#2winkWeek2023

[danshou]

Day 3 Sweet🍬 and Spicy🌶

Honestly I just wanted an excuse to draw them in some funky fashions as always!

[marchenhare]

Day 7: Free Day (birthday party)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AOIS!

[seafl0wrz]

@2winkweek day 1: sun & moon

outfit design + colouring process pics under the cut :3

[2winkweek]

Artist is starrydewdrops on Instagram & Twitter ✨️💖💙

Hi! 👋 To all the creatives taking part in the week that get so excited about their piece they wanna share rkgk 'n' WIPs-- 😳🎉

Please post with #2Wink Week 2023 & don't be shy in tagging us so we can re-share on our socials!

Hope you have fun!!!

[sukacheri]

2wink Week 2023 Day 1 - Nostalgic

A Quarter Past 2am [AO3 or keep reading below]

2wink | one-shot | 1.4k words

Though the size of his palm had changed, the portion of chocolate chips stayed the same. As if what Hinata had used as a child, with palms barely big enough to grab any sort of meaningful handful, was Yuuta’s preferred amount of chocolate. Or maybe it was what nostalgia tasted like. Or: Hinata makes Yuuta hot chocolate when he can't sleep.

a/n: yayy first 2wink week post!! this is an old fic i posted a few months ago but since the day 1 theme was nostalgia i feel morally obligated to post this here. i hope you enjoy!

@2winkweek

It was 2am.

Hinata didn’t fall neatly into being a night owl or early bird by any means, but this was definitely too late for him to be up. It would be one thing if he had just woken up from sleep and decided to get a glass of water before going back to bed, then it wasn’t “staying up”, it was an interruption to his sleep. If anyone walked into the kitchen at this hour and saw him, that was what he'd tell them. If there were even other people awake right now.

No, there definitely were. There were plenty of weirdos living at Ensemble Square.

Also, he like, totally did not snoop on his phone to see that Yuuta was active on social media right now. That would totally be violating Yuuta’s privacy. But it wasn’t like he was hiding it. Okay, well, he wasn’t posting anything, but it said his status was active! So, if he really didn’t want people to know then he’d turn that setting off.

It didn’t really matter.

Hinata already had a saucepan warming up on the stove. Milk and cocoa powder set to the side, waiting on standby to be added in. 

Yuuta’s lack of sweet tooth normally deterred Hinata from making something like this, and he knows countless spicy alternative recipes for other meals. He had even gone out searching for spicy hot chocolate recipes and begging Niki to teach him how to make them properly because while he had mastered the art of adjusting sweetness, mixing and matching spice wasn’t as intuitive to him.

And even with the special training, his spice palette was unsatisfactory, but it was probably better that way. Yuuta would hate it if Hinata was invading on one of his key personality traits. Even if, no, especially, if it were for Yuuta’s sake Hinata did so.

Hinata hovered his hand over the pan, heat seeping through his fingers, and decided it was warm enough now. He poured the milk in first, the white 2% of it all covering the bottom of the steel pan, with the cocoa mix following right after. He whisked them together with a practiced hand, muscle memory that knew a repetitive whisking motion used in most cooking, yes, but also this particular movement for this particular hot chocolate.

Everything about this recipe, routine, ritual, was ingrained in him, from his fingertips that spread the mix, to his arms that whisked the pan, and to his feet that had taken him out here to the kitchen in the first place. It might as well be a piece of his soul. 

It was pointless to wonder how much of his soul is dedicated to Yuuta. Sure, he tried nowadays to be himself, Hinata Aoi, through and through. Whoever that was.

The more thought-provoking and less existentially-dreading exercise was to scour through the pieces like a web and decide which ones didn't end up linking back to Yuuta in some way. 

Most of his hobbies started from a need to improve himself, not for his own personal self-satisfaction, but for Yuuta’s sake. Gardening was his one non-performance based hobby, but even that started as a way to save on groceries at home and grow the peppers his brother liked that hurt his wallet just a bit too much. 

