Insecurities [Shota Aizawa x Hizashi Yamada]

Chapter 2

Hizashi had had it with this person. His fingers moved furiously across the keyboard as his mountain eyebrows scrunched together.

"Well fuck you too," he muttered under his breath. He let a string of names and insults when he read the reply.

Social media was a great place to share his work and earn some money by drawing.

He liked doing commissions, talking with fans, and doing raffles and giveaways. He appreciated every one of his fans and the donations some of them made. The nice comments gave him a fuzzy feeling inside knowing that he made someone happy with his webcomics.

However, the good stuff came with the bad stuff as always. Lack of inspiration and motivation was his own problem, but art theft, crediting and copyright issues, haters, and trigger-happy bastards and bitches were problems he wished he could solve more easily.

And now, he was in the middle of a stupid argument with a supposed fan.

They thought that they could be so smart and make up bullshit excuses about "forgetting" to credit and "not knowing" how to credit and playing an innocent, new-to-commissioning idiot.

At first, Hizashi gave them the benefit of the doubt, explaining everything. He's had his fair share of people like that, where they were honestly clueless. It was often solved without too big a problem.

That changed when a few other artists contacted him about that user, warning him to just block and report them.

But as the conversation dragged on, he became more and more stubborn, wanting the last laugh. And he did, the other person finally stopping the messages and leaving him on read.

Hizashi let out a frustrated groan, knowing that he'll have to deal with the same problems he'd dealt with before again. They had paid, but had not credited him, saying that they weren't satisfied with the artwork, making it complicated to get them to compromise and causing his anxiety to rise up again.

He sighed. He shouldn't have been so angry about it, but that person was extremely rude. Usually Hizashi wasn't like this, but the massive amounts of stress weighed him down with the many commissions, planned streams, and the upcoming Inktober event.

His cheerful mood had been easier to crack as the work piled on, he unfortunately realized.

He'd been getting quite a few commissions lately, and he was reluctant to close it just to catch up. He was doing them slower and slower and he was losing motivation.

The blond sighed, then brushed his hair back to start sorting everything. He hesitated before putting his hand on the mouse, looking between that and his drawing tablet.

He decided to draw. That and playing music in the background helped calm him down. He scrolled through the different playlists he had with different varieties of genres.

What he listened to depended on his mood. Most of the time is was loud rock or pop and he would have it blasting in his ears and singing along as he drew. Other times it was just instrumentals or soft, slow songs.

His phone rang right before he could decide. He took a deep breath in and let it out, calming himself before he picked up.

"Yo, Hizashi!" A woman's voice greeted in an upbeat tone. It was Nemuri, a long-standing friend of Hizashi.

"Hey," Hizashi forced a bit of energy into his voice. "What's up, Nemuri?"

"Hanging out with friends. Dinner. Movies. You in?"

"Of course, I need to clear my mind from what just happened," Hizashi said in a joking manner to give the tone that he wasn't bothered by it.

"Ah, artist problems again?"

"Mhm. I'm getting everything sorted, though."

"Let me know if you need any help."

Like he was going to share his stress and problems.

"It's a good thing we're having hotpot," Nemuri added. "You'll love it."

"Really? What's the occasion?"

"Why not? Tensei thought it'd be fun to have since it's been such a long time. And he got extra tickets for the movie for us as well."

"Oh, cool. When?"

"Tomorrow night. A Saturday."

Hizashi glanced at his calendar. He really shouldn't be procrastinating with so many projects he was working on. "Sure, who else is coming?"

"Toshinori and Tensei I believe."

"Toshinori Yagi from high school? We haven't talked in ages." He heard that the other blond had gotten a job as a teacher and he didn't want to bother him. The teachers from his school days always seemed so busy. But then again, it could have just been him and other students driving them insane.

"Exactly, I thought it might be fun to see each other again and catch up. Tensei and I were talking and he brought up the idea. Toshinori was excited to see you guys again, too. He said his class was driving him mad."

"I suppose he knows how our teachers felt with how we were acting." Hizashi chuckled. "I guess both of has to cool down from stress."

"Yep. It's a good thing Tensei had everyone's contact even years after graduation."

"Damn, he was always on top of things," Hizashi commented. "I wish I could be as organized as him."

"You sure seem like it on media. But I'm not falling for that energetic, neat persona you put up." Her voice was playful, but Hizashi could just imagine the worry on her face.

"Don't worry about it," he assured. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yep."

Before he could hang up, Nemuri said something else.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," she said slowly. It didn't sound like she forgot, but just didn't want to tell him. "Toshinori invited Shota and he's coming as well." There was a moment of silence as Hizashi processed her words.

"Shit."