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As usual, Hinata destroyed any hope of calm as soon as he walked in.
“Tetsuuuuu!” The door of the dojo slammed shut behind Hinata, and he jumped into Tetora’s lap.
Tetora toppled backwards, legs still stuck in lotus. “Ack! I was meditating, you know?”
Grinning, Hinata nestled against his chest. “Whoops, sorry! You knew I was coming, though, so you should’ve been ready. Can you even call yourself a warrior if you’re not prepared for the enemy?”
“We’re just opponents for this, not enemies.”
“Whatever! Anyway, I’m ready! Are you stuck again? Need some help?” He rolled off of his friend and squatted on the mat beside him.
“Nah, I got it.” He untangled his legs and stretched, groaning. “We should warm up. I’ll walk us through the one we usually do with the circle. You just gonna wear your practice uniform?”
“I never wore anything special when I used to fight, so this’ll be fine.” He followed Tetora, the two of them jogging around the perimeter side by side.
“You mean like, when your master was training you?”
“Sure. Yeah. We were too small for his old kung fu clothes and it’s not like we were going to go buy any. He didn’t care anyway. You like your gi, though, right?”
Tetora looked down at it. “It makes me feel like I’m a little closer to being like Chief. And it kinda puts me in a warrior mindset, if that makes any sense?”
“Totally! That’s what costumes are for with our idol stuff, right? Get us in character? You’re my hero no matter what you're wearing, though!”
“Right… Hey, you wanna borrow my spare? So your uniform doesn't get ripped or something.”
“You're just trying to get my clothes off. It's okay, you can admit it, I know I'm devastatingly attractive.” Hinata stopped running and smoothed both hands down his body with a feline undulation.
Tetora blushed and jogged past him. “That's not it at all, I promise! But uh, speaking of that, do we have to be careful to not hurt your face? Like, do you have any photoshoots or anything coming up?”
“I mean, I’d rather you didn’t knock my teeth out, but nah, don’t hold back. I can always make Yuuta body-double for me. Maybe it’ll finally get him to cut his hair.”
They finished their laps and started on burpees, full of energy and precision but reasonably paced. Until Hinata sped up. Tetora matched it and made the push-up one-armed. Hinata copied him, and brought his knees up to his chest on the jump. He blinked innocently when Tetora narrowed his eyes. Tetora landed the next jump on one leg, and kept it lifted through the next set, springing off it with a grunt for the next tuck jump. Without missing a beat, Hinata mirrored him.
After they both started to shake on the push-ups, Tetora signaled to transition to the next set of exercises. Ten minutes later, drenched in sweat and already sore, they finished their warm-up.
“Does that even count as a warmup? I feel like we did the intense battle already. You promised you’d take me to dinner if I sparred with you, right? I'm ready! I'm huuungryyyyy!”
“It’s your own fault for trying to one-up me all the time. Anyway, no point sitting around. Let's begin!”
They bowed to the altar, then to each other, though Hinata was smothering giggles. Tetora glared at him, and for a second, his friend settled into diligent neutrality. Then he snorted, face turning red.
“Stop laughing! You're undermining the seriousness of a battle between men!”
“Sorry, sorry, my bad! It's just—you still haven't noticed—on your back, there's this little, um—” He twirled his finger, and Tetora craned to try to see his back. Before he could react, Hinata had darted up, kneed him in the stomach, and put him in a lock.
“Guh—isn't that cheating?!”
“You think some guy in an alley's gonna fight fair? Ha! It's the law of the jungle on the streets!”
“We're not on the streets!”
Hinata cackled and started counting down from ten. Tetora scrambled to get leverage, but the redhead moved with him like they were a single entity, keeping him down effortlessly. The unfairness of a lifetime of training as a twin.
“---Two! One! Zero! Annnd the super awesome older Aoi defeats Ryusei Black in a shocking turn of events!” He let go. Tetora jumped back, just in case, and tilted his head so his neck cracked back into position.
“Okay. I'm still saying you cheated, but I accept the loss of round one. But don't think I'll fall for any more tricks!”
“I would never.”
