Archive of Our Own ^beta

Daichi

They arrive at Jurassic World around noon, and Daichi is already tired. Of course Hinata got seasick. And of course Suga had the excuse that he’d get sick around him too, so Daichi had to spend the entire time on the ferry in the bathroom with Hinata.
Sure, it’s not the kid’s fault, but it kind of killed his mood anyways.

When he and Suga won the family ticket a month ago in that contest his boyfriend found online, he wanted to ignore that it includes three kids, and just go with Suga.
But naturally, the universe is out to get him, so the next day he overheard Tsukishima complain to Yamaguchi that his parents refused to let him visit Jurassic World in the summer even though Tsukishima saved up for it for months.
Now, Daichi tried to ignore that, he didn’t owe Tsukishima anything. But… the kid was so obviously disappointed during practice that day, he caved eventually and pulled Suga aside during a break, telling him everything.
That’s how they added one child to their weekend trip. The other two followed when Hinata heard them offer Tsukishima the opportunity to go with them, maybe his parents would allow it if two eighteen year olds go with him and he didn't have to pay for it, and the other first year invited himself. And when Kageyama told Hinata that dinosaurs are stupid, and Tsukishima mocked that he’s just scared of them, and doesn’t have any interests besides volleyball, Kageyama insisted on coming along as well.

At least he and Suga aren’t alone with those three, Michimiya and Aihara are with them, since Kiyoko and Yachi had to cancel at the last minute and gave them their tickets.

So, here they are, walking among other visitors towards the hotel from the monorail station that took them from the harbour toward the middle of the island, to leave their bags there. They’ll stay the whole weekend since their tickets cover those days, and it’ll give them enough time to explore the whole park.

“Can we go see the big ones? The ones that are like Rooaar instead of like… like…. grrrrr!” Hinata waves his hands, almost smacking a little girl in the face with his bag. Daichi sighs deeply and reaches out, taking the bag from him.
“You don’t even know the names of dinosaurs?” Tsukishima drawls, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “You’re even more stupid than I thought.”

Looking at Suga for some help with them, he’s disappointed when he finds his boyfriend chatting animatedly with Aihara about the Botanical Gardens they both want to visit first, not paying any attention to the fighting of the first years that’s starting up again when Kageyama tells Tsukishima that he probably doesn’t know that much about dinosaurs either and is just pretending to seem smart.

Rubbing his face, Daichi tries to accept the fact that this will be a long weekend. A very long weekend. Maybe they can split up later, send Tsukishima off with Michimya and Aihara, and have some more peace.

Iwaizumi

Hajime has no idea how Matsukawa and Hanamaki even found out where to look for Oikawa, but here they are, in the Petting Zoo, watching Oikawa feed a dinosaur baby that Hajime is pretty sure is a Triceratops, or at least one related to those.
They didn’t announce their presence yet, but if Hanamaki’s giggles which he pointlessly tries to stifle by pressing his face against Matsukawa’s shoulder get any louder they won’t have to.
Hajime isn’t sure what’s so funny about this anyways. Yes, Oikawa is wearing hideous dark green overalls, his hair is a mess and there’s something that looks suspiciously like dinosaur shit covering his boots, but he still looks good.
It’s really fucking annoying how he manages to look good in situations in which every other person would look horrible. Like sweaty and dirty from working.

“Aren’t you supposed to be interning as a secretary or something, Shittykawa?” he finally speaks up and ignores the disappointed groans from the boys next to him because he finally announced their presence.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa exclaims and jumps up, startling the dinosaur a little. Hajime raises his hands.
“Don’t come near me like that, you look like shit.”
“Literally,” Hanamaki adds and chuckles, Matsukawa grins as he looks Oikawa up and down. The idiot doesn’t even look embarrassed.
“I was just feeding Suzy, do you want to help me?”

Hajime watches the little dinosaur. Behind him, he can hear Matsukawa and Hanamaki talking.
"I'm hungry."
"Same, let's dip."

So as they leave them to go find food, Hajime stays with Oikawa, eyebrows drawn together.
“Is she really called Suzy or did you name her?”
“I don’t know if she actually has a name,” Oikawa replies brightly and strokes the animal’s head gently. “Soooo, Iwa-chan,” he Sing-Songs, his grin widening. “I thought you said you wouldn’t come visit.”
“Someone needs to babysit you idiots.”
Oikawa pouts and picks up the bucket with the food.
“So mean, now I won’t let you help me feed the babies.”
“I never said I want to.”
“But how could you not? Come on, you have to meet Trixie, she’s a Brontosaurus, and she’s almost getting too big for the Petting Zoo. Did you know, so many people confuse Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus and think they’re the same, but there’s clear differences!”

Oikawa grabs Hajime’s arm and drags him to the other end of the enclosure, babbling about the dinosaurs. Hajime groans but lets it happen. Stupid endearingly excited Oikawa.

Daichi

After putting their things away and buying bracelet scanners for VIP access to every ride and attraction, as well as having a quick lunch, they finally make their way to their first destination: the Botanical Gardens. Hinata is complaining as they’re walking that plants are boring, and Tsukishima seems to try and not agree. Daichi rubs his forehead.
“Suga and Aihara want to go there first, and we’re here as a group, so we’re going there together.”
“But can’t we split up? I wanna see dinosaurs!” Hinata hops up and down, his sunglasses slipping a bit.

Before Daichi can try and find a solution, Suga finally decides to come to his aid.

“Hinata, how about we go to the Petting Zoo after looking at the plants? And if you stop complaining, I’ll buy you ice cream too.”
The boy seems to consider it for a moment, then he nods.
“Okay, fine.”

Crisis averted, for now, they reach the Botanical Gardens, and for a while, it’s calm. Daichi walks around holding Suga’s hand and appreciating his curious gaze as he reads the information signs, he can hear Aihara explain something to Hinata and Kageyama, and Tsukishima is telling Michimiya about a dinosaur who eats the plant they’re looking at.

With a deep exhale, Daichi’s shoulders slump, and he puts his arm around Suga, pulling him closer.
“We should have come alone.”
“It’s not that bad,” Suga says, amused, and pokes his side. Daichi pushes his hand away.
“In this moment. It’ll get worse again and you know it.”
“Well, consider it practice.”
“For what?”
“Our own kids one day.” Suga winks at him before wiggling out of his hold and walking to a different plant. Daichi is left behind, staring after his boyfriend, face warm.
Their own children? He’s not sure if Suga is joking or not, and he can’t quite decide if he wants him to be serious.
On the one hand they’re only eighteen, they didn’t even graduate yet, and they’ve only been dating for about a year now. But Suga did say one day, so… Maybe it’s his way of saying they’ll be together long enough to eventually adopt a child together.

Shaking his head, Daichi pushes those thoughts away. Knowing Suga, he just said that to tease him. Maybe they’ll have children together one day, maybe not. Now is not the time to think about that.

Hinata barrels into him, grabbing his arm.

“Can we go now? Please! Pretty please!”
Adjusting the sunglasses on Hinata’s nose, Daichi rolls his eyes.

“Fine, if Suga and Aihara are ready to go, we can go pet the dinosaurs now.”

He watches as the first year runs over to Suga and then to Aihara and Michimiya, talking to both briefly before whooping and hopping over to Kageyama to tell him the news probably. How the kid can have this much energy in this heat is really astounding.

A hand grabs his, and Daichi looks at Suga with a soft smile.

“Let’s meet the extinct animals.”

Iwaizumi

Hajime helps Oikawa feed some animals and tries not to show him that he’s having fun. He does mock his outfit a few times, and Oikawa pouts, but his eyes are shining. He really loves being around these dinosaurs apparently.
Then why didn’t his parents let him intern with some of the keepers instead of make him do the boring paperwork? It’s strange, really. But he’s not going to ask.

When they’re done feeding all the baby dinosaurs in the Petting Zoo, they meet back up with Matsukawa and Hanamaki, and Oikawa gives them both a big hug, much to their horror.

“You’re full of dinosaur shit!” Hanamaki yells, ignoring the annoyed glance a woman nearby gives him for saying shit.
“And you were laughing at me, so now you stink too.” Oikawa grins.
Matsukawa pokes Oikawa until he lets them go again, then he looks around.
“So, what’s the best thing around here?”

Oikawa shrugs.
“I like everything really.”
“Where’s the big dinosaurs?” Hajime decides to ask, going for a disinterested tone none of his friends buy.
“You want to see the ones that look like Godzilla?” Matsukawa smirks.
Hajime kicks him in the shin, but it doesn’t remove the smirk from the idiot’s face.

“I have an idea!” Oikawa exclaims, and Hajime braces himself for a horrible plan to follow.
“I’m pretty close with one of the keepers, his name is Owen, I bet if I ask to borrow his jeep to give you guys a private tour, he’ll agree.”
“Are you even allowed to take a break?” Hajime asks, frowning.
Oikawa’s innocent smile is answer enough, but Matsukawa and Hanamaki are already agreeing loudly, and Hajime knows he cannot win this argument. And since he has to babysit his friends, he can’t just stay behind either.

So, with a long-suffering sigh, he nods once, and Oikawa’s beaming smile does not make his heart flip.

Oikawa leads them to where the jeep is parked, then makes them wait and leaves to ask the keeper for the keys.
Leaning against the car, Hajime yawns. The heat is making him tired, and he hopes that they can go to the hotel earlier today and just spend more time exploring tomorrow.
He rests his eyes for a bit, and when he opens them again, Matsukawa and Hanamaki are making out against the back of the jeep.

“Guys, cut it out,” he snaps, but Matsukawa just flips him off, pressing Hanamaki against the car.

In a surprising turn of events, Oikawa saves him a moment later, returning with keys in his hands.
“Keep your tongues to yourselves if you want the private tour,” he calls, grinning, and opens the driver’s door energetically. Hajime climbs onto the passenger seat, even though maybe they should have separated their friends so they can’t keep making out in the back.
But hopefully the park will distract them from each other.

Oikawa starts the car when they’re all ready, and clears his throat.

“Welcome to Jurassic World!”

Daichi

Things seem to go well when they finally get to the Petting Zoo. Tsukishima is spitting dinosaur facts, clearly trying not to sound excited, and Hinata hugs every dinosaur until Daichi or Suga tell him to stop and to just pet them normally because they’re living, breathing animals.
It goes downhill when they walk towards the Feeding Show in the Lagoon to get there in time to watch it.
Hinata is jumping rather than walking, and he’s talking a mile a minute about all the cute dinosaurs he pet, making weird noises and not knowing any names.
Daichi can clearly see the moment Tsukishima explodes, even though exploding for him just means using an especially cold piercing tone.

“If you had a brain you could have read any of the information signs around the Petting Zoo to learn at least a single dinosaur name.”
“I don’t need to know any names, you’re just a nerd.”
“At least I have a brain and talents.”

Daichi opens his mouth to stop them before it escalates, but Hinata fires back already.

“If you mean by talents being mean and annoying, then yes!”
“Just stop talking, nobody wants to hear you anymore, we’re all annoyed already and it’s only the first day.”
“Hey-”
“I said shut up before I push you into the pool of the Mosasaurus. You couldn’t even pronounce its name while it eats you.”