A drop of milk splashed out onto Hinata’s arm as he whisked, drawing his eyes back into focus on the warm brown color [verb]ing in the saucepan now. He set the whisk down, feeling the beginning of a cramp in his hand but ignored it to reach across the counter and grab the sugar. He didn’t need to use a lot; Yuuta usually liked something a little sweet when he couldn’t sleep.

It took only a few seconds for the sugar to dissolve and for Hinata to grab a small handful of chocolate chips to scatter in the pan like saccharine hail. He started whisking again and tried not to dwell too much on the memory of a much younger him, one before all the growth spurts and near-constant sibling bickering, one that had his little brother fully rely on him. Though the size of his palm had changed, the portion of chocolate chips stayed the same. As if what Hinata had used as a child, with palms barely big enough to grab any sort of meaningful handful, was Yuuta’s preferred amount of chocolate. Or maybe it was what nostalgia tasted like for him.

Some things change and grow, like how Hinata wasn’t a child anymore, but other things remained the same, routines built into the soul like a code for design.

It was a quarter past 2am, and while the oncoming footsteps were soft, trained to be light on the floor at night, they were wearing slippers, not socks. This was a public building after all, and the twins weren’t living at home anymore.

Yuuta rounded the corner into the kitchen, and Hinata spied the stray hairs sticking up at the back of his head from tossing and turning in bed. The hunch of his shoulders could be mistaken as stress to anyone else that saw them, but Hinata knew his brother’s heart and behaviors, and not that he carried stress but a chill. It took a lot for him to finally drag himself up and out of bed, away from the warmth and comfort of his blankets.

It meant he gave up on sleep and decided to make the chilly trek without a blanket to the kitchen. And like any regular person, he would get a nice glass of water and then try once again to get some shut eye.

Being “overbearing” was a trait Hinata has yet to fully kick, and who says he should be rid of it completely anyways? He should always be able to spoil his brother.

Knowing Yuuta’s ‘I can’t fall asleep even after looking at my phone for several hours and switching which side I lay on so that my phone can keep charging because it almost died’ ritual is hardly a facet of being overbearing. They did share a room for years.

Hinata’s mouth twitched like he wanted to greet Yuuta, but maybe his brother’s eyes do look a bit more tired than usual (or maybe it was just eye strain. These kids on their dang phones..!). He kept quiet instead, and let Yuuta be the one to initiate any talking.

Yuuta paused when his eyes met Hinata’s, and he can see how Yuuta’s mouth is already forming words of interrogation for him. It took a moment for him to settle on his words, and they were less questioning than Hinata would’ve thought.

“... You don’t drink hot chocolate this late,” Yuuta said, walking to join Hinata at the counter.

Hinata didn’t respond, instead looking at the warm, light brown color of the hot chocolate in the pan. The perfect color. He turned the heat off for the stove with a click of the knob, and when he turned to grab a mug, Yuuta’s already beaten him to it.

Hinata accepts the two white mugs, the Cosmic Productions logo printed on the sides of each, that Yuuta hands him. He didn’t bother saying anything right now; if Yuuta wanted to press Hinata on why he was up so late then he could do that, but Hinata wasn’t going to open that can of worms if he didn't have to.

He poured the hot chocolate into both their mugs, steam rising as the liquid filled them. They would probably get stained brown, but that was on CosPro for deciding to get plain old white instead of a nice sleek black or something. Maybe they should’ve done a chrome color.

In the little momentary crease of Yuuta’s eyebrows as he picked up the mug, there was the lingering need to question how Hinata knew he was awake. Hinata can imagine the thoughts flitting through his brain as Yuuta tried to make sense of it. Was it a camera in his room? A parenting app installed in secret? Twin intuition? At least there was no need to question what comes after Hinata knew that his brother was awake, since this was a routine as old as they’ve been able to reach the stove by standing on a wobbly stool.

He had always been making hot chocolate for Yuuta to help him fall asleep. Hinata didn’t plan on ever giving up that level of care for him, because as long as it was impossible to beat up nightmares and bad dreams, then this would be all he could do to settle his brother at night.

