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"YOU GAME?" HITOSHI ASKED, gesturing to the crate of all kinds of gaming equipment placed near the television. "I never knew you were a gamer girl y/n."

After the awkward incident back on the streets, you and Hitoshi had a rather silent walk back to your house. It was perplexing, to say the least,  you tried to come up with some small talks to fill up the silence, but every time you tried to bring something up, he never replied. Even if he did, it was always with little to no enthusiasm.

Even though he always held a rather stoic facade and appeared apathetic towards everything he sees, the small permanent frown on his face never failed to lift into a small smile whenever you're around. Not that you're bragging or anything, but Hitoshi almost never frowns whenever you're with him.

Sometimes you would even tease him with that fact, leaving him into a flustered mess.

Seeing him with a deep frown etched onto his face is concerning. Was he still shocked from the encounter? You would've thought that he'd be somewhat immune to the anger portrayed to him because of all the bullying, but you know it's better not to assume these kinds of things.

Whatever that's on his mind is none of your business as far as you're concerned, even if you were his friend, you aren't entitled to know what's keeping him down. Instead, as a respectable friend, you would keep a respectable distance until he feels comfortable enough, sharing his troubles to you. Unless things start to become too out of hand to be ignored, you wouldn't act any different to how you usually do.

With personal experience, you understood that sending pitiful glances and babying him wouldn't do him any good. At least with someone with his background. Taking things slowly and being by his side was all that he needed right now. Until he opens up to you, there was nothing else you could do. So in the meanwhile, you decided to stay silent and let him figure out things on his own.

Things got a lot better once you both reached your house, his shoulders were much more relaxed, and the furrow between his brows also lessened. Hearing him now finally associating a conversation with you also alleviated some of your worries for the boy. With a small sigh of relief, you brought your attention back to the situation at hand and responded to Hitoshi's previous question.

"Gamer girl?" You repeated, tilting your head to the side in confusion. "I don't, there've been boxes shipped to my doorsteps every week since last month of these equipment. I don't know who it's from but I checked for everything that could be potentially harmful and thankfully, I didn't find any."

"Huh." Hitoshi crouched down to the crate, pulling some of its content out onto the floor. "Well, if it isn't anything harmful, then I guess there isn't any reason to not keep it."

You plopped yourself next to the curious purple floof, peering at the objects in his hand.

Hitoshi placed the items gently onto the table, bringing some closer for your clueless eyes to get a look. "All the games here are either classics or hold a pretty high ranking in the gaming community. Everything is in really good condition, I think some might even be brand new actually."

"Whoever is sending you these either researched a lot about this or is an experienced gamer themselves. A lot of the gaming accessories here wouldn't be known unless you've actively played seriously for five years at the very least." He continued.

You boredly stared at the games and headphones that Hitoshi was reviewing. You knew nothing at all about gaming, and hearing all this talk is making your head spin. You nod every once in a while though, just to appear somewhat engaged to whatever ted talk Hitoshi was on.

'Was this how he felt when I started going on tangents about plants?'

"HOLY FUCK! " Hitoshi jerked his hand at the blue, pastel controller in his hand, bringing it closer to his face in bewilderment.

"What is it?" You asked, a bit surprised at your friend's sudden outburst.

"You said you got all this for free?"

"Technically, yeah," you confirmed. "What, is there something really valuable in there?"

Hitoshi nodded. "Yeah, this controller is part of the pastel collection that launched quite recently, it's a rather rare and limited series. Even though they're more targeted to the feminine audience, many guys just get them purely for the refreshing look of it. I tried to get the light blue one here on the day of its sale, but it was already sold out ten minutes after its release. Now if you want to get it, you'd have to pay double, sometimes even triple the price."

"O-oh." you stuttered, blinking hesitantly a few times, trying to kick your brain cells back to work. "If you want it, you can have it. I don't know how to use these kinds of things anyway, and I doubt I'd be able to find the time to learn to."

"Find the time? Y/N, you and I both know you have more spare time in your hands than you think, you just tend to use the time to sleep."

You rolled your eyes. "Hey hey, I just offered you something that is apparently really valuable to you, and you're here attacking me?"

Hitoshi, ignoring what you said, threw a pair of one of the special gloves to you from the crate to your lap. One that is found more commonly to be used for digital artists, but could also be used for someone with your quirk. The glove only covers your pinky, which wouldn't cause your quirk to activate on the controllers.

"I don't need another controller Y/N, I would take those limited edition posters in the crate but knowing my cats, they would ruin it in less than a day."

"Then what am I going to do with this?" You deadpanned. "Should I just earn a couple bucks with these then?"

