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Even if Kenma closed his eyes, there was no way he could pretend he was somewhere else. The summer heat was unbearable despite the fan that rattled on the benchtop and blew only mildly cool air against his skin. The chattering of customers in the café was incessant and reminded him of the seagulls that pilfered the beach for anything to devour.
A thin layer of sweat covered his skin and it made his clothes feel heavier than they were. He was thankful no one at the counter needed anything. As it neared the evening, the beachside café slowly emptied and gave him a few moments of relief in between taking orders in a less than welcoming way.
“Kenma!” Kuroo’s voice cut through the air and made him jolt, his lax back tensing as he hunched over the ice-cream counter. “You better not be napping over there!”
As grateful as he was to his best friend for getting him a job over the summer break from his university classes, he knew that Kuroo was enjoying the title of ‘manager’ a little too much when it came to him. Sluggishly, he sat up and glared at Kuroo across the way. Kuroo merely grinned at him as he dragged a cloth over table to wipe it clean.
With a huff, Kenma sat up straight and stretched his back, releasing a quiet gasp at the way some part of his spine popped. Kuroo told him a hundred times to keep his back straight if he was going to sit at the counter, and whenever he did, it made him realise just how often he sat hunched forward.
If he turned his head, he could look out the windows that overlooked the endless turquoise ocean. The waves lapped at the shoreline, white bubbly foam rolling over the wet sand and washing away the footsteps of playful children. People started to clear off the beach in the evening, slowly but surely. Some of them hissed and hopped over the still hot sands while shaking out towels, others were dragged away to public shower stations to wash every last grain of sand out of every last nook and cranny.
And if he looked to the water, Kenma could see the stray surfer riding a rolling wave that narrowed and threatened to engulf them. The sun was dropping ever closer to the horizon, casting glittering patches of orange and pink over the water to match a sky of blazing fire and purple lined clouds. It was hard to keep his gaze there for long. When he brought his focus back to the polished stone benchtop, black spots danced in his vision and made his eyes ache.
Despite such an annoying consequence, it was easier to look out at the window. He could ignore the hustle and bustle around him, even if only for a moment. It settled his nerves and gave him a precious moment where he reminded himself to breathe. Kuroo would often pat him on the shoulder and tell him to help out in the back, sparing him of the burden of dealing with demanding customers during the busier hours.
But in the evening…in the evening he could meet him.
Almost as if on cue, the small brass bell above the door rang out with an irritable ting – he had come to hate it within his first few days on the job. Kenma slowly turned his head, pretending to look at the trays of frozen dairy, and in doing so caught a sly glance at the two that had waltzed in.
Familiar faces, and he softly released the breath he had held in. The taller of the two was a face he knew a little too well; Bokuto Koutarou – Kuroo’s roommate at his college dorm. Kenma had come to know that excitable face all too well over a few years. He wasn’t all too clever, the epitome of the ‘what he lacks in brains he makes up for in brawns’ saying. Tall with thick tanned muscles and spiked two-tone hair of black and white, he stood out like a sore thumb, especially with the hooded golden eyes and cheeky smirk.
“Hey, hey, hey~” he called enthusiastically as he neatly tucked his surfboard in a booth to keep it out of the way as much as possible, and his shorter companion did the same with a noticeable skip in his step. Kuroo welcomed him eagerly and waved him over to Kenma to receive his usual order.
Bokuto hopped over eagerly, grinning from ear to ear just as Kenma quickly swivelled on his stool to begin making the ice-cream smoothies he and his slightly younger friend always ordered.
“Oi! Kenma, you could at least say hi…” Bokuto whined. Kenma frowned and his brows furrowed as he could easily imagine the way Bokuto leaning against the counter with the most forlorn pout on his face.
“Hello Bokuto.” It was as curt a reply he could give without having to pay him too much mind. He focused on pouring milk into the two large metal cups.
“Kenma, Kenma!” He didn’t have to look back, but he did. Over his shoulder, he could see Bokuto’s younger friend slamming his hands against the counter and lifting himself onto his tiptoes as he hovered over it, a brilliant smile on his sun-kissed face. “I didn’t wipe out today! Not once!”
“That’s great, Shouyou…” Kenma replied quietly, the smallest makings of a smile on his face as he stepped back to the counter to drop a few scoops of sweet cream and cookies ice-cream into one of the cups.