Hinata actually did let Tetora come at him honorably the next time. But instead of the grapple he thought he'd be able to use to bring him down, Tetora found himself sliding past his friend, slim arms redirecting him to the outside. He corrected fast enough that Hinata's attempted ankle hook missed. Not fast enough to avoid a throw over his hip, but at least he managed to pull Hinata down with him as he fell.
“Ooh, very smooth! I would've put on something more comfortable if I knew this is where you wanted me!” He licked his lips and winked while twisting and flipping out of Tetora’s insistent holds.
“Dude, take this seriously!”
“What's more serious than hot, erotic desire?”
“Hinata!”
“Kidding! Or maybe not, if you're into this.”
“Just quit messing around and fight me, man!”
“Okay, okay, I'll get serious.”
The sparring did turn real, then. Suddenly Hinata stopped smirking, cleanly dodging most of Tetora’s attacks and moving in close for unpredictable strikes of his own. Some, Tetora recognized from various forms of kung fu, and he blocked and countered them powerfully enough to make Hinata stagger backwards. Most of the time, though, it was Hinata maneuvering around him like a liquid that jammed into his soft spots with moves he'd never seen in the dojo.
“Three more rounds,” he wheezed after Hinata pinned him to the floor a second time and he couldn't escape.
Hinata nodded and slipped back to their starting position. He almost looked the way his brother sometimes did, focused and dangerous. But Yuuta would have put passionate aggression into it. This twin was just efficient.
“Doing okay?” Tetora asked before they started the next round. Even if he'd been the loser, he'd landed some serious punches.
“Yep!” Hinata flicked some inner switch, sunshine radiating from his face as he whipped his hair forward, combed through it, and flipped it back. Drops of sweat flew. “Heh, gross. What about you?”
“Ready to beat you this time! I know all your tricks now!” He sank into position, relishing the burn.
“Ha! So you think! I promise to keep things interesting while I win, don’t worry.”
Tetora felt confident he had a good grip on his friend's style now, though. Hinata was strong enough, but he relied almost entirely on speed and feints, wearing out his opponent with endless running and throwing off their momentum with direction changes, using their own weight against them. His agility was dangerous, for sure. It wasn't going to make him the winner here, though.
Three more rounds? Now that he knew his opponent's methods, he'd win them all.
This time, when Hinata came darting up in a zigzag pattern, Tetora waited. He shifted so the chop to his pressure point missed by just enough, then clamped his arms around Hinata, launching forward and taking them both to the ground.
He was the tiger trapping the mouse, but the mouse wasn't making it easy. Hinata squirmed violently, briefly freeing a limb or two occasionally before Tetora captured them again. They trained this exact scenario all the time in his circle, so despite the increasingly desperate writhing, he knew how to keep Hinata down.
Finally finding an effective strategy was awesome. Hinata was supposed to have been a challenge, but a beatable one: he was athletic, had a little martial arts background, but wasn't a fighter. Those first rounds still chewed at Tetora’s pride—how had his cute acrobat buddy destroyed him so easily?
The other mixed emotions bubbling inside were a surprise. Dominance in a fight usually satisfied him, a pure, instinct-driven urge fulfilled, but Hinata’s raw fear made him feel weird. Uncomfortable. The dilated pupils rapidly searching everywhere for an escape, the little mewing grunts with his frantic effort, the graceless struggling—felt like maybe Hinata was a little too close to genuine panic. And like maybe Tetora was a little too close to being the villain… for sort of enjoying it.
Not cool. He was about to let go when Hinata went limp and scrunched his eyes shut, breathing deep and shaky.
“Hey man, you okay?” Tetora whispered.
Hinata opened his eyes with a long, slow exhale that ended in a grin. “Ha, yeah. Yep. You forgot to count, but I'm pretty sure you won that round. Woooo, you're strong, huh? Lemme up, I already told you it's your win.”
Tetora pulled him up, both their hands slick with sweat, and backed into place. He didn't crouch in the starting position, though.
“You okay for real? That one was, uh, kind of intense.”
Hinata shook out his legs and circled his shoulders, laughing. It only sounded mildly fake. “‘Course. I just didn't expect to lose that bad. I'll redeem my honor, though! Keep your guard up, for Ryusei Pink will never stay down! Pink flames are the proof of relentless mischief!”
