Day 7 of Iwaizumi week… AU (Ancient Greece!) Feel free to send me any questions you have because I can easily see how this one could be a tad confusing. Long post ahead!
Iwaizumi stared through the gaping hole in the wall, his head spinning and his vision flickering. Out the opening he could see people running about, shouting and cursing and crying, a few even praying, although Iwaizumi knew that no prayers could save them now. He closed his eyes as his gut constricted, and thought ‘oh god, how easy it would be to just give up now…’
A panicked yell from behind him jolted him out of his unrealistic fantasy and he stumbled, the very earth rocking under his feet. Desperately trying to regain his balance Iwaizumi turned, bracing himself against the one somewhat intact wall, and lifted his head.
A few feet away stood Oikawa, his chiton torn and bloodied, his hair in disarray. “Hajime!” He screamed, and Iwaizumi winced as the earth shook a little more. Feeling his knees begin to weaken Iwaizumi groaned, scrabbling for any purchase along the wall. Oikawa hurried forwards, yanking Iwaizumi closer by his own thoroughly ruined chlamys, and pulled the soldier close.
“I’m getting you out of here,” Oikawa hissed, and Iwaizumi tried to pull himself away.
“My sister,” he crooned, reaching out towards the broken wall. “Sh-she ran…”
The house shook and a few crumbling mud bricks fell from the ceiling, nearly hitting the two males. Iwaizumi grit his teeth and stepped forwards, accidentally pulling the younger male with him. Oikawa yanked him back as more debris rained from the ceiling, and again, Iwaizumi barely managed to avoid getting crushed. When Oikawa began to pull him Iwaizumi made no move to protest, and allowed himself to be guided out into the courtyard.
With blood dripping into his vision Iwaizumi began to trip and managed to fall flat onto his face, his head spinning. “Some soldier you are!” Oikawa sobbed, and tried to haul him up again. “Hajime, Hajime, please…”
Iwaizumi couldn’t hold on anymore. With his consciousness slipping he struggled to sit up, and the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Oikawa’s tearstreaked face as the world began to collapse around them.
He was being rocked to sleep; no, he was being punched very, very gently on either side. Perhaps by the general? He never did like Iwaizumi, although he was only a rank lower, which hardly condoned punching.
Wait, no– he was on a boat.
Iwaizumi let out a groan as he slowly opened his eyes, the stormy skies high above him shifting slowly from side to side. Iwaizumi took a deep breath, trying desperately to ignore the splitting pain from his temples as he sat up.
Before he could even register where he was a wave of seasickness hit him and Iwaizumi threw himself towards the side of the boat, hacking violently a few times but producing nothing. When some of his senses returned he could feel a soothing hand on his back and he turned a little, squinting at the figure.
“Tooru,” he breathed, and felt like weeping with relief. Gradually the other’s face came into view and Iwaizumi struggled to cope with seeing the blood, tears, and sweat clouding Oikawa’s normally unblemished face.
“Oh, praise the gods, you’re alive,” Oikawa croaked, and the hand came up to cup Iwaizumi’s cheek. Iwaizumi blinked once, twice, and swallowed against the nausea building in his throat.
“Could you tell me,” he said slowly, painfully, “what the hell is going on?”
Oikawa merely pointed back towards the shore, his eyes watering, and Iwaizumi drug his gaze over with great reluctance.
Athens was gone– or, at least, mostly so. The ground where it had been was shifting and swimming with the consistency of water, with the rolling hills surrounding the destructed city stretching up high towards the heavens. Iwaizumi looked on in horror, watching as what few survivors running around were slowly swallowed up by the quaking earth.
“It’s Gaea,” Oikawa whispered, his voice tremoring. “She’s angry about something, and I don’t– she isn’t–”
“What the hell is that,” Iwaizumi asked, his voice barely audible, as he pointed a shaking finger towards the docks (or, alternatively, where the docks had been).
Oikawa gave an audible whimper, shaking his head furiously from side to side. “Charybdis,” he said shakily, his eyes locked on the rapidly shrinking whirlpool that was associated with the horrid creature. “Mattsun and Makki were on the docks, they were trying to get to sea, I couldn’t d-do anything, I watched them get swallowed by her– she’s opening her mouth more than three times, that t-talkative bit–”
“How are we any safer out here?!” Iwaizumi yelled hoarsely, and Oikawa’s eyes widened at the interruption. “What about my sister? Your Dad is in the oligarchy, h-he must have some idea why the gods are revolting–”
“Keep your voice down!!” Oikawa shrieked, then lowered his as well. “I d-don’t know. When the ground started shaking– like, really horribly– I ran to you but you’d hit your head, you were barely conscious, mumbling about your sister, I– I don’t know!”
