Archive of Our Own ^beta

The gong was never going to chime.

At least, that’s how Hinata felt. The gong did, in fact, chime, a mere seven minutes later, and Hinata wasted no time gathering his scrolls and pens and booking it out of the classroom.

He was more than a little peeved, he realized as he rested against the wall in the hallway outside of the Transfigurations room. He shifted his bundle of notes and pens from being haphazardly gathered in both arms to his left, reaching into his pocket with his right hand and gently pulling out a rather disgruntled pet mouse – one with a light blond pelt and a permanent scowl on his little mouse face.

“I ’m so sorry Lil’ Giant.” Hinata whispered, trying his best (and failing) not to frantically check that each and every hair was in place. “You okay there, little buddy?” Hinata spent a minute or two standing in the stone hall counting his pet’s toes and whiskers to make sure everything was in the same place. He was sure he had fucked up and accidentally transfigured the leg of a toad onto this body of a mouse, but the evidence was to the contrary. He breathed a sigh of relief. Really, he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of twisted teacher forced you to use your own pets in an introductory organic transfigurations course? It was just evil.

In his worry, he missed the clobbering of footsteps as they echoed off the stone hall around them.

“Hinata.” A cold voice hissed from what his subconscious supplied was less than a foot behind him. Said boy jumped, his spine trembling.

“Kageyama!” He turned slowly, cautiously. “What’s wrong?” He knew exactly what was wrong, but Natsu had always taught him that it was best to play dumb when you were at fault.

“You know exactly what’s wrong,” Kageyama echoed this thoughts, tagging on a “dumbass” for good measure. “How many times have I told you not to practice Quidditch in the goddamn room? I get it, I get it; you’re trying to get better so you can play on your own and all that crap, but my bedposts are more important than that!” Hinata may or may not have broken two of his bedposts when he lost control while flying in the shared house dorm room. “You have lunch right now, correct?”

Hinata nodded, signaling that he did, in fact, have lunch right now.

“Come on. I’m making you fix this, the Muggle way.” Kageyama’s smile was a bit like the pained expression a troll makes when he’s asked to make change for a fifty. Hinata felt his stomach turn. Hammers. Nails. Wood. Splinters. He was scared. He was devising an escape plan when Kageyama grabbed onto his arm, pulling hard.

He fell over, a surprised – and rather undignified, squeal escaping his mouth. His things went flying – scrolls went rolling and a small mouse scampered around the corner and out of sight. Hinata tried unsuccessfully to scramble up without tripping on his robes. “Kageyama after him!” Kageyama rolled his eyes, stretching out his hand to help Hinata up. “Fine. Pick up my stuff I need to go after LG!” Hinata wasted no time dusting off, turning on his heel – practically tripping over his disheveled robes, and running in the general direction his tiny pet had gone.

“Wait Hina-” He was already gone, bolting down the hallway and around pairs of friends travelling from one class to another. His feet barely touched the floor as he ran, his eyes swiveling at such a pace it would put sound to shame. Hinata wondered if he would find Lil Giant before it was too late. He also entertained the idea that this was some sort of punishment from the universe for trying to turn his mouse into pudding during Transfiguration.

Six turns later and Hinata was positive he had only gone in a giant circle. The worst part about this school was the ever changing internal scenery – the stairs themselves were hell on earth. Hinata felt as though he had gone in a complete circle, but he was standing in a brand new hallway. Hinata felt close to giving up, ten minutes was enough time for a mouse to run to Timbuktu, as far as he knew. He paused for a minute, mentally plotting out possible routes to take him back to his last class – where he had left Kageyama and his angry, moronic expression in charge of all his shit.; however, he froze when he heard a cat’s hiss emanating from the hallway he had just passed. He backed up: one step, two steps, three steps. Then he saw it. It could have been the strangest thing he’d ever laid his eyes on.

There was his mouse, cowering in fear, while a black cat stooped protectively over it, hissing at a bird of prey stooped perched on a window ledge three feet above the ground. The bird – a black owl, Hinata noted, looked exceptionally hungry, and the cat looked exceptionally hostile. Hinata? He was exceptionally confused. The cat pounced, jumping two feet in the air and swiping his fluffy black paw at the ruffled feathers on the window. Hinata saw his chance. He ran, sliding down as if to score a run off a throw down at home plate (he secretly wondered if he got that Muggle reference correct), grabbed Lil’ Giant, hopped back to his feet, and sprinted away from what had turned into an intense staring contest between the cat and the owl.

 It could have been the strangest thing he had ever laid his eyes on, but it wasn’t. Any ordinary person would have been stunned, but he wasn’t. This was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for Merlin’s sake, and everything was a bit stunning. He skidded to a stop, sparing a quick glance behind him. He didn’t see the owl anymore.

Instead, he saw a boy crouched down, stroking the cat’s ears in a soft, gentle, and rather familiar way. The cat was purring, a content look on its face. The boy? Hinata found him mesmerizing.

Hinata caught himself staring: caught himself but didn’t stop. His eyes were glued to the graceful movement of the boy’s hands – they were nimble, skinny but strong as if they were used often. (Did he play piano? Maybe Guzheng? Hinata was partial to the former, but a huge fan of the latter).  Hinata watched as the boy – mentally dubbed ‘Stranger Boy’ - lifted his right hand to push his long, outgrown blond hair behind his ears. He found it endearing how it was only mostly blond; the natural, darker brown was showing through at the top a great deal, as if he had given up on dyeing the roots to match the rest. The motion was swift and unsurprisingly lithe. Hinata could have swooned. He welcomed the desire budding in his chest – the yearning to get closer, to continue observing the boy’s unblemished, pale hands on the cat. To watch his face and see what kind of expressions it mad: happy, sad, excited. Hinata wanted to see them all.

As if he were waiting for the worst moment, Kageyama came hauling ass around the corner.

“Hinata? Is that you? Where have you been? We have class in five minutes!” Hinata shushed him with a rough look, his finger silently placed over his own mouth so Kageyama, the dense fucker, would understand. When he whipped his head back to the boy, he and the cat were gone.

Fuck.

History of Magic should not be a class. It was boring, bad and annoying – all notes and no play. Hinata almost always fell asleep. And when he wasn’t falling asleep, Kageyama was drifting off next to him. They took turns waking the other up, constantly toeing the line between “in good standing” and “hated with a passion” with reference to Professor Takeda.

Kageyama had to stay behind, and although Hinata would usually stay with him, classes for the day were over and he wanted to grab a quick snack before Quidditch practice that afternoon. He skipped out of the classroom, his hand grabbing Lil’ Giant protectively in his pocket. Ever since the incident last week, he’s been a much more overbearing pet parent. He didn’t doubt he would see the cat again. As a matter of fact, he had seen the cat – many times. He (Hinata was assuming) seemed to just be wandering around, but it could not be a coincidence that he saw the black fluffy bastard at the end of every History of Magic class. There was no way the cat just happened to be there. He had to have been waiting for someone. It must be Lil’ Giant. He must want to eat him. Hinata tightened his gripped as he stepped out of the room, wary eyes scanning the ground.

He stepped right onto that black cat bastard. Speak of the devil and he doth appear. Hinata froze as the cat jumped out of harm’s way, turning three times as he twitched his tail and hissed. Hinata gazed around worried. Had anyone seen that? Were they going to come and yell at him for stepping on an innocent cat? Hinata bent down to observe the cat closer, looking for any sign of injury.

Up close, Hinata noted that the cat was a little, well, funky. The cat seemed to have bangs– emo fringe really – sliding diagonally across his forehead. What in the great Gringott’s is with this thing?

Hinata checked him over, gently prodding his paws to make sure nothing had been hurt. The cat seemed fine, though it was staring at something in Hinata’s robe pocket. Hinata looked down, startled to find Lil’ Giant peeking out of his robe pocket.

Class had only just gotten out and all around them dozens of students were filing through the hallway, stealing glances at the orange haired boy, the black cat, and the mouse. Most veered away, walking with their friends on the opposite side of the hall and allowing a wide berth to remain in between them and the trio. Except for one boy that is. His head was buried in a handheld video game and the hood of his cloak was up, shielding out anything in his peripheral. He was headed straight for a jutting pole in the wall. Hinata happened to look up at the exact moment the boy collided with the column, falling back and dropping his handheld. The force of the impact had knocked his hood off his head, revealing his brown to blond hair, falling just past his ears.

“Stranger Boy!” Hinata yelled, jumping up and rushing over to the boy’s side. The cat looked over, the worry in his yellow eyes going unnoticed by Hinata. ‘Stranger Boy’ looked up, holding Hinata’s frantic cream coffee colored gaze for a moment before turning towards the cat.

“Kuro? Come here.” Stranger Boy’s voice seemed calm, but Hinata could hear a bit of panic underneath it. Without thinking, he grabbed the boy’s hand.

“Um, you don’t know me! But, I’m Hinata Shouyou, and um, this is your cat right? Because I think he’s in love with my mouse.”

“What?” ‘Stranger Boy’ looked down at their hands, then back up at Hinata’s face. Hinata could not believe he actually just said that. He kind of just panicked. “Um,” the other boy looked a little flustered ahhhh so cute so cute. He looked down, avoiding Hinata’s face. “My name is…Kozume Kenma, not, um. Stranger…Boy. And you can, uh...” Stranger boy turned his head the opposite way, still avoiding Hinata’s attentive gaze. Hinata noticed the slight perspiration on the boy’s hand.

“So Kenma! Is this your cat? I’ve been seeing him around a lot and he’s always looking at my mouse! His name’s Lil’ Giant. I named him after a great Quidditch player I saw play in a championship when I was younger, but yeah! I think your cat likes him.”

“Oh, this isn’t uh, this isn’t my cat. This is my friend, Kuro. Kuroo Tetsurou.”

“Huh?” As if in response, Hinata heard a shuffle behind him and turned to face the cat. Except, it wasn’t a cat anymore. Hinata started. “Are you an animagus? That’s so cool! Merlin’s boot, I didn’t even know.” His voice trailed off a little towards the end of that, thinking about the way Kenma had pet him so familiarly.  

“Yes I am. And to answer your question, no I am not in love with your mouse. That’s repugnant.” He had started off confidently, but what had come across as Kuroo’s innate sarcasm had waned drastically, and by the end, he just sounded weary. Kuroo’s eyes turned softly in the direction of said mouse, as if it reminded him of a sad memory, but brightened up again once he had noticed he was doing it. How strange. “But what I am is late.” Kuroo walked over to Kenma, who was still sitting on the ground, and rubbed his head. “See you later.” He said and Hinata watched Kenma nod in response. Kuroo walked towards the fields, and Hinata wondered how he was able to get through a whole conversation with the Kuroo Tetsurou – sixth year Slytherin Quidditch team captain – without throwing up.

Hinata turned back to Kenma, noting that he was packing up the things he had dropped as if he were getting ready to leave. Hinata’s heart dropped. He wasn’t sure why, but he just really wanted to keep talking to this boy. He looked him over. He was wearing the standard issue black robes, but unlike Hinata’s Hufflepuff badge, Kenma’s robes were for Ravenclaw. “So, Kenma?” He asked excitedly. “You’re a Ravenclaw? What year are you in?” Kenma stopped checking for scratches on his handheld, opting to look up at Hinata. The ginger haired boy was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with something; excitement maybe? Or maybe just nervousness. Kenma was definitely experiencing the latter right now. Kenma stared at Hinata’s eyes, enticed by the brightness and cheer he saw in them. Several seconds passed and if Kenma hadn’t been so transfixed, he would have noticed the nervous way Hinata was squeezing his thumb and his forefinger together. Kenma’s gaze was intense. It was observant and judgmental, though not necessarily in a negative way. Hinata coughed quietly. “Kenma?”

Kenma snapped his eyes to Hinata’s mouth and then quickly back to his eyes. He couldn’t believe he just got lost gazing into some stranger’s eyes. He felt his cheeks heat up. “Um, sorry I’m a Ravenclaw fifth year. What about you? You’re a Hufflepuff I see, but um, what year are you?”

“Well, lots of people think I’m a first year, because of my height, but I swear I’m not! For Pete’s sake I’m fifteen. I’m a fourth year, too!”

“Ah, I can imagine that, you are a bit short.”

“Hey! You’re not even that much taller than me!” Kenma laughed just then, very quietly, and Hinata forgot how to breathe. His laugh was so fresh and new and innocent. If it had a smell it would be forget-me-nots after the rain or apple pie cooling on the counter. It made Hinata feel so right.

Suddenly, as if just now realizing they were on the hard stone hallway floor, Hinata hopped up: body rolling into a crouching position, legs tensing, and body flying up into the air. Kenma’s eyes widened.

Hinata landed lightly and extended his hand to Kenma, gazing down with a large smile on his face. Kenma’s stomach knotted at the genuineness of Hinata’s smile – it was downright squirming when Kenma met Hinata’s eyes and realized each and every emotion was authentic.

It made Kenma feel, excited: strange and new, yes, but still, excited.

Kenma grabbed Hinata’s hand, placing his pink Nintendo DS carefully on the ground and allowing himself to be pulled up. Hinata suppressed the urge to shudder. Kenma’s hands were no longer perspiring, but cold, cold and dry. Hinata suddenly felt overly conscious of his own hands. They were warm and clammy and radiated heat like a toaster. Hinata watched as Kenma stood and dusted off his robes. He reached down to pick up the blond’s handheld; he didn’t recognize it and figured it was a muggle thing. Although Hinata was pureblood and knew very little of muggle things, they enthralled him. He wouldn’t have minded standing there in the middle of the hall, badgering the blond for information on his muggle gaming thingy, but didn’t have time to gush over how different they were from the wizarding games he’d grown up with. He suddenly resented the fact that the body required food to function properly. He handed the pink gaming system to the boy in front of him.

“Thank you, Shouyou.” Hinata didn’t miss the use of his first name. His eyes widened a fraction, and he was positive Kenma could hear his heart picking up speed, but he said nothing.

 “Ahh no problem, Kenma! And uh, I actually have to go eat and get ready for Quidditch practice, but um, I really hope to see you around!” Hinata basically chirped, the small frown on his lips juxtaposing his apparent eternally-positive, trilling voice.

“Oh, okay. Goodbye Shouyou.” Kenma reached down to gather what was left of his things, and Hinata could barely tear his eyes away from Kenma’s thin, delicate wrists as he moved his hand around.

The next day he didn’t see Kenma once.

That wasn’t necessarily strange; he hadn’t seen Kenma too many times before yesterday. Still, something in Hinata’s heart had hoped that, since they were properly acquainted, the universe would work harder to cross their paths. With this in mind, Hinata searched around constantly, always on the lookout for Kenma. People kept giving him strange looks, wondering as to what he was looking so desperately for. Kageyama, too, noticed this new quirk. He almost didn’t say anything, because really, this was Hinata he was talking about and well, Hinata does weird things. However, his curiosity eventually got the better of him.

“Hinata, Jesus what are you looking for?”

