callous from sword training. Perfect.”

Tsukishima mumbles something under his breath, feeling his cheeks burn.

“What was that?” Kuroo leans closer to him, head cocked to the side.

“I said I like yours too!” Tsukishima blurts.

“Mine?” Kuroo repeats. “But compared to yours mine are so -"

“I know,” Tsukishima cuts him off softly. “I know - That’s why I like them. You’ve been through a lot, and your hands show that. But they’re still always so…gentle. Despite it all.”

Kuroo traces his cheekbone with featherlight touches, only further proving Tsukishima’s point and making him shiver in the summer sun.

“You know…” Kuroo smiles adoringly at him. “You make an awfully pretty nurse.”

“Don’t get used to it. I’ll gut you myself if you get hurt again, hear me?” Tsukishima pokes him hard in the center of the chest, only relenting when Kuroo nods quickly. “Good,” he huffs. “Now let me finish.”

Kuroo laughs and places a final kiss to Tsukishima’s fingertips before releasing his hand, which is now much steadier than before.

“I’ve never seen you fight with a spear before,” Kuroo muses aloud.

Tsukishima hums, dabbing at the dried blood splattered across Kuroo’s bronze skin. His shirtless chest is proving to be more than a little distracting while they wait for his shirt to dry out, and focusing on the blood instead of the chiseled lines of his abdomen isn’t really working to make him seem any less attractive.

“Mm, that’s because it’s new. It was a gift.”

“A gift?” Kuroo straightens, eyes narrowed suspiciously. “From who, huh?”

Tsukishima rolls his eyes, but secretly he kind of likes this new jealous side of Kuroo he’s seen lately.

“From Oikawa and Iwaizumi, actually. It was their way of inviting me to be their third. I said yes, of course. I mean, have you seen Iwaizumi’s arms?”

“Not funny,” Kuroo grumbles, but he’s smiling a little bit. “Seems like you’re pretty good with that thing. Better than you ever were with a sword,” he smirks. Tsukishima purposely digs his thumb into one of his cuts and Kuroo winces. “Ow, okay, okay, sorry!”

“Hm. Tendou taught me how to use it right before I came after your dumb ass.”

“Hey! My dumb ass was just trying to keep you safe!”

“You mean like you were doing when you told me to sit out of the fight earlier?” Tsukishima quirks a dangerous eyebrow and Kuroo swallows hard.

“That was pretty shitty of me, huh?” He admits, closing a hand around one of Tsukishima’s. “I’m sorry, Tsukki. I don’t mean to treat you like you’re made of glass, I know you can take care of yourself, but just - Just the idea of losing you -" Kuroo’s fingers tighten until his grip is almost painful.

He can’t lose anyone else. Kuroo literally, physically cannot bear the weight of losing another person he loves. Tsukishima knows this. He's always known this, from the first day he met Kuroo. Before they spoke a single word to each other, when Tsukishima looked into his eyes, he knew that Kuroo was a kid who had already lost too much.

“Kuroo,” Tsukishima says gently. “Tetsurou,” he tries again when the other boy still refuses to meet his gaze. At the sound of his given name, Kuroo finally looks up. “You’re not going to lose me. Not today, or any day. I’ll always be by your side, for as long as you want me to be.”

Kuroo draws in a sharp inhale and gives him a watery smile. “Forever, then?”

“Forever, Death Boy.” Tsukishima links their pinkies together.

“Wow,” Bokuto says, floating with his arms resting on a rock next to them. “That was all very romantic and all, but can somebody please make sure I’m not going crazy and let me know if you also see that guy hiding in the bushes over there?”

Tsukishima is immediately back on alert, positioning himself so that he’s slightly in front of Kuroo and following Bokuto’s line of sight. Kuroo makes a little disgruntled sound at being protected, but he’s injured and Tsukishima isn’t taking any chances right now.

Sure enough, peeking out from one of the bushes a few yard away from them is a head of short, curly brown hair and…a pair of horns?

“Hey, you!” Tsukishima stands, pointing right at the hidden creature. “Satyr! What do you want from us?”

“Satyr?” Bokuto mumbles to Kuroo in confusion, just as the bushes rustle and a short, plump man with furry goat legs steps out from it. “Oh! Yup. That is definitely a satyr.”

“Demigods,” the satyr grumbles, voice gruff. “I should’ve know it would be a bunch of demigods behind all this commotion.”

“Oh, well, excuse us.” Tsukishima plants a hand on his hip. “It’s not like we sent the Nemean Lion a handwritten invitation to come and try to eat us or something!”

“You might as well have!” The satyr wags a finger at all three of them. “What in Hades are you three trying to do with that high-frequency beacon of yours? You summoned the damn Nemean Lion all the way from Pittsburgh! You’re lucky Cerberus was gone by the time you arrived, or he wouldn’t tried to turn you into puppy chow, too!”

“Cerberus?” Kuroo perks up. “He was here?”

“Wait, wait,” Tsukishima waves his question off because there’s something much more important that the satyr just said. “What beacon?”

The satyr walks - gallops? - closer to them, circling around their little group, even going so far as to lean over the edge of the water to get nose-to-nose with Bokuto. The son of Zeus goes cross-eyed, looking back at him.

“Hmmm, where is the damn thing? I know it’s coming from you three, I’ve been following it since you first got into town. One of you’s got a high-frequency beacon on you that only magical animals can hear. It drives them crazy, so they go into a frenzy. Makes them wanna tear stuff to pieces.”

“You don’t seem affected by it?” Bokuto points out.

The satyr wheels on him, pudgy face scrunched into a scowl.

“Do I look like an animal to you, kid?”

“Uh. No sir.” Bokuto shakes his head rapidly, water droplets flying everywhere.

“Hmph.” The satyr continues to sniff around them, ears to the ground. “I’m only part animal, for the record. I can hear the beacon, but it doesn’t affect me much more than just being really damn annoying.” He pauses, then begins to rifle through their things.

“Hey!” Tsukishima protests.

“Aha!” The satyr announces triumphantly, holding Tsukishima’s backpack over his head. “Gotcha!” He roots around in Tsukishima’s bag for a few seconds, then pulls out a tiny blinking device and throws it on the ground, crushing it under his hoof.

“Ah, that’s much better,” the satyr sighs in relief.

“How did that get there?” Tsukishima grabs his backpack and starts looking through it, like he might find the answer inside.

“Beats me,” the satyr shrugs. “Looks to me like someone was trying to cause you all a bit of trouble.”

“But - Who?” Tsukishima throws his bag to the ground in frustration. “Who would want to do that, and how would they even get the chance to get that close to me? There isn’t anyone who could have -" He stops short, a freezing chill clawing its way down his spine. “The guy who almost knocked me into the mineral bath in Saratoga.”

Kuroo growls under his breath, hands curling into fists. “I knew I didn’t like that guy.”

“How did we not notice?” Tsukishima groans. “He had his hands all over my back and we - Gods, the prophecy warned us about this! ’Keep your eyes on your back, or pay the cost’.”

“Looks like you paid the cost.” The satyr eyes Kuroo’s bloody shoulder.

“But, why would that random guy want to mess with us like that?” Bokuto pulls himself out of the water and shakes himself dry like a wet dog. The satyr shoots him a disgusted look.

“Because that wasn’t a random guy,” Tsukishima says, realization and dread curling together in the pit of his stomach. Kuroo meets his eyes and a similar look of horror comes across his own face.

“That was Thanatos.”

 

 

*

 

 

As sour-tempered as he was, running into that satyr ended up being a blessing in disguise.

Not only did he warn him about the beacon device Thanatos had snuck into Tsukishima’s backpack, but he also apparently felt bad enough for them (or just wanted to get them out of his town so badly) that he gave them their next lead.

“I heard some murmurs through the grapevine about some kind of disturbance down in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia. And I mean, I literally heard it through the grapevine. She’s a nymph named Merlot, real fun at parties. Anyways, I think that might be your dog.”

Which is all fine and good except for one small problem: The Allegheny Mountain region of Virginia is about two hundred miles away, Kuroo is in no shape to be Shadow Traveling, and they are flat broke.

As certain as Tsukishima is that they’re going to get murdered, he can’t deny that hitchhiking their way down is just about the only option they have left, other than walking. Which, yeah, not happening.

There’s a small gas station just on the edge of town, and three of them sit just outside the entrance to the building. It feels like hours that they just sit watching cars pass by, with Tsukishima’s head resting on Kuroo’s shoulder and Bokuto sprawled out beside them, moaning about how empty his stomach is. Tsukishima can feel his own start to grumble, and he’s sure Kuroo’s body must be starving with how hard it’s been having to work to heal his wounds.

Finally, a car pulls into the gas station. It’s hard to miss, being as bright cherry red as it is, top rolled down and music blaring. Tsukishima perks up instantly, watching the driver, a man with gelled hair and a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up like a greaser from the 80’s, gets out of the car and puts the pump in his gas tank.

When he grabs his wallet and starts to head for the building while his car fuels, Tsukishima jumps to his feet to intercept the man.

“Tsukki, I don’t think -" Kuroo starts hesitantly, but Tsukishima doesn’t have time to stop and listen. This guy could be their only chance for the next few hours.

“Excuse me, sir.” Tsukishima says politely as he can, placing himself in the man’s path to the front door. The guy raises his eyebrows and pulls his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose to look at Tsukishima over the tops of the dark frames. “My friends are I were just on our way to Virginia, and I was wondering if you might be heading that way by any chance?”

He makes his eyes wide and innocent, so as not to give off any demigod-who-attracts-danger-every-other-minute vibes.

The man glances over at Kuroo and Bokuto, then back to Tsukishima and barks out a cruel-sounding laugh.

“You gotta be kiddin’ me, right? Ain’t no way I’m picking up a bunch of stray, flea-ridden brats and letting them ride in my Baby.” He glances lovingly over at the red convertible, then laughs again, shouldering Tsukishima roughly. “Outta my way, kid.”

“Hey!” Kuroo protests, rising quickly and catching Tsukishima when he stumbles. The man just throws a middle finger up at them without looking back.

“Well.” Tsukishima rights himself, brushing imaginary dust off his shoulder and frowning. “What a dick.”

“You want me to kill him?” Kuroo grunts. “I’ll totally kill that guy if you want me to.”

“I have a better idea.” Bokuto stands and sighs, looking resigned. “I didn’t ever want to use this, but if anybody deserves it, it’s that guy.”

He peeks into the store where the man is browsing the aisles with his back to the door, then crouches low and motions for Tsukishima and Kuroo to follow him. After sharing a confused look, they do.

Right over the the bright red convertible.

“What are you doing?” Tsukishima hisses, glancing nervously over his shoulder when Bokuto leans into the car and pops out a panel underneath the steering wheel, uncovering a maze of colorful wires.

“Getting us a ride. Just chill, Tsukki.” Bokuto turns to grin at him. “I got this.”

He touches the panel of wires and there’s a spark of electricity from his fingertip. Then, the engine revs.

Kuroo whistles low and impressed.

“Damn, Bo! You never told me you could hot wire a car?”

Bokuto looks down sheepishly. “I accidentally found out when I was eight and my dad left me in the car while he ran into the grocery store. It was pretty hard to explain to the cops how I managed to crash the car into a telephone pole without the keys to start it.”

“Bad. Ass.” Kuroo high-fives him.

“Okay, great,” Tsukishima interrupts their little congratulations party. “But can either of you even drive?”

“Never passed my driver’s test. I kept short-circuiting the test cars.” Bokuto shrugs, not looking that sorry about it.

Tsukishima turns to Kuroo, but the son of Hades is already vaulting himself over the driver’s side door and climbing behind the wheel of the car.

“Can I drive?” Kuroo repeats incredulously. He finds a pair of sunglasses (why the heck did the man need two?) tucked into the sun visor and puts them on, resting his elbow on the car door and grinning up at Tsukishima from behind the frames. “Why don’t you hop in and find out, pretty boy?”

Tsukishima literally cannot believe that he’s in love with this person.

“Shotgun!” Bokuto shouts. Kuroo shoves him back out of the car when he tries to jump in.

“Nuh uh, man! You’ve driven with me a hundred times before, you gotta let Tsukki get a front row seat to the magic!”

“If you could actually just knock me out and stick me in the trunk, that would be preferable.”

Unfortunately, nobody else agrees with Tsukishima’s plan, and he eventually lets himself be manhandled into the passenger seat, with Bokuto perched happily in the backseat.

And maybe, a tiny, indulgent part of Tsukishima is a little bit excited to see Kuroo drive. It’s so normal and adult. Just sitting behind the steering wheel like that, he looks so much older. More mature.

Kuroo shifts the car into drive and turns the radio on full blast, then goes tearing out of the parking lot. Tsukishima can see the man walking out of the gas station and dropping his bag to the floor in their rearview mirror, but he can’t hear what he’s yelling after them over the sound of the wind whipping in his ears and the music blaring.

“Does it really have to be this loud?” He shouts to Kuroo over all of the noise.

“Yes, it really has to be this loud!” Kuroo yells back. “It’s Bruce Springsteen!”

The wind blows wildly through Kuroo’s hair, his sunglasses and unbridled smile making something warm pulse through Tsukishima’s veins. Kuroo looks dangerous and free like this, like he might burn the whole world down and dance through the ashes all night long.

“Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run,” he sings along to the song on the radio. It’s totally off-key and his voice is rough, but it just adds to the overall effect.

Okay. It’s hot.

Kuroo is very, very hot.

For a brief moment, Tsukishima forces himself to look away, until he remembers he doesn’t have to. He can look at Kuroo as much as he wants to and he doesn’t have to worry about hiding a damn thing.

Just that thought alone makes him feel as free as Kuroo looks.

“What?” Kuroo asks. It takes a second for Tsukishima to realize he’s talking to him, grinning at him out of the corner of his eye, having clearly caught him staring.

“Nothing.” Tsukishima glances at Bokuto over his shoulder and sees the other boy distracted by looking around at the scenery before leaning across the middle console, tilting his head close to say directly in Kuroo’s ear, “You just look really good right now.”

When he pulls away, Kuroo’s face is beet red. Even through the dark lenses, Tsukishima can see how blown wide his eyes are, and he settles back comfortably in his seat, pleased with his work.

“You’re the devil, Tsukishima Kei!”

Tsukishima laughs, and the wind carries it away.

 

 

*

 

 

Their gas tanks runs dry just as the convertible rolls into a small, woodsy town with white paint-chipped buildings and unlined gravel roads.

Kuroo checks the car’s GPS. “Well, looks like this is it, demi-ladies and demi-guys. The Allegheny Mountains of Virginia.”

He hops out of the car and hurries over to the passenger side to open Tsukishima’s door for him, taking his hand and helping him out like some sort of gallant price. Tsukishima punches him in the shoulder for acting so ridiculous, then kisses him on the cheek for going to the trouble. Kuroo swoons dramatically, holding his face and flopping across the hood of the car.

Tsukishima rolls his eyes and laughs.

He feels refreshed after the drive. The fresh air in his face and not having to be on his feet for hours had done wonders for him. Not to mention, they found a stash of protein bars in the glove compartment and all scarfed down three each (six, in Bokuto’s case).

He has a good feeling about this place, this time. Like luck might finally be on their side.

After an hour of walking around, however, it becomes painfully clear that his gut feelings were way off base.

“Guys,” Bokuto scuffs the ground with the toes of his sneakers miserably. “I think we were too late again.”

