Chapter Text
“Soooo….how was your day?”
“Hmm…”
“Aniki.”
“Mhm……..”
“Aniki.” Yuta flicked Hinata’s forehead, causing him to startle. Hinata looked up at his brother and was greeted with Yuta’s unhappy face. Oops.
“Oh? Sorry Yuta-kun!! I was just thinking about how much I love the dinner you made!!”
“Yeah, why do I find that hard to believe when you’ve barely taken more than a bite of it,” Yuta sighed. “You can just say it's bad.”
“It’s not bad!” Hinata insisted, “I’m just…thinking.”
“Yeah? Good or bad?”
That’s kinda what I’m trying to figure out, Hinata thought to himself. Rei said that he should confide in Yuta about Eichi’s offer, but that really didn’t feel like such a good idea. Especially since Hinata wasn’t even planning on taking it, why worry Yuta over nothing? No, he would figure this out on his own. Ah…sorry, Rei.
“I’m thinking about something terrible, something truly awful, Yuta-kun….I really wanted to have a prank ready for Midori-kun for next week but I have no idea what to do-- please help your big brother out?” Hinata put his hands together and gave Yuta his best puppy dog eyes. “Please? Please! Please pleasepleasepleas--”
“Alright alright!! Geez, is that really all it was? You’ve been so weird all week, I kinda thought that--”
“‘Is that all??’ he says?? Yuta-kun, this is extremely serious, my reputation as prank master supreme is on the line here-”
“Okay okay I get it!! I’ll see what I’ve got, but…” Yuta looked at him, more concern visible than anything else. “Are you sure that’s it? I know I’m not the only one who’s thought that something’s been up with you this week, so like. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure!” Yuta raised a dubious eyebrow. “Why are you looking at me like that?” He continued to stare. “Yuta!!”
After that, Hinata gave up and started to shove food into his mouth, theatrically complaining about how rude kids these days are, and how ‘I thought I raised you better than that, Yuta Aoi!’
Yuta snorted at the dramatics, and they both settled down long enough to finish their dinner with minimal chatter. After they finished, Hinata gathered the dirty dishes and started washing them. As soon as he placed something on the drying mat, Yuta would take it, towel it off, and then put it away. They worked together in an easy and practiced quiet. Breaths matched, two hearts perfectly in sync. But after the last dish had been put away, Yuta didn’t make a move to leave. Hinata stayed in turn.
“What's wrong?” At the question, Yuta turned to stare at his brother, searching for…something. Hinata wasn’t sure what he was looking for. He offered a smile, but that seemed to make Yuta more nervous rather than less so. Ah, I messed up again. Eventually, Yuta sighed and looked away.
“You’d tell me if there was actually something going on with you…right?”
Hinata made sure he didn’t look away from Yuta at the question-- he knew he’d be found guilty if he did. He widened his smile, “There’s nothing to tell!”
Yuta huffed in frustration, and pushed again, “But if there was you would say something, right?”
“Sure!”
Yuta pitched the bridge of his nose, “Can you take this seriously, please?”
“Why wouldn’t I be taking it seriously?”
“Ugh--You’re impossible!”
“Is that a compliment?”
“No!”
“Love you!!”
“Ughh!” Yuta stormed away and out of the kitchen, kitchen towel still in hand. Hinata knowingly kept his eyes on the doorframe, and a moment later he laughed when the misplaced towel flew through the door and onto the floor as Yuta begrudgingly passed by before retreating once more. He picked it up and stared for a moment. The old hand towel was a bright and hot pink, so worn in some spots that Yuta often joked that one day he’d throw it in the dryer and nothing would be left but lint in the tray. Hinata reflexively saw himself in it.
He frowned-- he really didn’t think he was feeling quite low and pathetic enough to justify comparing himself to a kitchen towel. He returned the towel to its rightful place, and if the motion was a bit more forceful than necessary…at least no one was around to see it.
Hinata couldn’t sleep. While this wasn’t an unheard of occurrence, it wasn’t exactly a frequent one either. Most days, he had so much physical activity worked into his schedule that he’d knock out nearly the moment he got in bed. And while his schedule today had been similarly packed, tonight was different. Because tomorrow…tomorrow he had to talk to Eichi. He would have to say no.
You don’t just tell Eichi Tenshouin ‘no.’
He was nervous-- so nervous that he had almost broken his own code and talked to Yuta about it. He had been in bed, tossing and turning for hours. When he checked the time and saw that it was 2am, he had carefully sat up and whispered a hesitant “Yuta?” A snore was his only response, and he couldn’t tell if he was relieved or devastated.
Eichi was not someone that Hinata, or most people, wanted to be the target of. Ideally, he would interact with him in professional settings only, with little personal matters involved. He knew that if Eichi deemed him or Yuta as a threat, it could be the end of their careers. Despite his rule over the school coming mostly to an end in recent times, he still wasn't someone to be taken lightly, and Hinata knew he needed to be as careful when dealing with him. He couldn’t let himself be walked over, but push too hard and…well, Eichi hadn’t once been referred to as the emperor for nothing. It was best he kept his guard up.
He tried to soothe himself--even if he couldn’t sleep, getting rest was important. Still, being alone with his thoughts wasn’t pleasant. Running different scenarios for his meeting tomorrow only felt helpful for the first few times, after that it just felt like an indulgence in anxiety. Hinata knew there was nothing he could do to prepare anymore at this point, and he just had to endure until it was over. This time tomorrow…everything would be back to normal. And 24 hours wasn’t too long in the grand scheme of things.
Filled with anxious resolve, Hinata put on his headphones and listened to music until he finally drifted off.