Work Text:
It was a bit strange to say the least, to enter the drama club room without either one of his seniors’ booming presence leading everyone there. But instead, everyone’s turning to him for guidance. It was a bit overwhelming, the drama club is probably one of the busiest in all of Yumenosaki. Having to make sure the stage is properly set, take care of costumes, coach the actors, and considerably more. It didn’t help that he was elected as student council secretary this year on top of his position as Ra*bits’ leader. So yeah, it was stressful to say the least.
A lot has changed since his first year. Of course he was a third year now but besides that, Ra*bits has become one of the most prominent units in all of EnSquare. Tomoya himself has his own fan base and his acting abilities were more recognized by the public, being casted into more diverse roles rather than just the usual princess or kid character.
His friends have changed too. Most notably (for Tomoya), his best friend and unit mate, Hajime, cut his hair, much to the protests of Tomoya and the rest of their unit. The twins now have distinct hairstyles and people no longer needed to rely on their hair clips to differentiate the two, Tori was student council president and more surprisingly, Shinobu was student council vice president, and so much more. He was proud of all his friends, they’ve all grown so much since they’ve first started.
But alas, some things don’t change.
“Tomo-kun!!”
Once again, Hinata Aoi, one of the aforementioned twins, was his classmate.
Tomoya lets out a sigh. “What is it?” Hinata has probably been one of the only consistent things in his high school life since he’d first entered Yumenosaki. They were classmates as first years, classmates as second years, and even now as third years. It’d feel completely unnerving on the off days that energetic ginger was nowhere to be seen at school. Just hanging out with Hinata was an ingrained, unofficial part of his schedule.
“You’re going to the drama club right? Mind if I come?” He squats down in front of the other’s desk, placing his head on the table, looking up at the blond.
“Oh uh, sure but why?” Today was one of those rare days where the drama club was a lot less busy than usual. Tomoya just had to go out of responsibility of being the club president and also to fix some of the costumes that have gone slightly worn.
“Is it wrong for me to want to spend time with one of my beloved friends?” He jokes and Tomoya rolls his eyes halfheartedly.
“Is that really so?” He can’t help but be a bit skeptical, you never know with Hinata.
“Really!” Hinata grins.
A few seconds of silence.
“Okay, fine! Yuuta-kun’s ditching me to go off and play videogames with Tsukasa-kun at the arcade and I got nothing else to do! So could you pretty please let me come?”
There it is.
“Fine, we’re not doing anything important today anyway.”
Hinata lights up at that. “Yes! I promise to be on my best behavior Tomo-kun!”
Tomoya sighs before grabbing his bag and heading for the classroom door. “Come on, let’s go.” He can’t help the fond smile tugging at the ends of his lips as Hinata excitedly follows after him.
-
When they enter the clubroom it’s as Tomoya had expected. The place was fairly empty besides a few members who were just cleaning the stage of the props from the last play they had. The other club officers are just chatting amongst themselves as they help clean. They spot the club president and greet him with a wave before quickly returning to their conversations.
Tomoya leads Hinata to the backstage area, a wide space with vanities, clothing racks of costumes and some boxes on the side. “You can just look around while I take care of some of the costumes.” The boy pulls out one of the costumes from the clothing rack and places the article of clothing on a nearby table as he pulls out a sewing kit from his bag, leaving his friend to his own devices.
Hinata takes another glance at the place before heading over to some shelves, full of mannequin heads with a variety of wigs on. “This is how you guys keep wigs?” He comments before leaning down to get a better look at the hairpiece not so in-view.
Tomoya rolls his eyes and just continues what he’s doing. Scanning through the hairs, one catches Hinata’s eye. Gingerly, he pushes aside the other wigs before pulling out one of the mannequin heads that he found interest in. He carefully sets the head on the empty top shelf, atop the mannequin is some long dirty blond hair. An exact match to his companion’s. “Is this yours?” He asks.
Tomoya turns to his friend's direction, cheeks dyed light red seeing what Hinata was talking about. “Y-yeah, it’s from last month's play.” He explains.
