Free Fall

Chapter 1: Love Letter

"So what did you tell her anyway?" Hachiman asked.

"That I need to discuss something with her. Concerning you and me," Yukino answered.

They were sitting diagonally across a table in Yukino's apartment, on a Saturday late afternoon.

"The difference between a lie and a truth told only to deceive..." Hachiman began.

"I've also told her that it's urgent," she went on, interrupting whatever his snide comment would have been.

"Which is true. Well, you decided that it is urgent, at least."

"This wasn't just a mayor embarrassment. I would never have expected something like this. Not from her."

"Not from her, huh?" Hachiman mumbled.

"I'm not willing to wait until Monday to discuss this issue. And school is not the place to do that in any case, inside or outside of the clubroom."

Hachiman did not comment. They had been over that before.

"Did you tell her that I would be here too?" he asked on.

"Not directly. No."

"I'd still rather not get involved in this."

But they had been over that one before, too.

"And her 'illness'?" he wanted to know.

"She said she was feeling better already."

"Which isn't really surprising." The sarcasm was dripping.

They stayed silent for a while.

"Can I see that love letter again?" Yukino finally asked.

"It's not directly a..."

"We both understood it that way, didn't we? Please."

Hachiman stood up and went for this jacket. He returned with a sheet of paper and wordlessly handed it over.

It was the second time Yukino read the short text. This time, she tried to keep a somewhat more professional distance before giving her final verdict.

"This doesn't look like my handwriting. Not a bad attempt however, I admit. But also not the words I would choose." A brief panic attack, as she wished she had put that last sentence a bit differently. Hachiman didn't seem to notice, though. She handed the letter back to him.

"Well, it was good enough to fool me," he regretted.

"She must actually have practiced it."

"The tickets," Hachiman mused. "In retrospect, the tombola was a lie, I guess?"

"I would think so."

"They certainly weren't cheap," he went on. "Three of them. Or two at least. I've never seen the third one."

"The question is," Yukino asked, "why would she do all that?"

"Shouldn't you ask her that?"

"I want to hear your assessment first."

Hachiman leaned back in his seat and ran his hand over his hair. He looked uncomfortable. "To hook us up," he said after a short pause, "is the most straightforward explanation."

"But... why? And her, of all people? You know that she's..." She trailed off.

"Yes," he concluded her thought. "We both know."

"Also, life is not a comedy of misunderstandings. She must have known you'd mention that letter eventually. And the truth would come out."

He uttered a brief laugh. "I pondered about it yesterday night. To just pretend it didn't exist."

"If you really believed it was real then that wouldn't have been fair."

"It wouldn't have been fair. It would have been safe. And the problem now wouldn't exist if I had been less fair."

"Do you actually believe that?"

No answer.

"Any other ideas what she was planning?" Yukino went on.

"Except to hook us up? The opposite. Drive us apart."

"Has she, Hikigaya?"

"Tried to drive us apart?"

"Has she driven us apart?" Yukino clarified.

Hachiman hesitated. "It wasn't my intention to let that happen," he finally said. "I'd gotten used to the club as it was," he added after another couple of seconds.

"Yes," was her only reply.

"Okay," he quickly went on, "let's say, it wasn't Yuigahama. Somebody else did it. A prank. A mean prank."

"The convenient timing? Our trip today was even mentioned in that letter."

"It's not as if it was a secret. Somebody in class might have overheard her talking about it."

"And that somebody practiced to fake my handwriting just to play a prank? And her sudden illness? An upset stomach? Why? What are they feeding her for dinner at home?"

"When she said that I thought it was, how should I say, a code word for, I mean..."

Yukino was confused for a second. "What? Oh. No, no, no. Today? Unlikely."

"How would you know?"

"Of course I know,"she snapped.

"Oh. Okay."

"Just ask your sister if she knows her best friend's, well, timing. She will."

"That sounds like a reasonable conversation starter at the dinner table," Hachiman deadpanned.

For the first time in hours Yukino lightened up, had to fight hard to suppress a laughter even. She was thankful. "In any case, you don't really believe it was somebody else."

"It is possible, isn't it. If we three agree it wasn't Yuigahama then somebody else must have done it, right?"

Yukino decoded his message and thought about it. "I will at least keep that possibility in mind, Hikigaya," she then promised. "If we can all agree on it."

Another period of silence followed in which Yukino suddenly noticed the mainly empty table between them. "I haven't even offered you something..."

At that moment, the doorbell rang.

"Hikigaya," Yukino said as she stood up, "I don't want the club to change either. We finally had achieved some kind of... call it stability."

"I understand," he just answered.

"Yuigahama and I have become very close."

"I know."

"Her friendship is most important to me. I want to salvage it, at almost any cost. But I don't think a 'safe' solution is the way to go in this case. I feel like she stabbed me in the back or tried to push me off a cliff. But maybe there's something I just don't understand. No, that at least is a given. But however it might be, the next steps depend on her."

"I understand," he repeated.

Author's Notes

1. You might have read "romance" in the title and are now asking yourself the obvious question. Or maybe you don't because I've already introduced Yui as the villain of the story, right? Wrong. This is not a hate fic. And there is no villain in this story (even though "Villain" will be most likely the title of the next chapter). If anything, there might be three villains. Please bear with me. I won't spoil this story by revealing a pairing here. In fact, I can't even promise that there will be a romantic conclusion at all. All I can promise is that the story won't end in heartbreak and lots of girlish tears. Nor with Hachiman's throat being slit open with a kitchen knife. Or something like that. It might get kinda dark in a way you (hopefully) won't expect, though.

2. This story takes place mostly in the living room of Yukino's apartment. Although there will also be scenes in exotic locations like the kitchen. Or the Himalayas. The Himalayas may be a joke. The kitchen at least isn't. Expect a lot of talking heads in any case.

3. As a first draft, the story is already complete. I might add or remove some lines, but overall nothing drastic will change. It's unlikely that this will end as an abandoned fic.

4. Finally, this is rated M for a reason.