Chapter Text
She was drowning in a scent that she knew she loved, but couldn't fully place. A bright blue light flashes across her line of vision, and her heart skips a beat. She's stuck in the space in between. A place where a red string is tied to her ankle, pulling her across this infinite plane into a space she can't see, but to where she knows the other end of the string is attached to. To the being the other end is attached to. She can feel she's being pulled towards someone, to something important, but just as she starts to make out a silhouette, the string snaps. The only thing keeping her in this plane is severed, and she falls.
Hiyori's eyes fly open, and she's so startled by her dream that she falls out of bed. She groans and lays there on the ground thinking about her dream. She had been having that same dream off and on for weeks now, and she always knew when she woke up that it was about Yato, but while she was dreaming, she couldn't ever remember him. It reminded her of when Yato left last and how she had nearly forgotten him and Yukine in his absence. She had sworn to herself and to Yato that she wouldn't let that happen again, but it was always there in the back of her mind, that doubt and fear always present. She could still smell him even now, his scent sweet and nearly indescribable, like everything she loves combined into one wonderful smell. She swore it was almost like he was here...
"Why are you laying on the floor Hiyori?" she heard a familiar voice ask from across the room. She squealed, scrambled up onto the bed, and pulled the covers up over herself. She was only wearing an over-sized shirt due to how warm it was, but she didn't want Yato to see her so exposed. A thrill ran through her as she glared at Yato. He was standing by her window, his glowing blue eyes standing out against the dark of the room.
"What are you doing here Yato?! It's four in the morning!" she exclaimed.
"Just checking in on you. I was out on a job, but I'm finished now and Yukine is at Kofuku's, so I just thought I'd drop by," he answers. He walks closer as he says this so that he can see her better, and stops next to the bed. He looks as though he wants to sit, but his eyes dart between Hiyori and the bed, conflicted on how he should act. He knew she was just in a shirt and he knew she didn't want him to mention it. He could tell how flustered she was, which made it even harder for him not to think about it. It was similar to when he walked into her room when she was in only a towel.
"Yato, if I hadn't fallen out of bed I would still be asleep," she says. Yato visibly blushes and looks away, hoping she doesn't see how red his face is. Ever since he had gotten stuck in the underworld with Izanami, he had realized two things. One; that he was afraid of her forgetting him more than anything else and two; he cared about her in a way that he'd never thought about before. Izanami had completely stunned him just by taking on the guise of Hiyori. He had never thought about anyone or felt this way about anyone before Hiyori, and he didn't know exactly what it all meant yet. Since then though, he had been checking in on Hiyori a few times a week. He knew it was a bit creepy, but he just had to see her. He didn't tell her any of this of course. Instead he said;
"Well, see ya Hiyori!". Yato runs and jumps out her window before she can react. Her heart is racing, but the longer she sits there, the more it calms down. What was that all about?
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Hiyori walks along the sidewalk with her friends Ami and Yama. They had just gotten out of school, and Ami and Yama were trying to convince her to go with them and a few boys from their class to karaoke.
"Come on Hiyori, all you do is tutor this mystery kid. It's just one night!," Yama complains.
"He's really behind on his studies. He needs me," Hiyori replies. This wasn't entirely a lie. Yukine did have a hard time grasping this particular chapter, even if he didn't exactly need to know it for for anything. He liked to feel like a normal kid sometimes, and Hiyori understood that. She also always had fun seeing Kofuku, Daikoku, and... Yato. His piercing gaze popped into her head, and she had to shake her head to make it go away.
"Hiyori, you okay?" Ami asked. She stops to look at her friend's concerned faces, and nods.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow!" she runs off now and waves at her friends so they don't think she's being suspicious. It doesn't take long before she's arrived at Kofuku's. Typically Kofuku would run out to greet her, but she doesn't. Kofuku and Daikoku must be somewhere important if they aren't here. Hiyori takes off her shoes and then silently makes her way up to Yato and Yukine's room. She opens the door to see Yukine sitting at a kotatsu and staring at the notes she gave him while Yato is sitting in the corner on his phone.
"Hey guys. Yukine, you still wanted me to come over today right?" she greets them. Both of their faces shoot up to look at her. Yukine smiles and nods slightly, while Yato just looks at her. She can feel her face heating up, and she looks away from him. She sits down on the opposite side of the kotatsu and she tutors him for an hour or so before he looks at the clock and scrambles to get up.
