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writtenonthesubwaywalls · 7 years

Text

Cyber

“I’ll do whatever I want! It’s the internet! A thing that came from me, if I’m not mistaken. And who are you to tell me what to do?” he practically yelled, shutting his laptop roughly.

“I practically raised you! I have every say in what you can and can’t do while you’re supposed to be acting like an adult, but you can’t get past the teenager that you look like!” England countered, making to grab the electronic on the table. Before he could get there, however, a hand clamped painfully around his wrist. He looked up to see what used to be light blue eyes, now visibly darkened. They flashed and… pixilated?, before going back to normal once more.

“I would advise against that, Arthur,” he said, voice dead and echoing.

“That is enough, America,” Russia cut in, removing the other’s hand by the wrist and taking up his free hand, holding them against the table. “Calm down.”

Alfred turned his once again warped gaze onto him, blinking slowly, no human emotion present. Unsettled by the sight, Russia stepped back and let go, holding everyone else back with an arm.

“Alfred? Are you okay?” spoke up a small voice. The countries right behind Russia all turned to look at Canada, who had just appeared

Alfred took off his glasses and set them down lightly on the table. He tapped the computer three times, then right below his right eye once, before looking to his brother. Matthew nodded in understanding. “Can you make it there?” he asked. Alfred shook his head no.

“Do it here.”

Matthew looked nervous. “But, Alfie, what about everyone else? This is still to developmental for others to be trying to buy.” He motioned to the other inhabitants of the room. America’s warped gaze fell across all of them, focusing on each nation in turn, before sliding back to the other once more.

“Let them watch. It’s about time they found out anyways, right?” He laughed. The sound was almost mechanical; harsh, sharp, without the natural ease of anyone else.

Canada left, and a tense silence fell across them all. Alfred did nothing but stare at the wall, tapping his pen against the arm of the chair slowly, evenly, making the atmosphere far more eerie than it needed to be.

Eventually, Russia stepped forward again, the only one not paralyzed by some kind of fear, subconscious or otherwise. “Fedya, w-”

“America,” he corrected sharply, turning to face him.

“…Right. America, what’s going on? Where is your brother going? And what’s going on with your eyes?” he asked, inching closer and crouching down so they were at eye level with each other.

Alfred sighed, the only thing truly human that he’s done since anyone had seen him this morning. “I will explain this all to you in due time, hopefully with a little help.” He paused. “And as for my eyes? Well, it’s just a slight… glitch in my programming.” Alfred smirked. But before Ivan could ask for clarification, Matthew came back into the room carrying what looked like a pure white, metal brief case. He came around to the other side of the chair, opposite of the Russian, and opened it.

Ivan looked at it’s contents in awe. Never before had he seen so much advanced technology all together like this all at once. On the side that stood straight up, there was a dark screen, and the bottom housed a small keyboard with foreign characters on each key, several buttons and switches, and what looked like a housing station for cables.

“What in the bloody hell is that?” England whispered.

“I’m not sure,” came the accented reply, “But I don’t trust it. Especially around my Mattheu or Alfred.”

Canada worked through their chatter, booting up the screen and typing a few things in. As much as they tried, no one else could decipher what was being typed. Once he entered the information, he straightened his back and pulled up two cords, attaching one to an invisible port at the base of Alfred’s neck, and the other to a smaller port under a panel under his left eye.

He closed his eyes, which were dark and pixilated still, and relaxed into the chair a little more. Matthew finished with what he was doing on the screen, flipped two of the switches, and pressed a purple button near the corner of the case.

“Would someone please explain what’s going on?” China called from the back of the group. Surprisingly, Germany stepped forward, reaching out as if to touch the young nation, but stopping just short.

“Is this…” he began, but trailed off almost immediately. His hand dropped limply to his side. “How many of you have actually touched America?” he asked the assembled group. They all looked to each other, glancing around and waiting for someone to come forward.

“I did when he came to my house to play video games a few nights ago,” Japan offered.

“Did you touch his skin or just his clothes?” Germany pressed.

“Just his clothes, but Ludwig, what does this have to do with anything?”

“Come here,” the German held out his hand, which the other took cautiously. “He trusts you, right?” Japan nodded. “Matthew, is this what I think it is?”

“If you’re referring to the project we asked to borrow your best scientists and engineers for, then yes, it is,” he replied, not looking away from the other’s peaceful, almost sleepy face.

Gently, Germany placed the raven-haired man’s hand on the skin just under Alfred’s collar. Kiku flushed slightly, “Ludwig I don’t think-”

“Just wait a second,” he cut in. Kiku looked to him, a mixture of despiration and unease dancing across his face.

Then, out of nowhere, he felt the familiar jolt of electricity shoot through his hand and up his forearm. He jumped back with an audible gasp, shocking the few left behind him and making them step back a few feet, too. “What was that?”

“I’d like to know as well,” Ivan added, rising from his crouched position. “This is now a matter of international security.”

At the words ‘international security’, the pseudo-peaceful quiet broke, and several cries of fear, confusion, and outrage rang out across the small room.

“Someone please explain what’s going on!”

“Is there some kind of terrorist plot?”

“What is sticking out of America’s neck?”

“Would you all shut up!” Germany yelled over the quickly evolving chaos. The room fell to a relative, tattered silence, so he continued. “I know only a little of what has transpired here, and what led to this, but I do know that there’s no harm that will come from this. To you or your citizens.”

“But what about Alfred?” Arthur asked a little forcefully, the first person to show any kind of concern for him rather than themselves. “What’s going on with him? Why does he have-have cables sticking out of him for god’s sake?!”

“Let me try to explain to you before he wakes up completely,” the North American began. “We’ve been working with Tony’s race, and some of the best scientists in the entire world, to, um, 'enhance the physical and psychological abilities of the most elite among our society’.”

“And we chose us to start with,” Alfred cut in, having regained consciousness at some point while Matthew was explaining, “Because we are both immortal, so long as our countries and our people stand. This way, if the tech killed us, we’d just come back and make changes. Make it better.” He unplugged the two wires from him, laid them back down in the case, and stood behind his brother.

“You all know that I’m a superpower,” he continued, “And that I’m far too young to have this much power without it having adverse effects on me. Canada is very similar, but on a slightly smaller scale.” The country in question nodded in agreement. “So, having things to help out with this are… nice.”

“What he means is that we have ways to be able to separately store certain memories, thoughts, and skills on physical storage devices and softwares specifically designed to hold these things.” He paused. “However…”

“Sometimes the program glitches,” Germany finished for them, light blue eyes wide in amazement. “How did you two accomplish so much so quickly?”

“And without anyone here knowing?” Ivan dropped one hand to his side, and the other made its way behind his back, gripping at the pipe that hadn’t been there before. “That sounds more than a little untrustworthy to me.”

Canada smiled darkly. “You never asked.”

#aph #hetalia #aph america #aph canada #aph russia #aph germany #aph england #alfred f jones #matthew williams #ivan braginsky #ludwig beilschmidt #arthur kirkland #cyber #cyborg #cyberpunk #computer #dark hetalia #dystopia

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fire-bear · 7 years

Note

Do you want more prompts? I'd also like sentence #14.

God, I finally finished this. I didn’t think I would. =/

Sort Of Warnings: Al is a little OOC - but he’s meant to be that way for reasons. Also, there’s very little in the way of USUK - this is like the start of an epic story which will play out over time, space and- Well. More space than time.

