Archive of Our Own

Kenma has mixed feelings about being the King of Hell.

He doesn't even like the title of 'King' in the first place—he thinks it's too flashy. If it was up to him, he wouldn't be in this position now at all. Rather than it being something he was born to do or trained for, he would say it's like being accepted for a job he didn't even apply for.

He used to be human once, centuries ago. His story was nothing remarkable; he lived, then he died. There were no heroic feats or sacrifices made in his life, and he wasn't a truly rotten individual either. He just existed till he didn't. But apparently he was remarkable because he was so unremarkable—the previous King of Hell chose him as his successor because he was, according to him, a soul that was truly neutral. Neither good nor bad. Not a glowing compliment, but it left him with the burden of managing the afterlife.

That's another reason why he's not a fan of the job: it's too much responsibility, especially considering the fact that he didn't want to do anything with it in the first place. It's also way too much work.

Those were the cons that came with his position, but it had it's pros, too.

First one being that it's fun sometimes. Contrary to popular belief, there is no torture or burning pits of lava involved. Well, not anymore. Those were immediately put out of use after he became king, because they involved too much effort for something that largely gave unsatisfactory results. Let's take the practice of repeatedly ripping dicks off of sinners as an example—what does it achieve, exactly? Okay, we make a bad guy feel physical pain forever. But does that in any way absolve him of his crimes? Any remorse he might feel would not be because he realises whatever he did was 'wrong'; he would want to be a better person to avoid punishment. Which is, at the end, pointless. Change for reasons that are entirely selfish will never be permanent, or truly 'good'. Besides, after a while, one tends to get used to suffering too. So eternal suffering does its job of making a person regret their actions very poorly. Also punishment of the physical kind ends up making people scream a lot. All that noise gave Kenma a headache, so of course he ended up changing how things work down here.

In the modern world, judging a person for their actions and putting them in boxes of 'good' and 'bad' is almost impossible—and that's where the interesting stuff comes in. As King of Hell, he's the one who has to come up with a way to judge people fairly. These days, there is no such thing as a person who is purely 'good'. Everyone is a sinner in one way or the other. Only the severity of one's crime differs, and that decides whether or not they are to be 'punished'. He comes up with the general blueprint for said punishments too; it's all like a puzzle, almost. What makes an action truly 'evil'? If a person doesn't know what they are doing is wrong, does that truly count as a sin? Do intentions, good or bad, even matter in the grand scheme of things? These are questions he needs to repeatedly find answers for, as they never stay fixed. Human beings undergo constant change, and so their actions should not be seen with one fixed point of view.

All this makes for an interesting time; Kenma has always liked puzzles. As an added bonus he doesn't have to be the person who enacts any of the punishment or rules he comes up with, or deal with the demons working under him. Kuroo handles all of those things. Even in the Underworld, not many know that he is the King of Hell; since Kuroo is the one who does most of the heavy lifting, everyone assumes that he's the King and honestly, Kenma prefers it that way.

The main advantage of the job is that he can do whatever he wants forever. No one's gonna say anything if he spends all his time playing games (except Kuroo maybe, but Kuroo always has something to say so that's fine) as long as he finishes his duties first. He only does what he likes, and no one interrupts his peace.

Or at least no one should be able to disturb his peace, but apparently that's not true because one moment he's in his office, playing on his Nintendo Switch, and the next he's standing in someone's summoning circle.

Kenma blinks. He's so taken off guard that there is only one word circling in his head: what.

The guy who summoned him seems no older than a college student, and has bright orange hair. A look around the room confirms his suspicions and has him wrinkling his nose. That's a bachelor's dorm room if he has ever seen one, alright.

Next, Kenma looks down to see what has brought him here. The summoning circle, while recognisable, is still shit. He forces himself to think: how did this guy know how to summon him? Knowing how to summon the King of Hell is not exactly common knowledge; he can count in one hand the number of existing records that contain the information, and he's sure that this guy has read none of them. Then how…?