Yuuta took the first sip, his face relaxing as he held the cup with both his hands, seeping in its warmth. It was a short sip, since it was too hot to properly drink right now, but his lips turned up into a small smile regardless. 

“Thank you, Hinata-kun.”

There was no need to question Hinata tonight, not over this familiar hot chocolate that had comforted Yuuta countless nights before.

“No problem, Yuuta-kun~”

[danshou]

Day 2 Mischief / Love

I probably rushed this one more than I would have liked, but I just wanted to draw some cute Yuta/Shinobu and Tetora/Hinata~ Not the most creative but ah well. But honestly I have too many ships for them.

[danshou]

Day 1 : Sun and Moon / Nostalgia

Its @2winkweek ! Sun and Moon made me think of magical girl anime and I've been so excited for the new PreCure series, I remember being 13 and loving the series but wishing there was a boy cure... I am sure I'll end up drawing the new cures eventually, but for now heres the twins as magical boys! The nostalgia part is more for me than them haha!

[danshou]

Day 4 Seasons

Its been cold and wet here recently so I ended up drawing them in the rain. Remember to stay warm!

[marchenhare]

Day 1: Sun & Moon / Nostalgic

they're just a little tired

[danshou]

Day 7 HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 🌶🍬

I loved their shuffle units and cant wait to see what 2wink are gonna do next ♡ I also loved seeing everyones work for this last week!

[danshou]

@2winkweek is next week!

I was thinking about those pretty neon photoshoots and I just think these boys suit neon so well, I hope they get more cards like that!

Also I just like pools.

[danshou]

Day 6 AU

I skipped yesterday to finish this one up and #2winkweek2023 is almost over! I think this is the most I have ever participated in something! It's been a lot of fun! I love both futuristic and victorian AUs so I drew both and did end up coming up with some stories behind whats happened in their universes... Perhaps I'll touch on them someday!

Though I'd love to hear what others think might be the stories behind them...!

[seafl0wrz]

@2winkweek drawings (っ＞ω＜c)☆.°

sorted from day 7 to day 2 haha (i skipped day 6 though!!)

day two : fighting dreamer 👊

day three : fairy tale 🧚‍♀️

day four : seasons ❄️

day five : flowers 🌻

anddd day seven : free day !!

i had fun trying to do all seven days hahaha~ thank you so much for organising 2wink week!! i hope something like this happens again soon!!

[sukacheri]

2wink Week 2023 Day 7 - Free Day

Bloom [AO3 or Keep Reading Below]

2wink | Setsubun One-shot | 1.5k words

Any other day, Yuuta would be itching to run back out and perform an encore to carry on the roaring energy, but not today. Not when his stomach is too busy knotting and twisting itself in dizzying dread as he walks off the stage, not one spare indigent glance to observe the neediness of the crowd cheering for him. His heavy eyes dig into the back of his brother’s peach Setsubun outfit, swishing without a care in the world. 

a/n: happy birthday hinata and yuuta!!! i wanted to write an uplifting Setsubun fic or well this is more of a hurt/comfort than a full positivity train, but i hope it is enjoyable!

@2winkweek

If there’s one thing that’s unmatched in quick yet fulfilling validation, it’s singing the last note of the final song in a live performance’s setlist. Fans who had been waving their hands and neon light sticks, electrifying the air with their applause and screams came to a sudden stillness, seeing Yuuta and his brother wave their last goodbyes and giving thanks. In that stillness, there’s an unspoken sentiment of “Huh? What? It’s really over now?” that washes over the fans while they don’t seem to know what to do with themselves yet.

Yuuta would never be able to voice this out loud, he’s certain it’s more than a bit weird and no doubt due to his rather neglectful upbringing, but it’s one of his favorite parts of the live to see the crowd of sad faces that it’s over. 

‘You missed me, huh? Gotta come back next time to see more!’ He’d love to tease, but since 2wink isn’t at the height of stardom yet, it may very well destroy their reputation to be so arrogant. And tonight when it was a school-wide event and maybe a small crowd for a group like fine, it was one of the biggest and loudest 2wink have had yet. Any other day, Yuuta would be itching to run back out and perform an encore to carry on the roaring energy, but not today. Not when his stomach is too busy knotting and twisting itself in dizzying dread as he walks off the stage, not one spare indigent glance to observe the neediness of the crowd cheering for him.

