Chapter 14: Hikigaya Hachiman Likes The Company

"Is this really it?"

"Got a problem?"

"No… it's just so… yellow."

"Isn't yellow your color? "

Hikigaya Hachiman lived down the street from the grocery store, in a tall apartment building beside the elevated train tracks. The outside of the apartment building was covered in what looked like banana yellow subway tile, with concrete external stairs leading up to the several floors.

"Yeah but…" Iroha's eyes narrowed in judgment, "Isn't this a bit much, Hachi-senpai?"

"It grows on you…" Hachiman answered, though he refused to make eye contact, "Besides you can't beat the location and I'm nothing if not practical. It's only logical to put location above all other things when choosing an apartment— outside of affordability of course— so this was the cheapest apartment as close to school as I could get with all the amenities one needs to live. A completely logical decision."

"It was the first one you found when you went house hunting and you decided immediately that it would do because you didn't feel like spending more time looking when this one was fine, is that it?" Iroha sighed to herself as she read through the older boy's transparent claim.

The two made their way up to the second floor. From there, Iroha walked down the hall ahead and stopped in front of a particular door.

"This one is yours, isn't it?" The girl said pointing at the room, a tired expression.

"Yeah… room 208... how'd you know?"

"Ehhhh… that's so like you… are you a closet narcissist, senpai?"

Making the connection, Hachiman felt himself getting flustered. It's not like it was a reason for getting that room in particular. It was just a fun coincidence when he'd picked the room, not to mention that it was the only room available for rent on that floor at the time. Though shortly after he'd moved in, one of his neighbors had moved out. Not waiting for a reply, Iroha looked around.

"What are your neighbors like?"

"Don't know, no one lives in 209 and 207 is never home. No reason to stand out here, come on in."

Hachiman unlocked the door and slipped inside, kicking off his shoes. He held the door for Iroha as she entered.

"Pardon the intrusion." The girl said softly as she entered.

"Oh, so you do have manners." Hachiman said with a slightly cynical chuckle (though it was more of a scoff, if we're being realistic), entertaining himself as always.

"Jerk, of course I do! Geez, you really feel like bullying me today, huh?"

"You're fun to tease; you can consider it payback for all the trouble you've caused me over the course of our relationship… oy what's that face for… don't think too hard about it, ah sorry, I don't have spare slippers."

"Hmph, who's the one without manners now!" Iroha huffed.

She kicked off her shoes and put on Hachiman's slippers before pushing her way past him and into his room.

"It's you! It's definitely you!"

He walked over and set the groceries down on the counter of his kitchen. Iroha took up a seat at Hachiman's coffee table that doubled as a desk, setting herself down on one of his floor cushions. There were four practice tests spread out across the table.

"Ah, senpai, if you just prep everything, I'll do the cooking while you grade my papers." Iroha instructed, picking up the English test and thumbing through it.

She would've looked around more, but there really wasn't much to see. His couch bed was made and the room had clearly been recently cleaned. Iroha wondered if he regularly kept it clean, or if he had tidied up when he had heard she'd be visiting.

"Mm, sounds good."

"I'm starting now~~!" The girl declared before popping her earbuds in to focus on her studies.

Hachiman watched for a moment. She looked pretty dutiful, the same way she had in the student council office earlier. He turned his focus back to the kitchen counter and got out a cutting board and knife to begin prepping the meat.

"It's hard to notice sometimes, but I think she's grown up a little… ah crap, can't tell her that. She'll become more of a pain than she already is if she hears that. I've already lost all respect that a senpai should receive from his kouhai with her… wait…. Hm…. did she ever respect me in the first place? Actually, as far back as I can remember, her calling me senpai never felt particularly respectful…"

Suddenly finding himself slightly irritated, Hachiman popped his own earbuds and went about preparing the ingredients. Luckily, cornstarch had been on sale, so he'd picked some up for the beef and broccoli. Once he'd prepared the meat, he moved on to chopping up the broccoli into smaller pieces. Not only would it help it cook faster, but it would be better for storing and eating later, too.

Once he'd finished with all the ingredients in the recipe that Iroha had pulled from the internet, Hachiman set the rice to cook and made his way into the living room. He plopped himself down across from his student and pulled out his laptop, leaning against his couch bed. As he set about doing his work, he would occasionally take glances up at the girl to make sure she was still working. About half an hour had passed since Iroha had started her tests and it looked like she was over halfway done. With a satisfied smile, Hachiman began outlining his psychology paper. As he worked, his mind wandered to his student's request.

