Hiyori looked up at her umbrella with glazed eyes as rain fell softly onto it in a staccato pattern. Whenever it rained, her thoughts always turned to Yato and Yukine. She was concerned that they might be out in the storm, doing some kind of job or wandering around getting into trouble some other way. It had been a while since they'd had to sleep outside, but it still reflexively made her worried about her friends having shelter from the elements. She looked up from her musings to see that she had arrived at her house already. She paused at the gateway, looking uneasily over her shoulder. Old habits were hard to shake. Well, maybe she would call Yato once she got inside. Just to check and see if Yukine was doing his school work.
Having decided this, she turned around and went inside, hanging up her scarf and umbrella and changing out of her wet shoes into fluffy house slippers. Trudging through the entryway, Hiyori started for the stairs when something caught the corner of her eye. Turning, she was greeted with the sight of a...what was it, exactly? It looked as if every sheet and blanket in the house had collapsed in a semi-regular pattern in the middle of her living room. Pillows, books, and clothes pins held them all in place, covering the entire middle of the room's floor. The couches and chairs were also covered by the gently sloping ceiling of cloth, and even the TV was encompassed by it. Near the kitchen, a blanket fluttered vaguely in the draft from the door, so Hiyori could only assume that was the entrance to the structure. From inside, she heard the sounds of the TV and...was that someone crunching chips?
Hiyori was starting to suspect she knew what had happened. Before she could react, however, the person inside seemed to notice her presence. "Hiyori?" he asked in a somewhat muffled, but undeniably excited, voice. Her theory was proven correct when a dark head poked out of the entrance, and Yato's excited, childlike grin greeted her.
She managed to suppress a groan, and asked the god, "Yato, what is all this?"
His eyes lit up. "Ah! Cool, isn't it? I made it! It's my very own blanket fort shrine! Would you like to come in and visit the shrine of the great god Yato?"
That did it. How was she supposed to tell him to clean it up now? Hiyori's shoulders slumped with defeat, and she replied, "Yeah, I guess I would." Putting her school bag down, she shuffled over to the fort's entrance and dropped to her knees to peer inside as Yato held the door flap open for her.
She couldn't help but be a little impressed. Yato had created a pretty complex blanket fort. In front of her stretched a hallway made of hanging blankets. At the end of the hallway, there were two more door flaps that indicated the presence of separate rooms. "What do you need separate areas for?" she asked him with grudging curiosity and admiration.
He smiled, and crawled in front of her to the end of the hallway. "Come and see! I'll show you around my shrine, young miss." Holding aside one of the blanket flaps, he beckoned for her to come take a look. Hiyori obligingly crawled over to peek in the room he was displaying. It encompassed the long couch, and had been packed full of fluffy pillows, from beds and other furniture by the looks of it. As Hiyori gaped at the mounds of puff that filled the space, Yato said behind her, "This is the nap area. If you get overstimulated, you can come take a rest here. Now, if you'll follow me," and he turned around to open the second door flap. She turned around awkwardly, and followed after her friend.
Hiyori had been wrong. He hadn't used all the pillows in the nap room, as there were enough pillows in the second room to make up two structures that looked a bit like bean bags. These were arranged in front of the TV, making a miniature movie theater inside the fort. Yato crawled over to one of them and plopped himself down from where he had apparently been sitting when she'd arrived, and patted the other pile invitingly.
Suddenly, the little pillow mat looked very comfortable to Hiyori. She must have been more tired than she thought from the day. She flopped gratefully on the empty pillow seat, sighing with contentment as she sank into the plush softness. Almost as soon as she laid down, however, she was made aware of another need. She asked Yato with a bit of embarrassment, "Um, Yato, how do I get out? I need to go to the bathroom." Yato pointed at yet another blanket door in the wall. Hiyori crawled out of it and found herself right in front of the downstairs bathroom.
When she came back in, she saw that Yato had gotten a bag of chips from somewhere and was munching on them contentedly as he watched a reality TV show. Hiyori sagged onto her pillow pile again, and asked the god, "Where'd you get those? Can I have some?" Yato grinned, and reached over to a small box made out of chair cushions that she hadn't noticed next to the TV stand. Swinging the front cushion open like a fridge door, he reached inside and pulled out a thermos and another chip bag, which he passed to her before settling back into his quilted throne. Hiyori opened the thermos, took a whiff, and smiled. Her favorite tea. She poured some into the lid and took a sip. Still warm, too. He must have been expecting her. This thought brought a small, secret smile to her lips and a flush to her cheeks.
Yato gave her an impatient look. He was practically bursting. Hiyori hadn't said a thing about his fort yet! And he'd worked all afternoon to build it! Did she have any idea how long it had taken to make that hallway without it knocking down the surrounding ceilings? He had thought for sure that she'd be impressed, maybe even so much that she would snuggle up to him on his pillow pile and squeeze him in delight. But she hadn't said a single word. He couldn't take it any longer, and prodded, "Sooo, Hiyori, what do you think?"
She looked up from her tea, startled, with a slight blush coloring her face. He wondered at that a bit, but she quickly answered, "Yato, it's actually pretty cool! I'm impressed! How long did it take you to make this anyway?"
He felt a warm happiness at her praise. "Eh, I don't know. I don't really like rainy days, so it was just a good way to distract from the weather outside."
Hiyori suddenly started. "Oh, that's right! Where's Yukine? Didn't he come with you?"
Yato shook his head, scowling a little. "No, he said that he had more important things to do than make a stupid blanket fort," he replied sullenly.
