Chapter Text
You treaded quietly across the floor before coming to a stop in front of a slightly open door. Before you could push the door open, the noise coming from inside stopped you.
“Do you think I’m handsome, Taroumaru? Wiggle your tail if you think I’m handsome!” A slight pause, followed by the sound of a tail hitting something soft rhythmically. The sound was dull, but still prevalent. An elated “Yeah!” was the response that followed.
Another pause, this time much longer. The sound of the tail wagging stopped, before: “Are you depressed? Wiggle your tail if you’re depressed.” The same thudding accompanied that stretch of silence, followed by a screeching “No!”
“Hey Thoma, how are you?” You began, pushing open the door to his room, where he sat on his bed in front of a very happy Taroumaru, whose tail began to wag more enthusiastically at the sight of you.
“Are you happy? Wiggle your tail if you’re happy,” you questioned the dog in a baby voice as you began to pet him. Taroumaru continued to wiggle his tail, though whether it was because of your question, your attention, or the treat you were giving him from your coat pocket, who was to tell?
“Hi! I didn’t know you were here!” Thoma exclaimed, only a little bashful at being caught talking to his dog.
“Ayato let me in before I could text you.” You reached out your other hand to properly pet Taroumaru, who accepted your complete affection happily. “And clearly someone was too busy conversing with you in order to alert you of my presence.”
Thoma laughed before gesturing for you to sit down on his bed next to him. You took off your jacket, laying it down on his desk chair as you made yourself comfortable in your friend’s room, Taroumaru jumping onto the bed with you. “You’d talk to Taroumaru too if you got the chance, and I’m such a dazzling conversation partner that of course his attention was elsewhere,” Thoma joked, nudging you as you chuckled at his joke.
“I do talk to Taroumaru! I tell him that he’s handsome and wonderful and amazing and the best boy ever!” You smiled, giving Taroumaru a kiss on his head, his tail thumping against the comforter. “And don’t worry, Thoma, I think you’re handsome too,” you said, referring to his earlier conversation with Taroumaru, petting his hair the same way you would pet the shiba inu.
Thoma grinned, laughing with you. A blush rose to his face as he pushed his head into your hand, as joking as your touch was. You locked eyes with him, his soft gaze nearly catching you off guard as you smiled back at him. You ran your fingers through his hair, which was out of its usual ponytail, falling beautifully past his shoulders.
Your hand trailed down from his hair to cup his cheek. He leaned into your hand, tilting his head as your thumb smoothed over his face as you gazed at one another. Thoma reached his hand up to caress your jaw, thumb tilting your chin up as he moved centimeters closer. Your heart sped up as you watched his gaze flicker briefly down to your lips. Your breath hitched as his gaze met yours again, and he started leaning in. Thoma opened his mouth, about to say something when a lick on your face, courtesy of one Taroumaru, snapped you out of your stupor.
You pulled away, hand dropping from Thoma’s face. He did the same, his touch reluctantly leaving you but lingering all the same. You shifted your attention to Taroumaru, who was looking at you pleadingly for either more treats or more attention, likely both.
“Ok boy, only one more or you’ll become a glutton,” you teased, getting up to grab another dog treat out of your coat to give to the waiting dog.
You dug through the pockets of your coat while, unbeknownst to you, Thoma pouted at his dog behind you, silently gesturing as if to say: “Why would you do that?!”
With Taroumaru chewing happily on his treat, Thoma looked at you once again, though his gaze seemed much more sheepish this time. He cleared his throat once, before saying, “Anyways, I was gonna make hot cocoa to go along with the movie I wanna show you, and I also have cookies that I baked earlier today! Though, I should probably check that Ayato hasn’t eaten all of them.” He laughed.
“Let me help you!” You offered, and Thoma, knowing your persistence, agreed.
“If you could heat up two cups of milk, that’d be great. I’ll be there in a minute!” You gave him a thumbs up before exiting. With you out of his room, he flopped back onto his bed with his hands covering his face. Dragging them down the sides of his face, he let out a whispered shout of frustration, before turning his head to Taroumaru, who was licking up the crumbs of the treat he had quickly polished off. Shooting the dog a betrayed look, he softly exclaimed,
“Taroumaru! I thought you were supposed to be my wingman!”