“Hey! Don't go sticking yourself in my unit with your self-insert hero!”
“Whaaaaat? Ryusei Pink is the coolest! Ask any girl under age seven and they'll totally back me up.”
“I like pink, too, y’know, but I'm still not letting you get away with mocking Ryuseitai! You're going down!”
Tetora rushed at him, but Ryusei Pink skipped to the side and darted to a corner, singing one of Tetora’s unit's songs.
With aggravatingly wrong lyrics.
“Hinata! I swear! It's ‘super nova revolustar,’ not—what are you even trying to say?”
“Super duper roflcopter?”
“Oh my god.” Tetora gave up on chasing him around the room and waited, panting, in the middle.
“I know, it's embarrassing that I'm so much better than your usual lyricist.” He was back to his usual pattern, dashing in with jabs that Tetora blocked about half the time, then flipping out of the way before he could retaliate.
“Ugh, get in here and let me hit you, damn it!”
“Aww, you wanna get close?” He darted in like usual, but as Tetora moved to counter where he was surely about to strike, Hinata skidded between his feet and climbed up his back instead. He crossed his legs around Tetora’s waist and wrapped both arms around his neck.
Which, actually, was fine. Tetora slammed them both onto the floor, Hinata underneath him taking both their combined weight and the force of the fall.
Tetora scrambled up, only coughing slightly. Hinata, on the other hand, was neither breathing nor moving yet, crushed like an unusually cute cockroach.
Tetora squatted next to him and counted down from ten, watching for any surprise tricks. It looked like his friend was well and truly down. He barely started to twitch halfway through the countdown. At zero, he made it onto hands and knees, scraping oxygen into his lungs in rattling gasps.
“Two-two,” Tetora said, rubbing his back gently. “Sorry about that.”
“‘S fine,” Hinata wheezed. Tears were dripping onto the mat beneath him, but he gave a weak thumbs up. It took a minute for him to finish resurrecting himself, with a final, shuddering breath before he wiped his eyes and stood. He braced both hands at his lower back.
“So… you good?” Tetora asked, still rubbing between his shoulder blades.
Hinata slowly stretched and groaned. “Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Just an idiot. Reeeeally shoulda seen that coming.”
Tetora snorted. “It's a pretty obvious one, yeah. You sure your master really knows how to fight? Or is he just one of those aesthetics guys?”
“No, he definitely knows. I just got too caught up in the roleplay, I guess. Whoops!” He gave himself one more mobility test, spine cracking. “Ugh. Owwwwww. Oooookay then, last round! Winner takes all! No holds barred, anything goes!”
“That's how you've been doing it this whole time, but okay. Ready when you are.”
Hinata paused. “You sure? Anything goes?”
“No maiming, knock-outs, or destruction of property in here, but other than that—I'm goin’ all out. Anything goes.”
Tetora had very little time for regrets over the next minute, but he regretted saying that.
Hinata's first move was sprinting for the altar, where he snagged the stick of incense and jumped to grab the sheathed decorative sword off the wall. Tetora blocked his wild swing with the sword. While his attention was there, though, Hinata stabbed the incense stick straight into a nerve Tetora didn't know he had. The stick snapped, and the tip crumbled before it could draw blood, but Tetora’s entire arm was weak and tingling.
Nothing he couldn't handle. Tetora landed a pair of kicks, one to the stomach and one at just the right place on Hinata's thigh to push him back and drop him to one knee. Hinata rolled into a flip that propelled him off the wall. Something was fluttering behind him; Tetora couldn't tell what, or when he'd picked it up, because he immediately had to dodge another chaotic sword attack.
He caught the sheath as Hinata was raising it again, and yanked it sideways, hard. Tetora winced—Hinata's shoulder definitely made a bad popping sound there. But he didn't let go, just used his body's momentum to slide into Tetora, pin his foot with the sheathed sword, and press their bodies close. Tetora grabbed his wrist, preparing to twist him into a hold.
Then Hinata bit him.
