author's note~ I loved the idea of a KonoHibi involving bedtime activities but I'm sort of a shounen ai, not yaoi, type so what's better than storytelling? I got the idea from a thick (and I mean thick) book full of old folktales stuffed in my closet. Wasn't sure about the ending but enjoy~ (and this is most likely a one-shot ;3)
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The weather had been fine for the Mekakushi Dan today and the day before. Only later in the day did dark clouds start forming above the town. Konoha sat in the Dan hideout by the window, looking out vacantly: it was raining.
"Rain, rain, go away…" Big drops spattered on the pane while the heavy shower roared on outside. The white-haired male watched as Kido and Momo, two other members of the Dan, stepped out into the evening darkness. Something was missing and ever so slightly he tilted his head in thought, not noticing a young male join him.
"Rain, rain, go away, come again another day." He turned to see Hibiya. "That's how it goes, Konoha."
Hibiya Amamiya was the youngest member of the Dan. He could proudly say he knew Konoha the best for the fact that he had known him for the longest. His child-like figure suggested a sort of naivety and brashness, but things had changed since a tragic August fifteenth. Still, Konoha held onto him even through the emotional aftermath of that day.
Now, Konoha found a smile directed at him from under those bright, brown eyes and stared attentively back at Hibiya. His pair of eyes had the power to silence Konoha, to induce a sort of alert trance. The boy's mouth opened. "Momo, Kido, and I are going out to get some supplies. Go ahead and get some sleep while we're gone."
He handed Konoha a plush triceratops. "He'll keep you company while I'm gone."
Konoha looked down at the stuffed dinosaur, a gift given to him from a while back. The green fabric stretched seamlessly over the hide. Two beady eyes looked back at him, wanting attention. He hugged it—it was soft. A sense flowed through him, something of security.
He glanced back up. Suddenly, the rough brown hair and eyes disappeared. The room was empty. Something was wrong—he felt it somewhere. He hugged the plush closer to him and raised his voice: "Hibiya?"
A reply came from the entrance. "Ittekimasu!*" The door shut. He saw the brown-haired boy join the other two through the window. Slowly, the figures grew black as they walked further; his eyes followed them until they turned at a corner.
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Konoha lied on the living room couch. The rain continued, droning on as he wrapped himself in the darkness of the Dan hideout.
The lights turned on. "Konoha, what are you doing?" Shintaro asked. Konoha looked back. The black-haired male was not in his red jersey. Before he could answer, Shintaro went on: "It's about eleven. Isn't it around the time you go to bed?" Shintaro did not sleep over at the Dan hideout very often, his question was more curious than accusing.
Konoha clutched his plush triceratops and shook his head. "Not yet."
The argument was not continued. Over the short time they were together, Shintaro Kisaragi had found it useless to continue a debate with Konoha. His usual grouchiness wore thin against Konoha's kind thoughtlessness. In its place, an uneasy tolerance between the two formed. At times, when the two shared a mutual satisfaction, their relationship even took on the shape of a brotherly bond.
Shintaro walked over to him, studying him for a moment before sitting on the arm of the couch. "Well, I guess I'm not really one to follow curfews either."
They sat like that for some time under the dim light. The silence soothed Shintaro, his ears usually attuned to a virtual girl screaming at him. Suddenly, he felt a hand at his side.
"Konoha?" The white-haired male had grabbed Shintaro's shirt.
"I want a bedtime story."
He met the gaze of the pair of pink eyes. They were serious. For a moment, Shintaro wanted to shake him off and refuse the silly request. He held his composure, though, reminding himself who he was dealing with, and simply let out a small sigh.
"Okay, Konoha, sure… but I got to think of one first."
Konoha shook his head. He pointed towards his and Hibiya's room. "I want Hibiya's storybook."
Shintaro looked curiously towards the direction. Still, he rose and entered the room. Hibiya's desk stood in the dark, unusually new and unused. The drawers were empty. He searched for several minutes before thinking of checking underneath Hibiya's bed. A particularly thick book was pushed towards the very back. He took it out, noticing the wear of the pages and the sheer weight.
Flipping through it, page after page of text appeared, the margins scrawled with notes. Delicate words decorated the sides in dull, penciled lines. The bookmark held itself quietly on page one hundred seventy-six.
He returned to Konoha, the male nodding his head at the book. "Konoha, did you write in this?"
He shook his head. "No. It's Hibiya's."
Shintaro squinted his eyes, unsure exactly as to why there were notes in the book, notes saying "delete" or "replace with negima". Childish doodles and scribbles were drawn between paragraphs, messily drawn in representation of story characters or events. Occasionally a section was circled with a single statement: "he likes this" or "he smiled here".
As if answering, Konoha gave a light smile. "When I can't sleep, Hibiya reads me one of the stories. I listen until I go to sleep."
"And… you want me to read it to you?"
"Yes…" Konoha said, drawling the word out. And for some reason, suddenly an unusual pang of emotion swept over his face: "but…" He hugged his plush triceratops closer to him, looking down at it in thought. His eyes closed slowly and with some regained confidence, he spoke: "But I want Hibiya."
Shinatro let his disappointment drop with a small huff. He was not wanted at all. "Well, I guess you can wait for him to come back and read to you."
Konoha nodded, looking vacantly towards the entrance. "I have."
They waited several minutes longer for the group to come back in the evening, listening to the incessant pitter patter of raindrops outside. Sometimes, Shintaro found himself studying Konoha, looking for some expression, but the pair of solid, pink eyes stayed firmly fixated on the front door.
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*"Ittekimasu!" is something you say when you leave home