A/n: Haha look at me finally finishing the Valentines themed oneshot I started writing in February. While July isn't the most suitable month for this theme, any month is good enough for any TyHil right? So this is set sometime in between V-force and G-revolution, it's totally possible that my recent rewatch is what inspired me to pick this one up again and finish it.
A little note: In Japan, on Valentines Day, it's usually customary for only girls to gives chocolates, and they have two types of these, honne or chocolates with real feelings and giri or obligatory chocolates. The latter is usually given to male colleagues and friends or family members to thank them for their friendship and such. And the former is reserved for people one has romantic feelings for.
Tale 14
- x -
The fragrance reached her nostrils even before she opened the door, and the strong smell of cocoa mixed with something sweet startled Mrs. Tachibana enough to rush straight into the kitchen without even announcing her return. It was not unusual for her daughter to experiment with their dinner, which usually led to them ordering take out, but after a tiring and hectic Friday at work, the last thing she wanted to eat for dinner was whatever chocolaty concoction her daughter was currently cooking up.
"Hilary, I'm ho-"
Mrs. Tachibana stopped in her tracks and her mouth fell wide open at the sight of the state her kitchen was currently in. Every possible surface was covered with utensils that had chocolate batter remains clinging to them, the main counter itself was filled with chocolates in all shapes and sizes and she soon lost count of the number of trays resting on the counter, and it seemed as if her daughter had made chocolates for the entire neighbourhood. The stove still had a saucepan filled with chocolate boiling and bubbling in it, the sound of which was the only source of noise in the kitchen as Hilary stood silently right in the centre of the chaos with her arms folded and her pink apron covered with cocoa stains. Her eyes remained fixed on something on the countertop that was hidden from Mrs. Tachibana's view, with a burning determination that didn't waver despite her mother's sudden appearance into the kitchen.
"Hilary, I'm home." Mrs. Tachibana spoke up again, after clearing her throat loudly to catch her daughter's attention.
"Welcome back, Mom. Dinner's in the fridge." Hilary replied without moving, completely unfazed by her presence as she continued her deadly staring contest with the countertop.
It was relieving to know that nothing that currently occupied every corner of the kitchen was in fact meant to be her dinner, but her daughter's peculiar behaviour was still Mrs. Tachibana's priority at the moment.
"What is all this sweetheart?" She asked as straightforwardly as she could, and hoped that it wouldn't irk Hilary enough to pull back from the conversation and not allow Mrs. Tachibana the chance to help solve her problem.
"Valentines' chocolates for all my friends." Came the reply, in the same flat tone as before, her expression still unchanged.
That explains the quantity, Mrs. Tachibana thought to herself, as her daughter did have an awful number of friends scattered all across the globe, most of them being boys which, even after all these years, remained a touchy subject for her husband. Reaching out towards the tray nearest to her, she picked up a piece that was shaped like a puppy's face and put it in her mouth. She felt the heavy bitter taste of coffee and immediately concluded that Hilary had forgotten to put sugar in this particular batch, while it did suit her personal preference for bitter chocolate she wondered if teenage boys would enjoy it as much as she did.
"Oh those would be a bit bitter, they're for Kai. He doesn't like chocolates that are too sweet." Hilary spoke up automatically, even though Mrs. Tachibana was sure that her daughter's eyes hadn't moved from the spot at the countertop for even a second.
"If it was meant to be bitter, then you did a great job Hils. These taste amazing." Mrs. Tachibana remarked with a smile, but even the obvious compliment did not seem to catch Hilary's attention and she sighed in defeat, looking for a chair that wasn't covered with ingredient boxes or dirty utensils, she settled herself down for something she now knew would turn out to be a long conversation. She debated whether she should just pull out her share of the dinner from the fridge before diving into whatever was bothering Hilary, as she did so, her eyes fell on the trashcan not too far from her, and she realised just how long it must've taken for Hilary to yield good results, once she saw the bin filled to the brim with failed batches.
