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They were here because Gojo had given Yuuta a mission. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say Gojo had given Yuuta an errand.
“You...uh, you want me to… buy… gifts for you?” Yuuta had asked, not entirely sure he was understanding the request correctly.
“I mean, they would be from me,” Gojo responded, placing a hand on his chest for additional emphasis, “But yeah. It’s the end of the year in a few weeks and I’m painfully busy as I’m sure you’re aware–”
As far as Yuuta was aware, Gojo’s schedule was wiped clean for the next few weeks. Their sensei had claimed he was using all his leftover vacation days to do some traveling when he had all but started to ghost their end-of-semester classes. As far as Yuuta was also aware, he had been found snoozing in various secluded areas of the dorms… on more than one occasion. It was obvious he was not busy at all .
“–and what I got everyone last year did not go over well. Same as the year before. And the year before that,” Gojo shrugged dismissively. “I’ve had to come to the hard conclusion that I might have the tragic character flaw of not being a very good gift giver. Would you believe it?”
Yuuta squashed the overwhelming urge to say Yes , thinking back to some of the more questionable souvenirs his class had been given after their sensei returned from one business trip or another and instead gave Gojo a long, apprehensive look.
“I believe…” he paused, “That you just don’t want to do it yourself.”
Gojo didn’t so much as blink at that accusation.
“Oh, definitely not. Why do you think I’m asking you?”
Yuuta’s shoulders sagged down as he sighed. The shamelessness of it all almost surprised him. Almost. He tried one last bit of last ditch resistance.
“But I’m still not super familiar with this area, and I don’t even think I know where the good places to shop are… Are you sure you couldn’t send someone else?”
“Alriiiiiiight,” Gojo groaned as if he were being the one put upon, then added, “Go, but take Maki with you.”
“Maki?”
“Oh,” His sensei paused and tilted his head, like he just realized something, “ Not Maki? Okay.”
“Okay?” Yuuta parroted back at him, not sure why this conversation had such a foreboding feeling all of a sudden.
“Hmmmmmmm,” Gojo bent down, leveling with him eye to eye, and Yuuta did his best not to immediately flinch backward.
There was something too knowing about Gojo when he did this. It felt prying , like all 6 of his eyes were digging up information from Yuuta’s subconscious he didn’t want known or, more likely, wasn’t even aware of himself.
“Toge then,” Gojo said after a few moments with a nod, seemingly sure of himself as he stood back up straight, “For moral support or whatever you want to call it.”
“T-Tog– W-Wai–” Yuuta began, but Gojo was completely done listening.
“Thanks so much for doing this! You’re a lifesaver! Byeee~” Gojo broke into a huge grin as he swiveled on one foot and walked back out of the room.
An hour or so later Yuuta had managed to explain the situation to Inumaki, only fumbling once or twice as he asked the smaller boy to sacrifice one of the precious days out of his upcoming weekend to help with Gojo’s request. Fortunately, Inumaki had only rolled his eyes once before giving a small, affirmative thumbs up, much to Yuuta’s relief. His friend then pulled out his phone and, seeming like he knew exactly what to do, pre-bought them both weekend tickets for the fast transit train. Inumaki then explained to Yuuta that the train he picked would deposit them directly into the middle of one of Tokyo’s biggest districts, perfect for the type of shopping he needed to do. If they couldn’t find gifts there, they wouldn’t be able to find gifts anywhere.
When the day arrived and they traveled to the train station wrapped up winter wear rather than their uniforms: Yuuta in a hand-me-down dark blue peacoat that he almost fit into, the only solid teal scarf he owned loosely knotted around his neck, and Inumaki in a white parka, earmuffs, and a fluffy patterned scarf secured tightly around the bottom half of his face.