Thoma joined you in the kitchen after a couple of minutes, a pot of milk already heating up on the stove. He took out his phone, scrolling for a brief moment before music started to come out of the speakers and he set his phone down on the counter, moving to grab the hot cocoa mix instead. Taroumaru padded in after him, always wanting to be where his favorite humans are.
You bent down to Taroumaru’s level to pet him some more. Thoma frowned exaggeratedly at the dog from behind you, only partially sincere with his displeasure after the shiba inu had interrupted your moment – a moment that Thoma, in his daily talks with his dog, had been dreaming of for months.
You looked back at Thoma, who quickly schooled his expression into a regular neutral look, and felt a little shy due to what had transpired only minutes before. You wondered, had he been moving to kiss you? Or maybe there was something on your face… You tried to rationalize it, but that didn’t change the fact that you wanted him to kiss you.
Thoma was an easy person to love, it just made sense that you would develop a crush on him. You could only hope that your feelings for him were returned.
The hot cocoa was coming to a simmer, almost ready to be poured into cups and topped with whipped cream. Thoma, who had retrieved both the whipped cream and the cookies he baked, placed them on the counter and proceeded to stand right in front of them, blocking your way with a smirk on his face.
“Oh, so that’s how it is?” You questioned, raising your eyebrows.
“That’s how it is,” he replied, matter of fact, an amused look on his face. You moved to reach behind him, but he batted your arm out of the way. Your following attempts were thwarted in the same manner.
Thoma rested his elbows on the counter, thinking you’d finally given up – but seeing that his waist was now unprotected, you made a split second decision. Moving to his side, you slowly dragged one of your hands across his waist, feeling him tense up through his black t-shirt and using the momentary distraction to reach behind him with your other hand and grab a cookie. You quickly shoved the cookie into your mouth and moved away from him, feeling like the cat who got the cream while Thoma opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, looking like a fish out of water with a flush high on his cheeks.
A belated strangled “Oh!” was all that escaped his mouth as he watched you happily eat the cookie.
Choosing to not point out his flustered expression – maybe the movement made him exert himself? – you asked, “These cookies are really good, did you use a new recipe or something?”
“Not exactly a new recipe, but I did add some spices to them this time for some more flavor,” he responded, moving away from the counter and grabbing the whipped cream to prepare your mugs of hot cocoa. He willed his blush away, despite knowing you’ve definitely seen it already.
He had wanted to fluster you somehow, maybe pull you against him while you reached behind him – he even dared to think about asking you to kiss him in trade for a cookie! But you managed to catch him off guard with your touch and make his heart beat even faster. He began to pour the cups of hot cocoa and topped them with whipped cream, handing you a mug and the plate of cookies as you made your way back to his room.
His tv was already set up with the newest movie that Thoma wanted to introduce to you, and Taroumaru trotted in after you. Before you could sit down on his bed, Taroumaru jumped up and took up almost half of it while wagging his tail and looking incredibly self satisfied. Thoma shot a grateful look towards his dog, sitting at the side of the bed and gesturing for you to sit between the two of them. Maybe Taroumaru is my wingman after all…
Thoma could feel the warmth of your body pressed against his as the two of you cuddled up next to each other and he hit play on the movie.
Maybe it was because he had already seen the movie, maybe it was because he was sitting next to you, pressed side by side, mugs of hot cocoa already finished and left on his nightstand, but Thoma found his attention drifting to you much more than the screen. Thoma decided to gather up his courage to fake a big yawn before draping his arm around you. It was excessive, he knew, since you two were already rather physically affectionate as friends, but after the almost-kiss from earlier and you flustering him, he felt as though he needed to play it cool.
But he had long since accepted that he would never be able to play it cool when it comes to you.
A few minutes went by with his arm around you and his heart beating out of his chest, and Taroumaru chose that moment to stretch up, nudging you even closer to Thoma. You laughed, softly exhaling through your nose before moving closer to him and resting your head on his shoulder. It’s safe to say that after that, Thoma’s attention was far from the movie, and also far from his very smug dog.
The movie ended, and the two of you stayed in the same position, pressed against each other while you talked about the movie and everything else under the sun until you needed to get up to use the bathroom. The moment you exited the room, Thoma turned to Taroumaru happily, congratulating the shiba inu. “Good boy! You’re such a good boy! You’ve definitely made up for earlier!”