As badly as Tsukishima wants to argue with him, to prove Bokuto wrong, he can’t.

The only signs of Cerberus left in this little rural Virginia town is a few knocked over mailboxes and a hole in a storefront window that the owners were already working on patching up. They spoke to a few locals who told them that the bear had torn through town, run into the woods, and disappeared completely. The same thing that had happened in Pennsylvania.

It seemed that Cerberus never stayed in one place long, a few minutes at most. They were trailing hopelessly behind him each and every time.

They weren’t even getting close.

“It’s my fault.” Kuroo’s eyebrows draw together, fists clenching at his sides. “If I hadn’t gotten hurt I would’ve been able to Shadow Travel us here, and maybe we could have caught up to him.”

“It’s not your fault.” Tsukishima takes one of Kuroo’s hands and uncurls his fingers so that he can slot their fingers together.

If anything, it’s his own fault. He’s supposed to be the brains here, he’s supposed to see the big picture and come up with the plans, but he’s falling horribly short. There has to be some kind of pattern here that he’s not seeing, a puzzle he hasn’t managed to solve yet.

“Hey. It’s not yours, either.” Kuroo says quietly, squeezing Tsukishima’s hand.

Tsukishima doesn’t know how Kuroo always manages to read his mind like that.

“Yeah, I know,” Tsukishima lies.

“Maybe this is a blessing in disguise, you guys!” Bokuto smiles a little too big, like he’s trying to forcefully transfer some of his happiness into Tsukishima and Kuroo. “Now we have time to go the gift shop!”

Tsukishima glances around at the barren town. There’s a post office, three Southern comfort food restaurants, and a psychic.

“Um. What gift shop?”

Bokuto grabs Tsukishima and Kuroo by the wrists, tugging them along behind him towards the outskirts of town.

“It’s not here, we passed by it earlier. The Omni Homestead resort. Harry’s always wanted to come here, he’s such a history nerd and twenty-two of the US presidents have stayed there. I wanna get a t-shirt for him. Plus, they have some of the best hot springs in the country!”

Bokuto and Kuroo continue chatting as they make their way out of town and towards a large, sprawling red-stone resort just in the distance, but Tsukishima tunes them out. All of the sounds and sights around him become muffled background noise, the threads in his mind tugging and twisting and knotting themselves together.

The pieces of the puzzle slowly starting to come together.

“Bokuto,” Tsukishima says suddenly, interrupting whatever it was that Kuroo was saying. They both look over at him curiously. “Can I come to the gift shop with you?”

Bokuto’s face lights up. “Sure! But, uh, only if you don’t have any moral hang-ups about stealing, because we’re still out of money.”

“We literally just stole a car, I think I’m well past any moral hang-ups at this point.”

Still, he does feel a little bit guilty when he goes strolling into the gift shop with Athena’s Invisibility Cap on, using Bokuto as a cover to open doors for him and such, then silently sneaks back out with a t-shirt for Bokuto’s dad stuffed in his backpack, along with a few other items for himself.

Tsukishima keeps the cap as they make their around the back of the resort building and join Kuroo at a picnic table in a large grassy area. Kuroo looks around to make sure nobody’s watching them before snatching the cap right off Tsukishima’s invisible head.

“How did you know where I was?” Tsukishima frowns, fingers combing out his hat hair.

Kuroo just grins and taps his temple. “Sixth sense, baby. Plus, I could feel you practically breathing down my neck.”

“I wasn’t - !” Tsukishima stops when he sees the teasing grin on Kuroo’s face. “You’re so annoying. I’m going back to the gift shop to return the magnet I got you.”

Kuroo gasps delightedly. “Babe, you got me a magnet?”

“Not anymore, I didn’t.”

“Aw, come on!” Kuroo throws his arms around Tsukishima from behind, hooking his chin over his shoulder. “You can’t return it, it’s the first boyfriend gift you’ve ever gotten me!”

“The first - what?” Tsukishima chokes. Kuroo abruptly pulls away, his own eyes nearly bugging out of his head, face flushed scarlet.

“Uh - That is - I mean, wow, is it like, really hot out here?” He laughs awkwardly, tugging at his shirt collar.

Boyfriend.

Holy Hades, were they boyfriends?

Neither of them had explicitly said it yet, but - well, they didn’t have to, did they? They were together, no matter what you called it. Tsukishima was Kuroo’s, and Kuroo was his.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Kuroo repeats. Tsukishima shrugs and gives him a meaningful smile. “Oh. Oh.” Kuroo’s face nearly splits in half with a grin. “Okay, yes, that’s very okay with me, if it’s okay with -"

“Here it is.” Bokuto, with his head half-buried in Tsukishima’s backpack unceremoniously chucks the magnet at Kuroo, hitting him square in the forehead.

“Thanks, Bo.” Kuroo scowls, rubbing his forehead. Bokuto doesn’t even notice, happily pulling out the t-shirt Tsukishima grabbed for Harry out of his bag.

“This is perfect, Tsukki! He’s gonna love it.”

“Did you get anything for yourself?” Kuroo peers over Tsukishima’s shoulder.

“Actually, yes. I did.”

“Oooh, let me see!” Bokuto pushes up on his elbows to lean over the table. “Hm.” He sits back down once he sees the object Tsukishima pulls out of his bag. “That was anticlimactic.”

“It’s a map?” Kuroo says as Tsukishima unfolds it across the table.

“It’s a topographic map,” Tsukishima explains, running his fingertips over the bumps and ridges. “It doesn’t just show you where things are, it shows you the geographical characteristics of them.” He take Kuroo’s hand and traces it over three areas on the map. “These are the places we’ve already tracked Cerberus to. Notice any similarities between them?”

“They’re all…bumpy?”

Tsukishima shakes his head. “No, there’s a pattern here. A method to Cerberus’ madness. I knew there had to be, but I just couldn’t figure out what it was at first. Bokuto helped me realize it, actually.”

“I did?” Bokuto puffs up proudly.

“When you were talking about the resort and this area, I finally put it all together. It’s not just random places that we’re following him to: They’re all hot springs.”

“Holy shit,” Kuroo breathes. He’s looking at Tsukishima with the kind of reverence and awe that should be reserved for worshippers in the temples of their Gods.

“But why would Cerberus be going to a bunch of hot springs?” Bokuto feels the bumps on the map like they’ll tell him the answer. “Does Hades not give him enough baths, or something?”

“No, idiot.” Tsukishima smacks him on the back of the head. “It’s the heat and the smell of sulfur that hot springs give off. They remind him of the Underworld. He's just trying to find his way home. It was even in the prophecy, remember?” Tsukishima digs through his bag, pulling out the scrap of paper. “See, this part here. ‘You shall chase the season.’ It’s the springs!”

“Tsukki!” Kuroo laughs like he’s just discovered the most wonderful thing in the whole universe. “You’re a godsdamned genius!”

Tsukishima blushes. “I’m sure that any child of Athena would have easily come to the same conclusion.”

“No,” Kuroo shakes his head vehemently. “No, Tsukki, I mean it. You’re amazing. I - I literally don’t know how we would have gotten through this quest without you.”

“We haven’t gotten through it yet,” Tsukishima warns. “But, this might give us a leg up. Instead of chasing after Cerberus, we can get there first.”

“Get where?” Bokuto asks.

Tsukishima takes Bokuto’s wrist and pulls his hand from its place on the East Coast of the map, dragging it all the way so that his fingers rest over Colorado.

“Here. The Glenwood Hot Springs are the largest hot springs in the entire world. I don’t know exactly when, but I’m sure Cerberus will show up there eventually, and when he does -"

“We’ll already be there waiting for him,” Kuroo finishes. His eyes are alight with a crackling fire. “Him and Thanatos both.” Realization suddenly crosses his features, making his lips part slightly in surprise. “Oh. Huh.”

“What?”

“I think - I think I just figured out the last part of the prophecy.”

“The, uh, the death part?” Bokuto swallows hard.

“Yeah,” Kuroo lets out a disbelieving laugh. “I don’t think the ‘death’ part has anything to do with the actual act of dying at all.”

“Thanatos.” Tsukishima realizes, and Kuroo nods in agreement.

“The prophecy told me that if I follow my heart, I’ll be sure to meet death, right? Well, Tsukki is my heart, and if I go where he tells me to, we’ll find the God of Death in Colorado. It’s telling me to follow you to find Thanatos.”

Tsukishima blinks a few times, taking a moment to let the very essence of Kuroo Testurou sink into his pores and fill him up with all of the bravery and heart and soul that comes with it.

How can he just do things like that and make it seem so effortless? To do things like call Tsukishima his heart and not even look the slightest bit abashed by it? To solve the most important, most terrifying line of the prophecy in a split second, without even trying?

To make Tsukishima fall, like, 300% more in love with him when he was so sure that his heart couldn’t possibly take any more.

“I’m - You’re - Fuck.” Tsukishima gives up on trying to make any sense with his words, and instead grabs Kuroo around the back of the neck and yanks him in for an entirely tactless kiss. Bokuto makes exaggerated retching noises, but Kuroo just smiles into his mouth and kisses back with no hesitation.

“Are you good to Shadow Travel?” Tsukishima asks, pressing their foreheads together.

Kuroo rolls his healing shoulder experimentally and grins. “Just say the word, and I’m ready to go.”

“I’m serious, Kuroo,” Tsukishima butts their heads together gently. “Only if you’re at one hundred percent strength. I don’t want to risk pushing you too soon and getting you hurt even more.”

“I’m serious, too. I know my limits, Tsukki. And right now I am one hundred and ten percent ready to go kick the God of Death’s ass for feeling up my boyfriend.”

“And stealing your dad’s dog and risking throwing the entire world into ecological catastrophe.”

“Yeah, sure. That, too.”

A laugh bubbles out of Tsukishima as he threads his fingers into Kuroo’s hair. “We’re not gonna die.”

“We’re not gonna die,” Kuroo repeats with a bright grin.

“We still might die,” Bokuto points out.

“Shut up, Bokuto!”

“Come on, man!”

“Sorry - ow! I’m sorry!”

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to the twisting, warping, stomach-dropping feeling of Shadow Travel any time soon.

The closest thing he can relate the feeling to is when he was nine years old and Sugawara and Akaashi got permission from Chiron to take him to Coney Island for the day and he rode the Cyclone for the first (and last) time. He screamed bloody murder and kept his eyes shut the entire time, burying his face in Sugawara’s chest and longing for the moment the ride would come to a stop and all of his insides would settle into their proper places again.

Shadow Traveling feels a lot like that - like none of your insides are where they should be and all you want to do is scream. He has no idea how Kuroo does it so regularly without seeming to be even the slightest bit affected by it.

Except for when they land in Colorado, once Tsukishima is sure that he’s not going to empty the contents of his stomach into the nearest bush, he notices that Kuroo is distinctly grey and fuzzy around the edges.

“Burn yourself out too much and you’ll become one of those shadows,” he hears Akaashi’s stern voice in his head.

“You idiot!” He punches Kuroo in the shoulder, feeling like he’s going to be sick all over again when his fist sinks into him with very little resistance. “I told you not to jump unless you were strong enough!”

“Ow, I’m sorry! I felt totally fine, I swear. I guess I just didn’t realize how much healing that scratch took out of me.” He shrugs one shoulder half-heartedly, but even just that small movement seems to wind him. Tsukishima frowns and steps closer, reaching up to cup his cheeks in his hands.

Kuroo looks like he’s fading in more ways than one. It’s hard to imagine that just this morning they were sitting at that little cafe in Saratoga Springs, only to Shadow Travel to Pennsylvania and fight the Nemean Lion, then steal a car and drive all the way down to Virginia, and then Shadow Travel to Colorado. They’ve been through a lot in just the past twelve hours. Kuroo especially, but even Bokuto is uncharacteristically subdued, sitting under a tree with his eyes obviously fighting to stay open. The weight of Tsukishima’s own exhaustion suddenly drops down on him like a hundred-pound weighted blanket

“You need rest. A lot of rest, right now. We all do. It’s been a long day for all of us, and we wouldn’t stand a chance against Thanatos in the shape we’re in now.”

“What if -" Bokuto cuts himself off with a jaw-cracking yawn. “What if they come while we’re sleeping?”

As if in response to his question, the bush to his left suddenly shifts and grows, its branches stretching and unfolding into limbs and the leaves parting and flowing until it’s no longer a bush at all, and is instead a pretty young girl with green skin and red berries in her hair.

Tsukishima blinks at her a few times, rubbing his eyes to make sure she isn’t a figment of his worn-down mind.

She’s still there. The nymph is apparently real.

“Um.” Bokuto eloquently sums up all of Tsukishima’s thoughts. Kuroo looks like he’s still processing, squinting at the green-skinned girl and leaning heavily against Tsukishima’s shoulder.

“We’ll keep watch for you,” the nymph says, apropos of nothing and with an air of finality. Even though she’s the only one standing before them in human form, Tsukishima can feel the watchful eyes of all the trees and plants around them and knows that she isn’t alone.

“That’s very generous of you, but… Why?”

Tsukishima may never have met a nymph in person before, but he’s heard stories about them. They hate humans for what they’ve done to the planet, and while they aren’t usually antagonistic in nature, they aren’t very helpful either.

The nymph eyes them all carefully. “You’re the half bloods hunting Cerberus, aren’t you? The ones who slayed the Nemean Lion?”

Kuroo shifts uncomfortably against Tsukishima’s side. “I wouldn't say that we’re hunting him…”

“And the God of Death,” the nymph continues, ignoring Kuroo’s remark. “You’re going to stop him, too. Aren’t you?”

“That’s the plan.” Bokuto nods in agreement.

“Then we will help you,” the nymph decides. “If he succeeds in his plan to send Persephone back to Olympus, all of nature -" A small green tear rolls down her cheek. “Or at least what we’ve managed to save of it, will be gone. Ruined. We’re the spirits of this forest, and we’ll do everything we can to stop that from happening.”

Tsukishima steps forward to shake her hand. “Thank you, uh…”

“Holly,” the nymph provides, putting her small, dewey green hand in his.

“Thank you, Holly. I swear, we won’t let him get away with this.”

Holly smiles at him, small and sad.

“It’s been so long since I’ve put my trust in humans. Please don’t let me down.”

Oh, sure, Tsukishima thinks. Let me just add you to the list.

Don’t let his siblings and his friends down by failing the quest after they all worked so hard to get him here.

Don’t let his mother down by bringing shame to her children.

Don’t let the world down by throwing it into an ecological disaster.

Don’t let the nymphs down by letting their homes get destroyed.

Don’t let Kuroo down by not being able to get him to see his mom and sister again.

Don’t fail, Kei. Don’t fail, you can’t fail.

Kuroo’s arm winds its way around his waist, fingers curling over his hipbone and holding on tight. Tsukishima lets out a harsh exhale that he didn’t even realize was building up inside of him.

“Come on,” Kuroo murmurs, pressing a light kiss to his temple. “Brain off, time for sleep. We’ll start again in the morning, okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Tsukishima’s entire body sags in relief, as if it had just been waiting for Kuroo’s permission to relax, the assurance from the person he trusts most that he can let his guard down now, and everything will be okay.

