Archive of Our Own

Ushijima was sure that he didn't know any of the first years at this college. No one familiar passed by his door other than people that were already his friends. Tendou and Kawanishi visited to see if he was done unpacking yet, but they stood around and got bored watching him so they left. 

Ushijima was facing the side, fixing a calendar to the wall, when he saw someone hovering by his door out of the corner of his eye. He was short, with orange hair sticking from his head, and he was still holding onto the doorknob. 

"…Ushijima?"

Ushijima stepped back from the wall and glanced at him. 

"It's me, Hinata!" Hinata opened the door further, and he took another step inside.

"I remember," Ushijima said. He picked up a pair of scissors to cut open another box, and he bent to stab the scissors in.

Hinata remained at the door. Ushijima could hear a small idle hum and the floor's creaks from the shifting of Hinata's feet.

"So, you live here?"

Ushijima tore through the rest of the tape on the box. He thought it was obvious, so he didn't feel the need to answer Hinata.

"Do you still play volleyball?" Hinata asked after enough time passed for the first question to fade. 

"Yes," Ushijima said immediately. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I was just making sure." Hinata let out a huff. 

Hinata kept asking pointless questions, rambling with a diligence that would've been admirable if it was for anything else. Ushijima didn't want to encourage him, so he paid more attention to unpacking. He didn't expect Hinata to stay and maintain a one-sided conversation.

Hinata tilted his head, his eyes lighting up. By now he was leaning against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed and back bent at a comfortable angle. "Do you need any help?"

"No. I'm the only one necessary."

Hinata didn't take that as an offense or a cue to leave. Hinata crossed the room and sat in Ushijima's chair at his desk, chair turned to face him. Ushijima didn't find anything interesting about the process, but Hinata sat and watched, talking to him and satisfied with Ushijima's infrequent responses.

"I'm hungry," Hinata eventually said, and he stood up and stretched. "Are you going to get dinner?"

Ushijima turned away, intent on placing books on a shelf. "Not right now."

"I can wait."

"For what?"

"For you to finish," Hinata said.

Ushijima paused and turned to look Hinata over. He always assumed that Hinata was impatient, but Hinata showed commendable restraint in staying put while he just pushed things around. It was unhelpful, but Hinata didn't recognize that.

Ushijima returned to opening a box of supplies unpacking a lamp from a tangle of extension cords. 

"Don't you have friends to eat with?" Ushijima asked.

"Yeah. But see, I just found you. I can't believe we live in the same building!"

"But do you have friends to eat with?"

"Of course I do," Hinata said.

Ushijima set his lamp on his desk. He stood back to regard its distance from the ledge. 

"You really don't want to eat now, then…" Hinata frowned. "Fine, I'll come back later. See ya." Hinata stood up and left, leaving the door open as he walked down the hallway.

Hinata gave up too easily. From what Ushijima knew, Hinata was stubborn, so Ushijima was sure that Hinata would return. There was nothing he could do about that; Hinata knew where he lived, and he couldn't switch rooms for a reason like this. 

Ushijima returned to his school supplies, gathering pencils and pens to place them in a cup on his desk. Ushijima couldn't stand the mess. He didn't want to eat until at least most of this was cleaned up and put away.

A few days later, classes began. Ushijima was content with his room by now, all of his supplies neatly organized on his desk and shelves. The walls were left plain except for a calendar and a whiteboard, ensuring that he wouldn't be distracted when he had to study or do homework. 

He didn't factor in Hinata. Hinata bumped into him all the time, usually in or near the building. Hinata forgot his key once, the key to get into the building, and Ushijima had to open the door for him. When Hinata ordered a large heavy package that he could barely push along the floor, Ushijima stepped in to pick it up and carry up the stairs. Sometimes Hinata drifted by his door, talking loudly enough for Ushijima to hear him. It was brief, but there was always a pointed volume to it.

One day, Ushijima sighed and decided to get up to open the door. He had no intention of going out that night, he didn't have night classes and he was just going to cook in the kitchen instead of eating at a dining hall, so he was wearing a dark shirt and sweats to be comfortable. He didn't give that any thought as he opened the door to address Hinata.

"Do you have any reason for walking by my door this often?" Ushijima asked him.

