Notes: uhhhh so I definitely didn't MEAN for there to be a two-year gap between chapter updates. After a few months without updating, though, I thought that hey, maybe I should just wait a little bit longer until the next sports festival, so I would have some more first-hand experience to write this chapter off of?
Then, for SOME funny reason, basically all school events were cancelled for like a year and a half! How about that...
Anyway. Still haven't had a second proper sports festival, but whatever, I'll just write this chapter anyway.
Posting this for day 3 of Kuzuhina Week 2021 for the theme of Patience! Because patience is what you need to have waited for this chap— I mean. It's what you need when you're a teacher. Yeah, that.
(There's also a side of the theme for Day 2, Envy. teehee.)
Also... this was supposed to be the final chapter but it's getting too long and I need to focus on my other writing projects for Kuzuhina Week so SURPRISE! This thing will have four chapters. (I promise it won't be another two-year wait for the next one.)
Desires Like Fireflies
Chapter 3
"Hinata-sensei, do you have someone you like?"
The chalk slipped from Hinata's fingers and shattered to pieces on the hardwood floor, but the sound was masked by seven fourth-grade girls cooing loudly in unison (and one Kaito making a valiant attempt at opposing the noise with a very loud "YUCK!").
Hinata sighed and took a new piece of chalk; it wasn't entirely unheard of to get similarly irrelevant questions in the middle of class, but usually they didn't come from one of his most well-behaved students. "That's not a question about moral education, Sayaka," he said, wagging the chalk sternly before turning back to the blackboard.
"No, but I feel like it's a question that you should be asked right now."
Hinata didn't dignify that with a response, frowning determinedly at the trail of chalk dust drifting downward as he continued drawing the word map on the board. How was she so perceptive? "So, continuing, we—"
"But you didn't answer the question!" Aoi called out.
"Was it a question related to the lesson?"
"No, just tell us who you like!"
"I like all of you."
"Ew, gross," Junko said, and Hinata caught sight of her curling her lip in disgust.
"He's dodging the question!" Ibuki yelled, slamming her hands against her desk. "Haji-sen totally has a crush!"
Hinata finally turned around to pin her with a firm glare. "Don't do that to the desk."
"Just tell us, Haji-sen!" Miu shouted, joining Ibuki in the desk-slamming. "Who do you wanna do it with?!"
He nearly choked on air. "That— that's not an appropriate question. Now stop doing that."
The girls persisted in their ruckus, and just as Hinata was about to stride over to confiscate their desks entirely, the classroom door slammed open to reveal Kuzuryu, clear annoyance reflected in his golden eyes.
"Hey, you brats," he spat, kicking at the door for good measure. "Do you see Akamatsu-sensei in here? Is it sports festival drum practice time?"
Startled by the unexpected disruption, the entire class slowly shook their heads.
"That's what I thought. Now shut the hell up and let us teach!"
Just as abruptly as he had appeared, Kuzuryu slammed the door shut again and disappeared from view.
That had been enough to shock the girls back into compliance, and Hinata cleared his throat, trying to ignore the fluttering of his heart.
"Well," he said, "let's get back to the lesson now."
Hinata wasn't ignorant, though. He could recognize the signs, and he certainly hadn't needed a gang of nine-year-old kids to point them out to him.
He was undeniably harboring a crush on Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu.
He sighed as he swept along the second-floor hallway, leaning all his weight against the long handle of the teachers' mop. In all his part-time jobs throughout college, he had never been particularly interested in a coworker before, but pursuing a workplace romance just really didn't seem like a good idea. It was probably for the best if he convinced himself that the feeling would pass and ignore it.
But could he do that? It wasn't like he could avoid interacting with Kuzuryu at school, and as they became friendlier as colleagues it was probably inevitable that Hinata's more-than-friendly feelings would grow as well. Trying to convince himself that he was feeling something he wasn't didn't exactly appeal to him, either. So what was he—
He was jostled from his thoughts by a sudden impact that caused the too-loose mop head to swivel and twist around the other teachers' mop that he had collided with.
"Hey, watch where you're going."