Kuroo had Shadow Jumped them into some woods nearby the hot springs. Holly told them they were just between Aspen and Vail, and when he finally got a moment to look around and take in their surroundings, Tsukishima realized it was the most beautiful place he’s ever been. There are trees taller than he’s ever seen all around them, and miles and miles of mountains surrounding them, as far as the eye can see. They are in the Rockies, after all, one of the few natural beauties that humans haven’t completely spoiled yet. Still wild and unyielding.

He wants so badly to spend hours just looking and looking at the view, but as soon as Holly clears a little patch of grass for them, complete with woven pillows and some fruit to eat, he knocks out cold.

 

 

*

 

 

When Tsukishima wakes again, it’s to warm puffs of breath on his cheek and a heavy leg thrown across his waist.

He slowly blinks his eyes open and can barely see anything but Kuroo’s nightmarish bedhead in his face. He huffs affectionately, patting down the wild stands so that he can see the peacefully sleeping face of the boy curled around him. Kuroo must have gone searching out for Tsukishima in his sleep, and the thought warms him down to his toes.

Kuroo looks much better this morning, glowing healthy and strong in the sunlight, nothing like the ghostly grey pallor he had worn the night before. Tsukishima allows himself a moment to gently trail his fingertips across Kuroo’s sharp jaw, the line of his brow, the delicate skin where his inky lashes flutter against his cheekbones. He still can’t quite believe that he’s allowed to do this. To love someone as strong and beautiful as Kuroo Tetsurou.

Careful not to wake his sleeping boyfriend (boyfriend!), Tsukishima gently pries Kuroo’s limbs from where they’re wrapped around him and stands, cracking out a few kinks in his spine. Sleeping on a forest floor is never his first choice, but Holly had made the ground soft and pliant for them.

Bokuto is still snoring like a chainsaw, and with any luck Kuroo will be able to get in a few more hours of sleep as well. The nymphs are looking after them, Tsukishima knows, and they’ll surely wake them if Cerberus and Thanatos show up, so he decides to go off and do a little exploring before then.

Before the battle.

He hopes it’ll at least be that: A battle and not a massacre.

He’s never fought a god before, so he can’t be sure, but no god has ever fought Kuroo and Bokuto before either, and Tsukishima believes in the two of them more than any other force in the cosmos.

There’s a narrow path leading away from the clearing and Tsukishima follows it through the forest. He brings his backpack along, too, just in case he ends up spraining his ankle or something and needing some ambrosia, gods forbid.

For a while there’s nothing but thick tree trunks around him and rustling trees above him, but then beyond the trees he comes across a rocky clearing jutting out over the woods. It’s high above the treetops, and his breath catches in his throat. He can see everything from up here - the mountains and the trees and the lakes sparkling in the morning sunlight.

Is that what it feels like for the gods up on Mount Olympus? Always above everything else, looking down as the world turns at their feet?

Tsukishima huffs a laugh under his breath and thinks, no. The gods don’t appreciate the beauty and the intricacies of life below them like this. They don’t really care.

He takes a few more deep breaths of the clean mountain air, spends a few more minutes enjoying his place on the top of the world, before deciding to head back down. He’s been wandering around for quite a while now, and Bokuto and Kuroo should be waking up soon.

In hindsight, it’s incredible that Tsukishima didn’t notice the giant beast coming up behind him until they were literally nose-to-snout.

A scream tries to tear its way out of Tsukishima’s throat when he turns and finds himself mere inches away from a pair of dangerously glinting copper eyes and a snarling set of jaws bigger than his entire head.

No, not just one set of jaws.

Three.

Found him.

Tsukishima goes completely still, every muscle in his body locking in place, barely daring to breathe as three gigantic canine heads circle around him. The center head looks him dead in the eyes while the other two sniff him out suspiciously, circling around him and drenching his skin in hot, wet puppy-breath.

His heartbeat is thunderous in his ears as he tries to plan out his next move through the paralyzing terror and panic gripping at his mind.

So he was right. It provides little comfort in this moment, but he was right, nonetheless. They did it, they finally caught up to Cerberus.

Now, Tsukishima just has to not die before they get him home.

Easy.

Cerberus growls from all three heads, and it feels like a mini earthquake shakes Tsukishima’s entire body. But the dog still hasn’t attacked, or even shown any aggressive behavior towards him at all.

Tsukishima doesn’t realize why until suddenly all three heads stop sniffing at him and pull away, just a few inches but far enough for Tsukishima to see the way Cerberus lowers his guard. His eyes go soft, lips lowering from a snarl into something less threatening.

He whines and ducks his head, almost as if in…familiarity. For a master.

Slightly trembling, Tsukishima reaches out and lays a hand on the nose of Cerberus’ center head. The dog’s tongue lolls out happily and Tsukishima breathes again, letting out a shaky laugh.

“That’s it, boy,” he whispers. “I smell like Kuroo, don’t I? Perks of dating a clingy son of Hades, I guess.”

Cerberus whines like he understands, like he recognizes Kuroo’s name. A son of the Underworld.

“Yeah, there you go, buddy.” Tsukishima pets him with firmer strokes now, the entire length of his hand barely even covering the large dog’s nose. “You won’t hurt me.”

He sees the flash of a bone white dagger out of the corner of his eye, but it all happens too fast for him to react.

“He might not hurt you,” says a hauntingly familiar voice. “But I will.”

Cerberus whines unhappily, backing away from Tsukishima as the freezing cold blade is pressed to the exposed skin of his jugular.

“Thanatos.” Just saying his name makes Tsukishima’s veins fill with ice.

“Nice to see you again, pretty boy.”

He can’t see it, but he can feel the god’s sharp grin.

Tsukishima’s eyes dart around wildly, looking for a way out of this mess, something he can use to escape, but there’s just trees. Nothing but Cerberus cowering in confusion, and trees.

“The feeling isn’t mutual.” Tsukishima can’t hide the tremors in his voice and it makes Thanatos laugh, something chilling and cruel. He feels the hand that isn’t holding the blade press against the small of his back, and decides in that moment that he never wants anyone but Kuroo to touch him like that again.

“Come now,” Thanatos simpers. “Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

“You hold all of your friends at knifepoint for petting your dog?”

The hand on Tsukishima’s back reaches up to grab his hair and wrench his head back. He can feel the knife dig in a little harder and a trickle of blood makes its way down his neck. Cerberus’ whining gets louder. Tsukishima grits his teeth and bares it.

“You’re funny, Tsukishima Kei. Not just a pretty face, then. I truly am sorry to have to deprive this world of you.”

Oh. So this is really it.

Tsukishima lets his eyes flutter closed. This wasn’t how he planned on going, but who was he to defy the Fates without Kuroo by his side? Together, they could do anything, but alone, Tsukishima was at the whims of the gods.

And this particular one wanted him dead.

Gods, he hopes Kuroo doesn’t blame himself for this. He hopes it doesn’t break him, he hopes it only makes Kuroo stronger. He wishes - Fuck, he wishes he could have stayed with him.

Just a little longer, he would have liked to stay by Kuroo’s side.

It really was too good to be true. The idea that someone like him could love someone as strong and beautiful as Kuroo Tetsurou. He wishes he could rewind back to that perfect moment, waking up to Kuroo’s arms wrapped securely around him, and decide to just stay there, rather than run off on his own.

To spend just a second more with him, if he had known it would be his last.

“It’s a shame you had to go and figure this whole thing out.” Thanatos draws the blade up and down the sensitive skin of his throat. “If you never put the pieces together and realized it was me who let the mutt out, I might have been able to spare your life. I might have been able to spare that little boyfriend of yours.”

Tsukishima’s eyes fly open, thrashing in Thanatos’ grasp, rage blinding him to the way it makes the blade dig further into his throat.

“He’ll kill you,” he snarls. “You’ll never be able to hurt him, he’ll kill you, I swear it.”

Thanatos chuckles darkly.

“The promises of a dead man are meaningless.”

He hopes that Sugawara and Akaashi are able to forgive themselves for sending him on this quest. He hopes Oikawa and Iwaizumi find someone more worthy than him to carry their weapon. He hopes someone brings Ushijima home to Tendou.

Will anyone even tell his father what happened to him?

A single tear escapes the corner of Tsukishima’s eye and Cerberus howls like an animal in mourning.

“He’ll stop you,” Tsukishima whispers, tilting his head towards the sunlight. “Kuroo won’t lose. The Fates would never allow it.”

“The Fates don’t decide my future for me.”

Tsukishima smiles to himself.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought, too.”

“Enough!” Thanatos spins him around and pushes him to the ground so that he lands on his back in the dirt.

The god hovers above him like a dark, vengeful angel and Tsukishima swears he can see the faint outline of pitch black wings sprouting from his back. He’s almost beautiful, in a tragic sort of way. He kneels over Tsukishima, pinning his arms to the ground with his knees and lets the tip of his blade lightly kiss the raw and scratched up skin of Tsukishima’s neck.

“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you, pretty.”

The tip of the blade pierces his skin and Tsukishima closes his eyes.

 

“I’m Tsukishima Kei, from the Athena cabin.”

“Kuroo. You’re hard for me to look at.”

 

Oh. Is this what Kuroo had been talking about that day in the strawberry fields?

 

“Bokuto isn’t my best friend, Tsukki. You are. You’re my favorite person in the whole world.”

 

The last thing you see before you die.

 

“Did you know all of your letters smell like strawberries? Just like you.”

 

Of course his is Kuroo. What else could it possibly be?

 

“Tsukki, that first night in the dining pavilion when you walked up to the Big Three table and offered me your hand, you saved my life.”

 

It really isn’t so unbearable, to die like this, with nothing but visions of all of his favorite memories with Kuroo. Maybe Kuroo had been onto something, after all.

This isn’t so bad, not when he has Kuroo with him. It’s almost…peaceful.

He’s not afraid.

“You’re damn right it is!”

There’s a deafening crack from above, and suddenly Thanatos is being hit square in the chest with a bolt of lightning, throwing him off of Tsukishima’s chest and far over the edge of the rocky cliff.

Well. He didn’t see that one coming.

Tsukishima sucks in a harsh, gasping breath, hands clutching at his chest just to make sure that yes, his heart is still beating. Blood is still pumping from his veins. His lungs are still breathing air. He didn’t die.

He didn’t die.

“That won’t kill him or anything,” Bokuto flexes his fingers and grins maniacally. It’s the best sight Tsukishima has ever seen in his life. “But it definitely didn’t feel good. Should buy us a few minutes, at least. Are you okay - ?”

“Kei!”

The sight of Kuroo running towards him, the sound of his name on Kuroo’s lips again, it makes Tsukishima’s chest ache and he can’t stop the tears that start spilling. He was so close to never getting to experience this, to never making another new memory with Kuroo ever again.

Kuroo slides onto his knees next to Tsukishima, not even seeming to care about way the rocks must be scraping him, and puts a hand behind his head, gently easing him up into an upright position. As soon as he’s sitting, he falls into Kuroo’s chest, he doesn’t care if it makes him look weak. Kuroo’s arms immediately wrap around him almost painfully, holding him like he’s the only thing keeping Tsukishima from falling to pieces which he really might be, at this point.

“It’s alright, Kei, it’s alright. I’ve got you now, everything is going to be okay, sweetheart.”

“Shit,” Tsukishima croaks, hands fisted tight in Kuroo’s shirt. “I’m - I’m still alive?”

Kuroo laughs wetly and holds Tsukishima’s face in his hands gingerly, wiping away tears with his thumbs, and looking at him like he’s the most precious thing in the world and not a blotchy, red-faced crying mess.

“You didn’t really think you were going to die, did you? That would’ve been a pretty short forever, and you promised me, remember?”

The way he says it, with such confidence and finality, Tsukishima is ashamed that he ever doubted it for a single second. Doubted that Kuroo Tetsurou was more powerful than the Fates, the Gods, and every other force of nature themselves.

“Yeah, I remember, Death boy.” Tsukishima lowers his eyelids and tilts his chin up for a kiss.

He doesn’t exactly get the one he was expecting.

“Ugh! Cerberus, gross, my mouth was open!” Tsukishima frantically scrubs his tongue with the back of his hand. Kuroo collapses with laughter as the Hellhound continues to lick Tsukishima all over his face, knocking his glasses askew and making his hair stand on end.

“Aww, he likes you!” Bokuto coos.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tsukishima grumbles, taking one of the dog’s massive heads in his hands and petting him. “He only likes me because I smell so much like Death Boy.”

Kuroo scratches behind the left head’s ears, grinning. “You’re welcome.”

“How did you guys even know I was here?” Tsukishima asks, some of the adrenaline of almost dying fading now that he’s safely tucked away in Kuroo’s arms again. For now.

Kuroo nods to the trees around them. “The nymphs warned us what was going on, and when Cerberus howled, we were able to follow the sound and find you here. Good timing, too.” He frowns, carefully tilting Tsukishima’s chin up so that he can get a good look at his neck. Tsukishima hasn’t had a chance to check himself out in a mirror recently, but from the dark look on Kuroo’s face, he has a feeling it doesn’t look very pretty.

“They’re just flesh wounds. They barely even hurt,” Tsukishima assures him, but Kuroo’s expression only gets darker.

“I’m going to kill him.”

Tsukishima can’t help the crazed grin that takes over his face, catching Kuroo’s chin between his fingers and giving him a quick kiss.

“I know you will.”

“Guys,” Bokuto says, voice grave. “He’s coming back.”

Turns out, the wings that Tsukishima imagined seeing before weren’t actually his imagination, after all. And they were much, much more threatening in real life, although no less beautiful.

Thanatos rises above the trees, huge black-feathered wings spread out behind him. Every beat of his wings makes the treetops rustle and shake, and he flies towards them with a speed that makes Tsukishima’s head spin. Still, he slides his backpack from his shoulders and pulls out his spear, standing ready with Kuroo and Bokuto at his sides.

When Thanatos lands, the ground beneath them shakes with the impact of his boots hitting the rock. Cerberus gives a low growl in the back of his throat, but he clearly recognizes Thanatos as his master, lowering his head and backing away from the battleground.

“Now, now. That wasn’t very nice, even for a son of that wretched Zeus.”

Thanatos’ voice holds a booming timbre that it didn’t before. From what Tsukishima can tell, he also looks like he’s grown about two feet taller, and the eyes that used to be an icy, piercing blue are now vast, empty black holes in the middle of his face. His true Divine Form is starting to bleed through his human shell.

If they even want to have a chance of beating him, they have to do it before he reaches that final form. They won’t even be able to look at him without bursting into flames at that point.

Tsukishima glances at Kuroo and Bokuto out of the corners of his eyes and sees in the determined looks on their faces that they’ve realized the same thing.

“It’s over, Thanatos,” Tsukishima says in a voice much braver than he feels. “Your plan failed, you told me yourself. Now that we know you were behind this, you won’t get away with it. And if you try to fight us, I can promise you it won’t go the way you plan.”

Thanatos’ teeth bare into a grin, and it’s a horrible sight; the combination of the bone-white teeth and the black holes for eyes. With a snap of his fingers, the dagger in his hand turns into a long, razor-sharp scythe.

“Is that so, little demigod?”

“Huh.” Okay, so Tsukishima hadn’t accounted for that.

“Why do you want to fight us, anyways?” Kuroo takes a slow step forward, not raising his weapon, but not holding it down either. “Why do you want any of this? Why did you let Cerberus out in the first place?”

“Really?” Thanatos laughs unkindly. “You want me to monologue right now? Trying to buy some time for your pretty boyfriend to run away, is that is?”

