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"Hey."
Hinata walked up to Komaeda, who had been sitting on one of the benches at the park underneath the shade of some trees. He turned his head toward him, his action a little delayed, as if he had been deep in thought and had only just now registered the presence of another person beside him. His eyes widened in delight.
"Ah! Hinata-kun, what a surprise, that someone as talented as yourself would gra--"
"All right, stop that."
"Ahh... hahah, I'm terribly sorry, but that's to be expected from trash like me." He looked downcast, his white locks obscuring his stormy eyes, before he looked up again at Hinata, looking like his cheerful self again.
"What did you want Hinata-kun?"
A little taken aback, Hinata rose his eyebrows in surprise.
"Uh, actually I was wondering if you wanted to... hang out. I got some tickets to the Movie Theater."
Komaeda's eyes seemed to sparkle with joy at the news. "I would be honored to spend time with you Hinata-kun. To think that an Ultimate such as yourself is asking... someone like me to....spend time with... you! W--what kind of bad luck awaits me later on?? Hahahahh..." He hugged himself and laughed ominously. It sounded more like wheezing.
Feeling a little annoyed at Komaeda for always making things awkward, Hinata huffed loudly.
"Are we going or not?" His tone a little sharper than he meant. At this Komaeda jumped from his seat and faced Hinata.
"Of course, Hinata-kun! I have no right to refuse such a generous offer." He gave a bright smile, that together with how Komaeda seemed to glow under the sunlight kind of blinded Hinata. He looked away, turning sharply and began to lead the way to the theater with no further comment. He heard Komaeda's footsteps behind him.
They made it to the entrance of the Movie Theater and Hinata was starting to regret his choice of venue.
"Hey, you bastards! Ah! Are you guys here to watch my amazing movies??! You are, aren't ya?! I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the unique charm of my films! They're masterpieces!"
Narrowing his eyes, Hinata sighed out an exasperated breath.
"Yeah, that's what we're here for, so just-- let us watch the movie." Irritated by that bear's grating voice.
Monokuma snatched his ticket from his hands before he was able to give it to him.
"H-hey!!"
Alarmed, Hinata jumped back a little, despite also being kind of angry.
"I'll just take this! You bastards can head on over to the screening." He shooed them away.
Hinata scoffed at this, but took his chance to get away from Monokuma with open arms.
"Let's go, Komaeda." He called, he had been uncharacteristically quiet during the exchange.
He saw him glaring at Monokuma before he turned toward Hinata and offered a small smile.
Turning away, Hinata's heart skipped a beat. Huh. That... was weird. Although it hadn't been the first time it happened, it always left Hinata perplexed and more than a little disturbed.
It's probably because I don't fully trust him... so I'm still a little scared of him. And who wouldn't?? He's unpredictable and impossible to understand. Hinata reasoned with himself. Despite his train of thought, he was starting to feel a little nervous. I'm going to be in a dark, enclosed space together with Komaeda for who knows how long.... why did I think this would be a good idea?
"Ah, I wonder what movie we'll watch, I hope it's at least entertaining!"
He was shaken from his thoughts by none other than the source of his confusion. He turned to look at Komaeda over his shoulder, he was walking a pretty decent distance behind him and smiling to himself.
"Uh, yeah, me too. But, this is Monokuma... so I'm not expecting much."
He took a seat in the middle row. It was weird being in a nearly empty theater room. Komaeda sat next to him and grimaced.
"You're right, just the thought that it's a movie by Monokuma is enough to prove that it's worthless. But, don't worry Hinata-kun, if it ends up being terrible, surely it won't faze you in the least! Your hope... it shines too brightly for that! This is but a mere test!"
"....Uh... right." Hinata looked away from Komaeda's much too excited face toward the screen.
The movie was just about to begin. Thank God, thought Hinata, prepared not to say anything else for the remainder of their... outing. Hinata refused to call it a date.
The opening credits rolled in. Director: Monokuma. Producer: Monokuma. Executive Producer: Monokuma.
Hinata was cringing already. God, this is going to be so bad. I should've just invited him to the Diner or something. Looking over to Komaeda, it looked like he wasn't faring any better. He looked bored and kind of irritated. One of his arms on his chair's armrest, his hand tucked under his jaw.
