comfortable.
by mikkimikka
Waking up from the biting cold was something Mikado Nagi was no stranger to. The relatively mild winters of his hometown often roused him from his sleep. He'd come to, curled up against a water bottle pressed against his torso, long gone cold, shivering beneath his blanket in a futile attempt to keep warm.
He wasn't allowed to use the heater at night. Grandpa warned about the dangers of kerosene when one was sleeping. But Nagi didn't care. He longed for the comfort of being warm enough to risk asphyxiation.
Except, he wasn't at home. He wasn't back with Grandpa. He was in Tokyo in the dorm with the others. The heater, electric not kerosene, was off and he could see through the scanty moonlight which illuminated the room, the remote for the device sitting at his roommate's bedside. If he could just brave the cold for less than a minute and reach his arm out, perhaps he could grab it.
But no, it was too frigid for that. Nagi waited beneath the comfort of a blanket pulled all the way to his nose. He blinked, staring over Shion's head at the remote control.
Shifting his eyes towards the door he spotted a line of light from beneath it. Was somebody still awake? He and Shion had the room closest to the front so it was the loudest room in the place. It was always easy to tell if people were watching TV or eating or what not. They could even hear each and every flush of the toilet, the hum of the washing machine and the running of the shower. Training his ears he heard the soft clanking of dishes in the kitchen.
He was curious enough to brave the cold in the promise of whatever treat was being prepared as midnight snack at this late hour. With a bracing sigh, Nagi accepted his icy fate. He sat up and slipped off the futon. He shivered as the cold hit him despite wearing both fleece socks and woolen mittens to bed. He stuffed his feet into his house shoes and then went towards the door.
When he opened the door, the light pouring in made him squint. He could hear the voices now as in the living room a lively conversation was being held. Nagi exited the room and closed the door behind him softly so as not to wake Shion and then went into the living room.
"Ah, Nagi-kun," Kira said, looking up as Nagi entered.
Suddenly 3 pairs of eyes were on the boy in his grey fleece pajamas. He took a sweeping look at the scene.
Kira, Eiichi and Van were seated around the kotatsu. The TV was on but muted. A spread of convenience store oden was spread out before them along with premade packs of rice and bottled hot yuzu.
"Yo," Van flashed a grin and raised his hand in a wave.
"What are you three doing up?" Nagi asked pausing at the archway.
"What does it look like?" Van asked in return.
Nagi frowned as he looked over all the food, "Hmm, waiting until the dead of night to break your diets."
Van threw his head back and laughed and Nagi just entered the rest of the way into the room, circling the table and taking a seat on the floor right between Eiichi and Van, opposite of Kira.
"What harm can a little oden after a long work night do?" Eiichi asked. "Here have some as well."
"Thank you," Nagi said. He looked around, "Oh. I need chopsticks."
He got back up and went into the connected kitchen.
"So, Nagi why are you still awake?" Eiichi asked from the table.
Nagi answered from his place in the kitchen.
"It was so cold!"
He grabbed a pair of chopsticks that were in the dish rack and returned to the table, sliding in under the blanket.
"So cold?" Kira asked.
Nagi nodded in an exaggerated fashion and lifted the hands that were grasping the chopsticks. They were still wrapped in the mittens.
"You slept in mittens?"
"It was awful," Nagi lamented.
He set the chopsticks down and removed his mittens before taking the utensils up again. He looked into the container for the oden.
"Here use this," Kira overturned one of the lids and passed it to Nagi.
Nagi took it and continued the explanation, "Yes. It was so cold I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I was about to turn on the heat but then I saw the light was on in here."
"Awww, sorry to keep you up, but hey you get the benefit of some oden to warm you up!" Van said, slinging his arm over Nagi's shoulder.
"Hey!" Nagi protested.
Eiichi placed a piece of konjac on the lid in front of Nagi. It jiggled a bit as he set it down.
"I want the chikuwa," Nagi said.
"There was only 3 chikuwa and we already ate it," Van said as an apology.
"Aw," Nagi sagged against him.
He reached for the triangle of konjac and stuffed it into his mouth just as Eichi placed a boiled egg on the lid right after it.
He bit into the konjac and it jiggled against his teeth. He always liked that jelly like texture to it. It was always fun to eat.
"Do we have mustard or miso?"
"Yeah," Eiichi passed him a packet of mustard and Van let go to resume eating.
"You should go back to bed as soon as possible. We have early schedules tomorrow," advised Kira.
"I know," Nagi said as he tore open the packet without looking up at his bandmate. "But it's so cold. Honestly, I don't think I could go back to sleep."
"I'll turn your heat on now so when you go back in it's warmer."
Kira set his chopsticks down against the container and got up to go to Nagi's room in the dorm.
"It is pretty cold. We should look to see if your old man could give us a space heater," Van said, looking at Eiichi.
Eiichi sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes, "The old man's too stingy for that."
"It should count as a necessary expense," Van shrugged as he picked up a spoon to dip directly into the shared pot.