Through his pain and trauma-induced haze Iwaizumi desperately tried to focus, attempting to ignore the inhuman shrieks and cries coming from the shore. The wind was gradually picking up and their small sailboat was being coaxed farther out into the water, though there wasn’t anywhere to go. The Sea of Crete was becoming dangerous, obviously, what with all of the deep-dwelling monsters being awoken and drawn towards them.
“Oh, no no no no,” Oikawa whispered, “the whirlpool is gone. Charybdis moved, Hajime, we’re going to die–”
“We’re not going to die,” Iwaizumi interrupted, gritting his teeth from the excruciating, debilitating pain in his temple. “We have to get out of the sea, get to one of the bordering– or, sail down– we just get out of Grecian terri–”
Iwaizumi froze as his eyes landed on the water, something huge and ominous very obviously shifting beneath them. The boat swayed fiercely and Oikawa raised his arms, his eyes squeezed shut, and began to beg and cry and pray. Iwaizumi’s resolve was weakening by the second and he grasped at the younger male’s arm, his stomach churning.
“It’s not over,” he whispered.
“It i-is,” Oikawa sobbed. “The charybdis normally stays in the Strait of Messina, if she’s over here then… th-then…”
Iwaizumi shuddered, the boat tipping precariously. His eyes snapped over as something shot up from the water a few hundred feet away, shrieking loudly– a nereid. The normally melodious voice of the nereid was replaced with a blood-curdling scream, but that didn’t stop the small flicker of hope igniting in his chest.
“A nereid,” he said quietly, unable to be heard over the immeasurable ruckus. “Tooru, a nereid! They help sailors, we might get a chance to–”
The nereid shot up again, still screaming, but her efforts to escape were in vain. The charybdis was stirring under the water and slowly opened her mouth, and just as she was going to be swallowed, their boat began to be pulled towards the creature.
“The scylla,” Oikawa yelled, his eyes bloodshot and wide. “If the charybdis is here, then the scylla will be too–”
Oikawa was cut off as a tremendous wave hit the boat from… below? Iwaizumi yelled hoarsely as about seven or eight more nereids shot up from the water, their arms flung outwards, their collective power carrying the small boat out on an impossibly large wave. Iwaizumi fell to the deck, the entire world spinning around him in chaos, his stomach falling and pretty much vanishing altogether as the hectic wave sent the boat farther out into the sea.
He couldn’t take any more of this. Clutching a wailing Oikawa closer Iwaizumi squeezed his eyes shut, sending up a silent prayer to any heavenly being that was still listening that at least Oikawa would get out alive.
And, with that, he blacked out again.
Iwaizumi awoke to silence.
After lying completely still for a few heartbeats Iwaizumi realized that he wasn’t in any pain and his eyes snapped open, nearly hollering at the sight of someone looming over him.
“Relax,” the woman said softly, and Iwaizumi felt himself to do almost not of his own will. The woman sat back a little, her expression serene, as she observed Iwaizumi.
“Who are you?” Iwaizumi whispered, and was equal parts delighted and confused to find that his voice was steady and clear. The woman smiled.
“Aceso,” she answered softly, and realization swept over Iwaizumi. Unsure of what to do he bowed his head, his heartbeat kicking into overdrive as he struggled to sit up.
“I’m sorry for being so disrespectful,” he said quickly. “I… You healed me?”
The goddess nodded a little, pressing a few gentle fingertips to Iwaizumi’s temple. Serenity flooded Iwaizumi’s veins. “I healed your lover, too,” she murmured, and the ex-soldier’s eyes widened.
“Oikawa,” he breathed. “Wh-where is he?”
Aceso shifted to the side a little, revealing Oikawa, who was lying motionless on the deck. Iwaizumi scrambled forward, his eyes watering, as he cupped one of Oikawa’s cheeks. “He’ll wake up?” He asked, swallowing.
“Yes,” a different voice answered, and it was only then that Iwaizumi remembered Aceso was often seen around her four sisters and father. He turned slowly, his stomach writhing nervously upon seeing the other goddesses and god.
Now that he was no longer fixated on the ground or Oikawa Iwaizumi looked around, his stomach dropping upon seeing no land in any direction. “Where–”
“Greece is no longer safe,” one of the goddesses– Iaso, he thought– interrupted. “Mount Olympus would have been the best bet, but unfortunately, it’s out of the picture.”
“Where will we go?” Iwaizumi asked, his voice no longer quite as steady. “What are we going to do? Are there any survivors?”
Asklepios smiled grimly. “Quite the inquisitive one,” he chuckled, and Iwaizumi swallowed against the knot in his throat. “From what we can tell, you and your companion may be the only ones that survived the gruesome attack on Athens. With the heavenly bodies divided like this, a safe place might be difficult to come across.”
Iwaizumi took a deep breath, pushing aside the fact that his sister, parents, and friends were all dead for the time being. “What are we going to do?” He repeated, his eyes wide. The god’s smile widened and he shifted closer, his eyes dark and serious.
“You’re going to survive.”
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