His heavy eyes dig into the back of his brother’s peach Setsubun outfit, swishing without a care in the world. 

The live was good, one of the best they’ve had in some time. At least, Yuuta feels like it was a good one. The qualifications for “good” lately were “Aniki looked at me”, or “Aniki smiled for real… I think”. It’s shameful that he has to add on the uncertainty to it, that he can’t discern the expressions his two-in-one, his other half is making, but he hasn’t understood what’s going on in Hinata’s head for a while now.

Well, he didn’t before today. Before…

He squeezes the purple fabric of his own outfit with his hand, grabbing a fistful and willing the soft plum color to soothe the anxiety sifting throughout his gut.

“Yuuta-kun~! Lookie, lookie!” Hinata’s hand snatches his, pulling it away from where it was crumpling the fabric. His mouth was smiling, but the squint in his eyes was off. Not like fake glee, Yuuta doesn’t get the sense that it’s vacant like it has been lately, but something about this smile is ticking him off in a somewhat familiar way.

“What? What am I looking at Aniki?” Yuuta snaps.

Hinata’s smile peels back to show his teeth and he glances off to the side with a hum. Yuuta follows his eyes, but there’s nothing. He looks around the impromptu dressing room they had been given, and still there’s nothing. He has a semblance of hope that his brother is smart enough to know he shouldn’t have planted any pranks on a day like today or else Yuuta wasn’t going to have to worry about a rooftop to kill-

He forces himself to blink a few times and takes one final look around the cluttered room, the frustrated and tense sensation in his chest growing. Hinata’s finger taps against his knuckle, and really, can't his brother use his own hands for his nervous twiddling instead of using Yuuta as his personal drum?

It clicks in his head then, a little gate opening to the knowledge that he and Hinata share the habit of getting their anxieties out via their fingertips. Where Hinata expresses the nerves through movement like tapping fingernails against the table (and ever since they started painting their nails, this has gotten annoying), Yuuta has always been more of the type to fiddle with his clothes. 

It irritates Yuuta then, because with another click in the gears of his head, that if he knows this fact then surely Hinata does too. So, his stupid, idiot, brother decides that he must quell Yuuta’s anxieties by grabbing his hands from tugging on his stupid purple clothes. As if it was a matter of life or death, as if his fists would actually hurt himself, as if that was more harmful or life threatening than sitting on a rooftop and talking about stupid giraffes and-

“Aniki, are you serious?” He decides to give Hinata the chance to retract his hands, to stop treating Yuuta like a child. If he goes back on this transgression and fesses up about it, then that’s still a step forward compared to where they’re at now.

Hinata’s smile falters, but instead of doing anything sensible, he instead lifts up Yuuta’s hand and starts pinching the fingers. “Yuuta-kun! Look at these little piggies~ This one went to the market,” a pull on his middle finger, “this one goes to the arcade,” a pull on his ring finger.

“You have got to be kidding me right now-”

“And this one went to the bathroom and clogged it and is too embarrassed to ask for help and doesn’t know how to fix it and is already messing up, huh~?”

A pull on his pinkie.

Yuuta takes a moment to sigh through his building rage, trying to push it all out in one single breath. It’s annoying, it’s frustrating, and even if they’ve talked about it, it still makes him upset that his brother can’t meet his eyes and say exactly what he wants. 

But this is the closest he’s gotten in months, maybe years, so he can’t just punish Hinata for trying his best. His brother has always tried to do what he thought was best, and that was entirely the problem that led them here so don’t misunderstand, but it’s what also made it so hard to get through to him before. It’s hard to try and dismantle someone’s love and genuine desire to do right for a loved one, even if that love nearly had Hinata throw himself away. So, even if his honesty is in the form of a poop joke right now, if it’s what he’s able to offer then Yuuta will take what he can get.

“That makes two stupid metaphors today, Hinata-kun.”