The soft part of his neck, right above his collar. Tetora couldn't tell if he broke skin, but he sure wasn’t being gentle. Shock fueling power, he hurled Hinata to the ground. The sword clattered to the side.
“Agh! Dude!”
Hinata didn't respond. Instead, he skittered back like a spider, jumped into a fighting stance, and whipped out the fluttering thing, an ace bandage.
Tetora didn't want to know what he planned to do with it. He aimed another kick at Hinata's chest. It hit, with enough force that he coughed and stumbled back, but he also caught Tetora’s ankle and forced him to spin. In the split second he faced away, Hinata wrapped the bandage around his head, effectively blindfolding him.
Things didn't go well after that.
“...Annnnd, zero!” Hinata cheered, beaming down at the guy on the floor shielding his crotch. “Want some ice in your undies? It'll help.”
“Just gimme a sec.”
Hinata sat next to him, humming one of Undead’s songs. He leaned over Tetora and frowned at his neck.
“I kinda messed you up, huh? Sorry. I guess I got too into it.”
“Uh. Yeah.” Tetora breathed himself into enough of a calm to speak, at least. “Yeah. That was not all kung fu. Where'd you pick up all that stuff?” With a groan, he hobbled to the mini freezer and collected an ice pack.
“I dunno, just… around, I guess.” Hinata brought over the first aid kit, and the misused ace bandage, and they spread the goods over the floor together.
“Dude.”
“A lot of places! I don't remember them all now! My friends gave me tips so I wouldn't get mugged or anything when we lived on the street. Especially since I did some jobs carrying…stuff…around town.” He tore open a package of disinfecting wipes and delicately got to work on Tetora's knuckles.
Tetora let him, because this way he couldn't be stopped as he prodded his friend's body, checking for fractures.
Then Hinata's words sank in. “Hold up, what? Were you like, a delivery boy? Or a thief or something? Are you a criminal?!”
“Not usually,” he said with a wink. “I can be naughty if you want, though. You're the ally of justice, so you might just need to get out the handcuffs.”
Tetora ignored that. “‘Not usually’ a criminal?!”
“That's the part you wanna talk about? Boo, no fun! I was joking anyway. Most of my jobs were totally legitimate, for the record.” He set aside the disinfecting wipes and turned his upper body slightly, clutching his ribs. “Ouch. You do this for fun with Hiiro? Owwww.”
“Most? So which jobs weren't legit? What sort of guy am I friends with?”
“Why the interrogation? Yeesh! Isn’t your chief the guy with the suspicious checkered past? You should be totally cool with this kind of thing!”
“What kind of thing?!”
“Tetsuuuu! Why do you have such a cute pout?” He grabbed his cheeks in one hand and rubbed their noses together. “It makes it so hard to keep being cool and mysterious and not tell you embarrassing stories from my misspent youth.”
“Come on, I just want to know more about you! Oh, and lemme fix your shoulder for you.”
“When you’re older and more mature, Tetsu, you’ll learn that you don’t get everything you want. I can—I can do my shoulder. I think. It's just dislocated.”
“I've done this a bunch of times. Just let me.”
Hinata gripped his knee and chomped his lip while Tetora repositioned his joint. His sigh came out as a strained creak afterwards.
“Yuuta’s a lot gentler than you when he does that. Oof. You got any bones we need to set? Gaping wounds to stitch?”
“Nah, just need ice for… my entire body.”
“Saaaaame. Ugh, I feel so olllld. My aching back! My chest pain! My gimpy leg! My organnnnns!”
“What happened to your leg?”
“You kicked it.”
“Oh. Right. That's sparring for ya.”
“Yeah…” Hinata frowned at Tetora's swollen knuckles. “I don't… usually like fighting.”
“You got so excited when I asked you, though.”
“I mean, I like showing off the tricks I learned from Master, and I like hanging out with you! I just don't like the parts where people get hurt. Or where I… eh, you know. I'd rather destroy you at video games!” He busied himself tidying the floor and resetting the altar, movements stiff.
Tetora got out a broom and started sweeping, equally stiffly. “Yeah actually, what was up with that?”
“With what?”
“There were a couple times you sorta… lost control? You got real freaked out when I pinned you. And then the last round you barely seemed like you.”
