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It takes Aone only ten seconds to realise he looks out of place at the front door of the Hinata residence. Everything about their front door -from the colorful hanging baskets to the tiny shoes left on the porch- just screams cute and friendly. And as much as Aone tries to be friendly (and yes, he'll admit- cute) he can't seem to express these traits well. Instead of letting these thoughts cloud his mind, he focuses on looking less intimidating and rings the doorbell twice.
He's absentmindedly playing with the zipper on his jacket when he hears the door open. He looks in front of him to say hello, but of course, he sees no one there- Hinata is pretty small compared to himself so he does what he usually does when facing the tiny ball of energy- look down. But again, he sees no one when his gaze reaches where Hinata’s round, brown eyes usually pierce into his own. Has Hinata shrunk? He hopes not for Hinata’s sake, because he can’t afford to be any smaller than he already is, but unless Hinata has suddenly become a five year old girl with sparkly clips in her hair and a missing front tooth, then this obviously wasn’t the boy he met on the court only a few months ago.
The girl screams, the sound loud in Aone's eardrums, and slams the door closed with surprising force for a child. His eyes widen in surprise.
Well, he hasn't walked all this way for nothing. It’ll be a waste of his time if he just walks home again.
Immediately after ringing the doorbell again, he hears voices and footsteps heading towards the door. The letterbox on the door flips open and Aone leans down towards it expectantly.
“Leave my sister alone! Who are you?! You wanna fight?!” A voice that is definitely Hinata’s shouts from the letterbox.
“Aone, from Dateko,” he replies, feeling really unsure of what’s happening, “And why would I fight you?”
For a second, there is silence from inside, then the door starts to open.
“Noooooo!” Wails Hinata’s sister -or at least, that’s who Aone presumes it is- while tugging at Hinata’s sleeve, “You can’t let him in!”
"Whoa, Natsu! It’s Aone- the one I told you would be visiting today?" Hinata chuckled and lifted up his sister, putting her on his shoulders so she was taller, "I'm sorry, we've told her to be cautious of strangers so that's why she freaked out."
Aone just nods while Hinata grins up at him, his teeth shining a little in the sunlight. He decides it's best not to smile back, even though he wants to- Hinata's smile is infectious.
"Nii-chan, why are all your friends much taller than you?" says Natsu while resting her chin on the fluffy orange hair on her brother's head and staring up at Aone.
"Agh! don't say that!" splutters Hinata. "I can be tall to!"
Suddenly Natsu's face appears right in front of him when Hinata jumps up high, still carrying his sister on his shoulders. She sticks out her tongue before sinking back down to her previous height. Hinata carefully takes her off his shoulders and lowers her go the ground.
"Hi Aone-kun! Let's play volleyball!" Shouts Hinata. He runs into the house and Aone is left standing outside, not sure whether to follow. He looks down to see Natsu smiling at him cheerfully, and he attempts a small smile back- he knows it probably looks like more of a grimace, but Natsu just laughs.
“You’re funny and tall," she says, "like nii-chan's other volleyball friend. only his smile is scary! He can’t smile at all!"
He's not sure who she's referring to -maybe Karasuno's setter- but doesn't bother asking anyway when Hinata comes back, balancing a volleyball on the top of his head. It falls off pretty quickly though and Natsu giggles at her brother's antics. A woman-slightly taller than Hinata and with the same friendly brown eyes joins them in the doorway. She initially looks a little shocked when she spots Aone outside, but tries to hide it with a smile.
"You must be Aone," she says and Aone bows politely in greeting, "Shouyou has told me all about you!"
Hinata starts to rub the back of his head and laugh nervously, "All good things all good things!" He reassures Aone, "Anyway, we're off to play volleyball! We'll be back just before dinner."
“Okay, well if you boys are off to the volleyball court, make sure to look for the ducklings near the riverside,” she says and fixes one of the clips in her daughter’s hair, “Natsu spoke to them yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yep! They said ‘Quack’ so I said it too.” she folds her arms in to imitate tiny wings and starts quacking. Aone wonders if he was ever that strange as a child, but a part of him admits that it looks fun even though he’d never get away with acting like that.
Hinata takes a hold of his arm and steers him towards the pavement. He waves to his mother and sister with the other hand and Aone follows suit. They wave back enthusiastically while Natsu continues her quacking. She doesn't even stop when they turn the street corner, out of view.
“lets go on a quest Aone-kun!” says Hinata while marching along the pavement and flinging the volleyball up in the air as he walks, "A quest to find the baby ducks!"
“Okay.” he answers, shoving his hands into his pockets. He matches Hinata’s brisk pace easily due to his longer legs and makes sure not to turn at a wrong corner- Hinata’s the one who knows his way around here, after all.
They chat for most of the walk; Hinata tells exciting stories with expressive hand gestures and loud sound effects, while Aone listens and nods along when Hinata looks up at him. Aone finds he can’t stop listening to Hinata, even if he wanted to. He also notes how some of the stands in Hinata’s hair practically glow in the sunlight, unlike the dull artificial lighting from indoor volleyball courts. For a minute, he’s glad the tournaments are held inside, because if he played against Hinata with his hair shining beautifully like this, he'd probably get distracted and mess up his blocking.
