Work Text:
Yasuhiro and Byakuya were currently seated in a car driving across the country. The roads were almost entirely empty, the only real obstacles being whatever humans were somehow meandering about or debris from various buildings. Perhaps an animal or two, but that was incredibly rare. So far Hiro had only counted a single pigeon, and he wasn’t even sure that had been real. Byakuya was driving, of course, having not trusted Hiro with driving at all. He’d protested, but, well… He really wasn’t the best driver, and he much preferred being able to stare out the window, anyway. And he probably would’ve gotten them lost. He was amazed Byakuya wasn’t using a map in the first place. Even with a map he wouldn’t have been able to find his way there!
It was a miracle they were even there in the first place when they had so many other easier methods of transportation like the various helicopters the Foundation had. Somehow, however, Hiro had managed to convince Byakuya to drive instead. They’d both needed a break, after all! What better way than a road trip? Their current mission wasn’t even that important, just needing to pick something up and have a few discussions, perhaps take a look around for a while (admittedly, Hiro hadn’t been paying much attention). Thus Hiro had made the argument that it would be the perfect opportunity for a ‘vacation’! A nice trip away from all of the hassle of work. And after lots and lots of nagging (along with plenty of other various tactics about how they never got to spend much alone time together and whatnot), Byakuya relented, on one condition. They were to be gone no longer than a day or two at most. All things considered, it was much further than Hiro had expected to get in the first place, so he’d eagerly agreed.
And so here they were, driving.
To his surprise it hadn’t taken them long to get out of the city. About an hour or so before the large buildings began to disappear from view. In total they’d been driving for almost two hours, the total estimate being about five and a half hours, perhaps six. The sky was still a dull color, however, and clouds were covering the sky, but he was appreciating the view nevertheless. Usually he couldn’t see much from the helicopters, so this was a nice change of pace. Although Byakuya seemed to be enjoying it a bit less, his expression was still flat as always.
Leaning against the door of the car, he turned his body right, slightly towards Byakuya’s direction. With his legs crossed and elbow against the door, he hummed. “I wish we at least had a radio or something…” he noted aloud, hoping to at least get some conversation going. So far Byakuya had been incredibly quiet. It hadn’t been bothering him before - it was to be expected from him - but Hiro had wanted this to be enjoyable for both of them.
Byakuya huffed in return, “I prefer the silence. The radio never has good music anyway,” he replied, eyes briefly flicking over in his direction before going back to the road. Theoretically he didn’t have to be paying that much attention, no one else would be driving, but he seemed serious about it, so Hiro wasn’t going to stop him. Safety first or whatever… As if on cue, Byakuya’s eyes flicked back over to him, narrowing slightly before going back to the road. “Did you seriously take off your seatbelt again ?”
“W-What?” Hiro questioned in return, glancing down at himself as if he hadn’t noticed. Quite honestly, he was surprised it had taken Byakuya almost a whole thirty minutes to even notice. “Woahhh… How weird, I didn’t even notice that…!”
Byakuya rolled his eyes, shaking his head lightly as Yasuhiro continued, seemingly not going to put it back on. “Seriously, Toges? Do I really need it? It’s not like there’s any other cars and stuff,”
“And what if I were to stop without warning? You’re just going to fly through the window?” Byakuya hummed in return, although he also seemed somewhat amused even through his annoyance.
“You wouldn’t do that!” Hiro insisted in return, although he quickly turned his gaze back over towards him, eyes slightly wider. “Uh… Right?”
Byakuya gave a nonchalant shrug-nod in response, the lightest of smiles drifting across his lips. Had Yasuhiro not been concerned for his own safety, he might’ve found that more cute than anything. But, with a bit of hesitation Hiro dejectedly clicked his seatbelt back into place.
As the silence stretched forward Hiro realized that he wasn’t going to get much more conversation out of Byakuya for a while, so he sighed lightly and turned back towards the window, leaning his head against the door. Admittedly, he was kind of missing the helicopters now. At least they were faster and he had a bit more room. Although he supposed they were overly loud… That got bothersome fast. This was nice and quiet, easier to stop wherever. And he got a nice view. Usually the only thing he could see from the helicopters were clouds and old buildings. He saw that stuff all the time! But now he could see grass! And sometimes houses or an old train track. That was nice. Very rarely he’d see an old abandoned rice field, although most of them looked overgrown with weeds. He wondered if they could take some to grow, but Byakuya didn’t seem keen on stopping and he would have no idea how to harvest them for seeds anyway. Did rice even have seeds or were they seeds…? Ah whatever, he could ask Byakuya later, he’d probably know. It was almost normal enough for him to convince himself that things were back to the way that they should be.
