Of All The Unlikely Coincidences || Kohaku & Elena

He'd hoped to be gone for a half hour, tops.

The redheaded hacker only planned on restocking his instant ramen supply and heading back to the chaos entity that now plagued his home. Yui was, without a shred of a doubt, a handful. Though she'd been with him for less than fourty-eight hours, she'd managed to keep him awake for nearly all of it. Harsh bags hung under his typical cat-like gaze, but all that was left was a shell of what he once was. 

With his shopping basket hung off the inside of his elbow and his eyes staring at the nutritional value in a box of cookies in a daze, Haku couldn't help but shut his eyes for a second. Sure, the boy was used to getting less sleep than the average person. He called himself lucky if he got fours hours. Five was just downright pushing it. But to work on an hour nap each night, with little time in between to lounge around for more than a minute? It was as if his mind was covered in a thick layer of fog, and his brain was refusing to function in any sane way.

Knowing the layout of the store by heart, he could easily maneuver around the store with his eyelids shut. Perhaps he could finally get some well-deserved shut eye since he was away from the hell spawn who decided to live on his bed. It wasn't himself waking up from his seconds-long power-nap that forced his eyelids to creep open curiously, but the sound of a person speaking what he only remembered to be Spanish. He'd scarcely heard it before, but it was an easily distinguishable language to anyone with half of a brain cell. Which, given how sleep-deprived he was, was just about all he had.

It was unfortunate that he'd turned into the aisle when he had, and even more so that he was unable to give the woman any sort of verbal warning. With much more force than Haku had anticipated, the white-haired Spaniard rammed into him. Always as graceful as ever, the hacker stumbled like a newborn horse on ice and nearly fell backward onto his ass, but the last movement to keep himself upright was so violent that it flung not only his precious NoNa Noodles from his basket but also his bee-colored glasses straight off his head and onto the ground.

The world saw it all, but Haku saw none.

He had hoped to squint enough to be able to just barely see his glasses on the floor, but the sound of what he could only assume -and hoped was not the case- were his treasured lenses breaking stopped that dream from ever becoming a reality. 

Not even bothering to try at this point, the sleep-deprived redhead calmly placed his basket onto the ground beside the both of them and reached for the phone in his pocket. She had apologized for it all, even offered to pay for a new pair, but Haku had already begun typing into his text-to-speech app to get his point across. Typing on the screen wasn't a problem for him, thank God, as he already knew the keys by heart. When it came to checking the text for spelling errors, however, was when it got tricky. 

Believing he'd crafted up a text masterpiece, Haku hit play and let the robotic voice speak for him,"I tahank you for ofering to buy me aother pair, but I hae a backup pair at hoome. If you culd help me pay and esort me there, Id grealy appreciate it. Hwoever, once we're ther, you're going to pertend that this never happned. Yoiur lucky thast I'm practiocally blind rihgt now or so help me I'd smite you. I'm msotly kidding lololp." He'd listen to what it was saying, a disappointed hand coming up to rub his eyes at the third typo. However, he was too exhausted to care at this point. The smiting comment didn't mean much to him, but it was a surefire way to give up his identity if he said it to the wrong person.

Nevertheless, he picked up his basket and held it out in the direction of the blob that had bumped into him.

The hacker counted himself fortunate that the woman was willing to cooperate. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Yui and her chaotic tendencies that kept him from dozing off, Haku would have ripped into her spewing nonsense all the while. He wished that he could grumble and complain aloud, but the redhead could only pout. A twenty-something hermit frowning in a way that looked akin to his younger roommate's own frustrated mix of emotions. 

That chaos entity had little to complain about, though. Haku, however, was at a loss.

He'd have to do as she said, reaching out blindly to grasp at the sleeve of her shirt. Yet, just as fast as she was to extend both her help and her hand, the white-haired blob was already picking up the fallen treasure that was scattered on the floor around them. Blinking to himself as his chapped lips pursed together, Haku straightened his shoulders back as the noise of his helpful assistant shuffling around him put him at relative ease. Hey, he wasn't completely alone in all of this. His only company was, however, the Spaniard that broke his glasses in her stumbling.

