"Are you going to stop glaring at me at any point today?"
Saji's voice cut through the hush of the library like nails on a chalkboard. Several students nearby glanced up, then promptly looked away, sensing the storm that they didn't want to be caught in.
Across the table, Hina didn't reply. She simply stared, unblinking, from behind the curtain of her bangs. Her expression was flat, carved from quiet disappointment and steady judgment.
Saji sighed and hunched further into his seat, clutching the textbook between them as if it could shield him. "It's kind of terrifying how you're so different towards everyone else, but you turn into a death stare whenever it's me."
"That's because you're the only one who deserves it", she said, at last. Her usually soft voice now was sharp and precise like a scalpel.
Saji winced at her words. "That's a little harsh, don't you think?"
Hina said nothing. She reached into her folder and pulled out their assignment sheet, slightly creased at the corners. The words "Proposed Mobile Suit Application for the Orbital Elevator Maintenance Operations" underlined twice, the second underlined far more aggressive than the first.
"You do remember this is due in two days?"
"I've been busy," Saji mumbled, avoiding her eyes.
"With your girlfriend." Hina stated bluntly.
His ears turned pink. "Well... Yeah. Louise has been stressed from some things. I'm trying to be supportive, and..."
"So supportive that we're going to fail a major project?"
She flipped open a sketchpad and laid it on the table in a slightly aggressive way. Saji leaned forward.
"What... is this?"
Hina tilted her head slightly. "An old personal project. An experimental mobile suit meant to compromise the Orbital Elevator's foundations and accelerate its structural failure through vibrational resonance."
He stared at her, mouth agape. "You designed a terrorist mobile suit."
"It's technically sound. If you don't finish your part of the current assignment, this can be my backup plan." She replied flipping to the next page. A detailed cutaway showed internal systems, specialized joints to manage drill recoil, and a page of calculations that made him feel sick.
"We can't submit this," he screeched, panicked. "We'd get expelled! Or arrested! Or both!"
"Well, if we don't submit anything at all, I'll lose my scholarship," Hina returned to her usual blank tone, though something dark shimmered beneath it. "So if my future is already ruined, I might as well enjoy it."
Saji opened his mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again, like a fish trying to argue with the ocean.
"You know what," he said at last, voice rising an octave in stress. "Fine. I deserve this. A little. But still! Don't you think you're overreacting just a tiny bit?"
"No."
He groaned into his hands. Hina pulled the sketchbook back and tucked it away.
"You really think I'm that irresponsible?" he muttered.
She didn't answer.
And in a way, she didn't need to.
What she didn't know, what he never told anyone, was that he couldn't afford to fail this course either. Not with the part-time job he took after class. Not with his sister's efforts to maintain his studies. Not after the recent incidents around him and Louise. But it wasn't something he could say, especially not here. Especially not to Hina.
He straightened up, trying to find his footing again. "Okay. You win. I'll finish my section by today, and I'll bring it to your apartment."
Quietly, she nodded. "Don't bring Louise."
"I wasn't going to!"
She looked back down at her notes, making a small correction with a red pen, and in that moment, something softened on her shoulders, just barely.
The drills would stay in the sketchbook. Probably. Hopefully.
-
The sun was a dying ember when Saji sprinted up the narrow stairwell, bag bouncing against his side, breath short, and nerves fraying with every step. The evening air clung to him, warm and sticky, laced with the last golden streaks of light.
It was late. Later than he'd meant. If Hina's fury earlier was anything to go by, he was walking willingly into a minefield.
He adjusted the folder under his arm, took a deep breath, and knocked. Once. Then twice.
The door cracked open.
And the last thing he expected, the absolute last, was to see––that guy. Setsuna F. Seiei.
His quiet neighbor. The one who never greeted anyone and ignored all of his attempts to befriend him. That Setsuna.
Saji blinked. "Wait... what?"
Setsuna stared at him without a word. He turned, leaving the door open behind him, and wordlessly crossed the pale wooden floor. He lowered himself into a seated position beside a big cardboard that had been repurposed into a makeshift table. Upon it, a single foam cup of instant noodles sat there, barely eaten.
Saji hesitated in the doorway, then finally stepped inside.
The apartment was sparsely furnished, white walls, the air faintly tinged with antiseptic and ink. Everything besides Setsuna was still, too still. Like a memory that hadn't quite formed yet.
Saji gestured vaguely. "What are you doing here?"
Setsuna didn't look up. "Eating."
"I can see that," Saji sputtered. "But did you come all the way here for instant ramen?"
"Hina is busy today," Setsuna replied as if that explained everything.
Saji's eye twitched. "Does that mean she usually cooks for you? Really? Because when I offered some home-cooked food last week you walked away without saying a word."
Setsuna stirred the noodles, still not meeting his gaze. "She doesn't interrogate me."
Saji let out a noise of pure disbelief. "I'm not interrogating you!"
No response. Arguing with him was futile and he had more pressing matters demanding his attention.
"Right... Where is Hina?" Saji asked, already bracing for another cryptic answer.
Setsuna pointed a single door at the other side of the living room. "She's angry at you."
Saji sighed deeply. "Of course she is" He trudged off toward the back room like a man marching to his doom.
The door shut behind him.
And then, again, silence.
Setsuna slurped another mouthful of noodles.
He observed the steam curled up into the fading light as it cut across the floor.
He stared at the wall across him, empty and blank. His back rested against the cool plaster.
From the other room raised their voices, muffled but distinct. Hina's tone sharp and clipped. Saji's loudly fumbling his words, tripping over themselves in his attempt to defend and explain his choices. The volume rose. A pause. Another wave of back-and-forth. A sigh. Papers shifting. The rustle of blueprints. A pen falling to the floor.
Setsuna kept chewing.
He tilted his head. He breathed in. Out.
More noodles.
Hina would scold him for drinking the noodle broth from the cup, complaining about how unhealthy it was, but he did anyway.
"... Too peaceful." He murmured.
More silence.
Then, finally, the door creaked open.
Hina emerged first. Her eyes were glowing in that quiet way when her mind had landed on something satisfying. She carried a thick folder now, project finished, lines drawn, equations checked and triple-checked.
Behind her, Saji shuffled out like a man who'd just run a marathon with a refrigerator on his back.
He muttered a goodbye, voice hoarse. Hina didn't respond, just glared at him before her attention went elsewhere.
The door clicked shut behind Saji. She turned to Setsuna.
"You're still sitting here."
He looked up at her from her floor, rolling the empty cup in his hands. "You were busy."
She crossed the room, letting the folder fall on the makeshift cardboard table with a satisfying thunk.
The room dimmed further as night gathered beyond the window.
"Well, thanks for waiting, then."
Taking the empty cup from Setsuna, her hand brushed lightly against his for a moment.
Between them, the stillness held, not empty, not cold, but unspoken comfort.