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“Shit.“
Guren was known for not having a particularly descriptive language, but for once Shinya couldn't think of a better word to describe their situation.
“Shit, indeed,“ he returned, his voice sounding hoarse.
Well, damn. Shinya's heart was still beating from the rush of the fight they had barely escaped from. The room they were standing in now was dimly lit and chilly, but the lack of harsh wind and snow gushing around them made it ten times better than being outside, so he couldn't really complain. He patted the snow off from his coat, but half of it had already melted and made his clothes wet. His socks were soggy and his pants clammy and sticking to his legs uncomfortably, from when they had walked knee-deep through a pile of frozen water.
Not to mention he was freezing.
Whose bright idea was it to go vampire-hunting in the middle of a blizzard again?
Oh, right, the perpetrator was just standing a few feet to his left. At least they had found some shelter in one of the many abandoned buildings the city clearly didn't have a shortage of, but really... He couldn't suppress the sigh threatening to leave his lips.
Sometimes... sometimes Guren was just stupid.
And beyond help.
What had possessed his friend to go on this self-destructive mission?
But letting the incidents of the day slowly playback in front of his inner eye, he could pinpoint with pretty safe accuracy when exactly things had gone wrong.
Actually, the day had started in a rather non-descript or... no, quite good fashion. There hadn't been any mission scheduled and Shinya was mentally prepared for a quiet and peaceful day, that he had planned to spend mostly in his (or Guren's) office doing his paperwork (or distracting Guren from doing his).
Okay, maybe he ought to reflect on how he used to spend his free time more often, but...
… Nah. It was too much fun annoying Guren. It was like the shining light in the otherwise dark and broody, post-apocalyptic vampire-filled world.
Anyway, back to what had ruined that day. Ah right, he had dragged Guren out of his office to get some lunch, when...
Kureto and Guren had met.
Yes, this circumstance was enough for a day to end up being cosmically screwed up – just those two being in immediate vicinity of each other. It was like every god or deity or karma suddenly vanished when those two were involved. If they weren't at each other's throat, they sure as hell didn't leave without at least having some sort of passive-aggressive verbal exchange.
If he could help it, Shinya tried to avoid having them meet at all, but there were only so many things he really had influence over.
Kureto then had mentioned in passing that he got a report from one of the stationed troops in Shinjuku about some vampires (may or may not include some nobles) lurking around there. Probably hoping to catch some stray, homeless and weakened humans who were pretty much defenseless in the occurring snow storm right now.
Kureto had sighed dramatically that all of his good men were otherwise occupied and it seemed like the humans in Shinjuku were left at the mercy of the vampires now.
Well, what little mercy those guys used to have, anyway.
To say the least, Guren was more than a little irked. What exactly had pissed him off more, Shinya couldn't really tell. The fact that Kureto didn't consider him good enough for this mission or the fact that he talked about the humans in Shinjuku like there weren't really worth the trouble.
Anyway, Guren had unsheathed his sword and declared cockily that he would be the one to go to Shinjuku and if he had to slay every vampire there personally. Shinya didn't even have a chance to stop him nor talk sense into him, because Guren stormed away the moment after he made his dramatic declaration, leaving Kureto behind who merely chuckled at the sight.
God, sometimes his brother could be such an ass.
Scratch that, his brother was almost exclusively an ass. He glared pointedly at Kureto, before he ran after Guren.
At least Guren was not reckless enough to actually go on a mission alone, it was probably just something about his brother that made Guren feel the need to act more macho (than usual) in front of him. Shigure and Sayuri had joined them, but Shinya still had felt incredibly under-armed when they had reached the outskirts of Shinjuku.
How he wished Guren wasn't so... short-fused sometimes.
But it didn't matter. Shinya would always follow him to hell and back - he had sworn himself that that day, when Guren and him had formed their semi-alliance to overthrow the Hiragis - but nonetheless he wished that Guren wouldn't seek out 'hell' quite as often as he did...
They had only barely managed to kill one of the nobles. Vampires were, to no one's surprise, immune to the cold; and it didn't help that their white clothes were hard to spot in the raging snow storm. The fight was... an awful experience, and had required a lot of concentration and will power and endurance.
But anyway, they were safe... for now.
His muscles still hurt and his uniform was tattered and dishevelled, and out of the corner of his eye he could tell that Guren wasn't faring much better, although most of it was concealed under his usual stoic expression.
But Shinya knew his stoic expressions too well by now to be fooled by them anymore. In fact he was surprised how well he could read his friend sometimes. Even right now, what Guren wanted was written as clear as ink on paper on his face...
“You look like you are in need of a hug,“ he said seriously.
“HELL NO!“ Guren yelled.
Aww, always so shy...
All jokes aside, he could tell that Guren was distracted by something, glaring daggers at the door they had come through.