Hinata Shouyou was Bokuto’s underclassmen, and Bokuto was his self-proclaimed mentor. Kenma had meet him for the first time a few months ago when Kuroo visited him with Bokuto at the start of his semester – Kuroo confessed on Bokuto’s behalf that he had intended the visit to introduce Hinata to a few more people around Tokyo. He was an endless bundle of energy, all smiles and giving a hundred-and-twenty percent in everything. At first, Kenma thought it was exhausting just being near him, but after a few visits he had come to enjoy his company.
Not the least bit discouraged by the almost timid reply, Hinata beamed at him over the counter until Bokuto leered at him with a knowing smile and draped an arm over his shoulders. Bokuto quickly explained that the only reason he hadn’t wiped out had been because he’d only caught a few waves as the surf was dying down. Hinata was quick to shove off the arm and frown at him, a blush on his cheeks at having what was clearly their ‘little secret’ exposed.
Kenma listened to their conversation idly as he put together Bokuto’s order, a simple mix of banana and chocolate ice-cream. As they talked – or argued, rather childishly at that – Kenma turned back to press the metal cups into the mixer. The machine hummed violently, drowning out their voices as the milk and ice-cream blended together and frothed up into colourful swirls and small bubbles.
“Oi! Lower your voices, you’re disturbing the other customers,” Kuroo barked the words as he walked around the duo to move behind the counter. The two seemed to shrink in size, pouts on their lips but still glaring at each other half-heartedly from the corner of their eyes.
With a quiet sigh, Kenma filled two tall glasses with their drinks and turned back to the counter to hand them over. “Stop fighting,” it was a simpler version of Kuroo’s scolding, and perhaps it had been his calm demeanour, but the tension between the two vanished in an instant. Or perhaps it had been the presentation of something sweet to take their minds off it.
“Ahaha, thanks Kenma!” Bokuto took his milkshake with an eager grin, not once hesitating to reach over the countertop and roughly tussle Kenma’s hair.
With a heavy huff, Kenma slapped away his hand and glared at him, but Bokuto had already begun to skip away to the other end of the counter where Kuroo was tidying up.
“So, how was your day?” Kenma looked back to Hinata when the question was posed and saw that he had already sculled half of his milkshake, the cool glass held up to his face as he readied to finish it off.
With a smile, Kenma reached forward and lightly touched the base of the glass and lowered it. “You’ll make yourself sick drinking it too quickly,” he said and Hinata lowered the glass. “Today was fine, I guess. Nothing special.” That wasn’t entirely true, though, but it wasn’t like he was about to broadcast the fact that seeing Hinata in the evening was the highlight of his day.
“Mhh, you should come hang out with me on your breaks then,” Hinata suggested it every day, and with such a warm and gentle grin that made his eyes soften. “I could show you how to surf!”
“I don’t like the beach,” Kenma replied the same way every time, a similar smile working its way onto his face. The way Hinata beamed at him so kindly was infectious, and he couldn’t help but return the expression every so often.
“At least think of a different excuse!”
“The sand is annoying.”
“Not good enough!”
“I’m afraid of seagulls.”
That got a chuckle out of him, a loud one that made his shoulders shake as he lifted a hand to cover his mouth when a few customers in the café turned to look at him. With a blush on his face, Hinata turned to bow his head and uttered a quiet apology to them.
“Oh, by the way, Bokuto said we were all going out to eat later?” Hinata arched a brow and tilted his head slightly, as if unsure of it himself.
“I didn’t hear that…” Kenma turned his head as he said the words. He immediately met Kuroo’s gaze, who was not so subtly staring at the two of them with a broad grin on his face. Kuroo looked away quickly, clearly sniggering as Bokuto leaned over the counter and grabbed at his shirt, trying to hide his face more as he failed to conceal his own laughter.
With a faint blush rising on his cheeks, Kenma looked away and sat down on the stool by the counter again. “I guess so, if they’re so riled up about it.”
“You’re coming too, right? Otherwise those two will just pick on me the whole time.” Hinata pouted and dropped into a crouch in front of the counter, the top of his head just barely visible so he could still see Kenma’s face.
“You make it too easy for them.” The small smile returned to Kenma’s face, and widened just a little when Hinata shot back up to stand over him. There wasn’t much of a height difference between them, with Hinata just barely standing a centimetre or two taller – something he was proud of to no end, as he had apparently been very short in high school.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hinata asked quickly. Kenma looked towards the milkshake he’d left on the counter, which had lost most of its froth by then, before meeting his gaze again.
“Well, for starters,” Kenma raised a hand limply in front of him and pointed at his chest, “your shirt is inside-out.”