“Hmm, my new friend! Have you seen a splotch of blond hair? If you do let me know!”

“Hinata, what on Earth? There’s blond hair everywhere how am I supposed to know who you mean?”

“Well it’s kind of ear length and its brown at the roots and it belongs to an adorable boy with Ravenclaw Robes and intense eyes and-”

“Wait, Kenma? The fifth year?”

“Yeah! How do you know him?”

“He’s on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Same position as me. Of course I know him.”

Hinata’s mouth formed a perfect circle as he vocalized his utter, unfiltered amazement. “He plays Quidditch? I should ask him to practice with me.”

“Are you two friends?” Kageyama had no clue when Hinata had time to go off and make a friend on his own. It was a little reassuring though. He gets worried sometimes.

“Hmm. I don’t know. I want to be friends.”

“I can’t believe Kenma shares the same desire.”

“What do you mean Kageyama?” Hinata almost whined. He trusted Kageyama’s judgement and needed to know the implications of that statement. Like, now.

“He’s kind of just, an anti-social kind of boy. He sort of just anxiously skirts around the corners of life. Kuroo, you know, the Slytherin Quidditch star, is really one of his only friends. And I mean, you’re you, and uh, you just don’t really seem compatible.” Compatible. A heavy weight settled in Hinata’s stomach. He didn’t want to think that he and Kenma couldn’t be friends. He wouldn’t accept it.

“Something as silly as compatibility isn’t going to stop me!” And really, if what Kageyama said was true, which Hinata didn’t doubt for a second, then they did seem compatible. Kenma would be the peace that calmed Hinata’s frantic, volcanic energy. And Hinata would act like the spark that gave Kenma’s life excitement. They’d be great friends.

Another day had passed and there was no sign of Kenma. As if that wasn’t off-putting enough, Hinata had History of Magic in his rotation again. Professor Takeda was droning on and, as usual, Hinata wasn’t paying attention. Usually, he would be falling asleep, but today he felt too…jittery. Too on edge. Something was going to happen, he just knew it. So he sat awake for the entirety of the hour and a half lecture, staring listlessly into a map on the wall. When the bell rang, Hinata rushed to get out of the classroom with Kageyama, but froze when he heard his name.

“Hinata? Could you stay for a minute?” Professor Takeda’s voice wasn’t loud or particularly angry, but as Hinata turned, there was something on his countenance that just screamed trouble. I thought something good was going to happen.

“Yes, sir?” Did I miss a homework assignment? Did he catch me staring at the map for the past one hundred and twenty minutes instead of looking at him? Does he know me and Kageyama take turns sleeping?

“So, you may already know this, but you’re not really doing very well in this class.” Hinata almost laughed at how much of an understatement that was. “And if you keep going at this rate, you’re going to fail at the end of the semester. And I don’t want that. And I know you don’t either. So please, try to pay attention more. If you can, get a tutor! Or something! I know you’re busy, but school comes first, even before Quidditch. Even before friends.” He eyed Hinata in a knowing way just then, as if he knew the only things that went through Hinata’s head were Quidditch and brown to blond hair.

“Okay, Professor Takeda, I understand. I’ll try harder, I promise!” Even as he said that, his heart sunk. School was never his thing. It was never really his friends’ thing either. He didn’t know how he was going to be able to do better when he nor his friends had any clue.

Hinata excused himself and tried his best not to rush out of the room. He hoped that maybe Kageyama had waited for him, so when he got out of the classroom he whipped his head to the left, searching through the remaining students for his taller, black haired friend. Kageyama was nowhere to be seen, but Hinata kept searching, his head still turned left such that he didn’t see the boy coming towards him from the right. And, very much in character, the other boy didn’t see Hinata either – he had his head buried in a handheld game. At the last minute, Hinata looked towards the right, slightly shifting his body weight towards that side. Hinata crashed into Kenma, eyes widening as the other boy’s head shot up in surprise. Hinata shot his hand out, placing his fingers as gingerly as possible on the small of Kenma’s back to prevent him from falling over. Kenma squeaked a little at the sudden pressure, and it reminded Hinata of a frightened kitten. He wanted to retract his hand the second he heard that noise – always cautious of making the other boy uncomfortable, but he had to make sure Kenma was stable. Their bodies were pressed kind of close, not exactly touching, but almost. Hinata began to blush furiously when he realized this, waiting another second before he released Kenma and stepped back.

“Oh, uh” Hinata rubbed his neck nervously, “sorry about that. I just didn’t want you to fall.”

“It’s alright. Thank you.”

“We have to stop meeting like this. You should be more attentive in the halls.” Hinata joked with a chuckle.

“I could say the same about you.” Kenma replied with a small smile. “Did you just have History of Magic?”

“Oh yeah, hah. You must have taken that last year, right?” Hinata asked with genuine curiosity.

“Mmhm. It’s a really nice class. It’s cool to learn about the history of the Wizarding World. It’s much more exciting than the history of the Muggle World.” Kenma explained, his eyes straying up from his game to look at Hinata’s face. 

Hinata was astonished. He thought the Muggle World was so exciting. And he told exactly that to Kenma.

“Hm, I guess it’s not too boring, for someone like you. But to me, well I’m muggle born, and that history, to me, is just normal: it’s expected. Something I’m used to.” Kenma said, his voice on the edge of listlessness.

Hinata, however, was excited. He loved everything Muggle. It was different, and everything different was exciting to him.

“Actually Kenma, speaking of Muggle things, um, you know that game thingy” Hinata moves his thumbs, imitating how Kenma had been playing with the device moments before, “you’re always carrying around?” Kenma nods his head in affirmation. “What’s it called?” Hinata asked. Kenma’s eyes widened.

“You’ve never heard of a Nintendo DS?” Kenma sounded incredulously scandalized. Hinata laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I uh, guess not. I’ve never played with one before, but I always see you with it. And you always look so immersed and concentrated and excited and well, like you’re just having so much fun! And I couldn’t help but assume that it had to be something pretty awesome to make you look like that!”

“I can’t believe you’ve never played with a DS before Shouyou. Aren’t people from the Wizarding World supposed to be advanced?” Kenma joked. Hinata couldn’t help but notice how much more comfortable Kenma was around him today. Where the other day he was shaking and mostly avoiding eye contact, today he was all there and seemed really, okay – with everything. It made Hinata’s heart beat in a happy way, knowing that he had gotten Kenma to get used to him so quickly.

“-ey! Hey! Earth to Shouyou!” Kenma was waving his beautiful, pale hands in front of Hinata’s face, trying to get him out of his head. Hinata had been staring at Kenma with a ghost of a smile on his lips, and Kenma had absolutely no clue why. “Shouyou, are you okay?” Hinata couldn’t help but notice how many times Kenma had said his name. It made him smile again.

“Hi yes sorry sorry!” Hinata quickly said, hoping his cheeks weren’t flushed and displaying his embarrassment like a freshly dried painting.

“I was, um, asking if you wanted me to show you how to play?” Kenma’s hands were fidgeting in a nervous way – albeit a different kind of nervous from their first meeting – and he looked like he might die any minute now. Hinata was ecstatic.

“Oh my god! Really? You’d do that for me?” Kenma made a squeaking noise as Hinata bounced up on the balls of his feet just enough to look into Kenma’s eyes. “Yes! I would love to – yes let’s go now!”

Hinata felt like he was going to explode from happiness. Not only was he getting to do Muggle stuff – otherwise known as his favorite stuff, but he was going to get to hang out with Kenma. It was as if Christmas had come early this year.

Hinata had suggested going to Ravenclaw common room, only to have Kenma side eye him in a way that made him momentarily insecure.

“Shouyou, you know that the Ravenclaw basement hasn’t been seen by an outsider in over a thousand years, right?”

Hinata suddenly felt silly for suggesting it. Of course he knew, he had just forgotten. He told Kenma so, desperately praying for the nervousness in his shoulders to recede.

“It’s fine, really. Don’t worry. We can just go into the quad.” Kenma suggested in an airy, untroubled voice. Kenma seemed so relaxed. It was strange; before Hinata bad been relaxed and Kenma had been a ball of nerves – now it was opposite.

In the midst of Hinata’s messy thoughts Kenma had turned and begun to walk away. Hinata scurried after him, desperate to stay in his sphere.

The weather outside was still quite nice, despite it being almost November first. There was a grassy spot under the balcony to the Headmaster’s office. The air felt a little chillier there, but there was also a tangible buzz of energy and powerful, potent magic here. It made Hinata feel warm despite the temperature change.

Kenma, however, did not seem to share the same sentiment. Hinata regretted having not brought his scarf with him, as Kenma was sat shivering, hunched over his muggle game system, looking towards the closed castle door reproachfully. Hinata waited a second, then closed the gap between them, hoping to spread his warmth to the fair, fragile boy next to him.

“Kenma!” Hinata jumped slightly, brushing against Kenma and quickly grabbing his attention. As Kenma turned his head, the blond tips of his hair fanned out, brushing lightly against Hinata’s face. His hair smelt just a little like apples, most likely it was the scent of his shampoo that had faded throughout the day. Hinata breathed in deeply. It fit him, he decided. Hinata’s eyes had drifted shut, and when he opened them Kenma was looking curiously at him. Hinata figured he was blushing, but hopefully he could play it off like his cheeks were only tinged pink from the cold.

“Um, if you want we can go inside. I know it’s cold here.” He said, after a few seconds had passed.

“Oh no. It’s okay. Really. I, uh, I want to be able to play with someone. Kuro never plays with me; he just watches and tries to distract me by transfiguring whatever furniture I’m sitting on.” Kenma rolled his eyes, but Hinata got the sense he didn’t really mind what Kuroo did. He figured their friendship was like a nicer, softer version of his and Kageyama’s.  He felt a bit of jealously dissipate. Odd, he hadn’t even known it was there.

“Anyway, this is one of my favorite games. It’s called Pokémon. Have you ever heard of it?”

“Nope!”

“That’s not surprising, since you’re a wizard. But, there aren’t many muggles who don’t know about Pokémon. It’s pretty popular. Anyway, let me show you some basic functions and stuff.”

“Oh! What’s that thing?”

“The Pokémon? That’s a Munchlax.”

“Ooo. It that like super powerful or something?”

“Um, not really.”

“Why do you use it then? Wouldn’t a more powerful one be better?” Hinata looked at Kenma, his eyes innocent and curious; there was no ulterior motive to his questions. Kenma blushed and muttered something looking away. “Huh?” Hinata quipped.

“It’s, um, it’s really cute.” Hinata couldn’t help it. Somewhere between the discovery of the pout that alighted Kenma’s face and the blush on his cheeks and his admission of the ridiculous, albeit true, reason behind his choice of Pokémon at the moment, Hinata had started laughing. Kenma was just so cute.

Kenma looked up at Hinata, the latter giggling like a school child. Hinata’s laughter was carefree and contagious. Kenma almost started laughing himself. At the last minute, he switched from enjoying Hinata’s laugh to playfully smacking him on the arm.

“Come on and pay attention.” He said, with no venom or anger behind it. Instead, his eyes were crinkling happily at the corners and there was a joyful, humorful note intermingled with his words.

“Sorry! Sorry! Okay, where were we.”

“Let me just show you through the Pokédex first.” They spent the next hour going through basic gameplay for Pokémon. Hinata was excited to learn about something muggle, but he had the hardest time concentrating. He was hyper aware of Kenma’s movements. Every breath he took and every time he fluttered his eyelids and every time he turned his head to make sure Hinata was following his instructions. And when he looked at Hinata and Hinata would whip his head down to Kenma’s hands so he wouldn’t get caught staring, but he really didn’t mind that he had to do that because he liked watching how Kenma’s small, slender fingers kept playing the game even though Hinata knew Kenma wasn’t looking at the screen because he could feel Kenma’s eyes on him; golden irises burning into his bright hair. The time passed too quickly, in his opinion, and soon Kenma was pausing the game and handing the console to Hinata.

“I think you know enough to try on your own now.” However, Hinata didn’t know enough because despite listening intently to Kenma’s quiet, smooth voice he hadn’t absorbed a single instruction Kenma had given. Whoops.

After a few minutes, in which Hinata had managed to practically drain the life out of multiple of Kenma’s Pokémon, he intervened. “Um, I think we should stop for today, maybe.” He looked a little stressed and Hinata decided to pretend he hadn’t heard Kenma nervously chewing on the ends of his hair while watching Hinata play.

“Sorry about that, ahhh.” Hinata added sheepishly as he passed the DS back to Kenma. Kenma smiled, waving it off as ‘no big deal’ and repositioning himself so he sat facing Hinata instead of beside him. Kenma looked as though the cold was really affecting him, his pale skin was pink and when Kenma brushed his hair behind his ear, Hinata saw that they were a light shade of red.

“Kenma, are you sure you don’t-” Hinata’s question was interrupted by Kenma, whose eyes had widened as though he had just remembered he left his muggle cooking machine on.

“Hey, Shouyou, have you heard anything about that wizard, the one who’s jinxing Animagus’ in their animal form?” Kenma’s voice had taken on a serious, less lethargic timbre that Hinata was unaccustomed to. He swallowed slowly and shook his head.

“I’m really worried about it. It hasn’t really gotten around yet, but I heard from Kuro. They’re apparently using a spell from some ‘Half-Blood Prince’ book. It’s completely new to the aurors; they’ve never seen something like this and they don’t really know what to do about it.” Kenma’s expression had turned somber and a little anxious, as though all he wanted to do was solve the problem but he didn’t know how. Hinata wondered fleetingly if he worried about this often. The thought made his heart ache.

“Do you know anything about the spell?” He didn’t know why he was asking. The information probably wasn’t publicized, but he really wanted to distract Kenma from worrying. Sadness wasn’t a particularly good look on Kenma – not that he could ever look bad – but once Hinata had witnessed pure and true contentment on Kenma’s face, he had known Kenma was meant to be always happy. Hinata would do anything in his power to preserve that.

“Actually, yeah. I know a bit about the spell. It’s kind of a long story, but a friend of mine managed to swipe some classified information during a school visit to the Ministry. I was actually able to come up with a potion that should be able to counter the uh, effects.” His voice had gotten quiet towards the end, as if he had only just realized what he was saying. He sounded bashful, and Hinata smiled gently.

“That’s really awesome, Kenma! You’ve got to show the Potions Master! That could be really helpful!”

“I’m not really done with it though. I need to finalize the plans and double check them. Then, I have to actually brew it. I don’t even know if it will be successful, but I’m really hoping it can help.”

“Would you ever need any help with it? I mean, potions aren’t really my thing, but if you ever needed a guinea pig to try it on! Well, not a real guinea pig…” Kenma chuckled again, very lightly. Hinata felt his heart seize up. God, Hinata was falling for this boy.

“What the-” Hinata writhed in terror from the jump scare of something, or rather someone, in his pocket squirming.

“What is that?” Kenma asked, scuttling back a bit after Hinata flailed his arms.