As the train left the station and began its journey, Yuuta absentmindedly looked out the window. His hands fidgeted and he let out a sigh. Almost immediately, he felt a weight press into him as Inumaki slumped into his side, poking his head out of his scarf to rest it on Yuuta’s shoulder. Before Yuuta could ask exactly what he was doing, Inumaki popped one of his earbuds in Yuuta’s ear, motioned to his phone, and began showing him with whatever miscellaneous hodgepodge of videos he happened to find particularly funny on the internet that week. In what felt like the time it took to blink, they were being given the alert that their stop was approaching next.
As they exited the station and took the first few steps into the busy street, Yuuta’s eyes widened. It was elaborately decorated, quite literally sparkling with reds and greens and golds. A myriad of winter and holiday motifs littered the windows of every store, decked out in every kind of decoration imaginable. It felt as if each façade was directly attempting to outdo the one next to it to incredible success.
“Wow…” Yuuta exhaled a puff of breath into the chill air as his voice trailed off in awe. His eyes darted around, trying to take in a bit of everything all at once.
“Tsuna?”
“I didn’t expect it to be so fancy,” Yuuta said, turning his attention back to Inumaki, who was giving him a hugely amused look, “This part of Tokyo really goes all out, huh?”
“Shake,” Inumaki flashed him the shaka sign.
‘Tis the season .
Although breathtakingly beautiful, after walking around in it for a while, Yuuta found the entire district to be a bit... overwhelming, honestly.
At the start of this endeavor, he had told Inumaki he would take care of any and everything , not wanting to further trouble him since Inumaki had already 1) kindly agreed to be Yuuta’s company and 2) physically gotten him here. The fact Yuuta couldn’t seem to say no to Gojo should be his burden alone.
He had expected this whole process would be limited by a narrow window of options, used to going to only a few small shops any time he had gotten presents for his own family, but Yuuta found himself running into the exact opposite problem now that he was in the heart of Tokyo:
How could he possibly know what was the right thing to get or even understand what the options were when there was just so much and so many of everything? Everywhere?
Every gift shop had specials upon specials, limited items, last calls, 12 different versions of everything ranging from traditional to untraditional, formal to informal… The magnitude of it all caused Yuuta’s head to spin. He couldn’t seem to decide on anything, completely paralyzed by the overabundance of choice.
Yuuta fell into a pattern: he would walk into a store, examine each and every object there, and then, only a small while later, apologetically walk out without choosing to purchase a single thing… It happened over and over and over again.
After something like 3 hours had passed, it was obvious they weren't making any progress. At all. Not even a little bit.
Despite Yuuta’s insistence he shouldn’t have to do anything, Inumaki did, in fact, do something. The smaller boy took to standing closely next to Yuuta in every shop, arm snaking down to squeeze at his hand when the taller boy began to visibly fret… a thing that began happening with increasing frequency. After about the fifth shop, they had just sort of taken to keeping their hands clasped together permanently.
It was a good effort on Inumaki’s part, trying to keep him calm so they could keep going, but it was also growing obvious that this whole endeavor was starting to wear Yuuta down. His energy was low and he was starting to feel utterly exhausted.
“Sorry, just–Hold on,” Yuuta pulled back on Inumaki’s hand before they could enter the next store on the current span of street. “Can we take a break for a bit?”
Inumaki nodded, immediately turning 90 degrees and pulling Yuuta along until they found a small out-of-the-way bench they could rest at.
Yuuta slumped down and exhaled a breath, taking solace in the small bit of respite before he admitted the one thing he absolutely didn’t want to admit.
“I’m not very good at this.”
Almost immediately Inumaki reached over, regrabbed one of his hands, and squeezed it in the same reassuring way he had been doing throughout the whole rest of the day.
“Yuuta.”
Yuuta looked up at Inumaki. The only times Inumaki used his name was when there was something very important he wanted to say and he wanted to make sure he had Yuuta’s full attention when he said it. Yuuta swallowed.
“Y-yes?”
“Ikura.”
Do you want a suggestion?
“Um…” Yuuta hesitated, not sure what kind of suggestion he could possibly have in mind, “Yes?”