He’s so lost in his thoughts, he almost misses Hinata pointing in front of him and jumping about frantically. He looks to where Hinata is pointing- so much for a quest, he thinks, it's only been ten minutes.
Right on the path in front of them -right between the grassy riverbank and the fairly busy road- stand five tiny ducklings and their mother. The ducklings wobble about slowly on their webbed feet and fluff up their yellow and brown coloured feathers. Aone wants to voice to Hinata how adorable they are when he notices the direction the mother is heading.
“Hinata-kun, they can’t cross there.” he says while gesturing to the cars passing by, oblivious to the small animals about to step foot on the road.
Hinata grabs onto Aone’s arm tightly and looks up at him intensely, “We have to help them!” he says (with a tinge of worry to his voice), “You find some people to help us and I’ll stop the traffic.” before Aone can even protest to Hinata’s plans, he sets off down the road waving his arms at oncoming traffic and making pointing exaggeratingly to the ducks on the pavement.
Aone does as he’s told and runs along the river's edge, looking for any people to help them. The first people he spots are an old couple sitting on a bench who seem very cautious of him, but he decides leaving them be would be the best option; there has to be more people around somewhere.
The image of Hinata standing in front of a huge lorry briefly pops into his mind and makes his heart speed up scarily, but he then sees out of the corner of his eye a group of mothers with their children playing on the grass. Not wanting to disappoint Hinata with a lack of helpers (but also wanting to get back to him as soon as possible) he walks determinedly over to them.
Before he can even explain the situation to them, one of the mothers walks right in front of him, blocking him from the rest of the group. Some were holding onto their children protectively.
“No no! Don’t even think about it!” She spat aggressively, “This is a place for children to play safely, not get harassed by men like you.”
“I-I’m sixteen. Please help me.” He spluttered but the woman wasn’t even listening to him.
“Go!” She shouted and Aone decided to leave it at that. People like that were too rude to bother with, like the people who deliberately avoided sitting on the seat next to him on the bus; he was used to it, but it still hurt a little when they did it.
Feeling a little disappointed he couldn't find anyone to help, he heads back to the roadside and hopes Hinata and the ducklings haven't been squashed by a large vehicle in his absence.
He returns to find Hinata half way across the road with the ducks. He's caused a long queue of cars blasting their horns loudly, drowning out any quacking the mother is directing at Hinata.
"Oh you're back!" Says Hinata when he spots Aone joining him on the road, "this nice couple have stopped on this side-" he gestures to the car in front of them, "but no one will stop on the other side! Did you find anyone?"
"Yes," he replies and decides being honest is the best idea, "but they were too scared of me."
"What?! Well, we don't need them anyway, Aone! We can can stop the traffic ourselves!"
There's a gap in the traffic and Aone decides now is a better time than any. He steps into the other side of the road and holds his hands up high, as though he was on the court blocking a ball from coming over the net. If he could form an iron wall on the court, he sure as hell could form one here too.
A car turns round the bend but he holds his ground, while Hinata crouches in front of the ducks- even though the mother won't stop pecking at him.
Aone uses his signature glare to stare down the vehicle, but it's slowing down already. The car grinds to a halt and the driver rolls down his window.
"Woah man! What's going on?!"
Hinata pops up from his crouching position, smiles kindly at the driver and says, "we're helping ducklings cross the busy road, can't you see?" He makes jazz hand gestures at the birds, but the mother hisses and pecks his ankle, "Hey! That's sore!" He whines.
Aone starts to feel a laugh rising up his throat, but it falls when he sees just how big the queue of cars has grown on both sides.
"Hinata," he calls out to his friend who is currently lifting his foot off the ground and out the way of sharp beaks, "let the ducks walk past."
"Oh! Sorry!"
He moves aside and the ducks waddle past the first queue of cars and across the rest of the road to the pavement on the other side. Aone and Hinata join them there and one by one, the cars start their engines and traffic returns to normal.
"... Well that was fun!"
"I thought ducks liked water... I wonder why they wanted to come over here."
Aone shrugs his shoulders. They had followed the ducklings into the park on the other side of the road, which was relevant since the outdoor volleyball court was right in the middle of the park, but they both agreed they couldn't leave the fluffy companions they'd made just yet.
Aone watches as one of the ducklings waddles slowly away from the others and makes its way towards where they're sitting on a bench. It cheeps quietly and Hinata starts cooing at it.
"It's so cute!" He half whispers, half shouts. He's trying not to scare it away, but Aone can tell Hinata just can't contain his excitement; it's not in his nature.
Aone lowers his hand very slowly down towards the small bird and waits patiently for it to make its way to him. It hobbles over and looks curiously at his big, rough fingers.
He very cautiously moves his hand lower to the ground with his palm facing towards the clouds. The duckling looks at his hand, fluffs up its feathers a little then places one webbed foot on his callused palm. He hears Hinata's gasp but doesn't let him break his concentration- if he moved a muscle, the duckling might run away and the thought of it makes his heart ache a little.
