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Tokyo had never been quite this dark this early in the afternoon.
The sky was a deep shade of gray, with humongous, almost-black clouds hiding the striking lightings that broke into mosaics the expanse of the sky. The thick puffiness of them made it look like they were still, unmoving masses hanging in the sky, but the air closer to land whistled higher and higher as it gained speed, swinging even the thickest branch of the trees, leaves shaking off them, letting themselves get carried away.
Everything swung with the wind, and there was nobody in sight – either because the rain created a curtain of fast-falling water that made the space disappear a few feet away from where you stood, or because people had thought better upon knowing a storm was coming.
Those were the people who had a better judgment.
Those were the people Yuuta wished he was part of.
Instead, in the midst of the unforgiving storm, there stood a young man with nothing but the harsh wind and cold droplets of water making him company, soaking him to the core.
Anywhere he looked, all he could see was a gray landscape, blurry from the pouring rain.
He had hoped the rain would become more of a gentle drizzle, sooner or later. But as minutes passed, the only thing that seemed to disappear was the floor where he stood, slowly being covered by shallow puddles of water by his feet.
After a while, ten minutes turned into twenty, and then into thirty. Time felt like it was slowing down the more Yuuta stood watching the rain fall and splash his pants, the fabric painted a shade darker where it met his shoes.
Watching the rain was usually something he found soothing – as long as he was inside the coziness of his home; but here, outside his school and in the middle of the phenomenon, he could only sense the uncomfortable feeling of cold air hitting his wet body, and the way his throat started to dry as more cold air he inhaled.
What was there left to do for him? Stood there for another thirty minutes and hope the pouring would stop? It was getting darker, and the change in temperature would soon hit Yuuta, creating a worse scenario. Where would he go, if there were no other roofs to walk below close to his current position?
If only he had gotten out of classes earlier, maybe he could have avoided this.
Maybe he should've checked twice for any updates on the weather forecast.
Maybe if he had paid a little bit more attention to the climate, he wouldn't be stuck under the roof of one of his college buildings, just broad enough to protect his body, but also allowing the water to tickle his skin from how the wind carried it freely.
But, as it was, he was stuck in there for God knew how long.
He thought he might as well find something to entertain himself as he waited for the storm to appease.
He could try to force his sight further into the fog around him. Or watch water droplets run down the wall. Maybe he could try to find a rhythm to the furious fall of the rain.
Yeah, that was actually kind of easy, suddenly…
Yuuta could almost hear it, the change in pace as soon as the idea occurred to him. It wasn't particularly distinct from the rain turning the streets into streams, but it sounded heavier… and closer…
Wait. What?
Yuuta didn't have enough time to properly think about what his brain had just identified when his own breath was knocked out of his lungs with a forceful crash.
" Uff –"
He didn't know how he could have missed something coming his way at full speed, but the force with which that hit him – which was, admittedly, not the hardest – surely took him by surprise.
There was nothing he could think of as an explanation of the collision. And there was nothing that could have prepared him for what he found.
As much as he could balance his weight to avoid falling to the ground, he tilted his head down the slightest to where he could still feel some warmth near his body, and was met with wide eyes peeking above a face mask, and a blond head of wet locks that barely reached his shoulders.
Inumaki Toge – Yuuta recognized the boy from one of their shared classes –, the quiet guy from Physics.
The one who also hung around with Maki every once in a while.
Before Yuuta could do anything – like process the fact that there was someone else beside him stuck on the storm –, the blond boy lifted his hands to where his mouth should be, pale eyebrows disappearing under his fringe as his face morphed into an expression of alarm. He didn't even gasp, but the gesture itself was loud enough to give away his shock.
The eyes were so captivating, and peculiar with their crystal violet color, ash blond eyelashes framing them in lengths that seemed endless. The boy's everything was wet – from his clothes to his mask and hair, but he was too busy looking up at Yuuta in surprise to care about his drenched appearance.
Yuuta was, too, staring down at him but for a different reason. Sure, he was surprised to see him given the context, but he was also enthralled by the way his skin seemed to glisten with droplets sticking to his face.