There was a swift flick between his eyebrows and Yuuta’s eyes widened as his other hand shot up instinctually to cover the unexpected point of pain.
“Ow, wha–”
“Mentaikooo.”
You're thinking tooooo hard.
“I–”
“Takana.”
And stressing yourself out.
“But–”
Inumaki flashed him a genuinely concerned look before he flicked Yuuta in the forehead again.
“Ow –”
“Okaka.”
And being so stubborn. I don’t like it.
“Stubborn? No, I–I just don't know what to get–”
“Tsuna tsuna.”
When you don’t know what to get someone, get them whatever catches your eye first. Watch. It’s easy.
Inumaki stood and then pulled Yuuta up by the hand as well before he could protest again. He then pulled him off the main road down an offshoot street.
After a few more steps, he came to a halt and motioned to a small mom-and-pop shop, less decorated than the others, with a handmade small sign calling out one of their holiday specials.
Inumaki entered, Yuuta in tow, looked back and forth at the selection for a few seconds, walked over to a small display, and picked up a green gift box. He turned it over once, shook it, then held it out to Yuuta.
“Shake.”
Get Yaga this.
Yuuta turned it over in his hands, uncertain.
“But what if we find something we think he’d like better?”
“Okakaaa,” Inumaki shrugged.
Who caresss.
“But--” Yuuta began to protest again, but Inumaki cut him off with what was probably the longest string of onigiri words Yuuta had ever heard him say at one time.
“Takana. Mentaiko mentaiko, tsuna. Tsuna, tsunamayo. Okaka, tsuna, tsunamayo takana.”
It’s already better than whatever Gojo decided to get last year and it’s not the end of the world if it isn’t absolutely perfect. You're literally up against the lowest bar imaginable. You don’t need to take it so seriously.
Inumaki took a breath and huffed out one last word, with emphasis, “ Ikura .”
And you’re forgetting to have fun.
As Yuuta carefully worked through comprehending Inumaki’s words, he began to realize that what he was saying just might be true, too caught up in trying to achieve something unachievable.
“I… I've been looking at this whole thing wrong.”
Inumaki reached over and flicked him in the forehead one more time, softer than the previous two, eyes crinkling into a smile hidden by the fluffy scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face. Yuuta smiled back, feeling a warmth radiate deep in his chest, the swell of something positive rather than negative taking residence there. He was thankful that it was Inumaki who was with him. Thankful that Inumaki knew just what to do when Yuuta became too stuck within himself, able to suss out the forest from the trees in situations that Yuuta found difficult to do. Idly, he wondered if that was part of what Gojo saw too.
He turned the box in his hands over again, “But really? This one for Principal Yaga? It’s all just different little panda keepsakes.”
“Shake.”
Yaga likes pandas.
“Okay.”
Yuuta looked down at the gift box and waited like he was expecting to hear a second part to a joke. When none came he looked over at Inumaki like he couldn’t be serious.
“You can’t be serious. But…they’re so cute?”
Inumaki nodded and tapped the box again.
“Shake.”
Trust me, Yaga likes pandas.
Yuuta tilted his head and scrunched his nose up suspiciously, “Are you playing a joke on me?”
Inumaki tilted his head back, giving an overly exaggerated indignant expression.
“Mentaiko?”
When have I ever done that?
Yuuta broke into laughter for the first time since the start of this whole thing.
“Last week.”
Yuuta always knew Inumaki paid attention to other people, using his keen eyes to make up for his speech limitation, but he wasn’t aware of just how much attention he paid to other people until he witnessed it firsthand.
Inumaki had a seemingly endless well of suggestions for each and every person on Gojo’s stupidly extensive list, finding gift after gift easily no matter what store they happened to walk into.
They crossed off name after name and Yuuta felt the entire day begin to shift, switching from heavy and daunting to something lighter and more enjoyable. The whole trip was starting to feel… well, fun.