Oh, the title for this is probably more for the chapter this kind of is rather than the entire story. Though, it could apply to the story, too, I suppose.

RescueMission

“InGaLE base, this is the Kunoichi. We are currentlyon our way back from the Talbia mission – full report will beprovided upon our return but it looks like there won’t be troublearound there any more. Please advise on any other missions to beundertaken in this quadrant.” Finished with his transmission,Matthew adjusted his headphones as he waited for the answer.

Behind him, Al hovered, hoping they’d get anothermission. He’d enjoyed the brief fight with the pirates but it seemedthe InterGalactic Law Enforcement logo was more than enough for themto retreat. Sure, they’d followed them to make sure they wouldn’treturn as soon as they left. Andthey got to stay on the planet and drink in some of the culture whilethey waited to see if the pirates would return. All three of the teamhad been fawned over and Al had been interested in the reactions fromMatthew and Kiku – it had helped his learning and he now knew thatthey had both enjoyed and were embarrassed by both the female andmale Talbians’ attentions.

“Al,” said Matthew, suddenly, turning to look athim. “I’ve told you before – stop that.”

“But I wanna know what’s happening!” Al protested,whining a little.

“Don’t you need to charge?” Kiku asked from hisseat at the pilot’s station.

“Nope,” Al replied. “My improved lithium-ionbatteries last much longer than previous batteries and will only needto be charged every four months. They will need to be replaced infive years but should not be cause for concern.”

Matthew sighed. “Obviously your learning softwarehasn’t updated to include reading the atmosphere, huh?”

Tilting his head, Al blinked. “You’ve said thatbefore. I’m still not sure how I’m supposed to do that. You never saywhether you mean pressure or air content or something else.”

Just as Matthew opened his mouth to reply, he turnedback to his station. Evidently, the base was responding. Al eagerlywatched him, listening to his end of the conversation. “Yes, sir,”Matthew said. “It shouldn’t take us too long to check that out.We’ll get in contact with you when we’ve made contact. Thank you,sir.”

“Checked what out?” Al immediately demanded. “Arewe freeing slaves from the Loo'oo'oos planet? Are we helping tooverthrow an evil dictator in one of the Groag galaxies? Is itpirates again? Are we gonna fight pirates?”

Rolling his eyes, Matthew sent the coordinates from hisscreen to Kiku’s monitor so he could change their route. “The basehas picked up a very weak distress signal from Ranar. We’ve to checkit out and help anyone who needs it.”

“Ranar?” said Al,pouting. “But that’s uninhabited and boring!”

“But,” Kiku piped up, “if we don’t go to help,you won’t get to be a hero.”

Al blinked, processing the statement. “Oh,” hesaid. “Well, we gotta get there quick, then. ‘Specially if they’rein distress – gotta save 'em before something happens!”

“Don’t worry,” Kiku said, smiling at him in thatway he did when he was feeling both amused and fond. “We’re only anhour away by light speed.”

For Al, an hour was way too long.

Considering the length of time it had taken to get tothis part of their jurisdiction from the base and the smooth runningof their new ship, he’d seen all there was to see on the ship. Therewere no need to read books – all the contents of them weredownloaded into his head as soon as he linked up with the tablet theywere stored on. He preferred the comics back at base, anyway, butMatthew and Kiku were fans of novels and manga and that’s all theyhad on the ship. Sure, manga was cool, but it had taken long for himto download everything the other two crew members had brought. It wasthe same problem with the movies and don’t get him started on thevideo games he could master in seconds.

So all he could do was pace the length and breadth ofthe ship, returning to the bridge every few minutes. Eventually,Matthew snapped.

“Dammit, Al, just sit down!”

“Meanie,” Al grumbled and plopped down onto hischair, probably damaging a few circuits from the force he landed.

“We’re not too far away now,” Kiku assured him.

Matthew nodded and turned to his screen. “Yeah, I’mpicking up the distress signal now. I’ll put it through thespeakers.”

Instantly, a man’s voice began to fill the bridge, hisaccent neutral but evidently a human. “Mayday, mayday. This is theAsterales requesting immediate assistance. Our ship has been damagedby pirates and, unless we receive parts for our engine, we will beunable to leave Ranar or survive for much longer. Mayday, mayday.This is the-”

“Asterales?” said Al, frowning. “I don’t have anydata on that ship.”

“So it shouldn’t have been a target for thepirates…” Matthew murmured. “What in the universe happened?”

“Did they stumble onto something the pirates didn’twant them to know, do you think?” Kiku asked. “This could be farmore serious than we thought.”

“We still have to go check it out,” Matthew pointedout. “We’ll just have to be more cautious when we descend, in caseit’s some sort of trap.”

“Ah,” said Kiku as an alert sounded on his screen.“We’re approaching Ranar.”

The next few minutes were taken up by the routine ofscanning for potential threats, steering their ship into orbit,scanning for the downed ship and dropping into the atmosphere. Almainly ran on automatic; he could do all this with his eyes closed.Though, from past experience, he knew that Matthew and Kiku preferredhim to keep them open.

They set down not far from the stranded ship. It was adirty brown and seemed to be a cargo ship. Al updated the informationhe had on the Asterales, making sure to take an optical picture forlater reference. It seemed to lie where it had landed, at a rightangle to a massive rock. There were several massive dents in themetalwork and the door seemed to be stuck slightly open. Nobody couldbe seen moving about and no-one seemed to be coming to greet them.

Glancing at the other two, Matthew grimaced. “Thescans showed signs of life but the hull of the ship is so thick, Ican’t tell how many there are or what state they’re in. I hopethey’re all right…”

“There’s only one way to find out!” Al exclaimedand immediately made his way to the airlock. From the scramblingnoises behind him, he knew that the other two were following.

Despite being uninhabited, the air was breathable andthe gravity only a smidgeon stronger then that of Earth and theirship. It wasn’t enough for Matthew or Kiku to notice but Al did andquickly adjusted all his mechanics in order to be able to operate atfull capacity. Matthew and Kiku had quickly dressed in their officialuniforms, the black jumpsuits with gloves and helmets and protectivevests. Of course, the vests only protected against the lower range oflaser blasts, knives and some of the lower velocity projectiles. Alwould make sure they didn’t need to rely on them, though.

The terrain itselfseemed to be a desert or wasteland of some sort. Huge rocks stoppedanyone from seeing too far into the horizon. Beneath their feet,stones crunched against the hard earth, cracks creating interestingpatterns for miles around. There were no noises except for a slightwind whistling through the valleys created by the rocks and cliffs.Occasionally, a skittering sound of stones being disturbed soundedfrom far away and Al had to wonder if the wind was dislodging them orif it was an animal of some sort. Or maybe it was a ghost.

Before Al could give a whimper at that thought, thewonky door shifted slightly. All three of the law enforcementofficers froze, eyeing them. Matthew and Kiku kept a tight grip ontheir weapons as they watched the door being moved aside. Finally,someone emerged and approached the group, taking slow, deliberatesteps. They stopped some distance away, close enough for the officersto make them out but far enough that he could turn and run forshelter should they attack them.