"Yukine? What's wrong?" she asks.
"I'm late for my lesson with Kazuma. Sorry Hiyori, I'll see you again tomorrow,". Yukine runs out the door, and Hiyori sits there dumbfounded for a few seconds before she realizes she's in a room alone with Yato again. He's still looking at her, but when she locks eyes with him, he looks away. Yato isn't usually so serious. Something was happening in his head that she wasn't yet aware of. She gets up and moves so that she is sitting right in front of him, one leg tucked under the other.
"Yato, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" she asks. His eyes meet hers again and he shakes his head.
"No, you didn't do anything wrong, I just..." he trails off again as he looks at her. Now that she thought about it, he's been like this whenever they were alone together since a week or so after he had gotten back from the underworld. Her whole incident with going more yokai a few weeks ago had probably pushed things further, but he had started to act weird since the underworld. He was fine when Yukine was around, but without someone else present, he seemed different.
"Yato... did something happen in the underworld?" she can see the tension flash behind his eyes as he scratches the back of his head.
"Well, the queen of the underworld tried desperately to keep Ebisu and me there, and to do that, she appeared to us as someone who we would want to stay there with. To Ebisu, it was some lady from his favorite restaurant, but for me... It was you. And she tried to Kiss me," he answers. Hiyori can feel her body tense from the shock. She's so shocked in fact that her soul unintentionally slips out of her body, causing her body to fall on top of Yato. She looks down at Yato, his face completely red due to Hiyori's body laying on top of him.
"Yato! Move my body or I swear-"
"Yeah yeah, jungle savate and all that, I get it". He picks up Hiyori's body and lays it down next to him. Now standing, his body faces her, but his eyes avert her gaze. She slips back into her body again, trying to hide the fact that she is blushing profusely.
"Yato, why would she do that? Was it her wanting to kiss you or... her knowing that you wanted to kiss me?" she asks. He slowly raises his gaze now to meet her own. She feels her heart beat faster and a slight chill run through her. She had never seen him so nervous. He faced ayakashi and other threats every day but in the face of her, he seemed so helpless.
"I don't know. I don't know what I think or how I feel," he answers. She feels a pang in her heart then, but she doesn't quite know why. She gets a crazy idea suddenly, and she looks down at her feet, not able to meet his gaze.
"Hiyori?". She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a five yen coin. She holds out the coin in her outstretched hand and keeps her gaze fixed on the ground. She couldn't look at him because of what she was about to say.
"Yato I have a wish. Can you grant it?" she asks, her hand shaking uncontrollably. She can feel his hand brush against hers as he takes the coin.
"What wish?" he asks. She swallows before slowly looking up to meet his gaze, deciding that she wanted to see the look in his eyes when she said it.
"Kiss me". She sees his eyes flash as she says this, and can feel the nervous energy building inside her. She wonders if this is a mistake. He probably doesn't feel that way about her, and she doesn't know how she feels. What if he-
Before she can think any further, he is already in front of her, his face about an inch away from her own. He places his hand on her cheek and she gets goosebumps. A second later, his mouth is on hers. She had only ever kissed Fujisaki before, and she had not enjoyed that. She had felt nothing with him. Kissing Yato was the exact opposite. She felt as though every fiber of her being was attuned to Yato; The way he smells, how his lips mold perfectly to her own, how his hands in her hair sends shivers through her entire body. She reaches her own hand up and runs her fingers through the hair on the back of his head. She hears him moan slightly as she does this, and she can feel a tingling at her core. She wants him. She wonders how she hadn't realized it before. She never wants this to stop.
The sound of a door slamming shut from downstairs pulls them apart, both of them staring at each other in amazement. Yato's hair is ruffled and his eyes seem so open and vulnerable that Hiyori can barely contain herself. He had never looked like this before. Yato couldn't stop staring at her. She seemed frazzled and nervous, but at the same time, he could see the fire in those violet eyes. If he didn't know how he felt before, he definitely knew now.
"I-I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow!" she ran out of the room so that he didn't have a chance to stop her. She could feel something blossoming inside her heart, something that she wasn't sure how she was going to deal with.