In fact, he could almost swear that he could see a forest in the distance along with some birds, the sun peeking out through an opening in the clouds to show a light blue sky rather than the blood red one that he’d grown so accustomed to. But when he blinked he could barely see them.
With a sigh he closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the car. The engine running, Byakuya’s breathing, his own breathing, the road beneath them… It was nice. If he wasn’t already so comfortable, he’d reach behind him and grab one of the blankets, but he was already falling asleep, so it didn’t seem worth it.
He couldn’t seem to fall asleep, however, and soon enough he was blinking his eyes open with a sigh, squinting. Why was it so bright…? Grunting with annoyance, he gazed out the window. Lifting himself up with shock, he blinked a few extra times to ensure that he was not hallucinating. Grinning eagerly, he reached backwards, tapping against Byakuya’s arm, “Yo, Toges! Toges!” He insisted, still gazing out the window.
While he couldn’t see Byakuya’s expression, he could hear the annoyed huff as the car veered just a bit from Yasuhiro’s touch. “What are you complaining about now?”
“No, no- seriously! Take a look at this,” Yasuhiro insisted once more.
“I swear, if you-” Byakuya’s statement cut short as he seemingly followed Yasuhiro’s gaze. The car slowed, and he fell completely silent. They were both being greeted by a large stretch of grass, dotted on its surface were flowers of all kinds and colors, creating an ombre effect against the bright green. The sky, previously a dull grey-ish pigment, was now visibly blue, the clouds a perfect fluffy white, a large circle broken in the center of them all letting the sun be on full display. Trees stretched across the horizon and birds flew through the sky.
When Yasuhiro finally turned to look at Byakuya, the other had pulled the car to a complete stop, a large collection of emotions visible on his face. The most prevalent ones being confusion and thoughtfulness. Just as Hiro was about to ask a question, Byakuya continued speaking. “I- what…? How did we not know about this…?” He questioned, although Yasuhiro knew that it was a rhetorical question, he wasn’t really looking for answers, at least not from him. Shaking his head as he turned back to the road his eyes narrowed, though not with his usual negative emotions.
“Are we going to-?”
“Yes, we’re stopping,” Byakuya interjected before Hiro could even ask anything, not that he minded much. They were stopping! Which was great because he’d admittedly been getting pretty bored, and not stopping here would’ve been an absolute waste. With careful precision, despite there being no threat of other cars around, Byakuya moved the car off of the road, parking it off to the side. Almost instantaneously, he stepped out of the car, making his way around to the opposite side where Hiro was, staring out at the field of flowers, hand placed against his chin.
Struggling with the seatbelt for a moment, Hiro was quick to join him. The temperature was so much nicer here. It felt like a usual afternoon in Japan, the air wasn’t full of dust, it wasn’t unbearably hot or humid… Which was actually quite surprising for Japan’s typical weather. A light breeze blew by and he relaxed a bit, bringing with it the sound of birds which was incredibly welcome. He was quite fond of them and hadn’t realized how much he’d missed just the sounds of nature until now. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Byakuya paused for a long few moments, during which Hiro was almost worried that Byakuya hadn’t heard him at all. But he eventually replied, “Yes. It is.” Brushing off his suit as if it had any dirt on it ( perhaps a bit of dust , Hiro thought, but probably no dirt ), he took confident steps forward across the road. “Well, what are you waiting for standing around there? Let’s take a look.”
“Oh! Right,”
The road quickly gave way to dirt, which soon turned to grass. Yasuhiro was so used to the hard surfaces of concrete and hardwood floors that he’d almost completely forgotten what grass felt like in the first place. No carpet could replicate how soft it felt. Nothing they had could recreate how this made him feel, the bright colors. Anything other than grey and red was welcome.
With Byakuya’s steps slowing, Hiro took the opportunity to crouch down, running his hand along the surface of the ground. The grass traced against the palm of his hand, though he stopped as he reached a flower. It was a bright yellow, almost in the shape of a star with orange in the center. It reminded him of the sun.
“Daffodil,”
Hiro looked up with surprise as Byakuya leaned down, shifting to crouch beside him. “H-Huh?”
“The flower. It’s a daffodil,” Byakuya explained, running his index finger and thumb along the large petal of the flower.
