Chapter Text
As Hinata Shouyou entered the supermarket, he was well aware of what he needed to get. He generally liked shopping, but seeing as how he was 1) a college student, and, well, a college student, it was often a struggle.
GROCERY LIST
- Duracell Batteries (MUST be Duracell)
- Pork Buns
- Milk
- Eggs
- Rice
- Instant Ramen
- Green tea
"Um, Kenma, thanks for making this list for me, but why did you put 'batteries' as the first one?"
"Things higher up the list have a higher priority," Kenma said, rather self-explanatory.
"I know, that's why I'm asking why batteries are the first thing."
"My controller died yesterday," Kenma's face turned darker. "I can't play the new game I got until it's charged again."
Hinata knew that questioning his roommate's priorities would only lead to more confusion, so he pulled a shopping cart out of the aisle and began the quest to find Duracell batteries.
After finding the batteries (which were placed on the highest shelf for some dumb, stupid reason. It was ok, though, since all Hinata had to do was jump and he'd reach it), he moved on to the second item on the list: pork buns.
Hinata was an avid lover of steamed buns. He liked them with chicken and celery filling, or maybe red bean if he was feeling like eating something sweet. But his absolute favorite was a good pork bun, and right now, he was totally feeling a pork bun.
Hinata, as poor as his memory was, had memorized the exact location of where the frozen pork buns were in the market. Sure, they weren't exactly freshly cooked, but it tasted just as good if you steamed them yourself—and yes, Hinata knew how to steam things. He might have sucked at cooking, but his mother had insisted he at least learn how to use a steamer and a rice cooker before he moved out.
He made his way to the frozen section, maneuvering his cart like a cart-maneuvering genius. There, beautifully displayed in front of him, was a package of pork buns in the freezer, and a sign hanging underneath.
FROZEN PORK BUNS! NOW ONLY 150 YEN WITH 75% SALE!
"Hallelujah!" Hinata exclaimed, before realizing he had said it out loud. He looked around to make sure no one was listening, and thankfully, the people surrounding him didn't seem to have noticed.
Hinata looked a little closer at the freezer, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
There was only one package of pork buns left. Only. One. Left.
Maybe it was just his imagination—ok, it was totally his imagination—but the pork buns started to glow with a heavenly, angelic light. Hinata was moments away from kneeling on the ground and praying, but he decided it would be best to waste no time before someone else could come and snatch the love of his life away.
He opened the freezer and reached for the pork buns, but before he could drop it into his shopping cart, another hand grasped onto the edge of the package.
Hinata turned jerkily to see who could possibly be interrupting the best timing ever, only to immediately regret it.
It was a man who must have been several inches taller than him, black bangs falling in front of his face. His dark eyes flashed dangerously as him and Hinata made eye contact.
"Did you want these?" he growled. Hinata, on reflex, moved a few steps back.
"Ah, haha, I-I did, but you—you can take them! Take the whole thing!" Hinata squeaked. "It's fine, I didn't need to eat today!"
The man narrowed his eyes for a moment.
"If you say so," he shrugged, dropping the package into his cart. "Thanks." Without missing a beat, the man promptly walked away, as if he hadn't just ruined Hinata's day.
Hinata stared at the back of the man's head for a few seconds, gaping.
"Wait just a second!" he shouted, running at the speed of light. He shuffled in front of the man with the scary face, blocking the path of his cart. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"I'm trying to leave?" Scary Face glared. "Maybe if you got out of my way, it would help."
"Don't you know how the world works?" Hinata began hotly. "If you and someone else want the same thing, you argue about it for a while like, 'Oh, no, you can have it!' and then the other person's like, 'Oh, no, you have it!' You can't just take it as soon as the other person says you can!"
"You said I could have it," Scary Face frowned. "You should have taken it if you wanted it."
"I obviously wanted it, you just didn't notice!"
"I'm sorry I took the fucking meat buns, then," Scary Face looked down at Hinata, his face contorted into a scowl. "But I'm not giving them to you."
"Oh my god," Hinata clenched his fists. "I touched them first anyway, so they're automatically mine!"
"Dumbass, my hand was on it way before yours."
"Stop trying to hide the fact that you're a big jerk-"
"Maybe if you stopped being such a moron!"
"Oh, I know you are, but what am I?" Hinata shot back. The man rolled his eyes.
"How about this, I'll give it to you if you can reach it," he smirked, holding the package of meat buns far above his head.
"All I have to do is reach it?" Hinata grinned, and in one fell swoop, he jumped into the air, snatching the pork buns from the man's grip.
