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"You smell really nice."
Kashima raised a brow, finding the compliment sudden. A weird one at that too. Takashi didn't do compliments, especially when they were in study sessions together. Usually, he was always quiet, because he was trying to avoid Kashima's eyes so he wouldn’t get caught being clueless.
"Thanks..? That's really nice of you to say,” Kashima replied, “you smell good too.” He added, his heart racing.
Maybe he was reading into it too much, Toono was a simple person. If he smelled good, then he would tell him. But no, Kashima knew him enough to know that he would have kept the compliment in his thoughts. What did he do differently to make him decide to compliment?
He wasn't overthinking this, he just wanted to know. So that he could keep doing it. But he couldn't figure anything out by watching Toono's slender hands work on the first question he had been stuck on since the beginning of the study session.
"What do I smell like?" He leaned against Toono while scribbling out a wrong calculation he had done. Toono glanced at him sideways and watched his hands move to correct his mistake, "I don't know. Like a good body cream, something my stepmom uses but more masculine."
"I don't really use a scented cream," Kashima pondered and thought of his minimal skincare rountine. He showers, uses basic lotion his sister gave him for his face and body, deodorant, and shaves his legs every 2 weeks. "I guess I switched up my soap recently. I borrowed a new one from my dorm neighbor when I ran out of mine."
"Well, it smells good." Toono replied, making eye contact but breaking it almost instantly. Kashima wished it could last forever. He wanted to look into those eyes until his last moment and carry it into his next lifetimes.
Toono went back to the sum now with the correction from him. Kashima texted his dorm neighbor under the table to ask the brand and where he could buy a lifetime stock from. He turned back to Toono, warmth filling him up. "You know, I've never been told I smell good. Are you one of those people who go crazy over cologne?" He smiled.
"No, I kinda hate colognes." Oh. "But I like simple scents, the more light ones. You smell masculine but a little feminine too." Toono explained, "I get the same vibe of smells when I walk through the gardens."
"So you're saying they remind you of me?" Kashima asked without thinking. Oh shit, but he really did hope Toono said they did. He wanted to know if Toono thought of him at all, even if it's just a bit. He wanted to know if he was valid for having Toono in his brain at all times no matter where he was, or who he saw.
Toono's cheeks deepen into that light raspberry shade and he stammers. “Yeah, but not in that way..” But it didn’t matter in what way to Kashima, because Toono thought about when he saw a garden. And that was all he needed.
“So you would say you’re into smells?” Kashima asked to continue the conversation. Toono nodded, “I guess, but only natural scents, not anything too purposeful, if that makes sense. Why?”
Kashima nodded and gazed at him lovingly, “Nothing, maybe buy me a good cologne that you don’t hate.”
After Toono left when they wrapped up the study session, Kashima stayed staring at the door before he snapped out of it and picked up his textbooks and folded the stand table. His heart was thumping thinking about what happened.
Toono Takashi thinks he smells good. Kashima smelled his wrist, trying to figure out what made him like it but couldn’t. He didn’t care though, he’s going to wear this until he dies (or if Toono changes his mind and hates it).