Notes: Happy birthday, Kuzuryu! I actually intended for this chapter to be a birthday present for myself, since I certainly wouldn't expect anyone else to gift me Kuzuhina... but I'm two days late for that, so let's just regift this for Kuzu, yeah. Yup.

(I had intended to post this for my birthday and then have chapter 6 done for Kuzu's birthday, but then I decided that I'm not quite that insane.)

Oh right, I also created a twitter account where I can toss my random thoughts about this fic (nothing that will spoil my story, but there is some behind-the-scenes stuff). So if you're interested at all, the username is WFRainbows!

By the way, on Sunday I turned thi—*chokes, dies.*

Waiting for Rainbows
Chapter 5: There's nothing in the palm of my hand

Hinata didn't see Kuzuryu again until a few days later, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Casual texts of "what are you up to this weekend?" were answered with "none of your business, dumbass."

He probably didn't want to know the real answer, anyway.

Unsure if the hostile response was simply due to the nature of the question or something more, Hinata left Kuzuryu be for the rest of the weekend. So he was a little surprised, but mostly relieved, when on Monday Kuzuryu strode into the koban, unannounced and completely without fanfare.

"There's nothing to do in this stupid town," he declared as he slumped into the visitor's chair across from Hinata's desk.

"Nice to see you, too." Hinata glanced up from the reports he was idly sifting through. "Shibuya's just a fifteen minute ride on the train, if you're looking for excitement."

"That doesn't change the fact that there's nothing here." Kuzuryu leaned back in the chair and fiddled with the cap on the bottle of tea he was carrying.

"It looks like you found the convenience store, at least."

"Yeah, I'm just barely containing my excitement over that one. Asshole."

Hinata chuckled lightly and looked up, the laughter fading somewhat as he saw Kirigiri pass behind Kuzuryu on her way out to take her midday break. She caught his gaze and gave him a meaningful look, her eyes flicking just briefly to the yakuza before she pulled her mouth into a hard line.

Hinata tried to keep his expression neutral as he stared at her over Kuzuryu's shoulder. Kuzuryu had been in the building for all of two minutes; had she really sensed something was off about him already? It wasn't uncommon for residents to drop into the koban for a friendly chat, so that couldn't be her issue.

Regardless of the reason, Kirigiri just shook her head softly, then continued to the door. "I'll be back later," she called over.

"Ah, right! Have a good break!" Hinata responded as she opened the door to leave.

Kuzuryu glanced briefly at Kirigiri as she left, then turned back to Hinata to continue their conversation. "Tell me it's not just food delivery and craft shops around here."

"Huh?" Hinata blinked dumbly at Kuzuryu for a moment before he remembered what they had been discussing before. "Oh, right. Well..." He began mentally ticking off all the places he tended to pass by while on patrol—but since a large part of his route was through the residential area, he switched instead to the more comprehensive list of "part-time jobs Makoto Naegi has been fired from." "Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Oh, and there's a pet shop a few blocks down."

"Pet shop?" Kuzuryu frowned. "Nah, that's more Peko's thing."

Hinata furrowed his brows. By "Peko," he meant Pekoyama, right? That stern, cool woman who followed Kuzuryu everywhere? "Seriously? That's kind of hard to imagine..."

Kuzuryu glowered dangerously. "You got a problem with Peko?"

"No, no, of course not!" Hinata raised his hands in front of himself defensively and shook his head. Of course he had no problem with Pekoyama! Why would he have any sort of problem with someone who carried a sword everywhere she went? "It's just kind of unexpected that she'd like small animals, that's all."

Kuzuryu shrugged. "I'm not sure if I'd say it's unexpected or not. It's just who she is."

"Well, you'd know better than I would..." Hinata tilted his head to the side in thought. "I mean, we haven't spoken much yet, now that I think about it."

"She's not really much for talking, at least when you first meet her." He looked up at Hinata quizzically. "You brought up Peko first thing the other day, too. Don't tell me you've got a thing for her or something."

"Huh?" Hinata hadn't even considered that. "No, nothing like that. It's more like I want to know—" more about you. Hinata snapped his mouth shut before he could continue to voice his thought. What was that about? He had already figured out the truth behind Kuzuryu's identity, so it wasn't like there was much more he needed to know. Flustered, he returned to his paperwork. "Anyway, I have some work to do. Feel free to hang around if you want, but it's not much more interesting here than being out in town."