"Helping with the sports festival, huh? … I really don't want to take on any more work… I should just find a way to weasel my way out of this… ah shoot I need to retype this… and get these books to read... "

Leaving his internal deliberations there, the boy started writing into his schedule when he needed certain things done by. A practice forced upon him, and subsequently beaten into him, by one Yukinonishita Yukino during their senior year. After a very heated logical debate, the conclusion was reached that a little work at the start conserved more energy and time than putting things off and not working until the last second. Hachiman, having been on the losing side of the debate, had elected to comply rather than fight any longer. To save energy, of course.

A pencil tapped on the rim of the boy's computer. He looked up to see Iroha, a foxy grin planted firmly on her face.

"She's confident."

He removed his earbuds as the girl did the same. His expression made it clear he was uneager to hear what she had to say, but the girl spoke anyway.

"I think you're gonna be pretty floored by these tests."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I aced them all. Calling it now."

"I really need to make them harder if you did."

"If you do, I'll go with you and we can pick out workbooks together."

"Mm, sounds good, I guess."

"You do it to yourself, ya knowwww?" Iroha laughed as she stood from the table and made her way over to her bag. She turned back to face the boy, awaiting his response.

"What do you mean?" Hachiman asked, standing himself and getting in a quick stretch before moving to the other side of the table. Iroha ruffled around in her bag again before making her way into the kitchen.

"You're a really good teacher. You make the subjects pretty easy to understand. Of course, it helps that you took the same courses, but that can only take a tutor so far. You might have a knack for it."

"For teaching? Thanks, but no thanks. This is a part time gig. Well, I say that, but it's not like I have any other students yet… one is enough to help put food on the table, so I'm not too ungrateful."

Hachiman took up where Iroha had been seated at his table as she moved about the kitchen, examining the ingredients her tutor had prepared for their dinner. She began warming the oil in the pan and the two started chatting while Hachiman graded her quizzes.

"So why did you move?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you move out? Just between us…"

"… I wanted to see what it was like I guess. You know, you still don't use commas correctly everywhere but you're getting better."

"Commas won't matter if I'm speaking. Was that it?"

"More or less. The commute across town for early morning classes would've been a pain… and dorms come with roommates. A couple small time scholarships cover decent portions of my tuition so I figured I could ask to live here… and my parents obliged."

"I'm sure Komachi was sad…"

"That was part of it too."

"Oh?"

"Mm. I wanted her to have some time without me before she went out into the real world."

"Uwa, your siscon side is showing. You care that much about how she grows up?"

"Of course, I'm the biggest siscon in the world. Just not in the gross incestual way. I love Komachi and she's cute. The cutest. A national treasure really, but she's still my sister."

"Ah…"

"Basically… I'll look out for her where I can. Tch, damn another perfect English score. Maybe I should start taking off for misused punctuation."

"Ha! Like that'll be enough to beat me!"

"Don't get cocky. I still have 3 other subjects to grade."

"Fiiiiiiine~, so do you like living alone?"

"Hm."

Hachiman thought for a minute.

"It can be a little lonely… and it's honestly a little harder than I thought it'd be, but…"

His gaze wandered to the girl cooking in his kitchen. When he hadn't been looking, she'd tied her hair back in a high sat ponytail and slipped into a frilly pink apron. Her focus was completely on the meat she had since added to the wok. Pleasant smells filled the air of the apartment as Iroha added a little extra garlic to the pan. It was because of his living alone that he could appreciate a moment like this.

"It's not all bad."

Hachiman redirected his attention to the papers and continued working. She got most of the answers right, adding to Hachiman's internal conflict. On one hand, he was happy that she was absorbing the material well, but on the other he always felt like he was losing somehow. Not the ideal mindset for a teacher, but they weren't a standard student-teacher pair. In math, she used all the proper equations, but it was clear that she skipped writing out some steps.

"That won't fly with her teacher, or on entrance exams… I can't count off but I will make a note of it for her."

Continuing, he made notes on specifics that she could add to her history essay to improve the meaning, and commented on physics that a certain couple equations would save her time.

"Tch. I really do need to make these things harder." Hachiman sighed as he scratched his head.

Iroha poked her head into the room. A satisfied smile across her lips. Hachiman looked up to see the girl.

"Oy, your smile is ticking me off. How's dinner coming?"

"Just finished steaming the broccoli… can't you smell it? Anyways, I'm putting the meat back in the pan so it'll be done soon~!"

"Ah, good. Want me to come fix the rice?"

"Sounds good!" Iroha chimed as she turned around.

Hachiman stood, making his way into the kitchen. He watched, albeit briefly, as the girl stirred the beef and broccoli allowing the sauce to thicken. It looked tasty to him as he reached into the cabinet in front of him and pulled out two bowls. Popping open the rice cooker, he set about filling half the first bowl with scoops of rice.