It took him a moment to come back to his senses when a small "sorry" was whispered.
Yuuta could tell his voice sounded a tad rougher than any voice he had ever heard, but it was probably due to running in the rain in that weather – Yuuta would bet on that, at least, the boy's clothes were sticking to his body as much as their baggy state allowed.
"D-Don't worry! I wouldn't have expected to crash into anyone in this weather, either…" He tried to be nice, glad for the company, but still worried that the storm could get any worse with them out there.
The boy nodded, but offered no comment of his own. They just stood there, in silence, taking turns to stare at the other as casually as they could muster, although Yuuta could feel every few seconds a pair of eyes lingering on him longer than he did on the other boy, only to see them drift away as soon as he turned to try and meet the violet gaze.
"Hey– uh…" Yuuta didn’t know why he opened his mouth, but he had to think of something to say now. "Were you on… campus…?"
Of course he was there! Why else would anyone be walking around here if they weren't?
Yuuta forced his smile to stay on his face even if he could feel it waver when the thought resonated in his mind.
The blond boy nodded once, again, locking his eyes for a brief second with Yuuta's.
"Ah, I'm Okkotsu Yuuta… We attend the same class, and sometimes we hang out together as a group with Maki – you sure know her, I've seen you around… You're Inumaki, right?"
This time, Yuuta also got two blinks in response before the slow nod came. He smiled, just a small gesture with his lips half sealed.
He could be content with that.
Their surroundings soon turned again into nothing but the dead noise of water falling in a tempestuous rhythm as it hit the asphalt, plus the continuous come and go of the cold wind that ruffled everything in its wake. Instead of having a drying effect, it caused their clothes to get wetter with every second, with the way the air played with the direction of the rain, aiming it right at them.
At some point, thunder began to sound closer, louder. Every time lightning flashed in the sky, a deep vibration would follow, shaking the ground where they stood. And by the time they got closer, Yuuta stopped feeling eyes on him.
It was relieving, not having eyes scrutinizing you when you surely looked like a mess, but it was also concerning when the first thing he noticed when he looked at the boy's – Inumaki – direction, he saw him flushed against the wall, embracing himself with eyes closed and shoulders hunched slightly upwards.
"Hey" Inumaki peeked with one eye at Yuuta in a sign that he was listening, but the tension didn't leave his body. "This sucks, right?" He knew he couldn't offer a shelter, so taking his mind away from the ground-shattering thunders might be of help – or so he hoped.
Inumaki closed the single eye he had opened again, letting a tired sigh expand his torso visibly.
"What part do you hate the most?" Yuuta gestured to the air around him. "I would say mine is the fact that my apartment is not that far from here, but that I would rather not split my head open under that pouring out there"
Inumaki stared at him, and without breaking eye contact, he rubbed over the sleeves of his wet hoodie in short motions.
"The cold?" The blond nodded in confirmation, Yuuta humming along with it. "Yeah, it is pretty bad. Even more if the rain got you before you could get under a roof" Inumaki agreed, and Yuuta realized something.
He had found a roof when only light and disperse droplets started to fall from the barely gray sky. His feet were still dry, only the outside of his shoes sprinkled by the water hitting the floor near him.
Inumaki, on the other hand, was soaked to the bone, everything in him hanging heavy off him with the added weight of water drenching them. His hair wasn't as fluffy as Yuuta had seen it, and he looked a little paler than he usually was.
He realized, too, that Inumaki wasn't hugging himself tightly before because of the thunder, but because he was trying to suppress the shivers running through his body.
Shivers Yuuta could see clearly now.
"Oh" This time, Inumaki didn't look at him. He probably didn't even hear him given the low voice with which he breathed it out.
"Hey" Maybe the blond was getting tired of Yuuta's calls, but this was important. He wouldn't mind risking his skull under the rain if that meant Inumaki would stop shaking from the cold.
( Where did that thought even come from?? )
"You know how I said my place wasn't far from here?" Yuuta tried not to flinch under the attentive gaze on him, so he looked away from the boy. "Well, technically, it isn't that far from here, but the way there might not be great in this weather". Inumaki stared, and Yuuta didn't know if he could say what he was thinking of next. "Maybe we could– we could… go. There. To my place".