Taroumaru wagged his tail, licking Thoma’s face as the man pet him generously. “Oh my gosh, I wanna kiss them so bad. I know I’ve said that a million times before but I really do! I felt like my heart was going to combust when they cuddled up to me like that, you’ve gotta wingman me more!”
Taroumaru, like the good boy he is, barked in affirmation. “Do you think I should give them one of my sweatshirts? It’s getting kinda cold outside so maybe they’re cold inside. And they’d be so cute in my sweatshirt… Oh my god, it’s cold outside.” Thoma gasped in realization, looking out of his window to see a flurry of snow in the darkness, since it was well into the night.
Thoma’s attention suddenly shifted from the weather to his phone chiming with a new message from Ayato.
did u know the walls are thin
u’ve made me very well aware of that
why?
i can hear u talking to taroumaru abt ur crush
who is in the other room
oh no
i hope they hear
respectfully i hope u fail ur paper
and to think i was going to tell u that y/n should stay over
on second thought i love you
i know ♥️
also it’s literally snowing
just in case you haven’t looked out the window
since you’ve been looking at them instead ;)
and if ur gonna do anything nasty lmk and i’ll go to itto’s
WE’VE NEVER EVEN KISSED SHUT UP
yeah ik. get a move on loverboy!!!!
and then u can tell ur bestie taroumaru all abt it
are u jealous i tell taroumaru abt my crush and not u :(
Thoma looked at his phone, expecting to see three dots indicating that Ayato was typing, but all he saw was the read receipt staring back at him. He laughed to himself before hearing, “You already tell me too much!” shouted at him from the other room, making him burst out into full blown laughter.
“Tell him too much about what ?” You questioned, walking back into Thoma’s room. Thoma froze up as Ayato began laughing, walking in behind you.
“What he means, my dear, is-” was all Ayato was able to say before Thoma jumped up from his bed, lightly pushed his roommate two steps out of the doorway, and shut his door behind you.
“Ah, uh, um, he meant I tell him too much about those baking shows that I always watch,” Thoma stuttered, leaning forward with one arm resting on his door behind you, unintentionally pinning you.
“The ones you talk to Taroumaru about?” You jested, resting your back against the door and looking up at Thoma.
“That’s not the only thing he talks to Taroumaru about!” Ayato exclaimed, voice slightly muffled from behind the door as he laughed and walked away. You chuckled in response, seeing Thoma’s eyes widen as he blushed, looking down only to meet your eyes and then frantically look back up at the door. He moved away from you, stepping back into his room with you as you solemnly looked at your coat that was resting on his desk chair.
“I should probably get going,” you started, “since it’s so cold I don’t wanna wait until it’s even colder.” You shivered, thinking about the frigid winter air outside. Knowing that even with the time not being so late into the evening, it would still be dark and cold outside was not a happy thought.
“Actually,” Thoma stopped, “if you wanted, you could… stay the night? Only if you want to, of course! If you don’t want to, I’d like to walk you back to your apartment though, just ‘cause it’s so cold and I’d wanna make sure you get home safe. But it’s literally snowing, so I don’t really want you walking home in this weather.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at you sheepishly to gauge your reaction.
“It’s snowing?” You questioned, wondering when the snow must’ve started.
“Yeah, I only noticed a minute ago, it must’ve started while we were watching the movie, which has a sequel, by the way, if you wanna watch that.”
You moved over to the window, brushing open the curtains to see a flurry of snow, only illuminated by the light coming through other apartment windows and porch lights. You marveled at it, pressing your face closer to the window.
“Yeah, I’d love to stay over, if it’s no trouble. I don’t wanna put you out or anything. On an unrelated note,” you turned to look at Thoma, “do you wanna go play in the snow?”
After putting on your coat again, and Thoma giving you a pair of gloves to make sure your hands stayed warm, the two of you, Taroumaru, and Ayato, who you managed to drag out, made your way outside. Thoma was being half-dragged by the enthusiastic Shiba while you and Ayato walked at a more leisurely pace.
Taroumaru was ecstatic to be in the snow, jumping into the accumulated snowfall the second he got the chance, the three of you laughing at his behavior. Thoma and Ayato looked visibly flushed from the cold- the both of them wearing their own winter coats, scarves, gloves, and hats, though Thoma was wearing fingerless gloves, his usual poor choice for the weather.