Shinya walked over to him, and placed his hands firmly on his shoulders. At the contact Guren raised his eyebrows (probably readying himself for a roundhouse kick should Shinya really dare to hug him) and was about to say something, when Shinya cut him off.
“I'm sure Shigure and Sayuri are fine,“ he said softly, and then playfully punched Guren's shoulder. “Unlike you, they know when it's best to retreat.“ He tried to sound optimistic, but it was a bit difficult with his own share of worry over the two girls distantly gnawing at the back of his mind. They had somehow gotten separated in the middle of the vampire attack.
Guren's lips tightened and he slapped Shinya's hand away. “I'm not worried.” After a moment. “But there are still vampires loitering around and... it would be no fun, if they got to kill them instead of me.”
“Yeah, riiiight.”
“...Get that stupid smile off your face.”
Shinya laughed, before his gaze softened. Because Shigure and Sayuri were Guren's attendants, his black-haired friend often felt kind of responsible for them, even though he was too hard-boiled to admit it. “You know, in our current condition we aren't much of an enemy for them actually, not to mention with that storm outside. There are enough shelters here, I'm sure both of them have found something.“
While Guren seemed to consider more things worth protesting over, Shinya grabbed his hand and dragged him to a corner.
“Please, Guren... let's rest.“ He settled himself down against the wall and pulled Guren along, who almost stumbled over his feet at the force Shinya was using. “We can look for them first thing when the storm has calmed down, okay?“
Guren scoffed, but didn't reply. At least he didn't put up more of a fight and let himself down in a more comfortable position... about fifteen feet away from him.
“Why are you over there, Gureeeen...?“ Shinya whined.
“I don't know. Maybe I like the view here better,” Guren answered flippantly, crossing his arms. “Don't dare to come over here.”
“Yeah, sure. Keep being like that. Don't come crying to me, when you miss me,“ Shinya puffed his cheeks in mock-hurt.
“No way in hell.”
Shinya smiled. Guren taking jabs at him meant that he was more or less back to his usual self.
They both settled into a companionable silence after that. With nothing much to do than contemplate his life choices, Shinya took the time to actually properly examine the room they were in. They had been in a rush and chosen the next best location they came across, in fear of getting lost or worse loosing sight of each other in the heavy snow storm. It wasn't an overly spacious room, and seemed to have been a storage room formerly, except the shelves were almost entirely empty. Well, it was no surprise, after the apocalypse a lot of homes and shops had been raided by the surviving humans.
He wondered briefly if it would make any difference if he shoved one of the shelves in front of the back door from where they had come inside, to slow down a possible vampire attack. But then he remembered some of the nobles who could destroy entire walls with so much as a flick of their wrist. He sighed and decided it wasn't really worth it. There was nothing else of interest and Guren didn't really seem inclined to hold small talk either... not that Guren was good at small talk to begin with.
The lack of activity made him much more painfully aware of the cold than before.
Whenever an occasional breeze flew by through one of the cracks of the run-down building, he couldn't help but shiver. It was like being pierced by a couple thousand needles.
Ugh.
His fingers started to feel like they were going to fall off in the long run... He belatedly realized he was still wearing his gloves that were as damp as the rest of the uniform. He took them off, rubbing his hands together to get his blood to circulate again.
He couldn't take off his pants for obvious reasons, but he shrugged off the jacket, glad that his shirt was passably dry underneath. Then he draped the jacket loosely over himself like a blanket to keep at least a bit of his body warmth trapped there.
He sighed. It only helped a little though. He would have to think of something else in the long run, if they were going to stay here for much longer.
Guren only mustered him briefly, then scoffed and unsheathed his sword to... polish it...
Well, guess everyone had... different ways to cope with the cold... He wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure how much he wanted to risk angering Guren, after his friend had actually followed his request for once. Guren was probably still peeved about it. He could be such a kid sometimes, seriously.
He sighed again and leaned against the wall, staring up at the ceiling; the howling of the wind outside and Guren's polishing the only sounds ripping through the silence, working like a soft lullaby.
The ceiling was... an interesting shade of gray. A bit of a darker gray than the walls. Or did it only look gray, because of the lack of a proper light source?
Time passed awfully slowly with equally deep and life-shattering thoughts, and he found himself drifting in and out of a hazy not-quite-slumber when a sound startled him awake again.
It sounded like... Guren had sneezed.
He glanced over to his friend who rubbed his nose, looking angry as if he felt betrayed by his own body's reaction. Shinya had to chuckle. That served Guren right for being so stubborn.
But as amusing as seeing Guren disgruntled was, he really didn't want him to catch a cold here, especially not with the possibility of vampires still wandering around.
He... had some kind of idea of how to solve the problem, but...
“Hey, you know we might be here for a while...“ He started slowly, carefully, like he was dealing with a particularly dangerous animal. Which wasn't far off from the truth in that case.