They all stopped walking, and now there’s a tense silence. Hinata looks hurt, and spins around, storming off.

“Hinata, wait!” Suga calls and tries to run after him, but it’s harder for him, being taller, to move in the crowd.
“Suga, let him go. He needs to cool off. And he needs an apology.”
Daichi narrows his eyes at Tsukishima, who averts his gaze, almost looking ashamed. Almost isn’t good enough.

“This was supposed to be a nice weekend trip,” Daichi says sharply. “But you can’t get along for even just three days, can you? You’re so immature, Tsukishima, I expected more from you.”

Now he definitely looks ashamed, and Daichi nods, pleased.

“Go and find him, apologise and bring him back. We’ll wait for you outside the Feeding Show.
“But the show-”
“You’ll have to miss that today. If you bring him back quickly and behave the rest of the day, I’ll watch it again with you tomorrow.” His voice leaves no room for arguments, and Tsukishima seems to realise that too because he nods, face tense.

“Fine, I’ll go look for him.”
“Kageyama, go with him. I don’t want you wandering around alone,” Suga says before Tsukishima can move. The blond now opens his mouth, but Suga interrupts him.
“Don’t you even think about arguing. Go, now, before I get angry too.”

When the two boys vanish between the people, both looking really unhappy, Daichi’s shoulders slump again and he groans.
“Next time we don’t invite anyone.”
“Not even us?” Michimiya is grinning, and Daichi rolls his eyes, smiling a bit.
“You’re not helping much with the babysitting, but at least you’re not fighting, so I’ll consider it.”
“Well, let’s watch the… what-saurus?” Suga frowns.
“Mosasaurus,” Aihara tells him, smiling. “It’ll get pretty wet, so we should get some of the capes they sell.”
“No thank you, I’m not spending any additional money here.”
“Suga, you bought the first years ice cream before the Petting Zoo.” Daichi grins at him.
“Well, I thought with some bribing they’d behave.”
Suga pouts, and Daichi takes his hand.
“Don’t pout now, let’s just go. We’ll find seats while the girls buy their capes.”

Oikawa

Tooru drove the jeep a few times already, so he’s confident as he maneuvers it along a path that’s just for Jurassic World staff. Owen took him on a private tour a few times, so he knows which paddocks are safe to drive over and which places they really should avoid.

Iwaizumi next to him seems to be enjoying the drive even though he doesn’t say anything, and since Matsukawa and Hanamaki aren’t making out in the backseat, they’re probably listening to him too.

“The Gallimimus are theropod dinosaurs. Look at them, look at how they move! Aren’t they amazing? Theropod means they have hollow bones and three toes, isn’t that cool? Did you know that they’re related to the Struthiomimus, so it makes sense why some people confuse them with each other, but I still like the Gallimimus better, I think. Or… well, I like both. Or… No, both, yes, I’m not picking favourites. So the Gallimimus used to live in Mongolia, or what’s now Mongolia. And– ”
“When?” Hanamaki interrupts his rambling, leaning forward between the seats.
“Late Cretaceous period, that was about seventy million years ago. You know, that’s the issue I have with Jurassic World. All these different dinosaurs and plants didn’t even all live around the same time, so it’s a big risk to put them all into one park because you never know how they might react to each other.”

“Nerd,” Matsukawa mumbles, then leans forward, pushing Hanamaki a bit aside
“Okay so what’s the oldest dinosaur?”

Tooru grins because they’re clearly interested despite calling him a nerd.

“Well for a while they thought this dinosaur called Eoraptor which they found in Argentina is the oldest with like 228 million years, I think, but they found an even older one. I don’t remember how old that one is, it was a couple million years older, but that’s the Prosauropod from Madagascar or something.”
“Cool,” Matsukawa comments and nods. “So can we stop and touch the Galliwhatever or something?”
“No, we have to stay in the jeep. The Gallimimus are still wild animals even if they’re herbivores. You know, I can park near the trees and maybe we can watch them run. They behave like chicken. Especially when they run in formations you can see that our birds nowadays are their descendants.”

“Shouldn’t they have feathers?” Hanamaki leans even closer to the front, making Iwaizumi tsk in annoyance.
“It’s a theory that some dinosaurs probably had feathers, but the scientists here also created them for profit, so they had to make them look cool. A lot of dinosaurs aren’t fully accurate. They are after all only man-made fakes, not the actual ones.”

He chews on his lip and drives the car beneath some of the trees. It bothers him sometimes when he remembers that they’re just attractions. This is just a glorified zoo after all.

After parking the car, he feels Iwaizumi’s eyes on him, and looks over. His friend is studying him, so he grins at him quickly. No need to ruin the mood just because Jurassic World is a disappointment if you think about it for too long.

Their spot isn’t the greatest to watch the herd of Gallimimus, but they still sit in the car, just relaxing in the shade of the trees.

“So when does your friend expect his car back?” Iwaizumi finally asks, and Tooru flinches and doesn’t manage to hide his guilty expression from the other quick enough.

Iwaizumi stares at him, then curses and hits his arm one, two, three times.

“Ow, Iwa-chan, stop,” Tooru whines even though he knows he deserves this.
“I can’t believe this!” Iwaizumi yells, then seems to remember that they’re not too far from actual dinosaurs that could get upset at his volume and lowers his voice again. “I cannot fucking believe this, Shittykawa.”

“What’s up?” Matsukawa asks from the back.
“Nothi-”
“Oikawa didn’t ask his friend. He just took the keys. Nobody knows we’re here, and we’re probably going to get in trouble if anyone finds out about this.”
“Owen is cool, he won’t mind,” Tooru mumbles. And it’s true, Owen is cool, but he will be upset that Tooru didn’t ask and just stole his keys. But Owen would have had to tell him no because technically Tooru has to work on paperwork right now.

Paperwork is boring. This, being here with his friends, is so much better, so who could blame him for ditching his actual internship for this?

“Iwa-chan, don’t be mad, this is fun, right? I’ll take all the blame for it when we’re back, and tomorrow I’ll only hang out with you on my official breaks.”

He pouts, looking at his friend with his best pleading gaze. Iwaizumi may seem to hate him sometimes, but they’re childhood friends, and while Iwaizumi may not be weak to his puppy eyes, Tooru still tries.

“No,” Iwaizumi says. Tooru pouts some more.
“I’ll buy you food.”
“No.”
“Ice-cream, fries and a cool dinosaur shirt.”
“No.”
“We’ll have a Godzilla movie marathon at home, I’ll buy all the snacks and won’t make fun of any bad CGI.”

Iwaizumi studies him, and Tooru knows he won. His friend still hits his arm again, but lighter this time.

“You’re such an irresponsible, infuriating idiot.”

Tooru attempts to hug Iwaizumi with a big grin. Iwaizumi shoves him away, gently, and his cheeks are a little pink.

“I love you too, Iwa-chan.”

Michimiya

Yui and Mao buy two capes, which they put on immediately so they don’t have to carry them, and then also a bottle of water because it’s really warm.

“You know, I’m almost looking forward to having water splashed over me,” Mao says as they walk towards the stairs together to find Daichi and Sugawara. “It’s so warm.”

Chuckling, Yui opens the water bottle and takes a sip.

“It is, but I really don’t mind it too much. Imagine if there was a beach where we could play volleyball, that would be fun, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah sure, but I think Sawamura’s first years would get way too much into it.”

They share a look and start laughing.

“They’re really a handful, I hope they’ll behave better tomorrow. Sawamura seemed kind of stressed.”
Yui has to agree with Mao. Daichi does seem stressed, and it’s kind of sad because he was really looking forward to coming here with Sugawara.

Mao grabs her hand as they start walking up the stairs, and heat that is entirely unrelated to the weather rushes into Yui’s face.
“So we don’t lose each other in the crowd,” Mao explains, and Yui notices that Mao’s cheeks are pink. Maybe she’s getting a sunburn, they should put on new sunscreen after the water will wash the remains of it off.

It’s already really crowded, and Yui takes out her phone, calling Daichi.

“Hello, we’re at the left entrance, where are you?” She looks around some more as she speaks, maybe she’ll spot silver hair.
“Pretty much in the middle, in the third row from the front, Suga apparently wants to get all the water in his face.”
Yui snorts and pulls Mao along.
“I think he rather wants you to get wet, you’re wearing a white shirt, Daichi.”
“So?”
She waits a few seconds, sure he will get it eventually.
“Suga!”
There it is. She can’t help but laugh at Daichi’s obliviousness again.

Mao tugs on her hand.
“I see them.”
“Mao says she sees you.”
“Mao, huh, when did that become a thing?”
More blood rushes in Yui’s face.
“Shut up,” she hisses. “It’s a…”
“Friend thing?” Daichi sounds amused, the idiot, as if he didn’t pine for Sugawara for months, being absolutely oblivious to the other’s flirting.

Yui decides that since they can see them ahead, she doesn’t have to listen to this anymore, so she hangs up and puts her phone into the plastic bag they brought from the hotel. Mao hands her her own phone too, and Yui smiles at her, before remembering Daichi’s teasing, and quickly looks away again.

Only when they climb over some people who are sitting in the way and finally fall down next to Daichi and Sugawara does Yui realise that she and Mao have been holding hands the entire time.
And Mao doesn’t seem to want to let go anytime soon, and while that is more than okay for Yui, it also makes her heart race, and her free hand sweat. At least she hopes her other hand isn’t sweating, that would be really embarrassing.

She pointedly ignores the glances from the boys, and then she’s being saved by the show starting. There’s a staff member telling them about the Mosasaurus, and then Mao’s hand tightens around hers in anticipation when the shark is being moved towards the middle of the tank.

Yui’s breath catches in her throat when the dinosaur jumps out of the water and tears the shark off of the hook. Then the seats are moving downward, and they can see the Mosasaurus eat the rest of the shark and then swim around the tank.

“It’s a little small for a dinosaur that big, isn’t it?” she asks Mao next to her, and the girl nods so enthusiastically that her ponytail whips around.
“I was thinking the same!” she hisses. “I’ll write a letter to the park about that. They make so much money here, they should be able to afford appropriate-”
“Girls, are you coming?” Sugawara interrupts her, and they get up.
“I hope Tsukishima and Kageyama found Hinata by now,” Daichi mumbles as they make their way to the exit.
Sugawara grabs his biceps and leans closer.
“They’ll be fine.”
His eyes move over his boyfriend’s chest slowly, and Yui groans.

“Don’t look at him like that in public. Daichi, keep your boyfriend in check.”
“Suga, stop,” Daichi says, face red.

Mao chuckles and swings their still joined hands between them.

Outside, no first years are waiting for them, so they find a bench nearby and sit down to wait for them. Sugawara is whispering in Daichi’s ear, and Yui is just glad that her and Mao’s room is far away from theirs. Mao has let go of her hand to look through her phone, but Yui’s fingers still feel warm with the memory of her touch. Maybe they can hold hands some more another time.

Tsukishima

Kei hates Kageyama and Hinata. And right now, he also hates Sawamura and Sugawara. Why can’t Hinata just take his insults and ignore them?
Sure, maybe he was a bit harsh this time, but who could have known that the idiot would just run away?
It’s so annoying that he has to miss the feeding of the Mosasaurus now to look for the bean.