"How was school today? Besides student council work."

He passed the bowl to his left, and Iroha reached her hand out, taking it from his hands without looking up from the pan. Doing some final stirring, she turned off the heat and filled the first bowl, passing it back to Hachiman who traded it for another bowl of rice.

"It was fine, being a third year is a lot less fun than I thought it'd be though. So much to do all the time."

Hachiman got out two pairs of chopsticks and a couple placemats; he headed back into the living room and cleaned off space on the table for the two to enjoy their meal.

"Isn't that cause you picked a good public school to shoot for?"

"... yeah and whose fault do you think that was?" the girl said under her breath as she made certain the stove was off and cooling down.

"What was that?"

"Nothing~"

Hachiman had re-entered the kitchen to see the girl tidying up the counter a little so that there would be less to do later.

"Ah, just leave that. I can get it later. What do you want to drink?"

"Just water please… uh but you don't need to clean up. I cooked and you prepped. Besides I'm sure you have work to do. I'm mostly done with my homework besides some reading."

Hachiman got the water filter out of his fridge, pouring a couple glasses. He took them in and set them on the table at their seats. Iroha entered the room and sat down at the table with both filled bowls in her hands. Hair still up and apron still on as she set the meal out on the placemats. The two made eye contact and smiled at each other before a realization dawned on the both of them.

"Wait… aren't we totally acting like a couple right now?!"

Red flushed both of their faces as they broke eye contact. They stayed like that for a few moments, all the while internally rationalizing the situation.

"You knew when you planned to cook for him that it would end up like this, what are you doing getting embarrassed now?! Geez… why does it have to be like this… I just wanted to do something sweet and that magazine I read said cooking was the number one way to get a guy to like you! The cooking part was easy enough, but who knew sitting down to eat together would feel so… so… ahhhh... "

"She totally looks like a housewife right now… why does that apron look so cute on her… no no no, what on earth am I thinking?! She's my friend and now my student, she wouldn't see me like that if I were the last guy on earth, what am I getting so worked up over, it's just Iroha…"

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" They both thought at once.

Settling down, Iroha spoke, "Ah, we shouldn't let the food get cold."

"Uh, yeah, you're right. Let's eat."

"Itadakimasu~" The two both said before digging into their meal.

Hachiman's eyes went wide as he scooped up a bite of meat and rice.

"Whoa, this is pretty good Iroha!"

"No need to sound so surprised, I'd like to think I'm somewhat competent in the kitchen."

"Mm! I'd say so!"

"So senpai, how did I do today?"

"Your history essay could use some work, but other than that you're doing well." He gestured to the tests across the table with his chopsticks as he spoke.

"I'll take my win for tonight then!"

"Still not sure how you define these victories, but suit yourself." He lifted the bowl and consumed another mouthful of his meal.

"Hehe, I will!"

The pair continued eating and chatting. They caught up on each other's days as Hachiman shared what he had heard of Yui and Yukino, while Iroha went into more detail about student council work and studying at school. Eventually, the conversation shifted to the subject of the sports festival.

"So… will you be helping?"

Hachiman paused and thought about the question. He'd thought about outright rejecting the idea earlier, but it seemed harder now that the girl was looking him straight in the eye.

"How about you use those test points to ask me?" Hachiman proposed, staring at his bowl. He didn't want to just offer up his help, but Isshiki had this way about her that made her hard to refuse. All the better if he could get rid of some of those pesky requests she won every week for acing his tests.

"Ah! Good idea! Hachi-senpai, I will be requesting your help on Thursday's and the day of the event!" Iroha beamed. Since Hachiman had come up with the idea, she was satisfied with the transaction.

The two continued their meal, and talked about different ways to approach the festival. Hachiman brainstormed a couple suggestions for getting the classes in line, but since most of them involved someone playing a villain to get the committee to do work, they were rejected. A choice few, however, did make it into consideration. Iroha decided it would be best to add another plan that allows students to select the parts they want from each plan and make a proposal of their own.

"Since we have all the pricing information, it shouldn't be too hard, but don't you think it'll cause problems?"

"It depends on how you handle it. You done with that?" Hachiman pointed to Iroha's empty bowl.

"Ah, yeah. What do you mean by how we handle it?" Iroha replied, handing the bowl to her senpai as the two stood to go wash the dishes. Earlier in their meal, they had debated yet again on who would do the clean-up before deciding to both help out.

