Chapter Text
Nanami Chiaki is quite a quiet person; Hinata Hajime has only known her for a few days (or however long they’ve all been stuck on this island with a useless talking rabbit and an evil talking bear) and he knows that. She’s usually found playing with the arcade machines in the hotel lobby or playing on a handheld console she probably got from the MonoMono machine (or a gift from someone during Free Time), or otherwise wandering around looking half asleep or actually sleeping… and one thing all of these activities have in common is that talking isn’t a part of it.
Of course, he knows Chiaki can talk (he hears her mumbling in her sleep and she occasionally takes action and orders the others around with remarkable authority), but she doesn’t do it very much. She just seems to be one of those people who doesn’t feel the need to speak all the time, unlike some of the incredibly chatty people Hajime has come to know.
To be honest, because Chiaki is so reserved, Hajime doesn’t know much about her other than her love for video games and her rather sleepy nature. But there is one thing he is certain about: she is incredibly pretty, and he has a crush on her.
But Hajime doesn’t even know his own Ultimate title, so how can he work out how to ask out someone like Chiaki?
Several days after he started working himself up to doing this, Hajime is finally ready to ask Chiaki out. He wanders around the 1st Island, trying to locate her, and also trying to calm the anxiety twisting his insides into knots.
With a bit of help from Peko, he learns Chiaki is on the beach by the MonoMono machine, so Hajime goes there. He steps onto the sand and sees her. Chiaki sits under one of the trees with her back against the trunk, her knees bent and her head bowed. And, as always, she plays a game on a handheld console.
Hajime approaches her, but she notices him before he has a chance to speak. He must be casting a shadow over her.
Chiaki looks up and smiles. “Hey hey, Hajime.”
“Hi,” he says, waggling his fingers. “Are you free to talk?”
“Um, yeah, sure,” she says, patting the sand beside her. “Want to sit down?”
“Please,” Hajime says, and he sits on the hot sand beside Chiaki, crossing his legs. “Thanks.”
“It’s fine,” Chiaki says, yawning. “What did you want to say?”
Hajime hesitates. He wants to ask her out so badly, but now he’s actually here…
He takes a deep breath. “Uh… Chiaki, I… uh… would you like to, uh… wanna go out with me?”
Chiaki glances at him, avoiding eye contact. “Hajime… do you mean… on a date?”
His face flushes a deep shade of red. “Um… yeah. So, what do you say?”
Slowly, Chiaki puts her console down on the sand and smiles at him, reaching for his hand. She interlocks their fingers and says, “I would love to go on a date with you.”
Hajime stares, eyes widening. He smiles and squeezes her hand. “Chiaki, thank you. This is amazing.”
Chiaki smiles and squeezes his hand back.
This is so amazing! Chiaki wants to go on a date with him!
After asking advice from the other students (other than Nagito, who he’s still not talking to after the first trial, Fuyuhiko, who told him to fuck off, and Gundham, whose advice with unintelligible), Hajime works out the best place for his and Chiaki’s date: the hotel restaurant. Mainly because they can play on the arcade machines afterwards.
Hajime sits at a table opposite Chiaki, waiting for the food he bugged some of the others into making for him, and smiles at her. She’s so beautiful, especially right now as she wears makeup with her hair tied up, and he just wants to kiss her.
“This was a nice idea,” Chiaki says, smiling. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you,” Hajime says, and Chiaki giggles.
And, to his amusement, she reaches under the table and pulls out her handheld console. Chiaki switches it on and starts to play, and Hajime, amazed at what he’s seeing, bursts out laughing.
“Huh?” Chiaki mumbles, looking up. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing,” he says, still laughing. “It’s just… I love how you’re always playing video games.”
Chiaki smiles, a blush patterning her cheeks. “Thank you. Hajime?”
“Yeah?”
Her face flushes redder and she whispers, “Can I kiss you?”
His eyes widening, Hajime smiles. “Sure you can.”
Chiaki stands up, and Hajime gets to his feet too. She steps around the table, puts her hands on his arms, reaches up on tiptoes, and… presses their lips together.
It’s a soft, sweet kiss, and Hajime puts his hands on her shoulders. They break apart for a couple of seconds, stare at each other… and kiss again.
Unfortunately, the beautiful moment is ruined by Kazuichi wolf-whistling and Sonia making comments about love. Hajime and Chiaki break apart, blushing.
But even with that intrusion, that was such a lovely kiss. Once the others have brought them their food and left them alone, Chiaki smiles.
“Are we dating now?” she asks.
“If… you want that.”
“I do,” Chiaki says, and she grins, blushing.
“Then, I guess we are,” Hajime says, squeezing her hand.
He has a girlfriend! Honestly, dating Chiaki makes this shitty life on this shitty island where people keep getting murdered a tiny bit more bearable. So rather than wandering around the islands on his own, he spends his time with Chiaki. They play on the arcade machines in the hotel and take walks together and play video games on matching handheld consoles, and… it’s just so great to spend time with her.
Like he said before, Chiaki isn’t very chatty. In fact, some of the times they spend together, Chiaki doesn’t say a single word. But it doesn’t matter, because he knows she’s having fun.
One day, Chiaki is struggling to speak, so she carries a notebook with her when they meet up to play video games. They sit together on the beach in the same place Hajime first asked her out, and Hajime says, “How are you?”
Chiaki pauses her video game and scribbles him a note. She passes it to Hajime, and he reads it.
I’m fine, thanks. I love you.
Hajime smiles and kisses her. “I love you too.”