“It’s Lil’ Giant. He’s freaking out and I have no clue what’s wron-WHOA wait get back here!” The aforementioned mouse had escaped from the confines of Hinata’s pocket, scurrying at the speed of light away from the grassy area where Hinata and Kenma had been playing games. “Shit! Sorry Kenma I have to follow him!” Hinata sounded panicked. Why did this keep happening?

“It’s okay,” Kenma replied as he got up with Hinata. “I’ll go with you.” They began to run in the direction of the Quidditch fields, neither knowing exactly where the mouse was heading. Hinata cursed under his breath as Lil’ Giant took a sharp left, ducking behind a wall and out of their sight. Hinata turned the corner a moment later, stopping so quick Kenma crashed into him and would have fallen back had Hinata not turned in time to grab his hands and steady him.

“Shouyou why did you stop?” Kenma asked as Hinata turned back around. He stepped to the right so he could see past Hinata, absentmindedly rubbing his eye. “Kuro?”

Kuroo stood in front of them, rubbing his forefinger in a soothing motion on the head of Lil’ Giant who was sat upon his outstretched hand.  He was smiling a little affectionately as he looked at the mouse, and Hinata was reminded of the declaration of love he had made in regards to the cat and the mouse. Maybe, in some fucked up way, I hadn’t been that far off?

Kuroo glanced up, taking in the sight of the energetic orange-haired fourth year standing in front of a slightly out of breath Kenma. They must have run here. I wonder what kind of kid this shorty is to get Kenma so revved up. “Kenma, did you run here?” It was an innocent enough question, but the glint in his eyes revealed that Kuroo saw how the only person who could get Kenma to break a sweat was the midget standing between them.

It was cute, to say the least.

Kenma read between the lines (not that there really were lines, since Kuroo’s eyes were essentially a window that allowed every wisp of a thought to shine through) and released an almost imperceptible sigh, his tired eyes never leaving Kuroo’s mischievous ones.

Hinata, unaware that he was the subject of their staring contest and subsequent silent conversation, internally debated whether he should grab Lil’ Giant off of Kuroo’s hand. He couldn’t understand why his precious pet kept running from him, nor why he kept ending up around Kuroo, of all people. Why was his mouse more comfortable around a stranger than the boy who had taken him off the street at Hogsmeade four months ago?

Hinata was shaken out of his bout of self-pitying by Kuroo’s hand on his own, coaxing it open and placing Lil’ Giant in the middle of his palm. Kuroo looked at him apologetically, as if he didn’t understand Hinata’s unspoken questions either, although he looked a little longingly towards his hands. So weird.

Lil’ Giant had the nerve to glare reproachfully at Hinata when he was released from Kuroo’s possession.

“Alright, um, sorry about that,” Kuroo gestured emphatically towards the mouse “again. I don’t really know why we keep meeting up this way. I have to go, but sorry? I think?” Kuroo looked a little dazed, and still a little sad Hinata noted, and he turned and walked away, almost crashing into a tree on his way to, well, wherever it was he was headed.

“Um.” Hinata didn’t really know what to say. He turned towards Kenma, who looked equally as confused as he did. Kenma shrugged slightly, and Hinata laughed.  

“Anyways. I’m sorry about that, it kind of interrupted our plans.” Hinata wished he had just left his flighty mouse behind for the day.

“It’s fine Shouyou. We still have some time before my next class. And it’s not like we can never hang out again.” Kenma looked a little nervous after that mouthful, but there was a ghost of a smile on his lips. Hinata laughed again, releasing worries he did not even know he had. It’s not like we can never hang out again. Hinata had never been so grateful before in his life to hear a string of words uttered.

“I’m glad! Kenma you’re, uh, you’re very fun to hang out with. You’re nice and cool and interesting and you’re intelligent and great at video games!” Hinata was basically bursting at the seams while he confessed that. He had so much energy he almost let out how Kenma was also very pretty, and how his hair looked soft when he combed his petite fingers through it, and how much Hinata loved the shine of Kenma’s eyes whenever they met his own.

Hinata really, really liked Kenma. He liked being around him. Kenma had an air of calm around him. It seemed to somehow ground Hinata while simultaneously sending him soaring through the clouds. Being near Kenma made Hinata feel as if the magic in him was singing, or maybe screaming was a better way to describe it; he felt so alive and his heart beat uncontrollably and he was happy – so very happy.

They sat with their backs against the gold stone corner and discussed seemingly trivial things as the time went by. In the next fifteen minutes Hinata learnt, from listening to Kenma, that he loved apple pie and hated any and everything physical. He also learned that, while Kenma felt neutral about playing Quidditch, he really enjoyed observing and coming up with strategies to help his team and to counter the specialties of other teams.

Despite the things Kenma revealed verbally about himself, Hinata learnt the most from just watching him. When Kenma got excited he wiggled his toes: Hinata watched amazed as the toes of his sneakers shook ever so slightly when he mentioned a particularly challenging boss level he had managed to overcome last weekend. Whenever he felt as though he had talked for too long he stuttered and wrung his hands in his lap, rubbing repeatedly at his fingers as if he needed the sensation to ground him and remind him that it was okay. Hinata had gotten into the pattern of smiling a little and responding eagerly to whatever it was Kenma had been talking about, as if to ensure him that it was okay. And it was okay, and none of it was fake. Hinata really did want to hear what Kenma was saying – his points of view were different and hearing what their world was like from an outsider was, to Hinata, exciting in every way.

Hinata’s favorite thing he has noticed about Kenma so far, however, was that, just as Hinata watched Kenma, Kenma watched Hinata. Hinata could feel Kenma’s sharp, warming, golden irises on him from time to time; they weren’t uncomfortable – they didn’t make Hinata squirm or give him the desire to run away like a certain tall, black haired boy’s gaze so often did – instead, they made the back of his neck and his cheeks feel warm, and fueled him to finish whatever excitable tangent he had gone off on.

He liked that there was no question that his desire for friendship was reciprocated.

After about twenty minutes of conversation, Kenma’s shoulders sagged a bit and he relayed to Hinata that it was, in fact, time for him to go to class.

“You promise we can hang out again soon?” Hinata asked, because even though he had seen how involved Kenma was in their conversation, he couldn’t fully squash his doubt that maybe Kenma was just being polite and he didn’t actually like Hinata’s never ending well of energy.

Kenma rolled his eyes a little, the lightest smile playing on his lips. “Of course, Shouyou. I promise, but right now, I really should get going to class.” He turned to leave, a quiet ‘goodbye Shouyou’ sitting on his lips, when he crashed full force into the tall dark wall behind him.

Except it wasn’t a wall, it was a Kageyama. A very angry, exasperated Kageyama.

He had come bolting over to where Hinata had told him, just that morning through a hastily and horrendously written text message, he would be with Kenma into the afternoon. And when he saw that Hinata was not there, he had searched for fifteen minutes in the surrounding areas for the ginger and his friend. So, yes; one could say he was very angry.

His expression did soften however, when he saw that he had run into the shy upperclassmen. He shot his hand out to steady the two-toned boy, much like what Hinata had done earlier. “Are you alright?” His voice was rough and his face was stone, but Kenma saw in his tender eyes that he was actually slightly concerned.

“I’m fine.” Kenma admitted softly. He was trying his best to avoid looking into Kageyama’s sharp, intimidating face for an extended period of time.

“Jesus Kageyama! Be careful!” Hinata started, planning on lecturing his roommate on the proper care and maintenance of petite muggles. However, at the sound of his voice, Kageyama’s head whipped from Kenma to Hinata, his face contorted in what could only be described as unadulterated fury.

“You are such a fucking dumbass!” He spewed in Hinata’s direction. “How are you failing History of Magic? It’s such an easy class! It’s literally just memorization!”

Hinata started his defense, but Kageyama cut him off again. “You and I both know that if you don’t pass this class, you’ll have to attend summer seminars and there will be no way your mom will let you go to the Quidditch Summer Championship! You literally have to pass!”

“I know okay, I know! But it’s hard! Kenma,” he whined, suddenly turning to the taller sixth year who had taken to twiddling with his cell phone while Kageyama and Hinata fought. “Isn’t it hard? You know you took it last year.”

“I already told you I found that class really interesting.”

“Whaaaaa Kenma! You’re supposed to back me up!” Hinata shouted with a slight pout.

“Why can’t you be more like him?” Kageyama asked, pointing to Kenma with his thumb. Kenma smiled a little, his eyes never drifting up from his phone.

Hinata looked as if he were revving up to fight Kageyama right there and then, so Kageyama said a gruff goodbye and stalked off, grumbling to himself about how he would kill to go to the Summer Championship game.

“Y’know Hinata, if you ever want any help with that class I wouldn’t mind having some study sessions or something.” Kenma was talking slowly as if he were unsure and afraid of stepping over the stark line that separated what was and wasn’t okay for two people who hadn’t met all that long ago to say to one another.

“Oh my God! Would you really do that for me? That would be so amazing! You’re the best Kenma!” Kenma’s cheeks flared up at the compliment and he turned his head slightly away from Hinata to hide the blush.

“I just wouldn’t want you to fail. Especially if I can help.”

“You’re actually a saint thank you so much! Gwah!” In his excitement, Hinata had jumped over and practically launched himself onto Kenma, gripping the older boy in a tight, excited hug. Underneath him, he felt Kenma freeze, and he immediately drew back in worry.

“Shit! Sorry Kenma, I don’t really, like, I don’t know you probably don’t even like hugs, or touching, which is okay!” Hinata was rambling, sure that it was now he who had crossed the undrawn but very much still there line that divided what was and was not okay. “I’m sorry that was all my fault I-“

“Shouyou.” Kenma said, surprisingly calm in the wake of Hinata’s chaos. “It’s okay, really. I just wasn’t expecting it. But I didn’t, well, I didn’t not like it.” Kenma felt like lighting himself on fire. “So, it’s okay. Don’t worry. Really.” He still seemed a little nervous; his hands gripped his cellphone a little tighter, but he was making a conscious effort to look Hinata in the eye, and Hinata felt his heart warm a little and his shoulder relax.

“Okay, but if you’re ever uncomfortable please” He stressed the word please, stretching the vowel sounds for a few extra seconds. “let me know! Okay?”

“Mm, I will” Kenma responded. They both looked up as they heard the campus clock chime off and Kenma shuffled to put his phone away.

“I really have to go now, but we’ll definitely hang out soon. Bye Shouyou!”

“Bye Kenma!” Hinata waved enthusiastically as Kenma turned and walked away. Hinata smiled widely as he too turned and walked to his next class.

“You are so into him.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.” Kenma paused. “Okay, maybe I am. A little.” He looked down sheepishly, while Kuroo grinned in success.

“You don’t have to act so nervous Kenma. I’m not gonna judge you for liking a shrimp. He’s cute. I wouldn’t have pegged him as your type, y’know? Too much energy but, you guys looked like you were really getting along.” Kenma huffed out a light laugh at Kuroo’s words.

“I’m a little surprised myself. He’s all over the place, like all the time. Except when sometimes, with me, he’s really relaxed. It’s so strange. Yet, really peaceful, and serene, I guess. He’s…interesting. I like that.”

Kuroo’s widened his eyes a bit, taken aback a little by his best friend’s words. Kenma wasn’t necessarily one to show a lot of, well, interest in other people. Like at all. He wasn’t cold hearted or emotionless by far; true, he preferred not being too emotional in front of people he didn’t know or people he wasn’t comfortable around (essentially everyone sans Kuroo), but it was definitely not normal for Kenma to say such positive things about another’s personality. Their skills maybe; Kenma was observant and that level of observance goes hand in hand with a keen ability to analyze skill, but Kenma didn’t analyze personality. Even though he was surprised, Kuroo was still happy. Kenma rarely looked up from his games long enough to eat let alone long enough to make friends. It made sense that Kuroo was so excited at the possibility of Kenma expanding his social circle.

“Good. That’s good Kenma! I like him! His mouse problem is really funny too.” Kuroo let out a breathy chuckle, one that any other person would have seen as casual, but Kenma wasn’t just any other person. He saw that Kuroo was worried.

“Kuro.” Kenma looked up at him, making sure Kuroo was making eye contact with him. “He’s fine. You don’t know for sure that something bad happened to him.”

“But he hasn’t called in so lo-”

“I know, but you’ve sent people to look for him haven’t you? You’ve alerted the ministry and the muggle cops. They’ll be looking for him. You can’t worry about something you have no control over. It’ll be okay.” He paused, but took a breath and forced himself to finish his thought. “He’ll make it back to you. Okay?”

Kuroo seemed dejected, and like he didn’t really want to agree, but he acquiesced. Kenma reached up and pet Kuroo’s head with one hand while the other reached over and grabbed his phone.

It’ll be okay.

“Kageyamaaaaaaaaaa!” Hinata whined, lying dramatically on his bed with his hands ripping at his hair. “Kageyaaaaaamaaaaaaa! Are you even listening to me?”

“No dumbass I have homework to do. Don’t you have any studying to do? And don’t lie I’ve seen your grades.” Kageyama was sitting on the other side of the shared Hufflepuff dorm room, attempting to do homework while Hinata talked his ear off, as usual.

“Kageyama please. How can I think about homework at a time like this? I didn’t even get Kenma’s phone number. I saw him with his phone a bajillion times! Why didn’t I just ask! How are we supposed to hang out again?”

“Hinata shut up. You said Kenma said you guys would hang out again, right?” Hinata nodded. “Then don’t worry! It’ll all work out. Just ask him next time you see him in the halls. Now shut up.”

“But Kageyaaaaaaaaa-” Kageyama slammed his book shut. There was no way he’d be getting any work done tonight.

“Hinata what do you want me to say? You’re a dumbass. You barely know this kid and you’re all over him. He’ll probably think it’s creepy.” Kageyama was only kidding, trying to get Hinata to calm down and leave him alone with his usual bitterness, but something was different this time. Hinata actually did back down, which he almost never did. Kageyama spun around and saw Hinata with a horrified and regretful look on his face. “Wait no Hinata, I’m kidding! I’m only kidding!” Kageyama began backpedaling. Okay, so maybe Hinata was the most annoying thing that had ever come into Kageyama’s life, but Hinata was his best friend. He didn’t want to be the cause of Hinata’s distress. “Dude, it’s going to be fine. If the quietest, most anti-social kid I’ve ever seen said he wanted to hang out with you, again, then he’s definitely not creeped out by you. Okay?”