But before Hinata could reign in his victorious glory, he realized he had made one fatal miscalculation. As he came back to the ground, his foot had landed squarely on the wheel of the shopping cart. Slowly, but surely, it tipped over, its contents spilling over the edge like a steady waterfall of fresh produce. The cart itself flipped onto the floor of Aisle 7, crashing into the ground with a loud clang!
The surrounding shoppers turned to ogle at Hinata and the man like they were zoo animals.
"Kids these days," an elderly man muttered. "Causin' all this ruckus, and dying their hair bright orange...don't know what's wrong with this generation..."
"Someone should find that little boy's parents," a woman suggested. "He's gone berserk."
I'm a 19-year-old college student, Hinata thought sadly, a college student with no dignity now.
A store employee made her way over, a kind smile on her face. "Excuse me, is everything alright-?"
"L-Look out!" Hinata shouted, but it was too late. The woman stumbled over one of the cart's items (items that were now scattered everywhere), her body flying through the air in what must have been the most humiliating and overdramatic way possible. She hit the ground with a painful thud; everyone winced in sympathy.
The area was deadly silent as she stood up slowly.
"You two," she pointed to Hinata and the man still standing beside him. "Please tell me your names. Now." The kind smile on her face had vanished.
"H-Hinata Shouyou!" he hung his head. "I-I'm so sorry-"
"Don't wanna hear it," she cut him off. "And you?"
"Kageyama Tobio," the man answered. Even he looked slightly worried for his wellbeing.
"Well, Hinata-kun, Kageyama-kun," she put her hands on her hips. "I'm going to have to ask the both of you to leave the store as soon as possible."
"C-Can we check out first?" Hinata asked nervously.
"You dumbass, as if she's gonna let us check out!" Kageyama snapped. "This is all your fault, you idiot, I hope you-"
"That's enough," the woman held up her hand, scowling. "No, you will not check out. You can both go home empty-handed."
"I-I understand, but please, this all happened because we both really wanted these pork buns, and I know this is all my fault, but all I want is the pork buns," Hinata begged, clasping his hands together. "I'll leave as soon as I pay for them."
Her expression softened ever-so-slightly.
"Fine. Pay for them at the self-checkout and go," she sighed, unclipping a walkie-talkie from her apron strap. "This is Misaki, can we get a clean-up in Aisle 7? Thank you."
Hinata watched the doors of the supermarket close in front of him with a strange sort of finality. Kageyama was sitting down on the sidewalk, the wrinkles in his forehead deepening.
"Um, Kageyama," Hinata began, looking down at his shoelaces. "I've decided that, uh, you can...you can take the pork buns."
"What the hell?"
"Here," Hinata shoved the bag in Kageyama's direction, avoiding all possible eye contact. "It's my fault, so you deserve it."
Kageyama stared before looking away. "Dumbass. Keep it, I don't care."
"Whaaat?"
"Keep it," Kageyama repeated. "I didn't want them that much in the first place, moron. I just didn't want you to have them."
"That's so petty!" Hinata said incredulously.
"What'd you say?!"
"Nothing, nothing," he said quickly. He paused, before gingerly taking a seat next to Kageyama. "Still, though, you should take them."
"It's fine," Kageyama grumbled. "I'm just glad I'll never have to see your face again."
"Huh?"
Bzz, bzz! The sound of Hinata's phone vibrating filled the air. He picked it up to see who was texting him.
From: Kenma
What's taking you so long? Do you have the batteries yet?
Hinata texted back a quick response.
From: Hinata
HAHA about that!!! um funny story...ill tell you when I get back!!!
"I gotta go," Hinata said, standing up. "Er, see you 'round, Kageyama-kun!"
Kageyama looked up, glaring. "Yeah."
"See you."
Hinata walked away, bouncing on the balls of feet. In many ways, he had completely lost that day. He had embarrassed himself in public, gotten mistaken for a little kid, and to top it all off, had forgotten Kenma's top-priority batteries. On the other hand, he had obtained pork buns and faced off against one of the scariest people he had ever met, and all technicalities aside, Hinata won.
You can suck it, Kageyama Tobio, Hinata thought happily.
Hinata - 1, Kageyama - 0
“I’m back!” Hinata called out, opening the door to his dorm room. “Um, about your batteries, Kenma...”
"What about them?" a muffled voice asked. "You did get them, right?"
“I had to take a detour," Hinata said grimly. He looked around the dormitory, scanning to find Kenma’s face. “Kenma? Where are you?”
“Down here.” Hinata glanced down at the carpet to see a body sandwiched between two beanbags.
“Woah, you can breathe, right?”