The thought brought his attention back to her voice, or more so the language that she'd used it for. The chatroom he'd caught himself spending too much time in came to mind, a certain rather grating individual coming to mind. BlueBlitz seemed to be down his throat at every corner, question every little detail and word that his fingers typed. Most recently, it was the threatening of his life over his annoying new roommate. What was her deal, anyway? Who was she to say if how he treated Yui was wrong or not?

A new series of words came from behind him. With it, the answer he didn't want came too.

The redhead's neck slowly craned over his shoulder, only a blurry figure in his limited vision. Mouthing the word 'fuck' before bringing his phone just inches in front of his face once more, Haku would type out the confirmation that she was looking for,"BlueBlitz." All of the mystery and cockiness that he oozed from behind the screen and the hacker was just...

A guy- a lanky beanpole of a man with a plain face that was out-shined by bold hair. There was no God stood in the middle of the 24/7 Mart. Only a shut-in with too much time on his hands paired with an ego that he wore on his sleeve rather than a heart.

"Jsut my lucxk. I cna't catch a break lplololp~" He sent another message into the air, sighing. Disappointed in the reveal and even more so in the situation he found himself in, Haku initiated contact. A pitiful attempt at finding the arm she'd offered earlier was made, and the hacker just barely found it attached to his basket from before,"Can we preted liek we get along so that I cna pay and pretennd I nevr saw you?" With his phone still held in his hand, the redhead put his fate in her hands. He found it unlikely that they would get along, and he waved mentally to the approachable Spaniard from before that had only been so accommodating knowing that he wasn't G0D_KK- a smarmy hacker who only cared about his own ass.

Still, part of him wanted to be proven wrong. And, as he pouted to himself with BlueBlitz' sleeve gripped tightly between his bony fingers, the face that was as pale as paper turned a shade redder.

The redhead was at an obvious disadvantage- helplessly relying on an almost stranger. Pride had always been one of the few sins he’d committed daily as a God, but he had to swallow it back bitterly just this once. It wasn’t often that Haku showed his more vulnerable side, but the laughs from the Spaniard that cracked through his shell to reveal the hacker deity’s soft insides forced an even redder blush to burn across his face. Matching only his vibrant hair in color, the flushed hacker tried to hide his embarrassment with the same hand that gripped his phone. He’d do his best to look away to save the last shred of dignity he had, the back of his large hand trying and failing to shield his reddened cheeks and quivering lips.

Kohaku was meant for greatness- a shining pillar of what a scorned man could achieve if he crawled his way up to godhood. Yet, all that remained of the clever narcissist was a melted mixture of stubbornness and soiled pride all wrapped up in a black hoodie. There were plenty of times he’d been kicked while he was down, but never so sweetly. BlueBlitz was an odd one, that was a fact he was sure of, but the innocence in her laughter that supposedly wasn’t meant to dampen his already soaked spirits made him feel right at home. That didn’t stop the wildfire that had spread across his face from dying down, though, and it only began to break once she’d led him to the counter so that he may check out.

After the familiar noises of a register and the cue from the clerk to pay was given, Haku struggled and fumbled with the plastic bag before slipping it’s handles securely onto his wrist. The blindness might have bothered him if it was permanent, but everything about the situation was temporary to him in his eyes. The backup pair of glasses in the case on his desk would be resting on the bridge of his nose in no time, and the woman he found company with would go back to being a familiar stranger. Or, that was what the redhead had hoped.

Elena, apparently, had other plans. With the roles reversed- Haku’s sleeve being tugged by her- she asked where they’d be heading now. Luckily for the hacker, his apartment complex was just a few buildings to the left. Unluckily for him, however, was that the Spaniard would now know just exactly his lair was. 

Shit.