Yasuhiro blinked, staring at the flower for a moment, then over at Byakuya. He chuckled, still somewhat baffled. “I- uh… Cool!” He replied, not having expected that from Byakuya. “So… Are those also daffodils?” He motioned to some other similar flowers of a white color that looked quite similar.
Byakuya hummed, “Yes,” he paused, standing once more, “Here, follow me.” He motioned with his hand.
Stumbling a bit as he attempted to stand, Yasuhiro complied, not quite sure where he was being led to, given that there didn’t seem to be much of anything else other than trees and flowers around. For some reason, he was still surprised when Byakuya stopped in front of a few more collections of flowers. He motioned to a collection of flowers. The petals were smaller in size, moving upwards with a strange ‘ripple’ texture. They were various shades of pink, purple, and red, along with a few other various colors. “Cosmos,” Byakuya explained, letting Hiro appreciate them for a moment before turning to the next.
The next flowers were a lovely red color, and they almost reminded him of roses but if roses were less like a cylinder and opened up more. The petals were more rounded, the entire shape of the flower almost looking like a circle. “Camellia.”
Yasuhiro nodded along, running his hand along the petals of the flower. There was something so nice about the texture that couldn’t be replicated by anything else, it reminded him of silk. With a pause, he glanced back over at Byakuya, giving him a quizzical look. “I didn’t know you were an expert on flowers, Toges!”
Byakuya sighed lightly, “I’m not an expert , it’s just…” he trailed off, crossing his arms as he stood, staring into the distance at the line of trees. “I find flowers intriguing. It seemed like decent knowledge to have.”
“Yeah, I have no idea what kind of use that’d be, but don’t get me wrong! That’s still super cool,” he insisted, awkwardly shifting once more so he could stand as well.
“We shouldn’t stay for long,” Byakuya noted after a moment of staring at nothing in particular. He seemed a bit hesitant about it, but his tone suggested that he was not going to be lenient.
“Aw, seriously?” He whined, pouting.
Byakuya’s expression did not change.
“Well it was worth a shot,” Hiro shrugged, but a smile quickly returned to his face, “Let’s do something, then!”
“Like what?”
For some reason, Yasuhiro hadn’t thought further than that. “Uh-“ he glanced around the field for any kind of direction, but there was really no more than that around for them to do. After a brief pause he motioned for Byakuya to join him as he sat back down against the grass.
The other remained standing with his arms crossed, “Yasuhiro, I’m not-“ but after a brief moment he trailed off and with an annoyed sigh, he hesitantly lowered himself to the ground. Eventually he chose to sit with his legs crossed. “You’re lucky I brought another one.” He huffed, motioning to his suit.
“Dude, I don’t know how you expect those things to not get dirty covered in dust or whatever,” he replied with a light chuckle. Seriously, he couldn’t seem to keep any of his outfits clean no matter what he tried. Although he supposed it didn’t help that he didn’t try much. Glancing over the selection of flowers, he reached over to grab at a few of the white cosmos flowers, carefully plucking them from the Earth with a decent bit of the stem. Admittedly, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but it wasn’t like Byakuya would be able to tell, right?
Regardless, Hiro lifted the stems, staring at them. Okay… Now he just intertwined them together and…? Uh, this didn’t look like it was working. Tie them together, maybe? Oh that looked bad. Hm.
The other watched in a subdued silence, watching his movements intently and with feigned disinterest.
Hiro huffed, this was not working.
“You’re doing this entirely wrong,” Byakuya interjected a moment later. Reaching out his hand he held it palm up. For a brief moment Hiro thought he was offering his hand, but then he realized he was looking at the flowers . Ah, that made more sense…
“How would you know?” Hiro retorted, relenting as he released the flowers from his grasp into Byakuya’s open hand.
“Tch, even a child could do something this simple,” he retorted, fiddling with the stems. It didn’t answer his question, unfortunately, and he didn’t ask for clarification, worried he would stop if asked. Regardless, now Hiro was the one watching with curiosity as Byakuya folded the stems carefully together, intertwining them as if doing some intricate craft. Hiro had never knitted or done crochet or any of those other string crafts, but he had a feeling it was something like this.
To his surprise, the flowers seemed to be held together well, actually forming into an intricate circle. “Woah!” Usually when he tried making a flower crown he just hoped that it managed to stay together on its own. Sometimes it worked! But Byakuya had made it seem effortless. “Can you do that again? I wanna see what you did.”