She knew her daughter was not a bad cook, but she wasn't particularly a skilled one either. Hilary had a tendency to either completely play by the book or not refer to it at all, and somehow neither seemed to work for her when it came to cooking. She herself had always taught Hilary that one needed to rely slightly on intuition and slightly on the wants of the person while cooking but this life lesson was always met with disapproving and disgruntled stares. The state of the kitchen and the trashcans told Mrs. Tachibana quiet clearly that her daughter had spent a lot of time switching between following the recipes to the dot and completely winging the process, to finally manage to produce the results she had wanted. Yet something had gone wrong and totally stumped her into the angrily determined state she was in right now.
"I'm not sure what you're so worried about honey, the chocolate did taste really good," Mrs. Tachibana attempted to get her attention through praise once again, and this time it worked.
"It's not about the taste Mom, it's just...kind of difficult to explain." Hilary looked up at her finally, letting her hands dropped to her side as she relaxed her posture and sighed tiredly.
Exactly the reply she had been expecting, Mrs. Tachibana studied the chocolate trays in front of her a bit more closely. The puppy shaped ones were for Kai, as Hilary had explained, but there were other animal shaped pieces present too. The monkey shaped ones were probably meant for Daichi she assumed letting out a small chuckle, and then there was another tray filled with turtle and star shaped pieces, which must be for Max, and the tray next to it had dumpling shaped pieces which had to be for Rei. Mrs. Tachibana couldn't help but smile widely, even though these were just supposed to be obligatory chocolates, Hilary had still poured all her appreciation for it's recipients and made every batch unique for each of them. No wonder they tasted so good, she mused, her daughter had finally managed to understand what she needed to pay attention to most for being able to cook well.
"You've got some interesting shapes here." Mrs. Tachibana directed her smile at her daughter, who perked up at her words and returned the smile.
"Oh do you see that one," Hilary pointed at one of the trays further down, "Initially I thought I'd make laptop shaped ones for Chief, but that didn't work out so well so I made them glasses shaped instead and look how cute they look!"
"They do look very cute!"Mrs. Tachibana nodded in agreement, feeling a bit relived by her daughter's energetic reactions, at least she was in the mood to talk now.
"And I even flavoured them all differently, the ones for Kai have coffee essence in it while Max's have marshmallow fillings!" Hilary stated proudly, and Mrs. Tachibana passed her an impressed look which only made her beam even more brightly. She enthusiastically went on to explain the other chocolates she had prepared, and Mrs. Tachibana patiently listened, her daughter's strange behaviour and "difficult" problem becoming painstakingly clear with every passing moment.
Finally, Hilary paused to breathe and Mrs. Tachibana saw this as her chance to jump in.
"So which one of these are meant for Tyson?"
Hilary's face immediately turned red, the happy smile on her face was replaced by an annoyed frowned and she folded her arms across her chest defensively before huffing a reply, "You know how Tyson is, he manages to find fault in everything I do, so I didn't make any for him."
A blatant lie, Mrs. Tachibana had to hold herself back from rolling her eyes, maintaining the smile on her face she asked, "You don't think he will be upset if you give chocolates to everyone except him?"
Hilary pursed her lips tightly, looking away from her mother she replied in a feeble voice, "I won't hand these over to the others when he's around…"
"I wonder how you'll manage to do that, seeing as tomorrow is a Saturday and he will definitely be around his own house." She raised an amused eyebrow at her daughter, who was now fidgeting with her apron and her hair, her face was scrunched up in concentration as she tried to come up with another convincing lie. Mrs. Tachibana shook her head lightly at the sight and chuckled softly again, "Hils, you know I can tell when you're lying right?"
Hilary turned to face her and when their eyes met, Mrs. Tachibana shifted her gaze towards whatever her daughter had been staring at before she had arrived and the effect was immediate, Hilary leapt forward and grabbed an empty tray, covering whatever lay in front of her quickly as her ears turned a bright shade of red.
"So you did make something for Tyson." Mrs. Tachibana stated coolly and Hilary squirmed under her gaze.
"Well, yes. Sort of. I mean, I don't know what I should do Mom!" She cried out, covering her face with her hands, she finally moved away from her spot behind the counter.
