When a seventeen year old Ha-Ya-To first enrolled into the Exo-Force, the high tech Japanese self defence team set up to control and crush the robot rebellions, he didn't expected a third of his time to be dedicated to sitting in a lecturing room instead of piloting a battle machine. While he understood the seriousness of the job, there was still a small part of his mind that glamorised the military, and he wanted nothing more than to fly through the sky in one of the impressive machines, saving the civilians below and stopping the destruction. But he admitted that before his valiant career began, he actually had to learn how to be a good pilot first, even if that meant sitting through hours of lessons stuck indoors instead of having more on-the-job training.
He was currently sat in Weapons Technology, a class held in a small room close to the main training ground of Sentai Fortress, where the pilots learned about different types of weaponry in use and frequently ventured outside to see them in action. It was only because of this that Ha-Ya-To thought it was almost on par with Flight Training in terms of interest, although the current weather had prevented the class from demonstrations today.
A thick layer of clouds had settled over the Fortress that morning, slowly darkening to a leaden colour. The first drops of rain had started falling at the beginning of Ha-Ya-To's lecture, and had slowly built up into a torrential downpour, hitting the windows of the room like bullets. As Ha-Ya-To sat staring at the outside world, he noticed a group of pilots in the training ground deciding that enough was enough, abandoning their lesson and running for cover before they got soaked to the bone. One figure simply walked away from the training ground with his hands in his pockets, seeming unaware that it was even raining. Ha-Ya-To recognised his messy green hair, and from what he had seen of that pilot it wouldn't be surprising if he was only pissed off at having to stop training so soon.
"- excellent back-up weapons in the event of a weapons drain during battle. They're also equipped with enhanced motion and energy sensors to pinpoint and destroy specific robot components."
Ha-Ya-To had only been half listening for the entire lecture, thinking of how he would get to pilot the Gate Defender later that day. He had simply given up paying attention when the heavy rain alerted him to the fact that flying was out of the question and had resorted to staring out of the window. But now even his distraction of the training team had left him.
"Now, I'd like you to make some notes about which robot battle machines this weapon would be most effective against. Feel free to discuss with those around you, and maybe next time we can have a demonstration of how to aim and fire it."
A low murmur spread out across the class as they were given permission to talk, and for the first time that hour, Ha-Ya-To realised he had no idea what was going on. He turned in hope to the teenager sat next to him, another flying pilot in a white jumpsuit that he had heard people call Hikaru, who was far from social if the stories of the other pilots were anything to go by. As Ha-Ya-To lightly tapped his shoulder, a pair of blue eyes gave him an icy look before turning back to their own work.
"Hey, you don't even know what I was going to say!" Ha-Ya-To leaned in to speak to Hikaru, afraid of attracting the attention of the teacher by being too loud; he had been told regularly that it was something he had to work on.
"And I don't care. It's not my fault you haven't been listening." he practically hissed back, not even bothering to take his eyes off his pen and paper again to look at Ha-Ya-To.
Taken aback, Ha-Ya-To wondered if it had been that obvious that he was zoned out, but decided against it as the teacher hadn't shouted his name, and demanded he took up the graveyard shift guard duty that night. But it could be worse. Another common punishment was to help the inexperienced recruits in target practice.
Ha-Ya-To tried again with Hikaru. "Please, I just want an answer to one question. Then I'll stop bugging you." He gave his friendliest smile as the other teen lifted his head, which seemed to be the wrong move as Hikaru curled his lip and once again went back to his own work. Ha-Ya-To sighed, thinking that it was impossible for someone to be that mean all the time, before he heard Hikaru speak.
"What is it?" he said, almost reluctantly as if he was expecting a question on the same level as 'what colour is the sky?'.
"Erm, what weapon was the teacher talking about? I guess I heard some of it, but-"
"Stop. You said one question, not some stupid explanation of why you weren't doing what you should have been. He was talking about the laser rifle."
Ha-Ya-To muttered a thank you, no longer wanting to speak to someone who was being so rude, and got on the best he could at making his own notes for the remainder of the lesson.