“I suppose if you gather more flowers I’ll consider it,” the ‘I don’t want to get my hands dirty’ was silently implied.
Regardless, he took this as a good sign, nodding. “Right, I’ll be back in a bit,”
Byakuya made a noncommittal hum in response as Hiro set himself out on a mission to find the best flowers around.
To his surprise, it didn’t take long for him to find a good collection of flowers in a large variety of colors and types. He didn’t know what half of them were, but he supposed Byakuya would tell him soon enough! There was probably enough, right? And if there were too many then they could always take them! Maybe keeping them would be nice. If they could find somewhere to keep them… Regardless, he made his way back over, carefully dropping them to the ground in between the two of them as he sat back down.
Gazing up at him with a bit of confusion, Byakuya rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “None of those colors go together…” He scoffed, staring at the horrendous collection that Hiro had selected. Despite his claim he still reached down, running his finger along the side of one of the petals, his posture relaxed. “Take your pick, then.”
Already knowing what he was going for, Yasuhiro picked a good collection of yellow, orange, and blue flowers.
Byakuya made no comment about his selection of colors, mostly just grabbing at the remaining ones. To Hiro’s surprise he seemed to be taking most of the remaining orange ones (there weren’t many, so it had to be a deliberate decision, he noted), and a few extra purplish-red ones. Perhaps he’d grabbed a few too many of those.
Byakuya hummed as he set down most of the flowers once more, leaving only a few in his hands, “Now I expect you to pay attention because I’m only going to explain this process once and then you’re on your own,”
Hiro nodded, but somehow he was already getting lost and they weren’t even one step in already… Thankfully, Byakuya seemed to notice this and adjusted his position to be facing the same way as Hiro, holding out the flowers, “Watch carefully,” he added, glancing over.
Yasuhiro nodded, and after a few moments Byakuya began guiding him through the progress, very slowly… A few times he completely stopped, grabbing Yasuhiro’s hands and just physically showing him the steps. It was honestly quite nice. Along the way Byakuya had also told him about a few more of the flowers and what they were called. Light blue hydrangeas (although Byakuya insisted on adding those himself as they were difficult to work with), yellow peonies, orange and yellow chrysanthemums, and some of the aforementioned daffodils. And to his surprise, after a few (many) failed attempts, he managed to get there halfway on his own! Resuming the process without assistance, and with some extra flower knowledge.
Somehow, in the end he managed to get to a passable looking flower crown! He was actually quite proud of himself. This one was staying together. “Here!” Eagerly he reached forward, leaning over as he, somewhat carelessly, tossed the creation onto Byakuya’s head. Almost more surprising, it actually managed to stay on without falling off! “It’s for you! The two colors are supposed to be like me and you, y’know?”
Byakuya fell silent, mouth somewhat agape as if he’d been going to say something. Coming back to his senses, he shook his head, pouting as he gazed off to the side instead, face turning red. Yasuhiro’s grin only grew wider, chuckling to himself. Byakuya was cute… “I-” Byakuya paused, fiddling with the crown in his hands - much more put together and pretty despite the confusing color scheme Hiro had chosen by accident - and hesitantly held it out. “-I suppose you want mine as well?” He questioned, although it sounded more like an offer than anything.
“Oh, nice! Thanks, Toges,” he replied, happily taking it and placing it atop his head. Thankfully his hair was tied back so he could actually wear it normally without causing many issues.
Byakuya cleared his throat, “Think nothing of the flower choices. They were… Random.”
Yasuhiro raised an eyebrow, not quite convinced. What a strange thing to mention… What about the flowers? Actually, thinking about it now, he actually knew what they were called now. There was… Red carnations, yellow, white, and red camellias (apparently specifically Japanese, although he wasn’t sure what difference it made to regular camellias), some of those cosmos flowers, and primrose. He had no idea what any of that meant, but it was probably only good things!
“Yours is so much more put together than mine,” he acknowledged after a moment. “I’m surprised mine hasn’t fallen apart yet!”
“I am as well,” Byakuya hesitated, glancing towards the distance. “I suppose we’ll see how long it stays together.”
The silence stretched forward. After a while Byakuya intertwined his hands, tapping his thumb against the surface of his fingers. Hiro wasn’t particularly in the mood to leave yet (when would be the next time that they’d see something like this again? He had to take the opportunity), so after another few moments he hummed, “I’m getting kind of hungry,” he noted, “what do you think about just taking a break to eat here and then we can head out?”