“Eh?!” Hinata’s eyes went wide, wider than normal for a jab from Yuuta. Must be because he didn’t say Aniki, but Yuuta has to keep him on his toes. Hinata barely recovers, sputtering out “no, no, Yuuta-kun you’ve got it all wrong! I’m 2 for 2 today!”

Yuuta rolls his eyes, pulling his hand away to poke Hinata’s forehead with two fingers. “2 for 2 for bad metaphors. Put that on your clown school application.”

They dive into bickering about Hinata’s hypothetical application to only the most prestigious of clown schools, the pointless banter making Yuuta laugh out all the knots in his stomach. This is how it should be, these stupid conversations from nothing that have all bark and no bite, no fear at the end of them that Hinata will pull away since he made Yuuta upset. Nothing of Yuuta feeling guilty by the end of it for being a selfish, spoiled brat.

He changes out of the Setsubun outfit, though putting on the black and red tracksuit has his nerves winding up a bit again, so he chooses to settle them by folding the plum fabric into a neat square. He takes care to press out the wrinkles, if only to have something to do while waiting for Hinata to finish up.

It doesn’t take long, his brother’s chants of ‘Yuuta-kun, Yuuta-kun~!’ ring in his ear and Yuuta turns to meet him. “I’m coming~ Hey, can we pick up dinner on the way home? It’s way too late to cook.”

“Hehe, I was just about to say we should do that. Let’s go to a buffet! We can just bully Sakuma-senpai to give us money to cover it tomorrow.” Hinata grins at his own plan, seemingly satisfied with whatever outcome he’s come up with about how tomorrow will go. Rei does make it just a bit too easy to be manipulated by the two of them going along with his old man antics, or maybe he genuinely cares about the twins' well-being. If today's events weren't an indication of this, then who knows what else could possibly prove it.

It’s nice to be cared about.

Yuuta follows Hinata out the door, leaving the Setsubun outfit folded neatly in the room behind him. Today sucked, but he can at least be thankful to have been able to perform on a beautiful stage with his brother at the end of it.

And be thankful that now he gets to go eat dinner with him, and that tomorrow they’ll get to walk to school together, text about dumb stuff during class, and play pranks on their classmates. He’s thankful that at the start and end of each day, he knows his brother will be with him.

Yuuta is thankful that they’ll always be two unique individuals that will always make up one whole heart.

[sukacheri]

2wink Week 2023 Day 5 - Past & Future

the luck of backstreets [AO3 or keep reading below]

2wink | Pre-canon one-shot | 2.7k words

Halfway though their usual way back home, Hinata and Yuuta were struck with an obstacle. Orange cones lined up along the sidewalk blocking it off from pedestrians while a group of construction workers drilled into the concrete. Next to him, Yuuta glared at the noise, pulling his coat tighter around himself. “Now what?”

Or: A stroke of bad luck delivers fortune in the form of the twins rescuing two kittens.

a/n: so this is set in the past only and not the future but ive always wanted to write the twins getting their 2 cats! so here! enjoy!

@2winkweek

Halfway though their usual way back home, Hinata and Yuuta were struck with an obstacle. Nothing like the looming brutes leading up to a final boss like you’d find in one of the video games at the arcade, no, their obstacle didn’t carry axes and bloodlust in their eyes.

Their obstacle was simple, harmless, but still an impossible to clear goal. It was a lot like a tree having fallen on a path, and when playing the game you think to yourself ‘Ugh! Just step over it!’ Hinata now sees it’s not as simple to do that.

Orange cones lined up along the sidewalk blocking it off from pedestrians while a group of construction workers drilled into the concrete. Hinata had heard the noise of it a block away, but since there wasn’t anything set up that morning when he and Yuuta had walked through, he didn’t expect it to block off the path they needed to go home.

Next to him, Yuuta glared at the noise, pulling his coat tighter around himself.

“Now what?” he said.

Hinata surveyed the situation. It’d be getting dark soon, but soon wasn’t until at least another hour and it was already dropping degrees outside, so waiting wasn’t an option. Obviously they couldn’t go barreling through the construction, regardless if it was safe or not, since there was a chance they’d get caught and fined. The last thing they needed was to owe money they didn’t have.