"Why didn't you sell it as soon as you got it?"

Why?

"Because I knew you were into these kinds of stuff, I thought that you might want it?"

Hitoshi raised his eyebrow. "Why does that sound more like a question than an answer?"

Fighting against the blush that is evidently starting to bloom on your cheeks, you nervously fiddled with your thumbs in your laps. "I was just lazy~." you groaned. "I procrastinated and now that you're here, I figured why not get it over and done with."

"Hm really?" Hitoshi leaned his face closer, pressuring you to teeter backwards to establish more space between you two. "You have no interest whatsoever in gaming?"

Maybe it was his own hopeful thinking, but he believes there's something else behind your actions of keeping the crate. As much as he wants to believe you saved it for Hitoshi to take, he knew that you wouldn't keep anything else unless it was to your interest.

"U-uhm."

Even as his face was only four inches at most away from yours, you refused to look anywhere near his eyes. Your pupils bounced from the ceiling to the corner of your room and back, unable to look at a spot for more than two seconds. The intimidating silence was starting to get unbearably uncomfortable, but you couldn't gather enough strength to push Hitoshi away.

Hitoshi snorted at your flustered and embarrassed expression before pulling back away from your personal space. To that, you were grateful and released a sigh of relief.

"I see your twinkling eyes whenever I play on my phone y/n~."

"Nonsense." You denied.

"I see your reflection on my screen when I game, and every time I do, your eyes are tHIs big." Opening his eyes wide with his fingers, he taunted with a ridiculous expression.

"PfTT, STAWP!" you swatted at his face, but Hitoshi only leaned away from your reach. "I do nOT look that stupid."

"HitOSHi~ whAT ArE yOu DoIN? DID yOU Die? WhO iS tHat WaLkinG doG? WHy DoeS ShE sOunD LiKE a PepPy mOsquItO? Oh MY gOd YoU caN DecoRaTE a FUckINg IsLand? HitoSHi HItoShi HitosHI HI--."

"OKAY OKaY STOPP !!" you begged.

"For fucks sake, fine. I kept it because I wanted you to teach me how to play." you huffed. "Now stop making that face, it's annoying."

You whipped your head stubbornly to the side, crossing your arms over your chest. Hitoshi would be lying if he said he didn't find the action adorable.

He huffed an amused sigh and scooched a bit forward to peer at your face. "Alright alright, stop pouting y/n, don't you want to play?" He smirked, prodding on one of your cheeks relentlessly with his index finger.

Peakin an eye open, you hesitantly tilted your head towards the purple floof in front of you. "You're gonna teach me?"

"Yep." He quipped. "Playing by myself gets pretty boring afterwhile, so having someone around me to play with would make gaming ten times better."

"I gotta warn you though, your sleep schedule is going to be completely fucked after this."

"PfFT, I've been forced to do hours of training, study hours for school, and still managed to sleep nine hours a day, I think I can manage."

Hitoshi laughed. "Say that to me next week."

"Bet." You smiled.

"How much?"

"...1000 yen."

He smirked. "Deal."

With neither of you backing down, you shook each other's hand with confidence to secure the bet.

"Anyways what are we playing," you asked excitedly, pushing the rivalry behind your shoulders.

Hitoshi smiled, he leaned forward to grasp onto two Wii controllers and a CD case from the stash. You tilted your head in anxiousness, practically bouncing on your knees, waiting to play your first game yet.

He gave you one of the controllers and began setting up the Wii with the t.v. "Well, we'll start with one of the most classic games there are in history. It's fairly easy to play so I don't think it would be too hard for you to learn the mechanics."

"Well, what is it?" You asked, sliding on the pair of gloves before fumbling and clicking on random buttons on the controller.

"We're playing..." The screen lit up, showing two red and green characters floating in a crouching position in midair.

Your eyes shined in anticipation, your attention completely stolen by the two figures racing on the screen. The same old intro music that Hitoshi had memorized by heart blasted and sprang itself around the room, making even the purple sheep himself excited and hum along with the music.

The red and green character suddenly stopped mid-screen, English characters started to pop out of nowhere and while neither of you are fluent at English, an optimistic voice popped out to scream the name for the both of you.

"Mario Kart Wii !!"

(YAHOO!)

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1857 words
unedited

I FINALLY UPDATED MSKSKSMXKS!S
i forgot how to write for a week. 🤠
also i blame my productivity on discord. 🗿

———

i know hitoshi is ooc in this chapter, kind of.
but come on, maybe he's just excited about sharing his hobbies !
(totally not me trying to come up with an excuse) 🥴✌️✨