A beat passed.Then another. Inumaki didn’t even blink.
Was Yuuta ashamed? Yes, definitely . Where had he even got the courage from to ask something like that? Was it inappropriate of him to suggest that? How creepy had that been? Why wasn't Inumaki answering anything?
Maybe Yuuta should just start running on his own. Very far away.
And Inumaki really had to stop staring like that. It was not helping Yuuta's nerves.
"Or we could… not. Just– just not–" a hand raised to Yuuta’s head height, his eyes crossing as they focused on the slim fingers held before him. Was he going to receive a slap?
Deserved .
Yuuta closed his eyes, readying for the hit, but after a beat, the only thing that made contact with his face was the gentle poke of a finger into his cheek.
Huh .
“What– what?”
Now being the one to peek, Yuuta cautiously opened his right eye, only to find Inumaki standing close to him and with his hand still hovering above his face, no signs of tension or repressed anger visible on his body. Instead, his eyes were slightly wider but he didn’t pronounce a single word. He seemed to be expecting something from Yuuta, nodding encouragingly.
“I don’t get it” Inumaki rolled his eyes, but quickly recovered to poke at Yuuta’s chest now, insistent.
“Me? What about me?” Inumaki poked faster, until it started to hurt the more he hit the same spot over and over again. “Ah! Stop, Inumaki!” Now he was whining, that young man.
Toge sighed, exasperated, and took a step away to sign with his hands the shape of a box.
“Uhh, should I be guessing now?” A nod and Yuuta’s eyes glistened as he took on the challenge. “Alright”
It turned out, he sucked at it.
“A fish tank!” That was Toge’s last straw before he gave up and used his messed up vocal cords to whisper “ Your house, you stupid ”. Yuuta’s face morphed into surprise both at the words chosen and at the roughness with which they were spoken. It was just a more wasted voice than anyone's, but Yuuta didn't actually mind about how different it sounded.
But back to the words he said…
"Oh, right!" Yuuta was glad he finally understood what was the matter, but stopped when he understood what that actually meant. "Wait. Really?"
Yeah, he had offered his place, and he was actually hoping for the invitation to be accepted, but that was as far as his plan went. How would they make it there? What would happen once they arrived? Why had Inumaki accepted so easily?
Maybe he was more desperate than he let it seem.
The blond nodded at Yuuta's question, confirming once more he was okay with it, and Yuuta had no other option than to work something on his mind.
"Okay. Give me a minute."
Figuring out the best way to his apartment given the situation was not an easy task. He had been living there for over a year, and last summer's pouring made him get to know how the streets near his place worked when it was the rainy season. Most of them would be flooded, some maybe even closed.
How, how, how?
"Alright. I think I can guide us through the most accessible way during this storm, but I must let you know it won't be nice. We will get drenched to the core."
Inumaki, who had been listening attentively to what Yuuta was saying, let his eyelids fall in a deadpan expression as he pulled the hem of his completely soaked hoodie for Yuuta to see.
It's not that he hadn't noticed, exactly. He just wanted to warn him again .
"Yes, okay. Sorry." Yuuta was waiting for anything to happen before they left their little shelter, shaking his hands and looking around for something .
A tug at his sleeve made him return his gaze at Inumaki, who was now just looking at him with big eyes questioning his actions. He was quite demanding for someone who had never approached Yuuta by himself.
(Yuuta could have, but he was just a guy who stared from the other side of the table when Maki invited them both for lunch).
( Creepy . He knows).
"Ah, right. I guess we should head over now…" He caught Inumaki's pale head nodding, and knew they just had to get out there, right into the pouring rain.
Inumaki looked more than ready to step out of the shelter the roof gave them, but Yuuta reached out and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
(He felt his hand clasp around the bony area completely).
"Wait, Inumaki" He didn't retire his hand, but he put less pressure on his hold once the boy turned to face him again. "We should probably run."
Inumaki widened his violet eyes for a moment when the words registered, but eventually gave a confident nod when he looked back at the force of the rain hitting the ground.
