Chapter Text
With a final shove, Hinata finally moved the sofa into place. That was the last of the big furniture to move in to the apartment and he now only had what looked like a hundred boxes to unpack. Sighing he slumped into his newly situated sofa and closed his eyes.
Freedom. That's what this apartment meant to him. The freedom to live as he chooses. To come and go as he pleases. To eat what he wants when he wants. Just, freedom. Not that living at home was horrible but having a nosey little sister around all the time and snooping but caring mother doesn't bode well for maintaining a modicum of privacy. So when he received a volleyball scholarship and was able to move to Tokyo to pursue his dream, it was like a call to freedom.
Hinata was jolted out of his peaceful ravine by his phone ringing. Scrambling to answer it he managed to do so right before it went to voicemail.
"Hello?" he said wishing he bothered to look at the caller ID before answering. He wasn't exactly in the mood to be bombarded by questions about his upcoming start of term by his mother. He just managed to find some zen and he didn't want to ruin it by stressing out while simultaneously trying to continuously convince his moving that him leaving for school was going to be a great thing...yes even though he is playing volleyball and not studying something that his sister likes to joke as "useful".
"Hey! I heard from your sister that today was your move in date. Did you get all your stuff in already? Oh I bet you had way more stuff than you realized. Why didn't you call me to help you with the move? You know I'm here in Tokyo now, I could have helped. I want to see you, I miss you. And you have to come see my apartment, it's totally amazing. Ugh but I'm so glad you're here!! I want to come help you, text me your address I'm going to-" the voice on the other line was finally cut off by Hinata.
"Whoa whoa, slow down Yachi." Hinata smiled and shook his head at his friend. If she wasn’t his best friend he would have hung up on her by now. "Yes I just moved in today, and yes..." He said looking at all the boxes-" I have a lot more stuff than I thought"
"I knew you would, same thing happened to me. When I moved in, I was like 'oh I don't have that much stuff it won't take me too long to unpack' and lo and behold here I am a 2 months later and there's like 6 boxes I just can't get through." Yachi said. "And sorry, when I get excited I just start talking and sometimes I just keep going and going and- "
"Yes, yes I know." Hinata laughed, "That's why I just cut you off now. I find it saves time."
"Good plan"
"I think so. But anyway if you want to come over and see the place I can text you my address- granted everything's in boxes so..." Hinata said
"I would love to come over. I'll help you unpack if you want. Oh yes this will be so much fun!" Yachi said excitedly into the phone so loud Hinata had to pull it slightly away from his ear.
"Ok I'm going to text it to you now, see you soon" Hinata said before hanging up. He texted her his new address which gave him a small flush of pride and she immediately responded that she would be there in about half an hour.
Contented, Hinata sunk back into his sofa and surveyed his apartment. It was nothing too big or fancy or even overly nice. It was small, just a living area big enough for his sofa and a TV and maybe a bookcase, a reasonably sized kitchen with a small eating area big enough for a table with two chairs, a bedroom that fortunately fit a full sized bed with much room to spare, and finally a nice sized bathroom which was all the better because he didn't have to share. It was just close enough to things and school that he could walk or take the train, but just far enough to keep it from being expensive; to him it was perfect.
Just as Hinata began to romanticize his new apartment when he was struck with the knowledge that he had absolutely zero food in his apartment. He checked his phone. It had only been about 4 minutes since he texted Yachi so he had just about 25 minutes to maybe run to a convenience store to get some snacks.
Hinata ran into his room and went to the first box that was labeled "clothes", or at least he thought it was labeled that, his handwriting was atrocious and as he ripped off the tape he wondered if he labeled any of the boxes correctly in his haste to pack. Thankfully the box contained sweatshirts and jeans, and Hinata pull off his grimy, sweat soaked moving clothes. He pulled on a black sweatshirt that said "I Can Dig It" in white lettering with a small volleyball underneath and a pair of dark jeans. Smiling at the memory of getting this shirt from Yachi as a gift for receiving the volleyball scholarship, Hinata made his way to the door of his apartment trying to simultaneously put on his shoes and lock his door. After successfully completing both he made his way down the stairs and out through the lobby and right out the front door when he realized he had no idea where the nearest deli or convenience store was. Blinking rapidly he stood starting blankly into space before coming to his senses and pulling out his phone.