Kuroo shifts his stance so that Tsukishima is slightly behind him now, growling low. He doesn’t sound entirely unlike Cerberus, actually.

“No, I just want to understand before I kick your ass. Hades is my father, and you work with him. Why would you want to -"

“I work for him,” Thanatos hisses. The hair on the back of Tsukishima’s neck stands straight up as the temperature drops at least thirty degrees. “I don’t work ‘with’ Hades, I’m his lackey! His slave! I’ve been bringing souls to him for eons now, doing all of the dirty work for him, and what have I gotten for it?”

“Oh boy, here we go,” Bokuto mutters.

“Nothing!” The god explodes. “Not a raise, not a promotion, not even a ‘thank you!’ And those mortals,” he sneers. “Those foolish, unappreciative mortals have all but forgotten me. Do you know what happens to gods when they’re forgotten?”

When gods are forgotten…

“They cease to exist,” Tsukishima breathes.

It’s rare, but it sometimes happens with the more ancient deities. They’re written out of modern retellings, replaced with more popular gods and spirits instead. Gods’ powers come directly from the belief and devotion that humans show them, and without it…

Thanatos is afraid to be forgotten.

“You wanted to sabotage Hades so you could take his place as God of the Underworld.” Tsukishima guesses.

The icy chill in the air grows even colder when Thanatos gives him a razor sharp grin.

“Oh, you pretty little fool. I’m not going to stop there.”

The word fool cuts a little more deeply than it probably should.

“And once I rule the Underworld,” Thanatos continues, his hollow eyes narrowing. “I’m going to make you two lovebirds watch as I skin the other alive and roast their insides over the eternal flames of Hell until the end of all time. Won’t that be a fun little honeymoon?”

It’s a dark promise, one that Tsukishima can tell he fully intends to keep. His heart drops to the floor and he reaches out blindly for Kuroo’s hand. Luckily, Kuroo is already reaching back for him, and their fingers lock together tightly.

Whatever happens next, they’re doing it together.

“I won’t let you hurt my friends!”

Bokuto lets out a roar that’s much more animal than it is human. Dark clouds begin to swirl overhead, and the air around them crackles with electricity. Tsukishima watches in disbelief as Bokuto Koutarou, son of Zeus, kindest and most gentle person he’s ever known, lights up with rage. Lightning seems to course through his very veins, and his eyes turn completely yellow, glowing eerily.

That is not what Tsukishima thought was going to happen next.

There’s no time to stop him. There’s literally no time to stop him, because one second Bokuto is standing right next to him, and then Tsukishima blinks - and he’s gone. Only the metallic clanging sound of metal weapons clashing make him turn to see that Bokuto is already fighting Thanatos, dual blades drawn.

“Did you know he could do that?” Tsukishima’s jaw drops.

“I don’t think he even knew he could do that.” Kuroo laughs in awe, tugging Tsukishima closer to his side.

Bokuto is nothing like he was when they fought the Nemean Lion. That was the first time Tsukishima had seen him fight to seriously attempt to injure another living thing, but he was fighting for survival, to protect. He didn’t really want to hurt the creature. Now, Bokuto was fighting with intent. With anger. He wanted to hurt Thanatos.

The Nemean Lion had been a danger to them, but Thanatos was a personal threat.

It’s terrifying and dazzling to watch the way they circle around each other, striking blows and colliding weapons faster than Tsukishima’s eyes can follow. Bokuto is practically unrecognizable with that animalistic snarl on his face, the murderous intent in his eyes.

Tsukishima is really, really glad he’s on their side.

Kuroo makes to go and join in the fight, but Tsukishima stops him with a hand around his arm. “Wait.”

“But?” Kuroo’s face screws up in a confused frown. “But Bokuto needs me, I can’t just let him do this alone.”

“Bokuto is doing just fine holding his own for now.” Tsukishima picks up his backpack and starts rifling through the contents, looking for one object in particular. “I need you to help me with something else.”

“Oho?” Kuroo’s eyes light up. “You have a plan, don’t you, Brainiac?”

“Yes, I do.” Tsukishima’s hand finally closes around the thing he’d been looking for and pulls it out of his bag, holding it up for Kuroo to see. “That’s why I have this.”

Kuroo blinks a few times, poking the object to see if it’s going to do anything more. It doesn’t.

“Um, are you sure about this? Where did you even get that?”

“I got it back at the gift shop,” Tsukishima shrugs, tossing it up in the air and catching it again. “I figured, Cerberus is a dog, right? So why shouldn’t this work?”

Kuroo stares at him for a moment longer, but Tsukishima doesn’t let his confidence crack. Finally, Kuroo’s lips spread into a wide, trusting grin.

“Alright, you mad genius. What do you need from me?”

Tsukishima explains his plan as hurriedly as he can, well aware of the sounds of the battle raging on behind them. Even though he hadn’t meant to, Bokuto had actually caused the perfect distraction that his plan depended on. He had started thinking of it when they were in Pennsylvania, and since then all the pieces just fell into place.

He watches closely as Bokuto and Thanatos continue to fight. Neither of them appear to be slowing down, but they’ve definitely gotten in a few hits each. Bokuto has a huge gash in one of his pant legs that’s stained dark red, and there are a few slices across Thanatos’ face that are dripping gold Ichor - the blood of the Gods. Tsukishima has heard of it before, but he never thought he would actually see it.

It’s so rare that the Gods bleed.

Bokuto might be the strongest demigod alive right now.

There - That’s the opening he’s been waiting for. Bokuto has Thanatos backed up against a tree, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to be letting him move any time soon.

“Hey, Cerberus!” Tsukishima thrusts his hand high in the air, holding the red rubber ball up clearly for the Hellhound to see. All three of his large heads swing around to look at Tsukishima with interest, three sets of ears perking up. That’s a good boy. “You want this? Huh boy, you wanna play fetch?”

The ground shakes as Cerberus jumps excitedly like a puppy, wagging his tail and knocking over a few trees in the process. Tsukishima winces. Sorry, nymphs.

It’s not just Cerberus whose attention he has, though.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Thanatos hisses, but Bokuto has him pinned to the tree now with a sword pointed right at his throat.

Tsukishima shrugs, offering the god an innocent smile.

“Just playing a little game. Cerberus,” he turns back to the dog, who's still crouched and ready to pounce, tail thumping rhythmically. “Fetch!”

Tsukishima winds back his arm and throws the ball as hard as he possibly can, aiming right for the edge of the rocky cliff.

“Kuroo, now!”

Perfectly on cue, Kuroo holds his hands out in front of him, aiming for the same place Tsukishima had, forehead creased in concentration. Out of thin air, hovering right over the edge of the cliff, a glowing red tear appears in the atmosphere, stretching and opening wide until there’s a Hellhound-sized portal to the Underworld hanging over the Colorado Rockies.

The red rubber ball goes sailing cleanly through, and Cerberus chases obediently after it. With a grunt of exertion, Kuroo closes the portal back up, and any trace of the dog is gone.

Cerberus is finally home.

An unnerving silence settles over the clearing.

Thanatos stops struggling against Bokuto and goes still, vacant eyes trained on the now empty spot of air that Cerberus just disappeared through. Bokuto shoves him against the tree and takes a few steps back, wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and raising his blades defensively.

The God of Death doesn’t attack.

Instead, he starts to laugh.

Wild, unhinged laughter that grates against Tsukishima’s senses and makes his skin break out in goosebumps.

“Oh, that was smart,” he gasps through his peals of laughter. He points a finger right at Tsukishima and grins dangerously. “I’m going to make you regret that.”

Bokuto’s entire body crackles with electricity and Kuroo raises his sword, the ground below them rumbling threateningly with the pounding of his undead army wanting to be released.

Thanatos raises his hands in the air in a sign of peace.

“I know how to pick and choose my battles. Our fight won’t be today, demigods. But I promise you,” he looks right at Tsukishima, “we’ll meet again one day.”

“And we’ll kick your ass again,” Bokuto promises.

“Next time, it won’t just be me.” Thanatos cracks a wicked smile. “You don’t really think that I’m the only minor god who feels this way, do you? I’m not in this alone. Olympus will fall, and so will anyone who sides with them. Mark my words.”

With a snap of his fingers, the God of Death is gone.

“Um.” Bokuto lowers his blades cautiously, looking around as if he expects Thanatos to jump out from behind a tree to kill them at any second. “So, is it over?”

Tsukishima opens his mouth to respond, but whatever words he was going to say next die in his throat as the ground below them begins to swirl with a smoky, dark whirlpool around their feet.

And then everything goes dark.

 

 

*

 

 

It’s dark and the ground below him is rock hard, but whatever his face is pillowed in is soft and firm. Wherever he is, it smells like rotten eggs, but his pillow is warm and smells familiar, like the air after a fresh rainstorm, and he buries his nose in it further, groaning in discomfort.

“Hey.” A hand pats him on the head affectionately. “Welcome back to the land of the living. Or, well, uh…” Bokuto trails off with an awkward laugh. Tsukishima frowns and curls up on his side, ignoring the way the ground digs into his hip.

“What’re you talking ‘bout?” He slurs drowsily.

“You’re pretty out of it, huh? Man, you really don’t like Shadow Traveling.” Bokuto chuckles and the pleasant vibrations make Tsukishima want to fall right back asleep. He flings an arm across Bokuto’s lap to get more comfortable, but when he touches the boy’s other leg, he takes in a sharp, pained breath.

Tsukishima pulls his hand away, quickly sitting up when he remembers that Bokuto has been injured. There’s still blood staining his pants, and Tsukishima can just barely make out the tear in his flesh underneath.

“Shit, sorry, Bokuto. I forgot about -"

All of the memories of the past few days - the past few hours - suddenly come flooding back to him.

Colorado. Cerberus. Thanatos. The fight.

“What happened? Did - Did Thanatos come back? Is Cerberus okay? Did we -"

“Win?” Bokuto grins. “Yeah, Tsukki. We won. Cerberus is back where he’s supposed to be, and after Thanatos left, Hades Shadow Travelled us to the Underworld.”

“Oh,” Tsukishima breathes. “Thank Gods, we’re -" he stops. “We’re where?”

For the first time since he woke up, Tsukishima takes a good look at his surroundings.

He doesn’t know what he expected the Underworld to look like. Honestly, he’s never pictured himself visiting before so he never bothered to think about it, but if anyone asked him, he probably would have said that it was all fire and brimstone, terrifying and covered in flames.

He would have been embarrassingly wrong.

The Underworld is dark, yes, but it’s also wide open and and cavernous, with almost an eerie blue glow to it. It’s beautiful. Clearly a palace made for a King, carved out of stone and precious minerals far beneath the surface of the Earth. There are twisting, spiraling pillars keeping the high ceiling from collapsing in on itself, and decorative arches with skulls are bones carved into them (or, they might actually be decorated with skulls and bones. Tsukishima does not want to know).

And there at the center of the highest arch, there’s a giant throne. Literally, giant. It would have to be to fit the ten-foot tall god sitting in it.

Hades.

He isn’t in his full Divine Form, just appearing as his usual godly self instead of taking on a mortal form. His hair and beard and tunic are enveloped in - or rather, made of - jet black flames, and his eyes are the same pure, liquid gold color as Kuroo’s. He’s handsome, with broad shoulders and a sharp jaw, but stern looking as he strokes his fiery beard and considers the figure standing before him, little more than a speck standing at the foot of his throne.

Oh - It’s not a speck. It’s Kuroo.

“What are they doing?”

Bokuto shifts so he can put a reassuring arm around Tsukishima’s shoulders, and maybe so he can stop him if Tsukishima decides to do something reckless.

“Kuroo’s just telling him about everything that happened. Finding Thanatos, sending Cerberus home, and all that other good stuff.”

Tsukishima hums, settling back and observing.

“It’s kinda weird, isn’t it? Hades looks…”

“Just like Kuroo?” Bokuto finishes. Tsukishima winces involuntarily.

It isn’t like he hasn’t known all along that Kuroo was Hades’ son. He knew better than almost anyone else. But to see the striking resemblance between them with his own two eyes, it was chilling. Not because Tsukishima cared who Kuroo’s godly parent was, of course, but just because he had never seen a demigod and their godly parent together like this before.

He’s never seen a demigod and their godly parent look so much… Like family.

He himself looks just like his mortal father. He’s never seen Athena in person, but based on drawings and descriptions, he knows he looks nothing like her. He and his siblings don’t even look anything like each other, the same as most siblings at Camp Half Blood.

But when he looks at Hades and Kuroo together, he can see it plain as day. It wasn’t just his imagination all this time; Kuroo’s appearance truly is toeing the line of being completely and perfectly divine.

And Tsukishima is dating that. Will wonders never cease?

He really is best friends with two of the most impressive demigods the world has ever known.

“Bokuto,” Tsukishima takes him by the shoulders, suddenly overcome with gratitude, and forces the older boy to meet his eyes. “Thank you.”

Bokuto’s eyes widen. “What? Me? What for?”

“None of what happened back in Colorado would have been possible without you.” Bokuto opens his mouth to argue, but Tsukishima doesn’t give him the chance. “I had a plan, yes, but it was a reach and there were holes in it and you - you filled in all those holes. You’re the reason we were able to send Cerberus home, and you’re definitely the reason that the three of us are even still alive right now. You were unbelievable out there - you fought a god for us! You’re incredible, Bokuto.”

“Ah,” Bokuto’s cheeks turn pink. “You don’t have to say all that, Tsukki! I’m sure you and Kuroo would’ve figured out -"

“We’d be dead,” Tsukishima cuts him off. “Bokuto, the two of us would literally be dead without you, so just stop being so painfully humble for like, two seconds, and let me thank you, okay?”

Bokuto nods, but still looks uncomfortable with the praise. It’s almost comical, comparing the Bokuto sitting in front of him now to the absolute monster he saw in battle not long ago. Shy and bashful, rather than murderously enraged.

“I don’t really know what happened out there, honestly,” he admits. “I’ve never…felt like that in a fight before. That strong, or - or motivated, I guess? But when Thanatos threatened you two, I just, I dunno. I lost it.”

Tsukishima shifts so that Bokuto’s arm falls from his shoulders and takes the other boy’s hand in both of his, making sure that he listens to his next words very carefully.

“That’s because you’re not a warrior, Bokuto. You don’t fight just to win battles. You’re a protector.” Bokuto’s eyes open a little wider. “You fight to protect the people you care about, and that’s what makes you the strongest. That drive to keep others safe.”

“You - You think so?” Bokuto blinks at him owlishly.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” Tsukishima says firmly. “And I think that whatever you came on this quest to prove to whoever you needed to prove it to, you did it. A hundred times over, you’ve proven yourself.”

Like a gentle summer drizzle, tears pool in the corners of Bokuto’s eyes and fall down his cheeks. Tsukishima doesn’t think about it too much, just reacts like he’s a little kid again and throws his arms around Bokuto’s neck, burying his face in his shoulder. Bokuto wraps his arms around Tsukishima’s back tight enough to hurt, but he doesn’t complain. Not even a little bit.

“Thank you,” he whispers again. Bokuto accepts it this time.

Someone clears their throat, and it’s not hard to guess who it is when it’s powerful enough to make the ground rumble.

“Good, you’re finally awake.” Hades gestures them closer with a wave of his hand. “Come. I want to hear what happened from the two of you.”