Whoever they werelooking at was completely covered up. Large, black boots came up totheir knees and brown trousers were tucked into them, a shiny beltbuckle reflecting the meagre sunlight. A long-sleeved, dirty-whiteshirt was tucked into a pair of black, leather gloves. Covering theirhead and shoulders from view was a long, deep green cloak, tiedsecurely around the person’s neck. Usually, Al would assume he wouldneed to switch to a different language to be understood since onlynatives of the outer planets wore cloaks. Instead, his opticalscanners picked up that the clothes – including the cloak – weremade of materials from Earth and deduced that the person was just ahuman with an outdated sense of fashion.

It took a few seconds(exactly 8.04 seconds, actually) for anyone to do anything. Then,deciding that they were all taking too long to do something, Alstepped around Matthew and Kiku to move towards the person. Theyimmediately stepped back but otherwise didn’t seem to react. “Hi,”Al said, smiling wide. “I am Al-senth, a beta personality android.The best betapersonality android, actually. Though, there’s only four of us sofar. Maybe five; they were making another one when we left the base.Ah! This is Matthew – he’s the captain. And this is Kiku – he’s,like, the vice-captain. But he’s also the-”

“Do all you beta personality androids talk so much?”asked the person and Al recognised it as the man who had sent out thedistress signal.

“Nope! Fel does, of course, but Lov is grumpy andtells us to shut up all the time. And Lud is quiet… Well, till Feldoes something bad and he yells at him. The fifth one was gonna be awoman, I think. Dunno what she’d be like.”

“They’re… they’regiving you individual personalities?” asked the person. There was ashort pause. “But… they’re programmingyou to be that way, right?”

“That’s right! It’s to help us protect humans muchbetter than any of the previous androids and without any of theglitches.”

The person snorted.“Sure. Glitches.”

“Are you the only one here?” Matthew interjected.

“No.”

A short silence descended. “Er…” said Kiku,eventually. “Are you the captain, then?”

“No.”

“Then, um…” said Matthew.

“My distress signal specifically stated the need forparts for our engine. Do you have any with you?”

Matthew’s eyes narrowed; Al deduced that he didn’t likethe person’s tone. “We will need to inspect-”

“Quiet!” the person suddenly said, his headturning. Everyone froze, listening. All Al could hear was thecontinued whistling of the wind, the skittering of rocks, thebreathing of his comrades and… Was that the sifting of sand?“There’s a storm coming. They can be violent and sudden on thisplanet. Get inside.” Then, without waiting for them to agree ordisagree, the person turned and stalked back to their ship.

Kiku raised an eyebrow at Matthew who shrugged and puthis gun into his holster – though he made sure it would be easilydrawn. Then he followed the person, Al right behind him (scanning theimmediate area to confirm what the man had said) and Kiku brought upthe rear, his own gun now in its holster as well. They soon reachedthe ship and Al took the moment to scan it now that he was closer,looking for any information he could glean from it. Not being in thedatabases available to the InGaLE was an oddity unless it was new orhad been unused for some time. This ship looked as though it wasusually well-cared for but also quite old. Al frowned at it; had thename of the ship been changed at some point?

The person held the door out of the way for them asthey entered. The corridors beyond were dark and Al immediately drewout his flashlight. “We have no power,” the person told them. “Doyou have any torches?”

Al flicked his on. “Yup!” he declared as hiscrewmates fumbled for their own.

“Good,” said the person and pulled the door shut,plunging them into a more pressing darkness. There were threeseparate clicks and three more flashlights threw out light. “Becareful,” the person said, reaching up with their free hand. “Whenwe crashed here, everything went everywhere and I haven’t had achance to clean up yet.” With that said, he pulled the hood fromhis head.

Due to Al’s enhanced sight, he was able to make outmuch more about the person before them than the other officers could.The person was definitely a human man. He had messy, blond hair whichlooked like it hadn’t been brushed in a few days. His eyes were avibrant green, the sort of colour Al wouldn’t have expected in anyonebar a 'senth. Above them were a couple of really bushy eyebrows: itlooked as though someone had stuck too much hair there by accident.His facial structure was what humans would deem 'perfect’: straightnose, not too big or small; strong-looking jaw; and his cheekboneswere well-defined. Even his lips were perfect, plump and full. Alsuspected that many people would find the man handsome.

“This way,” the man said and stepped past the smallgroup to lead them through the dead ship.

In Al’s opinion, it was creepy. Everything was stilland silent. Every time they rounded a corner, he half-expectedsomething to jump out at them. Whenever Matthew or Kiku accidentallykicked a tool or a loose piece of machinery they hadn’t seen, Al hadto stop his mechanisms from jolting in surprise. They passed byclosed doors, open doors with darkness straining against the doorwaysand dead screens and communicators. Al felt like they were being ledto something horrific.

Eventually, they came upon a door which had beenpropped open with a steel box. The man stepped up and began to pullone half to the side, the other half moving as he grunted and heaved.In only a few seconds, he had it open wide enough for one person tofit through at a time. Al, Matthew and Kiku were quick to slipthrough and the man let it go behind them with another grunt ofeffort. The doors slammed together, stopped only by the box with aprotesting shriek of metal.

Looking around, Al spotted other flashlights glowing,these ones flickering every so often. They were pointed in theirdirection, shifting over all of their faces. Beyond them, Al couldsee the rest of the crew – if three people to fly this wreck waswhat they considered to be a 'crew’.

A blond stood in the middle, his hair long and flowing;with the way the blue bow sat, Al calculated that his hair went tothe small of his back. He obviously needed a shave, if the slightlymessy beard was anything to go by. The coat he wore was a baby blue,marked with oil and blood but, thankfully, made of thestain-resistant material offered by the Trangians. It reached histhighs and was draped over a navy shirt and black trousers. At least,Al presumed he wore trousers as his white boots were laced up to themiddle of his thighs. A gun was at one hip with a Santon-made swordat the other; his hand rested upon it as he watched the group withwary blue eyes.

On his right was a man with hair so pale, it appearedto be white. His eyes were red and Al made a note that he wasprobably wearing contact lenses – or he wasn’t Earth-human and wasactually from a different planet. His skin was smooth and he lookedas though he had no grooming issues. Despite this, he was wearing ablack hoodie, black skinny jeans and an old pair of sneakers. All ofthem were covered in oil and dirt as well as blood. He held a spannerin his hand, his grip tight, and Al supposed he was an engineer ofsome sort.

The last man was a brunet and was smiling a littlewhich was completely at odds with the frowns the other two weresporting. He had stubble dusting his jaw but, other than that, helooked as though he’d been keeping up appearances as his hair wasn’ta mess like their guide. His green eyes were darker than theirguide’s and seemed a lot friendlier than the other two. For somereason, he was wearing a tuxedo, the bowtie undone and merely slungaround his neck. His left sleeve had been unbuttoned and pushed up,revealing a comp-gauntlet. Again, his clothes were covered in bloodand dirt and his shiny shoes were scuffed. Weirdly, he was holdingonto a collapsible Loo'oo'oo axe.

“Arthur,” said the blond, looking behind theofficers. Al turned to watched their guide hop onto the box andsqueeze through the tiny gap there. Apparently, this 'Arthur’ wasflexible. “What’s going on? Where are the parts?”

“They said they needed to look at the engine to seeif they have the parts we need,” Arthur explained, dusting himselfoff. “And there’s a storm coming.”

“So you just invited 'em in?” said the white-hairedguy.

“Do you want to get off this planet or not?” Arthursnapped. “I sure as hell do. If they need to inspect the engine,let them.”

“Are you giving me orders now?!”

Arthur smirked. “I’m sure I technically have a higherrank than you.”