The duckling brings its other foot onto Aone's hand and he feels the need to hold in his breath. It spreads its tiny wings and holds its head up high with its beak open.
"I think it thinks you're its mother now, Aone-kun."
He glances in Hinata's direction to see him smiling fondly at him, then turns his attention back to the little ball of fluff. What if I try and pick it up, he thinks. Would it be scared?
He takes a chance and very carefully lifts his arm. The duckling wobbles around a little at the movement, but stays standing on his palm. He holds out his other hand and the duckling sits down comfortably in his two hands, as though they were a nest. He rests his hands gently on his lap and looks down at the duckling, feeling a little shocked at its behaviour.
The feelings start to overwhelm him a little and he can feel his throat closing up and restricting his speech.
"Aone-kun?" Hinata asks and places a hand on his shoulder gently, "are you crying?"
"No." He chokes, but anyone can tell it's a blatant lie. He worries about what Hinata will think of him, crying over a baby duck as though it had made his life complete. But he did feel like that, in a way, because after so many people judging him and getting scared of him by his appearance, this little duckling waddled up to him as if he were only a harmless tree or another small duckling. It makes him feel like less of the monster people first assume him to be.
When he looks at Hinata, he's not laughing or rolling his eyes at Aone's tears like he expected him to; he's smiling softly. It's so sweet that he has to look away, before the blush dusting his cheeks covers his whole body and he melts into the park bench.
Instead he looks at the other ducklings; they're following their mother, who's waddling across the grass, completely oblivious to the member of her family that's missing. As much as Aone loves his tiny winged companion, he should maybe pay more attention to the wingless one by his side (yet he could definitely fly higher than any duckling... How ironic.)
"I should... Give it back to her." He says, a little reluctantly, and lowers his hand back to the ground and let's the duckling slide off his palm. It waddles back to its mother and Aone watches it go with a smile. He feels the traces of tears that were once running down his cheeks dry up and sits up on the bench properly again. He hears Hinata sigh beside him.
"I know it was all the people who were scared of you that made you emotional back there, but if it helps, Natsu seemed to get over it pretty quickly," Hinata starts to laugh, "before you know it, she'll be giving you makeovers and decorating your hair with clips."
Hinata, without warning, reaches out and brushes his fingers over Aone's short hair.
"I think it's too short for that though." He murmurs and Aone involuntary closes his eyes at Hinata's touch. It’s a bad idea, because it shows Hinata he enjoys it much more than he should; they’re supposed to be rivals, but this is the first time Aone has thought of that all day.
He opens his eyes to see why Hinata was still stroking his hair, but is met with Hinata’s brown orbs staring at him and his heart does cartwheels in his chest. Without even thinking about his actions, he leans down while Hinata moves closer and their lips meet softly in the middle.
He closes his eyes again lets himself relax. Hinata’s hand stays on the back of his head and presses him closer into the kiss. His lips are soft and Aone misses them already when they break for air. He exhales… What just happened.
But before he can even form any proper thoughts, he feels something light hit his nose from the sky, then again on his arm- rain. Hinata must feel it too when he breaks eye contact quickly to stare up at the sky. A dark cloud looms over them and more droplets of rain fall down to the earth.
Hinata makes a sound that kind of resembles a squawk, jumps up and starts running across the park, his trainers skidding on the slightly wet grass.
Snapping out of the trance Hinata put him under, he abruptly stands up and runs with him towards a huge tree that's big enough to shelter them. The sky gets darker and the rain pours down heavier. At least the ducks look happy, he thinks while they walk about in the rain unbothered.
"Aagh! I forgot the volleyball!" Yells Hinata and sprints back out into the rain to the bench they were sitting on. Aone watches in amusement as Hinata tries to pick the ball up but it slips out his fingers and rolls away from him. He laughs a little but when Hinata returns to their sheltered spot, he starts blushing furiously, remembering the kiss that still made his lips tingle.
Hinata looks at him strangely for a second then his eyes widen and the smile that usually rests on his features disappears.
"I messed up didn't I?" He says and starts groaning, "I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me!"
Hinata grips the volleyball tightly and bashes it against his head. Aone reaches out and stops him, before he gives himself concussion.
“I…” Aone struggles to find the words to fit his feelings for Hinata, and notes he should hurry up quickly- Hinata looks like he’s preparing for a rejection, which is not what Aone wants him to think at all. “I liked it… the kiss.”
Its doesn’t get across the full emotion Aone felt inside when they kissed, but at least it gets some of the message across- he likes Hinata, more than a friend.
“Uwaaaah! I did too!” Hinata cheers gleefully, “I like you Aone-kun! You make me feel like GYAAAAH and WHAAAAH whenever you’re around. Can we kiss again?”
Aone nods and Hinata whoops happily; It makes Aone feel all giddy inside and he decides this is the best day he’s had in a long time as Hinata closes the distance, stands on his tiptoes and Aone leans down and they kiss once more.