He sipped of the soup and went to return the spoon when Eiichi whacked him with the butt end of his chopsticks.
"Don't do that!" he scolded.
"What!?" Van asked genuinely surprised as he snatched back his hand.
Eiichi elaborated, "Drink soup directly out of the shared pot. Get a bowl."
"No way. It stays warm like this," Van said and went back to drinking the soup.
Eichi reached in and pulled out a daikon piece just as Kira came back.
Van looked up as he dipped his spoon again, "Did it feel like an icebox?"
"It's pretty frigid," Kira said sitting down. "Depending on your tastes you might want to adjust the temperature of your own room right about now."
Van chuckled and shook his head, "Naw, my body runs warm. I'll be fine. Besides, Yamato's body is like a furnace itself."
"True," Kira sat back down.
Nagi finished the egg and went back for the pot, pulling out a daikon piece. He promptly put that back and retrieved a round fish cake more to his liking.
"Is it warming you up?" Kira asked.
Nagi nodded, "Yeah."
He grabbed the container and put it to his lips to drink the broth directly.
"Hey!" protested Eiichi.
That sent Van into a fit of stifled laughter.
"Keep it down, the others are sleep," warned Kira.
"Did you just see what this brat did," Eiichi said in a complaint. "After seeing me tell Van not to put his spoon back in the communal pot."
Nagi lowered the container a bit to stick out his tongue and then went back to drinking. He then set it down.
"I'm much better now," he said with a cheeky grin.
"Why you," Eiichi pulled the container to him and pulled out a triangle of tofu. "You're finished. No more for you."
"What!?"
"You heard me," Eiichi smirked. "You're cut off."
"Nooo!" Nagi protested.
Kira pulled the container back to the center of the kotatsu as Nagi huddled himself under the warm blanket.
"Yeah, as much as I hate to cut you off, we only got enough for the 3 of us and we had a long schedule," Van said as he patted Nagi consolingly.
"How dare you get oden without us," Nagi groaned as he set his chin on the table.
"Oh come on, you wouldn't have even known if you didn't wake up," Van said.
"Yeah, I would have," Nagi said. "In the morning it would have been in the trash."
The quartet talked freely among themselves for the next few minutes, sharing the contents of the pot as Nagi warmed up beneath the heater. With his chin on the table, the blanket thrown over both of his shoulders, and a bit of soup in his stomach Nagi felt his core warming up. He was getting so comfortable sitting there and the sound of their chatter only helped to further relax him. His eyes became heavy again and it took more and more effort to keep them open and not fall asleep right there and then.
"Nagi. Nagi kun."
Nagi felt a hand on his shoulder and he shot up, opening his eyes. So he had fallen asleep. He looked at the table and saw Kira and Van were gathering the utensils and taking everything into the kitchen.
"It's time to get back in the bed," Eiichi said. "You look super tired."
"I'm cold," Nagi said in a tired tone.
It came out more whiney than he intended in his drowsiness and he let Eiichi grab him by his arm and pull him up.
"Your room is warm. Kira warmed it up, remember?"
Nagi nodded as he wrapped his arms around Eiichi's torso.
"You want to wear the gloves again?" Eiichi asked as he pushed back Nagi's bangs.
Nagi disengaged from the hug and took the mittens offered. As he slipped them on, Eiichi bent down to turn off the table heater. When he straightened back up, Nagi had already finished putting them back on. Eiichi just chuckled and grasped his hands.
"I don't know how you sleep in those but you look so cute," he said.
Nagi pulled his hand out of Eiichi's grasp and rapped him on the nose. Eiichi was unbothered by the small act of violence and merely grabbed the offending hand again.
"Kira, I turned off the table. Do you have everything?" Eiichi asked, turning to the others.
"Yeah, Van and I are good. You two go ahead," Kira said, not even turning to look back at them.
"Nighty!" Van said, flashing them a grin.
"Come on, Nagi," Eiichi said.
He coaxed Nagi back towards the rooms, pulling him by the arm and leading him along. Nagi had to admit he didn't feel anywhere where near as cold as he did when he had just woken up.
Nagi slid open his door just as Eiichi let go of his arm and he was met with a pleasant feeling of toasty air.
"Night, Eiichi," Nagi said.
"Night."
Nagi stepped into his room and slid the door closed again. Without even bothering with the lights, Nagi slipped into his futon. Kira was a genius to come turn the heat on. He moved the waterbottle that was under there to the floor and then turned on his side to get comfortable. Beneath the covers, Nagi meneuvered himself into a comfortable position, even going so far as to remove his socks and mittens now than he was suffienciently warm.
His blanket was pulled up over his shoulders and he buried his nose into his pillows. With eyes closed, Nagi drifted right back into sleep with ease, his body content as a warm fluffy mushroom floating on a pillowly cloud. It felt so good.
THE END
Written for Utapri Writer's Discord 1819 Winter Wonderland. words used: mittens, fleece, oden
I hope you enjoyed this pointless but precious time with Heavens.
PS: Happy Birthday Nagi! It's your birthday when I posting this.