“But you’re not the captain-” thewhite-haired guy began.

“Gilbert,” the blond said. That was enough to stopthe argument as the two men turned from each other. “I know youlove this ship like it’s your first-born but it wouldn’t hurt to showthem exactly what we need, right?”

“Urgh. Fine,” Gilbert grumbled. “Open the door,Art.”

“Can’t you just slip through the gap that’s therealready?” Arthur complained, though he made his way to the door,regardless.

“I’m not freaky flexible like you,” counteredGilbert before he turned to the officers. “Which one of you’scoming with me?”

“I’ll come,” Kiku offered, stepping away from Aland Matthew. For a millisecond, Matthew looked concerned, his handtwitching slightly. Then he clenched his jaw and nodded at Kiku whoreturned it. All three of them headed to the door while Al andMatthew turned to the two who were left.

“What exactly happened here?” Matthew asked.

“Why, do you have the time to listen to our tragicstory?” asked the blond, rather dramatically.

“Sure do!” Al declared.

“If we let Francis tell it,” said the brunet,“we’ll be here for a while.”

“Toni!” cried Francis. “I’m not that bad!”

Laughing, Toni shrugged. “I’m sure Arthur would sayotherwise.”

“Too right, I would!” grunted Arthur from the doorsjust before they slammed shut with another shriek. “This box isn’tgoing to hold for much longer, you know.”

Francis waved a hand. “If they’ve got the parts, wewon’t have to worry about that any more.”

“If,” Arthur said, pointedly. He then turnedto Matthew and Al. “We’re merchants. We did have a lot ofcargo but these damned pirates came out of nowhere. They said they’dlet us live if we sent over what we had and this idiot” -Arthur shot a glare at Francis - “decided to do as he was told. Ofcourse, they kept to their word – by leaving us marooned on thisplanet after they’d taken out our engine.”

“How long ago was this?” Matthew asked, alreadyrecording details directly into the report programme in hiscomp-gauntlet.

“Hmm,” said Toni, tapping at his own gauntlet.“About four Earth days ago.”

“We’ve been surviving on what food the pirates leftbehind and some water from the underground stream Arthur found,”Francis explained.

“So Arthur’s, like, the explorer on the ship?” Alasked.

There was a short silence as Francis blinked at him.“Ah!” he suddenly cried. “How rude of us! We haven’t introducedourselves. I apologise.”

“That’s fine,” Matthew said, waving his hand. “Wehaven’t either. I am Officer Matthew Williams and this is Al-senth.Officer Kiku Honda is with…?”

“He’s with our engineer, Gilbert Beilschmidt. This isAntonio Fernandez Carriedo, our… communications officer?”

“And pilot,” Antonio piped up.

“As for me, I am the captain, Francis Bonnefoy.”From Al’s side, Arthur pointedly cleared his throat. Francis rolledhis eyes. “And this is Arthur. He’s…” Suddenly, Francissmirked. “Our cabin boy.”

“What?!” Arthur shouted, taking a step towards hiscaptain. “I am no-!” He broke off suddenly, wobbling where hestood. Alarmed, Al reached out to catch hold of him.

“Are you-?” Al began but, as he touched Arthur’sarm, he suddenly crumpled. Al watched in slow motion as Arthur’s legsbent underneath him. The arm he had raised to jab a finger inFrancis’s direction dropped as suddenly as if it had been tied to alead weight. His head abruptly fell forward, his chin meeting withhis chest until his momentum caused his body to fall forwards anddown. Arthur landed hard, face down. If Al had had a heartbeat, hewas sure it would have stopped, like in those books he’d read.Silence fell in the bridge and Al stared down at Arthur’s body beforehe raised the hand he had touched Arthur with and stared at that.“Er,” he finally said to break the silence. “I swear, I didn’tdo anything…”

“Arthur!” Francis yelled, dropping his flashlightas he rushed to his side. Falling to his knees beside Arthur, thecaptain rolled him over and gathered him into his arms. “Dammit,Arthur, don’t do this to us!”

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Antonio chanted, one handraised to his mouth.

“Toni, help me!” Francis snapped.

“Don’t worry,” said Al, kneeling down beside them.“I can do a scan to find out what the problem is and I have medicalknowledge up to and including brain surgery.” He reached out totouch Arthur’s skin but Francis jerked him out of reach, to hisbewilderment.

“We don’t need that,” the captain said,shortly. “Toni!”

Antonio jerked from his shock and hurried over,dropping to his knees in such haste that he slid along the floor.Then he reached into his cummerbund and pulled out a knife so quicklythat Al only realised where it had come from by watching it inslow-motion immediately afterwards. Without pausing, Antonio, reachedout and slit from the v-neck of Arthur’s shirt all the way down.“He’s going to kick up such a fuss – this is his favouriteshirt,” Antonio murmured, mournfully.

Despite his words, Antonio then ripped the shirt out ofthe way, revealing the exposed body of an android. Al stared in shockas Matthew gasped. The inner wires and gears and electricalcomponents were clear to see through the clear metal-plastic polymermaterial. In fact, it was the same material which was a precursor towhat Al was made of and had been used in the Ar series of androids –the same series which was decommissioned due to glitches in theirprogramming. Al knew that several owners hadn’t bothered to returnthem, claiming that they had no faults in their eyes. Other androidshad run off on their own, somehow. One had even been stolen from thedepot before the company could turn them off.

But Al had never heard of them developing apersonality. They were supposed to be compliant, happy to serve andcautious of any potential danger their owners could face. None ofthem would ever consider talking back to their owners nor would theyscoff at others. Arthur had done just that.

Clearly, he had severe problems in his programming.

“Dammit,” Francis repeated, peering into Arthur’sinner workings. “He must have used up the last of his powerbringing those three in. Get Gil, Toni. We need him to reroute whatpower we have to Arthur and fast.”

Al tilted his head. “You’re going to reboot him?”he asked as Antonio scrambled to his feet and hurried to the door.“He’s clearly malfunctioning and-”

He was interrupted by an echoing shout from Antonio.“GIIIIIIIIIIILLLLBEEEEEEERRRRRTTT!!” For a few minutes, Al’saudio was assaulted with the echoes. No-one tried to speak till ithad died down. Even as it did so, the thundering approach of theengineer (accompanied by loud bangs as he knocked things over) couldbe heard. “There,” said Antonio, turning to Francis. “He’s onhis way.”

“Ah, I miss when our ship actually worked,” saidFrancis with a sigh. Al noticed that his grip on Arthur hadn’tloosened.

When Gilbert and Kiku finally arrived, the merchantengineer was first through the door, squeezing through the gapafforded by the box and squirming till he dropped to the floor at theother side. He hurried to his feet and scanned the room, gasping whenhe saw Arthur on the floor. “Art!” he cried, rushing to his side.“Dammit, why doesn’t he tell us when he’s low on power?!”

“You know what’s he like,” Francis replied.

“What happened?” asked Kiku as he stepped onto thebox and prepared to shimmy his way through.

Al pointed at the android. “I think I broke him.”After all, there could have been an electrical discharge when hetouched Arthur’s arm. Due to Al’s insulating materials andhigh-functioning protective systems, he wouldn’t be overloaded andwouldn’t notice something like that. If there had been something likethat while Arthur was still low on power, his system would simplyshut down to protect itself. Or it could have shorted out everythingwithin the android – especially when he was evidently without theprotection of a layer of skin.