They started pulling each other into stores for no reason at all, simply to see what they had. Inumaki made Yuuta try on a series of ridiculous-looking hats that did not suit him at all and Yuuta attempted to convince Inumaki to try on some of the ugliest accessories he could find, which, to Yuuta’s dismay, Inumaki still pulled off somehow.
They’d even decided to splurge a bit and get gifts for their other classmates. Yuuta had initially protested, saying that they couldn’t just spend Gojo’s money like that, but ended up letting that go when Inumaki convinced him it was less like they were stealing and more as if they were taking a small fee for their services. Besides, they were told they could use it and they were still buying gifts.
“You think I should get one of these for Maki?” Yuuta pointed at a display of some squishy-looking things with character faces on them. “Feels very much like her style.”
“Shake.” Inumaki grabbed one and tossed it to Yuuta.
Definitely the pink one. With the cat face.
“Wait no,” Yuuta fumbled as he grabbed at it, trying to make sure he didn’t drop it on the ground. “I wa—I was joking.”
Inumaki raised an eyebrow and tilted his head towards their shopping basket.
“You can’t be serious.”
Inumaki tapped a sign next to the display that read “ Good for muscle relief! Easy to rewarm and reuse!” then gave a thumbs up. Yuuta looked back down at the plush in his hands. He squeezed the sides, causing the face to squish as well.
Well, it was useful, he supposed… Maki did often complain her muscles hurt after a long day of training.
“Okayyyy…” Yuuta said, adding it to his basket, still not entirely convinced this wouldn’t be the end of him. “But if she tries to kick my ass when I give this to her, I’m taking refuge in your room for the next week.”
Inumaki’s shoulders shook in laughter and he flashed another thumbs up.
More than once or twice, when Yuuta turned his head just the right way, he caught Inumaki watching him, curiously, like he was trying to figure something out... Actually, at almost all times Yuuta happens to look over at him, it seemed as if Inumaki was already looking back. His eyes would always linger for just a moment before he noticed he’d been caught and then quickly, quietly look away. As the day went on Yuuta concluded it was too consistent to be a coincidence.
But it wasn’t like they had been shopping for gifts for each other or–
“So… If you were to get a gift, what would you want?” Yuuta asked as he set the multitude of shipping bags he’d been carrying down on the same bench they had taken a break on earlier and took a seat. “You know, hypothetically.”
Inumaki sat down next to him, placing the shopping bags he had been carrying himself next to Yuuta’s. He raised an eyebrow before he lifted his hand and waved it back and forth dismissively.
I don’t want anything.
“C’mon don’t be stingy,” Yuuta grinned playfully as he poked Inumaki’s shoulder, “You’ve been giving me insights about everyone else all day. I want you to tell me about what you want.” Yuuta folded his hands and then rested his head on top of them, “What’s your favorite thing Inumaki? Something no one else knows about.”
There was a pause, a split second of a moment where Inumaki just stared at him, eyes widening as if Yuuta had just asked him the strangest and most unexpected question. It was the first time all day Inumaki seemed unsure about something.
“There are a million things here,” Yuuta offered, “Just point to something.”
A beat passed and then, slowly, hesitantly, Inumaki raised his pointer finger and instead of pointing at anything, reached out and tapped Yuuta on the chest.
“Eh?”
Yuuta blinked, looking down at Inumaki’s hand before his friend pulled away, quickly stuffing it into his pocket.
“Sorry I don’t think I… Caught your meaning with that…?”
Inumaki shook his head and looked away, burying his nose deep into his scarf, a motion Yuuta knew meant something along the lines of I don't want to talk about it.
Yuuta sighed, mouth turning up into a half-smile anyway. Now who was being the stubborn one?
“Fineee… I guess I can’t buy your gift when you’re with me anyway.” Yuuta crossed his arms and leaned over to nudge Inumaki’s shoulder with his own. “I’ll do my best to get you something later. Before Christmas. It’ll just have to be something that catches my eye.”