With a exasperated sigh and a look of utter defeat, Haku would point to the pavement to their left as soon as the door shut behind them. His gait was slouched and lazy, one unbefitting of a God. Whether it was due to the sleep deprecation or damaged pride was unclear. Either way, the redhead was clearly regretting leaving the safe walls of his sanctum. Even if Elena thought otherwise.

With their destination decided, his phone was brought back up to his face to type out a response to all of her chatter. She was a talkative one, no doubt, but it was hard for the redhead to get any words in regardless of her charisma,”Kohaku. Jsut call me Haku.” So that was the true identity of the illusive ‘G0D_KK’- a plain name for an even plainer face. It was definitely not nearly as flamboyant as his walking partner, whom of which all he could make out was what seemed to be a cloud on top of her head. Still, it didn’t stop him from trying to save face and act the part of the trickster deity that he’d played in the chatroom,”Elena is a prettty borign name. El sounds beter lololol.” The robotic voice that spoke from his phone wasn’t nearly as smarmy as he would have wanted it to sound, but it was the only way he could say anything at all,”I’m shockedd you havenn’t led me into traffafic yet lololol.” He hadn’t forgotten the many times that she’d threatened his own wellbeing in the chatroom, and Haku was never one to fold when he was dropped into hot water.

It didn't take long to make it to the apartment complex- a near-rundown, three story building that looked more like an abandoned warehouse than a living unit. There was no way the place was fit for raising any child, but it was the place both Haku and now Yui called home. Though the redhead could have purchased a much nicer place with the money he sat on in his bank account, he hadn't had a reason to do so just yet,"It's hte secodn floor, aparmet eleven." 

The stop from his babysitter brought him much closer to her than he wanted, Kohaku's shoulder bumping into her back. Tensing up from the sudden frigidity, the redhead could only take the words headfirst without much protest as he gulped back the words he wanted to say. Being all bark and no bite, the hacker was quick to look away from her after she'd finished giving him what could only be described as a threatening lecture on his well-being. She meant well and that was enough for him.

Though, it didn't stop him from tugging at the hoodie of his jacket to knock off any post-its she might've put there to invite strangers to 'kick him'. 

Kohaku didn't need functioning eyesight to know that he was just outside what he could only refer to as home. It was a cold building, with little insulation and even lesser fond memories. Still, it was the first apartment he could afford when he leapt into the real world from the doorstep of the orphanage he'd been sheltered in his entire life. With little but a bed and a laptop to call his own, it quickly became a sanctum to him- somewhere the hermit could lock himself inside of for days on end. No one could hurt him, and he treated it as a shell against the harsh realities of the world around him.

God, he wished that less people knew the location.

But, as it was, he needed help. Regardless of how he felt on the matter and about her plentiful questions, Kohaku nodded to them all. Especially to the jumping question,"Yui is vrey wary of pleople lolol." The redhead typed out, his foot hitting the first step in many on the staircase. A warning would have been nice, but Elena was much more eager to help him when it came time to ascend towards his apartment. He'd keep the hand that held his phone hovering over the guardrail, which wasn't entirely safe for either himself or the phone if there was even a small slip-up. 

Luckily for the blind fool he had a good helper, and he nodded when she reassured him that there was only one last flight until their goal. He was thankful that his blindness forced him to go up the stairs slower than usual or Elena might have teased him for getting winded. Fitness was the last of his worries, and he took it just as slowly up the next flight of stairs as he did the last. The apartment he'd spent the beginnings of his adult life in was the first door on the left, and reached into his pocket for his keys.