He looked up from his sweeping in time to see Hinata hug himself tight for a second.
“Dunno!” he said cheerfully, stealing the broom from Tetora. He swept fast, far more efficiently than his friend. “I'm usually just a cute, mischievous pacifist, aren't I? So any fighting shouldn't seem like me!”
“You're pretty good at fighting for a guy who says he doesn't fight.” He stole the broom back.
“You do what you have to, right? But I haven't had to lately. I'm actually super surprised how quick muscle memory kicked in! Who’da thunk.” Hinata snatched the broom back one more time and blew Tetora a kiss.
Tetora gave him a look and turned away, heading for the dustpan. “Look man, if you don’t wanna talk about it, that’s okay. I just think you’re interesting, you know?”
“Heh, very diplomatic. Vice Prez would be proud.”
“Really, I do! You’ve done, like, everything, and you’re good at it all!” Tetora held the dustpan for Hinata. They worked quickly, together. “I wish I could be like that.”
“Well, yeah, I am good at everything, not gonna lie, but you’re a good person.” He stopped sweeping. “It’s like—I never have to worry that you might have secret motives. You always try to act exactly the way you say people should. You’re just good, and strong, and kind—you’re a lot like Master, y’know? You're the sort of person I admire the most.”
Tetora winced. “You know where to hit with words, too, huh.”
“Uh… what?”
“I think I lied.”
“What, that you wish you were like me? Well obviously. It was nice of you, though.”
“No, I mean—I think I lied about why I wanted to fight you.”
Hinata’s smile became a gentle, hopeful thing. He set the broom down.
Tetora dropped the dustpan and slammed his own face into his hands. “Don’t—I… Okay. I thought I’d win. I thought you’d be enough of a challenge that I’d feel accomplished, but I really thought I would beat you. I still can’t beat Chief, and Hiiro and I are even, but you… I… just wanted to feel better about myself, if I’m really being honest. Feel just a little manlier than someone I respect, for a change… Ugh. I feel awful saying all this out loud. I don’t think I realized what I was really thinking all the way until just now. Hit me again. I need to be punished for being a dick.”
He peeked out from his hands. Hinata was frowning.
Tetora slapped his own stomach. “Here. Hit me. Or kick me, whatever.”
Hinata didn’t move.
“What? I’m… I’m sorry, for real. I feel really bad about taking my issues out on you, so I’m trying to make up for it. I don’t—I don’t know what else to do.”
At last, Hinata scooted slightly closer, scratching at his chipping nail polish. Tetora hesitantly reached towards him. With a sigh, Hinata took his hand and pulled them together, sweaty sides pressed close. He swung Tetora’s arm over his shoulders like a blanket.
“You’re such a problem child,” he said.
“I know. I’m sorry. I was a jerk. And it’s not cool that I said you're less manly than me. You deserve to be mad.”
“That part really isn’t the issue. The pink hair clips are a choice.”
“That doesn't have anything to do with—”
“You know what I'm trying to say. I give off zero masculine vibes and I honestly don't care.” He stuck his tongue out, shot him a halfhearted jab to the ribs. “I'm mad cuz someone convinced you that your ‘ideal’ has to be stronger than other people, all the time. Like you're only good enough if you're better than someone else, or you can only help people if you're stronger than them. It just seems like you'll never feel safe and happy that way.”
Tetora’s face twitched. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“But… I'm not good enough. That's… kind of the whole point of me. I'm better than I used to be, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be.”
“Hey.” He pulled Tetora’s head onto his shoulder and scratched his scalp. “You don't have to be perfect to be good enough. ‘Good enough’ and still improving is pretty neat!”
“I guess… I’m still the worst though, and I'm still sorry.”
Hinata nuzzled his hair. “You're really not the worst.”
“I basically wanted to use you like a practice dummy.”
“And Yuuta uses me like a punching bag, and Sora uses me like a climbing gym, and Sakuma uses me like a substitute-little-brother-slash-portable-charger. And I use all of them for my own nefarious purposes. We all use the people we love to get what we need. And they do too. That's how relationships are supposed to work.”
