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Hinata remembers that the perfect day suddenly clouded over when Monobear first turned up, and somehow that didn’t seem like a coincidence. So it’s not that big a surprise to find that Monobear can control the weather in this place, even though Hinata has no idea how that’s possible.
He wasn’t expecting Monobear to be able to control the weather to this extent, though.
The blizzard still isn’t letting up. He’s never seen anything like it. He can barely push the front door of the lodge open a crack against the snowdrifts, which seem to have built up in an impossibly short few minutes; even if he could get out, he wouldn’t be suicidal enough to run out there in his short-sleeved shirt.
Why did he have to be in the lodge when it started? (Did it start because he was in the lodge?) The lodge is freezing, icy wind shrieking through the gaps in the floorboards. He tried going to the kitchen for the portable stove when it started, but the kitchen was locked; he tried to find out whether the air conditioner could be set to heat the place up, but Monobear popped out of nowhere when he approached it. Upupupu, better not! I’m very busy ironing in the storage room; if you turn the air conditioning on, you’ll flip the super high-up level breakers! And you wouldn’t want to be left alone in the dark with Komaeda-kun. Or would you?
He doesn’t want to be left alone in the light with Komaeda. He knew from the start that volunteering to guard him was a mistake. But Komaeda’s still tied up, so he can’t do too much damage, right?
Hinata pauses in front of the hall door and takes a deep breath; it freezes in the air and, by the feel of it, in his lungs. He was looking for something to keep himself warm – and Komaeda too, he guesses; he doesn’t actually want him to die – but most of the doors in the lodge are locked, which means there’s only one thing left.
He opens the door, and there it is: the last horrible reminder of what happened here a few nights ago. The tablecloth, the one Hinata shoved into a corner so he wouldn’t have to look at it, still covered in Togami’s dried blood.
He should have guessed he wouldn’t find anything else. Why else would Monobear have left it here? The other tablecloths were all cleared away. The carpet has been weighed down on all four corners with immovable brass Monobear statues. It’s not hard to tell that this was planned.
Komaeda looks up from the floor and beams at him, hands still tied behind his back. “Hinata-kun, you’re back!”
Hinata doesn’t answer. He picks up the tablecloth and, wincing, wraps it gingerly around himself, making sure to keep the blood on the outside. He sits down on the carpet, facing away from Komaeda, and stares at the wall and tries not to think about finding Togami’s corpse under the table.
And then he turns around, because not being able to see Komaeda is making him really uncomfortable.
“Are you cold?” Komaeda asks.
Hinata absolutely refuses to answer that question. He’s pretty sure there are icicles forming in his veins. He tries to give Komaeda an unimpressed look, but it’s difficult to tell whether he’s managing it when he can’t feel his face.
“Please, Hinata-kun, take my hoodie!” Komaeda exclaims, trying to shrug it off, even though there’s no way he’ll be able to get the sleeves over his bound-together wrists. “It would be indecent of me to wear it myself when someone else is so much more deserving of its warmth, it would be appalling...”
That makes Hinata hesitate. He can’t say he’s not tempted. There might as well not be any walls around them, for all the good the lodge is doing to keep out the cold, and the feel of the tablecloth – of Togami’s shroud – against his bare arms is making him want to crawl right out of his skin. Maybe he does deserve it more than Komaeda; he’s never tried to kill someone for the sake of some insane hope fetish, after all. If only one of them survives this, surely it’d be better...
Crap. He can’t think like that; it makes him feel horrible. “You keep it,” he says.
“Then what if we shared the tablecloth?” Komaeda asks, and then, in response to Hinata’s stare, “Ah, I don’t suggest that for myself! It would be warmer for both of us, it’s true, but I’m sure we could work something out if you don’t believe I deserve to benefit. All the heat that my worthless body can produce is yours, Hinata-kun!”
Hinata keeps staring. It would be mutually beneficial to huddle together, it’s true. It would make complete sense.
Except this is Komaeda. Komaeda who’s responsible for the deaths of two of their classmates; Komaeda who is seriously, seriously unhinged and more than a little creepy. For anyone else on the island, with the possible exception of Monobear, he’d say yes.
Hinata doesn’t answer; just draws the tablecloth closer around himself. Komaeda somehow manages to sigh brightly.
-
Sometimes he looks up to check on Komaeda. Every time, Komaeda is just gazing at him, smiling fondly.
Hinata stops looking.
He sits there on the carpet with his head down, shivering uncontrollably, wrapped as tightly as he can manage in the bloodstained tablecloth, and eventually he realises he’s actually waiting for the cold to get so bad it overwhelms his objections to Komaeda’s suggestion. That’s probably a sign that he should just give in now. He really doesn’t want to get too close to Komaeda, but he’s really, really, really fucking cold.
