Spirits In My Head // kagehina AU

Bridges

The storm only lasted for a couple of hours at most. Daichi stands and leads us out of the back room and into the main area of the store. Some snow had made its way in through cracks in the windows and doors, covering the floor with a thin layer of ice crystals. Shouyo bounces forward in excitement to get going when the ice cracks beneath him. My eyes go wide and I throw myself forward to catch him, slipping on the ice myself and crashing into the shelf covered in flat two litter bottles of pop. The bottles wobble at the impact and fall on me, most likely leaving bruises on my arms.

The room is quiet aside from Tsukishima's snickering. I am about to snarl a snappy comment at him when I hear Shouyo's bubbling giggles from beside me. I turn to face him, observing his pale skin light up with glee, shoulders shaking with laughter, and I couldn't help but smile, chuckling softly as well.

"Ah, he can smile, I see," Suga grins, approaching me. He reaches out a hand, helping me up to my feet. I mutter a thanks and turn to help up the orange-haired sun child, but he was already up and ready to go.

"Alright, we still have a decent amount of daylight left," Daichi explains, peeking outside at the taller piles of snow. "It will take longer to get to Omicron than I thought, but we should be able to make it to the highway intersection by nightfall."

A highway intersection can mean many things: highwaymen, cars to scavenge, and bridges. If we are lucky, there would be some shelter we could take for the night. If not, our best option would be to continue walking through the night until we reach Omicron, which would take another two to three hours at the best conditions. Nevertheless, reaching the intersection by dusk was our top priority. We made a quick search of the store, taking some canned foods and anything that seemed useful before setting out once again.

Leaving the safety of the convenience store was in fact not our wisest of plans. The snow is deep enough that it reached my knees, which is nothing compared to how it seems to swallow Shouyo whole. Suga seems the most concerned with Yamaguchi, who can barely move through the blockade of tiny snowflakes.

"Tadashi," Tsukishima looks at his freckled friend. "Let me help you."

Yamaguchi bit their lip. "But Tsukki... we're already lagging behind and I don't want to pose a problem-"

"You'll cause a bigger problem by limping your way through twenty centimeters of snow," Tsukishima states sternly, convincing Yamaguchi to stay quiet and allow the tallest of the men to carry them through the deepest parts.

Shouyo and I shuffled a way's behind from the rest of the group, trying to keep from falling behind or face first into the frigid clouds that swallowed up our lower limbs. All he does for a good portion of the trip is complain about the snow soaking through his pants, or his feet getting too cold. I growl something about it being winter to stop him from complaining and shift my focus on something else. It lands on Yamaguchi's broken leg, which hangs limply from his side, wobbling with each of Tsukishima's steps. There were no blood stains on Yama's clothes or the cloth that was wrapped around their leg, but even with the metal bars to keep it in place, it still seemed bent out of shape. I lift my gaze towards Yamaguchi's face, which was buried in the crook of the blonde's neck, away from the cold. Tsukishima did not seem to mind, adjusting Yamaguchi's weight as we trekked on towards the intersection.

Dusk was barely approaching when we finally reach the intersection. The bridge of the perpendicular highway was partially collapsed, allowing for some shelter from the cold under the larger pieces of rubble. There were not many cars here, just like the rest of the highway, and no humans or undead to be seen.

The sight seems awfully familiar, but it was not until Shouyo stopped beside me, staring at the same memory I was, that I finally remembered why it seemed familiar.

"We met under a collapsed bridge," Shouyo points towards the rubble cave-ins. "Remember, Tobio?"

Of course I remember. It has not even been that long since I saw those orange curls for the first time, hiding inside a crushed vehicle in search of refuge. How his brown eyes stared up at me when I peeked through the window. He believed me to be an soldier at first, with my only coat at the time being my training uniform, and begged for mercy. I don't want to die He said to me. I have a little sister I need to take care of... please...

I am not a soldier, and I was not a threat to him or his sister. After a while he realized this and we have stuck together ever since. Or at least I think that's what happened.

I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of cautious whispers outside the fortress of rubble we use as haven for the night. Allowing my eyes to adjust to the darkness, I notice that everybody around me is sound asleep, but two men were missing. Leaning forward to see beyond the cave's entrance, I notice two silhouettes sitting off to the side, talking in hushed tones. Silver hair flying with the winter winds, two pairs of eyes staring into the dark void above their heads, hands barely touching.

"Do you still plan to return to Beta?" I can barely hear Suga speak through the tense silence.

Daichi sighs, "You know Yui needs me... With the possibility of a child-"

"What possibility?" Suga cuts him off, voice choked. "If she is indeed pregnant, as she has insisted the last four times, you know that the child WILL be taken away, Daichi. There is no reason for you to go back-"

"Yui needs me," Daichi declares, interrupting Suga this time. His tone is stiff, almost forced, but with conviction behind it. "And I need her, Suga. I can't just leave her behind in a place like Beta."

Suga pauses for a few moments. His silhouette shakes against the backdrop of stars, but I doubt it was the cold that caused him to do so. The silverette stands, rethinking the words that he wants to say inside his head. "Very well..." He finally says. "You love her, I understand. After Omicron, I'll accompany you back to Beta." Sugawara's words are hesitant, dragging with each passing second, and Daichi seems to have regretted his choice in the matter.

The darker man stands to confess something when a low, inhuman screech broke the silence, waking everyone around me. The sound was followed by another, and another, echoing down the highway in the direction that we came. A hoarde of undead.

"Everyone, get out!" Daichi exclaims at us through the darkness.

Everyone scrambles to their feet and out to the highway, where Daichi and Suga were trying to fight off the small stampede of animated corpses. I load my rifle, ready to join the fight when Daichi pushes me away towards the others. I narrow my eyes, but I do not argue further, running on the opposite direction of the hoard.

I look over my shoulder towards Daichi and Suga, who were not only fighting the hoard but each other at this point. Suga pushes Daichi back, pointing towards our direction, but the taller man stands his ground, yelling something back at the silverette. The shorter of the two shakes his head and replies with the same intensity, yet less vicious than the prior statement. Daichi begins to speak again, but Sugawara managed to disrupt his protests by closing the distance between them for a fraction of a second. One blink and it is over. The shorter man pushes Daichi towards us one more time and succeeds, but he does not follow.

"Come on, Kageyama!" He yells at me as he is approaching, pulling me by the arm towards the others.

I try to take my arm back, keeping my gaze on the silver-haired man fighting the horde on his own. "But Suga-"

"I said come ON!" Daichi raises his voice, not even bothering to hide the crack in his composure or the wet shine of his eyes as he places a hand in the small of my back and urges me to run west with the others towards Omicron with only the undead's screeching and the gunshots to fill the freezing night's atmosphere.

That is... until the gunshots stop and all I can hear is screaming.