Special thanks to bishiesblushing for the cover image!
Kinshiro placed his bag in his locker, already feeling calmer from his busy day. Trips to Kurotama's, as cut-rate as the place may seem, were always relaxing. Behind him, Kinshiro noticed Yumoto sitting on the floor, happily braiding Ryuu's hair.
"No fair," Akoya pouted, "I want my hair braided too…" He twirled a lock of hair between his fingers. "Arima?" He looked around, confused. The Vice President had already finished undressing, and had gone into the baths already.
"Done!" Yumoto said happily. Ryuu admired the blond's work; then he stood up to shed the rest of his clothing and join the others in the bath. "Thanks, Yumoto!"
"Akoya!" Yumoto jumped up, hair clips and elastics fell out of his lap. "Do you want me to do your hair too?"
Akoya looked puzzled. Against his better judgement, he slowly nodded. Despite his energetic personality, Yumoto was gentle, surprising the Akoya. He hummed happily while he worked.
Kinshiro watched from the other side of the room, shocked. It...it was unlike Akoya to be so...for him to let anyone touch his hair.
He watched Yumoto carefully style Akoya's hair with the efficiency of a professional. The blond's swift fingers twisted and tucked different strands into place, tying and pinning them down from the supply of elastics and clips he had on his wrist and in his mouth. Soon, the voluminous waves of bubblegum locks had been tamed and styled into a classy Dutch-braid headband. (When days in the Student Council were slow, Akoya would drone on and on about hairstyles; it was difficult not to absorb some of the information.)
Akoya looked in the handheld mirror given to him. He looked pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, Yumoto," he said smoothly, "Where did you learn to style hair like this?"
"Oh, you know," Yumoto grinned, "Here and there."
Kinshiro thought it seemed slightly peculiar that Yumoto, of all people, would avoid such a simple question. It was intriguing.
Yumoto and Akoya entered the baths, making Kinshiro realize he'd forgotten to undress. He quickly removed the rest of his clothing and was about to enter the baths when he heard a loud splash. He hesitated, and slightly opened the door to peer through the gap.
"But why do you get to go the the amusement park?" Yumoto whined, scooting up next to En and Atushi in the main bath.
"Yumoto. For the last time, we are not bringing you." En was visibly frustrated. Atsushi tried to calm the two down.
"But I wanna go~" Yumoto sprawled out over En's lap splashing and kicking like a toddler. Highly inappropriate. Kinshiro felt a pang of an unknown emotion. He didn't dwell on it long.
En easily pushed the blond off of him. Yumoto pouted. (Very cutely, Kinshiro's mind would add. Kinshiro quickly squashed the thought.)
Kinshiro cleared his throat, opening the sliding door and taking a step inside. Yumoto perked up at his arrival, scrambling out of the bath to greet him. Kinshiro jerked back. He stiffened, preparing for, what? A hug? A tackle? Anything? Nothing happened. Kinshiro opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) and saw Yumoto smiling up at him.
"Kinshiro!" Yumoto said his name with the excitement and affection of a wife seeing her lover home after a long trip. (Kinshiro blushed slightly at the comparison. Why had he thought that one specifically?) "I'm glad you could make it!"
Kinshiro, regaining his voice, sternly scolded the hyperactive blond, "Don't run in the bath! It's obviously very slippery. You could easily slip! Be careful!"
Yumoto grinned sheepishly. "I know, I know."
"Don't do it again." Kinshiro crossed his arms. "I don't want to see you get hurt." I don't know what I'd do if you did.
Kinshiro brushed past the blond, stepping into the main bath next to En and Atsushi. (If he'd looked behind him, he would've caught the light shade of pink dusting Yumoto's face.)
Kinshiro made polite conversation with En and Atsushi, taking note of Yumoto from the corner of his eye. (He'd moved to the showers; he started washing his arms-wait, did Atsushi ask him a question?)
A few minutes later, the sliding door opened. Io entered, a triumphant look on his face.
"Io! What took you so long?" Ryuu smiled, throwing a playful wink in his friend's direction.
"I just won us four free passes to the Crusherz concert next weekend."
"Crusherz!?" Ryuu and Yumoto jumped up in excitement.
(No one else knew what they were talking about.)
Yumoto jumped up and rushed over to Io.
(He either ignored Kinshiro's indignant cries or was too excited to hear, Kinshiro couldn't tell.)
Yumoto eagerly tackled Io in what could be considered a very extreme "hug". Io (who seemed very used to this treatment, Kinshiro noted with disdain) just chuckled and peeled the blond off of him.
"Alright, so that's one pass for Ryuu, Yumoto, and myself. That means there's an extra one left. Anyone else want to come?"
Atsushi and En shared a look. "I already have plans with En-chan next weekend. Sorry, Io."
"I hate concerts. Dirty. Loud. People everywhere." Akoya grimaced.
"I don't think I have any plans-" Arima halted mid-sentence when he noticed the pointed glare from Akoya.
Yumoto hopped over to Kinshiro, who was watching the whole scene with slight amusement.
"Hey, Kinshiro; will you come with us? Please?" Yumoto was very (uncomfortably) close to Kinshiro's face.
"Eh...I," Kinshiro averted his eyes, willing his blush to go down.
"Please~" Kinshiro dared a glance back in the blond's direction. Yumoto was pulling the "puppy-dog eyes". (That face was cheating.)
