fear. || { bnha }

thirty four.

As Valui slid her hand into his, her eyes trailed up his forearm to the small dots that were in the bend of his elbow. "Did you have IVs in?"

"Earlier, yeah." Hitoshi shifted his head against her shoulder, weaving their fingers together and squeezing her hand tightly. "They got taken out a little before you and Mom came."

"That's good."

He huffed softly; Valui distantly imagined him rolling his eyes. "It was awful." His voice had changed just slightly — whinier; poutier. It made her giggle softly. "Now I get why you hated it here so much."

Valui hummed softly; teasingly. An amused smile had formed on her lips. "Try staying here for a week."

"No thanks."

She giggled again at his response — both because of his tone and how quick it had been. Valui leaned her head against his, noticing how soft his hair was and wishing in the back of her mind that she could be playing with it.

"Hey. Valui?"

Anything she had been about to say was stopped when Hitoshi spoke up again. She glanced down at him, wondering if something was wrong, only to grow confused at how peaceful he still looked. "Yeah?"

"You never told me that story." Hitoshi shifted his head, opening his eyes slightly so he could look up and meet hers. "About you playing music."

You remembered that?

"It's not that interesting," Valui started, her eyes breaking their contact with his. "It's actually pretty bor—"

"I don't care. I want to hear it."

Valui blinked, a faint feeling of surprise filling her chest. Time and time, he did that to her — did and said things that were always so vastly different from how everyone else treated her. As she relaxed and thought about where to start with her story, she wondered if she'd ever get used to how he acted around her; acted toward her.

"Um... Well, at the beginning of the year, my school kind of forced everyone to pick a club. Something about having us find 'a place we all belonged' or something."

As if any of us belonged.

"The only thing that really appealed to me was music, so I picked that one. Um... It was all rock band sorta instruments, so I ended up picking the drums."

In the small lull in her storytelling, Hitoshi asked, "Why those?"

Valui laughed softly, though awkwardly. "Because it fit the best? I was too scared to even think about singing, guitars were too big and heavy for me, and it would've taken too long to learn keyboard or something. I guess I liked the drums because I could be in the back and hidden and just...make rhythms? I'd been doing it since I could remember, so." She stopped to laugh again, this time more naturally. "My parents always got really annoyed because of that. I think they were happy when I started staying after school because they didn't have to hear it."

Hitoshi hummed softly; Valui kept going.

"So I ended up really liking it, and I started staying after school even if I never really made actual friends with the other members because of how shy I am. They were nice, though. I haven't been back in a while. I wonder if they're worried. Or if they've replaced me."

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt to think that like it would have done a handful of months ago.

"But yeah, before I met you, I spent almost all my time just playing and practicing, so I basically taught myself and—"