They could walk further down the road to get past the construction which wasn’t the end of the world, but Hinata could feel his entire body sagging with exhaustion, so before embarking on the extra steps, he took a final glance around.

There was a convenience store off to the side of the street, its ‘We’re Open!’ sign buzzed with a dim light, not yet brighter than the growing dusk. It didn’t seem to be pressed directly to the back of the building behind it, none of the buildings on that side of the street did. If they were lucky, once they got behind them they’d be able to walk through and make it to the other side just fine.

Hinata started walking and Yuuta followed right behind despite his protests, “Where exactly are we going, Aniki? We can’t loiter inside a store for an hour. Haven’t we, um, borrowed from this one before anyways?”

“Aw, lighten up~ We’re not going inside.” Hinata walked past the door and turned around the corner of the building. “We’ll just walk through the alley. I think it’ll take us all the way though.”

“Wait!” Yuuta grabbed onto Hinata’s arm, tugging him backwards a step. How Yuuta had this much energy still after performing all day for just a few dollars was beyond Hinata; his own legs ached and he wanted nothing more than to just get home already.

“What?”

Yuuta shot a nervous glance down the alley, his eyes scrunched with suspicion. “Aren’t there like, murderers in alleys? Stabbers?”

Hinata hadn’t considered the thought that there could be sketchy people lurking in an alley and he blamed it on the way his bones felt like lead. Maybe he shouldn’t have given Yuuta his share of dinner last night, he feels overly exhausted. But still, it was daylight out, and not that muggings couldn’t happen during the day, Hinata was really hoping today was one where they all happened at night.

“We’ll be fine.” He settled on, but since Yuuta looked no more convinced, he added, “if anyone jumps out then I’ll handle ‘em! You just run, okay~? I am your super strong older brother after all.”

Hinata walked towards the alley without giving Yuuta a chance to argue. He had a good intuition for danger and he didn’t feel like anyone with a knife was going to jump out at them. Yuuta followed closely behind, grabbing onto the back of Hinata’s jacket, and if he had a protest then he didn’t voice it. He was probably too scared to say anything now that they had entered into the alley.

Looking down it, it did seem as though they would be able to walk straight through and make it to the other end of the street. It also looked like there were no creeps to be found, only regular sized trash bins and not even a large dumpster to hide behind. As far as alleys went, Hinata thought this one to be on the cleaner side, and it looked like all the home and business owners took care to throw their trash away properly in the bins. The only trash left out was a lone cardboard box by the trash bin for the convenience store.

He began walking, but as he passed by the first set of trash bins his brother suddenly yanked him back with a gasp.

“Aniki! Look!” Yuuta pointed at the cardboard box, or rather what was inside it.

A black blob, a furry black blob. Hinata’s heart dropped into his stomach.

“C’mon Yuuta-kun, let’s go. It’s just trash or something.”

“No, it’s not,” Yuuta argued and leaned closer to the box. “It’s… it’s something right? Like a cat? Or a dog?”

Hinata tried to pull Yuuta away from it, not wanting to put him through the experience of seeing a poor dead animal thrown out like trash. “It’s not anything, so let’s keep on going-”

A squeaky mew cut him off.

Yuuta was already crouched, reaching a hand out to it. The kitten hissed with weak spits at Yuuta’s hand, cowering itself into the corner of the box. At the hissing, Yuuta retracted his hand with a jolt.

“It must be so scared…” Yuuta said, frowning at the little black kitten.

Hinata swallowed. His own heartstrings were burning with the need to scoop up the ball of black fluff into his arms and run all the way home with it, but his mind nagged at him about the logistics. How could they take care of a cat when they’re out all day? What do cats need? What about the cost of food and litter?

Would their home even be safe for a cat?

He opted for no response, and tried to drag Yuuta away from the box. There were few instances like this one, where Hinata felt so lost in the face of the cruelness of the world that it took the words right out of him. And in this one, he couldn’t bear to have Yuuta deal with the heart wrenching feeling of a poor kitten left out in the cold. If they moved now they could just forget about it, and Hinata could hope it wouldn’t haunt Yuuta’s dreams too badly.

