Chapter Text
How do you start a story about the heavens and earth? Well, you start at the beginning of everything. The beginning of the world - or in this case, his world.
November 10th.
9:12 am.
Yamaguchi Tadashi was born. His cries filled the operation room. The doctors placed the newborn against his mother’s chest. She cooed at him and placed long and loving kisses on his forehead, calling his name “Tadashi”. It was truly the miracle of life.
However, there is never just one side to a story. Now that we’ve seen the events on earth, let’s rewind to exactly 12 hours and 29 minutes before Yamaguchi was born, in another plane of existence that’s much higher than the one we know of.
November 9th.
8:43 am.
Tsukishima Kei was considerably young. He would turn 400 years old this lunar year. Usually, they would send angels on their first mission when they’ve reached the age of 750 but Tsukishima would begin his mission at just 400. It might not seem like a big deal, after all, it’s the difference of just 350 years but it wasn’t helping that everyone seemed to be putting so much pressure on him. Even his dear older brother, Akiteru, had taken a day off from his own humans to join in the farewell party and celebrate this wondrous occasion.
Tsukishima tried to stay in one corner, his left hand fidgeting as he tapped repeatedly against the glass of champagne he held in the other hand.
Every time a child is born, a guardian angel is sent down to guide that human until they reach adulthood, which was at age 21 although some angels might stick around until their human was 25. Some of the more experienced or talented angels, like Akiteru, were in charge of more than one human. It felt like a waste of resources when so many of these humans end up making the worst of their lives. Tsukishima panicked a little, afraid of the human he would have to take care of. He had heard of humans who turned out to be more wicked than anyone could imagine and Tsukishima didn’t have to think too hard to know that it was the workings of a demon.
“Is everything okay, Tsukishima?” a shorter male had approached him. His black hair seemed to flow with a non-existent breeze and his eyes filled with knowledge and wisdom past his years.
“Archangel Akaashi,” Tsukishima greeted, bowing slightly to show his respect. “I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”
The archangel was wearing a neat tuxedo with a translucent shawl draped over his arms. He had a serene air around him and any angel or human who was close by would feel their mind at ease, including Tsukishima.
“It will be alright,” Akaashi comforted. “I was nervous when I took my first mission too, but it turns out that I was just worried over nothing.”
“Of course you’d do well, you’re an archangel,” Tsukishima replied softly.
“Not always,” Akaashi gave him a gentle smile before turning and walking back to his partner, Bokuto.
The worry was starting to return the moment Akaashi was out of his radius. Tsukishima checked the giant grandfather clock that hung over the portal. It would take exactly 12 hours and 14 minutes to teleport to earth - not a pretty number but the heavens are working to fix that.
A bunch of other angels were already stepping into the portal to their own new humans. Not surprising, seeing how many humans were born each day.
“Hey, hey! Tsukki!” now Akaashi, Bokuto and Akiteru were heading his way. “It’s almost time for you to go!”
“Just five more minutes!” Akiteru was grinning from ear to ear, holding onto his brother’s shoulders and pushing him closer to the portal.
“I’m not sure about this,” Tsukishima hesitated. Now, even Akaashi’s presence wasn’t easing his worry. “M-Maybe I should just do my first mission when I’m 450 after all.”
“WHAT? That’s nonsense!” Akiteru gave him a small smack on the back.
“You’re so lucky you get your mission so early!” Bokuto’s eyes were sparkling.
“I trust that you’ll do great,” Akaashi smiled.
Tsukishima sighed.
And then it was time. The dreadful, nauseating 12 hours 14 minutes teleportation…
“Don’t forget to write back, Kei,” was the last thing he heard from Akiteru before everything became a pure white light…
November 10th.
9:12 am.
Tsukishima placed a hand over his mouth. He felt sick all over and needed to take a seat.
“Sir, is everything okay?” a human wearing some sort of uniform… a nurse! A nurse approached Tsukishima looking extremely worried about the state he was in.
“I-I’m good…” he leaned himself against the wall.
“Maybe I can get you a cup of water?”
“No thanks… Where can I find the delivery ward?”
“Um… It’s just down this hallway…” the nurse pointed, still worried about Tsukishima. “I’ll go get you some water after all!”
As soon as the nurse ran off, Tsukishima stumbled down the hallway. With any luck, he’d find his human immediately. He looked around the different operating rooms and took a deep breath in.
“Sir! Sir?” The nurse had returned. “That’s strange…”
Tsukishima waved a hand in front of her.
“I was sure I saw him walk this way…” she mumbled to herself as she walked back to where she came from.
Now that his physical form was gone, he slipped through the walls into the first operation room. There on the mother’s chest laid a newborn baby. ‘Yamaguchi Tadashi’ he immediately knew the baby’s name.
Tsukishima walked pass the doctors and nurses and stood behind the mother. He gazed down at Yamaguchi and smiled. He was an adorable child. Maybe they were right, it probably isn’t as bad as he thought it would be…
August 10th.
6:08 am.
“You’ll be late.”
“Come on, it’s not always you get a randomly assigned human to corrupt, you know.” the raven-haired male grinned.
“It takes 15 months, 3 hours, and 4 minutes to get to earth from down here. You. Will. Be. Late.” the other male with a dyed blond hair frowned.
“I KNOW! It’s such a horrible number to keep track of, I hope they’ll fix it soon.”
“It’s not that… Just wait for the next human.”
“No way! I’d rather be fabulously late.” He stuck out his tongue. “Even Oikawa has been jobless for centuries, I’m not letting this one pass.”
The male with the dyed hair sighed. “Suit yourself.”
“I’ll show you, Kenma,” the black-haired one smiled, spreading his blackened wings as he proudly waltzed into the portal. “How great of a demon I am.”
And everything faded to a shade darker than black...