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It took a while for Kou to notice his sweaters slowly getting missing.
It started with his plain beige one—the one usually hidden in the back of his closet, at least until more recently. He had taken it out for a long overdue wash, but somehow it had never made it back from the wash. At first he had checked behind the washer. When nothing showed up, he turned the room upside down in search of it, but it was in vain.
He shrugged it off. Not like he wore it very much in the first place.
The second victim was his maroon red sweater that he wore every other Christmas, when he remembered to. It had a classic white reindeer pattern across his chest, framed with some Christmassy patterns that added to its festivity.
The blond exorcist was a little more fond of that one, so it was a little alarming when he had rummaged through his drawer to find a shirt and along the way had discovered the disappearance of his Christmas sweater.
“Teru-nii—!”
His older brother had ambled in sleepily, dressed in his sleepwear. It was only ten, but Teru often came home exhausted from his part-time job, and that day had been no different.
“Ah, sorry to bother you, Teru-nii,” He had apologised sheepishly. “Was just wondering if you know where my Christmas sweater is.”
“The red one?”
“Yeah.”
“No idea,” Teru had yawned. “It’s not in my closet if you’re asking. Did you lose it?”
Scratching his head, Kou had nodded.
The disappearance of his third and fourth sweaters just served to increase his distress; they were his monotonous and navy sweaters respectively, ones that he wore out sometimes when the weather wasn’t too cold yet, but chilly enough.
They were his favourite sweaters, so he had searched for them in a huge frenzy, even digging into Tiara’s drawers in the ridiculously unlikely possibility that Teru might’ve stuffed them inside by accident. Unfortunately his efforts were fruitless. Though it actually had been the day when he was looking for the navy one when he put two and two together; he realised his sweaters had been disappearing for about a month or so.
Kou was getting very concerned.
Throwing on his jacket over his plain tee to look presentable, Kou left the house in a hurry, yelling a “Bye Teru-nii! Bye Tiara!” on his way out.
He’d nearly overslept on his date.
Kou leapt onto the train, nearly missing his stop by the skin of his teeth, rushing over to the meeting place, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a sleeve.
“Senpai!” He called brightly, eagerly, when Nene had jumped up from her seat to meet him. “Sorry, am I late?”
“Not at all, Kou-kun,” the girl shook her head, smiling. She fished around in her sling-bag and produced a handkerchief. “Here, you look like you’ve just ran a marathon,” she joked.
The blond exorcist was about to thank her gratefully, when he noticed a familiar navy blue on Nene.
“Ah!” Kou gasped, eyes wide. “My sweater!”
“Your sweater...” Nene blinked, glancing down at the sweater she was donning and back at Kou again. A blush spread across her face.
She waved her hands around defensively, looking embarrassed and sheepish and flustered all at once. “Uh, i-it was an accident! I borrowed it once while at your house, remember, and I forgot to give it back!”
Kou gaped, staring at the sweater as Nene rambled on.
“I didn’t realise until much later, and by then it got awkward to return it—! Same with your o-other sweaters as well, I think! I… I hope you’re not mad?”
Flustered, Nene averted her eyes, sweating nervously. Kou’s gaze softened, and he broke out into peals of laughter.
“Eh?” His girlfriend glanced back at him incredulously, her face flushing redder.
“Nothing, Senpai,” Kou grinned. “I—um, it’s fine if you take my sweaters, I don’t mind sharing.”
He took one of Nene’s hands into his own, cheerfully. “Anyway, it is cute on you!”
Nene’s face grew even redder, if it were possible. Drawing back, Kou rubbed the name of his neck, feeling the heat of the realisation of his own words, marking him embarrassed as well.
“Should we go…?” Kou asked, shyly now.
“Sure,” Nene replied. She looked a little less flushed now, and she flashed a smile at him. “And I’ll buy you a sweater to make up for my accidents, okay?”