Kenma squints a little harder at the summoning cycle, trying to make sense of it, and almost facepalms. Of course. He got here because this guy is shit at drawing summoning circles. The summoning circle needed to hold him is similar to the one needed to hold Kuroo. Similar like dinosaurs and birds were similar, but not at all the same. This guy fucked up the circle so badly that he ended up summoning him instead of Kuroo like he probably intended.

Which is, once again, strange. Why the hell did a college student need an extremely powerful demon like Kuroo? How did he even come up with the idea?

A quick sweep around the room helps him locate about 8 empty energy drinks and 3 cups of coffee. Ah, that explains it.

The guy's eyes widen, as if shocked that his ritual actually managed to summon someone. Before Kenma could even open his mouth to something, his summoner bursts into tears.

Kenma takes an alarmed step back when the guy kneels and bows so deeply that he bangs his head on the floor. Then, he blubbers what Kenma thinks is, "Please teach me Portugese!"

What.

Then, in one breath, he rambles, "I was watching tutorials for learning basic portugese on Youtube but then I got sidetracked and saw this video about demons and angels and I watched more videos about demons, then there was this really sketchy looking youtube channel where they were talking about this trickster demon right, one that would grant a single wish if you can do something to entertain him or maybe give him something to satisfy him? I'm not sure, i didn't listen what was needed exactly. So I did some more deep diving and found out how to summon you 'cause I really really want that one wish." He looks like he's gonna burst into tears all over again when he begs, "Can you please teach me Portugese?"

There are so many things wrong with that thought process. For starters, what would he have done if Kuroo had eaten him? Okay, Kuroo wouldn't have eaten him, but protocol dictates that he does at least one deeply unnerving thing that might scar the summoner forever before he leaves so as to not encourage future summonings. If the guy had botched up the summoning circle further, he might've gotten another demon that has no qualms whatsoever about killing and eating him. And all that risk for Portugese lessons? Was this guy only high on caffeine, or was some cocaine involved too?

But he doesn't say any of that. He's just so gobsmacked that all he can manage is, "What."

Then, completely unprompted, the guy begins narrating his life story. He came to Brazil to improve his volleyball skills, but he is severely broke so he took a part-time job as a pizza delivery boy. Unfortunately, he not only knew nothing about his locality, he also didn't know enough Portugese to ask for directions. Because of that all his deliveries have been getting late and now his manager was threatening to fire him if he didn't get his act together. So his very logical solution to that problem is to summon a demon to teach him Portugese.

When the guy starts talking about his love for volleyball and how him learning Portugese is so very vital to his journey of defeating his highschool rival, Kenma rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath, "Sure, why don't you just give me your name next?" because seriously, this guy seemed to have the self preservation of a dorito.

He was only speaking to himself, but seems like he wasn't as quiet as he thought because the guy's head snaps up to face him. He blinks back his tears, and Kenma is almost taken aback by the sheer determination he sees in his eyes.

Then the dumbass, the absolute fucking moron, loudly goes, "Oh, I forgot to give you my name, sorry! I'm Hinata Shoyo!"

Kenma chokes on his spit. What the hell. What the hell. Did his deep dive about the supernatural teach him nothing about the power of names?

To be fair, Kenma doesn't need his name to control him, but other supernatural creatures would. If he had summoned Kuroo, or tried his luck with some fae, he would be supremely fucked right about now.

"You do know that you've given me explicit permission to control your soul now, right?" is what Kenma asks when he regains his voice. "You must know that I can kill you before you can blink. Right?"

The guy—Hinata—pales. A look of nervousness passes his face, and he begins sweating. "Um. Oops? Yeah the videos. Did say something about that."

Kenma presses his Nintendo Switch to his face and breathes deep and slow. Because he just can't help making everything worse, Hinata brightens and exclaims, "Oh right! I'm sitting in a protection circle, so you can't do anything to me!"

Is he serious.

Kenma crouches and places his Switch on the ground. Then very slowly, making sure Hinata is following, he swipes a finger over his pathetic excuse of a protection circle. His finger, apart from now being coated by chalk, is unharmed.

Hinata pales further. The seriousness of the situation seemed to finally set in. He laughs nervously. "Uh. Okay maybe you can give me your name? That will make things even right?"