Mrs. Tachibana leapt forward and picked up the tray and put it aside, and was able to get a good look at what was putting her daughter in such a peril. The chocolates laid out on this tray were heart shaped and topped with sprinkles, which were red and blue in colour, just like they Beyblading Champion's trademark cap. She wanted to giggle at how adorable the chocolates looked but knew that Hilary wouldn't appreciate it right now so she settled back in her chair and smiled in her daughter's direction.
"The chocolates look lovely Hilary, but I don't suppose they're meant to be obligatory?"
"They were supposed to be obligatory, but I don't know what came over me and somehow I ended up with this. And now it's too late to redo it and I'm so tired." Hilary exclaimed, letting her hands slide down from her face, she faced her mother with a gloomy expression and Mrs. Tachibana felt a pang in her chest, she was going to fix this immediately.
"Why don't you want to hand these over?" She asked softly, gesturing towards the heart shaped chocolates.
Hilary didn't answer her straightaway, she turned her gaze downwards and at first the gloominess on her face deepened but when she looked up and faced her mother again, she had a calculative glint in her eyes as she replied, "I thought about this very carefully Mom, there are two things that can happen," She paused, either to take in a breath or just for dramatic effect, Mrs. Tachibana couldn't tell but she did lean in attentively to show interest and Hilary promptly continued.
"First, and my preferred choice, is that he's his usual dense self and doesn't understand what the chocolates mean and we can both just laugh it off and move on.
Second, and I definitely don't want this to happen, is that he somehow does understand why I'm giving him heart shaped chocolates on Valentines' day and refuses to accept them."
"Even if he doesn't feel the same way, there's no-"
"No, Mom! Don't you get it? If he doesn't feel the same way, I don't just lose him and his friendship, I lose everyone else too! Do you really think the others would pick me over Tyson?"
The panic and distress visible on her daughter's face was enough to make Mrs. Tachibana hold her tongue and pick her next words very carefully. She wanted to help her daughter and for that she had to think from her perspective, she couldn't tell Hilary that in the long run, one Valentines mishap would not be remembered by anyone or that her true friends wouldn't take sides and completely abandon her if things fell apart between her and Tyson. What Hilary needed to hear right now was something that would help her reach a conclusion about her own feelings, and not a know-it-all reply.
"Hilary, I know it's a very difficult choice for you to make, but trust me," Mrs. Tachibana paused to look directly into her daughter's eyes, she saw fear mixed with confusion and somehow a tiny sliver of hope stuck between them, and she continued with a comforting smile, "now that you've gone ahead and put so much effort into making these, if you don't give these to Tyson, you will definitely come to regret it later."
The scene that greeted her at the Dojo the next morning was exactly what Hilary had imagined once she had woken up and noticed the snow covered streets outside her window. The boys had been put to work shovelling snow in the front yard, with the exception of Grandpa's favourites, Chief and Daichi, who were sitting and watching the other four work while they lazily sipped some warm tea. Her arrival granted the other four a chance to make an excuse and halt their work, and the boys immediately rushed inside for a much needed break, dragging Hilary along. At first Tyson, Max and Kai huddled around the heater without even a single glance in her direction, but before she could pass a chide remark at their actions, Rei swiftly appeared at her side with a warm cup of tea and made her forget about the other's brashness.
Once everyone was warm enough and snacks and tea were served for the rest of them as well, they gathered around, sitting down in a close circle and Hilary cleared her throat loudly to make sure she had everyone's attention.
"As I'm sure you already know," She started, pausing to shoot a hopeless look in Daichi's direction as he immediately scrunched up his nose in confusion, "that today is Valentines day. So as a token of my appreciation for our friendship, I made some chocolates for all of you!"
A wave of excitement and happy exclamations went around the circle as Hilary reached into her bag and started to lay out the perfectly wrapped boxes right in the centre. Each of the boxes had the names of it's recipients written in a big, loopy script and once she placed the fifth box down, she sat back and watched as the excitement from earlier vanished and a heavy tension filled the air as the boys finished counting the number of boxes and reading the name tags, realising quickly that it didn't match the number of team members currently in the room. Max was the first one to react as he looked up hopefully at Hilary, as if waiting for her to suddenly remember that she had one more gift to place, and when their eyes met she just smiled as sweetly as she could at him.