“I suppose that is agreeable. I do hope you brought something edible, however, otherwise we will be leaving,”
Yasuhiro chuckled, rolling his eyes as he stood. “Yeah yeah- I’m not that bad at cooking, y’know! I swear it’s edible,” he insisted, still smiling despite the comment. “Alright, whatever. Stay there, I’ll bring it over and bring a blanket while I’m at it, so you don’t have to keep sitting on the dirt or whatever.”
Byakuya nodded in acknowledgement as Yasuhiro paced his way through the field and back to the car, being careful to keep the flower crown on his head, and intact. Only to turn right back around a few moments later. Byakuya was already waiting for him with a light smirk, raising an amused eyebrow, hand held up with his palm open. “Forgetting something?”
“You could have reminded me before I left!” Yasuhiro whined, grabbing at the keys.
“Ah, but where’s the fun in that?”
“Right, right… Thanks Toges,” He replied once more, this time with much more sarcasm as he walked away once more, not having the same enthusiasm to pace across the field like he had the last time. Regardless, it didn’t take him long to reach the car, and he grabbed at the small collection of food he’d brought along with a blanket. He’d brought both in case they had to stop for a while or if they decided to just sleep in the car instead for whatever reason. When he returned back to where Byakuya was sitting (certainly not having forgotten to lock the car and stopping halfway there) he set the keys and the small box of food onto the ground, beckoning for Byakuya to move. With a bit of struggle due to the wind, he managed to get the blanket laid out on the ground.
Humming, Byakuya glanced over at him, “Keys?”
“Oh, right- here,” Hiro panicked for a moment, thinking he’d lost them, but thankfully was quick to find them underneath the blanket, so he set it back down into Byakuya’s palm. After another moment he handed Byakuya the box, taking out an onigiri for himself.
Byakuya stared at it, eventually shrugging. “Unoriginal,” he noted. Hiro was worried that was a bad thing - and it probably still was - but thankfully, Byakuya took a bite anyway.
“And hard to mess up,” Hiro noted in return, grinning. Seriously! It was basically just some rice in a ball and whatever else he wanted to throw in there. He’d tried to make it into a triangle shape once, but it had not gone well at all. Thankfully, almost no matter what he did it would taste decent at worst.
Having finished his own, he glanced over at the other with a bit of caution. “How is it?”
“Edible,” came the reply.
“Hey, y’know what, I’ll take it!” It was much better than the alternative, inedible or the slightly more present inadequate that he got occasionally. It was really hit or miss with his cooking. Some things he was just better at making than others. The silence stretched forward between them, and Hiro hesitantly cleared his throat. “Uh- I know you wanna get going but like… I kinda don’t want to leave. I mean- it’s not like we get something like this very much, right?”
“It’s not like the entire world is in ruins,” Byakuya huffed, crossing his arms. It was true, it was mostly major cities that were destroyed, but as far as he was aware, a pretty good portion of Japan was in despair with a reddened sky, destroyed buildings, and smoke. Although admittedly Hiro really only worked in Tokyo and Kyoto, along with other cities in Japan. He supposed he’d never just asked to go somewhere else. For all he knew it would be that easy.
“I guess… But like- when is it gonna be this . Just the two of us in the middle of nowhere. And it’s not like you’ve got a ton of free time, it’s astounding I even talked you into this in the first place!” He chuckled, but it was a bit more somber than usual.
Byakuya’s expression shifted, his eyes glancing towards the ground instead and his neutral and slightly displeased expression softened. “Right,” he murmured. With a long sigh he leaned back, staring into the distance instead. “I suppose you want to stay for a while longer? Then we can stay.”
“Seriously?” Yasuhiro grinned, leaning back until he was laying against the ground. “This is so much better than sitting in a car for a few more hours.”
“Need I remind you that you were the one to suggest this?” Byakuya scoffed, somewhat exasperated but not necessarily angry.
Yasuhiro elected to ignore him as he instead closed his eyes, appreciating the moment.
“I swear to God, Yasuhiro. If you’re just going to sleep then we might as well get going,”
“Wha-! No, I’m just lying down! You should join me,”
“I will not be doing that,”
Pouting, Hiro sighed, “You’ve never just laid on the ground for a while?”
“No,”
“You should! Here, come on,”
“I-“ Byakuya gave an exhausted sigh before slowly lowering himself down beside Hiro. Hiro gave him a friendly (and somewhat proud) smile, though he only got a light scowl in response. Although, he quickly turned away, too, and Hiro swore he saw a smile. He was getting a lot more convincing with getting Byakuya to stray from his routine! It was quite nice. He needed more breaks.