Kenma stares. And stares some more. He hasn't felt this baffled in a long time. The last time he felt such intense bewilderment was when Kuroo insisted they go to Earth and participate in olympics for volleyball, but even that didn't make him feel anything close to what he was currently feeling.

He stands upright and announces to no one in particular, "Absolutely not." before getting the fuck out of there.

To his immense displeasure, he is back in the circle not even two minutes later staring into Hinata's big brown eyes. Upon seeing him, he cries, "You left! You're supposed to grant my wish!"

Kenma is so fucking confused. "How are you doing that? You're not supposed to be able to do that!"

Hinata sniffles and wipes his eyes. "I just said what the video told me to say and wished really hard that you'd come back."

Kenma slumps. He is tired, and he didn't even get to finish his game. He sits down on the floor heavily, contemplating his next plan of action. He doesn't kill people usually but as the King of Hell he should be alloted some free murders for when people annoy him right? He's not sure; he should probably check the guidelines and restrictions of the job Kuroo has been trying to force him to read for centuries. Ugh, great, more work.

He is interrupted from his train of thought by a loud growl. He looks up wearily to see Hinata smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, I haven't eaten anything since breakfast. Would you like some ramen?"

He's not exactly sure why, but he accepts Hinata's offer. He even sits quietly without complaining as Hinata talks his ears off while cooking. It's not as unbearable as he thought it would be—being in the company of someone else. Someone whose life he is not weighing in a scale, someone who he is not dissecting and coming up with the worst punishment for.

Kenma is mildly surprised when Hinata doesn't just serve him barely cooked instant ramen. Instead the ramen is garnished with fried egg, bok choy, and tofu. He takes a tentative bite and finds that it tastes even better than it looks.

His face must show what he thinks, because Hinata beams. "It's good, right? The secret ingredient is chilli oil."

"Not much of a secret now that you've told me, no?"

Hinata shakes his head vigorously and slurps on his own noodles. "Nope! It's not any chilli oil that makes it taste good, it's the chilli oil I made all by myself! The recipe is the secret part."

He doesn't need food to survive, what with him being the King of Hell and all, but he still takes another bite of the food. Hinata watches him eat, smiling, before he gasps, "Wait! You're speaking Japanese!"

Kenma raises an eyebrow as if to say, you're just realising that?

"Don't look at me like that! I thought you'd speak, I don't know, English? Or whatever language demons speak?"

Amused, Kenma asks, "What were you going to do if I spoke 'whatever language demons speak'? I doubt you got that far with your research."

"I didn't," Hinata confesses, bashful. "To be honest, I didn't really plan anything further than the summoning."

Kenma stares at his noodles pointedly and says, "Evidently."

Hinata flushes. "Hey, don't tease me! I'm really suffering here, yanno?"

Kenma rolls his eyes, smiling. Strange. The food must've put him in a good mood. "Okay, Hinata Shoyo of Miyagi. Tell me, why exactly did you ask me to teach you Portugese instead of just wishing to learn Portugese overnight? Was that also another detail you forgot to consider?"

Hinata straightens. The look of determination was back in his eyes again. "No no, I did think about it. I don't want to take any shortcuts to reach my dream, I want to do it all by myself. I would've gotten a tutor, but er. I can't really afford that right now, so."

A human that doesn't want to take short cuts even when it's presented to him on a silver platter? How fascinating.

"But, ah, I forgot to check whether you knew Portugese. You're speaking to me in Japanese, so you probably don't know Portugese, right? Darn."

Kenma scoffs, offended for some reason. "Of course I know Portugese. I know all languages." At the hopeful gleam in Hinata's eyes, he tacks on, "But that doesn't mean I'll teach you."

Hinata deflates. Kenma decides that after he goes back, he should send a petition to the Big Guy to enforce a new rule: grown men shouldn't pout, and even if they do, they shouldn't look pitiful, or even worse, adorable while doing it. If anyone doesn't follow this rule they should be struck by lightning. Yes, that will make things much less bothersome for him.

Kenma stands, suddenly itching to leave. "I'll be going now."

Hinata puts his bowl down on the table with a loud clatter and jumps to his feet, frantic. "Wait! You haven't granted my wish yet!"