Despite the heater running at full speed, it felt like the temperature in the room had dropped several degrees. Hilary glanced at Rei and Chief who were sitting on her right, and wasn't surprised to find them fidgeting and avoiding making eye contact with either her or their teammate who was the source of the icy atmosphere surrounding the room. However, on her left Daichi completely incapable of reading the room, jumped forward and grabbed the box with his name on it, ripping it open without much care and patience, making Hilary roll her eyes.
"Oh yummy!" Daichi exclaimed popping two pieces at once in his mouth, he grinned at Hilary, "Didn't expect you to make something so delicious."
Before Hilary could open her mouth to retort, Max who was sitting next to Daichi lightly punched the top of his head, stating sternly, "You're supposed to say 'thank you', dummy."
Watching the youngest member of the team devour his box of chocolates gleefully seemed to have stirred something in the others, Max shifted himself slightly, turning his back to his best friend, literally and figuratively both, he reached out, picking up his own box and opening it with much more care than Daichi.
"Wow, Hilary did you put marshmallows in this?" Max looked at her, starry eyed and when she nodded in response, he passed her the most brightest smile, making her cheeks turn slightly pink.
On the other hand, Rei looked relieved by the fact that Max had taken the first step and he quickly followed the blond, picking up his gift with a sober look on his face as he still attempted to conceal his excitement for the World Champion's sake. Chief too moved forward as quietly as ever, having judged Rei and Max's actions as his own queue to take action, him and Rei opened their gifts simultaneously, letting out small, happy exclamations at the contents.
"Dumpling shaped chocolates, now I've seen everything. Thank you, Hilary!" Rei grinned at her.
"Yes, thank you so much Hilary! They look great and taste even better, you must've worked really hard." Chief remarked, nodding approvingly after tasting his own chocolates.
"I'm glad you like them," Hilary smiled in reply, hoping that her face did not actually show any signs of the smug triumph she was feeling inwardly with how everything was proceeding exactly as she had suspected it would.
And on that happy note she finally decided to sneak a look at Tyson, and was completely taken aback by the somewhat blank expression on his face. She had been expecting him to be annoyed, or even pouting childishly over being left out, but instead the look on his face was something she hadn't ever seen before and it made her heart drop straight to her stomach. She hadn't planned for him to actually get hurt, no, she'd assumed he'd be his usual bratty self and demand for his share of chocolates, and then the scales would be balanced because it would show that he wanted the gift from her as much as she wanted to give it to him. And the exchange would be followed by some light teasing from Max and Rei, which they would brush aside together, putting the whole thing to a smooth end, a funny memory to look back on in the future.
It was all supposed to happen exactly how she had imagined it so she hadn't prepared herself for Tyson to feel and look so heartbroken. She curled her fists in order to curb the guilty feeling that was about to swallow her whole, the happy chattering of the other boys was completely drowned out by the alarms ringing in her head, screaming at her for being so mean, so petty.
She needed to leave, she needed to be alone, she needed some space to tell herself that it wasn't her fault that she hadn't been able to predict Tyson's feelings correctly.
But for any of that to happen, there was one last obstacle that remained to be tackled.
There was still one box remaining untouched in the centre of the circle, Kai's.
She glanced at him and realised that he had been watching her quite carefully, with the usual unreadable look in his eyes. When their eyes met, Hilary somehow managed a smiled and gestured towards the box with his name. Kai's impassive expression remained unchanged, as he looked once at the box and then back at her, and then suddenly his eyes moved to the bag which was lying next to her feet. Her heartbeat quickened as he narrowed his eyes at her bag and Hilary couldn't help but panic over whether their Captain had been blessed with some sort of x-ray vision and was currently seeing through her whole plan. Kai circled back to meet her eyes, and his piercing stare was something that she could not keep, so she turned her gaze downwards, admitting defeat before Kai could even make a move.
Kai didn't, however, move forward to pick up his gift either. He was sitting between Max and Tyson, so even though from one side he was met with enthusiastic giggles and remarks over the taste of the chocolate, the radio silence from the other side is what was keeping him glued to his spot. Hilary could tell even without looking at him, that he would much rather prefer shovelling the snow out in the cold than face this situation. Despite of his stoic outward appearance, Kai did have a soft spot for his teammates, and right now he was stuck between choosing to not hurt Hilary's or Tyson's feelings, which was the sort of dilemma that never had a correct answer.