What if the stupid idiot gets lost? Or he gets a sunstroke and passes out somewhere? Not that he’s worried about him, he just doesn’t want the captain or vice captain to yell at him.

Kei and Kageyama go all the way back to the Petting Zoo, maybe he went there to sulk, and when he’s not there, they walk to the hotel and check the room the three have to share - another horrible thing about this weekend. He’s kind of angry that Yamaguchi is on vacation with his family and couldn’t come along. At least he wouldn’t have been so annoying.

Hinata isn’t at the hotel either, so they check some of the restaurants and souvenir shops. Kageyama calls him a few times and texts him, but he never picks up.

Already mentally accepting that he will get yelled at, badly, Kei is about to tell Kageyama that they should just get back to the others and look for Hinata together, when Kageyama hums.

“Hinata mentioned that he wants to go to the Creta Cruise later. Maybe he went there already.”
“You mean Cretaceous Cruise. It’s a time period you imbecile.”
“Whatever. Maybe he went there alone.”
Groaning, Kei nods.
“Fine, lets go and see if we can find him.”

They take the monorail there, and when he’s not at the beginning, they have to actually get into one of the boats to get to the end of it.

“He’ll be slow on his own, so we can catch up,” Kageyama says, climbing into the canoe. Kei wills himself to not push him into the water and climbs in behind him.

“Just hurry up with your paddling, I’m not doing all the work, King. And don’t get me fucking wet.”

They’re slow. Really, really fucking slow. They can’t communicate well, so they keep hitting each other with the paddles, go in the wrong direction, and get water into the boat.

“Be careful!” Kei exclaims for the hundredth time. “My phone will get wet, idiot!”
“Then give it to me, my backpack is waterproof.”
“I am not giving you my phone.”
“Fine.” Kageyama shrugs, and Kei grits his teeth.
When the next wave of water is splashed into their boat by Kageyama, he turns around to him too fast with the intention to yell at him properly, but he loses balance in the boat, and has a moment to think This cannot be happening, and then he hits the water, one hand pressed to his glasses so he doesn’t lose them.

Kei emerges a moment later, kicking with his legs to stay above the surface because of course this has to happen at one of the deeper parts of the river.
Kageyama is in the water too, so Kei must have flipped the boat when he fell. The canoe itself is the wrong way around, and Kei wants to tell Kageyama to help him flip it, when he realises something and pales.

His phone. He should have just handed it to the boy when he offered.

Forgetting about the canoe situation, Kei takes out his phone and finds it dead. He curses and cusses, not even stopping when Kageyama eyes him and then the trees around them nervously. There’s still dinosaurs around, but they’re all herbivores, and they probably won’t come into the water just because some human is yelling.

There’s suspiciously few people around, and Kei is glad. He finally stops cursing when Kageyama slaps his shoulder.

“Will you finally listen to me?”
“What?!”
“Our canoe is swimming without us.”

Kei blinks and then turns his head. Their canoe is vanishing around the corner. He completely ignored their stupid boat in his anger, and now it’s biting him in the butt.

“What do we do now?” Kageyama asks, and Kei thinks about drowning him for a moment. But he can’t do that, at least if he doesn’t want Sawamura to then kill him next. So instead, he forces himself to take a deep breath.

“How fast can you swim?”
“Not fast.”
“Me neither. Fine, let’s get out of the water and then call the captain with your phone so someone will come with a new canoe and pick us up.”
“Out of the water?”

Kageyama looks almost scared, and Kei cackles.
“What? You think the big bad dinosaurs will eat you? Grow a fucking brain, they’re herbivores. They eat plants.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am,” he snaps. “I actually know things, remember? Does the King need someone to help him to shore?”
“Stop it.”

The mocking seems to snap Kageyama out of his frozen state at least, and he follows Kei to the forest on their left. There’s no dinosaurs there right now, and Kei is pretty disappointed. He would’ve loved to see an Argentinosaurus up close, like the one they saw towards the beginning of the Cruise.

“What’s that?” Kageyama whispers suddenly, interrupting Kei who tried to get the water off of his glasses with his shirt, but it’s too wet to work, so he just puts them back on.
He follows the other’s gaze to the other side of the river and lets out an offended huff.
“What? Is it dangerous?”
“That’s a Stegosaurus!”
“Will it eat us?” Kageyama steps closer to Kei.
“No, idiot. It lived during the late Jurassic period!”
Kageyama doesn’t seem to understand, and Kei wants to hit him.
“This Cruise is called Cretaceous! There should only be animals from that period. I’m starting to think everyone who works here is as stupid as you and Hinata. Now give me your phone.”

Gladly, Kageyama seems too tense to argue and opens his backpack, handing Kei a tissue after a moment of hesitation.
“For your glasses.”

Kei huffs again, but then he mumbles something that could be interpreted as a thank you, and dries his glasses with the tissue while Kageyama unlocks his phone and taps on it, then presses it to his ear.

They stand in silence for a bit, until Kageyama lowers his phone again, taps again, then holds it to his ear.

Again, nobody seems to pick up.
He tries a third number, then puts his phone back into the backpack and stares at Kei with wide eyes.

“Sawamura-san and Suga-san aren’t picking up. Hinata isn’t either. What do we do?”

That’s… a good question. Kei rubs his face.

“I guess we walk.”

Sugawara

Koushi is getting bored, just sitting on the bench. Maybe they should call Kageyama and Tsukishima. But no, they should look some more for Hinata, at least there’s no fighting when they’re not here.
But then again, they have a responsibility for those kids during the weekend, they promised their parents that they’d take care of them.

So, Koushi sighs and takes out his phone, deciding to call Hinata first.
He doesn’t pick up. Of course. Damn problem children.
“Daichi, can you try calling Hinata? He won’t pick up when I try.”

Koushi leans his head against Daichi’s shoulder and sighs.
“Sure, wait.”

But Hinata doesn’t pick up for Daichi either.

“I hope they’ll be back soon, I don’t want them to get in trouble. Their parents will be so disappointed in us if anything happens.”
Daichi strokes his arm.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be back soon.”

It’s peaceful, until an alarm starts up, informing them in multiple languages that all visitors are being asked to calmly move towards the emergency exits.

Koushi’s heart jumps in his throat.
“Daichi? What’s going on?”

They all get up, and Koushi looks around, desperately wishing the first years into existence. Other visitors seem confused too, and reluctant to leave their places, but then the alarm seems to get more urgent, and Koushi lets himself be dragged along by Daichi.

“They’ll go to an emergency exit too, we’ll find them,” he promises, voice tense. Koushi wants to believe him, really, but there’s cold fear in his stomach. Where are the kids?

His thoughts are interrupted by the appearance of fucking flying dinosaurs.

“Pterosaurs,” Aihara gasps, and Koushi really didn’t need to know the name of the things trying to eat him.
Chaos erupts around them, people are being lifted into the air and dropped again, pointy beaks get too close to skin, and sharp teeth are snapping.

Daichi’s grip on Koushi’s arm is painfully tight, but he can’t find it in himself to complain, just lets Daichi manhandle him closer towards the nearest emergency exit. There’s so many people, screaming and stumbling and pushing.

A man shoves Michimiya aside roughly, and she falls over a chair, hitting the floor, chin first.
“Yui!” Aihara exclaims and falls to her knees next to her. Michimiya spits blood, and Koushi’s stomach flips at the sight of it.

He looks after the man who did this to her, half wanting to run after him with the chair and beat the old guy with it until his white and purple jacket is red, but one of the Pterosaurs seems to read his mind as it grabs him, flying higher and higher, and then just drops him.

Koushi turns his gaze away at the last moment, willing his lunch to stay in his stomach.

Aihara helps up Michimiya, and supports her, as they continue after the other people, yet there’s so many damn dinosaurs, and Koushi has the urge to look behind them every two seconds despite that being something he hates when people do in movies in tense scenes.
Gladly Daichi is still holding his arm in a bruising grip, so at least they won’t be separated.

“Daichi, where are the kids?” he finally says when he sees a woman throw herself in front of a crying little girl and get stabbed by the beak of one of the Pterosaurs. A man grabs the girl and starts running towards the exit with her as she’s screaming and wailing for her mother.

“Daichi,” Koushi says again, as he realises what they’re doing. They have no idea where the kids are, but if they were anywhere around, they would have seen or heard them already.
“Hinata!” he yells, looking around, trying to pull his arm from Daichi’s grip. “Kageyama, Tsukishima! Where are you?”

There’s guards shooting at the dinosaurs, and Koushi’s heart almost stops in his chest as he thinks of the kids being alone and scared somewhere.

“Daichi, stop,” he snaps and finally gets his arm free. “We can’t leave, not without them. They’re not here, we have to find them, we have to!”

He takes out his phone and dials Tsukishima’s number, willing him to pick up. When he doesn’t, he dials Kageyama’s, and almost cries when he answers.

“Where are you?” he yells into the phone so they can hear him over the noise around him.
“We fell out of the canoe and now we’re-”
“Suga!” Michimiya yells, and then Koushi realises that there’s no ground under his feet anymore. Daichi is yelling his name too, and the phone slips from his hands and shatters on the ground underneath him.

High. So high. He needs to get down, he needs to… Shirt. His shirt. He needs…
His head is spinning with fear, but the Pterosaur seems to stop moving forward, now just gaining more height, and there’s more Pterosaurs approaching them from the front, probably to fight this one for its food. For Koushi.

The others’ screams are ringing in his ears, and then another dinosaur collides with the one holding him, and they start fighting for him. There’s a claw scratching his chest, but he barely feels the pain over his hyperventilating.

“Focus!” he gasps. “Focus, focus, focus.”

A third Pterosaur joins, and uses its teeth to tug on Suga’s left foot, and he screams. This finally snaps him out of his panic enough however to focus on the situation at hand, and he moves his trembling fingers to the buttons of his already partly torn shirt, more ripping at them than unbuttoning, but finally they’re all open, and he wiggles around a bit, the Pterosaur mostly holding his shirt instead of him, and then he falls.

The third dinosaur is still biting his foot, and its teeth dig into his flesh as now all of Koushi’s weight is held up by it. It’s a relatively small animal though, so they’re losing height, rather quickly.

Koushi is hanging upside down, arms flailing, healthy foot kicking at the Pterosaur. Finally, he manages a good hit, and he’s falling alone again, not sure how high he’s above the ground. Will his head explode when he hits the pavement? Probably. How does one turn around in the air?

Another sharp pain in his foot breaks his fall. It’s the small Pterosaur, apparently it's really persistent, but they’re still falling, just a little slower now. He decides to not get rid of the one thing slowing his descent, and so together, he and the dinosaur approach ground.

Koushi expects to hit pavement, so when his body hits something that’s definitely a person, and they fall to the ground together, he’s a little stunned.

Then there’s Aihara, beating the little Pterosaur with a chair until it lets go of Koushi’s leg and flies away, wobbling in the air, probably because of a concussion.