Kenma tilts his head, considering. Then he says, "As a thank you for the meal, I will leave this place without doing anything to you. That's the best I can do for you."

A pitch black portal opens on the ground. Kenma resolutely looks forward, and not at Hinata, who he can feel the desperation leaking from. Just as he steps foot in the portal, Hinata blurts out, "You never gave me your name!"

That surprises a laugh out of him. "Nice try," he says, and throws a final wave at the boy behind him before he disappears.

Days later, Kuroo barges into his room with a loud, "Honey, I'm home!"

Kenma burrows further into his pillows. "Go away."

Because he sucks, Kuroo doesn't listen. He approaches his bed—and freezes. Kenma watches curiously as Kuroo sniffs the air. Then, to his immense horror, he steps forward and sniffs him.

"Eugh, get off!" Kenma smacks his best friend with a pillow, and kicks his stomach for good measure. Kuroo, the bastard, looks unfazed.

Kuroo's face unfurls into a grin, feline and wild. "Kenma! You went to Earth and you didn't even tell me?"

Kenma stills and responds a bit too late, "No, I didn't."

Many call Kenma unreadable, and say that he has a 'resting poker face', whatever that means. The only one his poker face never seemed to fool was Kuroo, and he is reminded of just how much the fact pisses him off when Kuroo smirks.

"You're lying," Kuroo sings. He jumps on the bed and drapes his annoyingly long limbs all around Kenma before sniffing him again. "I can even smell another human on you! Also, did you eat instant ramen by any chance?"

Kenma gags and tries to push him off, but no dice; Kuroo remains unmovable. Kenma resigns himself to his fate and stops struggling. "Ugh, I'll tell you, just stop sniffing me."

"Yay!" Kuroo cheers before he stuffs his face in the crook of his neck. Kenma sighs, long-suffering.

After he has had his fill of squeezing Kenma to near death, Kuroo rolls away to lie on his back. He raises an eyebrow and prompts, "Well?"

Kenma grumbles an answer under his breath. Because he's the most annoying demon to ever exist, Kuroo wiggles closer, cupping his ear. "What was that? I didn't quite catch you."

"I said, someone summoned me."

Kuroo's eyes light up in delight. "And the ramen?"

Knowing there is no way he can get out of this, Kenma says the truth. "He made it for me."

Kuroo laughs and it's just as ugly as Kenma remembers it being. He would begrudgingly admit that he's fond of the sound if only it wasn't directed towards him. But it is, so Kenma tries to smother him with a pillow instead.

The thing about immortality is that it gets really boring really fast. He has been keeping himself occupied with all the new kinds of games mankind comes up with for centuries, but at the face of something even more interesting, he starts getting tired of his video games. It's that boredom that brings Kenma to the world of the living without being summoned, and to Hinata's volleyball practice.

Immediately, Kenma regrets his choices because it was scorching in there. At least in Hell, he could adjust the temperature to his liking. Here there is no choice but to suffer through the heat.

Hinata, on the other hand, seems to thrive in the sun. He is all golden skin and bared teeth, eyes laser-focused on the ball soaring above the net. If Kenma thought he was full of life before he stepped foot in the court, he is almost electric, radiant in all his glory inside it. He transforms into a whole other being entirely: one that stalks the length of the court hungering for a single touch of the ball against his forearm, salivating at the victory dangling just in front of him, taunting him to come and get it.

No matter how much Kenma squints, he cannot understand why Hinata is so obsessed with volleyball. It's a sport where you pass a ball back and forth in an unnecessarily complicated manner. It makes you sweat, makes your muscles ache. Kenma can bet that Hinata must be sore after every practice.

Then, he watches Hinata fly. All his doubts disappear.

The sky welcomes Hinata like it would its child, singing welcome home, welcome home. He hovers mid-air for what is probably a split second, but Kenma watches it unfold for minutes, hours. Time stretches like sticky taffy, and Hinata flies so high that for a nonsensical moment, Kenma is afraid that the fall would kill him. His hand connects hits the ball with a resounding smack and the other side is too busy gawking to even think of blocking him. Hinata lands on his feet and stumbles before falling to his knees, not used to the ground bending beneath him. His teammates pile all over him, ruffling his hair, showering him with praises. Hinata only grins, victory clenched between his teeth.