She laughed. She couldn't help it, the look on Yato's face was just so cute. She scooted farther over on her pillow pile so that she could reach out and pat his cheek gently. "Oh, Yato, Yukine has a lot to do, and you know it. You should be proud of how hard he works!"
He felt his cheeks heat a bit under her touch, and quickly looked away. "Y-yeah, you're right." He fixed his gaze on the TV until she withdrew her hand from his face.
They watched in companionable silence for a while, until Hiyori asked, "Yato, I've never had a blanket fort before. Are they just for sleeping and watching TV?"
He looked over at her incredulously. "Really? You haven't made a fort in your living room before?"
She shook her head. "No, never. My brother and I started to make one when we were kids once, but my mom got mad and made us pick it up." She gave him a stern look. "So we have to make sure to pick this one up before my parents get home."
Yato pulled his face into the most pathetic expression he could muster. "Awww, Hiyoriii," he begged.
But she shook her head firmly. "Nope, we only have another couple hours before the shrine fort is getting put away. So," she continued, "is there anything else that you do in a fort that we should do before then?"
The god thought for a moment. "Oh! I know what!" he exclaimed. "We have to have a pillow fight!"
Hiyori gave him a dead stare. "Are you serious? I am not going to–" before she could finish protesting, a pillow hitting her face cut off her words. She narrowed her eyes and smiled a dangerous smile as she shrilled, "Oh, you're going to get it now!" She gathered up all the small pillows she had in her pile, and propped up the biggest one she had as a barricade, all while getting pelted.
She ducked down behind her shield, then came up with a cry, releasing pillow after pillow. A torrent of pillows flew furiously through the air, until Hiyori reached down to grab more ammo and realized, to her horror, that she was out. She looked up frantically to see her friend bearing down on her with a pillow in each hand, ready to batter her. She yelped and threw up her hands in front of her, trying desperately to scoot backwards. The remaining pillow pile she had proved to be her undoing, as she tripped over one and fell bodily onto it. Yato, who had been swinging forward to whack her with his own pillow, overbalanced and tumbled heavily down on top of her, their heads clunking together painfully.
Yato clutched his head, forcing his eyes open so he could check on Hiyori. "Hey, are you ok?" he demanded.
She squinted up at him. "Yeah, I think so. How about you?"
He nodded in reply, and suddenly realized that he was lying on top of her, effectively pinning her down on a pile of pillows.
Hiyori was still studying him. "Yato, you've got quite a red spot on your forehead. Come here and let me look."
His cheeks burning, Yato complied, leaning his head down for her further inspection. She reached out impatiently and grabbed him by the back of his head, pulling him closer as she fussed, "Come on, Yato, I can't see. There, that's better. Well, it looks ok, but we should probably put some ice on it." Without thinking, she tilted her face up and planted a small kiss on the bump that was starting to form. As she drew back, the reality of what she had just done fully struck her, and she froze. She was scared to look at her friend, but forced herself to.
He stared back, looking just as shocked as she did. "Hi...Hiyori?" he whispered.
Her face flushed furiously. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't even think about it, I just wanted to make sure your head was ok, please don't be mad at me, I'm–" her words were cut off suddenly as Yato crashed his mouth down over hers. Her eyes flew wide open as their breath mingled softly.
After a few moments, Yato drew back slowly and looked off to the side of her face. "Don't be sorry," he muttered. "It was my fault, not yours. So now we're even. I checked to make sure you were ok, too." He hardly dared to breathe as he shifted his eyes cautiously over to her face, certain that she would be furious.
To his surprise, she was holding a hand to her mouth, looking at him with something that bordered on awe. He turned his face back towards her all the way, and urged, "Hey, Hiyori, say something."
She finally looked up and met his eyes. She had liked how his lips had felt on hers. Liked it so much, in fact that... "Kiss me again," she replied.
Yato stared dumbly at her. "Huh?"
She decided that she should take matters into her own hands. She grabbed the back of his head again, pulling him gently this time, pressing her lips to his.
It took Yato a minute to realize that Hiyori, his Hiyori, was actually kissing him, and seemed to be enjoying it. Once he did, he placed his hands on either side of her hair, gingerly holding her head as he deepened their kiss and pressed her more firmly into the pillow pile.
Just she reached up to latch her arms around the god's neck, however, she heard a muffled slam from somewhere outside the fort. Her eyes flew open, and she pushed Yato off of her, scrambling to get to the fort entrance. As she was halfway down the blanket hallway, she heard her mother's voice shrill, "Hiyori! What is all this?"
She clambered out of the door and to her feet, meeting her mother's disapproving stare. "I'm s-sorry, Mother," she stammered. "I–it's just, it was raining today, and I wanted somewhere to be cozy, so I made this fort."
Her mother snapped, "Well, clean it up, Hiyori! Goodness, what a thing to be doing! You should be doing your homework!" She turned sharply away and began to climb the stairs to her bedroom.
Hiyori sighed in relief to see her mother's retreating back. However, she gasped back in again as Yato came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Hiyori, you left me so suddenly," he complained jokingly. "But I did enjoy the view as you were crawling away," he added, kissing the side of her head gently. She whipped around in surprise to whack at him, surprised to see that his face was red from embarrassment, too, even through his teasing grin.
She bit her lip, and mustered up her courage to ask, "Yato?"
He had dropped his arm from her and started to bend down to get a blanket. "Yeah?" he asked.
She scuffed at the floor with a foot. "Do you think...do you think we can make a blanket fort again some time?"
Yato froze and stared at her. A slow smile spread across his face. "Yeah, I'd like that."