“How are you gonna lecture both of us about keeping warm in the winter when not even all your fingers are covered?” Ayato laughed at Thoma, who grabbed a handful of snow and threw it towards Ayato in retaliation.
Ayato laughed even harder when the flurry of snowflakes didn’t go far, dissolving into a powdery mist. You laughed with him, throwing your head back until a face full of snowflakes made you stop in your tracks. You sputtered, wiping the snow off of your face and blinked your eyes open to see Thoma’s smirking face looking back at you, much closer than it was before.
You bent down to scoop up some snow, keeping direct eye contact with Thoma, before turning and throwing the snow right at Ayato instead. This time, he was successfully hit with the powdery mix right in his face, stopping his laughter dead in his tracks.
“Oh, you’re on,” he challenged. The three of you began running after each other in the snow with Taroumaru nipping at your heels and biting the snow out of the air. Laughter surrounded the four of you as you enjoyed the nighttime snow.
Before long, all of you were freezing cold, and made the unanimous decision to head back inside to Thoma and Ayato’s apartment to warm up. Ayato immediately headed back into his bedroom in order to change into drier clothes, you and Thoma heading into his bedroom to do the same.
Thoma browsed through his closet, carefully looking for clothes that he could lend to you, and unintentionally thinking about which clothing items of his he wanted to see you in the most. His heart pounded as he thought about you in his clothes, smelling like his cologne, his body wash, his laundry detergent. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, opting to grab some sweatpants, socks, a shirt, and a hoodie, handing you the pile of clothes along with a neatly folded towel from the linen closet.
He ushered you into the bathroom, telling you that a good shower would help you warm up from the cold and ignored your protests that he should shower first since he was out in the cold, too.
After changing into some pajamas since it was already late in the evening, Thoma decided to make miso soup for the three of you to share in order to get his mind off of you. You, who was about to change into his clothes, about to stay the night in his space, in his bed. Granted, he would probably take the couch – he refused to let you, a guest, sleep on the couch for the night.
Taroumaru was all too happy to join Thoma in the kitchen as he began preparing the ingredients for the soup. After sliding Taroumaru a treat or two, letting himself be immersed in the music he played and the rhythmic chopping of ingredients, he heard footsteps coming in his direction.
Thoma looked up, expecting to see Ayato, but instead his breath was taken away by you approaching him. You looked so good in his clothes, even better than he had imagined (and he had imagined it. a lot.) The way his hoodie draped over your form made his heart skip several beats, and he knew that he just needed to hold you like this, he needed you in his arms in any way he could get.
“Are you making miso soup?” You asked, surveying the ingredients scattered across the counter, unknowing of his inner panic. Thoma nodded, quickly putting all of the necessary ingredients into a pot on the stove and turning the burner on before turning to look at you once again. His eyes raked slowly over your body, drinking in every bit of you: his sweatpants clearly a little too long on your legs, his sweatshirt at your thighs, the sleeves continuing near your fingertips.
Oh Taroumaru, I think I’m going to have a heart attack , he mentally communicated to the dog, who seemed to enjoy you smelling like his owner. You smiled expectantly at Thoma, due to him staring at you in silence, and his eyes met yours.
“Can I hug you?” He choked out, immediately stepping closer and wrapping his arms around you once you nodded your head in affirmation.
Your hands automatically wrapped around his back as he held you tightly against himself, inhaling your scent mixed with his. He closed his eyes as he nuzzled his face into your shoulder, savoring the moment, wishing he could hold you forever.
The two of you stood there so long that you could feel yourself beginning to doze off in his arms, fighting to stay awake. His warmth endlessly seeped into your body, warming you up better than a hot shower ever could. The smell of miso soup wrapped around you, and you caught yourself feeling jealous of Taroumaru, who was sleeping comfortably in his fluffy dog bed next to the stove.
You only pulled away when you could hear the soup aggressively boiling, but as he stood at the stove, you made the impulsive decision to hug him from behind. You sighed contentedly, resting your head on him with your hands around his waist.