“Ugh, yeah – I guess, maybe! I don’t know! I just, I don’t want to scare him away. I mean come on, Kageyama, you’ve seen him! He’s adorable. He’s like a beautiful squishy little teddy bear. He’s so pretty I think I want to die.” He threw himself back on his bed, groaning about the beauty that was Kozume Kenma. “And he’s so smart! He offered to help me with classes! How nice is that? So nice! And you know what? His eyes are so sharp! Like you almost wouldn’t know since he looks at his games a lot – which he’s actually really good at like he can makes the characters go like Whoosh and Bam and shit and like destroy the monster in like ten seconds! – But his eyes! Yeah his eyes and so sharp and pretty they’re such a beautiful color and just. Ah! And he’s so observant, y’know? Like it doesn’t seem like he’s watching you or paying attention to you, but he totally is!” Hinata took a deep breath in, as if he were trying to suck all of the oxygen out of the room and into his lungs. “Gahh he’s just so amazing.” Kageyama turned and saw Hinata still spread out on his bed, but with his head propped up. He had what could only be described as the sappiest smile ever on his face. Kageyama almost smacked him. This boy was falling, fast.

Hinata loved days like this.

The sun was shining really brightly and despite the fact that it was mid-November, the air was still quite warm. And, of course, he had his favorite class first.

The Defense against the Dark Arts classroom was moved almost every year, and this year it was closest to the Slytherin Dungeons. No one knew exactly why it was, it just was.

Kageyama and Hinata trotted down the steps, both trying their hardest to ignore the musty smell of the basement level and the gooey, green potion that had been spilt on the stairs. Thy breathed small sighs of relief when they could finally see the “No Cursing Allowed” sign that was to the left of the classroom door. Kageyama reached for the knob, but Hinata stopped and was staring at the sign.

Well, not at the sign exactly. Underneath the sign, there was a wanted poster. Unlike the majority of wanted posters that had a picture of the wanted witch or wizard, this one just had their description.

“Wanted: adult witch or wizard know for jinxing Animagus’ and rendering them incapable of switching back into their human form. If you have any information, send an owl to…” Kageyama read out loud while Hinata continued to stare. “What do you think this is about?” he asked, glancing over at Hinata who still hadn’t looked away from the sign. “Yo, dumbass.”

“Kenma was talking about this the other day.” Hinata mumbled, his eyebrows furrowed. How the hell Kenma knew about this before the ministry had made it public, Kageyama didn’t know.

“Good, then you can ask him about it next time you see him. Let’s go to class now.” Kageyama practically pushed him into the classroom.

“Ah, Tobio, Shouyou, come on in. You’re late.” The Defense against the Dark Arts teacher drawled from the front of the classroom. He smirked at them as they took their seats.

“Sorry Professor Terushima.” Kageyama mumbled while Hinata nodded next to him.

“It’s fine. Just come by after classes to clean up from today’s lessons and we’ll forget all about it.” Other kids around them giggled while others tried to be more discreet. Hinata frowned. He liked Professor Terushima.  He was young and had a punk’s wardrobe, despite being a teacher. He liked to have fun, and although he never went out of his way to check up on students, he cared about how they were doing in and out of the classroom. To give them detention over something as silly as being a few minutes late was out of character for Professor Terushima. “Yes, sir.” They responded monotonously, if not curiously.

Even with its unusual start, today’s class itself was great. Where Hinata failed at the core academic classes – like History of Magic – and a lot of the basics – like Potions and Herbology – he succeeded greatly in Defense against the Dark Arts. Something about it just clicked with him.

Their class that day was spent practicing hexes and how to reflect them. Kageyama and Hinata partnered up, throwing hexes at one another with gusto. Hinata jumped all over the room, moving from tables and desks to chairs to the floor – even running in between other partners as they threw hexes at one another. Where Kageyama had more skills and more advanced spells, Hinata had more agility and neither was able to hit the other all class. The period passed quickly – too quickly and soon the gong was chiming and everyone was running out. As excited as they had been to get to class, they were even more excited to leave.

“Ah! Not so fast you too.” The professor’s voice rang out. Hinata cringed.

“We’re really sorry about being late. Seriously. And we’ll definitely come by after classes and help pick up anything that was broken by the hexes. You can count on us!”

“No guys. Really, it’s no big deal. I was just messing with you. You’re busy with classwork and Quidditch and such, so don’t come by. I have house elves and actual troublesome students like Bokuto Koutarou to come clean up later. Just try to make it on time in the future, okay?”

“Yes sir! Thank you.” Kageyama answered quickly, bowing slightly at the waist. Hinata quickly followed him, and they hurried out of the classroom.

Right before ascending the dungeon stairs, Hinata turned back and plucked the ‘WANTED’ flyer from the wall, bent on showing it to Kenma later on.

Hinata had believed “later on” would be a few days at the least, but it turns out “later on” was seconds from “right now”. He was walking up the stairs when he heard his name being called in a sweet, twinkling voice.

“Shouyou! Hey, sorry I saw you coming up the stairs and was afraid I’d lose you.” Kenma was talking at his normal, quiet volume, apologizing unendingly for “yelling” – which was what anyone else would refer to as just normal talking. “Anyways, I was wondering if you would be up for, uh, studying in the library, this Saturday?”

“Yeah! Yeah that sounds great – awesome! Yes, perfect.” He was rambling a little, but God was he excited. He didn’t think he’s get to see Kenma so soon. It was like he was on cloud nine.

“Good.” Kenma did that thing Hinata loved where he brushed a strand of loose hair behind is ear. “I’ll see you at noon? Is that good for you, Shouyou?”

“Yepp! Works for me!” Kenma smiled slightly.

“Great. I have to go, but I’ll see you then. Bye Shouyou!”

“You are so into him.” Kageyama said, when Kenma had walked a good distance away.

“I know.” In his excitement, he had forgotten to show Kenma the poster.

Kenma was gone, something about wanting to leave and get to the library early so he could beat shorty whoops Shouyou to the library. Except, Kuroo was pretty sure they were meeting much later in the day, and Kenma left at nearly nine in the morning.

Weird.

Kuroo prattled around, unsure of what exactly to do with himself on this wonderful Saturday. He would have called Bokuto, and maybe they would have practiced some Quidditch or just dicked around, except Bokuto was still serving out his detentions with Professor Terushima for blowing a whole right through the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom wall on a prank. Kuroo sighed, kicking off his shoes and reclining on the couch in the Slytherin common room. He felt, alone. It wasn’t the first time he had felt the loneliness, the all too present feeling of solitude. He was able to fend it off when he was around Kenma or Bokuto, someone who knew what Kuroo was ‘battling’ with, and he was able to ignore it when he played Quidditch – as that required one hundred and ten percent of him and afforded him no time for his thoughts to wander; however, today he had none of those things to stop his thoughts from trespassing into rather taboo territory.

He missed him. That enough was obvious. It was obvious to any – to everybody. Even Hinata had been able to see something in Kuroo’s face when he had looked at Lil’ Giant.

That stupid fucking mouse. Reminding Kuroo of him so casually. Well, it’s not like Kuroo ever stops thinking about him; but, there’s a fundamental difference between having the thought constantly in the back of your mind and having it shoved right in front of your face while a fourth year screams at the top of his lungs behind you.

Kuroo couldn’t, and wouldn’t, pretend he wasn’t always thinking about Tsukishima. How long had it been since Tsukishima disappeared? Five months? Six? Kuroo was worried; he was worried and panicking and he couldn’t keep the boy out of his mind for more than ten seconds at a time. It was like that with people you loved, they had a habit of haunting you even after they left.

Except, Tsukishima hadn’t left. There’s no way he would have just left me like that.

Kuroo knows that something big happened, something completely out of Tsukishima’s control.

Kuroo wanted to say that it had started a year ago, when himself, Kenma, and Tsukishima had first heard about the dark wizard and decided that they – dumb little adventurous fifth and fourth years – would do something about it, but he knew that wasn’t right.

He knew it had started four years ago, during the summer between his first and his second year, when his neighbor Kenma – from whom he had not been able to keep the secret that he was a wizard – had told him that he, too, got a letter from Hogwarts and would be going with him at the end of the summer. He knew it had started when, a month into his first semester as a second year, Kenma had brought over a tall, kind of lanky blond boy with glasses and a button nose and a superiority complex and introduced him with a Kuro, this is my friend Tsukishima Kei. Kuroo had remembered him from Sorting Day (how could he forget the boy who never stopped scowling) and recognized him now as a fellow Slytherin, a first year. He knew it had started when they become fast friends, all three of them, with Kuroo and Tsukishima (nicknamed Tsukki – to the latter’s utter chagrin) throwing shade like nobody’s business, shooting off snarky comments and the like that had no real bite behind them and were really nowhere near as funny to anyone else as they were to the two of them. He knew it had started when he was in his fourth year and every time he saw Tsuki his stomach lurched and his heart started beating and his hands, had they always been this sweaty? And he knew it had started when Bokuto told him, while trying to hold back tears of laughter and loud, offensive guffaws, that he had a crush. He knew it had started when, after a fucking Quidditch match of all cliché things, Tsukishima had hopped off the broom, pulled him down by his collar and kissed him. In the excitement, no one else had really noticed, but Kuroo would never forget it. Nothing between them was the same again; actually, that’s not true. They still joked around non-stop, always provoking one another with smiles on their faces and lovingly laced insults; if anything, the only change was that they held hands and kissed and loved each other far more openly than in the past, before when they had simply been friends, before when they had been friends that pined after each other in a way that was anything but simple.

He knew it had ended when Tsukishima left.

Except he hadn’t left. Kuroo wouldn’t, he couldn’t, accept that Tsukishima had just up and left him after all they had been through. Tsukishima didn’t have a heart of stone, no matter what he liked to pretend. Even if he had stopped loving Kuroo, he would never have just walked away from the relationship they had worked for without so much a word.

So, even though it had ended, it hadn’t really. Because Kuroo Tetsurou would never give up on Tsukishima Kei. Ever.

The Hogwarts library was an amazing, beautiful building that lay off the side of the main academic wing. It held some of history’s most beautiful “lost” artworks, such as “Portrait of a Young Man” by Raphael, “Vase with Lychnis” by Van Gogh, and The Royal Danish Egg sculpted by Fabergé. It was filled to the brim with literary works of merit from both the Muggle and the Wizarding World. It was a truly buzzing, magnificent part of the school.

And of course, Hinata had never been there.

When he walked in for his tutoring slash hangout session, he expected to be the first one there. He had purposely left twenty minutes early so he could have some time alone to shake off the nerves he was feeling. He didn’t know why he was feeling so nervous. Why did it matter that he liked Kenma? They were already friends, so it’s not like Kenma didn’t like him already. Hinata wasn’t as naïve to believe he had a shot with Kenma. All he wanted was Kenma’s friendship, and he already had that. It didn’t matter that he was so into this boy, because he had no plans of acting upon it. So, why wouldn’t his heart stop racing?

Regardless, he had just hoped for a few minutes to relax, but when he walked into the library, he saw Kenma already sitting down at a table, video game in hand.

“Kenma!” Kenma’s head shot up.

“Shouyou,” he said quietly, even quieter than normal. “This is a library, so you have to be a little, well, a little less loud.”

Hinata’s hands quickly covered his mouth as his eyes widened. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry!” He replied in a harsh whisper that wasn’t really as quiet as he seemed to believe it was. Kenma let it slide, though, since the look on Hinata’s face was so very funny. “But Kenma! What are you doing here? You’re so early!”

“I’ve been here for a few hours.” On Saturday they had no classes, and today the Ravenclaw Quidditch team had the day off, so Kenma had been hiding in the farthest corner all day, working on homework and repeatedly setting high scores on his newest game. It was only around five minutes ago that Kenma had moved to a table closer to the front, where Hinata would be able to find him without any real effort.

“Oh! I hope you had something to keep you busy! Well, I guess you had your game and that’s good! I was worried you had just been waiting here for me and that would have been bad. Well, not exactly bad! But,”

“Don’t worry Shouyou, you would be worth the wait.” He had meant it innocently enough, he enjoyed hanging out with Hinata and thus, by default, Hinata was worth waiting for; however, the moment he said it, he felt mortified, his cheeks lighting up a bright red to match the scarf of the Gryffindor second year at the table next to them.

Hinata looked as though he had seen a ghost, his eyes blown wide and unblinking, his mouth slightly parted in shock.

Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. That was not the right thing to say Shouyou is probably weirded out shit. Fuck Kuro for making me think I’m into him now this just feels awkward. Maybe I can sneak out the window when he looks away.

Kenma looked stressed, his eyes flitting around the room, searching frantically for a window he could jump out of. He was interrupted by a loud, shameless laugh from in front of him.

“I think you’re worth the wait too!” Hinata beamed at him, still laughing a little too loud for the quiet library.

Kenma’s head shot up, his cheeks only deepening in color at Hinata’s words. His mind was a blank, he figured this would be right about the time he would slam his head down on the keyboard and allow the scramble of letters to express his feelings. Lafiuesgfkjjflhjknj!  He thought, although he couldn’t exactly say that, now could he?

“Shut up.” Kenma said, a slight pout on his face that was practically nullified by his sudden, quiet laughter. Honestly, the situation was just too awkward to be real.

“Anyways, laughing about this isn’t going to fix your marks in History of Magic, so let’s get started hmm?” Kenma quipped when he had gotten his giggles under control.

“Gah! Kenma not fair! You make it sound like I’m failing!”

“Well, aren’t you?”

“Not entirely! I mean, I’m close to failing, but not yet! Give me some credit!”

“I’ll give you credit when you earn it, by studying.” Kenma retorted without hesitation, his eyes downcast as he sorted through the notes on the table between them. Hinata sat down and began picking through Kenma’s notes.

“Kenma?”

“Hmm?” Kenma replied without looking up.

“You are such a nerd.”

“Wow, Shouyou. I thought you wanted my help?” Kenma joked, a smirk on his face.

“Of course! It’s exciting to have your own personal nerd.” Hinata responded. Neither were looking at the other, opting to continue searching through Kenma’s notes, but it was evident that they both had smiles on their faces, and the words between them were comfortable, friendly – if not a bit teasing.

“Alright well tell me, your personal nerd, where exactly should we start?” Kenma looked up and the flight movement in the top of his field of vision prompted Hinata to do the same. They made eye contact, Hinata relishing in the mischievous, quizzical look in Kenma’s eyes.

God he is so perfect.

“I think chapter six? That’s really where I started getting confused.”

They spent almost two hours running through chapters six through fifteen, the whole time Hinata pointing at sections that confused him while Kenma did his best to explain, thoroughly and often more than a few times in a row, the how, what, and why of the events. Unlike the professor, Kenma tried to focus most on the importance of the event and how it related to the others. He figured that someone like Hinata would be most apt at retaining the information only when he had been shown the big picture.

“Oh my God! Kenma! I can’t believe it!” Hinata yelled, not being quiet in the least. Kenma was too proud to shush him, though. “I can’t believe, I can’t believe I actually,” he suddenly got quiet, as though he really could not get over how incredulous this was. “understand this!” He was beaming, and Kenma couldn’t help but stare at him as he smiled and practically bounced in his seat. “This is amazing! Professor Takeda is going to be so proud!”

“I’m really glad you were able to understand, Shouyou.” Kenma said, truthfully. He didn’t even mind that he was exhausted. It was like a bittersweet sensation of being both exhausted from teaching Hinata and revved up on adrenaline and excitement just from being near him. Being near Hinata made effort worth it.