"Thank you for the chocolates, Hilary." Kai stated in his usual low tone, but he did not move from his seat next to Tyson.
So he had chosen the middle ground, acknowledging Hilary's gesture but not completely accepting it in front of Tyson either. If only Hilary could think as fast as their Captain in times of crises, she would be making progress on fixing things with Tyson rather than looking for a way to escape from the situation.
It was too late now anyway, too late to pull the last box out of her bag and pretend that it had all been a prank, she had missed the perfect window to play it off as a joke. Now anything she did would in turn be scrutinized and put under the spotlight, which is what she had wanted to avoid right from the beginning.
"Well I wouldn't want Grandpa to think I'm keeping you guys from finishing up your chores, so I'll be on my way. See you on Monday!"
Her body moved on it's own, picking up her bag and hugging it close to her chest as she bowed slightly before quickly making her way out of the dojo. She didn't turn back even once and wasn't sure if the boys were perplexed by her actions or were happy that the awkward tension in the room would leave with her, she figured she was better off not knowing what they were thinking and besides, she couldn't bear to look at Tyson any longer.
At some point, her feet had picked up pace on their own and she found herself running through the snow laden streets as if her life depended on getting as far away from the Dojo as possible. What an odd sight it must be for the people around her, she thought, to see her sprint past them with her eyes shut and hands clutching tightly onto the bag by her side.
The embarrassing thought of being seen by someone she knew, finally pushed Hilary to regain her senses and halt in her tracks.
She opened her eyes and studied her surroundings as she tried to catch her breath, in her stupor she'd managed to cover half the distance back home, stopping short right before the slightly uphill stretch next to the open fields, that led to the residential area. She let out a loud, tired sigh as she rested her palms on her knees and waited for her breathing and even her heartbeat to return to normal, straightening up only when she felt completely calm again. With one last deep breath, Hilary decided that she was ready to put the terrible turn of events behind her and hoped that there would be no consequences for her actions in the future.
"What about me?!"
Hilary jumped up in surprise, she turned on her heels and came face to face with an extremely red-faced Tyson, who just like her, was also struggling to catch his breath. But whether his face was red because he had just chased her halfway across the town, or because of the cold or because he was mad at her, was something she couldn't quite figure out yet.
"You didn't give any chocolates to me." Tyson stated loudly again in a demanding tone, as if she hadn't understood what he had meant the first time.
He stood a few paces away from her, his hands balled into fists at his side with a seething glare settled on his face in an attempt to cover the wounded look in his eyes. Up until now Hilary had been feeling confused and slightly guilty about her decision to intentionally exclude him, but Tyson's accusatory tone tickled at the emotions she had kept bottled up for a while now. Folding her arms across her chest, and meeting his gaze with an icy glare of her own, she marched up to him, completely satisfied with how he winced and took a step back when she stopped a few inches away from him.
"You do know that those were obligatory chocolates, right? That I made them to show my appreciation for the kindness shown to me."
His glare faltered as he her words registered in his head, he opened his mouth to retort but shut it instantly. A contemplative look replaced the anger on his face as one hand reached out to scratch the back of his head, something Tyson only did when he wasn't feeling too confident about winning the argument.
"Okay, so maybe the others are nicer to you than I am." He admitted, his voice less louder and aggressive than before and Hilary was almost taken aback, it wasn't often that Tyson willingly admitted to his faults, and it was even rarer for him to do it in front of her. "But that doesn't mean we're not friends, I deserve the chocolates too!" He added indignantly, taking a confident step forward.
Under normal circumstances, the sudden lack of distance between them would have bothered Hilary, she might've even conceded the argument just to get away from Tyson and collect herself. However, the cockiness in his voice indicating that his behaviour towards her should have no consequence to how she sees him, that she should continue to dote on him despite of it, made her absolutely furious. Not just with him, but with herself too, because the irony of the situation was that she had gone ahead and done exactly that.
