Chapter Text
Naegi, Kirigiri, and Togami stay on Jabberwock just long enough for them to get onto their feet.
It’s less a gift, and more promise fulfillment. Naegi had promised to keep them safe. Part of that promise was ensuring the five of them could stand on their own feet before they jump ship.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to send any help?” Naegi asks, concerned, just as he’s about to leave. And because he’s kind and stubborn adds, “I’m sure we can find people willing to work with you. We can do screening, and double check background credentials, and...”
Hinata tilts his head. Frowns. Observes the neat, concerned look the other gives him for the longest time until his careful answer of, “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” finds its way out.
(The extra hands would be nice. The risk of something going wrong is too great, the price of blunder too looming.)
Kirigiri seems to understand, at least. She reaches out to touch Naegi’s shoulder, something silent that he’s observant enough to catch but too dense to understand passing between them.
Then, she turns and walks away.
Naegi nods. Swallows, “Well,” he says, slowly, “If you need anything..”
“Private line,” Hinata interrupts.
“And we’re gonna call uh-”
“Every Friday.”
They’ve been over this five times now. Hinata has been keeping track. He settles himself into one of the shipping containers and just watches the way Naegi scrambles to catch himself.
He really doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Which is fine. Naegi’s allowed to think what he’d like.
“Okay,” Naegi says, and then more confidently. With more of a smile on his face, “Okay! Yeah. You’ll be fine.”
He’s trying to convince himself. The least he can do is work himself through this out of Hinata’s presence.
“We will be,” Hinata agrees. Doesn’t sound as amused as he feels, but if Naegi notices or cares he makes no show of it.
“Hey, you’re going to be fine, right?” Hinata finds himself asking, despite himself. Naegi blinks. Like it’d never occurred to him to consider that maybe he’s the one in immediate danger. Hinata clarifies, “Future Foundation isn’t going to give you like... too much shit for this, right?”
Naegi stares at him. For a long enough time that it borders on concerning, and Hinata considers waving his hand in his face to snap him back to.
Then he smiles. Wide, big, and hopeful, “I have it handled! You just... Focus on recovering. Okay?”
Hinata believes him. Kind of. What part of the lie he catches he makes no comment on, because he has bigger things to be concerned about.
For example. His hair is still long.
Too long. Between everything going on, he hadn’t gotten a chance to cut it since waking up. He’s considered, of course, just taking the first blade he can find to it. But. He’s a coward. He can’t, for whatever reason, stomach the idea of handling one right now. Instead, he sits and runs his fingers back through it time and time again to try and keep it out of his face.
(Eventually, after enough time passes and he must visibly grow frustrated, Sonia offers him an almost pitied look and walks over to pull it back for him. She doesn’t... Ask exactly, but he doesn’t pull away. Simply allows her to rake her fingers through his hair and do as she pleases with it.
The braid ends up looking nice. He does need to cut it, though.)
They gather at the hotel, as they always have.
The restaurant is exactly as they remember it, and at the same time entirely different.
The creators of the neo-world program must have been near miraculous in their detailing of Jabberwock. He can trace the same lines in the tables (Though his fingers come back with a coat of dust, and the polish has long since worn off the edges.) spot the same crevices in the bricks (It wasn’t something he’d paid too much attention to before.) and finds his eyes wandering over the same picture hung up on the right most wall (It’s water damaged, and deteriorating.)
They got the flower pots wrong though. They’re blue plastic, chipped and empty. Somehow, this is a relief to him. Empty is better then dead.
Hinata sits on a table, because all the chairs have been stacked off to the side at some point prior. Sort of, watches the group in front of him with his chin in his hands, and a gaze he knows is uncomfortably blank but cannot bring himself to change.
(Kuzuryu is missing an eye. Except not really. It’s more like he has the wrong eye, and it’s something he was quick to cover with a makeshift eyepatch. Owari stumbles when she walks, shakes when she gets too excited.)
“So, what do we do now?”
It’s Souda that finally voices this. They’ve sort of just quietly loitered around the room, Souda walking a line into the floor and Sonia in deep thought. There’s a small wind chime, aged with rust, that’s been driving Hinata absolutely mad the entirety of the time they’ve been sitting here.
(Its sound is repetitive, predictable, and. Dull. Very dull.)