Tsukishima isn’t one to disobey a direct order from the God of the Underworld, so he quickly stands, only realizing when Bokuto doesn’t immediately follow that he needs help getting to his feet. He puts one of Bokuto’s arms over his shoulders and tries to help lift him to his feet, staggering slightly under the other boy’s dense weight.

Hades sighs impatiently.

“Alright, let’t hurry this along.”

Slowly, Bokuto’s weight eases off of Tsukishima’s shoulders. Steeling his stomach for a second glance, Tsukishima looks curiously down at his injured leg and - nothing.

His shorts are still stained a deep red, but the skin underneath is perfectly unblemished, like Thanatos’ scythe had never touched him at all.

“Woah,” Bokuto breathes.

Curious, Tsukishima gently prods at the skin of his neck, and finds not a single cut or scratch left on him, either.

Hades looks impossibly larger when standing up close to him, but also strangely…kinder? He doesn’t give off the same bone-chilling kind of aura that Thanatos did, and even though his expression doesn’t crack into anything even resembling a smile, it’s hard to look into his eyes and not feel oddly at ease.

Maybe it was because he reminded Tsukishima so much of Kuroo, or maybe just because they both had similarly kind eyes. Or maybe it’s the aura of being dead. Either way, he doesn’t feel the slightest bit nervous as he tells Hades his story, or even when Bokuto takes his turn, and Kuroo none-too-sneakily intertwines their hands together, and Hades’ eyes flicker over to follow the movement. His expression still doesn’t change, and Tsukishima doesn’t think he could let go of Kuroo now even if the God of the Underworld himself commanded it.

“And, uh, yeah,” Bokuto finishes with a shrug. “Then we came here, and that was pretty much it.”

“What did Thanatos mean?” Tsukishima asks, surprising himself with his boldness, speaking to a god without being asked to. He’s not really sure how the politics of this all works. He’s really never been good with adults. “When he said that he wasn’t the only god who resented the Olympians, what did he mean?”

Hades eyes narrow and he heaves a tired sigh that only comes from millennia of troubles.

“It’s been this way since the beginning of time. The minor gods have always tried to start wars with us, to take power that doesn't belong to them and overthrow my family and I.”

“War?” Kuroo repeats faintly. “You think Thanatos wants to start a - a war? Between the gods?”

Tsukishima squeezes his hand, but not for Kuroo’s sake. For his own.

A war between the gods could be cataclysmic. A world-ending, population-wiping, disaster.

“It’s hard to tell, just based off of what he told you,” Hades admits. “But he could be working up to one. Gathering supporters and building an army. He’ll have to keep coming in and out of the Underworld to deliver souls, so I’ll keep an eye on him the best I can, but the three of you should return to camp now. Quickly. Tell Chiron what you’ve told me, and he’ll know what to do. I wish I could help you more, but I’ll have my hands full as it is.”

“Actually,” Tsukishima raises a finger. “There is one more thing you could do for us.”

Hades looks at him expectantly and Kuroo’s eyes widen in panic when he realizes what Tsukishima is about to do.

“No, no there isn’t! It’s okay, really, you don’t have to do anything else for us.”

Tsukishima give him an incredulous look. “Are you serious? The whole reason I came on this stupid quest with you was to get you to this very moment.”

“Tsukki, please, let’s not bother my da - uh, Hades, any more. Okay?”

His eyes are pleading, and Tsukishima doesn’t understand it. Why suddenly, when faced with Hades himself, Kuroo is so unsure of himself.

But, oh. Hades is more than just the God of the Underworld to Kuroo. He’s his father who he’s just meeting now for the first time. He’s probably afraid to overstep any boundaries, to make things awkward between them when they’ve only just met. Fragile family relations, and all.

Well. Fuck that.

“Five minutes.”

Hades frowns. “What?”

“Five minutes,” Tsukishima repeats. “Kuroo is your son - your only son - and he just risked his life to bring Cerberus back to the Underworld because you asked him to. The least you could do after bringing us all the way here is give him just five minutes with his mom and sister.”

Hades quirks a fiery brow, breaking his stern expression for the first time.

“The least I could do? Is that so?”

“He didn’t - He didn’t mean that!” Kuroo says quickly. “Right, Tsukki?” He squeezes Tsukishima’s hand desperately. Tsukishima shakes him off and takes a step closer to Hades’ throne.

“Kuroo has been through more shit in his eighteen years of living than anyone should ever have to in their entire lives, and for him to still turn out this good? Yeah, I think he deserves at least a chance to say goodbye to his family.”

Kuroo sucks in a sharp breath and doesn’t let it out again.

“Dude, your boyfriend is crazy,” Bokuto whispers behind him, but Tsukishima doesn’t break Hades’ gaze. His face doesn’t change at all, but slowly he lifts a hand and snaps his fingers sharply. At the foot of his throne, the air shifts into a wide, round opening. Just beyond it, Tsukishima can see rolling hills of flowers bathed in sunlight and the sweet chirping of birds. It looks so enticing and peaceful, he almost goes through it himself, but manages to hold back.

“Through there,” Hades says, as if he couldn’t care less. Tsukishima gets the feeling that isn’t true. “In the Fields of Asphodel. They’ll be waiting for you.”

The breath Kuroo had been holding leaves him all in a rush. He doesn’t move from the spot he’s standing in.

“Five minutes, and not a second longer,” Hades warns. Tsukishima prods Kuroo in the back, nudging him towards the opening.

“Go,” he whispers.

“I -" Kuroo laughs. “I think I’m nervous?”

“Don’t be.” Tsukishima says, squeezing Kuroo’s hand reassuringly. “They’re your family and they love you, and you’ve done nothing but a million things to make them proud since the last time you saw them. It’s okay, Tetsurou. You can have this,” he finishes in a whisper.

Kuroo takes another slow, deep breath.

“I love you, Kei,” he says, knocking their foreheads together gently before turning and disappearing into the rift. It closes behind him and Tsukishima can’t stop the way he smiles or the overwhelmed tears that come next.

He did it.

They did it.

He’s so - so happy. Happier than anyone in the world had any right to be. It’s all-consuming and terrifying and the world is potentially going to end in flames soon, but Tsukishima is happy because he was able to help get Kuroo the one thing he’s wanted more than anything since the day Tsukishima met him. He was able to give Kuroo the chance to feel whole again.

“I have a feeling,” Hades says and Tsukishima startles. He had almost forgotten that anyone else was there. “The reason why Tetsurou turned out so good is because of you. It certainly wasn’t because of me.” He casts his eyes away, and Tsukishima can see the pain behind them.

“All I did was shake his hand,” he says honestly.

“I suppose I have you to thank for him becoming a hero, too?” Hades raises an accusatory eyebrow.

“Is that really such a terrible thing?” Tsukishima challenges.

Hades hums thoughtfully. “Only time will tell, I suppose. I always knew that bringing him to Camp Half Blood was the best thing for him, but…” Hades trails off, giving Tsukishima a - a smile? Holy Hades, he was smiling? “But never once did I expect you, Tsukishima Kei. Thank you for taking such good care of him.”

Bokuto pats him on the back enthusiastically as more tears fall freely down Tsukishima’s face.

This is more than happiness now. It’s relief. So, so much relief.

“I would do anything for him.”

Hades’ smile grows sad.

“And you will, son of Athena. You will.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Are you sure this is gonna work?”

Tsukishima sighs and throws another pair of knock-off Ray Bans into the fire.

“He’s a god, I’m not sure of anything, but he’s been known to help demigods in the past, and it’s the only line of the prophecy left that we haven’t figured out yet. It’s worth a shot.”

“Yeah,” Kuroo frowns, adding a Josh Groban CD to the fire. “But the line is, ‘Call on the brightest of gods, but don’t hold your breath.’ He might not even come, and then we’ll have wasted an entire night that we could have been traveling. Or, you could always just let me -"

Tsukishima points a warning finger in his face. “No more Shadow Travel for you. Or for me.” Kuroo sighs and throws his hands up in defeat.

“Okay, fine, whatever. But I’m telling you, I feel fine now. Being in the Underworld, it like… Healed me? Especially being in the Fields of Asphodel. I’ve honestly never felt better.” Kuroo grins brightly and Tsukishima wants to hold onto the vision of him like this forever.

He’s looks so much younger, so much lighter now. So much freer, after seeing his mom and sister again. After finally saying goodbye. He was finally finished now, a completely puzzle with every piece exactly where it belongs.

When his five minutes were up and Hades summoned Kuroo back from Fields of Asphodel, Tsukishima got a brief glimpse behind him before the portal closed, of two women. Beautiful dark hair, and devastating smiles that promised trouble, with tears glittering in their eyes.

Kuroo looked much the same as them. Exactly the same, actually, all the way down to the tears in his eyes, and when he threw his arms around Tsukishima just as the portal was slipping shut, Tsukishima could have sworn he saw the two women waving at him.

It might have been a trick of his imagination, though.

Hades offered to Shadow Travel them back to Camp Half Blood, but Tsukishima wasn’t sure his stomach could take it again without passing out, so instead he just had a skeleton minion escort them by foot back up to the surface.

Getting back to Camp Half Blood and talking to Chiron as soon as possible was still a priority though, and Tsukishima had one more idea left in him before he needed to take the world’s longest nap. They stopped at the nearest tourist shop and picked up a few materials for an offering to the ‘brightest of gods’.

“What now?” Bokuto asks, crossing his legs and peering into the fire.

“Now,” Tsukishima says, laying his head on Kuroo’s shoulder and getting comfortable. “We wait for the sun to rise.”

Evidently, he gets a little too comfortable. He doesn’t remember when he fell asleep, but he wakes up to someone poking him gently in the cheek.

“Tsukki?”

Tsukishima groans and picks his head up from Kuroo’s shoulder, rolling out the crick in his neck.

“Yeah, what’s up?” He squeezes his eyes shut against the sunlight.

“It, uh. It worked.”

“What worked?” Tsukishima cracks one eye open, and immediately regrets it.

The sun isn’t actually up yet, the man - the god - standing before him is just the brightest thing he’s ever seen in his life.

“Apollo,” Tsukishima gasps, jaw falling open for more reasons than one.

Apollo is - not to sound like a total cliché or anything - but Apollo is hot. Tall and chiseled as a stone statue, skin tan and glowing like newly polished copper. Flowing blonde hair and a smile that belongs on a commercial for toothpaste. He’s only wearing a plain white t-shirt, floral printed board shorts, and flip flops, but he still looks like he’s easily the most gorgeous California surfer boy of all time.

And then, the God of the Sun and Light, and countless other things ranging from music and the arts, to healing and medicine, opens his mouth and shatters the entire illusion.

“Woah, look at this trio!” He beams, giving them all careful once-overs. “Am I in the Field of Asphodel right now? Because this looks like paradise to me!”

“Um?” Tsukishima shares a confused look with Kuroo and Bokuto.

“I mean, really!” The god continues obliviously. “You have a boy for every taste here!” He gestures to Tsukishima first, and it takes everything in his power not to give the god his iciest glare. “You got your nerdy, pretty boy -"

“Why does everyone keep calling me that?”

Kuroo snickers. “You’re pretty, babe, get over it.”

“And you!” Apollo points at Kuroo, who blinks back at him. “The mysterious and ruggedly handsome, bad boy type.”

“Bad boy?” Kuroo gawks.

“He’s clearly never heard your ‘In My Feelings’ playlist,” Tsukishima snickers.

“And finally!” Apollo ignores them. “My personal favorite, the classic, muscular jock type.” He sidles up to Bokuto with lowered lashes and a sultry grin, poking at his defined biceps. “Hi there, how’s it going?”

“Uhhh,” Bokuto’s face turns a very interesting shade of scarlet. “Sorry, I’m kinda spoken for already. Or, well, I don’t know if I speak for him, but he definitely speaks for me. So. Uh. Sorry.”

Apollo pouts, but mercifully steps away from the son of Zeus.

“Typical,” he whines. “All the good heroes are always taken young!” Suddenly, his whole demeanor changes, getting serious. “Alright, demigods. What can I do ya for?”

“We need a ride,” Tsukishima says. “Back to Camp Half Blood. We have to warn Chiron and the others about the war.”

Apollo hums, making the same beard-stroking gesture that Hades did, but without the actual beard.

“Sorry, kids. The Sun Chariot only goes one way,” he points towards the West. “And Camp Half Blood is in New York, which is that way.” He points in the opposite direction to the East.

Tsukishima’s heart sinks.

“Can’t you make an exception just this once? It’s kind of urgent?” Bokuto tries. Apollo gives them all an unimpressed look. Apparently, he’d quickly forgotten how attractive he found them only moments ago.

“Can’t I just make the sun rise backwards? Just this once?” He repeats sarcastically.

“Oh.” Bokuto looks down at his feet. “Right.”

That’s it, then. Tsukishima lets his head drop back onto Kuroo’s shoulder, defeated.

He’s all out of ideas.

Apollo sighs heavily. “Jeez, do you have to sit there looking so pathetic about it? You guys are lucky, okay? This is a one time only offer, because I may or may not have a little soft spot for you half bloods. Follow me.”

Tsukishima, Kuroo, and Bokuto quickly gather their belongings and scramble to their feet, stamping out their half-assed sacrificial fire and following Apollo around the back of the building.

There, sitting in the parking lot, is the nicest and shiniest red car Tsukishima has ever seen. Like the convertible they drove to Virginia in, only a thousand times more expensive looking. And it was literally glowing.

“That’s Apollo’s Sun Chariot,” Tsukishima dumbly informs Kuroo, who doesn’t even respond, just nods back equally as dumb and stares.

“Well?” Apollo demands, throwing open the driver’s door and climbing in. “Let’s go, the ‘Around the World with Apollo’ ride departs in ten seconds, with or without all of your limbs aboard.”

 

 

*

 

Tsukishima tries to stay awake through the night so he can see as much of the world as possible flashing by below them from out of the car’s window, but he drifts off somewhere around Alaska, and doesn’t come to again until they’re passing over the Eiffel Tower.

“Tsukki!” Bokuto says happily when Tsukishima finally lifts his head off of his shoulder. Bokuto had begged Tsukishima to take the front seat so he didn’t have to deal with Apollo hitting on him all night, but Kuroo had stubbornly taken the seat before Tsukishima could, so he sat in the back with Bokuto instead. “You missed the pit stop in Tokyo.” He holds up a stick with skewered meat on it. “We picked you up some yakitori.”

“Hm. Thanks.” Tsukishima accepts the street food and inspects in carefully before his stomach grumbles irritatedly and he takes a bite. It’s good. It’s really good.

“Ah, good. Since you’re awake now…” Apollo meets Tsukishima’s eyes in the rearview mirror, looking like he already regrets what he’s going to say next. “I don’t really think there’s a way to go about this that won’t be terribly awkward for everyone involved.”

“What?” Tsukishima narrows his eyes suspiciously.

“I have a message for you.”

“For me?” Tsukishima asks. “From who?”

“Your mom.”

He’s not sure if it’s himself of Bokuto that he hears take in a deep gasp of air. Kuroo turns around in his seat, looking at Tsukishima with concern.

Tsukishima takes a deep breath, steeling his nerves. This is the first “direct” contact that he’s ever had with Athena. Sugawara has actually met her before, and been given a gift by her, and even Akaashi said she visited him in a dream once. Suna has heard her voice in his head during a life-or-death battle, and Tsukishima…has gotten radio silence. It never bothered him. Not really. But he can’t deny, he’s interested and more than a little nervous about what his godly mother has to say to him.