Kenma suddenly finds it very hard to breathe. Which is stupid, because he doesn't even need to breathe.

Abruptly, Hinata stops laughing. His head swivels to the direction Kenma is standing in, and his gaze finds him like a compass to north.

Kenma freezes, even though he logically knows that Hinata can't see him. No one can see him unless he wants them to. Eventually one of his teammates catch his attention again, and Hinata turns away.

Kenma reads his lips shape around the words: "I just thought I saw someone I know, that's all." and flees while he still could.

A week later, Kenma finds himself Hinata's room again.

Ridiculously, Hinata's face brightens upon seeing him. "You're back! Hi!"

One would think he would've been taken less off-guard this time, but that's not the case. If anything, he's even more confused, because after he went back he took all the steps to make sure none of the summoning circles Hinata draws from then on will work. Just to be safe, he also reported the video Hinata referred to draw his summoning circle and got it taken down. It was a pain, but necessary. Kenma is sure that if he didn't do all that, Hinata would've killed himself by trying to summon another demon for his Portugese lessons.

All that to say—he shouldn't be here again. But he is, and before he can voice a question, Hinata holds out something towards him triumphantly, "Last time, you left because I didn't give you anything in exchange for my wish, right?"

Not really, but Kenma is curious about where he's going with this, so he remains silent.

Hinata puffs up his chest proudly. "I have a deal for you this time! If I beat your score in this game, will you teach me Portugese?"

In his hand, there's an outdated model of Nintendo Switch. Kenma has to suppress a smile before he asks, "And if you lose?"

Hinata's answering grin is blinding. "Well, I'll just have to keep trying till I win!"

After three hours of playing and failing to beat the score Kenma set during his first game, Hinata falls back on his bed with a groan. "How am I supposed to beat that? I didn't even know someone could score so high before this!"

Kenma hides his smile behind his own Nintendo Switch (he took a short break to go and grab it after Hinata's 10th loss). "Does that mean you admit defeat?"

"Never!" Hinata argues, then slumps. "Just… give me a minute."

A blanket of silence envelops them, and Kenma is surprised to see that it isn't awkward. Usually the only person he can sit in silence with and not feel like dying is Kuroo. He wouldn't have thought someone as energetic as Hinata would be comfortable existing next to someone in silence, but here they are.

In the end, it's Kenma who speaks first. "Hey."

Hinata perks up. "Hm?"

"How did you summon me again?" Kenma asks. "Your summoning circles are so bad that I thought you'd be summoning some man-eating demon the next time you tried something."

Interestingly, Hinata blushes at that. "Well."

Kenma sits up and points an accusing finger at him. "You did summon some other demon, didn't you?"

"I didn't mean to!" Hinata cries. "I tried to summon you a dozen times but no matter how neatly I drew the circle, I just couldn't reach you."

Kenma nods. That is to be expected, because he made it that way.

"But during my last try, I summoned—" Hinata pauses, and frowns thoughtfully. "I'm not even sure if I summoned him, actually. I was in the middle of re-drawing the circle when a guy with horns burst into my room. At first I thought he was there to rob me, but then he told me he was there to help me? He took a look at my circle and laughed for a really long time. It was kinda scary, to be honest. Then he waved his hand and said something under his breath and guess what, my summoning circle started glowing! He told me to try again in a few days and left. So I did, and it finally worked!"

Despite not having a mortal body, Kenma feels a headache coming on. "Did this demon have terrible hair by any chance? Kind of like a rooster's head?"

Hinata nods vigourously. "Yeah! Do you know him?"

"I'm going to kill Kuroo," he mutters under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Hinata accepts his answer, and goes back to his game. Perhaps it's a bit foolish that he is trying so hard to win a game that he is doomed to lose, but Kenma can't help but be charmed; because Hinata doesn't care about destiny. He doesn't care about a fate that has already been written, doesn't care about the odds stacked against him. If Kenma told him to give up now because there is no way he could win this fight, Hinata would probably ask him with staggering sincerity, who told you that?