Hinata examines the hairpiece one more time. “It looks so much like your own hair.”
An idea comes to mind and Hinata flashes a cheeky grin. “Y’know, I’ve always wondered what you’d look like with longer hair.”
“...What are you saying?”
Snickering, “I was wondering if maybe you could try it on, just for me?”
Tomoya is quick to refuse. “Nuh-uh, no way.”
“Oh come on! I just wanna see how pretty you look!” He gives him a wide grin, feigning innocence.
Tomoya narrows his eyes. Eyebrows furrowed and a stern frown decorating his face.
Hinata softens his expression. “...I won’t make fun of you,” He approaches his friend and holds his hand with both of his own, bringing it up to his chest. “Promise.”
The boy’s already red cheeks turn redder at such an intimate action. Okay, now that just wasn’t fair.
“Fine.” He looks away from the other, a vain attempt at trying to avoid eye contact.
Hinata’s smile comes back full force and he promptly hurries Tomoya over to one of the many vanities and sits him down. “You wanna put it on? You need to get a wig cap first.” The other comments and Hinata lightheartedly gives him a soft smack to the head. “Yeah, yeah I got it. Where do you guys keep them anyway?” Tomoya pulls out one of the drawers of the vanity and pulls out a wig cap from a plastic bag before handing it to the one tending to his hair.
Charily, he puts the artificial hair on the blond, albeit not without a few complaints from him. The hairpiece sat upon Tomoya’s head so naturally. The hair was a good deal longer than Tomoya’s own, reaching to the midpoint of his back with small curls decorating the ends of the piece. Besides the length and styling it was practically indistinguishable from his own hair. The two sit still as Hinata just looks at the boy through the mirror, a slight glint in his eyes.
“You look.. cute.” Hinata finally says. The choice of words make Tomoya blush once again. “Thanks.” The other doesn’t respond, instead running his hands through the synthetic tresses.
“What are you doing?” Tomoya asks before Hinata starts taking the strands into his hand. “I’m just braiding your hair.” The stylist hums with a wide smile on his face as he gets two strands from both sides of Tomoya’s face. After a few minutes, (and protests from the other because he pulled a bit too hard) Hinata finishes. Turning his head a bit to get a good look at what Hinata did, Tomoya finds that he fashioned the synthetic hair into a simple half up half down bun hairstyle.
“It’s so pretty… since when did you know how to style hair?” He questions playfully. “I have my ways~” Tomoya doesn’t know why he even asked. Hinata’s spontaneous like that, a person of many unexpected talents. Someone Tomoya possibly couldn’t keep up with.
Hinata softens his countenance once more and gently caresses the wig as if it were real hair. “Tomoya,” Tomoya? That was new, Hinata always just called him Tomo-kun. “I…” He pauses. His mouth opens and closes, as if he couldn’t let the words out. It was rare to see him so at loss like this.
Hinata takes a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself down. “..I should go. You have a student council meeting after club right? Don’t wanna keep you here.” He lets out an awkward laugh after talking. Tomoya is puzzled, why did Hinata take that long to say that? It was weird, Tomoya can’t help but be a bit concerned. Hinata was always so forward with his words, be it affections or what he wanted, whatever it was, Hinata didn’t hold his tongue. Questions swirled around Tomoya’s head but he left them unsaid.
Hinata helps him put back all the stuff they messed around with and the two exchange some awkward goodbyes. As Tomoya enters the student council room and the meeting begins he finds himself zoning out. Tori’s words and conversation blur into faint background noise as all his thoughts are focused back to ginger hair.
He flinches when he feels a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay? You were spaced out.” Ah, it was Shinobu. Everyone had their eyes on him. “Do you need to go to the infirmary Tomoya?” Tori asks, worried. “Oh no no, sorry, I was just daydreaming.” Tomoya quickly refuses. Luckily it was enough to convince everyone and Tori continues on with what he was saying.
Tomoya tries his best to listen but his mind has other plans.