𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑪𝒀𝑶𝑵 𝑶𝑩𝑳𝑰𝑽𝑰𝑶𝑵 •𝒃𝒙𝒃•

Facade ~ Age 13

"I thought about inviting the rest of my team, along with Kushina, for dinner... What do you think about that?" Minato asked, peering at Aizen from the corner of his eye.

The boy was putting the cleaned plates away, occasionally wiping the excess water off the surfaces, "That sounds good..." His little brother trailed off, voice getting softer with each word spoke.

Minato turned off the water and fully turned to face Aizen, "You sound... conflicted about something? Would you like me not to invite them? I won't if you're not feeling well."

Aizen went silent, not even looking at Minato. Was he thinking about something? Was something bothering him? The sudden shift in his behaviour was startling. One day he was yelling and crying about Hanae, and the next he's acting as if nothing happened. Was he... forcing himself? Did he not wish to worry anyone? "Nothing of sorts... I'm just thinking about something." Aizen settled the cloth on the table and placed the last plate back in its place.

"Care to share?" Minato tilted his head.

The younger blond stepped back, lightly glancing at Minato, "I thought about inviting Asao-sensei and Hikaru, too." Somehow, that wasn't something Minato expected him to say, "Or not...?" Aizen stepped back, once again looking away from him.

With wide eyes, Minato reached towards him, "No, no! I mean yes, you can invite them!" He quickly said, spluttering over his words.

And, as Aizen looked at him with a small smile stretching his lips, Minato felt his heart squeeze in his chest.

_

"Dinner?" Hikaru tilted his head, pale irises meeting Aizen's own, light ones.

Aizen nodded, breathing out. Steam was no longer visible in the air, the time of winter slowly passing them by. There was no longer any snow around them, no whiteness to blind Aizen from every corner, "Yeah, aniki invited his team and I thought about inviting you and Asao-sensei." He leaned against a rather old-looking tree.

"Isn't Asao-sensei on a mission?" He heard Hikaru's question.

"A mission?" Ah... Honestly, he wasn't surprised that much. Asao and he hadn't had any contact since... that day. He bit back the urge to clench his hands, "I see... Well, you can still come, right?"

The dark-haired boy lightly nodded, not tearing his eyes away from Aizen, "Yeah, I can come."

Relief washed over Aizen at his reply, "That's good... There's still a while before it's time, are you free right now?" He pushed off the tree, stepping closer to Hikaru, "We hadn't spent any time together lately." He noticed how Hikaru briefly averted his eyes. Why...?

"I am... Is there somewhere you wanna go?" The boy asked him, still not looking at him.

Somewhere? "No, not really." Aizen glanced to the side, thinking about any possible place, but then something wrapped around his wrist. He turned back to Hikaru and was met with a serious expression.

"Then... Can I show you something?"

How could Aizen say no?

_

Somehow, they ended up at the Hyuuga Compound, "Almost nobody is home at this time of day, why do you look so tense?" Hikaru asked, looking at him with furrowed brows.

Why? "I just feel intimidated... It was the same when I went to the Uchiha Compound for the first time." Aizen warily looked around, already expecting pale eyes to be glaring at him from a far.

"Don't be." Hikaru whispered, sending him a small, comforting smile.

Even smiling was hard, wasn't it?