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“Ah! Kimizuki, not there, lower.”
“I can’t, Yoichi, it’s so tight.”
“Please, Kimizuki, just a little more.”
“I don’t want to hurt you….you’re body is just….you are too, fat.”
“I am not!” Yoichi blindly kicked at the man in front of him. His face and part of his shoulders and arms were stuck in what Kimizuki was convinced to be a child’s sweater. He had been trying to squeeze the smaller man into the garment after having found it in the trunk of the car they had come here in. But it was a useless effort.
“Sorry Yoichi this isn’t going on anymore, it’s going to rip.”
“Well, then help me get it off,” Yoichi snapped.
Kimizuki hadn’t heard Yoichi be so angry the whole time he’d known the other man, but the past few days he was questioning if Yuu was the only one slowly turning into a demon.
“The hell are you two up to?” Mitsuba was walking up the hill towards them watching as Yoichi popped out of the sweater and soothed his now staticy hair.
“Absolutely nothing, that's what,” Yoichi glared at Kimizuki as if it was his fault when in fact it had been Yoichi who remembered seeing the garment and dragged Kimizuki up here to help him in the first place.
“Jeez princess, what crawled inside you and died,” Mitsba snapped back. Her short temper seemed to be even more so lately too.
Yoichi let out a heavy sigh, little shoulders dropping, “I’m sorry, I am just grouchy. I've been cold for like a whole week now and I just can’t get over it. I get irritated when I’m cold. I am sorry.” He looked at Kimizuki with those large brown eyes that made him forgive anything and everything.
“Well yeah, look at you,” she gestured up and down Yoichi’s body. “Your uniform is trashed.” Little rips and snags littered the once pristine black fabric, one of his knees poked through the pants and a huge tear along his back had been sloppily pinned back in place.
“You don’t look any better,” he rolled his eyes. None of them did. All of them had tears and rips and washed out bloodstains. It kind of came with the territory of a prolonged-unplanned camping excursion that was interrupted with the occasional monster battle.
“Thanks,” she glared back, “Well that was exactly the reason I came to talk to you, but now I don’t feel like it.”
“Wait, what?” Kimizuki shoved the sweater in Yoichi’s face to keep him quiet and not piss off the girl even more.
Micchan crossed her arms, talking only to Kimizuki, “we are going to go find clothes. Shinoa saw a store or something last time her and Narumi went to that little port town. She and I are going, and we are bring Yuu and Mika, I was going to see if you wanted to come. Narumi said he doesn’t want to but put in a clothes order of ‘warm and not too ugly but still warm.’”
“It might be better if we stay,” Kimizuki shot a glance at Yoichi, “but if you could find us each something like Narumi we’d appreciate it.”
She smiled at Kimizuki, “sure thing.” she waved her fingers at the boys before heading back down the hill and towards the camp.
“Thanks for that,” Yoichi pouted a little, “I didn’t mean to make her mad.”
“I know,” Kimizuki wrapped his arms around the smaller man’s shoulders. “Are you still going to let me do this even when you get warmer clothes?”
Yoichi pressed himself up closer to Kimizuki and hid his face in his collar. “Yeah, I will.” They stayed like that for a little while longer. “I’m surprised Mika-san is going. He didn’t strike me as the type to want to clothes shop.”
“I think Yuu is going stir crazy and Mika is along for the ride. Who knows maybe this will finally be how the two of them die. Killed by the girls.” Kimizuki sighed into Yoichi’s hair. “You should never interrupt a woman’s shopping trip.”
~
“Hurry up guys! We gotta make it back before its demon time!” Yuu had run down the road ahead of the others, much too eager for a change of scenery.
“I wish he would stop calling it that,” Mika said quietly, he was walking a normal pace with Mitsuba and Shinoa.
“I wish he’d shut up all together,” Mitsuba said. They were almost to the port town and the sea breeze had kicked up making them hurry just a little. The store Shinoa had spotted before was a good size, the kind of store that had a little of everything scattered between several floors. A sign that said clothing pointed them down to the lower level.
“Alright, looks like guy’s stuff on that side, girl stuff on that side. Remember to grab enough to share and don't disturb me unless you are dying,” Mitsuba headed off without another word towards the women's department an empty bag in tow.
“I’ll come help you as soon as I know she isn’t going to bring the whole store back with us,” Shinoa trotted off after her.
Mika sat down.
“Hey, what are doing?” Yuu was halfway down the stairs when he realized Mika wasn’t going to follow him.
“Sitting,” he replied.
Yuu rolled his eyes, “come pick some stuff out.”
“I don’t need to,” Mika said shortly. “I don’t get cold.” That was a lie. He was always cold, it was more the fact that he couldn’t warm up, his skin always stayed a natural cool.
“I know you don’t need to, but you might find something you want.”
“I don’t want anything.”
Yuu opened his mouth to say something else but stopped. He looked at Mika with an expression Mika hadn’t seen him make at him before. He looked almost...disappointed?
“Alright, but if I see something for you, I’m grabbing it,” he left Mika on the stairs and headed off towards sweat pants. Mika stayed behind and listened, for any signs of danger. The windows of the department store were all busted out and the wind was coming in even on the lower level making the first rows of clothes dance around. One fell off the hanger and started to tumble across the floor. Mika watched it for moment, his heart suddenly skipped. He got up and hurried down the stairs after it, picking it up and holding it in front of him.
It was a child’s dress. Simple brown with little yellow flowers. He hung it up on the nearest rack and soothed out the wrinkles. Mika stared at the little dress for a long time. He didn’t notice when Shinoa had come back over to find them. She stopped when she saw Mika staring at the little dress.
