Summary: She's not a princess. She's not even something special - she was, is, always would be, he amends - but the first time he sees her, he only thinks, I wonder if she knows how sad her eyes look. Because maybe, just maybe, she needs someone there to care. (He blames it on his 'Onii-chan' senses.)

Characters: Hikigaya Hachiman, Shirogane Kei

Rating: K+

Genre: romance

Tags: fluff, slice of life, very mild drama, character exploration, adolescence, friendship, snapshots

Disclaimer: Characters are property of Watari Wataru, ponkan8, and Akasaka Aka.

When Hikigaya Hachiman first meets Shirogane Kei, he is lost. (Something about her screams insecurity, just as much as it screams confidence. The contradiction kills him because he sees it in the mirror every morning.)

He's not sure what needs to be said, or what needs to be done, but he can't keep looking at her like an idiot, especially if she's Komachi's friend. So he walks up to her after his shoes slip off and he tells her, "Hello. My name's Hikigaya Hachiman, and I presume you're one of my sister's many friends?"

The girl barely glances back at him, her gaze stern, disapproving, and not nearly as cold as Yukinoshita Yukino as she pierces him with her eyes. He can see the Hmph behind her eyes, even as she parts her lips with a gentle, carefully manufactured half-smile and responds, "My name is Shirogane Kei, and yes, I'm one of Komachi's... friends."

Her hesitation makes his brows raise because it's not often anyone is afraid to associate themselves with his sister. She's not flushing, which means she's not embarrassed. She's simply uncertain. (And that, again, only serves to remind him of himself.)

He coughs and says, "Well, don't mind me. What are you doing on the couch though - where's Komachi?"

"She said she was on her way home, but the trains are stuck."

His eyes almost narrow, but he reminds himself that his face is already intimidating and that there's no need to scare anyone with it when it's not necessary. So he asks, "Not from around here?" His intrusiveness startles the girl, but she is not unused to it. In fact, it startles him when she smiles.

"I'm from Tokyo."

Hikigaya makes a noise of acknowledgement as he coughs into a hand and sits down next to her, far enough that it wouldn't be considered rude, but not too far so that he seems awkward. He doesn't know or care whether or not Shirogane appreciates it, but she's a guest, Komachi's friend, a person, and deserves respect.

But his social anxiety starts to take over as he realizes that he is alone with a girl whose eyes match the sky and whose hair catches his eyes over and over again (he internally curses his misfortune in meeting so many attractive females). He wonders if that colour is natural, and he frowns as his mouth asks before his brain has time to boot, "Is that genuine?"

Shirogane blinks. "Pardon?"

He feels the red of flush envelop his cheeks but keeps his composure. "Sorry, I was just asking about your hair. I've met some halfies," Totsuka, he thinks, "and a lot of other people with interesting palettes," Kawasaki, Yuigahama, "and I'm always wondering whether or not the colours are natural."

Shirogane Kei nods, her expression only wrapped in confusion.

Hikigaya apologizes again, and she waves him off. "So uh, honestly, can I help you with something?" He was such a bad host, but an even worse conversationalist, he thinks. But all of a sudden, things catch up to him and he wonders, "Wait, how did you get in my house?!"

The girl produces a key - Komachi's - and his face almost turns white. He struggles to keep his emotions in check because his sister decided to give away a key to their home to someone he has never met until now. Shirogane, predictably, understands his concerns and begins to stammer out her own apology.

He shakes his head and sighs. "I don't mean to attack your character or anything, but Komachi's too trusting sometimes. This scares me."

"I understand." Her reply is soft and her eyes are distant. But the message is clear. She's not sorry for what she's done, but she's sorry for possibly getting her friend in trouble, and he laughs. The younger of the two quietly fiddles with her phone and he's not creeping, thank you very much, when he realizes her phone's battery seems to be flicking on and off and he runs into his room to produce a charger for her.

"Do you want water? Tea? Coffee? Milk? Soymilk?" He rattles off drinks and he knows she can tell that the two of them aren't comfortable, but they aren't uncomfortable (privately, he thinks it's weird that he's nervous in his own house, but there hasn't ever been a time where he's been alone with any female in the Hikigaya home aside from Komachi or the woman that birthed him).