“I’ll tell you what we do!” Owari bounces forward, moves over to the wall. There are spots on it where the paper has already begun to peel, and she slaps her hand down on it with the force of a bomb. “We start here! Rip the place apart from top to bottom!”
“Ah- Ah!” Sonia goes wide-eyed, clasps her hands together, “Are you sure that is a good idea? We have not even taken stock of the supplies that we have!”
“Yeah, but...” Owari scratches her cheek, “I don’t think leavin’ it like this is any better, you know? It’s all... Sad and broken.”
“Rather it be sad and broken than torn apart and unstable.” Kuzuryu has taken to pacing between the tables like a tiger, observing anything and everything he can find. Hinata doesn’t bother to tell him there’s nothing interesting here. He figured that out within a minute of walking into the room.
“We eat here, Owari.”
“Yeah, but it shouldn’t take... Too long to clean this place up, you know?” Souda eyes some of the cracks in the wall, “There’s five of us and one room.”
“More like three!” Sonia points out, “Eating in a dirty kitchen is no good!”
“Right!” Souda barks, and Owari gives a nod that can only be described as sagely.
Kuzuryu looks decidedly unamused by the bunch. He watches them, blank and unimpressed. And then-
“Hey. What do you think?” Kuzuryu turns to look at him, spinning on his heel suddenly and with force.
Hinata blinks, scrunches his nose up at suddenly being pulled into a conversation he’d had no part of beforehand.
“...Me?” He asks, just to have something to say. Points lazily at himself with his free hand, vague and effortlessly.
“No, the other guy.” Hinata must get some kind of dark look on his face, because Kuzuryu is quickly sent fumbling with a “Fuck man, geeze! Sorry. It was a shitty joke.” Hinata has yet to say anything. In fact, Hinata has so little to say to that, that he turns his head back to the wall he’d been burning imaginary holes into with his gaze, and goes back to doing so.
“What do I think…”
.
.
.
With a breath, he pulls himself up.
Walks over to the wall, opposite of Owari.
He reaches out, and after running a few mental calculations grabs the spot that will reap him the largest cut of paper.
Then he yanks. The strip of wallpaper follows under his grip, down until it hits the floor. There’s something satisfying, in the way the piece rolls up in his hands. And though it reveals a dark, disgusting patch of mold, he’s satisfied enough with the show not to care.
“Like Owari said. We start over,” Hinata says, with a shrug. Tosses the roll off to the side and lets it coil on the floor. “It’s our home now, isn’t it? We should make it feel like one.”
The small group stares at him. He’s not sure if they expected a different answer, or if they’re just processing his small bought of destruction. But the silence is calculated, and tense, and then -
“Hinata,” Kuzuryu says. Slowly. With purpose, “I need you to promise to never say anything that fucking lame again.”
It’s enough to break the silence. Owari gives a loud hollar of approval, bouncing on heels (Something, he notes, causes her to wobble backwards.) Sonia’s gaze wavers from intense to determined in the snap of a second, smile lit up on her face and fists balling together. Souda’s shoulders fall, and though his laughter is nervous, it’s there.
It’s enough. It’s just enough.
“Look,” Hinata can’t (literally, physically cannot) break his voice past the steady monotone it falls into.
“ Look ,” he tries again, ignoring the sharp laughter he gets as a result, “It made a point?”
“It sure did!” Sonia nods, hands together, ponytail bouncing with each bob of her head. “You did very good Hinata!”
(Her approval is meaningless. He appreciates it nonetheless.)
“Alright! Lemme get my hands DIRTY!” Owari goes in, immediately, to ripping at the more obvious spots on the wall. Her gain is hardly as successful as his, but she makes up for it in earnest and hardy speed.
“Yeah? Yeah. Okay. Okay, wow, shit, we’re doing this now , huh?” Kuzuryu’s eye widens as he watches the sudden bustle in front of him, and Hinata does not miss how lost he seems to look.
The feeling doesn’t stick.
“Hell yeah we are! Come on, you’re gonna help me tear this place DOWN!” She lulls in her destruction long enough to snatch up his arm and yank him forward instead.
(More force than necessary, but not the same amount of power she normally carries. Something to keep an eye on.)
“Hey, hey! Be careful about that!” He snaps, stumbles, but certainly does not fight her. In fact, as he catches his balance, something of an uneasy grin crosses over his features.
