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Hokuto is seething and it’s horribly apparent to everyone around him. Wataru notices it first as he steps into the theater club, the air drops at least three degrees as Hokuto diligently organizes the paperwork for their next play.
Any attempt to communicate is met with a short, relatively snippy response that leaves no room for a full conversation. As a test, he sends Tomoya to ask the same question. Just to make sure he didn’t yet again cause a problem that Hokuto is waiting for him to notice.
Tomoya gets the same response, and actually comes back a bit teary eyed. Poor boy, as a first year he hasn’t witnessed the molten ice named Hokuto Hidaka’s Anger until now.
“Hokuto-kun!” Wataru struts up to Hokuto once again.
“What.” This time he decides to look up from the paperwork.
“Didn’t you say you have practice with Trickstar? If the clock in my head is correct, that’s in about five minutes!”
Hokuto stares at Wataru for what feels like an hour, then drops the papers in his hand and stands up. “I will leave it to you to finish the paperwork then. Do so.” With that statement, he half stomps out of theater club room to get ready.
“Scary. Mad Hokuto-senpai is really scary.” Tomoya wipes at his face to make sure the tears are gone.
“You’ve stumbled upon something that I’ve only been able to witness once during my second year. The icy volcano known as Hokuto Hidaka’s anger! Be lucky he didn’t explode Tomoya-kun or else we’d both be dead.” Wataru says with an incredibly solemn look on his face.
“H-He wasn’t actually gonna kill us if we made him angrier was he?” Tomoya shivers, he doesn’t want to think about it. It’d be better to focus on the paperwork Hokuto left and think about something like that later.
❄️
Hokuto misses a step during practice and makes a frustrated grunt, Makoto laughs at his expense and touches his shoulder.
“Please don’t touch me right now.” Hokuto mutters, brushing off Makoto’s hand.
“Whoa.” Makoto’s overcome with a serious look as he stares as his hand, then nods furiously. “You heard him everyone, Hidaka-kun’s established a no contact zone!”
Mao nods, he knows better than to ask Hokuto what’s wrong during these moments. His mood’s in a delicate state. If one of them slips up they could get an earful, so it’d be best to finish practice then navigate this in a careful and smart way-
“Wooow! Hokke you’re like a volcano!” Subaru has the backs of his hands on Hokuto’s neck as he stares in awe. “You’re like, seriously pissed! What’s wrong?”
Mao sighs, leave it to Subaru to not have any grasp of the situation. “Maybe you should go take a break Hokuto. I’m not sure practice is going to stick in your brain if you keep going like this.”
“I can assure all of you that I am fine.” Hokuto huffs and crosses his arms, giving Subaru an annoyed look.
“Hmmmm.” Subaru hums as he stares past Hokuto at the wall. He was never a person for full on eye contact and despite the situation this was no exception. “Everyone! Me and Hokke are taking a break!” He announces, before grabbing Hokuto’s hand and pulling him out of the practice room.
It takes until the bench near the school fountain for Hokuto’s protests to be heard, and Subaru lets go of his hand in favor of patting the bench so they can both sit down.
“What’s the problem?” Subaru gives that small half smile despite the serious nature of his question. Hokuto remembers saying something about a smiling Subaru always lightening his mood when he’s having a bad day.
“The same as usual.” Hokuto responds, Subaru’s smile grows wider in an effort to persuade him to talk. Despite the warmth in his chest there’s no way he’s going to talk about something so frivolous. He shouldn’t even be that mad, he never was before.
“What’s the same as usual?” Subaru asks, scooting closer. Hokuto goes silent, wanting to be just a bit stubborn today. Subaru gives Hokuto a few minutes, before leaning in and giving him a long kiss.
“Wanna talk about it now?”
“Maybe.” He mutters.
“If you want another kiss just say so Hokke.” Subaru pokes Hokuto in the stomach as punishment before leaning in to kiss him again. “So?” He asks as he pulls back.
“An argument, with my family. Well, I suppose I made it into an argument.” Hokuto pauses. “My parents asked me if I’d ever consider transferring to Shuetsu before my third year.”