"Uh, sorry." Hinata didn't need to look up to identify the only other teacher assigned to clean that corridor. He tried shaking the mop free, but it was uncooperative, only becoming more tangled, so he knelt down to undo it by hand. "I, uh... I swear I didn't do that on purpose."
"Why would I think you did it on purpose?"
The puzzled yet amused lilt to Kuzuryu's voice had Hinata's face burning, and he focused on freeing their mops as quickly as possible, finally scooting back and standing up once he had succeeded. "Sorry, I just... wasn't paying attention, obviously," he mumbled, still unable to meet Kuzuryu's gaze. "I'll circle back to my half of the hall now."
Before he could do just that, though, Kuzuryu's hand shot out and grabbed his mop handle to tug him close.
"Listen," he whispered, and Hinata had no choice but to look him in the eyes now. "It's normal to worry about stuff, but try not to show it in front of the kids, got it? They're like vultures, and once they've got something on you, they'll never let it go."
Heart pounding at the base of his throat and feeling like he might suffocate from their proximity, Hinata hastily nodded his understanding, but Kuzuryu kept hold of the handle, only pushing Hinata back to a more respectable arm's-length distance.
Kuzuryu certainly seemed to want to say something more, his brows furrowing and eyes searching Hinata's face, but just as he opened his mouth to speak he dropped his grip and whipped his head around. "Hey! Don't think I don't see that, Hiyoko!"
The small third-grader abruptly stopped redistributing piles of dust into hidden corners and cocked her head innocently, blonde pigtails bobbing as she idly swung her broom and unused dustpan. "Whaaat? I'm not doing anything!"
"Yeah, that's exactly the problem!" Kuzuryu glanced back at Hinata just long enough to shoot him an apologetic grin before heading over to properly reprimand his student.
Hinata watched after him for a moment before turning around and heading back down his half of the hallway. He had no idea why Kuzuryu had held on to him for so long, or what he had wanted to say in addition, but as always, he had a point. Grade-school kids shouldn't worry themselves with adult problems, so Hinata really shouldn't be giving them any openings to catch on.
His job was to offer a fun, safe learning environment where they could develop as healthy children.
Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Hinata turned back towards his half of the corridor and resumed sweeping. Whatever thoughts and worries he had to mull over could wait until he was on his own time.
With all the preparations of two major upcoming school events, though, Hinata's "own time" was woefully scarce. The idea of his budding feelings for Kuzuryu was ever-present, like a light, gentle haze sitting upon his shoulders, but he just didn't have the opportunity to sort it through when he spent late evenings grading papers and preparing for festivities at school, only having enough time to feed and bathe himself before collapsing into bed somewhere around 11 PM.
Before he knew it, he was pulling into school on a Saturday, and his intentions still weren't any clearer than the early-morning fog hovering above the brightly-decorated track field.
Idly wondering if he would ever get the chance to work things through, Hinata made his way into the school.
"Hey, nice shirt," Kuzuryu commented as Hinata entered the staff room and set his bag down by his desk.
Hinata's heart stuttered at what it perceived as a compliment, though his logical mind recognized it for the joke it was—every faculty member was wearing the same lime green abomination of a polo shirt. Still, he laughed and responded, "Yeah, same to you. I'm looking forward to today, though. Haven't been to a sports festival since I was in high school."
Kuzuryu grunted his acknowledgment as he skimmed the last-minute notes Kirigiri had left on their desks. "It's pretty cute, when you get the chance to just sit back and watch the kids. I'm looking forward to seeing how many times Makoto needs to go to the nurse's station this year."
"Oh, don't say that."
"Last year was four band-aids and two ice packs."
Hinata grimaced. Try as he might, he couldn't deny the small boy's propensity for unlucky scrapes and bruises.
"Anyway," Kuzuryu said, setting down the page of notes, "we have about an hour before the kids start to arrive, and maybe an hour and a half after that until the parents start trickling in. Better get started on the last of the set-up."