“What is it?”

Apollo shifts uncomfortably. “Well, it was something along the lines of - Bear with me, I’m paraphrasing here.”

The next time he speaks, his voice comes out sounding exactly like that of a woman’s. Athena.

“No son of mine would ever be ignorant enough to get himself involved with a hero. Not just one, but two heroes. All they’ll ever do to those who love them is drain them like leeches, bleed them dry for their own cause, and then leave them. Either abandon them by choice, or die when you need them most. And you can tell your fool brother it’s the same for him.”

The god clears his throat awkwardly when the message is finished, voice returning back to normal. “Uh, yeah, so that was about it. Anybody have a preference for the radio station?”

There’s a dull, distant roaring sound in Tsukishima’s ears, like’s he’s standing directly under a waterfall. He’s aware of Kuroo and Bokuto’s unhappy faces, and Apollo turning the radio dial in a desperate attempt to dispel the tense atmosphere, but he can’t focus on any of it.

All he can see and hear and feel is - is - anger. A blind, red-tinged, indignant rage.

But not on his behalf, no. He’s angry for Kuroo, and Bokuto, and Akaashi. How dare - how dare Athena talk about his friends like that? Accuse the people he loves the most of being such terrible people? Calling Akaashi who has never tried to do anything but please their ungrateful mother a fool just because he loves a hero?

A hero.

“Why is everyone so obsessed with heroes?” Tsukishima seethes. The rest of the car goes deathly quiet. “All anyone talks about lately is who’s a hero and who’s not a hero, and what a hero should do and what they shouldn’t. Who should be a hero, and who shouldn’t. My mother,” he says very slowly and deliberately, “is wrong.”

Apollo lets out a small, scandalized gasp.

“She’s wrong about me, and she’s wrong about Kuroo and Bokuto and Akaashi, and she’s wrong about heroes! If she thinks someone who would abandon the people they love and just - just use them is a hero, then she has no idea what she’s talking about!” Tsukishima looks at Kuroo and Bokuto and thinks of all the things that make them the most amazing people he knows. “A hero is someone who is strong and kind and - and selfless. Anybody who would do those things to the people that care about them isn’t a hero at all!”

Getting it all off his chest feels good, makes the rage dissipate and his heart feel lighter. He won’t be winning and Son of the Year awards any time soon, but, well. He was never really anyone’s favorite child.

Apollo grins crookedly. “If that’s the definition of ‘hero’, we’d have to basically rewrite all of Ancient Greek history.”

“Maybe somebody should.”

“Yeah… Maybe somebody should.” Apollo winks at Tsukishima in the rearview mirror and turns the radio up.

Kuroo smiles proudly at him and squeezes his knee before turning back around in his seat, mumbling something about ‘car sickness.’ Bokuto stares out the window and doesn’t say anything for a long time.

The Atlantic Ocean seems to stretch on below them forever, even though it’ll only take them a few hours at most to cross it. At some point, Kuroo falls asleep with his head against the window, and Apollo is singing along to the song on the radio under his breath, finger-drumming on the steering wheel.

“That was nice… What you said earlier.” Bokuto says it quietly, so that only Tsukishima can hear him. His brows are furrowed and he looks conflicted. Tsukishima shifts in his seat to face him more fully.

“That’s why Akaashi told you he wanted to wait, right?” Tsukishima asks gently. Bokuto’s eyes snap up to meet his. “He always knew, just like the rest of us, that you were meant to be a hero. He wanted to make sure you weren’t going to be the kind of hero that would die on him.” Bokuto inhales sharply, eyes suddenly filled with pain.

“I would never - I would never want to hurt Akaashi like that. I never want to leave him.”

Tsukishima grins. “Yeah, I know that. He does, too, I’m pretty sure. I think maybe he was just scared.”

“I’ll protect him from it,” Bokuto promises. “Whatever he’s scared of, I won’t let it hurt him.”

“It’s you, Bokuto.”

The son of Zeus’ face goes blank.

“What?”

“He’s scared of how much he loves you,” Tsukishima explains. “He can’t control it and there’s no logic to it. He can’t stop it from hurting him if anything ever happened to you. He’s scared of you.”

It was harder for him to see when he was younger, but now that he’s felt the same thing, it makes all the sense in the world to him. He understands Akaashi in a way he never has before.

“Oh.” Bokuto’s eyebrows draw together. “I can’t - I can’t protect him from that.” He hangs his head. Tsukishima pats him on the shoulder.

“No, you can’t. But Akaashi is braver than I think he even realizes he is. And what he feels for you…” Tsukishima glances at the reflection of Kuroo’s peacefully sleeping face in the window and grins. “It’s stronger than the fear. He won’t be able to fight it forever.”

“You think so?” Bokuto’s face lights up. “I mean, I would never want to, like, force him or pressure him into anything…”

“I don’t think you could make him do anything he didn’t want to if you tried.”

“That’s very true.” Bokuto’s brows furrow again. “Are you… Are you gonna tell him what your mom said?”

Tsukishima shrugs. “Nope. I don’t see any reason to needlessly cause him pain.”

“What do you mean?”

“Athena isn’t afraid to play favorites, and we’ve all known since we were kids that Sugawara was her favorite child. The rest of us were never that bothered by it since it’s not like any of us were close to her or anything, but… Akaashi especially has always wanted to please our mother.”

“Your mom kinda sucks.”

“No kidding,” Tsukishima scoffs. “But no matter how much he wants to please her, I know that he would choose you over Athena any day. There’s no sense in telling him if all it’s gonna do is force him to realize that he’s disappointing her. I’m not going to let the gods have any more control over the people I love than they already do.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Alright kiddos, this is your stop!”

The Sun Chariot makes a swift, almost dangerous descent back to the ground, somewhere just outside of New York City. Tsukishima clutches his seatbelt like a lifeline while Apollo just laughs like a madman. The gods are truly terrifying.

“Couldn’t you have taken us right to camp?” Tsukishima grumbles, stepping out of the car and sighing in relief when he finally stretches out his legs.

“No can do.” Apollo shakes his head. “A god at Camp Half Blood draws a lot of attention, and then I’d get caught up talking with my kids, and it would be a whole fanfare. I don’t have time for that. I gotta get back up to Olympus to help with the war preparations.”

Tsukishima freezes with his arm stretched out across his body.

“Wait a minute, are you telling me the Gods of Olympus already know about all of this?”

Apollo shifts his weight on his feet, running his hand through his long, blonde hair.

“Oh, yeah, things have been stirring up for a while now. There’s sort of a…disconnect between Olympus and the Underworld, so we didn’t know about Thanatos, but for months now we’ve felt it starting.”

“Why haven't they said anything about it?” Tsukishima demands.

Apollo shrugs. “The gods are embarrassed, I guess. Zeus has almost no control over the Anemoi lately, and with the wind gods acting out however they want, an unprecedented amounts of plane crashes and ships being lost at sea have been happening lately.” Apollo scoffs. “Just what I would expect from that pompous jerk, Zephyrus. Everyone always thinks, ‘Oh the god of the West winds must be so nice, he helped Ulysses guide his ship home, blah blah blah’! Total crap. He’s a complete jerk.”

“I didn’t know there were gods that even Zeus can’t control.” Bokuto crosses his arms and looks thoughtfully towards the sky, as if realizing for the first time that his dad isn’t as perfect and all-powerful as he was made to believe. Tsukishima can relate to the feeling, having personally just realized that his all-knowing mother doesn’t know shit.

“The Anemoi are as flighty as the winds they control. Slippery, too. Impossible to catch.”

“So Thanatos and the Anemoi are working together?” Kuroo clarifies.

“Oh, no.” Apollo shakes his head. “That’s not all.”

“Oh, awesome.” Bokuto sighs.

“Hm, let’s see.” The god taps his chin. “There’s also the trouble in the sea. Poseidon has been trying to keep things under control, but we’re pretty sure that hot-head is only making things worse. We all know how moody he can be when he feels like his ego is under attack. Leave it to Thetis to rock the boat just a little too hard.”

“Thetis?” Tsukishima repeats. “You mean Achilles’ mother?”

“Yes, yes.” Apollo huffs. “She thinks just because she birthed one of the greatest heroes in all of history that she has some kind of free pass to act like a bitch twenty-four-seven. Oh, and then there are the terrible nightmares we’ve all been having.”

“Hypnos?” Kuroo sounds surprised. Tsukishima doesn’t blame him, Hypnos is a minor god, but he's always been celebrated. Even has his own cabin at Camp Half Blood. It’s hard to imagine the father of kids as apathetic as Kenma and Kunimi wanting to start a war.

“Nah, his son.” Apollo corrects, face grim. “Morpheus. No one’s really that surprised that he sided against us, though. He’s being trying to take down Olympus since he sided with the Titans all those millennia ago. Ah well, family drama. What can you do?”

“You can stop it?” Tsukishima suggests.

Apollo shakes his head as he climbs back into the driver’s seat of the Sun Chariot.

“As if Ares would let us pass up such a golden opportunity for destruction and bloodshed.” He smiles sympathetically at them. “Sorry, guys. There’s not much Olympus can do to help you at this point. We’re holding them back the best we can, but in a few months, maybe a year’s time…” He trails off and meets Tsukishima’s eyes. “I really do hope I get to read your version of history one day, kid. Good luck.”

He leaves them with those final words of encouragement and the smell of burning rubber.

The news they’ve just received is grim, at best. The world as they know it might descend into chaos and cease to exist, and the gods - their parents - aren’t going to do a damn thing to help them.

And still, when Kuroo links their pinkies together and Bokuto heaves a long, labored sigh at the sky, he’s not afraid of the future at all. In fact, he’d actually prefer that things were in their hands, rather than the gods.

Who was going to look out for the world they lived in better than they were?

“Guess we better get back and warn camp about what’s happening,” Kuroo says finally. He taps his chin and spins in a circle. “Do either of you know which way camp is?”

Tsukishima huffs and tugs him along by the long sleeve of his t-shirt. “This way, Death Boy.” He points up at the nearest street sign. “New York City is a grid system, and Camp Half Blood is in upper New York, which means that North is this way.”

Kuroo takes his hand and plants a smacking kiss to the back of it, grinning like the world will never end.

“I have the smartest boyfriend in the whole world, I think.”

Tsukishima blushes and ignores Bokuto’s obnoxious kissy sounds.

“Well, one of us has to make up for your lack of brain cells.”

“Ouch!” Kuroo clutches at his chest dramatically. “A curse on my heart, Tsukishima Kei, that’s what you are. Cursed to love you no matter how much you may hurt me.”

“I’m really gonna hurt you if you don't pick up the pace. As soon as we get back to camp, I’m taking the longest, hottest shower of all time.”

“Oooh, count me in!” Kuroo pinches his side teasingly.

“Woah!” Bokuto suddenly exclaims, and it’s the only thing that keeps Tsukishima from punching Kuroo. “Look at these flowers. I’ve never seen anything like them!”

The flowers in question are blooming from a crack in the pavement, a bright, fiery fuchsia color around the outer edges of the petals and white in the center. They’re clearly out of place in the middle of an urban climate, but no one else walking by pays them any attention. Bokuto crouches next to it and pokes one of the flowers gently.

“I have,” Tsukishima realizes slowly. “I’ve seen these flowers before. Yamaguchi showed them to me.”

“Really?” Kuroo crouches next to Bokuto and looks at the flowers with his head cocked to the side. “They don’t look like they belong in New York.”

“That’s because they don’t.” The wheels in Tsukishima’s brain start spinning. He’s running on fumes at this point, starving and exhausted, but he can’t let this go… He can’t, because -"That’s a desert rose. It only grows in the Sahel regions, south of the Sahara Desert, and in eastern and southern Africa and Arabia. It’s literally impossible for a flower like this to grow and survive in New York.”

“Then how how have you seen one before?” Kuroo asks.

“Because it’s only impossible unless you’re a child of Demeter.”

Kuroo’s head snaps up, eyes wide in understanding.

“Look!” Bokuto shouts, jumping to his feet and pointing at a spot on the sidewalk ahead of them. “There are more over there!”

They follow the flowers for the next three blocks, until they reach a huge bushel of them, sitting right on top of a manhole. Tsukishima steps aside and lets Bokuto and Kuroo do the heavy lifting, each picking up one side of the metal cover and inching it further and further until it’s completely off. Tsukishima peers his head over the side of the hole and gasps.

Sitting just underneath the opening, huddled together and covered in dirt and grime, but still obviously recognizable are Yaku, Ushijima, and Aone. The campers from the missing quest, all alive and in one piece.

“Hey!” Tsukishima shouts. Three heads snap up and their startled gazes meet his. He smirks and locks eyes with Ushijima. “Tendou says you’re late for your lunch appointment.”

Ushijima’s strong brow scrunches up, lips turning down at the corners.

“Has he been waiting for me?”

“Yeah,” Tsukishima laughs. “Everyone kinda has.”

Ushijima’s frown gets deeper.

“I do hate being tardy.”

“We know you do, big guy.” Kuroo comes up behind Tsukishima, putting one hand on his shoulder and the other in his pocket. “So why don’t you guys climb on out of there so we can all finally go home?”

 

 

*

 

 

As they make their way back to Camp Half Blood, Yaku, Ushijima, and Aone tell them their story.

Well, Yaku tells them. Ushijima jumps in a few times to correct his facts, and Aone doesn’t say anything at all, per usual, but they manage to get the gist of it.

The manhole that the flowers led to was an entrance to the Labyrinth - a giant, underground maze that was originally built under the island of Crete. However, when Olympus moved West, the Labyrinth followed, and now stretches out with tunnels all across the United States. The Labyrinth wasn’t just a maze though, it was alive, constantly shifting and changing, making it impossible to find your way out once you were trapped inside of it. The entrances were always moving, too, which is why Ushijima kept making the flowers grow above them, so that no matter where they went, the flowers would still follow them on the surface and hopefully lead to their rescue.

It was just a lucky coincidence (no, Tsukishima will not let the Fates take credit for this) that they happened to be dropped of by Apollo right in that exact spot.

The three of them were all genuinely surprised when they climbed out and realized that after all that time, they were somehow still in New York, only a few miles from Camp. They had been wandering the maze for weeks straight, but the Labyrinth didn’t exactly follow the laws of physics. One day they could have been in Idaho, and two hours later they could have circled all the way back to New York.

“Good thing you found us when you did. Those two were definitely planning on eating me first.” Yaku glares suspiciously at the two much larger men.

“That would be illogical,” Ushijima says very seriously. “You’re the smallest, and thus would provide the least nutritional value.”

“You thought about it!” Yaku accuses.

Luckily, before the topic of cannibalism can go much further, the tall pine tree marking the perimeter around Camp Half Blood becomes visible in the distance.

Tsukishima can’t help but smile at the sight, feeling his heartstrings tugging, yearning.

Home.

Kuroo squeezes his hand and grins, but he can’t seem to take his eyes off of camp either. Tsukishima realizes that no matter where Kuroo actually spent more time living, Camp Half Blood was just as much home to him, too. It was the first place he felt he belonged after what happened to his family. It was the first place to accept him, all broken and sharp-edged as he was.

Some campers must have been keeping watch from the top of Half Blood Hill, maybe looking out for the missing quest finally returning home, or maybe scouting out potential threats if Chiron had sensed the growing danger in the air, because when the six of them entered camp, dozens of kids are already there waiting for them.