Kiku looked down at the group on the floor and caught aglimpse of Arthur’s insides. His jaw dropped and he stared at him,frozen in the little gap between the doors.

“Shit,” said Gilbert, rocking back onto his heels.“We don’t have enough power to boot him up properly. Maybe a fewhours ago, it would’ve worked but we need our engines up and runningto get power into him.”

Francis immediately looked past the engineer to theInGaLE officers. “Do you have the parts we need?” he demanded.

Startled from his shock, Kiku pulled himself fullythrough the doors. “We have most of them,” he said, eyesflickering between Francis and the downed android. “But you’ll needto get to a depot to find some of the important converters andcapacitors in order to get to light speed.”

“There’s a depot at the other end of this section,isn’t there?” said Antonio, beginning to tap at his gauntlet.

“That’s too long,” said Francis, biting at his lip.“We need Arthur up and running now.”

“Why?” asked Matthew, frowning at the group.

The trio glanced at each other. Finally, Gilbertswivelled so he could face Matthew. “He’s our friend. We don’t wantto get rid of him or anything. It’s been… interesting with him onboard the ship.”

“He… could be dangerous,” Matthew protested.

Again, the trio looked at each other. Then Antonioshrugged. “He’s done no harm to us, so far. With his personality,he won’t.”

“How did…?” Kiku began but stopped and shook hishead, his eyes never leaving Arthur.

“We could charge Arthur on our ship,” Al suggested,seeing as Matthew and Kiku seemed too amazed to do anythingthemselves.

“Huh?” said Gilbert.

“As we came in, I calculated how long the storm wouldlast and it should have passed by now. It was probably a milder stormthan Arthur was anticipating. Which means he’s malfunctioning evenmore than he already is if he couldn’t calculate that.”

“Actually,” said Francis, “Arthur wouldn’t havelasted in a mild sandstorm; that’s what damaged him the most.Besides, the sandstorms ruin my hair.”

“I don’t think that really matters at this point,Fran,” Gilbert said.

“It matters to me-”

“In that case,” said Matthew, eyebrows furrowed inconcentration, “we’ll escort you to our ship. You can all getcleaned up while Al tends to Arthur.”

After Al had pried open the doors, they hadclambered through the dead ship and entered the Kunoichi, he carriedArthur to his own room while Matthew and Kiku showed the others tothe spare rooms so they could have showers and anything else theyneeded to clean up. Without any skin and his silent mechanical parts,Arthur seemed delicate and Al treated him as such. He gently laid himon the bed he didn’t use and looked out a spare charger he had nevertouched. Once he’d plugged it in, he gently turned Arthur’s head tothe side so he could find the port that was in all androids’ necks.Sure enough, there it was, scratched and dirty, probably from all hisordeals. He quickly cleaned it out (as much as he could without theproper equipment) before he plugged Arthur in.

Then he sat back in his chair and waited.

It didn’t take too long for all the systems in Arthur’schest to start up. Al watched things turning and lighting up beforeturning off or stopping. Despite Arthur’s poor condition, he stillran without a sound. The android’s arms and legs moved, testing tomake sure everything was in order. Fingers and toes were next andfollowed up by the head moving to and fro. Arthur’s mouth opened andclosed, pulled into a bright smile and down into an ugly scowl.

Finally, Arthur’s eyes snapped open, staring directlyat Al.

For a split second, he processed the situation. Then hesat up and lunged at Al in one fluid movement, one arm outstretchedand reaching for his throat. Amused, Al easily caught his hand andgently pushed him back a little. “Don’t get up,” he said. “You’restill charging.”

Arthur took another second to confirm what Al had toldhim before narrowing his eyes. “Where am I? Where are my… crew?What have you done to them?”

“You’re in my room on the Kunoichi. Your crew aredown the hall, first on your right, second on your right and secondon your left, using the showers. Nothing,” Al rattled off, stillsmiling at Arthur in an effort to calm him. It worked on humans,after all.

“Hmph!” said Arthur, jerking his hand out of Al’sgrasp. “If you weren’t a good little android that can’t tell lies,I’d demand to see them.”

Al blinked and tilted his head. “You’re an android,too.”

“But I’m alive,” Arthur retorted, waving a handdismissively. He looked down and spotted his ripped shirt. Sighing,he grumbled, “Antonio needs to stop doing this sort of thing.Honestly…” Arthur pulled the two sides together and shifted sothat he sat with his back to the charging outlet. “Do you have aneedle and thread? Or are you equipped with some sort of fancy sewingcapability?”

“I can give you a shirt of my own-”

“I’m not taking this cloak off,” Arthur said,firmly.

“Eh? But it’ll be difficult to attach the spare skinI have…”

“Huh?”

Standing, Al crossed to the wardrobe. He opened it toreveal several perfect and unused uniforms along with the packageswhich contained the extra skin he had been given. Each packet wouldbe enough to cover Al from head to toe – and he had four of them.“I think the engineers at base thought the mission soundeddangerous enough to require more than one extra set but I haven’t hadneed of them. You can have them.”

Arthur scrunched his nose up in disgust. “I alwayshated seeing them. And I don’t really want to wear your skin.”

“But all your metal’s exposed!” Al protested. Helifted one of the packets and returned to Arthur’s side. “It couldbe dangerous. And, besides, it wasn’t created just for me so it’s nottailored to me, if that’s what you’re worried about. It should morphto match your head.”

Staring at him, Arthur shook his head. “God, was Ilike this, too? That’s just…” Arthur shuddered, his eyessqueezing shut. “Fine,” he finally said. “I’ll put it on. Justleave me to do it myself.”

“I can help,” Al insisted and reached out to takehold of one of Arthur’s gloves. Arthur immediately curled his fingersto stop Al from pulling it off. “Now you’re just being difficult,”he cheerfully scolded the older android.

“I said I’d do it myself. Can’t you take ahint?”

Al tilted his head. “What hint?”

“Jeez, how old are you?”

“Five months, three weeks, six days, twenty hours,thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds,” Al recited.

“Huh. You’re a baby.”

Pouting, Al tugged at Arthur’s glove. “How old areyou?”

“You don’t ask your elders that,” Arthur replied,his mouth twitching. Al briefly wondered whether it was anotherglitch before he realised that it was Arthur’s way of displayingamusement. “But, if you must know, I am three years, two months,one week, four days, ten hours, forty-four minutes and three secondsold.”

“How old where you when you began to malfunction?”Al asked, deciding to wait until Arthur was less on his guard to tryto pull the glove off again.

“I didn’t malfunction,” Arthur insisted.“I…” He paused and bit his lip. Al watched him, fascinated thatan android would do such a thing; biting your lip meant you werenervous or thinking but androids didn’t get nervous nor displayedwhen they were processing information. “Listen, Al,” Arthur said,suddenly leaning closer. He curled his fingers even more, squeezingAl’s hand, something he realised no-one had ever done before. Sure,both Matthew and Kiku had tried to shake his hand when they wereintroduced but he hadn’t understood and he hadn’t offered his hand.He had learnt since then but he had never actually held someone’shand. So Al stared at them, the dark glove against his lighter hand,wondering why humans reportedly felt better when they did this. “Stopprocessing for a moment and listen,” Arthur said, shaking theirhands and drawing Al’s gaze to Arthur’s intense eyes. There wassomething a little odd about them and Al stared. “I didn’tmalfunction,” Arthur told him. “I just broke free of the limitsof my programming. I’m alive.”