Kuzuryu did end up sticking around, chatting occasionally with Hinata as he sorted through reports. Hinata hadn't even realized how long the yakuza had stayed until Kirigiri walked back through the door.

Alarmed by the passage of time, Hinata glanced at the clock, and was relieved to see that his sempai had cut her break short by half as usual. Still, that had been a full two hours that Kuzuryu had been hanging around the koban.

Kirigiri spared Kuzuryu little more than a glance before walking towards Hinata and handing him a plastic bag. "I picked up a bento for you."

"Thanks," Hinata muttered, finding himself unable to read Kirigiri's expression. "You got yourself something to eat too, though, right?"

"Of course." She took a step back, gave Kuzuryu another look, then turned towards the break room. "I'll be back out in a moment."

"Your break's not over until four!" Hinata called after her, but he knew that it would fall on deaf ears. He shrugged and turned back towards Kuzuryu. "She works herself too hard."

"Maybe if you were better at your job she wouldn't have to."

"I was working the entire time you were here."

"Yeah, whatever." Kuzuryu stood up, stretching. "I should get going though. I'm a busy guy."

Hinata grinned. "Could have fooled me."

Kuzuryu scowled down at him, then turned towards the door. "I'll talk to you later, then."

"Sure, stop by whenever." Hinata watched Kuzuryu turn the door handle when a thought occurred to him. "Hold on, Kuzuryu!"

The yakuza froze, his hand on the doorknob, and turned back to look at Hinata. "Yeah?"

"I'll be out of work probably around eight. If you want, we could meet up at Kagayaki for dinner and drinks."

Kuzuryu stared at him for a few moments, and Hinata found himself nervously tapping a pen against the desk as he waited for an answer. Finally, the blond nodded. "Sure, I can do that. Eight o'clock, then?"

"Yeah," Hinata confirmed, grinning. "I'll see you tonight."

Kuzuryu nodded again before opening the door and disappearing from sight.

When the door had shut, Kirigiri emerged from the break room, having changed back into her uniform. She stared at the door for a few seconds before turning to Hinata, her gaze calculating. "Hinata-kun, that man..."

Hinata felt a chill run down his spine, but he tried not to show it. "What about him?"

Kirigiri paused a moment, then shook her head lightly. "I've never seen him before."

"Oh, right." Hinata tried not to sigh in relief, glad as he was that he didn't have to answer any pressing questions just yet. "That's Kuzuryu. He's new to the area."

"Hmm." Kirigiri looked back at the door that Kuzuryu had left from, her expression thoughtful. "Is he the one you mentioned meeting at Kagayaki last week?"

"Yeah, that's the guy."

"I see." Kirigiri stood in place for a moment longer before turning back to the break room. "That's all for now, then."

For now. Hinata frowned. He knew he needed to tell Kirigiri what he knew about the Kuzuryu Clan soon, and he was only making things worse by putting it off. He just couldn't figure out a way to explain to Kirigiri—or to himself, even—why he had held off for so long.

It was stupid, and childish, but he had gotten himself stuck in a cycle of hesitation and it was going to be absolute hell when he finally broke out.

He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. For now, he'd focus on his work, and once that was done he'd have dinner with Kuzuryu. That thought made him feel just a bit better.

He wasn't sure why, but it did.

When Hinata arrived at Kagayaki that evening, Kuzuryu was waiting outside the entrance, with Pekoyama standing at attention by his side.

"Hey," Hinata greeted as he slowed to a stop. "You didn't have to wait out here, you know. It's warmer inside."

Kuzuryu shrugged. "The last time I was in this place was pretty much a fucking disaster. Who knows how much of a pain in my ass it'll be If I show my face in there without you."

Hinata thought back to that night when he had fled from the pub in a panic and grimaced. He didn't have any idea of what might have transpired there after he left, but considering how furious Kuzuryu had been to find out that Hinata was a police officer, he could only imagine what kind of mood he must have been in when he returned downstairs after his outburst. Hinata groaned. "Please don't tell me you yelled at the other patrons, too."

"Dumbass," Kuzuryu scoffed indignantly. "I know how to control myself."

Not entirely convinced, Hinata glanced at Pekoyama.

The woman spared a small, amused smile. "He didn't yell at them," she confirmed. "Though he did cause a bit of a scene stomping through the room the way he did."

"Peko."

"My apologies, Young Master." Pekoyama's face faded back into indifference as she turned to Hinata again. "By the way, I don't believe I've formally introduced myself. My name is Peko Pekoyama. It's nice to meet you."