It's not over until I decide it is.

Kenma takes a long look at Hinata: studies his bright eyes, his tousled hair. He thinks of reaching out to thumb a strand, just to see if it only is the setting sun in sight alone, or if it will attempt to scorch his immortal skin like the same. If he parts his lips, he is sure he can taste the sheer want the boy holds in his body.

"Hin—" Kenma begins, but hesitates. Tries again, "Shoyo."

The name tastes tangerine-sweet on his tongue, and just as tart. Kenma licks the backs of teeth, chasing the taste, chasing the thrill it brought.

For some reason, the sound of his name seems to delight Hinata. He beams, wide and filled with light. "Yes?"

Kenma forces himself to meet Hinata's eyes. Asks, "Why do you keep trying to summon me?"

Because he knows it's not about the Portugese, not anymore.

Hinata's grin softens into a smile. Kenma thinks he looks just a little sad.

"Because…" Hinata trails away. His throat clicks as he swallows thickly. "Because you are the first person apart from me to taste my chilli oil. You speak to me in Japanese. You're…" a harsh exhale, eyes screwed shut. "You're a piece of home."

"And that's worth risking your life for?" Kenma asks, urgent. Demanding. "With your luck, you're going to summon something you won't be able to handle and get yourself killed."

Hinata laughs at that. The corners of his eyes crinkle, gentle and lovely.

"Well, I have found you twice now. I think my luck is pretty great."

Kenma snaps his mouth shut. His heart is beating hummingbird-fast, and he finds that he is warm all over. Without a word, he teleports himself out of there.

"Kenma, open the door."

"No."

"Alright, I'm coming in."

"If you take a step inside this room I will impale you with an axe."

Kuroo appears inside his room in a puff of black smoke and neatly sidesteps the axe thrown his way, clicking his tongue. "A tantrum? Not very King-like, I'll tell you that much."

"Shove it," Kenma grumbles. "Why are you even here? I finished all my work."

"Okay, that's it."

The next few minutes unfold like this: Kuroo tries to wrestle him out of his blanket cocoon. Kenma kicks him. Kuroo doesn't budge. Kenma bites him. Kuroo yells and tries to push him off the bed. So on and so forth.

Eventually, they tire themselves out. Kenma puts all his weight on Kuroo and tries to suffocate him, but Kuroo simply holds him like he would a stuffed plushy. Kenma doesn't try to move away.

"Why did you help him summon me again."

Kuroo hums. "Kenma, lets face it: you're kind of a recluse—"

"I'm literally the King of Hell?"

"—and you need more friends."

Kenma digs his chin into Kuroo's chest and glares. "I have you, don't I?"

Kuroo grins, fond, and runs his hand through Kenma's hair. "Kenma, one friend isn't enough. Besides, you know how busy I get sometimes. Once, we went without meeting for decades, do you not remember?"

Kenma pointedly ignores the second part of the sentence and retorts, "Who said one is not enough? It's hard enough just to handle you."

"Kenma," Kuroo chides.

The hand on his hair is gentle, familiar. Kenma sighs and closes his eyes.

"What do you want me to do, Kuro?"

Because he gets off on being difficult, Kuroo doesn't answer him; he presents him with a question of his own instead: "Why do you think Shrimpy keeps summoning you?"

Kenma already has a feeling that he won't like the answer he will get. Still, he says, "Because he's desperate for a tutor, and he's lonely."

"Yeah," Kuroo agrees. "But that's not just it. He's summoning you not just because he's lonely, Kenma. He can see that you are, too."

Despite Kuroo's advice, Kenma doesn't appear in front of Hinata the next time he is summoned. But that isn't to say he forgets him.

To level up a character, you have to do all sorts of bothersome things in a game. Collect materials required to level them up, complete random side quests to collect enough money. Read up on their strengths and weaknesses to get a better understanding of them. It's a taxing process, but one that Kenma doesn't mind too much. That's how he approaches this whole thing with Hinata.