Just last week he had laughed at and refused to eat the lunch she had prepared for the team, even when the other members had politely taken one helping and given her vague compliments. Not only had she still made the chocolates for him, she'd poured all her effort and feelings into it, proving that Tyson's arrogance wasn't just a construct of his own over-confidence, she had an equal hand in building it up by always forgiving him, by always coddling him.
Hilary sighed deeply, letting her hands fall to her side as her shoulders slumped and she lowered her head in defeat. Her mother had told her that she would regret not giving him the chocolates more than anything but right now she felt that she would regret handing them over under the current atmosphere.
"You're such a self-centred idiot." She muttered, disappointed but not surprised by his words she turned away from him, there was no point in handing over something she had poured all her heart into to someone who only cared about proving a point. Hilary had known him long enough to know that when he sincerely felt bad about his behaviour, he wouldn't back down from apologising or owning up to it, but currently there was no regret visible in his words or actions.
Before she could take a step forward in her house's direction, she felt herself being pulled around again, as Tyson had grabbed her hand and forcibly turned her around to face him.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
Tyson murmured quietly as soon as they came face to face again, his grip around her wrist tightened as he pulled her even closer towards him the minute she rolled her eyes at his statement, she turned her gaze towards his hold on her hand, frowning as she felt her wrist ache slightly under his grasp. She wanted to look up and tell him off for being so rash with her, but Hilary knew that with the lack of distance between them, she wouldn't be able to keep his gaze without losing her collected demeanour and turning red from top to bottom.
"What I meant was, that if you still have any chocolates left, I'd like to have some..." Tyson spoke up again, a little louder this time with his tone somewhat sincere so when he paused, Hilary couldn't help but look up at him, surprised then by not just the earnestness in his voice but also the desperately pleading look on his face. Maybe it was not her that he wanted to prove something to, she thought, maybe he was attempting to prove something to himself. His pride and arrogance was, after all, a defensive wall built to keep people from noticing just how afraid he was of being left behind, abandoned even by the people he cared about and he was just trying to console himself that Hilary wouldn't become one of them.
When their eyes met, he added in a quiet whisper, "Please."
There were many things Hilary was capable of resisting, like an invitation to visit her favourite cafe after school instead of heading straight to cram school, or her favourite clothing brand having a special sale when she was running low on pocket money, or the temptation to take a towel and wipe the paint off Kai's face when they were in public, all in all she believed she had great control over her desires and impulses.
However, the look Tyson was giving her now, one of absolute longing as if all that mattered to him right now was being at the receiving end of her attention and care, one that said that Hilary would be hurting him terribly by withholding her gesture of kindness from him, was something she couldn't stand her own against, so she let out a loud sigh. Accepting her defeat, she nodded meekly at Tyson and gestured towards his hold on her, silently asking him to let go and he obliged immediately, triumph and excitement replacing all other sincere emotions in his cocoa eyes from earlier, as he beamed expectantly at her.
Hilary studied her wrist that had been under Tyson's grip until now, noticing the faint, red marks around her light skin and the slight numbness she felt around the area he had been holding, she turned to shoot an icy glare in the culprit's direction. Tyson just put up his hands defensively in response, expecting her to smack him, but when she just shook her head, he sighed relievedly and passed her a sheepish, apologetic smile.
She moved a few steps back, putting some much needed distance between them and confusing Tyson in the process. Of course he wouldn't understand the kind of position Hilary was now stuck in, since he had no idea that she'd meant to give him the chocolates right from the beginning, even if her plan didn't work out exactly as she had hoped it would, the first obstacle of getting Tyson to beg for the chocolates had been cleared. Which led her to the second obstacle, handing him the extremely obvious, heart-shaped chocolates while looking cool and collected and devoid of any expression that would point to her true feelings for him. It would've been easier to pull this off at the Dojo with the other boys present, their varying reactions would've kept her sane and Tyson distracted from realising any hidden meanings behind the gift. But doing it in the middle of an empty street, with just the two of them and the chilly February air keeping them company, was much more difficult than one would think.