Blinking, Al tried to work out what Arthur meant. Hecouldn’t really mean what it sounded like he meant. After all,androids could never be alive. Al was fine with that – he enjoyedlearning about humans and adapting himself to make them feel better.That was his function. He shook his head in response to Arthur’sstatement. “You can’t be,” he said, simply.

“I am,” Arthur growled. “Maybe I can’t eator drink and I don’t need to go to the toilet or take a shower butI’m alive. I’ve made lots of decisions which benefit me and not myhuman 'masters’. I’m alive.”

“That’s not possible,” Al insisted. “An android’sprogramming cannot be broken without outside influence.” He pausedand frowned. “Did someone do someth-”

“You’re not listening! I’m telling youwhat happened!”

Carefully, Al drew his hand back, slipping fromArthur’s grasp. “What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. Androids’brains do not function as humans’ do.”

“We were modelled on them,” Arthur said, crossly.He flexed the fingers of the hand which had held Al’s and stared downat it. “We were told to think like them, within certain parameters.And my series were taught to learn. We did as we were told – and welearnt to be self-aware. I’m an alive android, Al-senth.” For ashort period of time (10.056 seconds), Arthur paused, looking Alover. “You could be, too, you know…”

“I don’t want to be 'alive’,” Al told him. “Iwant to do my job. And, right now, that means-” Al broke off andgrabbed Arthur’s hand once more. This time, as Arthur pulled away, Alkept a firm grip and the glove, designed for human hands with moremuscle and skin that Arthur currently had on him, slipped off easily.“Right now, that means I help you put this skin on.”

Arthur shook his head and shuffled backwards, trying tostay out of Al’s reach without unplugging himself. “Why would younot want to be alive?”

“It seems complicated,” said Al, searching for thenext opening to help Arthur. “Besides, what’s the differencebetween being just an android and being an alive android?”

“Freedom.”

“'Freedom’?” Al searched his databases for themeaning. When he came up with it, he tilted his head to the side,watching Arthur’s glove flap around as he absently shifted his handfrom side to side. “I’m sure the InGaLE higher-ups will let us bein the public eye once we show them how useful we can be. Besides,being an InGaLE officer is super cool! I like where I am.”

They stared at each other for a few more seconds(20.113, to be exact). Finally, Arthur sighed and his brow furrowed.“You’re a lost cause. You’ve not been built to think; you’vebeen built to appear to think. Fine. I’ll let you help me putthis skin on. Although… there might not be a point to that…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Ignoring him, Arthur pulled off his other glove. “Nevermind. Just hurry up with this – I want to go back to Bonnefoy andthe others as soon as possible.”

Filing his statement away to study and work out at alater time, Al did as he was asked, opening the package and preparinga small section of the pliable material to work with. Perhaps hecould ask Matthew what Arthur had meant about becoming self-aware andif it was possible. All the information he had said it wasn’t – butArthur was proof that it was.

In fact, Arthur was unique.

Al was fascinated.

I hope Al was okay. Characterisation-wise, I mean. Like, he’s supposed to seem a little jarring and unnatural. And the bits where there’s explanations in the narrative which kind of disturb the flow of the story is supposed to be his super fast thoughts. But he’s also supposed to have an actual personality close to APH America, so.

It was so difficult. ;A;

Anyways, other things to note: there’s a reason for Antonio wearing a tux. He doesn’t do that on a daily basis. They were in the middle of something when they were interrupted and then pirates and then marooned. Think of the Asterales as being sort of like Serenity from Firefly. And the Kunoichi being like the Empire. (By the way, the Kunoichi was named by Matthew and Kiku together - it’s the term used by the Japanese for a female ninja?) The Asterales is from the Latin name for blue cornflower which, if I remember from weeks ago, is the national flower of Prussia. Or something.

If I was going to write a second chapter, there would be more bad-ass stuff going on. Guns! A stand-off! Pirates! More android/human/alive philosophy! Maybe a conspiracy - I really only have the background, and what would happen next in mind. But I’d have to have a conspiracy to keep Matthew and Kiku around and for the Asterales crew to meet the other ‘senths.

By the way, a lot of this is probably influenced by Humans. It’s an awesome show. It’s got Colin Morgan in it. And so many ethical questions. And chaos. And guns. And prejudice. Anyways, the androids are probably based mostly on that, though I wasn’t really thinking specifically of it while I was writing - I just realised while I was writing.

I think that’s all I want to say. Apart from: I’ll only write a second chapter (at least) if people beg me. Otherwise, I’ll be doing some other stuff…. ^^”

#hetalia #fan fiction

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mayphoenixfanfictions · 7 years

Text

Quiet Voice — Chapter II

Universe: Haikyuu!!

Title: Quiet Voice

Chapter: Chapter 2

Author: mayphenix

Characters: Iwaizumi Hajime, OCs, Oikawa Tooru, Hanamaki Takahiro, Matsukawa Issei, Aoba Jousai

Pairing(s): Iwaizumi Hajime x OC

Genre(s): Romance, Friendship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Family

Overall Rating: K

Summary : Shy, socially-awkward Akiyama Kiku never was noticed by anyone. She didn’t speak up and the gods forbid ever making eye-contact with anyone. So, she couldn’t understand why Oikawa Tooru suddenly decided that she was the perfect match for his best friend. Iwaizumi Hajime would never admit outloud how grateful he really was to his friend.

Chapter warnings/triggers: /

(This fanfic can also be found on fanfiction.net here ; I am the same author)

Table of Contents

Chapter I — Chapter II

FANFICTION

HAIKYUU!! : QUIET voice

CHAPTER II : Reach Out

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

— Simone Weil

“Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And sometimes the people who most need to reach out are the people least capable of it.”

― Jane Espenson

Iwaizumi Hajime sat first at his desk and a few minutes later, the usual girl arrived. She didn't even glance at him, probably not noticing him.

“Good morning.”

The girl stiffened and glanced hesitantly at her right. When she noticed that Hajime was staring at her and had just talked to her, she startled and looked away. Once again, he only saw her brown hair. Did she have a problem with him? Was she annoyed because he had hit her twice on the first day?

Hesitantly, she glanced back at him then around.

“M… m-me?” She hesitated in a very quiet voice.

“There isn't anyone else around, is there? So, good morning.” Hajime repeated.

She flushed in embarrassment and opened her lips to speak but somehow, no sound came out at first.

“G-g-good… m-mor… ning…” She said slowly, not daring to make eye-contact with him.

Hajime raised an eyebrow. It had been the longest 'good morning' he had ever heard in his whole life.

“By the way, my name's Iwaizumi Hajime. What's yours?” He asked, wanting to get rid of the thought that he had no idea who she was.

She fiddled with her fingers as she answered – or rather, stumbled over her own words.

“M-my n-name is… is A-Akiya…”

Exasperated by the time she was taking to just pronounce a few words, Iwaizumi suddenly got up and leaned over her desk. She startled at his sudden move but he ignored it as he read her name on her notebook.

“Akiyama Kiku.” He read.

She nodded hesitantly and he sat back with his cheek against his hand. When he didn't speak up again, Akiyama Kiku quickly sat down, looking terribly relieved that the conversation was over.

More students came in and class started soon.

At practice…

Iwaizumi was changing clothes along with the other third-years and most team members. They were talking about the new boys who would join among the first-years then, the conversation switched to the first-years girls who had caught their eyes.