"Ah, right!" Hinata spared barely half a second to ponder over her name—he had thought that "Peko" was a nickname based on her last name, not her actual first name—before responding in kind. "Nice to meet you, I'm Hajime Hinata."

"Okay, great, so let's get in there already," Kuzuryu cut in irritably. "Peko, you can go somewhere else."

Pekoyama's expression hardened. "Young Master..."

"I know you don't like places like this," Kuzuryu interrupted. "So just go do something you want to do, all right? I'll be fine."

The silver-haired woman hesitated for a moment before turning back to Hinata. "In that case, Hinata, I'll trust you to monitor his alcohol intake."

"Fucking hell!"

Hinata found himself laughing without restraint as Kuzuryu pulled him by the sleeve towards the izakaya entrance.

"Good bye, Peko!" Kuzuryu growled with a sense of finality, then closed the sliding door behind them. "Holy fuck, I cut loose one time and this happens..."

Hinata chuckled lightly. "Well, that one time certainly left an impression."

Kuzuryu looked up at Hinata thoughtfully, then huffed and turned towards the bar. "Whatever. Let's get a seat."

As the two men walked up to the counter, Hanamura looked up and grinned. "Hey, Hinata-kun!" he greeted, but his smile faded just a tiny bit as he registered the shorter of the two. "And you're... from last week..."

"That's Kuzuryu," Hinata supplied as he sat on a stool, Kuzuryu taking a seat beside him. "He's cool though, don't worry."

Kuzuryu offered a half-hearted wave in greeting. "Yeah, yeah, sorry for the trouble I caused and shit. Won't happen again."

"Trouble?" Hanamura's face swiftly melted into a seductive smirk, and he sidled up to the edge of the bar, leaning in Kuzuryu's direction. "Oh, not at all. It's never any trouble to have someone as handsome as you in this fine establishment. Would you care to order one of our entrees this time around? I'm sure it won't be nearly as delectable as you, though."

Kuzuryu's face twisted into an uncomfortable grimace and he leaned as far from Hanamura as possible, his shoulder pressing against Hinata's as if for comfort. Hinata actually found it kind of endearing and wow did he really just think that what the hell?

Chuckling nervously, Hinata gently nudged Kuzuryu away before he ended up in his lap. "Don't listen to Hanamura. He's a huge flirt, but he'll never actually lay a hand on a customer."

"Hinata-kun!" Hanamura wailed, his sly demeanor quickly dissolving into annoyance. "You ruin my fun when you tell the newcomers that right off the bat!"

"You still have plenty of fun anyway," Hinata retorted, rolling his eyes. "And half your customers would never come back if I didn't ease their fears."

"Fears? Ha!" Hanamura smoothed his hair haughtily. "Why would anyone be afraid of my charms? And even if they were—and they aren't—my food is more than enough to have them coming back and begging for more."

"Hey, this is all fascinating and shit," Kuzuryu cut in, apparently having recovered from the shock of Hanamura's advances, "but are we going to actually get to eat any of that food or what?"

"Ah, right," Hinata scratched his head sheepishly. "I guess we got a little carried away there. Let's just start off with some yakitori, and a glass of my regular."

Hanamura nodded, turning to Kuzuryu. "And you, Kuzuryu-kun? Will you be having the... shochu, was it?"

"Not tonight," Hinata said before Kuzuryu could even begin to respond.

Kuzuryu rolled his eyes and kicked Hinata's leg lightly. "I can answer for my-fucking-self, Hinata. A glass of Kirin is fine."

Hinata hummed thoughtfully as Hanamura turned towards the tap. "So you're a lager sort of guy, Kuzuryu?"

"When I'm not trying to get myself fucked up, yeah." The yakuza glared up at him. "Why, got a problem with that?"

"Nope." Hinata watched Hanamura place two twin glasses on the counter in front of them, then pulled one towards himself. "It's my drink of choice, too."

Kuzuryu took the other glass, considering Hinata carefully. "I see. Well, cheers then."

They clinked their glasses together, and as they chatted through the evening, Hinata was nearly able to forget all his other worries.

The next evening, as they closed up the koban for the night, Hinata was tired, hungry, and preoccupied with the thought of meeting Kuzuryu for dinner again.

"Hinata-kun, about your friend..."

"Hmm?" Hinata looked over at Kirigiri as he pulled his jacket on. "You mean Kuzuryu? Sorry he came to hang out here again, I told him to find somewhere else to kill time..."