His face bloomed with a fierce blush, and he was glad that you were behind him so that you couldn’t witness it. His heart felt as though it was about to beat right out of his chest. Thoma stirred the soup once more after adding the remaining ingredients and turned the heat down to a low simmer. Instead of moving, he chose to remain right where he was, and leaned back into your embrace while resting his hands on top of yours.
The both of you were so caught up in the moment, and you nearly caught up in sleep, that neither of you heard the quiet sound of a phone camera and footsteps approaching. Ayato, freshly showered and donning a green face mask and a fluffy robe, made his presence known with a knowing look and saying, “Aw, how domestic. I guess the miso soup really is made with love.”
You opened your eyes and smiled at him, commenting, “Nice face mask,” while Thoma’s face got even redder, feeling slightly embarrassed but enjoying your affection far too much to even think about pulling away.
Thoma cleared his throat before saying, “Miso soup is done.” Mourning the loss when you pulled away to grab some bowls, a pout on his face, much to Ayato’s amusement.
Taroumaru was roused from his sleep by the sound of dishes clinking together, and while he was sad that he wasn’t getting any soup, his troubles were easily assuaged with a few sweet potato dog treats. The three of you quickly polished off the delicious miso soup before Ayato said he was turning in for the night. You ended up doing the dishes, much to Thoma’s protest, stating that it was the least you could do since you were spending the night.
After cleaning up the kitchen, the two of you and Taroumaru retreated to Thoma’s room. Looking out the window, you could tell that the snow had settled down comparably to earlier.
“So, are you still down to watch the sequel of the movie from earlier?” Thoma asked as the two of you made yourselves comfortable in his bed.
“Honestly,” you yawned, “I’m down, but I’m not totally sure that I can stay awake through it. And I’d like to be awake to watch it.” You pouted at him when he chuckled at your sleepy behavior.
“Let’s watch something else, then. What about Howl’s Moving Castle? Then you won’t feel bad if you fall asleep,” he laughed, seeing your enthusiastic agreement. The two of you laid down side by side after Thoma hit play on the movie. The score and familiarity of the movie made it all too easy for you to rest your head against Thoma’s arm and slowly close your eyes, the comfort lulling you to sleep no matter how hard you tried to stay awake.
Thoma smiled fondly down at you, seeing as how you barely made it through half of the movie before falling asleep completely. He wanted to get the both of you under his covers and hold you throughout the night, but he didn’t want to risk pushing your boundaries. He turned the TV off, slowly moving away from you so that he could sleep on the couch instead, when you awoke. Still in a sleep-riddled daze, you softly questioned, “Thoma? Where are you going?”
“I’m going to go sleep on the couch, you can take my bed,” he softly replied, heart skipping a beat at how you said his name.
You blinked your eyes awake, much more conscious than before as you pushed yourself up. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. You take your bed, I’ll take the couch.”
“No way.” Thoma was already moving to grab a blanket. “I’ll take the couch, you take the bed,” he insisted.
“Nope,” you yawned, grabbing his wrist before he could move more. You blinked again, realizing that Thoma would keep insisting, when an idea popped into your head. “Either I take the couch or we both sleep here.”
Thoma stopped in his tracks. He had been wishing you would suggest that, but never imagined you actually would. His jaw dropped, his grip on the blanket loosening as you took the chance to take it out of his hand and make your own way to the couch, but before you could properly get up from his bed, he pushed you back down.
“You sure? I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable or anything…” Thoma babbled, while inside he was nervous yet elated at the prospect of sleeping next to you.
“Thoma, I was asleep next to you 5 minutes ago. I’m cool with sharing a bed if you are.”
“Cool? I’m so cool, let me just-” he stumbled, tucking both you and himself under all of the covers on his bed and turning off the lamp that was keeping his room dimly lit, leaving you both in darkness.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Having you next to him made him excitable and sleepy all at once. “Can I-” He started, unsure how to proceed with one of the many questions he’s been dying to ask you. “Can I wrap my arms around you?”
“Of course,” came your simple reply. He gently circled his arms around you, pulling your head towards his chest, and praying you couldn’t hear or feel his heartbeat, how terribly you were affecting him.
“Goodnight, Thoma,” you whispered, already drifting back to sleep, encased in his warmth.
After a few minutes, Thoma replied even quieter, “Goodnight, my love,” placing a barely-there kiss on your head, before smiling and falling asleep himself.