Hinata looked down at himself quickly in response, and within an instant, his lightly sun-kissed skin flushed a bright red. He was wearing a tank top, a loose one that showed a little too much of his collarbone, and the stitching could be seen along the worn edges as thread stuck up around his shoulders.
Without missing a beat, Hinata spun on his heel and dashed away from the counter to turn his shirt outside-in in the bathroom. As he passed Kuroo and Bokuto, the two of them reached out to pluck at the threads they could see, resulting in Hinata yelping and swatting their hands away as his face turned an even deeper shade of pink. Kenma couldn’t help but chuckle as he disappeared into the men’s bathroom.
The affectionate smile that lingered on his lips vanished quickly as a small group of girls came to into the café to order a few milkshakes. As Kuroo and Bokuto were still sniggering away elsewhere, Kenma was left to take their orders and all but forced himself to politely reply to the small talk they tried to initiate as he waited for them to decide what they wanted.
In the corner of his eye, he saw Hinata slink back into the café, nervously looking around to see if anyone paid him any mind – save for the two morons still snickering away. Noticing that Kenma was working once more, he slowly moved around the group of girls to grab his half-finished glass, giving a small wave to Kenma before heading to the booth where his and Bokuto’s surfboards were. As he did so, Kenma broke his gaze with the customers to wave back at him slightly.
Kenma just barely caught sight of that overwhelming grin. It was selfish of him, in a way, to enjoy such a sweet smile that was directed at him.
By the time he had finished sorting out late customer’s orders, Bokuto had wandered back to the booth and collected his board. Kenma watched as the two of them finished of the last of their drinks and headed for the door, with both of them turning to exclaim loudly that they would see Kenma later on.
Kenma waved once more, albeit to Hinata rather than Bokuto, until the two stepped outside the café and began to walk along the pavement near the beach barrier.
“So…how about that?” Kuroo hummed softly, having slyly made his way over and leaned against Kenma’s back. Kenma tilted forward under his weight and his hung his head. Strands of dyed blond hair slipped out of his bun and over his cheeks but he made no attempt to fix it.
“Akaashi was right, you are a pain in the ass…” Kenma replied quickly.
“Yeah, well- wait, Akaashi said that?” Kuroo leaned further over Kenma’s shoulder to try and look at his face. Kenma simply hunched forward until his chest was touching his thighs and his head was below the countertop.
With business slow as could be at that time, Kuroo jostled Kenma on the stool for several seemingly unending moments in a vain attempt to get him to elaborate. Kenma remained silent, not making much of an effort to shake Kuroo off and his gaze wandered to the clock on the wall nearby. He could just barely make out the time, but he was relieved nonetheless that the café would be closing shortly.
Kuroo eventually gave up on trying to shake any information out of him and wandered out from behind the counter to kindly ask any lingering customers to leave as the café would be closing shortly. With those words, Kenma shifted on the stool and cringed when it scrapped against the tile floors. He sluggishly moved out from behind the counter to begin cleaning up the booths. As he cleaned, something resting on the smooth plastic cushions in a booth caught his eye.
He had to shimmy into the seat a little to reach it, and recognised it one of the beaded bracelets Hinata wore. Kenma had seen him making them a few times when they met up to hang out on a lazy afternoon, and Hinata had even promised to make him one someday. The leather strap that was tied at the wrist was worn out and threaded, and Kenma guessed it must have slipped loose earlier. He quickly tucked it into his pocket and went back to wiping down the booth tables.
The evening clean-up was divided among the staff on duty, and though he was still getting used to the system, it never took more than an hour or so to finish the job. Kenma waited at the back of the café for Kuroo, who was locking up the interior after letting the other staff go home. The beach was so close that the light evening breeze carried the heavy taste of salt and made him wrinkle his nose.
Kuroo eventually joined him, and with the back door locked, they made their way out onto the street in a comfortable silence. Living off campus during the break, they were staying at a small beach-house owned by one of Kuroo’s relatives. It saved them a few hours travel back into the city to where their dorms were and at the very least it was quieter without so many trains nearby.
As they walked along the pavement, the evening sunlight slowly being replaced by flickering streetlights, Kuroo’s pace slowed until he came to a halt. Kenma, who had been walking behind him, had almost bumped into his back because of it.
“Kuroo…” Kenma sighed the name and looked up at him, thinking it was some sort of a jest, but Kuroo’s gaze had ventured off further down the beach. Kenma followed his line of sight, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the last remnants of the bright sunset. “What is it?”