Hinata was already walking away when Ushijima spoke up. Hinata's arms froze in their rhythmic swing, his mouth slightly open and eyes taking him in with silent surprise. He looked Ushijima over.

"I live here," Hinata said. He turned and planted his feet down to give Ushijima a solid stare.

"I thought you lived on a different floor."

Hinata stiffly crossed his arms. "Well, I do."

Ushijima dipped his chin down, silence falling and drawing Hinata's words out more. Ushijima kept looking at him, pressing him to admit what he was doing while using an unreadable mirror of silence in his eyes.

"I'm just passing by," Hinata added. "I didn't even remember where you lived."

There was a defensive tension to his shoulders that said otherwise. Hinata took a step, and then he took off before Ushijima could point it out.

Ushijima fell into a routine that he repeated every school year, doing his laundry on Thursday nights when the laundry room was empty. He lifted his basket on a washer to sort and drop into an open washing machine next to it. Ushijima set a timer on his phone and left to do homework as his clothes were washed or dried. 

Ushijima did it for the quiet, and he chose Thursdays since most people were busy. Otherwise it'd be a nightmare, washers and dryers all taken and clothes thrown on the table or floor if someone left them in a machine for too long.

Hinata still managed to find him and poke his head in. He took a glance around the empty room, the large glass window outfitted in starry darkness outside. Ushijima was the only other person in the room, and he continued to place clothes in his basket.

"You're always busy," Hinata said. "You always find a way to turn free time into something boring."

Ushijima glanced up. "Do you need something?"

Hinata shifted his eyes to the side. "I just heard a noise and came to check."

Ushijima didn't hear footsteps, so he almost assumed that Hinata was going to do the same thing as before, stand in the doorway and watch Ushijima. Hinata alternated his feet in deliberation, and after a minute he left, leaving Ushijima to silently continue laundry.

Hinata didn't know Ushijima's class schedule, but by now he knew that Ushijima was habitual in his laundry routine. Hinata dumped his clothes in the washer the same night Ushijima did, next to the ones he used, and Hinata lingered around to talk with him.  

"I saw you eating the other day," Hinata said. "I can't believe you sat with Oikawa and Iwaizumi."

"I don't know why they did. I don't know why you're here, either."

Hinata's mouth pinched, not in a frown but close enough for Ushijima to see that he wasn't going to say anything about that.

Hinata's dryer whirred to a finish and beeped. Hinata yanked his clump of clothes out and pulled them into his hamper, spilling some and crouching down right away to gather them again. He dragged it by its handle and waved goodbye to Ushijima with his other hand. Ushijima didn't understand why Hinata took off in a hurry, but when he retuned to his room, he found out.

Hinata was milling around, standing with his arms crossed and head tilted down to stare at Ushijima's door. Hinata didn't notice him until he stepped beside him and brushed past to open the door.

"Why are you standing in front of my door?"

Hinata swiveled around. "There you are. I was waiting!"

Hinata stepped aside, his nose scrunching up as he watched Ushijima unlock the door. He followed Ushijima in and closed the door for him. 

"Don't you have homework to do?"

"I finished for the day," Hinata said.  He went over to the bed where Ushijima set his laundry basket and flipped his hand up, tipping it over.

Ushijima reached his arms out to stop him, but Hinata sat on his bed anyway. He fell over and rolled onto the pile, flattening the clothes and letting his arm fall on them. They were scattered by now, but they weren't on the floor or in the trash can, so Ushijima wasn't concerned with them getting dirty. He just looked at Hinata wordlessly.

"I wanted to check and see what your detergent smells like," Hinata said.

"I could have told you."

"It would have been dry and boring that way." HInata wriggled more, but he didn't get off the bed and leave. His movements spread the clothes out further, enough to cover most of where Hinata was lying.

Ushijima couldn't convince him to leave, so he let Hinata lie there as he turned to his desk to finish writing a paper. Tendou kept trying to message him about it since he was also on the same assignment, but Ushijima ignored him for the moment. After a while, he forgot Hinata was even there. Ushijima didn't remember until he stood up to print, and he saw Hinata breathing deeply in sleep, arms folded to the side and legs stretched out. He didn't fill out the bed anywhere near the capacity Ushijima did, but he looked like he was trying.