"Coffee - black, please."

Normally, he would have just nodded and gone off to finish her request like the requests he so often handles are school. But something ticks in him and he has to tease her, so he asks, "Really?"

To which her response is the smallest, but cutest, smile he has ever seen and he blinks as he heads off. Hachiman makes the two of them coffee and isn't ashamed that it's instant. This girl looks stylish, she's not lavish, so he hopes that she's able to bend a knee and accept his commoner's drink.

She does. And after her first few sips, he brings his own cup up and offers it to her. Miraculously, he doesn't sputter or blush, but she raises both brows and stares at him. He encourages her to drink it, promises he means nothing by this, and she doesn't refuse. Shirogane coughs at how sweet it is and glares at him with the force of ten thousand Harunos.

"Life is bitter, so coffee, at least, should be sweet," he tells her, his eyes and voice deadpan but soft. It elicits a giggle so soft that he smiles, he knows his eyes crinkle, and grins at her. The two of them laugh together for half a minute and his tongue decides to talk again. "I hope I didn't offend you with that."

The gravity of his actions seems to hit him but he finds he doesn't care as he raises his cup to his lips and sips away the rest of his coffee. She's watching and she doesn't flush, but the slightest of pinks freckle her cheeks, the tiniest dots ever, and he relaxes as she shakes her head (God is smiling on him, he believes).

The ice is broken, and it's written all over her body language. She starts to relax, her limbs loosening as she eases into the couch. Another text from Komachi says she'll be back in an hour because the trains are fixed and the younger Hikigaya sibling asks if Shirogane is fine.

Hikigaya the son decides that telling Komachi he's taking care of her friend is something he should say but chooses not to. For some reason, this time is special and there's something about it that he doesn't want to surrender to anyone, not even to Komachi.

But he's not an absolute idiot so he just calls her and tells her, "Yeah, I'm home. Don't worry, your friend's here and she's safe. Just make sure you get back alright."

He doesn't know what sets it off, but he remembers talking about Komachi and asking Shirogane how they met; she acquiesces and tells Hachiman that their school conducted a penpal program and Kei ended up just asking Komachi for her number. They hadn't met in person too often but they did enjoy shopping together.

"She talks about you all the time." The words slip out so easily that Kei gasps and covers her mouth with her hands as she feels an unusual level of embarrassment poke at her. She catches Hachiman smiling and she's puzzled, so she asks why he's so happy about that.

"Because I love her. She's my one and only little sister and she's the most adorable little sister in the whole world."

"... I wish Miyuki would look at me like that…" Hachiman knows he's not supposed to hear that and he doesn't know who Miyuki is but he can guess well enough and is angry that her older brother makes her upset but he doesn't know their relationship (but he's a hypocrite because he judges anyway, and he doesn't know why). Shirogane is quiet for some time and Hikigaya waits because she's obviously lost in thought. He simply gets up and grabs a blanket, with a matching pillow, and gives it to Shirogane because she looks like she needs to hug something.

Hikigaya's mind plays the lyrics to Secondhand Serenade's Vulnerable in his head but out loud, he says nothing but normal conversation as he continues to ensure that his guest feels welcome in the Hikigaya house. He doesn't know if he's succeeding, but there's nothing worse than not trying and he thinks that Shirogane Kei is just a girl who's struggling through the great unknown called Earth, even though humans have been inhabiting it for a rather long time.

"Thank you," Shirogane says, head ducked under the blankets. He doesn't pressure her because there are some moments in the conversation that this girl looks like she might crack, but he knows she's not glass. He's still scared to prod, even though he feels infinitely closer to this stranger he just met.

When Komachi returns home, she is greeted by the sight of one of her best friends and her brothers chatting away amicably, and her eyes widen because signals travel through her body and her brain just clicks and Komachi knows that her brother is falling in love with Shirogane Kei but doesn't understand that he is. Keep calm, she tells herself. Her brain is on overdrive, and all of a sudden, what she needs to do is obvious.