“Isn’t that shrimpy down there?” Kuroo asked, his eyes narrowing under a mop of messy locks. Kenma had to squint some but eventually caught sight of the lean surfer walking awkwardly on the sand. “The hell’s he doing? We’re supposed to be meeting up to go out soon…”
“Wasn’t Bokuto supposed to be with him?” Kenma turned to look at Kuroo, but as Kuroo opened his mouth to reply, the chime of his phone sounded from in his pocket.
Kuroo dug his phone out of his pocket and frowned at the name displayed on the screen. “What’s the bet Bokuto thinks he got kidnapped?”
“I’m not betting on that…” Kenma replied, not out of respect for Bokuto’s image but unwilling to waste a few hundred yen on a bet he would lose.
With a sigh, Kuroo readied to answer the phone. “Go get shrimpy, ‘kay? I’ll go deal with this noisy guy.”
“Why do I have to go alone?”
Kuroo said nothing in reply, and gave him a sidelong look with an all too pleased smile as he accepted what was no doubt a frantic call from Bokuto.
Kenma glared at his retreating back and frowned deeply, but for a moment he almost pitied him, as he could hear Bokuto’s voice crying out through the receiver the moment Kuroo answered the phone. Kuroo skipped across the road quickly once the traffic was clear, hushing Bokuto but clearly not cutting through his panic. Kenma moved to find a set of steps that led onto the beach and paused briefly to take his shoes off and tuck them under his arm.
It took some time to reach him, and when he did, Hinata had his back to him, the laces of his shoes tied together so they hung over the back of his neck and bounced against his chest as he shifted his feet over the sands. Kenma raised a brow at the way he would occasionally lean down and dig about in the sounds, only to release a loud exasperate groan before moving forward.
“Shouyou,” when Kenma called out his name, Hinata leapt into the air with a loud yelp and tripped backwards on the sand as he twisted to face him. He stumbled on his own feet, the loose sand certainly didn’t help, and he landed on his rear heavily.
“D-don’t sneak up on me, like that!” Hinata stammered as he stood up and quickly began to shake the sand off his clothes.
“Ah, sorry,” Kenma nodded his head as part of his curt apology, “um…what are you doing down here? You didn’t forget we were going out– meeting up, with Bokuto and Kuroo, I mean.” Kenma quickly corrected himself, the poor choice of words making his face turn a little pink. Hinata, already flustered in the moment, didn’t seem to notice thankfully.
“I didn’t forget– I just thought I might have some time to come back here, I promise I didn’t forget!” Hinata replied frantically.
“Bokuto’s all wrung out. You just ran off and didn’t tell him, didn’t you?” Hinata could only make a small whining noise in response. “What are you doing, anyway? What’s with the weird walk? You weren’t stung by a jellyfish, were you?”
“No, no, I just lost my bracelet,” Hinata said and held up his bare wrist to emphasise the point, “I know it’s silly but I really liked it and I didn’t go very far from here, so it must be somewhere– unless it came off in the water…argh!”
“Oh,” Kenma blinked for a moment and quickly reached into his pocket while Hinata continued to ramble about the possibility of it getting caught in a fish’s gills. “Shouyou, stop, I have it. You left it at the café.”
“–it’ll destroy the entire eco-system and– oh!” it took Kenma all but waving the bracelet in front of Hinata’s eyes to stop his mind running rampant. “Ah! Where’d you find it?”
Kenma sighed as Hinata took the bracelet from him. A little frustrated in the moment, he didn’t react as nervously as he might have by the way Hinata’s fingers grazed his own when he reached from the bracelet.
“Like I said, you left it at the café. I suppose I should have texted you, but I thought it would be fine since we were going to meet up anyway.” Kenma watched as Hinata fumbled in an attempt to tie the bracelet around his wrist.
“Ah, no, it’s my fault! I panicked, I’m sorry– crap…!” Hinata apologised, only to curse and drop the carefree smile he had flashed Kenma as he almost dropped the bracelet.
“Geez, let me do it,” Kenma said as he picked up the bracelet and took Hinata’s wrist, carefully tying the threads together. His fingertips brushed over his warm skin and he peeled his hands away quickly when he was done.
There was a brief moment when Hinata lifted his arm up to look at the bracelet in the dying light, an overwhelming smile quickly tugging at his lips as he admired it. “Thanks Kenma…” the words were full of appreciation, even for something so small, and Kenma acknowledged the words with a quick nod. Hinata’s expression shifted for a moment before the grin returned. “Crap, we should get going, or we’ll be late!”
