Chapter Text
An angry looking man now stood before you, his sharp eyes scouring the hallway. “Have you seen that yellow bastard?” His voice was filled with disdain, he was very clearly annoyed. Now you find yourself faced with a choice. To snitch or not to snitch… that is the question. On one hand, you did say you would hide him. While on the other, a part of you wanted to see what would happen if this Takeshi guy got his hands on Kaminari. A small part of you also felt bad for him as you too would be upset if someone broke something of yours, then on top of it just running away to hide rather than owning up and apologizing.
“Why? Did something happen?” you decided to try and ask for more information from him.
“Yeah something happened alright! He broke my damn porch!!” he lashed out, causing you to flinch. You stilled as you processed his words.
“...Your porch? He broke… your porch? Wha- How- Why?” you were baffled. Standing there as if you were stuck in a loading screen, cogs turning in your head.
“This was the third time this year! I’m fucking done with him now!” he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, eyes filled with murderous intent. Wait… He had broken his porch three times… this year? It was early summer- what in the actual fuck? This started to feel like a fever dream. You glanced down at the bowl of peaches in your hands, wondering if they were secretly psychedelics or something.
Opting to just not mind this and just grab your stuff and leave, you took a drawn out step with one leg at a time, walking sideways away from the angry bird… man. He kind of did remind you of angry birds, at that a vivid picture is painted in your mind of him getting flung through the air by a giant slingshot. Your lips quirked upwards at the mental image as you continued sliding away from him. However as you turned and made your way through the hall, you found that he was following you.
“HEY! Don’t just walk away from me- Tell me where he is!” His steps were loud and fast. He seemed to be intent on this. What to do now?
Without thinking, after he had grabbed your arm and spun you around to meet his gaze, your hand reached into the bowl of peaches and you ended up shoving one into his open mouth before he could continue speaking. The two of you stood completely still for a moment, as if time itself had frozen. The man was taken aback, dumbfounded. He wasn’t sure whether to spit the peach into your face or simply eat it. However his jaw snapped shut, biting clean through the peach, he swiftly swallowed the piece in his mouth while the remaining piece of the fruit dropped to the floor with a thud.
You frowned, “Now that’s just a waste of good fruit.” you stated disapprovingly, making a tsk sound at him. He looked like he was about to snap back at you but for some reason he held his tongue, glancing down at the fruit on the ground. His eyes traveled back up to meet yours before they started darting back and forth between you and the peach. He abruptly crouched down, picking up the peach and dusted it off with the sleeve of his haori. And then he did something that caused your face to distort in disapproval and mild disgust, as he bit into the peach which had been on the wooden floor. You never agreed with the five second rule, but even if you would’ve, five seconds had more than passed. You slunk away, turning on your heel as you made a beeline for the exit.
Finally out of the mansion, you could indulge in the clean peaches as you flipped open the pages of the book. You struggle to keep focus as your mind starts thinking about the peaches song from Bowser. Why does your brain always do this? A question for the ages. Eventually you managed to keep somewhat of a focus on the book in front of you, it wasn’t all that fun however when you got stuck on characters you simply couldn’t read. Absent-mindedly bonking your head with a peach as you grumbled and mulled over the possible overall meaning of a sentence. “What the fuck even is that?” you mumbled exasperatedly, throwing your head back with a groan.
As you threw your head back, a familiar green haired man stood over you, gazing down on you. Bruh- when the fuck did he get there? “The duck waddled up to the stand.” he stated, arms crossed over his chest as he loomed above you, his piercing gaze meeting yours.
“Huh?” your confusion, evident by both your tone and your face.
“That’s what it says, dumbass.” he rolled his eyes. After which, to your astonishment, he took a seat next to you, his finger pointing to the sentence he had just read out loud for you. A gasp of realization escaped you, your mouth left hung open before he continued to read the following lines in the book. You blankly stared, head swinging back and forth between the book and his face. Noticing your actions he paused, locking eyes with yours. “Are you gonna pay attention or what? I’m not gonna help you if you keep that up you moron.”
Blinking twice at him in bewilderment before then finally just shutting out the questions in your mind and accepting reality for what it is, no matter how seemingly strange it currently is. “Yeah, alright. Sorry–and–thanks?”
“You can thank me by helping me find Mr. Zap-man later.” he responded, not leaving you enough time to respond as he returned to reading out loud for you. You made sure to take the opportunity and put your attention to following his finger with your gaze as it trailed over the characters while he read them aloud.
As time passed and the day shifted into evening, your reading session began to wrap up. You turned to look at him. “Thank you for uhh… reading with me.” You paused for a moment. “I never introduced myself, did i? My name is L/n Y/n, nice to meet you.” Your head fell into a small bow, both as a form of introduction but also to display gratitude for his assistance.
“Hayate Takeshi.” he responded, his hands withdrawing to his sides. After a moment he yoinked a peach from your bowl, shoving it into his mouth with his hand as he stood up to leave. And that he did, he left the premises of the estate, leaving you to yourself in the fading light as evening took hold. Shaking your head in an attempt to ground yourself once more, you clasped the book shut, then tucked it between your arm and side as your other hand grabbed the bowl of the remaining peaches.
You made your way back inside the mansion, as you went to put the peaches back away. You entered your temporary room, prepared to turn in for the day. As you swung open the wardrobe door you jolted. Kaminari Shin was there, you had completely forgotten about him.
“L/N!!!” he leaped out of the wardrobe, clinging onto you. “Is the coast clear now!? Am i safe???”
You chuckled nervously, before clearing your throat. “Ahah… Erm… Yes, it’s clear. He has left. Just recently.”
“You’re an angel, L/n, truly a godsend!!” he exclaimed, his arms not easing their tight hold on you.
“I think that’s a bit overselling it, don’t you?” you replied, awkwardly patting his back with one of your hands while waiting for him to let go. But when he never did you sighed. “You should apologize to him, though…”
“WHAT- ARE YOU CRAZY!? I can’t do that, you don’t know him! He really will kill me, nothing could change his mind any longer!” His head snapped up to look at you as he shouted desperately.
“Is there nothing you can do to make up for it?” you questioned, while simultaneously trying to ease his nerves and escape his vice-like hold. He froze for a second as your words entered his ears, he was visibly contemplating his options.
He blinked at you. “Could you… maybe… Help me fix his porch?” he asked carefully, his energetic and loud voice suddenly uncharacteristically small. “Maybe, just maybe he would be easier to approach if I fixed it but… I don’t wanna do it alone, he’s seriously scary.” he continued, his arms finally releasing you from their hold as he crossed his arms nervously, wagging his body from side to side.
You sighed, allowing a huff of amusement out as you shook your head gently. “Fine, fine. I’ll help you out. This will be the second time I help you, just so you realize.” you teased. He was relieved for a moment before stiffening up at your teasing. But that was that. Now you had agreed to help him, again. It seemed like you had plans ahead of you now, whether you liked it or not. Truthfully, you didn’t mind. It gave you something to do, distracting you from the thoughts which threatened to consume you about your life back at home.
“...Can I stay here for the night?”
“Say what now..?”
In the end you ended up hosting a sleepover with the Thunder Hashira. Can’t say you saw that one coming, but here we are.