Just do what any good little sister would: scream and jump on him with a hug, surprising both Hachiman and Kei so bad that they yelp.

"What's gotten into you?" Hachiman's voice is nervous and concerned. "Are you okay? I swear to God if anyone felt you up, so help all of Japan, I'll-"

Komachi cuts him off by squeezing him harder and looking at Kei with a twinkle in her eye and that's when she realizes that Kei doesn't know her brother very well (she's going to fix that). Kei's brows furrow as she laughs and joins in on the hug by prying Komachi off her brother and keeping the cutest Hikigaya to herself.

Shirogane Kei stays the night and boards her train out of Chiba with a smile on her face as she waves goodbye to a pair of smiling siblings.

The next time he meets Shirogane Kei, Hikigaya Hachiman does so on a trip to Shuchi'in Gakuen under orders from Hiratsuka Shizuka and he's amazed by how oversized everything is. He's in awe of how expensive everything is and it makes him pale to think that this is what wage-slaves toiled away in hopes for (he thinks it's pathetic; after all, to work is to lose, because reaching this level of finance took old money, freakish genius, or both).

Hikigaya steps into the building after receiving a visitor's pass and is not surprised that people murmur at him and understands that the elites of Japan have never seen a creature as filthy and evil-eyed as him (it doesn't make the hurt any less, but he's gotten used to it over the years). He sighs and doesn't bother to ask for directions, instead opting to look at a map on one of the school's bulletin boards.

The walk to the student council's room makes him sweat with fear because he passes some VIPs on the way and knows the hierarchy is insane and there's no way he'll ever end up here again. He's seen some of these people on television and knows that one wrong move here wouldn't end him, but would end the Hikigaya name for generations if they had any more. From the conversations he overhears as he walks, he concludes that the power they hold makes Haruno look like a squabbling toddler, and he thinks that he understands why such a witch lashes out at the world cruelly.

She would never be one of these people unless a miracle marriage happened. It is not unheard of, but the odds are unlikely. Nonetheless, her parents would always try. Strive to find something, someone, somehow to make the Yukinoshita name a bit more. The bitterness of her knowledge, he thinks, is like consuming the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Haruno would forever be a pawn because she was unfortunate enough to have been born gifted, blessed, beautiful, and most of all, first.

As he snaps out of his thoughts, he realizes he's reached the doors to the office he traveled all the way from Chiba for, and hesitantly knocks. There's a yelp and some scrambling before a voice tells him to come in (and with one last breath, he does).

Inside, he sees a cute girl that gives off the vibe of a certain clubmate, a haunted-looking boy with eyes like his, a deadbeat gamer that also reminds him of himself, and a Yuigahama two-point-oh. And also Shirogane Kei (he struggles so much not to stare at her).

All eyes snap toward him, and from the first word, he knows that Shinomiya Kagura (everyone in Japan knows her face, he thinks) is ten million times more evil than both the Yukinoshita sisters multiplied together. The absolute majesty in her voice as she smiles at him with her eyes closed and asks him, "Do you need something?" makes him feel like he's less than a bug.

There's nothing wrong with her words, per se, but he just feels so uncomfortable that he knows that she is nothing short of apocalyptically troublesome.

So he does what he normally does and gets right to the point. "Yeah. I'm here for a request from a teacher at my school," he knows his uniform is poor, that his visitor's tag sticks out like a sore thumb, that his aesthetics are nonexistent, "I'm not sure what it is, but she gave me some papers and a package."

Hikigaya rummages through his backpack and lays the offerings on the boy's table and he glances at how Kei is sitting next to him, but not close like a friend or close like a lover. Their similarities fill in the blanks for him almost immediately.

His brain takes six tenths of a second before deciding for him that today is the day his genitals become balls of steel and diamond. His mouth just asks, "Are you Shirogane Miyuki?"

The addressed blinks, but realizes that as a student not from this school, of course he wouldn't know who he was just by sight. "Yes. I'm the Shuuchi'in Gakuen student council president, Shirogane Miyuki. I'm sorry, I'm at a loss - we don't usually have student visitors from other schools. You are..?"