"I mean, if you make it to where the easiest option, and the best one, is to simply pick a plan already made, but you provide the illusion of free choice more so than you already have… then you can work them back to your options by questioning their choices and explaining any various faults. You made three really good plans. I think if you can lead them to the conclusion that the student council already came up with the best answer, you'll seem not only more competent, but also fair since you gave the option for outside input."

"Could you pass the sponge? How very shrewd of you, Hachi-senpai. Were you always so conniving?"

"Nah, just got a little more underhanded after meeting a certain kouhai. Here you go."

Setting about cleaning the dishes, the conversation died as they scrubbed the pots and knives. The two settled into a comfortable silence, occasionally bumping into each other in the kitchen's small quarters. Finishing his delegated duties first, Hachiman returned to the living room, took up a seat, and opened the novel he needed to read for Japanese Literature. He thumbed through a few pages before he noticed that the sound of running water had stopped.

It was then that Hachiman felt a small pressure against his back. He turned, realizing it was Iroha. The two were seated back to back as she flipped through her tests, not moving to meet his curious gaze. She had changed out of her apron and let her hair back down, hiding her expressions from the boy sitting at her back. Hachiman was about to speak, to ask if she needed to be getting home or if she wanted him to walk her to the station. However, the words had barely left his mouth when the small voice of the fox graced his ears.

"Just a little longer…"

The boy's eyes were drawn to the red of her ears, unable to see the girls face.

"If this amount of teasing is too much for you then why do it… you're not as tough as you act Isshiki, if this is enough to embarass you now… god now I'm turning red too!"

Hachiman's face flushed with a fiery red at the girl's embarrassment. He couldn't cover it without giving himself away so he simply turned his attention back to his book.

"… just a little. Then I'll walk you back."

The boy returned his attention to the novel in hand and continued reading. He'd have to write a report on it before summer came, so if he got the reading out of the way now, it would be easier to write the paper once he had a more concrete grasp of the prompt. After a while of reading in the comfortable silence, he felt Iroha sit up for a moment, ruffle through her bag and plop herself back down at his back. He heard the girl flipping through the pages of a magazine, and turned to look over his shoulder.

"That doesn't look like work," he commented.

"Mind your own business, it's important to take breaks too…"

"And that's what you're doing?"

"Yup. Call it recharging?"

"What are you a smartphone?"

"Ah, you just made a lame joke didn't you?"

"Erk…"

"I could tell cause you had that stupid, gross, self-satisfied look on your face that you only put on when you think you're being clever."

"This girl! There has to be a limit to how rude you can be to someone in their own home… your cooking was good though… so I'll let it slide."

"No response? I'll take it that my guess was right then." The girl said haughtily, not looking up from her magazine.

"Whatever… What are you reading about? How to make the guy you like notice you or something cheesy like that?" Hachiman asked, returning his focus to his work.

"..."

"Eh? No way? Was I right?"

"AH, how much of a jerk can you be? So what if I was?"

"Heh, I don't think that's something you have to worry about, Iroha."

"What do you mean?" The girl sounded a little caught off guard, and somewhat nervous, but curious nonetheless.

"I mean, if you just go over and cook for him then I'm sure you'll charm the heck out of whoever it is you like, works on most guys and I can testify that you have good cooking."

"Even on guys like you senpai?" Isshiki asked in a playful tone, though Hachiman noted there was something weird, and just a little forced, about the way she asked the question.

"I mean yeah, sure, men are pretty simple creatures when it comes down to it. Feed us, date us, do whatever. So long as a girl does it with the meaning behind it that she's interested, any guy will like it… Why would you wanna date a guy like me? Aren't you shooting for someone like Hayama? The successful athlete type? I mean…"

Hachiman continued to ramble on as he read a few more pages. Discussing the ins and outs of how simple men are and how guys like him would probably be the worst to date and how Iroha could do much better than date a loner. They were needy and selfish people by nature which is inherently why they end up alone. That wasn't to say being a loner was all bad, it was certainly better than being fake and popular.

"It's certainly better to be the real deal, but not at the cost of your sanity. Not sure what kind of guy your crush is, but… wait what were we talking about?"

"stupid hachi-senpai…" Iroha said quietly with a laugh.

"What was that? You keep talking under your breath."

"I said don't worry, senpai. He's nothing like the type of person you described. I like him very much. He might be a little stupid, but he's got his upsides that outweigh how incredibly stupid he can be at times. In fact, sometimes even his stupid-ness can be quite charming."

"Why do I feel oddly attacked by this? Have I done something wrong? Why have I been stricken with this odd sense of guilt?... The pointedness is probably just my imagination… mm, yeah that makes the most sense."

"Well, anyway, I think you should pick someone smarter. Nothing good comes of dating an idiot, especially not with your grades."