Subaru kicks his feet as he looks down. “What’d you tell them?”
“That I was never going to consider, and that I was insulted for them asking. Their suggestion is predicated on the idea that Shuetsu would be more forgiving than Yumenosaki. In other words, they have no faith that I’ll be able to graduate without having a mental breakdown.” Hokuto makes a noise as he looks down with Subaru. “It sounds stupid I know-”
“It doesn’t sound stupid.” Subaru cuts him off. “If my mom suggested something like that I’d be really mad! Like, enough to explode!” He makes a hand gesture to accompany the sound effect coming out of his mouth.
“They’ve never shown proper concern for me while they were advancing their careers. In fact I made it through my first year completely free of their influence. It’s only recently that they’ve taken such an interest in me being an idol.” Hokuto sighs. “I should be happy. Any other person would be excited that their parents are finally taking an interest in their passion.”
“If you ask me they kind of ruined your excitement on their own didn’t they?”
“I’m not following.”
Subaru fidgets, swaying back and forth on the bench as he gets his thoughts together. “You’re the type of guy who’s kind of a perfectionist. But if you fail you wanna fail on your own. Transferring to somewhere that’s implied to be easier just because you can, feels like cheating right?”
Hokuto nods, Subaru is incredibly perceptive when he wants to be.
“And while you don’t get along with them well, you still love your parents. So their suggestion really hurt you. I know cause I’d feel like that too.”
“Leave it to you to accurately condense my feelings into just a few sentences.” Hokuto says. “But yes, I do feel...A bit betrayed that they’d suggest something like that to me. I am the leader of Trickstar, so you think they’d congratulate me. Not many people get to be the leader of their own idol unit. But all I’ve been met with is misplaced concern, it’s aggravating.”
Hokuto hears Subaru shaking something, and looks over to see it’s a bag full of konpeito.
“I’ve got something to take your mind off it.” Subaru says in a sing songy voice.
Hokuto reaches for the bag, but Subaru slaps his hand away.
“Nuh uh, let me feed you. We’ve never gotten to do couple-y things so let’s start now!” This sudden resolution has Hokuto wanting to point out that technically, Subaru would’ve offered to do this if they were only friends as well.
The difference being that this time instead of rebuffing him with an ‘idiot’ he finds himself eating the candy that Subaru’s puts to his lips. “The sugar they used isn’t from its usual place. I can taste it.” Hokuto licks his lips.
“These ones were a limited time offer I think? I don’t remember why, just that the price was higher than normal.” Subaru offers Hokuto another, then laughs when he takes it. “This is gonna look weird to anyone passing by us isn’t it?”
“That was going to be my line. But you are the very definition of weird so I expect it’ll be brushed off as another one of Trickstar’s odd quirks.” Hokuto responds.
“Is dating each other really weird? We are in the same unit together after all. It reminds me of something about close proximity and odds of love blossoming.” Subaru feeds Hokuto one final konpeito before closing up the bag. “I’ll keep the rest for when you need a reward.”
Hokuto rolls his eyes. “I am not a dog, Akehoshi.”
“Nope, but you’re my boyfriend!” Subaru sticks his tongue out and winks. “It’s basically the same thing!”
“Who taught you lovers etiquette? Because they should be fired.” Hokuto hops off the bench, smoothing out his uniform. “We should probably get back to Isara and Yuuki, I assume they’re worried about our extended leave.”
“To them, it’s probably a blessing~” Subaru gives a coy smile at Hokuto’s confusion, following suit and hopping off the bench. “But as long as you feel better Hokke.”
“I do...Thank you. You never fail to make my heart feel a bit warmer when I talk to you.”
“That’s really gross you know~?” Subaru kisses Hokuto on the cheek. “Ukki would make fun of you for saying something so cheesy.”
“He has no leg to stand on considering he’s told me about what he’ll say to his future lover. Anyways, let’s get back and finish practice alright? Then we can walk home together.” Hokuto dares to thread his fingers through Subaru’s, and begins to walk back to the practice room with him. While this is something he’d never say out loud, he’s sure that being with Trickstar every day has made him that much happier.
He wouldn’t change it for the world.