He goes to a market early in the morning, and buys things that he remembers seeing in Hinata's kitchen. Garlic. Ginger. Oil. Chillis, red and green. Bok choy, even though he hates it. Eggs. A singular packet of instant ramen, because Shoyo tries to avoid junk food as much as possible.

He walks through the market and peruses each stall. Tests the weight of each vegetable in his hands, and feels their give when he presses his fingers into their skin. A memory so distant that he doubts if it's even his own resurfaces in his mind. Even centuries later, the weight of fresh produce feels the same on his hand. How strange.

He finds an empty house in the middle of nowhere and cooks his ramen there. He feels that he shouldn't do this back in his dark and silent room—no, this has to be done somewhere with sunlight, where he can hear the sound of cars and the wind.

By the time he finishes cooking, clumsy and awkward, the sun is already setting. He climbs the roof of the abandoned house and eats his ramen in silence. It tastes a bit bland. It's not quite the same without the chilli oil, or without the boy who made it. Even the setting sun is nothing to write home about; after being in the company of Hinata Shoyo, it only looks like a pale imitation of the man.

"He's human," Kenma tells himself over and over again, like that means anything. Like that's enough to make him stay away.

Every time he does, a voice that sounds annoyingly like Kuro's echoes in his head: Weren't you human too, once?

Hinata meets a man named Oikawa Tooru who he used to share his hometown with, and smiles, truly smiles. He cries, too, but it's the good kind.

Good, Kenma thinks. Because Hinata won't need him anymore. Oikawa Tooru brought his real home to him, nothing like the flimsy imitation Kenma could offer. That must put him out of Hinata's mind. He knows more than anyone else how easily humans forget things.

But, inexplicably, Kenma could feel the pull of Hinata's summoning even after Oikawa leaves. The hummingbird in his heart comes to life again.

Kenma doesn't dream, because only humans dream and it's been a long time since he has been anything even close to human. But when he closes his eyes, he finds himself in what he thinks is Hinata's dream.

They are sitting in a volleyball court side by side. Hinata looks young, much younger than he is, and Kenma is wearing a red sweatshirt. Like this, Kenma can almost pretend like they are just two kids in school, and good friends at that. Maybe they even play volleyball together.

"Why won't you give me your name?" Hinata asks, chin on his knees.

"Do you know that you will die before I do?" is what Kenma answers with.

Hinata scrunches his eyebrows. "What does that have to do with anything?"

What does that have to do anything? Did you know when you die, I will be the one who sees your deepest, darkest secrets and judge you for it? Did you know that I will be the one to rip apart your soul piece by piece and the one who will force your shame down your throat? Don't you understand? You will die, and I will live to watch it happen.

A lone ball falls out of the crate and bounces on the ground. The sound echoes around the court, and Hinata tilts his head to the side to listen to it. Inhales deeply, like he is trying to bottle the scent of this memory in the depths of his lungs.

"Hey," Hinata says, nudging his foot. "Why won't you give me your name? We're friends, aren't we?"

Kenma wants to deny him, tell him that they can never be friends. Instead, quietly, he offers, "Kenma. Kozume Kenma."

"Kenma," Hinata tests. "Ken-ma."

Kenma shudders. Hinata doesn't miss this; still, he doesn't comment on it. Only smiles.

"You have a pretty name, Kenma," he says. "Ken-ma. Tell me when I wake up, okay? So that I don't forget."

"How are you so sure I'll visit?"

Hinata laughs, a boyish and innocent sound. "I don't know, Kenma. I think I just have really good luck."

Hinata really does have very good luck, because Kenma visits him the next day.

"I can't teach you Portugese," is the first thing Kenma says to him. "I can't fulfill any wish of yours."

Hinata doesn't wilt at his words. His eyes were glittering, and he was bouncing on his feet like he was getting ready for flight. "But?"

"But. I'll come if you call for me."

"Deal." Hinata is fully grinning now. Kenma feels a little winded at its intensity. "What do you want in return? Demons always want something back for granting someone's wishes, no?"

A smile escapes him. "You can call me Kenma, for starters. And promise me you'll stay interesting."

Really, Kenma must be going soft, because he lets Shoyo hug him for five whole seconds before he pushes him off.