He quickly typed "convenience store" and clicked on the first one that he saw that was closest and started walking in that direction. Hinata was staring intently at his phone when he rounded a corner and absolutely did not see the other guy coming around in the opposite direction. It was too late to stop walking before they crashed into each other. Knocking his face into the other guys chest, Hinata was thrown backwards landing flat on his back, head hitting the pavement, phone flying out of his hand skittering down the sidewalk behind him. The other guy who was significantly taller than Hinata smacked his face on the top of Hinata's head and fell back in his behind, his backpack the only thing keeping him from falling back and his head hitting the pavement. Both men were groaning in pain until Hinata's cries of "owww" and "shit" broke the silence.
"Can't you watch where you're going?" said the other guy who was sitting up and rubbing his face, his deep gruff voice was slightly muffled by his hand and a small amount of blood leaking from his nose. He tone suggested he was very annoyed and wanted an answer but Hinata was in no way going to answer. He laid down on the sidewalk, unmoving just spewing a steady stream of "shit shit shit" and making no move to get up.
"Hey seriously, weren't you looking in front of you, I could've have- oh look I'm bleeding" the guy said finally pulling his hand away and examining the blood coming off his face. "Thanks a lot dumbass- hey you, I'm talking to you,” the guy said after he saw that Hinata still hadn't gotten up. He shuffled over to where Hinata laid groaning and swearing.
"Dumbass, you have to get up"
"Ugh but my head hurts so much and I'm afraid if I move it I'm going to disrupt the delicate position my brain is in and it may leak from my skull" Hinata groaned.
"Ok well that's just overly dramatic, don't be ridiculous. You got knocked down by a person not a train," the guy said grabbing onto Hinata's arm to help him up. Hinata went to get up as fast as he could causing him to smack himself into the guy again this time his forehead hit the guys nose.
"Seriously!? Dumbass what the fuck? I was already bleeding, are you trying to break my nose?" The guy reprimanded clutching his nose that once again gushed fresh blood.
"Oh fuck, I didn't mean to hit you again and I didn't want to make you bleed I was just dizzy and I want to get up as fast as possible, I didn't realize you were so close" Hinata said quickly. He moved to sit up and touched the back of his head. Wincing when he felt a tender spot he pulled his hand back and found a small amount of blood.
"If it makes you feel any better I'm bleeding too" Hinata said meekly showing the guy his blood on his hand as if that was going to make him feel better.
"Dumbass I didn't want you to bleed too, I didn't want anyone to bleed,” he said through a pinched nose as he tilted his head back. "...But yeah it kind of makes me feel better"
"Wow, asshole" Hinata scoffed as he rubbed the blood on his jeans. "Wait, my phone is- " he looked around him and saw it was a few feet away. He scrambled up and retrieved to find he had a text from Yachi saying that she was five minutes away.
"Crap" Hinata sighed realizing he want going to have enough time to get food and come back. He turned to the guy on the ground when he saw that he was already looking up at him over his hand pinching his nose. This was the first time he really got a look at him since they crashed, twice. He had straight black hair that fell just above his eyes, which were a vibrant blue. And even though he was wearing a dark blue hoodie and sweatpants, Hinata could see the bulge of his arm muscles as he pinched his nose to stop the bleeding and he assumed the rest of him was as fit. He seemed to be quite tall despite the fact that he had his legs pulled close to his body.
"Why the 'crap'?" He asked in a nasally yet still relatively deep voice.
"Cause I was trying to do something but now I'm running late and I'm not going to have enough time to do it" Hinata said dejectedly.
"Well, no offense, but it serves you right"
"Wow, offense"
"Too bad, my nose is bleeding because of you"
"Ok fair enough” Hinata resigned. "It's not like I set out to smash your nose or whatever."
"Well maybe you should look where you're going" the guy said rolling his eyes.
"Well maybe...you...you should look where you're going!"
"I was!"
"Obviously not!"
"Ugh, you're ridiculous!" The guy shouted.
"You're...ridiculous..." Hinata pouted, crossing his arms.
"Ok this is getting us nowhere, I have to go buy some gauze and an ice pack now, goodbye" the guy said picking himself off the ground.
"Wait, let me at least buy you the ice pack and gauze and whatever else you need for your face, it's the least I can do, cause you know I...smashed your face" Hinata said gesturing to the still bleeding nose. His blood had managed to drip onto his hoodie and the more that it bled the sorrier Hinata felt. Unfortunately, the guy was being such a jerk, in Hinata’s opinion, that Hinata was almost glad he banged into him the second time.
"No thanks. I've had my fill of dumbass for the day, maybe the week" he said pulling his backpack on tighter and turning in the direction he came from and walking away.
"What a fucking asshole" Hinata mumbled as he turned back around and made his way by to the apartment building.