“Koushi, fuck,” Daichi says in his ear, and Koushi realises that he landed on his boyfriend.
“This doesn’t change a thing. We’re still going to find the kids. I know where Tsukishima and Kageyama are,” he manages, patting his chest for wounds. Only some scratches, the worst injury seems to be his foot.

Daichi is clearly upset, but he does help him to his feet and wraps an arm around him.

“I saw vehicles around the corner, let's just take one of those, nobody will notice in this chaos,” Michimiya says, voice urgent, and Koushi kind of wants to kiss her.
“Yes, come on, hurry up,” he says instead, and limps after the girls at top speed, Daichi sticking close to his side.

Kageyama

Tobio slowly lowers the phone, eyes wide.
Tsukishima seems to have heard most of it too because for once he mirrors his expression instead of having his usual arrogant or annoyed one.

“We need to find Hinata,” Tobio finds himself saying. Yes, he’s scared and wants to know what just happened to Sugawara, but if Sugawara is in trouble despite being with the others, he can’t imagine what might be going on with Hinata who is all alone. Ready to fight Tsukishima on it, he squares his shoulders and scowls, but Tsukishima just nods and shoves the backpack into Tobio’s chest, map of the park in hand that Tobio grabbed at the entrance when they arrived.

“Put your phone back inside. Let’s go to the end of the Cruise, maybe he’s there. And if not, we’ll go back to the Lagoon.”
“But-”
“He’s not totally stupid, he knows that the safest solution is to get to the ferry, so that’s where he’ll go, too. Now come on, or do I have to drag you along, King?”

The nickname lost a lot of it’s sting over time, but that doesn’t mean that Tobio likes being called that. He also knows, however, that now isn’t the time for petty arguments, so he puts his phone away and closes his backpack, ready to find his friend.
There’s an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, something like worry, maybe a little more.
Hinata has to be okay. He has to be.

Hinata

Shouyou is upset. Partly by Tsukishima’s words, but mainly by the fact that the blond is trying to ruin this trip for him, just because he doesn’t know the names of all dinosaurs!
It’s rude, really. He just wants to have some fun, maybe learn along the way. He’d even let Tsukishima explain some things to him if he was just nicer about it!

But he isn't, so Shouyou decides to wander around alone for a while, have some fun by himself. He takes the train or whatever it’s called here, and gets out at the Gyrosphere station. It looks really fun, and since he can go on whatever ride with his bracelet thing, he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t.

After waiting in line for a while, he is finally allowed to climb into one of the plastic bubbles, and grins at the instructional video that explains the controls before the video of some guy talking starts. He maneuvers the sphere around, feeling proud of himself.

“Look, Tsukishima, I can do something by myself, I’m not a little kid or an idiot,” he mumbles. There’s some dinosaurs in the distance, and he grins and moves closer to watch them. The video is kind of annoying, honestly, he just wants to roll around and look around!

So, he presses some buttons until he manages to shut it off. It’s kind of shut off completely, and he’s not sure if that’s bad or if he can turn it back on, but he decides not to bother right now and focuses on rolling around. Eventually, he sees less and less other spheres, and then there’s a hole in the fence, and he pauses, chewing on his lip.

Shouyou knows he shouldn’t. Dinosaurs can be dangerous, even if all the actual dangerous ones are safely in special paddocks. But… he’s curious, and feeling bold, wanting to prove to Tsukishima that he is capable of doing things other than play volleyball, so Shouyou takes a deep breath and steers the sphere through the hole.

Adrenaline is making him feel giddy, and he moves around some trees, a big grin on his lips. It doesn’t take long until he meets other dinosaurs with weird tails that have a big ball thing on the end of the tails. He stops the sphere and counts the dinosaurs quietly, a smile on his lips.

“Four.”

After a moment of hesitation, he takes out his phone which he put on silent mode in case anyone tries to call him. He has a lot of missed calls and messages and feels kind of bad, but he’s still sulking, so instead of calling anyone back, he facetimes Yamaguchi.

It rings for a while, and Shouyou wonders if he’s okay. But then he remembers the time difference. The flight to Costa Rica from Tokyo was like 18 hours, and they spent one night there in a hotel to recover from jet lag and then take the ferry to the island in the morning. He’s not sure what time it is in Tokyo right now, but Yamaguchi is probably asleep.

Shouyou is about to hang up when the call connects. Yamaguchi is squinting at him, looking tired.

“It’s 7 in the morning, what do you want?”
“I’m so sorry, I forgot that there’s a time difference!”

Yamaguchi rubs his eyes and sits up some more.

“Where are you right now?”
“In a plastic sphere thing! You can safely roll between dinosaurs!”

There’s a frown on Yamaguchi’s face.

“And that’s safe?”
“Totally safe!”
“Oh, well, if you’re sure. I still wouldn’t be brave enough to roll around between things with teeth like that. What is it? I don’t recognise it?”

Shouyou almost drops the phone. Teeth?
Sensing the change in his mood, Yamaguchi’s eyes widen.

“Where are you? Are you in the right area?” he hisses.
“I may have gone through a hole in a fence,” Shouyou whispers back, and then slowly, very slowly turns his head. His hands tremble. There, staring back at him, is a dinosaur with really, really big teeth. One he definitely shouldn’t meet in this plastic thing.

“Hinata, just stay quiet,” Yamaguchi tells him, voice tense. “Tsukki once told me that they can’t see too well, and just hear well. Or… Or was it the other way around?”

Shouyou’s breathing is labored as he tries not to move or make any sound. He’d rather not find out which of the two that dinosaur is better at.

Then the thing moves forward, past the sphere, attacking the dinosaurs Shouyou had been watching before calling Yamaguchi.

Quickly, acting purely on the adrenaline rushing through his veins, Shouyou tries to stir the sphere back the way he came from, to the nice dinosaurs.

But one of the weird tail dinosaurs hits the sphere and it flies, hitting the ground harshly, shaking him around. Only the seatbelt keeps him from hitting his head, but he still bites his lower lip and tastes blood.

Panic fills him.

“Can they smell blood?” He looks at the phone in his hand, but it’s not there anymore, it’s on the bottom of the sphere, screen smashed.
Shit.

Okay, so he has two options. The sphere is smoking, so steering it out of here is probably not a good idea. He can either try and get out of it, run on foot, or he can sit and wait for anyone to find him.

But he doesn’t know how long that might take, and right now the dinosaur is busy fighting the others, so he decides that running is his best chance. He’s always been fast, and especially now that he’s always racing Kageyama.

Kageyama… He hopes the others are having more fun than he is right now.

Taking a deep breath, Hinata presses the button that opens the sphere, and is glad to see it still works. He opens the seatbelt, grits his teeth, and then he’s running as fast as he can, determined not to look back.

Matsukawa

Issei is getting bored. Sure, it was nice to chill in the shade of the trees for a while and watch the Gallimimus in the distance, but he wants to go out there and pet them, run with them, whatever. That sounds way more fun.

But for once Oikawa and Iwaizumi agree on something, that being that getting out of the car is a bad idea.
So, they stay in the car, watch the dinosaurs, listen to more of Oikawa’s dinosaur talk, and eventually, Takahiro moves into his lap, wrapping his arms around him.

“Kind of boring, isn’t it?”
He nods.
“Imagine how cool it would be to ride one of those dinos.”

Issei grins at his boyfriend’s insane but definitely fun sounding idea.

“We just have to distract the other two somehow.”
“We could say we’re giving them a moment to address the romantic tension constantly surrounding them.”

Chuckling, Issei kisses Takahiro on the cheek, then on the forehead, then the nose. Finally, he gently presses a kiss to his lips, savouring the familiar feeling.

“No making out in my car,” Oikawa complains, and Takahiro breaks the kiss to look at him.
“It’s not your car, and we weren’t making out. Maybe Iwaizumi should teach you how making out works, so you can recognise it.”

Oikawa blushes, and even Iwaizumi’s face looks a little flushed at that comment. Issei starts laughing loudly.

Before he can comment however, the mobile radio that’s lying on the floor of Iwaizumi’s seat lights up, and then there’s a voice.

“All personnel are required to move to the nearest emergency exit.”

They all freeze, and then Oikawa starts the car. Or tries to. But it won’t start. He tries again, and then again, but it just doesn’t work. Issei is getting nervous, and he can see in the others’ faces that he’s not the only one.

“Maybe it’s just a practice drill,” Takahiro says slowly, but Oikawa shakes his head.
“We had one of those last week, they’re every two months. This is real.”

And then, interrupting any planning they might do, there’s loud footsteps approaching, as well as screaming, and then a short redhead dashes past them.

“What-” Issei starts, but once again he can’t finish his thought because a giant, definitely evil looking dinosaur follows the kid, quickly catching up.

“Fuck,” Issei curses, and doesn’t know what to do.

Now, Issei wouldn’t call Oikawa selfish, but he’s still the last one he expects to open the car door and jump outside.

“This way!” he yells, and the kid seems to hear because he changes his direction.

“Um, I’m glad you’re trying to help the kid,” Takahiro starts. “But… that thing will eat us all. The car isn’t starting.”

“Isn’t that Hinata, from Karasuno?” Iwaizumi says slowly, and Issei blinks. What a coincidence. They’ll die together with one of their rivals.

“Get out of the car,” Oikawa snaps. “We have to make a run for it.” He points with his arm.
“In that direction there’s a waterfall. We’ll jump in, stay in the water for a bit so she doesn’t see us emerge, then we can go back and tell someone about the loose dinosaur.”
“You want us to outrun that thing?” Issei stares at him.
“Start running!” Oikawa yells, and Issei decides to just listen to him for once, and dashes off into the direction of the waterfall, Takahiro next to him.

He thinks Iwaizumi and Oikawa should be behind them, at least he hopes so. He decides not to look back because he might trip and fall, and he really doesn’t want to trip and fall right now.

The waterfall is there quicker than expected, as well as higher than expected. Issei stares down, wondering if they’ll hit some rocks in there and die here. It’d probably be nicer than being eaten alive if he’s honest.
Iwaizumi isn’t right behind them. Neither is Oikawa or Hinata.
Issei shares a look with Takahiro, and he feels a little sick. What if they actually die here?

But the loud footsteps of the dinosaur get louder, and they brace themselves, ready to jump and trick the thing into thinking they drowned. For that it has to see them jump. Are they even smart enough to understand the concept of drowning?

Before Issei can think about it some more, three figures break through the trees, Iwaizumi at the front, Hinata behind him, and Oikawa last, dangerously close to the teeth of the dinosaur that keeps trying to catch him.

“Jump!” Oikawa yells, and there’s pure fear on the kid’s face, but Iwaizumi grabs his hand and just drags him along, jumping at the same time as Issei forces himself to step off the cliff, Takahiro doing the same beside him.

Oikawa seems to be just a second behind them, and there’s the terrifying sound of teeth snapping shut without anything between them, and Issei barely remembers to take a breath before his body hits the water.

It’s deep, lucky for them, and the temperature is kind of nice too after the heat outside. But it’s freaky and scary because they don’t know what’s in this water, and they don’t know how long they have to stay under the surface for the dinosaur to give up and leave.

But so far there were no footsteps, so Issei kicks his arms to keep himself underwater. He can see Takahiro next to him, doing the same, and then what he’s pretty sure is Oikawa a bit to his left, and then Iwaizumi and Hinata, the latter trying to get to the surface, but Iwaizumi holding him down.

