what a gem ; kagehina [ completed ]

! 2

kageyama averted his eyes almost immediately. there was an aura coming off of this boy - one so strong and so bright it almost hurt to look at him. the thing about it was that as soon as kageyama's eyes left the boy, they were aching to return to him. he was entrancing, which, in kageyama's case, was not good. being entranced was #1 on his 'things i shouldn't do while on the road' list, but when he looked up again and met the boy's eyes, he knew that any hope he had of forgetting about this boy was long gone.

it was peculiar to kageyama that, although there were several chairs strewn on the gritty sand in front of the stage, the boy stood in back of them, clapping slowly and beaming. his smile was about one hundred watts and was almost as blinding as his aura. kageyama cleared his throat and awkwardly shuffled over to the microphone. "thank you for coming. i'm kageyama tobio, and if you like what you just heard you can go check out our merch table." he pointed to the table that had been hastily set there just minutes before the set show time. he noticed he was sweating - why was he sweating? he never got nervous on stage. - "and uh- i'll be over there uhm, ri-right now." he jumped off the stage and sat in the chair in front of the table.

the boy, much to kageyama's pleasure and dismay, came over to the table. he picked up one of the cds, studying it with an amused look on his face. "escape to the universe, huh?" he muttered, his grin stretching across his entire face. kageyama sat for a moment, stunned by the boy's voice. he actually said something, idiot! he reminded himself. he leaned back in his chair in an attempt to seem suave.

"yeah," he said shortly. "i can help you escape to the universe.." he sang, air guitar in his lap.

the boy giggled. "how do you suppose you'll get back?" he asked curiously.

"back?" kageyama set down his air guitar.

"back to earth, of course," the boy replied, as if this was obvious. it was obvious! kageyama mentally scolded himself.

"i'm never coming back," he mused.

"tsk, that's awful!" the boy cried, jumping in the air to at least double his height. "this is your home!"

kageyama didn't know how to reply. instead, he said, "do you want that? y-you can have it! and it comes with a free t-shirt!" he hastily grabbed a t-shirt from under the table and held it up. it looked about three sizes too big for the boy. "you'll probably need a smaller one.. i've got a small in my van."

"i am not small!" the boy interjected passionately.

"then what size are you?"

the boy blinked and then looked down at the sand. "small," he muttered, angrily kicking the ground. 

kageyama smirked. "alright, just stay right there." he instructed, before running over to the van and flinging the doors open. inside, he was surprised to his manager. what he wasn't surprised about was her disheveled state. "what are you doing here?" he spurt before he could stop himself.

his manager raised an eyebrow. "hey star child, nice to see you too. i hate to remind you, but you're mine, and this is your van, and what's yours is mine. how'd the show go?"

"it was alright. one person showed up. which reminds me," he grabbed a shirt in the box labeled small. "i've got to go and give him this free t-" kageyama looked out to the stage area. all that he could see was that magnificent sunset and a bunch of empty chairs. no entrancing boy. "shirt.."

"kageyama!" his manager gasped. "you can't give things away for free! what about my 75%? 75% of zero is zero." she looked at him incredulously. "are you a zero?"

kageyama groaned. he had heard this way too many times before. "no."

"that's right! i'm going to make us both rich," she leaned in to whisper in kageyama's ear. "and as far as these salt-water saps know, we already are. now," she leaned away. "live it up before we hit the road. next stop, empire city!" she waved her arm in the air as if she could picture the skyline now. she walked away towards the city, probably back to whatever bar she had been in.

kageyama considered his options. he could stay at the van. he could also follow his manager into town. he looked down at the t-shirt in his hands and gripped it tighter. no, he thought. i have to see him again. he made his way down the boardwalk that stretched across the shore. reflections of the lowering sun and rising moon danced across the water. kageyama wished he could dance out there with them. but first, he had to find that boy.

at the end of the boardwalk, there was a fence. nailed onto it were two signs, one above the other. the top one stated, KEEP OFF THE BEACH, and the one below it kindly said, please, in big swoopy letters. in the distance, there was some sort of stone hand protruding from the cliff face. it must've been there for a while, because there was moss covering most of the hand. "maybe he's over there.." kageyama thought aloud.

"whoo!" an owl chriped. kageyama looked to its perch on the top of the fence.

"just some shrimp i met earlier with firey red hair and the widest smile you've ever seen," kageyama replied absently. "you haven't seen anyone like that around, have you?"

the owl turned its head 180 degrees to look at kageyama before it spoke. "sure have, pal," it said.

kageyama gulped. am i going insane? he could've sworn that owl just opened up its mouth - beak? - and said something to him. "where?" he asked, subtly pinching himself to make sure this wasn't all a dream.

the owl chuckled. "well, if i told you anymore i'd have to kill you!" it yelled comically, flapping its arms at kageyama. it then flew away in the direction of the stone hand.

"hey! wait up!" kageyama swiftly climbed the fence; good thing for all that volleyball training. he sprinted after the bird in hopes it was leading him in the right direction.