"You better tie your shoes really tight now" Yuuta tried to joke, but he also looked down to see the knot in his sneakers. They would be good. "Also, hand me your bag" He had noticed the dripping bag since Inumaki had rushed into him minutes ago, and the way in which he continuously readjusted the strap on his shoulder. Yuuta could help him with that, at least.
Inumaki hesitated, holding the bag closer to his chest before handing it out. It wasn't heavy, per se, but Yuuta bet Inumaki's shoulder must have been sore from the weight by now.
"Okay, it's settled" Yuuta covered the step left until he was at the very border under the roof, right beside Inumaki. He tightened the hand on the bag, and looked one last time at the blond while counting down to one. "Let 's go!"
He got one last look of Inumaki's ash blond hair before getting his eyelashes wet the moment he stepped out of the roof, rain sticking to his everything, blurring his vision and making his skin feel cold in mere seconds.
As soon as the roof was left behind, the sound of the world turned down to nothing as his ears were only filled with water droplets falling upon him like waves meeting the shore on a full moon night – harsh, loud and alive.
He almost felt like screaming with joy.
Instead, he focused on not inhaling too much water and in no dwelling on how wet his feet felt just after a few meters.
Those first hundred strides over a flooded but straight path soon became turns and deviations every few feet, in which Yuuta had to signal for Toge to follow. That, though, was quite difficult since the blond wasn't paying attention to Yuuta's hand movements – not when water kept getting into his eyes, or when his feet felt an irregularity under every step he took.
Luckily, Yuuta had a solution.
Before their next turn, right when Inumaki doubted over one of his steps and his knee buckled slightly, Yuuta reached out and grasped the blond's hand into his, pulling him along and giving him time to regain his balance.
In the middle of the empty street, with lighting cracking the sky where they shone and shaking the ground where they hit; with water covering their toes as they stood into the puddles of the road, Inumaki tightened his grip around Yuuta's strong hand before running again towards the one place waiting for them.
Yuuta's home.
For the first time in months, after many outings together, they finally got to know the feeling of the other's skin against theirs.
What an odd thought to have, even if briefly, in the middle of a downpour.
After a few more turns and twists through dozens of streets, Yuuta was relieved to finally recognize the old but familiar building where he lived.
"We're near!" He shouted in Inumaki's direction, using their joined hands to point at one of the buildings that could be seen even through all the fog. "Let's hurry!"
To say they didn't fully sprint until they were before the main door would be a lie. By the time they had reached the entrance, they weren't just soaked from the rain falling on them, but also from the splash of the water every time they took in a faster stride.
"Come on, come on" Yuuta was now trying to open the lock with wet hands that made it hard for him to hold them right, but he succeeded eventually. Once inside, the cold hit them harder as their bodies calmed down, running one more time all the way up to the third floor, where they finally stopped to get inside Yuuta's place.
The click of the door being unlocked and opened before them brought tranquility and a wave of warmth over them that almost got them on their knees from exhaustion.
Yuuta couldn't care less about the state of his small apartment. He was glad he was here.
He was glad they were both there.
Turning around, he was met with the sight of a soaked Inumaki waiting by the door, pale and with his hair sticking to the shape of his head funnily. He's shivering, his jaw chattering loudly in unison with Yuuta's own, but he still managed to send the blond a relieved smile.
"Come in! There's no way we can avoid making a mess with our current states, can we? I'll deal with it later, don't worry."
Inumaki stared and thought a second longer before giving the first step into the apartment. He was slow, probably hoping not to get too much water on his wake, but Yuuta had sincerely done more than enough by himself.
Once he got in front of Yuuta, he barely had the chance to look up at him before he was walked towards another room.
"You'll shower first, okay? There's everything inside, including towels and hot water. Take your time, I'll get us some dry clothes."
Inumaki bet he could cry. Both from exhaustion and gratitude.
Yuuta watched him disappear inside the small bathroom with short but steady steps, marching towards his room as soon as the click of the door was heard. He needed dry and warm clothes for two.