Slowly, Issei realises he can’t stay down here much longer either, his lungs are screaming for air. His hand reaches for Takahiro, and he clings to him when his boyfriend links their fingers. They can’t die. Not here, not like this. They can’t die.

And then finally, just when he’s about to give up and just come up for air, dinosaur or not, there’s loud footsteps that fade.

Issei is almost too weak to get back up there again, but he and Takahiro help each other, and then they break through the surface and both gasp in air greedily.
Oikawa follows, and then Iwaizumi, holding Hinata close to him.

The kid is coughing and gasping like crazy, apparently he has breathed in water, and once on shore, he falls to his knees and throws up.

Gritting his teeth, Issei turns away. He feels sorry for the kid, really sorry, but he can’t make himself go over there and help or comfort him in some way.

“Hey, chibi-chan,” Oikawa says, voice oddly kind, and Issei thinks he’s really glad Oikawa is here with them. “You okay?”
“Couldn’t breathe,” Hinata gasps out, breathing still labored. Issei thinks it’s safe to turn around again though as he’s speaking, so he can’t be vomiting anymore.

And he’s right. The kid is crawling to the water and washing his face now. Iwaizumi is standing near him with his arms crossed, Oikawa is crouching, holding out a hand to Hinata when he turns away from the water again.

“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here with Sawamura-san and Suga-san. And Tsukishima and Kageyama. And the captain of the girl’s volleyball team and… her friend. I went off alone because Tsukishima annoyed me.”
He rubs his eyes and looks around.
“Where are the others?” Iwaizumi asks.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, I… I ignored their calls, and then my phone broke when the dinosaur hit the thing with its tail and I… I thought I could run while the one with the big teeth is distracted, but I think it saw me run, or heard me, I don’t know what they’re better at, and then I saw you and heard you, and then I was just running, and I didn’t want to jump, but Iwaizumi-san held my hand, and then I couldn’t breathe but I needed to breathe, but-”
“Hinata,” Takahiro interrupts him. “You can breathe now. Come on, you have to take a few deep breaths or you’ll pass out, and then Oikawa will have to carry you bridal style, all the way back, and Tsukishima will make fun of you.”

That seems to work because Hinata keeps his mouth shut as he breathes deeply through his nose a few times, then nods.

“I won’t pass out.”
He takes Oikawa’s hand that has been hanging between them the whole time and lets him help him up.

“Alright, team,” Issei says. “Where do we go from here?”

Sugawara

Daichi is driving the jeep, gladly there were keys in the ignition. Koushi’s foot is hurting, but he bites the inside of his cheek and doesn’t say anything. The kids are more important. Who knows what else is loose besides the Pterosaurs.
Michimiya and Aihara in the back are trying to call the others with Daichi’s phone, but so far they seem to have no luck.
That is, until finally, Michimiya gives a relieved sigh.

“Kageyama? This is Michimiya Yui. Where are you? Are you okay? Did you find Hinata?”
She listens, nodding along.
“Okay, Sugawara said you would be there, don’t move, we’re on our way.”
Her eyes meet Koushi’s, and then she holds out the phone. Koushi takes it, pressing it to his ear.

“Kageyama?”
“You’re alright.” The boy sounds actually relieved, and Koushi realises what it probably sounded like when he called them earlier and then the others were screaming his name before the call cut off.
“Yes, I’m alright, don’t worry. Some flying dinosaurs tried to eat me, but I fought them off.” Maybe making it sound like a joke will help lighten the mood a bit.
“You’re really alright?”
“Yes, don’t worry about it.”

There’s Tsukishima’s voice, quieter in the background.
“What’s he saying?”
“Some flying dinosaurs tried to eat him. Sugawara-san said he fought them off.”
Tsukishima’s intake of breath is audible.

“Pterosaurs would probably carry their prey high up into the air to keep it from escaping, and like some birds they’d probably fight over it with others.”
“Sugawara-san?” Kageyama sounds shocked, and it’s really disturbing to hear any emotion other than anger or indifference in his voice.
“They may have done that, yes. And my foot did only stop bleeding like a few minutes ago.”
Kageyama sucks in a breath.
“But I’m alive, not in too much pain, and we stole a jeep to come get you, so just don’t move, and keep talking to me, okay?”

“Give me the phone,” the distant Tsukishima voice orders, and the two briefly argue before Kageyama seems to comply, and then Tsukishima is there on the other end, asking him if he’s lying to Kageyama to not upset him.

Annoyed with them not believing his words, Koushi holds the phone towards Daichi.

“Tell them I’m fine.”
“He’s not fine. His foot is bloody, there’s scratches all over him, and he almost fell from 50 meters in the air. But he’s alive and as annoying as ever, so we’re picking you up and then we’re making sure he gets some damn first aid.”

Koushi pouts and takes the phone back to his own ear.

“You heard him. He’s angry with me though, so maybe I won’t be alive by the time we reach you.”

“Don’t joke about that,” Daichi snaps.

Tsukishima is weirdly quiet on the other end for a minute or so, and Koushi starts worrying that something may have happened, but then he speaks again, voice quiet and filled with embarrassment.

“I’m glad you’re alright, Sugawara-san.”

A smile splits Koushi’s lips.

“Thank you, Tsukishima. I’m glad you’re alright too. Are you cold?”
“No. The air is too moist for our clothes to dry, but it’s also really warm.”
“Good. And you’re safe?”
“There’s only herbivores around.”
“That’s really good, okay. Those are the ones that only eat plants, right?”
“You’re all so stupid, why does nobody here know about dinosaurs?”

Koushi bursts into laughter. He’s glad he managed to get Tsukishima back to being his normal self instead of a weirdly worried version of the boy. They shouldn’t worry so much.

“How much farther?” he asks Daichi, who shakes his head.
“I have no idea. I’m just driving in the direction they should be. We don’t have a map.”

They have to turn around again a minute later because they’re at a cliff. They need to find a way around that, and quickly. Daichi’s phone battery is getting lower. Michimiya and Aihara still have their phones, but neither is fully charged.

But by turning around, they seem to be headed into the wrong direction because there’s some Gallimimus in the distance that are supposed to be at another spot than the Cruise. Koushi is about to tell Daichi to turn around, when he spots something between the trees that makes his breath stutter.

“No,” he whispers, then he’s opening the car door, and Michimiya and Aihara have to hold him back from jumping out the driving car to run towards the shattered sphere.

“I’m driving there, idiot,” Daichi snaps, but it lacks heat. He’s seen it too. He has the same thought. Why else would Hinata not pick up his phone by now?

As soon as the car stops, Koushi shakes off the girls’ hands and exits the car, still clutching Daichi’s phone in hand. He doesn’t register Tsukishima asking him multiple times what’s going on, so he doesn’t protest when Daichi takes the device from him and tells Tsukishima to wait a moment.
Koushi is fully focused on the sphere, and when he sees a phone with a broken screen inside, his heart almost stops. It does stop, or at least sinks, when he grabs the phone with a shaking hand and turns it around and recognises Hinata’s Little Giant phone case. The phone clatters to the ground, and his legs start shaking.

Daichi is cursing, Michimiya moves to Koushi and grabs his arm to keep him upright. Aihara moves around the sphere.

“There’s footprints!” she hisses suddenly. “He made it out, come on!”
Koushi nods and shakes his head to clear his thoughts.
In the background he hears Daichi talk to Tsukishima.

“Hinata!” Koushi yells, following the footsteps. “Hinata, where are you?”
Aihara presses a hand to his mouth.
“Whatever did that to the Gyrosphere might still be around, we shouldn’t yell. We’ll follow the footsteps and find Hinata.”

“No, Tsukishima, we didn’t find Hinata. It’s okay, don’t worry about it. … I’m not patronising, I just don’t want you to worry! … Tell Kageyama to calm down, we’ll find him. … We just found his phone, alright? It was in a broken Gyrosphere, but he made it out, we’re following his footprints now. … Yes, it’s definitely his phone, and yes he definitely made it out.”

Koushi tries not to listen to Daichi try to calm down the other two first years on the phone, and instead follows Aihara and the footprints. They stop when the mud changes to earth and then grass, but there’s no blood or body parts, so Hinata probably made it across the paddock they’re in.

“Let’s get in the car, see if he’s still around,” Michimiya decides and they all nod in agreement and walk back to the car.

He’s fine, Koushi thinks. Hinata is a fast kid, whatever he ran from, he’s surely fine.

Tsukishima

Kei is worried. Yes, he doesn’t like Hinata one bit, and he did talk about feeding him to a dinosaur earlier, but hearing that they found his broken phone in the forest somewhere, realising the other might be dead… it’s a lot.
Yamaguchi and Hinata get along pretty well, so Kei tries to tell himself that he’s only worried about Hinata for his best friend, but he knows that those are lies.

He may not like most of his teammates, but they’re still his teammates, so he does care about them to some extent.

After he took the phone from Kageyama, he put the call on speaker, so now the two are sitting on the floor, the phone on a rock between them, and they’re listening to the sounds of the car.

“Hey, there’s another jeep,” Sawamura says after a minute. The car stops again and they inspect it. The keys are in the ignition, but it won’t start apparently.

“What if whoever was in the jeep ran into Hinata and they’re out there together now?” Sugawara voices all of their thoughts.
“I hope so.” Sawamura sounds uncertain though, and Kei really hates this whole situation.

“Hinata!” Sugawara yells again, and the others berate him, but he doesn’t apologise. Strangely, Kei understands.

“Okay, Tsukishima, Kageyama?” Sawamura says after there’s some more silence again.
“Yes?” They speak in unison.
“We’ll come pick you up now. There was a map in the car. I’ll drive as fast as I can.”

Kei opens his mouth to reply when there’s loud footsteps approaching. There have been footsteps the whole time from the dinosaurs nearby, but these are coming in their direction.
Not wanting to accidentally upset any of the dinosaurs around here, Kei gets up, grabs the phone and motions for Kageyama to follow him behind one of the thick trees. He leans against it and relaxes. This should be fine. The car sounds start again over the phone, and Kei tries to focus on them.

Suddenly, Kageyama grabs his arm, way too tightly. Kei opens his mouth to tell him off, but the other shakes his head violently. There’s pure fear in his eyes, different than when he was worried about the dinosaurs before. Kei tenses.

“What?” he mouths without making a sound. Kageyama looks past him, right behind Kei, and his heart speeds up. Oh no.

Slowly, very slowly, Kei turns his head, and stares right at a hideous beast that may look a little like a Tyrannosaurus Rex to the untrained eye, but Kei knows it’s no dinosaur that ever existed. This is some weird hybrid these idiot scientists created in their need to take playing god a step further.

The thing sniffs the air, and seems to be listening. Slowly, trying to keep the shaking of his hands under control, Kei moves his finger to the button that shuts off the speaker.
He’s almost there. Whatever that dinosaur is, they have to assume it has traits of all the most dangerous dinosaurs, so probably good hearing, vision and smell. Just a little further, and he’d reach the button.

“Tsukishima? Are you still there?”

