Silence | Book 1

2-1: A Study in Black

Hibiki looked over the schedule drawn on the large whiteboard beside him, and with a slight sigh stuck another sticky note next to an important deadline date. By now the roster had been filled completely with such notes, detailing what he needed to read by when, and what exercises he needed to get done. Despite the brightly colour coded array, he felt more and more glum by the second.
Now the introductory week was behind him he was expected to keep up – if he didn't he would rapidly fall behind to the point where he couldn't catch up again. Not about to let that happen, he grabbed the first required reading from his shelf and opened it up. With a quick search he had found the pages he needed, and used a marker on the edges so he could find the pages again later if he needed to.
Although his memory was one of his strengths, he knew he wouldn't get away with brute forcing the texts into his head: he took careful summaries, marking points and arguments that were important, or caught his interest. With them he wrote his own thoughts and ideas, occasionally letting his mind wander into a discussion with himself which let him draw his own conclusions about the material, and whether he agreed with it or not.
His studies went on for a long time, focussed in on the text so much that everything else in his environment drowned out. Part of him found it peaceful; to be left in dialogue with only the author's words and his own thoughts.

「Yukimura-sama?」He heard Kazuo's voice from behind him, 「Did you hear me?」
Hibiki blinked once, vaguely recalling the sound of a voice that he had dismissed while taking notes, but he had no idea what he said.
「It's time to get ready for dinner with your parents.」Kazuo said once more, pointing out the time to him. As he realised it was getting close to 6pm he quickly turned around in his desk chair and signed to Kazuo.

'I'll be right there.'
Kazuo nodded, but in the midst of turning around added a quick sentence.
「Wear something formal.」It was more of a warning than anything, causing Hibiki to groan and shoo him away. Kazuo did as he was told, walking back to sit on the couch where he picked a volume of manga back up.

Meanwhile Hibiki started to prepare for dinner with his parents, the last one before they would return to Japan that same evening. He wouldn't see them again until Christmas. Yet after having been made to wear that suit the day before, and perhaps also to spite them for grounding him, he decided to dance a little around the line of formality without Kazuo having to send him back.
After a quick shower he put on a thin, grey turtleneck sweater that was just tight enough to give a hint of his physical shape, black jeans, a black, open faced jacket and short black boots. As for his hair, he simply pulled it back into a small ponytail, then plucked a few strands loose in front. Quite content with how it was just enough subtle rebelliousness to not be blatantly offensive or conflict-seeking he went downstairs again to meet Kazuo for the drive to the restaurant.

---

「Did you manage to get your readings done?」Kazuo asked from behind the wheel, as the sparsely travelled highway and it's repetitive orange glow whizzed past, occasionally broken by tail and headlights.
Hibiki blew a soft, rather disheartened raspberry and tilted his hand a few times to signal it was so-so.
「More difficult than high school isn't it?」
Hibiki gave a slight shrug and shook his head, before leaning back onto his elbow again and staring out of the window.
「Is there anything not easy for you?」Kazuo sighed with a slight headshake, but Hibiki could hear the smirk in his voice.

'It's a lot of work, but not more difficult. And I am terrible at dancing?'
He signed quickly, smiling a little.
「I have seen you try, it was not pretty.」

'When did you see?'
Hibiki signed in surprise, sitting upright again while a blush spread over his face.
「When you thought I wasn't looking.」
Kazuo's entertained smirk got him a long glare from Hibiki through the rear view mirror. With a loud huff he crossed his arms and went back to staring out of the window.
「The air guitar was very cute though.」
Another, even more disgruntled huff left Hibiki as he flipped Kazuo the bird.
The rest of the drive went by fairly uneventful, any emotions there may have been calmed down by the slow, jazzy tunes from Kazuo's favourite music.