"Sure, I guess." Kinshiro's hand was over his mouth, but Yumoto still heard him.
"Yay! Kinshiro is coming too!" Yumoto danced around the room. Kinshiro jerked to attention when he heard the blond yelp.
"Thanks, Kinshiro." Yumoto mumbled.
"What did I say?" Kinshiro's face contorted in anger. "I told you to be careful. I told you not to run. You almost fell face first into the side of the bath! Yumoto, what would've happened if I weren't here? You could've gotten a concussion. You could be bleeding out on the floor here right now."
Yumoto looked away guiltily. (Which is slightly difficult to do when you're being held by the person you're trying to avoid.)
"Don't do that again! You seriously could've gotten hurt! What would I do then?" Kinshiro sighed. He dropped his head to Yumoto's chest. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Suddenly, Kinshiro realized the position he was in. After he'd grabbed Yumoto, he'd ended up pulling the blond into his lap. His face flushed bright red. He discreetly pushed Yumoto off of him.
"Be careful next time." Kinshiro coughed into his fist, looking away awkwardly.
"I'm sorry, Kinshiro." Yumoto said softly, "It's just...I guess I got too excited when you said yes."
Kinshiro looked at Yumoto. Yumoto's gentle, bashful smile was different from his usual ear-to-ear grin. He was…(Kinshiro's mind said "attractive", but that can't be right. He's just a classmate. A friend.)
But he was so warm, and Kinshiro couldn't deny how perfectly the blond seemed to fit in his arms. He was so close; it would be so easy to pull him back and just hold him…
Kinshiro noticed a movement from the corner of his eye. All at once, he became aware of the eyes that were trained on him. He quickly retracted his hand and scooted closer to the wall, arms crossing defensively.
(Did...did Yumoto look disappointed? Did he want Kinshiro to hold him or-no. Don't be stupid.)
Idle chatter started up again; everyone else brushed off the incident easily. Kinshiro, however, sat and stewed in his thoughts, his brain becoming a muddled mess. When was the last time he wanted to touch someone? Atsushi? When did it stop being Atsushi? And why Yumoto?
"I'll do it!" Kinshiro snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Yumoto.
The blond stood behind Arima, pouring a generous amount of shampoo into his hand.
"Yumoto, you don't have to do this," Arima gently protested.
"No! Arima, you said you've been very stressed. Let me help you!"
Arima chuckled; he couldn't win this one. Yumoto happily worked the shampoo into Arima's hair, humming.
( Akoya locked eyes with Arima; Arima sent a smile smile in Akoya's direction. The pinkette sat next to the Vice President under the guise of washing himself. The two discreetly intertwined their fingers. No one else noticed.)
Kinshiro...didn't know what he wanted. Some, unknown emotion sat like a stone in his chest. Was he angry? What for? He must have made a face because while Yumoto was carefully rinsing Arima's hair, he sent Kinshiro a worried look. Kinshiro looked away.
"Kinshiro?" Yumoto sounded….oddly serious. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"...Of course." Kinshiro followed Yumoto back to the locker room, eyes trained on the blond's hands. How would it feel to hold Yumoto's hand? Place a kiss on his knuckles? Lace their fingers together?
"Kinshiro, are you okay?" Kinshiro looked up. Yumoto was looking at him with such sincere concern.
"What do you mean?"
"You seem bothered."
Kinshiro racked his brain for something that could be bothering him. Student Council is fine, there's nothing going on in his home life, the only thing that came up was his strange jumbled emotions over Yumo-oh.
Oh.
"I want to touch you." he whispered, still in shock from the revelation.
"Can you repeat that?" Yumoto leaned closer to Kinshiro.
"...Why…" Kinshiro said, face reddening.
"Why what? Kinshiro, please tell me."
"...Why are you so...touchy...with everyone else?"
Yumoto blinked. "Everyone...else?"
"Yes-I mean, you're always very...affectionate. You...you're always touching everyone." Everyone but me.
"...everyone but you…" Yumoto mumbled, "Kinshiro...do you want me to touch you more?"
Kinshiro blushed. He averted his eyes. "Well, I suppose so…"
Yumoto smiled softly. "Sorry, Kinshiro. I just assumed you don't like to be touched."
Well...that was true. Kinshiro didn't like to be touched. He always kept a strict "personal bubble". He avoided situations where he might have to shake someone's hand.
Why was Yumoto so...different.
"Well," Yumoto stood with his arms outstretched, a goofy grin on his face, "come on, Kinshiro!"
Kinshiro, without thinking, threw caution to the wind and reached over to Yumoto.
Instead of hugging him, however, Kinshiro picked up the blond as one would a toddler, one arm steadying Yumoto by the waist, the other secure under his bum.
Kinshiro slid the locker room door open. With a blushing Yumoto on his hip and a blank look on his face, he waltzed into the bath house as if nothing were out of the ordinary. The room was silent in...shock? Confusion?
Kinshiro carefully stepped into the bath. He sat down, Yumoto cradled in his arms. The blond tucked his head under Kinshiro's chin, nuzzling his chest and giggling in delight. Kinshiro rested his head on Yumoto's; he rubbed small circles on the blond's back with his thumb.
Everyone else was shell-shocked, frozen in place. After a few tense moments of silence…
"We were talking about manju?" En said carefully, jumping back into his conversation with Kinshiro and Atsushi.
(No one mentioned the cuddlefest in fear of facing Kinshiro's wrath.)