Most of the sports festival setup had been finalized the day before—the announcement dais was out and ready, the basic structure for the participant tent, sans canvas covering, was already set up, and colorful flags had been strung all across the perimeter of the field. Most of what was missing was anything that could have been blown away or damaged during the night—chairs, electrical equipment, and the like. So, until the students would arrive and their attention would be focused elsewhere, Kuzuryu and Hinata got to work alongside Koizumi and Harukawa lugging folding chairs out of storage and setting them up for participants and spectators. Hinata quickly realized that, as one of the taller members of faculty, he was better suited to helping Nidai and Amami with draping and securing the canvas coverings over the tent structures, so he left the chairs to Kuzuryu and the lower-grade teachers for the time being.
He was just about finishing up tying down the last of the canvas when an exchange being yelled across half the field caught his attention.
"Kuzuryu-sensei!" Kirigiri called from where she was doing some last-minute sweeping and other tidying up cleaning near the school gates. "It looks like you have a visitor!"
Curious, Hinata looked in that direction and, blinking the sweat from his eyes, was able to make out what seemed to be a silver-haired woman being let through the gate.
"What the hell," he heard Kuzuryu mutter, and he turned around in time to see the blond man setting down the two chairs he was holding to cup his hands around his mouth and shout towards the gate. "What is it?! Did I forget something at home?!"
The canvas ties slipped from Hinata's fingers, and though he would have loved to have convinced himself it was due to sweat, he knew better than that. "Home"... that seemed to imply a home that he Kuzuryu shared with this woman, right?
Oh god. Was Hinata attracted to a married man?!
"You didn't forget anything," the woman clarified once she had come close enough to not have to yell—and at this distance, Hinata could see that she didn't appear to be wearing a wedding ring. Kuzuryu's lack of one could have been reasoned away as just a defensive measure against Kokichi Oma, but if the woman wasn't wearing one either, then did that mean they weren't married? A live-in girlfriend, then? "But I know you have a small staff here, so I thought I could come to help..."
Kuzuryu huffed as he went back to placing chairs. "I told you, Peko, we're fine. You didn't have to come this early—hell, you didn't even have to come at all—"
"But Fuyuhiko—"
Hinata pulled the last canvas knot perhaps a bit tighter than was absolutely necessary. First-name basis... first-name basis...
"I think it's fine to have an extra set of hands to help out," Koizumi cut in easily after setting out her latest batch of chairs. "Pekoyama-san, how about you check if anyone's brought out the extension cords from the broadcasting room yet?"
The woman—Pekoyama, apparently—agreed, bowing slightly, then slipped towards the school building. As she passed, her crimson, bespectacled gaze caught Hinata's for the briefest of moments, a quick, assessing glance.
Hinata tried his very best not to glower at her in response—that certainly wouldn't be fair. Instead, he busied himself with adjusting the placement of the tent's steel support leg that was closest to him—a completely unnecessary action that did nothing but keep himself occupied as he struggled to fight down the ugly feelings bubbling in his chest.
He didn't know why he hadn't even considered the possibility that Kuzuryu might already be in a relationship. He was a great guy—of course he'd be taken already. It was so, so obvious.
All things considered, once the students began to arrive Hinata was all too happy to pull himself away from those thoughts and busy himself with his kids. By that point he had become somewhat of a pro at concealing his turmoil, and it was a relief to force himself to focus on something else.
Still, the moment that Sayaka entered the classroom, before even stashing her backpack away, she took one look at her homeroom teacher and paused in her tracks. With a thoughtful tilt of her head, and not a single word, she took his hand in hers and patted it comfortingly.
The morning events of the sports festival, once it had officially begun, seemed to pass in a blur of sports equipment, marathon tape, and reward stickers. There were moments that stood out, of course, when time seemed to slow down for just long enough for something a bit more out of the ordinary.
Every once and in a while, Hinata would be flagged down by a parent or guardian eager to meet the new homeroom teacher, and he would engage in brief small talk before promising to introduce himself more formally during house visits the following month. Then there was the moment during the third- and fourth-grade marathon when both classes spontaneously decided that it would be much more interesting to turn it into a treasure hunt for Gonta's missing shoes instead—both Hinata and Kuzuryu had had to physically drag their students back on track, literally. Out of the two grades, only the Asahina siblings had come anywhere close to their personal best times. And, of course, there was Hinata's never-ending struggle to convince Byakuya and Taeko to please, please get out of the shade and participate in the events they had signed up for.