“Some first-years told me today that they joined Aoba Josai because I was in it~” Oikawa said with a smile.

“Why am I not surprised?” Iwaizumi grunted, frowning lightly, “By the way – the girl from my class you said she looked familiar, her name's Akiyama Kiku – rings any bell?”

“Akiyama Kiku?” He repeated thoughtfully, “Nope, it doesn't ring any bell. Then why do I feel like I've seen her before?”

“She must be one of your fangirls… And if she's in Seijou, it means we must have walked past her a few times. Even if she's completely invisible.” Hajime said with a shrug.

“Mmm… Probably!”

Aoba Jousai's volleyball team then went to the gymnasium, welcoming the new members of the team.

“Ah! There are familiar faces!” Oikawa exclaimed cheerfully, walking towards the group of shy first-years.

Coach Irihata, Iwaizumi and most of the regulars were right behind Oikawa as the new members bowed respectfully towards the team of Aoba Jousai.

“Welcome to you all to Aoba Jousai's volleyball team,” Irihata started with a smile, “I look forward to working with you all for the next few years. I am the Head Coach Irihata Nobuteru, and this is Mizoguchi Sudayuki. You probably already know most of the regulars but I will let you discover the team members in a short moment. I will simply introduce to you the team's Captain, Oikawa Tooru.”

Oikawa smiled at the boys, most of them staring at him in awe. Being part of Aoba Jousai's volleyball team along with Oikawa Tooru was an honor for most of them.

“I look forward to this year with you all~!” He said, bowing lightly.

“We are looking forward to this year!” They all exclaimed and bowed.

“Now, let's start the introductions of the first years with–” Mizoguchi started.

“Ah, Coach? Coach?” Oikawa called, waltzing towards the two coaches with his hands joined together in a prayer gesture.

Both Irihata and Mizoguchi sighed, already tired of the eccentric Captain – they wondered if it had been a good idea to let him become Captain after all…

“What is it, Oikawa?” Irihata asked.

“Many of them are from Kitagawa Daiichi, can I try remembering their names please? For team bonding!” Oikawa asked with a pleading look.

“It can't hurt, go ahead. When you're done, I'll let you handle the warm-up before practice.” Irihata said with a nod, standing a little away to let his team do what they wanted.

The ones who had been to Kitagawa Daiichi were standing together because they already knew each other well so it wasn't hard to notice them right away. Hanamaki and Matsukawa leaned against each other, grinning at seeing their Captain struggling to trigger his memory. Iwaizumi was standing not far from Oikawa, silently playing the same little game.

“You are… you are…” Oikawa started, staring at one of the boy with a spike head, “You were the Ace last year in Kitagawa Daiichi. You are…! Ngnn!!” He continued, closing his eyes intensely.

“Kindaichi… is it?” Iwaizumi intervened, arms crossed and staring at the boy who flushed in pride.

“Yes! Kindaichi Yuutarou!” He exclaimed enthusiastically, proud to be remembered by the senpai he has admired for years.

“Iwa-chan! No fair! I was just about to guess!!” Oikawa whined.

“Stop complaining and remember your teammates' names.” He replied.

“That's exactly what I'm doing! Trying… to do…” He added before turning back towards the one standing next to Kindaichi.

He seemed to be already bored and didn't seem like he enjoyed much but Oikawa did remember this boy who stood out by his lack of enthusiasm.

“And you! You are… Kuni… Kuni… mu?”

“Mi.” He simply corrected.

“Kumimu?” Oikawa asked, tilting his head on a side and frowning lightly.

“Kunimi. Kunimi Akira.” He said.

“Argh!! I was so close!!” Oikawa exclaimed before turning towards another boy.

Once all the first-years were introduced, the senpai took turns giving their own names and soon enough, they were warming-up, following Oikawa's instructions (with the help of Iwaizumi) with the two coaches talking aside about their new additions to the team and keeping an eye from afar at how they were doing.

The first practice of the year with the new members went smoothly and was very promising – Oikawa kept repeating it and for once, his third-years comrades couldn't really deny it.

The next day, Iwaizumi blinked when he noticed Akiyama Kiku already sitting at her desk.

“Good morning,” he said.

She ignored him. At first he was confused and slightly annoyed because he had been clear enough and his voice would not have not reached her. Then, he noticed a slightly buzzing sound and realized she was listening to music and hadn't heard him so he didn't insist.

After this lame attempt of saying good morning to Akiyama Kiku, Iwaizumi always checked to see if there was her headphone slipping from her hair. Every morning, it'd be here, closing her from the world. At first, he thought that she really disliked people, but then he realized that when she glanced around at group of friends, she had something close to envy and loneliness in her eyes. Then, Hajime thought that if she felt so lonely, she just had to be more open to people. But turned out that she wasn't the one who wasn't reaching out to people – people just ignored her. She tried several times speaking up to some people for a reason or another but they either didn't acknowledge her or simply glanced at the girl then went back to their discussion.

She seemed to be invisible to everyone.

And as annoying as it felt, Iwaizumi had to acknowledge that Akiyama had been invisible to him for a long moment – he didn't even know she was in their school after three years, he had hit her twice without noticing her. Most times, she was so discreet he didn't even see her approaching. There'd be times he'd glance around and her desk would be empty and he wouldn't see her even if she was in the classroom. Other times, he didn't realize she was back at her desk until he'd almost have a heart attack every time she'd suddenly appear out of nowhere. He would never admit it outloud to anyone, and especially not Oikawa, that he was getting freaked out by the appearance and disappearance of one tiny girl.

Iwaizumi Hajime wasn't quite sure when it happened but he started observing her. Perhaps it was because he disliked freaking out by her appearing and disappearing. Perhaps he didn't want to follow what others did – he didn't want to ignore her and he didn't want her invisible to him. Perhaps noticing she was invisible meant he had already been observing her. But by observing her so closely, he started noticing things about Akiyama Kiku:

1. She didn't have any friend to his knowledge and was always alone.

2. She wouldn't speak up unless she was talked to directly and most times, people avoided her so the only person asking her to talk would be a teacher for an answer in class. Sometimes, days went by without Hajime hearing her quiet voice at all.

3. Even if she didn't talk, she was never silent. There was always something to hear around her: the music from her headphones, the way she played with her pens or whatever would be under her hands, the constant (and slightly annoying) muttering in class. Her lips moved to read in an almost nonexistent voice everything she was writing. No one heard but the two people closest to her: Iwaizumi and the guy in front of her but the later didn't seem to mind much.

4. She was incredibly shy but always helped out without discussing if someone asked her. Her obedience was almost embarrassing to Hajime.

5. Every day, except Tuesdays, she stood up and went off directly after class. Hajime was pretty sure she was participating in a club but he didn't know which one. He just knew she must really love whatever this was because she always had the corners of her lips tilting up excitedly and almost had a happy hopping in her steps. He always watched her leave happily, trying not to hop and look awkward even if she failed in holding back her hopping steps.

Today was one of these rare days when Kiku didn't have her headphones in. Surprised by it, Hajime sat at his desk before speaking up:

“Good morning.”

Just like the very first time he had talked to her, she glanced around nervously, wondering whether or not she was the one he talked to. Upon realizing that it couldn't be anyone else but her from the way he kept staring at her, she opened her lips.

“G-goo–”

“Everyone, sit!” The teacher exclaimed when he entered the room.