The soft sound of birds and a light breeze were the only audible things. For a brief few moments it felt like everything was normal. That the world wasn’t ending and they were outside of Hope’s Peak enjoying the day. But reality soon returned to him, and Hiro sighed as he stared into the sky, watching as birds flew by. It seemed the sun was beginning to set already.
“When does the sun set…? Isn’t it a bit early?” Yasuhiro mused, shifting himself upwards. Making the bad decision of staring directly in the direction of the sun, he quickly turned away.
“Around 5:30. Shouldn’t you know this?” Byakuya scoffed, similarly sitting up with his arms crossed. “Are we sitting or laying? Make up your mind.”
Hiro completely ignored his question, more concerned about defending his lack of knowledge on time. “Hey! I never paid that much attention to when the sun rises and sets, y’know? It just kinda happened,”
“You’ve lived here your entire life and- oh I don’t know why I even ask,” Byakuya sighed lightly, although he sounded more amused than annoyed, thankfully.
“When’s the last time you watched the sun set?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t usually have time to focus on those kinds of things,” he paused to adjust his glasses. “The first day we made it out of Hope’s Peak, I suppose.”
“Seriously? That was a while ago,” Hiro noted, although after he’d said it he realized that was better than the possibility of having never taken the chance to appreciate it. There was something so special about it that he couldn’t put into words. Poetic, maybe? It just didn’t sound potent enough. “Well, looks like the sun is gonna set soon anyway, so why not appreciate it again?”
“I just watched you nearly blind yourself,” Byakuya deadpanned. “At least that one had been an accident. You want to start at the sun purposefully?”
“Lighten up, Toges! We’re not gonna be staring directly at the sun, just like… in its general vicinity!”
“As if that’s any better… Well, if you want, I suppose I can’t stop you. Don’t go crying to me if you damage your vision, however.”
Yasuhiro chuckled, shrugging, “Alright, alright, I’ll keep that in mind,”
Time passed slowly, but Hiro tried to appreciate it regardless. While he hadn’t verbally confirmed it, Hiro had a feeling Byakuya was enjoying himself, too. He’d mostly spent the last thirty minutes listening as Hiro talked about whatever was on his mind. It ranged from genuinely good things and thought provoking questions to the dumbest things ever said. Although that had really only lasted ten minutes, the remaining twenty were spent by Hiro talking about the various birds that passed by. Strangely enough, he was decently well versed with bird knowledge.
By the time he’d run out of birds to speak about, the sun was fully beginning to set behind the horizon, the sky beginning to erupt with metaphorical flames. It reminded him of the ending of the world, but in a good way this time. About all of the good memories, the friends they’d made along the way and all that. The progress that they’d made repairing things. With a hum he beckoned to Byakuya, despite the fact that they were already sitting right near each other.
With a long bit of hesitation, Byakuya shifts his position to sit beside him, gazing off into the distance, just off to the side of the sun rather than directly at it. Not wanting to seem too strange, Hiro did the same.
The fiery sky illuminated the sky, silhouetting the trees in the distance. They looked completely black, the sun just barely peeking over the top. It was nice when it was finally removed from the context of the end of the world.
Yasuhiro didn’t even notice the way Byakuya was staring at him instead of the sunset, too engrossed by its rare beauty. It wasn’t until he felt a warmth against his hand that he finally looked over with surprise, locking eyes with a flushed Byakuya. His eyes averted away the instant he realized Hiro was staring back, but he didn’t remove his hand from on top of Hiro’s. Even against the orange lighting the other’s blush was clearly visible. Hiro himself smiled and eventually elected to make no comment on it as he turned back to the sunset.
Considering it for a long few moments he eventually shifted, removing his hand from beneath Byakuya’s, who made a disappointed expression in return. A moment later, however, he froze, tensing as Hiro shifted to lean against his side, resting his head against the other’s shoulder.
Realizing that it might’ve been a bit much for Byakuya, Hiro went to move away once more, but Byakuya relaxed once more, hesitantly leaning his own head against Hiro’s. Resisting the urge to make a large collection of comments on it, he stayed quiet, appreciating the moment. Something like this was rare for them.
“It’s so nice when it’s not actual fire, huh?” Hiro noted with a chuckle.