Hinata turned away and looked at a fixed spot on the floor in favor of watching the garbage currently playing with much interest. There was a cheerful tune playing and needless to say, it was getting on his nerves. Absentmindedly turning his head toward Komaeda again, Komaeda was silently watching the movie with a mildly displeased look on his face. Hinata noticed how he almost looked ghostly with the screen's harsh light on him in the darkness of the room. His skin actually looked white. His unruly hair almost seemed to glow and reflected the different colors in the screen. His eyes were bright, Hinata had never found the right words to describe their color correctly. They were pale green and also grey, in the right lighting they looked a little blue. They're beautiful.
Whoa.
Whoa. Shit. What was that?
"Hinata-kun?"
The dark haired boy in question started at this.
"K--Komaeda!" His voice coming out louder than he wanted.
"Ah, are you alright? I turned to see you looking in my direction. You look like you've seen a ghost." Komaeda looked a little worried, but chuckled anyway.
Laughing a nervous laugh, Hinata shrugged and said, "It's just... this movie's really bad." Not like I was paying attention to it anyway, he thought.
Komaeda actually laughed at this. Laughed. It was soft and melodic, it sounded nothing like the wheezy laughing he does when he goes on about hope and despair. Hinata's heart went into overdrive and he swallowed harshly, finding it hard to look away from Komaeda's happy expression.
"You're right, Hinata-kun! It is very bad, I don't think it even has a plot!" Komaeda said, a bright smile still on his face.
Hinata smiled at this, " Yeah, I don't think so either..." His mood was already improving.
Komaeda looked away from Hinata and looked down at his lap.
".......But being together with y--....an Ultimate such as yourself makes it better." Komaeda said the last part quietly, almost a whisper. Hinata had to lean forward in his seat to really hear him and when he did, his already erratic heartbeat seemed to get worse.
Am I getting a heart attack?!
Hinata thought exasperatedly to himself. He was met with Komaeda's face up close. He could notice his delicate features more clearly now, his skin looked soft and his jawline was smooth despite being a little sharp. Hinata suddenly found it hard to breath. What does he say to something like that? Is Komaeda only saying something like that because he's an Ultimate? Would he say that to anyone else on the island?
Why do I even care? Hinata thought, overcome with a mix of confusion and most confusing of all, jealousy.
Komaeda looked up, making eye contact with Hinata, his eyes glinted in the darkness. Hinata didn't notice at first but Komaeda was also leaning forward in his seat, getting into his personal space as well.
"Hinata-kun?," his voice was quiet and curious. Hinata could feel his breath puff out across his face because of their close proximity. Vaguely, Hinata noted that he couldn't hear the music playing in background anymore. His eyes flew to Komeda's lips for what felt like a fleeting second. They were pink and soft looking and slightly parted and before Hinata knew what he was doing, he kissed Komaeda.
He moved forward a few more inches and pressed their lips together, probably too roughly. They were just as soft as they looked. He felt, rather than heard, Komaeda take a sharp intake of breath and tense up immediately. Realizing just what exactly he was doing, Hinata recoiled backwards, almost falling off his seat in the process.
"U--uh, um, I--" he broke out into a cold sweat, trying to explain why he just did something like this despite not really being sure why was really hard.
He threw his hands in front of himself in an appeasing manner.
"I--I don't r-really know why I did that, but, oh my God, I-I'm so sorry. S--sorry." Looking down at his lap the entire time. He looked up slowly, tentatively.
Komaeda was sitting in his seat, still facing Hinata and looking a little tense, his face was downturned so Hinata couldn't see his expression immediately. Hinata still felt like he couldn't breath.
"It's alright, Hinata-kun." Komaeda looked up, smiling his usual carefree smile and just generally looking like nothing happened. Like Hinata hadn't just kissed him.
Mouth gaping a little, Hinata said nothing for a while. "R-really??" He asked incredulously.
"Of course, if I can be useful to you in any way then I'm happy." Hinata didn't like the way he phrased that.
"Although, if you'll allow me to give you some advice, you really should think over your taste in company."
Furrowing his eyebrows, Hinata glared at Komaeda.
"What?"
Komaeda shook his head, looking troubled and brought one of his hands to his chin.
"I mean--I have no right to refuse you, if you want to spend your time with me and engage in these kinds of activities with me, then I'm flattered. Honored."
Hinata felt his face heat up at his choice of words. Activities? What kind of activities?
"But, shouldn't an Ultimate like you have better taste than this? Honestly, I'm a little worried."
His tone was serious and a little disappointed.
"If you Ultimates spend time together I can only imagine the hope that would follow! Such a shining hope--that surely, no matter what hardships you may face in the future, it would be of little matter to you!" His eyes were starting to become hazy. He hugged himself like he usually did during his...episodes.