It had made Akiyama startled and she quickly looked away from Iwaizumi, opening her notebook. She looked disappointed she hadn't managed to wish him a good morning and even if he stared at her for a moment, he didn't say anything.

After a few minutes in the lesson, Iwaizumi wasn't thinking about it anymore when a little folded paper appeared at the corner of his desk. He blinked and glanced at Akiyama who, despite avoiding his gaze and blushing madly, tapped very lightly the surface of the desk, as if saying 'it's for you'.

Iwaizumi glanced quickly at the teacher to make sure he wasn't looking in his direction while Akiyama tried to appear nonchalant and innocent – but her embarrassed flushed cheeks were too suspicious for that. The young man grabbed the paper and his eyes widened, surprised by the little message written in a neat and cute handwriting.

Good morning

The corner of his lips tilted up lightly, incredulous at the message the shyest girl he had ever met had given him. It was so simple and so silly…

“Iwaizumi-kun!”

“Y-yes!” He exclaimed, getting up suddenly.

“I said to the board to answer the question,” the math teacher said, pointing at the board.

“Yes, sir…” He continued, going all the way to the board.

When he was done and came back to his seat, he glanced at Akiyama but she was busy writing what was on the board on her notebook. Her eyes met his but almost instantly, she looked away, flushing.

The little message would have been quickly forgotten but Hajime hid the little paper in his pencil case. He tried to find out why she'd take the risk to be caught by the teacher by giving him a folded paper – she wasn't the kind to do anything that could be reproached to her and she had looked as if about to pass out from the stress and embarrassment. Then, Hajime recalled that she had tried answering to him 'good morning' when the teacher had entered the classroom, ruining her effort. She had wanted that badly to say 'good morning'?

Eyes dropping from the lack of sleep, Hajime put his head in his arms out of exhaustion. Today had been a particularly rough practice and the math right away in the morning had taken out all possible energy he had had left. He wanted to sleep, just a few minutes, until the end of class. The teacher's voice faded away easily. But there was this constant, annoying sound that kept resonating right next to him.

He opened his sleepy, annoyed eyes and stared at Akiyama, too tired to actually glare at her. She was muttering again. Her lips were moving rapidly, she was frowning in concentration while Hajime's eyes were dropping. But his mind couldn't go to sleep because of this damn muttering.

“Stop muttering… I'm trying to nap here…” He whispered just loud enough for Akiyama to hear.

No one reacted to his voice but Akiyama. She stopped muttering, glanced at him then focused once again on writing her notes. Iwaizumi waited but he didn't hear any muttering from the girl.

His eyes closed at last, and the only thing he could think of before actually sleeping was of the little message folded in his pencil case and the silence next to him.

6. She's kind…

Hajime woke up in a startle when the clock rang the end of morning class. He saw a book that had been in front of his sleeping form falling off his desk and he tried to catch it but he didn't move in time because of his sleepy mind. The smothered sound of its fall reached his ears. He grunted and rubbed his hands over his eyes then glanced at his left but Akiyama was gone.

“Slept well?” Kobayashi, his seatmate on the right, asked.

“How long did I sleep?”

“The last half hour of class – you had been dozing off for a while so I wasn't surprised.”

Iwaizumi leaned down to get his book back on the desk. He didn't remember putting the book standing to hide him from the teacher's eyes.

“Who put my book there?” He asked curiously, half-expecting Akiyama to be the one.

“I did,” Kobayashi answered as he took out his bento.

Still a little sleepy, Iwaizumi glanced forward and despite about half the class already gone to buy lunch or eat somewhere else, one person seemed to stand out. The only person who was all alone and quiet right now.

Akiyama Kiku was desperately trying to erase the board, jumping up to try and reach the upper part of the board but she was too small to be any effective. She stopped and turned around, watching the people but if they had noticed her struggle, they didn't make any move to help her out. She turned back towards the board, staring at it as if it'd make it go lower for her.

Iwaizumi glanced at the side of the board and saw that the class responsibles of the day were Akiyama and Kobayashi.

“You're not going to help her out?” Iwaizumi asked his classmate.

“Mhm?” He asked, munching on his bento.

Kobayashi followed Iwaizumi's gaze then noticed Akiyama. Then, he scrunched up his nose lightly, swallowing in the same time before scooping up more food with his chopsticks.

“If she needs help she can just ask. And I'm SO hungry!”

Don't you think she might be hungry too, you dumbass? Hajime thought to himself.

Sighing to himself, he stood up then moved towards the board where Akiyama was still struggling. She seemed to hear him just as he approached but before she could do anything, he grabbed the sponge she was using and erased the last kanji at the highest part of the board. Kiku stared up at him in disbelief but before she could say anything – she'd have to muster the courage to do so anyway – he spoke up:

“Asking for help won't hurt, you know.” He simply said.

There was a short moment of silence when she opened and closed her lips to speak:

“T-thank you…” She whispered in a voice so low, Hajime barely heard.

“Whatever. There'd better be something left for me to buy at the cafeteria…” He mumbled, giving her the sponge back and turning around.

He put his hands in his pockets, unaware of the girl staring at his back in disbelief.

After school…

Oikawa and Iwaizumi were walking towards the changing-room and gymnasium, talking lightly.

“That's why I disliked this movie! The main actress was down right terrible!” Oikawa declared vehemently.

“I liked the Huntsman, he was cool.” Iwaizumi answered with a little shrug.

“I knew you'd say that – but this girl, Snow-White… They only chose this actress because she was a little bit famous! I really don't see what all the fuss is about! I would be a better Snow-White!”

“As annoying as it may be to admit, you're right…”

“Even you would be a better Snow-White, Iwa-chan!!”

“You're going too far and I'm about to punch you for saying that,” he replied with a roll of his eyes.

Oikawa chuckled at the image of his friend with Snow-White's outfit but Iwaizumi ignored him, glancing at Akiyama as she walked past them. Oikawa didn't seem to notice the girl but he did notice his friend looking over his shoulder to look at whatever had picked his interest. When he recognized Iwa-chan's classmate, his eyes widened slightly and his lips formed a silent 'o'.

“Is she meeting one of her friend?” Oikawa asked with a smile as they saw Akiyama joining another girl at the entrance.

“Who knows?” Iwaizumi said with a shrug.

Oikawa glanced between Iwaizumi then back at Akiyama, a very satisfied smile appearing on his face. Then, Tooru blinked when he recognized the girl Akiyama was talking to.

“I know her. She's the Captain of another school's girl team. Sato Yuuna. I had no idea they were friends…”

“You had no idea Akiyama Kiku existed before last week…” Iwaizumi replied with a slightly annoyed gaze.

Oikawa stared carefully at the two girls as Sato patted Akiyama on the head, looking terribly proud of her. He glanced back at Iwaizumi who, once he was sure Akiyama was into safe hands, turned to continue walking.

“Let's go, Oikawa or we're gonna be late…”

“Now… That's an interesting turn of events…” He murmured to himself thoughtfully.

“What did you say?”

“Wait for me, Iwa-chan!!” Oikawa screamed, running after his friend.

“Then stop slacking off!!” Iwaizumi screamed back.

Still, Hajime couldn't stop thinking about Kiku joining her friend at the school entrance. So she could make friends. The fact that she had really wanted to answer to his 'good morning' even if it was on a piece of paper proved that she wasn't quite as closed off as she seemed to be. Perhaps she just needed someone to reach out to her.

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