“Mikaela-san,” she didn’t need to ask, she could see it on his face, he wasn’t alright. Hearing his name startled him back from wherever his thoughts had taken him. He let go of the dress stepping back suddenly.
“Are you done?” he asked obviously trying to act as if she hadn’t seen him just now.
Shinoa set down the bag she was carrying so she could look at the little dress too. “I am and I tried to stop her but she is still looking. This is cute.” Mika didn’t say anything. “Did Akane have one like it?”
Pain flickered across Mika’s face, but it melted into something softer. “Yeah, just like it actually.”
“When my sister and I were this little my mom would dress us up in flowery dresses too. Now I wouldn’t be caught wearing anything with a flower on it, ever.” Shinoa smiled at the distant memory playing in her mind. She made the hem of the dress dance just a little, “Do you think Akane-chan would still wear flowers?”
Mika looked surprised by the question.
“Even though my sister is dead and many things happened between the time we wore dresses and when she dies, sometimes I like to think of what she would do or be like if we were still together, just to try and keep that memory alive,” Shinoa’s voice was very quiet.
Mika looked at the dress again, “I think…” his voice trailed off, he rarely ever let himself think of his family now, “I don’t know if she would like flowers. She loved the color yellow though, so I think she would like things that are yellow.”
Shinoa smiled up at him. She reached up and tweaked the blonde curl that fell between Mika’s eyes, “yellow huh? I bet she would look very cute in yellow.”
She resisted laughing at the little blush that dusted Mika’s otherwise pale cheeks. “Go find Yuu-san, he was so excited to come do this with you, I’ll need a while to drag Micchan out of here anyways.”
She left her bag by the stairs and headed back to Mitsuba. Mika watcher her walk away, not realizing he was smiling, just a little. He turned quickly to go find Yuu. The other man was pulling everything that was still on a rack off and throwing it to the floor. His whole face lit up when Mika walked over.
“You’re making a mess,” Mika commented, looking at everything thrown about.
“It was like that when I got here,” Yuu lied. “Look at this, it’s fuzzy on the inside” he pulled a hooded long sleeved shirt out of the bag he was carrying. It was a deep shade of green and had a large pocket in the front and a low neck.
“It’ll look good on you,” Mika said.
“I was- wait, what?” Yuu’s eyes grew large as he stared at Mika.
“I said it’ll look good on you, it’s green,” Mika said it again.
Yuu’s cheeks reddened a little and suddenly he wouldn’t meet Mika’s gaze. “I, um, I got everything I needed for the others already too.”
“That’s good, are you almost ready to go then?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“What’s wrong? We can go out again tomorrow you know.”
“It’s not that, I uh,” Yuu bit at his bottom lip, shoving the sweater back in the bag only to pull out another. “I picked one out for you too actually, will you try it on, make sure it fits?” He held out a brown sweater this time.
“Brown and yellow,” Mika mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing, give it here.” Mika took the sweater. He quickly pulled his uniform shirt off and slipped the sweater on. The sleeves were long enough to cover his finger and the neck was loose piled up near his shoulders.
Yuu was smiling so wide Mika could see his teeth. He couldn’t help but feel a little happy too. Yuu picked up his discarded clothes and shoved them in the bag, “you should wear it, it looks really good on you.”
“With the boots? Yuu I look like a-”
“The boots are fine, I got you new pants too, but you can put them on later. Oh, and I got everybody new socks.” Yuu’s energy had returned as he finished shoving things back in the back and choosing a zip up coat to wear on the walk back to camp.
The girls were waiting for them back at the entrance also choosing to wear some of the new garments on the walk back. Shinoa was wearing an oversized hoodie with black tights and Mitsuba was wearing a pink track suit.
“Are we all ready to head back?” Shinoa smiled at them.
“Yeah, hey wait. How come your bag is as big as mine and I was shopping for five?”
“Shut up Yuu,” Mitsuba’s tone made him quiet.
Upon returning the group was enthusiastic to immediately try on what they had brought back. The wind was bringing a coldness over from the sea and clouds that made it almost feel like night despite being afternoon.
Yuu and Mika retired to the shed after handing out the clothes and Yuu ate dinner. Yuu switched into the green pullover and a pair of loose sweats. Mika obliged and changed his pants too knowing it would make Yuu happy. They sat down on the bed together listening to the wind outside.
Yuu pulled Mika into his arms, “wearing these makes me feel like we should in a blanket fort or something.”
Mika scoffed, “like when we were five?”
“Yeah, remember how big we’d make them?”
“Yeah,” Mika did remember. It had been like a little home just for the two of them. Mika relax into Yuu’s embrace, letting his head rest on Yuu’s chest and closing his eyes. “It was always Akane’s idea to build it.”
Yuu’s heart beat hard in Mika’s ear just hearing him say her name. “I think she still would.”
“Still would what?” Yuu asked quietly.
“Have us make them for her. I think she would still be just as playful as she was back then.”
Yuu was quiet for a while and Mika thought he may have made Yuu sad. He hugged Yuu tight around his middle. Yuu held him tighter back, nuzzling his face into Mika’s hair.
“I do too, Mika,” he whispered. The feeling in Mika’s chest hurt and he knew it was the same for Yuu, but when they felt it together, it was easier, better somehow. He spent so long repressing these feelings that it was relieving to let them out, to have them change his heart and leave his mind. It felt like healing, and they could finally do it together.