No response. Shinya inched closer to Guren, who only raised his eyebrow while somehow simultaneously glaring at him.
“And it wouldn't be good if we ended up a human popsicle or sick by the time the vampires find us.“
Still no response. There were only a few feet separating Guren and him now.
“So I thought we should try to find a way to keep ourselves warm.“
“I don't see a heater here anywhere, dumbass,“ Guren growled finally.
Shinya smiled brightly, unperturbed. So the cold was getting to Guren as well. “Well, we have ourselves,“ he said in a sing-song voice. He could see the dread starting to spread comically on Guren's face, and he actually had to suppress his laughter at that, because he needed to look serious for the next thing he wanted to say. “You know, we can always... cuddle...“
Guren opened his mouth, trying to retort, but the only thing he got out was... “What?!“ And... “What the fuck?!“
“Honestly, it's a reasonable thing to use body heat that would otherwise get lost in the air,“ Shinya explained patiently, like talking to a child. “It's very cost-effective.”
He opened his arms wide in an inviting fashion. “Come here, Guren.“
“Seriously, what the fuck, Shinya!“ Guren actually held his sword in front of himself like some kind of shield. “We are on a mission, stop this crap.“
Sigh. Why were things always so difficult with Guren. He honestly was just doing it to help his friend, too.
(Well, mostly.)
“But Guuureeeen, I'm really cold,“ Shinya whined, making his saddest face, even though Guren always seemed to be immune against it.
“Not my problem, go run a few laps around the room or something.“ Guren turned away at that, looking pointedly at the opposite wall, like the spider webs and empty coke bottles were more deserving of his attention.
“Aww, don't be like that. There is hardly any space to run around here.“
“I don't care. Then go freeze to death. But make it quickly.“
“I know you don't mean that. Come ooon.“
“Shinya...” Guren looked at him warningly. “I will throw you back into the storm if you don't stop.“
Shinya couldn't help but snicker at that. “Nah, I know you care about me too much to do that.“
“How does anything I say give you that impression, anyway.“
“Because I know youu~“ Shinya drawled.
God, Guren was so stubborn. Guess, there was no way to solve this diplomatically, and no one could blame Shinya that he hadn't tried at least, so he did the only sensible thing he could think of to do in this situation.
He ignored everything that Guren said and pulled him into a hug.
“Shinya-“ Guren started, but Shinya cut him off.
“Ugh, you are really cold,“ he complained, and didn't mean the other's emotional coldness for once. Guren felt like an ice block. Maybe he hadn't noticed and Guren had actually been turned into a vampire during their fight... A glance at his face and the lack of vampiric teeth let him sigh in relief. Nope, human still.
“Too bad for you, now can you...“ Guren struggled around Shinya's death grip, “...let go of me, for fuck's sake!“
“Noo, you are going to die! At least let me warm you up a bit,“ Shinya said bravely. He was a man on a mission here. “But please take off that coat... Brr...”
After a while of punching and kicking, Guren's struggle started to cease and Shinya even managed to pry off his jacket off him.
“You are so annoying...“ Guren muttered, now stiff as a brick in his arms.
“It's okay, I like you too,“ Shinya whispered wistfully.
“... I think you really need a dictionary.“
He chuckled at that, but didn't say anything else. Several minutes passed surprisingly quietly, and he could slowly feel the warmth radiating off from Guren's body again... or was it his own warmth. He couldn't tell anymore, probably both were mixing and blending together by now, and it felt nice and cozy... It was starting to dull his senses and make his mind go foggy. Uhh, not good, not good on a mission... but he didn't want to leave, he wanted to get closer...
“God, this is extremely...disconcerting, being glued to you like this,“ Guren said dryly. “Are you perhaps...?“
Shinya snorted, and waggled his eyebrows. “Do you want me to be?” He asked teasingly.
His friend shoved at him. “Hell, no.”
“But please know, you can always tell me anything. I won't judge you.”
“Shinya.” It was amazing how Guren managed to make a sole name sound like a death threat. “Shut up.”
“Okay, okay, I will stop,” Shinya laughed, unable to suppress a yawn. “Don't worry, there is nothing unusual about hugging your best friend. No need to be shy, Guren.”
“Ugh, please don't ever call yourself that again. You are a nuisance, nothing more...“ But Guren's voice trailed off near the end, like he had a hard time trying to keep up his grouchiness. The warmth was intoxicating and blurring Shinya's own thought processes so much, he wondered if Guren was starting to get sleepy too. He smiled lazily at that thought, but then got surprised when... Guren rested his head on his shoulder and his hand made its way slowly over to Shinya's hip.
Holy crap... That was probably the closest reciprocative cuddling he would get out of Guren, but...
Aww.
Shinya decided for the time being he wouldn't comment on it, but he stored that memory away in his personal mental vault of things to be remembered until he became an old grandpa. Maybe it would come in handy for future blackmail purposes, too...