Work Text:
“Inumaki!”
Yuuta raised his hand in a wave when he saw the platinum haired boy. Typically, Inumaki would’ve waved back with a soft “Konbu” in greeting. Not today however. Today, Inumaki didn’t respond. Rather he stared pointedly in Yuuta's direction, turned around and left.
“E-Eh..?” Yuuta was, quite frankly, shocked. Inukami and Yuuta had been fairly close since their first mission together. It made no sense for Inumaki to ignore Yuuta’s greetings. That is unless he did something wrong. But Yuuta knows he didn’t do anything recently so it still made no sense! Why would-
Yuuta’s inner spiral of thoughts were interrupted by a hit on the back of his head. He turned around and saw Maki and Panda standing behind him. “Oi Yuuta.” Maki said, “The hell are you still standing around here for? We’ve got day training.”
“O-Oh..Right, I’ll be there then!” Yuuta stuttered out. Sparing one last glance at the door Inumaki left from, Yuuta followed Maki out the building.
-x-
Yuuta was once again knocked to the ground by Maki for what may be the third time in a row. “What’s wrong with you today?” Maki asked “You should’ve knocked me down once by now!”
Yuuta rubbed the back of his neck and said “Ah...maybe I’m still hung up from what happened this morning…”
Maki tilted her head and asked, “The hell happened?”
Yuuta glanced over to Panda and Inumaki ,who joined Panda by the second knockdown. The two of them were playing tic-tac-toe on the ground with Panda’s occasional shouts and yelps when he lost.
Yuuta must have been staring for too long because Maki had hit him again with her weapon and said “Did something happen between you and Toge?”
“Ah...um...Maybe? I haven’t done anything recently so...I don’t think anything bad happened...but he didn’t greet me earlier so…”
“So you’re hung up over the fact that Toge didn’t greet you once?” Maki said.
Yuuta stayed quiet at the revelation. Maki sighed in exasperation and reached out to him. “Get up Yuuta, we're talking to Toge.”
He silently took her hand to pull himself up. He waddled behind her as she approached Panda and Inumaki.
“Hey Toge.” Maki greeted. "Konbu" Inumaki replied
Yuuta hesitantly waved behind her and said “Hello Inumaki!”
Rather than greeting Yuuta, Inumaki turned his head and refused to even look at Yuuta. This made the taller boy shrink even more. Panda’s head swivelled between Inumaki and Yuuta before placing a hand beside the side of his face that Inumaki was closest to and hissed at Yuuta, “Did you do something to piss him off or something?!”
Yuuta waved his hands about saying, “I don’t know! I didn’t do anything, I think!”
Maki rolled her eyes and hit Panda with her staff and said “Stop scaring him Panda. You and I both know Toge’s a petty shit. Don’t worry Yuuta. He’ll get over it in about a week.”
-x-
Maki was wrong. Inumaki did in fact, not get over it within a week. It’s been a week and a half and Yuuta was about ready to tear his hair out. He’s tried casually conversing with Inumaki on many different occasions but the cursed speech user either ignored him or just walked off.
Today, he and Yuuta are going on a mission together. Yuuta’s determined to make the user acknowledge him. Even if he had to talk his ear off.
-x-
Well that plan didn’t work. During the car ride, Yuuta had been so focused on thinking about his plan that he didn’t actually do it. On top of that, Inumaki refused to even look at him! Nitta was very clearly shaking because of the awkwardness through her relay of the mission which was basically a few groups of grade 4s and one grade 3 curse. Simple enough for both of them to handle.
Yuuta watched as a curtain fell. He turned to Inumaki and said “Reminds you of our first mission together, huh?”
Yuuta received no response as Inumaki walked forward. Yuuta sighed and trailed behind him. “Why have you been ignoring me Inumaki?” Yuuta groaned out
Before Inumaki could say...well...nothing really...An army of grade 4 curses charged from the side and knocked into Inumaki, launching him into the garbage cans.