He wants to wave his hand in dismissal or scoff, but Hikigaya knows that doing so is quite possibly literal suicide. Everyone in the room is watching him, and Kei's irises stay trained on her brother, don't flicker except once in acknowledgement. "I'm Hikigaya Hachiman. I'm nothing but a loner, with a few exceptions."

There is a brief period in which everyone waits for him to expand, but it becomes clear that this boy isn't going to, and suddenly, confusion is the name of the game.

The pink-haired girl snickers at his address like he's funny and Hikigaya spares a glance at the girl, catching the boy with headphones coughing as he does so. The attempt to break the awkward silence isn't missed by him and he sighs. "Right, so I'm not much a people person. I'm going to go now."

None of the student council members seem to care as they tend to their paperwork once more. It frightens Hikigaya how quickly they switch back to work, but he accepts his nonexistence in their eyes.

But before he leaves, he looks right at the younger Shirogane child and says, "Kei, come over some time soon. Komachi misses you; she told me to tell you 'Hi' while I was on the way here."

His use of the girl's given name makes everyone in the office freeze for seconds before they all break out in their own ways. The girl's older brother looks purple and Hikigaya knows, as an older brother himself, he wants to gut Hachiman and hang his entrails like Vlad the Impaler did. The other boy in the council passes out, his head hitting the armrest of his couch (Hikigaya wishes the service club has anything remotely comfortable to sit in, let alone lounge in). Miss happy-go-lucky shrieks and is panicking and attacks Shirogane Kei with a hug and shrieks again when she realizes the younger girl is flushing like an apple. Shinomiya Kaguya's mouth stops working as it opens and closes.

Even as Shirogane Kei's body sits there paralyzed, her head and neck seem to function just enough. She meets Hikigaya Hachiman's gaze and shyly nods. At that point, her older brother looks like he needs CPR and Shinomiya-hime seems like she doesn't understand what's going on. Feeling satisfied, Hikigaya Hachiman clears his throat and walks out, a hand waving his good-bye.

On the train back home, he gets a text from an unknown number but he has a good feeling that he knows who it is. He smiles and saves the contact as "K-chan." (He ignores all the death threats sent to him by various Shuuchi'in Gakuen student council members.)

One month later and the service club's door is slammed open as a furious Shirogane Miyuki files in, and Hikigaya Hachiman knows that he's really concerned for his sister because the other boy works a part-time job and studies religiously to maintain his place in the world and taking a break from all of that was impossible. So before Shirogane opens his mouth, Hikigaya Hachiman gets up from his chair and pulls the other boy into the hallway and up onto the rooftop before either of his clubmates can react.

The door shuts behind him and they sit on a bench. He lets Shirogane rant and vent and tear himself apart as he screams at Hachiman and doesn't say a word because he knows that whenever Komachi starts showing interest in either guys and/or girls, he's going to lose it, too. And he knows that none of Shirogane Miyuki's actions are hurtful in nature, but rather because he's the one who's hurt by his sister's secrecy and Hikigaya's sympathies only deepen.

Shirogane's rant does not last long, but what's left afterwards is more husk than human as he seemed completely defeated as his rage evaporates. The look in his eyes is nothing short of desperate and confused. He's a genius, and everyone who has met him knows this.

But even the most brilliant of men can be nothing but dumb.

Quietly, Hikigaya spills his thoughts on the matter and tells Shirogane how much his sister knows that he cares, but is scared and lonely most of the time because their father is an actual deadbeat and their mother's not there and the only one she can trust is always gone.

Kei, he tells Shirogane, is busy with her own work but she does it because she knows the moment she doesn't, she's alone, depressed, and frightened out of her wits, Kei keeps it to herself because she doesn't want to burden her older brother who puts everything on his back and she knows he wants to get rich and be successful because he's in love with Shinomiya Kaguya, but also because Kei understands that he wants to provide for her.

The admission takes all of his breath and a good portion of an hour, and by the halfway point Shirogane's hands are shaking and he's crying. Then, after all of two minutes, Shirogane rounds on him and demands to know the nature of his relationship with Kei and what his intentions are.