Kei flinches, and the monster in front of them roars.

“Run,” Kei grits out, and for once, Kageyama just nods and they start sprinting.

The phone in his hand is going crazy, as Sugawara yells their names, and then Aihara tells him to be quiet if he wants them to survive. At least someone seems to have some basic dinosaur knowledge.
Kageyama’s breathing is just as loud as his own as they jump over fallen trees and try to find a way to lose the thing.

It’s not getting slower, despite the trees. In fact, it’s catching up, rapidly.

“Kageyama, tree,” Kei gasps, and points ahead at a really thick one with many branches around which they could use to climb.
“We’re not fast enough,” Kageyama protests, and Kei hates to admit that he’s right. Then he remembers the phone in hand.

“Suga,” he says, shortening the name for convenience. “In ten seconds I need you to scream as loud as you can.”

Luckily, the vice-captain doesn’t question it, so Kei starts counting down.

“Ten, nine, eight.”
The tree approaches, the monster behind them as well.

“Seven, six, five.”
Kei briefly dares to look back and then throws the phone to the side, praying it’ll survive, otherwise he and Kageyama won’t.

“Five, four, three two, one.”

The screaming is loud, and apparently the other’s are joining, not only Sugawara, so the phone is making a lot of noise, and the monster falters in its steps, looking around, probably trying to find the other humans. Kei doesn’t stop though, he and Kageyama reach the tree and start climbing as fast as they can.
At one point Kei’s foot slips, and he dangles from one hand, but Kageyama grabs his arm and helps him find footing again. They continue upwards, the sound of the phone growing more distant. Then it suddenly cuts out. The monster probably stepped on it or something. They’re high up by now. Not high enough to be out of reach, but high.

Kei grabs Kageyama’s ankle on the branch above him, and holds on tightly, willing him to stop.
The other boy does, and they freeze there on the branches as the monster keeps wandering underneath them.
Sweat is running down Kei’s back, from heat and exertion, but also from fear. After this weekend, he might not like dinosaurs anymore after all.

He can feel Kageyama shaking under his grip, and grips even tighter, a quiet reassurance that they’ll be fine.
Fuck their usual rivalry, he won’t let him die here if he can help it.

For what feels like hours, they stay there on the branches, not moving, barely daring to breathe, until finally, finally the monster starts moving away from them again.
With shaking arms, Kei pulls himself up to the branch next to Kageyama, and just breathes for a bit.

“Thank you,” Kageyama breaks the silence after a while. “You saved us.”
“Don’t sound so surprised, King. Of course I did.”

Hanamaki

This is probably the worst weekend ever. Takahiro wanted to visit Oikawa at his internship to annoy him, see some cool dinosaurs, buy some souvenirs to show off to Kindaichi and Kunimi, and make out with Issei a lot to annoy Iwaizumi and Oikawa. But now here they are, dripping from their jump down the waterfall after a fucking dinosaur almost ate them.

It’s a horrible weekend despite only being Friday, and Takahiro really just wants to go back home and troll people in Fortnite with Issei.
Hinata looks awful. Pale and shaken up, and not at all like the determined, energetic kid Takahiro remembers from playing against him. So, he makes it his mission to cheer him up.

Him and Issei walk with Hinata between them, talking over his head for a bit about what they’d love to do right now - eat ice cream, sleep, play volleyball - then Takahiro looks at the kid and ruffles his hair.

“Cheer up, smallfry, we have the dinosaur expert Oikawa Tooru with us.”
“Yes, he knows all about Galacticus and Volleyballraptors.”
Oikawa sends them a glare, but Hinata chuckles.
“Those don’t sound like real dinosaurs.”
“Oi, are you doubting my knowledge?” Takahiro jokes. “The Volleyballraptor has a round head and loves the jump, that’s how it got its name.”
“And the Galacticus?”
“A man named Galacticus found its teeth in his homegrown carrots, that’s how they discovered that one,” Issei says seriously. Hinata blinks.
“That sounds fake.”
“It is fake. Don’t listen to their bullshit, chibi-chan. When we’re safe, I’ll tell you all about my favourite dinosaurs. Which are the Gallimimus and the Velociraptor, none of their stupid made-up names.”
“They sound the same,” Takahiro mocks, and Oikawa glares at him even harder.
But Hinata seems cheered up, so mission complete. Takahiro and Issei fistbump behind his back.

They find a weird building in the forest they wander through on their search for the way back, and Oikawa decides they should look inside. In the worst case they could just hide in there and call for help. But Takahiro and Issei left their phones in the hotel, Oikawa’s is at his workplace between all the paperwork he was supposed to do, and Iwaizumi’s is out of battery - and probably died in the water anyways. And of course, being the idiots they are, they left the radio in the broken down car.

But they seem to be in luck. In the building, there’s mainly dust and an old Jurassic Park banner, but there’s also a door that leads back outside, and there, in a makeshift garage, are two old Jurassic Park jeeps.

“Now that we’re not in any acute danger, how about we try and fix up one of those cars?” Issei says, clapping his hands.

It takes them probably around half an hour of working together, some trial and error, and lots of oil smeared over hands and clothes, but then they finally manage to start the car, and Hinata looks ready to cry in relief.

“Finally. Here’s a map too,” Oikawa says, pulling it from behind the passenger seat. “Let’s get out of here.”

They all climb in, Iwaizumi in the front, Hinata in the back between Issei and Takahiro, Oikawa behind the wheel. New hope and optimism blossoms in Takahiro’s chest.

As they’re driving, Takahiro puts an arm around Hinata’s shoulders, and ruffles his hair.
“You okay, Shouyou-kun?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Your lip is swollen.”
“I bit it when my sphere was thrown.”
“We’ll get you some ice once we’re safe.”
The kid smiles.
“Thanks.”

The rest of the ride is supposed to be calm. Iwaizumi is holding the map, navigating them, Oikawa is driving at a nice speed of not too fast and not too slow.
But of course they can’t have such luck, so out of nowhere two figures run in front of the car, and Oikawa has to slam the breaks as hard as he can to avoid hitting them.

Before Takahiro can say anything, Hinata is moving forward between the seats.

“Kageyama! Tsukishima!”

Kageyama and Tsukishima are sweaty and seem weak on their feet like they ran for too long. Takahiro moves onto Issei’s lap, and Hinata squeezes close to them so the other two can fit into the car with them. Takahiro remembers that Iwaizumi and Oikawa went to middle school with the Kageyama kid, so that probably explains the - albeit extremely weak - glare on Kageyama’s face as Oikawa starts driving.

“Hinata, dumbass, where have you been?” he snaps after a moment, and Hinata bristles.
“Don’t talk to me like that, I was almost eaten today and then I almost drowned!”
“Don’t worry about the chibi-chan, Tobio-kun, we took good care of him,” Oikawa sing-songs from the front, but then Iwaizumi hits him in the shoulder before looking at Kageyama.

“Are you two alright?”
“Physically,” the blond kid grumbles, and Takahiro knows exactly what he means. They’ll all need therapy after this.

“Do you know where Suga-san and the others are?” Hinata asks then, and Kageyama and Tsukishima share a look that has Hinata sitting up some more.
“What is it?!”
“Well, they’re in a jeep too, looking for us. We were on the phone with them when this… monster attacked us.”
“You mean dinosaur?” Issei asks, and the blond shakes his head.
“I know about every single dinosaur that was ever discovered. That thing is no dinosaur. That’s some hybrid experiment.”

“It’s the same one we ran into,” Oikawa speaks up. “I didn’t get a good look between running and keeping an eye on Hinata in case he falls, but that wasn’t one I’ve ever heard of.”

Takahiro shivers, and appreciates the kiss Issei presses to his neck.

“So there’s some dinosaur experiment running around, and your friends are still looking for you?”

Tsukishima nods, lips a tight line.

“Any phones on you?”
“No. Both broken.”
“We don’t have any either.”
“Mine is at the Innovation Center, in a room pretty close to the entrance. We can get it and call Sugawara-”
“His phone is broken,” Kageyama interrupts. “He probably dropped it when those flying dinosaurs tried to eat him.”
“Pterosaurs,” Tsukishima corrects.

Takahiro blinks, and Hinata is pale again. This day is just getting better and better. Oikawa starts again.

“We can get my phone and call Sawamura then.”

This time none of the two boys they’ve just picked up protest, so the Karasuno captain’s phone should still be working.

“Okay, so we just need to get there quick enough before they…” Takahiro trails off, deciding that that’s not a funny joke. He can do better. Maybe not right now, but soon he’ll make jokes again and make everyone laugh.

Sugawara

They’re all sitting in terrified silence after the call has disconnected. There’s no way of telling if Tsukishima and Kageyama made it, and Koushi feels like throwing up.

And then, to make matters worse, there’s jeeps approaching from behind, and motorcycles.

“What are they doing?” Michimiya asks, and Koushi blinks when he spots their weapons.
“They’re hunting something. And we’re driving right into it.”
“We need to turn around,” Daichi decides and slows the car.
“But Tsukishima and Kageyama,” Koushi starts.
“Suga, we have to go back. Whatever they’re hunting will hunt us, or we’ll get in the way and get people hurt! They’ll be okay. They’ll call out to the rangers and they’ll take them back to safety.”

Daichi sounds like he’s trying to convince himself more than he’s trying to convince Koushi, and it’s a horrible knowledge.
The girls are silent in the back, and when Koushi looks over his shoulder he sees that they’re holding hands. At any other moment he would have mocked them for it as they’re obviously both crushing on the other, but right now he can’t get a word out of his mouth, so he just turns back around and stares out the window as he hears engines in the distance, and then something that may have been a gunshot.

Hinata

Shouyou is really glad to see Kageyama and Tsukishima again, even though it freaks him out how quiet they both are, not fighting even a little bit. But then again, he understands, he doesn’t feel like fighting either.

At the Innovation Center, they all get out of the car and rush into the empty building, Oikawa turning a corner and unlocking a room. They wait for him as he rummages around in there, and then they can hear his voice, talking on the phone.

“I took your jeep with some friends, we made it back to the Innovation Center. … Yes, we’re all fine, we outsmarted it. … Yeah, that thing. … Indominus Rex? Okay. … Oh, okay. … I know, I’m sorry. … Okay, be careful. … Okay, I will. … Yes, okay. Thanks, Owen. … Bye.”

Oikawa steps out of the room and looks at everyone with a sweep of his gaze.

“Owen said there are still some personnel in the command center, and that we should get to safety with them.”
“First we call Sawamura-san,” Shouyou reminds him, and Oikawa nods and taps on his phone before pressing it to his ear.

“Long story short, I’m at the Innovation Center with Hinata, Kageyama and Tsukishima. Come here as quickly as possible, we’re waiting.”
Shouyou can hear Sugawara’s exclamation, and then Oikawa hands him the phone.

“Suga-san?”
“Hinata, thank goodness, I was so worried, we all were so worried about you!”

Guilt fills him head to toe.

“I’m so sorry I just ran off. And that I didn’t answer my phone. I’m sorry…”
“You better be. But now is not the time to get angry about that. Are Kageyama and Tsukishima alright too?”
“Yes, they’re fine. They look super spooked and tired, but they’re not hurt.”