“Oh! Kenma that reminds me!” Hinata shuffled around in his cloak pocket, spending about ten seconds searching before pulling out a slightly rumpled piece of parchment. “I thought you might be able to understand this! It went right over my head.” He passed the wanted poster he had snagged earlier that week to Kenma’s outstretched hands.

“Shouyou where did you get this?” Kenma asked, puzzlement clear on his face.

“Haven’t you seen them around the campus? This one was outside the Defense against the Dark Arts room.”

“No. I haven’t seen these anywhere. Have you seen them anywhere else?” Now that Kenma mentioned it, Hinata hadn’t seen it anywhere else. He shook his head. “Hmm, that’s weird. Well thank you, Shouyou. I’ll show this to Kuro.”

“How’s your spell thing coming together?” Hinata asked, curious and looking to keep Kenma talking.

“It’s going okay, I think. I need help to get it done though, and Kuro has been really busy lately, so it’s been kind of slow going.”

“I can help!” Hinata said suddenly, slamming his hands on the table and practically launching himself out of his seat and across to Kenma. “I mean,” he retracted a bit, hovering closer to his chair and farther from Kenma. “if you want me to help, like I would definitely be willing to help you. Yeah…”

“Um, that would be really, really wonderful Shouyou.” Kenma breathed out a sigh of relief and laughed a little. “That would be a huge help, honestly.”

“Yeah so whenever you wanna get together to work on it just let me know – actually! That reminds me, again! Do you have a cell phone?” He knew Kenma did, but he would have felt like a dick if he just sprung the question upon him. Kenma was the kind of kid who needed a bit of an introduction.

“Yeah…” He sounded a bit wary, as if he hadn’t made the connection yet.

“Let me give you my number! That way you can text me whenever you need help or if you want to hang out or something.” Hinata felt his neck heat up, he felt….vulnerable? Nervous? He knew why, but he kind of wished he could make this flustered feeling go away. He was just asking a friend tom exchange numbers. It was nothing serious! He looked up and saw Kenma’s face flushed with red like it had been earlier. Is it okay for a friend to think another friend looks beautiful blushing because you, my friend, look beautiful blushing.

“Yeah, um, yeah. Here you can just, um, put it in yourself. Yeah, that’s fine.” Kenma seemed nervous, how he had been when they had first met. Hinata wondered if everything was okay, but figured Kenma wouldn’t want to talk about it. He put his number in, leaving the name slot blank, and handed the phone back. Kenma typed something on the phone quickly, then locked it and put it away in his cloak pocket.

“Hey Shouyou?” Hinata looked up at him. “Wanna go get lunch?”

“Yes!”

Later that night, after he had let Kenma get back to his room and had finished his homework and listened to Kageyama yelling at him to clean up his shit, he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate.

From: 781xxxxxxx

hey shouyou, it’s kenma.

Hinata smiled, typing a response before saving the number and flopping back on his bed, trying to ignore the warmth spreading through his chest at the thought of Kenma’s hair curtaining around his face as he bent over his desk playing a video game and also, trying to ignore how much he wished he could be there with him, despite having seen him only a few hours before.

From: shouyou

HEY!!!! thank u for sending me a message!!! number saved!! also thak u for today!!!!! i think i’m finally getting it!! can’t wait to ace my midyear exam!!!!

Time flew and Hinata could say that every day he didn’t get to see Kenma was a day wasted. It sucked. They did, however, text almost every night, which was something Hinata was really, really happy about, but it was only after Kenma had made sure Hinata had finished all his class assignments.

shouyou. The message would read. And Hinata wouldn’t even bother responding until his work was done. He often wondered what kind of magic Kenma used that allowed him to know whether or not he had done his schoolwork.

i don’t use magic. The message had read, when Hinata had questioned him about it. it’s you, so i kind of just assume it’s not done unless someone has made you do it.

Amazing.

It had been about two weeks since they had really had time to hang out. They still saw each other frequently (whenever their paths crossed in the halls they would take a minute or five to ask each other how their days had been), but Hinata missed actually getting to sit down – knees touching and smiles bright – and actually be with each other. That was a normal friend thing, right? And it was, so he wasn’t guilty about wanting it.

He was, however, nervous about what he was about to do. It wasn’t anything serious, not really. He was just going to ask Kenma if he wanted to hang out with him during the Hogsmeade trip. Kenma had brought it up the day before, when they had met in the hallway going in opposite directions relative to the Great Hall, but neither had capitalized on the moment to see if the other was going. So, Hinata was making his own moment. And he was nervous as hell. His hands were sweaty and all he could think was why he hadn’t just done this over text. It just hadn’t seemed right, or proper, at the moment, but now it seemed like the best option.

No. You can do this you dumb baby. Come on. He should be getting up for breakfast soon.

 Hinata would have been worried about getting up too early and disrupting other students while he stood in the hallway outside the Ravenclaw dorms, except it was a Saturday – the week before the Hogsmeade trip – and this was Kenma he was waiting for. It was Kenma, which meant it was nearly half past eleven in the morning and everyone else was already awake and Kenma was still not out of the dormitories and he wasn’t answering his phone. All signs pointed to him still being asleep so, no, Hinata was not worried.

He also wasn’t going to leave because he knew, if he left, he would lose the confidence that had gotten him to the doorway in the first place.

“Ah! Who is this? Shorty?” A voice broke out from behind Hinata. He turned and saw Kuroo walking towards him, still dressed in his pajamas and sporting his ever present bed-head. “What’re you doing here?” He paused, and then barely a second later, broke into the biggest shit-eating grin Hinata had ever seen. “Are you, by any chance, my little friend, waiting for Kenma?” Kuroo’s eyes had a twinkle in them, not too far off from the one Hinata remembers seeing in Kenma’s eyes once. He continued on, not giving Hinata a chance to answer. “This is adorable. If only I had a camera so I could capture this. Beautiful. Amazing. What pure, unhurt, young lo – wait how long have you been waiting here?”

“Oh! Uh, not long… I don’t think, anyway.” Hinata felt vulnerable, with the way Kuroo was eyeing him so knowingly and with the way he had almost said young love.

“Here, let me get him.” He sighed and walked up to a painting new the door as though he had done it a hundred times before. Hinata didn’t doubt it. “Hey Murasaki! Sorry to bother you again, but I was wondering if you would mind waking Kenma up? Thank you so much!” Kuroo bowed slightly to the woman in the painting as she disappeared into another frame. They waited barely a minute before she returned to her own frame, and soon the door was creaking open and Kenma was standing in the doorway, arms stretching above his head as he yawned and rubbed one of his eyes absentmindedly.

Hinata could not stop staring. Kuroo looked over and noticed this, and quickly coughed (read: snickered) into his fist to get both of their attentions.

“What are you guys doing here? It’s so early.” Kenma said lazily. The blush was receding from Hinata’s cheeks and he managed to stammer out a few words that sounded vaguely like an invitation to get breakfast.

“Oh. Sure, yeah let me just get dressed real quick.” He shut the door quickly and Hinata felt his shoulder sag in temporary relief. He was still exceptionally nervous.

“So, did you just ask him on a date?”

“What!? No! No I swear it’s not, no! It’s not like that! I-”

“Hinata, it’s okay. I was just kidding.” He smiled reassuringly. “However,” The smirk was back. “I don’t think it would be that bad of an idea if you did, you know? Just saying.”

“Wait what? What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying nothing. Just saying.”

“Yeah but what are you saying.”

“Nothing, nothing. Oh? Look at that Bo texted me. Sorry! Got to go. Listen to what I said!” He took off with a wink, leaving Hinata alone in front of the Ravenclaw door screaming back ‘but what are you saying??????’ with only Murasaki left to answer him.

He heard the door open behind him and whipped around, feeling suddenly nauseous as he remembered what he had come here to do.

“Sorry about that gu – wait where did Kuro go?”

“Something about a text from ‘Bo’ and then he ran off.”

Kenma rolled his eyes. “Typical. Anyways, shall we go? I’m actually really hungry.”

“Yes! Yes! Let’s go!”

“Shouyou, are you okay?” Kenma was looking at him with those sharp knowing eyes – curious and slightly worried – and he wondered if his heart could make it through the morning.

They walked to the Great Hall and took a seat at a table in the middle. Usually, the rules required that students sit at their house’s assigned table, but on Saturday mornings when there was no set breakfast time, the rules were far more flexible.

Kenma conjured up apple pancakes (it’s the closest you can get to apple pie at breakfast time, he had huffed when questioned) and Hinata got blueberry waffles. They ate in relative silence, when suddenly Hinata remembered why he had come down.

“Hey so, Kenma.” He said around a mouthful of waffles. He finished chewing, swallowed and then resumed talking. “I was wondering if you want to, uh, walk around Hogsmeade with me next week? If you want to! Like, if you don’t have any other plans or anything!” Kenma smiled. He technically already had plans with Kuroo, but he didn’t feel bad about ditching him and Bokuto to walk around with Hinata.

“I would love to.” He responded after a moment, taking a bite of his pancakes to cover the smile that refused to leave his face.

It was surprisingly cold when Kenma woke up that morning. He got out of bed and immediately pulled on his scarf, wrapping it and a blanket over his shoulders to keep himself warm. It was December after all.

It felt weird, being up so early on a Saturday, but today was the Hogsmeade trip and he got to spend the entire day with Hinata, so he had made sure to go to bed early instead of staying up playing league on his laptop.

He tried his best not to think of this like a date – Hinata hadn’t specified that it was a date – but Kenma kind of wanted it to be.

He liked Hinata, there was no point in denying it. Every time he saw him, whether it be in the hallways between classes or the Great Hall at meal times, it felt as though his heart was going to catapult out of his chest, through his neck and out his mouth. He felt clammy and nervous and he spent at least thirty seconds wondering if his face looked as red as it felt.

He was screwed.

But Hinata made the nervousness and the clamminess and the like worth it. So, so worth it.

So worth it, in fact, that Kenma was now up, at seven in the morning, getting ready for the annual Hogsmeade trip for the first time in three years.

He had gone during his first and second year, tagging along behind Kei and Kuro, listening to them throwing insults at one another and strangers they saw in the street, waiting miserably for them to finish looking around and find a seat in the Three Broomsticks where he would be away from the cold and the crowds. He had stopped going when he discovered Kuro’s crush. He figured he was better off playing games back at school then being the miserable third-wheel on the snowy grounds of Hogsmeade.

But this year, this year he was with Hinata. This year he wasn’t going to be the third-wheel. This year it was going to be him and his crush, and he was very excited.

Excited and apprehensive.

He knew he didn’t have to be, though. Hinata was a friend and a friend first, but it was nice to dream about what they could be. Nice, and nerve-racking.

This is horrible. Crushes are horrible. I am never having another crush every again. Stupid Shouyou and his stupid amazing personality and his stupid bright smile and his adorable laugh and his bright eyes and I. Hate. Crushes.

He heard a cough from behind him. Murasaki was back in the empty frame, looking at him pointedly.

“You look pretty today, Murasaki.” He replied calmly, acting as though he hadn’t been scared witless by her arrival.

“And so will you, Kenma. When you get dressed, that is.”

“I know.” He sighed. “Who’s down there?”

“A rabble of boys. I was sent up by the Bedhead, but the most excited one is the Midget.” Kuro and Shouyou, typical.

“Thank you, Murasaki.” Kenma bowed slightly, always appreciative of the portrait taking time out of her day to relay messages back and forth from the outside to the inside of the Ravenclaw common room. She left and he got dressed quickly into his robes, combing his fingers through his hair and running slightly down to the door. He was planning on enjoying every moment with Hinata. He was so determined, he didn’t even grab his DS or any of his games before opening the door and stepping into the hallway.

Murasaki wasn’t kidding when she said it was a rabble of boys.

Kenma saw Hinata jumping up and down, trying to reach his scarf that was being held far above his head by Kuroo. Standing behind them were Akaashi and Bokuto, the former noticing him and giving a slight wave while the latter laughed boisterously at Kuroo’s antics. Kenma looked a little to the right and saw Kageyama as well as a few other upperclassmen he recognized but couldn’t name. Regardless, they all waved him over and he stood beside Kageyama waiting for Hinata and Kuroo to notice his arrival.

Kageyama looked murderously at Hinata, his impatience showing quite clearly in the way he wouldn’t stop clenching and unclenching his fists. He seemed a minute away from choking Hinata when the energetic boy stopped jumping, turned and exclaimed in an excited tone, “Kenma!”

“Good morning, Shouyou.”

“Are you excited? Kuroo told me you haven’t been to Hogsmeade in, like, three years! We’re gonna have so much fun!” He grabbed Kenma’s wrist, dragging him along lightly a he skipped ahead, listing out all the cool things he had heard advertised from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

“Did you know they have a whole section just on muggle stuff? I’m so excited! Would you be able to explain what some of them are? Muggle stuff is so cool!” They left the building, meeting up with the group of students heading out. After roll call they began walking down the road with instructions to start heading back to school at six o’clock.

“Hinata.” Kageyama said, punching the shorter boy in the shoulder lightly. “I’m going to hang with Suga, Oikawa, and Iwaizumi so I’ll see you guys later.” He waved briefly before turning and walking off, leaving Kenma and Hinata alone. Kenma turned and saw Kuroo being manhandled by an excited Bokuto while Akaashi walked silently by his side. Kenma suppressed a grimace.

Best of luck, Keiji.

If Kenma thought Hinata was excited on the way there, he would be in for a big surprise once they actually stepped into the village proper.

The closer the got the more excited Hinata felt. He often found himself tugging on Kenma sleeve, or his wrist, or grabbing onto his fingers while pointing out things that enlivened him.

He loved how the snow looked on the trees, and how every now and then he saw a crow swoop through the branches. He got particularly excited when he saw paw tracks in the snow and Kenma and himself couldn’t decide whether it was a fox or a wild kneazle.

He liked the way he and Kenma’s hands fit together. It felt nice: warm and natural. More than that, however, it sent an electrifying spark up his arm whenever it happened and the feeling it caused in his chest was addicting.

They were very close to the town center, it was only just over on the other side of the small hill in front of them. Hinata released Kenma’s hand and ran up the hill, dying to get a glimpse. He stopped near the top and gazed over, eye wide as he drank in everything below him.

He felt something crash against the back of his head then, suddenly, whatever it was dripped down his neck. “Oh my god!” He turned around, tumbling slightly as his feet got caught up in the snow. “Kenma! Did you just throw a snowball at me?” He pouted as he looked over and saw his conclusion confirmed. Kenma stood there, grinning as he molded another lump of snow with his kitten-mitten covered hands. “Kenmaaaaa” Hinata whined. “I trusted you!”

Kenma winked as he threw another snowball at Hinata, this one hitting him in the shoulder.

“Alright, Kenma. You asked for it. This is war!” He dived to the right, narrowly avoiding another snowball. Of course, he ended up getting covered in snow regardless.

