"You know we can work out a schedule for this."
"It's fine. Go back to the hotel and get some sleep."
Hinata almost had to yell just to get Soda to leave. The whole group had discussed the Komaeda event for a large majority of the day. While they were all awaiting their friends return, the last person they'd want to wake up first was him. Everyone thought that someone should stay overnight and watch the pods while the others slept. Hinata volunteered to stay every night. The others were slightly against the idea, because it seemed somewhat unfair.
"If something happens, you'll be alright then?" Kazuichi's concern was nice and all, but it was becoming a bit irritating.
"Nothing's going to happen." Hajime smiled, trying to pound some sense of ease into the mechanics head.
"Well if he does wake up, be careful. Things usually tend to go his way. I guess I'll see ya tomorrow." Soda finally left for the night, reluctantly.
Hajime let out a heavy breath as soon as his friend left earshot. The first thing that came to mind was time. He'd be up for at least a minimum of eight hours, guarding these sleeping bodies from nothing. But it was a necessary precaution to take, if there was a chance HE would wake up. Komaeda Nagito was not the most pleasant person to be around. His actions against everyone else in the simulation did not help his case, of course.
Hajime did not want him out of sight.
About four hours had passed since his watch began. Nothing happened. Nothing happened at all. He hovered over Komaeda's pod for quite awhile, eyes fixated only on his face. If he really did wake up, he clearly slipped back into his coma. Either that, or he was feigning sleep until he could leave his pod and slip away.
Hinata realized he had been overthinking this. He eased up, moving away from the pod. Finding himself pacing back and forth around the room, and eventually looking at the others.
It was odd, almost uncomfortable, too see all of them as they were. They were all dead. He had seen their corpses, seen their spilt blood. But that wasn't real. They were all here, alive and well. Hajime had decided it was best not to dwell on it too much.
He started wandering around the room again, to pass the time. As he was doing earlier in the night, he walked from person to person. He would stop and stare, and then move on. Stop, stare, move on. Every night? He regretted that call, slightly.
"I figured you'd get bored." he stopped his pacing and spun around to see Fuyuhiko walking towards him. "I could tell just from looking at you."
"What are you doing here." he was blunt and to the point.
"I used to come here every night." he said, walking towards, and then past Hajime. He stopped at one of the pods. Placing his flat palms on its surface, he leaned against the machinery, looking down at his friends face. "I stopped recently. But I figured if that psychopath Komaeda almost got up..."
"She's been still the whole night. They all have." Fuyuhiko wasn't surprised to hear that.
"Wake up!" he yelled at the pod jokingly, chuckling to himself. Sighing, he moved his hands to his pockets. He stared for a few more seconds before looking up at Hajime.
"Is that all you came here for?" he could see through the charade. He may have wanted to visit her, but he was there to see Hinata as well. It was confirmed, Fuyuhiko going silent, save for his now tapping foot.
"I guess it wasn't."
"Then what?"
"Just checking on you." he sounded stern, like a father talking to his son. "You've been quiet lately."
"I've had something on my mind for quite awhile." he was honest in his explanation.
Fuyuhiko perked up, guessing what it was he was talking about. Hajime saw this, and smiled lightly.
"You know, I just brought that up as a joke, right?"
"A joke..." Hajime fell silent at that statement. He looked forward, at the ground, cupping his chin with his left hand. Taking what he just said into account, he was surprised he was taking it so seriously. Days and nights spent dwelling on a matter that was introduced as a joke.
"So you're alright then?" Fuyuhiko changed the subject. He had already teased him about this enough in the past.
"Yeah...I'm alright." he answered.
"Well I'll leave you to this then." Fuyuhiko patted the pod in front of him before taking his leave.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I couldn't get much out of him." Fuyuhiko spoke softly as he closed the metal door behind him. The night air was crisp and cold, made ever more present by the constant winds. Outside he met with Akane, who had been eavesdropping on the both of them. "Could you hear him?"
"Yeah I heard him." the two started walking back, the young woman grumbling her words.
"You know you could've asked me awhile ago. Probably would've went easier than this." he said, fidgeting with the strap of his eyepatch. "Doesn't help if both of you are hardheaded."
"Oh, shut up." she clicked her tongue, punching him in the arm. He laughed.
"Do I deserve to be happy?" he said to himself for what felt like the hundredth time. Most people would just say yes to the query, but he felt like he needed to ask himself. Yes, he should know, yet he didn't.
In his hand he moved around a pin. He remembered finding it in his clothes when they first left the simulation. He knew who it belonged to, but he could never give it to them. He thought about what that person might tell him.
He though about the life he wanted. The life he wanted with Akane.
"I think I'll tell her, soon..."
He thought he didn't deserve happiness.
But he wanted it.