Getting them was an easy and fast task that was done in little time. He had come back and settled the clean clothes outside the bathroom room, knocking on the door and announcing such to Toge over the sound of the shower, which wasn't shut after another few minutes, when Toge came out of the room wearing Yuuta's clothes that were too big on him, but apparently also very comfortable and warm.
Yuuta didn't have the time to stare long at the way his clothes looked on the blond boy – whose hair was fluffy again. He had to shower too, or he would be suffering the consequences of a very aggressive sickness anytime soon.
He had, though, taken less time to be done with his shower. When he exited the bathroom, fog followed him from the heat of the water used. And he also found that by the time they had taken to shower, the puddles of water on the hallway had dried by themselves.
He walked to where he had left Inumaki a few minutes ago, only to be met with the blond shivering like crazy again – even when Yuuta knew he was wearing socks that almost reached his knees. He chose them specially for him, he knew how comfortable they were.
Although they seemed not to be working very well on him.
"Oh, wow, hey… Are you okay?" Inumaki lifted his gaze, tired, and nodded once poorly. He didn't like this.
"Hey, do you need another sweater? Want me to bring you tea? Maybe another pair of socks? I don't have a heater, so this blanket may work… Here, let me get it" Inumaki wasn't answering any of his questions, but he seemed grateful for the warmth of the blanket over his shoulders.
Grateful, but not satisfied.
"Oh" The shivering wasn't that bad anymore, but Inumaki's lips still looked pale and chapped, and kept trembling like his hands. "Okay, uhm–"
Yuuta thought of one way to solve this, but– would he really find the courage to ask that?
One deep breath in, one last look at the reason why, and a gentle tap on his shoulder to get his attention before proceeding with his plan…
When bright, purple eyes landed on him, he offered a small smile and slowly lifted his arms, opened. An invitation.
"Want to gain some warmth? I could use some too"
So what if they barely knew each other? What if the apartment was way warmer than the outside, and there were still hoodies and blankets left to fight off the cold?
What if Toge had the same thoughts, but still shimmied closer to Yuuta on the couch, overthinking it until the weight of an arm around him made his brain shut down for a second?
That was the warmest he had been that day – and the most relaxed he had felt ever in his life.
Yuuta was, too, enjoying himself. Cuddling was always nice, so he should just think of that as the reason why his heart seemed to be doing flips as he wrapped his arm around Inumaki.
It was great to feel the warmth come back to them slowly – although they could barely tell once sleep had claimed them both, getting their minds deeper into the haze of comfort and heat unconsciously. They definitely knew their body temperature was going back to normal after the shower and after they got under the thick blankets, but little did they know that it was mostly because of each other’s body heat that they could finally feel the tips of their toes again.
Puffs of air were breathed into the same shared space, barely a few inches between their faces as sleep knocked them out.
They had sat on the couch with their backs to the cushions, Yuuta’s longer arm sneaking around Toge’s frame to keep him close. Now, though, after Yuuta had felt Inumaki lay beside him limbless, and feeling the drowsiness starting to creep up on him, turning his blinking lazier, he had finally surrendered into the cozyness of their position.
Without enough force and consciousness to keep on the same position for long, they ended up laying down on the reduced space of the couch, Yuuta on his back with nearly half a dozen layers of clothes and blankets on top of him, plus one Inumaki Toge added to the mix.
The weight was more than welcomed, and upon any movement Yuuta felt the blond make, he would, automatically under the spell of a deep slumber, hug him tighter to his chest in hopes of not losing the heat on his body - and the fullness in his heart.
Unfortunately, sleep had to come to an end.
The first thing Yuuta noticed when sleep started to fade from his fogged brain, was that there was a cold – but very cold thing sneaking around his hands, slowly, but with purpose. And another similar feeling, although way smaller on its contact, on the curve of his neck.
He couldn’t help but groan at the uneasiness those cold things made him feel.
“ Shh ”
That had been the first sound he registered before he also caught the heavy sweep of the rain against his window – and that he could tell where it came from.
But the hushing?
Taking his time to blink away the heaviness off his eyelids, he tried to understand his current position.