Hinata tries to stand up, but that’s a mistake, so he sort of shuffles himself along the carpet instead. Komaeda watches him approach with what Hinata would like to believe isn’t steadily mounting excitement.
“I’m gonna wrap this around you,” Hinata says, untucking half of the tablecloth and waving it at him. “You’re gonna stay very, very still. Okay?”
“Okay,” Komaeda breathes.
Komaeda obeys; he stays completely still, but it’s still an intensely uncomfortable exercise, and it probably would be even if it didn’t feel like they’ve been stranded naked in the middle of Antarctica. As he brushes against Komaeda, Hinata tries, entirely unsuccessfully, to ignore the almost-inaudible noises Komaeda can’t quite suppress. He’s tempted to forget about staying warm and stuff the tablecloth in his ears instead.
When Hinata settles down against Komaeda’s side and pulls the cloth closer around both of them, Komaeda lets out a tortured, shaky breath, with the tiniest hint of a whimper. Hinata tries very hard to go back in time and unhear it.
Komaeda’s skin is so cold that Hinata feels even colder pressed against him than he did on his own. Of course, with how obviously turned on Komaeda is just from this, that probably won’t last long.
Why did he think that? That really wasn’t something he wanted to think about.
But it’s increasingly difficult to ignore, with Komaeda’s little fluttering breaths just by his ear.
“Can you enjoy this less?” Hinata hisses.
“Mm,” Komaeda answers, “mm-m,” in literally the worst attempt anyone has ever made to disguise a moan as a noise of agreement. Hinata shoves him away, dislodging the tablecloth, and it falls from Hinata’s shoulders and—
—fuck, it’s cold.
Hinata wraps himself back up in the cloth and in Komaeda without giving himself a chance to think about how little he wants to do that, because goddammit, he’s got no alternative. Komaeda’s already warmer than before and Hinata hates himself for appreciating that.
“Don’t touch me,” he mutters, looking away from Komaeda. “I mean, any more than – you know what I mean.”
Komaeda laughs. “I can’t, Hinata-kun, I’m still tied up! But I understand why you would want to make sure. It must be difficult for you, being so close to someone so repulsive.”
Hinata almost says You’re not repulsive, and then he considers You’re not inherently repulsive, and finally he concludes it’s probably best if he doesn’t say anything at all.
“But if I can do anything to help – if I can give you my warmth, if I can bolster your hope of surviving this blizzard—”
“Komaeda,” Hinata says, “shut up.”
“If you want to wear my clothes, or if you want me to warm up your air before you breathe it, you only need to ask!”
Hinata’s about to ask how the hell Komaeda is planning to warm up the air, and then he realises and frantically cuts himself off. He thinks he might be blushing. He really hopes Komaeda doesn’t notice. At least it makes his face feel a little less numb.
For a while, Komaeda is mercifully quiet, although his breathing is still a little more audible than Hinata would like. Hinata spends most of the time staring fixedly at the wall. It’s definitely warmer now that he’s sharing heat with Komaeda, even if he can’t exactly say it’s more comfortable.
“Hinata-kun?”
Hinata braces himself.
“I know it’s not my place to make requests,” Komaeda says, “but would you consider untying my hands?”
“Probably not,” Hinata says.
“You’re quite right not to, of course,” Komaeda says, with a rather sad smile. “I apologise for asking.”
There’s a pause. Hinata knows it’s ridiculous, but... he’s starting to feel kind of like the villain, here. He’s shoved Komaeda around and told him to shut up and refused to untie him, and all Komaeda’s done since the trial is... well, okay, be really creepy, but still. Maybe it’s time to let up on him a little. Komaeda’s never going to get over his issues if people keep treating him like the trash he sees himself as.
“What did you want to do?” Hinata asks. He stops himself short of saying Maybe it’s something I can help you with. That’s definitely not something to say before he’s established exactly what Komaeda wanted his hands for.
Komaeda brightens. “Well, actually, maybe you don’t need to untie me! If you could just turn the tablecloth inside-out, that would be enough!”
Hinata frowns. “Why? The other side’ll be even colder.” He hesitates. “And... and the blood...”
“But that’s why, Hinata-kun!” Komaeda exclaims, far too enthusiastically. “The noble, magnificent blood of a Super High-school Level Heir! How can you stand to be so close and yet not to touch it?” He laughs. “I suppose your own talent-infused blood must be enough! But for someone worthless like me... I just want to feel it against my skin. That’s all I ask!”
Hinata stares at him.
“Hinata-kun?” Komaeda asks.
Cautiously, Hinata eases himself out of their shared cocoon and into the Arctic air of the hall. The loss of Komaeda’s warmth is simultaneously horrific and an intense relief.
Komaeda cocks his head enquiringly.
“I’m going outside,” Hinata says. He can already feel his fingers going numb. “I – I may be some time.”