Chapter Text
“Coil, I know you’re freezing right now.”
Coil huffs, his breath a plume of white in the air. He’s not even that cold. He doesn’t know what Shuriken’s makin’ a big fuss about.
“I’m always cold, Shuriken,” Coil replies. “This winter weather is nothin’ to me.”
“You’re barely even wearing a sweater!”
Coil shakes his head, tsking while he does so. “Just ‘cause I’m not in a big-ass coat like you are right now doesn’t mean that I have to be. You’re just doin’ too much, bro.”
Shuriken wraps his coat tighter around himself, the several snowflakes falling from the air dusting the top of his hood like powdered sugar. “This is the bare minimum, dude! You just think of yourself as too cool to wear a jacket.”
“Well, yeah, I am too cool to wear a jacket.”
Coil grins down at Shuriken, who is pretty clearly shivering despite having several layers on right now.
He doesn’t really get what the big deal is. Yeah, okay, it’s snowing and all. Whatever. Coil’s the same guy who was quite literally raised in the snow. Not only that, but he hasn’t felt a lick of warmth ever since he put that crystal in his horn years ago.
And he’s fine with it! Coil’s perfectly fine right now. Not cold at all. Nope. Not this guy.
Shuriken rolls his eyes. “You’re just trying to act all tough, aren’t you? It’s literally snowing, Coil! There’s no way that you aren’t cold right now.”
“Look, it’s always pretty cold in upper Playground. You’re just not used to it ‘cause you’re raised in Thieves’ Den, where it’s always so fuckin’ humid for no damn reason. Seriously- why is it always so humid?”
So what if Coil’s a little cold? It’s not like he’s gonna die. That’d only be the case if he were in, like, Blackrock, or something. And Coil isn’t gonna spend his Christmas in Blackrock. Who would even do that?
Shuriken unravels his scarf from around his neck and hands it over to Coil, his gloves pressing against Coil’s skin. “C’mon, dude, you can at least put on a scarf.”
Coil scoffs. “Look, Shuriken, this is nice n’ all, but I’m not wearin’ a fuckin’ scarf-”
The idiot Inphernal groans, snatches the scarf back out of his hands, and wraps it around Coil’s neck without missing a beat.
“See? Don’t tell me that doesn’t feel at least a little better.”
Coil takes a breath in through his nose, and is immediately hit with the undeniable scent of Shuriken. He smells like citrus and the woods and grass and lemons and Coil finds himself smelling it longer than he realistically should.
Not because he likes Shuriken’s scent. That’s just stupid. It’s clearly because he’s a dog. And, y’know, dogs sniff shit.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Coil says, brushing off the kindness of the gesture. When Shuriken looks away, he pulls the scarf closer to his face, just so he can breathe in the scent for a little while longer. “Anyways, wanna go back to Skate’s place? I think he’s out with Boombox - ice skating, or somethin’.”
Shuriken makes a face. “I asked that, like, ten minutes ago, and you made fun of me for being a wimp in the cold!”
“That was ten whole minutes ago. I thought you’d be over it already. And, besides, you’re the one who kept whinin’ about wanting to see the snow.”
“Well, now I’ve had enough of the snow,” he replies, tilting his head up towards the cloudy sky, letting the tiny snowflakes fall onto his face. “Let’s just go back.”
When Shuriken brings his head back down to look at Coil, he notices tiny snowflakes dusted all throughout his front-hanging pieces of his hair. Combined with the redness of Shuriken’s nose from the cold, Coil personally thinks that Shuriken looks like the cutest, stupidest idiot in the entire world.
And, no, he did not just call Shuriken cute. That stays between you and him.
Of course, Coil isn’t gonna out himself in front of Shuriken in quite possibly the gayest way ever. So, obviously, the best way to deal with this is to grab a bunch of snow in his hands and toss it right square at Shuriken’s chest.
“Hey! Stop fucking throwing snowballs at me, man!” Shuriken wipes the remains of the snowball off his chest.
Coil grins. “Make me.”
Shuriken reaches down and starts chucking as many snowballs as he can at Coil, with a few even landing directly in Coil’s face.
And Coil isn’t gonna let just anybody get away with throwing snowballs at his face, even if they’re Shuriken.
Coil leaps forward and tackles Shuriken to the ground, which conveniently winds up with Coil right on top of Shuriken, their faces barely inches apart.
“..You’re really fuckin’ red,” Coil notices. He also notices how Shuriken seems go to even redder when he points it out.
“Wh- it’s just because it’s cold outside, dude!”
“Right, right. You sure it isn’t because there’s another man on top of you?”
Shuriken breaks eye contact and looks away, his cheeks still bright red, which Coil is pretty sure is from embarrassment and not the cold.
Which clearly means that he was right. Why else would Shuriken be so flustered?
(Well, he’s always right anyways, but that’s not the point right now.)
“It’s not because of that!” Shuriken pushes Coil off of him, wiping his face clean of snow. “It’s-”
“You don’t gotta lie, Shuriken. It’s alright. This is a safe space.”
With a grunt, Coil brings himself back to his feet, ignoring Shuriken’s protests against the gay allegations. He offers a hand to Shuriken, who takes it after a moment of consideration, yanking him upwards.
“Ugh- you’re so fucking annoying, dude- can we just go back to the damn house now?”
Coil nods, still with a shit-eating grin on his face, trudging back through the snow and following their previous footprints all the way back to the house.
And, yeah- maybe he’s still smelling the stupid scarf.
–
“I’m tellin’ you, Shuriken, I’m not cold!”
“I hit you with not one, not two, but three snowballs to the face and several more to the rest of your body, and you’re somehow not cold?”
“Yeah, bro.”
Shuriken is currently bundled up under at least two blankets right next to the fireplace. Which, in Coil’s opinion, feels a little overkill. The guy himself is practically a furnace - Coil doesn’t really see why he needs two entire blankets and the whole fireplace to himself.
“At least sit down on the couch. Standing up doesn’t give you any more aura, man,” Shuriken says, patting the spot next to him.
And- it would be kinda nice to sit down on the couch. Just to relax for a bit, y’know? Not to warm up or anything. Because he wasn’t cold to begin with.
Coil sits himself down on the couch, and within seconds, Shuriken’s hastily tossed a blanket over him and curled up close.
Coil freezes, unsure of whether to pull away or lean in. He can smell Shuriken’s signature citrusy and grassy scent again, and it really does not help that it makes his entire body relax without warning.
“You are cold,” Shuriken murmurs. “Liar.”
“So what? It’s not like I’m gonna get hypothermia or anything. I woulda warmed up just fine without you.”
“Yeah, but who wants to warm up alone during Christmas?”
And- well, Shuriken’s got a point, there.
Eventually, Coil decides to lean in, curling into Shuriken. And the longer he sits there, breathing in his scent, the more he realizes that he was cold.
Whatever. Coil doesn’t particularly want to think about how he was technically wrong when he’s cuddling with Shuriken.
“Hmm, Coil?” Shuriken says after a long while.
“Yeah?”
“I.. I love you. A lot.”
“I love you too, Shuri.”