That evening when Ha-Ya-To made it to the canteen, he found one of his friends already sat at one of the tables, and decided to ask him if he knew anything about Hikaru. And by ask, Ha-Ya-To meant walking over with his tray of food, slamming it down on the table, and saying in his most exasperated voice "You won't believe who I spoke to in Weapons Tech today!"
Ryo jumped at the sudden appearance of Ha-Ya-To, but gave a soft smile when he noticed the pilot grinning and bouncing in his seat, obviously having something to talk about. This friendship was proof enough of how Ha-Ya-To's open personality and enthusiasm was hard to dislike, as Ryo had stated on multiple occasions how he would give up all human contact if it mean he could be in his workshop for the rest of his life. But now when either of the two had a break, it was uncommon to see them apart; surely when even the head tech of Exo-Force couldn't be annoyed by Ha-Ya-To, there had to be a big problem with anyone who was.
"That guy Hikaru, the one who has the bright blue hair!" Ha-Ya-To answered before Ryo had time to reply, or even say hello. "I asked him a simple question, and he got super annoyed at me for like no reason, I was only trying to be nice to him but he seemed to get more bothered the nicer I tried to be. So I eventually gave up, and it put me in such a bad mood. Oh, until I got to the virtual flight training! I completely forgot we had that here, I was already kind of sad I couldn't go flying today because of the rain, which was so loud you must have heard it from your lab, right?"
Ryo listen to his friend intently, but tried to repress a sigh as Ha-Ya-To slowly moved away from the point of the conversation. It wasn't deliberate, but there seemed to be no filter between Ha-Ya-To's brain and mouth, and he often gave his thoughts as soon as they entered his head. Ha-Ya-To took a deep breath, probably intending to begin speaking about something completely different, but Ryo quickly interjected and said
"Yes, I've heard on numerous occasions that he's not easy to get along with. Maybe what you asked was what annoyed him."
Ha-Ya-To admitted that he hadn't been paying full attention during the lesson, which Ryo scolded him for, but when he repeated his original question to Ryo, both boys sat in silence in thought.
"There was something I heard about Hikaru, from one of my tech assistants." Ryo spoke slowly, not wanting to sound overly confident about the information. "It might just be gossip; Hitomi likes that sort of thing. She says in a job dominated by men, hearing about their potential weaknesses makes it more bearable, but she doesn't intend to be malicious about it."
The tech smiled to himself, realising he was straying from the topic, and that Ha-Ya-To's habit was influential. "Anyway, she said he lived in one of the towns that was destroyed in the first robot rebellion, and that his parents passed away during it. Hitomi is Sensei Keiken's granddaughter, so she might have seen his files for whatever reason."
"Sounds like it could be true." Ha-Ya-To replied in a slightly softer voice, which Ryo didn't pick up on. The pilot started half-heartedly poking the food on his plate, but tried to make his voice sound perkier when asking Ryo about his day. He didn't mention Hikaru for the rest of the night.
As Hikaru was also a flight pilot, Ha-Ya-To knew he had close to the same timetable as the blue haired teen. At the end of Military History, Ha-Ya-To had a free hour, and as soon as the lesson ended he jogged after Hikaru who had left the classroom as quickly as he could. When Ha-Ya-To was sure they were alone in a more deserted part of the grounds, he reached out his hand to tap Hikaru on the shoulder as he had done the previous day, but the pilot in front of him whirled around before he had a chance.
"Why are you following me?" Hikaru demanded, frowning at the younger boy.
"Uh, I just…" Ha-Ya-To stammered, he hadn't really thought this through. "I just wanted to know why you were so angry yesterday. I get that I should have been paying attention and everything, but you were kind of over the top, y'know." He nervously rubbed the back of his head with his hand.
Hikaru rolled his eyes, deciding that this would probably be a waste of his time. "I just don't like people like you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ha-Ya-To pouted, not used to such bluntness.
"It means we're in the middle of a war here, and you need to start taking things seriously, not everyone joined for the fun of it. And even if we weren't, I can't stand people who are so hyper and happy like ignorant little kids." Hikaru snapped.
"What makes you think I joined for fun?" Ha-Ya-To was beginning to get irritated again. He only wanted to know why Hikaru was normally bad-tempered, not be insulted by him. "I'm pretty sure I joined Exo-Force for the same reason you did." Ha-Ya-To took a shot in the dark, hoping that Hitomi had told Ryo the truth.