“If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
“Oh, yeah.”
"So? The batteries?" Kenma sat up intently. His bangs, still somewhat blonde at the tips, were tied up in a half-up, half-down bun. To Hinata, it looked a little like Kenma had a donut on top of his head.
"I didn't get them," Hinata confessed. "I swear, I had them, but I got kicked out of the store!"
"You what?"
"Let me explain!" Hinata waved his hands hurriedly. ""I ran into this really scary guy at the store. We fought over the pork buns, but he was being a huge douchebag about it, and then I accidentally tipped over his cart, and then this store lady tripped over the stuff on the floor, and we got kicked out, and yeah."
"That doesn't explain why you currently have no batteries," Kenma narrowed his eyes.
"Look, I'm so, so, so, so sorry! I promise I'll get them next time!"
"There won't be a next time," Kenma scowled. "I'll have Kuroo get our groceries instead."
"How could you?" Hinata wailed. "Kuroo is way less than responsible than me!"
"You're fighting a losing battle," Kenma sighed. The tone of his voice made it apparent that they were done arguing.
"Here, I'll make it up to you! With..." he pulled out his plastic grocery bag. "...Pork buns!" Hinata walked into the kitchen, or as he liked to called it, the mitchen (short for mini-kitchen) to get out the steamer.
"I'm not hungry," Kenma protested.
"What? You haven't eaten in, like, two hours!"
"That's an average amount of time to not eat, Shouyou."
"Seriously? I can barely stand thirty minutes," Hinata said incredulously. He ripped open the package of pork buns and turned on the steamer before placing them inside. "Every time I look at these pork buns, it makes me think of that guy's face! And it's kinda ruining my appetite!"
"The scary guy?"
“Yeah, Kageyama Tobio,” Hinata answered. “Really tall, with black hair and scary eyes. Oh, and his eyebrows are like this.” He scowled with his eyebrows furrowed to demonstrate.
“Huh,” Kenma frowned, “he was in my economics class last year.”
“Seriously?! Seriously, seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” Kenma said flatly. “I believe him and Kuroo are acquaintances.”
“I hope not,” Hinata shuddered. “I didn't even know he went to our school! What if he’s in one of your classes this year? What if he’s in one of my classes this year?”
“He really wasn’t that bad,” Kenma shrugged. “Maybe he was just in a bad mood when he wanted those pork buns.”
“Kenma, you underestimate his terribleness!” Hinata insisted. “But, whatever, I just don’t want to jinx myself.”
"Either way, you'll find out when we get our schedules next week," Kenma said indifferently. "So there's no point in worrying about it."
"You're one to talk," Hinata huffed. He ripped open the package of pork buns and turned on the steamer before placing them inside. "I don't know, something about him just rubbed me the wrong way."
"Such as?"
"Well, first of all, he called me a dumbass," Hinata started. "Second of all, he didn't give up those pork buns even though they were obviously mine, and lastly, he made fun of my height! You know I hate it when people are like that!"
There was a long silence as Hinata waited for Kenma to respond. Finally, he spoke. "He's not wrong, Shouyou."
"What?! Whose side are you on?"
"No one's," Kenma flopped back down on the beanbags. "Wake me up when the pork buns are ready."
"I thought you didn't want any," Hinata said, confused.
"I don't, but I know you'll want to eat them with me anyway."
Hinata beamed. "I was going to ask you that! But it's kind of scary you can predict the future."
"Your appetite is what's scary," Kenma pointed out, throwing the hood of his sweatshirt over his head. He rolled over and closed his eyes, becoming one with the beanbag.
Hinata was never going to understand Kenma.
The sound of the steamer beeping echoed through the kitchen. Hinata turned it off and took off the lid, setting it down on the counter. The smell of pork and curry-seasoned buns wafted through the air deliciously.
Hinata did not have a particularly large amount of self-restraint. It wasn't that he was lazy, or gave in to all his heart's desires—it was just that resisting his impulses usually meant trying not to run too many laps, or eat too many vegetables and protein. However, on a scale of healthiness, pork buns probably ranked a 5, and this was where his true weakness was found.
Kenma won't mind if I eat without him, right? Hinata thought.
But it's kind of rude to just eat them all while he's asleep!
True, but you worked really hard to get these.
Ok, fine, fine! I'm going to eat them, but if anyone asks, I'm blaming you!
Blaming your subconscious is the same thing as blaming yourself!
"Sorry, Kenma," Hinata whispered, as he tentatively reached for one of the pork buns.
He was probably going to regret this later, but, well, it was only a few pork buns—and pork buns were always worth it.