Sugawara exhales loudly.

“Okay, we’re on our way, please just stay on the phone, for my sanity.”

Shouyou smiles a bit.

“Of course. Do you want me to tell you how Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san and their friends saved me?”
“You don’t know our names, kid? Rude,” the one with the pinkish hair jokes, and Shouyou blinks, ready to apologise, but the other just waves it off.
“Proper introductions once we’re safe. Just talk to your friend for now.”

So, Shouyou sits on the floor and leans against the wall, telling Sugawara all about how he jumped off a waterfall with them, how Iwaizumi had made sure he stays underwater long enough, and how they found the jeep and then Kageyama and Tsukishima.

Sugawara calms down during their conversation, and he chuckles a few times. Soon, they’ll be with them again.

Daichi

When they finally reach the Innovation Center, Suga jumps out the car and sways. His foot has started bleeding again during the rough drive through the forest. He moves over to him quickly and supports him with an arm around the waist.

“If you weren’t so damn stubborn, we could have come here immediately to get you some first aid.”
“We had to find the kids.”
“They didn’t even need us.”
“But what if they had?”

Daichi rolls his eyes and keeps dragging Suga towards the Center. The door is wide open, and when they get closer, they can hear voices.

“Hinata,” Suga calls, relief replacing volume, and then there’s the redhead sprinting towards them and jumping at Suga. Daichi has to keep them both upright.

“Hinata, he’s injured,” Daichi reminds him, and Hinata’s eyes widen as he takes a step back.
“Suga-san!”
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Suga mumbles, but sways on his feet again. Gritting his teeth, Daichi moves his arm down to Suga’s legs and lifts him up.

“He probably needs some water after losing blood and then being in this heat for so long,” Oikawa’s voice speaks up, and then he’s there, holding out a bottle of water.
He’s right, despite the sun setting a little while ago, it’s still unbearably hot. And the fact that Suga isn't wearing a shirt since it was destroyed by the Pterosaurs isn't really helping him stay any cooler than the rest of them.

So, Daichi tries to reach for the bottle, but his hands are full with his boyfriend. Oikawa chuckles and opens the bottle, then helps Suga take a few sips.

“I’m getting a first aid kit,” Iwaizumi announces and moves to one of the medical stations on the left of the Center.

Michimiya and Aihara check on Kageyama and Tsukishima in the meantime, and then leave everyone to get some more water from one of the abandoned shops.

They're taking long, probably a bit too long, but they're all exhausted and need a break.
They drink water, eat some snacks the girls found as well, and Iwaizumi cleans Suga's foot and then wraps it with steady hands.
Daichi feels like the weight of the world has lifted off of his shoulders when Suga grins at him, looking a lot better than before after eating and drinking something and having his foot taken care of.

A little off to the side, Tsukishima and Oikawa are arguing about what kind of hybrid the weird monster they both encountered is. Daichi just hopes he won't have to see it.

"It had Tyrannosaurus characteristics, I'm telling you, its hearing was great judging by how it reacted to the sound of the phone. But it also saw me flinch, so there's probably some raptor in there too."
"Tyrannosaurus aren't blind," Oikawa drawls. "There's no way that there's raptor in there. Even those scientists can't be dumb enough to do something like that. Also, Owen said it’s called Indominus Rex. Rex, not Raptor."

Tsukishima angrily pushes his glasses up.

"I'm telling you, there's definitely raptor in there! The way it reacted and moved-"
"Calm down, I work here, you know? I know a little more than you, kid."

Oikawa pats his cheek, and Tsukishima seems ready to beat him up, but gladly Michimiya saves the day by interrupting them.

"So, what's the plan now?"

It's silent around them then, without the bickering, and honestly kind of spooky. They should probably get inside.

"Owen told me that there's still people here from the staff, we can go with them. They're in the command center. We just have to-"

Some weird clicking noise interrupts them, and both Oikawa and Tsukishima get very, very still.

Aihara looks pale.

"Is that-"
"Don't move," Oikawa orders, and Daichi fixes his eyes on Suga sitting on the floor next to him. If they have to run, he'll have to help him and hope for the best.

He barely dares to breathe, and then the source of the sound runs onto the street ahead of them. It's a tall thing, looking a little like a dangerous oversized gecko or something. It makes the clicking noises again, and Daichi swallows nervously.

"Wait, that's what they-"
"I know," Oikawa interrupts Tsukishima. "It bothers me too, believe me. But the appearance is the only thing they got wrong, they're really fucking clever."
"At least they can do something right."
"I'll think about that when it bites my head off."

Kageyama takes a step back to Daichi's left, and Daichi moves his hand.

"Stay still," he hisses, but the dinosaur's eyes are fixed on the kid already. Daichi grits his teeth and then moves to the side, with careful movements in front of Kageyama. He's not going to let any of the others get hurt if he can do something about that.

"Sawamura, don't move," Oikawa hisses, but Daichi grabs Kageyama's arm and pulls him behind his back slowly so he can fully shield him. The dinosaur is still watching them, making noises again.

"The Velociraptor never hunts alone." Tsukishima’s voice is matter of fact, but Daichi's heart sinks.
"They're incredibly smart, and their vision is probably the best of all dinosaurs. They're the best hunters you could think of. And right now they're hunting us."

There's more dinosaur noises from the side, and Daichi pushes Kageyama further back when another Velociraptor emerges between the buildings on their right.

Holding back curses, Daichi looks at the others. Tsukishima is tensely watching the dinosaur in front of them, Oikawa and Iwaizumi are standing with Hinata between them. Michimiya and Aihara are a little further off to the side, and Matsukawa and Hanamaki are behind Suga.

Daichi is glad someone is near his boyfriend to help him. But can they even run?

"How fast are they?" Daichi asks.

"Theories say about 65 kilometres per hour, or 40 miles per hour. But these aren't the real ones, so I really don't know."

"The keeper I'm friends with raised them. I helped him with them occasionally," Oikawa says. "They're faster than that."

"I have an idea," Suga speaks up, and Daichi looks at his boyfriend who's pushing himself to his feet carefully. The velociraptors are circling them by now.

"Everyone run into the building."
"We can't outrun them," Tsukishima hisses. "Especially not you."
"I'm not saying we outrun them. We just need to get inside and into some room to lock us in."
"We won't make it," Oikawa now says, and Daichi can see Suga getting frustrated. He trusts him, blindly so.

"I'm in," he interrupts. "We don't have a choice. If we stay-"

"Maybe I can talk to them." Oikawa takes a step forward.
"Shittykawa, what are you doing?" Iwaizumi hisses and grabs the back of his ugly overalls.
"Owen named them. He almost tamed them. I… They know me."

Oikawa's hands are shaking as he holds them out.

"Charlie, hey, you know me, right? I helped feed you, and I watched Owen train you. We're friends, aren't we?"

The Velociraptor makes a hissing sound, and Iwaizumi yanks Oikawa back.

"Change of plans," he snaps. "We listen to Sugawara."

Sugawara

Koushi pushes to his feet and gratefully lets Matsukawa grab his arm to drag him along.

"I hope you actually do have a plan," Hanamaki calls, staying beside them despite that slowing them down.

Koushi does, but… If it doesn't work.
"Go without me, go, I'm too slow."

The Velociraptors are playing with them, they could have gotten them already, Koushi knows it. The others are in the building already, but those things know he's injured.
It's hunter logic. Go for the slow, injured prey. He's not going to get anyone killed along with him.

"Go," he snaps, and glares at Matsukawa. After a moment, the boy drops his arm and then he and Hanamaki are running for real.

Koushi turns around, he's maybe two meters away from his destination. He needs to make sure both raptors are focused on him instead of his friends.

"Hey, Charlie, right? I wonder what your friend's name is. You're a good girl, aren't you?" His voice is trembling, and his foot is pulsing with pain.

They start to circle him, but he can't let them cut off his path, so Koushi moves backwards, and that seems to finally end the game for them, and one of them jumps. Koushi throws himself backwards, hand blindly tapping the tablet, and then just when he thinks he miscalculated, the hologram of a dinosaur springs to life between him and the Velociraptor, disrupting the dinosaur's jump as it makes angry noises at it, probably ready to fight for their food.

Koushi is really fucking tired of having dinosaurs fight over who gets to eat him.

Deciding not to waste time, he crawls on his knees towards where he saw the others, but when he gets closer, he freezes. There, keeping the rest of their group from getting to the open door of a room, is another stupid Velociraptor.

"I think now is a good time to mention that there's four in total," Oikawa says, and Koushi wants to scream.

Iwaizumi rips a first aid box off the wall and throws it at the Velociraptor in front of them, and they use the time of the other two still being distracted by the hologram to manage to get outside. That’s great, really, yet Koushi is ready to let one of the Velociraptors bite off his foot with how much it's hurting.
Their luck is short-lived. There, in front of the Center, is the fourth, the missing daughter.

"Thats Blue. She's the alpha. Or like, Owen is the alpha, but she's next in line."

Well, it's nice to know the name of the dinosaur who will kill them, Koushi guesses.

"Maybe you should call that Owen guy again," Hinata mumbles, clinging to Iwaizumi's arm.

"Right. I should."

But they all know that the Velociraptors probably had enough of teasing their food. They want to eat.

Koushi can't help but think of a cat playing with some mice it wants to eat.

He looks around for Daichi, needing to see him at least one last time before it's over.

"Blue."
Oikawa's voice startles him.
"Blue, listen to me." He's stern, the insecurity he had when trying to talk to Charlie is gone.
"I'm not Owen, but Owen will be very disappointed if you eat me."

The Velociraptor steps closer.

"Blue," Oikawa snaps, and the dinosaur pauses and tilts her head. "That's a good girl. Listen to me. There's enough food on this island for you, you don't have to eat us."

The situation would be hilarious if Koushi wasn't terrified for his life. Oikawa is really talking to a fucking dinosaur like it's a dog.

In his hands, Oikawa is fiddling with his phone, and then a voice sounds from the speaker. He called someone.

"Kid, where are you?"
The Velociraptor makes a sound at the voice.
"Innovation Center. Your girls found us."
"I'm on my way, the car had issues, but we're almost there."
"I don't think we'll be able to wait."

Blue is approaching some more now, looking almost curious.

"Blue," Oikawa says sternly. "Stop."
The guy on the phone sucks in a breath and then also says the dinosaur's name.

Koushi is glad about the phone distracting the Velociraptors for now, but this won't work forever. Maybe they could do what Tsukishima and Kageyama did, throw the phone and run for it.

"Put the phone on the floor," he hisses, and Oikawa doesn't look in his direction, never taking his eyes off of the dinosaur as he leans down and places the phone on the ground.

Now they just need an opening to run.

Before he can finish that thought, the earth starts to tremble.

"Fuck," Tsukishima voices all their thoughts.

Aihara

Mao had been looking forward to this weekend because not only does she get to see dinosaurs, she also gets to spend it with Yui, and maybe, maybe build up the courage to ask her out over the course of it.

Needless to say, things didn't work out as planned.

So, here they are, being circled by four Velociraptors who she's pretty sure are supposed to be smaller and with more feathers, while some keeper on the phone tries to remotely save their asses.