He was at his home. It was a rainy day. Apparently, he had slept during the day because it was barely getting dark outside, and the pouring didn’t seem like it had gotten any better from what he could remember from earlier that day. There was, also, a light ache on his neck from sleeping on the couch, only because he hadn’t used a pillow nor chosen a more comfortable position to sleep in–
Ah, that could be explained.
There was also the most recent memory his brain had remembered.
Inumaki Toge was sleeping on top of him, making it literally impossible for him to move. Yuuta could now see the ash blond locks of hair popping from the blanket that covered him whole, except for his hair in disarray.
How could Yuuta miss that? The tickling on his nose? The sweet smell of his shampoo?
Well… That was new.
Slowly, with a prickly feeling running through his fingers, Yuuta managed to free one of his hands from under the covers and aimed it to hover over the soft, pale hair, itching to touch the silver locks without a second thought.
Inumaki was literally crushing him with his whole weight – Yuuta couldn’t actually feel his right leg now that he thought about it –, so maybe some light touching to his hair wouldn’t bother the other boy, right?
If he ever found out, that was.
Wanting to believe his argument, Yuuta let gravity work over his suspended hand, getting it closer to the messy bowl cut until they both met. It was, like he suspected, very soft to the touch. Almost too silky, but still nice. Yuuta loved discovering he could comb his fingers between the locks without them getting stuck.
The caress must have had an opposite effect on Inumaki that Yuuta couldn’t understand – even he was starting to feel sleepy again with the repetitive actions –, because after a couple of minutes of Yuuta playing with the blond hair, he felt Inumaki stir, making him stop his movements abruptly.
And then he watched him open his eyes, lift his gaze until it met Yuuta’s, and then promptly fall back again into the taller’s neck, burrowing himself there.
It was not what Yuuta had expected from a real scenario.
Had he fallen asleep again? Should Yuuta try to wake him up, offer something to eat or drink? Maybe he was still cold, or tired… Maybe he was feeling sick and Yuuta didn’t know.
Yuuta should just ask him.
“Inumaki… are you feeling okay?”
He didn’t hear an answer; but rather, he felt one, from where the blond was hiding his nodding face in Yuuta’s neck.
“Okay. Cool.” he spoke in response to nothing, actually, and felt Inumaki stop moving once again, deep in his new shelter.
The place, just like Inumaki, soon became a quiet, still scenario. Even Yuuta’s mind was as white as the sound surrounding them, or as Inumaki’s silky hair.
Yuuta was starting to hate this.
Because, since he felt the blond stir awake, his hand had fallen to his side in an attempt to disguise the fact that he was touching Inumaki while he slept. And he missed that.
The worst part? It was right in front of him, practically touching his cheek and swinging with every breath he took, but still out of reach.
Stuck on his thoughts, Yuuta didn’t notice the sudden movement under the covers until he felt cold fingers tracing the outside of his hand before intertwining themselves into it.
He authentically gasped at the feeling.
The hand – Inumaki’s hand – was now tugging at Yuuta’s own, freeing it from under the blankets until it was close to his face. There, the slim fingers let go, and instead rearranged themselves to grasp Yuuta’s wrist and push it until it knocked against Inumaki’s head.
Or, more specifically: his hair.
Tentatively, as though he wanted to make sure he read the action right, Yuuta spread his fingers until they touched from the tip to the base where his hand met his wrist as much silver hair as they could.
Inumaki shifted the slightest on his position, apparently getting more comfortable, and Yuuta considered that a good sign before he started to comb his fingers through his hair again, scratching the scalp lightly and playing with the length of the locks.
After another few minutes, when the caress was once again an automatic movement of his fingers, Yuuta was getting to feel the drowsiness fogging his mind all over again, but even in the midst of the haze, he would bet Inumaki had once or twice left out a satisfied noise that sounded way too much like a purr.
He wasn’t sure, but even if he had, it would all have stayed between them, those four walls, and under the blankets where their socked feet were tangled together - a great contrast to their shoes standing by the door, so wet that they would probably need a day or two to dry off completely.
And Yuuta wouldn't mind spending a day or two more as they were.