Though it was near impossible as he first felt for the correct key and then missed multiple times at the keyhole, Kohaku was a stubborn redhead. After many attempts, the door creaked open ominously. The studio apartment was pitch black, which only meant that the chaos entity that now lived with him was dwelling in her bathtub fort. The light switch that should have been placed on the wall just beside the door wasn't there, but it was completely normal to the near-blind hacker as he slipped his keys and phone back into his pocket. Nearly tripping three times from the messes that Yui had left behind while he was gone, the hermit pushed forward through the darkness towards the centerpiece of his room- the computer desk. Now in front of his 'baby', the bag he'd gotten from the mart would be taken off his wrist and clumsily placed onto a free space on the desk. A similarly decorated glasses case to the frames that still sat broken in the aisle of the corner mart was picked up and opened by Haku, and he slipped on the second pair he had for emergencies onto the bridge of his nose.

The amber eyes, from which the name Kohaku came from, would gaze through the darkness at Elena like a cat's. It was good to be back in control, he thought, and a smirk tugged at his lips as he brought his hands up. There was a reason the apartment lacked a light switch. 

Clapping his hands together, the tiny apartment lit up. String lights that were hung along the walls and the center light on the ceiling brought much needed light into the room. There was little in the room- a mini-fridge, bed, a giant desk with three monitors, and the door off to the left that led to the bathroom was all that could fit in the room. It was no place to raise a child and hardly someplace that anyone could call home, but that's exactly what it was.

For now, home was wherever he was.

His phone was taken out once more and flamboyantly tossed into his dominant hand without skipping a beat,"Welcome to my humble abode, El. Thanks a ton~" Still content with being able to see and show off his clap-activated lighting system that held absolutely no purpose than to look cool, Haku took a couple steps back to the stranger. Or, perhaps she wasn't quite a stranger anymore...

The paranoid hacker still planned on keeping her at a safe distance for now, but he'd raise his eyebrows whimsically as he motioned towards the bag on his desk,"Want to give the noodles a try? I suppose you've earned yourself one lololol."

Haku wanted to lie to himself.

Admitting defeat and saying that he enjoyed himself today wasn't something that was easy to come to the hacker, and it was akin to pulling teeth. Letting people close enough to see just how flawed this 'God' was was something he'd sworn not to let happen, or at least let it happen few and far between. Mistakes could cost you your life in a world such as this, and getting close to the wrong person or even so much as letting your guard down for someone like Elena would come back to bite him in the ass.

Though, as he watched that smile spread across her cheeks, he couldn't help the oddly human feeling in his chest- one that convinced him just a little less that he was a God after all. He took two cups of the NoNa noodles into his bony hands and stepped over the random assortment of items strewn over the floor to follow her over to his kitchen. Compared to the sorry state that the rest of the apartment was in thanks to the arrival of his new roommate it was immaculate- the counters scrubbed so spotlessly that one could see a reflection in it. Haku took pride in his cleanliness, despite how it might have looked when the two came in.

The redhead would shake his head to his company's question, placing the cups onto the counter while he reached for a pot out of the nearby cupboard,"You can help~" He typed a short response with one hand before turning filling it with water. Quirk knowledge was out of the window when it came to this friendly stranger, and he knew only her screen name if it was any indication to it. 'BlueBlitz' didn't exactly sound like something that gave away to her appearance anyway.

He'd place the pan on the stove, giving her the option to do whatever she wanted- to either turn on the burner or 'boil it herself',"There's a special technique to making these noodles. It has to be perfect lololol." Calling Kohaku anything less than a perfectionist would have been an insult, and he wanted to make sure that Elena was able to try these little pieces of heaven to their full extent,"You boil the water and pour it into the cup. Leave it, drain it, add the sauce, and then enjoy~" The man was much more lively in text than he was in person, leaning against the counter as he typed laxly. The 'G0D_KK' that was always hopping into chat with such a smarmy attitude was hardly the same person as this redhead. All that was left of them both was the same faint grin that stayed on his chapped lips. 

Though he continued to tell himself that he was only smiling out of habit and not because of the situation he'd found himself in, Kohaku was a terrible liar. And, as he slid his phone into his pocket to peel back the lid of the noodles, he tried to do it again.

I won't make this a habit. He lied, a genuine smile washing onto his face.