Chapter Text
His cellphone was ringing.
Kazuma, emerging from the clouds of sleep, muffled his yawn and pawed at his bedside table. In the dark, his hands swept over his glasses, his framed photographs of Viina, a glass of water. Ugh, it’s not even light out. Why would anyone call someone before five in the morning?
The ringtone was more vibration than noise, rumbling against the table like a chainsaw. Unlike most phone calls he got, this one was muted.
There was only one person whose ringtone he’d muted.
Kazuma sat bolt upright. His primal brain in control, he peeled his eyes open, picked out his phone’s glowing screen through the blurry shadows. Yato. That's Yato calling. Wake up, wake up, no one should figure out-!
Oh. Wait.
As he scooped up the device, a grin pulled up his lips. Right, it didn’t matter if Viina figured out anymore! His instincts were outdated; his goddess and Yato were allies, friends, even. It was completely okay for the tracksuited menace to be calling him.
Even at four-thirty in the morning.
He beamed a little longer at the name on the flashing screen, Yatogami (how nice it was to see Yato’s real name in his contacts list!)
“Hello.” When he picked up, he sounded a tad too cheery. That wouldn’t do, he’d been woken up two hours before dawn. A little crabbiness was warranted! “What do you need, Yato?”
On the other end of the call, rather than some flippant quip or unreasonable request, all that greeted him was silence.
“Eh?” Kazuma glanced at the screen. No, the call hadn’t been dropped. “Hello?”
A sniffle replied, this time, loud and ragged. He frowned, alarmed.
“Yato?” What on earth- “Are you… crying?”
“No.” A violent sniff, a muffled sob. He had to know how obvious he was being. “G-gods don’t cry, Kazuma, you’d think y-you’d know that after- after-”
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kazuma dangled his legs off the bed. He felt a lump in his throat. “Tell me, I’m sure I can help.”
In the three hundred years he’d known him, the hafuri had only seen his friend cry three times: once after he’d spent six months in a row shinkiless; once after he’d been blighted to near death by Yukine; and once upon the Sorcerer’s demise.
It was always eerie when something managed to push him that far.
“It’s nothing.” Already, the god was composing himself. Kazuma felt a stab of worry; they’d been over this. He wasn't supposed to be hiding things anymore. “Sorry I called, I guess I just wanted to-”
“Tell me what happened.” He was angry. It was a surprising emotion, but what the hell caused this? All he wanted was for Yato to be forthright for once, so that he could get busy finding a solution. “I want to know who hurt you. Please, tell me.”
“Aw, Kazuma." Yato snickered. "Are you worried? I’m not your precious Viina. You don’t have to sound so bothered about me.”
“...Right.” The automatic buzz that came with talking to Yato was fading. The homeless god was in one of his moods. He was going to be extra hurtful until he calmed down; Kazuma hadn’t been party to one of these episodes since Yukine and Hiyori had entered the picture.
“I... Kazuma, I didn’t mean...” For now, he was apologetic, at least. “I was just, um. You really want to know?”
The hafuri gripped the bridge of his nose. “Yes.”
“Fine.”
A pause.
“I’m going to die.”
Kazuma felt a chill run down his spine. He automatically sat up straighter. Oh, this better not be a joke. “What do you mean?” Keeping his voice calm, he grabbed his glasses and yanked on the shoes at his bedside. “How? Why? How do you feel? Are you sick?”
Are you disappearing?
He snatched up his coat, which had been draped on the back of a bedroom chair. It’s been six months since the Sorcerer’s death, he wanted to argue, it’s too late for this. It’s too late.
He’d let himself believe Yato had been spared.
“Not yet.” His friend’s sober tone was enough to send the hafuri bolting at full speed into the lifeless hallway, past seven adjacent rooms of sleeping shinki. “But I’m sure I will be soon.”
“How do you know that?” His shoes thumped against the stairs in a frantic rhythm. It would take a few seconds to get to the courtyard, another few to teleport to the nearest Bishamonten shrine. He didn’t know what his plan was, only that he would not let him face this alone. “Will you tell me what started this-”
“Hiyori’s in love with me.”
Kazuma froze. Nearly tripping over his own feet, he grabbed the banister for balance.
“Hiyori’s in love with me.” Yato was snivelling, again. “She told me she wants me to be her lover!”
I thought I told that girl to stay away from him.
The shinki shoved the jealous, unwelcome thought far, far away from his conscious brain. It was starting to make sense; Iki Hiyori was The Lifeline, now, wasn’t she? Not that she would stay that way for long once Kazuma had had his way...
(All of this, everything would be solved once his research was completed. But for now, temporarily…)
“What did you tell her?” The nerve of that girl, to romance a god. And Yato, out of all the gods she could’ve chosen.
“I told her I love her too.” He paused, for long enough to boil Kazuma’s blood. “But not like that. She’s… my greatest devotee, and my best friend, and I-I- I only want the best for her, Kazuma. I want her to live a normal life and be happy, and she’ll never have that with me...”
“She shouldn’t have expected to.” Kazuma’s nose was in the air. His arms prickled with goosebumps, remnants of a wave of relief. “Only shinki can live with gods. Iki Hiyori should know her limits.”
“Yeah, well…” Yato’s voice shook. “Now she isn’t talking to me. Our friendship’s ruined, and I’m going to die.” He swallowed, cleared his throat. “Not that it’s her responsibility to keep me alive or anything, but- but- I don’t want her to forget me, I don’t want her to- to- abandon Yukine because I’m a cold-hearted bastard who can’t give her what she wants-”
“That’s enough of that.” Level-headed as ever, Kazuma proceeded with smart steps down the hall. He was glad he’d grabbed his coat. “Where are you?”
“Eh? Why?”
With grim determination, he emerged into the open air of the courtyard. There was a light breeze blowing past, the sweet chirps of a cricket in the grass. “We’re going to fix this.”
Iki Hiyori was a necessary evil. Romantic rival or not, Yato needed her in order to stay alive, and that trumped his irrational, pitiful jealousies by a mile.
“I’ll help you make up with her.”
“You will?!” The god shrieked, nearly blowing out his phone’s speakers. Kazuma couldn’t help but resent the pure joy that filled his tone. “Oh my gosh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I should’ve known you’d be there for me! Yukine told me to screw myself but you- you’re a real friend, better than anyone!”
That was him, alright. The ever-dependable, ever-present friend.
“Come down here quick, then, Kazuma!” Maybe the exhilaration, the gratitude in Yato’s voice when he said his name was worth it. “It’s Operation: Get Hiyori Back!”