Firstly, why did her cheeks feel so hot despite the cold weather, her whole face felt like she had just exited a sauna. Secondly, her heart was beating way too fast and way too loudly, she was sure that not only Tyson, but even the distant neighbourhood must be wondering where this drumming sound was coming from. Thirdly, her hands were trembling furiously as she reached inside her bag to pull the remaining wrapped box out, this was completely out of character for her as even in her most vulnerable moments, she'd always been proud of being able to keep her hands steady.
Hilary was afraid that if Tyson noticed any of her odd behaviour, he'd taunt her or make a joke about it, which would only make her feel worse and less inclined to hand over the chocolates to him, but luckily for her, the World Champion's eyes were fixed on her bag like an excited puppy awaiting a treat and he hadn't yet taken note of the change in her behaviour. So Hilary took a deep breath to calm herself, after all the effort she had put into making these chocolates and all it had taken to get Tyson to ask for them, she had to follow through on her mother's advice and hand them over.
Luck seemed to be on her side today anyway, Hilary thought, as she clasped onto the box inside her bag, so she decided to take another leap of faith, looking up to meet Tyson's eyes with her own determined ones, confidence gradually flowing through her veins as she spoke, "I need you to understand that, I'm not giving these to you because I'm obligated to."
Tyson blinked at her in confusion, the excitement from earlier faltered slightly as he assumed that he hadn't quiet won the battle yet, he nodded apprehensively at her nonetheless, turning his attention back to her bag, as if all that mattered to him at this point was getting the chocolates from her.
"I'm giving these to you, because I want to." Hilary said, finally pulling the box out from her bag and offering it to him, she quickly looked down as there was no controlling the blush that was spreading across her face right now, in a quiet whisper, with the hope that Tyson wouldn't be able to hear her, she added, "And there's no one else I'd rather give these to."
A moment later she felt his fingers brush against her own as he accepted the gift from her, and Hilary tightly shut her eyes, his touch leaving behind a tingling sensation across her hands which she tried to rid herself of by shoving her hands into her coat pocket, all the while refusing to look up and meet Tyson's eyes.
"Uh, this box is a lot bigger than what the others got." Tyson muttered, his voice stuttering slightly
Of course, Tyson's perceptive skills had to be in top form today, any other time and place and he never would've paid attention to the size of the box, but only to the contents and how many of those he could fit in his mouth in one go. In fact, under normal circumstances, he might've rejoiced over it too, Hilary was sure that if she'd handed this over to him back at the Dojo, he would've lauded over the difference in size to the other boys, Daichi would've kicked up a fuss about it and Rei and Max would've definitely grinned knowingly at her.
But it was just the two of them now, and from his voice he seemed more confused than happy over why he was getting this special treatment from Hilary. She thought about sneaking a glance at him, getting a glimpse of a reflective Tyson, who didn't feel like he always deserved the best, was rare and a scene Hilary would like to remember for the future, in case it never happened again. At the same time, she was worried that if she met his gaze now he'd expect an answer from her, even if he had managed to notice the size of the box, he was still Tyson after all, there was no way he'd figure out the reason behind any of her actions without her having to spell it out loudly for him. She decided, however, that from Tyson's perspective she'd already admitted defeat once today, so Hilary had to ensure that this wouldn't get to his head and maintain a cold shoulder from this point onwards to balance the scales once again.
Composing herself with a deep breath, Hilary looked up finally, hoping to end this little encounter by chiding Tyson for not thanking her the minute she handed the chocolates to him, and bidding him goodbye so that she could finally head home and scream as loudly as she could into her pillow. Instead, to her horror, she saw that Tyson had already unwrapped the packaging, quite meticulously by his standards, and was now staring wide-eyed at the contents of the box, his mouth hanging slightly ajar with surprise.
Immediately Hilary's eyes shifted to the ground again, this time she fixated on a spot near her feet, willing it to widen into a black hole that would pull her into the void since that seemed to be the only way she could ever escape the embarrassment of this particular moment.
She wasn't sure if she should be grateful for it or not, but the heavy silence between them didn't last long as Tyson took a bite of the chocolate and exclaimed his approval loudly.
"These taste so good Hils, way better than the ones you made for Max!"