“Inumaki!” Yuuta cried.
Yuuta unsheathed his katana and made quick work of the curses before rushing towards Inumaki.
“Are you okay Toge?” Yuuta said.
Inumaki freezes for a second before nodding and saying “Shake.”
The verbal confirmation made Yuuta flinch before smiling widely and saying “Yeah! That’s great Inumaki!”
Almost immediately, Inumaki’s face turned cold again and he walked off with no response.
‘Did I just say something wrong???’ Yuuta thought as he watched Inumaki effortlessly kill off the third grade curse.
“Inumaki hold on!” Yuuta said.
Inumaki did not hold on, rather, as soon as the curtain began to rise, he sprinted towards it.
“Inumaki?!”
-x-
"So let me get this straight, you call him by his given name, he responded. You switch back to his surname and he gives you the cold shoulder but you still don't know why he's mad?!" Maki said.
"... OK I can see why he's mad but I don't understand. He never told me to call him by his first name! " Yuuta groaned.
Maki's eyes widened and asked "Wait… do you really not remember?"
Yuuta blankly stared at her before she slapped her forehead and reminded him of their last movie night.
-x-
"Right, I think I’m gonna go to bed. Don’t stay up too late you two. Especially Yuuta.” Maki said.
“Shake. Mentaiko.” Inumaki replied.
Maki waved a hand about and replied “That’s the third time you’ve told me Toge, I’m not forgetful.”
“Okaka” Inumaki mischievously replies.
This makes Maki hit him over the head and leave the room. Yuuta lifts his head and stares at Inumaki for a few moments before Inumaki noticed and tilted his head as if to say, “What’s wrong?”
Yuuta yawned and said “Uh, well...I just noticed that everyone else calls you by your given name.”
Inumaki nods slowly and gestures for him to continue.
“Can I call you Toge as well then?” Yuuta asked.
This made Inumaki freeze up though this went unnoticed by Yuuta. The younger sorcerer let out a small “Shake” of affirmation.
“Cool. I’m heading off to bed now. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Yuuta got up, stretched, and left, ignorant to Inumaki’s flushed face.
-x-
“...D-Did I actually say something like that?” Yuuta stuttered out.
“Well unless Toge’s lying to me then yeah.” Maki rolled her eyes.
Yuuta stayed quiet for a few moments before slamming his head down onto the kitchen table and exclaiming “I ACTUALLY SAID THAT!!”
Unfortunately for Yuuta, Panda and Inumaki had walked in to see him hit himself and scream like a madman. “Woah are you alright?!” Panda asked.
Dejected, Yuuta slowly walked out without acknowledging neither Panda nor Inumaki. He could sadly hear Maki, cackling at his misery.
-x-
It was the middle of the afternoon. Currently, Maki and Panda were off sparing because the cursed corpse began mouthing off and Maki wanted to teach him a lesson. Yuuta stood in front of Inumaki’s dorm room door debating on whether or not to knock.
He didn’t get to make a decision when a hand gently shoved him to the side and gripped the doorknob.
:Oh Inumaki!” Yuuta said in surprise.
Yuuta could see Inumaki roll his eyes as he turned the doorknob and opened the door.
“W-Wait! Inu- um.. T-Toge!” Yuuta called out to him and Inumaki- no. Toge turned around with an eyebrow raise.
“Uh- I’m...I’m sorry for uh...forgetting…” Yuuta muttered out, his voice getting progressively softer towards the end.
“...Tuna.” Toge said in reply. “Ikura...Umeboshi?” He gestures behind him, inviting Yuuta in.
“Ah...yeah. Do you...wanna watch a movie or something, Toge?” Yuuta asked.
The name felt strange but not in a bad way in his mouth. Toge seemed happy as he picked up movie after movie. It seems that Yuuta needs to get used to using his last name if he wanted to see Toge like this again.