Ushijima shook him by his shoulder. "Wake up, Hinata. Shouldn't you be going home?"

Hinata's eyelids fluttered with wakefulness. He swatted his hand through the air. "In a minute."

His voice was muffled from his face being stuffed into the clothes. Ushijima's mouth twitched, indecisive between a frown and amusement. Hinata didn't notice. He sat up and stretched an arm with a yawn, twisting at the waist to swing his feet off the bed.

After an unreadable stare from Ushijima, Hinata leaned forward to hop off the bed. "Fine, alright, I'm going," Hinata said. 

It was getting late, but Hinata lived on the floor above, so there was no problem with traveling in the dark. Hinata trudged out, walking down the hall while rubbing at his eyes from lingering lethargy.

People constantly visited Ushijima's room, even when he wasn't there. Tendou left him a messily written note slipped under his door, part of it a normal scribbled font and the last half was made up of illegible kanji overlapping and stretched around the paper, like he was in a hurry. Ushijima threw that one out; he couldn't read it, and Matsukawa told him what was in it anyway. 

Once, Ushijima came home to find a whiteboard attached to his door, autographed by Oikawa. An apology from Iwaizumi was written next to it. Ushijima didn't see a point to it, although it ended up covered in messages anyway, even from Iwaizumi and Oikawa. Neither of them had his phone number, and Ushijima didn't think they wanted it.

Hinata tried to invite him out to places, but he could never convince Ushijima to go to a coffee shop or have lunch. Hinata poked around his room instead, sometimes with a sandwich or cookies to nibble while sitting in the spare chair Ushijima ended up buying to give Hinata a place to sit.

Hinata managed to visit when Ushijima's other friends weren't around. The coincidence stopped the day Hinata opened the door and walked into someone's back, someone who wasn't Ushijima.

"Orange hair," Tendou said when he turned. "You're Hinata."

Hinata stepped around him, tilting his head up to look at Ushijima. "A friend of yours?"

Ushijima grabbed Tendou's shoulder and tightened his hand, making Tendou wince.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm Tendou. Let go, Wakatoshi, your hand hurts," Tendou said.

Tendou rolled his shoulder to shrug him off.

"You look familiar," Hinata said, voice trailing off.

"We met at inter high. You won. What? Not memorable enough for you?"

"I remember!" Hinata's arms stretched down his sides to the ground, and when he tried to rise on his feet, Tendou pushed him back down.

"It's alright, you only remember Wakatoshi. I can't do anything about that," Tendou said.

Tendou elbowed Ushijima to make room for himself to leave. Ushijima frowned at him on his way out.

"Really, I don't remember seeing him before. I think I'd remember someone like him." Hinata grumbled and sat on Ushijima's bed.

Ushijima rubbed his side briefly where Tendou elbowed him. He sat down at his desk and tried to return to studying, which was originally ruined the moment Tendou stepped in earlier.

Hinata threw a pillow at his chair, and that made Ushijima close his notebook. "What was that for?"

"I never see you having fun." Hinata patted a spot on the bed next to himself.

Ushijima's eyebrow rose. Hinata already managed to convince him to do several "fun" things lately, many of them running late into the night for no reason. Ushijima could have said no, but he never did. 

The thing about right now was that Ushijima sometimes had a habit of scratching his hand in his hair or on his arm. Ushijima was used to growing up with dogs and scratching their heads and ears, and he had the instinct to do that to Hinata's hair after a glance.

Hinata was typing on his phone, intent on the screen and not Ushijima. He glanced up at the touch, his fingers slowing and mouth shifting to the side.

"What are you doing?" Hinata asked.

Ushijima quietly tried to remove his hand, but Hinata grabbed it to hold in place. 

"It's a habit," Ushijima said. He kept trying to pull away, but Hinata tightened his hand and moved Ushijima's fingers to scratch his head again. 

Hinata murmured wordlessly, withdrawing his hand to rub into his eyes. 

"You're falling asleep," Ushijima said.

"No I'm not." Hinata raised his hand to wave that off, but it fell back on the bed tiredly.

Hinata didn't notice when Ushijima stood up. Hinata was drifting off now, leaning over until he rolled onto the bed.

Ushijima sighed. He still didn't know why Hinata kept visiting him.