Not very good odds, really.

Yui next to her is breathing shallowly, and she wishes she could comfort her in some way, but her own heart is in her throat, and she feels like throwing up.

The giant thing that approaches them is definitely the monster Tsukishima and Oikawa talked about, the Indominus Rex. She doesn't know nearly as much about dinosaurs as them, but even she can see that that's just… Wrong.

And then, to make matters worse, it communicates with the Velociraptors.

"I told you so," Tsukishima hisses under his breath, but he doesn't sound happy about it.

The keeper, Owen, gets louder on the phone as the Velociraptors reply, and then one of the Raptors attacks the big one, and Sugawara hisses "Not again!"

Mao's brain is swimming a bit, so she isn't sure how, but she ends up cowered behind a souvenir counter next to Michimiya, holding her hand in a bruising grip.

She doesn't know where the others are, but outside there's a fight going on between the four small ones and the big dinosaur.

Mao wants to go home.

"What do we do? It's so big, the small ones can't win, and we can't even make a run for it with Sugawara," Yui whispers close to her ear.
Mao tries to think of something, her eyes moving around the shop rapidly. They stop on a Tyrannosaurus plush, and she swallows nervously.

"I have a very stupid idea."

It's stupid, so stupid.
That's what Mao keeps repeating in her head as she dashes out into the open, snatches Oikawa's phone from the floor, and keeps running.
She knows Yui is somewhere behind here, keeping an eye on the dinosaurs so if any of them decide to follow Mao, she can distract them.

Mao thinks she can hear Sawamura's voice from somewhere as she runs, but that might be her imagination. It doesn't matter anyways, she just keeps running.

"Hello?" she gasps, hoping the call is still connected. It is.
"Are you all okay?" The man sounds tense.
"I need you to open the Tyrannosaurus gate," she gasps instead of replying and skits to a halt in front of said gate.

"What?!"

"You need to trust me and open it. I have an idea. Her left hand is holding the flare she found in the shop tightly, sweat making it slippery.

"There's already five different dinosaurs with you, I'm not adding another-"
"You have to trust me! I have an idea!"

Mao bounces on her heels.

"Please just open it."

In the distance she can hear Hinata screaming, and her blood runs cold.

"Now!" she barks in a voice she never used before, and it almost startles her. Luckily, it finally seems to work because she can hear the man talk to someone else who's with him, and then a female voice is ordering someone to open the gate. It takes some more tense seconds of arguing, and Hinata's screams cut off. Mao doesn't want to think about what that means.

Then, finally, the light at the gate starts blinking, and Mao braces herself.

"Hey, Rexie! Come on, don't you want to hunt something for one? Come on girl, come and get me!"
The footsteps are slow, almost as if the Tyrannosaurus is tiredly strolling over. Mao swallows and forces herself to wait.
This has to work. Whatever happened to Hinata, she can't think about that right now.

The flare in her hand is bright when she lights it, and then she starts running, slowly at first so the dinosaur definitely follows her, then faster and faster, until she's sprinting as fast as she can, heavy footsteps too close behind her.

Her heartbeat and the heavy steps is the only thing she hears, and then she stumbles around a corner and back onto the place in front of the Center.

Holding her breath, she throws the flare in the direction of the Indominus, and keeps running. She's not even sure if the Tyrannosaurus is still chasing her, so she doesn't dare slow down until he hears a roar and then what sounds like two dinosaurs crashing into each other.

Still, Mao throws herself behind a decorative rock, and then gasps, trying to catch her breath. She outran a Tyrannosaurus. She really outran a freaking Tyrannosaurus.

Hinata

When Iwaizumi drags him along to the side suddenly, Shouyou goes willingly, and squeezes into the space between two shops Iwaizumi indicates.

"Don't move," he orders, then hurries to hide somewhere he fits too.

Shouyou is alone again then, and his breath is going fast. He doesn't know where the others went to hide, but he knows that he wants to go home. Dinosaurs are so not fun anymore.

And then there's the big monster dinosaur, something Rex, in his field of vision and it throws one of the Velociraptors against a building and the dinosaur doesn't move anymore. It's killing them, Shouyou realises, horrified.

But that's not the worst, no. For the moment with no Velociraptors distracting it because they're recovering or whatever, the monster moves to one of the shops, and Shouyou can see Kageyama, Sawamura and Sugawara there.

He doesn't think before he acts. That's nothing new, but this time it might have bad consequences.

"Hey! Hey you stinky beast!"

He jumps out of his hiding spot and hops up and down.

"Hey! I'm here!"

But then it looks at him, of course it does, and it approaches him, and Shouyou squeezes back into the spot between the shops, and silently hopes it won't find him.

It does find him.

Shouyou starts screaming as the mouth with those giant teeth tries to get to him, the only thing saving him for now being that the dinosaur is too big to actually fit into the gap. That doesn't change the fact that Shouyou is very close to those teeth and can smell the breath of the thing. It's awful, and he finds himself screaming even louder when it pulls back and tries to get to him with its claws instead.

Tears and snot are running down his face, and he thinks about how he never told Kageyama that he's his best friend. That he wants him to set for him for the rest of his life.

One claw catches on his shoe, and Shouyou is sobbing as the monster starts pulling him out of the gap.

Then a dull sound rings, and a can clatters to the floor that apparently hit the monster in the back of the head. More cans follow, and the thing roars and turns around.

This would be nice, but Shouyou's shoes are still caught on the giant claw of the thing, so he's pulled along by the movement and then flies, crashing into a display of dinosaur plushies.

"Hey! Leave Shouyou-kun alone!"
"Yeah, pick on someone your own size, asshole!"

Oikawa's friends.

Shouyou rolls over, head ringing from hitting the wood of the shelf, and looks over to where the two boys are waving their hands to distract the dinosaur. Then arms grab him and he flinches, but Sawamura shushes him and carries him over to where Sugawara and Kageyama are kneeling.

"Hinata, dumbass," Kageyama croaks, eyes wide, and Shouyou moves forward, wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug.

"I want you to set for me forever."
"Are you stupid? Of course I will, idiot."

Shouyou smiles and is about to relax, when he remembers that the dinosaur isn't gone, just distracted. Distracted by-

"Issei!"

Tsukishima

Kei is frozen in place beside Oikawa in one of the shops as he watches the guy with the dark hair be flung around like a ragdoll and hit the side of the Innovation Center before dropping to the floor, unmoving.

“Matsukawa,” Oikawa gasps.

He can't even think about doing anything because then Aihara comes running, behind her a damn Tyrannosaurus.
God dammit. Kei is tired of dinosaurs.

But her plan seems to work out because now the Indominus and the Tyrannosaurus are fighting, and then the only surviving Velociraptor joins in, and it's a breathtaking fight.

Iwaizumi grabs both him and Oikawa by the collar and drags them along to where the others are running to the Center.

Hanamaki is kneeling on the floor beside Matsukawa, holding his head in his lap, stroking his face.

"Can't wait to tell Kindaichi and Kunimi about this," Matsukawa rasps. "A hybrid dinosaur monster tried to eat me, but because my shirt got caught on its teeth weirdly, it flung me around instead."

He grins and his teeth are red. Internal bleeding. Kei feels sick.

"We need to get inside, hide until someone finds us," Sawamura decides, and then leans down next to Hanamaki and Matsukawa to help him pick him up. They clearly try to be careful, but with how many bones are probably broken in his body, every little movement is going to hurt, so Kei isn't surprised when Matsukawa gasps and whimpers as they move him.

"We probably shouldn't be doing this," Michimiya mumbles, but they all know that they can't stay out here in the open. So for once they have to ignore what's the right thing to do medically, and move Matsukawa inside.

They make it to Oikawa's office room as he calls it, and Iwaizumi - who has been suspiciously quiet during all of this - and Aihara push the desk in front of the closed door. Matsukawa is lying on the floor, his breathing rapid and coming out in gasps, and Hanamaki is silently crying next to him, hands clinging to his own shirt as he's probably afraid to hurt Matsukawa more if he touches him.

"This is my fault," Hinata mumbles next to Kei, and he grits his teeth, slamming his elbow into the boy's side.
"It's not, stop being stupid."
"But he saved me."
"You have a concussion, you don't know what you're saying," Kei dismisses him. Yes, maybe it's Hinata's fault in some way, but Hanamaki and Matsukawa acted on their own accord, so it'd be dumb for Hinata to blame himself.

Oikawa moves to the window and stares through it with a blank face, probably not seeing much of what's actually outside. The quiet is eerie.

Finally, Oikawa's phone rings, startling them all, and Aihara hands it to Oikawa who picks up.

"Hello? ... Owen…. You're outside?... Oh. We're… we're in my office…. No, no we're not okay. Owen, you have to- we need, we need an ambulance, Mattsun, he-"

Iwaizumi steps to Oikawa, and Kei kind of expects him to punch him, like Sugawara might try to punch positivity into them, but instead, Iwaizumi takes the phone from Oikawa and grabs one of his hands with his free hand.

"Broken bones, he needs medical attention immediately. Internal bleeding too. Hurry up." Iwaizumi's voice is sharp and full of worry, and Kei looks at Matsukawa on the floor again, and wonders if he'll make it.

Oikawa

Owen and a woman find them a minute or so later, and Iwaizumi pushes the desk away from the door again to let them in.

Taking one look at him, Owen moves forward and pulls Tooru into a crushing hug.

"I called for help, they're sending helicopters for those with the worst injuries. He just has to hang in there for a bit longer."

It seems to take forever, and Matsukawa's breathing is more of a wheezing. Hanamaki won't stop crying, and finally Tooru sits next to him and holds him, trying to hold his friend together.

When the helicopter arrives, Hanamaki insists on going with them, and they offer to take Sugawara too, but he declines saying there's probably people who need the help more urgently than him. Also, he doesn't want to leave the first years.

So, they look after the helicopter, and then climb into the car Owen drove here and he takes them to the ferry.
The building is crowded. People are crying, some are sleeping, others are sharing food or water.

They sit as a group on the floor, and Hinata basically collapses onto Sugawara’s lap.

"Is it over?" he asks, voice timid. Sugawara strokes his hair.
"It is, we're going home now."

Tooru looks at Sawamura who's wiping at a cut on Tsukishima’s forehead, and then at Kageyama who seems to barely be able to keep his eyes open but has one hand clutching Hinata's shirt so tightly his knuckles are white.

The girls from Karasuno are talking, mainly the one with the short hair.
"You were so brave! You just ran there, and then with the T-Rex! You could have stumbled or… Or not been fast enough, but you were, and I was so scared for you, but you were so brave-"
The other girl kisses her and shuts her up.

Tooru huffs and looks away from them towards Iwaizumi who's staring into space, standing a few feet away from them.

With a sigh, Tooru pushes to his feet and walks over to him.

"Iwa-chan," he mumbles. "You okay?"
"Shut up, Shittykawa."

Iwaizumi takes a step to him and pulls him against his chest. Tooru sighs and closes his eyes, hugging him back.
They're alive. They made it. They'll go home soon.

"Oh shit! I have to call Yamaguchi! The last time I talked to him the call cut off because the monster almost ate me!"