And - here’s the craziest part - when they see them coming, everyone starts to clap and cheer, like a village welcoming their heroes home from war.

Tsukishima looks around incredulously, instinctively trying to fall to the back of the crowd and avoid all the attention. Kuroo and Bokuto both have face-splitting grins, practically glowing in the early morning light, looking perfectly in their element. Figures, Tsukishima thinks, but can’t help but feel fondness for them flooding his chest. The two of them deserve this more than anyone else.

“Wakatoshi!” A voice hidden among the mass of campers shouts, loud enough to be heard over everything else.

There’s a blur of red sprinting out of the crowd before Tendou is throwing his long, gangly arms around Ushijima’s neck and wrapping his legs around his waist, forcing Ushijima to catch him in his arms. To his credit, he doesn’t even waver, standing as strong and solid as he always does. The cheering and applause only gets louder.

“Satori,” Ushijima says, with a smile Tsukishima has never seen tugging at his lips. “I’m sorry I missed our lunch.”

Tendou laughs wetly. “That’s okay. You can make it up to me.”

Tsukishima feels like he’ll be intruding on a pretty intimate moment if he keeps watching too much longer, but before he can look away, Tendou catches his eye over Ushijima’s shoulder and mouths something to him:

‘Thank you.’

A warmth blossoms right in the cage of Tsukishima’s chest.

He makes his way through the crowd, accepting a few pats on the backs from fellow campers, looking over their heads for a telltale black bedhead.

He passes by Yaku and Lev, the taller boy crouched over to look Yaku over from head to toe, checking for injuries. Yaku was blushing and swatting at his shoulders ineffectively, but there was an indulgent smile on his face. Koganegawa was openly sobbing, hugging Aone’s head to his chest and petting his hair like he was a lost pet finally returned home. Aone said nothing, per usual, but he awkwardly twisted his body so that he could give his younger brother comforting pats on the arm.

Sugawara and Yamaguchi catch him at the same time, squishing him between them and hugging him at the same time, crying and getting snot all over his shirt. He squirms and complains half-heartedly, but there are a few tears trailing down his cheeks, too.

“Tsukki, you’re insane! When I said you should tell Kuroo how you feel, I didn’t mean you had to risk your life to do it!” Yamaguchi flicks him on the forehead. Sugawara just winks and presses a quick kiss to his temple, before pulling back with a wrinkled nose and instructions for Tsukishima to shower as soon as possible.

Hinata of all people exuberantly runs up to him next, jumping up and down in place and making aggressive sound effects with his mouth that Tsukishima can only guess the meaning of. Kageyama trails behind him, and when Hinata has to stop talking to take a breath, the son of Ares takes the opportunity to say:

“A lot of legendary weapons get most of their power from their names, and you named yours…friendship.”

The tips of Tsukishima’s ears burn indignantly at the deadpan delivery.

“There is literally nothing I could say in response to that that wouldn’t be painfully cheesy, so I’m going to ignore the comment.”

Finally, Tsukishima spots Kuroo with Bokuto and Akaashi through the crowd. But before he can join them, he’s tapped lightly on the shoulder and stopped by a silky voice.

“So, how’d she treat ya?” Oikawa rocks on his heels expectantly, hands clasped behind his back and eyes twinkling.

“Saved my life once or twice,” Tsukishima admits, patting his backpack. “Thank you. And thank Iwaizumi for me, too.”

“That was the plan,” Oikawa beams proudly. “I’ll let Iwa know his precious creation was put to good use.” He arches an eyebrow and suddenly grabs Tsukishima by the arm, voice growing low and conspiratorial. “And how did he treat you, hm?”

Tsukishima feels his cheeks flame, shrugging off the son of Aphrodite. How did Oikawa even know? He and Kuroo had stopped holding hands when they made it to camp, not because they didn’t want people to know, but because they didn’t want it to be about them right now.

“That obvious, huh?”

“To me?” Oikawa grins. “Since you were thirteen years old and so painfully and obliviously enamored, my darling Kei.”

When Kuroo sees Tsukishima walking towards him, he thinks the smile on his face is probably making it that obvious to everyone with eyes.

“What are you smiling like that for?” Tsukishima mumbles, letting Kuroo tug him firmly to his side.

“Mmm,” Kuroo hums. “Just like looking at you. Oh, and also, that.” He nods towards Akaashi and Bokuto.

Akaashi is right up in Bokuto’s face, making up for any height and mass that the son of Zeus has on him with pure fiery determination, jabbing his finger repeatedly into Bokuto’s chest and making Tsukishima wince in sympathy.

“Are they…fighting?”

“No,” Kuroo sighs contently. “They’re metamorphosing.”

Akaashi suddenly raises his voice, and Tsukishima can make out the words: “Next time you’re going to fight a god, you better call me first! Or at the very least, don’t sneak out without even saying goodbye!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Bokuto raises his hands defenselessly. “I’ll never do it again, I swear!”

“You’re so senseless!” Akaashi’s face is flushed red. Tsukishima has never seen his brother lose his cool like this. It’s like studying a new species for the first time.

“I know, I really am sorry!”

“If you had died, I would’ve killed you!”

“And I accept that! That’s totally fair! Whatever you want, Akaashi!”

“Just - Shut up!” Akaashi screams louder than Tsukishima has ever heard him. Bokuto’s jaw snaps closed just in time for Akaashi to twist his fingers into the material of his shirt and haul him in for a kiss. Bokuto’s eyes go wide as the moon, but he’s quick to react, wrapping his arms around Akaashi’s waist and lifting him in the air, kissing him back with equal vigor.

Yup. Tsukishima is so never telling Akaashi about what Athena said.

“Would you look at that,” Kuroo says smugly, pressing a kiss to the top of Tsukishima’s head.

“They grow up so fast.” Tsukishima wipes a fake tear from the corner of his eye and they smirk at each other.

The two of them stand quietly together, wrapped up in each other’s arms and observing the excitement and celebration going on around them. It really would be a shame to ruin such a happy moment.

Neither he nor Kuroo say anything to each other, but he knows they’re both thinking the same thing.

The end of their world can wait until tomorrow.

 

 

*

 

 

Sugawara technically hadn’t asked Tsukishima for Athena’s Invisibility Cap back yet, so he doesn’t consider it stealing that he hangs onto it for just one more night.

Tsukishima pretends to be asleep until lights out, then reaches under his bed and pulls the hat out of his backpack. He makes sure to crack the cabin door only as much as necessary, his heart leaping into his throat when the hinges make a loud squeaking noise. Daishou makes a quiet grumbling noise and rolls over in his sleep, but doesn’t open his eyes. Tsukishima releases his breath and slips out of the cabin and into the night.

The door to the Hades cabin is already cracked open, so all he has to do is wedge his foot in the door and gently ease it open.

He’s been in the Hades cabin with Kuroo alone dozens of times before, but this time, everything feels completely different.

The Greek fire lining the walls is dimmed just low enough that Tsukishima can make out the sight of Kuroo laying in the center of his bed. His back is to the door, and he’s completely shirtless and laying on top of the sheets. This also isn’t anything new, since Kuroo was notoriously hot-blooded and got too overheated in his sleep during the summer.

But this time, Tsukishima doesn’t feel guilty about taking in the view: His boyfriend’s flawlessly tanned skin and the curves of his muscles, the lovely and messy way his dark hair fans out on the pillow beneath him like spilled black ink.

“You just gonna stand there staring all night?” Kuroo asks without rolling over.

Tsukishima takes off the Invisibility Cap and shakes out his hair. “How did you know?”

Kuroo rolls over and grins at him, his white teeth glowing in the dark. “I told you already, I got a sixth sense just for you, baby. Now get over here already, would ya?”

Tsukishima has laid in Kuroo’s bed with him countless times before, but this is the first time they’ve done it pressed so close together like this; from their touching foreheads to their entangled legs. The first time Kuroo has held him with a strong arm around his waist, and Tsukishima could feel the heat of his bare chest through the thin material of his sleep shirt. The first time he could look into Kuroo’s brilliant golden eyes and not have to look away.

“Hi,” Kuroo whispers, and they’re so close that Tsukishima can feel the word breathed across his lips.

“Hello.”

“We lived.”

“Honestly did not see that one coming.”

Kuroo huffs a small laugh, and the tips of his fingers slip beneath Tsukishima’s shirt to brush against the small of his back. He shivers at the feather-light touch and Kuroo holds him tighter.

“I feel like we haven’t had a moment alone since…you know.” Kuroo’s blush is just barely visible in the dim lighting.

“We were a little busy trying not to die,” Tsukishima points out. Some of Kuroo’s hair falls into his eyes and Tsukishima pushes it out of the way, letting his fingers linger on the side of his face. Kuroo hums low in his throat and leans into the touch.

“Have I even told you that I love you since then?”

“Once.” Not that Tsukishima was counting or anything.

“Mmmm. Not nearly enough.” Kuroo nudges the tip of Tsukishima’s nose with his, looking him right in the eyes. “I love you.”

Tsukishima ducks his head and grins. “I love you, too.”

“Hey, Kei? I love you.”

“Yes, you just -"

“Kei, darling, I love you so much.”

“Alright, I got -"

“I love you, I love you, I love -"

“Okay!” Tsukishima laughs, covering Kuroo’s mouth with his hands. “I know already!”

Kuroo’s eyes crinkle up at the corners with his smile, gently pulling Tsukishima’s hands away from his mouth so he can speak again.

“I have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

“I’m also charging you interest,” Tsukishima informs him.

Kuroo reaches up to cup his cheek, his thumb brushing the corner of Tsukishima’s mouth. “Guess I better start paying up, then.”

“Guess you better.” Tsukishima lets his eyes drift shut barely a second before he feels Kuroo’s lips brushing against his.

This feels like home more than any other place in the world.

Kuroo sighs happily. “Yup, still just as good as I remember.”

Tsukishima scoffs. “I would hope so, since I’m the only person you’ll be kissing from now on.”

He hadn’t realized the implication of his words before he said them, but then Kuroo’s eyes light up, a smirk curling at his lips.

“From now on, huh? So in other words, ’til death do we part?” He teases.

Yes.

“Shut up.” Tsukishima knows he’s blushing, but he doesn’t take his words back. He had meant them after all. “That may be a lot sooner than you think.”

The air seems to grow thicker, harder to breathe.

“Please don’t say things like that.” Kuroo’s fingers dig into Tsukishima’s hip almost painfully. “I can’t even think about - If you ever - If you - Fuck.” He buries his head into Tsukishima’s neck, lips pressed right over his pulse point.

Tsukishima cards his fingers through Kuroo’s hair comfortingly. “We can ignore this for a night, but not forever. I mean, think about what Apollo told us, all of the minor gods that are going to fight with Thanatos. If a war breaks out, there will be fighting in the air, the sea, the land - even in our heads! Even if the Olympian Gods manage to win, the war alone will destroy the world.” His fingers still. “Unless somebody stops it.”

Kuroo blinks one eye up at him. “Go on.”

“The Gods of Olympus are preparing to fight a war,” Tsukishima starts slowly, watching for Kuroo’s reaction. “But if someone was able to stop it before it even started, then… Then maybe the world wouldn’t end.”

“I take it from your tone of voice and that beautifully determined look in your eyes, that person is you?” Kuroo quirks a lopsided grin

“It has to be me.”

“Yeah.” Kuroo lays a hand on Tsukishima’s cheek. “I had a feeling you were gonna say that.”

“It’s just,” Tsukishima rushes to explain. “I’m the one that Thanatos has a personal vendetta against now, not that the minor gods would even need another reason to attack Camp Half Blood.”

“You think they’ll come for camp?” Kuroo’s eyebrows draw together. Tsukishima smoothes out the harsh lines with his fingertips until his face relaxes again, but his lips are still pulled into a frown.

“Demigods are always the first line of defense in the gods’ wars. The most strategic thing for the minor gods to do would be to take us out first. Without their children in the way, it’s just gods versus gods. They’ll come for Camp Half Blood,” Tsukishima says firmly. “I’m sure of it.”

“Okay,” Kuroo says, nodding slowly. “If you say they will, I believe you. So what’s our game plan?”

“Kuroo, no - I can’t ask you to -" He sighs, taking Kuroo’s hand from his face and holding it between their bodies. “You’re supposed to be starting college in the fall. You’re gonna hear back from New Rome University any day now, and -"

“Actually,” Kuroo cuts him off with a sheepish grin. “I already heard back from New Rome University.”

“What?” Tsukishima blinks. “When?”

“A few months ago,” Kuroo admits. “Same time Bokuto and Akaashi did.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” Tsukishima asks, poking him hard in the chest. “Actually, you know what, forget about that. What did they say?”

He holds his breath waiting for Kuroo’s answer, and his face gives away nothing. Did he lie to Tsukishima about hearing back from them because he was rejected? Was he was too embarrassed to say so? A sick part of Tsukishima actually wouldn't mind that. If Kuroo wasn’t accepted to college, then he wasn’t going to leave yet, and -

“I got in.”

“Tetsurou,” Tsukishima breathes. “That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you.”

And he is. He is he tells himself firmly. Kuroo deserves this. Tsukishima is so beyond proud of him, and they’ve had to say goodbye to each other many times before. They can make long distance work.

Kuroo shakes his head and tilts Tsukishima’s chin up to look him in the eye.

“I already told them I’m not going.”

“Like hell you’re not! Why wouldn’t you?”

“I mean, that’s not exactly what I told them,” Kuroo backtracks quickly. “I just asked them to…defer my acceptance for a year.”

“Why would you do that?” Tsukishima asks, genuinely confused. Kuroo grins almost shyly and lowers his gaze.

“I wanted to take a gap year.”

“To travel?”

“To spend as much time at camp as possible with you.”

Holy Hades. He’s dating the sappiest idiot in the world.

“So you’re telling me… That you wanted to spend a whole year here? With me? Instead of going to college?” Tsukishima asks very slowly. “And you’ve been planning on doing this for months now?”

“Yup,” Kuroo confirms, popping the ‘p’ with a grin.

“You idiot!” Tsukishima punches him square in the solar plexus.

“Ouuuuch!” Kuroo whines, holding his abused chest. “What was that for?”

“I don’t want you to put off going to college for me!”

“Don’t be selfish,” Kuroo pouts. “I was gonna miss you. If anything, I did this for me.”

Tsukishima sighs and butts their heads together gently. “I was gonna miss you, too, Death Boy.”

“It’s kinda romantic, huh?” Kuroo winks. “I wanted to spend your last year at camp together with you, and then I thought in the fall, we could go to New Rome University…together?” His voice gets higher at the end, uncertainly.

Tsukishima frowns and shakes his head, overwhelmed by all of the information he’s receiving right now.

Okay, so most importantly: Kuroo isn’t leaving. The one thing Tsukishima has been dreading more than anything else for almost a year now…isn’t happening anymore? It’s almost too good to believe. Even more unbelievable: Kuroo wants Tsukishima to go to college with him.

“That’s not - I can’t do that? I never even went to high school! I don’t have any transcripts or, or a diploma, or anything!”

Kuroo sits up excitedly, pulling Tsukishima with him so that they’re facing each other with their legs wrapped around the other’s waist. “I know! I know, but I’ve been looking into it, and you can just take the GRE and get a stellar score on your SAT and they’ll totally let you in! They’d have to be complete idiots not to. It’ll be a breeze for someone as smart as you.”

