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English
Series:
Part 2 of Out in the Open
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Published:
2025-09-03
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1,331
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1/1
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The Best Girl

Summary:

Hikki made his decision, but Saika helps him make the announcement about it to the Service Club. Yui tries to figure some things out.

Notes:

Spoilers for “And Then, Yuigahama Yui Makes a Declaration” and “Spring Always Comes to Life Buried Underneath a Pile of Snow.”

A sequel to “Option E” in the Out in the Open series. Thanks to Akira 17 for the beta.

A lot of things I thought would happen in season three hadn’t and a lot of things I hadn’t expected did. I hated most of season three and was incandescently angry over the finale, to the point that it retroactively ruins all of SNAFU for me to some extent. Aside from Hachiman’s choice, how he makes and executes it, and how everything happens after it, Totsuka is supposedly spending every second he isn’t asleep or at school doing something tennis-related and has no time for anyone or anything else, so this fic is completely on “Option E” canon instead of being season three-compliant.

Work Text:

Hikki came back from lunch... strange. Really distracted. It didn’t get any better as the school day went on either. Yui really needed to ask him about it at Service Club today, and waiting for school to end to get there seemed to take forever.

Hikki had been looking much more stressed lately, which made her feel a bit bad. She’d tried to help make the decision between her and Yukinon for him, but he hadn’t approved of the way she tried to do it, which was funny after all the times she and Yukinon had complained about his methods. But he didn’t trust it when people tried to make things easier for him anyway.

At the end of classes, he tried to leave for Service Club alone without her again, but she expected it, caught up with him, and asked, “Hikki, are you okay?”

“I have a lot on my mind and an announcement to make. It’s for Yukinoshita too, so I’m waiting until we get club started.”

When they reached the door, Yui saw Sai-chan waiting there and wondered what his request would be. Hikki seemed to be just as surprised.

“It’s the thing we talked about at lunch,” Sai-chan told him. Something had happened at lunch.

“You don’t have to do this,” Hikki replied. “I can do it.”

“I meant it when I said you don’t have to do everything alone.”

Yui had tried to help Hikki do things so he wouldn’t have to do them alone. He often wouldn’t let her, but she’d done a lot with him.

“But the tennis club--”

“They can survive without me for a little bit. They still know what to do when I’m not around. I made sure of it.”

Something weird’s going on here that she didn’t understand, and she hated it. She hoped they’d tell her and Yukinon soon instead of letting her wonder and worry.

“Yahello, Yukino,” Saika said after they entered the room, seeing Yukinon already there.

It was Sai-chan. Surely Sai-chan couldn’t be the source of anything really bad. Maybe he had a difficult request?

Hikki appeared to be about to speak but Sai-chan said, “At lunch today I told Hachiman I liked him and asked if he liked me and if we could date each other.”

At least Yukinon looked as shocked and appalled as Yui felt. Yui’s throat closed up and made it impossible for her to speak or breathe, so she especially appreciated Yukinon managing to ask, though in a choked-sounding voice, “...how?”

“I just said it.” Confused by the question and offhand, like it was easy, and brightly, not in a cruel or superior way. “How would he know if I didn’t tell him? Besides, I started to realize that if I waited on him to make a move first, I might have to wait forever.”

“What did he reply?” Yukinon asked.

“I said yes,” Hikki answered while seemingly bracing himself for their reactions.

Yukinon looked appalled and confused by that. Yui didn’t want to believe his words but couldn’t totally discount them. She’d known that Hikki could get a bit... weird about Saika, which sometimes bothered her, but never thought this could happen because Hikki always eventually remembered that Saika wasn’t actually a cute, pretty girl. Hikki wasn’t gay, not when he reacted to girls the way he did.

“Is this your way of sidestepping the issue, so you wouldn’t have to choose?” Yukinon asked with disdain.

“I asked him,” Sai-chan said, sounding a little angry. Yui understood, because in some ways that was a cruel shot to Saika; Yukinon must be lashing out in her hurt.

“So, he jumped at an opportunity?”

“I wouldn’t do that to Totsuka,” Hikki replied.

Saika looked worried. “Hachiman....”

“Are you starting to doubt him now, Totsuka?” Yukinon asked.

“No. I’m wondering how often you talk to him like this.”

“It’s not that bad,” Hikki replied.

“You’re used to this?”

“Yukinoshita,” Hikki said, “aside from how I have genuine feelings for Totsuka... Saika, he’s the first person who asked to date me. Didn’t make me guess about it, asked me.”

That couldn’t be right. Yui had told him she liked him a while back but he hadn’t believed her, figuring she said that only because he’d saved Sable’s life, that it was gratitude, not real affection. She later realized that he felt she didn’t know him well enough at the time that she could feel a serious liking for him and resolved to do better. But he had to know she still liked him. Both she and Yukinon had been making plays for Hikki since then! They’d told him they liked him and wanted to date him.

Not... not in those exact words. But he spent a lot of time with them! He was smart and knew how to read into things! On their three-way, kind-of-but-not-totally-a-date, he knew what she and Yukinon were saying and doing and what was at stake; if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have intervened in that conversation.

But... had Yukinon really confessed anything to him? Maybe not? She said a lot of scathing things to him but, still, how she actually felt had to be obvious.

Smiling softly at him, Sai-chan linked arms with Hikki and leaned close to him. Hikki’s blush, answering small but shy smile, and the warmth in his usually rotten eyes.... He even stood somewhat taller and straighter. Saika brightened and softened him. Hikki kind of... bloomed, as if Saika provided the sunlight he needed. Had she ever seen him do that before?

As unfair as it might be, they looked cute together.

“Yukinoshita, Yuigahama, I still want to be your friend and be a part of the club,” Hikki said, “but if it’s hard for either or both of you to have me around for a while because of this, I can make myself scarce for a bit. Maybe ask Hiratsuka-sensei for a temporary or permanent leave of absence from the club to make it official, though her response will probably be a gut punch and a ‘no.’ No matter what she says, I’ll do what you need.”

Yukinon looked stunned. “I need time away from you to think about it.”

“Yuigahama?”

She wished Yukinon had said it nicer, but: “...ditto.”

He looked sad but not surprised. “Yeah. I can give you that. I’m glad you’ll have each other around.”

Which was probably honest but Yui remembered Hayato once saying that Hikki sometimes brought people together by making himself a villain those people could band together against. Was that one of the reasons he’d chosen Saika, so she and Yukinon wouldn’t turn against one another if Hikki chose one of them? She knew he’d been worried about the fallout, which was one reason why the three of them had been stalling for months. It might be a reason, but not the only reason. Hikki rarely had only one reason for doing things.

“Then... I should get going,” Hikki said. “Yuigahama still has some classes with me, so she can let me know when it’s okay for me to come back to the club, right? If you want me to--”

“When,” Yui answered before Yukinon got the chance to potentially say something caustic. Yui still wanted him in her life: she liked being with Yukinon, everything was so much better with the three of them together, but she wouldn’t let Yukinon be the one to decide if she got to spend time with him ever again. She’d leave the door open for his return, metaphorically.

“When. Thanks. I’ll... see you later.” Instead of something final-sounding like “goodbye.”

As Hikki walked out of the room with Sai-chan, Sai-chan tightened his grip on Hikki’s arm and murmured, “Gut punch? I’m making a list of people I need to talk to about you.”

“I don’t need--”

“Please don’t tell me it’s not that bad. This is about something I want to do. ”

Maybe Hikki had made the right decision.

 

End

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