By the time Hinata had a moment to slow down and rest, it was the last event before breaking for lunch. Out of breath and with sweat streaming down his brow, he collapsed into his chair next to Kuzuryu, finally getting a chance to relish in the shade.
"Nice job out there." Kuzuryu waggled a bottle of barley tea in front of Hinata's nose, which he eagerly accepted and uncapped, taking a large gulp. It was a bit lukewarm after sitting out in the heat, but still plenty refreshing. "You see now how things can get pretty crazy, huh?"
Hinata sighed as he pulled the tea away. "I remember thinking the sports festival was a lot of fun when I was their age," he said, watching as Nidai began directing the kids to begin the scavenger hunt relay. "Now I'm worried that I just caused tons of problems for my teachers."
"Oh, you definitely did," Kuzuryu said, grinning. "But I wouldn't worry about it. That's how kids are supposed to be. I think we're about to get band-aid number three, by the way."
Hinata looked where Kuzuryu was pointing and watched as Makoto, the first of the fourth-graders in the relay, flipped over the placard he had run to. He had barely even taken the time to read the text written on there before he turned, made to run in the other direction, and promptly tripped over his untied shoelaces.
Hinata grimaced as he watched his student faceplant, hard. "I told him to double-knot his laces," he groaned.
"Knowing him, he probably did, and they came untied anyway." The third-grade teacher whistled in awe when Makoto, ever the determined teammate, ignored his bleeding chin in favor of first finding the "person wearing glasses" indicated on his placard. "Is he trying to run to Byakuya?"
"Probably."
Kuzuryu snorted. "But Peko's right there on the sidelines! No need to go so far out of his way."
Hinata flinched, having blissfully forgotten about the woman on first-name basis with Kuzuryu. "Haha, yeah," he said hollowly. "The kid's just too single-minded when it comes to his friends, I guess."
They fell into silence as they continued to watch the relay—or Kuzuryu did, at least. Hinata found himself instead continually glancing back at his colleague, trying to make sense of his relationship with the silver-haired woman. His initial assumption, of course, had been that she was Kuzuryu's girlfriend—which was the logical assumption, right? He hadn't noticed them being particularly intimate with each other, but Kuzuryu was at work, so of course he had other things to worry about. At the very least, they seemed to be close—and they lived together, apparently.
Hinata ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Maybe the best option would be to just ask Kuzuryu about their relationship. But would that be out of line? It wasn't any of his business, was it?
It wouldn't hurt to just ask, would it?
He sighed. "Hey, Kuzuryu?"
"Yeah?" The shorter man didn't look away from the scavenger hunt.
"Can I ask you a question?"
This time, Kuzuryu did look his way, golden eyes glinting in the midday sun. "Sure. What's up?"
Hinata hesitated; there was something in Kuzuryu's gaze, something almost expectant, that made him feel like he should be losing his nerve. Trying to calm the beating of his heart, he pushed the apprehension aside and powered through. "Are you—"
"Haji-sen!"
Hinata groaned at the nickname, but Kuzuryu couldn't hold back a laugh.
"Looks like you're up," he said, glancing at the tanned girl running over, waving a placard that read "fourth-grade homeroom teacher." "Even Aoi's calling you that, now?"
"All of them are calling me that," Hinata groused as he stood up, preparing to start running as soon as she reached him. "Nagito was the last holdout, and only because everyone else picked it up while he was suspended."
Kuzuryu grinned. "Good luck with all that, then."
"Gee, thanks."
"Haji-sen, come on!" Aoi urged, stopping on a dime at his side for just long enough to grab his hand and take off again. "I've gotta make up the time Byakuya took by dragging his feet, so let's move!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" he laughed, only struggling a little to match her pace with his longer legs. He was going to be sweating all over again when it was over, but he hoped that Kuzuryu would be waiting with another barley tea.