“You’re exaggerating. It was never to this extent,”
“I mean- yeah! But it’s still pretty and easier to appreciate, cause, y’know, it’s not dangerous,”
“I suppose…” Byakuya hummed in return, falling silent once more, although it sounded like he’d had more to say. Hiro didn’t have anything else to add, either, so he similarly fell silent, instead taking the moment to appreciate the warmth from both the remaining light of the sun and Byakuya right against him.
They stayed like that for a long while until the last few bits of the sun vanished from behind the trees, the sky’s ombre now turning to more of an orange-blue.
He was about to mention this to Byakuya, perhaps about how they should leave, but to his surprise, when he glanced over, Byakuya had completely fallen limp and quiet. For a moment he was worried that the other was dead or something, but when he looked a bit closer, he was still very much alive, just asleep. A small part of him wanted to wake him up, he would likely want to get going as soon as possible, they’d already ‘wasted enough time’ or whatever, but another part of him told him that Byakuya needed the rest. Maybe thirty minutes at least. He wasn’t sure how he’d occupy himself in the meantime, but he’d figure it out.
Careful as he could, he shifted off to the side, letting Byakuya rest in his lap instead. With a bit of difficulty he managed to grab the edge of the blanket, flicking it over the both of them, even if it was already a bit warm. Actually… Byakuya was still in his suit. Maybe that was going to be too warm? Ah, well, he could bother Hiro about that later when he woke up.
In the meantime he carefully removed the flower crown from Byakuya’s head, sighing lightly as he ran his fingers along some of the flowers. It seemed like some of the flowers were already starting to wilt. He wasn’t really sure how they would keep them alive like this, but he supposed that was another question for Byakuya. If he even wanted to keep them. He also decided to take Byakuya’s glasses off. He probably didn’t need them taken off, but Hiro was used to him sleeping without them, so just in case he might as well.
He set them off to the side for the time being and stared off into the distance. As little as they’d done that day, he was still enjoying himself. He hoped Byakuya had, too. They still had a good two or three hours left of driving to go. Hopefully Byakuya wouldn’t be too tired after waking up. Hiro wasn’t really a great driver. He could! It was just not the best. And driving at night always made him nervous.
It was getting dark faster than Hiro had realized, and by the time he was almost falling asleep himself, he felt Byakuya shift. With a light grunt, he sat up, glancing around. “Uh-”
“Hey, Toges,” Hiro greeted quietly, giving him a grin, “Had a nice nap?”
Blinking, Byakuya met his eyes, staring. After a moment, he seemed to catch himself, shaking his head as he glanced away. “Did I really-?” He trailed off, muttering. “Right- Hiro, my glasses.”
“Right here,” he held them out, careful not to touch the lens. It was sometimes concerning how little he saw Byakuya clean his glasses, and yet they were somehow always clean. It confused him, especially having worn glasses very occasionally for certain things. They seemed to get dirty after barely a few hours!
He cleared his throat as he placed his glasses back on, carefully adjusting them before gazing around their surroundings. Carefully moving the blanket off of him, he spoke, “I… Apologize. I didn’t mean to fall asleep,”
“Nah, it’s fine. You probably needed the sleep, anyway!” Gazing up at the sky, he grinned. Wow! What a nice view of the stars. There was practically no light pollution (although, there wasn’t much light pollution in most places anymore), allowing for more tiny dots to cross the sky than usual. A view like this was rare at the Foundation, mostly from all of the clouds. Although, very occasionally, if he had a mission or just happened to be walking around at night (although those cases were even rarer), sometimes he could see stars like this. “Woah, hey, look at that! Getting to experience all hours of the day today.”
Byakuya hummed, he was still leaning slightly against Yasuhiro’s side. “Yes, it is nice. Do you know much about stars?”
“Not really,”
“Hm... Me neither,” Byakuya sighed, laying backwards against the blanket. He tapped against Hiro’s arm, motioning for him to lie down beside him, staring up at the sky. Surprised, yet pleased, by the invitation, Hiro took up the offer and laid back down. “I was meaning to look into it, but simply didn’t have the time. There were more pressing things to attend to, and whatnot.”
“So that’s where your education ended? Astronomy and birds?” Hiro joked, chuckling.
Hiro could practically feel Byakuya rolling his eyes, “Yes, of course. How unfortunate. I suppose you just so happen to have all of the skills that I am bad at? Or at least one of them. I highly doubt there’s much more.”
“It’s like we complete each other or something!”
“Never say that again.”