Kenma laughed, clear and beautiful, when he saw Hinata shaking snow out of his curly orange hair.

“Sorry Shouyou! But you’re gonna lose this one!” He yelled back, getting ready to throw another one. Soon he was ducking and running around as Hinata chased him, chucking crudely formed snowballs that managed to get stuck in Kenma’s hair and fall down around the collar of his robes. “Holy shit this snow is cold!” Kenma yelled out to Hinata as he bunched his shoulders up to prevent the snow from falling under his robes.

Hinata laughed, running over to Kenma and standing on his toes directly in front of him. He reached his hands up, running them through Kenma’s hair to shake the snow out. Kenma’s hair was long and soft under his touch, free of any knots to get caught on his fingers. He had wanted to do this since he first saw Kenma, all those months ago in the hallway petting Kuroo.

He was so entranced by the texture of Kenma’s hair that he hadn’t noticed said boy’s attention was entirely on him. He hadn’t noticed how Kenma’s breathing had near stopped, with his eyes open and unblinking as he looked at Hinata, nor how Kenma’s hands were itching to settle on Hinata’s waist.

After a few second, though, he did notice, and when he did he sprang back awkwardly, laughing nervously. “Kenma, you have really soft hair.” He commented without looking over.

What the fuck was that? What was I just doing? Do I WANT to scare him away because I think I might have. Except, when he looked over Kenma was still there, albeit with a blush dying out on his cheeks and his hands nervously gripping his cloak, bundling the fabric gently between his thin fingers.

“Um, so yeah! Let’s keep going!” Hinata finally said, tentatively grabbing Kenma’s hand and guiding him over the hill and into the town. It only took a few moments for the awkwardness of the situation to bleed out.

“Oooh! Kenma! Let’s go over to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes!”

“Okay Shouyou.”

The store was magnificent. It was two floors high from the outside and six from the inside. It was painted in bright colors and filled with the sounds of laughter and explosions. Hinata felt right at home amongst the chaos.

Kenma, on the other hand, looked ready to leave at any moment. Except, he would never do that to Hinata, so he allowed his hand to be snatched and dragged along with the rest of his body into the store by a jittering Hinata.

Fortunately, the only area that truly interested Hinata was the muggle “pranks and other things” section that was tucked away in a corner on the sixth floor. It was relatively quiet there, compared with the rest of the store, and partially empty as most witches and wizards were far more interested in the magical prank items and potions that occupied the other floors.

“Hey Kenma, what’s this?” Hinata held up a brightly colored cylinder made of plastic and capped in metal.

“That,” Kenma grabbed the item from Hinata. “Is a lighter. And I do not trust you with it.”

“A lighter? Like the fire thing?”

In response Kenma flicked the striker and watched as Hinata’s eyes grew in surprise when a small flame sprouted from the lighter cap.

“Wow! That’s so cool. Can I try?”

“Shouyou, I don’t really think that’s a good idea.” He didn’t even need to say it. Soon Hinata was searching through the other items, lighter forgotten.

“What about this?” He asked looking at a thin wooden stick. “Is this a fork?” Kenma couldn’t help laughing at Hinata’s comment.

“No, no. It’s a backscratcher. You use it like this.” He demonstrated by reaching over his shoulder and scratching his back. Then he rubbed it on Hinata’s back. He hunched his shoulder at the contact. “Oh! That feels weird ahh why would anyone use that? It kinda tickles.”

“Oh, you know what’s cool.” Kenma dug around the pile of muggle trinkets, hoping they had it. He gave a little squeak upon finding it. “Shouyou, close your eyes.”

“Hmm? Okay. Whoa! Ah! Oh my God what is that? It tickles so much!” He opened his eyes and saw Kenma standing there grinning with what looked like a giant bundle of wire.

“It’s a head massager.”

“Gross! That felt so weird.”

“You totally liked it.”

“Did not! Okay, well maybe a little. Do it again.” Kenma laughed, stepping forward to place it on Hinata’s head again. Hinata squirmed as the wire scraped up against his head and Kenma laughed more.

They spent the next hour or so looking at muggle items, Kenma identifying a television remote, a computer mouse, a child proof doorknob lock, and a toilet cleaning sponge. Hinata was very amused.

“Muggles are so weird!” He exclaimed as they walked out the door. It had begun to snow lightly and Hinata spread his arms out like he was trying to fly away as they made their way over to the Three Broomsticks. Upon walking in, Hinata saw Kuroo, Bokuto, and Akaashi and waved over at them. Bokuto jumped up and came over to talk to Hinata while Kenma went and took a seat next to Kuroo.

He was sitting at the table, looking down at his butterbeer silently and barely seemed to notice Kenma’s arrival. Kenma looked over at Akaashi and saw Akaashi solemnly shake his head, indicating that Kuroo has been in this mood practically all day. Kenma grabbed his hand, not saying anything but letting Kuroo know he was here.

Kenma knew it was hard, this was the first time Kuroo had been to Hogsmeade without Tsukishima and it was bound to drag up the worry and anxiety he has been feeling over the whole issue. Kenma was worried too, except without the lover’s worry clouding his brain he was able to think far more optimistically. Kenma knew everything would be fine. Kuroo, on the other hand, was just a bundle of worry and nerves.

“Kenma.” Kuroo whispered. “I’ll be fine. Go handle shorty, he and Bo are probably going to get us kicked out if they get any louder.” He managed a light chuckle.

Kenma squeezed his hand. “They’ll be fine. They’ll probably both be back here in a second, I doubt Bokuto can stay far away from the two of you for long.” He gave a pointed look over at Akaashi who at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Shorty probably can’t stay away from you. You’re my new OTP did you know?”

“Oh shut up.” Kuroo laughed and lifted his head off the table, leaning back and giving Kenma’s hand a squeeze before releasing it and shoving him off the seat.

“Go find your own table you squatter.” Kenma stuck his tongue out, falling gracefully off the seat before heading over to where Hinata was fighting over Quidditch statistics with Bokuto.

“Akaashi’s getting lonely over there. And with only Kuroo to keep him company.” Kenma said slyly as he pulled on Shouyou’s arms, listening a Bokuto gave a quiet screech and hurried back to his table. “Shouyou do you want anything?”

“A butterbeer would be awesome! Thanks!” Kenma ordered a butterbeer and a hot chocolate and directed Hinata to a seat off to the side. They sat down, relaxing and sipping their drinks in comfortable silence.

“Did you hear about the dark wizard? The Ministry’s having an awful lotta trouble securing him.” Hinata tried not to whip his head around when he heard this. He glanced over at Kenma who seemed to have heard it as well. They stayed quiet, listening to the conversation going on behind them.

“Yeah. Awful horrible if you ask me. He seems to only be going after kids too! Ones fresh outta Hogwarts! And they’re all registered Animaguses’. I’ve been checking the Missing Wizards Registry and what’d you know but they’re all registered Animaguses’! Well, all ‘cept that Tsukishima boy but the chances of him having been caught by the dark wizard are pretty low, he was a muggle y’know.”

Kenma gripped his hot chocolate hard, worried gaze flittering over to Kuroo’s table. It would be hell if Kuroo heard what these guys were saying. A mention of Tsukishima would either break or enrage Kuroo and Kenma wasn’t really in the mood to figure out which one.

Hinata looked up at him. There was a resolute look of determination in his eyes. “Whenever you need help with that potion. Whether it be day or night or in the middle of the fucking OWL exam, just let me know. I’ll come immediately.” Kenma nodded, a lump present in his throat. He had a bad feeling about this whole thing.

Soon the men behind them left and not too long after that it was time to head back to campus. About halfway back, Hinata let his hand slip into Kenma’s and they walked back side by side in peace and happy, quiet conversation.

With only a few weeks left until Christmas break, anyone who was anyone – that is to say everyone – was locked away inside Hogwarts Castle, studying their asses off for the end of semester exams. Hinata hated how he couldn’t see Kenma that often. He missed Kenma’s studying tips like mad, but even more than that he just missed being around him. It seemed as though, ever since the Hogsmeade trip, Hinata’s desire to be around Kenma had only intensified. He worried that soon, he wouldn’t be able to keep his affection under the guise of platonic friendship anymore.

After the Hogsmeade trip, time flew. Midyear exams were coming up – the ones that occurred at the end of the first semester before Christmas break, and Kenma was swamped. He wasn’t a genius, nowhere near one, in fact, but being friends with people like Hinata definitely made him feel like one. Except, Hinata tried so hard and that always made Kenma feel a little more down to Earth.

Now was a perfect example of Hinata’s effort, Kenma thought as he glanced over at the fourth-year. They were sitting in the library enduring another study session – well, he was doing fine but Hinata was clearly enduring the pain of studying. His brow was creased like a preacher’s pant leg and his eyes kept roaming continuously over the same four lines as he repeated them, reading out over and over again the causes of the Second Troll War. Kenma found it endearing – that is, until five minutes had passed and Hinata hadn’t gotten past the phrase “pressured by inflated magic power parity”.

“Shouyou.” Kenma hissed out. Sweetly, of course.

“Hmm?” Hinata answered, looking up innocently.

“Do you need help with anything?” Kenma answered, trying his best not to sound clipped and aggravated, as Hinata looked so harmless and adorable.

“Yeah, actually. Could you please talk to me about anything not schoolwork related? I seriously need a break.” Hinata sighed out. Any other time, Kenma would have said no and forced Hinata to study; this time, however, he had been done with his own studying for close to half an hour and he just wanted to talk and laugh and watch the way Hinata’s long ginger eyelashes fluttered.

“Okay, well. What are your plans for Christmas break?”

“Oh, Kageyama and I were actually planning on staying at Hogwarts through break. Our parents went on a joint vacation to uh, some place in the Muggle World. I’m not sure where. There’s like, a tall tower or something. And bread.”

“Paris?” Kenma asked, incredulously. He always forgot that purebloods knew almost nothing about the Muggle World. Not even the super, super obvious stuff.

“Yes! That was it! They were super excited about it, so me and Kageyama just decided to keep them from worrying and stay at school.” Kenma hummed in understanding. “What are you doing?” Hinata asked.

“Oh, well, I think I’m staying through as well. It’s kind of tradition of mine and Kuro’s and, uh another friend of ours. And I think Kuro really wants to continue that tradition this year.”

“Oh my God! We’re going to get to hang out for a whole week! That’s so awesome! Kenma I’m so excited!” Kenma smiled.

“Me too, Shouyou.”

“That exam was so hard!”

“It really wasn’t that bad, Shouyou.”

“How would you know? You didn’t even take it!”

“Kageyama texted me saying that you told him that you felt prepared.”

“Well whose fault is that?”

“You’re welcome.”

Exams had just finished, like actually just finished twenty minutes ago, and most kids were getting ready to go to the end of term feast before heading home on the Hogwarts Express or through other magical means of travel. Hinata, on the other hand, had run to his room just long enough to tell Kageyama he owed his life to Kenma before zipping off to find said fifth year.

He had crashed into Kenma just as he was leaving the Ravenclaw tower, eyes bright and breath slightly short from having bolted over. Kenma had backed up a step, grabbing onto Hinata’s shoulders to steady him.

“Whoa, Shouyou. Careful.

Hinata had beamed.

“We should watch movies tonight in the library!” Hinata offered as the duo walked into the Great Hall a few moments later. “You, me, Kuroo, and Kageyama – since we’re all going to be here anyway! It’ll be fun. We can watch Muggle Christmas movies!”

Kenma smiled, nodding in agreement as Hinata pulled him by the wrist over to the table of Christmas puddings that had been laid out. “Kenma, these look like you!” He said, the corners of his eyes crinkling in pure delight. Kenma blushed lightly.

“Loser.” He huffed out, trying to fight a smile.

They went their separate ways, Kenma going to the Ravenclaw table and Hinata to the Hufflepuff table. Kenma hadn’t been sitting even a moment when he heard a ding from inside his cloak pocket.

hinata: MAKE SURE TO ASK KUROO ABOUT THE MOVIES!

It was pictochat. Kenma let himself smile this time, glad he had taught Hinata they could communicate between Kenma’s two DS’s – one of which her kept and one of which he lent to Hinata. They had cellphones, but pictochatting had just seemed more fun at the time.

kenma: OF COURSE I WILL. NOW EAT. TTYL.

Kenma had managed to get everyone to agree to watch The Polar Express after dinner. Kuroo tried his best not to look too put out; he was the only one in the room who knew that this was Kenma’s favorite Christmas movie, and he was one of two people who had been forced to watch it with him every year at Christmas.

Hinata looked excited to be watching something Muggle. He was confused about the magic train, and the concept of Santa, and the non-Muggleness of the movie in general, but one look from Kageyama got him to shut up. Speaking of Kageyama, Kenma was surprised to see him so engrossed in the movie, hanging onto nearly every word. It made his heart feel warm to know that someone else understood the wonderfulness of this cinematic masterpiece.

When the movie ended, Kuroo flicked his wand and turned the lights in the library back up, causing Kenma to scrunch his eyes up “like a kitten” as Kuroo had told him once before.

Hinata spun around – still sitting – so he was now facing Kenma.

“Kenma, you never told me why you and Kuroo were staying at Hogwarts through break.” He ended his note with a light cocking of his head to the left. Kenma felt Kuroo tense up next to him, and tried to think of a way around this; however, Kuroo opened his mouth and began speaking.

“Kenma and Tsuki and I always stay through so that we can hang around together, since Kenma and I live on the same street, but Tsuki lives really far away from the both of us. It was better just to stay here and hang with one another. The first year it was actually a coincidence – a freak blizzard had kept Tsuki from leaving and Kenma and I couldn’t just abandon him. But, then it became a tradition.” Kuroo looked wistful as he finished his explanation, his lips slightly upturned at the corners and his eyes looking at the floor, refusing to meet Hinata’s curious eyes.

“Tsuki? Who’s Tsuk – ow!” Kageyama had elbowed him, hissing out a reproachful ‘dumbass’ before settling back into his half reclined position on the floor.

“Tsukishima Kei. He’s our friend – a fifth year, from Slytherin. He’s been gone for a while.”

“Not dead.” Kuroo added on quickly. “Not dead. Just, not here at school either.”

“Oh.” Hinata quickly shut up, seeing how the atmosphere had been soured considerably. The rest of the night was kind of awkward. Kageyama and Kenma tried to salvage the night by discussing how horrible it was that, at the end of the movie, the girl could no longer hear the bell, but soon it was late and the four of them decided to just crash on the library floor.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and any awkwardness from the night before was gone when Hinata decided to wake everyone in the room up by signing wizard Christmas Songs.

He hadn’t planned to. He happened to wake up early, and after staring at Kenma’s adorable sleeping face for no more than ten minutes – no really, he swears – he had gotten up, stretched and glanced at the floating clock in the front of the room. It was quarter past nine in the morning, a reasonable time for caroling if there ever was one. He opened his mouth and began belting out a magical rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” complete with six dragons, four giants, eleven pints of butterbeer and one Tri-Wizard Championship Cup. Halfway through the final verse, Kageyama woke up and whipped a book off the shelf at Hinata’s head, while Kenma sat giggling from his spot on the floor.

