Level Horizon (Haikyuu!! WingedAU)

Year One 6/8; Bathos & Kismet

The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. ~Marcel Pagnol

Tadashi Yamaguchi pushes open the door to the small flat, his eyes squinting into the dim room.

"Impressive." The ibis drawls behind him, clearly unimpressed.

"Sorry, Tsukki. This was the best I could do." He says apologetically, setting down the candle the innkeeper had given them. The only reason they are actually even staying the night in an inn is because the blond had decreed that he would sooner nail his wings to the floor than spend the night outside.

Tadashi didn't mind camping at all, and he'd have assumed the ibis would be cool with it, too, given how he had a penchant for early mornings. But after the first night of this trip, Tsukki had flatly refused to sleep on the ground out in the open again.

Although... it may have had something to do with the freaking bear that had ambled through their small clearing in the early gray hours of the day. It'd simply just walked through their campsite, minding its own business; they never even had the chance to fully wake before it was disappearing through the brush again.

The blond hadn't said a word and simply turned the most cynically astonished expression on him. It was a rare look for the ibis and combined with the bizarre reality that a bear had just walked through their campsite within feet of them, it had made Tadashi snort at its sheer vibe of 'What the flying fuck?'.

Still, while Tadashi could see how that could make someone definitively uneasy, the bear hadn't even done anything and nixing camping options all together might've been the slightest bit overkill in his opinion. As he eyes the single bed with misgiving, he's sure one of them would be better than this.

The room is tiny, with little more than a small bed that probably won't even accommodate Tsukki's full height, a worn dresser, a single chair, a small desk for writing, and a sole window that is large enough to allow them to see freedom but never reach it should there be a fire— which seems like an alarming possibility given the careless state of the rest of the building and the number of drunken idiots surrounded by candle flame in the tavern downstairs.

Tadashi is amazed that Tsukki's actually holding his tongue as much as he is, because the ibis is a massive neat freak and hates disorder. The crow can't help but be awed at his resolve when he drops on the scuzzy blanket that's draped across the bed and rubs his eyes.

"We're being followed, Yamaguchi." He says quietly, his tone evenly conversational and Tadashi's train of thought disintegrates.

"Oh... I had that feeling, but I wasn't sure." He says, marveling at how the blond is so collected. Tsukki's unperturbed demeanor is calming, and it keeps him level, too. "What do you think we should do?" He asks and sharp yellow-umber eyes rise to meet his own dark ones in the low candle light.

"We'll leave early tomorrow. If we can't lose him, we stop at Ukai's and have him send a runner."

"And after that? We can't go back to the house if we have a tail..." He says.

"Not sure. If nothing else, we can just make it look like a stopover and keep heading down the coast. Just keep running until our hound gets careless, and we either capture him or give him the slip I suppose."

"That sounds like it'd be a pain." He murmurs and Tsukki shrugs.

"You can check the rookery off your list; is there anywhere else you'd like to go?"