“Aw, come on, Toges!” He whined in response, taking the opportunity while they were lying down to grab Byakuya's hand. Thankfully, being very similar heights made it much easier to hold hands. At least when Byakuya was willing to. He closed his eyes for a few moments, the tiredness from before was beginning to catch up to him, especially with Byakuya so close. “So you don’t know any constellations or anything?”
“Not particularly, no. I don’t suppose you know any?”
“Nah, that’s a shame. I only know, like… The Big Dipper or whatever?”
Byakuya stared at him this time, “I’m almost certain that is not a constellation. It’s part of the Ursa Major,”
“See? You do know space stuff!”
“I wouldn’t consider that ‘knowing space stuff.’ There are many complexities and nuances to space that I have looked into. Constellations, however, were not one of them.”
“Oh! Well that’s cool,”
Byakuya paused for a long while, staring up at the sky. Neither of them said anything, just letting the silence wash over them with nothing but the sky and each other to keep them company. Turning to Hiro, he gave a light smile, looking somewhat nervous and hesitant. “Um. Thank you. For, uh- everything. This has been pleasant,”
Hiro matched his smile, a warm fuzzy feeling swelling in his chest. As similar as this Byakuya was to the previous Byakuya that he’d known at Hope’s Peak, there was also so much growth that had happened for things like that statement to be said. He couldn’t state enough just how happy he was about it. He knew how difficult it had been for Byakuya to adjust his habits and to say less mean things. Hiro still found himself correcting him about those kinds of things. “Of course! I’m glad you enjoyed it,” letting his statement settle in, he gently squeezed the other’s hand, “I love you, too.”
Sputtering, Byakuya turned away. It was a bit too dark to tell, but Hiro could only assume he was blushing. “I- y-yes. I love you,”
The two of them stayed there for a while longer. It could’ve been anywhere between five to thirty minutes, Hiro couldn’t be sure. Time was weird like that. Regardless, they appreciated the sky during that time, staying in relative silence.
It wasn’t until Yasuhiro yawned that Byakuya finally sat up with a light sigh, running a hand through his hair to fix it a bit. “I suppose it is finally time that we get going, we can't have you falling asleep out here,” he mentioned, although he sounded a bit somber about it. Hiro shared the sentiment, but he was getting a bit too tired to really care all that much. He would’ve been able to sleep out here all night if given the chance, but he knew Byakuya still wanted to get things done and sleeping inside sounded a bit more pleasant.
Yasuhiro groaned as he lifted himself up to a sitting position. “Yeah… Any longer and I probably would’ve fallen asleep,” he chuckled lightly, wondering if Byakuya would’ve attempted to carry him (unlikely, he supposed) or just tried to wake him. Neither of which he could see going well and he had a strong feeling that Byakuya wouldn’t have let him just sleep there the whole night. Yawning again, he stood, grabbing one end of the blanket and folding it up. “Are you okay to drive still?”
Byakuya gave him a judgmental look, “As if you’re in any state to drive,” he pointed out, grabbing at whatever things remained (including the flower crown! Which Hiro was somewhat surprised he was willing to bring. He even stared at it for a long moment or so before moving on). “Yes, I’ll be fine. You can sleep in the car, I’ll wake you when we arrive.”
He laughed, “As if you even trusted me to drive in the first place,”
Byakuya gave no indication that wasn’t the case and instead offered a light shrug, grabbing for Yasuhiro’s hand as he guided them back towards the car. He’d initially thought it was unnecessary (although he did appreciate holding hands, of course! But he knew where he was going) until he realized that he’d had no idea where the car was. Thankfully, Byakuya knew where they were going, and they reached the car soon enough.
Byakuya dropped his hand to unlock the car and stepped inside, leaving Hiro somewhat disappointed, but understanding. Regardless, he couldn’t help but miss the warmth. He followed along, taking his place in the car once more. With the door closed behind him and now sitting once more, he felt the tiredness overwhelm him. The blanket in his hands wasn’t helping much, either.
Seemingly noticing as he started up the car, Byakuya hummed, “Well, good night, then,” he commented, glancing over with a light grin.
Hiro supposed that was all the confirmation that he needed, draping the blanket over himself. It was probably dirty and had grass and dirt all over it, but he didn’t really care. “Night, Toges,” he replied, leaning his head against the door. In his tired state he’d managed to completely forget about his seatbelt, but for whatever reason, Byakuya made no move to correct him about it or even comment on it, simply resuming their journey along the road.
As he fell asleep, Hiro couldn’t help but wonder what they would do tomorrow.