"What are you going on about??" Hinata deadpanned. Feeling mildly offended.
"My taste in company is my business."
Komaeda met his gaze, his face unreadable.
"Of course, Hinata-kun, but to think that you would waste your precious time with someone like me--"
He was cut off.
"It's not a waste of time." Hinata declared resolutely.
Komaeda looked at him, eyes wide for a split second before regaining his composure.
"But, surely your time would be better spent with your fellow Ultimates."
Hinata sighed, starting to feel exhausted. "Komaeda, drop it. I wanted to spend time with you so I did. It's that simple."
"So you're saying you wanted to come here and then kiss me??" Komaeda said, straightfaced as usual.
At this, Hinata's face heated up again.
"W--well... that--that wasn't in the original plan...B-b-but I did want to....keep an eye on you." He said shakily, not really sure what Komaeda was getting at.
"Ah, so you wanted to keep an eye on me. That's understandable." Was it just his imagination or did Komaeda sound a little hurt? He was about to say something else but Komaeda beat him to it.
"I honestly expected better." Komaeda's voice was suddenly cold.
"What was that?" Hinata's gaze and voice hardened.
Komaeda held his gaze for a little while longer. It was much too quiet and the air between them was heavy and tense.
" Ah, the movie is over." Komaeda suddenly announced, breaking eye contact and looking toward the now dark screen.
Hinata gaped, broken out of the previous tension between them. How long had it been?
"O-oh." Hinata said intelligently. He was feeling a little guilty about everything. He kissed Komaeda without his permission. At the memory, Hinata felt his heart stutter. He gritted his teeth in irritation.
Clearing his throat, he said, "I--I guess we should get going." Unsurely, he turned to look at Komaeda, who was sitting on his chair, but not facing Hinata this time.
He turned his head toward Hinata and offered a small smile.
"Of course, Hinata-kun."
Standing, they both walked out of the theater room.
When they faced Monokuma again they were attacked with a flurry of questions about the movie from him. He sounded excited and a little desperate. None of them said anything, both standing a pretty far distance from the other.
Monokuma's interrogation died down, and he brought a paw to his mouth.
"What is this? A lover's quarrel?" His voice devious.
Hinata grit his teeth, willing the heat that rushed to his face to go away.
"Of course not. The movie was just that bad." Hinata said scathingly.
Monokuma started at this. "How utterly despairful!!" He exclaimed, beginning to laugh. "Upupupupu..."
Hinata narrowed his eyes, he wasn't in the mood to play games with Monokuma.
"Whatever, we're leaving." He marched off, moving past Komaeda who had been standing with his arms crossed. He looked behind him, Komaeda followed behind, looking down at the ground.
When they got outside the theater, the sun was just beginning to set. A cool breeze blew, and Hinata turned to glance at Komaeda, his hair moved in the soft breeze. It looked like a cloud. Hinata was starting to feel a little jittery, just standing there outside the theater with Komaeda, still feeling guilty.
"He--hey." It came out louder than he meant and he flushed self consciously. Komaeda's full attention on him didn't help matters.
"Uh... I'm sorry... f--for earlier. I-it was really stupid. I-I don't know what came over me...so...sorry." His gaze switching between the concrete underneath his shoes and trying to look Komaeda in the eye.
"I said it's alright, didn't I? You shouldn't worry too much about someone as inconsequential as me." Komaeda's voice was low and almost wistful. Hinata looked up to see him staring off into the distance. His expression indiscernible. Hinata's breath caught in his throat. In the soft pink light Komaeda looked breathtaking. Hinata looked away quickly. What was wrong with him?
"Oh... well, I guess...I'll see you then?" He asked, feeling inexplicably sad. His hands were balled up into fists at his sides.
Komaeda looked toward him. A gentle smile on his soft features.
"Yes. Of course, Hinata-kun. I'm always grateful to spend time with you."
Turning fully to face Komaeda, Hinata tried to be confident.
"Okay. See you around Komaeda." Forcing a smile to his face.
Komaeda was still smiling softly at him and then he turned to leave in the direction of the first island. Hinata stood there and stared after him. His slight figure seeming to float across the ground. Hinata thought about what he had said before 'You shouldn't worry too much about someone as inconsequential as me'. And remembered the way he looked in the warm evening light. How soft his lips were. How his laugh sounded like bells. And he thought to himself,
No. You're not inconsequential at all, Komaeda.
He looked on, by now the pale boy was but a speck in the distance, looking much like a ghost.
Not at all.