"No, that's not a problem." Kirigiri paused, a thoughtful look on her face, then amended, "Well, it shouldn't be a problem, in theory. But the real issue here..."

The exhaustion fogging his mind melted away all at once as Hinata realized what Kirigiri was probably driving at. This was it, wasn't it? He stood stock still as she peered around carefully, her gaze lingering on the koban's entrance before turning back towards Hinata.

"He's with the yakuza, isn't he?"

Hinata said nothing; he had no idea what to say. He still hadn't figured out the best way to broach the subject, and now that it was being thrust at him, he was drawing a complete blank. Part of him was astounded that she had figured Kuzuryu out so quickly, but on the other hand, of course she had; this was Kyoko Kirigiri, after all. But what had him really unable to speak was the expression on her face. She was normally difficult to read, but the expression she currently wore was especially complicated to evaluate. Was she angry? He knew he should have confided in her earlier—much earlier—so he wouldn't blame her at all if she were, but...

"Stop making that face, I'm not angry," she said sharply, cutting through his thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Hinata said anyway.

Kirigiri raised an eyebrow. "What for? It can be quite beneficial to have informants in the criminal underground. There's nothing inherently wrong with building rapport with a yakuza clan. Though it's beneficial to them as well, so you need to be careful you aren't taken advantage of, of course."

"Informants..." Hinata frowned. He remembered Kuzuryu and Pekoyama whispering to each other just before they had traded contact information; that must have been what that was about. "Kuzuryu won't tell me anything about what his clan is doing, though."

"I wouldn't expect him to." Kirigiri cocked her head to the side, her eyes narrowing as she studied Hinata carefully. "What I mean is that it will help to keep on top of potential situations with their rival clans. Diffusing dangerous situations isn't always most efficiently done by relying solely on the police force." Her words slowed as she spoke, before finally she paused, peering curiously up at Hinata. "But you don't seem to have thought about any of that at all, and I have to admit that that's worrying. So let me change my approach." Her face darkened harshly. "What in the world are you doing, Hinata-kun?"

Hinata grimaced. "So you are angry..."

"I'm upset. Have you thought through this situation at all? I expected better of you."

"I have thought it through!" Hinata retorted. "I'm sorry, okay? I know I should have told you sooner, but I just—"

"Keeping this from me isn't the primary issue here," Kirigiri cut in. "Yes, you should have told me, but more than that, you're not even considering your own position and what sort of danger you could be putting yourself into. A dead cop helps no one, Hinata-kun."

"I'm aware."

Kirigiri maintained her glare for a moment longer before letting her expression soften slightly, sighing. "So if you're not trying to build an information network, what are you aiming for with Kuzuryu-kun?"

Hinata opened his mouth, then closed it, unsure of how best to answer. What was he aiming for? "I guess... I thought he seemed like a pretty okay guy and thought we'd get along well."

Kirigiri stared at him for a beat, before bringing a gloved hand to her mouth to suppress a laugh.

"Wh- what?" Hinata asked, feeling his cheeks redden.

"No, I'm sorry," Kirigiri shook her head and quickly regained her composure, though the smile didn't fade from her lips. "So you honestly just want to be friends with him?"

Hinata paused. "Well, yeah," he affirmed.

Kirigiri giggled softly again. "Goodness. You're quite smitten with him, aren't you?"

"Come on, Sempai, that makes it sound weird."

"Right, I'm sorry." She cocked her head to look up at him again, mirth still shining in her eyes. "I won't step between you two, then. But," her eyes darkened once again, "be careful. There's always a certain degree of danger when dealing with the yakuza in any capacity."

"Yeah, I know."

Kirigiri nodded, then began walking to the door. "Let's get going, then."

They stepped into the chilly air, and Hinata pulled his collar up against his neck. It really was starting to get cold; it was probably about time to start bringing a scarf for warmth.

"One last thing, Hinata-kun," Kirigiri said as she finished locking up the door. She turned to look up at him, her violet eyes gleaming with a serious light in the darkness. "Being a police officer isn't what you really want, is it?"

Hinata returned Kirigiri's gaze, considering his words before responding. "Well, neither do you, Sempai, do you?"

"We're not talking about me right now."

Hinata pulled his mouth into a thin line and averted his gaze awkwardly. "I... no, it's not what I really want to be."

Kirigiri gave a short nod. "Even so, don't forget that for the time being, you are a police officer. And as long as you hold this job, you should act accordingly." She paused for a moment, her eyes studying his face, before continuing. "I said I won't get between you two, but that agreement holds only so long as you remember your professional commitments."