They ate breakfast, and dallied in the Great Hall, discussing their favorite Christmas memories from before Hogwarts: Kenma’s was when Kuroo had gotten so excited running to see Santa he had slipped down the stairs and knocked over the plate of cookies on the table at the bottom. Hinata’s was when his little sister had first conjured the light that would adorn the top of their family tree. Kenma smiled at the adoring look Hinata wore when he talked about his sister.

At around noon, the group decided to forgo lunch in favor of an early dinner, and they took a few moments to call their parents and wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If they noticed Kuroo coming back with red rimmed eyes, they didn’t comment.

“Guys! Let’s decorate the common rooms.”

“Shouyou we aren’t allowed in them unless they are ours.”

“Oh yeah. I know! Let’s decorate the hallways!”

“Um, is that really a good idea?”

“C’mon Kenma, you can’t disappoint Shorty like that.”

“Count me out.” Kageyama deadpanned.

Hinata set about waving his wand and transforming the halls and the stairs and even a classroom into a bundle of “joy and Santa’s vomit” as Kageyama had so delicately put it. When the decorating was done, Kuroo and Kageyama left to play Quidditch, while Hinata traipsed after them, begging to be included.

Kenma had opted to stay, his inner worry-wart fretting over the final touches on Hinata’s Christmas gift. He wanted it to be perfect, although he knew Hinata would cherish any sort of gift from him, he still wanted it to be something the ball of sunshine wanted.

He had actually picked it up a few weeks ago, during their Hogsmeade trip. He had, at one point, excused himself to use the bathroom and then ran off, back to the top floor of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes warehouse and bought the most Muggle looking camera he could. It was a light green polaroid – he was surprised to see it going for so cheap at they were basically relics in the Muggle world – and he knew Hinata would love being able to take pictures of any and every thing he saw. He had conjured up a ridiculous amount of film through a duplication spell he had learned in his third year, and had wrapped it up all nice as his mother had taught him when he was in grade school and didn’t even know wizards existed.

He planned to give it to Hinata tonight, since it was Christmas Eve and everything. Kenma was only praying that everything went perfectly.

As he was putting the gift away, he heard the banging on the staircase. It was weird, because from the window he could still see all the boys outside, having abandoned Quidditch and now just running around throwing snowballs at one another, and he hadn’t believed there had been anyone else in this part of the castle.

Kenma turned, slowly, and jumped in surprise when he saw Professor Terushima sprinting down the staircase, a wild look in his eyes that screamed of paranoia and genuine fear.

“Professor! What’s wrong? Is someone chasing you?” Kenma looked around frantically, wondering if he was going to get caught up in some longstanding wizarding feud.

“Ah! Kenma! No no! Don’t worry about me! Everything is fine!” He looked behind him and cast a spell – an A-grade protection spell, it seemed – and then turned back, plastering what he supposed was a calming smile on his lips and slowly pocketing his wand. “I thought all the students went home this time of year.”

“Oh. Yes, they do. But a few of us stay, it’s nice here during the breaks.”

“I can’t help but agree seeing as I never leave this place. Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you were doing! Merry Christmas!” He left with a slight chuckle and more than a few nervous glances over his shoulder. The inquisitive part of Kenma wanted to run down to where he had cast the spell and investigate. He wanted to check it out, see what had spooked Terushima that bad. But he couldn’t stop thinking of Tsukishima, who had just disappeared, and of Hinata, who he would miss dearly, and with those images he managed to stop himself from running into trouble.

The others returned soon, and Kenma stealthily slipped Hinata’s gift into his pocket, and kept his mouth shut about what he had seen.

“Kenma, what’s your favorite part about Christmas?”

It was dark now, very close to midnight, and Kenma and Hinata were sitting on the rooftop above the kitchens. Hinata had flown them up there so they could watch the stars, although very few were visible under the fluffy clouds that marred the sky.

“Uh, I guess it would be just getting to be with all my friends. I like getting to see you this year.”

“Me too.” Hinata sighed back, with a small mile on his face.

“Shouyou.” Hinata responded with a hum. “Merry Christmas.” He pulled the gift out of his cloak pocket, sliding it over to Hinata. Kenma turned over, laying on his side as he watched Hinata with curious eyes.

“Aw Kenma!” Hinata grabbed at it, looking excited enough to rip the thing apart; but he didn’t. He opened it slowly, carefully, as if he was trying to undo each one of Kenma’s precarious folds perfectly. Kenma waited, trying his best not to come across as anxious – which he was undoubtedly failing at. He just wanted Hinata to like it.

‘Like it’ seemed to be an understatement.

Kenma was so positive Hinata had absolutely no clue what the gift was. Why would he recognize the relic of a muggle camera anyway? But that didn’t stop his face from lighting up, or a small gasp from escaping through his lips. He looked ecstatic, and when he looked over at Kenma, his eyes were filled with absolute adoration. It made the palms of Kenma’s hands feels sweaty, but then Hinata was pulling him into a hug, and squeezing him tight, and demanding Kenma explain to him what exactly the gift was and Kenma felt the storm in the pit of his stomach dissipate and a feeling of warmth replace it.

Hinata made (well more like asked nervously, but he might as well have been using force because Kenma could never say no) Kenma take a selfie with him to “commemorate the day” he got “the best gift ever from the greatest friend ever”. Kenma hated taking pictures, he hated how nervous he always looked in the eyes of the lens, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t love this picture. He himself had been looking at Hinata when the picture was taken, and Hinata was glowing like the sun even though it was near midnight and the only source of light they had was makeshift wand-light.

“Hey Kenma, let’s take another one so we can both keep one!” This time, Hinata scooted closer to Kenma, claiming it was to ensure they both got in the frame. Kenma didn’t mind one bit. He knew that if he turned his head just the slightest, he would see Hinata’s face just inches from his own, with his little nose and his barely noticeable freckles and his lips pulled into a literally blinding smile (at least, it felt blinding to Kenma since he always found himself looking away).

After the pictures were taken, and Kenma was sure it was Christmas Day already, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Hinata holding out a box.

It was a small box, hastily covered in wrapping paper as though the wrapper had rushed in getting it done. Kenma found himself smiling at the image of Hinata scrambling to finish everything up in time.

“Shouyou, you didn’t have to.” He said affectionately, and Hinata huffed indignantly in response.

“Well, neither did you, but we both did. So, take it.”

Kenma opened the gift thoughtfully, trying his best not to tear the paper superfluously. Hinata hopped up and down excitedly, until Kenma glanced up and gave a slight giggle, and Hinata stopped, his ears turning a light shade of pink.

The gift was, different. Not exactly what Kenma was expecting – not that he was expecting anything to begin with. It was a broad, black witch’s hat, very similar to the one he had up until a few months ago. He turned the hat over and saw his own name monogrammed in gold threading on the inside seam.

“How did you know?”

“Kuroo told me. He referred to it as ‘the tragic death of sir floppy hat’, which I thought was really weird to be honest, but I saw this hat at a store in Hogsmeade and immediately thought of you, so.” Hinata was definitely blushing now, and it looked so nice on him, Kenma almost verbalized that thought this time, but caught himself at the last minute.

He put the hat on, adjusting it slightly and then brushing a strand of his hair behind his ear. He looked up to see Hinata staring at him, eyes focused and cheeks still baring that pink tint.

“Kenma. You look so cute!” Hinata practically squealed. Kenma tensed, his entire brain focused on that one four letter word.

Cute.

“Sh-shut up, Shouyou.” He finally replied looking down. He felt rather than heard Hinata’s giggles, as the other boy had gone back to sit beside him and Kenma could feel Hinata’s shoulders shaking from where they were leaning against one another. “I love it” He mumbled, and tried not to get too mad when Hinata took a picture of him – pout and all – on his new camera.

The rest of break passed quickly. Hinata actually managed to find a lot of time to help Kenma with his potion without alerting Kageyama or Kuroo of their plans. Kenma told him that the potion recipe called for it to set for a total of one month, meaning that everything should be fine come February first.

Outside of hanging with the whole group or sitting and working on the potion with Kenma, Hinata felt himself feeling things. He had always been a pretty emotional guy. He loved his friends to death and he understood that he seemed to experience a wide range of emotions with more gusto than most kids he knew. But these feelings were different. Not bad different per se, just different.

For one thing, they only arose when he was around Kenma.

He knew he liked Kenma. He had liked Kenma since the minute he saw him. He found him beautiful, and intriguing, and smart. He had fallen head over heels for Kenma. Why else would he want to spend so much time with him every day for Gryffindor’s sake! He couldn’t confuse these feelings with how he felt for his friends. He never found himself getting lost in their eyes, or the curves of their necks, or their soft hair, or their gentle fingers, or their voices, or their laughs, like he did with Kenma.

Hinata liked him. Had always liked him. But now, he thinks he might love him.

 “Shouyou, I think it’s almost done.” Kenma said as he opened the door to allow Hinata into the abandoned bathroom that had become their workstation over the past month. The excitement was evident in his voice. Hinata beamed with pride.

“That’s amazing Kenma! How are you going to test it?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” He confided as Shouyou took of his cloak, hanging it off a hook on the wall. Lil’ Giant peaked his head out of the pocket.

“Well what can you do? I mean, you don’t really have a victim to test it on? Maybe it would be best to just hand it over to the Ministry. They’ll probably know what to do with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had, like, a super-secret room that was just filled with victims that they don’t want to public to know about. That seems like some the Minister of Magic would support.”

“Ugh Shouyou that’s a horrible thought I don’t want to think about that. What if it doesn’t work?”

“You’ve gotta think positive Kenma! Look.” Hinata grabbed Kenma’s hands, squeezing it subconsciously while he dragged Kenma over to the sinks. The potion was stewing in a cauldron over a low flame that had been conjured up impromptu in one of the broken sinks. “It seems to be bubbling an appropriate amount? And you said it would be green when it was ready right? This here is the perfect shade of green.” He turned, releasing Kenma’s hand and shaking his shoulders lightly. He couldn’t help but remember how he had hugged Kenma that first time, all those months ago, and how Kenma had frozen under Hinata’s touch; now he seemed to lean into it.

Kenma looked up, allowing himself to be shaken by Hinata. He bit his lip, contemplating his next words carefully. “Thank you, Shouyou. For everything.” He finally said, maintaining eye contact with Hinata. Hinata gently stopped shaking Kenma, the two never breaking their eye contact.

Oh my God I should do it I should just go for it. Now or never. Kenma you can do this. Just do it. Just do it.

Hinata beat him to it. One minute they were staring there, having the most romantically charged staring contest in wizarding history – hell probably in muggle history, screw Romeo and Juliet, and the next Hinata was launching himself up on his toes, making up the two inch difference as he crashed his lips into Kenma’s.

Or well, as he tried to.

“Shit!” Hinata yelled when, in his overzealousness, he crashed into Kenma with enough force to send him falling backwards into the sink. The cauldron rocked precariously on its hook, tipping and falling onto the cracked tile floor of the bathroom.

“Shit!” Hinata repeated, springing back from Kenma and gaping at the spilled potion on the ground. In the confusion neither of them saw Lil’ Giant scurry across the floor to the edge of potion puddle until he was already there. Hinata watched him stick his face right into the puddle. “Fuck Lil’ Giant don’t drink that!”

There was a small puff of smoke released as Lil’ Giant opened his mouth and then he was gone. Kenma and Hinata scrambled back as a boy appeared on the ground, seemingly out of thin air.

“Finally!” groaned the boy, a tall blond with glasses who was spread out haphazardly on the floor. Hinata looked left and right, searching for Lil’ Giant while Kenma just stood there, eyes wide and unblinking. Neither of them said anything or moved from their spots in the room. Aside from the initial groan of relief, neither did the mysterious boy on the ground. In fact, even the air around them had seemed to freeze. That was, until the door behind them was swung open.

“Kenma have you – oh my God. Oh my God!” Kuroo’s voice had increased in volume and urgency when he spotted the boy on the floor. Hinata and Kenma had turned when they heard him begin to freak out, both of them missing as the blond lifted his head and tried to push himself into a more dignified sitting position.

Kuroo flew by them, sliding down onto his knees on the tile until he was right beside the blond, hands reaching up to grab his face.

“Kei. Kei, oh my God. Is it really you? Are you really here?” Kuroo had tears in his eyes, they filled up and fell down his cheeks quickly and he made no move to wipe them away.

The blond – Kei – nodded his head, squeezing his eyes shut and pursing his lips to hold back a sob, nodding his head over and over and over again as if he, too, could not believe it was actually him. He suddenly moved his hand up to his throat, pressing down and opening his mouth, clearly trying to say something. It was hard and when he finally managed to get a word out it was quiet and raspy. Hinata just barely heard it.

“Tetsurou.” Kei practically croaked as Kuroo, who had kept his hands on Kei’s face, began to brush his thumbs over Kei’s cheekbones. “I’m” Kei stopped, swallowed hard, and kept going. “I’m so sorry.” He finally let out a sob, tears that had been pricking his eyes flowing freely down his cheeks and being brushed away by Kuroo’ gentle thumb brushes.

“Shhh, Kei. It’s alright. Everything is alright now. You’re back. You’re finally back.” He let go of Kei’s face only to grab onto his shoulders and pull him into a hug. Kei buried his face into Kuroo’s shoulder and continued sobbing, while Kuroo rubbed his back and whispered in is ear. Kuroo was smiling what had to be the biggest, brightest smile Hinata had ever seen. He looked as if someone had given a million dollars, except even better: like he had just had his heart returned.

“Um, Kenma?” Hinata whispered, for real, so as not to disrupt the two on the ground. “What’s going on?”

Kenma looked over, his eyes glossy from unshed tears and sniffled. “Kuro’s light has been returned.” He said simply, as if that would explain it. Surprisingly, Hinata got the gist of it.

“Wait a second. Where’s Lil’ Giant?”

“Shouyou.”

“Where did he go? I don’t see him!”

“Shouyou…look at me.” Hinata looked up. “Kei was Lil’ Giant.”

“Please don’t call me by that horrendous name ever again.” Kei said from the floor, punctuating his request with a slight sniffle. He had his hand wrapped around Kuroo’s and, despite sitting up even further now than he had been before, he was still leaning heavily on Kuroo’s shoulder.

“What? What the fuck. How the fuck? Why the fuck?”

“Kei I think you should explain.” Kenma said patiently as he looked from Hinata to the duo on the floor.

“Yeah, Tsuki what happened? How did you get with shorty? How come – how did I not know? You were right here the whole time!” Kuroo leaned back against a shelving unit on the wall opposite Kenma and Hinata. He looked devastated, and Kenma knew that despite everything, he was really beating himself up about this. There was no way Kuroo could have known Tsukishima had been with them this whole time. This situation was just so weird.