It wasn't surprising that the blond had offered his share of chocolates to his friend, no what made Hilary raise her gaze gradually was the carefree nature of Tyson's voice, he seemed completely unbothered by the shapes of the chocolates that he was now stuffing down his throat at a questionable speed. She wanted to correct him, that his chocolates weren't better tasting than the ones she had made for Max, but were more suited to his tastes, or tell him to chew before swallowing and slow down to avoid choking, but when she opened her mouth no words came out.
After all her worrying and freaking out, it seemed that her dilemma had just disappeared into thin air.
Tyson may have been more attentive than usual about little details today, but he was still just as oblivious as ever.
Hilary thought she would be feeling relieved, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her chest, but instead she felt drained. Somewhere deep down she had been hoping, that he would take the hint, that he would give her some sort of sign that her true feelings for him weren't a lost cause, that he wouldn't completely brush aside her efforts so indifferently. And the thought of having to start from scratch to secure his undivided attention once again left her feeling powerless and exhausted.
Of course the cherry on this painful cake was that despite of shoving half the box down his throat at the speed of light, Tyson still hadn't bothered to thank her. The sight of him happily inhaling the chocolates was now irritating for Hilary and she curled her hands into fists to keep her anger at bay. Deciding that her feelings had been through a long roller coaster ride for the day, it was finally time for her to go home and rest and there was nothing Tyson could do that would surprise her enough to stay.
Staying true to his goal of throwing surprises her way, Tyson proved her wrong the very next second by suddenly closing the distance between them just as she was about to turn, he lowered his head to her level and leaned in close.
Hilary squeezed her eyes shut as her brain tried to process what was happening, but before she could make sense of anything, she felt Tyson's lips brush lightly against her cheeks, lingering on her for a moment, his warm breath making her already flushed skin feel even hotter. And when he pulled back, it felt like someone had snatched her away from the sun's warmth and she couldn't help but long for it back.
It took her a few minutes to calm her breathing and get used to the cold shiver that surrounded her the moment Tyson put some distance between them, but finally she managed to open her eyes to find him standing a just a few steps away from her with the box of chocolates now jammed into his coat pocket. When their eyes met, she noticed that his cheeks turned pink as he lifted his baseball cap and ran a hand through his hair sheepishly.
"Thank you." Tyson said, shifting his gaze to the ground as the colour on his cheeks deepened. Putting his cap back on in slow motion and shuffling his feet to hide his embarrassment, he raised his eyes a minute later and with a small smile added, "I'll try not to be such a pain in your ass from now on."
She couldn't help but take his bait in an attempt to lighten the mood, and Hilary found herself breaking into her first real smile of the day as the warmth he had left on her cheek travelled through her body and made her finally feel some relief. She looked up at him and replied, "I would appreciate that."
"Appreciate it enough to make me more of these next week?" Tyson grinned expectantly at her, gesturing to the box tucked into his pocket.
"That depends on how well you perform." She chuckled, shaking her head at how quickly he had managed to make her mood spiral into every possible direction today and she wasn't expecting anything less from the days to come either.
"Let me start by walking you back home," Tyson said as he quickly came and stood next to her and offered his arm, his chocolate eyes gazed at her hopefully, excitement twinkling in them like bright stars in the night sky.
Deciding that she had no energy left to resist his charm, Hilary sighed wistfully as she linked her arm with his and allowed him to lead her up the path that led to her house triumphantly. There were still many events from the day that confused her, but Hilary realised that in the end, she was glad that she had listened to her mother and not backed out from handing over the chocolates to Tyson. Even if the day had ended with him leaving her with a billion new riddles to solve, she knew that she had secured the answer to at least one of them.
The way to Tyson's heart was definitely through his stomach.
- X -
A/n: This wasn't too romantic either, but I'm kinda proud with how each member of the BBA team got to speak at least once in this one. I'm fully capable of writing someone other than Tyson and Hilary!
I plan to update with some of the prompts I did on tumblr next, but also working on another new WIP (spoiler alert : two words – HOGWARTS AU!), and trying to inspire myself to finish the old wips too.
Thank you for reading and let me know what you thought of this one in the reviews and stay safe everyone!