He rubbed his sweat-damp hair against Tetora's cheek, and Tetora pressed his nose into it. Hinata giggled, and Tetora nosed in harder.
Eventually, Hinata pulled away to look at his friend seriously.
“Just tell me next time, okay? I didn't even know you were so down. Stupid. I was, I mean. I should've figured out why you wanted to fight me all of a sudden, instead of thinking you just wanted to spend time with me.” His smile wobbled on. Before Tetora could say something about it, he shook his head and continued. “Um, by the way, for the confidence boost, you should take Yuuta. He's a feisty young whippersnapper and he hits hard, but he's got a lot less experience than me. You'd beat him. You’d actually probably beat me if I didn’t cheat.”
“I think I need to give up on beating someone in a fight to make myself feel good enough. That's kinda messed up. I should probably… I dunno. Work on self acceptance? Is that what it is?”
“Yeah, it is.” He leaned in, putting them nearly nose to nose. “I’m glad you’re getting it, because you really should. You're way too hard on yourself. You're so good, and dedicated, and beautiful and you always want to help people and I just seriously don't get why you aren't nicer to yourself! You're obviously trying your best, all the time!” He huffed and wrapped Tetora in a hug with his whole body. “I'll beat up anyone who says you're not great, even if it's you!”
Tetora snickered. “And you say you’re ‘opposed to violence.’”
“Sometimes a man's gotta knock some sense into his buddies.”
Gently, Tetora twirled a strand of ginger hair around his finger. Hinata’s head was resting on his shoulder, face tucked against his neck. It wasn't comfortable—they were both overheated and sticky and sore, no one smelled good, and Hinata’s hot breath tickled under Tetora’s gi, which was crumpled and twisted by his friend's clinging body. But it was nice.
“Tetsu?”
“Hm?”
“You're crazy tense right now.”
“Well yeah, we just beat each other into the ground. Aren't you feeling it a little?”
“Not that bad. You were going easy on me.”
“I really wasn't.”
“No, you were, or there would've been blood. I've seen you and Hiiro.”
“I didn't try to hold back, trust me.”
“I know you weren't trying to, but you did. But… you should relax now.” He carefully crawled off of Tetora and sat cross legged. Like he was cradling crystal, he pulled Tetora’s head onto his lap. For a few beats, Tetora let himself be soothed by the hand that tugged his jacket looser and started kneading his stressed muscles.
That was enough, his mind decided, even as his entire body complained otherwise.
“That was great man, thanks.” He started to get up, but Hinata held him firm. “Hey. It's your turn.”
Hinata glared down at him. “Nope, nope nope nope. I'm too tired. If this turns into a contest to see who's the better taker-care-of-er I will literally give up and die right here in your dojo and not only does that count as a fail for you, you'll also have to hide my corpse under the floorboards because you're the prime suspect and Ryuseitai’s too noble to fake an alibi for you.” His hand squeezed Tetora's trapezius harder, briefly. “I want to do this, okay? I… maybe I need to pretend I'm a good guy for a little bit.”
Shame twisted Tetora’s guts. This should be the other way around. It really should be him massaging the aches and sadness out of his friend. He was so far behind. Hinata had been faster, tougher, bolder, smarter, kinder—just better than him, the whole afternoon. If one of them was the man here, it was the one with the pretty smile who baked cookies and liked flowers.
And… that wasn't the worst thing ever.
His guilt faded with every slow blink and soft breath Hinata took as he unknotted Tetora’s shoulders. Hinata needed to be needed, and it was clearly making him feel better the longer he helped Tetora. If being less of a man meant this person would be happy, then maybe it was fine to let himself just… be.
At least for now, he'd endure the blissfully soothing backrub.
“Remember I'm buying you dinner after this, though.”
“Tetsu, you don't have to prove anything to me. Just… be the kind of man who lets someone love him, okay?”
Head on Hinata's thighs, his own legs sprawling and loose, Tetora listened. To his words, and his breathing, and the brush of his fingers on skin. Hinata kept massaging circles into his muscles, slow and warm. He was just as skilled at this as he was at everything else.
Tetora relaxed. If this was losing, maybe he didn’t always have to win.