Yuuta pulled his arm out from Hinata’s hands, his eyes flicking up to the gradually darkening sky and back down to the kitten letting out another mew.

“Aniki, it’s supposed to snow tonight.” 

Hinata bit the inside of his cheek. 

Yuuta stared at him, his eyebrows pinched with anxiety he usually only reserved for their time at home.

“Okay, let’s take it. Maybe we can find a shelter to drop it off at tomorrow,” Hinata said.

In an instant, Yuuta was crouched back down and trying to place his hand near the cat. He clicked his tongue at it, trying to offer it kind words but it continued spitting in the way that kittens do. Hinata kneeled next to his brother, the new view letting him spy that there was a flush of brown fur behind the black kitten.

“Ah, Yuuta-kun, hold on.” He pulled his sleeves down on his arms, making sure they covered his wrists. He’d have to live with some knicks on his fingers, but he doubted such a small thing could get him that bad. “Okay, I’ll get it and then you need to get the other one real quick okay~?”

“Other one? What other one- ah, wait!” Yuuta quickly mimicked his brother and pulled his sleeves down, having more luck covering himself up to his knuckles.

Hinata scooped up the black kitten easily enough. He had gone in with less caution than Yuuta was exercising, and resigned himself to being scratched. As he thought though, kittens this young had claws about as useless as an umbrella in a hurricane.

Beneath the black one was a brown kitten with a variety of markings and stripes that was much less spitty and hissing than the black one had been, so Yuuta picked it up with a single try.

“Oh! It’s a.. These are called tabbies right? She’s so cute.” Yuuta smiled at the kitten he held in his hand. With a smile like that, Hinata didn’t see a visit to the shelter to drop these two off any time soon. 

It’d hurt too much to break Yuuta’s heart. It felt like all their life lately has become the worst sort of routine of waking up, going to school, running to the busiest streets afterwards to do some cantrip performances, and then trying to make it home before it got dark. Their weekends were spent exclusively performing all day and hitting the grocery store to hopefully be able to buy food for the week. 

If Hinata could do it all on his own, he would. He’s counting down the days until he looks old enough to get a proper job and get good money, but for now he has to rely on their twin schtick to actually rake in any money from their performances. So, he really can’t bring himself to take away this one happiness from Yuuta, not when Hinata hasn’t been able to give him anything of substance in so long.

The kitten in his arms began to struggle, meowing and hissing, and shaking Hinata out of his thoughts. It looked way too thin to be healthy and rested far too lightly in his arms, but with determined mewls it continued trying to crawl from Hinata’s arms. Each time he readjusted it and brought it back to his chest again, it tried to get out and move along his arm to where Yuuta stood, his own kitten mewing but showing no attempt to move from where Yuuta bundled it up in his coat.

If there was one thing Hinata understood, it was the protective nature one had for their siblings, especially in dire circumstances like these.

“Lucky you~ You get to carry both of them! See how mine is trying to get to your’s meowing?”

Yuuta looked between the two and opened his mouth with a small gasp. “Oh, you’re right. They’re family alright. Okay, okay, I’ll take yours.”

Hinata shuffled closer to Yuuta and held his arms out, easing the kitten next to the other one in Yuuta’s arm. He thought that would be the end of the meowing, because wow, kittens really knew how to meow a lot, but no. Both of them continued meowing together, though it was less frantic than before so Hinata figured it must be from hunger or the cold. He helped Yuuta pull his coat tighter around himself so he could cover the two fluff balls easier, hopefully solving the most pressing issue of the cold right now. 

“Let’s get going.” Hinata started walking down towards the end of the alley. “We have some cans of tuna at home, they should be able to eat that for now.”

“Better they have it than you try to force it on me again,” Yuuta said, grimacing as he followed pace with Hinata.