"I don't know." It is the truth, Miyuki sees, within the depths of Hikigaya Hachiman's rotten eyes. They might appear guarded to everyone, but right now, Miyuki understands that Hikigaya is opening up not to a stranger but Shirogane Kei's brother. The boy is confident in all things in life except for the strength and nature of his relationships with other people, and Miyuki cannot blame him because Miyuki is very much the same.

And it is with ease that Shirogane can see how Hikigaya has gotten so attached to his younger sister because he is not an idiot, Hachiman knows. Hachiman can't say exactly what it is that Kei has that takes his all, but Kei is magnetic and he can't stop how much he's drawn to her.

In the end, Shirogane murmurs, "Take care of her."

His eyes promise nothing less than death and torture should he find out that Hikigaya breaks her heart in a way other than the brokenness of a lost relationship inflicts. A solemn nod is exchanged between the two and Hikigaya leads him to the school's gates before heaving out his relief.

When Hikigaya returns to the club room, he finds that the other two are there and demand is in their eyes. But not within their rights. So he shoots down their questions and opens his book, slowly turning each page as he lets his mind sink into another world.

(Older brothers were scary, and too troublesome to deal with. But not for Kei.)

Shirogane Kei and Hikigaya Hachiman were once strangers to one another. But now, Kei thinks, they can be considered friends. And maybe something more in the, hopefully not too far, future.

The thought of Hikigaya Hachiman makes her blush and she immediately shuts up and cups her cheeks as Moeha and her other friends tease her, again, about her mystery guy (Kei thanks whatever deities watching over her because none of this has made it back to the high school student council, and no matter good her brother's relationship with Hachiman is, she knows that he will freak the moment he realizes they have confirmed that they actually are sort-of-not-yet-dating-dating). She refuses to tell them anything about Hachiman except for the fact that he's special, even though he's not, and all of them frown with confusion.

"Keiii, that's not faaaairrr," Moeha pouts, her cuteness on full blast Her puppy-dog eyes come out and even crocodile tears as she tackles and nuzzles her target, causing said target to squeal. But Kei is not about to break.

"No means no, Moeha." She sticks her tongue out and another round of laughter erupts, but they understand.

Lunch ends and they all pile into their seats, and the rest of the day blows by quietly for Shirogane because none of it eclipses the erratic beating of her heart. Her student council duties that day, she finds, have been cancelled because the president has a family emergency. Before she understands that she's happy, her feet take her to the station and she's already boarded a train on the way to Chiba.

Her fingers fly and she texts Hachiman, but her stomach sinks when he takes longer than five minutes to respond. And it is only on minute fourteen that she feels relief as a message appears on her screen: "Do you want to visit me at school? Do you want to wait for me at home?"

And something inside her melts even though she knows Hachiman means his home and not a home that belongs to them, it feels like the latter and something warm overtakes her. Fingers do not stammer but her dexterity finds itself lacking for the better part of three minutes as Kei formulates her response: "What works better for you?"

Hngh. She pouted. Hachiman was too lazy for his own good. But at the same time, he was bending for her; she knew of his reputation at school and how his club operated (she's mildly jealous and terribly annoyed so many girls are after him, even if he's in denial about most of them).

Before she can say anything else, she gets another text: "These girls are so annoying, always asking me who I'm texting and whatnot. Just because I'm a loner doesn't mean I can't use my phone for anything - I mean, they have my number too but they hardly text me. Though I guess it's because we spend a lot of time together."

Then there is fire, a passion that inflames her entirely. What a Cheeky-gaya, Kei thinks. But she's frustrated because he's not lying and worse, his provocations are working.

Shirogane Kei makes her way Soubu High and asks around for the room number she's looking for and deflects all attempts of people wanting to show her the way. Half of them are real, but the other half is full of ill-disguised attempts to hit on her. Her glare keeps most of them at bay and a firm reject demands that she is on her way as she intends.

Her heart beats so fast that Kei isn't sure if this is real until the door's open and three heads look up, two of them with curiosity and surprise. The last one looks at her in a way she can't describe with words, but she knows he's happy to say the least. Hachiman sits straight up and smiles, and that's when the other two girls turn ghost white as Kei walks through the door.

