Chapter Text
Hinata held a headphone up against her ear with her shoulder as she finished playing with the settings.
Gaara listened intently beside her, nodding and agreeing with the change she had made. “It's a good arrangement.” He voiced as he took his headphones off, his own way of announcing that he was done with the session. “I think we should work with this copy for now.”
Hinata smiled. Something about having worked with him before and knowing how picky he could be when something didn’t sound right always made her so proud when she got something he was happy with.
She had been working with him remotely what she could, but being able to work with him in person and actually see the look on his face helped her tweak things much easier, so she was glad she came out. However, she wasn’t planning on making too many trips out here like this because he was opening a new studio, Konoha, so he would be coming to her.
Gaara placed his headphones in the spot where he kept them before he started a new conversation. “I heard the leak of Hanabi’s songs with your voice just recently.” Somehow, she wasn’t surprised by that. He seemed to be focused on his own little world, not really looking at what was going on in the media. “I believe that was the problem that I had with your recordings before, they didn’t fit you.”
Hinata did feel like he was staring into her soul that time. “Yeah.” She politely agreed. “Oh… I’m not really sure if I’m meant to tell you this, but that song that you sent me before…”
“You wrote that too?” Gaara filled in. “I realized that after I heard the leaks, even though it wasn’t your voice, it was that … you.” He made a face like he wasn’t quite sure how else to explain it. “Would you sing it?”
Hinata puffed her cheeks out, feeling immediate rejection to the idea. “I could probably do recording, but I think I’m done with shows, so it might be better for someone else.”
Gaara tilted his head. “Fair.”
The door to the recording studio opened tentatively, and once Hanabi peeked in and realized that they weren’t listening to anything, she opened the door entirely and held out what was in her hands. “I brought snacks. How’s it going?” She plopped a bag down into Gaara’s lap, which seemed to surprise him, but he didn’t say anything, just opened the bag, while Hinata took hers more gently.
“I think we’re wrapping up. How is your recording?” Hinata wondered. Hanabi wasn’t a writer, so she was exploring songs that had already been written, and we’re just trying to find owners, cycling through them, trying to find the ones that she liked, and seeing if they could tweak them after if they needed. It was really common in the industry, and most of Hinata’s songs had been selected.
Hanabi’s face lit up. “I asked Kankuro to throw some curveballs at me, and we found something awesome.” She put down her own snack bag. “Can I go into the booth real quick? I need to show you something.”
Gaara waved his hand to welcome her to it, picking up his headphones.
Hanabi ran into the other room and set herself up with the headphones.
Hinata turned on the microphone and signaled to her that it was ready, holding up her headphone to one ear, and a moment later, she flinched as Hanabi let out a screeching verse.
Hinata’s eyes turned into saucers, and she covered her mouth. She didn’t think a noise like that could come out of her little body, and she was handling the screaming surprisingly well and low, so she wasn’t putting so much strain on her throat.
What was she planning to do with that?
Hanabi finished her verse and grinned through the glass, incredibly proud of herself.
“Interesting.” Gaara voiced. “Do you think you could write a song that incorporated something like that?”
Hinata blinked at him. He… might be finding someone else to do that, she wasn’t sure she was suited for it.
Hinata had barely put her suitcase down at the door, and Deidara had come to pick her up off her feet. She circled around his shoulders and kicked. She missed him even though he called every night.
Deidara kissed her as he put her back on her feet. “I have something to show you.” He eagerly told her.
Hinata hurried to take her shoes off before he dragged her to her room. She was wondering what he got up to while she was gone because normally, if she spent even a day away, he was sending her pictures of whatever project he was working on, and he had been completely radio silent.
As he opened the door, it was clear that her room wasn't her room anymore. There was an actual roof now, and the walls were entirely covered in soundproofing foam. There was a collection of sound equipment, a lot of it mismatched, and some looked even vintage. There was a keyboard in the corner and a collection of guitars and instruments pinned up on the wall.
“You built a sound studio?” Hinata gasped, stepping to look around.
“Yeah.” Deidara chirped proudly. “Kisame helped me put up the ceiling.” He pointed up. “We also had to call some friends because we wanted to get it done before you and Hanabi got back.” Oh, yeah. Kisame was going to be Hanabi’s bodyguard, still in the spotlight.
Hinata could feel the smile on her face. “You know you didn’t have to do all this. Gaara is moving here.”
Deidara hummed, completely unfazed by the idea. “You’re going to need a place for those ideas you have at two in the morning and you just need to get out of ya.” He closed the door that she was now realizing also had foam on it. “You can stand in here and scream if you want.”
“Oh, speaking of screaming.” Hinata puffed. “Hanabi is thinking of adding screaming lyrics to some of her songs.”
“Really? Cool.” Yeah, she thought he would think that was interesting. “Oh, you should see the idea for a costume she had. I made a sketch of it. It’s got a goat skull and a road made out of sunflowers, it’s awesome.”
She wasn’t even sure what that was going to be used for, but at least they were having fun.
Hinata wrapped her arms around his rib cage, laying her head down on it, and looking at what he had built. “Where am I meant to sleep now?” She asked, knowing it was a silly question, because she had given up sleeping in separate rooms a long time ago.
Deidara grinned and opened the door, dragging her out of the room and revealing that his bed was now somehow double the size. “I put both beds in here, and now we have…” He ran and jumped onto it. “A mega bed.”
Hinata giggled and crawled onto the bed to join him, laying her head down onto his back. “I’m sure Neji won’t be happy about this.” She teased. Neji had given up at this point.
“I was talking to Hanabi about it, she said that if he had any problem with it, she was going to threaten him with a positive pregnancy test.” Deidara chuckled, vibrating through his back and into her cheek.
Hinata giggled. She really hoped she didn’t, as he was just starting to get used to everything being calmer.
Deidara yawned and scratched the back of his head, shaking around his unbrushed hair as he sipped on a black cup of coffee. It made him make a face every time he took a sip, but he wasn’t really interested in sugar right now.
Hinata was absent-mindedly taking bites out of the snack he made her without taking her eyes off the notebook she was furiously writing in. Gaara had forgotten the time zone difference and woke her up with an idea, and she’d been running with it for the last hour rather than going back to sleep.
It was incredibly cute, and he didn’t want to bother her.
He tilted his head and took another sip of his coffee, crinkling his nose at the bitterness. He was just now remembering he had a thought about buying her a notebook, but now, seeing the speed at which she wrote, she was going to need a few.
He could make some himself and make it easier. It would only take some lumber and some screws, and maybe some parts he had lying around. Maybe a template for the covers.
And then, if he made her a few, she was going to have a place to put them. So maybe he could make a cabinet or a bookshelf for her to put them all.
He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. This coffee wasn’t doing shit. He set it down on the table in front of the couch and laid out on it. Wrapping himself around her hip and laying his face down behind it.
Hinata broke her furious writing concentration to look down at him. “You can go back to bed if you want. I don’t mean to keep you up.”
“No, I’m happy here.” Deidara sighed comfortably.
Hinata made a small, amused noise and put her hand on his head for a moment before going back to furiously writing, and adding in the occasional hum to herself as she wrote down tones for the song.
He could dig through all his wood tomorrow for the clamp and his fabric and leather stash for the covers… and maybe he could find some reclaimed papers… would it be cool if…
Deidara’s eyes drifted close, lulled to sleep with the sound of Hinata’s humming and scratches on paper. He could make her the world tomorrow, now that she was free to do and make what she wanted in it.
