Chapter Text
Hinata stared at the jewelry store’s display window. As he had expected, no matter how much he stared he didn’t really find anything he could buy for Komaeda for his birthday. Komaeda wasn’t that into wearing jewelry in the first place, so he wasn’t sure why he had even bothered. Hinata sighed and started to walk towards the station.
Today had been just as fruitless as every day the past week. He had wandered the town after his lectures everyday, trying to look for something to buy. Now Komaeda’s birthday was already tomorrow and he still had nothing.
On the previous years, he hadn’t really thought about it that much and had bought just whatever - if he remembered right, one year back in high school he just bought a juice box for Komaeda - but now that they were actually dating and living together he was feeling the pressure to buy something good that would make the other happy…
He spent the whole train trip back trying to brainstorm ideas, so in thought that he almost missed his stop. Just in time he realized it was his stop and he rushed out of the train.
Hinata took out his phone and began to search for birthday gift ideas. But every idea he came across was either something he had already considered and rejected, something he could never afford or just plain bad gifts in his opinion. As he approached home, he just put his phone away and glanced at the house. He had moved into Komaeda’s place just half a year ago, and he was finally used to thinking of it as his home.
He smiled a bit before walking to the door and taking out his key to open it.
“I’m home,” he called as he stepped in, and he could hear footsteps coming from the living room.
“Welcome home! How was university?” Komaeda asked as he popped into the hallway. His hair was more messed up than usual, suggesting that he had been taking a nap just a moment ago. Hinata shrugged as he took off his shoes.
“So-so, nothing really happened all day, but I guess that’s a typical Monday occurrence.” Hinata chuckled and Komaeda smiled. “How about you? I trust you watched the web lecture you had?” Hinata asked as he began to walk towards the kitchen, Komaeda following after him.
“Yeah, I did. I fell asleep after it though,” Komaeda said, laughing awkwardly. Hinata smiled softly at him, before he opened the fridge and took out the ingredients for cooking. Komaeda just sat by the counter in the meantime.
This was pretty much the usual; Komaeda attended a special program at the university, where most of his lectures were through web and there were very few classes he actually need to attend in person. Komaeda had signed up for it to avoid his luck affecting other people, but Hinata was pretty sure he was being overly cautious at this point. His luck had been decreasing in drasticity every year, so the huge accidents Komaeda was so afraid of probably wouldn’t happen but…
Well, Komaeda seemed content with this too. Hinata still made sure to take Komaeda out often in outings and sometimes called him over to the university to eat with him, so it wasn’t like he was locked up at home either.
Hinata pursed his lips. They rarely went shopping together for anything else than food, so he hadn’t really had had a lot of opportunities to hear what Komaeda would want. Not that Komaeda even usually said those aloud… He had always had to pay close attention to the things Komaeda would look at when they were in the town to get some clue for presents.
He glanced at Komaeda, squinting his eyes a bit. Now that Komaeda just lounged at home mostly and ordered everything he wanted from the internet… It was causing a problem.
Komaeda tilted his head eventually when Hinata kept glancing at him.
“Ah, I was kind of thinking what you’ve been doing at home recently,” Hinata asked awkwardly, dropping his gaze to the vegetables he was cutting.
“Me? I haven’t been doing anything special… Oh, today I ordered nap blankets for both of us!” Komaeda said, smiling widely.
“Nap blankets…? Well, I guess that’s useful if you plan on taking more naps in the living room,” Hinata said and sighed. Well, this might have been an idea for a gift if Komaeda hadn’t bought them already. Komaeda seemed surprised.
“Oh, how did you know? Amazing Hinata-kun, being able to tell that!”
“Your hair is just messed up like it’s always when you’ve slept, it’s nothing special,” Hinata answered, turning around to face the stove. “Have you been doing anything else recently than nap?”
“Uh… Watched television? Browsed the internet? Cleaned up?” Komaeda’s voice sounded a bit troubled as he tried to think of things. “... Hoped you would come home quickly? I don’t really do much… Are you upset because I just lounge around at home and don’t do anything useful?” Komaeda asked, sounding really worried and Hinata turned to look at him quickly.
“No, no, that’s not the case! I just kind of wanted to find out what you’ve been into recently…” His voice trailed off. Was there really anyway to ask subtly without making Komaeda unnecessarily worried? “Like, if there’s anything you would want or something like that.”
“Anything I would like?“ Komaeda asked slowly, before smiling a bit. “Ah, for my birthday tomorrow?” he guessed, and Hinata sighed. Well, maybe trying to keep it a secret had been a mistake to begin with.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to think of something to buy you for a while now but I just couldn’t figure out anything… I’ve been just really troubled over it, so it’s not that I’m unsatisfied with the situation right now,” Hinata said pointedly, to cut off the roots of any useless thoughts trying to take place in Komaeda’s head. He had had his fill of accidentally causing insecurities to build up in Komaeda’s mind.
Komaeda pursed his lips as he leaned on the counter.
“Well, there’s not really anything I want so I don’t think you have to worry about it…,” Komaeda said and Hinata pouted.
“It’s not like I can accept that, not after you bought me a new laptop for my birthday! I mean, I don’t have as much money so I can’t buy anything like that, but I do have enough to buy something you would want,” he protested, and Komaeda just stared at him with a slightly troubled look.
“But I really can’t think of anything I would want… I mean, I have everything - I have you after all…,” Komaeda mumbled, and Hinata felt his cheeks getting heated up. “... Or something like that, haha…,” Komaeda added, apparently realizing what he had said as his cheeks got red as well. Hinata pressed his lips together as he tried to contain his embarrassment. They were rarely openly lovey-dovey even at home, so these things still kept embarrassing both of them…
“T-that’s real cute but I still need an actual answer,” he eventually said, turning away from Komaeda again.
“Eehh…,” Komaeda whined in response.