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It wasn’t completely obvious to the uninitiated, but Toge’s uniform had pockets—it sounded silly and mundane, until you realized just how many he had. They were tucked into the lining of his coat and hidden in all the seams, dozens of them, and he stashed everything he could think of in them.
Cough drops and analgesic sprays were pretty obvious; he always had some somewhere, out of necessity, and oftentimes his friends carried extras for him, on the off-chance he ran out or a product had been damaged beyond use. He likewise kept things for his friends on his person—a sewing kit for Panda, extra lenses for Maki’s glasses, imbued gradually with his own cursed energy.
There was a roll of bandages stashed in a deep pocket, balanced on the other side by a wad of sealing wraps he didn’t like to think about, but knew could be useful in a pinch.
He had spare change and extra face masks, and hidden in one particularly crafty hiding space up his sleeve, he had a cursed dagger that Maki had given him as a gift. It wasn’t exactly a substantial blade, not much more than a pocket knife, and it probably wouldn’t be very good at warding off much more than a grade 4 curse, but it was infinitely better than the nothing he’d be armed with otherwise. Maki had said she hated the idea of him not having a tangible weapon if he found himself in a bad situation, and he understood the sentiment, at least.
Today, on this mission in particular, he was glad for the extra scarf he always had stashed away—for one, because his usual teal one had been torn by a curses claws and was probably scuffed beyond repair; two, because he was wet; and three, because it was frightfully cold, and he was very much not a fan.
Yuuta, seated beside him on a park bench, also seemed to not be a fan.
He was shivering, and for all of Toge’s preparedness, he didn’t exactly have a towel on hand, nor an entire change of clothing for either of them. While that would be an interesting feat, he was but one person, with limited space. Ijichi's car, however, did have all of that. They just had to wait for him to pick them up.
So they sat.
In the cold.
Toge nuzzled a little deeper into his scarf, and beside him Yuuta continued shivering. Which, really, wouldn’t stand. It bothered Toge deeply—who was to say that Yuuta wouldn't catch a cold like this? He seemed to get them often enough already.
Toge started looking around for any way to make it stop. There wasn't any shelter they could duck into in the immediate vicinity. No choicely located cafés, which he honestly would love to see at the moment for entirely personal reasons—hot tea sounded beyond divine. There just weren’t too many options for him, and he just kept coming back to his scarf.
It was…rather large, he supposed. He could wrap it multiple times around himself, and it still draped really well, in loose loops gathered around him.
He cleared his throat, a sudden idea blossoming in his mind. Yuuta didn’t seem to notice, preoccupied as he was with shivering. Which was fine. Absolutely.
(No, it wasn't.)
Toge scooted a little closer to Yuuta on the bench. It wasn’t like the two of them didn’t already share each other's personal space regularly. They often sat close to one another on the couch when they were watching a movie. Toge would even lean his head against Yuuta's shoulder in the middle, and if it sometimes made Toge’s heart beat a little faster, well, who was going to call him out?
Toge started to slowly unwind his scarf, and that seemed to finally catch Yuuta’s attention. He gave a particularly enthusiastic shiver, his eyebrows smooshing together in confusion. “Hm?” he hummed in absent-minded question.
In response, Toge stood up and draped part of the scarf over Yuuta’s shoulders. He had to stretch to reach, and was so focused on the single-minded task that he didn’t notice when Yuuta froze.
“Um!” he said, startled. “Inumaki-kun?”
Toge worked quickly, each loop settling with certainty around Yuuta’s statue-still figure before he awkwardly sat back down. He was careful not to move too far or too fast, lest he send them tumbling awkwardly off the bench in a tangled mess. Toge held both ends of the scarf in his hands and contemplated for a long moment before gently giving them a tug, cinching the two of them closer as the loops tightened. Their hips pressed against each other, and Toge found that he fit snugly against Yuuta’s side as he arranged the ends of the scarf over their shoulders.
“Sujiko?” he asked curiously, unsure whether Yuuta would actually understand his question.
“Um,” Yuuta said again. He still hadn’t really moved or made any sort of reaction to what was happening around him, which was, in a word, concerning. Toge thought maybe he was just still really cold, and needed a little more prompting. He slipped an arm around Yuuta’s shivering shape—and granted, Toge himself was fairly poor at heat retention, but sharing what they had was a pretty obvious solution, and it made Toge's heart kick up the tempo a bit. “Um,” Yuuta said once more, this time with slightly more feeling.
Toge tipped his head, looking up at Yuuta with a questioning frown on his lips. Yuuta could actually see the expression transpire due to their arrangement—Toge couldn't very well hide his face when the scarf wrapped around the two of them, and they were honestly just too close to allow for it. Yuuta's gaze flickered down and then back up, and he swallowed loudly. Red flooded his cheeks, and his mouth worked around soundless words. The noises all caught up with him at once in an explosive wheeze, leaving him spluttering concerningly and averting his eyes.
“Takana…?” Toge tried.
“T-thank you, Inumaki-kun,” Yuuta said, finally managing a somewhat intelligible sentence. “You’re so—this is so—you're right, this is much better. Thank you.”
He fell into a fidgety silence, and Toge wasn't entirely sure if he should press for more, with how red and flustered Yuuta seemed. That seemed like a whole new problem to deal with, and frankly, he was too chilly and weary to have the mental clarity to handle it at the moment. Maybe he could bring it back up later, after they had showered and changed and were warm in the dorm, eating a dinner Toge was now about to begin contemplating.
Toge was far too caught up in thoughts of food to notice when Yuuta eventually wrapped an arm around his waist, but he snuggled closer into Yuuta's side instinctively. He spared the errant thought that maybe, just maybe, it was okay that waiting was taking so long, before he turned back to the idea of dinner.