When they got home, thankfully to an empty house so they didn’t have to smuggle the kittens in, Hinata ushered Yuuta up to their bedroom telling him to start making a little bed for them out of whatever spare towels and rags they had. He would have loved to devote a spare blanket to a temporary bed, but being in the middle of winter meant that all of their blankets were in use to keep warm through such dreadful nights.

Hinata grabbed the can of tuna from the cupboard where they kept their cans, making note that they’d need to buy more soon. No matter how much Yuuta hated it, it was a cheap sort of protein good to stock up on for a rainy day. He opened another cabinet for a plate, and finally a drawer for a spoon. Feeling properly equipped to feed 2 hungry kittens, he went upstairs, the previous exhaustion plaguing his body having been swept away with the responsibility of more mouths to feed. 

Yuuta had managed to create a shape that looked like the cat beds he’s seen in stores before, a nice pillowy bottom with the rags and a small washcloth, and then a towel wrapping around it in a circle to give it a sort of wall. Both kittens certainly seemed pleased with it, seeing as how they both were curled up in the center of it. He almost didn’t want to open the can and disturb them from a well earned rest, but he knew it’d be best for them to eat and get some food in them.

“Okay~ Here kitty-kitties~” Hinata cooed and opened the tab on the can. 

Neither kitten stirred, not until Hinata had the lid fully off and begun scooping the tuna onto the plate with the spoon. As soon as the smell hit the both of them, they were up and stumbling to where Hinata had pushed the plate closer to the bed.

“Y’know, Yuuta-kun. You could take a hint or two from them. See, they love it!”

Yuuta glared at him, though it melted off his face as he watched the kittens start eating. “They’ll continue eating my share, thanks but no thanks.”

“Who’s saying they’re staying?” Hinata asked, his face blank.

“You know I’m not falling for that. Your faux-seriousness has lost all effect on me,” he sighed, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I know there’s no way you’d be able to send these two off to a shelter.”

Hinata’s lips turned up into a grin, and he reached a hand out to pet the black kitten as it ate. “Yeah, yeah. We’re keeping them. So get naming~ Have you checked yet to see if they’re boys or girls?”

“I checked while you were downstairs. Both girls.” Yuuta reached to pet the tabby. “So, you’ll name that one and I’ll do this one.”

“Sardine.”

Yuuta sighed.

“No, you are not naming it sardine. I’m vetoing that.”

Hinata’s smile deepened, and he couldn’t help but laugh while still trying to protest in the most serious manner he could muster. “Yuuta-kun, our great aunt on our mother’s side was named Sardine. It’s a family name. Are you really going to veto such a deep and meaningful nomenclature?”

“Aniki, shut up. We’re thirteen now so don’t act like a five year old when naming her. See, I’m going to take a day to get to know mine and her personality so I choose a good name. Maybe you should do the same~” Yuuta’s lips quirked up into a smirk. “Actually, why not write down a list and I’ll grade each name. That way I know for sure you aren’t picking a stupid one~”

The rest of the night went by with further bickering about the importance of a good name versus the significance of completely super real family ones, and the kittens had gone right back into their beds to sleep once they were done eating. They curled up with each other in a way that struck Hinata’s heart with memories of Yuuta climbing into his bed after nightmares when they were younger.

The irony of finding two lost kittens with nowhere to go wasn’t lost on Hinata, but he hoped that he could give them a good home from the start. That he could bring home enough cans of cat food and treats and toys to keep them happy from the beginning of their lives and all throughout better than he could have done for Yuuta in the past. Just to protect these two before they’re called something like unwanted monsters, it would make Hinata feel like he could pay some sort of karma forward for the stuff he failed to do in the past.

Yeah, maybe naming the little black kitten Sardine wasn’t going to help with all that. Hinata will have to workshop it and find something better for the karma to work off of.

Something non-fish related or Yuuta really will smack him.

[2winkweek]

artist: Ingrid -> starrydewdrops on Instagram & Twitter 💜

One month until 2wink Week!

Mark your calendars for Feb. 27. The first prompts are Sun & Moon / Nostalgic + 🎶 2wink Introduction 🎶

Have you started your piece yet? Share WIPs on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram with #2winkWeek2023!

💙💖