There’s a dangerous fizzle of hope bubbling up in Tsukishima’s chest, and he can’t find it in himself to push it down. Not when Kuroo is looking at him like that, all wide-eyed and expectant.

“It sounds…doable,” Tsukishima allows, barely containing the smile on his face. Kuroo cheers and tackles Tsukishima back onto the bed. Their knees dig uncomfortably each other’s into soft, vulnerable spots for a few second before they settle comfortably, with Kuroo laying between his legs and holding himself up with his elbows propped beside Tsukishima’s face.

“You’re doable,” Kuroo grins cheekily and Tsukishima knees him in the ribs. Kuroo laughs through a grunt of pain.

“Idiot. You seem to have very quickly forgotten about the whole saving the world business.”

“Ah, right. That.” Kuroo noses at his cheek and hums as he thinks. “Okay, let’s make a deal, then.”

“What kind of a deal?” Tsukishima asks suspiciously.

“One year.”

“One year?”

“You remember what Apollo said. We have some time until Thanatos and his army really start getting serious, so we’ll give ourselves one year. One year to save the world, and then next fall, me and you are gonna go off to New Rome and start our real lives together, far away from all this mess.” He props himself up on one elbow so he can hold his pinky in front of Tsukishima’s face. “How about it?”

Tsukishima stares at Kuroo’s proffered finger. It all sounds so simple when Kuroo says it, just like everything with him is.

“Does…” Tsukishima bites his lip. “Does New Rome University have a library?” He asks in a small voice.

“Does New Rome University have a library?” Kuroo repeats with a scandalous gasp, squeezing Tsukishima’s middle and rolling on top of him, squishing his ribcage and hovering above him so that the fringe of his hair tickles Tsukishima’s cheeks. “You will be pleased to hear, my dearest Kei, that professional bookworm himself, Akaashi Keiji, called New Rome University’s library the ‘next best collection after Alexandria was burned down’.”

“No he did not,” Tsukishima laughs breathlessly, looking up into Kuroo’s bright eyes, dancing with elation.

“He did,” Kuroo swears. “I’ll go get him to confirm it for you right now if it’ll make you say yes.” He moves to climb out of the bed, like he’s actually going to sneak into the Athena cabin in the middle of the night just to wake Akaashi up and ask him. He’s way too scared of Akaashi to actually do it, Tsukishima knows, but he still wraps his legs around Kuroo’s waist to pull him close again and hold him in place.

“Okay,” Tsukishima huffs, grinning so big his eyes crinkle up. He links his pinky with Kuroo’s. “One year.”

Kuroo kisses their fingers and makes it official.

With the promise sealed, they shuffle back into a comfortable position to go to sleep, with Kuroo sprawled out on his back and Tsukishima using his chest as a pillow. Kuroo’s arm wraps around his shoulder, stroking up and down his arm thoughtlessly, and Tsukishima throws one of his legs over Kuroo’s. Just two oddly shaped puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly.

Lips pressed to Tsukishima’s hairline, Kuroo mumbles sleepily, “Still a few weeks left of summer, though. Let’s enjoy the rest of it while we can, and we’ll call it one year starting then.”

“Mmm,” Tsukishima agrees in a hum. “The world won’t end before the summer does, I guess.”

“It hasn’t yet.”

 

 

*

 

 

“Do you ever think this is too good to be true?” Kuroo asks, his skin glowing bronze in the early morning sunlight and pillow creases on his cheek. He has one hand propping up his chin, and the other drawing lazy patterns across Tsukishima’s back.

“Really?” Tsukishima snorts. “Do I ever think this is too good to be true?” He blinks up at Kuroo and shrugs one shoulder. “I guess there always has to be somebody to play the love interest.”

“The love - ?” Kuroo’s hands still and he laughs, warm and throaty. “Have you seriously not realized it yet? You’re the hero of this story, Kei.”

 

 

*

 

 

The last campfire of the summer was always the saddest.

Every year they had to say goodbye to the older campers, the ones who were going off to college, or to start new jobs and lives away from the home and the friends they made in their adolescence. But this was the first time that Tsukishima was having to watch people he was particularly close to leave.

Oikawa is going across the country to live in New Rome with Iwaizumi. Tendou is moving to Texas to become a boxing instructor, along with Ushijima, who’s opening his own flower shop. Semi Eita got into one of the best music programs in the world and is going to Berklee for school, and Daishou and Mika are both starting NYU together in just a few days. Osamu, Suna, and Kita are leaving to go backpacking around Europe for who knows how long, and Sugawara, Daichi, Akaashi, and Bokuto are all going to New Rome University, as well.

His family, all of the people who grew up with, are scattering across the globe. This is probably the last time they'll all be together like this.

He looks around the campfire and takes in all of their faces, even though he’s seen them all hundreds of times. He wants to commit them to memory, wants to save this entire moment as a snapshot in his mind’s eye. He knows he’ll never forget these people, or what they did for him, but he still needs to make doubly sure.

Normally, he sits next to Kuroo during campfires, but he sits between Akaashi and Sugawara tonight. Sugawara has been crying on and off for the past week, and tonight is no different. Tsukishima pretends to be exasperated, but he doesn’t mind the way his older brother clings to him and dampens the collar of his t-shirt with salty tears.

Semi Eita sits in the center of the circle to play them all one final song.

“We may all be going our separate ways soon, but we’ll still be one big, dysfunctional family,” Semi says, looking at all the faces sitting around the fire. “No matter how far you you may go or what you may need, we’re always gonna have each other’s backs. So just call if you ever need anything.” He flashes them all his signature heart-stopping smile and starts to play - one last time.

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

It hurts Tsukishima too much to look at Shirabu in this moment, but he can hear the way he valiantly tries to muffle his choked sobs, and it strikes a painful chord a little too deep in his heart. Oikawa wraps his younger brother up in his arms and hums, rocking him along to the music.

One by one, the rest of the campers around the circle put their arms around each other and sway in time to the music. Akaashi and Sugawara put their arms over Tsukishima’s shoulders even though he’s taller than them, and he wraps his around their backs. Neither of them says anything about it when he holds on a little too tight, probably wrinkling the material of their shirts.

Tsukishima glances past Akaashi, past Bokuto on his other side, and finds Kuroo. His boyfriend is already looking back at him, and when he smiles, Tsukishima’s heart feels a little stronger.

He can handle this. As long as Kuroo is with him, he can handle anything.

At least, that’s what he thinks until the last notes of the final song of the summer play out.

And then, the farewells begin.

He feels selfish, being as sad as he is. Watching Shirabu breaking down in tears as Semi Eita slips off his ever-present dog tag necklace and places it around the son of Aphrodite’s neck. Futakuchi is fighting to hold back his tears - he once told Tsukishima he thought he was an ugly crier (he’s not) - but it’s a losing battle as he clings onto Oikawa like he never wants to let his brother go. Koganegawa awkwardly stands by, patting Futakuchi’s shoulder comfortingly.

Yamaguchi and Ushijima’s goodbye isn’t as horribly sad, since the two of them will still be working closely together on cultivating new plants this next year, until Yamaguchi moves out and works at Ushijima’s flower shop with him. Goshiki, though, is an absolute mess. He’s always admired Ushijima, even when the older boy didn’t end up being a son of Ares, and Tendou ruffles his brother’s bowl-cut with quiet words of comfort, while Goshiki angrily tries to blink away his tears, even as they drip down his chin.

Kageyama looks a few seconds from spontaneously imploding when Daichi hugs him, and Hinata doubles over in laughter at the look on his emotionally-constipated face. Even Atsumu and Osamu are affectionally bickering as they say their goodbyes. Originally, Atsumu was supposed to be going on the backpacking trip with Osamu, Suna, and Kita, but when he heard about the potential impending war, he decided to stay behind another year to help out and stay on as the Hermes cabin leader. There’s a pretty good chance this is the first time the twins will be apart in their lives.

Tsukishima knows he doesn’t have any sort of monopoly on being sad here. This happens every summer. All things eventually come to an end, logically he’s always known this.

It doesn’t make it any easier.

“I -" Tsukishima chokes and Sugawara squeezes his hands tightly between them, giving Tsukishima a watery, encouraging smile. “I don’t know how to say goodbye,” he finally admits in a small voice.

“That’s okay.” Sugawara leans in like he’s going to tell Tsukishima a huge secret of the universe. “Nobody ever really does.”

I don’t know how to say goodbye to you, Tsukishima wants to correct himself, but he’s afraid it’ll make Sugawara’s thinly held composure break completely. How does one even say goodbye to someone like Sugawara? Since Tsukishima was six years old, Sugawara has been one of the biggest constants in his life. His older brother, his mentor, his best friend. Unlike Akaashi, Sugawara was a year-rounder, just like him, so Tsukishima has never actually said goodbye to Sugawara before.

There are too many things he still needs to say to him, questions he needs to ask. Even though they’ve spent practically their entire lives together, Tsukishima feels like it wasn’t enough time.

“Thank you,” he settles on. “Thank you for everything.”

It’s not nearly enough, but it’ll have to do for now.

“Oh, Kei.” The dam breaks and Sugawara’s tears start to fall. He flings his arms around Tsukishima’s neck and hauls him down into a fierce hug. “You don’t have to thank me for anything, you know? Not a single thing. Being your brother, and getting to see you grow up into this amazing young man has - has been - the best experience of my life.”

Oh, shoot.

Now Tsukishima is crying, too.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” he whispers. Sugawara pulls back so he can look Tsukishima full in the eye.

“You,” he says firmly, “are going to do just fine. No - better than fine! My little brother is going to save the world!” He announces loudly, drawing the attention of a few nearby campers, who cheer. Tsukishima blushes.

“You are so embarrassing,” he whines. Sugawara ruffles his hair like he’s a little kid and smiles.

“I love you, too, Kei.”

“You and Daichi help Akaashi keep an eye on Bokuto until Kuroo and I get there, okay? It’s more of a three man job.”

Sugawara laughs, and Tsukishima wants to bottle up the sound and wear it close to his heart.

“I promise. We’ll be together again soon.”

Tsukishima really, really hopes so.

Saying goodbye to Bokuto and Akaashi is a little more familiar, but has never gotten easier over the years. It’s only made slightly more bearable with Kuroo’s arm around his shoulder, and the fact that this year, at least he’s not leaving Tsukishima.

“Are you sure you guys don’t need us to stay?” Akaashi asks for what must be the five zillionth time since Tsukishima and Kuroo had told everyone about their year-long plan to stop a war and save the world. “Because we will, you know. College can always wait another year.”

“Yes,” Tsukishima huffs fondly. “For the last time, we’re sure. You guys go on, you deserve it. We got this handled.”

Akaashi frowns. “Well, okay… If you’re absolutely positive -"

“Babe!” Bokuto laughs. “They’re absolutely, one million percent sure! They don’t need us crashing their couples’ getaway around the world.” He raises his eyebrows suggestively.

“Wait, you guys aren’t going alone are you?” Akaashi’s eyes widen in alarm.

“No, mom,” Kuroo rolls his eyes.

“We already have a…team in mind.”

“Avengers, assemble!”

“Copyright infringement,” Tsukishima points out.

“Hmmm… Half Bloods, huddle!” Kuroo tries.

“Absolutely not.”

“Fine,” Akaashi finally relents, pulling Tsukishima out from under Kuroo and wrapping him in a tight hug. “But if you need anything - and I mean anything - I’m just an Iris call away, okay?”

“Okay.” Tsukishima ducks his head into Akaashi’s shoulder. “I’ll call if we need you. I promise.”

“They’re not gonna need us,” Bokuto crows confidently. “Tsukki and Kuroo are strong enough to defy the Fates themselves! There’s no way they’re gonna lose.” He pumps a fist in the air. Kuroo pulls him into an affectionate headlock and Akaashi squeezes Tsukishima’s hand while they watch.

“I am so, so proud of you,” his brother whispers.

The instinct to disagree is on the tip of his tongue, but before it can leave his lips, Tsukishima swallows it back down. Because, well, he’s a little proud of himself, too.

Eventually, the fire goes out and there are no more goodbyes left to say.

Tsukishima walks back to the cabins with Kuroo, their hands swinging together between them.

“One year, starting tomorrow. Are you ready to save the world, Tsukishima Kei?”

It feels like an ending, but the battle’s just begun.

 

 

*

 

 

Tsukishima has seen a lot of things in his time at Camp Half Blood.

He saw the son of Hades fall out of the sky like a dying star and crash-land in the middle of the training grounds. He saw the longest-running winning streak the Athena cabin has ever had in capture the flag, and he saw Iwaizumi finally give in to the fact that he’d probably lay siege to entire nations if Oikawa Toruu asked him to. He saw the loveliest boy in the Aphrodite cabin in a new light for the first time, and he saw the insides of his eyelids when that same boy gave him his first kiss. He saw Akaashi fall in love more slowly and painfully than root canal (though maybe they saw him and Kuroo doing the same thing). He saw the broken faces of those who lost parts of themselves to campers on quests, and saw them mend again when those campers came back.

Tsukishima has seen a lot of things outside of Camp Half Blood, too.

He saw a frat house full of half-drunk centaurs, and pinch-lipped librarians who put the fear of Phobos in him. He looked the God of Death in his cold, empty eyes, and he saw what it looks like to wake up with Kuroo Tetsurou cuddling him. He watched as his own weapon struck a killing blow to the legendary Nemean Lion, and saw the Rocky Mountains from hundreds of feet above. He saw the golden ichor of a god bleeding, and he saw Cerberus chase a red rubber ball of a cliff. He saw the God of the Underworld himself sitting upon his skull-adorned throne, and he saw the world from high in the sky, aboard Apollo’s Sun Chariot.

 

And he’s going to see a lot more.

 

“Oi! Are you two lovebirds ready to set sail, or what?”

The shout from below deck is accompanied by a chorus of other voices, shouting to be heard over each other. Two of them arguing, one laughing loudly here and there, someone trying to calm the rest of them down. Tsukishima can’t believe he actually signed up for a year of this chaos with these people.

He looks beyond the helm of The Argo II towards the endless horizon. Once they cast off and leave Camp Half Blood, that’ll be it.

Kuroo wraps his arms around his waist from behind and props his chin on his shoulder. “Well? What do you say?”

Tsukishima takes a deep breath and looks back at Camp Half Blood one last time.

“One year, starting now.”

“All right! Avengers -"

“Copyright.”

“Crap.”

Notes:

wow..... WOW. i'm super emotional right now!! this if officially by far the longest, most involved fic ive ever written and ive grown so attached to this world and these characters - and that's why, yes, the secret is out:

this fic will be getting a sequel!!

'one year' is going to be the next part in this pjo!au series, all about the year that tsukki and kuroo (and their mystery cast of friends) spend saving the world! this first fic was based more loosely on the original percy jackson series, and the sequel will be more of an homage to the Heroes of Olympus series - seven demigods, one flying boat, and a trip around the world to stop a war.

i cannot thank everyone enough for all of the love and support on this fic and pls stay tuned for more works in and out of the universe from me! :)

let me know what u thought in the comments, and come scream with me on twitter!!

Notes:

next chapter u can expect: a time skip! a quest! some godly guest appearances! a three-headed dog! gay boyfriends galore!!

let me know how ur liking it so far in the comments, and ill see u next time!

as always, come be my friend on twitter!

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of greek tragedy