It was starting to get late in the night, and Komaeda seemed to have fallen asleep already. Hinata in turn was staring at the ceiling, his thoughts wandering around all these things going on. He sure had talked big to Komaeda, only to go to bed right after and worry about everything.

Tomorrow they would go to the bank, and he was still a bit concerned about that. Komaeda had assured everything would go well - apparently him being their customer already would be of use. So there were some kind of connections going on in the background, so everything should go well. Perhaps he just wasn't used to showing the ID to anyone or… doing official things while still being on the run, basically.

It had been a while since they left, now. Whether people were still looking for him and how actively… at least, his face had been shared to police around the country. But that didn't mean there were still people looking for him constantly.

He reached for the phone that he had left in the pocket of his jeans, struggling a bit since he didn't really want the leave the warmth of the futon. After retrieving the phone he started to try and search the internet for information. Although, it proved to be pretty difficult since, well, this wasn't exactly the type of content that was talked a lot in public.

He did find an old article about his escape, from the end of last month. If he remembered right, this article was the dated the day after he and Komaeda had left Kyoto. It mostly said about keeping a lookout for a person of his general description, and a warning to be careful and not approach him, instead reporting him to the number specified in the article.

He really had been saved by Komaeda since he got to leave Kyoto immediately. With this article, people around town would have been noticing him and reporting on these sightings, and he would have been none the wiser before getting caught.

To think that the first person he had stumbled on mostly by accident had been a weirdo like Komaeda, who was ready to drop everything and anything to aid Hinata and leave Kyoto without regrets.

It was an insane amount of luck. But it did make him think… Komaeda had seemed to believe his luck had brought Hinata to him, but still that felt like too much of an convenience for Hinata. After all, even if Komaeda did consider himself lucky for meeting him and getting to leave Kyoto, it was pretty clear that from an objective standpoint, Hinata had been the one who was lucky. Infact, if normal people were considered, what happened to Komaeda would have probably been considered unlucky.

… Honestly, the more time had passed, the more he was starting to resent that word. He had never really thought about or considered luck in his life that much before, but now it seemed to be in the center of everything, complicating things left and right. And whether it even was luck complicating things or Komaeda's blind faith in it…

Hinata continued his search for any information, and he did end up finding similar articles from other news sites as well. They were all within a two weeks from the first one, and some of them repeats to keep reminding people.

But after that, for a little over a week now, there hadn't been any new articles. Not even reminders. Whether that meant the search was being slowly put on hold, or whether they had changed their approach, Hinata wasn't sure. Although, since they had realized he must have left Kyoto, there wasn't much sense in focusing the attention in there.

So they might still be searching for him.

"Hinata-kun…?" He suddenly heard a mumble come from the futon next to his. Komaeda seemed to have woken up, rubbing his eyes as he leaned on his elbows. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I just couldn't sleep so I was searching some stuff. I couldn't find what I searched for though, so I was thinking of going back to trying to sleep," Hinata whispered back, putting the phone away as he had said. Komaeda seemed still concerned, but he also seemed like he was barely awake, his eyes constantly shutting close without probably intending to.

"Oh… okay… If it's something you want to know, I can find it out for you tomorrow…," he mumbled, and Hinata smiled a bit.

"Yeah, thanks. But you can go back to sleep, I'll go too," he answered and the other nodded slowly, before setting his head back on the pillow and seemingly falling asleep again almost instantly. Hinata got properly back under the covers as well, closing his eyes.

He should try to get some sleep too, to get through the next day.

Hinata leaned against the car, tugging his woolly hat down a little to cover his ears better. Komaeda was a bit farther away, talking on the phone with someone from the bank. They would leave as soon as Komaeda managed to get an appointed time for them, so Hinata could have also gone into the car - Komaeda had even offered to turn the car on so it would warm up.

But despite it being cold, Hinata had wanted to be outside for a bit. Now that they were here, with amazing sights and not as much people, it was pleasant to stand outside and breathe fresh air. It almost made him want to go on a walk in the nearby area, but they should leave it for another day.

Today they had to take care of the bank business after all, among some other things they had planned for today. And since they were going to the town already, it would feel pointless to just go for the bank and then return. Even though Komaeda probably wouldn't mind if Hinata just said he wanted to, it still felt like a waste of time.

He glanced at Komaeda when he noticed the other was ending the phone call. Based on Komaeda's expressions, they weren't any problems with the appointment time they had agreed on. Hinata stopped leaning against the car and turned to look at Komaeda as the other said his goodbyes on the phone and stopped the call.

"So?" he asked when Komaeda had walked a little closer.

"The appointment is at noon," Komaeda said as he opened the car's doors. "So we aren't in any rush."

Indeed, they had woken up around eight in the morning, even despite Hinata having taken a bit longer to fall asleep. Komaeda hadn't seemed like he remembered what they had talked about during the night, but Hinata presumed the offer still stood. He would just have to remind Komaeda if he did end up asking the other.

Although, he was a bit hesitant to do that. After all, it might make Komaeda learn more about his backstory than Hinata… really wanted him to. Or well, at the same time he wished he could just reveal it all to Komaeda, but then again he was a bit worried. It was a lot of things to tell and a lot of things that could affect what they were doing. And for now, he would rather avoid any arguments…

He would have to tell about it eventually though. But for now, it was better not to. Besides, in the end, even if he found out more about their search efforts for him, there wasn't much else they could do. Perhaps it would be even better not to know…

They got into the car and left the inn's parking lot. Soon enough they were on the road, covered by snow walls on both sides. In a sense it was weird to not be able to see the scenery anymore, but there was also some kind of comfort with driving through such an enclosed road. There was nothing but the two of them, the car, and the music playing on the radio.

"I think we'll be in Aomori around eleven, what do you want to do before we go to the bank?" Komaeda asked after they had been quiet for a while. An hour, huh… Not enough to watch a movie. And they had eaten breakfast not too long ago too, so it would be weird to go eat.

"Hmm… I guess let's just walk around and see the places, I don't really have anything specific in mind that we could do in that time," Hinata answered, leaning back on his seat and yawning. He hadn't felt that tired before, but now that he was sitting in the car, surrounded by warmth and the steady humming of the car, he was getting a bit sleepy.

"Okay! The bank is pretty close to some shops, so we can check those out," Komaeda said, continuing to explain about some of the shops he could remember. Most of them sounded like stores selling handcrafts, similar to the glass store they had bought the marbles from. Komaeda did seem intrigued by these kind of shops, huh? Although, he seemed to appreciate art and other beautiful things, so perhaps it went in the same line of thought for him.

Perhaps they would find something interesting while they looked around. Now that he thought about it, Christmas was coming up, so if he happened to see something Komaeda might like… It might be interesting to see how the other reacted to getting a gift - he had liked the marble at least. And now that he was getting his own bank account and money too, he could easily buy something and keeping it a secret from Komaeda.

Hinata smiled to himself contently. It would be fun to be on the paying end for a while, instead of just having everything Hinata wanted bought for him.

Thank you for reading all the way to here! I'm sorry it's a short one again, I've been working on a NaNo text (which will be a NDRV3 fic actually) so I didn't have that much writing energy to get a big chapter out this time. But I'll try to work on the next one in advance! I hope you enjoyed this one despite the shortness! The next chapter will be up on 20th of November, I hope to see you there!