Hikaru's eye twitched furiously, and he balled his hands into fists as he shouted back at Ha-Ya-To "Don't you dare assume you know why I signed up for this!"
"Family, right?" Please Hitomi, please be right. "Your family was killed by robots and you joined to stop it happening to anyone else, you want to protect people, protect Japan."
Ha-Ya-To raised his hands in front of him to show he just wanted to talk as Hikaru took a step towards him, his face contorting with anger. Ha-Ya-To took that as a confirmation on what he had said. "Well, me too. I lived in one of the industrial villages that were the first to go. Mum, dad, older brother, all killed. I managed to save some of my belongings when they let civilians return. After the second rebellion… you can't even tell my house was ever there. I've got almost nothing to remember them by." Ha-Ya-To rambled on, realising he was close to crying at this point. He never liked talking about his past to anyone, even Sensei when he had been recruited, or his closest friend Ryo; but as normal he just couldn't stop himself from talking.
Hikaru relaxed slightly, and felt guilty that he had practically made the happiest person he had ever met start whimpering like a kicked puppy. He had just thought that Ha-Ya-To had jumped into the Exo-Force as now it was the biggest source of employment on the mountain and didn't understand what kind of work it was, because no one else in the Fortress was exactly enthusiastic after their homes were destroyed.
"I get that you might have been like this before" Ha-Ya-To said in a wavering voice, "but you can't let that ruin the rest of your life. Of course you're not gonna forget it, who could? But that doesn't stop you from making friends where you can, so they can support you through stuff like that." Ha-Ya-To breathed in calmly, slowly wiping away the tears that had clouded his vision, he hated that this was the only topic that made him so emotional. "I just thought you would want someone to say that to you. I wished someone told me that it would get better."
It was true that Hikaru's pushing people away had been related to the loss of his family, but he had never been fantastically social before that. He used to have a few close friends, but after his parents died that night he refused to let any of them help, growing annoyed when they didn't understand why he wanted to distance himself. Even his best friend, Takeshi, had been pushed away despite how he tried to help, although he soon had problems of his own to deal with and left Hikaru behind. It was only after he was truly alone that Hikaru regretted his decisions, but decided distancing himself would be easier than going through the same loss again in the future.
Now, Hikaru had no idea how to properly comfort Ha-Ya-To even though he seemed to have gone through the same thing. He was determined to apologise, but after a flare of irrational jealousy that Ha-Ya-To had been able to handle the death of his family, Hikaru decided to mutter "Whatever" before walking away. He didn't feel like talking to someone he barely knew about something that was so important to him.
Ha-Ya-To was left standing on his own in the training grounds, trying to regain his composure before he returned to his dorm for the rest of the hour.
That evening Ha-Ya-To tried again to hide his emotions from Ryo, thinking that his attempt at speaking to Hikaru had been pointless, and had just spilled out his past and become upset for nothing. However, just as they were starting to leave, another figure approached them. The two boys looked up to see Hikaru give a small, forced smile.
"Uh, I was wondering if we could talk."
[A/N – So… I've never written anything with emotions in it so if it seems weird it's because it probably is. Ha-Ya-To's meant to be someone who is genuinely happy but there's one or two things that'll make him upset.
Some of the information is from the Exo-Force Collector's Guide book: the description of the rifle, the 'lesson' names, Ha-Ya-To's family dying and him not mentioning it (although not what family members he had, that was me). It doesn't mention Hikaru's or Ryo's family which I would have liked. But yeah, credit to Lego for the book stuff.
Even though to join the military you have to be 18, this is a special circumstance with the whole robot thing, right? So Ha-Ya-To, Hitomi and Ryo are 17 and the other two are 18, and all age a year by the time they're in the Golden City.
This takes place before Ryo's Lab as a lot of friendships/locations are different and Hikaru is mean (on his best day I'd still rate Hikaru a 4/10 sarcastic or mean person, Takeshi is a 6). I wanted to write something about the others seeing as the last one was basically Takeshi ft. Ryo.
Feel free to be critical of this, I'm here to improve! This was a super long A/N wow… ]