Hinata’s still trying to figure out what to do. They don’t need three people working on removing wallpaper, afterall.
“I shall go see what was left at the Market!” Sonia nods to herself, eyes still lit with something sharp. “There must be something we can use to make cleaning this place up a little easier! And- Supplies! We need supplies.” She looks around, like she’s making some kind of mental note of just everything they might end up needing.
(Brooms, mops, buckets, bleach, cleaner, rags, paint…)
“Miss Sonia, let me come with you,” Souda announces, loudly. The smile Sonia sends him is carefully polite. Polite as ice, dripping with a chill only Souda can miss.
“No, that’s quite alright,” She tells him, with the patience of a saint. “I’m sure there are things that need done here. I need no assistance. Thank you though!”
Curt. Sharp. Cutting. Her patience was carefully thin today.
“Ah, but-” Souda misses the point entirely. Deflates, “You could uh. Use the extra eyes?”
“No! I’m quite aware of what I need. Thank you,” she says again. Harder this time.
“Miss Sonia-”
“Actually, Souda. Uh,” Hinata pauses. Doesn’t miss the thankful look Sonia sends his way the second he starts speaking, nor the look of unmasked betrayal Souda balks at in return.
“Let me go with her.”
“What?” Souda squints at him, like he’s the suspicious one. Then lowers his voice, like Sonia isn’t right there, “Are you- Are you trying to snatch up my chance here??”
“It’s- Nothing like that!” He raises his hands up, ducks his head. There’s something truly amazing about how thick Souda’s skull is.
“There’s just a few things I need to make sure we grab.” Not good enough. Souda is still staring at him like he snatched up an opportunity from him. So, lower, quieter, he adds, “And - I need you to do something anyway. Something only you can do.” It’s... Not entirely true, now. But that’s a thought Hinata isn’t prepared to deal with at the moment.
Souda eyes him with a genuine sort of suspicion he doesn’t think he’d have given even Komaeda. But he lets Hinata humor him, “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I saw a floor cleaner in the janitor’s closet downstairs. It looked a little beat up, but if we could get that fixed...” He kicks the dirt tracked floor twice, just to make his point.
“Aw man ,” Souda says, rotten. Sort of considers it. Hinata knows that he’s won when he tacks on, “...What kind of floor cleaner we talking?”
“A hydroscrub of some kind,” Hinata shrugs, carefully nonchalant.
“A… pressure cleaner?” The gears turning over in his head. Hinata can visualize the calculations he’s running perfectly, both on what he’d be working on and the time he’d be missing with Sonia. “An indoor pressure cleaner, right? Shit. Okay, yeah, you know what? I think I saw a tool kit around here. I bet I could get it working?”
Hook, line, and sinker.
“How long do you think it would take to fix it up?” Hinata asks, giving him what’s supposed to be a friendly pat on the back. Souda, of course, misses how tense and awkward it ends up being.
“I mean- I’d have to see how beat up the thing is. What its wires are like, you know? If it’s got too much rust in it, it might be hard to get it functioning...” Souda rubs his chin, squints, “Two hours. Yeah. Actually, know what? An hour and a half, at most.”
Hinata has to force a smile onto his face. It’s not from a lack of sincerity.
“Hey,” he says, and pretends the next line out of his mouth isn’t one of those aforementioned ‘lame’ lines Kuzuryu had been prattling on about, “If anyone can do it, it’s you.”
Souda lights up with the affirmation, apparently not seeing the same, cringy bullshit Hinata just had in it. Hinata notes this down in the back of his mind in the ‘things about Souda he should be concerned about’ file, and quietly lets him go. He’s practically sparkling with excitement now.
Sonia trails over to him, watching as Souda all but scrambles to make his way to the lobby. He looks excited, like a child that’s just been told they have a new puppy waiting for them downstairs.
Hinata almost feels bad for what comes next.
“So.” Hinata watches him go, and continues, voice incredibly dry, “How long until he realizes we don’t have electricity to run it?”
Sonia looks startled.
Then.
She laughs. Hard enough to shake her shoulders, and she has to turn her head to avoid his gaze.
“Well,” she says. Enough goes unsaid between the two of them, but she smiles easier than she had before. “Shall we be off before then?”
They leave through the side door, and make sure to prop it open on their way out. The restaurant could use some fresh air.