Crows Like Shiny Things (Hinakage)

Shells and some sort of Confidence

Kageyama didn't even have to wait.

The same day he left the school, he heard it again.

The talk with Asahi long gone from his mind, Kageyama proceeded to turn around and eye the orange head landing with somewhat of a cautious gaze. No assaults from behind anymore!

"Kageyama!!"
Well he did seem at least in a good mood.

Hinata propped himself up onto his wings, supporting his own lithe weight a little as he half hopped half walked over to Kageyama. It was almost amusing to him; Hinata was so birdalike in so many ways beyond just his wings.
"I found some! It took me a while but look!"

Hinata opened his hands and revealed a few glistening shells. Some of really pretty snails, some of clams.
"Where did you get all of these?" Kageyama asked, somewhat amazed. The next sea or lake was quite far away, he couldn't possibly imagine Hinata had travelled there on his own.
"The sea!" was the excited answer.

The orange head made a motion for Kageyama to open his hands before dumping his entire collection into them. The boy let out a gasp- desperately trying not to let any of them fall.
"Dumbass not all at once!! Where am I supposed to put them?!"
"That sounds like a you-problem!!"
Hinata beamed at him, almost as if he didn't just say something that made Kageyama want to smack the shit out of him.

It was almost funny, how normal this had become in those very few conversations they had had so far.

"Hinata, why are you even here? It's not a good idea for you to be out here at this hour."
Kageyama looked around. He had left school a bit earlier from practice; and the surrounding streets were bright as day. It was a wonder none of the villagers had stumbled over their small conversation.

Kageyama knew himself how religious and terrified his little community was of demons and devilish spirits- Hinata would definitely be seen as a death bringer, especially with that huge wings of his.
"Oh you worry too much! C'mon, it's always been fine!"
"You've only come in the early morning or evening so far. Don't overstate your welcome, Hinata," the black haired boy warned as he threw another gauging gaze around.

"I know I know." Cue the eyeroll of his special little friend.
"I'm gonna go, since you desperately want to get rid of me."
Kageyama just slightly pushed Hinata's shoulder in return and the boy let out a soft laugh before darting up into the air and soaring quickly out of sigh.
The boy exhaled a breath he didn't remember holding in and stared down at his hand full of shells.

If that continues I have to ask mom for a second shelf... or start storing them in my drawer...

***

Try... looking...

Asahi bit down onto his bottom lip until he could taste the iron of his own blood. Goshdarnit he he just wanted to sprint home as usual but instead he was out here, walking in a goddamn snail speed, just baiting it.

His heart was racing like never before, Asahi felt like ready to throw up.

Why was he even doing this?

Try looking...

But there was something in Kageyama's voice. Something that almost sounded like he knew something. There was that undertone... Asahi couldn't quite identify it but it was so suspicious.

Walking along the sandy path to his way home, Asahi quietly kicked up a small dustcloud. He was frustrated and on the verge of panicking at the same time.
He didn't even know what exactly he preferred- getting that thing to show up or just not have that happening at all.
Somehow he wished his meds would finally be working and getting rid of this fucking hallucination- goshdarnit he was so sick of it.

Asahi felt lucky his friends were so patient with him.

And yet, he felt like a crazy person.

He probably was.

Nishinoya was way up in the sky, quietly flying after Asahi. He was contemplating to approach- but the older one was acting weird. He seemed terrified, as usual, but... why was he walking so slow?

The bird knew just well Asahi would have broken out into a sprint the moment Nishinoya lowered his distance. He felt almost sad, but he was more cautious than his idiot of a friend. Hinata just approached random humans, especially that creep he liked so much- for some godforsaken reason.

Nishinoya didn't get it.

He dipped just a tiny bit lower, enjoying the breeze on his wings. For a moment, Nishinoya closed his eyes. He felt free in the sky- so free and light, so different than in his village where he had to wobble-hop everywhere because of his wings.
Sometimes he hated his wings. He envied those humans below, who could travel anywhere in their weird eletrical vehicles who could move faster than he could fly, who could just see the world without being confined to their own domain. Humans were everywhere, but Nishinoya was trapped inside his village, his home, and he could never fly far from his forest in fear of disturbing his peace.

He didn't even notice how much closer he got to Asahi.

Asahi did notice.

Fear ran through every single cell of his. His muscles were cramping, his throat was on the verge of closing up. Asahi had to force himself to not break out into a sprint.

And then he stopped.

Asahi turned around, looked up into the sky, saw the giant something with wings, just soaring above him, circling him, and something in him snapped.

"What... in the everloving shit... i-is that...?!"

Asahi swallowed down the lump in his throat; his muscles refused to budge. He was rooted to the ground, just standing there, staring at the creature above, and Asahi could feel it staring back.

Nishinoya above was just as uncertain. Why was he not running away? Why was he just standing there? It did dawn on him that maybe this creep Kageyama had had a talk with him. The bird scrunched up his nose just a tiny bit- trying to think, what to make of this situation. Should he just approach?

Dipping down just a tiny bit, Nishinoya held the eye contact to Asahi.

He was experimenting.

Asahi didn't move.

Nishinoya rose an eyebrow, and came down just a tiny bit lower.

Asahi didn't move.

Nishinoya let out a soft birdlike thrill, fighting with himself. He didn't like approaching humans but something in him begged him to go lower, to close the distance.

And so he did.

Sadly, the distance was not small enough for Nishinoya to catch Asahi the moment he collapsed onto the sand path, passed out in a silent panic attack.