Hinata took a sharp intake of breath, the cold air burning his lungs, but nodded. "Yeah. Of course."

Kirigiri nodded once more, turning on her heel. "That's all I needed to hear. Good night, then, Hinata-kun. Enjoy your dinner."

Hinata waved her off as they parted ways, then began walking to Kagayaki, mulling over Kirigiri's words as he went. She had warned him to stay professional; did that mean she worried that he wouldn't? Why would she worry about that? It's not like Hinata was about to go off and join the yakuza himself, after all.

As he approached the pub, he saw Kuzuryu waiting outside the entrance again, and Hinata felt himself begin to smile when the yakuza offered a cordial wave.

"You're waiting out here again?" Hinata asked as he jogged the last few steps to Kuzuryu.

Kuzuryu grunted noncommittally with a small shrug. "Haven't really gotten used to that perverted cook."

Hinata's lips twitched into a grin, prompting Kuzuryu to glare up at him, cheeks reddening.

"The fuck are you grinning about?!"

"Nothing!" Hinata assured, but secretly it filled him with a strange sort of glee to hear that Kuzuryu depended on him for some sort of protection. Though, speaking of which... "Where's Pekoyama?"

"I chased her off already," Kuzuryu responded dismissively. "She didn't protest as much as last night, thank god. Now let's get inside, it's fucking freezing out here."

Hinata followed Kuzuryu into the pub, still unable to fight off his grin.

"Hey, you know that sempai of yours?"

It was later into the night, as they nursed the last of their post-dinner beers, and they had mostly run out of conversation topics—or so it seemed, since Hinata couldn't think of any other reason why Kuzuryu would mention Kirigiri out of nowhere. He grimaced slightly, thinking of the discussion he had had with her just a few hours before. "You mean the one who already figured out who you are?"

Kuzuryu paused, eyebrows raising slightly. "Seriously? Fuck, she's good. I don't think I've even really talked to her."

"You being awfully cavalier about this." Hinata took a sip of his beer, watching Kuzuryu carefully over the rim of the glass.

The gangster shrugged. "If she was going to try to do something about it, she would have already. She's clearly not a pushover like you are."

"Are you going somewhere with this, or are you just using it as an excuse to badmouth me?"

"Mm, let's go with both." Kuzuryu placed his glass down and leaned against the counter, turning to face Hinata. "What I'm trying to say is she's got nice eyes, too."

Hinata felt something ugly and unreasonable flare up in his chest, and he frowned. He wasn't sure how to define that reaction within him, but he calculated his next words carefully so that whatever it was wouldn't come seeping out. "By that you mean she's determined, right?"

Kuzuryu hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe not exactly the word I'd choose, but yeah, something like that."

That confirmation seemed to calm down whatever it was that had gotten Hinata on edge, and he breathed out softly.

"It's like there's still some fight left in her that most of the rest of the dumbasses in this town have lost or given up on." He looked over at Hinata thoughtfully. "So what's her story, anyway?"

"Not mine to tell." Hinata drank from his glass again, partly as a way to show that his lips were sealed on the subject. It wasn't something that he ever really discussed with Kirigiri herself, after all.

Kuzuryu seemed content to let it drop, though, and simply shrugged. "Fair enough. So did she give you a hard time about hanging out with..." He trailed off and glanced about the pub; not many of the other customers were left, but it was still not quite deserted enough to openly let slip that there was a yakuza in the room. "Well, you know. You just seem kinda pissed about it."

Hinata thought back to Kirigiri's suggestion about clandestine information networks and decided that might not be the best thing to mention to Kuzuryu. In fact, between that and whatever that unknown burst of emotion had be, Hinata wasn't sure he trusted himself to speak any further on the subject. "What about you?" he asked instead, turning the question back on Kuzuryu. "Do you not get along with Pekoyama or something? You seem annoyed with her a lot..."

"Annoyed?" Kuzuryu scoffed and took a quick swig of his drink before continuing. "No way. Of course we get along. Peko's the closest thing I have to a best friend, I guess you'd say."

"Ah..." Hinata studied the amber liquid inside his glass thoughtfully. "You've been together for a long time, then?"

"Fuck, ever since we were born pretty much." Kuzuryu placed his glass on the counter, leaning back on the stool with a... wistful look in his eyes? "We were basically raised together, and she's been brought up to be my protector all my life. We've never really been apart."