"Hi." Her voice is shy because this is the first time she's been in front of any of Hachiman's acquaintances and she doesn't know what to do. "My name is Shirogane Kei, and I'm here to visit Hikigaya Hachiman."

"You're not a member of this school," the long, dark haired girl points out. Her eyes a blue blaze even though her tone is chilled. This one has to be Yukinoshita, Kei thinks. Her name suits her. But Kei has felt the fury of Kaguya as she watched other women lay their attentions on her brother, and she can't help but feel grateful for those experiences because they've instilled a backbone in her. "And how do you know Hikigaya-kun over here?"

Kei can tell that Yukinoshita has been brought up well, trained and haughty with an air of arrogance that makes Kei's feel shivers. She guesses that the older girl might have been someone who was capable of attending Shuuchi'in but she's not and that means there's something unacceptable about her.

And that's a weapon she can use. "I'm from Tokyo; I go to school at Shuuchi'in Gakuen," and at that, both girls' eyes widen but Yukinoshita flinches and she staggers back, even though she's seated, "and I'm here to request that Hikigaya Hachiman can spend some time with me."

She says this all with a smile, picture perfect innocence. She's learned from the best how to mislead and trap her prey and she knows that her misdirection has been perfectly snapped up. In her peripheral, she catches how Hachiman continues to look impressed and it makes her bold. "So, am I going to have to sit here all day? I don't often have time to see him, so I'm in a bit of a hurry, you see."

Kei thinks she's done, but she doesn't expect that her greatest opposition is just an ordinary girl like her. The pink-haired one, she recalls, is Yuigahama and reminds her of a mix of Chika and Moeha. Her expression is fierce and she opens her mouth to protest, but she never gets the chance to bark.

Hachiman, she realizes, has had enough. He's been watching the two of them and he understands that they might be hurt, that they might be reacting because he doesn't trust them. But he's upset they don't see the hypocrisy. He closes the conversation and shatters Yuigahama's heart when he says, "Kei, let's go home. We can stop by Saize first, though, if you want anything."

Hachiman is dense but he's not a complete idiot, even if he is her fool. Kei winces at his statement. Love is a war, but Hachiman is a hammer to the face. All it takes is one sentence and the breath in the room is sucked out by a vacuum before being forcefully thrust back into the space it left blank and devoid of life.

He knows what effects his words have and she knows it's brutal to have their world turned upside down. And yet, she doesn't care. Because they've had Hachiman to themselves for longer than she has, but she's the one who broke the barriers and chipped the walls because she wanted to. So yes, she pities them. But no, she doesn't really mind it.

Kei replays his declaration and it melts her further as she realizes there's no war in her love.

Her smile tells the whole story as Hachiman slings his bag over his shoulder, gives his clubmates one last glance, then proceeds to slip his hand into hers and their fingers intermingle as a strangling sound chokes out from one of the mouths Shirogane Kei doesn't care for.

Hachiman already is hers and all is well.

Notes and Acknowledgements:

I don't know why I do this to myself. I wrote this all in pretty much one sitting over the course of a few hours. I wouldn't say that this was necessarily inspired by ZeroXSEED's As expected, the Confession they want is wrong, but without it I wouldn't have thought of mixing Kaguya-sama with Oregairu.

The scenes aren't many and they aren't truly developed; they're snapshot-esque, but I'm happy with how they've turned out. I've been reading and rereading a piece on Archive of Our Own (AO3) by the writer stereden called Watashitachi wa Roger kaizoku desu (we still stand proud) which is an incredibly insightful One Piece fanfiction that makes good use of third person and multiple perspective retellings of the same scene.

This is intentionally a short piece. I may come back and make this a drabble-fic, but as far as I'm concerned, this story is complete as of now. If I decide to do more crossovers in this vein, I will probably make a new story to compile all of them in and leave this on its own - however, if all I can think of are Kei x Hachiman skits, then they'll all probably end up attached to this work.

Thanks again for reading.