"Sure, sure, aren't you supposed to be reading?"

"I can read and hold a conversation. It's part of my Service Club skill series. There are 29 in total. One of which is lying to Yuigahama about her cooking. I got really good at that over my time with the club."

"Aha…"

The two passed the rest of the night away, chatting and bantering, content in each other's presence. The warm atmosphere in the small room felt homely. Neither felt the need to hold back as they talked their way into the later evening.

Eventually, however, it was time for Iroha to go home. The pair put on their shoes and made their way to the station. As they approached, Iroha took a couple steps ahead, stopping in front of Hachiman to where they both stood in the light cast by the street lamps.

"Thanks for walking me all this way, Hachi-senpai! I should be good from here."

"Ah, sure."

"... senpai?"

"What is it?"

The girl shifted, seemingly thinking about her next words carefully. After a moment, she shook her head and smiled. It was a sweet smile, devoid of any foxiness. Hachiman found himself a little stunned with a gentle warmth welling up in his face.

"Can I come cook for you again? It was fun… so?"

Hachiman looked away, unable to maintain eye contact with the girl.

"do what you want…" He responded with a quiet yet gruff tone.

"I always do." Iroha said confidently before turning to leave.

"Night, Hachi-senpai!" Iroha said before running off into the station, hoping to catch the next train that would be arriving shortly.

"Night, Iroha…" Hachiman replied, though the girl had long since left earshot.

He turned and began his trip back in the direction of his apartment. He'd left his earbuds at home, so the only sounds he had to keep him company were the quiet chirping of the night birds and the sounds of the trains rumbling past. As he came to his door, he reached for the handle and muttered to himself.

"I should've said 'I wouldn't mind'..."

(End 14)

Greetings, ItsJustBread here again. First, I love you all, but I didn't die haha. Thank you for all the positive reviews, and thank you again CMY for your in-depth reviews you've left since I last posted. I took this week to actually write a Persona series one shot that had been on my mind for a hot minute. It came out to about 11k words that I'm suuper satisfied with. That said, this is the last chapter of this series that I can promise for a minute. I start online classes in the very near future and have some things I need to get done before then that will take away from my writing time. On that note, should any chapters come out I have a word of warning to offer here. Don't read them if you cannot handle suspense. It has long been my plan to introduce drama starting around the early middle of this arc (which is where we are as it so happens.) Which means that from here tensions will be building that might not be resolved for a moment. I understand that can be frustrating as a reader, but for the sake of the finished product I don't think I can resolve everything in the chapter I start it in. You are all incredibly supportive and I'm lucky to have you as a readerbase, so I want to continue to update when I have the time. I hope this word of warning doesn't turn some of you off the series but I understand if it does! As always thanks for reading up to here!

In other news, I recently started a twitter account for this writing account so if you'd like to chat or see what's up or what art I'm retweeting or liking you can find the account in my bio on here. I will probably tweet about random things like any current seasonal anime I'm watching, retweet art, and tweet about any new chapters coming. Otherwise, if you'd like to know when chapters update just follow the story here I guess, as so many of you already do! (^.^)

Commentary on this chapter? Umm… hmm… Well I guess I'd have to say I think they're really cute and Iroha dressed up in an apron with her hair up could **** ** *** ** *** ******. Lol if you can decipher that I'll be thoroughly impressed tbh, I hope this chapter was a satisfying read and well worth the wait!

From your friend and chronically quite lacking writer

-Bread

PS: I'm not the kind of person who would quit writing over one review. In all honesty, I laughed pretty hard at "honestly quite lacking" and have been using it a lot lately as a sort of mantra. Ah! That doesn't mean use it against me though! :P You guys are great and I hope to update this for you again before too long.

Hello, it's been a while since I said hi! Sorry for stealing Bread away from you all for a little bit longer, I needed them to edit a fic that I wrote! And because they are a lovely loaf, they've allowed me to do some self-advertisement here (ily, bread!)! A warning, it is 100% smut, very NSFW, do not read unless you want a graphic depiction of ~adult~ activities. Because none of that is allowed on ffnet, I uploaded it to ao3 Marshmallow_Flufff. Its for the show Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (which both bread and I would highly suggest watching if you haven't already), and its called "Just To Try It". I had a great time writing and editing with Bread, who made my first time writing fic super fun! Hope y'all have enjoyed this ride so far, we'll be back once school kicks our butts hahahahahahah… one fear.

Peace!

- Marshmallow Fluff

Ps: pls read the description and the ratings and stuff first, I don't wanna hear any complaints that I didn't warn you lol

… Yeah that wraps it for now, see you next time! - I.J.B.