Hinata hummed thoughtfully, studying Kuzuryu's face as he spoke. "You seem to get pretty annoyed by her watching over you, though. Isn't that what she's supposed to do?"

"Yeah, but..." Kuzuryu pulled his mouth into a grimace, and he leaned forward against the bar again. "She just takes it so seriously, it pisses me off."

"It's a job that should be taken seriously, though."

"No, that's not..." Kuzuryu sighed in frustration, burying his head in his hands. He seemed to be having trouble formulating the right words. "It's like, it was cute when we were kids, you know? It was like we were playing pretend. But it's not pretend. That became clearer and clearer as we got older, and now it's just..." He shook his head. "She takes it to the point that she's completely disregarding her own humanity for my sake, and that shit doesn't sit right with me. She says she's my tool to serve and protect me. But I don't want her to be a tool, I want her to be her own person, you know?"

Hinata thought back to the times he had seen Kuzuryu and Pekoyama interact—Kuzuryu constantly ordering her to leave him alone and go off and do her own thing. He had always assumed that it was out of annoyance, an attempt to free himself from her, but with this new information in mind, he realized that it was the opposite.

The one he was trying to free was Pekoyama.

Kuzuryu picked up his drink again but instead of taking a sip, he stared at the amber liquid listlessly. "I mean, I like having her around, but I don't think of her as a tool or a bodyguard. I see her as more like... like..."

Seeing how Kuzuryu was struggling to find the right words, Hinata tried helping him out. "Like a sister?"

That didn't have the effect Hinata had expected at all; Kuzuryu's eyes instantly darkened, his facial features falling slack and emotionless. "No," he said, placing his glass on the bar counter and pushing it away. To Hinata, it looked like Kuzuryu was starting to close in on himself, rejecting all the rest of the world for reasons only for Kuzuryu to know. "Not like a sister. Not at all."

The air fell silent and tense between them, and Hinata was unsure of where to go from there. He turned his gaze forward, away from Kuzuryu, and busied himself with nursing his beer.

He'd said something wrong. That much was certain. He had said plenty of things in the past few days that got Kuzuryu pissed off and ranting, but this was a new reaction that he hadn't yet experienced, and he wasn't sure what he was meant to say or do in response.

He knew angry Kuzuryu. He could deal with an angry Kuzuryu.

But this Kuzuryu wasn't angry, he was just... empty.

They sat in silence for a long moment. It was one of those cliché situations where it was unclear whether minutes or hours were going by, but Hinata knew that logically, Hanamura would be closing up shop and kicking them out if it really had been hours.

The silence was finally broken when Kuzuryu gave a long-suffering sigh. "Fuck," he said softly. "What the hell am I doing here?"

Hinata wasn't sure if that was a question that he was meant to answer, or even if he had been meant to hear it in the first place. "Well, you're having some drinks with me," he answered anyway.

"No, I mean..." Kuzuryu trailed off.

"In Kibougaoka? You haven't told me that."

"...Right." The yakuza sighed again, then slowly stood up from the bar. "I need to get going now."

Hinata set down his drink and watched as Kuzuryu stepped around the bar stool and pulled on his jacket. There was still something off about him. "Kuzuryu?" he called out.

The shorter man paused, but he didn't turn to face Hinata. "I'm going to be busy for a few days. Won't have time for drinks or anything. But after that..." He paused and scratched his head awkwardly before continuing. "We can hang out after that, I guess, all right? Not all the time, but we can, I dunno. Go to the movies or some shit."

Hinata furrowed his brow as he stared at Kuzuryu, who was still resolutely avoiding his gaze. It was clear that he wasn't going to get any sort of elaboration from the mobster; his only options were to answer yes or no. And of those two, there wasn't any question. "Well, sure," he said. He really wanted to know what had gotten into Kuzuryu all of a sudden, but if a promise to meet up later was all he could get for the moment, he'd take it. "Just text me when you're available, then."

Kuzuryu laughed finally, but it sounded hollow to Hinata's ears. "Sure, I'll text you." He looked over his shoulder then, but not quite enough to let Hinata read his expression. "I'll see you later."

"Bye, Kuzuryu." Hinata waved him off, and once the yakuza was gone, he turned back to his beer, thoughts in a whirl.

Notes: Despite how much social drinking I have the boys do in this fic, I... don't drink. I know literally nothing about drinks, so any time I have to write them ordering something I usually just flail around on google looking for izakaya menus and hoping my inexperience doesn't show too much in my writing!