Tsukishima swallowed, eyes darting nervously around the room. He had always been comfortable when he had Kuroo or Kenma around him, but the circumstances made the room feel unusually constricting. He felt himself squeezing Kuroo’s hand tighter.

“It was when I was coming back from home. Right near the end of summer. I had just gone to see my brother, and Tadashi, and I was waiting for the train at Nine and Three Quarters. I was early, so there was no one else around, and I didn’t know where you guys were because I hadn’t wanted you to know I was coming back. I thought it would be a fun surprise. But then some guy started yelling a spell I didn’t recognize and I started morphing into my Animagus. And I just couldn’t change back. Then the guy put me in a box and the next thing I knew Mr. Manhandler over here was screaming about how cute I was” his speech had turned angrier as he shifted his attention towards Hinata “and he gave me that horrifying name. Honestly where did that name even come from?” Tsukishima finished with a pointed glare at Hinata.

Kuroo tried to wipe discreetly at Tsukishima’s tears, knowing full and well Kei hated being so emotionally vulnerable in front of strangers.

Kenma wondered whether Hinata counted as a stranger given the circumstances.

Kuroo shot Kenma a look, one of those “bro, you know what to do” looks that they had been sharing with one another since Kenma was four. Kenma nodded.

“Shouyou,” he whispered, tugging Hinata’s hand lightly. He motioned towards the door.

The two of them snuck out as quietly as possible, leaving Kuroo and Tsukishima on the floor, the former nuzzling against the latter and rubbing circles on his thumb.

Outside of the castle, the world was still moving. No one knew of the situation that was going on, or threw Kenma and Hinata questioning looks. Everything was calm.

“Shouyou.” Kenma said, a bit breathlessly as they descended the last of the stairs and walked into the common. “I can’t believe my potion worked.” He turned to look at Hinata in awe. “I can’t believe Kei is back.” Kenma’s eyes had started to get watery, and in the commotion Hinata had forgotten that Kei had been one of Kenma’s best friends, that Kei and Kuroo had been the driving force behind Kenma’s development of the potion, and that the potion had been Kenma’s baby for months now. Kenma must have been overcome with relief and pride and worry. Hinata tugged on his sleeve. When Kenma looked over, Hinata launched himself onto the older boy, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck – practically knocking him over.

“I’m so proud of you.” Hinata said, half muffled into Kenma’s shoulder. Kenma wrapped his arms around Hinata’s waist and squeezed tightly, and Hinata knew he had gotten the message across.

Hinata wanted to talk about, you know, the thing. The thing that had almost just happened – that he had so desperately wanted to happen. He didn’t even know he was doing it until he had done it and he hadn’t even done it because he fucked it up and now his mouse was a tall, blond, angry boy.

Things were a little too complicated at the moment, in his opinion.

Getting Tsukishima back into the swing of things was hard, harder than any of them thought. It was good that he had Kuroo, them being in the same house and all meant that he had probably the kindest, sweetest, most understanding person with him in the mornings, evenings, nights, and weekends; however, they weren’t in the same year, so during the daytimes Tsuki hung mostly with Kenma. With the five years of friendship between them, the task was easy.

Kenma had that nature about him, the air that let other people know something along the lines of ‘it’s alright. You can freak out if you want, I’m here for you. I understand’ and it was entirely effortless, stemming from years of anxiety and listless, well-applied apathy.

Kenma also found it intriguing, although Hinata would describe the situation as annoying, that Tsukishima and Kageyama got along so, well. That is to say, they didn’t get along at all. Kuroo joked once that it was because like things repelled – a muggle idiom that confused the hell out of Hinata and Kageyama, and caused Tsukishima to snort in denial and bury his head farther into Kuroo’s side.

The trouble arose when the group was walking in the halls on a Saturday, Hinata complaining about the four long scroll he had to write for – yepp, you guessed it – History of Magic. They were walking past the dungeon entrances when Professor Terushima walked out. Tsukishima froze, his grip on Kuroo’s arm tightening tremendously, enough so that Kuroo had looked up in surprise, his eyes laced with worry and a question on his lips.

“That’s him.” Tsukishima said, his eyes glaring holes through the back of Terushima’s head. He went to release Kuroo’s hand, grabbing for his wand as if he were going to curse the teacher out right here in the hallway.

“Kei.” Kuroo said, reaching for the sleeve of Tsukishima’s cloak without taking his eyes off Terushima. “Kei, I know you want to do it. And I so desperately want to let you. Hell, I want to do it for you, but we need proof.”

“What? You don’t believe me?” Tsukishima failed to hide his desperation beneath his anger.

“That’s not what I said. I believe you and you know it. That doesn’t mean the headmaster will.”

“Fuck. I know. I’m sorry I just. Fuck.”

“I know babe. It’s okay. We’ll get the headmaster to put a watch on him. She’ll believe us.”

Just then, Terushima turned, and made eye contact with Tsukishima. The latter almost lost control, but before he could, Terushima’s eyes widened and he was gone, having apparated right out of the hallway to hell knows where.

“Where the hell did he go?” Tsukishima was angry, and Hinata didn’t blame him. It was obvious Terushima had disappeared upon seeing Tsukishima, meaning that he knew his secret was out. He was the dark wizard and know there were five kids who knew about it.

Hinata knew he wasn’t alone in his worry over Tsukishima’s well-being. Ignoring his mental state (can you say ‘paranoia’ and ‘ptsd’), there was no saying that Terushima would leave any of them alone now, especially not Tsukishima. Kuroo hadn’t let go of his hand, Kenma was sitting barely five feet away, and Hinata was positively certain he had seen Kageyama installing magical motion detectors at each entrance.

They were all in the room of requirement, a place that apparently Kuroo and Tsukishima had “made good use of” since they began dating. He didn’t think anyone would be able to get in here.

That was, until he felt a hand coil around his head, clamping over his mouth.

“Shouyou!” He turned his eyes to Kenma, who had hopped up from his seat and was being held back from running by Kuroo.

Kuroo was glaring behind Hinata, presumably at Terushima. Hinata saw Tsukishima rise out of his seat from the corner of his eye, but his gaze was still locked on Kenma, whose face was drawn up in concentration.  Hinata tried not to appear panicked. He trusted Kenma with his life.

The three boys in front of him were like a fighting force. They had been together for a while, and Hinata remembered Kenma saying something about them being adventurous, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that they had a set fighting pattern. But it did.

Hinata was thrown aside as Terushima was forced to dodge an expelliarmus cast his way by a clearly pissed off Tsukishima. Hinata heard Kenma chastising Tsukishima for endangering him, but Kenma stopped when Hinata yelled back that he was fine.

The Defense against the Dark Arts Professor had gotten his own wand out and had begun shooting off spells none of the teenagers recognized. They didn’t even sound like the unforgivables, they just sounded wrong. But his wand was shooting out blazes of colors that burned holes in the walls of the Room of Requirement, so everyone was trying their best to avoid being hit.

Terushima aimed a shot at Tsukishima’s head, and in a split second Kuroo was there, knocking Tsukishima onto the ground and out of harm’s way.  Kei shot out a protego shield, and took a moment to help himself and Kuroo up. Hinata was thankful for his abundant energy and his multiple duels with Kageyama as he will able to stay afloat and away from the harm of Terushima’s magic.

Kenma, however, was not as lucky. The protego shield was up, and Kuroo and Tsukishima were vulnerable once again, but Terushima seemed to have found a new target. He shot a silent spell, discharging a flame from the tip of his wand so artificially bright it might have put the sun to shame. It swam like a fish through the sea between himself and Kenma, wrapping around the boy at the speed of sound. This time it was Hinata screaming, rushing forward, screeching aguamenti over and over and over again, trying to douse the fire that was covering Kenma’s body. But it didn’t work. Hinata didn’t think himself crazy enough to jump into a column of fire, but he probably would have if he hadn’t overheard Kuroo and Tsukishima shoot off synchronized expelliarmus charms, managing to land a hit and secure Terushima’s wand.

The column of fire died, and Hinata ran to Kenma, who fell gracelessly and barely consciously to the floor.

That’s when he heard the first shot.

“What the fuck? How did you get a gun?” He heard Kuroo yell. Tsukishima enabled a new protego shield, this time around Kenma and Hinata.

“I’m a muggle born, what can I say?”

“Why the fuck were you even doing this? What’s the point of this dumb prank?” Kuroo baited, Tsukishima snickering next to him.

“Ahh, the provocation master returns.” He added, hiding his smile behind his hand as if there wasn’t a dark wizard with a handgun fifteen feet away from them.

“Tsuki you wound me. When did he ever leave?”

“Good point.”

“If you must know” Terushima interrupted, drawing the attention of the room back to himself. “It was for the fun. I wanted to see how everyone would react. And you all truly did not disappoint, but a little fun is not worth Azkaban. So, I’ve got to make sure you all don’t remember this little, escapade of ours. Now, hand me over the wa-” He never finished his sentiment. He slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Is everyone okay?” Asked Kageyama, a candlestick in his hand. Behind him stood the headmaster, in complete surprise.

“Tobio! Why didn’t you just use a binding charm?” She sounded flabbergasted.

“His voice was pissing me off. I never liked him. Oi, dumbass!” He turned his attention to Hinata, who sat cradling Kenma’s head in his lap. “Everything okay here?”

“I’ll get the medic.” The headmaster said, apparating out and back in under a minute. The nurse, a thick set woman with round glasses, curly hair and a tight smile, set off, first checking to see if Kuroo and Tsukishima were okay, and when she deemed them well enough to get up and go rest in the hospital wing without further delay, she bustled over to where Kenma was still lying semi-conscious on Hinata’s lap.

She tried to separate the two, but Hinata had a steadfast grip on Kenma’s shoulders and she soon saw that her attempts at getting Hinata to go away would be entirely fruitless. He sat there, watching as the nurse set about checking Kenma’s vitals. Hinata explained what had happened to him, and the nurse nodded as though it was a common occurrence.

Across the room, Hinata noticed the headmaster stop Kuroo and Tsukishima, worry evident in her eyes, as she seemed to ask them “just what in the good golden snidget happened here?”

He tuned out their responses. He was there, he didn’t need to hear it again.

He focused instead on the way Kenma was subconsciously squeezing his hand despite being otherwise unresponsive.

Three days passed before Kenma woke up.

The sun was bright, shining in through the window next to his bed. He must have been in the hospital wing, as his bunkmates in the Ravenclaw Dorm knew to never leave the shades next to his bed up.

Kenma groaned, testing his tolerance by cracking open one eye at a time. It took a few minutes, but soon he was able to open them both at once.

He swiveled his head around the room, very much like an owl, and yelped when he saw a small bundle of blankets wrapped up fast asleep in a chair at the edge of his bed.

Orange tufts of hair were sticking up through the top of the sleeping burrito.

“Shouyou.” Kenma whispered, debating whether to wake him. His stomach fluttered knowing Hinata had been at his side through some length of time (how long had he been here, really?). The boy looked so peaceful sleeping there, his eyes closed and his lips parted just enough to allow small breaths to pass in and out. Kenma didn’t really want to disturb him, but he had no clue what day it was, or what was going on, and the resident nurse was nowhere to be seen.

“Shouyou.” He repeated a little louder, snaking his foot out from under his covers so he could shake Hinata. “Shouyou.”

Hinata jerked awake, confusion riddling his face. That, of course, lasted about three seconds before he saw that Kenma was the one who had woken him up.

“Kenma!” He yelled, in a voice that would have been too loud for the outdoors, let alone for the hospital wing in what Kenma was only assuming was morning.

But the look of pure relief on Hinata’s face stopped Kenma from chastising him.

“I’m so glad you’re awake. It’s been like three says Kenma! I was so worried. Well everyone was so worried.”

“Have you been here all night?”

“He’s been here all three days.” The nurse supplied as she walked in. She did a recheck of his vitals, a process that was much quicker with the assistance of her magical medical paraphernalia. “I’ll be back in an hour honey, so sit tight.” She left the wing, the door slamming behind her.

“Shouyou, why didn’t you leave?”

“How could I? With you here all limpy and unconscious and stuff.”

“What about classes?”

“Oh, they gave me a pass because they’re worried about me sustaining emotional trauma. But I’m fine. We’re all fine really. Well, everyone but you. But you’re better now! Right?”

“I’m not sure. I feel fine, but I guess we’ll know in an hour.” Kenma sat up a bit, feeling strange that he was still basically lying down while Hinata buzzed around him. Kenma’s heart still swelled knowing that Hinata had waited here for him.

Hinata, who looked uncharacteristically nervous right now. He had alternated between wringing his hands and inspecting his fingernails at least four times in the past minute. Kenma took to staring at the way his nails were bitten down on the ends. Shouyou must have been really nervous.

“Hey Shouyou, you can sit down on the bed if you want.” He said, a little impulsively, but moved his legs, patting down the free space regardless. Hinata sat down, shaking his left leg nervously. Kenma sat up straighter.

Hinata was biting his bottom lip, like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t get it out. Kenma found himself staring at the way Hinata’s teeth clamped down on his lip over and over and over again. Looking at Hinata’s lips made him think of the last time they had been together – without Kuroo, or Kageyama, or Tsukishima.

He surged forward without even thinking.

Kissing Hinata was nice. It was really nice. Kenma would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about kissing Hinata a hundred times since they met, but he hadn’t done it. Hell, he hadn’t thought he would ever do it. Then he had almost kissed him a week ago in the upstairs bathroom, and then they hadn’t mentioned it again. But here he was, doing it now. For real. Hinata’s lips were soft, not at all chapped like his own. They were warm too. The best part was when he felt Hinata push back against his lips, reacting to the kiss.

Kenma pulled away, a slight laugh escaping his burning lips when he saw the absolutely star struck look on Hinata’s face.

“Shouyou, I really like you. I have for a while. Like, a while.” Usually Kenma would feel nervous. Even now his heart wouldn’t stop beating, he was almost tempted to call the nurse back and check to make sure he wasn’t going into cardiac arrest. Despite this, his voice was even and he cheeks only heated up a small amount.

“Kenmapleasegooutwthme?”

“What?” Kenma asked, just to hear Hinata say it again.

“Kenma, will you please go out with me?” Hinata’s face was brighter than his hair.

“Yeah Shouyou. Of course I’ll go out with you.” Hinata smiled, brighter than his blush, brighter than his hair. And Kenma couldn’t help but smile in return. They stayed like that for the remainder of the hour, holding hands and smiling, laughing, just enjoying being with each other.

Kenma hoped they stayed like this forever.

From: shouyou

 I PASSED IT!!!!! I PASSED MY HISTORY OF MAGIC OWL!!!! OH MY GOD!!!

To: shouyou

congratualtions you worked really hard for this. im really happy for you

From: shouyou

u know i couldn’t have done this without u!!!! thank you so much kenma!!!

To: shouyou

youre welcome. but it was all you. you’re amazing when you put your mind to it

From: shouyou

i love u kenma

To: shouyou

i love you too, shouyou