What came next was entirely unexpected, at least in the moment. Hinata skipped forward to move around Kenma, almost losing his balance in the sound a second time, and deftly slid his fingers over Kenma’s palm to squeeze his hand. The sudden touch made him blush, and just like always, Kenma was swept up by Hinata’s pace as the other yanked on his hand and dragged him back towards the street.
“S-Shouyou–” Kenma could barely say his name with how thick his tongue suddenly felt in his mouth. The palm of his hand was warm, and Kenma could feel a few grains of sand scrapping against his skin between their palms. His heart leapt into his throat and his chest seized ever so slightly. His heartbeat was ready race and on instinct Kenma tugged his hand back. He almost tumbled forward on the beach, no longer having Hinata’s quicker pace dragging him along.
“Ah, sorry!” Hinata quickly turned around when he felt Kenma pull his hand away. His cheeks glowed a faint pink, just barely visible as the last threads of sunlight began to fade. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to…” he stumbled over his own words a little.
“I– it’s fine,” Kenma replied quickly and rubbed his hands together. “Don’t pull too hard, it hurt a little.” It was a half-truth, but Kenma was thankful he was able to manage a reply at all with how his head had suddenly filled with the pulsing beat of his blood.
Hinata was silent, something rare in and of itself, and Kenma looked at him hesitantly. Hinata simply stood there, half of his face alight with the fading sunlight, with his face red in a heavy blush and lips pursued tightly. The sight made Kenma’s heart squeeze again but he couldn’t look away, not even when Hinata dropped his gaze and began to chew on his lower lip. He wasn’t sure if he had embarrassed him – that he had made a big deal of something that was normal.
After a long moment of silence, Hinata lifted his head again with a determined look in his eyes, something that confused Kenma for a bit. “So…it’s okay if I do it gently then, right?”
“What do you–” whatever Kenma had intended to say was forgotten the moment Hinata stepped into his space, sliding his hand more deliberately into Kenma’s. His fingers twitched against his own, nervously linking together as Hinata gently squeezed his hand.
“It’s fine like this, right?” Hinata squeezed his hand again, just as softly as he had before, but in a clear attempt to get Kenma’s attention.
Kenma could feel his heart beating wildly out of control, so much so he wondered if Hinata could feel it from his pulse, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times, unable to think of something appropriate to say.
When he looked at Hinata again, one more sly glance up at him, Hinata was still looking at him, holding that little bit higher than him, eyes flicking over his features nervously. Kenma could see him swallow and bite back something he wanted to say. The hand that held his own spoke for him, in a sense.
Taking a deep breath, Kenma dropped his head and curled his fingers between Hinata’s to brush them against his knuckles. Hinata all but jumped in his skin from the tender touch; the suddenness of it caught him off guard.
“This is okay…” Kenma mumbled quietly, the words almost lost under the sound of the tide lapping at the shore. He couldn’t think of anything more eloquent to say, nor could he bring himself to admit how the feeling of Hinata’s thumb rubbing against his own made his head feel light, as if suddenly full of helium.
When he looked back to Hinata, that exuberant grin was back in place, his cheekbones dusty with that pink hue. “We should…we should probably get going, right?”
Kenma nodded, walking in tandem with Hinata as they left the beach hand in hand. Once on the street, the evening sun well and truly gone and replaced by florescent lights, they broke apart to shake off their clothes and put their shoes back on.
With a rare bold feeling in his chest, Kenma brushed his fingers against Hinata’s once they had finished, and Hinata responded in turn by linking their fingers without a moment of hesitation.
Not a word was spoken, save for a brief complaint from Hinata about feeling like there was some sand in his socks despite having thoroughly shaken them out. They walked through the streets hand in hand, uncaring if the stray pedestrian gave them a curious look, and Kenma texted Kuroo to let them know they were on their way.
It was a warm, tender feeling; the subtle shift of Hinata’s calloused fingers against his own, squeezing his palm. When Kenma looked at him from the corner of his eyes, he couldn’t help but smile a little. Hinata was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve; his expression was full cheer, mouth drawn into a tight grin as he suppressed a joyful giggle and eyes half-lidded. Kenma tugged on his hand a little, just to make sure he was paying attention so that he didn’t walk into a street pole.
Kenma couldn’t help but wonder if he had a similar expression on his face, but didn’t bother to think on it for long. He busied himself with enjoying the warmth of Hinata’s hand for as long as he could, knowing full well that if they were still holding hands by the time they met with Kuroo and Bokuto they would face an endless torrent of playful bullying.
But for the moment…he could indulge in it, and that was all he needed.